note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see -h.htm or -h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h/ -h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h.zip) the young carpenters of freiberg. a tale of the thirty years' war. translated from the german by j. latchmore, jun. [frontispiece: 'she seized the robber unexpectedly by the legs, and tipped him head first into the mighty chest.'] edinburgh: william oliphant & co. . contents. chap. i. the miller's wife of erbisdorf ii. the family at home iii. private rights must give place to public necessities iv. the enemy before the town v. the sower of tares vi. the second assault vii. conrad under the window-seat viii. ordinary incidents of a siege ix. diverse human hearts x. war often opposes the teachings of christianity xi. historical xii. treachery and deliverance illustrations 'she seized the robber unexpectedly by the legs, and tipped him head first into the mighty chest.' . . . . . . _frontispiece_ conrad recognized an old comrade, john hillner. promise me that i shall have an honourable burial; and let the lads say, "a good journey to thee, old comrade!" nothing but the moustache on the pale face indicated the warlike calling of the man who now addressed conrad. the young carpenters of freiberg. chapter i. the miller's wife of erbisdorf. the ancient and free mountain city of freiberg lies only about five-and-twenty miles south-west of dresden, yet has a far more severe climate than the saxon capital--a fact that may be understood if we remember that the road which leads from dresden to freiberg is up hill almost all the way. the saxon erzgebirge must not be pictured as a chain of separate mountains, with peaks rising one behind the other and closing in the horizon. hills and valleys lie mingled, assuming such long, wave-like forms that in some parts of the district it is difficult to fancy oneself in a mountain-land at all. immediately around freiberg the landscape takes the form of a wide table-land, which has an upward slope only on the south-west of the city, so that from a short distance but little is seen of the town save the tops of its towers and a confused glimpse of house-roofs. in former days it was the residence of the duke of saxony, and before the thirty years' war contained , inhabitants, a number which has now dwindled to , . its ancient fortifications, which of late years have been rapidly giving place to modern improvements, consisted of a double line of walls, guarded by towers, pierced by strongly-fortified gates, and surrounded by a deep and wide moat. the ramparts were built of quarried stone, which, though much harder than sandstone, was far more difficult to bind together with mortar. in view of this fact, we may well be surprised that a place so weakly fortified was able for two long months to withstand the vehement siege operations of the whole swedish army--an army so brave and so highly trained in the art of war, that it had subdued many far stronger fortresses. yet so it was: how the thing came about, and what an important part young conrad, the carpenter's apprentice, played in these great events, will be found narrated in the following pages. * * * * * * on the st of november in the year , a carpenter's apprentice, conrad schmidt by name, passed out at the erbis gate of freiberg, pushing before him a covered hand-truck. this contained a piece of carpenter's work that always tells its own sad story--a little child's coffin. as the truck with its sorrowful burden jolted along over the rough pavement, the sentry stepped forward from the gate, and asked inquisitively, 'what have you there, youngster, and where are you off to?' 'only a child's coffin for the mill at erbisdorf.' 'what! has the plague been gleaning among the little brood down there?' 'the plague!' repeated conrad, bringing his truck to a stand. 'well, yes, something like it. now-a-days the soldiers are the worst plague, and it was one of them that put an end to the miller's little son.' 'what do you mean by that, boy?' 'why, master prieme,' replied the youth, 'are you the only man in freiberg who has not heard the cruel story?' 'how should i know anything about it?' answered the citizen. 'i only came home from dresden late last night, and i had to mount guard early this morning. what has happened to the miller's son?' 'the day before yesterday, in the afternoon,' said the lad, 'a soldier came to the mill at erbisdorf and demanded quarters for himself and a woman that he said was his wife. with the soldiers it is always a word and a blow, so the miller yielded, and by way of putting his guest into a good humour, took him straight down to the cellar and gave him a draught of strong beer. meantime the miller's wife stayed with the woman, who, as soon as the coast was clear, declared herself to be a soldier in disguise, and threatened her hostess with instant death unless she fetched out all her jewels and valuables on the spot. the poor woman accordingly had to open her great linen chest, in the bottom of which her little store of silver was hidden, and in this the ruffian began to rummage. just when he had almost emptied it, and was stooping to reach the last articles from the bottom, a happy thought came into the brave woman's mind. she seized the robber unexpectedly by the legs and tipped him head first into the mighty chest; then she slammed down the lid and had the hasp fastened in a second.' ''pon my word,' laughed the sentry, 'that was a smart stroke of business. how the two-legged mouse must have kicked about inside his trap! and how did things go on after that, my lad?' 'the miller's little son stood by, and his mother, as the quickest way out of the difficulty, told him to run down to the cellar and whisper to his father to come and bind the robber. on his way the poor little fellow met the other villain, who had got rid of his host by some excuse, and was now coming up-stairs to help his comrade. well, the sight of the boy running towards him made him suspicious, so he stopped him and took him back with him into the mill. when the soldier reached the room where he had left his comrade, he found that the miller's wife had bolted the door, and refused to open it; so he threatened to kill her child, and when the frightened woman persisted in keeping him out, he was as good, or at least as bad, as his word. then the murderer tried to force his way into the house through the mill-wheel, but the miller's wife set the wheel going, and the fellow'-- 'just so--was flattened like a pancake,' said the sentry. 'she is something like a brave woman!' 'and when they opened the chest they found 'that the robber inside was suffocated,' said conrad, taking up the handle of his truck again. 'well, he received the due reward of his deeds,' said master prieme gravely. 'but to which side did the two men belong? they must have been either swedes or imperialists.' 'they were just soldiers,' said the youth, 'and when you've said that, you've said all. whether they were saxons, or swedes, or imperialists, it all comes to the same thing. they change about from one master to another, but they are all alike in tormenting the unhappy people.' 'that's all the fault of this dreadful war,' muttered prieme. 'it has been going on now for over twenty-four years. the soldiers are getting so used to killing people, that they do it even when there are no enemies for them to kill.' conrad hurried on his way. he had not yet reached the village of erbisdorf, when his quick eye caught the glitter of a troop of cavalry coming in the distance. in those days an unarmed person was always afraid to meet soldiers. conrad, however, fortunately for him, knew what he was to do if he met any troopers on the road. he opened his truck, took out the little coffin, and put it into a shallow dry ditch by the roadside; then wheeling the truck hastily to the edge of the road, got into it, and pulled the lid over himself as he lay. he had not long to wait before the trampling of many horse-hoofs warned him that the troopers were approaching. the men did not take much notice of his truck, but some of the horses were frightened at it. several of them shied, and their riders urged them on at a rapid trot. the last man alone could not get his horse to pass it. the animal reared and threatened to fall backwards on its rider, who appeared to be in a towering passion. he rode back a short distance, and used all the arts of his horsemanship to reduce his refractory steed to obedience. the man did not spare either oaths, spurring, or blows of his heavy whip, until the horse, still shying but obedient at last, went trembling past the truck. then the rider turned the animal back once more, and did not rest until he had made it leap over the object of its terror. as it did so, one of its hind hoofs touched the lid of the truck and threw it back. the soldier turned in mid-career, saw the form of the apprentice, drew a pistol from his holster like lightning, and fired at him where he lay. at the report and flash the youth started up, and the bullet passed close by his hand, grazing the skin, and lodged in the side of the truck. fortunately for him, the report of the pistol had such a startling effect on the already frightened horse, that the rider could no longer restrain it, and rode off at full speed after his comrades, leaving the apprentice to pursue his way to erbisdorf in peace. on reaching the village, he directed his steps towards the mill, where he was received by a slender, pale little woman, not at all like the miller's wife he expected to see, for he had pictured the heroine of his story as a tall, strong woman, with a loud voice and great muscular arms. he soon found out his mistake, however, for at sight of the sorrowful burden he had brought, she cried out, 'what! must i lay my little georgie to rest in such a thing as that? why, my husband need not have sent to freiberg for it. we could have made a prettier resting-place ourselves for my little son, and'-- 'please have patience,' interrupted the apprentice, 'and do not despise our work before you have examined it. but first, would you be so good as to give me a bit of sopped bread to tie on my hand; it begins to burn and smart pretty badly. just look, mistress miller, there's a swedish dragoon's bullet in the side of the truck; if you would lend me a chisel or a pair of pincers, i could get it out, and take it home in my pocket.' while the woman was gone to fetch what he had asked for, conrad carried the little coffin into the house. 'i know one thing,' he said to the miller's wife when she returned, 'our senior journeyman must be a very smart man; i should think he can almost hear the grass grow. if he had not been, my last hour would have come today. "conrad schmidt," he said to me before i started,--"conrad schmidt, in these days we must mind what we are about. you will perhaps meet some soldiers on the way to erbisdorf, and if you do, i will tell you how to escape." if he had not told me what to do, they would have killed me to a certainty. but where is the poor little boy?' the miller's wife stepped across to a corner of the room and drew back a large linen cloth from a bed, disclosing the body of a fine boy between eight and nine years old. he lay with closed eyes and little hands peacefully folded on his breast, so quiet that any one might have thought it was only sleep. 'we found him with his little hands folded just like that,' said the miller's wife, bursting into tears. 'his soul has gone to heaven, i am sure.' 'ah! you can see he did not suffer much,' said conrad softly, 'and that is something to be thankful for. whether the two soldiers were imperialists or swedes, they might have tied the little fellow to a barn-door and practised at him with their pistols, or tortured him in fifty cruel ways, as they have often done to others. my mistress always says it is a happy thing for those who rest peacefully in their quiet graves. but what have you done with the bodies of the two wicked men?' at this question a sudden change came over the miller's wife. a bright colour rose to her pale face, her eyes sparkled, and her hands clenched themselves tightly, as her trembling lips gave utterance to the words, 'they lie out there, behind the barn, waiting till the executioner comes to bury them.' in the meantime the room had filled with country people, who had strolled into the mill on hearing that the child's coffin had arrived. 'h'm!' said the young carpenter; 'are you quite sure the dragoons i met will not come here and find that the two murderers were comrades of theirs? if they did, your brave deed might cost you dear.' a smile was the woman's only reply, but a peasant answered for her: 'dragoons, did you say, youngster? what countrymen were they?' 'well,' replied conrad, 'you can't always tell a bird by its feathers, especially if you don't happen to be a bird fancier. whether they were saxons, imperialists, or swedes, i do not know. the soldier that tried to kill me spoke good german, and he wore a blue doublet with bright yellow facings.' 'god help us!' cried the peasant. 'they are the swedes, sure enough; i have known the blue doublets ever since , the year they did so much harm to erbisdorf, when general bannier made his attack on freiberg.' 'but come,' said conrad, trying to rally his own courage, 'there's plenty of blue cloth and yellow facings in the world besides what is on swedish uniforms; and as i told you before, that dragoon could swear in downright good german.' 'the swedes! the swedes!' was now heard from outside the house. 'the schoolmaster saw them from the top of the church tower.' 'the swedes are coming!' was the general exclamation as every face turned pale. 'may heaven have mercy on us!' with this cry the frightened people rushed out of the room, leaving the terrified young apprentice and the miller's wife alone together. the latter did not appear to be much disturbed. she quietly counted out to the lad the price of the little coffin, and then turned away to lay her son's body in it. conrad schmidt hardly knew what he had better do. first of all he hid the money he had just received in one of his shoes, and then began to consider whether he should leave his hand-truck at the mill or take it back with him to freiberg. his uncertainty did not last long. what the horse is to a horseman, that his truck is to a carpenter's apprentice. neither the one nor the other will willingly part from his faithful companion except in great emergencies. full of inward fears, but without showing any outward signs of panic, the youth set forth on his homeward way, a distance of six or eight miles. chapter ii. the family at home. conrad reached the town without any further adventure, and found it in a state of high excitement. the drawbridges before the gates were up, and the city walls and towers swarmed with armed men. 'the swedes have been seen,' was the general outcry, and the mere sound of the words had been enough to throw the whole place into a ferment. to the number of about six hundred, the swedes had appeared and opened a parley with the town, demanding supplies, and when--as was only to be expected--their demands were refused, they had drawn off and retired to the neighbourhood of wilsdruf. as soon as ever conrad reached home, which he did at last, pushing his truck before him and hobbling along in a very lame fashion over the rough pavement, he took off the shoe he had turned into a money-box. 'i thought so,' he cried. 'i was sure those hard gulden would raise blisters. but i say, mistress, that's a great deal better than coming home without any money at all. i can tell you i have had a narrow escape. just look here; this scratch on my left hand was done by a swedish bullet aimed at my heart. i have lots of news to tell you about my journey.' and then all the people of the house gathered eagerly round to listen while he told his adventures. many an accomplished story-teller has had less attentive listeners than those who hung on the lips of this humble carpenter's apprentice, transformed into a sort of hero by a sudden and unexpected accident. out of doors it was already growing dark, as the cold november wind swept past the house, driving a few flakes of snow before it. but in the comfortable livingroom that adjoined the workshop, the little company sat cozily enough round the warm stove, listening eagerly to the lad who had seen the dreadful swedes, and, wonder of wonders! lived to tell the tale. 'as i lay hidden there in the truck,' said conrad in conclusion, 'and heard the soldiers coming like the noise of a great hail-storm, i almost gave myself up for lost; and when the cover was dashed back, like a starling falling out of a spout, i thought my last hour was come.' 'that would not have been so very bad,' said the younger journeyman, 'if one only had to suffer death and nothing worse. but these swedes torture people as the very headsman himself would be ashamed to do. my father died by the dreadful "swedish drink," and then they took my eldest brother, and--ah! it's too horrible to talk about.' 'they hang people up by the feet,' said a miner who was present, 'and light fires under them to make them tell where their treasures are hidden. they make their way into the very bowels of the earth, so that the miners themselves are not safe from them. when wicked general bannier was here three years ago, we hid ourselves from the swedes, with our wives and children, in the mines. to hinder them from following us, we lighted fires at the bottom of the shafts, and put all kinds of pungent things in them, that sent up a thick, stifling smoke through every cranny and crevice. what followed? while i was sitting by the fire putting on more fuel,--i had sent my wife and children farther into the mine to be out of the reek,--something suddenly came plunging down through the smoke-cloud, and i was astounded to see my dog, this very turk here, drop upon me with his four legs all tied together and fastened to a cord. his tongue was hanging out, and only a faint quiver or two told me he was not quite dead. what did the cruel swedes do that for? they wanted to try whether the smoke was so bad that human beings would die coming through it, and they let my dog down first to see.' 'well, and what happened after that, neighbour roller?' asked the carpenter's young widow, as the speaker paused. 'you must excuse me for a minute or two, neighbours,' replied roller. 'you know we miners are often rather short of breath.' while he was silent all sat waiting. 'that turk did not die,' he went on at last, 'you can all see for yourselves, for here he is, and in very good company too. the animal happily came down just far enough for me to cut him loose from the cord. by way of encouraging his tormentors to come down after him, i threw my mining leather, my shoes, and even my miner's coat, on to the fire, and they sent up such a pother of smoke that the swedes gave it up as a bad job, for that time at all events. i am only a poor miner, but i never repented giving up my mining leather, my shoes, and my coat, to save that dog's life.' 'come to me, conrad, my son,' said a gentle woman's voice. 'give me your hand, and let me feel sure that i have you still, and that you have really and truly escaped from the dreadful swedes.' the apprentice drew near to the speaker, who occupied the place of honour in the armchair, and the upper part of whose face was hidden by a large green shade. as he gave his right hand to his blind mother, a little girl, who sat on a stool at the woman's feet, gently took the left hand that the swedish bullet had wounded. 'does it hurt, poor conrad?' asked the child earnestly. 'no, little dollie,' replied the youth. 'the scratch on my hand isn't nearly so bad as the blisters the hard gulden have made on my feet.' 'ah!' cried dollie, with a shudder; 'but how it would have hurt you if the swedes had caught you!' 'dollie is quite right,' said the mistress of the house. 'my late husband used to say the swedes came from the same place where the turks and the tartars live, and that that was why they were so cruel.' the elder journeyman, a young man who had been sitting by with his head resting on his hand, apparently uninterested in what was passing, at this point broke into the conversation rather suddenly. 'have the imperialists been one bit less cruel than the swedes? have they not tortured people too?' 'it is perfectly true,' said the miner. 'the swedes and the imperialists are both tarred with the same brush. for plundering, murdering, and burning, there is not a pin to choose between them.' 'and that,' said the elder journeyman, 'is just because this long, long war has given us a new sort of men--men in whom desperate greediness takes the place of a heart, and whose conscience has been replaced by an empty purse, to fill which is their one object in life. their general is their god, and they follow him or desert him just according as he leads them to victory and plunder, or to defeat. they march from country to country, selling their services to whichever side they think will give them the richest booty. swedes! i can assure you, there is not a swede left in the swedish army, or, at all events, very few. the men the great gustavus adolphus brought over the baltic sea are gone long ago, and those who have taken their places will sell both soul and body any day to the highest bidder.' 'yes,' interrupted the apprentice, 'that's just what i say. the swedes are no more swedes than i am; else how could i have understood the oaths of the swedish dragoon that fired at me to-day? he swore in good round german, and it was one of the most wonderful oaths i ever heard. he said'-- the journeyman sprang up hastily, and put his hand before the lad's mouth. 'silence!' he cried earnestly. 'do not repeat the oath you heard to any one. when a man has once heard a wicked thing, it sticks in his memory for years. it is the good things we find so hard to remember. but to return to the swedes. their anger against us is not altogether without excuse. after our elector had actually begged for an alliance with them, to protect him against the emperor's tyranny,--after gustavus adolphus had fought for us saxons, bled for us, won battles for us,--the elector deserted his new ally as suddenly as he had joined him, just because fortune frowned on him in one or two battles. he did more than desert him; he threw himself again into the arms of the emperor, whom he had good reason to know for his worst enemy. for this ingratitude'-- 'come, come, young fellow!' cried the miner, frowning. 'i shall have to serve you as you did the boy just now. what! you take on yourself to blame our illustrious elector and his court! pray, do you get better lessons in statesmanship over the glue-pot and vice than what our elector and his princely council can teach you? you are forgetting that you live in the faithful mountain city of freiberg--a city that is proud of being loyal to its prince without any grumbling or asking why and wherefore. "fear god! honour the king! do right and fear no man!" that's what the bible says.' 'i will be prudent and hold my peace,' said the young journeyman quietly. 'yet even over the glue-pot and vice thoughts come to a man that cannot easily be got rid of.' there followed a pause in the conversation, which lasted until dollie, the miner's little daughter, turned to the apprentice with the question, 'were the swedes so very ugly? had they got horns on their heads, or only one eye each, like the giants in the "seven-leagued boots," who used to eat little boys and girls? and oh, perhaps they had dreadful, great mouths, with rows of sharp teeth in them!' in spite of their terrors, none of those present could restrain their laughter at the child's artless fears. 'i only had one look at the swede as he leaped his horse over me,' said conrad; 'and he looked just like anybody else, only that he had black hair and a fierce red moustache, just like'--and he broke off abruptly, and stared at the elder journeyman, then went on: 'yes, such a long moustache that he could have tied it in a knot behind his head.' 'what!' stammered the journeyman, turning pale; 'black hair and a red moustache?' 'yes,' replied conrad; 'it looked so uncommonly odd, that it was the only thing i noticed about him.' the journeyman sat silent for the rest of the evening. when the company had dispersed, he turned to the lad and said: 'my boy, now tell me the oath you heard the--the swede use.' conrad looked at his companion in astonishment, and saw signs of some deep emotion on his face. 'but,' he objected, 'only a little while ago you said i was not to let any one hear the oath, and now'-- 'you are quite right,' replied the journeyman. 'hold fast by what i told you. but if you write down the words on this piece of paper for me it will hurt no one. i have a good reason for wanting to see them. can you write?' 'i should just think i could,' said conrad, half offended by the question. he wrote the words down, and noticed that as soon as the journeyman had read them he became even paler than before, and muttered something between his set teeth. chapter iii. private rights must give place to public necessities. on the th of november , the forest of freiberg presented a scene of the busiest activity. several hundred men were at work, and many a great pine and fir tree bowed its lofty head beneath the stroke of axe and saw, to fall at last crashing to earth. the wood-cutters from the mines vied with those from the city--joiners, carpenters, wheelwrights, and coopers--in thinning the dense masses of beautiful forest trees as rapidly as possible. burghers and others, aided by the gaunt-looking mining people, with earth-stained clothes and red night-caps on their heads, were loading the long heavy trunks upon drays that stood in readiness, and driving them off with all speed towards the town. the wind blew sharp and cool, yet no one complained of the cold; on the contrary, the large drops that tell of honest toil stood out on many a swarthy brow. the household of mistress blüthgen, the carpenter's young widow, whose acquaintance we made in the last chapter, were all among the workers. 'all this looks as if the swedes were before the gates of freiberg now,' said rudorf, the younger journeyman; 'whereas the fact is, there isn't a sign to be seen of them anywhere. there does not seem to me to be any such tremendous hurry, that we can't even stop to have our dinners.' '"make hay while the sun shines,"' said hillner, the elder journeyman. 'i can tell you burgomaster richzenhayn could not have done a wiser and better thing than to have plenty of wood brought in. it is as needful for the town as bread--indeed it is almost more needful. if it is not all wanted for palisadoes, _chevaux-de-frise_, covered ways, and galleries, we can always find a use for it in the stoves, and comfort ourselves with the warmth it will give us.' 'hallo, you boy!' cried rudorf, suddenly turning to conrad the apprentice; 'look yonder how your step-father is enjoying his bread and bacon. only see, too, what a fat bottle of beer he has got standing by him! step across to him and ask him to give you a share of his good things, and to lend us his bottle for a minute or two.' conrad, who was busy sharpening a saw, looked up and answered with a sigh: 'i am glad enough to be out of his sight. if i went to him i should only get a sound thrashing instead of bread and bacon.' the two journeymen were both watching conrad's step-father, the town servant jüchziger. as the lad spoke they saw the man leave his table, the stump of a fallen tree, and go across to a little girl who was busy picking up the scattered chips that lay about, and storing them in her long basket. 'you little thief!' he shouted angrily, 'i'll teach you to come here stealing wood.' he boxed the child's ears soundly, tore her basket off her back, emptied it, and crushed it under his foot.' the little one began to cry, not so much on account of the blows she had received, as over her spoiled basket. 'what a burning shame!' said conrad. 'it's our dollie. poor child, just look how she trembles!' without saying a word, hillner, the senior journeyman, left his work. with his saw in his left hand, and his right fist tightly clenched, he strode up to the town servant, his angry face showing pretty plainly what was coming. as soon as he reached the offender, his hand unclenched to grasp jüchziger by the collar. 'how dare you touch the child and destroy her basket?' he said, as he shook the astonished man roughly. 'will you pay for that basket on the spot, hey?' it must not be forgotten that a town servant often thinks himself a far greater man than even a town councillor. the bold and unexpected attack at first took jüchziger by surprise, but when he had had time to take a good look at his assailant, and to see by his blue apron and general appearance that he was only a journeyman carpenter, all his rage came back at a bound, and he in his turn began to play the part of the offended person. he poured out a torrent of abuse on the journeyman, at the same time trying to collar the young man and pay him out in kind. by way of making up for the journeyman's superior strength, jüchziger brought his official position into play, and called on the bystanders to come to his assistance. this step, however, only made matters worse for him. the deed he had been seen to do, the weeping child, the ruined basket, and the young carpenter's indignant story, all helped to rouse the popular anger against the offending town servant. 'what harm had the child done to you?' cried one. 'are the sticks to lie here and rot, or be a welcome booty for the swedes? pray, how much could a child like that carry away? does not the whole forest belong to us freibergers, and shall not our own children pick up a basketful of sticks while we are slaving here without pay? give the fellow a sound drubbing! down with him, if he does not pay for the basket straight away!' at these words fifty strong arms were raised threateningly, and jüchziger saw that if he meant to save his skin it would be prudent to fetch out his purse and pay for the basket without loss of time. 'and a groschen[ ] for each of the cuffs he gave her,' shouted a voice from the crowd, and stingy jüchziger had to obey this order too, which he did with a very bad grace. dollie's tears dried up with wonderful quickness when she saw the shining silver really lying on her little palm, and she skipped merrily away to the town without either basket or wood. while hillner and rudorf went quietly back to their work, jüchziger kept a watchful eye on the former. as the tiger glares at his victim, but awaits impatiently the moment when he may safely spring upon it, so did the town servant promise himself to take a terrible revenge on the journeyman. as soon as the day's work was over, and the workers had reached the peter gate on their return home, he would have hillner arrested by the guard and marched straight off to prison. an unexpected incident hindered, for the time at all events, the execution of this promising scheme. the activity of the citizens in preparing to give the enemy a warm reception had by no means been confined to their day's work in the forest. such buildings without the walls as had escaped in general bannier's attack were now doomed to destruction. thus it came about that the returning wood-cutters found a large number of people outside the peter gate, fetching the furniture out of their houses, and moving all their goods and chattels into the town as quickly as possible. two houses adjoining one another--one a handsome building and the other of humbler appearance--had already been stripped of windows, doors, roofing, and rafters, and busy hands were now at work tearing down the walls. when jüchziger so unmercifully destroyed dollie's basket, he did not suspect that at that very moment the same fate was overtaking his wife's inheritance. for a moment the sight he now saw almost paralyzed him; then recovering his presence of mind, he hastened towards the scene of destruction, forgetful of all his plans for revenge. but his angry protestations were of no avail; even his prayers were all in vain, which seemed to him very hard. the labourers went quietly and steadily on with their work, as though it were a thing that had to be done; and when jüchziger laid his hand on one and another of them, with the idea of hindering them by force, he soon found himself repulsed in no very gentle fashion. while he stood in front of his little house wringing his hands, the very picture of misery and irresolution, a well-dressed man, of respectable appearance though he was covered with dust and bits, came out of the door of the larger mansion. 'oh, my dear neighbour löwe!' cried jüchziger, 'advise me, stand by me, help me to send this rabble about their business! i only married the old blind woman because she owned this house, and now that there's no getting out of the bargain they are tearing my nest to pieces before my very eyes. come, my dear neighbour, let us hasten at once to the burgomaster. you are a man of influence in the city, and your request added to mine will, even now, soon put a stop to this shocking business.' 'our trouble would be all in vain,' replied lowe quietly. 'these buildings are being pulled down by order of the burgomaster himself and of the town council; and quite right too, although i suffer a serious loss by it. "private rights must always give place to public necessities." i was the first man to lay hands on my own house, and that makes it less hard for me to bear.' in his heart jüchziger cursed the good man for a fool, and turned away from him in a rage. 'if only richzenhayn were not the acting burgomaster,' he said to himself. 'if herr jonas schönleben were only at the head of affairs, he would be certain to listen to me. the cowardly blockheads! there is not a single swedish plume to be seen round the whole horizon, and yet they must needs begin pulling down houses. but i will have ample compensation, or the whole town shall smart for it.' 'my poor, poor mother,' thought conrad sorrowfully, as he watched the destruction of her little property. 'father will make her pay dearly for all this that he is muttering and grumbling about there. oh, whatever will become of her?' jüchziger lived with his wife in the town, and the elder men gave conrad leave to run on ahead, that he might have time to tell his mother about the destruction of her house, and prepare her for the outburst of passion she might expect when her husband reached home. the citizens of freiberg were preparing at all points for the expected siege. all the corn, hay, and straw stored at their farms in readiness for the coming winter was brought into the city, and every care was taken betimes that there should be no danger of famine; for experience teaches that more strongholds have been conquered by hunger than by hard fighting. the fear that the swedes inspired in the city increased when it became known that leipzig and pleissenburg had fallen into their hands on november , and that silberstadt was their next destination. it was a fortunate circumstance that armies in those days could not move so quickly as they can now. thanks to this fact, freiberg had time to make all due preparation for the enemy's reception. john george ii., 'the father of his people,' was not remiss in caring for the mountain city. he sent lieutenant-colonel george hermann von schweinitz, a brave and experienced commander, with three companies of infantry and one of dragoons, to conduct the defence. these troops mustered only two hundred and ninety men all told; yet this little band, aided by the citizens, gloriously held at bay for two long months an entire swedish army of eight brigades, with a hundred and nine pieces of artillery. hillner, the journeyman carpenter, was still a free man; for jüchziger had determined to find some other way of satisfying his thirst for vengeance, and had therefore laid aside his schemes till a more convenient season. in spite of the dark and doubtful future, busy life reigned in the workshop of the carpenter's widow, as it re-echoed once again to the din of tools wielded by the two journeymen and the apprentice. one day--it was the th of december in the memorable year --the hollow roll of drums was heard coming down the street, and the senior journeyman, laying his plane on the bench, crossed the workshop to look out at the window facing the street. having done so, he at once left the workroom and went out to the street door, followed by his two comrades, to watch the entrance of the regular soldiers, who were just marching into the town. there were, as has already been said, only two hundred and ninety men, yet the mere sight of them awakened joyful and reassuring feelings in the breasts of all who saw them. the roll of the drums in itself had an inspiriting effect. as the townspeople gazed at the long, level lines, and heard the heavy, regular tramp beneath which the very pavement seemed to shake; as they saw each bronzed face with its look of stedfastness and assured courage, the open iron helmet on the head, the breastplate covered by a military coat reaching to the knees and allowing the body free play from the hips, the halberd grasped in the strong right hand, and the shield in the left, bearing the saxon coat-of-arms,--as these various points were noted and remarked on, each moment brought fresh courage to hearts that had been almost ready to despond. in all ages there have been jealousies and strife between the military and the respectable burgher class, and freiberg was no exception to this rule. but to-day the soldiers were welcomed with loud and joyful shouts, which they, fully conscious of their own value, acknowledged by friendly nods as they passed along the streets. conrad schmidt, standing beside the miner's little daughter dollie, watched the warlike procession with the curious eyes of youth. from time to time he stole a glance at the senior journeyman, observing his movements with surprise and some amusement. the young man had taken off his blue apron, and held it rolled up in his left hand, while his right grasped the carpenter's square, exactly as the soldiers held their halberds. his whole bearing was changed; he had become positively warlike; his eyes flashed, and his feet rose and fell in measured time, as though he could hardly restrain himself from marching off at the sound of the drum. conrad laughed and shook his head merrily, but kept back a speech he had been on the point of making when he saw the change in his old friend. 'i was right after all,' he said to himself. 'if he were just to let his beard grow, he would be exactly like'-- his sentence was left unfinished, for at this moment he heard his mistress' voice reproving them for neglecting their duty, and they all hastened back into the workshop. the commandant made it his first business to inspect the condition of the fortifications, strengthening them wherever that was possible, and obstructing the approaches in every way that could offer impediments to an enemy's successful advance. the approach of the foe was plainly indicated by the number of country people who now poured steadily into the town, seeking shelter behind the city walls for their household goods, their wives, children, and cattle. long trains of waggons and droves of animals, accompanied by men, and beasts of burden bearing heavy loads, were making their way towards the gates of freiberg; and the city authorities thought themselves bound in honour not to repulse these suppliants for shelter, but rather to make their town what every such town ought to be in time of war, a true city of refuge for all needy ones. moreover, many strong arms would be wanted to defend the widespreading ramparts; and the former siege by general bannier had proved how well the country people could fight in defence of their liberties. 'hallo! ho there!' shouted a powerful voice one afternoon late in december, beneath the window of mistress blüthgen, the carpenter's widow, and the brawny hand of a burly countryman knocked so vigorously on the window itself that the glass shivered under the blow. 'can't you make room in your house for a small family? i have always been a regular customer of yours, and many is the gulden i have spent with you.' at this abrupt demand, journeymen and apprentice hastened to the window. six asses, each laden with a heavy sack of flour, stood before the door of the house lazily turning their long ears backward and forward, as though they felt quite sure of finding comfortable quarters there. farther down the street was a heavily-loaded waggon with two powerful brown horses. in the waggon, almost buried among beds and other household gear, sat a woman with a baby in her arms. four cows, in charge of a servant-maid, were lowing behind the waggon, and a dozen sheep stood bleating round them. mistress blüthgen did not take many seconds to settle with her would-be lodger, whose calling in life was shown by the floury state of his clothes. 'that is the miller from erbisdorf,' said conrad, and at a sign from his mistress hastened to open the yard gates, that the fugitives might put their various possessions under cover. willing hands were soon at work unloading and stowing away the goods, and before long the miller, leaving his wife established in her new home, set off with his waggon to return to erbisdorf and fetch the rest of his possessions. 'praise be to god!' cried mistress blüthgen joyfully. 'we shall not starve now, even if the swedes do come. god grant they may neither take the town, nor set it on fire over our heads with their shells.' 'we must all do our best to prevent it,' said hillner boldly. 'god gave us strong arms and brave hearts for that very purpose.' [ ] a small german coin. chapter iv. the enemy before the town. the tower of st. peter's church rises high into the air above all the other buildings of freiberg. in those early days church-towers were too often used for purposes with which religion had but little to do. grim cannon sometimes stood there, not to fire harmless salutes on days of public rejoicing, but more often to be loaded with deadly missiles and fired at an enemy. thus it happened that one of these instruments of death had been planted in the highest chamber of the st. peter's tower at freiberg. round this cannon, on december , , stood burgomaster jonas schönleben and several others, among whom were hillner the journeyman, and the town servant jüchziger. winter had come in all its might, and the cold, particularly up here in the windy tower, was very severe, while snow lay deep over all the surrounding landscape. the eyes of those present were intently gazing beyond the town, to where, on the hill above the hospital church, many cavalry soldiers could be seen moving about and beginning to take up their positions. there had been a good deal of doubt expressed in the town as to whether the swedish commander really meant to undertake a siege up there among the mountains at such an inclement season, with snow lying thickly on the frozen ground. the appearance of these horsemen and their business-like movements seemed to set such doubts at rest once for all. 'respected herr burgomaster,' began jüchziger, 'in my humble opinion those soldiers are not swedes at all, but imperialists who have reached us from bohemia before the enemy had time to come up. i should think marshal piccolomini has sent them to frighten the swedes into leaving the city alone.' 'what we ardently wish we soon believe,' and jüchziger's speech found favour with the burgomaster no less than with his other hearers. hillner alone said respectfully but firmly, 'herr burgomaster, they are swedes beyond the possibility of doubt. i know them well; they are diedemann's dragoons.' 'and how may you happen to know that, young man?' asked schönleben gloomily. 'because--well, in fact, because i once served among the swedes myself,' replied hillner. 'what!' cried schönleben in astonishment; 'you a swede, and here in freiberg!' 'i crave your pardon, herr burgomaster,' returned hillner. 'by this time very few in the swedish army are really swedes at all; they are men gathered in from all nations--not a few of them from saxony itself. many a citizen and countryman too has been driven by starvation to take up the hard life of a soldier just to get the means of keeping body and soul together. others have been dragged by force into the swedish ranks, as i was. i only served one year, the year in which general bannier laid siege to freiberg. i was wounded in the course of that siege, taken prisoner, and brought into the city, and being recognised for a saxon born and bred, i was allowed to return to my trade. i am just about to become a master carpenter, and have already applied to be enrolled among the citizens.' 'your name?' 'john hillner of struppen, near pirna. might i entreat your worship's gracious influence on my behalf?' 'i am not yet acting-burgomaster,' replied schönleben rather shortly. 'you must make your application to my brother in office, burgomaster richzenhayn.' 'but your worship will be in office in two or three days,' persisted hillner, in a tone of entreaty. 'and when you are so, let me beg you kindly to remember my request.' 'i'll take good care to see all about that,' muttered jüchziger to himself. 'and thank you, master shavings, for giving me a handle to catch hold of you by.' hillner's practised eye had not deceived him. the cavalry, between seven and eight hundred in number, proved to belong to the enemy, and sharply attacking the saxon dragoons sent out to observe them, compelled them to retire within the fortifications. upon this the commandant at once made all necessary preparations for defending the town. two companies of infantry, under captain von arnim, had charge of the peter gate; major müffel, with his own men and some others, mounted guard at the erbis and donat gates; captain badehorn, with the city guard, garrisoned the electoral castle and the kreuz gate, together with the works and space that lay between. the remaining citizens were told off to defend the posterns and walls, in which task they were assisted by companies of country-people and journeymen of the various city guilds armed in all haste. some of these auxiliaries also waited, drawn up in their ranks before the town hall, ready to march at a moment's notice to any specially threatened point. to the brave and faithful miners were assigned the most dangerous duties of all, such as extinguishing the fires caused by shells, repairing the defences wherever the enemy might destroy them, counter-working such mines as should be directed against the town, and making sorties to destroy the enemy's trenches and siege-works. when all the inhabitants capable of bearing arms had been thus told off to their several duties, the old men, women, and children were requested to observe the appointed hours for prayer, and ask help from the almighty in the city's time of need. marshal torstenson appeared before freiberg on december . he at once took possession of the hospital church and a mansion near it, both of these buildings lying at some little distance outside the peter gate; here he planted a battery of artillery, the guns of which were levelled at the st. peter's tower. before commencing hostilities, however, the swedish marshal sent a trumpeter to the town to inquire whether the commandant intended to defend the place, what was his name, and whether he knew him, torstenson. the intrepid commandant returned for answer that his name was george hermann von schweinitz, and that he hoped the marshal would spend no more time in asking questions, but set at once to work, when he trusted to find him a right valiant soldier. on the same day an extraordinary surprise befell conrad schmidt. he was setting things straight in the workshop, which now stood silent and deserted, when he heard heavy footsteps approaching, and behold, in marched an armed man whom he seemed to know and yet not to know. the visitor wore a broad cocked hat with a little bunch of feathers at the side, and a short tunic of green cloth, the collar and edges of which were thickly laced with gold brocade wherever the broad sword-belt girt round his body permitted them to be seen. from left shoulder to right hip hung the bandolier or cartridge-belt, which was adorned with many golden tufts, and partly hid the lion of the freiberg city arms embroidered on his breast. tight breeches of green cloth reached to the ankles, where they were met by high shoes slashed on the inner side, and fitting much more neatly to the foot than do the shoes worn in the present day. a long gun with a large old-fashioned german lock, and a curved sabre, completed the equipment of the soldier, in whom conrad recognised first a member of the city guard known as the 'defensioners,' and then his old comrade, john hillner. [illustration: conrad recognised an old comrade, john hillner.] 'do i look better now,' asked the newly-fledged soldier, 'than in my blue apron and coloured jerkin, in the days when i handled the plane and square?' 'whoever could have guessed,' cried conrad, heedless of the question, 'that you would be made a defensioner! but are you a citizen, and do you know your drill? the defensioners never admit a man unless he is a citizen and knows his exercises.' 'i know my drill all right enough,' replied john, 'and i daresay i shall get my certificate of citizenship. your own eyes can tell you whether i am a defensioner or not.' 'and you have got a beard coming too,' said conrad, laughing. 'it's only a little one yet, but anybody can see that it is a beard. hallo! why, i declare you look uncommonly like that swede who shot'-- hillner's face darkened suddenly, as he interrupted conrad with the abrupt question, 'is the mistress in the house?' 'here she comes,' said conrad, pointing to the living-room door, through which the young widow was just entering the workshop. what wonders a uniform can work! mistress blüthgen coloured with pleasure when she saw her foreman in his new dress, asked how he was in very friendly tones, and sent the apprentice to fetch some refreshments for him. on his way to the cellar conrad said to himself: 'so at last he has let his beard grow, and he always used to shave it all off and hide every scrap of the hair. bah! i knew long enough ago that it was as red as the beard of that ugly swede who tried to shoot me. it's an uncommonly odd thing; coal-black hair and a red beard!' when the lad reached the living-room again, he found the entire household, including the miller and his wife, with little dollie and her father, gathered round the gaily dressed young guardsman. 'how do matters look as to the swedes?' asked the miller. 'the marshal has sent a messenger to ask our commandant a question or two, and has had his answer.' 'and what were the questions and answers?' the roar of cannon followed close on the words, and the women and children huddled together in alarm. 'you may give a pretty good guess by that what they were,' replied hillner. 'that's marshal torstenson's way of telling us how he likes his answer.' the thunder of the guns was heard again. while all were gazing in the direction whence the reports seemed to come, they saw a flash issue from the side of st. peter's tower, followed in a few seconds by a loud report. 'there you have question and answer again,' said hillner. this exchange of shots had not gone on for very long, however, before the fire of the swedes destroyed the topmost parapet of the tower. the gun planted there was silenced, and had to be moved down to a lower chamber. by way of covering this movement, the garrison opened a heavy fire with cannon and double arquebuses on the swedes, who had ventured rather nearer to the town than was quite prudent. 'now i must be off,' said john suddenly. 'the game has begun, and i must go and take my share in it. may god keep you all! good-bye!' as he hastened away the assembled household watched his retreating figure with very various feelings. the next day, december , in spite of the snow and the heavy fire of the garrison, the swedes opened their entrenchments before the peter gate, and planted three mortars there, which threw great stones, shells, and hundred-and-fifty pound shot into the town. thus closed the old year , and the new year was not destined to open upon brighter or more joyful prospects. chapter v. the sower of tares. the st of january, , had hardly dawned, when the town servant jüchziger presented himself before the new acting-burgomaster, herr jonas schönleben. 'respected herr burgomaster,' he began humbly, 'permit the most unworthy of all your servants to be first in wishing you a happy new year, and congratulating you on the honour you have now attained. the new year promises to be a very hard one, and your new office will be harder still. i thank god that in these difficult times we are so happy as to have your worship for our burgomaster.' 'i am obliged to you, jüchziger,' replied schönleben feelingly. 'i am obliged to you for all your kind wishes. yes, these are indeed hard times in which i undertake the management of public business. the care of more than sixty thousand souls is laid on me at a time when even a solomon would have had need of all his wisdom. this thought has been much in my mind, and last night i followed the wise king's example,--i commended myself earnestly to god, praying him to teach me the right, and then to give me strength and courage to do it.' 'to maintain the right with strength and courage against all comers, against friends as well as foes,' said jüchziger. 'for, alas! how many are there who would be only too glad to interfere with your worship's rights as burgomaster, and put all your wise intentions aside to carry out their own selfish schemes,--men who would be only too glad, in a word, to leave you the mere name of acting-burgomaster, and nothing more. i am quite sure it is your worship's kindly heart that has made you give ear to them until misfortune is hanging over the town, and the citizens and the rest are all bemoaning themselves, while your worship's false friends raise their heads like snakes, as they are, to sting you the moment your worship's back is turned.' schönleben stood silent, gazing thoughtfully on the ground. 'did either your worship or any of our other worthy magistrates give orders for every armed journeyman to receive a gulden a week and two pounds of bread a day?' continued jüchziger in an injured tone; 'or that on this very new year's day, eight hundred freiberg citizens should tear up the pavement in the streets of their own city to protect the houses from the swedish cannon? do you know, respected herr burgomaster, that that young swedish turncoat who was so impudent to you in the st. peter's tower, and demanded to be made a citizen, has been admitted by the commandant into the city guard, contrary to all custom and right? who will guarantee that the pretended saxon is not really a spy, plotting to betray the city into the hands of the swedes the first chance he gets?' 'is this really so?' asked schönleben with displeasure. 'if you doubt my word, your worship can easily see for yourself,' replied jüchziger. 'the fellow struts about the streets every day in his defensioner's uniform, until he nearly runs himself off his legs.' 'tell badehorn, the captain of the city guard, to meet me here in an hour's time,' said schönleben angrily; 'and bid him be ready to explain why he has admitted a stranger among his men in this irregular way.' 'the soldier,' continued jüchziger, 'risks nothing in war but just his life. the citizen risks a great deal more, for he has a wife and children, hearth and home. when a town is taken, the soldiers are either made prisoners of war or allowed to march out unhurt; it is into the citizen's house that the enemy comes, to ill-use his wife, children, and servants. these swedes now are pressing the siege of our town so hard that we cannot possibly hold out for long. they say that even if torstenson offers us fair terms, the commandant means to refuse them without even asking your worship anything about it, and so to give the town up to be stormed and pillaged. now i, in my humble way, should have thought your worship's voice ought to count for something in this matter. your worship knows what is for the good of the town a great deal better than a soldier of fortune that has only been here a few weeks.' the burgomaster made no reply. his thoughtful air, however, as he stood absently drumming on the window-pane, showed that the mischief-maker had not spoken in vain. by way of striking while the iron was hot, jüchziger continued: 'as i was on my way to your worship's house this morning, i saw the herr burgomaster richzenhayn going to call on the commandant, no doubt meaning to offer him a new year's greeting. are you going to do the same, most noble sir, or don't you think a burgomaster of the free city of freiberg--which, with refugees, now counts over sixty thousand souls--is at least as good a man as the commander of two hundred and ninety soldiers?' schönleben clasped his hands behind his back, and paced slowly and thoughtfully up and down his room. if any reader mentally charges the author with exaggeration here, he does him an injustice. the writer has had many opportunities of knowing officials, both of high and low degree, who were, quite unconsciously to themselves, tools in the hands of their servants, the latter being permitted a freedom of speech that would never have been tolerated in equals. such servants have always had the knack of making themselves indispensable, while preserving an outward appearance of the deepest humility; and thus it has often come to pass that a lord has been made to discharge a shaft aimed by his humble vassal. when jüchziger's crafty eye saw that the arrow he had thus been pointing was, so to speak, ready to be loosed from the bow, he adroitly changed the subject of conversation to something that lay much nearer his heart. 'you are aware, respected herr burgomaster,' he began again in a wheedling tone, 'that when i entered on my office i married the widow of schmidt, my predecessor. i did it partly out of compassion for the poor woman, and partly to save the town the expense of keeping her and her son, who is now a boy of fourteen years old. my wife, a woman five years older than myself, all at once went stone blind, so that now i am forced to have a servant to wait on her. i had the good fortune to apprentice the boy to mistress blüthgen, the carpenter's widow, but his mother has petted and pampered him until he is a good-for-nothing, lazy young rascal. and now that the workshops are closed and the craftsmen and journeymen all take their turn at military duty, the boy's mistress threatens to send him home and put me to the expense of keeping him,--me that scarcely knows which way to turn for bread to feed my wife and her servant! the worst of it is that all my wife's little property, a small house outside the peter gate, has been levelled with the ground by order of burgomaster richzenhayn, and i have never had a single kreuzer[ ] for my loss. the house was worth three hundred and fifty gulden.[ ] gracious herr burgomaster, take me and my small family under your powerful protection, help me to get proper compensation for my house, and i shall be your grateful servant all the days of my life.' 'my dear jüchziger,' interposed schönleben, 'be assured i will do all i can. the times are so bad that the town will want all its strength, and all its money, to defend itself against the swedes, and we shall have to leave our private interests in the background for a while; but i will see that you suffer no actual want through this misfortune.' jüchziger concealed the disappointment he felt on hearing these words, thanked the burgomaster for his kind intentions, and took his leave. 'do not forget to send badehorn here!' schönleben called after him as he went out. in a comparatively short time he made his appearance again. 'captain badehorn presents his respectful compliments to the herr burgomaster, and begs to inform his worship that he cannot have the honour of waiting on him at the time mentioned.' here jüchziger discreetly paused. 'and why not?' asked schönleben, starting up. 'are the ties of obedience that bind citizen to magistrate broken already?' 'he cannot come,' continued jüchziger, 'because the orders of commandant von schweinitz forbid it. they are every instant expecting an attack to be made by the swedes, and the commandant has ordered every man to remain at his post.' 'ah, of course! that is quite a different thing,' said schönleben, as his angry brow grew smooth again. 'badehorn could not act otherwise, and it becomes my duty to go and see him if i want my question answered.' when burgomaster schönleben left his house somewhat later in the day, the death-like stillness that reigned throughout the usually busy city weighed on his spirit. not a clock was striking, not a bell rang out its joyful peal in welcome to the new year. only at long intervals did he see a human being pass along the street, and then it was in fear and haste. on the other hand, as he went on his way, he saw at various points large bodies of men standing silent in their ranks, waiting the call of duty and the word of command. here were the vigorous journeymen of the different trades, and the stalwart country-people; there the trusty miners, some with nondescript weapons, others armed with pick-axes, mattocks, and long guns, or provided with ladders and great buckets of water, in readiness for an alarm of fire. in the streets adjoining the erbis and kreuz gates, bustling activity was the order of the day. hundreds of tireless workers were tearing up the paving of the roadways, while women and children carried away the stones, and piled them against the houses. not a creature complained of the cold, though it was by no means small. as schönleben drew near to the city wall and the kreuz gate, one helmeted head after another came into view, rising above the battlements, and there was a certain comfortable sense of security in the knowledge that they were the heads of the armed citizens mounting guard. men standing still feel the cold severely, and accordingly huge fires had been built in some of the sheltered corners, round which the armed burghers stood chatting, each with his firelock ready to hand. on inquiring for captain badehorn, schönleben was told that the captain had been summoned by the commandant, and that the lieutenant of the city guard, peter schmohl, had command of the defensioners in the absence of his superior officer. schönleben tried to make out the swedish deserter among the defensioners present, but was obliged to return home without having done so. hardly had he turned his back on the fortifications, when the swedish cannon opened fire on the peter gate and the neighbouring defensive works. after firing a score of shots, however, torstenson sent to the commandant, demanding the surrender of the town. he had, he said, paraded his army and fired a salute in his honour; should any further resistance be offered, he would the next day attack the town more vigorously, and destroy it. the commandant sent a polite but firm refusal, and on the following day torstenson fulfilled the first part of his threat by opening a terrible fire against the town. in six hours his artillery discharged over thirteen hundred shots, by which the peter gate, the adjoining tower, and a portion of the city wall were all severely injured, while many shells, and a perfect hailstorm of large stones, passed over the ramparts into the town itself. then the enemy drew near with flying colours, bringing ladders, for the purpose of scaling the ramparts. by way of rendering their task easier, they exploded their first mines, which, however, did not accomplish all that was expected from them. meantime the besieged, on their part, were by no means idle. to prevent the storming of the breach at the peter gate, two cannon were planted in peter street, the gaps in the ramparts were hastily repaired, the bastions and inner defences of the gate itself were strengthened, while large quantities of hand-grenades and other ammunition were laid in readiness. thus prepared, the citizens confidently awaited the threatened attack, which, however, did not take place, partly, it was supposed, because of a violent snow-storm that came on, and partly through the failure of the mines. scarcely had the swedish troops withdrawn in the evening, when the besieged made a sortie, in which the miners cleared the moat of the rubbish that encumbered it, and picked up a considerable number of cannon-balls, which they carried into the town as valuable booty. the swedes maintained their fire throughout the whole of that evening, and far into the night, to prevent the freibergers from rebuilding their fortifications; in the course of this firing a miner and a forester were killed in the city, and several others among the defenders severely wounded. on the next day, january d, the firing was renewed with heavy siege-guns in addition to the lighter pieces, and a second mine was sprung, making a breach seventy feet wide in the city wall. as soon as this result had been achieved, the swedes, to the number of two hundred, delivered their first assault against the peter gate. the fighting, however, only lasted about a quarter of an hour, and ended in the complete repulse of the besiegers. during the lull that followed, jüchziger arrived at the house of burgomaster schönleben, to announce that colonel von schweinitz wished to speak with him, and requested his worship to come to him at once for that purpose. jüchziger's tone and look were carefully calculated to provoke the burgomaster's pride, and schönleben made a sign for the messenger to withdraw. 'am i his slave?' he broke out angrily, as soon as the man was out of hearing. 'have i not every bit as good a right to send for him as he has to send for me? i will soon let him know which of us has the best right to command here!' but when the first heat of his anger had spent itself, quieter thoughts began to prevail. schönleben was at heart far too noble and conscientious a man to sacrifice the welfare of a great city, entrusted to his keeping, to a sense of his own offended dignity. 'one must not be too particular,' he said to himself, 'about an affront from a rough old soldier; after all, he may wish to speak about some matter of importance. at all events, i will just go and hear what he has to say.' with thoughts like these working in his mind, schönleben betook himself to the commandant, who laughed boisterously as he shook hands with his visitor, and began at once with: 'torstenson has already sent a third time to demand the surrender of the city, as if he thought he had knocked us into a cocked hat by that assault we repulsed so easily. he has been kind enough, too, to remind me that breisach, regensburg, gross-glogau, and leipzig have all been besieged and taken by the swedes, and to add that it is quite out of the question for a badly fortified place like freiberg to withstand his power. we are not to count on any assistance, and if i reject his present kind offers he will take the place by storm, and will not spare even the babe at its mother's breast.' 'and what answer do you propose to send to all this, herr colonel?' asked schönleben. 'i suppose you sent for me to see what my opinion might be?' 'not a bit of it, my dear schönleben, i assure you,' replied von schweinitz, laughing. 'the swede has received his answer some time since, and there was not the smallest need to trouble you in any way about the matter. the enemy has received from me, take my word for it, the only possible answer a soldier could send to such a demand, and i now want to consult with you about pushing matters a little farther.' 'but,' said schönleben in an offended tone, 'i should have thought that as acting-burgomaster i ought at least to have had a word to say where the weal or woe of the thousands of families under my care was at stake. pray, what is to happen when you and your soldiers are all killed, the citizens and other combatants worn out with their excessive duties in this bitter weather, the walls destroyed, the gates taken by storm, and the swede bursts in at last to put his threats into execution?' 'what!' cried schweinitz, astounded by this sudden outburst. 'is it the burgomaster of the loyal city of freiberg i hear speaking such words as these?' 'undoubtedly it is,' replied schönleben; 'and when leipzig chose of her own free will to open her gates to the swedish forces, she was not branded as disloyal. i am not speaking now of surrender, but of my absolute right to have at least one word in all that concerns freiberg.' 'listen to me, herr schönleben,' said schweinitz roughly, 'and hear my fixed determination. our illustrious prince and lord, john george of saxony, has entrusted to me, george hermann von schweinitz, the defence of this city of freiberg, with orders to hold it to the last man. that being so, i stand in no need of advice from you, either now or at any other time. as commandant, i am here to give orders, and you are here to obey them. whoever talks to me of surrender shall be considered a traitor to his country, and treated accordingly. basta!'[ ] and schweinitz emphasized the close of his speech by a thundering blow of his fist on the table before him, and turned his back on the burgomaster in high dudgeon. schönleben himself, as he took his departure and returned home, was quite as angry a man as the indignant warrior. 'god is my witness,' said the burgomaster to himself, when, somewhat later, he was thinking the matter over more quietly, 'that neither cowardice nor disloyalty to my prince made me speak as i did. but when i think that the town may yet share the awful fate that befell magdeburg, then indeed i set the well-being of my thousands of fellow-citizens far above my own reputation for valour. alas! who can give my fearful heart any assurance about these things?' [ ] a small german copper coin. [ ] a gulden is now worth about two shillings english. [ ] enough. chapter vi. the second assault. on the following day burgomaster schönleben took his way to the council-chamber, which now, indeed, fully deserved its name. both before and after the commencement of the siege, the magistrates had enough to do in devising necessary plans, even had not their time been fully occupied in carrying their plans into execution. among other duties, they had to arrange for the accommodation of the wounded, the burial of the dead, and the bodily needs both of those who were defending the city and their families; while not neglecting, on the other hand, to guard against a wasteful use of the provisions, to preserve the strictest order in the city, and to arrange for many other things beside. schönleben did not give his fellow councillors the slightest hint about his quarrel with the commandant, but took care quietly to make out their several opinions, and he did not find one man among them who, either from fear of the swedes or from personal inclination, was disposed to support his views. after quitting the council-chamber, he could not help noticing, as he passed along the ranks of the auxiliary troops in front of the town hall, what an eager and even restless desire was manifest among them to be led against the enemy. he betook himself to the cathedral, where the church-superintendent, dr. paul glaser himself, was conducting the daily service, and heard this aged servant of the lord encourage his great audience to a brave resistance against the foe, and patient endurance of such trouble as the siege might bring. 'call to mind, my brethren,' the good man was saying, 'what was done by the children of israel when the wicked king antiochus and his soldiers troubled them, and each one had to take refuge in the caverns and rocky clefts of the mountains. my hearers, antiochus and his fierce soldiery did not torture the jews of old one whit more unmercifully than these swedes have tortured our saxon brothers and sisters. and it is vain for you to think that you, at least, will escape torture and death by resigning yourselves into their hands; for their hearts are like the nether mill-stone, and they find an evil pleasure in hearkening to the groans of those who perish under their torments. therefore defend yourselves, as did the jews in the days of the maccabees! and let not strong men alone bear their share in the work, but do you aged men, you women and children, aid with all your feeble might. think of the brave women of the ancient days! and while you think of them, do not forget that in our very midst there dwells to-day a brave woman who has had to defend hearth and home against a murderous foe; not less truly a woman because this hard task was assigned to her, or because she was found, in the hour of need, capable of discharging it. while we pray to god that such terrible work may never fall to our lot, we cannot but honour this our brave, and now, alas! our bereaved sister.' as it happened, the miller's wife from erbisdorf was herself present among the worshippers, without the clergyman's knowledge. as the glances of those around turned naturally towards her where she sat, she endured their friendly scrutiny with blushing cheeks and downcast eyes. the preacher's words had produced a deep effect in the mind of the worthy burgomaster. 'if a christian minister,' said he to himself, 'sees it his duty on this special occasion to encourage the weak, that they may make a valorous deface, surely i, who rule over strong men, should be the last to think of surrendering into an enemy's hands the city entrusted to my care.' the thunder of the swedish cannon, as it echoed and re-echoed through the lofty carved-work of the cathedral roof, made the burgomaster too ill at ease to stay longer in the church. on reaching the open air, he found that the enemy had never yet poured in so heavy a fire as that of to-day. 'by it every building was shaken,' says the chronicle, 'and there was as great alarm in the town as if heaven and earth had been rolled together.' this time the enemy did not content himself with merely letting his heavy guns play against the walls and gates, especially the peter gate, but used his mortars to pour large quantities of stones, balls, and shells directly into the town itself. the sights and sounds that saluted schönleben almost put his newly-formed resolutions to flight. he hastened back to the market-place. 'the enemy is pressing hard on the meissen and erbis gates,' shouted a breathless messenger, sent in haste to summon assistance from the town hall, and immediately detachments of the auxiliaries drawn up there started at the double to strengthen the threatened points. as they went they uttered loud shouts of joy, and clashed their weapons till the market-place rang again. the crash of bursting shells could now be distinctly heard above the thunder of the artillery, but happily most of these deadly missiles fell in the more open spaces and did but little harm. the miners were acquitting themselves of their dangerous duties courageously and well under the able leadership of their brave captain, george frederick von schomberg, and the master miner, andreas baumann. whenever a column of smoke rose, or shells fell on a house, or the fearful cry of 'fire' was heard, their aid was speedily at hand. beneath a continuous shower of stones and bullets they climbed upon roofs, handed buckets of water, and extinguished flames, heeding neither fire, choking vapour, nor falling rafters. like boys playing at ball, they sprang on the smouldering shells the moment they touched the ground, and extinguishing the fusee, rendered them harmless before they had time to do their fatal work of death and destruction. as schönleben turned the corner by the butchers' stalls, some ponderous iron object fell with a heavy thud just in front of him, sank into the earth, and disappeared. at the same moment, two young people came out of a neighbouring house and ran across the street to the newly-made hole; they were conrad schmidt and dollie. close at their heels followed a man in a dusty coat, the miller of erbisdorf. 'out of the way directly!' he shouted to the thoughtless youngsters. 'do you both want to be killed? this is no child's plaything.' so saying, he carefully poured into the hole a large bucketful of water he had brought with him, and then set about digging out the expected shell. 'well, upon my word!' he cried, in a tone of such astonishment that the burgomaster paused in curiosity. 'how long have they used bombs with iron rings to catch hold of them by? why, as sure as i'm here, it is nothing in the world but a lumbering old iron hundred-weight, that the swedes must have stolen out of some good saxon's shop to batter our heads in freiberg with.' while the worthy miller was still expressing his astonishment over this new kind of missile, dollie's father, the miner roller, appeared coming down the street, grasping some heavy object with both hands. when he recognised the burgomaster, he let his burden drop on the ground, and proceeded respectfully to remove his hat. 'what have you got there?' cried the miller, who was near enough to hear roller's salutation of the magistrate. 'a blacksmith's anvil?' 'the end of one, at all events,' replied roller. then, turning to schönleben, he added, 'only half a yard more, respected herr burgomaster, and my poor head would have been shattered by this same anvil. but it tells a welcome story too; for if the swedes have to use things like these to feed their cannon with, they must be running pretty short of ammunition.' 'that seems to contradict you,' said schönleben pleasantly, indicating the tremendous noise of the cannonade that filled the air on all sides. 'ah, but it's beginning to slacken now, respected herr burgomaster,' shouted the miller joyfully the next minute. 'don't you hear that the siege-guns have ceased firing?' roller looked thoughtfully up at st. peter's tower, from which a blood-red flag now floated in the air. in a moment, from all the hitherto silent towers and steeples, the bells clashed out an alarm. 'that is the signal of an attempt to storm,' said the burgomaster; then concealing his own agitation as best he might, he hastened from the spot. 'a storm!' said dollie wonderingly to conrad. 'but there are no clouds, and no wind; how could there be a storm?' at this point the questioner was sent into the house by the miller, who followed her himself as soon as he had put the iron weight and the anvil away in a place of safety. roller, although not on duty, hastened off to join his comrades at their work, and conrad betook himself with all speed to the home where he knew his poor mother was left alone in her blindness. the minister had just brought his service to a close, and was leaving the church; but on hearing the clang of the alarm-bells, he turned back into the sacred building with the women and children, who poured into it to beseech divine help in this new and pressing danger. just as schönleben was passing by the church door, such a frightful and furious shout arose at the peter gate as almost to curdle the burgomaster's blood in his veins. this terrible shout was uttered by the swedes, who, two brigades strong, with flying colours and rolling drums, were now advancing with their storming-ladders towards the moat before the peter gate. the determined energy with which the advance was made was as great as the noise of the battle-cry. the besieged watched the enemy's approach with stedfast and unshaken courage. they tightened their belts, and each man prepared his weapons to give the foe a warm reception. 'always bellowing, you swedish oxen!' shouted a soldier jestingly. 'do you expect to frighten us with your noise, or do you think the walls of freiberg are going to fall down like those of jericho?' a well-aimed cross fire was now poured into the ranks of the besiegers, as, in dense masses, they filled the moat and struggled to mount the breach. a murderous fight then began, in which neither side would yield an inch. although successive volleys of balls decimated the swedish ranks, their losses did not in the least deter them from pursuing their object with the most supreme indifference to death. fresh men continually took the place of those that fell, and the forces of the besieged being thus either divided or broken, the erbis and meissen gates were both assaulted at once. the storming-ladders of the swedes, a hundred times hurled back into the moat, were as often replanted against the walls; and although every man who had as yet succeeded in setting foot on the ramparts had paid for his success with his life, others were continually ready to follow the same example. while the enemy kept up their furious battle-cry, the besieged, on their side, did not fail to encourage one another with joyful shouts. there were even some rash spirits, who, deserting the sheltering breastworks, sprang into the breach, and saluted the dense ranks of the enemy with 'morning-stars'[ ] and heavy broadswords. during this attack, which lasted a full hour, the swedish fire was steadily maintained against gates, walls, and towers, occasionally even against the breach itself, where it inflicted some loss on besiegers as well as besieged. the former, under the command of generals wrangel and mortainne, were led by these officers in person to storm the breach. field-marshal torstenson, a martyr to gout, could only sit at the window of his quarters in the hospital, directing the attack, and chafing inwardly at its continued want of success. while the battle still raged round the peter, meissen, and erbis gates, and the swedes fancied the freibergers a prey to anxiety and fear, the undismayed miners made a sortie through the donat gate, destroyed the swedish siege-works that lay in that quarter, slew a number of the enemy, and returned into the city, bringing with them several prisoners. the general fight was still raging; the shout of battle, the thunder of the guns, the confused din of the storming-parties, and the showers of great stones and shot still filled the air, as the burgomaster, agitated by growing anxiety, and unable to find rest anywhere, turned his uneasy steps towards the peter gate, the most threatened point of all. it must be remembered that to a brave man like schönleben it was a far harder task to stand by, a mere spectator of this important battle, than it would have been to take an active share in its turmoil and danger. to him the assault on the gates, which had perhaps lasted an hour, appeared to have been going on for ever, while those who were actually engaged in the strife would have sworn it had been an affair of a few minutes at the most. in no small danger of his life, the burgomaster forced his way, through a storm of bullets and falling masonry, into the strong tower that protected the peter gate. having at last succeeded in ascending the narrow stone stairs and reaching the vaulted guard-room, he was able to make out indistinctly, through the smoke and dust that filled the room, the forms of a number of men who were keeping up an incessant and almost deafening fire on the enemy through the narrow loop-holes with which the thick walls were pierced. 'they fly!' shouted one of these marksmen in a stentorian voice. 'hurrah! now to give them something to help them on their way.' so saying, he lighted one hand-grenade after another, and hurled them with all his force through the loop-hole. 'now, here with the double arquebuses! dippolt, have you loaded them all?' as he spoke, he seized one of the pieces that stood in readiness, and fired it after the flying swedes. the face was so blackened with gunpowder and smoke as to be almost unrecognisable, but schönleben knew the voice at once for that of the brave commandant von schweinitz, who thus both by word and action encouraged his men to do their utmost against the enemy. hastily turning round, and catching sight as he did so of the burgomaster's face, the soldier frankly stepped up to the new-comer and shook him kindly by the hand, saying in a hearty tone: 'so you are here, burgomaster! there,' and he pushed the visitor good-humouredly towards a loop-hole; 'have a look at the vagabonds showing us their heels. they'll not carry more than a third of their storming-ladders back with them. so, now you have come, you can help us make merry, schönleben. i feel so pleased i scarcely know how to contain myself.' a great shout of joy rose from the ranks of the besieged at sight of the flying swedes. 'right, my children!' cried their commander. 'shout "victory" to your heart's content. schönleben, i am proud of commanding your freibergers. they have behaved like veteran and brave soldiers. i must give the palm to your city guard, who have held the most dangerous post, the one at the breach by the kreuz gate, with such calm determination that the swedes never once set foot on the ramparts. victory, victory!' he shouted, as the jubilant cry rose again from the ranks below. then schönleben spoke out honestly and heartily. 'colonel von schweinitz,' he said, 'i trust you will pardon the speech i made to you not long since; it might well annoy you. henceforth i say with you, "welcome death rather than surrender to the swedes!"' 'why, what is all this about?' said schweinitz heartily; 'i was every bit as much to blame as you were. i'm a rough soldier that doesn't stop to pick his words. you mustn't take too much notice of my speaking out a bit hastily now and then.' while the two worthy men were making up their quarrel, schönleben noticed that the skirt of the other's coat was smeared with blood. 'you are wounded,' cried the burgomaster in alarm. 'i had not noticed it,' answered schweinitz carelessly, looking down at the splash of blood on his coat. 'possibly a chip of masonry or some ball that has glanced aside may have grazed my hip. the swedes have paid for it dearly enough, anyhow.' with a brightened and almost joyful heart schönleben took leave of the commandant. as the former left the tower and gate, he saw the besieged clambering down into the city moat to make prisoners the wounded swedes who lay there, and to bring in the firelocks, pikes, and scaling-ladders the enemy had left behind. at the same time, men were set busily to work to repair and rebuild the walls and other defensive works that had suffered injury. the bells were silent, and the glorious words of the te deum--'we praise thee, o god! we acknowledge thee to be the lord'--could be plainly heard as they sounded solemnly forth from the various churches,--words in which the burgomaster joined with a most devout and thankful heart. [ ] the mediaeval 'morning-star' was a heavy war-club thickly studded with short iron spikes. chapter vii. conrad under the window-seat. it was early in the afternoon, yet the long winter night already lay dark over the city of freiberg. at intervals the gloom was lighted up for a few minutes by the lurid glare of some burning house set on fire by a hostile shell, and as quickly extinguished by the prompt watchfulness and energy of the fire-brigade, whose members had to struggle against a strong wind that by fanning the flames made them doubly dangerous. the streets were almost deserted. only now and then might some wayfarer be dimly descried stealing along, keeping close in to the houses so as to gain some slight protection from the falling stones and cannon-balls. among these wayfarers was conrad schmidt, hastening from his mistress' house to his mother's distant dwelling. when he had reached his destination, and made sure that his dreaded stepfather was away, he entered the living-room. to his great surprise it was dark and cheerless, and his blind mother sat alone in the midst of it shivering with cold. by way of warming herself, she had taken the sleek tabby cat into her lap and folded her chilled hands over pussy's warm fur. the whole scene sent a pang through the boy's warm and loving heart. 'but, my dearest mother!' he cried, 'has not hannah got back yet from her parents'? let me go and call her.' the woman shook her head sorrowfully. 'hannah is never coming back,' she said. 'your stepfather has turned her off because she was no use now and ate so much.' the boy clasped his hands. 'no use now!' he repeated. 'now! when he is away himself all day and most of the night too,--when the lives even of people who have their eyesight are in danger,--when the blind need help more than ever! oh, my poor, dear mother!' 'if it were not for the leaving you and dear old pussy here that jüchziger has many a time threatened to kill,' sobbed the blind woman, 'i would rather die--die by some swedish bullet! why should i wish to live? when your father comes home he beats me if he finds the room cold, and do what i will i can't make the fire burn in the stove. the tinder will not light, though i have often struck the flint and steel together till i made my poor hands quite sore. no one lives in the house but ourselves, so i cannot get my lamp lighted, and if i take it across the street to a neighbour's, the wind blows it out again before i get back.' conrad set energetically to work, and very soon a brisk fire was crackling in the great stove that stood at one end of the room, gaily ornamented with its long rows of coloured dutch tiles. he placed his mother carefully in a warm corner, sat down beside her, and then began: 'rudorf the journeyman is in bed at our house with a broken leg. it's not at all dangerous, and he gets his gulden of pay and his allowance of bread regularly every week. i only wish i was a journeyman, then i could go and fight and earn some money for you. and hillner the defensioner has got on first-rate; the officers all like him, and the governor himself talks to him ever so often. our mistress loves to see him come into the house, and i'm sure she will marry him as soon as the siege is over, and he is made a citizen and a master carpenter. but then we can't even begin to guess when the siege will be over, for these swedes keep attacking the town worse than ever. you would think they might have been satisfied with knocking ever so many of our houses to pieces, but now, what with their new batteries, and their new trenches, and nobody knows how many fascines'-- 'alas, alas!' interrupted mistress jüchziger. 'what does a poor blind woman like me know about such dreadful things? have you a morsel of bread in your pocket, my dear boy? pussy and i have had nothing to eat since early this morning.' 'my poor mother,' cried her warm-hearted son, 'and has it come to this--that in our own freiberg, where not even a beggar is allowed to starve, the good and honoured wife of the town servant himself cannot get enough to eat?' 'your father locks everything up as if i was a thief,' said the woman, 'and he has been out ever since mid-day, so we couldn't get anything.' 'here, dear mother,' cried conrad, 'take this. i always take good care now-a-days to have a crust of bread in my pocket. i only wish i could give you something nice to eat with it, but that's all i have.' the woman broke off a morsel for the expectant cat before beginning to satisfy her own hunger. 'puss is only a dumb creature,' she said by way of excuse, 'but she is as faithful as many christians, and a good deal kinder than your stepfather.' 'yes, mother,' replied conrad, 'so she is. all he wanted was your little house, and now that's gone he is just showing us what he really is.' 'it was for your sake i promised to be his wife,' said the woman, 'that there might be somebody to look after you when i am gone.' 'i know, i know!' said conrad. 'and how very kind and sweet-spoken he always used to be to me while he was courting you!' 'he is coming!' said the woman in sudden terror. 'i can hear his step. quick, hide yourself!' there was let into the wall of the room, just below the window, a seat, from which, in order to conceal household articles laid there, a low curtain had been hung, thus making a sort of rude cupboard. conrad crept behind this curtain with all speed, just as his mother succeeded in hiding her crust of bread in her pocket. immediately afterwards jüchziger entered the room without a word of greeting to his wife. he threw his hat on the seat beneath which his stepson was crouching, and said angrily: 'it's a dog's life now-a-days. on one's legs day and night, always in danger, and never a kreuzer[ ] by way of reward. all for the fatherland, forsooth, say the patriots! i am my own fatherland, and i keep my patriotism in my purse. ever since the fat citizens and journeymen took to cutting about the streets with their pop-guns, they are all grown such big men that if one of them happens to set eyes on you, you must jump out of his way like a bewitched frog. wife! wife, i say! here's a batzen.[ ] run across to seiler's and fetch me a herring. i begin to feel horribly hungry.' the blind woman stood for some seconds like one astounded by such an unusual order. conrad was on the point of creeping out from his hiding-place at all hazards, to go himself and fetch what was wanted. he was only restrained by the thought that if he did, he would be very likely to bring on his mother something a great deal worse than just having to go across the street for a herring. 'well, what's the matter now?' shouted jüchziger, bringing his fist down with a thundering crash on the table. 'are you going, or am i to start you?' the blind woman had hardly groped her way out at the door, before jüchziger went on: 'can't some swedish bullet or falling stone rid me of this blind witch? nothing turns out as i want it to. here are schweinitz and schönleben the best of friends again, and all the trouble i've been at with them just so much labour lost. and then there's that brazen-faced journeyman i haven't paid off yet for his impudence in the forest; it seems as though i am not to get a hold on him. and never a kreuzer have i seen the colour of, to pay me for my house they pulled down. all right! it may turn out that what freiberg won't pay for, the swedes will. i have to look after the prisoners, so i shall stand a first-rate chance to kill two birds with one stone,--do the business of the conceited defensioner, and help myself to my money at the same time. what, you ugly beast, are you there?' this closing remark was addressed to the cat, which jüchziger now spied sitting by the curtain, behind which conrad was playing the part of an unwilling listener. his stepfather picked up the heavy boot-jack, and hurled it at the cat; it missed her, but struck conrad so sharply on the shin, that though the thick curtain broke the full force of the blow, the lad could hardly suppress a cry of pain. when, a little later, he saw his stepfather go into the inner room to hang up his great-coat, the boy ventured out, and, creeping on tip-toe across the living-room, managed to escape unobserved into the street. just outside the door he met his mother returning, carrying the herring in her left hand, while with the right she groped her way along by the houses. 'oh, mother,' he said, in a low, earnest voice, 'don't stay a minute longer! my mistress' house has lots of visitors in it, but i'm sure they would find a corner for you somewhere. and you and puss wouldn't be nearly so hungry if you lived with us as you are here.' 'it cannot be, my son,' replied the blind woman. 'a true wife does not leave her husband. if i were to do so, the other women would point the finger of scorn at me and call me names; and quite right, too. if i can do nothing else, i will at least take my good name with me down to the grave, and god grant it may be soon.' so saying, she hastened into the house, lest she should anger her husband by keeping him waiting. conrad took his way homeward with a heart overflowing with respect for his mother. on his way he met dollie, carefully carrying in her hand a bundle wrapped in a cloth. 'wherever are you off to so late as this, dollie?' he asked in astonishment. 'are you not afraid to go along the dark streets with all the shot and shell flying about?' 'oh, i've got used to them a long time ago!' said the little one very composedly. 'i always think it doesn't seem nice when the town is quiet now.' conrad had to confess that she was right, for people certainly do become accustomed to everything, even to the greatest danger. 'i am taking father some warm soup, because he is on duty to-night,' dollie went on; 'then he won't feel the dark night so cold.' 'but why does not your mother take it?' asked conrad. 'oh, she isn't at home,' answered dollie. 'she had to go with a great many more women to fetch water from the münzbach,[ ] and carry it right into the upper town. the swedes have done something to the water-pipes there, and there is no more water. only think! if a fire were to begin, and they couldn't put it out! and for fear the water should freeze in the buckets, the women have to carry it in the little brewers' coppers, and keep the fires burning under it too!' 'i will go with you,' said conrad; and the little maiden, though professing to be so brave, seemed by no means sorry to have a companion. at last the two succeeded in reaching the neighbourhood of the peter gate, where a detachment of miners were acting as auxiliaries to the regular troops. here, as at the other threatened points, soldiers, citizens, and journeymen were all actively engaged. such parts of the fortifications as had been either injured or destroyed by the enemy's artillery-fire and mines, were now being hastily repaired. the peter gate and the barbican in front of it showed unmistakeable signs of the enemy's efforts to force an entrance into the town,--heaps of stones, and yawning holes and pits, alternated with covered galleries, _chevaux-de-frise_, uprooted palisadoes, and other works which the freibergers were in hot haste trying to strengthen. the steady industry of so many hundred busy hands in the cold and darkness of that winter night must have struck an onlooker with surprise; but probably his surprise would have been even more excited by the unusual silence in which such heavy work was being done. that they might not attract the enemy's attention and so draw down an attack, the besieged were using the miners' dark lanterns, which open only on one side, instead of such torches or other lights as would generally be employed. from the top of the city wall and gate, these lanterns now shone down like the glimmering fires of innumerable glowworms, while, through the dusky twilight, lit up by their flickering rays, the soft white snowflakes fell steadily and quietly. the dim light and the falling snow combined to transform the brave defenders into so many ghost-like shapes. one such weird figure could be descried, leaning silent and motionless against the parapet at the top of the tower, his heavy double arquebuse by his side. no part of the man stirred save the restless eyes, and they wandered incessantly to and fro, striving to make out the movements of the enemy. the miners, busy constructing a new moat just within the battered peter gate, looked, as they glided about, more like mountain-gnomes than human beings. if one of these same human gnomes, with weather-beaten, swarthy face and wrinkled forehead framed in its snowy hood, had suddenly stepped out into the circle of light cast by one of the dark lanterns, people would have been strongly tempted to declare they had seen a ghost. up there on the hospital mountain, where the enemy's headquarters lay, great watch-fires were blazing through the thick, snow-laden air. now and then the glare of a mortar shone suddenly out, followed after a few seconds by the thundering explosion. then a fiery curve traced itself against the sky, the end of which advanced hissing towards the city, and at last burst somewhere among the houses. such was the picture that presented itself to the eyes of the two children when they reached the peter gate on that dark winter's night. [ ] a small german coin worth about a farthing english. [ ] a small german coin equal to four kreuzers. [ ] the river that flows through freiberg. chapter viii. ordinary incidents of a siege. 'dear wahle,' said dollie to a miner, who, with the assistance of several others, was carrying a great palisade past the spot where the children stood, 'please have you seen anything of my father? i've brought him a can of warm soup.' 'warm soup!' said the man jocosely; 'why, the enemy cook enough of that for us, only they warm us in rather a different way. well, child, your father is down in the moat with a lot of other men, bringing in wood that the enemy had piled up ready to burn us out. when they found their cannon could not knock a hole through at the peter gate here, they thought they would have a try what fire could do.' 'it looks,' said another, 'very much as if the enemy read their bibles. wasn't that what abimelech did when he couldn't get round the people of sichem any other way?' 'ah, but when he tried it again at another place,' laughed wahle, 'a woman dropped a stone on his head from the top of the tower, and that finished him.' 'may the same fate soon overtake torstenson!' said a third. 'oh, he'll never venture up here,' said wahle. 'don't you know the gout has him in tight grips? why, he can't even stir out of his arm-chair. his people have to play cat's paw for him, and burn their fingers just when he bids them.' 'i just wish,' said the other, 'that torstenson might go into such a rage at not taking the town, that the gout might rise into his body. then he would die, and a good thing for us!' 'come, come!' said wahle more seriously; 'we ought not to wish even our enemies such evil as that.' the words were hardly uttered when a dozen musket-shots rang out from without the wall that surrounded the moat. several balls whistled over the heads of the two children, and the miner who had just been rebuked fell with a cry of, 'oh, i am killed!' his comrades laid down the palisade they were carrying, picked up the wounded man, and bore him into the nearest covered way, where they laid him for the time in a sheltered corner. the two children, more frightened at the sight of the man's fall than at their own danger, were quite at a loss which way to go next. in another moment, however, dollie forgot all her trouble as she caught sight of her father coming towards her, his arquebuse in his hand. 'you here, little one!' he cried, and hastily drew the children with him into the gallery, behind the protecting walls of which the combatants found shelter from the enemy's fire. 'a queer kind of supper,' he said, as he hastily gulped down the contents of the can. 'one hardly has time even to say, "grant, o lord, what i partake!" and yet i ought to be thankful, too, that i am here to drink my soup at all. how many miners, citizens, peasants, soldiers, and even young children, has this siege cost us already! st. peter's churchyard is getting too small to hold them all.' 'yes, father,' said dollie. 'and poor hofmann the woodcutter will never be able to eat any more soup. he fell down quite close by us as if a thunderbolt had hit him.' 'hofmann!' said roller hastily; 'your god-father, child, and my old friend? but,' he went on, 'who is that lying in yon dark corner?' he rose and went across in that direction. as he did so, he caught the sound of a groan, and a feeble voice murmured: 'ah, merciful father, do not let the arch-enemy prevail against me, or what will become of my three boys, all of them stampers at the prince's shaft. if i must die, do thou take under thy care my wife and my four poor girls. they are at the coppersmith's house in the erbis street.' 'what is it?' said roller, turning his dark lantern so that its light fell for a moment on the dying man's pale face. hofmann lifted his failing eyes towards the approaching figure, and said in a broken voice, and with long pauses between: 'comrade, there is a cold swedish bullet rankling in my vitals. promise me, old friend, that i shall have an honourable burial; not in this shabby miner's dress, but in my new uniform. and when they lay me in my last resting-place, let the lads say: "a good journey to thee, old comrade!"' [illustration: 'promise me that i shall have an honourable burial; and let the lads say, "a good journey to thee, old comrade!"'] 'a good journey to thee, old comrade,' responded roller heartily, as hofmann, putting his hand to his side, stopped abruptly. conrad and dollie both followed roller's example, as he folded his hands on his breast and began to repeat the simple words of the 'our father' over the dying man. the hollow roar of the swedish siege-guns outside, and the constant dull thud of the cannon-balls striking the great earthwork that covered the gallery, formed a strange contrast to the solemn little service within, beside one whose spirit was taking its flight. 'you have come at a most unfortunate time, children,' said roller, when all was over. 'you had better stay here till things are quieter outside, for the stones and bullets strike just anybody at random, and make no difference between big and little. i will tell you when it is safe for you to go; stay here till i come back.' as roller turned to go, he felt his leg suddenly clasped in dollie's little arms. 'oh, do stay here with us, dear father!' sobbed the child. 'something might happen to you like what happened to poor hofmann there. and then mother and i couldn't live any longer--indeed we couldn't; we should be quite sure to die.' but roller gently loosened the little maiden's hold, saying kindly as he did so; 'dollie must be quiet and good, and god will take care of father. we do not know whether we are safer in here or out under the clear sky; but the great god, our heavenly father, can take care of us wherever we are. whether i am at work in the deep mine, or in front of the swedish guns, or sitting quietly at home with you and dear mother, death might come to me if it was god's will, and it will never come until it is his will. dollie must try to remember this, and think that her dear father is doing his duty.' when he was gone, dollie said sadly: 'the hateful war! why ever do the stupid soldiers make it? i am sure they would all rather sit by their stoves at home, or else stop in bed, than come to freiberg and make us all so unhappy.' conrad thought for a minute or two, and then said: 'yes, war is a very funny thing; the people who begin it never have any of the trouble. and then it soon gets so big they don't know what to do, because they can't stop it. my mistress says this war was begun because of religion, and they've been fighting for twenty-three years, longer than i can remember. i daresay they want to drive religion out of the world altogether, for i don't think anybody can ever expect to make people good by firing off cannons at them. our schoolmaster says it's like cutting a man's head off to cure him of the toothache. but oh, dollie, i sometimes feel so sad you can't think. you have a good father to love you and take care of you, and be very sorry when anything hurts you; but nothing in the world would make my stepfather happier than for some one to go and tell him i was dead. i always have to hide like a wicked thief when he comes, and i'm sure it is a great deal worse for poor mother than it is for me. nobody but god knows how father uses her, and i daren't go and protect her.' 'listen!' said dollie anxiously. 'hofmann is coming to life again down there in the corner. i can hear him breathing.' both children listened. 'that noise isn't hofmann,' said conrad. 'it comes out of the ground.' he laid himself down and listened again, with his ear close to the earth. 'i think it's the swedes digging some more mines,' he said at last. 'what are they?' said dollie. 'like father's?' 'oh dear, no!' replied the boy, proud to show off what he knew. 'long passages they dig through the ground till they get underneath the city wall, or else one of the gates. then the swedes put a great box full of gunpowder in the end of the passage, and set light to it, and then--bang! they blow everything all up into the air together.' 'oh, do come away directly,' said dollie in a fright, 'or else we shall all be blown up.' 'have you forgotten what your father told us?' asked the boy. 'oh, no indeed!' said dollie; 'but whatever shall we do? oh, if father or mother would only come!' conrad ventured to one of the loop-holes to look out; it was but little, however, that he could discern in the thick darkness outside. here and there he saw the gleam of a light or the flash of a weapon; at times some dark mass seemed to move before his eyes, or his ears were saluted by a mysterious sound, then all was silent again. suddenly, on the side that lay open towards the town, two men entered the covered gallery, which was just at that moment untenanted by soldiers. 'as i tell you, schönleben,' said a deep bass voice, 'the lad is dearer to me than almost any other in the city guard. cool, steady, and brave, experienced too as an old soldier, i have chosen him for these reasons to report to me from time to time how things go at the castle and the kreuz gate. but i thank you all the same for your information, though what the prisoners say, especially about an old comrade, is not always to be trusted. still, i will have the lad closely watched, and if there's the least sign of anything amiss, put him where he can do no further mischief.' the commandant, for it was he, followed by the burgomaster, stepped to the loop-hole from which conrad had hastily withdrawn. 'this is our weak point,' continued schweinitz--'the point at which the enemy would like to strike; but they shall find it a hard nut to crack yet, though gate and tower are little better than ruins. ah! my friend, give me the devotion and bravery of the freibergers before any number of bastions, if i am to hold the foe at bay. as things stand, our hopes of a speedy raising of the siege grow side by side with the progress of the swedes. i would willingly have more certain news. i say, schönleben, couldn't you find me some trustworthy messenger that i could send to the imperial marshal?' the entrance of a man into the gallery cut short the answer. 'well, hillner, what is it?' asked schweinitz. 'your excellency,' replied the defensioner, saluting, 'it is thought advisable, in order to strike with greater effect at the enemy's works before the peter gate, to open new loop-holes in the lower part of the wetter tower, those in the upper storey having been rendered useless by the enemy's fire.' 'good!' said schweinitz; and then, turning away from the messenger, he spoke aside with the burgomaster. meantime conrad sidled up to his former fellow-workman. 'do stop with us now you have come,' he said, catching hold of the defensioner's coat. 'the swedes are digging another mine; just listen at them hammering. i guess we and this old wooden box shall all go flying up into the air together pretty soon.' as hillner laid his ear to the ground to listen, roller entered with several pieces of wood under his arm. 'now you two can go,' he said to dollie and conrad; 'it's quieter now. and here are a few sticks i've brought in out of the moat; take them home; when i come i'll bring some more.' 'roller,' called the burgomaster, 'you are exactly the man i wanted. come to me as soon as you go off duty, we have something to say to you.' 'very good, respected herr burgomaster,' replied roller, and then accompanied his little daughter out of the gallery to see her safely started on her homeward way. 'why, where is conrad schmidt loitering?' he asked in surprise. the boy was standing by his friend the defensioner, who now sprang up from the ground and hastened to his commanding officer. 'your excellency!' he cried, 'down in that corner the swedes can be distinctly heard tunnelling through the earth. they are almost under the gallery now.' 'quick, then, to countermine them!' said schweinitz, and immediately left the gallery to give the necessary orders. then began a severe subterranean battle. both sides made desperate exertions in the attempt to get the upper hand, and for very plain reasons the freibergers did their utmost to steal a march on the enemy. although the ground was frozen so hard that it had first to be thawed by the use of fire, two hours had not passed away before the untiring energy of the miners had driven a heading of tolerable length, the foremost man in which stood roller. 'we too may yet find that this is our last day,' said roller composedly to the man working behind him. 'every man's day is coming, whether he likes it or not. and besides, if the swedes can give up their lives for mere money, cannot we do as much for fatherland, and wife and child? therefore to work with a will! so long as we can hear the swedes tunnelling, there is no need to light the match.' 'now the sounds have ceased,' he muttered to himself after a short interval. 'it will soon be all over with us.' and he picked and shovelled away with redoubled energy, lest his comrades should abate their efforts on noticing that the swedes had ceased work. 'the earth gets loose and spongy,' he said a little later. 'we must be approaching the swedish mine. now then for water, and hot water first of all, so as to get through the earth the quicker!' some of the miners went above ground and passed a long trough through the heading. this they sloped and kept constantly filled with water, which rushed gurgling down at the lower end, for the purpose of drowning the swedish mine. among those busy bringing the water in firemen's buckets and other utensils, was the miller of erbisdorf, who had harnessed a team of his donkeys into a large sledge, loaded with steaming hot water. 'slow and steady wins the race,' was his greeting to roller, as he pointed to his long-eared friends. 'our wives are brewing away yonder as though they had their coppers full of good wort instead of water out of the münzbach. well, the swedish tipplers are quite welcome to have it all in their mine.' as roller and the miller were just in the act of lifting the heavy cask from the sledge to the trough, a dull report was heard under the earth. the ground quivered, then opened, and a red stream of fire gushed forth, accompanied by clouds of smoke and stones. the swedes had observed the presence of an unusual number of people at this point, and had exploded an already prepared mine. there was one loud, involuntary cry from those injured by the explosion, then all was still. the dead might try to make their way out of the grave itself with as good hope of success as there was for the imprisoned freibergers to force a passage through the mass of _débris_ that covered them; indeed, they could never have done it had not many stout arms and willing hearts aided in their desperate toil. 'thirteen men and four beasts of burden!' sorrowfully exclaimed roller, who had himself escaped destruction as though by a miracle. 'and my brave old comrade, the miller of erbisdorf, gone at last. we two were carrying the very same cask of water, yet here am i, while he is gone. ah, it is indeed true, "the one shall be taken and the other left."' 'i say, neighbour roller!' cried a muffled voice that seemed to come from the depths of the earth, 'help me on to my legs again, for mercy's sake. here are clods, and stones, and bits of wood jamming me in on all sides; and here's a donkey's head, and i declare he's trying to prick his ears!' with roller's help the worthy miller was soon landed once more on _terra firma_. he found himself severely shaken and bruised, but not otherwise injured, and begged his comrade to see him safe home. although his body was in pain, his spirit was by no means cast down. when he learned that besides killing three men and severely wounding five others, the exploded mine had cost the lives of two of his donkeys, he remarked: 'ah, ha! then they too have died for their fatherland, and will sleep in the temple of fame. i can tell you one thing, though; if the flour does choke us millers up a bit, i'd ten times rather have to do with that than with your freiberg earth. there's something so big and massive about everything belonging to war, you very soon get enough of it. what will my anna maria say when she sees her husband brought home like a flattened pancake?' as soon as roller had seen his friend safely housed, and had made himself presentable, he hastened back to the peter gate, which seemed, as he approached it, to be all in flames. the wood and twigs the swedes had piled against the defensive works before the bastion, had been set on fire. the rising flames cast a dreadful glare around, destroyed several of the works in question, and set fire to parts of the tower above the gate, which, falling into the covered gallery in rear of the bastion, threatened to set that too in a blaze. the besieged were able to avert this last calamity by the steady use of water, though the enemy pressed them hard all the time with artillery-fire and hand-grenades. 'the swedes have set all the elements to work against us,' said roller to himself. 'they have cut off our water supply, made war on us under the earth, tried to blow us up into the air, and now they turn against us the might of fire. and side by side with these great powers of nature stalks the pale phantom of death.' chapter ix. diverse human hearts. 'the miner roller waits without, respected herr burgomaster!' announced jüchziger, the town servant. 'bid him come in,' said schönleben. 'yes, colonel,' he continued, turning to schweinitz, who was with him; 'i assure you, if confidence may be put in any human being, you may trust this man. he is brave, faithful, and yet shrewd. he will come back as surely as a dove returns to its young. you may send him without hesitation.' 'would you like to earn three ducats, my good fellow?' schweinitz asked roller as the latter entered the room. 'how, your excellency?' inquired the miner. 'you are to take despatches from us to marshal piccolomini in bohemia, lay our condition before him in full, and get him to hasten to our assistance. the service is not without some danger, for you will have to make your way twice through the enemy's lines, and die rather than betray your secret.' 'so i should suppose,' replied roller dryly. 'well, what do you say? are you willing to do it, or not?' inquired schönleben and schweinitz together. 'this is no question of a reward,' said roller. 'you command, and i obey.' 'you are a fine fellow,' said schönleben heartily; 'and i will myself give you a couple of ducats extra if you do your business satisfactorily.' 'i crave your pardon, respected herr burgomaster!' replied roller, 'i do not sell my life for silver or gold, for if so i should take sides with friend or foe, according to which would give me the highest pay. but it seems to me that we all make up, as it were, one body in what we have to do, to defend town, wife and child, from the enemy. very well, then; you are the head, and i am one of the least members, that has to do just what the head bids it. that is what i believe, and i try to fight bravely and do my duty because i believe it.' schweinitz shook the brave miner heartily by the hand, saying: 'with men like you i can hold the mountain-city for a long time indeed, but we must not neglect means that may help rid us of the enemy. come with me, my good fellow, while i make out your papers.' the same day several children, with roller's dollie among them, were crouching round the air-holes of the cellar under the town hall. 'oh, we do so want to see the swedish prisoners!' said the child to conrad, who happened to be passing on the way to his mother's house. 'one of them has such a dreadful great beard,' dollie continued; 'i am sure he must be general wrangel's bagpiper. only think, if he had his pipes here, he could play to us! just peep in there; sometimes one of them comes to the window and looks up at us.' conrad complied with the child's wish, kneeling down beside her. suddenly a heavy hand was laid on his shoulder, and a voice he always dreaded to hear said, this time, however, in very friendly tones: 'hallo, conrad, and what may you be doing here?' it was into the face of his stepfather that the startled boy stared as he rose hastily to his feet. 'come along, my son,' said jüchziger very blandly. 'i have something to tell you.' so saying, he drew the boy aside into the passageway of the town hall. 'listen to me,' he went on good-humouredly; 'i want you to do something for your mother.' 'for my mother!' said conrad cheerfully. 'oh yes; i shall be so glad to do it!' 'and for you and me at the same time,' said jüchziger. 'i just want you to go out to our house beyond the peter gate.' 'but it's pulled down,' objected conrad. 'yes, of course, i know that; but the cellar is there still, and in one corner of that cellar your mother buried a little box with all sorts of precious things in it. i want you to go and dig it up, and bring it to me.' 'but the swedes are all round out there. they will be sure to kill me, and take the box; they are most tremendous thieves.' 'you needn't trouble yourself about that. i take care of the swedish prisoners, and one of them has given me a safe-conduct' (he pronounced this word very carefully),--'a safe-conduct that i shall give to you. you are only to get it out if you meet a swede, and then they'll not only not hurt a hair of your head, but be very kind indeed to you. but you must be sure and not let another soul see the safe-conduct, or else it will all be of no use.' 'why did mother never say anything about the box?' asked conrad. 'h'm!' said jüchziger; 'she--well--she--in fact, she didn't quite trust me, i'm sorry to say, and wanted to keep all the things in it for you. but now she sees how wrong that was, and she has confessed all about it to me. i don't want the box for myself; all i want is to see it out of danger.' 'but how can i get out?' asked conrad again. 'nobody may leave the town.' 'in about an hour's time there is to be a sortie from the donat gate, and you can manage to creep out with the men. roller the miner is going out with them as well; he and wahle are going all the way to general piccolomini in bohemia, but on no account show the safe-conduct to him.' 'i should like just to run home to mother,' said conrad, 'to tell her about the box, and say good-bye to her.' 'now would you really be so unkind to a poor, frightened, blind woman as that?' said his stepfather. 'why, there's roller; he has not even told his wife, though he is going all the way to bohemia, and you want to make your mother unhappy because you're going a few yards outside the city wall.' 'it is quite true, stepfather,' said conrad with a sigh. 'so give me my safe-conduct, and tell me how i am to get into the town again.' 'you can easily do that. you will only have to creep up the bed of the münzbach. no one will take any notice of a slight youth like you.' conrad then received from his stepfather a folded and sealed paper, on which was written in large letters the word 'safe-conduct.' underneath were several more words, but as they were all in swedish the boy could make nothing out of them. when he had taken leave of jüchziger, the latter muttered to himself: 'either the swedes will put an end to him, or else he will do my errand and never be a bit the wiser himself. it will be a good day's work for me whichever way it goes.' according to his stepfather's orders, conrad hid the safe-conduct in his breast. he did not understand exactly what the thing was, but this mystery only made him think all the more highly of it, and filled his mind with a sort of confidence that his dangerous errand rendered highly useful. when he found himself really outside the gate, and heard the tumult of battle all around him, his heart beat thick and fast. the men who made the sortie threw themselves at once on the enemy's advanced works, shot or cut down such swedes as were in them, set fire to the wooden barricades and some detached houses that the swedes had used against the town, and destroyed everything belonging to the enemy on which they could lay their hands. as soon as the foe showed signs of bringing up men in force, the freibergers fell back fighting, and carried off their booty into the town. then conrad found himself in a desperate fix. from the ramparts of the town a steady fire was being poured on the advancing swedes, who returned it with interest, so that the lad, finding himself between two fires, did not know which way to turn, and at last, in his bewilderment, started to run straight across country. suddenly, without any warning, he went head over heels into a cutting about six feet deep that crossed his line of march, and proved to be neither more nor less than one of the trenches by which the swedish sharp-shooters got so close up to the town. as soon as conrad had somewhat recovered from his sudden plunge, he began to look about him with much astonishment. the pathway in which he stood was so narrow he could easily touch both its sides at once by simply stretching out his arms. as he started to hurry along it, he stumbled on the dead bodies of several soldiers, some of which looked so dreadful that he turned about and ran as hard as he could go in the opposite direction. as he rounded a sharp corner, he ran into an enemy, who seemed as much surprised as himself at the unexpected meeting, and uttered a sudden cry of alarm. this enemy, however, was armed, and heaved up his 'morning-star'[ ] for a tremendous blow. conrad, in his terror, sprang back several steps, and drawing his paper from his breast, called out: 'stop! i've got a safe-conduct.' at these words the man let his weapon sink, and stood staring at the boy, who was again cautiously approaching him holding out the paper. 'why, bless me!' said the man at last, 'isn't this conrad schmidt from the erbis street?' 'what! is it you, master prieme?' said conrad joyfully. 'what are--at least, how came you here?' asked prieme. 'i came out with the sortie,' said conrad. 'so did i,' grumbled prieme. 'in the heat of battle i struck too hard at a swede, just on the edge of this abominable ditch, and then my foot slipped and down i came into it myself, and the detestable thing's so deep there is no getting out again. perhaps, with your help, i can manage to climb out.' the attempt was made and proved a failure, while the continuous firing above their heads hinted that it would be much safer to keep out of the upper world for a time. 'so it seems i only came out of the town to tumble into this ditch,' grumbled prieme again. 'if the swedes put in an appearance, things will pretty soon begin to look ugly for me.' 'just you keep close to me,' said conrad patronizingly. 'i've got a safe-conduct.' 'where is it?' asked prieme, looking at him in astonishment. 'i can't see one.' 'here it is all right,' said conrad producing it. 'can you read?' 'what stupid rubbish!' muttered prieme. 'now, how can a scrap of paper like that be a safe-conduct? why, a safe-conduct is a sort of thing that even the most savage enemy is forced to respect. why, who told you such a pack of nonsense as that?' either because his tumble had muddled his brains, or for some other reason best known to himself, conrad straightway cast all his stepfather's cautions to the winds, and told neighbour prieme the whole story of the safe-conduct and why he was there. 'this seems to me rather serious,' said the worthy citizen, speaking half to himself. 'to be sure your stepfather is, in a manner of speaking, a bit of a magistrate; but then we all know how people we should never have expected--why, there was the burgomaster of bautzen was loaded into a cannon and fired off for trying to betray his native city to the enemy. at all events, jüchziger can have no right to correspond with the swedes without the commandant's knowledge. so give me that thing over here directly.' conrad protested against the abrupt demand, and, suddenly calling to mind his stepfather's forgotten orders, made a frantic attempt to hide the safe-conduct in his breast again. master prieme's strong arm would soon have gained the day, however, and deprived the boy of his paper, had not the arrival of a troop of the enemy put a sudend [transcriber's note: sudden?] stop to their altercation. master prieme, taken with a weapon in his hand, was made a prisoner of war; and conrad schmidt, loudly calling attention to his safe-conduct, was at once marched off to the enemy's headquarters. here he had a first-rate opportunity to make nearer acquaintance with the dreaded swedes. he was led about from one point to another. he saw the batteries, mortars, and siege-guns that were destroying his native town; he saw whole regiments of swedes; but to his immense consolation he did not see any of those men who tortured people and slaughtered little children. in front of marshal torstenson's quarters a huge cask of wine was being unloaded, a task in which several peasants were forced to render unwilling aid. when their work was done, however, they got off with nothing worse than a few cuffs. he saw, indeed, plenty of great beards and many dark-looking faces of very scowling aspect, for the swedes were encamped before freiberg in no rose-garden; but after all he could not make out any very great difference between the swedish and saxon fighting-men. 'i can see one thing very plainly,' said conrad to himself, 'soldiers are all as much alike as one egg is like another. one wears a grey coat, another a red one, and another a green one, and that's about all the difference between them.' he was suddenly interrupted in the midst of his reflections by the approach of a trooper, who came towards him with some appearance of curiosity, and with a single glance of his piercing eyes threw the boy's whole soul into a state of panic fear. 'god be with me!' murmured conrad. 'that's the fierce swede with the red beard again. i am sure he is taking out a pistol now to make sure of getting a good aim at me this time!' happily, his fears were not of long duration, for a sudden call in good german of, 'hillner, the major wants you,' relieved him of the swede's presence. 'hillner!' whispered conrad to himself. 'i wonder whether everybody with black hair and a red beard is called hillner.' the lad was now summoned to appear before field-marshal torstenson. this was worse than his worst expectations; for was not this man the cause of all the trouble, the scourge that with its thousand lashes was tormenting the saxon land? conrad stepped trembling into the hall of the bergwald hospital, where he found a group of superior officers gathered round their general, who sat by a window with conrad's safe-conduct in his hand. this, then, was the man whose hand played with the lives and property of so many thousand people. from just inside the door where he had to stand, conrad stared with beating heart at the dreadful man who had conquered great armies, plundered and wasted whole countries, taken strongholds by storm, and was now conquered himself. for a shaft was quivering in his flesh that he could by no means draw out; his foot was, so to speak, stung by a glowing needle that could never be cooled, and that no medicine could heal. in the olden times men were laid on the torture-bench that they might be forced to confess their evil deeds; and god himself sometimes uses pain to bring a sinner to repentance, when he has turned a deaf ear to all the voices of conscience and religion. torstenson, a man scarcely forty years of age, was seated in an arm-chair. he had no remedies to oppose to the grinding foe in his foot but patience and a bandage of coarse hemp. but such is mankind that this great general, who had at his disposal the lives of thousands of his fellow-creatures, could not control his own desires; for near him stood a table on which among other things was a bottle of wine and a large goblet partly filled, to which he betook himself from time to time. the contents of the 'safe-conduct' did not seem to afford him much consolation, for he threw it angrily on the table. 'that is my last weapon,' he said to one of the officers. 'the town must and shall be mine, this week, this very day, and without the help of a scoundrel, too!' 'your excellency!' said the attendant physician warningly, as he saw the general's gaze turn again towards the goblet. 'ah, doctor,' said the marshal peevishly; 'take my word for it, it was not the wine, but those six months in the damp dungeon at ingolstadt that gave me the gout. bring that youth forward.' conrad trembled as he was led before the general, though that officer looked, to his boyish eyes, more like a woman than a stalwart fighting-man. his tall body was enveloped in a great, shaggy fur coat right down to the feet, and a white nightcap covered his head. nothing but the moustache on the pale face indicated the warlike calling of the man who now addressed conrad. [illustration: nothing but the mustache on the pale face indicated the warlike calling of the man who now addressed conrad.] 'how many people have come to live in your town on account of the siege?' 'oh, they might be somewhere in the sixties,' replied conrad, carefully conformable to truth. 'are you starving in freiberg?' 'my mother and her cat sometimes, nobody else. and then that is all my stepfather's fault, because he will keep the bread cupboard locked up.' 'do the citizens and soldiers hold together still? are they not getting down-hearted?' 'oh, well, at first there were a few squabbles. the herr burgomaster had a tiff with the herr commandant, but now they are just like brothers; all their quarrels are over, and they are in first-rate spirits.' 'can you tell me how many men there are left in freiberg capable of bearing arms?' 'why, gracious sir,' said conrad, 'it isn't only the men! everybody that's got arms and legs does a bit of fighting. and there are nearly sixty thousand of us. why, only yesterday evening the miller's donkeys helped to spoil your mine.' the smile which at this sally passed across torstenson's pale and suffering face gave conrad a sudden courage; he knelt before the general, and began in a pleading tone, that grew bolder as he warmed with his subject: 'gracious field-marshal, i pray of you, for christ's sake, to leave off firing at our dear old town. why should we be the people you are so angry with, and why did you choose us out? the whole wide world lies open before you, and i am sure there are many strong cities in germany you could easily take if you would just attack them. do you expect to seize many lumps or bars of silver in freiberg? they are all gone long ago in this never-ending war, and there's nothing left but rubbish and stones. and i can tell you another thing, noble sir, and that is that you will never conquer the town--no, not if you and all your soldiers were to stand on your heads!' 'silence, boy!' cried an officer angrily. 'let the lad chatter,' said torstenson. 'his talk helps to pass away the time. and pray,' he continued, turning to conrad, 'who is to blame for your trouble but yourselves? have i not many times offered the town pardon on favourable terms?' 'yes,' returned conrad, hesitating; 'but--with permission--people know what your excellency's pardon is like. inside the town there, they say they would rather die than accept your excellency's pardon.' perhaps it was a fresh twinge of the gout that distorted torstenson's face. he made a hasty sign to the boy to withdraw, which he was nothing loth to do, although assisted on his way by a cuff or two from the indignant attendants. the bad temper of great men seldom passes away without producing some effect on those who surround them. the tortures torstenson suffered found an outlet in giving orders for a general assault on the works of the city, especially on the peter gate. the firing of the double and single arquebuses began again, the mortars joined in with their short, sharp roar, and soon the earth shook and the air vibrated with the frightful din. conrad had taken refuge in a corner of the hospital wall. when, towards evening, there came a lull in the firing, he could hear, from the breach by the peter gate, the jubilant tones of a hymn that touched him to the heart. 'jesus, my redeemer, lives,' sounded through the wintry air, chanted by the deep voices of earnest men, and conrad, in his corner, joined in softly. and the swedes, too, awed by the holy sounds, stood like statues, facing the singers; the sword rested in its sheath, the bullet in the arquebuse, and the shell in the mortar. in years that were gone, the swedes themselves used to sing like that as they marched to battle, and now they stood and joined in spirit in the service that dr. bartholomew sperling was holding with the defenders of the threatened breach. but when the prayer was ended, the furies of war raised their blood-red banners again, in mournful contrast to the scene that had just taken place, and the dreadful game that is played with human lives for the stakes began once more. the whole night through did the firing continue. early on february , , at about six in the morning, the swedes exploded two mines, one of which laid open the barbican, while the other hurled pieces of woodwork far over the roofs of the houses, shattering the gallery within the barbican, and destroying those who were defending it. in the confusion that arose, the swedes, a reserve of whom had been held in readiness, immediately seized the barbican, mounted from it to the gate-tower, which was now commanded by their artillery, and placed sharp-shooters in it, who at once opened a galling fire with double arquebuses, hand-grenades, and stones on the occupants of the nearest posts held by the defenders. by way of covering themselves from this fire, the besieged at once constructed a new battery on the upper cistern in the peter street. from this they were soon able to open fire upon the new swedish breastwork on the tower at the peter gate, the result being the enemy's speedy and enforced retirement into one of the lower and less exposed rooms of the gate-tower. yet the swedes had this time undoubtedly gained an important advantage, and the position of the city was becoming every hour more critical. but, in spite of all, neither courage nor resolution had as yet begun to fail. [ ] see note on page . chapter x. war often opposes the teachings of christianity. conrad was detained for three days in the swedish camp. it was on an overcast, rainy evening that he at length received permission to return. he hastened to reach the münzbach, which flows into the town in two streams between the erbis and donat gates. in the year , an enemy had made treacherous use of this river to enter and plunder the town; and the points of its entrance and exit had from that time been guarded against surprise by strong towers, beneath the arched foundations of which the river now flowed. it was towards the tower of exit that conrad made the best of his way. the sentries either did not see the boy approaching through the gloom, or did not consider him dangerous, for he succeeded in creeping unhindered beneath the vaulted archway that spanned the river. all soon grew quite dark around him as he waded on, and he found himself obliged to make his hands do the work of eyes. he had not proceeded far in this fashion, when he suddenly found further progress barred by a strong iron grating reaching down into the bed of the river and up to the stonework above his head. how was he to pass this unexpected obstacle? he cautiously rapped and felt the bars one by one, until, to his great delight, he found that the last bar could be quite easily pushed aside, thus leaving an opening through which the slender lad found but little difficulty in forcing his body. as he came to each of the two similar gratings that barred his way farther up the tunnel, he found the same course practicable. he continued to follow the subterranean bed of the stream for some distance farther, until it emerged into the open air again in a tanner's yard, and conrad could leave the wet path he had followed so long. he did not let the grass grow under his feet, and very soon was listening cautiously at his mother's door. hearing no sound, he stepped on tiptoe into the room. no one was to be seen, though a lamp was burning on the table. he crept across to the door of the bedroom, and thought he heard sounds of breathing. as he opened the door, a feeble ray of light streamed through the crevice, and he saw his mother lying in bed, with the faithful cat sitting beside her as her only companion. puss, recognising the boy, began to purr and wave her tail, but the blind woman seemed to be stupefied by the burning heat of fever. 'mother! mother!' cried conrad, at first softly, then louder; at last he ventured to pull the sleeve of her night-dress. the blind woman sat up suddenly. 'what is it?' she cried. 'who is calling me?' 'it is i, mother,' said conrad, with chattering teeth; for by this time the cold seemed to have spread from his wet feet all over his body. 'and have you come for me at last, my darling child?' said his mother, in tones of rapture. 'how often have i prayed that god would send you to take me home to the mansions of the blest! i come, my son; i come!' 'why, how funny you talk, mother!' said conrad. 'i only wanted to ask you for a pair of clean stockings, because mine have got so wet wading along the münzbach. i have only just come in from the swedish camp, and i've brought you the box you buried in our old cellar.' 'swedish camp!--box!--cellar!' repeated the bewildered woman, as though she were still in a dream. 'have you not been dead these three days? and is not this your spirit, that a poor blind woman cannot even see?' 'why, mother, whatever are you thinking about?' cried conrad, laughing in spite of his cold feet. 'here, catch hold of me, feel me; i'm flesh and blood. did not father tell you he had sent me off to the swedes to get this box? they didn't do me one bit of harm; they didn't even starve me. but they would not let me go and dig in our cellar; they said that was not work for stupid boys. so they did all the digging, and brought me the box all right; and, considering what a lot of thieves they are, i think that was almost a miracle. i say, mother, whatever did you put in the box? it's all nailed up so tight i couldn't open it.' he placed a case about fifteen inches long, by six inches broad and high, in his mother's hands. the blind woman felt it all over in wonder. 'i don't know anything about any box,' she said. 'and i'm sure i never had anything to bury.' 'perhaps master prieme was right after all, then,' said conrad. 'who is this talking in here?' cried jüchziger, coming suddenly into the room. 'ha! is it you, you young good-for-nothing? where have you sprung from? quick now, confess, or i'll warm you soundly.' 'well, i'm sure i'm cold enough, father,' said conrad, with a feeble attempt at a joke; 'and it was on your business, too, that i got so cold. is that all the thanks i am to have for bringing you the box all safe and sound?' 'what! is that true? you're a very fine fellow. give it me here, quick!' cried jüchziger in a tone full of joy. 'but,' said his wife, 'i never buried a box with treasure in it. what can we have to do with this?' 'oh, i had a dream the other night,' answered jüchziger, 'as life-like a dream as if i had really been standing in the cellar of our old house. and see here, my dream has come true, and no mistake about it. a little mountain-troll dressed, in grey stood before me in my dream, and said, "let your son, conrad schmidt, dig here in this corner of the cellar. he is a sunday's bairn and will have good luck."' 'but i didn't dig for it,' said conrad. 'the swedes did it for me.' 'it all comes to the same thing,' said jüchziger, 'so long as we have the box. do you know, my son, what there is inside it?' 'how should i? see how it's all nailed and screwed up!' 'have you brought back the safe-conduct?' 'oh yes; i forgot that. one of the swedish officers tied the paper over my heart and under my left arm. i was not to let a soul see it, he said, except the one from whom i first had it, and that was you, you know, father. but i'm sure it's a different letter, and it's uncommonly heavy.' 'give it me here this instant,' said jüchziger, scarcely trying to conceal his joy. 'it will be nothing but right if the swedes have sent their poor prisoners a ducat or two that they may get me to buy them a few things. but mind you, don't say a word about it to a living soul; for if you do, the money will all be taken from them, and i shall be punished for my kindness into the bargain.' conrad handed the paper over to his step-father, who put it straight into his pocket without stopping to examine it. 'you need not go back to your mistress now,' he said, when the packet was safely stowed away. 'much better stay here and attend to your sick mother. the good woman is in sore need of all the care and help you can give her.' conrad was not too bewildered by all his adventures to suspect some hidden meaning in his step-father's very sudden kindness. as he thought about the story of the box and the safe-conduct, it seemed to him to grow more and more suspicious, and he longed for some friend with whom he could talk the whole thing over. he could not relieve his mind to his sick mother, that was clear, for she was far more helpless than himself. master prieme was a prisoner of war; roller was gone. who was there left that he could trust, but his comrade the defensioner? yet how could he get at hillner, with his step-father watching him as a cat watches a mouse, scarcely permitting him even to cross the threshold of the house. meantime, the enemy had hauled a cannon up into the tower over the peter gate, which was soon scattering death among the defenders. the besieged also suffered severe loss from the fire of two heavy guns planted close beside the town moat, near the peter gate, and covering the next tower, that which guarded the kreuz gate. the freibergers, on their part, were by no means backward in doing their utmost to harass the swedes. behind each defensive work as it was shot down, a new one arose. trenches, palisadoes, covered ways, counter-mines, and batteries were all used as means of defence; the houses adjoining threatened spots were turned into strongholds, and pierced for sharp-shooters, who shot every swede that showed himself within range. the commandant was at all points where fighting was going on, ordering and encouraging his men both by word and example. on the second morning after the night of conrad's return, schweinitz approached the defensioner hillner where he stood at a loop-hole in the tower at the kreuz gate. hillner respectfully made way for his superior officer, who wished to look out. 'just see that impudent rascal!' cried the commandant, after a few moments' survey. 'he is riding his horse right up to the city moat in sheer bravado. quick, defensioner, and show the fellow that there are men in here. put a bullet through his head.' alert and willing, hillner at once placed the muzzle of his piece in the loop-hole. just as he had covered the swede, however, he lowered his weapon and turned pale. 'what's the matter?' cried schweinitz. 'why do you tremble? are you hurt? here, then, give me your weapon. i will chastise the insolent scoundrel myself.' as he spoke, schweinitz grasped at the arquebuse, on which hillner's hand closed like a vice. 'so please your excellency and my gracious commandant,' said the defensioner in a tone of entreaty, 'do whatever you please with my life, but i cannot shoot the man out yonder; neither can i give you my weapon for you to do it.' 'what!' shouted schweinitz. 'i, your general, command it. that weapon, instantly, or--you know the penalty that attaches to insubordination. loose it, i tell you!' 'i know well,' replied the young man, 'what penalty belongs to insubordination; but ought i not to obey god rather than man?' 'no, a thousand times!' cried schweinitz, his face aflame with rage. 'in war, god's command counts for nothing, and the general's for everything. what will happen next, if a soldier is to stand and argue instead of obeying the orders of his superior officer? the soldier is a mere machine at the absolute will and disposal of his officer, and must do whatever that officer commands--must kill father, son, or brother whenever he receives orders to do so. this is what war demands, and the morality of your catechisms has no place in it. war puts its trust in the strong arm, the sword, and the fire-lock alone. speak, fellow! why would you not shoot that swede?' 'many of the enemy have already met their death by my hand during the past few weeks,' replied hillner quietly; 'and only against one have i refused to raise my weapon, for that one was--my father;--an unnatural father, it is true, who deceived my poor mother, and shamefully deserted her, and made me fight against my fatherland,--but yet, in spite of all, my father. his blood flows in my veins; but for him i should never have existed. so i say again, let me die rather than kill him.' 'we can easily manage that,' said schweinitz angrily. 'all such talk as this in war-time is so much rubbish. bah! while i stand here debating with a traitor, the villain yonder has prudently taken himself out of range.' defensioner, you will give me your weapons, both firelock and sabre. you are my prisoner. ha! schönleben doubtless had sound reasons for warning me against you.' his step-father's absence and his mother's quiet slumber having given conrad the opportunity he wanted, he was on the way to his mistress' house to find his friend hillner, when he saw the defensioner coming along the street, closely surrounded by the guard, and followed by a crowd of curious people. the boy stared in astonishment at hearing the ugly word 'traitor' applied to his old comrade, and did not fully recover himself until he caught sight of his step-father marching with a joyful face close beside the prisoner, on the way to lock him up in one of the strongest cells at the town hall. when the news of hillner's arrest reached mistress blüthgen's house, where it produced great excitement, the miller, who had not yet fully recovered, remarked dryly to the women: 'seems to me as though our defensioner must have acted rather like one of my donkeys. he could have obeyed the commandant's order, aimed his weapon, and fired over the swede's head. he had it all in his own hands.' 'no,' said his wife, showing, what was very unlike her, the deepest emotion, 'hillner was right not to lift his hand against his father, even in pretence. what marksman in the whole wide world can say where his bullet shall go, when it is once out of his gun and flying towards a mark that some mischievous sprite may shift at any moment. and to kill his father! fie! i would rather see hillner hanged, an innocent man, than do such a deed.' these words of the miller's brave wife made deep and lasting impression on conrad, who stood by and heard them. though jüchziger was a cruel stepfather, a hard struggle had been going on in the boy's mind as to whether it was his duty to bring a terrible suspicion on that father by telling all he knew. he now determined to let his secret remain locked up in his own heart. chapter xi. historical. while the scene narrated in our last chapter was being enacted, another and more joyous one was taking place at the donat gate. three men, two of them miners, suddenly appeared running towards the gate, and making eager signs to the sentries in the barbican with the view of obtaining speedy admission. this being at once granted, the little party turned out to consist of the two miners, roller and wahle, sent some days before on a special mission, together with master prieme, who had fortunately succeeded in making his escape. roller and his comrade brought letters and advices from marshal piccolomini; these, addressed to the commandant and the town authorities, and written at brix on february th, promised that within six, or at longest eight days, the imperial army should be seen on the mountain beyond the city, advancing to free freiberg, by the blessing of god, from the presence of the foe. the marshal further announced that as he approached he would set fire to a house or two in the village of leichtenberg on the mulda, so that by midnight his advance should be known in the city; and that immediately on reaching the mountain, where the enemy would doubtless discover his presence, he would fire six guns morning and evening, and three more as he actually began his march down towards the city. thus the garrison would have timely notice of the arrival of help. piccolomini's despatch to schönleben ran as follows:-- 'to our trusty, best, and right well-beloved burgomaster, herr jonas schönleben,--be it known that i have kept the messengers by me, that their bodily eyes might see my army set forward on its march, and that thus they might take assured news thereof into the good city of freiberg. and inasmuch as i shall in few days arrive before freiberg with such army (whereof the enemy neither have knowledge nor can conceive aught aright), and so, with the help of almighty god, shall relieve the city, i hereby beseech the said noble burgomaster to do his utmost, with aid of all and sundry those brave and honourable burghers by whom he is at this present sustained, to maintain and defend the said post until my arrival; and to that end to encourage and hearten all men, as hitherto hath been so notably done by him, that they may not make surcease for so few days of that stedfast toil and bravery which they have heretofore shown. may god have all in his keeping!' the receipt of these cheering messages revived the spirits of the besieged--a service the more necessary because the enemy, getting word that a hostile army was on the march, made strenuous efforts to gain possession of the town. the fortifications, many of which were now little more than heaps of rubbish, were still obstinately defended by the unconquerable bravery of the besieged. pieces of both the outer and inner walls, twenty and thirty ells in length, had been destroyed by mines and artillery-fire, and their downfall had in many places choked up the moat. some of the barbicans before the gates were in the enemy's possession, and even the peter gate itself. the towers that guarded the town resembled ancient ruins; and the defensive works were now chiefly represented by wooden galleries, palisadoes, piles of gabions, and the walls of half-destroyed houses, behind which, however, the besieged found shelter, from which they still kept up a vigorous fire. the underground war, too, was still hotly maintained; and when, as often happened, the hostile sappers heard the sounds of each other's voices, emulation still excited them to struggle as if for life and death. on february th the swedes attempted to storm two of the defenders' positions, and advanced to the assault with loud shouts and in considerable force. a few bold soldiers, indeed, succeeded in making good their entrance into one of the towers; but the besieged, in expectation of this attack, had filled the inside of the tower with wood and other combustibles. fire was set to these materials, and to the gallery adjoining the tower, and thus the enemy was compelled to withdraw. meantime, behind the burning ruin, the citizens constructed a new defensive work, and both here and in the breach offered so brave a resistance, that the foe, after repeated attempts, was once more baffled and compelled to fall back. in the evening of the same day roller appeared at home with his head bound up. 'it is nothing!' he assured his alarmed family. 'a swedish bullet glanced aside and grazed my temple; that is all. but you, my dear people--ah! you may lift up your heads to look whether your day of deliverance is coming; you may gaze towards the liechtenberg, and try to make out the beacon fire our deliverers were to kindle. not six or even eight, but _nine_ whole days have gone by, and no helpers have made their appearance! "put not your trust in man," was as true a word as was ever spoken!' this was the first time roller had ever given way to repining before the women. the next day, february th, the friebergers, wishful to gain time, resolved on asking marshal torstenson for an armistice, hoping to use that opportunity of smuggling two or three persons unobserved out of the city, and so sending word to dresden of freiberg's desperate straits. on pretence of discussing the proposed armistice, three swedish colonels appeared by consent of the besieged on the top of the tower at the peter gate. they made good use of their eyes to learn all that could be learned about the condition of the defence, and found it still such as to inspire them with all due respect. when this result had been satisfactorily achieved, the armistice was formally refused, the battle being at once renewed; and at two o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, the city was once more summoned to surrender. the prompt refusal of this demand provoked renewed efforts on the part of the besiegers to gain possession of the hard-pressed city. matters stood at this desperate pass, when, on the evening of the same day, the shout of 'fire!' sounded through the streets of freiberg. it was no alarm, but a genuine cry of joy. 'fire! fire!' exclaimed mistress blüthgen, as with a beaming face she came rushing into the living-room, where the disabled miller and his wife, roller, with bandaged head, surrounded by his family, and the remaining members of the household were all assembled. 'fire over the liechtenberg at last!' she cried again, throwing her arms, as she spoke, round the neck of the miller's wife. 'fire over the liechtenberg!' rang along the narrow street outside. all who could, now climbed out on to the roof of the house to see the long-desired sight for themselves. if, at the beginning of the siege, a magnificent rainbow had been hailed as an omen of good, the freibergers now gazed at the red glow on the distant horizon as at a beacon-light that surely could not deceive them. 'it seems to me,' said roller, pushing back the bandage that covered his ear, 'it seems to me as though i heard firing as well.' the dull roar of cannon, several times repeated, was now plainly heard from the far-off height. 'it is they! it is our deliverers!' cried all, as their joy broke out afresh. confidence and hope work wonders. they nerved the courage of these distressed freibergers, until the most faint-hearted among them rose into a hero. let the swedes renew their assault on the next day as fiercely as they pleased; let them summon the town three times over to surrender, and make all their preparations for a final attack; nothing could now take away the joyful assurance of immediate relief. on the previous day, a mine had torn down a large piece of the main city wall, twenty yards in length, near the peter gate, and so shattered the great flanking tower at that point that its downfall seemed every moment imminent. in spite of a heavy fire, the freibergers made good use of the night in preparing trenches, thickly studded with palisadoes, close behind the main wall, in throwing up great piles of branches and trunks of trees in the new breach, and doubling the number of men at the points chiefly threatened. having made these preparations, they confidently awaited the onset of the enemy, whose numerous forces were now steadily drawing nearer and nearer to the city. who would not have trembled for freiberg at sight of that veteran army, trained in long and stormy years of battle, and led by a renowned general, bent on destroying the city and putting all its inhabitants--men and women, old and young--to the sword? ambition and shame alike stimulated the swedish general, as he thought how this insignificant country town had so long thwarted all his best efforts. his men, on the other hand, were inspired by thirst for plunder and a burning desire to avenge all the toils and troubles they had endured amid the severities of that bitter winter. on the side of the swedes were many thousand veteran men-at-arms, a commander well known to fame, over a hundred pieces of artillery, and free access to the whole country around, furnishing constant fresh supplies both of men and the necessaries of war. on the side of the saxons was a little band of three hundred soldiers, a leader of whom renown as yet had scarcely heard, an untrained crowd of peaceful citizens and country-people, and last, though not least, the true-hearted miners. these, with the help of a few cannon and a limited supply of ammunition, were holding shattered heaps of ruins against an unwearied foe. but the freibergers threw into the scale on their side, loyalty to their prince, love for fatherland, for hearth, and home, and liberty; and thus the balance weighed in their favour. with thoughts like these present in many minds, passed away the daylight hours of that memorable th of february, and the night appointed for the general assault came down at last. eight captains, each with a hundred and twenty men, a company of seventy or eighty picked men with hand-grenades, and as many more with axes, were told off to make the first attack, their advance being supported by four thousand men of the main storming party. in the evening, torstenson had, by a great effort, ridden quite round the town, marking out the points to be specially attacked, assigning his troops their respective places, and ordering several new batteries to be placed in position. as wallenstein once before stralsund, so now torstenson before freiberg, swore to take the city, even though it were under the special protection of heaven itself. the besieged were aware, both through their prisoners and by other means of information, that the most desperate of all their struggles awaited them to-night, and they did not attempt to conceal from themselves the terrible peril in which they stood. they spent a social hour at home with wife and children, took what might well prove a final farewell, and then each man went forth to his dangerous post with the stedfast determination to die rather than yield. and among those ranks of silent, resolute men in the deadly breach, was seen the reverend figure of good master spelling, in his preacher's robe, the book of the holy gospels in his hand. 'my beloved brethren in christ!' he cried; 'if we live we live unto the lord, and if we die we die unto the lord; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the lord's. yea, the lord is our strength and our shield; and though we wander through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for his right hand hath holden us up that we should not fall. the lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. he will hear their cry and will save them. "call upon me," saith he, "in the day of trouble; i will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." put your trust in the lord, not in the imperialists, and not in your own might. think who it was that broke the power of sennacherib before jerusalem, when a hundred and eighty thousand of israel's foes perished in a single night! the lord our god! and his power is not lessened since that day, neither is his glory dimmed. three men once sang in the midst of the burning fiery furnace. cannot we, too, lift our feeble voices to god where we stand in the deadly breach? let "jesus! jesus! jesus!" be our shout of victory when the foe comes on against us; and let us, ere we part, chant together the jubilant words, "jesus lives; i shall live also. o death! where is thy sting?"' so they sang, and their voices sounded far out into the night; they knelt, and their pastor invoked god's blessing on them for the approaching battle,--for victory, if so it might be, or for a happy and joyous entrance into the better land. chapter xii. treachery and deliverance. with the exception of babes and very young children, no one in freiberg slept that night. all were wakeful and astir. men stood armed for battle in their places on the city walls; women and children prayed in the churches; mothers watched with anxious hearts over slumbering little ones, not knowing when the dreaded swedes might burst in to slaughter all alike. 'stay with me, my son,' mistress jüchziger begged of conrad. 'do not let your poor blind mother be left to meet the swedes alone. at least, let us die together.' conrad obeyed like a dutiful son, though staying in the house to-night was a task most irksome to his adventurous spirit, which urged him forth into the busy turmoil where the brave citizens were making ready to fight for all they held dear. jüchziger, too, seemed a stranger to peace and quietness of spirit, though for a very different reason. he was seen first in one place and then in another, in different parts of the city. at last he hastened through the streets towards his own house, but took special care to avoid the churches and the praying people. after entering the living-room of his home, he moved restlessly about the apartment, alternately taking up and laying down various trifling objects. at last, towards ten at night, he started forth with the swedish treasure-box under his arm, and did not return. 'whatever can there be in that box!' said conrad after a time to his mother, who, though still an invalid, could not rest for anxiety, and had exchanged her bed for an easy-chair by the stove. 'it is nailed and screwed up still, as tight as ever, unless i am mistaken.' before the mother could reply, the door was suddenly opened from without, and master prieme, fully armed, entered the room. 'where is jüchziger?' he said instantly. 'he is to come at once to the burgomaster.' 'he went out a little while ago,' replied conrad, 'and did not leave word where he was going.' 'what! you here, boy!' cried prieme, in evident surprise. 'ha! and how did you get out of the swedes' hands and into the town again? how about that safe-conduct and that precious buried box? the whole thing looked very suspicious, very suspicious indeed.' conrad found himself in a great difficulty. should he make a clean breast of it, and perhaps get his step-father into dreadful trouble? he at first hesitated, and then stammered-- 'well--the--the swedes--let me go in three days.' 'and the box? what about that?' 'oh--well,' stammered conrad, incapable of telling a lie, 'the box? i got that too.' 'dug it out of the cellar?' 'no; not that. the swedes dug it up, and gave it me; and then'-- 'that's false!' cried prieme. 'sooner get blood out of a post than a box worth keeping out of the clutches of a swede. what was in it?' 'i'm sure i don't know. it was nailed up so tight; and my step-father wouldn't let me even peep into it. i don't think it has ever been opened.' 'just like jüchziger! a regular downright skinflint! and how did you get into the town again? who let you in across the moat and through the gate?' conrad was by this time nearer crying than laughing. he looked imploringly at his questioner, remained silent, and then, when further pressed, stammered out-- 'along the münzbach--under the water-tower.' 'that's sheer nonsense!' cried prieme again. 'three gratings of the toughest hammered iron are firmly fixed across the way. don't lie to me, boy, or i'll break every bone in your body.' 'but i did, indeed i did,' persisted conrad. 'in all the gratings one bar was eaten away by rust or something, so that i could easily push them on one side and creep through.' prieme turned pale. 'merciful heaven!' he cried; 'this means treachery. quick to give the alarm! perhaps we may even yet save the city.' 'oh, please do be reasonable, master prieme!' pleaded conrad, seizing the man by the arm as he was hastening away. 'it has been exactly like that for several days now, and no harm has come of it. pray don't give an alarm, or the end of it will be you'll get my step-father into a mess, and then what is to become of me?' 'such talk is all no use,' answered prieme, 'no use at all; not even if jüchziger were your real father, which he isn't.' 'but only think what all the people in the town would say if i got my step-father into trouble. didn't everybody except the governor praise hillner when he wouldn't shoot at his father?' 'that's a totally different thing,' said prieme impatiently; 'then it was only one swede, and it didn't much matter whether he lived or died. but, boy, if many thousand innocent people are about to perish through one man's knavish trick, ought we not to bring the traitor to justice, ay, though he be father, brother, or son? look at that dear, good woman, your blind mother! do you want the swedes to get in and slaughter her? are you going to let sixty thousand brave men and women perish, and all our toils and struggles be in vain, just to save one villain from the punishment he deserves?' 'oh, dear me, whatever shall i do? no, indeed, neighbour prieme,' said conrad, in great distress. 'but i'm sure i don't know anything at all about my step-father, except that he'-- 'jüchziger is to come instantly to the burgomaster,' cried a well-known voice, as the door of the living-room opened, and roller's bandaged head appeared. 'yes,' said prieme in a tone of vexation; 'but the bird has flown, and even now i am busy with his brood. good woman, cannot you give us some information about your husband?' 'nothing more,' said mistress jüchziger, 'than this, that about an hour ago, while conrad was gone out of the room, my husband was burning something over the lamp. at first i thought it was only tinder, but there was a sudden noise at the room door, and i fancied i heard my husband hastily crumple up a piece of paper, and throw it either under the window-seat or the cupboard. no one entered as my husband seemed to expect; it was only the cat scratching to be let in.' 'you here!' cried roller to his dog, which had followed him in, and which now went open-mouthed at the cat, she in her turn retiring under the cupboard, a safe refuge into which the dog could not follow her. 'you here!' said roller again. 'get out, turk!' turk had planted himself in front of the cupboard, and was now scratching vigorously with his fore-paws at the unhappy cat's hiding-place. as he did so, he threw out a ball of paper rolled closely together, which the sharp-sighted prieme instantly picked up and unfolded. it was a fragment of a written sheet, partly burned, and in several places quite illegible. in a state of the highest excitement, prieme brought the paper into the lamp-light, and with trembling lips read as follows:-- 'to rouse the prisoners singly and without being observed . . . in conjunction with forty of our bravest soldiers under captain . . . into the city . . . as soon as the petard sent herewith has done its work and the tower is destroyed, the corps held in readiness will make an attack on that point, which you will powerfully support with the men placed under your guidance. at the same time the storm on all the other positions . . . the fifty ducats required to make up the sum named shall'-- a loud report sounding at this moment through the air, and overpowering the noise of the artillery, cut short the further reading of the paper. 'there goes the water-tower!' groaned prieme. 'the swedish petard you brought in as such a precious treasure, boy, has indeed done its work. can't you hear the shouts of the enemy's storming-party? but,' he went on with a sudden outburst of enthusiasm, 'do not let them think they will get into the town, for all that! i would drive them out headlong with the help of only women and children, though we had no weapons but stones and fire-brands.' so saying, he rushed forth into the night. mistress jüchziger wrung her hands, and her son seemed almost stunned by all these untoward events. but prudent roller said quietly, 'would god have let this rascally trick be found out when it was too late? let us at least do all we can; and first, to examine the town hall, find out about the prisoners, and see whether jüchziger is there.' 'mother, do let me go too,' pleaded conrad; 'just to learn the truth, and bring you word back.' he hastened away with roller to the cellars under the town hall. they found the garrison was gone, every man being now needed to confront the enemy at the fortifications. as the two groped their way through the dark rooms, conrad's foot struck against something that gave forth a metallic clink. it was the bunch of keys that jüchziger had thrown away after liberating the swedish prisoners. just as they made this alarming discovery, they heard a loud knocking at one of the inner doors. 'the swedish prisoners have fled!' shouted hillner's voice. 'look out for treachery!' 'roller,' said conrad, 'let hillner out. he is quite innocent. why, it was my step-father and no one else that made the burgomaster and the governor suspect him. if any one can help to put a stop to this business, i am sure it is my old comrade. see, here are the keys all ready.' 'i will promise you faithfully,' said hillner from within, 'to place myself under arrest again the instant the danger is over.' 'in the name of god, then, and may he guide us aright!' said roller, opening the door. 'and now, to put all on the hazard of one bold stroke.' the three friends immediately set off at a rapid pace for the lower town. whatever persons they met on the way, whether men or women, were pressed into the service, and the little company armed itself as best it might in the hurry of the moment. the women, for the most part, could hit on nothing better than to fill their aprons as they went with stones from the street pavements. the men, with conrad among them, threw the light of their torches from both sides at once under the vaulted arches that spanned the münzbach, and were longer or shorter according as their position required. as soon as it was ascertained that the way was clear at one point, the little party went on instantly to the next. roller and conrad soon made out, to their great relief, that the water-tower was still standing. they were by this time approaching it, and just as they reached the last tunnel, the one through which the münzbach leaves the city, at the point where it flows away under the street below the water-tower, a youth announced that he had descried the forms of several men creeping through the darkness of the archway. whilst two of their number went off at once to alarm the garrison of the water-tower and the men on the neighbouring fortifications, the rest of the courageous little band took post around the vaulted entrance of the tunnel, in readiness to give the enemy a warm reception. this arrangement was not completed without some noise; and, as a consequence, a head appeared from beneath the archway to see what was going on outside. it was the head of the treacherous town servant; and roller promptly dealt it so severe a blow with a stout cudgel, that its owner instantly drew back with a yell of pain. some minutes of ominous silence then passed, in which the enemy were doubtless busy taking counsel as to what should be done next. then they suddenly burst forth with loud shouts and wild uproar. though one and another of their number dropped beneath the shower of stones with which they were greeted, they did not even pause, but pressed furiously forward against their antagonists. 'light the petard!' shouted a terrible voice from beneath the archway, at the sound of which hillner's arm seemed involuntarily to lose its power. immediately afterwards a swede made his appearance, whose murderous eyes and bushy red beard were plainly visible in the torchlight. 'father!' cried hillner sadly; and his strong right arm fell mechanically at his side, while the left was extended imploringly, as though to shield him from his father's uplifted sword. a frightful oath was the answer, the one that conrad heard on the erbisdorf road, and, by his comrade's wish, wrote down on paper; and the oath was at once followed up by a desperate cut. the young man's wounded hand fell helpless; and a second blow his father levelled at him must undoubtedly have been at once fatal, had not a well-aimed stone struck the swede in the face at the critical moment and made him stagger back. before he could recover himself, a musket-ball struck him in the chest, and he fell to rise no more. this fortunate shot, with a volley of others that now greeted the swedes, was fired by a party of men approaching at a rapid pace under the leadership of master prieme. 'we wanted to snatch a laurel from your wreath,' was his hasty greeting to hillner, who, after his father's fall, was once more, with his uninjured hand, doing vigorous work against the enemy. the foe, attacked in rear by the garrison of the water-tower, were gradually compelled to give way before the superior force of the freibergers, and were at length driven back beneath the arched vault of the münzbach, a retreat into which the saxon bullets followed them, rapidly thinning their ranks. 'yield, you dogs!' shouted prieme, fearful, and not without good reason, that they might even now explode the petard. thereupon arose a short, sharp contest among the entrapped swedes, in which the smaller and more courageous section wished to fire the petard already sunk in the foundations of the water-tower, and bury all in the ruins; while the other party did their utmost to prevent this design from being put into execution. the less bold majority gained the day, and announced their intention to yield themselves up as prisoners of war. jüchziger had received his reward. his body, with a severe wound on the head, was found lying trampled down by the feet of the swedish soldiers into the waters of the münzbach; and the dangerous petard was discovered sunk into a hole prepared with much toil and secrecy by jüchziger in the strong arch on which the tower stood. the fight was hardly over when the commandant appeared, come to see what was going on. 'i trust,' said hillner respectfully, 'that your excellency will pardon my being here, instead of under arrest where i was placed. i shall now hasten to give myself up again. but that i am at least no traitor to my fatherland, this wounded hand may surely bear witness.' 'my dear defensioner,' replied schweinitz heartily, 'the enemy may commence their grand assault at any moment. there is no time now to examine into your affair. for the present you are liberated on parole. be of good courage, and get your wound attended to the very first thing.' with these words, the commandant, finding his presence no longer necessary, hastened away. the firing on both sides continued till midnight. then the freibergers heard loud sounds of confusion and disturbance and much shouting in the swedish camp; but the dreaded general assault was still unaccountably delayed. between two and three o'clock on the morning of february th, there arrived at the city moat an imperialist soldier, who had been taken prisoner by the swedes before leipzig, and had now made his escape. on being admitted into the town, he announced that the enemy were making hasty preparations for departure, that the military stores were already loaded, and that he himself had been employed with others in removing the charges from the swedish mines. this joyful and unexpected news passed rapidly from mouth to mouth, and put the whole city in a ferment. hope turned to glad certainty, when, at break of day, the enemy's army, with its artillery and baggage-waggons, was seen marching away from the city, and taking the road towards klein-waltersdorf; although four or five hundred swedish dragoons still held the hospital church, whence they fired on the town and on all who issued from it. the freibergers, instead of abandoning themselves to the transports of an excessive joy, re-occupied the peter gate without delay, and made a sortie in which they set fire to the enemy's batteries and advanced works. by about seven in the morning, when the swedes had finally evacuated the hospital church itself, imperialists began to arrive before the city, in small numbers at first, which, however, rapidly increased. their officers were astounded at sight of the ramparts and fortifications, which in many places were almost level with the earth. their colonel asked as a particular favour that he might be permitted to ride his horse into the city over the principal breach by the peter gate. this was readily granted by the commandant, and as easily accomplished by the gallant officer. meantime the prudent freibergers had not in the least relaxed their diligence in filling up the enemy's trenches and destroying their batteries, while repairing their own barbicans and moat, building the former up with gabions, and strengthening the latter with a stout wooden parapet. on the th of february, field-marshal piccolomini himself entered freiberg, and highly commended the courageous and unexampled defence that had been made by a town so slightly fortified. the emperor and the elector did not fail to distribute weighty gold chains of office, patents of nobility, badges of honour, and similar acknowledgments to the commandant, the burgomaster, and the city; and freiberg's fame was heard far and wide through europe. its inhabitants attributed the glory of their successful defence to god alone; and just as on the th of february , there went up from all the churches of freiberg, and from every lip, the devout and thankful song, 'lord our god, to thee our praises,' so has it been on each anniversary since, as each year has brought round afresh the mountain city's day of joy and thanksgiving. it has never been fully known whether the approach of the imperial army, or the failure of the treachery they had planned, or the brave and desperate resistance of the besieged citizens, caused the swedes at last to abandon their idea of a general assault. but one thing is certain, that the brave defensioner hillner was fully cleared of blame by both commandant von schweinitz and burgomaster schönleben. nor was it long before he was made a free citizen and a master-craftsman, and that without any cost to himself. 'my son,' said schweinitz to the newly made master-carpenter, 'you may take my word for it, that in war a soldier must have a heart like a flint, and often say things very different from what he feels. you did quite right not to fire at your own father, and had i been in your place, i should very likely have done the same myself. now that the enemy is safe out of the way, i may tell you so freely. god grant the foe may never return.' nor was it long before his young widowed mistress gave her hand in marriage to her _quondam_ journeyman, and never had the smallest cause to repent the gift. she kept one secret, and one only, from her husband; she never told him that the hand he had asked and won was the hand that had, at exactly the right moment, thrown the stone which was the means of saving his life. the miller's family, after their return to erbisdorf, kept up their friendship for the city home where they had received so hospitable a welcome. conrad schmidt, under hillner's watchful care, grew up into a famous carpenter. when in later years he, too, became a master-craftsman, he rebuilt his mother's house outside the peter gate, making it more beautiful than it had ever been before. to this new home he brought his old playmate dollie as his wife, and she lovingly and carefully tended her husband's blind mother so long as mistress jüchziger needed her ministrations. roller and prieme, and all those who have played their parts so bravely in our story, lived for many a year as well-to-do citizens; and in the long winter evenings they delighted to tell one another rousing stories of the events that happened during that memorable siege. freiberg has never been besieged again; yet what the artillery and mines of the warlike foe failed to accomplish, has been brought about long since by the genial beams of golden peace. freiberg's strong gates and barbicans, her towers, walls, and moats, have, for the most part, passed away. where once the cannon thundered, roses and jessamines now fill lovely gardens with their rich perfume; where the blood of saxon burgher and swedish trooper was once shed in savage strife, the air now rings with the laughter of happy children; and no trace is ever seen of those who fought so bravely for their beloved city more than two hundred years ago. yet their memory will never die; it lives on through the ages, and strong and pure, like freiberg's native silver, shall endure the story of their faithfulness to prince and fatherland. the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. preface: these volumes make a separate work in themselves. they form also the natural sequel to the other histories already published by the author, as well as the necessary introduction to that concluding portion of his labours which he has always desired to lay before the public; a history of the thirty years' war. for the two great wars which successively established the independence of holland and the disintegration of germany are in reality but one; a prolonged tragedy of eighty years. the brief pause, which in the netherlands was known as the twelve years' truce with spain, was precisely the epoch in which the elements were slowly and certainly gathering for the renewal over nearly the whole surface of civilized europe of that immense conflict which for more than forty years had been raging within the narrow precincts of the netherlands. the causes and character of the two wars were essentially the same. there were many changes of persons and of scenery during a struggle which lasted for nearly three generations of mankind; yet a natural succession both of actors, motives, and events will be observed from the beginning to the close. the designs of charles v. to establish universal monarchy, which he had passionately followed for a lifetime through a series of colossal crimes against humanity and of private misdeeds against individuals, such as it has rarely been permitted to a single despot to perpetrate, had been baffled at last. disappointed, broken, but even to our own generation never completely unveiled, the tyrant had withdrawn from the stage of human affairs, leaving his son to carry on the great conspiracy against human right, independence of nations, liberty of thought, and equality of religions, with the additional vigour which sprang from intensity of conviction. for philip possessed at least that superiority over his father that he was a sincere bigot. in the narrow and gloomy depths of his soul he had doubtless persuaded himself that it was necessary for the redemption of the human species that the empire of the world should be vested in his hands, that protestantism in all its forms should be extirpated as a malignant disease, and that to behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics who opposed the decree of himself and the holy church was the highest virtue by which he could merit heaven. the father would have permitted protestantism if protestantism would have submitted to universal monarchy. there would have been small difficulty in the early part of his reign in effecting a compromise between rome and augsburg, had the gigantic secular ambition of charles not preferred to weaken the church and to convert conscientious religious reform into political mutiny; a crime against him who claimed the sovereignty of christendom. the materials for the true history of that reign lie in the archives of spain, austria, rome, venice, and the netherlands, and in many other places. when out of them one day a complete and authentic narrative shall have been constructed, it will be seen how completely the policy of charles foreshadowed and necessitated that of philip, how logically, under the successors of philip, the austrian dream of universal empire ended in the shattering, in the minute subdivision, and the reduction to a long impotence of that germanic empire which had really belonged to charles. unfortunately the great republic which, notwithstanding the aid of england on the one side and of france on the other, had withstood almost single-handed the onslaughts of spain, now allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body at the first epoch of peace, although it had successfully exorcised the evil spirit during the long and terrible war. there can be no doubt whatever that the discords within the interior of the dutch republic during the period of the truce, and their tragic catastrophe, had weakened her purpose and partially paralysed her arm. when the noble commonwealth went forward to the renewed and general conflict which succeeded the concentrated one in which it had been the chief actor, the effect of those misspent twelve years became apparent. indeed the real continuity of the war was scarcely broken by the fitful, armistice. the death of john of cleve, an event almost simultaneous with the conclusion of the truce, seemed to those gifted with political vision the necessary precursor of a new and more general war. the secret correspondence of barneveld shows the almost prophetic accuracy with which he indicated the course of events and the approach of an almost universal conflict, while that tragedy was still in the future, and was to be enacted after he had been laid in his bloody grave. no man then living was so accustomed as he was to sweep the political horizon, and to estimate the signs and portents of the times. no statesman was left in europe during the epoch of the twelve years' truce to compare with him in experience, breadth of vision, political tact, or administrative sagacity. imbued with the grand traditions and familiar with the great personages of a most heroic epoch; the trusted friend or respected counsellor of william the silent, henry iv., elizabeth, and the sages and soldiers on whom they leaned; having been employed during an already long lifetime in the administration of greatest affairs, he stood alone after the deaths of henry of france and the second cecil, and the retirement of sully, among the natural leaders of mankind. to the england of elizabeth, of walsingham, raleigh, and the cecils, had succeeded the great britain of james, with his carrs and carletons, nauntons, lakes, and winwoods. france, widowed of henry and waiting for richelieu, lay in the clutches of concini's, epernons, and bouillons, bound hand and foot to spain. germany, falling from rudolph to matthias, saw styrian ferdinand in the background ready to shatter the fabric of a hundred years of attempted reformation. in the republic of the netherlands were the great soldier and the only remaining statesman of the age. at a moment when the breathing space had been agreed upon before the conflict should be renewed; on a wider field than ever, between spanish-austrian world-empire and independence of the nations; between the ancient and only church and the spirit of religious equality; between popular right and royal and sacerdotal despotism; it would have been desirable that the soldier and the statesman should stand side by side, and that the fortunate confederacy, gifted with two such champions and placed by its own achievements at the very head of the great party of resistance, should be true to herself. these volumes contain a slight and rapid sketch of barneveld's career up to the point at which the twelve years' truce with spain was signed in the year . in previous works the author has attempted to assign the great advocate's place as part and parcel of history during the continuance of the war for independence. during the period of the truce he will be found the central figure. the history of europe, especially of the netherlands, britain, france, and germany, cannot be thoroughly appreciated without a knowledge of the designs, the labours, and the fate of barneveld. the materials for estimating his character and judging his judges lie in the national archives of the land of which he was so long the foremost citizen. but they have not long been accessible. the letters, state papers, and other documents remain unprinted, and have rarely been read. m. van deventer has published three most interesting volumes of the advocate's correspondence, but they reach only to the beginning of . he has suspended his labours exactly at the moment when these volumes begin. i have carefully studied however nearly the whole of that correspondence, besides a mass of other papers. the labour is not light, for the handwriting of the great advocate is perhaps the worst that ever existed, and the papers, although kept in the admirable order which distinguishes the archives of the hague, have passed through many hands at former epochs before reaching their natural destination in the treasure-house of the nation. especially the documents connected with the famous trial were for a long time hidden from mortal view, for barneveld's judges had bound themselves by oath to bury the proceedings out of sight. and the concealment lasted for centuries. very recently a small portion of those papers has been published by the historical society of utrecht. the "verhooren," or interrogatories of the judges, and the replies of barneveld, have thus been laid before the reading public of holland, while within the last two years the distinguished and learned historian, professor fruin, has edited the "verhooren" of hugo grotius. but papers like these, important as they are, make but a slender portion of the material out of which a judgment concerning these grave events can be constructed. i do not therefore offer an apology for the somewhat copious extracts which i have translated and given in these volumes from the correspondence of barneveld and from other manuscripts of great value--most of them in the royal archives of holland and belgium--which are unknown to the public. i have avoided as much as possible any dealings with the theological controversies so closely connected with the events which i have attempted to describe. this work aims at being a political study. the subject is full of lessons, examples, and warnings for the inhabitants of all free states. especially now that the republican system of government is undergoing a series of experiments with more or less success in one hemisphere--while in our own land it is consolidated, powerful, and unchallenged--will the conflicts between the spirits of national centralization and of provincial sovereignty, and the struggle between the church, the sword, and the magistracy for supremacy in a free commonwealth, as revealed in the first considerable republic of modern history, be found suggestive of deep reflection. those who look in this work for a history of the synod of dordtrecht will look in vain. the author has neither wish nor power to grapple with the mysteries and passions which at that epoch possessed so many souls. the assembly marks a political period. its political aspects have been anxiously examined, but beyond the ecclesiastical threshold there has been no attempt to penetrate. it was necessary for my purpose to describe in some detail the relations of henry iv. with the dutch republic during the last and most pregnant year of his life, which makes the first of the present history. these relations are of european importance, and the materials for appreciating them are of unexpected richness, in the dutch and belgian archives. especially the secret correspondence, now at the hague, of that very able diplomatist francis aerssens with barneveld during the years , , and , together with many papers at brussels, are full of vital importance. they throw much light both on the vast designs which filled the brain of henry at this fatal epoch and on his extraordinary infatuation for the young princess of conde by which they were traversed, and which was productive of such widespread political anal tragical results. this episode forms a necessary portion of my theme, and has therefore been set forth from original sources. i am under renewed obligations to my friend m. gachard, the eminent publicist and archivist of belgium, for his constant and friendly offices to me (which i have so often experienced before), while studying the documents under his charge relating to this epoch; especially the secret correspondence of archduke albert with philip iii, and his ministers, and with pecquius, the archduke's agent at paris. it is also a great pleasure to acknowledge the unceasing courtesy and zealous aid rendered me during my renewed studies in the archives at the hague--lasting through nearly two years--by the chief archivist, m. van den berg, and the gentlemen connected with that institution, especially m. de jonghe and m. hingman, without whose aid it would have been difficult for me to decipher and to procure copies of the almost illegible holographs of barneveld. i must also thank m. van deventer for communicating copies of some curious manuscripts relating to my subject, some from private archives in holland, and others from those of simancas. a single word only remains to be said in regard to the name of the statesman whose career i have undertaken to describe. his proper appellation and that by which he has always been known in his own country is oldenbarneveld, but in his lifetime and always in history from that time to this he has been called barneveld in english as well as french, and this transformation, as it were, of the name has become so settled a matter that after some hesitation it has been adopted in the present work. the author would take this opportunity of expressing his gratitude for the indulgence with which his former attempts to illustrate an important period of european history have been received by the public, and his anxious hope that the present volumes may be thought worthy of attention. they are the result at least of severe and conscientious labour at the original sources of history, but the subject is so complicated and difficult that it may well be feared that the ability to depict and unravel is unequal to the earnestness with which the attempt has been made. london, . the life and death of john of barneveld chapter i. john of barneveld the founder of the commonwealth of the united provinces--maurice of orange stadholder, but servant to the states- general--the union of utrecht maintained--barneveld makes a compromise between civil functionaries and church officials-- embassies to france, england, and to venice--the appointment of arminius to be professor of theology at leyden creates dissension-- the catholic league opposed by the great protestant union--death of the duke of cleve and struggle for his succession--the elector of brandenburg and palatine of neuburg hold the duchies at barneveld's advice against the emperor, though having rival claims themselves-- negotiations with the king of france--he becomes the ally of the states-general to protect the possessory princes, and prepares for war. i propose to retrace the history of a great statesman's career. that statesman's name, but for the dark and tragic scenes with which it was ultimately associated, might after the lapse of two centuries and a half have faded into comparative oblivion, so impersonal and shadowy his presence would have seemed upon the great european theatre where he was so long a chief actor, and where his efforts and his achievements were foremost among those productive of long enduring and widespread results. there is no doubt whatever that john of barneveld, advocate and seal keeper of the little province of holland during forty years of as troubled and fertile an epoch as any in human history, was second to none of his contemporary statesmen. yet the singular constitution and historical position of the republic whose destinies he guided and the peculiar and abnormal office which he held combined to cast a veil over his individuality. the ever-teeming brain, the restless almost omnipresent hand, the fertile pen, the eloquent and ready tongue, were seen, heard, and obeyed by the great european public, by the monarchs, statesmen, and warriors of the time, at many critical moments of history, but it was not john of barneveld that spoke to the world. those "high and puissant lords my masters the states-general" personified the young but already majestic republic. dignified, draped, and concealed by that overshadowing title the informing and master spirit performed its never ending task. those who study the enormous masses of original papers in the archives of the country will be amazed to find how the penmanship, most difficult to decipher, of the advocate meets them at every turn. letters to monarchs, generals, ambassadors, resolutions of councils, of sovereign assemblies, of trading corporations, of great indian companies, legal and historical disquisitions of great depth and length on questions agitating europe, constitutional arguments, drafts of treaties among the leading powers of the world, instructions to great commissions, plans for european campaigns, vast combinations covering the world, alliances of empire, scientific expeditions and discoveries--papers such as these covered now with the satirical dust of centuries, written in the small, crabbed, exasperating characters which make barneveld's handwriting almost cryptographic, were once, when fairly engrossed and sealed with the great seal of the haughty burgher-aristocracy, the documents which occupied the close attention of the cabinets of christendom. it is not unfrequent to find four or five important despatches compressed almost in miniature upon one sheet of gigantic foolscap. it is also curious to find each one of these rough drafts conscientiously beginning in the statesman's own hand with the elaborate phrases of compliment belonging to the epoch such as "noble, strenuous, severe, highly honourable, very learned, very discreet, and very wise masters," and ending with "may the lord god almighty eternally preserve you and hold you in his holy keeping in this world and for ever"--decorations which one might have thought it safe to leave to be filled in by the secretary or copying clerk. thus there have been few men at any period whose lives have been more closely identical than his with a national history. there have been few great men in any history whose names have become less familiar to the world, and lived less in the mouths of posterity. yet there can be no doubt that if william the silent was the founder of the independence of the united provinces barneveld was the founder of the commonwealth itself. he had never the opportunity, perhaps he might have never had the capacity, to make such prodigious sacrifices in the cause of country as the great prince had done. but he had served his country strenuously from youth to old age with an abiding sense of duty, a steadiness of purpose, a broad vision, a firm grasp, and an opulence of resource such as not one of his compatriots could even pretend to rival. had that country of which he was so long the first citizen maintained until our own day the same proportionate position among the empires of christendom as it held in the seventeenth century, the name of john of barneveld would have perhaps been as familiar to all men as it is at this moment to nearly every inhabitant of the netherlands. even now political passion is almost as ready to flame forth either in ardent affection or enthusiastic hatred as if two centuries and a half had not elapsed since his death. his name is so typical of a party, a polity, and a faith, so indelibly associated with a great historical cataclysm, as to render it difficult even for the grave, the conscientious, the learned, the patriotic of his own compatriots to speak of him with absolute impartiality. a foreigner who loves and admires all that is great and noble in the history of that famous republic and can have no hereditary bias as to its ecclesiastical or political theories may at least attempt the task with comparative coldness, although conscious of inability to do thorough justice to a most complex subject. in former publications devoted to netherland history i have endeavoured to trace the course of events of which the life and works of the advocate were a vital ingredient down to the period when spain after more than forty years of hard fighting virtually acknowledged the independence of the republic and concluded with her a truce of twelve years. that convention was signed in the spring of . the ten ensuing years in europe were comparatively tranquil, but they were scarcely to be numbered among the full and fruitful sheaves of a pacific epoch. it was a pause, a breathing spell during which the sulphurous clouds which had made the atmosphere of christendom poisonous for nearly half a century had sullenly rolled away, while at every point of the horizon they were seen massing themselves anew in portentous and ever accumulating strength. at any moment the faint and sickly sunshine in which poor exhausted humanity was essaying a feeble twitter of hope as it plumed itself for a peaceful flight might be again obscured. to us of a remote posterity the momentary division of epochs seems hardly discernible. so rapidly did that fight of demons which we call the thirty years' war tread on the heels of the forty years' struggle for dutch independence which had just been suspended that we are accustomed to think and speak of the eighty years' war as one pure, perfect, sanguinary whole. and indeed the tragedy which was soon to sweep solemnly across europe was foreshadowed in the first fitful years of peace. the throb of the elementary forces already shook the soil of christendom. the fantastic but most significant conflict in the territories of the dead duke of clove reflected the distant and gigantic war as in a mirage. it will be necessary to direct the reader's attention at the proper moment to that episode, for it was one in which the beneficent sagacity of barneveld was conspicuously exerted in the cause of peace and conservation. meantime it is not agreeable to reflect that this brief period of nominal and armed peace which the republic had conquered after nearly two generations of warfare was employed by her in tearing her own flesh. the heroic sword which had achieved such triumphs in the cause of freedom could have been bitter employed than in an attempt at political suicide. in a picture of the last decade of barneveld's eventful life his personality may come more distinctly forward perhaps than in previous epochs. it will however be difficult to disentangle a single thread from the great historical tapestry of the republic and of europe in which his life and achievements are interwoven. he was a public man in the fullest sense of the word, and without his presence and influence the record of holland, france, spain, britain, and germany might have been essentially modified. the republic was so integral a part of that system which divided europe into two great hostile camps according to creeds rather than frontiers that the history of its foremost citizen touches at every point the general history of christendom. the great peculiarity of the dutch constitution at this epoch was that no principle was absolutely settled. in throwing off a foreign tyranny and successfully vindicating national independence the burghers and nobles had not had leisure to lay down any organic law. nor had the day for profound investigation of the political or social contract arrived. men dealt almost exclusively with facts, and when the facts arranged themselves illogically and incoherently the mischief was grave and difficult to remedy. it is not a trifling inconvenience for an organized commonwealth to be in doubt as to where, in whom, and of what nature is its sovereignty. yet this was precisely the condition of the united netherlands. to the eternal world so dazzling were the reputation and the achievements of their great captain that he was looked upon by many as the legitimate chief of the state and doubtless friendly monarchs would have cordially welcomed him into their brotherhood. during the war he had been surrounded by almost royal state. two hundred officers lived daily at his table. great nobles and scions of sovereign houses were his pupils or satellites. the splendour of military despotism and the awe inspired by his unquestioned supremacy in what was deemed the greatest of all sciences invested the person of maurice of nassau with a grandeur which many a crowned potentate might envy. his ample appointments united with the spoils of war provided him with almost royal revenues, even before the death of his elder brother philip william had placed in his hands the principality and wealthy possessions of orange. hating contradiction, arbitrary by instinct and by military habit, impatient of criticism, and having long acknowledged no master in the chief business of state, he found himself at the conclusion of the truce with his great occupation gone, and, although generously provided for by the treasury of the republic, yet with an income proportionately limited. politics and theology were fields in which he had hardly served an apprenticeship, and it was possible that when he should step forward as a master in those complicated and difficult pursuits, soon to absorb the attention of the commonwealth and the world, it might appear that war was not the only science that required serious preliminary studies. meantime he found himself not a king, not the master of a nominal republic, but the servant of the states-general, and the limited stadholder of five out of seven separate provinces. and the states-general were virtually john of barneveld. could antagonism be more sharply defined? jealousy, that potent principle which controls the regular movements and accounts for the aberrations of humanity in widest spheres as well as narrowest circles far more generally and conclusively than philosophers or historians have been willing to admit, began forthwith to manifest its subtle and irresistible influence. and there were not to be wanting acute and dangerous schemers who saw their profit in augmenting its intensity. the seven provinces, when the truce of twelve years had been signed, were neither exhausted nor impoverished. yet they had just emerged from a forty years' conflict such as no people in human history had ever waged against a foreign tyranny. they had need to repose and recruit, but they stood among the foremost great powers of the day. it is not easy in imagination to thrust back the present leading empires of the earth into the contracted spheres of their not remote past. but to feel how a little confederacy of seven provinces loosely tied together by an ill-defined treaty could hold so prominent and often so controlling a place in the european system of the seventeenth century, we must remember that there was then no germany, no russia, no italy, no united states of america, scarcely even a great britain in the sense which belongs to that mighty empire now. france, spain, england, the pope, and the emperor were the leading powers with which the netherlands were daily called on to solve great problems and try conclusions; the study of political international equilibrium, now rapidly and perhaps fortunately becoming one of the lost arts, being then the most indispensable duty of kings and statesmen. spain and france, which had long since achieved for themselves the political union of many independent kingdoms and states into which they had been divided were the most considerable powers and of necessity rivals. spain, or rather the house of austria divided into its two great branches, still pursued its persistent and by no means fantastic dream of universal monarchy. both spain and france could dispose of somewhat larger resources absolutely, although not relatively, than the seven provinces, while at least trebling them in population. the yearly revenue of spain after deduction of its pledged resources was perhaps equal to a million sterling, and that of france with the same reservation was about as much. england had hardly been able to levy and make up a yearly income of more than l , or l , at the end of elizabeth's reign or in the first years of james, while the netherlands had often proved themselves capable of furnishing annually ten or twelve millions of florins, which would be the equivalent of nearly a million sterling. the yearly revenues of the whole monarchy of the imperial house of habsburg can scarcely be stated at a higher figure than l , . thus the political game--for it was a game--was by no means a desperate one for the netherlands, nor the resources of the various players so unequally distributed as at first sight it might appear. the emancipation of the provinces from the grasp of spain and the establishment by them of a commonwealth, for that epoch a very free one, and which contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty, religious, political, and commercial, than had yet been known, was already one of the most considerable results of the reformation. the probability of its continued and independent existence was hardly believed in by potentate or statesman outside its own borders, and had not been very long a decided article of faith even within them. the knotty problem of an acknowledgment of that existence, the admission of the new-born state into the family of nations, and a temporary peace guaranteed by two great powers, had at last been solved mainly by the genius of barneveld working amid many disadvantages and against great obstructions. the truce had been made, and it now needed all the skill, coolness, and courage of a practical and original statesman to conduct the affairs of the confederacy. the troubled epoch of peace was even now heaving with warlike emotions, and was hardly less stormy than the war which had just been suspended. the republic was like a raft loosely strung together, floating almost on a level of the ocean, and often half submerged, but freighted with inestimable treasures for itself and the world. it needed an unsleeping eye and a powerful brain to conduct her over the quicksands and through the whirlpools of an unmapped and intricate course. the sovereignty of the country so far as its nature could be satisfactorily analysed seemed to be scattered through, and inherent in each one of, the multitudinous boards of magistracy--close corporations, self-elected--by which every city was governed. nothing could be more preposterous. practically, however, these boards were represented by deputies in each of the seven provincial assemblies, and these again sent councillors from among their number to the general assembly which was that of their high mightinesses the lords states-general. the province of holland, being richer and more powerful than all its six sisters combined, was not unwilling to impose a supremacy which on the whole was practically conceded by the rest. thus the union of utrecht established in was maintained for want of anything better as the foundation of the commonwealth. the advocate and keeper of the great seal of that province was therefore virtually prime minister, president, attorney-general, finance minister, and minister of foreign affairs of the whole republic. this was barneveld's position. he took the lead in the deliberations both of the states of holland and the states-general, moved resolutions, advocated great measures of state, gave heed to their execution, collected the votes, summed up the proceedings, corresponded with and instructed ambassadors, received and negotiated with foreign ministers, besides directing and holding in his hands the various threads of the home policy and the rapidly growing colonial system of the republic. all this work barneveld had been doing for thirty years. the reformation was by no mans assured even in the lands where it had at first made the most essential progress. but the existence of the new commonwealth depended on the success of that great movement which had called it into being. losing ground in france, fluctuating in england, protestantism was apparently more triumphant in vast territories where the ancient church was one day to recover its mastery. of the population of bohemia, there were perhaps ten protestants to one papist, while in the united netherlands at least one-third of the people were still attached to the catholic faith. the great religious struggle in bohemia and other dominions of the habsburg family was fast leading to a war of which no man could even imagine the horrors or foresee the vast extent. the catholic league and the protestant union were slowly arranging europe into two mighty confederacies. they were to give employment year after year to millions of mercenary freebooters who were to practise murder, pillage, and every imaginable and unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry that could occupy mankind. the holy empire which so ingeniously combined the worst characteristics of despotism and republicanism kept all germany and half europe in the turmoil of a perpetual presidential election. a theatre where trivial personages and graceless actors performed a tragi-comedy of mingled folly, intrigue, and crime, and where earnestness and vigour were destined to be constantly baffled, now offered the principal stage for the entertainment and excitement of christendom. there was but one king in europe, henry the bearnese. the men who sat on the thrones in madrid, vienna, london, would have lived and died unknown but for the crowns they wore, and while there were plenty of bustling politicians here and there in christendom, there were not many statesmen. among them there was no stronger man than john of barneveld, and no man had harder or more complicated work to do. born in amersfoort in , of the ancient and knightly house of oldenbarneveldt, of patrician blood through all his ancestors both male and female, he was not the heir to large possessions, and was a diligent student and hardworking man from youth upward. he was not wont to boast of his pedigree until in later life, being assailed by vilest slander, all his kindred nearest or most remote being charged with every possible and unmentionable crime, and himself stigmatized as sprung from the lowest kennels of humanity--as if thereby his private character and public services could be more legitimately blackened--he was stung into exhibiting to the world the purity and antiquity of his escutcheon, and a roll of respectably placed, well estated, and authentically noble, if not at all illustrious, forefathers in his country's records of the previous centuries. without an ancestor at his back he might have valued himself still more highly on the commanding place he held in the world by right divine of intellect, but as the father of lies seemed to have kept his creatures so busy with the barneveld genealogy, it was not amiss for the statesman once for all to make the truth known. his studies in the universities of holland, france, italy, and germany had been profound. at an early age he was one of the first civilians of the time. his manhood being almost contemporary with the great war of freedom, he had served as a volunteer and at his own expense through several campaigns, having nearly lost his life in the disastrous attempt to relieve the siege of haarlem, and having been so disabled by sickness and exposure at the heroic leaguer of leyden as to have been deprived of the joy of witnessing its triumphant conclusion. successfully practising his profession afterwards before the tribunals of holland, he had been called at the comparatively early age of twenty-nine to the important post of chief pensionary of rotterdam. so long as william the silent lived, that great prince was all in all to his country, and barneveld was proud and happy to be among the most trusted and assiduous of his counsellors. when the assassination of william seemed for an instant to strike the republic with paralysis, barneveld was foremost among the statesmen of holland to spring forward and help to inspire it with renewed energy. the almost completed negotiations for conferring the sovereignty, not of the confederacy, but of the province of holland, upon the prince had been abruptly brought to an end by his death. to confer that sovereign countship on his son maurice, then a lad of eighteen and a student at leyden, would have seemed to many at so terrible a crisis an act of madness, although barneveld had been willing to suggest and promote the scheme. the confederates under his guidance soon hastened however to lay the sovereignty, and if not the sovereignty, the protectorship, of all the provinces at the feet first of england and then of france. barneveld was at the head of the embassy, and indeed was the indispensable head of all important, embassies to each of those two countries throughout all this portion of his career. both monarchs refused, almost spurned, the offered crown in which was involved a war with the greatest power in the world, with no compensating dignity or benefit, as it was thought, beside. then elizabeth, although declining the sovereignty, promised assistance and sent the earl of leicester as governor-general at the head of a contingent of english troops. precisely to prevent the consolidation thus threatened of the provinces into one union, a measure which had been attempted more than once in the burgundian epoch, and always successfully resisted by the spirit of provincial separatism, barneveld now proposed and carried the appointment of maurice of nassau to the stadholdership of holland. this was done against great opposition and amid fierce debate. soon afterwards barneveld was vehemently urged by the nobles and regents of the cities of holland to accept the post of advocate of that province. after repeatedly declining the arduous and most responsible office, he was at last induced to accept it. he did it under the remarkable condition that in case any negotiation should be undertaken for the purpose of bringing back the province of holland under the dominion of the king of spain, he should be considered as from that moment relieved from the service. his brother elias barneveld succeeded him as pensionary of rotterdam, and thenceforth the career of the advocate is identical with the history of the netherlands. although a native of utrecht, he was competent to exercise such functions in holland, a special and ancient convention between those two provinces allowing the citizens of either to enjoy legal and civic rights in both. gradually, without intrigue or inordinate ambition, but from force of circumstances and the commanding power of the man, the native authority stamped upon his forehead, he became the political head of the confederacy. he created and maintained a system of public credit absolutely marvellous in the circumstances, by means of which an otherwise impossible struggle was carried to a victorious end. when the stadholderate of the provinces of gelderland, utrecht, and overyssel became vacant, it was again barneveld's potent influence and sincere attachment to the house of nassau that procured the election of maurice to those posts. thus within six years after his father's death the youthful soldier who had already given proof of his surpassing military genius had become governor, commander-in-chief, and high admiral, of five of the seven provinces constituting the confederacy. at about the same period the great question of church and state, which barneveld had always felt to be among the vital problems of the age, and on which his opinions were most decided, came up for partial solution. it would have been too much to expect the opinion of any statesman to be so much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality. toleration of various creeds, including the roman catholic, so far as abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlours could be called toleration, was secured, and that was a considerable step in advance of the practice of the sixteenth century. burning, hanging, and burying alive of culprits guilty of another creed than the dominant one had become obsolete. but there was an established creed--the reformed religion, founded on the netherland confession and the heidelberg catechism. and there was one established principle then considered throughout europe the grand result of the reformation; "cujus regio ejus religio;" which was in reality as impudent an invasion of human right as any heaven-born dogma of infallibility. the sovereign of a country, having appropriated the revenues of the ancient church, prescribed his own creed to his subjects. in the royal conscience were included the million consciences of his subjects. the inevitable result in a country like the netherlands, without a personal sovereign, was a struggle between the new church and the civil government for mastery. and at this period, and always in barneveld's opinion, the question of dogma was subordinate to that of church government. that there should be no authority over the king had been settled in england. henry viii., elizabeth, and afterwards james, having become popes in their own realm, had no great hostility to, but rather an affection for, ancient dogma and splendid ceremonial. but in the seven provinces, even as in france, germany, and switzerland, the reform where it had been effected at all had been more thorough, and there was little left of popish pomp or aristocratic hierarchy. nothing could be severer than the simplicity of the reformed church, nothing more imperious than its dogma, nothing more infallible than its creed. it was the true religion, and there was none other. but to whom belonged the ecclesiastical edifices, the splendid old minsters in the cities--raised by the people's confiding piety and the purchased remission of their sins in a bygone age--and the humbler but beautiful parish churches in every town and village? to the state; said barneveld, speaking for government; to the community represented by the states of the provinces, the magistracies of the cities and municipalities. to the church itself, the one true church represented by its elders, and deacons, and preachers, was the reply. and to whom belonged the right of prescribing laws and ordinances of public worship, of appointing preachers, church servants, schoolmasters, sextons? to the holy ghost inspiring the class and the synod, said the church. to the civil authority, said the magistrates, by which the churches are maintained, and the salaries of the ecclesiastics paid. the states of holland are as sovereign as the kings of england or denmark, the electors of saxony or brandenburg, the magistrates of zurich or basel or other swiss cantons. "cujus regio ejus religio." in there was a compromise under the guidance of barneveld. it was agreed that an appointing board should be established composed of civil functionaries and church officials in equal numbers. thus should the interests of religion and of education be maintained. the compromise was successful enough during the war. external pressure kept down theological passion, and there were as yet few symptoms of schism in the dominant church. but there was to come a time when the struggle between church and government was to break forth with an intensity and to rage to an extent which no man at that moment could imagine. towards the end of the century henry iv. made peace with spain. it was a trying moment for the provinces. barneveld was again sent forth on an embassy to the king. the cardinal point in his policy, as it had ever been in that of william the silent, was to maintain close friendship with france, whoever might be its ruler. an alliance between that kingdom and spain would be instantaneous ruin to the republic. with the french and english sovereigns united with the provinces, the cause of the reformation might triumph, the spanish world-empire be annihilated, national independence secured. henry assured the ambassador that the treaty of vervins was indispensable, but that he would never desert his old allies. in proof of this, although he had just bound himself to spain to give no assistance to the provinces, open or secret, he would furnish them with thirteen hundred thousand crowns, payable at intervals during four years. he was under great obligations to his good friends the states, he said, and nothing in the treaty forbade him to pay his debts. it was at this period too that barneveld was employed by the king to attend to certain legal and other private business for which he professed himself too poor at the moment to compensate him. there seems to have been nothing in the usages of the time or country to make the transaction, innocent in itself, in any degree disreputable. the king promised at some future clay, when he should be more in funds, to pay him a liberal fee. barneveld, who a dozen years afterwards received , florins for his labour, professed that he would much rather have had one thousand at the time. thence the advocate, accompanied by his colleague, justinus de nassau, proceeded to england, where they had many stormy interviews with elizabeth. the queen swore with many an oath that she too would make peace with philip, recommended the provinces to do the same thing with submission to their ancient tyrant, and claimed from the states immediate payment of one million sterling in satisfaction of their old debts to her. it would have been as easy for them at that moment to pay a thousand million. it was at last agreed that the sum of the debt should be fixed at l , , and that the cautionary towns should be held in elizabeth's hands by english troops until all the debt should be discharged. thus england for a long time afterwards continued to regard itself, as in a measure the sovereign and proprietor of the confederacy, and barneveld then and there formed the resolve to relieve the country of the incubus, and to recover those cautionary towns and fortresses at the earliest possible moment. so long as foreign soldiers commanded by military governors existed on the soil of the netherlands, they could hardly account themselves independent. besides, there was the perpetual and horrid nightmare, that by a sudden pacification between spain and england those important cities, keys to the country's defence, might be handed over to their ancient tyrant. elizabeth had been pacified at last, however, by the eloquence of the ambassador. "i will assist you even if you were up to the neck in water," she said. "jusque la," she added, pointing to her chin. five years later barneveld, for the fifth time at the head of a great embassy, was sent to england to congratulate james on his accession. it was then and there that he took measure of the monarch with whom he was destined to have many dealings, and who was to exert so baleful an influence on his career. at last came the time when it was felt that peace between spain and her revolted provinces might be made. the conservation of their ancient laws, privileges, and charters, the independence of the states, and included therein the freedom to establish the reformed religion, had been secured by forty years of fighting. the honour of spain was saved by a conjunction. she agreed to treat with her old dependencies "as" with states over which she had no pretensions. through virtue of an "as," a truce after two years' negotiation, perpetually traversed and secretly countermined by the military party under the influence of maurice, was carried by the determination of barneveld. the great objects of the war had been secured. the country was weary of nearly half a century of bloodshed. it was time to remember that there could be such a condition as peace. the treaty was signed, ratifications exchanged, and the usual presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made. barneveld earnestly protested against carrying out the custom on this occasion, and urged that those presents should be given for the public use. he was overruled by those who were more desirous of receiving their reward than he was, and he accordingly, in common with the other diplomatists, accepted the gifts. the various details of these negotiations have been related by the author in other volumes, to which the present one is intended as a sequel. it has been thought necessary merely to recall very briefly a few salient passages in the career of the advocate up to the period when the present history really opens. their bearing upon subsequent events will easily be observed. the truce was the work of barneveld. it was detested by maurice and by maurice's partisans. "i fear that our enemies and evil reports are the cause of many of our difficulties," said the advocate to the states' envoy in paris, in . "you are to pay no heed to private advices. believe and make others believe that more than one half the inhabitants of the cities and in the open country are inclined to peace. and i believe, in case of continuing adversities, that the other half will not remain constant, principally because the provinces are robbed of all traffic, prosperity, and navigation, through the actions of france and england. i have always thought it for the advantage of his majesty to sustain us in such wise as would make us useful in his service. as to his remaining permanently at peace with spain, that would seem quite out of the question." the king had long kept, according to treaty, a couple of french regiments in the states' service, and furnished, or was bound to furnish, a certain yearly sum for their support. but the expenses of the campaigning had been rapidly increasing and the results as swiftly dwindling. the advocate now explained that, "without loss both of important places and of reputation," the states could not help spending every month that they took the field , florins over and above the regular contributions, and some months a great deal more. this sum, he said, in nine months, would more than eat up the whole subsidy of the king. if they were to be in the field by march or beginning of april, they would require from him an extraordinary sum of , crowns, and as much more in june or july. eighteen months later, when the magnificent naval victory of heemskerk in the bay of gibraltar had just made a startling interlude to the languishing negotiations for peace, the advocate again warned the french king of the difficulty in which the republic still laboured of carrying on the mighty struggle alone. spain was the common enemy of all. no peace or hope was possible for the leading powers as long as spain was perpetually encamped in the very heart of western europe. the netherlands were not fighting their own battle merely, but that of freedom and independence against the all-encroaching world-power. and their means to carry on the conflict were dwindling, while at the same time there was a favourable opportunity for cropping some fruit from their previous labours and sacrifices. "we are led to doubt," he wrote once more to the envoy in france, "whether the king's full powers will come from spain. this defeat is hard for the spaniards to digest. meantime our burdens are quite above our capacity, as you will understand by the enclosed statement, which is made out with much exactness to show what is absolutely necessary for a vigorous defence on land and a respectable position at sea to keep things from entire confusion. the provinces could raise means for the half of this estimate. but, it is a great difference when the means differ one half from the expenses. the sovereignst and most assured remedy would be the one so often demanded, often projected, and sometimes almost prepared for execution, namely that our neighbour kings, princes, and republics should earnestly take the matter in hand and drive the spaniards and their adherents out of the netherlands and over the mountains. their own dignity and security ought not to permit such great bodies of troops of both belligerents permanently massed in the netherlands. still less ought they to allow these provinces to fall into the hands of the spaniards, whence they could with so much more power and convenience make war upon all kings, princes, and republics. this must be prevented by one means or another. it ought to be enough for every one that we have been between thirty and forty years a firm bulwark against spanish ambition. our constancy and patience ought to be strengthened by counsel and by deed in order that we may exist; a christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient. believe and cause to be believed that the present condition of our affairs requires more aid in counsel and money than ever before, and that nothing could be better bestowed than to further this end. "messieurs jeannin, buzenval, and de russy have been all here these twelve days. we have firm hopes that other kings, princes, and republics will not stay upon formalities, but will also visit the patients here in order to administer sovereign remedies. "lend no ear to any flying reports. we say with the wise men over there, 'metuo danaos et dons ferentes.' we know our antagonists well, and trust their hearts no more than before, 'sed ultra posse non est esse.' to accept more burthens than we can pay for will breed military mutiny; to tax the community above its strength will cause popular tumults, especially in 'rebus adversis,' of which the beginnings were seen last year, and without a powerful army the enemy is not to be withstood. i have received your letters to the th may. my advice is to trust to his upright proceedings and with patience to overcome all things. thus shall the detractors and calumniators best be confounded. assure his majesty and his ministers that i will do my utmost to avert our ruin and his majesty's disservice." the treaty was made, and from that time forth the antagonism between the eminent statesman and the great military chieftain became inevitable. the importance of the one seemed likely to increase day by day. the occupation of the other for a time was over. during the war maurice had been, with exception of henry iv., the most considerable personage in europe. he was surrounded with that visible atmosphere of power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist, and through the golden haze of which a mortal seems to dilate for the vulgar eye into the supernatural. the attention of christendom was perpetually fixed upon him. nothing like his sieges, his encampments, his military discipline, his scientific campaigning had been seen before in modern europe. the youthful aristocracy from all countries thronged to his camp to learn the game of war, for he had restored by diligent study of the ancients much that was noble in that pursuit, and had elevated into an art that which had long since degenerated into a system of butchery, marauding, and rapine. and he had fought with signal success and unquestionable heroism the most important and most brilliant pitched battle of the age. he was a central figure of the current history of europe. pagan nations looked up to him as one of the leading sovereigns of christendom. the emperor of japan addressed him as his brother monarch, assured him that his subjects trading to that distant empire should be welcomed and protected, and expressed himself ashamed that so great a prince, whose name and fame had spread through the world, should send his subjects to visit a country so distant and unknown, and offer its emperor a friendship which he was unconscious of deserving. he had been a commander of armies and a chief among men since he came to man's estate, and he was now in the very vigour of life, in his forty-second year. of imperial descent and closely connected by blood or alliance with many of the most illustrious of reigning houses, the acknowledged master of the most royal and noble of all sciences, he was of the stuff of which kings were made, and belonged by what was then accounted right divine to the family of kings. his father's death had alone prevented his elevation to the throne of holland, and such possession of half the sovereignty of the united netherlands would probably have expanded into dominion over all the seven with a not fantastic possibility of uniting the ten still obedient provinces into a single realm. such a kingdom would have been more populous and far wealthier than contemporary great britain and ireland. maurice, then a student at leyden, was too young at that crisis, and his powers too undeveloped to justify any serious attempt to place him in his father's place. the netherlands drifted into a confederacy of aristocratic republics, not because they had planned a republic, but because they could not get a king, foreign or native. the documents regarding the offer of the sovereign countship to william remained in the possession of maurice, and a few years before the peace there had been a private meeting of leading personages, of which barneveld was the promoter and chief spokesman, to take into consideration the propriety and possibility of conferring that sovereignty upon the son which had virtually belonged to the father. the obstacles were deemed so numerous, and especially the scheme seemed so fraught with danger to maurice, that it was reluctantly abandoned by his best friends, among whom unquestionably was the advocate. there was no reason whatever why the now successful and mature soldier, to whom the country was under such vast obligations, should not aspire to the sovereignty. the provinces had not pledged themselves to republicanism, but rather to monarchy, and the crown, although secretly coveted by henry iv., could by no possibility now be conferred on any other man than maurice. it was no impeachment on his character that he should nourish thoughts in which there was nothing criminal. but the peace negotiations had opened a chasm. it was obvious enough that barneveld having now so long exercised great powers, and become as it were the chief magistrate of an important commonwealth, would not be so friendly as formerly to its conversion into a monarchy and to the elevation of the great soldier to its throne. the advocate had even been sounded, cautiously and secretly, so men believed, by the princess-dowager, louise de coligny, widow of william the silent, as to the feasibility of procuring the sovereignty for maurice. she had done this at the instigation of maurice, who had expressed his belief that the favourable influence of the advocate would make success certain and who had represented to her that, as he was himself resolved never to marry, the inheritance after his death would fall to her son frederick henry. the princess, who was of a most amiable disposition, adored her son. devoted to the house of nassau and a great admirer of its chief, she had a long interview with barneveld, in which she urged the scheme upon his attention without in any probability revealing that she had come to him at the solicitation of maurice. the advocate spoke to her with frankness and out of the depths of his heart. he professed an ardent attachment to her family, a profound reverence for the virtues, sacrifices, and achievements of her lamented husband, and a warm desire to do everything to further the interests of the son who had proved himself so worthy of his parentage. but he proved to her that maurice, in seeking the sovereignty, was seeking his ruin. the hollanders, he said, liked to be persuaded and not forced. having triumphantly shaken off the yoke of a powerful king, they would scarcely consent now to accept the rule of any personal sovereign. the desire to save themselves from the claws of spain had led them formerly to offer the dominion over them to various potentates. now that they had achieved peace and independence and were delivered from the fears of spanish ferocity and french intrigue, they shuddered at the dangers from royal hands out of which they had at last escaped. he believed that they would be capable of tearing in pieces any one who might make the desired proposition. after all, he urged, maurice was a hundred times more fortunate as he was than if he should succeed in desires so opposed to his own good. this splendour of sovereignty was a false glare which would lead him to a precipice. he had now the power of a sovereign without the envy which ever followed it. having essentially such power, he ought, like his father, to despise an empty name, which would only make him hated. for it was well known that william the silent had only yielded to much solicitation, agreeing to accept that which then seemed desirable for the country's good but to him was more than indifferent. maurice was captain-general and admiral-general of five provinces. he appointed to governments and to all military office. he had a share of appointment to the magistracies. he had the same advantages and the same authority as had been enjoyed in the netherlands by the ancient sovereign counts, by the dukes of burgundy, by emperor charles v. himself. every one now was in favour of increasing his pensions, his salaries, his material splendour. should he succeed in seizing the sovereignty, men would envy him even to the ribbands of his pages' and his lackeys' shoes. he turned to the annals of holland and showed the princess that there had hardly been a sovereign count against whom his subjects had not revolted, marching generally into the very courtyard of the palace at the hague in order to take his life. convinced by this reasoning, louise de coligny had at once changed her mind, and subsequently besought her stepson to give up a project sure to be fatal to his welfare, his peace of mind, and the good of the country. maurice listened to her coldly, gave little heed to the advocate's logic, and hated him in his heart from that day forth. the princess remained loyal to barneveld to the last. thus the foundation was laid of that terrible enmity which, inflamed by theological passion, was to convert the period of peace into a hell, to rend the provinces asunder when they had most need of repose, and to lead to tragical results for ever to be deplored. already in francis aerssens had said that the two had become so embroiled and things had gone so far that one or the other would have to leave the country. he permitted also the ridiculous statement to be made in his house at paris, that henry iv. believed the advocate to have become spanish, and had declared that prince maurice would do well to have him put into a sack and thrown into the sea. his life had been regularly divided into two halves, the campaigning season and the period of winter quarters. in the one his business, and his talk was of camps, marches, sieges, and battles only. in the other he was devoted to his stud, to tennis, to mathematical and mechanical inventions, and to chess, of which he was passionately fond, and which he did not play at all well. a gascon captain serving in the states' army was his habitual antagonist in that game, and, although the stakes were but a crown a game, derived a steady income out of his gains, which were more than equal to his pay. the prince was sulky when he lost, sitting, when the candles were burned out and bed-time had arrived, with his hat pulled over his brows, without bidding his guest good night, and leaving him to find his way out as he best could; and, on the contrary, radiant with delight when successful, calling for valets to light the departing captain through the corridor, and accompanying him to the door of the apartment himself. that warrior was accordingly too shrewd not to allow his great adversary as fair a share of triumph as was consistent with maintaining the frugal income on which he reckoned. he had small love for the pleasures of the table, but was promiscuous and unlicensed in his amours. he was methodical in his household arrangements, and rather stingy than liberal in money matters. he personally read all his letters, accounts, despatches, and other documents trivial or important, but wrote few letters with his own hand, so that, unlike his illustrious father's correspondence, there is little that is characteristic to be found in his own. he was plain but not shabby in attire, and was always dressed in exactly the same style, wearing doublet and hose of brown woollen, a silk under vest, a short cloak lined with velvet, a little plaited ruff on his neck, and very loose boots. he ridiculed the smart french officers who, to show their fine legs, were wont to wear such tight boots as made them perspire to get into them, and maintained, in precept and practice, that a man should be able to jump into his boots and mount and ride at a moment's notice. the only ornaments he indulged in, except, of course, on state occasions, were a golden hilt to his famous sword, and a rope of diamonds tied around his felt hat. he was now in the full flower of his strength and his fame, in his forty-second year, and of a noble and martial presence. the face, although unquestionably handsome, offered a sharp contrast within itself; the upper half all intellect, the lower quite sensual. fair hair growing thin, but hardly tinged with grey, a bright, cheerful, and thoughtful forehead, large hazel eyes within a singularly large orbit of brow; a straight, thin, slightly aquiline, well-cut nose--such features were at open variance with the broad, thick-lipped, sensual mouth, the heavy pendant jowl, the sparse beard on the glistening cheek, and the moleskin-like moustachio and chin tuft. still, upon the whole, it was a face and figure which gave the world assurance of a man and a commander of men. power and intelligence were stamped upon him from his birth. barneveld was tall and majestic of presence, with large quadrangular face, austere, blue eyes looking authority and command, a vast forehead, and a grizzled beard. of fluent and convincing eloquence with tongue and pen, having the power of saying much in few words, he cared much more for the substance than the graces of speech or composition. this tendency was not ill exemplified in a note of his written on a sheet of questions addressed to him by a states' ambassador about to start on an important mission, but a novice in his business, the answers to which questions were to serve for his diplomatic instructions. "item and principally," wrote the envoy, "to request of m. de barneveld a formulary or copy of the best, soundest, wisest, and best couched despatches done by several preceding ambassadors in order to regulate myself accordingly for the greater service of the province and for my uttermost reputation." the advocate's answer, scrawled in his nearly illegible hand, was-- "unnecessary. the truth in shortest about matters of importance shall be taken for good style." with great love of power, which he was conscious of exerting with ease to himself and for the good of the public, he had little personal vanity, and not the smallest ambition of authorship. many volumes might be collected out of the vast accumulation of his writings now mouldering and forgotten in archives. had the language in which they are written become a world's language, they would be worthy of attentive study, as containing noble illustrations of the history and politics of his age, with theories and sentiments often far in advance of his age. but he cared not for style. "the truth in shortest about matters of importance" was enough for him; but the world in general, and especially the world of posterity, cares much for style. the vehicle is often prized more than the freight. the name of barneveld is fast fading out of men's memory. the fame of his pupil and companion in fortune and misfortune, hugo grotius, is ever green. but grotius was essentially an author rather than a statesman: he wrote for the world and posterity with all the love, pride, and charm of the devotee of literature, and he composed his noblest works in a language which is ever living because it is dead. some of his writings, epochmaking when they first appeared, are text-books still familiar in every cultivated household on earth. yet barneveld was vastly his superior in practical statesmanship, in law, in the science of government, and above all in force of character, while certainly not his equal in theology, nor making any pretensions to poetry. although a ripe scholar, he rarely wrote in latin, and not often in french. his ambition was to do his work thoroughly according to his view of duty, and to ask god's blessing upon it without craving overmuch the applause of men. such were the two men, the soldier and the statesman. would the republic, fortunate enough to possess two such magnificent and widely contrasted capacities, be wise enough to keep them in its service, each supplementing the other, and the two combining in a perfect whole? or was the great law of the discords of the world, as potent as that other principle of universal harmony and planetary motion which an illustrious contemporary--that wurtemberg astronomer, once a soldier of the fierce alva, now the half-starved astrologer of the brain-sick rudolph--was at that moment discovering, after "god had waited six thousand years for him to do it," to prevail for the misery of the republic and shame of europe? time was to show. the new state had forced itself into the family of sovereignties somewhat to the displeasure of most of the lord's anointed. rebellious and republican, it necessarily excited the jealousy of long-established and hereditary governments. the king of spain had not formally acknowledged the independence of the united provinces. he had treated with them as free, and there was supposed to be much virtue in the conjunction. but their sovereign independence was virtually recognized by the world. great nations had entered into public and diplomatic relations and conventions with them, and their agents at foreign courts were now dignified with the rank and title of ambassadors. the spanish king had likewise refused to them the concession of the right of navigation and commerce in the east indies, but it was a matter of notoriety that the absence of the word india, suppressed as it was in the treaty, implied an immense triumph on the part of the states, and that their flourishing and daily increasing commerce in the farthest east and the imperial establishments already rising there were cause of envy and jealousy not to spain alone, but to friendly powers. yet the government of great britain affected to regard them as something less than a sovereign state. although elizabeth had refused the sovereignty once proffered to her, although james had united with henry iv. in guaranteeing the treaty just concluded between the states and spain, that monarch had the wonderful conception that the republic was in some sort a province of his own, because he still held the cautionary towns in pledge for the loans granted by his predecessor. his agents at constantinople were instructed to represent the new state as unworthy to accredit its envoys as those of an independent power. the provinces were represented as a collection of audacious rebels, a piratical scum of the sea. but the sultan knew his interests better than to incur the enmity of this rising maritime power. the dutch envoy declaring that he would sooner throw himself into the bosphorus than remain to be treated with less consideration than that accorded to the ministers of all great powers, the remonstrances of envious colleagues were hushed, and haga was received with all due honours. even at the court of the best friend of the republic, the french king, men looked coldly at the upstart commonwealth. francis aerssens, the keen and accomplished minister of the states, resident in paris for many years, was received as ambassador after the truce with all the ceremonial befitting the highest rank in the diplomatic service; yet henry could not yet persuade himself to look upon the power accrediting him as a thoroughly organized commonwealth. the english ambassador asked the king if he meant to continue his aid and assistance to the states during the truce. "yes," answered henry. "and a few years beyond it?" "no. i do not wish to offend the king of spain from mere gaiety of heart." "but they are free," replied the ambassador; "the king of spain could have no cause for offence." "they are free," said the king, "but not sovereign."--"judge then," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "how we shall be with the king of spain at the end of our term when our best friends make this distinction among themselves to our disadvantage. they insist on making a difference between liberty and sovereignty; considering liberty as a mean term between servitude and sovereignty." "you would do well," continued the dutch ambassador, "to use the word 'sovereignty' on all occasions instead of 'liberty.'" the hint was significant and the advice sound. the haughty republic of venice, too, with its "golden book" and its pedigree of a thousand years, looked askance at the republic of yesterday rising like herself out of lagunes and sand banks, and affecting to place herself side by side with emperors, kings, and the lion of st. mark. but the all-accomplished council of that most serene commonwealth had far too much insight and too wide experience in political combinations to make the blunder of yielding to this aristocratic sentiment. the natural enemy of the pope, of spain, of austria, must of necessity be the friend of venice, and it was soon thought highly desirable to intimate half officially that a legation from the states-general to the queen of the adriatic, announcing the conclusion of the twelve years' truce, would be extremely well received. the hint was given by the venetian ambassador at paris to francis aerssens, who instantly recommended van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld, as a proper personage to be entrusted with this important mission. at this moment an open breach had almost occurred between spain and venice, and the spanish ambassador at paris, don pedro de toledo, naturally very irate with holland, venice, and even with france, was vehement in his demonstrations. the arrogant spaniard had for some time been employed in an attempt to negotiate a double marriage between the dauphin and the eldest daughter of philip iii., and between the eldest son of that king and the princess elizabeth of france. an indispensable but secret condition of this negotiation was the absolute renunciation by france of its alliance and friendly relations with the united provinces. the project was in truth a hostile measure aimed directly at the life of the republic. henry held firm however, and don pedro was about to depart malcontent, his mission having totally failed. he chanced, when going to his audience of leave-taking, after the arrival of his successor, don inigo de cardenas, to meet the venetian ambassador, antonio foscarini. an altercation took place between them, during which the spaniard poured out his wrath so vehemently, calling his colleague with neat alliteration "a poltroon, a pantaloon, and a pig," that henry heard him. what signor antonio replied has not been preserved, but it is stated that he was first to seek a reconciliation, not liking, he said, spanish assassinations. meantime the double marriage project was for a season at least suspended, and the alliance between the two republics went forwards. van der myle, appointed ambassador to venice, soon afterwards arrived in paris, where he made a very favourable impression, and was highly lauded by aerssens in his daily correspondence with barneveld. no portentous shadow of future and fatal discord between those statesmen fell upon the cheerful scene. before the year closed, he arrived at his post, and was received with great distinction, despite the obstacles thrown in his way by spain and other powers; the ambassador of france itself, de champigny, having privately urged that he ought to be placed on the same footing with the envoys of savoy and of florence. van der myle at starting committed the trifling fault of styling the states-general "most illustrious" (illustrissimi) instead of "most serene," the title by which venice designated herself. the fault was at once remedied, however, priuli the doge seating the dutch ambassador on his right hand at his solemn reception, and giving directions that van der myle should be addressed as excellency, his post being assigned him directly after his seniors, the ambassadors of pope, emperor, and kings. the same precedence was settled in paris, while aerssens, who did not consider himself placed in a position of greater usefulness by his formal installation as ambassador, received private intimation from henry, with whom he was on terms of great confidence and intimacy, that he should have private access to the king as frequently and as in formally as before. the theory that the ambassador, representing the personality of his sovereign, may visit the monarch to whom he is accredited, without ceremony and at his own convenience, was as rarely carried into practice in the sixteenth century as in the nineteenth, while on the other hand aerssens, as the private and confidential agent of a friendly but not publicly recognized commonwealth, had been for many years in almost daily personal communication with the king. it is also important to note that the modern fallacy according to which republics being impersonal should not be represented by ambassadors had not appeared in that important epoch in diplomatic history. on the contrary, the two great republics of the age, holland and venice, vindicated for themselves, with as much dignity and reason as success, their right to the highest diplomatic honours. the distinction was substantial not shadowy; those haughty commonwealths not considering it advantageous or decorous that their representatives should for want of proper official designations be ranked on great ceremonial occasions with the ministers of petty italian principalities or of the three hundred infinitesimal sovereignties of germany. it was the advice of the french king especially, who knew politics and the world as well as any man, that the envoys of the republic which he befriended and which stood now on the threshold of its official and national existence, should assert themselves at every court with the self-reliance and courtesy becoming the functionaries of a great power. that those ministers were second to the representatives of no other european state in capacity and accomplishment was a fact well known to all who had dealings with them, for the states required in their diplomatic representatives knowledge of history and international law, modern languages, and the classics, as well as familiarity with political customs and social courtesies; the breeding of gentlemen in short, and the accomplishments of scholars. it is both a literary enjoyment and a means of historical and political instruction to read after the lapse of centuries their reports and despatches. they worthily compare as works of art with those diplomatic masterpieces the letters and 'relazioni' of the venetian ambassadors; and it is well known that the earlier and some of the most important treatises on public and international law ever written are from the pens of hollanders, who indeed may be said to have invented that science.' the republic having thus steadily shouldered its way into the family of nations was soon called upon to perform a prominent part in the world's affairs. more than in our own epoch there was a close political commingling of such independent states as held sympathetic views on the great questions agitating europe. the policy of isolation so wisely and successfully carried out by our own trans-atlantic commonwealth was impossible for the dutch republic, born as it was of a great religious schism, and with its narrow territory wedged between the chief political organizations of christendom. moreover the same jealousy on the part of established powers which threw so many obstacles in its path to recognized sovereignty existed in the highest degree between its two sponsors and allies, france and england, in regard to their respective relations to the new state. "if ever there was an obliged people," said henry's secretary of state, villeroy, to aerssens, "then it is you netherlanders to his majesty. he has converted your war into peace, and has never abandoned you. it is for you now to show your affection and gratitude." in the time of elizabeth, and now in that of her successor, there was scarcely a day in which the envoys of the states were not reminded of the immense load of favour from england under which they tottered, and of the greater sincerity and value of english friendship over that of france. sully often spoke to aerssens on the subject in even stronger language, deeming himself the chief protector and guardian angel of the republic, to whom they were bound by ties of eternal gratitude. "but if the states," he said, "should think of caressing the king of england more than him, or even of treating him on an equality with his majesty, henry would be very much affronted. he did not mean that they should neglect the friendship of the king of britain, but that they should cultivate it after and in subordination to his own, for they might be sure that james held all things indifferent, their ruin or their conservation, while his majesty had always manifested the contrary both by his counsels and by the constant furnishing of supplies." henry of france and navarre--soldier, statesman, wit, above all a man and every inch a king--brimful of human vices, foibles, and humours, and endowed with those high qualities of genius which enabled him to mould events and men by his unscrupulous and audacious determination to conform to the spirit of his times which no man better understood than himself, had ever been in such close relations with the netherlands as to seem in some sort their sovereign. james stuart, emerging from the school of buchanan and the atmosphere of calvinism in which he had been bred, now reigned in those more sunny and liberal regions where elizabeth so long had ruled. finding himself at once, after years of theological study, face to face with a foreign commonwealth and a momentous epoch, in which politics were so commingled with divinity as to offer daily the most puzzling problems, the royal pedant hugged himself at beholding so conspicuous a field for his talents. to turn a throne into a pulpit, and amaze mankind with his learning, was an ambition most sweet to gratify. the calvinist of scotland now proclaimed his deadly hatred of puritans in england and holland, and denounced the netherlanders as a pack of rebels whom it always pleased him to irritate, and over whom he too claimed, through the possession of the cautionary towns, a kind of sovereignty. instinctively feeling that in the rough and unlovely husk of puritanism was enclosed the germ of a wider human liberty than then existed, he was determined to give battle to it with his tongue, his pen, with everything but his sword. doubtless the states had received most invaluable assistance from both france and england, but the sovereigns of those countries were too apt to forget that it was their own battles, as well as those of the hollanders, that had been fought in flanders and brabant. but for the alliance and subsidies of the faithful states, henry would not so soon have ascended the throne of his ancestors, while it was matter of history that the spanish government had for years been steadily endeavouring to subjugate england not so much for the value of the conquest in itself as for a stepping-stone to the recovery of the revolted netherlands. for the dividing line of nations or at least of national alliances was a frontier not of language but of faith. germany was but a geographical expression. the union of protestantism, subscribed by a large proportion of its three hundred and seven sovereigns, ran zigzag through the country, a majority probably of the people at that moment being opposed to the roman church. it has often been considered amazing that protestantism having accomplished so much should have fallen backwards so soon, and yielded almost undisputed sway in vast regions to the long dominant church. but in truth there is nothing surprising about it. catholicism was and remained a unit, while its opponents were eventually broken up into hundreds of warring and politically impotent organizations. religious faith became distorted into a weapon for selfish and greedy territorial aggrandizement in the hands of protestant princes. "cujus regio ejus religio" was the taunt hurled in the face of the imploring calvinists of france and the low countries by the arrogant lutherans of germany. such a sword smote the principle of religious freedom and mutual toleration into the dust, and rendered them comparatively weak in the conflict with the ancient and splendidly organized church. the huguenots of france, notwithstanding the protection grudgingly afforded them by their former chieftain, were dejected and discomfited by his apostasy, and henry, placed in a fearfully false position, was an object of suspicion to both friends and foes. in england it is difficult to say whether a jesuit or a puritan was accounted the more noxious animal by the dominant party. in the united provinces perhaps one half the population was either openly or secretly attached to the ancient church, while among the protestant portion a dire and tragic convulsion was about to break forth, which for a time at least was to render remonstrants and contra-remonstrants more fiercely opposed to each other than to papists. the doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense had long been the prevailing one in the reformed church of the revolted netherlands, as in those of scotland, france, geneva, and the palatinate. no doubt up to the period of the truce a majority had acquiesced in that dogma and its results, although there had always been many preachers to advocate publicly a milder creed. it was not until the appointment of jacob arminius to the professorship of theology at leyden, in the place of francis junius, in the year , that a danger of schism in the church, seemed impending. then rose the great gomarus in his wrath, and with all the powers of splendid eloquence, profound learning, and the intense bigotry of conviction, denounced the horrible heresy. conferences between the two before the court of holland, theological tournaments between six champions on a side, gallantly led by their respective chieftains, followed, with the usual result of confirming both parties in the conviction that to each alone belonged exclusively the truth. the original influence of arminius had however been so great that when the preachers of holland had been severally called on by a synod to sign the heidelberg catechism, many of them refused. here was open heresy and revolt. it was time for the true church to vindicate its authority. the great war with spain had been made, so it was urged and honestly believed, not against the inquisition, not to prevent netherlanders from being burned and buried alive by the old true church, not in defence of ancient charters, constitutions, and privileges--the precious result of centuries of popular resistance to despotic force--not to maintain an amount of civil liberty and local self-government larger in extent than any then existing in the world, not to assert equality of religion for all men, but simply to establish the true religion, the one church, the only possible creed; the creed and church of calvin. it is perfectly certain that the living fire which glowed in the veins of those hot gospellers had added intense enthusiasm to the war spirit throughout that immense struggle. it is quite possible that without that enthusiasm the war might not have been carried on to its successful end. but it is equally certain that catholics, lutherans, baptists, and devotees of many other creeds, had taken part in the conflict in defence both of hearth and altar, and that without that aid the independence of the provinces would never have been secured. yet before the war was ended the arrogance of the reformed priesthood had begun to dig a chasm. men who with william the silent and barneveld had indulged in the vision of religious equality as a possible result of so much fighting against the holy inquisition were perhaps to be disappointed. preachers under the influence of the gentle arminius having dared to refuse signing the creed were to be dealt with. it was time to pass from censure to action. heresy must be trampled down. the churches called for a national synod, and they did this as by divine right. "my lords the states-general must observe," they said, "that this assembly now demanded is not a human institution but an ordinance of the holy ghost in its community, not depending upon any man's authority, but proceeding from god to the community." they complained that the true church was allowed to act only through the civil government, and was thus placed at a disadvantage compared even with catholics and other sects, whose proceedings were winked at. "thus the true church suffered from its apparent and public freedom, and hostile sects gained by secret connivance." a crisis was fast approaching. the one church claimed infallibility and superiority to the civil power. the holy ghost was placed in direct, ostentatious opposition to my lords the states-general. it was for netherlanders to decide whether, after having shaken off the holy inquisition, and subjected the old true church to the public authority, they were now to submit to the imperious claims of the new true church. there were hundreds of links connecting the church with the state. in that day a divorce between the two was hardly possible or conceivable. the system of congregationalism so successfully put into practice soon afterwards in the wilderness of new england, and to which so much of american freedom political as well as religious is due, was not easy to adopt in an old country like the netherlands. splendid churches and cathedrals, the legal possession of which would be contended for by rival sects, could scarcely be replaced by temporary structures of lath and plaster, or by humble back parlours of mechanics' shops. there were questions of property of complicated nature. not only the states and the communities claimed in rivalry the ownership of church property, but many private families could show ancient advowsons and other claims to present or to patronize, derived from imperial or ducal charters. so long as there could be liberty of opinion within the church upon points not necessarily vital, open schism could be avoided, by which the cause of protestantism throughout europe must be weakened, while at the same time subordination of the priesthood to the civil authority would be maintained. but if the holy ghost, through the assembled clergy, were to dictate an iron formulary to which all must conform, to make laws for church government which every citizen must obey, and to appoint preachers and school-masters from whom alone old and young could receive illumination and instruction religious or lay, a theocracy would be established which no enlightened statesman could tolerate. the states-general agreed to the synod, but imposed a condition that there should be a revision of creed and catechism. this was thundered down with one blast. the condition implied a possibility that the vile heresy of arminius might be correct. an unconditional synod was demanded. the heidelberg creed and netherland catechism were sacred, infallible, not to be touched. the answer of the government, through the mouth of barneveld, was that "to my lords the states-general as the foster-fathers and protectors of the churches every right belonged." thus far the states-general under the leadership of the advocate were unanimous. the victory remained with state against church. but very soon after the truce had been established, and men had liberty to devote themselves to peaceful pursuits, the ecclesiastical trumpet again sounded far and wide, and contending priests and laymen rushed madly to the fray. the remonstrance and contra-remonstrance, and the appointment of conrad vorstius, a more abominable heretic than arminius, to the vacant chair of arminius--a step which drove gomarus and the gomarites to frenzy, although gomarus and vorstius remained private and intimate friends to the last--are matters briefly to be mentioned on a later page. thus to the four chief actors in the politico-religious drama, soon to be enacted as an interlude to an eighty years' war, were assigned parts at first sight inconsistent with their private convictions. the king of france, who had often abjured his religion, and was now the best of catholics, was denounced ferociously in every catholic pulpit in christendom as secretly an apostate again, and the open protector of heretics and rebels. but the cheerful henry troubled himself less than he perhaps had cause to do with these thunderblasts. besides, as we shall soon see, he had other objects political and personal to sway his opinions. james the ex-calvinist, crypto-arminian, pseudo-papist, and avowed puritan hater, was girding on his armour to annihilate arminians and to defend and protect puritans in holland, while swearing that in england he would pepper them and harry them and hang them and that he would even like to bury them alive. barneveld, who turned his eyes, as much as in such an inflammatory age it was possible, from subtle points of theology, and relied on his great-grandfather's motto of humility, "nil scire tutissima fides" was perhaps nearer to the dogma of the dominant reformed church than he knew, although always the consistent and strenuous champion of the civil authority over church as well as state. maurice was no theologian. he was a steady churchgoer, and his favorite divine, the preacher at his court chapel, was none other than uytenbogaert. the very man who was instantly to be the champion of the arminians, the author of the remonstrance, the counsellor and comrade of barneveld and grotius, was now sneered at by the gomarites as the "court trumpeter." the preacher was not destined to change his opinions. perhaps the prince might alter. but maurice then paid no heed to the great point at issue, about which all the netherlanders were to take each other by the throat--absolute predestination. he knew that the advocate had refused to listen to his stepmother's suggestion as to his obtaining the sovereignty. "he knew nothing of predestination," he was wont to say, "whether it was green or whether it was blue. he only knew that his pipe and the advocate's were not likely to make music together." this much of predestination he did know, that if the advocate and his friends were to come to open conflict with the prince of orange-nassau, the conqueror of nieuwpoort, it was predestined to go hard with the advocate and his friends. the theological quibble did not interest him much, and he was apt to blunder about it. "well, preacher," said he one day to albert huttenus, who had come to him to intercede for a deserter condemned to be hanged, "are you one of those arminians who believe that one child is born to salvation and another to damnation?" huttenus, amazed to the utmost at the extraordinary question, replied, "your excellency will be graciously pleased to observe that this is not the opinion of those whom one calls by the hateful name of arminians, but the opinion of their adversaries." "well, preacher," rejoined maurice, "don't you think i know better?" and turning to count lewis william, stadholder of friesland, who was present, standing by the hearth with his hand on a copper ring of the chimneypiece, he cried, "which is right, cousin, the preacher or i?" "no, cousin," answered count lewis, "you are in the wrong." thus to the catholic league organized throughout europe in solid and consistent phalanx was opposed the great protestant union, ardent and enthusiastic in detail, but undisciplined, disobedient, and inharmonious as a whole. the great principle, not of religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult, but of religious equality, which is the natural right of mankind, was to be evolved after a lapse of, additional centuries out of the elemental conflict which had already lasted so long. still later was the total divorce of state and church to be achieved as the final consummation of the great revolution. meantime it was almost inevitable that the privileged and richly endowed church, with ecclesiastical armies and arsenals vastly superior to anything which its antagonist could improvise, should more than hold its own. at the outset of the epoch which now occupies our attention, europe was in a state of exhaustion and longing for repose. spain had submitted to the humiliation of a treaty of truce with its rebellious subjects which was substantially a recognition of their independence. nothing could be more deplorable than the internal condition of the country which claimed to be mistress of the world and still aspired to universal monarchy. it had made peace because it could no longer furnish funds for the war. the french ambassador, barante, returning from madrid, informed his sovereign that he had often seen officers in the army prostrating themselves on their knees in the streets before their sovereign as he went to mass, and imploring him for payment of their salaries, or at least an alms to keep them from starving, and always imploring in vain. the king, who was less than a cipher, had neither capacity to feel emotion, nor intelligence to comprehend the most insignificant affair of state. moreover the means were wanting to him even had he been disposed to grant assistance. the terrible duke of lerma was still his inexorably lord and master, and the secretary of that powerful personage, who kept an open shop for the sale of offices of state both high and low, took care that all the proceeds should flow into the coffers of the duke and his own lap instead of the royal exchequer. in france both king and people declared themselves disgusted with war. sully disapproved of the treaty just concluded between spain and the netherlands, feeling sure that the captious and equivocal clauses contained in it would be interpreted to the disadvantage of the republic and of the reformed religion whenever spain felt herself strong enough to make the attempt. he was especially anxious that the states should make no concessions in regard to the exercise of the catholic worship within their territory, believing that by so doing they would compromise their political independence besides endangering the cause of protestantism everywhere. a great pressure was put upon sully that moment by the king to change his religion. "you will all be inevitably ruined if you make concessions in this regard," said he to aerssens. "take example by me. i should be utterly undone if i had listened to any overture on this subject." nevertheless it was the opinion of the astute and caustic envoy that the duke would be forced to yield at last. the pope was making great efforts to gain him, and thus to bring about the extirpation of protestantism in france. and the king, at that time much under the influence of the jesuits, had almost set his heart on the conversion. aerssens insinuated that sully was dreading a minute examination into the affairs of his administration of the finances--a groundless calumny--and would be thus forced to comply. other enemies suggested that nothing would effect this much desired apostasy but the office of constable of france, which it was certain would never be bestowed on him. at any rate it was very certain that henry at this period was bent on peace. "make your account," said aerssens to barneveld, as the time for signing the truce drew nigh, "on this indubitable foundation that the king is determined against war, whatever pretences he may make. his bellicose demeanour has been assumed only to help forward our treaty, which he would never have favoured, and ought never to have favoured, if he had not been too much in love with peace. this is a very important secret if we manage it discreetly, and a very dangerous one if our enemies discover it." sully would have much preferred that the states should stand out for a peace rather than for a truce, and believed it might have been obtained if the king had not begun the matter so feebly, and if he had let it be understood that he would join his arms to those of the provinces in case of rupture. he warned the states very strenuously that the pope, and the king of spain, and a host of enemies open and covert, were doing their host to injure them at the french court. they would find little hindrance in this course if the republic did not show its teeth, and especially if it did not stiffly oppose all encroachments of the roman religion, without even showing any deference to the king in this regard, who was much importuned on the subject. he advised the states to improve the interval of truce by restoring order to their finances and so arranging their affairs that on the resumption of hostilities, if come they must, their friends might be encouraged to help them, by the exhibition of thorough vigour on their part. france then, although utterly indisposed for war at that moment, was thoroughly to be relied on as a friend and in case of need an ally, so long as it was governed by its present policy. there was but one king left in europe since the death of elizabeth of england. but henry was now on the abhorred threshold of old age which he obstinately refused to cross. there is something almost pathetic, in spite of the censure which much of his private life at this period provokes, in the isolation which now seemed his lot. deceived and hated by his wife and his mistresses, who were conspiring with each other and with his ministers, not only against his policy but against his life; with a vile italian adventurer, dishonouring his household, entirely dominating the queen, counteracting the royal measures, secretly corresponding, by assumed authority, with spain, in direct violation of the king's instructions to his ambassadors, and gorging himself with wealth and offices at the expense of everything respectable in france; surrounded by a pack of malignant and greedy nobles, who begrudged him his fame, his authority, his independence; without a home, and almost without a friend, the most christian king in these latter days led hardly as merry a life as when fighting years long for his crown, at the head of his gascon chivalry, the beloved chieftain of huguenots. of the triumvirate then constituting his council, villeroy, sillery, and sully, the two first were ancient leaguers, and more devoted at heart to philip of spain than to henry of france and navarre. both silent, laborious, plodding, plotting functionaries, thriftily gathering riches; skilled in routine and adepts at intrigue; steady self-seekers, and faithful to office in which their lives had passed, they might be relied on at any emergency to take part against their master, if to ruin would prove more profitable than to serve him. there was one man who was truer to henry than henry had been to himself. the haughty, defiant, austere grandee, brave soldier, sagacious statesman, thrifty financier, against whom the poisoned arrows of religious hatred, envious ambition, and petty court intrigue were daily directed, who watched grimly over the exchequer confided to him, which was daily growing fuller in despite of the cormorants who trembled at his frown; hard worker, good hater, conscientious politician, who filled his own coffers without dishonesty, and those of the state without tyranny; unsociable, arrogant; pious, very avaricious, and inordinately vain, maximilian de bethune, duke of sully, loved and respected henry as no man or woman loved and respected him. in truth, there was but one living being for whom the duke had greater reverence and affection than for the king, and that was the duke of sully himself. at this moment he considered himself, as indeed he was, in full possession of his sovereign's confidence. but he was alone in this conviction. those about the court, men like epernon and his creatures, believed the great financier on the brink of perdition. henry, always the loosest of talkers even in regard to his best friends, had declared, on some temporary vexation in regard to the affair between aiguillon and balagny, that he would deal with the duke as with the late marshal de biron, and make him smaller than he had ever made him great: goading him on this occasion with importunities, almost amounting to commands, that both he and his son should forthwith change their religion or expect instant ruin. the blow was so severe that sully shut himself up, refused to see anyone, and talked of retiring for good to his estates. but he knew, and henry knew, how indispensable he was, and the anger of the master was as shortlived as the despair of the minister. there was no living statesman for whom henry had a more sincere respect than for the advocate of holland. "his majesty admires and greatly extols your wisdom, which he judges necessary for the preservation of our state; deeming you one of the rare and sage counsellors of the age." it is true that this admiration was in part attributed to the singular coincidence of barneveld's views of policy with the king's own. sully, on his part, was a severe critic of that policy. he believed that better terms might have been exacted from spain in the late negotiations, and strongly objected to the cavilling and equivocal language of the treaty. rude in pen as in speech, he expressed his mind very freely in his conversation and correspondence with henry in regard to leading personages and great affairs, and made no secret of his opinions to the states' ambassador. he showed his letters in which he had informed the king that he ought never to have sanctioned the truce without better securities than existed, and that the states would never have moved in any matter without him. it would have been better to throw himself into a severe war than to see the republic perish. he further expressed the conviction that henry ought to have such authority over the netherlands that they would embrace blindly whatever counsel he chose to give them, even if they saw in it their inevitable ruin; and this not so much from remembrance of assistance rendered by him, but from the necessity in which they should always feel of depending totally upon him. "you may judge, therefore," concluded aerssens, "as to how much we can build on such foundations as these. i have been amazed at these frank communications, for in those letters he spares neither my lords the states, nor his excellency prince maurice, nor yourself; giving his judgment of each of you with far too much freedom and without sufficient knowledge." thus the alliance between the netherlands and france, notwithstanding occasional traces of caprice and flaws of personal jealousy, was on the whole sincere, for it was founded on the surest foundation of international friendship, the self-interest of each. henry, although boasting of having bought paris with a mass, knew as well as his worst enemy that in that bargain he had never purchased the confidence of the ancient church, on whose bosom he had flung himself with so much dramatic pomp. his noble position, as champion of religious toleration, was not only unappreciated in an age in which each church and every sect arrogated to itself a monopoly of the truth, but it was one in which he did not himself sincerely believe. after all, he was still the chieftain of the protestant union, and, although eldest son of the church, was the bitter antagonist of the league and the sworn foe to the house of austria. he was walking through pitfalls with a crowd of invisible but relentless foes dogging his every footstep. in his household or without were daily visions of dagger and bowl, and he felt himself marching to his doom. how could the man on whom the heretic and rebellious hollanders and the protestant princes of germany relied as on their saviour escape the unutterable wrath and the patient vengeance of a power that never forgave? in england the jealousy of the republic and of france as co-guardian and protector of the republic was even greater than in france. though placed by circumstances in the position of ally to the netherlands and enemy to spain, james hated the netherlands and adored spain. his first thought on escaping the general destruction to which the gunpowder plot was to have involved himself and family and all the principal personages of the realm seems to have been to exculpate spain from participation in the crime. his next was to deliver a sermon to parliament, exonerating the catholics and going out of his way to stigmatize the puritans as entertaining doctrines which should be punished with fire. as the puritans had certainly not been accused of complicity with guy fawkes or garnet, this portion of the discourse was at least superfluous. but james loathed nothing so much as a puritan. a catholic at heart, he would have been the warmest ally of the league had he only been permitted to be pope of great britain. he hated and feared a jesuit, not for his religious doctrines, for with these he sympathized, but for his political creed. he liked not that either roman pontiff or british presbyterian should abridge his heaven-born prerogative. the doctrine of papal superiority to temporal sovereigns was as odious to him as puritan rebellion to the hierarchy of which he was the chief. moreover, in his hostility to both papists and presbyterians, there was much of professional rivalry. having been deprived by the accident of birth of his true position as theological professor, he lost no opportunity of turning his throne into a pulpit and his sceptre into a controversial pen. henry of france, who rarely concealed his contempt for master jacques, as he called him, said to the english ambassador, on receiving from him one of the king's books, and being asked what he thought of it--"it is not the business of us kings to write, but to fight. everybody should mind his own business, but it is the vice of most men to wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant." the flatterers of james found their account in pandering to his sacerdotal and royal vanity. "i have always believed," said the lord chancellor, after hearing the king argue with and browbeat a presbyterian deputation, "that the high-priesthood and royalty ought to be united, but i never witnessed the actual junction till now, after hearing the learned discourse of your majesty." archbishop whitgift, grovelling still lower, declared his conviction that james, in the observations he had deigned to make, had been directly inspired by the holy ghost. nothing could be more illogical and incoherent with each other than his theological and political opinions. he imagined himself a defender of the protestant faith, while hating holland and fawning on the house of austria. in england he favoured arminianism, because the anglican church recognized for its head the temporal chief of the state. in holland he vehemently denounced the arminians, indecently persecuting their preachers and statesmen, who were contending for exactly the same principle--the supremacy of state over church. he sentenced bartholomew legate to be burned alive in smithfield as a blasphemous heretic, and did his best to compel the states of holland to take the life of professor vorstius of leyden. he persecuted the presbyterians in england as furiously as he defended them in holland. he drove bradford and carver into the new england wilderness, and applauded gomarus and walaeus and the other famous leaders of the presbyterian party in the netherlands with all his soul and strength. he united with the french king in negotiations for netherland independence, while denouncing the provinces as guilty of criminal rebellion against their lawful sovereign. "he pretends," said jeannin, "to assist in bringing about the peace, and nevertheless does his best openly to prevent it." richardot declared that the firmness of the king of spain proceeded entirely from reliance on the promise of james that there should be no acknowledgment in the treaty of the liberty of the states. henry wrote to jeannin that he knew very well "what that was capable of, but that he should not be kept awake by anything he could do." as a king he spent his reign--so much of it as could be spared from gourmandizing, drunkenness, dalliance with handsome minions of his own sex, and theological pursuits--in rescuing the crown from dependence on parliament; in straining to the utmost the royal prerogative; in substituting proclamations for statutes; in doing everything in his power, in short, to smooth the path for his successor to the scaffold. as father of a family he consecrated many years of his life to the wondrous delusion of the spanish marriages. the gunpowder plot seemed to have inspired him with an insane desire for that alliance, and few things in history are more amazing than the persistency with which he pursued the scheme, until the pursuit became not only ridiculous, but impossible. with such a man, frivolous, pedantic, conceited, and licentious, the earnest statesmen of holland were forced into close alliance. it is pathetic to see men like barneveld and hugo grotius obliged, on great occasions of state, to use the language of respect and affection to one by whom they were hated, and whom they thoroughly despised. but turning away from france, it was in vain for them to look for kings or men either among friends or foes. in germany religious dissensions were gradually ripening into open war, and it would be difficult to imagine a more hopelessly incompetent ruler than the man who was nominally chief of the holy roman realm. yet the distracted rudolph was quite as much an emperor as the chaos over which he was supposed to preside was an empire. perhaps the very worst polity ever devised by human perverseness was the system under which the great german race was then writhing and groaning. a mad world with a lunatic to govern it; a democracy of many princes, little and big, fighting amongst each other, and falling into daily changing combinations as some masterly or mischievous hand whirled the kaleidoscope; drinking rhenish by hogsheads, and beer by the tun; robbing churches, dictating creeds to their subjects, and breaking all the commandments themselves; a people at the bottom dimly striving towards religious freedom and political life out of abject social, ecclesiastical, and political serfdom, and perhaps even then dumbly feeling within its veins, with that prophetic instinct which never abandons great races, a far distant and magnificent future of national unity and imperial splendour, the very reverse of the confusion which was then the hideous present; an imperial family at top with many heads and slender brains; a band of brothers and cousins wrangling, intriguing, tripping up each others' heels, and unlucky rudolph, in his hradschin, looking out of window over the peerless prague, spread out in its beauteous landscape of hill and dale, darkling forest, dizzy cliffs, and rushing river, at his feet, feebly cursing the unhappy city for its ingratitude to an invisible and impotent sovereign; his excellent brother matthias meanwhile marauding through the realms and taking one crown after another from his poor bald head. it would be difficult to depict anything more precisely what an emperor in those portentous times should not be. he collected works of art of many kinds--pictures, statues, gems. he passed his days in his galleries contemplating in solitary grandeur these treasures, or in his stables, admiring a numerous stud of horses which he never drove or rode. ambassadors and ministers of state disguised themselves as grooms and stable-boys to obtain accidental glimpses of a sovereign who rarely granted audiences. his nights were passed in star-gazing with tycho de brake, or with that illustrious suabian whose name is one of the great lights and treasures of the world. but it was not to study the laws of planetary motion nor to fathom mysteries of divine harmony that the monarch stood with kepler in the observatory. the influence of countless worlds upon the destiny of one who, by capricious accident, if accident ever exists in history, had been entrusted with the destiny of so large a portion of one little world; the horoscope, not of the universe, but of himself; such were the limited purposes with which the kaiser looked upon the constellations. for the catholic rudolph had received the protestant kepler, driven from tubingen because lutheran doctors, knowing from holy writ that the sun had stood still in ajalon, had denounced his theory of planetary motion. his mother had just escaped being burned as a witch, and the world owes a debt of gratitude to the emperor for protecting the astrologer, when enlightened theologians might, perhaps, have hanged the astronomer. a red-faced, heavy fowled, bald-headed, somewhat goggle-eyed old gentleman, rudolph did his best to lead the life of a hermit, and escape the cares of royalty. timid by temperament, yet liable to fits of uncontrollable anger, he broke his furniture to pieces when irritated, and threw dishes that displeased him in his butler's face, but left affairs of state mainly to his valet, who earned many a penny by selling the imperial signature. he had just signed the famous "majestatsbrief," by which he granted vast privileges to the protestants of bohemia, and had bitten the pen to pieces in a paroxysm of anger, after dimly comprehending the extent of the concessions which he had made. there were hundreds of sovereign states over all of which floated the shadowy and impalpable authority of an imperial crown scarcely fixed on the head of any one of the rival brethren and cousins; there was a confederation of protestants, with the keen-sighted and ambitious christian of anhalt acting as its chief, and dreaming of the bohemian crown; there was the just-born catholic league, with the calm, far-seeing, and egotistical rather than self-seeking maximilian at its head; each combination extending over the whole country, stamped with imbecility of action from its birth, and perverted and hampered by inevitable jealousies. in addition to all these furrows ploughed by the very genius of discord throughout the unhappy land was the wild and secret intrigue with which leopold, archduke and bishop, dreaming also of the crown of wenzel, was about to tear its surface as deeply as he dared. thus constituted were the leading powers of europe in the earlier part of --the year in which a peaceful period seemed to have begun. to those who saw the entangled interests of individuals, and the conflict of theological dogmas and religious and political intrigue which furnished so much material out of which wide-reaching schemes of personal ambition could be spun, it must have been obvious that the interval of truce was necessarily but a brief interlude between two tragedies. it seemed the very mockery of fate that, almost at the very instant when after two years' painful negotiation a truce had been made, the signal for universal discord should be sounded. one day in the early summer of , henry iv. came to the royal arsenal, the residence of sully, accompanied by zamet and another of his intimate companions. he asked for the duke and was told that he was busy in his study. "of course," said the king, turning to his followers, "i dare say you expected to be told that he was out shooting, or with the ladies, or at the barber's. but who works like sully? tell him," he said, "to come to the balcony in his garden, where he and i are not accustomed to be silent." as soon as sully appeared, the king observed: "well; here the duke of cleve is dead, and has left everybody his heir." it was true enough, and the inheritance was of vital importance to the world. it was an apple of discord thrown directly between the two rival camps into which christendom was divided. the duchies of cleve, berg, and julich, and the counties and lordships of mark, ravensberg, and ravenstein, formed a triangle, political and geographical, closely wedged between catholicism and protestantism, and between france, the united provinces, belgium, and germany. should it fall into catholic hands, the netherlands were lost, trampled upon in every corner, hedged in on all sides, with the house of austria governing the rhine, the meuse, and the scheldt. it was vital to them to exclude the empire from the great historic river which seemed destined to form the perpetual frontier of jealous powers and rival creeds. should it fall into heretic hands, the states were vastly strengthened, the archduke albert isolated and cut off from the protection of spain and of the empire. france, although catholic, was the ally of holland and the secret but well known enemy of the house of austria. it was inevitable that the king of that country, the only living statesman that wore a crown, should be appealed to by all parties and should find himself in the proud but dangerous position of arbiter of europe. in this emergency he relied upon himself and on two men besides, maximilian de bethune and john of barneveld. the conference between the king and sully and between both and francis aerssens, ambassador of the states, were of almost daily occurrence. the minute details given in the adroit diplomatist's correspondence indicate at every stage the extreme deference paid by henry to the opinion of holland's advocate and the confidence reposed by him in the resources and the courage of the republic. all the world was claiming the heritage of the duchies. it was only strange that an event which could not be long deferred and the consequences of which were soon to be so grave, the death of the duke of cleve, should at last burst like a bomb-shell on the council tables of the sovereigns and statesmen of europe. that mischievous madman john william died childless in the spring of . his sister sibylla, an ancient and malignant spinster, had governed him and his possessions except in his lucid intervals. the mass of the population over which he ruled being protestant, while the reigning family and the chief nobles were of the ancient faith, it was natural that the catholic party under, the lead of maximilian of bavaria should deem it all-important that there should be direct issue to that family. otherwise the inheritance on his death would probably pass to protestant princes. the first wife provided for him was a beautiful princess; jacobea of baden. the pope blessed the nuptials, and sent the bride a golden rose, but the union was sterile and unhappy. the duke, who was in the habit of careering through his palace in full armour, slashing at and wounding anyone that came in his way, was at last locked up. the hapless jacobea, accused by sibylla of witchcraft and other crimes possible and impossible, was thrown into prison. two years long the devilish malignity of the sister-in-law was exercised upon her victim, who, as it is related, was not allowed natural sleep during all that period, being at every hour awakened by command of sibylla. at last the duchess was strangled in prison. a new wife was at once provided for the lunatic, antonia of lorraine. the two remained childless, and sibylla at the age of forty-nine took to herself a husband, the margrave of burgau, of the house of austria, the humble birth of whose mother, however, did not allow him the rank of archduke. her efforts thus to provide catholic heirs to the rich domains of clove proved as fruitless as her previous attempts. and now duke john william had died, and the representatives of his three dead sisters, and the living sibylla were left to fight for the duchies. it would be both cruel and superfluous to inflict on the reader a historical statement of the manner in which these six small provinces were to be united into a single state. it would be an equally sterile task to retrace the legal arguments by which the various parties prepared themselves to vindicate their claims, each pretender more triumphantly than the other. the naked facts alone retain vital interest, and of these facts the prominent one was the assertion of the emperor that the duchies, constituting a fief masculine, could descend to none of the pretenders, but were at his disposal as sovereign of germany. on the other hand nearly all the important princes of that country sent their agents into the duchies to look after the interests real or imaginary which they claimed. there were but four candidates who in reality could be considered serious ones. mary eleanor, eldest sister of the duke, had been married in the lifetime of their father to albert frederic of brandenburg, duke of prussia. to the children of this marriage was reserved the succession of the whole property in case of the masculine line becoming extinct. two years afterwards the second sister, anne, was married to duke philip lewis, count-palatine of neuburg; the children of which marriage stood next in succession to those of the eldest sister, should that become extinguished. four years later the third sister, magdalen, espoused the duke john, count-palatine of deux-ponts; who, like neuburg, made resignation of rights of succession in favour of the descendants of the brandenburg marriage. the marriage of the youngest sister, sibylla, with the margrave of burgau has been already mentioned. it does not appear that her brother, whose lunatic condition hardly permitted him to assure her the dowry which had been the price of renunciation in the case of her three elder sisters, had obtained that renunciation from her. the claims of the childless sibylla as well as those of the deux-ponts branch were not destined to be taken into serious consideration. the real competitors were the emperor on the one side and the elector of brandenburg and the count-palatine of neuburg on the other. it is not necessary to my purpose to say a single word as to the legal and historical rights of the controversy. volumes upon volumes of forgotten lore might be consulted, and they would afford exactly as much refreshing nutriment as would the heaps of erudition hardly ten years old, and yet as antiquated as the title-deeds of the pharaohs, concerning the claims to the duchies of schleswig-holstein. the fortunate house of brandenburg may have been right or wrong in both disputes. it is certain that it did not lack a more potent factor in settling the political problems of the world in the one case any more than in the other. but on the occasion with which we are occupied it was not on the might of his own right hand that the elector of brandenburg relied. moreover, he was dilatory in appealing to the two great powers on whose friendship he must depend for the establishment of his claims: the united republic and the king of france. james of england was on the whole inclined to believe in the rights of brandenburg. his ambassador, however, with more prophetic vision than perhaps the king ever dreamt--of, expressed a fear lest brandenburg should grow too great and one day come to the imperial crown. the states openly favoured the elector. henry as at first disposed towards neuburg, but at his request barneveld furnished a paper on the subject, by which the king seems to have been entirely converted to the pretensions of brandenburg. but the solution of the question had but little to do with the legal claim of any man. it was instinctively felt throughout christendom that the great duel between the ancient church and the spirit of the reformation was now to be renewed upon that narrow, debateable spot. the emperor at once proclaimed his right to arbitrate on the succession and to hold the territory until decision should be made; that is to say, till the greek kalends. his familiar and most tricksy spirit, bishop-archduke leopold, played at once on his fears and his resentments, against the ever encroaching, ever menacing, protestantism of germany, with which he had just sealed a compact so bitterly detested. that bold and bustling prelate, brother of the queen of spain and of ferdinand of styria, took post from prague in the middle of july. accompanied by a certain canon of the church and disguised as his servant, he arrived after a rapid journey before the gates of julich, chief city and fortress of the duchies. the governor of the place, nestelraed, inclined like most of the functionaries throughout the duchies to the catholic cause, was delighted to recognize under the livery of the lackey the cousin and representative of the emperor. leopold, who had brought but five men with him, had conquered his capital at a blow. for while thus comfortably established as temporary governor of the duchies he designed through the fears or folly of rudolph to become their sovereign lord. strengthened by such an acquisition and reckoning on continued assistance in men and money from spain and the catholic league, he meant to sweep back to the rescue of the perishing rudolph, smite the protestants of bohemia, and achieve his appointment to the crown of that kingdom. the spanish ambassador at prague had furnished him with a handsome sum of money for the expenses of his journey and preliminary enterprise. it should go hard but funds should be forthcoming to support him throughout this audacious scheme. the champion of the church, the sovereign prince of important provinces, the possession of which ensured conclusive triumph to the house of austria and to rome--who should oppose him in his path to empire? certainly not the moody rudolph, the slippery and unstable matthias, the fanatic and jesuit-ridden ferdinand. "leopold in julich," said henry's agent in germany, "is a ferret in a rabbit warren." but early in the spring and before the arrival of leopold, the two pretenders, john sigismund, elector of brandenburg, and philip lewis, palatine of neuburg, had made an arrangement. by the earnest advice of barneveld in the name of the states-general and as the result of a general council of many protestant princes of germany, it had been settled that those two should together provisionally hold and administer the duchies until the principal affair could be amicably settled. the possessory princes were accordingly established in dusseldorf with the consent of the provincial estates, in which place those bodies were wont to assemble. here then was spain in the person of leopold quietly perched in the chief citadel of the country, while protestantism in the shape of the possessory princes stood menacingly in the capital. hardly was the ink dry on the treaty which had suspended for twelve years the great religious war of forty years, not yet had the ratifications been exchanged, but the trumpet was again sounding, and the hostile forces were once more face to face. leopold, knowing where his great danger lay, sent a friendly message to the states-general, expressing the hope that they would submit to his arrangements until the imperial decision should be made. the states, through the pen and brain of barneveld, replied that they had already recognized the rights of the possessory princes, and were surprised that the bishop-archduke should oppose them. they expressed the hope that, when better informed, he would see the validity of the treaty of dortmund. "my lords the states-general," said the advocate, "will protect the princes against violence and actual disturbances, and are assured that the neighbouring kings and princes will do the same. they trust that his imperial highness will not allow matters, to proceed to extremities." this was language not to be mistaken. it was plain that the republic did not intend the emperor to decide a question of life and death to herself, nor to permit spain, exhausted by warfare, to achieve this annihilating triumph by a petty intrigue. while in reality the clue to what seemed to the outside world a labyrinthine maze of tangled interests and passions was firmly held in the hand of barneveld, it was not to him nor to my lords the states-general that the various parties to the impending conflict applied in the first resort. mankind were not yet sufficiently used to this young republic, intruding herself among the family of kings, to defer at once to an authority which they could not but feel. moreover, henry of france was universally looked to both by friends and foes as the probable arbiter or chief champion in the great debate. he had originally been inclined to favour neuberg, chiefly, so aerssens thought, on account of his political weakness. the states-general on the other hand were firmly disposed for brandenburg from the first, not only as a strenuous supporter of the reformation and an ancient ally of their own always interested in their safety, but because the establishment of the elector on the rhine would roll back the empire beyond that river. as aerssens expressed it, they would have the empire for a frontier, and have no longer reason to fear the rhine. the king, after the representations of the states, saw good ground to change his opinion and; becoming convinced that the palatine had long been coquetting with the austrian party, soon made no secret of his preference for brandenburg. subsequently neuburg and brandenburg fell into a violent quarrel notwithstanding an arrangement that the palatine should marry the daughter of the elector. in the heat of discussion brandenburg on one occasion is said to have given his intended son-in-law a box on the ear! an argument 'ad hominem' which seems to have had the effect of sending the palatine into the bosom of the ancient church and causing him to rely thenceforth upon the assistance of the league. meantime, however, the condominium settled by the treaty of dortmund continued in force; the third brother of brandenburg and the eldest son of neuburg sharing possession and authority at dusseldorf until a final decision could be made. a flock of diplomatists, professional or volunteers, openly accredited or secret, were now flying busily about through the troubled atmosphere, indicating the coming storm in which they revelled. the keen-sighted, subtle, but dangerously intriguing ambassador of the republic, francis aerssens, had his hundred eyes at all the keyholes in paris, that centre of ceaseless combination and conspiracy, and was besides in almost daily confidential intercourse with the king. most patiently and minutely he kept the advocate informed, almost from hour to hour, of every web that was spun, every conversation public or whispered in which important affairs were treated anywhere and by anybody. he was all-sufficient as a spy and intelligencer, although not entirely trustworthy as a counsellor. still no man on the whole could scan the present or forecast the future more accurately than he was able to do from his advantageous position and his long experience of affairs. there was much general jealousy between the states and the despotic king, who loved to be called the father of the republic and to treat the hollanders as his deeply obliged and very ungrateful and miserly little children. the india trade was a sore subject, henry having throughout the negotiations sought to force or wheedle the states into renouncing that commerce at the command of spain, because he wished to help himself to it afterwards, and being now in the habit of secretly receiving isaac le maire and other dutch leaders in that lucrative monopoly, who lay disguised in paris and in the house of zamet--but not concealed from aerssens, who pledged himself to break, the neck of their enterprise--and were planning with the king a french east india company in opposition to that of the netherlands. on the whole, however, despite these commercial intrigues which barneveld through the aid of aerssens was enabled to baffle, there was much cordiality and honest friendship between the two countries. henry, far from concealing his political affection for the republic, was desirous of receiving a special embassy of congratulation and gratitude from the states on conclusion of the truce; not being satisfied with the warm expressions of respect and attachment conveyed through the ordinary diplomatic channel. "he wishes," wrote aerssens to the advocate, "a public demonstration--in order to show on a theatre to all christendom the regard and deference of my lords the states for his majesty." the ambassador suggested that cornelis van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld, soon to be named first envoy for holland to the venetian republic, might be selected as chief of such special embassy. "without the instructions you gave me," wrote aerssens, "neuburg might have gained his cause in this court. brandenburg is doing himself much injury by not soliciting the king." "much deference will be paid to your judgment," added the envoy, "if you see fit to send it to his majesty." meantime, although the agent of neuburg was busily dinning in henry's ears the claims of the palatine, and even urging old promises which, as he pretended, had been made, thanks to barneveld, he took little by his importunity, notwithstanding that in the opinion both of barneveld and villeroy his claim 'stricti-juris' was the best. but it was policy and religious interests, not the strict letter of the law, that were likely to prevail. henry, while loudly asserting that he would oppose any usurpation on the part of the emperor or any one else against the condominium, privately renewed to the states assurances of his intention to support ultimately the claims of brandenburg, and notified them to hold the two regiments of french infantry, which by convention they still kept at his expense in their service, to be ready at a moment's warning for the great enterprise which he was already planning. "you would do well perhaps," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "to set forth the various interests in regard to this succession, and of the different relations of the claimants towards our commonwealth; but in such sort nevertheless and so dexterously that the king may be able to understand your desires, and on the other hand may see the respect you bear him in appearing to defer to his choice." neuburg, having always neglected the states and made advances to archduke albert, and being openly preferred over brandenburg by the austrians, who had however no intention of eventually tolerating either, could make but small headway at court, notwithstanding henry's indignation that brandenburg had not yet made the slightest demand upon him for assistance. the elector had keenly solicited the aid of the states, who were bound to him by ancient contract on this subject, but had manifested wonderful indifference or suspicion in regard to france. "these nonchalant germans," said henry on more than one occasion, "do nothing but sleep or drink." it was supposed that the memory of metz might haunt the imagination of the elector. that priceless citadel, fraudulently extorted by henry ii. as a forfeit for assistance to the elector of saxony three quarters of a century before, gave solemn warning to brandenburg of what might be exacted by a greater henry, should success be due to his protection. it was also thought that he had too many dangers about him at home, the poles especially, much stirred up by emissaries from rome, making many troublesome demonstrations against the duchy of prussia. it was nearly midsummer before a certain baron donals arrived as emissary of the elector. he brought with him, many documents in support of the brandenburg claims, and was charged with excuses for the dilatoriness of his master. much stress was laid of course on the renunciation made by neuburg at the tithe of his marriage, and henry was urged to grant his protection to the elector in his good rights. but thus far there were few signs of any vigorous resolution for active measures in an affair which could scarcely fail to lead to war. "i believe," said henry to the states ambassador, "that the right of brandenburg is indubitable, and it is better for you and for me that he should be the man rather than neuburg, who has always sought assistance from the house of austria. but he is too lazy in demanding possession. it is the fault of the doctors by whom he is guided. this delay works in favour of the emperor, whose course however is less governed by any determination of his own than by the irresolution of the princes." then changing the conversation, henry asked the ambassador whether the daughter of de maldere, a leading statesman of zealand, was married or of age to be married, and if she was rich; adding that they must make a match between her and barneveld's second son, then a young gentleman in the king's service, and very much liked by him. two months later a regularly accredited envoy, belin by name, arrived from the elector. his instructions were general. he was to thank the king for his declarations in favour of the possessory princes, and against all usurpation on the part of the spanish party. should the religious cord be touched, he was to give assurances that no change would be made in this regard. he was charged with loads of fine presents in yellow amber, such as ewers, basins, tables, cups, chessboards, for the king and queen, the dauphin, the chancellor, villeroy, sully, bouillon, and other eminent personages. beyond the distribution of these works of art and the exchange of a few diplomatic commonplaces, nothing serious in the way of warlike business was transacted, and henry was a few weeks later much amused by receiving a letter from the possessory princes coolly thrown into the post-office, and addressed like an ordinary letter to a private person, in which he was requested to advance them a loan of , crowns. there was a great laugh at court at a demand made like a bill of exchange at sight upon his majesty as if he had been a banker, especially as there happened to be no funds of the drawers in his hands. it was thought that a proper regard for the king's quality and the amount of the sum demanded required that the letter should be brought at least by an express messenger, and henry was both diverted and indignant at these proceedings, at the months long delay before the princes had thought proper to make application for his protection, and then for this cool demand for alms on a large scale as a proper beginning of their enterprise. such was the languid and extremely nonchalant manner in which the early preparations for a conflict which seemed likely to set europe in a blaze, and of which possibly few living men might witness the termination, were set on foot by those most interested in the immediate question. chessboards in yellow amber and a post-office order for , crowns could not go far in settling the question of the duchies in which the great problem dividing christendom as by an abyss was involved. meantime, while such were the diplomatic beginnings of the possessory princes, the league was leaving no stone unturned to awaken henry to a sense of his true duty to the church of which he was eldest son. don pedro de toledo's mission in regard to the spanish marriages had failed because henry had spurned the condition which was unequivocally attached to them on the part of spain, the king's renunciation of his alliance with the dutch republic, which then seemed an equivalent to its ruin. but the treaty of truce and half-independence had been signed at last by the states and their ancient master, and the english and french negotiators had taken their departure, each receiving as a present for concluding the convention , livres from the archdukes, and , from the states-general. henry, returning one summer's morning from the chase and holding the count of soissons by one hand and ambassador aerssens by the other, told them he had just received letters from spain by which he learned that people were marvellously rejoiced at the conclusion of the truce. many had regretted that its conditions were so disadvantageous and so little honourable to the grandeur and dignity of spain, but to these it was replied that there were strong reasons why spain should consent to peace on these terms rather than not have it at all. during the twelve years to come the king could repair his disasters and accumulate mountains of money in order to finish the war by the subjugation of the provinces by force of gold. soissons here interrupted the king by saying that the states on their part would finish it by force of iron. aerssens, like an accomplished courtier, replied they would finish it by means of his majesty's friendship. the king continued by observing that the clear-sighted in spain laughed at these rodomontades, knowing well that it was pure exhaustion that had compelled the king to such extremities. "i leave you to judge," said henry, "whether he is likely to have any courage at forty-five years of age, having none now at thirty-two. princes show what they have in them of generosity and valour at the age of twenty-five or never." he said that orders had been sent from spain to disband all troops in the obedient netherlands except spaniards and italians, telling the archdukes that they must raise the money out of the country to content them. they must pay for a war made for their benefit, said philip. as for him he would not furnish one maravedi. aerssens asked if the archdukes would disband their troops so long as the affair of cleve remained unsettled. "you are very lucky," replied the king, "that europe is governed by such princes as you wot of. the king of spain thinks of nothing but tranquillity. the archdukes will never move except on compulsion. the emperor, whom every one is so much afraid of in this matter, is in such plight that one of these days, and before long, he will be stripped of all his possessions. i have news that the bohemians are ready to expel him." it was true enough that rudolph hardly seemed a formidable personage. the utraquists and bohemian brothers, making up nearly the whole population of the country, were just extorting religious liberty from their unlucky master in his very palace and at the point of the knife. the envoy of matthias was in paris demanding recognition of his master as king of hungary, and henry did not suspect the wonderful schemes of leopold, the ferret in the rabbit warren of the duchies, to come to the succour of his cousin and to get himself appointed his successor and guardian. nevertheless, the emperor's name had been used to protest solemnly against the entrance into dusseldorf of the margrave ernest of brandenburg and palatine wolfgang william of neuburg, representatives respectively of their brother and father. the induction was nevertheless solemnly made by the elector-palatine and the landgrave of hesse, and joint possession solemnly taken by brandenburg and neuburg in the teeth of the protest, and expressly in order to cut short the dilatory schemes and the artifices of the imperial court. henry at once sent a corps of observation consisting of cavalry to the luxemburg frontier by way of toul, mezieres, verdun, and metz, to guard against movements by the disbanded troops of the archdukes, and against any active demonstration against the possessory princes on the part of the emperor. the 'condominium' was formally established, and henry stood before the world as its protector threatening any power that should attempt usurpation. he sent his agent vidomacq to the landgrave of hesse with instructions to do his utmost to confirm the princes of the union in organized resistance to the schemes of spain, and to prevent any interference with the condominium. he wrote letters to the archdukes and to the elector of cologne, sternly notifying them that he would permit no assault upon the princes, and meant to protect them in their rights. he sent one of his most experienced diplomatists, de boississe, formerly ambassador in england, to reside for a year or more in the duchies as special representative of france, and directed him on his way thither to consult especially with barneveld and the states-general as to the proper means of carrying out their joint policy either by diplomacy or, if need should be, by their united arms. troops began at once to move towards the frontier to counteract the plans of the emperor's council and the secret levies made by duchess sibylla's husband, the margrave of burgau. the king himself was perpetually at monceaux watching the movements of his cavalry towards the luxemburg frontier, and determined to protect the princes in their possession until some definite decision as to the sovereignty of the duchies should be made. meantime great pressure was put upon him by the opposite party. the pope did his best through the nuncius at paris directly, and through agents at prague, brussels, and madrid indirectly, to awaken the king to a sense of the enormity of his conduct. being a catholic prince, it was urged, he had no right to assist heretics. it was an action entirely contrary to his duty as a christian and of his reputation as eldest son of the church. even if the right were on the side of the princes, his majesty would do better to strip them of it and to clothe himself with it than to suffer the catholic faith and religion to receive such notable detriment in an affair likely to have such important consequences. such was some of the advice given by the pontiff. the suggestions were subtle, for they were directed to henry's self-interest both as champion of the ancient church and as a possible sovereign of the very territories in dispute. they were also likely, and were artfully so intended, to excite suspicion of henry's designs in the breasts of the protestants generally and of the possessory princes especially. allusions indeed to the rectification of the french border in henry ii.'s time at the expense of lorraine were very frequent. they probably accounted for much of the apparent supineness and want of respect for the king of which he complained every day and with so much bitterness. the pope's insinuations, however, failed to alarm him, for he had made up his mind as to the great business of what might remain to him of life; to humble the house of austria and in doing so to uphold the dutch republic on which he relied for his most efficient support. the situation was a false one viewed from the traditional maxims which governed europe. how could the eldest son of the church and the chief of an unlimited monarchy make common cause with heretics and republicans against spain and rome? that the position was as dangerous as it was illogical, there could be but little doubt. but there was a similarity of opinion between the king and the political chief of the republic on the great principle which was to illume the distant future but which had hardly then dawned upon the present; the principle of religious equality. as he protected protestants in france so he meant to protect catholics in the duchies. apostate as he was from the reformed church as he had already been from the catholic, he had at least risen above the paltry and insolent maxim of the princely protestantism of germany: "cujus regio ejus religio." while refusing to tremble before the wrath of rome or to incline his ear to its honeyed suggestions, he sent cardinal joyeuse with a special mission to explain to the pope that while the interests of france would not permit him to allow the spaniard's obtaining possession of provinces so near to her, he should take care that the church received no detriment and that he should insist as a price of the succour he intended for the possessory princes that they should give ample guarantees for the liberty of catholic worship. there was no doubt in the mind either of henry or of barneveld that the secret blows attempted by spain at the princes were in reality aimed at the republic and at himself as her ally. while the nuncius was making these exhortations in paris, his colleague from spain was authorized to propound a scheme of settlement which did not seem deficient in humour. at any rate henry was much diverted with the suggestion, which was nothing less than that the decision as to the succession to the duchies should be left to a board of arbitration consisting of the king of spain, the emperor, and the king of france. as henry would thus be painfully placed by himself in a hopeless minority, the only result of the scheme would be to compel him to sanction a decision sure to be directly the reverse of his own resolve. he was hardly such a schoolboy in politics as to listen to the proposal except to laugh at it. meantime arrived from julich, without much parade, a quiet but somewhat pompous gentleman named teynagel. he had formerly belonged to the reformed religion, but finding it more to his taste or advantage to become privy councillor of the emperor, he had returned to the ancient church. he was one of the five who had accompanied the archduke leopold to julich. that prompt undertaking having thus far succeeded so well, the warlike bishop had now despatched teynagel on a roving diplomatic mission. ostensibly he came to persuade henry that, by the usages and laws of the empire, fiefs left vacant for want of heirs male were at the disposal of the emperor. he expressed the hope therefore of obtaining the king's approval of leopold's position in julich as temporary vicegerent of his sovereign and cousin. the real motive of his mission, however, was privately to ascertain whether henry was really ready to go to war for the protection of the possessory princes, and then, to proceed to spain. it required an astute politician, however, to sound all the shoals, quicksands, and miseries through which the french government was then steering, and to comprehend with accuracy the somewhat varying humours of the monarch and the secret schemes of the ministers who immediately surrounded him. people at court laughed at teynagel and his mission, and henry treated him as a crackbrained adventurer. he announced himself as envoy of the emperor, although he had instructions from leopold only. he had interviews with the chancellor and with villeroy, and told them that rudolf claimed the right of judge between the various pretenders to the duchies. the king would not be pleased, he observed, if the king of great britain should constitute himself arbiter among claimants that might make their appearance for the crown of france; but henry had set himself up as umpire without being asked by any one to act in that capacity among the princes of germany. the emperor, on the contrary, had been appealed to by the duke of nevers, the elector of saxony, the margrave of burgau, and other liege subjects of the imperial crown as a matter of course and of right. this policy of the king, if persisted in, said teynagel, must lead to war. henry might begin such a war, but he would be obliged to bequeath it to the dauphin. he should remember that france had always been unlucky when waging war with the empire and with the house of austria.' the chancellor and villeroy, although in their hearts not much in love with henry's course, answered the emissary with arrogance equal to his own that their king could finish the war as well as begin it, that he confided in his strength and the justice of his cause, and that he knew very well and esteemed very little the combined forces of spain and the empire. they added that france was bound by the treaty of vervins to protect the princes, but they offered no proof of that rather startling proposition. meantime teynagel was busy in demonstrating that the princes of germany were in reality much more afraid of henry than of the emperor. his military movements and deep designs excited more suspicion throughout that country and all europe than the quiet journey of leopold and five friends by post to julich. he had come provided with copies of the king's private letters to the princes, and seemed fully instructed as to his most secret thoughts. for this convenient information he was supposed to be indebted to the revelations of father cotton, who was then in disgrace; having been detected in transmitting to the general of jesuits henry's most sacred confidences and confessions as to his political designs. fortified with this private intelligence, and having been advised by father cotton to carry matters with a high hand in order to inspire the french court with a wholesome awe, he talked boldly about the legitimate functions of the emperor. to interfere with them, he assured the ministers, would lead to a long and bloody war, as neither the king nor the archduke albert would permit the emperor to be trampled upon. peter pecquius, the crafty and experienced agent of the archduke at paris, gave the bouncing envoy more judicious advice, however, than that of the jesuit, assuring him that he would spoil his whole case should he attempt to hold such language to the king. he was admitted to an audience of henry at monceaux, but found him prepared to show his teeth as aerssens had predicted. he treated teynagel as a mere madcap and, adventurer who had no right to be received as a public minister at all, and cut short his rodomontades by assuring him that his mind was fully made up to protect the possessory princes. jeannin was present at the interview, although, as aerssens well observed, the king required no pedagogue on such an occasion? teynagel soon afterwards departed malcontent to spain, having taken little by his abnormal legation to henry, and being destined to find at the court of philip as urgent demands on that monarch for assistance to the league as he was to make for leopold and the house of austria. for the league, hardly yet thoroughly organized under the leadership of maximilian of bavaria, was rather a catholic corrival than cordial ally of the imperial house. it was universally suspected that henry meant to destroy and discrown the habsburgs, and it lay not in the schemes of maximilian to suffer the whole catholic policy to be bound to the fortunes of that one family. whether or not henry meant to commit the anachronism and blunder of reproducing the part of charlemagne might be doubtful. the supposed design of maximilian to renew the glories of the house of wittelsbach was equally vague. it is certain, however, that a belief in such ambitious schemes on the part of both had been insinuated into the ears of rudolf, and had sunk deeply into his unsettled mind. scarcely had teynagel departed than the ancient president richardot appeared upon the scene. "the mischievous old monkey," as he had irreverently been characterized during the truce negotiations, "who showed his tail the higher he climbed," was now trembling at the thought that all the good work he had been so laboriously accomplishing during the past two years should be annihilated. the archdukes, his masters, being sincerely bent on peace, had deputed him to henry, who, as they believed, was determined to rekindle war. as frequently happens in such cases, they were prepared to smooth over the rough and almost impassable path to a cordial understanding by comfortable and cheap commonplaces concerning the blessings of peace, and to offer friendly compromises by which they might secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers of making it. they had been solemnly notified by henry that he would go to war rather than permit the house of austria to acquire the succession to the duchies. they now sent richardot to say that neither the archdukes nor the king of spain would interfere in the matter, and that they hoped the king of france would not prevent the emperor from exercising his rightful functions of judge. henry, who knew that don baltasar de cuniga, spanish ambassador at the imperial court, had furnished leopold, the emperor's cousin, with , crowns to defray his first expenses in the julich expedition, considered that the veteran politician had come to perform a school boy's task. he was more than ever convinced by this mission of richardot that the spaniards had organized the whole scheme, and he was likely only to smile at any propositions the president might make. at the beginning of his interview, in which the king was quite alone, richardot asked if he would agree to maintain neutrality like the king of spain and the archdukes, and allow the princes to settle their business with the emperor. "no," said the king. he then asked if henry would assist them in their wrong. "no," said the king. he then asked if the king thought that the princes had justice on their side, and whether, if the contrary were shown, he would change his policy? henry replied that the emperor could not be both judge and party in the suit and that the king of spain was plotting to usurp the provinces through the instrumentality of his brother-in-law leopold and under the name of the emperor. he would not suffer it, he said. "then there will be a general war," replied richardot, "since you are determined to assist these princes." "be it so," said the king. "you are right," said the president, "for you are a great and puissant monarch, having all the advantages that could be desired, and in case of rupture i fear that all this immense power will be poured out over us who are but little princes." "cause leopold to retire then and leave the princes in their right," was the reply. "you will then have nothing to fear. are you not very unhappy to live under those poor weak archdukes? don't you foresee that as soon as they die you will lose all the little you have acquired in the obedient netherlands during the last fifty years?" the president had nothing to reply to this save that he had never approved of leopold's expedition, and that when spaniards make mistakes they always had recourse to their servants to repair their faults. he had accepted this mission inconsiderately, he said, inspired by a hope to conjure the rising storms mingled with fears as to the result which were now justified. he regretted having come, he said. the king shrugged his shoulders. richardot then suggested that leopold might be recognized in julich, and the princes at dusseldorf, or that all parties might retire until the emperor should give his decision. all these combinations were flatly refused by the king, who swore that no one of the house of austria should ever perch in any part of those provinces. if leopold did not withdraw at once, war was inevitable. he declared that he would break up everything and dare everything, whether the possessory princes formally applied to him or not. he would not see his friends oppressed nor allow the spaniard by this usurpation to put his foot on the throat of the states-general, for it was against them that this whole scheme was directed. to the president's complaints that the states-general had been moving troops in gelderland, henry replied at once that it was done by his command, and that they were his troops. with this answer richardot was fain to retire crestfallen, mortified, and unhappy. he expressed repentance and astonishment at the result, and protested that those peoples were happy whose princes understood affairs. his princes were good, he said, but did not give themselves the trouble to learn their business. richardot then took his departure from paris, and very soon afterwards from the world. he died at arras early in september, as many thought of chagrin at the ill success of his mission, while others ascribed it to a surfeit of melons and peaches. "senectus edam maorbus est," said aerssens with seneca. henry said he could not sufficiently wonder at these last proceedings at his court, of a man he had deemed capable and sagacious, but who had been committing an irreparable blunder. he had never known two such impertinent ambassadors as don pedro de toledo and richardot on this occasion. the one had been entirely ignorant of the object of his mission; the other had shown a vain presumption in thinking he could drive him from his fixed purpose by a flood of words. he had accordingly answered him on the spot without consulting his council, at which poor richardot had been much amazed. and now another envoy appeared upon the scene, an ambassador coming directly from the emperor. count hohenzollern, a young man, wild, fierce, and arrogant, scarcely twenty-three years of age, arrived in paris on the th of september, with a train of forty horsemen. de colly, agent of the elector-palatine, had received an outline of his instructions, which the prince of anhalt had obtained at prague. he informed henry that hohenzollern would address him thus: "you are a king. you would not like that the emperor should aid your subjects in rebellion. he did not do this in the time of the league, although often solicited to do so. you should not now sustain the princes in disobeying the imperial decree. kings should unite in maintaining the authority and majesty of each other." he would then in the emperor's name urge the claims of the house of saxony to the duchies. henry was much pleased with this opportune communication by de colly of the private instructions to the emperor's envoy, by which he was enabled to meet the wild and fierce young man with an arrogance at least equal to his own. the interview was a stormy one. the king was alone in the gallery of the louvre, not choosing that his words and gestures should be observed. the envoy spoke much in the sense which de colly had indicated; making a long argument in favour of the emperor's exclusive right of arbitration, and assuring the king that the emperor was resolved on war if interference between himself and his subjects was persisted in. he loudly pronounced the proceedings of the possessory princes to be utterly illegal, and contrary to all precedent. the emperor would maintain his authority at all hazards, and one spark of war would set everything in a blaze within the empire and without. henry replied sternly but in general terms, and referred him for a final answer to his council. "what will you do," asked the envoy, categorically, at a subsequent interview about a month later, "to protect the princes in case the emperor constrains them to leave the provinces which they have unjustly occupied?" "there is none but god to compel me to say more than i choose to say," replied the king. "it is enough for you to know that i will never abandon my friends in a just cause. the emperor can do much for the general peace. he is not to lend his name to cover this usurpation." and so the concluding interview terminated in an exchange of threats rather than with any hope of accommodation. hohenzollern used as high language to the ministers as to the monarch, and received payment in the same coin. he rebuked their course not very adroitly as being contrary to the interests of catholicism. they were placing the provinces in the hands of protestants, he urged. it required no envoy from prague to communicate this startling fact. friends and foes, villeroy and jeannin, as well as sully and duplessis, knew well enough that henry was not taking up arms for rome. "sir! do you look at the matter in that way?" cried sully, indignantly. "the huguenots are as good as the catholics. they fight like the devil!" "the emperor will never permit the princes to remain nor leopold to withdraw," said the envoy to jeannin. jeannin replied that the king was always ready to listen to reason, but there was no use in holding language of authority to him. it was money he would not accept. "fiat justitia pereat mundus," said the haggard hohenzollern. "your world may perish," replied jeannin, "but not ours. it is much better put together." a formal letter was then written by the king to the emperor, in which henry expressed his desire to maintain peace and fraternal relations, but notified him that if, under any pretext whatever, he should trouble the princes in their possession, he would sustain them with all his power, being bound thereto by treaties and by reasons of state. this letter was committed to the care of hohenzollern, who forthwith departed, having received a present of crowns. his fierce, haggard face thus vanishes for the present from our history. the king had taken his ground, from which there was no receding. envoys or agents of emperor, pope, king of spain, archduke at brussels, and archduke at julich, had failed to shake his settled purpose. yet the road was far from smooth. he had thus far no ally but the states-general. he could not trust james of great britain. boderie came back late in the summer from his mission to that monarch, reporting him as being favourably inclined to brandenburg, but hoping for an amicable settlement in the duchies. no suggestion being made even by the sagacious james as to the manner in which the ferret and rabbits were to come to a compromise, henry inferred, if it came to fighting, that the english government would refuse assistance. james had asked boderie in fact whether his sovereign and the states, being the parties chiefly interested, would be willing to fight it out without allies. he had also sent sir ralph winwood on a special mission to the hague, to dusseldorf, and with letters to the emperor, in which he expressed confidence that rudolph would approve the proceedings of the possessory princes. as he could scarcely do that while loudly claiming through his official envoy in paris that the princes should instantly withdraw on pain of instant war, the value of the english suggestion of an amicable compromise might easily be deduced. great was the jealousy in france of this mission from england. that the princes should ask the interference of james while neglecting, despising, or fearing henry, excited henry's wrath. he was ready, and avowed his readiness, to put on armour at once in behalf of the princes, and to arbitrate on the destiny of germany, but no one seemed ready to follow his standard. no one asked him to arbitrate. the spanish faction wheedled and threatened by turns, in order to divert him from his purpose, while the protestant party held aloof, and babbled of charlemagne and of henry ii. he said he did not mean to assist the princes by halves, but as became a king of france, and the princes expressed suspicion of him, talked of the example of metz, and called the emperor their very clement lord. it was not strange that henry was indignant and jealous. he was holding the wolf by the ears, as he himself observed more than once. the war could not long be delayed; yet they in whose behalf it was to be waged treated him with a disrespect and flippancy almost amounting to scorn. they tried to borrow money of him through the post, and neglected to send him an ambassador. this was most decidedly putting the cart before the oxen, so henry said, and so thought all his friends. when they had blockaded the road to julich, in order to cut off leopold's supplies, they sent to request that the two french regiments in the states' service might be ordered to their assistance, archduke albert having threatened to open the passage by force of arms. "this is a fine stratagem," said aerssens, "to fling the states-general headlong into the war, and, as it were, without knowing it." but the states-general, under the guidance of barneveld, were not likely to be driven headlong by brandenburg and neuburg. they managed with caution, but with perfect courage, to move side by side with henry, and to leave the initiative to him, while showing an unfaltering front to the enemy. that the princes were lost, spain and the emperor triumphant, unless henry and the states should protect them with all their strength, was as plain as a mathematical demonstration. yet firm as were the attitude and the language of henry, he was thought to be hoping to accomplish much by bluster. it was certain that the bold and unexpected stroke of leopold had produced much effect upon his mind, and for a time those admitted to his intimacy saw, or thought they saw, a decided change in his demeanour. to the world at large his language and his demonstrations were even more vehement than they had been at the outset of the controversy; but it was believed that there was now a disposition to substitute threats for action. the military movements set on foot were thought to be like the ringing of bells and firing of cannon to dissipate a thunderstorm. yet it was treason at court to doubt the certainty of war. the king ordered new suits of armour, bought splendid chargers, and gave himself all the airs of a champion rushing to a tournament as gaily as in the earliest days of his king-errantry. he spoke of his eager desire to break a lance with spinola, and give a lesson to the young volunteer who had sprung into so splendid a military reputation, while he had been rusting, as he thought, in pacific indolence, and envying the laurels of the comparatively youthful maurice. yet those most likely to be well informed believed that nothing would come of all this fire and fury. the critics were wrong. there was really no doubt of henry's sincerity, but his isolation was terrible. there was none true to him at home but sully. abroad, the states-general alone were really friendly, so far as positive agreements existed. above all, the intolerable tergiversations and suspicions of those most interested, the princes in possession, and their bickerings among themselves, hampered his movements. treason and malice in his cabinet and household, jealousy and fear abroad, were working upon and undermining him like a slow fever. his position was most pathetic, but his purpose was fixed. james of england, who admired, envied, and hated henry, was wont to moralize on his character and his general unpopularity, while engaged in negotiations with him. he complained that in the whole affair of the truce he had sought only his particular advantage. "this is not to be wondered at in one of his nature," said the king, "who only careth to provide for the felicities of his present life, without any respect for his life to come. indeed, the consideration of his own age and the youth of his children, the doubt of their legitimation, the strength of competitioners, and the universal hatred borne unto him, makes him seek all means of security for preventing of all dangers." there were changes from day to day; hot and cold fits necessarily resulting from the situation. as a rule, no eminent general who has had much experience wishes to go into a new war inconsiderately and for the mere love of war. the impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants. henry was no exception to the rule. he felt that the complications then existing, the religious, political, and dynastic elements arrayed against each other, were almost certain to be brought to a crisis and explosion by the incident of the duchies. he felt that the impending struggle was probably to be a desperate and a general one, but there was no inconsistency in hoping that the show of a vigorous and menacing attitude might suspend, defer, or entirely dissipate the impending storm. the appearance of vacillation on his part from day to day was hardly deserving of the grave censure which it received, and was certainly in the interests of humanity. his conferences with sully were almost daily and marked by intense anxiety. he longed for barneveld, and repeatedly urged that the advocate, laying aside all other business, would come to paris, that they might advise together thoroughly and face to face. it was most important that the combination of alliances should be correctly arranged before hostilities began, and herein lay the precise difficulty. the princes applied formally and freely to the states-general for assistance. they applied to the king of great britain. the agents of the opposite party besieged henry with entreaties, and, failing in those, with threats; going off afterwards to spain, to the archdukes, and to other catholic powers in search of assistance. the states-general professed their readiness to put an army of , foot and horse in the field for the spring campaign, so soon as they were assured of henry's determination for a rupture. "i am fresh enough still," said he to their ambassador, "to lead an army into cleve. i shall have a cheap bargain enough of the provinces. but these germans do nothing but eat and sleep. they will get the profit and assign to me the trouble. no matter, i will never suffer the aggrandizement of the house of austria. the states-general must disband no troops, but hold themselves in readiness." secretary of state villeroy held the same language, but it was easy to trace beneath his plausible exterior a secret determination to traverse the plans of his sovereign. "the cleve affair must lead to war," he said. "the spaniard, considering how necessary it is for him to have a prince there at his devotion, can never quietly suffer brandenburg and neuburg to establish themselves in those territories. the support thus gained by the states-general would cause the loss of the spanish netherlands." this was the view of henry, too, but the secretary of state, secretly devoted to the cause of spain, looked upon the impending war with much aversion. "all that can come to his majesty from war," he said, "is the glory of having protected the right. counterbalance this with the fatigue, the expense, and the peril of a great conflict, after our long repose, and you will find this to be buying glory too dearly." when a frenchman talked of buying glory too dearly, it seemed probable that the particular kind of glory was not to his taste. henry had already ordered the officers, then in france, of the french infantry kept in the states' service at his expense to depart at once to holland, and he privately announced his intention of moving to the frontier at the head of , men. 'yet not only villeroy, but the chancellor and the constable, while professing opposition to the designs of austria and friendliness to those of brandenburg and neuburg, deprecated this precipitate plunge into war. "those most interested," they said, "refuse to move; fearing austria, distrusting france. they leave us the burden and danger, and hope for the spoils themselves. we cannot play cat to their monkey. the king must hold himself in readiness to join in the game when the real players have shuffled and dealt the cards. it is no matter to us whether the spaniard or brandenburg or anyone else gets the duchies. the states-general require a friendly sovereign there, and ought to say how much they will do for that result." the constable laughed at the whole business. coming straight from the louvre, he said "there would be no serious military movement, and that all those fine freaks would evaporate in air." but sully never laughed. he was quietly preparing the ways and means for the war, and he did not intend, so far as he had influence, that france should content herself with freaks and let spain win the game. alone in the council he maintained that "france had gone too far to recede without sacrifice of reputation."--"the king's word is engaged both within and without," he said. "not to follow it with deeds would be dangerous to the kingdom. the spaniard will think france afraid of war. we must strike a sudden blow, either to drive the enemy away or to crush him at once. there is no time for delay. the netherlands must prevent the aggrandizement of austria or consent to their own ruin." thus stood the game therefore. the brother of brandenburg and son of neuburg had taken possession of dusseldorf. the emperor, informed of this, ordered them forthwith to decamp. he further summoned all pretenders to the duchies to appear before him, in person or by proxy, to make good their claims. they refused and appealed for advice and assistance to the states-general. barneveld, aware of the intrigues of spain, who disguised herself in the drapery of the emperor, recommended that the estates of cleve, julich, berg, mark, ravensberg, and ravenstein, should be summoned in dusseldorf. this was done and a resolution taken to resist any usurpation. the king of france wrote to the elector of cologne, who, by directions of rome and by means of the jesuits, had been active in the intrigue, that he would not permit the princes to be disturbed. the archduke leopold suddenly jumped into the chief citadel of the country and published an edict of the emperor. all the proceedings were thereby nullified as illegal and against the dignity of the realm and the princes proclaimed under ban. a herald brought the edict and ban to the princes in full assembly. the princes tore it to pieces on the spot. nevertheless they were much frightened, and many members of the estates took themselves off; others showing an inclination to follow. the princes sent forth with a deputation to the hague to consult my lords the states-general. the states-general sent an express messenger to paris. their ambassador there sent him back a week later, with notice of the king's determination to risk everything against everything to preserve the rights of the princes. it was added that henry required to be solicited by them, in order not by volunteer succour to give cause for distrust as to his intentions. the states-general were further apprised by the king that his interests and theirs were so considerable in the matter that they would probably be obliged to go into a brisk and open war, in order to prevent the spaniard from establishing himself in the duchies. he advised them to notify the archdukes in brussels that they would regard the truce as broken if, under pretext of maintaining the emperor's rights, they should molest the princes. he desired them further to send their forces at once to the frontier of gelderland under prince maurice, without committing any overt act of hostility, but in order to show that both the king and the states were thoroughly in earnest. the king then sent to archduke albert, as well as to the elector of cologne, and despatched a special envoy to the king of great britain. immediately afterwards came communications from barneveld to henry, with complete adhesion to the king's plans. the states would move in exact harmony with him, neither before him nor after him, which was precisely what he wished. he complained bitterly to aerssens, when he communicated the advocate's despatches, of the slothful and timid course of the princes. he ascribed it to the arts of leopold, who had written and inspired many letters against him insinuating that he was secretly in league and correspondence with the emperor; that he was going to the duchies simply in the interest of the catholics; that he was like henry ii. only seeking to extend the french frontier; and leopold, by these intrigues and falsehoods, had succeeded in filling the princes with distrust, and they had taken umbrage at the advance of his cavalry. henry professed himself incapable of self-seeking or ambition. he meant to prevent the aggrandizement of austria, and was impatient at the dilatoriness and distrust of the princes. "all their enemies are rushing to the king of spain. let them address themselves to the king of france," he said, "for it is we two that must play this game." and when at last they did send an embassy, they prefaced it by a post letter demanding an instant loan, and with an intimation that they would rather have his money than his presence! was it surprising that the king's course should seem occasionally wavering when he found it so difficult to stir up such stagnant waters into honourable action? was it strange that the rude and stern sully should sometimes lose his patience, knowing so much and suspecting more of the foul designs by which his master was encompassed, of the web of conspiracy against his throne, his life, and his honour, which was daily and hourly spinning? "we do nothing and you do nothing," he said one day to aerssens. "you are too soft, and we are too cowardly. i believe that we shall spoil everything, after all. i always suspect these sudden determinations of ours. they are of bad augury. we usually founder at last when we set off so fiercely at first. there are words enough an every side, but there will be few deeds. there is nothing to be got out of the king of great britain, and the king of spain will end by securing these provinces for himself by a treaty." sully knew better than this, but he did not care to let even the dutch envoy know, as yet, the immense preparations he had been making for the coming campaign. the envoys of the possessory princes, the counts solms, colonel pallandt, and dr. steyntgen, took their departure, after it had been arranged that final measures should be concerted at the general congress of the german protestants to be held early in the ensuing year at hall, in suabia. at that convention de boississe would make himself heard on the part of france, and the representatives of the states-general, of venice, and savoy, would also be present. meantime the secret conferences between henry and his superintendent of finances and virtual prime minister were held almost every day. scarcely an afternoon passed that the king did not make his appearance at the arsenal, sully's residence, and walk up and down the garden with him for hours, discussing the great project of which his brain was full. this great project was to crush for ever the power of the austrian house; to drive spain back into her own limits, putting an end to her projects for universal monarchy; and taking the imperial crown from the house of habsburg. by thus breaking up the mighty cousinship which, with the aid of rome, overshadowed germany and the two peninsulas, besides governing the greater part of both the indies, he meant to bring france into the preponderant position over christendom which he believed to be her due. it was necessary, he thought, for the continued existence of the dutch commonwealth that the opportunity should be taken once for all, now that a glorious captain commanded its armies and a statesman unrivalled for experience, insight, and patriotism controlled its politics and its diplomacy, to drive the spaniard out of the netherlands. the cleve question, properly and vigorously handled, presented exactly the long desired opportunity for carrying out these vast designs. the plan of assault upon spanish power was to be threefold. the king himself at the head of , men, supported by prince maurice and the states' forces amounting to at least , , would move to the rhine and seize the duchies. the duke de la force would command the army of the pyrenees and act in concert with the moors of spain, who roused to frenzy by their expulsion from the kingdom could be relied on for a revolt or at least a most vigorous diversion. thirdly, a treaty with the duke of savoy by which henry accorded his daughter to the duke's eldest son, the prince of piedmont, a gift of , crowns, and a monthly pension during the war of , crowns a month, was secretly concluded. early in the spring the duke was to take the field with at least , foot and horse, supported by a french army of , to , men under the experienced marshal de lesdiguieres. these forces were to operate against the duchy of milan with the intention of driving the spaniards out of that rich possession, which the duke of savoy claimed for himself, and of assuring to henry the dictatorship of italy. with the cordial alliance of venice, and by playing off the mutual jealousies of the petty italian princes, like florence, mantua, montserrat, and others, against each other and against the pope, it did not seem doubtful to sully that the result would be easily accomplished. he distinctly urged the wish that the king should content himself with political influence, with the splendid position of holding all italy dependent upon his will and guidance, but without annexing a particle of territory to his own crown. it was henry's intention, however, to help himself to the duchy of savoy, and to the magnificent city and port of genoa as a reward to himself for the assistance, matrimonial alliance, and aggrandizement which he was about to bestow upon charles emmanuel. sully strenuously opposed these self-seeking views on the part of his sovereign, however, constantly placing before him the far nobler aim of controlling the destinies of christendom, of curbing what tended to become omnipotent, of raising up and protecting that which had been abased, of holding the balance of empire with just and steady hand in preference to the more vulgar and commonplace ambition of annexing a province or two to the realms of france. it is true that these virtuous homilies, so often preached by him against territorial aggrandizement in one direction, did not prevent him from indulging in very extensive visions of it in another. but the dreams pointed to the east rather than to the south. it was sully's policy to swallow a portion not of italy but of germany. he persuaded his master that the possessory princes, if placed by the help of france in the heritage which they claimed, would hardly be able to maintain themselves against the dangers which surrounded them except by a direct dependence upon france. in the end the position would become an impossible one, and it would be easy after the war was over to indemnify brandenburg with money and with private property in the heart of france for example, and obtain the cession of those most coveted provinces between the meuse and the weser to the king. "what an advantage for france," whispered sully, "to unite to its power so important a part of germany. for it cannot be denied that by accepting the succour given by the king now those princes oblige themselves to ask for help in the future in order to preserve their new acquisition. thus your majesty will make them pay for it very dearly." thus the very virtuous self-denial in regard to the duke of savoy did not prevent a secret but well developed ambition at the expense of the elector of brandenburg. for after all it was well enough known that the elector was the really important and serious candidate. henry knew full well that neuburg was depending on the austrians and the catholics, and that the claims of saxony were only put forward by the emperor in order to confuse the princes and excite mutual distrust. the king's conferences with the great financier were most confidential, and sully was as secret as the grave. but henry never could keep a secret even when it concerned his most important interests, and nothing would serve him but he must often babble of his great projects even to their minutest details in presence of courtiers and counsellors whom in his heart he knew to be devoted to spain and in receipt of pensions from her king. he would boast to them of the blows by which he meant to demolish spain and the whole house of austria, so that there should be no longer danger to be feared from that source to the tranquillity and happiness of europe, and he would do this so openly and in presence of those who, as he knew, were perpetually setting traps for him and endeavouring to discover his deepest secrets as to make sully's hair stand on end. the faithful minister would pluck his master by the cloak at times, and the king, with the adroitness which never forsook him when he chose to employ it, would contrive to extricate himself from a dilemma and pause at the brink of tremendous disclosures.--[memoires de sully, t. vii. p. .]--but sully could not be always at his side, nor were the nuncius or don inigo de cardenas or their confidential agents and spies always absent. enough was known of the general plan, while as to the probability of its coming into immediate execution, perhaps the enemies of the king were often not more puzzled than his friends. but what the spanish ambassador did not know, nor the nuncius, nor even the friendly aerssens, was the vast amount of supplies which had been prepared for the coming conflict by the finance minister. henry did not know it himself. "the war will turn on france as on a pivot," said sully; "it remains to be seen if we have supplies and money enough. i will engage if the war is not to last more than three years and you require no more than , men at a time that i will show you munitions and ammunition and artillery and the like to such an extent that you will say, 'it is enough.' "as to money--" "how much money have i got?" asked the king; "a dozen millions?" "a little more than that," answered the minister. "fourteen millions?" "more still." "sixteen?" continued the king. "more yet," said sully. and so the king went on adding two millions at each question until thirty millions were reached, and when the question as to this sum was likewise answered in the affirmative, he jumped from his chair, hugged his minister around the neck, and kissed him on both cheeks. "i want no more than that," he cried. sully answered by assuring him that he had prepared a report showing a reserve of forty millions on which he might draw for his war expenses, without in the least degree infringing on the regular budget for ordinary expenses. the king was in a transport of delight, and would have been capable of telling the story on the spot to the nuncius had he met him that afternoon, which fortunately did not occur. but of all men in europe after the faithful sully, henry most desired to see and confer daily and secretly with barneveld. he insisted vehemently that, neglecting all other business, he should come forthwith to paris at the head of the special embassy which it had been agreed that the states should send. no living statesman, he said, could compare to holland's advocate in sagacity, insight, breadth of view, knowledge of mankind and of great affairs, and none he knew was more sincerely attached to his person or felt more keenly the value of the french alliance. with him he indeed communicated almost daily through the medium of aerssens, who was in constant receipt of most elaborate instructions from barneveld, but he wished to confer with him face to face, so that there would be no necessity of delay in sending back for instructions, limitations, and explanation. no man knew better than the king did that so far as foreign affairs were concerned the states-general were simply barneveld. on the nd january the states' ambassador had a long and secret interview with the king.' he informed him that the prince of anhalt had been assured by barneveld that the possessory princes would be fully supported in their position by the states, and that the special deputies of archduke albert, whose presence at the hague made henry uneasy, as he regarded them as perpetual spies, had been dismissed. henry expressed his gratification. they are there, he said, entirely in the interest of leopold, who has just received , crowns from the king of spain, and is to have that sum annually, and they are only sent to watch all your proceedings in regard to cleve. the king then fervently pressed the ambassador to urge barneveld's coming to paris with the least possible delay. he signified his delight with barneveld's answer to anhalt, who thus fortified would be able to do good service at the assembly at hall. he had expected nothing else from barneveld's sagacity, from his appreciation of the needs of christendom, and from his affection for himself. he told the ambassador that he was anxiously waiting for the advocate in order to consult with him as to all the details of the war. the affair of cleve, he said, was too special a cause. a more universal one was wanted. the king preferred to begin with luxemburg, attacking charlemont or namur, while the states ought at the same time to besiege venlo, with the intention afterwards of uniting with the king in laying siege to maestricht. he was strong enough, he said, against all the world, but he still preferred to invite all princes interested to join him in putting down the ambitious and growing power of spain. cleve was a plausible pretext, but the true cause, he said, should be found in the general safety of christendom. boississe had been sent to the german princes to ascertain whether and to what extent they would assist the king. he supposed that once they found him engaged in actual warfare in luxemburg, they would get rid of their jealousy and panic fears of him and his designs. he expected them to furnish at least as large a force as he would supply as a contingent. for it was understood that anhalt as generalissimo of the german forces would command a certain contingent of french troops, while the main army of the king would be led by himself in person. henry expressed the conviction that the king of spain would be taken by surprise finding himself attacked in three places and by three armies at once, he believing that the king of france was entirely devoted to his pleasures and altogether too old for warlike pursuits, while the states, just emerging from the misery of their long and cruel conflict, would be surely unwilling to plunge headlong into a great and bloody war. henry inferred this, he said, from observing the rude and brutal manner in which the soldiers in the spanish netherlands were now treated. it seemed, he said, as if the archdukes thought they had no further need of them, or as if a stamp of the foot could raise new armies out of the earth. "my design," continued the king, "is the more likely to succeed as the king of spain, being a mere gosling and a valet of the duke of lerma, will find himself stripped of all his resources and at his wits' end; unexpectedly embarrassed as he will be on the italian side, where we shall be threatening to cut the jugular vein of his pretended universal monarchy." he intimated that there was no great cause for anxiety in regard to the catholic league just formed at wurzburg. he doubted whether the king of spain would join it, and he had learned that the elector of cologne was making very little progress in obtaining the emperor's adhesion. as to this point the king had probably not yet thoroughly understood that the bavarian league was intended to keep clear of the house of habsburg, maximilian not being willing to identify the success of german catholicism with the fortunes of that family. henry expressed the opinion that the king of spain, that is to say, his counsellors, meant to make use of the emperor's name while securing all the profit, and that rudolph quite understood their game, while matthias was sure to make use of this opportunity, supported by the protestants of bohemia, austria, and moravia, to strip the emperor of the last shred of empire. the king was anxious that the states should send a special embassy at once to the king of great britain. his ambassador, de la boderie, gave little encouragement of assistance from that quarter, but it was at least desirable to secure his neutrality. "'tis a prince too much devoted to repose," said henry, "to be likely to help in this war, but at least he must not be allowed to traverse our great designs. he will probably refuse the league offensive and defensive which i have proposed to him, but he must be got, if possible, to pledge himself to the defensive. i mean to assemble my army on the frontier, as if to move upon julich, and then suddenly sweep down on the meuse, where, sustained by the states' army and that of the princes, i will strike my blows and finish my enterprise before our adversary has got wind of what is coming. we must embark james in the enterprise if we can, but at any rate we must take measures to prevent his spoiling it." henry assured the envoy that no one would know anything of the great undertaking but by its effect; that no one could possibly talk about it with any knowledge except himself, sully, villeroy, barneveld, and aerssens. with them alone he conferred confidentially, and he doubted not that the states would embrace this opportunity to have done for ever with the spaniards. he should take the field in person, he said, and with several powerful armies would sweep the enemy away from the meuse, and after obtaining control of that river would quietly take possession of the sea-coast of flanders, shut up archduke albert between the states and the french, who would thus join hands and unite their frontiers. again the king expressed his anxiety for barneveld's coming, and directed the ambassador to urge it, and to communicate to him the conversation which had just taken place. he much preferred, he said, a general war. he expressed doubts as to the prince of anhalt's capacity as chief in the cleve expedition, and confessed that being jealous of his own reputation he did not like to commit his contingent of troops to the care of a stranger and one so new to his trade. the shame would fall on himself, not on anhalt in case of any disaster. therefore, to avoid all petty jealousies and inconveniences of that nature by which the enterprise might be ruined, it was best to make out of this small affair a great one, and the king signified his hope that the advocate would take this view of the case and give him his support. he had plenty of grounds of war himself, and the states had as good cause of hostilities in the rupture of the truce by the usurpation attempted by leopold with the assistance of spain and in the name of the emperor. he hoped, he said, that the states would receive no more deputations from archduke albert, but decide to settle everything at the point of the sword. the moment was propitious, and, if neglected, might never return. marquis spinola was about to make a journey to spain on various matters of business. on his return, henry said, he meant to make him prisoner as a hostage for the prince of conde, whom the archdukes were harbouring and detaining. this would be the pretext, he said, but the object would be to deprive the archdukes of any military chief, and thus to throw them into utter confusion. count van den berg would never submit to the authority of don luis de velasco, nor velasco to his, and not a man could come from spain or italy, for the passages would all be controlled by france. fortunately for the king's reputation, spinola's journey was deferred, so that this notable plan for disposing of the great captain fell to the ground. henry agreed to leave the two french regiments and the two companies of cavalry in the states' service as usual, but stipulated in certain contingencies for their use. passing to another matter concerning which there had been so much jealousy on the part of the states, the formation of the french east india company--to organize which undertaking le roy and isaac le maire of amsterdam had been living disguised in the house of henry's famous companion, the financier zamet at paris--the king said that barneveld ought not to envy him a participation in the great profits of this business. nothing would be done without consulting him after his arrival in paris. he would discuss the matter privately with him, he said, knowing that barneveld was a great personage, but however obstinate he might be, he felt sure that he would always yield to reason. on the other hand the king expressed his willingness to submit to the advocate's opinions if they should seem the more just. on leaving the king the ambassador had an interview with sully, who again expressed his great anxiety for the arrival of barneveld, and his hopes that he might come with unlimited powers, so that the great secret might not leak out through constant referring of matters back to the provinces. after rendering to the advocate a detailed account of this remarkable conversation, aerssens concluded with an intimation that perhaps his own opinion might be desired as to the meaning of all those movements developing themselves so suddenly and on so many sides. "i will say," he observed, "exactly what the poet sings of the army of ants-- 'hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta pulveris exigui jactu contacts quiescunt.' if the prince of conde comes back, we shall be more plausible than ever. if he does not come back, perhaps the consideration of the future will sweep us onwards. all have their special views, and m. de villeroy more warmly than all the rest." etext editor's bookmarks: abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty could not be both judge and party in the suit covered now with the satirical dust of centuries deadly hatred of puritans in england and holland doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense emperor of japan addressed him as his brother monarch estimating his character and judging his judges everybody should mind his own business he was a sincere bigot impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants intense bigotry of conviction international friendship, the self-interest of each it was the true religion, and there was none other james of england, who admired, envied, and hated henry jealousy, that potent principle language which is ever living because it is dead more fiercely opposed to each other than to papists none but god to compel me to say more than i choose to say power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never putting the cart before the oxen religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers senectus edam maorbus est so much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality the catholic league and the protestant union the truth in shortest about matters of importance the vehicle is often prized more than the freight there was but one king in europe, henry the bearnese there was no use in holding language of authority to him thirty years' war tread on the heels of the forty years unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant chapter ii. - passion of henry iv. for margaret de montmorency--her marriage with the prince of conde--their departure for the country-their flight to the netherlands-rage of the king--intrigues of spain--reception of the prince and princess of conde by the archdukes at brussels-- splendid entertainments by spinola--attempts of the king to bring the fugitives back--mission of de coeuvres to brussels--difficult position of the republic--vast but secret preparations for war. "if the prince of conde comes back." what had the prince of conde, his comings and his goings, to do with this vast enterprise? it is time to point to the golden thread of most fantastic passion which runs throughout this dark and eventful history. one evening in the beginning of the year which had just come to its close there was to be a splendid fancy ball at the louvre in the course of which several young ladies of highest rank were to perform a dance in mythological costume. the king, on ill terms with the queen, who harassed him with scenes of affected jealousy, while engaged in permanent plots with her paramour and master, the italian concini, against his policy and his life; on still worse terms with his latest mistress in chief, the marquise de verneuil, who hated him and revenged herself for enduring his caresses by making him the butt of her venomous wit, had taken the festivities of a court in dudgeon where he possessed hosts of enemies and flatterers but scarcely a single friend. he refused to attend any of the rehearsals of the ballet, but one day a group of diana and her nymphs passed him in the great gallery of the palace. one of the nymphs as she went by turned and aimed her gilded javelin at his heart. henry looked and saw the most beautiful young creature, so he thought, that mortal eye had ever gazed upon, and according to his wont fell instantly over head and ears in love. he said afterwards that he felt himself pierced to the heart and was ready to faint away. the lady was just fifteen years of age. the king was turned of fifty-five. the disparity of age seemed to make the royal passion ridiculous. to henry the situation seemed poetical and pathetic. after this first interview he never missed a single rehearsal. in the intervals he called perpetually for the services of the court poet malherbe, who certainly contrived to perpetrate in his behalf some of the most detestable verses that even he had ever composed. the nymph was marguerite de montmorency, daughter of the constable of france, and destined one day to become the mother of the great conde, hero of rocroy. there can be no doubt that she was exquisitely beautiful. fair-haired, with a complexion of dazzling purity, large expressive eyes, delicate but commanding features, she had a singular fascination of look and gesture, and a winning, almost childlike, simplicity of manner. without feminine artifice or commonplace coquetry, she seemed to bewitch and subdue at a glance men of all ranks, ages, and pursuits; kings and cardinals, great generals, ambassadors and statesmen, as well as humbler mortals whether spanish, italian, french, or flemish. the constable, an ignorant man who, as the king averred, could neither write nor read, understood as well as more learned sages the manners and humours of the court. he had destined his daughter for the young and brilliant bassompierre, the most dazzling of all the cavaliers of the day. the two were betrothed. but the love-stricken henry, then confined to his bed with the gout, sent for the chosen husband of the beautiful margaret. "bassompierre, my friend," said the aged king, as the youthful lover knelt before him at the bedside, "i have become not in love, but mad, out of my senses, furious for mademoiselle de montmorency. if she should love you, i should hate you. if she should love me, you would hate me. 'tis better that this should not be the cause of breaking up our good intelligence, for i love you with affection and inclination. i am resolved to marry her to my nephew the prince of conde, and to keep her near my family. she will be the consolation and support of my old age into which i am now about to enter. i shall give my nephew, who loves the chase a thousand times better than he does ladies, , livres a year, and i wish no other favour from her than her affection without making further pretensions." it was eight o'clock of a black winter's morning, and the tears as he spoke ran down the cheeks of the hero of ivry and bedewed the face of the kneeling bassompierre. the courtly lover sighed and--obeyed. he renounced the hand of the beautiful margaret, and came daily to play at dice with the king at his bedside with one or two other companions. and every day the duchess of angouleme, sister of the constable, brought her fair niece to visit and converse with the royal invalid. but for the dark and tragic clouds which were gradually closing around that eventful and heroic existence there would be something almost comic in the spectacle of the sufferer making the palace and all france ring with the howlings of his grotesque passion for a child of fifteen as he lay helpless and crippled with the gout. one day as the duchess of angouleme led her niece away from their morning visit to the king, margaret as she passed by bassompierre shrugged her shoulders with a scornful glance. stung by this expression of contempt, the lover who had renounced her sprang from the dice table, buried his face in his hat, pretending that his nose was bleeding, and rushed frantically from the palace. two days long he spent in solitude, unable to eat, drink, or sleep, abandoned to despair and bewailing his wretched fate, and it was long before he could recover sufficient equanimity to face his lost margaret and resume his place at the king's dicing table. when he made his appearance, he was according to his own account so pale, changed, and emaciated that his friends could not recognise him. the marriage with conde, first prince of the blood, took place early in the spring. the bride received magnificent presents, and the husband a pension of , livres a year. the attentions of the king became soon outrageous and the reigning scandal of the hour. henry, discarding the grey jacket and simple costume on which he was wont to pride himself, paraded himself about in perfumed ruffs and glittering doublet, an ancient fop, very little heroic, and much ridiculed. the princess made merry with the antics of her royal adorer, while her vanity at least, if not her affection, was really touched, and there was one great round of court festivities in her honour, at which the king and herself were ever the central figures. but conde was not at all amused. not liking the part assigned to him in the comedy thus skilfully arranged by his cousin king, never much enamoured of his bride, while highly appreciating the , livres of pension, he remonstrated violently with his wife, bitterly reproached the king, and made himself generally offensive. "the prince is here," wrote henry to sully, "and is playing the very devil. you would be in a rage and be ashamed of the things he says of me. but at last i am losing patience, and am resolved to give him a bit of my mind." he wrote in the same terms to montmorency. the constable, whose conduct throughout the affair was odious and pitiable, promised to do his best to induce the prince, instead of playing the devil, to listen to reason, as he and the duchess of angouleme understood reason. henry had even the ineffable folly to appeal to the queen to use her influence with the refractory conde. mary de' medici replied that there were already thirty go-betweens at work, and she had no idea of being the thirty-first--[henrard, ]. conde, surrounded by a conspiracy against his honour and happiness, suddenly carried off his wife to the country, much to the amazement and rage of henry. in the autumn he entertained a hunting party at a seat of his, the abbey of verneuille, on the borders of picardy. de traigny, governor of amiens, invited the prince, princess, and the dowager-princess to a banquet at his chateau not far from the abbey. on their road thither they passed a group of huntsmen and grooms in the royal livery. among them was an aged lackey with a plaister over one eye, holding a couple of hounds in leash. the princess recognized at a glance under that ridiculous disguise the king. "what a madman!" she murmured as she passed him, "i will never forgive you;" but as she confessed many years afterwards, this act of gallantly did not displease her.' in truth, even in mythological fable, trove has scarcely ever reduced demi-god or hero to more fantastic plight than was this travesty of the great henry. after dinner madame de traigny led her fair guest about the castle to show her the various points of view. at one window she paused, saying that it commanded a particularly fine prospect. the princess looked from it across a courtyard, and saw at an opposite window an old gentleman holding his left hand tightly upon his heart to show that it was wounded, and blowing kisses to her with the other: "my god! it is the king himself," she cried to her hostess. the princess with this exclamation rushed from the window, feeling or affecting much indignation, ordered horses to her carriage instantly, and overwhelmed madame de traigny with reproaches. the king himself, hastening to the scene, was received with passionate invectives, and in vain attempted to assuage the princess's wrath and induce her to remain. they left the chateau at once, both prince and princess. one night, not many weeks afterwards, the due de sully, in the arsenal at paris, had just got into bed at past eleven o'clock when he received a visit from captain de praslin, who walked straight into his bed-chamber, informing him that the king instantly required his presence. sully remonstrated. he was obliged to rise at three the next morning, he said, enumerating pressing and most important work which henry required to be completed with all possible haste. "the king said you would be very angry," replied praslin; "but there is no help for it. come you must, for the man you know of has gone out of the country, as you said he would, and has carried away the lady on the crupper behind him." "ho, ho," said the duke, "i am wanted for that affair, am i?" and the two proceeded straightway to the louvre, and were ushered, of all apartments in the world, into the queen's bedchamber. mary de' medici had given birth only four days before to an infant, henrietta maria, future queen of charles i. of england. the room was crowded with ministers and courtiers; villeroy, the chancellor, bassompierre, and others, being stuck against the wall at small intervals like statues, dumb, motionless, scarcely daring to breathe. the king, with his hands behind him and his grey beard sunk on his breast, was pacing up and down the room in a paroxysm of rage and despair. "well," said he, turning to sully as he entered, "our man has gone off and carried everything with him. what do you say to that?" the duke beyond the boding "i told you so" phrase of consolation which he was entitled to use, having repeatedly warned his sovereign that precisely this catastrophe was impending, declined that night to offer advice. he insisted on sleeping on it. the manner in which the proceedings of the king at this juncture would be regarded by the archdukes albert and isabella--for there could be no doubt that conde had escaped to their territory--and by the king of spain, in complicity with whom the step had unquestionably been taken--was of gravest political importance. henry had heard the intelligence but an hour before. he was at cards in his cabinet with bassompierre and others when d'elbene entered and made a private communication to him. "bassompierre, my friend," whispered the king immediately in that courtier's ear, "i am lost. this man has carried his wife off into a wood. i don't know if it is to kill her or to take her out of france. take care of my money and keep up the game." bassompierre followed the king shortly afterwards and brought him his money. he said that he had never seen a man so desperate, so transported. the matter was indeed one of deepest and universal import. the reader has seen by the preceding narrative how absurd is the legend often believed in even to our own days that war was made by france upon the archdukes and upon spain to recover the princess of conde from captivity in brussels. from contemporary sources both printed and unpublished; from most confidential conversations and revelations, we have seen how broad, deliberate, and deeply considered were the warlike and political combinations in the king's ever restless brain. but although the abduction of the new helen by her own menelaus was not the cause of the impending, iliad, there is no doubt whatever that the incident had much to do with the crisis, was the turning point in a great tragedy, and that but for the vehement passion of the king for this youthful princess events might have developed themselves on a far different scale from that which they were destined to assume. for this reason a court intrigue, which history under other conditions might justly disdain, assumes vast proportions and is taken quite away from the scandalous chronicle which rarely busies itself with grave affairs of state. "the flight of conde," wrote aerssens, "is the catastrophe to the comedy which has been long enacting. 'tis to be hoped that the sequel may not prove tragical." "the prince," for simply by that title he was usually called to distinguish him from all other princes in france, was next of blood. had henry no sons, he would have succeeded him on the throne. it was a favourite scheme of the spanish party to invalidate henry's divorce from margaret of valois, and thus to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the dauphin and the other children of mary de' medici. the prince in the hands of the spanish government might prove a docile and most dangerous instrument to the internal repose of france not only after henry's death but in his life-time. conde's character was frivolous, unstable, excitable, weak, easy to be played upon by designing politicians, and he had now the deepest cause for anger and for indulging in ambitious dreams. he had been wont during this unhappy first year of his marriage to loudly accuse henry of tyranny, and was now likely by public declaration to assign that as the motive of his flight. henry had protested in reply that he had never been guilty of tyranny but once in his life, and that was when he allowed this youth to take the name and title of conde? for the princess-dowager his mother had lain for years in prison, under the terrible accusation of having murdered her husband, in complicity with her paramour, a gascon page, named belcastel. the present prince had been born several months after his reputed father's death. henry, out of good nature, or perhaps for less creditable reasons, had come to the rescue of the accused princess, and had caused the process to be stopped, further enquiry to be quashed, and the son to be recognized as legitimate prince of conde. the dowager had subsequently done her best to further the king's suit to her son's wife, for which the prince bitterly reproached her to her face, heaping on her epithets which she well deserved. henry at once began to threaten a revival of the criminal suit, with a view of bastardizing him again, although the dowager had acted on all occasions with great docility in henry's interests. the flight of the prince and princess was thus not only an incident of great importance to the internal politics of trance, but had a direct and important bearing on the impending hostilities. its intimate connection with the affairs of the netherland commonwealth was obvious. it was probable that the fugitives would make their way towards the archdukes' territory, and that afterwards their first point of destination would be breda, of which philip william of orange, eldest brother of prince maurice, was the titular proprietor. since the truce recently concluded the brothers, divided so entirely by politics and religion, could meet on fraternal and friendly terms, and breda, although a city of the commonwealth, received its feudal lord. the princess of orange was the sister of conde. the morning after the flight the king, before daybreak, sent for the dutch ambassador. he directed him to despatch a courier forthwith to barneveld, notifying him that the prince had left the kingdom without the permission or knowledge of his sovereign, and stating the king's belief that he had fled to the territory of the archdukes. if he should come to breda or to any other place within the jurisdiction of the states, they were requested to make sure of his person at once, and not to permit him to retire until further instructions should be received from the king. de praslin, captain of the body-guards and lieutenant of champagne, it was further mentioned, was to be sent immediately on secret mission concerning this affair to the states and to the archdukes. the king suspected conde of crime, so the advocate was to be informed. he believed him to be implicated in the conspiracy of poitou; the six who had been taken prisoners having confessed that they had thrice conferred with a prince at paris, and that the motive of the plot was to free themselves and france from the tyranny of henry iv. the king insisted peremptorily, despite of any objections from aerssens, that the thing must be done and his instructions carried out to the letter. so much he expected of the states, and they should care no more for ulterior consequences, he said, than he had done for the wrath of spain when he frankly undertook their cause. conde was important only because his relative, and he declared that if the prince should escape, having once entered the territory of the republic, he should lay the blame on its government. "if you proceed languidly in the affair," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "our affairs will suffer for ever." nobody at court believed in the poitou conspiracy, or that conde had any knowledge of it. the reason of his flight was a mystery to none, but as it was immediately followed by an intrigue with spain, it seemed ingenious to henry to make, use of a transparent pretext to conceal the ugliness of the whole affair. he hoped that the prince would be arrested at breda and sent back by the states. villeroy said that if it was not done, they would be guilty of black ingratitude. it would be an awkward undertaking, however, and the states devoutly prayed that they might not be put to the test. the crafty aerssens suggested to barneveld that if conde was not within their territory it would be well to assure the king that, had he been there, he would have been delivered up at once. "by this means," said the ambassador, "you will give no cause of offence to the prince, and will at the same time satisfy the king. it is important that he should think that you depend immediately upon him. if you see that after his arrest they take severe measures against him, you will have a thousand ways of parrying the blame which posterity might throw upon you. history teaches you plenty of them." he added that neither sully nor anyone else thought much of the poitou conspiracy. those implicated asserted that they had intended to raise troops there to assist the king in the cleve expedition. some people said that henry had invented this plot against his throne and life. the ambassador, in a spirit of prophecy, quoted the saying of domitian: "misera conditio imperantium quibus de conspiratione non creditor nisi occisis." meantime the fugitives continued their journey. the prince was accompanied by one of his dependants, a rude officer, de rochefort, who carried the princess on a pillion behind him. she had with her a lady-in-waiting named du certeau and a lady's maid named philippote. she had no clothes but those on her back, not even a change of linen. thus the young and delicate lady made the wintry journey through the forests. they crossed the frontier at landrecies, then in the spanish netherlands, intending to traverse the archduke's territory in order to reach breda, where conde meant to leave his wife in charge of his sister, the princess of orange, and then to proceed to brussels. he wrote from the little inn at landrecies to notify the archduke of his project. he was subsequently informed that albert would not prevent his passing through his territories, but should object to his making a fixed residence within them. the prince also wrote subsequently to the king of spain and to the king of france. to henry he expressed his great regret at being obliged to leave the kingdom in order to save his honour and his life, but that he had no intention of being anything else than his very humble and faithful cousin, subject, and servant. he would do nothing against his service, he said, unless forced thereto, and he begged the king not to take it amiss if he refused to receive letters from any one whomsoever at court, saving only such letters as his majesty himself might honour him by writing. the result of this communication to the king was of course to enrage that monarch to the utmost, and his first impulse on finding that the prince was out of his reach was to march to brussels at once and take possession of him and the princess by main force. more moderate counsels prevailed for the moment however, and negotiations were attempted. praslin did not contrive to intercept the fugitives, but the states-general, under the advice of barneveld, absolutely forbade their coming to breda or entering any part of their jurisdiction. the result of conde's application to the king of spain was an ultimate offer of assistance and asylum, through a special emissary, one anover; for the politicians of madrid were astute enough to see what a card the prince might prove in their hands. henry instructed his ambassador in spain to use strong and threatening language in regard to the harbouring a rebel and a conspirator against the throne of france; while on the other hand he expressed his satisfaction with the states for having prohibited the prince from entering their territory. he would have preferred, he said, if they had allowed him entrance and forbidden his departure, but on the whole he was content. it was thought in paris that the netherland government had acted with much adroitness in thus abstaining both from a violation of the law of nations and from giving offence to the king. a valet of conde was taken with some papers of the prince about him, which proved a determination on his part never to return to france during the lifetime of henry. they made no statement of the cause of his flight, except to intimate that it might be left to the judgment of every one, as it was unfortunately but too well known to all. refused entrance into the dutch territory, the prince was obliged to renounce his project in regard to breda, and brought his wife to brussels. he gave bentivoglio, the papal nuncio, two letters to forward to italy, one to the pope, the other to his nephew, cardinal borghese. encouraged by the advices which he had received from spain, he justified his flight from france both by the danger to his honour and to his life, recommending both to the protection of his holiness and his eminence. bentivoglio sent the letters, but while admitting the invincible reasons for his departure growing out of the king's pursuit of the princess, he refused all credence to the pretended violence against conde himself. conde informed de praslin that he would not consent to return to france. subsequently he imposed as conditions of return that the king should assign to him certain cities and strongholds in guienne, of which province he was governor, far from paris and very near the spanish frontier; a measure dictated by spain and which inflamed henry's wrath almost to madness. the king insisted on his instant return, placing himself and of course the princess entirely in his hands and receiving a full pardon for this effort to save his honour. the prince and princess of orange came from breda to brussels to visit their brother and his wife. here they established them in the palace of nassau, once the residence in his brilliant youth of william the silent; a magnificent mansion, surrounded by park and garden, built on the brow of the almost precipitous hill, beneath which is spread out so picturesquely the antique and beautiful capital of brabant. the archdukes received them with stately courtesy at their own palace. on their first ceremonious visit to the sovereigns of the land, the formal archduke, coldest and chastest of mankind, scarcely lifted his eyes to gaze on the wondrous beauty of the princess, yet assured her after he had led her through a portrait gallery of fair women that formerly these had been accounted beauties, but that henceforth it was impossible to speak of any beauty but her own. the great spinola fell in love with her at once, sent for the illustrious rubens from antwerp to paint her portrait, and offered mademoiselle de chateau vert , crowns in gold if she would do her best to further his suit with her mistress. the genoese banker-soldier made love, war, and finance on a grand scale. he gave a magnificent banquet and ball in her honour on twelfth night, and the festival was the wonder of the town. nothing like it had been seen in brussels for years. at six in the evening spinola in splendid costume, accompanied by don luis velasco, count ottavio visconti, count bucquoy, with other nobles of lesser note, drove to the nassau palace to bring the prince and princess and their suite to the marquis's mansion. here a guard of honour of thirty musketeers was standing before the door, and they were conducted from their coaches by spinola preceded by twenty-four torch-bearers up the grand staircase to a hall, where they were received by the princesses of mansfeld, velasco, and other distinguished dames. thence they were led through several apartments rich with tapestry and blazing with crystal and silver plate to a splendid saloon where was a silken canopy, under which the princess of conde and the princess of orange seated themselves, the nuncius bentivoglio to his delight being placed next the beautiful margaret. after reposing for a little while they were led to the ball-room, brilliantly lighted with innumerable torches of perfumed wax and hung with tapestry of gold and silk, representing in fourteen embroidered designs the chief military exploits of spinola. here the banquet, a cold collation, was already spread on a table decked and lighted with regal splendour. as soon as the guests were seated, an admirable concert of instrumental music began. spinola walked up and down providing for the comforts of his company, the duke of aumale stood behind the two princesses to entertain them with conversation, don luis velasco served the princess of conde with plates, handed her the dishes, the wine, the napkins, while bucquoy and visconti in like manner waited upon the princess of orange; other nobles attending to the other ladies. forty-eight pages in white, yellow, and red scarves brought and removed the dishes. the dinner, of courses innumerable, lasted two hours and a half, and the ladies, being thus fortified for the more serious business of the evening, were led to the tiring-rooms while the hall was made ready for dancing. the ball was opened by the princess of conde and spinola, and lasted until two in the morning. as the apartment grew warm, two of the pages went about with long staves and broke all the windows until not a single pane of glass remained. the festival was estimated by the thrifty chronicler of antwerp to have cost from to crowns. it was, he says, "an earthly paradise of which soon not a vapour remained." he added that he gave a detailed account of it "not because he took pleasure in such voluptuous pomp and extravagance, but that one might thus learn the vanity of the world." these courtesies and assiduities on the part of the great "shopkeeper," as the constable called him, had so much effect, if not on the princess, at least on conde himself, that he threatened to throw his wife out of window if she refused to caress spinola. these and similar accusations were made by the father and aunt when attempting to bring about a divorce of the princess from her husband. the nuncius bentivoglio, too, fell in love with her, devoting himself to her service, and his facile and eloquent pen to chronicling her story. even poor little philip of spain in the depths of the escurial heard of her charms, and tried to imagine himself in love with her by proxy. thenceforth there was a succession of brilliant festivals in honour of the princess. the spanish party was radiant with triumph, the french maddened with rage. henry in paris was chafing like a lion at bay. a petty sovereign whom he could crush at one vigorous bound was protecting the lady for whose love he was dying. he had secured conde's exclusion from holland, but here were the fugitives splendidly established in brussels; the princess surrounded by most formidable suitors, the prince encouraged in his rebellious and dangerous schemes by the power which the king most hated on earth, and whose eternal downfall he had long since sworn to accomplish. for the weak and frivolous conde began to prattle publicly of his deep projects of revenge. aided by spanish money and spanish troops he would show one day who was the real heir to the throne of france--the illegitimately born dauphin or himself. the king sent for the first president of parliament, harlay, and consulted with him as to the proper means of reviving the suppressed process against the dowager and of publicly degrading conde from his position of first prince of the blood which he had been permitted to usurp. he likewise procured a decree accusing him of high-treason and ordering him to be punished at his majesty's pleasure, to be prepared by the parliament of paris; going down to the court himself in his impatience and seating himself in everyday costume on the bench of judges to see that it was immediately proclaimed. instead of at once attacking the archdukes in force as he intended in the first ebullition of his wrath, he resolved to send de boutteville-montmorency, a relative of the constable, on special and urgent mission to brussels. he was to propose that conde and his wife should return with the prince and princess of orange to breda, the king pledging himself that for three or four months nothing should be undertaken against him. here was a sudden change of determination fit to surprise the states-general, but the king's resolution veered and whirled about hourly in the tempests of his wrath and love. that excellent old couple, the constable and the duchess of angouleme, did their best to assist their sovereign in his fierce attempts to get their daughter and niece into his power. the constable procured a piteous letter to be written to archduke albert, signed "montmorency his mark," imploring him not to "suffer that his daughter, since the prince refused to return to france, should leave brussels to be a wanderer about the world following a young prince who had no fixed purpose in his mind." archduke albert, through his ambassador in paris, peter pecquius, suggested the possibility of a reconciliation between henry and his kinsman, and offered himself as intermediary. he enquired whether the king would find it agreeable that he should ask for pardon in name of the prince. henry replied that he was willing that the archduke should accord to conde secure residence for the time within his dominions on three inexorable conditions:--firstly, that the prince should ask for pardon without any stipulations, the king refusing to listen to any treaty or to assign him towns or places of security as had been vaguely suggested, and holding it utterly unreasonable that a man sueing for pardon should, instead of deserved punishment, talk of terms and acquisitions; secondly, that, if conde should reject the proposition, albert should immediately turn him out of his country, showing himself justly irritated at finding his advice disregarded; thirdly, that, sending away the prince, the archduke should forthwith restore the princess to her father the constable and her aunt angouleme, who had already made their petitions to albert and isabella for that end, to which the king now added his own most particular prayers. if the archduke should refuse consent to these three conditions, henry begged that he would abstain from any farther attempt to effect a reconciliation and not suffer conde to remain any longer within his territories. pecquius replied that he thought his master might agree to the two first propositions while demurring to the third, as it would probably not seem honourable to him to separate man and wife, and as it was doubtful whether the princess would return of her own accord. the king, in reporting the substance of this conversation to aerssens, intimated his conviction that they were only wishing in brussels to gain time; that they were waiting for letters from spain, which they were expecting ever since the return of conde's secretary from milan, whither he had been sent to confer with the governor, count fuentes. he said farther that he doubted whether the princess would go to breda, which he should now like, but which conde would not now permit. this he imputed in part to the princess of orange, who had written a letter full of invectives against himself to the dowager--princess of conde which she had at once sent to him. henry expressed at the same time his great satisfaction with the states-general and with barneveld in this affair, repeating his assurances that they were the truest and best friends he had. the news of conde's ceremonious visit to leopold in julich could not fail to exasperate the king almost as much as the pompous manner in which he was subsequently received at brussels; spinola and the spanish ambassador going forth to meet him. at the same moment the secretary of vaucelles, henry's ambassador in madrid, arrived in paris, confirming the king's suspicions that conde's flight had been concerted with don inigo de cardenas, and was part of a general plot of spain against the peace of the kingdom. the duc d'epernon, one of the most dangerous plotters at the court, and deep in the intimacy of the queen and of all the secret adherents of the spanish policy, had been sojourning a long time at metz, under pretence of attending to his health, had sent his children to spain, as hostages according to henry's belief, had made himself master of the citadel, and was turning a deaf ear to all the commands of the king. the supporters of conde in france were openly changing their note and proclaiming by the prince's command that he had left the kingdom in order to preserve his quality of first prince of the blood, and that he meant to make good his right of primogeniture against the dauphin and all competitors. such bold language and such open reliance on the support of spain in disputing the primogeniture of the dauphin were fast driving the most pacifically inclined in france into enthusiasm for the war. the states, too, saw their opportunity more vividly every day. "what could we desire more," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "than open war between france and spain? posterity will for ever blame us if we reject this great occasion." peter pecquius, smoothest and sliest of diplomatists, did his best to make things comfortable, for there could be little doubt that his masters most sincerely deprecated war. on their heads would come the first blows, to their provinces would return the great desolation out of which they had hardly emerged. still the archduke, while racking his brains for the means of accommodation, refused, to his honour, to wink at any violation of the law of nations, gave a secret promise, in which the infanta joined, that the princess should not be allowed to leave brussels without her husband's permission, and resolutely declined separating the pair except with the full consent of both. in order to protect himself from the king's threats, he suggested sending conde to some neutral place for six or eight months, to prague, to breda, or anywhere else; but henry knew that conde would never allow this unless he had the means by spanish gold of bribing the garrison there, and so of holding the place in pretended neutrality, but in reality at the devotion of the king of spain. meantime henry had despatched the marquis de coeuvres, brother of the beautiful gabrielle, duchess de beaufort, and one of the most audacious and unscrupulous of courtiers, on a special mission to brussels. de coeuvres saw conde before presenting his credentials to the archduke, and found him quite impracticable. acting under the advice of the prince of orange, he expressed his willingness to retire to some neutral city of germany or italy, drawing meanwhile from henry a pension of , crowns a year. but de coeuvres firmly replied that the king would make no terms with his vassal nor allow conde to prescribe conditions to him. to leave him in germany or italy, he said, was to leave him in the dependence of spain. the king would not have this constant apprehension of her intrigues while, living, nor leave such matter in dying for turbulence in his kingdom. if it appeared that the spaniards wished to make use of the prince for such purposes, he would be beforehand with them, and show them how much more injury he could inflict on spain than they on france. obviously committed to spain, conde replied to the entreaties of the emissary that if the king would give him half his kingdom he would not accept the offer nor return to france; at least before the th of february, by which date he expected advices from spain. he had given his word, he said, to lend his ear to no overtures before that time. he made use of many threats, and swore that he would throw himself entirely into the arms of the spanish king if henry would not accord him the terms which he had proposed. to do this was an impossibility. to grant him places of security would, as the king said, be to plant a standard for all the malcontents of france to rally around. conde had evidently renounced all hopes of a reconciliation, however painfully his host the archduke might intercede for it. he meant to go to spain. spinola was urging this daily and hourly, said henry, for he had fallen in love with the princess, who complained of all these persecutions in her letters to her father, and said that she would rather die than go to spain. the king's advices from de coeuvres were however to the effect that the step would probably be taken, that the arrangements were making, and that spinola had been shut up with conde six hours long with nobody present but rochefort and a certain counsellor of the prince of orange named keeremans. henry was taking measures to intercept them on their flight by land, but there was some thought of their proceeding to spain by sea. he therefore requested the states to send two ships of war, swift sailors, well equipped, one to watch in the roads of st. jean and the other on the english coast. these ships were to receive their instructions from admiral de vicq, who would be well informed of all the movements of the prince and give warning to the captains of the dutch vessels by a preconcerted signal. the king begged that barneveld would do him this favour, if he loved him, and that none might have knowledge of it but the advocate and prince maurice. the ships would be required for two or three months only, but should be equipped and sent forth as soon as possible. the states had no objection to performing this service, although it subsequently proved to be unnecessary, and they were quite ready at that moment to go openly into the war to settle the affairs of clove, and once for all to drive the spaniards out of the netherlands and beyond seas and mountains. yet strange to say, those most conversant with the state of affairs could not yet quite persuade themselves that matters were serious, and that the king's mind was fixed. should conde return, renounce his spanish stratagems, and bring back the princess to court, it was felt by the king's best and most confidential friends that all might grow languid again, the spanish faction get the upper hand in the king's councils, and the states find themselves in a terrible embarrassment. on the other hand, the most prying and adroit of politicians were puzzled to read the signs of the times. despite henry's garrulity, or perhaps in consequence of it, the envoys of spain, the empire, and of archduke albert were ignorant whether peace were likely to be broken or not, in spite of rumours which filled the air. so well had the secrets been kept which the reader has seen discussed in confidential conversations--the record of which has always remained unpublished--between the king and those admitted to his intimacy that very late in the winter pecquius, while sadly admitting to his masters that the king was likely to take part against the emperor in the affair of the duchies, expressed the decided opinion that it would be limited to the secret sending of succour to brandenburg and neuburg as formerly to the united provinces, but that he would never send troops into cleve, or march thither himself. it is important, therefore, to follow closely the development of these political and amorous intrigues, for they furnish one of the most curious and instructive lessons of history; there being not the slightest doubt that upon their issue chiefly depended the question of a great and general war. pecquius, not yet despairing that his master would effect a reconciliation between the king and conde, proposed again that the prince should be permitted to reside for a time in some place not within the jurisdiction of spain or of the archdukes, being allowed meantime to draw his annual pension of , livres. henry ridiculed the idea of conde's drawing money from him while occupying his time abroad with intrigues against his throne and his children's succession. he scoffed at the envoy's pretences that conde was not in receipt of money from spain, as if a man so needy and in so embarrassing a position could live without money from some source; and as if he were not aware, from his correspondents in spain, that funds were both promised and furnished to the prince. he repeated his determination not to accord him pardon unless he returned to france, which he had no cause to leave, and, turning suddenly on pecquius, demanded why, the subject of reconciliation having failed, the archduke did not immediately fulfil his promise of turning conde out of his dominions. upon this albert's minister drew back with the air of one amazed, asking how and when the archduke had ever made such a promise. "to the marquis de coeuvres," replied henry. pecquius asked if his ears had not deceived him, and if the king had really said that de coeuvres had made such a statement. henry repeated and confirmed the story. upon the minister's reply that he had himself received no such intelligence from the archduke, the king suddenly changed his tone, and said, "no, i was mistaken--i was confused--the marquis never wrote me this; but did you not say yourself that i might be assured that there would be no difficulty about it if the prince remained obstinate." pecquius replied that he had made such a proposition to his masters by his majesty's request; but there had been no answer received, nor time for one, as the hope of reconciliation had not yet been renounced. he begged henry to consider whether, without instructions from his master, he could have thus engaged his word. "well," said the king, "since you disavow it, i see very well that the archduke has no wish to give me pleasure, and that these are nothing but tricks that you have been amusing me with all this time. very good; each of us will know what we have to do." pecquius considered that the king had tried to get him into a net, and to entrap him into the avowal of a promise which he had never made. henry remained obstinate in his assertions, notwithstanding all the envoy's protestations. "a fine trick, indeed, and unworthy of a king, 'si dicere fas est,'" he wrote to secretary of state praets. "but the force of truth is such that he who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself." henry concluded the subject of conde at this interview by saying that he could have his pardon on the conditions already named, and not otherwise. he also made some complaints about archduke leopold, who, he said, notwithstanding his demonstrations of wishing a treaty of compromise, was taking towns by surprise which he could not hold, and was getting his troops massacred on credit. pecquius expressed the opinion that it would be better to leave the germans to make their own arrangements among themselves, adding that neither his masters nor the king of spain meant to mix themselves up in the matter. "let them mix themselves in it or keep out of it, as they like," said henry, "i shall not fail to mix myself up in it." the king was marvellously out of humour. before finishing the interview, he asked pecquius whether marquis spinola was going to spain very soon, as he had permission from his majesty to do so, and as he had information that he would be on the road early in lent. the minister replied that this would depend on the will of the archduke, and upon various circumstances. the answer seemed to displease the king, and pecquius was puzzled to know why. he was not aware, of course, of henry's project to kidnap the marquis on the road, and keep him as a surety for conde. the envoy saw villeroy after the audience, who told him not to mind the king's ill-temper, but to bear it as patiently as he could. his majesty could not digest, he said, his infinite displeasure at the obstinacy of the prince; but they must nevertheless strive for a reconciliation. the king was quick in words, but slow in deeds, as the ambassador might have observed before, and they must all try to maintain peace, to which he would himself lend his best efforts. as the secretary of state was thoroughly aware that the king was making vast preparations for war, and had given in his own adhesion to the project, it is refreshing to observe the candour with which he assured the representative of the adverse party of his determination that friendliest relations should be preserved. it is still more refreshing to find villeroy, the same afternoon, warmly uniting with sully, lesdiguieres, and the chancellor, in the decision that war should begin forthwith. for the king held a council at the arsenal immediately after this interview with pecquius, in which he had become convinced that conde would never return. he took the queen with him, and there was not a dissentient voice as to the necessity of beginning hostilities at once. sully, however, was alone in urging that the main force of the attack should be in the north, upon the rhine and meuse. villeroy and those who were secretly in the spanish interest were for beginning it with the southern combination and against milan. sully believed the duke of savoy to be variable and attached in his heart to spain, and he thought it contrary to the interests of france to permit an italian prince to grow so great on her frontier. he therefore thoroughly disapproved the plan, and explained to the dutch ambassador that all this urgency to carry on the war in the south came from hatred to the united provinces, jealousy of their aggrandizement, detestation of the reformed religion, and hope to engage henry in a campaign which he could not carry on successfully. but he assured aerssens that he had the means of counteracting these designs and of bringing on an invasion for obtaining possession of the meuse. if the possessory princes found henry making war in the milanese only, they would feel themselves ruined, and might throw up the game. he begged that barneveld would come on to paris at once, as now or never was the moment to assure the republic for all time. the king had acted with malicious adroitness in turning the tables upon the prince and treating him as a rebel and a traitor because, to save his own and his wife's honour, he had fled from a kingdom where he had but too good reason to suppose that neither was safe. the prince, with infinite want of tact, had played into the king's hands. he had bragged of his connection with spain and of his deep designs, and had shown to all the world that he was thenceforth but an instrument in the hands of the spanish cabinet, while all the world knew the single reason for which he had fled. the king, hopeless now of compelling the return of conde, had become most anxious to separate him from his wife. already the subject of divorce between the two had been broached, and it being obvious that the prince would immediately betake himself into the spanish dominions, the king was determined that the princess should not follow him thither. he had the incredible effrontery and folly to request the queen to address a letter to her at brussels, urging her to return to france. but mary de' medici assured her husband that she had no intention of becoming his assistant, using, to express her thought, the plainest and most vigorous word that the italian language could supply. henry had then recourse once more to the father and aunt. that venerable couple being about to wait upon the archduke's envoy, in compliance with the royal request, pecquius, out of respect to their advanced age, went to the constable's residence. here both the duchess and constable, with tears in their eyes, besought that diplomatist to do his utmost to prevent the princess from the sad fate of any longer sharing her husband's fortunes. the father protested that he would never have consented to her marriage, preferring infinitely that she should have espoused any honest gentleman with crowns a year than this first prince of the blood, with a character such as it had proved to be; but that he had not dared to disobey the king. he spoke of the indignities and cruelties to which she was subjected, said that rochefort, whom conde had employed to assist him in their flight from france, and on the crupper of whose horse the princess had performed the journey, was constantly guilty of acts of rudeness and incivility towards her; that but a few days past he had fired off pistols in her apartment where she was sitting alone with the princess of orange, exclaiming that this was the way he would treat anyone who interfered with the commands of his master, conde; that the prince was incessantly railing at her for refusing to caress the marquis of spinola; and that, in short, he would rather she were safe in the palace of the archduchess isabella, even in the humblest position among her gentlewomen, than to know her vagabondizing miserably about the world with her husband. this, he said, was the greatest fear he had, and he would rather see her dead than condemned to such a fate. he trusted that the archdukes were incapable of believing the stories that he and the duchess of angouleme were influenced in the appeals they made for the separation of the prince and princess by a desire to serve the purposes of the king. those were fables put about by conde. all that the constable and his sister desired was that the archduchess would receive the princess kindly when she should throw herself at her feet, and not allow her to be torn away against her will. the constable spoke with great gravity and simplicity, and with all the signs of genuine emotion, and peter pecquius was much moved. he assured the aged pair that he would do his best to comply with their wishes, and should immediately apprise the archdukes of the interview which had just taken place. most certainly they were entirely disposed to gratify the constable and the duchess as well as the princess herself, whose virtues, qualities, and graces had inspired them with affection, but it must be remembered that the law both human and divine required wives to submit themselves to the commands of their husbands and to be the companions of their good and evil fortunes. nevertheless, he hoped that the lord would so conduct the affairs of the prince of conde that the most christian king and the archdukes would all be satisfied. these pious and consolatory commonplaces on the part of peter pecquius deeply affected the constable. he fell upon the envoy's neck, embraced him repeatedly, and again wept plentifully. chapter iii. strange scene at the archduke's palace--henry's plot frustrated-- his triumph changed to despair--conversation of the dutch ambassador with the king--the war determined upon. it was in the latter part of the carnival, the saturday night preceding shrove tuesday, . the winter had been a rigorous one in brussels, and the snow lay in drifts three feet deep in the streets. within and about the splendid palace of nassau there was much commotion. lights and flambeaux were glancing, loud voices, martial music, discharge of pistols and even of artillery were heard together with the trampling of many feet, but there was nothing much resembling the wild revelry or cheerful mummery of that holiday season. a throng of the great nobles of belgium with drawn swords and menacing aspect were assembled in the chief apartments, a detachment of the archduke's mounted body-guard was stationed in the courtyard, and five hundred halberdiers of the burgher guilds kept watch and ward about the palace. the prince of conde, a square-built, athletic young man of middle stature, with regular features, but a sulky expression, deepened at this moment into ferocity, was seen chasing the secretary of the french resident minister out of the courtyard, thwacking him lustily about the shoulders with his drawn sword, and threatening to kill him or any other frenchman on the spot, should he show himself in that palace. he was heard shouting rather than speaking, in furious language against the king, against coeuvres, against berny, and bitterly bewailing his misfortunes, as if his wife were already in paris instead of brussels. upstairs in her own apartment which she had kept for some days on pretext of illness sat the princess margaret, in company' of madame de berny, wife of the french minister, and of the marquis de coeuvres, henry's special envoy, and a few other frenchmen. she was passionately fond of dancing. the adoring cardinal described her as marvellously graceful and perfect in that accomplishment. she had begged her other adorer, the marquis spinola, "with sweetest words," that she might remain a few days longer in the nassau palace before removing to the archduke's residence, and that the great general, according to the custom in france and flanders, would be the one to present her with the violins. but spinola, knowing the artifice concealed beneath these "sweetest words," had summoned up valour enough to resist her blandishments, and had refused a second entertainment. it was not, therefore, the disappointment at losing her ball that now made the princess sad. she and her companions saw that there had been a catastrophe; a plot discovered. there was bitter disappointment and deep dismay upon their faces. the plot had been an excellent one. de coeuvres had arranged it all, especially instigated thereto by the father of the princess acting in concurrence with the king. that night when all was expected to be in accustomed quiet, the princess, wrapped in her mantilla, was to have stolen down into the garden, accompanied only by her maid the adventurous and faithful philipotte, to have gone through a breach which led through a garden wall to the city ramparts, thence across the foss to the counterscarp, where a number of horsemen under trustworthy commanders were waiting. mounting on the crupper behind one of the officers of the escort, she was then to fly to the frontier, relays of horses having been provided at every stage until she should reach rocroy, the first pausing place within french territory; a perilous adventure for the young and delicate princess in a winter of almost unexampled severity. on the very morning of the day assigned for the adventure, despatches brought by special couriers from the nuncius and the spanish ambassador at paris gave notice of the plot to the archdukes and to conde, although up to that moment none knew of it in brussels. albert, having been apprised that many frenchmen had been arriving during the past few days, and swarming about the hostelries of the city and suburbs, was at once disposed to believe in the story. when conde came to him, therefore, with confirmation from his own letters, and demanding a detachment of the body-guard in addition to the burgher militiamen already granted by the magistrates, he made no difficulty granting the request. it was as if there had been a threatened assault of the city, rather than the attempted elopement of a young lady escorted by a handful of cavaliers. the courtyard of the nassau palace was filled with cavalry sent by the archduke, while five hundred burgher guards sent by the magistrates were drawn up around the gate. the noise and uproar, gaining at every moment more mysterious meaning by the darkness of night, soon spread through the city. the whole population was awake, and swarming through the streets. such a tumult had not for years been witnessed in brussels, and the rumour flew about and was generally believed that the king of france at the head of an army was at the gates of the city determined to carry off the princess by force. but although the superfluous and very scandalous explosion might have been prevented, there could be no doubt that the stratagem had been defeated. nevertheless, the effrontery and ingenuity of de coeuvres became now sublime. accompanied by his colleague, the resident minister, de berny, who was sure not to betray the secret because he had never known it--his wife alone having been in the confidence of the princess--he proceeded straightway to the archduke's palace, and, late in the night as it was, insisted on an audience. here putting on his boldest face when admitted to the presence, he complained loudly of the plot, of which he had just become aware, contrived by the prince of conde to carry off his wife to spain against her will, by main force, and by assistance of flemish nobles, archiducal body-guard, and burgher militia. it was all a plot of conde, he said, to palliate still more his flight from france. every one knew that the princess could not fly back to paris through the air. to take her out of a house filled with people, to pierce or scale the walls of the city, to arrange her journey by ordinary means, and to protect the whole route by stations of cavalry, reaching from brussels to the frontier, and to do all this in profound secrecy, was equally impossible. such a scheme had never been arranged nor even imagined, he said. the true plotter was conde, aided by ministers in flanders hostile to france, and as the honour of the king and the reputation of the princess had been injured by this scandal, the ambassador loudly demanded a thorough investigation of the affair in order that vengeance might fall where it was due. the prudent albert was equal to the occasion. not wishing to state the full knowledge which he possessed of de coeuvres' agency and the king's complicity in the scheme of abduction to france, he reasoned calmly with the excited marquis, while his colleague looked and listened in dumb amazement, having previously been more vociferous and infinitely more sincere than his colleague in expressions of indignation. the archduke said that he had not thought the plot imputed to the king and his ambassador very probable. nevertheless, the assertions of the prince had been so positive as to make it impossible to refuse the guards requested by him. he trusted, however, that the truth would soon be known, and that it would leave no stain on the princess, nor give any offence to the king. surprised and indignant at the turn given to the adventure by the french envoys, he nevertheless took care to conceal these sentiments, to abstain from accusation, and calmly to inform them that the princess next morning would be established under his own roof; and enjoy the protection of the archduchess. for it had been arranged several days before that margaret should leave the palace of nassau for that of albert and isabella on the th, and the abduction had been fixed for the night of the th precisely because the conspirators wished to profit by the confusion incident on a change of domicile. the irrepressible de coeuvres, even then hardly willing to give up the whole stratagem as lost, was at least determined to discover how and by whom the plot had been revealed. in a cemetery piled three feet deep with snow on the evening following that mid-winter's night which had been fixed for the princess's flight, the unfortunate ambassador waited until a certain vallobre, a gentleman of spinola's, who was the go-between of the enamoured genoese and the princess, but whom de coeuvres had gained over, came at last to meet him by appointment. when he arrived, it was only to inform him of the manner in which he had been baffled, to convince him that the game was up, and that nothing was left him but to retreat utterly foiled in his attempt, and to be stigmatized as a blockhead by his enraged sovereign. next day the princess removed her residence to the palace of the archdukes, where she was treated with distinguished honour by isabella, and installed ceremoniously in the most stately, the most virtuous, and the most dismal of courts. her father and aunt professed themselves as highly pleased with the result, and pecquius wrote that "they were glad to know her safe from the importunities of the old fop who seemed as mad as if he had been stung by a tarantula." and how had the plot been revealed? simply through the incorrigible garrulity of the king himself. apprised of the arrangement in all its details by the constable, who had first received the special couriers of de coeuvres, he could not keep the secret to himself for a moment, and the person of all others in the world to whom he thought good to confide it was the queen herself. she received the information with a smile, but straightway sent for the nuncius ubaldini, who at her desire instantly despatched a special courier to spinola with full particulars of the time and mode of the proposed abduction. nevertheless the ingenuous henry, confiding in the capacity of his deeply offended queen to keep the secret which he had himself divulged, could scarcely contain himself for joy. off he went to saint-germain with a train of coaches, impatient to get the first news from de coeuvres after the scheme should have been carried into effect, and intending to travel post towards flanders to meet and welcome the princess. "pleasant farce for shrove tuesday," wrote the secretary of pecquius, "is that which the frenchmen have been arranging down there! he in whose favour the abduction is to be made was seen going out the same day spangled and smart, contrary to his usual fashion, making a gambado towards saint-germain-en-laye with four carriages and four to meet the nymph." great was the king's wrath and mortification at this ridiculous exposure of his detestable scheme. vociferous were villeroy's expressions of henry's indignation at being supposed to have had any knowledge of or complicity in the affair. "his majesty cannot approve of the means one has taken to guard against a pretended plot for carrying off the princess," said the secretary of state; "a fear which was simulated by the prince in order to defame the king." he added that there was no reason to suspect the king, as he had never attempted anything of the sort in his life, and that the archduke might have removed the princess to his palace without sending an army to the hotel of the prince of orange, and causing such an alarm in the city, firing artillery on the rampart as if the town had been full of frenchmen in arms, whereas one was ashamed next morning to find that there had been but fifteen in all. "but it was all marquis spinola's fault," he said, "who wished to show himself off as a warrior." the king, having thus through the mouth of his secretary of state warmly protested against his supposed implication in the attempted abduction, began as furiously to rail at de coeuvres for its failure; telling the duc de vendome that his uncle was an idiot, and writing that unlucky envoy most abusive letters for blundering in the scheme which had been so well concerted between them. then he sent for malherbe, who straightway perpetrated more poems to express the king's despair, in which henry was made to liken himself to a skeleton with a dried skin, and likewise to a violet turned up by the ploughshare and left to wither. he kept up through madame de berny a correspondence with "his beautiful angel," as he called the princess, whom he chose to consider a prisoner and a victim; while she, wearied to death with the frigid monotony and sepulchral gaieties of the archiducal court, which she openly called her "dungeon" diverted herself with the freaks and fantasies of her royal adorer, called him in very ill-spelled letters "her chevalier, her heart, her all the world," and frequently wrote to beg him, at the suggestion of the intriguing chateau vert, to devise some means of rescuing her from prison. the constable and duchess meanwhile affected to be sufficiently satisfied with the state of things. conde, however, received a letter from the king, formally summoning him to return to france, and, in case of refusal, declaring him guilty of high-treason for leaving the kingdom without the leave and against the express commands of the king. to this letter, brought to him by de coeuvres, the prince replied by a paper, drawn up and served by a notary of brussels, to the effect that he had left france to save his life and honour; that he was ready to return when guarantees were given him for the security of both. he would live and die, he said, faithful to the king. but when the king, departing from the paths of justice, proceeded through those of violence against him, he maintained that every such act against his person was null and invalid. henry had even the incredible meanness and folly to request the queen to write to the archdukes, begging that the princess might be restored to assist at her coronation. mary de' medici vigorously replied once more that, although obliged to wink at the king's amours, she declined to be his procuress. conde then went off to milan very soon after the scene at the nassau palace and the removal of the princess to the care of the archdukes. he was very angry with his wife, from whom he expressed a determination to be divorced, and furious with the king, the validity of whose second marriage and the legitimacy of whose children he proposed with spanish help to dispute. the constable was in favour of the divorce, or pretended to be so, and caused importunate letters to be written, which he signed, to both albert and isabella, begging that his daughter might be restored to him to be the staff of his old age, and likewise to be present at the queen's coronation. the archdukes, however, resolutely refused to permit her to leave their protection without conde's consent, or until after a divorce had been effected, notwithstanding that the father and aunt demanded it. the constable and duchess however, acquiesced in the decision, and expressed immense gratitude to isabella. "the father and aunt have been talking to pecquius," said henry very dismally; "but they give me much pain. they are even colder than the season, but my fire thaws them as soon as i approach." "p. s.--i am so pining away in my anguish that i am nothing but skin and bones. nothing gives me pleasure. i fly from company, and if in order to comply with the law of nations i go into some assembly or other, instead of enlivening, it nearly kills me."--[lettres missives de henri vii. ]. and the king took to his bed. whether from gout, fever, or the pangs of disappointed love, he became seriously ill. furious with every one, with conde, the constable, de coeuvres, the queen, spinola, with the prince of orange, whose councillor keeremans had been encouraging conde in his rebellion and in going to spain with spinola, he was now resolved that the war should go on. aerssens, cautious of saying too much on paper of this very delicate affair, always intimated to barneveld that, if the princess could be restored, peace was still possible, and that by moving an inch ahead of the king in the cleve matter the states at the last moment might be left in the lurch. he distinctly told the advocate, on his expressing a hope that henry might consent to the prince's residence in some neutral place until a reconciliation could be effected, that the pinch of the matter was not there, and that van der myle, who knew all about it, could easily explain it. alluding to the project of reviving the process against the dowager, and of divorcing the prince and princess, he said these steps would do much harm, as they would too much justify the true cause of the retreat of the prince, who was not believed when he merely talked of his right of primogeniture: "the matter weighs upon us very heavily," he said, "but the trouble is that we don't search for the true remedies. the matter is so delicate that i don't dare to discuss it to the very bottom." the ambassador had a long interview with the king as he lay in his bed feverish and excited. he was more impatient than ever for the arrival of the states' special embassy, reluctantly acquiesced in the reasons assigned for the delay, but trusted that it would arrive soon with barneveld at the head, and with count lewis william as a member for "the sword part of it." he railed at the prince of orange, not believing that keeremans would have dared to do what he had done but with the orders of his master. he said that the king of spain would supply conde with money and with everything he wanted, knowing that he could make use of him to trouble his kingdom. it was strange, he thought, that philip should venture to these extremities with his affairs in such condition, and when he had so much need of repose. he recalled all his ancient grievances against spain, his rights to the kingdom of navarre and the county of st. pol violated; the conspiracy of biron, the intrigues of bouillon, the plots of the count of auvergne and the marchioness of verneuil, the treason of meragne, the corruption of l'hoste, and an infinity of other plots of the king and his ministers; of deep injuries to him and to the public repose, not to be tolerated by a mighty king like himself, with a grey beard. he would be revenged, he said, for this last blow, and so for all the rest. he would not leave a troublesome war on the hands of his young son. the occasion was favourable. it was just to defend the oppressed princes with the promptly accorded assistance of the states-general. the king of great britain was favourable. the duke of savoy was pledged. it was better to begin the war in his green old age than to wait the pleasure and opportunity of the king of spain. all this he said while racked with fever, and dismissed the envoy at last, after a long interview, with these words: "mr. ambassador--i have always spoken roundly and frankly to you, and you will one day be my witness that i have done all that i could to draw the prince out of the plight into which he has put himself. but he is struggling for the succession to this crown under instructions from the spaniards, to whom he has entirely pledged himself. he has already received crowns for his equipment. i know that you and my other friends will work for the conservation of this monarchy, and will never abandon me in my designs to weaken the power of spain. pray god for my health." the king kept his bed a few days afterwards, but soon recovered. villeroy sent word to barneveld in answer to his suggestions of reconciliation that it was too late, that conde was entirely desperate and spanish. the crown of france was at stake, he said, and the prince was promising himself miracles and mountains with the aid of spain, loudly declaring the marriage of mary de' medici illegal, and himself heir to the throne. the secretary of state professed himself as impatient as his master for the arrival of the embassy; the states being the best friends france ever had and the only allies to make the war succeed. jeannin, who was now never called to the council, said that the war was not for germany but for conde, and that henry could carry it on for eight years. he too was most anxious for barneveld's arrival, and was of his opinion that it would have been better for conde to be persuaded to remain at breda and be supported by his brother-in-law, the prince of orange. the impetuosity of the king had however swept everything before it, and conde had been driven to declare himself spanish and a pretender to the crown. there was no issue now but war. boderie, the king's envoy in great britain, wrote that james would be willing to make a defensive league for the affairs of cleve and julich only, which was the slenderest amount of assistance; but henry always suspected master jacques of intentions to baulk him if possible and traverse his designs. but the die was cast. spinola had carried off conde in triumph; the princess was pining in her gilt cage in brussels, and demanding a divorce for desertion and cruel treatment; the king considered himself as having done as much as honour allowed him to effect a reconciliation, and it was obvious that, as the states' ambassador said, he could no longer retire from the war without shame, which would be the greatest danger of all. "the tragedy is ready to begin," said aerssens. "they are only waiting now for the arrival of our ambassadors." on the th march the king before going to fontainebleau for a few days summoned that envoy to the louvre. impatient at a slight delay in his arrival, henry came down into the courtyard as he was arriving and asked eagerly if barneveld was coming to paris. aerssens replied, that the advocate had been hastening as much as possible the departure of the special embassy, but that the condition of affairs at home was such as not to permit him to leave the country at that moment. van der myle, who would be one of the ambassadors, would more fully explain this by word of mouth. the king manifested infinite annoyance and disappointment that barneveld was not to make part of the embassy. "he says that he reposes such singular confidence in your authority in the state, experience in affairs, and affection for himself," wrote aerssens, "that he might treat with you in detail and with open heart of all his designs. he fears now that the ambassadors will be limited in their powers and instructions, and unable to reply at once on the articles which at different times have been proposed to me for our enterprise. thus much valuable time will be wasted in sending backwards and forwards." the king also expressed great anxiety to consult with count lewis william in regard to military details, but his chief sorrow was in regard to the advocate. "he acquiesced only with deep displeasure and regret in your reasons," said the ambassador, "and says that he can hope for nothing firm now that you refuse to come." villeroy intimated that barneveld did not come for fear of exciting the jealousy of the english. etext editor's bookmarks: he who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself most detestable verses that even he had ever composed she declined to be his procuress chapter iv. difficult position of barneveld--insurrection at utrecht subdued by the states' army--special embassies to england and france--anger of the king with spain and the archdukes--arrangements of henry for the coming war--position of spain--anxiety of the king for the presence of barneveld in paris--arrival of the dutch commissioners in france and their brilliant reception--their interview with the king and his ministers--negotiations--delicate position of the dutch government-- india trade--simon danzer, the corsair--conversations of henry with the dutch commissioners--letter of the king to archduke albert-- preparations for the queen's coronation, and of henry to open the campaign in person--perplexities of henry--forebodings and warnings --the murder accomplished--terrible change in france--triumph of concini and of spain--downfall of sully--disputes of the grandees among themselves--special mission of condelence from the republic-- conference on the great enterprise--departure of van der myle from paris. there were reasons enough why the advocate could not go to paris at this juncture. it was absurd in henry to suppose it possible. everything rested on barneveld's shoulders. during the year which had just passed he had drawn almost every paper, every instruction in regard to the peace negotiations, with his own hand, had assisted at every conference, guided and mastered the whole course of a most difficult and intricate negotiation, in which he had not only been obliged to make allowance for the humbled pride and baffled ambition of the ancient foe of the netherlands, but to steer clear of the innumerable jealousies, susceptibilities, cavillings, and insolences of their patronizing friends. it was his brain that worked, his tongue that spoke, his restless pen that never paused. his was not one of those easy posts, not unknown in the modern administration of great affairs, where the subordinate furnishes the intellect, the industry, the experience, while the bland superior, gratifying the world with his sign-manual, appropriates the applause. so long as he lived and worked, the states-general and the states of holland were like a cunningly contrived machine, which seemed to be alive because one invisible but mighty mind vitalized the whole. and there had been enough to do. it was not until midsummer of that the ratifications of the treaty of truce, one of the great triumphs in the history of diplomacy, had been exchanged, and scarcely had this period been put to the eternal clang of arms when the death of a lunatic threw the world once more into confusion. it was obvious to barneveld that the issue of the cleve-julich affair, and of the tremendous religious fermentation in bohemia, moravia, and austria, must sooner or later lead to an immense war. it was inevitable that it would devolve upon the states to sustain their great though vacillating, their generous though encroaching, their sincere though most irritating, ally. and yet, thoroughly as barneveld had mastered all the complications and perplexities of the religious and political question, carefully as he had calculated the value of the opposing forces which were shaking christendom, deeply as he had studied the characters of matthias and rudolph, of charles of denmark and ferdinand of graz, of anhalt and maximilian, of brandenburg and neuburg, of james and philip, of paul v. and charles emmanuel, of sully and yilleroy, of salisbury and bacon, of lerma and infantado; adroitly as he could measure, weigh, and analyse all these elements in the great problem which was forcing itself on the attention of europe--there was one factor with which it was difficult for this austere republican, this cold, unsusceptible statesman, to deal: the intense and imperious passion of a greybeard for a woman of sixteen. for out of the cauldron where the miscellaneous elements of universal war were bubbling rose perpetually the fantastic image of margaret montmorency: the fatal beauty at whose caprice the heroic sword of ivry and cahors was now uplifted and now sheathed. aerssens was baffled, and reported the humours of the court where he resided as changing from hour to hour. to the last he reported that all the mighty preparations then nearly completed "might evaporate in smoke" if the princess of conde should come back. every ambassador in paris was baffled. peter pecquius was as much in the dark as don inigo de cardenas, as ubaldini or edmonds. no one save sully, aerssens, barneveld, and the king knew the extensive arrangements and profound combinations which had been made for the war. yet not sully, aerssens, barneveld, or the king, knew whether or not the war would really be made. barneveld had to deal with this perplexing question day by day. his correspondence with his ambassador at henry's court was enormous, and we have seen that the ambassador was with the king almost daily; sleeping or waking; at dinner or the chase; in the cabinet or the courtyard. but the advocate was also obliged to carry in his arms, as it were, the brood of snarling, bickering, cross-grained german princes, to supply them with money, with arms, with counsel, with brains; to keep them awake when they went to sleep, to steady them in their track, to teach them to go alone. he had the congress at hall in suabia to supervise and direct; he had to see that the ambassadors of the new republic, upon which they in reality were already half dependent and chafing at their dependence, were treated with the consideration due to the proud position which the commonwealth had gained. questions of etiquette were at that moment questions of vitality. he instructed his ambassadors to leave the congress on the spot if they were ranked after the envoys of princes who were only feudatories of the emperor. the dutch ambassadors, "recognising and relying upon no superiors but god and their sword," placed themselves according to seniority with the representatives of proudest kings. he had to extemporize a system of free international communication with all the powers of the earth--with the turk at constantinople, with the czar of muscovy; with the potentates of the baltic, with both the indies. the routine of a long established and well organized foreign office in a time-honoured state running in grooves; with well-balanced springs and well oiled wheels, may be a luxury of civilization; but it was a more arduous task to transact the greatest affairs of a state springing suddenly into recognized existence and mainly dependent for its primary construction and practical working on the hand of one man. worse than all, he had to deal on the most dangerous and delicate topics of state with a prince who trembled at danger and was incapable of delicacy; to show respect for a character that was despicable, to lean on a royal word falser than water, to inhale almost daily the effluvia from a court compared to which the harem of henry was a temple of vestals. the spectacle of the slobbering james among his kars and hays and villiers's and other minions is one at which history covers her eyes and is dumb; but the republican envoys, with instructions from a barneveld, were obliged to face him daily, concealing their disgust, and bowing reverentially before him as one of the arbiters of their destinies and the solomon of his epoch. a special embassy was sent early in the year to england to convey the solemn thanks of the republic to the king for his assistance in the truce negotiations, and to treat of the important matters then pressing on the attention of both powers. contemporaneously was to be despatched the embassy for which henry was waiting so impatiently at paris. certainly the advocate had enough with this and other, important business already mentioned to detain him at his post. moreover the first year of peace had opened disastrously in the netherlands. tremendous tempests such as had rarely been recorded even in that land of storms had raged all the winter. the waters everywhere had burst their dykes and inundations, which threatened to engulph the whole country, and which had caused enormous loss of property and even of life, were alarming the most courageous. it was difficult in many district to collect the taxes for the every-day expenses of the community, and yet the advocate knew that the republic would soon be forced to renew the war on a prodigious scale. still more to embarrass the action of the government and perplex its statesmen, an alarming and dangerous insurrection broke out in utrecht. in that ancient seat of the hard-fighting, imperious, and opulent sovereign archbishops of the ancient church an important portion of the population had remained catholic. another portion complained of the abolition of various privileges which they had formerly enjoyed; among others that of a monopoly of beer-brewing for the province. all the population, as is the case with all populations in all countries and all epochs, complained of excessive taxation. a clever politician, dirk kanter by name, a gentleman by birth, a scholar and philosopher by pursuit and education, and a demagogue by profession, saw an opportunity of taking an advantage of this state of things. more than twenty years before he had been burgomaster of the city, and had much enjoyed himself in that position. he was tired of the learned leisure to which the ingratitude of his fellow-citizens had condemned him. he seems to have been of easy virtue in the matter of religion, a catholic, an arminian, an ultra orthodox contra-remonstrant by turns. he now persuaded a number of determined partisans that the time had come for securing a church for the public worship of the ancient faith, and at the same time for restoring the beer brewery, reducing the taxes, recovering lost privileges, and many other good things. beneath the whole scheme lay a deep design to effect the secession of the city and with it of the opulent and important province of utrecht from the union. kanter had been heard openly to avow that after all the netherlands had flourished under the benign sway of the house of burgundy, and that the time would soon come for returning to that enviable condition. by a concerted assault the city hall was taken possession of by main force, the magistracy was overpowered, and a new board of senators and common council-men appointed, kanter and a devoted friend of his, heldingen by name, being elected burgomasters. the states-provincial of utrecht, alarmed at these proceedings in the city, appealed for protection against violence to the states-general under the rd article of the union, the fundamental pact which bore the name of utrecht itself. prince maurice proceeded to the city at the head of a detachment of troops to quell the tumults. kanter and his friends were plausible enough to persuade him of the legality and propriety of the revolution which they had effected, and to procure his formal confirmation of the new magistracy. intending to turn his military genius and the splendour of his name to account, they contrived to keep him for a time at least in an amiable enthralment, and induced him to contemplate in their interest the possibility of renouncing the oath which subjected him to the authority of the states of utrecht. but the far-seeing eye of barneveld could not be blind to the danger which at this crisis beset the stadholder and the whole republic. the prince was induced to return to the hague, but the city continued by armed revolt to maintain the new magistracy. they proceeded to reduce the taxes, and in other respects to carry out the measures on the promise of which they had come into power. especially the catholic party sustained kanter and his friends, and promised themselves from him and from his influence over prince maurice to obtain a power of which they had long been deprived. the states-general now held an assembly at woerden, and summoned the malcontents of utrecht to bring before that body a statement of their grievances. this was done, but there was no satisfactory arrangement possible, and the deputation returned to utrecht, the states-general to the hague. the states-provincial of utrecht urged more strongly than ever upon the assembly of the union to save the city from the hands of a reckless and revolutionary government. the states-general resolved accordingly to interfere by force. a considerable body of troops was ordered to march at once upon utrecht and besiege the city. maurice, in his capacity of captain-general and stadholder of the province, was summoned to take charge of the army. he was indisposed to do so, and pleaded sickness. the states, determined that the name of nassau should not be used as an encouragement to disobedience, and rebellion, then directed the brother of maurice, frederic henry, youngest son of william the silent, to assume the command. maurice insisted that his brother was too young, and that it was unjust to allow so grave a responsibility to fall upon his shoulders. the states, not particularly pleased with the prince's attitude at this alarming juncture, and made anxious by the glamour which seemed to possess him since his conferences with the revolutionary party at utrecht, determined not to yield. the army marched forth and laid siege to the city, prince frederic henry at its head. he was sternly instructed by the states-general, under whose orders he acted, to take possession of the city at all hazards. he was to insist on placing there a garrison of foot and horse, and to permit not another armed man within the walls. the members of the council of state and of the states of utrecht accompanied the army. for a moment the party in power was disposed to resist the forces of the union. dick kanter and his friends were resolute enough; the catholic priests turned out among the rest with their spades and worked on the entrenchments. the impossibility of holding the city against the overwhelming power of the states was soon obvious, and the next day the gates were opened, and easy terms were granted. the new magistracy was set aside, the old board that had been deposed by the rebels reinstated. the revolution and the counterrevolution were alike bloodless, and it was determined that the various grievances of which the discontented party had complained should be referred to the states-general, to prince maurice, to the council of state, and to the ambassadors of france and england. amnesty was likewise decreed on submission. the restored government was arminian in its inclinations, the revolutionary one was singularly compounded both of catholic and of ultra-orthodox elements. quiet was on the whole restored, but the resources of the city were crippled. the event occurring exactly at the crisis of the clove and julich expedition angered the king of france. "the trouble of utrecht," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "has been turned to account here marvellously, the archdukes and spaniards boasting that many more revolts like this may be at once expected. i have explained to his majesty, who has been very much alarmed about it, both its source and the hopes that it will be appeased by the prudence of his excellency prince maurice and the deputies of the states. the king desires that everything should be pacified as soon as possible, so that there may be no embarrassment to the course of public affairs. but he fears, he tells me, that this may create some new jealousy between prince maurice and yourself. i don't comprehend what he means, although he held this language to me very expressly and without reserve. i could only answer that you were living on the best of terms together in perfect amity and intelligence. if you know if this talk of his has any other root, please to enlighten me, that i may put a stop to false reports, for i know nothing of affairs except what you tell me." king james, on the other hand, thoroughly approved the promptness of the states-general in suppressing the tumult. nothing very serious of alike nature occurred in utrecht until the end of the year, when a determined and secret conspiracy was discovered, having for its object to overpower the garrison and get bodily possession of colonel john ogle, the military commander of the town. at the bottom of the movement were the indefatigable dirk kanter and his friend heldingen. the attempt was easily suppressed, and the two were banished from the town. kanter died subsequently in north holland, in the odour of ultra-orthodoxy. four of the conspirators--a post-master, two shoemakers, and a sexton, who had bound themselves by oath to take the lives of two eminent arminian preachers, besides other desperate deeds--were condemned to death, but pardoned on the scaffold. thus ended the first revolution at utrecht. its effect did not cease, however, with the tumults which were its original manifestations. this earliest insurrection in organized shape against the central authority of the states-general; this violent though abortive effort to dissolve the union and to nullify its laws; this painful necessity for the first time imposed upon the federal government to take up arms against misguided citizens of the republic, in order to save itself from disintegration and national death, were destined to be followed by far graver convulsions on the self-same spot. religious differences and religious hatreds were to mingle their poison with antagonistic political theories and personal ambitions, and to develop on a wide scale the danger ever lurking in a constitution whose fundamental law was unstable, ill defined, and liable to contradictory interpretations. for the present it need only be noticed that the states-general, guided by barneveld, most vigorously suppressed the local revolt and the incipient secession, while prince maurice, the right arm of the executive, the stadholder of the province, and the representative of the military power of the commonwealth, was languid in the exertion of that power, inclined to listen to the specious arguments of the utrecht rebels, and accused at least of tampering with the fell spirit which the advocate was resolute to destroy. yet there was no suspicion of treason, no taint of rebellion, no accusation of unpatriotic motives uttered against the stadholder. there was a doubt as to the true maxims by which the confederacy was to be governed, and at this moment, certainly, the prince and the advocate represented opposite ideas. there was a possibility, at a future day, when the religious and political parties might develop themselves on a wider scale and the struggles grow fiercer, that the two great champions in the conflict might exchange swords and inflict mutual and poisoned wounds. at present the party of the union had triumphed, with barneveld at its head. at a later but not far distant day, similar scenes might be enacted in the ancient city of utrecht, but with a strange difference and change in the cast of parts and with far more tragical results. for the moment the moderate party in the church, those more inclined to arminianism and the supremacy of the civil authority in religious matters, had asserted their ascendency in the states-general, and had prevented the threatened rupture. meantime it was doubly necessary to hasten the special embassies to france and to england, in both which countries much anxiety as to the political health and strength of the new republic had been excited by these troubles in utrecht. it was important for the states-general to show that they were not crippled, and would not shrink from the coming conflict, but would justify the reliance placed on them by their allies. thus there were reasons enough why barneveld could not himself leave the country in the eventful spring of . it must be admitted, however, that he was not backward in placing his nearest relatives in places of honour, trust, and profit. his eldest son reinier, seignior of groeneveld, had been knighted by henry iv.; his youngest, william, afterwards called seignior of stoutenburg, but at this moment bearing the not very mellifluous title of craimgepolder, was a gentleman-in-waiting at that king's court, with a salary of crowns a year. he was rather a favourite with the easy-going monarch, but he gave infinite trouble to the dutch ambassador aerssens, who, feeling himself under immense obligations to the advocate and professing for him boundless gratitude, did his best to keep the idle, turbulent, extravagant, and pleasure-loving youth up to the strict line of his duties. "your son is in debt again," wrote aerssens, on one occasion, "and troubled for money. he is in danger of going to the usurers. he says he cannot keep himself for less than crowns a month. this is a large allowance, but he has spent much more than that. his life is not irregular nor his dress remarkably extravagant. his difficulty is that he will not dine regularly with me nor at court. he will keep his own table and have company to dinner. that is what is ruining him. he comes sometimes to me, not for the dinner nor the company, but for tennis, which he finds better in my faubourg than in town. his trouble comes from the table, and i tell you frankly that you must regulate his expenses or they will become very onerous to you. i am ashamed of them and have told him so a hundred times, more than if he had been my own brother. it is all for love of you . . . . i have been all to him that could be expected of a man who is under such vast obligations to you; and i so much esteem the honour of your friendship that i should always neglect my private affairs in order to do everything for your service and meet your desires . . . . . if m. de craimgepolder comes back from his visit home, you must restrict him in two things, the table and tennis, and you can do this if you require him to follow the king assiduously as his service requires." something at a future day was to be heard of william of barneveld, as well as of his elder brother reinier, and it is good, therefore, to have these occasional glimpses of him while in the service of the king and under the supervision of one who was then his father's devoted friend, francis aerssens. there were to be extraordinary and tragical changes in the relations of parties and of individuals ere many years should go by. besides the sons of the advocate, his two sons-in-law, brederode, seignior of veenhuizep, and cornelis van der myle, were constantly employed? in important embassies. van der myle had been the first ambassador to the great venetian republic, and was now placed at the head of the embassy to france, an office which it was impossible at that moment for the advocate to discharge. at the same critical moment barneveld's brother elias, pensionary of rotterdam, was appointed one of the special high commissioners to the king of great britain. it is necessary to give an account of this embassy. they were provided with luminous and minute instructions from the hand of the advocate. they were, in the first place, and ostensibly, to thank the king for his services in bringing about the truce, which, truly, had been of the slightest, as was very well known. they were to explain, on the part of the states, their delay in sending this solemn commission, caused by the tardiness of the king of spain in sending his ratification to the treaty, and by the many disputations caused by the irresolutions of the archdukes and the obstinacy of their commissioners in regard to their many contraventions of the treaty. after those commissioners had gone, further hindrances had been found in the "extraordinary tempests, high floods, rising of the waters, both of the ocean and the rivers, and the very disastrous inundations throughout nearly all the united provinces, with the immense and exorbitant damage thus inflicted, both on the public and on many individuals; in addition to all which were to be mentioned the troubles in the city of utrecht." they were, in almost hyperbolical language, directed to express the eternal gratitude of the states for the constant favours received by them from the crown of england, and their readiness to stand forth at any moment with sincere affection and to the utmost of their power, at all times and seasons, in resistance of any attempts against his majesty's person or crown, or against the prince of wales or the royal family. they were to thank him for his "prudent, heroic, and courageous resolve to suffer nothing to be done under colour of justice, authority, or any other pretext, to the hindrance of the elector of brandenburg and palatine of neuburg, in the maintenance of their lawful rights and possession of the principalities of julich, cleve, and berg, and other provinces." by this course his majesty, so the commissioners were to state, would put an end to the imaginations of those who thought they could give the law to everybody according to their pleasure. they were to assure the king that the states-general would exert themselves to the utmost to second his heroic resolution, notwithstanding the enormous burthens of their everlasting war, the very exorbitant damage caused by the inundations, and the sensible diminution in the contributions and other embarrassments then existing in the country. they were to offer foot and horse for the general purpose under prince henry of nassau, besides the succours furnished by the king of france and the electors and princes of germany. further assistance in men, artillery, and supplies were promised under certain contingencies, and the plan of the campaign on the meuse in conjunction with the king of france was duly mapped. they were to request a corresponding promise of men and money from the king of great britain, and they were to propose for his approval a closer convention for mutual assistance between his majesty, the united netherlands, the king of france, the electors and princes and other powers of germany; as such close union would be very beneficial to all christendom. it would put a stop to all unjust occupations, attempts, and intrigues, and if the king was thereto inclined, he was requested to indicate time and place for making such a convention. the commissioners were further to point out the various contraventions on the part of the archdukes of the treaty of truce, and were to give an exposition of the manner in which the states-general had quelled the tumults at utrecht, and reasons why such a course had of necessity been adopted. they were instructed to state that, "over and above the great expenses of the late war and the necessary maintenance of military forces to protect their frontiers against their suspected new friends or old enemies, the provinces were burthened with the cost of the succour to the elector of brandenburg and palatine of neuburg, and would be therefore incapable of furnishing the payments coming due to his majesty. they were accordingly to sound his majesty as to whether a good part of the debt might not be remitted or at least an arrangement made by which the terms should begin to run only after a certain number of years." they were also directed to open the subject of the fisheries on the coasts of great britain, and to remonstrate against the order lately published by the king forbidding all foreigners from fishing on those coasts. this was to be set forth as an infringement both of natural law and of ancient treaties, and as a source of infinite danger to the inhabitants of the united provinces. the seignior of warmond, chief of the commission, died on the th april. his colleagues met at brielle on the th, ready to take passage to england in the ship of war, the hound. they were, however, detained there six days by head winds and great storms, and it was not until the nd that they were able to put to sea. the following evening their ship cast anchor in gravesend. half an hour before, the duke of wurtemberg had arrived from flushing in a ship of war brought from france by the prince of anhalt. sir lewis lewkener, master of ceremonies, had been waiting for the ambassadors at gravesend, and informed them that the royal barges were to come next morning from london to take them to town. they remained that night on board the hound, and next morning, the wind blowing up the river, they proceeded in their ship as far as blackwall, where they were formally received and bade welcome in the name of the king by sir thomas cornwallis and sir george carew, late ambassador in france. escorted by them and sir lewis, they were brought in the court barges to tower wharf. here the royal coaches were waiting, in which they were taken to lodgings provided for them in the city at the house of a dutch merchant. noel de caron, seignior of schonewal, resident ambassador of the states in london, was likewise there to greet them. this was saturday night: on the following tuesday they went by appointment to the palace of whitehall in royal carriages for their first audience. manifestations of as entire respect and courtesy had thus been made to the republican envoys as could be shown to the ambassadors of the greatest sovereigns. they found the king seated on his throne in the audience chamber, accompanied by the prince of wales, the duke of york, the lord high treasurer and lord high admiral, the duke of lenox, the earls of arundel and northampton, and many other great nobles and dignitaries. james rose from his seat, took off his hat, and advanced several paces to meet the ambassadors, and bade them courteously and respectfully welcome. he then expressed his regret at the death of the seignior of warmond, and after the exchange of a few commonplaces listened, still with uncovered head, to the opening address. the spokesman, after thanking the king for his condolences on the death of the chief commissioner, whom, as was stated with whimsical simplicity, "the good god had called to himself after all his luggage had been put on board ship," proceeded in the french language to give a somewhat abbreviated paraphrase of barneveld's instructions. when this was done and intimation made that they would confer more fully with his majesty's council on the subjects committed to their charge, the ambassadors were conducted home with the same ceremonies as had accompanied their arrival. they received the same day the first visit from the ambassadors of france and venice, boderie and carrero, and had a long conference a few days afterwards with the high treasurer, lord salisbury. on the rd may they were invited to attend the pompous celebration of the festival of st. george in the palace at westminster, where they were placed together with the french ambassador in the king's oratorium; the dukes of wurtemberg and brunswick being in that of the queen. these details are especially to be noted, and were at the moment of considerable importance, for this was the first solemn and extraordinary embassy sent by the rebel netherlanders, since their independent national existence had been formally vindicated, to great britain, a power which a quarter of a century before had refused the proffered sovereignty over them. placed now on exactly the same level with the representatives of emperors and kings, the republican envoys found themselves looked upon by the world with different eyes from those which had regarded their predecessors askance, and almost with derision, only seven years before. at that epoch the states' commissioners, barneveld himself at the head of them, had gone solemnly to congratulate king james on his accession, had scarcely been admitted to audience by king or minister, and had found themselves on great festivals unsprinkled with the holy water of the court, and of no more account than the crowd of citizens and spectators who thronged the streets, gazing with awe at the distant radiance of the throne. but although the ambassadors were treated with every external consideration befitting their official rank, they were not likely to find themselves in the most genial atmosphere when they should come to business details. if there was one thing in the world that james did not intend to do, it was to get himself entangled in war with spain, the power of all others which he most revered and loved. his "heroic and courageous resolve" to defend the princes, on which the commissioners by instructions of the advocate had so highly complimented him, was not strong enough to carry him much beyond a vigorous phraseology. he had not awoke from the delusive dream of the spanish marriage which had dexterously been made to flit before him, and he was not inclined, for the sake of the republic which he hated the more because obliged to be one of its sponsors, to risk the animosity of a great power which entertained the most profound contempt for him. he was destined to find himself involved more closely than he liked, and through family ties, with the great protestant movement in germany, and the unfortunate "winter king" might one day find his father-in-law as unstable a reed to lean upon as the states had found their godfather, or the brandenburgs and neuburgs at the present juncture their great ally. meantime, as the bohemian troubles had not yet reached the period of actual explosion, and as henry's wide-reaching plan against the house of austria had been strangely enough kept an inviolable secret by the few statesmen, like sully and barneveld, to whom they had been confided, it was necessary for the king and his ministers to deal cautiously and plausibly with the dutch ambassadors. their conferences were mere dancing among eggs, and if no actual mischief were done, it was the best result that could be expected. on the th of may, the commissioners met in the council chamber at westminster, and discussed all the matters contained in their instructions with the members of the council; the lord treasurer salisbury, earl of northampton, privy seal and warden of the cinque ports, lord nottingham, lord high admiral, the lord chamberlain, earl of suffolk, earls of shrewsbury, worcester, and several others being present. the result was not entirely satisfactory. in regard to the succour demanded for the possessory princes, the commissioners were told that they seemed to come with a long narrative of their great burthens during the war, damage from inundations, and the like, to excuse themselves from doing their share in the succour, and thus the more to overload his majesty, who was not much interested in the matter, and was likewise greatly encumbered by various expenses. the king had already frankly declared his intention to assist the princes with the payment of men, and to send proportionate artillery and powder from england. as the states had supplies in their magazines enough to move , men, he proposed to draw upon those, reimbursing the states for what was thus consumed by his contingent. with regard to the treaty of close alliance between france, great britain, the princes, and the republic, which the ambassadors had proposed, the--lord treasurer and his colleagues gave a reply far from gratifying. his majesty had not yet decided on this point, they said. the king of france had already proposed to treat for such an alliance, but it did not at present seem worth while for all to negotiate together. this was a not over-courteous hint that the republic was after all not expected to place herself at the council-board of kings on even terms of intimacy and fraternal alliance. what followed was even less flattering. if his majesty, it was intimated, should decide to treat with the king of france, he would not shut the door on their high mightinesses; but his majesty was not yet exactly informed whether his majesty had not certain rights over the provinces 'in petitorio.' this was a scarcely veiled insinuation against the sovereignty of the states, a sufficiently broad hint that they were to be considered in a certain degree as british provinces. to a soldier like maurice, to a statesman like barneveld, whose sympathies already were on the side of france, such rebuffs and taunts were likely to prove unpalatable. the restiveness of the states at the continual possession by great britain of those important sea-ports the cautionary towns, a fact which gave colour to these innuendoes, was sure to be increased by arrogant language on the part of the english ministers. the determination to be rid of their debt to so overbearing an ally, and to shake off the shackles imposed by the costly mortgages, grew in strength from that hour. in regard to the fisheries, the lord treasurer and his colleagues expressed amazement that the ambassadors should consider the subjects of their high mightinesses to be so much beloved by his majesty. why should they of all other people be made an exception of, and be exempt from, the action of a general edict? the reasons for these orders in council ought to be closely examined. it would be very difficult to bring the opinions of the english jurists into harmony with those of the states. meantime it would be well to look up such treaties as might be in existence, and have a special joint commission to confer together on the subject. it was very plain, from the course of the conversation, that the netherland fishermen were not to be allowed, without paying roundly for a license, to catch herrings on the british coasts as they had heretofore done. not much more of importance was transacted at this first interview between the ambassadors and the ding's ministers. certainly they had not yet succeeded in attaining their great object, the formation of an alliance offensive and defensive between great britain and the republic in accordance with the plan concerted between henry and barneveld. they could find but slender encouragement for the warlike plans to which france and the states were secretly committed; nor could they obtain satisfactory adjustment of affairs more pacific and commercial in their tendencies. the english ministers rather petulantly remarked that, while last year everybody was talking of a general peace, and in the present conjuncture all seemed to think, or at least to speak, of nothing but a general war, they thought best to defer consideration of the various subjects connected with duties on the manufactures and products of the respective countries, the navigation laws, the "entrecours," and other matters of ancient agreement and controversy, until a more convenient season. after the termination of the verbal conference, the ambassadors delivered to the king's government, in writing, to be pondered by the council and recorded in the archives, a summary of the statements which had been thus orally treated. the document was in french, and in the main a paraphrase of the advocate's instructions, the substance of which has been already indicated. in regard, however, to the far-reaching designs of spain, and the corresponding attitude which it would seem fitting for great britain to assume, and especially the necessity of that alliance the proposal for which had in the conference been received so haughtily, their language was far plainer, bolder, and more vehement than that of the instructions. "considering that the effects show," they said, "that those who claim the monarchy of christendom, and indeed of the whole world, let slip no opportunity which could in any way serve their designs, it is suitable to the grandeur of his majesty the king, and to the station in which by the grace of the good god he is placed, to oppose himself thereto for the sake of the common liberty of christendom, to which end, and in order the better to prevent all unjust usurpations, there could be no better means devised than a closer alliance between his majesty and the most christian king, my lords the states-general, and the electors, princes, and states of germany. their high mightinesses would therefore be most glad to learn that his majesty was inclined to such a course, and would be glad to discuss the subject when and wherever his majesty should appoint, or would readily enter into such an alliance on reasonable conditions." this language and the position taken up by the ambassadors were highly approved by their government, but it was fated that no very great result was to be achieved by this embassy. very elaborate documents, exhaustive in legal lore, on the subject of the herring fisheries, and of the right to fish in the ocean and on foreign coasts, fortified by copious citations from the 'pandects' and 'institutes' of justinian, were presented for the consideration of the british government, and were answered as learnedly, exhaustively, and ponderously. the english ministers were also reminded that the curing of herrings had been invented in the fifteenth century by a citizen of biervliet, the inscription on whose tombstone recording that faces might still be read in the church of that town. all this did not prevent, however, the dutch herring fishermen from being excluded from the british waters unless they chose to pay for licenses. the conferences were however for a season interrupted, and a new aspect was given to affairs by an unforeseen and terrible event. meanwhile it is necessary to glance for a moment at the doings of the special embassy to france, the instructions for which were prepared by barneveld almost at the same moment at which he furnished those for the commission to england. the ambassadors were walraven, seignior of brederode, cornelis van der myle, son-in-law of the advocate, and jacob van maldere. remembering how impatient the king of france had long been for their coming, and that all the preparations and decisions for a great war were kept in suspense until the final secret conferences could be held with the representatives of the states-general, it seems strange enough to us to observe the extreme deliberation with which great affairs of state were then conducted and the vast amount of time consumed in movements and communications which modern science has either annihilated or abridged from days to hours. while henry was chafing with anxiety in paris, the ambassadors, having received barneveld's instructions dated st march, set forth on the th april from the hague, reached rotterdam at noon, and slept at dordrecht. newt day they went to breda, where the prince of orange insisted upon their passing a couple of days with him in his castle, easter-day being th april. he then provided them with a couple of coaches and pair in which they set forth on their journey, going by way of antwerp, ghent, courtray, ryssel, to arras, making easy stages, stopping in the middle of the day to bait, and sleeping at each of the cities thus mentioned, where they duly received the congratulatory visit and hospitalities of their respective magistracies. while all this time had been leisurely employed in the netherlands in preparing, instructing, and despatching the commissioners, affairs were reaching a feverish crisis in france. the states' ambassador resident thought that it would have been better not to take such public offence at the retreat of the prince of conde. the king had enough of life and vigour in him; he could afford to leave the dauphin to grow up, and when he should one day be established on the throne, he would be able to maintain his heritage. "but," said aerssens, "i fear that our trouble is not where we say it is, and we don't dare to say where it is." writing to carew, former english ambassador in paris, whom we have just seen in attendance on the states' commissioners in london, he said: "people think that the princess is wearying herself much under the protection of the infanta, and very impatient at not obtaining the dissolution of her marriage, which the duchess of angouleme is to go to brussels to facilitate. this is not our business, but i mention it only as the continuation of the tragedy which you saw begin. nevertheless i don't know if the greater part of our deliberations is not founded on this matter." it had been decided to cause the queen to be solemnly crowned after easter. she had set her heart with singular persistency upon the ceremony, and it was thought that so public a sacrament would annihilate all the wild projects attributed to spain through the instrumentality of conde to cast doubts on the validity of her marriage and the legitimacy of the dauphin. the king from the first felt and expressed a singular repugnance, a boding apprehension in regard to the coronation, but had almost yielded to the queen's importunity. he told her he would give his consent provided she sent concini to brussels to invite in her own name the princess of conde to be present on the occasion. otherwise he declared that at least the festival should be postponed till september. the marquis de coeuvres remained in disgrace after the failure of his mission, henry believing that like all the world he had fallen in love with the princess, and had only sought to recommend himself, not to further the suit of his sovereign. meanwhile henry had instructed his ambassador in spain, m. de vaucelas, to tell the king that his reception of conde within his dominions would be considered an infraction of the treaty of vervins and a direct act of hostility. the duke of lerma answered with a sneer that the most christian king had too greatly obliged his most catholic majesty by sustaining his subjects in their rebellion and by aiding them to make their truce to hope now that conde would be sent back. france had ever been the receptacle of spanish traitors and rebels from antonio perez down, and the king of spain would always protect wronged and oppressed princes like conde. france had just been breaking up the friendly relations between savoy and spain and goading the duke into hostilities. on the other hand the king had more than one stormy interview with don inigo de cardenas in paris. that ambassador declared that his master would never abandon his only sister the most serene infanta, such was the affection he born her, whose dominions were obviously threatened by these french armies about to move to the frontiers. henry replied that the friends for whom he was arming had great need of his assistance; that his catholic majesty was quite right to love his sister, whom he also loved; but that he did not choose that his own relatives should be so much beloved in spain as they were. "what relatives?" asked don inigo. "the prince of conde," replied the king, in a rage, "who has been debauched by the spaniards just as marshal biron was, and the marchioness verneuil, and so many others. there are none left for them to debauch now but the dauphin and his brothers." the ambassador replied that, if the king had consulted him about the affair of conde, he could have devised a happy issue from it. henry rejoined that he had sent messages on the subject to his catholic majesty, who had not deigned a response, but that the duke of lerma had given a very indiscreet one to his ambassador. don inigo professed ignorance of any such reply. the king said it was a mockery to affect ignorance of such matters. thereupon both grew excited and very violent in their discourses; the more so as henry knowing but little spanish and the envoy less french they could only understand from tone and gesture that each was using exceedingly unpleasant language. at last don inigo asked what he should write to his sovereign. "whatever you like," replied the king, and so the audience terminated, each remaining in a towering passion. subsequently villeroy assured the archduke's ambassador that the king considered the reception given to the prince in the spanish dominions as one of the greatest insults and injuries that could be done to him. nothing could excuse it, said the secretary of state, and for this reason it was very difficult for the two kings to remain at peace with each other, and that it would be wiser to prevent at once the evil designs of his catholic majesty than to leave leisure for the plans to be put into execution, and the claims of the dauphin to his father's crown to be disputed at a convenient season. he added that war would not be made for the princess, but for the prince, and that even the war in germany, although spain took the emperor's side and france that of the possessory princes, would not necessarily produce a rupture between the two kings if it were not for this affair of the prince--true cause of the disaster now hanging over christianity. pecquius replied by smooth commonplaces in favour of peace with which villeroy warmly concurred; both sadly expressing the conviction however that the wrath divine had descended on them all on account of their sins. a few days later, however, the secretary changed his tone. "i will speak to you frankly and clearly," he said to pecquius, "and tell you as from myself that there is passion, and if one is willing to arrange the affair of the princess, everything else can be accommodated and appeased. put if the princess remain where she is, we are on the eve of a rupture which may set fire to the four corners of christendom." pecquius said he liked to talk roundly, and was glad to find that he had not been mistaken in his opinion, that all these commotions were only made for the princess, and if all the world was going to war, she would be the principal subject of it. he could not marvel sufficiently, he said, at this vehement passion which brought in its train so great and horrible a conflagration; adding many arguments to show that it was no fault of the archdukes, but that he who was the cause of all might one day have reason to repent. villeroy replied that "the king believed the princess to be suffering and miserable for love of him, and that therefore he felt obliged to have her sent back to her father." pecquius asked whether in his conscience the secretary of state believed it right or reasonable to make war for such a cause. villeroy replied by asking "whether even admitting the negative, the ambassador thought it were wisely done for such a trifle, for a formality, to plunge into extremities and to turn all christendom upside down." pecquius, not considering honour a trifle or a formality, said that "for nothing in the world would his highness the archduke descend to a cowardly action or to anything that would sully his honour." villeroy said that the prince had compelled his wife, pistol in hand, to follow him to the netherlands, and that she was no longer bound to obey a husband who forsook country and king. her father demanded her, and she said "she would rather be strangled than ever to return to the company of her husband." the archdukes were not justified in keeping her against her will in perpetual banishment. he implored the ambassador in most pathetic terms to devise some means of sending back the princess, saying that he who should find such expedient would do the greatest good that was ever done to christianity, and that otherwise there was no guarantee against a universal war. the first design of the king had been merely to send a moderate succour to the princes of brandenburg and neuburg, which could have given no umbrage to the archdukes, but now the bitterness growing out of the affairs of the prince and princess had caused him to set on foot a powerful army to do worse. he again implored pecquius to invent some means of sending back the princess, and the ambassador besought him ardently to divert the king from his designs. of this the secretary of state left little hope and they parted, both very low and dismal in mind. subsequent conversations with the leading councillors of state convinced pecquius that these violent menaces were only used to shake the constancy of the archduke, but that they almost all highly disapproved the policy of the king. "if this war goes on, we are all ruined," said the duke d'epernon to the nuncius. thus there had almost ceased to be any grimacing between the two kings, although it was still a profound mystery where or when hostilities would begin, and whether they would break out at all. henry frequently remarked that the common opinion all over europe was working in his favour. few people in or out of france believed that he meant a rupture, or that his preparations were serious. thus should he take his enemies unawares and unprepared. even aerssens, who saw him almost daily, was sometimes mystified, in spite of henry's vehement assertions that he was resolved to make war at all hazards and on all sides, provided my lords the states would second him as they ought, their own existence being at stake. "for god's sake," cried the king, "let us take the bit into our mouths. tell your masters that i am quite resolved, and that i am shrieking loudly at their delays." he asked if he could depend on the states, if barneveld especially would consent to a league with him. the ambassador replied that for the affair of cleve and julich he had instructions to promise entire concurrence, that barneveld was most resolute in the matter, and had always urged the enterprise and wished information as to the levies making in france and other military preparations. "tell him," said henry, "that they are going on exactly as often before stated, but that we are holding everything in suspense until i have talked with your ambassadors, from whom i wish counsel, safety, and encouragement for doing much more than the julich business. that alone does not require so great a league and such excessive and unnecessary expense." the king observed however that the question of the duchies would serve as just cause and excellent pretext to remove those troublesome fellows for ever from his borders and those of the states. thus the princes would be established safely in their possession and the republic as well as himself freed from the perpetual suspicions which the spaniards excited by their vile intrigues, and it was on this general subject that he wished to confer with the special commissioners. it would not be possible for him to throw succour into julich without passing through luxemburg in arms. the archdukes would resist this, and thus a cause of war would arise. his campaign on the meuse would help the princes more than if he should only aid them by the contingent he had promised. nor could the jealousy of king james be excited since the war would spring out of the archdukes' opposition to his passage towards the duchies, as he obviously could not cut himself off from his supplies, leaving a hostile province between himself and his kingdom. nevertheless he could not stir, he said, without the consent and active support of the states, on whom he relied as his principal buttress and foundation. the levies for the milanese expedition were waiting until marshal de lesdiguieres could confer personally with the duke of savoy. the reports as to the fidelity of that potentate were not to be believed. he was trifling with the spanish ambassadors, so henry was convinced, who were offering him , crowns a year besides piombino, monaco, and two places in the milanese, if he would break his treaty with france. but he was thought to be only waiting until they should be gone before making his arrangements with lesdiguieres. "he knows that he can put no trust in spain, and that he can confide in me," said the king. "i have made a great stroke by thus entangling the king of spain by the use of a few troops in italy. but i assure you that there is none but me and my lords the states that can do anything solid. whether the duke breaks or holds fast will make no difference in our first and great designs. for the honour of god i beg them to lose no more time, but to trust in me. i will never deceive them, never abandon them." at last , infantry and cavalry were already in marching order, and indeed had begun to move towards the luxemburg frontier, ready to co-operate with the states' army and that of the possessory princes for the campaign of the meuse and rhine. twelve thousand more french troops under lesdiguieres were to act with the duke of savoy, and an army as large was to assemble in the pyrenees and to operate on the spanish frontier, in hope of exciting and fomenting an insurrection caused by the expulsion of the moors. that gigantic act of madness by which spain thought good at this juncture to tear herself to pieces, driving hundreds of thousands of the most industrious, most intelligent, and most opulent of her population into hopeless exile, had now been accomplished, and was to stand prominent for ever on the records of human fatuity. twenty-five thousand moorish families had arrived at bayonne, and the viceroy of canada had been consulted as to the possibility and expediency of establishing them in that province, although emigration thither seemed less tempting to them than to virginia. certainly it was not unreasonable for henry to suppose that a kingdom thus torn by internal convulsions might be more open to a well organized attack, than capable of carrying out at that moment fresh projects of universal dominion. as before observed, sully was by no means in favour of this combined series of movements, although at a later day, when dictating his famous memoirs to his secretaries, he seems to describe himself as enthusiastically applauding and almost originating them. but there is no doubt at all that throughout this eventful spring he did his best to concentrate the whole attack on luxemburg and the meuse districts, and wished that the movements in the milanese and in provence should be considered merely a slight accessory, as not much more than a diversion to the chief design, while villeroy and his friends chose to consider the duke of savoy as the chief element in the war. sully thoroughly distrusted the duke, whom he deemed to be always put up at auction between spain and france and incapable of a sincere or generous policy. he was entirely convinced that villeroy and epernon and jeannin and other earnest papists in france were secretly inclined to the cause of spain, that the whole faction of the queen, in short, were urging this scattering of the very considerable forces now at henry's command in the hope of bringing him into a false position, in which defeat or an ignominious peace would be the alternative. to concentrate an immense attack upon the archdukes in the spanish netherlands and the debateable duchies would have for its immediate effect the expulsion of the spaniards out of all those provinces and the establishment of the dutch commonwealth on an impregnable basis. that this would be to strengthen infinitely the huguenots in france and the cause of protestantism in bohemia, moravia and austria, was unquestionable. it was natural, therefore, that the stern and ardent huguenot should suspect the plans of the catholics with whom he was in daily council. one day he asked the king plumply in the presence of villeroy if his majesty meant anything serious by all these warlike preparations. henry was wroth, and complained bitterly that one who knew him to the bottom of his soul should doubt him. but sully could not persuade himself that a great and serious war would be carried on both in the netherlands and in italy. as much as his sovereign he longed for the personal presence of barneveld, and was constantly urging the states' ambassador to induce his coming to paris. "you know," said aerssens, writing to the french ambassador at the hague, de russy, "that it is the advocate alone that has the universal knowledge of the outside and the inside of our commonwealth." sully knew his master as well as any man knew him, but it was difficult to fix the chameleon hues of henry at this momentous epoch. to the ambassador expressing doubts as to the king's sincerity the duke asserted that henry was now seriously piqued with the spaniard on account of the conde business. otherwise anhalt and the possessory princes and the affair of cleve might have had as little effect in driving him into war as did the interests of the netherlands in times past. but the bold demonstration projected would make the "whole spanish party bleed at the nose; a good result for the public peace." therefore sully sent word to barneveld, although he wished his name concealed, that he ought to come himself, with full powers to do everything, without referring to any superiors or allowing any secrets to be divulged. the king was too far committed to withdraw, unless coldness on part of the states should give him cause. the advocate must come prepared to answer all questions; to say how much in men and money the states would contribute, and whether they would go into the war with the king as their only ally. he must come with the bridle on his neck. all that henry feared was being left in the lurch by the states; otherwise he was not afraid of rome. sully was urgent that the provinces should now go vigorously into the war without stumbling at any consideration. thus they would confirm their national power for all time, but if the opportunity were now lost, it would be their ruin, and posterity would most justly blame them. the king of spain was so stripped of troops and resources, so embarrassed by the moors, that in ten months he would not be able to send one man to the netherlands. meantime the nuncius in paris was moving heaven and earth; storming, intriguing, and denouncing the course of the king in protecting heresy, when it would have been so easy to extirpate it, encouraging rebellion and disorder throughout christendom, and embarking in an action against the church and against his conscience. a new legate was expected daily with the pope's signature to the new league, and a demand upon the king to sign it likewise, and to pause in a career of which something was suspected, but very little accurately known. the preachers in paris and throughout the kingdom delivered most vehement sermons against the king, the government, and the protestants, and seemed to the king to be such "trumpeters of sedition" that he ordered the seneschals and other officers to put a stop to these turbulent discourses, censure their authors, and compel them to stick to their texts. but the preparations were now so far advanced and going on so warmly that nothing more was wanting than, in the words of aerssens, "to uncouple the dogs and let them run." recruits were pouring steadily to their places of rendezvous; their pay having begun to run from the th march at the rate of eight sous a day for the private foot soldier and ten sous for a corporal. they were moved in small parties of ten, lodged in the wayside inns, and ordered, on pain of death, to pay for everything they consumed. it was growing difficult to wait much longer for the arrival of the special ambassadors, when at last they were known to be on their way. aerssens obtained for their use the hotel gondy, formerly the residence of don pedro de toledo, the most splendid private palace in paris, and recently purchased by the queen. it was considered expedient that the embassy should make as stately an appearance as that of royal or imperial envoys. he engaged an upholsterer by the king's command to furnish, at his majesty's expense, the apartments, as the baron de gondy, he said, had long since sold and eaten up all the furniture. he likewise laid in six pieces of wine and as many of beer, "tavern drinks" being in the opinion of the thrifty ambassador "both dear and bad." he bought a carriage lined with velvet for the commissioners, and another lined with broadcloth for the principal persons of their suite, and with his own coach as a third he proposed to go to amiens to meet them. they could not get on with fewer than these, he said, and the new carriages would serve their purpose in paris. he had paid crowns for the two, and they could be sold, when done with, at a slight loss. he bought likewise four dapple-grey horses, which would be enough, as nobody had more than two horses to a carriage in town, and for which he paid crowns--a very low price, he thought, at a season when every one was purchasing. he engaged good and experienced coachmen at two crowns a month, and; in short, made all necessary arrangements for their comfort and the honour of the state. the king had been growing more and more displeased at the tardiness of the commission, petulantly ascribing it to a design on the part of the states to "excuse themselves from sharing in his bold conceptions," but said that "he could resolve on nothing without my lords the states, who were the only power with which he could contract confidently, as mighty enough and experienced enough to execute the designs to be proposed to them; so that his army was lying useless on his hands until the commissioners arrived," and lamented more loudly than ever that barneveld was not coming with them. he was now rejoiced, however, to hear that they would soon arrive, and went in person to the hotel gondy to see that everything was prepared in a manner befitting their dignity and comfort. his anxiety had moreover been increased, as already stated, by the alarming reports from utrecht and by his other private accounts from the netherlands. de russy expressed in his despatches grave doubts whether the states would join the king in a war against the king of spain, because they feared the disapprobation of the king of great britain, "who had already manifested but too much jealousy of the power and grandeur of the republic." pecquius asserted that the archdukes had received assurances from the states that they would do nothing to violate the truce. the prince of anhalt, who, as chief of the army of the confederated princes, was warm in his demonstrations for a general war by taking advantage of the cleve expedition, was entirely at cross purposes with the states' ambassador in paris, aerssens maintaining that the forty-three years' experience in their war justified the states in placing no dependence on german princes except with express conventions. they had no such conventions now, and if they should be attacked by spain in consequence of their assistance in the cleve business, what guarantee of aid had they from those whom anhalt represented? anhalt was loud in expressions of sympathy with henry's designs against spain, but said that he and the states meant a war of thirty or forty years, while the princes would finish what they meant to do in one. a more erroneous expression of opinion, when viewed in the light of subsequent events, could hardly have been hazarded. villeroy made as good use as he could of these conversations to excite jealousy between the princes and the states for the furtherance of his own ends, while affecting warm interest in the success of the king's projects. meantime archduke albert had replied manfully and distinctly to the menaces of the king and to the pathetic suggestions made by villeroy to pecquius as to a device for sending back the princess. her stay at brussels being the chief cause of the impending war, it would be better, he said, to procure a divorce or to induce the constable to obtain the consent of the prince to the return of his wife to her father's house. to further either of these expedients, the archduke would do his best. "but if one expects by bravados and threats," he added, "to force us to do a thing against our promise, and therefore against reason, our reputation, and honour, resolutely we will do nothing of the kind. and if the said lord king decided on account of this misunderstanding for a rupture and to make war upon us, we will do our best to wage war on him. in such case, however, we shall be obliged to keep the princess closer in our own house, and probably to send her to such parts as may be most convenient in order to remove from us an instrument of the infinite evils which this war will produce." meantime the special commissioners whom we left at arras had now entered the french kingdom. on the th april, aerssens with his three coaches met them on their entrance into amiens, having been waiting there for them eight days. as they passed through the gate, they found a guard of soldiers drawn up to receive them with military honours, and an official functionary to apologize for the necessary absence of the governor, who had gone with most of the troops stationed in the town to the rendezvous in champagne. he expressed regret, therefore, that the king's orders for their solemn reception could not be literally carried out. the whole board of magistrates, however, in their costumes of ceremony, with sergeants bearing silver maces marching before them, came forth to bid the ambassadors welcome. an advocate made a speech in the name of the city authorities, saying that they were expressly charged by the king to receive them as coming from his very best friends, and to do them all honour. he extolled the sage government of their high mightinesses and the valour of the republic, which had become known to the whole world by the successful conduct of their long and mighty war. the commissioners replied in words of compliment, and the magistrates then offered them, according to ancient usage, several bottles of hippocras. next day, sending back the carriages of the prince of orange, in which they had thus far performed the journey, they set forth towards paris, reaching saint-denis at noon of the third day. here they were met by de bonoeil, introducer of ambassadors, sent thither by the king to give them welcome, and to say that they would be received on the road by the duke of vendome, eldest of the legitimatized children of the king. accordingly before reaching the saint-denis gate of paris, a splendid cavalcade of nearly five hundred noblemen met them, the duke at their head, accompanied by two marshals of france, de brissac and boisdaulphin. the three instantly dismounted, and the ambassadors alighted from their coach. the duke then gave them solemn and cordial welcome, saying that he had been sent by his father the king to receive them as befitted envoys of the best and most faithful friends he possessed in the world. the ambassadors expressed their thanks for the great and extraordinary honour thus conferred on them, and they were then requested to get into a royal carriage which had been sent out for that purpose. after much ceremonious refusal they at last consented and, together with the duke of vendome, drove through paris in that vehicle into the faubourg saint germain. arriving at the hotel gondy, they were, notwithstanding all their protestations, escorted up the staircase into the apartments by the duke. "this honour is notable," said the commissioners in their report to the states, "and never shown to anyone before, so that our ill-wishers are filled with spite." and peter pecquius was of the same opinion. "everyone is grumbling here," about the reception of the states' ambassadors, "because such honours were never paid to any ambassador whatever, whether from spain, england, or any other country." and there were many men living and employed in great affairs of state, both in france and in the republic--the king and villeroy, barneveld and maurice--who could remember how twenty-six years before a solemn embassy from the states had proceeded from the hague to france to offer the sovereignty of their country to henry's predecessor, had been kept ignominiously and almost like prisoners four weeks long in rouen, and had been thrust back into the netherlands without being admitted even to one audience by the monarch. truly time, in the course of less than one generation of mankind, had worked marvellous changes in the fortunes of the dutch republic. president jeannin came to visit them next day, with friendly proffers of service, and likewise the ambassador of venice and the charge d'affaires of great britain. on the nd the royal carriages came by appointment to the hotel gondy, and took them for their first audience to the louvre. they were received at the gate by a guard of honour, drums beating and arms presented, and conducted with the greatest ceremony to an apartment in the palace. soon afterwards they were ushered into a gallery where the king stood, surrounded by a number of princes and distinguished officers of the crown. these withdrew on the approach of the netherlanders, leaving the king standing alone. they made their reverence, and henry saluted them all with respectful cordiality. begging them to put on their hats again, he listened attentively to their address. the language of the discourse now pronounced was similar in tenour to that almost contemporaneously held by the states' special envoys in london. both documents, when offered afterwards in writing, bore the unmistakable imprint of the one hand that guided the whole political machine. in various passages the phraseology was identical, and, indeed, the advocate had prepared and signed the instructions for both embassies on the same day. the commissioners acknowledged in the strongest possible terms the great and constant affection, quite without example, that henry had manifested to the netherlands during the whole course of their war. they were at a loss to find language adequately to express their gratitude for that friendship, and the assistance subsequently afforded them in the negotiations for truce. they apologized for the tardiness of the states in sending this solemn embassy of thanksgiving, partly on the ground of the delay in receiving the ratifications from spain, partly by the protracted contraventions by the archdukes of certain articles in the treaty, but principally by the terrible disasters occasioned throughout their country by the great inundations, and by the commotions in the city of utrecht, which had now been "so prudently and happily pacified." they stated that the chief cause of their embassy was to express their respectful gratitude, and to say that never had prince or state treasured more deeply in memory benefits received than did their republic the favours of his majesty, or could be more disposed to do their utmost to defend his majesty's person, crown, or royal family against all attack. they expressed their joy that the king had with prudence, and heroic courage undertaken the defence of the just rights of brandenburg and neuburg to the duchies of cleve, julich, and the other dependent provinces. thus had he put an end to the presumption of those who thought they could give the law to all the world. they promised the co-operation of the states in this most important enterprise of their ally, notwithstanding their great losses in the war just concluded, and the diminution of revenue occasioned by the inundations by which they had been afflicted; for they were willing neither to tolerate so unjust an usurpation as that attempted by the emperor nor to fail to second his majesty in his generous designs. they observed also that they had been instructed to enquire whether his majesty would not approve the contracting of a strict league of mutual assistance between france, england, the united provinces, and the princes of germany. the king, having listened with close attention, thanked the envoys in words of earnest and vigorous cordiality for their expressions of affection to himself. he begged them to remember that he had always been their good friend, and that he never would forsake them; that he had always hated the spaniards, and should ever hate them; and that the affairs of julich must be arranged not only for the present but for the future. he requested them to deliver their propositions in writing to him, and to be ready to put themselves into communication with the members of his council, in order that they might treat with each other roundly and without reserve. he should always deal with the netherlanders as with his own people, keeping no back-door open, but pouring out everything as into the lap of his best and most trusty friends. after this interview conferences followed daily between the ambassadors and villeroy, sully, jeannin, the chancellor, and puysieug. the king's counsellors, after having read the written paraphrase of barneveld's instructions, the communication of which followed their oral statements, and which, among other specifications, contained a respectful remonstrance against the projected french east india company, as likely to benefit the spaniards only, while seriously injuring the states, complained that "the representations were too general, and that the paper seemed to contain nothing but compliments." the ambassadors, dilating on the various points and articles, maintained warmly that there was much more than compliments in their instructions. the ministers wished to know what the states practically were prepared to do in the affair of cleve, which they so warmly and encouragingly recommended to the king. they asked whether the states' army would march at once to dusseldorf to protect the princes at the moment when the king moved from mezieres, and they made many enquiries as to what amount of supplies and munitions they could depend upon from the states' magazines. the envoys said that they had no specific instructions on these points, and could give therefore no conclusive replies. more than ever did henry regret the absence of the great advocate at this juncture. if he could have come, with the bridle on his neck, as henry had so repeatedly urged upon the resident ambassador, affairs might have marched more rapidly. the despotic king could never remember that barneveld was not the unlimited sovereign of the united states, but only the seal-keeper of one of the seven provinces and the deputy of holland to the general assembly. his indirect power, however vast, was only great because it was so carefully veiled. it was then proposed by villeroy and sully, and agreed to by the commissioners, that m. de bethune, a relative of the great financier, should be sent forthwith to the hague, to confer privately with prince maurice and barneveld especially, as to military details of the coming campaign. it was also arranged that the envoys should delay their departure until de bethune's return. meantime henry and the nuncius had been exchanging plain and passionate language. ubaldini reproached the king with disregarding all the admonitions of his holiness, and being about to plunge christendom into misery and war for the love of the princess of conde. he held up to him the enormity of thus converting the king of spain and the archdukes into his deadly enemies, and warned him that he would by such desperate measures make even the states-general and the king of britain his foes, who certainly would never favour such schemes. the king replied that "he trusted to his own forces, not to those of his neighbours, and even if the hollanders should not declare for him still he would execute his designs. on the th of may most certainly he would put himself at the head of his army, even if he was obliged to put off the queen's coronation till october, and he could not consider the king of spain nor the archdukes his friends unless they at once made him some demonstration of friendship. being asked by the nuncius what demonstration he wished, he answered flatly that he wished the princess to be sent back to the constable her father, in which case the affair of julich could be arranged amicably, and, at all events, if the war continued there, he need not send more than men." thus, in spite of his mighty preparations, vehement demands for barneveld, and profound combinations revealed to that statesman, to aerssens, and to the duke of sully only, this wonderful monarch was ready to drop his sword on the spot, to leave his friends in the lurch, to embrace his enemies, the archduke first of all, instead of bombarding brussels the very next week, as he had been threatening to do, provided the beautiful margaret could be restored to his arms through those of her venerable father. he suggested to the nuncius his hope that the archduke would yet be willing to wink at her escape, which he was now trying to arrange through de preaux at brussels, while ubaldini, knowing the archduke incapable of anything so dishonourable, felt that the war was inevitable. at the very same time too, father cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets of the confessional when there was an object to gain, had a long conversation with the archduke's ambassador, in which the holy man said that the king had confessed to him that he made the war expressly to cause the princess to be sent back to france, so that as there could be no more doubt on the subject the father-confessor begged pecquius, in order to prevent so great an evil, to devise "some prompt and sudden means to induce his highness the archduke to order the princess to retire secretly to her own country." the jesuit had different notions of honour, reputation, and duty from those which influenced the archduke. he added that "at easter the king had been so well disposed to seek his salvation that he could easily have forgotten his affection for the princess, had she not rekindled the fire by her letters, in which she caressed him with amorous epithets, calling him 'my heart,' 'my chevalier,' and similar terms of endearment." father cotton also drew up a paper, which he secretly conveyed to pecquius, "to prove that the archduke, in terms of conscience and honour, might decide to permit this escape, but he most urgently implored the ambassador that for the love of god and the public good he would influence his serene highness to prevent this from ever coming to the knowledge of the world, but to keep the secret inviolably." thus, while henry was holding high council with his own most trusted advisers, and with the most profound statesmen of europe, as to the opening campaign within a fortnight of a vast and general war, he was secretly plotting with his father-confessor to effect what he avowed to be the only purpose of that war, by jesuitical bird-lime to be applied to the chief of his antagonists. certainly barneveld and his colleagues were justified in their distrust. to move one step in advance of their potent but slippery ally might be a step off a precipice. on the st of may, sully made a long visit to the commissioners. he earnestly urged upon them the necessity of making the most of the present opportunity. there were people in plenty, he said, who would gladly see the king take another course, for many influential persons about him were altogether spanish in their inclinations. the king had been scandalized to hear from the prince of anhalt, without going into details, that on his recent passage through the netherlands he had noticed some change of feeling, some coolness in their high mightinesses. the duke advised that they should be very heedful, that they should remember how much more closely these matters regarded them than anyone else, that they should not deceive themselves, but be firmly convinced that unless they were willing to go head foremost into the business the french would likewise not commit themselves. sully spoke with much earnestness and feeling, for it was obvious that both he and his master had been disappointed at the cautious and limited nature of the instructions given to the ambassadors. an opinion had indeed prevailed, and, as we have seen, was to a certain extent shared in by aerssens, and even by sully himself, that the king's military preparations were after all but a feint, and that if the prince of conde, and with him the princess, could be restored to france, the whole war cloud would evaporate in smoke. it was even asserted that henry had made a secret treaty with the enemy, according to which, while apparently ready to burst upon the house of austria with overwhelming force, he was in reality about to shake hands cordially with that power, on condition of being allowed to incorporate into his own kingdom the very duchies in dispute, and of receiving the prince of conde and his wife from spain. he was thus suspected of being about to betray his friends and allies in the most ignoble manner and for the vilest of motives. the circulation of these infamous reports no doubt paralysed for a time the energy of the enemy who had made no requisite preparations against the threatened invasion, but it sickened his friends with vague apprehensions, while it cut the king himself to the heart and infuriated him to madness. he asked the nuncius one day what people thought in rome and italy of the war about to be undertaken. ubaldini replied that those best informed considered the princess of conde as the principal subject of hostilities; they thought that he meant to have her back. "i do mean to have her back," cried henry, with a mighty oath, and foaming with rage, "and i shall have her back. no one shall prevent it, not even the lieutenant of god on earth." but the imputation of this terrible treason weighed upon his mind and embittered every hour. the commissioners assured sully that they had no knowledge of any coolness or change such as anhalt had reported on the part of their principals, and the duke took his leave. it will be remembered that villeroy had, it was thought, been making mischief between anhalt and the states by reporting and misreporting private conversations between that prince and the dutch ambassador. as soon as sully had gone, van der myle waited upon villeroy to ask, in name of himself and colleagues, for audience of leave-taking, the object of their mission having been accomplished. the secretary of state, too, like sully, urged the importance of making the most of the occasion. the affair of cleve, he said, did not very much concern the king, but his majesty had taken it to heart chiefly on account of the states and for their security. they were bound, therefore, to exert themselves to the utmost, but more would not be required of them than it would be possible to fulfil. van der myle replied that nothing would be left undone by their high mightinesses to support the king faithfully and according to their promise. on the th, villeroy came to the ambassadors, bringing with him a letter from the king for the states-general, and likewise a written reply to the declarations made orally and in writing by the ambassadors to his majesty. the letter of henry to "his very dear and good friends, allies, and confederates," was chiefly a complimentary acknowledgment of the expressions of gratitude made to him on part of the states-general, and warm approbation of their sage resolve to support the cause of brandenburg and neuburg. he referred them for particulars to the confidential conferences held between the commissioners and himself. they would state how important he thought it that this matter should be settled now so thoroughly as to require no second effort at any future time when circumstances might not be so propitious; and that he intended to risk his person, at the head of his army, to accomplish this result. to the ambassadors he expressed his high satisfaction at their assurances of affection, devotion, and gratitude on the part of the states. he approved and commended their resolution to assist the elector and the palatine in the affair of the duchies. he considered this a proof of their prudence and good judgment, as showing their conviction that they were more interested and bound to render this assistance than any other potentates or states, as much from the convenience and security to be derived from the neighbourhood of princes who were their friends as from dangers to be apprehended from other princes who were seeking to appropriate those provinces. the king therefore begged the states to move forward as soon as possible the forces which they offered for this enterprise according to his majesty's suggestion sent through de bethune. the king on his part would do the same with extreme care and diligence, from the anxiety he felt to prevent my lords the states from receiving detriment in places so vital to their preservation. he begged the states likewise to consider that it was meet not only to make a first effort to put the princes into entire possession of the duchies, but to provide also for the durable success of the enterprise; to guard against any invasions that might be made in the future to eject those princes. otherwise all their present efforts would be useless; and his majesty therefore consented on this occasion to enter into the new league proposed by the states with all the princes and states mentioned in the memoir of the ambassadors for mutual assistance against all unjust occupations, attempts, and baneful intrigues. having no special information as to the infractions by the archdukes of the recent treaty of truce, the king declined to discuss that subject for the moment, although holding himself bound to all required of him as one of the guarantees of that treaty. in regard to the remonstrance made by the ambassadors concerning the trade of the east indies, his majesty disclaimed any intention of doing injury to the states in permitting his subjects to establish a company in his kingdom for that commerce. he had deferred hitherto taking action in the matter only out of respect to the states, but he could no longer refuse the just claims of his subjects if they should persist in them as urgently as they had thus far been doing. the right and liberty which they demanded was common to all, said the king, and he was certainly bound to have as great care for the interests of his subjects as for those of his friends and allies. here, certainly, was an immense difference in tone and in terms towards the republic adopted respectively by their great and good friends and allies the kings of france and great britain. it was natural enough that henry, having secretly expressed his most earnest hope that the states would move at his side in his broad and general assault upon the house of austria, should impress upon them his conviction, which was a just one, that no power in the world was more interested in keeping a spanish and catholic prince out of the duchies than they were themselves. but while thus taking a bond of them as it were for the entire fulfilment of the primary enterprise, he accepted with cordiality, and almost with gratitude, their proposition of a close alliance of the republic with himself and with the protestant powers which james had so superciliously rejected. it would have been difficult to inflict a more petty and, more studied insult upon the republic than did the king of great britain at that supreme moment by his preposterous claim of sovereign rights over the netherlands. he would make no treaty with them, he said, but should he find it worth while to treat with his royal brother of france, he should probably not shut the door in their faces. certainly henry's reply to the remonstrances of the ambassadors in regard to the india trade was as moderate as that of james had been haughty and peremptory in regard to the herring fishery. it is however sufficiently amusing to see those excellent hollanders nobly claiming that "the sea was as free as air" when the right to take scotch pilchards was in question, while at the very same moment they were earnest for excluding their best allies and all the world besides from their east india monopoly. but isaac le maire and jacques le roy had not lain so long disguised in zamet's house in paris for nothing, nor had aerssens so completely "broke the neck of the french east india company" as he supposed. a certain dutch freebooter, however, simon danzer by name, a native of dordrecht, who had been alternately in the service of spain, france, and the states, but a general marauder upon all powers, was exercising at that moment perhaps more influence on the east india trade than any potentate or commonwealth. he kept the seas just then with four swift-sailing and well-armed vessels, that potent skimmer of the ocean, and levied tribute upon protestant and catholic, turk or christian, with great impartiality. the king of spain had sent him letters of amnesty and safe-conduct, with large pecuniary offers, if he would enter his service. the king of france had outbid his royal brother and enemy, and implored him to sweep the seas under the white flag. the states' ambassador begged his masters to reflect whether this "puissant and experienced corsair" should be permitted to serve spaniard or frenchman, and whether they could devise no expedient for turning him into another track. "he is now with his fine ships at marseilles," said aerssens. "he is sought for in all quarters by the spaniard and by the directors of the new french east india company, private persons who equip vessels of war. if he is not satisfied with this king's offers, he is likely to close with the king of spain, who offers him crowns a month. avarice tickles him, but he is neither spaniard nor papist, and i fear will be induced to serve with his ships the east india company, and so will return to his piracy, the evil of which will always fall on our heads. if my lords the states will send me letters of abolition for him, in imitation of the french king, on condition of his returning to his home in zealand and quitting the sea altogether, something might be done. otherwise he will be off to marseilles again, and do more harm to us than ever. isaac le maire is doing as much evil as he can, and one holds daily council with him here." thus the slippery simon skimmed the seas from marseilles to the moluccas, from java to mexico, never to be held firmly by philip, or henry, or barneveld. a dissolute but very daring ship's captain, born in zealand, and formerly in the service of the states, out of which he had been expelled for many evil deeds, simon danzer had now become a professional pirate, having his head-quarters chiefly at algiers. his english colleague warde stationed himself mainly at tunis, and both acted together in connivance with the pachas of the turkish government. they with their considerable fleet, one vessel of which mounted sixty guns, were the terror of the mediterranean, extorted tribute from the commerce of all nations indifferently, and sold licenses to the greatest governments of europe. after growing rich with his accumulated booty, simon was inclined to become respectable, a recourse which was always open to him--france, england, spain, the united provinces, vieing with each other to secure him by high rank and pay as an honoured member of their national marine. he appears however to have failed in his plan of retiring upon his laurels, having been stabbed in paris by a man whom he had formerly robbed and ruined. villeroy, having delivered the letters with his own hands to the ambassadors, was asked by them when and where it would be convenient for the king to arrange the convention of close alliance. the secretary of state--in his secret heart anything but kindly disposed for this loving union with a republic he detested and with heretics whom he would have burned--answered briefly that his majesty was ready at any time, and that it might take place then if they were provided with the necessary powers. he said in parting that the states should "have an eye to everything, for occasions like the present were irrecoverable." he then departed, saying that the king would receive them in final audience on the following day. next morning accordingly marshal de boisdaulphin and de bonoeil came with royal coaches to the hotel gondy and escorted the ambassadors to the louvre. on the way they met de bethune, who had returned solo from the hague bringing despatches for the king and for themselves. while in the antechamber, they had opportunity to read their letters from the states-general, his majesty sending word that he was expecting them with impatience, but preferred that they should read the despatches before the audience. they found the king somewhat out of humour. he expressed himself as tolerably well satisfied with the general tenour of the despatches brought by de bethune, but complained loudly of the request now made by the states, that the maintenance and other expenses of french in the states' service should be paid in the coming campaign out of the royal exchequer. he declared that this proposition was "a small manifestation of ingratitude," that my lords the states were "little misers," and that such proceedings were "little avaricious tricks" such as he had not expected of them. so far as england was concerned, he said there was a great difference. the english took away what he was giving. he did cheerfully a great deal for his friends, he said, and was always ready doubly to repay what they did for him. if, however, the states persisted in this course, he should call his troops home again. the king, as he went on, became more and more excited, and showed decided dissatisfaction in his language and manner. it was not to be wondered at, for we have seen how persistently he had been urging that the advocate should come in person with "the bridle on his neck," and now he had sent his son-in-law and two colleagues tightly tied up by stringent instructions. and over an above all this, while he was contemplating a general war with intention to draw upon the states for unlimited supplies, behold, they were haggling for the support of a couple of regiments which were virtually their own troops. there were reasons, however, for this cautiousness besides those unfounded, although not entirely chimerical, suspicions as to the king's good faith, to which we have alluded. it should not be forgotten that, although henry had conversed secretly with the states' ambassador at full length on his far-reaching plans, with instructions that he should confidentially inform the advocate and demand his co-operation, not a word of it had been officially propounded to the states-general, nor to the special embassy with whom he was now negotiating. no treaty of alliance offensive or defensive existed between the kingdom and the republic or between the republic and any power whatever. it would have been culpable carelessness therefore at this moment for the prime minister of the states to have committed his government in writing to a full participation in a general assault upon the house of austria; the first step in which would have been a breach of the treaty just concluded and instant hostilities with the archdukes albert and isabella. that these things were in the immediate future was as plain as that night would follow day, but the hour had not yet struck for the states to throw down the gauntlet. hardly two months before, the king, in his treaty with the princes at hall, had excluded both the king of great britain and the states-general from participation in those arrangements, and it was grave matter for consideration, therefore, for the states whether they should allow such succour as they might choose to grant the princes to be included in the french contingent. the opportunity for treating as a sovereign power with the princes and making friends with them was tempting, but it did not seem reasonable to the states that france should make use of them in this war without a treaty, and should derive great advantage from the alliance, but leave the expense to them. henry, on the other hand, forgetting, when it was convenient to him, all about the princess of conde, his hatred of spain, and his resolution to crush the house of austria, chose to consider the war as made simply for the love of the states-general and to secure them for ever from danger. the ambassadors replied to the king's invectives with great respect, and endeavoured to appease his anger. they had sent a special despatch to their government, they said, in regard to all those matters, setting forth all the difficulties that had been raised, but had not wished to trouble his majesty with premature discussions of them. they did not doubt, however, that their high mightinesses would so conduct this great affair as to leave the king no ground of complaint. henry then began to talk of the intelligence brought by de bethune from the hague, especially in regard to the sending of states' troops to dusseldorf and the supply of food for the french army. he did not believe, he said, that the archdukes would refuse him the passage with his forces through their territory, inasmuch as the states' army would be on the way to meet him. in case of any resistance, however, he declared his resolution to strike his blow and to cause people to talk of him. he had sent his quartermaster-general to examine the passes, who had reported that it would be impossible to prevent his majesty's advance. he was also distinctly informed that marquis spinola, keeping his places garrisoned, could not bring more than men into the field. the duke of bouillon, however, was sending advices that his communications were liable to be cut off, and that for this purpose spinola could set on foot about , infantry and horse. if the passage should be allowed by the archdukes, the king stated his intention of establishing magazines for his troops along the whole line of march through the spanish netherlands and neighbouring districts, and to establish and fortify himself everywhere in order to protect his supplies and cover his possible retreat. he was still in doubt, he said, whether to demand the passage at once or to wait until he had began to move his army. he was rather inclined to make the request instantly in order to gain time, being persuaded that he should receive no answer either of consent or refusal. leaving all these details, the king then frankly observed that the affair of cleve had a much wider outlook than people thought. therefore the states must consider well what was to be done to secure the whole work as soon as the cleve business had been successfully accomplished. upon this subject it was indispensable that he should consult especially with his excellency (prince maurice) and some members of the general assembly, whom he wished that my lords the states-general should depute to the army. "for how much good will it do," said the king, "if we drive off archduke leopold without establishing the princes in security for the future? nothing is easier than to put the princes in possession. every one will yield or run away before our forces, but two months after we have withdrawn the enemy will return and drive the princes out again. i cannot always be ready to spring out of my kingdom, nor to assemble such great armies. i am getting old, and my army moreover costs me , crowns a month, which is enough to exhaust all the treasures of france, spain, venice, and the states-general together." he added that, if the present occasion were neglected, the states would afterwards bitterly lament and never recover it. the pope was very much excited, and was sending out his ambassadors everywhere. only the previous saturday the new nuncius destined for france had left rome. if my lords the states would send deputies to the camp with full powers, he stood there firm and unchangeable, but if they remained cool in the business, he warned them that they would enrage him. the states must seize the occasion, he repeated. it was bald behind, and must be grasped by the forelock. it was not enough to have begun well. one must end well. "finis coronat opus." it was very easy to speak of a league, but a league was not to be made in order to sit with arms tied, but to do good work. the states ought not to suffer that the germans should prove themselves more energetic, more courageous, than themselves. and again the king vehemently urged the necessity of his excellency and some deputies of the states coming to him "with absolute power" to treat. he could not doubt in that event of something solid being accomplished. "there are three things," he continued, "which cause me to speak freely. i am talking with my friends whom i hold dear--yes, dearer, perhaps, than they hold themselves. i am a great king, and say what i choose to say. i am old, and know by experience the ways of this world's affairs. i tell you, then, that it is most important that you should come to me resolved and firm on all points." he then requested the ambassadors to make full report of all that he had said to their masters, to make the journey as rapidly as possible, in order to encourage the states to the great enterprise and to meet his wishes. he required from them, he said, not only activity of the body, but labour of the intellect. he was silent for a few moments, and then spoke again. "i shall not always be here," he said, "nor will you always have prince maurice, and a few others whose knowledge of your commonwealth is perfect. my lords the states must be up and doing while they still possess them. nest tuesday i shall cause the queen to be crowned at saint-denis; the following thursday she will make her entry into paris. next day, friday, i shall take my departure. at the end of this month i shall cross the meuse at mezieres or in that neighbourhood." he added that he should write immediately to holland, to urge upon his excellency and the states to be ready to make the junction of their army with his forces without delay. he charged the ambassadors to assure their high mightinesses that he was and should remain their truest friend, their dearest neighbour. he then said a few gracious and cordial words to each of them, warmly embraced each, and bade them all farewell. the next day was passed by the ambassadors in paying and receiving farewell visits, and on saturday, the th, they departed from paris, being escorted out of the gate by the marshal de boisdaulphin, with a cavalcade of noblemen. they slept that night at saint denis, and then returned to holland by the way of calais and rotterdam, reaching the hague on the th of may. i make no apology for the minute details thus given of the proceedings of this embassy, and especially of the conversations of henry. the very words of those conversations were taken down on the spot by the commissioners who heard them, and were carefully embodied in their report made to the states-general on their return, from which i have transcribed them. it was a memorable occasion. the great king--for great he was, despite his numerous vices and follies--stood there upon the threshold of a vast undertaking, at which the world, still half incredulous, stood gazing, half sick with anxiety. he relied on his own genius and valour chiefly, and after these on the brain of barneveld and the sword of maurice. nor was his confidence misplaced. but let the reader observe the date of the day when those striking utterances were made, and which have never before been made public. it was thursday, the th may. "i shall not always be here," said the king, . . . "i cannot be ready at any moment to spring out of my kingdom." . . . "friday of next week i take my departure." how much of heroic pathos in henry's attitude at this supreme moment! how mournfully ring those closing words of his address to the ambassadors! the die was cast. a letter drawn up by the duc de sully was sent to archduke albert by the king. "my brother," he said; "not being able to refuse my best allies and confederates the help which they have asked of me against those who wish to trouble them in the succession to the duchies and counties of cleve, julich, mark, berg, ravensberg, and ravenstein, i am advancing towards them with my army. as my road leads me through your country, i desire to notify you thereof, and to know whether or not i am to enter as a friend or enemy." such was the draft as delivered to the secretary of state; "and as such it was sent," said sully, "unless villeroy changed it, as he had a great desire to do." henry was mistaken in supposing that the archduke would leave the letter without an answer. a reply was sent in due time, and the permission demanded was not refused. for although france was now full of military movement, and the regiments everywhere were hurrying hourly to the places of rendezvous, though the great storm at last was ready to burst, the archdukes made no preparations for resistance, and lapped themselves in fatal security that nothing was intended but an empty demonstration. six thousand swiss newly levied, with , french infantry and horse, were waiting for henry to place himself at their head at mezieres. twelve thousand foot and cavalry, including the french and english contingents--a splendid army, led by prince maurice--were ready to march from holland to dusseldorf. the army of the princes under prince christian of anhalt numbered , men. the last scruples of the usually unscrupulous charles emmanuel had been overcome, and the duke was quite ready to act, , strong, with marshal de lesdiguieres, in the milanese; while marshal de la force was already at the head of his forces in the pyrenees, amounting to , foot and horse. sully had already despatched his splendid trains of artillery to the frontier. "never was seen in france, and perhaps never will be seen there again, artillery more complete and better furnished," said the duke, thinking probably that artillery had reached the climax of perfect destructiveness in the first decade of the seventeenth century. his son, the marquis de rosny, had received the post of grand master of artillery, and placed himself at its head. his father was to follow as its chief, carrying with him as superintendent of finance a cash-box of eight millions. the king had appointed his wife, mary de' medici, regent, with an eminent council. the new nuncius had been requested to present himself with his letters of credence in the camp. henry was unwilling that he should enter paris, being convinced that he came to do his best, by declamation, persuasion, and intrigue, to paralyse the enterprise. sully's promises to ubaldini, the former nuncius, that his holiness should be made king, however flattering to paul v., had not prevented his representatives from vigorously denouncing henry's monstrous scheme to foment heresy and encourage rebellion. the king's chagrin at the cautious limitations imposed upon the states' special embassy was, so he hoped, to be removed by full conferences in the camp. certainly he had shown in the most striking manner the respect he felt for the states, and the confidence he reposed in them. "in the reception of your embassy," wrote aerssens to the advocate, "certainly the king has so loosened the strap of his affection that he has reserved nothing by which he could put the greatest king in the world above your level." he warned the states, however, that henry had not found as much in their propositions as the common interest had caused him to promise himself. "nevertheless he informs me in confidence," said aerssens, "that he will engage himself in nothing without you; nay, more, he has expressly told me that he could hardly accomplish his task without your assistance, and it was for our sakes alone that he has put himself into this position and incurred this great expense." some days later he informed barneveld that he would leave to van der myle and his colleagues the task of describing the great dissatisfaction of the king at the letters brought by de bethune. he told him in confidence that the states must equip the french regiments and put them in marching order if they wished to preserve henry's friendship. he added that since the departure of the special embassy the king had been vehemently and seriously urging that prince maurice, count lewis william, barneveld, and three or four of the most qualified deputies of the states-general, entirely authorized to treat for the common safety, should meet with him in the territory of julich on a fixed day. the crisis was reached. the king stood fully armed, thoroughly prepared, with trustworthy allies at his side, disposing of overwhelming forces ready to sweep down with irresistible strength upon the house of austria, which, as he said and the states said, aspired to give the law to the whole world. nothing was left to do save, as the ambassador said, to "uncouple the dogs of war and let them run." what preparations had spain and the empire, the pope and the league, set on foot to beat back even for a moment the overwhelming onset? none whatever. spinola in the netherlands, fuentes in milan, bucquoy and lobkowitz and lichtenstein in prague, had hardly the forces of a moderate peace establishment at their disposal, and all the powers save france and the states were on the verge of bankruptcy. even james of great britain--shuddering at the vast thundercloud which had stretched itself over christendom growing blacker and blacker, precisely at this moment, in which he had proved to his own satisfaction that the peace just made would perpetually endure--even james did not dare to traverse the designs of the king whom he feared, and the republic which he hated, in favour of his dearly loved spain. sweden, denmark, the hanse towns, were in harmony with france, holland, savoy, and the whole protestant force of germany--a majority both in population and resources of the whole empire. what army, what combination, what device, what talisman, could save the house of austria, the cause of papacy, from the impending ruin? a sudden, rapid, conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined a result as anything could be in the future of human affairs. on the th or th day of may, as he had just been informing the states' ambassadors, henry meant to place himself at the head of his army. that was the moment fixed by himself for "taking his departure." and now the ides of may had come--but not gone. in the midst of all the military preparations with which paris had been resounding, the arrangements for the queen's coronation had been simultaneously going forward. partly to give check in advance to the intrigues which would probably at a later date be made by conde, supported by the power of spain, to invalidate the legitimacy of the dauphin, but more especially perhaps to further and to conceal what the faithful sully called the "damnable artifices" of the queen's intimate councillors--sinister designs too dark to be even whispered at that epoch, and of which history, during the lapse of more than two centuries and a half, has scarcely dared to speak above its breath--it was deemed all important that the coronation should take place. a certain astrologer, thomassin by name, was said to have bidden the king to beware the middle of the next month of may. henry had tweaked the soothsayer by the beard and made him dance twice or thrice about the room. to the duc de vendome expressing great anxiety in regard to thomassin, henry replied, "the astrologer is an old fool, and you are a young fool." a certain prophetess called pasithea had informed the queen that the king could not survive his fifty-seventh year. she was much in the confidence of mary de' medici, who had insisted this year on her returning to paris. henry, who was ever chafing and struggling to escape the invisible and dangerous net which he felt closing about him, and who connected the sorceress with all whom he most loathed among the intimate associates of the queen, swore a mighty oath that she should not show her face again at court. "my heart presages that some signal disaster will befall me on this coronation. concini and his wife are urging the queen obstinately to send for this fanatic. if she should come, there is no doubt that my wife and i shall squabble well about her. if i discover more about these private plots of hers with spain, i shall be in a mighty passion." and the king then assured the faithful minister of his conviction that all the jealousy affected by the queen in regard to the princess of conde was but a veil to cover dark designs. it was necessary in the opinion of those who governed her, the vile concini and his wife, that there should be some apparent and flagrant cause of quarrel. the public were to receive payment in these pretexts for want of better coin. henry complained that even sully and all the world besides attributed to jealousy that which was really the effect of a most refined malice. and the minister sometimes pauses in the midst of these revelations made in his old age, and with self-imposed and shuddering silence intimates that there are things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful to be breathed. henry had an invincible repugnance to that coronation on which the queen had set her heart. nothing could be more pathetic than the isolated position in which he found himself, standing thus as he did on the threshold of a mighty undertaking in which he was the central figure, an object for the world to gaze upon with palpitating interest. at his hearth in the louvre were no household gods. danger lurked behind every tapestry in that magnificent old palace. a nameless dread dogged his footsteps through those resounding corridors. and by an exquisite refinement in torture the possible father of several of his children not only dictated to the queen perpetual outbreaks of frantic jealousy against her husband, but moved her to refuse with suspicion any food and drink offered her by his hands. the concini's would even with unparalleled and ingenious effrontery induce her to make use of the kitchen arrangements in their apartments for the preparation of her daily meals? driven from house and home, henry almost lived at the arsenal. there he would walk for hours in the long alleys of the garden, discussing with the great financier and soldier his vast, dreamy, impracticable plans. strange combination of the hero, the warrior, the voluptuary, the sage, and the schoolboy--it would be difficult to find in the whole range of history a more human, a more attractive, a more provoking, a less venerable character. haunted by omens, dire presentiments, dark suspicions with and without cause, he was especially averse from the coronation to which in a moment of weakness he had given his consent. sitting in sully's cabinet, in a low chair which the duke had expressly provided for his use, tapping and drumming on his spectacle case, or starting up and smiting himself on the thigh, he would pour out his soul hours long to his one confidential minister. "ah, my friend, how this sacrament displeases me," he said; "i know not why it is, but my heart tells me that some misfortune is to befall me. by god i shall die in this city, i shall never go out of it; i see very well that they are finding their last resource in my death. ah, accursed coronation! thou wilt be the cause of my death." so many times did he give utterance to these sinister forebodings that sully implored him at last for leave to countermand the whole ceremony notwithstanding the great preparations which had been made for the splendid festival. "yes, yes," replied the king, "break up this coronation at once. let me hear no more of it. then i shall have my mind cured of all these impressions. i shall leave the town and fear nothing." he then informed his friend that he had received intimations that he should lose his life at the first magnificent festival he should give, and that he should die in a carriage. sully admitted that he had often, when in a carriage with him, been amazed at his starting and crying out at the slightest shock, having so often seen him intrepid among guns and cannon, pikes and naked swords. the duke went to the queen three days in succession, and with passionate solicitations and arguments and almost upon his knees implored her to yield to the king's earnest desire, and renounce for the time at least the coronation. in vain. mary de' medici was obdurate as marble to his prayers. the coronation was fixed for thursday, the th may, two days later than the time originally appointed when the king conversed with the states' ambassadors. on the following sunday was to be the splendid and solemn entrance of the crowned queen. on the monday, henry, postponing likewise for two days his original plan of departure, would leave for the army. meantime there were petty annoyances connected with the details of the coronation. henry had set his heart on having his legitimatized children, the offspring of the fair gabrielle, take their part in the ceremony on an equal footing with the princes of the blood. they were not entitled to wear the lilies of france upon their garments, and the king was solicitous that "the count"--as soissons, brother of prince conti and uncle of conde, was always called--should dispense with those ensigns for his wife upon this solemn occasion, and that the other princesses of the blood should do the same. thus there would be no appearance of inferiority on the part of the duchess of vendome. the count protested that he would have his eyes torn out of his head rather than submit to an arrangement which would do him so much shame. he went to the queen and urged upon her that to do this would likewise be an injury to her children, the dukes of orleans and of anjou. he refused flatly to appear or allow his wife to appear except in the costume befitting their station. the king on his part was determined not to abandon his purpose. he tried to gain over the count by the most splendid proposals, offering him the command of the advance-guard of the army, or the lieutenancy-general of france in the absence of the king, , crowns for his equipment and an increase of his pension if he would cause his wife to give up the fleurs-de-lys on this occasion. the alternative was to be that, if she insisted upon wearing them, his majesty would never look upon him again with favourable eyes. the count never hesitated, but left paris, refusing to appear at the ceremony. the king was in a towering passion, for to lose the presence of this great prince of the blood at a solemnity expressly intended as a demonstration against the designs hatching by the first of all the princes of the blood under patronage of spain was a severe blow to his pride and a check to his policy.' yet it was inconceivable that he could at such a moment commit so superfluous and unmeaning a blunder. he had forced conde into exile, intrigue with the enemy, and rebellion, by open and audacious efforts to destroy his domestic peace, and now he was willing to alienate one of his most powerful subjects in order to place his bastards on a level with royalty. while it is sufficiently amusing to contemplate this proposed barter of a chief command in a great army or the lieutenancy-general of a mighty kingdom at the outbreak of a general european war against a bit of embroidery on the court dress of a lady, yet it is impossible not to recognize something ideal and chivalrous from his own point of view in the refusal of soissons to renounce those emblems of pure and high descent, those haughty lilies of st. louis, against any bribes of place and pelf however dazzling. the coronation took place on thursday, th may, with the pomp and glitter becoming great court festivals; the more pompous and glittering the more the monarch's heart was wrapped in gloom. the representatives of the great powers were conspicuous in the procession; aerssens, the dutch ambassador, holding a foremost place. the ambassadors of spain and venice as usual squabbled about precedence and many other things, and actually came to fisticuffs, the fight lasting a long time and ending somewhat to the advantage of the venetian. but the sacrament was over, and mary de' medici was crowned queen of france and regent of the kingdom during the absence of the sovereign with his army. meantime there had been mysterious warnings darker and more distinct than the babble of the soothsayer thomassin or the ravings of the lunatic pasithea. count schomberg, dining at the arsenal with sully, had been called out to converse with mademoiselle de gournay, who implored that a certain madame d'escomans might be admitted to audience of the king. that person, once in direct relations with the marchioness of verneuil, the one of henry's mistresses who most hated him, affirmed that a man from the duke of epernon's country was in paris, agent of a conspiracy seeking the king's life. the woman not enjoying a very reputable character found it impossible to obtain a hearing, although almost frantic with her desire to save her sovereign's life. the queen observed that it was a wicked woman, who was accusing all the world, and perhaps would accuse her too. the fatal friday came. henry drove out, in his carriage to see the preparations making for the triumphal entrance of the queen into paris on the following sunday. what need to repeat the tragic, familiar tale? the coach was stopped by apparent accident in the narrow street de la feronniere, and francis ravaillac, standing on the wheel, drove his knife through the monarch's heart. the duke of epernon, sitting at his side, threw his cloak over the body and ordered the carriage back to the louvre. "they have killed him, 'e ammazato,'" cried concini (so says tradition), thrusting his head into the queen's bedchamber. [michelet, . it is not probable that the documents concerning the trial, having been so carefully suppressed from the beginning, especially the confession dictated to voisin--who wrote it kneeling on the ground, and was perhaps so appalled at its purport that he was afraid to write it legibly--will ever see the light. i add in the appendix some contemporary letters of persons, as likely as any one to know what could be known, which show how dreadful were the suspicions which men entertained, and which they hardly ventured to whisper to each other]. that blow had accomplished more than a great army could have done, and spain now reigned in paris. the house of austria, without making any military preparations, had conquered, and the great war of religion and politics was postponed for half a dozen years. this history has no immediate concern with solving the mysteries of that stupendous crime. the woman who had sought to save the king's life now denounced epernon as the chief murderer, and was arrested, examined, accused of lunacy, proved to be perfectly sane, and, persisting in her statements with perfect coherency, was imprisoned for life for her pains; the duke furiously demanding her instant execution. the documents connected with the process were carefully suppressed. the assassin, tortured and torn by four horses, was supposed to have revealed nothing and to have denied the existence of accomplices. the great accused were too omnipotent to be dealt with by humble accusers or by convinced but powerless tribunals. the trial was all mystery, hugger-mugger, horror. yet the murderer is known to have dictated to the greflier voisin, just before expiring on the greve, a declaration which that functionary took down in a handwriting perhaps purposely illegible. two centuries and a half have passed away, yet the illegible original record is said to exist, to have been plainly read, and to contain the names of the queen and the duke of epernon. twenty-six years before, the pistol of balthasar gerard had destroyed the foremost man in europe and the chief of a commonwealth just struggling into existence. yet spain and rome, the instigators and perpetrators of the crime, had not reaped the victory which they had the right to expect. the young republic, guided by barneveld and loyal to the son of the murdered stadholder, was equal to the burthen suddenly descending upon its shoulders. instead of despair there had been constancy. instead of distracted counsels there had been heroic union of heart and hand. rather than bend to rome and grovel to philip, it had taken its sovereignty in its hands, offered it successively, without a thought of self-aggrandizement on the part of its children, to the crowns of france and great britain, and, having been repulsed by both, had learned after fiery trials and incredible exertions to assert its own high and foremost place among the independent powers of the world. and now the knife of another priest-led fanatic, the wretched but unflinching instrument of a great conspiracy, had at a blow decapitated france. no political revolution could be much more thorough than that which had been accomplished in a moment of time by francis ravaillac. on the th of may, france, while in spiritual matters obedient to the pope, stood at the head of the forces of protestantism throughout europe, banded together to effect the downfall of the proud house of austria, whose fortunes and fate were synonymous with catholicism. the baltic powers, the majority of the teutonic races, the kingdom of britain, the great republic of the netherlands, the northernmost and most warlike governments of italy, all stood at the disposition of the warrior-king. venice, who had hitherto, in the words of a veteran diplomatist, "shunned to look a league or a confederation in the face, if there was any protestant element in it, as if it had been the head of medusa," had formally forbidden the passage of troops northwards to the relief of the assailed power. savoy, after direful hesitations, had committed herself body and soul to the great enterprise. even the pope, who feared the overshadowing personality of henry, and was beginning to believe his house's private interests more likely to flourish under the protection of the french than the spanish king, was wavering in his fidelity to spain and tempted by french promises: if he should prove himself incapable of effecting a pause in the great crusade, it was doubtful on which side he would ultimately range himself; for it was at least certain that the new catholic league, under the chieftainship of maximilian of bavaria, was resolved not to entangle its fortunes inextricably with those of the austrian house. the great enterprise, first unfolding itself with the episode of cleve and berg and whimsically surrounding itself with the fantastic idyl of the princess of conde, had attained vast and misty proportions in the brain of its originator. few political visions are better known in history than the "grand design" of henry for rearranging the map of the world at the moment when, in the middle of may, he was about to draw his sword. spain reduced to the mediterranean and the pyrenees, but presented with both the indies, with all america and the whole orient in fee; the empire taken from austria and given to bavaria; a constellation of states in italy, with the pope for president-king; throughout the rest of christendom a certain number of republics, of kingdoms, of religions--a great confederation of the world, in short--with the most christian king for its dictator and protector, and a great amphictyonic council to regulate all disputes by solemn arbitration, and to make war in the future impossible, such in little was his great design. nothing could be more humane, more majestic, more elaborate, more utterly preposterous. and all this gigantic fabric had passed away in an instant--at one stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel. most pitiful was the condition of france on the day after, and for years after, the murder of the king. not only was the kingdom for the time being effaced from the roll of nations, so far as external relations were concerned, but it almost ceased to be a kingdom. the ancient monarchy of hugh capet, of saint-louis, of henry of france and navarre, was transformed into a turbulent, self-seeking, quarrelsome, pillaging, pilfering democracy of grandees. the queen-regent was tossed hither and thither at the sport of the winds and waves which shifted every hour in that tempestuous court. no man pretended to think of the state. every man thought only of himself. the royal exchequer was plundered with a celerity and cynical recklessness such as have been rarely seen in any age or country. the millions so carefully hoarded by sully, and exhibited so dramatically by that great minister to the enraptured eyes of his sovereign; that treasure in the bastille on which henry relied for payment of the armies with which he was to transform the world, all disappeared in a few weeks to feed the voracious maw of courtiers, paramours, and partisans! the queen showered gold like water upon her beloved concini that he might purchase his marquisate of ancre, and the charge of first gentleman of the court from bouillon; that he might fit himself for the government of picardy; that he might elevate his marquisate into a dukedom. conde, having no further reason to remain in exile, received as a gift from the trembling mary de' medici the magnificent hotel gondy, where the dutch ambassadors had so recently been lodged, for which she paid , crowns, together with , crowns to furnish it, , crowns to pay his debts, , more as yearly pension. he claimed double, and was soon at sword's point with the queen in spite of her lavish bounty. epernon, the true murderer of henry, trampled on courts of justice and councils of ministers, frightened the court by threatening to convert his possession of metz into an independent sovereignty, as balagny had formerly seized upon cambray, smothered for ever the process of ravaillac, caused those to be put to death or immured for life in dungeons who dared to testify to his complicity in the great crime, and strode triumphantly over friends and enemies throughout france, although so crippled by the gout that he could scarcely walk up stairs. there was an end to the triumvirate. sully's influence was gone for ever. the other two dropped the mask. the chancellor and villeroy revealed themselves to be what they secretly had always been--humble servants and stipendiaries of spain. the formal meetings of the council were of little importance, and were solemn, tearful, and stately; draped in woe for the great national loss. in the private cabinet meetings in the entresol of the louvre, where the nuncius and the spanish ambassador held counsel with epernon and villeroy and jeannin and sillery, the tone was merry and loud; the double spanish marriage and confusion to the dutch being the chief topics of consultation. but the anarchy grew day by day into almost hopeless chaos. there was no satisfying the princes of the blood nor the other grandees. conde, whose reconciliation with the princess followed not long after the death of henry and his own return to france, was insatiable in his demands for money, power, and citadels of security. soissons, who might formerly have received the lieutenancy-general of the kingdom by sacrificing the lilies on his wife's gown, now disputed for that office with his elder brother conti, the prince claiming it by right of seniority, the count denouncing conti as deaf, dumb, and imbecile, till they drew poniards on each other in the very presence of the queen; while conde on one occasion, having been refused the citadels which he claimed, blaye and chateau trompette, threw his cloak over his nose and put on his hat while the queen was speaking, and left the council in a fury, declaring that villeroy and the chancellor were traitors, and that he would have them both soundly cudgelled. guise, lorraine, epernon, bouillon, and other great lords always appeared in the streets of paris at the head of three, four, or five hundred mounted and armed retainers; while the queen in her distraction gave orders to arm the paris mob to the number of fifty thousand, and to throw chains across the streets to protect herself and her son against the turbulent nobles. sully, hardly knowing to what saint to burn his candle, being forced to resign his great posts, was found for a time in strange political combination with the most ancient foes of his party and himself. the kaleidoscope whirling with exasperating quickness showed ancient leaguers and lorrainers banded with and protecting huguenots against the crown, while princes of the blood, hereditary patrons and chiefs of the huguenots, became partisans and stipendiaries of spain. it is easy to see that circumstances like these rendered the position of the dutch commonwealth delicate and perilous. sully informed aerssens and van der myle, who had been sent back to paris on special mission very soon after the death of the king, that it took a hundred hours now to accomplish a single affair, whereas under henry a hundred affairs were transacted in a single hour. but sully's sun had set, and he had few business conferences now with the ambassadors. villeroy and the chancellor had fed fat their ancient grudge to the once omnipotent minister, and had sworn his political ruin. the old secretary of state had held now complete control of the foreign alliances and combinations of france, and the dutch ambassadors could be under no delusion as to the completeness of the revolution. "you will find a passion among the advisers of the queen," said villeroy to aerssens and van der myle, "to move in diametrical opposition to the plans of the late king." and well might the ancient leaguer and present pensionary of spain reveal this foremost fact in a policy of which he was in secret the soul. he wept profusely when he first received francis aerssens, but after these "useless tears," as the envoy called them, he soon made it manifest that there was no more to be expected of france, in the great project which its government had so elaborately set on foot. villeroy was now sixty-six years of age, and had been secretary of state during forty-two years and under four kings. a man of delicate health, frail body, methodical habits, capacity for routine, experience in political intrigue, he was not personally as greedy of money as many of his contemporaries, and was not without generosity; but he loved power, the pope, and the house of austria. he was singularly reserved in public, practised successfully the talent of silence, and had at last arrived at the position he most coveted, the virtual presidency of the council, and saw the men he most hated beneath his feet. at the first interview of aerssens with the queen-regent she was drowned in tears, and could scarcely articulate an intelligible sentence. so far as could be understood she expressed her intention of carrying out the king's plans, of maintaining the old alliances, of protecting both religions. nothing, however, could be more preposterous than such phrases. villeroy, who now entirely directed the foreign affairs of the kingdom, assured the ambassador that france was much more likely to apply to the states for assistance than render them aid in any enterprise whatever. "there is no doubt," said aerssens, "that the queen is entirely in the hands of spain and the priests." villeroy, whom henry was wont to call the pedagogue of the council, went about sighing dismally, wishing himself dead, and perpetually ejaculating, "ho! poor france, how much hast thou still to suffer!" in public he spoke of nothing but of union, and of the necessity of carrying out the designs of the king, instructing the docile queen to hold the same language. in private he was quite determined to crush those designs for ever, and calmly advised the dutch government to make an amicable agreement with the emperor in regard to the cleve affair as soon as possible; a treaty which would have been shameful for france and the possessory princes, and dangerous, if not disastrous, for the states-general. "nothing but feverish and sick counsels," he said, "could be expected from france, which had now lost its vigour and could do nothing but groan." not only did the french council distinctly repudiate the idea of doing anything more for the princes than had been stipulated by the treaty of hall--that is to say, a contingent of foot and horse--but many of them vehemently maintained that the treaty, being a personal one of the late king, was dead with him? the duty of france was now in their opinion to withdraw from these mad schemes as soon as possible, to make peace with the house of austria without delay, and to cement the friendship by the double marriages. bouillon, who at that moment hated sully as much as the most vehement catholic could do, assured the dutch envoy that the government was, under specious appearances, attempting to deceive the states; a proposition which it needed not the evidence of that most intriguing duke to make manifest to so astute a politician; particularly as there was none more bent on playing the most deceptive game than bouillon. there would be no troops to send, he said, and even if there were, there would be no possibility of agreeing on a chief. the question of religion would at once arise. as for himself, the duke protested that he would not accept the command if offered him. he would not agree to serve under the prince of anhalt, nor would he for any consideration in the world leave the court at that moment. at the same time aerssens was well aware that bouillon, in his quality of first marshal of france, a protestant and a prince having great possessions on the frontier, and the brother-in-law of prince maurice, considered himself entitled to the command of the troops should they really be sent, and was very indignant at the idea of its being offered to any one else. [aerssens worked assiduously, two hours long on one occasion, to effect a reconciliation between the two great protestant chiefs, but found bouillon's demands "so shameful and unreasonable" that he felt obliged to renounce all further attempts. in losing sully from the royal councils, the states' envoy acknowledged that the republic had lost everything that could be depended on at the french court. "all the others are time-serving friends," he said, "or saints without miracles."--aerssens to barneveld, june, . ] he advised earnestly therefore that the states should make a firm demand for money instead of men, specifying the amount that might be considered the equivalent of the number of troops originally stipulated. it is one of the most singular spectacles in history; france sinking into the background of total obscurity in an instant of time, at one blow of a knife, while the republic, which she had been patronizing, protecting, but keeping always in a subordinate position while relying implicitly upon its potent aid, now came to the front, and held up on its strong shoulders an almost desperate cause. henry had been wont to call the states-general "his courage and his right arm," but he had always strictly forbidden them to move an inch in advance of him, but ever to follow his lead, and to take their directions from himself. they were a part, and an essential one, in his vast designs; but france, or he who embodied france, was the great providence, the destiny, the all-directing, all-absorbing spirit, that was to remodel and control the whole world. he was dead, and france and her policy were already in a state of rapid decomposition. barneveld wrote to encourage and sustain the sinking state. "our courage is rising in spite and in consequence of the great misfortune," he said. he exhorted the queen to keep her kingdom united, and assured her that my lords the states would maintain themselves against all who dared to assail them. he offered in their name the whole force of the republic to take vengeance on those who had procured the assassination, and to defend the young king and the queen-mother against all who might make any attempt against their authority. he further declared, in language not to be mistaken, that the states would never abandon the princes and their cause. this was the earliest indication on the part of the advocate of the intention of the republic--so long as it should be directed by his counsels--to support the cause of the young king, helpless and incapable as he was, and directed for the time being by a weak and wicked mother, against the reckless and depraved grandees, who were doing their best to destroy the unity and the independence of france, cornelis van der myle was sent back to paris on special mission of condolence and comfort from the states-general to the sorely afflicted kingdom. on the th of june, accompanied by aerssens, he had a long interview with villeroy. that minister, as usual, wept profusely, and said that in regard to cleve it was impossible for france to carry out the designs of the late king. he then listened to what the ambassadors had to urge, and continued to express his melancholy by weeping. drying his tears for a time, he sought by a long discourse to prove that france during this tender minority of the king would be incapable of pursuing the policy of his father. it would be even too burthensome to fulfil the treaty of hall. the friends of the crown, he said, had no occasion to further it, and it would be much better to listen to propositions for a treaty. archduke albert was content not to interfere in the quarrel if the queen would likewise abstain; leopold's forces were altogether too weak to make head against the army of the princes, backed by the power of my lords the states, and julich was neither strong nor well garrisoned. he concluded by calmly proposing that the states should take the matter in hand by themselves alone, in order to lighten the burthen of france, whose vigour had been cut in two by that accursed knife. a more sneaking and shameful policy was never announced by the minister of a great kingdom. surely it might seem that ravaillac had cut in twain not the vigour only but the honour and the conscience of france. but the envoys, knowing in their hearts that they were talking not with a french but a spanish secretary of state, were not disposed to be the dupes of his tears or his blandishments. they reminded him that the queen-regent and her ministers since the murder of the king had assured the states-general and the princes of their firm intention to carry out the treaty of hall, and they observed that they had no authority to talk of any negotiation. the affair of the duchies was not especially the business of the states, and the secretary was well aware that they had promised their succour on the express condition that his majesty and his army should lead the way, and that they should follow. this was very far from the plan now suggested, that they should do it all, which would be quite out of the question. france had a strong army, they said, and it would be better to use it than to efface herself so pitiably. the proposition of abstention on the part of the archduke was a delusion intended only to keep france out of the field. villeroy replied by referring to english affairs. king james, he said, was treating them perfidiously. his first letters after the murder had been good, but by the following ones england seemed to wish to put her foot on france's throat, in order to compel her to sue for an alliance. the british ministers had declared their resolve not to carry out that convention of alliance, although it had been nearly concluded in the lifetime of the late king, unless the queen would bind herself to make good to the king of great britain that third part of the subsidies advanced by france to the states which had been furnished on english account! this was the first announcement of a grievance devised by the politicians now governing france to make trouble for the states with that kingdom and with great britain likewise. according to a treaty made at hampton court by sully during his mission to england at the accession of james, it had been agreed that one-third of the moneys advanced by france in aid of the united provinces should be credited to the account of great britain, in diminution of the debt for similar assistance rendered by elizabeth to henry. in regard to this treaty the states had not been at all consulted, nor did they acknowledge the slightest obligation in regard to it. the subsidies in men and in money provided for them both by france and by england in their struggle for national existence had always been most gratefully acknowledged by the republic, but it had always been perfectly understood that these expenses had been incurred by each kingdom out of an intelligent and thrifty regard for its own interest. nothing could be more ridiculous than to suppose france and england actuated by disinterested sympathy and benevolence when assisting the netherland people in its life-and-death struggle against the dire and deadly enemy of both crowns. henry protested that, while adhering to rome in spiritual matters, his true alliances and strength had been found in the united provinces, in germany, and in great britain. as for the states, he had spent sixteen millions of livres, he said, in acquiring a perfect benevolence on the part of the states to his person. it was the best bargain he had ever made, and he should take care to preserve it at any cost whatever, for he considered himself able, when closely united with them, to bid defiance to all the kings in europe together. yet it was now the settled policy of the queen-regent's council, so far as the knot of politicians guided by the nuncius and the spanish ambassador in the entresols of the louvre could be called a council, to force the states to refund that third, estimated at something between three and four million livres, which france had advanced them on account of great britain. villeroy told the two ambassadors at this interview that, if great britain continued to treat the queen-regent in such fashion, she would be obliged to look about for other allies. there could hardly be doubt as to the quarter in which mary de' medici was likely to look. meantime, the secretary of state urged the envoys "to intervene at once to-mediate the difference." there could be as little doubt that to mediate the difference was simply to settle an account which they did not owe. the whole object of the minister at this first interview was to induce the states to take the whole cleve enterprise upon their own shoulders, and to let france off altogether. the queen-regent as then advised meant to wash her hands of the possessory princes once and for ever. the envoys cut the matter short by assuring villeroy that they would do nothing of the kind. he begged them piteously not to leave the princes in the lurch, and at the same time not to add to the burthens of france at so disastrous a moment. so they parted. next day, however, they visited the secretary again, and found him more dismal and flaccid than ever. he spoke feebly and drearily about the succour for the great enterprise, recounted all the difficulties in the way, and, having thrown down everything that the day before had been left standing, he tried to excuse an entire change of policy by the one miserable crime. he painted a forlorn picture of the council and of france. "i can myself do nothing as i wish," added the undisputed controller of that government's policy, and then with a few more tears he concluded by requesting the envoys to address their demands to the queen in writing. this was done with the customary formalities and fine speeches on both sides; a dull comedy by which no one was amused. then bouillon came again, and assured them that there had been a chance that the engagements of henry, followed up by the promise of the queen-regent, would be carried out, but now the fact was not to be concealed that the continued battery of the nuncius, of the ambassadors of spain and of the archdukes, had been so effective that nothing sure or solid was thenceforth to be expected; the council being resolved to accept the overtures of the archduke for mutual engagement to abstain from the julich enterprise. nothing in truth could be more pitiable than the helpless drifting of the once mighty kingdom, whenever the men who governed it withdrew their attention for an instant from their private schemes of advancement and plunder to cast a glance at affairs of state. in their secret heart they could not doubt that france was rushing on its ruin, and that in the alliance of the dutch commonwealth, britain, and the german protestants, was its only safety. but they trembled before the pope, grown bold and formidable since the death of the dreaded henry. to offend his holiness, the king of spain, the emperor, and the great catholics of france, was to make a crusade against the church. garnier, the jesuit, preached from his pulpit that "to strike a blow in the cleve enterprise was no less a sin than to inflict a stab in the body of our lord." the parliament of paris having ordered the famous treatise of the jesuit mariana--justifying the killing of excommunicated kings by their subjects--to be publicly burned before notre dame, the bishop opposed the execution of the decree. the parliament of paris, although crushed by epernon in its attempts to fix the murder of the king upon himself as the true culprit, was at least strong enough to carry out this sentence upon a printed, volume recommending the deed, and the queen's council could only do its best to mitigate the awakened wrath of the jesuits at this exercise of legal authority.--at the same time, it found on the whole so many more difficulties in a cynical and shameless withdrawal from the treaty of hall than in a nominal and tardy fulfilment of its conditions that it resolved at last to furnish the foot and horse promised to the possessory princes. the next best thing to abandoning entirely even this little shred, this pitiful remnant, of the splendid designs of henry was to so arrange matters that the contingent should be feebly commanded, and set on foot in so dilatory a manner that the petty enterprise should on the part of france be purely perfunctory. the grandees of the kingdom had something more important to do than to go crusading in germany, with the help of a heretic republic, to set up the possessory princes. they were fighting over the prostrate dying form of their common mother for their share of the spoils, stripping france before she was dead, and casting lots for her vesture. soissons was on the whole in favour of the cleve expedition. epernon was desperately opposed to it, and maltreated villeroy in full council when he affected to say a word, insincere as the duke knew it to be, in favour of executing agreements signed by the monarch, and sealed with the great seal of france. the duke of guise, finding himself abandoned by the queen, and bitterly opposed and hated by soissons, took sides with his deaf and dumb and imbecile brother, and for a brief interval the duke of sully joined this strange combination of the house of lorraine and chiefs of ancient leaguers, who welcomed him with transport, and promised him security. then bouillon, potent by his rank, his possessions, and his authority among the protestants, publicly swore that he would ruin sully and change the whole order of the government. what more lamentable spectacle, what more desolate future for the cause of religious equality, which for a moment had been achieved in france, than this furious alienation of the trusted leaders of the huguenots, while their adversaries were carrying everything before them? at the council board bouillon quarrelled ostentatiously with sully, shook his fist in his face, and but for the queen's presence would have struck him. next day he found that the queen was intriguing against himself as well as against sully, was making a cat's-paw of him, and was holding secret councils daily from which he as well as sully was excluded. at once he made overtures of friendship to sully, and went about proclaiming to the world that all huguenots were to be removed from participation in affairs of state. his vows of vengeance were for a moment hushed by the unanimous resolution of the council that, as first marshal of france, having his principality on the frontier, and being of the reformed religion, he was the fittest of all to command the expedition. surely it might be said that the winds and tides were not more changeful than the politics of the queen's government. the dutch ambassador was secretly requested by villeroy to negotiate with bouillon and offer him the command of the julich expedition. the duke affected to make difficulties, although burning to obtain the post, but at last consented. all was settled. aerssens communicated at once with villeroy, and notice of bouillon's acceptance was given to the queen, when, behold, the very next day marshal de la chatre was appointed to the command expressly because he was a catholic. of course the duke of bouillon, furious with soissons and epernon and the rest of the government, was more enraged than ever against the queen. his only hope was now in conde, but conde at the outset, on arriving at the louvre, offered his heart to the queen as a sheet of white paper. epernon and soissons received him with delight, and exchanged vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration. and thus all the princes of the blood, all the cousins of henry of navarre, except the imbecile conti, were ranged on the side of spain, rome, mary de' medici, and concino concini, while the son of the balafre, the duke of mayenne, and all their adherents were making common cause with the huguenots. what better example had been seen before, even in that country of pantomimic changes, of the effrontery with which religion was made the strumpet of political ambition? all that day and the next paris was rife with rumours that there was to be a general massacre of the huguenots to seal the new-born friendship of a conde with a medici. france was to renounce all her old alliances and publicly to enter into treaties offensive and defensive with spain. a league like that of bayonne made by the former medicean queen-regent of france was now, at villeroy's instigation, to be signed by mary de' medici. meantime, marshal de la chatre, an honest soldier and fervent papist, seventy-three years of age, ignorant of the language, the geography, the politics of the country to which he was sent, and knowing the road thither about as well, according to aerssens, who was requested to give him a little preliminary instruction, as he did the road to india, was to co-operate with barneveld and maurice of nassau in the enterprise against the duchies. these were the cheerful circumstances amid which the first step in the dead henry's grand design against the house of austria and in support of protestantism in half europe and of religious equality throughout christendom, was now to be ventured. cornelis van der myle took leave of the queen on terminating his brief special embassy, and was fain to content himself with languid assurances from that corpulent tuscan dame of her cordial friendship for the united provinces. villeroy repeated that the contingent to be sent was furnished out of pure love to the netherlands, the present government being in no wise bound by the late king's promises. he evaded the proposition of the states for renewing the treaty of close alliance by saying that he was then negotiating with the british government on the subject, who insisted as a preliminary step on the repayment of the third part of the sums advanced to the states by the late king. he exchanged affectionate farewell greetings and good wishes with jeannin and with the dropsical duke of mayenne, who was brought in his chair to his old fellow leaguer's apartments at the moment of the ambassador's parting interview. there was abundant supply of smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial nutriment, from the representatives of each busy faction into which the medicean court was divided. even epernon tried to say a gracious word to the retiring envoy, assuring him that he would do as much for the cause as a good frenchman and lover of his fatherland could do. he added, in rather a surly way, that he knew very well how foully he had been described to the states, but that the devil was not as black as he was painted. it was necessary, he said, to take care of one's own house first of all, and he knew very well that the states and all prudent persons would do the same thing. etext editor's bookmarks: and now the knife of another priest-led fanatic as with his own people, keeping no back-door open at a blow decapitated france conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined epernon, the true murderer of henry father cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets great war of religion and politics was postponed jesuit mariana--justifying the killing of excommunicated kings no man pretended to think of the state practised successfully the talent of silence queen is entirely in the hands of spain and the priests religion was made the strumpet of political ambition smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel the assassin, tortured and torn by four horses they have killed him, 'e ammazato,' cried concini things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful uncouple the dogs and let them run vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration what could save the house of austria, the cause of papacy wrath of the jesuits at this exercise of legal authority chapter v. - interviews between the dutch commissioners and king james--prince maurice takes command of the troops--surrender of julich--matthias crowned king of bohemia--death of rudolph--james's dream of a spanish marriage--appointment of vorstius in place of arminius at leyden--interview between maurice and winwood--increased bitterness between barneveld and maurice--projects of spanish marriages in france. it is refreshing to escape from the atmosphere of self-seeking faction, feverish intrigue, and murderous stratagem in which unhappy france was stifling into the colder and calmer regions of netherland policy. no sooner had the tidings of henry's murder reached the states than they felt that an immense responsibility had fallen on their shoulders. it is to the eternal honour of the republic, of barneveld, who directed her councils, and of prince maurice, who wielded her sword, that she was equal to the task imposed upon her. there were open bets on the exchange in antwerp, after the death of henry, that maurice would likewise be killed within the month. nothing seemed more probable, and the states implored the stadholder to take special heed to himself. but this was a kind of caution which the prince was not wont to regard. nor was there faltering, distraction, cowardice, or parsimony in republican councils. we have heard the strong words of encouragement and sympathy addressed by the advocate's instructions to the queen-regent and the leading statesmen of france. we have seen their effects in that lingering sentiment of shame which prevented the spanish stipendiaries who governed the kingdom from throwing down the mask as cynically as they were at first inclined to do. not less manful and statesmanlike was the language held to the king of great britain and his ministers by the advocate's directions. the news of the assassination reached the special ambassadors in london at three o'clock of monday, the th may. james returned to whitehall from a hunting expedition on the st, and immediately signified his intention of celebrating the occasion by inviting the high commissioners of the states to a banquet and festival at the palace. meantime they were instructed by barneveld to communicate the results of the special embassy of the states to the late king according to the report just delivered to the assembly. thus james was to be informed of the common resolution and engagement then taken to support the cause of the princes. he was now seriously and explicitly to be summoned to assist the princes not only with the stipulated men, but with a much greater force, proportionate to the demands for the security and welfare of christendom, endangered by this extraordinary event. he was assured that the states would exert themselves to the full measure of their ability to fortify and maintain the high interests of france, of the possessory princes, and of christendom, so that the hopes of the perpetrators of the foul deed would be confounded. "they hold this to be the occasion," said the envoys, "to show to all the world that it is within your power to rescue the affairs of france, germany, and of the united provinces from the claws of those who imagine for themselves universal monarchy." they concluded by requesting the king to come to "a resolution on this affair royally, liberally, and promptly, in order to take advantage of the time, and not to allow the adversary to fortify himself in his position"; and they pledged the states-general to stand by and second him with all their power. the commissioners, having read this letter to lord salisbury before communicating it to the king, did not find the lord treasurer very prompt or sympathetic in his reply. there had evidently been much jealousy at the english court of the confidential and intimate relations recently established with henry, to which allusions were made in the documents read at the present conference. cecil, while expressing satisfaction in formal terms at the friendly language of the states, and confidence in the sincerity of their friendship for his sovereign, intimated very plainly that more had passed between the late king and the authorities of the republic than had been revealed by either party to the king of great britain, or than could be understood from the letters and papers now communicated. he desired further information from the commissioners, especially in regard to those articles of their instructions which referred to a general rupture. they professed inability to give more explanations than were contained in the documents themselves. if suspicion was felt, they said, that the french king had been proposing anything in regard to a general rupture, either on account of the retreat of conde, the affair of savoy, or anything else, they would reply that the ambassadors in france had been instructed to decline committing the states until after full communication and advice and ripe deliberation with his british majesty and council, as well as the assembly of the states-general; and it had been the intention of the late king to have conferred once more and very confidentially with prince maurice and count lewis william before coming to a decisive resolution. it was very obvious however to the commissioners that their statement gave no thorough satisfaction, and that grave suspicions remained of something important kept back by them. cecil's manner was constrained and cold, and certainly there were no evidences of profound sorrow at the english court for the death of henry. "the king of france," said the high treasurer, "meant to make a master-stroke--a coup de maistre--but he who would have all may easily lose all. such projects as these should not have been formed or taken in hand without previous communication with his majesty of great britain." all arguments on the part of the ambassadors to induce the lord treasurer or other members of the government to enlarge the succour intended for the cleve affair were fruitless. the english troops regularly employed in the states' service might be made use of with the forces sent by the republic itself. more assistance than this it was idle to expect, unless after a satisfactory arrangement with the present regency of france. the proposition, too, of the states for a close and general alliance was coldly repulsed. "no resolution can be taken as to that," said cecil; "the death of the french king has very much altered such matters." at a little later hour on the same day the commissioners, according to previous invitation, dined with the king. no one sat at the table but his majesty and themselves, and they all kept their hats on their heads. the king was hospitable, gracious, discursive, loquacious, very theological. he expressed regret for the death of the king of france, and said that the pernicious doctrine out of which such vile crimes grew must be uprooted. he asked many questions in regard to the united netherlands, enquiring especially as to the late commotions at utrecht, and the conduct of prince maurice on that occasion. he praised the resolute conduct of the states-general in suppressing those tumults with force, adding, however, that they should have proceeded with greater rigour against the ringleaders of the riot. he warmly recommended the union of the provinces. he then led the conversation to the religious controversies in the netherlands, and in reply to his enquiries was informed that the points in dispute related to predestination and its consequences. "i have studied that subject," said james, "as well as anybody, and have come to the conclusion that nothing certain can be laid down in regard to it. i have myself not always been of one mind about it, but i will bet that my opinion is the best of any, although i would not hang my salvation upon it. my lords the states would do well to order their doctors and teachers to be silent on this topic. i have hardly ventured, moreover, to touch upon the matter of justification in my own writings, because that also seemed to hang upon predestination." thus having spoken with the air of a man who had left nothing further to be said on predestination or justification, the king rose, took off his hat, and drank a bumper to the health of the states-general and his excellency prince maurice, and success to the affair of cleve. after dinner there was a parting interview in the gallery. the king, attended by many privy councillors and high functionaries of state, bade the commissioners a cordial farewell, and, in order to show his consideration for their government, performed the ceremony of knighthood upon them, as was his custom in regard to the ambassadors of venice. the sword being presented to him by the lord chamberlain, james touched each of the envoys on the shoulder as he dismissed him. "out of respect to my lords the states," said they in their report, "we felt compelled to allow ourselves to be burthened with this honour." thus it became obvious to the states-general that there was but little to hope for from great britain or france. france, governed by concini and by spain, was sure to do her best to traverse the designs of the republic, and, while perfunctorily and grudgingly complying with the letter of the hall treaty, was secretly neutralizing by intrigue the slender military aid which de la chatre was to bring to prince maurice. the close alliance of france and protestantism had melted into air. on the other hand the new catholic league sprang into full luxuriance out of the grave of henry, and both spain and the pope gave their hearty adhesion to the combinations of maximilian of bavaria, now that the mighty designs of the french king were buried with him. the duke of savoy, caught in the trap of his own devising, was fain to send his son to sue to spain for pardon for the family upon his knees, and expiated by draining a deep cup of humiliation his ambitious designs upon the milanese and the matrimonial alliance with france. venice recoiled in horror from the position she found herself in as soon as the glamour of henry's seductive policy was dispelled, while james of great britain, rubbing his hands with great delight at the disappearance from the world of the man he so admired, bewailed, and hated, had no comfort to impart to the states-general thus left in virtual isolation. the barren burthen of knighthood and a sermon on predestination were all he could bestow upon the high commissioners in place of the alliance which he eluded, and the military assistance which he point-blank refused. the possessory princes, in whose cause the sword was drawn, were too quarrelsome and too fainthearted to serve for much else than an incumbrance either in the cabinet or the field. and the states-general were equal to the immense responsibility. steadily, promptly, and sagaciously they confronted the wrath, the policy, and the power of the empire, of spain, and of the pope. had the republic not existed, nothing could have prevented that debateable and most important territory from becoming provinces of spain, whose power thus dilated to gigantic proportions in the very face of england would have been more menacing than in the days of the armada. had the republic faltered, she would have soon ceased to exist. but the republic did not falter. on the th july, prince maurice took command of the states' forces, , foot and horse, with thirty pieces of cannon, assembled at schenkenschans. the july english and french regiments in the regular service of the united provinces were included in these armies, but there were no additions to them: "the states did seven times as much," barneveld justly averred, "as they had stipulated to do." maurice, moving with the precision and promptness which always marked his military operations, marched straight upon julich, and laid siege to that important fortress. the archdukes at brussels, determined to keep out of the fray as long as possible, offered no opposition to the passage of his supplies up the rhine, which might have been seriously impeded by them at rheinberg. the details of the siege, as of all the prince's sieges, possess no more interest to the general reader than the working out of a geometrical problem. he was incapable of a flaw in his calculations, but it was impossible for him quite to complete the demonstration before the arrival of de la chatre. maurice received with courtesy the marshal, who arrived on the th august, at the head of his contingent of foot and a few squadrons of cavalry, and there was great show of harmony between them. for any practical purposes, de la chatre might as well have remained in france. for political ends his absence would have been preferable to his presence. maurice would have rejoiced, had the marshal blundered longer along the road to the debateable land than he had done. he had almost brought julich to reduction. a fortnight later the place surrendered. the terms granted by the conqueror were equitable. no change was to be made in the liberty of roman catholic worship, nor in the city magistracy. the citadel and its contents were to be handed over to the princes of brandenburg and neuburg. archduke leopold and his adherents departed to prague, to carry out as he best could his farther designs upon the crown of bohemia, this first portion of them having so lamentably failed, and sergeant-major frederick pithan, of the regiment of count ernest casimir of nassau, was appointed governor of julich in the interest of the possessory princes. thus without the loss of a single life, the republic, guided by her consummate statesman and unrivalled general, had gained an immense victory, had installed the protestant princes in the full possession of those splendid and important provinces, and had dictated her decrees on german soil to the emperor of germany, and had towed, as it were, great britain and france along in her wake, instead of humbly following those powers, and had accomplished all that she had ever proposed to do, even in alliance with them both. the king of england considered that quite enough had been done, and was in great haste to patch up a reconciliation. he thought his ambassador would soon "have as good occasion to employ his tongue and his pen as general cecil and his soldiers have done their swords and their mattocks." he had no sympathy with the cause of protestantism, and steadily refused to comprehend the meaning of the great movements in the duchies. "i only wish that i may handsomely wind myself out of this quarrel, where the principal parties do so little for themselves," he said. de la chatre returned with his troops to france within a fortnight after his arrival on the scene. a mild proposition made by the french government through the marshal, that the provinces should be held in seguestration by france until a decision as to the true sovereignty could be reached, was promptly declined. maurice of nassau had hardly gained so signal a triumph for the republic and for the protestant cause only to hand it over to concini and villeroy for the benefit of spain. julich was thought safer in the keeping of sergeant pithan. by the end of september the states' troops had returned to their own country. thus the republic, with eminent success, had accomplished a brief and brilliant campaign, but no statesman could suppose that the result was more than a temporary one. these coveted provinces, most valuable in themselves and from their important position, would probably not be suffered peacefully to remain very long under the protection of the heretic states-general and in the 'condominium' of two protestant princes. there was fear among the imperialists, catholics, and spaniards, lest the baleful constellation of the seven provinces might be increased by an eighth star. and this was a project not to be tolerated. it was much already that the upstart confederacy had defied pope, emperor, and king, as it were, on their own domains, had dictated arrangements in germany directly in the teeth of its emperor, using france as her subordinate, and compelling the british king to acquiesce in what he most hated. but it was not merely to surprise julich, and to get a foothold in the duchies, that leopold had gone forth on his adventure. his campaign, as already intimated, was part of a wide scheme in which he had persuaded his emperor-cousin to acquiesce. poor rudolph had been at last goaded into a feeble attempt at revolt against his three brothers and his cousin ferdinand. peace-loving, inert, fond of his dinner, fonder of his magnificent collections of gems and intagli, liking to look out of window at his splendid collection of horses, he was willing to pass a quiet life, afar from the din of battles and the turmoil of affairs. as he happened to be emperor of half europe, these harmless tastes could not well be indulged. moon-faced and fat, silent and slow, he was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin, even when his brows were decorated with the conventional laurel wreath. he had been stripped of his authority and all but discrowned by his more bustling brothers matthias and max, while the sombre figure of styrian ferdinand, pupil of the jesuits, and passionate admirer of philip ii., stood ever in the background, casting a prophetic shadow over the throne and over germany. the brothers were endeavouring to persuade rudolph that he would find more comfort in innsbruck than in prague; that he required repose after the strenuous labours of government. they told him, too, that it would be wise to confer the royal crown of bohemia upon matthias, lest, being elective and also an electorate, the crown and vote of that country might pass out of the family, and so both bohemia and the empire be lost to the habsburgs. the kingdom being thus secured to matthias and his heirs, the next step, of course, was to proclaim him king of the romans. otherwise there would be great danger and detriment to hungary, and other hereditary states of that conglomerate and anonymous monarchy which owned the sway of the great habsburg family. the unhappy emperor was much piqued. he had been deprived by his brother of hungary, moravia, and austria, while matthias was now at prague with an army, ostensibly to obtain ratification of the peace with turkey, but in reality to force the solemn transfer of those realms and extort the promise of bohemia. could there be a better illustration of the absurdities of such a system of imperialism? and now poor rudolph was to be turned out of the hradschin, and sent packing with or without his collections to the tyrol. the bellicose bishop of strassburg and passau, brother of ferdinand, had little difficulty in persuading the downtrodden man to rise to vengeance. it had been secretly agreed between the two that leopold, at the head of a considerable army of mercenaries which he had contrived to levy, should dart into julich as the emperor's representative, seize the debateable duchies, and hold them in sequestration until the emperor should decide to whom they belonged, and, then, rushing back to bohemia, should annihilate matthias, seize prague, and deliver rudolph from bondage. it was further agreed that leopold, in requital of these services, should receive the crown of bohemia, be elected king of the romans, and declared heir to the emperor, so far as rudolph could make him his heir. the first point in the program he had only in part accomplished. he had taken julich, proclaimed the intentions of the emperor, and then been driven out of his strong position by the wise policy of the states under the guidance of barneveld and by the consummate strategy of maurice. it will be seen therefore that the republic was playing a world's game at this moment, and doing it with skill and courage. on the issue of the conflict which had been begun and was to be long protracted in the duchies, and to spread over nearly all christendom besides, would depend the existence of the united netherlands and the fate of protestantism. the discomfited leopold swept back at the head of his mercenaries, foot and horse, through alsace and along the danube to linz and so to prague, marauding, harrying, and black-mailing the country as he went. he entered the city on the th of february , fighting his way through crowds of exasperated burghers. sitting in full harness on horseback in the great square before the cathedral, the warlike bishop compelled the population to make oath to him as the emperor's commissary. the street fighting went on however day by day, poor rudolph meantime cowering in the hradschin. on the third day, leopold, driven out of the town, took up a position on the heights, from which he commanded it with his artillery. then came a feeble voice from the hradschin, telling all men that these passau marauders and their episcopal chief were there by the emperor's orders. the triune city--the old, the new, and the jew--was bidden to send deputies to the palace and accept the imperial decrees. no deputies came at the bidding. the bohemians, especially the praguers, being in great majority protestants knew very well that leopold was fighting the cause of the papacy and spain in bohemia as well as in the duchies. and now matthias appeared upon the scene. the estates had already been in communication with him, better hopes, for the time at least, being entertained from him than from the flaccid rudolph. moreover a kind of compromise had been made in the autumn between matthias and the emperor after the defeat of leopold in the duchies. the real king had fallen at the feet of the nominal one by proxy of his brother maximilian. seven thousand men of the army of matthias now came before prague under command of colonitz. the passauers, receiving three months pay from the emperor, marched quietly off. leopold disappeared for the time. his chancellor and counsellor in the duchies, francis teynagel, a geldrian noble, taken prisoner and put to the torture, revealed the little plot of the emperor in favour of the bishop, and it was believed that the pope, the king of spain, and maximilian of bavaria were friendly to the scheme. this was probable, for leopold at last made no mystery of his resolve to fight protestantism to the death, and to hold the duchies, if he could, for the cause of rome and austria. both rudolph and matthias had committed themselves to the toleration of the reformed religion. the famous "majesty-letter," freshly granted by the emperor ( ), and the compromise between the catholic and protestant estates had become the law of the land. those of the bohemian confession, a creed commingled of hussism, lutheranism, and calvinism, had obtained toleration. in a country where nine-tenths of the population were protestants it was permitted to protestants to build churches and to worship god in them unmolested. but these privileges had been extorted by force, and there was a sullen, dogged determination which might be easily guessed at to revoke them should it ever become possible. the house of austria, reigning in spain, italy, and germany, was bound by the very law of their being to the roman religion. toleration of other worship signified in their eyes both a defeat and a crime. thus the great conflict, to be afterwards known as the thirty years' war, had in reality begun already, and the netherlands, in spite of the truce, were half unconsciously taking a leading part in it. the odds at that moment in germany seemed desperately against the house of austria, so deep and wide was the abyss between throne and subjects which religious difference had created. but the reserved power in spain, italy, and southern germany was sure enough to make itself felt sooner or later on the catholic side. meantime the estates of bohemia knew well enough that the imperial house was bent on destroying the elective principle of the empire, and on keeping the crown of bohemia in perpetuity. they had also discovered that bishop-archduke leopold had been selected by rudolph as chief of the reactionary movement against protestantism. they could not know at that moment whether his plans were likely to prove fantastic or dangerous. so matthias came to prague at the invitation of the estates, entering the city with all the airs of a conqueror. rudolph received his brother with enforced politeness, and invited him to reside in the hradschin. this proposal was declined by matthias, who sent a colonel however, with six pieces of artillery, to guard and occupy that palace. the passau prisoners were pardoned and released, and there was a general reconciliation. a month later, matthias went in pomp to the chapel of the holy wenceslaus, that beautiful and barbarous piece of mediaeval, sclavonic architecture, with its sombre arches, and its walls encrusted with huge precious stones. the estates of bohemia, arrayed in splendid zchech costume, and kneeling on the pavement, were asked whether they accepted matthias, king of hungary, as their lawful king. thrice they answered aye. cardinal dietrichstein then put the historic crown of st. wenceslaus on the king's head, and matthias swore to maintain the laws and privileges of bohemia, including the recent charters granting liberty of religion to protestants. thus there was temporary, if hollow, truce between the religious parties, and a sham reconciliation between the emperor and his brethren. the forlorn rudolph moped away the few months of life left to him in the hradschin, and died soon after the new year. the house of austria had not been divided, matthias succeeded his brother, leopold's visions melted into air, and it was for the future to reveal whether the majesty-letter and the compromise had been written on very durable material. and while such was the condition of affairs in germany immediately following the cleve and julich campaign, the relations of the republic both to england and france were become rapidly more dangerous than they ever had been. it was a severe task for barneveld, and enough to overtax the energies of any statesman, to maintain his hold on two such slippery governments as both had become since the death of their great monarchs. it had been an easier task for william the silent to steer his course, notwithstanding all the perversities, short-comings, brow-beatings, and inconsistencies that he had been obliged to endure from elizabeth and henry. genius, however capricious and erratic at times, has at least vision, and it needed no elaborate arguments to prove to both those sovereigns that the severance of their policy from that of the netherlands was impossible without ruin to the republic and incalculable danger themselves. but now france and england were both tending towards spain through a stupidity on the part of their rulers such as the gods are said to contend against in vain. barneveld was not a god nor a hero, but a courageous and wide-seeing statesman, and he did his best. obliged by his position to affect admiration, or at least respect, where no emotion but contempt was possible, his daily bread was bitter enough. it was absolutely necessary to humour those whom knew to be traversing his policy and desiring his ruin, for there was no other way to serve his country and save it from impending danger. so long as he was faithfully served by his subordinates, and not betrayed by those to whom he gave his heart, he could confront external enemies and mould the policy of wavering allies. few things in history are more pitiable than the position of james in regard to spain. for seven long years he was as one entranced, the slave to one idea, a spanish marriage for his son. it was in vain that his counsellors argued, parliament protested, allies implored. parliament was told that a royal family matter regarded himself alone, and that interference on their part was an impertinence. parliament's duty was a simple one, to give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required it, without asking for reasons. it was already a great concession that he should ask for it in person. they had nothing to do with his affairs nor with general politics. the mystery of government was a science beyond their reach, and with which they were not to meddle. "ne sutor ultra crepidam," said the pedant. upon that one point his policy was made to turn. spain held him in the hollow of her hand. the infanta, with two million crowns in dowry, was promised, withheld, brought forward again like a puppet to please or irritate a froward child. gondemar, the spanish ambassador, held him spellbound. did he falter in his opposition to the states--did he cease to goad them for their policy in the duchies--did he express sympathy with bohemian protestantism, or, as time went on, did he dare to lift a finger or touch his pocket in behalf of his daughter and the unlucky elector-palatine; did he, in short, move a step in the road which england had ever trod and was bound to tread--the road of determined resistance to spanish ambition--instantaneously the infanta withheld, and james was on his knees again. a few years later, when the great raleigh returned from his trans-alantic expedition, gondemar fiercely denounced him to the king as the worst enemy of spain. the usual threat was made, the wand was waved, and the noblest head in england fell upon the block, in pursuance of an obsolete sentence fourteen years old. it is necessary to hold fast this single clue to the crooked and amazing entanglements of the policy of james. the insolence, the meanness, and the prevarications of this royal toad-eater are only thus explained. yet philip iii. declared on his death-bed that he had never had a serious intention of bestowing his daughter on the prince. the vanity and the hatreds of theology furnished the chief additional material in the policy of james towards the provinces. the diplomacy of his reign so far as the republic was concerned is often a mere mass of controversial divinity, and gloomy enough of its kind. exactly at this moment conrad vorstius had been called by the university of leyden to the professorship vacant by the death of arminius, and the wrath of peter plancius and the whole orthodox party knew no bounds. born in cologne, vorstius had been a lecturer in geneva, and beloved by beza. he had written a book against the jesuit belarmino, which he had dedicated to the states-general. but he was now accused of arminianism, socianism, pelagianism, atheism--one knew not what. he defended himself in writing against these various charges, and declared himself a believer in the trinity, in the divinity of christ, in the atonement. but he had written a book on the nature of god, and the wrath of gomarus and plancius and bogerman was as nothing to the ire of james when that treatise was one day handed to him on returning from hunting. he had scarcely looked into it before he was horror-struck, and instantly wrote to sir ralph winwood, his ambassador at the hague, ordering him to insist that this blasphemous monster should at once be removed from the country. who but james knew anything of the nature of god, for had he not written a work in latin explaining it all, so that humbler beings might read and be instructed. sir ralph accordingly delivered a long sermon to the states on the brief supplied by his majesty, told them that to have vorstius as successor to arminius was to fall out of the frying-pan into the fire, and handed them a "catalogue" prepared by the king of the blasphemies, heresies, and atheisms of the professor. "notwithstanding that the man in full assembly of the states of holland," said the ambassador with headlong and confused rhetoric, "had found the means to palliate and plaster the dung of his heresies, and thus to dazzle the eyes of good people," yet it was necessary to protest most vigorously against such an appointment, and to advise that "his works should be publicly burned in the open places of all the cities." the professor never was admitted to perform his functions of theology, but he remained at leyden, so winwood complained, "honoured, recognized as a singularity and ornament to the academy in place of the late joseph scaliger."--"the friendship of the king and the heresy of vorstius are quite incompatible," said the envoy. meantime the advocate, much distressed at the animosity of england bursting forth so violently on occasion of the appointment of a divinity professor at leyden, and at the very instant too when all the acuteness of his intellect was taxed to keep on good or even safe terms with france, did his best to stem these opposing currents. his private letters to his old and confidential friend, noel de carom, states' ambassador in london, reveal the perplexities of his soul and the upright patriotism by which he was guided in these gathering storms. and this correspondence, as well as that maintained by him at a little later period with the successor of aerssens at paris, will be seen subsequently to have had a direct and most important bearing upon the policy of the republic and upon his own fate. it is necessary therefore that the reader, interested in these complicated affairs which were soon to bring on a sanguinary war on a scale even vaster than the one which had been temporarily suspended, should give close attention to papers never before exhumed from the musty sepulchre of national archives, although constantly alluded to in the records of important state trials. it is strange enough to observe the apparent triviality of the circumstances out of which gravest events seem to follow. but the circumstances were in reality threads of iron which led down to the very foundations of the earth. "i wish to know," wrote the advocate to caron, "from whom the archbishop of canterbury received the advices concerning vorstius in order to find out what is meant by all this." it will be remembered that whitgift was of opinion that james was directly inspired by the holy ghost, and that as he affected to deem him the anointed high-priest of england, it was natural that he should encourage the king in his claims to be 'pontifex maximus' for the netherlands likewise. "we are busy here," continued barneveld, "in examining all things for the best interests of the country and the churches. i find the nobles and cities here well resolved in this regard, although there be some disagreements 'in modo.' vorstius, having been for many years professor and minister of theology at steinfurt, having manifested his learning in many books written against the jesuits, and proved himself pure and moderate in doctrine, has been called to the vacant professorship at leyden. this appointment is now countermined by various means. we are doing our best to arrange everything for the highest good of the provinces and the churches. believe this and believe nothing else. pay heed to no other information. remember what took place in flanders, events so well known to you. it is not for me to pass judgment in these matters. do you, too, suspend your judgment." the advocate's allusion was to the memorable course of affairs in flanders at an epoch when many of the most inflammatory preachers and politicians of the reformed religion, men who refused to employ a footman or a housemaid not certified to be thoroughly orthodox, subsequently after much sedition and disturbance went over to spain and the catholic religion. a few weeks later barneveld sent copies to caron of the latest harangues of winwood in the assembly and the reply of my lords on the vorstian business; that is to say, the freshest dialogue on predestination between the king and the advocate. for as james always dictated word for word the orations of his envoy, so had their mightinesses at this period no head and no mouthpiece save barneveld alone. nothing could be drearier than these controversies, and the reader shall be spared as much, as possible the infliction of reading them. it will be necessary, however, for the proper understanding of subsequent events that he should be familiar with portions of the advocate's confidential letters. "sound well the gentleman you wot of," said barneveld, "and other personages as to the conclusive opinions over there. the course of the propositions does not harmonize with what i have myself heard out of the king's mouth at other times, nor with the reports of former ambassadors. i cannot well understand that the king should, with such preciseness, condemn all other opinions save those of calvin and beza. it is important to the service of this country that one should know the final intention of his majesty." and this was the misery of the position. for it was soon to appear that the king's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day. it was almost humorous to find him at that moment condemning all opinions but those of calvin and beza in holland, while his course to the strictest confessors of that creed in england was so ferocious. but vorstius was a rival author to his majesty on subjects treated of by both, so that literary spite of the most venomous kind, stirred into theological hatred, was making a dangerous mixture. had a man with the soul and sense of the advocate sat on the throne which james was regarding at that moment as a professor's chair, the world's history would have been changed. "i fear," continued barneveld, "that some of our own precisians have been spinning this coil for us over there, and if the civil authority can be thus countermined, things will go as in flanders in your time. pray continue to be observant, discreet, and moderate." the advocate continued to use his best efforts to smooth the rising waves. he humoured and even flattered the king, although perpetually denounced by winwood in his letters to his sovereign as tyrannical, over-bearing, malignant, and treacherous. he did his best to counsel moderation and mutual toleration, for he felt that these needless theological disputes about an abstract and insoluble problem of casuistry were digging an abyss in which the republic might be swallowed up for ever. if ever man worked steadily with the best lights of experience and inborn sagacity for the good of his country and in defence of a constitutional government, horribly defective certainly, but the only legal one, and on the whole a more liberal polity than any then existing, it was barneveld. courageously, steadily, but most patiently, he stood upon that position so vital and daily so madly assailed; the defence of the civil authority against the priesthood. he felt instinctively and keenly that where any portion of the subjects or citizens of a country can escape from the control of government and obey other head than the lawful sovereignty, whether monarchical or republican, social disorder and anarchy must be ever impending. "we are still tortured by ecclesiastical disputes," he wrote a few weeks later to caron. "besides many libels which have appeared in print, the letters of his majesty and the harangues of winwood have been published; to what end you who know these things by experience can judge. the truth of the matter of vorstius is that he was legally called in july , that he was heard last may before my lords the states with six preachers to oppose him, and in the same month duly accepted and placed in office. he has given no public lectures as yet. you will cause this to be known on fitting opportunity. believe and cause to be believed that his majesty's letters and sir r. winwood's propositions have been and shall be well considered, and that i am working with all my strength to that end. you know the constitution of our country, and can explain everything for the best. many pious and intelligent people in this state hold themselves assured that his majesty according to his royal exceeding great wisdom, foresight, and affection for the welfare of this land will not approve that his letters and winwood's propositions should be scattered by the press among the common people. believe and cause to be believed, to your best ability, that my lords the states of holland desire to maintain the true christian, reformed religion as well in the university of leyden as in all their cities and villages. the only dispute is on the high points of predestination and its adjuncts, concerning which moderation and a more temperate teaching is furthered by some amongst us. many think that such is the edifying practice in england. pray have the kindness to send me the english confession of the year , with the corrections and alterations up to this year." but the fires were growing hotter, fanned especially by flemish ministers, a brotherhood of whom barneveld had an especial distrust, and who certainly felt great animosity to him. his moderate counsels were but oil to the flames. he was already depicted by zealots and calumniators as false to the reformed creed. "be assured and assure others," he wrote again to caron, "that in the matter of religion i am, and by god's grace shall remain, what i ever have been. make the same assurances as to my son-in-law and brother. we are not a little amazed that a few extraordinary puritans, mostly flemings and frisians, who but a short time ago had neither property nor kindred in the country, and have now very little of either, and who have given but slender proofs of constancy or service to the fatherland, could through pretended zeal gain credit over there against men well proved in all respects. we wonder the more because they are endeavouring, in ecclesiastical matters at least, to usurp an extraordinary authority, against which his majesty, with very weighty reasons, has so many times declared his opinion founded upon god's word and upon all laws and principles of justice." it was barneveld's practice on this as on subsequent occasions very courteously to confute the king out of his own writings and speeches, and by so doing to be unconsciously accumulating an undying hatred against himself in the royal breast. certainly nothing could be easier than to show that james, while encouraging in so reckless a manner the emancipation of the ministers of an advanced sect in the reformed church from control of government, and their usurpation of supreme authority which had been destroyed in england, was outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency. a king-highpriest, who dictated his supreme will to bishops and ministers as well as to courts and parliaments, was ludicrously employed in a foreign country in enforcing the superiority of the church to the state. "you will give good assurances," said the advocate, "upon my word, that the conservation of the true reformed religion is as warmly cherished here, especially by me, as at any time during the war." he next alluded to the charges then considered very grave against certain writings of vorstius, and with equal fairness to his accusers as he had been to the professor gave a pledge that the subject should be examined. "if the man in question," he said, "be the author, as perhaps falsely imputed, of the work 'de filiatione christi' or things of that sort, you may be sure that he shall have no furtherance here." he complained, however, that before proof the cause was much prejudiced by the circulation through the press of letters on the subject from important personages in england. his own efforts to do justice in the matter were traversed by such machinations. if the professor proved to be guilty of publications fairly to be deemed atheistical and blasphemous, he should be debarred from his functions, but the outcry from england was doing more harm than good. "the published extract from the letter of the archbishop," he wrote, "to the effect that the king will declare my lords the states to be his enemies if they are not willing to send the man away is doing much harm." truly, if it had come to this--that a king of england was to go to war with a neighbouring and friendly republic because an obnoxious professor of theology was not instantly hurled from a university of which his majesty was not one of the overseers--it was time to look a little closely into the functions of governments and the nature of public and international law. not that the sword of james was in reality very likely to be unsheathed, but his shriekings and his scribblings, pacific as he was himself, were likely to arouse passions which torrents of blood alone could satiate. "the publishing and spreading among the community," continued barneveld, "of m. winwood's protestations and of many indecent libels are also doing much mischief, for the nature of this people does not tolerate such things. i hope, however, to obtain the removal according to his majesty's desire. keep me well informed, and send me word what is thought in england by the four divines of the book of vorstius, 'de deo,' and of his declarations on the points sent here by his majesty. let me know, too, if there has been any later confession published in england than that of the year , and whether the nine points pressed in the year were accepted and published in . if so, pray send them, as they maybe made use of in settling our differences here." thus it will be seen that the spirit of conciliation, of a calm but earnest desire to obtain a firm grasp of the most reasonable relations between church and state through patient study of the phenomena exhibited in other countries, were the leading motives of the man. yet he was perpetually denounced in private as an unbeliever, an atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy within the provinces and from kings outside them. "it was always held here to be one of the chief infractions of the laws and privileges of this country," he said, "that former princes had placed themselves in matter of religion in the tutelage of the pope and the spanish inquisition, and that they therefore on complaint of their good subjects could take no orders on that subject. therefore it cannot be considered strange that we are not willing here to fall into the same obloquy. that one should now choose to turn the magistrates, who were once so seriously summoned on their conscience and their office to adopt the reformation and to take the matter of religion to heart, into ignorants, to deprive them of knowledge, and to cause them to see with other eyes than their own, cannot by many be considered right and reasonable. 'intelligenti pauca.'" [the interesting letter from which i have given these copious extracts was ordered by its writer to be burned. "lecta vulcano" was noted at the end of it, as was not unfrequently the case with the advocate. it never was burned; but, innocent and reasonable as it seems, was made use of by barneveld's enemies with deadly effect. j.l.m.] meantime m. de refuge, as before stated, was on his way to the hague, to communicate the news of the double marriage. he had fallen sick at rotterdam, and the nature of his instructions and of the message he brought remained unknown, save from the previous despatches of aerssens. but reports were rife that he was about to propose new terms of alliance to the states, founded on large concessions to the roman catholic religion. of course intense jealousy was excited at the english court, and calumny plumed her wings for a fresh attack upon the advocate. of course he was sold to spain, the reformed religion was to be trampled out in the provinces, and the papacy and holy inquisition established on its ruins. nothing could be more diametrically the reverse of the fact than such hysterical suspicions as to the instructions of the ambassador extraordinary from france, and this has already appeared. the vorstian affair too was still in the same phase, the advocate professing a willingness that justice should be done in the matter, while courteously but firmly resisting the arrogant pretensions of james to take the matter out of the jurisdiction of the states. "i stand amazed," he said, "at the partisanship and the calumnious representations which you tell me of, and cannot imagine what is thought nor what is proposed. should m. de refuge make any such propositions as are feared, believe, and cause his majesty and his counsellors to believe, that they would be of no effect. make assurances upon my word, notwithstanding all advices to the contrary, that such things would be flatly refused. if anything is published or proven to the discredit of vorstius, send it to me. believe that we shall not defend heretics nor schismatics against the pure evangelical doctrine, but one cannot conceive here that the knowledge and judicature of the matter belongs anywhere else than to my lords the states of holland, in whose service he has legally been during four months before his majesty made the least difficulty about it. called hither legally a year before, with the knowledge and by the order of his excellency and the councillors of state of holland, he has been countermined by five or six flemings and frisians, who, without recognizing the lawful authority of the magistrates, have sought assistance in foreign countries--in germany and afterwards in england. yes, they have been so presumptuous as to designate one of their own men for the place. if such a proceeding should be attempted in england, i leave it to those whose business it would be to deal with it to say what would be done. i hope therefore that one will leave the examination and judgment of this matter freely to us, without attempting to make us--against the principles of the reformation and the liberties and laws of the land--executors of the decrees of others, as the man here wishes to obtrude it upon us." he alluded to the difficulty in raising the ways and means; saying that the quota of holland, as usual, which was more than half the whole, was ready, while other provinces were in arrears. yet they were protected, while holland was attacked. "methinks i am living in a strange world," he said, "when those who have received great honour from holland, and who in their conscience know that they alone have conserved the commonwealth, are now traduced with such great calumnies. but god the lord almighty is just, and will in his own time do chastisement." the affair of vorstius dragged its slow length along, and few things are more astounding at this epoch than to see such a matter, interesting enough certainly to theologians, to the university, and to the rising generation of students, made the topic of unceasing and embittered diplomatic controversy between two great nations, who had most pressing and momentous business on their hands. but it was necessary to humour the king, while going to the verge of imprudence in protecting the professor. in march he was heard, three or four hours long, before the assembly of holland, in answer to various charges made against him, being warned that "he stood before the lord god and before the sovereign authority of the states." although thought by many to have made a powerful defence, he was ordered to set it forth in writing, both in latin and in the vernacular. furthermore it was ordained that he should make a complete refutation of all the charges already made or that might be made during the ensuing three months against him in speech, book, or letter in england, germany, the netherlands, or anywhere else. he was allowed one year and a half to accomplish this work, and meantime was to reside not in leyden, nor the hague, but in some other town of holland, not delivering lectures or practising his profession in any way. it might be supposed that sufficient work had been thus laid out for the unfortunate doctor of divinity without lecturing or preaching. the question of jurisdiction was saved. the independence of the civil authority over the extreme pretensions of the clergy had been vindicated by the firmness of the advocate. james bad been treated with overflowing demonstrations of respect, but his claim to expel a dutch professor from his chair and country by a royal fiat had been signally rebuked. certainly if the provinces were dependent upon the british king in regard to such a matter, it was the merest imbecility for them to affect independence. barneveld had carried his point and served his country strenuously and well in this apparently small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one. but deep was the wrath treasured against him in consequence in clerical and royal minds. returning from wesel after the negotiations, sir ralph winwood had an important interview at arnheim with prince maurice, in which they confidentially exchanged their opinions in regard to the advocate, and mutually confirmed their suspicions and their jealousies in regard to that statesman. the ambassador earnestly thanked the prince in the king's name for his "careful and industrious endeavours for the maintenance of the truth of religion, lively expressed in prosecuting the cause against vorstius and his adherents." he then said: "i am expressly commanded that his majesty conferring the present condition of affairs of this quarter of the world with those advertisements he daily receives from his ministers abroad, together with the nature and disposition of those men who have in their hands the managing of all business in these foreign parts, can make no other judgment than this. "there is a general ligue and confederation complotted far the subversion and ruin of religion upon the subsistence whereof his majesty doth judge the main welfare of your realms and of these provinces solely to consist. "therefore his majesty has given me charge out of the knowledge he has of your great worth and sufficiency," continued winwood, "and the confidence he reposes in your faith and affection, freely to treat with you on these points, and withal to pray you to deliver your opinion what way would be the most compendious and the most assured to contrequarr these complots, and to frustrate the malice of these mischievous designs." the prince replied by acknowledging the honour the king had vouchsafed to do him in holding so gracious an opinion of him, wherein his majesty should never be deceived. "i concur in judgment with his majesty," continued the prince, "that the main scope at which these plots and practices do aim, for instance, the alliance between france and spain, is this, to root out religion, and by consequence to bring under their yoke all those countries in which religion is professed. "the first attempt," continued the prince, "is doubtless intended against these provinces. the means to countermine and defeat these projected designs i take to be these: the continuance of his majesty's constant resolution for the protection of religion, and then that the king would be pleased to procure a general confederation between the kings, princes, and commonwealths professing religion, namely, denmark, sweden, the german princes, the protestant cantons of switzerland, and our united provinces. "of this confederation, his majesty must be not only the director, but the head and protector. "lastly, the protestants of france should be, if not supported, at least relieved from that oppression which the alliance of spain doth threaten upon them. this, i insist," repeated maurice with great fervour, "is the only coupegorge of all plots whatever between france and spain." he enlarged at great length on these points, which he considered so vital. "and what appearance can there be," asked winwood insidiously and maliciously, "of this general confederation now that these provinces, which heretofore have been accounted a principal member of the reformed church, begin to falter in the truth of religion? "he who solely governs the metropolitan province of holland," continued the ambassador, with a direct stab in the back at barneveld, "is reputed generally, as your excellency best knows, to be the only patron of vorstius, and the protector of the schisms of arminius. and likewise, what possibility is there that the protestants of france can expect favour from these provinces when the same man is known to depend at the devotion of france?" the international, theological, and personal jealousy of the king against holland's advocate having been thus plainly developed, the ambassador proceeded to pour into the prince's ear the venom of suspicion, and to inflame his jealousy against his great rival. the secret conversation showed how deeply laid was the foundation of the political hatred, both of james and of maurice, against the advocate, and certainly nothing could be more preposterous than to imagine the king as the director and head of the great protestant league. we have but lately seen him confidentially assuring his minister that his only aim was "to wind himself handsomely out of the whole business." maurice must have found it difficult to preserve his gravity when assigning such a part to "master jacques." "although monsieur barneveld has cast off all care of religion," said maurice, "and although some towns in holland, wherein his power doth reign, are infected with the like neglect, yet so long as so many good towns in holland stand sound, and all the other provinces of this confederacy, the proposition would at the first motion be cheerfully accepted. "i confess i find difficulty in satisfying your second question," continued the prince, "for i acknowledge that barneveld is wholly devoted to the service of france. during the truce negotiations, when some difference arose between him and myself, president jeannin came to me, requiring me in the french king's name to treat monsieur barneveld well, whom the king had received into his protection. the letters which the states' ambassador in france wrote to barneveld (and to him all ambassadors address their despatches of importance), the very autographs themselves, he sent back into the hands of villeroy." here the prince did not scruple to accuse the advocate of doing the base and treacherous trick against aerssens which he had expressly denied doing, and which had been done during his illness, as he solemnly avowed, by a subordinate probably for the sake of making mischief. maurice then discoursed largely and vehemently of the suspicious proceedings of barneveld, and denounced him as dangerous to the state. "when one man who has the conduct of all affairs in his sole power," he said, "shall hold underhand intelligence with the ministers of spain and the archduke, and that without warrant, thereby he may have the means so to carry the course of affairs that, do what they will, these provinces must fall or stand at the mercy and discretion of spain. therefore some good resolutions must be taken in time to hold up this state from a sudden downfall, but in this much moderation and discretion must be used." the prince added that he had invited his cousin lewis william to appear at the hague at may day, in order to consult as to the proper means to preserve the provinces from confusion under his majesty's safeguard, and with the aid of the englishmen in the states' service whom maurice pronounced to be "the strength and flower of his army." thus the prince developed his ideas at great length, and accused the advocate behind his back, and without the faintest shadow of proof, of base treachery to his friends and of high-treason. surely barneveld was in danger, and was walking among pitfalls. most powerful and deadly enemies were silently banding themselves together against him. could he long maintain his hold on the slippery heights of power, where he was so consciously serving his country, but where he became day by day a mere shining mark for calumny and hatred? the ambassador then signified to the prince that he had been instructed to carry to him the king's purpose to confer on him the order of the garter. "if his majesty holds me worthy of so great honour," said the prince, "i and my family shall ever remain bound to his service and that of his royal posterity. "that the states should be offended i see no cause, but holding the charge i do in their service, i could not accept the honour without first acquainting them and receiving their approbation." winwood replied that, as the king knew the terms on which the prince lived with the states, he doubted not his majesty would first notify them and say that he honoured the mutual amity between his realms and these provinces by honouring the virtues of their general, whose services, as they had been most faithful and affectionate, so had they been accompanied with the blessings of happiness and prosperous success. thus said winwood to the king: "your majesty may plaster two walls with one trowel ('una fidelia duos dealbare parietes'), reverse the designs of them who to facilitate their own practices do endeavour to alienate your affections from the good of these provinces, and oblige to your service the well-affected people, who know that there is no surety for themselves, their wives and children, but under the protection of your majesty's favour. perhaps, however, the favourers of vorstius and arminius will buzz into the ears of their associates that your majesty would make a party in these provinces by maintaining the truth of religion and also by gaining unto you the affections of their chief commander. but your majesty will be pleased to pass forth whose worthy ends will take their place, which is to honour virtue where you find it, and the suspicious surmises of malice and envy in one instant will vanish into smoke." winwood made no scruple in directly stating to the english government that barneveld's purpose was to "cause a divorce between the king's realms and the provinces, the more easily to precipitate them into the arms of spain." he added that the negotiation with count maurice then on foot was to be followed, but with much secrecy, on account of the place he held in the state. soon after the ambassador's secret conversation with maurice he had an interview with barneveld. he assured the advocate that no contentment could be given to his majesty but by the banishment of vorstius. "if the town of leyden should understand so much," replied barneveld, "i fear the magistrates would retain him still in their town." "if the town of leyden should retain vorstius," answered winwood, "to brave or despight his majesty, the king has the means, if it pleases him to use them, and that without drawing sword, to range them to reason, and to make the magistrates on their knees demand his pardon, and i say as much of rotterdam." such insolence on the part of an ambassador to the first minister of a great republic was hard to bear. barneveld was not the man to brook it. he replied with great indignation. "i was born in liberty," he said with rising choler, "i cannot digest this kind of language. the king of spain himself never dared to speak in so high a style." "i well understand that logic," returned the ambassador with continued insolence. "you hold your argument to be drawn 'a majori ad minus;' but i pray you to believe that the king of great britain is peer and companion to the king of spain, and that his motto is, 'nemo me impune lacessit.'" and so they parted in a mutual rage; winwood adding on going out of the room, "whatsoever i propose to you in his majesty's name can find with you neither goust nor grace." he then informed lord rochester that "the man was extremely distempered and extremely distasted with his majesty. "some say," he added, "that on being in england when his majesty first came to the throne he conceived some offence, which ever since hath rankled in his heart, and now doth burst forth with more violent malice." nor was the matter so small as it superficially appeared. dependence of one nation upon the dictation of another can never be considered otherwise than grave. the subjection of all citizens, clerical or lay, to the laws of the land, the supremacy of the state over the church, were equally grave subjects. and the question of sovereignty now raised for the first time, not academically merely, but practically, was the gravest one of all. it was soon to be mooted vigorously and passionately whether the united provinces were a confederacy or a union; a league of sovereign and independent states bound together by treaty for certain specified purposes or an incorporated whole. the advocate and all the principal lawyers in the country had scarcely a doubt on the subject. whether it were a reasonable system or an absurd one, a vigorous or an imbecile form of government, they were confident that the union of utrecht, made about a generation of mankind before, and the only tie by which the provinces were bound together at all, was a compact between sovereigns. barneveld styled himself always the servant and officer of the states of holland. to them was his allegiance, for them he spoke, wrought, and thought, by them his meagre salary was paid. at the congress of the states-general, the scene of his most important functions, he was the ambassador of holland, acting nominally according to their instructions, and exercising the powers of minister of foreign affairs and, as it were, prime minister for the other confederates by their common consent. the system would have been intolerable, the great affairs of war and peace could never have been carried on so triumphantly, had not the preponderance of the one province holland, richer, more powerful, more important in every way than the other six provinces combined, given to the confederacy illegally, but virtually, many of the attributes of union. rather by usucaption than usurpation holland had in many regards come to consider herself and be considered as the republic itself. and barneveld, acting always in the name of holland and with the most modest of titles and appointments, was for a long time in all civil matters the chief of the whole country. this had been convenient during the war, still more convenient during negotiations for peace, but it was inevitable that there should be murmurs now that the cessation from military operations on a large scale had given men time to look more deeply into the nature of a constitution partly inherited and partly improvised, and having many of the defects usually incident to both sources of government. the military interest, the ecclesiastical power, and the influence of foreign nations exerted through diplomatic intrigue, were rapidly arraying themselves in determined hostility to barneveld and to what was deemed his tyrannous usurpation. a little later the national spirit, as opposed to provincial and municipal patriotism, was to be aroused against him, and was likely to prove the most formidable of all the elements of antagonism. it is not necessary to anticipate here what must be developed on a subsequent page. this much, however, it is well to indicate for the correct understanding of passing events. barneveld did not consider himself the officer or servant of their high mightinesses the states-general, while in reality often acting as their master, but the vassal and obedient functionary of their great mightinesses the states of holland, whom he almost absolutely controlled. his present most pressing business was to resist the encroachments of the sacerdotal power and to defend the magistracy. the casuistical questions which were fast maddening the public mind seemed of importance to him only as enclosing within them a more vital and practical question of civil government. but the anger of his opponents, secret and open, was rapidly increasing. envy, jealousy, political and clerical hate, above all, that deadliest and basest of malignant spirits which in partisan warfare is bred out of subserviency to rising and rival power, were swarming about him and stinging him at every step. no parasite of maurice could more effectively pay his court and more confidently hope for promotion or reward than by vilipending barneveld. it would be difficult to comprehend the infinite extent and power of slander without a study of the career of the advocate of holland. "i thank you for your advices," he wrote to carom' "and i wish from my heart that his majesty, according to his royal wisdom and clemency towards the condition of this country, would listen only to my lords the states or their ministers, and not to his own or other passionate persons who, through misunderstanding or malice, furnish him with information and so frequently flatter him. i have tried these twenty years to deserve his majesty's confidence, and have many letters from him reaching through twelve or fifteen years, in which he does me honour and promises his royal favour. i am the more chagrined that through false and passionate reports and information--because i am resolved to remain good and true to my lords the states, to the fatherland, and to the true christian religion--i and mine should now be so traduced. i hope that god almighty will second my upright conscience, and cause his majesty soon to see the injustice done to me and mine. to defend the resolutions of my lords the states of holland is my office, duty, and oath, and i assure you that those resolutions are taken with wider vision and scope than his majesty can believe. let this serve for my lords' defence and my own against indecent calumny, for my duty allows me to pursue no other course." he again alluded to the dreary affair of vorstius, and told the envoy that the venation caused by it was incredible. "that men unjustly defame our cities and their regents is nothing new," he said; "but i assure you that it is far more damaging to the common weal than the defamers imagine." some of the private admirers of arminius who were deeply grieved at so often hearing him "publicly decried as the enemy of god" had been defending the great heretic to james, and by so doing had excited the royal wrath not only against the deceased doctor and themselves, but against the states of holland who had given them no commission. on the other hand the advanced orthodox party, most bitter haters of barneveld, and whom in his correspondence with england he uniformly and perhaps designedly called the puritans, knowing that the very word was a scarlet rag to james, were growing louder and louder in their demands. "some thirty of these puritans," said he, "of whom at least twenty are flemings or other foreigners equally violent, proclaim that they and the like of them mean alone to govern the church. let his majesty compare this proposal with his royal present, with his salutary declaration at london in the year to doctor reynolds and his associates, and with his admonition delivered to the emperor, kings, sovereigns, and republics, and he will best understand the mischievous principles of these people, who are now gaining credit with him to the detriment of the freedom and laws of these provinces." a less enlightened statesman than barneveld would have found it easy enough to demonstrate the inconsistency of the king in thus preaching subserviency of government to church and favouring the rule of puritans over both. it needed but slender logic to reduce such a policy on his part to absurdity, but neither kings nor governments are apt to value themselves on their logic. so long as james could play the pedagogue to emperors, kings, and republics, it mattered little to him that the doctrines which he preached in one place he had pronounced flat blasphemy in another. that he would cheerfully hang in england the man whom he would elevate to power in holland might be inconsistency in lesser mortals; but what was the use of his infallibility if he was expected to be consistent? but one thing was certain. the advocate saw through him as if he had been made of glass, and james knew that he did. this fatal fact outweighed all the decorous and respectful phraseology under which barneveld veiled his remorseless refutations. it was a dangerous thing to incur the wrath of this despot-theologian. prince maurice, who had originally joined in the invitation given by the overseers of leyden to vorstius, and had directed one of the deputies and his own "court trumpeter," uytenbogaert, to press him earnestly to grant his services to the university, now finding the coldness of barneveld to the fiery remonstrances of the king, withdrew his protection of the professor. "the count maurice, who is a wise and understanding prince," said winwood, "and withal most affectionate to his majesty's service, doth foresee the miseries into which these countries are likely to fall, and with grief doth pine away." it is probable that the great stadholder had never been more robust, or indeed inclining to obesity, than precisely at this epoch; but sir ralph was of an imaginative turn. he had discovered, too, that the advocate's design was "of no other nature than so to stem the course of the state that insensibly the provinces shall fall by relapse into the hands of spain." a more despicable idea never entered a human brain. every action, word, and thought, of barneveld's life was a refutation of it. but he was unwilling, at the bidding of a king, to treat a professor with contumely who had just been solemnly and unanimously invited by the great university, by the states of holland, and by the stadholder to an important chair; and that was enough for the diplomatist and courtier. "he, and only he," said winwood passionately, "hath opposed his majesty's purposes with might and main." formerly the ambassador had been full of complaints of "the craving humour of count maurice," and had censured him bitterly in his correspondence for having almost by his inordinate pretensions for money and other property brought the treaty of truce to a standstill. and in these charges he was as unjust and as reckless as he was now in regard to barneveld. the course of james and his agents seemed cunningly devised to sow discord in the provinces, to inflame the growing animosity of the stadholder to the advocate, and to paralyse the action of the republic in the duchies. if the king had received direct instructions from the spanish cabinet how to play the spanish game, he could hardly have done it with more docility. but was not gondemar ever at his elbow, and the infanta always in the perspective? and it is strange enough that, at the same moment, spanish marriages were in france as well as england the turning-point of policy. henry had been willing enough that the dauphin should espouse a spanish infanta, and that one of the spanish princes should be affianced to one of his daughters. but the proposition from spain had been coupled with a condition that the friendship between france and the netherlands should be at once broken off, and the rebellious heretics left to their fate. and this condition had been placed before him with such arrogance that he had rejected the whole scheme. henry was not the man to do anything dishonourable at the dictation of another sovereign. he was also not the man to be ignorant that the friendship of the provinces was necessary to him, that cordial friendship between france and spain was impossible, and that to allow spain to reoccupy that splendid possession between his own realms and germany, from which she had been driven by the hollanders in close alliance with himself, would be unworthy of the veriest schoolboy in politics. but henry was dead, and a medici reigned in his place, whose whole thought was to make herself agreeable to spain. aerssens, adroit, prying, experienced, unscrupulous, knew very well that these double spanish marriages were resolved upon, and that the inevitable condition refused by the king would be imposed upon his widow. he so informed the states-general, and it was known to the french government that he had informed them. his position soon became almost untenable, not because he had given this information, but because the information and the inference made from it were correct. it will be observed that the policy of the advocate was to preserve friendly relations between france and england, and between both and the united provinces. it was for this reason that he submitted to the exhortations and denunciations of the english ambassadors. it was for this that he kept steadily in view the necessity of dealing with and supporting corporate france, the french government, when there were many reasons for feeling sympathy with the internal rebellion against that government. maurice felt differently. he was connected by blood or alliance with more than one of the princes now perpetually in revolt. bouillon was his brother-in-law, the sister of conde was his brother's wife. another cousin, the elector-palatine, was already encouraging distant and extravagant hopes of the imperial crown. it was not unnatural that he should feel promptings of ambition and sympathy difficult to avow even to himself, and that he should feel resentment against the man by whom this secret policy was traversed in the well-considered interest of the republican government. aerssens, who, with the keen instinct of self-advancement was already attaching himself to maurice as to the wheels of the chariot going steadily up the hill, was not indisposed to loosen his hold upon the man through whose friendship he had first risen, and whose power was now perhaps on the decline. moreover, events had now caused him to hate the french government with much fervour. with henry iv. he had been all-powerful. his position had been altogether exceptional, and he had wielded an influence at paris more than that exerted by any foreign ambassador. the change naturally did not please him, although he well knew the reasons. it was impossible for the dutch ambassador to be popular at a court where spain ruled supreme. had he been willing to eat humiliation as with a spoon, it would not have sufficed. they knew him, they feared him, and they could not doubt that his sympathies would ever be with the malcontent princes. at the same time he did not like to lose his hold upon the place, nor to have it known, as yet, to the world that his power was diminished. "the queen commands me to tell you," said the french ambassador de russy to the states-general, "that the language of the sieur aerssens has not only astonished her, but scandalized her to that degree that she could not refrain from demanding if it came from my lords the states or from himself. he having, however, affirmed to her majesty that he had express charge to justify it by reasons so remote from the hope and the belief that she had conceived of your gratitude to the most christian king and herself, she is constrained to complain of it, and with great frankness." some months later than this aerssens communicated to the states-general the project of the spanish marriage, "which," said he, "they have declared to me with so many oaths to be false." he informed them that m. de refuge was to go on special mission to the hague, "having been designated to that duty before aerssens' discovery of the marriage project." he was to persuade their mightinesses that the marriages were by no means concluded, and that, even if they were, their mightinesses were not interested therein, their majesties intending to remain by the old maxims and alliances of the late king. marriages, he would be instructed to say, were mere personal conventions, which remained of no consideration when the interests of the crown were touched. "nevertheless, i know very well," said aerssens, "that in england these negotiations are otherwise understood, and that the king has uttered great complaints about them, saying that such a negotiation as this ought not to have been concealed from him. he is pressing more than ever for reimbursement of the debt to him, and especially for the moneys pretended to have been furnished to your mightinesses in his majesty's name." thus it will be seen how closely the spanish marriages were connected with the immediate financial arrangements of france, england, and the states, without reference to the wider political consequences anticipated. "the princes and most gentlemen," here continued the ambassador, "believe that these reciprocal and double marriages will bring about great changes in christendom if they take the course which the authors of them intend, however much they may affect to believe that no novelties are impending. the marriages were proposed to the late king, and approved by him, during the negotiations for the truce, and had don pedro do toledo been able to govern himself, as jeannin has just been telling me, the united provinces would have drawn from it their assured security. what he means by that, i certainly cannot conceive, for don pedro proposed the marriage of the dauphin (now louis xiii.) with the infanta on the condition that henry should renounce all friendship with your mightinesses, and neither openly nor secretly give you any assistance. you were to be entirely abandoned, as an example for all who throw off the authority of their lawful prince. but his majesty answered very generously that he would take no conditions; that he considered your mightinesses as his best friends, whom he could not and would not forsake. upon this don pedro broke off the negotiation. what should now induce the king of spain to resume the marriage negotiations but to give up the conditions, i am sure i don't know, unless, through the truce, his designs and his ambition have grown flaccid. this i don't dare to hope, but fear, on the contrary, that he will so manage the irresolution, weakness, and faintheartedness of this kingdom as through the aid of his pensioned friends here to arrive at all his former aims." certainly the ambassador painted the condition of france in striking and veracious colours, and he was quite right in sending the information which he was first to discover, and which it was so important for the states to know. it was none the less certain in barneveld's mind that the best, not the worst, must be made of the state of affairs, and that france should not be assisted in throwing herself irrecoverably into the arms of spain. "refuge will tell you," said aerssens, a little later, "that these marriages will not interfere with the friendship of france for you nor with her subsidies, and that no advantage will be given to spain in the treaty to your detriment or that of her other allies. but whatever fine declarations they may make, it is sure to be detrimental. and all the princes, gentlemen, and officers here have the same conviction. those of the reformed religion believe that the transaction is directed solely against the religion which your mightinesses profess, and that the next step will be to effect a total separation between the two religions and the two countries." refuge arrived soon afterwards, and made the communication to the states-general of the approaching nuptials between the king of france and the infanta of spain; and of the prince of spain with madame, eldest daughter of france, exactly as aerssens had predicted four months before. there was a great flourish of compliments, much friendly phrase-making, and their mightinesses were informed that the communication of the marriages was made to them before any other power had been notified, in proof of the extraordinary affection entertained for them by france. "you are so much interested in the happiness of france," said refuge, "that this treaty by which it is secured will be for your happiness also. he did not indicate, however, the precise nature of the bliss beyond the indulgence of a sentimental sympathy, not very refreshing in the circumstances, which was to result to the confederacy from this close alliance between their firmest friend and their ancient and deadly enemy. he would have found it difficult to do so. "don rodrigo de calderon, secretary of state, is daily expected from spain," wrote, aerssens once more. "he brings probably the articles of the marriages, which have hitherto been kept secret, so they say. 'tis a shrewd negotiator; and in this alliance the king's chief design is to injure your mightinesses, as m. de villeroy now confesses, although he says that this will not be consented to on this side. it behoves your mightinesses to use all your ears and eyes. it is certain these are much more than private conventions. yes, there is nothing private about them, save the conjunction of the persons whom they concern. in short, all the conditions regard directly the state, and directly likewise, or by necessary consequence, the state of your mightinesses' provinces. i reserve explanations until it shall please your mightinesses to hear me by word of mouth." for it was now taken into consideration by the states' government whether aerssens was to remain at his post or to return. whether it was his wish to be relieved of his embassy or not was a question. but there was no question that the states at this juncture, and in spite of the dangers impending from the spanish marriages, must have an ambassador ready to do his best to keep france from prematurely sliding into positive hostility to them. aerssens was enigmatical in his language, and barneveld was somewhat puzzled. "i have according to your reiterated requests," wrote the advocate to the ambassador, "sounded the assembly of my lords the states as to your recall; but i find among some gentlemen the opinion that if earnestly pressed to continue you would be willing to listen to the proposal. this i cannot make out from your letters. please to advise me frankly as to your wishes, and assure yourself in everything of my friendship." nothing could be more straightforward than this language, but the envoy was less frank than barneveld, as will subsequently appear. the subject was a most important one, not only in its relation to the great affairs of state, but to momentous events touching the fate of illustrious personages. meantime a resolution was passed by the states of holland "in regard to the question whether ambassador aerssens should retain his office, yes or no?" and it was decided by a majority of votes "to leave it to his candid opinion if in his free conscience he thinks he can serve the public cause there any longer. if yes, he may keep his office one year more. if no, he may take leave and come home. in no case is his salary to be increased." surely the states, under the guidance of the advocate, had thus acted with consummate courtesy towards a diplomatist whose position from no apparent fault of his own but by the force of circumstances--and rather to his credit than otherwise--was gravely compromised. etext editor's bookmarks: advanced orthodox party-puritans atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required he was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin he who would have all may easily lose all king's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one the defence of the civil authority against the priesthood chapter vi. - establishment of the condominium in the duchies--dissensions between the neuburgers and brandenburgers--occupation of julich by the brandenburgers assisted by the states-general--indignation in spain and at the court of the archdukes--subsidy despatched to brussels spinola descends upon aix-la-chapelle and takes possession of orsoy and other places--surrender of wesel--conference at xanten--treaty permanently dividing the territory between brandenburg and neuburg-- prohibition from spain--delays and disagreements. thus the 'condominium' had been peaceably established. three or four years passed away in the course of which the evils of a joint and undivided sovereignty of two rival houses over the same territory could not fail to manifest themselves. brandenburg, calvinist in religion, and for other reasons more intimately connected with and more favoured by the states' government than his rival, gained ground in the duchies. the palatine of neuburg, originally of lutheran faith like his father, soon manifested catholic tendencies, which excited suspicion in the netherlands. these suspicions grew into certainties at the moment when he espoused the sister of maximilian of bavaria and of the elector of cologne. that this close connection with the very heads of the catholic league could bode no good to the cause of which the states-general were the great promoters was self-evident. very soon afterwards the palatine, a man of mature age and of considerable talents, openly announced his conversion to the ancient church. obviously the sympathies of the states could not thenceforth fail to be on the side of brandenburg. the elector's brother died and was succeeded in the governorship of the condeminium by the elector's brother, a youth of eighteen. he took up his abode in cleve, leaving dusseldorf to be the sole residence of his co-stadholder. rivalry growing warmer, on account of this difference of religion, between the respective partisans of neuburg and brandenburg, an attempt was made in dusseldorf by a sudden entirely unsuspected rising of the brandenburgers to drive their antagonist colleagues and their portion of the garrison out of the city. it failed, but excited great anger. a more successful effort was soon afterwards made in julich; the neuburgers were driven out, and the brandenburgers remained in sole possession of the town and citadel, far the most important stronghold in the whole territory. this was partly avenged by the neuburgers, who gained absolute control of dusseldorf. here were however no important fortifications, the place being merely an agreeable palatial residence and a thriving mart. the states-general, not concealing their predilection for brandenburg, but under pretext of guarding the peace which they had done so much to establish, placed a garrison of infantry and a troop or two of horse in the citadel of julich. dire was the anger not unjustly excited in spain when the news of this violation of neutrality reached that government. julich, placed midway between liege and cologne, and commanding those fertile plains which make up the opulent duchy, seemed virtually converted into a province of the detested heretical republic. the german gate of the spanish netherlands was literally in the hands of its most formidable foe. the spaniards about the court of the archduke did not dissemble their rage. the seizure of julich was a stain upon his reputation, they cried. was it not enough, they asked, for the united provinces to have made a truce to the manifest detriment and discredit of spain, and to have treated her during all the negotiation with such insolence? were they now to be permitted to invade neutral territory, to violate public faith, to act under no responsibility save to their own will? what was left for them to do except to set up a tribunal in holland for giving laws to the whole of northern europe? arrogating to themselves absolute power over the controverted states of cleve, julich, and the dependencies, they now pretended to dispose of them at their pleasure in order at the end insolently to take possession of them for themselves. these were the egregious fruits of the truce, they said tauntingly to the discomfited archduke. it had caused a loss of reputation, the very soul of empires, to the crown of spain. and now, to conclude her abasement, the troops in flanders had been shaven down with such parsimony as to make the monarch seem a shopkeeper, not a king. one would suppose the obedient netherlands to be in the heart of spain rather than outlying provinces surrounded by their deadliest enemies. the heretics had gained possession of the government at aix-la-chapelle; they had converted the insignificant town of mulheim into a thriving and fortified town in defiance of cologne and to its manifest detriment, and in various other ways they had insulted the catholics throughout those regions. and who could wonder at such insolence, seeing that the army in flanders, formerly the terror of heretics, had become since the truce so weak as to be the laughing-stock of the united provinces? if it was expensive to maintain these armies in the obedient netherlands, let there be economy elsewhere, they urged. from india came gold and jewels. from other kingdoms came ostentation and a long series of vain titles for the crown of spain. flanders was its place of arms, its nursery of soldiers, its bulwark in europe, and so it should be preserved. there was ground for these complaints. the army at the disposition of the archduke had been reduced to infantry and a handful of cavalry. the peace establishment of the republic amounted to , foot, horse, besides the french and english regiments. so soon as the news of the occupation of julich was officially communicated to the spanish cabinet, a subsidy of , crowns was at once despatched to brussels. levies of walloons and germans were made without delay by order of archduke albert and under guidance of spinola, so that by midsummer the army was swollen to , foot and horse. with these the great genoese captain took the field in the middle of august. on the nd of that month the army was encamped on some plains mid-way between maestricht and aachen. there was profound mystery both at brussels and at the hague as to the objective point of these military movements. anticipating an attack upon julich, the states had meantime strengthened the garrison of that important place with infantry and a regiment of horse. it seemed scarcely probable therefore that spinola would venture a foolhardy blow at a citadel so well fortified and defended. moreover, there was not only no declaration of war, but strict orders had been given by each of the apparent belligerents to their military commanders to abstain from all offensive movements against the adversary. and now began one of the strangest series of warlike evolution's that were ever recorded. maurice at the head of an army of , foot and horse manoeuvred in the neighbourhood of his great antagonist and professional rival without exchanging a blow. it was a phantom campaign, the prophetic rehearsal of dreadful marches and tragic histories yet to be, and which were to be enacted on that very stage and on still wider ones during a whole generation of mankind. that cynical commerce in human lives which was to become one of the chief branches of human industry in the century had already begun. spinola, after hovering for a few days in the neighbourhood, descended upon the imperial city of aachen (aix-la-chapelle). this had been one of the earliest towns in germany to embrace the reformed religion, and up to the close of the sixteenth century the control of the magistracy had been in the hands of the votaries of that creed. subsequently the catholics had contrived to acquire and keep the municipal ascendency, secretly supported by archduke albert, and much oppressing the protestants with imprisonments, fines, and banishment, until a new revolution which had occurred in the year , and which aroused the wrath of spinola. certainly, according to the ideas of that day, it did not seem unnatural in a city where a very large majority of the population were protestants that protestants should have a majority in the town council. it seemed, however, to those who surrounded the archduke an outrage which could no longer be tolerated, especially as a garrison of germans, supposed to have formed part of the states' army, had recently been introduced into the town. aachen, lying mostly on an extended plain, had but very slight fortifications, and it was commanded by a neighbouring range of hills. it had no garrison but the germans. spinola placed a battery or two on the hills, and within three days the town surrendered. the inhabitants expected a scene of carnage and pillage, but not a life was lost. no injury whatever was inflicted on person or property, according to the strict injunctions of the archduke. the germans were driven out, and other germans then serving under catholic banners were put in their places to protect the catholic minority, to whose keeping the municipal government was now confided. spinola, then entering the territory of cleve, took session of orsoy, an important place on the rhine, besides duren, duisburg, kaster, greevenbroek and berchem. leaving garrisons in these places, he razed the fortifications of mulheim, much to the joy of the archbishop and his faithful subjects of cologne, then crossed the rhine at rheinberg, and swooped down upon wesel. this flourishing and prosperous city had formerly belonged to the duchy of cleve. placed at the junction of the rhine and lippe and commanding both rivers, it had become both powerful and protestant, and had set itself up as a free imperial city, recognising its dukes no longer as sovereigns, but only as protectors. so fervent was it in the practice of the reformed religion that it was called the rhenish geneva, the cradle of german calvinism. so important was its preservation considered to the cause of protestantism that the states-general had urged its authorities to accept from them a garrison. they refused. had they complied, the city would have been saved, because it was the rule in this extraordinary campaign that the belligerents made war not upon each other, nor in each others territory, but against neutrals and upon neutral soil. the catholic forces under spinola or his lieutenants, meeting occasionally and accidentally with the protestants under maurice or his generals, exchanged no cannon shots or buffets, but only acts of courtesy; falling away each before the other, and each ceding to the other with extreme politeness the possession of towns which one had preceded the other in besieging. the citizens of wesel were amazed at being attacked, considering themselves as imperial burghers. they regretted too late that they had refused a garrison from maurice, which would have prevented spinola from assailing them. they had now nothing for it but to surrender, which they did within three days. the principal condition of the capitulation was that when julich should be given up by the states wesel should be restored to its former position. spinola then took and garrisoned the city of xanten, but went no further. having weakened his army sufficiently by the garrisons taken from it for the cities captured by him, he declined to make any demonstration upon the neighbouring and important towns of emmerich and rees. the catholic commander falling back, the protestant moved forward. maurice seized both emmerich and rees, and placed garrisons within them, besides occupying goch, kranenburg, gennip, and various places in the county of mark. this closed the amicable campaign. spinola established himself and his forces near wesel. the prince encamped near rees. the two armies were within two hours' march of each other. the duke of neuburg--for the palatine had now succeeded on his father's death to the ancestral dukedom and to his share of the condominium of the debateable provinces--now joined spinola with an army of foot and horse. the young prince of brandenburg came to maurice with cavalry and an infantry regiment of the elector-palatine. negotiations destined to be as spectral and fleeting as the campaign had been illusory now began. the whole protestant world was aflame with indignation at the loss of wesel. the states' government had already proposed to deposit julich in the hands of a neutral power if the archduke would abstain from military movements. but albert, proud of his achievements in aachen, refused to pause in his career. let them make the deposit first, he said. both belligerents, being now satiated with such military glory as could flow from the capture of defenceless cities belonging to neutrals, agreed to hold conferences at xanten. to this town, in the duchy of cleve, and midway between the rival camps, came sir henry wotton and sir dudley carleton, ambassadors of great britain; de refuge and de russy, the special and the resident ambassador of france at the hague; chancellor peter pecquius and counsellor visser, to represent the archdukes; seven deputies from the united provinces, three from the elector of cologne, three from brandenburg, three from neuburg, and two from the elector-palatine, as representative of the protestant league. in the earlier conferences the envoys of the archduke and of the elector of cologne were left out, but they were informed daily of each step in the negotiation. the most important point at starting was thought to be to get rid of the 'condominium.' there could be no harmony nor peace in joint possession. the whole territory should be cut provisionally in halves, and each possessory prince rule exclusively within the portion assigned to him. there might also be an exchange of domain between the two every six months. as for wesel and julich, they could remain respectively in the hands then holding them, or the fortifications of julich might be dismantled and wesel restored to the status quo. the latter alternative would have best suited the states, who were growing daily more irritated at seeing wesel, that protestant stronghold, with an exclusively calvinistic population, in the hands of catholics. the spanish ambassador at brussels remonstrated, however, at the thought of restoring his precious conquest, obtained without loss of time, money, or blood, into the hands of heretics, at least before consultation with the government at madrid and without full consent of the king. "how important to your majesty's affairs in flanders," wrote guadaleste to philip, "is the acquisition of wesel may be seen by the manifest grief of your enemies. they see with immense displeasure your royal ensigns planted on the most important place on the rhine, and one which would become the chief military station for all the armies of flanders to assemble in at any moment. "as no acquisition could therefore be greater, so your majesty should never be deprived of it without thorough consideration of the case. the archduke fears, and so do his ministers, that if we refuse to restore wesel, the united provinces would break the truce. for my part i believe, and there are many who agree with me, that they would on the contrary be more inclined to stand by the truce, hoping to obtain by negotiation that which it must be obvious to them they cannot hope to capture by force. but let wesel be at once restored. let that be done which is so much desired by the united provinces and other great enemies and rivals of your majesty, and what security will there be that the same provinces will not again attempt the same invasion? is not the example of julich fresh? and how much more important is wesel! julich was after all not situate on their frontiers, while wesel lies at their principal gates. your majesty now sees the good and upright intentions of those provinces and their friends. they have made a settlement between brandenburg and neuburg, not in order to breed concord but confusion between those two, not tranquillity for the country, but greater turbulence than ever before. nor have they done this with any other thought than that the united provinces might find new opportunities to derive the same profit from fresh tumults as they have already done so shamelessly from those which are past. after all i don't say that wesel should never be restored, if circumstances require it, and if your majesty, approving the treaty of xanten, should sanction the measure. but such a result should be reached only after full consultation with your majesty, to whose glorious military exploits these splendid results are chiefly owing." the treaty finally decided upon rejected the principle of alternate possession, and established a permanent division of the territory in dispute between brandenburg and neuburg. the two portions were to be made as equal as possible, and lots were to be thrown or drawn by the two princes for the first choice. to the one side were assigned the duchy of cleve, the county of mark, and the seigniories of ravensberg and ravenstein, with some other baronies and feuds in brabant and flanders; to the other the duchies of julich and berg with their dependencies. each prince was to reside exclusively within the territory assigned to him by lot. the troops introduced by either party were to be withdrawn, fortifications made since the preceding month of may to be razed, and all persons who had been expelled, or who had emigrated, to be restored to their offices, property, or benefices. it was also stipulated that no place within the whole debateable territory should be put in the hands of a third power. these articles were signed by the ambassadors of france and england, by the deputies of the elector-palatine and of the united provinces, all binding their superiors to the execution of the treaty. the arrangement was supposed to refer to the previous conventions between those two crowns, with the republic, and the protestant princes and powers. count zollern, whom we have seen bearing himself so arrogantly as envoy from the emperor rudolph to henry iv., was now despatched by matthias on as fruitless a mission to the congress at xanten, and did his best to prevent the signature of the treaty, except with full concurrence of the imperial government. he likewise renewed the frivolous proposition that the emperor should hold all the provinces in sequestration until the question of rightful sovereignty should be decided. the "proud and haggard" ambassador was not more successful in this than in the diplomatic task previously entrusted to him, and he then went to brussels, there to renew his remonstrances, menaces, and intrigues. for the treaty thus elaborately constructed, and in appearance a triumphant settlement of questions so complicated and so burning as to threaten to set christendom at any moment in a blaze, was destined to an impotent and most unsatisfactory conclusion. the signatures were more easily obtained than the ratifications. execution was surrounded with insurmountable difficulties which in negotiation had been lightly skipped over at the stroke of a pen. at the very first step, that of military evacuation, there was a stumble. maurice and spinola were expected to withdraw their forces, and to undertake to bring in no troops in the future, and to make no invasion of the disputed territory. but spinola construed this undertaking as absolute; the prince as only binding in consequence of, with reference to, and for the duration of; the treaty of xanten. the ambassadors and other commissioners, disgusted with the long controversy which ensued, were making up their minds to depart when a courier arrived from spain, bringing not a ratification but strict prohibition of the treaty. the articles were not to be executed, no change whatever was to be made, and, above all, wesel was not to be restored without fresh negotiations with philip, followed by his explicit concurrence. thus the whole great negotiation began to dissolve into a shadowy, unsatisfactory pageant. the solid barriers which were to imprison the vast threatening elements of religious animosity and dynastic hatreds, and to secure a peaceful future for christendom, melted into films of gossamer, and the great war of demons, no longer to be quelled by the commonplaces of diplomatic exorcism, revealed its close approach. the prospects of europe grew blacker than ever. the ambassadors, thoroughly disheartened and disgusted, all took their departure from xanten, and the treaty remained rather a by-word than a solution or even a suggestion. "the accord could not be prevented," wrote archduke albert to philip, "because it depended alone on the will of the signers. nor can the promise to restore wesel be violated, should julich be restored. who can doubt that such contravention would arouse great jealousies in france, england, the united provinces, and all the members of the heretic league of germany? who can dispute that those interested ought to procure the execution of the treaty? suspicions will not remain suspicions, but they light up the flames of public evil and disturbance. either your majesty wishes to maintain the truce, in which case wesel must be restored, or to break the truce, a result which is certain if wesel be retained. but the reasons which induced your majesty to lay down your arms remain the same as ever. our affairs are not looking better, nor is the requisition of wesel of so great importance as to justify our involving flanders in a new and more atrocious war than that which has so lately been suspended. the restitution is due to the tribunal of public faith. it is a great advantage when actions done for the sole end of justice are united to that of utility. consider the great successes we have had. how well the affairs of aachen and mulbeim have been arranged; those of the duke of neuburg how completely re-established. the catholic cause, always identical with that of the house of austria, remains in great superiority to the cause of the heretics. we should use these advantages well, and to do so we should not immaturely pursue greater ones. fortune changes, flies when we most depend on her, and delights in making her chief sport of the highest quality of mortals." thus wrote the archduke sensibly, honourably from his point of view, and with an intelligent regard to the interests of spain and the catholic cause. after months of delay came conditional consent from madrid to the conventions, but with express condition that there should be absolute undertaking on the part of the united provinces never to send or maintain troops in the duchies. tedious and futile correspondence followed between brussels, the hague, london, paris. but the difficulties grew every moment. it was a penelope's web of negotiation, said one of the envoys. amid pertinacious and wire-drawn subtleties, every trace of practical business vanished. neuburg departed to look after his patrimonial estates; leaving his interests in the duchies to be watched over by the archduke. even count zollern, after six months of wrangling in brussels, took his departure. prince maurice distributed his army in various places within the debateable land, and spinola did the same, leaving a garrison of foot and horse in the important city of wesel. the town and citadel of julich were as firmly held by maurice for the protestant cause. thus the duchies were jointly occupied by the forces of catholicism and protestantism, while nominally possessed and administered by the princes of brandenburg and neuburg. and so they were destined to remain until that thirty years' war, now so near its outbreak, should sweep over the earth, and bring its fiery solution at last to all these great debates. chapter vii. proud position of the republic--france obeys her--hatred of carleton --position and character of aerssens--claim for the "third"--recall of aerssens--rivalry between maurice and barneveld, who always sustains the separate sovereignties of the provinces--conflict between church and state added to other elements of discord in the commonwealth--religion a necessary element in the life of all classes. thus the republic had placed itself in as proud a position as it was possible for commonwealth or kingdom to occupy. it had dictated the policy and directed the combined military movements of protestantism. it had gathered into a solid mass the various elements out of which the great germanic mutiny against rome, spain, and austria had been compounded. a breathing space of uncertain duration had come to interrupt and postpone the general and inevitable conflict. meantime the republic was encamped upon the enemy's soil. france, which had hitherto commanded, now obeyed. england, vacillating and discontented, now threatening and now cajoling, saw for the time at least its influence over the councils of the netherlands neutralized by the genius of the great statesman who still governed the provinces, supreme in all but name. the hatred of the british government towards the republic, while in reality more malignant than at any previous period, could now only find vent in tremendous, theological pamphlets, composed by the king in the form of diplomatic instructions, and hurled almost weekly at the heads of the states-general, by his ambassador, dudley carleton. few men hated barneveld more bitterly than did carleton. i wish to describe as rapidly, but as faithfully, as i can the outline at least of the events by which one of the saddest and most superfluous catastrophes in modern history was brought about. the web was a complex one, wrought apparently of many materials; but the more completely it is unravelled the more clearly we shall detect the presence of the few simple but elemental fibres which make up the tissue of most human destinies, whether illustrious or obscure, and out of which the most moving pictures of human history are composed. the religious element, which seems at first view to be the all pervading and controlling one, is in reality rather the atmosphere which surrounds and colours than the essence which constitutes the tragedy to be delineated. personal, sometimes even paltry, jealousy; love of power, of money, of place; rivalry between civil and military ambition for predominance in a free state; struggles between church and state to control and oppress each other; conflict between the cautious and healthy, but provincial and centrifugal, spirit on the one side, and the ardent centralizing, imperial, but dangerous, instinct on the other, for ascendancy in a federation; mortal combat between aristocracy disguised in the plebeian form of trading and political corporations and democracy sheltering itself under a famous sword and an ancient and illustrious name;--all these principles and passions will be found hotly at work in the melancholy five years with which we are now to be occupied, as they have entered, and will always enter, into every political combination in the great tragi-comedy which we call human history. as a study, a lesson, and a warning, perhaps the fate of barneveld is as deserving of serious attention as most political tragedies of the last few centuries. francis aerssens, as we have seen, continued to be the dutch ambassador after the murder of henry iv. many of the preceding pages of this volume have been occupied with his opinions, his pictures, his conversations, and his political intrigues during a memorable epoch in the history of the netherlands and of france. he was beyond all doubt one of the ablest diplomatists in europe. versed in many languages, a classical student, familiar with history and international law, a man of the world and familiar with its usages, accustomed to associate with dignity and tact on friendliest terms with sovereigns, eminent statesmen, and men of letters; endowed with a facile tongue, a fluent pen, and an eye and ear of singular acuteness and delicacy; distinguished for unflagging industry and singular aptitude for secret and intricate affairs;--he had by the exercise of these various qualities during a period of nearly twenty years at the court of henry the great been able to render inestimable services to the republic which he represented. of respectable but not distinguished lineage, not a hollander, but a belgian by birth, son of cornelis aerssens, grefter of the states-general, long employed in that important post, he had been brought forward from a youth by barneveld and early placed by him in the diplomatic career, of which through his favour and his own eminent talents he had now achieved the highest honours. he had enjoyed the intimacy and even the confidence of henry iv., so far as any man could be said to possess that monarch's confidence, and his friendly relations and familiar access to the king gave him political advantages superior to those of any of his colleagues at the same court. acting entirely and faithfully according to the instructions of the advocate of holland, he always gratefully and copiously acknowledged the privilege of being guided and sustained in the difficult paths he had to traverse by so powerful and active an intellect. i have seldom alluded in terms to the instructions and despatches of the chief, but every position, negotiation, and opinion of the envoy--and the reader has seen many of them--is pervaded by their spirit. certainly the correspondence of aerssens is full to overflowing of gratitude, respect, fervent attachment to the person and exalted appreciation of the intellect and high character of the advocate. there can be no question of aerssen's consummate abilities. whether his heart were as sound as his head, whether his protestations of devotion had the ring of true gold or not, time would show. hitherto barneveld had not doubted him, nor had he found cause to murmur at barneveld. but the france of henry iv., where the dutch envoy was so all-powerful, had ceased to exist. a duller eye than that of aerssens could have seen at a glance that the potent kingdom and firm ally of the republic had been converted, for a long time to come at least, into a spanish province. the double spanish marriages (that of the young louis xiii. with the infanta anna, and of his sister with the infante, one day to be philip iv.), were now certain, for it was to make them certain that the knife of ravaillac had been employed. the condition precedent to those marriages had long been known. it was the renunciation of the alliance between france and holland. it was the condemnation to death, so far as france had the power to condemn her to death, of the young republic. had not don pedro de toledo pompously announced this condition a year and a half before? had not henry spurned the bribe with scorn? and now had not francis aerssens been the first to communicate to his masters the fruit which had already ripened upon henry's grave? as we have seen, he had revealed these intrigues long before they were known to the world, and the french court knew that he had revealed them. his position had become untenable. his friendship for henry could not be of use to him with the delicate-featured, double-chinned, smooth and sluggish florentine, who had passively authorized and actively profited by her husband's murder. it was time for the envoy to be gone. the queen-regent and concini thought so. and so did villeroy and sillery and the rest of the old servants of the king, now become pensionaries of spain. but aerssens did not think so. he liked his position, changed as it was. he was deep in the plottings of bouillon and conde and the other malcontents against the queen-regent. these schemes, being entirely personal, the rank growth of the corruption and apparent disintegration of france, were perpetually changing, and could be reduced to no principle. it was a mere struggle of the great lords of france to wrest places, money, governments, military commands from the queen-regent, and frantic attempts on her part to save as much as possible of the general wreck for her lord and master concini. it was ridiculous to ascribe any intense desire on the part of the duc de bouillon to aid the protestant cause against spain at that moment, acting as he was in combination with conde, whom we have just seen employed by spain as the chief instrument to effect the destruction of france and the bastardy of the queen's children. nor did the sincere and devout protestants who had clung to the cause through good and bad report, men like duplessis-mornay, for example, and those who usually acted with him, believe in any of these schemes for partitioning france on pretence of saving protestantism. but bouillon, greatest of all french fishermen in troubled waters, was brother-in-law of prince maurice of nassau, and aerssens instinctively felt that the time had come when he should anchor himself to firm holding ground at home. the ambassador had also a personal grievance. many of his most secret despatches to the states-general in which he expressed himself very freely, forcibly, and accurately on the general situation in france, especially in regard to the spanish marriages and the treaty of hampton court, had been transcribed at the hague and copies of them sent to the french government. no baser act of treachery to an envoy could be imagined. it was not surprising that aerssens complained bitterly of the deed. he secretly suspected barneveld, but with injustice, of having played him this evil turn, and the incident first planted the seeds of the deadly hatred which was to bear such fatal fruit. "a notable treason has been played upon me," he wrote to jacques de maldere, "which has outraged my heart. all the despatches which i have been sending for several months to m. de barneveld have been communicated by copy in whole or in extracts to this court. villeroy quoted from them at our interview to-day, and i was left as it were without power of reply. the despatches were long, solid, omitting no particularity for giving means to form the best judgment of the designs and intrigues of this court. no greater damage could be done to me and my usefulness. all those from whom i have hitherto derived information, princes and great personages, will shut themselves up from me . . . . what can be more ticklish than to pass judgment on the tricks of those who are governing this state? this single blow has knocked me down completely. for i was moving about among all of them, making my profit of all, without any reserve. m. de barneveld knew by this means the condition of this kingdom as well as i do. certainly in a well-ordered republic it would cost the life of a man who had thus trifled with the reputation of an ambassador. i believe m. de barneveld will be sorry, but this will never restore to me the confidence which i have lost. if one was jealous of my position at this court, certainly i deserved rather pity from those who should contemplate it closely. if one wished to procure my downfall in order to raise oneself above me, there was no need of these tricks. i have been offering to resign my embassy this long time, which will now produce nothing but thorns for me. how can i negotiate after my private despatches have been read? l'hoste, the clerk of villeroy, was not so great a criminal as the man who revealed my despatches; and l'hoste was torn by four horses after his death. four months long i have been complaining of this to m. de barneveld. . . . patience! i am groaning without being able to hope for justice. i console myself, for my term of office will soon arrive. would that my embassy could have finished under the agreeable and friendly circumstances with which it began. the man who may succeed me will not find that this vile trick will help him much. . . . pray find out whence and from whom this intrigue has come." certainly an envoy's position could hardly be more utterly compromised. most unquestionably aerssens had reason to be indignant, believing as he did that his conscientious efforts in the service of his government had been made use of by his chief to undermine his credit and blast his character. there was an intrigue between the newly appointed french minister, de russy, at the hague and the enemies of aerssens to represent him to his own government as mischievous, passionate, unreasonably vehement in supporting the claims and dignity of his own country at the court to which he was accredited. not often in diplomatic history has an ambassador of a free state been censured or removed for believing and maintaining in controversy that his own government is in the right. it was natural that the french government should be disturbed by the vivid light which he had flashed upon their pernicious intrigues with spain to the detriment of the republic, and at the pertinacity with which he resisted their preposterous claim to be reimbursed for one-third of the money which the late king had advanced as a free subsidy towards the war of the netherlands for independence. but no injustice could be more outrageous than for the envoy's own government to unite with the foreign state in damaging the character of its own agent for the crime of fidelity to itself. of such cruel perfidy aerssens had been the victim, and he most wrongfully suspected his chief as its real perpetrator. the claim for what was called the "third" had been invented after the death of henry. as already explained, the "third" was not a gift from england to the netherlands. it was a loan from england to france, or more properly a consent to abstain from pressing for payment for this proportion of an old debt. james, who was always needy, had often desired, but never obtained, the payment of this sum from henry. now that the king was dead, he applied to the regent's government, and the regent's government called upon the netherlands, to pay the money. aerssens, as the agent of the republic, protested firmly against such claim. the money had been advanced by the king as a free gift, as his contribution to a war in which he was deeply interested, although he was nominally at peace with spain. as to the private arrangements between france and england, the republic, said the dutch envoy, was in no sense bound by them. he was no party to the treaty of hampton court, and knew nothing of its stipulations. courtiers and politicians in plenty at the french court, now that henry was dead, were quite sure that they had heard him say over and over again that the netherlands had bound themselves to pay the third. they persuaded mary de' medici that she likewise had often heard him say so, and induced her to take high ground on the subject in her interviews with aerssens. the luckless queen, who was always in want of money to satisfy the insatiable greed of her favourites, and to buy off the enmity of the great princes, was very vehement--although she knew as much of those transactions as of the finances of prester john or the lama of thibet--in maintaining this claim of her government upon the states. "after talking with the ministers," said aerssens, "i had an interview with the queen. i knew that she had been taught her lesson, to insist on the payment of the third. so i did not speak at all of the matter, but talked exclusively and at length of the french regiments in the states' service. she was embarrassed, and did not know exactly what to say. at last, without replying a single word to what i had been saying, she became very red in the face, and asked me if i were not instructed to speak of the money due to england. whereupon i spoke in the sense already indicated. she interrupted me by saying she had a perfect recollection that the late king intended and understood that we were to pay the third to england, and had talked with her very seriously on the subject. if he were living, he would think it very strange, she said, that we refused; and so on. "soissons, too, pretends to remember perfectly that such were the king's intentions. 'tis a very strange thing, sir. every one knows now the secrets of the late king, if you are willing to listen. yet he was not in the habit of taking all the world into his confidence. the queen takes her opinions as they give them to her. 'tis a very good princess, but i am sorry she is so ignorant of affairs. as she says she remembers, one is obliged to say one believes her. but i, who knew the king so intimately, and saw him so constantly, know that he could only have said that the third was paid in acquittal of his debts to and for account of the king of england, and not that we were to make restitution thereof. the chancellor tells me my refusal has been taken as an affront by the queen, and puysieux says it is a contempt which she can't swallow." aerssens on his part remained firm; his pertinacity being the greater as he thoroughly understood the subject which he was talking about, an advantage which was rarely shared in by those with whom he conversed. the queen, highly scandalized by his demeanour, became from that time forth his bitter enemy, and, as already stated, was resolved to be rid of him. nor was the envoy at first desirous of remaining. he had felt after henry's death and sully's disgrace, and the complete transformation of the france which he had known, that his power of usefulness was gone. "our enemies," he said, "have got the advantage which i used to have in times past, and i recognize a great coldness towards us, which is increasing every day." nevertheless, he yielded reluctantly to barneveld's request that he should for the time at least remain at his post. later on, as the intrigues against him began to unfold themselves, and his faithful services were made use of at home to blacken his character and procure his removal, he refused to resign, as to do so would be to play into the hands of his enemies, and by inference at least to accuse himself of infidelity to his trust. but his concealed rage and his rancor grew more deadly every day. he was fully aware of the plots against him, although he found it difficult to trace them to their source. "i doubt not," he wrote to jacques de maldere, the distinguished diplomatist and senator, who had recently returned from his embassy to england, "that this beautiful proposition of de russy has been sent to your province of zealand. does it not seem to you a plot well woven as well in holland as at this court to remove me from my post with disreputation? what have i done that should cause the queen to disapprove my proceedings? since the death of the late king i have always opposed the third, which they have been trying to fix upon the treasury, on the ground that henry never spoke to me of restitution, that the receipts given were simple ones, and that the money given was spent for the common benefit of france and the states under direction of the king's government. but i am expected here to obey m. de villeroy, who says that it was the intention of the late king to oblige us to make the payment. i am not accustomed to obey authority if it be not supported by reason. it is for my masters to reply and to defend me. the queen has no reason to complain. i have maintained the interests of my superiors. but this is not the cause of the complaints. my misfortune is that all my despatches have been sent from holland in copy to this court. most of them contained free pictures of the condition and dealings of those who govern here. m. de villeroy has found himself depicted often, and now under pretext of a public negotiation he has found an opportunity of revenging himself. . . . besides this cause which villeroy has found for combing my head, russy has given notice here that i have kept my masters in the hopes of being honourably exempted from the claims of this government. the long letter which i wrote to m. de barneveld justifies my proceedings." it is no wonder that the ambassador was galled to the quick by the outrage which those concerned in the government were seeking to put upon him. how could an honest man fail to be overwhelmed with rage and anguish at being dishonoured before the world by his masters for scrupulously doing his duty, and for maintaining the rights and dignity of his own country? he knew that the charges were but pretexts, that the motives of his enemies were as base as the intrigues themselves, but he also knew that the world usually sides with the government against the individual, and that a man's reputation is rarely strong enough to maintain itself unsullied in a foreign land when his own government stretches forth its hand not to, shield, but to stab him. [see the similarity of aerssens position to that of motley years later, in the biographical sketch of motley by oliver wendell holmes. d.w.] "i know," he said, "that this plot has been woven partly in holland and partly here by good correspondence, in order to drive me from my post with disreputation. to this has tended the communication of my despatches to make me lose my best friends. this too was the object of the particular imparting to de russy of all my propositions, in order to draw a complaint against me from this court. "but as i have discovered this accurately, i have resolved to offer to my masters the continuance of my very humble service for such time and under such conditions as they may think good to prescribe. i prefer forcing my natural and private inclinations to giving an opportunity for the ministers of this kingdom to discredit us, and to my enemies to succeed in injuring me, and by fraud and malice to force me from my post . . . i am truly sorry, being ready to retire, wishing to have an honourable testimony in recompense of my labours, that one is in such hurry to take advantage of my fall. i cannot believe that my masters wish to suffer this. they are too prudent, and cannot be ignorant of the treachery which has been practised on me. i have maintained their cause. if they have chosen to throw down the fruits of my industry, the blame should be imputed to those who consider their own ambition more than the interests of the public . . . . what envoy will ever dare to speak with vigour if he is not sustained by the government at home? . . . . . . my enemies have misrepresented my actions, and my language as passionate, exaggerated, mischievous, but i have no passion except for the service of my superiors. they say that i have a dark and distrustful disposition, but i have been alarmed at the alliance now forming here with the king of spain, through the policy of m. de villeroy. i was the first to discover this intrigue, which they thought buried in the bosom of the triumvirate. i gave notice of it to my lords the states as in duty bound. it all came back to the government in the copies furnished of my secret despatches. this is the real source of the complaints against me. the rest of the charges, relating to the third and other matters, are but pretexts. to parry the blow, they pretend that all that is said and done with the spaniard is but feigning. who is going to believe that? has not the pope intervened in the affair? . . . i tell you they are furious here because i have my eyes open. i see too far into their affairs to suit their purposes. a new man would suit them better." his position was hopelessly compromised. he remained in paris, however, month after month, and even year after year, defying his enemies both at the queen's court and in holland, feeding fat the grudge he bore to barneveld as the supposed author of the intrigue against him, and drawing closer the personal bands which united him to bouillon and through him to prince maurice. the wrath of the ambassador flamed forth without disguise against barneveld and all his adherents when his removal, as will be related on a subsequent page, was at last effected. and his hatred was likely to be deadly. a man with a shrewd, vivid face, cleanly cut features and a restless eye; wearing a close-fitting skull cap, which gave him something the lock of a monk, but with the thoroughbred and facile demeanour of one familiar with the world; stealthy, smooth, and cruel, a man coldly intellectual, who feared no one, loved but few, and never forgot or forgave; francis d'aerssens, devoured by ambition and burning with revenge, was a dangerous enemy. time was soon to show whether it was safe to injure him. barneveld, from well-considered motives of public policy, was favouring his honourable recall. but he allowed a decorous interval of more than three years to elapse in which to terminate his affairs, and to take a deliberate departure from that french embassy to which the advocate had originally promoted him, and in which there had been so many years of mutual benefit and confidence between the two statesmen. he used no underhand means. he did not abuse the power of the states-general which he wielded to cast him suddenly and brutally from the distinguished post which he occupied, and so to attempt to dishonour him before the world. nothing could be more respectful and conciliatory than the attitude of the government from first to last towards this distinguished functionary. the republic respected itself too much to deal with honourable agents whose services it felt obliged to dispense with as with vulgar malefactors who had been detected in crime. but aerssens believed that it was the advocate who had caused copies of his despatches to be sent to the french court, and that he had deliberately and for a fixed purpose been undermining his influence at home and abroad and blackening his character. all his ancient feelings of devotion, if they had ever genuinely existed towards his former friend and patron, turned to gall. he was almost ready to deny that he had ever respected barneveld, appreciated his public services, admired his intellect, or felt gratitude for his guidance. a fierce controversy--to which at a later period it will be necessary to call the reader's attention, because it is intimately connected with dark scenes afterwards to be enacted--took place between the late ambassador and cornelis van der myle. meantime barneveld pursued the policy which he had marked out for the states-general in regard to france. certainly it was a difficult problem. there could be no doubt that metamorphosed france could only be a dangerous ally for the republic. it was in reality impossible that she should be her ally at all. and this barneveld knew. still it was better, so he thought, for the netherlands that france should exist than that it should fall into utter decomposition. france, though under the influence of spain, and doubly allied by marriage contracts to spain, was better than spain itself in the place of france. this seemed to be the only choice between two evils. should the whole weight of the states-general be thrown into the scale of the malcontent and mutinous princes against the established but tottering government of france, it was difficult to say how soon spain might literally, as well as inferentially, reign in paris. between the rebellion and the legitimate government, therefore, barneveld did not hesitate. france, corporate france, with which the republic had bean so long in close and mutually advantageous alliance, and from whose late monarch she had received such constant and valuable benefits, was in the advocate's opinion the only power to be recognised, papal and spanish though it was. the advantage of an alliance with the fickle, self-seeking, and ever changing mutiny, that was seeking to make use of protestantism to effect its own ends, was in his eyes rather specious than real. by this policy, while making the breach irreparable with aerssens and as many leading politicians as aerssens could influence, he first brought on himself the stupid accusation of swerving towards spain. dull murmurs like these, which were now but faintly making themselves heard against the reputation of the advocate, were destined ere long to swell into a mighty roar; but he hardly listened now to insinuations which seemed infinitely below his contempt. he still effectually ruled the nation through his influence in the states of holland, where he reigned supreme. thus far barneveld and my lords the states-general were one personage. but there was another great man in the state who had at last grown impatient of the advocate's power, and was secretly resolved to brook it no longer. maurice of nassau had felt himself too long rebuked by the genius of the advocate. the prince had perhaps never forgiven him for the political guardianship which he had exercised over him ever since the death of william the silent. he resented the leading strings by which his youthful footstep had been sustained, and which he seemed always to feel about his limbs so long as barneveld existed. he had never forgotten the unpalatable advice given to him by the advocate through the princess-dowager. the brief campaign in cleve and julich was the last great political operation in which the two were likely to act in even apparent harmony. but the rivalry between the two had already pronounced itself emphatically during the negotiations for the truce. the advocate had felt it absolutely necessary for the republic to suspend the war at the first moment when she could treat with her ancient sovereign on a footing of equality. spain, exhausted with the conflict, had at last consented to what she considered the humiliation of treating with her rebellious provinces as with free states over which she claimed no authority. the peace party, led by barneveld, had triumphed, notwithstanding the steady opposition of prince maurice and his adherents. why had maurice opposed the treaty? because his vocation was over, because he was the greatest captain of the age, because his emoluments, his consideration, his dignity before the world, his personal power, were all vastly greater in war than in his opinion they could possibly be in peace. it was easy for him to persuade himself that what was manifestly for his individual interest was likewise essential to the prosperity of the country. the diminution in his revenues consequent on the return to peace was made good to him, his brother, and his cousin, by most munificent endowments and pensions. and it was owing to the strenuous exertions of the advocate that these large sums were voted. a hollow friendship was kept up between the two during the first few years of the truce, but resentment and jealousy lay deep in maurice's heart. at about the period of the return of aerssens from his french embassy, the suppressed fire was ready to flame forth at the first fanning by that artful hand. it was impossible, so aerssens thought and whispered, that two heads could remain on one body politic. there was no room in the netherlands for both the advocate and the prince. barneveld was in all civil affairs dictator, chief magistrate, supreme judge; but he occupied this high station by the force of intellect, will, and experience, not through any constitutional provision. in time of war the prince was generalissimo, commander-in-chief of all the armies of the republic. yet constitutionally he was not captain-general at all. he was only stadholder of five out of seven provinces. barneveld suspected him of still wishing to make himself sovereign of the country. perhaps his suspicions were incorrect. yet there was every reason why maurice should be ambitious of that position. it would have been in accordance with the openly expressed desire of henry iv. and other powerful allies of the netherlands. his father's assassination had alone prevented his elevation to the rank of sovereign count of holland. the federal policy of the provinces had drifted into a republican form after their renunciation of their spanish sovereign, not because the people, or the states as representing the people, had deliberately chosen a republican system, but because they could get no powerful monarch to accept the sovereignty. they had offered to become subjects of protestant england and of catholic france. both powers had refused the offer, and refused it with something like contumely. however deep the subsequent regret on the part of both, there was no doubt of the fact. but the internal policy in all the provinces, and in all the towns, was republican. local self-government existed everywhere. each city magistracy was a little republic in itself. the death of william the silent, before he had been invested with the sovereign power of all seven provinces, again left that sovereignty in abeyance. was the supreme power of the union, created at utrecht in , vested in the states-general? they were beginning theoretically to claim it, but barneveld denied the existence of any such power either in law or fact. it was a league of sovereignties, he maintained; a confederacy of seven independent states, united for certain purposes by a treaty made some thirty years before. nothing could be more imbecile, judging by the light of subsequent events and the experience of centuries, than such an organization. the independent and sovereign republic of zealand or of groningen, for example, would have made a poor figure campaigning, or negotiating, or exhibiting itself on its own account before the world. yet it was difficult to show any charter, precedent, or prescription for the sovereignty of the states-general. necessary as such an incorporation was for the very existence of the union, no constitutional union had ever been enacted. practically the province of holland, representing more than half the population, wealth, strength, and intellect of the whole confederation, had achieved an irregular supremacy in the states-general. but its undeniable superiority was now causing a rank growth of envy, hatred, and jealousy throughout the country, and the great advocate of holland, who was identified with the province, and had so long wielded its power, was beginning to reap the full harvest of that malice. thus while there was so much of vagueness in theory and practice as to the sovereignty, there was nothing criminal on the part of maurice if he was ambitious of obtaining the sovereignty himself. he was not seeking to compass it by base artifice or by intrigue of any kind. it was very natural that he should be restive under the dictatorship of the advocate. if a single burgher and lawyer could make himself despot of the netherlands, how much more reasonable that he--with the noblest blood of europe in his veins, whose direct ancestor three centuries before had been emperor not only of those provinces, but of all germany and half christendom besides, whose immortal father had under god been the creator and saviour of the new commonwealth, had made sacrifices such as man never made for a people, and had at last laid down his life in its defence; who had himself fought daily from boyhood upwards in the great cause, who had led national armies from victory to victory till he had placed his country as a military school and a belligerent power foremost among the nations, and had at last so exhausted and humbled the great adversary and former tyrant that he had been glad of a truce while the rebel chief would have preferred to continue the war--should aspire to rule by hereditary right a land with which his name and his race were indelibly associated by countless sacrifices and heroic achievements. it was no crime in maurice to desire the sovereignty. it was still less a crime in barneveld to believe that he desired it. there was no special reason why the prince should love the republican form of government provided that an hereditary one could be legally substituted for it. he had sworn allegiance to the statutes, customs, and privileges of each of the provinces of which he had been elected stadholder, but there would have been no treason on his part if the name and dignity of stadholder should be changed by the states themselves for those of king or sovereign prince. yet it was a chief grievance against the advocate on the part of the prince that barneveld believed him capable of this ambition. the republic existed as a fact, but it had not long existed, nor had it ever received a formal baptism. so undefined was its constitution, and so conflicting were the various opinions in regard to it of eminent men, that it would be difficult to say how high-treason could be committed against it. great lawyers of highest intellect and learning believed the sovereign power to reside in the separate states, others found that sovereignty in the city magistracies, while during a feverish period of war and tumult the supreme function had without any written constitution, any organic law, practically devolved upon the states-general, who had now begun to claim it as a right. the republic was neither venerable by age nor impregnable in law. it was an improvised aristocracy of lawyers, manufacturers, bankers, and corporations which had done immense work and exhibited astonishing sagacity and courage, but which might never have achieved the independence of the provinces unaided by the sword of orange-nassau and the magic spell which belonged to that name. thus a bitter conflict was rapidly developing itself in the heart of the commonwealth. there was the civil element struggling with the military for predominance; sword against gown; states' rights against central authority; peace against war; above all the rivalry of one prominent personage against another, whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans. and now another element of discord had come, more potent than all the rest: the terrible, never ending, struggle of church against state. theological hatred which forty years long had found vent in the exchange of acrimony between the ancient and the reformed churches was now assuming other shapes. religion in that age and country was more than has often been the case in history the atmosphere of men's daily lives. but during the great war for independence, although the hostility between the two religious forces was always intense, it was modified especially towards the close of the struggle by other controlling influences. the love of independence and the passion for nationality, the devotion to ancient political privileges, was often as fervid and genuine in catholic bosoms as in those of protestants, and sincere adherents of the ancient church had fought to the death against spain in defence of chartered rights. at that very moment it is probable that half the population of the united provinces was catholic. yet it would be ridiculous to deny that the aggressive, uncompromising; self-sacrificing, intensely believing, perfectly fearless spirit of calvinism had been the animating soul, the motive power of the great revolt. for the provinces to have encountered spain and rome without calvinism, and relying upon municipal enthusiasm only, would have been to throw away the sword and fight with the scabbard. but it is equally certain that those hot gospellers who had suffered so much martyrdom and achieved so many miracles were fully aware of their power and despotic in its exercise. against the oligarchy of commercial and juridical corporations they stood there the most terrible aristocracy of all: the aristocracy of god's elect, predestined from all time and to all eternity to take precedence of and to look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures. it was inevitable that this aristocracy, which had done so much, which had breathed into a new-born commonwealth the breath of its life, should be intolerant, haughty, dogmatic. the church of rome, which had been dethroned after inflicting such exquisite tortures during its period of power, was not to raise its head. although so large a proportion of the inhabitants of the country were secretly or openly attached to that faith, it was a penal offence to participate openly in its rites and ceremonies. religious equality, except in the minds of a few individuals, was an unimaginable idea. there was still one church which arrogated to itself the sole possession of truth, the church of geneva. those who admitted the possibility of other forms and creeds were either atheists or, what was deemed worse than atheists, papists, because papists were assumed to be traitors also, and desirous of selling the country to spain. an undevout man in that land and at that epoch was an almost unknown phenomenon. religion was as much a recognized necessity of existence as food or drink. it were as easy to find people about without clothes as without religious convictions. the advocate, who had always adhered to the humble spirit of his ancestral device, "nil scire tutissima fedes," and almost alone among his fellow citizens (save those immediate apostles and pupils of his who became involved in his fate) in favour of religious toleration, began to be suspected of treason and papacy because, had he been able to give the law, it was thought he would have permitted such horrors as the public exercise of the roman catholic religion. the hissings and screamings of the vulgar against him as he moved forward on his stedfast course he heeded less than those of geese on a common. but there was coming a time when this proud and scornful statesman, conscious of the superiority conferred by great talents and unparalleled experience, would find it less easy to treat the voice of slanderers, whether idiots or powerful and intellectual enemies, with contempt. chapter viii. schism in the church a public fact--struggle for power between the sacerdotal and political orders--dispute between arminius and gomarus--rage of james i. at the appointment of voratius--arminians called remonstrants--hague conference--contra-remonstrance by gomarites of seven points to the remonstrants' five--fierce theological disputes throughout the country--ryswyk secession-- maurice wishes to remain neutral, but finds himself the chieftain of the contra-remonstrant party--the states of holland remonstrant by a large majority--the states-general contra-remonstrant--sir ralph winwood leaves the hague--three armies to take the field against protestantism. schism in the church had become a public fact, and theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country. the great practical question in the church had been as to the appointment of preachers, wardens, schoolmasters, and other officers. by the ecclesiastical arrangements of great power was conceded to the civil authority in church matters, especially in regard to such appointments, which were made by a commission consisting of four members named by the churches and four by the magistrates in each district. barneveld, who above all things desired peace in the church, had wished to revive this ordinance, and in it had been resolved by the states of holland that each city or village should, if the magistracy approved, provisionally conform to it. the states of utrecht made at the same time a similar arrangement. it was the controversy which has been going on since the beginning of history and is likely to be prolonged to the end of time--the struggle for power between the sacerdotal and political orders; the controversy whether priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests. this was the practical question involved in the fierce dispute as to dogma. the famous duel between arminius and gomarus; the splendid theological tournaments which succeeded; six champions on a side armed in full theological panoply and swinging the sharpest curtal axes which learning, passion, and acute intellect could devise, had as yet produced no beneficent result. nobody had been convinced by the shock of argument, by the exchange of those desperate blows. the high council of the hague had declared that no difference of opinion in the church existed sufficient to prevent fraternal harmony and happiness. but gomarus loudly declared that, if there were no means of putting down the heresy of arminius, there would before long be a struggle such as would set province against province, village against village, family against family, throughout the land. he should be afraid to die in such doctrine. he shuddered that any one should dare to come before god's tribunal with such blasphemies. meantime his great adversary, the learned and eloquent, the musical, frolicsome, hospitable heresiarch was no more. worn out with controversy, but peaceful and happy in the convictions which were so bitterly denounced by gomarus and a large proportion of both preachers and laymen in the netherlands, and convinced that the schism which in his view had been created by those who called themselves the orthodox would weaken the cause of protestantism throughout europe, arminius died at the age of forty-nine. the magistrates throughout holland, with the exception of a few cities, were arminian, the preachers gomarian; for arminius ascribed to the civil authority the right to decide upon church matters, while gomarus maintained that ecclesiastical affairs should be regulated in ecclesiastical assemblies. the overseers of leyden university appointed conrad vorstius to be professor of theology in place of arminius. the selection filled to the brim the cup of bitterness, for no man was more audaciously latitudinarian than he. he was even suspected of socinianism. there came a shriek from king james, fierce and shrill enough to rouse arminius from his grave. james foamed to the mouth at the insolence of the overseers in appointing such a monster of infidelity to the professorship. he ordered his books to be publicly burned in st. paul's churchyard and at both universities, and would have burned the professor himself with as much delight as torquemada or peter titelman ever felt in roasting their victims, had not the day for such festivities gone by. he ordered the states of holland on pain of for ever forfeiting his friendship to exclude vorstius at once from the theological chair and to forbid him from "nestling anywhere in the country." he declared his amazement that they should tolerate such a pest as conrad vorstius. had they not had enough of the seed sown by that foe of god, arminius? he ordered the states-general to chase the blasphemous monster from the land, or else he would cut off all connection with their false and heretic churches and make the other reformed churches of europe do the same, nor should the youth of england ever be allowed to frequent the university of leyden. in point of fact the professor was never allowed to qualify, to preach, or to teach; so tremendous was the outcry of peter plancius and many orthodox preachers, echoing the wrath of the king. he lived at gouda in a private capacity for several years, until the synod of dordrecht at last publicly condemned his opinions and deprived him of his professorship. meantime, the preachers who were disciples of arminius had in a private assembly drawn up what was called a remonstrance, addressed to the states of holland, and defending themselves from the reproach that they were seeking change in the divine service and desirous of creating tumult and schism. this remonstrance, set forth by the pen of the famous uytenbogaert, whom gomarus called the court trumpeter, because for a long time he had been prince maurice's favourite preacher, was placed in the hands of barneveld, for delivery to the states of holland. thenceforth the arminians were called remonstrants. the hague conference followed, six preachers on a side, and the states of holland exhorted to fraternal compromise. until further notice, they decreed that no man should be required to believe more than had been laid down in the five points: i. god has from eternity resolved to choose to eternal life those who through his grace believe in jesus christ, and in faith and obedience so continue to the end, and to condemn the unbelieving and unconverted to eternal damnation. ii. jesus christ died for all; so, nevertheless, that no one actually except believers is redeemed by his death. iii. man has not the saving belief from himself, nor out of his free will, but he needs thereto god's grace in christ. iv. this grace is the beginning, continuation, and completion of man's salvation; all good deeds must be ascribed to it, but it does not work irresistibly. v. god's grace gives sufficient strength to the true believers to overcome evil; but whether they cannot lose grace should be more closely examined before it should be taught in full security. afterwards they expressed themselves more distinctly on this point, and declared that a true believer, through his own fault, can fall away from god and lose faith. before the conference, however, the gomarite preachers had drawn up a contra-remonstrance of seven points in opposition to the remonstrants' five. they demanded the holding of a national synod to settle the difference between these five and seven points, or the sending of them to foreign universities for arbitration, a mutual promise being given by the contending parties to abide by the decision. thus much it has been necessary to state concerning what in the seventeenth century was called the platform of the two great parties: a term which has been perpetuated in our own country, and is familiar to all the world in the nineteenth. these were the seven points: i. god has chosen from eternity certain persons out of the human race, which in and with adam fell into sin and has no more power to believe and convert itself than a dead man to restore himself to life, in order to make them blessed through christ; while he passes by the rest through his righteous judgment, and leaves them lying in their sins. ii. children of believing parents, as well as full-grown believers, are to be considered as elect so long as they with action do not prove the contrary. iii. god in his election has not looked at the belief and the repentance of the elect; but, on the contrary, in his eternal and unchangeable design, has resolved to give to the elect faith and stedfastness, and thus to make them blessed. iv. he, to this end, in the first place, presented to them his only begotten son, whose sufferings, although sufficient for the expiation of all men's sins, nevertheless, according to god's decree, serves alone to the reconciliation of the elect. v. god causest he gospel to be preached to them, making the same through the holy ghost, of strength upon their minds; so that they not merely obtain power to repent and to believe, but also actually and voluntarily do repent and believe. vi. such elect, through the same power of the holy ghost through which they have once become repentant and believing, are kept in such wise that they indeed through weakness fall into heavy sins; but can never wholly and for always lose the true faith. vii. true believers from this, however, draw no reason for fleshly quiet, it being impossible that they who through a true faith were planted in christ should bring forth no fruits of thankfulness; the promises of god's help and the warnings of scripture tending to make their salvation work in them in fear and trembling, and to cause them more earnestly to desire help from that spirit without which they can do nothing. there shall be no more setting forth of these subtle and finely wrought abstractions in our pages. we aspire not to the lofty heights of theological and supernatural contemplation, where the atmosphere becomes too rarefied for ordinary constitutions. rather we attempt an objective and level survey of remarkable phenomena manifesting themselves on the earth; direct or secondary emanations from those distant spheres. for in those days, and in that land especially, theology and politics were one. it may be questioned at least whether this practical fusion of elements, which may with more safety to the commonwealth be kept separate, did not tend quite as much to lower and contaminate the religious sentiments as to elevate the political idea. to mix habitually the solemn phraseology which men love to reserve for their highest and most sacred needs with the familiar slang of politics and trade seems to our generation not a very desirable proceeding. the aroma of doubly distilled and highly sublimated dogma is more difficult to catch than to comprehend the broader and more practical distinctions of every-day party strife. king james was furious at the thought that common men--the vulgar, the people in short--should dare to discuss deep problems of divinity which, as he confessed, had puzzled even his royal mind. barneveld modestly disclaimed the power of seeing with absolute clearness into things beyond the reach of the human intellect. but the honest netherlanders were not abashed by thunder from the royal pulpit, nor perplexed by hesitations which darkened the soul of the great advocate. in burghers' mansions, peasants' cottages, mechanics' back-parlours, on board herring smacks, canal boats, and east indiamen; in shops, counting-rooms, farmyards, guard-rooms, ale-houses; on the exchange, in the tennis-court, on the mall; at banquets, at burials, christenings, or bridals; wherever and whenever human creatures met each other, there was ever to be found the fierce wrangle of remonstrant and contra-remonstrant, the hissing of red-hot theological rhetoric, the pelting of hostile texts. the blacksmith's iron cooled on the anvil, the tinker dropped a kettle half mended, the broker left a bargain unclinched, the scheveningen fisherman in his wooden shoes forgot the cracks in his pinkie, while each paused to hold high converse with friend or foe on fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge; losing himself in wandering mazes whence there was no issue. province against province, city against city, family against family; it was one vast scene of bickering, denunciation, heart-burnings, mutual excommunication and hatred. alas! a generation of mankind before, men had stood banded together to resist, with all the might that comes from union, the fell spirit of the holy inquisition, which was dooming all who had wandered from the ancient fold or resisted foreign tyranny to the axe, the faggot, the living grave. there had been small leisure then for men who fought for fatherland, and for comparative liberty of conscience, to tear each others' characters in pieces, and to indulge in mutual hatreds and loathing on the question of predestination. as a rule the population, especially of the humbler classes, and a great majority of the preachers were contra-remonstrant; the magistrates, the burgher patricians, were remonstrant. in holland the controlling influence was remonstrant; but amsterdam and four or five other cities of that province held to the opposite doctrine. these cities formed therefore a small minority in the states assembly of holland sustained by a large majority in the states-general. the province of utrecht was almost unanimously remonstrant. the five other provinces were decidedly contra-remonstrant. it is obvious therefore that the influence of barneveld, hitherto so all-controlling in the states-general, and which rested on the complete submission of the states of holland to his will, was tottering. the battle-line between church and state was now drawn up; and it was at the same time a battle between the union and the principles of state sovereignty. it had long since been declared through the mouth of the advocate, but in a solemn state manifesto, that my lords the states-general were the foster-fathers and the natural protectors of the church, to whom supreme authority in church matters belonged. the contra-remonstrants, on the other hand, maintained that all the various churches made up one indivisible church, seated above the states, whether provincial or general, and governed by the holy ghost acting directly upon the congregations. as the schism grew deeper and the states-general receded from the position which they had taken up under the lead of the advocate, the scene was changed. a majority of the provinces being contra-remonstrant, and therefore in favour of a national synod, the states-general as a body were of necessity for the synod. it was felt by the clergy that, if many churches existed, they would all remain subject to the civil authority. the power of the priesthood would thus sink before that of the burgher aristocracy. there must be one church--the church of geneva and heidelberg--if that theocracy which the gomarites meant to establish was not to vanish as a dream. it was founded on divine right, and knew no chief magistrate but the holy ghost. a few years before the states-general had agreed to a national synod, but with a condition that there should be revision of the netherland confession and the heidelberg catechism. against this the orthodox infallibilists had protested and thundered, because it was an admission that the vile arminian heresy might perhaps be declared correct. it was now however a matter of certainty that the states-general would cease to oppose the unconditional synod, because the majority sided with the priesthood. the magistrates of leyden had not long before opposed the demand for a synod on the ground that the war against spain was not undertaken to maintain one sect; that men of various sects and creeds had fought with equal valour against the common foe; that religious compulsion was hateful, and that no synod had a right to claim netherlanders as slaves. to thoughtful politicians like barneveld, hugo grotius, and men who acted with them, fraught with danger to the state, that seemed a doctrine by which mankind were not regarded as saved or doomed according to belief or deeds, but as individuals divided from all eternity into two classes which could never be united, but must ever mutually regard each other as enemies. and like enemies netherlanders were indeed beginning to regard each other. the man who, banded like brothers, had so heroically fought for two generations long for liberty against an almost superhuman despotism, now howling and jeering against each other like demons, seemed determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt. where the remonstrants were in the ascendant, they excited the hatred and disgust of the orthodox by their overbearing determination to carry their five points. a broker in rotterdam of the contra-remonstrant persuasion, being about to take a wife, swore he had rather be married by a pig than a parson. for this sparkling epigram he was punished by the remonstrant magistracy with loss of his citizenship for a year and the right to practise his trade for life. a casuistical tinker, expressing himself violently in the same city against the five points, and disrespectfully towards the magistrates for tolerating them, was banished from the town. a printer in the neighbourhood, disgusted with these and similar efforts of tyranny on the part of the dominant party, thrust a couple of lines of doggrel into the lottery: "in name of the prince of orange, i ask once and again, what difference between the inquisition of rotterdam and spain?" for this poetical effort the printer was sentenced to forfeit the prize that he had drawn in the lottery, and to be kept in prison on bread and water for a fortnight. certainly such punishments were hardly as severe as being beheaded or burned or buried alive, as would have been the lot of tinkers and printers and brokers who opposed the established church in the days of alva, but the demon of intolerance, although its fangs were drawn, still survived, and had taken possession of both parties in the reformed church. for it was the remonstrants who had possession of the churches at rotterdam, and the printer's distich is valuable as pointing out that the name of orange was beginning to identify itself with the contra-remonstrant faction. at this time, on the other hand, the gabble that barneveld had been bought by spanish gold, and was about to sell his country to spain, became louder than a whisper. men were not ashamed, from theological hatred, to utter such senseless calumnies against a venerable statesman whose long life had been devoted to the cause of his country's independence and to the death struggle with spain. as if because a man admitted the possibility of all his fellow-creatures being saved from damnation through repentance and the grace of god, he must inevitably be a traitor to his country and a pensionary of her deadliest foe. and where the contra-remonstrants held possession of the churches and the city governments, acts of tyranny which did not then seem ridiculous were of everyday occurrence. clergymen, suspected of the five points, were driven out of the pulpits with bludgeons or assailed with brickbats at the church door. at amsterdam, simon goulart, for preaching the doctrine of universal salvation and for disputing the eternal damnation of young children, was forbidden thenceforth to preach at all. but it was at the hague that the schism in religion and politics first fatally widened itself. henry rosaeus, an eloquent divine, disgusted with his colleague uytenbogaert, refused all communion with him, and was in consequence suspended. excluded from the great church, where he had formerly ministered, he preached every sunday at ryswyk, two or three miles distant. seven hundred contra-remonstrants of the hague followed their beloved pastor, and, as the roads to ryswyk were muddy and sloppy in winter, acquired the unsavoury nickname of the "mud beggars." the vulgarity of heart which suggested the appellation does not inspire to-day great sympathy with the remonstrant party, even if one were inclined to admit, what is not the fact, that they represented the cause of religious equality. for even the illustrious grotius was at that very moment repudiating the notion that there could be two religions in one state. "difference in public worship," he said, "was in kingdoms pernicious, but in free commonwealths in the highest degree destructive." it was the struggle between church and state for supremacy over the whole body politic. "the reformation," said grotius, "was not brought about by synods, but by kings, princes, and magistrates." it was the same eternal story, the same terrible two-edged weapon, "cujus reggio ejus religio," found in the arsenal of the first reformers, and in every politico-religious arsenal of history. "by an eternal decree of god," said gomarus in accordance with calvin, "it has been fixed who are to be saved and who damned. by his decree some are drawn to faith and godliness, and, being drawn, can never fall away. god leaves all the rest in the general corruption of human nature and their own misdeeds." "god has from eternity made this distinction in the fallen human race," said arminius, "that he pardons those who desist from their sins and put their faith in christ, and will give them eternal life, but will punish those who remain impenitent. moreover, it is pleasanter to god that all men should repent, and, coming to knowledge of truth, remain therein, but he compels none." this was the vital difference of dogma. and it was because they could hold no communion with those who believed in the efficacy of repentance that rosaeus and his followers had seceded to ryswyk, and the reformed church had been torn into two very unequal parts. but it is difficult to believe that out of this arid field of controversy so plentiful a harvest of hatred and civil convulsion could have ripened. more practical than the insoluble problems, whether repentance could effect salvation, and whether dead infants were hopelessly damned, was the question who should rule both church and state. there could be but one church. on that remonstrants and contra-remonstrants were agreed. but should the five points or the seven points obtain the mastery? should that framework of hammered iron, the confession and catechism, be maintained in all its rigidity around the sheepfold, or should the disciples of the arch-heretic arminius, the salvation-mongers, be permitted to prowl within it? was barneveld, who hated the reformed religion (so men told each other), and who believed in nothing, to continue dictator of the whole republic through his influence over one province, prescribing its religious dogmas and laying down its laws; or had not the time come for the states-general to vindicate the rights of the church, and to crush for ever the pernicious principle of state sovereignty and burgher oligarchy? the abyss was wide and deep, and the wild waves were raging more madly every hour. the advocate, anxious and troubled, but undismayed, did his best in the terrible emergency. he conferred with prince maurice on the subject of the ryswyk secession, and men said that he sought to impress upon him, as chief of the military forces, the necessity of putting down religious schism with the armed hand. the prince had not yet taken a decided position. he was still under the influence of john uytenbogaert, who with arminius and the advocate made up the fateful three from whom deadly disasters were deemed to have come upon the commonwealth. he wished to remain neutral. but no man can be neutral in civil contentions threatening the life of the body politic any more than the heart can be indifferent if the human frame is sawn in two. "i am a soldier," said maurice, "not a divine. these are matters of theology which i don't understand, and about which i don't trouble myself." on another occasion he is reported to have said, "i know nothing of predestination, whether it is green or whether it is blue; but i do know that the advocate's pipe and mine will never play the same tune." it was not long before he fully comprehended the part which he must necessarily play. to say that he was indifferent to religious matters was as ridiculous as to make a like charge against barneveld. both were religious men. it would have been almost impossible to find an irreligious character in that country, certainly not among its highest-placed and leading minds. maurice had strong intellectual powers. he was a regular attendant on divine worship, and was accustomed to hear daily religious discussions. to avoid them indeed, he would have been obliged not only to fly his country, but to leave europe. he had a profound reverence for the memory of his father, calbo y calbanista, as william the silent had called himself. but the great prince had died before these fierce disputes had torn the bosom of the reformed church, and while reformers still were brethren. but if maurice were a religious man, he was also a keen politician; a less capable politician, however, than a soldier, for he was confessedly the first captain of his age. he was not rapid in his conceptions, but he was sure in the end to comprehend his opportunity. the church, the people, the union--the sacerdotal, the democratic, and the national element--united under a name so potent to conjure with as the name of orange-nassau, was stronger than any other possible combination. instinctively and logically therefore the stadholder found himself the chieftain of the contra-remonstrant party, and without the necessity of an apostasy such as had been required of his great contemporary to make himself master of france. the power of barneveld and his partisans was now put to a severe strain. his efforts to bring back the hague seceders were powerless. the influence of uytenbogaert over the stadholder steadily diminished. he prayed to be relieved from his post in the great church of the hague, especially objecting to serve with a contra-remonstrant preacher whom maurice wished to officiate there in place of the seceding rosaeus. but the stadholder refused to let him go, fearing his influence in other places. "there is stuff in him," said maurice, "to outweigh half a dozen contra-remonstrant preachers." everywhere in holland the opponents of the five points refused to go to the churches, and set up tabernacles for themselves in barns, outhouses, canal-boats. and the authorities in town and village nailed up the barn-doors, and dispersed the canal boat congregations, while the populace pelted them with stones. the seceders appealed to the stadholder, pleading that at least they ought to be allowed to hear the word of god as they understood it without being forced into churches where they were obliged to hear arminian blasphemy. at least their barns might be left them. "barns," said maurice, "barns and outhouses! are we to preach in barns? the churches belong to us, and we mean to have them too." not long afterwards the stadholder, clapping his hand on his sword hilt, observed that these differences could only be settled by force of arms. an ominous remark and a dreary comment on the forty years' war against the inquisition. and the same scenes that were enacting in holland were going on in overyssel and friesland and groningen; but with a difference. here it was the five points men who were driven into secession, whose barns were nailed up, and whose preachers were mobbed. a lugubrious spectacle, but less painful certainly than the hangings and drownings and burnings alive in the previous century to prevent secession from the indivisible church. it is certain that stadholders and all other magistrates ever since the establishment of independence were sworn to maintain the reformed religion and to prevent a public divine worship under any other form. it is equally certain that by the th article of the act of union--the organic law of the confederation made at utrecht in --each province reserved for itself full control of religious questions. it would indeed seem almost unimaginable in a country where not only every province, but every city, every municipal board, was so jealous of its local privileges and traditional rights that the absolute disposition over the highest, gravest, and most difficult questions that can inspire and perplex humanity should be left to a general government, and one moreover which had scarcely come into existence. yet into this entirely illogical position the commonwealth was steadily drifting. the cause was simple enough. the states of holland, as already observed, were remonstrant by a large majority. the states-general were contra-remonstrant by a still greater majority. the church, rigidly attached to the confession and catechism, and refusing all change except through decree of a synod to be called by the general government which it controlled, represented the national idea. it thus identified itself with the republic, and was in sympathy with a large majority of the population. logic, law, historical tradition were on the side of the advocate and the states' right party. the instinct of national self-preservation, repudiating the narrow and destructive doctrine of provincial sovereignty, were on the side of the states-general and the church. meantime james of great britain had written letters both to the states of holland and the states-general expressing his satisfaction with the five points, and deciding that there was nothing objectionable in the doctrine of predestination therein set forth. he had recommended unity and peace in church and assembly, and urged especially that these controverted points should not be discussed in the pulpit to the irritation and perplexity of the common people. the king's letters had produced much satisfaction in the moderate party. barneveld and his followers were then still in the ascendant, and it seemed possible that the commonwealth might enjoy a few moments of tranquillity. that james had given a new exhibition of his astounding inconsistency was a matter very indifferent to all but himself, and he was the last man to trouble himself for that reproach. it might happen, when he should come to realize how absolutely he had obeyed the tuition of the advocate and favoured the party which he had been so vehemently opposing, that he might regret and prove willing to retract. but for the time being the course of politics had seemed running smoother. the acrimony of the relations between the english government and dominant party at the hague was sensibly diminished. the king seemed for an instant to have obtained a true insight into the nature of the struggle in the states. that it was after all less a theological than a political question which divided parties had at last dawned upon him. "if you have occasion to write on the subject," said barneveld, "it is above all necessary to make it clear that ecclesiastical persons and their affairs must stand under the direction of the sovereign authority, for our preachers understand that the disposal of ecclesiastical persons and affairs belongs to them, so that they alone are to appoint preachers, elders, deacons, and other clerical persons, and to regulate the whole ecclesiastical administration according to their pleasure or by a popular government which they call the community." "the counts of holland from all ancient times were never willing under the papacy to surrender their right of presentation to the churches and control of all spiritual and ecclesiastical benefices. the emperor charles and king philip even, as counts of holland, kept these rights to themselves, save that they in enfeoffing more than a hundred gentlemen, of noble and ancient families with seigniorial manors, enfeoffed them also with the right of presentation to churches and benefices on their respective estates. our preachers pretend to have won this right against the countship, the gentlemen, nobles, and others, and that it belongs to them." it is easy to see that this was a grave, constitutional, legal, and historical problem not to be solved offhand by vehement citations from scripture, nor by pragmatical dissertations from the lips of foreign ambassadors. "i believe this point," continued barneveld, "to be the most difficult question of all, importing far more than subtle searchings and conflicting sentiments as to passages of holy writ, or disputations concerning god's eternal predestination and other points thereupon depending. of these doctrines the archbishop of canterbury well observed in the conference of that one ought to teach them ascendendo and not descendendo." the letters of the king had been very favourably received both in the states-general and in the assembly of holland. "you will present the replies," wrote barneveld to the ambassador in london, "at the best opportunity and with becoming compliments. you may be assured and assure his majesty that they have been very agreeable to both assemblies. our commissioners over there on the east indian matter ought to know nothing of these letters." this statement is worthy of notice, as grotius was one of those commissioners, and, as will subsequently appear, was accused of being the author of the letters. "i understand from others," continued the advocate, "that the gentleman well known to you--[obviously francis aerssens]--is not well pleased that through other agency than his these letters have been written and presented. i think too that the other business is much against his grain, but on the whole since your departure he has accommodated himself to the situation." but if aerssens for the moment seemed quiet, the orthodox clergy were restive. "i know," said barneveld, "that some of our ministers are so audacious that of themselves, or through others, they mean to work by direct or indirect means against these letters. they mean to show likewise that there are other and greater differences of doctrine than those already discussed. you will keep a sharp eye on the sails and provide against the effect of counter-currents. to maintain the authority of their great mightinesses over ecclesiastical matters is more than necessary for the conservation of the country's welfare and of the true christian religion. as his majesty would not allow this principle to be controverted in his own realms, as his books clearly prove, so we trust that he will not find it good that it should be controverted in our state as sure to lead to a very disastrous and inequitable sequel." and a few weeks later the advocate and the whole party of toleration found themselves, as is so apt to be the case, between two fires. the catholics became as turbulent as the extreme calvinists, and already hopes were entertained by spanish emissaries and spies that this rapidly growing schism in the reformed church might be dexterously made use of to bring the provinces, when they should become fairly distracted, back to the dominion of spain. "our precise zealots in the reformed religion, on the one side," wrote barneveld, "and the jesuits on the other, are vigorously kindling the fire of discord. keep a good lookout for the countermine which is now working against the good advice of his majesty for mutual toleration. the publication of the letters was done without order, but i believe with good intent, in the hope that the vehemence and exorbitance of some precise puritans in our state should thereby be checked. that which is now doing against us in printed libels is the work of the aforesaid puritans and a few jesuits. the pretence in those libels, that there are other differences in the matter of doctrine, is mere fiction designed to make trouble and confusion." in the course of the autumn, sir ralph winwood departed from the hague, to assume soon afterwards in england the position of secretary of state for foreign affairs. he did not take personal farewell of barneveld, the advocate being absent in north holland at the moment, and detained there by indisposition. the leave-taking was therefore by letter. he had done much to injure the cause which the dutch statesman held vital to the republic, and in so doing he had faithfully carried out the instructions of his master. now that james had written these conciliatory letters to the states, recommending toleration, letters destined to be famous, barneveld was anxious that the retiring ambassador should foster the spirit of moderation, which for a moment prevailed at the british court. but he was not very hopeful in the matter. "mr. winwood is doubtless over there now," he wrote to caron. "he has promised in public and private to do all good offices. the states-general made him a present on his departure of the value of l . i fear nevertheless that he, especially in religious matters, will not do the best offices. for besides that he is himself very hard and precise, those who in this country are hard and precise have made a dead set at him, and tried to make him devoted to their cause, through many fictitious and untruthful means." the advocate, as so often before, sent assurances to the king that "the states-general, and especially the states of holland, were resolved to maintain the genuine reformed religion, and oppose all novelties and impurities conflicting with it," and the ambassador was instructed to see that the countermine, worked so industriously against his majesty's service and the honour and reputation of the provinces, did not prove successful. "to let the good mob play the master," he said, "and to permit hypocrites and traitors in the flemish manner to get possession of the government of the provinces and cities, and to cause upright patriots whose faith and truth has so long been proved, to be abandoned, by the blessing of god, shall never be accomplished. be of good heart, and cause these flemish tricks to be understood on every occasion, and let men know that we mean to maintain, with unchanging constancy, the authority of the government, the privileges and laws of the country, as well as the true reformed religion." the statesman was more than ever anxious for moderate counsels in the religious questions, for it was now more important than ever that there should be concord in the provinces, for the cause of protestantism, and with it the existence of the republic, seemed in greater danger than at any moment since the truce. it appeared certain that the alliance between france and spain had been arranged, and that the pope, spain, the grand-duke of tuscany, and their various adherents had organized a strong combination, and were enrolling large armies to take the field in the spring, against the protestant league of the princes and electors in germany. the great king was dead. the queen-regent was in the hand of spain, or dreamed at least of an impossible neutrality, while the priest who was one day to resume the part of henry, and to hang upon the sword of france the scales in which the opposing weights of protestantism and catholicism in europe were through so many awful years to be balanced, was still an obscure bishop. the premonitory signs of the great religious war in germany were not to be mistaken. in truth, the great conflict had already opened in the duchies, although few men as yet comprehended the full extent of that movement. the superficial imagined that questions of hereditary succession, like those involved in the dispute, were easily to be settled by statutes of descent, expounded by doctors of law, and sustained, if needful, by a couple of comparatively bloodless campaigns. those who looked more deeply into causes felt that the limitations of imperial authority, the ambition of a great republic, suddenly starting into existence out of nothing, and the great issues of the religious reformation, were matters not so easily arranged. when the scene shifted, as it was so soon to do, to the heart of bohemia, when protestantism had taken the holy roman empire by the beard in its ancient palace, and thrown imperial stadholders out of window, it would be evident to the blindest that something serious was taking place. meantime barneveld, ever watchful of passing events, knew that great forces of catholicism were marshalling in the south. three armies were to take the field against protestantism at the orders of spain and the pope. one at the door of the republic, and directed especially against the netherlands, was to resume the campaign in the duchies, and to prevent any aid going to protestant germany from great britain or from holland. another in the upper palatinate was to make the chief movement against the evangelical hosts. a third in austria was to keep down the protestant party in bohemia, hungary, austria, moravia, and silesia. to sustain this movement, it was understood that all the troops then in italy were to be kept all the winter on a war footing.' was this a time for the great protestant party in the netherlands to tear itself in pieces for a theological subtlety, about which good christians might differ without taking each other by the throat? "i do not lightly believe or fear," said the advocate, in communicating a survey of european affairs at that moment to carom "but present advices from abroad make me apprehend dangers." etext editor's bookmarks: aristocracy of god's elect determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt disputing the eternal damnation of young children fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge louis xiii. no man can be neutral in civil contentions no synod had a right to claim netherlanders as slaves philip iv. priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests schism in the church had become a public fact that cynical commerce in human lives the voice of slanderers theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country theology and politics were one to look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures whether dead infants were hopelessly damned whether repentance could effect salvation whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans work of the aforesaid puritans and a few jesuits chapter ix. - aerssens remains two years longer in france--derives many personal advantages from his post--he visits the states-general--aubery du maurier appointed french ambassador--he demands the recall of aerssens--peace of sainte-menehould--asperen de langerac appointed in aerssens' place. francis aerssens had remained longer at his post than had been intended by the resolution of the states of holland, passed in may . it is an exemplification of the very loose constitutional framework of the united provinces that the nomination of the ambassador to france belonged to the states of holland, by whom his salary was paid, although, of course, he was the servant of the states-general, to whom his public and official correspondence was addressed. his most important despatches were however written directly to barneveld so long as he remained in power, who had also the charge of the whole correspondence, public or private, with all the envoys of the states. aerssens had, it will be remembered, been authorized to stay one year longer in france if he thought he could be useful there. he stayed two years, and on the whole was not useful. he had too many eyes and too many ears. he had become mischievous by the very activity of his intelligence. he was too zealous. there were occasions in france at that moment in which it was as well to be blind and deaf. it was impossible for the republic, unless driven to it by dire necessity, to quarrel with its great ally. it had been calculated by duplessis-mornay that france had paid subsidies to the provinces amounting from first to last to millions of livres. this was an enormous exaggeration. it was barneveld's estimate that before the truce the states had received from france eleven millions of florins in cash, and during the truce up to the year , , , in addition, besides a million still due, making a total of about fifteen millions. during the truce france kept two regiments of foot amounting to soldiers and two companies of cavalry in holland at the service of the states, for which she was bound to pay yearly , livres. and the queen-regent had continued all the treaties by which these arrangements were secured, and professed sincere and continuous friendship for the states. while the french-spanish marriages gave cause for suspicion, uneasiness, and constant watchfulness in the states, still the neutrality of france was possible in the coming storm. so long as that existed, particularly when the relations of england with holland through the unfortunate character of king james were perpetually strained to a point of imminent rupture, it was necessary to hold as long as it was possible to the slippery embrace of france. but aerssens was almost aggressive in his attitude. he rebuked the vacillations, the shortcomings, the imbecility, of the queen's government in offensive terms. he consorted openly with the princes who were on the point of making war upon the queen-regent. he made a boast to the secretary of state villeroy that he had unravelled all his secret plots against the netherlands. he declared it to be understood in france, since the king's death, by the dominant and jesuitical party that the crown depended temporally as well as spiritually on the good pleasure of the pope. no doubt he was perfectly right in many of his opinions. no ruler or statesman in france worthy of the name would hesitate, in the impending religious conflict throughout europe and especially in germany, to maintain for the kingdom that all controlling position which was its splendid privilege. but to preach this to mary de' medici was waste of breath. she was governed by the concini's, and the concini's were governed by spain. the woman who was believed to have known beforehand of the plot to murder her great husband, who had driven the one powerful statesman on whom the king relied, maximilian de bethune, into retirement, and whose foreign affairs were now completely in the hands of the ancient leaguer villeroy--who had served every government in the kingdom for forty years--was not likely to be accessible to high views of public policy. two years had now elapsed since the first private complaints against the ambassador, and the french government were becoming impatient at his presence. aerssens had been supported by prince maurice, to whom he had long paid his court. he was likewise loyally protected by barneveld, whom he publicly flattered and secretly maligned. but it was now necessary that he should be gone if peaceful relations with france were to be preserved. after all, the ambassador had not made a bad business of his embassy from his own point of view. a stranger in the republic, for his father the greffier was a refugee from brabant, he had achieved through his own industry and remarkable talents, sustained by the favour of barneveld--to whom he owed all his diplomatic appointments--an eminent position in europe. secretary to the legation to france in , he had been successively advanced to the post of resident agent, and when the republic had been acknowledged by the great powers, to that of ambassador. the highest possible functions that representatives of emperors and kings could enjoy had been formally recognized in the person of the minister of a new-born republic. and this was at a moment when, with exception of the brave but insignificant cantons of switzerland, the republic had long been an obsolete idea. in a pecuniary point of view, too, he had not fared badly during his twenty years of diplomatic office. he had made much money in various ways. the king not long before his death sent him one day , florins as a present, with a promise soon to do much more for him. having been placed in so eminent a post, he considered it as due to himself to derive all possible advantage from it. "those who serve at the altar," he said a little while after his return, "must learn to live by it. i served their high mightinesses at the court of a great king, and his majesty's liberal and gracious favours were showered upon me. my upright conscience and steady obsequiousness greatly aided me. i did not look upon opportunity with folded arms, but seized it and made my profit by it. had i not met with such fortunate accidents, my office would not have given me dry bread." nothing could exceed the frankness and indeed the cynicism with which the ambassador avowed his practice of converting his high and sacred office into merchandise. and these statements of his should be scanned closely, because at this very moment a cry was distantly rising, which at a later day was to swell into a roar, that the great advocate had been bribed and pensioned. nothing had occurred to justify such charges, save that at the period of the truce he had accepted from the king of france a fee of , florins for extra official and legal services rendered him a dozen years before, and had permitted his younger son to hold the office of gentleman-in-waiting at the french court with the usual salary attached to it. the post, certainly not dishonourable in itself, had been intended by the king as a kindly compliment to the leading statesman of his great and good ally the republic. it would be difficult to say why such a favour conferred on the young man should be held more discreditable to the receiver than the order of the garter recently bestowed upon the great soldier of the republic by another friendly sovereign. it is instructive however to note the language in which francis aerssens spoke of favours and money bestowed by a foreign monarch upon himself, for aerssens had come back from his embassy full of gall and bitterness against barneveld. thenceforth he was to be his evil demon. "i didn't inherit property," said this diplomatist. "my father and mother, thank god, are yet living. i have enjoyed the king's liberality. it was from an ally, not an enemy, of our country. were every man obliged to give a reckoning of everything he possesses over and above his hereditary estates, who in the government would pass muster? those who declare that they have served their country in her greatest trouble, and lived in splendid houses and in service of princes and great companies and the like on a yearly salary of florins, may not approve these maxims." it should be remembered that barneveld, if this was a fling at the advocate, had acquired a large fortune by marriage, and, although certainly not averse from gathering gear, had, as will be seen on a subsequent page, easily explained the manner in which his property had increased. no proof was ever offered or attempted of the anonymous calumnies levelled at him in this regard. "i never had the management of finances," continued aerssens. "my profits i have gained in foreign parts. my condition of life is without excess, and in my opinion every means are good so long as they are honourable and legal. they say my post was given me by the advocate. ergo, all my fortune comes from the advocate. strenuously to have striven to make myself agreeable to the king and his counsellors, while fulfilling my office with fidelity and honour, these are the arts by which i have prospered, so that my splendour dazzles the eyes of the envious. the greediness of those who believe that the sun should shine for them alone was excited, and so i was obliged to resign the embassy." so long as henry lived, the dutch ambassador saw him daily, and at all hours, privately, publicly, when he would. rarely has a foreign envoy at any court, at any period of history, enjoyed such privileges of being useful to his government. and there is no doubt that the services of aerssens had been most valuable to his country, notwithstanding his constant care to increase his private fortune through his public opportunities. he was always ready to be useful to henry likewise. when that monarch same time before the truce, and occasionally during the preliminary negotiations for it, had formed a design to make himself sovereign of the provinces, it was aerssens who charged himself with the scheme, and would have furthered it with all his might, had the project not met with opposition both from the advocate and the stadholder. subsequently it appeared probable that maurice would not object to the sovereignty himself, and the ambassador in paris, with the king's consent, was not likely to prove himself hostile to the prince's ambition. "there is but this means alone," wrote jeannini to villeroy, "that can content him, although hitherto he has done like the rowers, who never look toward the place whither they wish to go." the attempt of the prince to sound barneveld on this subject through the princess-dowager has already been mentioned, and has much intrinsic probability. thenceforward, the republican form of government, the municipal oligarchies, began to consolidate their power. yet although the people as such were not sovereigns, but subjects, and rarely spoken of by the aristocratic magistrates save with a gentle and patronizing disdain, they enjoyed a larger liberty than was known anywhere else in the world. buzenval was astonished at the "infinite and almost unbridled freedom" which he witnessed there during his embassy, and which seemed to him however "without peril to the state." the extraordinary means possessed by aerssens to be important and useful vanished with the king's death. his secret despatches, painting in sombre and sarcastic colours the actual condition of affairs at the french court, were sent back in copy to the french court itself. it was not known who had played the ambassador this vilest of tricks, but it was done during an illness of barneveld, and without his knowledge. early in the year aerssens resolved, not to take his final departure, but to go home on leave of absence. his private intention was to look for some substantial office of honour and profit at home. failing of this, he meant to return to paris. but with an eye to the main chance as usual, he ingeniously caused it to be understood at court, without making positive statements to that effect, that his departure was final. on his leavetaking, accordingly, he received larger presents from the crown than had been often given to a retiring ambassador. at least , florins were thus added to the frugal store of profits on which he prided himself. had he merely gone away on leave of absence, he would have received no presents whatever. but he never went back. the queen-regent and her ministers were so glad to get rid of him, and so little disposed, in the straits in which they found themselves, to quarrel with the powerful republic, as to be willing to write very complimentary public letters to the states, concerning the character and conduct of the man whom they so much detested. pluming himself upon these, aerssens made his appearance in the assembly of the states-general, to give account by word of mouth of the condition of affairs, speaking as if he had only come by permission of their mightinesses for temporary purposes. two months later he was summoned before the assembly, and ordered to return to his post. meantime a new french ambassador had arrived at the hague, in the spring of . aubery du maurier, a son of an obscure country squire, a protestant, of moderate opinions, of a sincere but rather obsequious character, painstaking, diligent, and honest, had been at an earlier day in the service of the turbulent and intriguing due de bouillon. he had also been employed by sully as an agent in financial affairs between holland and france, and had long been known to villeroy. he was living on his estate, in great retirement from all public business, when secretary villeroy suddenly proposed him the embassy to the hague. there was no more important diplomatic post at that time in europe. other countries were virtually at peace, but in holland, notwithstanding the truce, there was really not much more than an armistice, and great armies lay in the netherlands, as after a battle, sleeping face to face with arms in their hands. the politics of christendom were at issue in the open, elegant, and picturesque village which was the social capital of the united provinces. the gentry from spain, italy, the south of europe, catholic germany, had clustered about spinola at brussels, to learn the art of war in his constant campaigning against maurice. english and scotch officers, frenchmen, bohemians, austrians, youths from the palatinate and all protestant countries in germany, swarmed to the banners of the prince who had taught the world how alexander farnese could be baffled, and the great spinola outmanoeuvred. especially there was a great number of frenchmen of figure and quality who thronged to the hague, besides the officers of the two french regiments which formed a regular portion of the states' army. that army was the best appointed and most conspicuous standing force in europe. besides the french contingent there were always nearly , infantry and cavalry on a war footing, splendidly disciplined, experienced, and admirably armed. the navy, consisting of thirty war ships, perfectly equipped and manned, was a match for the combined marine forces of all europe, and almost as numerous. when the ambassador went to solemn audience of the states-general, he was attended by a brilliant group of gentlemen and officers, often to the number of three hundred, who volunteered to march after him on foot to honour their sovereign in the person of his ambassador; the envoy's carriage following empty behind. such were the splendid diplomatic processions often received by the stately advocate in his plain civic garb, when grave international questions were to be publicly discussed. there was much murmuring in france when the appointment of a personage comparatively so humble to a position so important was known. it was considered as a blow aimed directly at the malcontent princes of the blood, who were at that moment plotting their first levy of arms against the queen. du maurier had been ill-treated by the due de bouillon, who naturally therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured to the government to which he was accredited. being the agent of mary de' medici, he was, of course, described as a tool of the court and a secret pensioner of spain. he was to plot with the arch traitor barneveld as to the best means for distracting the provinces and bringing them back into spanish subjection. du maurier, being especially but secretly charged to prevent the return of francis aerssens to paris, incurred of course the enmity of that personage and of the french grandees who ostentatiously protected him. it was even pretended by jeannin that the appointment of a man so slightly known to the world, so inexperienced in diplomacy, and of a parentage so little distinguished, would be considered an affront by the states-general. but on the whole, villeroy had made an excellent choice. no safer man could perhaps have been found in france for a post of such eminence, in circumstances so delicate, and at a crisis so grave. the man who had been able to make himself agreeable and useful, while preserving his integrity, to characters so dissimilar as the refining, self-torturing, intellectual duplessis-mornay, the rude, aggressive, and straightforward sully, the deep-revolving, restlessly plotting bouillon, and the smooth, silent, and tortuous villeroy--men between whom there was no friendship, but, on the contrary, constant rancour--had material in him to render valuable services at this particular epoch. everything depended on patience, tact, watchfulness in threading the distracting, almost inextricable, maze which had been created by personal rivalries, ambitions, and jealousies in the state he represented and the one to which he was accredited. "i ascribe it all to god," he said, in his testament to his children, "the impenetrable workman who in his goodness has enabled me to make myself all my life obsequious, respectful, and serviceable to all, avoiding as much as possible, in contenting some, not to discontent others." he recommended his children accordingly to endeavour "to succeed in life by making themselves as humble, intelligent, and capable as possible." this is certainly not a very high type of character, but a safer one for business than that of the arch intriguer francis aerssens. and he had arrived at the hague under trying circumstances. unknown to the foreign world he was now entering, save through the disparaging rumours concerning him, sent thither in advance by the powerful personages arrayed against his government, he might have sunk under such a storm at the outset, but for the incomparable kindness and friendly aid of the princess-dowager, louise de coligny. "i had need of her protection and recommendation as much as of life," said du maurier; "and she gave them in such excess as to annihilate an infinity of calumnies which envy had excited against me on every side." he had also a most difficult and delicate matter to arrange at the very moment of his arrival. for aerssens had done his best not only to produce a dangerous division in the politics of the republic, but to force a rupture between the french government and the states. he had carried matters before the assembly with so high a hand as to make it seem impossible to get rid of him without public scandal. he made a parade of the official letters from the queen-regent and her ministers, in which he was spoken of in terms of conventional compliment. he did not know, and barneveld wished, if possible, to spare him the annoyance of knowing, that both queen and ministers, so soon as informed that there was a chance of coming back to them, had written letters breathing great repugnance to him and intimating that he would not be received. other high personages of state had written to express their resentment at his duplicity, perpetual mischief-making, and machinations against the peace of the kingdom, and stating the impossibility of his resuming the embassy at paris. and at last the queen wrote to the states-general to say that, having heard their intention to send him back to a post "from which he had taken leave formally and officially," she wished to prevent such a step. "we should see m. aerssens less willingly than comports with our friendship for you and good neighbourhood. any other you could send would be most welcome, as m. du maurier will explain to you more amply." and to du maurier himself she wrote distinctly, "rather than suffer the return of the said aerssens, you will declare that for causes which regard the good of our affairs and our particular satisfaction we cannot and will not receive him in the functions which he has exercised here, and we rely too implicitly upon the good friendship of my lords the states to do anything in this that would so much displease us." and on the same day villeroy privately wrote to the ambassador, "if, in spite of all this, aerssens should endeavour to return, he will not be received, after the knowledge we have of his factious spirit, most dangerous in a public personage in a state such as ours and in the minority of the king." meantime aerssens had been going about flaunting letters in everybody's face from the duc de bouillon insisting on the necessity of his return! the fact in itself would have been sufficient to warrant his removal, for the duke was just taking up arms against his sovereign. unless the states meant to interfere officially and directly in the civil war about to break out in france, they could hardly send a minister to the government on recommendation of the leader of the rebellion. it had, however, become impossible to remove him without an explosion. barneveld, who, said du maurier, "knew the man to his finger nails," had been reluctant to "break the ice," and wished for official notice in the matter from the queen. maurice protected the troublesome diplomatist. "'tis incredible," said the french ambassador "how covertly prince maurice is carrying himself, contrary to his wont, in this whole affair. i don't know whether it is from simple jealousy to barneveld, or if there is some mystery concealed below the surface." du maurier had accordingly been obliged to ask his government for distinct and official instructions. "he holds to his place," said he, "by so slight and fragile a root as not to require two hands to pluck him up, the little finger being enough. there is no doubt that he has been in concert with those who are making use of him to re-establish their credit with the states, and to embark prince maurice contrary to his preceding custom in a cabal with them." thus a question of removing an obnoxious diplomatist could hardly be graver, for it was believed that he was doing his best to involve the military chief of his own state in a game of treason and rebellion against the government to which he was accredited. it was not the first nor likely to be the last of bouillon's deadly intrigues. but the man who had been privy to biron's conspiracy against the crown and life of his sovereign was hardly a safe ally for his brother-in-law, the straightforward stadholder. the instructions desired by du maurier and by barneveld had, as we have seen, at last arrived. the french ambassador thus fortified appeared before the assembly of the states-general and officially demanded the recall of aerssens. in a letter addressed privately and confidentially to their mightinesses, he said, "if in spite of us you throw him at our feet, we shall fling him back at your head." at last maurice yielded to, the representations of the french envoy, and aerssens felt obliged to resign his claims to the post. the states-general passed a resolution that it would be proper to employ him in some other capacity in order to show that his services had been agreeable to them, he having now declared that he could no longer be useful in france. maurice, seeing that it was impossible to save him, admitted to du maurier his unsteadiness and duplicity, and said that, if possessed of the confidence of a great king, he would be capable of destroying the state in less than a year. but this had not always been the prince's opinion, nor was it likely to remain unchanged. as for villeroy, he denied flatly that the cause of his displeasure had been that aerssens had penetrated into his most secret affairs. he protested, on the contrary, that his annoyance with him had partly proceeded from the slight acquaintance he had acquired of his policy, and that, while boasting to be better informed than any one, he was in the habit of inventing and imagining things in order to get credit for himself. it was highly essential that the secret of this affair should be made clear; for its influence on subsequent events was to be deep and wide. for the moment aerssens remained without employment, and there was no open rupture with barneveld. the only difference of opinion between the advocate and himself, he said, was whether he had or had not definitely resigned his post on leaving paris. meantime it was necessary to fix upon a successor for this most important post. the war soon after the new year had broken out in france. conde, bouillon, and the other malcontent princes with their followers had taken possession of the fortress of mezieres, and issued a letter in the name of conde to the queen-regent demanding an assembly of the states-general of the kingdom and rupture of the spanish marriages. both parties, that of the government and that of the rebellion, sought the sympathy and active succour of the states. maurice, acting now in perfect accord with the advocate, sustained the queen and execrated the rebellion of his relatives with perfect frankness. conde, he said, had got his head stuffed full of almanacs whose predictions he wished to see realized. he vowed he would have shortened by a head the commander of the garrison who betrayed mezieres, if he had been under his control. he forbade on pain of death the departure of any officer or private of the french regiments from serving the rebels, and placed the whole french force at the disposal of the queen, with as many netherland regiments as could be spared. one soldier was hanged and three others branded with the mark of a gibbet on the face for attempting desertion. the legal government was loyally sustained by the authority of the states, notwithstanding all the intrigues of aerssens with the agents of the princes to procure them assistance. the mutiny for the time was brief, and was settled on the th of may , by the peace of sainte-menehould, as much a caricature of a treaty as the rising had been the parody of a war. van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld, who had been charged with a special and temporary mission to france, brought back the terms, of the convention to the states-general. on the other hand, conde and his confederates sent a special agent to the netherlands to give their account of the war and the negotiation, who refused to confer either with du maurier or barneveld, but who held much conference with aerssens. it was obvious enough that the mutiny of the princes would become chronic. in truth, what other condition was possible with two characters like mary de' medici and the prince of conde respectively at the head of the government and the revolt? what had france to hope for but to remain the bloody playground for mischievous idiots, who threw about the firebrands and arrows of reckless civil war in pursuit of the paltriest of personal aims? van der myle had pretensions to the vacant place of aerssens. he had some experience in diplomacy. he had conducted skilfully enough the first mission of the states to venice, and had subsequently been employed in matters of moment. but he was son-in-law to barneveld, and although the advocate was certainly not free from the charge of nepotism, he shrank from the reproach of having apparently removed aerssens to make a place for one of his own family. van der myle remained to bear the brunt of the late ambassador's malice, and to engage at a little later period in hottest controversy with him, personal and political. "why should van der myle strut about, with his arms akimbo like a peacock?" complained aerssens one day in confused metaphor. a question not easy to answer satisfactorily. the minister selected was a certain baron asperen de langerac, wholly unversed in diplomacy or other public affairs, with abilities not above the average. a series of questions addressed by him to the advocate, the answers to which, scrawled on the margin of the paper, were to serve for his general instructions, showed an ingenuousness as amusing as the replies of barneveld were experienced and substantial. in general he was directed to be friendly and respectful to every one, to the queen-regent and her counsellors especially, and, within the limits of becoming reverence for her, to cultivate the good graces of the prince of conde and the other great nobles still malcontent and rebellious, but whose present movement, as barneveld foresaw, was drawing rapidly to a close. langerac arrived in paris on the th of april . du maurier thought the new ambassador likely to "fall a prey to the specious language and gentle attractions of the due de bouillon." he also described him as very dependent upon prince maurice. on the other hand langerac professed unbounded and almost childlike reverence for barneveld, was devoted to his person, and breathed as it were only through his inspiration. time would show whether those sentiments would outlast every possible storm. chapter x weakness of the rulers of france and england--the wisdom of barneveld inspires jealousy--sir dudley carleton succeeds winwood-- young neuburg under the guidance of maximilian--barneveld strives to have the treaty of xanten enforced--spain and the emperor wish to make the states abandon their position with regard to the duchies-- the french government refuses to aid the states--spain and the emperor resolve to hold wesel--the great religious war begun--the protestant union and catholic league both wish to secure the border provinces--troubles in turkey--spanish fleet seizes la roche--spain places large armies on a war footing. few things are stranger in history than the apathy with which the wide designs of the catholic party were at that moment regarded. the preparations for the immense struggle which posterity learned to call the thirty years' war, and to shudder when speaking of it, were going forward on every side. in truth the war had really begun, yet those most deeply menaced by it at the outset looked on with innocent calmness because their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze. the passage of arms in the duchies, the outlines of which have just been indicated, and which was the natural sequel of the campaign carried out four years earlier on the same territory, had been ended by a mockery. in france, reduced almost to imbecility by the absence of a guiding brain during a long minority, fallen under the distaff of a dowager both weak and wicked, distracted by the intrigues and quarrels of a swarm of self-seeking grandees, and with all its offices, from highest to lowest, of court, state, jurisprudence, and magistracy, sold as openly and as cynically as the commonest wares, there were few to comprehend or to grapple with the danger. it should have seemed obvious to the meanest capacity in the kingdom that the great house of austria, reigning supreme in spain and in germany, could not be allowed to crush the duke of savoy on the one side, and bohemia, moravia, and the netherlands on the other without danger of subjection for france. yet the aim of the queen-regent was to cultivate an impossible alliance with her inevitable foe. and in england, ruled as it then was with no master mind to enforce against its sovereign the great lessons of policy, internal and external, on which its welfare and almost its imperial existence depended, the only ambition of those who could make their opinions felt was to pursue the same impossibility, intimate alliance with the universal foe. any man with slightest pretensions to statesmanship knew that the liberty for protestant worship in imperial germany, extorted by force, had been given reluctantly, and would be valid only as long as that force could still be exerted or should remain obviously in reserve. the "majesty-letter" and the "convention" of the two religions would prove as flimsy as the parchment on which they were engrossed, the protestant churches built under that sanction would be shattered like glass, if once the catholic rulers could feel their hands as clear as their consciences would be for violating their sworn faith to heretics. men knew, even if the easy-going and uxorious emperor, into which character the once busy and turbulent archduke matthias had subsided, might be willing to keep his pledges, that ferdinand of styria, who would soon succeed him, and maximilian of bavaria were men who knew their own minds, and had mentally never resigned one inch of the ground which protestantism imagined itself to have conquered. these things seem plain as daylight to all who look back upon them through the long vista of the past; but the sovereign of england did not see them or did not choose to see them. he saw only the infanta and her two millions of dowry, and he knew that by calling parliament together to ask subsidies for an anti-catholic war he should ruin those golden matrimonial prospects for his son, while encouraging those "shoemakers," his subjects, to go beyond their "last," by consulting the representatives of his people on matters pertaining to the mysteries of government. he was slowly digging the grave of the monarchy and building the scaffold of his son; but he did his work with a laborious and pedantic trifling, when really engaged in state affairs, most amazing to contemplate. he had no penny to give to the cause in which his nearest relatives mere so deeply involved and for which his only possible allies were pledged; but he was ready to give advice to all parties, and with ludicrous gravity imagined himself playing the umpire between great contending hosts, when in reality he was only playing the fool at the beck of masters before whom he quaked. "you are not to vilipend my counsel," said he one day to a foreign envoy. "i am neither a camel nor an ass to take up all this work on my shoulders. where would you find another king as willing to do it as i am?" the king had little time and no money to give to serve his own family and allies and the cause of protestantism, but he could squander vast sums upon worthless favourites, and consume reams of paper on controverted points of divinity. the appointment of vorstius to the chair of theology in leyden aroused more indignation in his bosom, and occupied more of his time, than the conquests of spinola in the duchies, and the menaces of spain against savoy and bohemia. he perpetually preached moderation to the states in the matter of the debateable territory, although moderation at that moment meant submission to the house of austria. he chose to affect confidence in the good faith of those who were playing a comedy by which no statesman could be deceived, but which had secured the approbation of the solomon of the age. but there was one man who was not deceived. the warnings and the lamentations of barneveld sound to us out of that far distant time like the voice of an inspired prophet. it is possible that a portion of the wrath to come might have been averted had there been many men in high places to heed his voice. i do not wish to exaggerate the power and wisdom of the man, nor to set him forth as one of the greatest heroes of history. but posterity has done far less than justice to a statesman and sage who wielded a vast influence at a most critical period in the fate of christendom, and uniformly wielded it to promote the cause of temperate human liberty, both political and religious. viewed by the light of two centuries and a half of additional experience, he may appear to have made mistakes, but none that were necessarily disastrous or even mischievous. compared with the prevailing idea of the age in which he lived, his schemes of polity seem to dilate into large dimensions, his sentiments of religious freedom, however limited to our modern ideas, mark an epoch in human progress, and in regard to the general commonwealth of christendom, of which he was so leading a citizen, the part he played was a lofty one. no man certainly understood the tendency of his age more exactly, took a broader and more comprehensive view than he did of the policy necessary to preserve the largest portion of the results of the past three-quarters of a century, or had pondered the relative value of great conflicting forces more skilfully. had his counsels been always followed, had illustrious birth placed him virtually upon a throne, as was the case with william the silent, and thus allowed him occasionally to carry out the designs of a great mind with almost despotic authority, it might have been better for the world. but in that age it was royal blood alone that could command unflinching obedience without exciting personal rivalry. men quailed before his majestic intellect, but hated him for the power which was its necessary result. they already felt a stupid delight in cavilling at his pedigree. to dispute his claim to a place among the ancient nobility to which he was an honour was to revenge themselves for the rank he unquestionably possessed side by side in all but birth with the kings and rulers of the world. whether envy and jealousy be vices more incident to the republican form of government than to other political systems may be an open question. but it is no question whatever that barneveld's every footstep from this period forward was dogged by envy as patient as it was devouring. jealousy stuck to him like his shadow. we have examined the relations which existed between winwood and himself; we have seen that ambassador, now secretary of state for james, never weary in denouncing the advocate's haughtiness and grim resolution to govern the country according to its laws rather than at the dictate of a foreign sovereign, and in flinging forth malicious insinuations in regard to his relations to spain. the man whose every hour was devoted in spite of a thousand obstacles strewn by stupidity, treachery, and apathy, as well as by envy, hatred, and bigotry--to the organizing of a grand and universal league of protestantism against spain, and to rolling up with strenuous and sometimes despairing arms a dead mountain weight, ever ready to fall back upon and crush him, was accused in dark and mysterious whispers, soon to grow louder and bolder, of a treacherous inclination for spain. there is nothing less surprising nor more sickening for those who observe public life, and wish to retain faith in the human species, than the almost infinite power of the meanest of passions. the advocate was obliged at the very outset of langerac's mission to france to give him a warning on this subject. "should her majesty make kindly mention of me," he said, "you will say nothing of it in your despatches as you did in your last, although i am sure with the best intentions. it profits me not, and many take umbrage at it; wherefore it is wise to forbear." but this was a trifle. by and by there would be many to take umbrage at every whisper in his favour, whether from crowned heads or from the simplest in the social scale. meantime he instructed the ambassador, without paying heed to personal compliments to his chief, to do his best to keep the french government out of the hands of spain, and with that object in view to smooth over the differences between the two great parties in the kingdom, and to gain the confidence, if possible, of conde and nevers and bouillon, while never failing in straightforward respect and loyal friendship to the queen-regent and her ministers, as the legitimate heads of the government. from england a new ambassador was soon to take the place of winwood. sir dudley carleton was a diplomatist of respectable abilities, and well trained to business and routine. perhaps on the whole there was none other, in that epoch of official mediocrity, more competent than he to fill what was then certainly the most important of foreign posts. his course of life had in no wise familiarized him with the intricacies of the dutch constitution, nor could the diplomatic profession, combined with a long residence at venice, be deemed especially favourable for deep studies of the mysteries of predestination. yet he would be found ready at the bidding of his master to grapple with grotius and barneveld on the field of history and law, and thread with uytenbogaert or taurinus all the subtleties of arminianism and gomarism as if he had been half his life both a regular practitioner at the supreme court of the hague and professor of theology at the university of leyden. whether the triumphs achieved in such encounters were substantial and due entirely to his own genius might be doubtful. at all events he had a sovereign behind him who was incapable of making a mistake on any subject. "you shall not forget," said james in his instructions to sir dudley, "that you are the minister of that master whom god hath made the sole protector of his religion . . . . . and you may let fall how hateful the maintaining of erroneous opinions is to the majesty of god and how displeasing to us." the warlike operations of had been ended by the abortive peace of xanten. the two rival pretenders to the duchies were to halve the territory, drawing lots for the first choice, all foreign troops were to be withdrawn, and a pledge was to be given that no fortress should be placed in the hands of any power. but spain at the last moment had refused to sanction the treaty, and everything was remitted to what might be exactly described as a state of sixes and sevens. subsequently it was hoped that the states' troops might be induced to withdraw simultaneously with the catholic forces on an undertaking by spinola that there should be no re-occupation of the disputed territory either by the republic or by spain. but barneveld accurately pointed out that, although the marquis was a splendid commander and, so long as he was at the head of the armies, a most powerful potentate, he might be superseded at any moment. count bucquoy, for example, might suddenly appear in his place and refuse to be bound by any military arrangement of his predecessor. then the archduke proposed to give a guarantee that in case of a mutual withdrawal there should be no return of the troops, no recapture of garrisons. but barneveld, speaking for the states, liked not the security. the archduke was but the puppet of spain, and spain had no part in the guarantee. she held the strings, and might cause him at any moment to play what pranks she chose. it would be the easiest thing in the world for despotic spain, so the advocate thought, to reappear suddenly in force again at a moment's notice after the states' troops had been withdrawn and partially disbanded, and it would be difficult for the many-headed and many-tongued republic to act with similar promptness. to withdraw without a guarantee from spain to the treaty of xanten, which had once been signed, sealed, and all but ratified, would be to give up fifty points in the game. nothing but disaster could ensue. the advocate as leader in all these negotiations and correspondence was ever actuated by the favourite quotation of william the silent from demosthenes, that the safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust. and he always distrusted in these dealings, for he was sure the spanish cabinet was trying to make fools of the states, and there were many ready to assist it in the task. now that one of the pretenders, temporary master of half the duchies, the prince of neuburg, had espoused both catholicism and the sister of the archbishop of cologne and the duke of bavaria, it would be more safe than ever for spain to make a temporary withdrawal. maximilian of bavaria was beyond all question the ablest and most determined leader of the catholic party in germany, and the most straightforward and sincere. no man before or since his epoch had, like him, been destined to refuse, and more than once refuse, the imperial crown. through his apostasy the prince of neuburg was in danger of losing his hereditary estates, his brothers endeavouring to dispossess him on the ground of the late duke's will, disinheriting any one of his heirs who should become a convert to catholicism. he had accordingly implored aid from the king of spain. archduke albert had urged philip to render such assistance as a matter of justice, and the emperor had naturally declared that the whole right as eldest son belonged, notwithstanding the will, to the prince. with the young neuburg accordingly under the able guidance of maximilian, it was not likely that the grasp of the spanish party upon these all-important territories would be really loosened. the emperor still claimed the right to decide among the candidates and to hold the provinces under sequestration till the decision should be made--that was to say, until the greek kalends. the original attempt to do this through archduke leopold had been thwarted, as we have seen, by the prompt movements of maurice sustained by the policy of barneveld. the advocate was resolved that the emperor's name should not be mentioned either in the preamble or body of the treaty. and his course throughout the simulations, which were never negotiations, was perpetually baffled as much by the easiness and languor of his allies as the ingenuity of the enemy. he was reproached with the loss of wesel, that geneva of the rhine, which would never be abandoned by spain if it was not done forthwith. let spain guarantee the treaty of xanten, he said, and then she cannot come back. all else is illusion. moreover, the emperor had given positive orders that wesel should not be given up. he was assured by villeroy that france would never put on her harness for aachen, that cradle of protestantism. that was for the states-general to do, whom it so much more nearly concerned. the whole aim of barneveld was not to destroy the treaty of xanten, but to enforce it in the only way in which it could be enforced, by the guarantee of spain. so secured, it would be a barrier in the universal war of religion which he foresaw was soon to break out. but it was the resolve of spain, instead of pledging herself to the treaty, to establish the legal control of the territory in the hand of the emperor. neuburg complained that philip in writing to him did not give him the title of duke of julich and cleve, although he had been placed in possession of those estates by the arms of spain. philip, referring to archduke albert for his opinion on this subject, was advised that, as the emperor had not given neuburg the investiture of the duchies, the king was quite right in refusing him the title. even should the treaty of xanten be executed, neither he nor the elector of brandenburg would be anything but administrators until the question of right was decided by the emperor. spain had sent neuburg the order of the golden fleece as a reward for his conversion, but did not intend him to be anything but a man of straw in the territories which he claimed by sovereign right. they were to form a permanent bulwark to the empire, to spain, and to catholicism. barneveld of course could never see the secret letters passing between brussels and madrid, but his insight into the purposes of the enemy was almost as acute as if the correspondence of philip and albert had been in the pigeonholes of his writing-desk in the kneuterdyk. the whole object of spain and the emperor, acting through the archduke, was to force the states to abandon their positions in the duchies simultaneously with the withdrawal of the spanish troops, and to be satisfied with a bare convention between themselves and archduke albert that there should be no renewed occupation by either party. barneveld, finding it impossible to get spain upon the treaty, was resolved that at least the two mediating powers, their great allies, the sovereigns of great britain and france, should guarantee the convention, and that the promises of the archduke should be made to them. this was steadily refused by spain; for the archduke never moved an inch in the matter except according to the orders of spain, and besides battling and buffeting with the archduke, barneveld was constantly deafened with the clamour of the english king, who always declared spain to be in the right whatever she did, and forced to endure with what patience he might the goading of that king's envoy. france, on the other hand, supported the states as firmly as could have been reasonably expected. "we proposed," said the archduke, instructing an envoy whom he was sending to madrid with detailed accounts of these negotiations, "that the promise should be made to each other as usual in treaties. but the hollanders said the promise should be made to the kings of france and england, at which the emperor would have been deeply offended, as if in the affair he was of no account at all. at any moment by this arrangement in concert with france and england the hollanders might walk in and do what they liked." certainly there could have been no succincter eulogy of the policy steadily recommended, as we shall have occasion to see, by barneveld. had he on this critical occasion been backed by england and france combined, spain would have been forced to beat a retreat, and protestantism in the great general war just beginning would have had an enormous advantage in position. but the english solomon could not see the wisdom of this policy. "the king of england says we are right," continued the archduke, "and has ordered his ambassador to insist on our view. the french ambassador here says that his colleague at the hague has similar instructions, but admits that he has not acted up to them. there is not much chance of the hollanders changing. it would be well that the king should send a written ultimatum that the hollanders should sign the convention which we propose. if they don't agree, the world at least will see that it is not we who are in fault." the world would see, and would never have forgiven a statesman in the position of barneveld, had he accepted a bald agreement from a subordinate like the archduke, a perfectly insignificant personage in the great drama then enacting, and given up guarantees both from the archduke's master and from the two great allies of the republic. he stood out manfully against spain and england at every hazard, and under a pelting storm of obloquy, and this was the man whose designs the english secretary of state had dared to describe "as of no other nature than to cause the provinces to relapse into the hands of spain." it appeared too a little later that barneveld's influence with the french government, owing to his judicious support of it so long as it was a government, had been decidedly successful. drugged as france was by the spanish marriage treaty, she was yet not so sluggish nor spell-bound as the king of great britain. "france will not urge upon the hollanders to execute the proposal as we made it," wrote the archduke to the king, "so negotiations are at a standstill. the hollanders say it is better that each party should remain with what each possesses. so that if it does not come to blows, and if these insolences go on as they have done, the hollanders will be gaining and occupying more territory every day." thus once more the ancient enemies and masters of the republic were making the eulogy of the dutch statesman. it was impossible at present for the states to regain wesel, nor that other early stronghold of the reformation, the old imperial city of aachen (aix-la-chapelle). the price to be paid was too exorbitant. the french government had persistently refused to assist the states and possessory princes in the recovery of this stronghold. the queen-regent was afraid of offending spain, although her government had induced the citizens of the place to make the treaty now violated by that country. the dutch ambassador had been instructed categorically to enquire whether their majesties meant to assist aachen and the princes if attacked by the archdukes. "no," said villeroy; "we are not interested in aachen, 'tis too far off. let them look for assistance to those who advised their mutiny." to the ambassador's remonstrance that france was both interested in and pledged to them, the secretary of state replied, "we made the treaty through compassion and love, but we shall not put on harness for aachen. don't think it. you, the states and the united provinces, may assist them if you like." the envoy then reminded the minister that the states-general had always agreed to go forward evenly in this business with the kings of great britain and france and the united princes, the matter being of equal importance to all. they had given no further pledge than this to the union. it was plain, however, that france was determined not to lift a finger at that moment. the duke of bouillon and those acting with him had tried hard to induce their majesties "to write seriously to the archduke in order at least to intimidate him by stiff talk," but it was hopeless. they thought it was not a time then to quarrel with their neighbour and give offence to spain. so the stiff talk was omitted, and the archduke was not intimidated. the man who had so often intimidated him was in his grave, and his widow was occupied in marrying her son to the infanta. "these are the first-fruits," said aerssens, "of the new negotiations with spain." both the spanish king and the emperor were resolved to hold wesel to the very last. until the states should retire from all their positions on the bare word of the archduke, that the spanish forces once withdrawn would never return, the protestants of those two cities must suffer. there was no help for it. to save them would be to abandon all. for no true statesman could be so ingenuous as thus to throw all the cards on the table for the spanish and imperial cabinet to shuffle them at pleasure for a new deal. the duke of neuburg, now catholic and especially protected by spain, had become, instead of a pretender with more or less law on his side, a mere standard-bearer and agent of the great catholic league in the debateable land. he was to be supported at all hazard by the spanish forces, according to the express command of philip's government, especially now that his two brothers with the countenance of the states were disputing his right to his hereditary dominions in germany. the archduke was sullen enough at what he called the weak-mindedness of france. notwithstanding that by express orders from spain he had sent troops under command of juan de rivas to the queen's assistance just before the peace of sainte-menehould, he could not induce her government to take the firm part which the english king did in browbeating the hollanders. "'tis certain," he complained, "that if, instead of this sluggishness on the part of france, they had done us there the same good services we have had from england, the hollanders would have accepted the promise just as it was proposed by us." he implored the king, therefore, to use his strongest influence with the french government that it should strenuously intervene with the hollanders, and compel them to sign the proposal which they rejected. "there is no means of composition if france does not oblige them to sign," said albert rather piteously. but it was not without reason that barneveld had in many of his letters instructed the states' ambassador, langerac, "to caress the old gentleman" (meaning and never naming villeroy), for he would prove to be in spite of all obstacles a good friend to the states, as he always had been. and villeroy did hold firm. whether the archduke was right or not in his conviction, that, if france would only unite with england in exerting a strong pressure on the hollanders, they would evacuate the duchies, and so give up the game, the correspondence of barneveld shows very accurately. but the archduke, of course, had not seen that correspondence. the advocate knew what was plotting, what was impending, what was actually accomplished, for he was accustomed to sweep the whole horizon with an anxious and comprehensive glance. he knew without requiring to read the secret letters of the enemy that vast preparations for an extensive war against the reformation were already completed. the movements in the duchies were the first drops of a coming deluge. the great religious war which was to last a generation of mankind had already begun; the immediate and apparent pretext being a little disputed succession to some petty sovereignties, the true cause being the necessity for each great party--the protestant union and the catholic league--to secure these border provinces, the possession of which would be of such inestimable advantage to either. if nothing decisive occurred in the year , the following year would still be more convenient for the league. there had been troubles in turkey. the grand vizier had been murdered. the sultan was engaged in a war with persia. there was no eastern bulwark in europe to the ever menacing power of the turk and of mahometanism in europe save hungary alone. supported and ruled as that kingdom was by the house of austria, the temper of the populations of germany had become such as to make it doubtful in the present conflict of religious opinions between them and their rulers whether the turk or the spaniard would be most odious as an invader. but for the moment, spain and the emperor had their hands free. they were not in danger of an attack from below the danube. moreover, the spanish fleet had been achieving considerable successes on the barbary coast, having seized la roche, and one or two important citadels, useful both against the corsairs and against sudden attacks by sea from the turk. there were at least , men on a war footing ready to take the field at command of the two branches of the house of austria, spanish and german. in the little war about montserrat, savoy was on the point of being crushed, and savoy was by position and policy the only possible ally, in the south, of the netherlands and of protestant germany. while professing the most pacific sentiments towards the states, and a profound anxiety to withdraw his troops from their borders, the king of spain, besides daily increasing those forces, had just raised , , ducats, a large portion of which was lodged with his bankers in brussels. deeds like those were of more significance than sugared words. etext editor's bookmarks: almost infinite power of the meanest of passions ludicrous gravity safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured etext editor's bookmarks, entire john of barneveld - : abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour advanced orthodox party-puritans allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body almost infinite power of the meanest of passions and now the knife of another priest-led fanatic aristocracy of god's elect as with his own people, keeping no back-door open at a blow decapitated france atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty could not be both judge and party in the suit covered now with the satirical dust of centuries deadly hatred of puritans in england and holland determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt disputing the eternal damnation of young children doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense emperor of japan addressed him as his brother monarch epernon, the true murderer of henry estimating his character and judging his judges everybody should mind his own business fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge father cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required great war of religion and politics was postponed he was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin he was a sincere bigot he who would have all may easily lose all he who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants intense bigotry of conviction international friendship, the self-interest of each it was the true religion, and there was none other james of england, who admired, envied, and hated henry jealousy, that potent principle jesuit mariana--justifying the killing of excommunicated kings king's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day language which is ever living because it is dead louis xiii. ludicrous gravity more fiercely opposed to each other than to papists most detestable verses that even he had ever composed neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic no man can be neutral in civil contentions no synod had a right to claim netherlanders as slaves no man pretended to think of the state none but god to compel me to say more than i choose to say outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency philip iv. power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist practised successfully the talent of silence presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never putting the cart before the oxen queen is entirely in the hands of spain and the priests religion was made the strumpet of political ambition religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust schism in the church had become a public fact secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers senectus edam maorbus est she declined to be his procuress small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial so much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel that cynical commerce in human lives the defence of the civil authority against the priesthood the assassin, tortured and torn by four horses the truth in shortest about matters of importance the voice of slanderers the catholic league and the protestant union the vehicle is often prized more than the freight their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country theology and politics were one there was no use in holding language of authority to him there was but one king in europe, henry the bearnese therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured they have killed him, 'e ammazato,' cried concini things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful thirty years' war tread on the heels of the forty years to look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures uncouple the dogs and let them run unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration what could save the house of austria, the cause of papacy whether repentance could effect salvation whether dead infants were hopelessly damned whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant work of the aforesaid puritans and a few jesuits wrath of the jesuits at this exercise of legal authority this ebook was produced by david widger [note: there is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. d.w.] the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume life and death of john of barneveld, v , chapter xiii. ferdinand of gratz crowned king of bohemia--his enmity to protestants--slawata and martinitz thrown from the windows of the hradschin--real beginning of the thirty years' war--the elector- palatine's intrigues in opposition to the house of austria--he supports the duke of savoy--the emperor matthias visits dresden-- jubilee for the hundredth anniversary of the reformation. when the forlorn emperor rudolph had signed the permission for his brother matthias to take the last crown but one from his head, he bit the pen in a paroxysm of helpless rage. then rushing to the window of his apartment, he looked down on one of the most stately prospects that the palaces of the earth can offer. from the long monotonous architectural lines of the hradschin, imposing from its massiveness and its imperial situation, and with the dome and minarets of the cathedral clustering behind them, the eye swept across the fertile valley, through which the rapid, yellow moldau courses, to the opposite line of cliffs crested with the half imaginary fortress-palaces of the wyscherad. there, in the mythical legendary past of bohemia had dwelt the shadowy libuscha, daughter of krok, wife of king premysl, foundress of prague, who, when wearied of her lovers, was accustomed to toss them from those heights into the river. between these picturesque precipices lay the two pragues, twin-born and quarrelsome, fighting each other for centuries, and growing up side by side into a double, bellicose, stormy, and most splendid city, bristling with steeples and spires, and united by the ancient many-statued bridge with its blackened mediaeval entrance towers. but it was not to enjoy the prospect that the aged, discrowned, solitary emperor, almost as dim a figure among sovereigns as the mystic libuscha herself, was gazing from the window upon the imperial city. "ungrateful prague," he cried, "through me thou hast become thus magnificent, and now thou hast turned upon and driven away thy benefactor. may the vengeance of god descend upon thee; may my curse come upon thee and upon all bohemia." history has failed to record the special benefits of the emperor through which the city had derived its magnificence and deserved this malediction. but surely if ever an old man's curse was destined to be literally fulfilled, it seemed to be this solemn imprecation of rudolph. meantime the coronation of matthias had gone on with pomp and popular gratulations, while rudolph had withdrawn into his apartments to pass the little that was left to him of life in solitude and in a state of hopeless pique with matthias, with the rest of his brethren, with all the world. and now that five years had passed since his death, matthias, who had usurped so much power prematurely, found himself almost in the same condition as that to which he had reduced rudolph. ferdinand of styria, his cousin, trod closely upon his heels. he was the presumptive successor to all his crowns, had not approved of the movements of matthias in the lifetime of his brother, and hated the vienna protestant baker's son, cardinal clesel, by whom all those movements had been directed. professor taubmann, of wittenberg, ponderously quibbling on the name of that prelate, had said that he was of "one hundred and fifty ass power." whether that was a fair measure of his capacity may be doubted, but it certainly was not destined to be sufficient to elude the vengeance of ferdinand, and ferdinand would soon have him in his power. matthias, weary of ambitious intrigue, infirm of purpose, and shattered in health, had withdrawn from affairs to devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife, archduchess anna of tyrol, whom at the age of fifty-four he had espoused. on the th june , ferdinand of gratz was crowned king of bohemia. the event was a shock and a menace to the protestant cause all over the world. the sombre figure of the archduke had for years appeared in the background, foreshadowing as it were the wrath to come, while throughout bohemia and the neighbouring countries of moravia, silesia, and the austrias, the cause of protestantism had been making such rapid progress. the emperor maximilian ii. had left five stalwart sons, so that there had seemed little probability that the younger line, the sons of his brother, would succeed. but all the five were childless, and now the son of archduke charles, who had died in , had become the natural heir after the death of matthias to the immense family honours--his cousins maximilian and albert having resigned their claims in his favour. ferdinand, twelve years old at his father's death, had been placed under the care of his maternal uncle, duke william of bavaria. by him the boy was placed at the high school of ingolstadt, to be brought up by the jesuits, in company with duke william's own son maximilian, five years his senior. between these youths, besides the tie of cousinship, there grew up the most intimate union founded on perfect sympathy in religion and politics. when ferdinand entered upon the government of his paternal estates of styria, carinthia, and carniola, he found that the new religion, at which the jesuits had taught him to shudder as at a curse and a crime, had been widely spreading. his father had fought against heresy with all his might, and had died disappointed and broken-hearted at its progress. his uncle of bavaria, in letters to his son and nephew, had stamped into their minds with the enthusiasm of perfect conviction that all happiness and blessing for governments depended on the restoration and maintenance of the unity of the catholic faith. all the evils in times past and present resulting from religious differences had been held up to the two youths by the jesuits in the most glaring colours. the first duty of a prince, they had inculcated, was to extirpate all false religions, to give the opponents of the true church no quarter, and to think no sacrifice too great by which the salvation of human society, brought almost to perdition by the new doctrines, could be effected. never had jesuits an apter scholar than ferdinand. after leaving school, he made a pilgrimage to loretto to make his vows to the virgin mary of extirpation of heresy, and went to rome to obtain the blessing of pope clement viii. then, returning to the government of his inheritance, he seized that terrible two-edged weapon of which the protestants of germany had taught him the use. "cujus regio ejus religio;" to the prince the choice of religion, to the subject conformity with the prince, as if that formula of shallow and selfish princelings, that insult to the dignity of mankind, were the grand result of a movement which was to go on centuries after they had all been forgotten in their tombs. for the time however it was a valid and mischievous maxim. in saxony catholics and calvinists were proscribed; in heidelberg catholics and lutherans. why should either calvinists or lutherans be tolerated in styria? why, indeed? no logic could be more inexorable, and the pupil of the ingolstadt jesuits hesitated not an instant to carry out their teaching with the very instrument forged for him by the reformation. gallows were erected in the streets of all his cities, but there was no hanging. the sight of them proved enough to extort obedience to his edict, that every man, woman, and child not belonging to the ancient church should leave his dominions. they were driven out in hordes in broad daylight from gratz and other cities. rather reign over a wilderness than over heretics was the device of the archduke, in imitation of his great relative, philip ii. of spain. in short space of time his duchies were as empty of protestants as the palatinate of lutherans, or saxony of calvinists, or both of papists. even the churchyards were rifled of dead lutherans and utraquists, their carcasses thrown where they could no longer pollute the true believers mouldering by their side. it was not strange that the coronation as king of bohemia of a man of such decided purposes--a country numbering ten protestants to one catholic--should cause a thrill and a flutter. could it be doubted that the great elemental conflict so steadily prophesied by barneveld and instinctively dreaded by all capable of feeling the signs of the time would now begin? it had begun. of what avail would be majesty-letters and compromises extorted by force from trembling or indolent emperors, now that a man who knew his own mind, and felt it to be a crime not to extirpate all religions but the one orthodox religion, had mounted the throne? it is true that he had sworn at his coronation to maintain the laws of bohemia, and that the majesty-letter and the compromise were part of the laws. but when were doctors ever wanting to prove the unlawfulness of law which interferes with the purposes of a despot and the convictions of the bigot? "novus rex, nova lex," muttered the catholics, lifting up their heads and hearts once more out of the oppression and insults which they had unquestionably suffered at the hands of the triumphant reformers. "there are many empty poppy-heads now flaunting high that shall be snipped off," said others. "that accursed german count thurn and his fellows, whom the devil has sent from hell to bohemia for his own purposes, shall be disposed of now," was the general cry. it was plain that heresy could no longer be maintained except by the sword. that which had been extorted by force would be plucked back by force. the succession of ferdinand was in brief a warshout to be echoed by all the catholics of europe. before the end of the year the protestant churches of brunnau were sealed up. those at klostergrab were demolished in three days by command of the archbishop of prague. these dumb walls preached in their destruction more stirring sermons than perhaps would ever have been heard within them had they stood. this tearing in pieces of the imperial patent granting liberty of protestant worship, this summary execution done upon senseless bricks and mortar, was an act of defiance to the reformed religion everywhere. protestantism was struck in the face, spat upon, defied. the effect was instantaneous. thurn and the other defenders of the protestant faith were as prompt in action as the catholics had been in words. a few months passed away. the emperor was in vienna, but his ten stadholders were in prague. the fateful rd of may arrived. slawata, a bohemian protestant, who had converted himself to the roman church in order to marry a rich widow, and who converted his peasants by hunting them to mass with his hounds, and martinitz, the two stadholders who at ferdinand's coronation had endeavoured to prevent him from including the majesty-letter among the privileges he was swearing to support, and who were considered the real authors of the royal letters revoking all religious rights of protestants, were the most obnoxious of all. they were hurled from the council-chamber window of the hradschin. the unfortunate secretary fabricius was tossed out after them. twenty- eight ells deep they fell, and all escaped unhurt by the fall; fabricius being subsequently ennobled by a grateful emperor with the well-won title of baron summerset. the thirty years' war, which in reality had been going on for several years already, is dated from that day. a provisional government was established in prague by the estates under protestant guidance, a college of thirty directors managing affairs. the window-tumble, as the event has always been called in history, excited a sensation in europe. especially the young king of france, whose political position should bring him rather into alliance with the rebels than the emperor, was disgusted and appalled. he was used to rebellion. since he was ten years old there had been a rebellion against himself every year. there was rebellion now. but his ministers had never been thrown out of window. perhaps one might take some day to tossing out kings as well. he disapproved the process entirely. thus the great conflict of christendom, so long impending, seemed at last to have broken forth in full fury on a comparatively insignificant incident. thus reasoned the superficial public, as if the throwing out of window of twenty stadholders could have created a general war in europe had not the causes of war lain deep and deadly in the whole framework of society. the succession of ferdinand to the throne of the holy wenzel, in which his election to the german imperial crown was meant to be involved, was a matter which concerned almost every household in christendom. liberty of religion, civil franchise, political charters, contract between government and subject, right to think, speak, or act, these were the human rights everywhere in peril. a compromise between the two religious parties had existed for half a dozen years in germany, a feeble compromise by which men had hardly been kept from each others' throats. that compromise had now been thrown to the winds. the vast conspiracy of spain, rome, the house of austria, against human liberty had found a chief in the docile, gloomy pupil of the jesuits now enthroned in bohemia, and soon perhaps to wield the sceptre of the holy roman empire. there was no state in europe that had not cause to put hand on sword- hilt. "distrust and good garrisons," in the prophetic words of barneveld, would now be the necessary resource for all intending to hold what had been gained through long years of toil, martyrdom, and hard fighting, the succession of ferdinand excited especial dismay and indignation in the palatinate. the young elector had looked upon the prize as his own. the marked advance of protestant sentiment throughout the kingdom and its neighbour provinces had seemed to render the succession of an extreme papist impossible. when frederic had sued for and won the hand of the fair elizabeth, daughter of the king of great britain, it was understood that the alliance would be more brilliant for her than it seemed. james with his usual vanity spoke of his son-in-law as a future king. it was a golden dream for the elector and for the general cause of the reformed religion. heidelberg enthroned in the ancient capital of the wenzels, maximilians, and rudolphs, the catechism and confession enrolled among the great statutes of the land, this was progress far beyond flimsy majesty-letters and compromises, made only to be torn to pieces. through the dim vista of futurity and in ecstatic vision no doubt even the imperial crown might seem suspended over the palatine's head. but this would be merely a midsummer's dream. events did not whirl so rapidly as they might learn to do centuries later, and--the time for a protestant to grasp at the crown of germany could then hardly be imagined as ripening. but what the calvinist branch of the house of wittelsbach had indeed long been pursuing was to interrupt the succession of the house of austria to the german throne. that a catholic prince must for the immediate future continue to occupy it was conceded even by frederic, but the electoral votes might surely be now so manipulated as to prevent a slave of spain and a tool of the jesuits from wielding any longer the sceptre of charlemagne. on the other hand the purpose of the house of austria was to do away with the elective principle and the prescriptive rights of the estates in bohemia first, and afterwards perhaps to send the golden bull itself to the limbo of wornout constitutional devices. at present however their object was to secure their hereditary sovereignty in prague first, and then to make sure of the next imperial election at frankfurt. time afterwards might fight still more in their favour, and fix them in hereditary possession of the german throne. the elector-palatine had lost no time. his counsellors even before the coronation of ferdinand at prague had done their best to excite alarm throughout germany at the document by which archdukes maximilian and albert had resigned all their hereditary claims in favour of ferdinand and his male children. should there be no such issue, the king of spain claimed the succession for his own sons as great-grandchildren of emperor maximilian, considering himself nearer in the line than the styrian branch, but being willing to waive his own rights in favour of so ardent a catholic as ferdinand. there was even a secret negotiation going on a long time between the new king of bohemia and philip to arrange for the precedence of the spanish males over the styrian females to the hereditary austrian states, and to cede the province of alsace to spain. it was not wonderful that protestant germany should be alarmed. after a century of protestantism, that spain should by any possibility come to be enthroned again over germany was enough to raise both luther and calvin from their graves. it was certainly enough to set the lively young palatine in motion. so soon as the election of frederic was proclaimed, he had taken up the business in person. fond of amusement, young, married to a beautiful bride of the royal house of england, he had hitherto left politics to his counsellors. finding himself frustrated in his ambition by the election of another to the seat he had fondly deemed his own, he resolved to unseat him if he could, and, at any rate, to prevent the ulterior consequences of his elevation. he made a pilgrimage to sedan, to confer with that irrepressible intriguer and huguenot chieftain, the duc de bouillon. he felt sure of the countenance of the states-general, and, of course, of his near relative the great stadholder. he was resolved to invite the duke of lorraine to head the anti-austrian party, and to stand for the kingship of the romans and the empire in opposition to ferdinand. an emissary sent to nancy came back with a discouraging reply. the duke not only flatly refused the candidacy, but warned the palatine that if it really came to a struggle he could reckon on small support anywhere, not even from those who now seemed warmest for the scheme. then frederic resolved to try his cousin, the great maximilian of bavaria, to whom all catholics looked with veneration and whom all german protestants respected. had the two branches of the illustrious house of wittelsbach been combined in one purpose, the opposition to the house of austria might indeed have been formidable. but what were ties of blood compared to the iron bands of religious love and hatred? how could maximilian, sternest of papists, and frederick v., flightiest of calvinists, act harmoniously in an imperial election? moreover, maximilian was united by ties of youthful and tender friendship as well as by kindred and perfect religious sympathy to his other cousin, king ferdinand himself. the case seemed hopeless, but the elector went to munich, and held conferences with his cousin. not willing to take no for an answer so long as it was veiled under evasive or ornamental phraseology, he continued to negotiate with maximilian through his envoys camerarius and secretary neu, who held long debates with the duke's chief councillor, doctor jocher. camerarius assured jocher that his master was the hercules to untie the gordian knot, and the lion of the tribe of judah. how either the lion of judah or hercules were to untie the knot which was popularly supposed to have been cut by the sword of alexander did not appear, but maximilian at any rate was moved neither by entreaties nor tropes. being entirely averse from entering himself for the german crown, he grew weary at last of the importunity with which the scheme was urged. so he wrote a short billet to his councillor, to be shown to secretary neu. "dear jocher," he said, "i am convinced one must let these people understand the matter in a little plainer german. i am once for all determined not to let myself into any misunderstanding or even amplifications with the house of austria in regard to the succession. i think also that it would rather be harmful than useful to my house to take upon myself so heavy a burthen as the german crown." this time the german was plain enough and produced its effect. maximilian was too able a statesman and too conscientious a friend to wish to exchange his own proud position as chief of the league, acknowledged head of the great catholic party, for the slippery, comfortless, and unmeaning throne of the holy empire, which he considered ferdinand's right. the chiefs of the anti-austrian party, especially the prince of anhalt and the margrave of anspach, in unison with the heidelberg cabinet, were forced to look for another candidate. accordingly the margrave and the elector-palatine solemnly agreed that it was indispensable to choose an emperor who should not be of the house of austria nor a slave of spain. it was, to be sure, not possible to think of a protestant prince. bavaria would not oppose austria, would also allow too much influence to the jesuits. so there remained no one but the duke of savoy. he was a prince of the empire. he was of german descent, of saxon race, a great general, father of his soldiers, who would protect europe against a turkish invasion better than the bastions of vienna could do. he would be agreeable to the catholics, while the protestants could live under him without anxiety because the jesuits would be powerless with him. it would be a master-stroke if the princes would unite upon him. the king of france would necessarily be pleased with it, the king of great britain delighted. at last the model candidate had been found. the duke of savoy having just finished for a second time his chronic war with spain, in which the united provinces, notwithstanding the heavy drain on their resources, had allowed him , florins a month besides the soldiers under count ernest of nassau, had sent mansfeld with men to aid the revolted estates in bohemia. geographically, hereditarily, necessarily the deadly enemy of the house of austria, he listened favourably to the overtures made to him by the princes of the union, expressed undying hatred for the imperial race, and thought the bohemian revolt a priceless occasion for expelling them from power. he was informed by the first envoy sent to him, christopher van dohna, that the object of the great movement now contemplated was to raise him to the imperial throne at the next election, to assist the bohemian estates, to secure the crown of bohemia for the elector-palatine, to protect the protestants of germany, and to break down the overweening power of the austrian house. the duke displayed no eagerness for the crown of germany, while approving the election of frederic, but expressed entire sympathy with the enterprise. it was indispensable however to form a general federation in europe of england, the netherlands, venice, together with protestant germany and himself, before undertaking so mighty a task. while the negotiations were going on, both anspach and anhalt were in great spirits. the margrave cried out exultingly, "in a short time the means will be in our hands for turning the world upside down." he urged the prince of anhalt to be expeditious in his decisions and actions. "he who wishes to trade," he said, "must come to market early." there was some disappointment at heidelberg when the first news from turin arrived, the materials for this vast scheme for an overwhelming and universal european war not seeming to be at their disposition. by and by the duke's plans seem to deepen and broaden. he told mansfeld, who, accompanied by secretary neu, was glad at a pause in his fighting and brandschatzing in bohemia to be employed on diplomatic business, that on the whole he should require the crown of bohemia for himself. he also proposed to accept the imperial crown, and as for frederic, he would leave him the crown of hungary, and would recommend him to round himself out by adding to his hereditary dominions the province of alsace, besides upper austria and other territories in convenient proximity to the palatinate. venice, it had been hoped, would aid in the great scheme and might in her turn round herself out with friuli and istria and other tempting possessions of ferdinand, in reward for the men and money she was expected to furnish. that republic had however just concluded a war with ferdinand, caused mainly by the depredations of the piratical uscoques, in which, as we have seen, she had received the assistance of hollanders under command of count john of nassau. the venetians had achieved many successes, had taken the city of gortz, and almost reduced the city of gradiska. a certain colonel albert waldstein however, of whom more might one day be heard in the history of the war now begun, had beaten the venetians and opened a pathway through their ranks for succour to the beleaguered city. soon afterwards peace was made on an undertaking that the uscoques should be driven from their haunts, their castles dismantled, and their ships destroyed. venice declined an engagement to begin a fresh war. she hated ferdinand and matthias and the whole imperial brood, but, as old barbarigo declared in the senate, the republic could not afford to set her house on fire in order to give austria the inconvenience of the smoke. meantime, although the elector-palatine had magnanimously agreed to use his influence in bohemia in favour of charles emmanuel, the duke seems at last to have declined proposing himself for that throne. he knew, he said, that king james wished that station for his son-in-law. the imperial crown belonged to no one as yet after the death of matthias, and was open therefore to his competition. anhalt demanded of savoy , men for the maintenance of the good cause, asserting that "it would be better to have the turk or the devil himself on the german throne than leave it to ferdinand." the triumvirate ruling at prague-thurn, ruppa, and hohenlohe--were anxious for a decision from frederic. that simple-hearted and ingenuous young elector had long been troubled both with fears lest after all he might lose the crown of bohemia and with qualms of conscience as to the propriety of taking it even if he could get it. he wrestled much in prayer and devout meditation whether as anointed prince himself he were justified in meddling with the anointment of other princes. ferdinand had been accepted, proclaimed, crowned. he artlessly sent to prague to consult the estates whether they possessed the right to rebel, to set aside the reigning dynasty, and to choose a new king. at the same time, with an eye to business, he stipulated that on account of the great expense and trouble devolving upon him the crown must be made hereditary in his family. the impression made upon the grim thurn and his colleagues by the simplicity of these questions may be imagined. the splendour and width of the savoyard's conceptions fascinated the leaders of the union. it seemed to anspach and anhalt that it was as well that frederic should reign in hungary as in bohemia, and the elector was docile. all had relied however on the powerful assistance of the great defender of the protestant faith, the father-in-law of the elector, the king of great britain. but james had nothing but cold water and virgilian quotations for his son's ardour. he was more under the influence of gondemar than ever before, more eagerly hankering for the infanta, more completely the slave of spain. he pledged himself to that government that if the protestants in bohemia continued rebellious, he would do his best to frustrate their designs, and would induce his son- in-law to have no further connection with them. and spain delighted his heart not by immediately sending over the infanta, but by proposing that he should mediate between the contending parties. it would be difficult to imagine a greater farce. all central europe was now in arms. the deepest and gravest questions about which men can fight: the right to worship god according to their conscience and to maintain civil franchises which have been earned by the people with the blood and treasure of centuries, were now to be solved by the sword, and the pupil of buchanan and the friend of buckingham was to step between hundreds of thousands of men in arms with a classical oration. but james was very proud of the proposal and accepted it with alacrity. "you know, my dear son," he wrote to frederic, "that we are the only king in europe that is sought for by friend and foe for his mediation. it would be for this our lofty part very unbecoming if we were capable of favouring one of the parties. your suggestion that we might secretly support the bohemians we must totally reject, as it is not our way to do anything that we would not willingly confess to the whole world." and to do james justice, he had never fed frederic with false hopes, never given a penny for his great enterprise, nor promised him a penny. he had contented himself with suggesting from time to time that he might borrow money of the states-general. his daughter elizabeth must take care of herself, else what would become of her brother's marriage to the daughter of spain. and now it was war to the knife, in which it was impossible that holland, as well as all the other great powers should not soon be involved. it was disheartening to the cause of freedom and progress, not only that the great kingdom on which the world, had learned to rely in all movements upward and onward should be neutralized by the sycophancy of its monarch to the general oppressor, but that the great republic which so long had taken the lead in maintaining the liberties of europe should now be torn by religious discord within itself, and be turning against the great statesman who had so wisely guided her councils and so accurately foretold the catastrophe which was now upon the world. meantime the emperor matthias, not less forlorn than through his intrigues and rebellions his brother rudolph had been made, passed his days in almost as utter retirement as if he had formally abdicated. ferdinand treated him as if in his dotage. his fair young wife too had died of hard eating in the beginning of the winter to his inexpressible grief, so that there was nothing left to solace him now but the rudolphian museum. he had made but one public appearance since the coronation of ferdinand in prague. attended by his brother maximilian, by king ferdinand, and by cardinal khlesl, he had towards the end of the year paid a visit to the elector john george at dresden. the imperial party had been received with much enthusiasm by the great leader of lutheranism. the cardinal had seriously objected to accompanying the emperor on this occasion. since the reformation no cardinal had been seen at the court of saxony. he cared not personally for the pomps and glories of his rank, but still as prince of the church he had settled right of precedence over electors. to waive it would be disrespectful to the pope, to claim it would lead to squabbles. but ferdinand had need of his skill to secure the vote of saxony at the next imperial election. the cardinal was afraid of ferdinand with good reason, and complied. by an agreeable fiction he was received at court not as cardinal but as minister, and accommodated with an humble place at table. many looking on with astonishment thought he would have preferred to dine by himself in retirement. but this was not the bitterest of the mortifications that the pastor and guide of matthias was to suffer at the hands of ferdinand before his career should be closed. the visit at dresden was successful, however. john george, being a claimant, as we have seen, for the duchies of cleve and julich, had need of the emperor. the king had need of john george's vote. there was a series of splendid balls, hunting parties, carousings. the emperor was an invalid, the king was abstemious, but the elector was a mighty drinker. it was not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed. they were usually carried there. but it was the wish of ferdinand to be conciliatory, and he bore himself as well as he could at the banquet. the elector was also a mighty hunter. neither of his imperial guests cared for field sports, but they looked out contentedly from the window of a hunting-lodge, before which for their entertainment the elector and his courtiers slaughtered eight bears, ten stags, ten pigs, and eleven badgers, besides a goodly number of other game; john george shooting also three martens from a pole erected for that purpose in the courtyard. it seemed proper for him thus to exhibit a specimen of the skill for which he was justly famed. the elector before his life closed, so says the chronicle, had killed , wild boars, bears, wolves, badgers, , foxes, besides stags and roedeer in still greater number, making a grand total of , beasts. the leader of the lutheran party of germany had not lived in vain. thus the great chiefs of catholicism and of protestantism amicably disported themselves in the last days of the year, while their respective forces were marshalling for mortal combat all over christendom. the elector certainly loved neither matthias nor ferdinand, but he hated the palatine. the chief of the german calvinists disputed that protestant hegemony which john george claimed by right. indeed the immense advantage enjoyed by the catholics at the outbreak of the religious war from the mutual animosities between the two great divisions of the reformed church was already terribly manifest. what an additional power would it derive from the increased weakness of the foe, should there be still other and deeper and more deadly schisms within one great division itself! "the calvinists and lutherans," cried the jesuit scioppius, "are so furiously attacking each other with calumnies and cursings and are persecuting each other to such extent as to give good hope that the devilish weight and burthen of them will go to perdition and shame of itself, and the heretics all do bloody execution upon each other. certainly if ever a golden time existed for exterminating the heretics, it is the present time." the imperial party took their leave of dresden, believing themselves to have secured the electoral vote of saxony; the elector hoping for protection to his interests in the duchies through that sequestration to which barneveld had opposed such vigorous resistance. there had been much slavish cringing before these catholic potentates by the courtiers of dresden, somewhat amazing to the ruder churls of saxony, the common people, who really believed in the religion which their prince had selected for them and himself. and to complete the glaring contrast, ferdinand and matthias had scarcely turned their backs before tremendous fulminations upon the ancient church came from the elector and from all the doctors of theology in saxony. for the jubilee of the hundredth anniversary of the reformation was celebrated all over germany in the autumn of this very year, and nearly at the exact moment of all this dancing, and fuddling, and pig shooting at dresden in honour of emperors and cardinals. and pope paul v. had likewise ordained a jubilee for true believers at almost the same time. the elector did not mince matters in his proclamation from any regard to the feelings of his late guests. he called on all protestants to rejoice, "because the light of the holy gospel had now shone brightly in the electoral dominions for a hundred years, the omnipotent keeping it burning notwithstanding the raging and roaring of the hellish enemy and all his scaly servants." the doctors of divinity were still more emphatic in their phraseology. they called on all professors and teachers of the true evangelical churches, not only in germany but throughout christendom, to keep the great jubilee. they did this in terms not calculated certainly to smother the flames of religious and party hatred, even if it had been possible at that moment to suppress the fire. "the great god of heaven," they said, "had caused the undertaking of his holy instrument mr. doctor martin luther to prosper. through his unspeakable mercy he has driven away the papal darkness and caused the sun of righteousness once more to beam upon the world. the old idolatries, blasphemies, errors, and horrors of the benighted popedom have been exterminated in many kingdoms and countries. innumerable sheep of the lord christ have been fed on the wholesome pasture of the divine word in spite of those monstrous, tearing, ravenous wolves, the pope and his followers. the enemy of god and man, the ancient serpent, may hiss and rage. yes, the roman antichrist in his frantic blusterings may bite off his own tongue, may fulminate all kinds of evils, bans, excommunications, wars, desolations, and burnings, as long and as much as he likes. but if we take refuge with the lord god, what can this inane, worn-out man and water-bubble do to us?" with more in the same taste. the pope's bull for the catholic jubilee was far more decorous and lofty in tone, for it bewailed the general sin in christendom, and called on all believers to flee from the wrath about to descend upon the earth, in terms that were almost prophetic. he ordered all to pray that the lord might lift up his church, protect it from the wiles of the enemy, extirpate heresies, grant peace and true unity among christian princes, and mercifully avert disasters already coming near. but if the language of paul v. was measured and decent, the swarm of jesuit pamphleteers that forthwith began to buzz and to sting all over christendom were sufficiently venomous. scioppius, in his alarm trumpet to the holy war, and a hundred others declared that all heresies and heretics were now to be extirpated, the one true church to be united and re-established, and that the only road to such a consummation was a path of blood. the lutheran preachers, on the other hand, obedient to the summons from dresden, vied with each other in every town and village in heaping denunciations, foul names, and odious imputations on the catholics; while the calvinists, not to be behindhand with their fellow reformers, celebrated the jubilee, especially at heidelberg, by excluding papists from hope of salvation, and bewailing the fate of all churches sighing under the yoke of rome. and not only were the papists and the reformers exchanging these blasts and counterblasts of hatred, not less deadly in their effects than the artillery of many armies, but as if to make a thorough exhibition of human fatuity when drunk with religious passion, the lutherans were making fierce paper and pulpit war upon the calvinists. especially hoe, court preacher of john george, ceaselessly hurled savage libels against them. in the name of the theological faculty of wittenberg, he addressed a "truehearted warning to all lutheran christians in bohemia, moravia, silesia, and other provinces, to beware of the erroneous calvinistic religion." he wrote a letter to count schlick, foremost leader in the bohemian movement, asking whether "the unquiet calvinist spirit, should it gain ascendency, would be any more endurable than the papists. oh what woe, what infinite woe," he cried, "for those noble countries if they should all be thrust into the jaws of calvinism!" did not preacher hoe's master aspire to the crown of bohemia himself? was he not furious at the start which heidelberg had got of him in the race for that golden prize? was he not mad with jealousy of the palatine, of the palatine's religion, and of the palatine's claim to "hegemony" in germany? thus embittered and bloodthirsty towards each other were the two great sections of the reformed religion on the first centennial jubilee of the reformation. such was the divided front which the anti-catholic party presented at the outbreak of the war with catholicism. ferdinand, on the other hand, was at the head of a comparatively united party. he could hardly hope for more than benevolent neutrality from the french government, which, in spite of the spanish marriages, dared not wholly desert the netherlands and throw itself into the hands of spain; but spanish diplomacy had enslaved the british king, and converted what should have been an active and most powerful enemy into an efficient if concealed ally. the spanish and archiducal armies were enveloping the dutch republic, from whence the most powerful support could be expected for the protestant cause. had it not been for the steadiness of barneveld, spain would have been at that moment established in full panoply over the whole surface of those inestimable positions, the disputed duchies. venice was lukewarm, if not frigid; and savoy, although deeply pledged by passion and interest to the downfall of the house of austria, was too dangerously situated herself, too distant, too poor, and too catholic to be very formidable. ferdinand was safe from the turkish side. a twenty years' peace, renewable by agreement, between the holy empire and the sultan had been negotiated by those two sons of bakers, cardinal khlesl and the vizier etmekdschifade. it was destined to endure through all the horrors of the great war, a stronger protection to vienna than all the fortifications which the engineering art could invent. he was safe too from poland, king sigmund being not only a devoted catholic but doubly his brother-in- law. spain, therefore, the spanish netherlands, the pope, and the german league headed by maximilian of bavaria, the ablest prince on the continent of europe, presented a square, magnificent phalanx on which ferdinand might rely. the states-general, on the other hand, were a most dangerous foe. with a centennial hatred of spain, splendidly disciplined armies and foremost navy of the world, with an admirable financial system and vast commercial resources, with a great stadholder, first captain of the age, thirsting for war, and allied in blood as well as religion to the standard-bearer of the bohemian revolt; with councils directed by the wisest and most experienced of living statesman, and with the very life blood of her being derived from the fountain of civil and religious liberty, the great republic of the united netherlands--her truce with the hereditary foe just expiring was, if indeed united, strong enough at the head of the protestant forces of europe to dictate to a world in arms. alas! was it united? as regarded internal affairs of most pressing interest, the electoral vote at the next election at frankfurt had been calculated as being likely to yield a majority of one for the opposition candidate, should the savoyard or any other opposition candidate be found. but the calculation was a close one and might easily be fallacious. supposing the palatine elected king of bohemia by the rebellious estates, as was probable, he could of course give the vote of that electorate and his own against ferdinand, and the vote of brandenburg at that time seemed safe. but ferdinand by his visit to dresden had secured the vote of saxony, while of the three ecclesiastical electors, cologne and mayence were sure for him. thus it would be three and three, and the seventh and decisive vote would be that of the elector-bishop of treves. the sanguine frederic thought that with french influence and a round sum of money this ecclesiastic might be got to vote for the opposition candidate. the ingenious combination was not destined to be successful, and as there has been no intention in the present volume to do more than slightly indicate the most prominent movements and mainsprings of the great struggle so far as germany is concerned, without entering into detail, it may be as well to remind the reader that it proved wonderfully wrong. matthias died on the th march, , the election of a new emperor took place at frankfurt on the th of the following august, and not only did saxony and all three ecclesiastical electors vote for ferdinand, but brandenburg likewise, as well as the elector-palatine himself, while ferdinand, personally present in the assembly as elector of bohemia, might according to the golden bull have given the seventh vote for himself had he chosen to do so. thus the election was unanimous. strange to say, as the electors proceeded through the crowd from the hall of election to accompany the new emperor to the church where he was to receive the popular acclaim, the news reached them from prague that the elector-palatine had been elected king of bohemia. thus frederic, by voting for ferdinand, had made himself voluntarily a rebel should he accept the crown now offered him. had the news arrived sooner, a different result and even a different history might have been possible. chapter xiv. barneveld connected with the east india company, but opposed to the west india company--carleton comes from venice inimical to barneveld-- maurice openly the chieftain of the contra-remonstrants--tumults about the churches--"orange or spain" the cry of prince maurice and his party--they take possession of the cloister church--"the sharp resolve"--carleton's orations before the states-general. king james never forgave barneveld for drawing from him those famous letters to the states in which he was made to approve the five points and to admit the possibility of salvation under them. these epistles had brought much ridicule upon james, who was not amused by finding his theological discussions a laughing-stock. he was still more incensed by the biting criticisms made upon the cheap surrender of the cautionary towns, and he hated more than ever the statesman who, as he believed, had twice outwitted him. on the other hand, maurice, inspired by his brother-in-law the duke of bouillon and by the infuriated francis aerssens, abhorred barneveld's french policy, which was freely denounced by the french calvinists and by the whole orthodox church. in holland he was still warmly sustained except in the contra-remonstrant amsterdam and a few other cities of less importance. but there were perhaps deeper reasons for the advocate's unpopularity in the great commercial metropolis than theological pretexts. barneveld's name and interests were identified with the great east india company, which was now powerful and prosperous beyond anything ever dreamt of before in the annals of commerce. that trading company had already founded an empire in the east. fifty ships of war, fortresses guarded by pieces of artillery and , soldiers and sailors, obeyed the orders of a dozen private gentlemen at home seated in a back parlour around a green table. the profits of each trading voyage were enormous, and the shareholders were growing rich beyond their wildest imaginings. to no individual so much as to holland's advocate was this unexampled success to be ascribed. the vast prosperity of the east india company had inspired others with the ambition to found a similar enterprise in the west. but to the west india company then projected and especially favoured in amsterdam, barneveld was firmly opposed. he considered it as bound up with the spirit of military adventure and conquest, and as likely to bring on prematurely and unwisely a renewed conflict with spain. the same reasons which had caused him to urge the truce now influenced his position in regard to the west india company. thus the clouds were gathering every day more darkly over the head of the advocate. the powerful mercantile interest in the great seat of traffic in the republic, the personal animosity of the stadholder, the execrations of the orthodox party in france, england, and all the netherlands, the anger of the french princes and all those of the old huguenot party who had been foolish enough to act with the princes in their purely selfish schemes against the, government, and the overflowing hatred of king james, whose darling schemes of spanish marriages and a spanish alliance had been foiled by the advocate's masterly policy in france and in the duchies, and whose resentment at having been so completely worsted and disarmed in the predestination matter and in the redemption of the great mortgage had deepened into as terrible wrath as outraged bigotry and vanity could engender; all these elements made up a stormy atmosphere in which the strongest heart might have quailed. but barneveld did not quail. doubtless he loved power, and the more danger he found on every side the less inclined he was to succumb. but he honestly believed that the safety and prosperity of the country he had so long and faithfully served were identified with the policy which he was pursuing. arrogant, overbearing, self-concentrated, accustomed to lead senates and to guide the councils and share the secrets of kings, familiar with and almost an actor in every event in the political history not only of his own country but of every important state in christendom during nearly two generations of mankind, of unmatched industry, full of years and experience, yet feeling within him the youthful strength of a thousand intellects compared to most of those by which he was calumniated, confronted, and harassed; he accepted the great fight which was forced upon him. irascible, courageous, austere, contemptuous, he looked around and saw the republic whose cradle he had rocked grown to be one of the most powerful and prosperous among the states of the world, and could with difficulty imagine that in this supreme hour of her strength and her felicity she was ready to turn and rend the man whom she was bound by every tie of duty to cherish and to revere. sir dudley carleton, the new english ambassador to the states, had arrived during the past year red-hot from venice. there he had perhaps not learned especially to love the new republic which had arisen among the northern lagunes, and whose admission among the nations had been at last accorded by the proud queen of the adriatic, notwithstanding the objections and the intrigues both of french and english representatives. he had come charged to the brim with the political spite of james against the advocate, and provided too with more than seven vials of theological wrath. such was the king's revenge for barneveld's recent successes. the supporters in the netherlands of the civil authority over the church were moreover to be instructed by the political head of the english church that such supremacy, although highly proper for a king, was "thoroughly unsuitable for a many-headed republic." so much for church government. as for doctrine, arminianism and vorstianism were to be blasted with one thunderstroke from the british throne. "in holland," said james to his envoy, "there have been violent and sharp contestations amongst the towns in the cause of religion . . . . . if they shall be unhappily revived during your time, you shall not forget that you are the minister of that master whom god hath made the sole protector of his religion." there was to be no misunderstanding in future as to the dogmas which the royal pope of great britain meant to prescribe to his netherland subjects. three years before, at the dictation of the advocate, he had informed the states that he was convinced of their ability to settle the deplorable dissensions as to religion according to their wisdom and the power which belonged to them over churches and church servants. he had informed them of his having learned by experience that such questions could hardly be decided by the wranglings of theological professors, and that it was better to settle them by public authority and to forbid their being brought into the pulpit or among common people. he had recommended mutual toleration of religious difference until otherwise ordained by the public civil authority, and had declared that neither of the two opinions in regard to predestination was in his opinion far from the truth or inconsistent with christian faith or the salvation of souls. it was no wonder that these utterances were quite after the advocate's heart, as james had faithfully copied them from the advocate's draft. but now in the exercise of his infallibility the king issued other decrees. his minister was instructed to support the extreme views of the orthodox both as to government and dogma, and to urge the national synod, as it were, at push of pike. "besides the assistance," said he to carleton, "which we would have you give to the true professors of the gospel in your discourse and conferences, you may let fall how hateful the maintenance of these erroneous opinions is to the majesty of god, how displeasing unto us their dearest friends, and how disgraceful to the honour and government of that state." and faithfully did the ambassador act up to his instructions. most sympathetically did he embody the hatred of the king. an able, experienced, highly accomplished diplomatist and scholar, ready with tongue and pen, caustic, censorious, prejudiced, and partial, he was soon foremost among the foes of the advocate in the little court of the hague, and prepared at any moment to flourish the political and theological goad when his master gave the word. nothing in diplomatic history is more eccentric than the long sermons upon abstruse points of divinity and ecclesiastical history which the english ambassador delivered from time to time before the states-general in accordance with elaborate instructions drawn up by his sovereign with his own hand. rarely has a king been more tedious, and he bestowed all his tediousness upon my lords the states-general. nothing could be more dismal than these discourses, except perhaps the contemporaneous and interminable orations of grotius to the states of holland, to the magistrates of amsterdam, to the states of utrecht; yet carleton was a man of the world, a good debater, a ready writer, while hugo grotius was one of the great lights of that age and which shone for all time. among the diplomatic controversies of history, rarely refreshing at best, few have been more drouthy than those once famous disquisitions, and they shall be left to shrivel into the nothingness of the past, so far as is consistent with the absolute necessities of this narrative. the contest to which the advocate was called had become mainly a personal and a political one, although the weapons with which it was fought were taken from ecclesiastical arsenals. it was now an unequal contest. for the great captain of the country and of his time, the son of william the silent, the martial stadholder, in the fulness of his fame and vigour of his years, had now openly taken his place as the chieftain of the contra-remonstrants. the conflict between the civil and the military element for supremacy in a free commonwealth has never been more vividly typified than in this death-grapple between maurice and barneveld. the aged but still vigorous statesman, ripe with half a century of political lore, and the high-born, brilliant, and scientific soldier, with the laurels of turnhout and nieuwpoort and of a hundred famous sieges upon his helmet, reformer of military science, and no mean proficient in the art of politics and government, were the representatives and leaders of the two great parties into which the commonwealth had now unhappily divided itself. but all history shows that the brilliant soldier of a republic is apt to have the advantage, in a struggle for popular affection and popular applause, over the statesman, however consummate. the general imagination is more excited by the triumphs of the field than by those of the tribune, and the man who has passed many years of life in commanding multitudes with necessarily despotic sway is often supposed to have gained in the process the attributes likely to render him most valuable as chief citizen of a flee commonwealth. yet national enthusiasm is so universally excited by splendid military service as to forbid a doubt that the sentiment is rooted deeply in our nature, while both in antiquity and in modern times there are noble although rare examples of the successful soldier converting himself into a valuable and exemplary magistrate. in the rivalry of maurice and barneveld however for the national affection the chances were singularly against the advocate. the great battles and sieges of the prince had been on a world's theatre, had enchained the attention of christendom, and on their issue had frequently depended, or seemed to depend, the very existence of the nation. the labours of the statesman, on the contrary, had been comparatively secret. his noble orations and arguments had been spoken with closed doors to assemblies of colleagues--rather envoys than senators--were never printed or even reported, and could be judged of only by their effects; while his vast labours in directing both the internal administration and especially the foreign affairs of the commonwealth had been by their very nature as secret as they were perpetual and enormous. moreover, there was little of what we now understand as the democratic sentiment in the netherlands. there was deep and sturdy attachment to ancient traditions, privileges, special constitutions extorted from a power acknowledged to be superior to the people. when partly to save those chartered rights, and partly to overthrow the horrible ecclesiastical tyranny of the sixteenth century, the people had accomplished a successful revolt, they never dreamt of popular sovereignty, but allowed the municipal corporations, by which their local affairs had been for centuries transacted, to unite in offering to foreign princes, one after another, the crown which they had torn from the head of the spanish king. when none was found to accept the dangerous honour, they had acquiesced in the practical sovereignty of the states; but whether the states-general or the states-provincial were the supreme authority had certainly not been definitely and categorically settled. so long as the states of holland, led by the advocate, had controlled in great matters the political action of the states-general, while the stadholder stood without a rival at the head of their military affairs, and so long as there were no fierce disputes as to government and dogma within the bosom of the reformed church, the questions which were now inflaming the whole population had been allowed to slumber. the termination of the war and the rise of arminianism were almost contemporaneous. the stadholder, who so unwillingly had seen the occupation in which he had won so much glory taken from him by the truce, might perhaps find less congenial but sufficiently engrossing business as champion of the church and of the union. the new church--not freedom of worship for different denominations of christians, but supremacy of the church of heidelberg and geneva--seemed likely to be the result of the overthrow of the ancient church. it is the essence of the catholic church to claim supremacy over and immunity from the civil authority, and to this claim for the reformed church, by which that of rome had been supplanted, barneveld was strenuously opposed. the stadholder was backed, therefore, by the church in its purity, by the majority of the humbler classes--who found in membership of the oligarchy of heaven a substitute for those democratic aspirations on earth which were effectually suppressed between the two millstones of burgher aristocracy and military discipline--and by the states-general, a majority of which were contra-remonstrant in their faith. if the sword is usually an overmatch for the long robe in political struggles, the cassock has often proved superior to both combined. but in the case now occupying our attention the cassock was in alliance with the sword. clearly the contest was becoming a desperate one for the statesman. and while the controversy between the chiefs waged hotter and hotter, the tumults around the churches on sundays in every town and village grew more and more furious, ending generally in open fights with knives, bludgeons, and brickbats; preachers and magistrates being often too glad to escape with a whole skin. one can hardly be ingenuous enough to consider all this dirking, battering, and fisticuffing as the legitimate and healthy outcome of a difference as to the knotty point whether all men might or might not be saved by repentance and faith in christ. the greens and blues of the byzantine circus had not been more typical of fierce party warfare in the lower empire than the greens and blues of predestination in the rising commonwealth, according to the real or imagined epigram of prince maurice. "your divisions in religion," wrote secretary lake to carleton, "have, i doubt not, a deeper root than is discerned by every one, and i doubt not that the prince maurice's carriage doth make a jealousy of affecting a party under the pretence of supporting one side, and that the states fear his ends and aims, knowing his power with the men of war; and that howsoever all be shadowed under the name of religion there is on either part a civil end, of the one seeking a step of higher authority, of the other a preservation of liberty." and in addition to other advantages the contra-remonstrants had now got a good cry--an inestimable privilege in party contests. "there are two factions in the land," said maurice, "that of orange and that of spain, and the two chiefs of the spanish faction are those political and priestly arminians, uytenbogaert and oldenbarneveld." orange and spain! the one name associated with all that was most venerated and beloved throughout the country, for william the silent since his death was almost a god; the other ineradicably entwined at that moment with, everything execrated throughout the land. the prince of orange's claim to be head of the orange faction could hardly be disputed, but it was a master stroke of political malice to fix the stigma of spanish partisanship on the advocate. if the venerable patriot who had been fighting spain, sometimes on the battle-field and always in the council, ever since he came to man's estate, could be imagined even in a dream capable of being bought with spanish gold to betray his country, who in the ranks of the remonstrant party could be safe from such accusations? each party accused the other of designs for altering or subverting the government. maurice was suspected of what were called leicestrian projects, "leycestrana consilia"--for the earl's plots to gain possession of leyden and utrecht had never been forgotten--while the prince and those who acted with him asserted distinctly that it was the purpose of barneveld to pave the way for restoring the spanish sovereignty and the popish religion so soon as the truce had reached its end? spain and orange. nothing for a faction fight could be neater. moreover the two words rhyme in netherlandish, which is the case in no other language, "spanje-oranje." the sword was drawn and the banner unfurled. the "mud beggars" of the hague, tired of tramping to ryswyk of a sunday to listen to henry rosaeus, determined on a private conventicle in the capital. the first barn selected was sealed up by the authorities, but epoch much, book-keeper of prince maurice, then lent them his house. the prince declared that sooner than they should want a place of assembling he would give them his own. but he meant that they should have a public church to themselves, and that very soon. king james thoroughly approved of all these proceedings. at that very instant such of his own subjects as had seceded from the established church to hold conventicles in barns and breweries and backshops in london were hunted by him with bishops' pursuivants and other beagles like vilest criminals, thrown into prison to rot, or suffered to escape from their fatherland into the trans- atlantic wilderness, there to battle with wild beasts and savages, and to die without knowing themselves the fathers of a more powerful united states than the dutch republic, where they were fain to seek in passing a temporary shelter. he none the less instructed his envoy at the hague to preach the selfsame doctrines for which the new england puritans were persecuted, and importunately and dictatorially to plead the cause of those hollanders who, like bradford and robinson, winthrop and cotton, maintained the independence of the church over the state. logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves, and puritanism in the netherlands, although under temporary disadvantage at the hague, was evidently the party destined to triumph throughout the country. james could safely sympathize therefore in holland with what he most loathed in england, and could at the same time feed fat the grudge he owed the advocate. the calculations of barneveld as to the respective political forces of the commonwealth seem to have been to a certain extent defective. he allowed probably too much weight to the catholic party as a motive power at that moment, and he was anxious both from that consideration and from his honest natural instinct for general toleration; his own broad and unbigoted views in religious matters, not to force that party into a rebellious attitude dangerous to the state. we have seen how nearly a mutiny in the important city of utrecht, set on foot by certain romanist conspirators in the years immediately succeeding the truce, had subverted the government, had excited much anxiety amongst the firmest allies of the republic, and had been suppressed only by the decision of the advocate and a show of military force. he had informed carleton not long after his arrival that in the united provinces, and in holland in particular, were many sects and religions of which, according to his expression, "the healthiest and the richest part were the papists, while the protestants did not make up one-third part of the inhabitants." certainly, if these statistics were correct or nearly correct, there could be nothing more stupid from a purely political point of view than to exasperate so influential a portion of the community to madness and rebellion by refusing them all rights of public worship. yet because the advocate had uniformly recommended indulgence, he had incurred more odium at home than from any other cause. of course he was a papist in disguise, ready to sell his country to spain, because he was willing that more than half the population of the country should be allowed to worship god according to their conscience. surely it would be wrong to judge the condition of things at that epoch by the lights of to-day, and perhaps in the netherlands there had before been no conspicuous personage, save william the silent alone, who had risen to the height of toleration on which the advocate essayed to stand. other leading politicians considered that the national liberties could be preserved only by retaining the catholics in complete subjection. at any rate the advocate was profoundly convinced of the necessity of maintaining harmony and mutual toleration among the protestants themselves, who, as he said, made up but one-third of the whole people. in conversing with the english ambassador he divided them into "puritans and double puritans," as they would be called, he said, in england. if these should be at variance with each other, he argued, the papists would be the strongest of all. "to prevent this inconvenience," he said, "the states were endeavouring to settle some certain form of government in the church; which being composed of divers persecuted churches such as in the beginning of the wars had their refuge here, that which during the wars could not be so well done they now thought seasonable for a time of truce; and therefore would show their authority in preventing the schism of the church which would follow the separation of those they call remonstrants and contra-remonstrants." there being no word so offensive to carleton's sovereign as the word puritan, the ambassador did his best to persuade the advocate that a puritan in holland was a very different thing from a puritan in england. in england he was a noxious vermin, to be hunted with dogs. in the netherlands he was the governing power. but his arguments were vapourous enough and made little impression on barneveld. "he would no ways yield," said sir dudley. meantime the contra-remonstrants of the hague, not finding sufficient accommodation in enoch much's house, clamoured loudly for the use of a church. it was answered by the city magistrates that two of their persuasion, la motte and la faille, preached regularly in the great church, and that rosaeus had been silenced only because he refused to hold communion with uytenbogaert. maurice insisted that a separate church should be assigned them. "but this is open schism," said uytenbogaert. early in the year there was a meeting of the holland delegation to the states-general, of the state council, and of the magistracy of the hague, of deputies from the tribunals, and of all the nobles resident in the capital. they sent for maurice and asked his opinion as to the alarming situation of affairs. he called for the register-books of the states of holland, and turning back to the pages on which was recorded his accession to the stadholderate soon after his father's murder, ordered the oath then exchanged between himself and the states to be read aloud. that oath bound them mutually to support the reformed religion till the last drop of blood in their veins. "that oath i mean to keep," said the stadholder, "so long as i live." no one disputed the obligation of all parties to maintain the reformed religion. but the question was whether the five points were inconsistent with the reformed religion. the contrary was clamorously maintained by most of those present: in the year this difference in dogma had not arisen, and as the large majority of the people at the hague, including nearly all those of rank and substance, were of the remonstrant persuasion, they naturally found it not agreeable to be sent out of the church by a small minority. but maurice chose to settle the question very summarily. his father had been raised to power by the strict calvinists, and he meant to stand by those who had always sustained william the silent. "for this religion my father lost his life, and this religion will i defend," said he. "you hold then," said barneveld, "that the almighty has created one child for damnation and another for salvation, and you wish this doctrine to be publicly preached." "did you ever hear any one preach that?" replied the prince. "if they don't preach it, it is their inmost conviction," said the other. and he proceeded to prove his position by copious citations. "and suppose our ministers do preach this doctrine, is there anything strange in it, any reason why they should not do so?" the advocate expressed his amazement and horror at the idea. "but does not god know from all eternity who is to be saved and who to be damned; and does he create men for any other end than that to which he from eternity knows they will come?" and so they enclosed themselves in the eternal circle out of which it was not probable that either the soldier or the statesman would soon find an issue. "i am no theologian," said barneveld at last, breaking off the discussion. "neither am i," said the stadholder. "so let the parsons come together. let the synod assemble and decide the question. thus we shall get out of all this." next day a deputation of the secessionists waited by appointment on prince maurice. they found him in the ancient mediaeval hall of the sovereign counts of holland, and seated on their old chair of state. he recommended them to use caution and moderation for the present, and to go next sunday once more to ryswyk. afterwards he pledged himself that they should have a church at the hague, and, if necessary, the great church itself. but the great church, although a very considerable catholic cathedral before the reformation, was not big enough now to hold both henry rosaeus and john uytenbogaert. those two eloquent, learned, and most pugnacious divines were the respective champions in the pulpit of the opposing parties, as were the advocate and the stadholder in the council. and there was as bitter personal rivalry between the two as between the soldier and statesman. "the factions begin to divide themselves," said carleton, "betwixt his excellency and monsieur barneveld as heads who join to this present difference their ancient quarrels. and the schism rests actually between uytenbogaert and rosaeus, whose private emulation and envy (both being much applauded and followed) doth no good towards the public pacification." uytenbogaert repeatedly offered, however, to resign his functions and to leave the hague. "he was always ready to play the jonah," he said. a temporary arrangement was made soon afterwards by which rosaeus and his congregation should have the use of what was called the gasthuis kerk, then appropriated to the english embassy. carleton of course gave his consent most willingly. the prince declared that the states of holland and the city magistracy had personally affronted him by the obstacles they had interposed to the public worship of the contra-remonstrants. with their cause he had now thoroughly identified himself. the hostility between the representatives of the civil and military authority waxed fiercer every hour. the tumults were more terrible than ever. plainly there was no room in the commonwealth for the advocate and the stadholder. some impartial persons believed that there would be no peace until both were got rid of. "there are many words among this free- spoken people," said carleton, "that to end these differences they must follow the example of france in marshal d'ancre's case, and take off the heads of both chiefs." but these decided persons were in a small minority. meantime the states of holland met in full assembly; sixty delegates being present. it was proposed to invite his excellency to take part in the deliberations. a committee which had waited upon him the day before had reported him as in favour of moderate rather than harsh measures in the church affair, while maintaining his plighted word to the seceders. barneveld stoutly opposed the motion. "what need had the sovereign states of holland of advice from a stadholder, from their servant, their functionary?" he cried. but the majority for once thought otherwise. the prince was invited to come. the deliberations were moderate but inconclusive. he appeared again at an adjourned meeting when the councils were not so harmonious. barneveld, grotius, and other eloquent speakers endeavoured to point out that the refusal of the seceders to hold communion with the remonstrant preachers and to insist on a separation was fast driving the state to perdition. they warmly recommended mutual toleration and harmony. grotius exhausted learning and rhetoric to prove that the five points were not inconsistent with salvation nor with the constitution of the united provinces. the stadholder grew impatient at last and clapped his hand on his rapier. "no need here," he said, "of flowery orations and learned arguments. with this good sword i will defend the religion which my father planted in these provinces, and i should like to see the man who is going to prevent me!" the words had an heroic ring in the ears of such as are ever ready to applaud brute force, especially when wielded by a prince. the argumentum ad ensem, however, was the last plea that william the silent would have been likely to employ on such an occasion, nor would it have been easy to prove that the reformed religion had been "planted" by one who had drawn the sword against the foreign tyrant, and had made vast sacrifices for his country's independence years before abjuring communion with the roman catholic church. when swords are handled by the executive in presence of civil assemblies there is usually but one issue to be expected. moreover, three whales had recently been stranded at scheveningen, one of them more than sixty feet long, and men wagged their beards gravely as they spoke of the event, deeming it a certain presage of civil commotions. it was remembered that at the outbreak of the great war two whales had been washed ashore in the scheldt. although some free-thinking people were inclined to ascribe the phenomenon to a prevalence of strong westerly gales, while others found proof in it of a superabundance of those creatures in the polar seas, which should rather give encouragement to the dutch and zealand fisheries, it is probable that quite as dark forebodings of coming disaster were caused by this accident as by the trumpet-like defiance which the stadholder had just delivered to the states of holland. meantime the seceding congregation of the hague had become wearied of the english or gasthuis church, and another and larger one had been promised them. this was an ancient convent on one of the principal streets of the town, now used as a cannon-foundry. the prince personally superintended the preparations for getting ready this place of worship, which was thenceforth called the cloister church. but delays were, as the contra- remonstrants believed, purposely interposed, so that it was nearly midsummer before there were any signs of the church being fit for use. they hastened accordingly to carry it, as it were, by assault. not wishing peaceably to accept as a boon from the civil authority what they claimed as an indefeasible right, they suddenly took possession one sunday night of the cloister church. it was in a state of utter confusion--part monastery, part foundry, part conventicle. there were few seats, no altar, no communion-table, hardly any sacramental furniture, but a pulpit was extemporized. rosaeus preached in triumph to an enthusiastic congregation, and three children were baptized with the significant names of william, maurice, and henry. on the following monday there was a striking scene on the voorhout. this most beautiful street of a beautiful city was a broad avenue, shaded by a quadruple row of limetrees, reaching out into the thick forest of secular oaks and beeches--swarming with fallow-deer and alive with the notes of singing birds--by which the hague, almost from time immemorial, has been embowered. the ancient cloisterhouse and church now reconverted to religious uses--was a plain, rather insipid structure of red brick picked out with white stone, presenting three symmetrical gables to the street, with a slender belfry and spire rising in the rear. nearly adjoining it on the north-western side was the elegant and commodious mansion of barneveld, purchased by him from the representatives of the arenberg family, surrounded by shrubberies and flower-gardens; not a palace, but a dignified and becoming abode for the first citizen of a powerful republic. on that midsummer's morning it might well seem that, in rescuing the old cloister from the military purposes to which it had for years been devoted, men had given an even more belligerent aspect to the scene than if it had been left as a foundry. the miscellaneous pieces of artillery and other fire-arms lying about, with piles of cannon-ball which there had not been time to remove, were hardly less belligerent and threatening of aspect than the stern faces of the crowd occupied in thoroughly preparing the house for its solemn destination. it was determined that there should be accommodation on the next sunday for all who came to the service. an army of carpenters, joiners, glaziers, and other workmen- assisted by a mob of citizens of all ranks and ages, men and women, gentle and simple were busily engaged in bringing planks and benches; working with plane, adze, hammer and saw, trowel and shovel, to complete the work. on the next sunday the prince attended public worship for the last time at the great church under the ministration of uytenbogaert. he was infuriated with the sermon, in which the bold remonstrant bitterly inveighed against the proposition for a national synod. to oppose that measure publicly in the very face of the stadholder, who now considered himself as the synod personified, seemed to him flat blasphemy. coming out of the church with his step-mother, the widowed louise de coligny, princess of orange, he denounced the man in unmeasured terms. "he is the enemy of god," said maurice. at least from that time forth, and indeed for a year before, maurice was the enemy of the preacher. on the following sunday, july , maurice went in solemn state to the divine service at the cloister church now thoroughly organized. he was accompanied by his cousin, the famous count william lewis of nassau, stadholder of friesland, who had never concealed his warm sympathy with the contra-remonstrants, and by all the chief officers of his household and members of his staff. it was an imposing demonstration and meant for one. as the martial stadholder at the head of his brilliant cavalcade rode forth across the drawbridge from the inner court of the old moated palace--where the ancient sovereign dirks and florences of holland had so long ruled their stout little principality--along the shady and stately kneuterdyk and so through the voorhout, an immense crowd thronged around his path and accompanied him to the church. it was as if the great soldier were marching to siege or battle-field where fresher glories than those of sluys or geertruidenberg were awaiting him. the train passed by barneveld's house and entered the cloister. more than four thousand persons were present at the service or crowded around the doors vainly attempting to gain admission into the overflowing aisles; while the great church was left comparatively empty, a few hundred only worshipping there. the cloister church was thenceforth called the prince's church, and a great revolution was beginning even in the hague. the advocate was wroth as he saw the procession graced by the two stadholders and their military attendants. he knew that he was now to bow his head to the church thus championed by the chief personage and captain-general of the state, to renounce his dreams of religious toleration, to sink from his post of supreme civic ruler, or to accept an unequal struggle in which he might utterly succumb. but his iron nature would break sooner than bend. in the first transports of his indignation he is said to have vowed vengeance against the immediate instruments by which the cloister church had, as he conceived, been surreptitiously and feloniously seized. he meant to strike a blow which should startle the whole population of the hague, send a thrill of horror through the country, and teach men to beware how they trifled with the sovereign states of holland, whose authority had so long been undisputed, and with him their chief functionary. he resolved--so ran the tale of the preacher trigland, who told it to prince maurice, and has preserved it in his chronicle--to cause to be seized at midnight from their beds four men whom he considered the ringleaders in this mutiny, to have them taken to the place of execution on the square in the midst of the city, to have their heads cut off at once by warrant from the chief tribunal without any previous warning, and then to summon all the citizens at dawn of day, by ringing of bells and firing of cannon, to gaze on the ghastly spectacle, and teach them to what fate this pestilential schism and revolt against authority had brought its humble tools. the victims were to be enoch much, the prince's book-keeper, and three others, an attorney, an engraver, and an apothecary, all of course of the contra-remonstrant persuasion. it was necessary, said the advocate, to make once for all an example, and show that there was a government in the land. he had reckoned on a ready adhesion to this measure and a sentence from the tribunal through the influence of his son-in-law, the seignior van veenhuyzen, who was president of the chief court. his attempt was foiled however by the stern opposition of two zealand members of the court, who managed to bring up from a bed of sickness, where he had long been lying, a holland councillor whom they knew to be likewise opposed to the fierce measure, and thus defeated it by a majority of one. such is the story as told by contemporaries and repeated from that day to this. it is hardly necessary to say that barneveld calmly denied having conceived or even heard of the scheme. that men could go about looking each other in the face and rehearsing such gibberish would seem sufficiently dispiriting did we not know to what depths of credulity men in all ages can sink when possessed by the demon of party malice. if it had been narrated on the exchange at amsterdam or flushing during that portentous midsummer that barneveld had not only beheaded but roasted alive, and fed the dogs and cats upon the attorney, the apothecary, and the engraver, there would have been citizens in plenty to devour the news with avidity. but although the advocate had never imagined such extravagances as these, it is certain that he had now resolved upon very bold measures, and that too without an instant's delay. he suspected the prince of aiming at sovereignty not only over holland but over all the provinces and to be using the synod as a principal part of his machinery. the gauntlet was thrown down by the stadholder, and the advocate lifted it at once. the issue of the struggle would depend upon the political colour of the town magistracies. barneveld instinctively felt that maurice, being now resolved that the synod should be held, would lose no time in making a revolution in all the towns through the power he held or could plausibly usurp. such a course would, in his opinion, lead directly to an unconstitutional and violent subversion of the sovereign rights of each province, to the advantage of the central government. a religious creed would be forced upon holland and perhaps upon two other provinces which was repugnant to a considerable majority of the people. and this would be done by a majority vote of the states-general, on a matter over which, by the th article of the fundamental compact--the union of utrecht-- the states-general had no control, each province having reserved the disposition of religious affairs to itself. for let it never be forgotten that the union of the netherlands was a compact, a treaty, an agreement between sovereign states. there was no pretence that it was an incorporation, that the people had laid down a constitution, an organic law. the people were never consulted, did not exist, had not for political purposes been invented. it was the great primal defect of their institutions, but the netherlanders would have been centuries before their age had they been able to remedy that defect. yet the netherlanders would have been much behind even that age of bigotry had they admitted the possibility in a free commonwealth, of that most sacred and important of all subjects that concern humanity, religious creed--the relation of man to his maker--to be regulated by the party vote of a political board. it was with no thought of treason in his heart or his head therefore that the advocate now resolved that the states of holland and the cities of which that college was composed should protect their liberties and privileges, the sum of which in his opinion made up the sovereignty of the province he served, and that they should protect them, if necessary, by force. force was apprehended. it should be met by force. to be forewarned was to be forearmed. barneveld forewarned the states of holland. on the th august , he proposed to that assembly a resolution which was destined to become famous. a majority accepted it after brief debate. it was to this effect. the states having seen what had befallen in many cities, and especially in the hague, against the order, liberties, and laws of the land, and having in vain attempted to bring into harmony with the states certain cities which refused to co-operate with the majority, had at last resolved to refuse the national synod, as conflicting with the sovereignty and laws of holland. they had thought good to set forth in public print their views as to religious worship, and to take measures to prevent all deeds of violence against persons and property. to this end the regents of cities were authorized in case of need, until otherwise ordained, to enrol men-at-arms for their security and prevention of violence. furthermore, every one that might complain of what the regents of cities by strength of this resolution might do was ordered to have recourse to no one else than the states of holland, as no account would be made of anything that might be done or undertaken by the tribunals. finally, it was resolved to send a deputation to prince maurice, the princess-widow, and prince henry, requesting them to aid in carrying out this resolution. thus the deed was done. the sword was drawn. it was drawn in self- defence and in deliberate answer to the stadholder's defiance when he rapped his sword hilt in face of the assembly, but still it was drawn. the states of holland were declared sovereign and supreme. the national synod was peremptorily rejected. any decision of the supreme courts of the union in regard to the subject of this resolution was nullified in advance. thenceforth this measure of the th august was called the "sharp resolve." it might prove perhaps to be double-edged. it was a stroke of grim sarcasm on the part of the advocate thus solemnly to invite the stadholder's aid in carrying out a law which was aimed directly at his head; to request his help for those who meant to defeat with the armed hand that national synod which he had pledged himself to bring about. the question now arose what sort of men-at-arms it would be well for the city governments to enlist. the officers of the regular garrisons had received distinct orders from prince maurice as their military superior to refuse any summons to act in matters proceeding from the religious question. the prince, who had chief authority over all the regular troops, had given notice that he would permit nothing to be done against "those of the reformed religion," by which he meant the contra- remonstrants and them only. in some cities there were no garrisons, but only train-bands. but the train bands (schutters) could not be relied on to carry out the sharp resolve, for they were almost to a man contra-remonstrants. it was therefore determined to enlist what were called "waartgelders;" soldiers, inhabitants of the place, who held themselves ready to serve in time of need in consideration of a certain wage; mercenaries in short. this resolution was followed as a matter of course by a solemn protest from amsterdam and the five cities who acted with her. on the same day maurice was duly notified of the passage of the law. his wrath was great. high words passed between him and the deputies. it could hardly have been otherwise expected. next-day he came before the assembly to express his sentiments, to complain of the rudeness with which the resolution of th august had been communicated to him, and to demand further explanations. forthwith the advocate proceeded to set forth the intentions of the states, and demanded that the prince should assist the magistrates in carrying out the policy decided upon. reinier pauw, burgomaster of amsterdam, fiercely interrupted the oration of barneveld, saying that although these might be his views, they were not to be held by his excellency as the opinions of all. the advocate, angry at the interruption, answered him sternly, and a violent altercation, not unmixed with personalities, arose. maurice, who kept his temper admirably on this occasion, interfered between the two and had much difficulty in quieting the dispute. he then observed that when he took the oath as stadholder these unfortunate differences had not arisen, but all had been good friends together. this was perfectly true, but he could have added that they might all continue good friends unless the plan of imposing a religious creed upon the minority by a clerical decision were persisted in. he concluded that for love of one of the two great parties he would not violate the oath he had taken to maintain the reformed religion to the last drop of his blood. still, with the same 'petitio principii' that the reformed religion and the dogmas of the contra-remonstrants were one and the same thing, he assured the assembly that the authority of the magistrates would be sustained by him so long as it did not lead to the subversion of religion. clearly the time for argument had passed. as dudley carleton observed, men had been disputing 'pro aris' long enough. they would soon be fighting 'pro focis.' in pursuance of the policy laid down by the sharp resolution, the states proceeded to assure themselves of the various cities of the province by means of waartgelders. they sent to the important seaport of brielle and demanded a new oath from the garrison. it was intimated that the prince would be soon coming there in person to make himself master of the place, and advice was given to the magistrates to be beforehand with him. these statements angered maurice, and angered him the more because they happened to be true. it was also charged that he was pursuing his leicestrian designs and meant to make himself, by such steps, sovereign of the country. the name of leicester being a byword of reproach ever since that baffled noble had a generation before left the provinces in disgrace, it was a matter of course that such comparisons were excessively exasperating. it was fresh enough too in men's memory that the earl in his netherland career had affected sympathy with the strictest denomination of religious reformers, and that the profligate worldling and arrogant self-seeker had used the mask of religion to cover flagitious ends. as it had indeed been the object of the party at the head of which the advocate had all his life acted to raise the youthful maurice to the stadholderate expressly to foil the plots of leicester, it could hardly fail to be unpalatable to maurice to be now accused of acting the part of leicester. he inveighed bitterly on the subject before the state council: the state council, in a body, followed him to a meeting of the states-general. here the stadholder made a vehement speech and demanded that the states of holland should rescind the "sharp resolution," and should desist from the new oaths required from the soldiery. barneveld, firm as a rock, met these bitter denunciations. speaking in the name of holland, he repelled the idea that the sovereign states of that province were responsible to the state council or to the states-general either. he regretted, as all regretted, the calumnies uttered against the prince, but in times of such intense excitement every conspicuous man was the mark of calumny. the stadholder warmly repudiated leicestrian designs, and declared that he had been always influenced by a desire to serve his country and maintain the reformed religion. if he had made mistakes, he desired to be permitted to improve in the future. thus having spoken, the soldier retired from the assembly with the state council at his heels. the advocate lost no time in directing the military occupation of the principal towns of holland, such as leyden, gouda, rotterdam, schoonhoven, hoorn, and other cities. at leyden especially, where a strong orange party was with difficulty kept in obedience by the remonstrant magistracy, it was found necessary to erect a stockade about the town-hall and to plant caltrops and other obstructions in the squares and streets. the broad space in front; of the beautiful medieval seat of the municipal government, once so sacred for the sublime and pathetic scenes enacted there during the famous siege and in the magistracy of peter van der werff, was accordingly enclosed by a solid palisade of oaken planks, strengthened by rows of iron bars with barbed prongs: the entrenchment was called by the populace the arminian fort, and the iron spear heads were baptized barneveld's teeth. cannon were planted at intervals along the works, and a company or two of the waartgelders, armed from head to foot, with snaphances on their shoulders, stood ever ready to issue forth to quell any disturbances. occasionally a life or two was lost of citizen or soldier, and many doughty blows were interchanged. it was a melancholy spectacle. no commonwealth could be more fortunate than this republic in possessing two such great leading minds. no two men could be more patriotic than both stadholder and advocate. no two men could be prouder, more overbearing, less conciliatory. "i know mons. barneveld well," said sir ralph winwood, "and know that he hath great powers and abilities, and malice itself must confess that man never hath done more faithful and powerful service to his country than he. but 'finis coronat opus' and 'il di lodi lacera; oportet imperatorem stantem mori.'" the cities of holland were now thoroughly "waartgeldered," and barneveld having sufficiently shown his "teeth" in that province departed for change of air to utrecht. his failing health was assigned as the pretext for the visit, although the atmosphere of that city has never been considered especially salubrious in the dog-days. meantime the stadholder remained quiet, but biding his time. he did not choose to provoke a premature conflict in the strongholds of the arminians as he called them, but with a true military instinct preferred making sure of the ports. amsterdam, enkhuyzen, flushing, being without any effort of his own within his control, he quietly slipped down the river meuse on the night of the th september, accompanied by his brother frederic henrys and before six o'clock next morning had introduced a couple of companies of trustworthy troops into brielle, had summoned the magistrates before him, and compelled them to desist from all further intention of levying mercenaries. thus all the fortresses which barneveld had so recently and in such masterly fashion rescued from the grasp of england were now quietly reposing in the hands of the stadholder. maurice thought it not worth his while for the present to quell the mutiny--as he considered it the legal and constitutional defence of vested right--as great jurists like barneveld and hugo grotius accounted the movement--at its "fountain head leyden or its chief stream utrecht;" to use the expression of carleton. there had already been bloodshed in leyden, a burgher or two having been shot and a soldier stoned to death in the streets, but the stadholder deemed it unwise to precipitate matters. feeling himself, with his surpassing military knowledge and with a large majority of the nation at his back, so completely master of the situation, he preferred waiting on events. and there is no doubt that he was proving himself a consummate politician and a perfect master of fence. "he is much beloved and followed both of soldiers and people," said the english ambassador, "he is a man 'innoxiae popularitatis' so as this jealousy cannot well be fastened upon him; and in this cause of religion he stirred not until within these few months he saw he must declare himself or suffer the better party to be overborne." the chief tribunal-high council so called-of the country soon gave evidence that the "sharp resolution" had judged rightly in reckoning on its hostility and in nullifying its decisions in advance. they decided by a majority vote that the resolution ought not to be obeyed, but set aside. amsterdam, and the three or four cities usually acting with her, refused to enlist troops. rombout hoogerbeets, a member of the tribunal, informed prince maurice that he "would no longer be present on a bench where men disputed the authority of the states of holland, which he held to be the supreme sovereignty over him." this was plain speaking; a distinct enunciation of what the states' right party deemed to be constitutional law. and what said maurice in reply? "i, too, recognize the states of holland as sovereign; but we might at least listen to each other occasionally." hoogerbeets, however, deeming that listening had been carried far enough, decided to leave the tribunal altogether, and to resume the post which he had formerly occupied as pensionary or chief magistrate of leyden. here he was soon to find himself in the thick of the conflict. meantime the states-general, in full assembly, on th november , voted that the national synod should be held in the course of the following year. the measure was carried by a strict party vote and by a majority of one. the representatives of each province voting as one, there were four in favour of to three against the synod. the minority, consisting of holland, utrecht, and overyssel, protested against the vote as an outrageous invasion of the rights of each province, as an act of flagrant tyranny and usurpation. the minority in the states of holland, the five cities often named, protested against the protest. the defective part of the netherland constitutions could not be better illustrated. the minority of the states of holland refused to be bound by a majority of the provincial assembly. the minority of the states- general refused to be bound by the majority of the united assembly. this was reducing politics to an absurdity and making all government impossible. it is however quite certain that in the municipal governments a majority had always governed, and that a majority vote in the provincial assemblies had always prevailed. the present innovation was to govern the states-general by a majority. yet viewed by the light of experience and of common sense, it would be difficult to conceive of a more preposterous proceeding than thus to cram a religious creed down the throats of half the population of a country by the vote of a political assembly. but it was the seventeenth and not the nineteenth century. moreover, if there were any meaning in words, the th article of union, reserving especially the disposition over religious matters to each province, had been wisely intended to prevent the possibility of such tyranny. when the letters of invitation to the separate states and to others were drawing up in the general assembly, the representatives of the three states left the chamber. a solitary individual from holland remained however, a burgomaster of amsterdam. uytenbogaert, conversing with barneveld directly afterwards, advised him to accept the vote. yielding to the decision of the majority, it would be possible, so thought the clergyman, for the great statesman so to handle matters as to mould the synod to his will, even as he had so long controlled the states-provincial and the states-general. "if you are willing to give away the rights of the land," said the advocate very sharply, "i am not." probably the priest's tactics might have proved more adroit than the stony opposition on which barneveld was resolved. but it was with the aged statesman a matter of principle, not of policy. his character and his personal pride, the dignity of opinion and office, his respect for constitutional law, were all at stake. shallow observers considered the struggle now taking place as a personal one. lovers of personal government chose to look upon the advocate's party as a faction inspired with an envious resolve to clip the wings of the stadholder, who was at last flying above their heads. there could be no doubt of the bitter animosity between the two men. there could be no doubt that jealousy was playing the part which that master passion will ever play in all the affairs of life. but there could be no doubt either that a difference of principle as wide as the world separated the two antagonists. even so keen an observer as dudley carleton, while admitting the man's intellectual power and unequalled services, could see nothing in the advocate's present course but prejudice, obstinacy, and the insanity of pride. "he doth no whit spare himself in pains nor faint in his resolution," said the envoy, "wherein notwithstanding he will in all appearance succumb ere afore long, having the disadvantages of a weak body, a weak party, and a weak cause." but carleton hated barneveld, and considered it the chief object of his mission to destroy him, if he could. in so doing he would best carry out the wishes of his sovereign. the king of britain had addressed a somewhat equivocal letter to the states-general on the subject of religion in the spring of . it certainly was far from being as satisfactory as, the epistles of prepared under the advocate's instructions, had been, while the exuberant commentary upon the royal text, delivered in full assembly by his ambassador soon after the reception of the letter, was more than usually didactic, offensive, and ignorant. sir dudley never omitted an opportunity of imparting instruction to the states-general as to the nature of their constitution and the essential dogmas on which their church was founded. it is true that the great lawyers and the great theologians of the country were apt to hold very different opinions from his upon those important subjects, but this was so much the worse for the lawyers and theologians, as time perhaps might prove. the king in this last missive had proceeded to unsay the advice which he had formerly bestowed upon the states, by complaining that his earlier letters had been misinterpreted. they had been made use of, he said, to authorize the very error against which they had been directed. they had been held to intend the very contrary of what they did mean. he felt himself bound in conscience therefore, finding these differences ready to be "hatched into schisms," to warn the states once more against pests so pernicious. although the royal language was somewhat vague so far as enunciation of doctrine, a point on which he had once confessed himself fallible, was concerned, there was nothing vague in his recommendation of a national synod. to this the opposition of barneveld was determined not upon religious but upon constitutional grounds. the confederacy did not constitute a nation, and therefore there could not be a national synod nor a national religion. carleton came before the states-general soon afterwards with a prepared oration, wearisome as a fast-day sermon after the third turn of the hour- glass, pragmatical as a schoolmaster's harangue to fractious little boys. he divided his lecture into two heads--the peace of the church, and the peace of the provinces--starting with the first. "a jove principium," he said, "i will begin with that which is both beginning and end. it is the truth of god's word and its maintenance that is the bond of our common cause. reasons of state invite us as friends and neighbours by the preservation of our lives and property, but the interest of religion binds us as christians and brethren to the mutual defence of the liberty of our consciences." he then proceeded to point out the only means by which liberty of conscience could be preserved. it was by suppressing all forms of religion but one, and by silencing all religious discussion. peter titelman and philip ii. could not have devised a more pithy formula. all that was wanting was the axe and faggot to reduce uniformity to practice. then liberty of conscience would be complete. "one must distinguish," said the ambassador, "between just liberty and unbridled license, and conclude that there is but one truth single and unique. those who go about turning their brains into limbecks for distilling new notions in religious matters only distract the union of the church which makes profession of this unique truth. if it be permitted to one man to publish the writings and fantasies of a sick spirit and for another moved by christian zeal to reduce this wanderer 'ad sanam mentem;' why then 'patet locus adversus utrumque,' and the common enemy (the devil) slips into the fortress." he then proceeded to illustrate this theory on liberty of conscience by allusions to conrad vorstius. this infamous sectary had in fact reached such a pitch of audacity, said the ambassador, as not only to inveigh against the eternal power of god but to indulge in irony against the honour of his majesty king james. and in what way had he scandalized the government of the republic? he had dared to say that within its borders there was religious toleration. he had distinctly averred that in the united provinces heretics were not punished with death or with corporal chastisement. "he declares openly," said carleton, "that contra haereticos etiam vere dictos (ne dum falso et calumniose sic traductos) there is neither sentence of death nor other corporal punishment, so that in order to attract to himself a great following of birds of the name feather he publishes to all the world that here in this country one can live and die a heretic, unpunished, without being arrested and without danger." in order to suppress this reproach upon the republic at which the ambassador stood aghast, and to prevent the vorstian doctrines of religious toleration and impunity of heresy from spreading among "the common people, so subject by their natures to embrace new opinions," he advised of course that "the serpent be sent back to the nest where he was born before the venom had spread through the whole body of the republic." a week afterwards a long reply was delivered on part of the states- general to the ambassador's oration. it is needless to say that it was the work of the advocate, and that it was in conformity with the opinions so often exhibited in the letters to caron and others of which the reader has seen many samples. that religious matters were under the control of the civil government, and that supreme civil authority belonged to each one of the seven sovereign provinces, each recognizing no superior within its own sphere, were maxims of state always enforced in the netherlands and on which the whole religious controversy turned. "the states-general have always cherished the true christian apostolic religion," they said, "and wished it to be taught under the authority and protection of the legal government of these provinces in all purity, and in conformity with the holy scriptures, to the good people of these provinces. and my lords the states and magistrates of the respective provinces, each within their own limits, desire the same." they had therefore given express orders to the preachers "to keep the peace by mutual and benign toleration of the different opinions on the one side and the other at least until with full knowledge of the subject the states might otherwise ordain. they had been the more moved to this because his majesty having carefully examined the opinions of the learned hereon each side had found both consistent with christian belief and the salvation of souls." it was certainly not the highest expression of religious toleration for the civil authority to forbid the clergymen of the country from discussing in their pulpits the knottiest and most mysterious points of the schoolmen lest the "common people" should be puzzled. nevertheless, where the close union of church and state and the necessity of one church were deemed matters of course, it was much to secure subordination of the priesthood to the magistracy, while to enjoin on preachers abstention from a single exciting cause of quarrel, on the ground that there was more than one path to salvation, and that mutual toleration was better than mutual persecution, was; in that age, a stride towards religious equality. it was at least an advance on carleton's dogma, that there was but one unique and solitary truth, and that to declare heretics not punishable with death was an insult to the government of the republic. the states-general answered the ambassador's plea, made in the name of his master, for immediate and unguaranteed evacuation of the debatable land by the arguments already so often stated in the advocate's instructions to caron. they had been put to great trouble and expense already in their campaigning and subsequent fortification of important places in the duchies. they had seen the bitter spirit manifested by the spaniards in the demolition of the churches and houses of mulheim and other places. "while the affair remained in its present terms of utter uncertainty their mightinesses," said the states-general, "find it most objectionable to forsake the places which they have been fortifying and to leave the duchies and all their fellow-religionists, besides the rights of the possessory princes a prey to those who have been hankering for the territories for long years, and who would unquestionably be able to make themselves absolute masters of all within a very few days." a few months later carleton came before the states-general again and delivered another elaborate oration, duly furnished to him by the king, upon the necessity of the national synod, the comparative merits of arminianism and contra-remonstrantism, together with a full exposition of the constitutions of the netherlands. it might be supposed that barneveld and grotius and hoogerbeets knew something of the law and history of their country. but james knew much better, and so his envoy endeavoured to convince his audience. he received on the spot a temperate but conclusive reply from the delegates of holland. they informed him that the war with spain--the cause of the utrecht union--was not begun about religion but on account of the violation of liberties, chartered rights and privileges, not the least of which rights was that of each province to regulate religious matters within its borders. a little later a more vehement reply was published anonymously in the shape of a pamphlet called 'the balance,' which much angered the ambassador and goaded his master almost to frenzy. it was deemed so blasphemous, so insulting to the majesty of england, so entirely seditious, that james, not satisfied with inditing a rejoinder, insisted through carleton that a reward should be offered by the states for the detection of the author, in order that he might be condignly punished. this was done by a majority vote, florins being offered for the discovery of the author and for that of the printer. naturally the step was opposed in the states-general; two deputies in particular making themselves conspicuous. one of them was an audacious old gentleman named brinius of gelderland, "much corrupted with arminianism," so carleton informed his sovereign. he appears to have inherited his audacity through his pedigree, descending, as it was ludicrously enough asserted he did, from a chief of the caninefates, the ancient inhabitants of gelderland, called brinio. and brinio the caninefat had been as famous for his stolid audacity as for his illustrious birth; "erat in caninefatibus stolidae audaciae brinio claritate natalium insigni." the patronizing manner in which the ambassador alluded to the other member of the states-general who opposed the decree was still more diverting. it was "grotius, the pensioner of rotterdam, a young petulant brain, not unknown to your majesty," said carleton. two centuries and a half have rolled away, and there are few majesties, few nations, and few individuals to whom the name of that petulant youth is unknown; but how many are familiar with the achievements of the able representative of king james? nothing came of the measure, however, and the offer of course helped the circulation of the pamphlet. it is amusing to see the ferocity thus exhibited by the royal pamphleteer against a rival; especially when one can find no crime in 'the balance' save a stinging and well-merited criticism of a very stupid oration. gillis van ledenberg was generally supposed to be the author of it. carleton inclined, however, to suspect grotius, "because," said he, "having always before been a stranger to my house, he has made me the day before the publication thereof a complimentary visit, although it was sunday and church time; whereby the italian proverb, 'chi ti caresse piu che suole,' &c.,' is added to other likelihoods." it was subsequently understood however that the pamphlet was written by a remonstrant preacher of utrecht, named jacobus taurinus; one of those who had been doomed to death by the mutinous government in that city seven years before. it was now sufficiently obvious that either the governments in the three opposition provinces must be changed or that the national synod must be imposed by a strict majority vote in the teeth of the constitution and of vigorous and eloquent protests drawn up by the best lawyers in the country. the advocate and grotius recommended a provincial synod first and, should that not succeed in adjusting the differences of church government, then the convocation of a general or oecumenical synod. they resisted the national synod because, in their view, the provinces were not a nation. a league of seven sovereign and independent mates was all that legally existed in the netherlands. it was accordingly determined that the governments should be changed, and the stadholder set himself to prepare the way for a thorough and, if possible, a bloodless revolution. he departed on the th november for a tour through the chief cities, and before leaving the hague addressed an earnest circular letter to the various municipalities of holland. a more truly dignified, reasonable, right royal letter, from the stadholder's point of view, could not have been indited. the imperial "we" breathing like a morning breeze through the whole of it blew away all legal and historical mistiness. but the clouds returned again nevertheless. unfortunately for maurice it could not be argued by the pen, however it might be proved by the sword, that the netherlands constituted a nation, and that a convocation of doctors of divinity summoned by a body of envoys had the right to dictate a creed to seven republics. all parties were agreed on one point. there must be unity of divine worship. the territory of the netherlands was not big enough to hold two systems of religion, two forms of christianity, two sects of protestantism. it was big enough to hold seven independent and sovereign states, but would be split into fragments--resolved into chaos--should there be more than one church or if once a schism were permitted in that church. grotius was as much convinced of this as gomarus. and yet the th article of the union stared them all in the face, forbidding the hideous assumptions now made by the general government. perhaps no man living fully felt its import save barneveld alone. for groping however dimly and hesitatingly towards the idea of religious liberty, of general toleration, he was denounced as a papist, an atheist, a traitor, a miscreant, by the fanatics for the sacerdotal and personal power. yet it was a pity that he could never contemplate the possibility of his country's throwing off the swaddling clothes of provincialism which had wrapped its infancy. doubtless history, law, tradition, and usage pointed to the independent sovereignty of each province. yet the period of the truce was precisely the time when a more generous constitution, a national incorporation might have been constructed to take the place of the loose confederacy by which the gigantic war had been fought out. after all, foreign powers had no connection with the states, and knew only the union with which and with which alone they made treaties, and the reality of sovereignty in each province was as ridiculous as in theory it was impregnable. but barneveld, under the modest title of advocate of one province, had been in reality president and prime minister of the whole commonwealth. he had himself been the union and the sovereignty. it was not wonderful that so imperious a nature objected to transfer its powers to the church, to the states-general, or to maurice. moreover, when nationality assumed the unlovely form of rigid religious uniformity; when union meant an exclusive self-governed church enthroned above the state, responsible to no civic authority and no human law, the boldest patriot might shiver at emerging from provincialism. chapter xv. the commonwealth bent on self-destruction--evils of a confederate system of government--rem bischop's house sacked--aerssens' unceasing efforts against barneveld--the advocate's interview with maurice--the states of utrecht raise the troops--the advocate at utrecht--barneveld urges mutual toleration--barneveld accused of being partisan of spain--carleton takes his departure. it is not cheerful after widely contemplating the aspect of christendom in the year of supreme preparation to examine with the minuteness absolutely necessary the narrow theatre to which the political affairs of the great republic had been reduced. that powerful commonwealth, to which the great party of the reformation naturally looked for guidance in the coming conflict, seemed bent on self-destruction. the microcosm of the netherlands now represented, alas! the war of elements going on without on a world-wide scale. as the calvinists and lutherans of germany were hotly attacking each other even in sight of the embattled front of spain and the league, so the gomarites and the arminians by their mutual rancour were tearing the political power of the dutch republic to shreds and preventing her from assuming a great part in the crisis. the consummate soldier, the unrivalled statesman, each superior in his sphere to any contemporary rival, each supplementing the other, and making up together, could they have been harmonized, a double head such as no political organism then existing could boast, were now in hopeless antagonism to each other. a mass of hatred had been accumulated against the advocate with which he found it daily more and more difficult to struggle. the imperious, rugged, and suspicious nature of the stadholder had been steadily wrought upon by the almost devilish acts of francis aerssens until he had come to look upon his father's most faithful adherent, his own early preceptor in statesmanship and political supporter, as an antagonist, a conspirator, and a tyrant. the soldier whose unrivalled ability, experience, and courage in the field should have placed him at the very head of the great european army of defence against the general crusade upon protestantism, so constantly foretold by barneveld, was now to be engaged in making bloodless but mischievous warfare against an imaginary conspiracy and a patriot foe. the advocate, keeping steadily in view the great principles by which his political life had been guided, the supremacy of the civil authority in any properly organized commonwealth over the sacerdotal and military, found himself gradually forced into mortal combat with both. to the individual sovereignty of each province he held with the tenacity of a lawyer and historian. in that he found the only clue through the labyrinth which ecclesiastical and political affairs presented. so close was the tangle, so confused the medley, that without this slender guide all hope of legal issue seemed lost. no doubt the difficulty of the doctrine of individual sovereignty was great, some of the provinces being such slender morsels of territory, with resources so trivial, as to make the name of sovereignty ludicrous. yet there could be as little doubt that no other theory was tenable. if so powerful a mind as that of the advocate was inclined to strain the theory to its extreme limits, it was because in the overshadowing superiority of the one province holland had been found the practical remedy for the imbecility otherwise sure to result from such provincial and meagre federalism. moreover, to obtain union by stretching all the ancient historical privileges and liberties of the separate provinces upon the procrustean bed of a single dogma, to look for nationality only in common subjection to an infallible priesthood, to accept a catechism as the palladium upon which the safety of the state was to depend for all time, and beyond which there was to be no further message from heaven--such was not healthy constitutionalism in the eyes of a great statesman. no doubt that without the fervent spirit of calvinism it would have been difficult to wage war with such immortal hate as the netherlands had waged it, no doubt the spirit of republican and even democratic liberty lay hidden within that rigid husk, but it was dishonour to the martyrs who had died by thousands at the stake and on the battle field for the rights of conscience if the only result of their mighty warfare against wrong had been to substitute a new dogma for an old one, to stifle for ever the right of free enquiry, theological criticism, and the hope of further light from on high, and to proclaim it a libel on the republic that within its borders all heretics, whether arminian or papist, were safe from the death penalty or even from bodily punishment. a theological union instead of a national one and obtained too at the sacrifice of written law and immemorial tradition, a congress in which clerical deputations from all the provinces and from foreign nations should prescribe to all netherlanders an immutable creed and a shadowy constitution, were not the true remedies for the evils of confederacy, nor, if they had been, was the time an appropriate one for their application. it was far too early in the world's history to hope for such redistribution of powers and such a modification of the social compact as would place in separate spheres the church and the state, double the sanctions and the consolations of religion by removing it from the pollutions of political warfare, and give freedom to individual conscience by securing it from the interference of government. it is melancholy to see the republic thus perversely occupying its energies. it is melancholy to see the great soldier becoming gradually more ardent for battle with barneveld and uytenbogaert than with spinola and bucquoy, against whom he had won so many imperishable laurels. it is still sadder to see the man who had been selected by henry iv. as the one statesman of europe to whom he could confide his great projects for the pacification of christendom, and on whom he could depend for counsel and support in schemes which, however fantastic in some of their details, had for their object to prevent the very european war of religion against which barneveld had been struggling, now reduced to defend himself against suspicion hourly darkening and hatred growing daily more insane. the eagle glance and restless wing, which had swept the whole political atmosphere, now caged within the stifling limits of theological casuistry and personal rivalry were afflicting to contemplate. the evils resulting from a confederate system of government, from a league of petty sovereignties which dared not become a nation, were as woefully exemplified in the united provinces as they were destined to be more than a century and a half later, and in another hemisphere, before that most fortunate and sagacious of written political instruments, the american constitution of , came to remedy the weakness of the old articles of union. meantime the netherlands were a confederacy, not a nation. their general government was but a committee. it could ask of, but not command, the separate provinces. it had no dealings with nor power over the inhabitants of the country; it could say "thou shalt" neither to state nor citizen; it could consult only with corporations--fictitious and many-headed personages--itself incorporate. there was no first magistrate, no supreme court, no commander-in-chief, no exclusive mint nor power of credit, no national taxation, no central house of representation and legislation, no senate. unfortunately it had one church, and out of this single matrix of centralism was born more discord than had been produced by all the centrifugal forces of provincialism combined. there had been working substitutes found, as we well know, for the deficiencies of this constitution, but the advocate felt himself bound to obey and enforce obedience to the laws and privileges of his country so long as they remained without authorized change. his country was the province of holland, to which his allegiance was due and whose servant he was. that there was but one church paid and sanctioned by law, he admitted, but his efforts were directed to prevent discord within that church, by counselling moderation, conciliation, mutual forbearance, and abstention from irritating discussion of dogmas deemed by many thinkers and better theologians than himself not essential to salvation. in this he was much behind his age or before it. he certainly was not with the majority. and thus, while the election of ferdinand had given the signal of war all over christendom, while from the demolished churches in bohemia the tocsin was still sounding, whose vibrations were destined to be heard a generation long through the world, there was less sympathy felt with the call within the territory of the great republic of protestantism than would have seemed imaginable a few short years before. the capture of the cloister church at the hague in the summer of seemed to minds excited by personal rivalries and minute theological controversy a more momentous event than the destruction of the churches in the klostergrab in the following december. the triumph of gomarism in a single dutch city inspired more enthusiasm for the moment than the deadly buffet to european protestantism could inspire dismay. the church had been carried and occupied, as it were, by force, as if an enemy's citadel. it seemed necessary to associate the idea of practical warfare with a movement which might have been a pacific clerical success. barneveld and those who acted with him, while deploring the intolerance out of which the schism had now grown to maturity, had still hoped for possible accommodation of the quarrel. they dreaded popular tumults leading to oppression of the magistracy by the mob or the soldiery and ending in civil war. but what was wanted by the extreme partisans on either side was not accommodation but victory. "religious differences are causing much trouble and discontents in many cities," he said. "at amsterdam there were in the past week two assemblages of boys and rabble which did not disperse without violence, crime, and robbery. the brother of professor episcopius (rem bischop) was damaged to the amount of several thousands. we are still hoping that some better means of accommodation may be found." the calmness with which the advocate spoke of these exciting and painful events is remarkable. it was exactly a week before the date of his letter that this riot had taken place at amsterdam; very significant in its nature and nearly tragical in its results. there were no remonstrant preachers left in the city, and the people of that persuasion were excluded from the communion service. on sunday morning, th february ( ), a furious mob set upon the house of rem bischop, a highly respectable and wealthy citizen, brother of the remonstrant professor episcopius, of leyden. the house, an elegant mansion in one of the principal streets, was besieged and after an hour's resistance carried by storm. the pretext of the assault was that arminian preaching was going on within its walls, which was not the fact. the mistress of the house, half clad, attempted to make her escape by the rear of the building, was pursued by the rabble with sticks and stones, and shrieks of "kill the arminian harlot, strike her dead," until she fortunately found refuge in the house of a neighbouring carpenter. there the hunted creature fell insensible on the ground, the master of the house refusing to give her up, though the maddened mob surged around it, swearing that if the "arminian harlot"--as respectable a matron as lived in the city--were not delivered over to them, they would tear the house to pieces. the hope of plunder and of killing rem bischop himself drew them at last back to his mansion. it was thoroughly sacked; every portable article of value, linen, plate, money, furniture, was carried off, the pictures and objects of art destroyed, the house gutted from top to bottom. a thousand spectators were looking on placidly at the work of destruction as they returned from church, many of them with bible and psalm-book in their hands. the master effected his escape over the roof into an adjoining building. one of the ringleaders, a carpenter by trade, was arrested carrying an armful of valuable plunder. he was asked by the magistrate why he had entered the house. "out of good zeal," he replied; "to help beat and kill the arminians who were holding conventicle there." he was further asked why he hated the arminians so much. "are we to suffer such folk here," he replied, "who preach the vile doctrine that god has created one man for damnation and another for salvation?"--thus ascribing the doctrine of the church of which he supposed himself a member to the arminians whom he had been plundering and wished to kill. rem bischop received no compensation for the damage and danger; the general cry in the town being that the money he was receiving from barneveld and the king of spain would make him good even if not a stone of the house had been left standing. on the following thursday two elders of the church council waited upon and informed him that he must in future abstain from the communion service. it may well be supposed that the virtual head of the government liked not the triumph of mob law, in the name of religion, over the civil authority. the advocate was neither democrat nor demagogue. a lawyer, a magistrate, and a noble, he had but little sympathy with the humbler classes, which he was far too much in the habit of designating as rabble and populace. yet his anger was less against them than against the priests, the foreigners, the military and diplomatic mischief-makers, by whom they were set upon to dangerous demonstrations. the old patrician scorned the arts by which highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation for inferiors whom they despise. it was his instinct to protect, and guide the people, in whom he recognized no chartered nor inherent right to govern. it was his resolve, so long as breath was in him, to prevent them from destroying life and property and subverting the government under the leadership of an inflamed priesthood. it was with this intention, as we have just seen, and in order to avoid bloodshed, anarchy, and civil war in the streets of every town and village, that a decisive but in the advocate's opinion a perfectly legal step had been taken by the states of holland. it had become necessary to empower the magistracies of towns to defend themselves by enrolled troops against mob violence and against an enforced synod considered by great lawyers as unconstitutional. aerssens resided in zealand, and the efforts of that ex-ambassador were unceasing to excite popular animosity against the man he hated and to trouble the political waters in which no man knew better than he how to cast the net. "the states of zealand," said the advocate to the ambassador in london, "have a deputation here about the religious differences, urging the holding of a national synod according to the king's letters, to which some other provinces and some of the cities of holland incline. the questions have not yet been defined by a common synod, so that a national one could make no definition, while the particular synods and clerical personages are so filled with prejudices and so bound by mutual engagements of long date as to make one fear an unfruitful issue. we are occupied upon this point in our assembly of holland to devise some compromise and to discover by what means these difficulties may be brought into a state of tranquillity." it will be observed that in all these most private and confidential utterances of the advocate a tone of extreme moderation, an anxious wish to save the provinces from dissensions, dangers, and bloodshed, is distinctly visible. never is he betrayed into vindictive, ambitious, or self-seeking expressions, while sometimes, although rarely, despondent in mind. nor was his opposition to a general synod absolute. he was probably persuaded however, as we have just seen, that it should of necessity be preceded by provincial ones, both in due regard to the laws of the land and to the true definition of the points to be submitted to its decision. he had small hope of a successful result from it. the british king gave him infinite distress. as towards france so towards england the advocate kept steadily before him the necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns whose friendship was necessary to the republic he served, however misguided, perverse, or incompetent those monarchs might be. "i had always hoped," he said, "that his majesty would have adhered to his original written advice, that such questions as these ought to be quietly settled by authority of law and not by ecclesiastical persons, and i still hope that his majesty's intention is really to that effect, although he speaks of synods." a month later he felt even more encouraged. "the last letter of his majesty concerning our religious questions," he said, "has given rise to various constructions, but the best advised, who have peace and unity at heart, understand the king's intention to be to conserve the state of these provinces and the religion in its purity. my hope is that his majesty's good opinion will be followed and adopted according to the most appropriate methods." can it be believed that the statesman whose upright patriotism, moderation, and nobleness of purpose thus breathed through every word spoken by him in public or whispered to friends was already held up by a herd of ravening slanderers to obloquy as a traitor and a tyrant? he was growing old and had suffered much from illness during this eventful summer, but his anxiety for the commonwealth, caused by these distressing and superfluous squabbles, were wearing into him more deeply than years or disease could do. "owing to my weakness and old age i can't go up-stairs as well as i used," he said,--[barneveld to caron july and aug. . (h. arch. ms.)]--"and these religious dissensions cause me sometimes such disturbance of mind as will ere long become intolerable, because of my indisposition and because of the cry of my heart at the course people are pursuing here. i reflect that at the time of duke casimir and the prince of chimay exactly such a course was held in flanders and in lord leicester's time in the city of utrecht, as is best known to yourself. my hope is fixed on the lord god almighty, and that he will make those well ashamed who are laying anything to heart save his honour and glory and the welfare of our country with maintenance of its freedom and laws. i mean unchangeably to live and die for them . . . . believe firmly that all representations to the contrary are vile calumnies." before leaving for vianen in the middle of august of this year ( ) the advocate had an interview with the prince. there had been no open rupture between them, and barneveld was most anxious to avoid a quarrel with one to whose interests and honour he had always been devoted. he did not cling to power nor office. on the contrary, he had repeatedly importuned the states to accept his resignation, hoping that perhaps these unhappy dissensions might be quieted by his removal from the scene. he now told the prince that the misunderstanding between them arising from these religious disputes was so painful to his heart that he would make and had made every possible effort towards conciliation and amicable settlement of the controversy. he saw no means now, he said, of bringing about unity, unless his excellency were willing to make some proposition for arrangement. this he earnestly implored the prince to do, assuring him of his sincere and upright affection for him and his wish to support such measures to the best of his ability and to do everything for the furtherance of his reputation and necessary authority. he was so desirous of this result, he said, that he would propose now as he did at the time of the truce negotiations to lay down all his offices, leaving his excellency to guide the whole course of affairs according to his best judgment. he had already taken a resolution, if no means of accommodation were possible, to retire to his gunterstein estate and there remain till the next meeting of the assembly; when he would ask leave to retire for at least a year; in order to occupy himself with a revision and collation of the charters, laws, and other state papers of the country which were in his keeping, and which it was needful to bring into an orderly condition. meantime some scheme might be found for arranging the religious differences, more effective than any he had been able to devise. his appeal seems to have glanced powerlessly upon the iron reticence of maurice, and the advocate took his departure disheartened. later in the autumn, so warm a remonstrance was made to him by the leading nobles and deputies of holland against his contemplated withdrawal from his post that it seemed a dereliction of duty on his part to retire. he remained to battle with the storm and to see "with anguish of heart," as he expressed it, the course religious affairs were taking. the states of utrecht on the th august resolved that on account of the gathering of large masses of troops in the countries immediately adjoining their borders, especially in the episcopate of cologne, by aid of spanish money, it was expedient for them to enlist a protective force of six companies of regular soldiers in order to save the city from sudden and overwhelming attack by foreign troops. even if the danger from without were magnified in this preamble, which is by no means certain, there seemed to be no doubt on the subject in the minds of the magistrates. they believed that they had the right to protect and that they were bound to protect their ancient city from sudden assault, whether by spanish soldiers or by organized mobs attempting, as had been done in rotterdam, oudewater, and other towns, to overawe the civil authority in the interest of the contra-remonstrants. six nobles of utrecht were accordingly commissioned to raise the troops. a week later they had been enlisted, sworn to obey in all things the states of utrecht, and to take orders from no one else. three days later the states of utrecht addressed a letter to their mightinesses the states-general and to his excellency the prince, notifying them that for the reasons stated in the resolution cited the six companies had been levied. there seemed in these proceedings to be no thought of mutiny or rebellion, the province considering itself as acting within its unquestionable rights as a sovereign state and without any exaggeration of the imperious circumstances of the case. nor did the states-general and the stadholder at that moment affect to dispute the rights of utrecht, nor raise a doubt as to the legality of the proceedings. the committee sent thither by the states-general, the prince, and the council of state in their written answer to the letter of the utrecht government declared the reasons given for the enrolment of the six companies to be insufficient and the measure itself highly dangerous. they complained, but in very courteous language, that the soldiers had been levied without giving the least notice thereof to the general government, without asking its advice, or waiting for any communication from it, and they reminded the states of utrecht that they might always rely upon the states-general and his excellency, who were still ready, as they had been seven years before ( ), to protect them against every enemy and any danger. the conflict between a single province of the confederacy and the authority of the general government had thus been brought to a direct issue; to the test of arms. for, notwithstanding the preamble to the resolution of the utrecht assembly just cited, there could be little question that the resolve itself was a natural corollary of the famous "sharp resolution," passed by the states of holland three weeks before. utrecht was in arms to prevent, among other things at least, the forcing upon them by a majority of the states-general of the national synod to which they were opposed, the seizure of churches by the contra- remonstrants, and the destruction of life and property by inflamed mobs. there is no doubt that barneveld deeply deplored the issue, but that he felt himself bound to accept it. the innate absurdity of a constitutional system under which each of the seven members was sovereign and independent and the head was at the mercy of the members could not be more flagrantly illustrated. in the bloody battles which seemed impending in the streets of utrecht and in all the principal cities of the netherlands between the soldiers of sovereign states and soldiers of a general government which was not sovereign, the letter of the law and the records of history were unquestionably on the aide of the provincial and against the general authority. yet to nullify the authority of the states-general by force of arms at this supreme moment was to stultify all government whatever. it was an awful dilemma, and it is difficult here fully to sympathize with the advocate, for he it was who inspired, without dictating, the course of the utrecht proceedings. with him patriotism seemed at this moment to dwindle into provincialism, the statesman to shrink into the lawyer. certainly there was no guilt in the proceedings. there was no crime in the heart of the advocate. he had exhausted himself with appeals in favour of moderation, conciliation, compromise. he had worked night and day with all the energy of a pure soul and a great mind to assuage religious hatreds and avert civil dissensions. he was overpowered. he had frequently desired to be released from all his functions, but as dangers thickened over the provinces, he felt it his duty so long as he remained at his post to abide by the law as the only anchor in the storm. not rising in his mind to the height of a national idea, and especially averse from it when embodied in the repulsive form of religious uniformity, he did not shrink from a contest which he had not provoked, but had done his utmost to avert. but even then he did not anticipate civil war. the enrolling of the waartgelders was an armed protest, a symbol of legal conviction rather than a serious effort to resist the general government. and this is the chief justification of his course from a political point of view. it was ridiculous to suppose that with a few hundred soldiers hastily enlisted--and there were less than waartgelders levied throughout the provinces and under the orders of civil magistrates--a serious contest was intended against a splendidly disciplined army of veteran troops, commanded by the first general of the age. from a legal point of view barneveld considered his position impregnable. the controversy is curious, especially for americans, and for all who are interested in the analysis of federal institutions and of republican principles, whether aristocratic or democratic. the states of utrecht replied in decorous but firm language to the committee of the states- general that they had raised the six companies in accordance with their sovereign right so to do, and that they were resolved to maintain them. they could not wait as they had been obliged to do in the time of the earl of leicester and more recently in until they had been surprised and overwhelmed by the enemy before the states-general and his excellency the prince could come to their rescue. they could not suffer all the evils of tumults, conspiracies, and foreign invasion, without defending themselves. making use, they said, of the right of sovereignty which in their province belonged to them alone, they thought it better to prevent in time and by convenient means such fire and mischief than to look on while it kindled and spread into a conflagration, and to go about imploring aid from their fellow confederates who, god better it, had enough in these times to do at home. this would only be to bring them as well as this province into trouble, disquiet, and expense. "my lords the states of utrecht have conserved and continually exercised this right of sovereignty in its entireness ever since renouncing the king of spain. every contract, ordinance, and instruction of the states-general has been in conformity with it, and the states of utrecht are convinced that the states of not one of their confederate provinces would yield an atom of its sovereignty." they reminded the general government that by the st article of the "closer union" of utrecht, on which that assembly was founded, it was bound to support the states of the respective provinces and strengthen them with counsel, treasure, and blood if their respective rights, more especially their individual sovereignty, the most precious of all, should be assailed. to refrain from so doing would be to violate a solemn contract. they further reminded the council of state that by its institution the states-provincial had not abdicated their respective sovereignties, but had reserved it in all matters not specifically mentioned in the original instruction by which it was created. two days afterwards arnold van randwyck and three other commissioners were instructed by the general government to confer with the states of utrecht, to tell them that their reply was deemed unsatisfactory, that their reasons for levying soldiers in times when all good people should be seeking to restore harmony and mitigate dissension were insufficient, and to request them to disband those levies without prejudice in so doing to the laws and liberties of the province and city of utrecht. here was perhaps an opening for a compromise, the instruction being not without ingenuity, and the word sovereignty in regard either to the general government or the separate provinces being carefully omitted. soon afterwards, too, the states-general went many steps farther in the path of concession, for they made another appeal to the government of utrecht to disband the waartgelders on the ground of expediency, and in so doing almost expressly admitted the doctrine of provincial sovereignty. it is important in regard to subsequent events to observe this virtual admission. "your honours lay especial stress upon the right of sovereignty as belonging to you alone in your province," they said, "and dispute therefore at great length upon the power and authority of the generality, of his excellency, and of the state council. but you will please to consider that there is here no question of this, as our commissioners had no instructions to bring this into dispute in the least, and most certainly have not done so. we have only in effect questioned whether that which one has an undoubted right to do can at all times be appropriately and becomingly done, whether it was fitting that your honours, contrary to custom, should undertake these new levies upon a special oath and commission, and effectively complete the measure without giving the slightest notice thereof to the generality." it may fairly be said that the question in debate was entirely conceded in this remarkable paper, which was addressed by the states-general, the prince-stadholder, and the council of state to the government of utrecht. it should be observed, too, that while distinctly repudiating the intention of disputing the sovereignty of that province, they carefully abstain from using the word in relation to themselves, speaking only of the might and authority of the generality, the prince, and the council. there was now a pause in the public discussion. the soldiers were not disbanded, as the states of utrecht were less occupied with establishing the soundness of their theory than with securing its practical results. they knew very well, and the advocate knew very well, that the intention to force a national synod by a majority vote of the assembly of the states-general existed more strongly than ever, and they meant to resist it to the last. the attempt was in their opinion an audacious violation of the fundamental pact on which the confederacy was founded. its success would be to establish the sacerdotal power in triumph over the civil authority. during this period the advocate was resident in utrecht. for change of air, ostensibly at least, he had absented himself from the seat of government, and was during several weeks under the hands of his old friend and physician dr. saul. he was strictly advised to abstain altogether from political business, but he might as well have attempted to abstain from food and drink. gillis van ledenberg, secretary of the states of utrecht, visited him frequently. the proposition to enlist the waartgelders had been originally made in the assembly by its president, and warmly seconded by van ledenberg, who doubtless conferred afterwards with barneveld in person, but informally and at his lodgings. it was almost inevitable that this should be the case, nor did the advocate make much mystery as to the course of action which he deemed indispensable at this period. believing it possible that some sudden and desperate attempt might be made by evil disposed people, he agreed with the states of utrecht in the propriety of taking measures of precaution. they were resolved not to look quietly on while soldiers and rabble under guidance perhaps of violent contra-remonstrant preachers took possession of the churches and even of the city itself, as had already been done in several towns. the chief practical object of enlisting the six companies was that the city might be armed against popular tumults, and they feared that the ordinary military force might be withdrawn. when captain hartvelt, in his own name and that of the other officers of those companies, said that they were all resolved never to use their weapons against the stadholder or the states-general, he was answered that they would never be required to do so. they, however, made oath to serve against those who should seek to trouble the peace of the province of utrecht in ecclesiastical or political matters, and further against all enemies of the common country. at the same time it was deemed expedient to guard against a surprise of any kind and to keep watch and ward. "i cannot quite believe in the french companies," said the advocate in a private billet to ledenberg. "it would be extremely well that not only good watch should be kept at the city gates, but also that one might from above and below the river lek be assuredly advised from the nearest cities if any soldiers are coming up or down, and that the same might be done in regard to amersfoort." at the bottom of this letter, which was destined to become historical and will be afterwards referred to, the advocate wrote, as he not unfrequently did, upon his private notes, "when read, burn, and send me back the two enclosed letters." the letter lies in the archives unburned to this day, but, harmless as it looked, it was to serve as a nail in more than one coffin. in his confidential letters to trusted friends he complained of "great physical debility growing out of heavy sorrow," and described himself as entering upon his seventy-first year and no longer fit for hard political labour. the sincere grief, profound love of country, and desire that some remedy might be found for impending disaster, is stamped upon all his utterances whether official or secret. "the troubles growing out of the religious differences," he said, "are running into all sorts of extremities. it is feared that an attempt will be made against the laws of the land through extraordinary ways, and by popular tumults to take from the supreme authority of the respective provinces the right to govern clerical persons and regulate clerical disputes, and to place it at the disposition of ecclesiastics and of a national synod. "it is thought too that the soldiers will be forbidden to assist the civil supreme power and the government of cities in defending themselves from acts of violence which under pretext of religion will be attempted against the law and the commands of the magistrates. "this seems to conflict with the common law of the respective provinces, each of which from all times had right of sovereignty and supreme authority within its territory and specifically reserved it in all treaties and especially in that of the nearer union . . . . the provinces have always regulated clerical matters each for itself. the province of utrecht, which under the pretext of religion is now most troubled, made stipulations to this effect, when it took his excellency for governor, even more stringent than any others. as for holland, she never imagined that one could ever raise a question on the subject . . . . all good men ought to do their best to prevent the enemies to the welfare of these provinces from making profit out of our troubles." the whole matter he regarded as a struggle between the clergy and the civil power for mastery over the state, as an attempt to subject provincial autonomy to the central government purely in the interest of the priesthood of a particular sect. the remedy he fondly hoped for was moderation and union within the church itself. he could never imagine the necessity for this ferocious animosity not only between christians but between two branches of the reformed church. he could never be made to believe that the five points of the remonstrance had dug an abyss too deep and wide ever to be bridged between brethren lately of one faith as of one fatherland. he was unceasing in his prayers and appeals for "mutual toleration on the subject of predestination." perhaps the bitterness, almost amounting to frenzy, with which abstruse points of casuistry were then debated, and which converted differences of opinion upon metaphysical divinity into deadly hatred and thirst for blood, is already obsolete or on the road to become so. if so, then was barneveld in advance of his age, and it would have been better for the peace of the world and the progress of christianity if more of his contemporaries had placed themselves on his level. he was no theologian, but he believed himself to be a christian, and he certainly was a thoughtful and a humble one. he had not the arrogance to pierce behind the veil and assume to read the inscrutable thoughts of the omnipotent. it was a cruel fate that his humility upon subjects which he believed to be beyond the scope of human reason should have been tortured by his enemies into a crime, and that because he hoped for religious toleration he should be accused of treason to the commonwealth. "believe and cause others to believe," he said, "that i am and with the grace of god hope to continue an upright patriot as i have proved myself to be in these last forty-two years spent in the public service. in the matter of differential religious points i remain of the opinions which i have held for more than fifty years, and in which i hope to live and die, to wit, that a good christian man ought to believe that he is predestined to eternal salvation through god's grace, giving for reasons that he through god's grace has a firm belief that his salvation is founded purely on god's grace and the expiation of our sins through our saviour jesus christ, and that if he should fall into any sins his firm trust is that god will not let him perish in them, but mercifully turn him to repentance, so that he may continue in the same belief to the last." these expressions were contained in a letter to caron with the intention doubtless that they should be communicated to the king of great britain, and it is a curious illustration of the spirit of the age, this picture of the leading statesman of a great republic unfolding his religious convictions for private inspection by the monarch of an allied nation. more than anything else it exemplifies the close commixture of theology, politics, and diplomacy in that age, and especially in those two countries. formerly, as we have seen, the king considered a too curious fathoming of divine mysteries as highly reprehensible, particularly for the common people. although he knew more about them than any one else, he avowed that even his knowledge in this respect was not perfect. it was matter of deep regret with the advocate that his majesty had not held to his former positions, and that he had disowned his original letters. "i believe my sentiments thus expressed," he said, "to be in accordance with scripture, and i have always held to them without teasing my brains with the precise decrees of reprobation, foreknowledge, or the like, as matters above my comprehension. i have always counselled christian moderation. the states of holland have followed the spirit of his majesty's letters, but our antagonists have rejected them and with seditious talk, sermons, and the spreading of infamous libels have brought matters to their present condition. there have been excesses on the other side as well." he then made a slight, somewhat shadowy allusion to schemes known to be afloat for conferring the sovereignty upon maurice. we have seen that at former periods he had entertained this subject and discussed it privately with those who were not only friendly but devoted to the stadholder, and that he had arrived at the conclusion that it would not be for the interest of the prince to encourage the project. above all he was sternly opposed to the idea of attempting to compass it by secret intrigue. should such an arrangement be publicly discussed and legally completed, it would not meet with his unconditional opposition. "the lord god knows," he said, "whether underneath all these movements does not lie the design of the year , well known to you. as for me, believe that i am and by god's grace hope to remain, what i always was, an upright patriot, a defender of the true christian religion, of the public authority, and of all the power that has been and in future may be legally conferred upon his excellency. believe that all things said, written, or spread to the contrary are falsehoods and calumnies." he was still in utrecht, but about to leave for the hague, with health somewhat improved and in better spirits in regard to public matters. "although i have entered my seventy-first year," he said, "i trust still to be of some service to the commonwealth and to my friends . . . . don't consider an arrangement of our affairs desperate. i hope for better things." soon after his return he was waited upon one sunday evening, late in october--being obliged to keep his house on account of continued indisposition--by a certain solicitor named nordlingen and informed that the prince was about to make a sudden visit to leyden at four o'clock next morning. barneveld knew that the burgomasters and regents were holding a great banquet that night, and that many of them would probably have been indulging in potations too deep to leave them fit for serious business. the agitation of people's minds at that moment made the visit seem rather a critical one, as there would probably be a mob collected to see the stadholder, and he was anxious both in the interest of the prince and the regents and of both religious denominations that no painful incidents should occur if it was in his power to prevent them. he was aware that his son-in-law, cornelis van der myle, had been invited to the banquet, and that he was wont to carry his wine discreetly. he therefore requested nordlingen to proceed to leyden that night and seek an interview with van der myle without delay. by thus communicating the intelligence of the expected visit to one who, he felt sure, would do his best to provide for a respectful and suitable reception of the prince, notwithstanding the exhilarated condition in which the magistrates would probably find themselves, the advocate hoped to prevent any riot or tumultuous demonstration of any kind. at least he would act conformably to his duty and keep his conscience clear should disasters ensue. later in the night he learned that maurice was going not to leyden but to delft, and he accordingly despatched a special messenger to arrive before dawn at leyden in order to inform van der myle of this change in the prince's movements. nothing seemed simpler or more judicious than these precautions on the part of barneveld. they could not fail, however, to be tortured into sedition, conspiracy, and treason. towards the end of the year a meeting of the nobles and knights of holland under the leadership of barneveld was held to discuss the famous sharp resolution of th august and the letters and arguments advanced against it by the stadholder and the council of state. it was unanimously resolved by this body, in which they were subsequently followed by a large majority of the states of holland, to maintain that resolution and its consequences and to oppose the national synod. they further resolved that a legal provincial synod should be convoked by the states of holland and under their authority and supervision. the object of such synod should be to devise "some means of accommodation, mutual toleration, and christian settlement of differences in regard to the five points in question." in case such compromise should unfortunately not be arranged, then it was resolved to invite to the assembly two or three persons from france, as many from england, from germany, and from switzerland, to aid in the consultations. should a method of reconciliation and mutual toleration still remain undiscovered, then, in consideration that the whole christian world was interested in composing these dissensions, it was proposed that a "synodal assembly of all christendom," a protestant oecumenical council, should in some solemn manner be convoked. these resolutions and propositions were all brought forward by the advocate, and the draughts of them in his handwriting remain. they are the unimpeachable evidences of his earnest desire to put an end to these unhappy disputes and disorders in the only way which he considered constitutional. before the close of the year the states of holland, in accordance with the foregoing advice of the nobles, passed a resolution, the minutes of which were drawn up by the hand of the advocate, and in which they persisted in their opposition to the national synod. they declared by a large majority of votes that the assembly of the states-general without the unanimous consent of the provincial states were not competent according to the union of utrecht--the fundamental law of the general assembly--to regulate religious affairs, but that this right belonged to the separate provinces, each within its own domain. they further resolved that as they were bound by solemn oath to maintain the laws and liberties of holland, they could not surrender this right to the generality, nor allow it to be usurped by any one, but in order to settle the question of the five points, the only cause known to them of the present disturbances, they were content under: their own authority to convoke a provincial synod within three months, at their own cost, and to invite the respective provinces, as many of them as thought good, to send to this meeting a certain number of pious and learned theologians. it is difficult to see why the course thus unanimously proposed by the nobles of holland, under guidance of barneveld, and subsequently by a majority of the states of that province, would not have been as expedient as it was legal. but we are less concerned with that point now than with the illustrations afforded by these long buried documents of the patriotism and sagacity of a man than whom no human creature was ever more foully slandered. it will be constantly borne in mind that he regarded this religious controversy purely from a political, legal, and constitutional--and not from a theological-point of view. he believed that grave danger to the fatherland was lurking under this attempt, by the general government, to usurp the power of dictating the religious creed of all the provinces. especially he deplored the evil influence exerted by the king of england since his abandonment of the principles announced in his famous letter to the states in the year . all that the advocate struggled for was moderation and mutual toleration within the reformed church. he felt that a wider scheme of forbearance was impracticable. if a dream of general religious equality had ever floated before him or before any one in that age, he would have felt it to be a dream which would be a reality nowhere until centuries should have passed away. yet that moderation, patience, tolerance, and respect for written law paved the road to that wider and loftier region can scarcely be doubted. carleton, subservient to every changing theological whim of his master, was as vehement and as insolent now in enforcing the intolerant views of james as he had previously been in supporting the counsels to tolerance contained in the original letters of that monarch. the ambassador was often at the advocate's bed-side during his illness that summer, enforcing, instructing, denouncing, contradicting. he was never weary of fulfilling his duties of tuition, but the patient barneveld; haughty and overbearing as he was often described to be, rarely used a harsh or vindictive word regarding him in his letters. "the ambassador of france," he said, "has been heard before the assembly of the states-general, and has made warm appeals in favour of union and mutual toleration as his majesty of great britain so wisely did in his letters of . . . . if his majesty could only be induced to write fresh letters in similar tone, i should venture to hope better fruits from them than from this attempt to thrust a national synod upon our necks, which many of us hold to be contrary to law, reason, and the act of union." so long as it was possible to hope that the action of the states of holland would prevent such a catastrophe, he worked hard to direct them in what he deemed the right course. "our political and religious differences," he said, "stand between hope and fear." the hope was in the acceptance of the provincial synod--the fear lest the national synod should be carried by a minority of the cities of holland combining with a majority of the other provincial states. "this would be in violation," he said, "of the so-called religious peace, the act of union, the treaty with the duke of anjou, the negotiations of the states of utrecht, and with prince maurice in with cognizance of the states-general and those of holland for, the governorship of that province, the custom of the generality for the last thirty years according to which religious matters have always been left to the disposition of the states of each province . . . . carleton is strenuously urging this course in his majesty's name, and i fear that in the present state of our humours great troubles will be the result." the expulsion by an armed mob, in the past year, of a remonstrant preacher at oudewater, the overpowering of the magistracy and the forcing on of illegal elections in that and other cities, had given him and all earnest patriots grave cause for apprehension. they were dreading, said barneveld, a course of crimes similar to those which under the earl of leicester's government had afflicted leyden and utrecht. "efforts are incessant to make the remonstrants hateful," he said to caron, "but go forward resolutely and firmly in the conviction that our friends here are as animated in their opposition to the spanish dominion now and by god's grace will so remain as they have ever proved themselves to be, not only by words, but works. i fear that mr. carleton gives too much belief to the enviers of our peace and tranquillity under pretext of religion, but it is more from ignorance than malice." those who have followed the course of the advocate's correspondence, conversation, and actions, as thus far detailed, can judge of the gigantic nature of the calumny by which he was now assailed. that this man, into every fibre of whose nature was woven undying hostility to spain, as the great foe to national independence and religious liberty throughout the continent of europe, whose every effort, as we have seen, during all these years of nominal peace had been to organize a system of general european defence against the war now actually begun upon protestantism, should be accused of being a partisan of spain, a creature of spain, a pensioner of spain, was enough to make honest men pray that the earth might be swallowed up. if such idiotic calumnies could be believed, what patriot in the world could not be doubted? yet they were believed. barneveld was bought by spanish gold. he had received whole boxes full of spanish pistoles, straight from brussels! for his part in the truce negotiations he had received , ducats in one lump. "it was plain," said the greatest man in the country to another great man, "that barneveld and his party are on the road to spain." "then it were well to have proof of it," said the great man. "not yet time," was the reply. "we must flatten out a few of them first." prince maurice had told the princess-dowager the winter before ( th december ) that those dissensions would never be decided except by use of weapons; and he now mentioned to her that he had received information from brussels, which he in part believed, that the advocate was a stipendiary of spain. yet he had once said, to the same princess louise, of this stipendiary that "the services which the advocate had rendered to the house of nassau were so great that all the members of that house might well look upon him not as their friend but their father." councillor van maldere, president of the states of zealand, and a confidential friend of maurice, was going about the hague saying that "one must string up seven or eight remonstrants on the gallows; then there might be some improvement." as for arminius and uytenbogaert, people had long told each other and firmly believed it, and were amazed when any incredulity was expressed in regard to it, that they were in regular and intimate correspondence with the jesuits, that they had received large sums from rome, and that both had been promised cardinals' hats. that barneveld and his friend uytenbogaert were regular pensioners of spain admitted of no dispute whatever. "it was as true as the holy evangel." the ludicrous chatter had been passed over with absolute disdain by the persons attacked, but calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain. it proved to be in these cases. "you have the plague mark on your flesh, oh pope, oh pensioner," said one libeller. "there are letters safely preserved to make your process for you. look out for your head. many have sworn your death, for it is more than time that you were out of the world. we shall prove, oh great bribed one, that you had the , little ducats." the preacher uytenbogaert was also said to have had , ducats for his share. "go to brussels," said the pamphleteer; "it all stands clearly written out on the register with the names and surnames of all you great bribe- takers." these were choice morsels from the lampoon of the notary danckaerts. "we are tortured more and more with religious differences," wrote barneveld; "with acts of popular violence growing out of them the more continuously as they remain unpunished, and with ever increasing jealousies and suspicions. the factious libels become daily more numerous and more impudent, and no man comes undamaged from the field. i, as a reward for all my troubles, labours, and sorrows, have three double portions of them. i hope however to overcome all by god's grace and to defend my actions with all honourable men so long as right and reason have place in the world, as to which many begin to doubt. if his majesty had been pleased to stick to the letters of , we should never have got into these difficulties . . . . it were better in my opinion that carleton should be instructed to negotiate in the spirit of those epistles rather than to torment us with the national synod, which will do more harm than good." it is impossible not to notice the simplicity and patience with which the advocate, in the discharge of his duty as minister of foreign affairs, kept the leading envoys of the republic privately informed of events which were becoming day by day more dangerous to the public interests and his own safety. if ever a perfectly quiet conscience was revealed in the correspondence of a statesman, it was to be found in these letters. calmly writing to thank caron for some very satisfactory english beer which the ambassador had been sending him from london, he proceeded to speak again of the religious dissensions and their consequences. he sent him the letter and remonstrance which he had felt himself obliged to make, and which he had been urged by his ever warm and constant friend the widow of william the silent to make on the subject of "the seditious libels, full of lies and calumnies got up by conspiracy against him." these letters were never published, however, until years after he had been in his grave. "i know that you are displeased with the injustice done me," he said, "but i see no improvement. people are determined to force through the national synod. the two last ones did much harm. this will do ten times more, so intensely embittered are men's tempers against each other." again he deplored the king's departure from his letters of , by adherence to which almost all the troubles would have been spared. it is curious too to observe the contrast between public opinion in great britain, including its government, in regard to the constitution of the united provinces at that period of domestic dissensions and incipient civil war and the general impressions manifested in the same nation two centuries and a half later, on the outbreak of the slavery rebellion, as to the constitution of the united states. the states in arms against the general government on the other side of the atlantic were strangely but not disingenuously assumed to be sovereign and independent, and many statesmen and a leading portion of the public justified them in their attempt to shake off the central government as if it were but a board of agency established by treaty and terminable at pleasure of any one of among sovereigns and terminable at pleasure of any one of them. yet even a superficial glance at the written constitution of the republic showed that its main object was to convert what had been a confederacy into an incorporation; and that the very essence of its renewed political existence was an organic law laid down by a whole people in their primitive capacity in place of a league banding together a group of independent little corporations. the chief attributes of sovereignty-- the rights of war and peace, of coinage, of holding armies and navies, of issuing bills of credit, of foreign relations, of regulating and taxing foreign commerce--having been taken from the separate states by the united people thereof and bestowed upon a government provided with a single executive head, with a supreme tribunal, with a popular house of representatives and a senate, and with power to deal directly with the life and property of every individual in the land, it was strange indeed that the feudal, and in america utterly unmeaning, word sovereign should have been thought an appropriate term for the different states which had fused themselves three-quarters of a century before into a union. when it is remembered too that the only dissolvent of this union was the intention to perpetuate human slavery, the logic seemed somewhat perverse by which the separate sovereignty of the states was deduced from the constitution of . on the other hand, the union of utrecht of was a league of petty sovereignties; a compact less binding and more fragile than the articles of union made almost exactly two hundred years later in america, and the worthlessness of which, after the strain of war was over, had been demonstrated in the dreary years immediately following the peace of . one after another certain netherland provinces had abjured their allegiance to spain, some of them afterwards relapsing under it, some having been conquered by the others, while one of them, holland, had for a long time borne the greater part of the expense and burthen of the war. "holland," said the advocate, "has brought almost all the provinces to their liberty. to receive laws from them or from their clerical people now is what our state cannot endure. it is against her laws and customs, in the enjoyment of which the other provinces and his excellency as governor of holland are bound to protect us." and as the preservation of chattel slavery in the one case seemed a legitimate ground for destroying a government which had as definite an existence as any government known to mankind, so the resolve to impose a single religious creed upon many millions of individuals was held by the king and government of great britain to be a substantial reason for imagining a central sovereignty which had never existed at all. this was still more surprising as the right to dispose of ecclesiastical affairs and persons had been expressly reserved by the separate provinces in perfectly plain language in the treaty of union. "if the king were better informed," said barneveld, "of our system and laws, we should have better hope than now. but one supposes through notorious error in foreign countries that the sovereignty stands with the states-general which is not the case, except in things which by the articles of closer union have been made common to all the provinces, while in other matters, as religion, justice, and polity, the sovereignty remains with each province, which foreigners seem unable to comprehend." early in june, carleton took his departure for england on leave of absence. he received a present from the states of florins, and went over in very ill-humour with barneveld. "mr. ambassador is much offended and prejudiced," said the advocate, "but i know that he will religiously carry out the orders of his majesty. i trust that his majesty can admit different sentiments on predestination and its consequences, and that in a kingdom where the supreme civil authority defends religion the system of the puritans will have no foothold." certainly james could not be accused of allowing the system of the puritans much foothold in england, but he had made the ingenious discovery that puritanism in holland was a very different thing from puritanism in the netherlands. etext editor's bookmarks: acts of violence which under pretext of religion adulation for inferiors whom they despise calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain created one child for damnation and another for salvation depths of credulity men in all ages can sink devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife furious mob set upon the house of rem bischop highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation in this he was much behind his age or before it logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed partisans wanted not accommodation but victory puritanism in holland was a very different thing from england seemed bent on self-destruction stand between hope and fear the evils resulting from a confederate system of government to stifle for ever the right of free enquiry this ebook was produced by david widger [note: there is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. d.w.] the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume life of john of barneveld, - chapter ix. aerssens remains two years longer in france--derives many personal advantages from his post--he visits the states-general--aubery du maurier appointed french ambassador--he demands the recall of aerssens--peace of sainte-menehould--asperen de langerac appointed in aerssens' place. francis aerssens had remained longer at his post than had been intended by the resolution of the states of holland, passed in may . it is an exemplification of the very loose constitutional framework of the united provinces that the nomination of the ambassador to france belonged to the states of holland, by whom his salary was paid, although, of course, he was the servant of the states-general, to whom his public and official correspondence was addressed. his most important despatches were however written directly to barneveld so long as he remained in power, who had also the charge of the whole correspondence, public or private, with all the envoys of the states. aerssens had, it will be remembered, been authorized to stay one year longer in france if he thought he could be useful there. he stayed two years, and on the whole was not useful. he had too many eyes and too many ears. he had become mischievous by the very activity of his intelligence. he was too zealous. there were occasions in france at that moment in which it was as well to be blind and deaf. it was impossible for the republic, unless driven to it by dire necessity, to quarrel with its great ally. it had been calculated by duplessis-mornay that france had paid subsidies to the provinces amounting from first to last to millions of livres. this was an enormous exaggeration. it was barneveld's estimate that before the truce the states had received from france eleven millions of florins in cash, and during the truce up to the year , , , in addition, besides a million still due, making a total of about fifteen millions. during the truce france kept two regiments of foot amounting to soldiers and two companies of cavalry in holland at the service of the states, for which she was bound to pay yearly , livres. and the queen-regent had continued all the treaties by which these arrangements were secured, and professed sincere and continuous friendship for the states. while the french-spanish marriages gave cause for suspicion, uneasiness, and constant watchfulness in the states, still the neutrality of france was possible in the coming storm. so long as that existed, particularly when the relations of england with holland through the unfortunate character of king james were perpetually strained to a point of imminent rupture, it was necessary to hold as long as it vas possible to the slippery embrace of france. but aerssens was almost aggressive in his attitude. he rebuked the vacillations, the shortcomings, the imbecility, of the queen's government in offensive terms. he consorted openly with the princes who were on the point of making war upon the queen-regent. he made a boast to the secretary of state villeroy that he had unravelled all his secret plots against the netherlands. he declared it to be understood in france, since the king's death, by the dominant and jesuitical party that the crown depended temporally as well as spiritually on the good pleasure of the pope. no doubt he was perfectly right in many of his opinions. no ruler or statesman in france worthy of the name would hesitate, in the impending religious conflict throughout europe and especially in germany, to maintain for the kingdom that all controlling position which was its splendid privilege. but to preach this to mary de' medici was waste of breath. she was governed by the concini's, and the concini's were governed by spain. the woman who was believed to have known beforehand of the plot to murder her great husband, who had driven the one powerful statesman on whom the king relied, maximilian de bethune, into retirement, and whose foreign affairs were now completely in the hands of the ancient leaguer villeroy--who had served every government in the kingdom for forty years--was not likely to be accessible to high views of public policy. two years had now elapsed since the first private complaints against the ambassador, and the french government were becoming impatient at his presence. aerssens had been supported by prince maurice, to whom he had long paid his court. he was likewise loyally protected by barneveld, whom he publicly flattered and secretly maligned. but it was now necessary that he should be gone if peaceful relations with france were to be preserved. after all, the ambassador had not made a bad business of his embassy from his own point of view. a stranger in the republic, for his father the greffier was a refugee from brabant, he had achieved through his own industry and remarkable talents, sustained by the favour of barneveld-- to whom he owed all his diplomatic appointments--an eminent position in europe. secretary to the legation to france in , he had been successively advanced to the post of resident agent, and when the republic had been acknowledged by the great powers, to that of ambassador. the highest possible functions that representatives of emperors and kings could enjoy had been formally recognized in the person of the minister of a new-born republic. and this was at a moment when, with exception of the brave but insignificant cantons of switzerland, the republic had long been an obsolete idea. in a pecuniary point of view, too, he had not fared badly during his twenty years of diplomatic office. he had made much money in various ways. the king not long before his death sent him one day , florins as a present, with a promise soon to do much more for him. having been placed in so eminent a post, he considered it as due to himself to derive all possible advantage from it. "those who serve at the altar," he said a little while after his return, "must learn to live by it. i served their high mightinesses at the court of a great king, and his majesty's liberal and gracious favours were showered upon me. my upright conscience and steady obsequiousness greatly aided me. i did not look upon opportunity with folded arms, but seized it and made my profit by it. had i not met with such fortunate accidents, my office would not have given me dry bread." nothing could exceed the frankness and indeed the cynicism with which the ambassador avowed his practice of converting his high and sacred office into merchandise. and these statements of his should be scanned closely, because at this very moment a cry was distantly rising, which at a later day was to swell into a roar, that the great advocate had been bribed and pensioned. nothing had occurred to justify such charges, save that at the period of the truce he had accepted from the king of france a fee of , florins for extra official and legal services rendered him a dozen years before, and had permitted his younger son to hold the office of gentleman-in-waiting at the french court with the usual salary attached to it. the post, certainly not dishonourable in itself, had been intended by the king as a kindly compliment to the leading statesman of his great and good ally the republic. it would be difficult to say why such a favour conferred on the young man should be held more discreditable to the receiver than the order of the garter recently bestowed upon the great soldier of the republic by another friendly sovereign. it is instructive however to note the language in which francis aerssens spoke of favours and money bestowed by a foreign monarch upon himself, for aerssens had come back from his embassy full of gall and bitterness against barneveld. thenceforth he was to be his evil demon. "i didn't inherit property," said this diplomatist. "my father and mother, thank god, are yet living. i have enjoyed the king's liberality. it was from an ally, not an enemy, of our country. were every man obliged to give a reckoning of everything he possesses over and above his hereditary estates, who in the government would pass muster? those who declare that they have served their country in her greatest trouble, and lived in splendid houses and in service of princes and great companies and the like on a yearly salary of florins, may not approve these maxims." it should be remembered that barneveld, if this was a fling at the advocate, had acquired a large fortune by marriage, and, although certainly not averse from gathering gear, had, as will be seen on a subsequent page, easily explained the manner in which his property had increased. no proof was ever offered or attempted of the anonymous calumnies levelled at him in this regard. "i never had the management of finances," continued aerssens. "my profits i have gained in foreign parts. my condition of life is without excess, and in my opinion every means are good so long as they are honourable and legal. they say my post was given me by the advocate. ergo, all my fortune comes from the advocate. strenuously to have striven to make myself agreeable to the king and his counsellors, while fulfilling my office with fidelity and honour, these are the arts by which i have prospered, so that my splendour dazzles the eyes of the envious. the greediness of those who believe that the sun should shine for them alone was excited, and so i was obliged to resign the embassy." so long as henry lived, the dutch ambassador saw him daily, and at all hours, privately, publicly, when he would. rarely has a foreign envoy at any court, at any period of history, enjoyed such privileges of being useful to his government. and there is no doubt that the services of aerssens had been most valuable to his country, notwithstanding his constant care to increase his private fortune through his public opportunities. he was always ready to be useful to henry likewise. when that monarch same time before the truce, and occasionally during the preliminary negotiations for it, had formed a design to make himself sovereign of the provinces, it was aerssens who charged himself with the scheme, and would have furthered it with all his might, had the project not met with opposition both from the advocate and the stadholder. subsequently it appeared probable that maurice would not object to the sovereignty himself, and the ambassador in paris, with the king's consent, was not likely to prove himself hostile to the prince's ambition. "there is but this means alone," wrote jeannini to villeroy, "that can content him, although hitherto he has done like the rowers, who never look toward the place whither they wish to go." the attempt of the prince to sound barneveld on this subject through the princess-dowager has already been mentioned, and has much intrinsic probability. thenceforward, the republican form of government, the municipal oligarchies, began to consolidate their power. yet although the people as such were not sovereigns, but subjects, and rarely spoken of by the aristocratic magistrates save with a gentle and patronizing disdain, they enjoyed a larger liberty than was known anywhere else in the world. buzenval was astonished at the "infinite and almost unbridled freedom" which he witnessed there during his embassy, and which seemed to him however "without peril to the state." the extraordinary means possessed by aerssens to be important and useful vanished with the king's death. his secret despatches, painting in sombre and sarcastic colours the actual condition of affairs at the french court, were sent back in copy to the french court itself. it was not known who had played the ambassador this vilest of tricks, but it was done during an illness of barneveld, and without his knowledge. early in the year aerssens resolved, not to take his final departure, but to go home on leave of absence. his private intention was to look for some substantial office of honour and profit at home. failing of this, he meant to return to paris. but with an eye to the main chance as usual, he ingeniously caused it to be understood at court, without making positive statements to that effect, that his departure was final. on his leavetaking, accordingly, he received larger presents from the crown than had been often given to a retiring ambassador. at least , florins were thus added to the frugal store of profits on which he prided himself. had he merely gone away on leave of absence, he would have received no presents whatever. but he never went back. the queen-regent and her ministers were so glad to get rid of him, and so little disposed, in the straits in which they found themselves, to quarrel with the powerful republic, as to be willing to write very complimentary public letters to the states, concerning the character and conduct of the man whom they so much detested. pluming himself upon these, aerssens made his appearance in the assembly of the states-general, to give account by word of mouth of the condition of affairs, speaking as if he had only come by permission of their mightinesses for temporary purposes. two months later he was summoned before the assembly, and ordered to return to his post. meantime a new french ambassador had arrived at the hague, in the spring of . aubery du maurier, a son of an obscure country squire, a protestant, of moderate opinions, of a sincere but rather obsequious character, painstaking, diligent, and honest, had been at an earlier day in the service of the turbulent and intriguing due de bouillon. he had also been employed by sully as an agent in financial affairs between holland and france, and had long been known to villeroy. he was living on his estate, in great retirement from all public business, when secretary villeroy suddenly proposed him the embassy to the hague. there was no more important diplomatic post at that time in europe. other countries were virtually at peace, but in holland, notwithstanding the truce, there vas really not much more than an armistice, and great armies lay in the netherlands, as after a battle, sleeping face to face with arms in their hands. the politics of christendom were at issue in the open, elegant, and picturesque village which was the social capital of the united provinces. the gentry from spain, italy, the south of europe, catholic germany, had clustered about spinola at brussels, to learn the art of war in his constant campaigning against maurice. english and scotch officers, frenchmen, bohemians, austrians, youths from the palatinate and all protestant countries in germany, swarmed to the banners of the prince who had taught the world how alexander farnese could be baffled, and the great spinola outmanoeuvred. especially there was a great number of frenchmen of figure and quality who thronged to the hague, besides the officers of the two french regiments which formed a regular portion of the states' army. that army was the best appointed and most conspicuous standing force in europe. besides the french contingent there were always nearly , infantry and cavalry on a war footing, splendidly disciplined, experienced, and admirably armed. the navy, consisting of thirty war ships, perfectly equipped and manned, was a match for the combined marine forces of all europe, and almost as numerous. when the ambassador went to solemn audience of the states-general, he was attended by a brilliant group of gentlemen and officers, often to the number of three hundred, who volunteered to march after him on foot to honour their sovereign in the person of his ambassador; the envoy's carriage following empty behind. such were the splendid diplomatic processions often received by the stately advocate in his plain civic garb, when grave international questions were to be publicly discussed. there was much murmuring in france when the appointment of a personage comparatively so humble to a position so important was known. it was considered as a blow aimed directly at the malcontent princes of the blood, who were at that moment plotting their first levy of arms against the queen. du maurier had been ill-treated by the due de bouillon, who naturally therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured to the government to which he was accredited. being the agent of mary de' medici, he was, of course, described as a tool of the court and a secret pensioner of spain. he was to plot with the arch traitor barneveld as to the best means for distracting the provinces and bringing them back into spanish subjection. du maurier, being especially but secretly charged to prevent the return of francis aerssens to paris, incurred of course the enmity of that personage and of the french grandees who ostentatiously protected him. it was even pretended by jeannin that the appointment of a man so slightly known to the world, so inexperienced in diplomacy, and of a parentage so little distinguished, would be considered an affront by the states-general. but on the whole, villeroy had made an excellent choice. no safer man could perhaps have been found in france for a post of such eminence, in circumstances so delicate, and at a crisis so grave. the man who had been able to make himself agreeable and useful, while preserving his integrity, to characters so dissimilar as the refining, self-torturing, intellectual duplessis-mornay, the rude, aggressive, and straightforward sully, the deep-revolving, restlessly plotting bouillon, and the smooth, silent, and tortuous villeroy--men between whom there was no friendship, but, on the contrary, constant rancour--had material in him to render valuable services at this particular epoch. everything depended on patience, tact, watchfulness in threading the distracting, almost inextricable, maze which had been created by personal rivalries, ambitions, and jealousies in the state he represented and the one to which he was accredited. "i ascribe it all to god," he said, in his testament to his children, "the impenetrable workman who in his goodness has enabled me to make myself all my life obsequious, respectful, and serviceable to all, avoiding as much as possible, in contenting some, not to discontent others." he recommended his children accordingly to endeavour "to succeed in life by making themselves as humble, intelligent, and capable as possible." this is certainly not a very high type of character, but a safer one for business than that of the arch intriguer francis aerssens. and he had arrived at the hague under trying circumstances. unknown to the foreign world he was now entering, save through the disparaging rumours concerning him, sent thither in advance by the powerful personages arrayed against his government, he might have sunk under such a storm at the outset, but for the incomparable kindness and friendly aid of the princess-dowager, louise de coligny. "i had need of her protection and recommendation as much as of life," said du maurier; "and she gave them in such excess as to annihilate an infinity of calumnies which envy had excited against me on every side." he had also a most difficult and delicate matter to arrange at the very moment of his arrival. for aerssens had done his best not only to produce a dangerous division in the politics of the republic, but to force a rupture between the french government and the states. he had carried matters before the assembly with so high a hand as to make it seem impossible to get rid of him without public scandal. he made a parade of the official letters from the queen-regent and her ministers, in which he was spoken of in terms of conventional compliment. he did not know, and barneveld wished, if possible, to spare him the annoyance of knowing, that both queen and ministers, so soon as informed that there was a chance of coming back to them, had written letters breathing great repugnance to him and intimating that he would not be received. other high personages of state had written to express their resentment at his duplicity, perpetual mischief-making, and machinations against the peace of the kingdom, and stating the impossibility of his resuming the embassy at paris. and at last the queen wrote to the states-general to say that, having heard their intention to send him back to a post "from which he had taken leave formally and officially," she wished to prevent such a step. "we should see m. aerssens less willingly than comports with our friendship for you and good neighbourhood. any other you could send would be most welcome, as m. du maurier will explain to you more amply." and to du maurier himself she wrote distinctly, "rather than suffer the return of the said aerssens, you will declare that for causes which regard the good of our affairs and our particular satisfaction we cannot and will not receive him in the functions which he has exercised here, and we rely too implicitly upon the good friendship of my lords the states to do anything in this that would so much displease us." and on the same day villeroy privately wrote to the ambassador, "if, in spite of all this, aerssens should endeavour to return, he will not be received, after the knowledge we have of his factious spirit, most dangerous in a public personage in a state such as ours and in the minority of the king." meantime aerssens had been going about flaunting letters in everybody's face from the duc de bouillon insisting on the necessity of his return! the fact in itself would have been sufficient to warrant his removal, for the duke was just taking up arms against his sovereign. unless the states meant to interfere officially and directly in the civil war about to break out in france, they could hardly send a minister to the government on recommendation of the leader of the rebellion. it had, however, become impossible to remove him without an explosion. barneveld, who, said du maurier, "knew the man to his finger nails," had been reluctant to "break the ice," and wished for official notice in the matter from the queen. maurice protected the troublesome diplomatist. "'tis incredible," said the french ambassador "how covertly prince maurice is carrying himself, contrary to his wont, in this whole affair. i don't know whether it is from simple jealousy to barneveld, or if there is some mystery concealed below the surface." du maurier had accordingly been obliged to ask his government for distinct and official instructions. "he holds to his place," said he, "by so slight and fragile a root as not to require two hands to pluck him up, the little finger being enough. there is no doubt that he has been in concert with those who are making use of him to re-establish their credit with the states, and to embark prince maurice contrary to his preceding custom in a cabal with them." thus a question of removing an obnoxious diplomatist could hardly be graver, for it was believed that he was doing his best to involve the military chief of his own state in a game of treason and rebellion against the government to which he was accredited. it was not the first nor likely to be the last of bouillon's deadly intrigues. but the man who had been privy to biron's conspiracy against the crown and life of his sovereign was hardly a safe ally for his brother-in-law, the straightforward stadholder. the instructions desired by du maurier and by barneveld had, as we have seen, at last arrived. the french ambassador thus fortified appeared before the assembly of the states-general and officially demanded the recall of aerssens. in a letter addressed privately and confidentially to their mightinesses, he said, "if in spite of us you throw him at our feet, we shall fling him back at your head." at last maurice yielded to, the representations of the french envoy, and aerssens felt obliged to resign his claims to the post. the states- general passed a resolution that it would be proper to employ him in some other capacity in order to show that his services had been agreeable to them, he having now declared that he could no longer be useful in france. maurice, seeing that it was impossible to save him, admitted to du maurier his unsteadiness and duplicity, and said that, if possessed of the confidence of a great king, he would be capable of destroying the state in less than a year. but this had not always been the prince's opinion, nor was it likely to remain unchanged. as for villeroy, he denied flatly that the cause of his displeasure had been that aerssens had penetrated into his most secret affairs. he protested, on the contrary, that his annoyance with him had partly proceeded from the slight acquaintance he had acquired of his policy, and that, while boasting to be better informed than any one, he was in the habit of inventing and imagining things in order to get credit for himself. it was highly essential that the secret of this affair should be made clear; for its influence on subsequent events was to be deep and wide. for the moment aerssens remained without employment, and there was no open rupture with barneveld. the only difference of opinion between the advocate and himself, he said, was whether he had or had not definitely resigned his post on leaving paris. meantime it was necessary to fix upon a successor for this most important post. the war soon after the new year had broken out in france. conde, bouillon, and the other malcontent princes with their followers had taken possession of the fortress of mezieres, and issued a letter in the name of conde to the queen-regent demanding an assembly of the states-general of the kingdom and rupture of the spanish marriages. both parties, that of the government and that of the rebellion, sought the sympathy and active succour of the states. maurice, acting now in perfect accord with the advocate, sustained the queen and execrated the rebellion of his relatives with perfect frankness. conde, he said, had got his head stuffed full of almanacs whose predictions he wished to see realized. he vowed he would have shortened by a head the commander of the garrison who betrayed mezieres, if he had been under his control. he forbade on pain of death the departure of any officer or private of the french regiments from serving the rebels, and placed the whole french force at the disposal of the queen, with as many netherland regiments as could be spared. one soldier was hanged and three others branded with the mark of a gibbet on the face for attempting desertion. the legal government was loyally sustained by the authority of the states, notwithstanding all the intrigues of aerssens with the agents of the princes to procure them assistance. the mutiny for the time was brief, and was settled on the th of may , by the peace of sainte-menehould, as much a caricature of a treaty as the rising had been the parody of a war. van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld, who had been charged with a special and temporary mission to france, brought back the terms, of the convention to the states-general. on the other hand, conde and his confederates sent a special agent to the netherlands to give their account of the war and the negotiation, who refused to confer either with du maurier or barneveld, but who held much conference with aerssens. it was obvious enough that the mutiny of the princes would become chronic. in truth, what other condition was possible with two characters like mary de' medici and the prince of conde respectively at the head of the government and the revolt? what had france to hope for but to remain the bloody playground for mischievous idiots, who threw about the firebrands and arrows of reckless civil war in pursuit of the paltriest of personal aims? van der myle had pretensions to the vacant place of aerssens. he had some experience in diplomacy. he had conducted skilfully enough the first mission of the states to venice, and had subsequently been employed in matters of moment. but he was son-in-law to barneveld, and although the advocate was certainly not free from the charge of nepotism, he shrank from the reproach of having apparently removed aerssens to make a place for one of his own family. van der myle remained to bear the brunt of the late ambassador's malice, and to engage at a little later period in hottest controversy with him, personal and political. "why should van der myle strut about, with his arms akimbo like a peacock?" complained aerssens one day in confused metaphor. a question not easy to answer satisfactorily. the minister selected was a certain baron asperen de langerac, wholly unversed in diplomacy or other public affairs, with abilities not above the average. a series of questions addressed by him to the advocate, the answers to which, scrawled on the margin of the paper, were to serve for his general instructions, showed an ingenuousness as amusing as the replies of barneveld were experienced and substantial. in general he was directed to be friendly and respectful to every one, to the queen-regent and her counsellors especially, and, within the limits of becoming reverence for her, to cultivate the good graces of the prince of conde and the other great nobles still malcontent and rebellious, but whose present movement, as barneveld foresaw, was drawing rapidly to a close. langerac arrived in paris on the th of april . du maurier thought the new ambassador likely to "fall a prey to the specious language and gentle attractions of the due de bouillon." he also described him as very dependent upon prince maurice. on the other hand langerac professed unbounded and almost childlike reverence for barneveld, was devoted to his person, and breathed as it were only through his inspiration. time would show whether those sentiments would outlast every possible storm. chapter x weakness of the rulers of france and england--the wisdom of barneveld inspires jealousy--sir dudley carleton succeeds winwood-- young neuburg under the guidance of maximilian--barneveld strives to have the treaty of xanten enforced--spain and the emperor wish to make the states abandon their position with regard to the duchies-- the french government refuses to aid the states--spain and the emperor resolve to hold wesel--the great religious war begun--the protestant union and catholic league both wish to secure the border provinces--troubles in turkey--spanish fleet seizes la roche--spain places large armies on a war footing. few things are stranger in history than the apathy with which the wide designs of the catholic party were at that moment regarded. the preparations for the immense struggle which posterity learned to call the thirty years' war, and to shudder when speaking of it, were going forward on every side. in truth the war had really begun, yet those most deeply menaced by it at the outset looked on with innocent calmness because their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze. the passage of arms in the duchies, the outlines of which have just been indicated, and which was the natural sequel of the campaign carried out four years earlier on the same territory, had been ended by a mockery. in france, reduced almost to imbecility by the absence of a guiding brain during a long minority, fallen under the distaff of a dowager both weak and wicked, distracted by the intrigues and quarrels of a swarm of self-seeking grandees, and with all its offices, from highest to lowest, of court, state, jurisprudence, and magistracy, sold as openly and as cynically as the commonest wares, there were few to comprehend or to grapple with the danger. it should have seemed obvious to the meanest capacity in the kingdom that the great house of austria, reigning supreme in spain and in germany, could not be allowed to crush the duke of savoy on the one side, and bohemia, moravia, and the netherlands on the other without danger of subjection for france. yet the aim of the queen-regent was to cultivate an impossible alliance with her inevitable foe. and in england, ruled as it then was with no master mind to enforce against its sovereign the great lessons of policy, internal and external, on which its welfare and almost its imperial existence depended, the only ambition of those who could make their opinions felt was to pursue the same impossibility, intimate alliance with the universal foe. any man with slightest pretensions to statesmanship knew that the liberty for protestant worship in imperial germany, extorted by force, had been given reluctantly, and would be valid only as long as that force could still be exerted or should remain obviously in reserve. the "majesty-letter" and the "convention" of the two religions would prove as flimsy as the parchment on which they were engrossed, the protestant churches built under that sanction would be shattered like glass, if once the catholic rulers could feel their hands as clear as their consciences would be for violating their sworn faith to heretics. men knew, even if the easy-going and uxorious emperor, into which character the once busy and turbulent archduke matthias had subsided, might be willing to keep his pledges, that ferdinand of styria, who would soon succeed him, and maximilian of bavaria were men who knew their own minds, and had mentally never resigned one inch of the ground which protestantism imagined itself to have conquered. these things seem plain as daylight to all who look back upon them through the long vista of the past; but the sovereign of england did not see them or did not choose to see them. he saw only the infanta and her two millions of dowry, and he knew that by calling parliament together to ask subsidies for an anti-catholic war he should ruin those golden matrimonial prospects for his son, while encouraging those "shoemakers," his subjects, to go beyond their "last," by consulting the representatives of his people on matters pertaining to the mysteries of government. he was slowly digging the grave of the monarchy and building the scaffold of his son; but he did his work with a laborious and pedantic trifling, when really engaged in state affairs, most amazing to contemplate. he had no penny to give to the cause in which his nearest relatives mere so deeply involved and for which his only possible allies were pledged; but he was ready to give advice to all parties, and with ludicrous gravity imagined himself playing the umpire between great contending hosts, when in reality he was only playing the fool at the beck of masters before whom he quaked. "you are not to vilipend my counsel," said he one day to a foreign envoy. "i am neither a camel nor an ass to take up all this work on my shoulders. where would you find another king as willing to do it as i am?" the king had little time and no money to give to serve his own family and allies and the cause of protestantism, but he could squander vast sums upon worthless favourites, and consume reams of paper on controverted points of divinity. the appointment of vorstius to the chair of theology in leyden aroused more indignation in his bosom, and occupied more of his time, than the conquests of spinola in the duchies, and the menaces of spain against savoy and bohemia. he perpetually preached moderation to the states in the matter of the debateable territory, although moderation at that moment meant submission to the house of austria. he chose to affect confidence in the good faith of those who were playing a comedy by which no statesman could be deceived, but which had secured the approbation of the solomon of the age. but there was one man who was not deceived. the warnings and the lamentations of barneveld sound to us out of that far distant time like the voice of an inspired prophet. it is possible that a portion of the wrath to come might have been averted had there been many men in high places to heed his voice. i do not wish to exaggerate the power and wisdom of the man, nor to set him forth as one of the greatest heroes of history. but posterity has done far less than justice to a statesman and sage who wielded a vast influence at a most critical period in the fate of christendom, and uniformly wielded it to promote the cause of temperate human liberty, both political and religious. viewed by the light of two centuries and a half of additional experience, he may appear to have made mistakes, but none that were necessarily disastrous or even mischievous. compared with the prevailing idea of the age in which he lived, his schemes of polity seem to dilate into large dimensions, his sentiments of religious freedom, however limited to our modern ideas, mark an epoch in human progress, and in regard to the general commonwealth of christendom, of which he was so leading a citizen, the part he played was a lofty one. no man certainly understood the tendency of his age more exactly, took a broader and more comprehensive view than he did of the policy necessary to preserve the largest portion of the results of the past three-quarters of a century, or had pondered the relative value of great conflicting forces more skilfully. had his counsels been always followed, had illustrious birth placed him virtually upon a throne, as was the case with william the silent, and thus allowed him occasionally to carry out the designs of a great mind with almost despotic authority, it might have been better for the world. but in that age it was royal blood alone that could command unflinching obedience without exciting personal rivalry. men quailed before his majestic intellect, but hated him for the power which was its necessary result. they already felt a stupid delight in cavilling at his pedigree. to dispute his claim to a place among the ancient nobility to which he was an honour was to revenge themselves for the rank he unquestionably possessed side by side in all but birth with the kings and rulers of the world. whether envy and jealousy be vices more incident to the republican form of government than to other political systems may be an open question. but it is no question whatever that barneveld's every footstep from this period forward was dogged by envy as patient as it was devouring. jealousy stuck to him like his shadow. we have examined the relations which existed between winwood and himself; we have seen that ambassador, now secretary of state for james, never weary in denouncing the advocate's haughtiness and grim resolution to govern the country according to its laws rather than at the dictate of a foreign sovereign, and in flinging forth malicious insinuations in regard to his relations to spain. the man whose every hour was devoted in spite of a thousand obstacles strewn by stupidity, treachery, and apathy, as well as by envy, hatred, and bigotry--to the organizing of a grand and universal league of protestantism against spain, and to rolling up with strenuous and sometimes despairing arms a dead mountain weight, ever ready to fall back upon and crush him, was accused in dark and mysterious whispers, soon to grow louder and bolder, of a treacherous inclination for spain. there is nothing less surprising nor more sickening for those who observe public life, and wish to retain faith in the human species, than the almost infinite power of the meanest of passions. the advocate was obliged at the very outset of langerac's mission to france to give him a warning on this subject. "should her majesty make kindly mention of me," he said, "you will say nothing of it in your despatches as you did in your last, although i am sure with the best intentions. it profits me not, and many take umbrage at it; wherefore it is wise to forbear." but this was a trifle. by and by there would be many to take umbrage at every whisper in his favour, whether from crowned heads or from the simplest in the social scale. meantime he instructed the ambassador, without paying heed to personal compliments to his chief, to do his best to keep the french government out of the hands of spain, and with that object in view to smooth over the differences between the two great parties in the kingdom, and to gain the confidence, if possible, of conde and nevers and bouillon, while never failing in straightforward respect and loyal friendship to the queen-regent and her ministers, as the legitimate heads of the government. from england a new ambassador was soon to take the place of winwood. sir dudley carleton was a diplomatist of respectable abilities, and well trained to business and routine. perhaps on the whole there was none other, in that epoch of official mediocrity, more competent than he to fill what was then certainly the most important of foreign posts. his course of life had in no wise familiarized him with the intricacies of the dutch constitution, nor could the diplomatic profession, combined with a long residence at venice, be deemed especially favourable for deep studies of the mysteries of predestination. yet he would be found ready at the bidding of his master to grapple with grotius and barneveld on the field of history and law, and thread with uytenbogaert or taurinus all the subtleties of arminianism and gomarism as if he had been half his life both a regular practitioner at the supreme court of the hague and professor of theology at the university of leyden. whether the triumphs achieved in such encounters were substantial and due entirely to his own genius might be doubtful. at all events he had a sovereign behind him who was incapable of making a mistake on any subject. "you shall not forget," said james in his instructions to sir dudley, "that you are the minister of that master whom god hath made the sole protector of his religion . . . . . and you may let fall how hateful the maintaining of erroneous opinions is to the majesty of god and how displeasing to us." the warlike operations of had been ended by the abortive peace of xanten. the two rival pretenders to the duchies were to halve the territory, drawing lots for the first choice, all foreign troops were to be withdrawn, and a pledge was to be given that no fortress should be placed in the hands of any power. but spain at the last moment had refused to sanction the treaty, and everything was remitted to what might be exactly described as a state of sixes and sevens. subsequently it was hoped that the states' troops might be induced to withdraw simultaneously with the catholic forces on an undertaking by spinola that there should be no re-occupation of the disputed territory either by the republic or by spain. but barneveld accurately pointed out that, although the marquis was a splendid commander and, so long as he was at the head of the armies, a most powerful potentate, he might be superseded at any moment. count bucquoy, for example, might suddenly appear in his place and refuse to be bound by any military arrangement of his predecessor. then the archduke proposed to give a guarantee that in case of a mutual withdrawal there should be no return of the troops, no recapture of garrisons. but barneveld, speaking for the states, liked not the security. the archduke was but the puppet of spain, and spain had no part in the guarantee. she held the strings, and might cause him at any moment to play what pranks she chose. it would be the easiest thing in the world for despotic spain, so the advocate thought, to reappear suddenly in force again at a moment's notice after the states' troops had been withdrawn and partially disbanded, and it would be difficult for the many-headed and many-tongued republic to act with similar promptness. to withdraw without a guarantee from spain to the treaty of xanten, which had once been signed, sealed, and all but ratified, would be to give up fifty points in the game. nothing but disaster could ensue. the advocate as leader in all these negotiations and correspondence was ever actuated by the favourite quotation of william the silent from demosthenes, that the safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust. and he always distrusted in these dealings, for he was sure the spanish cabinet was trying to make fools of the states, and there were many ready to assist it in the task. now that one of the pretenders, temporary master of half the duchies, the prince of neuburg, had espoused both catholicism and the sister of the archbishop of cologne and the duke of bavaria, it would be more safe than ever for spain to make a temporary withdrawal. maximilian of bavaria was beyond all question the ablest and most determined leader of the catholic party in germany, and the most straightforward and sincere. no man before or since his epoch had, like him, been destined to refuse, and more than once refuse, the imperial crown. through his apostasy the prince of neuburg was in danger of losing his hereditary estates, his brothers endeavouring to dispossess him on the ground of the late duke's will, disinheriting any one of his heirs who should become a convert to catholicism. he had accordingly implored aid from the king of spain. archduke albert had urged philip to render such assistance as a matter of justice, and the emperor had naturally declared that the whole right as eldest son belonged, notwithstanding the will, to the prince. with the young neuburg accordingly under the able guidance of maximilian, it was not likely that the grasp of the spanish party upon these all- important territories would be really loosened. the emperor still claimed the right to decide among the candidates and to hold the provinces under sequestration till the decision should be made--that was to say, until the greek kalends. the original attempt to do this through archduke leopold had been thwarted, as we have seen, by the prompt movements of maurice sustained by the policy of barneveld. the advocate was resolved that the emperor's name should not be mentioned either in the preamble or body of the treaty. and his course throughout the simulations, which were never negotiations, was perpetually baffled as much by the easiness and languor of his allies as the ingenuity of the enemy. he was reproached with the loss of wesel, that geneva of the rhine, which would never be abandoned by spain if it was not done forthwith. let spain guarantee the treaty of xanten, he said, and then she cannot come back. all else is illusion. moreover, the emperor had given positive orders that wesel should not be given up. he was assured by villeroy that france would never put on her harness for aachen, that cradle of protestantism. that was for the states-general to do, whom it so much more nearly concerned. the whole aim of barneveld was not to destroy the treaty of xanten, but to enforce it in the only way in which it could be enforced, by the guarantee of spain. so secured, it would be a barrier in the universal war of religion which he foresaw was soon to break out. but it was the resolve of spain, instead of pledging herself to the treaty, to establish the legal control of the territory in the hand of the emperor. neuburg complained that philip in writing to him did not give him the title of duke of julich and cleve, although be had been placed in possession of those estates by the arms of spain. philip, referring to archduke albert for his opinion on this subject, was advised that, as the emperor had not given neuburg the investiture of the duchies, the king was quite right in refusing him the title. even should the treaty of xanten be executed, neither he nor the elector of brandenburg would be anything but administrators until the question of right was decided by the emperor. spain had sent neuburg the order of the golden fleece as a reward for his conversion, but did not intend him to be anything but a man of straw in the territories which he claimed by sovereign right. they were to form a permanent bulwark to the empire, to spain, and to catholicism. barneveld of course could never see the secret letters passing between brussels and madrid, but his insight into the purposes of the enemy was almost as acute as if the correspondence of philip and albert had been in the pigeonholes of his writing-desk in the kneuterdyk. the whole object of spain and the emperor, acting through the archduke, was to force the states to abandon their positions in the duchies simultaneously with the withdrawal of the spanish troops, and to be satisfied with a bare convention between themselves and archduke albert that there should be no renewed occupation by either party. barneveld, finding it impossible to get spain upon the treaty, was resolved that at least the two mediating powers, their great allies, the sovereigns of great britain and france, should guarantee the convention, and that the promises of the archduke should be made to them. this was steadily refused by spain; for the archduke never moved an inch in the matter except according to the orders of spain, and besides battling and buffeting with the archduke, barneveld was constantly deafened with the clamour of the english king, who always declared spain to be in the right whatever she did, and forced to endure with what patience he might the goading of that king's envoy. france, on the other hand, supported the states as firmly as could have been reasonably expected. "we proposed," said the archduke, instructing an envoy whom he was sending to madrid with detailed accounts of these negotiations, "that the promise should be made to each other as usual in treaties. but the hollanders said the promise should be made to the kings of france and england, at which the emperor would have been deeply offended, as if in the affair he was of no account at all. at any moment by this arrangement in concert with france and england the hollanders might walk in and do what they liked." certainly there could have been no succincter eulogy of the policy steadily recommended, as we shall have occasion to see, by barneveld. had he on this critical occasion been backed by england and france combined, spain would have been forced to beat a retreat, and protestantism in the great general war just beginning would have had an enormous advantage in position. but the english solomon could not see the wisdom of this policy. "the king of england says we are right," continued the archduke, "and has ordered his ambassador to insist on our view. the french ambassador here says that his colleague at the hague has similar instructions, but admits that he has not acted up to them. there is not much chance of the hollanders changing. it would be well that the king should send a written ultimatum that the hollanders should sign the convention which we propose. if they don't agree, the world at least will see that it is not we who are in fault." the world would see, and would never have forgiven a statesman in the position of barneveld, had he accepted a bald agreement from a subordinate like the archduke, a perfectly insignificant personage in the great drama then enacting, and given up guarantees both from the archduke's master and from the two great allies of the republic. he stood out manfully against spain and england at every hazard, and under a pelting storm of obloquy, and this was the man whose designs the english secretary of state had dared to describe "as of no other nature than to cause the provinces to relapse into the hands of spain." it appeared too a little later that barneveld's influence with the french government, owing to his judicious support of it so long as it was a government, had been decidedly successful. drugged as france was by the spanish marriage treaty, she was yet not so sluggish nor spell-bound as the king of great britain. "france will not urge upon the hollanders to execute the proposal as we made it," wrote the archduke to the king, "so negotiations are at a standstill. the hollanders say it is better that each party should remain with what each possesses. so that if it does not come to blows, and if these insolences go on as they have done, the hollanders will be gaining and occupying more territory every day." thus once more the ancient enemies and masters of the republic were making the eulogy of the dutch statesman. it was impossible at present for the states to regain wesel, nor that other early stronghold of the reformation, the old imperial city of aachen (aix-la-chapelle). the price to be paid was too exorbitant. the french government had persistently refused to assist the states and possessory princes in the recovery of this stronghold. the queen-regent was afraid of offending spain, although her government had induced the citizens of the place to make the treaty now violated by that country. the dutch ambassador had been instructed categorically to enquire whether their majesties meant to assist aachen and the princes if attacked by the archdukes. "no," said villeroy; "we are not interested in aachen, 'tis too far off. let them look for assistance to those who advised their mutiny." to the ambassador's remonstrance that france was both interested in and pledged to them, the secretary of state replied, "we made the treaty through compassion and love, but we shall not put on harness for aachen. don't think it. you, the states and the united provinces, may assist them if you like." the envoy then reminded the minister that the states-general had always agreed to go forward evenly in this business with the kings of great britain and france and the united princes, the matter being of equal importance to all. they had given no further pledge than this to the union. it was plain, however, that france was determined not to lift a finger at that moment. the duke of bouillon and those acting with him had tried hard to induce their majesties "to write seriously to the archduke in order at least to intimidate him by stiff talk," but it was hopeless. they thought it was not a time then to quarrel with their neighbour and give offence to spain. so the stiff talk was omitted, and the archduke was not intimidated. the man who had so often intimidated him was in his grave, and his widow was occupied in marrying her son to the infanta. "these are the first- fruits," said aerssens, "of the new negotiations with spain." both the spanish king and the emperor were resolved to hold wesel to the very last. until the states should retire from all their positions on the bare word of the archduke, that the spanish forces once withdrawn would never return, the protestants of those two cities must suffer. there was no help for it. to save them would be to abandon all. for no true statesman could be so ingenuous as thus to throw all the cards on the table for the spanish and imperial cabinet to shuffle them at pleasure for a new deal. the duke of neuburg, now catholic and especially protected by spain, had become, instead of a pretender with more or less law on his side, a mere standard-bearer and agent of the great catholic league in the debateable land. he was to be supported at all hazard by the spanish forces, according to the express command of philip's government, especially now that his two brothers with the countenance of the states were disputing his right to his hereditary dominions in germany. the archduke was sullen enough at what he called the weak-mindedness of france. notwithstanding that by express orders from spain he had sent troops under command of juan de rivas to the queen's assistance just before the peace of sainte-menehould, he could not induce her government to take the firm part which the english king did in browbeating the hollanders. "'tis certain," he complained, "that if, instead of this sluggishness on the part of france, they had done us there the same good services we have had from england, the hollanders would have accepted the promise just as it was proposed by us." he implored the king, therefore, to use his strongest influence with the french government that it should strenuously intervene with the hollanders, and compel them to sign the proposal which they rejected. "there is no means of composition if france does not oblige them to sign," said albert rather piteously. but it was not without reason that barneveld had in many of his letters instructed the states' ambassador, langerac, "to caress the old gentleman" (meaning and never naming villeroy), for he would prove to be in spite of all obstacles a good friend to the states, as he always had been. and villeroy did hold firm. whether the archduke was right or not in his conviction, that, if france would only unite with england in exerting a strong pressure on the hollanders, they would evacuate the duchies, and so give up the game, the correspondence of barneveld shows very accurately. but the archduke, of course, had not seen that correspondence. the advocate knew what was plotting, what was impending, what was actually accomplished, for he was accustomed to sweep the whole horizon with an anxious and comprehensive glance. he knew without requiring to read the secret letters of the enemy that vast preparations for an extensive war against the reformation were already completed. the movements in the duchies were the first drops of a coming deluge. the great religious war which was to last a generation of mankind had already begun; the immediate and apparent pretext being a little disputed succession to some petty sovereignties, the true cause being the necessity for each great party--the protestant union and the catholic league--to secure these border provinces, the possession of which would be of such inestimable advantage to either. if nothing decisive occurred in the year , the following year would still be more convenient for the league. there had been troubles in turkey. the grand vizier had been murdered. the sultan was engaged in a war with persia. there was no eastern bulwark in europe to the ever menacing power of the turk and of mahometanism in europe save hungary alone. supported and ruled as that kingdom was by the house of austria, the temper of the populations of germany had become such as to make it doubtful in the present conflict of religious opinions between them and their rulers whether the turk or the spaniard would be most odious as an invader. but for the moment, spain and the emperor had their hands free. they were not in danger of an attack from below the danube. moreover, the spanish fleet had been achieving considerable successes on the barbary coast, having seized la roche, and one or two important citadels, useful both against the corsairs and against sudden attacks by sea from the turk. there were at least , men on a war footing ready to take the field at command of the two branches of the house of austria, spanish and german. in the little war about montserrat, savoy was on the point of being crushed, and savoy was by position and policy the only possible ally, in the south, of the netherlands and of protestant germany. while professing the most pacific sentiments towards the states, and a profound anxiety to withdraw his troops from their borders, the king of spain, besides daily increasing those forces, had just raised , , ducats, a large portion of which was lodged with his bankers in brussels. deeds like those were of more significance than sugared words. etext editor's bookmarks: almost infinite power of the meanest of passions ludicrous gravity safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured the history of the thirty years' war by frederick schiller translated from the german by the rev. a. j. w. morrison, m.a. preface the present is the only collected edition of the principal works of schiller which is accessible to english readers. detached poems or dramas have been translated at various times, and sometimes by men of eminence, since the first publication of the original works; and in several instances these versions have been incorporated, after some revision or necessary correction, into the following collection; but on the other hand a large proportion of the contents have been specially translated for this edition, in which category are the historical works which occupy this volume and a portion of the next. schiller was not less efficiently qualified by nature for an historian than for a dramatist. he was formed to excel in all departments of literature, and the admirable lucidity of style and soundness and impartiality of judgment displayed in his historical writings will not easily by surpassed, and will always recommend them as popular expositions of the periods of which they treat. since the first publication of this edition many corrections and improvements have been made, with a view to rendering it as acceptable as possible to english readers. contents history of the thirty years' war book i. introduction. -- general effects of the reformation. -- revolt of matthias. -- the emperor cedes austria and hungary to him. -- matthias acknowledged king of bohemia. -- the elector of cologne abjures the catholic religion. -- consequences. -- the elector palatine. -- dispute respecting the succession of juliers. -- designs of henry iv. of france. -- formation of the union. -- the league. -- death of the emperor rodolph. -- matthias succeeds him. -- troubles in bohemia. -- civil war. -- ferdinand extirpates the protestant religion from styria. -- the elector palatine, frederick v., is chosen king by the bohemians. -- he accepts the crown of bohemia. -- bethlen gabor, prince of transylvania, invades austria. -- the duke of bavaria and the princes of the league embrace the cause of ferdinand. -- the union arm for frederick. -- the battle of prague and total subjection of bohemia. book ii. state of the empire. -- of europe. -- mansfeld. -- christian, duke of brunswick. -- wallenstein raises an imperial army at his own expense. -- the king of denmark defeated. -- death of mansfeld. -- edict of restitution in . -- diet at ratisbon. -- negociations. -- wallenstein deprived of the command. -- gustavus adolphus. -- swedish army. -- gustavus adolphus takes his leave of the states at stockholm. -- invasion by the swedes. -- their progress in germany. -- count tilly takes the command of the imperial troops. -- treaty with france. -- congress at leipzig. -- siege and cruel fate of magdeburg. -- firmness of the landgrave of cassel. -- junction of the saxons with the swedes. -- battle of leipzig. -- consequences of that victory. book iii. situation of gustavus adolphus after the battle of leipzig. -- progress of gustavus adolphus. -- the french invade lorraine. -- frankfort taken. -- capitulation of mentz. -- tilly ordered by maximilian to protect bavaria. -- gustavus adolphus passes the lech. -- defeat and death of tilly. -- gustavus takes munich. -- the saxon army invades bohemia, and takes prague. -- distress of the emperor. -- secret triumph of wallenstein. -- he offers to join gustavus adolphus. -- wallenstein re-assumes the command. -- junction of wallenstein with the bavarians. -- gustavus adolphus defends nuremberg. -- attacks wallenstein's intrenchments. -- enters saxony. -- goes to the succour of the elector of saxony. -- marches against wallenstein. -- battle of lutzen. -- death of gustavus adolphus. -- situation of germany after the battle of lutzen. book iv. closer alliance between france and sweden. -- oxenstiern takes the direction of affairs. -- death of the elector palatine. -- revolt of the swedish officers. -- duke bernhard takes ratisbon. -- wallenstein enters silesia. -- forms treasonable designs. -- forsaken by the army. -- retires to egra. -- his associates put to death. -- wallenstein's death. -- his character. book v. battle of nordlingen. -- france enters into an alliance against austria. -- treaty of prague. -- saxony joins the emperor. -- battle of wistock gained by the swedes. -- battle of rheinfeld gained by bernhard, duke of weimar. -- he takes brisach. -- his death. -- death of ferdinand ii. -- ferdinand iii. succeeds him. -- celebrated retreat of banner in pomerania. -- his successes. -- death. -- torstensohn takes the command. -- death of richelieu and louis xiii. -- swedish victory at jankowitz. -- french defeated at freyburg. -- battle of nordlingen gained by turenne and conde. -- wrangel takes the command of the swedish army. -- melander made commander of the emperor's army. -- the elector of bavaria breaks the armistice. -- he adopts the same policy towards the emperor as france towards the swedes. -- the weimerian cavalry go over to the swedes. -- conquest of new prague by koenigsmark, and termination of the thirty years' war. history of the thirty years' war in germany. book i. from the beginning of the religious wars in germany, to the peace of munster, scarcely any thing great or remarkable occurred in the political world of europe in which the reformation had not an important share. all the events of this period, if they did not originate in, soon became mixed up with, the question of religion, and no state was either too great or too little to feel directly or indirectly more or less of its influence. against the reformed doctrine and its adherents, the house of austria directed, almost exclusively, the whole of its immense political power. in france, the reformation had enkindled a civil war which, under four stormy reigns, shook the kingdom to its foundations, brought foreign armies into the heart of the country, and for half a century rendered it the scene of the most mournful disorders. it was the reformation, too, that rendered the spanish yoke intolerable to the flemings, and awakened in them both the desire and the courage to throw off its fetters, while it also principally furnished them with the means of their emancipation. and as to england, all the evils with which philip the second threatened elizabeth, were mainly intended in revenge for her having taken his protestant subjects under her protection, and placing herself at the head of a religious party which it was his aim and endeavour to extirpate. in germany, the schisms in the church produced also a lasting political schism, which made that country for more than a century the theatre of confusion, but at the same time threw up a firm barrier against political oppression. it was, too, the reformation principally that first drew the northern powers, denmark and sweden, into the political system of europe; and while on the one hand the protestant league was strengthened by their adhesion, it on the other was indispensable to their interests. states which hitherto scarcely concerned themselves with one another's existence, acquired through the reformation an attractive centre of interest, and began to be united by new political sympathies. and as through its influence new relations sprang up between citizen and citizen, and between rulers and subjects, so also entire states were forced by it into new relative positions. thus, by a strange course of events, religious disputes were the means of cementing a closer union among the nations of europe. fearful indeed, and destructive, was the first movement in which this general political sympathy announced itself; a desolating war of thirty years, which, from the interior of bohemia to the mouth of the scheldt, and from the banks of the po to the coasts of the baltic, devastated whole countries, destroyed harvests, and reduced towns and villages to ashes; which opened a grave for many thousand combatants, and for half a century smothered the glimmering sparks of civilization in germany, and threw back the improving manners of the country into their pristine barbarity and wildness. yet out of this fearful war europe came forth free and independent. in it she first learned to recognize herself as a community of nations; and this intercommunion of states, which originated in the thirty years' war, may alone be sufficient to reconcile the philosopher to its horrors. the hand of industry has slowly but gradually effaced the traces of its ravages, while its beneficent influence still survives; and this general sympathy among the states of europe, which grew out of the troubles in bohemia, is our guarantee for the continuance of that peace which was the result of the war. as the sparks of destruction found their way from the interior of bohemia, moravia, and austria, to kindle germany, france, and the half of europe, so also will the torch of civilization make a path for itself from the latter to enlighten the former countries. all this was effected by religion. religion alone could have rendered possible all that was accomplished, but it was far from being the sole motive of the war. had not private advantages and state interests been closely connected with it, vain and powerless would have been the arguments of theologians; and the cry of the people would never have met with princes so willing to espouse their cause, nor the new doctrines have found such numerous, brave, and persevering champions. the reformation is undoubtedly owing in a great measure to the invincible power of truth, or of opinions which were held as such. the abuses in the old church, the absurdity of many of its dogmas, the extravagance of its requisitions, necessarily revolted the tempers of men, already half-won with the promise of a better light, and favourably disposed them towards the new doctrines. the charm of independence, the rich plunder of monastic institutions, made the reformation attractive in the eyes of princes, and tended not a little to strengthen their inward convictions. nothing, however, but political considerations could have driven them to espouse it. had not charles the fifth, in the intoxication of success, made an attempt on the independence of the german states, a protestant league would scarcely have rushed to arms in defence of freedom of belief; but for the ambition of the guises, the calvinists in france would never have beheld a conde or a coligny at their head. without the exaction of the tenth and the twentieth penny, the see of rome had never lost the united netherlands. princes fought in self-defence or for aggrandizement, while religious enthusiasm recruited their armies, and opened to them the treasures of their subjects. of the multitude who flocked to their standards, such as were not lured by the hope of plunder imagined they were fighting for the truth, while in fact they were shedding their blood for the personal objects of their princes. and well was it for the people that, on this occasion, their interests coincided with those of their princes. to this coincidence alone were they indebted for their deliverance from popery. well was it also for the rulers, that the subject contended too for his own cause, while he was fighting their battles. fortunately at this date no european sovereign was so absolute as to be able, in the pursuit of his political designs, to dispense with the goodwill of his subjects. yet how difficult was it to gain and to set to work this goodwill! the most impressive arguments drawn from reasons of state fall powerless on the ear of the subject, who seldom understands, and still more rarely is interested in them. in such circumstances, the only course open to a prudent prince is to connect the interests of the cabinet with some one that sits nearer to the people's heart, if such exists, or if not, to create it. in such a position stood the greater part of those princes who embraced the cause of the reformation. by a strange concatenation of events, the divisions of the church were associated with two circumstances, without which, in all probability, they would have had a very different conclusion. these were, the increasing power of the house of austria, which threatened the liberties of europe, and its active zeal for the old religion. the first aroused the princes, while the second armed the people. the abolition of a foreign jurisdiction within their own territories, the supremacy in ecclesiastical matters, the stopping of the treasure which had so long flowed to rome, the rich plunder of religious foundations, were tempting advantages to every sovereign. why, then, it may be asked, did they not operate with equal force upon the princes of the house of austria? what prevented this house, particularly in its german branch, from yielding to the pressing demands of so many of its subjects, and, after the example of other princes, enriching itself at the expense of a defenceless clergy? it is difficult to credit that a belief in the infallibility of the romish church had any greater influence on the pious adherence of this house, than the opposite conviction had on the revolt of the protestant princes. in fact, several circumstances combined to make the austrian princes zealous supporters of popery. spain and italy, from which austria derived its principal strength, were still devoted to the see of rome with that blind obedience which, ever since the days of the gothic dynasty, had been the peculiar characteristic of the spaniard. the slightest approximation, in a spanish prince, to the obnoxious tenets of luther and calvin, would have alienated for ever the affections of his subjects, and a defection from the pope would have cost him the kingdom. a spanish prince had no alternative but orthodoxy or abdication. the same restraint was imposed upon austria by her italian dominions, which she was obliged to treat, if possible, with even greater indulgence; impatient as they naturally were of a foreign yoke, and possessing also ready means of shaking it off. in regard to the latter provinces, moreover, the rival pretensions of france, and the neighbourhood of the pope, were motives sufficient to prevent the emperor from declaring in favour of a party which strove to annihilate the papal see, and also to induce him to show the most active zeal in behalf of the old religion. these general considerations, which must have been equally weighty with every spanish monarch, were, in the particular case of charles v., still further enforced by peculiar and personal motives. in italy this monarch had a formidable rival in the king of france, under whose protection that country might throw itself the instant that charles should incur the slightest suspicion of heresy. distrust on the part of the roman catholics, and a rupture with the church, would have been fatal also to many of his most cherished designs. moreover, when charles was first called upon to make his election between the two parties, the new doctrine had not yet attained to a full and commanding influence, and there still subsisted a prospect of its reconciliation with the old. in his son and successor, philip the second, a monastic education combined with a gloomy and despotic disposition to generate an unmitigated hostility to all innovations in religion; a feeling which the thought that his most formidable political opponents were also the enemies of his faith was not calculated to weaken. as his european possessions, scattered as they were over so many countries, were on all sides exposed to the seductions of foreign opinions, the progress of the reformation in other quarters could not well be a matter of indifference to him. his immediate interests, therefore, urged him to attach himself devotedly to the old church, in order to close up the sources of the heretical contagion. thus, circumstances naturally placed this prince at the head of the league which the roman catholics formed against the reformers. the principles which had actuated the long and active reigns of charles v. and philip the second, remained a law for their successors; and the more the breach in the church widened, the firmer became the attachment of the spaniards to roman catholicism. the german line of the house of austria was apparently more unfettered; but, in reality, though free from many of these restraints, it was yet confined by others. the possession of the imperial throne -- a dignity it was impossible for a protestant to hold, (for with what consistency could an apostate from the romish church wear the crown of a roman emperor?) bound the successors of ferdinand i. to the see of rome. ferdinand himself was, from conscientious motives, heartily attached to it. besides, the german princes of the house of austria were not powerful enough to dispense with the support of spain, which, however, they would have forfeited by the least show of leaning towards the new doctrines. the imperial dignity, also, required them to preserve the existing political system of germany, with which the maintenance of their own authority was closely bound up, but which it was the aim of the protestant league to destroy. if to these grounds we add the indifference of the protestants to the emperor's necessities and to the common dangers of the empire, their encroachments on the temporalities of the church, and their aggressive violence when they became conscious of their own power, we can easily conceive how so many concurring motives must have determined the emperors to the side of popery, and how their own interests came to be intimately interwoven with those of the roman church. as its fate seemed to depend altogether on the part taken by austria, the princes of this house came to be regarded by all europe as the pillars of popery. the hatred, therefore, which the protestants bore against the latter, was turned exclusively upon austria; and the cause became gradually confounded with its protector. but this irreconcileable enemy of the reformation -- the house of austria -- by its ambitious projects and the overwhelming force which it could bring to their support, endangered, in no small degree, the freedom of europe, and more especially of the german states. this circumstance could not fail to rouse the latter from their security, and to render them vigilant in self-defence. their ordinary resources were quite insufficient to resist so formidable a power. extraordinary exertions were required from their subjects; and when even these proved far from adequate, they had recourse to foreign assistance; and, by means of a common league, they endeavoured to oppose a power which, singly, they were unable to withstand. but the strong political inducements which the german princes had to resist the pretensions of the house of austria, naturally did not extend to their subjects. it is only immediate advantages or immediate evils that set the people in action, and for these a sound policy cannot wait. ill then would it have fared with these princes, if by good fortune another effectual motive had not offered itself, which roused the passions of the people, and kindled in them an enthusiasm which might be directed against the political danger, as having with it a common cause of alarm. this motive was their avowed hatred of the religion which austria protected, and their enthusiastic attachment to a doctrine which that house was endeavouring to extirpate by fire and sword. their attachment was ardent, their hatred invincible. religious fanaticism anticipates even the remotest dangers. enthusiasm never calculates its sacrifices. what the most pressing danger of the state could not gain from the citizens, was effected by religious zeal. for the state, or for the prince, few would have drawn the sword; but for religion, the merchant, the artist, the peasant, all cheerfully flew to arms. for the state, or for the prince, even the smallest additional impost would have been avoided; but for religion the people readily staked at once life, fortune, and all earthly hopes. it trebled the contributions which flowed into the exchequer of the princes, and the armies which marched to the field; and, in the ardent excitement produced in all minds by the peril to which their faith was exposed, the subject felt not the pressure of those burdens and privations under which, in cooler moments, he would have sunk exhausted. the terrors of the spanish inquisition, and the massacre of st. bartholomew's, procured for the prince of orange, the admiral coligny, the british queen elizabeth, and the protestant princes of germany, supplies of men and money from their subjects, to a degree which at present is inconceivable. but, with all their exertions, they would have effected little against a power which was an overmatch for any single adversary, however powerful. at this period of imperfect policy, accidental circumstances alone could determine distant states to afford one another a mutual support. the differences of government, of laws, of language, of manners, and of character, which hitherto had kept whole nations and countries as it were insulated, and raised a lasting barrier between them, rendered one state insensible to the distresses of another, save where national jealousy could indulge a malicious joy at the reverses of a rival. this barrier the reformation destroyed. an interest more intense and more immediate than national aggrandizement or patriotism, and entirely independent of private utility, began to animate whole states and individual citizens; an interest capable of uniting numerous and distant nations, even while it frequently lost its force among the subjects of the same government. with the inhabitants of geneva, for instance, of england, of germany, or of holland, the french calvinist possessed a common point of union which he had not with his own countrymen. thus, in one important particular, he ceased to be the citizen of a single state, and to confine his views and sympathies to his own country alone. the sphere of his views became enlarged. he began to calculate his own fate from that of other nations of the same religious profession, and to make their cause his own. now for the first time did princes venture to bring the affairs of other countries before their own councils; for the first time could they hope for a willing ear to their own necessities, and prompt assistance from others. foreign affairs had now become a matter of domestic policy, and that aid was readily granted to the religious confederate which would have been denied to the mere neighbour, and still more to the distant stranger. the inhabitant of the palatinate leaves his native fields to fight side by side with his religious associate of france, against the common enemy of their faith. the huguenot draws his sword against the country which persecutes him, and sheds his blood in defence of the liberties of holland. swiss is arrayed against swiss; german against german, to determine, on the banks of the loire and the seine, the succession of the french crown. the dane crosses the eider, and the swede the baltic, to break the chains which are forged for germany. it is difficult to say what would have been the fate of the reformation, and the liberties of the empire, had not the formidable power of austria declared against them. this, however, appears certain, that nothing so completely damped the austrian hopes of universal monarchy, as the obstinate war which they had to wage against the new religious opinions. under no other circumstances could the weaker princes have roused their subjects to such extraordinary exertions against the ambition of austria, or the states themselves have united so closely against the common enemy. the power of austria never stood higher than after the victory which charles v. gained over the germans at muehlberg. with the treaty of smalcalde the freedom of germany lay, as it seemed, prostrate for ever; but it revived under maurice of saxony, once its most formidable enemy. all the fruits of the victory of muehlberg were lost again in the congress of passau, and the diet of augsburg; and every scheme for civil and religious oppression terminated in the concessions of an equitable peace. the diet of augsburg divided germany into two religious and two political parties, by recognizing the independent rights and existence of both. hitherto the protestants had been looked on as rebels; they were henceforth to be regarded as brethren -- not indeed through affection, but necessity. by the interim*, the confession of augsburg was allowed temporarily to take a sisterly place alongside of the olden religion, though only as a tolerated neighbour. to every secular state was conceded the right of establishing the religion it acknowledged as supreme and exclusive within its own territories, and of forbidding the open profession of its rival. subjects were to be free to quit a country where their own religion was not tolerated. the doctrines of luther for the first time received a positive sanction; and if they were trampled under foot in bavaria and austria, they predominated in saxony and thuringia. but the sovereigns alone were to determine what form of religion should prevail within their territories; the feelings of subjects who had no representatives in the diet were little attended to in the pacification. in the ecclesiastical territories, indeed, where the unreformed religion enjoyed an undisputed supremacy, the free exercise of their religion was obtained for all who had previously embraced the protestant doctrines; but this indulgence rested only on the personal guarantee of ferdinand, king of the romans, by whose endeavours chiefly this peace was effected; a guarantee, which, being rejected by the roman catholic members of the diet, and only inserted in the treaty under their protest, could not of course have the force of law. * a system of theology so called, prepared by order of the emperor charles v. for the use of germany, to reconcile the differences between the roman catholics and the lutherans, which, however, was rejected by both parties -- ed. if it had been opinions only that thus divided the minds of men, with what indifference would all have regarded the division! but on these opinions depended riches, dignities, and rights; and it was this which so deeply aggravated the evils of division. of two brothers, as it were, who had hitherto enjoyed a paternal inheritance in common, one now remained, while the other was compelled to leave his father's house, and hence arose the necessity of dividing the patrimony. for this separation, which he could not have foreseen, the father had made no provision. by the beneficent donations of pious ancestors the riches of the church had been accumulating through a thousand years, and these benefactors were as much the progenitors of the departing brother as of him who remained. was the right of inheritance then to be limited to the paternal house, or to be extended to blood? the gifts had been made to the church in communion with rome, because at that time no other existed, -- to the first-born, as it were, because he was as yet the only son. was then a right of primogeniture to be admitted in the church, as in noble families? were the pretensions of one party to be favoured by a prescription from times when the claims of the other could not have come into existence? could the lutherans be justly excluded from these possessions, to which the benevolence of their forefathers had contributed, merely on the ground that, at the date of their foundation, the differences between lutheranism and romanism were unknown? both parties have disputed, and still dispute, with equal plausibility, on these points. both alike have found it difficult to prove their right. law can be applied only to conceivable cases, and perhaps spiritual foundations are not among the number of these, and still less where the conditions of the founders generally extended to a system of doctrines; for how is it conceivable that a permanent endowment should be made of opinions left open to change? what law cannot decide, is usually determined by might, and such was the case here. the one party held firmly all that could no longer be wrested from it -- the other defended what it still possessed. all the bishoprics and abbeys which had been secularized before the peace, remained with the protestants; but, by an express clause, the unreformed catholics provided that none should thereafter be secularized. every impropriator of an ecclesiastical foundation, who held immediately of the empire, whether elector, bishop, or abbot, forfeited his benefice and dignity the moment he embraced the protestant belief; he was obliged in that event instantly to resign its emoluments, and the chapter was to proceed to a new election, exactly as if his place had been vacated by death. by this sacred anchor of the ecclesiastical reservation, (`reservatum ecclesiasticum',) which makes the temporal existence of a spiritual prince entirely dependent on his fidelity to the olden religion, the roman catholic church in germany is still held fast; and precarious, indeed, would be its situation were this anchor to give way. the principle of the ecclesiastical reservation was strongly opposed by the protestants; and though it was at last adopted into the treaty of peace, its insertion was qualified with the declaration, that parties had come to no final determination on the point. could it then be more binding on the protestants than ferdinand's guarantee in favour of protestant subjects of ecclesiastical states was upon the roman catholics? thus were two important subjects of dispute left unsettled in the treaty of peace, and by them the war was rekindled. such was the position of things with regard to religious toleration and ecclesiastical property: it was the same with regard to rights and dignities. the existing german system provided only for one church, because one only was in existence when that system was framed. the church had now divided; the diet had broken into two religious parties; was the whole system of the empire still exclusively to follow the one? the emperors had hitherto been members of the romish church, because till now that religion had no rival. but was it his connexion with rome which constituted a german emperor, or was it not rather germany which was to be represented in its head? the protestants were now spread over the whole empire, and how could they justly still be represented by an unbroken line of roman catholic emperors? in the imperial chamber the german states judge themselves, for they elect the judges; it was the very end of its institution that they should do so, in order that equal justice should be dispensed to all; but would this be still possible, if the representatives of both professions were not equally admissible to a seat in the chamber? that one religion only existed in germany at the time of its establishment, was accidental; that no one estate should have the means of legally oppressing another, was the essential purpose of the institution. now this object would be entirely frustrated if one religious party were to have the exclusive power of deciding for the other. must, then, the design be sacrificed, because that which was merely accidental had changed? with great difficulty the protestants, at last, obtained for the representatives of their religion a place in the supreme council, but still there was far from being a perfect equality of voices. to this day no protestant prince has been raised to the imperial throne. whatever may be said of the equality which the peace of augsburg was to have established between the two german churches, the roman catholic had unquestionably still the advantage. all that the lutheran church gained by it was toleration; all that the romish church conceded, was a sacrifice to necessity, not an offering to justice. very far was it from being a peace between two equal powers, but a truce between a sovereign and unconquered rebels. from this principle all the proceedings of the roman catholics against the protestants seemed to flow, and still continue to do so. to join the reformed faith was still a crime, since it was to be visited with so severe a penalty as that which the ecclesiastical reservation held suspended over the apostacy of the spiritual princes. even to the last, the romish church preferred to risk to loss of every thing by force, than voluntarily to yield the smallest matter to justice. the loss was accidental and might be repaired; but the abandonment of its pretensions, the concession of a single point to the protestants, would shake the foundations of the church itself. even in the treaty of peace this principle was not lost sight of. whatever in this peace was yielded to the protestants was always under condition. it was expressly declared, that affairs were to remain on the stipulated footing only till the next general council, which was to be called with the view of effecting an union between the two confessions. then only, when this last attempt should have failed, was the religious treaty to become valid and conclusive. however little hope there might be of such a reconciliation, however little perhaps the romanists themselves were in earnest with it, still it was something to have clogged the peace with these stipulations. thus this religious treaty, which was to extinguish for ever the flames of civil war, was, in fact, but a temporary truce, extorted by force and necessity; not dictated by justice, nor emanating from just notions either of religion or toleration. a religious treaty of this kind the roman catholics were as incapable of granting, to be candid, as in truth the lutherans were unqualified to receive. far from evincing a tolerant spirit towards the roman catholics, when it was in their power, they even oppressed the calvinists; who indeed just as little deserved toleration, since they were unwilling to practise it. for such a peace the times were not yet ripe -- the minds of men not yet sufficiently enlightened. how could one party expect from another what itself was incapable of performing? what each side saved or gained by the treaty of augsburg, it owed to the imposing attitude of strength which it maintained at the time of its negociation. what was won by force was to be maintained also by force; if the peace was to be permanent, the two parties to it must preserve the same relative positions. the boundaries of the two churches had been marked out with the sword; with the sword they must be preserved, or woe to that party which should be first disarmed! a sad and fearful prospect for the tranquillity of germany, when peace itself bore so threatening an aspect. a momentary lull now pervaded the empire; a transitory bond of concord appeared to unite its scattered limbs into one body, so that for a time a feeling also for the common weal returned. but the division had penetrated its inmost being, and to restore its original harmony was impossible. carefully as the treaty of peace appeared to have defined the rights of both parties, its interpretation was nevertheless the subject of many disputes. in the heat of conflict it had produced a cessation of hostilities; it covered, not extinguished, the fire, and unsatisfied claims remained on either side. the romanists imagined they had lost too much, the protestants that they had gained too little; and the treaty which neither party could venture to violate, was interpreted by each in its own favour. the seizure of the ecclesiastical benefices, the motive which had so strongly tempted the majority of the protestant princes to embrace the doctrines of luther, was not less powerful after than before the peace; of those whose founders had not held their fiefs immediately of the empire, such as were not already in their possession would it was evident soon be so. the whole of lower germany was already secularized; and if it were otherwise in upper germany, it was owing to the vehement resistance of the catholics, who had there the preponderance. each party, where it was the most powerful, oppressed the adherents of the other; the ecclesiastical princes in particular, as the most defenceless members of the empire, were incessantly tormented by the ambition of their protestant neighbours. those who were too weak to repel force by force, took refuge under the wings of justice; and the complaints of spoliation were heaped up against the protestants in the imperial chamber, which was ready enough to pursue the accused with judgments, but found too little support to carry them into effect. the peace which stipulated for complete religious toleration for the dignitaries of the empire, had provided also for the subject, by enabling him, without interruption, to leave the country in which the exercise of his religion was prohibited. but from the wrongs which the violence of a sovereign might inflict on an obnoxious subject; from the nameless oppressions by which he might harass and annoy the emigrant; from the artful snares in which subtilty combined with power might enmesh him -- from these, the dead letter of the treaty could afford him no protection. the catholic subject of protestant princes complained loudly of violations of the religious peace -- the lutherans still more loudly of the oppression they experienced under their romanist suzerains. the rancour and animosities of theologians infused a poison into every occurrence, however inconsiderable, and inflamed the minds of the people. happy would it have been had this theological hatred exhausted its zeal upon the common enemy, instead of venting its virus on the adherents of a kindred faith! unanimity amongst the protestants might, by preserving the balance between the contending parties, have prolonged the peace; but as if to complete the confusion, all concord was quickly broken. the doctrines which had been propagated by zuingli in zurich, and by calvin in geneva, soon spread to germany, and divided the protestants among themselves, with little in unison save their common hatred to popery. the protestants of this date bore but slight resemblance to those who, fifty years before, drew up the confession of augsburg; and the cause of the change is to be sought in that confession itself. it had prescribed a positive boundary to the protestant faith, before the newly awakened spirit of inquiry had satisfied itself as to the limits it ought to set; and the protestants seemed unwittingly to have thrown away much of the advantage acquired by their rejection of popery. common complaints of the romish hierarchy, and of ecclesiastical abuses, and a common disapprobation of its dogmas, formed a sufficient centre of union for the protestants; but not content with this, they sought a rallying point in the promulgation of a new and positive creed, in which they sought to embody the distinctions, the privileges, and the essence of the church, and to this they referred the convention entered into with their opponents. it was as professors of this creed that they had acceded to the treaty; and in the benefits of this peace the advocates of the confession were alone entitled to participate. in any case, therefore, the situation of its adherents was embarrassing. if a blind obedience were yielded to the dicta of the confession, a lasting bound would be set to the spirit of inquiry; if, on the other hand, they dissented from the formulae agreed upon, the point of union would be lost. unfortunately both incidents occurred, and the evil results of both were quickly felt. one party rigorously adhered to the original symbol of faith, and the other abandoned it, only to adopt another with equal exclusiveness. nothing could have furnished the common enemy a more plausible defence of his cause than this dissension; no spectacle could have been more gratifying to him than the rancour with which the protestants alternately persecuted each other. who could condemn the roman catholics, if they laughed at the audacity with which the reformers had presumed to announce the only true belief? -- if from protestants they borrowed the weapons against protestants? -- if, in the midst of this clashing of opinions, they held fast to the authority of their own church, for which, in part, there spoke an honourable antiquity, and a yet more honourable plurality of voices. but this division placed the protestants in still more serious embarrassments. as the covenants of the treaty applied only to the partisans of the confession, their opponents, with some reason, called upon them to explain who were to be recognized as the adherents of that creed. the lutherans could not, without offending conscience, include the calvinists in their communion, except at the risk of converting a useful friend into a dangerous enemy, could they exclude them. this unfortunate difference opened a way for the machinations of the jesuits to sow distrust between both parties, and to destroy the unity of their measures. fettered by the double fear of their direct adversaries, and of their opponents among themselves, the protestants lost for ever the opportunity of placing their church on a perfect equality with the catholic. all these difficulties would have been avoided, and the defection of the calvinists would not have prejudiced the common cause, if the point of union had been placed simply in the abandonment of romanism, instead of in the confession of augsburg. but however divided on other points, they concurred in this -- that the security which had resulted from equality of power could only be maintained by the preservation of that balance. in the meanwhile, the continual reforms of one party, and the opposing measures of the other, kept both upon the watch, while the interpretation of the religious treaty was a never-ending subject of dispute. each party maintained that every step taken by its opponent was an infraction of the peace, while of every movement of its own it was asserted that it was essential to its maintenance. yet all the measures of the catholics did not, as their opponents alleged, proceed from a spirit of encroachment -- many of them were the necessary precautions of self-defence. the protestants had shown unequivocally enough what the romanists might expect if they were unfortunate enough to become the weaker party. the greediness of the former for the property of the church, gave no reason to expect indulgence; -- their bitter hatred left no hope of magnanimity or forbearance. but the protestants, likewise, were excusable if they too placed little confidence in the sincerity of the roman catholics. by the treacherous and inhuman treatment which their brethren in spain, france, and the netherlands, had suffered; by the disgraceful subterfuge of the romish princes, who held that the pope had power to relieve them from the obligation of the most solemn oaths; and above all, by the detestable maxim, that faith was not to be kept with heretics, the roman church, in the eyes of all honest men, had lost its honour. no engagement, no oath, however sacred, from a roman catholic, could satisfy a protestant. what security then could the religious peace afford, when, throughout germany, the jesuits represented it as a measure of mere temporary convenience, and in rome itself it was solemnly repudiated. the general council, to which reference had been made in the treaty, had already been held in the city of trent; but, as might have been foreseen, without accommodating the religious differences, or taking a single step to effect such accommodation, and even without being attended by the protestants. the latter, indeed, were now solemnly excommunicated by it in the name of the church, whose representative the council gave itself out to be. could, then, a secular treaty, extorted moreover by force of arms, afford them adequate protection against the ban of the church; a treaty, too, based on a condition which the decision of the council seemed entirely to abolish? there was then a show of right for violating the peace, if only the romanists possessed the power; and henceforward the protestants were protected by nothing but the respect for their formidable array. other circumstances combined to augment this distrust. spain, on whose support the romanists in germany chiefly relied, was engaged in a bloody conflict with the flemings. by it, the flower of the spanish troops were drawn to the confines of germany. with what ease might they be introduced within the empire, if a decisive stroke should render their presence necessary? germany was at that time a magazine of war for nearly all the powers of europe. the religious war had crowded it with soldiers, whom the peace left destitute; its many independent princes found it easy to assemble armies, and afterwards, for the sake of gain, or the interests of party, hire them out to other powers. with german troops, philip the second waged war against the netherlands, and with german troops they defended themselves. every such levy in germany was a subject of alarm to the one party or the other, since it might be intended for their oppression. the arrival of an ambassador, an extraordinary legate of the pope, a conference of princes, every unusual incident, must, it was thought, be pregnant with destruction to some party. thus, for nearly half a century, stood germany, her hand upon the sword; every rustle of a leaf alarmed her. ferdinand the first, king of hungary, and his excellent son, maximilian the second, held at this memorable epoch the reins of government. with a heart full of sincerity, with a truly heroic patience, had ferdinand brought about the religious peace of augsburg, and afterwards, in the council of trent, laboured assiduously, though vainly, at the ungrateful task of reconciling the two religions. abandoned by his nephew, philip of spain, and hard pressed both in hungary and transylvania by the victorious armies of the turks, it was not likely that this emperor would entertain the idea of violating the religious peace, and thereby destroying his own painful work. the heavy expenses of the perpetually recurring war with turkey could not be defrayed by the meagre contributions of his exhausted hereditary dominions. he stood, therefore, in need of the assistance of the whole empire; and the religious peace alone preserved in one body the otherwise divided empire. financial necessities made the protestant as needful to him as the romanist, and imposed upon him the obligation of treating both parties with equal justice, which, amidst so many contradictory claims, was truly a colossal task. very far, however, was the result from answering his expectations. his indulgence of the protestants served only to bring upon his successors a war, which death saved himself the mortification of witnessing. scarcely more fortunate was his son maximilian, with whom perhaps the pressure of circumstances was the only obstacle, and a longer life perhaps the only want, to his establishing the new religion upon the imperial throne. necessity had taught the father forbearance towards the protestants -- necessity and justice dictated the same course to the son. the grandson had reason to repent that he neither listened to justice, nor yielded to necessity. maximilian left six sons, of whom the eldest, the archduke rodolph, inherited his dominions, and ascended the imperial throne. the other brothers were put off with petty appanages. a few mesne fiefs were held by a collateral branch, which had their uncle, charles of styria, at its head; and even these were afterwards, under his son, ferdinand the second, incorporated with the rest of the family dominions. with this exception, the whole of the imposing power of austria was now wielded by a single, but unfortunately weak hand. rodolph the second was not devoid of those virtues which might have gained him the esteem of mankind, had the lot of a private station fallen to him. his character was mild, he loved peace and the sciences, particularly astronomy, natural history, chemistry, and the study of antiquities. to these he applied with a passionate zeal, which, at the very time when the critical posture of affairs demanded all his attention, and his exhausted finances the most rigid economy, diverted his attention from state affairs, and involved him in pernicious expenses. his taste for astronomy soon lost itself in those astrological reveries to which timid and melancholy temperaments like his are but too disposed. this, together with a youth passed in spain, opened his ears to the evil counsels of the jesuits, and the influence of the spanish court, by which at last he was wholly governed. ruled by tastes so little in accordance with the dignity of his station, and alarmed by ridiculous prophecies, he withdrew, after the spanish custom, from the eyes of his subjects, to bury himself amidst his gems and antiques, or to make experiments in his laboratory, while the most fatal discords loosened all the bands of the empire, and the flames of rebellion began to burst out at the very footsteps of his throne. all access to his person was denied, the most urgent matters were neglected. the prospect of the rich inheritance of spain was closed against him, while he was trying to make up his mind to offer his hand to the infanta isabella. a fearful anarchy threatened the empire, for though without an heir of his own body, he could not be persuaded to allow the election of a king of the romans. the austrian states renounced their allegiance, hungary and transylvania threw off his supremacy, and bohemia was not slow in following their example. the descendant of the once so formidable charles the fifth was in perpetual danger, either of losing one part of his possessions to the turks, or another to the protestants, and of sinking, beyond redemption, under the formidable coalition which a great monarch of europe had formed against him. the events which now took place in the interior of germany were such as usually happened when either the throne was without an emperor, or the emperor without a sense of his imperial dignity. outraged or abandoned by their head, the states of the empire were left to help themselves; and alliances among themselves must supply the defective authority of the emperor. germany was divided into two leagues, which stood in arms arrayed against each other: between both, rodolph, the despised opponent of the one, and the impotent protector of the other, remained irresolute and useless, equally unable to destroy the former or to command the latter. what had the empire to look for from a prince incapable even of defending his hereditary dominions against its domestic enemies? to prevent the utter ruin of the house of austria, his own family combined against him; and a powerful party threw itself into the arms of his brother. driven from his hereditary dominions, nothing was now left him to lose but the imperial dignity; and he was only spared this last disgrace by a timely death. at this critical moment, when only a supple policy, united with a vigorous arm, could have maintained the tranquillity of the empire, its evil genius gave it a rodolph for emperor. at a more peaceful period the germanic union would have managed its own interests, and rodolph, like so many others of his rank, might have hidden his deficiencies in a mysterious obscurity. but the urgent demand for the qualities in which he was most deficient revealed his incapacity. the position of germany called for an emperor who, by his known energies, could give weight to his resolves; and the hereditary dominions of rodolph, considerable as they were, were at present in a situation to occasion the greatest embarrassment to the governors. the austrian princes, it is true were roman catholics, and in addition to that, the supporters of popery, but their countries were far from being so. the reformed opinions had penetrated even these, and favoured by ferdinand's necessities and maximilian's mildness, had met with a rapid success. the austrian provinces exhibited in miniature what germany did on a larger scale. the great nobles and the ritter class or knights were chiefly evangelical, and in the cities the protestants had a decided preponderance. if they succeeded in bringing a few of their party into the country, they contrived imperceptibly to fill all places of trust and the magistracy with their own adherents, and to exclude the catholics. against the numerous order of the nobles and knights, and the deputies from the towns, the voice of a few prelates was powerless; and the unseemly ridicule and offensive contempt of the former soon drove them entirely from the provincial diets. thus the whole of the austrian diet had imperceptibly become protestant, and the reformation was making rapid strides towards its public recognition. the prince was dependent on the estates, who had it in their power to grant or refuse supplies. accordingly, they availed themselves of the financial necessities of ferdinand and his son to extort one religious concession after another. to the nobles and knights, maximilian at last conceded the free exercise of their religion, but only within their own territories and castles. the intemperate enthusiasm of the protestant preachers overstepped the boundaries which prudence had prescribed. in defiance of the express prohibition, several of them ventured to preach publicly, not only in the towns, but in vienna itself, and the people flocked in crowds to this new doctrine, the best seasoning of which was personality and abuse. thus continued food was supplied to fanaticism, and the hatred of two churches, that were such near neighbours, was farther envenomed by the sting of an impure zeal. among the hereditary dominions of the house of austria, hungary and transylvania were the most unstable, and the most difficult to retain. the impossibility of holding these two countries against the neighbouring and overwhelming power of the turks, had already driven ferdinand to the inglorious expedient of recognizing, by an annual tribute, the porte's supremacy over transylvania; a shameful confession of weakness, and a still more dangerous temptation to the turbulent nobility, when they fancied they had any reason to complain of their master. not without conditions had the hungarians submitted to the house of austria. they asserted the elective freedom of their crown, and boldly contended for all those prerogatives of their order which are inseparable from this freedom of election. the near neighbourhood of turkey, the facility of changing masters with impunity, encouraged the magnates still more in their presumption; discontented with the austrian government they threw themselves into the arms of the turks; dissatisfied with these, they returned again to their german sovereigns. the frequency and rapidity of these transitions from one government to another, had communicated its influences also to their mode of thinking; and as their country wavered between the turkish and austrian rule, so their minds vacillated between revolt and submission. the more unfortunate each nation felt itself in being degraded into a province of a foreign kingdom, the stronger desire did they feel to obey a monarch chosen from amongst themselves, and thus it was always easy for an enterprising noble to obtain their support. the nearest turkish pasha was always ready to bestow the hungarian sceptre and crown on a rebel against austria; just as ready was austria to confirm to any adventurer the possession of provinces which he had wrested from the porte, satisfied with preserving thereby the shadow of authority, and with erecting at the same time a barrier against the turks. in this way several of these magnates, batbori, boschkai, ragoczi, and bethlen succeeded in establishing themselves, one after another, as tributary sovereigns in transylvania and hungary; and they maintained their ground by no deeper policy than that of occasionally joining the enemy, in order to render themselves more formidable to their own prince. ferdinand, maximilian, and rodolph, who were all sovereigns of hungary and transylvania, exhausted their other territories in endeavouring to defend these from the hostile inroads of the turks, and to put down intestine rebellion. in this quarter destructive wars were succeeded but by brief truces, which were scarcely less hurtful: far and wide the land lay waste, while the injured serf had to complain equally of his enemy and his protector. into these countries also the reformation had penetrated; and protected by the freedom of the states, and under the cover of the internal disorders, had made a noticeable progress. here too it was incautiously attacked, and party spirit thus became yet more dangerous from religious enthusiasm. headed by a bold rebel, boschkai, the nobles of hungary and transylvania raised the standard of rebellion. the hungarian insurgents were upon the point of making common cause with the discontented protestants in austria, moravia, and bohemia, and uniting all those countries in one fearful revolt. the downfall of popery in these lands would then have been inevitable. long had the austrian archdukes, the brothers of the emperor, beheld with silent indignation the impending ruin of their house; this last event hastened their decision. the archduke matthias, maximilian's second son, viceroy in hungary, and rodolph's presumptive heir, now came forward as the stay of the falling house of hapsburg. in his youth, misled by a false ambition, this prince, disregarding the interests of his family, had listened to the overtures of the flemish insurgents, who invited him into the netherlands to conduct the defence of their liberties against the oppression of his own relative, philip the second. mistaking the voice of an insulated faction for that of the entire nation, matthias obeyed the call. but the event answered the expectations of the men of brabant as little as his own, and from this imprudent enterprise he retired with little credit. far more honourable was his second appearance in the political world. perceiving that his repeated remonstrances with the emperor were unavailing, he assembled the archdukes, his brothers and cousins, at presburg, and consulted with them on the growing perils of their house, when they unanimously assigned to him, as the oldest, the duty of defending that patrimony which a feeble brother was endangering. in his hands they placed all their powers and rights, and vested him with sovereign authority, to act at his discretion for the common good. matthias immediately opened a communication with the porte and the hungarian rebels, and through his skilful management succeeded in saving, by a peace with the turks, the remainder of hungary, and by a treaty with the rebels, preserved the claims of austria to the lost provinces. but rodolph, as jealous as he had hitherto been careless of his sovereign authority, refused to ratify this treaty, which he regarded as a criminal encroachment on his sovereign rights. he accused the archduke of keeping up a secret understanding with the enemy, and of cherishing treasonable designs on the crown of hungary. the activity of matthias was, in truth, anything but disinterested; the conduct of the emperor only accelerated the execution of his ambitious views. secure, from motives of gratitude, of the devotion of the hungarians, for whom he had so lately obtained the blessings of peace; assured by his agents of the favourable disposition of the nobles, and certain of the support of a large party, even in austria, he now ventured to assume a bolder attitude, and, sword in hand, to discuss his grievances with the emperor. the protestants in austria and moravia, long ripe for revolt, and now won over to the archduke by his promises of toleration, loudly and openly espoused his cause, and their long-menaced alliance with the hungarian rebels was actually effected. almost at once a formidable conspiracy was planned and matured against the emperor. too late did he resolve to amend his past errors; in vain did he attempt to break up this fatal alliance. already the whole empire was in arms; hungary, austria, and moravia had done homage to matthias, who was already on his march to bohemia to seize the emperor in his palace, and to cut at once the sinews of his power. bohemia was not a more peaceable possession for austria than hungary; with this difference only, that, in the latter, political considerations, in the former, religious dissensions, fomented disorders. in bohemia, a century before the days of luther, the first spark of the religious war had been kindled; a century after luther, the first flames of the thirty years' war burst out in bohemia. the sect which owed its rise to john huss, still existed in that country; -- it agreed with the romish church in ceremonies and doctrines, with the single exception of the administration of the communion, in which the hussites communicated in both kinds. this privilege had been conceded to the followers of huss by the council of basle, in an express treaty, (the bohemian compact); and though it was afterwards disavowed by the popes, they nevertheless continued to profit by it under the sanction of the government. as the use of the cup formed the only important distinction of their body, they were usually designated by the name of utraquists; and they readily adopted an appellation which reminded them of their dearly valued privilege. but under this title lurked also the far stricter sects of the bohemian and moravian brethren, who differed from the predominant church in more important particulars, and bore, in fact, a great resemblance to the german protestants. among them both, the german and swiss opinions on religion made rapid progress; while the name of utraquists, under which they managed to disguise the change of their principles, shielded them from persecution. in truth, they had nothing in common with the utraquists but the name; essentially, they were altogether protestant. confident in the strength of their party, and the emperor's toleration under maximilian, they had openly avowed their tenets. after the example of the germans, they drew up a confession of their own, in which lutherans as well as calvinists recognized their own doctrines, and they sought to transfer to the new confession the privileges of the original utraquists. in this they were opposed by their roman catholic countrymen, and forced to rest content with the emperor's verbal assurance of protection. as long as maximilian lived, they enjoyed complete toleration, even under the new form they had taken. under his successor the scene changed. an imperial edict appeared, which deprived the bohemian brethren of their religious freedom. now these differed in nothing from the other utraquists. the sentence, therefore, of their condemnation, obviously included all the partisans of the bohemian confession. accordingly, they all combined to oppose the imperial mandate in the diet, but without being able to procure its revocation. the emperor and the roman catholic estates took their ground on the compact and the bohemian constitution; in which nothing appeared in favour of a religion which had not then obtained the voice of the country. since that time, how completely had affairs changed! what then formed but an inconsiderable opinion, had now become the predominant religion of the country. and what was it then, but a subterfuge to limit a newly spreading religion by the terms of obsolete treaties? the bohemian protestants appealed to the verbal guarantee of maximilian, and the religious freedom of the germans, with whom they argued they ought to be on a footing of equality. it was in vain -- their appeal was dismissed. such was the posture of affairs in bohemia, when matthias, already master of hungary, austria, and moravia, appeared in kolin, to raise the bohemian estates also against the emperor. the embarrassment of the latter was now at its height. abandoned by all his other subjects, he placed his last hopes on the bohemians, who, it might be foreseen, would take advantage of his necessities to enforce their own demands. after an interval of many years, he once more appeared publicly in the diet at prague; and to convince the people that he was really still in existence, orders were given that all the windows should be opened in the streets through which he was to pass -- proof enough how far things had gone with him. the event justified his fears. the estates, conscious of their own power, refused to take a single step until their privileges were confirmed, and religious toleration fully assured to them. it was in vain to have recourse now to the old system of evasion. the emperor's fate was in their hands, and he must yield to necessity. at present, however, he only granted their other demands -- religious matters he reserved for consideration at the next diet. the bohemians now took up arms in defence of the emperor, and a bloody war between the two brothers was on the point of breaking out. but rodolph, who feared nothing so much as remaining in this slavish dependence on the estates, waited not for a warlike issue, but hastened to effect a reconciliation with his brother by more peaceable means. by a formal act of abdication he resigned to matthias, what indeed he had no chance of wresting from him, austria and the kingdom of hungary, and acknowledged him as his successor to the crown of bohemia. dearly enough had the emperor extricated himself from one difficulty, only to get immediately involved in another. the settlement of the religious affairs of bohemia had been referred to the next diet, which was held in . the reformed bohemians demanded the free exercise of their faith, as under the former emperors; a consistory of their own; the cession of the university of prague; and the right of electing `defenders', or `protectors' of `liberty', from their own body. the answer was the same as before; for the timid emperor was now entirely fettered by the unreformed party. however often, and in however threatening language the estates renewed their remonstrances, the emperor persisted in his first declaration of granting nothing beyond the old compact. the diet broke up without coming to a decision; and the estates, exasperated against the emperor, arranged a general meeting at prague, upon their own authority, to right themselves. they appeared at prague in great force. in defiance of the imperial prohibition, they carried on their deliberations almost under the very eyes of the emperor. the yielding compliance which he began to show, only proved how much they were feared, and increased their audacity. yet on the main point he remained inflexible. they fulfilled their threats, and at last resolved to establish, by their own power, the free and universal exercise of their religion, and to abandon the emperor to his necessities until he should confirm this resolution. they even went farther, and elected for themselves the defenders which the emperor had refused them. ten were nominated by each of the three estates; they also determined to raise, as soon as possible, an armed force, at the head of which count thurn, the chief organizer of the revolt, should be placed as general defender of the liberties of bohemia. their determination brought the emperor to submission, to which he was now counselled even by the spaniards. apprehensive lest the exasperated estates should throw themselves into the arms of the king of hungary, he signed the memorable letter of majesty for bohemia, by which, under the successors of the emperor, that people justified their rebellion. the bohemian confession, which the states had laid before the emperor maximilian, was, by the letter of majesty, placed on a footing of equality with the olden profession. the utraquists, for by this title the bohemian protestants continued to designate themselves, were put in possession of the university of prague, and allowed a consistory of their own, entirely independent of the archiepiscopal see of that city. all the churches in the cities, villages, and market towns, which they held at the date of the letter, were secured to them; and if in addition they wished to erect others, it was permitted to the nobles, and knights, and the free cities to do so. this last clause in the letter of majesty gave rise to the unfortunate disputes which subsequently rekindled the flames of war in europe. the letter of majesty erected the protestant part of bohemia into a kind of republic. the estates had learned to feel the power which they gained by perseverance, unity, and harmony in their measures. the emperor now retained little more than the shadow of his sovereign authority; while by the new dignity of the so-called defenders of liberty, a dangerous stimulus was given to the spirit of revolt. the example and success of bohemia afforded a tempting seduction to the other hereditary dominions of austria, and all attempted by similar means to extort similar privileges. the spirit of liberty spread from one province to another; and as it was chiefly the disunion among the austrian princes that had enabled the protestants so materially to improve their advantages, they now hastened to effect a reconciliation between the emperor and the king of hungary. but the reconciliation could not be sincere. the wrong was too great to be forgiven, and rodolph continued to nourish at heart an unextinguishable hatred of matthias. with grief and indignation he brooded over the thought, that the bohemian sceptre was finally to descend into the hands of his enemy; and the prospect was not more consoling, even if matthias should die without issue. in that case, ferdinand, archduke of graetz, whom he equally disliked, was the head of the family. to exclude the latter as well as matthias from the succession to the throne of bohemia, he fell upon the project of diverting that inheritance to ferdinand's brother, the archduke leopold, bishop of passau, who among all his relatives had ever been the dearest and most deserving. the prejudices of the bohemians in favour of the elective freedom of their crown, and their attachment to leopold's person, seemed to favour this scheme, in which rodolph consulted rather his own partiality and vindictiveness than the good of his house. but to carry out this project, a military force was requisite, and rodolph actually assembled an army in the bishopric of passau. the object of this force was hidden from all. an inroad, however, which, for want of pay it made suddenly and without the emperor's knowledge into bohemia, and the outrages which it there committed, stirred up the whole kingdom against him. in vain he asserted his innocence to the bohemian estates; they would not believe his protestations; vainly did he attempt to restrain the violence of his soldiery; they disregarded his orders. persuaded that the emperor's object was to annul the letter of majesty, the protectors of liberty armed the whole of protestant bohemia, and invited matthias into the country. after the dispersion of the force he had collected at passau, the emperor remained helpless at prague, where he was kept shut up like a prisoner in his palace, and separated from all his councillors. in the meantime, matthias entered prague amidst universal rejoicings, where rodolph was soon afterwards weak enough to acknowledge him king of bohemia. so hard a fate befell this emperor; he was compelled, during his life, to abdicate in favour of his enemy that very throne, of which he had been endeavouring to deprive him after his own death. to complete his degradation, he was obliged, by a personal act of renunciation, to release his subjects in bohemia, silesia, and lusatia from their allegiance, and he did it with a broken heart. all, even those he thought he had most attached to his person, had abandoned him. when he had signed the instrument, he threw his hat upon the ground, and gnawed the pen which had rendered so shameful a service. while rodolph thus lost one hereditary dominion after another, the imperial dignity was not much better maintained by him. each of the religious parties into which germany was divided, continued its efforts to advance itself at the expense of the other, or to guard against its attacks. the weaker the hand that held the sceptre, and the more the protestants and roman catholics felt they were left to themselves, the more vigilant necessarily became their watchfulness, and the greater their distrust of each other. it was enough that the emperor was ruled by jesuits, and was guided by spanish counsels, to excite the apprehension of the protestants, and to afford a pretext for hostility. the rash zeal of the jesuits, which in the pulpit and by the press disputed the validity of the religious peace, increased this distrust, and caused their adversaries to see a dangerous design in the most indifferent measures of the roman catholics. every step taken in the hereditary dominions of the emperor, for the repression of the reformed religion, was sure to draw the attention of all the protestants of germany; and this powerful support which the reformed subjects of austria met, or expected to meet with from their religious confederates in the rest of germany, was no small cause of their confidence, and of the rapid success of matthias. it was the general belief of the empire, that they owed the long enjoyment of the religious peace merely to the difficulties in which the emperor was placed by the internal troubles in his dominions, and consequently they were in no haste to relieve him from them. almost all the affairs of the diet were neglected, either through the procrastination of the emperor, or through the fault of the protestant estates, who had determined to make no provision for the common wants of the empire till their own grievances were removed. these grievances related principally to the misgovernment of the emperor; the violation of the religious treaty, and the presumptuous usurpations of the aulic council, which in the present reign had begun to extend its jurisdiction at the expense of the imperial chamber. formerly, in all disputes between the estates, which could not be settled by club law, the emperors had in the last resort decided of themselves, if the case were trifling, and in conjunction with the princes, if it were important; or they determined them by the advice of imperial judges who followed the court. this superior jurisdiction they had, in the end of the fifteenth century, assigned to a regular and permanent tribunal, the imperial chamber of spires, in which the estates of the empire, that they might not be oppressed by the arbitrary appointment of the emperor, had reserved to themselves the right of electing the assessors, and of periodically reviewing its decrees. by the religious peace, these rights of the estates, (called the rights of presentation and visitation,) were extended also to the lutherans, so that protestant judges had a voice in protestant causes, and a seeming equality obtained for both religions in this supreme tribunal. but the enemies of the reformation and of the freedom of the estates, vigilant to take advantage of every incident that favoured their views, soon found means to neutralize the beneficial effects of this institution. a supreme jurisdiction over the imperial states was gradually and skilfully usurped by a private imperial tribunal, the aulic council in vienna, a court at first intended merely to advise the emperor in the exercise of his undoubted, imperial, and personal prerogatives; a court, whose members being appointed and paid by him, had no law but the interest of their master, and no standard of equity but the advancement of the unreformed religion of which they were partisans. before the aulic council were now brought several suits originating between estates differing in religion, and which, therefore, properly belonged to the imperial chamber. it was not surprising if the decrees of this tribunal bore traces of their origin; if the interests of the roman church and of the emperor were preferred to justice by roman catholic judges, and the creatures of the emperor. although all the estates of germany seemed to have equal cause for resisting so perilous an abuse, the protestants alone, who most sensibly felt it, and even these not all at once and in a body, came forward as the defenders of german liberty, which the establishment of so arbitrary a tribunal had outraged in its most sacred point, the administration of justice. in fact, germany would have had little cause to congratulate itself upon the abolition of club-law, and in the institution of the imperial chamber, if an arbitrary tribunal of the emperor was allowed to interfere with the latter. the estates of the german empire would indeed have improved little upon the days of barbarism, if the chamber of justice in which they sat along with the emperor as judges, and for which they had abandoned their original princely prerogative, should cease to be a court of the last resort. but the strangest contradictions were at this date to be found in the minds of men. the name of emperor, a remnant of roman despotism, was still associated with an idea of autocracy, which, though it formed a ridiculous inconsistency with the privileges of the estates, was nevertheless argued for by jurists, diffused by the partisans of despotism, and believed by the ignorant. to these general grievances was gradually added a chain of singular incidents, which at length converted the anxiety of the protestants into utter distrust. during the spanish persecutions in the netherlands, several protestant families had taken refuge in aix-la-chapelle, an imperial city, and attached to the roman catholic faith, where they settled and insensibly extended their adherents. having succeeded by stratagem in introducing some of their members into the municipal council, they demanded a church and the public exercise of their worship, and the demand being unfavourably received, they succeeded by violence in enforcing it, and also in usurping the entire government of the city. to see so important a city in protestant hands was too heavy a blow for the emperor and the roman catholics. after all the emperor's requests and commands for the restoration of the olden government had proved ineffectual, the aulic council proclaimed the city under the ban of the empire, which, however, was not put in force till the following reign. of yet greater importance were two other attempts of the protestants to extend their influence and their power. the elector gebhard, of cologne, (born truchsess* of waldburg,) conceived for the young countess agnes, of mansfield, canoness of gerresheim, a passion which was not unreturned. as the eyes of all germany were directed to this intercourse, the brothers of the countess, two zealous calvinists, demanded satisfaction for the injured honour of their house, which, as long as the elector remained a roman catholic prelate, could not be repaired by marriage. they threatened the elector they would wash out this stain in his blood and their sister's, unless he either abandoned all further connexion with the countess, or consented to re-establish her reputation at the altar. the elector, indifferent to all the consequences of this step, listened to nothing but the voice of love. whether it was in consequence of his previous inclination to the reformed doctrines, or that the charms of his mistress alone effected this wonder, he renounced the roman catholic faith, and led the beautiful agnes to the altar. * grand-master of the kitchen. this event was of the greatest importance. by the letter of the clause reserving the ecclesiastical states from the general operation of the religious peace, the elector had, by his apostacy, forfeited all right to the temporalities of his bishopric; and if, in any case, it was important for the catholics to enforce the clause, it was so especially in the case of electorates. on the other hand, the relinquishment of so high a dignity was a severe sacrifice, and peculiarly so in the case of a tender husband, who had wished to enhance the value of his heart and hand by the gift of a principality. moreover, the reservatum ecclesiasticum was a disputed article of the treaty of augsburg; and all the german protestants were aware of the extreme importance of wresting this fourth* electorate from the opponents of their faith. the example had already been set in several of the ecclesiastical benefices of lower germany, and attended with success. several canons of cologne had also already embraced the protestant confession, and were on the elector's side, while, in the city itself, he could depend upon the support of a numerous protestant party. all these considerations, greatly strengthened by the persuasions of his friends and relations, and the promises of several german courts, determined the elector to retain his dominions, while he changed his religion. * saxony, brandenburg, and the palatinate were already protestant. but it was soon apparent that he had entered upon a contest which he could not carry through. even the free toleration of the protestant service within the territories of cologne, had already occasioned a violent opposition on the part of the canons and roman catholic `estates' of that province. the intervention of the emperor, and a papal ban from rome, which anathematized the elector as an apostate, and deprived him of all his dignities, temporal and spiritual, armed his own subjects and chapter against him. the elector assembled a military force; the chapter did the same. to ensure also the aid of a strong arm, they proceeded forthwith to a new election, and chose the bishop of liege, a prince of bavaria. a civil war now commenced, which, from the strong interest which both religious parties in germany necessarily felt in the conjuncture, was likely to terminate in a general breaking up of the religious peace. what most made the protestants indignant, was that the pope should have presumed, by a pretended apostolic power, to deprive a prince of the empire of his imperial dignities. even in the golden days of their spiritual domination, this prerogative of the pope had been disputed; how much more likely was it to be questioned at a period when his authority was entirely disowned by one party, while even with the other it rested on a tottering foundation. all the protestant princes took up the affair warmly against the emperor; and henry iv. of france, then king of navarre, left no means of negotiation untried to urge the german princes to the vigorous assertion of their rights. the issue would decide for ever the liberties of germany. four protestant against three roman catholic voices in the electoral college must at once have given the preponderance to the former, and for ever excluded the house of austria from the imperial throne. but the elector gebhard had embraced the calvinist, not the lutheran religion; and this circumstance alone was his ruin. the mutual rancour of these two churches would not permit the lutheran estates to regard the elector as one of their party, and as such to lend him their effectual support. all indeed had encouraged, and promised him assistance; but only one appanaged prince of the palatine house, the palsgrave john casimir, a zealous calvinist, kept his word. despite of the imperial prohibition, he hastened with his little army into the territories of cologne; but without being able to effect any thing, because the elector, who was destitute even of the first necessaries, left him totally without help. so much the more rapid was the progress of the newly-chosen elector, whom his bavarian relations and the spaniards from the netherlands supported with the utmost vigour. the troops of gebhard, left by their master without pay, abandoned one place after another to the enemy; by whom others were compelled to surrender. in his westphalian territories, gebhard held out for some time longer, till here, too, he was at last obliged to yield to superior force. after several vain attempts in holland and england to obtain means for his restoration, he retired into the chapter of strasburg, and died dean of that cathedral; the first sacrifice to the ecclesiastical reservation, or rather to the want of harmony among the german protestants. to this dispute in cologne was soon added another in strasburg. several protestant canons of cologne, who had been included in the same papal ban with the elector, had taken refuge within this bishopric, where they likewise held prebends. as the roman catholic canons of strasburg hesitated to allow them, as being under the ban, the enjoyment of their prebends, they took violent possession of their benefices, and the support of a powerful protestant party among the citizens soon gave them the preponderance in the chapter. the other canons thereupon retired to alsace-saverne, where, under the protection of the bishop, they established themselves as the only lawful chapter, and denounced that which remained in strasburg as illegal. the latter, in the meantime, had so strengthened themselves by the reception of several protestant colleagues of high rank, that they could venture, upon the death of the bishop, to nominate a new protestant bishop in the person of john george of brandenburg. the roman catholic canons, far from allowing this election, nominated the bishop of metz, a prince of lorraine, to that dignity, who announced his promotion by immediately commencing hostilities against the territories of strasburg. that city now took up arms in defence of its protestant chapter and the prince of brandenburg, while the other party, with the assistance of the troops of lorraine, endeavoured to possess themselves of the temporalities of the chapter. a tedious war was the consequence, which, according to the spirit of the times, was attended with barbarous devastations. in vain did the emperor interpose with his supreme authority to terminate the dispute; the ecclesiastical property remained for a long time divided between the two parties, till at last the protestant prince, for a moderate pecuniary equivalent, renounced his claims; and thus, in this dispute also, the roman church came off victorious. an occurrence which, soon after the adjustment of this dispute, took place in donauwerth, a free city of suabia, was still more critical for the whole of protestant germany. in this once roman catholic city, the protestants, during the reigns of ferdinand and his son, had, in the usual way, become so completely predominant, that the roman catholics were obliged to content themselves with a church in the monastery of the holy cross, and for fear of offending the protestants, were even forced to suppress the greater part of their religious rites. at length a fanatical abbot of this monastery ventured to defy the popular prejudices, and to arrange a public procession, preceded by the cross and banners flying; but he was soon compelled to desist from the attempt. when, a year afterwards, encouraged by a favourable imperial proclamation, the same abbot attempted to renew this procession, the citizens proceeded to open violence. the inhabitants shut the gates against the monks on their return, trampled their colours under foot, and followed them home with clamour and abuse. an imperial citation was the consequence of this act of violence; and as the exasperated populace even threatened to assault the imperial commissaries, and all attempts at an amicable adjustment were frustrated by the fanaticism of the multitude, the city was at last formally placed under the ban of the empire, the execution of which was intrusted to maximilian, duke of bavaria. the citizens, formerly so insolent, were seized with terror at the approach of the bavarian army; pusillanimity now possessed them, though once so full of defiance, and they laid down their arms without striking a blow. the total abolition of the protestant religion within the walls of the city was the punishment of their rebellion; it was deprived of its privileges, and, from a free city of suabia, converted into a municipal town of bavaria. two circumstances connected with this proceeding must have strongly excited the attention of the protestants, even if the interests of religion had been less powerful on their minds. first of all, the sentence had been pronounced by the aulic council, an arbitrary and exclusively roman catholic tribunal, whose jurisdiction besides had been so warmly disputed by them; and secondly, its execution had been intrusted to the duke of bavaria, the head of another circle. these unconstitutional steps seemed to be the harbingers of further violent measures on the roman catholic side, the result, probably, of secret conferences and dangerous designs, which might perhaps end in the entire subversion of their religious liberty. in circumstances where the law of force prevails, and security depends upon power alone, the weakest party is naturally the most busy to place itself in a posture of defence. this was now the case in germany. if the roman catholics really meditated any evil against the protestants in germany, the probability was that the blow would fall on the south rather than the north, because, in lower germany, the protestants were connected together through a long unbroken tract of country, and could therefore easily combine for their mutual support; while those in the south, detached from each other, and surrounded on all sides by roman catholic states, were exposed to every inroad. if, moreover, as was to be expected, the catholics availed themselves of the divisions amongst the protestants, and levelled their attack against one of the religious parties, it was the calvinists who, as the weaker, and as being besides excluded from the religious treaty, were apparently in the greatest danger, and upon them would probably fall the first attack. both these circumstances took place in the dominions of the elector palatine, which possessed, in the duke of bavaria, a formidable neighbour, and which, by reason of their defection to calvinism, received no protection from the religious peace, and had little hope of succour from the lutheran states. no country in germany had experienced so many revolutions in religion in so short a time as the palatinate. in the space of sixty years this country, an unfortunate toy in the hands of its rulers, had twice adopted the doctrines of luther, and twice relinquished them for calvinism. the elector frederick iii. first abandoned the confession of augsburg, which his eldest son and successor, lewis, immediately re-established. the calvinists throughout the whole country were deprived of their churches, their preachers and even their teachers banished beyond the frontiers; while the prince, in his lutheran zeal, persecuted them even in his will, by appointing none but strict and orthodox lutherans as the guardians of his son, a minor. but this illegal testament was disregarded by his brother the count palatine, john casimir, who, by the regulations of the golden bull, assumed the guardianship and administration of the state. calvinistic teachers were given to the elector frederick iv., then only nine years of age, who were ordered, if necessary, to drive the lutheran heresy out of the soul of their pupil with blows. if such was the treatment of the sovereign, that of the subjects may be easily conceived. it was under this frederick that the palatine court exerted itself so vigorously to unite the protestant states of germany in joint measures against the house of austria, and, if possible, bring about the formation of a general confederacy. besides that this court had always been guided by the counsels of france, with whom hatred of the house of austria was the ruling principle, a regard for his own safety urged him to secure in time the doubtful assistance of the lutherans against a near and overwhelming enemy. great difficulties, however, opposed this union, because the lutherans' dislike of the reformed was scarcely less than the common aversion of both to the romanists. an attempt was first made to reconcile the two professions, in order to facilitate a political union; but all these attempts failed, and generally ended in both parties adhering the more strongly to their respective opinions. nothing then remained but to increase the fear and the distrust of the evangelicals, and in this way to impress upon them the necessity of this alliance. the power of the roman catholics and the magnitude of the danger were exaggerated, accidental incidents were ascribed to deliberate plans, innocent actions misrepresented by invidious constructions, and the whole conduct of the professors of the olden religion was interpreted as the result of a well-weighed and systematic plan, which, in all probability, they were very far from having concerted. the diet of ratisbon, to which the protestants had looked forward with the hope of obtaining a renewal of the religious peace, had broken up without coming to a decision, and to the former grievances of the protestant party was now added the late oppression of donauwerth. with incredible speed, the union, so long attempted, was now brought to bear. a conference took place at anhausen, in franconia, at which were present the elector frederick iv., from the palatinate, the palsgrave of neuburg, two margraves of brandenburg, the margrave of baden, and the duke john frederick of wirtemburg, -- lutherans as well as calvinists, -- who for themselves and their heirs entered into a close confederacy under the title of the evangelical union. the purport of this union was, that the allied princes should, in all matters relating to religion and their civil rights, support each other with arms and counsel against every aggressor, and should all stand as one man; that in case any member of the alliance should be attacked, he should be assisted by the rest with an armed force; that, if necessary, the territories, towns, and castles of the allied states should be open to his troops; and that, whatever conquests were made, should be divided among all the confederates, in proportion to the contingent furnished by each. the direction of the whole confederacy in time of peace was conferred upon the elector palatine, but with a limited power. to meet the necessary expenses, subsidies were demanded, and a common fund established. differences of religion (betwixt the lutherans and the calvinists) were to have no effect on this alliance, which was to subsist for ten years, every member of the union engaged at the same time to procure new members to it. the electorate of brandenburg adopted the alliance, that of saxony rejected it. hesse-cashel could not be prevailed upon to declare itself, the dukes of brunswick and luneburg also hesitated. but the three cities of the empire, strasburg, nuremburg, and ulm, were no unimportant acquisition for the league, which was in great want of their money, while their example, besides, might be followed by other imperial cities. after the formation of this alliance, the confederate states, dispirited, and singly, little feared, adopted a bolder language. through prince christian of anhalt, they laid their common grievances and demands before the emperor; among which the principal were the restoration of donauwerth, the abolition of the imperial court, the reformation of the emperor's own administration and that of his counsellors. for these remonstrances, they chose the moment when the emperor had scarcely recovered breath from the troubles in his hereditary dominions, -- when he had lost hungary and austria to matthias, and had barely preserved his bohemian throne by the concession of the letter of majesty, and finally, when through the succession of juliers he was already threatened with the distant prospect of a new war. no wonder, then, that this dilatory prince was more irresolute than ever in his decision, and that the confederates took up arms before he could bethink himself. the roman catholics regarded this confederacy with a jealous eye; the union viewed them and the emperor with the like distrust; the emperor was equally suspicious of both; and thus, on all sides, alarm and animosity had reached their climax. and, as if to crown the whole, at this critical conjuncture by the death of the duke john william of juliers, a highly disputable succession became vacant in the territories of juliers and cleves. eight competitors laid claim to this territory, the indivisibility of which had been guaranteed by solemn treaties; and the emperor, who seemed disposed to enter upon it as a vacant fief, might be considered as the ninth. four of these, the elector of brandenburg, the count palatine of neuburg, the count palatine of deux ponts, and the margrave of burgau, an austrian prince, claimed it as a female fief in name of four princesses, sisters of the late duke. two others, the elector of saxony, of the line of albert, and the duke of saxony, of the line of ernest, laid claim to it under a prior right of reversion granted to them by the emperor frederick iii., and confirmed to both saxon houses by maximilian i. the pretensions of some foreign princes were little regarded. the best right was perhaps on the side of brandenburg and neuburg, and between the claims of these two it was not easy to decide. both courts, as soon as the succession was vacant, proceeded to take possession; brandenburg beginning, and neuburg following the example. both commenced their dispute with the pen, and would probably have ended it with the sword; but the interference of the emperor, by proceeding to bring the cause before his own cognizance, and, during the progress of the suit, sequestrating the disputed countries, soon brought the contending parties to an agreement, in order to avert the common danger. they agreed to govern the duchy conjointly. in vain did the emperor prohibit the estates from doing homage to their new masters; in vain did he send his own relation, the archduke leopold, bishop of passau and strasburg, into the territory of juliers, in order, by his presence, to strengthen the imperial party. the whole country, with the exception of juliers itself, had submitted to the protestant princes, and in that capital the imperialists were besieged. the dispute about the succession of juliers was an important one to the whole german empire, and also attracted the attention of several european courts. it was not so much the question, who was or was not to possess the duchy of juliers; -- the real question was, which of the two religious parties in germany, the roman catholic or the protestant, was to be strengthened by so important an accession -- for which of the two religions this territory was to be lost or won. the question in short was, whether austria was to be allowed to persevere in her usurpations, and to gratify her lust of dominion by another robbery; or whether the liberties of germany, and the balance of power, were to be maintained against her encroachments. the disputed succession of juliers, therefore, was matter which interested all who were favourable to liberty, and hostile to austria. the evangelical union, holland, england, and particularly henry iv. of france, were drawn into the strife. this monarch, the flower of whose life had been spent in opposing the house of austria and spain, and by persevering heroism alone had surmounted the obstacles which this house had thrown between him and the french throne, had been no idle spectator of the troubles in germany. this contest of the estates with the emperor was the means of giving and securing peace to france. the protestants and the turks were the two salutary weights which kept down the austrian power in the east and west; but it would rise again in all its terrors, if once it were allowed to remove this pressure. henry the fourth had before his eyes for half a lifetime, the uninterrupted spectacle of austrian ambition and austrian lust of dominion, which neither adversity nor poverty of talents, though generally they check all human passions, could extinguish in a bosom wherein flowed one drop of the blood of ferdinand of arragon. austrian ambition had destroyed for a century the peace of europe, and effected the most violent changes in the heart of its most considerable states. it had deprived the fields of husbandmen, the workshops of artisans, to fill the land with enormous armies, and to cover the commercial sea with hostile fleets. it had imposed upon the princes of europe the necessity of fettering the industry of their subjects by unheard-of imposts; and of wasting in self-defence the best strength of their states, which was thus lost to the prosperity of their inhabitants. for europe there was no peace, for its states no welfare, for the people's happiness no security or permanence, so long as this dangerous house was permitted to disturb at pleasure the repose of the world. such considerations clouded the mind of henry at the close of his glorious career. what had it not cost him to reduce to order the troubled chaos into which france had been plunged by the tumult of civil war, fomented and supported by this very austria! every great mind labours for eternity; and what security had henry for the endurance of that prosperity which he had gained for france, so long as austria and spain formed a single power, which did indeed lie exhausted for the present, but which required only one lucky chance to be speedily re-united, and to spring up again as formidable as ever. if he would bequeath to his successors a firmly established throne, and a durable prosperity to his subjects, this dangerous power must be for ever disarmed. this was the source of that irreconcileable enmity which henry had sworn to the house of austria, a hatred unextinguishable, ardent, and well-founded as that of hannibal against the people of romulus, but ennobled by a purer origin. the other european powers had the same inducements to action as henry, but all of them had not that enlightened policy, nor that disinterested courage to act upon the impulse. all men, without distinction, are allured by immediate advantages; great minds alone are excited by distant good. so long as wisdom in its projects calculates upon wisdom, or relies upon its own strength, it forms none but chimerical schemes, and runs a risk of making itself the laughter of the world; but it is certain of success, and may reckon upon aid and admiration when it finds a place in its intellectual plans for barbarism, rapacity, and superstition, and can render the selfish passions of mankind the executors of its purposes. in the first point of view, henry's well-known project of expelling the house of austria from all its possessions, and dividing the spoil among the european powers, deserves the title of a chimera, which men have so liberally bestowed upon it; but did it merit that appellation in the second? it had never entered into the head of that excellent monarch, in the choice of those who must be the instruments of his designs, to reckon on the sufficiency of such motives as animated himself and sully to the enterprise. all the states whose co-operation was necessary, were to be persuaded to the work by the strongest motives that can set a political power in action. from the protestants in germany nothing more was required than that which, on other grounds, had been long their object, -- their throwing off the austrian yoke; from the flemings, a similar revolt from the spaniards. to the pope and all the italian republics no inducement could be more powerful than the hope of driving the spaniards for ever from their peninsula; for england, nothing more desirable than a revolution which should free it from its bitterest enemy. by this division of the austrian conquests, every power gained either land or freedom, new possessions or security for the old; and as all gained, the balance of power remained undisturbed. france might magnanimously decline a share in the spoil, because by the ruin of austria it doubly profited, and was most powerful if it did not become more powerful. finally, upon condition of ridding europe of their presence, the posterity of hapsburg were to be allowed the liberty of augmenting her territories in all the other known or yet undiscovered portions of the globe. but the dagger of ravaillac delivered austria from her danger, to postpone for some centuries longer the tranquillity of europe. with his view directed to this project, henry felt the necessity of taking a prompt and active part in the important events of the evangelical union, and the disputed succession of juliers. his emissaries were busy in all the courts of germany, and the little which they published or allowed to escape of the great political secrets of their master, was sufficient to win over minds inflamed by so ardent a hatred to austria, and by so strong a desire of aggrandizement. the prudent policy of henry cemented the union still more closely, and the powerful aid which he bound himself to furnish, raised the courage of the confederates into the firmest confidence. a numerous french army, led by the king in person, was to meet the troops of the union on the banks of the rhine, and to assist in effecting the conquest of juliers and cleves; then, in conjunction with the germans, it was to march into italy, (where savoy, venice, and the pope were even now ready with a powerful reinforcement,) and to overthrow the spanish dominion in that quarter. this victorious army was then to penetrate by lombardy into the hereditary dominions of hapsburg; and there, favoured by a general insurrection of the protestants, destroy the power of austria in all its german territories, in bohemia, hungary, and transylvania. the brabanters and hollanders, supported by french auxiliaries, would in the meantime shake off the spanish tyranny in the netherlands; and thus the mighty stream which, only a short time before, had so fearfully overflowed its banks, threatening to overwhelm in its troubled waters the liberties of europe, would then roll silent and forgotten behind the pyrenean mountains. at other times, the french had boasted of their rapidity of action, but upon this occasion they were outstripped by the germans. an army of the confederates entered alsace before henry made his appearance there, and an austrian army, which the bishop of strasburg and passau had assembled in that quarter for an expedition against juliers, was dispersed. henry iv. had formed his plan as a statesman and a king, but he had intrusted its execution to plunderers. according to his design, no roman catholic state was to have cause to think this preparation aimed against itself, or to make the quarrel of austria its own. religion was in nowise to be mixed up with the matter. but how could the german princes forget their own purposes in furthering the plans of henry? actuated as they were by the desire of aggrandizement and by religious hatred, was it to be supposed that they would not gratify, in every passing opportunity, their ruling passions to the utmost? like vultures, they stooped upon the territories of the ecclesiastical princes, and always chose those rich countries for their quarters, though to reach them they must make ever so wide a detour from their direct route. they levied contributions as in an enemy's country, seized upon the revenues, and exacted, by violence, what they could not obtain of free-will. not to leave the roman catholics in doubt as to the true objects of their expedition, they announced, openly and intelligibly enough, the fate that awaited the property of the church. so little had henry iv. and the german princes understood each other in their plan of operations, so much had the excellent king been mistaken in his instruments. it is an unfailing maxim, that, if policy enjoins an act of violence, its execution ought never to be entrusted to the violent; and that he only ought to be trusted with the violation of order by whom order is held sacred. both the past conduct of the union, which was condemned even by several of the evangelical states, and the apprehension of even worse treatment, aroused the roman catholics to something beyond mere inactive indignation. as to the emperor, his authority had sunk too low to afford them any security against such an enemy. it was their union that rendered the confederates so formidable and so insolent; and another union must now be opposed to them. the bishop of wurtzburg formed the plan of the catholic union, which was distinguished from the evangelical by the title of the league. the objects agreed upon were nearly the same as those which constituted the groundwork of the union. bishops formed its principal members, and at its head was placed maximilian, duke of bavaria. as the only influential secular member of the confederacy, he was entrusted with far more extensive powers than the protestants had committed to their chief. in addition to the duke's being the sole head of the league's military power, whereby their operations acquired a speed and weight unattainable by the union, they had also the advantage that supplies flowed in much more regularly from the rich prelates, than the latter could obtain them from the poor evangelical states. without offering to the emperor, as the sovereign of a roman catholic state, any share in their confederacy, without even communicating its existence to him as emperor, the league arose at once formidable and threatening; with strength sufficient to crush the protestant union and to maintain itself under three emperors. it contended, indeed, for austria, in so far as it fought against the protestant princes; but austria herself had soon cause to tremble before it. the arms of the union had, in the meantime, been tolerably successful in juliers and in alsace; juliers was closely blockaded, and the whole bishopric of strasburg was in their power. but here their splendid achievements came to an end. no french army appeared upon the rhine; for he who was to be its leader, he who was the animating soul of the whole enterprize, henry iv., was no more! their supplies were on the wane; the estates refused to grant new subsidies; and the confederate free cities were offended that their money should be liberally, but their advice so sparingly called for. especially were they displeased at being put to expense for the expedition against juliers, which had been expressly excluded from the affairs of the union -- at the united princes appropriating to themselves large pensions out of the common treasure -- and, above all, at their refusing to give any account of its expenditure. the union was thus verging to its fall, at the moment when the league started to oppose it in the vigour of its strength. want of supplies disabled the confederates from any longer keeping the field. and yet it was dangerous to lay down their weapons in the sight of an armed enemy. to secure themselves at least on one side, they hastened to conclude a peace with their old enemy, the archduke leopold; and both parties agreed to withdraw their troops from alsace, to exchange prisoners, and to bury all that had been done in oblivion. thus ended in nothing all these promising preparations. the same imperious tone with which the union, in the confidence of its strength, had menaced the roman catholics of germany, was now retorted by the league upon themselves and their troops. the traces of their march were pointed out to them, and plainly branded with the hard epithets they had deserved. the chapters of wurtzburg, bamberg, strasburg, mentz, treves, cologne, and several others, had experienced their destructive presence; to all these the damage done was to be made good, the free passage by land and by water restored, (for the protestants had even seized on the navigation of the rhine,) and everything replaced on its former footing. above all, the parties to the union were called on to declare expressly and unequivocally its intentions. it was now their turn to yield to superior strength. they had not calculated on so formidable an opponent; but they themselves had taught the roman catholics the secret of their strength. it was humiliating to their pride to sue for peace, but they might think themselves fortunate in obtaining it. the one party promised restitution, the other forgiveness. all laid down their arms. the storm of war once more rolled by, and a temporary calm succeeded. the insurrection in bohemia then broke out, which deprived the emperor of the last of his hereditary dominions, but in this dispute neither the union nor the league took any share. at length the emperor died in , as little regretted in his coffin as noticed on the throne. long afterwards, when the miseries of succeeding reigns had made the misfortunes of his reign forgotten, a halo spread about his memory, and so fearful a night set in upon germany, that, with tears of blood, people prayed for the return of such an emperor. rodolph never could be prevailed upon to choose a successor in the empire, and all awaited with anxiety the approaching vacancy of the throne; but, beyond all hope, matthias at once ascended it, and without opposition. the roman catholics gave him their voices, because they hoped the best from his vigour and activity; the protestants gave him theirs, because they hoped every thing from his weakness. it is not difficult to reconcile this contradiction. the one relied on what he had once appeared; the other judged him by what he seemed at present. the moment of a new accession is always a day of hope; and the first diet of a king in elective monarchies is usually his severest trial. every old grievance is brought forward, and new ones are sought out, that they may be included in the expected reform; quite a new world is expected to commence with the new reign. the important services which, in his insurrection, their religious confederates in austria had rendered to matthias, were still fresh in the minds of the protestant free cities, and, above all, the price which they had exacted for their services seemed now to serve them also as a model. it was by the favour of the protestant estates in austria and moravia that matthias had sought and really found the way to his brother's throne; but, hurried on by his ambitious views, he never reflected that a way was thus opened for the states to give laws to their sovereign. this discovery soon awoke him from the intoxication of success. scarcely had he shown himself in triumph to his austrian subjects, after his victorious expedition to bohemia, when a humble petition awaited him which was quite sufficient to poison his whole triumph. they required, before doing homage, unlimited religious toleration in the cities and market towns, perfect equality of rights between roman catholics and protestants, and a full and equal admissibility of the latter to all offices of state. in several places, they of themselves assumed these privileges, and, reckoning on a change of administration, restored the protestant religion where the late emperor had suppressed it. matthias, it is true, had not scrupled to make use of the grievances of the protestants for his own ends against the emperor; but it was far from being his intention to relieve them. by a firm and resolute tone he hoped to check, at once, these presumptuous demands. he spoke of his hereditary title to these territories, and would hear of no stipulations before the act of homage. a like unconditional submission had been rendered by their neighbours, the inhabitants of styria, to the archduke ferdinand, who, however, had soon reason to repent of it. warned by this example, the austrian states persisted in their refusal; and, to avoid being compelled by force to do homage, their deputies (after urging their roman catholic colleagues to a similar resistance) immediately left the capital, and began to levy troops. they took steps to renew their old alliance with hungary, drew the protestant princes into their interests, and set themselves seriously to work to accomplish their object by force of arms. with the more exorbitant demands of the hungarians matthias had not hesitated to comply. for hungary was an elective monarchy, and the republican constitution of the country justified to himself their demands, and to the roman catholic world his concessions. in austria, on the contrary, his predecessors had exercised far higher prerogatives, which he could not relinquish at the demand of the estates without incurring the scorn of roman catholic europe, the enmity of spain and rome, and the contempt of his own roman catholic subjects. his exclusively romish council, among which the bishop of vienna, melchio kiesel, had the chief influence, exhorted him to see all the churches extorted from him by the protestants, rather than to concede one to them as a matter of right. but by ill luck this difficulty occurred at a time when the emperor rodolph was yet alive, and a spectator of this scene, and who might easily have been tempted to employ against his brother the same weapons which the latter had successfully directed against him -- namely, an understanding with his rebellious subjects. to avoid this blow, matthias willingly availed himself of the offer made by moravia, to act as mediator between him and the estates of austria. representatives of both parties met in vienna, when the austrian deputies held language which would have excited surprise even in the english parliament. "the protestants," they said, "are determined to be not worse treated in their native country than the handful of romanists. by the help of his protestant nobles had matthias reduced the emperor to submission; where papists were to be found, protestant barons might be counted. the example of rodolph should be a warning to matthias. he should take care that he did not lose the terrestrial, in attempting to make conquests for the celestial." as the moravian states, instead of using their powers as mediators for the emperor's advantage, finally adopted the cause of their co-religionists of austria; as the union in germany came forward to afford them its most active support, and as matthias dreaded reprisals on the part of the emperor, he was at length compelled to make the desired declaration in favour of the evangelical church. this behaviour of the austrian estates towards their archduke was now imitated by the protestant estates of the empire towards their emperor, and they promised themselves the same favourable results. at his first diet at ratisbon in , when the most pressing affairs were waiting for decision -- when a general contribution was indispensable for a war against turkey, and against bethlem gabor in transylvania, who by turkish aid had forcibly usurped the sovereignty of that land, and even threatened hungary -- they surprised him with an entirely new demand. the roman catholic votes were still the most numerous in the diet; and as every thing was decided by a plurality of voices, the protestant party, however closely united, were entirely without consideration. the advantage of this majority the roman catholics were now called on to relinquish; henceforward no one religious party was to be permitted to dictate to the other by means of its invariable superiority. and in truth, if the evangelical religion was really to be represented in the diet, it was self-evident that it must not be shut out from the possibility of making use of that privilege, merely from the constitution of the diet itself. complaints of the judicial usurpations of the aulic council, and of the oppression of the protestants, accompanied this demand, and the deputies of the estates were instructed to take no part in any general deliberations till a favourable answer should be given on this preliminary point. the diet was torn asunder by this dangerous division, which threatened to destroy for ever the unity of its deliberations. sincerely as the emperor might have wished, after the example of his father maximilian, to preserve a prudent balance between the two religions, the present conduct of the protestants seemed to leave him nothing but a critical choice between the two. in his present necessities a general contribution from the estates was indispensable to him; and yet he could not conciliate the one party without sacrificing the support of the other. insecure as he felt his situation to be in his own hereditary dominions, he could not but tremble at the idea, however remote, of an open war with the protestants. but the eyes of the whole roman catholic world, which were attentively regarding his conduct, the remonstrances of the roman catholic estates, and of the courts of rome and spain, as little permitted him to favour the protestant at the expense of the romish religion. so critical a situation would have paralysed a greater mind than matthias; and his own prudence would scarcely have extricated him from his dilemma. but the interests of the roman catholics were closely interwoven with the imperial authority; if they suffered this to fall, the ecclesiastical princes in particular would be without a bulwark against the attacks of the protestants. now, then, that they saw the emperor wavering, they thought it high time to reassure his sinking courage. they imparted to him the secret of their league, and acquainted him with its whole constitution, resources and power. little comforting as such a revelation must have been to the emperor, the prospect of so powerful a support gave him greater boldness to oppose the protestants. their demands were rejected, and the diet broke up without coming to a decision. but matthias was the victim of this dispute. the protestants refused him their supplies, and made him alone suffer for the inflexibility of the roman catholics. the turks, however, appeared willing to prolong the cessation of hostilities, and bethlem gabor was left in peaceable possession of transylvania. the empire was now free from foreign enemies; and even at home, in the midst of all these fearful disputes, peace still reigned. an unexpected accident had given a singular turn to the dispute as to the succession of juliers. this duchy was still ruled conjointly by the electoral house of brandenburg and the palatine of neuburg; and a marriage between the prince of neuburg and a princess of brandenburg was to have inseparably united the interests of the two houses. but the whole scheme was upset by a box on the ear, which, in a drunken brawl, the elector of brandenburg unfortunately inflicted upon his intended son-in-law. from this moment the good understanding between the two houses was at an end. the prince of neuburg embraced popery. the hand of a princess of bavaria rewarded his apostacy, and the strong support of bavaria and spain was the natural result of both. to secure to the palatine the exclusive possession of juliers, the spanish troops from the netherlands were marched into the palatinate. to rid himself of these guests, the elector of brandenburg called the flemings to his assistance, whom he sought to propitiate by embracing the calvinist religion. both spanish and dutch armies appeared, but, as it seemed, only to make conquests for themselves. the neighbouring war of the netherlands seemed now about to be decided on german ground; and what an inexhaustible mine of combustibles lay here ready for it! the protestants saw with consternation the spaniards establishing themselves upon the lower rhine; with still greater anxiety did the roman catholics see the hollanders bursting through the frontiers of the empire. it was in the west that the mine was expected to explode which had long been dug under the whole of germany. to the west, apprehension and anxiety turned; but the spark which kindled the flame came unexpectedly from the east. the tranquillity which rodolph ii.'s `letter of majesty' had established in bohemia lasted for some time, under the administration of matthias, till the nomination of a new heir to this kingdom in the person of ferdinand of gratz. this prince, whom we shall afterwards become better acquainted with under the title of ferdinand ii., emperor of germany, had, by the violent extirpation of the protestant religion within his hereditary dominions, announced himself as an inexorable zealot for popery, and was consequently looked upon by the roman catholic part of bohemia as the future pillar of their church. the declining health of the emperor brought on this hour rapidly; and, relying on so powerful a supporter, the bohemian papists began to treat the protestants with little moderation. the protestant vassals of roman catholic nobles, in particular, experienced the harshest treatment. at length several of the former were incautious enough to speak somewhat loudly of their hopes, and by threatening hints to awaken among the protestants a suspicion of their future sovereign. but this mistrust would never have broken out into actual violence, had the roman catholics confined themselves to general expressions, and not by attacks on individuals furnished the discontent of the people with enterprising leaders. henry matthias, count thurn, not a native of bohemia, but proprietor of some estates in that kingdom, had, by his zeal for the protestant cause, and an enthusiastic attachment to his newly adopted country, gained the entire confidence of the utraquists, which opened him the way to the most important posts. he had fought with great glory against the turks, and won by a flattering address the hearts of the multitude. of a hot and impetuous disposition, which loved tumult because his talents shone in it -- rash and thoughtless enough to undertake things which cold prudence and a calmer temper would not have ventured upon -- unscrupulous enough, where the gratification of his passions was concerned, to sport with the fate of thousands, and at the same time politic enough to hold in leading-strings such a people as the bohemians then were. he had already taken an active part in the troubles under rodolph's administration; and the letter of majesty which the states had extorted from that emperor, was chiefly to be laid to his merit. the court had intrusted to him, as burgrave or castellan of calstein, the custody of the bohemian crown, and of the national charter. but the nation had placed in his hands something far more important -- itself -- with the office of defender or protector of the faith. the aristocracy by which the emperor was ruled, imprudently deprived him of this harmless guardianship of the dead, to leave him his full influence over the living. they took from him his office of burgrave, or constable of the castle, which had rendered him dependent on the court, thereby opening his eyes to the importance of the other which remained, and wounded his vanity, which yet was the thing that made his ambition harmless. from this moment he was actuated solely by a desire of revenge; and the opportunity of gratifying it was not long wanting. in the royal letter which the bohemians had extorted from rodolph ii., as well as in the german religious treaty, one material article remained undetermined. all the privileges granted by the latter to the protestants, were conceived in favour of the estates or governing bodies, not of the subjects; for only to those of the ecclesiastical states had a toleration, and that precarious, been conceded. the bohemian letter of majesty, in the same manner, spoke only of the estates and imperial towns, the magistrates of which had contrived to obtain equal privileges with the former. these alone were free to erect churches and schools, and openly to celebrate their protestant worship; in all other towns, it was left entirely to the government to which they belonged, to determine the religion of the inhabitants. the estates of the empire had availed themselves of this privilege in its fullest extent; the secular indeed without opposition; while the ecclesiastical, in whose case the declaration of ferdinand had limited this privilege, disputed, not without reason, the validity of that limitation. what was a disputed point in the religious treaty, was left still more doubtful in the letter of majesty; in the former, the construction was not doubtful, but it was a question how far obedience might be compulsory; in the latter, the interpretation was left to the states. the subjects of the ecclesiastical estates in bohemia thought themselves entitled to the same rights which the declaration of ferdinand secured to the subjects of german bishops, they considered themselves on an equality with the subjects of imperial towns, because they looked upon the ecclesiastical property as part of the royal demesnes. in the little town of klostergrab, subject to the archbishop of prague; and in braunau, which belonged to the abbot of that monastery, churches were founded by the protestants, and completed notwithstanding the opposition of their superiors, and the disapprobation of the emperor. in the meantime, the vigilance of the defenders had somewhat relaxed, and the court thought it might venture on a decisive step. by the emperor's orders, the church at klostergrab was pulled down; that at braunau forcibly shut up, and the most turbulent of the citizens thrown into prison. a general commotion among the protestants was the consequence of this measure; a loud outcry was everywhere raised at this violation of the letter of majesty; and count thurn, animated by revenge, and particularly called upon by his office of defender, showed himself not a little busy in inflaming the minds of the people. at his instigation deputies were summoned to prague from every circle in the empire, to concert the necessary measures against the common danger. it was resolved to petition the emperor to press for the liberation of the prisoners. the answer of the emperor, already offensive to the states, from its being addressed, not to them, but to his viceroy, denounced their conduct as illegal and rebellious, justified what had been done at klostergrab and braunau as the result of an imperial mandate, and contained some passages that might be construed into threats. count thurn did not fail to augment the unfavourable impression which this imperial edict made upon the assembled estates. he pointed out to them the danger in which all who had signed the petition were involved, and sought by working on their resentment and fears to hurry them into violent resolutions. to have caused their immediate revolt against the emperor, would have been, as yet, too bold a measure. it was only step by step that he would lead them on to this unavoidable result. he held it, therefore, advisable first to direct their indignation against the emperor's counsellors; and for that purpose circulated a report, that the imperial proclamation had been drawn up by the government at prague, and only signed in vienna. among the imperial delegates, the chief objects of the popular hatred, were the president of the chamber, slawata, and baron martinitz, who had been elected in place of count thurn, burgrave of calstein. both had long before evinced pretty openly their hostile feelings towards the protestants, by alone refusing to be present at the sitting at which the letter of majesty had been inserted in the bohemian constitution. a threat was made at the time to make them responsible for every violation of the letter of majesty; and from this moment, whatever evil befell the protestants was set down, and not without reason, to their account. of all the roman catholic nobles, these two had treated their protestant vassals with the greatest harshness. they were accused of hunting them with dogs to the mass, and of endeavouring to drive them to popery by a denial of the rites of baptism, marriage, and burial. against two characters so unpopular the public indignation was easily excited, and they were marked out for a sacrifice to the general indignation. on the rd of may, , the deputies appeared armed, and in great numbers, at the royal palace, and forced their way into the hall where the commissioners sternberg, martinitz, lobkowitz, and slawata were assembled. in a threatening tone they demanded to know from each of them, whether he had taken any part, or had consented to, the imperial proclamation. sternberg received them with composure, martinitz and slawata with defiance. this decided their fate; sternberg and lobkowitz, less hated, and more feared, were led by the arm out of the room; martinitz and slawata were seized, dragged to a window, and precipitated from a height of eighty feet, into the castle trench. their creature, the secretary fabricius, was thrown after them. this singular mode of execution naturally excited the surprise of civilized nations. the bohemians justified it as a national custom, and saw nothing remarkable in the whole affair, excepting that any one should have got up again safe and sound after such a fall. a dunghill, on which the imperial commissioners chanced to be deposited, had saved them from injury. it was not to be expected that this summary mode of proceeding would much increase the favour of the parties with the emperor, but this was the very position to which count thurn wished to bring them. if, from the fear of uncertain danger, they had permitted themselves such an act of violence, the certain expectation of punishment, and the now urgent necessity of making themselves secure, would plunge them still deeper into guilt. by this brutal act of self-redress, no room was left for irresolution or repentance, and it seemed as if a single crime could be absolved only by a series of violences. as the deed itself could not be undone, nothing was left but to disarm the hand of punishment. thirty directors were appointed to organise a regular insurrection. they seized upon all the offices of state, and all the imperial revenues, took into their own service the royal functionaries and the soldiers, and summoned the whole bohemian nation to avenge the common cause. the jesuits, whom the common hatred accused as the instigators of every previous oppression, were banished the kingdom, and this harsh measure the estates found it necessary to justify in a formal manifesto. these various steps were taken for the preservation of the royal authority and the laws -- the language of all rebels till fortune has decided in their favour. the emotion which the news of the bohemian insurrection excited at the imperial court, was much less lively than such intelligence deserved. the emperor matthias was no longer the resolute spirit that formerly sought out his king and master in the very bosom of his people, and hurled him from three thrones. the confidence and courage which had animated him in an usurpation, deserted him in a legitimate self-defence. the bohemian rebels had first taken up arms, and the nature of circumstances drove him to join them. but he could not hope to confine such a war to bohemia. in all the territories under his dominion, the protestants were united by a dangerous sympathy -- the common danger of their religion might suddenly combine them all into a formidable republic. what could he oppose to such an enemy, if the protestant portion of his subjects deserted him? and would not both parties exhaust themselves in so ruinous a civil war? how much was at stake if he lost; and if he won, whom else would he destroy but his own subjects? considerations such as these inclined the emperor and his council to concessions and pacific measures, but it was in this very spirit of concession that, as others would have it, lay the origin of the evil. the archduke ferdinand of gratz congratulated the emperor upon an event, which would justify in the eyes of all europe the severest measures against the bohemian protestants. "disobedience, lawlessness, and insurrection," he said, "went always hand-in-hand with protestantism. every privilege which had been conceded to the estates by himself and his predecessor, had had no other effect than to raise their demands. all the measures of the heretics were aimed against the imperial authority. step by step had they advanced from defiance to defiance up to this last aggression; in a short time they would assail all that remained to be assailed, in the person of the emperor. in arms alone was there any safety against such an enemy -- peace and subordination could be only established upon the ruins of their dangerous privileges; security for the catholic belief was to be found only in the total destruction of this sect. uncertain, it was true, might be the event of the war, but inevitable was the ruin if it were pretermitted. the confiscation of the lands of the rebels would richly indemnify them for its expenses, while the terror of punishment would teach the other states the wisdom of a prompt obedience in future." were the bohemian protestants to blame, if they armed themselves in time against the enforcement of such maxims? the insurrection in bohemia, besides, was directed only against the successor of the emperor, not against himself, who had done nothing to justify the alarm of the protestants. to exclude this prince from the bohemian throne, arms had before been taken up under matthias, though as long as this emperor lived, his subjects had kept within the bounds of an apparent submission. but bohemia was in arms, and unarmed, the emperor dared not even offer them peace. for this purpose, spain supplied gold, and promised to send troops from italy and the netherlands. count bucquoi, a native of the netherlands, was named generalissimo, because no native could be trusted, and count dampierre, another foreigner, commanded under him. before the army took the field, the emperor endeavoured to bring about an amicable arrangement, by the publication of a manifesto. in this he assured the bohemians, "that he held sacred the letter of majesty -- that he had not formed any resolutions inimical to their religion or their privileges, and that his present preparations were forced upon him by their own. as soon as the nation laid down their arms, he also would disband his army." but this gracious letter failed of its effect, because the leaders of the insurrection contrived to hide from the people the emperor's good intentions. instead of this, they circulated the most alarming reports from the pulpit, and by pamphlets, and terrified the deluded populace with threatened horrors of another saint bartholomew's that existed only in their own imagination. all bohemia, with the exception of three towns, budweiss, krummau, and pilsen, took part in this insurrection. these three towns, inhabited principally by roman catholics, alone had the courage, in this general revolt, to hold out for the emperor, who promised them assistance. but it could not escape count thurn, how dangerous it was to leave in hostile hands three places of such importance, which would at all times keep open for the imperial troops an entrance into the kingdom. with prompt determination he appeared before budweiss and krummau, in the hope of terrifying them into a surrender. krummau surrendered, but all his attacks were steadfastly repulsed by budweiss. and now, too, the emperor began to show more earnestness and energy. bucquoi and dampierre, with two armies, fell upon the bohemian territories, which they treated as a hostile country. but the imperial generals found the march to prague more difficult than they had expected. every pass, every position that was the least tenable, must be opened by the sword, and resistance increased at each fresh step they took, for the outrages of their troops, chiefly consisting of hungarians and walloons, drove their friends to revolt and their enemies to despair. but even now that his troops had penetrated into bohemia, the emperor continued to offer the estates peace, and to show himself ready for an amicable adjustment. but the new prospects which opened upon them, raised the courage of the revolters. moravia espoused their party; and from germany appeared to them a defender equally intrepid and unexpected, in the person of count mansfeld. the heads of the evangelic union had been silent but not inactive spectators of the movements in bohemia. both were contending for the same cause, and against the same enemy. in the fate of the bohemians, their confederates in the faith might read their own; and the cause of this people was represented as of solemn concern to the whole german union. true to these principles, the unionists supported the courage of the insurgents by promises of assistance; and a fortunate accident now enabled them, beyond their hopes, to fulfil them. the instrument by which the house of austria was humbled in germany, was peter ernest, count mansfeld, the son of a distinguished austrian officer, ernest von mansfeld, who for some time had commanded with repute the spanish army in the netherlands. his first campaigns in juliers and alsace had been made in the service of this house, and under the banner of the archduke leopold, against the protestant religion and the liberties of germany. but insensibly won by the principles of this religion, he abandoned a leader whose selfishness denied him the reimbursement of the monies expended in his cause, and he transferred his zeal and a victorious sword to the evangelic union. it happened just then that the duke of savoy, an ally of the union, demanded assistance in a war against spain. they assigned to him their newly acquired servant, and mansfeld received instructions to raise an army of men in germany, in the cause and in the pay of the duke. the army was ready to march at the very moment when the flames of war burst out in bohemia, and the duke, who at the time did not stand in need of its services, placed it at the disposal of the union. nothing could be more welcome to these troops than the prospect of aiding their confederates in bohemia, at the cost of a third party. mansfeld received orders forthwith to march with these men into that kingdom; and a pretended bohemian commission was given to blind the public as to the true author of this levy. this mansfeld now appeared in bohemia, and, by the occupation of pilsen, strongly fortified and favourable to the emperor, obtained a firm footing in the country. the courage of the rebels was farther increased by succours which the silesian states despatched to their assistance. between these and the imperialists, several battles were fought, far indeed from decisive, but only on that account the more destructive, which served as the prelude to a more serious war. to check the vigour of his military operations, a negotiation was entered into with the emperor, and a disposition was shown to accept the proffered mediation of saxony. but before the event could prove how little sincerity there was in these proposals, the emperor was removed from the scene by death. what now had matthias done to justify the expectations which he had excited by the overthrow of his predecessor? was it worth while to ascend a brother's throne through guilt, and then maintain it with so little dignity, and leave it with so little renown? as long as matthias sat on the throne, he had to atone for the imprudence by which he had gained it. to enjoy the regal dignity a few years sooner, he had shackled the free exercise of its prerogatives. the slender portion of independence left him by the growing power of the estates, was still farther lessened by the encroachments of his relations. sickly and childless he saw the attention of the world turned to an ambitious heir who was impatiently anticipating his fate; and who, by his interference with the closing administration, was already opening his own. with matthias, the reigning line of the german house of austria was in a manner extinct; for of all the sons of maximilian, one only was now alive, the weak and childless archduke albert, in the netherlands, who had already renounced his claims to the inheritance in favour of the line of gratz. the spanish house had also, in a secret bond, resigned its pretensions to the austrian possessions in behalf of the archduke ferdinand of styria, in whom the branch of hapsburg was about to put forth new shoots, and the former greatness of austria to experience a revival. the father of ferdinand was the archduke charles of carniola, carinthia, and styria, the youngest brother of the emperor maximilian ii.; his mother a princess of bavaria. having lost his father at twelve years of age, he was intrusted by the archduchess to the guardianship of her brother william, duke of bavaria, under whose eyes he was instructed and educated by jesuits at the academy of ingolstadt. what principles he was likely to imbibe by his intercourse with a prince, who from motives of devotion had abdicated his government, may be easily conceived. care was taken to point out to him, on the one hand, the weak indulgence of maximilian's house towards the adherents of the new doctrines, and the consequent troubles of their dominions; on the other, the blessings of bavaria, and the inflexible religious zeal of its rulers; between these two examples he was left to choose for himself. formed in this school to be a stout champion of the faith, and a prompt instrument of the church, he left bavaria, after a residence of five years, to assume the government of his hereditary dominions. the estates of carniola, carinthia, and styria, who, before doing homage, demanded a guarantee for freedom of religion, were told that religious liberty has nothing to do with their allegiance. the oath was put to them without conditions, and unconditionally taken. many years, however, elapsed, ere the designs which had been planned at ingolstadt were ripe for execution. before attempting to carry them into effect, he sought in person at loretto the favour of the virgin, and received the apostolic benediction in rome at the feet of clement viii. these designs were nothing less than the expulsion of protestantism from a country where it had the advantage of numbers, and had been legally recognized by a formal act of toleration, granted by his father to the noble and knightly estates of the land. a grant so formally ratified could not be revoked without danger; but no difficulties could deter the pious pupil of the jesuits. the example of other states, both roman catholic and protestant, which within their own territories had exercised unquestioned a right of reformation, and the abuse which the estates of styria made of their religious liberties, would serve as a justification of this violent procedure. under the shelter of an absurd positive law, those of equity and prudence might, it was thought, be safely despised. in the execution of these unrighteous designs, ferdinand did, it must be owned, display no common courage and perseverance. without tumult, and we may add, without cruelty, he suppressed the protestant service in one town after another, and in a few years, to the astonishment of germany, this dangerous work was brought to a successful end. but, while the roman catholics admired him as a hero, and the champion of the church, the protestants began to combine against him as against their most dangerous enemy. and yet matthias's intention to bequeath to him the succession, met with little or no opposition in the elective states of austria. even the bohemians agreed to receive him as their future king, on very favourable conditions. it was not until afterwards, when they had experienced the pernicious influence of his councils on the administration of the emperor, that their anxiety was first excited; and then several projects, in his handwriting, which an unlucky chance threw into their hands, as they plainly evinced his disposition towards them, carried their apprehension to the utmost pitch. in particular, they were alarmed by a secret family compact with spain, by which, in default of heirs-male of his own body, ferdinand bequeathed to that crown the kingdom of bohemia, without first consulting the wishes of that nation, and without regard to its right of free election. the many enemies, too, which by his reforms in styria that prince had provoked among the protestants, were very prejudicial to his interests in bohemia; and some styrian emigrants, who had taken refuge there, bringing with them into their adopted country hearts overflowing with a desire of revenge, were particularly active in exciting the flame of revolt. thus ill-affected did ferdinand find the bohemians, when he succeeded matthias. so bad an understanding between the nation and the candidate for the throne, would have raised a storm even in the most peaceable succession; how much more so at the present moment, before the ardour of insurrection had cooled; when the nation had just recovered its dignity, and reasserted its rights; when they still held arms in their hands, and the consciousness of unity had awakened an enthusiastic reliance on their own strength; when by past success, by the promises of foreign assistance, and by visionary expectations of the future, their courage had been raised to an undoubting confidence. disregarding the rights already conferred on ferdinand, the estates declared the throne vacant, and their right of election entirely unfettered. all hopes of their peaceful submission were at an end, and if ferdinand wished still to wear the crown of bohemia, he must choose between purchasing it at the sacrifice of all that would make a crown desirable, or winning it sword in hand. but with what means was it to be won? turn his eyes where he would, the fire of revolt was burning. silesia had already joined the insurgents in bohemia; moravia was on the point of following its example. in upper and lower austria the spirit of liberty was awake, as it had been under rodolph, and the estates refused to do homage. hungary was menaced with an inroad by prince bethlen gabor, on the side of transylvania; a secret arming among the turks spread consternation among the provinces to the eastward; and, to complete his perplexities, the protestants also, in his hereditary dominions, stimulated by the general example, were again raising their heads. in that quarter, their numbers were overwhelming; in most places they had possession of the revenues which ferdinand would need for the maintenance of the war. the neutral began to waver, the faithful to be discouraged, the turbulent alone to be animated and confident. one half of germany encouraged the rebels, the other inactively awaited the issue; spanish assistance was still very remote. the moment which had brought him every thing, threatened also to deprive him of all. and when he now, yielding to the stern law of necessity, made overtures to the bohemian rebels, all his proposals for peace were insolently rejected. count thurn, at the head of an army, entered moravia to bring this province, which alone continued to waver, to a decision. the appearance of their friends is the signal of revolt for the moravian protestants. bruenn is taken, the remainder of the country yields with free will, throughout the province government and religion are changed. swelling as it flows, the torrent of rebellion pours down upon austria, where a party, holding similar sentiments, receives it with a joyful concurrence. henceforth, there should be no more distinctions of religion; equality of rights should be guaranteed to all christian churches. they hear that a foreign force has been invited into the country to oppress the bohemians. let them be sought out, and the enemies of liberty pursued to the ends of the earth. not an arm is raised in defence of the archduke, and the rebels, at length, encamp before vienna to besiege their sovereign. ferdinand had sent his children from gratz, where they were no longer safe, to the tyrol; he himself awaited the insurgents in his capital. a handful of soldiers was all he could oppose to the enraged multitude; these few were without pay or provisions, and therefore little to be depended on. vienna was unprepared for a long siege. the party of the protestants, ready at any moment to join the bohemians, had the preponderance in the city; those in the country had already begun to levy troops against him. already, in imagination, the protestant populace saw the emperor shut up in a monastery, his territories divided, and his children educated as protestants. confiding in secret, and surrounded by public enemies, he saw the chasm every moment widening to engulf his hopes and even himself. the bohemian bullets were already falling upon the imperial palace, when sixteen austrian barons forcibly entered his chamber, and inveighing against him with loud and bitter reproaches, endeavoured to force him into a confederation with the bohemians. one of them, seizing him by the button of his doublet, demanded, in a tone of menace, "ferdinand, wilt thou sign it?" who would not be pardoned had he wavered in this frightful situation? yet ferdinand still remembered the dignity of a roman emperor. no alternative seemed left to him but an immediate flight or submission; laymen urged him to the one, priests to the other. if he abandoned the city, it would fall into the enemy's hands; with vienna, austria was lost; with austria, the imperial throne. ferdinand abandoned not his capital, and as little would he hear of conditions. the archduke is still engaged in altercation with the deputed barons, when all at once a sound of trumpets is heard in the palace square. terror and astonishment take possession of all present; a fearful report pervades the palace; one deputy after another disappears. many of the nobility and the citizens hastily take refuge in the camp of thurn. this sudden change is effected by a regiment of dampierre's cuirassiers, who at that moment marched into the city to defend the archduke. a body of infantry soon followed; reassured by their appearance, several of the roman catholic citizens, and even the students themselves, take up arms. a report which arrived just at the same time from bohemia made his deliverance complete. the flemish general, bucquoi, had totally defeated count mansfeld at budweiss, and was marching upon prague. the bohemians hastily broke up their camp before vienna to protect their own capital. and now also the passes were free which the enemy had taken possession of, in order to obstruct ferdinand's progress to his coronation at frankfort. if the accession to the imperial throne was important for the plans of the king of hungary, it was of still greater consequence at the present moment, when his nomination as emperor would afford the most unsuspicious and decisive proof of the dignity of his person, and of the justice of his cause, while, at the same time, it would give him a hope of support from the empire. but the same cabal which opposed him in his hereditary dominions, laboured also to counteract him in his canvass for the imperial dignity. no austrian prince, they maintained, ought to ascend the throne; least of all ferdinand, the bigoted persecutor of their religion, the slave of spain and of the jesuits. to prevent this, the crown had been offered, even during the lifetime of matthias, to the duke of bavaria, and on his refusal, to the duke of savoy. as some difficulty was experienced in settling with the latter the conditions of acceptance, it was sought, at all events, to delay the election till some decisive blow in austria or bohemia should annihilate all the hopes of ferdinand, and incapacitate him from any competition for this dignity. the members of the union left no stone unturned to gain over from ferdinand the electorate of saxony, which was bound to austrian interests; they represented to this court the dangers with which the protestant religion, and even the constitution of the empire, were threatened by the principles of this prince and his spanish alliance. by the elevation of ferdinand to the imperial throne, germany, they further asserted, would be involved in the private quarrels of this prince, and bring upon itself the arms of bohemia. but in spite of all opposing influences, the day of election was fixed, ferdinand summoned to it as lawful king of bohemia, and his electoral vote, after a fruitless resistance on the part of the bohemian estates, acknowledged to be good. the votes of the three ecclesiastical electorates were for him, saxony was favourable to him, brandenburg made no opposition, and a decided majority declared him emperor in . thus he saw the most doubtful of his crowns placed first of all on his head; but a few days after he lost that which he had reckoned among the most certain of his possessions. while he was thus elected emperor in frankfort, he was in prague deprived of the bohemian throne. almost all of his german hereditary dominions had in the meantime entered into a formidable league with the bohemians, whose insolence now exceeded all bounds. in a general diet, the latter, on the th of august, , proclaimed the emperor an enemy to the bohemian religion and liberties, who by his pernicious counsels had alienated from them the affections of the late emperor, had furnished troops to oppress them, had given their country as a prey to foreigners, and finally, in contravention of the national rights, had bequeathed the crown, by a secret compact, to spain: they therefore declared that he had forfeited whatever title he might otherwise have had to the crown, and immediately proceeded to a new election. as this sentence was pronounced by protestants, their choice could not well fall upon a roman catholic prince, though, to save appearances, some voices were raised for bavaria and savoy. but the violent religious animosities which divided the evangelical and the reformed parties among the protestants, impeded for some time the election even of a protestant king; till at last the address and activity of the calvinists carried the day from the numerical superiority of the lutherans. among all the princes who were competitors for this dignity, the elector palatine frederick v. had the best grounded claims on the confidence and gratitude of the bohemians; and among them all, there was no one in whose case the private interests of particular estates, and the attachment of the people, seemed to be justified by so many considerations of state. frederick v. was of a free and lively spirit, of great goodness of heart, and regal liberality. he was the head of the calvinistic party in germany, the leader of the union, whose resources were at his disposal, a near relation of the duke of bavaria, and a son-in-law of the king of great britain, who might lend him his powerful support. all these considerations were prominently and successfully brought forward by the calvinists, and frederick v. was chosen king by the assembly at prague, amidst prayers and tears of joy. the whole proceedings of the diet at prague had been premeditated, and frederick himself had taken too active a share in the matter to feel at all surprised at the offer made to him by the bohemians. but now the immediate glitter of this throne dazzled him, and the magnitude both of his elevation and his delinquency made his weak mind to tremble. after the usual manner of pusillanimous spirits, he sought to confirm himself in his purpose by the opinions of others; but these opinions had no weight with him when they ran counter to his own cherished wishes. saxony and bavaria, of whom he sought advice, all his brother electors, all who compared the magnitude of the design with his capacities and resources, warned him of the danger into which he was about to rush. even king james of england preferred to see his son-in-law deprived of this crown, than that the sacred majesty of kings should be outraged by so dangerous a precedent. but of what avail was the voice of prudence against the seductive glitter of a crown? in the moment of boldest determination, when they are indignantly rejecting the consecrated branch of a race which had governed them for two centuries, a free people throws itself into his arms. confiding in his courage, they choose him as their leader in the dangerous career of glory and liberty. to him, as to its born champion, an oppressed religion looks for shelter and support against its persecutors. could he have the weakness to listen to his fears, and to betray the cause of religion and liberty? this religion proclaims to him its own preponderance, and the weakness of its rival, -- two-thirds of the power of austria are now in arms against austria itself, while a formidable confederacy, already formed in transylvania, would, by a hostile attack, further distract even the weak remnant of its power. could inducements such as these fail to awaken his ambition, or such hopes to animate and inflame his resolution? a few moments of calm consideration would have sufficed to show the danger of the undertaking, and the comparative worthlessness of the prize. but the temptation spoke to his feelings; the warning only to his reason. it was his misfortune that his nearest and most influential counsellors espoused the side of his passions. the aggrandizement of their master's power opened to the ambition and avarice of his palatine servants an unlimited field for their gratification; this anticipated triumph of their church kindled the ardour of the calvinistic fanatic. could a mind so weak as that of ferdinand resist the delusions of his counsellors, who exaggerated his resources and his strength, as much as they underrated those of his enemies; or the exhortations of his preachers, who announced the effusions of their fanatical zeal as the immediate inspiration of heaven? the dreams of astrology filled his mind with visionary hopes; even love conspired, with its irresistible fascination, to complete the seduction. "had you," demanded the electress, "confidence enough in yourself to accept the hand of a king's daughter, and have you misgivings about taking a crown which is voluntarily offered you? i would rather eat bread at thy kingly table, than feast at thy electoral board." frederick accepted the bohemian crown. the coronation was celebrated with unexampled pomp at prague, for the nation displayed all its riches in honour of its own work. silesia and moravia, the adjoining provinces to bohemia, followed their example, and did homage to frederick. the reformed faith was enthroned in all the churches of the kingdom; the rejoicings were unbounded, their attachment to their new king bordered on adoration. denmark and sweden, holland and venice, and several of the dutch states, acknowledged him as lawful sovereign, and frederick now prepared to maintain his new acquisition. his principal hopes rested on prince bethlen gabor of transylvania. this formidable enemy of austria, and of the roman catholic church, not content with the principality which, with the assistance of the turks, he had wrested from his legitimate prince, gabriel bathori, gladly seized this opportunity of aggrandizing himself at the expense of austria, which had hesitated to acknowledge him as sovereign of transylvania. an attack upon hungary and austria was concerted with the bohemian rebels, and both armies were to unite before the capital. meantime, bethlen gabor, under the mask of friendship, disguised the true object of his warlike preparations, artfully promising the emperor to lure the bohemians into the toils, by a pretended offer of assistance, and to deliver up to him alive the leaders of the insurrection. all at once, however, he appeared in a hostile attitude in upper hungary. before him went terror, and devastation behind; all opposition yielded, and at presburg he received the hungarian crown. the emperor's brother, who governed in vienna, trembled for the capital. he hastily summoned general bucquoi to his assistance, and the retreat of the imperialists drew the bohemians, a second time, before the walls of vienna. reinforced by twelve thousand transylvanians, and soon after joined by the victorious army of bethlen gabor, they again menaced the capital with assault; all the country round vienna was laid waste, the navigation of the danube closed, all supplies cut off, and the horrors of famine were threatened. ferdinand, hastily recalled to his capital by this urgent danger, saw himself a second time on the brink of ruin. but want of provisions, and the inclement weather, finally compelled the bohemians to go into quarters, a defeat in hungary recalled bethlen gabor, and thus once more had fortune rescued the emperor. in a few weeks the scene was changed, and by his prudence and activity ferdinand improved his position as rapidly as frederick, by indolence and impolicy, ruined his. the estates of lower austria were regained to their allegiance by a confirmation of their privileges; and the few who still held out were declared guilty of `lese-majeste' and high treason. during the election of frankfort, he had contrived, by personal representations, to win over to his cause the ecclesiastical electors, and also maximilian, duke of bavaria, at munich. the whole issue of the war, the fate of frederick and the emperor, were now dependent on the part which the union and the league should take in the troubles of bohemia. it was evidently of importance to all the protestants of germany that the king of bohemia should be supported, while it was equally the interest of the roman catholics to prevent the ruin of the emperor. if the protestants succeeded in bohemia, all the roman catholic princes in germany might tremble for their possessions; if they failed, the emperor would give laws to protestant germany. thus ferdinand put the league, frederick the union, in motion. the ties of relationship and a personal attachment to the emperor, his brother-in-law, with whom he had been educated at ingolstadt, zeal for the roman catholic religion, which seemed to be in the most imminent peril, and the suggestions of the jesuits, combined with the suspicious movements of the union, moved the duke of bavaria, and all the princes of the league, to make the cause of ferdinand their own. according to the terms of a treaty with the emperor, which assured to the duke of bavaria compensation for all the expenses of the war, or the losses he might sustain, maximilian took, with full powers, the command of the troops of the league, which were ordered to march to the assistance of the emperor against the bohemian rebels. the leaders of the union, instead of delaying by every means this dangerous coalition of the league with the emperor, did every thing in their power to accelerate it. could they, they thought, but once drive the roman catholic league to take an open part in the bohemian war, they might reckon on similar measures from all the members and allies of the union. without some open step taken by the roman catholics against the union, no effectual confederacy of the protestant powers was to be looked for. they seized, therefore, the present emergency of the troubles in bohemia to demand from the roman catholics the abolition of their past grievances, and full security for the future exercise of their religion. they addressed this demand, which was moreover couched in threatening language, to the duke of bavaria, as the head of the roman catholics, and they insisted on an immediate and categorical answer. maximilian might decide for or against them, still their point was gained; his concession, if he yielded, would deprive the roman catholic party of its most powerful protector; his refusal would arm the whole protestant party, and render inevitable a war in which they hoped to be the conquerors. maximilian, firmly attached to the opposite party from so many other considerations, took the demands of the union as a formal declaration of hostilities, and quickened his preparations. while bavaria and the league were thus arming in the emperor's cause, negotiations for a subsidy were opened with the spanish court. all the difficulties with which the indolent policy of that ministry met this demand were happily surmounted by the imperial ambassador at madrid, count khevenhuller. in addition to a subsidy of a million of florins, which from time to time were doled out by this court, an attack upon the lower palatinate, from the side of the spanish netherlands, was at the same time agreed upon. during these attempts to draw all the roman catholic powers into the league, every exertion was made against the counter-league of the protestants. to this end, it was important to alarm the elector of saxony and the other evangelical powers, and accordingly the union were diligent in propagating a rumour that the preparations of the league had for their object to deprive them of the ecclesiastical foundations they had secularized. a written assurance to the contrary calmed the fears of the duke of saxony, whom moreover private jealousy of the palatine, and the insinuations of his chaplain, who was in the pay of austria, and mortification at having been passed over by the bohemians in the election to the throne, strongly inclined to the side of austria. the fanaticism of the lutherans could never forgive the reformed party for having drawn, as they expressed it, so many fair provinces into the gulf of calvinism, and rejecting the roman antichrist only to make way for an helvetian one. while ferdinand used every effort to improve the unfavourable situation of his affairs, frederick was daily injuring his good cause. by his close and questionable connexion with the prince of transylvania, the open ally of the porte, he gave offence to weak minds; and a general rumour accused him of furthering his own ambition at the expense of christendom, and arming the turks against germany. his inconsiderate zeal for the calvinistic scheme irritated the lutherans of bohemia, his attacks on image-worship incensed the papists of this kingdom against him. new and oppressive imposts alienated the affections of all his subjects. the disappointed hopes of the bohemian nobles cooled their zeal; the absence of foreign succours abated their confidence. instead of devoting himself with untiring energies to the affairs of his kingdom, frederick wasted his time in amusements; instead of filling his treasury by a wise economy, he squandered his revenues by a needless theatrical pomp, and a misplaced munificence. with a light-minded carelessness, he did but gaze at himself in his new dignity, and in the ill-timed desire to enjoy his crown, he forgot the more pressing duty of securing it on his head. but greatly as men had erred in their opinion of him, frederick himself had not less miscalculated his foreign resources. most of the members of the union considered the affairs of bohemia as foreign to the real object of their confederacy; others, who were devoted to him, were overawed by fear of the emperor. saxony and hesse darmstadt had already been gained over by ferdinand; lower austria, on which side a powerful diversion had been looked for, had made its submission to the emperor; and bethlen gabor had concluded a truce with him. by its embassies, the court of vienna had induced denmark to remain inactive, and to occupy sweden in a war with the poles. the republic of holland had enough to do to defend itself against the arms of the spaniards; venice and saxony remained inactive; king james of england was overreached by the artifice of spain. one friend after another withdrew; one hope vanished after another -- so rapidly in a few months was every thing changed. in the mean time, the leaders of the union assembled an army; -- the emperor and the league did the same. the troops of the latter were assembled under the banners of maximilian at donauwerth, those of the union at ulm, under the margrave of anspach. the decisive moment seemed at length to have arrived which was to end these long dissensions by a vigorous blow, and irrevocably to settle the relation of the two churches in germany. anxiously on the stretch was the expectation of both parties. how great then was their astonishment when suddenly the intelligence of peace arrived, and both armies separated without striking a blow! the intervention of france effected this peace, which was equally acceptable to both parties. the french cabinet, no longer swayed by the counsels of henry the great, and whose maxims of state were perhaps not applicable to the present condition of that kingdom, was now far less alarmed at the preponderance of austria, than of the increase which would accrue to the strength of the calvinists, if the palatine house should be able to retain the throne of bohemia. involved at the time in a dangerous conflict with its own calvinistic subjects, it was of the utmost importance to france that the protestant faction in bohemia should be suppressed before the huguenots could copy their dangerous example. in order therefore to facilitate the emperor's operations against the bohemians, she offered her mediation to the union and the league, and effected this unexpected treaty, of which the main article was, "that the union should abandon all interference in the affairs of bohemia, and confine the aid which they might afford to frederick the fifth, to his palatine territories." to this disgraceful treaty, the union were moved by the firmness of maximilian, and the fear of being pressed at once by the troops of the league, and a new imperial army which was on its march from the netherlands. the whole force of bavaria and the league was now at the disposal of the emperor to be employed against the bohemians, who by the pacification of ulm were abandoned to their fate. with a rapid movement, and before a rumour of the proceedings at ulm could reach there, maximilian appeared in upper austria, when the estates, surprised and unprepared for an enemy, purchased the emperor's pardon by an immediate and unconditional submission. in lower austria, the duke formed a junction with the troops from the low countries under bucquoi, and without loss of time the united imperial and bavarian forces, amounting to , men, entered bohemia. all the bohemian troops, which were dispersed over lower austria and moravia, were driven before them; every town which attempted resistance was quickly taken by storm; others, terrified by the report of the punishment inflicted on these, voluntarily opened their gates; nothing in short interrupted the impetuous career of maximilian. the bohemian army, commanded by the brave prince christian of anhalt, retreated to the neighbourhood of prague; where, under the walls of the city, maximilian offered him battle. the wretched condition in which he hoped to surprise the insurgents, justified the rapidity of the duke's movements, and secured him the victory. frederick's army did not amount to , men. eight thousand of these were furnished by the prince of anhalt; , were hungarians, whom bethlen gabor had despatched to his assistance. an inroad of the elector of saxony upon lusatia, had cut off all succours from that country, and from silesia; the pacification of austria put an end to all his expectations from that quarter; bethlen gabor, his most powerful ally, remained inactive in transylvania; the union had betrayed his cause to the emperor. nothing remained to him but his bohemians; and they were without goodwill to his cause, and without unity and courage. the bohemian magnates were indignant that german generals should be put over their heads; count mansfeld remained in pilsen, at a distance from the camp, to avoid the mortification of serving under anhalt and hohenlohe. the soldiers, in want of necessaries, became dispirited; and the little discipline that was observed, gave occasion to bitter complaints from the peasantry. it was in vain that frederick made his appearance in the camp, in the hope of reviving the courage of the soldiers by his presence, and of kindling the emulation of the nobles by his example. the bohemians had begun to entrench themselves on the white mountain near prague, when they were attacked by the imperial and bavarian armies, on the th november, . in the beginning of the action, some advantages were gained by the cavalry of the prince of anhalt; but the superior numbers of the enemy soon neutralized them. the charge of the bavarians and walloons was irresistible. the hungarian cavalry was the first to retreat. the bohemian infantry soon followed their example; and the germans were at last carried along with them in the general flight. ten cannons, composing the whole of frederick's artillery, were taken by the enemy; four thousand bohemians fell in the flight and on the field; while of the imperialists and soldiers of the league only a few hundred were killed. in less than an hour this decisive action was over. frederick was seated at table in prague, while his army was thus cut to pieces. it is probable that he had not expected the attack on this day, since he had ordered an entertainment for it. a messenger summoned him from table, to show him from the walls the whole frightful scene. he requested a cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours for deliberation; but eight was all the duke of bavaria would allow him. frederick availed himself of these to fly by night from the capital, with his wife, and the chief officers of his army. this flight was so hurried, that the prince of anhalt left behind him his most private papers, and frederick his crown. "i know now what i am," said this unfortunate prince to those who endeavoured to comfort him; "there are virtues which misfortune only can teach us, and it is in adversity alone that princes learn to know themselves." prague was not irretrievably lost when frederick's pusillanimity abandoned it. the light troops of mansfeld were still in pilsen, and were not engaged in the action. bethlen gabor might at any moment have assumed an offensive attitude, and drawn off the emperor's army to the hungarian frontier. the defeated bohemians might rally. sickness, famine, and the inclement weather, might wear out the enemy; but all these hopes disappeared before the immediate alarm. frederick dreaded the fickleness of the bohemians, who might probably yield to the temptation to purchase, by the surrender of his person, the pardon of the emperor. thurn, and those of this party who were in the same condemnation with him, found it equally inexpedient to await their destiny within the walls of prague. they retired towards moravia, with a view of seeking refuge in transylvania. frederick fled to breslau, where, however, he only remained a short time. he removed from thence to the court of the elector of brandenburg, and finally took shelter in holland. the battle of prague had decided the fate of bohemia. prague surrendered the next day to the victors; the other towns followed the example of the capital. the estates did homage without conditions, and the same was done by those of silesia and moravia. the emperor allowed three months to elapse, before instituting any inquiry into the past. reassured by this apparent clemency, many who, at first, had fled in terror appeared again in the capital. all at once, however, the storm burst forth; forty-eight of the most active among the insurgents were arrested on the same day and hour, and tried by an extraordinary commission, composed of native bohemians and austrians. of these, twenty-seven, and of the common people an immense number, expired on the scaffold. the absenting offenders were summoned to appear to their trial, and failing to do so, condemned to death, as traitors and offenders against his catholic majesty, their estates confiscated, and their names affixed to the gallows. the property also of the rebels who had fallen in the field was seized. this tyranny might have been borne, as it affected individuals only, and while the ruin of one enriched another; but more intolerable was the oppression which extended to the whole kingdom, without exception. all the protestant preachers were banished from the country; the bohemians first, and afterwards those of germany. the `letter of majesty', ferdinand tore with his own hand, and burnt the seal. seven years after the battle of prague, the toleration of the protestant religion within the kingdom was entirely revoked. but whatever violence the emperor allowed himself against the religious privileges of his subjects, he carefully abstained from interfering with their political constitution; and while he deprived them of the liberty of thought, he magnanimously left them the prerogative of taxing themselves. the victory of the white mountain put ferdinand in possession of all his dominions. it even invested him with greater authority over them than his predecessors enjoyed, since their allegiance had been unconditionally pledged to him, and no letter of majesty now existed to limit his sovereignty. all his wishes were now gratified, to a degree surpassing his most sanguine expectations. it was now in his power to dismiss his allies, and disband his army. if he was just, there was an end of the war -- if he was both magnanimous and just, punishment was also at an end. the fate of germany was in his hands; the happiness and misery of millions depended on the resolution he should take. never was so great a decision resting on a single mind; never did the blindness of one man produce so much ruin. book ii. the resolution which ferdinand now adopted, gave to the war a new direction, a new scene, and new actors. from a rebellion in bohemia, and the chastisement of rebels, a war extended first to germany, and afterwards to europe. it is, therefore, necessary to take a general survey of the state of affairs both in germany and the rest of europe. unequally as the territory of germany and the privileges of its members were divided among the roman catholics and the protestants, neither party could hope to maintain itself against the encroachments of its adversary otherwise than by a prudent use of its peculiar advantages, and by a politic union among themselves. if the roman catholics were the more numerous party, and more favoured by the constitution of the empire, the protestants, on the other hand, had the advantage of possessing a more compact and populous line of territories, valiant princes, a warlike nobility, numerous armies, flourishing free towns, the command of the sea, and even at the worst, certainty of support from roman catholic states. if the catholics could arm spain and italy in their favour, the republics of venice, holland, and england, opened their treasures to the protestants, while the states of the north and the formidable power of turkey, stood ready to afford them prompt assistance. brandenburg, saxony, and the palatinate, opposed three protestant to three ecclesiastical votes in the electoral college; while to the elector of bohemia, as to the archduke of austria, the possession of the imperial dignity was an important check, if the protestants properly availed themselves of it. the sword of the union might keep within its sheath the sword of the league; or if matters actually came to a war, might make the issue of it doubtful. but, unfortunately, private interests dissolved the band of union which should have held together the protestant members of the empire. this critical conjuncture found none but second-rate actors on the political stage, and the decisive moment was neglected because the courageous were deficient in power, and the powerful in sagacity, courage, and resolution. the elector of saxony was placed at the head of the german protestants, by the services of his ancestor maurice, by the extent of his territories, and by the influence of his electoral vote. upon the resolution he might adopt, the fate of the contending parties seemed to depend; and john george was not insensible to the advantages which this important situation procured him. equally valuable as an ally, both to the emperor and to the protestant union, he cautiously avoided committing himself to either party; neither trusting himself by any irrevocable declaration entirely to the gratitude of the emperor, nor renouncing the advantages which were to be gained from his fears. uninfected by the contagion of religious and romantic enthusiasm which hurried sovereign after sovereign to risk both crown and life on the hazard of war, john george aspired to the more solid renown of improving and advancing the interests of his territories. his cotemporaries accused him of forsaking the protestant cause in the very midst of the storm; of preferring the aggrandizement of his house to the emancipation of his country; of exposing the whole evangelical or lutheran church of germany to ruin, rather than raise an arm in defence of the reformed or calvinists; of injuring the common cause by his suspicious friendship more seriously than the open enmity of its avowed opponents. but it would have been well if his accusers had imitated the wise policy of the elector. if, despite of the prudent policy, the saxons, like all others, groaned at the cruelties which marked the emperor's progress; if all germany was a witness how ferdinand deceived his confederates and trifled with his engagements; if even the elector himself at last perceived this -- the more shame to the emperor who could so basely betray such implicit confidence. if an excessive reliance on the emperor, and the hope of enlarging his territories, tied the hands of the elector of saxony, the weak george william, elector of brandenburg, was still more shamefully fettered by fear of austria, and of the loss of his dominions. what was made a reproach against these princes would have preserved to the elector palatine his fame and his kingdom. a rash confidence in his untried strength, the influence of french counsels, and the temptation of a crown, had seduced that unfortunate prince into an enterprise for which he had neither adequate genius nor political capacity. the partition of his territories among discordant princes, enfeebled the palatinate, which, united, might have made a longer resistance. this partition of territory was equally injurious to the house of hesse, in which, between darmstadt and cassel, religious dissensions had occasioned a fatal division. the line of darmstadt, adhering to the confession of augsburg, had placed itself under the emperor's protection, who favoured it at the expense of the calvinists of cassel. while his religious confederates were shedding their blood for their faith and their liberties, the landgrave of darmstadt was won over by the emperor's gold. but william of cassel, every way worthy of his ancestor who, a century before, had defended the freedom of germany against the formidable charles v., espoused the cause of danger and of honour. superior to that pusillanimity which made far more powerful princes bow before ferdinand's might, the landgrave william was the first to join the hero of sweden, and to set an example to the princes of germany which all had hesitated to begin. the boldness of his resolve was equalled by the steadfastness of his perseverance and the valour of his exploits. he placed himself with unshrinking resolution before his bleeding country, and boldly confronted the fearful enemy, whose hands were still reeking from the carnage of magdeburg. the landgrave william deserves to descend to immortality with the heroic race of ernest. thy day of vengeance was long delayed, unfortunate john frederick! noble! never-to-be-forgotten prince! slowly but brightly it broke. thy times returned, and thy heroic spirit descended on thy grandson. an intrepid race of princes issues from the thuringian forests, to shame, by immortal deeds, the unjust sentence which robbed thee of the electoral crown -- to avenge thy offended shade by heaps of bloody sacrifice. the sentence of the conqueror could deprive thee of thy territories, but not that spirit of patriotism which staked them, nor that chivalrous courage which, a century afterwards, was destined to shake the throne of his descendant. thy vengeance and that of germany whetted the sacred sword, and one heroic hand after the other wielded the irresistible steel. as men, they achieved what as sovereigns they dared not undertake; they met in a glorious cause as the valiant soldiers of liberty. too weak in territory to attack the enemy with their own forces, they directed foreign artillery against them, and led foreign banners to victory. the liberties of germany, abandoned by the more powerful states, who, however, enjoyed most of the prosperity accruing from them, were defended by a few princes for whom they were almost without value. the possession of territories and dignities deadened courage; the want of both made heroes. while saxony, brandenburg, and the rest drew back in terror, anhalt, mansfeld, the prince of weimar and others were shedding their blood in the field. the dukes of pomerania, mecklenburg, luneburg, and wirtemberg, and the free cities of upper germany, to whom the name of emperor was of course a formidable one, anxiously avoided a contest with such an opponent, and crouched murmuring beneath his mighty arm. austria and roman catholic germany possessed in maximilian of bavaria a champion as prudent as he was powerful. adhering throughout the war to one fixed plan, never divided between his religion and his political interests; not the slavish dependent of austria, who was labouring for his advancement, and trembled before her powerful protector, maximilian earned the territories and dignities that rewarded his exertions. the other roman catholic states, which were chiefly ecclesiastical, too unwarlike to resist the multitudes whom the prosperity of their territories allured, became the victims of the war one after another, and were contented to persecute in the cabinet and in the pulpit, the enemy whom they could not openly oppose in the field. all of them, slaves either to austria or bavaria, sunk into insignificance by the side of maximilian; in his hand alone their united power could be rendered available. the formidable monarchy which charles v. and his son had unnaturally constructed of the netherlands, milan, and the two sicilies, and their distant possessions in the east and west indies, was under philip iii. and philip iv. fast verging to decay. swollen to a sudden greatness by unfruitful gold, this power was now sinking under a visible decline, neglecting, as it did, agriculture, the natural support of states. the conquests in the west indies had reduced spain itself to poverty, while they enriched the markets of europe; the bankers of antwerp, venice, and genoa, were making profit on the gold which was still buried in the mines of peru. for the sake of india, spain had been depopulated, while the treasures drawn from thence were wasted in the re-conquest of holland, in the chimerical project of changing the succession to the crown of france, and in an unfortunate attack upon england. but the pride of this court had survived its greatness, as the hate of its enemies had outlived its power. distrust of the protestants suggested to the ministry of philip iii. the dangerous policy of his father; and the reliance of the roman catholics in germany on spanish assistance, was as firm as their belief in the wonder-working bones of the martyrs. external splendour concealed the inward wounds at which the life-blood of this monarchy was oozing; and the belief of its strength survived, because it still maintained the lofty tone of its golden days. slaves in their palaces, and strangers even upon their own thrones, the spanish nominal kings still gave laws to their german relations; though it is very doubtful if the support they afforded was worth the dependence by which the emperors purchased it. the fate of europe was decided behind the pyrenees by ignorant monks or vindictive favourites. yet, even in its debasement, a power must always be formidable, which yields to none in extent; which, from custom, if not from the steadfastness of its views, adhered faithfully to one system of policy; which possessed well-disciplined armies and consummate generals; which, where the sword failed, did not scruple to employ the dagger; and converted even its ambassadors into incendiaries and assassins. what it had lost in three quarters of the globe, it now sought to regain to the eastward, and all europe was at its mercy, if it could succeed in its long cherished design of uniting with the hereditary dominions of austria all that lay between the alps and the adriatic. to the great alarm of the native states, this formidable power had gained a footing in italy, where its continual encroachments made the neighbouring sovereigns to tremble for their own possessions. the pope himself was in the most dangerous situation; hemmed in on both sides by the spanish viceroys of naples on the one side, and that of milan upon the other. venice was confined between the austrian tyrol and the spanish territories in milan. savoy was surrounded by the latter and france. hence the wavering and equivocal policy, which from the time of charles v. had been pursued by the italian states. the double character which pertained to the popes made them perpetually vacillate between two contradictory systems of policy. if the successors of st. peter found in the spanish princes their most obedient disciples, and the most steadfast supporters of the papal see, yet the princes of the states of the church had in these monarchs their most dangerous neighbours, and most formidable opponents. if, in the one capacity, their dearest wish was the destruction of the protestants, and the triumph of austria, in the other, they had reason to bless the arms of the protestants, which disabled a dangerous enemy. the one or the other sentiment prevailed, according as the love of temporal dominion, or zeal for spiritual supremacy, predominated in the mind of the pope. but the policy of rome was, on the whole, directed to immediate dangers; and it is well known how far more powerful is the apprehension of losing a present good, than anxiety to recover a long lost possession. and thus it becomes intelligible how the pope should first combine with austria for the destruction of heresy, and then conspire with these very heretics for the destruction of austria. strangely blended are the threads of human affairs! what would have become of the reformation, and of the liberties of germany, if the bishop of rome and the prince of rome had had but one interest? france had lost with its great henry all its importance and all its weight in the political balance of europe. a turbulent minority had destroyed all the benefits of the able administration of henry. incapable ministers, the creatures of court intrigue, squandered in a few years the treasures which sully's economy and henry's frugality had amassed. scarce able to maintain their ground against internal factions, they were compelled to resign to other hands the helm of european affairs. the same civil war which armed germany against itself, excited a similar commotion in france; and louis xiii. attained majority only to wage a war with his own mother and his protestant subjects. this party, which had been kept quiet by henry's enlightened policy, now seized the opportunity to take up arms, and, under the command of some adventurous leaders, began to form themselves into a party within the state, and to fix on the strong and powerful town of rochelle as the capital of their intended kingdom. too little of a statesman to suppress, by a prudent toleration, this civil commotion in its birth, and too little master of the resources of his kingdom to direct them with energy, louis xiii. was reduced to the degradation of purchasing the submission of the rebels by large sums of money. though policy might incline him, in one point of view, to assist the bohemian insurgents against austria, the son of henry the fourth was now compelled to be an inactive spectator of their destruction, happy enough if the calvinists in his own dominions did not unseasonably bethink them of their confederates beyond the rhine. a great mind at the helm of state would have reduced the protestants in france to obedience, while it employed them to fight for the independence of their german brethren. but henry iv. was no more, and richelieu had not yet revived his system of policy. while the glory of france was thus upon the wane, the emancipated republic of holland was completing the fabric of its greatness. the enthusiastic courage had not yet died away which, enkindled by the house of orange, had converted this mercantile people into a nation of heroes, and had enabled them to maintain their independence in a bloody war against the spanish monarchy. aware how much they owed their own liberty to foreign support, these republicans were ready to assist their german brethren in a similar cause, and the more so, as both were opposed to the same enemy, and the liberty of germany was the best warrant for that of holland. but a republic which had still to battle for its very existence, which, with all its wonderful exertions, was scarce a match for the formidable enemy within its own territories, could not be expected to withdraw its troops from the necessary work of self-defence to employ them with a magnanimous policy in protecting foreign states. england too, though now united with scotland, no longer possessed, under the weak james, that influence in the affairs of europe which the governing mind of elizabeth had procured for it. convinced that the welfare of her dominions depended on the security of the protestants, this politic princess had never swerved from the principle of promoting every enterprise which had for its object the diminution of the austrian power. her successor was no less devoid of capacity to comprehend, than of vigour to execute, her views. while the economical elizabeth spared not her treasures to support the flemings against spain, and henry iv. against the league, james abandoned his daughter, his son-in-law, and his grandchild, to the fury of their enemies. while he exhausted his learning to establish the divine right of kings, he allowed his own dignity to sink into the dust; while he exerted his rhetoric to prove the absolute authority of kings, he reminded the people of theirs; and by a useless profusion, sacrificed the chief of his sovereign rights -- that of dispensing with his parliament, and thus depriving liberty of its organ. an innate horror at the sight of a naked sword averted him from the most just of wars; while his favourite buckingham practised on his weakness, and his own complacent vanity rendered him an easy dupe of spanish artifice. while his son-in-law was ruined, and the inheritance of his grandson given to others, this weak prince was imbibing, with satisfaction, the incense which was offered to him by austria and spain. to divert his attention from the german war, he was amused with the proposal of a spanish marriage for his son, and the ridiculous parent encouraged the romantic youth in the foolish project of paying his addresses in person to the spanish princess. but his son lost his bride, as his son-in-law lost the crown of bohemia and the palatine electorate; and death alone saved him from the danger of closing his pacific reign by a war at home, which he never had courage to maintain, even at a distance. the domestic disturbances which his misgovernment had gradually excited burst forth under his unfortunate son, and forced him, after some unimportant attempts, to renounce all further participation in the german war, in order to stem within his own kingdom the rage of faction. two illustrious monarchs, far unequal in personal reputation, but equal in power and desire of fame, made the north at this time to be respected. under the long and active reign of christian iv., denmark had risen into importance. the personal qualifications of this prince, an excellent navy, a formidable army, well-ordered finances, and prudent alliances, had combined to give her prosperity at home and influence abroad. gustavus vasa had rescued sweden from vassalage, reformed it by wise laws, and had introduced, for the first time, this newly-organized state into the field of european politics. what this great prince had merely sketched in rude outline, was filled up by gustavus adolphus, his still greater grandson. these two kingdoms, once unnaturally united and enfeebled by their union, had been violently separated at the time of the reformation, and this separation was the epoch of their prosperity. injurious as this compulsory union had proved to both kingdoms, equally necessary to each apart were neighbourly friendship and harmony. on both the evangelical church leaned; both had the same seas to protect; a common interest ought to unite them against the same enemy. but the hatred which had dissolved the union of these monarchies continued long after their separation to divide the two nations. the danish kings could not abandon their pretensions to the swedish crown, nor the swedes banish the remembrance of danish oppression. the contiguous boundaries of the two kingdoms constantly furnished materials for international quarrels, while the watchful jealousy of both kings, and the unavoidable collision of their commercial interests in the north seas, were inexhaustible sources of dispute. among the means of which gustavus vasa, the founder of the swedish monarchy, availed himself to strengthen his new edifice, the reformation had been one of the principal. a fundamental law of the kingdom excluded the adherents of popery from all offices of the state, and prohibited every future sovereign of sweden from altering the religious constitution of the kingdom. but the second son and second successor of gustavus had relapsed into popery, and his son sigismund, also king of poland, had been guilty of measures which menaced both the constitution and the established church. headed by charles, duke of sudermania, the third son of gustavus, the estates made a courageous resistance, which terminated, at last, in an open civil war between the uncle and nephew, and between the king and the people. duke charles, administrator of the kingdom during the absence of the king, had availed himself of sigismund's long residence in poland, and the just displeasure of the states, to ingratiate himself with the nation, and gradually to prepare his way to the throne. his views were not a little forwarded by sigismund's imprudence. a general diet ventured to abolish, in favour of the protector, the rule of primogeniture which gustavus had established in the succession, and placed the duke of sudermania on the throne, from which sigismund, with his whole posterity, were solemnly excluded. the son of the new king (who reigned under the name of charles ix.) was gustavus adolphus, whom, as the son of a usurper, the adherents of sigismund refused to recognize. but if the obligations between monarchy and subjects are reciprocal, and states are not to be transmitted, like a lifeless heirloom, from hand to hand, a nation acting with unanimity must have the power of renouncing their allegiance to a sovereign who has violated his obligations to them, and of filling his place by a worthier object. gustavus adolphus had not completed his seventeenth year, when the swedish throne became vacant by the death of his father. but the early maturity of his genius enabled the estates to abridge in his favour the legal period of minority. with a glorious conquest over himself he commenced a reign which was to have victory for its constant attendant, a career which was to begin and end in success. the young countess of brahe, the daughter of a subject, had gained his early affections, and he had resolved to share with her the swedish throne. but, constrained by time and circumstances, he made his attachment yield to the higher duties of a king, and heroism again took exclusive possession of a heart which was not destined by nature to confine itself within the limits of quiet domestic happiness. christian iv. of denmark, who had ascended the throne before the birth of gustavus, in an inroad upon sweden, had gained some considerable advantages over the father of that hero. gustavus adolphus hastened to put an end to this destructive war, and by prudent sacrifices obtained a peace, in order to turn his arms against the czar of muscovy. the questionable fame of a conqueror never tempted him to spend the blood of his subjects in unjust wars; but he never shrunk from a just one. his arms were successful against russia, and sweden was augmented by several important provinces on the east. in the meantime, sigismund of poland retained against the son the same sentiments of hostility which the father had provoked, and left no artifice untried to shake the allegiance of his subjects, to cool the ardour of his friends, and to embitter his enemies. neither the great qualities of his rival, nor the repeated proofs of devotion which sweden gave to her loved monarch, could extinguish in this infatuated prince the foolish hope of regaining his lost throne. all gustavus's overtures were haughtily rejected. unwillingly was this really peaceful king involved in a tedious war with poland, in which the whole of livonia and polish prussia were successively conquered. though constantly victorious, gustavus adolphus was always the first to hold out the hand of peace. this contest between sweden and poland falls somewhere about the beginning of the thirty years' war in germany, with which it is in some measure connected. it was enough that sigismund, himself a roman catholic, was disputing the swedish crown with a protestant prince, to assure him the active support of spain and austria; while a double relationship to the emperor gave him a still stronger claim to his protection. it was his reliance on this powerful assistance that chiefly encouraged the king of poland to continue the war, which had hitherto turned out so unfavourably for him, and the courts of madrid and vienna failed not to encourage him by high-sounding promises. while sigismund lost one place after another in livonia, courland, and prussia, he saw his ally in germany advancing from conquest after conquest to unlimited power. no wonder then if his aversion to peace kept pace with his losses. the vehemence with which he nourished his chimerical hopes blinded him to the artful policy of his confederates, who at his expense were keeping the swedish hero employed, in order to overturn, without opposition, the liberties of germany, and then to seize on the exhausted north as an easy conquest. one circumstance which had not been calculated on -- the magnanimity of gustavus -- overthrew this deceitful policy. an eight years' war in poland, so far from exhausting the power of sweden, had only served to mature the military genius of gustavus, to inure the swedish army to warfare, and insensibly to perfect that system of tactics by which they were afterwards to perform such wonders in germany. after this necessary digression on the existing circumstances of europe, i now resume the thread of my history. ferdinand had regained his dominions, but had not indemnified himself for the expenses of recovering them. a sum of forty millions of florins, which the confiscations in bohemia and moravia had produced, would have sufficed to reimburse both himself and his allies; but the jesuits and his favourites soon squandered this sum, large as it was. maximilian, duke of bavaria, to whose victorious arm, principally, the emperor owed the recovery of his dominions; who, in the service of religion and the emperor, had sacrificed his near relation, had the strongest claims on his gratitude; and moreover, in a treaty which, before the war, the duke had concluded with the emperor, he had expressly stipulated for the reimbursement of all expenses. ferdinand felt the full weight of the obligation imposed upon him by this treaty and by these services, but he was not disposed to discharge it at his own cost. his purpose was to bestow a brilliant reward upon the duke, but without detriment to himself. how could this be done better than at the expense of the unfortunate prince who, by his revolt, had given the emperor a right to punish him, and whose offences might be painted in colours strong enough to justify the most violent measures under the appearance of law. that, then, maximilian may be rewarded, frederick must be further persecuted and totally ruined; and to defray the expenses of the old war, a new one must be commenced. but a still stronger motive combined to enforce the first. hitherto ferdinand had been contending for existence alone; he had been fulfilling no other duty than that of self-defence. but now, when victory gave him freedom to act, a higher duty occurred to him, and he remembered the vow which he had made at loretto and at rome, to his generalissima, the holy virgin, to extend her worship even at the risk of his crown and life. with this object, the oppression of the protestants was inseparably connected. more favourable circumstances for its accomplishment could not offer than those which presented themselves at the close of the bohemian war. neither the power, nor a pretext of right, were now wanting to enable him to place the palatinate in the hands of the catholics, and the importance of this change to the catholic interests in germany would be incalculable. thus, in rewarding the duke of bavaria with the spoils of his relation, he at once gratified his meanest passions and fulfilled his most exalted duties; he crushed an enemy whom he hated, and spared his avarice a painful sacrifice, while he believed he was winning a heavenly crown. in the emperor's cabinet, the ruin of frederick had been resolved upon long before fortune had decided against him; but it was only after this event that they ventured to direct against him the thunders of arbitrary power. a decree of the emperor, destitute of all the formalities required on such occasions by the laws of the empire, pronounced the elector, and three other princes who had borne arms for him at silesia and bohemia, as offenders against the imperial majesty, and disturbers of the public peace, under the ban of the empire, and deprived them of their titles and territories. the execution of this sentence against frederick, namely the seizure of his lands, was, in further contempt of law, committed to spain as sovereign of the circle of burgundy, to the duke of bavaria, and the league. had the evangelic union been worthy of the name it bore, and of the cause which it pretended to defend, insuperable obstacles might have prevented the execution of the sentence; but it was hopeless for a power which was far from a match even for the spanish troops in the lower palatinate, to contend against the united strength of the emperor, bavaria, and the league. the sentence of proscription pronounced upon the elector soon detached the free cities from the union; and the princes quickly followed their example. fortunate in preserving their own dominions, they abandoned the elector, their former chief, to the emperor's mercy, renounced the union, and vowed never to revive it again. but while thus ingloriously the german princes deserted the unfortunate frederick, and while bohemia, silesia, and moravia submitted to the emperor, a single man, a soldier of fortune, whose only treasure was his sword, ernest count mansfeld, dared, in the bohemian town of pilsen, to defy the whole power of austria. left without assistance after the battle of prague by the elector, to whose service he had devoted himself, and even uncertain whether frederick would thank him for his perseverance, he alone for some time held out against the imperialists, till the garrison, mutinying for want of pay, sold the town to the emperor. undismayed by this reverse, he immediately commenced new levies in the upper palatinate, and enlisted the disbanded troops of the union. a new army of , men was soon assembled under his banners, the more formidable to the provinces which might be the object of its attack, because it must subsist by plunder. uncertain where this swarm might light, the neighbouring bishops trembled for their rich possessions, which offered a tempting prey to its ravages. but, pressed by the duke of bavaria, who now entered the upper palatinate, mansfeld was compelled to retire. eluding, by a successful stratagem, the bavarian general, tilly, who was in pursuit of him, he suddenly appeared in the lower palatinate, and there wreaked upon the bishoprics of the rhine the severities he had designed for those of franconia. while the imperial and bavarian allies thus overran bohemia, the spanish general, spinola, had penetrated with a numerous army from the netherlands into the lower palatinate, which, however, the pacification of ulm permitted the union to defend. but their measures were so badly concerted, that one place after another fell into the hands of the spaniards; and at last, when the union broke up, the greater part of the country was in the possession of spain. the spanish general, corduba, who commanded these troops after the recall of spinola, hastily raised the siege of frankenthal, when mansfeld entered the lower palatinate. but instead of driving the spaniards out of this province, he hastened across the rhine to secure for his needy troops shelter and subsistence in alsace. the open countries on which this swarm of maurauders threw themselves were converted into frightful deserts, and only by enormous contributions could the cities purchase an exemption from plunder. reinforced by this expedition, mansfeld again appeared on the rhine to cover the lower palatinate. so long as such an arm fought for him, the cause of the elector frederick was not irretrievably lost. new prospects began to open, and misfortune raised up friends who had been silent during his prosperity. king james of england, who had looked on with indifference while his son-in-law lost the bohemian crown, was aroused from his insensibility when the very existence of his daughter and grandson was at stake, and the victorious enemy ventured an attack upon the electorate. late enough, he at last opened his treasures, and hastened to afford supplies of money and troops, first to the union, which at that time was defending the lower palatinate, and afterwards, when they retired, to count mansfeld. by his means his near relation, christian, king of denmark, was induced to afford his active support. at the same time, the approaching expiration of the truce between spain and holland deprived the emperor of all the supplies which otherwise he might expect from the side of the netherlands. more important still was the assistance which the palatinate received from transylvania and hungary. the cessation of hostilities between gabor and the emperor was scarcely at an end, when this old and formidable enemy of austria overran hungary anew, and caused himself to be crowned king in presburg. so rapid was his progress that, to protect austria and hungary, boucquoi was obliged to evacuate bohemia. this brave general met his death at the siege of neuhausel, as, shortly before, the no less valiant dampierre had fallen before presburg. gabor's march into the austrian territory was irresistible; the old count thurn, and several other distinguished bohemians, had united their hatred and their strength with this irreconcileable enemy of austria. a vigorous attack on the side of germany, while gabor pressed the emperor on that of hungary, might have retrieved the fortunes of frederick; but, unfortunately, the bohemians and germans had always laid down their arms when gabor took the field; and the latter was always exhausted at the very moment that the former began to recover their vigour. meanwhile frederick had not delayed to join his protector mansfeld. in disguise he entered the lower palatinate, of which the possession was at that time disputed between mansfeld and the bavarian general, tilly, the upper palatinate having been long conquered. a ray of hope shone upon him as, from the wreck of the union, new friends came forward. a former member of the union, george frederick, margrave of baden, had for some time been engaged in assembling a military force, which soon amounted to a considerable army. its destination was kept a secret till he suddenly took the field and joined mansfeld. before commencing the war, he resigned his margraviate to his son, in the hope of eluding, by this precaution, the emperor's revenge, if his enterprize should be unsuccessful. his neighbour, the duke of wirtemberg, likewise began to augment his military force. the courage of the palatine revived, and he laboured assiduously to renew the protestant union. it was now time for tilly to consult for his own safety, and he hastily summoned the spanish troops, under corduba, to his assistance. but while the enemy was uniting his strength, mansfeld and the margrave separated, and the latter was defeated by the bavarian general near wimpfen ( ). to defend a king whom his nearest relation persecuted, and who was deserted even by his own father-in-law, there had come forward an adventurer without money, and whose very legitimacy was questioned. a sovereign had resigned possessions over which he reigned in peace, to hazard the uncertain fortune of war in behalf of a stranger. and now another soldier of fortune, poor in territorial possessions, but rich in illustrious ancestry, undertook the defence of a cause which the former despaired of. christian, duke of brunswick, administrator of halberstadt, seemed to have learnt from count mansfeld the secret of keeping in the field an army of , men without money. impelled by youthful presumption, and influenced partly by the wish of establishing his reputation at the expense of the roman catholic priesthood, whom he cordially detested, and partly by a thirst for plunder, he assembled a considerable army in lower saxony, under the pretext of espousing the defence of frederick, and of the liberties of germany. "god's friend, priest's foe", was the motto he chose for his coinage, which was struck out of church plate; and his conduct belied one half at least of the device. the progress of these banditti was, as usual, marked by the most frightful devastation. enriched by the spoils of the chapters of lower saxony and westphalia, they gathered strength to plunder the bishoprics upon the upper rhine. driven from thence, both by friends and foes, the administrator approached the town of hoechst on the maine, which he crossed after a murderous action with tilly, who disputed with him the passage of the river. with the loss of half his army he reached the opposite bank, where he quickly collected his shattered troops, and formed a junction with mansfeld. pursued by tilly, this united host threw itself again into alsace, to repeat their former ravages. while the elector frederick followed, almost like a fugitive mendicant, this swarm of plunderers which acknowledged him as its lord, and dignified itself with his name, his friends were busily endeavouring to effect a reconciliation between him and the emperor. ferdinand took care not to deprive them of all hope of seeing the palatine restored to his dominion. full of artifice and dissimulation, he pretended to be willing to enter into a negotiation, hoping thereby to cool their ardour in the field, and to prevent them from driving matters to extremity. james i., ever the dupe of spanish cunning, contributed not a little, by his foolish intermeddling, to promote the emperor's schemes. ferdinand insisted that frederick, if he would appeal to his clemency, should, first of all, lay down his arms, and james considered this demand extremely reasonable. at his instigation, the elector dismissed his only real defenders, count mansfeld and the administrator, and in holland awaited his own fate from the mercy of the emperor. mansfeld and duke christian were now at a loss for some new name; the cause of the elector had not set them in motion, so his dismissal could not disarm them. war was their object; it was all the same to them in whose cause or name it was waged. after some vain attempts on the part of mansfeld to be received into the emperor's service, both marched into lorraine, where the excesses of their troops spread terror even to the heart of france. here they long waited in vain for a master willing to purchase their services; till the dutch, pressed by the spanish general spinola, offered to take them into pay. after a bloody fight at fleurus with the spaniards, who attempted to intercept them, they reached holland, where their appearance compelled the spanish general forthwith to raise the siege of bergen-op-zoom. but even holland was soon weary of these dangerous guests, and availed herself of the first moment to get rid of their unwelcome assistance. mansfeld allowed his troops to recruit themselves for new enterprises in the fertile province of east friezeland. duke christian, passionately enamoured of the electress palatine, with whom he had become acquainted in holland, and more disposed for war than ever, led back his army into lower saxony, bearing that princess's glove in his hat, and on his standards the motto "all for god and her". neither of these adventurers had as yet run their career in this war. all the imperial territories were now free from the enemy; the union was dissolved; the margrave of baden, duke christian, and mansfeld, driven from the field, and the palatinate overrun by the executive troops of the empire. manheim and heidelberg were in possession of bavaria, and frankenthal was shortly afterwards ceded to the spaniards. the palatine, in a distant corner of holland, awaited the disgraceful permission to appease, by abject submission, the vengeance of the emperor; and an electoral diet was at last summoned to decide his fate. that fate, however, had been long before decided at the court of the emperor; though now, for the first time, were circumstances favourable for giving publicity to the decision. after his past measures towards the elector, ferdinand believed that a sincere reconciliation was not to be hoped for. the violent course he had once begun, must be completed successfully, or recoil upon himself. what was already lost was irrecoverable; frederick could never hope to regain his dominions; and a prince without territory and without subjects had little chance of retaining the electoral crown. deeply as the palatine had offended against the house of austria, the services of the duke of bavaria were no less meritorious. if the house of austria and the roman catholic church had much to dread from the resentment and religious rancour of the palatine family, they had as much to hope from the gratitude and religious zeal of the bavarian. lastly, by the cession of the palatine electorate to bavaria, the roman catholic religion would obtain a decisive preponderance in the electoral college, and secure a permanent triumph in germany. the last circumstance was sufficient to win the support of the three ecclesiastical electors to this innovation; and among the protestants the vote of saxony was alone of any importance. but could john george be expected to dispute with the emperor a right, without which he would expose to question his own title to the electoral dignity? to a prince whom descent, dignity, and political power placed at the head of the protestant church in germany, nothing, it is true, ought to be more sacred than the defence of the rights of that church against all the encroachments of the roman catholics. but the question here was not whether the interests of the protestants were to be supported against the roman catholics, but which of two religions equally detested, the calvinistic and the popish, was to triumph over the other; to which of the two enemies, equally dangerous, the palatinate was to be assigned; and in this clashing of opposite duties, it was natural that private hate and private gain should determine the event. the born protector of the liberties of germany, and of the protestant religion, encouraged the emperor to dispose of the palatinate by his imperial prerogative; and to apprehend no resistance on the part of saxony to his measures on the mere ground of form. if the elector was afterwards disposed to retract this consent, ferdinand himself, by driving the evangelical preachers from bohemia, was the cause of this change of opinion; and, in the eyes of the elector, the transference of the palatine electorate to bavaria ceased to be illegal, as soon as ferdinand was prevailed upon to cede lusatia to saxony, in consideration of six millions of dollars, as the expenses of the war. thus, in defiance of all protestant germany, and in mockery of the fundamental laws of the empire, which, as his election, he had sworn to maintain, ferdinand at ratisbon solemnly invested the duke of bavaria with the palatinate, without prejudice, as the form ran, to the rights which the relations or descendants of frederick might afterwards establish. that unfortunate prince thus saw himself irrevocably driven from his possessions, without having been even heard before the tribunal which condemned him -- a privilege which the law allows to the meanest subject, and even to the most atrocious criminal. this violent step at last opened the eyes of the king of england; and as the negociations for the marriage of his son with the infanta of spain were now broken off, james began seriously to espouse the cause of his son-in-law. a change in the french ministry had placed cardinal richelieu at the head of affairs, and this fallen kingdom soon began to feel that a great mind was at the helm of state. the attempts of the spanish viceroy in milan to gain possession of the valtelline, and thus to form a junction with the austrian hereditary dominions, revived the olden dread of this power, and with it the policy of henry the great. the marriage of the prince of wales with henrietta of france, established a close union between the two crowns; and to this alliance, holland, denmark, and some of the italian states presently acceded. its object was to expel, by force of arms, spain from the valtelline, and to compel austria to reinstate frederick; but only the first of these designs was prosecuted with vigour. james i. died, and charles i., involved in disputes with his parliament, could not bestow attention on the affairs of germany. savoy and venice withheld their assistance; and the french minister thought it necessary to subdue the huguenots at home, before he supported the german protestants against the emperor. great as were the hopes which had been formed from this alliance, they were yet equalled by the disappointment of the event. mansfeld, deprived of all support, remained inactive on the lower rhine; and duke christian of brunswick, after an unsuccessful campaign, was a second time driven out of germany. a fresh irruption of bethlen gabor into moravia, frustrated by the want of support from the germans, terminated, like all the rest, in a formal peace with the emperor. the union was no more; no protestant prince was in arms; and on the frontiers of lower germany, the bavarian general tilly, at the head of a victorious army, encamped in the protestant territory. the movements of the duke of brunswick had drawn him into this quarter, and even into the circle of lower saxony, when he made himself master of the administrator's magazines at lippstadt. the necessity of observing this enemy, and preventing him from new inroads, was the pretext assigned for continuing tilly's stay in the country. but, in truth, both mansfeld and duke christian had, from want of money, disbanded their armies, and count tilly had no enemy to dread. why, then, still burden the country with his presence? it is difficult, amidst the uproar of contending parties, to distinguish the voice of truth; but certainly it was matter for alarm that the league did not lay down its arms. the premature rejoicings of the roman catholics, too, were calculated to increase apprehension. the emperor and the league stood armed and victorious in germany without a power to oppose them, should they venture to attack the protestant states and to annul the religious treaty. had ferdinand been in reality far from disposed to abuse his conquests, still the defenceless position of the protestants was most likely to suggest the temptation. obsolete conventions could not bind a prince who thought that he owed all to religion, and believed that a religious creed would sanctify any deed, however violent. upper germany was already overpowered. lower germany alone could check his despotic authority. here the protestants still predominated; the church had been forcibly deprived of most of its endowments; and the present appeared a favourable moment for recovering these lost possessions. a great part of the strength of the lower german princes consisted in these chapters, and the plea of restoring its own to the church, afforded an excellent pretext for weakening these princes. unpardonable would have been their negligence, had they remained inactive in this danger. the remembrance of the ravages which tilly's army had committed in lower saxony was too recent not to arouse the estates to measures of defence. with all haste, the circle of lower saxony began to arm itself. extraordinary contributions were levied, troops collected, and magazines filled. negociations for subsidies were set on foot with venice, holland, and england. they deliberated, too, what power should be placed at the head of the confederacy. the kings of the sound and the baltic, the natural allies of this circle, would not see with indifference the emperor treating it as a conqueror, and establishing himself as their neighbour on the shores of the north sea. the twofold interests of religion and policy urged them to put a stop to his progress in lower germany. christian iv. of denmark, as duke of holstein, was himself a prince of this circle, and by considerations equally powerful, gustavus adolphus of sweden was induced to join the confederacy. these two kings vied with each other for the honour of defending lower saxony, and of opposing the formidable power of austria. each offered to raise a well-disciplined army, and to lead it in person. his victorious campaigns against moscow and poland gave weight to the promises of the king of sweden. the shores of the baltic were full of the name of gustavus. but the fame of his rival excited the envy of the danish monarch; and the more success he promised himself in this campaign, the less disposed was he to show any favour to his envied neighbour. both laid their conditions and plans before the english ministry, and christian iv. finally succeeded in outbidding his rival. gustavus adolphus, for his own security, had demanded the cession of some places of strength in germany, where he himself had no territories, to afford, in case of need, a place of refuge for his troops. christian iv. possessed holstein and jutland, through which, in the event of a defeat, he could always secure a retreat. eager to get the start of his competitor, the king of denmark hastened to take the field. appointed generalissimo of the circle of lower saxony, he soon had an army of , men in motion; the administrator of magdeburg, and the dukes of brunswick and mecklenburgh, entered into an alliance with him. encouraged by the hope of assistance from england, and the possession of so large a force, he flattered himself he should be able to terminate the war in a single campaign. at vienna, it was officially notified that the only object of these preparations was the protection of the circle, and the maintenance of peace. but the negociations with holland, england, and even france, the extraordinary exertions of the circle, and the raising of so formidable an army, seemed to have something more in view than defensive operations, and to contemplate nothing less than the complete restoration of the elector palatine, and the humiliation of the dreaded power of austria. after negociations, exhortations, commands, and threats had in vain been employed by the emperor in order to induce the king of denmark and the circle of lower saxony to lay down their arms, hostilities commenced, and lower germany became the theatre of war. count tilly, marching along the left bank of the weser, made himself master of all the passes as far as minden. after an unsuccessful attack on nieuburg, he crossed the river and overran the principality of calemberg, in which he quartered his troops. the king conducted his operations on the right bank of the river, and spread his forces over the territories of brunswick, but having weakened his main body by too powerful detachments, he could not engage in any enterprise of importance. aware of his opponent's superiority, he avoided a decisive action as anxiously as the general of the league sought it. with the exception of the troops from the spanish netherlands, which had poured into the lower palatinate, the emperor had hitherto made use only of the arms of bavaria and the league in germany. maximilian conducted the war as executor of the ban of the empire, and tilly, who commanded the army of execution, was in the bavarian service. the emperor owed superiority in the field to bavaria and the league, and his fortunes were in their hands. this dependence on their goodwill, but ill accorded with the grand schemes, which the brilliant commencement of the war had led the imperial cabinet to form. however active the league had shown itself in the emperor's defence, while thereby it secured its own welfare, it could not be expected that it would enter as readily into his views of conquest. or, if they still continued to lend their armies for that purpose, it was too much to be feared that they would share with the emperor nothing but general odium, while they appropriated to themselves all advantages. a strong army under his own orders could alone free him from this debasing dependence upon bavaria, and restore to him his former pre-eminence in germany. but the war had already exhausted the imperial dominions, and they were unequal to the expense of such an armament. in these circumstances, nothing could be more welcome to the emperor than the proposal with which one of his officers surprised him. this was count wallenstein, an experienced officer, and the richest nobleman in bohemia. from his earliest youth he had been in the service of the house of austria, and several campaigns against the turks, venetians, bohemians, hungarians, and transylvanians had established his reputation. he was present as colonel at the battle of prague, and afterwards, as major-general, had defeated a hungarian force in moravia. the emperor's gratitude was equal to his services, and a large share of the confiscated estates of the bohemian insurgents was their reward. possessed of immense property, excited by ambitious views, confident in his own good fortune, and still more encouraged by the existing state of circumstances, he offered, at his own expense and that of his friends, to raise and clothe an army for the emperor, and even undertook the cost of maintaining it, if he were allowed to augment it to , men. the project was universally ridiculed as the chimerical offspring of a visionary brain; but the offer was highly valuable, if its promises should be but partially fulfilled. certain circles in bohemia were assigned to him as depots, with authority to appoint his own officers. in a few months he had , men under arms, with which, quitting the austrian territories, he soon afterwards appeared on the frontiers of lower saxony with , . the emperor had lent this armament nothing but his name. the reputation of the general, the prospect of rapid promotion, and the hope of plunder, attracted to his standard adventurers from all quarters of germany; and even sovereign princes, stimulated by the desire of glory or of gain, offered to raise regiments for the service of austria. now, therefore, for the first time in this war, an imperial army appeared in germany; -- an event which if it was menacing to the protestants, was scarcely more acceptable to the catholics. wallenstein had orders to unite his army with the troops of the league, and in conjunction with the bavarian general to attack the king of denmark. but long jealous of tilly's fame, he showed no disposition to share with him the laurels of the campaign, or in the splendour of his rival's achievements to dim the lustre of his own. his plan of operations was to support the latter, but to act entirely independent of him. as he had not resources, like tilly, for supplying the wants of his army, he was obliged to march his troops into fertile countries which had not as yet suffered from war. disobeying, therefore, the order to form a junction with the general of the league, he marched into the territories of halberstadt and magdeburg, and at dessau made himself master of the elbe. all the lands on either bank of this river were at his command, and from them he could either attack the king of denmark in the rear, or, if prudent, enter the territories of that prince. christian iv. was fully aware of the danger of his situation between two such powerful armies. he had already been joined by the administrator of halberstadt, who had lately returned from holland; he now also acknowledged mansfeld, whom previously he had refused to recognise, and supported him to the best of his ability. mansfeld amply requited this service. he alone kept at bay the army of wallenstein upon the elbe, and prevented its junction with that of tilly, and a combined attack on the king of denmark. notwithstanding the enemy's superiority, this intrepid general even approached the bridge of dessau, and ventured to entrench himself in presence of the imperial lines. but attacked in the rear by the whole force of the imperialists, he was obliged to yield to superior numbers, and to abandon his post with the loss of , killed. after this defeat, mansfeld withdrew into brandenburg, where he soon recruited and reinforced his army; and suddenly turned into silesia, with the view of marching from thence into hungary; and, in conjunction with bethlen gabor, carrying the war into the heart of austria. as the austrian dominions in that quarter were entirely defenceless, wallenstein received immediate orders to leave the king of denmark, and if possible to intercept mansfeld's progress through silesia. the diversion which this movement of mansfeld had made in the plans of wallenstein, enabled the king to detach a part of his force into westphalia, to seize the bishoprics of munster and osnaburg. to check this movement, tilly suddenly moved from the weser; but the operations of duke christian, who threatened the territories of the league with an inroad in the direction of hesse, and to remove thither the seat of war, recalled him as rapidly from westphalia. in order to keep open his communication with these provinces, and to prevent the junction of the enemy with the landgrave of hesse, tilly hastily seized all the tenable posts on the werha and fulda, and took up a strong position in minden, at the foot of the hessian mountains, and at the confluence of these rivers with the weser. he soon made himself master of goettingen, the key of brunswick and hesse, and was meditating a similar attack upon nordheim, when the king advanced upon him with his whole army. after throwing into this place the necessary supplies for a long siege, the latter attempted to open a new passage through eichsfeld and thuringia, into the territories of the league. he had already reached duderstadt, when tilly, by forced marches, came up with him. as the army of tilly, which had been reinforced by some of wallenstein's regiments, was superior in numbers to his own, the king, to avoid a battle, retreated towards brunswick. but tilly incessantly harassed his retreat, and after three days' skirmishing, he was at length obliged to await the enemy near the village of lutter in barenberg. the danes began the attack with great bravery, and thrice did their intrepid monarch lead them in person against the enemy; but at length the superior numbers and discipline of the imperialists prevailed, and the general of the league obtained a complete victory. the danes lost sixty standards, and their whole artillery, baggage, and ammunition. several officers of distinction and about , men were killed in the field of battle; and several companies of foot, in the flight, who had thrown themselves into the town-house of lutter, laid down their arms and surrendered to the conqueror. the king fled with his cavalry, and soon collected the wreck of his army which had survived this serious defeat. tilly pursued his victory, made himself master of the weser and brunswick, and forced the king to retire into bremen. rendered more cautious by defeat, the latter now stood upon the defensive; and determined at all events to prevent the enemy from crossing the elbe. but while he threw garrisons into every tenable place, he reduced his own diminished army to inactivity; and one after another his scattered troops were either defeated or dispersed. the forces of the league, in command of the weser, spread themselves along the elbe and havel, and everywhere drove the danes before them. tilly himself crossing the elbe penetrated with his victorious army into brandenburg, while wallenstein entered holstein to remove the seat of war to the king's own dominions. this general had just returned from hungary whither he had pursued mansfeld, without being able to obstruct his march, or prevent his junction with bethlen gabor. constantly persecuted by fortune, but always superior to his fate, mansfeld had made his way against countless difficulties, through silesia and hungary to transylvania, where, after all, he was not very welcome. relying upon the assistance of england, and a powerful diversion in lower saxony, gabor had again broken the truce with the emperor. but in place of the expected diversion in his favour, mansfeld had drawn upon himself the whole strength of wallenstein, and instead of bringing, required, pecuniary assistance. the want of concert in the protestant counsels cooled gabor's ardour; and he hastened, as usual, to avert the coming storm by a speedy peace. firmly determined, however, to break it, with the first ray of hope, he directed mansfeld in the mean time to apply for assistance to venice. cut off from germany, and unable to support the weak remnant of his troops in hungary, mansfeld sold his artillery and baggage train, and disbanded his soldiers. with a few followers, he proceeded through bosnia and dalmatia, towards venice. new schemes swelled his bosom; but his career was ended. fate, which had so restlessly sported with him throughout, now prepared for him a peaceful grave in dalmatia. death overtook him in the vicinity of zara in , and a short time before him died the faithful companion of his fortunes, christian, duke of brunswick -- two men worthy of immortality, had they but been as superior to their times as they were to their adversities. the king of denmark, with his whole army, was unable to cope with tilly alone; much less, therefore, with a shattered force could he hold his ground against the two imperial generals. the danes retired from all their posts on the weser, the elbe, and the havel, and the army of wallenstein poured like a torrent into brandenburg, mecklenburg, holstein and sleswick. that general, too proud to act in conjunction with another, had dispatched tilly across the elbe, to watch, as he gave out, the motions of the dutch in that quarter; but in reality that he might terminate the war against the king, and reap for himself the fruits of tilly's conquests. christian had now lost all his fortresses in the german states, with the exception of gluckstadt; his armies were defeated or dispersed; no assistance came from germany; from england, little consolation; while his confederates in lower saxony were at the mercy of the conqueror. the landgrave of hesse cassel had been forced by tilly, soon after the battle of lutter, to renounce the danish alliance. wallenstein's formidable appearance before berlin reduced the elector of brandenburgh to submission, and compelled him to recognise, as legitimate, maximilian's title to the palatine electorate. the greater part of mecklenburgh was now overrun by imperial troops; and both dukes, as adherents of the king of denmark, placed under the ban of the empire, and driven from their dominions. the defence of the german liberties against illegal encroachments, was punished as a crime deserving the loss of all dignities and territories; and yet this was but the prelude to the still more crying enormities which shortly followed. the secret how wallenstein had purposed to fulfil his extravagant designs was now manifest. he had learned the lesson from count mansfeld; but the scholar surpassed his master. on the principle that war must support war, mansfeld and the duke of brunswick had subsisted their troops by contributions levied indiscriminately on friend and enemy; but this predatory life was attended with all the inconvenience and insecurity which accompany robbery. like a fugitive banditti, they were obliged to steal through exasperated and vigilant enemies; to roam from one end of germany to another; to watch their opportunity with anxiety; and to abandon the most fertile territories whenever they were defended by a superior army. if mansfeld and duke christian had done such great things in the face of these difficulties, what might not be expected if the obstacles were removed; when the army raised was numerous enough to overawe in itself the most powerful states of the empire; when the name of the emperor insured impunity to every outrage; and when, under the highest authority, and at the head of an overwhelming force, the same system of warfare was pursued, which these two adventurers had hitherto adopted at their own risk, and with only an untrained multitude? wallenstein had all this in view when he made his bold offer to the emperor, which now seemed extravagant to no one. the more his army was augmented, the less cause was there to fear for its subsistence, because it could irresistibly bear down upon the refractory states; the more violent its outrages, the more probable was impunity. towards hostile states it had the plea of right; towards the favourably disposed it could allege necessity. the inequality, too, with which it dealt out its oppressions, prevented any dangerous union among the states; while the exhaustion of their territories deprived them of the power of vengeance. thus the whole of germany became a kind of magazine for the imperial army, and the emperor was enabled to deal with the other states as absolutely as with his own hereditary dominions. universal was the clamour for redress before the imperial throne; but there was nothing to fear from the revenge of the injured princes, so long as they appealed for justice. the general discontent was directed equally against the emperor, who had lent his name to these barbarities, and the general who exceeded his power, and openly abused the authority of his master. they applied to the emperor for protection against the outrages of his general; but wallenstein had no sooner felt himself absolute in the army, than he threw off his obedience to his sovereign. the exhaustion of the enemy made a speedy peace probable; yet wallenstein continued to augment the imperial armies until they were at least , men strong. numberless commissions to colonelcies and inferior commands, the regal pomp of the commander-in-chief, immoderate largesses to his favourites, (for he never gave less than a thousand florins,) enormous sums lavished in corrupting the court at vienna -- all this had been effected without burdening the emperor. these immense sums were raised by the contributions levied from the lower german provinces, where no distinction was made between friend and foe; and the territories of all princes were subjected to the same system of marching and quartering, of extortion and outrage. if credit is to be given to an extravagant contemporary statement, wallenstein, during his seven years command, had exacted not less than sixty thousand millions of dollars from one half of germany. the greater his extortions, the greater the rewards of his soldiers, and the greater the concourse to his standard, for the world always follows fortune. his armies flourished while all the states through which they passed withered. what cared he for the detestation of the people, and the complaints of princes? his army adored him, and the very enormity of his guilt enabled him to bid defiance to its consequences. it would be unjust to ferdinand, were we to lay all these irregularities to his charge. had he foreseen that he was abandoning the german states to the mercy of his officer, he would have been sensible how dangerous to himself so absolute a general would prove. the closer the connexion became between the army, and the leader from whom flowed favour and fortune, the more the ties which united both to the emperor were relaxed. every thing, it is true, was done in the name of the latter; but wallenstein only availed himself of the supreme majesty of the emperor to crush the authority of other states. his object was to depress the princes of the empire, to destroy all gradation of rank between them and the emperor, and to elevate the power of the latter above all competition. if the emperor were absolute in germany, who then would be equal to the man intrusted with the execution of his will? the height to which wallenstein had raised the imperial authority astonished even the emperor himself; but as the greatness of the master was entirely the work of the servant, the creation of wallenstein would necessarily sink again into nothing upon the withdrawal of its creative hand. not without an object, therefore, did wallenstein labour to poison the minds of the german princes against the emperor. the more violent their hatred of ferdinand, the more indispensable to the emperor would become the man who alone could render their ill-will powerless. his design unquestionably was, that his sovereign should stand in fear of no one in all germany -- besides himself, the source and engine of this despotic power. as a step towards this end, wallenstein now demanded the cession of mecklenburg, to be held in pledge till the repayment of his advances for the war. ferdinand had already created him duke of friedland, apparently with the view of exalting his own general over bavaria; but an ordinary recompense would not satisfy wallenstein's ambition. in vain was this new demand, which could be granted only at the expense of two princes of the empire, actively resisted in the imperial council; in vain did the spaniards, who had long been offended by his pride, oppose his elevation. the powerful support which wallenstein had purchased from the imperial councillors prevailed, and ferdinand was determined, at whatever cost, to secure the devotion of so indispensable a minister. for a slight offence, one of the oldest german houses was expelled from their hereditary dominions, that a creature of the emperor might be enriched by their spoils ( ). wallenstein now began to assume the title of generalissimo of the emperor by sea and land. wismar was taken, and a firm footing gained on the baltic. ships were required from poland and the hanse towns to carry the war to the other side of the baltic; to pursue the danes into the heart of their own country, and to compel them to a peace which might prepare the way to more important conquests. the communication between the lower german states and the northern powers would be broken, could the emperor place himself between them, and encompass germany, from the adriatic to the sound, (the intervening kingdom of poland being already dependent on him,) with an unbroken line of territory. if such was the emperor's plan, wallenstein had a peculiar interest in its execution. these possessions on the baltic should, he intended, form the first foundation of a power, which had long been the object of his ambition, and which should enable him to throw off his dependence on the emperor. to effect this object, it was of extreme importance to gain possession of stralsund, a town on the baltic. its excellent harbour, and the short passage from it to the swedish and danish coasts, peculiarly fitted it for a naval station in a war with these powers. this town, the sixth of the hanseatic league, enjoyed great privileges under the duke of pomerania, and totally independent of denmark, had taken no share in the war. but neither its neutrality, nor its privileges, could protect it against the encroachments of wallenstein, when he had once cast a longing look upon it. the request he made, that stralsund should receive an imperial garrison, had been firmly and honourably rejected by the magistracy, who also refused his cunningly demanded permission to march his troops through the town, wallenstein, therefore, now proposed to besiege it. the independence of stralsund, as securing the free navigation of the baltic, was equally important to the two northern kings. a common danger overcame at last the private jealousies which had long divided these princes. in a treaty concluded at copenhagen in , they bound themselves to assist stralsund with their combined force, and to oppose in common every foreign power which should appear in the baltic with hostile views. christian iv. also threw a sufficient garrison into stralsund, and by his personal presence animated the courage of the citizens. some ships of war which sigismund, king of poland, had sent to the assistance of the imperial general, were sunk by the danish fleet; and as lubeck refused him the use of its shipping, this imperial generalissimo of the sea had not even ships enough to blockade this single harbour. nothing could appear more adventurous than to attempt the conquest of a strongly fortified seaport without first blockading its harbour. wallenstein, however, who as yet had never experienced a check, wished to conquer nature itself, and to perform impossibilities. stralsund, open to the sea, continued to be supplied with provisions and reinforcements; yet wallenstein maintained his blockade on the land side, and endeavoured, by boasting menaces, to supply his want of real strength. "i will take this town," said he, "though it were fastened by a chain to the heavens." the emperor himself, who might have cause to regret an enterprise which promised no very glorious result, joyfully availed himself of the apparent submission and acceptable propositions of the inhabitants, to order the general to retire from the town. wallenstein despised the command, and continued to harass the besieged by incessant assaults. as the danish garrison, already much reduced, was unequal to the fatigues of this prolonged defence, and the king was unable to detach any further troops to their support, stralsund, with christian's consent, threw itself under the protection of the king of sweden. the danish commander left the town to make way for a swedish governor, who gloriously defended it. here wallenstein's good fortune forsook him; and, for the first time, his pride experienced the humiliation of relinquishing his prey, after the loss of many months and of , men. the necessity to which he reduced the town of applying for protection to sweden, laid the foundation of a close alliance between gustavus adolphus and stralsund, which greatly facilitated the entrance of the swedes into germany. hitherto invariable success had attended the arms of the emperor and the league, and christian iv., defeated in germany, had sought refuge in his own islands; but the baltic checked the further progress of the conquerors. the want of ships not only stopped the pursuit of the king, but endangered their previous acquisitions. the union of the two northern monarchs was most to be dreaded, because, so long as it lasted, it effectually prevented the emperor and his general from acquiring a footing on the baltic, or effecting a landing in sweden. but if they could succeed in dissolving this union, and especially securing the friendship of the danish king, they might hope to overpower the insulated force of sweden. the dread of the interference of foreign powers, the insubordination of the protestants in his own states, and still more the storm which was gradually darkening along the whole of protestant germany, inclined the emperor to peace, which his general, from opposite motives, was equally desirous to effect. far from wishing for a state of things which would reduce him from the meridian of greatness and glory to the obscurity of private life, he only wished to change the theatre of war, and by a partial peace to prolong the general confusion. the friendship of denmark, whose neighbour he had become as duke of mecklenburgh, was most important for the success of his ambitious views; and he resolved, even at the sacrifice of his sovereign's interests, to secure its alliance. by the treaty of copenhagen, christian iv. had expressly engaged not to conclude a separate peace with the emperor, without the consent of sweden. notwithstanding, wallenstein's proposition was readily received by him. in a conference at lubeck in , from which wallenstein, with studied contempt, excluded the swedish ambassadors who came to intercede for mecklenburgh, all the conquests taken by the imperialists were restored to the danes. the conditions imposed upon the king were, that he should interfere no farther with the affairs of germany than was called for by his character of duke of holstein; that he should on no pretext harass the chapters of lower germany, and should leave the dukes of mecklenburgh to their fate. by christian himself had these princes been involved in the war with the emperor; he now sacrificed them, to gain the favour of the usurper of their territories. among the motives which had engaged him in a war with the emperor, not the least was the restoration of his relation, the elector palatine -- yet the name of that unfortunate prince was not even mentioned in the treaty; while in one of its articles the legitimacy of the bavarian election was expressly recognised. thus meanly and ingloriously did christian iv. retire from the field. ferdinand had it now in his power, for the second time, to secure the tranquillity of germany; and it depended solely on his will whether the treaty with denmark should or should not be the basis of a general peace. from every quarter arose the cry of the unfortunate, petitioning for an end of their sufferings; the cruelties of his soldiers, and the rapacity of his generals, had exceeded all bounds. germany, laid waste by the desolating bands of mansfeld and the duke of brunswick, and by the still more terrible hordes of tilly and wallenstein, lay exhausted, bleeding, wasted, and sighing for repose. an anxious desire for peace was felt by all conditions, and by the emperor himself; involved as he was in a war with france in upper italy, exhausted by his past warfare in germany, and apprehensive of the day of reckoning which was approaching. but, unfortunately, the conditions on which alone the two religious parties were willing respectively to sheath the sword, were irreconcileable. the roman catholics wished to terminate the war to their own advantage; the protestants advanced equal pretensions. the emperor, instead of uniting both parties by a prudent moderation, sided with one; and thus germany was again plunged in the horrors of a bloody war. from the very close of the bohemian troubles, ferdinand had carried on a counter reformation in his hereditary dominions, in which, however, from regard to some of the protestant estates, he proceeded, at first, with moderation. but the victories of his generals in lower germany encouraged him to throw off all reserve. accordingly he had it intimated to all the protestants in these dominions, that they must either abandon their religion, or their native country, -- a bitter and dreadful alternative, which excited the most violent commotions among his austrian subjects. in the palatinate, immediately after the expulsion of frederick, the protestant religion had been suppressed, and its professors expelled from the university of heidelberg. all this was but the prelude to greater changes. in the electoral congress held at muehlhausen, the roman catholics had demanded of the emperor that all the archbishoprics, bishoprics, mediate and immediate, abbacies and monasteries, which, since the diet of augsburg, had been secularized by the protestants, should be restored to the church, in order to indemnify them for the losses and sufferings in the war. to a roman catholic prince so zealous as ferdinand was, such a hint was not likely to be neglected; but he still thought it would be premature to arouse the whole protestants of germany by so decisive a step. not a single protestant prince but would be deprived, by this revocation of the religious foundations, of a part of his lands; for where these revenues had not actually been diverted to secular purposes they had been made over to the protestant church. to this source, many princes owed the chief part of their revenues and importance. all, without exception, would be irritated by this demand for restoration. the religious treaty did not expressly deny their right to these chapters, although it did not allow it. but a possession which had now been held for nearly a century, the silence of four preceding emperors, and the law of equity, which gave them an equal right with the roman catholics to the foundations of their common ancestors, might be strongly pleaded by them as a valid title. besides the actual loss of power and authority, which the surrender of these foundations would occasion, besides the inevitable confusion which would necessarily attend it, one important disadvantage to which it would lead, was, that the restoration of the roman catholic bishops would increase the strength of that party in the diet by so many additional votes. such grievous sacrifices likely to fall on the protestants, made the emperor apprehensive of a formidable opposition; and until the military ardour should have cooled in germany, he had no wish to provoke a party formidable by its union, and which in the elector of saxony had a powerful leader. he resolved, therefore, to try the experiment at first on a small scale, in order to ascertain how it was likely to succeed on a larger one. accordingly, some of the free cities in upper germany, and the duke of wirtemberg, received orders to surrender to the roman catholics several of the confiscated chapters. the state of affairs in saxony enabled the emperor to make some bolder experiments in that quarter. in the bishoprics of magdeburg and halberstadt, the protestant canons had not hesitated to elect bishops of their own religion. both bishoprics, with the exception of the town of magdeburg itself, were overrun by the troops of wallenstein. it happened, moreover, that by the death of the administrator duke christian of brunswick, halberstadt was vacant, as was also the archbishopric of magdeburg by the deposition of christian william, a prince of the house of brandenburgh. ferdinand took advantage of the circumstance to restore the see of halberstadt to a roman catholic bishop, and a prince of his own house. to avoid a similar coercion, the chapter of magdeburg hastened to elect a son of the elector of saxony as archbishop. but the pope, who with his arrogated authority interfered in this matter, conferred the archbishopric of magdeburg also on the austrian prince. thus, with all his pious zeal for religion, ferdinand never lost sight of the interests of his family. at length, when the peace of lubeck had delivered the emperor from all apprehensions on the side of denmark, and the german protestants seemed entirely powerless, the league becoming louder and more urgent in its demands, ferdinand, in , signed the edict of restitution, (so famous by its disastrous consequences,) which he had previously laid before the four roman catholic electors for their approbation. in the preamble, he claimed the prerogative, in right of his imperial authority, to interpret the meaning of the religious treaty, the ambiguities of which had already caused so many disputes, and to decide as supreme arbiter and judge between the contending parties. this prerogative he founded upon the practice of his ancestors, and its previous recognition even by protestant states. saxony had actually acknowledged this right of the emperor; and it now became evident how deeply this court had injured the protestant cause by its dependence on the house of austria. but though the meaning of the religious treaty was really ambiguous, as a century of religious disputes sufficiently proved, yet for the emperor, who must be either a protestant or a roman catholic, and therefore an interested party, to assume the right of deciding between the disputants, was clearly a violation of an essential article of the pacification. he could not be judge in his own cause, without reducing the liberties of the empire to an empty sound. and now, in virtue of this usurpation, ferdinand decided, "that every secularization of a religious foundation, mediate or immediate, by the protestants, subsequent to the date of the treaty, was contrary to its spirit, and must be revoked as a breach of it." he further decided, "that, by the religious peace, catholic proprietors of estates were no further bound to their protestant subjects than to allow them full liberty to quit their territories." in obedience to this decision, all unlawful possessors of benefices -- the protestant states in short without exception -- were ordered, under pain of the ban of the empire, immediately to surrender their usurped possessions to the imperial commissioners. this sentence applied to no less than two archbishoprics and twelve bishoprics, besides innumerable abbacies. the edict came like a thunderbolt on the whole of protestant germany; dreadful even in its immediate consequences; but yet more so from the further calamities it seemed to threaten. the protestants were now convinced that the suppression of their religion had been resolved on by the emperor and the league, and that the overthrow of german liberty would soon follow. their remonstrances were unheeded; the commissioners were named, and an army assembled to enforce obedience. the edict was first put in force in augsburg, where the treaty was concluded; the city was again placed under the government of its bishop, and six protestant churches in the town were closed. the duke of wirtemberg was, in like manner, compelled to surrender his abbacies. these severe measures, though they alarmed the protestant states, were yet insufficient to rouse them to an active resistance. their fear of the emperor was too strong, and many were disposed to quiet submission. the hope of attaining their end by gentle measures, induced the roman catholics likewise to delay for a year the execution of the edict, and this saved the protestants; before the end of that period, the success of the swedish arms had totally changed the state of affairs. in a diet held at ratisbon, at which ferdinand was present in person (in ), the necessity of taking some measures for the immediate restoration of a general peace to germany, and for the removal of all grievances, was debated. the complaints of the roman catholics were scarcely less numerous than those of the protestants, although ferdinand had flattered himself that by the edict of restitution he had secured the members of the league, and its leader by the gift of the electoral dignity, and the cession of great part of the palatinate. but the good understanding between the emperor and the princes of the league had rapidly declined since the employment of wallenstein. accustomed to give law to germany, and even to sway the emperor's own destiny, the haughty elector of bavaria now at once saw himself supplanted by the imperial general, and with that of the league, his own importance completely undermined. another had now stepped in to reap the fruits of his victories, and to bury his past services in oblivion. wallenstein's imperious character, whose dearest triumph was in degrading the authority of the princes, and giving an odious latitude to that of the emperor, tended not a little to augment the irritation of the elector. discontented with the emperor, and distrustful of his intentions, he had entered into an alliance with france, which the other members of the league were suspected of favouring. a fear of the emperor's plans of aggrandizement, and discontent with existing evils, had extinguished among them all feelings of gratitude. wallenstein's exactions had become altogether intolerable. brandenburg estimated its losses at twenty, pomerania at ten, hesse cassel at seven millions of dollars, and the rest in proportion. the cry for redress was loud, urgent, and universal; all prejudices were hushed; roman catholics and protestants were united on this point. the terrified emperor was assailed on all sides by petitions against wallenstein, and his ear filled with the most fearful descriptions of his outrages. ferdinand was not naturally cruel. if not totally innocent of the atrocities which were practised in germany under the shelter of his name, he was ignorant of their extent; and he was not long in yielding to the representation of the princes, and reduced his standing army by eighteen thousand cavalry. while this reduction took place, the swedes were actively preparing an expedition into germany, and the greater part of the disbanded imperialists enlisted under their banners. the emperor's concessions only encouraged the elector of bavaria to bolder demands. so long as the duke of friedland retained the supreme command, his triumph over the emperor was incomplete. the princes of the league were meditating a severe revenge on wallenstein for that haughtiness with which he had treated them all alike. his dismissal was demanded by the whole college of electors, and even by spain, with a degree of unanimity and urgency which astonished the emperor. the anxiety with which wallenstein's enemies pressed for his dismissal, ought to have convinced the emperor of the importance of his services. wallenstein, informed of the cabals which were forming against him in ratisbon, lost no time in opening the eyes of the emperor to the real views of the elector of bavaria. he himself appeared in ratisbon, with a pomp which threw his master into the shade, and increased the hatred of his opponents. long was the emperor undecided. the sacrifice demanded was a painful one. to the duke of friedland alone he owed his preponderance; he felt how much he would lose in yielding him to the indignation of the princes. but at this moment, unfortunately, he was under the necessity of conciliating the electors. his son ferdinand had already been chosen king of hungary, and he was endeavouring to procure his election as his successor in the empire. for this purpose, the support of maximilian was indispensable. this consideration was the weightiest, and to oblige the elector of bavaria he scrupled not to sacrifice his most valuable servant. at the diet at ratisbon, there were present ambassadors from france, empowered to adjust the differences which seemed to menace a war in italy between the emperor and their sovereign. vincent, duke of mantua and montferrat, dying without issue, his next relation, charles, duke of nevers, had taken possession of this inheritance, without doing homage to the emperor as liege lord of the principality. encouraged by the support of france and venice, he refused to surrender these territories into the hands of the imperial commissioners, until his title to them should be decided. on the other hand, ferdinand had taken up arms at the instigation of the spaniards, to whom, as possessors of milan, the near neighbourhood of a vassal of france was peculiarly alarming, and who welcomed this prospect of making, with the assistance of the emperor, additional conquests in italy. in spite of all the exertions of pope urban viii. to avert a war in that country, ferdinand marched a german army across the alps, and threw the italian states into a general consternation. his arms had been successful throughout germany, and exaggerated fears revived the olden apprehension of austria's projects of universal monarchy. all the horrors of the german war now spread like a deluge over those favoured countries which the po waters; mantua was taken by storm, and the surrounding districts given up to the ravages of a lawless soldiery. the curse of italy was thus added to the maledictions upon the emperor which resounded through germany; and even in the roman conclave, silent prayers were offered for the success of the protestant arms. alarmed by the universal hatred which this italian campaign had drawn upon him, and wearied out by the urgent remonstrances of the electors, who zealously supported the application of the french ambassador, the emperor promised the investiture to the new duke of mantua. this important service on the part of bavaria, of course, required an equivalent from france. the adjustment of the treaty gave the envoys of richelieu, during their residence in ratisbon, the desired opportunity of entangling the emperor in dangerous intrigues, of inflaming the discontented princes of the league still more strongly against him, and of turning to his disadvantage all the transactions of the diet. for this purpose richelieu had chosen an admirable instrument in father joseph, a capuchin friar, who accompanied the ambassadors without exciting the least suspicion. one of his principal instructions was assiduously to bring about the dismissal of wallenstein. with the general who had led it to victory, the army of austria would lose its principal strength; many armies could not compensate for the loss of this individual. it would therefore be a masterstroke of policy, at the very moment when a victorious monarch, the absolute master of his operations, was arming against the emperor, to remove from the head of the imperial armies the only general who, by ability and military experience, was able to cope with the french king. father joseph, in the interests of bavaria, undertook to overcome the irresolution of the emperor, who was now in a manner besieged by the spaniards and the electoral council. "it would be expedient," he thought, "to gratify the electors on this occasion, and thereby facilitate his son's election to the roman crown. this object once gained, wallenstein could at any time resume his former station." the artful capuchin was too sure of his man to touch upon this ground of consolation. the voice of a monk was to ferdinand ii. the voice of god. "nothing on earth," writes his own confessor, "was more sacred in his eyes than a priest. if it could happen, he used to say, that an angel and a regular were to meet him at the same time and place, the regular should receive his first, and the angel his second obeisance." wallenstein's dismissal was determined upon. in return for this pious concession, the capuchin dexterously counteracted the emperor's scheme to procure for the king of hungary the further dignity of king of the romans. in an express clause of the treaty just concluded, the french ministers engaged in the name of their sovereign to observe a complete neutrality between the emperor and his enemies; while, at the same time, richelieu was actually negociating with the king of sweden to declare war, and pressing upon him the alliance of his master. the latter, indeed, disavowed the lie as soon as it had served its purpose, and father joseph, confined to a convent, must atone for the alleged offence of exceeding his instructions. ferdinand perceived, when too late, that he had been imposed upon. "a wicked capuchin," he was heard to say, "has disarmed me with his rosary, and thrust nothing less than six electoral crowns into his cowl." artifice and trickery thus triumphed over the emperor, at the moment when he was believed to be omnipotent in germany, and actually was so in the field. with the loss of , men, and of a general who alone was worth whole armies, he left ratisbon without gaining the end for which he had made such sacrifices. before the swedes had vanquished him in the field, maximilian of bavaria and father joseph had given him a mortal blow. at this memorable diet at ratisbon the war with sweden was resolved upon, and that of mantua terminated. vainly had the princes present at it interceded for the dukes of mecklenburgh; and equally fruitless had been an application by the english ambassadors for a pension to the palatine frederick. wallenstein was at the head of an army of nearly a hundred thousand men who adored him, when the sentence of his dismissal arrived. most of the officers were his creatures: -- with the common soldiers his hint was law. his ambition was boundless, his pride indomitable, his imperious spirit could not brook an injury unavenged. one moment would now precipitate him from the height of grandeur into the obscurity of a private station. to execute such a sentence upon such a delinquent seemed to require more address than it cost to obtain it from the judge. accordingly, two of wallenstein's most intimate friends were selected as heralds of these evil tidings, and instructed to soften them as much as possible, by flattering assurances of the continuance of the emperor's favour. wallenstein had ascertained the purport of their message before the imperial ambassadors arrived. he had time to collect himself, and his countenance exhibited an external calmness, while grief and rage were storming in his bosom. he had made up his mind to obey. the emperor's decision had taken him by surprise before circumstances were ripe, or his preparations complete, for the bold measures he had contemplated. his extensive estates were scattered over bohemia and moravia; and by their confiscation, the emperor might at once destroy the sinews of his power. he looked, therefore, to the future for revenge; and in this hope he was encouraged by the predictions of an italian astrologer, who led his imperious spirit like a child in leading strings. seni had read in the stars, that his master's brilliant career was not yet ended; and that bright and glorious prospects still awaited him. it was, indeed, unnecessary to consult the stars to foretell that an enemy, gustavus adolphus, would ere long render indispensable the services of such a general as wallenstein. "the emperor is betrayed," said wallenstein to the messengers; "i pity but forgive him. it is plain that the grasping spirit of the bavarian dictates to him. i grieve that, with so much weakness, he has sacrificed me, but i will obey." he dismissed the emissaries with princely presents; and in a humble letter besought the continuance of the emperor's favour, and of the dignities he had bestowed upon him. the murmurs of the army were universal, on hearing of the dismissal of their general; and the greater part of his officers immediately quitted the imperial service. many followed him to his estates in bohemia and moravia; others he attached to his interests by pensions, in order to command their services when the opportunity should offer. but repose was the last thing that wallenstein contemplated when he returned to private life. in his retreat, he surrounded himself with a regal pomp, which seemed to mock the sentence of degradation. six gates led to the palace he inhabited in prague, and a hundred houses were pulled down to make way for his courtyard. similar palaces were built on his other numerous estates. gentlemen of the noblest houses contended for the honour of serving him, and even imperial chamberlains resigned the golden key to the emperor, to fill a similar office under wallenstein. he maintained sixty pages, who were instructed by the ablest masters. his antichamber was protected by fifty life guards. his table never consisted of less than covers, and his seneschal was a person of distinction. when he travelled, his baggage and suite accompanied him in a hundred wagons, drawn by six or four horses; his court followed in sixty carriages, attended by fifty led horses. the pomp of his liveries, the splendour of his equipages, and the decorations of his apartments, were in keeping with all the rest. six barons and as many knights, were in constant attendance about his person, and ready to execute his slightest order. twelve patrols went their rounds about his palace, to prevent any disturbance. his busy genius required silence. the noise of coaches was to be kept away from his residence, and the streets leading to it were frequently blocked up with chains. his own circle was as silent as the approaches to his palace; dark, reserved, and impenetrable, he was more sparing of his words than of his gifts; while the little that he spoke was harsh and imperious. he never smiled, and the coldness of his temperament was proof against sensual seductions. ever occupied with grand schemes, he despised all those idle amusements in which so many waste their lives. the correspondence he kept up with the whole of europe was chiefly managed by himself, and, that as little as possible might be trusted to the silence of others, most of the letters were written by his own hand. he was a man of large stature, thin, of a sallow complexion, with short red hair, and small sparkling eyes. a gloomy and forbidding seriousness sat upon his brow; and his magnificent presents alone retained the trembling crowd of his dependents. in this stately obscurity did wallenstein silently, but not inactively, await the hour of revenge. the victorious career of gustavus adolphus soon gave him a presentiment of its approach. not one of his lofty schemes had been abandoned; and the emperor's ingratitude had loosened the curb of his ambition. the dazzling splendour of his private life bespoke high soaring projects; and, lavish as a king, he seemed already to reckon among his certain possessions those which he contemplated with hope. after wallenstein's dismissal, and the invasion of gustavus adolphus, a new generalissimo was to be appointed; and it now appeared advisable to unite both the imperial army and that of the league under one general. maximilian of bavaria sought this appointment, which would have enabled him to dictate to the emperor, who, from a conviction of this, wished to procure the command for his eldest son, the king of hungary. at last, in order to avoid offence to either of the competitors, the appointment was given to tilly, who now exchanged the bavarian for the austrian service. the imperial army in germany, after the retirement of wallenstein, amounted to about , men; that of the league to nearly the same number, both commanded by excellent officers, trained by the experience of several campaigns, and proud of a long series of victories. with such a force, little apprehension was felt at the invasion of the king of sweden, and the less so as it commanded both pomerania and mecklenburg, the only countries through which he could enter germany. after the unsuccessful attempt of the king of denmark to check the emperor's progress, gustavus adolphus was the only prince in europe from whom oppressed liberty could look for protection -- the only one who, while he was personally qualified to conduct such an enterprise, had both political motives to recommend and wrongs to justify it. before the commencement of the war in lower saxony, important political interests induced him, as well as the king of denmark, to offer his services and his army for the defence of germany; but the offer of the latter had, to his own misfortune, been preferred. since that time, wallenstein and the emperor had adopted measures which must have been equally offensive to him as a man and as a king. imperial troops had been despatched to the aid of the polish king, sigismund, to defend prussia against the swedes. when the king complained to wallenstein of this act of hostility, he received for answer, "the emperor has more soldiers than he wants for himself, he must help his friends." the swedish ambassadors had been insolently ordered by wallenstein to withdraw from the conference at lubeck; and when, unawed by this command, they were courageous enough to remain, contrary to the law of nations, he had threatened them with violence. ferdinand had also insulted the swedish flag, and intercepted the king's despatches to transylvania. he also threw every obstacle in the way of a peace betwixt poland and sweden, supported the pretensions of sigismund to the swedish throne, and denied the right of gustavus to the title of king. deigning no regard to the repeated remonstrances of gustavus, he rather aggravated the offence by new grievances, than acceded the required satisfaction. so many personal motives, supported by important considerations, both of policy and religion, and seconded by pressing invitations from germany, had their full weight with a prince, who was naturally the more jealous of his royal prerogative the more it was questioned, who was flattered by the glory he hoped to gain as protector of the oppressed, and passionately loved war as the element of his genius. but, until a truce or peace with poland should set his hands free, a new and dangerous war was not to be thought of. cardinal richelieu had the merit of effecting this truce with poland. this great statesman, who guided the helm of europe, while in france he repressed the rage of faction and the insolence of the nobles, pursued steadily, amidst the cares of a stormy administration, his plan of lowering the ascendancy of the house of austria. but circumstances opposed considerable obstacles to the execution of his designs; and even the greatest minds cannot, with impunity, defy the prejudices of the age. the minister of a roman catholic king, and a cardinal, he was prevented by the purple he bore from joining the enemies of that church in an open attack on a power which had the address to sanctify its ambitious encroachments under the name of religion. the external deference which richelieu was obliged to pay to the narrow views of his contemporaries limited his exertions to secret negociations, by which he endeavoured to gain the hand of others to accomplish the enlightened projects of his own mind. after a fruitless attempt to prevent the peace between denmark and the emperor, he had recourse to gustavus adolphus, the hero of his age. no exertion was spared to bring this monarch to a favourable decision, and at the same time to facilitate the execution of it. charnasse, an unsuspected agent of the cardinal, proceeded to polish prussia, where gustavus adolphus was conducting the war against sigismund, and alternately visited these princes, in order to persuade them to a truce or peace. gustavus had been long inclined to it, and the french minister succeeded at last in opening the eyes of sigismund to his true interests, and to the deceitful policy of the emperor. a truce for six years was agreed on, gustavus being allowed to retain all his conquests. this treaty gave him also what he had so long desired, the liberty of directing his arms against the emperor. for this the french ambassador offered him the alliance of his sovereign and considerable subsidies. but gustavus adolphus was justly apprehensive lest the acceptance of the assistance should make him dependent upon france, and fetter him in his career of conquest, while an alliance with a roman catholic power might excite distrust among the protestants. if the war was just and necessary, the circumstances under which it was undertaken were not less promising. the name of the emperor, it is true, was formidable, his resources inexhaustible, his power hitherto invincible. so dangerous a contest would have dismayed any other than gustavus. he saw all the obstacles and dangers which opposed his undertaking, but he knew also the means by which, as he hoped, they might be conquered. his army, though not numerous, was well disciplined, inured to hardship by a severe climate and campaigns, and trained to victory in the war with poland. sweden, though poor in men and money, and overtaxed by an eight years' war, was devoted to its monarch with an enthusiasm which assured him of the ready support of his subjects. in germany, the name of the emperor was at least as much hated as feared. the protestant princes only awaited the arrival of a deliverer to throw off his intolerable yoke, and openly declare for the swedes. even the roman catholic states would welcome an antagonist to the emperor, whose opposition might control his overwhelming influence. the first victory gained on german ground would be decisive. it would encourage those princes who still hesitated to declare themselves, strengthen the cause of his adherents, augment his troops, and open resources for the maintenance of the campaign. if the greater part of the german states were impoverished by oppression, the flourishing hanse towns had escaped, and they could not hesitate, by a small voluntary sacrifice, to avert the general ruin. as the imperialists should be driven from the different provinces, their armies would diminish, since they were subsisting on the countries in which they were encamped. the strength, too, of the emperor had been lessened by ill-timed detachments to italy and the netherlands; while spain, weakened by the loss of the manilla galleons, and engaged in a serious war in the netherlands, could afford him little support. great britain, on the other hand, gave the king of sweden hope of considerable subsidies; and france, now at peace with itself, came forward with the most favourable offers. but the strongest pledge for the success of his undertaking gustavus found -- in himself. prudence demanded that he should embrace all the foreign assistance he could, in order to guard his enterprise from the imputation of rashness; but all his confidence and courage were entirely derived from himself. he was indisputably the greatest general of his age, and the bravest soldier in the army which he had formed. familiar with the tactics of greece and rome, he had discovered a more effective system of warfare, which was adopted as a model by the most eminent commanders of subsequent times. he reduced the unwieldy squadrons of cavalry, and rendered their movements more light and rapid; and, with the same view, he widened the intervals between his battalions. instead of the usual array in a single line, he disposed his forces in two lines, that the second might advance in the event of the first giving way. he made up for his want of cavalry, by placing infantry among the horse; a practice which frequently decided the victory. europe first learned from him the importance of infantry. all germany was astonished at the strict discipline which, at the first, so creditably distinguished the swedish army within their territories; all disorders were punished with the utmost severity, particularly impiety, theft, gambling, and duelling. the swedish articles of war enforced frugality. in the camp, the king's tent not excepted, neither silver nor gold was to be seen. the general's eye looked as vigilantly to the morals as to the martial bravery of his soldiers; every regiment was ordered to form round its chaplain for morning and evening prayers. in all these points the lawgiver was also an example. a sincere and ardent piety exalted his courage. equally free from the coarse infidelity which leaves the passions of the barbarian without a control, -- and from the grovelling superstition of ferdinand, who humbled himself to the dust before the supreme being, while he haughtily trampled on his fellow-creature -- in the height of his success he was ever a man and a christian -- in the height of his devotion, a king and a hero. the hardships of war he shared with the meanest soldier in his army; maintained a calm serenity amidst the hottest fury of battle; his glance was omnipresent, and he intrepidly forgot the danger while he exposed himself to the greatest peril. his natural courage, indeed, too often made him forget the duty of a general; and the life of a king ended in the death of a common soldier. but such a leader was followed to victory alike by the coward and the brave, and his eagle glance marked every heroic deed which his example had inspired. the fame of their sovereign excited in the nation an enthusiastic sense of their own importance; proud of their king, the peasant in finland and gothland joyfully contributed his pittance; the soldier willingly shed his blood; and the lofty energy which his single mind had imparted to the nation long survived its creator. the necessity of the war was acknowledged, but the best plan of conducting it was a matter of much question. even to the bold chancellor oxenstiern, an offensive war appeared too daring a measure; the resources of his poor and conscientious master, appeared to him too slender to compete with those of a despotic sovereign, who held all germany at his command. but the minister's timid scruples were overruled by the hero's penetrating prudence. "if we await the enemy in sweden," said gustavus, "in the event of a defeat every thing would be lost, by a fortunate commencement in germany everything would be gained. the sea is wide, and we have a long line of coast in sweden to defend. if the enemy's fleet should escape us, or our own be defeated, it would, in either case, be impossible to prevent the enemy's landing. every thing depends on the retention of stralsund. so long as this harbour is open to us, we shall both command the baltic, and secure a retreat from germany. but to protect this port, we must not remain in sweden, but advance at once into pomerania. let us talk no more, then, of a defensive war, by which we should sacrifice our greatest advantages. sweden must not be doomed to behold a hostile banner; if we are vanquished in germany, it will be time enough to follow your plan." gustavus resolved to cross the baltic and attack the emperor. his preparations were made with the utmost expedition, and his precautionary measures were not less prudent than the resolution itself was bold and magnanimous. before engaging in so distant a war, it was necessary to secure sweden against its neighbours. at a personal interview with the king of denmark at markaroed, gustavus assured himself of the friendship of that monarch; his frontier on the side of moscow was well guarded; poland might be held in check from germany, if it betrayed any design of infringing the truce. falkenberg, a swedish ambassador, who visited the courts of holland and germany, obtained the most flattering promises from several protestant princes, though none of them yet possessed courage or self-devotion enough to enter into a formal alliance with him. lubeck and hamburg engaged to advance him money, and to accept swedish copper in return. emissaries were also despatched to the prince of transylvania, to excite that implacable enemy of austria to arms. in the mean time, swedish levies were made in germany and the netherlands, the regiments increased to their full complement, new ones raised, transports provided, a fleet fitted out, provisions, military stores, and money collected. thirty ships of war were in a short time prepared, , men equipped, and transports were ready to convey them across the baltic. a greater force gustavus adolphus was unwilling to carry into germany, and even the maintenance of this exceeded the revenues of his kingdom. but however small his army, it was admirable in all points of discipline, courage, and experience, and might serve as the nucleus of a more powerful armament, if it once gained the german frontier, and its first attempts were attended with success. oxenstiern, at once general and chancellor, was posted with , men in prussia, to protect that province against poland. some regular troops, and a considerable body of militia, which served as a nursery for the main body, remained in sweden, as a defence against a sudden invasion by any treacherous neighbour. these were the measures taken for the external defence of the kingdom. its internal administration was provided for with equal care. the government was intrusted to the council of state, and the finances to the palatine john casimir, the brother-in-law of the king, while his wife, tenderly as he was attached to her, was excluded from all share in the government, for which her limited talents incapacitated her. he set his house in order like a dying man. on the th may, , when all his measures were arranged, and all was ready for his departure, the king appeared in the diet at stockholm, to bid the states a solemn farewell. taking in his arms his daughter christina, then only four years old, who, in the cradle, had been acknowledged as his successor, he presented her to the states as the future sovereign, exacted from them a renewal of the oath of allegiance to her, in case he should never more return; and then read the ordinances for the government of the kingdom during his absence, or the minority of his daughter. the whole assembly was dissolved in tears, and the king himself was some time before he could attain sufficient composure to deliver his farewell address to the states. "not lightly or wantonly," said he, "am i about to involve myself and you in this new and dangerous war; god is my witness that _i_ do not fight to gratify my own ambition. but the emperor has wronged me most shamefully in the person of my ambassadors. he has supported my enemies, persecuted my friends and brethren, trampled my religion in the dust, and even stretched his revengeful arm against my crown. the oppressed states of germany call loudly for aid, which, by god's help, we will give them. "i am fully sensible of the dangers to which my life will be exposed. i have never yet shrunk from them, nor is it likely that i shall escape them all. hitherto, providence has wonderfully protected me, but i shall at last fall in defence of my country. i commend you to the protection of heaven. be just, be conscientious, act uprightly, and we shall meet again in eternity. "to you, my counsellors of state, i address myself first. may god enlighten you, and fill you with wisdom, to promote the welfare of my people. you, too, my brave nobles, i commend to the divine protection. continue to prove yourselves the worthy successors of those gothic heroes, whose bravery humbled to the dust the pride of ancient rome. to you, ministers of religion, i recommend moderation and unity; be yourselves examples of the virtues which you preach, and abuse not your influence over the minds of my people. on you, deputies of the burgesses, and the peasantry, i entreat the blessing of heaven; may your industry be rewarded by a prosperous harvest; your stores plenteously filled, and may you be crowned abundantly with all the blessings of this life. for the prosperity of all my subjects, absent and present, i offer my warmest prayers to heaven. i bid you all a sincere -- it may be -- an eternal farewell." the embarkation of the troops took place at elfsknaben, where the fleet lay at anchor. an immense concourse flocked thither to witness this magnificent spectacle. the hearts of the spectators were agitated by varied emotions, as they alternately considered the vastness of the enterprise, and the greatness of the leader. among the superior officers who commanded in this army were gustavus horn, the rhinegrave otto lewis, henry matthias, count thurn, ottenberg, baudissen, banner, teufel, tott, mutsenfahl, falkenberg, kniphausen, and other distinguished names. detained by contrary winds, the fleet did not sail till june, and on the th of that month reached the island of rugen in pomerania. gustavus adolphus was the first who landed. in the presence of his suite, he knelt on the shore of germany to return thanks to the almighty for the safe arrival of his fleet and his army. he landed his troops on the islands of wollin and usedom; upon his approach, the imperial garrisons abandoned their entrenchments and fled. he advanced rapidly on stettin, to secure this important place before the appearance of the imperialists. bogislaus xiv., duke of pomerania, a feeble and superannuated prince, had been long tired out by the outrages committed by the latter within his territories; but too weak to resist, he had contented himself with murmurs. the appearance of his deliverer, instead of animating his courage, increased his fear and anxiety. severely as his country had suffered from the imperialists, the risk of incurring the emperor's vengeance prevented him from declaring openly for the swedes. gustavus adolphus, who was encamped under the walls of the town, summoned the city to receive a swedish garrison. bogislaus appeared in person in the camp of gustavus, to deprecate this condition. "i come to you," said gustavus, "not as an enemy but a friend. i wage no war against pomerania, nor against the german empire, but against the enemies of both. in my hands this duchy shall be sacred; and it shall be restored to you at the conclusion of the campaign, by me, with more certainty, than by any other. look to the traces of the imperial force within your territories, and to mine in usedom; and decide whether you will have the emperor or me as your friend. what have you to expect, if the emperor should make himself master of your capital? will he deal with you more leniently than i? or is it your intention to stop my progress? the case is pressing: decide at once, and do not compel me to have recourse to more violent measures." the alternative was a painful one. on the one side, the king of sweden was before his gates with a formidable army; on the other, he saw the inevitable vengeance of the emperor, and the fearful example of so many german princes, who were now wandering in misery, the victims of that revenge. the more immediate danger decided his resolution. the gates of stettin were opened to the king; the swedish troops entered; and the austrians, who were advancing by rapid marches, anticipated. the capture of this place procured for the king a firm footing in pomerania, the command of the oder, and a magazine for his troops. to prevent a charge of treachery, bogislaus was careful to excuse this step to the emperor on the plea of necessity; but aware of ferdinand's implacable disposition, he entered into a close alliance with his new protector. by this league with pomerania, gustavus secured a powerful friend in germany, who covered his rear, and maintained his communication with sweden. as ferdinand was already the aggressor in prussia, gustavus adolphus thought himself absolved from the usual formalities, and commenced hostilities without any declaration of war. to the other european powers, he justified his conduct in a manifesto, in which he detailed the grounds which had led him to take up arms. meanwhile he continued his progress in pomerania, while he saw his army daily increasing. the troops which had fought under mansfeld, duke christian of brunswick, the king of denmark, and wallenstein, came in crowds, both officers and soldiers, to join his victorious standard. at the imperial court, the invasion of the king of sweden at first excited far less attention than it merited. the pride of austria, extravagantly elated by its unheard-of successes, looked down with contempt upon a prince, who, with a handful of men, came from an obscure corner of europe, and who owed his past successes, as they imagined, entirely to the incapacity of a weak opponent. the depreciatory representation which wallenstein had artfully given of the swedish power, increased the emperor's security; for what had he to fear from an enemy, whom his general undertook to drive with such ease from germany? even the rapid progress of gustavus adolphus in pomerania, could not entirely dispel this prejudice, which the mockeries of the courtiers continued to feed. he was called in vienna the snow king, whom the cold of the north kept together, but who would infallibly melt as he advanced southward. even the electors, assembled in ratisbon, disregarded his representations; and, influenced by an abject complaisance to ferdinand, refused him even the title of king. but while they mocked him in ratisbon and vienna, in mecklenburg and pomerania, one strong town after another fell into his hands. notwithstanding this contempt, the emperor thought it proper to offer to adjust his differences with sweden by negociation, and for that purpose sent plenipotentiaries to denmark. but their instructions showed how little he was in earnest in these proposals, for he still continued to refuse to gustavus the title of king. he hoped by this means to throw on the king of sweden the odium of being the aggressor, and thereby to ensure the support of the states of the empire. the conference at dantzic proved, as might be expected, fruitless, and the animosity of both parties was increased to its utmost by an intemperate correspondence. an imperial general, torquato conti, who commanded in pomerania, had, in the mean time, made a vain attempt to wrest stettin from the swedes. the imperialists were driven out from one place after another; damm, stargard, camin, and wolgast, soon fell into the hands of gustavus. to revenge himself upon the duke of pomerania, the imperial general permitted his troops, upon his retreat, to exercise every barbarity on the unfortunate inhabitants of pomerania, who had already suffered but too severely from his avarice. on pretence of cutting off the resources of the swedes, the whole country was laid waste and plundered; and often when the imperialists were unable any longer to maintain a place, it was laid in ashes, in order to leave the enemy nothing but ruins. but these barbarities only served to place in a more favourable light the opposite conduct of the swedes, and to win all hearts to their humane monarch. the swedish soldier paid for all he required; no private property was injured on his march. the swedes consequently were received with open arms both in town and country, whilst every imperialist that fell into the hands of the pomeranian peasantry was ruthlessly murdered. many pomeranians entered into the service of sweden, and the estates of this exhausted country willingly voted the king a contribution of , florins. torquato conti, who, with all his severity of character, was a consummate general, endeavoured to render stettin useless to the king of sweden, as he could not deprive him of it. he entrenched himself upon the oder, at gartz, above stettin, in order, by commanding that river, to cut off the water communication of the town with the rest of germany. nothing could induce him to attack the king of sweden, who was his superior in numbers, while the latter was equally cautious not to storm the strong entrenchments of the imperialists. torquato, too deficient in troops and money to act upon the offensive against the king, hoped by this plan of operations to give time for tilly to hasten to the defence of pomerania, and then, in conjunction with that general, to attack the swedes. seizing the opportunity of the temporary absence of gustavus, he made a sudden attempt upon stettin, but the swedes were not unprepared for him. a vigorous attack of the imperialists was firmly repulsed, and torquato was forced to retire with great loss. for this auspicious commencement of the war, however, gustavus was, it must be owned, as much indebted to his good fortune as to his military talents. the imperial troops in pomerania had been greatly reduced since wallenstein's dismissal; moreover, the outrages they had committed were now severely revenged upon them; wasted and exhausted, the country no longer afforded them a subsistence. all discipline was at an end; the orders of the officers were disregarded, while their numbers daily decreased by desertion, and by a general mortality, which the piercing cold of a strange climate had produced among them. under these circumstances, the imperial general was anxious to allow his troops the repose of winter quarters, but he had to do with an enemy to whom the climate of germany had no winter. gustavus had taken the precaution of providing his soldiers with dresses of sheep-skin, to enable them to keep the field even in the most inclement season. the imperial plenipotentiaries, who came to treat with him for a cessation of hostilities, received this discouraging answer: "the swedes are soldiers in winter as well as in summer, and not disposed to oppress the unfortunate peasantry. the imperialists may act as they think proper, but they need not expect to remain undisturbed." torquato conti soon after resigned a command, in which neither riches nor reputation were to be gained. in this inequality of the two armies, the advantage was necessarily on the side of the swedes. the imperialists were incessantly harassed in their winter quarters; greifenhagan, an important place upon the oder, taken by storm, and the towns of gartz and piritz were at last abandoned by the enemy. in the whole of pomerania, greifswald, demmin, and colberg alone remained in their hands, and these the king made great preparations to besiege. the enemy directed their retreat towards brandenburg, in which much of their artillery and baggage, and many prisoners fell into the hands of the pursuers. by seizing the passes of riebnitz and damgarden, gustavus had opened a passage into mecklenburg, whose inhabitants were invited to return to their allegiance under their legitimate sovereigns, and to expel the adherents of wallenstein. the imperialists, however, gained the important town of rostock by stratagem, and thus prevented the farther advance of the king, who was unwilling to divide his forces. the exiled dukes of mecklenburg had ineffectually employed the princes assembled at ratisbon to intercede with the emperor: in vain they had endeavoured to soften ferdinand, by renouncing the alliance of the king, and every idea of resistance. but, driven to despair by the emperor's inflexibility, they openly espoused the side of sweden, and raising troops, gave the command of them to francis charles duke of saxe-lauenburg. that general made himself master of several strong places on the elbe, but lost them afterwards to the imperial general pappenheim, who was despatched to oppose him. soon afterwards, besieged by the latter in the town of ratzeburg, he was compelled to surrender with all his troops. thus ended the attempt which these unfortunate princes made to recover their territories; and it was reserved for the victorious arm of gustavus adolphus to render them that brilliant service. the imperialists had thrown themselves into brandenburg, which now became the theatre of the most barbarous atrocities. these outrages were inflicted upon the subjects of a prince who had never injured the emperor, and whom, moreover, he was at the very time inciting to take up arms against the king of sweden. the sight of the disorders of their soldiers, which want of money compelled them to wink at, and of authority over their troops, excited the disgust even of the imperial generals; and, from very shame, their commander-in-chief, count schaumburg, wished to resign. without a sufficient force to protect his territories, and left by the emperor, in spite of the most pressing remonstrances, without assistance, the elector of brandenburg at last issued an edict, ordering his subjects to repel force by force, and to put to death without mercy every imperial soldier who should henceforth be detected in plundering. to such a height had the violence of outrage and the misery of the government risen, that nothing was left to the sovereign, but the desperate extremity of sanctioning private vengeance by a formal law. the swedes had pursued the imperialists into brandenburg; and only the elector's refusal to open to him the fortress of custrin for his march, obliged the king to lay aside his design of besieging frankfort on the oder. he therefore returned to complete the conquest of pomerania, by the capture of demmin and colberg. in the mean time, field-marshal tilly was advancing to the defence of brandenburg. this general, who could boast as yet of never having suffered a defeat, the conqueror of mansfeld, of duke christian of brunswick, of the margrave of baden, and the king of denmark, was now in the swedish monarch to meet an opponent worthy of his fame. descended of a noble family in liege, tilly had formed his military talents in the wars of the netherlands, which was then the great school for generals. he soon found an opportunity of distinguishing himself under rodolph ii. in hungary, where he rapidly rose from one step to another. after the peace, he entered into the service of maximilian of bavaria, who made him commander-in-chief with absolute powers. here, by his excellent regulations, he was the founder of the bavarian army; and to him, chiefly, maximilian was indebted for his superiority in the field. upon the termination of the bohemian war, he was appointed commander of the troops of the league; and, after wallenstein's dismissal, generalissimo of the imperial armies. equally stern towards his soldiers and implacable towards his enemies, and as gloomy and impenetrable as wallenstein, he was greatly his superior in probity and disinterestedness. a bigoted zeal for religion, and a bloody spirit of persecution, co-operated, with the natural ferocity of his character, to make him the terror of the protestants. a strange and terrific aspect bespoke his character: of low stature, thin, with hollow cheeks, a long nose, a broad and wrinkled forehead, large whiskers, and a pointed chin; he was generally attired in a spanish doublet of green satin, with slashed sleeves, with a small high peaked hat upon his head, surmounted by a red feather which hung down to his back. his whole aspect recalled to recollection the duke of alva, the scourge of the flemings, and his actions were far from effacing the impression. such was the general who was now to be opposed to the hero of the north. tilly was far from undervaluing his antagonist, "the king of sweden," said he in the diet at ratisbon, "is an enemy both prudent and brave, inured to war, and in the flower of his age. his plans are excellent, his resources considerable; his subjects enthusiastically attached to him. his army, composed of swedes, germans, livonians, finlanders, scots and english, by its devoted obedience to their leader, is blended into one nation: he is a gamester in playing with whom not to have lost is to have won a great deal." the progress of the king of sweden in brandenburg and pomerania, left the new generalissimo no time to lose; and his presence was now urgently called for by those who commanded in that quarter. with all expedition, he collected the imperial troops which were dispersed over the empire; but it required time to obtain from the exhausted and impoverished provinces the necessary supplies. at last, about the middle of winter, he appeared at the head of , men, before frankfort on the oder, where he was joined by schaumburg. leaving to this general the defence of frankfort, with a sufficient garrison, he hastened to pomerania, with a view of saving demmin, and relieving colberg, which was already hard pressed by the swedes. but even before he had left brandenburg, demmin, which was but poorly defended by the duke of savelli, had surrendered to the king, and colberg, after a five months' siege, was starved into a capitulation. as the passes in upper pomerania were well guarded, and the king's camp near schwedt defied attack, tilly abandoned his offensive plan of operations, and retreated towards the elbe to besiege magdeburg. the capture of demmin opened to the king a free passage into mecklenburg; but a more important enterprise drew his arms into another quarter. scarcely had tilly commenced his retrograde movement, when suddenly breaking up his camp at schwedt, the king marched his whole force against frankfort on the oder. this town, badly fortified, was defended by a garrison of , men, mostly composed of those ferocious bands who had so cruelly ravaged pomerania and brandenburg. it was now attacked with such impetuosity, that on the third day it was taken by storm. the swedes, assured of victory, rejected every offer of capitulation, as they were resolved to exercise the dreadful right of retaliation. for tilly, soon after his arrival, had surrounded a swedish detachment, and, irritated by their obstinate resistance, had cut them in pieces to a man. this cruelty was not forgotten by the swedes. "new brandenburg quarter", they replied to the imperialists who begged their lives, and slaughtered them without mercy. several thousands were either killed or taken, and many were drowned in the oder, the rest fled to silesia. all their artillery fell into the hands of the swedes. to satisfy the rage of his troops, gustavus adolphus was under the necessity of giving up the town for three hours to plunder. while the king was thus advancing from one conquest to another, and, by his success, encouraging the protestants to active resistance, the emperor proceeded to enforce the edict of restitution, and, by his exorbitant pretensions, to exhaust the patience of the states. compelled by necessity, he continued the violent course which he had begun with such arrogant confidence; the difficulties into which his arbitrary conduct had plunged him, he could only extricate himself from by measures still more arbitrary. but in so complicated a body as the german empire, despotism must always create the most dangerous convulsions. with astonishment, the princes beheld the constitution of the empire overthrown, and the state of nature to which matters were again verging, suggested to them the idea of self-defence, the only means of protection in such a state of things. the steps openly taken by the emperor against the lutheran church, had at last removed the veil from the eyes of john george, who had been so long the dupe of his artful policy. ferdinand, too, had personally offended him by the exclusion of his son from the archbishopric of magdeburg; and field-marshal arnheim, his new favourite and minister, spared no pains to increase the resentment of his master. arnheim had formerly been an imperial general under wallenstein, and being still zealously attached to him, he was eager to avenge his old benefactor and himself on the emperor, by detaching saxony from the austrian interests. gustavus adolphus, supported by the protestant states, would be invincible; a consideration which already filled the emperor with alarm. the example of saxony would probably influence others, and the emperor's fate seemed now in a manner to depend upon the elector's decision. the artful favourite impressed upon his master this idea of his own importance, and advised him to terrify the emperor, by threatening an alliance with sweden, and thus to extort from his fears, what he had sought in vain from his gratitude. the favourite, however, was far from wishing him actually to enter into the swedish alliance, but, by holding aloof from both parties, to maintain his own importance and independence. accordingly, he laid before him a plan, which only wanted a more able hand to carry it into execution, and recommended him, by heading the protestant party, to erect a third power in germany, and thereby maintain the balance between sweden and austria. this project was peculiarly flattering to the saxon elector, to whom the idea of being dependent upon sweden, or of longer submitting to the tyranny of the emperor, was equally hateful. he could not, with indifference, see the control of german affairs wrested from him by a foreign prince; and incapable as he was of taking a principal part, his vanity would not condescend to act a subordinate one. he resolved, therefore, to draw every possible advantage from the progress of gustavus, but to pursue, independently, his own separate plans. with this view, he consulted with the elector of brandenburg, who, from similar causes, was ready to act against the emperor, but, at the same time, was jealous of sweden. in a diet at torgau, having assured himself of the support of his estates, he invited the protestant states of the empire to a general convention, which took place at leipzig, on the th february . brandenburg, hesse cassel, with several princes, counts, estates of the empire, and protestant bishops were present, either personally or by deputy, at this assembly, which the chaplain to the saxon court, dr. hoe von hohenegg, opened with a vehement discourse from the pulpit. the emperor had, in vain, endeavoured to prevent this self-appointed convention, whose object was evidently to provide for its own defence, and which the presence of the swedes in the empire, rendered more than usually alarming. emboldened by the progress of gustavus adolphus, the assembled princes asserted their rights, and after a session of two months broke up, with adopting a resolution which placed the emperor in no slight embarrassment. its import was to demand of the emperor, in a general address, the revocation of the edict of restitution, the withdrawal of his troops from their capitals and fortresses, the suspension of all existing proceedings, and the abolition of abuses; and, in the mean time, to raise an army of , men, to enable them to redress their own grievances, if the emperor should still refuse satisfaction. a further incident contributed not a little to increase the firmness of the protestant princes. the king of sweden had, at last, overcome the scruples which had deterred him from a closer alliance with france, and, on the th january , concluded a formal treaty with this crown. after a serious dispute respecting the treatment of the roman catholic princes of the empire, whom france took under her protection, and against whom gustavus claimed the right of retaliation, and after some less important differences with regard to the title of majesty, which the pride of france was loth to concede to the king of sweden, richelieu yielded the second, and gustavus adolphus the first point, and the treaty was signed at beerwald in neumark. the contracting parties mutually covenanted to defend each other with a military force, to protect their common friends, to restore to their dominions the deposed princes of the empire, and to replace every thing, both on the frontier and in the interior of germany, on the same footing on which it stood before the commencement of the war. for this end, sweden engaged to maintain an army of , men in germany, and france agreed to furnish the swedes with an annual subsidy of , dollars. if the arms of gustavus were successful, he was to respect the roman catholic religion and the constitution of the empire in all the conquered places, and to make no attempt against either. all estates and princes whether protestant or roman catholic, either in germany or in other countries, were to be invited to become parties to the treaty; neither france nor sweden was to conclude a separate peace without the knowledge and consent of the other; and the treaty itself was to continue in force for five years. great as was the struggle to the king of sweden to receive subsidies from france, and sacrifice his independence in the conduct of the war, this alliance with france decided his cause in germany. protected, as he now was, by the greatest power in europe, the german states began to feel confidence in his undertaking, for the issue of which they had hitherto good reason to tremble. he became truly formidable to the emperor. the roman catholic princes too, who, though they were anxious to humble austria, had witnessed his progress with distrust, were less alarmed now that an alliance with a roman catholic power ensured his respect for their religion. and thus, while gustavus adolphus protected the protestant religion and the liberties of germany against the aggression of ferdinand, france secured those liberties, and the roman catholic religion, against gustavus himself, if the intoxication of success should hurry him beyond the bounds of moderation. the king of sweden lost no time in apprizing the members of the confederacy of leipzig of the treaty concluded with france, and inviting them to a closer union with himself. the application was seconded by france, who spared no pains to win over the elector of saxony. gustavus was willing to be content with secret support, if the princes should deem it too bold a step as yet to declare openly in his favour. several princes gave him hopes of his proposals being accepted on the first favourable opportunity; but the saxon elector, full of jealousy and distrust towards the king of sweden, and true to the selfish policy he had pursued, could not be prevailed upon to give a decisive answer. the resolution of the confederacy of leipzig, and the alliance betwixt france and sweden, were news equally disagreeable to the emperor. against them he employed the thunder of imperial ordinances, and the want of an army saved france from the full weight of his displeasure. remonstrances were addressed to all the members of the confederacy, strongly prohibiting them from enlisting troops. they retorted with explanations equally vehement, justified their conduct upon the principles of natural right, and continued their preparations. meantime, the imperial generals, deficient both in troops and money, found themselves reduced to the disagreeable alternative of losing sight either of the king of sweden, or of the estates of the empire, since with a divided force they were not a match for either. the movements of the protestants called their attention to the interior of the empire, while the progress of the king in brandenburg, by threatening the hereditary possessions of austria, required them to turn their arms to that quarter. after the conquest of frankfort, the king had advanced upon landsberg on the warta, and tilly, after a fruitless attempt to relieve it, had again returned to magdeburg, to prosecute with vigour the siege of that town. the rich archbishopric, of which magdeburg was the capital, had long been in the possession of princes of the house of brandenburg, who introduced the protestant religion into the province. christian william, the last administrator, had, by his alliance with denmark, incurred the ban of the empire, on which account the chapter, to avoid the emperor's displeasure, had formally deposed him. in his place they had elected prince john augustus, the second son of the elector of saxony, whom the emperor rejected, in order to confer the archbishopric on his son leopold. the elector of saxony complained ineffectually to the imperial court; but christian william of brandenburg took more active measures. relying on the attachment of the magistracy and inhabitants of brandenburg, and excited by chimerical hopes, he thought himself able to surmount all the obstacles which the vote of the chapter, the competition of two powerful rivals, and the edict of restitution opposed to his restoration. he went to sweden, and, by the promise of a diversion in germany, sought to obtain assistance from gustavus. he was dismissed by that monarch not without hopes of effectual protection, but with the advice to act with caution. scarcely had christian william been informed of the landing of his protector in pomerania, than he entered magdeburg in disguise. appearing suddenly in the town council, he reminded the magistrates of the ravages which both town and country had suffered from the imperial troops, of the pernicious designs of ferdinand, and the danger of the protestant church. he then informed them that the moment of deliverance was at hand, and that gustavus adolphus offered them his alliance and assistance. magdeburg, one of the most flourishing towns in germany, enjoyed under the government of its magistrates a republican freedom, which inspired its citizens with a brave heroism. of this they had already given proofs, in the bold defence of their rights against wallenstein, who, tempted by their wealth, made on them the most extravagant demands. their territory had been given up to the fury of his troops, though magdeburg itself had escaped his vengeance. it was not difficult, therefore, for the administrator to gain the concurrence of men in whose minds the rememberance of these outrages was still recent. an alliance was formed between the city and the swedish king, by which magdeburg granted to the king a free passage through its gates and territories, with liberty of enlisting soldiers within its boundaries, and on the other hand, obtained promises of effectual protection for its religion and its privileges. the administrator immediately collected troops and commenced hostilities, before gustavus adolphus was near enough to co-operate with him. he defeated some imperial detachments in the neighbourhood, made a few conquests, and even surprised halle. but the approach of an imperial army obliged him to retreat hastily, and not without loss, to magdeburg. gustavus adolphus, though displeased with his premature measures, sent dietrich falkenberg, an experienced officer, to direct the administrator's military operations, and to assist him with his counsel. falkenberg was named by the magistrates governor of the town during the war. the prince's army was daily augmented by recruits from the neighbouring towns; and he was able for some months to maintain a petty warfare with success. at length count pappenheim, having brought his expedition against the duke of saxe-lauenburg to a close, approached the town. driving the troops of the administrator from their entrenchments, he cut off his communication with saxony, and closely invested the place. he was soon followed by tilly, who haughtily summoned the elector forthwith to comply with the edict of restitution, to submit to the emperor's orders, and surrender magdeburg. the prince's answer was spirited and resolute, and obliged tilly at once to have recourse to arms. in the meanwhile, the siege was prolonged, by the progress of the king of sweden, which called the austrian general from before the place; and the jealousy of the officers, who conducted the operations in his absence, delayed, for some months, the fall of magdeburg. on the th march , tilly returned, to push the siege with vigour. the outworks were soon carried, and falkenberg, after withdrawing the garrisons from the points which he could no longer hold, destroyed the bridge over the elbe. as his troops were barely sufficient to defend the extensive fortifications, the suburbs of sudenburg and neustadt were abandoned to the enemy, who immediately laid them in ashes. pappenheim, now separated from tilly, crossed the elbe at schonenbeck, and attacked the town from the opposite side. the garrison, reduced by the defence of the outworks, scarcely exceeded infantry and a few hundred horse; a small number for so extensive and irregular a fortress. to supply this deficiency, the citizens were armed -- a desperate expedient, which produced more evils than those it prevented. the citizens, at best but indifferent soldiers, by their disunion threw the town into confusion. the poor complained that they were exposed to every hardship and danger, while the rich, by hiring substitutes, remained at home in safety. these rumours broke out at last in an open mutiny; indifference succeeded to zeal; weariness and negligence took the place of vigilance and foresight. dissension, combined with growing scarcity, gradually produced a feeling of despondence, many began to tremble at the desperate nature of their undertaking, and the magnitude of the power to which they were opposed. but religious zeal, an ardent love of liberty, an invincible hatred to the austrian yoke, and the expectation of speedy relief, banished as yet the idea of a surrender; and divided as they were in every thing else, they were united in the resolve to defend themselves to the last extremity. their hopes of succour were apparently well founded. they knew that the confederacy of leipzig was arming; they were aware of the near approach of gustavus adolphus. both were alike interested in the preservation of magdeburg; and a few days might bring the king of sweden before its walls. all this was also known to tilly, who, therefore, was anxious to make himself speedily master of the place. with this view, he had despatched a trumpeter with letters to the administrator, the commandant, and the magistrates, offering terms of capitulation; but he received for answer, that they would rather die than surrender. a spirited sally of the citizens, also convinced him that their courage was as earnest as their words, while the king's arrival at potsdam, with the incursions of the swedes as far as zerbst, filled him with uneasiness, but raised the hopes of the garrison. a second trumpeter was now despatched; but the more moderate tone of his demands increased the confidence of the besieged, and unfortunately their negligence also. the besiegers had now pushed their approaches as far as the ditch, and vigorously cannonaded the fortifications from the abandoned batteries. one tower was entirely overthrown, but this did not facilitate an assault, as it fell sidewise upon the wall, and not into the ditch. notwithstanding the continual bombardment, the walls had not suffered much; and the fire balls, which were intended to set the town in flames, were deprived of their effect by the excellent precautions adopted against them. but the ammunition of the besieged was nearly expended, and the cannon of the town gradually ceased to answer the fire of the imperialists. before a new supply could be obtained, magdeburg would be either relieved, or taken. the hopes of the besieged were on the stretch, and all eyes anxiously directed towards the quarter in which the swedish banners were expected to appear. gustavus adolphus was near enough to reach magdeburg within three days; security grew with hope, which all things contributed to augment. on the th of may, the fire of the imperialists was suddenly stopped, and the cannon withdrawn from several of the batteries. a deathlike stillness reigned in the imperial camp. the besieged were convinced that deliverance was at hand. both citizens and soldiers left their posts upon the ramparts early in the morning, to indulge themselves, after their long toils, with the refreshment of sleep, but it was indeed a dear sleep, and a frightful awakening. tilly had abandoned the hope of taking the town, before the arrival of the swedes, by the means which he had hitherto adopted; he therefore determined to raise the siege, but first to hazard a general assault. this plan, however, was attended with great difficulties, as no breach had been effected, and the works were scarcely injured. but the council of war assembled on this occasion, declared for an assault, citing the example of maestricht, which had been taken early in the morning, while the citizens and soldiers were reposing themselves. the attack was to be made simultaneously on four points; the night betwixt the th and th of may, was employed in the necessary preparations. every thing was ready and awaiting the signal, which was to be given by cannon at five o'clock in the morning. the signal, however, was not given for two hours later, during which tilly, who was still doubtful of success, again consulted the council of war. pappenheim was ordered to attack the works of the new town, where the attempt was favoured by a sloping rampart, and a dry ditch of moderate depth. the citizens and soldiers had mostly left the walls, and the few who remained were overcome with sleep. this general, therefore, found little difficulty in mounting the wall at the head of his troops. falkenberg, roused by the report of musketry, hastened from the town-house, where he was employed in despatching tilly's second trumpeter, and hurried with all the force he could hastily assemble towards the gate of the new town, which was already in the possession of the enemy. beaten back, this intrepid general flew to another quarter, where a second party of the enemy were preparing to scale the walls. after an ineffectual resistance he fell in the commencement of the action. the roaring of musketry, the pealing of the alarm-bells, and the growing tumult apprised the awakening citizens of their danger. hastily arming themselves, they rushed in blind confusion against the enemy. still some hope of repulsing the besiegers remained; but the governor being killed, their efforts were without plan and co-operation, and at last their ammunition began to fail them. in the meanwhile, two other gates, hitherto unattacked, were stripped of their defenders, to meet the urgent danger within the town. the enemy quickly availed themselves of this confusion to attack these posts. the resistance was nevertheless spirited and obstinate, until four imperial regiments, at length, masters of the ramparts, fell upon the garrison in the rear, and completed their rout. amidst the general tumult, a brave captain, named schmidt, who still headed a few of the more resolute against the enemy, succeeded in driving them to the gates; here he fell mortally wounded, and with him expired the hopes of magdeburg. before noon, all the works were carried, and the town was in the enemy's hands. two gates were now opened by the storming party for the main body, and tilly marched in with part of his infantry. immediately occupying the principal streets, he drove the citizens with pointed cannon into their dwellings, there to await their destiny. they were not long held in suspense; a word from tilly decided the fate of magdeburg. even a more humane general would in vain have recommended mercy to such soldiers; but tilly never made the attempt. left by their general's silence masters of the lives of all the citizens, the soldiery broke into the houses to satiate their most brutal appetites. the prayers of innocence excited some compassion in the hearts of the germans, but none in the rude breasts of pappenheim's walloons. scarcely had the savage cruelty commenced, when the other gates were thrown open, and the cavalry, with the fearful hordes of the croats, poured in upon the devoted inhabitants. here commenced a scene of horrors for which history has no language -- poetry no pencil. neither innocent childhood, nor helpless old age; neither youth, sex, rank, nor beauty, could disarm the fury of the conquerors. wives were abused in the arms of their husbands, daughters at the feet of their parents; and the defenceless sex exposed to the double sacrifice of virtue and life. no situation, however obscure, or however sacred, escaped the rapacity of the enemy. in a single church fifty-three women were found beheaded. the croats amused themselves with throwing children into the flames; pappenheim's walloons with stabbing infants at the mother's breast. some officers of the league, horror-struck at this dreadful scene, ventured to remind tilly that he had it in his power to stop the carnage. "return in an hour," was his answer; "i will see what i can do; the soldier must have some reward for his danger and toils." these horrors lasted with unabated fury, till at last the smoke and flames proved a check to the plunderers. to augment the confusion and to divert the resistance of the inhabitants, the imperialists had, in the commencement of the assault, fired the town in several places. the wind rising rapidly, spread the flames, till the blaze became universal. fearful, indeed, was the tumult amid clouds of smoke, heaps of dead bodies, the clash of swords, the crash of falling ruins, and streams of blood. the atmosphere glowed; and the intolerable heat forced at last even the murderers to take refuge in their camp. in less than twelve hours, this strong, populous, and flourishing city, one of the finest in germany, was reduced to ashes, with the exception of two churches and a few houses. the administrator, christian william, after receiving several wounds, was taken prisoner, with three of the burgomasters; most of the officers and magistrates had already met an enviable death. the avarice of the officers had saved of the richest citizens, in the hope of extorting from them an exorbitant ransom. but this humanity was confined to the officers of the league, whom the ruthless barbarity of the imperialists caused to be regarded as guardian angels. scarcely had the fury of the flames abated, when the imperialists returned to renew the pillage amid the ruins and ashes of the town. many were suffocated by the smoke; many found rich booty in the cellars, where the citizens had concealed their more valuable effects. on the th of may, tilly himself appeared in the town, after the streets had been cleared of ashes and dead bodies. horrible and revolting to humanity was the scene that presented itself. the living crawling from under the dead, children wandering about with heart-rending cries, calling for their parents; and infants still sucking the breasts of their lifeless mothers. more than , bodies were thrown into the elbe to clear the streets; a much greater number had been consumed by the flames. the whole number of the slain was reckoned at not less than , . the entrance of the general, which took place on the th, put a stop to the plunder, and saved the few who had hitherto contrived to escape. about a thousand people were taken out of the cathedral, where they had remained three days and two nights, without food, and in momentary fear of death. tilly promised them quarter, and commanded bread to be distributed among them. the next day, a solemn mass was performed in the cathedral, and `te deum' sung amidst the discharge of artillery. the imperial general rode through the streets, that he might be able, as an eyewitness, to inform his master that no such conquest had been made since the destruction of troy and jerusalem. nor was this an exaggeration, whether we consider the greatness, importance, and prosperity of the city razed, or the fury of its ravagers. in germany, the tidings of the dreadful fate of magdeburg caused triumphant joy to the roman catholics, while it spread terror and consternation among the protestants. loudly and generally they complained against the king of sweden, who, with so strong a force, and in the very neighbourhood, had left an allied city to its fate. even the most reasonable deemed his inaction inexplicable; and lest he should lose irretrievably the good will of the people, for whose deliverance he had engaged in this war, gustavus was under the necessity of publishing to the world a justification of his own conduct. he had attacked, and on the th april, carried landsberg, when he was apprised of the danger of magdeburg. he resolved immediately to march to the relief of that town; and he moved with all his cavalry, and ten regiments of infantry towards the spree. but the position which he held in germany, made it necessary that he should not move forward without securing his rear. in traversing a country where he was surrounded by suspicious friends and dangerous enemies, and where a single premature movement might cut off his communication with his own kingdom, the utmost vigilance and caution were necessary. the elector of brandenburg had already opened the fortress of custrin to the flying imperialists, and closed the gates against their pursuers. if now gustavus should fail in his attack upon tilly, the elector might again open his fortresses to the imperialists, and the king, with an enemy both in front and rear, would be irrecoverably lost. in order to prevent this contingency, he demanded that the elector should allow him to hold the fortresses of custrin and spandau, till the siege of magdeburg should be raised. nothing could be more reasonable than this demand. the services which gustavus had lately rendered the elector, by expelling the imperialists from brandenburg, claimed his gratitude, while the past conduct of the swedes in germany entitled them to confidence. but by the surrender of his fortresses, the elector would in some measure make the king of sweden master of his country; besides that, by such a step, he must at once break with the emperor, and expose his states to his future vengeance. the elector's struggle with himself was long and violent, but pusillanimity and self-interest for awhile prevailed. unmoved by the fate of magdeburg, cold in the cause of religion and the liberties of germany, he saw nothing but his own danger; and this anxiety was greatly stimulated by his minister von schwartzenburgh, who was secretly in the pay of austria. in the mean time, the swedish troops approached berlin, and the king took up his residence with the elector. when he witnessed the timorous hesitation of that prince, he could not restrain his indignation: "my road is to magdeburg," said he; "not for my own advantage, but for that of the protestant religion. if no one will stand by me, i shall immediately retreat, conclude a peace with the emperor, and return to stockholm. i am convinced that ferdinand will readily grant me whatever conditions i may require. but if magdeburg is once lost, and the emperor relieved from all fear of me, then it is for you to look to yourselves and the consequences." this timely threat, and perhaps, too, the aspect of the swedish army, which was strong enough to obtain by force what was refused to entreaty, brought at last the elector to his senses, and spandau was delivered into the hands of the swedes. the king had now two routes to magdeburg; one westward led through an exhausted country, and filled with the enemy's troops, who might dispute with him the passage of the elbe; the other more to the southward, by dessau and wittenberg, where bridges were to be found for crossing the elbe, and where supplies could easily be drawn from saxony. but he could not avail himself of the latter without the consent of the elector, whom gustavus had good reason to distrust. before setting out on his march, therefore, he demanded from that prince a free passage and liberty for purchasing provisions for his troops. his application was refused, and no remonstrances could prevail on the elector to abandon his system of neutrality. while the point was still in dispute, the news of the dreadful fate of magdeburg arrived. tilly announced its fall to the protestant princes in the tone of a conqueror, and lost no time in making the most of the general consternation. the influence of the emperor, which had sensibly declined during the rapid progress of gustavus, after this decisive blow rose higher than ever; and the change was speedily visible in the imperious tone he adopted towards the protestant states. the decrees of the confederation of leipzig were annulled by a proclamation, the convention itself suppressed by an imperial decree, and all the refractory states threatened with the fate of magdeburg. as the executor of this imperial mandate, tilly immediately ordered troops to march against the bishop of bremen, who was a member of the confederacy, and had himself enlisted soldiers. the terrified bishop immediately gave up his forces to tilly, and signed the revocation of the acts of the confederation. an imperial army, which had lately returned from italy, under the command of count furstenberg, acted in the same manner towards the administrator of wirtemberg. the duke was compelled to submit to the edict of restitution, and all the decrees of the emperor, and even to pay a monthly subsidy of , dollars, for the maintenance of the imperial troops. similar burdens were inflicted upon ulm and nuremberg, and the entire circles of franconia and swabia. the hand of the emperor was stretched in terror over all germany. the sudden preponderance, more in appearance, perhaps, than in reality, which he had obtained by this blow, carried him beyond the bounds even of the moderation which he had hitherto observed, and misled him into hasty and violent measures, which at last turned the wavering resolution of the german princes in favour of gustavus adolphus. injurious as the immediate consequences of the fall of magdeburg were to the protestant cause, its remoter effects were most advantageous. the past surprise made way for active resentment, despair inspired courage, and the german freedom rose, like a phoenix, from the ashes of magdeburg. among the princes of the leipzig confederation, the elector of saxony and the landgrave of hesse were the most powerful; and, until they were disarmed, the universal authority of the emperor was unconfirmed. against the landgrave, therefore, tilly first directed his attack, and marched straight from magdeburg into thuringia. during this march, the territories of saxe ernest and schwartzburg were laid waste, and frankenhausen plundered before the very eyes of tilly, and laid in ashes with impunity. the unfortunate peasant paid dear for his master's attachment to the interests of sweden. erfurt, the key of saxony and franconia, was threatened with a siege, but redeemed itself by a voluntary contribution of money and provisions. from thence, tilly despatched his emissaries to the landgrave, demanding of him the immediate disbanding of his army, a renunciation of the league of leipzig, the reception of imperial garrisons into his territories and fortresses, with the necessary contributions, and the declaration of friendship or hostility. such was the treatment which a prince of the empire was compelled to submit to from a servant of the emperor. but these extravagant demands acquired a formidable weight from the power which supported them; and the dreadful fate of magdeburg, still fresh in the memory of the landgrave, tended still farther to enforce them. admirable, therefore, was the intrepidity of the landgrave's answer: "to admit foreign troops into his capital and fortresses, the landgrave is not disposed; his troops he requires for his own purposes; as for an attack, he can defend himself. if general tilly wants money or provisions, let him go to munich, where there is plenty of both." the irruption of two bodies of imperial troops into hesse cassel was the immediate result of this spirited reply, but the landgrave gave them so warm a reception that they could effect nothing; and just as tilly was preparing to follow with his whole army, to punish the unfortunate country for the firmness of its sovereign, the movements of the king of sweden recalled him to another quarter. gustavus adolphus had learned the fall of magdeburg with deep regret; and the demand now made by the elector, george william, in terms of their agreement, for the restoration of spandau, greatly increased this feeling. the loss of magdeburg had rather augmented than lessened the reasons which made the possession of this fortress so desirable; and the nearer became the necessity of a decisive battle between himself and tilly, the more unwilling he felt to abandon the only place which, in the event of a defeat, could ensure him a refuge. after a vain endeavour, by entreaties and representations, to bring over the elector to his views, whose coldness and lukewarmness daily increased, he gave orders to his general to evacuate spandau, but at the same time declared to the elector that he would henceforth regard him as an enemy. to give weight to this declaration, he appeared with his whole force before berlin. "i will not be worse treated than the imperial generals," was his reply to the ambassadors whom the bewildered elector despatched to his camp. "your master has received them into his territories, furnished them with all necessary supplies, ceded to them every place which they required, and yet, by all these concessions, he could not prevail upon them to treat his subjects with common humanity. all that i require of him is security, a moderate sum of money, and provisions for my troops; in return, i promise to protect his country, and to keep the war at a distance from him. on these points, however, i must insist; and my brother, the elector, must instantly determine to have me as a friend, or to see his capital plundered." this decisive tone produced a due impression; and the cannon pointed against the town put an end to the doubts of george william. in a few days, a treaty was signed, by which the elector engaged to furnish a monthly subsidy of , dollars, to leave spandau in the king's hands, and to open custrin at all times to the swedish troops. this now open alliance of the elector of brandenburg with the swedes, excited no less displeasure at vienna, than did formerly the similar procedure of the duke of pomerania; but the changed fortune which now attended his arms, obliged the emperor to confine his resentment to words. the king's satisfaction, on this favourable event, was increased by the agreeable intelligence that griefswald, the only fortress which the imperialists still held in pomerania, had surrendered, and that the whole country was now free of the enemy. he appeared once more in this duchy, and was gratified at the sight of the general joy which he had caused to the people. a year had elapsed since gustavus first entered germany, and this event was now celebrated by all pomerania as a national festival. shortly before, the czar of moscow had sent ambassadors to congratulate him, to renew his alliance, and even to offer him troops. he had great reason to rejoice at the friendly disposition of russia, as it was indispensable to his interests that sweden itself should remain undisturbed by any dangerous neighbour during the war in which he himself was engaged. soon after, his queen, maria eleonora, landed in pomerania, with a reinforcement of swedes; and the arrival of english, under the marquis of hamilton, requires more particular notice because this is all that history mentions of the english during the thirty years' war. during tilly's expedition into thuringia, pappenheim commanded in magdeburg; but was unable to prevent the swedes from crossing the elbe at various points, routing some imperial detachments, and seizing several posts. he himself, alarmed at the approach of the king of sweden, anxiously recalled tilly, and prevailed upon him to return by rapid marches to magdeburg. tilly encamped on this side of the river at wolmerstadt; gustavus on the same side, near werben, not far from the confluence of the havel and the elbe. his very arrival portended no good to tilly. the swedes routed three of his regiments, which were posted in villages at some distance from the main body, carried off half their baggage, and burned the remainder. tilly in vain advanced within cannon shot of the king's camp, and offered him battle. gustavus, weaker by one-half than his adversary, prudently declined it; and his position was too strong for an attack. nothing more ensued but a distant cannonade, and a few skirmishes, in which the swedes had invariably the advantage. in his retreat to wolmerstadt, tilly's army was weakened by numerous desertions. fortune seemed to have forsaken him since the carnage of magdeburg. the king of sweden, on the contrary, was followed by uninterrupted success. while he himself was encamped in werben, the whole of mecklenburg, with the exception of a few towns, was conquered by his general tott and the duke adolphus frederick; and he enjoyed the satisfaction of reinstating both dukes in their dominions. he proceeded in person to gustrow, where the reinstatement was solemnly to take place, to give additional dignity to the ceremony by his presence. the two dukes, with their deliverer between them, and attended by a splendid train of princes, made a public entry into the city, which the joy of their subjects converted into an affecting solemnity. soon after his return to werben, the landgrave of hesse cassel appeared in his camp, to conclude an offensive and defensive alliance; the first sovereign prince in germany, who voluntarily and openly declared against the emperor, though not wholly uninfluenced by strong motives. the landgrave bound himself to act against the king's enemies as his own, to open to him his towns and territory, and to furnish his army with provisions and necessaries. the king, on the other hand, declared himself his ally and protector; and engaged to conclude no peace with the emperor without first obtaining for the landgrave a full redress of grievances. both parties honourably performed their agreement. hesse cassel adhered to the swedish alliance during the whole of this tedious war; and at the peace of westphalia had no reason to regret the friendship of sweden. tilly, from whom this bold step on the part of the landgrave was not long concealed, despatched count fugger with several regiments against him; and at the same time endeavoured to excite his subjects to rebellion by inflammatory letters. but these made as little impression as his troops, which subsequently failed him so decidedly at the battle of breitenfield. the estates of hesse could not for a moment hesitate between their oppressor and their protector. but the imperial general was far more disturbed by the equivocal conduct of the elector of saxony, who, in defiance of the imperial prohibition, continued his preparations, and adhered to the confederation of leipzig. at this conjuncture, when the proximity of the king of sweden made a decisive battle ere long inevitable, it appeared extremely dangerous to leave saxony in arms, and ready in a moment to declare for the enemy. tilly had just received a reinforcement of , veteran troops under furstenberg, and, confident in his strength, he hoped either to disarm the elector by the mere terror of his arrival, or at least to conquer him with little difficulty. before quitting his camp at wolmerstadt, he commanded the elector, by a special messenger, to open his territories to the imperial troops; either to disband his own, or to join them to the imperial army; and to assist, in conjunction with himself, in driving the king of sweden out of germany. while he reminded him that, of all the german states, saxony had hitherto been most respected, he threatened it, in case of refusal, with the most destructive ravages. but tilly had chosen an unfavourable moment for so imperious a requisition. the ill-treatment of his religious and political confederates, the destruction of magdeburg, the excesses of the imperialists in lusatia, all combined to incense the elector against the emperor. the approach, too, of gustavus adolphus, (however slender his claims were to the protection of that prince,) tended to fortify his resolution. he accordingly forbade the quartering of the imperial soldiers in his territories, and announced his firm determination to persist in his warlike preparations. however surprised he should be, he added, "to see an imperial army on its march against his territories, when that army had enough to do in watching the operations of the king of sweden, nevertheless he did not expect, instead of the promised and well merited rewards, to be repaid with ingratitude and the ruin of his country." to tilly's deputies, who were entertained in a princely style, he gave a still plainer answer on the occasion. "gentlemen," said he, "i perceive that the saxon confectionery, which has been so long kept back, is at length to be set upon the table. but as it is usual to mix with it nuts and garnish of all kinds, take care of your teeth." tilly instantly broke up his camp, and, with the most frightful devastation, advanced upon halle; from this place he renewed his demands on the elector, in a tone still more urgent and threatening. the previous policy of this prince, both from his own inclination, and the persuasions of his corrupt ministers had been to promote the interests of the emperor, even at the expense of his own sacred obligations, and but very little tact had hitherto kept him inactive. all this but renders more astonishing the infatuation of the emperor or his ministers in abandoning, at so critical a moment, the policy they had hitherto adopted, and by extreme measures, incensing a prince so easily led. was this the very object which tilly had in view? was it his purpose to convert an equivocal friend into an open enemy, and thus to relieve himself from the necessity of that indulgence in the treatment of this prince, which the secret instructions of the emperor had hitherto imposed upon him? or was it the emperor's wish, by driving the elector to open hostilities, to get quit of his obligations to him, and so cleverly to break off at once the difficulty of a reckoning? in either case, we must be equally surprised at the daring presumption of tilly, who hesitated not, in presence of one formidable enemy, to provoke another; and at his negligence in permitting, without opposition, the union of the two. the saxon elector, rendered desperate by the entrance of tilly into his territories, threw himself, though not without a violent struggle, under the protection of sweden. immediately after dismissing tilly's first embassy, he had despatched his field-marshal arnheim in all haste to the camp of gustavus, to solicit the prompt assistance of that monarch whom he had so long neglected. the king concealed the inward satisfaction he felt at this long wished for result. "i am sorry for the elector," said he, with dissembled coldness, to the ambassador; "had he heeded my repeated remonstrances, his country would never have seen the face of an enemy, and magdeburg would not have fallen. now, when necessity leaves him no alternative, he has recourse to my assistance. but tell him, that i cannot, for the sake of the elector of saxony, ruin my own cause, and that of my confederates. what pledge have i for the sincerity of a prince whose minister is in the pay of austria, and who will abandon me as soon as the emperor flatters him, and withdraws his troops from his frontiers? tilly, it is true, has received a strong reinforcement; but this shall not prevent me from meeting him with confidence, as soon as i have covered my rear." the saxon minister could make no other reply to these reproaches, than that it was best to bury the past in oblivion. he pressed the king to name the conditions, on which he would afford assistance to saxony, and offered to guarantee their acceptance. "i require," said gustavus, "that the elector shall cede to me the fortress of wittenberg, deliver to me his eldest sons as hostages, furnish my troops with three months' pay, and deliver up to me the traitors among his ministry." "not wittenberg alone," said the elector, when he received this answer, and hurried back his minister to the swedish camp, "not wittenberg alone, but torgau, and all saxony, shall be open to him; my whole family shall be his hostages, and if that is insufficient, i will place myself in his hands. return and inform him i am ready to deliver to him any traitors he shall name, to furnish his army with the money he requires, and to venture my life and fortune in the good cause. the king had only desired to test the sincerity of the elector's new sentiments. convinced of it, he now retracted these harsh demands. "the distrust," said he, "which was shown to myself when advancing to the relief of magdeburg, had naturally excited mine; the elector's present confidence demands a return. i am satisfied, provided he grants my army one month's pay, and even for this advance i hope to indemnify him." immediately upon the conclusion of the treaty, the king crossed the elbe, and next day joined the saxons. instead of preventing this junction, tilly had advanced against leipzig, which he summoned to receive an imperial garrison. in hopes of speedy relief, hans von der pforta, the commandant, made preparations for his defence, and laid the suburb towards halle in ashes. but the ill condition of the fortifications made resistance vain, and on the second day the gates were opened. tilly had fixed his head quarters in the house of a grave-digger, the only one still standing in the suburb of halle: here he signed the capitulation, and here, too, he arranged his attack on the king of sweden. tilly grew pale at the representation of the death's head and cross bones, with which the proprietor had decorated his house; and, contrary to all expectation, leipzig experienced moderate treatment. meanwhile, a council of war was held at torgau, between the king of sweden and the elector of saxony, at which the elector of brandenburg was also present. the resolution which should now be adopted, was to decide irrevocably the fate of germany and the protestant religion, the happiness of nations and the destiny of their princes. the anxiety of suspense which, before every decisive resolve, oppresses even the hearts of heroes, appeared now for a moment to overshadow the great mind of gustavus adolphus. "if we decide upon battle," said he, "the stake will be nothing less than a crown and two electorates. fortune is changeable, and the inscrutable decrees of heaven may, for our sins, give the victory to our enemies. my kingdom, it is true, even after the loss of my life and my army, would still have a hope left. far removed from the scene of action, defended by a powerful fleet, a well-guarded frontier, and a warlike population, it would at least be safe from the worst consequences of a defeat. but what chances of escape are there for you, with an enemy so close at hand?" gustavus adolphus displayed the modest diffidence of a hero, whom an overweening belief of his own strength did not blind to the greatness of his danger; john george, the confidence of a weak man, who knows that he has a hero by his side. impatient to rid his territories as soon as possible of the oppressive presence of two armies, he burned for a battle, in which he had no former laurels to lose. he was ready to march with his saxons alone against leipzig, and attack tilly. at last gustavus acceded to his opinion; and it was resolved that the attack should be made without delay, before the arrival of the reinforcements, which were on their way, under altringer and tiefenbach. the united swedish and saxon armies now crossed the mulda, while the elector returned homeward. early on the morning of the th september, , the hostile armies came in sight of each other. tilly, who, since he had neglected the opportunity of overpowering the saxons before their union with the swedes, was disposed to await the arrival of the reinforcements, had taken up a strong and advantageous position not far from leipzig, where he expected he should be able to avoid the battle. but the impetuosity of pappenheim obliged him, as soon as the enemy were in motion, to alter his plans, and to move to the left, in the direction of the hills which run from the village of wahren towards lindenthal. at the foot of these heights, his army was drawn up in a single line, and his artillery placed upon the heights behind, from which it could sweep the whole extensive plain of breitenfeld. the swedish and saxon army advanced in two columns, having to pass the lober near podelwitz, in tilly's front. to defend the passage of this rivulet, pappenheim advanced at the head of cuirassiers, though after great reluctance on the part of tilly, and with express orders not to commence a battle. but, in disobedience to this command, pappenheim attacked the vanguard of the swedes, and after a brief struggle was driven to retreat. to check the progress of the enemy, he set fire to podelwitz, which, however, did not prevent the two columns from advancing and forming in order of battle. on the right, the swedes drew up in a double line, the infantry in the centre, divided into such small battalions as could be easily and rapidly manoeuvred without breaking their order; the cavalry upon their wings, divided in the same manner into small squadrons, interspersed with bodies of musqueteers, so as both to give an appearance of greater numerical force, and to annoy the enemy's horse. colonel teufel commanded the centre, gustavus horn the left, while the right was led by the king in person, opposed to count pappenheim. on the left, the saxons formed at a considerable distance from the swedes, -- by the advice of gustavus, which was justified by the event. the order of battle had been arranged between the elector and his field-marshal, and the king was content with merely signifying his approval. he was anxious apparently to separate the swedish prowess from that of the saxons, and fortune did not confound them. the enemy was drawn up under the heights towards the west, in one immense line, long enough to outflank the swedish army, -- the infantry being divided in large battalions, the cavalry in equally unwieldy squadrons. the artillery being on the heights behind, the range of its fire was over the heads of his men. from this position of his artillery, it was evident that tilly's purpose was to await rather than to attack the enemy; since this arrangement rendered it impossible for him to do so without exposing his men to the fire of his own cannons. tilly himself commanded the centre, count furstenberg the right wing, and pappenheim the left. the united troops of the emperor and the league on this day did not amount to , or , men; the swedes and saxons were about the same number. but had a million been confronted with a million it could only have rendered the action more bloody, certainly not more important and decisive. for this day gustavus had crossed the baltic, to court danger in a distant country, and expose his crown and life to the caprice of fortune. the two greatest generals of the time, both hitherto invincible, were now to be matched against each other in a contest which both had long avoided; and on this field of battle the hitherto untarnished laurels of one leader must droop for ever. the two parties in germany had beheld the approach of this day with fear and trembling; and the whole age awaited with deep anxiety its issue, and posterity was either to bless or deplore it for ever. tilly's usual intrepidity and resolution seemed to forsake him on this eventful day. he had formed no regular plan for giving battle to the king, and he displayed as little firmness in avoiding it. contrary to his own judgment, pappenheim had forced him to action. doubts which he had never before felt, struggled in his bosom; gloomy forebodings clouded his ever-open brow; the shade of magdeburg seemed to hover over him. a cannonade of two hours commenced the battle; the wind, which was from the west, blew thick clouds of smoke and dust from the newly-ploughed and parched fields into the faces of the swedes. this compelled the king insensibly to wheel northwards, and the rapidity with which this movement was executed left no time to the enemy to prevent it. tilly at last left his heights, and began the first attack upon the swedes; but to avoid their hot fire, he filed off towards the right, and fell upon the saxons with such impetuosity that their line was broken, and the whole army thrown into confusion. the elector himself retired to eilenburg, though a few regiments still maintained their ground upon the field, and by a bold stand saved the honour of saxony. scarcely had the confusion began ere the croats commenced plundering, and messengers were despatched to munich and vienna with the news of the victory. pappenheim had thrown himself with the whole force of his cavalry upon the right wing of the swedes, but without being able to make it waver. the king commanded here in person, and under him general banner. seven times did pappenheim renew the attack, and seven times was he repulsed. he fled at last with great loss, and abandoned the field to his conqueror. in the mean time, tilly, having routed the remainder of the saxons, attacked with his victorious troops the left wing of the swedes. to this wing the king, as soon as he perceived that the saxons were thrown into disorder, had, with a ready foresight, detached a reinforcement of three regiments to cover its flank, which the flight of the saxons had left exposed. gustavus horn, who commanded here, showed the enemy's cuirassiers a spirited resistance, which the infantry, interspersed among the squadrons of horse, materially assisted. the enemy were already beginning to relax the vigour of their attack, when gustavus adolphus appeared to terminate the contest. the left wing of the imperialists had been routed; and the king's division, having no longer any enemy to oppose, could now turn their arms wherever it would be to the most advantage. wheeling, therefore, with his right wing and main body to the left, he attacked the heights on which the enemy's artillery was planted. gaining possession of them in a short time, he turned upon the enemy the full fire of their own cannon. the play of artillery upon their flank, and the terrible onslaught of the swedes in front, threw this hitherto invincible army into confusion. a sudden retreat was the only course left to tilly, but even this was to be made through the midst of the enemy. the whole army was in disorder, with the exception of four regiments of veteran soldiers, who never as yet had fled from the field, and were resolved not to do so now. closing their ranks, they broke through the thickest of the victorious army, and gained a small thicket, where they opposed a new front to the swedes, and maintained their resistance till night, when their number was reduced to six hundred men. with them fled the wreck of tilly's army, and the battle was decided. amid the dead and the wounded, gustavus adolphus threw himself on his knees; and the first joy of his victory gushed forth in fervent prayer. he ordered his cavalry to pursue the enemy as long as the darkness of the night would permit. the pealing of the alarm-bells set the inhabitants of all the neighbouring villages in motion, and utterly lost was the unhappy fugitive who fell into their hands. the king encamped with the rest of his army between the field of battle and leipzig, as it was impossible to attack the town the same night. seven thousand of the enemy were killed in the field, and more than , either wounded or taken prisoners. their whole artillery and camp fell into the hands of the swedes, and more than a hundred standards and colours were taken. of the saxons about , had fallen, while the loss of the swedes did not exceed . the rout of the imperialists was so complete, that tilly, on his retreat to halle and halberstadt, could not rally above men, or pappenheim more than , -- so rapidly was this formidable army dispersed, which so lately was the terror of italy and germany. tilly himself owed his escape merely to chance. exhausted by his wounds, he still refused to surrender to a swedish captain of horse, who summoned him to yield; but who, when he was on the point of putting him to death, was himself stretched on the ground by a timely pistol-shot. but more grievous than danger or wounds was the pain of surviving his reputation, and of losing in a single day the fruits of a long life. all former victories were as nothing, since he had failed in gaining the one that should have crowned them all. nothing remained of all his past exploits, but the general execration which had followed them. from this period, he never recovered his cheerfulness or his good fortune. even his last consolation, the hope of revenge, was denied to him, by the express command of the emperor not to risk a decisive battle. the disgrace of this day is to be ascribed principally to three mistakes; his planting the cannon on the hills behind him, his afterwards abandoning these heights, and his allowing the enemy, without opposition, to form in order of battle. but how easily might those mistakes have been rectified, had it not been for the cool presence of mind and superior genius of his adversary! tilly fled from halle to halberstadt, where he scarcely allowed time for the cure of his wounds, before he hurried towards the weser to recruit his force by the imperial garrisons in lower saxony. the elector of saxony had not failed, after the danger was over, to appear in gustavus's camp. the king thanked him for having advised a battle; and the elector, charmed at his friendly reception, promised him, in the first transports of joy, the roman crown. gustavus set out next day for merseburg, leaving the elector to recover leipzig. five thousand imperialists, who had collected together after the defeat, and whom he met on his march, were either cut in pieces or taken prisoners, of whom again the greater part entered into his service. merseburg quickly surrendered; halle was soon after taken, whither the elector of saxony, after making himself master of leipzig, repaired to meet the king, and to concert their future plan of operations. the victory was gained, but only a prudent use of it could render it decisive. the imperial armies were totally routed, saxony free from the enemy, and tilly had retired into brunswick. to have followed him thither would have been to renew the war in lower saxony, which had scarcely recovered from the ravages of the last. it was therefore determined to carry the war into the enemy's country, which, open and defenceless as far as vienna, invited attack. on their right, they might fall upon the territories of the roman catholic princes, or penetrate, on the left, into the hereditary dominions of austria, and make the emperor tremble in his palace. both plans were resolved on; and the question that now remained was to assign its respective parts. gustavus adolphus, at the head of a victorious army, had little resistance to apprehend in his progress from leipzig to prague, vienna, and presburg. as to bohemia, moravia, austria, and hungary, they had been stripped of their defenders, while the oppressed protestants in these countries were ripe for a revolt. ferdinand was no longer secure in his capital: vienna, on the first terror of surprise, would at once open its gates. the loss of his territories would deprive the enemy of the resources by which alone the war could be maintained; and ferdinand would, in all probability, gladly accede, on the hardest conditions, to a peace which would remove a formidable enemy from the heart of his dominions. this bold plan of operations was flattering to a conqueror, and success perhaps might have justified it. but gustavus adolphus, as prudent as he was brave, and more a statesman than a conqueror, rejected it, because he had a higher end in view, and would not trust the issue either to bravery or good fortune alone. by marching towards bohemia, franconia and the upper rhine would be left to the elector of saxony. but tilly had already begun to recruit his shattered army from the garrisons in lower saxony, and was likely to be at the head of a formidable force upon the weser, and to lose no time in marching against the enemy. to so experienced a general, it would not do to oppose an arnheim, of whose military skill the battle of leipzig had afforded but equivocal proof; and of what avail would be the rapid and brilliant career of the king in bohemia and austria, if tilly should recover his superiority in the empire, animating the courage of the roman catholics, and disarming, by a new series of victories, the allies and confederates of the king? what would he gain by expelling the emperor from his hereditary dominions, if tilly succeeded in conquering for that emperor the rest of germany? could he hope to reduce the emperor more than had been done, twelve years before, by the insurrection of bohemia, which had failed to shake the firmness or exhaust the resources of that prince, and from which he had risen more formidable than ever? less brilliant, but more solid, were the advantages which he had to expect from an incursion into the territories of the league. in this quarter, his appearance in arms would be decisive. at this very conjuncture, the princes were assembled in a diet at frankfort, to deliberate upon the edict of restitution, where ferdinand employed all his artful policy to persuade the intimidated protestants to accede to a speedy and disadvantageous arrangement. the advance of their protector could alone encourage them to a bold resistance, and disappoint the emperor's designs. gustavus adolphus hoped, by his presence, to unite the discontented princes, or by the terror of his arms to detach them from the emperor's party. here, in the centre of germany, he could paralyse the nerves of the imperial power, which, without the aid of the league, must soon fall -- here, in the neighbourhood of france, he could watch the movements of a suspicious ally; and however important to his secret views it was to cultivate the friendship of the roman catholic electors, he saw the necessity of making himself first of all master of their fate, in order to establish, by his magnanimous forbearance, a claim to their gratitude. he accordingly chose the route to franconia and the rhine; and left the conquest of bohemia to the elector of saxony. book iii. the glorious battle of leipzig effected a great change in the conduct of gustavus adolphus, as well as in the opinion which both friends and foes entertained of him. successfully had he confronted the greatest general of the age, and had matched the strength of his tactics and the courage of his swedes against the elite of the imperial army, the most experienced troops in europe. from this moment he felt a firm confidence in his own powers -- self-confidence has always been the parent of great actions. in all his subsequent operations more boldness and decision are observable; greater determination, even amidst the most unfavourable circumstances, a more lofty tone towards his adversaries, a more dignified bearing towards his allies, and even in his clemency, something of the forbearance of a conqueror. his natural courage was farther heightened by the pious ardour of his imagination. he saw in his own cause that of heaven, and in the defeat of tilly beheld the decisive interference of providence against his enemies, and in himself the instrument of divine vengeance. leaving his crown and his country far behind, he advanced on the wings of victory into the heart of germany, which for centuries had seen no foreign conqueror within its bosom. the warlike spirit of its inhabitants, the vigilance of its numerous princes, the artful confederation of its states, the number of its strong castles, its many and broad rivers, had long restrained the ambition of its neighbours; and frequently as its extensive frontier had been attacked, its interior had been free from hostile invasion. the empire had hitherto enjoyed the equivocal privilege of being its own enemy, though invincible from without. even now, it was merely the disunion of its members, and the intolerance of religious zeal, that paved the way for the swedish invader. the bond of union between the states, which alone had rendered the empire invincible, was now dissolved; and gustavus derived from germany itself the power by which he subdued it. with as much courage as prudence, he availed himself of all that the favourable moment afforded; and equally at home in the cabinet and the field, he tore asunder the web of the artful policy, with as much ease, as he shattered walls with the thunder of his cannon. uninterruptedly he pursued his conquests from one end of germany to the other, without breaking the line of posts which commanded a secure retreat at any moment; and whether on the banks of the rhine, or at the mouth of the lech, alike maintaining his communication with his hereditary dominions. the consternation of the emperor and the league at tilly's defeat at leipzig, was scarcely greater than the surprise and embarrassment of the allies of the king of sweden at his unexpected success. it was beyond both their expectations and their wishes. annihilated in a moment was that formidable army which, while it checked his progress and set bounds to his ambition, rendered him in some measure dependent on themselves. he now stood in the heart of germany, alone, without a rival or without an adversary who was a match for him. nothing could stop his progress, or check his pretensions, if the intoxication of success should tempt him to abuse his victory. if formerly they had dreaded the emperor's irresistible power, there was no less cause now to fear every thing for the empire, from the violence of a foreign conqueror, and for the catholic church, from the religious zeal of a protestant king. the distrust and jealousy of some of the combined powers, which a stronger fear of the emperor had for a time repressed, now revived; and scarcely had gustavus adolphus merited, by his courage and success, their confidence, when they began covertly to circumvent all his plans. through a continual struggle with the arts of enemies, and the distrust of his own allies, must his victories henceforth be won; yet resolution, penetration, and prudence made their way through all impediments. but while his success excited the jealousy of his more powerful allies, france and saxony, it gave courage to the weaker, and emboldened them openly to declare their sentiments and join his party. those who could neither vie with gustavus adolphus in importance, nor suffer from his ambition, expected the more from the magnanimity of their powerful ally, who enriched them with the spoils of their enemies, and protected them against the oppression of their stronger neighbours. his strength covered their weakness, and, inconsiderable in themselves, they acquired weight and influence from their union with the swedish hero. this was the case with most of the free cities, and particularly with the weaker protestant states. it was these that introduced the king into the heart of germany; these covered his rear, supplied his troops with necessaries, received them into their fortresses, while they exposed their own lives in his battles. his prudent regard to their national pride, his popular deportment, some brilliant acts of justice, and his respect for the laws, were so many ties by which he bound the german protestants to his cause; while the crying atrocities of the imperialists, the spaniards, and the troops of lorraine, powerfully contributed to set his own conduct and that of his army in a favourable light. if gustavus adolphus owed his success chiefly to his own genius, at the same time, it must be owned, he was greatly favoured by fortune and by circumstances. two great advantages gave him a decided superiority over the enemy. while he removed the scene of war into the lands of the league, drew their youth as recruits, enriched himself with booty, and used the revenues of their fugitive princes as his own, he at once took from the enemy the means of effectual resistance, and maintained an expensive war with little cost to himself. and, moreover, while his opponents, the princes of the league, divided among themselves, and governed by different and often conflicting interests, acted without unanimity, and therefore without energy; while their generals were deficient in authority, their troops in obedience, the operations of their scattered armies without concert; while the general was separated from the lawgiver and the statesman; these several functions were united in gustavus adolphus, the only source from which authority flowed, the sole object to which the eye of the warrior turned; the soul of his party, the inventor as well as the executor of his plans. in him, therefore, the protestants had a centre of unity and harmony, which was altogether wanting to their opponents. no wonder, then, if favoured by such advantages, at the head of such an army, with such a genius to direct it, and guided by such political prudence, gustavus adolphus was irresistible. with the sword in one hand, and mercy in the other, he traversed germany as a conqueror, a lawgiver, and a judge, in as short a time almost as the tourist of pleasure. the keys of towns and fortresses were delivered to him, as if to the native sovereign. no fortress was inaccessible; no river checked his victorious career. he conquered by the very terror of his name. the swedish standards were planted along the whole stream of the maine: the lower palatinate was free, the troops of spain and lorraine had fled across the rhine and the moselle. the swedes and hessians poured like a torrent into the territories of mentz, of wurtzburg, and bamberg, and three fugitive bishops, at a distance from their sees, suffered dearly for their unfortunate attachment to the emperor. it was now the turn for maximilian, the leader of the league, to feel in his own dominions the miseries he had inflicted upon others. neither the terrible fate of his allies, nor the peaceful overtures of gustavus, who, in the midst of conquest, ever held out the hand of friendship, could conquer the obstinacy of this prince. the torrent of war now poured into bavaria. like the banks of the rhine, those of the lecke and the donau were crowded with swedish troops. creeping into his fortresses, the defeated elector abandoned to the ravages of the foe his dominions, hitherto unscathed by war, and on which the bigoted violence of the bavarians seemed to invite retaliation. munich itself opened its gates to the invincible monarch, and the fugitive palatine, frederick v., in the forsaken residence of his rival, consoled himself for a time for the loss of his dominions. while gustavus adolphus was extending his conquests in the south, his generals and allies were gaining similar triumphs in the other provinces. lower saxony shook off the yoke of austria, the enemy abandoned mecklenburg, and the imperial garrisons retired from the banks of the weser and the elbe. in westphalia and the upper rhine, william, landgrave of hesse, rendered himself formidable; the duke of weimar in thuringia, and the french in the electorate of treves; while to the eastward the whole kingdom of bohemia was conquered by the saxons. the turks were preparing to attack hungary, and in the heart of austria a dangerous insurrection was threatened. in vain did the emperor look around to the courts of europe for support; in vain did he summon the spaniards to his assistance, for the bravery of the flemings afforded them ample employment beyond the rhine; in vain did he call upon the roman court and the whole church to come to his rescue. the offended pope sported, in pompous processions and idle anathemas, with the embarrassments of ferdinand, and instead of the desired subsidy he was shown the devastation of mantua. on all sides of his extensive monarchy hostile arms surrounded him. with the states of the league, now overrun by the enemy, those ramparts were thrown down, behind which austria had so long defended herself, and the embers of war were now smouldering upon her unguarded frontiers. his most zealous allies were disarmed; maximilian of bavaria, his firmest support, was scarce able to defend himself. his armies, weakened by desertion and repeated defeat, and dispirited by continued misfortunes had unlearnt, under beaten generals, that warlike impetuosity which, as it is the consequence, so it is the guarantee of success. the danger was extreme, and extraordinary means alone could raise the imperial power from the degradation into which it was fallen. the most urgent want was that of a general; and the only one from whom he could hope for the revival of his former splendour, had been removed from his command by an envious cabal. so low had the emperor now fallen, that he was forced to make the most humiliating proposals to his injured subject and servant, and meanly to press upon the imperious duke of friedland the acceptance of the powers which no less meanly had been taken from him. a new spirit began from this moment to animate the expiring body of austria; and a sudden change in the aspect of affairs bespoke the firm hand which guided them. to the absolute king of sweden, a general equally absolute was now opposed; and one victorious hero was confronted with another. both armies were again to engage in the doubtful struggle; and the prize of victory, already almost secured in the hands of gustavus adolphus, was to be the object of another and a severer trial. the storm of war gathered around nuremberg; before its walls the hostile armies encamped; gazing on each other with dread and respect, longing for, and yet shrinking from, the moment that was to close them together in the shock of battle. the eyes of europe turned to the scene in curiosity and alarm, while nuremberg, in dismay, expected soon to lend its name to a more decisive battle than that of leipzig. suddenly the clouds broke, and the storm rolled away from franconia, to burst upon the plains of saxony. near lutzen fell the thunder that had menaced nuremberg; the victory, half lost, was purchased by the death of the king. fortune, which had never forsaken him in his lifetime, favoured the king of sweden even in his death, with the rare privilege of falling in the fulness of his glory and an untarnished fame. by a timely death, his protecting genius rescued him from the inevitable fate of man -- that of forgetting moderation in the intoxication of success, and justice in the plenitude of power. it may be doubted whether, had he lived longer, he would still have deserved the tears which germany shed over his grave, or maintained his title to the admiration with which posterity regards him, as the first and only just conqueror that the world has produced. the untimely fall of their great leader seemed to threaten the ruin of his party; but to the power which rules the world, no loss of a single man is irreparable. as the helm of war dropped from the hand of the falling hero, it was seized by two great statesmen, oxenstiern and richelieu. destiny still pursued its relentless course, and for full sixteen years longer the flames of war blazed over the ashes of the long-forgotten king and soldier. i may now be permitted to take a cursory retrospect of gustavus adolphus in his victorious career; glance at the scene in which he alone was the great actor; and then, when austria becomes reduced to extremity by the successes of the swedes, and by a series of disasters is driven to the most humiliating and desperate expedients, to return to the history of the emperor. as soon as the plan of operations had been concerted at halle, between the king of sweden and the elector of saxony; as soon as the alliance had been concluded with the neighbouring princes of weimar and anhalt, and preparations made for the recovery of the bishopric of magdeburg, the king began his march into the empire. he had here no despicable foe to contend with. within the empire, the emperor was still powerful; throughout franconia, swabia, and the palatinate, imperial garrisons were posted, with whom the possession of every place of importance must be disputed sword in hand. on the rhine he was opposed by the spaniards, who had overrun the territory of the banished elector palatine, seized all its strong places, and would everywhere dispute with him the passage over that river. on his rear was tilly, who was fast recruiting his force, and would soon be joined by the auxiliaries from lorraine. every papist presented an inveterate foe, while his connexion with france did not leave him at liberty to act with freedom against the roman catholics. gustavus had foreseen all these obstacles, but at the same time the means by which they were to be overcome. the strength of the imperialists was broken and divided among different garrisons, while he would bring against them one by one his whole united force. if he was to be opposed by the fanaticism of the roman catholics, and the awe in which the lesser states regarded the emperor's power, he might depend on the active support of the protestants, and their hatred to austrian oppression. the ravages of the imperialist and spanish troops also powerfully aided him in these quarters; where the ill-treated husbandman and citizen sighed alike for a deliverer, and where the mere change of yoke seemed to promise a relief. emissaries were despatched to gain over to the swedish side the principal free cities, particularly nuremberg and frankfort. the first that lay in the king's march, and which he could not leave unoccupied in his rear, was erfurt. here the protestant party among the citizens opened to him, without a blow, the gates of the town and the citadel. from the inhabitants of this, as of every important place which afterwards submitted, he exacted an oath of allegiance, while he secured its possession by a sufficient garrison. to his ally, duke william of weimar, he intrusted the command of an army to be raised in thuringia. he also left his queen in erfurt, and promised to increase its privileges. the swedish army now crossed the thuringian forest in two columns, by gotha and arnstadt, and having delivered, in its march, the county of henneberg from the imperialists, formed a junction on the third day near koenigshofen, on the frontiers of franconia. francis, bishop of wurtzburg, the bitter enemy of the protestants, and the most zealous member of the league, was the first to feel the indignation of gustavus adolphus. a few threats gained for the swedes possession of his fortress of koenigshofen, and with it the key of the whole province. at the news of this rapid conquest, dismay seized all the roman catholic towns of the circle. the bishops of wurtzburg and bamberg trembled in their castles; they already saw their sees tottering, their churches profaned, and their religion degraded. the malice of his enemies had circulated the most frightful representations of the persecuting spirit and the mode of warfare pursued by the swedish king and his soldiers, which neither the repeated assurances of the king, nor the most splendid examples of humanity and toleration, ever entirely effaced. many feared to suffer at the hands of another what in similar circumstances they were conscious of inflicting themselves. many of the richest roman catholics hastened to secure by flight their property, their religion, and their persons, from the sanguinary fanaticism of the swedes. the bishop himself set the example. in the midst of the alarm, which his bigoted zeal had caused, he abandoned his dominions, and fled to paris, to excite, if possible, the french ministry against the common enemy of religion. the further progress of gustavus adolphus in the ecclesiastical territories agreed with this brilliant commencement. schweinfurt, and soon afterwards wurtzburg, abandoned by their imperial garrisons, surrendered; but marienberg he was obliged to carry by storm. in this place, which was believed to be impregnable, the enemy had collected a large store of provisions and ammunition, all of which fell into the hands of the swedes. the king found a valuable prize in the library of the jesuits, which he sent to upsal, while his soldiers found a still more agreeable one in the prelate's well-filled cellars; his treasures the bishop had in good time removed. the whole bishopric followed the example of the capital, and submitted to the swedes. the king compelled all the bishop's subjects to swear allegiance to himself; and, in the absence of the lawful sovereign, appointed a regency, one half of whose members were protestants. in every roman catholic town which gustavus took, he opened the churches to the protestant people, but without retaliating on the papists the cruelties which they had practised on the former. on such only as sword in hand refused to submit, were the fearful rights of war enforced; and for the occasional acts of violence committed by a few of the more lawless soldiers, in the blind rage of the first attack, their humane leader is not justly responsible. those who were peaceably disposed, or defenceless, were treated with mildness. it was a sacred principle of gustavus to spare the blood of his enemies, as well as that of his own troops. on the first news of the swedish irruption, the bishop of wurtzburg, without regarding the treaty which he had entered into with the king of sweden, had earnestly pressed the general of the league to hasten to the assistance of the bishopric. that defeated commander had, in the mean time, collected on the weser the shattered remnant of his army, reinforced himself from the garrisons of lower saxony, and effected a junction in hesse with altringer and fugger, who commanded under him. again at the head of a considerable force, tilly burned with impatience to wipe out the stain of his first defeat by a splendid victory. from his camp at fulda, whither he had marched with his army, he earnestly requested permission from the duke of bavaria to give battle to gustavus adolphus. but, in the event of tilly's defeat, the league had no second army to fall back upon, and maximilian was too cautious to risk again the fate of his party on a single battle. with tears in his eyes, tilly read the commands of his superior, which compelled him to inactivity. thus his march to franconia was delayed, and gustavus adolphus gained time to overrun the whole bishopric. it was in vain that tilly, reinforced at aschaffenburg by a body of , men from lorraine, marched with an overwhelming force to the relief of wurtzburg. the town and citadel were already in the hands of the swedes, and maximilian of bavaria was generally blamed (and not without cause, perhaps) for having, by his scruples, occasioned the loss of the bishopric. commanded to avoid a battle, tilly contented himself with checking the farther advance of the enemy; but he could save only a few of the towns from the impetuosity of the swedes. baffled in an attempt to reinforce the weak garrison of hanau, which it was highly important to the swedes to gain, he crossed the maine, near seligenstadt, and took the direction of the bergstrasse, to protect the palatinate from the conqueror. tilly, however, was not the sole enemy whom gustavus adolphus met in franconia, and drove before him. charles, duke of lorraine, celebrated in the annals of the time for his unsteadiness of character, his vain projects, and his misfortunes, ventured to raise a weak arm against the swedish hero, in the hope of obtaining from the emperor the electoral dignity. deaf to the suggestions of a rational policy, he listened only to the dictates of heated ambition; by supporting the emperor, he exasperated france, his formidable neighbour; and in the pursuit of a visionary phantom in another country, left undefended his own dominions, which were instantly overrun by a french army. austria willingly conceded to him, as well as to the other princes of the league, the honour of being ruined in her cause. intoxicated with vain hopes, this prince collected a force of , men, which he proposed to lead in person against the swedes. if these troops were deficient in discipline and courage, they were at least attractive by the splendour of their accoutrements; and however sparing they were of their prowess against the foe, they were liberal enough with it against the defenceless citizens and peasantry, whom they were summoned to defend. against the bravery, and the formidable discipline of the swedes this splendidly attired army, however, made no long stand. on the first advance of the swedish cavalry a panic seized them, and they were driven without difficulty from their cantonments in wurtzburg; the defeat of a few regiments occasioned a general rout, and the scattered remnant sought a covert from the swedish valour in the towns beyond the rhine. loaded with shame and ridicule, the duke hurried home by strasburg, too fortunate in escaping, by a submissive written apology, the indignation of his conqueror, who had first beaten him out of the field, and then called upon him to account for his hostilities. it is related upon this occasion that, in a village on the rhine a peasant struck the horse of the duke as he rode past, exclaiming, "haste, sir, you must go quicker to escape the great king of sweden!" the example of his neighbours' misfortunes had taught the bishop of bamberg prudence. to avert the plundering of his territories, he made offers of peace, though these were intended only to delay the king's course till the arrival of assistance. gustavus adolphus, too honourable himself to suspect dishonesty in another, readily accepted the bishop's proposals, and named the conditions on which he was willing to save his territories from hostile treatment. he was the more inclined to peace, as he had no time to lose in the conquest of bamberg, and his other designs called him to the rhine. the rapidity with which he followed up these plans, cost him the loss of those pecuniary supplies which, by a longer residence in franconia, he might easily have extorted from the weak and terrified bishop. this artful prelate broke off the negotiation the instant the storm of war passed away from his own territories. no sooner had gustavus marched onwards than he threw himself under the protection of tilly, and received the troops of the emperor into the very towns and fortresses, which shortly before he had shown himself ready to open to the swedes. by this stratagem, however, he only delayed for a brief interval the ruin of his bishopric. a swedish general who had been left in franconia, undertook to punish the perfidy of the bishop; and the ecclesiastical territory became the seat of war, and was ravaged alike by friends and foes. the formidable presence of the imperialists had hitherto been a check upon the franconian states; but their retreat, and the humane conduct of the swedish king, emboldened the nobility and other inhabitants of this circle to declare in his favour. nuremberg joyfully committed itself to his protection; and the franconian nobles were won to his cause by flattering proclamations, in which he condescended to apologize for his hostile appearance in the dominions. the fertility of franconia, and the rigorous honesty of the swedish soldiers in their dealings with the inhabitants, brought abundance to the camp of the king. the high esteem which the nobility of the circle felt for gustavus, the respect and admiration with which they regarded his brilliant exploits, the promises of rich booty which the service of this monarch held out, greatly facilitated the recruiting of his troops; a step which was made necessary by detaching so many garrisons from the main body. at the sound of his drums, recruits flocked to his standard from all quarters. the king had scarcely spent more time in conquering franconia, than he would have required to cross it. he now left behind him gustavus horn, one of his best generals, with a force of , men, to complete and retain his conquest. he himself with his main army, reinforced by the late recruits, hastened towards the rhine in order to secure this frontier of the empire from the spaniards; to disarm the ecclesiastical electors, and to obtain from their fertile territories new resources for the prosecution of the war. following the course of the maine, he subjected, in the course of his march, seligenstadt, aschaffenburg, steinheim, the whole territory on both sides of the river. the imperial garrisons seldom awaited his approach, and never attempted resistance. in the meanwhile one of his colonels had been fortunate enough to take by surprise the town and citadel of hanau, for whose preservation tilly had shown such anxiety. eager to be free of the oppressive burden of the imperialists, the count of hanau gladly placed himself under the milder yoke of the king of sweden. gustavus adolphus now turned his whole attention to frankfort, for it was his constant maxim to cover his rear by the friendship and possession of the more important towns. frankfort was among the free cities which, even from saxony, he had endeavoured to prepare for his reception; and he now called upon it, by a summons from offenbach, to allow him a free passage, and to admit a swedish garrison. willingly would this city have dispensed with the necessity of choosing between the king of sweden and the emperor; for, whatever party they might embrace, the inhabitants had a like reason to fear for their privileges and trade. the emperor's vengeance would certainly fall heavily upon them, if they were in a hurry to submit to the king of sweden, and afterwards he should prove unable to protect his adherents in germany. but still more ruinous for them would be the displeasure of an irresistible conqueror, who, with a formidable army, was already before their gates, and who might punish their opposition by the ruin of their commerce and prosperity. in vain did their deputies plead the danger which menaced their fairs, their privileges, perhaps their constitution itself, if, by espousing the party of the swedes, they were to incur the emperor's displeasure. gustavus adolphus expressed to them his astonishment that, when the liberties of germany and the protestant religion were at stake, the citizens of frankfort should talk of their annual fairs, and postpone for temporal interests the great cause of their country and their conscience. he had, he continued, in a menacing tone, found the keys of every town and fortress, from the isle of rugen to the maine, and knew also where to find a key to frankfort; the safety of germany, and the freedom of the protestant church, were, he assured them, the sole objects of his invasion; conscious of the justice of his cause, he was determined not to allow any obstacle to impede his progress. "the inhabitants of frankfort, he was well aware, wished to stretch out only a finger to him, but he must have the whole hand in order to have something to grasp." at the head of the army, he closely followed the deputies as they carried back his answer, and in order of battle awaited, near saxenhausen, the decision of the council. if frankfort hesitated to submit to the swedes, it was solely from fear of the emperor; their own inclinations did not allow them a moment to doubt between the oppressor of germany and its protector. the menacing preparations amidst which gustavus adolphus now compelled them to decide, would lessen the guilt of their revolt in the eyes of the emperor, and by an appearance of compulsion justify the step which they willingly took. the gates were therefore opened to the king of sweden, who marched his army through this imperial town in magnificent procession, and in admirable order. a garrison of men was left in saxenhausen; while the king himself advanced the same evening, with the rest of his army, against the town of hoechst in mentz, which surrendered to him before night. while gustavus was thus extending his conquests along the maine, fortune crowned also the efforts of his generals and allies in the north of germany. rostock, wismar, and doemitz, the only strong places in the duchy of mecklenburg which still sighed under the yoke of the imperialists, were recovered by their legitimate sovereign, the duke john albert, under the swedish general, achatius tott. in vain did the imperial general, wolf count von mansfeld, endeavour to recover from the swedes the territories of halberstadt, of which they had taken possession immediately upon the victory of leipzig; he was even compelled to leave magdeburg itself in their hands. the swedish general, banner, who with , men remained upon the elbe, closely blockaded that city, and had defeated several imperial regiments which had been sent to its relief. count mansfeld defended it in person with great resolution; but his garrison being too weak to oppose for any length of time the numerous force of the besiegers, he was already about to surrender on conditions, when pappenheim advanced to his assistance, and gave employment elsewhere to the swedish arms. magdeburg, however, or rather the wretched huts that peeped out miserably from among the ruins of that once great town, was afterwards voluntarily abandoned by the imperialists, and immediately taken possession of by the swedes. even lower saxony, encouraged by the progress of the king, ventured to raise its head from the disasters of the unfortunate danish war. they held a congress at hamburg, and resolved upon raising three regiments, which they hoped would be sufficient to free them from the oppressive garrisons of the imperialists. the bishop of bremen, a relation of gustavus adolphus, was not content even with this; but assembled troops of his own, and terrified the unfortunate monks and priests of the neighbourhood, but was quickly compelled by the imperial general, count gronsfeld, to lay down his arms. even george, duke of lunenburg, formerly a colonel in the emperor's service, embraced the party of gustavus, for whom he raised several regiments, and by occupying the attention of the imperialists in lower saxony, materially assisted him. but more important service was rendered to the king by the landgrave william of hesse cassel, whose victorious arms struck with terror the greater part of westphalia and lower saxony, the bishopric of fulda, and even the electorate of cologne. it has been already stated that immediately after the conclusion of the alliance between the landgrave and gustavus adolphus at werben, two imperial generals, fugger and altringer, were ordered by tilly to march into hesse, to punish the landgrave for his revolt from the emperor. but this prince had as firmly withstood the arms of his enemies, as his subjects had the proclamations of tilly inciting them to rebellion, and the battle of leipzig presently relieved him of their presence. he availed himself of their absence with courage and resolution; in a short time, vach, muenden and hoexter surrendered to him, while his rapid advance alarmed the bishoprics of fulda, paderborn, and the ecclesiastical territories which bordered on hesse. the terrified states hastened by a speedy submission to set limits to his progress, and by considerable contributions to purchase exemption from plunder. after these successful enterprises, the landgrave united his victorious army with that of gustavus adolphus, and concerted with him at frankfort their future plan of operations. in this city, a number of princes and ambassadors were assembled to congratulate gustavus on his success, and either to conciliate his favour or to appease his indignation. among them was the fugitive king of bohemia, the palatine frederick v., who had hastened from holland to throw himself into the arms of his avenger and protector. gustavus gave him the unprofitable honour of greeting him as a crowned head, and endeavoured, by a respectful sympathy, to soften his sense of his misfortunes. but great as the advantages were, which frederick had promised himself from the power and good fortune of his protector; and high as were the expectations he had built on his justice and magnanimity, the chance of this unfortunate prince's reinstatement in his kingdom was as distant as ever. the inactivity and contradictory politics of the english court had abated the zeal of gustavus adolphus, and an irritability which he could not always repress, made him on this occasion forget the glorious vocation of protector of the oppressed, in which, on his invasion of germany, he had so loudly announced himself. the terrors of the king's irresistible strength, and the near prospect of his vengeance, had also compelled george, landgrave of hesse darmstadt, to a timely submission. his connection with the emperor, and his indifference to the protestant cause, were no secret to the king, but he was satisfied with laughing at so impotent an enemy. as the landgrave knew his own strength and the political situation of germany so little, as to offer himself as mediator between the contending parties, gustavus used jestingly to call him the peacemaker. he was frequently heard to say, when at play he was winning from the landgrave, "that the money afforded double satisfaction, as it was imperial coin." to his affinity with the elector of saxony, whom gustavus had cause to treat with forbearance, the landgrave was indebted for the favourable terms he obtained from the king, who contented himself with the surrender of his fortress of russelheim, and his promise of observing a strict neutrality during the war. the counts of westerwald and wetteran also visited the king in frankfort, to offer him their assistance against the spaniards, and to conclude an alliance, which was afterwards of great service to him. the town of frankfort itself had reason to rejoice at the presence of this monarch, who took their commerce under his protection, and by the most effectual measures restored the fairs, which had been greatly interrupted by the war. the swedish army was now reinforced by ten thousand hessians, which the landgrave of casse commanded. gustavus adolphus had already invested koenigstein; kostheim and floersheim surrendered after a short siege; he was in command of the maine; and transports were preparing with all speed at hoechst to carry his troops across the rhine. these preparations filled the elector of mentz, anselm casimir, with consternation; and he no longer doubted but that the storm of war would next fall upon him. as a partisan of the emperor, and one of the most active members of the league, he could expect no better treatment than his confederates, the bishops of wurtzburg and bamberg, had already experienced. the situation of his territories upon the rhine made it necessary for the enemy to secure them, while the fertility afforded an irresistible temptation to a necessitous army. miscalculating his own strength and that of his adversaries, the elector flattered himself that he was able to repel force by force, and weary out the valour of the swedes by the strength of his fortresses. he ordered the fortifications of his capital to be repaired with all diligence, provided it with every necessary for sustaining a long siege, and received into the town a garrison of , spaniards, under don philip de sylva. to prevent the approach of the swedish transports, he endeavoured to close the mouth of the maine by driving piles, and sinking large heaps of stones and vessels. he himself, however, accompanied by the bishop of worms, and carrying with him his most precious effects, took refuge in cologne, and abandoned his capital and territories to the rapacity of a tyrannical garrison. but these preparations, which bespoke less of true courage than of weak and overweening confidence, did not prevent the swedes from marching against mentz, and making serious preparations for an attack upon the city. while one body of their troops poured into the rheingau, routed the spaniards who remained there, and levied contributions on the inhabitants, another laid the roman catholic towns in westerwald and wetterau under similar contributions. the main army had encamped at cassel, opposite mentz; and bernhard, duke of weimar, made himself master of the maeusethurm and the castle of ehrenfels, on the other side of the rhine. gustavus was now actively preparing to cross the river, and to blockade the town on the land side, when the movements of tilly in franconia suddenly called him from the siege, and obtained for the elector a short repose. the danger of nuremberg, which, during the absence of gustavus adolphus on the rhine, tilly had made a show of besieging, and, in the event of resistance, threatened with the cruel fate of magdeburg, occasioned the king suddenly to retire from before mentz. lest he should expose himself a second time to the reproaches of germany, and the disgrace of abandoning a confederate city to a ferocious enemy, he hastened to its relief by forced marches. on his arrival at frankfort, however, he heard of its spirited resistance, and of the retreat of tilly, and lost not a moment in prosecuting his designs against mentz. failing in an attempt to cross the rhine at cassel, under the cannon of the besieged, he directed his march towards the bergstrasse, with a view of approaching the town from an opposite quarter. here he quickly made himself master of all the places of importance, and at stockstadt, between gernsheim and oppenheim, appeared a second time upon the banks of the rhine. the whole of the bergstrasse was abandoned by the spaniards, who endeavoured obstinately to defend the other bank of the river. for this purpose, they had burned or sunk all the vessels in the neighbourhood, and arranged a formidable force on the banks, in case the king should attempt the passage at that place. on this occasion, the king's impetuosity exposed him to great danger of falling into the hands of the enemy. in order to reconnoitre the opposite bank, he crossed the river in a small boat; he had scarcely landed when he was attacked by a party of spanish horse, from whose hands he only saved himself by a precipitate retreat. having at last, with the assistance of the neighbouring fishermen, succeeded in procuring a few transports, he despatched two of them across the river, bearing count brahe and swedes. scarcely had this officer time to entrench himself on the opposite bank, when he was attacked by squadrons of spanish dragoons and cuirassiers. superior as the enemy was in number, count brahe, with his small force, bravely defended himself, and gained time for the king to support him with fresh troops. the spaniards at last retired with the loss of men, some taking refuge in oppenheim, and others in mentz. a lion of marble on a high pillar, holding a naked sword in his paw, and a helmet on his head, was erected seventy years after the event, to point out to the traveller the spot where the immortal monarch crossed the great river of germany. gustavus adolphus now conveyed his artillery and the greater part of his troops over the river, and laid siege to oppenheim, which, after a brave resistance, was, on the th december, , carried by storm. five hundred spaniards, who had so courageously defended the place, fell indiscriminately a sacrifice to the fury of the swedes. the crossing of the rhine by gustavus struck terror into the spaniards and lorrainers, who had thought themselves protected by the river from the vengeance of the swedes. rapid flight was now their only security; every place incapable of an effectual defence was immediately abandoned. after a long train of outrages on the defenceless citizens, the troops of lorraine evacuated worms, which, before their departure, they treated with wanton cruelty. the spaniards hastened to shut themselves up in frankenthal, where they hoped to defy the victorious arms of gustavus adolphus. the king lost no time in prosecuting his designs against mentz, into which the flower of the spanish troops had thrown themselves. while he advanced on the left bank of the rhine, the landgrave of hesse cassel moved forward on the other, reducing several strong places on his march. the besieged spaniards, though hemmed in on both sides, displayed at first a bold determination, and threw, for several days, a shower of bombs into the swedish camp, which cost the king many of his bravest soldiers. but notwithstanding, the swedes continually gained ground, and had at last advanced so close to the ditch that they prepared seriously for storming the place. the courage of the besieged now began to droop. they trembled before the furious impetuosity of the swedish soldiers, of which marienberg, in wurtzburg, had afforded so fearful an example. the same dreadful fate awaited mentz, if taken by storm; and the enemy might even be easily tempted to revenge the carnage of magdeburg on this rich and magnificent residence of a roman catholic prince. to save the town, rather than their own lives, the spanish garrison capitulated on the fourth day, and obtained from the magnanimity of gustavus a safe conduct to luxembourg; the greater part of them, however, following the example of many others, enlisted in the service of sweden. on the th december, , the king made his entry into the conquered town, and fixed his quarters in the palace of the elector. eighty pieces of cannon fell into his hands, and the citizens were obliged to redeem their property from pillage, by a payment of , florins. the benefits of this redemption did not extend to the jews and the clergy, who were obliged to make large and separate contributions for themselves. the library of the elector was seized by the king as his share, and presented by him to his chancellor, oxenstiern, who intended it for the academy of westerrah, but the vessel in which it was shipped to sweden foundered at sea. after the loss of mentz, misfortune still pursued the spaniards on the rhine. shortly before the capture of that city, the landgrave of hesse cassel had taken falkenstein and reifenberg, and the fortress of koningstein surrendered to the hessians. the rhinegrave, otto louis, one of the king's generals, defeated nine spanish squadrons who were on their march for frankenthal, and made himself master of the most important towns upon the rhine, from boppart to bacharach. after the capture of the fortress of braunfels, which was effected by the count of wetterau, with the co-operation of the swedes, the spaniards quickly lost every place in wetterau, while in the palatinate they retained few places besides frankenthal. landau and kronweisenberg openly declared for the swedes; spires offered troops for the king's service; manheim was gained through the prudence of the duke bernard of weimar, and the negligence of its governor, who, for this misconduct, was tried before the council of war, at heidelberg, and beheaded. the king had protracted the campaign into the depth of winter, and the severity of the season was perhaps one cause of the advantage his soldiers gained over those of the enemy. but the exhausted troops now stood in need of the repose of winter quarters, which, after the surrender of mentz, gustavus assigned to them, in its neighbourhood. he himself employed the interval of inactivity in the field, which the season of the year enjoined, in arranging, with his chancellor, the affairs of his cabinet, in treating for a neutrality with some of his enemies, and adjusting some political disputes which had sprung up with a neighbouring ally. he chose the city of mentz for his winter quarters, and the settlement of these state affairs, and showed a greater partiality for this town, than seemed consistent with the interests of the german princes, or the shortness of his visit to the empire. not content with strongly fortifying it, he erected at the opposite angle which the maine forms with the rhine, a new citadel, which was named gustavusburg from its founder, but which is better known under the title of pfaffenraub or pfaffenzwang*. -- * priests' plunder; alluding to the means by which the expense of its erection had been defrayed. -- while gustavus adolphus made himself master of the rhine, and threatened the three neighbouring electorates with his victorious arms, his vigilant enemies in paris and st. germain's made use of every artifice to deprive him of the support of france, and, if possible, to involve him in a war with that power. by his sudden and equivocal march to the rhine, he had surprised his friends, and furnished his enemies with the means of exciting a distrust of his intentions. after the conquest of wurtzburg, and of the greater part of franconia, the road into bavaria and austria lay open to him through bamberg and the upper palatinate; and the expectation was as general, as it was natural, that he would not delay to attack the emperor and the duke of bavaria in the very centre of their power, and, by the reduction of his two principal enemies, bring the war immediately to an end. but to the surprise of both parties, gustavus left the path which general expectation had thus marked out for him; and instead of advancing to the right, turned to the left, to make the less important and more innocent princes of the rhine feel his power, while he gave time to his more formidable opponents to recruit their strength. nothing but the paramount design of reinstating the unfortunate palatine, frederick v., in the possession of his territories, by the expulsion of the spaniards, could seem to account for this strange step; and the belief that gustavus was about to effect that restoration, silenced for a while the suspicions of his friends and the calumnies of his enemies. but the lower palatinate was now almost entirely cleared of the enemy; and yet gustavus continued to form new schemes of conquest on the rhine, and to withhold the reconquered country from the palatine, its rightful owner. in vain did the english ambassador remind him of what justice demanded, and what his own solemn engagement made a duty of honour; gustavus replied to these demands with bitter complaints of the inactivity of the english court, and prepared to carry his victorious standard into alsace, and even into lorraine. a distrust of the swedish monarch was now loud and open, while the malice of his enemies busily circulated the most injurious reports as to his intentions. richelieu, the minister of louis xiii., had long witnessed with anxiety the king's progress towards the french frontier, and the suspicious temper of louis rendered him but too accessible to the evil surmises which the occasion gave rise to. france was at this time involved in a civil war with her protestant subjects, and the fear was not altogether groundless, that the approach of a victorious monarch of their party might revive their drooping spirit, and encourage them to a more desperate resistance. this might be the case, even if gustavus adolphus was far from showing a disposition to encourage them, or to act unfaithfully towards his ally, the king of france. but the vindictive bishop of wurtzburg, who was anxious to avenge the loss of his dominions, the envenomed rhetoric of the jesuits and the active zeal of the bavarian minister, represented this dreaded alliance between the huguenots and the swedes as an undoubted fact, and filled the timid mind of louis with the most alarming fears. not merely chimerical politicians, but many of the best informed roman catholics, fully believed that the king was on the point of breaking into the heart of france, to make common cause with the huguenots, and to overturn the catholic religion within the kingdom. fanatical zealots already saw him, with his army, crossing the alps, and dethroning the viceregent of christ in italy. such reports no doubt soon refute themselves; yet it cannot be denied that gustavus, by his manoeuvres on the rhine, gave a dangerous handle to the malice of his enemies, and in some measure justified the suspicion that he directed his arms, not so much against the emperor and the duke of bavaria, as against the roman catholic religion itself. the general clamour of discontent which the jesuits raised in all the catholic courts, against the alliance between france and the enemy of the church, at last compelled cardinal richelieu to take a decisive step for the security of his religion, and at once to convince the roman catholic world of the zeal of france, and of the selfish policy of the ecclesiastical states of germany. convinced that the views of the king of sweden, like his own, aimed solely at the humiliation of the power of austria, he hesitated not to promise to the princes of the league, on the part of sweden, a complete neutrality, immediately they abandoned their alliance with the emperor and withdrew their troops. whatever the resolution these princes should adopt, richelieu would equally attain his object. by their separation from the austrian interest, ferdinand would be exposed to the combined attack of france and sweden; and gustavus adolphus, freed from his other enemies in germany, would be able to direct his undivided force against the hereditary dominions of austria. in that event, the fall of austria was inevitable, and this great object of richelieu's policy would be gained without injury to the church. if, on the other hand, the princes of the league persisted in their opposition, and adhered to the austrian alliance, the result would indeed be more doubtful, but still france would have sufficiently proved to all europe the sincerity of her attachment to the catholic cause, and performed her duty as a member of the roman church. the princes of the league would then appear the sole authors of those evils, which the continuance of the war would unavoidably bring upon the roman catholics of germany; they alone, by their wilful and obstinate adherence to the emperor, would frustrate the measures employed for their protection, involve the church in danger, and themselves in ruin. richelieu pursued this plan with greater zeal, the more he was embarrassed by the repeated demands of the elector of bavaria for assistance from france; for this prince, as already stated, when he first began to entertain suspicions of the emperor, entered immediately into a secret alliance with france, by which, in the event of any change in the emperor's sentiments, he hoped to secure the possession of the palatinate. but though the origin of the treaty clearly showed against what enemy it was directed, maximilian now thought proper to make use of it against the king of sweden, and did not hesitate to demand from france that assistance against her ally, which she had simply promised against austria. richelieu, embarrassed by this conflicting alliance with two hostile powers, had no resource left but to endeavour to put a speedy termination to their hostilities; and as little inclined to sacrifice bavaria, as he was disabled, by his treaty with sweden, from assisting it, he set himself, with all diligence, to bring about a neutrality, as the only means of fulfilling his obligations to both. for this purpose, the marquis of breze was sent, as his plenipotentiary, to the king of sweden at mentz, to learn his sentiments on this point, and to procure from him favourable conditions for the allied princes. but if louis xiii. had powerful motives for wishing for this neutrality, gustavus adolphus had as grave reasons for desiring the contrary. convinced by numerous proofs that the hatred of the princes of the league to the protestant religion was invincible, their aversion to the foreign power of the swedes inextinguishable, and their attachment to the house of austria irrevocable, he apprehended less danger from their open hostility, than from a neutrality which was so little in unison with their real inclinations; and, moreover, as he was constrained to carry on the war in germany at the expense of the enemy, he manifestly sustained great loss if he diminished their number without increasing that of his friends. it was not surprising, therefore, if gustavus evinced little inclination to purchase the neutrality of the league, by which he was likely to gain so little, at the expense of the advantages he had already obtained. the conditions, accordingly, upon which he offered to adopt the neutrality towards bavaria were severe, and suited to these views. he required of the whole league a full and entire cessation from all hostilities; the recall of their troops from the imperial army, from the conquered towns, and from all the protestant countries; the reduction of their military force; the exclusion of the imperial armies from their territories, and from supplies either of men, provisions, or ammunition. hard as the conditions were, which the victor thus imposed upon the vanquished, the french mediator flattered himself he should be able to induce the elector of bavaria to accept them. in order to give time for an accommodation, gustavus had agreed to a cessation of hostilities for a fortnight. but at the very time when this monarch was receiving from the french agents repeated assurances of the favourable progress of the negociation, an intercepted letter from the elector to pappenheim, the imperial general in westphalia, revealed the perfidy of that prince, as having no other object in view by the whole negociation, than to gain time for his measures of defence. far from intending to fetter his military operations by a truce with sweden, the artful prince hastened his preparations, and employed the leisure which his enemy afforded him, in making the most active dispositions for resistance. the negociation accordingly failed, and served only to increase the animosity of the bavarians and the swedes. tilly's augmented force, with which he threatened to overrun franconia, urgently required the king's presence in that circle; but it was necessary to expel previously the spaniards from the rhine, and to cut off their means of invading germany from the netherlands. with this view, gustavus adolphus had made an offer of neutrality to the elector of treves, philip von zeltern, on condition that the fortress of hermanstein should be delivered up to him, and a free passage granted to his troops through coblentz. but unwillingly as the elector had beheld the spaniards within his territories, he was still less disposed to commit his estates to the suspicious protection of a heretic, and to make the swedish conqueror master of his destinies. too weak to maintain his independence between two such powerful competitors, he took refuge in the protection of france. with his usual prudence, richelieu profited by the embarrassments of this prince to augment the power of france, and to gain for her an important ally on the german frontier. a numerous french army was despatched to protect the territory of treves, and a french garrison was received into ehrenbreitstein. but the object which had moved the elector to this bold step was not completely gained, for the offended pride of gustavus adolphus was not appeased till he had obtained a free passage for his troops through treves. pending these negociations with treves and france, the king's generals had entirely cleared the territory of mentz of the spanish garrisons, and gustavus himself completed the conquest of this district by the capture of kreutznach. to protect these conquests, the chancellor oxenstiern was left with a division of the army upon the middle rhine, while the main body, under the king himself, began its march against the enemy in franconia. the possession of this circle had, in the mean time, been disputed with variable success, between count tilly and the swedish general horn, whom gustavus had left there with , men; and the bishopric of bamberg, in particular, was at once the prize and the scene of their struggle. called away to the rhine by his other projects, the king had left to his general the chastisement of the bishop, whose perfidy had excited his indignation, and the activity of horn justified the choice. in a short time, he subdued the greater part of the bishopric; and the capital itself, abandoned by its imperial garrison, was carried by storm. the banished bishop urgently demanded assistance from the elector of bavaria, who was at length persuaded to put an end to tilly's inactivity. fully empowered by his master's order to restore the bishop to his possessions, this general collected his troops, who were scattered over the upper palatinate, and with an army of , men advanced upon bamberg. firmly resolved to maintain his conquest even against this overwhelming force, horn awaited the enemy within the walls of bamberg; but was obliged to yield to the vanguard of tilly what he had thought to be able to dispute with his whole army. a panic which suddenly seized his troops, and which no presence of mind of their general could check, opened the gates to the enemy, and it was with difficulty that the troops, baggage, and artillery, were saved. the reconquest of bamberg was the fruit of this victory; but tilly, with all his activity, was unable to overtake the swedish general, who retired in good order behind the maine. the king's appearance in franconia, and his junction with gustavus horn at kitzingen, put a stop to tilly's conquests, and compelled him to provide for his own safety by a rapid retreat. the king made a general review of his troops at aschaffenburg. after his junction with gustavus horn, banner, and duke william of weimar, they amounted to nearly , men. his progress through franconia was uninterrupted; for tilly, far too weak to encounter an enemy so superior in numbers, had retreated, by rapid marches, towards the danube. bohemia and bavaria were now equally near to the king, and, uncertain whither his victorious course might be directed, maximilian could form no immediate resolution. the choice of the king, and the fate of both provinces, now depended on the road that should be left open to count tilly. it was dangerous, during the approach of so formidable an enemy, to leave bavaria undefended, in order to protect austria; still more dangerous, by receiving tilly into bavaria, to draw thither the enemy also, and to render it the seat of a destructive war. the cares of the sovereign finally overcame the scruples of the statesman, and tilly received orders, at all hazards, to cover the frontiers of bavaria with his army. nuremberg received with triumphant joy the protector of the protestant religion and german freedom, and the enthusiasm of the citizens expressed itself on his arrival in loud transports of admiration and joy. even gustavus could not contain his astonishment, to see himself in this city, which was the very centre of germany, where he had never expected to be able to penetrate. the noble appearance of his person, completed the impression produced by his glorious exploits, and the condescension with which he received the congratulations of this free city won all hearts. he now confirmed the alliance he had concluded with it on the shores of the baltic, and excited the citizens to zealous activity and fraternal unity against the common enemy. after a short stay in nuremberg, he followed his army to the danube, and appeared unexpectedly before the frontier town of donauwerth. a numerous bavarian garrison defended the place; and their commander, rodolph maximilian, duke of saxe lauenburg, showed at first a resolute determination to defend it till the arrival of tilly. but the vigour with which gustavus adolphus prosecuted the siege, soon compelled him to take measures for a speedy and secure retreat, which amidst a tremendous fire from the swedish artillery he successfully executed. the conquest of donauwerth opened to the king the further side of the danube, and now the small river lech alone separated him from bavaria. the immediate danger of his dominions aroused all maximilian's activity; and however little he had hitherto disturbed the enemy's progress to his frontier, he now determined to dispute as resolutely the remainder of their course. on the opposite bank of the lech, near the small town of rain, tilly occupied a strongly fortified camp, which, surrounded by three rivers, bade defiance to all attack. all the bridges over the lech were destroyed; the whole course of the stream protected by strong garrisons as far as augsburg; and that town itself, which had long betrayed its impatience to follow the example of nuremberg and frankfort, secured by a bavarian garrison, and the disarming of its inhabitants. the elector himself, with all the troops he could collect, threw himself into tilly's camp, as if all his hopes centred on this single point, and here the good fortune of the swedes was to suffer shipwreck for ever. gustavus adolphus, after subduing the whole territory of augsburg, on his own side of the river, and opening to his troops a rich supply of necessaries from that quarter, soon appeared on the bank opposite the bavarian entrenchments. it was now the month of march, when the river, swollen by frequent rains, and the melting of the snow from the mountains of the tyrol, flowed full and rapid between its steep banks. its boiling current threatened the rash assailants with certain destruction, while from the opposite side the enemy's cannon showed their murderous mouths. if, in despite of the fury both of fire and water, they should accomplish this almost impossible passage, a fresh and vigorous enemy awaited the exhausted troops in an impregnable camp; and when they needed repose and refreshment they must prepare for battle. with exhausted powers they must ascend the hostile entrenchments, whose strength seemed to bid defiance to every assault. a defeat sustained upon this shore would be attended with inevitable destruction, since the same stream which impeded their advance would also cut off their retreat, if fortune should abandon them. the swedish council of war, which the king now assembled, strongly urged upon him all these considerations, in order to deter him from this dangerous undertaking. the most intrepid were appalled, and a troop of honourable warriors, who had grown gray in the field, did not hesitate to express their alarm. but the king's resolution was fixed. "what!" said he to gustavus horn, who spoke for the rest, "have we crossed the baltic, and so many great rivers of germany, and shall we now be checked by a brook like the lech?" gustavus had already, at great personal risk, reconnoitred the whole country, and discovered that his own side of the river was higher than the other, and consequently gave a considerable advantage to the fire of the swedish artillery over that of the enemy. with great presence of mind he determined to profit by this circumstance. at the point where the left bank of the lech forms an angle with the right, he immediately caused three batteries to be erected, from which field-pieces maintained a cross fire upon the enemy. while this tremendous cannonade drove the bavarians from the opposite bank, he caused to be erected a bridge over the river with all possible rapidity. a thick smoke, kept up by burning wood and wet straw, concealed for some time the progress of the work from the enemy, while the continued thunder of the cannon overpowered the noise of the axes. he kept alive by his own example the courage of his troops, and discharged more than cannon with his own hand. the cannonade was returned by the bavarians with equal vivacity for two hours, though with less effect, as the swedish batteries swept the lower opposite bank, while their height served as a breast-work to their own troops. in vain, therefore, did the bavarians attempt to destroy these works; the superior fire of the swedes threw them into disorder, and the bridge was completed under their very eyes. on this dreadful day, tilly did every thing in his power to encourage his troops; and no danger could drive him from the bank. at length he found the death which he sought, a cannon ball shattered his leg; and altringer, his brave companion-in-arms, was, soon after, dangerously wounded in the head. deprived of the animating presence of their two generals, the bavarians gave way at last, and maximilian, in spite of his own judgment, was driven to adopt a pusillanimous resolve. overcome by the persuasions of the dying tilly, whose wonted firmness was overpowered by the near approach of death, he gave up his impregnable position for lost; and the discovery by the swedes of a ford, by which their cavalry were on the point of passing, accelerated his inglorious retreat. the same night, before a single soldier of the enemy had crossed the lech, he broke up his camp, and, without giving time for the king to harass him in his march, retreated in good order to neuburgh and ingolstadt. with astonishment did gustavus adolphus, who completed the passage of the river on the following day behold the hostile camp abandoned; and the elector's flight surprised him still more, when he saw the strength of the position he had quitted. "had i been the bavarian," said he, "though a cannon ball had carried away my beard and chin, never would i have abandoned a position like this, and laid open my territory to my enemies." bavaria now lay exposed to the conqueror; and, for the first time, the tide of war, which had hitherto only beat against its frontier, now flowed over its long spared and fertile fields. before, however, the king proceeded to the conquest of these provinces, he delivered the town of augsburg from the yoke of bavaria; exacted an oath of allegiance from the citizens; and to secure its observance, left a garrison in the town. he then advanced, by rapid marches, against ingolstadt, in order, by the capture of this important fortress, which the elector covered with the greater part of his army, to secure his conquests in bavaria, and obtain a firm footing on the danube. shortly after the appearance of the swedish king before ingolstadt, the wounded tilly, after experiencing the caprice of unstable fortune, terminated his career within the walls of that town. conquered by the superior generalship of gustavus adolphus, he lost, at the close of his days, all the laurels of his earlier victories, and appeased, by a series of misfortunes, the demands of justice, and the avenging manes of magdeburg. in his death, the imperial army and that of the league sustained an irreparable loss; the roman catholic religion was deprived of its most zealous defender, and maximilian of bavaria of the most faithful of his servants, who sealed his fidelity by his death, and even in his dying moments fulfilled the duties of a general. his last message to the elector was an urgent advice to take possession of ratisbon, in order to maintain the command of the danube, and to keep open the communication with bohemia. with the confidence which was the natural fruit of so many victories, gustavus adolphus commenced the siege of ingolstadt, hoping to gain the town by the fury of his first assault. but the strength of its fortifications, and the bravery of its garrison, presented obstacles greater than any he had had to encounter since the battle of breitenfeld, and the walls of ingolstadt were near putting an end to his career. while reconnoitring the works, a -pounder killed his horse under him, and he fell to the ground, while almost immediately afterwards another ball struck his favourite, the young margrave of baden, by his side. with perfect self-possession the king rose, and quieted the fears of his troops by immediately mounting another horse. the occupation of ratisbon by the bavarians, who, by the advice of tilly, had surprised this town by stratagem, and placed in it a strong garrison, quickly changed the king's plan of operations. he had flattered himself with the hope of gaining this town, which favoured the protestant cause, and to find in it an ally as devoted to him as nuremberg, augsburg, and frankfort. its seizure by the bavarians seemed to postpone for a long time the fulfilment of his favourite project of making himself master of the danube, and cutting off his adversaries' supplies from bohemia. he suddenly raised the siege of ingolstadt, before which he had wasted both his time and his troops, and penetrated into the interior of bavaria, in order to draw the elector into that quarter for the defence of his territories, and thus to strip the danube of its defenders. the whole country, as far as munich, now lay open to the conqueror. mosburg, landshut, and the whole territory of freysingen, submitted; nothing could resist his arms. but if he met with no regular force to oppose his progress, he had to contend against a still more implacable enemy in the heart of every bavarian -- religious fanaticism. soldiers who did not believe in the pope were, in this country, a new and unheard-of phenomenon; the blind zeal of the priests represented them to the peasantry as monsters, the children of hell, and their leader as antichrist. no wonder, then, if they thought themselves released from all the ties of nature and humanity towards this brood of satan, and justified in committing the most savage atrocities upon them. woe to the swedish soldier who fell into their hands! all the torments which inventive malice could devise were exercised upon these unhappy victims; and the sight of their mangled bodies exasperated the army to a fearful retaliation. gustavus adolphus, alone, sullied the lustre of his heroic character by no act of revenge; and the aversion which the bavarians felt towards his religion, far from making him depart from the obligations of humanity towards that unfortunate people, seemed to impose upon him the stricter duty to honour his religion by a more constant clemency. the approach of the king spread terror and consternation in the capital, which, stripped of its defenders, and abandoned by its principal inhabitants, placed all its hopes in the magnanimity of the conqueror. by an unconditional and voluntary surrender, it hoped to disarm his vengeance; and sent deputies even to freysingen to lay at his feet the keys of the city. strongly as the king might have been tempted by the inhumanity of the bavarians, and the hostility of their sovereign, to make a dreadful use of the rights of victory; pressed as he was by germans to avenge the fate of magdeburg on the capital of its destroyer, this great prince scorned this mean revenge; and the very helplessness of his enemies disarmed his severity. contented with the more noble triumph of conducting the palatine frederick with the pomp of a victor into the very palace of the prince who had been the chief instrument of his ruin, and the usurper of his territories, he heightened the brilliancy of his triumphal entry by the brighter splendour of moderation and clemency. the king found in munich only a forsaken palace, for the elector's treasures had been transported to werfen. the magnificence of the building astonished him; and he asked the guide who showed the apartments who was the architect. "no other," replied he, "than the elector himself." -- "i wish," said the king, "i had this architect to send to stockholm." "that," he was answered, "the architect will take care to prevent." when the arsenal was examined, they found nothing but carriages, stripped of their cannon. the latter had been so artfully concealed under the floor, that no traces of them remained; and but for the treachery of a workman, the deceit would not have been detected. "rise up from the dead," said the king, "and come to judgment." the floor was pulled up, and pieces of cannon discovered, some of extraordinary calibre, which had been principally taken in the palatinate and bohemia. a treasure of , gold ducats, concealed in one of the largest, completed the pleasure which the king received from this valuable acquisition. a far more welcome spectacle still would have been the bavarian army itself; for his march into the heart of bavaria had been undertaken chiefly with the view of luring them from their entrenchments. in this expectation he was disappointed. no enemy appeared; no entreaties, however urgent, on the part of his subjects, could induce the elector to risk the remainder of his army to the chances of a battle. shut up in ratisbon, he awaited the reinforcements which wallenstein was bringing from bohemia; and endeavoured, in the mean time, to amuse his enemy and keep him inactive, by reviving the negociation for a neutrality. but the king's distrust, too often and too justly excited by his previous conduct, frustrated this design; and the intentional delay of wallenstein abandoned bavaria to the swedes. thus far had gustavus advanced from victory to victory, without meeting with an enemy able to cope with him. a part of bavaria and swabia, the bishoprics of franconia, the lower palatinate, and the archbishopric of mentz, lay conquered in his rear. an uninterrupted career of conquest had conducted him to the threshold of austria; and the most brilliant success had fully justified the plan of operations which he had formed after the battle of breitenfeld. if he had not succeeded to his wish in promoting a confederacy among the protestant states, he had at least disarmed or weakened the league, carried on the war chiefly at its expense, lessened the emperor's resources, emboldened the weaker states, and while he laid under contribution the allies of the emperor, forced a way through their territories into austria itself. where arms were unavailing, the greatest service was rendered by the friendship of the free cities, whose affections he had gained, by the double ties of policy and religion; and, as long as he should maintain his superiority in the field, he might reckon on every thing from their zeal. by his conquests on the rhine, the spaniards were cut off from the lower palatinate, even if the state of the war in the netherlands left them at liberty to interfere in the affairs of germany. the duke of lorraine, too, after his unfortunate campaign, had been glad to adopt a neutrality. even the numerous garrisons he had left behind him, in his progress through germany, had not diminished his army; and, fresh and vigorous as when he first began his march, he now stood in the centre of bavaria, determined and prepared to carry the war into the heart of austria. while gustavus adolphus thus maintained his superiority within the empire, fortune, in another quarter, had been no less favourable to his ally, the elector of saxony. by the arrangement concerted between these princes at halle, after the battle of leipzig, the conquest of bohemia was intrusted to the elector of saxony, while the king reserved for himself the attack upon the territories of the league. the first fruits which the elector reaped from the battle of breitenfeld, was the reconquest of leipzig, which was shortly followed by the expulsion of the austrian garrisons from the entire circle. reinforced by the troops who deserted to him from the hostile garrisons, the saxon general, arnheim, marched towards lusatia, which had been overrun by an imperial general, rudolph von tiefenbach, in order to chastise the elector for embracing the cause of the enemy. he had already commenced in this weakly defended province the usual course of devastation, taken several towns, and terrified dresden itself by his approach, when his destructive progress was suddenly stopped, by an express mandate from the emperor to spare the possessions of the king of saxony. ferdinand had perceived too late the errors of that policy, which reduced the elector of saxony to extremities, and forcibly driven this powerful monarch into an alliance with sweden. by moderation, equally ill-timed, he now wished to repair if possible the consequences of his haughtiness; and thus committed a second error in endeavouring to repair the first. to deprive his enemy of so powerful an ally, he had opened, through the intervention of spain, a negociation with the elector; and in order to facilitate an accommodation, tiefenbach was ordered immediately to retire from saxony. but these concessions of the emperor, far from producing the desired effect, only revealed to the elector the embarrassment of his adversary and his own importance, and emboldened him the more to prosecute the advantages he had already obtained. how could he, moreover, without becoming chargeable with the most shameful ingratitude, abandon an ally to whom he had given the most solemn assurances of fidelity, and to whom he was indebted for the preservation of his dominions, and even of his electoral dignity? the saxon army, now relieved from the necessity of marching into lusatia, advanced towards bohemia, where a combination of favourable circumstances seemed to ensure them an easy victory. in this kingdom, the first scene of this fatal war, the flames of dissension still smouldered beneath the ashes, while the discontent of the inhabitants was fomented by daily acts of oppression and tyranny. on every side, this unfortunate country showed signs of a mournful change. whole districts had changed their proprietors, and groaned under the hated yoke of roman catholic masters, whom the favour of the emperor and the jesuits had enriched with the plunder and possessions of the exiled protestants. others, taking advantage themselves of the general distress, had purchased, at a low rate, the confiscated estates. the blood of the most eminent champions of liberty had been shed upon the scaffold; and such as by a timely flight avoided that fate, were wandering in misery far from their native land, while the obsequious slaves of despotism enjoyed their patrimony. still more insupportable than the oppression of these petty tyrants, was the restraint of conscience which was imposed without distinction on all the protestants of that kingdom. no external danger, no opposition on the part of the nation, however steadfast, not even the fearful lessons of past experience could check in the jesuits the rage of proselytism; where fair means were ineffectual, recourse was had to military force to bring the deluded wanderers within the pale of the church. the inhabitants of joachimsthal, on the frontiers between bohemia and meissen, were the chief sufferers from this violence. two imperial commissaries, accompanied by as many jesuits, and supported by fifteen musketeers, made their appearance in this peaceful valley to preach the gospel to the heretics. where the rhetoric of the former was ineffectual, the forcibly quartering the latter upon the houses, and threats of banishment and fines were tried. but on this occasion, the good cause prevailed, and the bold resistance of this small district compelled the emperor disgracefully to recall his mandate of conversion. the example of the court had, however, afforded a precedent to the roman catholics of the empire, and seemed to justify every act of oppression which their insolence tempted them to wreak upon the protestants. it is not surprising, then, if this persecuted party was favourable to a revolution, and saw with pleasure their deliverers on the frontiers. the saxon army was already on its march towards prague, the imperial garrisons everywhere retired before them. schloeckenau, tetschen, aussig, leutmeritz, soon fell into the enemy's hands, and every roman catholic place was abandoned to plunder. consternation seized all the papists of the empire; and conscious of the outrages which they themselves had committed on the protestants, they did not venture to abide the vengeful arrival of a protestant army. all the roman catholics, who had anything to lose, fled hastily from the country to the capital, which again they presently abandoned. prague was unprepared for an attack, and was too weakly garrisoned to sustain a long siege. too late had the emperor resolved to despatch field-marshal tiefenbach to the defence of this capital. before the imperial orders could reach the head-quarters of that general, in silesia, the saxons were already close to prague, the protestant inhabitants of which showed little zeal, while the weakness of the garrison left no room to hope a long resistance. in this fearful state of embarrassment, the roman catholics of prague looked for security to wallenstein, who now lived in that city as a private individual. but far from lending his military experience, and the weight of his name, towards its defence, he seized the favourable opportunity to satiate his thirst for revenge. if he did not actually invite the saxons to prague, at least his conduct facilitated its capture. though unprepared, the town might still hold out until succours could arrive; and an imperial colonel, count maradas, showed serious intentions of undertaking its defence. but without command and authority, and having no support but his own zeal and courage, he did not dare to venture upon such a step without the advice of a superior. he therefore consulted the duke of friedland, whose approbation might supply the want of authority from the emperor, and to whom the bohemian generals were referred by an express edict of the court in the last extremity. he, however, artfully excused himself, on the plea of holding no official appointment, and his long retirement from the political world; while he weakened the resolution of the subalterns by the scruples which he suggested, and painted in the strongest colours. at last, to render the consternation general and complete, he quitted the capital with his whole court, however little he had to fear from its capture; and the city was lost, because, by his departure, he showed that he despaired of its safety. his example was followed by all the roman catholic nobility, the generals with their troops, the clergy, and all the officers of the crown. all night the people were employed in saving their persons and effects. the roads to vienna were crowded with fugitives, who scarcely recovered from their consternation till they reached the imperial city. maradas himself, despairing of the safety of prague, followed the rest, and led his small detachment to tabor, where he awaited the event. profound silence reigned in prague, when the saxons next morning appeared before it; no preparations were made for defence; not a single shot from the walls announced an intention of resistance. on the contrary, a crowd of spectators from the town, allured by curiosity, came flocking round, to behold the foreign army; and the peaceful confidence with which they advanced, resembled a friendly salutation, more than a hostile reception. from the concurrent reports of these people, the saxons learned that the town had been deserted by the troops, and that the government had fled to budweiss. this unexpected and inexplicable absence of resistance excited arnheim's distrust the more, as the speedy approach of the silesian succours was no secret to him, and as he knew that the saxon army was too indifferently provided with materials for undertaking a siege, and by far too weak in numbers to attempt to take the place by storm. apprehensive of stratagem, he redoubled his vigilance; and he continued in this conviction until wallenstein's house-steward, whom he discovered among the crowd, confirmed to him this intelligence. "the town is ours without a blow!" exclaimed he in astonishment to his officers, and immediately summoned it by a trumpeter. the citizens of prague, thus shamefully abandoned by their defenders, had long taken their resolution; all that they had to do was to secure their properties and liberties by an advantageous capitulation. no sooner was the treaty signed by the saxon general, in his master's name, than the gates were opened, without farther opposition; and upon the th of november, , the army made their triumphal entry. the elector soon after followed in person, to receive the homage of those whom he had newly taken under his protection; for it was only in the character of protector that the three towns of prague had surrendered to him. their allegiance to the austrian monarchy was not to be dissolved by the step they had taken. in proportion as the papists' apprehensions of reprisals on the part of the protestants had been exaggerated, so was their surprise great at the moderation of the elector, and the discipline of his troops. field-marshal arnheim plainly evinced, on this occasion, his respect for wallenstein. not content with sparing his estates on his march, he now placed guards over his palace, in prague, to prevent the plunder of any of his effects. the roman catholics of the town were allowed the fullest liberty of conscience; and of all the churches they had wrested from the protestants, four only were now taken back from them. from this general indulgence, none were excluded but the jesuits, who were generally considered as the authors of all past grievances, and thus banished the kingdom. john george belied not the submission and dependence with which the terror of the imperial name inspired him; nor did he indulge at prague, in a course of conduct which would assuredly have been pursued against himself in dresden, by imperial generals, such as tilly or wallenstein. he carefully distinguished between the enemy with whom he was at war, and the head of the empire, to whom he owed obedience. he did not venture to touch the household furniture of the latter, while, without scruple, he appropriated and transported to dresden the cannon of the former. he did not take up his residence in the imperial palace, but the house of lichtenstein; too modest to use the apartments of one whom he had deprived of a kingdom. had this trait been related of a great man and a hero, it would irresistibly excite our admiration; but the character of this prince leaves us in doubt whether this moderation ought to be ascribed to a noble self-command, or to the littleness of a weak mind, which even good fortune could not embolden, and liberty itself could not strip of its habituated fetters. the surrender of prague, which was quickly followed by that of most of the other towns, effected a great and sudden change in bohemia. many of the protestant nobility, who had hitherto been wandering about in misery, now returned to their native country; and count thurn, the famous author of the bohemian insurrection, enjoyed the triumph of returning as a conqueror to the scene of his crime and his condemnation. over the very bridge where the heads of his adherents, exposed to view, held out a fearful picture of the fate which had threatened himself, he now made his triumphal entry; and to remove these ghastly objects was his first care. the exiles again took possession of their properties, without thinking of recompensing for the purchase money the present possessors, who had mostly taken to flight. even though they had received a price for their estates, they seized on every thing which had once been their own; and many had reason to rejoice at the economy of the late possessors. the lands and cattle had greatly improved in their hands; the apartments were now decorated with the most costly furniture; the cellars, which had been left empty, were richly filled; the stables supplied; the magazines stored with provisions. but distrusting the constancy of that good fortune, which had so unexpectedly smiled upon them, they hastened to get quit of these insecure possessions, and to convert their immoveable into transferable property. the presence of the saxons inspired all the protestants of the kingdom with courage; and, both in the country and the capital, crowds flocked to the newly opened protestant churches. many, whom fear alone had retained in their adherence to popery, now openly professed the new doctrine; and many of the late converts to roman catholicism gladly renounced a compulsory persuasion, to follow the earlier conviction of their conscience. all the moderation of the new regency, could not restrain the manifestation of that just displeasure, which this persecuted people felt against their oppressors. they made a fearful and cruel use of their newly recovered rights; and, in many parts of the kingdom, their hatred of the religion which they had been compelled to profess, could be satiated only by the blood of its adherents. meantime the succours which the imperial generals, goetz and tiefenbach, were conducting from silesia, had entered bohemia, where they were joined by some of tilly's regiments, from the upper palatinate. in order to disperse them before they should receive any further reinforcement, arnheim advanced with part of his army from prague, and made a vigorous attack on their entrenchments near limburg, on the elbe. after a severe action, not without great loss, he drove the enemy from their fortified camp, and forced them, by his heavy fire, to recross the elbe, and to destroy the bridge which they had built over that river. nevertheless, the imperialists obtained the advantage in several skirmishes, and the croats pushed their incursions to the very gates of prague. brilliant and promising as the opening of the bohemian campaign had been, the issue by no means satisfied the expectations of gustavus adolphus. instead of vigorously following up their advantages, by forcing a passage to the swedish army through the conquered country, and then, with it, attacking the imperial power in its centre, the saxons weakened themselves in a war of skirmishes, in which they were not always successful, while they lost the time which should have been devoted to greater undertakings. but the elector's subsequent conduct betrayed the motives which had prevented him from pushing his advantage over the emperor, and by consistent measures promoting the plans of the king of sweden. the emperor had now lost the greater part of bohemia, and the saxons were advancing against austria, while the swedish monarch was rapidly moving to the same point through franconia, swabia, and bavaria. a long war had exhausted the strength of the austrian monarchy, wasted the country, and diminished its armies. the renown of its victories was no more, as well as the confidence inspired by constant success; its troops had lost the obedience and discipline to which those of the swedish monarch owed all their superiority in the field. the confederates of the emperor were disarmed, or their fidelity shaken by the danger which threatened themselves. even maximilian of bavaria, austria's most powerful ally, seemed disposed to yield to the seductive proposition of neutrality; while his suspicious alliance with france had long been a subject of apprehension to the emperor. the bishops of wurtzburg and bamberg, the elector of mentz, and the duke of lorraine, were either expelled from their territories, or threatened with immediate attack; treves had placed itself under the protection of france. the bravery of the hollanders gave full employment to the spanish arms in the netherlands; while gustavus had driven them from the rhine. poland was still fettered by the truce which subsisted between that country and sweden. the hungarian frontier was threatened by the transylvanian prince, ragotsky, a successor of bethlen gabor, and the inheritor of his restless mind; while the porte was making great preparation to profit by the favourable conjuncture for aggression. most of the protestant states, encouraged by their protector's success, were openly and actively declaring against the emperor. all the resources which had been obtained by the violent and oppressive extortions of tilly and wallenstein were exhausted; all these depots, magazines, and rallying-points, were now lost to the emperor; and the war could no longer be carried on as before at the cost of others. to complete his embarrassment, a dangerous insurrection broke out in the territory of the ens, where the ill-timed religious zeal of the government had provoked the protestants to resistance; and thus fanaticism lit its torch within the empire, while a foreign enemy was already on its frontier. after so long a continuance of good fortune, such brilliant victories and extensive conquests, such fruitless effusion of blood, the emperor saw himself a second time on the brink of that abyss, into which he was so near falling at the commencement of his reign. if bavaria should embrace the neutrality; if saxony should resist the tempting offers he had held out; and france resolve to attack the spanish power at the same time in the netherlands, in italy and in catalonia, the ruin of austria would be complete; the allied powers would divide its spoils, and the political system of germany would undergo a total change. the chain of these disasters began with the battle of breitenfeld, the unfortunate issue of which plainly revealed the long decided decline of the austrian power, whose weakness had hitherto been concealed under the dazzling glitter of a grand name. the chief cause of the swedes' superiority in the field, was evidently to be ascribed to the unlimited power of their leader, who concentrated in himself the whole strength of his party; and, unfettered in his enterprises by any higher authority, was complete master of every favourable opportunity, could control all his means to the accomplishment of his ends, and was responsible to none but himself. but since wallenstein's dismissal, and tilly's defeat, the very reverse of this course was pursued by the emperor and the league. the generals wanted authority over their troops, and liberty of acting at their discretion; the soldiers were deficient in discipline and obedience; the scattered corps in combined operation; the states in attachment to the cause; the leaders in harmony among themselves, in quickness to resolve, and firmness to execute. what gave the emperor's enemy so decided an advantage over him, was not so much their superior power, as their manner of using it. the league and the emperor did not want means, but a mind capable of directing them with energy and effect. even had count tilly not lost his old renown, distrust of bavaria would not allow the emperor to place the fate of austria in the hands of one who had never concealed his attachment to the bavarian elector. the urgent want which ferdinand felt, was for a general possessed of sufficient experience to form and to command an army, and willing at the same time to dedicate his services, with blind devotion, to the austrian monarchy. this choice now occupied the attention of the emperor's privy council, and divided the opinions of its members. in order to oppose one monarch to another, and by the presence of their sovereign to animate the courage of the troops, ferdinand, in the ardour of the moment, had offered himself to be the leader of his army; but little trouble was required to overturn a resolution which was the offspring of despair alone, and which yielded at once to calm reflection. but the situation which his dignity, and the duties of administration, prevented the emperor from holding, might be filled by his son, a youth of talents and bravery, and of whom the subjects of austria had already formed great expectations. called by his birth to the defence of a monarchy, of whose crowns he wore two already, ferdinand iii., king of hungary and bohemia, united, with the natural dignity of heir to the throne, the respect of the army, and the attachment of the people, whose co-operation was indispensable to him in the conduct of the war. none but the beloved heir to the crown could venture to impose new burdens on a people already severely oppressed; his personal presence with the army could alone suppress the pernicious jealousies of the several leaders, and by the influence of his name, restore the neglected discipline of the troops to its former rigour. if so young a leader was devoid of the maturity of judgment, prudence, and military experience which practice alone could impart, this deficiency might be supplied by a judicious choice of counsellors and assistants, who, under the cover of his name, might be vested with supreme authority. but plausible as were the arguments with which a part of the ministry supported this plan, it was met by difficulties not less serious, arising from the distrust, perhaps even the jealousy, of the emperor, and also from the desperate state of affairs. how dangerous was it to entrust the fate of the monarchy to a youth, who was himself in need of counsel and support! how hazardous to oppose to the greatest general of his age, a tyro, whose fitness for so important a post had never yet been tested by experience; whose name, as yet unknown to fame, was far too powerless to inspire a dispirited army with the assurance of future victory! what a new burden on the country, to support the state a royal leader was required to maintain, and which the prejudices of the age considered as inseparable from his presence with the army! how serious a consideration for the prince himself, to commence his political career, with an office which must make him the scourge of his people, and the oppressor of the territories which he was hereafter to rule. but not only was a general to be found for the army; an army must also be found for the general. since the compulsory resignation of wallenstein, the emperor had defended himself more by the assistance of bavaria and the league, than by his own armies; and it was this dependence on equivocal allies, which he was endeavouring to escape, by the appointment of a general of his own. but what possibility was there of raising an army out of nothing, without the all-powerful aid of gold, and the inspiriting name of a victorious commander; above all, an army which, by its discipline, warlike spirit, and activity, should be fit to cope with the experienced troops of the northern conqueror? in all europe, there was but one man equal to this, and that one had been mortally affronted. the moment had at last arrived, when more than ordinary satisfaction was to be done to the wounded pride of the duke of friedland. fate itself had been his avenger, and an unbroken chain of disasters, which had assailed austria from the day of his dismissal, had wrung from the emperor the humiliating confession, that with this general he had lost his right arm. every defeat of his troops opened afresh this wound; every town which he lost, revived in the mind of the deceived monarch the memory of his own weakness and ingratitude. it would have been well for him, if, in the offended general, he had only lost a leader of his troops, and a defender of his dominions; but he was destined to find in him an enemy, and the most dangerous of all, since he was least armed against the stroke of treason. removed from the theatre of war, and condemned to irksome inaction, while his rivals gathered laurels on the field of glory, the haughty duke had beheld these changes of fortune with affected composure, and concealed, under a glittering and theatrical pomp, the dark designs of his restless genius. torn by burning passions within, while all without bespoke calmness and indifference, he brooded over projects of ambition and revenge, and slowly, but surely, advanced towards his end. all that he owed to the emperor was effaced from his mind; what he himself had done for the emperor was imprinted in burning characters on his memory. to his insatiable thirst for power, the emperor's ingratitude was welcome, as it seemed to tear in pieces the record of past favours, to absolve him from every obligation towards his former benefactor. in the disguise of a righteous retaliation, the projects dictated by his ambition now appeared to him just and pure. in proportion as the external circle of his operations was narrowed, the world of hope expanded before him, and his dreamy imagination revelled in boundless projects, which, in any mind but such as his, madness alone could have given birth to. his services had raised him to the proudest height which it was possible for a man, by his own efforts, to attain. fortune had denied him nothing which the subject and the citizen could lawfully enjoy. till the moment of his dismissal, his demands had met with no refusal, his ambition had met with no check; but the blow which, at the diet of ratisbon, humbled him, showed him the difference between original and deputed power, the distance between the subject and his sovereign. roused from the intoxication of his own greatness by this sudden reverse of fortune, he compared the authority which he had possessed, with that which had deprived him of it; and his ambition marked the steps which it had yet to surmount upon the ladder of fortune. from the moment he had so bitterly experienced the weight of sovereign power, his efforts were directed to attain it for himself; the wrong which he himself had suffered made him a robber. had he not been outraged by injustice, he might have obediently moved in his orbit round the majesty of the throne, satisfied with the glory of being the brightest of its satellites. it was only when violently forced from its sphere, that his wandering star threw in disorder the system to which it belonged, and came in destructive collision with its sun. gustavus adolphus had overrun the north of germany; one place after another was lost; and at leipzig, the flower of the austrian army had fallen. the intelligence of this defeat soon reached the ears of wallenstein, who, in the retired obscurity of a private station in prague, contemplated from a calm distance the tumult of war. the news, which filled the breasts of the roman catholics with dismay, announced to him the return of greatness and good fortune. for him was gustavus adolphus labouring. scarce had the king begun to gain reputation by his exploits, when wallenstein lost not a moment to court his friendship, and to make common cause with this successful enemy of austria. the banished count thurn, who had long entered the service of sweden, undertook to convey wallenstein's congratulations to the king, and to invite him to a close alliance with the duke. wallenstein required , men from the king; and with these, and the troops he himself engaged to raise, he undertook to conquer bohemia and moravia, to surprise vienna, and drive his master, the emperor, before him into italy. welcome as was this unexpected proposition, its extravagant promises were naturally calculated to excite suspicion. gustavus adolphus was too good a judge of merit to reject with coldness the offers of one who might be so important a friend. but when wallenstein, encouraged by the favourable reception of his first message, renewed it after the battle of breitenfeld, and pressed for a decisive answer, the prudent monarch hesitated to trust his reputation to the chimerical projects of so daring an adventurer, and to commit so large a force to the honesty of a man who felt no shame in openly avowing himself a traitor. he excused himself, therefore, on the plea of the weakness of his army which, if diminished by so large a detachment, would certainly suffer in its march through the empire; and thus, perhaps, by excess of caution, lost an opportunity of putting an immediate end to the war. he afterwards endeavoured to renew the negociation; but the favourable moment was past, and wallenstein's offended pride never forgave the first neglect. but the king's hesitation, perhaps, only accelerated the breach, which their characters made inevitable sooner or later. both framed by nature to give laws, not to receive them, they could not long have co-operated in an enterprise, which eminently demanded mutual submission and sacrifices. wallenstein was nothing where he was not everything; he must either act with unlimited power, or not at all. so cordially, too, did gustavus dislike control, that he had almost renounced his advantageous alliance with france, because it threatened to fetter his own independent judgment. wallenstein was lost to a party, if he could not lead; the latter was, if possible, still less disposed to obey the instructions of another. if the pretensions of a rival would be so irksome to the duke of friedland, in the conduct of combined operations, in the division of the spoil they would be insupportable. the proud monarch might condescend to accept the assistance of a rebellious subject against the emperor, and to reward his valuable services with regal munificence; but he never could so far lose sight of his own dignity, and the majesty of royalty, as to bestow the recompense which the extravagant ambition of wallenstein demanded; and requite an act of treason, however useful, with a crown. in him, therefore, even if all europe should tacitly acquiesce, wallenstein had reason to expect the most decided and formidable opponent to his views on the bohemian crown; and in all europe he was the only one who could enforce his opposition. constituted dictator in germany by wallenstein himself, he might turn his arms against him, and consider himself bound by no obligations to one who was himself a traitor. there was no room for a wallenstein under such an ally; and it was, apparently, this conviction, and not any supposed designs upon the imperial throne, that he alluded to, when, after the death of the king of sweden, he exclaimed, "it is well for him and me that he is gone. the german empire does not require two such leaders." his first scheme of revenge on the house of austria had indeed failed; but the purpose itself remained unalterable; the choice of means alone was changed. what he had failed in effecting with the king of sweden, he hoped to obtain with less difficulty and more advantage from the elector of saxony. him he was as certain of being able to bend to his views, as he had always been doubtful of gustavus adolphus. having always maintained a good understanding with his old friend arnheim, he now made use of him to bring about an alliance with saxony, by which he hoped to render himself equally formidable to the emperor and the king of sweden. he had reason to expect that a scheme, which, if successful, would deprive the swedish monarch of his influence in germany, would be welcomed by the elector of saxony, who he knew was jealous of the power and offended at the lofty pretensions of gustavus adolphus. if he succeeded in separating saxony from the swedish alliance, and in establishing, conjointly with that power, a third party in the empire, the fate of the war would be placed in his hand; and by this single step he would succeed in gratifying his revenge against the emperor, revenging the neglect of the swedish monarch, and on the ruin of both, raising the edifice of his own greatness. but whatever course he might follow in the prosecution of his designs, he could not carry them into effect without an army entirely devoted to him. such a force could not be secretly raised without its coming to the knowledge of the imperial court, where it would naturally excite suspicion, and thus frustrate his design in the very outset. from the army, too, the rebellious purposes for which it was destined, must be concealed till the very moment of execution, since it could scarcely be expected that they would at once be prepared to listen to the voice of a traitor, and serve against their legitimate sovereign. wallenstein, therefore, must raise it publicly and in name of the emperor, and be placed at its head, with unlimited authority, by the emperor himself. but how could this be accomplished, otherwise than by his being appointed to the command of the army, and entrusted with full powers to conduct the war. yet neither his pride, nor his interest, permitted him to sue in person for this post, and as a suppliant to accept from the favour of the emperor a limited power, when an unlimited authority might be extorted from his fears. in order to make himself the master of the terms on which he would resume the command of the army, his course was to wait until the post should be forced upon him. this was the advice he received from arnheim, and this the end for which he laboured with profound policy and restless activity. convinced that extreme necessity would alone conquer the emperor's irresolution, and render powerless the opposition of his bitter enemies, bavaria and spain, he henceforth occupied himself in promoting the success of the enemy, and in increasing the embarrassments of his master. it was apparently by his instigation and advice, that the saxons, when on the route to lusatia and silesia, had turned their march towards bohemia, and overrun that defenceless kingdom, where their rapid conquests was partly the result of his measures. by the fears which he affected to entertain, he paralyzed every effort at resistance; and his precipitate retreat caused the delivery of the capital to the enemy. at a conference with the saxon general, which was held at kaunitz under the pretext of negociating for a peace, the seal was put to the conspiracy, and the conquest of bohemia was the first fruits of this mutual understanding. while wallenstein was thus personally endeavouring to heighten the perplexities of austria, and while the rapid movements of the swedes upon the rhine effectually promoted his designs, his friends and bribed adherents in vienna uttered loud complaints of the public calamities, and represented the dismissal of the general as the sole cause of all these misfortunes. "had wallenstein commanded, matters would never have come to this," exclaimed a thousand voices; while their opinions found supporters, even in the emperor's privy council. their repeated remonstrances were not needed to convince the embarrassed emperor of his general's merits, and of his own error. his dependence on bavaria and the league had soon become insupportable; but hitherto this dependence permitted him not to show his distrust, or irritate the elector by the recall of wallenstein. but now when his necessities grew every day more pressing, and the weakness of bavaria more apparent, he could no longer hesitate to listen to the friends of the duke, and to consider their overtures for his restoration to command. the immense riches wallenstein possessed, the universal reputation he enjoyed, the rapidity with which six years before he had assembled an army of , men, the little expense at which he had maintained this formidable force, the actions he had performed at its head, and lastly, the zeal and fidelity he had displayed for his master's honour, still lived in the emperor's recollection, and made wallenstein seem to him the ablest instrument to restore the balance between the belligerent powers, to save austria, and preserve the catholic religion. however sensibly the imperial pride might feel the humiliation, in being forced to make so unequivocal an admission of past errors and present necessity; however painful it was to descend to humble entreaties, from the height of imperial command; however doubtful the fidelity of so deeply injured and implacable a character; however loudly and urgently the spanish minister and the elector of bavaria protested against this step, the immediate pressure of necessity finally overcame every other consideration, and the friends of the duke were empowered to consult him on the subject, and to hold out the prospect of his restoration. informed of all that was transacted in the emperor's cabinet to his advantage, wallenstein possessed sufficient self-command to conceal his inward triumph and to assume the mask of indifference. the moment of vengeance was at last come, and his proud heart exulted in the prospect of repaying with interest the injuries of the emperor. with artful eloquence, he expatiated upon the happy tranquillity of a private station, which had blessed him since his retirement from a political stage. too long, he said, had he tasted the pleasures of ease and independence, to sacrifice to the vain phantom of glory, the uncertain favour of princes. all his desire of power and distinction were extinct: tranquillity and repose were now the sole object of his wishes. the better to conceal his real impatience, he declined the emperor's invitation to the court, but at the same time, to facilitate the negociations, came to znaim in moravia. at first, it was proposed to limit the authority to be intrusted to him, by the presence of a superior, in order, by this expedient, to silence the objections of the elector of bavaria. the imperial deputies, questenberg and werdenberg, who, as old friends of the duke, had been employed in this delicate mission, were instructed to propose that the king of hungary should remain with the army, and learn the art of war under wallenstein. but the very mention of his name threatened to put a period to the whole negociation. "no! never," exclaimed wallenstein, "will i submit to a colleague in my office. no -- not even if it were god himself, with whom i should have to share my command." but even when this obnoxious point was given up, prince eggenberg, the emperor's minister and favourite, who had always been the steady friend and zealous champion of wallenstein, and was therefore expressly sent to him, exhausted his eloquence in vain to overcome the pretended reluctance of the duke. "the emperor," he admitted, "had, in wallenstein, thrown away the most costly jewel in his crown: but unwillingly and compulsorily only had he taken this step, which he had since deeply repented of; while his esteem for the duke had remained unaltered, his favour for him undiminished. of these sentiments he now gave the most decisive proof, by reposing unlimited confidence in his fidelity and capacity to repair the mistakes of his predecessors, and to change the whole aspect of affairs. it would be great and noble to sacrifice his just indignation to the good of his country; dignified and worthy of him to refute the evil calumny of his enemies by the double warmth of his zeal. this victory over himself," concluded the prince, "would crown his other unparalleled services to the empire, and render him the greatest man of his age." these humiliating confessions, and flattering assurances, seemed at last to disarm the anger of the duke; but not before he had disburdened his heart of his reproaches against the emperor, pompously dwelt upon his own services, and humbled to the utmost the monarch who solicited his assistance, did he condescend to listen to the attractive proposals of the minister. as if he yielded entirely to the force of their arguments, he condescended with a haughty reluctance to that which was the most ardent wish of his heart; and deigned to favour the ambassadors with a ray of hope. but far from putting an end to the emperor's embarrassments, by giving at once a full and unconditional consent, he only acceded to a part of his demands, that he might exalt the value of that which still remained, and was of most importance. he accepted the command, but only for three months; merely for the purpose of raising, but not of leading, an army. he wished only to show his power and ability in its organization, and to display before the eyes of the emperor, the greatness of that assistance, which he still retained in his hands. convinced that an army raised by his name alone, would, if deprived of its creator, soon sink again into nothing, he intended it to serve only as a decoy to draw more important concessions from his master. and yet ferdinand congratulated himself, even in having gained so much as he had. wallenstein did not long delay to fulfil those promises which all germany regarded as chimerical, and which gustavus adolphus had considered as extravagant. but the foundation for the present enterprise had been long laid, and he now only put in motion the machinery, which many years had been prepared for the purpose. scarcely had the news spread of wallenstein's levies, when, from every quarter of the austrian monarchy, crowds of soldiers repaired to try their fortunes under this experienced general. many, who had before fought under his standards, had been admiring eye-witnesses of his great actions, and experienced his magnanimity, came forward from their retirement, to share with him a second time both booty and glory. the greatness of the pay he promised attracted thousands, and the plentiful supplies the soldier was likely to enjoy at the cost of the peasant, was to the latter an irresistible inducement to embrace the military life at once, rather than be the victim of its oppression. all the austrian provinces were compelled to assist in the equipment. no class was exempt from taxation -- no dignity or privilege from capitation. the spanish court, as well as the king of hungary, agreed to contribute a considerable sum. the ministers made large presents, while wallenstein himself advanced , dollars from his own income to hasten the armament. the poorer officers he supported out of his own revenues; and, by his own example, by brilliant promotions, and still more brilliant promises, he induced all, who were able, to raise troops at their own expense. whoever raised a corps at his own cost was to be its commander. in the appointment of officers, religion made no difference. riches, bravery and experience were more regarded than creed. by this uniform treatment of different religious sects, and still more by his express declaration, that his present levy had nothing to do with religion, the protestant subjects of the empire were tranquillized, and reconciled to bear their share of the public burdens. the duke, at the same time, did not omit to treat, in his own name, with foreign states for men and money. he prevailed on the duke of lorraine, a second time, to espouse the cause of the emperor. poland was urged to supply him with cossacks, and italy with warlike necessaries. before the three months were expired, the army which was assembled in moravia, amounted to no less than , men, chiefly drawn from the unconquered parts of bohemia, from moravia, silesia, and the german provinces of the house of austria. what to every one had appeared impracticable, wallenstein, to the astonishment of all europe, had in a short time effected. the charm of his name, his treasures, and his genius, had assembled thousands in arms, where before austria had only looked for hundreds. furnished, even to superfluity, with all necessaries, commanded by experienced officers, and inflamed by enthusiasm which assured itself of victory, this newly created army only awaited the signal of their leader to show themselves, by the bravery of their deeds, worthy of his choice. the duke had fulfilled his promise, and the troops were ready to take the field; he then retired, and left to the emperor to choose a commander. but it would have been as easy to raise a second army like the first, as to find any other commander for it than wallenstein. this promising army, the last hope of the emperor, was nothing but an illusion, as soon as the charm was dissolved which had called it into existence; by wallenstein it had been raised, and, without him, it sank like a creation of magic into its original nothingness. its officers were either bound to him as his debtors, or, as his creditors, closely connected with his interests, and the preservation of his power. the regiments he had entrusted to his own relations, creatures, and favourites. he, and he alone, could discharge to the troops the extravagant promises by which they had been lured into his service. his pledged word was the only security on which their bold expectations rested; a blind reliance on his omnipotence, the only tie which linked together in one common life and soul the various impulses of their zeal. there was an end of the good fortune of each individual, if he retired, who alone was the voucher of its fulfilment. however little wallenstein was serious in his refusal, he successfully employed this means to terrify the emperor into consenting to his extravagant conditions. the progress of the enemy every day increased the pressure of the emperor's difficulties, while the remedy was also close at hand; a word from him might terminate the general embarrassment. prince eggenberg at length received orders, for the third and last time, at any cost and sacrifice, to induce his friend, wallenstein, to accept the command. he found him at znaim in moravia, pompously surrounded by the troops, the possession of which he made the emperor so earnestly to long for. as a suppliant did the haughty subject receive the deputy of his sovereign. "he never could trust," he said, "to a restoration to command, which he owed to the emperor's necessities, and not to his sense of justice. he was now courted, because the danger had reached its height, and safety was hoped for from his arm only; but his successful services would soon cause the servant to be forgotten, and the return of security would bring back renewed ingratitude. if he deceived the expectations formed of him, his long earned renown would be forfeited; even if he fulfilled them, his repose and happiness must be sacrificed. soon would envy be excited anew, and the dependent monarch would not hesitate, a second time, to make an offering of convenience to a servant whom he could now dispense with. better for him at once, and voluntarily, to resign a post from which sooner or later the intrigues of his enemies would expel him. security and content were to be found in the bosom of private life; and nothing but the wish to oblige the emperor had induced him, reluctantly enough, to relinquish for a time his blissful repose." tired of this long farce, the minister at last assumed a serious tone, and threatened the obstinate duke with the emperor's resentment, if he persisted in his refusal. "low enough had the imperial dignity," he added, "stooped already; and yet, instead of exciting his magnanimity by its condescension, had only flattered his pride and increased his obstinacy. if this sacrifice had been made in vain, he would not answer, but that the suppliant might be converted into the sovereign, and that the monarch might not avenge his injured dignity on his rebellious subject. however greatly ferdinand may have erred, the emperor at least had a claim to obedience; the man might be mistaken, but the monarch could not confess his error. if the duke of friedland had suffered by an unjust decree, he might yet be recompensed for all his losses; the wound which it had itself inflicted, the hand of majesty might heal. if he asked security for his person and his dignities, the emperor's equity would refuse him no reasonable demand. majesty contemned, admitted not of any atonement; disobedience to its commands cancelled the most brilliant services. the emperor required his services, and as emperor he demanded them. whatever price wallenstein might set upon them, the emperor would readily agree to; but he demanded obedience, or the weight of his indignation should crush the refractory servant." wallenstein, whose extensive possessions within the austrian monarchy were momentarily exposed to the power of the emperor, was keenly sensible that this was no idle threat; yet it was not fear that at last overcame his affected reluctance. this imperious tone of itself, was to his mind a plain proof of the weakness and despair which dictated it, while the emperor's readiness to yield all his demands, convinced him that he had attained the summit of his wishes. he now made a show of yielding to the persuasions of eggenberg; and left him, in order to write down the conditions on which he accepted the command. not without apprehension, did the minister receive the writing, in which the proudest of subjects had prescribed laws to the proudest of sovereigns. but however little confidence he had in the moderation of his friend, the extravagant contents of his writing surpassed even his worst expectations. wallenstein required the uncontrolled command over all the german armies of austria and spain, with unlimited powers to reward and punish. neither the king of hungary, nor the emperor himself, were to appear in the army, still less to exercise any act of authority over it. no commission in the army, no pension or letter of grace, was to be granted by the emperor without wallenstein's approval. all the conquests and confiscations that should take place, were to be placed entirely at wallenstein's disposal, to the exclusion of every other tribunal. for his ordinary pay, an imperial hereditary estate was to be assigned him, with another of the conquered estates within the empire for his extraordinary expenses. every austrian province was to be opened to him if he required it in case of retreat. he farther demanded the assurance of the possession of the duchy of mecklenburg, in the event of a future peace; and a formal and timely intimation, if it should be deemed necessary a second time to deprive him of the command. in vain the minister entreated him to moderate his demands, which, if granted, would deprive the emperor of all authority over his own troops, and make him absolutely dependent on his general. the value placed on his services had been too plainly manifested to prevent him dictating the price at which they were to be purchased. if the pressure of circumstances compelled the emperor to grant these demands, it was more than a mere feeling of haughtiness and desire of revenge which induced the duke to make them. his plans of rebellion were formed, to their success, every one of the conditions for which wallenstein stipulated in this treaty with the court, was indispensable. those plans required that the emperor should be deprived of all authority in germany, and be placed at the mercy of his general; and this object would be attained, the moment ferdinand subscribed the required conditions. the use which wallenstein intended to make of his army, (widely different indeed from that for which it was entrusted to him,) brooked not of a divided power, and still less of an authority superior to his own. to be the sole master of the will of his troops, he must also be the sole master of their destinies; insensibly to supplant his sovereign, and to transfer permanently to his own person the rights of sovereignty, which were only lent to him for a time by a higher authority, he must cautiously keep the latter out of the view of the army. hence his obstinate refusal to allow any prince of the house of austria to be present with the army. the liberty of free disposal of all the conquered and confiscated estates in the empire, would also afford him fearful means of purchasing dependents and instruments of his plans, and of acting the dictator in germany more absolutely than ever any emperor did in time of peace. by the right to use any of the austrian provinces as a place of refuge, in case of need, he had full power to hold the emperor a prisoner by means of his own forces, and within his own dominions; to exhaust the strength and resources of these countries, and to undermine the power of austria in its very foundation. whatever might be the issue, he had equally secured his own advantage, by the conditions he had extorted from the emperor. if circumstances proved favourable to his daring project, this treaty with the emperor facilitated its execution; if on the contrary, the course of things ran counter to it, it would at least afford him a brilliant compensation for the failure of his plans. but how could he consider an agreement valid, which was extorted from his sovereign, and based upon treason? how could he hope to bind the emperor by a written agreement, in the face of a law which condemned to death every one who should have the presumption to impose conditions upon him? but this criminal was the most indispensable man in the empire, and ferdinand, well practised in dissimulation, granted him for the present all he required. at last, then, the imperial army had found a commander-in-chief worthy of the name. every other authority in the army, even that of the emperor himself, ceased from the moment wallenstein assumed the commander's baton, and every act was invalid which did not proceed from him. from the banks of the danube, to those of the weser and the oder, was felt the life-giving dawning of this new star; a new spirit seemed to inspire the troops of the emperor, a new epoch of the war began. the papists form fresh hopes, the protestant beholds with anxiety the changed course of affairs. the greater the price at which the services of the new general had been purchased, the greater justly were the expectations from those which the court of the emperor entertained. but the duke was in no hurry to fulfil these expectations. already in the vicinity of bohemia, and at the head of a formidable force, he had but to show himself there, in order to overpower the exhausted force of the saxons, and brilliantly to commence his new career by the reconquest of that kingdom. but, contented with harassing the enemy with indecisive skirmishes of his croats, he abandoned the best part of that kingdom to be plundered, and moved calmly forward in pursuit of his own selfish plans. his design was, not to conquer the saxons, but to unite with them. exclusively occupied with this important object, he remained inactive in the hope of conquering more surely by means of negociation. he left no expedient untried, to detach this prince from the swedish alliance; and ferdinand himself, ever inclined to an accommodation with this prince, approved of this proceeding. but the great debt which saxony owed to sweden, was as yet too freshly remembered to allow of such an act of perfidy; and even had the elector been disposed to yield to the temptation, the equivocal character of wallenstein, and the bad character of austrian policy, precluded any reliance in the integrity of its promises. notorious already as a treacherous statesman, he met not with faith upon the very occasion when perhaps he intended to act honestly; and, moreover, was denied, by circumstances, the opportunity of proving the sincerity of his intentions, by the disclosure of his real motives. he, therefore, unwillingly resolved to extort, by force of arms, what he could not obtain by negociation. suddenly assembling his troops, he appeared before prague ere the saxons had time to advance to its relief. after a short resistance, the treachery of some capuchins opens the gates to one of his regiments; and the garrison, who had taken refuge in the citadel, soon laid down their arms upon disgraceful conditions. master of the capital, he hoped to carry on more successfully his negociations at the saxon court; but even while he was renewing his proposals to arnheim, he did not hesitate to give them weight by striking a decisive blow. he hastened to seize the narrow passes between aussig and pirna, with a view of cutting off the retreat of the saxons into their own country; but the rapidity of arnheim's operations fortunately extricated them from the danger. after the retreat of this general, egra and leutmeritz, the last strongholds of the saxons, surrendered to the conqueror: and the whole kingdom was restored to its legitimate sovereign, in less time than it had been lost. wallenstein, less occupied with the interests of his master, than with the furtherance of his own plans, now purposed to carry the war into saxony, and by ravaging his territories, compel the elector to enter into a private treaty with the emperor, or rather with himself. but, however little accustomed he was to make his will bend to circumstances, he now perceived the necessity of postponing his favourite scheme for a time, to a more pressing emergency. while he was driving the saxons from bohemia, gustavus adolphus had been gaining the victories, already detailed, on the rhine and the danube, and carried the war through franconia and swabia, to the frontiers of bavaria. maximilian, defeated on the lech, and deprived by death of count tilly, his best support, urgently solicited the emperor to send with all speed the duke of friedland to his assistance, from bohemia, and by the defence of bavaria, to avert the danger from austria itself. he also made the same request to wallenstein, and entreated him, till he could himself come with the main force, to despatch in the mean time a few regiments to his aid. ferdinand seconded the request with all his influence, and one messenger after another was sent to wallenstein, urging him to move towards the danube. it now appeared how completely the emperor had sacrificed his authority, in surrendering to another the supreme command of his troops. indifferent to maximilian's entreaties, and deaf to the emperor's repeated commands, wallenstein remained inactive in bohemia, and abandoned the elector to his fate. the remembrance of the evil service which maximilian had rendered him with the emperor, at the diet at ratisbon, was deeply engraved on the implacable mind of the duke, and the elector's late attempts to prevent his reinstatement, were no secret to him. the moment of revenging this affront had now arrived, and maximilian was doomed to pay dearly for his folly, in provoking the most revengeful of men. wallenstein maintained, that bohemia ought not to be left exposed, and that austria could not be better protected, than by allowing the swedish army to waste its strength before the bavarian fortress. thus, by the arm of the swedes, he chastised his enemy; and while one place after another fell into their hands, he allowed the elector vainly to await his arrival in ratisbon. it was only when the complete subjugation of bohemia left him without excuse, and the conquests of gustavus adolphus in bavaria threatened austria itself, that he yielded to the pressing entreaties of the elector and the emperor, and determined to effect the long-expected union with the former; an event, which, according to the general anticipation of the roman catholics, would decide the fate of the campaign. gustavus adolphus, too weak in numbers to cope even with wallenstein's force alone, naturally dreaded the junction of such powerful armies, and the little energy he used to prevent it, was the occasion of great surprise. apparently he reckoned too much on the hatred which alienated the leaders, and seemed to render their effectual co-operation improbable; when the event contradicted his views, it was too late to repair his error. on the first certain intelligence he received of their designs, he hastened to the upper palatinate, for the purpose of intercepting the elector: but the latter had already arrived there, and the junction had been effected at egra. this frontier town had been chosen by wallenstein, for the scene of his triumph over his proud rival. not content with having seen him, as it were, a suppliant at his feet, he imposed upon him the hard condition of leaving his territories in his rear exposed to the enemy, and declaring by this long march to meet him, the necessity and distress to which he was reduced. even to this humiliation, the haughty prince patiently submitted. it had cost him a severe struggle to ask for protection of the man who, if his own wishes had been consulted, would never have had the power of granting it: but having once made up his mind to it, he was ready to bear all the annoyances which were inseparable from that resolve, and sufficiently master of himself to put up with petty grievances, when an important end was in view. but whatever pains it had cost to effect this junction, it was equally difficult to settle the conditions on which it was to be maintained. the united army must be placed under the command of one individual, if any object was to be gained by the union, and each general was equally averse to yield to the superior authority of the other. if maximilian rested his claim on his electoral dignity, the nobleness of his descent, and his influence in the empire, wallenstein's military renown, and the unlimited command conferred on him by the emperor, gave an equally strong title to it. if it was deeply humiliating to the pride of the former to serve under an imperial subject, the idea of imposing laws on so imperious a spirit, flattered in the same degree the haughtiness of wallenstein. an obstinate dispute ensued, which, however, terminated in a mutual compromise to wallenstein's advantage. to him was assigned the unlimited command of both armies, particularly in battle, while the elector was deprived of all power of altering the order of battle, or even the route of the army. he retained only the bare right of punishing and rewarding his own troops, and the free use of these, when not acting in conjunction with the imperialists. after these preliminaries were settled, the two generals at last ventured upon an interview; but not until they had mutually promised to bury the past in oblivion, and all the outward formalities of a reconciliation had been settled. according to agreement, they publicly embraced in the sight of their troops, and made mutual professions of friendship, while in reality the hearts of both were overflowing with malice. maximilian, well versed in dissimulation, had sufficient command over himself, not to betray in a single feature his real feelings; but a malicious triumph sparkled in the eyes of wallenstein, and the constraint which was visible in all his movements, betrayed the violence of the emotion which overpowered his proud soul. the combined imperial and bavarian armies amounted to nearly , men, chiefly veterans. before this force, the king of sweden was not in a condition to keep the field. as his attempt to prevent their junction had failed, he commenced a rapid retreat into franconia, and awaited there for some decisive movement on the part of the enemy, in order to form his own plans. the position of the combined armies between the frontiers of saxony and bavaria, left it for some time doubtful whether they would remove the war into the former, or endeavour to drive the swedes from the danube, and deliver bavaria. saxony had been stripped of troops by arnheim, who was pursuing his conquests in silesia; not without a secret design, it was generally supposed, of favouring the entrance of the duke of friedland into that electorate, and of thus driving the irresolute john george into peace with the emperor. gustavus adolphus himself, fully persuaded that wallenstein's views were directed against saxony, hastily despatched a strong reinforcement to the assistance of his confederate, with the intention, as soon as circumstances would allow, of following with the main body. but the movements of wallenstein's army soon led him to suspect that he himself was the object of attack; and the duke's march through the upper palatinate, placed the matter beyond a doubt. the question now was, how to provide for his own security, and the prize was no longer his supremacy, but his very existence. his fertile genius must now supply the means, not of conquest, but of preservation. the approach of the enemy had surprised him before he had time to concentrate his troops, which were scattered all over germany, or to summon his allies to his aid. too weak to meet the enemy in the field, he had no choice left, but either to throw himself into nuremberg, and run the risk of being shut up in its walls, or to sacrifice that city, and await a reinforcement under the cannon of donauwerth. indifferent to danger or difficulty, while he obeyed the call of humanity or honour, he chose the first without hesitation, firmly resolved to bury himself with his whole army under the ruins of nuremberg, rather than to purchase his own safety by the sacrifice of his confederates. measures were immediately taken to surround the city and suburbs with redoubts, and to form an entrenched camp. several thousand workmen immediately commenced this extensive work, and an heroic determination to hazard life and property in the common cause, animated the inhabitants of nuremberg. a trench, eight feet deep and twelve broad, surrounded the whole fortification; the lines were defended by redoubts and batteries, the gates by half moons. the river pegnitz, which flows through nuremberg, divided the whole camp into two semicircles, whose communication was secured by several bridges. about three hundred pieces of cannon defended the town-walls and the intrenchments. the peasantry from the neighbouring villages, and the inhabitants of nuremberg, assisted the swedish soldiers so zealously, that on the seventh day the army was able to enter the camp, and, in a fortnight, this great work was completed. while these operations were carried on without the walls, the magistrates of nuremberg were busily occupied in filling the magazines with provisions and ammunition for a long siege. measures were taken, at the same time, to secure the health of the inhabitants, which was likely to be endangered by the conflux of so many people; cleanliness was enforced by the strictest regulations. in order, if necessary, to support the king, the youth of the city were embodied and trained to arms, the militia of the town considerably reinforced, and a new regiment raised, consisting of four-and-twenty names, according to the letters of the alphabet. gustavus had, in the mean time, called to his assistance his allies, duke william of weimar, and the landgrave of hesse cassel; and ordered his generals on the rhine, in thuringia and lower saxony, to commence their march immediately, and join him with their troops in nuremberg. his army, which was encamped within the lines, did not amount to more than , men, scarcely a third of the enemy. the imperialists had, in the mean time, by slow marches, advanced to neumark, where wallenstein made a general review. at the sight of this formidable force, he could not refrain from indulging in a childish boast: "in four days," said he, "it will be shown whether i or the king of sweden is to be master of the world." yet, notwithstanding his superiority, he did nothing to fulfil his promise; and even let slip the opportunity of crushing his enemy, when the latter had the hardihood to leave his lines to meet him. "battles enough have been fought," was his answer to those who advised him to attack the king, "it is now time to try another method." wallenstein's well-founded reputation required not any of those rash enterprises on which younger soldiers rush, in the hope of gaining a name. satisfied that the enemy's despair would dearly sell a victory, while a defeat would irretrievably ruin the emperor's affairs, he resolved to wear out the ardour of his opponent by a tedious blockade, and by thus depriving him of every opportunity of availing himself of his impetuous bravery, take from him the very advantage which had hitherto rendered him invincible. without making any attack, therefore, he erected a strong fortified camp on the other side of the pegnitz, and opposite nuremberg; and, by this well chosen position, cut off from the city and the camp of gustavus all supplies from franconia, swabia, and thuringia. thus he held in siege at once the city and the king, and flattered himself with the hope of slowly, but surely, wearing out by famine and pestilence the courage of his opponent whom he had no wish to encounter in the field. little aware, however, of the resources and the strength of his adversary, wallenstein had not taken sufficient precautions to avert from himself the fate he was designing for others. from the whole of the neighbouring country, the peasantry had fled with their property; and what little provision remained, must be obstinately contested with the swedes. the king spared the magazines within the town, as long as it was possible to provision his army from without; and these forays produced constant skirmishes between the croats and the swedish cavalry, of which the surrounding country exhibited the most melancholy traces. the necessaries of life must be obtained sword in hand; and the foraging parties could not venture out without a numerous escort. and when this supply failed, the town opened its magazines to the king, but wallenstein had to support his troops from a distance. a large convoy from bavaria was on its way to him, with an escort of a thousand men. gustavus adolphus having received intelligence of its approach, immediately sent out a regiment of cavalry to intercept it; and the darkness of the night favoured the enterprise. the whole convoy, with the town in which it was, fell into the hands of the swedes; the imperial escort was cut to pieces; about , cattle carried off; and a thousand waggons, loaded with bread, which could not be brought away, were set on fire. seven regiments, which wallenstein had sent forward to altdorp to cover the entrance of the long and anxiously expected convoy, were attacked by the king, who had, in like manner, advanced to cover the retreat of his cavalry, and routed after an obstinate action, being driven back into the imperial camp, with the loss of men. so many checks and difficulties, and so firm and unexpected a resistance on the part of the king, made the duke of friedland repent that he had declined to hazard a battle. the strength of the swedish camp rendered an attack impracticable; and the armed youth of nuremberg served the king as a nursery from which he could supply his loss of troops. the want of provisions, which began to be felt in the imperial camp as strongly as in the swedish, rendered it uncertain which party would be first compelled to give way. fifteen days had the two armies now remained in view of each other, equally defended by inaccessible entrenchments, without attempting anything more than slight attacks and unimportant skirmishes. on both sides, infectious diseases, the natural consequence of bad food, and a crowded population, had occasioned a greater loss than the sword. and this evil daily increased. but at length, the long expected succours arrived in the swedish camp; and by this strong reinforcement, the king was now enabled to obey the dictates of his native courage, and to break the chains which had hitherto fettered him. in obedience to his requisitions, the duke of weimar had hastily drawn together a corps from the garrisons in lower saxony and thuringia, which, at schweinfurt in franconia, was joined by four saxon regiments, and at kitzingen by the corps of the rhine, which the landgrave of hesse, and the palatine of birkenfeld, despatched to the relief of the king. the chancellor, oxenstiern, undertook to lead this force to its destination. after being joined at windsheim by the duke of weimar himself, and the swedish general banner, he advanced by rapid marches to bruck and eltersdorf, where he passed the rednitz, and reached the swedish camp in safety. this reinforcement amounted to nearly , men, and was attended by a train of pieces of cannon, and , baggage waggons. gustavus now saw himself at the head of an army of nearly , strong, without reckoning the militia of nuremberg, which, in case of necessity, could bring into the field about , fighting men; a formidable force, opposed to another not less formidable. the war seemed at length compressed to the point of a single battle, which was to decide its fearful issue. with divided sympathies, europe looked with anxiety to this scene, where the whole strength of the two contending parties was fearfully drawn, as it were, to a focus. if, before the arrival of the swedish succours, a want of provisions had been felt, the evil was now fearfully increased to a dreadful height in both camps, for wallenstein had also received reinforcements from bavaria. besides the , men confronted to each other, and more than , horses, in the two armies, and besides the inhabitants of nuremberg, whose number far exceeded the swedish army, there were in the camp of wallenstein about , women, with as many drivers, and nearly the same number in that of the swedes. the custom of the time permitted the soldier to carry his family with him to the field. a number of prostitutes followed the imperialists; while, with the view of preventing such excesses, gustavus's care for the morals of his soldiers promoted marriages. for the rising generation, who had this camp for their home and country, regular military schools were established, which educated a race of excellent warriors, by which means the army might in a manner recruit itself in the course of a long campaign. no wonder, then, if these wandering nations exhausted every territory in which they encamped, and by their immense consumption raised the necessaries of life to an exorbitant price. all the mills of nuremberg were insufficient to grind the corn required for each day; and , pounds of bread, which were daily delivered, by the town into the swedish camp, excited, without allaying, the hunger of the soldiers. the laudable exertions of the magistrates of nuremberg could not prevent the greater part of the horses from dying for want of forage, while the increasing mortality in the camp consigned more than a hundred men daily to the grave. to put an end to these distresses, gustavus adolphus, relying on his numerical superiority, left his lines on the th day, forming before the enemy in order of battle, while he cannonaded the duke's camp from three batteries erected on the side of the rednitz. but the duke remained immoveable in his entrenchments, and contented himself with answering this challenge by a distant fire of cannon and musketry. his plan was to wear out the king by his inactivity, and by the force of famine to overcome his resolute determination; and neither the remonstrances of maximilian, and the impatience of his army, nor the ridicule of his opponent, could shake his purpose. gustavus, deceived in his hope of forcing a battle, and compelled by his increasing necessities, now attempted impossibilities, and resolved to storm a position which art and nature had combined to render impregnable. intrusting his own camp to the militia of nuremberg, on the fifty-eighth day of his encampment, (the festival of st. bartholomew,) he advanced in full order of battle, and passing the rednitz at furth, easily drove the enemy's outposts before him. the main army of the imperialists was posted on the steep heights between the biber and the rednitz, called the old fortress and altenberg; while the camp itself, commanded by these eminences, spread out immeasurably along the plain. on these heights, the whole of the artillery was placed. deep trenches surrounded inaccessible redoubts, while thick barricadoes, with pointed palisades, defended the approaches to the heights, from the summits of which, wallenstein calmly and securely discharged the lightnings of his artillery from amid the dark thunder-clouds of smoke. a destructive fire of musketry was maintained behind the breastworks, and a hundred pieces of cannon threatened the desperate assailant with certain destruction. against this dangerous post gustavus now directed his attack; five hundred musketeers, supported by a few infantry, (for a greater number could not act in the narrow space,) enjoyed the unenvied privilege of first throwing themselves into the open jaws of death. the assault was furious, the resistance obstinate. exposed to the whole fire of the enemy's artillery, and infuriate by the prospect of inevitable death, these determined warriors rushed forward to storm the heights; which, in an instant, converted into a flaming volcano, discharged on them a shower of shot. at the same moment, the heavy cavalry rushed forward into the openings which the artillery had made in the close ranks of the assailants, and divided them; till the intrepid band, conquered by the strength of nature and of man, took to flight, leaving a hundred dead upon the field. to germans had gustavus yielded this post of honour. exasperated at their retreat, he now led on his finlanders to the attack, thinking, by their northern courage, to shame the cowardice of the germans. but they, also, after a similar hot reception, yielded to the superiority of the enemy; and a third regiment succeeded them to experience the same fate. this was replaced by a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth; so that, during a ten hours' action, every regiment was brought to the attack to retire with bloody loss from the contest. a thousand mangled bodies covered the field; yet gustavus undauntedly maintained the attack, and wallenstein held his position unshaken. in the mean time, a sharp contest had taken place between the imperial cavalry and the left wing of the swedes, which was posted in a thicket on the rednitz, with varying success, but with equal intrepidity and loss on both sides. the duke of friedland and prince bernard of weimar had each a horse shot under them; the king himself had the sole of his boot carried off by a cannon ball. the combat was maintained with undiminished obstinacy, till the approach of night separated the combatants. but the swedes had advanced too far to retreat without hazard. while the king was seeking an officer to convey to the regiments the order to retreat, he met colonel hepburn, a brave scotchman, whose native courage alone had drawn him from the camp to share in the dangers of the day. offended with the king for having not long before preferred a younger officer for some post of danger, he had rashly vowed never again to draw his sword for the king. to him gustavus now addressed himself, praising his courage, and requesting him to order the regiments to retreat. "sire," replied the brave soldier, "it is the only service i cannot refuse to your majesty; for it is a hazardous one," -- and immediately hastened to carry the command. one of the heights above the old fortress had, in the heat of the action, been carried by the duke of weimar. it commanded the hills and the whole camp. but the heavy rain which fell during the night, rendered it impossible to draw up the cannon; and this post, which had been gained with so much bloodshed, was also voluntarily abandoned. diffident of fortune, which forsook him on this decisive day, the king did not venture the following morning to renew the attack with his exhausted troops; and vanquished for the first time, even because he was not victor, he led back his troops over the rednitz. two thousand dead which he left behind him on the field, testified to the extent of his loss; and the duke of friedland remained unconquered within his lines. for fourteen days after this action, the two armies still continued in front of each other, each in the hope that the other would be the first to give way. every day reduced their provisions, and as scarcity became greater, the excesses of the soldiers rendered furious, exercised the wildest outrages on the peasantry. the increasing distress broke up all discipline and order in the swedish camp; and the german regiments, in particular, distinguished themselves for the ravages they practised indiscriminately on friend and foe. the weak hand of a single individual could not check excesses, encouraged by the silence, if not the actual example, of the inferior officers. these shameful breaches of discipline, on the maintenance of which he had hitherto justly prided himself, severely pained the king; and the vehemence with which he reproached the german officers for their negligence, bespoke the liveliness of his emotion. "it is you yourselves, germans," said he, "that rob your native country, and ruin your own confederates in the faith. as god is my judge, i abhor you, i loathe you; my heart sinks within me whenever i look upon you. ye break my orders; ye are the cause that the world curses me, that the tears of poverty follow me, that complaints ring in my ear -- `the king, our friend, does us more harm than even our worst enemies.' on your account i have stripped my own kingdom of its treasures, and spent upon you more than tons of gold*; while from your german empire i have not received the least aid. i gave you a share of all that god had given to me; and had ye regarded my orders, i would have gladly shared with you all my future acquisitions. your want of discipline convinces me of your evil intentions, whatever cause i might otherwise have to applaud your bravery." -- * a ton of gold in sweden amounts to , rix dollars. -- nuremberg had exerted itself, almost beyond its power, to subsist for eleven weeks the vast crowd which was compressed within its boundaries; but its means were at length exhausted, and the king's more numerous party was obliged to determine on a retreat. by the casualties of war and sickness, nuremberg had lost more than , of its inhabitants, and gustavus adolphus nearly , of his soldiers. the fields around the city were trampled down, the villages lay in ashes, the plundered peasantry lay faint and dying on the highways; foul odours infected the air, and bad food, the exhalations from so dense a population, and so many putrifying carcasses, together with the heat of the dog-days, produced a desolating pestilence which raged among men and beasts, and long after the retreat of both armies, continued to load the country with misery and distress. affected by the general distress, and despairing of conquering the steady determination of the duke of friedland, the king broke up his camp on the th september, leaving in nuremberg a sufficient garrison. he advanced in full order of battle before the enemy, who remained motionless, and did not attempt in the least to harass his retreat. his route lay by the aisch and windsheim towards neustadt, where he halted five days to refresh his troops, and also to be near to nuremberg, in case the enemy should make an attempt upon the town. but wallenstein, as exhausted as himself, had only awaited the retreat of the swedes to commence his own. five days afterwards, he broke up his camp at zirndorf, and set it on fire. a hundred columns of smoke, rising from all the burning villages in the neighbourhood, announced his retreat, and showed the city the fate it had escaped. his march, which was directed on forchheim, was marked by the most frightful ravages; but he was too far advanced to be overtaken by the king. the latter now divided his army, which the exhausted country was unable to support, and leaving one division to protect franconia, with the other he prosecuted in person his conquests in bavaria. in the mean time, the imperial bavarian army had marched into the bishopric of bamberg, where the duke of friedland a second time mustered his troops. he found this force, which so lately had amounted to , men, diminished by the sword, desertion, and disease, to about , , and of these a fourth were bavarians. thus had the encampments before nuremberg weakened both parties more than two great battles would have done, apparently without advancing the termination of the war, or satisfying, by any decisive result, the expectations of europe. the king's conquests in bavaria, were, it is true, checked for a time by this diversion before nuremberg, and austria itself secured against the danger of immediate invasion; but by the retreat of the king from that city, he was again left at full liberty to make bavaria the seat of war. indifferent towards the fate of that country, and weary of the restraint which his union with the elector imposed upon him, the duke of friedland eagerly seized the opportunity of separating from this burdensome associate, and prosecuting, with renewed earnestness, his favourite plans. still adhering to his purpose of detaching saxony from its swedish alliance, he selected that country for his winter quarters, hoping by his destructive presence to force the elector the more readily into his views. no conjuncture could be more favourable for his designs. the saxons had invaded silesia, where, reinforced by troops from brandenburgh and sweden, they had gained several advantages over the emperor's troops. silesia would be saved by a diversion against the elector in his own territories, and the attempt was the more easy, as saxony, left undefended during the war in silesia, lay open on every side to attack. the pretext of rescuing from the enemy an hereditary dominion of austria, would silence the remonstrances of the elector of bavaria, and, under the mask of a patriotic zeal for the emperor's interests, maximilian might be sacrificed without much difficulty. by giving up the rich country of bavaria to the swedes, he hoped to be left unmolested by them in his enterprise against saxony, while the increasing coldness between gustavus and the saxon court, gave him little reason to apprehend any extraordinary zeal for the deliverance of john george. thus a second time abandoned by his artful protector, the elector separated from wallenstein at bamberg, to protect his defenceless territory with the small remains of his troops, while the imperial army, under wallenstein, directed its march through bayreuth and coburg towards the thuringian forest. an imperial general, holk, had previously been sent into vogtland with , men, to waste this defenceless province with fire and sword, he was soon followed by gallas, another of the duke's generals, and an equally faithful instrument of his inhuman orders. finally, pappenheim, too, was recalled from lower saxony, to reinforce the diminished army of the duke, and to complete the miseries of the devoted country. ruined churches, villages in ashes, harvests wilfully destroyed, families plundered, and murdered peasants, marked the progress of these barbarians, under whose scourge the whole of thuringia, vogtland, and meissen, lay defenceless. yet this was but the prelude to greater sufferings, with which wallenstein himself, at the head of the main army, threatened saxony. after having left behind him fearful monuments of his fury, in his march through franconia and thuringia, he arrived with his whole army in the circle of leipzig, and compelled the city, after a short resistance, to surrender. his design was to push on to dresden, and by the conquest of the whole country, to prescribe laws to the elector. he had already approached the mulda, threatening to overpower the saxon army which had advanced as far as torgau to meet him, when the king of sweden's arrival at erfurt gave an unexpected check to his operations. placed between the saxon and swedish armies, which were likely to be farther reinforced by the troops of george, duke of luneburg, from lower saxony, he hastily retired upon meresberg, to form a junction there with count pappenheim, and to repel the further advance of the swedes. gustavus adolphus had witnessed, with great uneasiness, the arts employed by spain and austria to detach his allies from him. the more important his alliance with saxony, the more anxiety the inconstant temper of john george caused him. between himself and the elector, a sincere friendship could never subsist. a prince, proud of his political importance, and accustomed to consider himself as the head of his party, could not see without annoyance the interference of a foreign power in the affairs of the empire; and nothing, but the extreme danger of his dominions, could overcome the aversion with which he had long witnessed the progress of this unwelcome intruder. the increasing influence of the king in germany, his authority with the protestant states, the unambiguous proofs which he gave of his ambitious views, which were of a character calculated to excite the jealousies of all the states of the empire, awakened in the elector's breast a thousand anxieties, which the imperial emissaries did not fail skilfully to keep alive and cherish. every arbitrary step on the part of the king, every demand, however reasonable, which he addressed to the princes of the empire, was followed by bitter complaints from the elector, which seemed to announce an approaching rupture. even the generals of the two powers, whenever they were called upon to act in common, manifested the same jealousy as divided their leaders. john george's natural aversion to war, and a lingering attachment to austria, favoured the efforts of arnheim; who, maintaining a constant correspondence with wallenstein, laboured incessantly to effect a private treaty between his master and the emperor; and if his representations were long disregarded, still the event proved that they were not altogether without effect. gustavus adolphus, naturally apprehensive of the consequences which the defection of so powerful an ally would produce on his future prospects in germany, spared no pains to avert so pernicious an event; and his remonstrances had hitherto had some effect upon the elector. but the formidable power with which the emperor seconded his seductive proposals, and the miseries which, in the case of hesitation, he threatened to accumulate upon saxony, might at length overcome the resolution of the elector, should he be left exposed to the vengeance of his enemies; while an indifference to the fate of so powerful a confederate, would irreparably destroy the confidence of the other allies in their protector. this consideration induced the king a second time to yield to the pressing entreaties of the elector, and to sacrifice his own brilliant prospects to the safety of this ally. he had already resolved upon a second attack on ingoldstadt; and the weakness of the elector of bavaria gave him hopes of soon forcing this exhausted enemy to accede to a neutrality. an insurrection of the peasantry in upper austria, opened to him a passage into that country, and the capital might be in his possession, before wallenstein could have time to advance to its defence. all these views he now gave up for the sake of an ally, who, neither by his services nor his fidelity, was worthy of the sacrifice; who, on the pressing occasions of common good, had steadily adhered to his own selfish projects; and who was important, not for the services he was expected to render, but merely for the injuries he had it in his power to inflict. is it possible, then, to refrain from indignation, when we know that, in this expedition, undertaken for the benefit of such an ally, the great king was destined to terminate his career? rapidly assembling his troops in franconia, he followed the route of wallenstein through thuringia. duke bernard of weimar, who had been despatched to act against pappenheim, joined the king at armstadt, who now saw himself at the head of , veterans. at erfurt he took leave of his queen, who was not to behold him, save in his coffin, at weissenfels. their anxious adieus seemed to forbode an eternal separation. he reached naumburg on the st november, , before the corps, which the duke of friedland had despatched for that purpose, could make itself master of that place. the inhabitants of the surrounding country flocked in crowds to look upon the hero, the avenger, the great king, who, a year before, had first appeared in that quarter, like a guardian angel. shouts of joy everywhere attended his progress; the people knelt before him, and struggled for the honour of touching the sheath of his sword, or the hem of his garment. the modest hero disliked this innocent tribute which a sincerely grateful and admiring multitude paid him. "is it not," said he, "as if this people would make a god of me? our affairs prosper, indeed; but i fear the vengeance of heaven will punish me for this presumption, and soon enough reveal to this deluded multitude my human weakness and mortality!" how amiable does gustavus appear before us at this moment, when about to leave us for ever! even in the plenitude of success, he honours an avenging nemesis, declines that homage which is due only to the immortal, and strengthens his title to our tears, the nearer the moment approaches that is to call them forth! in the mean time, the duke of friedland had determined to advance to meet the king, as far as weissenfels, and even at the hazard of a battle, to secure his winter-quarters in saxony. his inactivity before nuremberg had occasioned a suspicion that he was unwilling to measure his powers with those of the hero of the north, and his hard-earned reputation would be at stake, if, a second time, he should decline a battle. his present superiority in numbers, though much less than what it was at the beginning of the siege of nuremberg, was still enough to give him hopes of victory, if he could compel the king to give battle before his junction with the saxons. but his present reliance was not so much in his numerical superiority, as in the predictions of his astrologer seni, who had read in the stars that the good fortune of the swedish monarch would decline in the month of november. besides, between naumburg and weissenfels there was also a range of narrow defiles, formed by a long mountainous ridge, and the river saal, which ran at their foot, along which the swedes could not advance without difficulty, and which might, with the assistance of a few troops, be rendered almost impassable. if attacked there, the king would have no choice but either to penetrate with great danger through the defiles, or commence a laborious retreat through thuringia, and to expose the greater part of his army to a march through a desert country, deficient in every necessary for their support. but the rapidity with which gustavus adolphus had taken possession of naumburg, disappointed this plan, and it was now wallenstein himself who awaited the attack. but in this expectation he was disappointed; for the king, instead of advancing to meet him at weissenfels, made preparations for entrenching himself near naumburg, with the intention of awaiting there the reinforcements which the duke of lunenburg was bringing up. undecided whether to advance against the king through the narrow passes between weissenfels and naumburg, or to remain inactive in his camp, he called a council of war, in order to have the opinion of his most experienced generals. none of these thought it prudent to attack the king in his advantageous position. on the other hand, the preparations which the latter made to fortify his camp, plainly showed that it was not his intention soon to abandon it. but the approach of winter rendered it impossible to prolong the campaign, and by a continued encampment to exhaust the strength of the army, already so much in need of repose. all voices were in favour of immediately terminating the campaign: and, the more so, as the important city of cologne upon the rhine was threatened by the dutch, while the progress of the enemy in westphalia and the lower rhine called for effective reinforcements in that quarter. wallenstein yielded to the weight of these arguments, and almost convinced that, at this season, he had no reason to apprehend an attack from the king, he put his troops into winter-quarters, but so that, if necessary, they might be rapidly assembled. count pappenheim was despatched, with great part of the army, to the assistance of cologne, with orders to take possession, on his march, of the fortress of moritzburg, in the territory of halle. different corps took up their winter-quarters in the neighbouring towns, to watch, on all sides, the motions of the enemy. count colloredo guarded the castle of weissenfels, and wallenstein himself encamped with the remainder not far from merseburg, between flotzgaben and the saal, from whence he purposed to march to leipzig, and to cut off the communication between the saxons and the swedish army. scarcely had gustavus adolphus been informed of pappenheim's departure, when suddenly breaking up his camp at naumburg, he hastened with his whole force to attack the enemy, now weakened to one half. he advanced, by rapid marches, towards weissenfels, from whence the news of his arrival quickly reached the enemy, and greatly astonished the duke of friedland. but a speedy resolution was now necessary; and the measures of wallenstein were soon taken. though he had little more than , men to oppose to the , of the enemy, he might hope to maintain his ground until the return of pappenheim, who could not have advanced farther than halle, five miles distant. messengers were hastily despatched to recall him, while wallenstein moved forward into the wide plain between the canal and lutzen, where he awaited the king in full order of battle, and, by this position, cut off his communication with leipzig and the saxon auxiliaries. three cannon shots, fired by count colloredo from the castle of weissenfels, announced the king's approach; and at this concerted signal, the light troops of the duke of friedland, under the command of the croatian general isolani, moved forward to possess themselves of the villages lying upon the rippach. their weak resistance did not impede the advance of the enemy, who crossed the rippach, near the village of that name, and formed in line below lutzen, opposite the imperialists. the high road which goes from weissenfels to leipzig, is intersected between lutzen and markranstadt by the canal which extends from zeitz to merseburg, and unites the elster with the saal. on this canal, rested the left wing of the imperialists, and the right of the king of sweden; but so that the cavalry of both extended themselves along the opposite side. to the northward, behind lutzen, was wallenstein's right wing, and to the south of that town was posted the left wing of the swedes; both armies fronted the high road, which ran between them, and divided their order of battle; but the evening before the battle, wallenstein, to the great disadvantage of his opponent, had possessed himself of this highway, deepened the trenches which ran along its sides, and planted them with musketeers, so as to make the crossing of it both difficult and dangerous. behind these, again, was erected a battery of seven large pieces of cannon, to support the fire from the trenches; and at the windmills, close behind lutzen, fourteen smaller field pieces were ranged on an eminence, from which they could sweep the greater part of the plain. the infantry, divided into no more than five unwieldy brigades, was drawn up at the distance of paces from the road, and the cavalry covered the flanks. all the baggage was sent to leipzig, that it might not impede the movements of the army; and the ammunition-waggons alone remained, which were placed in rear of the line. to conceal the weakness of the imperialists, all the camp-followers and sutlers were mounted, and posted on the left wing, but only until pappenheim's troops arrived. these arrangements were made during the darkness of the night; and when the morning dawned, all was ready for the reception of the enemy. on the evening of the same day, gustavus adolphus appeared on the opposite plain, and formed his troops in the order of attack. his disposition was the same as that which had been so successful the year before at leipzig. small squadrons of horse were interspersed among the divisions of the infantry, and troops of musketeers placed here and there among the cavalry. the army was arranged in two lines, the canal on the right and in its rear, the high road in front, and the town on the left. in the centre, the infantry was formed, under the command of count brahe; the cavalry on the wings; the artillery in front. to the german hero, bernard, duke of weimar, was intrusted the command of the german cavalry of the left wing; while, on the right, the king led on the swedes in person, in order to excite the emulation of the two nations to a noble competition. the second line was formed in the same manner; and behind these was placed the reserve, commanded by henderson, a scotchman. in this position, they awaited the eventful dawn of morning, to begin a contest, which long delay, rather than the probability of decisive consequences, and the picked body, rather than the number of the combatants, was to render so terrible and remarkable. the strained expectation of europe, so disappointed before nuremberg, was now to be gratified on the plains of lutzen. during the whole course of the war, two such generals, so equally matched in renown and ability, had not before been pitted against each other. never, as yet, had daring been cooled by so awful a hazard, or hope animated by so glorious a prize. europe was next day to learn who was her greatest general: -- to-morrow, the leader, who had hitherto been invincible, must acknowledge a victor. this morning was to place it beyond a doubt, whether the victories of gustavus at leipzig and on the lech, were owing to his own military genius, or to the incompetency of his opponent; whether the services of wallenstein were to vindicate the emperor's choice, and justify the high price at which they had been purchased. the victory was as yet doubtful, but certain were the labour and the bloodshed by which it must be earned. every private in both armies, felt a jealous share in their leader's reputation, and under every corslet beat the same emotions that inflamed the bosoms of the generals. each army knew the enemy to which it was to be opposed: and the anxiety which each in vain attempted to repress, was a convincing proof of their opponent's strength. at last the fateful morning dawned; but an impenetrable fog, which spread over the plain, delayed the attack till noon. kneeling in front of his lines, the king offered up his devotions; and the whole army, at the same moment dropping on their knees, burst into a moving hymn, accompanied by the military music. the king then mounted his horse, and clad only in a leathern doublet and surtout, (for a wound he had formerly received prevented his wearing armour,) rode along the ranks, to animate the courage of his troops with a joyful confidence, which, however, the forboding presentiment of his own bosom contradicted. "god with us!" was the war-cry of the swedes; "jesus maria!" that of the imperialists. about eleven the fog began to disperse, and the enemy became visible. at the same moment lutzen was seen in flames, having been set on fire by command of the duke, to prevent his being outflanked on that side. the charge was now sounded; the cavalry rushed upon the enemy, and the infantry advanced against the trenches. received by a tremendous fire of musketry and heavy artillery, these intrepid battalions maintained the attack with undaunted courage, till the enemy's musketeers abandoned their posts, the trenches were passed, the battery carried and turned against the enemy. they pressed forward with irresistible impetuosity; the first of the five imperial brigades was immediately routed, the second soon after, and the third put to flight. but here the genius of wallenstein opposed itself to their progress. with the rapidity of lightning he was on the spot to rally his discomfited troops; and his powerful word was itself sufficient to stop the flight of the fugitives. supported by three regiments of cavalry, the vanquished brigades, forming anew, faced the enemy, and pressed vigorously into the broken ranks of the swedes. a murderous conflict ensued. the nearness of the enemy left no room for fire-arms, the fury of the attack no time for loading; man was matched to man, the useless musket exchanged for the sword and pike, and science gave way to desperation. overpowered by numbers, the wearied swedes at last retire beyond the trenches; and the captured battery is again lost by the retreat. a thousand mangled bodies already strewed the plain, and as yet not a single step of ground had been won. in the mean time, the king's right wing, led by himself, had fallen upon the enemy's left. the first impetuous shock of the heavy finland cuirassiers dispersed the lightly-mounted poles and croats, who were posted here, and their disorderly flight spread terror and confusion among the rest of the cavalry. at this moment notice was brought the king, that his infantry were retreating over the trenches, and also that his left wing, exposed to a severe fire from the enemy's cannon posted at the windmills was beginning to give way. with rapid decision he committed to general horn the pursuit of the enemy's left, while he flew, at the head of the regiment of steinbock, to repair the disorder of his right wing. his noble charger bore him with the velocity of lightning across the trenches, but the squadrons that followed could not come on with the same speed, and only a few horsemen, among whom was francis albert, duke of saxe lauenburg, were able to keep up with the king. he rode directly to the place where his infantry were most closely pressed, and while he was reconnoitring the enemy's line for an exposed point of attack, the shortness of his sight unfortunately led him too close to their ranks. an imperial gefreyter*, remarking that every one respectfully made way for him as he rode along, immediately ordered a musketeer to take aim at him. "fire at him yonder," said he, "that must be a man of consequence." the soldier fired, and the king's left arm was shattered. at that moment his squadron came hurrying up, and a confused cry of "the king bleeds! the king is shot!" spread terror and consternation through all the ranks. "it is nothing -- follow me," cried the king, collecting his whole strength; but overcome by pain, and nearly fainting, he requested the duke of lauenburg, in french, to lead him unobserved out of the tumult. while the duke proceeded towards the right wing with the king, making a long circuit to keep this discouraging sight from the disordered infantry, his majesty received a second shot through the back, which deprived him of his remaining strength. "brother," said he, with a dying voice, "i have enough! look only to your own life." at the same moment he fell from his horse pierced by several more shots; and abandoned by all his attendants, he breathed his last amidst the plundering hands of the croats. his charger, flying without its rider, and covered with blood, soon made known to the swedish cavalry the fall of their king. they rushed madly forward to rescue his sacred remains from the hands of the enemy. a murderous conflict ensued over the body, till his mangled remains were buried beneath a heap of slain. -- * gefreyter, a person exempt from watching duty, nearly corresponding to the corporal. -- the mournful tidings soon ran through the swedish army; but instead of destroying the courage of these brave troops, it but excited it into a new, a wild, and consuming flame. life had lessened in value, now that the most sacred life of all was gone; death had no terrors for the lowly since the anointed head was not spared. with the fury of lions the upland, smaeland, finland, east and west gothland regiments rushed a second time upon the left wing of the enemy, which, already making but feeble resistance to general horn, was now entirely beaten from the field. bernard, duke of saxe-weimar, gave to the bereaved swedes a noble leader in his own person; and the spirit of gustavus led his victorious squadrons anew. the left wing quickly formed again, and vigorously pressed the right of the imperialists. the artillery at the windmills, which had maintained so murderous a fire upon the swedes, was captured and turned against the enemy. the centre, also, of the swedish infantry, commanded by the duke and knyphausen, advanced a second time against the trenches, which they successfully passed, and retook the battery of seven cannons. the attack was now renewed with redoubled fury upon the heavy battalions of the enemy's centre; their resistance became gradually less, and chance conspired with swedish valour to complete the defeat. the imperial powder-waggons took fire, and, with a tremendous explosion, grenades and bombs filled the air. the enemy, now in confusion, thought they were attacked in the rear, while the swedish brigades pressed them in front. their courage began to fail them. their left wing was already beaten, their right wavering, and their artillery in the enemy's hands. the battle seemed to be almost decided; another moment would decide the fate of the day, when pappenheim appeared on the field, with his cuirassiers and dragoons; all the advantages already gained were lost, and the battle was to be fought anew. the order which recalled that general to lutzen had reached him in halle, while his troops were still plundering the town. it was impossible to collect the scattered infantry with that rapidity, which the urgency of the order, and pappenheim's impatience required. without waiting for it, therefore, he ordered eight regiments of cavalry to mount; and at their head he galloped at full speed for lutzen, to share in the battle. he arrived in time to witness the flight of the imperial right wing, which gustavus horn was driving from the field, and to be at first involved in their rout. but with rapid presence of mind he rallied the flying troops, and led them once more against the enemy. carried away by his wild bravery, and impatient to encounter the king, who he supposed was at the head of this wing, he burst furiously upon the swedish ranks, which, exhausted by victory, and inferior in numbers, were, after a noble resistance, overpowered by this fresh body of enemies. pappenheim's unexpected appearance revived the drooping courage of the imperialists, and the duke of friedland quickly availed himself of the favourable moment to re-form his line. the closely serried battalions of the swedes were, after a tremendous conflict, again driven across the trenches; and the battery, which had been twice lost, again rescued from their hands. the whole yellow regiment, the finest of all that distinguished themselves in this dreadful day, lay dead on the field, covering the ground almost in the same excellent order which, when alive, they maintained with such unyielding courage. the same fate befel another regiment of blues, which count piccolomini attacked with the imperial cavalry, and cut down after a desperate contest. seven times did this intrepid general renew the attack; seven horses were shot under him, and he himself was pierced with six musket balls; yet he would not leave the field, until he was carried along in the general rout of the whole army. wallenstein himself was seen riding through his ranks with cool intrepidity, amidst a shower of balls, assisting the distressed, encouraging the valiant with praise, and the wavering by his fearful glance. around and close by him his men were falling thick, and his own mantle was perforated by several shots. but avenging destiny this day protected that breast, for which another weapon was reserved; on the same field where the noble gustavus expired, wallenstein was not allowed to terminate his guilty career. less fortunate was pappenheim, the telamon of the army, the bravest soldier of austria and the church. an ardent desire to encounter the king in person, carried this daring leader into the thickest of the fight, where he thought his noble opponent was most surely to be met. gustavus had also expressed a wish to meet his brave antagonist, but these hostile wishes remained ungratified; death first brought together these two great heroes. two musket-balls pierced the breast of pappenheim; and his men forcibly carried him from the field. while they were conveying him to the rear, a murmur reached him, that he whom he had sought, lay dead upon the plain. when the truth of the report was confirmed to him, his look became brighter, his dying eye sparkled with a last gleam of joy. "tell the duke of friedland," said he, "that i lie without hope of life, but that i die happy, since i know that the implacable enemy of my religion has fallen on the same day." with pappenheim, the good fortune of the imperialists departed. the cavalry of the left wing, already beaten, and only rallied by his exertions, no sooner missed their victorious leader, than they gave up everything for lost, and abandoned the field of battle in spiritless despair. the right wing fell into the same confusion, with the exception of a few regiments, which the bravery of their colonels gotz, terzky, colloredo, and piccolomini, compelled to keep their ground. the swedish infantry, with prompt determination, profited by the enemy's confusion. to fill up the gaps which death had made in the front line, they formed both lines into one, and with it made the final and decisive charge. a third time they crossed the trenches, and a third time they captured the battery. the sun was setting when the two lines closed. the strife grew hotter as it drew to an end; the last efforts of strength were mutually exerted, and skill and courage did their utmost to repair in these precious moments the fortune of the day. it was in vain; despair endows every one with superhuman strength; no one can conquer, no one will give way. the art of war seemed to exhaust its powers on one side, only to unfold some new and untried masterpiece of skill on the other. night and darkness at last put an end to the fight, before the fury of the combatants was exhausted; and the contest only ceased, when no one could any longer find an antagonist. both armies separated, as if by tacit agreement; the trumpets sounded, and each party claiming the victory, quitted the field. the artillery on both sides, as the horses could not be found, remained all night upon the field, at once the reward and the evidence of victory to him who should hold it. wallenstein, in his haste to leave leipzig and saxony, forgot to remove his part. not long after the battle was ended, pappenheim's infantry, who had been unable to follow the rapid movements of their general, and who amounted to six regiments, marched on the field, but the work was done. a few hours earlier, so considerable a reinforcement would perhaps have decided the day in favour of the imperialists; and, even now, by remaining on the field, they might have saved the duke's artillery, and made a prize of that of the swedes. but they had received no orders to act; and, uncertain as to the issue of the battle, they retired to leipzig, where they hoped to join the main body. the duke of friedland had retreated thither, and was followed on the morrow by the scattered remains of his army, without artillery, without colours, and almost without arms. the duke of weimar, it appears, after the toils of this bloody day, allowed the swedish army some repose, between lutzen and weissenfels, near enough to the field of battle to oppose any attempt the enemy might make to recover it. of the two armies, more than , men lay dead; a still greater number were wounded, and among the imperialists, scarcely a man escaped from the field uninjured. the entire plain from lutzen to the canal was strewed with the wounded, the dying, and the dead. many of the principal nobility had fallen on both sides. even the abbot of fulda, who had mingled in the combat as a spectator, paid for his curiosity and his ill-timed zeal with his life. history says nothing of prisoners; a further proof of the animosity of the combatants, who neither gave nor took quarter. pappenheim died the next day of his wounds at leipzig; an irreparable loss to the imperial army, which this brave warrior had so often led on to victory. the battle of prague, where, together with wallenstein, he was present as colonel, was the beginning of his heroic career. dangerously wounded, with a few troops, he made an impetuous attack on a regiment of the enemy, and lay for several hours mixed with the dead upon the field, beneath the weight of his horse, till he was discovered by some of his own men in plundering. with a small force he defeated, in three different engagements, the rebels in upper austria, though , strong. at the battle of leipzig, he for a long time delayed the defeat of tilly by his bravery, and led the arms of the emperor on the elbe and the weser to victory. the wild impetuous fire of his temperament, which no danger, however apparent, could cool, or impossibilities check, made him the most powerful arm of the imperial force, but unfitted him for acting at its head. the battle of leipzig, if tilly may be believed, was lost through his rash ardour. at the destruction of magdeburg, his hands were deeply steeped in blood; war rendered savage and ferocious his disposition, which had been cultivated by youthful studies and various travels. on his forehead, two red streaks, like swords, were perceptible, with which nature had marked him at his very birth. even in his later years, these became visible, as often as his blood was stirred by passion; and superstition easily persuaded itself, that the future destiny of the man was thus impressed upon the forehead of the child. as a faithful servant of the house of austria, he had the strongest claims on the gratitude of both its lines, but he did not survive to enjoy the most brilliant proof of their regard. a messenger was already on his way from madrid, bearing to him the order of the golden fleece, when death overtook him at leipzig. though te deum, in all spanish and austrian lands, was sung in honour of a victory, wallenstein himself, by the haste with which he quitted leipzig, and soon after all saxony, and by renouncing his original design of fixing there his winter quarters, openly confessed his defeat. it is true he made one more feeble attempt to dispute, even in his flight, the honour of victory, by sending out his croats next morning to the field; but the sight of the swedish army drawn up in order of battle, immediately dispersed these flying bands, and duke bernard, by keeping possession of the field, and soon after by the capture of leipzig, maintained indisputably his claim to the title of victor. but it was a dear conquest, a dearer triumph! it was not till the fury of the contest was over, that the full weight of the loss sustained was felt, and the shout of triumph died away into a silent gloom of despair. he, who had led them to the charge, returned not with them; there he lay upon the field which he had won, mingled with the dead bodies of the common crowd. after a long and almost fruitless search, the corpse of the king was discovered, not far from the great stone, which, for a hundred years before, had stood between lutzen and the canal, and which, from the memorable disaster of that day, still bears the name of the stone of the swede. covered with blood and wounds, so as scarcely to be recognised, trampled beneath the horses' hoofs, stripped by the rude hands of plunderers of its ornaments and clothes, his body was drawn from beneath a heap of dead, conveyed to weissenfels, and there delivered up to the lamentations of his soldiers, and the last embraces of his queen. the first tribute had been paid to revenge, and blood had atoned for the blood of the monarch; but now affection assumes its rights, and tears of grief must flow for the man. the universal sorrow absorbs all individual woes. the generals, still stupefied by the unexpected blow, stood speechless and motionless around his bier, and no one trusted himself enough to contemplate the full extent of their loss. the emperor, we are told by khevenhuller, showed symptoms of deep, and apparently sincere feeling, at the sight of the king's doublet stained with blood, which had been stripped from him during the battle, and carried to vienna. "willingly," said he, "would i have granted to the unfortunate prince a longer life, and a safe return to his kingdom, had germany been at peace." but when a trait, which is nothing more than a proof of a yet lingering humanity, and which a mere regard to appearances and even self-love, would have extorted from the most insensible, and the absence of which could exist only in the most inhuman heart, has, by a roman catholic writer of modern times and acknowledged merit, been made the subject of the highest eulogium, and compared with the magnanimous tears of alexander, for the fall of darius, our distrust is excited of the other virtues of the writer's hero, and what is still worse, of his own ideas of moral dignity. but even such praise, whatever its amount, is much for one, whose memory his biographer has to clear from the suspicion of being privy to the assassination of a king. it was scarcely to be expected, that the strong leaning of mankind to the marvellous, would leave to the common course of nature the glory of ending the career of gustavus adolphus. the death of so formidable a rival was too important an event for the emperor, not to excite in his bitter opponent a ready suspicion, that what was so much to his interests, was also the result of his instigation. for the execution, however, of this dark deed, the emperor would require the aid of a foreign arm, and this it was generally believed he had found in francis albert, duke of saxe lauenburg. the rank of the latter permitted him a free access to the king's person, while it at the same time seemed to place him above the suspicion of so foul a deed. this prince, however, was in fact not incapable of this atrocity, and he had moreover sufficient motives for its commission. francis albert, the youngest of four sons of francis ii, duke of lauenburg, and related by the mother's side to the race of vasa, had, in his early years, found a most friendly reception at the swedish court. some offence which he had committed against gustavus adolphus, in the queen's chamber, was, it is said, repaid by this fiery youth with a box on the ear; which, though immediately repented of, and amply apologized for, laid the foundation of an irreconcileable hate in the vindictive heart of the duke. francis albert subsequently entered the imperial service, where he rose to the command of a regiment, and formed a close intimacy with wallenstein, and condescended to be the instrument of a secret negociation with the saxon court, which did little honour to his rank. without any sufficient cause being assigned, he suddenly quitted the austrian service, and appeared in the king's camp at nuremberg, to offer his services as a volunteer. by his show of zeal for the protestant cause, and prepossessing and flattering deportment, he gained the heart of the king, who, warned in vain by oxenstiern, continued to lavish his favour and friendship on this suspicious new comer. the battle of lutzen soon followed, in which francis albert, like an evil genius, kept close to the king's side and did not leave him till he fell. he owed, it was thought, his own safety amidst the fire of the enemy, to a green sash which he wore, the colour of the imperialists. he was at any rate the first to convey to his friend wallenstein the intelligence of the king's death. after the battle, he exchanged the swedish service for the saxon; and, after the murder of wallenstein, being charged with being an accomplice of that general, he only escaped the sword of justice by abjuring his faith. his last appearance in life was as commander of an imperial army in silesia, where he died of the wounds he had received before schweidnitz. it requires some effort to believe in the innocence of a man, who had run through a career like this, of the act charged against him; but, however great may be the moral and physical possibility of his committing such a crime, it must still be allowed that there are no certain grounds for imputing it to him. gustavus adolphus, it is well known, exposed himself to danger, like the meanest soldier in his army, and where thousands fell, he, too, might naturally meet his death. how it reached him, remains indeed buried in mystery; but here, more than anywhere, does the maxim apply, that where the ordinary course of things is fully sufficient to account for the fact, the honour of human nature ought not to be stained by any suspicion of moral atrocity. but by whatever hand he fell, his extraordinary destiny must appear a great interposition of providence. history, too often confined to the ungrateful task of analyzing the uniform play of human passions, is occasionally rewarded by the appearance of events, which strike like a hand from heaven, into the nicely adjusted machinery of human plans, and carry the contemplative mind to a higher order of things. of this kind, is the sudden retirement of gustavus adolphus from the scene; -- stopping for a time the whole movement of the political machine, and disappointing all the calculations of human prudence. yesterday, the very soul, the great and animating principle of his own creation; to-day, struck unpitiably to the ground in the very midst of his eagle flight; untimely torn from a whole world of great designs, and from the ripening harvest of his expectations, he left his bereaved party disconsolate; and the proud edifice of his past greatness sunk into ruins. the protestant party had identified its hopes with its invincible leader, and scarcely can it now separate them from him; with him, they now fear all good fortune is buried. but it was no longer the benefactor of germany who fell at lutzen: the beneficent part of his career, gustavus adolphus had already terminated; and now the greatest service which he could render to the liberties of germany was -- to die. the all-engrossing power of an individual was at an end, but many came forward to essay their strength; the equivocal assistance of an over-powerful protector, gave place to a more noble self-exertion on the part of the estates; and those who were formerly the mere instruments of his aggrandizement, now began to work for themselves. they now looked to their own exertions for the emancipation, which could not be received without danger from the hand of the mighty; and the swedish power, now incapable of sinking into the oppressor, was henceforth restricted to the more modest part of an ally. the ambition of the swedish monarch aspired unquestionably to establish a power within germany, and to attain a firm footing in the centre of the empire, which was inconsistent with the liberties of the estates. his aim was the imperial crown; and this dignity, supported by his power, and maintained by his energy and activity, would in his hands be liable to more abuse than had ever been feared from the house of austria. born in a foreign country, educated in the maxims of arbitrary power, and by principles and enthusiasm a determined enemy to popery, he was ill qualified to maintain inviolate the constitution of the german states, or to respect their liberties. the coercive homage which augsburg, with many other cities, was forced to pay to the swedish crown, bespoke the conqueror, rather than the protector of the empire; and this town, prouder of the title of a royal city, than of the higher dignity of the freedom of the empire, flattered itself with the anticipation of becoming the capital of his future kingdom. his ill-disguised attempts upon the electorate of mentz, which he first intended to bestow upon the elector of brandenburg, as the dower of his daughter christina, and afterwards destined for his chancellor and friend oxenstiern, evinced plainly what liberties he was disposed to take with the constitution of the empire. his allies, the protestant princes, had claims on his gratitude, which could be satisfied only at the expense of their roman catholic neighbours, and particularly of the immediate ecclesiastical chapters; and it seems probable a plan was early formed for dividing the conquered provinces, (after the precedent of the barbarian hordes who overran the german empire,) as a common spoil, among the german and swedish confederates. in his treatment of the elector palatine, he entirely belied the magnanimity of the hero, and forgot the sacred character of a protector. the palatinate was in his hands, and the obligations both of justice and honour demanded its full and immediate restoration to the legitimate sovereign. but, by a subtlety unworthy of a great mind, and disgraceful to the honourable title of protector of the oppressed, he eluded that obligation. he treated the palatinate as a conquest wrested from the enemy, and thought that this circumstance gave him a right to deal with it as he pleased. he surrendered it to the elector as a favour, not as a debt; and that, too, as a swedish fief, fettered by conditions which diminished half its value, and degraded this unfortunate prince into a humble vassal of sweden. one of these conditions obliged the elector, after the conclusion of the war, to furnish, along with the other princes, his contribution towards the maintenance of the swedish army, a condition which plainly indicates the fate which, in the event of the ultimate success of the king, awaited germany. his sudden disappearance secured the liberties of germany, and saved his reputation, while it probably spared him the mortification of seeing his own allies in arms against him, and all the fruits of his victories torn from him by a disadvantageous peace. saxony was already disposed to abandon him, denmark viewed his success with alarm and jealousy; and even france, the firmest and most potent of his allies, terrified at the rapid growth of his power and the imperious tone which he assumed, looked around at the very moment he past the lech, for foreign alliances, in order to check the progress of the goths, and restore to europe the balance of power. book iv. the weak bond of union, by which gustavus adolphus contrived to hold together the protestant members of the empire, was dissolved by his death: the allies were now again at liberty, and their alliance, to last, must be formed anew. by the former event, if unremedied, they would lose all the advantages they had gained at the cost of so much bloodshed, and expose themselves to the inevitable danger of becoming one after the other the prey of an enemy, whom, by their union alone, they had been able to oppose and to master. neither sweden, nor any of the states of the empire, was singly a match with the emperor and the league; and, by seeking a peace under the present state of things, they would necessarily be obliged to receive laws from the enemy. union was, therefore, equally indispensable, either for concluding a peace or continuing the war. but a peace, sought under the present circumstances, could not fail to be disadvantageous to the allied powers. with the death of gustavus adolphus, the enemy had formed new hopes; and however gloomy might be the situation of his affairs after the battle of lutzen, still the death of his dreaded rival was an event too disastrous to the allies, and too favourable for the emperor, not to justify him in entertaining the most brilliant expectations, and not to encourage him to the prosecution of the war. its inevitable consequence, for the moment at least, must be want of union among the allies, and what might not the emperor and the league gain from such a division of their enemies? he was not likely to sacrifice such prospects, as the present turn of affairs held out to him, for any peace, not highly beneficial to himself; and such a peace the allies would not be disposed to accept. they naturally determined, therefore, to continue the war, and for this purpose, the maintenance of the existing union was acknowledged to be indispensable. but how was this union to be renewed? and whence were to be derived the necessary means for continuing the war? it was not the power of sweden, but the talents and personal influence of its late king, which had given him so overwhelming an influence in germany, so great a command over the minds of men; and even he had innumerable difficulties to overcome, before he could establish among the states even a weak and wavering alliance. with his death vanished all, which his personal qualities alone had rendered practicable; and the mutual obligation of the states seemed to cease with the hopes on which it had been founded. several impatiently threw off the yoke which had always been irksome; others hastened to seize the helm which they had unwillingly seen in the hands of gustavus, but which, during his lifetime, they did not dare to dispute with him. some were tempted, by the seductive promises of the emperor, to abandon the alliance; others, oppressed by the heavy burdens of a fourteen years' war, longed for the repose of peace, upon any conditions, however ruinous. the generals of the army, partly german princes, acknowledged no common head, and no one would stoop to receive orders from another. unanimity vanished alike from the cabinet and the field, and their common weal was threatened with ruin, by the spirit of disunion. gustavus had left no male heir to the crown of sweden: his daughter christina, then six years old, was the natural heir. the unavoidable weakness of a regency, suited ill with that energy and resolution, which sweden would be called upon to display in this trying conjuncture. the wide reaching mind of gustavus adolphus had raised this unimportant, and hitherto unknown kingdom, to a rank among the powers of europe, which it could not retain without the fortune and genius of its author, and from which it could not recede, without a humiliating confession of weakness. though the german war had been conducted chiefly on the resources of germany, yet even the small contribution of men and money, which sweden furnished, had sufficed to exhaust the finances of that poor kingdom, and the peasantry groaned beneath the imposts necessarily laid upon them. the plunder gained in germany enriched only a few individuals, among the nobles and the soldiers, while sweden itself remained poor as before. for a time, it is true, the national glory reconciled the subject to these burdens, and the sums exacted, seemed but as a loan placed at interest, in the fortunate hand of gustavus adolphus, to be richly repaid by the grateful monarch at the conclusion of a glorious peace. but with the king's death this hope vanished, and the deluded people now loudly demanded relief from their burdens. but the spirit of gustavus adolphus still lived in the men to whom he had confided the administration of the kingdom. however dreadful to them, and unexpected, was the intelligence of his death, it did not deprive them of their manly courage; and the spirit of ancient rome, under the invasion of brennus and hannibal, animated this noble assembly. the greater the price, at which these hard-gained advantages had been purchased, the less readily could they reconcile themselves to renounce them: not unrevenged was a king to be sacrificed. called on to choose between a doubtful and exhausting war, and a profitable but disgraceful peace, the swedish council of state boldly espoused the side of danger and honour; and with agreeable surprise, men beheld this venerable senate acting with all the energy and enthusiasm of youth. surrounded with watchful enemies, both within and without, and threatened on every side with danger, they armed themselves against them all, with equal prudence and heroism, and laboured to extend their kingdom, even at the moment when they had to struggle for its existence. the decease of the king, and the minority of his daughter christina, renewed the claims of poland to the swedish throne; and king ladislaus, the son of sigismund, spared no intrigues to gain a party in sweden. on this ground, the regency lost no time in proclaiming the young queen, and arranging the administration of the regency. all the officers of the kingdom were summoned to do homage to their new princess; all correspondence with poland prohibited, and the edicts of previous monarchs against the heirs of sigismund, confirmed by a solemn act of the nation. the alliance with the czar of muscovy was carefully renewed, in order, by the arms of this prince, to keep the hostile poles in check. the death of gustavus adolphus had put an end to the jealousy of denmark, and removed the grounds of alarm which had stood in the way of a good understanding between the two states. the representations by which the enemy sought to stir up christian iv. against sweden were no longer listened to; and the strong wish the danish monarch entertained for the marriage of his son ulrick with the young princess, combined, with the dictates of a sounder policy, to incline him to a neutrality. at the same time, england, holland, and france came forward with the gratifying assurances to the regency of continued friendship and support, and encouraged them, with one voice, to prosecute with activity the war, which hitherto had been conducted with so much glory. whatever reason france might have to congratulate itself on the death of the swedish conqueror, it was as fully sensible of the expediency of maintaining the alliance with sweden. without exposing itself to great danger, it could not allow the power of sweden to sink in germany. want of resources of its own, would either drive sweden to conclude a hasty and disadvantageous peace with austria, and then all the past efforts to lower the ascendancy of this dangerous power would be thrown away; or necessity and despair would drive the armies to extort from the roman catholic states the means of support, and france would then be regarded as the betrayer of those very states, who had placed themselves under her powerful protection. the death of gustavus, far from breaking up the alliance between france and sweden, had only rendered it more necessary for both, and more profitable for france. now, for the first time, since he was dead who had stretched his protecting arm over germany, and guarded its frontiers against the encroaching designs of france, could the latter safely pursue its designs upon alsace, and thus be enabled to sell its aid to the german protestants at a dearer rate. strengthened by these alliances, secured in its interior, and defended from without by strong frontier garrisons and fleets, the regency did not delay an instant to continue a war, by which sweden had little of its own to lose, while, if success attended its arms, one or more of the german provinces might be won, either as a conquest, or indemnification of its expenses. secure amidst its seas, sweden, even if driven out of germany, would scarcely be exposed to greater peril, than if it voluntarily retired from the contest, while the former measure was as honourable, as the latter was disgraceful. the more boldness the regency displayed, the more confidence would they inspire among their confederates, the more respect among their enemies, and the more favourable conditions might they anticipate in the event of peace. if they found themselves too weak to execute the wide-ranging projects of gustavus, they at least owed it to this lofty model to do their utmost, and to yield to no difficulty short of absolute necessity. alas, that motives of self-interest had too great a share in this noble determination, to demand our unqualified admiration! for those who had nothing themselves to suffer from the calamities of war, but were rather to be enriched by it, it was an easy matter to resolve upon its continuation; for the german empire was, in the end, to defray the expenses; and the provinces on which they reckoned, would be cheaply purchased with the few troops they sacrificed to them, and with the generals who were placed at the head of armies, composed for the most part of germans, and with the honourable superintendence of all the operations, both military and political. but this superintendence was irreconcileable with the distance of the swedish regency from the scene of action, and with the slowness which necessarily accompanies all the movements of a council. to one comprehensive mind must be intrusted the management of swedish interests in germany, and with full powers to determine at discretion all questions of war and peace, the necessary alliances, or the acquisitions made. with dictatorial power, and with the whole influence of the crown which he was to represent, must this important magistrate be invested, in order to maintain its dignity, to enforce united and combined operations, to give effect to his orders, and to supply the place of the monarch whom he succeeded. such a man was found in the chancellor oxenstiern, the first minister, and what is more, the friend of the deceased king, who, acquainted with all the secrets of his master, versed in the politics of germany, and in the relations of all the states of europe, was unquestionably the fittest instrument to carry out the plans of gustavus adolphus in their full extent. oxenstiern was on his way to upper germany, in order to assemble the four upper circles, when the news of the king's death reached him at hanau. this was a heavy blow, both to the friend and the statesman. sweden, indeed, had lost but a king, germany a protector; but oxenstiern, the author of his fortunes, the friend of his soul, and the object of his admiration. though the greatest sufferer in the general loss, he was the first who by his energy rose from the blow, and the only one qualified to repair it. his penetrating glance foresaw all the obstacles which would oppose the execution of his plans, the discouragement of the estates, the intrigues of hostile courts, the breaking up of the confederacy, the jealousy of the leaders, and the dislike of princes of the empire to submit to foreign authority. but even this deep insight into the existing state of things, which revealed the whole extent of the evil, showed him also the means by which it might be overcome. it was essential to revive the drooping courage of the weaker states, to meet the secret machinations of the enemy, to allay the jealousy of the more powerful allies, to rouse the friendly powers, and france in particular, to active assistance; but above all, to repair the ruined edifice of the german alliance, and to reunite the scattered strength of the party by a close and permanent bond of union. the dismay which the loss of their leader occasioned the german protestants, might as readily dispose them to a closer alliance with sweden, as to a hasty peace with the emperor; and it depended entirely upon the course pursued, which of these alternatives they would adopt. every thing might be lost by the slightest sign of despondency; nothing, but the confidence which sweden showed in herself, could kindle among the germans a noble feeling of self-confidence. all the attempts of austria, to detach these princes from the swedish alliance, would be unavailing, the moment their eyes became opened to their true interests, and they were instigated to a public and formal breach with the emperor. before these measures could be taken, and the necessary points settled between the regency and their minister, a precious opportunity of action would, it is true, be lost to the swedish army, of which the enemy would be sure to take the utmost advantage. it was, in short, in the power of the emperor totally to ruin the swedish interest in germany, and to this he was actually invited by the prudent councils of the duke of friedland. wallenstein advised him to proclaim a universal amnesty, and to meet the protestant states with favourable conditions. in the first consternation produced by the fall of gustavus adolphus, such a declaration would have had the most powerful effects, and probably would have brought the wavering states back to their allegiance. but blinded by this unexpected turn of fortune, and infatuated by spanish counsels, he anticipated a more brilliant issue from war, and, instead of listening to these propositions of an accommodation, he hastened to augment his forces. spain, enriched by the grant of the tenth of the ecclesiastical possessions, which the pope confirmed, sent him considerable supplies, negociated for him at the saxon court, and hastily levied troops for him in italy to be employed in germany. the elector of bavaria also considerably increased his military force; and the restless disposition of the duke of lorraine did not permit him to remain inactive in this favourable change of fortune. but while the enemy were thus busy to profit by the disaster of sweden, oxenstiern was diligent to avert its most fatal consequences. less apprehensive of open enemies, than of the jealousy of the friendly powers, he left upper germany, which he had secured by conquests and alliances, and set out in person to prevent a total defection of the lower german states, or, what would have been almost equally ruinous to sweden, a private alliance among themselves. offended at the boldness with which the chancellor assumed the direction of affairs, and inwardly exasperated at the thought of being dictated to by a swedish nobleman, the elector of saxony again meditated a dangerous separation from sweden; and the only question in his mind was, whether he should make full terms with the emperor, or place himself at the head of the protestants and form a third party in germany. similar ideas were cherished by duke ulric of brunswick, who, indeed, showed them openly enough by forbidding the swedes from recruiting within his dominions, and inviting the lower saxon states to luneburg, for the purpose of forming a confederacy among themselves. the elector of brandenburg, jealous of the influence which saxony was likely to attain in lower germany, alone manifested any zeal for the interests of the swedish throne, which, in thought, he already destined for his son. at the court of saxony, oxenstiern was no doubt honourably received; but, notwithstanding the personal efforts of the elector of brandenburg, empty promises of continued friendship were all which he could obtain. with the duke of brunswick he was more successful, for with him he ventured to assume a bolder tone. sweden was at the time in possession of the see of magdeburg, the bishop of which had the power of assembling the lower saxon circle. the chancellor now asserted the rights of the crown, and by this spirited proceeding, put a stop for the present to this dangerous assembly designed by the duke. the main object, however, of his present journey and of his future endeavours, a general confederacy of the protestants, miscarried entirely, and he was obliged to content himself with some unsteady alliances in the saxon circles, and with the weaker assistance of upper germany. as the bavarians were too powerful on the danube, the assembly of the four upper circles, which should have been held at ulm, was removed to heilbronn, where deputies of more than twelve cities of the empire, with a brilliant crowd of doctors, counts, and princes, attended. the ambassadors of foreign powers likewise, france, england, and holland, attended this congress, at which oxenstiern appeared in person, with all the splendour of the crown whose representative he was. he himself opened the proceedings, and conducted the deliberations. after receiving from all the assembled estates assurances of unshaken fidelity, perseverance, and unity, he required of them solemnly and formally to declare the emperor and the league as enemies. but desirable as it was for sweden to exasperate the ill-feeling between the emperor and the estates into a formal rupture, the latter, on the other hand, were equally indisposed to shut out the possibility of reconciliation, by so decided a step, and to place themselves entirely in the hands of the swedes. they maintained, that any formal declaration of war was useless and superfluous, where the act would speak for itself, and their firmness on this point silenced at last the chancellor. warmer disputes arose on the third and principal article of the treaty, concerning the means of prosecuting the war, and the quota which the several states ought to furnish for the support of the army. oxenstiern's maxim, to throw as much as possible of the common burden on the states, did not suit very well with their determination to give as little as possible. the swedish chancellor now experienced, what had been felt by thirty emperors before him, to their cost, that of all difficult undertakings, the most difficult was to extort money from the germans. instead of granting the necessary sums for the new armies to be raised, they eloquently dwelt upon the calamities occasioned by the former, and demanded relief from the old burdens, when they were required to submit to new. the irritation which the chancellor's demand for money raised among the states, gave rise to a thousand complaints; and the outrages committed by the troops, in their marches and quarters, were dwelt upon with a startling minuteness and truth. in the service of two absolute monarchs, oxenstiern had but little opportunity to become accustomed to the formalities and cautious proceedings of republican deliberations, or to bear opposition with patience. ready to act, the instant the necessity of action was apparent, and inflexible in his resolution, when he had once taken it, he was at a loss to comprehend the inconsistency of most men, who, while they desire the end, are yet averse to the means. prompt and impetuous by nature, he was so on this occasion from principle; for every thing depended on concealing the weakness of sweden, under a firm and confident speech, and by assuming the tone of a lawgiver, really to become so. it was nothing wonderful, therefore, if, amidst these interminable discussions with german doctors and deputies, he was entirely out of his sphere, and if the deliberateness which distinguishes the character of the germans in their public deliberations, had driven him almost to despair. without respecting a custom, to which even the most powerful of the emperors had been obliged to conform, he rejected all written deliberations which suited so well with the national slowness of resolve. he could not conceive how ten days could be spent in debating a measure, which with himself was decided upon its bare suggestion. harshly, however, as he treated the states, he found them ready enough to assent to his fourth motion, which concerned himself. when he pointed out the necessity of giving a head and a director to the new confederation, that honour was unanimously assigned to sweden, and he himself was humbly requested to give to the common cause the benefit of his enlightened experience, and to take upon himself the burden of the supreme command. but in order to prevent his abusing the great powers thus conferred upon him, it was proposed, not without french influence, to appoint a number of overseers, in fact, under the name of assistants, to control the expenditure of the common treasure, and to consult with him as to the levies, marches, and quarterings of the troops. oxenstiern long and strenuously resisted this limitation of his authority, which could not fail to trammel him in the execution of every enterprise requiring promptitude or secrecy, and at last succeeded, with difficulty, in obtaining so far a modification of it, that his management in affairs of war was to be uncontrolled. the chancellor finally approached the delicate point of the indemnification which sweden was to expect at the conclusion of the war, from the gratitude of the allies, and flattered himself with the hope that pomerania, the main object of sweden, would be assigned to her, and that he would obtain from the provinces, assurances of effectual cooperation in its acquisition. but he could obtain nothing more than a vague assurance, that in a general peace the interests of all parties would be attended to. that on this point, the caution of the estates was not owing to any regard for the constitution of the empire, became manifest from the liberality they evinced towards the chancellor, at the expense of the most sacred laws of the empire. they were ready to grant him the archbishopric of mentz, (which he already held as a conquest,) and only with difficulty did the french ambassador succeed in preventing a step, which was as impolitic as it was disgraceful. though on the whole, the result of the congress had fallen far short of oxenstiern's expectations, he had at least gained for himself and his crown his main object, namely, the direction of the whole confederacy; he had also succeeded in strengthening the bond of union between the four upper circles, and obtained from the states a yearly contribution of two millions and a half of dollars, for the maintenance of the army. these concessions on the part of the states, demanded some return from sweden. a few weeks after the death of gustavus adolphus, sorrow ended the days of the unfortunate elector palatine. for eight months he had swelled the pomp of his protector's court, and expended on it the small remainder of his patrimony. he was, at last, approaching the goal of his wishes, and the prospect of a brighter future was opening, when death deprived him of his protector. but what he regarded as the greatest calamity, was highly favourable to his heirs. gustavus might venture to delay the restoration of his dominions, or to load the gift with hard conditions; but oxenstiern, to whom the friendship of england, holland, and brandenburg, and the good opinion of the reformed states were indispensable, felt the necessity of immediately fulfilling the obligations of justice. at this assembly, at heilbronn, therefore, he engaged to surrender to frederick's heirs the whole palatinate, both the part already conquered, and that which remained to be conquered, with the exception of manheim, which the swedes were to hold, until they should be indemnified for their expenses. the chancellor did not confine his liberality to the family of the palatine alone; the other allied princes received proofs, though at a later period, of the gratitude of sweden, which, however, she dispensed at little cost to herself. impartiality, the most sacred obligation of the historian, here compels us to an admission, not much to the honour of the champions of german liberty. however the protestant princes might boast of the justice of their cause, and the sincerity of their conviction, still the motives from which they acted were selfish enough; and the desire of stripping others of their possessions, had at least as great a share in the commencement of hostilities, as the fear of being deprived of their own. gustavus soon found that he might reckon much more on these selfish motives, than on their patriotic zeal, and did not fail to avail himself of them. each of his confederates received from him the promise of some possession, either already wrested, or to be afterwards taken from the enemy; and death alone prevented him from fulfilling these engagements. what prudence had suggested to the king, necessity now prescribed to his successor. if it was his object to continue the war, he must be ready to divide the spoil among the allies, and promise them advantages from the confusion which it was his object to continue. thus he promised to the landgrave of hesse, the abbacies of paderborn, corvey, munster, and fulda; to duke bernard of weimar, the franconian bishoprics; to the duke of wirtemberg, the ecclesiastical domains, and the austrian counties lying within his territories, all under the title of fiefs of sweden. this spectacle, so strange and so dishonourable to the german character, surprised the chancellor, who found it difficult to repress his contempt, and on one occasion exclaimed, "let it be writ in our records, for an everlasting memorial, that a german prince made such a request of a swedish nobleman, and that the swedish nobleman granted it to the german upon german ground!" after these successful measures, he was in a condition to take the field, and prosecute the war with fresh vigour. soon after the victory at lutzen, the troops of saxony and lunenburg united with the swedish main body; and the imperialists were, in a short time, totally driven from saxony. the united army again divided: the saxons marched towards lusatia and silesia, to act in conjunction with count thurn against the austrians in that quarter; a part of the swedish army was led by the duke of weimar into franconia, and the other by george, duke of brunswick, into westphalia and lower saxony. the conquests on the lech and the danube, during gustavus's expedition into saxony, had been maintained by the palatine of birkenfeld, and the swedish general banner, against the bavarians; but unable to hold their ground against the victorious progress of the latter, supported as they were by the bravery and military experience of the imperial general altringer, they were under the necessity of summoning the swedish general horn to their assistance, from alsace. this experienced general having captured the towns of benfeld, schlettstadt, colmar, and hagenau, committed the defence of them to the rhinegrave otto louis, and hastily crossed the rhine to form a junction with banner's army. but although the combined force amounted to more than , , they could not prevent the enemy from obtaining a strong position on the swabian frontier, taking kempten, and being joined by seven regiments from bohemia. in order to retain the command of the important banks of the lech and the danube, they were under the necessity of recalling the rhinegrave otto louis from alsace, where he had, after the departure of horn, found it difficult to defend himself against the exasperated peasantry. with his army, he was now summoned to strengthen the army on the danube; and as even this reinforcement was insufficient, duke bernard of weimar was earnestly pressed to turn his arms into this quarter. duke bernard, soon after the opening of the campaign of , had made himself master of the town and territory of bamberg, and was now threatening wurtzburg. but on receiving the summons of general horn, without delay he began his march towards the danube, defeated on his way a bavarian army under john de werth, and joined the swedes near donauwerth. this numerous force, commanded by excellent generals, now threatened bavaria with a fearful inroad. the bishopric of eichstadt was completely overrun, and ingoldstadt was on the point of being delivered up by treachery to the swedes. altringer, fettered in his movements by the express order of the duke of friedland, and left without assistance from bohemia, was unable to check the progress of the enemy. the most favourable circumstances combined to further the progress of the swedish arms in this quarter, when the operations of the army were at once stopped by a mutiny among the officers. all the previous successes in germany were owing altogether to arms; the greatness of gustavus himself was the work of the army, the fruit of their discipline, their bravery, and their persevering courage under numberless dangers and privations. however wisely his plans were laid in the cabinet, it was to the army ultimately that he was indebted for their execution; and the expanding designs of the general did but continually impose new burdens on the soldiers. all the decisive advantages of the war, had been violently gained by a barbarous sacrifice of the soldiers' lives in winter campaigns, forced marches, stormings, and pitched battles; for it was gustavus's maxim never to decline a battle, so long as it cost him nothing but men. the soldiers could not long be kept ignorant of their own importance, and they justly demanded a share in the spoil which had been won by their own blood. yet, frequently, they hardly received their pay; and the rapacity of individual generals, or the wants of the state, generally swallowed up the greater part of the sums raised by contributions, or levied upon the conquered provinces. for all the privations he endured, the soldier had no other recompense than the doubtful chance either of plunder or promotion, in both of which he was often disappointed. during the lifetime of gustavus adolphus, the combined influence of fear and hope had suppressed any open complaint, but after his death, the murmurs were loud and universal; and the soldiery seized the most dangerous moment to impress their superiors with a sense of their importance. two officers, pfuhl and mitschefal, notorious as restless characters, even during the king's life, set the example in the camp on the danube, which in a few days was imitated by almost all the officers of the army. they solemnly bound themselves to obey no orders, till these arrears, now outstanding for months, and even years, should be paid up, and a gratuity, either in money or lands, made to each man, according to his services. "immense sums," they said, "were daily raised by contributions, and all dissipated by a few. they were called out to serve amidst frost and snow, and no reward requited their incessant labours. the soldiers' excesses at heilbronn had been blamed, but no one ever talked of their services. the world rung with the tidings of conquests and victories, but it was by their hands that they had been fought and won." the number of the malcontents daily increased; and they even attempted by letters, (which were fortunately intercepted,) to seduce the armies on the rhine and in saxony. neither the representations of bernard of weimar, nor the stern reproaches of his harsher associate in command, could suppress this mutiny, while the vehemence of horn seemed only to increase the insolence of the insurgents. the conditions they insisted on, were that certain towns should be assigned to each regiment for the payment of arrears. four weeks were allowed to the swedish chancellor to comply with these demands; and in case of refusal, they announced that they would pay themselves, and never more draw a sword for sweden. these pressing demands, made at the very time when the military chest was exhausted, and credit at a low ebb, greatly embarrassed the chancellor. the remedy, he saw, must be found quickly, before the contagion should spread to the other troops, and he should be deserted by all his armies at once. among all the swedish generals, there was only one of sufficient authority and influence with the soldiers to put an end to this dispute. the duke of weimar was the favourite of the army, and his prudent moderation had won the good-will of the soldiers, while his military experience had excited their admiration. he now undertook the task of appeasing the discontented troops; but, aware of his importance, he embraced the opportunity to make advantageous stipulations for himself, and to make the embarrassment of the chancellor subservient to his own views. gustavus adolphus had flattered him with the promise of the duchy of franconia, to be formed out of the bishoprics of wurtzburg and bamberg, and he now insisted on the performance of this pledge. he at the same time demanded the chief command, as generalissimo of sweden. the abuse which the duke of weimar thus made of his influence, so irritated oxenstiern, that, in the first moment of his displeasure, he gave him his dismissal from the swedish service. but he soon thought better of it, and determined, instead of sacrificing so important a leader, to attach him to the swedish interests at any cost. he therefore granted to him the franconian bishoprics, as a fief of the swedish crown, reserving, however, the two fortresses of wurtzburg and koenigshofen, which were to be garrisoned by the swedes; and also engaged, in name of the swedish crown, to secure these territories to the duke. his demand of the supreme authority was evaded on some specious pretext. the duke did not delay to display his gratitude for this valuable grant, and by his influence and activity soon restored tranquillity to the army. large sums of money, and still more extensive estates, were divided among the officers, amounting in value to about five millions of dollars, and to which they had no other right but that of conquest. in the mean time, however, the opportunity for a great undertaking had been lost, and the united generals divided their forces to oppose the enemy in other quarters. gustavus horn, after a short inroad into the upper palatinate, and the capture of neumark, directed his march towards the swabian frontier, where the imperialists, strongly reinforced, threatened wuertemberg. at his approach, the enemy retired to the lake of constance, but only to show the swedes the road into a district hitherto unvisited by war. a post on the entrance to switzerland, would be highly serviceable to the swedes, and the town of kostnitz seemed peculiarly well fitted to be a point of communication between him and the confederated cantons. accordingly, gustavus horn immediately commenced the siege of it; but destitute of artillery, for which he was obliged to send to wirtemberg, he could not press the attack with sufficient vigour, to prevent the enemy from throwing supplies into the town, which the lake afforded them convenient opportunity of doing. he, therefore, after an ineffectual attempt, quitted the place and its neighbourhood, and hastened to meet a more threatening danger upon the danube. at the emperor's instigation, the cardinal infante, the brother of philip iv. of spain, and the viceroy of milan, had raised an army of , men, intended to act upon the rhine, independently of wallenstein, and to protect alsace. this force now appeared in bavaria, under the command of the duke of feria, a spaniard; and, that they might be directly employed against the swedes, altringer was ordered to join them with his corps. upon the first intelligence of their approach, horn had summoned to his assistance the palsgrave of birkenfeld, from the rhine; and being joined by him at stockach, boldly advanced to meet the enemy's army of , men. the latter had taken the route across the danube into swabia, where gustavus horn came so close upon them, that the two armies were only separated from each other by half a german mile. but, instead of accepting the offer of battle, the imperialists moved by the forest towns towards briesgau and alsace, where they arrived in time to relieve breysack, and to arrest the victorious progress of the rhinegrave, otto louis. the latter had, shortly before, taken the forest towns, and, supported by the palatine of birkenfeld, who had liberated the lower palatinate and beaten the duke of lorraine out of the field, had once more given the superiority to the swedish arms in that quarter. he was now forced to retire before the superior numbers of the enemy; but horn and birkenfeld quickly advanced to his support, and the imperialists, after a brief triumph, were again expelled from alsace. the severity of the autumn, in which this hapless retreat had to be conducted, proved fatal to most of the italians; and their leader, the duke of feria, died of grief at the failure of his enterprise. in the mean time, duke bernard of weimar had taken up his position on the danube, with eighteen regiments of infantry and squadrons of horse, to cover franconia, and to watch the movements of the imperial-bavarian army upon that river. no sooner had altringer departed, to join the italians under feria, than bernard, profiting by his absence, hastened across the danube, and with the rapidity of lightning appeared before ratisbon. the possession of this town would ensure the success of the swedish designs upon bavaria and austria; it would establish them firmly on the danube, and provide a safe refuge in case of defeat, while it alone could give permanence to their conquests in that quarter. to defend ratisbon, was the urgent advice which the dying tilly left to the elector; and gustavus adolphus had lamented it as an irreparable loss, that the bavarians had anticipated him in taking possession of this place. indescribable, therefore, was the consternation of maximilian, when duke bernard suddenly appeared before the town, and prepared in earnest to besiege it. the garrison consisted of not more than fifteen companies, mostly newly-raised soldiers; although that number was more than sufficient to weary out an enemy of far superior force, if supported by well-disposed and warlike inhabitants. but this was not the greatest danger which the bavarian garrison had to contend against. the protestant inhabitants of ratisbon, equally jealous of their civil and religious freedom, had unwillingly submitted to the yoke of bavaria, and had long looked with impatience for the appearance of a deliverer. bernard's arrival before the walls filled them with lively joy; and there was much reason to fear that they would support the attempts of the besiegers without, by exciting a tumult within. in this perplexity, the elector addressed the most pressing entreaties to the emperor and the duke of friedland to assist him, were it only with , men. seven messengers in succession were despatched by ferdinand to wallenstein, who promised immediate succours, and even announced to the elector the near advance of , men under gallas; but at the same time forbade that general, under pain of death, to march. meanwhile the bavarian commandant of ratisbon, in the hope of speedy assistance, made the best preparations for defence, armed the roman catholic peasants, disarmed and carefully watched the protestant citizens, lest they should attempt any hostile design against the garrison. but as no relief arrived, and the enemy's artillery incessantly battered the walls, he consulted his own safety, and that of the garrison, by an honourable capitulation, and abandoned the bavarian officials and ecclesiastics to the conqueror's mercy. the possession of ratisbon, enlarged the projects of the duke, and bavaria itself now appeared too narrow a field for his bold designs. he determined to penetrate to the frontiers of austria, to arm the protestant peasantry against the emperor, and restore to them their religious liberty. he had already taken straubingen, while another swedish army was advancing successfully along the northern bank of the danube. at the head of his swedes, bidding defiance to the severity of the weather, he reached the mouth of the iser, which he passed in the presence of the bavarian general werth, who was encamped on that river. passau and lintz trembled for their fate; the terrified emperor redoubled his entreaties and commands to wallenstein, to hasten with all speed to the relief of the hard-pressed bavarians. but here the victorious bernard, of his own accord, checked his career of conquest. having in front of him the river inn, guarded by a number of strong fortresses, and behind him two hostile armies, a disaffected country, and the river iser, while his rear was covered by no tenable position, and no entrenchment could be made in the frozen ground, and threatened by the whole force of wallenstein, who had at last resolved to march to the danube, by a timely retreat he escaped the danger of being cut off from ratisbon, and surrounded by the enemy. he hastened across the iser to the danube, to defend the conquests he had made in the upper palatinate against wallenstein, and fully resolved not to decline a battle, if necessary, with that general. but wallenstein, who was not disposed for any great exploits on the danube, did not wait for his approach; and before the bavarians could congratulate themselves on his arrival, he suddenly withdrew again into bohemia. the duke thus ended his victorious campaign, and allowed his troops their well-earned repose in winter quarters upon an enemy's country. while in swabia the war was thus successfully conducted by gustavus horn, and on the upper and lower rhine by the palatine of birkenfeld, general baudissen, and the rhinegrave otto louis, and by duke bernard on the danube; the reputation of the swedish arms was as gloriously sustained in lower saxony and westphalia by the duke of lunenburg and the landgrave of hesse cassel. the fortress of hamel was taken by duke george, after a brave defence, and a brilliant victory obtained over the imperial general gronsfeld, by the united swedish and hessian armies, near oldendorf. count wasaburg, a natural son of gustavus adolphus, showed himself in this battle worthy of his descent. sixteen pieces of cannon, the whole baggage of the imperialists, together with colours, fell into the hands of the swedes; , of the enemy perished on the field, and nearly the same number were taken prisoners. the town of osnaburg surrendered to the swedish colonel knyphausen, and paderborn to the landgrave of hesse; while, on the other hand, bueckeburg, a very important place for the swedes, fell into the hands of the imperialists. the swedish banners were victorious in almost every quarter of germany; and the year after the death of gustavus, left no trace of the loss which had been sustained in the person of that great leader. in a review of the important events which signalized the campaign of , the inactivity of a man, of whom the highest expectations had been formed, justly excites astonishment. among all the generals who distinguished themselves in this campaign, none could be compared with wallenstein, in experience, talents, and reputation; and yet, after the battle of lutzen, we lose sight of him entirely. the fall of his great rival had left the whole theatre of glory open to him; all europe was now attentively awaiting those exploits, which should efface the remembrance of his defeat, and still prove to the world his military superiority. nevertheless, he continued inactive in bohemia, while the emperor's losses in bavaria, lower saxony, and the rhine, pressingly called for his presence -- a conduct equally unintelligible to friend and foe -- the terror, and, at the same time, the last hope of the emperor. after the defeat of lutzen he had hastened into bohemia, where he instituted the strictest inquiry into the conduct of his officers in that battle. those whom the council of war declared guilty of misconduct, were put to death without mercy, those who had behaved with bravery, rewarded with princely munificence, and the memory of the dead honoured by splendid monuments. during the winter, he oppressed the imperial provinces by enormous contributions, and exhausted the austrian territories by his winter quarters, which he purposely avoided taking up in an enemy's country. and in the spring of , instead of being the first to open the campaign, with this well-chosen and well-appointed army, and to make a worthy display of his great abilities, he was the last who appeared in the field; and even then, it was an hereditary province of austria, which he selected as the seat of war. of all the austrian provinces, silesia was most exposed to danger. three different armies, a swedish under count thurn, a saxon under arnheim and the duke of lauenburg, and one of brandenburg under borgsdorf, had at the same time carried the war into this country; they had already taken possession of the most important places, and even breslau had embraced the cause of the allies. but this crowd of commanders and armies was the very means of saving this province to the emperor; for the jealousy of the generals, and the mutual hatred of the saxons and the swedes, never allowed them to act with unanimity. arnheim and thurn contended for the chief command; the troops of brandenburg and saxony combined against the swedes, whom they looked upon as troublesome strangers who ought to be got rid of as soon as possible. the saxons, on the contrary, lived on a very intimate footing with the imperialists, and the officers of both these hostile armies often visited and entertained each other. the imperialists were allowed to remove their property without hindrance, and many did not affect to conceal that they had received large sums from vienna. among such equivocal allies, the swedes saw themselves sold and betrayed; and any great enterprise was out of the question, while so bad an understanding prevailed between the troops. general arnheim, too, was absent the greater part of the time; and when he at last returned, wallenstein was fast approaching the frontiers with a formidable force. his army amounted to , men, while to oppose him the allies had only , . they nevertheless resolved to give him battle, and marched to munsterberg, where he had formed an intrenched camp. but wallenstein remained inactive for eight days; he then left his intrenchments, and marched slowly and with composure to the enemy's camp. but even after quitting his position, and when the enemy, emboldened by his past delay, manfully prepared to receive him, he declined the opportunity of fighting. the caution with which he avoided a battle was imputed to fear; but the well-established reputation of wallenstein enabled him to despise this suspicion. the vanity of the allies allowed them not to see that he purposely saved them a defeat, because a victory at that time would not have served his own ends. to convince them of his superior power, and that his inactivity proceeded not from any fear of them, he put to death the commander of a castle that fell into his hands, because he had refused at once to surrender an untenable place. for nine days, did the two armies remain within musket-shot of each other, when count terzky, from the camp of the imperialists, appeared with a trumpeter in that of the allies, inviting general arnheim to a conference. the purport was, that wallenstein, notwithstanding his superiority, was willing to agree to a cessation of arms for six weeks. "he was come," he said, "to conclude a lasting peace with the swedes, and with the princes of the empire, to pay the soldiers, and to satisfy every one. all this was in his power; and if the austrian court hesitated to confirm his agreement, he would unite with the allies, and (as he privately whispered to arnheim) hunt the emperor to the devil." at the second conference, he expressed himself still more plainly to count thurn. "all the privileges of the bohemians," he engaged, "should be confirmed anew, the exiles recalled and restored to their estates, and he himself would be the first to resign his share of them. the jesuits, as the authors of all past grievances, should be banished, the swedish crown indemnified by stated payments, and all the superfluous troops on both sides employed against the turks." the last article explained the whole mystery. "if," he continued, "he should obtain the crown of bohemia, all the exiles would have reason to applaud his generosity; perfect toleration of religions should be established within the kingdom, the palatine family be reinstated in its rights, and he would accept the margraviate of moravia as a compensation for mecklenburg. the allied armies would then, under his command, advance upon vienna, and sword in hand, compel the emperor to ratify the treaty." thus was the veil at last removed from the schemes, over which he had brooded for years in mysterious silence. every circumstance now convinced him that not a moment was to be lost in its execution. nothing but a blind confidence in the good fortune and military genius of the duke of friedland, had induced the emperor, in the face of the remonstrances of bavaria and spain, and at the expense of his own reputation, to confer upon this imperious leader such an unlimited command. but this belief in wallenstein's being invincible, had been much weakened by his inaction, and almost entirely overthrown by the defeat at lutzen. his enemies at the imperial court now renewed their intrigues; and the emperor's disappointment at the failure of his hopes, procured for their remonstrances a favourable reception. wallenstein's whole conduct was now reviewed with the most malicious criticism; his ambitious haughtiness, his disobedience to the emperor's orders, were recalled to the recollection of that jealous prince, as well as the complaints of the austrian subjects against his boundless oppression; his fidelity was questioned, and alarming hints thrown out as to his secret views. these insinuations, which the conduct of the duke seemed but too well to justify, failed not to make a deep impression on ferdinand; but the step had been taken, and the great power with which wallenstein had been invested, could not be taken from him without danger. insensibly to diminish that power, was the only course that now remained, and, to effect this, it must in the first place be divided; but, above all, the emperor's present dependence on the good will of his general put an end to. but even this right had been resigned in his engagement with wallenstein, and the emperor's own handwriting secured him against every attempt to unite another general with him in the command, or to exercise any immediate act of authority over the troops. as this disadvantageous contract could neither be kept nor broken, recourse was had to artifice. wallenstein was imperial generalissimo in germany, but his command extended no further, and he could not presume to exercise any authority over a foreign army. a spanish army was accordingly raised in milan, and marched into germany under a spanish general. wallenstein now ceased to be indispensable because he was no longer supreme, and in case of necessity, the emperor was now provided with the means of support even against him. the duke quickly and deeply felt whence this blow came, and whither it was aimed. in vain did he protest against this violation of the compact, to the cardinal infante; the italian army continued its march, and he was forced to detach general altringer to join it with a reinforcement. he took care, indeed, so closely to fetter the latter, as to prevent the italian army from acquiring any great reputation in alsace and swabia; but this bold step of the court awakened him from his security, and warned him of the approach of danger. that he might not a second time be deprived of his command, and lose the fruit of all his labours, he must accelerate the accomplishment of his long meditated designs. he secured the attachment of his troops by removing the doubtful officers, and by his liberality to the rest. he had sacrificed to the welfare of the army every other order in the state, every consideration of justice and humanity, and therefore he reckoned upon their gratitude. at the very moment when he meditated an unparalleled act of ingratitude against the author of his own good fortune, he founded all his hopes upon the gratitude which was due to himself. the leaders of the silesian armies had no authority from their principals to consent, on their own discretion, to such important proposals as those of wallenstein, and they did not even feel themselves warranted in granting, for more than a fortnight, the cessation of hostilities which he demanded. before the duke disclosed his designs to sweden and saxony, he had deemed it advisable to secure the sanction of france to his bold undertaking. for this purpose, a secret negociation had been carried on with the greatest possible caution and distrust, by count kinsky with feuquieres, the french ambassador at dresden, and had terminated according to his wishes. feuquieres received orders from his court to promise every assistance on the part of france, and to offer the duke a considerable pecuniary aid in case of need. but it was this excessive caution to secure himself on all sides, that led to his ruin. the french ambassador with astonishment discovered that a plan, which, more than any other, required secrecy, had been communicated to the swedes and the saxons. and yet it was generally known that the saxon ministry was in the interests of the emperor, and on the other hand, the conditions offered to the swedes fell too far short of their expectations to be likely to be accepted. feuquieres, therefore, could not believe that the duke could be serious in calculating upon the aid of the latter, and the silence of the former. he communicated accordingly his doubts and anxieties to the swedish chancellor, who equally distrusted the views of wallenstein, and disliked his plans. although it was no secret to oxenstiern, that the duke had formerly entered into a similar negociation with gustavus adolphus, he could not credit the possibility of inducing a whole army to revolt, and of his extravagant promises. so daring a design, and such imprudent conduct, seemed not to be consistent with the duke's reserved and suspicious temper, and he was the more inclined to consider the whole as the result of dissimulation and treachery, because he had less reason to doubt his prudence than his honesty. oxenstiern's doubts at last affected arnheim himself, who, in full confidence in wallenstein's sincerity, had repaired to the chancellor at gelnhausen, to persuade him to lend some of his best regiments to the duke, to aid him in the execution of the plan. they began to suspect that the whole proposal was only a snare to disarm the allies, and to betray the flower of their troops into the hands of the emperor. wallenstein's well-known character did not contradict the suspicion, and the inconsistencies in which he afterwards involved himself, entirely destroyed all confidence in his sincerity. while he was endeavouring to draw the swedes into this alliance, and requiring the help of their best troops, he declared to arnheim that they must begin with expelling the swedes from the empire; and while the saxon officers, relying upon the security of the truce, repaired in great numbers to his camp, he made an unsuccessful attempt to seize them. he was the first to break the truce, which some months afterwards he renewed, though not without great difficulty. all confidence in his sincerity was lost; his whole conduct was regarded as a tissue of deceit and low cunning, devised to weaken the allies and repair his own strength. this indeed he actually did effect, as his own army daily augmented, while that of the allies was reduced nearly one half by desertion and bad provisions. but he did not make that use of his superiority which vienna expected. when all men were looking for a decisive blow to be struck, he suddenly renewed the negociations; and when the truce lulled the allies into security, he as suddenly recommenced hostilities. all these contradictions arose out of the double and irreconcileable designs to ruin at once the emperor and the swedes, and to conclude a separate peace with the saxons. impatient at the ill success of his negociations, he at last determined to display his strength; the more so, as the pressing distress within the empire, and the growing dissatisfaction of the imperial court, admitted not of his making any longer delay. before the last cessation of hostilities, general holk, from bohemia, had attacked the circle of meissen, laid waste every thing on his route with fire and sword, driven the elector into his fortresses, and taken the town of leipzig. but the truce in silesia put a period to his ravages, and the consequences of his excesses brought him to the grave at adorf. as soon as hostilities were recommenced, wallenstein made a movement, as if he designed to penetrate through lusatia into saxony, and circulated the report that piccolomini had already invaded that country. arnheim immediately broke up his camp in silesia, to follow him, and hastened to the assistance of the electorate. by this means the swedes were left exposed, who were encamped in small force under count thurn, at steinau, on the oder, and this was exactly what wallenstein desired. he allowed the saxon general to advance sixteen miles towards meissen, and then suddenly turning towards the oder, surprised the swedish army in the most complete security. their cavalry were first beaten by general schafgotsch, who was sent against them, and the infantry completely surrounded at steinau by the duke's army which followed. wallenstein gave count thurn half an hour to deliberate whether he would defend himself with , men, against more than , , or surrender at discretion. but there was no room for deliberation. the army surrendered, and the most complete victory was obtained without bloodshed. colours, baggage, and artillery all fell into the hands of the victors, the officers were taken into custody, the privates drafted into the army of wallenstein. and now at last, after a banishment of fourteen years, after numberless changes of fortune, the author of the bohemian insurrection, and the remote origin of this destructive war, the notorious count thurn, was in the power of his enemies. with blood-thirsty impatience, the arrival of this great criminal was looked for in vienna, where they already anticipated the malicious triumph of sacrificing so distinguished a victim to public justice. but to deprive the jesuits of this pleasure, was a still sweeter triumph to wallenstein, and thurn was set at liberty. fortunately for him, he knew more than it was prudent to have divulged in vienna, and his enemies were also those of wallenstein. a defeat might have been forgiven in vienna, but this disappointment of their hopes they could not pardon. "what should i have done with this madman?" he writes, with a malicious sneer, to the minister who called him to account for this unseasonable magnanimity. "would to heaven the enemy had no generals but such as he. at the head of the swedish army, he will render us much better service than in prison." the victory of steinau was followed by the capture of liegnitz, grossglogau, and even of frankfort on the oder. schafgotsch, who remained in silesia to complete the subjugation of that province, blockaded brieg, and threatened breslau, though in vain, as that free town was jealous of its privileges, and devoted to the swedes. colonels illo and goetz were ordered by wallenstein to the warta, to push forwards into pomerania, and to the coasts of the baltic, and actually obtained possession of landsberg, the key of pomerania. while thus the elector of brandenburg and the duke of pomerania were made to tremble for their dominions, wallenstein himself, with the remainder of his army, burst suddenly into lusatia, where he took goerlitz by storm, and forced bautzen to surrender. but his object was merely to alarm the elector of saxony, not to follow up the advantages already obtained; and therefore, even with the sword in his hand, he continued his negociations for peace with brandenburg and saxony, but with no better success than before, as the inconsistencies of his conduct had destroyed all confidence in his sincerity. he was therefore on the point of turning his whole force in earnest against the unfortunate saxons, and effecting his object by force of arms, when circumstances compelled him to leave these territories. the conquests of duke bernard upon the danube, which threatened austria itself with immediate danger, urgently demanded his presence in bavaria; and the expulsion of the saxons and swedes from silesia, deprived him of every pretext for longer resisting the imperial orders, and leaving the elector of bavaria without assistance. with his main body, therefore, he immediately set out for the upper palatinate, and his retreat freed upper saxony for ever of this formidable enemy. so long as was possible, he had delayed to move to the rescue of bavaria, and on every pretext evaded the commands of the emperor. he had, indeed, after reiterated remonstrances, despatched from bohemia a reinforcement of some regiments to count altringer, who was defending the lech and the danube against horn and bernard, but under the express condition of his acting merely on the defensive. he referred the emperor and the elector, whenever they applied to him for aid, to altringer, who, as he publicly gave out, had received unlimited powers; secretly, however, he tied up his hands by the strictest injunctions, and even threatened him with death, if he exceeded his orders. when duke bernard had appeared before ratisbon, and the emperor as well as the elector repeated still more urgently their demand for succour, he pretended he was about to despatch general gallas with a considerable army to the danube; but this movement also was delayed, and ratisbon, straubing, and cham, as well as the bishopric of eichstaedt, fell into the hands of the swedes. when at last he could no longer neglect the orders of the court, he marched slowly toward the bavarian frontier, where he invested the town of cham, which had been taken by the swedes. but no sooner did he learn that on the swedish side a diversion was contemplated, by an inroad of the saxons into bohemia, than he availed himself of the report, as a pretext for immediately retreating into that kingdom. every consideration, he urged, must be postponed to the defence and preservation of the hereditary dominions of the emperor; and on this plea, he remained firmly fixed in bohemia, which he guarded as if it had been his own property. and when the emperor laid upon him his commands to move towards the danube, and prevent the duke of weimar from establishing himself in so dangerous a position on the frontiers of austria, wallenstein thought proper to conclude the campaign a second time, and quartered his troops for the winter in this exhausted kingdom. such continued insolence and unexampled contempt of the imperial orders, as well as obvious neglect of the common cause, joined to his equivocal behaviour towards the enemy, tended at last to convince the emperor of the truth of those unfavourable reports with regard to the duke, which were current through germany. the latter had, for a long time, succeeded in glozing over his criminal correspondence with the enemy, and persuading the emperor, still prepossessed in his favour, that the sole object of his secret conferences was to obtain peace for germany. but impenetrable as he himself believed his proceedings to be, in the course of his conduct, enough transpired to justify the insinuations with which his rivals incessantly loaded the ear of the emperor. in order to satisfy himself of the truth or falsehood of these rumours, ferdinand had already, at different times, sent spies into wallenstein's camp; but as the duke took the precaution never to commit anything to writing, they returned with nothing but conjectures. but when, at last, those ministers who formerly had been his champions at the court, in consequence of their estates not being exempted by wallenstein from the general exactions, joined his enemies; when the elector of bavaria threatened, in case of wallenstein being any longer retained in the supreme command, to unite with the swedes; when the spanish ambassador insisted on his dismissal, and threatened, in case of refusal, to withdraw the subsidies furnished by his crown, the emperor found himself a second time compelled to deprive him of the command. the emperor's authoritative and direct interference with the army, soon convinced the duke that the compact with himself was regarded as at an end, and that his dismissal was inevitable. one of his inferior generals in austria, whom he had forbidden, under pain of death, to obey the orders of the court, received the positive commands of the emperor to join the elector of bavaria; and wallenstein himself was imperiously ordered to send some regiments to reinforce the army of the cardinal infante, who was on his march from italy. all these measures convinced him that the plan was finally arranged to disarm him by degrees, and at once, when he was weak and defenceless, to complete his ruin. in self-defence, must he now hasten to carry into execution the plans which he had originally formed only with the view to aggrandizement. he had delayed too long, either because the favourable configuration of the stars had not yet presented itself, or, as he used to say, to check the impatience of his friends, because the time was not yet come. the time, even now, was not come: but the pressure of circumstances no longer allowed him to await the favour of the stars. the first step was to assure himself of the sentiments of his principal officers, and then to try the attachment of the army, which he had so long confidently reckoned on. three of them, colonels kinsky, terzky, and illo, had long been in his secrets, and the two first were further united to his interests by the ties of relationship. the same wild ambition, the same bitter hatred of the government, and the hope of enormous rewards, bound them in the closest manner to wallenstein, who, to increase the number of his adherents, could stoop to the lowest means. he had once advised colonel illo to solicit, in vienna, the title of count, and had promised to back his application with his powerful mediation. but he secretly wrote to the ministry, advising them to refuse his request, as to grant it would give rise to similar demands from others, whose services and claims were equal to his. on illo's return to the camp, wallenstein immediately demanded to know the success of his mission; and when informed by illo of its failure, he broke out into the bitterest complaints against the court. "thus," said he, "are our faithful services rewarded. my recommendation is disregarded, and your merit denied so trifling a reward! who would any longer devote his services to so ungrateful a master? no, for my part, i am henceforth the determined foe of austria." illo agreed with him, and a close alliance was cemented between them. but what was known to these three confidants of the duke, was long an impenetrable secret to the rest; and the confidence with which wallenstein spoke of the devotion of his officers, was founded merely on the favours he had lavished on them, and on their known dissatisfaction with the court. but this vague presumption must be converted into certainty, before he could venture to lay aside the mask, or take any open step against the emperor. count piccolomini, who had distinguished himself by his unparalleled bravery at lutzen, was the first whose fidelity he put to the proof. he had, he thought, gained the attachment of this general by large presents, and preferred him to all others, because born under the same constellations with himself. he disclosed to him, that, in consequence of the emperor's ingratitude, and the near approach of his own danger, he had irrevocably determined entirely to abandon the party of austria, to join the enemy with the best part of his army, and to make war upon the house of austria, on all sides of its dominions, till he had wholly extirpated it. in the execution of this plan, he principally reckoned on the services of piccolomini, and had beforehand promised him the greatest rewards. when the latter, to conceal his amazement at this extraordinary communication, spoke of the dangers and obstacles which would oppose so hazardous an enterprise, wallenstein ridiculed his fears. "in such enterprises," he maintained, "nothing was difficult but the commencement. the stars were propitious to him, the opportunity the best that could be wished for, and something must always be trusted to fortune. his resolution was taken, and if it could not be otherwise, he would encounter the hazard at the head of a thousand horse." piccolomini was careful not to excite wallenstein's suspicions by longer opposition, and yielded apparently to the force of his reasoning. such was the infatuation of the duke, that notwithstanding the warnings of count terzky, he never doubted the sincerity of this man, who lost not a moment in communicating to the court at vienna this important conversation. preparatory to taking the last decisive step, he, in january , called a meeting of all the commanders of the army at pilsen, whither he had marched after his retreat from bavaria. the emperor's recent orders to spare his hereditary dominions from winter quarterings, to recover ratisbon in the middle of winter, and to reduce the army by a detachment of six thousand horse to the cardinal infante, were matters sufficiently grave to be laid before a council of war; and this plausible pretext served to conceal from the curious the real object of the meeting. sweden and saxony received invitations to be present, in order to treat with the duke of friedland for a peace; to the leaders of more distant armies, written communications were made. of the commanders thus summoned, twenty appeared; but three most influential, gallas, colloredo, and altringer, were absent. the duke reiterated his summons to them, and in the mean time, in expectation of their speedy arrival, proceeded to execute his designs. it was no light task that he had to perform: a nobleman, proud, brave, and jealous of his honour, was to declare himself capable of the basest treachery, in the very presence of those who had been accustomed to regard him as the representative of majesty, the judge of their actions, and the supporter of their laws, and to show himself suddenly as a traitor, a cheat, and a rebel. it was no easy task, either, to shake to its foundations a legitimate sovereignty, strengthened by time and consecrated by laws and religion; to dissolve all the charms of the senses and the imagination, those formidable guardians of an established throne, and to attempt forcibly to uproot those invincible feelings of duty, which plead so loudly and so powerfully in the breast of the subject, in favour of his sovereign. but, blinded by the splendour of a crown, wallenstein observed not the precipice that yawned beneath his feet; and in full reliance on his own strength, the common case with energetic and daring minds, he stopped not to consider the magnitude and the number of the difficulties that opposed him. wallenstein saw nothing but an army, partly indifferent and partly exasperated against the court, accustomed, with a blind submission, to do homage to his great name, to bow to him as their legislator and judge, and with trembling reverence to follow his orders as the decrees of fate. in the extravagant flatteries which were paid to his omnipotence, in the bold abuse of the court government, in which a lawless soldiery indulged, and which the wild licence of the camp excused, he thought he read the sentiments of the army; and the boldness with which they were ready to censure the monarch's measures, passed with him for a readiness to renounce their allegiance to a sovereign so little respected. but that which he had regarded as the lightest matter, proved the most formidable obstacle with which he had to contend; the soldiers' feelings of allegiance were the rock on which his hopes were wrecked. deceived by the profound respect in which he was held by these lawless bands, he ascribed the whole to his own personal greatness, without distinguishing how much he owed to himself, and how much to the dignity with which he was invested. all trembled before him, while he exercised a legitimate authority, while obedience to him was a duty, and while his consequence was supported by the majesty of the sovereign. greatness, in and of itself, may excite terror and admiration; but legitimate greatness alone can inspire reverence and submission; and of this decisive advantage he deprived himself, the instant he avowed himself a traitor. field-marshal illo undertook to learn the sentiments of the officers, and to prepare them for the step which was expected of them. he began by laying before them the new orders of the court to the general and the army; and by the obnoxious turn he skilfully gave to them, he found it easy to excite the indignation of the assembly. after this well chosen introduction, he expatiated with much eloquence upon the merits of the army and the general, and the ingratitude with which the emperor was accustomed to requite them. "spanish influence," he maintained, "governed the court; the ministry were in the pay of spain; the duke of friedland alone had hitherto opposed this tyranny, and had thus drawn down upon himself the deadly enmity of the spaniards. to remove him from the command, or to make away with him entirely," he continued, "had long been the end of their desires; and, until they could succeed in one or other, they endeavoured to abridge his power in the field. the command was to be placed in the hands of the king of hungary, for no other reason than the better to promote the spanish power in germany; because this prince, as the ready instrument of foreign counsels, might be led at pleasure. it was merely with the view of weakening the army, that the six thousand troops were required for the cardinal infante; it was solely for the purpose of harassing it by a winter campaign, that they were now called on, in this inhospitable season, to undertake the recovery of ratisbon. the means of subsistence were everywhere rendered difficult, while the jesuits and the ministry enriched themselves with the sweat of the provinces, and squandered the money intended for the pay of the troops. the general, abandoned by the court, acknowledges his inability to keep his engagements to the army. for all the services which, for two and twenty years, he had rendered the house of austria; for all the difficulties with which he had struggled; for all the treasures of his own, which he had expended in the imperial service, a second disgraceful dismissal awaited him. but he was resolved the matter should not come to this; he was determined voluntarily to resign the command, before it should be wrested from his hands; and this," continued the orator, "is what, through me, he now makes known to his officers. it was now for them to say whether it would be advisable to lose such a general. let each consider who was to refund him the sums he had expended in the emperor's service, and where he was now to reap the reward of their bravery, when he who was their evidence removed from the scene." a universal cry, that they would not allow their general to be taken from them, interrupted the speaker. four of the principal officers were deputed to lay before him the wish of the assembly, and earnestly to request that he would not leave the army. the duke made a show of resistance, and only yielded after the second deputation. this concession on his side, seemed to demand a return on theirs; as he engaged not to quit the service without the knowledge and consent of the generals, he required of them, on the other hand, a written promise to truly and firmly adhere to him, neither to separate nor to allow themselves to be separated from him, and to shed their last drop of blood in his defence. whoever should break this covenant, was to be regarded as a perfidious traitor, and treated by the rest as a common enemy. the express condition which was added, "as long as wallenstein shall employ the army in the emperor's service," seemed to exclude all misconception, and none of the assembled generals hesitated at once to accede to a demand, apparently so innocent and so reasonable. this document was publicly read before an entertainment, which field-marshal illo had expressly prepared for the purpose; it was to be signed, after they rose from table. the host did his utmost to stupify his guests by strong potations; and it was not until he saw them affected with the wine, that he produced the paper for signature. most of them wrote their names, without knowing what they were subscribing; a few only, more curious or more distrustful, read the paper over again, and discovered with astonishment that the clause "as long as wallenstein shall employ the army for the emperor's service" was omitted. illo had, in fact, artfully contrived to substitute for the first another copy, in which these words were wanting. the trick was manifest, and many refused now to sign. piccolomini, who had seen through the whole cheat, and had been present at this scene merely with the view of giving information of the whole to the court, forgot himself so far in his cups as to drink the emperor's health. but count terzky now rose, and declared that all were perjured villains who should recede from their engagement. his menaces, the idea of the inevitable danger to which they who resisted any longer would be exposed, the example of the rest, and illo's rhetoric, at last overcame their scruples; and the paper was signed by all without exception. wallenstein had now effected his purpose; but the unexpected resistance he had met with from the commanders roused him at last from the fond illusions in which he had hitherto indulged. besides, most of the names were scrawled so illegibly, that some deceit was evidently intended. but instead of being recalled to his discretion by this warning, he gave vent to his injured pride in undignified complaints and reproaches. he assembled the generals the next day, and undertook personally to confirm the whole tenor of the agreement which illo had submitted to them the day before. after pouring out the bitterest reproaches and abuse against the court, he reminded them of their opposition to the proposition of the previous day, and declared that this circumstance had induced him to retract his own promise. the generals withdrew in silence and confusion; but after a short consultation in the antichamber, they returned to apologize for their late conduct, and offered to sign the paper anew. nothing now remained, but to obtain a similar assurance from the absent generals, or, on their refusal, to seize their persons. wallenstein renewed his invitation to them, and earnestly urged them to hasten their arrival. but a rumour of the doings at pilsen reached them on their journey, and suddenly stopped their further progress. altringer, on pretence of sickness, remained in the strong fortress of frauenberg. gallas made his appearance, but merely with the design of better qualifying himself as an eyewitness, to keep the emperor informed of all wallenstein's proceedings. the intelligence which he and piccolomini gave, at once converted the suspicions of the court into an alarming certainty. similar disclosures, which were at the same time made from other quarters, left no room for farther doubt; and the sudden change of the commanders in austria and silesia, appeared to be the prelude to some important enterprise. the danger was pressing, and the remedy must be speedy, but the court was unwilling to proceed at once to the execution of the sentence, till the regular forms of justice were complied with. secret instructions were therefore issued to the principal officers, on whose fidelity reliance could be placed, to seize the persons of the duke of friedland and of his two associates, illo and terzky, and keep them in close confinement, till they should have an opportunity of being heard, and of answering for their conduct; but if this could not be accomplished quietly, the public danger required that they should be taken dead or live. at the same time, general gallas received a patent commission, by which these orders of the emperor were made known to the colonels and officers, and the army was released from its obedience to the traitor, and placed under lieutenant-general gallas, till a new generalissimo could be appointed. in order to bring back the seduced and deluded to their duty, and not to drive the guilty to despair, a general amnesty was proclaimed, in regard to all offences against the imperial majesty committed at pilsen. general gallas was not pleased with the honour which was done him. he was at pilsen, under the eye of the person whose fate he was to dispose of; in the power of an enemy, who had a hundred eyes to watch his motions. if wallenstein once discovered the secret of his commission, nothing could save him from the effects of his vengeance and despair. but if it was thus dangerous to be the secret depositary of such a commission, how much more so to execute it? the sentiments of the generals were uncertain; and it was at least doubtful whether, after the step they had taken, they would be ready to trust the emperor's promises, and at once to abandon the brilliant expectations they had built upon wallenstein's enterprise. it was also hazardous to attempt to lay hands on the person of a man who, till now, had been considered inviolable; who from long exercise of supreme power, and from habitual obedience, had become the object of deepest respect; who was invested with every attribute of outward majesty and inward greatness; whose very aspect inspired terror, and who by a nod disposed of life and death! to seize such a man, like a common criminal, in the midst of the guards by whom he was surrounded, and in a city apparently devoted to him; to convert the object of this deep and habitual veneration into a subject of compassion, or of contempt, was a commission calculated to make even the boldest hesitate. so deeply was fear and veneration for their general engraven in the breasts of the soldiers, that even the atrocious crime of high treason could not wholly eradicate these sentiments. gallas perceived the impossibility of executing his commission under the eyes of the duke; and his most anxious wish was, before venturing on any steps, to have an interview with altringer. as the long absence of the latter had already begun to excite the duke's suspicions, gallas offered to repair in person to frauenberg, and to prevail on altringer, his relation, to return with him. wallenstein was so pleased with this proof of his zeal, that he even lent him his own equipage for the journey. rejoicing at the success of his stratagem, he left pilsen without delay, leaving to count piccolomini the task of watching wallenstein's further movements. he did not fail, as he went along, to make use of the imperial patent, and the sentiments of the troops proved more favourable than he had expected. instead of taking back his friend to pilsen, he despatched him to vienna, to warn the emperor against the intended attack, while he himself repaired to upper austria, of which the safety was threatened by the near approach of duke bernard. in bohemia, the towns of budweiss and tabor were again garrisoned for the emperor, and every precaution taken to oppose with energy the designs of the traitor. as gallas did not appear disposed to return, piccolomini determined to put wallenstein's credulity once more to the test. he begged to be sent to bring back gallas, and wallenstein suffered himself a second time to be overreached. this inconceivable blindness can only be accounted for as the result of his pride, which never retracted the opinion it had once formed of any person, and would not acknowledge, even to itself, the possibility of being deceived. he conveyed count piccolomini in his own carriage to lintz, where the latter immediately followed the example of gallas, and even went a step farther. he had promised the duke to return. he did so, but it was at the head of an army, intending to surprise the duke in pilsen. another army under general suys hastened to prague, to secure that capital in its allegiance, and to defend it against the rebels. gallas, at the same time, announced himself to the different imperial armies as the commander-in-chief, from whom they were henceforth to receive orders. placards were circulated through all the imperial camps, denouncing the duke and his four confidants, and absolving the soldiers from all obedience to him. the example which had been set at lintz, was universally followed; imprecations were showered on the traitor, and he was forsaken by all the armies. at last, when even piccolomini returned no more, the mist fell from wallenstein's eyes, and in consternation he awoke from his dream. yet his faith in the truth of astrology, and in the fidelity of the army was unshaken. immediately after the intelligence of piccolomini's defection, he issued orders, that in future no commands were to be obeyed, which did not proceed directly from himself, or from terzky, or illo. he prepared, in all haste, to advance upon prague, where he intended to throw off the mask, and openly to declare against the emperor. all the troops were to assemble before that city, and from thence to pour down with rapidity upon austria. duke bernard, who had joined the conspiracy, was to support the operations of the duke, with the swedish troops, and to effect a diversion upon the danube. terzky was already upon his march towards prague; and nothing, but the want of horses, prevented the duke from following him with the regiments who still adhered faithfully to him. but when, with the most anxious expectation, he awaited the intelligence from prague, he suddenly received information of the loss of that town, the defection of his generals, the desertion of his troops, the discovery of his whole plot, and the rapid advance of piccolomini, who was sworn to his destruction. suddenly and fearfully had all his projects been ruined -- all his hopes annihilated. he stood alone, abandoned by all to whom he had been a benefactor, betrayed by all on whom he had depended. but it is under such circumstances that great minds reveal themselves. though deceived in all his expectations, he refused to abandon one of his designs; he despaired of nothing, so long as life remained. the time was now come, when he absolutely required that assistance, which he had so often solicited from the swedes and the saxons, and when all doubts of the sincerity of his purposes must be dispelled. and now, when oxenstiern and arnheim were convinced of the sincerity of his intentions, and were aware of his necessities, they no longer hesitated to embrace the favourable opportunity, and to offer him their protection. on the part of saxony, the duke francis albert of saxe lauenberg was to join him with , men; and duke bernard, and the palatine christian of birkenfeld, with , from sweden, all chosen troops. wallenstein left pilsen, with terzky's regiment, and the few who either were, or pretended to be, faithful to him, and hastened to egra, on the frontiers of the kingdom, in order to be near the upper palatinate, and to facilitate his junction with duke bernard. he was not yet informed of the decree by which he was proclaimed a public enemy and traitor; this thunder-stroke awaited him at egra. he still reckoned on the army, which general schafgotsch was preparing for him in silesia, and flattered himself with the hope that many even of those who had forsaken him, would return with the first dawning of success. even during his flight to egra (so little humility had he learned from melancholy experience) he was still occupied with the colossal scheme of dethroning the emperor. it was under these circumstances, that one of his suite asked leave to offer him his advice. "under the emperor," said he, "your highness is certain of being a great and respected noble; with the enemy, you are at best but a precarious king. it is unwise to risk certainty for uncertainty. the enemy will avail themselves of your personal influence, while the opportunity lasts; but you will ever be regarded with suspicion, and they will always be fearful lest you should treat them as you have done the emperor. return, then, to your allegiance, while there is yet time. -- "and how is that to be done?" said wallenstein, interrupting him: "you have , men-at-arms," rejoined he, (meaning ducats, which were stamped with the figure of an armed man,) "take them with you, and go straight to the imperial court; then declare that the steps you have hitherto taken were merely designed to test the fidelity of the emperor's servants, and of distinguishing the loyal from the doubtful; and since most have shown a disposition to revolt, say you are come to warn his imperial majesty against those dangerous men. thus you will make those appear as traitors, who are labouring to represent you as a false villain. at the imperial court, a man is sure to be welcome with , ducats, and friedland will be again as he was at the first." -- "the advice is good," said wallenstein, after a pause, "but let the devil trust to it." while the duke, in his retirement in egra, was energetically pushing his negociations with the enemy, consulting the stars, and indulging in new hopes, the dagger which was to put an end to his existence was unsheathed almost under his very eyes. the imperial decree which proclaimed him an outlaw, had not failed of its effect; and an avenging nemesis ordained that the ungrateful should fall beneath the blow of ingratitude. among his officers, wallenstein had particularly distinguished one leslie*, an irishman, and had made his fortune. this was the man who now felt himself called on to execute the sentence against him, and to earn the price of blood. no sooner had he reached egra, in the suite of the duke, than he disclosed to the commandant of the town, colonel buttler, and to lieutenant-colonel gordon, two protestant scotchmen, the treasonable designs of the duke, which the latter had imprudently enough communicated to him during the journey. in these two individuals, he had found men capable of a determined resolution. they were now called on to choose between treason and duty, between their legitimate sovereign and a fugitive abandoned rebel; and though the latter was their common benefactor, the choice could not remain for a moment doubtful. they were solemnly pledged to the allegiance of the emperor, and this duty required them to take the most rapid measures against the public enemy. the opportunity was favourable; his evil genius seemed to have delivered him into the hands of vengeance. but not to encroach on the province of justice, they resolved to deliver up their victim alive; and they parted with the bold resolve to take their general prisoner. this dark plot was buried in the deepest silence; and wallenstein, far from suspecting his impending ruin, flattered himself that in the garrison of egra he possessed his bravest and most faithful champions. -- * schiller is mistaken as to this point. leslie was a scotchman, and buttler an irishman and a papist. he died a general in the emperor's service, and founded, at prague, a convent of irish franciscans which still exists. -- at this time, he became acquainted with the imperial proclamations containing his sentence, and which had been published in all the camps. he now became aware of the full extent of the danger which encompassed him, the utter impossibility of retracing his steps, his fearfully forlorn condition, and the absolute necessity of at once trusting himself to the faith and honour of the emperor's enemies. to leslie he poured forth all the anguish of his wounded spirit, and the vehemence of his agitation extracted from him his last remaining secret. he disclosed to this officer his intention to deliver up egra and ellenbogen, the passes of the kingdom, to the palatine of birkenfeld, and at the same time, informed him of the near approach of duke bernard, of whose arrival he hoped to receive tidings that very night. these disclosures, which leslie immediately communicated to the conspirators, made them change their original plan. the urgency of the danger admitted not of half measures. egra might in a moment be in the enemy's hands, and a sudden revolution set their prisoner at liberty. to anticipate this mischance, they resolved to assassinate him and his associates the following night. in order to execute this design with less noise, it was arranged that the fearful deed should be perpetrated at an entertainment which colonel buttler should give in the castle of egra. all the guests, except wallenstein, made their appearance, who being in too great anxiety of mind to enjoy company excused himself. with regard to him, therefore, their plan must be again changed; but they resolved to execute their design against the others. the three colonels, illo, terzky, and william kinsky, came in with careless confidence, and with them captain neumann, an officer of ability, whose advice terzky sought in every intricate affair. previous to their arrival, trusty soldiers of the garrison, to whom the plot had been communicated, were admitted into the castle, all the avenues leading from it guarded, and six of buttler's dragoons concealed in an apartment close to the banqueting-room, who, on a concerted signal, were to rush in and kill the traitors. without suspecting the danger that hung over them, the guests gaily abandoned themselves to the pleasures of the table, and wallenstein's health was drunk in full bumpers, not as a servant of the emperor, but as a sovereign prince. the wine opened their hearts, and illo, with exultation, boasted that in three days an army would arrive, such as wallenstein had never before been at the head of. "yes," cried neumann, "and then he hopes to bathe his hands in austrian blood." during this conversation, the dessert was brought in, and leslie gave the concerted signal to raise the drawbridges, while he himself received the keys of the gates. in an instant, the hall was filled with armed men, who, with the unexpected greeting of "long live ferdinand!" placed themselves behind the chairs of the marked guests. surprised, and with a presentiment of their fate, they sprang from the table. kinsky and terzky were killed upon the spot, and before they could put themselves upon their guard. neumann, during the confusion in the hall, escaped into the court, where, however, he was instantly recognised and cut down. illo alone had the presence of mind to defend himself. he placed his back against a window, from whence he poured the bitterest reproaches upon gordon, and challenged him to fight him fairly and honourably. after a gallant resistance, in which he slew two of his assailants, he fell to the ground overpowered by numbers, and pierced with ten wounds. the deed was no sooner accomplished, than leslie hastened into the town to prevent a tumult. the sentinels at the castle gate, seeing him running and out of breath, and believing he belonged to the rebels, fired their muskets after him, but without effect. the firing, however, aroused the town-guard, and all leslie's presence of mind was requisite to allay the tumult. he hastily detailed to them all the circumstances of wallenstein's conspiracy, the measures which had been already taken to counteract it, the fate of the four rebels, as well as that which awaited their chief. finding the troops well disposed, he exacted from them a new oath of fidelity to the emperor, and to live and die for the good cause. a hundred of buttler's dragoons were sent from the castle into the town to patrol the streets, to overawe the partisans of the duke, and to prevent tumult. all the gates of egra were at the same time seized, and every avenue to wallenstein's residence, which adjoined the market-place, guarded by a numerous and trusty body of troops, sufficient to prevent either his escape or his receiving any assistance from without. but before they proceeded finally to execute the deed, a long conference was held among the conspirators in the castle, whether they should kill him, or content themselves with making him prisoner. besprinkled as they were with the blood, and deliberating almost over the very corpses of his murdered associates, even these furious men yet shuddered at the horror of taking away so illustrious a life. they saw before their mind's eye him their leader in battle, in the days of his good fortune, surrounded by his victorious army, clothed with all the pomp of military greatness, and long-accustomed awe again seized their minds. but this transitory emotion was soon effaced by the thought of the immediate danger. they remembered the hints which neumann and illo had thrown out at table, the near approach of a formidable army of swedes and saxons, and they clearly saw that the death of the traitor was their only chance of safety. they adhered, therefore, to their first resolution, and captain deveroux, an irishman, who had already been retained for the murderous purpose, received decisive orders to act. while these three officers were thus deciding upon his fate in the castle of egra, wallenstein was occupied in reading the stars with seni. "the danger is not yet over," said the astrologer with prophetic spirit. "it is," replied the duke, who would give the law even to heaven. "but," he continued with equally prophetic spirit, "that thou friend seni thyself shall soon be thrown into prison, that also is written in the stars." the astrologer had taken his leave, and wallenstein had retired to bed, when captain deveroux appeared before his residence with six halberdiers, and was immediately admitted by the guard, who were accustomed to see him visit the general at all hours. a page who met him upon the stairs, and attempted to raise an alarm, was run through the body with a pike. in the antichamber, the assassins met a servant, who had just come out of the sleeping-room of his master, and had taken with him the key. putting his finger upon his mouth, the terrified domestic made a sign to them to make no noise, as the duke was asleep. "friend," cried deveroux, "it is time to awake him;" and with these words he rushed against the door, which was also bolted from within, and burst it open. wallenstein had been roused from his first sleep, by the report of a musket which had accidentally gone off, and had sprung to the window to call the guard. at the same moment, he heard, from the adjoining building, the shrieks of the countesses terzky and kinsky, who had just learnt the violent fate of their husbands. ere he had time to reflect on these terrible events, deveroux, with the other murderers, was in his chamber. the duke was in his shirt, as he had leaped out of bed, and leaning on a table near the window. "art thou the villain," cried deveroux to him, "who intends to deliver up the emperor's troops to the enemy, and to tear the crown from the head of his majesty? now thou must die!" he paused for a few moments, as if expecting an answer; but scorn and astonishment kept wallenstein silent. throwing his arms wide open, he received in his breast, the deadly blow of the halberds, and without uttering a groan, fell weltering in his blood. the next day, an express arrived from the duke of lauenburg, announcing his approach. the messenger was secured, and another in wallenstein's livery despatched to the duke, to decoy him into egra. the stratagem succeeded, and francis albert fell into the hands of the enemy. duke bernard of weimar, who was on his march towards egra, was nearly sharing the same fate. fortunately, he heard of wallenstein's death in time to save himself by a retreat. ferdinand shed a tear over the fate of his general, and ordered three thousand masses to be said for his soul at vienna; but, at the same time, he did not forget to reward his assassins with gold chains, chamberlains' keys, dignities, and estates. thus did wallenstein, at the age of fifty, terminate his active and extraordinary life. to ambition, he owed both his greatness and his ruin; with all his failings, he possessed great and admirable qualities, and had he kept himself within due bounds, he would have lived and died without an equal. the virtues of the ruler and of the hero, prudence, justice, firmness, and courage, are strikingly prominent features in his character; but he wanted the gentler virtues of the man, which adorn the hero, and make the ruler beloved. terror was the talisman with which he worked; extreme in his punishments as in his rewards, he knew how to keep alive the zeal of his followers, while no general of ancient or modern times could boast of being obeyed with equal alacrity. submission to his will was more prized by him than bravery; for, if the soldiers work by the latter, it is on the former that the general depends. he continually kept up the obedience of his troops by capricious orders, and profusely rewarded the readiness to obey even in trifles; because he looked rather to the act itself, than its object. he once issued a decree, with the penalty of death on disobedience, that none but red sashes should be worn in the army. a captain of horse no sooner heard the order, than pulling off his gold-embroidered sash, he trampled it under foot; wallenstein, on being informed of the circumstance, promoted him on the spot to the rank of colonel. his comprehensive glance was always directed to the whole, and in all his apparent caprice, he steadily kept in view some general scope or bearing. the robberies committed by the soldiers in a friendly country, had led to the severest orders against marauders; and all who should be caught thieving, were threatened with the halter. wallenstein himself having met a straggler in the open country upon the field, commanded him to be seized without trial, as a transgressor of the law, and in his usual voice of thunder, exclaimed, "hang the fellow," against which no opposition ever availed. the soldier pleaded and proved his innocence, but the irrevocable sentence had gone forth. "hang then innocent," cried the inexorable wallenstein, "the guilty will have then more reason to tremble." preparations were already making to execute the sentence, when the soldier, who gave himself up for lost, formed the desperate resolution of not dying without revenge. he fell furiously upon his judge, but was overpowered by numbers, and disarmed before he could fulfil his design. "now let him go," said the duke, "it will excite sufficient terror." his munificence was supported by an immense income, which was estimated at three millions of florins yearly, without reckoning the enormous sums which he raised under the name of contributions. his liberality and clearness of understanding, raised him above the religious prejudices of his age; and the jesuits never forgave him for having seen through their system, and for regarding the pope as nothing more than a bishop of rome. but as no one ever yet came to a fortunate end who quarrelled with the church, wallenstein also must augment the number of its victims. through the intrigues of monks, he lost at ratisbon the command of the army, and at egra his life; by the same arts, perhaps, he lost what was of more consequence, his honourable name and good repute with posterity. for in justice it must be admitted, that the pens which have traced the history of this extraordinary man are not untinged with partiality, and that the treachery of the duke, and his designs upon the throne of bohemia, rest not so much upon proven facts, as upon probable conjecture. no documents have yet been brought to light, which disclose with historical certainty the secret motives of his conduct; and among all his public and well attested actions, there is, perhaps, not one which could not have had an innocent end. many of his most obnoxious measures proved nothing but the earnest wish he entertained for peace; most of the others are explained and justified by the well-founded distrust he entertained of the emperor, and the excusable wish of maintaining his own importance. it is true, that his conduct towards the elector of bavaria looks too like an unworthy revenge, and the dictates of an implacable spirit; but still, none of his actions perhaps warrant us in holding his treason to be proved. if necessity and despair at last forced him to deserve the sentence which had been pronounced against him while innocent, still this, if true, will not justify that sentence. thus wallenstein fell, not because he was a rebel, but he became a rebel because he fell. unfortunate in life that he made a victorious party his enemy, and still more unfortunate in death, that the same party survived him and wrote his history. book v. wallenstein's death rendered necessary the appointment of a new generalissimo; and the emperor yielded at last to the advice of the spaniards, to raise his son ferdinand, king of hungary, to that dignity. under him, count gallas commanded, who performed the functions of commander-in-chief, while the prince brought to this post nothing but his name and dignity. a considerable force was soon assembled under ferdinand; the duke of lorraine brought up a considerable body of auxiliaries in person, and the cardinal infante joined him from italy with , men. in order to drive the enemy from the danube, the new general undertook the enterprise in which his predecessor had failed, the siege of ratisbon. in vain did duke bernard of weimar penetrate into the interior of bavaria, with a view to draw the enemy from the town; ferdinand continued to press the siege with vigour, and the city, after a most obstinate resistance, was obliged to open its gates to him. donauwerth soon shared the same fate, and nordlingen in swabia was now invested. the loss of so many of the imperial cities was severely felt by the swedish party; as the friendship of these towns had so largely contributed to the success of their arms, indifference to their fate would have been inexcusable. it would have been an indelible disgrace, had they deserted their confederates in their need, and abandoned them to the revenge of an implacable conqueror. moved by these considerations, the swedish army, under the command of horn, and bernard of weimar, advanced upon nordlingen, determined to relieve it even at the expense of a battle. the undertaking was a dangerous one, for in numbers the enemy was greatly superior to that of the swedes. there was also a further reason for avoiding a battle at present; the enemy's force was likely soon to divide, the italian troops being destined for the netherlands. in the mean time, such a position might be taken up, as to cover nordlingen, and cut off their supplies. all these grounds were strongly urged by gustavus horn, in the swedish council of war; but his remonstrances were disregarded by men who, intoxicated by a long career of success, mistook the suggestions of prudence for the voice of timidity. overborne by the superior influence of duke bernard, gustavus horn was compelled to risk a contest, whose unfavourable issue, a dark foreboding seemed already to announce. the fate of the battle depended upon the possession of a height which commanded the imperial camp. an attempt to occupy it during the night failed, as the tedious transport of the artillery through woods and hollow ways delayed the arrival of the troops. when the swedes arrived about midnight, they found the heights in possession of the enemy, strongly entrenched. they waited, therefore, for daybreak, to carry them by storm. their impetuous courage surmounted every obstacle; the entrenchments, which were in the form of a crescent, were successfully scaled by each of the two brigades appointed to the service; but as they entered at the same moment from opposite sides, they met and threw each other into confusion. at this unfortunate moment, a barrel of powder blew up, and created the greatest disorder among the swedes. the imperial cavalry charged upon their broken ranks, and the flight became universal. no persuasion on the part of their general could induce the fugitives to renew the assault. he resolved, therefore, in order to carry this important post, to lead fresh troops to the attack. but in the interim, some spanish regiments had marched in, and every attempt to gain it was repulsed by their heroic intrepidity. one of the duke's own regiments advanced seven times, and was as often driven back. the disadvantage of not occupying this post in time, was quickly and sensibly felt. the fire of the enemy's artillery from the heights, caused such slaughter in the adjacent wing of the swedes, that horn, who commanded there, was forced to give orders to retire. instead of being able to cover the retreat of his colleague, and to check the pursuit of the enemy, duke bernard, overpowered by numbers, was himself driven into the plain, where his routed cavalry spread confusion among horn's brigade, and rendered the defeat complete. almost the entire infantry were killed or taken prisoners. more than , men remained dead upon the field of battle; field pieces, about , waggons, and standards and colours fell into the hands of the imperialists. horn himself, with three other generals, were taken prisoners. duke bernard with difficulty saved a feeble remnant of his army, which joined him at frankfort. the defeat at nordlingen, cost the swedish chancellor the second sleepless night he had passed in germany*. the consequences of this disaster were terrible. the swedes had lost by it at once their superiority in the field, and with it the confidence of their confederates, which they had gained solely by their previous military success. a dangerous division threatened the protestant confederation with ruin. consternation and terror seized upon the whole party; while the papists arose with exulting triumph from the deep humiliation into which they had sunk. swabia and the adjacent circles first felt the consequences of the defeat of nordlingen; and wirtemberg, in particular, was overrun by the conquering army. all the members of the league of heilbronn trembled at the prospect of the emperor's revenge; those who could, fled to strasburg, while the helpless free cities awaited their fate with alarm. a little more of moderation towards the conquered, would have quickly reduced all the weaker states under the emperor's authority; but the severity which was practised, even against those who voluntarily surrendered, drove the rest to despair, and roused them to a vigorous resistance. -- * the first was occasioned by the death of gustavus adolphus. -- in this perplexity, all looked to oxenstiern for counsel and assistance; oxenstiern applied for both to the german states. troops were wanted; money likewise, to raise new levies, and to pay to the old the arrears which the men were clamorously demanding. oxenstiern addressed himself to the elector of saxony; but he shamefully abandoned the swedish cause, to negociate for a separate peace with the emperor at pirna. he solicited aid from the lower saxon states; but they, long wearied of the swedish pretensions and demands for money, now thought only of themselves; and george, duke of lunenburg, in place of flying to the assistance of upper germany, laid siege to minden, with the intention of keeping possession of it for himself. abandoned by his german allies, the chancellor exerted himself to obtain the assistance of foreign powers. england, holland, and venice were applied to for troops and money; and, driven to the last extremity, the chancellor reluctantly resolved to take the disagreeable step which he had so long avoided, and to throw himself under the protection of france. the moment had at last arrived which richelieu had long waited for with impatience. nothing, he was aware, but the impossibility of saving themselves by any other means, could induce the protestant states in germany to support the pretensions of france upon alsace. this extreme necessity had now arrived; the assistance of that power was indispensable, and she was resolved to be well paid for the active part which she was about to take in the german war. full of lustre and dignity, it now came upon the political stage. oxenstiern, who felt little reluctance in bestowing the rights and possessions of the empire, had already ceded the fortress of philipsburg, and the other long coveted places. the protestants of upper germany now, in their own names, sent a special embassy to richelieu, requesting him to take alsace, the fortress of breyssach, which was still to be recovered from the enemy, and all the places upon the upper rhine, which were the keys of germany, under the protection of france. what was implied by french protection had been seen in the conduct of france towards the bishoprics of metz, toul, and verdun, which it had held for centuries against the rightful owners. treves was already in the possession of french garrisons; lorraine was in a manner conquered, as it might at any time be overrun by an army, and could not, alone, and with its own strength, withstand its formidable neighbour. france now entertained the hope of adding alsace to its large and numerous possessions, and, -- since a treaty was soon to be concluded with the dutch for the partition of the spanish netherlands -- the prospect of making the rhine its natural boundary towards germany. thus shamefully were the rights of germany sacrificed by the german states to this treacherous and grasping power, which, under the mask of a disinterested friendship, aimed only at its own aggrandizement; and while it boldly claimed the honourable title of a protectress, was solely occupied with promoting its own schemes, and advancing its own interests amid the general confusion. in return for these important cessions, france engaged to effect a diversion in favour of the swedes, by commencing hostilities against the spaniards; and if this should lead to an open breach with the emperor, to maintain an army upon the german side of the rhine, which was to act in conjunction with the swedes and germans against austria. for a war with spain, the spaniards themselves soon afforded the desired pretext. making an inroad from the netherlands, upon the city of treves, they cut in pieces the french garrison; and, in open violation of the law of nations, made prisoner the elector, who had placed himself under the protection of france, and carried him into flanders. when the cardinal infante, as viceroy of the spanish netherlands, refused satisfaction for these injuries, and delayed to restore the prince to liberty, richelieu, after the old custom, formally proclaimed war at brussels by a herald, and the war was at once opened by three different armies in milan, in the valteline, and in flanders. the french minister was less anxious to commence hostilities with the emperor, which promised fewer advantages, and threatened greater difficulties. a fourth army, however, was detached across the rhine into germany, under the command of cardinal lavalette, which was to act in conjunction with duke bernard, against the emperor, without a previous declaration of war. a heavier blow for the swedes, than even the defeat of nordlingen, was the reconciliation of the elector of saxony with the emperor. after many fruitless attempts both to bring about and to prevent it, it was at last effected in , at pirna, and, the following year, reduced into a formal treaty of peace, at prague. the elector of saxony had always viewed with jealousy the pretensions of the swedes in germany; and his aversion to this foreign power, which now gave laws within the empire, had grown with every fresh requisition that oxenstiern was obliged to make upon the german states. this ill feeling was kept alive by the spanish court, who laboured earnestly to effect a peace between saxony and the emperor. wearied with the calamities of a long and destructive contest, which had selected saxony above all others for its theatre; grieved by the miseries which both friend and foe inflicted upon his subjects, and seduced by the tempting propositions of the house of austria, the elector at last abandoned the common cause, and, caring little for the fate of his confederates, or the liberties of germany, thought only of securing his own advantages, even at the expense of the whole body. in fact, the misery of germany had risen to such a height, that all clamorously vociferated for peace; and even the most disadvantageous pacification would have been hailed as a blessing from heaven. the plains, which formerly had been thronged with a happy and industrious population, where nature had lavished her choicest gifts, and plenty and prosperity had reigned, were now a wild and desolate wilderness. the fields, abandoned by the industrious husbandman, lay waste and uncultivated; and no sooner had the young crops given the promise of a smiling harvest, than a single march destroyed the labours of a year, and blasted the last hope of an afflicted peasantry. burnt castles, wasted fields, villages in ashes, were to be seen extending far and wide on all sides, while the ruined peasantry had no resource left but to swell the horde of incendiaries, and fearfully to retaliate upon their fellows, who had hitherto been spared the miseries which they themselves had suffered. the only safeguard against oppression was to become an oppressor. the towns groaned under the licentiousness of undisciplined and plundering garrisons, who seized and wasted the property of the citizens, and, under the license of their position, committed the most remorseless devastation and cruelty. if the march of an army converted whole provinces into deserts, if others were impoverished by winter quarters, or exhausted by contributions, these still were but passing evils, and the industry of a year might efface the miseries of a few months. but there was no relief for those who had a garrison within their walls, or in the neighbourhood; even the change of fortune could not improve their unfortunate fate, since the victor trod in the steps of the vanquished, and friends were not more merciful than enemies. the neglected farms, the destruction of the crops, and the numerous armies which overran the exhausted country, were inevitably followed by scarcity and the high price of provisions, which in the later years was still further increased by a general failure in the crops. the crowding together of men in camps and quarters -- want upon one side, and excess on the other, occasioned contagious distempers, which were more fatal than even the sword. in this long and general confusion, all the bonds of social life were broken up; -- respect for the rights of their fellow men, the fear of the laws, purity of morals, honour, and religion, were laid aside, where might ruled supreme with iron sceptre. under the shelter of anarchy and impunity, every vice flourished, and men became as wild as the country. no station was too dignified for outrage, no property too holy for rapine and avarice. in a word, the soldier reigned supreme; and that most brutal of despots often made his own officer feel his power. the leader of an army was a far more important person within any country where he appeared, than its lawful governor, who was frequently obliged to fly before him into his own castles for safety. germany swarmed with these petty tyrants, and the country suffered equally from its enemies and its protectors. these wounds rankled the deeper, when the unhappy victims recollected that germany was sacrificed to the ambition of foreign powers, who, for their own ends, prolonged the miseries of war. germany bled under the scourge, to extend the conquests and influence of sweden; and the torch of discord was kept alive within the empire, that the services of richelieu might be rendered indispensable in france. but, in truth, it was not merely interested voices which opposed a peace; and if both sweden and the german states were anxious, from corrupt motives, to prolong the conflict, they were seconded in their views by sound policy. after the defeat of nordlingen, an equitable peace was not to be expected from the emperor; and, this being the case, was it not too great a sacrifice, after seventeen years of war, with all its miseries, to abandon the contest, not only without advantage, but even with loss? what would avail so much bloodshed, if all was to remain as it had been; if their rights and pretensions were neither larger nor safer; if all that had been won with so much difficulty was to be surrendered for a peace at any cost? would it not be better to endure, for two or three years more, the burdens they had borne so long, and to reap at last some recompense for twenty years of suffering? neither was it doubtful, that peace might at last be obtained on favourable terms, if only the swedes and the german protestants should continue united in the cabinet and in the field, and pursued their common interests with a reciprocal sympathy and zeal. their divisions alone, had rendered the enemy formidable, and protracted the acquisition of a lasting and general peace. and this great evil the elector of saxony had brought upon the protestant cause by concluding a separate treaty with austria. he, indeed, had commenced his negociations with the emperor, even before the battle of nordlingen; and the unfortunate issue of that battle only accelerated their conclusion. by it, all his confidence in the swedes was lost; and it was even doubted whether they would ever recover from the blow. the jealousies among their generals, the insubordination of the army, and the exhaustion of the swedish kingdom, shut out any reasonable prospect of effective assistance on their part. the elector hastened, therefore, to profit by the emperor's magnanimity, who, even after the battle of nordlingen, did not recall the conditions previously offered. while oxenstiern, who had assembled the estates in frankfort, made further demands upon them and him, the emperor, on the contrary, made concessions; and therefore it required no long consideration to decide between them. in the mean time, however, he was anxious to escape the charge of sacrificing the common cause and attending only to his own interests. all the german states, and even the swedes, were publicly invited to become parties to this peace, although saxony and the emperor were the only powers who deliberated upon it, and who assumed the right to give law to germany. by this self-appointed tribunal, the grievances of the protestants were discussed, their rights and privileges decided, and even the fate of religions determined, without the presence of those who were most deeply interested in it. between them, a general peace was resolved on, and it was to be enforced by an imperial army of execution, as a formal decree of the empire. whoever opposed it, was to be treated as a public enemy; and thus, contrary to their rights, the states were to be compelled to acknowledge a law, in the passing of which they had no share. thus, even in form, the pacification at prague was an arbitrary measure; nor was it less so in its contents. the edict of restitution had been the chief cause of dispute between the elector and the emperor; and therefore it was first considered in their deliberations. without formally annulling it, it was determined by the treaty of prague, that all the ecclesiastical domains holding immediately of the empire, and, among the mediate ones, those which had been seized by the protestants subsequently to the treaty at passau, should, for forty years, remain in the same position as they had been in before the edict of restitution, but without any formal decision of the diet to that effect. before the expiration of this term a commission, composed of equal numbers of both religions, should proceed to settle the matter peaceably and according to law; and if this commission should be unable to come to a decision, each party should remain in possession of the rights which it had exercised before the edict of restitution. this arrangement, therefore, far from removing the grounds of dissension, only suspended the dispute for a time; and this article of the treaty of prague only covered the embers of a future war. the archbishopric of magdeburg remained in possession of prince augustus of saxony, and halberstadt in that of the archduke leopold william. four estates were taken from the territory of magdeburg, and given to saxony, for which the administrator of magdeburg, christian william of brandenburg, was otherwise to be indemnified. the dukes of mecklenburg, upon acceding to this treaty, were to be acknowledged as rightful possessors of their territories, in which the magnanimity of gustavus adolphus had long ago reinstated them. donauwerth recovered its liberties. the important claims of the heirs of the palatine, however important it might be for the protestant cause not to lose this electorate vote in the diet, were passed over in consequence of the animosity subsisting between the lutherans and the calvinists. all the conquests which, in the course of the war, had been made by the german states, or by the league and the emperor, were to be mutually restored; all which had been appropriated by the foreign powers of france and sweden, was to be forcibly wrested from them by the united powers. the troops of the contracting parties were to be formed into one imperial army, which, supported and paid by the empire, was, by force of arms, to carry into execution the covenants of the treaty. as the peace of prague was intended to serve as a general law of the empire, those points, which did not immediately affect the latter, formed the subject of a separate treaty. by it, lusatia was ceded to the elector of saxony as a fief of bohemia, and special articles guaranteed the freedom of religion of this country and of silesia. all the protestant states were invited to accede to the treaty of prague, and on that condition were to benefit by the amnesty. the princes of wurtemberg and baden, whose territories the emperor was already in possession of, and which he was not disposed to restore unconditionally; and such vassals of austria as had borne arms against their sovereign; and those states which, under the direction of oxenstiern, composed the council of the upper german circle, were excluded from the treaty, -- not so much with the view of continuing the war against them, as of compelling them to purchase peace at a dearer rate. their territories were to be retained in pledge, till every thing should be restored to its former footing. such was the treaty of prague. equal justice, however, towards all, might perhaps have restored confidence between the head of the empire and its members -- between the protestants and the roman catholics -- between the reformed and the lutheran party; and the swedes, abandoned by all their allies, would in all probability have been driven from germany with disgrace. but this inequality strengthened, in those who were more severely treated, the spirit of mistrust and opposition, and made it an easier task for the swedes to keep alive the flame of war, and to maintain a party in germany. the peace of prague, as might have been expected, was received with very various feelings throughout germany. the attempt to conciliate both parties, had rendered it obnoxious to both. the protestants complained of the restraints imposed upon them; the roman catholics thought that these hated sectaries had been favoured at the expense of the true church. in the opinion of the latter, the church had been deprived of its inalienable rights, by the concession to the protestants of forty years' undisturbed possession of the ecclesiastical benefices; while the former murmured that the interests of the protestant church had been betrayed, because toleration had not been granted to their co-religionists in the austrian dominions. but no one was so bitterly reproached as the elector of saxony, who was publicly denounced as a deserter, a traitor to religion and the liberties of the empire, and a confederate of the emperor. in the mean time, he consoled himself with the triumph of seeing most of the protestant states compelled by necessity to embrace this peace. the elector of brandenburg, duke william of weimar, the princes of anhalt, the dukes of mecklenburg, the dukes of brunswick lunenburg, the hanse towns, and most of the imperial cities, acceded to it. the landgrave william of hesse long wavered, or affected to do so, in order to gain time, and to regulate his measures by the course of events. he had conquered several fertile provinces of westphalia, and derived from them principally the means of continuing the war; these, by the terms of the treaty, he was bound to restore. bernard, duke of weimar, whose states, as yet, existed only on paper, as a belligerent power was not affected by the treaty, but as a general was so materially; and, in either view, he must equally be disposed to reject it. his whole riches consisted in his bravery, his possessions in his sword. war alone gave him greatness and importance, and war alone could realize the projects which his ambition suggested. but of all who declaimed against the treaty of prague, none were so loud in their clamours as the swedes, and none had so much reason for their opposition. invited to germany by the germans themselves, the champions of the protestant church, and the freedom of the states, which they had defended with so much bloodshed, and with the sacred life of their king, they now saw themselves suddenly and shamefully abandoned, disappointed in all their hopes, without reward and without gratitude driven from the empire for which they had toiled and bled, and exposed to the ridicule of the enemy by the very princes who owed every thing to them. no satisfaction, no indemnification for the expenses which they had incurred, no equivalent for the conquests which they were to leave behind them, was provided by the treaty of prague. they were to be dismissed poorer than they came, or, if they resisted, to be expelled by the very powers who had invited them. the elector of saxony at last spoke of a pecuniary indemnification, and mentioned the small sum of two millions five hundred thousand florins; but the swedes had already expended considerably more, and this disgraceful equivalent in money was both contrary to their true interests, and injurious to their pride. "the electors of bavaria and saxony," replied oxenstiern, "have been paid for their services, which, as vassals, they were bound to render the emperor, with the possession of important provinces; and shall we, who have sacrificed our king for germany, be dismissed with the miserable sum of , , florins?" the disappointment of their expectations was the more severe, because the swedes had calculated upon being recompensed with the duchy of pomerania, the present possessor of which was old and without heirs. but the succession of this territory was confirmed by the treaty of prague to the elector of brandenburg; and all the neighbouring powers declared against allowing the swedes to obtain a footing within the empire. never, in the whole course of the war, had the prospects of the swedes looked more gloomy, than in the year , immediately after the conclusion of the treaty of prague. many of their allies, particularly among the free cities, abandoned them to benefit by the peace; others were compelled to accede to it by the victorious arms of the emperor. augsburg, subdued by famine, surrendered under the severest conditions; wurtzburg and coburg were lost to the austrians. the league of heilbronn was formally dissolved. nearly the whole of upper germany, the chief seat of the swedish power, was reduced under the emperor. saxony, on the strength of the treaty of prague, demanded the evacuation of thuringia, halberstadt, and magdeburg. philipsburg, the military depot of france, was surprised by the austrians, with all the stores it contained; and this severe loss checked the activity of france. to complete the embarrassments of sweden, the truce with poland was drawing to a close. to support a war at the same time with poland and in germany, was far beyond the power of sweden; and all that remained was to choose between them. pride and ambition declared in favour of continuing the german war, at whatever sacrifice on the side of poland. an army, however, was necessary to command the respect of poland, and to give weight to sweden in any negotiations for a truce or a peace. the mind of oxenstiern, firm, and inexhaustible in expedients, set itself manfully to meet these calamities, which all combined to overwhelm sweden; and his shrewd understanding taught him how to turn even misfortunes to his advantage. the defection of so many german cities of the empire deprived him, it is true, of a great part of his former allies, but at the same time it freed him from the necessity of paying any regard to their interests. the more the number of his enemies increased, the more provinces and magazines were opened to his troops. the gross ingratitude of the states, and the haughty contempt with which the emperor behaved, (who did not even condescend to treat directly with him about a peace,) excited in him the courage of despair, and a noble determination to maintain the struggle to the last. the continuance of war, however unfortunate it might prove, could not render the situation of sweden worse than it now was; and if germany was to be evacuated, it was at least better and nobler to do so sword in hand, and to yield to force rather than to fear. in the extremity in which the swedes were now placed by the desertion of their allies, they addressed themselves to france, who met them with the greatest encouragement. the interests of the two crowns were closely united, and france would have injured herself by allowing the swedish power in germany to decline. the helpless situation of the swedes, was rather an additional motive with france to cement more closely their alliance, and to take a more active part in the german war. since the alliance with sweden, at beerwald, in , france had maintained the war against the emperor, by the arms of gustavus adolphus, without any open or formal breach, by furnishing subsidies and increasing the number of his enemies. but alarmed at the unexpected rapidity and success of the swedish arms, france, in anxiety to restore the balance of power, which was disturbed by the preponderance of the swedes, seemed, for a time, to have lost sight of her original designs. she endeavoured to protect the roman catholic princes of the empire against the swedish conqueror, by the treaties of neutrality, and when this plan failed, she even meditated herself to declare war against him. but no sooner had the death of gustavus adolphus, and the desperate situation of the swedish affairs, dispelled this apprehension, than she returned with fresh zeal to her first design, and readily afforded in this misfortune the aid which in the hour of success she had refused. freed from the checks which the ambition and vigilance of gustavus adolphus placed upon her plans of aggrandizement, france availed herself of the favourable opportunity afforded by the defeat of nordlingen, to obtain the entire direction of the war, and to prescribe laws to those who sued for her powerful protection. the moment seemed to smile upon her boldest plans, and those which had formerly seemed chimerical, now appeared to be justified by circumstances. she now turned her whole attention to the war in germany; and, as soon as she had secured her own private ends by a treaty with the germans, she suddenly entered the political arena as an active and a commanding power. while the other belligerent states had been exhausting themselves in a tedious contest, france had been reserving her strength, and maintained the contest by money alone; but now, when the state of things called for more active measures, she seized the sword, and astonished europe by the boldness and magnitude of her undertakings. at the same moment, she fitted out two fleets, and sent six different armies into the field, while she subsidized a foreign crown and several of the german princes. animated by this powerful co-operation, the swedes and germans awoke from the consternation, and hoped, sword in hand, to obtain a more honourable peace than that of prague. abandoned by their confederates, who had been reconciled to the emperor, they formed a still closer alliance with france, which increased her support with their growing necessities, at the same time taking a more active, although secret share in the german war, until at last, she threw off the mask altogether, and in her own name made an unequivocal declaration of war against the emperor. to leave sweden at full liberty to act against austria, france commenced her operations by liberating it from all fear of a polish war. by means of the count d'avaux, its minister, an agreement was concluded between the two powers at stummsdorf in prussia, by which the truce was prolonged for twenty-six years, though not without a great sacrifice on the part of the swedes, who ceded by a single stroke of the pen almost the whole of polish prussia, the dear-bought conquest of gustavus adolphus. the treaty of beerwald was, with certain modifications, which circumstances rendered necessary, renewed at different times at compiegne, and afterwards at wismar and hamburg. france had already come to a rupture with spain, in may, , and the vigorous attack which it made upon that power, deprived the emperor of his most valuable auxiliaries from the netherlands. by supporting the landgrave william of cassel, and duke bernard of weimar, the swedes were enabled to act with more vigour upon the elbe and the danube, and a diversion upon the rhine compelled the emperor to divide his force. the war was now prosecuted with increasing activity. by the treaty of prague, the emperor had lessened the number of his adversaries within the empire; though, at the same time, the zeal and activity of his foreign enemies had been augmented by it. in germany, his influence was almost unlimited, for, with the exception of a few states, he had rendered himself absolute master of the german body and its resources, and was again enabled to act in the character of emperor and sovereign. the first fruit of his power was the elevation of his son, ferdinand iii., to the dignity of king of the romans, to which he was elected by a decided majority of votes, notwithstanding the opposition of treves, and of the heirs of the elector palatine. but, on the other hand, he had exasperated the swedes to desperation, had armed the power of france against him, and drawn its troops into the heart of the kingdom. france and sweden, with their german allies, formed, from this moment, one firm and compactly united power; the emperor, with the german states which adhered to him, were equally firm and united. the swedes, who no longer fought for germany, but for their own lives, showed no more indulgence; relieved from the necessity of consulting their german allies, or accounting to them for the plans which they adopted, they acted with more precipitation, rapidity, and boldness. battles, though less decisive, became more obstinate and bloody; greater achievements, both in bravery and military skill, were performed; but they were but insulated efforts; and being neither dictated by any consistent plan, nor improved by any commanding spirit, had comparatively little influence upon the course of the war. saxony had bound herself, by the treaty of prague, to expel the swedes from germany. from this moment, the banners of the saxons and imperialists were united: the former confederates were converted into implacable enemies. the archbishopric of magdeburg which, by the treaty, was ceded to the prince of saxony, was still held by the swedes, and every attempt to acquire it by negociation had proved ineffectual. hostilities commenced, by the elector of saxony recalling all his subjects from the army of banner, which was encamped upon the elbe. the officers, long irritated by the accumulation of their arrears, obeyed the summons, and evacuated one quarter after another. as the saxons, at the same time, made a movement towards mecklenburg, to take doemitz, and to drive the swedes from pomerania and the baltic, banner suddenly marched thither, relieved doemitz, and totally defeated the saxon general baudissin, with men, of whom were slain, and about the same number taken prisoners. reinforced by the troops and artillery, which had hitherto been employed in polish prussia, but which the treaty of stummsdorf rendered unnecessary, this brave and impetuous general made, the following year ( ), a sudden inroad into the electorate of saxony, where he gratified his inveterate hatred of the saxons by the most destructive ravages. irritated by the memory of old grievances which, during their common campaigns, he and the swedes had suffered from the haughtiness of the saxons, and now exasperated to the utmost by the late defection of the elector, they wreaked upon the unfortunate inhabitants all their rancour. against austria and bavaria, the swedish soldier had fought from a sense, as it were, of duty; but against the saxons, they contended with all the energy of private animosity and personal revenge, detesting them as deserters and traitors; for the hatred of former friends is of all the most fierce and irreconcileable. the powerful diversion made by the duke of weimar, and the landgrave of hesse, upon the rhine and in westphalia, prevented the emperor from affording the necessary assistance to saxony, and left the whole electorate exposed to the destructive ravages of banner's army. at length, the elector, having formed a junction with the imperial general hatzfeld, advanced against magdeburg, which banner in vain hastened to relieve. the united army of the imperialists and the saxons now spread itself over brandenburg, wrested several places from the swedes, and almost drove them to the baltic. but, contrary to all expectation, banner, who had been given up as lost, attacked the allies, on the th of september, , at wittstock, where a bloody battle took place. the onset was terrific; and the whole force of the enemy was directed against the right wing of the swedes, which was led by banner in person. the contest was long maintained with equal animosity and obstinacy on both sides. there was not a squadron among the swedes, which did not return ten times to the charge, to be as often repulsed; when at last, banner was obliged to retire before the superior numbers of the enemy. his left wing sustained the combat until night, and the second line of the swedes, which had not as yet been engaged, was prepared to renew it the next morning. but the elector did not wait for a second attack. his army was exhausted by the efforts of the preceding day; and, as the drivers had fled with the horses, his artillery was unserviceable. he accordingly retreated in the night, with count hatzfeld, and relinquished the ground to the swedes. about of the allies fell upon the field, exclusive of those who were killed in the pursuit, or who fell into the hands of the exasperated peasantry. one hundred and fifty standards and colours, twenty-three pieces of cannon, the whole baggage and silver plate of the elector, were captured, and more than men taken prisoners. this brilliant victory, achieved over an enemy far superior in numbers, and in a very advantageous position, restored the swedes at once to their former reputation; their enemies were discouraged, and their friends inspired with new hopes. banner instantly followed up this decisive success, and hastily crossing the elbe, drove the imperialists before him, through thuringia and hesse, into westphalia. he then returned, and took up his winter quarters in saxony. but, without the material aid furnished by the diversion upon the rhine, and the activity there of duke bernard and the french, these important successes would have been unattainable. duke bernard, after the defeat of nordlingen, reorganized his broken army at wetterau; but, abandoned by the confederates of the league of heilbronn, which had been dissolved by the peace of prague, and receiving little support from the swedes, he found himself unable to maintain an army, or to perform any enterprise of importance. the defeat at nordlingen had terminated all his hopes on the duchy of franconia, while the weakness of the swedes, destroyed the chance of retrieving his fortunes through their assistance. tired, too, of the constraint imposed upon him by the imperious chancellor, he turned his attention to france, who could easily supply him with money, the only aid which he required, and france readily acceded to his proposals. richelieu desired nothing so much as to diminish the influence of the swedes in the german war, and to obtain the direction of it for himself. to secure this end, nothing appeared more effectual than to detach from the swedes their bravest general, to win him to the interests of france, and to secure for the execution of its projects the services of his arm. from a prince like bernard, who could not maintain himself without foreign support, france had nothing to fear, since no success, however brilliant, could render him independent of that crown. bernard himself came into france, and in october, , concluded a treaty at st. germaine en laye, not as a swedish general, but in his own name, by which it was stipulated that he should receive for himself a yearly pension of one million five hundred thousand livres, and four millions for the support of his army, which he was to command under the orders of the french king. to inflame his zeal, and to accelerate the conquest of alsace, france did not hesitate, by a secret article, to promise him that province for his services; a promise which richelieu had little intention of performing, and which the duke also estimated at its real worth. but bernard confided in his good fortune, and in his arms, and met artifice with dissimulation. if he could once succeed in wresting alsace from the enemy, he did not despair of being able, in case of need, to maintain it also against a friend. he now raised an army at the expense of france, which he commanded nominally under the orders of that power, but in reality without any limitation whatever, and without having wholly abandoned his engagements with sweden. he began his operations upon the rhine, where another french army, under cardinal lavalette, had already, in , commenced hostilities against the emperor. against this force, the main body of the imperialists, after the great victory of nordlingen, and the reduction of swabia and franconia had advanced under the command of gallas, had driven them as far as metz, cleared the rhine, and took from the swedes the towns of metz and frankenthal, of which they were in possession. but frustrated by the vigorous resistance of the french, in his main object, of taking up his winter quarters in france, he led back his exhausted troops into alsace and swabia. at the opening of the next campaign, he passed the rhine at breysach, and prepared to carry the war into the interior of france. he actually entered burgundy, while the spaniards from the netherlands made progress in picardy; and john de werth, a formidable general of the league, and a celebrated partisan, pushed his march into champagne, and spread consternation even to the gates of paris. but an insignificant fortress in franche comte completely checked the imperialists, and they were obliged, a second time, to abandon their enterprise. the activity of duke bernard had hitherto been impeded by his dependence on a french general, more suited to the priestly robe, than to the baton of command; and although, in conjunction with him, he conquered alsace saverne, he found himself unable, in the years and , to maintain his position upon the rhine. the ill success of the french arms in the netherlands had cheated the activity of operations in alsace and breisgau; but in , the war in that quarter took a more brilliant turn. relieved from his former restraint, and with unlimited command of his troops, duke bernard, in the beginning of february, left his winter quarters in the bishopric of basle, and unexpectedly appeared upon the rhine, where, at this rude season of the year, an attack was little anticipated. the forest towns of laufenburg, waldshut, and seckingen, were surprised, and rhinefeldt besieged. the duke of savelli, the imperial general who commanded in that quarter, hastened by forced marches to the relief of this important place, succeeded in raising the siege, and compelled the duke of weimar, with great loss to retire. but, contrary to all human expectation, he appeared on the third day after, ( st february, ,) before the imperialists, in order of battle, and defeated them in a bloody engagement, in which the four imperial generals, savelli, john de werth, enkeford, and sperreuter, with men, were taken prisoners. two of these, de werth and enkeford, were afterwards sent by richelieu's orders into france, in order to flatter the vanity of the french by the sight of such distinguished prisoners, and by the pomp of military trophies, to withdraw the attention of the populace from the public distress. the captured standards and colours were, with the same view, carried in solemn procession to the church of notre dame, thrice exhibited before the altar, and committed to sacred custody. the taking of rhinefeldt, roeteln, and fribourg, was the immediate consequence of the duke's victory. his army now increased by considerable recruits, and his projects expanded in proportion as fortune favoured him. the fortress of breysach upon the rhine was looked upon as holding the command of that river, and as the key of alsace. no place in this quarter was of more importance to the emperor, and upon none had more care been bestowed. to protect breysach, was the principal destination of the italian army, under the duke of feria; the strength of its works, and its natural defences, bade defiance to assault, while the imperial generals who commanded in that quarter had orders to retain it at any cost. but the duke, trusting to his good fortune, resolved to attempt the siege. its strength rendered it impregnable; it could, therefore, only be starved into a surrender; and this was facilitated by the carelessness of the commandant, who, expecting no attack, had been selling off his stores. as under these circumstances the town could not long hold out, it must be immediately relieved or victualled. accordingly, the imperial general goetz rapidly advanced at the head of , men, accompanied by waggons loaded with provisions, which he intended to throw into the place. but he was attacked with such vigour by duke bernard at witteweyer, that he lost his whole force, except men, together with the entire transport. a similar fate at ochsenfeld, near thann, overtook the duke of lorraine, who, with or men, advanced to relieve the fortress. after a third attempt of general goetz for the relief of breysach had proved ineffectual, the fortress, reduced to the greatest extremity by famine, surrendered, after a blockade of four months, on the th december , to its equally persevering and humane conqueror. the capture of breysach opened a boundless field to the ambition of the duke of weimar, and the romance of his hopes was fast approaching to reality. far from intending to surrender his conquests to france, he destined breysach for himself, and revealed this intention, by exacting allegiance from the vanquished, in his own name, and not in that of any other power. intoxicated by his past success, and excited by the boldest hopes, he believed that he should be able to maintain his conquests, even against france herself. at a time when everything depended upon bravery, when even personal strength was of importance, when troops and generals were of more value than territories, it was natural for a hero like bernard to place confidence in his own powers, and, at the head of an excellent army, who under his command had proved invincible, to believe himself capable of accomplishing the boldest and largest designs. in order to secure himself one friend among the crowd of enemies whom he was about to provoke, he turned his eyes upon the landgravine amelia of hesse, the widow of the lately deceased landgrave william, a princess whose talents were equal to her courage, and who, along with her hand, would bestow valuable conquests, an extensive principality, and a well disciplined army. by the union of the conquests of hesse, with his own upon the rhine, and the junction of their forces, a power of some importance, and perhaps a third party, might be formed in germany, which might decide the fate of the war. but a premature death put a period to these extensive schemes. "courage, father joseph, breysach is ours!" whispered richelieu in the ear of the capuchin, who had long held himself in readiness to be despatched into that quarter; so delighted was he with this joyful intelligence. already in imagination he held alsace, breisgau, and all the frontiers of austria in that quarter, without regard to his promise to duke bernard. but the firm determination which the latter had unequivocally shown, to keep breysach for himself, greatly embarrassed the cardinal, and no efforts were spared to retain the victorious bernard in the interests of france. he was invited to court, to witness the honours by which his triumph was to be commemorated; but he perceived and shunned the seductive snare. the cardinal even went so far as to offer him the hand of his niece in marriage; but the proud german prince declined the offer, and refused to sully the blood of saxony by a misalliance. he was now considered as a dangerous enemy, and treated as such. his subsidies were withdrawn; and the governor of breysach and his principal officers were bribed, at least upon the event of the duke's death, to take possession of his conquests, and to secure his troops. these intrigues were no secret to the duke, and the precautions he took in the conquered places, clearly bespoke the distrust of france. but this misunderstanding with the french court had the most prejudicial influence upon his future operations. the preparations he was obliged to make, in order to secure his conquests against an attack on the side of france, compelled him to divide his military strength, while the stoppage of his subsidies delayed his appearance in the field. it had been his intention to cross the rhine, to support the swedes, and to act against the emperor and bavaria on the banks of the danube. he had already communicated his plan of operations to banner, who was about to carry the war into the austrian territories, and had promised to relieve him so, when a sudden death cut short his heroic career, in the th year of his age, at neuburgh upon the rhine (in july, ). he died of a pestilential disorder, which, in the course of two days, had carried off nearly men in his camp. the black spots which appeared upon his body, his own dying expressions, and the advantages which france was likely to reap from his sudden decease, gave rise to a suspicion that he had been removed by poison -- a suspicion sufficiently refuted by the symptoms of his disorder. in him, the allies lost their greatest general after gustavus adolphus, france a formidable competitor for alsace, and the emperor his most dangerous enemy. trained to the duties of a soldier and a general in the school of gustavus adolphus, he successfully imitated his eminent model, and wanted only a longer life to equal, if not to surpass it. with the bravery of the soldier, he united the calm and cool penetration of the general and the persevering fortitude of the man, with the daring resolution of youth; with the wild ardour of the warrior, the sober dignity of the prince, the moderation of the sage, and the conscientiousness of the man of honour. discouraged by no misfortune, he quickly rose again in full vigour from the severest defeats; no obstacles could check his enterprise, no disappointments conquer his indomitable perseverance. his genius, perhaps, soared after unattainable objects; but the prudence of such men, is to be measured by a different standard from that of ordinary people. capable of accomplishing more, he might venture to form more daring plans. bernard affords, in modern history, a splendid example of those days of chivalry, when personal greatness had its full weight and influence, when individual bravery could conquer provinces, and the heroic exploits of a german knight raised him even to the imperial throne. the best part of the duke's possessions were his army, which, together with alsace, he bequeathed to his brother william. but to this army, both france and sweden thought that they had well-grounded claims; the latter, because it had been raised in name of that crown, and had done homage to it; the former, because it had been supported by its subsidies. the electoral prince of the palatinate also negociated for its services, and attempted, first by his agents, and latterly in his own person, to win it over to his interests, with the view of employing it in the reconquest of his territories. even the emperor endeavoured to secure it, a circumstance the less surprising, when we reflect that at this time the justice of the cause was comparatively unimportant, and the extent of the recompense the main object to which the soldier looked; and when bravery, like every other commodity, was disposed of to the highest bidder. but france, richer and more determined, outbade all competitors: it bought over general erlach, the commander of breysach, and the other officers, who soon placed that fortress, with the whole army, in their hands. the young palatine, prince charles louis, who had already made an unsuccessful campaign against the emperor, saw his hopes again deceived. although intending to do france so ill a service, as to compete with her for bernard's army, he had the imprudence to travel through that kingdom. the cardinal, who dreaded the justice of the palatine's cause, was glad to seize any opportunity to frustrate his views. he accordingly caused him to be seized at moulin, in violation of the law of nations, and did not set him at liberty, until he learned that the army of the duke of weimar had been secured. france was now in possession of a numerous and well disciplined army in germany, and from this moment began to make open war upon the emperor. but it was no longer against ferdinand ii. that its hostilities were to be conducted; for that prince had died in february, , in the th year of his age. the war which his ambition had kindled, however, survived him. during a reign of eighteen years he had never once laid aside the sword, nor tasted the blessings of peace as long as his hand swayed the imperial sceptre. endowed with the qualities of a good sovereign, adorned with many of those virtues which ensure the happiness of a people, and by nature gentle and humane, we see him, from erroneous ideas of the monarch's duty, become at once the instrument and the victim of the evil passions of others; his benevolent intentions frustrated, and the friend of justice converted into the oppressor of mankind, the enemy of peace, and the scourge of his people. amiable in domestic life, and respectable as a sovereign, but in his policy ill advised, while he gained the love of his roman catholic subjects, he incurred the execration of the protestants. history exhibits many and greater despots than ferdinand ii., yet he alone has had the unfortunate celebrity of kindling a thirty years' war; but to produce its lamentable consequences, his ambition must have been seconded by a kindred spirit of the age, a congenial state of previous circumstances, and existing seeds of discord. at a less turbulent period, the spark would have found no fuel; and the peacefulness of the age would have choked the voice of individual ambition; but now the flash fell upon a pile of accumulated combustibles, and europe was in flames. his son, ferdinand iii., who, a few months before his father's death, had been raised to the dignity of king of the romans, inherited his throne, his principles, and the war which he had caused. but ferdinand iii. had been a closer witness of the sufferings of the people, and the devastation of the country, and felt more keenly and ardently the necessity of peace. less influenced by the jesuits and the spaniards, and more moderate towards the religious views of others, he was more likely than his father to listen to the voice of reason. he did so, and ultimately restored to europe the blessing of peace, but not till after a contest of eleven years waged with sword and pen; not till after he had experienced the impossibility of resistance, and necessity had laid upon him its stern laws. fortune favoured him at the commencement of his reign, and his arms were victorious against the swedes. the latter, under the command of the victorious banner, had, after their success at wittstock, taken up their winter quarters in saxony; and the campaign of opened with the siege of leipzig. the vigorous resistance of the garrison, and the approach of the electoral and imperial armies, saved the town, and banner, to prevent his communication with the elbe being cut off, was compelled to retreat into torgau. but the superior number of the imperialists drove him even from that quarter; and, surrounded by the enemy, hemmed in by rivers, and suffering from famine, he had no course open to him but to attempt a highly dangerous retreat into pomerania, of which, the boldness and successful issue border upon romance. the whole army crossed the oder, at a ford near furstenberg; and the soldiers, wading up to the neck in water, dragged the artillery across, when the horses refused to draw. banner had expected to be joined by general wrangel, on the farther side of the oder in pomerania; and, in conjunction with him, to be able to make head against the enemy. but wrangel did not appear; and in his stead, he found an imperial army posted at landsberg, with a view to cut off the retreat of the swedes. banner now saw that he had fallen into a dangerous snare, from which escape appeared impossible. in his rear lay an exhausted country, the imperialists, and the oder on his left; the oder, too, guarded by the imperial general bucheim, offered no retreat; in front, landsberg, custrin, the warta, and a hostile army; and on the right, poland, in which, notwithstanding the truce, little confidence could be placed. in these circumstances, his position seemed hopeless, and the imperialists were already triumphing in the certainty of his fall. banner, with just indignation, accused the french as the authors of this misfortune. they had neglected to make, according to their promise, a diversion upon the rhine; and, by their inaction, allowed the emperor to combine his whole force upon the swedes. "when the day comes," cried the incensed general to the french commissioner, who followed the camp, "that the swedes and germans join their arms against france, we shall cross the rhine with less ceremony." but reproaches were now useless; what the emergency demanded was energy and resolution. in the hope of drawing the enemy by stratagem from the oder, banner pretended to march towards poland, and despatched the greater part of his baggage in this direction, with his own wife, and those of the other officers. the imperialists immediately broke up their camp, and hurried towards the polish frontier to block up the route; bucheim left his station, and the oder was stripped of its defenders. on a sudden, and under cloud of night, banner turned towards that river, and crossed it about a mile above custrin, with his troops, baggage, and artillery, without bridges or vessels, as he had done before at furstenberg. he reached pomerania without loss, and prepared to share with wrangel the defence of that province. but the imperialists, under the command of gallas, entered that duchy at ribses, and overran it by their superior strength. usedom and wolgast were taken by storm, demmin capitulated, and the swedes were driven far into lower pomerania. it was, too, more important for them at this moment than ever, to maintain a footing in that country, for bogislaus xiv. had died that year, and sweden must prepare to establish its title to pomerania. to prevent the elector of brandenburg from making good the title to that duchy, which the treaty of prague had given him, sweden exerted her utmost energies, and supported its generals to the extent of her ability, both with troops and money. in other quarters of the kingdom, the affairs of the swedes began to wear a more favourable aspect, and to recover from the humiliation into which they had been thrown by the inaction of france, and the desertion of their allies. for, after their hasty retreat into pomerania, they had lost one place after another in upper saxony; the princes of mecklenburg, closely pressed by the troops of the emperor, began to lean to the side of austria, and even george, duke of lunenburg, declared against them. ehrenbreitstein was starved into a surrender by the bavarian general de werth, and the austrians possessed themselves of all the works which had been thrown up on the rhine. france had been the sufferer in the contest with spain; and the event had by no means justified the pompous expectations which had accompanied the opening of the campaign. every place which the swedes had held in the interior of germany was lost; and only the principal towns in pomerania still remained in their hands. but a single campaign raised them from this state of humiliation; and the vigorous diversion, which the victorious bernard had effected upon the rhine, gave quite a new turn to affairs. the misunderstandings between france and sweden were now at last adjusted, and the old treaty between these powers confirmed at hamburg, with fresh advantages for sweden. in hesse, the politic landgravine amelia had, with the approbation of the estates, assumed the government after the death of her husband, and resolutely maintained her rights against the emperor and the house of darmstadt. already zealously attached to the swedish protestant party, on religious grounds, she only awaited a favourable opportunity openly to declare herself. by artful delays, and by prolonging the negociations with the emperor, she had succeeded in keeping him inactive, till she had concluded a secret compact with france, and the victories of duke bernard had given a favourable turn to the affairs of the protestants. she now at once threw off the mask, and renewed her former alliance with the swedish crown. the electoral prince of the palatinate was also stimulated, by the success of bernard, to try his fortune against the common enemy. raising troops in holland with english money, he formed a magazine at meppen, and joined the swedes in westphalia. his magazine was, however, quickly lost; his army defeated near flotha, by count hatzfeld; but his attempt served to occupy for some time the attention of the enemy, and thereby facilitated the operations of the swedes in other quarters. other friends began to appear, as fortune declared in their favour, and the circumstance, that the states of lower saxony embraced a neutrality, was of itself no inconsiderable advantage. under these advantages, and reinforced by , fresh troops from sweden and livonia. banner opened, with the most favourable prospects, the campaign of . the imperialists who were in possession of upper pomerania and mecklenburg, either abandoned their positions, or deserted in crowds to the swedes, to avoid the horrors of famine, the most formidable enemy in this exhausted country. the whole country betwixt the elbe and the oder was so desolated by the past marchings and quarterings of the troops, that, in order to support his army on its march into saxony and bohemia, banner was obliged to take a circuitous route from lower pomerania into lower saxony, and then into the electorate of saxony through the territory of halberstadt. the impatience of the lower saxon states to get rid of such troublesome guests, procured him so plentiful a supply of provisions, that he was provided with bread in magdeburg itself, where famine had even overcome the natural antipathy of men to human flesh. his approach spread consternation among the saxons; but his views were directed not against this exhausted country, but against the hereditary dominions of the emperor. the victories of bernard encouraged him, while the prosperity of the austrian provinces excited his hopes of booty. after defeating the imperial general salis, at elsterberg, totally routing the saxon army at chemnitz, and taking pirna, he penetrated with irresistible impetuosity into bohemia, crossed the elbe, threatened prague, took brandeis and leutmeritz, defeated general hofkirchen with ten regiments, and spread terror and devastation through that defenceless kingdom. booty was his sole object, and whatever he could not carry off he destroyed. in order to remove more of the corn, the ears were cut from the stalks, and the latter burnt. above a thousand castles, hamlets, and villages were laid in ashes; sometimes more than a hundred were seen burning in one night. from bohemia he crossed into silesia, and it was his intention to carry his ravages even into moravia and austria. but to prevent this, count hatzfeld was summoned from westphalia, and piccolomini from the netherlands, to hasten with all speed to this quarter. the archduke leopold, brother to the emperor, assumed the command, in order to repair the errors of his predecessor gallas, and to raise the army from the low ebb to which it had fallen. the result justified the change, and the campaign of appeared to take a most unfortunate turn for the swedes. they were successively driven out of all their posts in bohemia, and anxious only to secure their plunder, they precipitately crossed the heights of meissen. but being followed into saxony by the pursuing enemy, and defeated at plauen, they were obliged to take refuge in thuringia. made masters of the field in a single summer, they were as rapidly dispossessed; but only to acquire it a second time, and to hurry from one extreme to another. the army of banner, weakened and on the brink of destruction in its camp at erfurt, suddenly recovered itself. the duke of lunenburg abandoned the treaty of prague, and joined banner with the very troops which, the year before, had fought against him. hesse cassel sent reinforcements, and the duke of longueville came to his support with the army of the late duke bernard. once more numerically superior to the imperialists, banner offered them battle near saalfeld; but their leader, piccolomini, prudently declined an engagement, having chosen too strong a position to be forced. when the bavarians at length separated from the imperialists, and marched towards franconia, banner attempted an attack upon this divided corps, but the attempt was frustrated by the skill of the bavarian general von mercy, and the near approach of the main body of the imperialists. both armies now moved into the exhausted territory of hesse, where they formed intrenched camps near each other, till at last famine and the severity of the winter compelled them both to retire. piccolomini chose the fertile banks of the weser for his winter quarters; but being outflanked by banner, he was obliged to give way to the swedes, and to impose on the franconian sees the burden of maintaining his army. at this period, a diet was held in ratisbon, where the complaints of the states were to be heard, measures taken for securing the repose of the empire, and the question of peace or war finally settled. the presence of the emperor, the majority of the roman catholic voices in the electoral college, the great number of bishops, and the withdrawal of several of the protestant votes, gave the emperor a complete command of the deliberations of the assembly, and rendered this diet any thing but a fair representative of the opinions of the german empire. the protestants, with reason, considered it as a mere combination of austria and its creatures against their party; and it seemed to them a laudable effort to interrupt its deliberations, and to dissolve the diet itself. banner undertook this bold enterprise. his military reputation had suffered by his last retreat from bohemia, and it stood in need of some great exploit to restore its former lustre. without communicating his designs to any one, in the depth of the winter of , as soon as the roads and rivers were frozen, he broke up from his quarters in lunenburg. accompanied by marshal guebriant, who commanded the armies of france and weimar, he took the route towards the danube, through thuringia and vogtland, and appeared before ratisbon, ere the diet could be apprised of his approach. the consternation of the assembly was indescribable; and, in the first alarm, the deputies prepared for flight. the emperor alone declared that he would not leave the town, and encouraged the rest by his example. unfortunately for the swedes, a thaw came on, which broke up the ice upon the danube, so that it was no longer passable on foot, while no boats could cross it, on account of the quantities of ice which were swept down by the current. in order to perform something, and to humble the pride of the emperor, banner discourteously fired cannon shots into the town, which, however, did little mischief. baffled in his designs, he resolved to penetrate farther into bavaria, and the defenceless province of moravia, where a rich booty and comfortable quarters awaited his troops. guebriant, however, began to fear that the purpose of the swedes was to draw the army of bernard away from the rhine, and to cut off its communication with france, till it should be either entirely won over, or incapacitated from acting independently. he therefore separated from banner to return to the maine; and the latter was exposed to the whole force of the imperialists, which had been secretly drawn together between ratisbon and ingoldstadt, and was on its march against him. it was now time to think of a rapid retreat, which, having to be effected in the face of an army superior in cavalry, and betwixt woods and rivers, through a country entirely hostile, appeared almost impracticable. he hastily retired towards the forest, intending to penetrate through bohemia into saxony; but he was obliged to sacrifice three regiments at neuburg. these with a truly spartan courage, defended themselves for four days behind an old wall, and gained time for banner to escape. he retreated by egra to annaberg; piccolomini took a shorter route in pursuit, by schlakenwald; and banner succeeded, only by a single half hour, in clearing the pass of prisnitz, and saving his whole army from the imperialists. at zwickau he was again joined by guebriant; and both generals directed their march towards halberstadt, after in vain attempting to defend the saal, and to prevent the passage of the imperialists. banner, at length, terminated his career at halberstadt, in may , a victim to vexation and disappointment. he sustained with great renown, though with varying success, the reputation of the swedish arms in germany, and by a train of victories showed himself worthy of his great master in the art of war. he was fertile in expedients, which he planned with secrecy, and executed with boldness; cautious in the midst of dangers, greater in adversity than in prosperity, and never more formidable than when upon the brink of destruction. but the virtues of the hero were united with all the railings and vices which a military life creates, or at least fosters. as imperious in private life as he was at the head of his army, rude as his profession, and proud as a conqueror; he oppressed the german princes no less by his haughtiness, than their country by his contributions. he consoled himself for the toils of war in voluptuousness and the pleasures of the table, in which he indulged to excess, and was thus brought to an early grave. but though as much addicted to pleasure as alexander or mahomet the second, he hurried from the arms of luxury into the hardest fatigues, and placed himself in all his vigour at the head of his army, at the very moment his soldiers were murmuring at his luxurious excesses. nearly , men fell in the numerous battles which he fought, and about hostile standards and colours, which he sent to stockholm, were the trophies of his victories. the want of this great general was soon severely felt by the swedes, who feared, with justice, that the loss would not readily be replaced. the spirit of rebellion and insubordination, which had been overawed by the imperious demeanour of this dreaded commander, awoke upon his death. the officers, with an alarming unanimity, demanded payment of their arrears; and none of the four generals who shared the command, possessed influence enough to satisfy these demands, or to silence the malcontents. all discipline was at an end, increasing want, and the imperial citations were daily diminishing the number of the army; the troops of france and weimar showed little zeal; those of lunenburg forsook the swedish colours; the princes also of the house of brunswick, after the death of duke george, had formed a separate treaty with the emperor; and at last even those of hesse quitted them, to seek better quarters in westphalia. the enemy profited by these calamitous divisions; and although defeated with loss in two pitched battles, succeeded in making considerable progress in lower saxony. at length appeared the new swedish generalissimo, with fresh troops and money. this was bernard torstensohn, a pupil of gustavus adolphus, and his most successful imitator, who had been his page during the polish war. though a martyr to the gout, and confined to a litter, he surpassed all his opponents in activity; and his enterprises had wings, while his body was held by the most frightful of fetters. under him, the scene of war was changed, and new maxims adopted, which necessity dictated, and the issue justified. all the countries in which the contest had hitherto raged were exhausted; while the house of austria, safe in its more distant territories, felt not the miseries of the war under which the rest of germany groaned. torstensohn first furnished them with this bitter experience, glutted his swedes on the fertile produce of austria, and carried the torch of war to the very footsteps of the imperial throne. in silesia, the enemy had gained considerable advantages over the swedish general stalhantsch, and driven him as far as neumark. torstensohn, who had joined the main body of the swedes in lunenburg, summoned him to unite with his force, and in the year hastily marched into silesia through brandenburg, which, under its great elector, had begun to maintain an armed neutrality. glogau was carried, sword in hand, without a breach, or formal approaches; the duke francis albert of lauenburg defeated and killed at schweidnitz; and schweidnitz itself with almost all the towns on that side of the oder, taken. he now penetrated with irresistible violence into the interior of moravia, where no enemy of austria had hitherto appeared, took olmutz, and threw vienna itself into consternation. but, in the mean time, piccolomini and the archduke leopold had collected a superior force, which speedily drove the swedish conquerors from moravia, and after a fruitless attempt upon brieg, from silesia. reinforced by wrangel, the swedes again attempted to make head against the enemy, and relieved grossglogau; but could neither bring the imperialists to an engagement, nor carry into effect their own views upon bohemia. overrunning lusatia, they took zittau, in presence of the enemy, and after a short stay in that country, directed their march towards the elbe, which they passed at torgau. torstensohn now threatened leipzig with a siege, and hoped to raise a large supply of provisions and contributions from that prosperous town, which for ten years had been unvisited with the scourge of war. the imperialists, under leopold and piccolomini, immediately hastened by dresden to its relief, and torstensohn, to avoid being inclosed between this army and the town, boldly advanced to meet them in order of battle. by a strange coincidence, the two armies met upon the very spot which, eleven years before, gustavus adolphus had rendered remarkable by a decisive victory; and the heroism of their predecessors, now kindled in the swedes a noble emulation on this consecrated ground. the swedish generals, stahlhantsch and wellenberg, led their divisions with such impetuosity upon the left wing of the imperialists, before it was completely formed, that the whole cavalry that covered it were dispersed and rendered unserviceable. but the left of the swedes was threatened with a similar fate, when the victorious right advanced to its assistance, took the enemy in flank and rear, and divided the austrian line. the infantry on both sides stood firm as a wall, and when their ammunition was exhausted, maintained the combat with the butt-ends of their muskets, till at last the imperialists, completely surrounded, after a contest of three hours, were compelled to abandon the field. the generals on both sides had more than once to rally their flying troops; and the archduke leopold, with his regiment, was the first in the attack and last in flight. but this bloody victory cost the swedes more than men, and two of their best generals, schlangen and lilienhoeck. more than of the imperialists were left upon the field, and nearly as many taken prisoners. their whole artillery, consisting of field-pieces, the silver plate and portfolio of the archduke, with the whole baggage of the army, fell into the hands of the victors. torstensohn, too greatly disabled by his victory to pursue the enemy, moved upon leipzig. the defeated army retired into bohemia, where its shattered regiments reassembled. the archduke leopold could not recover from the vexation caused by this defeat; and the regiment of cavalry which, by its premature flight, had occasioned the disaster, experienced the effects of his indignation. at raconitz in bohemia, in presence of the whole army, he publicly declared it infamous, deprived it of its horses, arms, and ensigns, ordered its standards to be torn, condemned to death several of the officers, and decimated the privates. the surrender of leipzig, three weeks after the battle, was its brilliant result. the city was obliged to clothe the swedish troops anew, and to purchase an exemption from plunder, by a contribution of , rix-dollars, to which all the foreign merchants, who had warehouses in the city, were to furnish their quota. in the middle of winter, torstensohn advanced against freyberg, and for several weeks defied the inclemency of the season, hoping by his perseverance to weary out the obstinacy of the besieged. but he found that he was merely sacrificing the lives of his soldiers; and at last, the approach of the imperial general, piccolomini, compelled him, with his weakened army, to retire. he considered it, however, as equivalent to a victory, to have disturbed the repose of the enemy in their winter quarters, who, by the severity of the weather, sustained a loss of horses. he now made a movement towards the oder, as if with the view of reinforcing himself with the garrisons of pomerania and silesia; but, with the rapidity of lightning, he again appeared upon the bohemian frontier, penetrated through that kingdom, and relieved olmutz in moravia, which was hard pressed by the imperialists. his camp at dobitschau, two miles from olmutz, commanded the whole of moravia, on which he levied heavy contributions, and carried his ravages almost to the gates of vienna. in vain did the emperor attempt to arm the hungarian nobility in defence of this province; they appealed to their privileges, and refused to serve beyond the limits of their own country. thus, the time that should have been spent in active resistance, was lost in fruitless negociation, and the entire province was abandoned to the ravages of the swedes. while torstensohn, by his marches and his victories, astonished friend and foe, the armies of the allies had not been inactive in other parts of the empire. the troops of hesse, under count eberstein, and those of weimar, under mareschal de guebriant, had fallen into the electorate of cologne, in order to take up their winter quarters there. to get rid of these troublesome guests, the elector called to his assistance the imperial general hatzfeldt, and assembled his own troops under general lamboy. the latter was attacked by the allies in january, , and in a decisive action near kempen, defeated, with the loss of about men killed, and about twice as many prisoners. this important victory opened to them the whole electorate and neighbouring territories, so that the allies were not only enabled to maintain their winter quarters there, but drew from the country large supplies of men and horses. guebriant left the hessians to defend their conquests on the lower rhine against hatzfeldt, and advanced towards thuringia, as if to second the operations of torstensohn in saxony. but instead of joining the swedes, he soon hurried back to the rhine and the maine, from which he seemed to think he had removed farther than was expedient. but being anticipated in the margraviate of baden, by the bavarians under mercy and john de werth, he was obliged to wander about for several weeks, exposed, without shelter, to the inclemency of the winter, and generally encamping upon the snow, till he found a miserable refuge in breisgau. he at last took the field; and, in the next summer, by keeping the bavarian army employed in suabia, prevented it from relieving thionville, which was besieged by conde. but the superiority of the enemy soon drove him back to alsace, where he awaited a reinforcement. the death of cardinal richelieu took place in november, , and the subsequent change in the throne and in the ministry, occasioned by the death of louis xiii., had for some time withdrawn the attention of france from the german war, and was the cause of the inaction of its troops in the field. but mazarin, the inheritor, not only of richelieu's power, but also of his principles and his projects, followed out with renewed zeal the plans of his predecessor, though the french subject was destined to pay dearly enough for the political greatness of his country. the main strength of its armies, which richelieu had employed against the spaniards, was by mazarin directed against the emperor; and the anxiety with which he carried on the war in germany, proved the sincerity of his opinion, that the german army was the right arm of his king, and a wall of safety around france. immediately upon the surrender of thionville, he sent a considerable reinforcement to field-marshal guebriant in alsace; and to encourage the troops to bear the fatigues of the german war, the celebrated victor of rocroi, the duke of enghien, afterwards prince of conde, was placed at their head. guebriant now felt himself strong enough to appear again in germany with repute. he hastened across the rhine with the view of procuring better winter quarters in suabia, and actually made himself master of rothweil, where a bavarian magazine fell into his hands. but the place was too dearly purchased for its worth, and was again lost even more speedily than it had been taken. guebriant received a wound in the arm, which the surgeon's unskilfulness rendered mortal, and the extent of his loss was felt on the very day of his death. the french army, sensibly weakened by an expedition undertaken at so severe a season of the year, had, after the taking of rothweil, withdrawn into the neighbourhood of duttlingen, where it lay in complete security, without expectation of a hostile attack. in the mean time, the enemy collected a considerable force, with a view to prevent the french from establishing themselves beyond the rhine and so near to bavaria, and to protect that quarter from their ravages. the imperialists, under hatzfeldt, had formed a junction with the bavarians under mercy; and the duke of lorraine, who, during the whole course of the war, was generally found everywhere except in his own duchy, joined their united forces. it was resolved to force the quarters of the french in duttlingen, and the neighbouring villages, by surprise; a favourite mode of proceeding in this war, and which, being commonly accompanied by confusion, occasioned more bloodshed than a regular battle. on the present occasion, there was the more to justify it, as the french soldiers, unaccustomed to such enterprises, conceived themselves protected by the severity of the winter against any surprise. john de werth, a master in this species of warfare, which he had often put in practice against gustavus horn, conducted the enterprise, and succeeded, contrary to all expectation. the attack was made on a side where it was least looked for, on account of the woods and narrow passes, and a heavy snow storm which fell upon the same day, (the th november, ,) concealed the approach of the vanguard till it halted before duttlingen. the whole of the artillery without the place, as well as the neighbouring castle of honberg, were taken without resistance, duttlingen itself was gradually surrounded by the enemy, and all connexion with the other quarters in the adjacent villages silently and suddenly cut off. the french were vanquished without firing a cannon. the cavalry owed their escape to the swiftness of their horses, and the few minutes in advance, which they had gained upon their pursuers. the infantry were cut to pieces, or voluntarily laid down their arms. about , men were killed, and , , with staff-officers and captains, taken prisoners. this was, perhaps, the only battle, in the whole course of the war, which produced nearly the same effect upon the party which gained, and that which lost; -- both these parties were germans; the french disgraced themselves. the memory of this unfortunate day, which was renewed years after at rosbach, was indeed erased by the subsequent heroism of a turenne and conde; but the germans may be pardoned, if they indemnified themselves for the miseries which the policy of france had heaped upon them, by these severe reflections upon her intrepidity. meantime, this defeat of the french was calculated to prove highly disastrous to sweden, as the whole power of the emperor might now act against them, while the number of their enemies was increased by a formidable accession. torstensohn had, in september, , suddenly left moravia, and moved into silesia. the cause of this step was a secret, and the frequent changes which took place in the direction of his march, contributed to increase this perplexity. from silesia, after numberless circuits, he advanced towards the elbe, while the imperialists followed him into lusatia. throwing a bridge across the elbe at torgau, he gave out that he intended to penetrate through meissen into the upper palatinate in bavaria; at barby he also made a movement, as if to pass that river, but continued to move down the elbe as far as havelburg, where he astonished his troops by informing them that he was leading them against the danes in holstein. the partiality which christian iv. had displayed against the swedes in his office of mediator, the jealousy which led him to do all in his power to hinder the progress of their arms, the restraints which he laid upon their navigation of the sound, and the burdens which he imposed upon their commerce, had long roused the indignation of sweden; and, at last, when these grievances increased daily, had determined the regency to measures of retaliation. dangerous as it seemed, to involve the nation in a new war, when, even amidst its conquests, it was almost exhausted by the old, the desire of revenge, and the deep-rooted hatred which subsisted between danes and swedes, prevailed over all other considerations; and even the embarrassment in which hostilities with germany had plunged it, only served as an additional motive to try its fortune against denmark. matters were, in fact, arrived at last to that extremity, that the war was prosecuted merely for the purpose of furnishing food and employment to the troops; that good winter quarters formed the chief subject of contention; and that success, in this point, was more valued than a decisive victory. but now the provinces of germany were almost all exhausted and laid waste. they were wholly destitute of provisions, horses, and men, which in holstein were to be found in profusion. if by this movement, torstensohn should succeed merely in recruiting his army, providing subsistence for his horses and soldiers, and remounting his cavalry, all the danger and difficulty would be well repaid. besides, it was highly important, on the eve of negotiations for peace, to diminish the injurious influence which denmark might exercise upon these deliberations, to delay the treaty itself, which threatened to be prejudicial to the swedish interests, by sowing confusion among the parties interested, and with a view to the amount of indemnification, to increase the number of her conquests, in order to be the more sure of securing those which alone she was anxious to retain. moreover, the present state of denmark justified even greater hopes, if only the attempt were executed with rapidity and silence. the secret was in fact so well kept in stockholm, that the danish minister had not the slightest suspicion of it; and neither france nor holland were let into the scheme. actual hostilities commenced with the declaration of war; and torstensohn was in holstein, before even an attack was expected. the swedish troops, meeting with no resistance, quickly overran this duchy, and made themselves masters of all its strong places, except rensburg and gluckstadt. another army penetrated into schonen, which made as little opposition; and nothing but the severity of the season prevented the enemy from passing the lesser baltic, and carrying the war into funen and zealand. the danish fleet was unsuccessful at femern; and christian himself, who was on board, lost his right eye by a splinter. cut off from all communication with the distant force of the emperor, his ally, this king was on the point of seeing his whole kingdom overrun by the swedes; and all things threatened the speedy fulfilment of the old prophecy of the famous tycho brahe, that in the year , christian iv. should wander in the greatest misery from his dominions. but the emperor could not look on with indifference, while denmark was sacrificed to sweden, and the latter strengthened by so great an acquisition. notwithstanding great difficulties lay in the way of so long a march through desolated provinces, he did not hesitate to despatch an army into holstein under count gallas, who, after piccolomini's retirement, had resumed the supreme command of the troops. gallas accordingly appeared in the duchy, took keil, and hoped, by forming a junction with the danes, to be able to shut up the swedish army in jutland. meantime, the hessians, and the swedish general koenigsmark, were kept in check by hatzfeldt, and the archbishop of bremen, the son of christian iv.; and afterwards the swedes drawn into saxony by an attack upon meissen. but torstensohn, with his augmented army, penetrated through the unoccupied pass betwixt schleswig and stapelholm, met gallas, and drove him along the whole course of the elbe, as far as bernburg, where the imperialists took up an entrenched position. torstensohn passed the saal, and by posting himself in the rear of the enemy, cut off their communication with saxony and bohemia. scarcity and famine began now to destroy them in great numbers, and forced them to retreat to magdeburg, where, however, they were not much better off. the cavalry, which endeavoured to escape into silesia, was overtaken and routed by torstensohn, near juterbock; the rest of the army, after a vain attempt to fight its way through the swedish lines, was almost wholly destroyed near magdeburg. from this expedition, gallas brought back only a few thousand men of all his formidable force, and the reputation of being a consummate master in the art of ruining an army. the king of denmark, after this unsuccessful effort to relieve him, sued for peace, which he obtained at bremsebor in the year , under very unfavourable conditions. torstensohn rapidly followed up his victory; and while axel lilienstern, one of the generals who commanded under him, overawed saxony, and koenigsmark subdued the whole of bremen, he himself penetrated into bohemia with , men and pieces of artillery, and endeavoured a second time to remove the seat of war into the hereditary dominions of austria. ferdinand, upon this intelligence, hastened in person to prague, in order to animate the courage of the people by his presence; and as a skilful general was much required, and so little unanimity prevailed among the numerous leaders, he hoped in the immediate neighbourhood of the war to be able to give more energy and activity. in obedience to his orders, hatzfeldt assembled the whole austrian and bavarian force, and contrary to his own inclination and advice, formed the emperor's last army, and the last bulwark of his states, in order of battle, to meet the enemy, who were approaching, at jankowitz, on the th of february, . ferdinand depended upon his cavalry, which outnumbered that of the enemy by , and upon the promise of the virgin mary, who had appeared to him in a dream, and given him the strongest assurances of a complete victory. the superiority of the imperialists did not intimidate torstensohn, who was not accustomed to number his antagonists. on the very first onset, the left wing, which goetz, the general of the league, had entangled in a disadvantageous position among marshes and thickets, was totally routed; the general, with the greater part of his men, killed, and almost the whole ammunition of the army taken. this unfortunate commencement decided the fate of the day. the swedes, constantly advancing, successively carried all the most commanding heights. after a bloody engagement of eight hours, a desperate attack on the part of the imperial cavalry, and a vigorous resistance by the swedish infantry, the latter remained in possession of the field. , austrians were killed upon the spot, and hatzfeldt himself, with , men, taken prisoners. thus, on the same day, did the emperor lose his best general and his last army. this decisive victory at jancowitz, at once exposed all the austrian territory to the enemy. ferdinand hastily fled to vienna, to provide for its defence, and to save his family and his treasures. in a very short time, the victorious swedes poured, like an inundation, upon moravia and austria. after they had subdued nearly the whole of moravia, invested brunn, and taken all the strongholds as far as the danube, and carried the intrenchments at the wolf's bridge, near vienna, they at last appeared in sight of that capital, while the care which they had taken to fortify their conquests, showed that their visit was not likely to be a short one. after a long and destructive circuit through every province of germany, the stream of war had at last rolled backwards to its source, and the roar of the swedish artillery now reminded the terrified inhabitants of those balls which, twenty-seven years before, the bohemian rebels had fired into vienna. the same theatre of war brought again similar actors on the scene. torstensohn invited ragotsky, the successor of bethlen gabor, to his assistance, as the bohemian rebels had solicited that of his predecessor; upper hungary was already inundated by his troops, and his union with the swedes was daily apprehended. the elector of saxony, driven to despair by the swedes taking up their quarters within his territories, and abandoned by the emperor, who, after the defeat at jankowitz, was unable to defend himself, at length adopted the last and only expedient which remained, and concluded a truce with sweden, which was renewed from year to year, till the general peace. the emperor thus lost a friend, while a new enemy was appearing at his very gates, his armies dispersed, and his allies in other quarters of germany defeated. the french army had effaced the disgrace of their defeat at deutlingen by a brilliant campaign, and had kept the whole force of bavaria employed upon the rhine and in suabia. reinforced with fresh troops from france, which the great turenne, already distinguished by his victories in italy, brought to the assistance of the duke of enghien, they appeared on the rd of august, , before friburg, which mercy had lately taken, and now covered, with his whole army strongly intrenched. but against the steady firmness of the bavarians, all the impetuous valour of the french was exerted in vain, and after a fruitless sacrifice of , men, the duke of enghien was compelled to retreat. mazarin shed tears over this great loss, which conde, who had no feeling for anything but glory, disregarded. "a single night in paris," said he, "gives birth to more men than this action has destroyed." the bavarians, however, were so disabled by this murderous battle, that, far from being in a condition to relieve austria from the menaced dangers, they were too weak even to defend the banks of the rhine. spires, worms, and manheim capitulated; the strong fortress of philipsburg was forced to surrender by famine; and, by a timely submission, mentz hastened to disarm the conquerors. austria and moravia, however, were now freed from torstensohn, by a similar means of deliverance, as in the beginning of the war had saved them from the bohemians. ragotzky, at the head of , men, had advanced into the neighbourhood of the swedish quarters upon the danube. but these wild undisciplined hordes, instead of seconding the operations of torstensohn by any vigorous enterprise, only ravaged the country, and increased the distress which, even before their arrival, had begun to be felt in the swedish camp. to extort tribute from the emperor, and money and plunder from his subjects, was the sole object that had allured ragotzky, or his predecessor, bethlen gabor, into the field; and both departed as soon as they had gained their end. to get rid of him, ferdinand granted the barbarian whatever he asked, and, by a small sacrifice, freed his states of this formidable enemy. in the mean time, the main body of the swedes had been greatly weakened by a tedious encampment before brunn. torstensohn, who commanded in person, for four entire months employed in vain all his knowledge of military tactics; the obstinacy of the resistance was equal to that of the assault; while despair roused the courage of souches, the commandant, a swedish deserter, who had no hope of pardon. the ravages caused by pestilence, arising from famine, want of cleanliness, and the use of unripe fruit, during their tedious and unhealthy encampment, with the sudden retreat of the prince of transylvania, at last compelled the swedish leader to raise the siege. as all the passes upon the danube were occupied, and his army greatly weakened by famine and sickness, he at last relinquished his intended plan of operations against austria and moravia, and contented himself with securing a key to these provinces, by leaving behind him swedish garrisons in the conquered fortresses. he then directed his march into bohemia, whither he was followed by the imperialists, under the archduke leopold. such of the lost places as had not been retaken by the latter, were recovered, after his departure, by the austrian general bucheim; so that, in the course of the following year, the austrian frontier was again cleared of the enemy, and vienna escaped with mere alarm. in bohemia and silesia too, the swedes maintained themselves only with a very variable fortune; they traversed both countries, without being able to hold their ground in either. but if the designs of torstensohn were not crowned with all the success which they were promised at the commencement, they were, nevertheless, productive of the most important consequences to the swedish party. denmark had been compelled to a peace, saxony to a truce. the emperor, in the deliberations for a peace, offered greater concessions; france became more manageable; and sweden itself bolder and more confident in its bearing towards these two crowns. having thus nobly performed his duty, the author of these advantages retired, adorned with laurels, into the tranquillity of private life, and endeavoured to restore his shattered health. by the retreat of torstensohn, the emperor was relieved from all fears of an irruption on the side of bohemia. but a new danger soon threatened the austrian frontier from suabia and bavaria. turenne, who had separated from conde, and taken the direction of suabia, had, in the year , been totally defeated by mercy, near mergentheim; and the victorious bavarians, under their brave leader, poured into hesse. but the duke of enghien hastened with considerable succours from alsace, koenigsmark from moravia, and the hessians from the rhine, to recruit the defeated army, and the bavarians were in turn compelled to retire to the extreme limits of suabia. here they posted themselves at the village of allersheim, near nordlingen, in order to cover the bavarian frontier. but no obstacle could check the impetuosity of the duke of enghien. in person, he led on his troops against the enemy's entrenchments, and a battle took place, which the heroic resistance of the bavarians rendered most obstinate and bloody; till at last the death of the great mercy, the skill of turenne, and the iron firmness of the hessians, decided the day in favour of the allies. but even this second barbarous sacrifice of life had little effect either on the course of the war, or on the negociations for peace. the french army, exhausted by this bloody engagement, was still farther weakened by the departure of the hessians, and the bavarians being reinforced by the archduke leopold, turenne was again obliged hastily to recross the rhine. the retreat of the french, enabled the enemy to turn his whole force upon the swedes in bohemia. gustavus wrangel, no unworthy successor of banner and torstensohn, had, in , been appointed commander-in-chief of the swedish army, which, besides koenigsmark's flying corps and the numerous garrisons disposed throughout the empire, amounted to about , horse, and , foot. the archduke, after reinforcing his army, which already amounted to , men, with twelve bavarian regiments of cavalry, and eighteen regiments of infantry, moved against wrangel, in the hope of being able to overwhelm him by his superior force before koenigsmark could join him, or the french effect a diversion in his favour. wrangel, however, did not await him, but hastened through upper saxony to the weser, where he took hoester and paderborn. from thence he marched into hesse, in order to join turenne, and at his camp at wetzlar, was joined by the flying corps of koenigsmark. but turenne, fettered by the instructions of mazarin, who had seen with jealousy the warlike prowess and increasing power of the swedes, excused himself on the plea of a pressing necessity to defend the frontier of france on the side of the netherlands, in consequence of the flemings having failed to make the promised diversion. but as wrangel continued to press his just demand, and a longer opposition might have excited distrust on the part of the swedes, or induce them to conclude a private treaty with austria, turenne at last obtained the wished for permission to join the swedish army. the junction took place at giessen, and they now felt themselves strong enough to meet the enemy. the latter had followed the swedes into hesse, in order to intercept their commissariat, and to prevent their union with turenne. in both designs they had been unsuccessful; and the imperialists now saw themselves cut off from the maine, and exposed to great scarcity and want from the loss of their magazines. wrangel took advantage of their weakness, to execute a plan by which he hoped to give a new turn to the war. he, too, had adopted the maxim of his predecessor, to carry the war into the austrian states. but discouraged by the ill success of torstensohn's enterprise, he hoped to gain his end with more certainty by another way. he determined to follow the course of the danube, and to break into the austrian territories through the midst of bavaria. a similar design had been formerly conceived by gustavus adolphus, which he had been prevented carrying into effect by the approach of wallenstein's army, and the danger of saxony. duke bernard moving in his footsteps, and more fortunate than gustavus, had spread his victorious banners between the iser and the inn; but the near approach of the enemy, vastly superior in force, obliged him to halt in his victorious career, and lead back his troops. wrangel now hoped to accomplish the object in which his predecessors had failed, the more so, as the imperial and bavarian army was far in his rear upon the lahn, and could only reach bavaria by a long march through franconia and the upper palatinate. he moved hastily upon the danube, defeated a bavarian corps near donauwerth, and passed that river, as well as the lech, unopposed. but by wasting his time in the unsuccessful siege of augsburg, he gave opportunity to the imperialists, not only to relieve that city, but also to repulse him as far as lauingen. no sooner, however, had they turned towards suabia, with a view to remove the war from bavaria, than, seizing the opportunity, he repassed the lech, and guarded the passage of it against the imperialists themselves. bavaria now lay open and defenceless before him; the french and swedes quickly overran it; and the soldiery indemnified themselves for all dangers by frightful outrages, robberies, and extortions. the arrival of the imperial troops, who at last succeeded in passing the lech at thierhaupten, only increased the misery of this country, which friend and foe indiscriminately plundered. and now, for the first time during the whole course of this war, the courage of maximilian, which for eight-and-twenty years had stood unshaken amidst fearful dangers, began to waver. ferdinand ii., his school-companion at ingoldstadt, and the friend of his youth, was no more; and with the death of his friend and benefactor, the strong tie was dissolved which had linked the elector to the house of austria. to the father, habit, inclination, and gratitude had attached him; the son was a stranger to his heart, and political interests alone could preserve his fidelity to the latter prince. accordingly, the motives which the artifices of france now put in operation, in order to detach him from the austrian alliance, and to induce him to lay down his arms, were drawn entirely from political considerations. it was not without a selfish object that mazarin had so far overcome his jealousy of the growing power of the swedes, as to allow the french to accompany them into bavaria. his intention was to expose bavaria to all the horrors of war, in the hope that the persevering fortitude of maximilian might be subdued by necessity and despair, and the emperor deprived of his first and last ally. brandenburg had, under its great sovereign, embraced the neutrality; saxony had been forced to accede to it; the war with france prevented the spaniards from taking any part in that of germany; the peace with sweden had removed denmark from the theatre of war; and poland had been disarmed by a long truce. if they could succeed in detaching the elector of bavaria also from the austrian alliance, the emperor would be without a friend in germany and left to the mercy of the allied powers. ferdinand iii. saw his danger, and left no means untried to avert it. but the elector of bavaria was unfortunately led to believe that the spaniards alone were disinclined to peace, and that nothing, but spanish influence, had induced the emperor so long to resist a cessation of hostilities. maximilian detested the spaniards, and could never forgive their having opposed his application for the palatine electorate. could it then be supposed that, in order to gratify this hated power, he would see his people sacrificed, his country laid waste, and himself ruined, when, by a cessation of hostilities, he could at once emancipate himself from all these distresses, procure for his people the repose of which they stood so much in need, and perhaps accelerate the arrival of a general peace? all doubts disappeared; and, convinced of the necessity of this step, he thought he should sufficiently discharge his obligations to the emperor, if he invited him also to share in the benefit of the truce. the deputies of the three crowns, and of bavaria, met at ulm, to adjust the conditions. but it was soon evident, from the instructions of the austrian ambassadors that it was not the intention of the emperor to second the conclusion of a truce, but if possible to prevent it. it was obviously necessary to make the terms acceptable to the swedes, who had the advantage, and had more to hope than to fear from the continuance of the war. they were the conquerors; and yet the emperor presumed to dictate to them. in the first transports of their indignation, the swedish ambassadors were on the point of leaving the congress, and the french were obliged to have recourse to threats in order to detain them. the good intentions of the elector of bavaria, to include the emperor in the benefit of the truce, having been thus rendered unavailing, he felt himself justified in providing for his own safety. however hard were the conditions on which the truce was to be purchased, he did not hesitate to accept it on any terms. he agreed to the swedes extending their quarters in suabia and franconia, and to his own being restricted to bavaria and the palatinate. the conquests which he had made in suabia were ceded to the allies, who, on their part, restored to him what they had taken from bavaria. cologne and hesse cassel were also included in the truce. after the conclusion of this treaty, upon the th march, , the french and swedes left bavaria, and in order not to interfere with each other, took up different quarters; the former in wuertemberg, the latter in upper suabia, in the neighbourhood of the lake of constance. on the extreme north of this lake, and on the most southern frontier of suabia, the austrian town of bregentz, by its steep and narrow passes, seemed to defy attack; and in this persuasion, the whole peasantry of the surrounding villages had with their property taken refuge in this natural fortress. the rich booty, which the store of provisions it contained, gave reason to expect, and the advantage of possessing a pass into the tyrol, switzerland and italy, induced the swedish general to venture an attack upon this supposed impregnable post and town, in which he succeeded. meantime, turenne, according to agreement, marched into wuertemberg, where he forced the landgrave of darmstadt and the elector of mentz to imitate the example of bavaria, and to embrace the neutrality. and now, at last, france seemed to have attained the great object of its policy, that of depriving the emperor of the support of the league, and of his protestant allies, and of dictating to him, sword in hand, the conditions of peace. of all his once formidable power, an army, not exceeding , , was all that remained to him; and this force he was driven to the necessity of entrusting to the command of a calvinist, the hessian deserter melander, as the casualties of war had stripped him of his best generals. but as this war had been remarkable for the sudden changes of fortune it displayed; and as every calculation of state policy had been frequently baffled by some unforeseen event, in this case also the issue disappointed expectation; and after a brief crisis, the fallen power of austria rose again to a formidable strength. the jealousy which france entertained of sweden, prevented it from permitting the total ruin of the emperor, or allowing the swedes to obtain such a preponderance in germany, as might have been destructive to france herself. accordingly, the french minister declined to take advantage of the distresses of austria; and the army of turenne, separating from that of wrangel, retired to the frontiers of the netherlands. wrangel, indeed, after moving from suabia into franconia, taking schweinfurt, and incorporating the imperial garrison of that place with his own army, attempted to make his way into bohemia, and laid siege to egra, the key of that kingdom. to relieve this fortress, the emperor put his last army in motion, and placed himself at its head. but obliged to take a long circuit, in order to spare the lands of von schlick, the president of the council of war, he protracted his march; and on his arrival, egra was already taken. both armies were now in sight of each other; and a decisive battle was momentarily expected, as both were suffering from want, and the two camps were only separated from each other by the space of the entrenchments. but the imperialists, although superior in numbers, contented themselves with keeping close to the enemy, and harassing them by skirmishes, by fatiguing marches and famine, until the negociations which had been opened with bavaria were brought to a bearing. the neutrality of bavaria, was a wound under which the imperial court writhed impatiently; and after in vain attempting to prevent it, austria now determined, if possible, to turn it to advantage. several officers of the bavarian army had been offended by this step of their master, which at once reduced them to inaction, and imposed a burdensome restraint on their restless disposition. even the brave john de werth was at the head of the malcontents, and encouraged by the emperor, he formed a plot to seduce the whole army from their allegiance to the elector, and lead it over to the emperor. ferdinand did not blush to patronize this act of treachery against his father's most trusty ally. he formally issued a proclamation to the bavarian troops, in which he recalled them to himself, reminded them that they were the troops of the empire, which the elector had merely commanded in name of the emperor. fortunately for maximilian, he detected the conspiracy in time enough to anticipate and prevent it by the most rapid and effective measures. this disgraceful conduct of the emperor might have justified a reprisal, but maximilian was too old a statesman to listen to the voice of passion, where policy alone ought to be heard. he had not derived from the truce the advantages he expected. far from tending to accelerate a general peace, it had a pernicious influence upon the negociations at munster and osnaburg, and had made the allies bolder in their demands. the french and swedes had indeed removed from bavaria; but, by the loss of his quarters in the suabian circle, he found himself compelled either to exhaust his own territories by the subsistence of his troops, or at once to disband them, and to throw aside the shield and spear, at the very moment when the sword alone seemed to be the arbiter of right. before embracing either of these certain evils, he determined to try a third step, the unfavourable issue of which was at least not so certain, viz., to renounce the truce and resume the war. this resolution, and the assistance which he immediately despatched to the emperor in bohemia, threatened materially to injure the swedes, and wrangel was compelled in haste to evacuate that kingdom. he retired through thuringia into westphalia and lunenburg, in the hope of forming a junction with the french army under turenne, while the imperial and bavarian army followed him to the weser, under melander and gronsfeld. his ruin was inevitable, if the enemy should overtake him before his junction with turenne; but the same consideration which had just saved the emperor, now proved the salvation of the swedes. even amidst all the fury of the conquest, cold calculations of prudence guided the course of the war, and the vigilance of the different courts increased, as the prospect of peace approached. the elector of bavaria could not allow the emperor to obtain so decisive a preponderance as, by the sudden alteration of affairs, might delay the chances of a general peace. every change of fortune was important now, when a pacification was so ardently desired by all, and when the disturbance of the balance of power among the contracting parties might at once annihilate the work of years, destroy the fruit of long and tedious negociations, and indefinitely protract the repose of europe. if france sought to restrain the swedish crown within due bounds, and measured out her assistance according to her successes and defeats, the elector of bavaria silently undertook the same task with the emperor his ally, and determined, by prudently dealing out his aid, to hold the fate of austria in his own hands. and now that the power of the emperor threatened once more to attain a dangerous superiority, maximilian at once ceased to pursue the swedes. he was also afraid of reprisals from france, who had threatened to direct turenne's whole force against him if he allowed his troops to cross the weser. melander, prevented by the bavarians from further pursuing wrangel, crossed by jena and erfurt into hesse, and now appeared as a dangerous enemy in the country which he had formerly defended. if it was the desire of revenge upon his former sovereign, which led him to choose hesse for the scene of his ravage, he certainly had his full gratification. under this scourge, the miseries of that unfortunate state reached their height. but he had soon reason to regret that, in the choice of his quarters, he had listened to the dictates of revenge rather than of prudence. in this exhausted country, his army was oppressed by want, while wrangel was recruiting his strength, and remounting his cavalry in lunenburg. too weak to maintain his wretched quarters against the swedish general, when he opened the campaign in the winter of , and marched against hesse, he was obliged to retire with disgrace, and take refuge on the banks of the danube. france had once more disappointed the expectations of sweden; and the army of turenne, disregarding the remonstrances of wrangel, had remained upon the rhine. the swedish leader revenged himself, by drawing into his service the cavalry of weimar, which had abandoned the standard of france, though, by this step, he farther increased the jealousy of that power. turenne received permission to join the swedes; and the last campaign of this eventful war was now opened by the united armies. driving melander before them along the danube, they threw supplies into egra, which was besieged by the imperialists, and defeated the imperial and bavarian armies on the danube, which ventured to oppose them at susmarshausen, where melander was mortally wounded. after this overthrow, the bavarian general, gronsfeld, placed himself on the farther side of the lech, in order to guard bavaria from the enemy. but gronsfeld was not more fortunate than tilly, who, in this same position, had sacrificed his life for bavaria. wrangel and turenne chose the same spot for passing the river, which was so gloriously marked by the victory of gustavus adolphus, and accomplished it by the same means, too, which had favoured their predecessor. bavaria was now a second time overrun, and the breach of the truce punished by the severest treatment of its inhabitants. maximilian sought shelter in salzburgh, while the swedes crossed the iser, and forced their way as far as the inn. a violent and continued rain, which in a few days swelled this inconsiderable stream into a broad river, saved austria once more from the threatened danger. the enemy ten times attempted to form a bridge of boats over the inn, and as often it was destroyed by the current. never, during the whole course of the war, had the imperialists been in so great consternation as at present, when the enemy were in the centre of bavaria, and when they had no longer a general left who could be matched against a turenne, a wrangel, and a koenigsmark. at last the brave piccolomini arrived from the netherlands, to assume the command of the feeble wreck of the imperialists. by their own ravages in bohemia, the allies had rendered their subsistence in that country impracticable, and were at last driven by scarcity to retreat into the upper palatinate, where the news of the peace put a period to their activity. koenigsmark, with his flying corps, advanced towards bohemia, where ernest odowalsky, a disbanded captain, who, after being disabled in the imperial service, had been dismissed without a pension, laid before him a plan for surprising the lesser side of the city of prague. koenigsmark successfully accomplished the bold enterprise, and acquired the reputation of closing the thirty years' war by the last brilliant achievement. this decisive stroke, which vanquished the emperor's irresolution, cost the swedes only the loss of a single man. but the old town, the larger half of prague, which is divided into two parts by the moldau, by its vigorous resistance wearied out the efforts of the palatine, charles gustavus, the successor of christina on the throne, who had arrived from sweden with fresh troops, and had assembled the whole swedish force in bohemia and silesia before its walls. the approach of winter at last drove the besiegers into their quarters, and in the mean time, the intelligence arrived that a peace had been signed at munster, on the th october. the colossal labour of concluding this solemn, and ever memorable and sacred treaty, which is known by the name of the peace of westphalia; the endless obstacles which were to be surmounted; the contending interests which it was necessary to reconcile; the concatenation of circumstances which must have co-operated to bring to a favourable termination this tedious, but precious and permanent work of policy; the difficulties which beset the very opening of the negociations, and maintaining them, when opened, during the ever-fluctuating vicissitudes of the war; finally, arranging the conditions of peace, and still more, the carrying them into effect; what were the conditions of this peace; what each contending power gained or lost, by the toils and sufferings of a thirty years' war; what modification it wrought upon the general system of european policy; -- these are matters which must be relinquished to another pen. the history of the peace of westphalia constitutes a whole, as important as the history of the war itself. a mere abridgment of it, would reduce to a mere skeleton one of the most interesting and characteristic monuments of human policy and passions, and deprive it of every feature calculated to fix the attention of the public, for which i write, and of which i now respectfully take my leave. [end of the history of the thirty years' war.] notes: separate sources indicate that at the beginning of this war there were about million people in germany, and at the end of the war there were about million. if this is not surprising enough, war broke out again only years after the conclusion of this war. please note that the original translation changed many foreign names, both of places and persons, into english forms. these have not been revised. thus ko"ln is still cologne, friedrich is still frederick, etc. some foreign names were not translated, and due to the limits of ascii, vowels with umlauts have, according to custom, had an e added after them, i.e. koeln. also, in some cases variant spellings of names were used, and though an attempt was made, not all have been revised. the following index is included as an aid to searching -- although electronic texts can be easily searched for any word, it may prove helpful to know what some of the most important subjects are. therefore, the index is included, minus the page numbers. index. index. aix-la-chapelle, placed under the ban. arnheim, field-marshal: communicates with wallenstein; marches into saxon territory; offers alliance to wallenstein. augsburg, diet of. augsburg, peace of. aulic council. austria, house of: religious and political position; power under charles v. avaux, d', count. [see letter d.] baden, margrave of, joins frederick v. bamberg, bishop of. banner, swedish general: at leipzig; enters magdeburg; joins oxenstiern; relieves domitz; attacks imperialists at wittstock; returns into pomerania; opens the campaign in ; retreats through egra, and dies. bavaria, duke of: makes cause with the emperor; attends the diet at ratisbon. bavaria, elector of: he demands wallenstein's dismissal. [see maximilian.] bavaria, invasion of, by the swedes. bethlen gabor, prince: menaces hungary; invades hungary; marches to vienna; crowned king of hungary; makes peace with the emperor; breaks truce with the emperor. <variant in original: bethlem gabor> bohemia: condition of, and history; invasion of; peace proclaimed. bohemian brethren, edict against. bohemian compact. bohemian diet: ; . bohemian insurrection. bohemian letter of majesty. bohemian reformers at the diet, . brahe, count, swedish general. brandenburg: atrocities in; george william elector of. bremen, bishop of: assembles troops for gustavus. breze, marquis of. brunn, siege of. brunswick, ulric, duke of: forbids swedes to recruit; threatened by oxenstiern. bucquoi: defeats mansfeld; death of. buttler, colonel. calvinists in the palatinate and empire. catholic league: formation of; impart their secrets to the emperor. charles v., emperor. charles louis, count palatine. charnasse, agent of richelieu. christian iv. of denmark: appointed generalissimo. christian, duke of brunswick: serves in holland; defeated by tilly; death of. christian william, administrator of brandenburg: enters magdeburg in disguise. conde, prince de. <conde/> conti torquati, imperialist. darmstadt: william, landgrave of; george, landgrave of. d'avaux negotiates treaty between sweden and poland. "defenders of liberty", the. denmark, king of, sues for peace . dettingen, battle of. devereux, captain. donauwerth: banned by the aulic council; swedish officers at. "edict of restitution" signed . egra, castle of, great banquet held at. enghien, duke of, heroic conduct of. england, political position of. evangelical union: declaration in favour of, by matthias; moves in support of bohemian protestants. falkenberg, dietrich, sent to magdeburg. ferdinand i., emperor: character of; position after augsburg. ferdinand ii.: his popish announcement; as archduke of gratz; as archduke of styria, becomes emperor; protestantism in styria; besieged in vienna; chosen emperor ; rewards maximilian with bohemia; confiscates estates of frederick; invests maximilian with palatinate; attends diet of ratisbon; at mantua; character of, by his confessor; negotiations with sweden; selects wallenstein as general; gives orders to spare saxony; state of his dominions after the fall of prague; receives news of lutzen; deprives wallenstein of command; issues orders for his seizure; orders masses for wallenstein; death. ferdinand iii.: king of hungary and bohemia; appointed generalissimo; elected king of the romans; becomes emperor; defeat at jancowitz; conspires against bavaria. feria, duke of, spanish general. feuquieres, french ambassador at dresden. france: political position after henry iv.; ambassadors at ratisbon; interests and claims of; triumph of her policy; declaration of war against the emperor; retreat of the army under turenne from bavaria. frankfort-on-the-oder: sacked by the swedes; diet of. frederick v., elector palatine and king of bohemia: alienates his bohemian subjects; defeated at prague; joins mansfeld; deprived of the palatinate; at munich with gustavus; meets gustavus after leipzig; death. friburg, battle of. friedland, duke of. [see wallenstein.] gabor, bethlen. [see letter b.] gallas, imperialist general: made generalissimo; commander-in-chief; in command under king of hungary; overruns ribses; defeated by torstensohn. gebhard, elector of cologne. german people, principles and religious zeal of. germany: its condition after augsburg; at the accession of rodolph; after wallenstein's death. "god's friend, priests' foe", motto of duke of brunswick. "god with us", war-cry of the swedes. gordon, colonel. gratz, archduke of. [see ferdinand ii.] guebriant, field-marshal. gustavus adolphus, of sweden: ascends the throne; early life, incident of; position of; resources; concludes a treaty with france; with magdeburg; complaints against; appears before berlin; treaty with hesse cassel; with saxony; meeting at forgue; battle of leipzig; marches to the rhine; seats the palatine in munich; retrospect of his career from halle to lutzen (all of book iii.); storms marienburg; takes possession of frankfort; besieges mentz; carries oppenheim by storm; exposed to the malice of the jesuits; enters nuremberg; besieges ingoldstadt, narrow escape; enters munich; receives congratulations from wallenstein; hastens to the upper palatinate; seizes nuremberg; attacks wallenstein's camp; marches to neustadt; enters naumberg; death of, at the battle of lutzen; his body discovered; review of his policy. gustavus vasa. henderson, colonel, scotch officer, commands reserve at leipzig. henry iv. of france, "henry of arragon", projects and views of. hepburn, colonel, scotch officer, anecdote of. hesse, landgrave of: reply to tilly's demands; concludes a treaty with gustavus; does important service for gustavus. holland, political position of. holk, general, death of. horn, gustavus: drives imperialists from alsace; conduct at leipzig; left to subdue franconia; successes in franconia; services at lutzen; marches to the swedish frontier. hungary, its relations to austria. hussites, account of the. illo, count: confederate of wallenstein; acts as wallenstein's agent; death of. imperialists: delegates of, at prague; army reduced to distress; overrun bavaria. interim, the, system of theology. james i., king of england, assists the elector. jancowitz, battle of. jesuits, the: banishment of; they work against gustavus; their oppression of the protestants; in vienna, mention of; reference to, in wallenstein's career. "jesus maria", war-cry of the imperialists. joseph, father, agent of richelieu. juliers, duchy of: disputes succession to; "singular turn in the disruption". kinsky, count. kinsky, countess. klostergrab. koenigsmark, swedish general. ladislaus, son of segismund of poland. lauenburg, duke of. lavelette, cardinal. leipzig: general convention of, ; battle of. leslie, an officer of wallenstein. letter of majesty: issue of; explanation of; torn by ferdinand. lorraine, charles, duke of, defeated by gustavus. lubeck, peace of. lutherans, the: their position stated; their oppression of the calvinists. lutter, battle at. lutzen: mention of; battle of; death of gustavus. magdeburg: besieged by tilly; assaulted; taken by the swedes. mansfeld, count ernst: defeated at budweiss; ravages the palatinates; enters the dutch service; defeated at dessau. mansfeld, wolf, count von, leaves magdeburg to the swedes. matthias, emperor and archduke: chosen as austrian leader; heads a revolt against the emperor; acknowledged king of bohemia; ascends the throne; death of. maximilian ii., emperor and king of hungary, government and position of. maximilian, duke of bavaria: head of catholic league; marches into bohemia; character and position of; makes secret treaty with france; perfidy of; anxious for peace; tactics for supremacy; takes shelter in salzburg. mazarin, cardinal: and the battle of friburg; his diplomatic tactics in the war. <variant in original: mazarine> melander, a calvinist: commands the imperial forces; mortally wounded at egra. mentz, besieged and taken. moravian brethren, doctrines of. munich surrenders to gustavus. mutiny amongst swedish officers near donauwerth. neumann, captain. nevers, duke of. nordlingen, battle of. nuremberg: battleground; exertions of the magistrates. odowalsky, disbanded officer. oppenheim carried by storm. oxenstiern, chancellor of sweden: receives mentz library; position; assembles estates at heilbronn; suspects wallenstein; alliance with wallenstein; solicits french assistance; applies to france. palatinate, the, religious history of. palatine, elector, position and character of. pappenheim, imperialist general: assaults magdeburg; recalls tilly; attacks swedish vanguard; at leipzig; marches to cologne; at lutzen; death of. peace negotiations and conclusion, . peace negotiations of prague: terms of; results of to france and sweden. philip ii., of spain, character and political views of. piccolomini: wallenstein's reference to; becomes confidant of wallenstein; gives warning of wallenstein to the court; in command at saalfield; in pursuit of banner; defeated by torstensohn; commands imperialists. prague: meeting of the "defenders"; insurrection at; battle of, and savage treatment of the vanquished; entered by the saxon army; the taking of. [see also bohemian diet.] protestant union: design and aim of; divisions and changes; points of union; formation of evangelical union; demands on accession of matthias; alliance with hungary; preachers banished; dissolved; suppression of; oppressions in germany; reprisals in prague. ragotsky, prince: successor to bethlen gabor; in austria and moravia, ravages the country. ratisbon: diet held at, ; results of diet, taken by duke bernard; besieged by king of hungary; diet held at, . rednitz, desperate fight at. reformation: history of the (most of book i.); influence throughout europe; progress in hungary; outbreaks at strasburg. reservatum ecclesiasticum, explanation of. richelieu, minister of france: negotiates with sweden; effects a truce; treaty with sweden; labours in favour of gustavus; assists german protestants; terms with duke bernard; fall of breysach; death of. rodolph, archduke and emperor: ascends imperial throne as rodolph ii.; his political position; abdicates in favour of his brother; death of. rostock, taken by imperialists. saxe-lauenberg, francis albert, duke of. saxe-weimar, bernard, duke of: succeeds gustavus at lutzen; remains on the field; captures leipzig; takes ratisbon; removal of; escapes capture; visits france; defeats the imperialists; lays siege to breysach; death of. saxony, elector of, john george: refuses tilly's demands; alliance with gustavus; at leipzig; meditates a separation from sweden; leaves the swedes; treats with the emperor; recalls his officers from banner's army; treaty with sweden. schafgotsch, imperialist general. seni, wallenstein's astrologer. "snow king", nickname for gustavus. spain: influence in germany; policy of, under charles v. spanish prisoners. stralsund, siege of. strasbourg, religious divisions. styria, archduke of. [see ferdinand ii.] suys, imperialist general. sweden: political and religious condition of; historical summary of polish connection; origin of her intervention in the thirty years' war; truce with poland; alliance with france ; condition after death of gustavus. swedes: offer battle to wallenstein; overrun bavaria; successes throughout germany; capture bregentz; advance to nordlingen. terzky, count. terzky, countess. thurn, count, "defender": seizes krummau; invades moravia; encamps before vienna; takes flight to holland; returns to prague; conveys wallenstein's message to gustavus. thurn, count, swedish general: at steinau; surrender to wallenstein; demanded by the jesuits. tilly, count: commands the "army of execution"; defeats the danish army at lutter; appointed generalissimo; character and appearance; returns to magdeburg; takes magdeburg; encamped on the elbe; demands assistance from saxony; ravages saxony; at leipzig; flies to lower saxony; defeats charles, duke of lorraine; punishes the bishop of bamberg; awaits gustavus at rain; death. torgua: diet of; council at. torstensohn, bernard, swedish general: enters silesia; defeats piccolomini; overruns holstein; enters bohemia; routs the austrians at jancowitz; retires from command. turenne, french general: at friburg; recrosses the rhine; joins the swedes at giessen; retires to the netherlands. turks: the hostile inroads of; reference to. trent, council of. union, the protestant, first success and failures. urban viii., pope. wallenstein, count: invades holstein; created duke of friedland; besieges stralsund; makes a treaty with the danes; his exactions; appears at ratisbon diet; his dismissal; mode of life; reply to the king of denmark; pressed by the emperor to take command; quits prague; his position and personal feelings; makes use of arnheim; advises the saxons; assumes command; avenges himself on maximilian; meets the elector at egra, wallenstein's triumph; review at neumark; besieges nuremberg; marches to zirndorf; takes winter quarters in saxony; joins pappenheim; belief in astrology; at lutzen; advises an amnesty; duplicity with elector of bavaria; offers terms to the swedes; suspicions aroused; secret negotiations with france; defeats swedes on the oder; releases count thurn; storms goerlitz; marches to the upper palatinate; deprived of command; calls a meeting of generals at pilsen; his duplicity; calls for absent generals; secret orders for his apprehension issued; publicly denounced; retires to egra; assassination. weimar. [see saxe-weimar.] werth, john de, imperialist general: heads bavarian malcontents. westphalia, treaty of (treaty of peace). wimpfen. wrangel, gustavus, swedish general: marches to the danube; ravages bavaria; marches to bohemia; driven from bohemia. this ebook was produced by david widger, widger@cecomet.net the works of frederick schiller translated from the german illustrated history of the thirty years' war in germany. book v. wallenstein's death rendered necessary the appointment of a new generalissimo; and the emperor yielded at last to the advice of the spaniards, to raise his son ferdinand, king of hungary, to that dignity. under him, count gallas commanded, who performed the functions of commander-in-chief, while the prince brought to this post nothing but his name and dignity. a considerable force was soon assembled under ferdinand; the duke of lorraine brought up a considerable body of auxiliaries in person, and the cardinal infante joined him from italy with , men. in order to drive the enemy from the danube, the new general undertook the enterprise in which his predecessor had failed, the siege of ratisbon. in vain did duke bernard of weimar penetrate into the interior of bavaria, with a view to draw the enemy from the town; ferdinand continued to press the siege with vigour, and the city, after a most obstinate resistance, was obliged to open its gates to him. donauwerth soon shared the same fate, and nordlingen in swabia was now invested. the loss of so many of the imperial cities was severely felt by the swedish party; as the friendship of these towns had so largely contributed to the success of their arms, indifference to their fate would have been inexcusable. it would have been an indelible disgrace, had they deserted their confederates in their need, and abandoned them to the revenge of an implacable conqueror. moved by these considerations, the swedish army, under the command of horn, and bernard of weimar, advanced upon nordlingen, determined to relieve it even at the expense of a battle. the undertaking was a dangerous one, for in numbers the enemy was greatly superior to that of the swedes. there was also a further reason for avoiding a battle at present; the enemy's force was likely soon to divide, the italian troops being destined for the netherlands. in the mean time, such a position might be taken up, as to cover nordlingen, and cut off their supplies. all these grounds were strongly urged by gustavus horn, in the swedish council of war; but his remonstrances were disregarded by men who, intoxicated by a long career of success, mistook the suggestions of prudence for the voice of timidity. overborne by the superior influence of duke bernard, gustavus horn was compelled to risk a contest, whose unfavourable issue, a dark foreboding seemed already to announce. the fate of the battle depended upon the possession of a height which commanded the imperial camp. an attempt to occupy it during the night failed, as the tedious transport of the artillery through woods and hollow ways delayed the arrival of the troops. when the swedes arrived about midnight, they found the heights in possession of the enemy, strongly entrenched. they waited, therefore, for daybreak, to carry them by storm. their impetuous courage surmounted every obstacle; the entrenchments, which were in the form of a crescent, were successfully scaled by each of the two brigades appointed to the service; but as they entered at the same moment from opposite sides, they met and threw each other into confusion. at this unfortunate moment, a barrel of powder blew up, and created the greatest disorder among the swedes. the imperial cavalry charged upon their broken ranks, and the flight became universal. no persuasion on the part of their general could induce the fugitives to renew the assault. he resolved, therefore, in order to carry this important post, to lead fresh troops to the attack. but in the interim, some spanish regiments had marched in, and every attempt to gain it was repulsed by their heroic intrepidity. one of the duke's own regiments advanced seven times, and was as often driven back. the disadvantage of not occupying this post in time, was quickly and sensibly felt. the fire of the enemy's artillery from the heights, caused such slaughter in the adjacent wing of the swedes, that horn, who commanded there, was forced to give orders to retire. instead of being able to cover the retreat of his colleague, and to check the pursuit of the enemy, duke bernard, overpowered by numbers, was himself driven into the plain, where his routed cavalry spread confusion among horn's brigade, and rendered the defeat complete. almost the entire infantry were killed or taken prisoners. more than , men remained dead upon the field of battle; field pieces, about , waggons, and standards and colours fell into the hands of the imperialists. horn himself, with three other generals, were taken prisoners. duke bernard with difficulty saved a feeble remnant of his army, which joined him at frankfort. the defeat at nordlingen, cost the swedish chancellor the second sleepless night he had passed in germany.--[the first was occasioned by the death of gustavus adolphus.]--the consequences of this disaster were terrible. the swedes had lost by it at once their superiority in the field, and with it the confidence of their confederates, which they had gained solely by their previous military success. a dangerous division threatened the protestant confederation with ruin. consternation and terror seized upon the whole party; while the papists arose with exulting triumph from the deep humiliation into which they had sunk. swabia and the adjacent circles first felt the consequences of the defeat of nordlingen; and wirtemberg, in particular, was overrun by the conquering army. all the members of the league of heilbronn trembled at the prospect of the emperor's revenge; those who could, fled to strasburg, while the helpless free cities awaited their fate with alarm. a little more of moderation towards the conquered, would have quickly reduced all the weaker states under the emperor's authority; but the severity which was practised, even against those who voluntarily surrendered, drove the rest to despair, and roused them to a vigorous resistance. in this perplexity, all looked to oxenstiern for counsel and assistance; oxenstiern applied for both to the german states. troops were wanted; money likewise, to raise new levies, and to pay to the old the arrears which the men were clamorously demanding. oxenstiern addressed himself to the elector of saxony; but he shamefully abandoned the swedish cause, to negociate for a separate peace with the emperor at pirna. he solicited aid from the lower saxon states; but they, long wearied of the swedish pretensions and demands for money, now thought only of themselves; and george, duke of lunenburg, in place of flying to the assistance of upper germany, laid siege to minden, with the intention of keeping possession of it for himself. abandoned by his german allies, the chancellor exerted himself to obtain the assistance of foreign powers. england, holland, and venice were applied to for troops and money; and, driven to the last extremity, the chancellor reluctantly resolved to take the disagreeable step which he had so long avoided, and to throw himself under the protection of france. the moment had at last arrived which richelieu had long waited for with impatience. nothing, he was aware, but the impossibility of saving themselves by any other means, could induce the protestant states in germany to support the pretensions of france upon alsace. this extreme necessity had now arrived; the assistance of that power was indispensable, and she was resolved to be well paid for the active part which she was about to take in the german war. full of lustre and dignity, it now came upon the political stage. oxenstiern, who felt little reluctance in bestowing the rights and possessions of the empire, had already ceded the fortress of philipsburg, and the other long coveted places. the protestants of upper germany now, in their own names, sent a special embassy to richelieu, requesting him to take alsace, the fortress of breyssach, which was still to be recovered from the enemy, and all the places upon the upper rhine, which were the keys of germany, under the protection of france. what was implied by french protection had been seen in the conduct of france towards the bishoprics of metz, toul, and verdun, which it had held for centuries against the rightful owners. treves was already in the possession of french garrisons; lorraine was in a manner conquered, as it might at any time be overrun by an army, and could not, alone, and with its own strength, withstand its formidable neighbour. france now entertained the hope of adding alsace to its large and numerous possessions, and,--since a treaty was soon to be concluded with the dutch for the partition of the spanish netherlands--the prospect of making the rhine its natural boundary towards germany. thus shamefully were the rights of germany sacrificed by the german states to this treacherous and grasping power, which, under the mask of a disinterested friendship, aimed only at its own aggrandizement; and while it boldly claimed the honourable title of a protectress, was solely occupied with promoting its own schemes, and advancing its own interests amid the general confusion. in return for these important cessions, france engaged to effect a diversion in favour of the swedes, by commencing hostilities against the spaniards; and if this should lead to an open breach with the emperor, to maintain an army upon the german side of the rhine, which was to act in conjunction with the swedes and germans against austria. for a war with spain, the spaniards themselves soon afforded the desired pretext. making an inroad from the netherlands, upon the city of treves, they cut in pieces the french garrison; and, in open violation of the law of nations, made prisoner the elector, who had placed himself under the protection of france, and carried him into flanders. when the cardinal infante, as viceroy of the spanish netherlands, refused satisfaction for these injuries, and delayed to restore the prince to liberty, richelieu, after the old custom, formally proclaimed war at brussels by a herald, and the war was at once opened by three different armies in milan, in the valteline, and in flanders. the french minister was less anxious to commence hostilities with the emperor, which promised fewer advantages, and threatened greater difficulties. a fourth army, however, was detached across the rhine into germany, under the command of cardinal lavalette, which was to act in conjunction with duke bernard, against the emperor, without a previous declaration of war. a heavier blow for the swedes, than even the defeat of nordlingen, was the reconciliation of the elector of saxony with the emperor. after many fruitless attempts both to bring about and to prevent it, it was at last effected in , at pirna, and, the following year, reduced into a formal treaty of peace, at prague. the elector of saxony had always viewed with jealousy the pretensions of the swedes in germany; and his aversion to this foreign power, which now gave laws within the empire, had grown with every fresh requisition that oxenstiern was obliged to make upon the german states. this ill feeling was kept alive by the spanish court, who laboured earnestly to effect a peace between saxony and the emperor. wearied with the calamities of a long and destructive contest, which had selected saxony above all others for its theatre; grieved by the miseries which both friend and foe inflicted upon his subjects, and seduced by the tempting propositions of the house of austria, the elector at last abandoned the common cause, and, caring little for the fate of his confederates, or the liberties of germany, thought only of securing his own advantages, even at the expense of the whole body. in fact, the misery of germany had risen to such a height, that all clamorously vociferated for peace; and even the most disadvantageous pacification would have been hailed as a blessing from heaven. the plains, which formerly had been thronged with a happy and industrious population, where nature had lavished her choicest gifts, and plenty and prosperity had reigned, were now a wild and desolate wilderness. the fields, abandoned by the industrious husbandman, lay waste and uncultivated; and no sooner had the young crops given the promise of a smiling harvest, than a single march destroyed the labours of a year, and blasted the last hope of an afflicted peasantry. burnt castles, wasted fields, villages in ashes, were to be seen extending far and wide on all sides, while the ruined peasantry had no resource left but to swell the horde of incendiaries, and fearfully to retaliate upon their fellows, who had hitherto been spared the miseries which they themselves had suffered. the only safeguard against oppression was to become an oppressor. the towns groaned under the licentiousness of undisciplined and plundering garrisons, who seized and wasted the property of the citizens, and, under the license of their position, committed the most remorseless devastation and cruelty. if the march of an army converted whole provinces into deserts, if others were impoverished by winter quarters, or exhausted by contributions, these still were but passing evils, and the industry of a year might efface the miseries of a few months. but there was no relief for those who had a garrison within their walls, or in the neighbourhood; even the change of fortune could not improve their unfortunate fate, since the victor trod in the steps of the vanquished, and friends were not more merciful than enemies. the neglected farms, the destruction of the crops, and the numerous armies which overran the exhausted country, were inevitably followed by scarcity and the high price of provisions, which in the later years was still further increased by a general failure in the crops. the crowding together of men in camps and quarters--want upon one side, and excess on the other, occasioned contagious distempers, which were more fatal than even the sword. in this long and general confusion, all the bonds of social life were broken up;--respect for the rights of their fellow men, the fear of the laws, purity of morals, honour, and religion, were laid aside, where might ruled supreme with iron sceptre. under the shelter of anarchy and impunity, every vice flourished, and men became as wild as the country. no station was too dignified for outrage, no property too holy for rapine and avarice. in a word, the soldier reigned supreme; and that most brutal of despots often made his own officer feel his power. the leader of an army was a far more important person within any country where he appeared, than its lawful governor, who was frequently obliged to fly before him into his own castles for safety. germany swarmed with these petty tyrants, and the country suffered equally from its enemies and its protectors. these wounds rankled the deeper, when the unhappy victims recollected that germany was sacrificed to the ambition of foreign powers, who, for their own ends, prolonged the miseries of war. germany bled under the scourge, to extend the conquests and influence of sweden; and the torch of discord was kept alive within the empire, that the services of richelieu might be rendered indispensable in france. but, in truth, it was not merely interested voices which opposed a peace; and if both sweden and the german states were anxious, from corrupt motives, to prolong the conflict, they were seconded in their views by sound policy. after the defeat of nordlingen, an equitable peace was not to be expected from the emperor; and, this being the case, was it not too great a sacrifice, after seventeen years of war, with all its miseries, to abandon the contest, not only without advantage, but even with loss? what would avail so much bloodshed, if all was to remain as it had been; if their rights and pretensions were neither larger nor safer; if all that had been won with so much difficulty was to be surrendered for a peace at any cost? would it not be better to endure, for two or three years more, the burdens they had borne so long, and to reap at last some recompense for twenty years of suffering? neither was it doubtful, that peace might at last be obtained on favourable terms, if only the swedes and the german protestants should continue united in the cabinet and in the field, and pursued their common interests with a reciprocal sympathy and zeal. their divisions alone, had rendered the enemy formidable, and protracted the acquisition of a lasting and general peace. and this great evil the elector of saxony had brought upon the protestant cause by concluding a separate treaty with austria. he, indeed, had commenced his negociations with the emperor, even before the battle of nordlingen; and the unfortunate issue of that battle only accelerated their conclusion. by it, all his confidence in the swedes was lost; and it was even doubted whether they would ever recover from the blow. the jealousies among their generals, the insubordination of the army, and the exhaustion of the swedish kingdom, shut out any reasonable prospect of effective assistance on their part. the elector hastened, therefore, to profit by the emperor's magnanimity, who, even after the battle of nordlingen, did not recall the conditions previously offered. while oxenstiern, who had assembled the estates in frankfort, made further demands upon them and him, the emperor, on the contrary, made concessions; and therefore it required no long consideration to decide between them. in the mean time, however, he was anxious to escape the charge of sacrificing the common cause and attending only to his own interests. all the german states, and even the swedes, were publicly invited to become parties to this peace, although saxony and the emperor were the only powers who deliberated upon it, and who assumed the right to give law to germany. by this self-appointed tribunal, the grievances of the protestants were discussed, their rights and privileges decided, and even the fate of religions determined, without the presence of those who were most deeply interested in it. between them, a general peace was resolved on, and it was to be enforced by an imperial army of execution, as a formal decree of the empire. whoever opposed it, was to be treated as a public enemy; and thus, contrary to their rights, the states were to be compelled to acknowledge a law, in the passing of which they had no share. thus, even in form, the pacification at prague was an arbitrary measure; nor was it less so in its contents. the edict of restitution had been the chief cause of dispute between the elector and the emperor; and therefore it was first considered in their deliberations. without formally annulling it, it was determined by the treaty of prague, that all the ecclesiastical domains holding immediately of the empire, and, among the mediate ones, those which had been seized by the protestants subsequently to the treaty at passau, should, for forty years, remain in the same position as they had been in before the edict of restitution, but without any formal decision of the diet to that effect. before the expiration of this term a commission, composed of equal numbers of both religions, should proceed to settle the matter peaceably and according to law; and if this commission should be unable to come to a decision, each party should remain in possession of the rights which it had exercised before the edict of restitution. this arrangement, therefore, far from removing the grounds of dissension, only suspended the dispute for a time; and this article of the treaty of prague only covered the embers of a future war. the archbishopric of magdeburg remained in possession of prince augustus of saxony, and halberstadt in that of the archduke leopold william. four estates were taken from the territory of magdeburg, and given to saxony, for which the administrator of magdeburg, christian william of brandenburg, was otherwise to be indemnified. the dukes of mecklenburg, upon acceding to this treaty, were to be acknowledged as rightful possessors of their territories, in which the magnanimity of gustavus adolphus had long ago reinstated them. donauwerth recovered its liberties. the important claims of the heirs of the palatine, however important it might be for the protestant cause not to lose this electorate vote in the diet, were passed over in consequence of the animosity subsisting between the lutherans and the calvinists. all the conquests which, in the course of the war, had been made by the german states, or by the league and the emperor, were to be mutually restored; all which had been appropriated by the foreign powers of france and sweden, was to be forcibly wrested from them by the united powers. the troops of the contracting parties were to be formed into one imperial army, which, supported and paid by the empire, was, by force of arms, to carry into execution the covenants of the treaty. as the peace of prague was intended to serve as a general law of the empire, those points, which did not immediately affect the latter, formed the subject of a separate treaty. by it, lusatia was ceded to the elector of saxony as a fief of bohemia, and special articles guaranteed the freedom of religion of this country and of silesia. all the protestant states were invited to accede to the treaty of prague, and on that condition were to benefit by the amnesty. the princes of wurtemberg and baden, whose territories the emperor was already in possession of, and which he was not disposed to restore unconditionally; and such vassals of austria as had borne arms against their sovereign; and those states which, under the direction of oxenstiern, composed the council of the upper german circle, were excluded from the treaty,--not so much with the view of continuing the war against them, as of compelling them to purchase peace at a dearer rate. their territories were to be retained in pledge, till every thing should be restored to its former footing. such was the treaty of prague. equal justice, however, towards all, might perhaps have restored confidence between the head of the empire and its members-- between the protestants and the roman catholics--between the reformed and the lutheran party; and the swedes, abandoned by all their allies, would in all probability have been driven from germany with disgrace. but this inequality strengthened, in those who were more severely treated, the spirit of mistrust and opposition, and made it an easier task for the swedes to keep alive the flame of war, and to maintain a party in germany. the peace of prague, as might have been expected, was received with very various feelings throughout germany. the attempt to conciliate both parties, had rendered it obnoxious to both. the protestants complained of the restraints imposed upon them; the roman catholics thought that these hated sectaries had been favoured at the expense of the true church. in the opinion of the latter, the church had been deprived of its inalienable rights, by the concession to the protestants of forty years' undisturbed possession of the ecclesiastical benefices; while the former murmured that the interests of the protestant church had been betrayed, because toleration had not been granted to their co-religionists in the austrian dominions. but no one was so bitterly reproached as the elector of saxony, who was publicly denounced as a deserter, a traitor to religion and the liberties of the empire, and a confederate of the emperor. in the mean time, he consoled himself with the triumph of seeing most of the protestant states compelled by necessity to embrace this peace. the elector of brandenburg, duke william of weimar, the princes of anhalt, the dukes of mecklenburg, the dukes of brunswick lunenburg, the hanse towns, and most of the imperial cities, acceded to it. the landgrave william of hesse long wavered, or affected to do so, in order to gain time, and to regulate his measures by the course of events. he had conquered several fertile provinces of westphalia, and derived from them principally the means of continuing the war; these, by the terms of the treaty, he was bound to restore. bernard, duke of weimar, whose states, as yet, existed only on paper, as a belligerent power was not affected by the treaty, but as a general was so materially; and, in either view, he must equally be disposed to reject it. his whole riches consisted in his bravery, his possessions in his sword. war alone gave him greatness and importance, and war alone could realize the projects which his ambition suggested. but of all who declaimed against the treaty of prague, none were so loud in their clamours as the swedes, and none had so much reason for their opposition. invited to germany by the germans themselves, the champions of the protestant church, and the freedom of the states, which they had defended with so much bloodshed, and with the sacred life of their king, they now saw themselves suddenly and shamefully abandoned, disappointed in all their hopes, without reward and without gratitude driven from the empire for which they had toiled and bled, and exposed to the ridicule of the enemy by the very princes who owed every thing to them. no satisfaction, no indemnification for the expenses which they had incurred, no equivalent for the conquests which they were to leave behind them, was provided by the treaty of prague. they were to be dismissed poorer than they came, or, if they resisted, to be expelled by the very powers who had invited them. the elector of saxony at last spoke of a pecuniary indemnification, and mentioned the small sum of two millions five hundred thousand florins; but the swedes had already expended considerably more, and this disgraceful equivalent in money was both contrary to their true interests, and injurious to their pride. "the electors of bavaria and saxony," replied oxenstiern, "have been paid for their services, which, as vassals, they were bound to render the emperor, with the possession of important provinces; and shall we, who have sacrificed our king for germany, be dismissed with the miserable sum of , , florins?" the disappointment of their expectations was the more severe, because the swedes had calculated upon being recompensed with the duchy of pomerania, the present possessor of which was old and without heirs. but the succession of this territory was confirmed by the treaty of prague to the elector of brandenburg; and all the neighbouring powers declared against allowing the swedes to obtain a footing within the empire. never, in the whole course of the war, had the prospects of the swedes looked more gloomy, than in the year , immediately after the conclusion of the treaty of prague. many of their allies, particularly among the free cities, abandoned them to benefit by the peace; others were compelled to accede to it by the victorious arms of the emperor. augsburg, subdued by famine, surrendered under the severest conditions; wurtzburg and coburg were lost to the austrians. the league of heilbronn was formally dissolved. nearly the whole of upper germany, the chief seat of the swedish power, was reduced under the emperor. saxony, on the strength of the treaty of prague, demanded the evacuation of thuringia, halberstadt, and magdeburg. philipsburg, the military depot of france, was surprised by the austrians, with all the stores it contained; and this severe loss checked the activity of france. to complete the embarrassments of sweden, the truce with poland was drawing to a close. to support a war at the same time with poland and in germany, was far beyond the power of sweden; and all that remained was to choose between them. pride and ambition declared in favour of continuing the german war, at whatever sacrifice on the side of poland. an army, however, was necessary to command the respect of poland, and to give weight to sweden in any negotiations for a truce or a peace. the mind of oxenstiern, firm, and inexhaustible in expedients, set itself manfully to meet these calamities, which all combined to overwhelm sweden; and his shrewd understanding taught him how to turn even misfortunes to his advantage. the defection of so many german cities of the empire deprived him, it is true, of a great part of his former allies, but at the same time it freed him from the necessity of paying any regard to their interests. the more the number of his enemies increased, the more provinces and magazines were opened to his troops. the gross ingratitude of the states, and the haughty contempt with which the emperor behaved, (who did not even condescend to treat directly with him about a peace,) excited in him the courage of despair, and a noble determination to maintain the struggle to the last. the continuance of war, however unfortunate it might prove, could not render the situation of sweden worse than it now was; and if germany was to be evacuated, it was at least better and nobler to do so sword in hand, and to yield to force rather than to fear. in the extremity in which the swedes were now placed by the desertion of their allies, they addressed themselves to france, who met them with the greatest encouragement. the interests of the two crowns were closely united, and france would have injured herself by allowing the swedish power in germany to decline. the helpless situation of the swedes, was rather an additional motive with france to cement more closely their alliance, and to take a more active part in the german war. since the alliance with sweden, at beerwald, in , france had maintained the war against the emperor, by the arms of gustavus adolphus, without any open or formal breach, by furnishing subsidies and increasing the number of his enemies. but alarmed at the unexpected rapidity and success of the swedish arms, france, in anxiety to restore the balance of power, which was disturbed by the preponderance of the swedes, seemed, for a time, to have lost sight of her original designs. she endeavoured to protect the roman catholic princes of the empire against the swedish conqueror, by the treaties of neutrality, and when this plan failed, she even meditated herself to declare war against him. but no sooner had the death of gustavus adolphus, and the desperate situation of the swedish affairs, dispelled this apprehension, than she returned with fresh zeal to her first design, and readily afforded in this misfortune the aid which in the hour of success she had refused. freed from the checks which the ambition and vigilance of gustavus adolphus placed upon her plans of aggrandizement, france availed herself of the favourable opportunity afforded by the defeat of nordlingen, to obtain the entire direction of the war, and to prescribe laws to those who sued for her powerful protection. the moment seemed to smile upon her boldest plans, and those which had formerly seemed chimerical, now appeared to be justified by circumstances. she now turned her whole attention to the war in germany; and, as soon as she had secured her own private ends by a treaty with the germans, she suddenly entered the political arena as an active and a commanding power. while the other belligerent states had been exhausting themselves in a tedious contest, france had been reserving her strength, and maintained the contest by money alone; but now, when the state of things called for more active measures, she seized the sword, and astonished europe by the boldness and magnitude of her undertakings. at the same moment, she fitted out two fleets, and sent six different armies into the field, while she subsidized a foreign crown and several of the german princes. animated by this powerful co-operation, the swedes and germans awoke from the consternation, and hoped, sword in hand, to obtain a more honourable peace than that of prague. abandoned by their confederates, who had been reconciled to the emperor, they formed a still closer alliance with france, which increased her support with their growing necessities, at the same time taking a more active, although secret share in the german war, until at last, she threw off the mask altogether, and in her own name made an unequivocal declaration of war against the emperor. to leave sweden at full liberty to act against austria, france commenced her operations by liberating it from all fear of a polish war. by means of the count d'avaux, its minister, an agreement was concluded between the two powers at stummsdorf in prussia, by which the truce was prolonged for twenty-six years, though not without a great sacrifice on the part of the swedes, who ceded by a single stroke of the pen almost the whole of polish prussia, the dear-bought conquest of gustavus adolphus. the treaty of beerwald was, with certain modifications, which circumstances rendered necessary, renewed at different times at compiegne, and afterwards at wismar and hamburg. france had already come to a rupture with spain, in may, , and the vigorous attack which it made upon that power, deprived the emperor of his most valuable auxiliaries from the netherlands. by supporting the landgrave william of cassel, and duke bernard of weimar, the swedes were enabled to act with more vigour upon the elbe and the danube, and a diversion upon the rhine compelled the emperor to divide his force. the war was now prosecuted with increasing activity. by the treaty of prague, the emperor had lessened the number of his adversaries within the empire; though, at the same time, the zeal and activity of his foreign enemies had been augmented by it. in germany, his influence was almost unlimited, for, with the exception of a few states, he had rendered himself absolute master of the german body and its resources, and was again enabled to act in the character of emperor and sovereign. the first fruit of his power was the elevation of his son, ferdinand iii., to the dignity of king of the romans, to which he was elected by a decided majority of votes, notwithstanding the opposition of treves, and of the heirs of the elector palatine. but, on the other hand, he had exasperated the swedes to desperation, had armed the power of france against him, and drawn its troops into the heart of the kingdom. france and sweden, with their german allies, formed, from this moment, one firm and compactly united power; the emperor, with the german states which adhered to him, were equally firm and united. the swedes, who no longer fought for germany, but for their own lives, showed no more indulgence; relieved from the necessity of consulting their german allies, or accounting to them for the plans which they adopted, they acted with more precipitation, rapidity, and boldness. battles, though less decisive, became more obstinate and bloody; greater achievements, both in bravery and military skill, were performed; but they were but insulated efforts; and being neither dictated by any consistent plan, nor improved by any commanding spirit, had comparatively little influence upon the course of the war. saxony had bound herself, by the treaty of prague, to expel the swedes from germany. from this moment, the banners of the saxons and imperialists were united: the former confederates were converted into implacable enemies. the archbishopric of magdeburg which, by the treaty, was ceded to the prince of saxony, was still held by the swedes, and every attempt to acquire it by negociation had proved ineffectual. hostilities commenced, by the elector of saxony recalling all his subjects from the army of banner, which was encamped upon the elbe. the officers, long irritated by the accumulation of their arrears, obeyed the summons, and evacuated one quarter after another. as the saxons, at the same time, made a movement towards mecklenburg, to take doemitz, and to drive the swedes from pomerania and the baltic, banner suddenly marched thither, relieved doemitz, and totally defeated the saxon general baudissin, with men, of whom were slain, and about the same number taken prisoners. reinforced by the troops and artillery, which had hitherto been employed in polish prussia, but which the treaty of stummsdorf rendered unnecessary, this brave and impetuous general made, the following year ( ), a sudden inroad into the electorate of saxony, where he gratified his inveterate hatred of the saxons by the most destructive ravages. irritated by the memory of old grievances which, during their common campaigns, he and the swedes had suffered from the haughtiness of the saxons, and now exasperated to the utmost by the late defection of the elector, they wreaked upon the unfortunate inhabitants all their rancour. against austria and bavaria, the swedish soldier had fought from a sense, as it were, of duty; but against the saxons, they contended with all the energy of private animosity and personal revenge, detesting them as deserters and traitors; for the hatred of former friends is of all the most fierce and irreconcileable. the powerful diversion made by the duke of weimar, and the landgrave of hesse, upon the rhine and in westphalia, prevented the emperor from affording the necessary assistance to saxony, and left the whole electorate exposed to the destructive ravages of banner's army. at length, the elector, having formed a junction with the imperial general hatzfeld, advanced against magdeburg, which banner in vain hastened to relieve. the united army of the imperialists and the saxons now spread itself over brandenburg, wrested several places from the swedes, and almost drove them to the baltic. but, contrary to all expectation, banner, who had been given up as lost, attacked the allies, on the th of september, , at wittstock, where a bloody battle took place. the onset was terrific; and the whole force of the enemy was directed against the right wing of the swedes, which was led by banner in person. the contest was long maintained with equal animosity and obstinacy on both sides. there was not a squadron among the swedes, which did not return ten times to the charge, to be as often repulsed; when at last, banner was obliged to retire before the superior numbers of the enemy. his left wing sustained the combat until night, and the second line of the swedes, which had not as yet been engaged, was prepared to renew it the next morning. but the elector did not wait for a second attack. his army was exhausted by the efforts of the preceding day; and, as the drivers had fled with the horses, his artillery was unserviceable. he accordingly retreated in the night, with count hatzfeld, and relinquished the ground to the swedes. about of the allies fell upon the field, exclusive of those who were killed in the pursuit, or who fell into the hands of the exasperated peasantry. one hundred and fifty standards and colours, twenty-three pieces of cannon, the whole baggage and silver plate of the elector, were captured, and more than men taken prisoners. this brilliant victory, achieved over an enemy far superior in numbers, and in a very advantageous position, restored the swedes at once to their former reputation; their enemies were discouraged, and their friends inspired with new hopes. banner instantly followed up this decisive success, and hastily crossing the elbe, drove the imperialists before him, through thuringia and hesse, into westphalia. he then returned, and took up his winter quarters in saxony. but, without the material aid furnished by the diversion upon the rhine, and the activity there of duke bernard and the french, these important successes would have been unattainable. duke bernard, after the defeat of nordlingen, reorganized his broken army at wetterau; but, abandoned by the confederates of the league of heilbronn, which had been dissolved by the peace of prague, and receiving little support from the swedes, he found himself unable to maintain an army, or to perform any enterprise of importance. the defeat at nordlingen had terminated all his hopes on the duchy of franconia, while the weakness of the swedes, destroyed the chance of retrieving his fortunes through their assistance. tired, too, of the constraint imposed upon him by the imperious chancellor, he turned his attention to france, who could easily supply him with money, the only aid which he required, and france readily acceded to his proposals. richelieu desired nothing so much as to diminish the influence of the swedes in the german war, and to obtain the direction of it for himself. to secure this end, nothing appeared more effectual than to detach from the swedes their bravest general, to win him to the interests of france, and to secure for the execution of its projects the services of his arm. from a prince like bernard, who could not maintain himself without foreign support, france had nothing to fear, since no success, however brilliant, could render him independent of that crown. bernard himself came into france, and in october, , concluded a treaty at st. germaine en laye, not as a swedish general, but in his own name, by which it was stipulated that he should receive for himself a yearly pension of one million five hundred thousand livres, and four millions for the support of his army, which he was to command under the orders of the french king. to inflame his zeal, and to accelerate the conquest of alsace, france did not hesitate, by a secret article, to promise him that province for his services; a promise which richelieu had little intention of performing, and which the duke also estimated at its real worth. but bernard confided in his good fortune, and in his arms, and met artifice with dissimulation. if he could once succeed in wresting alsace from the enemy, he did not despair of being able, in case of need, to maintain it also against a friend. he now raised an army at the expense of france, which he commanded nominally under the orders of that power, but in reality without any limitation whatever, and without having wholly abandoned his engagements with sweden. he began his operations upon the rhine, where another french army, under cardinal lavalette, had already, in , commenced hostilities against the emperor. against this force, the main body of the imperialists, after the great victory of nordlingen, and the reduction of swabia and franconia had advanced under the command of gallas, had driven them as far as metz, cleared the rhine, and took from the swedes the towns of metz and frankenthal, of which they were in possession. but frustrated by the vigorous resistance of the french, in his main object, of taking up his winter quarters in france, he led back his exhausted troops into alsace and swabia. at the opening of the next campaign, he passed the rhine at breysach, and prepared to carry the war into the interior of france. he actually entered burgundy, while the spaniards from the netherlands made progress in picardy; and john de werth, a formidable general of the league, and a celebrated partisan, pushed his march into champagne, and spread consternation even to the gates of paris. but an insignificant fortress in franche comte completely checked the imperialists, and they were obliged, a second time, to abandon their enterprise. the activity of duke bernard had hitherto been impeded by his dependence on a french general, more suited to the priestly robe, than to the baton of command; and although, in conjunction with him, he conquered alsace saverne, he found himself unable, in the years and , to maintain his position upon the rhine. the ill success of the french arms in the netherlands had cheated the activity of operations in alsace and breisgau; but in , the war in that quarter took a more brilliant turn. relieved from his former restraint, and with unlimited command of his troops, duke bernard, in the beginning of february, left his winter quarters in the bishopric of basle, and unexpectedly appeared upon the rhine, where, at this rude season of the year, an attack was little anticipated. the forest towns of laufenburg, waldshut, and seckingen, were surprised, and rhinefeldt besieged. the duke of savelli, the imperial general who commanded in that quarter, hastened by forced marches to the relief of this important place, succeeded in raising the siege, and compelled the duke of weimar, with great loss to retire. but, contrary to all human expectation, he appeared on the third day after, ( st february, ,) before the imperialists, in order of battle, and defeated them in a bloody engagement, in which the four imperial generals, savelli, john de werth, enkeford, and sperreuter, with men, were taken prisoners. two of these, de werth and enkeford, were afterwards sent by richelieu's orders into france, in order to flatter the vanity of the french by the sight of such distinguished prisoners, and by the pomp of military trophies, to withdraw the attention of the populace from the public distress. the captured standards and colours were, with the same view, carried in solemn procession to the church of notre dame, thrice exhibited before the altar, and committed to sacred custody. the taking of rhinefeldt, roeteln, and fribourg, was the immediate consequence of the duke's victory. his army now increased by considerable recruits, and his projects expanded in proportion as fortune favoured him. the fortress of breysach upon the rhine was looked upon as holding the command of that river, and as the key of alsace. no place in this quarter was of more importance to the emperor, and upon none had more care been bestowed. to protect breysach, was the principal destination of the italian army, under the duke of feria; the strength of its works, and its natural defences, bade defiance to assault, while the imperial generals who commanded in that quarter had orders to retain it at any cost. but the duke, trusting to his good fortune, resolved to attempt the siege. its strength rendered it impregnable; it could, therefore, only be starved into a surrender; and this was facilitated by the carelessness of the commandant, who, expecting no attack, had been selling off his stores. as under these circumstances the town could not long hold out, it must be immediately relieved or victualled. accordingly, the imperial general goetz rapidly advanced at the head of , men, accompanied by waggons loaded with provisions, which he intended to throw into the place. but he was attacked with such vigour by duke bernard at witteweyer, that he lost his whole force, except men, together with the entire transport. a similar fate at ochsenfeld, near thann, overtook the duke of lorraine, who, with or men, advanced to relieve the fortress. after a third attempt of general goetz for the relief of breysach had proved ineffectual, the fortress, reduced to the greatest extremity by famine, surrendered, after a blockade of four months, on the th december , to its equally persevering and humane conqueror. the capture of breysach opened a boundless field to the ambition of the duke of weimar, and the romance of his hopes was fast approaching to reality. far from intending to surrender his conquests to france, he destined breysach for himself, and revealed this intention, by exacting allegiance from the vanquished, in his own name, and not in that of any other power. intoxicated by his past success, and excited by the boldest hopes, he believed that he should be able to maintain his conquests, even against france herself. at a time when everything depended upon bravery, when even personal strength was of importance, when troops and generals were of more value than territories, it was natural for a hero like bernard to place confidence in his own powers, and, at the head of an excellent army, who under his command had proved invincible, to believe himself capable of accomplishing the boldest and largest designs. in order to secure himself one friend among the crowd of enemies whom he was about to provoke, he turned his eyes upon the landgravine amelia of hesse, the widow of the lately deceased landgrave william, a princess whose talents were equal to her courage, and who, along with her hand, would bestow valuable conquests, an extensive principality, and a well disciplined army. by the union of the conquests of hesse, with his own upon the rhine, and the junction of their forces, a power of some importance, and perhaps a third party, might be formed in germany, which might decide the fate of the war. but a premature death put a period to these extensive schemes. "courage, father joseph, breysach is ours!" whispered richelieu in the ear of the capuchin, who had long held himself in readiness to be despatched into that quarter; so delighted was he with this joyful intelligence. already in imagination he held alsace, breisgau, and all the frontiers of austria in that quarter, without regard to his promise to duke bernard. but the firm determination which the latter had unequivocally shown, to keep breysach for himself, greatly embarrassed the cardinal, and no efforts were spared to retain the victorious bernard in the interests of france. he was invited to court, to witness the honours by which his triumph was to be commemorated; but he perceived and shunned the seductive snare. the cardinal even went so far as to offer him the hand of his niece in marriage; but the proud german prince declined the offer, and refused to sully the blood of saxony by a misalliance. he was now considered as a dangerous enemy, and treated as such. his subsidies were withdrawn; and the governor of breysach and his principal officers were bribed, at least upon the event of the duke's death, to take possession of his conquests, and to secure his troops. these intrigues were no secret to the duke, and the precautions he took in the conquered places, clearly bespoke the distrust of france. but this misunderstanding with the french court had the most prejudicial influence upon his future operations. the preparations he was obliged to make, in order to secure his conquests against an attack on the side of france, compelled him to divide his military strength, while the stoppage of his subsidies delayed his appearance in the field. it had been his intention to cross the rhine, to support the swedes, and to act against the emperor and bavaria on the banks of the danube. he had already communicated his plan of operations to banner, who was about to carry the war into the austrian territories, and had promised to relieve him so, when a sudden death cut short his heroic career, in the th year of his age, at neuburgh upon the rhine (in july, ). he died of a pestilential disorder, which, in the course of two days, had carried off nearly men in his camp. the black spots which appeared upon his body, his own dying expressions, and the advantages which france was likely to reap from his sudden decease, gave rise to a suspicion that he had been removed by poison--a suspicion sufficiently refuted by the symptoms of his disorder. in him, the allies lost their greatest general after gustavus adolphus, france a formidable competitor for alsace, and the emperor his most dangerous enemy. trained to the duties of a soldier and a general in the school of gustavus adolphus, he successfully imitated his eminent model, and wanted only a longer life to equal, if not to surpass it. with the bravery of the soldier, he united the calm and cool penetration of the general and the persevering fortitude of the man, with the daring resolution of youth; with the wild ardour of the warrior, the sober dignity of the prince, the moderation of the sage, and the conscientiousness of the man of honour. discouraged by no misfortune, he quickly rose again in full vigour from the severest defeats; no obstacles could check his enterprise, no disappointments conquer his indomitable perseverance. his genius, perhaps, soared after unattainable objects; but the prudence of such men, is to be measured by a different standard from that of ordinary people. capable of accomplishing more, he might venture to form more daring plans. bernard affords, in modern history, a splendid example of those days of chivalry, when personal greatness had its full weight and influence, when individual bravery could conquer provinces, and the heroic exploits of a german knight raised him even to the imperial throne. the best part of the duke's possessions were his army, which, together with alsace, he bequeathed to his brother william. but to this army, both france and sweden thought that they had well-grounded claims; the latter, because it had been raised in name of that crown, and had done homage to it; the former, because it had been supported by its subsidies. the electoral prince of the palatinate also negociated for its services, and attempted, first by his agents, and latterly in his own person, to win it over to his interests, with the view of employing it in the reconquest of his territories. even the emperor endeavoured to secure it, a circumstance the less surprising, when we reflect that at this time the justice of the cause was comparatively unimportant, and the extent of the recompense the main object to which the soldier looked; and when bravery, like every other commodity, was disposed of to the highest bidder. but france, richer and more determined, outbade all competitors: it bought over general erlach, the commander of breysach, and the other officers, who soon placed that fortress, with the whole army, in their hands. the young palatine, prince charles louis, who had already made an unsuccessful campaign against the emperor, saw his hopes again deceived. although intending to do france so ill a service, as to compete with her for bernard's army, he had the imprudence to travel through that kingdom. the cardinal, who dreaded the justice of the palatine's cause, was glad to seize any opportunity to frustrate his views. he accordingly caused him to be seized at moulin, in violation of the law of nations, and did not set him at liberty, until he learned that the army of the duke of weimar had been secured. france was now in possession of a numerous and well disciplined army in germany, and from this moment began to make open war upon the emperor. but it was no longer against ferdinand ii. that its hostilities were to be conducted; for that prince had died in february, , in the th year of his age. the war which his ambition had kindled, however, survived him. during a reign of eighteen years he had never once laid aside the sword, nor tasted the blessings of peace as long as his hand swayed the imperial sceptre. endowed with the qualities of a good sovereign, adorned with many of those virtues which ensure the happiness of a people, and by nature gentle and humane, we see him, from erroneous ideas of the monarch's duty, become at once the instrument and the victim of the evil passions of others; his benevolent intentions frustrated, and the friend of justice converted into the oppressor of mankind, the enemy of peace, and the scourge of his people. amiable in domestic life, and respectable as a sovereign, but in his policy ill advised, while he gained the love of his roman catholic subjects, he incurred the execration of the protestants. history exhibits many and greater despots than ferdinand ii., yet he alone has had the unfortunate celebrity of kindling a thirty years' war; but to produce its lamentable consequences, his ambition must have been seconded by a kindred spirit of the age, a congenial state of previous circumstances, and existing seeds of discord. at a less turbulent period, the spark would have found no fuel; and the peacefulness of the age would have choked the voice of individual ambition; but now the flash fell upon a pile of accumulated combustibles, and europe was in flames. his son, ferdinand iii., who, a few months before his father's death, had been raised to the dignity of king of the romans, inherited his throne, his principles, and the war which he had caused. but ferdinand iii. had been a closer witness of the sufferings of the people, and the devastation of the country, and felt more keenly and ardently the necessity of peace. less influenced by the jesuits and the spaniards, and more moderate towards the religious views of others, he was more likely than his father to listen to the voice of reason. he did so, and ultimately restored to europe the blessing of peace, but not till after a contest of eleven years waged with sword and pen; not till after he had experienced the impossibility of resistance, and necessity had laid upon him its stern laws. fortune favoured him at the commencement of his reign, and his arms were victorious against the swedes. the latter, under the command of the victorious banner, had, after their success at wittstock, taken up their winter quarters in saxony; and the campaign of opened with the siege of leipzig. the vigorous resistance of the garrison, and the approach of the electoral and imperial armies, saved the town, and banner, to prevent his communication with the elbe being cut off, was compelled to retreat into torgau. but the superior number of the imperialists drove him even from that quarter; and, surrounded by the enemy, hemmed in by rivers, and suffering from famine, he had no course open to him but to attempt a highly dangerous retreat into pomerania, of which, the boldness and successful issue border upon romance. the whole army crossed the oder, at a ford near furstenberg; and the soldiers, wading up to the neck in water, dragged the artillery across, when the horses refused to draw. banner had expected to be joined by general wrangel, on the farther side of the oder in pomerania; and, in conjunction with him, to be able to make head against the enemy. but wrangel did not appear; and in his stead, he found an imperial army posted at landsberg, with a view to cut off the retreat of the swedes. banner now saw that he had fallen into a dangerous snare, from which escape appeared impossible. in his rear lay an exhausted country, the imperialists, and the oder on his left; the oder, too, guarded by the imperial general bucheim, offered no retreat; in front, landsberg, custrin, the warta, and a hostile army; and on the right, poland, in which, notwithstanding the truce, little confidence could be placed. in these circumstances, his position seemed hopeless, and the imperialists were already triumphing in the certainty of his fall. banner, with just indignation, accused the french as the authors of this misfortune. they had neglected to make, according to their promise, a diversion upon the rhine; and, by their inaction, allowed the emperor to combine his whole force upon the swedes. "when the day comes," cried the incensed general to the french commissioner, who followed the camp, "that the swedes and germans join their arms against france, we shall cross the rhine with less ceremony." but reproaches were now useless; what the emergency demanded was energy and resolution. in the hope of drawing the enemy by stratagem from the oder, banner pretended to march towards poland, and despatched the greater part of his baggage in this direction, with his own wife, and those of the other officers. the imperialists immediately broke up their camp, and hurried towards the polish frontier to block up the route; bucheim left his station, and the oder was stripped of its defenders. on a sudden, and under cloud of night, banner turned towards that river, and crossed it about a mile above custrin, with his troops, baggage, and artillery, without bridges or vessels, as he had done before at furstenberg. he reached pomerania without loss, and prepared to share with wrangel the defence of that province. but the imperialists, under the command of gallas, entered that duchy at ribses, and overran it by their superior strength. usedom and wolgast were taken by storm, demmin capitulated, and the swedes were driven far into lower pomerania. it was, too, more important for them at this moment than ever, to maintain a footing in that country, for bogislaus xiv. had died that year, and sweden must prepare to establish its title to pomerania. to prevent the elector of brandenburg from making good the title to that duchy, which the treaty of prague had given him, sweden exerted her utmost energies, and supported its generals to the extent of her ability, both with troops and money. in other quarters of the kingdom, the affairs of the swedes began to wear a more favourable aspect, and to recover from the humiliation into which they had been thrown by the inaction of france, and the desertion of their allies. for, after their hasty retreat into pomerania, they had lost one place after another in upper saxony; the princes of mecklenburg, closely pressed by the troops of the emperor, began to lean to the side of austria, and even george, duke of lunenburg, declared against them. ehrenbreitstein was starved into a surrender by the bavarian general de werth, and the austrians possessed themselves of all the works which had been thrown up on the rhine. france had been the sufferer in the contest with spain; and the event had by no means justified the pompous expectations which had accompanied the opening of the campaign. every place which the swedes had held in the interior of germany was lost; and only the principal towns in pomerania still remained in their hands. but a single campaign raised them from this state of humiliation; and the vigorous diversion, which the victorious bernard had effected upon the rhine, gave quite a new turn to affairs. the misunderstandings between france and sweden were now at last adjusted, and the old treaty between these powers confirmed at hamburg, with fresh advantages for sweden. in hesse, the politic landgravine amelia had, with the approbation of the estates, assumed the government after the death of her husband, and resolutely maintained her rights against the emperor and the house of darmstadt. already zealously attached to the swedish protestant party, on religious grounds, she only awaited a favourable opportunity openly to declare herself. by artful delays, and by prolonging the negociations with the emperor, she had succeeded in keeping him inactive, till she had concluded a secret compact with france, and the victories of duke bernard had given a favourable turn to the affairs of the protestants. she now at once threw off the mask, and renewed her former alliance with the swedish crown. the electoral prince of the palatinate was also stimulated, by the success of bernard, to try his fortune against the common enemy. raising troops in holland with english money, he formed a magazine at meppen, and joined the swedes in westphalia. his magazine was, however, quickly lost; his army defeated near flotha, by count hatzfeld; but his attempt served to occupy for some time the attention of the enemy, and thereby facilitated the operations of the swedes in other quarters. other friends began to appear, as fortune declared in their favour, and the circumstance, that the states of lower saxony embraced a neutrality, was of itself no inconsiderable advantage. under these advantages, and reinforced by , fresh troops from sweden and livonia. banner opened, with the most favourable prospects, the campaign of . the imperialists who were in possession of upper pomerania and mecklenburg, either abandoned their positions, or deserted in crowds to the swedes, to avoid the horrors of famine, the most formidable enemy in this exhausted country. the whole country betwixt the elbe and the oder was so desolated by the past marchings and quarterings of the troops, that, in order to support his army on its march into saxony and bohemia, banner was obliged to take a circuitous route from lower pomerania into lower saxony, and then into the electorate of saxony through the territory of halberstadt. the impatience of the lower saxon states to get rid of such troublesome guests, procured him so plentiful a supply of provisions, that he was provided with bread in magdeburg itself, where famine had even overcome the natural antipathy of men to human flesh. his approach spread consternation among the saxons; but his views were directed not against this exhausted country, but against the hereditary dominions of the emperor. the victories of bernard encouraged him, while the prosperity of the austrian provinces excited his hopes of booty. after defeating the imperial general salis, at elsterberg, totally routing the saxon army at chemnitz, and taking pirna, he penetrated with irresistible impetuosity into bohemia, crossed the elbe, threatened prague, took brandeis and leutmeritz, defeated general hofkirchen with ten regiments, and spread terror and devastation through that defenceless kingdom. booty was his sole object, and whatever he could not carry off he destroyed. in order to remove more of the corn, the ears were cut from the stalks, and the latter burnt. above a thousand castles, hamlets, and villages were laid in ashes; sometimes more than a hundred were seen burning in one night. from bohemia he crossed into silesia, and it was his intention to carry his ravages even into moravia and austria. but to prevent this, count hatzfeld was summoned from westphalia, and piccolomini from the netherlands, to hasten with all speed to this quarter. the archduke leopold, brother to the emperor, assumed the command, in order to repair the errors of his predecessor gallas, and to raise the army from the low ebb to which it had fallen. the result justified the change, and the campaign of appeared to take a most unfortunate turn for the swedes. they were successively driven out of all their posts in bohemia, and anxious only to secure their plunder, they precipitately crossed the heights of meissen. but being followed into saxony by the pursuing enemy, and defeated at plauen, they were obliged to take refuge in thuringia. made masters of the field in a single summer, they were as rapidly dispossessed; but only to acquire it a second time, and to hurry from one extreme to another. the army of banner, weakened and on the brink of destruction in its camp at erfurt, suddenly recovered itself. the duke of lunenburg abandoned the treaty of prague, and joined banner with the very troops which, the year before, had fought against him. hesse cassel sent reinforcements, and the duke of longueville came to his support with the army of the late duke bernard. once more numerically superior to the imperialists, banner offered them battle near saalfeld; but their leader, piccolomini, prudently declined an engagement, having chosen too strong a position to be forced. when the bavarians at length separated from the imperialists, and marched towards franconia, banner attempted an attack upon this divided corps, but the attempt was frustrated by the skill of the bavarian general von mercy, and the near approach of the main body of the imperialists. both armies now moved into the exhausted territory of hesse, where they formed intrenched camps near each other, till at last famine and the severity of the winter compelled them both to retire. piccolomini chose the fertile banks of the weser for his winter quarters; but being outflanked by banner, he was obliged to give way to the swedes, and to impose on the franconian sees the burden of maintaining his army. at this period, a diet was held in ratisbon, where the complaints of the states were to be heard, measures taken for securing the repose of the empire, and the question of peace or war finally settled. the presence of the emperor, the majority of the roman catholic voices in the electoral college, the great number of bishops, and the withdrawal of several of the protestant votes, gave the emperor a complete command of the deliberations of the assembly, and rendered this diet any thing but a fair representative of the opinions of the german empire. the protestants, with reason, considered it as a mere combination of austria and its creatures against their party; and it seemed to them a laudable effort to interrupt its deliberations, and to dissolve the diet itself. banner undertook this bold enterprise. his military reputation had suffered by his last retreat from bohemia, and it stood in need of some great exploit to restore its former lustre. without communicating his designs to any one, in the depth of the winter of , as soon as the roads and rivers were frozen, he broke up from his quarters in lunenburg. accompanied by marshal guebriant, who commanded the armies of france and weimar, he took the route towards the danube, through thuringia and vogtland, and appeared before ratisbon, ere the diet could be apprised of his approach. the consternation of the assembly was indescribable; and, in the first alarm, the deputies prepared for flight. the emperor alone declared that he would not leave the town, and encouraged the rest by his example. unfortunately for the swedes, a thaw came on, which broke up the ice upon the danube, so that it was no longer passable on foot, while no boats could cross it, on account of the quantities of ice which were swept down by the current. in order to perform something, and to humble the pride of the emperor, banner discourteously fired cannon shots into the town, which, however, did little mischief. baffled in his designs, he resolved to penetrate farther into bavaria, and the defenceless province of moravia, where a rich booty and comfortable quarters awaited his troops. guebriant, however, began to fear that the purpose of the swedes was to draw the army of bernard away from the rhine, and to cut off its communication with france, till it should be either entirely won over, or incapacitated from acting independently. he therefore separated from banner to return to the maine; and the latter was exposed to the whole force of the imperialists, which had been secretly drawn together between ratisbon and ingoldstadt, and was on its march against him. it was now time to think of a rapid retreat, which, having to be effected in the face of an army superior in cavalry, and betwixt woods and rivers, through a country entirely hostile, appeared almost impracticable. he hastily retired towards the forest, intending to penetrate through bohemia into saxony; but he was obliged to sacrifice three regiments at neuburg. these with a truly spartan courage, defended themselves for four days behind an old wall, and gained time for banner to escape. he retreated by egra to annaberg; piccolomini took a shorter route in pursuit, by schlakenwald; and banner succeeded, only by a single half hour, in clearing the pass of prisnitz, and saving his whole army from the imperialists. at zwickau he was again joined by guebriant; and both generals directed their march towards halberstadt, after in vain attempting to defend the saal, and to prevent the passage of the imperialists. banner, at length, terminated his career at halberstadt, in may , a victim to vexation and disappointment. he sustained with great renown, though with varying success, the reputation of the swedish arms in germany, and by a train of victories showed himself worthy of his great master in the art of war. he was fertile in expedients, which he planned with secrecy, and executed with boldness; cautious in the midst of dangers, greater in adversity than in prosperity, and never more formidable than when upon the brink of destruction. but the virtues of the hero were united with all the railings and vices which a military life creates, or at least fosters. as imperious in private life as he was at the head of his army, rude as his profession, and proud as a conqueror; he oppressed the german princes no less by his haughtiness, than their country by his contributions. he consoled himself for the toils of war in voluptuousness and the pleasures of the table, in which he indulged to excess, and was thus brought to an early grave. but though as much addicted to pleasure as alexander or mahomet the second, he hurried from the arms of luxury into the hardest fatigues, and placed himself in all his vigour at the head of his army, at the very moment his soldiers were murmuring at his luxurious excesses. nearly , men fell in the numerous battles which he fought, and about hostile standards and colours, which he sent to stockholm, were the trophies of his victories. the want of this great general was soon severely felt by the swedes, who feared, with justice, that the loss would not readily be replaced. the spirit of rebellion and insubordination, which had been overawed by the imperious demeanour of this dreaded commander, awoke upon his death. the officers, with an alarming unanimity, demanded payment of their arrears; and none of the four generals who shared the command, possessed influence enough to satisfy these demands, or to silence the malcontents. all discipline was at an end, increasing want, and the imperial citations were daily diminishing the number of the army; the troops of france and weimar showed little zeal; those of lunenburg forsook the swedish colours; the princes also of the house of brunswick, after the death of duke george, had formed a separate treaty with the emperor; and at last even those of hesse quitted them, to seek better quarters in westphalia. the enemy profited by these calamitous divisions; and although defeated with loss in two pitched battles, succeeded in making considerable progress in lower saxony. at length appeared the new swedish generalissimo, with fresh troops and money. this was bernard torstensohn, a pupil of gustavus adolphus, and his most successful imitator, who had been his page during the polish war. though a martyr to the gout, and confined to a litter, he surpassed all his opponents in activity; and his enterprises had wings, while his body was held by the most frightful of fetters. under him, the scene of war was changed, and new maxims adopted, which necessity dictated, and the issue justified. all the countries in which the contest had hitherto raged were exhausted; while the house of austria, safe in its more distant territories, felt not the miseries of the war under which the rest of germany groaned. torstensohn first furnished them with this bitter experience, glutted his swedes on the fertile produce of austria, and carried the torch of war to the very footsteps of the imperial throne. in silesia, the enemy had gained considerable advantages over the swedish general stalhantsch, and driven him as far as neumark. torstensohn, who had joined the main body of the swedes in lunenburg, summoned him to unite with his force, and in the year hastily marched into silesia through brandenburg, which, under its great elector, had begun to maintain an armed neutrality. glogau was carried, sword in hand, without a breach, or formal approaches; the duke francis albert of lauenburg defeated and killed at schweidnitz; and schweidnitz itself with almost all the towns on that side of the oder, taken. he now penetrated with irresistible violence into the interior of moravia, where no enemy of austria had hitherto appeared, took olmutz, and threw vienna itself into consternation. but, in the mean time, piccolomini and the archduke leopold had collected a superior force, which speedily drove the swedish conquerors from moravia, and after a fruitless attempt upon brieg, from silesia. reinforced by wrangel, the swedes again attempted to make head against the enemy, and relieved grossglogau; but could neither bring the imperialists to an engagement, nor carry into effect their own views upon bohemia. overrunning lusatia, they took zittau, in presence of the enemy, and after a short stay in that country, directed their march towards the elbe, which they passed at torgau. torstensohn now threatened leipzig with a siege, and hoped to raise a large supply of provisions and contributions from that prosperous town, which for ten years had been unvisited with the scourge of war. the imperialists, under leopold and piccolomini, immediately hastened by dresden to its relief, and torstensohn, to avoid being inclosed between this army and the town, boldly advanced to meet them in order of battle. by a strange coincidence, the two armies met upon the very spot which, eleven years before, gustavus adolphus had rendered remarkable by a decisive victory; and the heroism of their predecessors, now kindled in the swedes a noble emulation on this consecrated ground. the swedish generals, stahlhantsch and wellenberg, led their divisions with such impetuosity upon the left wing of the imperialists, before it was completely formed, that the whole cavalry that covered it were dispersed and rendered unserviceable. but the left of the swedes was threatened with a similar fate, when the victorious right advanced to its assistance, took the enemy in flank and rear, and divided the austrian line. the infantry on both sides stood firm as a wall, and when their ammunition was exhausted, maintained the combat with the butt-ends of their muskets, till at last the imperialists, completely surrounded, after a contest of three hours, were compelled to abandon the field. the generals on both sides had more than once to rally their flying troops; and the archduke leopold, with his regiment, was the first in the attack and last in flight. but this bloody victory cost the swedes more than men, and two of their best generals, schlangen and lilienhoeck. more than of the imperialists were left upon the field, and nearly as many taken prisoners. their whole artillery, consisting of field-pieces, the silver plate and portfolio of the archduke, with the whole baggage of the army, fell into the hands of the victors. torstensohn, too greatly disabled by his victory to pursue the enemy, moved upon leipzig. the defeated army retired into bohemia, where its shattered regiments reassembled. the archduke leopold could not recover from the vexation caused by this defeat; and the regiment of cavalry which, by its premature flight, had occasioned the disaster, experienced the effects of his indignation. at raconitz in bohemia, in presence of the whole army, he publicly declared it infamous, deprived it of its horses, arms, and ensigns, ordered its standards to be torn, condemned to death several of the officers, and decimated the privates. the surrender of leipzig, three weeks after the battle, was its brilliant result. the city was obliged to clothe the swedish troops anew, and to purchase an exemption from plunder, by a contribution of , rix-dollars, to which all the foreign merchants, who had warehouses in the city, were to furnish their quota. in the middle of winter, torstensohn advanced against freyberg, and for several weeks defied the inclemency of the season, hoping by his perseverance to weary out the obstinacy of the besieged. but he found that he was merely sacrificing the lives of his soldiers; and at last, the approach of the imperial general, piccolomini, compelled him, with his weakened army, to retire. he considered it, however, as equivalent to a victory, to have disturbed the repose of the enemy in their winter quarters, who, by the severity of the weather, sustained a loss of horses. he now made a movement towards the oder, as if with the view of reinforcing himself with the garrisons of pomerania and silesia; but, with the rapidity of lightning, he again appeared upon the bohemian frontier, penetrated through that kingdom, and relieved olmutz in moravia, which was hard pressed by the imperialists. his camp at dobitschau, two miles from olmutz, commanded the whole of moravia, on which he levied heavy contributions, and carried his ravages almost to the gates of vienna. in vain did the emperor attempt to arm the hungarian nobility in defence of this province; they appealed to their privileges, and refused to serve beyond the limits of their own country. thus, the time that should have been spent in active resistance, was lost in fruitless negociation, and the entire province was abandoned to the ravages of the swedes. while torstensohn, by his marches and his victories, astonished friend and foe, the armies of the allies had not been inactive in other parts of the empire. the troops of hesse, under count eberstein, and those of weimar, under mareschal de guebriant, had fallen into the electorate of cologne, in order to take up their winter quarters there. to get rid of these troublesome guests, the elector called to his assistance the imperial general hatzfeldt, and assembled his own troops under general lamboy. the latter was attacked by the allies in january, , and in a decisive action near kempen, defeated, with the loss of about men killed, and about twice as many prisoners. this important victory opened to them the whole electorate and neighbouring territories, so that the allies were not only enabled to maintain their winter quarters there, but drew from the country large supplies of men and horses. guebriant left the hessians to defend their conquests on the lower rhine against hatzfeldt, and advanced towards thuringia, as if to second the operations of torstensohn in saxony. but instead of joining the swedes, he soon hurried back to the rhine and the maine, from which he seemed to think he had removed farther than was expedient. but being anticipated in the margraviate of baden, by the bavarians under mercy and john de werth, he was obliged to wander about for several weeks, exposed, without shelter, to the inclemency of the winter, and generally encamping upon the snow, till he found a miserable refuge in breisgau. he at last took the field; and, in the next summer, by keeping the bavarian army employed in suabia, prevented it from relieving thionville, which was besieged by conde. but the superiority of the enemy soon drove him back to alsace, where he awaited a reinforcement. the death of cardinal richelieu took place in november, , and the subsequent change in the throne and in the ministry, occasioned by the death of louis xiii., had for some time withdrawn the attention of france from the german war, and was the cause of the inaction of its troops in the field. but mazarin, the inheritor, not only of richelieu's power, but also of his principles and his projects, followed out with renewed zeal the plans of his predecessor, though the french subject was destined to pay dearly enough for the political greatness of his country. the main strength of its armies, which richelieu had employed against the spaniards, was by mazarin directed against the emperor; and the anxiety with which he carried on the war in germany, proved the sincerity of his opinion, that the german army was the right arm of his king, and a wall of safety around france. immediately upon the surrender of thionville, he sent a considerable reinforcement to field-marshal guebriant in alsace; and to encourage the troops to bear the fatigues of the german war, the celebrated victor of rocroi, the duke of enghien, afterwards prince of conde, was placed at their head. guebriant now felt himself strong enough to appear again in germany with repute. he hastened across the rhine with the view of procuring better winter quarters in suabia, and actually made himself master of rothweil, where a bavarian magazine fell into his hands. but the place was too dearly purchased for its worth, and was again lost even more speedily than it had been taken. guebriant received a wound in the arm, which the surgeon's unskilfulness rendered mortal, and the extent of his loss was felt on the very day of his death. the french army, sensibly weakened by an expedition undertaken at so severe a season of the year, had, after the taking of rothweil, withdrawn into the neighbourhood of duttlingen, where it lay in complete security, without expectation of a hostile attack. in the mean time, the enemy collected a considerable force, with a view to prevent the french from establishing themselves beyond the rhine and so near to bavaria, and to protect that quarter from their ravages. the imperialists, under hatzfeldt, had formed a junction with the bavarians under mercy; and the duke of lorraine, who, during the whole course of the war, was generally found everywhere except in his own duchy, joined their united forces. it was resolved to force the quarters of the french in duttlingen, and the neighbouring villages, by surprise; a favourite mode of proceeding in this war, and which, being commonly accompanied by confusion, occasioned more bloodshed than a regular battle. on the present occasion, there was the more to justify it, as the french soldiers, unaccustomed to such enterprises, conceived themselves protected by the severity of the winter against any surprise. john de werth, a master in this species of warfare, which he had often put in practice against gustavus horn, conducted the enterprise, and succeeded, contrary to all expectation. the attack was made on a side where it was least looked for, on account of the woods and narrow passes, and a heavy snow storm which fell upon the same day, (the th november, ,) concealed the approach of the vanguard till it halted before duttlingen. the whole of the artillery without the place, as well as the neighbouring castle of honberg, were taken without resistance, duttlingen itself was gradually surrounded by the enemy, and all connexion with the other quarters in the adjacent villages silently and suddenly cut off. the french were vanquished without firing a cannon. the cavalry owed their escape to the swiftness of their horses, and the few minutes in advance, which they had gained upon their pursuers. the infantry were cut to pieces, or voluntarily laid down their arms. about , men were killed, and , , with staff-officers and captains, taken prisoners. this was, perhaps, the only battle, in the whole course of the war, which produced nearly the same effect upon the party which gained, and that which lost;--both these parties were germans; the french disgraced themselves. the memory of this unfortunate day, which was renewed years after at rosbach, was indeed erased by the subsequent heroism of a turenne and conde; but the germans may be pardoned, if they indemnified themselves for the miseries which the policy of france had heaped upon them, by these severe reflections upon her intrepidity. meantime, this defeat of the french was calculated to prove highly disastrous to sweden, as the whole power of the emperor might now act against them, while the number of their enemies was increased by a formidable accession. torstensohn had, in september, , suddenly left moravia, and moved into silesia. the cause of this step was a secret, and the frequent changes which took place in the direction of his march, contributed to increase this perplexity. from silesia, after numberless circuits, he advanced towards the elbe, while the imperialists followed him into lusatia. throwing a bridge across the elbe at torgau, he gave out that he intended to penetrate through meissen into the upper palatinate in bavaria; at barby he also made a movement, as if to pass that river, but continued to move down the elbe as far as havelburg, where he astonished his troops by informing them that he was leading them against the danes in holstein. the partiality which christian iv. had displayed against the swedes in his office of mediator, the jealousy which led him to do all in his power to hinder the progress of their arms, the restraints which he laid upon their navigation of the sound, and the burdens which he imposed upon their commerce, had long roused the indignation of sweden; and, at last, when these grievances increased daily, had determined the regency to measures of retaliation. dangerous as it seemed, to involve the nation in a new war, when, even amidst its conquests, it was almost exhausted by the old, the desire of revenge, and the deep-rooted hatred which subsisted between danes and swedes, prevailed over all other considerations; and even the embarrassment in which hostilities with germany had plunged it, only served as an additional motive to try its fortune against denmark. matters were, in fact, arrived at last to that extremity, that the war was prosecuted merely for the purpose of furnishing food and employment to the troops; that good winter quarters formed the chief subject of contention; and that success, in this point, was more valued than a decisive victory. but now the provinces of germany were almost all exhausted and laid waste. they were wholly destitute of provisions, horses, and men, which in holstein were to be found in profusion. if by this movement, torstensohn should succeed merely in recruiting his army, providing subsistence for his horses and soldiers, and remounting his cavalry, all the danger and difficulty would be well repaid. besides, it was highly important, on the eve of negotiations for peace, to diminish the injurious influence which denmark might exercise upon these deliberations, to delay the treaty itself, which threatened to be prejudicial to the swedish interests, by sowing confusion among the parties interested, and with a view to the amount of indemnification, to increase the number of her conquests, in order to be the more sure of securing those which alone she was anxious to retain. moreover, the present state of denmark justified even greater hopes, if only the attempt were executed with rapidity and silence. the secret was in fact so well kept in stockholm, that the danish minister had not the slightest suspicion of it; and neither france nor holland were let into the scheme. actual hostilities commenced with the declaration of war; and torstensohn was in holstein, before even an attack was expected. the swedish troops, meeting with no resistance, quickly overran this duchy, and made themselves masters of all its strong places, except rensburg and gluckstadt. another army penetrated into schonen, which made as little opposition; and nothing but the severity of the season prevented the enemy from passing the lesser baltic, and carrying the war into funen and zealand. the danish fleet was unsuccessful at femern; and christian himself, who was on board, lost his right eye by a splinter. cut off from all communication with the distant force of the emperor, his ally, this king was on the point of seeing his whole kingdom overrun by the swedes; and all things threatened the speedy fulfilment of the old prophecy of the famous tycho brahe, that in the year , christian iv. should wander in the greatest misery from his dominions. but the emperor could not look on with indifference, while denmark was sacrificed to sweden, and the latter strengthened by so great an acquisition. notwithstanding great difficulties lay in the way of so long a march through desolated provinces, he did not hesitate to despatch an army into holstein under count gallas, who, after piccolomini's retirement, had resumed the supreme command of the troops. gallas accordingly appeared in the duchy, took keil, and hoped, by forming a junction with the danes, to be able to shut up the swedish army in jutland. meantime, the hessians, and the swedish general koenigsmark, were kept in check by hatzfeldt, and the archbishop of bremen, the son of christian iv.; and afterwards the swedes drawn into saxony by an attack upon meissen. but torstensohn, with his augmented army, penetrated through the unoccupied pass betwixt schleswig and stapelholm, met gallas, and drove him along the whole course of the elbe, as far as bernburg, where the imperialists took up an entrenched position. torstensohn passed the saal, and by posting himself in the rear of the enemy, cut off their communication with saxony and bohemia. scarcity and famine began now to destroy them in great numbers, and forced them to retreat to magdeburg, where, however, they were not much better off. the cavalry, which endeavoured to escape into silesia, was overtaken and routed by torstensohn, near juterbock; the rest of the army, after a vain attempt to fight its way through the swedish lines, was almost wholly destroyed near magdeburg. from this expedition, gallas brought back only a few thousand men of all his formidable force, and the reputation of being a consummate master in the art of ruining an army. the king of denmark, after this unsuccessful effort to relieve him, sued for peace, which he obtained at bremsebor in the year , under very unfavourable conditions. torstensohn rapidly followed up his victory; and while axel lilienstern, one of the generals who commanded under him, overawed saxony, and koenigsmark subdued the whole of bremen, he himself penetrated into bohemia with , men and pieces of artillery, and endeavoured a second time to remove the seat of war into the hereditary dominions of austria. ferdinand, upon this intelligence, hastened in person to prague, in order to animate the courage of the people by his presence; and as a skilful general was much required, and so little unanimity prevailed among the numerous leaders, he hoped in the immediate neighbourhood of the war to be able to give more energy and activity. in obedience to his orders, hatzfeldt assembled the whole austrian and bavarian force, and contrary to his own inclination and advice, formed the emperor's last army, and the last bulwark of his states, in order of battle, to meet the enemy, who were approaching, at jankowitz, on the th of february, . ferdinand depended upon his cavalry, which outnumbered that of the enemy by , and upon the promise of the virgin mary, who had appeared to him in a dream, and given him the strongest assurances of a complete victory. the superiority of the imperialists did not intimidate torstensohn, who was not accustomed to number his antagonists. on the very first onset, the left wing, which goetz, the general of the league, had entangled in a disadvantageous position among marshes and thickets, was totally routed; the general, with the greater part of his men, killed, and almost the whole ammunition of the army taken. this unfortunate commencement decided the fate of the day. the swedes, constantly advancing, successively carried all the most commanding heights. after a bloody engagement of eight hours, a desperate attack on the part of the imperial cavalry, and a vigorous resistance by the swedish infantry, the latter remained in possession of the field. , austrians were killed upon the spot, and hatzfeldt himself, with , men, taken prisoners. thus, on the same day, did the emperor lose his best general and his last army. this decisive victory at jancowitz, at once exposed all the austrian territory to the enemy. ferdinand hastily fled to vienna, to provide for its defence, and to save his family and his treasures. in a very short time, the victorious swedes poured, like an inundation, upon moravia and austria. after they had subdued nearly the whole of moravia, invested brunn, and taken all the strongholds as far as the danube, and carried the intrenchments at the wolf's bridge, near vienna, they at last appeared in sight of that capital, while the care which they had taken to fortify their conquests, showed that their visit was not likely to be a short one. after a long and destructive circuit through every province of germany, the stream of war had at last rolled backwards to its source, and the roar of the swedish artillery now reminded the terrified inhabitants of those balls which, twenty-seven years before, the bohemian rebels had fired into vienna. the same theatre of war brought again similar actors on the scene. torstensohn invited ragotsky, the successor of bethlen gabor, to his assistance, as the bohemian rebels had solicited that of his predecessor; upper hungary was already inundated by his troops, and his union with the swedes was daily apprehended. the elector of saxony, driven to despair by the swedes taking up their quarters within his territories, and abandoned by the emperor, who, after the defeat at jankowitz, was unable to defend himself, at length adopted the last and only expedient which remained, and concluded a truce with sweden, which was renewed from year to year, till the general peace. the emperor thus lost a friend, while a new enemy was appearing at his very gates, his armies dispersed, and his allies in other quarters of germany defeated. the french army had effaced the disgrace of their defeat at deutlingen by a brilliant campaign, and had kept the whole force of bavaria employed upon the rhine and in suabia. reinforced with fresh troops from france, which the great turenne, already distinguished by his victories in italy, brought to the assistance of the duke of enghien, they appeared on the rd of august, , before friburg, which mercy had lately taken, and now covered, with his whole army strongly intrenched. but against the steady firmness of the bavarians, all the impetuous valour of the french was exerted in vain, and after a fruitless sacrifice of , men, the duke of enghien was compelled to retreat. mazarin shed tears over this great loss, which conde, who had no feeling for anything but glory, disregarded. "a single night in paris," said he, "gives birth to more men than this action has destroyed." the bavarians, however, were so disabled by this murderous battle, that, far from being in a condition to relieve austria from the menaced dangers, they were too weak even to defend the banks of the rhine. spires, worms, and manheim capitulated; the strong fortress of philipsburg was forced to surrender by famine; and, by a timely submission, mentz hastened to disarm the conquerors. austria and moravia, however, were now freed from torstensohn, by a similar means of deliverance, as in the beginning of the war had saved them from the bohemians. ragotzky, at the head of , men, had advanced into the neighbourhood of the swedish quarters upon the danube. but these wild undisciplined hordes, instead of seconding the operations of torstensohn by any vigorous enterprise, only ravaged the country, and increased the distress which, even before their arrival, had begun to be felt in the swedish camp. to extort tribute from the emperor, and money and plunder from his subjects, was the sole object that had allured ragotzky, or his predecessor, bethlen gabor, into the field; and both departed as soon as they had gained their end. to get rid of him, ferdinand granted the barbarian whatever he asked, and, by a small sacrifice, freed his states of this formidable enemy. in the mean time, the main body of the swedes had been greatly weakened by a tedious encampment before brunn. torstensohn, who commanded in person, for four entire months employed in vain all his knowledge of military tactics; the obstinacy of the resistance was equal to that of the assault; while despair roused the courage of souches, the commandant, a swedish deserter, who had no hope of pardon. the ravages caused by pestilence, arising from famine, want of cleanliness, and the use of unripe fruit, during their tedious and unhealthy encampment, with the sudden retreat of the prince of transylvania, at last compelled the swedish leader to raise the siege. as all the passes upon the danube were occupied, and his army greatly weakened by famine and sickness, he at last relinquished his intended plan of operations against austria and moravia, and contented himself with securing a key to these provinces, by leaving behind him swedish garrisons in the conquered fortresses. he then directed his march into bohemia, whither he was followed by the imperialists, under the archduke leopold. such of the lost places as had not been retaken by the latter, were recovered, after his departure, by the austrian general bucheim; so that, in the course of the following year, the austrian frontier was again cleared of the enemy, and vienna escaped with mere alarm. in bohemia and silesia too, the swedes maintained themselves only with a very variable fortune; they traversed both countries, without being able to hold their ground in either. but if the designs of torstensohn were not crowned with all the success which they were promised at the commencement, they were, nevertheless, productive of the most important consequences to the swedish party. denmark had been compelled to a peace, saxony to a truce. the emperor, in the deliberations for a peace, offered greater concessions; france became more manageable; and sweden itself bolder and more confident in its bearing towards these two crowns. having thus nobly performed his duty, the author of these advantages retired, adorned with laurels, into the tranquillity of private life, and endeavoured to restore his shattered health. by the retreat of torstensohn, the emperor was relieved from all fears of an irruption on the side of bohemia. but a new danger soon threatened the austrian frontier from suabia and bavaria. turenne, who had separated from conde, and taken the direction of suabia, had, in the year , been totally defeated by mercy, near mergentheim; and the victorious bavarians, under their brave leader, poured into hesse. but the duke of enghien hastened with considerable succours from alsace, koenigsmark from moravia, and the hessians from the rhine, to recruit the defeated army, and the bavarians were in turn compelled to retire to the extreme limits of suabia. here they posted themselves at the village of allersheim, near nordlingen, in order to cover the bavarian frontier. but no obstacle could check the impetuosity of the duke of enghien. in person, he led on his troops against the enemy's entrenchments, and a battle took place, which the heroic resistance of the bavarians rendered most obstinate and bloody; till at last the death of the great mercy, the skill of turenne, and the iron firmness of the hessians, decided the day in favour of the allies. but even this second barbarous sacrifice of life had little effect either on the course of the war, or on the negociations for peace. the french army, exhausted by this bloody engagement, was still farther weakened by the departure of the hessians, and the bavarians being reinforced by the archduke leopold, turenne was again obliged hastily to recross the rhine. the retreat of the french, enabled the enemy to turn his whole force upon the swedes in bohemia. gustavus wrangel, no unworthy successor of banner and torstensohn, had, in , been appointed commander-in-chief of the swedish army, which, besides koenigsmark's flying corps and the numerous garrisons disposed throughout the empire, amounted to about , horse, and , foot. the archduke, after reinforcing his army, which already amounted to , men, with twelve bavarian regiments of cavalry, and eighteen regiments of infantry, moved against wrangel, in the hope of being able to overwhelm him by his superior force before koenigsmark could join him, or the french effect a diversion in his favour. wrangel, however, did not await him, but hastened through upper saxony to the weser, where he took hoester and paderborn. from thence he marched into hesse, in order to join turenne, and at his camp at wetzlar, was joined by the flying corps of koenigsmark. but turenne, fettered by the instructions of mazarin, who had seen with jealousy the warlike prowess and increasing power of the swedes, excused himself on the plea of a pressing necessity to defend the frontier of france on the side of the netherlands, in consequence of the flemings having failed to make the promised diversion. but as wrangel continued to press his just demand, and a longer opposition might have excited distrust on the part of the swedes, or induce them to conclude a private treaty with austria, turenne at last obtained the wished for permission to join the swedish army. the junction took place at giessen, and they now felt themselves strong enough to meet the enemy. the latter had followed the swedes into hesse, in order to intercept their commissariat, and to prevent their union with turenne. in both designs they had been unsuccessful; and the imperialists now saw themselves cut off from the maine, and exposed to great scarcity and want from the loss of their magazines. wrangel took advantage of their weakness, to execute a plan by which he hoped to give a new turn to the war. he, too, had adopted the maxim of his predecessor, to carry the war into the austrian states. but discouraged by the ill success of torstensohn's enterprise, he hoped to gain his end with more certainty by another way. he determined to follow the course of the danube, and to break into the austrian territories through the midst of bavaria. a similar design had been formerly conceived by gustavus adolphus, which he had been prevented carrying into effect by the approach of wallenstein's army, and the danger of saxony. duke bernard moving in his footsteps, and more fortunate than gustavus, had spread his victorious banners between the iser and the inn; but the near approach of the enemy, vastly superior in force, obliged him to halt in his victorious career, and lead back his troops. wrangel now hoped to accomplish the object in which his predecessors had failed, the more so, as the imperial and bavarian army was far in his rear upon the lahn, and could only reach bavaria by a long march through franconia and the upper palatinate. he moved hastily upon the danube, defeated a bavarian corps near donauwerth, and passed that river, as well as the lech, unopposed. but by wasting his time in the unsuccessful siege of augsburg, he gave opportunity to the imperialists, not only to relieve that city, but also to repulse him as far as lauingen. no sooner, however, had they turned towards suabia, with a view to remove the war from bavaria, than, seizing the opportunity, he repassed the lech, and guarded the passage of it against the imperialists themselves. bavaria now lay open and defenceless before him; the french and swedes quickly overran it; and the soldiery indemnified themselves for all dangers by frightful outrages, robberies, and extortions. the arrival of the imperial troops, who at last succeeded in passing the lech at thierhaupten, only increased the misery of this country, which friend and foe indiscriminately plundered. and now, for the first time during the whole course of this war, the courage of maximilian, which for eight-and-twenty years had stood unshaken amidst fearful dangers, began to waver. ferdinand ii., his school-companion at ingoldstadt, and the friend of his youth, was no more; and with the death of his friend and benefactor, the strong tie was dissolved which had linked the elector to the house of austria. to the father, habit, inclination, and gratitude had attached him; the son was a stranger to his heart, and political interests alone could preserve his fidelity to the latter prince. accordingly, the motives which the artifices of france now put in operation, in order to detach him from the austrian alliance, and to induce him to lay down his arms, were drawn entirely from political considerations. it was not without a selfish object that mazarin had so far overcome his jealousy of the growing power of the swedes, as to allow the french to accompany them into bavaria. his intention was to expose bavaria to all the horrors of war, in the hope that the persevering fortitude of maximilian might be subdued by necessity and despair, and the emperor deprived of his first and last ally. brandenburg had, under its great sovereign, embraced the neutrality; saxony had been forced to accede to it; the war with france prevented the spaniards from taking any part in that of germany; the peace with sweden had removed denmark from the theatre of war; and poland had been disarmed by a long truce. if they could succeed in detaching the elector of bavaria also from the austrian alliance, the emperor would be without a friend in germany and left to the mercy of the allied powers. ferdinand iii. saw his danger, and left no means untried to avert it. but the elector of bavaria was unfortunately led to believe that the spaniards alone were disinclined to peace, and that nothing, but spanish influence, had induced the emperor so long to resist a cessation of hostilities. maximilian detested the spaniards, and could never forgive their having opposed his application for the palatine electorate. could it then be supposed that, in order to gratify this hated power, he would see his people sacrificed, his country laid waste, and himself ruined, when, by a cessation of hostilities, he could at once emancipate himself from all these distresses, procure for his people the repose of which they stood so much in need, and perhaps accelerate the arrival of a general peace? all doubts disappeared; and, convinced of the necessity of this step, he thought he should sufficiently discharge his obligations to the emperor, if he invited him also to share in the benefit of the truce. the deputies of the three crowns, and of bavaria, met at ulm, to adjust the conditions. but it was soon evident, from the instructions of the austrian ambassadors that it was not the intention of the emperor to second the conclusion of a truce, but if possible to prevent it. it was obviously necessary to make the terms acceptable to the swedes, who had the advantage, and had more to hope than to fear from the continuance of the war. they were the conquerors; and yet the emperor presumed to dictate to them. in the first transports of their indignation, the swedish ambassadors were on the point of leaving the congress, and the french were obliged to have recourse to threats in order to detain them. the good intentions of the elector of bavaria, to include the emperor in the benefit of the truce, having been thus rendered unavailing, he felt himself justified in providing for his own safety. however hard were the conditions on which the truce was to be purchased, he did not hesitate to accept it on any terms. he agreed to the swedes extending their quarters in suabia and franconia, and to his own being restricted to bavaria and the palatinate. the conquests which he had made in suabia were ceded to the allies, who, on their part, restored to him what they had taken from bavaria. cologne and hesse cassel were also included in the truce. after the conclusion of this treaty, upon the th march, , the french and swedes left bavaria, and in order not to interfere with each other, took up different quarters; the former in wuertemberg, the latter in upper suabia, in the neighbourhood of the lake of constance. on the extreme north of this lake, and on the most southern frontier of suabia, the austrian town of bregentz, by its steep and narrow passes, seemed to defy attack; and in this persuasion, the whole peasantry of the surrounding villages had with their property taken refuge in this natural fortress. the rich booty, which the store of provisions it contained, gave reason to expect, and the advantage of possessing a pass into the tyrol, switzerland and italy, induced the swedish general to venture an attack upon this supposed impregnable post and town, in which he succeeded. meantime, turenne, according to agreement, marched into wuertemberg, where he forced the landgrave of darmstadt and the elector of mentz to imitate the example of bavaria, and to embrace the neutrality. and now, at last, france seemed to have attained the great object of its policy, that of depriving the emperor of the support of the league, and of his protestant allies, and of dictating to him, sword in hand, the conditions of peace. of all his once formidable power, an army, not exceeding , , was all that remained to him; and this force he was driven to the necessity of entrusting to the command of a calvinist, the hessian deserter melander, as the casualties of war had stripped him of his best generals. but as this war had been remarkable for the sudden changes of fortune it displayed; and as every calculation of state policy had been frequently baffled by some unforeseen event, in this case also the issue disappointed expectation; and after a brief crisis, the fallen power of austria rose again to a formidable strength. the jealousy which france entertained of sweden, prevented it from permitting the total ruin of the emperor, or allowing the swedes to obtain such a preponderance in germany, as might have been destructive to france herself. accordingly, the french minister declined to take advantage of the distresses of austria; and the army of turenne, separating from that of wrangel, retired to the frontiers of the netherlands. wrangel, indeed, after moving from suabia into franconia, taking schweinfurt, and incorporating the imperial garrison of that place with his own army, attempted to make his way into bohemia, and laid siege to egra, the key of that kingdom. to relieve this fortress, the emperor put his last army in motion, and placed himself at its head. but obliged to take a long circuit, in order to spare the lands of von schlick, the president of the council of war, he protracted his march; and on his arrival, egra was already taken. both armies were now in sight of each other; and a decisive battle was momentarily expected, as both were suffering from want, and the two camps were only separated from each other by the space of the entrenchments. but the imperialists, although superior in numbers, contented themselves with keeping close to the enemy, and harassing them by skirmishes, by fatiguing marches and famine, until the negociations which had been opened with bavaria were brought to a bearing. the neutrality of bavaria, was a wound under which the imperial court writhed impatiently; and after in vain attempting to prevent it, austria now determined, if possible, to turn it to advantage. several officers of the bavarian army had been offended by this step of their master, which at once reduced them to inaction, and imposed a burdensome restraint on their restless disposition. even the brave john de werth was at the head of the malcontents, and encouraged by the emperor, he formed a plot to seduce the whole army from their allegiance to the elector, and lead it over to the emperor. ferdinand did not blush to patronize this act of treachery against his father's most trusty ally. he formally issued a proclamation to the bavarian troops, in which he recalled them to himself, reminded them that they were the troops of the empire, which the elector had merely commanded in name of the emperor. fortunately for maximilian, he detected the conspiracy in time enough to anticipate and prevent it by the most rapid and effective measures. this disgraceful conduct of the emperor might have justified a reprisal, but maximilian was too old a statesman to listen to the voice of passion, where policy alone ought to be heard. he had not derived from the truce the advantages he expected. far from tending to accelerate a general peace, it had a pernicious influence upon the negociations at munster and osnaburg, and had made the allies bolder in their demands. the french and swedes had indeed removed from bavaria; but, by the loss of his quarters in the suabian circle, he found himself compelled either to exhaust his own territories by the subsistence of his troops, or at once to disband them, and to throw aside the shield and spear, at the very moment when the sword alone seemed to be the arbiter of right. before embracing either of these certain evils, he determined to try a third step, the unfavourable issue of which was at least not so certain, viz., to renounce the truce and resume the war. this resolution, and the assistance which he immediately despatched to the emperor in bohemia, threatened materially to injure the swedes, and wrangel was compelled in haste to evacuate that kingdom. he retired through thuringia into westphalia and lunenburg, in the hope of forming a junction with the french army under turenne, while the imperial and bavarian army followed him to the weser, under melander and gronsfeld. his ruin was inevitable, if the enemy should overtake him before his junction with turenne; but the same consideration which had just saved the emperor, now proved the salvation of the swedes. even amidst all the fury of the conquest, cold calculations of prudence guided the course of the war, and the vigilance of the different courts increased, as the prospect of peace approached. the elector of bavaria could not allow the emperor to obtain so decisive a preponderance as, by the sudden alteration of affairs, might delay the chances of a general peace. every change of fortune was important now, when a pacification was so ardently desired by all, and when the disturbance of the balance of power among the contracting parties might at once annihilate the work of years, destroy the fruit of long and tedious negociations, and indefinitely protract the repose of europe. if france sought to restrain the swedish crown within due bounds, and measured out her assistance according to her successes and defeats, the elector of bavaria silently undertook the same task with the emperor his ally, and determined, by prudently dealing out his aid, to hold the fate of austria in his own hands. and now that the power of the emperor threatened once more to attain a dangerous superiority, maximilian at once ceased to pursue the swedes. he was also afraid of reprisals from france, who had threatened to direct turenne's whole force against him if he allowed his troops to cross the weser. melander, prevented by the bavarians from further pursuing wrangel, crossed by jena and erfurt into hesse, and now appeared as a dangerous enemy in the country which he had formerly defended. if it was the desire of revenge upon his former sovereign, which led him to choose hesse for the scene of his ravage, he certainly had his full gratification. under this scourge, the miseries of that unfortunate state reached their height. but he had soon reason to regret that, in the choice of his quarters, he had listened to the dictates of revenge rather than of prudence. in this exhausted country, his army was oppressed by want, while wrangel was recruiting his strength, and remounting his cavalry in lunenburg. too weak to maintain his wretched quarters against the swedish general, when he opened the campaign in the winter of , and marched against hesse, he was obliged to retire with disgrace, and take refuge on the banks of the danube. france had once more disappointed the expectations of sweden; and the army of turenne, disregarding the remonstrances of wrangel, had remained upon the rhine. the swedish leader revenged himself, by drawing into his service the cavalry of weimar, which had abandoned the standard of france, though, by this step, he farther increased the jealousy of that power. turenne received permission to join the swedes; and the last campaign of this eventful war was now opened by the united armies. driving melander before them along the danube, they threw supplies into egra, which was besieged by the imperialists, and defeated the imperial and bavarian armies on the danube, which ventured to oppose them at susmarshausen, where melander was mortally wounded. after this overthrow, the bavarian general, gronsfeld, placed himself on the farther side of the lech, in order to guard bavaria from the enemy. but gronsfeld was not more fortunate than tilly, who, in this same position, had sacrificed his life for bavaria. wrangel and turenne chose the same spot for passing the river, which was so gloriously marked by the victory of gustavus adolphus, and accomplished it by the same means, too, which had favoured their predecessor. bavaria was now a second time overrun, and the breach of the truce punished by the severest treatment of its inhabitants. maximilian sought shelter in salzburgh, while the swedes crossed the iser, and forced their way as far as the inn. a violent and continued rain, which in a few days swelled this inconsiderable stream into a broad river, saved austria once more from the threatened danger. the enemy ten times attempted to form a bridge of boats over the inn, and as often it was destroyed by the current. never, during the whole course of the war, had the imperialists been in so great consternation as at present, when the enemy were in the centre of bavaria, and when they had no longer a general left who could be matched against a turenne, a wrangel, and a koenigsmark. at last the brave piccolomini arrived from the netherlands, to assume the command of the feeble wreck of the imperialists. by their own ravages in bohemia, the allies had rendered their subsistence in that country impracticable, and were at last driven by scarcity to retreat into the upper palatinate, where the news of the peace put a period to their activity. koenigsmark, with his flying corps, advanced towards bohemia, where ernest odowalsky, a disbanded captain, who, after being disabled in the imperial service, had been dismissed without a pension, laid before him a plan for surprising the lesser side of the city of prague. koenigsmark successfully accomplished the bold enterprise, and acquired the reputation of closing the thirty years' war by the last brilliant achievement. this decisive stroke, which vanquished the emperor's irresolution, cost the swedes only the loss of a single man. but the old town, the larger half of prague, which is divided into two parts by the moldau, by its vigorous resistance wearied out the efforts of the palatine, charles gustavus, the successor of christina on the throne, who had arrived from sweden with fresh troops, and had assembled the whole swedish force in bohemia and silesia before its walls. the approach of winter at last drove the besiegers into their quarters, and in the mean time, the intelligence arrived that a peace had been signed at munster, on the th october. the colossal labour of concluding this solemn, and ever memorable and sacred treaty, which is known by the name of the peace of westphalia; the endless obstacles which were to be surmounted; the contending interests which it was necessary to reconcile; the concatenation of circumstances which must have co-operated to bring to a favourable termination this tedious, but precious and permanent work of policy; the difficulties which beset the very opening of the negociations, and maintaining them, when opened, during the ever-fluctuating vicissitudes of the war; finally, arranging the conditions of peace, and still more, the carrying them into effect; what were the conditions of this peace; what each contending power gained or lost, by the toils and sufferings of a thirty years' war; what modification it wrought upon the general system of european policy;--these are matters which must be relinquished to another pen. the history of the peace of westphalia constitutes a whole, as important as the history of the war itself. a mere abridgment of it, would reduce to a mere skeleton one of the most interesting and characteristic monuments of human policy and passions, and deprive it of every feature calculated to fix the attention of the public, for which i write, and of which i now respectfully take my leave. [note from the first pg etext of this work: separate sources indicate that at the beginning of this war there were about million people in germany, and at the end of the war there were about million. if this is not surprising enough, war broke out again only years after the conclusion of this war.] this ebook was produced by david widger [note: there is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. d.w.] the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume the life and death of john of barneveld, v , chapter iv. difficult position of barneveld--insurrection at utrecht subdued by the states' army--special embassies to england and france--anger of the king with spain and the archdukes--arrangements of henry for the coming war--position of spain--anxiety of the king for the presence of barneveld in paris--arrival of the dutch commissioners in france and their brilliant reception--their interview with the king and his ministers--negotiations--delicate position of the dutch government-- india trade--simon danzer, the corsair--conversations of henry with the dutch commissioners--letter of the king to archduke albert-- preparations for the queen's coronation, and of henry to open the campaign in person--perplexities of henry--forebodings and warnings --the murder accomplished--terrible change in france--triumph of concini and of spain--downfall of sully--disputes of the grandees among themselves--special mission of condelence from the republic-- conference on the great enterprise--departure of van der myle from paris. there were reasons enough why the advocate could not go to paris at this juncture. it was absurd in henry to suppose it possible. everything rested on barneveld's shoulders. during the year which had just passed he had drawn almost every paper, every instruction in regard to the peace negotiations, with his own hand, had assisted at every conference, guided and mastered the whole course of a most difficult and intricate negotiation, in which he had not only been obliged to make allowance for the humbled pride and baffled ambition of the ancient foe of the netherlands, but to steer clear of the innumerable jealousies, susceptibilities, cavillings, and insolences of their patronizing friends. it was his brain that worked, his tongue that spoke, his restless pen that never paused. his was not one of those easy posts, not unknown in the modern administration of great affairs, where the subordinate furnishes the intellect, the industry, the experience, while the bland superior, gratifying the world with his sign-manual, appropriates the applause. so long as he lived and worked, the states-general and the states of holland were like a cunningly contrived machine, which seemed to be alive because one invisible but mighty mind vitalized the whole. and there had been enough to do. it was not until midsummer of that the ratifications of the treaty of truce, one of the great triumphs in the history of diplomacy, had been exchanged, and scarcely had this period been put to the eternal clang of arms when the death of a lunatic threw the world once more into confusion. it was obvious to barneveld that the issue of the cleve-julich affair, and of the tremendous religious fermentation in bohemia, moravia, and austria, must sooner or later lead to an immense war. it was inevitable that it would devolve upon the states to sustain their great though vacillating, their generous though encroaching, their sincere though most irritating, ally. and yet, thoroughly as barneveld had mastered all the complications and perplexities of the religious and political question, carefully as he had calculated the value of the opposing forces which were shaking christendom, deeply as he had studied the characters of matthias and rudolph, of charles of denmark and ferdinand of graz, of anhalt and maximilian, of brandenburg and neuburg, of james and philip, of paul v. and charles emmanuel, of sully and yilleroy, of salisbury and bacon, of lerma and infantado; adroitly as he could measure, weigh, and analyse all these elements in the great problem which was forcing itself on the attention of europe--there was one factor with which it was difficult for this austere republican, this cold, unsuseeptible statesman, to deal: the intense and imperious passion of a greybeard for a woman of sixteen. for out of the cauldron where the miscellaneous elements of universal war were bubbling rose perpetually the fantastic image of margaret montmorency: the fatal beauty at whose caprice the heroic sword of ivry and cahors was now uplifted and now sheathed. aerssens was baffled, and reported the humours of the court where he resided as changing from hour to hour. to the last he reported that all the mighty preparations then nearly completed "might evaporate in smoke" if the princess of conde should come back. every ambassador in paris was baffled. peter pecquius was as much in the dark as don inigo de cardenas, as ubaldini or edmonds. no one save sully, aerssens, barneveld, and the king knew the extensive arrangements and profound combinations which had been made for the war. yet not sully, aerssens, barneveld, or the king, knew whether or not the war would really be made. barneveld had to deal with this perplexing question day by day. his correspondence with his ambassador at henry's court was enormous, and we have seen that the ambassador was with the king almost daily; sleeping or waking; at dinner or the chase; in the cabinet or the courtyard. but the advocate was also obliged to carry in his arms, as it were, the brood of snarling, bickering, cross-grained german princes, to supply them with money, with arms, with counsel, with brains; to keep them awake when they went to sleep, to steady them in their track, to teach them to go alone. he had the congress at hall in suabia to supervise and direct; he had to see that the ambassadors of the new republic, upon which they in reality were already half dependent and chafing at their dependence, were treated with the consideration due to the proud position which the commonwealth had gained. questions of etiquette were at that moment questions of vitality. he instructed his ambassadors to leave the congress on the spot if they were ranked after the envoys of princes who were only feudatories of the emperor. the dutch ambassadors, "recognising and relying upon no superiors but god and their sword," placed themselves according to seniority with the representatives of proudest kings. he had to extemporize a system of free international communication with all the powers of the earth--with the turk at constantinople, with the czar of muscovy; with the potentates of the baltic, with both the indies. the routine of a long established and well organized foreign office in a time-honoured state running in grooves; with well-balanced springs and well oiled wheels, may be a luxury of civilization; but it was a more arduous task to transact the greatest affairs of a state springing suddenly into recognized existence and mainly dependent for its primary construction and practical working on the hand of one man. worse than all, he had to deal on the most dangerous and delicate topics of state with a prince who trembled at danger and was incapable of delicacy; to show respect for a character that was despicable, to lean on a royal word falser than water, to inhale almost daily the effluvia from a court compared to which the harem of henry was a temple of vestals. the spectacle of the slobbering james among his kars and hays and villiers's and other minions is one at which history covers her eyes and is dumb; but the republican envoys, with instructions from a barneveld, were obliged to face him daily, concealing their disgust, and bowing reverentially before him as one of the arbiters of their destinies and the solomon of his epoch. a special embassy was sent early in the year to england to convey the solemn thanks of the republic to the king for his assistance in the truce negotiations, and to treat of the important matters then pressing on the attention of both powers. contemporaneously was to be despatched the embassy for which henry was waiting so impatiently at paris. certainly the advocate had enough with this and other, important business already mentioned to detain him at his post. moreover the first year of peace had opened disastrously in the netherlands. tremendous tempests such as had rarely been recorded even in that land of storms had raged all the winter. the waters everywhere had burst their dykes and inundations, which threatened to engulph the whole country, and which had caused enormous loss of property and even of life, were alarming the most courageous. it was difficult in many district to collect the taxes for the every-day expenses of the community, and yet the advocate knew that the republic would soon be forced to renew the war on a prodigious scale. still more to embarrass the action of the government and perplex its statesmen, an alarming and dangerous insurrection broke out in utrecht. in that ancient seat of the hard-fighting, imperious, and opulent sovereign archbishops of the ancient church an important portion of the population had remained catholic. another portion complained of the abolition of various privileges which they had formerly enjoyed; among others that of a monopoly of beer-brewing for the province. all the population, as is the case with all populations in all countries and all epochs, complained of excessive taxation. a clever politician, dirk kanter by name, a gentleman by birth, a scholar and philosopher by pursuit and education, and a demagogue by profession, saw an opportunity of taking an advantage of this state of things. more than twenty years before he had been burgomaster of the city, and had much enjoyed himself in that position. he was tired of the learned leisure to which the ingratitude of his fellow-citizens had condemned him. he seems to have been of easy virtue in the matter of religion, a catholic, an arminian, an ultra orthodox contra-remonstrant by turns. he now persuaded a number of determined partisans that the time had come for securing a church for the public worship of the ancient faith, and at the same time for restoring the beer brewery, reducing the taxes, recovering lost privileges, and many other good things. beneath the whole scheme lay a deep design to effect the secession of the city and with it of the opulent and important province of utrecht from the union. kanter had been heard openly to avow that after all the netherlands had flourished under the benign sway of the house of burgundy, and that the time would soon come for returning to that enviable condition. by a concerted assault the city hall was taken possession of by main force, the magistracy was overpowered, and a new board of senators and common council-men appointed, kanter and a devoted friend of his, heldingen by name, being elected burgomasters. the states-provincial of utrecht, alarmed at these proceedings in the city, appealed for protection against violence to the states-general under the rd article of the union, the fundamental pact which bore the name of utrecht itself. prince maurice proceeded to the city at the head of a detachment of troops to quell the tumults. kanter and his friends were plausible enough to persuade him of the legality and propriety of the revolution which they had effected, and to procure his formal confirmation of the new magistracy. intending to turn his military genius and the splendour of his name to account, they contrived to keep him for a time at least in an amiable enthralment, and induced him to contemplate in their interest the possibility of renouncing the oath which subjected him to the authority of the states of utrecht. but the far-seeing eye of barneveld could not be blind to the danger which at this crisis beset the stadholder and the whole republic. the prince was induced to return to the hague, but the city continued by armed revolt to maintain the new magistracy. they proceeded to reduce the taxes, and in other respects to carry out the measures on the promise of which they had come into power. especially the catholic party sustained kanter and his friends, and promised themselves from him and from his influence over prince maurice to obtain a power of which they had long been deprived. the states-general now held an assembly at woerden, and summoned the malcontents of utrecht to bring before that body a statement of their grievances. this was done, but there was no satisfactory arrangement possible, and the deputation returned to utrecht, the states-general to the hague. the states-provincial of utrecht urged more strongly than ever upon the assembly of the union to save the city from the hands of a reckless and revolutionary government. the states-general resolved accordingly to interfere by force. a considerable body of troops was ordered to march at once upon utrecht and besiege the city. maurice, in his capacity of captain-general and stadholder of the province, was summoned to take charge of the army. he was indisposed to do so, and pleaded sickness. the states, determined that the name of nassau should not be used as an encouragement to disobedience, and rebellion, then directed the brother of maurice, frederic henry, youngest son of william the silent, to assume the command. maurice insisted that his brother was too young, and that it was unjust to allow so grave a responsibility to fall upon his shoulders. the states, not particularly pleased with the prince's attitude at this alarming juncture, and made anxious by the glamour which seemed to possess him since his conferences with the revolutionary party at utrecht, determined not to yield. the army marched forth and laid siege to the city, prince frederic henry at its head. he was sternly instructed by the states-general, under whose orders he acted, to take possession of the city at all hazards. he was to insist on placing there a garrison of foot and horse, and to permit not another armed man within the walls. the members of the council of state and of the states of utrecht accompanied the army. for a moment the party in power was disposed to resist the forces of the union. dick kanter and his friends were resolute enough; the catholic priests turned out among the rest with their spades and worked on the entrenchments. the impossibility of holding the city against the overwhelming power of the states was soon obvious, and the next day the gates were opened, and easy terms were granted. the new magistracy was set aside, the old board that had been deposed by the rebels reinstated. the revolution and the counterrevolution were alike bloodless, and it was determined that the various grievances of which the discontented party had complained should be referred to the states-general, to prince maurice, to the council of state, and to the ambassadors of france and england. amnesty was likewise decreed on submission. the restored government was arminian in its inclinations, the revolutionary one was singularly compounded both of catholic and of ultra-orthodox elements. quiet was on the whole restored, but the resources of the city were crippled. the event occurring exactly at the crisis of the clove and julich expedition angered the king of france. "the trouble of utrecht," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "has been turned to account here marvellously, the archdukes and spaniards boasting that many more revolts like this may be at once expected. i have explained to his majesty, who has been very much alarmed about it, both its source and the hopes that it will be appeased by the prudence of his excellency prince maurice and the deputies of the states. the king desires that everything should be pacified as soon as possible, so that there may be no embarrassment to the course of public affairs. but he fears, he tells me, that this may create some new jealousy between prince maurice and yourself. i don't comprehend what he means, although he held this language to me very expressly and without reserve. i could only answer that you were living on the best of terms together in perfect amity and intelligence. if you know if this talk of his has any other root, please to enlighten me, that i may put a stop to false reports, for i know nothing of affairs except what you tell me." king james, on the other hand, thoroughly approved the promptness of the states-general in suppressing the tumult. nothing very serious of alike nature occurred in utrecht until the end of the year, when a determined and secret conspiracy was discovered, having for its object to overpower the garrison and get bodily possession of colonel john ogle, the military commander of the town. at the bottom of the movement were the indefatigable dirk kanter and his friend heldingen. the attempt was easily suppressed, and the two were banished from the town. kanter died subsequently in north holland, in the odour of ultra- orthodoxy. four of the conspirators--a post-master, two shoemakers, and a sexton, who had bound themselves by oath to take the lives of two eminent arminian preachers, besides other desperate deeds--were condemned to death, but pardoned on the scaffold. thus ended the first revolution at utrecht. its effect did not cease, however, with the tumults which were its original manifestations. this earliest insurrection in organized shape against the central authority of the states-general; this violent though abortive effort to dissolve the union and to nullify its laws; this painful necessity for the first time imposed upon the federal government to take up arms against misguided citizens of the republic, in order to save itself from disintegration and national death, were destined to be followed by far graver convulsions on the self-same spot. religious differences and religious hatreds were to mingle their poison with antagonistic political theories and personal ambitions, and to develop on a wide scale the danger ever lurking in a constitution whose fundamental law was unstable, ill defined, and liable to contradictory interpretations. for the present it need only be noticed that the states-general, guided by barneveld, most vigorously suppressed the local revolt and the incipient secession, while prince maurice, the right arm of the executive, the stadholder of the province, and the representative of the military power of the commonwealth, was languid in the exertion of that power, inclined to listen to the specious arguments of the utrecht rebels, and accused at least of tampering with the fell spirit which the advocate was resolute to destroy. yet there was no suspicion of treason, no taint of rebellion, no accusation of unpatriotic motives uttered against the stadholder. there was a doubt as to the true maxims by which the confederacy was to be governed, and at this moment, certainly, the prince and the advocate represented opposite ideas. there was a possibility, at a future day, when the religious and political parties might develop themselves on a wider scale and the struggles grow fiercer, that the two great champions in the conflict might exchange swords and inflict mutual and poisoned wounds. at present the party of the union had triumphed, with barneveld at its head. at a later but not far distant day, similar scenes might be enacted in the ancient city of utrecht, but with a strange difference and change in the cast of parts and with far more tragical results. for the moment the moderate party in the church, those more inclined to arminianism and the supremacy of the civil authority in religious matters, had asserted their ascendency in the states-general, and had prevented the threatened rupture. meantime it was doubly necessary to hasten the special embassies to france and to england, in both which countries much anxiety as to the political health and strength of the new republic had been excited by these troubles in utrecht. it was important for the states-general to show that they were not crippled, and would not shrink from the coming conflict, but would justify the reliance placed on them by their allies. thus there were reasons enough why barneveld could not himself leave the country in the eventful spring of . it must be admitted, however, that he was not backward in placing his nearest relatives in places of honour, trust, and profit. his eldest son reinier, seignior of groeneveld, had been knighted by henry iv.; his youngest, william, afterwards called seignior of stoutenburg, but at this moment bearing the not very mellifluous title of craimgepolder, was a gentleman-in-waiting at that king's court, with a salary of crowns a year. he was rather a favourite with the easy- going monarch, but he gave infinite trouble to the dutch ambassador aerssens, who, feeling himself under immense obligations to the advocate and professing for him boundless gratitude, did his best to keep the idle, turbulent, extravagant, and pleasure-loving youth up to the strict line of his duties. "your son is in debt again," wrote aerssens, on one occasion, "and troubled for money. he is in danger of going to the usurers. he says he cannot keep himself for less than crowns a month. this is a large allowance, but he has spent much more than that. his life is not irregular nor his dress remarkably extravagant. his difficulty is that he will not dine regularly with me nor at court. he will keep his own table and have company to dinner. that is what is ruining him. he comes sometimes to me, not for the dinner nor the company, but for tennis, which he finds better in my faubourg than in town. his trouble comes from the table, and i tell you frankly that you must regulate his expenses or they will become very onerous to you. i am ashamed of them and have told him so a hundred times, more than if he had been my own brother. it is all for love of you . . . . i have been all to him that could be expected of a man who is under such vast obligations to you; and i so much esteem the honour of your friendship that i should always neglect my private affairs in order to do everything for your service and meet your desires . . . . . if m. de craimgepolder comes back from his visit home, you must restrict him in two things, the table and tennis, and you can do this if you require him to follow the king assiduously as his service requires." something at a future day was to be heard of william of barneveld, as well as of his elder brother reinier, and it is good, therefore, to have these occasional glimpses of him while in the service of the king and under the supervision of one who was then his father's devoted friend, francis aerssens. there were to be extraordinary and tragical changes in the relations of parties and of individuals ere many years should go by. besides the sons of the advocate, his two sons-in-law, brederode, seignior of veenhuizep, and cornelis van der myle, were constantly employed? in important embassies. van der myle had been the first ambassador to the great venetian republic, and was now placed at the head of the embassy to france, an office which it was impossible at that moment for the advocate to discharge. at the same critical moment barneveld's brother elias, pensionary of rotterdam, was appointed one of the special high commissioners to the king of great britain. it is necessary to give an account of this embassy. they were provided with luminous and minute instructions from the hand of the advocate. they were, in the first place, and ostensibly, to thank the king for his services in bringing about the truce, which, truly, had been of the slightest, as was very well known. they were to explain, on the part of the states, their delay in sending this solemn commission, caused by the tardiness of the king of spain in sending his ratification to the treaty, and by the many disputations caused by the irresolutions of the archdukes and the obstinacy of their commissioners in regard to their many contraventions of the treaty. after those commissioners had gone, further hindrances had been found in the "extraordinary tempests, high floods, rising of the waters, both of the ocean and the rivers, and the very disastrous inundations throughout nearly all the united provinces, with the immense and exorbitant damage thus inflicted, both on the public and on many individuals; in addition to all which were to be mentioned the troubles in the city of utrecht." they were, in almost hyperbolical language, directed to express the eternal gratitude of the states for the constant favours received by them from the crown of england, and their readiness to stand forth at any moment with sincere affection and to the utmost of their power, at all times and seasons, in resistance of any attempts against his majesty's person or crown, or against the prince of wales or the royal family. they were to thank him for his "prudent, heroic, and courageous resolve to suffer nothing to be done under colour of justice, authority, or any other pretext, to the hindrance of the elector of brandenburg and palatine of neuburg, in the maintenance of their lawful rights and possession of the principalities of julich, cleve, and berg, and other provinces." by this course his majesty, so the commissioners were to state, would put an end to the imaginations of those who thought they could give the law to everybody according to their pleasure. they were to assure the king that the states-general would exert themselves to the utmost to second his heroic resolution, notwithstanding the enormous burthens of their everlasting war, the very exorbitant damage caused by the inundations, and the sensible diminution in the contributions and other embarrassments then existing in the country. they were to offer foot and horse for the general purpose under prince henry of nassau, besides the succours furnished by the king of france and the electors and princes of germany. further assistance in men, artillery, and supplies were promised under certain contingencies, and the plan of the campaign on the meuse in conjunction with the king of france was duly mapped. they were to request a corresponding promise of men and money from the king of great britain, and they were to propose for his approval a closer convention for mutual assistance between his majesty, the united netherlands, the king of france, the electors and princes and other powers of germany; as such close union would be very beneficial to all christendom. it would put a stop to all unjust occupations, attempts, and intrigues, and if the king was thereto inclined, he was requested to indicate time and place for making such a convention. the commissioners were further to point out the various contraventions on the part of the archdukes of the treaty of truce, and were to give an exposition of the manner in which the states-general had quelled the tumults at utrecht, and reasons why such a course had of necessity been adopted. they were instructed to state that, "over and above the great expenses of the late war and the necessary maintenance of military forces to protect their frontiers against their suspected new friends or old enemies, the provinces were burthened with the cost of the succour to the elector of brandenburg and palatine of neuburg, and would be therefore incapable of furnishing the payments coming due to his majesty. they were accordingly to sound his majesty as to whether a good part of the debt might not be remitted or at least an arrangement made by which the terms should begin to run only after a certain number of years." they were also directed to open the subject of the fisheries on the coasts of great britain, and to remonstrate against the order lately published by the king forbidding all foreigners from fishing on those coasts. this was to be set forth as an infringement both of natural law and of ancient treaties, and as a source of infinite danger to the inhabitants of the united provinces. the seignior of warmond, chief of the commission, died on the th april. his colleagues met at brielle on the th, ready to take passage to england in the ship of war, the hound. they were, however, detained there six days by head winds and great storms, and it was not until the nd that they were able to put to sea. the following evening their ship cast anchor in gravesend. half an hour before, the duke of wurtemberg had arrived from flushing in a ship of war brought from france by the prince of anhalt. sir lewis lewkener, master of ceremonies, had been waiting for the ambassadors at gravesend, and informed them that the royal barges were to come next morning from london to take them to town. they remained that night on board the hound, and next morning, the wind blowing up the river, they proceeded in their ship as far as blackwall, where they were formally received and bade welcome in the name of the king by sir thomas cornwallis and sir george carew, late ambassador in france. escorted by them and sir lewis, they were brought in the court barges to tower wharf. here the royal coaches were waiting, in which they were taken to lodgings provided for them in the city at the house of a dutch merchant. noel de caron, seignior of schonewal, resident ambassador of the states in london, was likewise there to greet them. this was saturday night: on the following tuesday they went by appointment to the palace of whitehall in royal carriages for their first audience. manifestations of as entire respect and courtesy had thus been made to the republican envoys as could be shown to the ambassadors of the greatest sovereigns. they found the king seated on his throne in the audience chamber, accompanied by the prince of wales, the duke of york, the lord high treasurer and lord high admiral, the duke of lenox, the earls of arundel and northampton, and many other great nobles and dignitaries. james rose from his seat, took off his hat, and advanced several paces to meet the ambassadors, and bade them courteously and respectfully welcome. he then expressed his regret at the death of the seignior of warmond, and after the exchange of a few commonplaces listened, still with uncovered head, to the opening address. the spokesman, after thanking the king for his condolences on the death of the chief commissioner, whom, as was stated with whimsical simplicity, "the good god had called to himself after all his luggage had been put on board ship," proceeded in the french language to give a somewhat abbreviated paraphrase of barneveld's instructions. when this was done and intimation made that they would confer more fully with his majesty's council on the subjects committed to their charge, the ambassadors were conducted home with the same ceremonies as had accompanied their arrival. they received the same day the first visit from the ambassadors of france and venice, boderie and carrero, and had a long conference a few days afterwards with the high treasurer, lord salisbury. on the rd may they were invited to attend the pompous celebration of the festival of st. george in the palace at westminster, where they were placed together with the french ambassador in the king's oratorium; the dukes of wurtemberg and brunswick being in that of the queen. these details are especially to be noted, and were at the moment of considerable importance, for this was the first solemn and extraordinary embassy sent by the rebel netherlanders, since their independent national existence had been formally vindicated, to great britain, a power which a quarter of a century before had refused the proffered sovereignty over them. placed now on exactly the same level with the representatives of emperors and kings, the republican envoys found themselves looked upon by the world with different eyes from those which had regarded their predecessors askance, and almost with derision, only seven years before. at that epoch the states' commissioners, barneveld himself at the head of them, had gone solemnly to congratulate king james on his accession, had scarcely been admitted to audience by king or minister, and had found themselves on great festivals unsprinkled with the holy water of the court, and of no more account than the crowd of citizens and spectators who thronged the streets, gazing with awe at the distant radiance of the throne. but although the ambassadors were treated with every external consideration befitting their official rank, they were not likely to find themselves in the most genial atmosphere when they should come to business details. if there was one thing in the world that james did not intend to do, it was to get himself entangled in war with spain, the power of all others which he most revered and loved. his "heroic and courageous resolve" to defend the princes, on which the commissioners by instructions of the advocate had so highly complimented him, was not strong enough to carry him much beyond a vigorous phraseology. he had not awoke from the delusive dream of the spanish marriage which had dexterously been made to flit before him, and he was not inclined, for the sake of the republic which he hated the more because obliged to be one of its sponsors, to risk the animosity of a great power which entertained the most profound contempt for him. he was destined to find himself involved more closely than he liked, and through family ties, with the great protestant movement in germany, and the unfortunate "winter king" might one day find his father-in-law as unstable a reed to lean upon as the states had found their godfather, or the brandenburgs and neuburgs at the present juncture their great ally. meantime, as the bohemian troubles had not yet reached the period of actual explosion, and as henry's wide-reaching plan against the house of austria had been strangely enough kept an inviolable secret by the few statesmen, like sully and barneveld, to whom they had been confided, it was necessary for the king and his ministers to deal cautiously and plausibly with the dutch ambassadors. their conferences were mere dancing among eggs, and if no actual mischief were done, it was the best result that could be expected. on the th of may, the commissioners met in the council chamber at westminster, and discussed all the matters contained in their instructions with the members of the council; the lord treasurer salisbury, earl of northampton, privy seal and warden of the cinque ports, lord nottingham, lord high admiral, the lord chamberlain, earl of suffolk, earls of shrewsbury, worcester, and several others being present. the result was not entirely satisfactory. in regard to the succour demanded for the possessory princes, the commissioners were told that they seemed to come with a long narrative of their great burthens during the war, damage from inundations, and the like, to excuse themselves from doing their share in the succour, and thus the more to overload his majesty, who was not much interested in the matter, and was likewise greatly encumbered by various expenses. the king had already frankly declared his intention to assist the princes with the payment of men, and to send proportionate artillery and powder from england. as the states had supplies in their magazines enough to move , men, he proposed to draw upon those, reimbursing the states for what was thus consumed by his contingent. with regard to the treaty of close alliance between france, great britain, the princes, and the republic, which the ambassadors had proposed, the--lord treasurer and his colleagues gave a reply far from gratifying. his majesty had not yet decided on this point, they said. the king of france had already proposed to treat for such an alliance, but it did not at present seem worth while for all to negotiate together. this was a not over-courteous hint that the republic was after all not expected to place herself at the council-board of kings on even terms of intimacy and fraternal alliance. what followed was even less flattering. if his majesty, it was intimated, should decide to treat with the king of france, he would not shut the door on their high mightinesses; but his majesty was not yet exactly informed whether his majesty had not certain rights over the provinces 'in petitorio.' this was a scarcely veiled insinuation against the sovereignty of the states, a sufficiently broad hint that they were to be considered in a certain degree as british provinces. to a soldier like maurice, to a statesman like barneveld, whose sympathies already were on the side of france, such rebuffs and taunts were likely to prove unpalatable. the restiveness of the states at the continual possession by great britain of those important sea-ports the cautionary towns, a fact which gave colour to these innuendoes, was sure to be increased by arrogant language on the part of the english ministers. the determination to be rid of their debt to so overbearing an ally, and to shake off the shackles imposed by the costly mortgages, grew in strength from that hour. in regard to the fisheries, the lord treasurer and his colleagues expressed amazement that the ambassadors should consider the subjects of their high mightinesses to be so much beloved by his majesty. why should they of all other people be made an exception of, and be exempt from, the action of a general edict? the reasons for these orders in council ought to be closely examined. it would be very difficult to bring the opinions of the english jurists into harmony with those of the states. meantime it would be well to look up such treaties as might be in existence, and have a special joint commission to confer together on the subject. it was very plain, from the course of the conversation, that the netherland fishermen were not to be allowed, without paying roundly for a license, to catch herrings on the british coasts as they had heretofore done. not much more of importance was transacted at this first interview between the ambassadors and the ding's ministers. certainly they had not yet succeeded in attaining their great object, the formation of an alliance offensive and defensive between great britain and the republic in accordance with the plan concerted between henry and barneveld. they could find but slender encouragement for the warlike plans to which france and the states were secretly committed; nor could they obtain satisfactory adjustment of affairs more pacific and commercial in their tendencies. the english ministers rather petulantly remarked that, while last year everybody was talking of a general peace, and in the present conjuncture all seemed to think, or at least to speak, of nothing but a general war, they thought best to defer consideration of the various subjects connected with duties on the manufactures and products of the respective countries, the navigation laws, the "entrecours," and other matters of ancient agreement and controversy, until a more convenient season. after the termination of the verbal conference, the ambassadors delivered to the king's government, in writing, to be pondered by the council and recorded in the archives, a summary of the statements which had been thus orally treated. the document was in french, and in the main a paraphrase of the advocate's instructions, the substance of which has been already indicated. in regard, however, to the far-reaching designs of spain, and the corresponding attitude which it would seem fitting for great britain to assume, and especially the necessity of that alliance the proposal for which had in the conference been received so haughtily, their language was far plainer, bolder, and more vehement than that of the instructions. "considering that the effects show," they said, "that those who claim the monarchy of christendom, and indeed of the whole world, let slip no opportunity which could in any way serve their designs, it is suitable to the grandeur of his majesty the king, and to the station in which by the grace of the good god he is placed, to oppose himself thereto for the sake of the common liberty of christendom, to which end, and in order the better to prevent all unjust usurpatiops, there could be no better means devised than a closer alliance between his majesty and the most christian king, my lords the states-general, and the electors, princes, and states of germany. their high mightinesses would therefore be most glad to learn that his majesty was inclined to such a course, and would be glad to discuss the subject when and wherever his majesty should appoint, or would readily enter into such an alliance on reasonable conditions." this language and the position taken up by the ambassadors were highly approved by their government, but it was fated that no very great result was to be achieved by this embassy. very elaborate documents, exhaustive in legal lore, on the subject of the herring fisheries, and of the right to fish in the ocean and on foreign coasts, fortified by copious citations from the 'pandects' and 'institutes' of justinian, were presented for the consideration of the british government, and were answered as learnedly, exhaustively, and ponderously. the english ministers were also reminded that the curing of herrings had been invented in the fifteenth century by a citizen of biervliet, the inscription on whose tombstone recording that faces might still be read in the church of that town. all this did not prevent, however, the dutch herring fishermen from being excluded from the british waters unless they chose to pay for licenses. the conferences were however for a season interrupted, and a new aspect was given to affairs by an unforeseen and terrible event. meanwhile it is necessary to glance for a moment at the doings of the special embassy to france, the instructions for which were prepared by barneveld almost at the same moment at which he furnished those for the commission to england. the ambassadors were walraven, seignior of brederode, cornelis van der myle, son-in-law of the advocate, and jacob van maldere. remembering how impatient the king of france had long been for their coming, and that all the preparations and decisions for a great war were kept in suspense until the final secret conferences could be held with the representatives of the states-general, it seems strange enough to us to observe the extreme deliberation with which great affairs of state were then conducted and the vast amount of time consumed in movements and communications which modern science has either annihilated or abridged from days to hours. while henry was chafing with anxiety in paris, the ambassadors, having received barneveld's instructions dated st march, set forth on the th april from the hague, reached rotterdam at noon, and slept at dordrecht. newt day they went to breda, where the prince of orange insisted upon their passing a couple of days with him in his castle, easter-day being th april. he then provided them with a couple of coaches and pair in which they set forth on their journey, going by way of antwerp, ghent, courtray, ryssel, to arras, making easy stages, stopping in the middle of the day to bait, and sleeping at each of the cities thus mentioned, where they duly received the congratulatory visit and hospitalities of their respective magistracies. while all this time had been leisurely employed in the netherlands in preparing, instructing, and despatching the commissioners, affairs were reaching a feverish crisis in france. the states' ambassador resident thought that it would have been better not to take such public offence at the retreat of the prince of conde. the king had enough of life and vigour in him; he could afford to leave the dauphin to grow up, and when he should one day be established on the throne, he would be able to maintain his heritage. "but," said aerssens, "i fear that our trouble is not where we say it is, and we don't dare to say where it is." writing to carew, former english ambassador in paris, whom we have just seen in attendance on the states' commissioners in london, he said: "people think that the princess is wearying herself much under the protection of the infanta, and very impatient at not obtaining the dissolution of her marriage, which the duchess of angouleme is to go to brussels to facilitate. this is not our business, but i mention it only as the continuation of the tragedy which you saw begin. nevertheless i don't know if the greater part of our deliberations is not founded on this matter." it had been decided to cause the queen to be solemnly crowned after easter. she had set her heart with singular persistency upon the ceremony, and it was thought that so public a sacrament would annihilate all the wild projects attributed to spain through the instrumentality of conde to cast doubts on the validity of her marriage and the legitimacy of the dauphin. the king from the first felt and expressed a singular repugnance, a boding apprehension in regard to the coronation, but had almost yielded to the queen's importunity. he told her he would give his consent provided she sent concini to brussels to invite in her own name the princess of conde to be present on the occasion. otherwise he declared that at least the festival should be postponed till september. the marquis de coeuvres remained in disgrace after the failure of his mission, henry believing that like all the world he had fallen in love with the princess, and had only sought to recommend himself, not to further the suit of his sovereign. meanwhile henry had instructed his ambassador in spain, m. de vaucelas, to tell the king that his reception of conde within his dominions would be considered an infraction of the treaty of vervins and a direct act of hostility. the duke of lerma answered with a sneer that the most christian king had too greatly obliged his most catholic majesty by sustaining his subjects in their rebellion and by aiding them to make their truce to hope now that conde would be sent back. france had ever been the receptacle of spanish traitors and rebels from antonio perez down, and the king of spain would always protect wronged and oppressed princes like conde. france had just been breaking up the friendly relations between savoy and spain and goading the duke into hostilities. on the other hand the king had more than one stormy interview with don inigo de cardenas in paris. that ambassador declared that his master would never abandon his only sister the most serene infanta, such was the affection he born her, whose dominions were obviously threatened by these french armies about to move to the frontiers. henry replied that the friends for whom he was arming had great need of his assistance; that his catholic majesty was quite right to love his sister, whom he also loved; but that he did not choose that his own relatives should be so much beloved in spain as they were. "what relatives?" asked don inigo. "the prince of conde," replied the king, in a rage, "who has been debauched by the spaniards just as marshal biron was, and the marchioness verneuil, and so many others. there are none left for them to debauch now but the dauphin and his brothers." the ambassador replied that, if the king had consulted him about the affair of conde, he could have devised a happy issue from it. henry rejoined that he had sent messages on the subject to his catholic majesty, who had not deigned a response, but that the duke of lerma had given a very indiscreet one to his ambassador. don inigo professed ignorance of any such reply. the king said it was a mockery to affect ignorance of such matters. thereupon both grew excited and very violent in their discourses; the more so as henry knowing but little spanish and the envoy less french they could only understand from tone and gesture that each was using exceedingly unpleasant language. at last don inigo asked what he should write to his sovereign. "whatever you like," replied the king, and so the audience terminated, each remaining in a towering passion. subsequently villeroy assured the archduke's ambassador that the king considered the reception given to the prince in the spanish dominions as one of the greatest insults and injuries that could be done to him. nothing could excuse it, said the secretary of state, and for this reason it was very difficult for the two kings to remain at peace with each other, and that it would be wiser to prevent at once the evil designs of his catholic majesty than to leave leisure for the plans to be put into execution, and the claims of the dauphin to his father's crown to be disputed at a convenient season. he added that war would not be made for the princess, but for the prince, and that even the war in germany, although spain took the emperor's side and france that of the possessory princes, would not necessarily produce a rupture between the two kings if it were not for this affair of the prince--true cause of the disaster now hanging over christianity. pecquius replied by smooth commonplaces in favour of peace with which villeroy warmly concurred; both sadly expressing the conviction however that the wrath divine had descended on them all on account of their sins. a few days later, however, the secretary changed his tone. "i will speak to you frankly and clearly," he said to pecquius, "and tell you as from myself that there is passion, and if one is willing to arrange the affair of the princess, everything else can be accommodated and appeased. put if the princess remain where she is, we are on the eve of a rupture which may set fire to the four corners of christendom." pecquius said he liked to talk roundly, and was glad to find that he had not been mistaken in his opinion, that all these commotions were only made for the princess, and if all the world was going to war, she would be the principal subject of it. he could not marvel sufficiently, he said, at this vehement passion which brought in its train so great and horrible a conflagration; adding many arguments to show that it was no fault of the archdukes, but that he who was the cause of all might one day have reason to repent. villeroy replied that "the king believed the princess to be suffering and miserable for love of him, and that therefore he felt obliged to have her sent back to her father." pecquius asked whether in his conscience the secretary of state believed it right or reasonable to make war for such a cause. villeroy replied by asking "whether even admitting the negative, the ambassador thought it were wisely done for such a trifle, for a formality, to plunge into extremities and to turn all christendom upside down." pecquius, not considering honour a trifle or a formality, said that "for nothing in the world would his highness the archduke descend to a cowardly action or to anything that would sully his honour." villeroy said that the prince had compelled his wife, pistol in hand, to follow him to the netherlands, and that she was no longer bound to obey a husband who forsook country and king. her father demanded her, and she said "she would rather be strangled than ever to return to the company of her husband." the archdukes were not justified in keeping her against her will in perpetual banishment. he implored the ambassador in most pathetic terms to devise some means of sending back the princess, saying that he who should find such expedient would do the greatest good that was ever done to christianity, and that otherwise there was no guarantee against a universal war. the first design of the king had been merely to send a moderate succour to the princes of brandenburg and neuburg, which could have given no umbrage to the archdukes, but now the bitterness growing out of the affairs of the prince and princess had caused him to set on foot a powerful army to do worse. he again implored pecquius to invent some means of sending back the princess, and the ambassador besought him ardently to divert the king from his designs. of this the secretary of state left little hope and they parted, both very low and. dismal in mind. subsequent conversations with the leading councillors of state convinced pecquius that these violent menaces were only used to shake the constancy of the archduke, but that they almost all highly disapproved the policy of the king. "if this war goes on, we are all ruined," said the duke d'epernon to the nuncius. thus there had almost ceased to be any grimacing between the two kings, although it was still a profound mystery where or when hostilities would begin, and whether they would break out at all. henry frequently remarked that the common opinion all over europe was working in his favour. few people in or out of france believed that he meant a rupture, or that his preparations were serious. thus should he take his enemies unawares and unprepared. even aerssens, who saw him almost daily, was sometimes mystified, in spite of henry's vehement assertions that he was resolved to make war at all hazards and on all sides, provided my lords the states would second him as they ought, their own existence being at stake. "for god's sake," cried the king, "let us take the bit into our mouths. tell your masters that i am quite resolved, and that i am shrieking loudly at their delays." he asked if he could depend on the states, if barneveld especially would consent to a league with him. the ambassador replied that for the affair of cleve and julich he had instructions to promise entire concurrence, that barneveld was most resolute in the matter, and had always urged the enterprise and wished information as to the levies making in france and other military preparations. "tell him," said henry, "that they are going on exactly as often before stated, but that we are holding everything in suspense until i have talked with your ambassadors, from whom i wish counsel, safety, and encouragement for doing much more than the julich business. that alone does not require so great a league and such excessive and unnecessary expense." the king observed however that the question of the duchies would serve as just cause and excellent pretext to remove those troublesome fellows for ever from his borders and those of the states. thus the princes would be established safely in their possession and the republic as well as himself freed from the perpetual suspicions which the spaniards excited by their vile intrigues, and it was on this general subject that he wished to confer with the special commissioners. it would not be possible for him to throw succour into julich without passing through luxemburg in arms. the archdukes would resist this, and thus a cause of war would arise. his campaign on the meuse would help the princes more than if he should only aid them by the contingent he had promised. nor could the jealousy of king james be excited since the war would spring out of the archdukes' opposition to his passage towards the duchies, as he obviously could not cut himself off from his supplies, leaving a hostile province between himself and his kingdom. nevertheless he could not stir, he said, without the consent and active support of the states, on whom he relied as his principal buttress and foundation. the levies for the milanese expedition were waiting until marshal de lesdiguieres could confer personally with the duke of savoy. the reports as to the fidelity of that potentate were not to be believed. he was trifling with the spanish ambassadors, so henry was convinced, who were offering him , crowns a year besides piombino, monaco, and two places in the milanese, if he would break his treaty with france. but he was thought to be only waiting until they should be gone before making his arrangements with lesdiguieres. "he knows that he can put no trust in spain, and that he can confide in me," said the king. "i have made a great stroke by thus entangling the king of spain by the use of a few troops in italy. but i assure you that there is none but me and my lords the states that can do anything solid. whether the duke breaks or holds fast will make no difference in our first and great designs. for the honour of god i beg them to lose no more time, but to trust in me. i will never deceive them, never abandon them." at last , infantry and cavalry were already in marching order, and indeed had begun to move towards the luxemburg frontier, ready to co- operate with the states' army and that of the possessory princes for the campaign of the meuse and rhine. twelve thousand more french troops under lesdiguieres were to act with the duke of savoy, and an army as large was to assemble in the pyrenees and to operate on the spanish frontier, in hope of exciting and fomenting an insurrection caused by the expulsion of the moors. that gigantic act of madness by which spain thought good at this juncture to tear herself to pieces, driving hundreds of thousands of the most industrious, most intelligent, and most opulent of her population into hopeless exile, had now been accomplished, and was to stand prominent for ever on the records of human fatuity. twenty-five thousand moorish families had arrived at bayonne, and the viceroy of canada had been consulted as to the possibility and expediency of establishing them in that province, although emigration thither seemed less tempting to them than to virginia. certainly it was not unreasonable for henry to suppose that a kingdom thus torn by internal convulsions might be more open to a well organized attack, than capable of carrying out at that moment fresh projects of universal dominion. as before observed, sully was by no means in favour of this combined series of movements, although at a later day, when dictating his famous memoirs to his secretaries, he seems to describe himself as enthusiastically applauding and almost originating them. but there is no doubt at all that throughout this eventful spring he did his best to concentrate the whole attack on luxemburg and the meuse districts, and wished that the movements in the milanese and in provence should be considered merely a slight accessory, as not much more than a diversion to the chief design, while villeroy and his friends chose to consider the duke of savoy as the chief element in the war. sully thoroughly distrusted the duke, whom he deemed to be always put up at auction between spain and france and incapable of a sincere or generous policy. he was entirely convinced that villeroy and epernon and jeannin and other earnest papists in france were secretly inclined to the cause of spain, that the whole faction of the queen, in short, were urging this scattering of the very considerable forces now at henry's command in the hope of bringing him into a false position, in which defeat or an ignominious peace would be the alternative. to concentrate an immense attack upon the archdukes in the spanish netherlands and the debateable duchies would have for its immediate effect the expulsion of the spaniards out of all those provinces and the establishment of the dutch commonwealth on an impregnable basis. that this would be to strengthen infinitely the huguenots in france and the cause of protestantism in bohemia, moravia and austria, was unquestionable. it was natural, therefore, that the stern and ardent huguenot should suspect the plans of the catholics with whom he was in daily council. one day he asked the king plumply in the presence of villeroy if his majesty meant anything serious by all these warlike preparations. henry was wroth, and complained bitterly that one who knew him to the bottom of his soul should doubt him. but sully could not persuade himself that a great and serious war would be carried on both in the netherlands and in italy. as much as his sovereign he longed for the personal presence of barneveld, and was constantly urging the states' ambassador to induce his coming to paris. "you know," said aerssens, writing to the french ambassador at the hague, de russy, "that it is the advocate alone that has the universal knowledge of the outside and the inside of our commonwealth." sully knew his master as well as any man knew him, but it was difficult to fix the chameleon hues of henry at this momentous epoch. to the ambassador expressing doubts as to the king's sincerity the duke asserted that henry was now seriously piqued with the spaniard on account of the conde business. otherwise anhalt and the possessory princes and the affair of cleve might have had as little effect in driving him into war as did the interests of the netherlands in times past. but the bold demonstration projected would make the "whole spanish party bleed at the nose; a good result for the public peace." therefore sully sent word to barneveld, although he wished his name concealed, that he ought to come himself, with full powers to do everything, without referring to any superiors or allowing any secrets to be divulged. the king was too far committed to withdraw, unless coldness on part of the states should give him cause. the advocate must come prepared to answer all questions; to say how much in men and money the states would contribute, and whether they would go into the war with the king as their only ally. he must come with the bridle on his neck. all that henry feared was being left in the lurch by the states; otherwise he was not afraid of rome. sully was urgent that the provinces should now go vigorously into the war without stumbling at any consideration. thus they would confirm their national power for all time, but if the opportunity were now lost, it would be their ruin, and posterity would most justly blame them. the king of spain was so stripped of troops and resources, so embarrassed by the moors, that in ten months he would not be able to send one man to the netherlands. meantime the nuncius in paris was moving heaven and earth; storming, intriguing, and denouncing the course of the king in protecting heresy, when it would have been so easy to extirpate it, encouraging rebellion and disorder throughout christendom, and embarking in an action against the church and against his conscience. a new legate was expected daily with the pope's signature to the new league, and a demand upon the king to sign it likewise, and to pause in a career of which something was suspected, but very little accurately known. the preachers in paris and throughout the kingdom delivered most vehement sermons against the king, the government, and the protestants, and seemed to the king to be such "trumpeters of sedition" that he ordered the seneschals and other officers to put a stop to these turbulent discourses, censure their authors, and compel them to stick to their texts. but the preparations were now so far advanced and going on so warmly that nothing more was wanting than, in the words of aerssens, "to uncouple the dogs and let them run." recruits were pouring steadily to their places of rendezvous; their pay having begun to run from the th march at the rate of eight sous a day for the private foot soldier and ten sous for a corporal. they were moved in small parties of ten, lodged in the wayside inns, and ordered, on pain of death, to pay for everything they consumed. it was growing difficult to wait much longer for the arrival of the special ambassadors, when at last they were known to be on their way. aerssens obtained for their use the hotel gondy, formerly the residence of don pedro de toledo, the most splendid private palace in paris, and recently purchased by the queen. it was considered expedient that the embassy should make as stately an appearance as that of royal or imperial envoys. he engaged an upholsterer by the king's command to furnish, at his majesty's expense, the apartments, as the baron de gondy, he said, had long since sold and eaten up all the furniture. he likewise laid in six pieces of wine and as many of beer, "tavern drinks" being in the opinion of the thrifty ambassador "both dear and bad." he bought a carriage lined with velvet for the commissioners, and another lined with broadcloth for the principal persons of their suite, and with his own coach as a third he proposed to go to amiens to meet them. they could not get on with fewer than these, he said, and the new carriages would serve their purpose in paris. he had paid crowns for the two, and they could be sold, when done with, at a slight loss. he bought likewise four dapple-grey horses, which would be enough, as nobody had more than two horses to a carriage in town, and for which he paid crowns--a very low price, he thought, at a season when every one was purchasing. he engaged good and experienced coachmen at two crowns a month, and; in short, made all necessary arrangements for their comfort and the honour of the state. the king had been growing more and more displeased at the tardiness of the commission, petulantly ascribing it to a design on the part of the states to "excuse themselves from sharing in his bold conceptions," but said that "he could resolve on nothing without my lords the states, who were the only power with which he could contract confidently, as mighty enough and experienced enough to execute the designs to be proposed to them; so that his army was lying useless on his hands until the commissioners arrived," and lamented more loudly than ever that barneveld was not coming with them. he was now rejoiced, however, to hear that they would soon arrive, and went in person to the hotel gondy to see that everything was prepared in a manner befitting their dignity and comfort. his anxiety had moreover been increased, as already stated, by the alarming reports from utrecht and by his other private accounts from the netherlands. de russy expressed in his despatches grave doubts whether the states would join the king in a war against the king of spain, because they feared the disapprobation of the king of great britain, "who had already manifested but too much jealousy of the power and grandeur of the republic." pecquius asserted that the archdukes had received assurances from the states that they would do nothing to violate the truce. the prince of anhalt, who, as chief of the army of the confederated princes, was warm in his demonstrations for a general war by taking advantage of the cleve expedition, was entirely at cross purposes with the states' ambassador in paris, aerssens maintaining that the forty-three years' experience in their war justified the states in placing no dependence on german princes except with express conventions. they had no such conventions now, and if they should be attacked by spain in consequence of their assistance in the cleve business, what guarantee of aid had they from those whom anhalt represented? anhalt was loud in expressions of sympathy with henry's designs against spain, but said that he and the states meant a war of thirty or forty years, while the princes would finish what they meant to do in one. a more erroneous expression of opinion, when viewed in the light of subsequent events, could hardly have been hazarded. villeroy made as good use as he could of these conversations to excite jealousy between the princes and the states for the furtherance of his own ends, while affecting warm interest in the success of the king's projects. meantime archduke albert had replied manfully and distinctly to the menaces of the king and to the pathetic suggestions made by villeroy to pecquius as to a device for sending back the princess. her stay at brussels being the chief cause of the impending war, it would be better, he said, to procure a divorce or to induce the constable to obtain the consent of the prince to the return of his wife to her father's house. to further either of these expedients, the archduke would do his best. "but if one expects by bravados and threats," he added, "to force us to do a thing against our promise, and therefore against reason, our reputation, and honour, resolutely we will do nothing of the kind. and if the said lord king decided on account of this misunderstanding for a rupture and to make war upon us, we will do our best to wage war on him. in such case, however, we shall be obliged to keep the princess closer in our own house, and probably to send her to such parts as may be most convenient in order to remove from us an instrument of the infinite evils which this war will produce." meantime the special commissioners whom we left at arras had now entered the french kingdom. on the th april, aerssens with his three coaches met them on their entrance into amiens, having been waiting there for them eight days. as they passed through the gate, they found a guard of soldiers drawn up to receive them with military honours, and an official functionary to apologize for the necessary absence of the governor, who had gone with most of the troops stationed in the town to the rendezvous in champagne. he expressed regret, therefore, that the king's orders for their solemn reception could not be literally carried out. the whole board of magistrates, however, in their costumes of ceremony, with sergeants bearing silver maces marching before them, came forth to bid the ambassadors welcome. an advocate made a speech in the name of the city authorities, saying that they were expressly charged by the king to receive them as coming from his very best friends, and to do them all honour. he extolled the sage government of their high mightinesses and the valour of the republic, which had become known to the whole world by the successful conduct of their long and mighty war. the commissioners replied in words of compliment, and the magistrates then offered them, according to ancient usage, several bottles of hippocras. next day, sending back the carriages of the prince of orange, in which they had thus far performed the journey, they set forth towards paris, reaching saint-denis at noon of the third day. here they were met by de bonoeil, introducer of ambassadors, sent thither by the king to give them welcome, and to say that they would be received on the road by the duke of vendome, eldest of the legitimatized children of the king. accordingly before reaching the saint-denis gate of paris, a splendid cavalcade of nearly five hundred noblemen met them, the duke at their head, accompanied by two marshals of france, de brissac and boisdaulphin. the three instantly dismounted, and the ambassadors alighted from their coach. the duke then gave them solemn and cordial welcome, saying that he had been sent by his father the king to receive them as befitted envoys of the best and most faithful friends he possessed in the world. the ambassadors expressed their thanks for the great and extraordinary honour thus conferred on them, and they were then requested to get into a royal carriage which had been sent out for that purpose. after much ceremonious refusal they at last consented and, together with the duke of vendome, drove through paris in that vehicle into the faubourg saint germain. arriving at the hotel gondy, they were, notwithstanding all their protestations, escorted up the staircase into the apartments by the duke. "this honour is notable," said the commissioners in their report to the states, "and never shown to anyone before, so that our ill-wishers are filled with spite." and peter pecquius was of the same opinion. "everyone is grumbling here," about the reception of the states' ambassadors, "because such honours were never paid to any ambassador whatever, whether from spain, england, or any other country." and there were many men living and employed in great affairs of state, both in france and in the republic--the king and villeroy, barneveld and maurice--who could remember how twenty-six years before a solemn embassy from the states had proceeded from the hague to france to offer the sovereignty of their country to henry's predecessor, had been kept ignominiously and almost like prisoners four weeks long in rouen, and had been thrust back into the netherlands without being admitted even to one audience by the monarch. truly time, in the course of less than one generation of mankind, had worked marvellous changes in the fortunes of the dutch republic. president jeannin came to visit them next day, with friendly proffers of service, and likewise the ambassador of venice and the charge d'affaires of great britain. on the nd the royal carriages came by appointment to the hotel gondy, and took them for their first audience to the louvre. they were received at the gate by a guard of honour, drums beating and arms presented, and conducted with the greatest ceremony to an apartment in the palace. soon afterwards they were ushered into a gallery where the king stood, surrounded by a number of princes and distinguished officers of the crown. these withdrew on the approach of the netherlanders, leaving the king standing alone. they made their reverence, and henry saluted them all with respectful cordiality. begging them to put on their hats again, he listened attentively to their address. the language of the discourse now pronounced was similar in tenour to that almost contemporaneously held by the states' special envoys in london. both documents, when offered afterwards in writing, bore the unmistakable imprint of the one hand that guided the whole political machine. in various passages the phraseology was identical, and, indeed, the advocate had prepared and signed the instructions for both embassies on the same day. the commissioners acknowledged in the strongest possible terms the great and constant affection, quite without example, that henry had manifested to the netherlands during the whole course of their war. they were at a loss to find language adequately to express their gratitude for that friendship, and the assistance subsequently afforded them in the negotiations for truce. they apologized for the tardiness of the states in sending this solemn embassy of thanksgiving, partly on the ground of the delay in receiving the ratifications from spain, partly by the protracted contraventions by the archdukes of certain articles in the treaty, but principally by the terrible disasters occasioned throughout their country by the great inundations, and by the commotions in the city of utrecht, which had now been "so prudently and happily pacified." they stated that the chief cause of their embassy was to express their respectful gratitude, and to say that never had prince or state treasured more deeply in memory benefits received than did their republic the favours of his majesty, or could be more disposed to do their utmost to defend his majesty's person, crown, or royal family against all attack. they expressed their joy that the king had with prudence, and heroic courage undertaken tha defence of the just rights of brandenburg and neuburg to the duchies of cleve, julich, and the other dependent provinces. thus had he put an end to the presumption of those who thought they could give the law to all the world. they promised the co- operation of the states in this most important enterprise of their ally, notwithstanding their great losses in the war just concluded, and the diminution of revenue occasioned by the inundations by which they had been afflicted; for they were willing neither to tolerate so unjust an usurpation as that attempted by the emperor nor to fail to second his majesty in his generous designs. they observed also that they had been instructed to enquire whether his majesty would not approve the contracting of a strict league of mutual assistance between france, england, the united provinces, and the princes of germany. the king, having listened with close attention, thanked the envoys in words of earnest and vigorous cordiality for their expressions of affection to himself. he begged them to remember that he had always been their good friend, and that he never would forsake them; that he had always hated the spaniards, and should ever hate them; and that the affairs of julich must be arranged not only for the present but for the future. he requested them to deliver their propositions in writing to him, and to be ready to put themselves into communication with the members of his council, in order that they might treat with each other roundly and without reserve. he should always deal with the netherlanders as with his own people, keeping no back-door open, but pouring out everything as into the lap of his best and most trusty friends. after this interview conferences followed daily between the ambassadors and villeroy, sully, jeannin, the chancellor, and puysieug. the king's counsellors, after having read the written paraphrase of barneveld's instructions, the communication of which followed their oral statements, and which, among other specifications, contained a respectful remonstrance against the projected french east india company, as likely to benefit the spaniards only, while seriously injuring the states, complained that "the representations were too general, and that the paper seemed to contain nothing but compliments." the ambassadors, dilating on the various points and articles, maintained warmly that there was much more than compliments in their instructions. the ministers wished to know what the states practically were prepared to do in the affair of cleve, which they so warmly and encouragingly recommended to the king. they asked whether the states' army would march at once to dusseldorf to protect the princes at the moment when the king moved from mezieres, and they made many enquiries as to what amount of supplies and munitions they could depend upon from the states' magazines. the envoys said that they had no specific instructions on these points, and could give therefore no conclusive replies. more than ever did henry regret the absence of the great advocate at this juncture. if he could have come, with the bridle on his neck, as henry had so repeatedly urged upon the resident ambassador, affairs might have marched more rapidly. the despotic king could never remember that barneveld was not the unlimited sovereign of the united states, but only the seal-keeper of one of the seven provinces and the deputy of holland to the general assembly. his indirect power, however vast, was only great because it was so carefully veiled. it was then proposed by villeroy and sully, and agreed to by the commissioners, that m. de bethune, a relative of the great financier, should be sent forthwith to the hague, to confer privately with prince maurice and barneveld especially, as to military details of the coming campaign. it was also arranged that the envoys should delay their departure until de bethune's return. meantime henry and the nuncius had been exchanging plain and passionate language. ubaldini reproached the king with disregarding all the admonitions of his holiness, and being about to plunge christendom into misery and war for the love of the princess of conde. he held up to him the enormity of thus converting the king of spain and the archdukes into his deadly enemies, and warned him that he would by such desperate measures make even the states-general and the king of britain his foes, who certainly would never favour such schemes. the king replied that "he trusted to his own forces, not to those of his neighbours, and even if the hollanders should not declare for him still he would execute his designs. on the th of may most certainly he would put himself at the head of his army, even if he was obliged to put off the queen's coronation till october, and he could not consider the king of spain nor the archdukes his friends unless they at once made him some demonstration of friendship. being asked by the nuncius what demonstration he wished, he answered flatly that he wished the princess to be sent back to the constable her father, in which case the affair of julich could be arranged amicably, and, at all events, if the war continued there, he need not send more than men." thus, in spite of his mighty preparations, vehement demands for barneveld, and profound combinations revealed to that statesman, to aerssens, and to the duke of sully only, this wonderful monarch was ready to drop his sword on the spot, to leave his friends in the lurch, to embrace his enemies, the archduke first of all, instead of bombarding brussels the very next week, as he had been threatening to do, provided the beautiful margaret could be restored to his arms through those of her venerable father. he suggested to the nuncius his hope that the archduke would yet be willing to wink at her escape, which he was now trying to arrange through de preaux at brussels, while ubaldini, knowing the archduke incapable of anything so dishonourable, felt that the war was inevitable. at the very same time too, father cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets of the confessional when there was an object to gain, had a long conversation with the archduke's ambassador, in which the holy man said that the king had confessed to him that he made the war expressly to cause the princess to be sent back to france, so that as there could be no more doubt on the subject the father-confessor begged pecquius, in order to prevent so great an evil, to devise "some prompt and sudden means to induce his highness the archduke to order the princess to retire secretly to her own country." the jesuit had different notions of honour, reputation, and duty from those which influenced the archduke. he added that "at easter the king had been so well disposed to seek his salvation that he could easily have forgotten his affection for the princess, had she not rekindled the fire by her letters, in which she caressed him with amorous epithets, calling him 'my heart,' 'my chevalier,' and similar terms of endearment." father cotton also drew up a paper, which he secretly conveyed to pecquius, "to prove that the archduke, in terms of conscience and honour, might decide to permit this escape, but he most urgently implored the ambassador that for the love of god and the public good he would influence his serene highness to prevent this from ever coming to the knowledge of the world, but to keep the secret inviolably." thus, while henry was holding high council with his own most trusted advisers, and with the most profound statesmen of europe, as to the opening campaign within a fortnight of a vast and general war, he was secretly plotting with his father-confessor to effect what he avowed to be the only purpose of that war, by jesuitical bird-lime to be applied to the chief of his antagonists. certainly barneveld and his colleagues were justified in their distrust. to move one step in advance of their potent but slippery ally might be a step off a precipice. on the st of may, sully made a long visit to the commissioners. he earnestly urged upon them the necessity of making the most of the present opportunity. there were people in plenty, he said, who would gladly see the king take another course, for many influential persons about him were altogether spanish in their inclinations. the king had been scandalized to hear from the prince of anhalt, without going into details, that on his recent passage through the netherlands he had noticed some change of feeling, some coolness in their high mightinesses. the duke advised that they should be very heedful, that they should remember how much more closely these matters regarded them than anyone else, that they should not deceive themselves, but be firmly convinced that unless they were willing to go head foremost into the business the french would likewise not commit themselves. sully spoke with much earnestness and feeling, for it was obvious that both he and his master had been disappointed at the cautious and limited nature of the instructions given to the ambassadors. an opinion had indeed prevailed, and, as we have seen, was to a certain extent shared in by aerssens, and even by sully himself, that the king's military preparations were after all but a feint, and that if the prince of conde, and with him the princess, could be restored to france, the whole war cloud would evaporate in smoke. it was even asserted that henry had made a secret treaty with the enemy, according to which, while apparently ready to burst upon the house of austria with overwhelming force, he was in reality about to shake hands cordially with that power, on condition of being allowed to incorporate into his own kingdom the very duchies in dispute, and of receiving the prince of conde and his wife from spain. he was thus suspected of being about to betray his friends and allies in the most ignoble manner and for the vilest of motives. the circulation of these infamous reports no doubt paralysed for a time the energy of the enemy who had made no requisite preparations against the threatened invasion, but it sickened his friends with vague apprehensions, while it cut the king himself to the heart and infuriated him to madness. he asked the nuncius one day what people thought in rome and italy of the war about to be undertaken. ubaldini replied that those best informed considered the princess of conde as the principal subject of hostilities; they thought that he meant to have her back. "i do mean to have her back," cried henry, with a mighty oath, and foaming with rage, "and i shall have her back. no one shall prevent it, not even the lieutenant of god on earth." but the imputation of this terrible treason weighed upon his mind and embittered every hour. the commissioners assured sully that they had no knowledge of any coolness or change such as anhalt had reported on the part of their principals, and the duke took his leave. it will be remembered that villeroy had, it was thought, been making mischief between anhalt and the states by reporting and misreporting private conversations between that prince and the dutch ambassador. as soon as sully had gone, van der myle waited upon villeroy to ask, in name of himself and colleagues, for audience of leave-taking, the object of their mission having been accomplished. the secretary of state, too, like sully, urged the importance of making the most of the occasion. the affair of cleve, he said, did not very much concern the king, but his majesty had taken it to heart chiefly on account of the states and for their security. they were bound, therefore, to exert themselves to the utmost, but more would not be required of them than it would be possible to fulfil. van der myle replied that nothing would be left undone by their high mightinesses to support the king faithfully and according to their promise. on the th, villeroy came to the ambassadors, bringing with him a letter from the king for the states-general, and likewise a written reply to the declarations made orally and in writing by the ambassadors to his majesty. the letter of henry to "his very dear and good friends, allies, and confederates," was chiefly a complimentary acknowledgment of the expressions of gratitude made to him on part of the states-general, and warm approbation of their sage resolve to support the cause of brandenburg and neuburg. he referred them for particulars to the confidential conferences held between the commissioners and himself. they would state how important he thought it that this matter should be settled now so thoroughly as to require no second effort at any future time when circumstances might not be so propitious; and that he intended to risk his person, at the head of his army, to accomplish this result. to the ambassadors he expressed his high satisfaction at their assurances of affection, devotion, and gratitude on the part of the states. he approved and commended their resolution to assist the elector and the palatine in the affair of the duchies. he considered this a proof of their prudence and good judgment, as showing their conviction that they were more interested and bound to render this assistance than any other potentates or states, as much from the convenience and security to be derived from the neighbourhood of princes who were their friends as from dangers to be apprehended from other princes who were seeking to appropriate those provinces. the king therefore begged the states to move forward as soon as possible the forces which they offered for this enterprise according to his majesty's suggestion sent through de bethune. the king on his part would do the same with extreme care and diligence, from the anxiety he felt to prevent my lords the states from receiving detriment in places so vital to their preservation. he begged the states likewise to consider that it was meet not only to make a first effort to put the princes into entire possession of the duchies, but to provide also for the durable success of the enterprise; to guard against any invasions that might be made in the future to eject those princes. otherwise all their present efforts would be useless; and his majesty therefore consented on this occasion to enter into the new league proposed by the states with all the princes and states mentioned in the memoir of the ambassadors for mutual assistance against all unjust occupations, attempts, and baneful intrigues. having no special information as to the infractions by the archdukes of the recent treaty of truce, the king declined to discuss that subject for the moment, although holding himself bound to all required of him as one of the guarantees of that treaty. in regard to the remonstrance made by the ambassadors concerning the trade of the east indies, his majesty disclaimed any intention of doing injury to the states in permitting his subjects to establish a company in his kingdom for that commerce. he had deferred hitherto taking action in the matter only out of respect to the states, but he could no longer refuse the just claims of his subjects if they should persist in them as urgently as they had thus far been doing. the right and liberty which they demanded was common to all, said the king, and he was certainly bound to have as great care for the interests of his subjects as for those of his friends and allies. here, certainly, was an immense difference in tone and in terms towards the republic adopted respectively by their great and good friends and allies the kings of france and great britain. it was natural enough that henry, having secretly expressed his most earnest hope that the states would move at his side in his broad and general assault upon the house of austria, should impress upon them his conviction, which was a just one, that no power in the world was more interested in keeping a spanish and catholic prince out of the duchies than they were themselves. but while thus taking a bond of them as it were for the entire fulfilment of the primary enterprise, he accepted with cordiality, and almost with gratitude, their proposition of a close alliance of the republic with himself and with the protestant powers which james had so superciliously rejected. it would have been difficult to inflict a more petty and, more studied insult upon the republic than did the king of great britain at that supreme moment by his preposterous claim of sovereign rights over the netherlands. he would make no treaty with them, he said, but should he find it worth while to treat with his royal brother of france, he should probably not shut the door in their faces. certainly henry's reply to the remonstrances of the ambassadors in regard to the india trade was as moderate as that of james had been haughty and peremptory in regard to the herring fishery. it is however sufficiently amusing to see those excellent hollanders nobly claiming that "the sea was as free as air" when the right to take scotch pilchards was in question, while at the very same moment they were earnest for excluding their best allies and all the world besides from their east india monopoly. but isaac le maire and jacques le roy had not lain so long disguised in zamet's house in paris for nothing, nor had aerssens so completely "broke the neck of the french east india company" as he supposed. a certain dutch freebooter, however, simon danzer by name, a native of dordrecht, who had been alternately in the service of spain, france, and the states, but a general marauder upon all powers, was exercising at that moment perhaps more influence on the east india trade than any potentate or commonwealth. he kept the seas just then with four swift-sailing and well-armed vessels, that potent skimmer of the ocean, and levied tribute upon protestant and catholic, turk or christian, with great impartiality. the king of spain had sent him letters of amnesty and safe-conduct, with large pecuniary offers, if he would enter his service. the king of france had outbid his royal brother and enemy, and implored him to sweep the seas under the white flag. the states' ambassador begged his masters to reflect whether this "puissant and experienced corsair" should be permitted to serve spaniard or frenchman, and whether they could devise no expedient for turning him into another track. "he is now with his fine ships at marseilles," said aerssens. "he is sought for in all quarters by the spaniard and by the directors of the new french east india company, private persons who equip vessels of war. if he is not satisfied with this king's offers, he is likely to close with the king of spain, who offers him crowns a month. avarice tickles him, but he is neither spaniard nor papist, and i fear will be induced to serve with his ships the east india company, and so will return to his piracy, the evil of which will always fall on our heads. if my lords the states will send me letters of abolition for him, in imitation of the french king, on condition of his returning to his home in zealand and quitting the sea altogether, something might be done. otherwise he will be off to marseilles again, and do more harm to us than ever. isaac le maire is doing as much evil as he can, and one holds daily council with him here." thus the slippery simon skimmed the seas from marseilles to the moluccas, from java to mexico, never to be held firmly by philip, or henry, or barneveld. a dissolute but very daring ship's captain, born in zealand, and formerly in the service of the states, out of which he had been expelled for many evil deeds, simon danzer had now become a professional pirate, having his head-quarters chiefly at algiers. his english colleague warde stationed himself mainly at tunis, and both acted together in connivance with the pachas of the turkish government. they with their considerable fleet, one vessel of which mounted sixty guns, were the terror of the mediterranean, extorted tribute from the commerce of all nations indifferently, and sold licenses to the greatest governments of europe. after growing rich with his accumulated booty, simon was inclined to become respectable, a recourse which was always open to him--france, england, spain, the united provinces, vieing with each other to secure him by high rank and pay as an honoured member of their national marine. he appears however to have failed in his plan of retiring upon his laurels, having been stabbed in paris by a man whom he had formerly robbed and ruined. villeroy, having delivered the letters with his own hands to the ambassadors, was asked by them when and where it would be convenient for the king to arrange the convention of close alliance. the secretary of state--in his secret heart anything but kindly disposed for this loving union with a republic he detested and with heretics whom he would have burned--answered briefly that his majesty was ready at any time, and that it might take place then if they were provided with the necessary powers. he said in parting that the states should "have an eye to everything, for occasions like the present were irrecoverable." he then departed, saying that the king would receive them in final audience on the following day. next morning accordingly marshal de boisdaulphin and de bonoeil came with royal coaches to the hotel gondy and escorted the ambassadors to the louvre. on the way they met de bethune, who had returned solo from the hague bringing despatches for the king and for themselves. while in the antechamber, they had opportunity to read their letters from the states- general, his majesty sending word that he was expecting them with impatience, but preferred that they should read the despatches before the audience. they found the king somewhat out of humour. he expressed himself as tolerably well satisfied with the general tenour of the despatches brought by de bethune, but complained loudly of the request now made by the states, that the maintenance and other expenses of french in the states' service should be paid in the coming campaign out of the royal exchequer. he declared that this proposition was "a small manifestation of ingratitude," that my lords the, states were "little misers," and that such proceedings were "little avaricious tricks" such as he had not expected of them. so far as england was concerned, he said there was a great difference. the english took away what he was giving. he did cheerfully a great deal for his friends, he said, and was always ready doubly to repay what they did for him. if, however, the states persisted in this course, he should call his troops home again. the king, as he went on, became more and more excited, and showed decided dissatisfaction in his language and manner. it was not to be wondered at, for we have seen how persistently he had been urging that the advocate should come in person with "the bridle on his neck," and now he had sent his son-in-law and two colleagues tightly tied up by stringent instructions. and over an above all this, while he was contemplating a general war with intention to draw upon the states for unlimited supplies, behold, they were haggling for the support of a couple of regiments which were virtually their own troops. there were reasons, however, for this cautiousness besides those unfounded, although not entirely chimerical, suspicions as to the king's good faith, to which we have alluded. it should not be forgotten that, although henry had conversed secretly with the states' ambassador at full length on his far-reaching plans, with instructions that he should confidentially inform the advocate and demand his co-operation, not a word of it had been officially propounded to the states-general, nor to the special embassy with whom he was now negotiating. no treaty of alliance offensive or defensive existed between the kingdom and the republic or between the republic and any power whatever. it would have been culpable carelessness therefore at this moment for the prime minister of the states to have committed his government in writing to a full participation in a general assault upon the house of austria; the first step in which would have been a breach of the treaty just concluded and instant hostilities with the archdukes albert and isabella. that these things were in the immediate future was as plain as that night would follow day, but the hour had not yet struck for the states to throw down the gauntlet. hardly two months before, the king, in his treaty with the princes at hall, had excluded both the king of great britain and the states-general from participation in those arrangements, and it was grave matter for consideration, therefore, for the states whether they should allow such succour as they might choose to grant the princes to be included in the french contingent. the opportunity for treating as a sovereign power with the princes and making friends with them was tempting, but it did not seem reasonable to the states that france should make use of them in this war without a treaty, and should derive great advantage from the alliance, but leave the expense to them. henry, on the other hand, forgetting, when it was convenient to him, all about the princess of conde, his hatred of spain, and his resolution to crush the house of austria, chose to consider the war as made simply for the love of the states-general and to secure them for ever from danger. the ambassadors replied to the king's invectives with great respect, and endeavoured to appease his anger. they had sent a special despatch to their government, they said, in regard to all those matters, setting forth all the difficulties that had been raised, but had not wished to trouble his majesty with premature discussions of them. they did not doubt, however, that their high mightinesses would so conduct this great affair as to leave the king no ground of complaint. henry then began to talk of the intelligence brought by de bethune from the hague, especially in regard to the sending of states' troops to dusseldorf and the supply of food for the french army. he did not believe, he said, that the archdukes would refuse him the passage with his forces through their territory, inasmuch as the states' army would be on the way to meet him. in case of any resistance, however, he declared his resolution to strike his blow and to cause people to talk of him. he had sent his quartermaster-general to examine the passes, who had reported that it would be impossible to prevent his majesty's advance. he was also distinctly informed that marquis spinola, keeping his places garrisoned, could not bring more than men into the field. the duke of bouillon, however, was sending advices that his communications were liable to be cut off, and that for this purpose spinola could set on foot about , infantry and horse. if the passage should be allowed by the archdukes, the king stated his intention of establishing magazines for his troops along the whole line of march through the spanish netherlands and neighbouring districts, and to establish and fortify himself everywhere in order to protect his supplies and cover his possible retreat. he was still in doubt, he said, whether to demand the passage at once or to wait until he had began to move his army. he was rather inclined to make the request instantly in order to gain time, being persuaded that he should receive no answer either of consent or refusal. leaving all these details, the king then frankly observed that the affair of cleve had a much wider outlook than people thought. therefore the states must consider well what was to be done to secure the whole work as soon as the cleve business had been successfully accomplished. upon this subject it was indispensable that he should consult especially with his excellency (prince maurice) and some members of the general assembly, whom he wished that my lords the states-general should depute to the army. "for how much good will it do," said the king, "if we drive off archduke leopold without establishing the princes in security for the future? nothing is easier than to put the princes in possession. every one will yield or run away before our forces, but two months after we have withdrawn the enemy will return and drive the princes out again. i cannot always be ready to spring out of my kingdom, nor to assemble such great armies. i am getting old, and my army moreover costs me , crowns a month, which is enough to exhaust all the treasures of france, spain, venice, and the states-general together." he added that, if the present occasion were neglected, the states would afterwards bitterly lament and never recover it. the pope was very much excited, and was sending out his ambassadors everywhere. only the previous saturday the new nuncius destined for france had left rome. if my lords the states would send deputies to the camp with full powers, he stood there firm and unchangeable, but if they remained cool in the business, he warned them that they would enrage him. the states must seize the occasion, he repeated. it was bald behind, and must be grasped by the forelock. it was not enough to have begun well. one must end well. "finis coronat opus." it was very easy to speak of a league, but a league was not to be made in order to sit with arms tied, but to do good work. the states ought not to suffer that the germans should prove themselves more energetic, more courageous, than themselves. and again the king vehemently urged the necessity of his excellency and some deputies of the states coming to him "with absolute power" to treat. he could not doubt in that event of something solid being accomplished. "there are three things," he continued, "which cause me to speak freely. i am talking with my friends whom i hold dear--yes, dearer, perhaps, than they hold themselves. i am a great king, and say what i choose to say. i am old, and know by experience the ways of this world's affairs. i tell you, then, that it is most important that you should come to me resolved and firm on all points." he then requested the ambassadors to make full report of all that he had said to their masters, to make the journey as rapidly as possible, in order to encourage the states to the great enterprise and to meet his wishes. he required from them, he said, not only activity of the body, but labour of the intellect. he was silent for a few moments, and then spoke again. "i shall not always be here," he said, "nor will you always have prince maurice, and a few others whose knowledge of your commonwealth is perfect. my lords the states must be up and doing while they still possess them. nest tuesday i shall cause the queen to be crowned at saint-denis; the following thursday she will make her entry into paris. next day, friday, i shall take my departure. at the end of this month i shall cross the meuse at mezieres or in that neighbourhood." he added that he should write immediately to holland, to urge upon his excellency and the states to be ready to make the junction of their army with his forces without delay. he charged the ambassadors to assure their high mightinesses that he was and should remain their truest friend, their dearest neighbour. he then said a few gracious and cordial words to each of them, warmly embraced each, and bade them all farewell. the next day was passed by the ambassadors in paying and receiving farewell visits, and on saturday, the th, they departed from paris, being escorted out of the gate by the marshal de boisdaulphin, with a cavalcade of noblemen. they slept that night at saint denis, and then returned to holland by the way of calais and rotterdam, reaching the hague on the th of may. i make no apology for the minute details thus given of the proceedings of this embassy, and especially of the conversations of henry. the very words of those conversations were taken down on the spot by the commissioners who heard them, and were carefully embodied in their report made to the states-general on their return, from which i have transcribed them. it was a memorable occasion. the great king--for great he was, despite his numerous vices and follies--stood there upon the threshold of a vast undertaking, at which the world, still half incredulous, stood gazing, half sick with anxiety. he relied on his own genius and valour chiefly, and after these on the brain of barneveld and the sword of maurice. nor was his confidence misplaced. but let the reader observe the date of the day when those striking utterances were made, and which have never before been made public. it was thursday, the th may. "i shall not always be here," said the king . . . . . "i cannot be ready at any moment to spring out of my kingdom." . . . "friday of next week i take my departure." how much of heroic pathos in henry's attitude at this supreme moment! how mournfully ring those closing words of his address to the ambassadors! the die was cast. a letter drawn up by the duc de sully was sent to archduke albert by the king. "my brother," he said; "not being able to refuse my best allies and confederates the help which they have asked of me against those who wish to trouble them in the succession to the duchies and counties of cleve, julich, mark, berg, ravensberg, and ravenstein, i am advancing towards them with my army. as my road leads me through your country, i desire to notify you thereof, and to know whether or not i am to enter as a friend or enemy." such was the draft as delivered to the secretary of state; "and as such it was sent," said sully, "unless villeroy changed it, as he had a great desire to do." henry was mistaken in supposing that the archduke would leave the letter without an answer. a reply was sent in due time, and the permission demanded was not refused. for although france was now full of military movement, and the regiments everywhere were hurrying hourly to the places of rendezvous, though the great storm at last was ready to burst, the archdukes made no preparations for resistance, and lapped themselves in fatal security that nothing was intended but an empty demonstration. six thousand swiss newly levied, with , french infantry and horse, were waiting for henry to place himself at their head at mezieres. twelve thousand foot and cavalry, including the french and english contingents--a splendid army, led by prince maurice--were ready to march from holland to dusseldorf. the army of the princes under prince christian of anhalt numbered , men. the last scruples of the usually unscrupulous charles emmanuel had been overcome, and the duke was quite ready to act, , strong, with marshal de lesdiguieres, in the milanese; while marshal de la force was already at the head of his forces in the pyrenees, amounting to , foot and horse. sully had already despatched his splendid trains of artillery to the frontier. "never was seen in france, and perhaps never will be seen there again, artillery more complete and better furnished," said the duke, thinking probably that artillery had reached the climax of perfect destructiveness in the first decade of the seventeenth century. his son, the marquis de rosny, had received the post of grand master of artillery, and placed himself at its head. his father was to follow as its chief, carrying with him as superintendent of finance a cash-box of eight millions. the king had appointed his wife, mary de' medici, regent, with an eminent council. the new nuncius had been requested to present himself with his letters of credence in the camp. henry was unwilling that he should enter paris, being convinced that he came to do his best, by declamation, persuasion, and intrigue, to paralyse the enterprise. sully's promises to ubaldini, the former nuncius, that his holiness should be made king, however flattering to paul v., had not prevented his representatives from vigorously denouncing henry's monstrous scheme to foment heresy and encourage rebellion. the king's chagrin at the cautious limitations imposed upon the states' special embassy was, so he hoped, to be removed by full conferences in the camp. certainly he had shown in the most striking manner the respect he felt for the states, and the confidence he reposed in them. "in the reception of your embassy," wrote aerssens to the advocate, "certainly the king has so loosened the strap of his affection that he has reserved nothing by which he could put the greatest king in the world above your level." he warned the states, however, that henry had not found as much in their propositions as the common interest had caused him to promise himself. "nevertheless he informs me in confidence," said aerssens, "that he will engage himself in nothing without you; nay, more, he has expressly told me that he could hardly accomplish his task without your assistance, and it was for our sakes alone that he has put himself into this position and incurred this great expense." some days later he informed barneveld that he would leave to van der myle and his colleagues the task of describing the great dissatisfaction of the king at the letters brought by de bethune. he told him in confidence that the states must equip the french regiments and put them in marching order if they wished to preserve henry's friendship. he added that since the departure of the special embassy the king had been vehemently and seriously urging that prince maurice, count lewis william, barneveld, and three or four of the most qualified deputies of the states-general, entirely authorized to treat for the common safety, should meet with him in the territory of julich on a fixed day. the crisis was reached. the king stood fully armed, thoroughly prepared, with trustworthy allies at his side, disposing of overwhelming forces ready to sweep down with irresistible strength upon the house of austria, which, as he said and the states said, aspired to give the law to the whole world. nothing was left to do save, as the ambassador said, to "uncouple the dogs of war and let them run." what preparations had spain and the empire, the pope and the league, set on foot to beat back even for a moment the overwhelming onset? none whatever. spinola in the netherlands, fuentes in milan, bucquoy and lobkowitz and lichtenstein in prague, had hardly the forces of a moderate peace establishment at their disposal, and all the powers save france and the states were on the verge of bankruptcy. even james of great britain--shuddering at the vast thundercloud which had stretched itself over christendom growing blacker and blacker, precisely at this moment, in which he had proved to his own satisfaction that the peace just made would perpetually endure--even james did not dare to traverse the designs of the king whom he feared, and the republic which he hated, in favour of his dearly loved spain. sweden, denmark, the hanse towns, were in harmony with france, holland, savoy, and the whole protestant force of germany--a majority both in population and resources of the whole empire. what army, what combination, what device, what talisman, could save the house of austria, the cause of papacy, from the impending ruin? a sudden, rapid, conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined a result as anything could be in the future of human affairs. on the th or th day of may, as he had just been informing the states' ambassadors, henry meant to place himself at the head of his army. that was the moment fixed by himself for "taking his departure." and now the ides of may had come--but not gone. in the midst of all the military preparations with which paris had been resounding, the arrangements for the queen's coronation had been simultaneously going forward. partly to give check in advance to the intrigues which would probably at a later date be made by conde, supported by the power of spain, to invalidate the legitimacy of the dauphin, but more especially perhaps to further and to conceal what the faithful sully called the "damnable artifices" of the queen's intimate councillors--sinister designs too dark to be even whispered at that epoch, and of which history, during the lapse of more than two centuries and a half, has scarcely dared to speak above its breath--it was deemed all important that the coronation should take place. a certain astrologer, thomassin by name, was said to have bidden the king to beware the middle of the next month of may. henry had tweaked the soothsayer by the beard and made him dance twice or thrice about the room. to the duc de vendome expressing great anxiety in regard to thomassin, henry replied, "the astrologer is an old fool, and you are a young fool." a certain prophetess called pasithea had informed the queen that the king could not survive his fifty-seventh year. she was much in the confidence of mary de' medici, who had insisted this year on her returning to paris. henry, who was ever chafing and struggling to escape the invisible and dangerous net which he felt closing about him, and who connected the sorceress with all whom he most loathed among the intimate associates of the queen, swore a mighty oath that she should not show her face again at court. "my heart presages that some signal disaster will befall me on this coronation. concini and his wife are urging the queen obstinately to send for this fanatic. if she should come, there is no doubt that my wife and i shall squabble well about her. if i discover more about these private plots of hers with spain, i shall be in a mighty passion." and the king then assured the faithful minister of his conviction that all the jealousy affected by the queen in regard to the princess of conde was but a veil to cover dark designs. it was necessary in the opinion of those who governed her, the vile concini and his wife, that there should be some apparent and flagrant cause of quarrel. the public were to receive payment in these pretexts for want of better coin. henry complained that even sully and all the world besides attributed to jealousy that which was really the effect of a most refined malice. and the minister sometimes pauses in the midst of these revelations made in his old age, and with self-imposed and shuddering silence intimates that there are things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful to be breathed. henry had an invincible repugnance to that coronation on which the queen had set her heart. nothing could be more pathetic than the isolated position in which he found himself, standing thus as he did on the threshold of a mighty undertaking in which he was the central figure, an object for the world to gaze upon with palpitating interest. at his hearth in the louvre were no household gods. danger lurked behind every tapestry in that magnificent old palace. a nameless dread dogged his footsteps through those resounding corridors. and by an exquisite refinement in torture the possible father of several of his children not only dictated to the queen perpetual outbreaks of frantic jealousy against her husband, but moved her to refuse with suspicion any food and drink offered her by his hands. the concini's would even with unparalleled and ingenious effrontery induce her to make use of the kitchen arrangements in their apartments for the preparation of her daily meals? driven from house and home, henry almost lived at the arsenal. there he would walk for hours in the long alleys of the garden, discussing with the great financier and soldier his vast, dreamy, impracticable plans. strange combination of the hero, the warrior, the voluptuary, the sage, and the schoolboy--it would be difficult to find in the whole range of history a more human, a more attractive, a more provoking, a less venerable character. haunted by omens, dire presentiments, dark suspicions with and without cause, he was especially averse from the coronation to which in a moment of weakness he had given his consent. sitting in sully's cabinet, in a low chair which the duke had expressly provided for his use, tapping and drumming on his spectacle case, or starting up and smiting himself on the thigh, he would pour out his soul hours long to his one confidential minister. "ah, my friend, how this sacrament displeases me," he said; "i know not why it is, but my heart tells me that some misfortune is to befall me. by god i shall die in this city, i shall never go out of it; i see very well that they are finding their last resource in my death. ah, accursed coronation! thou wilt be the, cause of my death." so many times did he give utterance to these sinister forebodings that sully implored him at last for leave to countermand the whole ceremony notwithstanding the great preparations which had been made for the splendid festival. "yes, yes," replied the king, "break up this coronation at once. let me hear no more of it. then i shall have my mind cured of all these impressions. i shall leave the town and fear nothing." he then informed his friend that he had received intimations that he should lose his life at the first magnificent festival he should give, and that he should die in a carriage. sully admitted that he had often, when in a carriage with him, been amazed at his starting and crying out at the slightest shock, having so often seen him intrepid among guns and cannon, pikes and naked swords. the duke went to the queen three days in succession, and with passionate solicitations and arguments and almost upon his knees implored her to yield to the king's earnest desire, and renounce for the time at least the coronation. in vain. mary de' medici was obdurate as marble to his prayers. the coronation was fixed for thursday, the th may, two days later than the time originally appointed when the king conversed with the states' ambassadors. on the following sunday was to be the splendid and solemn entrance of the crowned queen. on the monday, henry, postponing likewise for two days his original plan of departure, would leave for the army. meantime there were petty annoyances connected with the details of the coronation. henry had set his heart on having his legitimatized children, the offspring of the fair gabrielle, take their part in the ceremony on an equal footing with the princes of the blood. they were not entitled to wear the lilies of france upon their garments, and the king was solicitous that "the count"--as soissons, brother of prince conti and uncle of conde, was always called--should dispense with those ensigns for his wife upon this solemn occasion, and that the other princesses of the blood should do the same. thus there would be no appearance of inferiority on the part of the duchess of vendome. the count protested that he would have his eyes torn out of his head rather than submit to an arrangement which would do him so much shame. he went to the queen and urged upon her that to do this would likewise be an injury to her children, the dukes of orleans and of anjou. he refused flatly to appear or allow his wife to appear except in the costume befitting their station. the king on his part was determined not to abandon his purpose. he tried to gain over the count by the most splendid proposals, offering him the command of the advance-guard of the army, or the lieutenancy-general of france in the absence of the king, , crowns for his equipment and an increase of his pension if he would cause his wife to give up the fleurs-de-lys on this occasion. the alternative was to be that, if she insisted upon wearing them, his majesty would never look upon him again with favourable eyes. the count never hesitated, but left paris, refusing to appear at the ceremony. the king was in a towering passion, for to lose the presence of this great prince of the blood at a solemnity expressly intended as a demonstration against the designs hatching by the first of all the princes of the blood under patronage of spain was a severe blow to his pride and a check to his policy.' yet it was inconceivable that he could at such a moment commit so superfluous and unmeaning a blunder. he had forced conde into exile, intrigue with the enemy, and rebellion, by open and audacious efforts to destroy his domestic peace, and now he was willing to alienate one of his most powerful subjects in order to place his bastards on a level with royalty. while it is sufficiently amusing to contemplate this proposed barter of a chief command in a great army or the lieutenancy-general of a mighty kingdom at the outbreak of a general european war against a bit of embroidery on the court dress of a lady, yet it is impossible not to recognize something ideal and chivalrous from his own point of view in the refusal of soissons to renounce those emblems of pure and high descent, those haughty lilies of st. louis, against any bribes of place and pelf however dazzling. the coronation took place on thursday, th may, with the pomp and glitter becoming great court festivals; the more pompous and glittering the more the monarch's heart was wrapped in gloom. the representatives of the great powers were conspicuous in the procession; aerssens, the dutch ambassador, holding a foremost place. the ambassadors of spain and venice as usual squabbled about precedence and many other things, and actually came to fisticuffs, the fight lasting a long time and ending somewhat to the advantage of the venetian. but the sacrament was over, and mary de' medici was crowned queen of france and regent of the kingdom during the absence of the sovereign with his army. meantime there had been mysterious warnings darker and more distinct than the babble of the soothsayer thomassin or the ravings of the lunatic pasithea. count schomberg, dining at the arsenal with sully, had been called out to converse with mademoiselle de gournay, who implored that a certain madame d'escomans might be admitted to audience of the king. that person, once in direct relations with the marchioness of verneuil, the one of henry's mistresses who most hated him, affirmed that a man from the duke of epernon's country was in paris, agent of a conspiracy seeking the king's life. the woman not enjoying a very reputable character found it impossible to obtain a hearing, although almost frantic with her desire to save her sovereign's life. the queen observed that it was a wicked woman, who was accusing all the world, and perhaps would accuse her too. the fatal friday came. henry drove out, in his carriage to see the preparations making for the triumphal entrance of the queen into paris on the following sunday. what need to repeat the tragic, familiar tale? the coach was stopped by apparent accident in the narrow street de la feronniere, and francis ravaillac, standing on the wheel, drove his knife through the monarch's heart. the duke of epernon, sitting at his side, threw his cloak over the body and ordered the carriage back to the louvre. "they have killed him, 'e ammazato,'" cried concini (so says tradition), thrusting his head into the queen's bedchamber. [michelet, . it is not probable that the documents concerning the trial, having been so carefully suppressed from the beginning, especially the confession dictated to voisin--who wrote it kneeling on the ground, and was perhaps so appalled at its purport that he was afraid to write it legibly--will ever see the light. i add in the appendix some contemporary letters of persons, as likely as any one to know what could be known, which show how dreadful were the suspicions which men entertained, and which they hardly ventured to whisper to each other]. that blow had accomplished more than a great army could have done, and spain now reigned in paris. the house of austria, without making any military preparations, had conquered, and the great war of religion and politics was postponed for half a dozen years. this history has no immediate concern with solving the mysteries of that stupendous crime. the woman who had sought to save the king's life now denounced epernon as the chief murderer, and was arrested, examined, accused of lunacy, proved to be perfectly sane, and, persisting in her statements with perfect coherency, was imprisoned for life for her pains; the duke furiously demanding her instant execution. the documents connected with the process were carefully suppressed. the assassin, tortured and torn by four horses, was supposed to have revealed nothing and to have denied the existence of accomplices. the great accused were too omnipotent to be dealt with by humble accusers or by convinced but powerless tribunals. the trial was all mystery, hugger-mugger, horror. yet the murderer is known to have dictated to the greflier voisin, just before expiring on the greve, a declaration which that functionary took down in a handwriting perhaps purposely illegible. two centuries and a half have passed away, yet the illegible original record is said to exist, to have been plainly read, and to contain the names of the queen and the duke of epernon. twenty-six years before, the pistol of balthasar gerard had destroyed the foremost man in europe and the chief of a commonwealth just struggling into existence. yet spain and rome, the instigators and perpetrators of the crime, had not reaped the victory which they had the right to expect. the young republic, guided by barneveld and loyal to the son of the murdered stadholder, was equal to the burthen suddenly descending upon its shoulders. instead of despair there had been constancy. instead of distracted counsels there had been heroic union of heart and hand. rather than bend to rome and grovel to philip, it had taken its sovereignty in its hands, offered it successively, without a thought of self-aggrandizement on the part of its children, to the crowns of france and great britain, and, having been repulsed by both, had learned after fiery trials and incredible exertions to assert its own high and foremost place among the independent powers of the world. and now the knife of another priest-led fanatic, the wretched but unflinching instrument of a great conspiracy, had at a blow decapitated france. no political revolution could be much more thorough than that which had been accomplished in a moment of time by francis ravaillac. on the th of may, france, while in spiritual matters obedient to the pope, stood at the head of the forces of protestantism throughout europe, banded together to effect the downfall of the proud house of austria, whose fortunes and fate were synonymous with catholicism. the baltic powers, the majority of the teutonic races, the kingdom of britain, the great republic of the netherlands, the northernmost and most warlike governments of italy, all stood at the disposition of the warrior-king. venice, who had hitherto, in the words of a veteran diplomatist, "shunned to look a league or a confederation in the face, if there was any protestant element in it, as if it had been the head of medusa," had formally forbidden the passage of troops northwards to the relief of the assailed power. savoy, after direful hesitations, had committed herself body and soul to the great enterprise. even the pope, who feared the overshadowing personality of henry, and was beginning to believe his house's private interests more likely to flourish under the protection of the french than the spanish king, was wavering in his fidelity to spain and tempted by french promises: if he should prove himself incapable of effecting a pause in the great crusade, it was doubtful on which side he would ultimately range himself; for it was at least certain that the new catholic league, under the chieftainship of maximilian of bavaria, was resolved not to entangle its fortunes inextricably with those of the austrian house. the great enterprise, first unfolding itself with the episode of cleve and berg and whimsically surrounding itself with the fantastic idyl of the princess of conde, had attained vast and misty proportions in the brain of its originator. few political visions are better known in history than the "grand design" of henry for rearranging the map of the world at the moment when, in the middle of may, he was about to draw his sword. spain reduced to the mediterranean and the pyrenees, but presented with both the indies, with all america and the whole orient in fee; the empire taken from austria and given to bavaria; a constellation of states in italy, with the pope for president-king; throughout the rest of christendom a certain number of republics, of kingdoms, of religions-- a great confederation of the world, in short--with the most christian king for its dictator and protector, and a great amphictyonic council to regulate all disputes by solemn arbitration, and to make war in the future impossible, such in little was his great design. nothing could be more humane, more majestic, more elaborate, more utterly preposterous. and all this gigantic fabric had passed away in an instant--at one stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel. most pitiful was the condition of france on the day after, and for years after, the murder of the king. not only was the kingdom for the, time being effaced from the roll of nations, so far as external relations were concerned, but it almost ceased to be a kingdom. the ancient monarchy of hugh capet, of saint-louis, of henry of france and navarre, was transformed into a turbulent, self-seeking, quarrelsome, pillaging, pilfering democracy of grandees. the queen-regent was tossed hither and thither at the sport of the winds and waves which shifted every hour in that tempestuous court. no man pretended to think of the state. every man thought only of himself. the royal exchequer was plundered with a celerity and cynical recklessness such as have been rarely seen in any age or country. the millions so carefully hoarded by sully, and exhibited so dramatically by that great minister to the enraptured eyes of his sovereign; that treasure in the bastille on which henry relied for payment of the armies with which he was to transform the world, all disappeared in a few weeks to feed the voracious maw of courtiers, paramours, and partisans! the queen showered gold like water upon her beloved concini that he might purchase his marquisate of ancre, and the charge of first gentleman of the court from bouillon; that he might fit himself for the government of picardy; that he might elevate his marquisate into a dukedom. conde, having no further reason to remain in exile, received as a gift from the trembling mary de' medici the magnificent hotel gondy, where the dutch ambassadors had so recently been lodged, for which she paid , crowns, together with , crowns to furnish it, , crowns to pay his debts, , more as yearly pension. he claimed double, and was soon at sword's point with the queen in spite of her lavish bounty. epernon, the true murderer of henry, trampled on courts of justice and councils of ministers, frightened the court by threatening to convert his possession of metz into an independent sovereignty, as balagny had formerly seized upon cambray, smothered for ever the process of ravaillac, caused those to be put to death or immured for life in dungeons who dared to testify to his complicity in the great crime, and strode triumphantly over friends and enemies throughout france, although so crippled by the gout that he could scarcely walk up stairs. there was an end to the triumvirate. sully's influence was gone for ever. the other two dropped the mask. the chancellor and villeroy revealed themselves to be what they secretly had always been--humble servants and stipendiaries of spain. the formal meetings of the council were of little importance, and were solemn, tearful, and stately; draped in woe for the great national loss. in the private cabinet meetings in the entresol of the louvre, where the nuncius and the spanish ambassador held counsel with epernon and villeroy and jeannin and sillery, the tone was merry and loud; the double spanish marriage and confusion to the dutch being the chief topics of consultation. but the anarchy grew day by day into almost hopeless chaos. there was no satisfying the princes of the blood nor the other grandees. conde, whose reconciliation with the princess followed not long after the death of henry and his own return to france, was insatiable in his demands for money, power, and citadels of security. soissons, who might formerly have received the lieutenancy-general of the kingdom by sacrificing the lilies on his wife's gown, now disputed for that office with his elder brother conti, the prince claiming it by right of seniority, the count denouncing conti as deaf, dumb, and imbecile, till they drew poniards on each other in the very presence of the queen; while conde on one occasion, having been refused the citadels which he claimed, blaye and chateau trompette, threw his cloak over his nose and put on his hat while the queen was speaking, and left the council in a fury, declaring that villeroy and the chancellor were traitors, and that he would have them both soundly cudgelled. guise, lorraine, epernon, bouillon, and other great lords always appeared in the streets of paris at the head of three, four, or five hundred mounted and armed retainers; while the queen in her distraction gave orders to arm the paris mob to the number of fifty thousand, and to throw chains across the streets to protect herself and her son against the turbulent nobles. sully, hardly knowing to what saint to burn his candle, being forced to resign his great posts, was found for a time in strange political combination with the most ancient foes of his party and himself. the kaleidoscope whirling with exasperating quickness showed ancient leaguers and lorrainers banded with and protecting huguenots against the crown, while princes of the blood, hereditary patrons and chiefs of the huguenots, became partisans and stipendiaries of spain. it is easy to see that circumstances like these rendered the position of the dutch commonwealth delicate and perilous. sully informed aerssens and van der myle, who had been sent back to paris on special mission very soon after the death of the king, that it took a hundred hours now to accomplish a single affair, whereas under henry a hundred affairs were transacted in a single hour. but sully's sun had set, and he had few business conferences now with the ambassadors. villeroy and the chancellor had fed fat their ancient grudge to the once omnipotent minister, and had sworn his political ruin. the old secretary of state had held now complete control of the foreign alliances and combinations of france, and the dutch ambassadors could be under no delusion as to the completeness of the revolution. "you will find a passion among the advisers of the queen," said villeroy to aerssens and van der myle, "to move in diametrical opposition to the plans of the late king." and well might the ancient leaguer and present pensionary of spain reveal this foremost fact in a policy of which he was in secret the soul. he wept profusely when he first received francis aerssens, but after these "useless tears," as the envoy called them, he soon made it manifest that there was no more to be expected of france, in the great project which its government had so elaborately set on foot. villeroy was now sixty-six years of age, and had been secretary of state during forty-two years and under four kings. a man of delicate health, frail body, methodical habits, capacity for routine, experience in political intrigue, he was not personally as greedy of money as many of his contemporaries, and was not without generosity; but he loved power, the pope, and the house of austria. he was singularly reserved in public, practised successfully the talent of silence, and had at last arrived at the position he most coveted, the virtual presidency of the council, and saw the men he most hated beneath his feet. at the first interview of aerssens with the queen-regent she was drowned in tears, and could scarcely articulate an intelligible sentence. so far as could be understood she expressed her intention of carrying out the king's plans, of maintaining the old alliances, of protecting both religions. nothing, however, could be more preposterous than such phrases. villeroy, who now entirely directed the foreign affairs of the kingdom, assured the ambassador that france was much more likely to apply to the states for assistance than render them aid in any enterprise whatever. "there is no doubt," said aerssens, "that the queen is entirely in the hands of spain and the priests." villeroy, whom henry was wont to call the pedagogue of the council, went about sighing dismally, wishing himself dead, and perpetually ejaculating, "ho! poor france, how much hast thou still to suffer!" in public he spoke of nothing but of union, and of the necessity of carrying out the designs of the king, instructing the docile queen to hold the same language. in private he was quite determined to crush those designs for ever, and calmly advised the dutch government to make an amicable agreement with the emperor in regard to the cleve affair as soon as possible; a treaty which would have been shameful for france and the possessory princes, and dangerous, if not disastrous, for the states-general. "nothing but feverish and sick counsels," he said, "could be expected from france, which had now lost its vigour and could do nothing but groan." not only did the french council distinctly repudiate the idea of doing anything more for the princes than had been stipulated by the treaty of hall--that is to say, a contingent of foot and horse--but many of them vehemently maintained that the treaty, being a personal one of the late king, was dead with him? the duty of france was now in their opinion to withdraw from these mad schemes as soon as possible, to make peace with the house of austria without delay, and to cement the friendship by the double marriages. bouillon, who at that moment hated sully as much as the most vehement catholic could do, assured the dutch envoy that the government was, under specious appearances, attempting to deceive the states; a proposition which it needed not the evidence of that most intriguing duke to make manifest to so astute a politician; particularly as there was none more bent on playing the most deceptive game than bouillon. there would be no troops to send, he said, and even if there were, there would be no possibility of agreeing on a chief. the question of religion would at once arise. as for himself, the duke protested that he would not accept the command if offered him. he would not agree to serve under the prince of anhalt, nor would he for any consideration in the world leave the court at that moment. at the same time aerssens was well aware that bouillon, in his quality of first marshal of france, a protestant and a prince having great possessions on the frontier, and the brother-in-law of prince maurice, considered himself entitled to the command of the troops should they really be sent, and was very indignant at the idea of its being offered to any one else. [aerssens worked assiduously, two hours long on one occasion, to effect a reconciliation between the two great protestant chiefs, but found bouillon's demands "so shameful and unreasonable" that he felt obliged to renounce all further attempts. in losing sully from the royal councils, the states' envoy acknowledged that the republic had lost everything that could be depended on at the french court. "all the others are time-serving friends," he said, "or saints without miracles."--aerssens to barneveld, june, . ] he advised earnestly therefore that the states should make a firm demand for money instead of men, specifying the amount that might be considered the equivalent of the number of troops originally stipulated. it is one of the most singular spectacles in history; france sinking into the background of total obscurity in an instant of time, at one blow of a knife, while the republic, which she had been patronizing, protecting, but keeping always in a subordinate position while relying implicitly upon its potent aid, now came to the front, and held up on its strong shoulders an almost desperate cause. henry had been wont to call the states-general "his courage and his right arm," but he had always strictly forbidden them to move an inch in advance of him, but ever to follow his lead, and to take their directions from himself. they were a part, and an essential one, in his vast designs; but france, or he who embodied france, was the great providence, the destiny, the all- directing, all-absorbing spirit, that was to remodel and control the whole world. he was dead, and france and her policy were already in a state of rapid decomposition. barneveld wrote to encourage and sustain the sinking state. "our courage is rising in spite and in consequence of the great misfortune," he said. he exhorted the queen to keep her kingdom united, and assured her that my lords the states would maintain themselves against all who dared to assail them. he offered in their name the whole force of the republic to take vengeance on those who had procured the assassination, and to defend the young king and the queen-mother against all who might make any attempt against their authority. he further declared, in language not to be mistaken, that the states would never abandon the princes and their cause. this was the earliest indication on the part of the advocate of the intention of the republic--so long as it should be directed by his counsels--to support the cause of the young king, helpless and incapable as he was, and directed for the time being by a weak and wicked mother, against the reckless and depraved grandees, who were doing their best to destroy the unity and the independence of france, cornelis van der myle was sent back to paris on special mission of condolence and comfort from the states-general to the sorely afflicted kingdom. on the th of june, accompanied by aerssens, he had a long interview with villeroy. that minister, as usual, wept profusely, and said that in regard to cleve it was impossible for france to carry out the designs of the late king. he then listened to what the ambassadors had to urge, and continued to express his melancholy by weeping. drying his tears for a time, he sought by a long discourse to prove that france during this tender minority of the king would be incapable of pursuing the policy of his father. it would be even too burthensome to fulfil the treaty of hall. the friends of the crown, he said, had no occasion to further it, and it would be much better to listen to propositions for a treaty. archduke albert was content not to interfere in the quarrel if the queen would likewise abstain; leopold's forces were altogether too weak to make head against the army of the princes, backed by the power of my lords the states, and julich was neither strong nor well garrisoned. he concluded by calmly proposing that the states should take the matter in hand by themselves alone, in order to lighten the burthen of france, whose vigour had been cut in two by that accursed knife. a more sneaking and shameful policy was never announced by the minister of a great kingdom. surely it might seem that ravaillac had cut in twain not the vigour only but the honour and the conscience of france. but the envoys, knowing in their hearts that they were talking not with a french but a spanish secretary of state, were not disposed to be the dupes of his tears or his blandishments. they reminded him that the queen-regent and her ministers since the murder of the king had assured the states-general and the princes of their firm intention to carry out the treaty of hall, and they observed that they had no authority to talk of any negotiation. the affair of the duchies was not especially the business of the states, and the secretary was well aware that they had promised their succour on the express condition that his majesty and his army should lead the way, and that they should follow. this was very far from the plan now suggested, that they should do it all, which would be quite out of the question. france had a strong army, they said, and it would be better to use it than to efface herself so pitiably. the proposition of abstention on the part of the archduke was a delusion intended only to keep france out of the field. villeroy replied by referring to english affairs. king james, he said, was treating them perfidiously. his first letters after the murder had been good, but by the following ones england seemed to wish to put her foot on france's throat, in order to compel her to sue for an alliance. the british ministers had declared their resolve not to carry out that convention of alliance, although it had been nearly concluded in the lifetime of the late king, unless the queen would bind herself to make good to the king of great britain that third part of the subsidies advanced by france to the states which had been furnished on english account! this was the first announcement of a grievance devised by the politicians now governing france to make trouble for the states with that kingdom and with great britain likewise. according to a treaty made at hampton court by sully during his mission to england at the accession of james, it had been agreed that one-third of the moneys advanced by france in aid of the united provinces should be credited to the account of great britain, in diminution of the debt for similar assistance rendered by elizabeth to henry. in regard to this treaty the states had not been at all consulted, nor did they acknowledge the slightest obligation in regard to it. the subsidies in men and in money provided for them both by france and by england in their struggle for national existence had always been most gratefully acknowledged by the republic, but it had always been perfectly understood that these expenses had been incurred by each kingdom out of an intelligent and thrifty regard for its own interest. nothing could be more ridiculous than to suppose france and england actuated by disinterested sympathy and benevolence when assisting the netherland people in its life-and-death struggle against the dire and deadly enemy of both crowns. henry protested that, while adhering to rome in spiritual matters, his true alliances and strength had been found in the united provinces, in germany, and in great britain. as for the states, he had spent sixteen millions of livres, he said, in acquiring a perfect benevolence on the part of the states to his person. it was the best bargain he had ever made, and he should take care to preserve it at any cost whatever, for he considered himself able, when closely united with them, to bid defiance to all the kings in europe together. yet it was now the settled policy of the queen-regent's council, so far as the knot of politicians guided by the nuncius and the spanish ambassador in the entresols of the louvre could be called a council, to force the states to refund that third, estimated at something between three and four million livres, which france had advanced them on account of great britain. villeroy told the two ambassadors at this interview that, if great britain continued to treat the queen-regent in such fashion, she would be obliged to look about for other allies. there could hardly be doubt as to the quarter in which mary de' medici was likely to look. meantime, the secretary of state urged the envoys "to intervene at once to-mediate the difference." there could be as little doubt that to mediate the difference was simply to settle an account which they did not owe. the whole object of the minister at this first interview was to induce the states to take the whole cleve enterprise upon their own shoulders, and to let france off altogether. the queen-regent as then advised meant to wash her hands of the possessory princes once and for ever. the envoys cut the matter short by assuring villeroy that they would do nothing of the kind. he begged them piteously not to leave the princes in the lurch, and at the same time not to add to the burthens of france at so disastrous a moment. so they parted. next day, however, they visited the secretary again, and found him more dismal and flaccid than ever. he spoke feebly and drearily about the succour for the great enterprise, recounted all the difficulties in the way, and, having thrown down everything that the day before had been left standing, he tried to excuse an entire change of policy by the one miserable crime. he painted a forlorn picture of the council and of france. "i can myself do nothing as i wish," added the undisputed controller of that government's policy, and then with a few more tears he concluded by requesting the envoys to address their demands to the queen in writing. this was done with the customary formalities and fine speeches on both sides; a dull comedy by which no one was amused. then bouillon came again, and assured them that there had been a chance that the engagements of henry, followed up by the promise of the queen- regent, would be carried out, but now the fact was not to be concealed that the continued battery of the nuncius, of the ambassadors of spain and of the archdukes, had been so effective that nothing sure or solid was thenceforth to be expected; the council being resolved to accept the overtures of the archduke for mutual engagement to abstain from the julich enterprise. nothing in truth could be more pitiable than the helpless drifting of the once mighty kingdom, whenever the men who governed it withdrew their attention for an instant from their private schemes of advancement and plunder to cast a glance at affairs of state. in their secret heart they could not doubt that france was rushing on its ruin, and that in the alliance of the dutch commonwealth, britain, and the german protestants, was its only safety. but they trembled before the pope, grown bold and formidable since the death of the dreaded henry. to offend his holiness, the king of spain, the emperor, and the great catholics of france, was to make a crusade against the church. garnier, the jesuit, preached from his pulpit that "to strike a blow in the cleve enterprise was no less a sin than to inflict a stab in the body of our lord." the parliament of paris having ordered the famous treatise of the jesuit mariana-- justifying the killing of excommunicated kings by their subjects--to be publicly burned before notre dame, the bishop opposed the execution of the decree. the parliament of paris, although crushed by epernon in its attempts to fix the murder of the king upon himself as the true culprit, was at least strong enough to carry out this sentence upon a printed, volume recommending the deed, and the queen's council could only do its best to mitigate the awakened wrath of the jesuits at this exercise of legal authority.--at the same time, it found on the whole so many more difficulties in a cynical and shameless withdrawal from the treaty of hall than in a nominal and tardy fulfilment of its conditions that it resolved at last to furnish the foot and horse promised to the possessory princes. the next best thing to abandoning entirely even this little shred, this pitiful remnant, of the splendid designs of henry was to so arrange matters that the contingent should be feebly commanded, and set on foot in so dilatory a manner that the petty enterprise should on the part of france be purely perfunctory. the grandees of the kingdom had something more important to do than to go crusading in germany, with the help of a heretic republic, to set up the possessory princes. they were fighting over the prostrate dying form of their common mother for their share of the spoils, stripping france before she was dead, and casting lots for her vesture. soissons was on the whole in favour of the cleve expedition. epernon was desperately opposed to it, and maltreated villeroy in full council when he affected to say a word, insincere as the duke knew it to be, in favour of executing agreements signed by the monarch, and sealed with the great seal of france. the duke of guise, finding himself abandoned by the queen, and bitterly opposed and hated by soissons, took sides with his deaf and dumb and imbecile brother, and for a brief interval the duke of sully joined this strange combination of the house of lorraine and chiefs of ancient leaguers, who welcomed him with transport, and promised him security. then bouillon, potent by his rank, his possessions, and his authority among the protestants, publicly swore that he would ruin sully and change the whole order of the government. what more lamentable spectacle, what more desolate future for the cause of religious equality, which for a moment had been achieved in france, than this furious alienation of the trusted leaders of the huguenots, while their adversaries were carrying everything before them? at the council board bouillon quarrelled ostentatiously with sully, shook his fist in his face, and but for the queen's presence would have struck him. next day he found that the queen was intriguing against himself as well as against sully, was making a cat's-paw of him, and was holding secret councils daily from which he as well as sully was excluded. at once he made overtures of friendship to sully, and went about proclaiming to the world that all huguenots were to be removed from participation in affairs of state. his vows of vengeance were for a moment hushed by the unanimous resolution of the council that, as first marshal of france, having his principality on the frontier, and being of the reformed religion, he was the fittest of all to command the expedition. surely it might be said that the winds and tides were not more changeful than the politics of the queen's government. the dutch ambassador was secretly requested by villeroy to negotiate with bouillon and offer him the command of the julich expedition. the duke affected to make difficulties, although burning to obtain the post, but at last consented. all was settled. aerssens communicated at once with villeroy, and notice of bouillon's acceptance was given to the queen, when, behold, the very next day marshal de la chatre was appointed to the command expressly because he was a catholic. of course the duke of bouillon, furious with soissons and epernon and the rest of the government, was more enraged than ever against the queen. his only hope was now in conde, but conde at the outset, on arriving at the louvre, offered his heart to the queen as a sheet of white paper. epernon and soissons received him with delight, and exchanged vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration. and thus all the princes of the blood, all the cousins of henry of navarre, except the imbecile conti, were ranged on the side of spain, rome, mary de' medici, and concino concini, while the son of the balafre, the duke of mayenne, and all their adherents were making common cause with the huguenots. what better example had been seen before, even in that country of pantomimic changes, of the effrontery with which religion was made the strumpet of political ambition? all that day and the next paris was rife with rumours that there was to be a general massacre of the huguenots to seal the new-born friendship of a conde with a medici. france was to renounce all her old alliances and publicly to enter into treaties offensive and defensive with spain. a league like that of bayonne made by the former medicean queen-regent of france was now, at villeroy's instigation, to be signed by mary de' medici. meantime, marshal de la chatre, an honest soldier and fervent papist, seventy-three years of age, ignorant of the language, the geography, the politics of the country to which he was sent, and knowing the road thither about as well, according to aerssens, who was requested to give him a little preliminary instruction, as he did the road to india, was to co-operate with barneveld and maurice of nassau in the enterprise against the duchies. these were the cheerful circumstances amid which the first step in the dead henry's grand design against the house of austria and in support of protestantism in half europe and of religious equality throughout christendom, was now to be ventured. cornelis van der myle took leave of the queen on terminating his brief special embassy, and was fain to content himself with languid assurances from that corpulent tuscan dame of her cordial friendship for the united provinces. villeroy repeated that the contingent to be sent was furnished out of pure love to the netherlands, the present government being in no wise bound by the late king's promises. he evaded the proposition of the states for renewing the treaty of close alliance by saying that he was then negotiating with the british government on the subject, who insisted as a preliminary step on the repayment of the third part of the sums advanced to the states by the late king. he exchanged affectionate farewell greetings and good wishes with jeannin and with the dropsical duke of mayenne, who was brought in his chair to his old fellow leaguer's apartments at the moment of the ambassador's parting interview. there was abundant supply of smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial nutriment, from the representatives of each busy faction into which the medicean court was divided. even epernon tried to say a gracious word to the retiring envoy, assuring him that he would do as much for the cause as a good frenchman and lover of his fatherland could do. he added, in rather a surly way, that he knew very well how foully he had been described to the states, but that the devil was not as black as he was painted. it was necessary, he said, to take care of one's own house first of all, and he knew very well that the states and all prudent persons would do the same thing. etext editor's bookmarks: and now the knife of another priest-led fanatic as with his own people, keeping no back-door open at a blow decapitated france conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined epernon, the true murderer of henry father cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets great war of religion and politics was postponed jesuit mariana--justifying the killing of excommunicated kings no man pretended to think of the state practised successfully the talent of silence queen is entirely in the hands of spain and the priests religion was made the strumpet of political ambition smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel the assassin, tortured and torn by four horses they have killed him, 'e ammazato,' cried concini things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful uncouple the dogs and let them run vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration what could save the house of austria, the cause of papacy wrath of the jesuits at this exercise of legal authority transcriber's notes: . page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/gabrielstoryofje kohnuoft . the diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. . author's full name is salomon kohn. collection of german authors. vol. . * * * * * gabriel, a story of the jews in prague in one volume. gabriel, a story of the jews in prague by s. kohn. from the german by arthur milman, m.a. leipzig bernhard tauchnitz. london: sampson low, marston, searle & rivington. crown buildings, , fleet street. paris: c. reinwald & cie, , rue des saints pÈres. gabriel. i. it was the morning of a wintry autumnal day in the year , when a young man stepped slowly and thoughtfully through the so-called pinchas-synagogue gate into the jews' quarter in the city of prague. a strange scene presented itself. the morning service was just over in the synagogues, and whilst numerous crowds were still streaming out of the houses of prayer, others, mostly women with heavy bunches of keys in their hands, were already hurrying to the rag-market situated outside of the ghetto. the shops too and stalls within the ghetto were now opened, and even in the open street an activity never seen in the other quarters of the city displayed itself. here, for instance, dealers--in truth of the lowest class--were offering their wares consisting of pastry, wheat-bread, fruits, cheese, cabbage, boiled peas and more of such kind of stuff to the passers-by. here and there too in spite of the early hour emerged some peripatetic cooks, in peaceful competition extolling loudly the products of their kitchen, bits of liver, eggs, meat and puddings, and whilst in one hand they held a tin plate, in the other a two-pronged fork,--a very unnecessary article for most of their guests,--devoted their attention chiefly to the foreign students of the talmud. to them also the greatest attention was paid by those cobblers who less wealthy than their colleagues in the so-called golden st. offered their services to the students in open street, and most assiduously, while the owners were obliged to wait in the street or a neighbouring house, mended their shoes at a very moderate price, but, it must also be allowed, in a very inefficient manner. the young man who had just stepped into the jew's quarter, gazed earnestly and observantly at this busy stir, and did not seem to notice, that he himself had become an object of common attention. his appearance was however fully calculated to excite observation. his form was powerful and commanding; his dress that of a talmud-student, cloak and cap. out of his pale face shadowed by a dark beard, under heavy arching eyebrows there shone two black eyes of uncommon brilliance; raven locks fell in waves from his head; the fingers of a white sinewy hand, that held close the silken cloak, were covered with golden rings; his thick ruff was of spotless purity and smoothness. had not the stranger by the elegance of his appearance, perhaps also by his gigantic make, struck a little awe into the curious dealers in the street, of a surety at his first appearance, a whole heap of questions would have been addressed to him. "who or what he wanted? what could they do for him?" and such like.... under the circumstances, however, it was abraham, a cobbler, who sat on a bench by the pinchas-synagogue that after some consideration mustered up courage and as he laid down a shoe that had been committed to his artistic skill, began to ask: "dear student! whom are you seeking? certainly not me, that i can see from your beautifully made shoes with their glittering silver buckles; _they_ were not made at prague."--this was put in more for the benefit of those about him and himself than the stranger.--"you are surely a stranger here? pardon me, you are perhaps a german, a moravian or a viennese? do you wish to go to a lecture upon the talmud, or perchance to the rabbi, or to reb lippman heller? who do you want to go to? i will gladly shew you the way to the talmud-lecturers--or, perhaps, you are looking out for a lodging? i can very likely procure you a convenient one." "i _am_ a stranger here," replied the student, "and must, indeed, first of all look about me for a lodging. if you happen to know of an apartment where i could pursue my studies undisturbed i shall thankfully avail myself of your offer: but the apartment must be large, light and cheerful." "then i only know of one in the whole town, at my superior attendant reb schlome's, i mean the superior attendant of my synagogue, the old-synagogue, he lives close to the synagogue; there is a beautiful room there--and besides, reb schlome is very learned in the talmud, and has got a beautiful library,--in a word that or none is the lodging for you." while this short conversation was going on, the cobbler's neighbours had as it were accidentally got nearer, so as to overhear a few words; and the group that for some minutes had been hazarding the most ingenious opinions and conjectures about the stranger, formed, perhaps without noticing it, a complete circle round the two talkers. this was now suddenly broken through, and a shabbily dressed old man thrust himself up impetuously against the stranger. "peace be with you," he cried, "you are then just arrived, be so good as to come with me, i have a question to put to you, it will do you no harm, and me good, come with me." the stranger gazed in astonishment at the singular figure. "what do you want of me? how can i, a stranger, whom you have surely never seen, give you any tidings? perhaps, however, you do know me?" "sir," whispered cobbler abraham, standing on tiptoe so as to reach up to the stranger's ear, "jacob is out of his mind; ten years ago, when he came to live at prague, he used to put the strangest questions to everybody that came in his way; when the small boys came out of the school, he used to examine them in the bible, and however correctly they answered, would ever become furious and cry: false! false!--grown-up people too he used to catechise, fathers, students, in short every one; but as he has now put his questions to almost everybody in the whole community, he has kept quite quiet for a long while. he is only unsociable, refuses to give any information about himself, and never answers a question; but he is a good harmless fellow, and as the students say, must be a very great talmudist--i wonder that he begins again."-- "don't be led astray by what that man there is whispering to you," cried the old man in anguish; "only come with me, i pray you most instantly to do so--you, only you can give me peace; i will believe your answers, all the rest lie to me, a poor old man! come home with me, believe me, you will do a real good deed." the stranger cast a penetrating searching glance at the old man, as though he would sound the whole depths of this troubled human soul. contrary to all expectation he replied after short reflection: "only unloose my cloak; hold me not so nervously, i will verily go with you. but to you," he turned to the cobbler, "i will soon come back, and will then beg you to conduct me to the man who has the room to let. accept this in the meanwhile for your friendly sympathy"--as he spoke he drew out of his doublet an embroidered purse full of gold and silver pieces, and laid a large silver coin on the cobbler's bench. "that is too much," said abraham highly surprised and pleased, "god strengthen you, your honour, reb--i don't know what's your name!"-- without answering these further questions, the stranger stepped by the side of the old man out of the circle, which now once more began loudly and without circumlocution to utter its conjectures. "i know what he is:--he is a fool," suggested a dealer in liver as she arranged her stores on a board--"and what's more a big fool! gives abraham a piece of silver, what for? goes home with the madman, why?" "my dear mindel," urged another huckster, "it seems to me you are very envious of abraham; that's why the handsome stranger student is a fool. if you'd got the money, he would have been wise!"-- most of the hucksters, and hucksteresses, seemed fully to concur in the opinion of the fish-monger--such was the speaker--for mother mindel was in truth what one would in these days in popular parlance call a dog in the manger. but mother mindel was not the sort of person in a war of words to leave the lists in a hurry, and own herself vanquished. she answered therefore sharply: "say you so, hirsch, what did you get from him. come now, tell the truth." these last words spoken in a somewhat high key, can only be understood when it is explained, that hirsch, the fish-monger, was too often addicted to the bad habit, when he told a story, of passing off in fullest measure the exaggerations and embellishments of his copious imagination; of treating, on the other hand, an actual fact in a very step-motherish fashion, a circumstance that compelled even his best friends to admit that he was a little given to exaggeration; while impartial persons were fond of applying to him the well-deserved predicate of 'liar.' "if i'm to tell the truth," continued hirsch, apparently not observing that which was injurious in his neighbour's manner of expressing herself, "if i'm to tell the truth i'm not so envious as some people, who seem to have been created so by the dear god, probably as a punishment; i should, however, have been more pleased if pradel, the pastry-cook, had got the money, she has five children, her husband, the bass-singer in the old-synagogue, is away, lying ill at home for the last four months--_she_ would have made a better use of the money--but if it had rained gold the good woman would not have been at the place, and if she had, what would have been the use? would _she_ have had the impudence at once coolly to accost a stranger with gold rings on his fingers like a prince as if he was a nobody? why did we all hold our tongues? i was only curious to see how far cobbler abrabam would go. a very little more and he'd have asked him the name of his great-grandfathers, how long it was since his thirteenth birthday, and what chapter out of the prophets had at that time been read on the sabbath."-- these words seemed to show that the brave hirsch in addition to his unpleasant habit of exaggeration could not be altogether absolved from the failing of his neighbour mindel.--in the bosom of cobbler abraham who had listened to all these gibes in silence some significant idea seemed striving for utterance. he moved uneasily on his stool and rubbed his hands with a singular smile. "good people!" he cried at length, "i'll show you that none of you yet know cobbler abraham, although for now more than twenty years he has enjoyed the great honour in your society of mending shoes for the scholars at the high school of prague, and for more than twenty years has had the privilege of listening to your lies, hirsch, and to your tattle, mindel. none of you yet know cobbler abraham. the money i shall consider as if it was not mine. it belongs to pradel the pastry-cook, or rather to her sick husband simche, he's my bass, that is, bass of my synagogue, has never in his life got a new year's or other present from me. i'm a bachelor, he's a married man with five children: i'm, thank god, in good health, he's ill. i for once will be a prince, he shall have the money from me, at once, to-day, as a dedicatory gift, and as to your insinuation hirsch, that none of you had the impudence to accost the stranger, perhaps, you would be more justified in saying that none of you had had the sense to do it; and now, seeing that i'll have none of the money, leave me alone, let me get on with my work, and sell your sweet fish and roast liver." so saying he caught briskly up the shoes that were before him, and began industriously to cobble. "ah, there's some sense in that, i knew you had a good heart;" even mother mindel was obliged to join in the loud applause of the neighbours, whereupon she tried to secure an honourable retreat out of the wordy skirmish by kindling with the whole strength of her lungs into a bright glow the fading flame of her charcoal pan; whilst, hirsch, after he too had in an embarrassed way recognised abraham's noble feeling, availed himself of that very moment as the most favourable to recommend his fish to the passers-by, as especially excellent.--but the three neighbours were of a very placable disposition, and in spite of the fact that they had for the last ten years followed the laudable custom, of jeering as opportunity offered, yet in time of need and wretchedness they had mutually stood by one another, and so it came to pass, that half an hour after, they had forgotten the little dispute, but not its cause; and the three neighbours were laying their heads together to ventilate anew their, doubtless very interesting surmises about the stranger. he meanwhile was walking in silence by the side of his strange companion, and though he looked about inquisitively, still found time to observe jacob more closely. it was difficult to fix the old man's age. his pale countenance was sorrow-stricken, and furrowed by care. it might once have been beautiful but was transformed into something different, strange, scarce akin to a human face by a grizzly white untended beard, that entangled with the disordered hair, which fell in waves from his head, formed with it a shapeless mass; but especially by the weird glittering of his eyes that protruded far out of their sockets. his thin form crushed by the weight of misery, seemed once to have been gigantic, and the scantiness of his clothing completed the singular impression caused by his appearance. at the hahn-alley the old man stopped before a small house, and begged the stranger to follow him across the court to his little room. it was poorly furnished, and situated on the ground floor, abutting the burial-ground, so that one could without difficulty pass through the low window into the burial-ground. besides an arm-chair there was only one stool in the room. the old man pushed both up silently to the table, and signed to the stranger to take a seat. "what do you wish?" the stranger now asked. the old man looked cautiously about to see if anyone was listening, closed the door, then the window-shutters and lit a lamp. "see," he now began, "see, as i looked at you, it affected me so differently, impressed me so far otherwise than when i look at any other strange student. i know you are not so wicked as the others are, all, all of them, that despise, ill use, unsparingly laugh to scorn a poor old man; they know no pity, have no mercy, are not aware what it is to suffer as i suffer. they bring me to naught, they have all sworn together against me, and whom ever i question, he answers falsely, falsely, falsely!"-- the old man spoke with frightful excitement, all the blood that flowed through his withered body seemed to have gathered itself into his cheeks flushed with a hectic red, the veins of his forehead swelled to an unnatural size. "tell me, tell me, tell me truly," he whispered, suddenly becoming again quite humble. "do you know the ten commandments? but i conjure you by the god of israel, that made heaven and earth, by the head of your father, by your mother's salvation, by your portion in the world to come, answer truly, without deceit." "my good old man," said the stranger quietly, "i will do all that you desire, i will repeat to you the ten commandments, all the six hundred and thirteen laws, provided always, i can still recollect them, i will be entirely at your service, for i see, that you are a poor worn-out man--you live pretty well alone here in this narrow room, you receive no visits?" asked the student after a short pause. "since i have found out that no one will come home with me, to read me the ten commandments out of my small bible, i let no one in. many too are afraid--no one comes to me, no one, you are the first that for many years has set foot in my hovel.--but now be so good, let me hear the ten commandments, quickly, i implore you!" the young man passed his hand over his forehead, as though he would call back to memory something long forgotten, and then began in a loud powerful voice to utter by heart those ten sayings of the lord, that were revealed on sinai. the old man sat resting his head which he bent forward upon both hands--as though greedily to suck up every word that fell from his lips--and gazed into the face of the stranger. all the blood seemed to flow back slowly to his heart, his face became deadly pale, his eyes seemed bursting from their wide opened lids, and the longer the stranger spoke, the deeper blue became his thin spasmodically quivering lips. had not the beating of the tortured old man's heart been audible, one must have believed that life was extinct in that frail body. the stranger went quietly on, but as he uttered the seventh commandment '_thou shalt not commit adultery_' a fearfully horrible cry, a cry that made the very bones creep, escaped from the breast of the poor tormented creature, a cry shrill as that which, a bird of prey sore wounded by an arrow, launches through the air in its death struggles, a cry, such as naught but the deepest most unspeakable grief of the soul can tear from a man's breast. the stranger stopped, the old man sank in a heap, covering his face with both hands. there was a moment of deepest silence, at length the old man broke forth into loud sobbing.-- "you too! i had hope of you. oh, how i would have loved you, how i would have honoured you, how i would have worshipped you, if you had read differently to the others, but no, no, no! _he_ read. thou shalt not commit adultery. "_thou shalt not commit adultery_.' lord of the world, have i suffered too little, repented too little, done insufficient penitence? and yet thou still lettest it stand in thy holy scripture? must i for ever be tormented in this world and the next? but thou art righteous, and i a sinner--i have sinned, i have gone astray, i have"--then beating his breast he muttered the whole confession of sins. "i grieve to have been the cause of pain to you, but see"--the student at these words opened a bible that was lying on the table at the passage in point--"see, it is as i have read it." the characters were quite effaced by the marks of tears, and it was clear that this especial page had been read and reread countless times. "yes, yes, so is it written," cried the old man in a tone of the profoundest dejection and despair. "you were right, _my brother_ was right, all were right, the students, the little boys from school, all, all read it so--all are right, except me, except me,--i am guilty!"--and again he began, striking both his clenched hands upon his breast, to utter the confession. the student had risen from his seat, and paced the chamber up and down. the old man's illimitable grief seemed to awaken a slight feeling of sympathy in him. "every one is not like thee, a giant in spirit and thought," said he softly to himself, "every one cannot like thee strip off his faith like a raiment that has become useless, and rouse a new life from the inner fire of the soul." the man was not always mad, a milder light must once have shone out of those weird dark eyes--_but he sank through his own guilt!_ one bold flight of his free spirit had saved him from everlasting night, but he would not! was he constrained to give credence to a dead word out of the bible? did he stand upon flaming sinai, when the words were thundered down upon humanity? could not he free himself from the blind faith of his fathers? must that appear to him true and holy, that appeared true and holy to his father and forefathers? his fathers ecstatically smiling could mount the smoking pyres, and while flames consumed their body, sing psalms and hymns of praise, _they_ could do all this for they looked for the bliss of paradise in a world they hoped to come: and what is the bitterest, saddest moment of torment compared with an eternity that never ends! his fathers could breath out their lives with a smile under the axe of the persecutor; with faith they had life's highest gift, hope. but this fool? he has sinned, good!--tear then from thy lacerated and bleeding heart the foolish faith, that torments thee, what good does it do thee, thou poor lost one, in this world or the next?--yet there is a mighty too constraining power in faith!----"how if _i_ tried yet to believe?--the sweet fable can heal wounds too!--but i, i cannot, i cannot--they have cast me forth, they have compelled me to it, the bible, men--all, all--i, indeed, _i_ could not otherwise." then he stopped again suddenly before the old man, who without paying further attention to his guest, had lapsed into a gloomy brooding. "of course, you are a talmudist?" asked the student aloud, "you are! now then, know you not the sentence of the pious king chiskia? though a sharp sword lyeth at the neck of man, yet may he not despair of god's infinite mercy! do not forget: in the same chapter in which it is written 'thou shalt not commit adultery' it is also written: 'the lord, the lord god, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin!'"-- "but he visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation!" said jacob in continuation. "do not despair! if the gates of prayer have been closed since the destruction of the sanctuary in jerusalem, the gates of repentance have not been closed. do not despair, poor jacob, consider what the bible says: 'for man's heart is wicked even from his youth up.' consider the saying: 'as i live, saith the lord god, i have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live'; consider that well and do not despair!"-- the student broke off suddenly, as if astonished at the compassion that had been stirred up in him, it seemed to have surprised himself. but jacob in the excess of his emotion clapsed the strangers' hand convulsively and pressed it to his lips. "ah, what good you do me," he cried; "how you drop balm into my irremediable wounds! for years no one has spoken to me thus; god bless you for it!" "you see, jacob," said the student preparing to depart, "i have obeyed your request and have done you such service as i could.--it is now my turn to ask a favour of you.--no one comes to see you, you are often alone, suffer me occasionally to visit you and study the talmud here. perhaps i may be able to banish the evil spirit that at times seizes you." "oh, a wicked, wicked spirit, you are right.--yes, you with your beautiful eyes you do me good.--ah, once i too was as you are, tall, handsome, strong. when i gaze on you, i call to remembrance my own happy youth, my brother's! yes, come to me often, often." "that i will, and now farewell." "god bless you." the student stepped out of the house; then stood lost in thought. "i shall consider the chance a fortunate one," he softly said, "that led to my encounter with this madman; he may be useful to me, may put me upon the right track in my sublime chace. but it is inexplicable to me! i thought that i had quenched all compassion, all pity in my soul, and lo! this old man wakens feelings in me, that i would have banished for ever from my soul. every one rejects him, and i, i who bear so bitter, so deadly a hatred against all those that hang on bible texts, i let him immediately, before i saw my advantage therefrom, gain his end and placed myself at his disposal. alas, in spite of the maddest hatred, the most raging fury, there is still too much of the good old jew left in me. i must become very different." ii. reb schlome sachs, superior attendant in the old synagogue, had on friday evening just returned home from this synagogue. in his house and in his heart there ruled a sabbath-peace. there is something very pleasurable in a small room on such a winter friday evening! a large black stove radiated a pleasant warmth, whilst in the middle of the room a pendant lamp of eight branches, spread abroad a subdued, ruddy, but yet friendly light. on the oblong table lay a clean white cloth, under it again might be seen yet another particoloured covering, from the corners of which tassels were hanging and served as a cheerful pastime for a lively cat. but the loveliest ornament of the room was without a doubt the housewife schöndel, a blooming graceful woman of about thirty. as she, in her elegant sabbath-attire, the rich clusters of her dark hair becomingly covered by a richly worked cap, in her pretty, close fitting neatly made gown, fastened high up on the neck, stepped to meet her husband, and took off his cloak and cap, as they both of them joyously wished one another a happy sabbath, as in their features a pure and childlike joyfulness of soul, a deep and blessed peace of mind mirrored itself--then surely would neither of them have exchanged their lot for that of kings or princes. the master sang the psalm of the day, and as he ended, enquired, "was reb gabriel not yet come home." "no, he wished to go to-day to the old new-synagogue which he has not yet seen." "oh, then he will return later; we in the old synagogue only repeat the friday-psalm once and have no 'benediction.'--how do you like our new tenant that cobbler abraham brought us?" "oh, i like him very well, a handsome man of refined habits and demeanour; not at all like a talmud-student; they think of nothing but their themes and disputations; but reb gabriel converses well and gracefully. he must be of a good and wealthy family; his deportment too is very different to that of the others, so bolt upright and so stiff, you know, just as if he was a soldier; but he is not so devout as the others." "he has a profound knowledge of the talmud, as in the course of this very day i became aware, and i'm glad of that--you know i take no rent from our lodger, only make a point of having a god-fearing sound talmudist in the house; but tell me, dear wife, what makes you think that he holds himself like a soldier?" "nay, because they hold themselves straight and upright. what is there remarkable in that." "nothing, nothing,--but i have not yet told you; yesterday evening, when i came home from the midnight-prayer-meeting, just as i was going to unlock the door of our cottage--i always take the key with me that i may not be obliged to wake you--i heard a loud voice in our lodger's room; i listened a moment.--it was not the way, in which one studies the talmud--he seemed to be addressing one or more persons, but what he said had such a strange ring about it, i could not at first clearly make it out, especially as according to the tenor of his words he at one moment muttered softly, at another cried loud out--the wind moreover whistled loud through the passage; but my ear soon grew accustomed to the sound, and i heard him plainly say: 'man, we are both lost--both of us, you and i--they will betray us to the imperialists--they will deliver us to our deadliest enemy,' afterwards he cried out again suddenly--'they shall not surprise us! we are armed, march, halt! fire! storm! no quarter--they give none, level everything. ah, ah, blood, blood! that refreshes the soul. the victory is mine! mine the blood stained laurel wreath, i am victor,--i victor. ah me, it avails nothing, i am still a ----' the last words died lightly away. after some minutes all was again still in the room, and i heard the measured breathing of his mighty breast. this is the first opportunity that i have had of telling you about it, for friday, as you know, i am entirely occupied by my duty in the synagogue,--i might, perhaps, have forgotten it, had not you remarked upon his military aspect."-- "i am not at all surprised that he has such dreams," replied schöndel, "his mind is always full of such wonderful things.--this morning, when i wanted to fetch for you your sabbath clothes out of the chest, that he lets us leave in his room, getting no answer to my knock, i lifted up the latch, to assure myself that he was out; but the door came open and gabriel, his head resting on both hands, was gazing with fixed attention--not on a folio, but a roll of coloured paper on which he was drawing different lines with a pen. when i got nearer, i made out that it was a map. i asked him in astonishment what that meant, and he told me that as he travelled from germany to prague, he had in the course of his journey encountered the bohemian and imperial armies, and that to amuse himself he was now looking where they were--then he pointed out to me the exact spot, where the brave field-marshal mannsfield was, where the elector maximilian, and generals tilly and boucquoi lay with their troops, then he showed me how badly christian of anhalt, frederick's general-in-chief, was supporting the operations of the brave ernest of mannsfield, and how that the troops of the union in spite of their bravery and gallant leader must succumb, so long as anhalt, incapable, or as he expressed himself, perhaps won over by the imperialists remained at the head of the army: all this he explained to me so clearly, and distinctly, that even i, a foolish woman, could quite easily see the force of it.--'how do you come to have such a clear perception of all that,' i enquired, 'of all the students of the present school not one would understand so much about these things as you--you'd make a good officer.' 'nay, who knows,' he laughingly answered, 'if some day i do not get a good rabbinate, i may still become a soldier.' the whole occurrence struck me as so strange, that it haunted me the whole day; i cannot help smiling when i think of it. in the middle of the day, about three hours afterwards, as i crossed over to the 'kleinseite' to buy some wax tapers, i saw two superior officers riding over the bridge, one i happened to know, the young thurn--every child here knows him; but as to the other, a captain, who rode a perfectly black horse, he seemed to me as like our lodger gabriel, as one twin-brother is to the other, and as they both turned the corner into the 'kleinseite,' this captain caught sight of me and gave me such a friendly unconstrained look, as if he would greet me. but all this was a pure deception, the whole resemblance may have been a slight and casual one, and gabriel's strange conversation of which my thoughts were still full, may have probably been the cause of my exaggerating the likeness--and that officers turn round to stare at young women, is certainly no new occurrence." "trust me," answered schlome, "gabriel is no captain. the students of the school at prague are not the stuff out of which kings, or states would fashion heroes. i do not say that they would not make as good as others.--the maccabees fought as bravely as a thurn, a boucquoi, a mannsfield, and even more bravely,--but so long as the lord of hosts in his lofty wisdom does not entirely turn the hearts of the princes and peoples among whom we live, we must accept oppression, contumely, scorn, and all else that providence has ordained for us. do you not know, that for some years the fencing-masters here in prague have been forbidden to teach the jews the noble art of fencing? but, dear wife, this is no pleasant subject of conversation for a joyful friday-evening." "you are ungrateful! do we not now live quietly under the protection of the laws? look back to the dark and horrible times of yore."-- "to-day let us conjure up no sad memories, let us not disturb a joyous sabbath peace," implored schlome, "let us speak of something else, of what you will. you say our lodger is not as devout as other students?" "no, he is not so industrious, does not often attend a lecture on the talmud, even in the few days that he has been here has often neglected to attend at synagogue; besides he never kisses the scroll on the door as he goes in and out." schlome was about to answer, but was prevented by the hurried entrance of gabriel, who by an actual omission confirmed the assertion that had just been made. "a happy sabbath to you; excuse my late return. i was in the old new-synagogue, an awe striking synagogue! we hear much of this synagogue in my country. it is certainly one of the most ancient judaic buildings in europe, if we except the house of god at worms, perhaps, the most ancient;--but tell me, good man, are all the stories, that they tell us in the schools of germany, especially towards midnight, about this edifice and which have often caused me a thrill of pleasant ghostly horror, true?" "the child-like temper of the people," replied the goodman, "delight in the unwonted and strange, and then many stories are told, that in reality may have happened very differently." "yes, but there is much truth in it," interposed the good wife; "ah, this community of prague has in the course of time met with so much sorrow, has suffered such endless anguish, and yet god--blessed be his name--has so wonderfully supported it, that even now it shines forth a brilliant example to its sisters in germany. whenever i pass that ancient and reverend house of god, pictures of the days that are gone come back upon me. do you know the history of how our brethren in the faith were once ruthlessly slaughtered in the old new-synagogue?" schöndel was obliged to repeat this question; gabriel seemed suddenly lost in deep reflection. "no," said he, at length arousing himself from his reveries, as though his spirit was for away;--"tell it, noble lady! everything sounds doubly beautiful from your rosy lips."-- schlome shook his head in thoughtful astonishment over this manner of speaking, so different from that usual with talmud-students. "reb gabriel! you talk like a knight to a lady of rank. do not forget that you are a student of the talmud, and my wife the wife of a servant." "you must not talk as if you wished to mock us," said schöndel, and a deep flush suffused her face; "or i cannot"-- "oh, the story, good wife! mind not my talk. i am at times absent, and often far off in imagination." "high on horseback in the battle, is it not so?" asked schöndel slily. the face of the student became a deep dark red. he required a moment to recover command of himself. "what do you mean by that?" he impetuously demanded. "women are gossiping, as you know from the talmud and surely from your own experience also," said schlome. "i was just telling my wife, as we waited for you, that yesterday when i returned from midnight prayer, as i passed by the door of your room, i could hear you call out loud in your sleep, and that you appeared to be dreaming of a battle or something of that kind.--we thought the dream a strange one for a student." "ah," said gabriel, drawing a deep breath, and visibly relieved--"ah, you thought so? well, i do sometimes dream heavily of battles.--but do you know, how that happens? i was too industrious as a student--studied the talmud day and night; but a man cannot endure too much work, and as my ambition compelled me to unbroken exertion, it fell out, that my mind became confused, i became subject to delusions and fancied myself, a knight, a warrior--but i am now thanks to a clever physician and rest of body and mind, perfectly well again, perfectly! do not be anxious!--but as on my journey here i encountered many troops of soldiers, my mind may again in sleep have been terrified by gloomy visions: for although i am now quite well, yet still, if i have shortly before been excited about anything, unpleasant dreams are wont to pain me; but they are only dreams; and it seldom happens, so i beg you to pay no attention if i do again talk such strange stuff in my sleep." it was an age, when the study of the talmud afforded almost the only outlet for spiritual activity. it was no uncommon event for a student, especially if he combined an ascetic life with hard study, to unhinge his mind by what is called over-study. it was known too, that mental derangements which had been caused in that way, could be healed by sensible treatment, rest of body and mind, just as gabriel had stated, and the husband and wife themselves knew more than one student, who had been affected just in the same way as their lodger, and like him too had recovered. they had no reason, therefore, for doubting gabriel's open confession, and even the obvious embarrassment, that he had evinced at the quick retort of the good-wife seemed entirely justified by the really unpleasant and affecting confession that had been wrung from him. "poor young man," thus schöndel broke the long pause that intervened and began to be uncomfortable. "thank god,--praised be he therefore!--that he hath helped you, and be right glad. now i too understand, wherefore you took such warm sympathy in the old jacob, and immediately granted his request." "no, that was not the reason," said gabriel earnestly, and reflectively, as if in fact he too participated in schöndel's wonder, and could find within himself no sufficient explanation of his behaviour at that time--"but please, let us leave this subject, and talk of something else.--you were going to tell me, how once on a time." "yes, yes," cried schöndel, glad to be able to give another direction to the conversation; "listen: it must be now more than two hundred years ago,--wenceslaus the _slothful_ was ruler of the country--when it fell out that a knight was inflamed with a hot lust for a jewish maiden. she rejected his shameful proposals with virtuous indignation. cunning and seductive arts were shattered against the maiden's steadfast determination. the knight, therefore, resolved to attain his warmly coveted aim by violence. the day of the feast of the atonement seemed to him the best suited for the accomplishment of his ruthless plan. he knew, that judith--so the maiden was named--would on that day stay at home alone with her blind mother, while all the rest were detained by prayer and devout exercises in the house of god. on the evening of that day--judith was softly praying by the bed-side of her slumbering mother--the door of her chamber opened, and her detested persecutor entered with sparkling eager look. unmoved by the prayers, the tears of judith, he already held her fast embraced in his powerful arms when a lucky chance brought home her brother to enquire after the health of his mother and sister. the terrible unutterable wrath that took possession of him, gave the man, naturally powerful, the strength of a giant. he wrenched his arms from the villain, who had only the women to thank, that he did not by the forfeit of his life pay for the attempted infamy. with kicks and grim mockery the outraged brother expelled the dissolute fellow from the house. the knight given over to the scorn of the people who had assembled in considerable numbers, swore a bloody deadly revenge against the jews. he kept his word--reb gabriel! for god's sake! what is the matter with you?" suddenly the narrator interrupted herself; "are you unwell?" gabriel, who had listened to the housewife, with ever growing attention, was in fact at this moment a sight to look upon, his features had become as pale as ashes and twitched convulsively, his large and glassy eyes were fixed immoveably on one spot, as though he saw a ghost. "what ails you?" cried schlome, shaking his lodger with all his force, "recover yourself." gabriel's lips closed more than once with a quiver, without being able to give forth an intelligible sound; at length he passed his hand across his forehead that was covered with a cold sweat, and said with a powerful effort at self-command, and as if awaking from a dream: "that was in the days of king wenceslaus, was it not? two hundred years ago,--a blind mother--a beautiful daughter--and the day of reconciliation was it?" "thank god, that you are well again, you must have had a sudden giddiness." "yes, yes," said gabriel, faint and enfeebled, "i felt very unwell for a moment, very unwell--but i am better again. go on with your story, dear lady, i pray you, go on with it." complying with his urgent request, schöndel continued: "long ago expelled from the ranks of the nobility on account of his worthless behaviour, the knight had cultivated a connection with some discontented idle burghers of the city, and these he hoped to make the ministers of his cruel vengeance. some short time afterward he put himself at the head of a mob rendered fanatical under frivolous pretexts to murder and plunder in the jews-town. the first, who, frightened out of their peaceful dwellings, went to meet the robbers, were cut down. determined men endeavoured to oppose a monstrously superior force. vain effort. without arms, they saw themselves after an heroic opposition compelled to take refuge in the old new-synagogue already filled with old men, women, and children. mighty blows sounded heavily on the closed doors of the synagogue. 'open and give yourselves up,' yelled the knight from outside. after a short pause of consultation answer was made, that the jews would deliver their property over to the mutineers, would draw up a deed of gift of it, and only keep back for themselves absolute necessaries; they also promised to make no complaint to king or states, in exchange for which, the honour of their wives and daughters was to be preserved, and no one compelled to change his religion. "'it is not your business,' a voice from outside again resounded, 'it is ours to dictate conditions.--do you desire life and not a wretched death, then open and at once abjure your faith. i grant but short delay for reflection; if that fruitlessly elapses, you are one and all given over to death!' "no answer followed. farther resistance could not be thought of, and hope that the king would at length put a stop to this unheard of, unparalleled iniquity, grew every moment less. the battle in the street--if the desperate resistance of a few unarmed men against an armed superior force could be called by that name--had lasted so long; that king wenceslaus might have easily sent assistance; but none came. they were at length constrained to admit, that he did not trouble himself about the fate of the jews. a silence as of death reigned in the synagogue; only here and there a suppressed sobbing, only here and there an infant at the breast, that reminded its mother of her sweetest duty, was heard. once more the voice of the knight thundered rough and wild: 'i demand of you for the last time, whether do you choose: the new faith or death?' there was a momentary silence, then broke a cry of thousands 'death' with a dull sound against the roof of the house that was consecrated to god.--the insurgents now began to demolish the doors with axes and hatchets. but the besieged in their deadly agony lifted up their voice in wonderful accord, and sang in solemn chorus the glorious verse of the psalmist: 'though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will not fear the crafty wiliness of the evil-doer for thou art with me! thou art in all my ways: the firm staff of faith is my confidence!' "the aged rabbi had sunk upon his knees in prayer upon the steps that led up to the tabernacle. 'lord,' he implored, 'i suffer infinite sorrow, yet, oh that we might fall into the hands of the lord, for his mercy is boundless.--only not into the hand of man! ah, we know not what to do; to thee alone we look for succour! call to remembrance thy mercy and gracious favour, that has been ever of old. in anger be mindful of compassion! let thy goodness be showed unto us, as we do put our trust in thee!' "but god at this season did not succour his children, in his unsearchable counsels it was otherwise ordered. the first door was burst open, the mob pressed into the vestibule of god's house, a single frail door separated oppressed and oppressors. "'lord,' cried the rabbi in accents of deepest despair, 'lord, grant that the walls of this house in which we and our fathers with songs of praise have glorified and blessed thy name--that the walls of this temple of god may fall together, and that we may find a grave under its ruins! but let us not fall alive into the hands of the barbarians, let not our wives and maidens become a living prey to the wicked.' 'no,' now exclaimed a powerful voice, 'that shall they not, rabbi!--wives and maidens; do you prefer death at the hand of your fathers, husbands, brothers, death at your own hands to shame and dishonour? would you appear pure and innocent before the throne of the almighty instead of falling living victims into the hands of those blood-thirsty inhuman men outside.--would you? speak, time presses,' and again resounded from a hundred women's lips 'rather death than dishonour!'-- "his lovely blooming wife pressed up close to the side of the man who had thus spoken, her baby at her breast: 'let me be the first, let me receive my death from thy loved hands,' she murmured softly. with the deepest emotion of which a human soul is capable he clapsed her to his breast. 'it must be done quickly,' he said with hollow trembling voice. 'the separation must be speedy, i never thought to part from you thus! lord, most merciful, forgive us, we do it for thy holy name's sake alone! art thou ready?' "'i am,' she said, 'let me only once more, but once more, for the last time kiss my sweet, my innocent child--god bless thee, poor orphan, god suffer thee to find compassion in the eyes of our murderers.... god help thee! we, dear friend, we part but for a short time, thou wilt follow me soon, thou true-hearted!'-- "with the most infinite sorrow that can thrill a human breast, the husband pressed a fervent parting kiss, and a last touch of the hand upon the loved infant that absolutely refused to leave its mother, and the bared and heaving breast.--one stroke of the knife, and a jet of blood sprinkled the child's face and spouted up against the walls of the house of god.--the woman sank, with a cry of 'hear, o israel, the everlasting our god is god alone' and fell lifeless on her knees.-- "all the other women, including judith, followed the heroically courageous example. many died by their own hands, many received the death-stroke from their husbands, fathers, brothers, but all of them without a murmur, silent and resigned to god's will. they had to tear away tender children, who weeping and wringing their hands climbed on to their father's knees, and piteously implored them, not to hurt their mother--it was a scene, horrible and heart-rending, a scene than which the history of the jews, the history of mankind knows none more agonising. it was accomplished! no woman might fall alive into the hands of the persecutors, the last death-sigh was breathed, and the few stout men, who had desired only so long to defend the inner door, stepped backward. a fearful blow, and the door, the last bulwark, fell in, sending clouds of dust whirling over it. the knight, brandished battle-axe in hand, stood on the steps that led up into the house of prayer, his countenance disfigured by wrath, behind him crowded an immeasurable mass of people armed with spits and clubs and iron flails. 'yield your women and children,' he shouted in a voice of thunder, at length betraying his real intention--'and abjure your faith!' "'look at these blood-dripping steaming corpses,' said a man who stood nearest the door, 'they are women and maidens, they have all preferred death to dishonour.--do you think that we men fear death at thy hands and the hands of thy murderous associates? murder me, monster, and be accursed, here and hereafter, in this world and the next, for ever and ever!'--a moment afterwards the bold speaker lay on the ground weltering in his blood. at sight of the countless corpses of the women the beastly rage of the populace, that saw itself cheated of the fairest portion of its booty, mounted to absolute madness. hyenas drunk with blood would have behaved with greater humanity. not a life was spared, and even infants were slaughtered over the bodies of their mothers. blood flowed in streams. one boy alone was later on dragged still living from under the heaps of dead. as they approached the tabernacle, in order to inflict the death-stroke on the rabbi, who knelt on the steps before it, they found him lifeless, his head turned upwards towards the east, a soft smile upon his death-like features. death had anticipated them; his pure soul had exhaled in fervent prayer. "the mob surveyed the work that had been accomplished, and now that the thirst for blood was stilled, shrunk in terror before the bloody horror that had been perpetrated.--the tabernacle remained untouched, the house of god unplundered. discharging oaths and curses at the knight, their ringleader, the wild troop dispersed in apprehensive fright of the divine and human judge. but king wenceslaus left the iniquity, in spite of the most urgent representations of the bohemian nobility, unvisited and unpunished. but from that day his good angel left him. the spirit of those helpless murdered ones seemed continually to hover about his head. his reign became unfortunate. the nobility felt itself deeply injured by this outrage upon justice. a series of interminable disputes sprung up between the nobles and populace, and wenceslaus who went on from one cruelty to another was twice imprisoned by the states, and died at length, probably of the trouble and anxiety cause by a bloody revolt of the hussites that had broken out shortly before his death. to his life's end he never recovered either happiness on confidence.--the knight too, the author of that foul deed, who afterwards marched through the country, burning, robbing and murdering was overtaken by a righteous punishment. the archbishop of prague ten years later, at the time of the second captivity of wenceslaus, hanged him up with fifty other robbers in sight of the city of prague.--his name was forgotten." "you are a wonderful narrator," thus gabriel broke the silence that had lasted for some time, after schöndel had ended her story: "i could listen to you by the hour." indeed he had been especially struck by the impassioned elevation of her language, and the choiceness of her expressions so little in accordance with her position in life. "excuse a question," he began again after a short pause. "i feel myself for the first time really at home, when i am intimately acquainted with those about me. a happy chance led me to your house, a house than which i could not wish or find a better--but you will not be offended with my frankness. i am surprised to find such remarkably easy circumstances in the house of a servant, and still more in you, dear goodwife, such an unusually high degree of cultivation.--perhaps, you will explain this to me." "oh yes," replied the goodman, "but at table, it is late and we will sup." the three took their seats and an old maidservant came in. the goodman said a blessing over a flagon of wine, they washed their hands, and after grace had been said over two cakes of white bread that had up to that moment been covered by a velvet cloth, the maid-servant placed the smoking dishes on the table. the two men set too with a will. "you know, reb gabriel," began schlome, "where two are sitting and the word of god is not between them so may i ask you to impart to me some of the results of your religious researches." "researches," said gabriel slowly, "i will try"--and passing his hands slowly over his forehead, and rubbing his eyes as though he would force back all other thoughts, and conjure up recollections long left in the background, he began a very ingenious dissertation upon the talmud. at first measured and thoughtful as though moving on strange and slippery ground, he became gradually more confident and at home, and expressed himself as he warmed with that oriental vivacity, that gives to these studies a singular attraction. he displayed unusual knowledge. all that he said, was so acutely considered and well-balanced, that he easily repelled the objections that reb schlome here and there attempted to interpose. he, in spite of his ripe knowledge of the talmud and his practised dexterity soon saw the futility of every disputation and listened to the student in almost reverential silence to the end. "that is a glorious dissertation," he said, when gabriel left off speaking, "and our assessor of the college of rabbis, reb. lippman heller will be delighted to have got such a scholar. but you do not often attend his lectures?" "i have as yet had a good deal to arrange after my journey and cannot attend the lecture as often as i could wish; but now, dear sir, as we have already had our discourse on the talmud, tell me, how it happens that you are so prosperous and yet a servant, how it comes to pass that your wife has attained to such a high degree of culture, as one so seldom finds in a jew, especially a woman, on account of the oppression that the jews, in spite of much even if slow progress, have still to endure. explain this to me, unless special reasons impose silence upon you." schlome, who had already enjoyed the thought of proving to his guest that he too had profitably devoted himself to talmudic studies, was obliged to put it off to another opportunity and yield to the earnestly expressed wish of his guest. "i am now much pleased with you, reb gabriel, and as i feel more and more convinced that you are a genuine scholar, a certain feeling of distrust--i may now confess it openly--that sometimes came over me with respect to you, is disappearing, and i am heartily rejoiced at these your frank expressions.--so listen: i am the son of reb carpel sachs--may the memory of the just be blessed.--my father was a very rich and pious man and made the best use of his fortune. the community, whose chief overseer, and the old-synagogue, whose ruler he was, have much to be thankful to him for. i was his only child and was the more precious to my father, as in me the memory of my early lost mother survived to him. his affectionate care for me knew no bounds. i never dared to go out alone, i never dared to leave him even for a moment, and all my tutors were obliged to give me their lessons in his presence. as overseer of the community frequently brought into relation with the leading men of other religions, he saw the necessity of a jew, devoting himself to the assiduous study of universal sciences as well as to more strictly religious studies, that the jewish nation might stand worthily by the side of the whole race of mankind as opposed to the judaic alone. in spite of his many occupations he was often with the worthy löwe, and the partner of his varied studies. i myself very early received instruction in the learned languages and natural science, without on that account at all neglecting the study of our holy scripture. it was on a lovely winter morning, i, a little boy, was sitting by my father in his study reading the bible. the servant announced a man, who urgently desired to see my father, and almost immediately he entered the room carrying a little girl in his arms. i shall never forget the scene, even this day it rises up before me clear and lifelike.--the man was large and strongly built, but deep lines of sorrow and trouble were stamped upon his earnest noble features. the child, that with anxious tenderness he still held in his arms, was a lovely blooming little girl; i need not farther describe her, picture to yourself my goodwife, a girl of three year's old. both were poorly clothed, the stranger wore the dress of a needy wandering pole, the little girl seemed insufficiently protected from the cold by her tattered garments, and her father--for that the stranger apparently was--warmed her tiny frozen hands that were fast entwined round his neck with the breath of his mouth. "'i and my child,' said the stranger, 'arrive from a long and difficult journey. i have come straight to your house, reb carpel, i ask that help from you, that you both can and will afford me. grant me an hour of your time, i must speak with you alone.' these few words of the stranger, and even before they had been spoken, his reverend aspect had obviously, in spite of the meanness of his dress, made a favourable impression upon my father. he rose from his seat, held out his hand to his visitor in sign of welcome, and placed a chair by the stove in which an hospitable fire was burning. my father bid me take the little girl with me to my room, and let the servant give her some supper. schöndel looked at her father, and when he put her down, and told her she might, took hold of my hand with a confiding smile and went with me, i do not know what passed in secret between the two men, but when two hours later my father opened the door of his apartment, i heard him say aloud: 'since you will neither be our counsellor nor assessor, nor klaus rabbi, i consider it a special providence, that just at this very moment the post of upper-attendant in the old-synagogue is vacant, that that exactly meets your wishes, that i can have a decisive word in arranging your appointment. i believe that i am sure of the consent of my associates. i will see besides that that respect, rabbi, which is your due, is paid to you by all the servants and the congregation, with whom in truth you will not be brought into contact. you will be able to live in the manner you wish, unknown, cut off from all society, devoted to your studies. i look upon it as a piece of good fortune, rabbi, that you have granted my request, and consent to initiate my boy in the depths of our holy scripture.' 'i thank thee, reb carpel, but call me not rabbi, call me mosche as....' he saw me and stopped. "i was astounded at the almost reverential behaviour of my father. the first person in the community, he well knew how to keep up his dignity on all occasions, and it could only be a very distinguished individual indeed, who could be gladdened by such treatment. "'schlome, kiss the rabbi's hand, from to-day he will undertake the care of your education,' said my father. i lifted his hand respectfully to my lips and from that time reb mosche seemed to me a being of a superior nature. my father let him immediately into occupation of a house close to the synagogue, the residence of the upper-attendant for the time being, the very rooms in which we are now living, and the next saturday, after a long parley with the other overseers of the synagogue, it was announced to the frequenters of the old-synagogue, that a stranger, for whom reb carpel sachs answered in every respect, had been appointed upper-attendant. here then my step-father lived, here it was that i as little boy came to make my first essay in the study of the talmud, here we closed his wearied eyes. rabbi mosche was a wonderful man, all that, he said and did evinced the profoundest religious feeling. he lived retired from all society and the only visits that he received were from the high rabbi löwe and my father. his expositions were clear and easy to be understood, and my rapt attention, and firm determination to win his approbation came excellently to the aid of my lessons. the man usually so reserved, soon shared his love between his only child, whom he almost idolised, and me. my father too loved with an infinite love the stranger's motherless child. we children clung to one another with extraordinary tenderness, a feeling, that, god be praised and thanked, has never been extinguished in our hearts. when i received nay lessons from her revered father, schöndel would sit by me by the hour and listen, and even when i was occupied by other studies, the dear little maid was my constant companion. to this circumstance and to the remarkable industry and talents of my wife you must ascribe the fact, that in a menial position she surpasses in knowledge and culture many ladies of rank.--in a word, this confined room was even in my free hours the place where i loved best to be, i knew no higher enjoyment than to converse with rabbi mosche. i was often allowed to help him in certain business about the synagogue, and i was the more glad to do so, as it enabled him to decline the assistance of all the inferior servants that were under his orders. what a childish pleasure i took on every thursday evening at the thought of the coming morning! friday, i was always up betimes, no need to wake me--dressed myself and ran down to reb mosche. he was already expecting me, i took his hand and we went together to the adjoining house of god. to this day a perfectly empty temple makes a singular, not easily to be described impression upon me, and when the grating doors opened and our steps echoed loud in the cool and empty space, it seemed to me as though the blissful breath of god's peace was upon me. my teacher first opened his desk in the tribune, then placed candles in the chandeliers, and trimmed the lamp, that ever burneth, with fresh oil, and i was allowed to follow him carrying the flask of oil, candles and everything that he usually wanted. all this was done in the profoundest silence, as if we feared by a word to dispel the stillness that reigned through the building dedicated to god's service. when all was duly arranged i sat me down on the steps that led up to the tabernacle and began to read out of the bible to my teacher the portions of scripture appointed for the week. the earliest frequenters of the synagogue found us ever busy with our studies in the bible. i passed a peaceful and contented youth. the mysterious obscurity that enveloped my second father,--for so had reb mosche become to me--was only calculated to heighten, if possible, the feeling of reverence with which he had inspired me and i dared not even wish to raise this veil that enshrouded him. neither schöndel nor i would for worlds have asked him about his past life, which had of a surety been fruitful of sorrow to him, and even my father, to whom his secret was probably known, preserved the most unbroken silence with respect to it. the mutual relation of the two men was also a singular one. sometimes they addressed one another, as though years and years ago they had known one another as children, and yet my father had never left his native town, while reb mosche on the contrary--schöndel could just remember it as in a dream--had come from a very great way off. i myself with respect to reb mosche adopted that demeanour which the talmud enjoins in the intercourse of scholar and tutor. i fulfilled his smallest wishes, and learned to interpret them from his look; and if i chanced without intending it to vex him by my talk, i was inconsolable and could have wept by the hour. this, however, seldom happened, and i can only recollect one instance of it. as we were reading the psalms we had come to that passage, 'behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!' and i expressed the childish wish, that as well as schöndel whom i regarded as my dear little sister, i had a brother too. 'my son,' replied reb mosche earnestly, 'what god doeth, that is well done! wherefore dost thou desire a brother? brothers do not always love one another, there where love and friendship should prevail, enmity and strife have often mastery. cain slew his brother abel, jacob and esau were brothers, but esau hated jacob. joseph was sold by his brethren, and the brethren of the greatest prophet, even the brethren of moses spoke evil of him.' i gazed in astonishment at the face of my respected teacher, a bitter smile played upon his lips, a tear shone in his mild eye.-- "i will not further weary you with the descriptions of my youth,--which while they fill me with sad remembrances, are probably to you a matter of indifference. my youth slipped away as happily and as untroubled as my childhood. i ripened to manhood, schöndel developed into a most beautiful young woman. our infelt mutual attachment was known to both fathers, and schöndel's two and twentieth birthday was fixed for our betrothal.--eight days before, one saturday afternoon i was sent for to the room of my father, where i found my father-in-law also. 'my son,' he began, with deep emotion, 'i have joyfully consented to your marriage, i have known you from a child, you are infinitely beloved and dear to me, and i can now depart in peace from my own loved child whenever the lord calls me. but i have a request to make to you, and your own worthy father adds his prayers to mine. see, schlome, see, i have early grown grey with trouble and sorrow, i have been unhappy, and to-day i must confess it to you with deepest affliction, have learned to know the iniquity of mankind. we both, thy father and i, are ignorant when god will send his messenger to us.--schlome, do not refuse our request! _remain always attendant in the synagogue_." i was for a moment petrified with astonishment, i had expected anything but this wish; but it was not for me to pry into the reasons of the strange petition. my father fully agreed with him, i had nothing to do but consent.--eight days afterwards was the wedding. the poor of the community had liberal alms, every synagogue, every charitable institution was bountifully remembered, but the marriage-feast was celebrated quietly and without display. when the two fathers came home from the wedding, they fell into one another's arms with expressions of the highest excitement, 'reb. carpel! could you have hoped for this when we separated forty years ago,' asked my father-in-law, 'could we have expected ever to meet again? and yet the gracious lord of all grants us the felicity of uniting our only loved children in the holy bonds of wedlock.' 'now, we may die in peace,' replied my father, with the deepest emotion. "my father seemed to have spoken prophetically. in the first year of our marriage died my never-to-be-forgotten father, shortly afterwards my father-in-law. their souls seemed linked to one another by the bonds of friendship even for the next world, and they rest in adjoining graves. "'my children,' said rabbi mosche, on his deathbed, 'your father, reb. carpel sachs, has left you a store of this world's goods, i am poor, i leave you naught but my blessing, my infinite love. in this sealed packet is the record of my life's history written in the long winter nights for your benefit. only after twenty years may you break the seal, when he that wished to do me evil, is dead, and god will have already forgiven him. that which was dark to you will then become clear. my life was dedicated first to god, next to you, and my boundless love will not expire with my last breath. have god ever before your eyes, what he doeth that he doeth well. this world is but the vestibule of a more beauteous world beyond. murmur not. trust in god! farewell! god bless you. may the eternal one let the light of his countenance shine upon you. may the everlasting turn his face upon you and give you peace for evermore! hear, o israel, the everlasting our god is one god!' that was his last breath, his beautiful soul expired." reb schlome was obliged to stop, the recollection had seized him with overpowering might, his wife too sobbed aloud. "we had suffered two violent blows following quickly one upon the other," he continued after a long pause with more composure. "the unutterable grief that filled us can only be measured by one whose bosom has felt a like affliction, who has stood at the death-bed of a man, as highly prized and dear to him. we felt as if the whole world had escaped our grasp, we both were now so solitary and forsaken." "solitary and forsaken," echoed gabriel in a heart-rending voice that quivered with agony, "solitary and forsaken, and yet ye were two, who hung upon one another with infinite affection." "you too have stood sorrowing, solitary and forsaken, by the bed of a dying father, a dying mother?" asked schöndel with infelt sympathy. "yes, yes," replied gabriel vehemently, almost screaming. "yes, yes, i did once stand by a mother's death-bed, wringing my hands and despairing! oh, a very tender mother, virtuous and tender, she loved me, her only child, with a love that conquered death.--oh, a good, good mother, and i was, indeed, _solitary and forsaken when she died_!" the student spoke these words with wild and passionate bitterness, his large and brilliant eyes rolled restlessly, a pallor as of death, and a purple flush covered in rapid succession his face marred, but once so beautiful. "do not let the recollection obtain such mastery over you," implored schöndel soothingly, "consider: perchance you have still a tender father."-- "a tender father? no--yes.--is it not true, fathers are all tender, more tender than mothers?-- "neither husband or wife had ever known a mother and kept silence." "a father!" repeated gabriel, with an expression of the most poignant despair, and as though he would force back the overflowing tide of his feelings, he pressed his hands violently against his breast; and then after a short pause recovered himself, wiped the sweat, that had collected in heavy drops, from his forehead and said with a visible effort, "excuse me, my friends, but you know, profound sorrow cannot be restrained." "your sorrow must still be fresh," remarked schlome. "oh, a deep heart-wound is never healed. but enough of this, proceed," exclaimed gabriel; "the twenty years have not yet elapsed, and you are still unacquainted with the affecting fortunes of your father-in-law?" "no, it is but nine years since he passed into a more beautiful existence, his life-history still rests unopened in the chest that stands in your room.--we do not even know the name of his family." "strange!" said gabriel; "you too never knew your mother? dear housewife."-- "my father never alluded to his past history," she replied, "my mother must have died in my earliest childhood."-- "well for you!" cried gabriel, and as both gazed at him in astonishment, he continued hurriedly, "well for you, that you cleave to your father with the indissoluble link of love, that he still survives in your memory; may you some day thus survive in the heart of your--but you have no children?" "god has not blessed our union with children," answered schöndel, sadly. "what god doeth, is well done! cling fast to that belief," now interposed schlome, in quiet and earnest accents. "see, i was once sore troubled about it; we, my wife and i, have neither brethren, nor friends--we always lived so retired from all company--and even if we had friends, the love of a child for its parents can be supplied by nothing else, nothing can be weighed in the balance with it.... it made me sad when i thought that if the lord should call me or my wife to himself, one of us must be left behind, desolate and forsaken in bitterest woe.--it made me sad when i thought, that with us would be entombed the memory of my father and father-in-law, that with me the long web would be broken, that humanity was ever destined to weave since the world's creation.--but consoling encouraging thoughts in time germinated in my heart. 'murmur not! this world is but a vestibule of the next,' had my father said, and says not also the prophet? 'oh, let not the childless lament, i am as grass that withereth!--thus saith the lord to them that are childless, they that observe my feast-days, and choose that which pleaseth me and hold fast to my covenant. even unto them will i give in my house and within my walls a place, and a name better than of sons and of daughters. i will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.' i bow to the decree of the allwise, what he doeth is well done--i live happy in the performance of my duties, for the future, one that is above will provide--if, hereafter, my soulless body be lowered by strangers into the vault, my spirit will mount upwards to god!"-- schlome spoke with honest warmth, this was no pleasant self-deception, it was his clear, mature, and veritable intuition. when he had ended, a pause ensued. the oil-lamps began to go out one by one, and schöndel remarked, that grace had not yet been said. a quarter of an hour afterwards gabriel took his leave and retired to his room. here the careful housewife even before the break of the sabbath had lit a well-filled lamp, that still burned clear. gabriel shut the door rapidly and tossing off cloak and cap, cried with gnashing teeth and fists spasmodically clenched, "tear pitilessly at the ever bleeding wounds of my heart, keen was your aim and sure the blow, you could not have rent my raging soul with a pang of greater anguish! did you gaze into the secrets of my breast? is a cain's sign imprinted on my forehead, that every one at his will may read upon it my ignominious past? as this woman with flashing eyes spoke to me of that day of atonement, of that knight, of that jewish maiden and her blind mother--and how they cast him forth with mockery and scorn--did it not seem as if she would have unfolded before me a detested period of my own life? and when she looked at me and asked if i had ever stood solitary and forsaken by the death-bed of a mother? if i had yet a tender father? that was no chance, that cannot have been a chance.--chance can decide battles. chance can let me fall alive into the hands of the imperialists--but that is no chance, that is a presentiment, a dark impulse, an instinct, to hate me, to mortify me. but you are right, i hate you too, with the most unbridled strength of a sore, provoked tiger--revenge, to revenge myself, that is now the only thought that keeps me alive.--i must find the woman, the _woman_, that might have saved me as i hovered on the brink of a bottomless abyss--and that let me be dashed to pieces--i must find her, she cannot escape me--she is here in prague, shut up within the gates of the ghetto! oh, how i gloat upon a sweet revenge--to take sweet and fearful vengeance, and then to perish for ever.--but what if i should die first, if the trumpet summoned me to battle, if i perished on the field,--if the outlaw fell alive into the hands of the imperialists! no, no, that cannot be or--there is in sooth a god." gabriel paced his chamber impetuously--visions of the past filling him with the most torturing recollections, passed over his soul.--to die? he said at length suddenly stopping, "i fear not death, i have looked it in the face motionless and unconcerned in the whirl of battle, but before i die, oh, that i might find him, whom i have sought for ten long years, whom i might, perhaps, even yet embrace in these arms.--thou, whom men call all-mighty and all-merciful," he suddenly cried, opening the window and lifting his gaze to the starry heaven, "thou! give me my father, give me him though it be at my life's last breath--let him rest one moment, and may it be my last, on my breast--and i will acknowledge thee, and i will bend my proud spirit even in death before thee! but where to seek him, where to find him! i am sure of nothing, am sure of nothing but that i hate them all with a nameless hatred, and have good reason to hate them!"-- iii. on saturday gabriel had gone to early prayers with his landlord in the old-synagogue. the service had lasted till near mid-day. reb schlome had then paid a visit to the chief rabbi. at the midday meal, which was shared by two guests, they met again. "how were you pleased with us in the old synagogue?" asked reb schlome. "it is a beautiful building, quiet and order prevails among you. i must express my thanks to you, i know i am only endebted to you for it, that i, a stranger student, was called upon to expound, an honour that this saturday was only conceded to distinguished persons.... i obtained the names of all who were called upon to expound, they were universally men of weight and character, but with regard to the last, who was called upon just before me, no one would or could give me precise information, though all seemed to know him." "i will explain that to you," said schlome; "that man is a member of the well-known family of nadler, a family that, even now i scarcely dare to say so, fifty years ago in spite of their wealth and prosperity was shunned by everyone. people would not associate with them. no one would marry their daughters, no one would converse with them, every one kept away from them in the houses of prayer; they could obtain no tenants; the very poor despised the alms which they would have lavished in abundant measure. you can easily divine the cause,--there rested on the grandfather of this unhappy family the weight of a suspicion which afterwards proved to be groundless, that he was one of those who cannot be received in the congregation of the lord. the family suffered fearfully under this foregone conclusion. it was that great thinker, the high rabbi löw, who first devised a means of once for all dispelling the clouds of obloquy, in that he--it is this very saturday exactly six-and-thirty years ago--in a lecture, with the approval of the ten chief personages of the then community, uttered a solemn curse against all those who should dare any longer to injure the reputation of the family, to speak evil of the dead, or to apply the name of nadler as a contumelious epithet to any one in the jewish community. from that day no one ventured to withdraw himself from intercourse with them, and all the more honour was shown to them that they consumed their wealth for the benefit of the poor and afflicted, lived strictly in accordance with the law, and moreover people wished to make them forget the humiliation and injustice of many a long year. on this account people do not like to talk about them, and avoid everything that might lead to further explanations about this family." gabriel had listened in silence with the deepest sympathy. "see, schöndel," reb schlome suddenly exclaimed, "i notice a very remarkable resemblance between reb gabriel and you, a resemblance, about which i yesterday by lamplight thought that i had been deceiving myself. in the middle of his forehead too a fiery spot is wont at times to gather." "that is strange," said gabriel earnestly and thoughtfully. "not so strange as you believe," struck in one of the guests, "it is a not uncommon appearance i have heard of one of the imperialist officers who has a mark on his forehead, i think two crossed swords--probably your mother, when she carried you under her heart, saw a sudden conflagration, or is it an inherited family-mark; had your father also such a mark on his forehead?" gabriel had listened to the guest attentively, he gave no answer, but the red stripe of flame on his forehead became more conspicuous and clearly marked than before. "i myself," said the other guest by way of confirmation, "some years ago when i studied at the school in mainz, knew a madman, named jacob, and in his case too as soon as he became excited just such another mark made its appearance in the centre of his forehead; probably the concurring circumstances were the same with each of you." "moreover," added the guest, after a short consideration, "i fancy that i have seen that same madman in this very place." "you are not mistaken," said schöndel, "the mad jacob is here in prague, and our lodger reb gabriel can if he likes give us some news about him, for he has taken a great fancy to him, and often passes whole days with him without coming home or visiting the lecture-rooms." it seemed for an instant as if gabriel would have contradicted the goodwife, but he quickly recovered his self-possession and remained silent--at that moment the old maid-servant entered and announced a boy who was enquiring after herr gabriel mar, and was urgently desirous of speaking to him. "excuse me," he said, rising quickly, "i must let the boy come to my room and hear what he has to say." the boy must in fact have brought some important news, for reb gabriel did not return to table and sent his excuses by the old maid-servant--a soldier has arrived here from his country, such was the old hannah's story, and he is breathlessly hurrying to hear, how it fares with all at home--the good student. the two guests did not seem to share the old maid's favourable opinion. "a strange student that," opined one of them, "sits at table and speaks no word of his talmudic investigations, gets up and does not pray, goes away and kisses no scroll." reb schlome felt that his wife was right the other evening when she said, that gabriel was less devout than other students, but he allowed this with reluctance, for gabriel's rich stores of talmudic science had won his estimation and good will. he requested, therefore, one of the two students to let them have a talmudic discourse, and after this had been complied with recited the prayer after meat. * * * gabriel had scarcely waited till the door of his room was shut to speak with the boy alone. "what do you bring me, john," he asked hastily. "gracious sir," answered the boy, "my relative begs respectfully to announce, that ensign herr smil von michalowitz is just arrived from pilsen with a message to your honour, and waits in your house." "good boy, run on, i will follow immediately."--gabriel hastily donned cloak and cap and went out--although the house which he was leaving was situated by the old-synagogue and, therefore, outside of the ghetto-gate, he was obliged to pass through the ghetto in order to reach the plattnergasse by the nearest route. he stopped at the back of a house. he knocked twice at a closed door; this was quickly opened, and he hurried up a back-staircase to a room, on the walls of which, sabres, travelling-pistols and other arms were hanging, crossed in varied confusion one upon the other. he threw off cloak and cap, girded a dagger about his loins, without lingering over the choice enveloped himself in a knight's mantle and stepped through a door in the tapestry into a large adjoining room. here he was already expected. a slightly made young man in the embroidered uniform of one of mannsfield's cavalry-officers was pacing impatiently up and down.-- "welcome to prague, herr von michalowitz," said gabriel in a friendly way, "do you bring me good news from mannsfield?" "i wish i brought better, your grace," answered the officer with a bow. "first of all, however, i have the honour to deliver the autograph despatch of the general-fieldmarshal, i partly know its contents and am commissioned to give your grace all further necessary explanations." gabriel hastily unsealed the despatch and cast a glance over its contents. "our troops have still no pay," he cried, stamping his foot angrily, while the fiery mark on his forehead kindled to a deep red--"still nothing? and they promised me everything, money, munitions, forage, reinforcements. it's enough to drive a man mad! you would scarcely believe, herr von michalowitz, what a difficult position i am in here! nothing can be done with this frederick.--the bohemians could not have elected a worse king.--he listens to his preachers, goes out hunting, gives banquets and tournaments--of emperor and league he takes no heed.--his generals are in constant feud with one another and only agree when it is a question of putting a slight upon or deposing thurn and mannsfield.--these gentlemen let me sue for reinforcements and plans of operation, as if they were things that concerned my own private advantage, as if i was asking an alms for myself. believe me, frederick must succumb. who does he oppose to these experienced skilful generals? an anhalt against a tilly, an hohenlohe against a boucquoi. the bohemians are brave soldiers, but they are badly led. i can speak openly to you, sir ensign, who have been the constant confidant of our plans.--there is only one conceivable way for frederick to get the upper-hand--anhalt and hohenlohe must be dismissed, and matthias thurn take the command." "it is indeed melancholy," answered the ensign bitterly, "that all our most energetic and best-laid efforts are so badly supported at prague. this anhalt gives up one strong position after another, and if things go on so, it is to be feared that archduke maximilian will drive the prince in under the walls of prague, and force him to accept a battle,--unless he has been entirely won over by the imperialists--and a battle lost before the gates of prague...." "would still not be decisive," interposed gabriel. "i am well acquainted with prague, it is strongly situated, and could hold out a long time.--i suppose you know the capital city of your native country? the citizens are brave, well-trained in arms, and in the old and new quarter at least devoted to the king's party.--frederick's power is still great, mannsfield man[oe]uvres in the enemy's rear; fresh troops are on the march from hungary.... sir ensign, say to my friend mannsfield, that a battle lost before the gates of prague would not put an end to the war;--but that anhalt must not remain at the head of the army. so long as he commands in-chief, everything is at stake ... and to think that two such losers-of-armies as anhalt and hohenlohe should command thirty thousand men, while the hero mannsfield, alone, forsaken by the union and the weak frederick for whom he is fighting, without support, without money, in an unknown country, surrounded by secret and open enemies, makes head with a small force against one three times his superior.--how does he bear the hard blows of fickle fortune?" "with his usual calm, with unshakeable equanimity. oh, there is but one mannsfield, sir major-general, in such a hero alone do martial fame, and martial deeds attain so high a point. it is an event unparalleled in the annals of history, that a count, first legitimized by the emperor rudolph, should defy the emperor and whole empire--should defy, without money, land, or support, under a ban, solitary, by the force of his sword and name alone.--what are all of us in mannsfield's camp? are we the troops of the union, which concluded on the d of july an ignominious peace with the league? are we the mercenaries of this count palatine, who placed the crown of our fatherland upon his head for a merry pastime? by god and my knightly honour, no! what are we? we are nothing but mannsfield's children, all of us, from the meanest artillery-driver up to you. sir major-general! we all cleave to him with faith as firm as a rock, we follow his standard alone, his call alone. we offer our lives for mannsfield, his is our sword, our blood, our honour, our name, our oath; for well we know that he leads us on to naught but victory or an honourable soldier's death." "you are very right. sir ensign," replied the general much moved, "he is to all of us a father, brother, friend! what should i have been if i had not fallen in with mannsfield? sir ensign, you have a country, you have a coat of arms, you have a name--i had none of all this, i had nothing but my arm, and a revengeful, torn and bleeding heart!"-- "yes, sir major-general, mannsfield loves the bold, and brave, and among them are you numbered, by god, you have given good proof of that a thousand times! name, rank and belief are indifferent to him; mannsfield asks no questions whether a man is a reformer, utraquist or lutheran, whether gentleman or knight, burgher or peasant, german or bohemian? consider, your grace, that too forces me to admire mannsfield.... has not this frederick estranged the hearts of all bohemians from him, in that he has by the advice of his sternly calvinistical intolerant chaplain abraham schulz bitterly offended catholics, utraquists and lutherans? i am a man of war and no scholar, i am a mere soldier, and have paid little attention to theology, but yet i hold that in this world, everyone should be allowed to believe what he likes, that is an affair to be settled by his own conscience; but no one should be permitted to be a hindrance and stumbling block to another, and throw ridicule upon that which is an object of respect and dear to his neighbour.... why did we violently revolt from the illustrious house of austria, under which we were great and powerful? because we wished to be free to choose our faith, and now steps in this frederick, whom we ourselves elected, whom we aggrandized, and we are no better off! your grace! you are no bohemian and cannot comprehend, what a painful day the d of september in last year is to me, on which thirty-six lords, ninety-one knights and almost all the municipalities permitted themselves to be befooled by the brilliant eloquence of wilhelm raupowa and elected this incapable frederick.--i too, as well as my uncle, the royal burgrave, were among the voters." the general was silent. memories slumbered in his soul like sparks in a tinder; the lightest breath might kindle them to a clear blaze. the ensign misinterpreted the silence. he had said much, that might have made an unpleasant impression upon the general. he was of low origin, no bohemian, perhaps a co-religionist of the palatine. "your grace," he therefore again began in an embarrassed way, after a short pause, "have i, perhaps, offended you? are you, perchance, one of those, who busy themselves with religious studies, and learned ecclesiastical disputations? are you, sir major-general, may i venture to ask, yourself a calvinist? it's all the same to me, general, i should respect your high rank, your gallantry even if, you will excuse the joke, even if you were a jew or a heathen...." pictures out of a time that had long vanished again passed over gabriel's soul, his spirit was again fast fixed on some moment of the distant past. "i busy myself no longer with religious studies," he answered, absently--"but at one time, at one time it was my highest enjoyment; but then i was still a j...." he did not finish, he seemed to awake suddenly from a heavy dream, a deep flush suffused his face, he stroked the hair off his high forehead, in the centre of which glowed the purple mark and added hastily in a changed voice: "then i was still young, very young--but now i think no more of it--and mannsfield's faith is mine too." the way in which the general spoke, the singular expression of his face, was not calculated to set at rest the ensign's fears. "your grace!" he went on, "you yourself said in my presence that you had no name, when you took service in mannsfield's corps, and yet now you are the mannsfieldian general otto bitter, known and feared far and wide. it may be that, you have no genealogy, no past; but you have a future; with the point of your sword you inscribe your name on the brazen tablets of history." "no, no," the general now impetuously continued, "no, not so. herr von michalowitz, believe me, i am not superstitious, not even a believer--i believe in actually nothing--do you hear! in actually nothing, but mannsfield and mine own good sword.--i am not weak, i would not yield to any presentiment, but one presentiment does haunt me with all the strength of truth, as clear, as life-like as if i saw it with my own bodily eyes, _my name will not live in history_.... mannsfield, thurn, boucquoi, tilly, waldstein, all the heroes that fight with us or against us, have lived for eternity, but my name will perish, will leave no trace behind it...." the general paced the room many times and with his hand put back the dark locks from his high forehead, then stopped before the ensign--"i sometimes become very excited, herr von michalowitz," he said, "and say much that would be better unsaid--therefore i pray you forget what i have spoken...." the ensign bowed in silence. the general threw himself into an arm-chair, motioned the ensign also to a seat, and after a short pause took up mannsfield's letter again. "you have captured another wandering jew? you thought he was a spy, or messenger of the imperialists, he carried letters in cipher with him?" asked the general, interrupting his reading. "yes, your grace, the prisoner declares, improbably enough, the writings were hebrew extracts from the bible and letters to his wife.--the field-marshal sends the writings to you probably in the intention that you may prove their contents here in prague with the assistance of some rabbi, or clergyman learned in the scripture." the ensign with these words laid a sealed packet on the table. "we should almost prefer that he was guilty, in pilsen, which is imperialist in feeling, we are quite surrounded by spies, we cannot any longer tell who to trust: an example of severity must be made." the general involuntarily seized the packet, to unseal it, but quickly laid it aside, as if remembering himself, and read on. "sir ensign, i must up to the castle," he said, when he had finished and maturely considered the despatch. "nothing can be done with anhalt and hohenlohe--i must up, and once more speak with the king himself--to-morrow early you shall have the answer for mannsfield." "if your grace will permit me i will accompany you to the castle." the general rang the bell, a servant, who entered, was ordered to make the necessary preparation, and shortly afterwards the large principal entrance of the house, that led into the marienplatz, was thrown open, and the general and ensign rode out of it in the direction of the 'kleinseite.' at a proper distance followed two mounted attendants armed with pistols and sabres.-- * * * in king frederick's anteroom three persons were waiting for an audience. they stood in the recess of a lofty bow-window, and were talking in a low voice but with much animation to one another. "yes, gentlemen," began john de bubna, a man of some fifty years old, "yes, it is all raupowa's fault. your father--" he turned to the young count schlick--"the noble count joachim who voted for the elector of saxony was quite right--but the past is irreparable, and now we must defend ourselves to the last extremity. our faith, our freedom, are at stake, is it not so, thurn?" the person thus addressed, count henry mathias of thurn was also of about the age of fifty. dark eyes with all the fire of youth flashed from his bronzed countenance, as if to give the lie to the thick grey hair; the noble lineaments of his spiritual and thoughtful face showed at the first glance, that a hero's soul dwelt in this powerful and compact frame. he was indisputately the chief leader of his party, an able commander, and the originator of the revolt against the emperor. it was he who brought about the well-known catastrophe of the d of may , when the two imperial stadtholders, slawata and martinitz, were thrown out of window into the court-yard, and supposing it is in the power of a single person, if not to evoke, at any rate to further a crisis on which the future history of the world may depend, count matthias thurn was certainly one of those, who fanned the flames of this outbreak into that wild conflagration which devastated germany and central-europe for thirty years. he was by birth an italian, but held rich possessions in bohemia. a brave soldier, a practised courtier, a subtle diplomatist and excellent speaker, he had won the affections of the nobles, the army, and whole people, and the nation committed to him the weighty and influential place of a defender, or guardian of the faith. deprived by the emperor of his office, as burgrave of carlstein, he had later on assumed with mannsfield the joint command of the bohemian troops. frederick, however, soon after his coronation, to the deep vexation of the bohemian army, transferred the command to prince christian of anhalt and count george of hohenlohe. count thurn seemed to express his views unwillingly. "yes, gentlemen, you know i was never the last in the field, i gladly combat for bohemia. perhaps a time will again come when i may fight for the cause--but in the meanwhile...." "your grace then is absolutely determined not to accept a command so long as the prince commands in-chief?" asked henry schlick hastily. "he is right," opined john bubna; "it was a stupid course of the king, to take the command from our thurn." "it is not that," continued thurn, "at least not that alone; but the war is badly conducted. what did i and young anhalt, who is far superior to his father in gallantry, and in spite of his youth in military science too, what did we insist upon in the council of war at rokizan; that we should fall with our whole force upon an enemy wearied out with painful marching. even hohenlohe, who is usually very reluctant to embrace a bold project, shared our opinion--there could not be a doubt, we must have gained a victory--then up gets prince anhalt and proved to the king in a long speech--but, i cannot bear to think of it, how my splendid plan of operations was frustrated, how instead of fighting they allowed themselves to become involved in a disgraceful treaty, how we, i may say, fled to unhoscht without striking a blow, or if it sounds better, drew back in good order; for the slight affair at rakoniz, where, moreover, we lost von dohna and graz, cannot be counted anything." "but the rencounter at rakoniz," observed henry schlick, "remained, as i have heard, undecided. the imperialists too lost both their field-marshals fugger and aguaviva; and their general-in-chief boucquoi was so severely wounded as to have been since incapable of bearing a campaign." "sir count," replied thurn moodily, "you do not know boucquoi, he is a worthy antagonist of the very bravest. if it comes to a battle, he will be carried though in a dying state to the field. god grant, that we may not shortly see him before the gates of prague. at unhoscht," resumed thurn, "my patience was exhausted, and when the king, at anhalt's urgent request went to prague, i offered to accompany him. i am glad to be here and--" thurn was interrupted, for the door of the antechamber opened, and gabriel, or mannsfield's major-general otto bitter entered. "ah, welcome friend," cried john bubna, held out his hand to him and led him up to the two others. "do not be put out, count thurn, i answer for my friend bitter, go on with what you were saying." "i am acquainted with the major-general," said thurn, while bitter made a low obeisance.--"my friend's friend is my friend too."--then thurn himself with obliging civility presented the young men to one another, "count henry schlick, son of our supreme judge and director, the lord joachim andrew schlick, count of passau and ellbogen, a brave captain--sir otto bitter, major-general in mannsfield's army and his right hand man."-- "the name of schlick," said otto bitter politely, "has a genuine ring about it, and you, sir captain, as i have been assured on all sides, are worthy of bearing so celebrated a name." henry schlick wished to respond to the general's courteous address, but matthias thurn turned to him and asked what brought him to prague. "i make no secret of my mission," he answered, "i am come to prague under instructions from the field-marshal to demand the pay of our troops, which is now nearly six months in arrear, and to remind them of the promised reinforcements; i propose to stay here just long enough to urge upon the king and his generals some decisive step which our mannsfield will support with all his might; but the king is too busy with his festivities, and field-marshal prince anhalt, has, at least for me, no time unoccupied." "hush!" said bubna, "lupus in fabula, he comes just in...." the conversation, though it had been carried on in an undertone, was instantly dropped. the double doors of the antechamber were thrown hastily and noisily open, and prince christian of anhalt, commander-in-chief of the royal army and stadtholder of prague, stepped haughtily with a proud look into the anteroom. all present, with the exception of thurn made a low bow. anhalt recognised it with a careless nod of the head, and prepared as usual to enter unannounced into the royal apartment. otto bitter, however, advanced hastily and said: "i am fortunate in meeting your highness here. i am just arrived from general-field-marshal the count of mannsfield...." "you have come from count mannsfield?" repeated the prince with a sharp emphasis. "why does not he make his applications immediately to the commander-in-chief, as every commander of a corps d'armée should do. what is the use of a mediator and go-between? besides, time and place are very badly chosen for your representations, this is the king's anteroom, and i am on my way to an audience"--so saying, anhalt, without allowing the general time to reply, passed into the king's audience-chamber. bitter returned to the other lords; his features were disfigured by rage, and the fiery sign burnt red upon his forehead. all were unpleasantly affected by this behaviour. "such is the manner of princes," henry schlick tried to make a conciliatory excuse; "he is imperious and hates opposition, do not be so put out by it, sir major-general." "no! to receive an officer of such high desert in such a way," exclaimed bubna clashing his scabbard upon the floor; "and when he was speaking of mannsfield!..." "these men of the palatinate have always free access to the king," observed thurn, and out of his eyes flashed, as it were, a consuming lightning--"and as for us, they let us wait." andrew of habernfeld, frederick's favorite, in full gala-costume, opened at the very moment the door of the king's apartment; he might probably have heard this last observation of thurn's, spoken in a loud voice. "can audience be obtained of his majesty," asked thurn drawing himself up proudly, "i mean, by us...." "the king cannot be aware, that so many gentlemen of the highest dignity wish to speak with him, or else he had surely before this summoned you before him. i will immediately inform him of your presence." "bubna, schlick, and i, have been announced long since and been kept waiting in vain up to this time," replied thurn stiffly, "major-general bitter is also apparently as desirous as we are of an interview with the king.--meantime it can do no harm if you once more remind him of our presence." habernfeld looked very much disconcerted and instantly disappeared. shortly afterwards he returned breathless. "his majesty," he announced, "implores the noble lords to spare him all government-business at present. the king celebrates today the anniversary of his arrival in prague, and invites the lords to betake themselves to the banquet in the hall of spain." "a banquet?" replied thurn almost sadly, and the veins on his noble forehead swelled high; "i am sorry not to be able to accept the gracious invitation, i am not in a humour for banqueting, my thoughts would be ever occupied with the victorious irresistible advance of the imperialists, and my gloomy face would but mar the festal joy, give this answer to the king, i pray you, do so, herr von habernfeld.... that he may graciously excuse my absence...." with these words thurn threw his cloak over his shoulder, and would have departed. "your grace," cried schlick, seizing thurn by the arm, "on every account, pause. he is our lord and king--our self-elected lord and king, he will take it in very bad part." "my young friend," whispered thurn in schlick's ear--"spare me the hated sight of anhalt carousing by the side of king, while our brave army is offering itself a vain sacrifice. meat and drink would become poison and gall to me.--you know, i am not easily induced to change a determination that i have once made, therefore, i pray you, sir count, leave me." "i will at least present your humble excuses to the king's majesty," answered schlick aloud; "i pray you, herr von habernfeld, forget, what the count may have said in a moment of excitement, he is a warm patriot, a staunch bohemian, but still the southern blood of italy flows in his veins." thurn went away, the three gentlemen followed habernfeld to the banqueting-hall. twilight had in the meanwhile come on. the broad and spacious room was illuminated, fairy-like, with a thousand waxen torches. the rich sea of light broke into countless points of brilliancy upon the lofty mirrors. a sumptuous circle of ladies and gentlemen, mostly from the palatinate and germany, passed with merry laughter through the gorgeously ornamented apartment. no one seemed to think of the war--to judge from the attitude of those who were present no one could have had a presentiment that in eight days all this splendor would have disappeared. at the upper end of the hall was a throne-like elevation, where king frederick and his spouse sat on two crimson and gold-embroidered chairs of state. they were a wonderful pair. frederick was then in his twenty-fifth year. fair waving locks, mild blue eyes, and soft rosy cheeks, gave to his features, an air of weakness, almost effeminacy--and yet the carefully arranged blond mustachio and whiskers became him wonderfully. the costume of the period was especially adapted to set off the advantages of his person in the best light. he was entirely dressed in a suit of dark violet coloured velvet. the close fitting doublet was richly embroidered with gold, the slashed armlets lined with white were ornamented with point-lace. over a white lace collar hung a gold medallion attached by a red ribbon. the trowsers, cut short at the knee, were there adorned with gold brocade and point-lace. in his left hand he held a black cap with red and white feathers. queen elisabeth was somewhat smaller than frederick. she was a perfect beauty. her face bore the stamp of her english origin. abundant fair golden hair, into which a diadem had been woven by a blue ribbon, cheeks suffused with the most delicate pink, lovely soft blue eyes, gave to the queen at first sight a remarkable resemblance to her husband. she wore a dress of pale green satin. this, low bodied and close fitting, brought out the wonderful fulness of her contour. the string of pearls, that hung round her neck, seemed to flow without any perceptible division into the snowy whiteness of her bosom.--both, frederick and his consort, wore satin shoes with large silk bows, and their feet rested upon a crimson cushion.--they gazed cheerfully and good-naturedly at the varied throng. musicians occupied the gallery and at a sign from habernfeld, on the entrance of the three officers, struck up a clamorous flourish of trumpets, and then played lively tunes. the three officers in their simple uniform made a striking contrast to the rest of the company. henry schlick as fine a courtier, as a brave soldier, soon made himself at home among a group of ladies, but bubna and bitter felt strange amid the loud hubbub of the assembled guests, and stared silently and gloomily straight before them. immediately on their arrival habernfeld had led all three of them up to the place where the king was sitting and schlick had excused the absence of count thurn on the score of urgent business that could not be postponed. general bitter dared not venture on this occasion to announce the aim of his mission to prague, but was fully determined in the course of the evening to submit his business to the king. an opportunity soon offered. the king and queen rose from their seats in order to make a tour of the room, and those who were present--for frederick popular and condescending was fond of saying a word to each--ranged themselves in two long rows. the king, whom the prince of anhalt followed at a short distance, began to move down the line of gentlemen, while the queen turned to that of the ladies. everyone to whom the king addressed an observation made a low obeisance. he spoke to everybody, and had a friendly or flattering word for each. bitter and bubna had remained standing together and waited in respectful silence for frederick's address. as he approached general bitter, anhalt whispered something in the king's ear. "general bitter, from mannsfield's camp, is it not so?" asked frederick, while a shade of vexation flitted over his face--"i am pleased to see you in prague; but you have been some weeks here. i am surprised that they can do so long without you in mannsfield's camp...." bubna bit his lips till the blood started; and bitter answered undismayed but calmly: "since your royal majesty is so gracious as to enquire the grounds of my long residence in prague, i must most humbly take leave to mention the affairs, that i have already once before had the honour of most obediently laying before your royal majesty...." "no business, no business," said frederick, so loud that the bystanders could hear it, "i will for once in my life be joyous and not always thinking of governing and commanding. for the rest," he continued with excitement, "complaints are abroad; that mannsfield places the district round about pilsen under contribution as if he were in an enemy's country, and oppresses my own people: a stop must be put to this." "if your majesty will only listen to me for a moment," said bitter hastily. "mannsfield's corps d'armée is made up mainly of foreigners; bound by no oath to the crown of bohemia they fight only so long as they receive pay. the pay is six months in arrear, the famished soldier, who has not a whole coat to his body, resembles rather a ragged robber than a man-at-arms, and if mannsfield were not the adored hero of our camp, the whole corps would long ago have freed itself from the bands of discipline.--we are also surrounded by enemies, for pilsen and the circumjacent districts are imperialist in their sympathies, and the storming of pilsen cost us many a bloody battle and many a skirmish.--the peasants, who should deliver corn and forage, and have up to this time been vainly paid by assignments upon the money that was to come from prague, are difficult to deal with, and stand up in arms against us in large masses. all the necessaries of life have to be violently procured, sword in hand, out of a hostile and almost exhausted circle.--your majesty in your high wisdom cannot really expect that mannsfield could obtain food for four thousand men and one thousand five hundred horses empty handed. as soon as your majesty shall have graciously condescended to give orders to your commander-in-chief and paymaster, to pay over to us the sum that is due, there will be an end of all violence, and compensation will be made to those who have been aggrieved. to lay this and one other petition before your royal majesty am i come to prague, and as i have not yet been so fortunate as to see the object of my visit crowned with success, i was to my sorrow obliged to determine to remain absent for a time from the army, though every officer, every commander, should stay with his troops." anhalt grew pale with anger. frederick was silent for a moment; the frank unconstrained speech of mannsfield's officer had surprised and for a moment disturbed his composure. "you speak very openly and unconstrainedly, sir general,--i love frankness in a soldier, but you should never transgress the bounds of due respect. i will talk over and consider what you have said to me with my commander-in-chief.--when you return to mannsfield's camp, do not report to the troops the manner in which you have addressed me--it might injure respect." frederick pronounced these words with a sad smile in an undertone, almost in a whisper inaudible to the rest.--he went no farther down the line, the joy of the evening was troubled, the king and queen soon went away, and bubna and bitter were the first to follow their example. "pest upon the palatine," cried bubna furiously, as both together rode down the spornergasse. "but you stood up stoutly, bitter: answered word for word and bravely urged your suit. that frederick stood before thee trembling like a school-boy! _he_ talk of oppression and forced contributions, and leaves his own brave troops to perish of hunger!--i cannot find fault with thurn for having broken quite loose from this luxurious court, and shall wait till he returns again to the helm.--god be merciful to our poor country!" before bubna's house the two generals took leave of one another, and bitter alone, followed by his two mounted servants, galloped over the bridge to the altstadt. as he arrived at the marienplatz, the clapper of the clock in the tower struck twenty one, equivalent to nine o'clock in the evening.--the owner of the house was waiting for him at the great gate, an armourer, who in times past had served under him as sergeant-major. "it is already late," whispered bitter to him, as he rode in, "open the back-door directly, i must be quick."--shortly thereupon otto bitter stepped out of the back-door that led into the plattnergasse; he wore again the dress of a student and hurried quickly to the jews-quarter. the proprietor of the house, a man with a wooden leg, closed the door carefully and grumbled as he went across the court: "my general is brave, second to none as a warrior, but this passion is rather despicable for a great lord, now if it were a count's daughter or a lady of rank: but a jewish wench! i cannot understand it." gabriel struck into the shortest way to his dwelling by the old-synagogue, he found the gate of the ghetto still open and passed through the gate in the street called "golden" into it.--he had walked a short distance sunk in deep thought, when suddenly some words struck his ear: "i thank you, dear lady, i cannot accept your company, it is here, i think, quite safe in the streets and i shall soon be at home." the melodious ringing tone of this voice made an extraordinary impression upon gabriel. a violent terror for a moment thrilled through him. the strong colossal man was obliged to lean against a wall in order to save himself from falling, his breast heaved with mighty respirations, it seemed as if he did not dare to look about him, as if he was afraid that the form to which that voice belonged would melt before his eyes into nothing. but at the next moment a woman passed quickly by him, and the moon, gliding at that moment from behind a cloud, threw its pale trembling light upon a face that was, as it chanced, but half concealed by a floating veil. he could recognise the features, his ear had not deceived him.--"found," he cried almost aloud after a pause of speechless rapture; "gabriel! thou hast drained the cup of sorrow to the dregs! but thy revenge will be sweet, will be fearful!" ... then he followed, unobserved, with hasty step, the woman's form. she stopped for the first time breathless at the hahnpass before an apparently quite uninhabited dilapidated three-storied house. she opened the house-door with a key that she drew out of a pocket in her dress, and shortly afterwards gabriel saw a ray of light shooting from a garret-window. gabriel wiped the perspiration from his forehead, rubbed his eyes, looked about him, laid his hands upon the cold walls of the house in order to convince himself that it was no dream, that filled him with lying phantoms, that this moment had really and truly an actual existence. he might have stood there for some few minutes when again the clear accents of a woman's voice pierced his ear.--"why do you stand dreaming there, reb gabriel?" gabriel awoke as from a heavy sleep; a group of women stood before him, among them, his hostess schöndel. "why do you stand in the street like this, what are you waiting for? why have you been neither home nor to service in the old-synagogue since mid-day?" gabriel recovered himself quickly; he found himself in the neighbourhood of jacob's house; he had frequently excused his staying away so long from schlome's house on the plea of his visits to the lunatic; he, unsociable as he was, never conversed with anyone, and gabriel could feel sure that he would not be betrayed by him at any rate. "cannot you see," he said, "i have just come from the poor lunatic, who enlists my sympathies in the highest degree. one should visit those who are afflicted with spiritual infirmities, as well as those who suffer bodily ailment, and, perhaps, to do so is a more excellent work of charity." "we too return from doing a good action," replied schöndel; "i belong to the society of 'devout women.' we have been praying at the death-bed of a departing sister, have closed the eyes of a poor forsaken old woman.--it is sad to die solitary and forsaken."--schöndel dried her beautiful eyes, which were wet with emotion. "we must make haste," said a woman, a neighbour of schöndels', "or the gate will be shut, we are the only people who live outside...." "reb gabriel, if you are going home too, give us your company," said schöndel. gabriel walked silently and rapt in meditation by the side of the two women, while they, full of the recollection of the sad duty which they had just performed, did not attempt to resume the conversation. arrived at home schöndel told her husband, how she had found gabriel at the door of the lunatic's house, with whom he had spent the afternoon and evening.--gabriel threw himself, as soon as he reached his room, in a more than feverish state of excitement into a chair. the manifold events of the day all disappeared before the extraordinary impression that the discovery of that woman had made upon him.--he staid awake the whole night, pacing the room backwards and forwards and only towards morning could make up his mind to write the report which ensign michalowitz was to carry back to count mannsfield. iv. in the garret of a usually uninhabited dilapidated three-storied house in the hahnpass a woman was sitting at a rickety table and embroidering by the light of an oil-lamp a curtain for the holy tabernacle. it was already late; a rude wind howled through the walls of the poor dwelling, a corner house, far over-topping all the others. all was dark in the vicinity, only the windows of the distant lecture-room which was visited by a succession of students emitted a dull light. the woman, though no longer in the first bloom of youth, presented a perfect picture of the most faultless oriental beauty. she might have numbered six or eight and twenty years. her wonderfully well-formed face, pale as a lily, but suffused from time to time with the softest roseate flush, contrasted superbly with the shining black hair, the rich waving curls of which issued from under a turban-like head-dress and fell in waves on her snowy neck. her eyes were brighter and blacker than coal, her eyelids fringed with long silky lashes, and her half-opened fresh lips disclosed two rows of pearly teeth.--she worked assiduously, only interrupting herself now and then to go to the open door of a second chamber and listen to the breathing of her sleeping mother--or when she lent with an expression of the deepest motherly love over a cradle, in which a baby, the perfect image of its mother was sleeping quietly. "blume, my child," now cried the mother from the adjacent room, "are you still up? go to bed, spare your eyes, i pray you do so.--when a person has lived as i have done for more than fifteen years in darkness, she learns for the first time to set a right value on eyesight, take my advice, child, go to bed!" "only go thou to sleep, dear mother," answered blume in a loud voice, almost screaming, and leaving off her work for a few moments. "it is not so late as you think, it wants two hours yet to midnight." "if only your husband would return from his journey," sighed the mother, "he would surely bring money with him, and you would no longer consider it necessary to make a sacrifice of your sweet precious sight.--lord of the world! that a rottenberg should be reduced to travel over the country as a scribe in order to earn a livelihood, that my daughter, my graceful blume, must work at embroidery to save herself from beggary, that grieves me--but lord, thou art just, and what thou doest, is well done, i do not murmur! i only make my supplication before thee out of the profoundest depths of my heart, not for myself, not for myself, who am tottering on the verge of the grave, but for my children--have mercy upon them!" "sleep, dear mother, sleep," cried blume, and large tears fell like pearls over her cheeks, "all will come right, believe me, god never forsakes his own." blume shut the door. "yes, if only my husband were at home again," said she then, with a shiver; "sometimes i become so sad when i am alone with my mother and child, alone, forsaken, in a strange and unknown city! and my husband wanders over the country to earn bread; god preserve him." she folded her hands almost involuntarily and began the evening prayer with fervent devotion. the little slumberer in the cradle awoke and cried after its mother. without interrupting her prayer she suckled it.--she was just saying the words, "may the everlasting bless and guard thee! may he let the light of his countenance shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee, may the everlasting turn his face to thee and give thee peace for evermore," as she pressed the child to her bosom, and falling tears bedewed the babe's lovely face.--suddenly it seemed to her as if the house-door was opened--could it be her husband returned from his journey? that was inconceivable--a man's step sounded upon the contiguous staircase, she heard a noise, as if some one was groping for the latch and could not find it.... who could be seeking the stranger and friendless woman? a nameless pang for a moment seized her heart,--she was at the conclusion of the evening prayer, and the last words of the same filled her again with the confidence of faith, she said them, perhaps unconsciously, aloud, "into thy hands i commend my spirit, sleeping or waking, my soul and body.... god is with me, therefore, i cannot fear!" she kept her eyes fixed fast upon the entrance. as a weak wooden bolt fastened the door on the inside, she expected, that the comer would first knock; but it happened otherwise, and a single push from a strong hand made the door come open. "gabriel," cried blume, the colour forsaking her lips, with a suppressed cry of the most hopeless despair; she tore the child from her breast, which she hurriedly covered, pressed it tight in her arms, and got up as though she feared that gabriel would tear it away from her. he stood speechless and as one rooted to the ground before her--his whole body trembled, a strange and wonderful quivering passed over his pale corpse-like face, his eyes flashed lightning, the fiery mark on his forehead glowed, his broad breast rose and sank stormily, an unchained passion seemed to rage within him--for some moments he vainly strove to speak. "i am he," he said at length in a hollow voice, and each word sounded in the ear of the terrified woman like the roar of thunder; "i am gabriel süss--whom ye all expelled and trampled upon.--thou too.--thou! whom i had once so deeply and ardently loved." a long pause again ensued, blume's bosom heaved impetuously, she stared at gabriel, as if he were some horrible spectre; she held her child still tightly pressed to her; at length she broke the painful silence and spoke in a soft imploring voice: "that is past and gone, gabriel.... what do you want of me now?" "thee!" the poor tortured woman sank upon her chair. gabriel paced the chamber several times. "do not waken my blind mother, gabriel," prayed blume, at length timidly and in a voice scarce audible; "age and sickness have weakened her sense of hearing, but you speak so loudly, so impetuously...." "shut the door closer, i must speak with thee alone, no third person shall hear us...." blume shut the door. "gabriel," she said with trembling voice, "i am alone with you, i am a weak woman, you are a giant in strength--but never forget--a third person does hear us, does see us--the spirit of the lord is over all--he is near to them which are afflicted, he helps the oppressed." gabriel did not interrupt her; but an incredulous smile so horribly disfigured his once beautiful features, the fiery mark on his forehead blazed out so strangely from under his dark hair that the word died away on her lips..... she felt that an hatred nourished for years in all its force held irresistible dominion in gabriel's breast, and that he was now vainly striving to find an expression for that wild consuming ardour of vengeance that drove his hot blood to the height of madness! the baby had again dropped fast asleep, blume did not know what to do, she dared not lay the child in its cradle. "is that.... thy only child?" gabriel recommenced after a profound silence with that singular inexplicable aberration of thoughts which sometimes seems to come over a man at the very moment when the overpowering sensations of the moment should in fullest measure occupy his mental activity. "it is my only dear innocent child," cried blume in mortal terror and bursting into tears--"let me take it to my mother that we may not awake it."-- "blume!" shouted gabriel, seizing her arm and detaining her, "there are two words that i will never hear from your mouth 'mother' and 'innocent child', do not utter them in my presence, or you may make me forget resolves that have been ripening for years, and take once for all a fearful vengeance on thee and thy child.... 'mother'" repeated gabriel in a voice so sad and piercing that even blume pitied him, "'mother' that beautiful sweet heavenly word, which everyone utters and hears so gladly--that word, which finds its way into the depths of the heart, and evokes in everyone an inexpressible feeling of bliss. 'mother' that word, which ringing through the spheres awakes a magic harmony in the soul--that word is to me an empty hollow meaningless sound! every man, as far as the blue vault of heaven overarches the earth, even though he were the wretchedest slave, that shakes his chain in maniacal fury, every living being, all, all, all have or have had a mother----only i not! only i not, i alone since men have walked the earth! the woman, the abandoned creature, the demon.... that thrust me into this existence.... she was no mother! fye, fye, call her not mother! apply not the beautiful glorious name to her!--a mother--though it were the spotted hyena that destroys in mere wantonness, a mother defends her offspring.... a mother does not pile the whole weight of the sins which she has committed upon her child's innocent head, while it stands wringing its hands, in despair at her deathbed--a mother...." "gabriel, hush! for god's sake, say no more.... speak no more so of thy mother, my mother's sister. in spite of all she is thy mother, thou art her son! she is dead, be not hard upon her--a day will come, when thou too wilt stand before the judgment seat of the most high, when thou too wilt implore the mercy, the grace of god. oh, think of that! the moments of each mortal existence are numbered.... think on the last hours of thy life!... hadst thou in thy storm-tossed life never sinned, hadst thou never committed a fault, never--save to speak thus of thy mother, of thy mother that carried thee in her womb, bore thee in pain, nourished, nursed, loved.... hadst thou committed no fault but in speaking thus of thy mother.... gabriel, thou must tremble at the thought of the world to come." blume spoke these words with noble indignation, with the impulsive enthusiasm of a prophetess, her cheeks glowed, her eyes sparkled, she resembled a supernatural being. "woman!" replied gabriel, with flashing glance, "i do not tremble!... i have looked death in the face thousands of times in the whirl of battle and did not tremble, thousands have fallen beside me mutilated by the enemies' cannon, their scattered brains have sprinkled my face, and i did not tremble--i was surrounded by bands of foes, all pointed their swords at my breast, i was wounded, seemed lost--i slew them all but did not tremble." "but you are alive, it was not your last moment," interposed blume hastily,--"but by the almighty god of israel, who made the worlds above, and will hereafter awaken those who slumber below," she pointed up to the blue dome of heaven, down to the graves of the snow-covered burial-ground seen from her window--"by his holy name--_when thy last hour strikes, in the last moment of thy life thou wilt tremble, repentance will break thy proud unbending heart_." gabriel was silent, "let us quit the vain contention of priests, of rabbis," he said at length, involuntarily in a milder tone: "thou hast never troubled thyself about my life--leave to me the care of my hour of death--what signifies it to thee? wilt thou be near me in my last hour? wilt thou close my wearied eyes? wilt thou scare the ravens from my bloody corpse, when i lie on the field of battle trampled under the hoofs of horses? what carest thou for me and my soul's salvation? what carest thou for the stranger, the outcast? long, long is it vanished, the beautiful golden time when it would have been otherwise...." gabriel spoke again with measureless impetuosity, but yet in his last words a deeply agitated expression of sorrow had wonderfully mingled itself with the wild rage, and even blume, the noble loyal wife, was much touched, she perceived how this stony man had once loved her, how fruitful in misery his past life must have been! "you are alone? your husband is absent? do you know where he is?" asked gabriel after a pause, apparently calm. blume was convulsed again with a fearful terror and answered humbly: "he travels about as a scribe to earn us bread. i do not know where he is, i have no news of him--have compassion upon us, gabriel, the rottenbergs are no longer rich, we are poor and wretched." gabriel gazed awhile darkly before him, then suddenly, as if embracing a violent resolution, stood before blume and pressed her down on a chair. "woman," he said, "for ten years have i sought thee, ten years have i panted to see thee, to speak with thee, to be avenged on thee, as the wounded, exhausted hart for fresh water.--when i saw at a distance the towers of prague, where i knew that i should find thee, when i entered the ghetto whose gates enclosed thee--then my heart bounded with a wild joy, i assumed the dress of a student, i visited all the houses of prayer, the lecture-rooms, the libraries, in order to meet your husband. i dwelt with those to whom i bear a deadly hate, all this only--to find thee.... i despised not to associate with a mad beggar, because i believed he would put me upon your track--when i recognised you yesterday evening, i was so happy in my hate, so superabundantly happy, to have found thee, to have revenge in my power--happy! as i have never been since that fateful hour when all the hope of my life was quenched and now, now that i stand before thee, that my hands clasp thy beautiful rounded arm, now, at this moment words fail me to tell thee, how fervently i hate thee, how fervently i hate ye all...." gabriel again paced up and down in the highest excitement. "i will tell you a story, blume," he said at length, pushing a chair by her side, "a very notable story, most of it you already know, but it matters not, it is long since the history has crossed my lips, and i will once more bring my comfortless past before my soul, perchance in so doing i shall find the true expression for that emotion which agitates my breast.--once upon a time there lived in cologne a man named baruch süss. he was physician to the archbishop, rich, powerful, and respected at court. but he was prouder of the possession of two daughters, miriam and perl, than of his wealth and influence. on the death of two hopeful boys he had transferred to them his whole love. they were the most beauteous maidens in germany, and suitors soon approached them from all corners of the world. miriam could with difficulty make up her mind, and only after the younger, perl, your mother, had intermarried with a branch of the celebrated rottenberg family, did her father succeed in fixing her choice upon his brother's son, his nephew, joseph süss, who lived at spires.--their marriage was for three years a childless one, in the fourth she announced to her enraptured husband that she was a mother.--miriam süss was brought to bed of a wonderfully beautiful boy, they named him gabriel. the happy husband rejoiced, the poor were bountifully endowed, a rich foundation established. baruch of cologne, the grandfather, who before had feared that he would remain without posterity, undertook the fatiguing journey to spires for the express purpose of seeing his first grandchild, and in the first intoxication settled his property upon him after his death. shortly after me, you, blume, were born, and the grandfather and his two sons-in-law agreed, that the children should some day be united in the bond of wedlock. the years of my childhood and of my youth flew happily by. idolised by a father whose rich love i could not, though with the best intentions, adequately return, i clave with an infelt warm and holy love to my mother, who guarded me as the apple of her eye. both because i remained an only child, and on account of my intended union with you, blume, who wast also the only child of thy parents, my grandfather heaped all his tenderness upon my head. i remember but dimly my earliest childhood, and only one circumstance presents itself to my soul, but so mistily, so confusedly, that even to this day i am in doubt, whether it was not a dream, a deceitful phantom, that my glowing fancy at a later period created and then referred back to an earlier time. i was once walking outside the gate, accompanied as usual by a maidservant, when suddenly a tall, pale, thin man threw himself upon me, pressed me to his heart, and dropped two large tears upon my face. my nursemaid, as surprised as i, would have screamed, but he pressed a piece of gold into her hand and speedily made off with a heavy sigh.--if it was not a dream, that man was my father!" gabriel stopped exhausted. blume was acquainted with her kinsman's early history, she followed his narrative with the most strained attention, anxiously awaiting the moment when he should come to the most fearful catastrophe of his life. "you know," continued gabriel, "that from my ninth year i passed one half of the year with my grandfather, the other in my parents' house. my education was a perfect one. in spires i was thoroughly instructed in religious and talmudic knowledge; my grandfather, loved and respected at the court of the archbishop of cologne, and owing to his situation, for a jew a peculiar one, in constant intercourse with the rhenish nobility, caused me to be indoctrinated with all those sciences, that are ordinarily less accessible to german jews. i even dared devote myself to knightly arts and exercises, forbidden them in the largest portion of germany either by law or arbitrarily. i was well made, strong, gifted with a keen and penetrating spirit. i was nineteen years old, and once, it was on the feast of the dedication, on my return home from the high-school at frankfurt, i found my grandfather there. it had with wise foresight--not to arouse my opposition before hand--been kept secret from me that they intended to marry me to you whom i had never seen before, and even then when it was announced that we were all to go and visit uncle joel in worms, it never in the least occurred to me, that the journey was to be a bridal one for me. we arrived at worms. i saw you, blume! resplendent with all the lustre of your youthful beauty, and the deepest love that ever seized man's heart blazed suddenly high in my bosom. to my mother's husband who called himself my father i had only devoted a feeling of gratitude, not of inclination, and it was my, your grandfather, to whom i openly declared my ardent affection, and that i believed it to be returned. 'my glorious, my dear child,' exclaimed the old man and tears streamed from his eyes, 'by thee all the wishes of my heart are fulfilled; yes, gabriel! blume, thy mother's sister's daughter, is the bride that was destined for thee. god bless the union, that your fathers concluded upon in your earliest years, and that you have sealed by the feelings of your heart.' holding my grandfather's hand i stood before you, and dared to kiss your forehead white as alabaster. we were bride and bridegroom...." gabriel made another pause. blume's face revealed the fearful anguish of her soul, she knew, what would follow, and cold clear drops of perspiration trickled down her face, which even the bitterest mental torture could not rob of its miraculous attractiveness. her heart beat audibly. "i was the happiest man on earth," continued gabriel in a voice, the unsteadiness of which was a sign of the infinite sorrow that consumed his soul, "i was filled with my faith to which i clave with all the strength of my mind and spirit. it made me happy, it exalted me. i had a mother, and i loved my mother with that unutterable superhuman intenseness, for which we vainly seek an expression, which can only exist to such a pitch in the heart of a grateful child. i had thee, and how i loved thee, how i loved thee, blume! that thou hast never had an idea of, that thou couldst never have had an idea of!..." gabriel stopped short, his voice, that in the whirl of battle could be heard above the thunder of the cannon, sounded feeble and tremulous; his gleaming eyes were wet. he passed his hand over his forehead, and went on: "it was doomed to be otherwise. ten months had elapsed since our betrothal, i was at worms, on a visit to you, and full of hope was looking towards a future close at hand, in which you were to be wedded to me; when an unexpected message arrived, that my mother had been suddenly attacked by a mortal sickness, that i was to make haste, if i would see her again alive. a maddening grief thrilled through my breast. i flew along the road to spires, like one hunted by evil shadows; i arrived late on the evening of the new year. the servants were waiting for me in the entrance-hall, they wished to delay me, to prepare me; i paid no heed to their officiousness, and flew breathless and swift as an arrow up the stairs and into my mother's sick-room. she was still living, but lay at her last gasp. the darkness was broken: many men had already assembled to say the prayers for a departing soul,--the chamber was lit by a pendant lamp of eight branches in the centre of it. joseph süss stood by her bed and held her hands in his. the sorrowful consolation of finding her still alive struggled in me with the bitterest grief 'here am i, dear mother,' i cried in a voice choked by tears, throwing myself on my knees before her, and covering her beautiful cold hand with hot kisses, 'here am i, good sweet mother! i was sure that thou wouldst tarry for thine own true son.... i could not believe, dear true-hearted mother, that thou wouldest soar away from me before i arrived.... here i am, here i kneel before thee in deep inexpressible sorrow. why do you not speak to me?... look at me once again, only once again, with thy mild loved eye, speak to me i implore you! only one word, but one, a last farewell ... lay thine hand in blessing on the head of thy only child, whom thou forsakest, who is dying of deep and infinite grief!..." "the bye-standers, though accustomed to scenes of death, were constrained to sob aloud at the unbounded outbreak of my childish emotion and my vain entreaty seemed not to be ineffectual. miriam süss suddenly raised herself in the bed, as if lifted by a spring, her beautiful face, already touched by the breath of death, was a blue-white, her eyes protruded far out of their sockets ... _but she did not bless me_!... she folded her hands and began in a tremulous but perfectly intelligible voice: 'lord of the world!... thou hast sent thy messenger to me, and i must pass into the shadowy realms of death.... i tremble before thee, o lord and judge! for i have sore sinned, gone sore astray!... forgive me, o god, thou that art gracious to all, and pardoneth iniquity and sins; i have bitterly repented, made large atonement.... and that all men may know, that my repentance is perfect and sincere, i will now in the last moment of my life, openly and loudly confess before thee my husband and these worthy men the whole enormity of my inexpiable guilt.... _i broke my marriage vows to thee_.... _and my son gabriel is not thy son_....' blume! what i felt at that moment, poor human speech is incapable of expressing.... grief, passion, woe, torment--put together in one conception all the notions that these words embrace; multiply them by thousands,--and you will still have no idea of that which coursed quivering through my broken heart,--with one blow, with one single, mighty, well-aimed blow, an infinite filial love was driven out of my breast, and the blackest hate filled me, a hate, well founded and inextinguishable. had i lived a thousand lives and every moment of my life committed a deadly sin, yet _if there is a divine justice_.... all the iniquity of my life would have been atoned for by this too woeful moment. at the very time when i was supplicating with hot tears a blessing from my dying mother--_she betrayed me_, cast me out of the paradise of my life into never ending torment.... at a time when for her i would have breathed out my life with a smile and in silence under the cruellest tortures, when i would have with joy delivered my soul for her salvation to the everlasting torments of the damned, at _that time my mother betrayed me_!!! 'mad liar! recall the words! say that an evil spirit has spoken by thy mouth!' i cried in a furious voice, shaking violently her almost inanimate body. 'i cannot, gabriel, i cannot,' she shrieked, 'pray for me!... lord of the world! forgive me! be gracious unto me! have pity on me! i have sore sinned.... oh god! accept my confession and death as atonement! hear israel ...' she could say no more, her eyes grew dim--she fell back--a light death sigh heaved her breast--she had ceased to exist.... 'no, dead mother, no,' i cried, 'god will not have compassion upon thee, since thou knewest no compassion for me--i curse thee and thy memory: ...' i uttered the most fearful maledictions, the most horrible curses--they tore me from my mother's lifeless corpse.... "joseph süss lad sunk speechless at the confession of his guilty wife. when he came to himself he foamed with rage. his guilty wife was dead and the poor deceived man turned the whole weight of his irreconcilable wrath upon my innocent head.--the bond that should have united us to one another was loosed, i was not his son, i was a stranger--oh! far less than a stranger.... he took no time for reflection, and an hour later i stood alone, forsaken, an outcast from the house, that i had hitherto called my home! thus had one moment, one word, robbed me of father, mother, love, memory, past and future. "i wandered all the night about the town, i could not wait till morning dawned, and when it came i wished that the darkness of night had endured for ever. early on new year's day every one went to the synagogue, i, i alone shunned the face of men.... i would not remain in the street, and in the despair of my heart turned my steps towards the dwelling of my early teacher, a sick, bed-ridden old man, obliged even on highest feast-days to perform his devout exercises at home. i found him already sitting up in bed and reading by the light of a lamp. the report of my humiliation had already reached even him, at sight of his once loved scholar he uttered a cry and the bible fell from his trembling hands. was it chance, was it perhaps that my old teacher, revolving my unhappy situation, had opened at the passage in scripture that applied to it, i know not; but as i bent to pick up the book, my glance fell upon it, the words danced in varied iridescence before my burning eyes, i read the words: 'a bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the lord.' i felt anew a wild spasm at my heart. together with the fearful unutterable excitement that had seized me at the shameless confession of that woman, who had carried me in her womb, with the crushing pain of seeing myself so humiliated before the eyes of men; there had also sprung up the melancholy self-tormenting feeling that i owed my existence to a sin, that i had been launched into the world against the will of the most high, whom i at that time worshipped with boundless reverence: ... but as i once more read those clear and significant words, the words of that scripture which i had hitherto looked upon as binding and sacred--as i read the sentence of the lord, whom i, bowed to the dust in fulness of faith, had called all-merciful, all-good, all-just--as i read the judgment, that made me, me guiltless of the transgression, miserable--that brought me to naught; t tore out of my lacerated and bleeding heart that blind faith, that could never restore me to bliss, never make me happy, that faith which might never more seem true and sacred to me.... i tore myself free from religion, sweet comfortress, that offered consolation to all but me...." "it was mid-day. the walls of the city were too confined for me. i went out, and while my former brethren in the faith were praying in god's house, i sat alone in the deep forest, weeping hot bitter tears, tears more agonizing than man had ever wept before! it was a lovely fresh autumnal day, the rays of the sun pierced with deadened heat through the tops of the trees tinted with the yellow hues of autumn, the birds chirped cheerful songs, a soft mild wind breathed through the withering arbour, the deepest peace had dominion around: in me seethed the bitterest deadliest hatred.--i may have sat there for hours plunged in the most melancholy brooding, when i suddenly started up: it flashed across me, like bright lightning in a clear night, that i was not yet lost. thy loved image, blume! appeared all at once in liveliest colours before my soul. i still had thee! only thee in the wide world: but still i had thee: what more could i want?" the sentence of scripture had branded me, my mother had betrayed me, my brethren had rejected me,--but still i had thee, thee, blume! thou who couldest make up to me for all that, all of it, all. to thee i now transferred the whole wealth of my undivided love! a nameless ardent longing after thee burnt like wild fire in my soul; my love to thee had reached the height of madness. remembrance of thee had effaced the horrible warning of the immediate past, had averted my gaze from the dark future--to live with thee, blume! in some remote corner of the world, so sweet a child, my child!... "blume," said gabriel, suddenly breaking off with an accent of the most passionate grief.---"thou mightest have been my guardian angel.... by thee, blume, i might have been converted again.... thou hast dealt injuriously with me, thou hast not acted justly.--blume, if there is a god--hearest thou! i will not believe it, i dare not believe it, but if there is, blume! at thy hands will my soul be required!... i hurried to worms--how thy father rejected me with contumely, how i learnt, that as soon as they had received the quickly circulated news, they had instantly betrothed thee to thy father's nephew, thy cousin aaron,--all that you know.--what i suffered, that you did not know, no! for the honour of humanity i will believe that you did not know it--i insisted on speaking to you alone; i trusted that your father had lied, that you would behave differently to the others, would have compassion upon me, would love me! i waited wistfully for the feast of atonement: i knew, that while the rest were praying in god's temple, you would remain at home with your blind mother. on the afternoon of the festival i crept into your house. breathless i hurried through the well-known passages and opened the door that led into your mother's room. she was asleep, you were sitting by her bed and praying. i stood on the threshold trembling like an aspen. i thought that with a cry of joy you would throw yourself into my arms, kiss the tears from my eyelids, dry the cold drops of anguish that fell from my forehead. 'blume,' i cried, 'wilt fly with me? wilt be my wife?' you were silent. 'you too blume!' i cried in inexpressible sorrow, and fell at your feet.... your bosom panted, your lips moved, as though you would speak, but you did not speak, your look fixed itself ghostlike upon me, as if i, innocent and unfortunate, had escaped from hell! i wished to break the dull silence, i sought for words, to move you, to melt the hard marble of thy heart; but i suddenly felt myself seized from behind, your father, your betrothed had returned home to enquire after your mother's health. a wild fury disfigured their faces.... you heard how they insulted and laughed me to scorn, you saw how they cast me forth, mercilessly, pitylessly, as a mangy hound is expelled with kicks; yes you saw it, but said nothing, you did not fall into their arms, ... you did not stand trembling and wringing your hands.... 'blume,' yelled gabriel shaking her fiercely by the arm, and a mad fury flashed from his eyes, 'why did you allow that horror to be perpetrated, tell me, woman! why? why did you give your hand to the man, who so fearfully and undeservedly insulted me, an innocent man,--tell me, why? speak!'" blume sobbed violently, she folded her beautiful white hands, her lips moved silently in fervent prayer. "blume!" said gabriel, after a moment's pause, in a dull unsteady voice. "if my deadly enemy, who bears an everlasting hatred to me, who strives with hot desire to drink my heart's blood--if my deadly enemy were to lay at my feet as i on that evening kneeled before thee, i who am steadfast in hate, i who know no pity, should weep hot tears of compassion--and i was not your enemy, i had loved you with a love as infelt and holy as is permitted to a human soul, i would have given the last drop of my heart's blood for one tear from your eyes,--and you, a weak, mild, pitiful woman, would not weep that tear.... you stood there dismayed, but did not keep off those furious one's.... what had i done to you? what was my transgression? had not i been, to my mother's last breath, devout, noble, self-sacrificing?--why did you solemnly inter the guilty mother as a contrite penitent, and cast out the innocent son? when i was cast forth from your house, blume! when the last cable of my hope snapped there:--then i swore in my soul, a fearful undying vengeance: ... i love not men, i hate you jews, but the most burning hate that man, or perhaps hell is capable of, i bear against thy mother, thy husband, and far beyond all in my heart against thee." "then slay me," cried blume hastily, "and leave my husband, my mother, leave all in peace! let the whole weight of your anger fall on my head, slay me, gabriel, but spare the others...." the tiny sleeper on her arms awoke again and stretched its hands smiling towards its mother. blume shuddered and broke into loud sobbing: "no, gabriel, slay me not, let me live, see me at thy feet,"--she cast herself upon her knees--"let me live, i supplicate not for myself, by the almighty god, not for my own sake;--but look at this innocent babe, its father is far away, it has only its mother, could you be responsible for depriving it of its mother? you do not know what a mother feels for her child." "hush, blume, and stand up!" cried gabriel, pulling the kneeling woman up from the ground, and the veins in his forehead swelled high: "are you mad? do you think i shall murder a defenceless woman? be composed, i shall not slay thee.... that is not the revenge i shall take." both were silent. blume opened the window, she looked whether a light was still burning in the lecture-room, a faint glimmer shot from the windows of the distant edifice, she felt relieved by the knowledge that men were still awake there! a cold wind blew through the room, neither gabriel or blume observed it, only the child shivered in its mother's arms. "you have suffered much," so blume broke the long painful silence. "you have fallen off from the faith of your fathers? you are ..., you were...." blume knew not what she said, but this silence of the grave was mortal to her, she was constrained to speak, and almost involuntarily emitted these words from her lips. "from the faith of my fathers!" re-echoed gabriel; "you choose your words well, each is a poisoned arrow and barbed--have i then forsaken the faith of my fathers? do i forsooth know my father? for ten years have i sought him, and thee," he continued thoughtfully, "thee have i found,--shall i ever discover him, whom perhaps--and supposing i did find him," said gabriel after a long silence, inwardly communing, and rather as addressing himself, "would the voice of nature, as silly men declare, conquer? full of infinite love should i fling myself into my father's arms, or should i be possessed with an unspeakable hatred against the faithless traitor, who was perhaps wantoning in luxury, when his child, loaded with insult and scorn, was cast out from the threshold of that house that he had for twenty years called home! if he proves such a man, if he has forgotten me, if he has never been mindful of the unhappy one whom to his everlasting misery he tossed out into the wide desolate world; if he proves like the mother, who even on her death-bed betrayed her child, if he should prove such, and i do find him, blume: i shall gloriously conclude my wretched existence with a parricide." blume shuddered. gabriel threw himself into a chair and hid his face with both hands. "but if it is not so, supposing it otherwise," he began again after a long pause, in the course of which the foaming billows of his wrath had sunk, "if the apparition in my youth was a truth and no deception, if his tears did indeed once bedew the face of his child, if my father has been pining in infinite sorrow for his long lost son, if his heart has been sighing after me with the same strange emotion as sometimes in hours of quiet rises convulsively in the depths of my soul, if racked by repentance and the stings of conscience he has been seeking me mad with grief.... if i should find him thus, though he were the meanest on earth, the wretchedest beggar to whom one flings a morsel of bread--and stood before me in that condition--blume! i have often declared, and now repeat, by my troth, and knightly honour! i should fold him lovingly in my arms.... and though it were the last moment of my life, my last breath--my last, yea dying breath should be a loud hallelujah." gabriel stopped suddenly, blume too had for some time been listening. out of the bushes in a distant corner of the graveyard, on the gusts of a favouring wind, sounds of lamentation came born to the ears of both of them. each for a time had accepted what was heard as a deception to be accounted for by the fearful excitement of the moment; but the sounds, at first dying away with a hollow echo, came nearer: "my son, my son;" it rung now clearer and clearer in their ears, "my much loved only child--where art thou? come to me, thou dear one.... thou wert born in sin, but i love thee in spite of all! for in truth you are my only son! where can i find thee? could i find thee in heaven, i would seek thee there; could i find thee far over the sea, i would seek thee there.--where art thou, thou that wert conceived in sin, thou that art so near to my heart? approach me and let us crave mercy at my father's grave, perhaps god will have compassion on me, will pardon me!... oh! if my son but lives and i may see him again: then, then would i die!..." the clock on a neighbouring tower tolled midnight, a wind sprung up, and sighed over the wide desolate space of the graveyard.... the clang of the clock, the rustling of the wind drowned the words which again died away in the distance. gabriel had become deadly pale. he stepped to the window, and gazed for a long while down: but saw nothing. "it was an illusion," he said softly, quickly recovering himself by a wonderful mental effort--"my sharp glance detects nothing in the wide, and snow-covered space--and the dead have no voice." blume shivered, she did not dare announce that she too had heard the ghostly cry from the graveyard. gabriel stared fixedly before him, sunk in gloomy brooding. blume tried to read his soul. she had never seen him since that fateful day of the feast of atonement. he, who had once loved her, who had once clung with the perfect fresh strength of youth to his faith, to humanity, to his people, to justice, had become a changed man. branded by holy scripture, which human wisdom can never quite interpret, betrayed by his mother whom he idolized, driven from her presence, cast forth from the society of his brethren--his soul was filled with hate. but even his hate she was unable to fathom. when he had entered, she feared that he would rob her of her child, that he would slay herself--that he would not do so, was now clear--but she dared not yet be tranquil, for he had declared that he hated her, that he would be revenged upon her. in pitiful sorrow she gazed motionless at his lips, at every movement of which her blood again ran cold: though his silence seemed to her yet more horrible. once more one of those long and oft-recurring pauses had intervened, that seemed to blume to last an eternity. her unspeakable oppression was intensified by the profound impression caused by the singular incident that had just occurred, by astonishment at gabriel who seemed by force of will to have soon banished it from his soul. "gabriel," implored blume, "i pray thee, speak, break this weird silence, it is awful! say what thou wilt, go on with your story." "dost thou consider blume! thy silence was once awful to me too.... once thou hadest no word of pity, no look of compassion for a poor innocent martyr, and i languished for a word of love.--had my grandfather then still continued to live at cologne perhaps.... i do not know, but perhaps he, he alone, would have taken me to his arms. but the fearful tidings, that branded his daughter, his grandson, gave his name a prey to the scornful, and blighted his dearest hopes, threw the old man on a bed of death. i arrived two days after his funeral at cologne. every one shunned me, my misfortune was known to all my brethren in the faith. "i took possession, as heir, of my grandfather's immense property. i was no longer attached by any tie to this life, all that i had loved, i was constrained to hate, that which had once been true and holy to me, now seemed to me lying and false, i was the unhappiest man on earth! i broke with my whole past life, i would have none of it live on within me, except the remembrance of my unmerited humiliation, that fanned the hot flame of my revenge with undiminished fury.... i sought by some overt act to prove that i had become a changed man. in the cathedral at aix-la-chapelle i abjured the old faith, and swore enmity in my heart against all those that clave to it.... as i came out of the church a crowd of people had assembled to gape at the new convert. i did not lift my eyes; but felt that the odious looks of all were fixed upon me. i hurried through the press, and sought to gain a side street that led to my dwelling. the crowd that accompanied me fell off one by one, and at last i heard the step of but one solitary person behind me, who followed me obstinately to the door of my house. i did not look round, but as i was about to step into the house, i felt myself seized by the cloak. 'what do you want?' i asked of the importunate fellow, a beggar in the dress of a poor jew. 'nothing,' replied he, with the wandering gaze of madness, 'nothing, except to tell you, that you have done wrong.... thou hast forsaken thy father in heaven.... and a good child seeks his father, even though he has prepared sorrow for him.... there is no greater grief than when father and son seek and cannot find one another!...' the maniac ran quickly away: but his words, burnt into my soul like kindled sparks.--i did not know my father! my mother had died without naming his name.--the high reputation for virtue which she had enjoyed during her lifetime, had not permitted the faintest doubt to rest upon her, and even if i had ventured to induce my brethren to make any revelations, my inquiries would have been vain. i had as yet been too stunned to think of my unknown father; but now, with the wild thirst for vengeance on you all, was associated a feeling, so singular, so wonderful, that i can never describe it. at one moment i was inflamed with unutterable hate against the unknown author of my days, at another i felt myself more mildly disposed, and a profound longing took possession of my torn heart. at one moment i believed myself convinced that he had forgotten me, and revelled with undisturbed and cheerful mind in earthly happiness, while his son succumbed before a woeful affliction; at another i hoped that he, who had never betrayed me, who had never for years enforced his paternal authority, had omitted to do so by reason of his inextinguishable love for me. a tormenting, frequently rapid succession of emotions took powerful hold on my heart; but from that moment a desire was born within me to find my father, were it to demand fearful reckoning of him, or were it to fall reconciled into his fatherly arms! "three days later i received intelligence that they had wedded you to your betrothed. you were in a great hurry, and your grandfather's death could not deter you from your hasty resolution. thou, my ardently beloved adored bride, gavest thy hand to him who had disgracefully mis-used me as i lay on my knees in supplication before thee!... the marriage was solemnized at worms, while i in aix was languishing in maddest grief!--my determination to be avenged remained firm and immovable, but i was as yet too weak, too powerless to carry it into effect!" gabriel ceased, pressed both hands to his burning forehead and went on, after a long pause, passionlessly almost calmly. "i was restless and changeable, i knew not whither to turn my steps, nor what to set about. war was kindled in a part of germany, but i did not care about it, i was indifferent to it. i wandered in wild fury from city to city, from village to village; and found nowhere peace and rest. i was often forced to rise in the middle of the night and travel further: an irresistible power seemed to urge me on. one stormy winter's night i had arrived at a small town in the district of juliers, and intended to pass the night there: but sleep fled my wearied eyes, about midnight i arose and had my horse saddled. my servant resolutely refused to go on in the fearful storm, people dissuaded me from continuing my journey, the roads were unsafe.--nothing could restrain me, some impulse drove me abroad!... i may have ridden for two hours objectless, when i suddenly heard a report of firearms. i rode in the direction whence the noise came, and saw by the light of the full moon, that momentarily appeared through an opening in the wind-riven clouds, a group of horsemen engaged at a short distance in a fierce struggle. i almost involuntarily spurred my horse to a swifter pace, and first held rein when close to the angry fight. this was an unequal one. five horsemen, manifestly the aggressors, formed a half circle round a tall and knightly form. enveloped in a white mantle, his head protected by an open dragoon's helmet, the man who was attacked was obliged at the moment of my arrival to make head alone against the superior number, for his attendant had fallen shortly before, wounded by a pistol-shot. i remained for a moment an inactive spectator. two corpses and two masterless steeds on the side of the assailants proved beyond a doubt that the white-mantle and his companion had made good use of their fire-arms; but now that this last had been put hors-de-combat the other was fully occupied in parrying the thrusts of the attacking party. the moon threw its pale light on the white-mantle, who, with lips fast pressed, flashing eye and steady hand covered himself against every assault, and wielded his mighty sword with almost superhuman strength. the weapons clashed, other wise there was a profound stillness. i approached in rear of the assailants. when he who was sore pressed saw me, a ray of hope seemed to flit over his pale noble features; but no sound escaped his lips. my arrival altered the position of affairs. two of the horsemen wheeled round and presented their pistols at me. 'brandenburgian or imperialist?' they cried.--'it's all the same to me,' was my honest answer. one of my interrogators now turned about, and aimed steady and sure at the head of the white-mantle. at that moment my full sympathy was aroused for the man whose life was threatened. "he was forsaken, alone against many:--without analysing my motive, driven by some inner impulse without even knowing to what party he belonged, i drew the pistols from my holster, and shot down the man who had taken aim. 'receive my thanks, saviour in the hour of need, i will never forget you,' cried white-mantle, raising himself, as if endued with fresh strength, high in his saddle, and directing against one of his surprised opponents a blow so mighty that he fell lifeless to the ground. we were now two against three--the white-mantle was saved--with a wonderful inimitable, caracole he placed his horse by my side. i had not time to discharge my second pistol, for our opponents, well skilled in arms, pressed us with redoubled impetuosity. i tore the sword from my side and fought with that boundless untamed fury that filled my heart. the hot fight did me good, i did not feel the blood, trickling from my arm, but on a sudden out of the neighbouring thicket a ball whistled by my ear, i fell wounded.... white-mantle supported me with one arm, with the other still kept brandishing his mighty weapon. at that instant i heard the tramp of horses, but closed my eyes and lost consciousness. eight days later when i recovered my senses i found myself to my astonishment in a handsome apartment in juliers.... i was lying in bed--i learnt that the warrior, whose life i had saved, was the imperialist general, count ernest of mannsfield, margrave of castelnuovo and bortigliere. brandenburgian horsemen had laid in wait for him, when he rashly enough, accompanied only by his lieutenant, had set out on his way back to the city. the ball which had struck me, was fired by some sharp-shooters from neuberg, who had come to the aid of the brandenburgers: but the report of fire-arms had at the same instant brought up some imperial dragoons whose arrival had settled the small skirmish in our favour. they told me that mannsfield was ardently desirous of offering his thanks to me for the unexpected help, and when i declared that i now felt myself well and strong enough to receive his visit, some moments afterwards he entered my room. mannsfield was at that time twenty years old. he was a tall powerful man; his extraordinarily pale earnest face with pointed spanish beard and mustachios was framed with dark waving locks, his large eyes gazed feelingly at me, he held out his hand. 'i thank thee, brother,' he said with emotion, and each of his words made a deep impression upon my poor heart, void of love.--'thou hast saved my life, i will never--may god help me--forget thee! you were ignorant whom you succoured, you offered--as a good soldier should--a saving hand, not to the count mannsfield, not to the imperial marshal, no, to the man, to the hard pressed worn-out unknown soldier! no oath bound you, what you did for me had its source only in the free will of your noble soul....' "blume! you had all rejected me, i stood alone in the wide world, my heart, that could love so warmly, so boundlessly, was desolate and bleeding. each word of mannsfield's dropped balsam upon the wounds of my soul: an emotion, so profound, as could only be excited in me at a time when still credulous and undeceived, i dared live for a sweet delusion, thrilled through me; my whole heart expanded to his words, i pressed the hand of the noble soldier, and hot tears rolled from my eyes. 'now if you are strong enough, and talking does not try you,' continued mannsfield, 'let me learn the name of my saviour. what is thy escutcheon, where is thy home?' "drops of agony stood on my forehead. once more the past moved in swift flight over my soul, all seemed to me a confused dream! i fought a hard fight with myself; chance had led me to a powerful grateful friend, could i venture to narrate to him frankly and unconstrainedly my life's history? had i not reason to fear that the renowned hero, the general, the emperor's favourite would turn scornfully from me? from me, a renegade jew, an outcast of his brethren, a man branded from his birth? mannsfield remarked my hesitation. 'i will not urge you,' he continued after a pause of surprise: 'perhaps a mystery hangs over your name--i am sorry, but be you what or who you will you will ever remain dear to me--a thought suddenly flashed across him. perhaps you are a protestant? perhaps an adherent of the union?' he exclaimed, 'ah how little you know mannsfield! by god almighty--be you who you will--you are prized by and dear to me.... shall i speak to you in confidence? i am at the bottom of my heart not averse to the protestantism, which i now do battle against under the standard of my glorious imperial master:--but i am rivetted to the illustrious house of austria by a bond of gratitude: i was brought up at the court of my godfather the archduke ernest; i have to thank my imperial lord and master for all that i am, and why should i conceal from you, my preserver, that for which i have so often been compelled to blush, and what half germany knows.... i was not born in lawful wedlock, and i only owe it to the especial favour and grace of the monarch, that he permits me to enjoy the name and rank of my father, that he has legitimised me, that he has pledged his imperial word as soon as the war which we are now waging is over, to invest me with all my father's possessions. mannsfield's words made a tremendous impression upon me. blind chance had wonderfully guided me. that the birth of this man, whom i had saved, who was soliciting my friendship and love should have been first legitimised by the absolute command of the emperor, that i had saved him while my heart was overflowing with hate, that he, the brave lion-hearted hero who had staked his life thousands of times for his emperor, his colours, his glory, laid such stress upon it, all this had such a decisive influence upon me, that i broke the deep silence, which i had firmly intended to preserve, and revealed to mannsfield my whole past history. mannsfield listened to me with the warmest infelt sympathy. 'you are alone in the world,' he said, after i had ended, in the harmonious accents of his powerful voice, 'you have saved my life.... your secret shall for ever be preserved in my breast--will you be my brother?' mannsfield gazed at me out of his deep dark eyes so cordially, so lovingly. my heart beat as if it would burst. mannsfield despised me not, mannsfield did not hold out to me only a poor common oblation of compassion: no, he offered me all his great heart--could i refuse the too-bountiful present? tears, that rolled from my eyes, were my only answer. we sealed the compact with a long fraternal embrace.--eight days afterwards i was entirely recovered, and was presented to the assembled officers as a new companion in arms at a banquet given in mannsfield's honour. they had named me at my baptism gottfried. but god was no longer in my heart, peace was never in my soul, i banished both from my name, and called myself otto bitter. i took service in the imperial army under that perfectly unknown name.--the vast wealth that i had inherited from my grandfather supplied the means of equipping at my own cost some troops of cavalry, in return for which i was appointed to their command. fortune, which favoured my arms, in conjunction with mannsfield's inexhaustible affection for me, quickly promoted me from step to step and allowed me to take conspicuous rank in the army under arch-duke leopold which was detailed to operate against the unionists in the cleves-juliers district. the continuance of the war had fully occupied me, but spite of the fact that my past history was to remain a mystery to every one except mannsfield, i had succeeded in obtaining tidings of thee and thine. i was indeed far from you, but in spirit i stood ever near you, i never lost sight of you for a moment--after a series of battles the protestant union at length concluded a peace with the emperor, in order to oppose their whole force to the newly formed catholic confederacy, the league. i was free, i wished to hurry to worms, to appear before thee and thine, and settle accounts with you--but a new and unexpected turn in the fortunes of my friend mannsfield hindered me. mannsfield had confidently expected that the emperor at the end of the campaign would have invested him with the possessions of his deceased father who had been stadtholder in luxembourg. the war of succession in juliers and cleves was over; the complication in alsace arranged: mannsfield had rendered the emperor substantial services; he had shed his blood upon the field of battle; he had squandered his rich maternal heritage in warlike armaments, without demanding compensation for it: it was only through mannsfield's zeal, through his high military talents and spirit of self-sacrifice that the imperial general-in-chief the arch-duke leopold had been enabled to make head successfully against a superior force. mannsfield now applied for the desired investment, but was shamefully refused. his proud spirit could not brook the slight which was inflicted on him, he retired from the imperial service, and devoted his zeal and victorious sword to the evangelical union. it was perfectly indifferent to me, for whom or what i fought.--a firm indissoluble bond of friendship united me to mannsfield, i could not hesitate a moment, i ranged myself by mannsfield's side. victory was tied to mannsfield's standard. i was his truest and best companion in arms, the fortune of war was favourable to me; loved by mannsfield, idolised by the troops i now became the first officer in his army.--in the meanwhile a persecution of the jews had broken out in frankfurt stirred up by vettmilch, gerngross and schopp. the jewish quarter was plundered and wasted, the life of your brethren threatened. the rabble at worms wished to follow the example of frankfurt and a pretext was easily found. your family, the rottenbergs, had some, i do not doubt well grounded claim, against a frankfurt patrician; he died, and his son who had been admitted to the rights and privileges of a citizen at worms found it most convenient to get rid of the obligation into which his father had entered, first by disputing the demand as usurious, but afterwards the receipt for the debt as forged. the honour, property, safety of your family were all equally endangered. the workmen at worms, friendly to a hasty course as it was a question of using violence against the jews, looked upon the private suit as a public concern and demanded from the imperial chamber at spires the immediate expulsion of all jews from worms. they were sent back and ordered to follow the usual course of justice in reference to your affair. but the imperial judges were stern and just, and there was no doubt therefore, that you would win your cause. the trades, irritated to the highest degree by the failure of their plan, demanded that you should make a sacrifice of your claim, and moreover in order to save the honour of their fellow citizen should declare the proofs to be forged. you made up your minds to lose the sum, which was a considerable one, but no one could persuade you to make a false dishonourable confession. vain was the pressure of the workmen, vain the prayers of your brethren in worms, who were blind enough not to detect the clumsy artifice and believed in their simplicity that the artisans of worms would be appeased by this declaration, and undertake no further hostilities against the jews. you remained firm and in the week before easter the wild storm broke loose. the magistrates, though with the best intentions, too feeble to protect you, were obliged to look on bewildered and inactive, while the jews were expelled, their ancient synagogues demolished their burial ground desecrated.--it was only through the immense exertions of the bishop, who only arrived in worms late in the evening of that hapless day, that the wild fury of the populace was at length bridled. a general plunder was prevented, too late however for you, against whom the popular hatred had first vented itself. your house was entirely demolished, you were plundered, your father was roughly handled. you had only escaped a certain death by speedy flight. your father died from the effects of the fright and ill-usage that he had experienced.--the frankfurt rebels were subdued by force of arms. an imperial commissioner punished the guilty and the jews returned in triumph to the city. in worms also the insurgents soon surrendered to the imperial troops, the jews were recalled and honourably re-instated in their ancient residences. but you never returned. the community of worms maintained that the calamity was attributable to your obstinacy, that much worse might have happened, that you should have sacrificed your honour and pride to the common-weal. the community excluded you from the midst of them. poor and wretched, concealing your shame under an assumed name, you were forced to seize the beggar's staff and start on a wide uncertain wandering. the punishment was hard, but you had deserved it for your behaviour to me!" blume had again silently listened to gabriel without interrupting him. it seemed to her almost as if he took pleasure in the pleasing broad circumstantiality of the story as he told it. as if he took a pleasure in embodying in living sounding words his whole past, that he must for years have kept sealed in his heart. as he spoke of that time when he was far from her, he seemed to become more calm. a mild conciliatory spirit seemed to come over him, when he referred to mannsfield and the firm bond of friendship that united their hearts to one another. when he spoke of the persecution of the innocent jews in frankfurt and worms it seemed to her as if love for his former brethren was not yet altogether dead in him, as if a feeling of compassion still stirred in the depths of his almost inscrutable soul. she already yielded to the delusive hope that gabriel was only come to forgive her and had only wished to give her a fright by calling up the memory of the past. the earnest warning was to serve only to annihilate her by the full weight of his magnanimity;--but when he once more probed with rough hand her bleeding wounds, when he once more spoke of punishment, thought of retaliation, she again sunk down, covering her beautiful face with both hands. gabriel did not notice it. "from that moment i lost all trace of you. i had joined fortune with my friend mannsfield, and was hurried from one end of germany to the other. everywhere i looked sharply out for thee. if i came into the neighbourhood of a jewish community, i often exchanged armour and helm for cloak and cap, in order to obtain admittance into it as a travelling student that i might search thee out. when my disguise could not be kept secret from those about me, a silly foolish love-affair with a jewish girl served as an excuse for it. my inquiries were in vain, but i doubted not, i was convinced that i must some day find you.... we were just on the point of hurrying off to the assistance of the duke of savoy, a member of the union, when suddenly the flame of war was kindled in bohemia. the duke no longer required reinforcement, it was a matter of indifference to mannsfield in what quarter he waged war on behalf of protestantism against the emperor: we marched therefore at the request of the bohemian states, who took us into their pay, to bohemia. our arrival was immediately illustrated by a victory, we took the strong and disaffected city of pilsen. the emperor was exasperated to the highest pitch by the loss of this loyal city, and mannsfield and i his chief officer, were put under the ban of the empire. meanwhile the bohemians had elected the palatine frederick their king. the selection was an unfortunate one. frederick appointed anhalt and hohenlohe commanders-in-chief of his army and mannsfield remained at pilsen at a distance from head-quarters in order to escape serving under both of them. we found ourselves badly off. pay and support, as well from the union as from the palatine, failed. mannsfield was obliged to keep the army on foot without money. to fill up the measure of our misfortunes, that portion of the country in which we were encamped was attached to the imperial party and we were surrounded by spies.--we were obliged to observe the greatest watchfulness and every one, who afforded the slightest ground for suspecting him of being a spy, was arrested and strictly examined. a travelling jew was once detained; it was known that the jews of prague were zealous and faithful partisans of the imperial faction, it was not impossible, that he was a spy. he was brought before me, i recognised him immediately. he had formerly been with me for some time at the high school at frankfurt, i had seen him too several times at worms. my altered situation made me quite irrecognisable. to his astonishment i asked him if he knew anything of your whereabouts, and he reluctantly confessed to me that he had caught a glimpse of the long lost woman in prague, but that you had timidly shunned any meeting. the poor student had not had the remotest intention of acting as a spy and only wished to travel to fürth. i dismissed him, unenlightened, but with a munificent present. it had been suggested long before that i should undertake a journey to prague in order to petition the king for the arrears of pay, and to talk over a common plan of campaign with anhalt. i had hitherto put off the troublesome business, but when i learnt that you were at prague, i declared myself at once ready for the journey. i arrived here and after three days of ineffectual exertion with king and council, i resolved to stay here till i had discovered you.... i had taken up my quarters in the house of an armourer who had once served as sergeant-major in my regiment.--he had become incapable of further service, and had joined the great swarm of foreigners who had come to prague with the palatine. he had always been devoted to me and i could reckon upon his fidelity and secrecy..... i once more pretended a love-affair, when i exchanged the dress of a general for that of a student. i went into the jews-town and assumed the family name of mar. by a fortunate coincidence i found a lodging in the house of the upper-attendant of the synagogue, reb schlome sachs. situated outside of the gate of the ghetto it was peculiarly adapted for the double purpose of my residence here. immediately on my entrance into the ghetto too i had, in a really inexplicable way, found favour in the eyes of a usually reserved and maniacal old man, and i felt myself, without being able to give a reason for it, stirred by an unwonted feeling of sympathy for him--perhaps, as i was afterwards obliged to admit, on the ground that his strange madness reminded me of the misfortune of my own life. i was a stranger in the jewish community of prague: you lived here quiet and retired under an assumed foreign name. every enquiry among your co-religionists gave occasion for a well founded suspicion against me, rendered a discovery of my true relation to them possible. it was therefore only through the intermediation of the lunatic that i could hope to discover you: but when i sought him for the second time in his dwelling, i found it shut up, and since the day of my arrival i have never been able to obtain a sight of him. but as i knew that he communicated with nobody, i could at least allege my acquaintance with him, which was concluded in open street, as an excuse for my frequent absence from home, and my landlord reb schlome sachs often believed me to be sympathetically seated by the madman while i was engaged in negotiating with the king and field-marshal about pay in arrear, or campaigns that had miscarried. i ranged through the streets of the jews-town assiduously, but never saw you. i was almost in despair of finding you here, when a lucky chance led you yesterday to meet me at the threshold of the bathhouse, exactly _yesterday_, when by a concurrence of events i became master of your destiny. yesterday, after a martyrdom of ten years, i found thee; today i stand before thee...." blume had again been listening to gabriel without uttering a word. he had again, either in self-forgetfulness or mastering his unbridled passion by an astonishing exercise of mental strength been addressing her in the accents of former years. blume gave way as before to a consoling hope, but gabriel's last words dispelled all her illusions. "what do you want of me?" she cried again, lifting herself up and bending involuntarily over the cradle of her child. "what do you want of me? speak it out, gabriel! and torture me not to death with protracted anguish...." "thou askest what i want?" shouted gabriel with flashing glance, and his voice sounded like the growling of a thunderstorm: "what i want? _thee!_ thou wert mine, blume! from thy birth up thou wert destined for me, the covenant which our parents had concluded for us, we confirmed by the bond of love--_thou_ hast loosened the beautiful bond of love, and now hate binds me to thee! if it is no longer the heaving of thy voluptuous bosom, if it is no longer the waving of thy dark luxurious tresses, if it is no more the flashing of those beautiful love-kindling eyes, or those rosy budding lips which rapturously attract me to thee.... why then it is the sweet stupifying poison of revenge! you rejected me, you trampled upon me, ... for a sin that i never committed--if the curse of that sin bears heavily upon my wretched tainted existence--i will at least taste the sweetness of the sin.... i will...." blume was for a moment motionless from horror, then seized her child impetuously, opened the window and leaned far out of it, as though to call for help--gabriel seized her by the arm. "be still, blume," he said, "be not afraid, i shall do nothing by brute force. thou wilt have time for consideration, and thou wilt throw thyself supplicatingly into my arms.... i give you a week for consideration.... but i believe your resolution will be taken sooner.... eight days hence, sunday the eighth of november--it is exactly the anniversary of our betrothal--i shall be with you by midnight.... wilt thou be mine?" god-forsaken! screamed blume beside herself with fury, with flaming face and sparkling eyes: "dost thou desire _that_ of me, of me, the wife of another, the devout jewess, the faithful wife, the tender mother? yes my resolve is quickly made...." "it is because you are the wife of another man," interrupted gabriel, "that i do desire it.--_wert thou free_, and lying at my feet in all the infinite beauty that neither sorrow nor wretchedness can rob you of, wert thou imploring one glance of love--i should spurn thee from me, as thou didst spurn me,--but the bond of wedlock enchains thee! thou shalt sin, thy hard marble heart shall learn to know the bitter torments of remorse,--and it is because thou art a faithful wife, because thou lovest thy husband, because thou wouldest preserve a father for his child that i expect the fulfilment of my wish."--he drew a packet from his breast-pocket, it contained some small manuscript parchment rolls and a sheet of paper; he handed them in silence to the woman who trembled with rage and grief. "that is my husband's writing!" shrieked blume, "those are the texts that he has copied.... god! there is one of my letters. how did you come into possession of these writings? where is my husband? speak!" "read," answered gabriel, and held out to her mannsfield's letter which he had received the day before from the ensign. blume devoured the writing eagerly, but when she came to the last lines, she tottered and was obliged to steady herself by the arm of the chair. the characters danced before her eyes.... "i cannot read it," she said, "do thou read!" gabriel read: "with regard to the above mentioned jew, whom my outposts arrested, i think that he is innocent. i was obliged to exercise all my authority to prevent his being torn in pieces by the exasperated soldiery, or hanged on the nearest tree; even some of the officers voted for his death. seeing that the suspicious writings found upon him are according to his own account hebrew bible-texts and letters from his wife i have sent them to you to be tested, and your report as to the contents of the writings will give him death or freedom.--the whole affair however is so insignificant that you will have no need to detain michalowitz respecting it. only in the event of the jew being a spy, and the contents of the writings therefore of importance to us, will it be necessary for you to send me advice by a trooper: otherwise on account of the insecurity of the roads to pilsen do not send me any messenger...." "now," cried blume, hastily, "you see, it is not a cipher, it is only texts and my letters. have you despatched the messenger who will solve the inauspicious misunderstanding?" "no! my answer will depend on thine.... will you eight days hence submit yourself to my will?" "and if i answer no, what will you do?" asked blume with the utmost eagerness. "that answer thou wilt never make," replied gabriel violently, "thou wilt not compel me to an extreme, to the greatest extremity of all.... so, and so only will i be revenged, blume, force me to no other, to no bloody vengeance.--i will only repay like by like.... you suffered my heart to break.--come then, i will be the ever living sting of conscience in thy existence--you let me humiliated, deeply, oh infinitely deeply humiliated.--come now, i will humiliate thee too. but as for me, i had loved thee, had idolized thee, you repaid my love with hate. i am juster than you--i give you hate for hate!... my resolve is unshakeable!" blume stood before gabriel wringing her hands despairingly.--"no, i cannot believe that you will perpetrate the horrible iniquity of writing to mannsfield a hellish lie that will cause my husband's death. consider, gabriel," she continued almost inaudibly, clasping her hands--"indeed i never injured you, never humiliated, never degraded you. it could not be, i could not be your wife, a higher power placed itself between us, could i, could any one help it? i was innocent, thou wert innocent! oh gabriel, thou wouldst only terrify me, thou wilt not write the lie to mannsfield, is it not so." "blume, i am armed against thy entreaty.... for long years have i sought thee, for ten years have i been hatching a thought of vengeance, and now that a wonderful chance throws the reins of your destiny into my hands, shall i let the moment pass by unavailed? shall thy tears befool me? no, blume, no, every human life must have some attainable aim.--i had no other than revenge!--my resolve remains unalterable." "you leave me then but the choice between sin and unutterable woe? you are silent? gabriel," said blume after a pause suddenly lifting her lovely head.... "you once loved me, now every spark of that feeling, all sympathy is extinguished in your heart, but i, i pity thee in spite of it!... how low art thou fallen, poor gabriel!--the proud, high-souled gabriel, who should have been a guiding light to his people, a giant in intellect, contends with a weak woman, one stricken-down with misery, that with her baby in her arms, makes her trembling supplication before him.... and what kind of victory, what a triumph would he win? he would destroy a poor, wornout woman, by means of an abominable shameless lie, than which humanity can conceive nothing more mean.--gabriel, at this moment i am more wretched and unhappy than any woman upon earth, but--by god almighty!--i would not for worlds stand before thee, as thou now standest before me!"-- gabriel stood with folded arms before blume. the desperate reckless opposition of the helpless woman, especially the last sorrowful cry of her tortured heart had caused him for a moment, but only for a moment to waver; thoughts like lightning flashed through his soul, feelings that he had long believed dead were stirred up in him, for a moment he entertained a thought of foregoing his vengeance, of forgetting the past, of being re-converted--but he had already gone too far, he had broken with all tradition, the future as he had dreamed of it in his youth, seemed to _him lost for ever_--he could never drawback.--his better genius succumbed, the iniquitous passion conquered. "my resolution is firm and unshakeable," he said, rapidly preparing to go, as if he himself feared lest he should waver again. "eight days hence i shall be with you by midnight.--your husband's fate is in your own hands, ponder upon it till then. my resolve is inflexible!" he folded himself in his mantle and departed--blume gave way and sobbed aloud. v. the imperial army advanced without interruption, almost without striking a blow, while anhalt drew back with his troops to the white-mountain close by prague. he had barely entrenched his camp, when news arrived that the duke maximilian was approaching with his division, and that boucquoi was following with the remainder of the imperialists, anhalt summoned a council of war. mathias thurn advised that they should attack the duke immediately on his approach, before the wearied troops should have time to refresh themselves, and before he could unite himself with boucquoi. john bubna, schlick, styrum and others supported his proposal, and the commander-in-chief prince anhalt seemed already won over to this view, when hohenlohe pronounced himself violently against any offensive operation. "we must," he opined, "try and avoid any open battle with a superior force under the command of illustrious generals: the result of battles is uncertain, and a crown is not to be lightly hazarded. we have a strong impregnable position on the heights and the enemy will not venture to assault us." hohenlohe's plan was adopted, and mathias thurn left the council in a state of the highest indignation.--so dawned the morning of the th of november, a day destined to have a decisive influence for centuries to come. encouraged by frederick's example who did not allow himself to be the least disturbed in his wonted pleasures and amusements, the people in prague did not give way to fear, and even in camp on the white-mountain they believed themselves so secure and so little expected an attack, that on that very day--it happed to be sunday--many of the officers and common soldiers had gone into prague to see their families. gabriel had passed the eight days since his nocturnal visit to blume in a state of feverish excitement. he greeted the morning of this day, the anniversary of his betrothal, with singular feelings. but one short space of time divided him from the long looked for moment of revenge! it was forenoon, he was sitting in his room in reb schlome sachs' house sunk in deep thought, and gazing earnestly before him. feelings most various and violent were preying upon him. he permitted, as he was often wont to do for his own torment, his gaze to hover over his past life. he saw himself a boy, full of peace and faith in the house of his grandfather, in the house of his mother. he saw himself a youth by the side of his grandfather in the presence of his exquisitely lovely bride all glowing with becoming modesty he called to remembrance the golden dreams of his youth, how in blissful hope he purposed to obtain a rapturous world to come by a life dedicated to virtue and faith.... and then how that was all suddenly, oh how suddenly, changed--his dying mother--that feast of atonement when he stood in despair before blume. and now, now, he was about to take vengeance, fearful vengeance!... he knew that it would be impossible to inflict a more painful wound on blume, that chaste pure woman, that he could not more deeply degrade her--and yet he did not doubt that the noble faithful woman would make a sacrifice of her honour, her soul's peace to her husband. sometimes it seemed to him as if the minutes that separated him from midnight were rolling on too quickly, too hurriedly, as if he would enjoy the expectation of the near approaching moment of revenge, more than the moment itself? generally, however, each second seemed infinitely long, and he could not control his impatience. the thought of his father too, as it always did when he was violently excited, had associated itself with all these recollections, with all these unwonted emotions. swiftly succeeding feelings of alternate love and hate towards him, the natural desire to learn to know him, perhaps that too which we call the voice of nature, all this together had constantly aroused in his heart an indescribable strange desire. at this instant he doubted whether he would ever find him. one thing that he had striven after for years, he believed that he had attained: but it was impossible that blume should escape him, he had always been sure, though perhaps years might be consumed in the search, that he must sooner or later discover her. but his father? of him he knew absolutely nothing, he had not the smallest ground to go upon, not the faintest shadow of a conjecture dawned on him.--where could he seek him; where could he find _him_? the hurried opening of the door roused gabriel suddenly out of the confused chaos of his thoughts, he turned round. before him stood the boy, the ordinary messenger of the armourer in the platnergasse.-- "gracious sir!" cried the boy, "captain schlemmersdorf, is waiting for you at home, he is urgently desirous to speak with you speedily"--gabriel hesitated. "say, you could not find me, young one," he replied after a short reflection: "i wish to remain undisturbed till to-morrow." "gracious sir! it must be about some most weighty matters. the captain was beside himself at not finding you at home, he wished to follow me. i was to tell you, that life, honour, everything was at stake." gabriel now rose hastily but with a dissatisfied air and obvious reluctance. shortly afterwards he had arrived in the manner now well-known to us, at his house in the marienplatz, where schlemmersdorf was waiting for him with terrible impatience. "where have you been staying so long general?" he cried out to him as he entered, "quick, make haste, take your arms, to horse, to horse.--i pray you haste!" "what has happened?" enquired gabriel. "nothing pleasant, at least not for the present.... early this morning the advanced guard of the bavarian column was seen at the further end of the street. the prince once again summons the few officers present in camp, to advise whether now at any rate it would not be prudent to receive the advancing troops with an attack: but hohenlohe absolutely refuses to quit the secure position upon the heights, and whilst he is saying all he can in favour of his view, it is announced that tilly with his bavarians has crossed the river by a small bridge without hindrance.--the propitious moment for an attack is lost to us. duke maximilian is deploying in the centre his whole well-formed array; boucquoi, who must have followed close upon the duke, is taking up a position on the right wing, and we have the entire main-body of the enemy opposed to us.--the prince, who is expecting every moment to be attacked by the imperialists, is endeavouring in the greatest haste to range his troops in order of battle. he has despatched habernfield to the king with a request that he will adjourn the ill-timed banquet that he gives to the english ambassadors, and come to the camp, in order to cheer the low spirits of the troops. styrum is looking for mathias thurn and i have hastened to you--but general! don your armour at once. why tarry you?" the general had listened to schlemmersdorf in silence and in spite of his urgency without the least movement. "what should i do in camp?" he now enquired. "a strange question, sir general," replied schlemmersdorf excitedly, "as far as one could hastily gather in the camp," he added hurriedly resuming, "you were to take charge of the hungarian cavalry on the left, instead of bornemissa, who is lying sick." "never, never, sir captain," cried the general indignantly, "i will never undertake the command of a detachment unaccustomed to discipline, whose language i do not even know, to whom i could not make my orders intelligible. i am obliged to the prince for the honour and glory, which might have been obtained with the command.--however, sir captain, i cannot be of much use in the camp. i am unacquainted with the state of the army that is drawn up here, i am informed neither as to the strength of the divisions, nor the capacity of their officers; i am entirely ignorant of the plan of proceedings.... sir captain, you must yourself allow, it would be an unparalleled event in the history of military operations, if i resolved to accept a command under such circumstances." schlemmersdorf could not contest the justice of these observations, he was silent. "i can therefore render no service outside there," continued gabriel, "except with my sword, like any other common trooper.... but as the prince did not choose to invite me to the council, though all the other superior officers here present took part in it, i think he will do very well without an individual officer of mannsfield's in the battle-field.... make then my excuses to the prince, if i stay here, where, precisely to-day urgent business, that admits of no postponement, detains me." "there is no more urgent duty than honour," burst forth schlemmersdorf. "i know, general, that you have been badly treated," he added, in a conciliatory tone, "badly treated in many ways, it was wrong of the prince.... but now you are needed, the prince summons you, after a victory you shall have full satisfaction...." gabriel paced the chamber unquietly in deep emotion; a strange horror that he had never before had a presentiment of, thrilled through him.... that he should that very day be summoned to the battlefield! that very day on the anniversary of his betrothal to blume, that very day, when he desired to take vengeance, to accomplish his long matured plan!... schlemmersdorf was in despair, he was willing to make any concession to gain his object. "general," he said at length stepping close up to gabriel, "time presses, resolve quickly whilst we are here idly babbling away the time, the imperialists are perhaps assaulting our lines. this day may decide the fate of frederick's crown, of bohemia. consider; it would be an eternal ineffaceable blot upon your name, if you withdrew at the commencement of a battle.--what would your own age, what would even your friend mannsfield say?" schlemmersdorf had touched gabriel's weak point. his honour as a soldier and mannsfield's esteem were his highest possessions. regard for his honour, and a wild thirst for battle drew him into the field, and yet he on the other hand felt himself chained fast to prague by brazen bonds.--he had looked death in the face unmoved a thousand times, but to-day, just to-day, so near the goal.... to perish to-day on the battle-field, perhaps to die unavenged, perhaps to die without having retaliated the unspeakable woe that had stricken him, perhaps to die without having achieved one single aim.... that was a thought that filled him with fearful unutterable dismay. it seemed to him as if he must strain every nerve to preserve his life for his revenge, for this night--a discord full of torment rent his heart. for a moment he remained undecided, but when schlemmersdorf wrapped his cloak about him and without a word of farewell turned his back contemptuously upon him and stepped towards the door, he made a sudden resolution, "i go with you, schlemmersdorf!" he exclaimed, "go with you ... but i will not fall to-day!"--schlemmersdorf looked in gabriel's face with surprise. he knew that it was no expression of mere cowardice that escaped him; but time was too precious for further enquiries, he urged him to make all haste, and shortly afterwards the two were spurring at full speed through the strahower gate towards the camp. outside the town they encountered styrum who had gone in vain quest for mathias thurn. _mathias thurn was not to be found that day_. * * * the two hosts were drawn up opposite one another. the imperial-bavarian army, over , strong, was in good order and eager for battle. the bohemian, scarcely numbering , , was surprised, and in spite of the favourable ground which it occupied was drawn up in a great hurry by anhalt without any fixed principle. the prince had brought up all the artillery that he had on to the heights that covered his right wing.--this therefore, commanded by the young prince anhalt, was ranged in the line of its own fire, the trajectory of which would pass over its head. hohenlohe commanded the centre under anhalt, bornemissa who had had himself carried to the field in spite of his illness, the left.--the duke himself commanded the imperial army in chief, under him lichtenstein the centre, tilly the left, boucquoi, who in spite of the wound that he had received at rakonitz was again on horse, the right wing. it was a beautiful fresh winter's day. the imperialists seemed for some time to be in doubt whether they should advance. at length, between twelve and one o'clock in the afternoon, the two lines of which the extreme wings were made up, set themselves in motion, and pushed forward with drums rolling and loud shouting. anhalt at once commenced a cannonade from all his guns, but they were pointed too high, and the balls passed far over the heads of the imperialists without killing even a single man. the right wing of the bohemians was now impetuously attacked and thrown back: but young anhalt, supported by bubna and young thurn, broke suddenly (according to the enemies' own account) like thunder and lightning in amongst the imperial cavalry, and his extraordinarily fierce onset in spite of the most obstinate, heroic resistance forced it slowly to give ground. the imperialists lost three standards, and captain preuner was taken prisoner. victory seemed inclining towards frederick's side. but at this decisive moment reinforcements arrived for the hard pressed imperialists. godfrey of pappenheim came up with his cuirassiers just in time to prevent young anhalt's further advance. at sight of the youthful sparkling hero the imperialists again stood firm, and a terrible hand to hand contest ensued. for a quarter of an hour the fate of the battle in this portion of the field was in suspense.--at that moment the three young men, gabriel, schlemmersdorf and styrum reached the white-mountain. gabriel had only one personal friend, john bubna, upon the field. he was on the right wing and thither gabriel turned his fiery steed. his discontent vanished at sight of the battle-field. the hot fight, the blast of the trumpets, the rattle of musketry, the thunder of cannon, all this made him for a moment forgetful of his resolution. thus had he often stood at mannsfield's side. on the battle-plain he had won for himself a new name, respected and terrible. his lust of combat was kindled to a wild heat, he drew his sword, spurred his horse to a mad gallop, and flew swift as an arrow over the level ground that separated him from the field of battle. "ah, thou here, young friend!" cried the elder bubna who had withdrawn for a moment from the thickest pressure, to staunch the blood that was flowing from a flesh-wound.--"that's right of you to come, the sight of you has a wonderfully strengthening effect upon me. how fares it with the other wing?" "i do not know, bubna," replied bitter.... "i am but just arrived.--you hold out bravely against a superior force...." "we had just got the upper hand, when this pappenheim came up with his cuirassiers, and made the issue of the fight again doubtful.... do you see him there with raised visor on a grey horse how he is animating his troopers? he seems to stamp on the ground and call up ever fresh masses of death-defying cuirassiers--but forward, friend!" gabriel on his black horse pressed irresistibly forward. the troop of horsemen, that followed his waving plume, advanced deepest into the fray. his gigantic form, overtopping all about him, and the unwearied strength of his arm, that scattered his enemies like stubble, attracted pappenheim's attention. he had hitherto encouraged his walloons by the brandishing of his glittering sabre, and the thunder of his voice, that was perfectly audible over the roar of battle; but at sight of the bold onward movement of this enemy's officer he suddenly resolved, like a grecian hero of antiquity, once more to assay the oft-proved might of his sword. his afterwards world-renowned youthful rashness carried him where the throng was densest, and mannsfield's out-lawed general was soon confronted by count pappenheim, the most zealous servant of his emperor, the most ardent champion of his faith.--both men were of gigantic stature, both felt, that by one well-aimed stroke a loss might be inflicted on the opposite party which would with difficulty be repaired. gabriel heeded not his fixed intention, nor pappenheim the duty of a leader; forgetful of every other consideration it seemed as if each of them desired but to achieve the object immediately before him or die.--a life and death combat ensued between the two officers, a combat such as most rarely occurs in modern warfare. each gazed for a second motionlessly in the other's face. pappenheim observed with astonishment a bright streak of purple, like a sacrificial flame, on the forehead of his antagonist, while gabriel stared at the crossed swords on pappenheim's brow.--that was the pappenheim, that was the mark, of which the student, nine days ago at the dinner-table of his landlord, reb schlome sachs' had spoken, the same student who had reminded him of his father and mother.--all the past, the immediate future, passed with the infinite-swiftness of thought before his mental vision. he desired to live, to live for his revenge. the mournful presentiment, that to-day, so near the longed for goal, he must die without having attained it, the mournful presentiment, with which he had once before on this day been imbued, sprung up with redoubled violence in his breast. that an adverse destiny should have led him to-day, this very day, against the doughtiest champion of the imperial army!... he would gladly have retreated, but again he had gone too far, it was no longer possible to withdraw. pappenheim stormed against him with all the mad audacity of youthful ardour, a terrible combat began. both were unusually powerful men, both were accomplished swordsmen. pappenheim had expected to encounter an opponent skilful as himself, but he found his master. the foreboding of death which had passed over gabriel, had not dispirited but had made him cautious, he had acted for some time on a system of defence, but suddenly spied a weak point in his adversary's too impetuous attack and, raising himself suddenly in saddle, planted a masterly thrust which his knightly foe could not parry with sufficient rapidity.... pappenheim dropped lifeless from his horse.... gabriel drew a deep breath, and the bohemian cavalry pressed bravely forward, while the cuirassiers discouraged by the presumed death of their leader began to give ground. suddenly, however, a rumour flies through the ranks. that young anhalt has been thrown from his horse wounded, and has fallen into the hands of the imperialists. gabriel heard it, and shortly afterwards orders ring out in bubna's sonorous voice, who had succeeded to the command in place of young anhalt--still there is hope of victory: but the whole aspect of affairs is speedily changed. simultaneously with the attack upon the bohemian right wing the duke upon his own right had made a feigned false attack of poles and cossacks against the hungarian cavalry drawn up opposite to them, an attack however soon repelled and dissipated by the resistance it encountered. the hungarians, whose chief bornemissa was unable to sit on horseback, allowed themselves to be deceived by this stratagem; they pursued the fugitives and looking upon themselves as already masters of the field, broke their serried ranks to seek for plunder. duke maximilian and lichtenstein, who had been watching for this favourable moment, advanced with fresh choice troops against the hungarians. anhalt saw the danger that threatened his left, and sent reinforcements from hohenlohe's cavalry in the centre to the aid of the hard-pressed troops. but lichtenstein received them with a well-directed fire of cannon and musketry, the front ranks fell, and hohenlohe's cavalry took to sudden flight without having struck a blow. a panic terror seized the hungarians, they followed the bad example that had been given them, turned their backs upon the enemy and burst through the ranks of their own infantry. every effort to stop the flight of the hungarians, was vain, they threw themselves into the valley near motol, and endeavoured to cross the moldau by swimming; but the river was swollen, and most of them found their grave under its waves. the infantry, thrown into disorder, deserted by the cavalry and without artillery, was itself also now obliged to make up its mind for a speedy retreat.--the left wing and centre of the bohemian army was beaten, lichtenstein and boucquoi had no longer an enemy before them. the duke also made a sweep round with his right wing and main-body to the left and occupied the heights, on which anhalt had planted the whole of his artillery, and from which his troops had advanced too far. in a short time it was in the hands of the duke, and frederick's soldiers were exposed to the fire of their own cannon. this happened exactly at the moment when pappenheim had fallen, anhalt had been taken prisoner by the imperialists and bubna had succeeded to the command.--bubna ordered a retreat to be sounded. the troops, in rear exposed to the fire of the artillery, in front to the terrible onset of the imperial cavalry, now as their services were no longer needed elsewhere united in one body,--retired in as good order as the unfavourable circumstances would admit of.--a bit of high ground to which they had fought their way between two fires revealed to them the comfortless aspect of the field of battle.... corpses and arms that had been cast away strewed the plain. the centre and left wing was discovered in full flight. a determination had to be quickly taken. it was necessary to separate. bubna decided that he would endeavour to conduct the horse back to prague, so as at least to preserve the remnant of his cavalry for frederick. schlick and his moravian infantry is firmly resolved to die rather than fly, and while bubna accompanied by gabriel turns in the direction of prague, the moravian regiments in serried ranks press through the victorious imperial army, and fighting their way reach the wood of stern, where they again make a stand, but soon succumb valiantly resisting to the last.... the victory of the imperialists was complete, and achieved in less than an hour.--four thousand bohemians, among them one count and several noblemen, had fallen. young anhalt, young schlick and other superior officers were prisoners, all the artillery and camp had fallen into the enemy's hands. the loss of the imperial-bavarian army had been proportionally small. count meggau, rechberg, and fourteen other officers had remained dead on the field, godfrey of pappenheim was afterwards found, alive but badly wounded, under a heap of slain. considering the complete overthrow of the bohemian army, the duke had held all pursuit of the fugitives unnecessary, and close to prague, on the highroad, several battalions of infantry that schlemmersdorf was leading back to prague united themselves to bubna's orderly masses of horse.--schlemmersdorf held out his hand sadly to bubna and gabriel: all three rode in silence through the strahower gate. as they entered the city they saw the palatine. he was clad, as for a feast, in satin. habernfield had not succeeded in persuading him to come to the battle-field, he would not ride out fasting, had purposed that very day to give an entertainment, and would not betake himself to camp till the cloth was drawn. tidings of the complete overthrow of his troops interrupted the ill-timed banquet, he hurried to the gates, where his generals, prince anhalt and count hohenlohe were already coming to meet him. the first was without a helmet and terribly excited. "gracious sire. you have lost the battle, and i my only son on the field!" he cried to him with the agitated grief of an inconsolable father: "all is lost!" frederick was for a moment unable to answer, violent emotion deprived him of the power of speech.--"i now know what i am," he said at length, "there are virtues which only misfortune can teach us, and we princes discover in adversity alone, what manner of men we are." "gracious sire!" now said schlemmersdorf, who at that moment rode through the gate, in a tone of mournful reproach. "you were sitting joyously and cheerfully at table, while your army let itself be shot down before the gates in your cause." "and you have made a fruitless sacrifice of yourselves," said frederick sorrowfully, and a tear filled his eyes: "i am undone!" "god forbid," cried schlemmersdorf; "we are bringing the remnant of the army about seventeen battalions to you; the fugitives at the first blast of the trumpet will return to their standards, mannsfield's flying division stands ready for battle in rear of the enemy, eight thousand fresh troops in support have arrived from hungary and have already reached brandeis.... only give orders for the gates to be shut, and for the burghers to arm and the city can hold out against a long siege." "what do _you_ think, prince?" frederick turned to anhalt. he shrugged his shoulders. "advise me, gentlemen, advise me, what is your opinion?" cried frederick almost imploringly, "what should be done?" "first of all," observed bubna with a side glance at anhalt, "a brave general must be nominated to conduct the defence of the city...." "you have requested my advice, gracious sire!" anhalt now continued, "well then, the open street is a bad place for a serious consultation: permit me to accompany you to the castle, there we will think the matter over...." the battle lost had not diminished anhalt's influence over the feeble frederick. the palatine turned his horse, and accompanied by anhalt, hohenlohe and schlemmersdorf, rode to the hradschin. bubna looked after them in bitter wrath. "what do you think of doing, bitter?" enquired bubna after a long and painful pause. "at all events i shall remain to-night in the city," replied gabriel, "to-morrow we shall hear, what sort of a plan frederick's council has hatched, and i shall guide myself accordingly.... it is settled that our mannsfield shall continue the war, even if frederick concludes a peace. whatever happens, i intend to share mannsfield's fate." "you are no bohemian, bitter! you are free.... but i, i, ... i love not frederick, i esteem him not:--but the diet has elected him: if he is obliged to leave prague a fugitive, i must go with him, i cannot act otherwise. only when he has obtained a secure retreat, shall i join mannsfield--therefore bitter, farewell!" gabriel pressed bubna's hand, but suddenly the old soldier threw his arms passionately round gabriel's neck and kissed him repeatedly with impetuosity. "you saved my life at the skirmish of netolitz," he said, "i have never thanked you for doing it. i always believed that i should some day repay the old debt. but our paths divide--bitter! we are approaching a period, insecure, and prolific of disorder: ... the immediate future may bring death to us, i do not know whether we shall ever meet again. bitter! i feel as if i shall never see thee more.... i thank thee.... farewell!" bubna tore himself away by a violent effort, his rough powerful voice shook, large tears flowed slowly over his powder-blackened face. without leaving gabriel time to reply, he spurred off in the direction of the hradschin. but once more he halted and making a signal with his hand, cried, "farewell, bitter, for ever!" gabriel could make no answer from emotion, and was obliged almost to cling to his horse's neck to prevent rocking in his seat.--that strange flutter within him of a sad presentiment of death, when schlemmersdorf called him to the field, had disappeared in the heat of the fight, but was again powerfully excited when he had stood in single combat against the awful pappenheim. for a moment he had given himself up as lost beyond redemption. but he had conquered, he had returned without a wound, safe and sound to prague: it seemed to him as though he had risen superior to destiny. a bold violent feeling of self-confidence in his strength attained to its highest pitch, and spite of bitter discontent for the lost battle, he still smiled within himself at the childish terrors to which he had given way. but bubna's leave-taking, the gloomy presentiment, which the aged, gallant veteran steeled in many a battle had undoubtedly given voice to, and which gabriel had involuntarily referred to himself, had once again violently shaken him. in swift course, as though to leave his gloomy thoughts behind, he spurred over the bridge into the altstadt, and first held rein in the marienplatz before his residence. his devoted armourer was waiting for him impatiently at the gate. "thank god, gracious sir, you live; you are not wounded.... the battle is lost, is it not?" gabriel hurried, without heeding the armourer's words up the steps and beckoned him to follow. gabriel threw himself into an arm chair, the armourer stood straight as a taper before him, expecting his orders. "martin!" began the general after a long reflection; "you have always been faithful to me, from my heart i thank you for it--you must do me one more service, perhaps the last. this night will decide the fate of prague, of the whole country. i do not doubt that frederick will follow the whispered suggestions of his council, will fly; ... in that case the ensuing morning must not find me in prague.... i dare not fall alive into the hands of the imperialists...." "only, gracious sir, fly," interposed martin, rubbing the back of his hand across his moist eyes; "don't lose a moment!" "no, martin! i must stay here to-night, i _must_ martin!" he repeated impetuously, as if the man had contradicted him; then rapidly paced the chamber, and said softly to himself. "how, if frederick were cowardly and wicked enough to open at once and instantly the gates of prague for the entrance of the enemy.--how if i, the outlaw, should fall alive into the hands of the imperialists, if i, born in ignominy, should die ignominiously by the hand of the executioner, should die without having avenged myself; ... no, no, i stay in prague at all hazards, i _must_ revenge myself.... and then?... surely i have a trusty sword, i will never fall alive into the hands of my enemy.... martin!" he said aloud, "in every event let two of the dragoons who accompanied me to prague, wait for me to-morrow morning early at the schweinthor well armed and with a saddled horse. if in the course of the night the city is put into a state of defence, it will be announced to the burghers and you will hear of it. if this is not the case, we must conclude that frederick gives up all idea of resistance, surrenders his crown.--the best plan will be for you to go to the hradschin and watch carefully whether the palatine takes flight. no carriage can pass out of the city unperceived. to-morrow at daybreak you come to the gate and make your report to me. if the city is given up, i shall go to brandeis to meet the hungarian reinforcements, endeavour to form a junction between them and mannsfield, and the war begins anew.--if the imperialists march in, they will seek me; say that i escaped with the palatine." "gracious sir!" cried martin, "fly at once, tarry not a moment. i will fly with you, i will never forsake you." "what is the matter with you?" said gabriel, moved in spite of the disorder of his spirits by the armourer's proposal. "you are now a domiciled citizen of prague, no one will trouble himself about you, and when the first storm, which will only touch lofty heads, has blown itself out, you can go on with your business in peace. consider, old man! you have only one leg, you are no longer young, a soldier's life is no longer suitable for you.... or are you afraid lest they should pay you out for your fidelity to me? no, martin! there is no fear of that, they do not know of it, and even if they did know!..." "no, it is not that, gracious sir," replied martin; "i only fear on your account. why will you pass this night in prague?... fly at once!" "i _cannot_, martin! i _cannot_," said gabriel; "it will be time enough to fly to-morrow.... i adhere to the directions that i have given. now leave me alone, i have still matters to think over.--we shall see one another to-morrow." martin lingered yet another moment. "gracious sir!" he said. "do you still wish to say anything?... yes, i recollect, i must reward you for your faithful service, and to-morrow in my hurry i might forget it ..." gabriel began to unlock a cabinet. "for god's sake. sir! how could you misunderstand me so? that is not what i desire, i am rich enough:--but grant me this favour--fly to-day, fly at once...." martin's obstinacy was striking. "what reason have you? have you any information? do you think that a rising in favour of the imperialists will break out in the city? speak! "no, by god almighty, i have no information, gracious sir!... but," he added in a low unsteady voice, "i fear, i know not why, that i shall never see you alive again to-morrow." gabriel gave an involuntary shudder. the words of the honest armourer accorded so exactly with bubna's farewell.-- "martin!" he said, after he had recovered his self-possession, "your love to me makes you take a gloomy view of everything.... i cannot set off today, i _must stay here_--my resolution is immovable!" martin bowed himself over the hand, which gabriel extended to him, and wetted it with his tears. "my resolve is unshakeable!" repeated gabriel once more when he was alone.... this was the last word that he had addressed to blume.... he paced the room with long strides. physical exhaustion, unusual but easily to be accounted for, increased his intense mental excitement. his stirring life had been always full of manifold vicissitudes, but to-day in the short space of a few hours an infinity of events had been compressed. once awakened and kept alive by suggestion, from many quarters, he could not quite banish from his soul the thought that he should die _to-day this very day_. he had often been near to death, the enemies' balls had often whistled about him, hostile daggers had threatened him, he might often before have fallen, and unavenged, and without having accomplished his design:--_but he had never been so near it_--on the faintest doubt of the success of his plan he suffered the tortures, which legend attributes to tantalus: only more woeful.... _if he should die to-day without having revenged himself, if he should die, behind him a desolate, empty, aimless existence, before him an unknown future, then there must be a providence, then he must have ruined more than one human life, more than one existence_.--he struggled with the whole strength of his powerful intellect against the thought that would keep rising from the depths of his soul. but the thought was intangible, irrefutable. he might assure himself thousands of times, that there was no ground for these terrors, but for the very reason that he found no sensible foundation for his apprehensions, this inexplicable coincidence of his own sensations with that of his friend bubna, of his devoted martin, caused him a feeling of uneasy astonishment.--but his strong mind gradually with many a struggle composed itself. he could not in truth annihilate the painful thought, but he overcame it. "blume's fate, her husband's life is still in my hands," he said to himself. "the immediate future may cause an alteration in our relative positions.... the grey dawn of to-morrow must not find me in prague.... i do not know whether i shall ever see blume again--the favourable moment for revenge must be made use of!" one hour later gabriel was about to step out of the back-door of his house. he was again in the dress of a student, but he had this time thrown a broad cloak about him. "what do you want, martin?" he enquired in surprise, as he saw the armourer, who caught him hurriedly by the arm. "sir," cried he, "do not enter the jews' quarter, fly, quit the silly passion.... he entreated; what signify jewish women to you?... do not go into the jews' town, they are well affected to the emperor there." "martin! you mean well ... but i cannot follow your advice--see," he unfolded his cloak, under which flashed a scabbard and three pistols, "i am armed, there is nothing to be afraid of. leave me, you know me, you are aware that my resolution is immovable.--remember, to-morrow early at the schweinsthor." gabriel stepped out and hastened to the jews' street. martin gazed after him as long as he was in sight, then closed the postern and murmured with a sigh: "surely i shall never see him again." * * * the news of fredericks complete overthrow had soon spread over the whole city, and the highest excitement prevailed everywhere. the burghers of the altstadt had sent up to the castle, to ask what they should do, and offered themselves to enlist troops and defend the city if frederick would remain in prague. frederick's answer, which he communicated to the burghers by anhalt's advice: "that they should endeavour to make terms with the enemy, for himself he would depart at daybreak" was not as yet known. the inhabitants of the altstadt, well disposed to frederick, were overwhelmed, the population of the kleinseite on the other hand, being for the most part devoted to the emperor, rejoiced at the victory which duke maximilian had won. great excitement too prevailed in the jews' town. numerous groups in the open street were whispering the latest intelligence; all were of the imperial faction. gabriel hurried through this throng. at the corner of a street he happened to run against a crowd of students. he recognised them, they were in the habit of attending the lecture room of the assessor reb lippmann heller, the same which gabriel, in order to keep up at least the outward appearance of a student, had attended. "how do you do reb gabriel;" one of the students turned quickly round, "how do you do? a pity you were not at lecture this morning, it was a lecture! i tell you, you can only hear one like it in prague--wonderful!" the student who had addressed gabriel was a strange figure.--he was the nestor of the prague students.--he had numbered fifty years. devoted to the continual study of the talmud he had found it best after a mature deliberation of five and twenty years to renounce all ideas of marriage. in early days these may very well have been wrecked upon his outward appearance, which in fact offered little that was attractive. his unusual height did not in the remotest degree harmonise with a remarkable leanness that served as a foil to an enormous humped back. his dress was moreover calculated to intensify the strange impression produced by his appearance. of a poor family, and too devoted to study to earn a living by teaching, he was perpetually driven to make use of his friends' cast off clothes. this he did without paying the least attention to their physical stature, and so it came to pass, that his threadbare silken doublet scarce covered his hump, that the much-darned slovenly cloth-breeches turned up their ends at the knee, where they should by right have joined on to the somewhat ragged silk stockings and left a notable gap very imperfectly filled up by a linen band; that the little close fitting cap, whose original black tended towards a very significant red, rested but lightly on his head covered with thick masses of hair, and shook about at the slightest movement of the vivacious man. a grey beard, that hung untended down on his breast, was continually combed out by the fingers of his right hand, and when its bearer was engaged in any animated discussion was forced to submit to have its end turned up artistically into his mouth, and to be bitten, and in fact reb mordechai wag's--that was the student's name--teeth had manifestly thinned this ornamental hair appendage. notwithstanding this very unattractive exterior, reb mordechai wag was everywhere well received. he had a quick intelligence that readily grasped the essence of talmud truth, and a good heart. on account of his dialectics, he was a terror to all itinerant teachers who wished to lecture in prague and a patron of all the humble students who came to the high school there. often, when as was the custom at that time, he was invited by some member of the community to dinner, he sent some one else in his place, who, less fortunate than himself had found no host that day, and while he gave out that he was ill, chewed his small crust of dry bread at home, and laughed at his own cunning. study of the talmud was the one highest aim of his life. it seemed to him impossible that a student could take interest in anything besides a lecture, and even to-day, when everything was in the greatest uproar, it was perfectly indifferent to him, whether the palatine or the duke maximilian gained the victory, and his thoughts ran only in their accustomed track.--it was very unpleasant for gabriel, just in his present temper, to have fallen into the hands of the sympathetic reb mordechai, and yet he was unwilling to draw the attention of the students to himself by making off in too great a hurry. he enveloped himself therefore more closely in the cloak that concealed his arms, and said struggling with his impatience: "i am sorry to have missed to-day's lecture, i shall take the earliest opportunity of asking you to impart to me what the...." "why put it of? i will tell you at once: what have we got better to do now?" "i thought," replied gabriel forcing a laugh, "a moment when every one looks excitedly forward to see what will happen next, when it will be decided whether the emperor or the palatine...." "what does that matter to us students?" interrupted reb mordechai, provoked by gabriel's opposition.... "the emperor will be a mild ruler.... the palatine and the bohemian nobility have also protected us jews, but how can that be helped, they haven risen against the government, and you know, that is not right.--but let us leave all that to the holy one, praised be his name--and occupy ourselves with an exposition of his words.... the master then...." "reb mordechai," now interposed a young man with a dark expressive countenance, whom the others called reb michoel; "leave that for the present. it is a fine thing when learning is combined with knowledge of the world.... the affairs of this world are also of importance even though you cannot understand it; you come from outside," he continued turning to gabriel, "have you perchance heard anything more authentic about the battle? it is reported, that the hungarian cavalry was at first victorious, but that the heavy artillery of the imperialists had silenced the fire of the small...." "what does it signify to a student," asked reb mordechai vehemently, "whether the cavalry fired on the infantry, or the infantry on the cavalry, whether they first let off the small firelocks and then the great guns, or contrariwise? what rightly constituted student troubles him about such things? a student may become a rabbi, or a butcher, or peaceful father of a family, but have you ever seen a student that became a soldier?" a third youth who had as yet taken no share in the conversation drew nearer. "i have only been a short time in prague," he said, "i have up to this time been studying at frankfurt on main, i am not aware whether the name of gabriel süss is known to you.... he was first an able student, and then became a soldier." gabriel shrunk within himself; he heard himself thus named for the first time since many years, he made no answer, but michoel shook his head negatively. "gabriel süss.... süss"--repeated reb mordechai thoughtfully, "was not he a bastard? i once heard something about it.... but i have no memory for such trifling matters." "what happened to him?" asked michoel inquisitively, "tell us, i pray you." reb nochum--that was the name of the frankfurt student--complied with reb michoel's urgent request, and related gabriel's history, departing indeed here and there somewhat from the truth, but on the whole correctly enough. his story concluded thus, that gabriel had once since his baptism been seen by early acquaintances on horseback with several imperial troopers, but might perhaps, as he had disappeared since that time, have met his death in the juliers and cleves war. "yes, i have heard something of the kind," said mordechai, when the frankfurt student had finished; "but it was not known in prague that he had become a soldier, it was reported that he had drowned himself; who knows however whether it was true.... besides you know, he might have been declared legitimate, yes truly," added mordechai hastily, feeling himself once more on firm ground, "the mothers declaration is worth nothing, gabriel süss ought not to be looked upon as a bastard, refer to the jad-ha-chasaka cap. &c." ... "that's all very well, reb mordechai," replied michoel, "but you forget, it was a dying mother, a dying mother will not part from her child with a lie.... and moreover she had ever till then, as this story is told, loved her son.... besides, what would be the use to him? will any one, will any one person doubt, that he is a bastard? if you had a sister or daughter, would you give her to him to wife? think of that, reb mordechai: _no power on earth could establish the legality of his birth before our inward convictions!_" michoel's glance chanced to rest upon gabriel's face, he noticed the fiery red, and deadly pallor that coursed in quick succession over gabriel's features.--"_not before inward conviction_," echoed gabriel, feebly.--reb mordechai had no answer to make, and a pause ensued. gabriel might now have got away, but he would not, the conversation was too interesting to him not to hear the end of it. "the law: that a bastard may not enter into the congregation of the lord," began reb nochum again, "is unreasonable. why should the innocent be punished for the sins of his parents? why is he cast forth from the closest, loveliest union? why may he never lead home a loving woman as wife? why may he not be happy in the circle of his family? yet consider, even in this law the spirit of the lord comes to light, which breathes upon the faithful out of every word of holy scripture. contemplate this bastard, this gabriel süss.... he cursed his inanimate mother: ... only a bastard could do that, no man could perpetrate such an iniquity, unless he were born in sin.... the transgression, that called him into life, urges him ever farther forward, and involuntarily he trod the paths of sin.... therefore the lord in his wisdom may...." "you are a thinker," michoel interrupted the speaker, "and i am glad to have met you: such are not often found among students.... _a firm faith in god is not shaken by reasonable speculations, if they are kept properly subordinate_. but you are in error friend! god forbid, that any man should be obliged to follow a path absolutely fixed beforehand, the path of sin.--where would his free will be? that is not so. you may not give a daughter or sister to a bastard as wife, so the commentaries enjoin us--but only that and nothing further is declared by the talmud--that is a command, like many others, a command of the lord's, obscure and inexplicable to man's mind.... but a bastard may be noble, great, a shining light to his people. are you not acquainted with the article 'a bastard profoundly versed in scripture is superior in dignity to a high priest who is less deserving.' is it not true," michoel turned to mordechai, "that it is so. gabriel süss ought not to have despaired, ought not to have acted as he did. the lord had blessed him with earthly wealth, had endued him with a powerful intellect: he might have been a benefactor of the poor, a staff to the infirm, a teacher of his people, an example of humble submission. in the enjoyment of the highest mental activity, the undisturbed study of god's word, in strivings for a future state, he might have found consolation, and peace even in this world. _his fate was in his own hands.... it was his own fault that he perished_." gabriel felt as if a blazing thunderbolt had fallen in the depths of his soul. he pressed his hands spasmodically against his heart and was forced to sit down upon the curb-stone. mordechai, whose understanding was not transcendent enough to appreciate the force of what had just been said, observed this as little as reb nochum, whose attention remained entirely fixed upon michoel's words. it was only the sharp glance of this latter that noticed gabriel's emotion, which he was incapable of controlling.--_the state of frightful excitement_, of feverish expectation in which he found himself, _had still more intensified and exaggerated the impression of those words_. he felt at this moment with the whole power of his comprehension that in the most decisive events of his life the torch of his wild hatred had been his only light, that everything had come grinning to meet him distorted by its gloomy dismal rays.... the words which might once have fallen like assuaging balsam upon his bleeding heart now struck him with the whole weight of their convincing truth. the thought, that might once have saved him, now filled him with nameless unutterable woe. the audacious confidence with which he had believed himself irresponsible for all that he had done was broken--michoel had shown him what he might have been--how different had he become! a pause had again ensued. mordechai now observed with horror that he was almost too late for evening-prayer, and hurried with reb nochum into the nearest synagogue. michoel remained standing before gabriel who seemed nearly to have lost consciousness. at last he asked, recovering himself, in a dull voice: "who are you and what is your name?" "i am michoel glogau, i was born in silesia, and have finished here my course of talmudic study. i have been summoned to breslau as preacher--and what is your name?" "i am called gabriel mar," he replied to the interrogation in a trembling unsteady voice. "gabriel mar, mar, mar," echoed michoel quite softly and thoughtfully, his eyes fast fixed on gabriel: "strange!... are you unwell, that you sit there thus languidly on the stones?" "yes.... no.... rather--i shall soon be better. why do you gaze at me so fixedly? only go away, reb michoel, do not be disturbed on my account.... i am often wont.... to suffer so. away, i pray you, away, away...." michoel went off, stopping from time to time to look round after gabriel. he sat for some minutes as if changed to stone, but--whether it was recovered self-possession, or whether the heavy snow which began to fall had roused him--he got up suddenly, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and looked motionlessly at the spot where michoel had stood, as if to convince himself, that they were not fantastic dreams which hovered over him, then hurriedly strode to his dwelling. as he arrived at the end of the narrow lane that led out of the jews-town to the old-synagogue, he suddenly heard his old name gabriel süss called. taken by surprise he involuntarily turned his head--he saw no one and hastened with redoubled speed to his house by the old-synagogue. "it is he!" said michoel stepping from behind the corner of a wall that had concealed him from gabriel's sight, "my suspicion was correct, gabriel mar--is gabriel süss. i must speak with him." * * * gabriel was once more in his room by the old-synagogue. in a few hours, since the forenoon when schlemmersdorf had summoned him to the battle-field, what numberless events had happened within and without him. frederick had lost his crown, the emperor had won a highly important victory. he had been present at this weighty catastrophe, had been a witness, a participator in the hot combat, his life had been threatened on all sides. he had stood opposed to pappenheim, the most accomplished knight in the imperial army, and believed that he had slain him--and all these occurrences of which any one would have been sufficient to have put the most strong minded into a state of intensest excitement disappeared and left no trace in gabriel's soul. michoel's words had called forth a fresh flood of emotion in his overcharged breast. a new sorrow never before anticipated strove with the old grief in his breast. with the whole gigantic strength of his intellect he endeavoured to swing himself up out of the wild chaos of thoughts which would have indubitably thrown any one of weaker mould into the black night of madness.--with both his mighty hands pressed against his inflamed and glowing lofty brow, as if to force all thoughts to one point, he sat for hours by the table in strong inward struggle. "no, no, no!" he cried out at length impetuously, "now it is too late, too late! gabriel, thou hast gone, too far, too far, now thou canst never recede.--thou art like that acher, he that heard said of himself: 'turn again ye stiffnecked children.... all but acher!'--yes michoel. thou man with a beautiful voice, with mild friendly gleaming eyes! hadst thou stood at my mother's death-bed, hadst thou then addressed me thus.... but they had all rejected me.... oh, blume! blume! why did you treat me so? had you but extended to me, _i will not say your hand, but your compassion_.... alas! one single word of comfort on that day of atonement, in my fierce wrestling with the unutterable grief! why did you not speak like this michoel? oh! i should have been quite another man, surely, surely, i should have been a changed man!... blume! you might have been the preserving angel of my life.... you cast me from you, you became my demon!... gabriel held both hands before his face: yes, _you_, _you_," he now suddenly cried, and wild fury repressed all gentle feelings, "_you_ have forced me to take the path which i tread.... you have poisoned my existence, annihilated my hopes!... if i now stand between a comfortless past and a hopeless future, i will at least turn the present to account, i will at least bring my ruined wretched life to a consistent conclusion. i will avenge myself, sweetly, fearfully.... this night i dedicate to revenge--and then--myself to certain death: the next battle i will hurl myself where the enemies' ranks are thickest, will bathe my naked breast in a warm shower of bullets. one blade, one ball will surely find its way to my heart broken with sorrow!--and when alone and forsaken, trampled by horses' feet on the bloody plain, i expire: then will i raise my failing eyes for one last defiant look, then with unbending spirit i will once more exclaim: where art thou whom men call, all just, all mighty, all merciful? dost thou behold? i die desolate forsaken unwept,--cursed by the woman whom once i madly loved, rejected by the father...." this thought, that had been woven like a red thread through gabriel's spiritual life, this thought, that had continually buoyed him with hope or racked him with despair, according as the waves of his troubled spirit were rising or falling, now worked upon gabriel, only if possible more violently, if possible, with greater tenacity. he tore open the window in almost mad haste, and looked up to the partially clouded starry heaven: "give me my father, if thou art almighty, let me find him, find him _to-day_, _to-day_.... and i will offer up to thee the greatest sacrifice, the woefullest sacrifice, the sacrifice of my revenge; let me die in my father's arms ..., and i will perform my vow, yes, yes, i will bow my stiff neck as i die, _i will repent, will say that i have sinned, that thou art all merciful, all just, almighty!_ my last breath shall be a 'hear o israel'.--i will die like a pious jew: but thou must give me my father, give him _to-day_! canst thou do that. almighty one?" the phrensied scornful laughter with which he accompanied these last words, echoed over the empty court, and reverberated dull and hollow from the spacious adjacent vaults of the opposite synagogue, the lofty windows of which chanced to be open. in the highest state of bodily and mental tension gabriel sank back in his chair, the warm stream of blood that had rushed to his head and threatened to burst his forehead, flowed again slowly back to his heart: a sudden collapse, as is often the case, followed after this indescribable excitement; after this, but later, a calm reflective mood. in this state his landlady schöndel found him, when she opened the door, and asked: "reb gabriel, you are sitting in the dark, do you wish for candles?" accepting gabriel's silence as consent, she disappeared directly to fetch a light. on his return home gabriel had laid his weapons upon the table; he wished to hide them quickly before schöndel returned with a light. a large old bureau, belonging to his landlord, stood near him: but the key was not in the lock. without stopping to reflect he opened its bottom drawer with a strong kick and threw the arms into it. a moment afterwards schöndel entered with a light: gabriel leaned heavily against the broken bureau to conceal it from schöndel. "where have you been all day, reb gabriel?" she asked, "we have not seen you since early morning! what do you say to the news of to-day?... we in the jews-town are absolutely without information; perhaps by to-morrow morning early the imperialists will already occupy the circle of the altstadt." "indeed, then i must make haste," said gabriel. "why make haste?" enquired schöndel with an air of surprise. "that is quite clear," answered gabriel recovering himself, with a forced laugh. "i have now been rather a long time in prague and have to speak the truth not studied much talmud. i must recommence. if the city is surrendered, everybody's attention will be diverted, i myself shall be disturbed, and my good intentions will be again postponed for some days. i will set to work this very day. at midnight i shall go to the lecture room and study all night long. then before daybreak i shall go to prayers in the old-synagogue. i suppose the gate will be open early enough?" "yes, but you must be in the jews-town two hours before midnight or the gates will be shut ... well, i am heartily rejoiced that you intend beginning to behave like a real student.... but you will not come to prayers to-morrow morning, i give you my word of that?" "why not?" asked gabriel. "early to-morrow you will be sleeping a deep sleep, out of which a person does not easily awaken."--schöndel heard her husband's voice calling her and hurried away. gabriel had misunderstood the last words. students, who staid awake the whole night in a lecture-room, were in the habit of falling asleep towards morning and so being late for early service. this was what schöndel had meant jokingly to signify: but gabriel was in no mood to understand a joke, and these words sounded gloomily and bodingly.... they accorded so strangely with the terror of the faithful armourer, with bubna's affecting farewell, with the mournful presentiment that had many times in the course of the day taken possession of him! the stroke of the clock on the rathhaus indicated that hour which corresponds to eight in the evening. he wished to be in the jews-town before the gates were shut, two hours before midnight, so that he had still some time before him. the superhuman excitement of the day, the delicious torment of the expectation of revenge, that kept all his manly energy on the stretch, could not long continue in such strength. he was afraid, that the excess of these sensations would drive him mad, would kill him. he passed his strong hand over his lofty brow, and firmly closed his eyes, as though to annihilate thought.... he sought for some object adapted to occupy his mind otherwise for two hours:--one suddenly offered itself to him. a manuscript had fallen out of the bureau when it was violently broken open.--he now noticed this for the first time. he picked up the sealed packet, it was written in hebrew, and the envelope informed him, that it was the history, the testament of reb mosche, his landlady's father, which was to be first opened twenty years after his death. he locked the door of his room, pushed the chair to the table: unsealed the writings and read.--its contents were as follows: "on the d day of the month tischri, that is the day which succeeds the feast of tents, in the year according to the lesser jewish reckoning. it will be seven and thirty years to-day since i kept my th birthday, and now i have reached my th year. on the same day too i left the ancient, worthy community of prague--in which i had passed my youth, and where god willing, i will end my days--on a wide and weary wandering." "i cannot employ this day more holily than by beginning to write the leaves of my biography; the leaves which i intend for you my children. when you break the seal of these writings i shall have been for years no longer among the living; but as a father's infinite love reaches far beyond the grave, so will your recollection of me survive, and you will not then refuse me the fullest sympathy.--i have written down the narrative of my life, that at least after my death there may be no mystery between us. "my father, may the memory of the just be blessed, was that most learned talmudist and cabbalist rabbi jizchok meduro. he was descended from a very old family that flourished for centuries in spain, and his ancestors had always made themselves conspicuous from learning and attachment to their faith.--fearful and bloody persecutions of the jews had compelled his father, a little orphan boy, to a formal change of faith. when arrived at man's estate it repented him that he had, though but in outward profession, laid aside the faith of his father's, and when the officers of the inquisition discovered him at a celebration of the passover, and led him before the tribunal, he openly confessed that with all his soul he was a jew. he mounted the scaffold at seville. he sang psalms and hymns with devout mind, while the flames with a thousand greedy tongues licked up his bloody body, at length a jet of flame shot up into his face and extinguished the light of his eyes. one 'hear oh israel' escaped in a suffocated voice from the breast of the dying man--at the same moment a heart-rending cry, a cry that made the bones creep, resounded from the cathedral square, and a woman fell down lifeless. it was the wife of the dying man; she was pregnant with my father. two hours afterwards he saw the light of this world in a dismal cellar--soon after her delivery, his mother succumbed to the most maddening grief. the day of my father's birth was the day of his parents' death. a small red flame was observed on the forehead of the new-born child, an effect of the frightful torture, which the horrible sight of the scaffold had inflicted on the mother stricken with mortal terror.--devout jews, themselves in want of every assistance, took care of the helpless orphaned babe, noble mothers suckled him at their breasts. but bigotry was not satisfied with the bloody sacrifice. another of those frequently recurring persecutions of the jews had broken out in the spanish peninsula; there were to be no more jews in spain. whoever would not abjure the old faith was to leave the country within four months without carrying with him silver or gold. a hundred thousand souls forsook goods and possessions to save their relics in a far country, to escape from a land, where their prayer to the one true god was stamped as a crime. a number of noble men, who crossed the sea to barbary, carried the baby with them, in order to preserve the offspring of so illustrious family for its faith. but the poor people, without money and without protection, were rejected from the coast, a portion of the fugitives succumbed to the plague, a portion fell into the hands of pirates that carried them into captivity: some however were so fortunate as to find a refuge in portugal after terrible sufferings.--among these was my father. he had in the meanwhile grown to be a glorious boy. he had as yet experienced nothing but sorrow. the infinite crushing misfortunes that had marked the day of his birth had made an indelible impression on his mind, and even on his features.--a profound abiding melancholy rested on the boy's thoughtful face, and the red fiery spot that sparkled on his forehead never allowed him for a moment to forget that flaming scaffold that had consumed the body of a loved idolised father, the sight of which had caused the death of his mother. "the youth jizchock meduro soon discovered a wisdom almost equal to solomon's, a fervent love for the faith. he was worthy of his renowned ancestors. leading a solitary life, he found consolation only in religious studies, and in investigating the powers of nature, and he devoted himself to these pursuits with the greatest zeal. his immense industry, added to unusual intellectual gifts, enabled him to obtain the most beautiful results and the youthful jizchok meduro was soon accounted one of the lights of the portuguese jewish society. "my father had attained the age in which he thought it right to choose a wife. his choice fell upon a spanish orphan, whose father, of firm faith and devout, had also expired upon the scaffold.--in the first year of a happy marriage she gave birth to twins, myself and brother. the small cosy family circle seemed to banish the spirit of melancholy from my father, and not indeed to extinguish but soften his sorrowful recollections. even this domestic happiness was however soon to be destroyed. persecutions of the jews broke out in portugal also and were soon followed by a royal edict that forced the jews to change their religion or to leave the country. my father fled with his wife and two children, then in tenderest years. hunted like wild beasts of the forest, we crossed the pyrenean peninsula and a part of france. no house, no cottage would hospitably entertain us. at night we were obliged to sleep on the open heath. a drink of water was often refused to the perishing. and we could only attribute it to god's visible protection that after unutterable hardships we reached german ground. in a city on the rhine our dear mother sunk under the unwonted sufferings of the long journey--she lies buried in cologne.... my father was alone in a foreign country with two little boys. too proud even in the misery of exile to be a burden upon his benevolent brethren, he wandered over the whole of germany, and when at length he arrived in prague he considered it an interposition of providence, that the post of upper-servant was vacant in the old-synagogue, where the same ritual prevails as in portugal. he offered himself as a candidate for this office and when he mentioned to the overseer of the synagogue his name the fame of which had reached far into germany, the latter expressed much regret that my father did not prefer to accept the chair of rabbi in a community, or whole district. but my father had been too sore afflicted by the strokes of adversity, he desired to live unknown in perfect retirement, for his faith, for his religious studies, for his sons. nothing could be refused to a man so famous; his wishes were entirely fulfilled by the authorities. reb jizchok meduro became upper-attendant, but it remained a secret to every one else that the servant reb jizchok was the great teacher from portugal. here then, where i lived as a little boy, and afterwards as man, and where god willing, i will close these wearied eyes, here in this house, which you my dear children now inhabit, lived and studied my deceased father.... his immense knowledge, his wisdom, his ascetic habits, filled every one with a profound reverence for him, which was if possible increased by his kind though reserved manners. "it was natural that a feeling of reverential respect should also animate myself and brother to the highest degree. except at prayer we met nobody. our father never received visits, and as we children did not go to school we had no play-fellows. our father was all in all to us. in our tender years he had performed for us all the troublesome and petty services of a nurse-maid; as we grew older, he was our instructor; were we sick, he was our physician and nurse.... the profound gravity that rested on his features only gave way to a soft gentle smile when we, my brother and i, sitting below there in the synagogue at his feet, listened to his wonderful expositions, expositions than which since that time i have never heard any so admirable, so inspiriting; when he perceived how the fire of his mighty eloquence found its way to our youthful hearts and kindled them.--he loved his children infinitely, but refrained from showing it. he never kissed us, once only when he thought that i was asleep, he pressed his lips to my forehead, and a scalding tear rolled down on my face--a sweet rapturous shudder crept over my limbs but i did not venture to open my eyes." gabriel stopped at this passage. the image of that pale tall man, who had once pressed his hot lips upon his own young forehead, whose tears had once wetted his face, now appeared vividly, more vividly than ever before him. he now felt sure that this image of his youth had been no dream, and believed himself convinced that if it were now to appear before him he should recognise him, him whom he held to be his father. gabriel read on:-- "this proof of his affection encouraged me on that day to the timid question, what was the meaning of the purple streak upon his forehead, a mark, that also at time showed itself on us children when we were violently excited. i had expected a monosyllabic answer from my taciturn father, but contrary to his wont he recounted to us with the whole power of his mournful recollection the terrible events of his life. these we now learnt for the first time, we learnt for the first time, the place of our mother's grave.... 'the spot, that sparkles on my, on your foreheads,' concluded my father, '_is a remembrance of the man from whom we are descended_, who suffered the most painful death in sure trust upon god.... may it be ever remind you to be worthy of your ancestors....'" gabriel laid down the manuscript. the fiery mark upon his own forehead now seemed to burn him painfully.... was he, just at the moment when he desired to come to a violent and complete rupture with his earlier past life, was he, just at the moment when he was giving up all hope of finding his father, that nobler aim of his life, was he just at that very moment to find a direction post? might not the mark whereby to remember, be also a mark whereby to recognise? after short reflection he once more seized the manuscript with feverish haste and read further:-- "these confidences made an immense impression upon us children, and often, as we sat idly by twilight before the gate of the synagogue, we discussed our father's narrative with mournful emotion, always coming to the conclusion, that we would do all in our power to sweeten our father's life, and some day, when we were grown up, to wander to cologne to pray at our mother's grave.... i have already mentioned, that we, i and my brother, had no playmates; but in truth we did not care to associate with other children; the infelt brotherly love, with which we were mutually penetrated, quite filled our young minds. chance, or rather god's providence, guided me however to a young friend, a friend who became the stay of my life.... i had once gone on a commission from my father to an artisan who had some work to deliver for the house of the lord. my way home led me by the banks of the moldau. a pack of wild schoolboys were insulting and ill-using a delicate jewish boy, apparently of about my own age. his cry for help aroused my warmest sympathy. born under a hot southern sun, i did not reflect that i was but ten years old and alone, but threw myself into the thick of the throng, and came to the assistance of the poor maltreated child at that moment when two of the worst, irritated by his feeble resistance, would have tossed him into the river. 'do you want to kill the lad?' i cried with the whole force of my young voice, 'the river is deep, he will be drowned! the first that touches him is a dead man!' "my arrival, the decided tone of my speech, made the wild troop hesitate for a minute; but immediately afterwards a scornful horse laugh resounded. naturally strong, indignation gave me double force. with a powerful blow of the fist i compelled the biggest of them, who had got tight hold of the poor sufferer, to let him go. i disengaged the little pale jew-boy who was bleeding at mouth and nose, and whilst i encircled him with my left arm, i threatened with the right to fling into the river whoever dared come near us with hostile intention. twenty strong clenched fists let fly at me. i accepted the unequal struggle with superior numbers, and they soon perceived that they had to do with an antagonist, at least much surpassing any single one of them in strength.... i resisted till my call for assistance brought up some jews who fetched the watch. the wild troop dispersed on their arrival with a loud shout, and i carried, though myself bleeding from many wounds, the fainting boy to the door of his house. the boy was your father dear schlome; carpel sachs, son of the wealthy beer sachs.--arrived at home, as soon as i had told my father what had happened, i fell down and fainted.... my father poured some drops from a flask into my wounds, kissed the blood from my face and smiled kindly.--i was well again, i was happy! next friday the wealthy reb beer sachs sent me a beautiful new sabbath-dress and three gold-pieces, but the present was resolutely refused. the little carpel had, in consequence of the fright and the ill usage he had been exposed to, been obliged to keep his bed for a week. the first time that he was allowed to leave the house he came to thank me. the tears in his eyes, the profound gratitude, the beautiful words with which the dear boy knew how to give such a true and warm expression of this feeling, won my heart. carpel asked if he might often visit us, and as my father had no objection to make, carpel came to us as often as he had time, and a firm bond of love and friendship was knitted between us, in which my brother, also a noble-looking handsome boy took the warmest sympathy. carpel looked upon me, not unjustly, as his preserver, and his to a certain extent respectful behaviour towards me, that he kept up even to old age, caused almost the only difference in our kindly intercourse. on the occasion of his frequent visits he not unseldom took part in our lessons, and on his side only regretted that we, my brother and i, could not make up our minds to come to his house; but the present of the wealthy reb beer sachs, who had never considered it necessary to thank me in person for the real service which i had rendered his son, had wounded us too deeply; and so it happened, that he scarcely knew his son's preserver by sight. "we boys spent our time monotonously and quietly, our life was now made beautiful by the love of our little friend carpel. but on a sudden the hardest blow that could befall us, destroyed our calm happiness. it was that feast of atonement when i and my brother, as we should in a few days be thirteen years old; were fasting for the first time. the day was declining, the departing sunbeams cast their red light, that gradually faded before the advancing darkness, through the lofty narrow windows of the old-synagogue, and the tapers were already dimly burning. a profound silence prevailed in the vast space filled with worshippers, when my father stepped to the desk to offer the appointed evening prayer. i myself, though weary and excited, leant against the marble enchased wall which incloses the steps that lead up to the tabernacle in order to look my father in the face as i listened. he was a wonderfully glorious man and at that moment was like an angel. thus had my childish spirit pictured the prophet elias!--his form was tall and unbowed. the dark beard, but scantily sprinkled with grey, fell down upon his breast and curved strikingly upwards against the long white robe, while the locks of his hair, which forced their way from under his turban, were already shining in the silvery glimmer. his noble face now bore a stamp of the deepest devotion, and over his flashing eyes, whose glance kindled enthusiasm, there glowed a dark purple flame in the centre of his forehead. the prayers on the day of atonement are striking, but in my father's mouth they made an extraordinary impression. he did not look into the prayer-book that laid open before him, but gazed heavenwards, so that it seemed as if what he was saying came from the inspiration of the moment, as if he was a divinely inspired seer. every word that sounded with the full melody of his voice from his lips penetrated victoriously and irresistibly into the hearts of all present. as he repeated the confession of sins with agitating expressiveness all were melted into tears, and when on the other hand he gave utterance in prayer to a devout trust in god's mercy, all felt exalted and strengthened. at length he came to the end. with pious confidence in god he intoned seven times at the top of his voice: 'the everlasting is our god' and as the thousand voiced loud chorus of all who were present broke magnificently against the vault of god's temple, my father sank suddenly down:--i caught him in my arms.... "'i die,' he said in a feeble but audible voice. 'lord of this world! my father dared to breathe his life away upon the scaffold for the glory of thy holy name.--me thou hast not accounted worthy of this favour.... but thou permittest me to die here, on holy ground, reconciled to thee, at the conclusion of the festival of atonement.--father of all i thank thee!'--then he signed to my brother also to draw near him, and said in faint dying voice that grew ever weaker and weaker: 'my children, time presses.... your mother rests in the grave at cologne.... in prague, as attendant in this consecrated house, i have passed the loveliest most tranquil years of my life.... love one another.... sorrow not, despair not!... what god doeth that is well done.... this world is but the vestibule of the next, bear this ever in mind, and some day _on your own deathbeds inculcate it on your children_--a benediction--a faint 'hear oh israel,' and the noble man was no more! "the day but one after we stood weeping at his grave as we returned to our now desolate house, i asked my brother: 'what shall we do now?' the sensible boy fixed his bright eyes upon me. 'didst thou not hear what our father said at his decease? your mother lies buried in cologne ... we have prayed to-day at our father's grave, shall we not also visit the last resting-place of our dear forsaken mother?' "'yes, yes dear, brother,' i cried, casting myself with loud sobs on his breast, 'to cologne, to cologne, to our mother's grave.' "during the seven days of mourning we arranged that directly after the feast of tents we would start on our long journey. to our single friend the little carpel we made known our intention to his deep and infelt regret. tears rose in the poor boy's eyes, but he repressed them like a man, that he might not vex us still more. on the feast of tabernacles we both, my brother and i, kept our th birthday. it was just the day on which expositions are made. we attended the early service and got ourselves called upon to expound. then we went to the burial ground, where the rulers of the old-synagogue had caused a handsome gravestone to be erected to my father, on which a bunch of grapes and the symbols of a levite were chiselled.... and then with slender bundle on back and staff in hand went forth from the gate. carpel accompanied us for an hour. he pressed a small purse into the hand of each of us, and assured us, that it consisted entirely of his own savings and that he had said nothing to his father about this present. then we renewed once more our covenant of eternal friendship.... "'forget me not, dear friends,' said carpel as he took farewell.... 'mosche! i thank thee once more; we are still boys, but shall some day be men, do not forget, mosche; that in prague you have a friend, whose life you have saved, who is for ever thy debtor, who is prepared every moment of his life to pay the heavy debt.... forget me not, as i will never forget thee! carpel kissed me, my brother, then flung himself once more sobbing aloud on my breast. exerting all the force of my soul i at length tore myself away.... we set off, carpel sat himself down upon a hillock and gazed weeping after us.... he was very sorry for us.... we were so lonely, so forsaken. father and mother lying in the grave, and our one faithful little friend staying behind in despair!--ignorant of the road we wandered over all germany. we experienced many a sorrow, many a pain, but were sometimes entertained compassionately and sympathetically. after a difficult journey of many months we at length arrived at the end of our travel, at cologne. our hearts beat high as we passed through the city-gate. but the unwonted fatigues of the long way, had exhausted my brother's strength, and the poor boy fell down, sick and worn out, in the open street. i was alone with him in a strange city, my burning eyes sought help despairingly--then god sent us a preserver. an elderly gentleman stepped out of the house on the threshold of which my brother was lying unconscious. "'a sick child in the open street?' he enquired, 'who is the boy?' "'it is my brother,' i answered shyly, 'we are orphans, we have come from far away out of bohemia, to visit our mother's grave....' "'carry the boy into the room upstairs,' was the gentleman's order, 'lay him in bed, let him have some broth, i will attend to him directly....' "'we are jew-boys, gracious sir,' i cried quickly. "'i too am a jew,' smiled the worthy man, 'i am baruch süss, favourite physician to our gracious elector, the archbishop of cologne.'" gabriel shuddered but read on:-- "bustling servants carried my sick brother up the broad stairs into a splendidly furnished room and laid him in bed. i stayed with my brother. the noble humane baruch süss examined him with the greatest attention and found that he was lying sick of an inflammatory fever, that he probably would require nothing but complete repose, and that it would not be possible to form a decided opinion as to the further progress of the disorder till after a lapse of one and twenty days.--suddenly fresh childs' voices were heard at the door, which was pulled open and two lovely maidens peeped into the room. the roguish smile on their face rapidly yielded to the deepest emotion, as their father enjoined silence by a sign, and informed them in a low voice that they must give up their room for the present to a poor parentless boy, who had fallen suddenly ill in the street. _the two maidens were the daughters of baruch süss, miriam and perl_." the manuscript escaped from gabriel's nervously trembling hand. must the memory of his grandfather, of his mother, just to-day, in the hour when, obstinately advancing, he wished to cut off the last possibility of retreat, must it just to-day be awakened in him in such a strange, unexpected, he was obliged reluctantly to admit, in such an almost miraculous manner? was he perhaps to discover in this writing, that a curious accident had played into his hands at a critical moment, a solution of the mystery of his birth? and if he did find it, should he account all these remarkable coincidences as chance, or rather as a wonderful proof of that all powerful providence which he had often so defiantly challenged? these thoughts assailed gabriel with all the compass of their fearful import, and worked upon him all the more effectually, as the tide of the swiftly succeeding events of the day was calculated to shake the strongest determination. he paced impetuously up and down the room. "i must not read further," he muttered to himself, "till i have embraced a resolution. if i should find a disclosure about my father in this manuscript, if i durst hope that he would fold me in his arms, that he would press me lovingly to his breast, gabriel, what in the whole past, what in the future would matter unto you? if i could find my father, if i could find him such as i have always pictured him to myself in the short moments of blissful dreams, if such i could fold him in my arms--though it were but for the most infinitesimal instant of time that the human mind can conceive--_god_!" gabriel's passionate excitement had attained a height that may easily be imagined. in the most violent excess of a feeling that eagerly sought an escape he had uttered the word, that, at least in his self-communings, had not passed his lips for a long series of years, and he almost shuddered, as the strange sound fell, if involuntarily, almost believingly from his mouth.... "but if he be dead, and gone," cried gabriel, looking up suddenly almost joyfully, "if i should learn precisely out of this manuscript, that he is irrecoverably lost to me.... if then no other tie than vengeance, continues to bind me to this life, _then_, _then_, ... my purpose remains immoveable." he sat down, and his eyes could not fly over the somewhat faded characters with sufficient swiftness. he read on:-- "my brother was taken the best care of. death had once ravished from our benefactor baruch süss two hopeful boys in one week. these boys must have been of about our age, and this circumstance heightened the sympathy that his noble heart felt for us, especially for my sick brother.--it happened just as baruch süss had prophesied. for three weeks my brother lay in fever and delirium: on the twenty first day he dropped for the first time into a profound and peaceful slumber. süss waited for the sick child's waking with almost fatherly compassion. at length my poor brother to my inexpressible delight opened his beautiful dark eyes, raised himself in bed, and looked about him in wonderment. 'where are we? mosche!' he asked in a feeble trembling voice. i threw myself passionately on to his neck and my tears bedewed his pale sunken cheeks. "'thou hast been ill, poor child,' said süss, 'god has permitted thy recovery, thou must be grateful to him.' "i related with an overflowing feeling of gratitude, with how much goodness our benefactor had behaved towards us, and as my brother seized the noble man's hand in deep emotion, pressed it to his quivering lips, and vainly struggled after words to express his heartfelt thanks, a strange convulsive movement passed over the face of süss, and his eyes filled with tears.... 'you are dear good boys!' he said, profoundly agitated.... the memory of his two early lost sons may have combined with the warm sympathy of his own great heart. he hurried out of the room, that he might not depress the spirits of the convalescent by his unwonted emotion. we remained alone. at this moment we felt ourselves infinitely calmed, we did not stand any longer so entirely alone, so entirely forsaken! süss allowed the convalescent to take fresh air in the garden attached to his house, and it was there, that we became better acquainted with his daughters. they were probably rather younger than ourselves. both of them, but especially miriam the elder, had been endowed with the most excellent natural gifts. their extraordinary and, especially for maidens of their age, almost unparalleled beauty most perfectly harmonised with a subtle, comprehensive, deeply penetrating intellect, with a disposition that seemed formed to be a shining example to youthful womanhood. the friendly, confiding, almost sisterly behaviour of the girls which their good father manifestly approved of, made a profound, inerasable impression upon us. "so long as my brother was not quite recovered, we dared not think of accomplishing the aim of our journey, of visiting our mother's grave. it cost me a severe struggle, not to hasten alone to the burial ground, but it would have vexed my poor brother, and i loved him so fervently! "at last he was strong enough.... we walked out to the burial ground. our father had given us a sufficient description of the stone that covered our mother's grave; we found it easily, and the long desired aim of our journey was reached. the frame of mind in which we found ourselves i cannot paint to you, my dear children? the most reverential fear, the most sorrowful emotion seized powerfully hold of our young minds.... we prayed long and softly, and when at length we were forced to tear ourselves away in order to return home, we flung ourselves with loud sobs into each other's arms. 'we have no father, no mother, ...' said my brother, deeply moved. 'i have only thee, thou hast only me!--i will love thee for ever, for ever, i will never forsake thee, never! brother, love me too, as i love thee!...' "i could not answer from excitement. i folded him impetuously to my loud-beating heart, and pressed my hot lips to his pale forehead, on which at that instant a bright streak of flame was burning. the firm bond of brotherly love was to be knitted if possible still more closely, the beautiful covenant was anew concluded, in a sacred hour, in a spot that was infinitely holy to us children! "'what will you do now?' asked süss, when we returned, grave and agitated, to his house. this question surprised us. since our father's death we had entertained no other thought, could not have grasped any other thought than to pray at our mother's grave. it had so entirely filled our young minds, had kept our spirits in such perpetual excitement, that we had not even for a moment considered what was to come after, that we now for the first time cast a scrutinising look upon our future. we stood with downcast eyes for a while in silence before süss. my brother recovered himself first. 'what do we propose to do?' he repeated.--'before anything else to render thanks to you, dear benefactor, for your inexpressible goodness, for the kindness, for the fatherly affection that you have devoted to us poor forsaken orphans in such abundant measure, to thank you for tending me a poor boy, and with god's assistance healing me in a sore sickness--to thank you, ye dear good girls for your compassion, for that ye were not proud towards the poor stranger boys, that you weeped when i was sick and rejoiced, when the good god let me recover,--for that you were kind to us as sisters, you rich beautiful maidens to us poor, poor boys!' ... and next he continued after a short pause during which he strove to overcome his deep emotion, and swallowed with an effort his hot tears, next we shall pursue our journey, go to some school, study god's word, and endeavour to become worthy of our father reb jizchok meduro, to become worthy of our grandfather, who ended his life heroically upon the scaffold, in remembrance of whom the fiery mark sparkles on our forehead in moments of sanctification!' "my brother ceased; he was glorious to look upon, his eyes flashed beaming with soul, and the fiery mark of which he spoke, even then rose splendidly and contrasted with the pale, still somewhat sickly, child's face, with the pure forehead white as alabaster.--i gazed with a sad fraternal pride on my twin-brother, who seemed to draw his words in strange wise out of his breast. the two girls sobbed softly, and baruch süss required some time to collect himself. "'i will not let you go, you dear fine boys,' he cried, 'never, no never god forbid that i should let you go out into the wide world, forsaken, orphaned. seeing that a fortunate dispensation caused you to cross my threshold, you must now remain with me. i too had once two beautiful good boys.... the lord hath taken them from me. will you supply their place to me? will you be my sons, will you be the brothers of these girls?' "this unlooked for offer took us by surprise. the blissful feeling that we had suddenly, unexpectedly, found a new home struggled with an innate proud reluctance to accept a benefit for which we could make no return save our boundless gratitude.--we wavered for an instant and knew not what reply to make; but when miriam grasping our hands with tearful eye and trembling voice implored us not to go away, to stay with her father--it seemed to us as if no opposition could be thought of; we stayed. "baruch süss treated us ever with fatherly kindness, and we always succeeded in preserving his favour. our late father had already initiated us in the study of god's word, and so it came to pass, that in spite of our youth we had soon made rapid progress. in the house of süss we had now full leisure to indulge in our wonted occupations. all our wants were cared for in the kindest manner, and we soon felt as much at home as in the house of our parents--baruch süss was besides so good as to let us be instructed in those sciences, of which our father in the tenderest years of our boyhood had only been able to give us the first indications. his exertions in our favour had the best consequences. the examples of our forefathers continually hovered before our souls, and urged us to the greatest industry, to the highest sacrifices. we were soon proposed as a brilliant pattern to the jewish youth, not only in cologne, but in the whole rhine-country--our names were every where mentioned with distinction, and baruch süss felt himself thereby richly rewarded. we lived happily and contentedly, and grew up.--i may now when all that is over say so--two splendid youths, equally well developed in mind and body, while miriam and perl blossomed into exquisitely lovely young women. "i had arrived at the age, when the heart willingly opens to love. miriam's infinite attractiveness, the enrapturing grace of her demeanour, her noble heart, her wonderfully penetrating mind, had made a powerful, ineffaceable impression upon me, an impression that soared to the height of love. i did not make the slightest attempt to conquer this noble passion. miriam's most friendly kindest sympathy did not permit me to regard my bold hopes as unattainable, the less that baruch süss too, when we became young men, made no difference in his domestic economy, allowed us to make use of the intimate 'thou' to his daughters, and recognised our deserts with almost fatherly affection.--his immense wealth, his influence, his position at the electoral court, made it moreover possible for him in the choice of his sons-in-law to neglect the petty considerations which so frequently stand in the way of the dearest wishes. i rocked myself in dreams of a happy glad future, but i avoided giving expression to these sweet dreams and my hopes remained for months a secret even to my dear and infinitely loved brother, to my brother whom in fact i loved more than myself! at length it seemed to me treachery against my fraternal affection, if i should any longer preserve silence with respect to a feeling that struck daily deeper root in my soul. we occupied a room in common, and in the dusk of a fading summer's day i opened my heart to him. i held my arms twined about his neck, and leant my head on his cheeks. it seemed to me, as if he suddenly shivered and began to tremble; but i convinced myself that it was a delusion, and as he gazed for a long while fixedly before him, i thought, that liveliest sympathy for me had plunged him into a deep reverie. i sought to read his features, but the increasing darkness made this impossible. 'art thou then convinced that miriam loves thee?' he enquired at length in a dull voice. i had often put the same question to myself, and ever given it an answer favourable to myself, and miriam's behaviour justified me in doing so; but i forgot that she behaved exactly in the same way to my brother, and it was only the later unfavourable turn, which this connection, that at first caused me so much happiness, took, which directed my attention to that fact, without however my being ever able to fully make out the real state of the case: and even to this day, when manifold experiences have increased my knowledge of human nature, i cannot say for certain whether miriam then loved me or my brother, or whether her virgin heart hovered in anxious timorousness between us. at that time i believed that i could answer my brother's question with an honest yes. the dejected silence into which my brother sunk anew, was equally misunderstood by me, i thought that i saw therein only an excessive fear lest baruch süss should refuse me his daughter's hand. i remained but a short time involved in this error; i was suddenly bitterly undeceived. some days afterwards i awoke in the night and heard a loud and violent talking and weeping in my room. i sprung swiftly from my couch. it was a clear starlight night, and the pale moonlight fell just upon my brother's bed--he, as was often the case with him, was talking in his dreams. the sorrow, that was printed on the sleeper's face, the large tears, that welled from under his closed lashes and rolled over his pale cheeks, filled me for a moment with a strange pensive grief; but i soon smiled at my childish pity. i would wake him, scare away the evil dream, that enchained his mind--but as i was about to call him, there fell on my soul, as it were a quivering flash of lightning, followed by a roaring thunderclap, and the words which escaped slowly from his lips became on a sudden clear and transparent.--i listened with restrained breath. "'i love my dear brother more than life,' he said, 'and he loves miriam!... hush, hush! no one shall hear of it, but thou, my god and lord; thou that beholdest my writhing, lacerated heart.... i will be silent, silent as the grave for ever.... not miriam, not my brother, no man shall hear of it.... oh! indeed i am glad, brother! dear brother, take miriam for thy bride.... and, i can surely die! i will not trouble the joy of your wedding day, i will not weep.... no! i will be glad and laugh at your happiness, will laugh so right heartily, as on my brother's day of rejoicing, on the wedding day of him whom i most ardently love.... oh, mine is no forced laugh, i laugh so truly from my whole heart; see--ha, ha, ha!...' "but my brother did not laugh, but sobbed convulsively. my heart contracted frightfully, an indescribable, almost physically painful grief thrilled through me--i could not at first speak for maddening sorrow, but then cried aloud, casting myself upon the bed of my sleeping brother: 'no, dear one, no, thou shalt not give her up.... miriam shall be thine.... thine, thine, for ever.' "my brother awoke.--what i said, showed him clearly, that i was acquainted with his heart's secret. i lay upon his breast sobbing aloud. "'a woman, dear brother!' he began at length with trembling voice vainly striving for composure--'a woman, though it were the glorious miriam, shall not divide our hearts. thee only i possessed in the wide world, thou wert my all, brother! dost yet remember, how thou, thyself sick and weary, didst carry me in thy arms, when on our journey to the mother's grave i had wounded my foot? dost yet remember, how thou didst watch at my sick-bed for three weeks together, and didst scarcely get any sleep? dost yet remember, how our dying father exhorted us to love one another? dost yet remember, how we renewed the covenant at our mother's grave?--and do you think that i, that i have forgotten all that, all that? no, brother: take thou miriam to wife.... be happy! "a noble strife arose between us. each of us wished to give up with bleeding heart, and neither would accept the sacrifice offered by fraternal love.--the most curious, the strangest ideas, such as could only be born of so desperate a situation, danced in rapid succession before us.--lot, miriam herself should decide; but they were rejected as fast as entertained. at last a manly resolution the fruit of a long painful struggle ripened in us: _we would both give her up_. neither of us should possess miriam, and our love should remain a secret for ever. in our mutual passionate brotherly love we determined to forget the infinite sorrow that filled us.-- "we wished, we were bound to leave the house at daybreak, to which the mightiest ties enchained us. on the next day we stood pale, confused, with tears in our eyes before our friend süss who had loved us as a father, and declared to him with hesitating voice our suddenly formed resolution of leaving his house, of proceeding farther on our journey. süss was alarmed, he glared at us speechlessly, our fixed purpose seemed to have overthrown one of his favourite schemes. he vainly endeavoured to detain us, fruitlessly enquired the reason that had caused us to take a step so unexpected. 'stay with me, i have good designs for you....' repeated süss over and over again sadly, and when he saw how immovably we remained true to our purpose, he said at length painfully subduing his pride: 'stay with me, be my sons.... i have only daughters, two lovely glorious daughters.... but i wish also to have two sons.... will you not be my sons? my daughters, i have good ground for thinking so, are affectionately disposed towards you....' süss said no more, his parental pride struggled with his parental love.--to us it was clear that süss had intended to make choice of us as his sons-in-law, and that his daughters had fully shared the wish. i and my brother, as twins usually are, were almost exactly like one another, for which of us would miriam have decided? a painful torturing pause ensued. süss could not divine the real reason, why we who had entered his house as poor orphan boys, despised his exquisitely graceful daughters, the loveliest, wealthiest, noblest maidens among the german jews. we, my brother and i, needed all the strength of our manhood, not to succumb to the unutterable pain of despair. one of us must of necessity be standing close to that hotly desired aim, that we both, each with the fullest force of his will, were striving to attain--and now to be obliged to draw back, to be obliged to draw back in silence, and by so doing to inflict an injury perhaps mortal on him whom we loved beyond measure--that thought annihilated us. "süss, wounded in the most sensitive place of his heart, in his pride as a father, was profoundly mortified. 'i cannot and must not detain you any longer,' he said with bitter grief.... 'go!... may you never repent having thus departed.' then he stepped hastily to the door and said with an accent that rent our hearts: 'oh, would that you had never crossed the threshold of my house!...' "we would not thus separate from our benefactor. we hastened after him to his room--it was closed against us: we sent by an old servant of the house to ask that we might as a favour be allowed to take farewell of his daughters, it was refused us. we almost succumbed to the unutterable grief of despair..... on the evening of that same day we proposed to leave cologne, the inexhaustible goodness of süss furnished us with an abundant outfit for our further journey--but he would never see us again. at night-fall we got into the travelling carriage, that waited for us at the back door of the house. we cast a sorrowful look at the window of that room which miriam occupied.... two maiden faces looked forth into the gathering twilight, and the violent trembling of one of them, who pressed her handkerchief to her eyes, showed that she was sobbing impetuously--it was miriam! "our hearts beat audibly, my brother's beautiful features were frightfully disfigured, he must have suffered as unutterable woe as i did.--i gazed into his face, visibly convulsed with sorrow. 'brother,' i said, 'there is yet time.... i can renounce.... do thou return to miriam. if miriam wavers between us both, or even if she loves but one of us, thy return will be decisive in thy favour.... thou, miriam, our benefactor süss, you all will be happy....' "'and thou?' asked my brother in a tone of the woefullest reproach. "'i go far away and strive to forget....' i tried hard to answer, but my voice shook, and tears rolled irrestrainably over my cheeks. my brother fell sobbing into my arms.--'i will never forsake thee, brother!' he cried--'good brother! cast me not away from thy noble heart.' "we went from one school to another; our name was already known far and wide, we met with a friendly reception everywhere: but we felt nowhere at home. we never mentioned miriam, but the memory of this hapless love threw a gloom over our life. we plunged with unwearied industry into the study of god's word, we increased our stores of knowledge, but the thorn in our bleeding hearts did not therefore pain us the less.... we had acquired in the talmudic world an unheard of renown for students, we were often honoured by letters from illustrious rabbis, who desired our advice, our opinion upon scientific religious questions. the most important rabbinates were offered to us, we might have obtained the highest aim of a talmud-student. but neither of us could do so. memory still drove us unquietly from place to place. "a year had elapsed since our departure from cologne, when in one of our wanderings we happened to hear that the younger daughter of the wealthy electoral physician süss had given her hand to her cousin joel rottenberg of worms, while the elder had previously absolutely refused to enter into the bond of matrimony. this news filled both of us with a strange sensation of sadness. to each of us, though he dared not allow it to himself--a ray of hope seemed to dawn:--and yet neither of us would have been made happy without the other. once more, for the last time i asked my brother whether he would return to miriam; but he saw my soul's infinite sorrow, after a short violent struggle his fraternal affection conquered, he stayed with me; we would never separate: "another year elapsed, we were then living in germersheim, a community not far from spires. we had in the course of our short residence there won the approval and respect of the rabbi, and when he died soon after our arrival, he enjoined the community upon his death-bed to elect one of us as his successor, and it besieged us with petitions that one of us would accept the vacant chair of the rabbi; and marry the daughter of the defunct who lived with her now widowed mother. i was still in no mood to accept these offers, however attractive and honourable they might be; my brother also decidedly refused them. we determined therefore to withdraw ourselves from all further discussion by a distant journey. i was busily occupied in my little room in the house of the rabbi's widow packing my effects for the journey, when my brother suddenly entered. he was pale as a corpse, his looks were troubled. "'do you know what a foreign student has just been relating _in the lecture-room_?' "'what?' "'miriam süss has at length yielded to her father's entreaty and given her hand to her cousin joseph süss of spires.--the wedding was solemnised magnificently at cologne.'-- "i felt a warm sympathy for my brother; at that moment i perceived for the first time that he was of a more passionate nature than i. the heavy blow, which i had expected for years, came upon him like a thunderbolt out of a blue sky. he fell upon a chair, in vain he pressed his hands to his face, the tears welled out between his fingers. "'but brother, brother,' i cried, myself struggling to keep down all the recollections and thoughts that awoke within me, couldest thou have expected anything else? why troublest thou thyself? what can it now signify to thee? be a man, brother, be strong!' "'god!' sobbed my brother, 'could i have known that!... could i have known that miriam would be so weak as to forget me! oh! brother, brother, believe me, miriam loved only me, me and none else, she could love no one, as she loved me! oh, i made a great, an infinitely great, sacrifice to thee, when i gave her up, _fruitlessly gave her up_ to thee!... oh! why wert thou not magnanimous, why didst thou accept this sacrifice?' "i looked into my brother's face with the deepest grief, i had never seen him so passionate, so excited before, and yet i thought that i knew him as well as myself, for was he not my twin-brother. it seemed to me almost as if at that moment the dark night of madness was shadowing his clear spirit. the fire in his eyes sparkled wildly and weirdly. "'thou hast made a fruitless sacrifice of thyself to me?' i repeated painfully agitated: 'did i desire it, did i wish for it?--and i, i? dost think my heart is of stone? dost think that i have suffered less than thou, because i have said nothing? i too have often screamed in the bitter agony of my soul, as i watched in despair through the long melancholy night.--consider, brother! i, i do not reproach thee.' "i suffered inexpressibly: the news, which again painfully tore open my heart's wounds, joined to the passionate unjust reproaches of my brother, whom i loved so tenderly, by whom i believed that i was so tenderly loved, agitated my mind with such violence that i fell dangerously ill. for eight weeks i strove with the angel of death. in the confused wild fever dreams of my sickness it sometimes seemed to me as if an angel approached my couch, as if a girl's white hand touched my burning forehead--once i thought, that a lovely woman bent over my bed and that a tear rolled down upon my face.--god--praised be his name--granted my recovery. he refreshed me with the springs of his infinite grace. the sickness had had the most beneficial, the most inexplicable influence upon my life. a new fresh stream of blood seemed to roll through my veins. i was restored not only to bodily, but also to mental health. my love for miriam, now the wife of another, which i must have violently eradicated, had died out in a miraculous manner. oh yes, it was a miracle! and i thanked god for that instance of his goodness!--the noble handsome girl who had nursed me with more than a sister's care, who had watched night after night by my bed, full of sympathy and compassion, was thy mother, dear schöndel.--leah the daughter of the rabbi's widow.... thy mother was lovely and good. as long as miriam had reigned in my heart, i had not noticed the wonderfully beautiful maiden, but now, that i was once more free, my earnest gratitude was easily converted into an infelt, fervent, faithfully returned love. half a year after my convalescence leah became my wife, and i took my seat in the rabbi's chair at germersheim. "during my sickness my brother had shown me the most self-sacrificing love, and had attached himself again to me with the greatest tenderness, as though to make me forget the inauspicious reproach that had pained me so much. i had never borne ill will against him. true it is that he had shaken with rude hand the firm bonds, that held our hearts entwined, that the hasty word which he had uttered, had touched me to the quick,--but, dear children! you do not know what brotherly love is, you do not know, how one loves a brother, and above all a twin-brother!... from our birth, from our mother's lap we had been united to one another by the sweetest holiest bonds.--the same pulsation had stirred our hearts, we had lain on the same mother's breast, we had hitherto fairly and equally shared every sorrow and every joy.--i could not help it, i was constrained to love my brother with undiminished cordiality! "in the first year of a happy peaceful marriage thy mother presented me with an admirably beautiful girl, with thee, dear schöndel.... i was happy, but my happiness endured but for a short time; eight days after your birth thy dear never to be forgotten mother died! you may conceive my profound grief! i formed a firm immoveable resolution never to marry again, and following my father's lofty example to dedicate my whole life to the study of god's word, to the religious care of my community, to the education of my only beloved child.--in the conscientious performance of my duties i at length found tranquillity, and when thou, schöndel, didst gaze at me with thy sweet child-like smile, when thou didst extend to me thy little delicate hands, i felt myself almost happy! "my brother was my faithful companion. he occupied a small room in my house and studied almost the whole of the day. my heart was filled with the sad remembrance of my deceased wife, so soon snatched from me. i never thought of miriam except with a sensation of friendly gratitude. every feeling of love for her.--i have already said so--had quite died out in me. i could have calmly conversed with my brother about her father and sister: but i did not dare to do so, because the profound silence which he preserved, was an unmistakeable sign, that he had not yet conquered his once deep felt love, that it still remained rankling with full strength in his soul. miriam's name therefore never again crossed our lips. many advantageous offers of marriage were proposed to my brother, he was elected as rabbi by many important german communities: but he firmly refused everything, and paid no attention to my well meaning advice.... we often sat all day together, plunged in the study of the talmud. once we were engrossed in the solution of a case that had been laid before me for my decision by two rabbis, who could not come to an agreement with respect to it. we had long remained seated, then in the eagerness of discussion began walking round the room, and at last, as was often the case, happened to stop before the open window. my brother was just on the point of controverting a proposition that i had laid down, when he cast a glance through the window.... he instantly became dumb, his arms fell powerlessly by his side, his lips moved convulsively, but emitted no sound. "'what ails thee, brother?' i asked in terror. "he made no answer, but stretched out his arms and pointed to the street; i saw a lady, stepping out of a travelling carriage. "'what ails thee, brother?' i repeated more earnestly 'i see nothing that can have discomposed you to such a degree.' "my brother gazed fixedly at me, as if he thought my question an incomprehensible one, then pointed once more at the lady and collecting all his strength, screamed involuntarily in a loud shrill voice: 'miriam süss!' and trembling convulsively fell down pale as a corpse. my brother did not come to himself till late in the evening. he was right, it was miriam. joseph süss her husband, had a lawsuit with the magistracy of the city of spires, and wished to wait for the issue of it at the adjacent town of germersheim. his wife had followed him. i felt sorry that joseph süss had selected just germersheim for his residence, not for my own but for my brother's sake. "i did not venture to talk to my brother about miriam's presence; the sight of her had too much affected him. i made a slight attempt to advise him to go a journey while her stay lasted in germersheim; but his eyes flashed, as he answered: 'brother, i have no one in the wide world save thee! i have sacrificed everything, the dearest thing on earth, to thee, cast me not away from thy presence!' "after a time he became gradually calmer, and i was already beginning to indulge a hope, that he had reconciled himself to his immutable destiny, when after the expiration of some months his behaviour again altered in a strange and striking way. my brother avoided my society, came to me seldomer and seldomer, till at last he shut himself up in his room, and refused either to see me or speak to me. i did not know how to explain this to myself, and only waited a convenient opportunity, to have a private conversation with him. this i at length found, i was usually the first in god's house, and as a rule unlocked its doors. one morning, it was winter. i stepped into the dark and quite empty interior, shortly afterwards the iron gates grated again and a form appeared on the steps that led into the inner synagogue. the pale trembling light of the lamp that ever burneth revealed to me my brother. he stopped irresolutely, as if he would avoid an interview with me alone. i did not give him time to take a resolution, stepped quickly up to him and held out my hand to him. but his hand trembled in mine, he could not bear my steadfast gaze, his eye, that once was wont to look me truly and honestly in the face, remained fixed on the ground, and even his features formerly so beautiful seemed to me marred and disfigured. the red streak of flame on his forehead burned to a deeper hue than had ever been seen on him before, broad violet coloured circles were stamped under his glistening eyes, his blue lips quivered incessantly, it was clear, that my poor brother could not encounter my looks. i gazed into his face, a profound inexpressible pang, an incommunicable sympathy seized my heart:--but then suddenly a ray of conviction flashed across me, brotherly love sharpened my spiritual eyes; miriam was in germersheim, her husband was absent, my brother loved her with a furious passion.... his face bore the cains-mark of guilt, there was no doubt, _my poor brother had sore sinned!_ i let fall his hand! i was too violently agitated, and vainly struggled a long time for a word.... my brother broke the painful death-like stillness that reigned in the broad space with no sound. it was a silent confession to me of his guilt! "pious worshippers now began to enter into the temple, and i could say no more to him at present; in the deep silence of night, alone, i determined that he should hear his brother's warning voice. "i passed the day in a state of most painful excitement. had my brother's bleeding corpse been laid torn and disfigured at my feet i should not have so profoundly mourned him! could i with the last drop of my heart's blood have undone that, which i now felt myself constrained to admit as certain,--i would have gladly shed it. it was for me to raise again my brother, my poor fallen brother, out of the bottomless depths to which he had sunk. it was for me to tear him from the strong arm of sin; i knew, that it must have been a hard struggle in which my brother was subdued.... "after midnight.... all around was sunk in deep sleep--i crept to the door of his room. i knocked at first gently, then louder, no answer followed.--the key of my room also opened this door. it was not till after long hesitation that i crossed the threshold with loud-beating heart. the small lamp, that i carried with me, threw its dull light round about; i stepped to my brother's bed, it was empty.... my brother was not in his room--i sank down in despair; i had in truth before been convinced of my brother's guilt; but the certainty, this horrible certainty that robbed me of every, even the faintest shadow of a hope, seized my heart anew with a grief as terrible as if i had up to that time had not the least presentiment of it! at the very moment, when my fraternal heart was crying out in the depths of its agony, at the very moment when i was prepared to make any sacrifice to save my brother, at that very moment _my brother_, _my brother_, 'my second i--oh no, more, more;' i had loved him more than myself, i would have sacrificed myself thousands of times for him--was wantoning! at that very moment my brother was wantoning in the arms of an adulterous woman, _of that woman whom i had once idolized with pure chaste fervent love_.... "what was i to do? i must stay, i must wait for him, though my poor heart should break. i seated myself by the table and tried to read a bible by the lamplight: but i could not. incapable of thought i gazed out through the open window, and made frequent fruitless attempts to collect myself, to ponder over the address with which i proposed to receive my brother. every second seemed a century, and yet, and yet i would gladly have postponed the painful moment, and yet i trembled sadly at the slightest sound, that the wind made in the passage. i might have sat thus for three long hours that seemed as if they would never end, when i heard a faint rustle, and shortly afterwards a powerful form swung itself through the window. it was my brother.--he remained standing stiff and motionless as a statue before me. at sight of him all my blood flowed back so swiftly and violently to my heart, that i thought that it must indeed burst; a cold shudder crept over my bones, i had half got up, keeping one hand on the open bible, as if i would draw strength and confidence from it. a long pause ensued, it exhausted my nervous system, more than ten years of trouble would have done! "i had reckoned with certainty that my brother would fall broken-hearted into my arms, that the sight of me at that hour would remind him of all that he had forgotten. i believed that he would come to meet me; but i had deceived myself, my brother remained stiff and motionless and never once dropped his eyes.... "in spite of the immense excitement in which i found myself at this fateful moment, the whole impression of it has continued uneffaced in my memory, and even at this day, when i am writing this history--though almost twenty years have since elapsed,--the image of my poor brother stands with perfect clearness before my soul, the image of my brother, as j saw him then for the last time. he was tall, about the same height as myself, his eyes flashed weirdly under black bushy eyebrows, on his forehead, the fiery sign of our family glowed in deepest purple, his dark beard set off the frightful corpselike pallor of his face, his quivering lips were so violently convulsed that his large moustachios kept continually trembling, his long abundant hair fell in tangled masses over his shoulders." gabriel stopped again. from the depths of his soul confused memories all suddenly emerged, that ever became clearer and clearer. that form, which had once pressed its burning lips on the face of the frightened child, stepped life-like before him--a half faded reminiscence of a beggar, who had once followed him in aix-la-chapelle from the church door to his house, again gathered life and strength. strange to say, it now for the first time, after a long series of years had weakened and effaced the impression of these forms, seemed to him, that they resembled each other--that both, gabriel thought that he could not be mistaken--corresponded with the description of his father. in vain he sought to realise another embodiment of this picture, which he imagined that he had seen only a short time back. but human memory possesses this strange peculiarity, that it is just the impressions of the remotest past, and especially youthful impressions, that survive with greater vividness and clearness, than those, we have received later; and, as the best shot in the heat of battle often misses the nearest aim, in the same way did gabriel, usually so strong-minded, in his almost mad excitement vainly strive to conjure up this recollection. he hoped perhaps to obtain from what followed more particular discoveries about his father and read on:-- "i was determined to preserve silence, and left it to my brother to break the profound stillness, that could not be less painful to him than to me.... my brother was silent for a long time; his breast laboured fearfully, he breathed heavily, his face too was extraordinarily convulsed as i had never seen it before. the veins on his forehead swelled, as if they would burst, his underlip dropped loosely down, foam gathered on his mouth before he had spoken a word.--i perceived, that he was seeking a word, a thought, wherewith to crush, to annihilate me. i was afraid of him, but nevertheless gazed at him fixedly and steadily. at last after a hard struggle some words escaped from his lips, but his voice sounded hollow and dead: 'what seekest thou here in the dead of night? why dost thou act as a spy upon me? art thou my keeper? what dost thou want of me?' "i had not expected such a stubborn unbending defiance. i stood at first as if turned to stone, but at the next moment my hot spanish blood immediately boiled over; with a wild passionate excitement, such as one only feels at such a moment, under such circumstances, i answered my brother. "'dost thou ask, what i want of thee? can you dare ask? can you look me in the face as if you were free and innocent? do you not sink into the ground for shame? look into your own breast! look! your very face bears signs of your wicked wicked deed.... you ask what i want of you? i would save you, tear you from the strong arm of sin, but lo! it holds thee fast in brazen chains!--i stopped, my words seemed ineffectual. my brother's features bore an expression of the wildest fury, he gnashed his teeth, but made no answer. "'brother!' i began again, after a short painful pause, 'brother! hast thou then forgotten everything, everything? hast thou no more memory for the past, no regard for the future?... oh, gaze not at me so stonily, as if thou didst not understand me.... brother, by that infinite love which i have felt for thee, by the memory of our deceased father, by the recollection of our early lost mother upon my knees i implore thee,--think of it, _only think of it_, what a transgression thou hast committed!... yes! gaze at me as you will, with eyes sparkling with rage, gnash your teeth, clench your fist, i do not tremble, yes! thou hast fearfully sinned, yes, yes! dost hear?' "i was so immeasurably confounded by my brother's obstinate unexpected resistance, that i could say no more. i grasped at the bible which was lying on the table, opened at the ten commandments and pointed silently at the seventh. "'thou shalt not commit adultery!' i recommenced after a deep pause, during which we could hear our hearts beating.... 'thou shalt not lust after thy neighbour's wife.... dost thou see, thus it is written, thus was it declared to listening mankind on flaming sinai!... well then, that word of god, that word of god, which was a pillar of fire unto thy people illuminating them in the darkness of night, and an ever refreshing fountain in the heat of the day, that word of god, for which thy grandfather endured a death by fire, that word of god whose everlasting truth, thy father, i, every pious jew, would have sealed with his heart's blood, that same word of god thou hast despised, cast from thee, trampled under foot!... art thou not acquainted with the sentence of our wisemen. all shall be inheritors of the kingdom to come, all save three, the adulterer, the....' "i could say no more, a fearful change came over my brother. his features, even before marred and disfigured, now took an expression so frightful, that they scarcely seemed to belong to an human being, all the blood in his face seemed to have gathered into the dark-red borders about his eyes, these protruded in an unnatural size far out of their sockets, his mouth stood wide open, and disclosed his beautiful white teeth--he resembled at that moment a wild blood-thirsty animal. "'thou hast robbed me of this world, wilt thou rob me of the next too?' he yelled, after a long pause with a loud howl and threw himself furiously upon me. i perceived to my unutterable grief, that my well meant but bitter word, had penetrated the inmost recesses of his soul, that the consciousness of his guilt had awaked in him with overwhelming force, that it had suddenly conjured up the darkness of madness over his once so clear and luminous mind.... in vain was now my friendly address, he attacked me with the wild fury of delirium. 'brother! let go, let go, force me not to exert my strength?' i cried, 'we are still brothers, twin-brothers, i am still thy mosche!...' but my brother heeded me not, he seized me in his nervous grasp by the neck. my life was in imminent danger. i did not much value life on my own account; but i desired to preserve thy father for thee, dear schöndel, thou who haddest none other in the wide world but me, and the thought of thee gave me a giant's strength! i had at first vainly more than once endeavoured to force away my brother, whose hand compressed my throat violently, but could not succeed in doing so.... my breathing became difficult, the blood rushed to my head, lights danced before my eyes. i was giddy, i felt that some decided course must be taken, that i must disengage myself from my terrible opponent. i collected all my strength, and forced him with the whole weight of my body to the ground. 'peace, mosche, peace!' said my brother at last, grinding his teeth, after a fruitless struggle to break from my arms.... let me go, i will be quiet!' "i trusted his promise, but at the next moment he sprung upon me with the fury and agility of a tiger, fastened his sharp teeth upon my naked breast, and made most desperate efforts to strangle me. i screamed aloud for excess of pain, and seized him, in obedience to a dim instinct of self-preservation, by the throat.... a violent wrench of my sinewy wrist--and my brother with a hollow muttering and distorted visage sunk lifeless down! i stood for an instant in despair, motionless, then threw myself, mad with grief, upon the ground and endeavoured to recall him to life. my exertions were ineffectual! "i recovered my presence of mind with astonishing rapidity, and it was again the thought of thee, my dear daughter! which drew me out of the wild storm of despair.... i opened the window, and cried out aloud to the star-spangled heaven: '_lord of the world: thou hast seen it, thy paternal eye was watching_.... _i am not guilty of his death, i am no cain, my hand did not shed this blood!_'" gabriel, exhausted, almost unconscious, ceased reading, and threw the fateful writing far away from him.... the superhuman strength, with which he had hitherto attentively and greedily devoured the faded characters, gave way. the hope of obtaining information about his father, of searching him out, of being able to fold him to his beating, bursting heart, had pervaded him with the wildest, most blissful rapture--and now, now all these hopes were scattered, annihilated; the very name of his father, which, as if intentionally, was not once mentioned in the manuscript, remained unknown to him.--_the more beautiful nobler aim of his life continued to be unattainable by him_. what mattered to him the farther contents of the manuscript? of what importance to him was it to learn, how rabbi mosche in that same night had taken flight with his daughter, to escape the avenging hands of human justice? of what importance was it to him to learn, how reb carpel sachs had received the old friend of his youth with warm affection? of what importance was it to him to learn, how reb mosche, as attendant in the old-synagogue had led a peaceful, contemplative life, how he embraced the firm resolution, to give the hand of his daughter to a man who like himself, like his deceased father, would accept the modest office of attendant in the old-synagogue, where far from the busy tumult of the world he could peacefully live for his faith, for his duties: calm and isolated, like his father, like himself, might quietly close a storm tossed life.... what did all this and more signify to gabriel? had he not learnt that his father was dead, lost to him for ever--did he not know, that the hot unstilled longing of his soul must remain for ever and ever ungratified, were not the thousand threads, with which his heart hung to the sweetest hope of his life, suddenly painfully snapped!... gabriel read no further. he sat for a while motionless in his chair. language has no power to express the tempest of emotion, that whirled through his breast, and it needs the boldest flight of imagination, to picture it even in faint colour to oneself. "_that hope then is vanished!_" he said at last after long silence, pressing his hand convulsively on his heart, "that hope is vanished!... _there remains to me then but one, the only aim of my life. vengeance_ ... mannsfield is still at pilsen, blume's destiny is yet in my hands!... i thank thee, chance, thou hast wonderfully led me, thou hast solved the torturing doubt in the most critical moment.... _vengeance is all that is left to me--my resolution continues immoveable!_" the strokes of the rathhaus clock proclaimed, that it wanted but two hours to midnight. about this time the gates of the jews-town were shut. gabriel got up hastily, armed and enveloped himself in his cloak, then passed his hand slowly over his lofty forehead white as marble, as though violently to compress every new risen thought, and stepped to the door. on the threshold he paused once more plunged in the overflowing tide of thought, and cast a glance over the room that he was leaving for ever. it seemed, as if he could not after all tear himself away so easily from the dwelling, in which his grandfather had ended a life fruitful in stirring incidents, where his father had passed the lovely period of innocent youth.--all at once he manned himself, and hastened with flying steps to the jews-town.--in the short distance there he met a man, with his cloak drawn close over his face; it was michoel glogau; but both were too busied with their own thoughts, and neither remarked the other. gabriel arrived just in time; immediately after his entrance the gates of the jews' quarter were closed. vi. the winter of the year had set in betimes, it was a raw cold night. the sky was hidden by a grey veil of clouds, dissipated at one moment by the breath of the icy north wind, at another as rapidly re-condensed. the roofs were covered with deep snow, the ground was frozen hard and crunched under footsteps. it had already become quiet, the numerous vendors, who cheapened their wares in open street till a late hour, and whose candles and small lamps gave a singularly friendly aspect to the jews-town, had disappeared, the streets were almost empty, and only here and there a solitary passenger close wrapped in his cloak was seen hastening home, or to the lecture-room. gabriel stepped slowly, through the street, stopping almost every minute. he had experienced in his passion-tossed life much mental anguish. since the day, when he had stood in despair at his mother's dying bed, since the day when blume had contumeliously rejected his warm earnest and chaste young love, his whole life had been full of pain and torment--and yet it appeared to him, as if he had never been so unhappy, never so unutterably wretched, as now. his future confronted him more fearful and horrible than ever. the fortune of war, which had hitherto fastened itself to his, to his friend mannsfield's banners, seemed to have vanished with frederick's overthrow on this day.... the audacious confidence with which he had made himself irresponsible for his abjuration of everything which he had formerly considered dear and sacred had been dissipated by michoel's ardent words, which had struck him with the full overpowering force of truth at the most critical hour.... his only hope, to discover his father, to press him to his heart, to reconcile himself to him, to his destiny, perhaps to god.... the audacious hope, which had often raised him from the bottomless pit of despair; this one, sweet hope, which had ever, even when he dared not allow it to himself, glimmered in his soul--was dissipated, was annihilated! in truth it was the crushing intelligence of his father's early death, which now bowed him down under a burden of infinite sorrow, and almost effaced every earlier impression.... his father had never rejected him, as he had so often in moments of wild excitement feared.... his father had perhaps departed out of this life, without any presentiment that his child would one day be dispairingly searching a trace of his path.... and this father he had never known, and should never, never behold, this father whom he had therefore only so madly hated, because he would have so gladly loved him with the whole gigantic power of his soul! gabriel stood pensively in the middle of the street. with the strange bitter grief that, self-tormenting, is wont to tear open the most painful wounds of the heart, he endeavoured once more to bring his father's features which his uncle had so vividly described, before his inner eye; but he strove in vain, confused images alone rose up in his soul, pale men with purple blazing marks on their forehead: and all these dim fancies took shape and vanished with the swiftness of thought: all resembled one another--and yet not one of them was the real genuine image.... and as a man is sometimes unable to remember a word that he desires to utter, and yet it is so infinitely near him, that he thinks, he has but to move the tongue, in order to give voice to it, thus gabriel peered after this image, it seemed so near, it almost hovered over him--and yet he could not realise it. "that hope is vanished," he said at length in low tones, passing his hand over his forehead--"fix your looks on something else.... the past is unchangeable--the dead are dead.... the grave restores not to the world, the dead never come to life.... _thy father is dead, he is irrecoverably lost_.... but my vengeance liveth within me, within my breast with a wild hell-fire.... forget the dead, and remember vengeance!" gabriel once more assayed, with that admirable suppleness of character that had enabled him to oppose an almost incredible resistance to the bitter blows which had struck him, to withdraw himself from the destructive influence of this vortex of thoughts, to divert his mind from it.... again he sought, as he was often wont to do in moments of highest excitement, some object exterior to himself, that would fix his attention were it but for a short time, and he accounted himself fortunate, as he recognised in a person, who was walking rapidly by him, the frankfurt student nochum. "good evening," he said, mastering his temper, and with difficulty restraining the ill-will that he could not but feel in the bottom of his heart towards nochum: "whither away?" "i have been with the chief overseer reb gadel," answered nochum, "i had letters of recommendation to him and am in the habit of studying at nights with his son: but they have just been informed, that the palatine has come over to the altstadt, bringing the crown and regalia with him, and has signified to the inhabitants of the altstadt, that he proposes to withdraw from the city at daybreak and leave the field to his victorious antagonists--as you can well fancy, there could be no more talk of study." "is this news to be depended upon?" asked gabriel, after a long pause of reflection. "it came to the overseer from the most reliable source, and there can be no doubt about it.... however i must ask you to keep the matter secret till morning: it is still unknown to every one else in the jews-town, and may very well remain so till to-morrow." gabriel observed a thoughtful silence. "i am still master of blume's destiny," he thought, "she still believes that her husband is in my power.... i must make haste.... if i lose the propitious moment for revenge, it is perhaps irrecoverably, for ever lost!" nochum misinterpreted gabriel's silence. he could in truth have no suspicion of the gravity of the intelligence which he had imparted to him, he could have no idea that he was standing by a man, the only hope of whose life had been shortly before annihilated, who designed to take instant vengeance with the full might of hate for the unutterable woe of his whole tormented past. "you seem to take a warm interest in public affairs," began nochum at length, "and i am very glad of it, one finds it so seldom in a student; but here in prague, at this renowned high-school one meets students, such as one seldom finds elsewhere.--yesterday for the first time i made the acquaintance of a student, michoel glogau; i am only sorry that he is leaving prague immediately.... i assure you, never has a young man made so deep an impression upon me as he.... we happened to be talking about a bastard, i laid down a proposition which, i willingly allow, i retracted, when reb michoel proved to me that it was wrong.... but what an argument he gave, so clear, so eager, so convincing--but what am i telling you this for, i recollect that you were present during the discussion, and must have heard it too. michoel found the true, correct, view of the case, did he not?" gabriel's heart beat high. his soul was pierced by a thousand arrows, and the reawakened memory of michoel's crushing words poured boiling oil into all these open uncicatrized wounds. "i too am sorry that i fell in with michoel glogau so late," said gabriel with profound emotion.... "but it was in sooth too late, too late!" nochum looked enquiringly at gabriel. the intense trouble that was expressed by his features and words seemed to him incomprehensible. gabriel observed this, he was seized with a sudden terror as if he feared that he had betrayed his most secret thoughts.... "farewell," he cried, after a short pause suddenly breaking off, and hurried as fast as he could through the narrow irregular streets.--nochum gazed after him for a while in astonishment and then went quietly on his way. gabriel did not stop till he had reached blume's house in the hahnpass. he looked up to the attic windows, one of them was open in spite of the raw wintry cold, and he thought that he perceived in the obscurity the outline of a woman's form.... his heart beat audibly, he laid his hand on the door-latch, but still stood lost in thought. "thus then i stand at the goal," he began speaking to himself, at first in low tones, then louder and louder.... "through a long life of torment i have pined for the moment of revenge.... now it is come, no power on earth can now interpose between me and my revenge.... i will avenge myself.... and then?... then solitary, forsaken, unwept and unregretted--will die on the nearest battle-field.--it might have been otherwise!... had i encountered that michoel, whom i now at the end of my wide, wide wandering have found, had i encountered him on that feast of atonement, had he then said those words, which have this day so unsparingly rended my soul--had he then addressed me in such accents--it might have been otherwise! gabriel süss, gabriel süss, the poor, ill-used, rejected, down trodden,--gabriel süss, who has torn himself from the blissful faith of his childhood, gabriel süss, who has sought and never found forgetfulness of the past amid the roar of cannon and the turmoil of battle.--gabriel süss _might have been a support to the wavering, a teacher of his people, a lofty example of humble resignation to the will of god_.... _his fate was in his own hands. it was his own fault that he perished!_... that was what you said, michoel; but it was too late!... but no! no! i am not, i am not guilty of it.... that is your invention, ye believers in god!... naught but a malicious, evil chance swayed me, and even at this critical moment would embitter the sweet instant of revenge by a deceitful image of what i might have been.... just as i am hastily setting forth to accomplish my long-coveted revenge, it lets me meet michoel glogau!--oh! it is naught but malicious evil chance! at the moment, when still irresolute i am for the last time imploring thee, whom men call all-mighty, all-merciful,--in the deepest sorrow, that ever crushed a poor human soul, to restore my father to me, a father! a favour that is not refused to the humblest man on earth--at the moment, when i am calling upon thee to restore my father to me, were it but for the shortest interval of time that the human mind is capable of conceiving--to permit me to die in his arms, were it at the penalty of unutterable physical anguish.... _at that moment, i learn that he is dead!_... where is thy omnipotence? where? bow my stiff neck! shatter my pride! conduct me to my father! and i, gabriel süss will return unto thee--dost thou hear? to thee, to faith in thee.... i will repent, and dying will glorify thy name!... but it will not be so--the grave never gives back its dead.... _i was only unexpressibly unfortunate.... and i cry aloud: there is no_...." gabriel stopped short. a death-like stillness had reigned round about over the then almost deserted hahnpass, bounded, as it was, by the spacious graveyard, but suddenly a voice issuing from the burial ground, fell upon his ears, a voice which already once before had made his blood run cold with horror, and which he had then accounted an offspring of his heated over-excited imagination.... but this time it sounded clearer; this time it could be no deception. "my son! my son! thou, poor, forsaken one, thou that wert born in sin, where art thou? where shall i seek thee? oh! that my voice might echo with the power of thunder, that it might reach from one end of the earth to the other.... perchance my poor son would hear the voice of his father and forgive him!..." thus it rung in gabriel's ears. a hollow cry escaped from his breast, he let fall the latch of the house-door which he had held nervously clutched in his hand.--he looked around, a moderately high wall divided him from the burial ground. suddenly he perceived a small locked door in the wall, and the intensity of his excitement gave a giant strength to the man naturally powerful: at one blow the boards of the door fell in with a crash, and gabriel found himself in the cemetery.... his flaming eyes flew over the wide snow-covered space. it was profoundly dark, the sky was obscured by thick clouds, the crumbling grave-stones made a strange contrast with the glittering snow-field; the old trees with their frosted branches like hoary sentinels over this place of rest, floated on the grey atmosphere of the background.... gabriel put his whole soul in ear and eye:--but for a while saw nothing, heard nothing, not a leaf stirred.... presently there was a movement among the trees close to him. a feverish heat coursed through his veins: he tottered, but recovered himself with superhuman force and with lips firm closed, and hands pressed nervously against his overflowing bursting heart, approached the thicket.... tremblingly he parted the branches, nor observed, that his hands were torn and bleeding: he advanced ever forwards, and at last broke through the wood.... exactly at the same instant the moon passed from behind the black clouds that had hitherto veiled it, and cast its full light over the tree-enclosed spot.... gabriel perceived three grave-stones, a large and two smaller ones. _the larger had engraved upon it a hunch of grapes the symbol of a levi_.... a lofty form, an old man had sunk down before the gravestones.... gabriel wished to press forward, to address the form, to look it face to face.... though it should cost him a thousand lives:--but at that instant the old man's trembling voice again resounded.... gabriel remained rooted to the ground. "my god! my lord! all-merciful, all-gracious god!... have i not yet made atonement for the sin of my youth?.... have i not for years done penitence; suffered, as no other man on earth?... here at the grave of my dead, early lost, father--here at my twin brother's grave, who loved me so dearly, so infinitely deeply, my brother's, who in that fateful night awoke the inexpressibly bitter grief of remorseful despair.... oh would that i had then died, when with strong grasp you threw from off you the disloyal, the wicked shameless brother, would that i had then met my death from your dear fraternal hand!--but no, thou dear one; thou wert not destined to be a cain, pure and blessed thou wert one day to close thy eyes in peaceful death.... but i, i woke from what seemed the sleep of death, to never ending nameless torment!... at the grave of the never-to-be-forgotten sweet companion of my youth carpel, whom i would so gladly have once more folded in my arms ... and who peacefully slumbered under this turf, as i returned in despair to prague, the city of my blissful innocent youth.... at this grave i have for years made my supplication unto thee all-merciful!... thou, omniscient, thou that seest into the depths of my soul, thou knowest, what i have suffered!... and still the cloud of thine indignation is not yet passed away.... thou shalt not commit adultery stands ever written in my bible.... and never yet has my son hastened to my arms!..." gabriel scarcely breathed. each word made its way to his heart like a flaming sword. in his breast raged a storm of emotion, that can neither be represented, nor described, nor conceived. in the inmost core of his being an infinite, all-embracing destroying change was brought to pass.... light suddenly flashed into his soul, and as the dim eyes of the body accustomed to profound obscurity close themselves painfully, if they suddenly gaze into the glowing fire-streams of a mighty volcano; so closed his spiritual eye for one instant before the impression of this trying moment. he was standing by his unhappy father! this form bowed low by sorrow and misery was his poor despairing father.... the mad jacob!... the most ardent wish of his soul, the deepest longing of his tormented life was stilled, stilled at the moment in which he had given himself over with wild god-denying insolence to the profoundest despair.... _that was no blind chance_.... gabriel assayed to speak, but his thought found no expression, his lips no sound. "father of all men! forgive me at last," jacob began again in the most heart-rending accents of deepest despair; and his body seemed to collapse under the weight of his sorrow--"forgive me, father of all!... i have sinned, i have gone astray, but i have suffered endless anguish, and thou, father! art all-goodness.... let me die at length, father of all men.... let me rest by my dear ones.... forgive her also, the mother of my son.... and as a sign that thou hast forgiven me, restore my son to me, _my son_, before i die.... let me die on his heart.... _i can die only on his heart_, i ask for nothing more!... god! grant me my son!... oh come to me, my son!... my son, where art thou?" a silence deep as the grave reigned for a moment; then gabriel cried: "father, i am here!" both, father and son, stared speechlessly at one another for a space.... that was the image, that gabriel had been vainly endeavouring for some hours to conjure up, his father, the wandering jew of aix, that form which had once imprinted its hot lips on his young forehead, they were all one and the same.... the highest pitch of madness was mirrored for a minute in jacob's face.... but gradually and gradually the immense overpowering force of the joyful surprise seemed to drive away the evil spirit that hovered over his soul. his burning eyes, out of which madness had flashed, became wet.... a hot tear escaped from under his eyelashes and trickled slowly down his pale cheeks.... on a sudden, as if a ray of recognition had then for the first time struck him, he exclaimed, "he bears the fiery sign on his forehead! my god! it is my son!..." "my father!... hear oh israel, the lord our god is one god." gabriel flung himself into his father's wide opened arms.... they held one another in close embrace.... their lips quivered as if they would have spoken.... but they never spoke again.... the too swift alternation of feeling had loosened the slight bond that united spirit to body; the most terrible emotion, that has ever possessed a human heart, killed them! they held one another still fast embraced in death--in life divided, isolated, _in death they would not be parted_. this heart-breaking scene had not remained unwitnessed. blume had stood at the window of her house in sad painful expectation.... what she had seen and heard had filled her with unutterable horror.... but she was saved.... profoundly struck by this dispensation of providence, she fell with unspeakable emotion upon her knees and prayed. vii. the palatine escaped next morning in the direction of breslau. anhalt, hohenlohe, the elder thurn, the elder bubna, bohuslaw berka, raupowa, and others accompanied him.--the kleinseiters always devoted to the emperor, as soon as frederick had left the city sent messengers to duke maximilian and begged him to make his entry into the city. at mid-day the duke accompanied by boucquoi and tilly marched through the strahower gate to the hradschin, william of lobkowiz, and five other bohemian nobles came to meet him, wished him joy of the victory that he had won, and begged, as the chronicles declare, in a long speech interspersed with much weeping, pardon for their revolt, the maintenance of their liberties and mercy for the city. maximilian answered benignantly that he would do all that he was able, and that the city should not be injured; with regard to the other points, he had no full powers. for himself he advised them to surrender unconditionally to the emperor.--the alt- and neu-stadters had sent at the same time a deputation to the duke, with a request, that he would grant them three days to draw up the conditions, under which they were willing to surrender. maximilian refused this delay, and they immediately took an oath of obedience and fidelity to the emperor and delivered up their arms to the duke.--the news of the duke's successful entry had evoked the most joyous excitement in the jews-town, which like the kleinseiters had ever been well disposed towards the emperor. the overseer invited the elders and members of the college of rabbis to an extraordinary conference at the rathhaus, and it was unanimously decided, to present a congratulating address to the duke maximilian, as victor, in the name of the jewish community at prague. the meeting was just at an end, when the grave-diggers accompanied by cobbler abraham urgently begged to be admitted. in the morning at a funeral two dead bodies had been found in the burial ground, that held one another close clasped even in death. the two corpses had assumed in death an extraordinary likeness, a likeness such as one only meets with between father and son, both namely bore upon their forehead a similar blue streak. the mad jacob had been known to everyone, but with regard to the other body only one of the persons who happened to be present at the funeral, could give accurate information. cobbler abraham to wit, declared that he had been acquainted with the young man, who had only lately arrived at prague, and that immediately on his arrival he had recommended him to a lodging at reb schlome sachs', the upper attendant of the old-synagogue. in answer to enquiries made of the last mentioned person later on, he had learnt that the stranger was called gabriel mar, and was a clever student from upper germany. the gravediggers thought it their duty to make a report of this strange occurrence to the college of rabbis and the overseers of the community, and cobbler abraham once again repeated his depositions with respect to the corpse of the young man. the assembled authorities accounted this matter of sufficient importance to justify their casting a look over the letters which had been found in the clothes of the deceased. the superscription at once excited universal surprise, the letters were addressed to major-general otto bitter and signed ernest of mannsfield, general and field marshal; their contents referred to the operations of the war and secret plans.... no one knew what to think about it. some were inclined to believe that gabriel mar was a messenger of mannsfield's, others doubted, for if so, mannsfield would not have signed his name in full, and held gabriel to be a spy of the imperialists, who had somehow or other got possession of these letters; others again believed simply that gabriel mar, and major-general otto bitter were one and the same person. they had just got into a lively discussion on this point, when the door of the council-room was suddenly opened and reb schlome sachs and reb michoel glogau entered unannounced. "you come at the right time," cried the overseer to him--"perhaps you can give us some information about your lodger, who...." "we come for that very purpose, reb gadel!" interposed reb schlome.... "but i am too much overcome with what i have just heard. do you tell them, reb michoel, i pray you, you are more composed than i." the attention of the whole assembly was now directed to michoel glogau. "yesterday," he began, as concisely as possible, "i saw and conversed for the first time with gabriel mar, whose body was found this morning in the graveyard. by a chance concurrence of circumstances i was led to suspect that gabriel mar might be one and the same person as gabriel süss, who disappeared some years ago. this suspicion became certainty, when i shortly afterwards, hidden behind an angle of the wall, called out his name, and he as if from force of an old habit turned his head and looked about as if he sought the caller; and then as though fearing to betray himself, hurried off. his disguise, his presence in the jews' quarter might have one of two objects, either to inflict some injury on his former brethren, or to rejoin them and repentantly be reconverted to the faith of his childhood. i resolved to speak with gabriel mar before my speedy departure. my words, i know not why, had made a deep impression upon him, i determined to attempt to learn his designs; if they were evil, to thwart them, if good as far as my weak strength permitted, to support them.... "i enquired where he lodged, and some hours afterwards found myself at reb schlome sachs'. he received my communications at first very incredulously; but gradually remembered many peculiarities which had at first struck him in the behaviour of his guest.... his wife some days after his arrival had found him, sunk in deep reflection over a map; she had on the same day seen an officer who strikingly resembled gabriel, riding out with the young count thurn! he himself had heard him talking so strangely in his sleep, that he did not at the time know what to make of it; his whole behaviour had been puzzling.... reb schlome sachs was extraordinarily put out, and asked me what i proposed to do.... i requested him to accompany me to gabriel's room; i would speak with him at once. without knowing why, it seemed to me as if every minute that was lost was irrecoverably lost.... we went to his room, it was open, but gabriel was not in the house. by the light of a lamp that was slowly going out, which he had left standing on the table, we saw a bureau that had been violently broken open, and in it arms; on the ground some old papers were scattered about. reb schlome shook violently as he took them up; ... they contained the memorial of his father-in-law, the history of his life.... we noticed the marks of recent tears on some passages.... the manuscripts had lain for years locked up in the bureau, there could not be the slightest doubt, that by some curious coincidence gabriel had got possession of them. gabriel, none other, could have read these manuscripts, their contents must have moved him to tears, have made a violent impression on him, at one point indeed he must have flung the papers far away from him: so it seemed to both of us, and the contents of the manuscript proved that we were not mistaken. the manuscript, which we both, reb schlome sachs and i, read throught with the most high wrought attention, revealed astonishing events to us.... mad jacob was the father of gabriel süss, was a brother of rabbi mosche's, a son of the great rabbi jizchok meduro, an uncle of rabbi schlome's wife.... a wonderful providence had conducted gabriel süss to the house, where he was to learn his father's history.... a wonderful impenetrable providence brought about his death in the same night in his father's arms, at his grandfather's grave!..." michoel was compelled to stop from deep emotion, and handed over rabbi mosche's biography to the assembly. "this is the lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes," said rabbi lippmann heller, who had taken part in the meeting as assessor to the college of rabbis, at last after a long pause.... "but are you also aware that gabriel süss and major-general otto bitter are one and the same person?" he went on to ask.... "yes," answered michoel: "while reb schlome was unable from deep feeling to tear himself away from the handwriting of his father-in-law; i carefully examined the room. i found several letters from count mannsfield to major-general otto bitter, in one of them he wrote that he sent him, hebrew letters to look over.... among these i found several letters in german, but written in hebrew characters. these letters were written from prague by blume rottenberg and directed to her husband.... if i rightly remember, and gabriel süss' history was correctly related to me, his intended bride was called blume rottenberg, and she married her cousin, her father's brother's son.... blume rottenberg must be residing in prague: so please you, my wise men and reverend teachers, she might be summoned, perhaps she will be able to solve the mysterious obscurity that hovers over the life, and still more remarkably over the death of gabriel süss, perhaps she will be able to supply information as to the object of his presence in prague, and of his disguise." michoel's proposition was received with general applause--blume rottenberg had lived a retired life in prague and under an assumed name. only one person, the owner of the dilapidated house which she inhabited, knew her real name and was able to give information as to where she resided. he happened to be present. blume rottenberg was requested to betake herself to the house of the assessor reb lippmann heller, who was to receive her depositions in the presence of the chief overseer. both of them returned two hours afterwards much agitated to the meeting. the whole life of gabriel süss, all his past was now laid clear before their eyes.... and gabriel süss had died repentant in his father's arms! it was unanimously decided, to bury them both, father and son, close together by the graves of their family. it was formerly a custom in israel, to bury the dead as soon as possible. jacob and his son were to be immediately laid in the grave. all present, deeply moved by the manifest providence which had brought about everything so wonderfully, determined to attend the funeral obsequies, and were about to repair to the burial ground. they were just issuing from the rathhaus, when two horsemen on foam-covered steeds galloped up and halted before it. it was a captain in the imperial army accompanied by a younger officer. "can i speak with the overseer of your community?" asked the captain. "do not be alarmed," he went on to say in a friendly voice, seeing that they had become pale with terror, "no harm will happen to the jewish community; we know that you are well affected to the emperor and cleave to your imperial master with firm unchangeable fidelity, ... but unknown to yourselves, an apostate from your faith, an outlaw, an enemy of the emperor and empire, the mannsfieldian general otto bitter has been living for the last few days among you in the jews-town. he did not escape with the palatine.--we have every reason for believing that he is here in your town. he is mannsfield's right hand-man and acquainted with all his plans.... i beseech you, make every effort to deliver him alive into our hands." "that is impossible," answered the chief overseer after a short pause. "he whom ye seek, by god's wonderful dispensation died this day about midnight full of repentance in the arms of his recovered father. we were just about to lay him in the grave: if it pleases you, sir captain! will you not go with us to the burial ground.... to convince yourself that otto bitter will never again fight against his imperial master.... you know him by sight?" "of course i do? was i not standing by yesterday, when the most accomplished knight of our army. count pappenheim, fell badly wounded by his sword...." on the short way to the burial ground the chief overseer recounted the history of gabriel's storm tossed life to the captain, and the strange events that had suddenly rent the mysterious veil that enveloped it.... * * * * * the two corpses still locked in a fast embrace lay upon the same bier. it was a most striking sight. the two officers uncovered their heads.--the captain cast a scrutinizing look over gabriel's body. "there is no doubt, it is he," he said; then drew a paper out of his breast pocket, which he carefully read over and once more from time to time examined the body with the greatest attention.... "i have said so," he repeated, "there is no doubt, the dead man is otto bitter...." "what are your orders with respect to the corpse?" asked the younger officer, "shall it be transported to the castle that the duke...." "we fight with the living alone, the dead no more belongs to this world," answered the captain earnestly. "otto bitter was a rebel, an enemy of the emperor and empire.... but he was a gallant hero.... may god pardon his sins.... overseer! give me the letters found upon him, and lay your dead in the grave!" * * * * * at twilight on the same day two women, like kind angels, prayed kneeling at gabriel's grave. both of them were equally nearly related to the departed. the one was blume rottenberg, the woman that he had once madly loved, his mother's sister's daughter, the other schöndel sachs, his uncle's daughter. * * * blume rottenberg had suffered fearfully for eight days. she was firmly resolved to sacrifice her life rather than her duty.... she had been saved by a miracle. her trust in god had been thereby still more exalted. she had remained four months without tidings of her husband, and yet looked forward full of trust and hope to the future.... she had not deceived herself. on the th of march the mannsfieldian commanders surrendered the city of pilsen to general tilly and eight days afterwards aaron rottenberg returned to the arms of his wife happy, and uninjured.... on his arrival he was surprised by joyful news. important intelligence for him had come in from worms. the patrician, who had had that law-suit so full of evil consequences with the rottenberg family, was dead. sorely tormented by the stings of conscience he had declared upon his death bed in the presence of his confessor and an officer of justice, that the claim of the rottenbergs against him was perfectly well grounded, and that the acknowledgment, that he had declared to be forged, was genuine. he further confessed that the heads of the trades had intended to force the rottenbergs at all hazards to admit that the acknowledgment was forged. this admission was to have been the signal for a general bloody persecution and plundering of the jews. the reckless project had miscarried owing to the noble firmness of the rottenbergs. the occasion was seized for an act of private revenge, if illegal at any rate apparently of common advantage, and if the insurgents had succeeded in stirring up the wild fury of a populace eager for plunder, the innocent jews could at least reckon upon the assistance of the prince and the sympathy of every right thinking person.... after the dying man had once more solemnly declared, that all his possessions were in justice the property of aaron rottenberg, he implored those who were present, with hot tears and in the most moving terms to hunt out the traces of aaron rottenberg, not only to put him in possession of his property, but also to tell him that they had been witnesses of the deep contrition and earnest repentance which had embittered his last hours: thus he hoped to obtain pardon from the rottenbergs, whom his covetousness had plunged in unutterable misery.... those who had been present at the patrician's death-bed immediately imparted his confession to the authorities of the jewish community in worms. this event caused immense excitement there, now for the first time they saw how falsely, how unjustly they had interpreted the noble behaviour of the rottenbergs, for what heavy injustice they had to ask forgiveness of them. in a meeting of the elders it was unanimously decided to search out aaron rottenberg, to ask in the name of the community his forgiveness of the injuries it had inflicted upon him, and urgently to beg him to return to his paternal city, and again to accept the office of an overseer, which his father formerly, and afterwards he himself had filled. the letter of the worms community that put him in possession of all these facts, made a most pleasing impression upon rottenberg. the profound regret, the sorrowful repentance which the community expressed in earnest words, made it impossible for him to oppose their request. he set out on the journey to worms with a heart full of thankfulness. he was received in his native city with loud rejoicing and trod its streets with tears of emotion.... a long series of happy years effaced from the memory of the rottenberg family the sorrows of their past life, but not the miracle which the lord had vouchsafed to them. cobbler abraham looked upon himself with no small pride as an instrument of divine providence. it was he who had first accosted gabriel süss on his arrival in the jews-town. it was he who had shown him the way to reb schlome sachs, where gabriel had at last found the solution of the mystery of his life; a solution that had affected him so profoundly, had agitated the inmost depths of his being.--even fifty years later, when old as methusalem but still vigorous, cobbler abraham was always ready to recount the history of gabriel süss to whoever wished it, and only regretted that he could no longer introduce his two former neighbours, hirsch, the fish-monger, and mindel, the liver-vender, who had predeceased him, as witnesses to the accuracy and truthfulness with which he described his first meeting with süss. reb schlome sachs and his wife lived as before peaceful and contented, and when schöndel after ten years of childless wedlock was brought to bed of a boy, and so the profoundest, if silent, wish of her heart was fulfilled; nothing was wanting to her perfect happiness.... michoel glogau went to breslau, and taught the word of god there. the end. * * * * * printing office of the publisher. * * * * * page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/adventuroussimpl grimrich . book v skips numbering between chap. xviii. and xx. the adventurous simplicissimus _the first english edition of_ simplicissimus _is limited to copies_ _of which this is no_. . [illustration: facsimile title page of the first german edition.] der abentheursiche simplicissimus teutsch das ist: die beschreibung dess lebes eines seltzamen vaganten / genant melchior sternfels von fuchshaim / wo und welcher gestalt er nemlich in diese welt kommen / was er darinn gesehen / gelernet / erfahren und aussgestanden / auch warumb er solche wieder feywillig quittirt. Überauss lustig / und männiglich nutzlich zu lesen. an tag geben von german schleifheim von sulsfort. monpelgart / gedruckt bey johann fillion / im jahr m dc lxix. facsimile title page of the first german edition. the adventurous simplicissimus being the description of the life of a strange vagabond named melchior sternfels von fuchshaim written in german by hans jacob christoph von grimmelshausen and now for the first time done into english london william heinemann mcmxii _copyright_ to dr. otto schlapp lecturer in german in the university of edinburgh, as a tribute to his successful endeavours to promote the knowledge of the german classics in britain, and in memory of a mutual friend, robert fitzroy bell contents introduction book i. _chap. i._: treats of simplicissimus' rustic descent and of his upbringing answering thereto _chap. ii._: of the first step towards that dignity to which simplicissimus attained, to which is added the praise of shepherds and other excellent precepts _chap. iii._: treats of the sufferings of a faithful bagpipe _chap. iv._: how simplicissimus' palace was stormed, plundered, and ruinated, and in what sorry fashion the soldiers kept house there _chap. v._: how simplicissimus took french leave and how he was terrified by dead trees _chap. vi._: is so short and so prayerful that simplicissimus thereupon swoons away _chap. vii._: how simplicissimus was in a poor lodging kindly entreated _chap. viii._: how simplicissimus by his noble discourse proclaimed his excellent qualities _chap. ix._: how simplicissimus was changed from a wild beast into a christian _chap. x._: in what manner he learned to read and write in the wild woods _chap. xi._: discourseth of foods, household stuff, and other necessary concerns, which folk must have in this earthly life _chap. xii._: tells of a notable fine way, to die happy and to have oneself buried at a small cost _chap. xiii._: how simplicissimus was driven about like a straw in a whirlpool _chap. xiv._: a quaint comedia of five peasants _chap. xv._: how simplicissimus was plundered, and how he dreamed of the peasants and how they fared in times of war _chap. xvi._: of the ways and works of soldiers nowadays, and how hardly a common soldier can get promotion _chap. xvii._: how it happens that, whereas in war the nobles are ever put before the common men, yet many do attain from despised rank to high honours _chap. xviii._: how simplicissimus took his first step into the world and that with evil luck _chap. xix._: how simplicissimus was captured by hanau and hanau by simplicissimus _chap. xx._: in what wise he was saved from prison and torture _chap. xxi._: how treacherous dame fortune cast on simplicissimus a friendly glance _chap. xxii._: who the hermit was by whom simplicissimus was cherished _chap. xxiii._: how simplicissimus became a page: and likewise, how the hermit's wife was lost _chap. xxiv._: how simplicissimus blamed the world and saw many idols therein _chap. xxv._: how simplicissimus found the world all strange and the world found him strange likewise _chap. xxvi._: a new and strange way for men to wish one another luck and to welcome one another _chap. xxvii._: how simplicissimus discoursed with the secretary, and how he found a false friend _chap. xxviii._: how simplicissimus got two eyes out of one calf's-head _chap. xxix._: how a man step by step may attain unto intoxication and finally unawares become blind drunk _chap. xxx._: still treats of naught but of drinking bouts, and how to be rid of parsons thereat _chap. xxxi._: how the lord governor shot a very foul fox _chap. xxxii._: how simplicissimus spoiled the dance book ii. _chap. i._: how a goose and a gander were mated _chap. ii._: concerning the merits and virtues of a good bath at the proper season _chap. iii._: how the other page received payment for his teaching, and how simplicissimus was chosen to be a fool _chap. iv._: concerning the man that pays the money, and of the military service that simplicissimus did for the crown of sweden: through which service he got the name of simplicissimus _chap. v._: how simplicissimus was by four devils brought into hell and there treated with spanish wine _chap. vi._: how simplicissimus went up to heaven and was turned into a calf _chap. vii._: how simplicissimus accommodated himself to the state of a brute beast _chap. viii._: discourseth of the wondrous memory of some and the forgetfulness of others _chap. ix._: crooked praise of a proper lady _chap. x._: discourseth of naught but heroes and famous artists _chap. xi._: of the toilsome and dangerous office of a governor _chap. xii._: of the sense and knowledge of certain unreasoning animals _chap. xiii._: of various matters which whoever will know must either read them or have them read to him _chap. xiv._: how simplicissimus led the life of a nobleman, and how the croats robbed him of this when they stole himself _chap. xv._: of simplicissimus' life with the troopers, and what he saw and learned among the croats _chap. xvi._: how simplicissimus found goodly spoils, and how he became a thievish brother of the woods _chap. xvii._: how simplicissimus was present at a dance of witches _chap. xviii._: doth prove that no man can lay to simplicissimus' charge that he doth draw the long bow _chap. xix._: how simplicissimus became a fool again as he had been a fool before _chap. xx._: is pretty long, and treats of playing with dice and what hangs thereby _chap. xxi._: is somewhat shorter and more entertaining than the last _chap. xxii._: a rascally trick to step into another man's shoes _chap. xxiii._: how ulrich herzbruder sold himself for a hundred ducats _chap. xxiv._: how two prophecies were fulfilled at once _chap. xxv._: how simplicissimus was transformed from a boy into a girl and fell into divers adventures of love _chap. xxvi._: how he was imprisoned for a traitor and enchanter _chap. xxvii:_ how the provost fared in the battle of wittstock _chap. xxviii._: of a great battle wherein the conqueror is captured in the hour of triumph _chap. xxix._: how a notably pious soldier fared in paradise, and how the huntsman filled his place _chap. xxx._: how the huntsman carried himself when he began to learn the trade of war: wherefrom a young soldier may learn somewhat _chap. xxxi._: how the devil stole the parson's bacon and how the huntsman caught himself book iii. _chap. i._: how the huntsman went too far to the left hand _chap. ii._: how the huntsman of soest did rid himself of the huntsman of wesel _chap. iii._: how the great god jupiter was captured and how he revealed the counsels of the gods _chap. iv._: of the german hero that shall conquer the whole world and bring peace to all nations _chap. v._: how he shall reconcile all religions and cast them in the same mould _chap. vi._: how the embassy of the fleas fared with jupiter _chap. vii._: how the huntsman again secured honour and booty _chap. viii._: how he found the devil in the trough, and how jump-i'-th'-field got fine horses _chap. ix._: of an unequal combat in which the weakest wins the day and the conqueror is captured _chap. x._: how the master-general of ordnance granted the huntsman his life and held out hopes of great things _chap. xi._: contains all manner of matters of little import and great imagination _chap. xii._: how fortune unexpected bestowed on the huntsman a noble present _chap. xiii._: of simplicissimus' strange fancies and castles in the air, and how he guarded his treasure _chap. xiv._: how the huntsman was captured by the enemy _chap. xv._: on what condition the huntsman was set free _chap. xvi._: how simplicissimus became a nobleman _chap. xvii._: how the huntsman disposed himself to pass his six months: and also somewhat of the prophetess _chap. xviii._: how the huntsman went a wooing, and made a trade of it _chap. xix._: by what means the huntsman made friends, and how he was moved by a sermon _chap. xx._: how he gave the faithful priest other fish to fry, to cause him to forget his own hoggish life _chap. xxi._: how simplicissimus all unawares was made a married man _chap. xxii._: how simplicissimus held his wedding feast and how he purposed to begin his new life _chap. xxiii._: how simplicissimus came to a certain town (which he nameth for convenience cologne) to fetch his treasure _chap. xxiv._: how the huntsman caught a hare in the middle of a town book iv. _chap. i._: how and for what reason the huntsman was jockeyed away into france _chap. ii._: how simplicissimus found a better host than before _chap. iii._: how he became a stage player and got himself a new name _chap. iv._: how simplicissimus departed secretly and how he believed he had the neapolitan disease _chap. v._: how simplicissimus pondered on his past life, and how with the water up to his mouth he learned to swim _chap. vi._: how he became a vagabond quack and a cheat _chap. vii._: how the doctor was fitted with a musquet under captain curmudgeon _chap. viii._: how simplicissimus endured a cheerless bath in the rhine _chap. ix._: wherefore clergymen should never eat hares that have been taken in a snare _chap. x._: how simplicissimus was all unexpectedly quit of his musquet _chap. xi._: discourses of the order of the marauder brothers _chap. xii._: of a desperate fight for life in which each party doth yet escape death _chap. xiii._: how oliver conceived that he could excuse his brigand's tricks _chap. xiv._: how oliver explained herzbruder's prophecy to his own profit, and so came to love his worst enemy _chap. xv._: how simplicissimus thought more piously when he went a-plundering than did oliver when he went to church _chap. xvi._: of oliver's descent, and how he behaved in his youth, and specially at school _chap. xvii._: how he studied at liège, and how he there demeaned himself _chap. xviii._: of the homecoming and departure of this worshipful student, and how he sought to obtain advancement in the wars _chap. xix._: how simplicissimus fulfilled herzbruder's prophecy to oliver before yet either knew the other _chap. xx._: how it doth fare with a man on whom evil fortune doth rain cats and dogs _chap. xxi._: a brief example of that trade which oliver followed, wherein he was a master and simplicissimus should be a prentice _chap. xxii._: how oliver bit the dust and took six good men with him _chap. xxiii._: how simplicissimus became a rich man and herzbruder fell into great misery _chap. xxiv._: of the manner in which herzbruder fell into such evil plight book v. _chap. i._: how simplicissimus turned palmer and went on a pilgrimage with herzbruder _chap. ii._: how simplicissimus, being terrified of the devil, was converted _chap. iii._: how the two friends spent the winter _chap. iv._: in what manner simplicissimus and herzbruder went to the wars again and returned thence _chap. v._: how simplicissimus rode courier and in the likeness of mercury learned from jove what his design was as regards war and peace _chap. vi._: a story of a trick that simplicissimus played at the spa _chap. vii._: how herzbruder died and how simplicissimus again fell to wanton courses _chap. viii._: how simplicissimus found his second marriage turn out, and how he met with his dad and learned who his parents had been _chap. ix._: in what manner the pains of childbirth came upon him, and how he became a widower _chap. x._: relation of certain peasants concerning the wonderful mummelsee _chap. xi._: of the marvellous thanksgiving of a patient, and of the holy thoughts thereby awakened in simplicissimus _chap. xii._: how simplicissimus journeyed with the sylphs to the centre of the earth _chap. xvii._: how simplicissimus returned from the middle of the earth, and of his strange fancies, his air-castles, his calculations; and how he reckoned without his host _chap. xviii._: how simplicissimus wasted his spring in the wrong place _chap. xx._: treats of a trifling promenade from the black forest to moscow in russia _chap. xxi._: how simplicissimus further fared in moscow _chap. xxii._: by what a short and merry road he came home to his dad _chap. xxiii._: is very short and concerneth simplicissimus alone _chap. xxiv._: why and in what fashion simplicissimus left the world again appendix a continuation _chap. xix._: how simplicissimus and a carpenter escaped from a shipwreck with their lives and were thereafter provided with a land of their own _chap. xx._: how they hired a fair cook-maid and by god's help were rid of her again _chap. xxi._: how they thereafter kept house together and how they set to work _chap. xxii._: further sequel of the above story, and how simon meron left the island and this life, and how simplicissimus remained the sole lord of the island _chap. xxiii._: in which the hermit concludes his story and therewith ends these his six books appendix b appendix c "continuatio," _chap. xiii._: how simplicissimus in return for a night's lodging, taught his host a curious art [illustration: frontispiece of the first edition from the ducal library. wolf buettel.] introduction the translation here presented to the public is intended rather as a contribution to the history, or perhaps it should be said the sociology, of the momentous period to which the romance of "simplicissimus" belongs, than as a specimen of literature. effective though its situations are, consistent and artistic though its composition is (up to a certain point), its interest lies chiefly in the pictures, or rather photographs, of contemporary manners and characters which it presents. it has been said with some truth that if succeeding romancers had striven as perseveringly as our author to embody the spirit and reflect the ways of the people, german fiction might long ago have reached as high a development as the english novel. as it is, there is little of such spirit to be discovered in the prose romances which appeared between the time of grimmelshausen and that of jean paul richter. but the influence of the latter was completely swept away in the torrent of idealism by which the fictions of the idolised goethe and his followers were characterised, and his domestic realism has only of late made its reappearance in disquieting and sordid forms. it should be remembered as an apology for the stress now laid upon the sociological side of the history of the thirty years war, that that side has by historians been resolutely thrust into the background. the most detailed and painstaking narratives of the war are either bare records of military operations or, worse still, represent merely meticulous and valueless unravellings of the web of intrigue with which the pedants of the time deceived themselves into the belief that they were very machiavels of subtlety and resource. while the empire was bleeding to death, the chancelleries of half europe were intent on the detaching from one side or the other of a venal general, or the patching up of some partial armistice that might afford breathing-time to organise further mischief. it does not matter much to any one whether wallenstein was knave or fool, but it did matter and does matter that the war crippled for two hundred years the finances, the agriculture, and the enterprise of the german people, and dealt a blow to their patriotism from the like of which few nations could have recovered. even the character of the civil administration was completely altered when the struggle ended. an army of capable bourgeois secretaries and councillors had for centuries served their princes and their fellow subjects well. it is wonderful that throughout the devastating wars waged by wallenstein and weimar, and even later on during the organised raids of wrangel and königsmark, the records were kept, the village business administered (where there was a village left), and even revenue collected with wellnigh as much regularity as in time of peace. these functionaries, who had worked so well, were at the end of the war gradually dispossessed of their influence, and their posts were taken by a swarm of young place-hunters of noble birth whom the peace had deprived of their proper employment, and whose pride was only equalled by their incapacity. but neither particulars nor generalisations bearing on such subjects are to be found in the pages of professional historians; they must be sought in the contemporary records of the people, of which the present work affords one of the few existing specimens, or else in the work of picturesque writers who, laying no claim to the title of scientific investigators, yet possess the power of selecting salient facts and deducing broad conclusions from them. freitag's "bilder aus der deutschen vergangenheit" indicates a wealth of material for sociological study which has as yet been but charily used; and recent german works dealing directly with the subject are more remarkable for elegance of production than for depth of research. such being the purpose for which this translation has been undertaken, an introduction to it must necessarily be concerned not so much with the bibliography of the book or even the sources, if any, to which the author was beholden for his material, as with his own personality and the amount of actual fact that underlies the narrative of the fictitious hero's adventures. in respect of the first point, we are presented with a biography almost as shadowy and elusive as that of shakespeare. in many ways, indeed, the particulars of the lives of these two which we possess are curiously alike. both were voluminous writers; both enjoyed considerable contemporary reputation; and in both cases our knowledge of their actual history is confined to a few statements by persons who lived somewhat later than themselves, and a few formal documents and entries. in grimmelshausen's case this obscurity is increased by his practice of publishing under assumed names. in the score of romances and tracts which are undoubtedly his work, we find only two to which his real name is attached. he has nine other pseudonyms, nearly all anagrams of the words "christoffel von grimmelshausen." of these, "german schleifheim von sulsfort" and "samuel greifnsohn vom hirschfelt" are the best known; the latter being the name to which he most persistently clung, and under which "simplicissimus" was published, though the former appears on the title-page as that of the "editor." only as the signature to a kind of advertisement at the end do we find the initials of "hans jacob christoffel von grimmelshausen," his full name. until the publication of a collection of his works by felsecker at nuremberg in , the true authorship of most of them remained unknown. but that editor, by his allusions in the preface, practically identified the writer as the "schultheiss of renchen, near strassburg," whom he seems to have known personally. the reasons for anonymity were, no doubt, firstly, the fact that "simplicissimus" at least dealt with the actions of men yet alive; and secondly, with regard to the other books, the continual references to details of the author's own life and opinions. his dread of offending a contemporary is shown by his disguising of the name of st. andré, the commandant of lippstadt, as n. de s. a. of l. (bk. iii., chap. ). it is unnecessary here to enter into a discussion of the authorities from whom the meagre particulars of grimmelshausen's life are drawn. it may suffice for our present purpose to indicate the main events of that life. he was born at gelnhausen, near hanau, about --probably of a humble family. at the age of ten he was captured by hessian (that is, be it remembered, anti-imperialist) troops, and became a member of that "unseliger tross"--the unholy crew of horseboys, harlots, sutlers, and hangers-on who followed the armies on both sides, and sometimes outnumbered them three to one. in , the last year of the war, the whole imperial army only numbered , fighting men, and the recognised camp-followers, who were commanded and kept in order by officers significantly named the "provosts of the harlots," no less than , . in the preface to one of his works called the "satyrical pilgrim," grimmelshausen speaks of himself as having been "a musqueteer" at the age of ten--a statement which is obviously to be taken in the same sense in which simplicissimus tells us (bk. ii., chap. ) how he "served the crown of sweden" at a similar age as a soldier, and drew pay for it. as a matter of fact, grimmelshausen probably served a musqueteer or several musqueteers, just as the "boy" in henry v. serves ancient pistol and his comrades. from another book, the "everlasting almanack," we learn that he was a soldier under the imperialist general götz, lay in garrison at offenburg, the free city alluded to in book v., chapter , and also for a long time in the famous fortress of philippsburg, of his residence in which he tells various anecdotes. there are traces both in "simplicissimus" and his other books of a wide and unusual acquaintance with many lands, german and non-german. he knows both westphalia and saxony well; bohemia also: and certainly switzerland. the journey to russia may have some foundation in fact, though the statement put into the mouth of simplicissimus that he has himself seen the fabulous "sheep plant" (bk. v., chap. ) growing in siberia considerably detracts from his trustworthiness here. but when he left the army, and whether he ever attained to any reputable rank therein, is quite uncertain. if be the correct date of his birth he would be but twenty-three years old at the conclusion of peace. besides his military expeditions, it is pretty clear from his works that he had visited amsterdam and paris and knew them fairly well; but for nineteen years we have no further trace of his career, till he suddenly appears as schultheiss, under the bishop of strassburg, of renchen, now in the grand duchy of baden, a town of which he deliberately conceals the name exactly as he does his own, by anagrams, calling it now rheinec, now cernheim. in october he appears as holding this office and issuing an order concerning the mills of the town, which is still in existence. his wife was katharina henninger, and entries have been found of the birth of two children, a daughter and a son, in and . a curious episode in the first part of the "enchanted bird's-nest," quoted hereafter, seems to indicate a grave family disappointment. in he died, aged fifty-one only, but having reached what may almost be called a ripe age for the battered and spent soldier of the thirty years war. the entry of his death is peculiarly full and even discursive, and tells how though he had again entered on military service--no doubt on the occasion of the french invasion in --and though his sons and daughters were living in places widely distant from each other, they were all present at his death, in which he was fortified by the rites of holy church. a final touch of uncertainty is added by the fact that we do not even know whether grimmelshausen was his true name: it is more likely to be that of some small estate which he had acquired, and of which he assumed the name when, as we learn, he was raised to noble rank. it is plain even from this brief outline of his life that grimmelshausen was emphatically a self-taught man; and it is partly to this fact that we owe the originality of his work; for he had never fallen under the baleful influence of the pedantry of his time. he had, it is true, picked up a deal of out-of-the-way knowledge, which he is willing enough to set before us to the verge of tediousness. but his learning is very superficial; he was a poor latinist; and it is likely that for most of his erudition he was indebted to the translations which were particularly plentiful during that golden period of material prosperity in germany which preceded the terrible war. it is clear enough that everywhere he thought more of the content than of the literary form of his own or any other work; and for the times his scientific and mathematical knowledge was considerable. in the field of romance he knows, and does not hesitate to borrow from, boccaccio, bandello ("simplicissimus," bk. iv., chaps. , ), and the "cent nouvelles nouvelles," while in his minor works he shows ample acquaintance with old german legend and also with stories like that of king arthur of england. lastly, we find him commending the "incomparable arcadia" of sir philip sidney (which he would have read in the translation of martin opitz) as a model of eloquence, but corrupting and enervating in its effect upon the manly virtues ("simplicissimus," bk. iii., chap. ). yet his own earlier works are themselves in the tedious, unreal, and stilted style of the romances of chivalry. "the chaste joseph," "dietrich and amelind," and "proximus and limpida," though widely different in subject, are alike in this, and show no sign of the genius which created simplicissimus. yet for the first-named work--the "joseph"--its author cherished an unreasoning affection, and even alludes to it in our romance as the work of the hero himself (bk. iii., chap. ). but it is no discredit to grimmelshausen's originality if we conjecture that the translations of spanish picaresque novels (chiefly by the untiring aegidius albertini), which appeared during the first two decades of the seventeenth century, gave him the idea--they gave him little or nothing more--of a vagabond hero. mateo aleman's famous "guzman de alfarache" had been succeeded by two miserably poor "second parts" by different authors, and in one of these there appears a tedious episode containing the submarine adventures of the hero under the form of a tunny-fish, to which we may conceivably owe the equally tedious story of simplicissimus and the sylphs of the mummelsee. at the end of the original book (bk. v., chap. ) is an unblushing copy of a passage from a work of antonio quevara or guevara, also translated by albertini. that grimmelshausen died a romanist is pretty clear from the entry of his death quoted above; nor is it likely that a protestant could have held the office of schultheiss under the bishop of strassburg. there is also extant a curious dialogue ascribed to grimmelshausen in which simplicissimus's arguments against changing his religion are combated and finally overthrown by a certain bonarnicus, who effects his complete conversion. it is far from improbable that the account of his rescue from sinful indifference at einsiedel which simplicissimus gives (bk. v., chap. )--of course apart from the miraculous incident of the attack on him by the unclean spirit--roughly represents the experience of his author. that the latter had been brought up a protestant we simply assume from the fact that simplicissimus is understood to have been so; the first indication which we have of a change in his opinions being his exclamation of "jesus maria!" (bk. iii., chap. ), which draws upon him the suspicions of the pastor at lippstadt. but papist or not, our author's superstition is unmistakable. it was indeed a time, like all periods of intense human misery, in which men, it might almost be said, turned in despair to the powers of hell because they had lost all faith in those of heaven. that numbers of the unhappy wretches who suffered in their thousands for witchcraft during the first period of the war actually believed themselves in direct communication with the devil is certain. the bishop of würzburg's fortnightly "autos-da-fé" were only stopped when some of the victims denounced the prelate himself as their accomplice, apparently believing it. grimmelshausen is ready to believe anything. his description of the witches' sabbath is that of a scene which he is firmly convinced is a possible one; and he stoutly defends by a multitude of preposterous stories the reasonableness of such conviction ("simplicissimus," bk. ii., chaps. , ). but among soldiers the most widely spread superstition was that concerned with invulnerability. not only separate individuals, but whole bodies of troops were supposed to be "frozen," or proof, at all events, against leaden bullets. christian of brunswick actually employed his ducal brother's workers in glass to make balls of that material to be used against tilly's troops, who were credited with this supernatural property; and when the small fortress of rogäz, near dessau, was captured by mansfeld in , the assailants were forbidden to use their fire-arms as useless; the members of the garrison, being wizards all, were clubbed to death with hedge-stakes or the butt-ends of musquets. in all probability this superstition arose mainly from observation of the very small penetrating power of the ammunition of the time. oliver (bk. iv., chap. ) is merely bruised on the forehead by a bullet fired a few paces off: and bullets then weighed ten to the pound. it is true that he has, as it seems, been rendered ball-proof by the wicked old provost marshal, whose skull herzbruder (bk. ii., chap. ) caused his own servant to split with an axe at wittstock, when no pistol could slay him: but the peasant in book i., chapter , cannot be killed by a bullet fired close to his head, perhaps by reason of the thickness of his skull. to celebrated persons particularly the reputation of being "gefroren" attached. count adam terzky, wallenstein's confidant, was supposed to be so protected: the superstition regarding claverhouse, who could only be killed with a silver bullet, is well known: and even as late as there was a belief among his soldiers that frederick william ii. of prussia was invulnerable. grimmelshausen's adventuress "courage" (of whom more hereafter) is supposed to be "sword-and bullet-proof": and towards the end of the war "passau tickets," or amulets protecting against wounds, were manufactured and sold, while a host of minor magic arts, more or less connected with invulnerability, were believed to exist. for such tricks the passage from the generally uninteresting "continuatio," which is given as appendix b of this book, is a kind of "locus classicus." another whole cycle of superstitions centres round the belief in possible invisibility of persons. of this we have no example in "simplicissimus," though the whole plot of the delightful double romance of the "enchanted bird's-nest" (also fully discussed hereafter) depends on it. on the other hand, the story of the production of the puppies from the pockets of the colonel's guests by the wizard provost in book, ii., chap. , is narrated by a man who plainly believed such things possible; and absolute credence is given to the powers of prophecy possessed both by old herzbruder (bk. ii., chaps. , ) and by the fortune-teller of soest (bk. iii., chap. ), who is apparently a well-known character of the times. it is noteworthy that herzbruder thinks meanly of the art of palmistry. coming to the actual career of simplicissimus as chronicled in the romance which bears his name, we are at the outset confronted by some strange chronology. the boy is born just after the battle of höchst in , and is captured by the troopers when ten years old; he is with the hermit two years (bk. i., chap. ) till the latter's death, and makes his first "spring into the world" after the battle of nördlingen in the autumn of . he is in hanau during ramsay's rule, and spends there the winter of - . in the spring of (there was still ice on the town-moat) he was captured by croats. the following eighteen months are occupied by his adventures as a forest-thief and as a servant-girl, and the next certain note of time we have is that of the battle of wittstock, september , . there follow the happenings at soest and the six months internment at lippstadt. but at the time of the siege of breisach, in the winter of , he has long been back from paris; his marriage, therefore, must have taken place before the completion of his sixteenth year. strange as this may appear, the story appears to be deliberately so arranged. for it will be observed that just before the lad's capture by the swedes it is plainly implied (bk. iii., chap. ) that he has not yet arrived at the age of puberty. grimmelshausen intends him to be a "wunderkind"--a youthful prodigy; and such an explanation is far more likely than that the author is simply careless and counting on the carelessness of his readers to conceal the incongruity. for the continual references to the time of year at which various events happen seem to prove that he had sketched for himself something like a chronology of his fictitious hero's life. and it is exceedingly difficult ever to detect him in the smallest false note of time. the date of the banquet and dance at hanau is exactly fixed by the capture of braunfels in january (bk. i., chap. ): and orb and staden _had_ both been captured before simplicissimus could well have delivered his oration on the miseries of a governor (bk. ii., chap. ). these may seem small matters, but it must be remembered that grimmelshausen had no dictionary of dates before him. the battle of jankow in gives us the last exact date to be found in the book, and tittmann is probably right in assuming that with that engagement the author's personal connection with the war ceased. by the time simplicissimus returns from his eastern wanderings the "german peace" had been concluded. at the very beginning of simplicissimus's story he is brought in contact with at least one historical personage--james ramsay, the swedish commandant of hanau, whose heroic defence of that town is well known. simplicissimus is said to be the son of his brother-in-law, one captain sternfels von fuchsheim. this man's christian name is nowhere given; the boy is expressly said by his foster-father (bk. v., chap. ) to have been christened melchior after himself, and the fictitious character of the supposed parentage seems amply proved by the fact that the whole name, "melchior sternfels von fugshaim" (as it is often spelt), is an exact anagram of "christoffel von grimmelshausen." we may therefore pass over as unmeaning the attribution to this supposed father of "estates in scotland." by the pastor in book i., chapter , and must probably consign to the realms of imagination the lady-mother, susanna ramsay, also. that grimmelshausen was really brought in contact, possibly as a page, with the commandant of hanau, seems likely. he knows a good deal of him. but of his later career he is quite ignorant; he even repeats as true the malignant calumny circulated by the jesuits of vienna to the effect that ramsay had gone mad with rage at the loss of hanau (bk. v., chap. ). as a matter of fact, the poor man died partly of his wounds and partly of a broken heart. the only other historic personage in the story who can be identified with certainty is daniel st. andré, a hessian soldier of fortune (bk. iii., chap. ) of dutch descent, and commanding at lippstadt for the "crown of sweden." for what reason grimmelshausen wrote the "continuatio," a dull medley of allegories, visions, and stories of knavery, brightened only by the "robinsonade" at the end, it is hard to say; probably at the urgent request of his publisher, when the striking success of the original work became assured. it appeared at möpelgard (montéliard) in the very same year, viz. , as the first known edition, or more probably editions, of the first five books, and is sometimes quoted as a sixth book. two years later there were issued three more "continuations," even more unworthy of their author, and laying stress chiefly on the least estimable side of the hero's character--the roguery by which he paid his way on his journey back from france. the worthlessness of these sequels is the more remarkable when we consider the excellence of the other books which make up what may be called the simplicissimus-cycle. these are "trutzsimplex," "springinsfeld," the two parts of the "enchanted bird's-nest," and the "everlasting almanack." they are all deserving of attention. the first, which is also known as the "life of the adventuress 'courage,'" appeared immediately after "simplicissimus," with which it is connected by the fact that the heroine is none other than the light-minded lady of the spa at griesbach, the alleged mother of simplicissimus's bastard son; she is also at one time the wife or companion of "springinsfeld" or "jump i' th' field," simplicissimus's old servant. her history, which is narrated with extraordinary vivacity, covers nearly the whole period of the war, and is interwoven with the remaining books of the cycle in a sufficiently ingenious manner. a secretary out of employ is driven by the cold into the warm guest-room of an inn in a provincial town. here he finds a huge old man armed with a cudgel "that with one blow could have administered extreme unction to any man." this is simplicissimus, with the famous club that had so terrified the resin-gatherers of the black forest ("simplicissimus," bk. v., chap. ). either the episode of the desert island is left out of account altogether--possibly not yet invented--or he has not yet started on his final journey. the latter is unlikely, for the date is indicated as or . to these two enters an old wooden-legged fiddler who turns out to be simplicissimus's faithful knave, "jump i' th' field." of the former hero the secretary had read; of the latter he himself had written; for meeting, as a poor wandering scholar, with a gang of gipsies in the schwarzwald, he had been engaged by their queen, an aged but still handsome woman, to write her history, on the promise of a pretty wife and good pay. he is cheated of both, and the gipsies disappear with their queen, who is in fact the famous "courage" or "kurrasche." the daughter of unknown parents, this heroine was living in a small bohemian town with an old nurse when the imperialists, under bucquoy, conquered the country in . she was then thirteen years old, and thus fifteen years senior to simplicissimus. the nurse, to protect her chastity, disguises her as a boy, and in this garb she becomes page to a young rittmeister, to whom, her secret having been all but discovered in a scuffle, she reveals her sex and becomes his mistress. the name courage is, for amusing but quite unmentionable reasons, given to her in consequence of this episode. to her first lover she is actually married on his death-bed, and now begins her career nominally as an honourable widow, but in reality as an accomplished courtesan. she still follows the army, for which she has an invincible love, and being, of course, "frozen" or invulnerable, takes part in various fights, in one of which she captures a major, who, when she in turn is taken prisoner, revenges himself on her in the vilest fashion. he is preparing to hand her over, according to custom ("simplicissimus," bk. ii., chap. ), "to the horseboys," when she is rescued by a young danish nobleman, who proposes to make her his wife. the terrible story is told with an exactness of detail, which plainly can only be the work of the witness of similar scenes, and it is to be feared represents only too faithfully the truth as to the treatment of women in the war. it is remarkable, however, that few officers of high rank on either side are accused of wanton offences against public morals. holk and königsmark are the only two who are charged with publicly keeping their mistresses; and they were the two most brutal commanders of their time. as a rule superior officers took their wives with them ("simplicissimus," bk. ii., chap. ) even to the field of battle, and if such ladies fell into the enemy's hands, as did many after nördlingen, they were treated with all possible respect. but to return to "courage." her danish lover is about to marry her when he too dies, and after this disappointment she sinks lower and lower in the social scale, forming temporary connections successively with a captain, a lieutenant, a corporal and finally with a musqueteer, who is no other than our old friend "jump i' th' field," for whose name she gives us a very complete and quite untranslatable reason. with him she journeys, as a marketenderin or female sutler, to italy, following the army of colalto and gallas, and there, with his assistance, she plays a variety of tricks, always knavish and often highly diverting. grown rich, the vivandière dismisses poor "jump i' th' field" with a handsome present, and again resumes her trade of a superior courtesan in the town from which she journeys to the spa, where she found and beguiled simplicissimus. her luck now turns; owing to a scandalous adventure under a pear-tree--the story is a mere copy of a well-known one in the "hundred new novels"--she is expelled from the town with the loss of all her money and almost of her life--so severe in the matter of public morals were the laws, in the midst of the general welter of wickedness then prevailing. her beauty lost, she becomes a petty trader in wine and tobacco, and finally marries a gipsy chief; in which position we find her and leave her. this story ended, the secretary and his friends in the inn are joined by simplicissimus's old foster-father and mother--the "dad" and "mammy" of our romance--and also by young simplicissimus, courage's alleged son. she has avenged herself on her faithless lover, as she tells us in her own history, by laying at his door the child of her maid. it is for this reason that she entitles her narrative "trutzsimplex," or "spite simplex." her revenge, however, for reasons plainly hinted at, miscarries; the child is her lover's after all. the merry company of six then divert themselves during the short winter afternoon with a profitable exhibition of simplicissimus's tricks in the market-place, and the night is pleasantly spent in listening to springinsfeld's account of his own life and adventures. the son of a greek woman and an albanian juggler, he follows in early boyhood his father's trade. carried away from the port of ragusa by an accident, he is landed in the spanish netherlands, and there serves under spinola, then with that general's army in the rhine palatinate, and then in pappenheim's cavalry. he is present at breitenfeld and lützen, and while temporarily out of the service falls in with "courage" as above narrated. on leaving her, he sets up as an innkeeper, and prospers, but is ruined through his own incorrigible knavery. serving against the turks, he is wounded, and takes to fiddling to support himself, marrying also a hurdy-gurdy girl of loose character. in the course of their vagabond life there occurs the incident which leads to the most ingenious and attractive of all the romances of the cycle. sitting by a stream, they see in the water the shadow of a tree with a lump on one of the branches: on the tree itself there is no such lump. it is a bird's-nest, invisible itself, which makes its possessor invisible also. the wife seizes it and at once disappears, with all their money in her pocket. she does not, however, abandon her husband altogether, but when he goes into the neighbouring town of munich she slips a handful of money into his pocket. he finds that this is a part of the proceeds of an impudent robbery just committed in the house of a merchant, and will have none of it, but is compelled to be witness of numerous amusing and mischievous pranks played by his wife of which he alone knows the secret. he goes to the wars again and loses a leg, after which he begs his way back to munich and finds his wife dead. she has befooled a young baker's man into believing her to be the fairy melusina, and after a sanguinary chance-medley in the baker's chamber, whither she is pursued for thefts committed for his sake, is slain by a young halberdier of the watch sent to arrest her. her body is burned as that of a witch, and her slayer disappears bodily. his story thus ended, springinsfeld is taken home by simplicissimus to his farm, where he dies in the odour of sanctity. here begins the first part of the history of the "enchanted bird's-nest." the young halberdier is an honest lad, who uses his powers for good only, and his experiences are of exceeding interest as giving a picture of the manners of the time viewed in their most intimate particularities by an invisible witness. we have matrimonial infelicities circumstantially described, as likewise the efforts of an impoverished family of nobles to keep up appearances in their tumble-down old castle. the halberdier prevents hideous and unspeakable crime, captures burglars who are effecting their purpose by a device similar to that of the "hand of glory," wreaks vengeance upon loose-living pastors and rescues the intended victims of footpads. the adventures follow one upon another in quick succession, but are ended by a somewhat unnecessary fit of remorse, during which the halberdier tears up the nest. it is, however, found, and the portion which contains its magic properties kept, by a passer-by. this first part ends with a fresh appearance of simplicissimus, who is in deep grief over the rejection by a neighbouring nobleman of his application for a post for his son, whom the invisible halberdier has seen and helped out of trouble in the convent where he was studying. this scene is so utterly unconnected with the course of the narrative that it is conjectured to refer to some real family misfortune of grimmelshausen, of which he is anxious to give an explanation to the public. the new owner of the enchanted nest is the merchant whom springinsfeld's wife had robbed at munich, and the "second part" is occupied with the story of his wicked misuse of his powers. his actions are the very opposite of the halberdier's, though the contrast is not so pointed as to become inartistic. he makes use of his supernatural facilities to seduce his own servant, to perpetrate a peculiarly filthy act of revenge upon his faithless wife, and finally to accomplish the crowning deception of his whole career. he makes his way into the family of a respectable portuguese jew, in the first instance with a view to robbery; but becoming enamoured of the beautiful daughter of the house, he employs his invisibility to practise a most blasphemous piece of knavery. he succeeds in making the unfortunate parents believe that the maiden is destined to be the mother of the future messiah by the prophet elias. the latter part he of course plays himself, and enjoys the society of his victim till at length a child is born, which turns out, to the general horror, to be a girl. the motive is not new and the story is a sordid one; but it is most artistically recounted, and an intimate knowledge of jewish manners and ideas is displayed. the narrative is also diversified by an element found in none of the other romances of the cycle--acute and farsighted political discourses and reasonings on european affairs as likely to be affected by the war then impending with france, which ended with the treaty of nimwegen in . rendered desperate by his sins, though now deeply enamoured of the unfortunate jewess esther, the merchant is on the verge of surrendering himself to the power of "black magicians" of the worst and most diabolical kind when he escapes by betaking himself to the wars. possessing besides his invisibility the power of rendering himself invulnerable, he is nevertheless wounded by a "consecrated" bullet, and finally makes his way home in poverty and misery accompanied by a pious monk. the nest is thrown into the rhine and disappears for ever, and the merchant prepares to spend the remainder of his life in prayer and penitence. the connection of the fifth work, the "everlasting almanack," with simplicissimus is nominal only. it appeared in , and is a perfect specimen of what may be called the best class of chapbooks of that day. it is the whitaker's almanack of the period. each day has its special saints given: there are rules of good husbandry and weather prognostics; recipes for the house, the kitchen, and the farmyard; together with matters adapted for the higher class of readers, such as brief scientific notices, fragments of historical interest, narratives of marvellous occurrences, and, of course, in the spirit of the time, a mass of particulars as to astrology and the casting of horoscopes. ingenious as it all is, and not without interest from the sociological point of view the book reminds us of simplicissimus only by its connection with that side of his character which we would willingly forget, but for which grimmelshausen seems to have cherished an unreasoning admiration, and on which he insisted more and more in his successive works--namely his qualities as a quack and mountebank. as already pointed out, the interest of the central romance of "simplicissimus" is less literary than historic, whereas german critics in their estimate of its value have considered the first aspect only, and their opinions are consequently little worth recording. gervinus for example, looking at the book from a purely artistic point of view, finds it wanting. other critics have followed him blindly and with a considerable amount of underlying ignorance to boot. the accurate dahlmann, for example, though he reckons the romance among his "historical sources," speaks of it as published at möpelgard in in six "volumes." plainly he had never seen a copy, but had heard of the six books (five and the "continuation") and mistook them for volumes. tittmann, one of the latest editors of the work, sums up its chief merits when he says: "simplicissimus and the simplician writings are almost our only substitute, and that a poor one, for the contemporary memoirs in which our western neighbours are so rich." the bibliography of the book is for our purpose not important. for a year or two editions seem to have succeeded each other with such rapidity that it is difficult to distinguish between them; but the only additional value which those printed later than possess is the questionable one of including the three worthless little sequels above referred to. of modern editions the best, perhaps, is that of tittmann (leipzig, ), which has been principally used for this translation. the annotations, however, leave much to be desired; many difficulties are left unexplained, and there are some positive mistakes, of which a single instance may suffice. in book v., chapter , we find the expression "in prima plana," which is a sufficiently well-known military phrase of the time and means "on the first page" (of the muster-roll), which contained the names of the officers of a company written separately from those of the rank and file. it is explained by tittmann to mean "at the first estimate," and succeeding editors have copied this, adding as a possible alternative "in the first engagement," or "at the first start". the editions for school and family reading which are current in germany are, as a rule, so expurgated as to deprive the book of much of its interest. in this translation it has been found necessary to omit a single episode only, which is as childishly filthy as it is utterly uninteresting. a. t. s. g. book i. _chap. i._: treats of simplicissimus's rustic descent and of his upbringing answering thereto there appeareth in these days of ours (of which many do believe that they be the last days) among the common folk, a certain disease which causeth those who do suffer from it (so soon as they have either scraped and higgled together so much that they can, besides a few pence in their pocket, wear a fool's coat of the new fashion with a thousand bits of silk ribbon upon it, or by some trick of fortune have become known as men of parts) forthwith to give themselves out gentlemen and nobles of ancient descent. whereas it doth often happen that their ancestors were day-labourers, carters, and porters, their cousins donkey-drivers, their brothers turnkeys and catchpolls, their sisters harlots, their mothers bawds--yea, witches even: and in a word, their whole pedigree of thirty-two quarterings as full of dirt and stain as ever was the sugar-bakers' guild of prague. yea, these new sprigs of nobility be often themselves as black as if they had been born and bred in guinea. with such foolish folk i desire not to even myself, though 'tis not untrue that i have often fancied i must have drawn my birth from some great lord or knight at least, as being by nature disposed to follow the nobleman's trade had i but the means and the tools for it. 'tis true, moreover, without jesting, that my birth and upbringing can be well compared to that of a prince if we overlook the one great difference in degree. how! did not my dad (for so they call fathers in the spessart) have his own palace like any other, so fine as no king could build with his own hands, but must let that alone for ever. 'twas painted with lime, and in place of unfruitful tiles, cold lead and red copper, was roofed with that straw whereupon the noble corn doth grow, and that he, my dad, might make a proper show of nobility and riches, he had his wall round his castle built, not of stone, which men do find upon the road or dig out of the earth in barren places, much less of miserable baked bricks that in a brief space can be made and burned (as other great lords be wont to do), but he did use oak, which noble and profitable tree, being such that smoked sausage and fat ham doth grow upon it, taketh for its full growth no less than a hundred years; and where is the monarch that can imitate him therein? his halls, his rooms, and his chambers did he have thoroughly blackened with smoke, and for this reason only, that 'tis the most lasting colour in the world, and doth take longer to reach to real perfection than an artist will spend on his most excellent paintings. the tapestries were of the most delicate web in the world, wove for us by her that of old did challenge minerva to a spinning match. his windows were dedicated to st. papyrius for no other reason than that that same paper doth take longer to come to perfection, reckoning from the sowing of the hemp or flax whereof 'tis made, than doth the finest and clearest glass of murano: for his trade made him apt to believe that whatever was produced with much pains was also more valuable and more costly; and what was most costly was best suited to nobility. instead of pages, lackeys, and grooms, he had sheep, goats, and swine, which often waited upon me in the pastures till i drove them home. his armoury was well furnished with ploughs, mattocks, axes, hoes, shovels, pitchforks, and hayforks, with which weapons he daily exercised himself; for hoeing and digging he made his military discipline, as did the old romans in time of peace. the yoking of oxen was his generalship, the piling of dung his fortification, tilling of the land his campaigning, and the cleaning out of stables his princely pastime and exercise. by this means did he conquer the whole round world so far as he could reach, and at every harvest did draw from it rich spoils. but all this i account nothing of, and am not puffed up thereby, lest any should have cause to jibe at me as at other newfangled nobility, for i esteem myself no higher than was my dad, which had his abode in a right merry land, to wit, in the spessart, where the wolves do howl goodnight to each other. but that i have as yet told you nought of my dad's family, race and name is for the sake of precious brevity, especially since there is here no question of a foundation for gentlefolks for me to swear myself into; 'tis enough if it be known that i was born in the spessart. now as my dad's manner of living will be perceived to be truly noble, so any man of sense will easily understand that my upbringing was like and suitable thereto: and whoso thinks that is not deceived, for in my tenth year had i already learned the rudiments of my dad's princely exercises: yet as touching studies i might compare with the famous amphistides, of whom suidas reports that he could not count higher than five: for my dad had perchance too high a spirit, and therefore followed the use of these days, wherein many persons of quality trouble themselves not, as they say, with bookworms' follies, but have their hirelings to do their ink-slinging for them. yet was i a fine performer on the bagpipe, whereon i could produce most dolorous strains. but as to knowledge of things divine, none shall ever persuade me that any lad of my age in all christendom could there beat me, for i knew nought of god or man, of heaven or hell, of angel or devil, nor could discern between good and evil. so may it be easily understood that i, with such knowledge of theology, lived like our first parents in paradise, which in their innocence knew nought of sickness or death or dying, and still less of the resurrection. o noble life! (or, as one might better say, o noodle's life!) in which none troubles himself about medicine. and by this measure ye can estimate my proficiency in the study of jurisprudence and all other arts and sciences. yea, i was so perfected in ignorance that i knew not that i knew nothing. so say i again, o noble life that once i led! but my dad would not suffer me long to enjoy such bliss, but deemed it right that as being nobly born, i should nobly act and nobly live: and therefore began to train me up for higher things and gave me harder lessons. _chap. ii._: of the first step towards that dignity to which simplicissimus attained, to which is added the praise of shepherds and other excellent precepts for he invested me with the highest dignity that could be found, not only in his household, but in the whole world: namely, with the office of a shepherd: for first he did entrust me with his swine, then his goats, and then his whole flock of sheep, that i should keep and feed the same, and by means of my bagpipe (of which strabo writeth that in arabia its music alone doth fatten the sheep and lambs) protect them from the wolf. then was i like to david (save that he in place of the bagpipe had but a harp), which was no bad beginning for me, but a good omen that in time, if i had any manner of luck, i should become a famous man: for from the beginning of the world high personages have been shepherds, as we read in holy writ of abel, abraham, isaac, jacob, and his sons: yea, of moses also, which must first keep his father-in-law his sheep before he was made law-giver and ruler over six hundred thousand men in israel. and now may some man say these were holy and godly men, and no spessart peasant-lads knowing nought of god? which i must confess: yet why should my then innocence be laid to my charge? yet, among the heathen of old time you will find examples as many as among god's chosen folk. so among the romans were noble families that without doubt were called bubulci, vituli, vitellii, caprae, and so forth, because they had to do with the cattle so named, and 'tis like had even herded them. 'tis certain romulus and remus were shepherds, and spartacus that made the whole roman world to tremble. what! was not paris, king priam's son, a shepherd, and anchises the trojan prince, aeneas's father? the beautiful endymion, of whom the chaste luna was enamoured, was a shepherd, and so too the grisly polypheme. yea, the gods themselves were not ashamed of this trade: apollo kept the kine of admetus, king of thessaly; mercurius and his son daphnis, pan and proteus, were all mighty shepherds: and therefore be they still called by our fantastic poets the patrons of herdsmen. mesha, king of moab, as we do read in ii kings, was a sheep-master; cyrus, the great king of persia, was not only reared by mithridates, a shepherd, but himself did keep sheep; gyges was first a herdsman, and then by the power of a ring became a king; and ismael sophi, a persian king, did in his youth likewise herd cattle. so that philo, the jew, doth excellently deal with the matter in his life of moses when he saith the shepherd's trade is a preparation and a beginning for the ruling of men, for as men are trained and exercised for the wars in hunting, so should they that are intended for government first be reared in the gentle and kindly duty of a shepherd: all which my dad doubtless did understand: yea, to know it doth to this hour give me no little hope of my future greatness. but to come back to my flock. ye must know that i knew as little of wolves as of mine own ignorance, and therefore was my dad the more diligent with his lessons: and "lad," says he, "have a care; let not the sheep run far from each other, and play thy bagpipe manfully lest the wolf come and do harm, for 'tis a four-legged knave and a thief that eateth man and beast, and if thou beest anyways negligent he will dust thy jacket for thee." to which i answered with like courtesy, "daddy, tell me how a wolf looks: for such i never saw yet." "o thou silly blockhead," quoth he, "all thy life long wilt thou be a fool: thou art already a great looby and yet knowest not what a four-legged rogue a wolf is." and more lessons did he give me, and at last grew angry and went away, as bethinking him that my thick wit could not comprehend his nice instruction. _chap. iii._: treats of the sufferings of a faithful bagpipe so i began to make such ado with my bagpipe and such noise that 'twas enough to poison all the toads in the garden, and so methought i was safe enough from the wolf that was ever in my mind: and remembering me of my mammy (for so they do use to call their mothers in the spessart and the vogelsberg) how she had often said the fowls would some time or other die of my singing, i fell upon the thought to sing the more, and so make my defence against the wolf stronger; and so i sang this which i had learned from my mammy: . o peasant race so much despised, how greatly art thou to be priz'd? yea, none thy praises can excel, if men would only mark thee well. . how would it with the world now stand had adam never till'd the land? with spade and hoe he dug the earth from whom our princes have their birth. . whatever earth doth bear this day is under thine high rule and sway, and all that fruitful makes the land is guided by thy master hand. . the emperor whom god doth give us to protect, thereby doth live: so doth the soldier: though his trade to thy great loss and harm be made. . meat for our feasts thou dost provide: our wine by thee too is supplied: thy plough can force the earth to give that bread whereby all men must live. . all waste the earth and desert were didst thou not ply thy calling there: sad day shall that for all be found when peasants cease to till the ground. . so hast thou right to laud and praise, for thou dost feed us all our days. nature herself thee well doth love, and god thy handiwork approve. . whoever yet on earth did hear of peasant that the gout did fear; that fell disease which rich men dread, whereby is many a noble dead. . from all vainglory art thou free (as in these days thou well mayst be), and lest thou shouldst through pride have loss, god bids thee daily bear thy cross. . yea, even the soldier's wicked will may work thee great advantage still: for lest thou shouldst to pride incline, "thy goods and house," saith he, "are mine." so far and no further could i get with my song: for in a moment was i surrounded, sheep and all, by a troop of cuirassiers that had lost their way in the thick wood and were brought back to their right path by my music and my calls to my flock. "aha," quoth i to myself, "these be the right rogues! these be the four-legged knaves and thieves whereof thy dad did tell thee!" for at first i took horse and man (as did the americans the spanish cavalry) to be but one beast, and could not but conceive these were the wolves; and so would sound the retreat for these horrible centaurs and send them a-flying: but scarce had i blown up my bellows to that end when one of them catches me by the shoulder and swings me up so roughly upon a spare farm horse they had stolen with other booty that i must needs fall on the other side, and that too upon my dear bagpipe, which began so miserably to scream as it would move all the world to pity: which availed nought, though it spared not its last breath in the bewailing of my sad fate. to horse again i must go, it mattered not what my bagpipe did sing or say: yet what vexed me most was that the troopers said i had hurt my dear bagpipe, and therefore it had made so heathenish an outcry. so away my horse went with me at a good trot, like the "primum mobile," for my dad's farm. now did strange and fantastic imaginings fill my brain; for i did conceive, because i sat upon such a beast as i had never before seen, that i too should be changed into an iron man. and because such a change came not, there arose in me other foolish fantasies: for i thought these strange creatures were but there to help me drive my sheep home; for none strayed from the path, but all, with one accord, made for my dad's farm. so i looked anxiously when my dad and my mammy should come out to bid us welcome: which yet came not: for they and our ursula, which was my dad's only daughter, had found the back-door open and would not wait for their guests. _chap. iv._: how simplicissimus's palace was stormed, plundered, and ruinated, and in what sorry fashion the soldiers kept house there although it was not my intention to take the peace-loving reader with these troopers to my dad's house and farm, seeing that matters will go ill therein, yet the course of my history demands that i should leave to kind posterity an account of what manner of cruelties were now and again practised in this our german war: yea, and moreover testify by my own example that such evils must often have been sent to us by the goodness of almighty god for our profit. for, gentle reader, who would ever have taught me that there was a god in heaven if these soldiers had not destroyed my dad's house, and by such a deed driven me out among folk who gave me all fitting instruction thereupon? only a little while before, i neither knew nor could fancy to myself that there were any people on earth save only my dad, my mother and me, and the rest of our household, nor did i know of any human habitation but that where i daily went out and in. but soon thereafter i understood the way of men's coming into this world, and how they must leave it again. i was only in shape a man and in name a christian: for the rest i was but a beast. yet the almighty looked upon my innocence with a pitiful eye, and would bring me to a knowledge both of himself and of myself. and although he had a thousand ways to lead me thereto, yet would he doubtless use that one only by which my dad and my mother should be punished: and that for an example to all others by reason of their heathenish upbringing of me. the first thing these troopers did was, that they stabled their horses: thereafter each fell to his appointed task: which task was neither more nor less than ruin and destruction. for though some began to slaughter and to boil and to roast so that it looked as if there should be a merry banquet forward, yet others there were who did but storm through the house above and below stairs. others stowed together great parcels of cloth and apparel and all manner of household stuff, as if they would set up a frippery market. all that they had no mind to take with them they cut in pieces. some thrust their swords through the hay and straw as if they had not enough sheep and swine to slaughter: and some shook the feathers out of the beds and in their stead stuffed in bacon and other dried meat and provisions as if such were better and softer to sleep upon. others broke the stove and the windows as if they had a never-ending summer to promise. houseware of copper and tin they beat flat, and packed such vessels, all bent and spoiled, in with the rest. bedsteads, tables, chairs, and benches they burned, though there lay many cords of dry wood in the yard. pots and pipkins must all go to pieces, either because they would eat none but roast flesh, or because their purpose was to make there but a single meal. our maid was so handled in the stable that she could not come out; which is a shame to tell of. our man they laid bound upon the ground, thrust a gag into his mouth, and poured a pailful of filthy water into his body: and by this, which they called a swedish draught, they forced him to lead a party of them to another place where they captured men and beasts, and brought them back to our farm, in which company were my dad, my mother, and our ursula. and now they began: first to take the flints out of their pistols and in place of them to jam the peasants' thumbs in and so to torture the poor rogues as if they had been about the burning of witches: for one of them they had taken they thrust into the baking oven and there lit a fire under him, although he had as yet confessed no crime: as for another, they put a cord round his head and so twisted it tight with a piece of wood that the blood gushed from his mouth and nose and ears. in a word, each had his own device to torture the peasants, and each peasant his several torture. but as it seemed to me then, my dad was the luckiest, for he with a laughing face confessed what others must out with in the midst of pains and miserable lamentations: and such honour without doubt fell to him because he was the householder. for they set him before a fire and bound him fast so that he could neither stir hand nor foot, and smeared the soles of his feet with wet salt, and this they made our old goat lick off, and so tickle him that he well nigh burst his sides with laughing. and this seemed to me so merry a thing that i must needs laugh with him for the sake of fellowship, or because i knew no better. in the midst of such laughter he must needs confess all that they would have of him, and indeed revealed to them a secret treasure, which proved far richer in pearls, gold, and trinkets than any would have looked for among peasants. of the women, girls, and maidservants whom they took, i have not much to say in particular, for the soldiers would not have me see how they dealt with them. yet this i know, that one heard some of them scream most piteously in divers corners of the house; and well i can judge it fared no better with my mother and our ursel than with the rest. yet in the midst of all this miserable ruin i helped to turn the spit, and in the afternoon to give the horses drink, in which employ i encountered our maid in the stable, who seemed to me wondrously tumbled, so that i knew her not, but with a weak voice she called to me, "o lad, run away, or the troopers will have thee away with them. look to it well that thou get hence: thou seest in what plight ..." and more she could not say. _chap. v._: how simplicissimus took french leave, and how he was terrified by dead trees now did i begin to consider and to ponder upon my unhappy condition and prospects, and to think how i might best help myself out of my plight. for whither should i go? here indeed my poor wits were far too slender to devise a plan. yet they served me so far that towards evening i ran into the woods. but then whither was i to go further? for the ways of the wood were as little known to me as the passage beyond nova zembla through the arctic ocean to china. 'tis true the pitch-dark night was my protection: yet to my dark wits it seemed not dark enough; so i did hide myself in a close thicket wherein i could hear both the shrieks of the tortured peasants and the song of the nightingales; which birds regarded not the peasants either to show compassion for them or to stop their sweet song for their sakes: and so i laid myself, as free from care, upon one ear, and fell asleep. but when the morning star began to glimmer in the east i could see my poor dad's house all aflame, yet none that sought to stop the fire: so i betook myself thither in hopes to have some news of my dad; whereupon i was espied by five troopers, of whom one holloaed to me, "come hither, boy, or i will shoot thee dead." but i stood stock-still and open-mouthed, as knowing not what he meant or would have; and i standing there and gaping upon them like a cat at a new barn-door, and they, by reason of a morass between, not being able to come at me, which vexed them mightily, one discharged his carbine at me: at which sudden flame of fire and unexpected noise, which the echo, repeating it many times, made more dreadful, i was so terrified that forthwith i fell to the ground, and for terror durst not move a finger, though the troopers went their way and doubtless left me for dead; nor for that whole day had i spirit to rise up. but night again overtaking me, i stood up and wandered away into the woods until i saw afar off a dead tree that shone: and this again wrought in me a new fear: wherefore i turned me about post-haste and ran till i saw another such tree, from which i hurried away again, and in this manner spent the night running from one dead tree to another. at last came blessed daylight to my help, and bade those trees leave me untroubled in its presence: yet was i not much the better thereby; for my heart was full of fear and dread, my brain of foolish fancies, and my legs of weariness, my belly of hunger, and mine eyes of sleep. so i went on and on and knew not whither; yet the further i went the thicker grew the wood and the greater the distance from all human kind. so now i came to my senses, and perceived (yet without knowing it) the effect of ignorance and want of knowledge: for if an unreasoning beast had been in my place he would have known what to do for his sustenance better than i. yet i had wit enough when darkness again overtook me to creep into a hollow tree and there take up my quarters for the night. _chap. vi._: is so short and so prayerful that simplicissimus thereupon swoons away but hardly had i composed myself to sleep when i heard a voice that cried aloud, "o wondrous love towards us thankless mortals! o mine only comfort, my hope, my riches, my god!" and more of the same sort, all of which i could not hear or understand. yet these were surely words which should rightly have cheered, comforted, and delighted every christian soul that should find itself in such a plight as did i. but o simplicity! o ignorance! 'twas all gibberish[ ] to me, and all in an unknown tongue out of which i could make nothing: yea, was rather terrified by its strangeness. yet when i heard how the hunger and thirst of him that spake should be satisfied, my unbearable hunger did counsel me to join myself to him as a guest. so i plucked up heart to come out of my hollow tree and to draw nigh to the voice i had heard, where i was ware of a tall man with long greyish hair which fell in confusion over his shoulders: a tangled beard he had shapen like to a swiss cheese; his face yellow and thin yet kindly enough, and his long gown made up of more than a thousand pieces of cloth of all sorts sewn together one upon another. round his neck and body he had wound a heavy iron chain like st. william,[ ] and in other ways seemed in mine eyes so grisly and terrible that i began to shake like a wet dog. but what made my fear greater was that he did hug to his breast a crucifix some six spans long. so i could fancy nought else but that this old grey man must be the wolf of whom my dad had of late told me: and in my fear i whipped out my bagpipe, which, as mine only treasure, i had saved from the troopers, and blowing up the sack, tuned up and made a mighty noise to drive away that same grisly wolf: at which sudden and unaccustomed music in that lonely place the hermit was at first no little dismayed, deeming, without doubt, 'twas a devil come to terrify him and so disturb his prayers, as happened to the great st. anthony. but presently recovering himself, he mocked at me as his tempter in the hollow tree, whither i had retired myself: nay, plucked up such heart that he advanced upon me to defy the enemy of mankind. "aha!" says he, "thou art a proper fellow enough, to tempt saints without god's leave": and more than that i heard not: for his approach caused in me such fear and trembling that i lost my senses and fell forthwith into a swoon. _chap. vii._: how simplicissimus was in a poor lodging kindly entreated after what manner i was helped to myself again i know not; only this, that the old man had my head on his breast and my jacket open in front, when i came to my senses. but when i saw the hermit so close to me i raised such a hideous outcry as if he would have torn the heart out of my body. then said he, "my son, hold thy peace: be content: i do thee no harm." yet the more he comforted me and soothed me the more i cried, "oh, thou eatest me! oh! thou eatest me: thou art the wolf and wilt eat me." "nay, nay," said he, "my son, be at peace: i eat thee not." this contention lasted long, till at length i let myself so far be persuaded as to go into his hut with him, wherein was poverty the housekeeper, hunger the cook, and want clerk of the kitchen: there was my belly cheered with herbs and a draught of water, and my mind, which was altogether distraught, again brought to right reason by the old man's comfortable kindness. thereafter then i easily allowed myself to be enticed by the charm of sweet slumber to pay my debt to nature. now when the hermit perceived my need of sleep he left me to occupy my place in his hut alone: for one only could lie therein. so about midnight i awoke again and heard him sing the song which followeth here, which i afterwards did learn by heart. "come, joy of night, o nightingale: take up, take up thy cheerful tale; sing sweet and loud and long. come praise thine own creator blest, when other birds are gone to rest, and now have hushed their song. (chorus) "with thy voice loud rejoice; for so thou best canst shew thy love to god who reigns in heaven above. "for though the light of day be flown, and we in darkness dwell alone, yet can we chant and sing of god his power and god his might: nor darkness hinders us nor night our praises so to bring. echo the wanderer makes reply and when thou singst will still be by and still repeat thy strain. all weariness she drives afar and sloth to which we prisoners are, and mocks at slumber's chain. the stars that stand in heaven above, do shew to god their praise and love and honour to him bring; and owls by nature reft of song yet shew with cries the whole night long their love to god the king. come hither then, sweet bird of night, for we will share no sluggard's plight nor sleep away the hours; but, till the rosy break of day chase from these woods the night away, god's praise shall still be ours." now while this song did last it seemed to me as if nightingale, owl, and echo had of a truth joined therein, and had i ever heard the morning star or had been able to play its melody on my bagpipe, i had surely run out of the hut to take my trick also, so sweet did this harmony seem to me: yet i fell asleep again and woke not till day was far advanced, when the hermit stood before me and said, "up, child, i will give thee to eat and thereafter shew thee the way through the wood, so that thou comest to where people dwell, and also before night to the nearest village." so i asked him, what be these things, "people" and "village"? "what," says he, "hast never been in any village and knowest not what people or folks be?" "nay," said i, "nowhere save here have i been: yet tell me what be these things, folk and people and village." "god save us," answered the hermit, "art thou demented or very cunning?" "nay," said i, "i am my mammy's and dad's boy, and neither master demented nor master cunning." then the hermit shewed his amazement with sighs and crossing of himself, and says he, "'tis well, dear child, i am determined if god will better to instruct thee." so then our questions and answers fell out as the ensuing chapter sheweth. _chap. viii._: how simplicissimus by his noble discourse proclaimed his excellent qualities hermit. what is thy name? simplicissimus. my name is "lad." h. i can see well enough that thou art no girl: but how did thy father and mother call thee? s. i never had either father or mother. h. who gave thee then thy shirt? s. oho! why, my mammy. h. what did thy mother call thee? s. she called me "lad," ay, and "rogue, silly gaby, and gallowsbird." h. who, then, was thy mammy's husband? s. no one. h. with whom, then, did thy mammy sleep at night? s. with my dad. h. what did thy dad call thee? s. he called me "lad." h. what was his name? s. his name was dad. h. what did thy mammy call him? s. dad, and sometimes also "master." h. did she never call him aught besides? s. yea, that did she. h. and what then? s. "beast," "coarse brute," "drunken pig," and other the like, when she would scold him. h. thou beest but an ignorant creature, that knowest not thy parents' name nor thine own. s. oho! neither dost thou know it. h. canst thou say thy prayers? s. nay, my mammy and our ursel did uprear the beds. h. i ask thee not that, but whether thou knowest thy paternoster? s. that do i. h. say it then. s. our father which art heaven, hallowed be name, to thy kingdom come, thy will come down on earth as it says heaven, give us debts as we give our debtors: lead us not into no temptation, but deliver us from the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. amen. h. god help us! knowest thou naught of our blessed lord god? s. yea, yea: 'tis he that stood by our chamber-door; my mammy brought him home from the church feast and stuck him up there. h. o gracious god, now for the first time do i perceive what a great favour and benefit it is when thou impartest knowledge of thyself, and how naught a man is to whom thou givest it not! o lord, vouchsafe to me so to honour thy holy name that i be worthy to be as zealous in my thanks for this great grace as thou hast been liberal in the granting of it. hark now, simplicissimus (for i can call thee by no other name), when thou sayest thy paternoster, thou must say this: "our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name: thy kingdom come: thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven: give us this day our daily bread ..." s. oho there! ask for cheese too! h. ah, dear child, keep silence and learn that thou needest more than cheese: thou art indeed loutish, as thy mammy told thee: 'tis not the part of lads like thee to interrupt an old man, but to be silent, to listen, and to learn. did i but know where thy parents dwelt, i would fain bring thee to them, and then teach them how to bring up children. s. i know not whither to go. our house is burnt, and my mammy ran off and was fetched back with our ursula, and my dad too, and our maid was sick and lying in the stable. h. and who did burn the house? s. aha! there came iron men that sat on things as big as oxen, yet having no horns: which same men did slaughter sheep and cows and swine, and so i ran too, and then was the house burnt. h. where was thy dad then? s. aha! the iron men tied him up and our old goat was set to lick his feet. so he must needs laugh, and give the iron men many silver pennies, big and little, and fair yellow things and some that glittered, and fine strings full of little white balls. h. and when did this come to pass? s. why, even when i should have been keeping of sheep: yea, and they would even take from me my bagpipe. h. but when was it that thou shouldst have been keeping sheep? s. what, canst thou not hear? even then when the iron men came: and then our anna bade me run away, or the soldiers would carry me off: and by that she meant the iron men: so i ran off and so i came hither. h. and whither wilt thou now? s. truly i know not: i will stay here with thee. h. nay, to keep thee here is not to the purpose, either for me or thee. eat now; and presently i will bring thee where people are. s. oho! tell me now what manner of things be "people." h. people be mankind like me and thee: thy dad, thy mammy, and your ann be mankind, and when there be many together then are they called people: and now go thou and eat. so was our discourse, in which the hermit often gazed on me with deepest sighs: i know not whether 'twas so because he had great compassion on my simplicity and ignorance, or from that cause, which i learned not until some years later. _chap. ix._: how simplicissimus was changed from a wild beast into a christian so i began to eat and ceased to prattle; all which lasted no longer than till i had appeased mine hunger: for then the good hermit bade me begone. then must i seek out the most flattering words which my rough country upbringing afforded me, and all to this end, to move the hermit that he should keep me with him. now though of a certainty it must have vexed him greatly to endure my troublesome presence, yet did he resolve to suffer me to be with him; and that more to instruct me in the christian religion, than because he would have my service in his approaching old age: yet was this his greatest anxiety, lest my tender youth should not endure for long such a hard way of living as was his. a space of some three weeks was my year of probation: in which three weeks st. gertrude[ ] was at war with the gardeners: so was it my lot to be inducted into the profession of these last: and therein i carried myself so well that the good hermit took an especial pleasure in me, and that not so much for my work's sake (whereunto i was before well trained) but because he saw that i myself was as ready greedily to hearken to his instructions as the waxen, soft, and yet smooth tablet of my mind shewed itself ready to receive such. for such reasons he was the more zealous to bring me to the knowledge of all good things. so he began his instruction from the fall of lucifer: thence came he to the garden of eden, and when we were thrust out thence with our first parents, he passed through the law of moses and taught me, by the means of the ten commandments and their explications--of which commandments he would say that they were a true measure to know the will of god, and thereby to lead a life holy and well pleasing to god--to discern virtue from vice, to do the good and to avoid the evil. at the end of all he came to the gospel and told me of christ's birth, sufferings, death, and resurrection: and then concluded all with the judgment day, and so set heaven and hell before my eyes: and this all with befitting circumstance, yet not with superfluity of words, but as it seemed to him i could best comprehend and understand. so when he had ended one matter he began another, and therewithal contrived with all patience so to shape himself to answer my questions, and so to deal with me, that better he could not have shed the light of truth into my heart. yet were his life and his speech for me an everlasting preaching: and this my mind, all wooden and dull as it was, yet by god's grace left not fruitless. so that in three weeks did i not only understand all that a christian should know, but was possessed with such love for this teaching that i could not sleep at night for thinking thereon. i have since pondered much upon this matter and have found that aristotle, in his second book "of the soul," did put it well, whereas he compared the soul of a man to a blank unwritten tablet, whereon one could write what he would, and concluded that all such was decreed by the creator of the world, in order that such blank tablets might by industrious impression and exercise be marked, and so be brought to completeness and perfection. and so saith also his commentator averroes (upon that passage where the philosopher saith that the intellect is but a possibility which can be brought into activity by naught else than by scientia or knowledge: which is to say that man's understanding is capable of all things, yet can be brought to such knowledge only by constant exercise), and giveth this plain decision: namely, that this knowledge or exercise is the perfecting of souls which have no power at all in them selves. and this doth cicero confirm in his second book of the "tusculan disputations," when he compares the soul of a man without instruction, knowledge, and exercise, to a field which, albeit fruitful by nature, yet if no man till it or sow it will bring forth no fruit. and all this did i prove by my own single example: for that i so soon understood all that the pious hermit shewed to me arose from this cause: that he found the smooth tablet of my soul quite empty and without any imaginings before entered thereupon, which might well have hindered the impress of others thereafter. yet in spite of all, that pure simplicity (in comparison with other men's ways) hath ever clung to me: and therefore did the hermit (for neither he nor i knew my right name) ever call me simplicissimus. withal i learned to pray, and when the good hermit had resolved himself to satisfy my earnest desire to abide with him, we built for me a hut like to his own, of wood, twigs and earth, shaped well nigh as the musqueteer shapes his tent in camp or, to speak more exactly, as the peasant in some places shapes his turnip-hod, so low, in truth, that i could hardly sit upright therein; my bed was of dried leaves and grass, and just so large as the hut itself, so that i know not whether to call such a dwelling-place or hole, a covered bedstead or a hut. _chap. x._: in what manner he learned to read and write in the wild woods now when first i saw the hermit read the bible, i could not conceive with whom he should speak so secretly and, as i thought, so earnestly; for well i saw the moving of his lips, yet no man that spake with him: and though i knew naught of reading or writing, nevertheless i marked by his eyes that he had to do with somewhat in the said book. so i marked where he kept it, and when he had laid it aside i crept thither and opened it, and at the first assay lit upon the first chapter of job and the picture that stood at the head thereof, which was a fine woodcut and fairly painted: so i began to ask strange questions of the figures, and when they gave me no answer waxed impatient, and even as the hermit came up behind me, "ye little clowns," said i, "have ye no mouths any longer? could ye not even now prate away long enough with my father (for so must i call my hermit)? i see well enough that ye are driving away the gaffer's sheep and burning of his house: wait awhile and i will quench your fire for ye," and with that rose up to fetch water, for there seemed to me present need of it. then said the hermit, who i knew not was behind me: "whither away, simplicissimus?" "o father," says i, "here be more soldiers that will drive off sheep: they do take them from that poor man with whom thou didst talk: and here is his house a-burning, and if i quench it not 'twill be consumed": and with that i pointed with my finger to what i saw. "but stay," quoth the hermit, "for these figures be not alive;" to which i, with rustic courtesy, answered him: "what, beest thou blind? do thou keep watch lest that they drive the sheep away while i do seek for water." "nay," quoth he again, "but they be not alive; they be made only to call up before our eyes things that happened long ago." "how;" said i, "thou didst even now talk with them: how then can they be not alive?" at that the hermit must, against his will and contrary to his habit, laugh: and "dear child," says he, "these figures cannot talk: but what they do and what they are, that can i see from these black lines, and that do men call reading. and when i thus do read, thou conceivest that i speak with the figures: but 'tis not so." yet i answered him: "if i be a man as thou art, so must i likewise be able to see in these black lines what thou canst see: how then may i understand thy words? dear father, teach me in truth how to understand this matter." so said he: "'tis well, my son, and i will teach thee so that thou mayest speak with these figures as well as i: only 'twill need time, in which i must have patience and thou industry." with that he wrote me down an alphabet on birchbark, formed like print, and when i knew the letters, i learned to spell, and thereafter to read, and at last to write better than could the hermit himself; for i imitated print in everything. _chap. xi._: discourseth of foods, household stuff, and other necessary concerns, which folk must have in this earthly life in that wood did i abide for about two years, until the hermit died, and after his death somewhat longer than a half-year. and therefore it seemeth me good to tell to the curious reader, who often desireth to know even the smallest matters, of our doings, our ways and works, and how we spent our life. now our food was vegetables of all kinds, turnips, cabbage, beans, pease, and the like: nor did we despise beech-nuts, wild apples, pears, and cherries: yea, and our hunger often made even acorns savoury to us; our bread or, to say more truly, our cakes, we baked on hot ashes, and they were made of italian rye beaten fine. in winter we would catch birds with springes and snares; but in spring and summer god bestowed upon us young fledglings from their nest. often must we make out with snails and frogs: and so was fishing, both with net and line, convenient to us: for close to our dwelling there flowed a brook, full of fish and crayfish, all which did help to make our rough vegetable diet palatable. once on a time did we catch a young wild pig, and this we penned in a stall, and did feed him with acorns and beech-nuts, so fatted him and at last did eat him; for my hermit knew it could be no sin to eat that which god hath created to such end for the whole human race. of salt we needed but little and spices not at all: for we might not arouse our desire to drink, seeing that we had no cellar: what little salt we wanted a good pastor furnished us who dwelt some fifteen miles away from us, and of whom i shall yet have much to tell. now as concerns our household stuff, we had enough: for we had a shovel, a pick, an axe, a hatchet, and an iron pot for cooking, which was indeed not our own, but lent to us by the said pastor: each of us had an old blunt knife, which same were our own possessions, and no more: more than that needed we naught, neither dishes, plates, spoons, nor forks: neither kettles, frying-pans, gridirons, spits, salt-cellars, no, nor any other table and kitchen ware: for our iron pot was our dish, our hands our forks and spoons: and if we would drink, we could do so through a pipe from the spring or else we dipped our mouths like gideon's soldiers. then for garments: of wool, of silk, of cotton, and of linen, as for beds, table-covers, and tapestries, we had none save what we wore upon our bodies: for we deemed it enough if we could shield ourselves from rain and frost. at other times we kept no rule or order in our household, save on sundays and holy-days, at which time we would start on our way at midnight, so that we might come early enough to escape men's notice, to the said pastor's church, which was a little away from the village, and there might attend service. when we came thither we betook ourselves to the broken organ, from which place we could see both altar and pulpit: and when i first saw the pastor go up to the pulpit i asked my hermit what he would do in that great tub! so, service finished, we went home as secretly as we had come, and when we found ourselves once more at home, with weary body and weary feet, then did we eat foul food with fair appetite: then would the hermit spend the rest of the day in praying and in the instructing of me in holy things. on working days we would do that which seemed most necessary to do, according as it happened, and as such was required by the time of year and by our needs: now would we work in the garden: another time we gathered together the rich mould in shady places and out of hollow trees to improve our garden therewith in place of dung; again we would weave baskets or fishing-nets or chop firewood, or go a-fishing, or do aught to banish idleness. yet among all these occupations did the good hermit never cease to instruct me faithfully in all good things: and meanwhile did i learn, in such a hard life, to endure hunger, thirst, heat, cold, and great labour, and before all things to know god and how one should serve him best, which was the chiefest thing of all. and indeed my faithful hermit would have me know no more, for he held it was enough for any christian to attain his end and aim, if he did but constantly pray and work: so it came about that, though i was pretty well instructed in ghostly matters, and knew my christian belief well enough, and could speak the german language as well as a talking spelling-book, yet i remained the most simple lad in the world: so that when i left the wood i was such a poor, sorry creature that no dog would have left his bone to run after me. _chap. xii._: tells of a notable fine way, to die happy and to have oneself buried at small cost so had i spent two years or thereabouts, and had scarce grown accustomed to the hard life of a hermit, when one day my best friend on earth took his pick, gave me the shovel, and led me by the hand, according to his daily custom, to our garden, where we were wont to say our prayers. "now simplicissimus, dear child," said he, "inasmuch as, god be praised, the time is at hand when i must part from this earth and must pay the debt of nature, and leave thee behind me in this world, and whereas i do partly foresee the future course of thy life and do know well that thou wilt not long abide in this wilderness, therefore did i desire to strengthen thee in the way of virtue which thou hast entered on, and to give thee some lessons for thy instruction by means of which thou shouldest so rule thy life that, as though by an unfailing clue, thou mightest find thy way to eternal happiness, and so with all elect saints mightest be found worthy for ever to behold the face of god in that other life." these words did drown mine eyes in tears, even as once the enemy's device did drown the town of villingen; in a word, they were so terrible that i could not endure them, but said: "beloved father, wilt thou then leave me alone in this wild wood? must i then ...?" and more i could not say, for my heart's sorrow was, by reason of the overflowing love which i bore to my true father, so grievous that i sank at his feet as if i were dead. yet did he raise me up and comfort me so far as time and opportunity did allow, and would shew me mine own error, in that he asked, would i rebel against the decree of the almighty? "and knowest thou not," says he, "that neither heaven nor hell can do that? nay, nay, my son! why dost thou propose further to burden my weak body, which of itself is but desirous of rest? thinkest thou to force me to sojourn longer in this vale of tears? ah no, my son, let me go, for in any case neither with lamentation and tears, nor still less with my good will, canst thou compel me to dwell longer in this misery when i am by god's express will called away therefrom: instead of all this useless clamour, follow thou my last words, which are these: the longer thou livest seek to know thyself the better, and if thou live as long as methuselah, yet let not such practice depart from thy heart: for that most men do come to perdition this is the cause--namely, that they know not what they have been and what they can or must be." and further he exhorted me, i should at all times beware of bad company: for the harm of that was unspeakable. of that he gave me an example, saying: "if thou puttest a drop of malmsey into a vessel full of vinegar, forthwith it turns to vinegar: but if thou pour a drop of vinegar into malmsey, that drop will disappear into the wine. beloved son, before all things be steadfast: for whoso endureth to the end he shall be saved; but if it happen, contrary to my hopes, that thou from human weakness dost fall, then by a fitting penitence raise thyself up again." now this careful and pious man gave me but this brief counsel, not because he knew no more, but because in sober truth i seemed to him, by reason of my youth, not able to comprehend more in such a case, and again, because few words be better to hold in remembrance than long discourse, and if they have pith and point do work greater good when they be pondered on than any long sermon, which a man may well understand as spoken and yet is wont presently to forget. and these three points: to know oneself: to avoid bad company: and to stand steadfast; this holy man, without doubt, deemed good and necessary because he had made trial of them in his own case and had not found them to fail: for, coming to know himself, he eschewed not only bad company but that of the whole world, and in that plan did persevere to the end, on which doubtless all salvation doth depend. so when he had thus spoken, he began with his mattock to dig his own grave: and i helped as best i could in whatever way he bade me; yet did i not conceive to what end all this was. then said he: "my dear and only true son (for besides thee i never begat creature for the honour of our creator), when my soul is gone to its own place, then do thy duty to my body, and pay me the last honours: cover me up with these same clods which we have even now dug from this pit," and thereupon he took me in his arms and, kissing me, pressed me harder to his breast than would seem possible for a man so weak as he appeared to be. and, "dear child," says he, "i commend thee to god his protection, and die the more cheerfully because i hope he will receive thee therein." yet could i do naught but lament and cry, yea, did hang upon the chains which he wore on his neck, and thought thereby to prevent him from leaving me. but "my son," says he, "let me go, that i may see if the grave be long enough for me." and therewith he laid aside the chains together with his outer garment, and so entered the pit even as one that will lie down to sleep, saying, "almighty god, receive again the soul that thou hast given: lord, into thy hands i commend my spirit." thereupon did he calmly close his lips and his eyes: while i stood there like a stockfish, and dreamt not that his dear soul could so have left the body: for often i had seen him in such trances: and so now, as was my wont in such a case, i waited there for hours praying by the grave. but when my beloved hermit arose not again, i went down into the grave to him and began to shake, to kiss, and to caress him: but there was no life in him, for grim and pitiless death had robbed the poor simplicissimus of his holy companionship. then did i bedew or, to say better, did embalm with my tears his lifeless body, and when i had for a long time run up and down with miserable cries, began to heap earth upon him, with more sighs than shovelfuls: and hardly had i covered his face when i must go down again and uncover it afresh that i might see it and kiss it once more. and so i went on all day till i had finished, and in this way ended all the funeral; an "exequiae" and "ludi gladiatorii" wherein neither bier, coffin, pall, lights, bearers, nor mourners were at hand, nor any clergy to sing over the dead. _chap. xiii._: how simplicissimus was driven about like a straw in a whirlpool now a few days after the hermit's decease i betook myself to the pastor above mentioned and declared to him my master's death, and therewith besought counsel from him how i should act in such a case. and though he much dissuaded me from living longer in the forest, yet did i boldly tread on in my predecessor's footsteps, inasmuch as for the whole summer i did all that a holy monk should do. but as time changeth all things, so by degrees the grief which i felt for my hermit grew less and less, and the sharp cold of winter without quenched the heat of my steadfast purpose within. and the more i began to falter the lazier did i become in my prayers, for in place of dwelling ever upon godly and heavenly thoughts, i let myself be overcome by the desire to see the world: and inasmuch as for this purpose i could do no good in my forest, i determined to go again to the said pastor and ask if he again would counsel me to leave the wood. to that end i betook myself to his village, which when i came thither i found in flames: for a party of troopers had but now plundered and burned it, and of the peasants killed some, driven some away, and some had made prisoners, among whom was the pastor himself. ah god, how full is man's life of care and disappointment! scarce hath one misfortune ended and lo! we are in another. i wonder not that the heathen philosopher timon set up many gallows at athens, whereon men might string themselves up, and so with brief pain make an end to their wretched life. these troopers were even now ready to march, and had the pastor fastened by a rope to lead him away. some cried, "shoot him down, the rogue!" others would have money from him. but he, lifting up his hands to heaven, begged, for the sake of the last judgment, for forbearance and christian compassion, but in vain; for one of them rode him down and dealt him such a blow on the head that he fell flat, and commended his soul to god. nor did the remainder of the captured peasants fare any better. but even when it seemed these troopers, in their cruel tyranny, had clean lost their wits, came such a swarm of armed peasants out of the wood, that it seemed a wasps'-nest had been stirred. and these began to yell so frightfully and so furiously to attack with sword and musket that all my hair stood on end; and never had i been at such a merrymaking before: for the peasants of the spessart and the vogelsberg are as little wont as are the hessians and men of the sauerland and the black forest to let themselves be crowed over on their own dunghill. so away went the troopers, and not only left behind the cattle they had captured, but threw away bag and baggage also, and so cast all their booty to the winds lest themselves should become booty for the peasants: yet some of them fell into their hands. this sport took from me well-nigh all desire to see the world, for i thought, if 'tis all like this, then is the wilderness far more pleasant. yet would i fain hear what the pastor had to say of it, who was, by reason of wounds and blows received, faint, weak, and feeble. yet he made shift to tell me he knew not how to help or advise me, since he himself was now in a plight in which he might well have to seek his bread by begging, and if i should remain longer in the woods, i could hope no more for help from him; since, as i saw with my own eyes, both his church and his parsonage were in flames. thereupon i betook myself sorrowfully to my dwelling in the wood, and because on this journey i had been but little comforted, yet on the other hand had become more full of pious thoughts, therefore i resolved never more to leave the wilderness: and already i pondered whether it were not possible for me to live without salt (which the pastor had until now furnished me with) and so do without mankind altogether. _chap. xiv._: a quaint comedia of five peasants so now that i might follow up my design and become a true anchorite, i put on my hermit's hair-shirt which he had left me and girded me with his chain over it: not indeed as if i needed it to mortify my unruly flesh, but that i might be like to my fore-runner both in life and in habit, and moreover might by such clothes be the better able to protect myself against the rough cold of winter. but the second day after the above-mentioned village had been plundered and burnt, as i was sitting in my hut and praying, at the same time roasting carrots for my food over the fire, there surrounded me forty or fifty musqueteers: and these, though amazed at the strangeness of my person, yet ransacked my hut, seeking what was not there to find: for nothing had i but books, and these they threw this way and that as useless to them. but at last, when they regarded me more closely and saw by my feathers what a poor bird they had caught, they could easily reckon there was poor booty to be found where i was. and much they wondered at my hard way of life, and shewed great pity for my tender youth, specially their officer that commanded them: for he shewed me respect, and earnestly besought me that i would shew him and his men the way out of the wood wherein they had long been wandering. nor did i refuse, but led them the nearest way to the village, even where the before-mentioned pastor had been so ill handled; for i knew no other road. now before we were out of the wood, we espied some ten peasants, of whom part were armed with musquets, while the rest were busied with burying something. so our musqueteers ran upon them, crying, "stay! stay!" but they answered with a discharge of shot, and when they saw they were outnumbered by the soldiers, away they went so quick that none of the musqueteers, being weary, could overtake them. so then they would dig up again what the peasants had been burying: and that was the easier because they had left the mattocks and spades which they used lying there. but they had made few strokes with the pick when they heard a voice from below crying out, "o ye wanton rogues, o ye worst of villains, think ye that heaven will leave your heathenish cruelty and tricks unpunished? nay, for there live yet honest fellows by whom your barbarity shall be paid in such wise that none of your fellow men shall think you worth even a kick of his foot." so the soldiers looked on one another in amazement, and knew not what to do. for some thought they had to deal with a ghost: to me it seemed i was dreaming: but the officer bade them dig on stoutly. and presently they came to a cask, which they burst open, and therein found a fellow that had neither nose nor ears, and yet still lived. he, when he was somewhat revived, and had recognised some of the troop, told them how on the day before, as some of his regiment were a-foraging, the peasants had caught six of them. and of these they first of all, about an hour before, had shot five dead at once, making them stand one behind another; and because the bullet, having already passed through five bodies, did not reach him, who stood sixth and last, they had cut off his nose and ears, yet before that had forced him to render to five of them the filthiest service in the world.[ ] but when he saw himself thus degraded by these rogues without shame or knowledge of god, he had heaped upon them the vilest reproaches, though they were willing now to let him go. yet in the hope one of them would from annoyance send a ball through his head, he called them all by their right names: yet in vain. only this, that when he had thus chafed them they had clapped him in the cask here present and buried him alive, saying, since he so desired death they would not cheat him of his amusement. now while the fellow thus lamented the torments he had endured, came another party of foot-soldiers by a cross road through the wood, who had met the abovementioned boors, caught five and shot the rest dead: and among the prisoners were four to whom that maltreated trooper had been forced to do that filthy service a little before. so now, when both parties had found by their manner of hailing one another that they were of the same army, they joined forces, and again must hear from the trooper himself how it had fared with him and his comrades. and there might any man tremble and quake to see how these same peasants were handled: for some in their first fury would say, "shoot them down," but others said, "nay: these wanton villains must we first properly torment: yea, and make them to understand in their own bodies what they have deserved as regards the person of this same trooper." and all the time while this discussion proceeded these peasants received such mighty blows in the ribs from the butts of their musquets that i wondered they did not spit blood. but presently stood forth a soldier, and said he: "you gentlemen, seeing that it is a shame to the whole profession of arms that this rogue (and therewith he pointed to that same unhappy trooper) have so shamefully submitted himself to the will of five boors, it is surely our duty to wash out this spot of shame, and compel these rogues to do the same shameful service for this trooper which they forced him to do for them." but another said: "this fellow is not worth having such honour done to him; for were he not a poltroon surely he would not have done such shameful service, to the shame of all honest soldiers, but would a thousand times sooner have died." in a word, 'twas decided with one voice that each of the captured peasants should do the same filthy service for ten soldiers which their comrade had been forced to do, and each time should say, "so do i cleanse and wash away the shame which these soldiers think they have endured." thereafter they would decide how they should deal with the peasants when they had fulfilled this cleanly task, so presently they went to work; but the peasants were so obstinate that neither by promise of their lives nor by any torture could they be compelled thereto. then one took the fifth peasant, who had not maltreated the trooper, a little aside, and says he: "if thou wilt deny god and all his saints, i will let thee go whither thou wilt." thereupon the peasant made reply, "he had in all his life taken little count of saints, and had had but little traffic with god," and added thereto with a solemn oath, "he knew not god and had no art nor part in his kingdom." so then the soldier sent a ball at his head: which worked as little harm as if it had been shot at a mountain of steel. then he drew out his hanger and "beest thou still here?" says he. "i promised to let thee go whither thou wouldst: see now, i send thee to the kingdom of hell, since thou wilt not to heaven": and so he split his head down to the teeth. and as he fell, "so," said the soldier, "must a man avenge himself and punish these loose rogues both in this world and the next." meanwhile the other soldiers had the remaining four peasants to deal with. these they bound, hands and feet together, over a fallen tree in such wise that their back-sides (saving your presence) were uppermost. then they stript off their breeches, and took some yards of their match-string and made knots in it, and fiddled them therewith so mercilessly that the blood ran. so they cried out lamentably, but 'twas but sport for the soldiers, who ceased not to saw away till skin and flesh were clean sawn off the bones. me they let go to my hut, for the last-arrived party knew the way well. and so i know not how they finished with the peasants. _chap. xv._: how simplicissimus was plundered, and how he dreamed of the peasants and how they fared in times of war now when i came home i found that my fireplace and all my poor furniture, together with my store of provisions, which i had grown during the summer in my garden and had kept for the coming winter, were all gone. "and whither now?" thought i. and then first did need teach me heartily to pray: and i must summon all my small wits together, to devise what i should do. but as my knowledge of the world was both small and evil, i could come to no proper conclusion, only that 'twas best to commend myself to god and to put my whole confidence in him: for otherwise i must perish. and besides all this those things which i had heard and seen that day lay heavy on my mind: and i pondered not so much upon my food and my sustenance as upon the enmity which there is ever between soldiers and peasants. yet could my foolish mind come to no other conclusion than this--that there must of a surety be two races of men in the world, and not one only, descended from adam, but two, wild and tame, like other unreasoning beasts, and therefore pursuing one another so cruelly. with such thoughts i fell asleep, for mere misery and cold, with a hungry stomach. then it seemed to me, as if in a dream, that all the trees which stood round my dwelling suddenly changed and took on another appearance: for on every tree-top sat a trooper, and the trunks were garnished, in place of leaves, with all manner of folk. of these, some had long lances, others musquets, hangers, halberts, flags, and some drums and fifes. now this was merry to see, for all was neatly distributed and each according to his rank. the roots, moreover, were made up of folk of little worth, as mechanics and labourers, mostly, however, peasants and the like; and these nevertheless gave its strength to the tree and renewed the same when it was lost: yea more, they repaired the loss of any fallen leaves from among themselves to their own great damage: and all the time they lamented over them that sat on the tree, and that with good reason, for the whole weight of the tree lay upon them and pressed them so that all the money was squeezed out of their pockets, yea, though it was behind seven locks and keys: but if the money would not out, then did the commissaries so handle them with rods (which thing they call military execution) that sighs came from their heart, tears from their eyes, blood from their nails, and the marrow from their bones. yet among these were some whom men call light o' heart; and these made but little ado, took all with a shrug, and in the midst of their torment had, in place of comfort, mockery for every turn. _chap. xvi._: of the ways and works of soldiers nowadays, and how hardly a common soldier can get promotion so must the roots of these trees suffer and endure toil and misery in the midst of trouble and complaint, and those upon the lower boughs in yet greater hardship: yet were these last mostly merrier than the first named, yea and moreover, insolent and swaggering, and for the most part godless folk, and for the roots a heavy unbearable burden at all times. and this was the rhyme upon them: "hunger and thirst, and cold and heat, and work and woe, and all we meet; and deeds of blood and deeds of shame, all may ye put to the landsknecht's name." which rhymes were the less like to be lyingly invented in that they answered to the facts. for gluttony and drunkenness, hunger and thirst, wenching and dicing and playing, riot and roaring, murdering and being murdered, slaying and being slain, torturing and being tortured, hunting and being hunted, harrying and being harried, robbing and being robbed, frighting and being frighted, causing trouble and suffering trouble, beating and being beaten: in a word, hurting and harming, and in turn being hurt and harmed--this was their whole life. and in this career they let nothing hinder them: neither winter nor summer, snow nor ice, heat nor cold, rain nor wind, hill nor dale, wet nor dry; ditches, mountain-passes, ramparts and walls, fire and water, were all the same to them. father nor mother, sister nor brother, no, nor the danger to their own bodies, souls, and consciences, nor even loss of life and of heaven itself, or aught else that can be named, will ever stand in their way, for ever they toil and moil at their own strange work, till at last, little by little, in battles, sieges, attacks, campaigns, yea, and in their winter quarters too (which are the soldiers' earthly paradise, if they can but happen upon fat peasants) they perish, they die, they rot and consume away, save but a few, who in their old age, unless they have been right thrifty reivers and robbers, do furnish us with the best of all beggars and vagabonds. next above these hard-worked folk sat old henroost-robbers, who, after some years and much peril of their lives, had climbed up the lowest branches and clung to them, and so far had had the luck to escape death. now these looked more serious, and somewhat more dignified than the lowest, in that they were a degree higher ascended: yet above them were some yet higher, who had yet loftier imaginings because they had to command the very lowest. and these people did call coat-beaters, because they were wont to dust the jackets of the poor pikemen, and to give the musqueteers oil enough to grease their barrels with. just above these the trunk of the tree had an interval or stop, which was a smooth place without branches, greased with all manner of ointments and curious soap of disfavour, so that no man save of noble birth could scale it, in spite of courage and skill and knowledge, god knows how clever he might be. for 'twas polished as smooth as a marble pillar or a steel mirror. just over that smooth spot sat they with the flags: and of these some were young, some pretty well in years: the young folk their kinsmen had raised so far: the older people had either mounted on a silver ladder which is called the bribery backstairs or else on a step which fortune, for want of a better client, had left for them. a little further up sat higher folk, and these had also their toil and care and annoyance: yet had they this advantage, that they could fill their pokes with the fattest slices which they could cut out of the roots, and that with a knife which they called "war-contribution." and these were at their best and happiest when there came a commissary-bird flying overhead, and shook out a whole panfull of gold over the tree to cheer them: for of that they caught as much as they could, and let but little or nothing at all fall to the lowest branches: and so of these last more died of hunger than of the enemy's attacks, from which danger those placed above seemed to be free. therefore was there a perpetual climbing and swarming going on on those trees; for each would needs sit in those highest and happiest places: yet were there some idle, worthless rascals, not worth their commissariat-bread, who troubled themselves little about higher places, and only did their duty. so the lowest, being ambitious, hoped for the fall of the highest, that they might sit in their place, and if it happened to one among ten thousand of them that he got so far, yet would such good luck come to him only in his miserable old age when he was more fit to sit in the chimney-corner and roast apples than to meet the foe in the field. and if any man dealt honestly and carried himself well, yet was he ever envied by others, and perchance by reason of some unlucky chance of war deprived both of office and of life. and nowhere was this more grievous than at the before-mentioned smooth place on the tree: for there an officer who had had a good sergeant or corporal under him must lose him, however unwillingly, because he was now made an ensign. and for that reason they would take, in place of old soldiers, inkslingers, footmen, overgrown pages, poor noblemen, and at times poor relations, tramps and vagabonds. and these took the very bread out of the mouths of those that had deserved it, and forthwith were made ensigns. _chap. xvii._: how it happens that, whereas in war the nobles are ever put before the common men, yet many do attain from despised rank to high honours all this vexed a sergeant so much that he began loudly to complain: whereupon one nobilis answered him: "knowst thou not that at all times our rulers have appointed to the highest offices in time of war those of noble birth as being fittest therefore. for greybeards defeat no foe: were it so, one could send a flock of goats for that employ: we say: "choose out a bull that's young and strong to lead and keep the herd, for though the veteran be good, the young must be preferred. so let the herdsman trust to him, full young though he appears: 'tis but a saw, and 'tis no law, that wisdom comes with years." "tell me," says he, "thou old cripple, is't not true that nobly born officers be better respected by the soldiery than they that beforetime have been but servants? and what discipline in war can ye find where no respect is? must not a general trust a gentleman more than a peasant lad that had run away from his father at the plough-tail and so done his own parents no good service? for a proper gentleman, rather than bring reproach upon his family by treason or desertion or the like, will sooner die with honour. and so 'tis right the gentles should have the first place. so doth joannes de platea plainly lay it down that in furnishing of offices the preference should ever be given to the nobility, and these properly set before the commons. such usage is to be found in all codes of laws, and is, moreover, confirmed in holy writ: for 'happy is the land whose king is of noble family,' saith sirach in his tenth chapter; which is a noble testimony to the preference belonging to gentle birth. and even if one of your kidney be a good soldier enough that can smell powder and play his part well in every venture, yet is he not therefore capable of command of others: which quality is natural to gentlemen, or at least customary to them from their youth up. and so saith seneca, 'a hero's soul hath this property, that 'tis ever alert in search of honour: and no lofty spirit hath pleasure in small and unworthy things.' moreover, the nobles have more means to furnish their inferior officers with money and to procure recruits for their weak companies than a peasant. and so to follow the common proverb, it were not well to put the boor above the gentleman; yea, and the boors would soon become too high-minded if they be made lords straightway; for men say: "'where will ye find a sharper sword, than peasant churl that's made a lord?' "now had the peasants, by reason of long and respectable custom, possessed all offices in war and elsewhere, of a surety they would have let no gentleman into such. yea, and besides, though ye soldiers of fortune, as ye call yourselves, be often willingly helped to raise yourselves to higher ranks, yet ye are commonly so worn out that when they try you and would find you a better place, they must hesitate to promote you; for the heat of your youth is cooled down and your only thought is how ye can tend and care for your sick bodies which, by reason of much hardships, be crippled and of little use for war: yea, and a young dog is better for hunting than an old lion." then answered the old sergeant, "and what fool would be a soldier, if he might not hope by his good conduct to be promoted, and so rewarded for faithful service? devil take such a war as that! for so 'tis all the same whether a man behave himself well or ill! often did i hear our old colonel say he wanted no soldier in his regiment that had not the firm intention to become a general by his good conduct. and all the world must acknowledge that 'tis those nations which promote common soldiers, that are good soldiers too, that win victories, as may be seen in the case of the turks and persians; so says the verse "'thy lamp is bright: yet feed it well with oil: an thou dost not the flame sinks down and dies. so by rewards repay the soldiers toil, for service brave demands its pay likewise.'" then answered nobilis: "if we see brave qualities and in an honest man, we shall not overlook them: for at this very time see how many there be who from the plough, from the needle, from shoemaking, and from shepherding have done well by themselves, and by such bravery have raised themselves up far above the poorer nobility to the ranks of counts and barons. who was the imperialist john de werth? who was the swede stalhans? who were the hessians, little jakob and st. andré? of their kind there were many yet well known whom i, for brevity's sake, forbear to mention. so is it nothing new in the present time, nor will it be otherwise in the future, that honest men attain by war to great honours, as happened also among the ancients. tamburlaine became a mighty king and the terror of the whole world, which was before but a swineherd: agathocles, king of sicily, was son of a potter; emperor valentinian's father was a ropemaker; maurice the cappadocian, a slave, was emperor after tiberius ii.; justin, that reigned before justinian, was before he was emperor a swineherd; hugh capet, a butcher's son, was afterward king of france; pizarro likewise a swineherd, which afterwards was marquess in the west indies, where he had to weigh out his gold in hundredweights." the sergeant answered: "all this sounds fair enough for my purpose: yet well i see that the doors by which we might win to many dignities be shut against us by the nobility. for as soon as he is crept out of his shell, forthwith your nobleman is clapped into such a position as we cannot venture to set our thoughts upon, howbeit we have done more than many a noble who is now appointed a colonel. and just as among the peasants many noble talents perish for want of means to keep a lad at his studies, so many a brave soldier grows old under the weight of a musquet, that more properly deserved a regiment and could have tendered great services to his general." _chap. xviii._: how simplicissimus took his first step into the world and that with evil luck i cared no longer to listen to this old ass, but grudged him not his complaints, for often he himself had beaten poor soldiers like dogs. i turned again to the trees whereof the whole land was full and saw how they swayed and smote against each other: and the fellows tumbled off them in batches. now a crack; now a fall. one moment quick, the next dead. in a moment one lost an arm, another a leg, the third his head. and as i looked methought all trees i saw were but one tree, at whose top sat the war-god mars, and which covered with its branches all europe. it seemed to me this tree could have overshadowed the whole world: but because it was blown about by envy and hate, by suspicion and unfairness, by pride and haughtiness and avarice, and other such fair virtues, as by bitter north winds, therefore it seemed thin and transparent: for which reason one had writ on its trunk these rhymes: "the holmoak by the wind beset and brought to ruin, breaks its own branches down and proves its own undoing. by civil war within and brothers' deadly feud alls topsy-turvy turned and misery hath ensued." by the mighty roaring of these cruel winds and the noise of the breaking of the tree itself i was awoke from my sleep, and found myself alone in my hut. then did i again begin to ponder what i should do. for to remain in the wood was impossible, since i had been so utterly despoiled that i could not keep myself: nothing remained to me but a few books which lay strewn about in confusion. and when with weeping eyes i took these up to read, calling earnestly upon god that he would lead and guide me whither i should go, i found by chance a letter which my hermit had writ in his lifetime, and this was the content of it. "beloved simplicissimus, when thou findest this letter, go forthwith out of the forest and save thyself and the pastor from present troubles: for he hath done me much good. god, whom thou must at all times have before thine eyes and earnestly pray to, will bring thee to the place which is best for thee. only keep him ever in thy sight and be diligent ever to serve him as if thou wert still in my presence in the wood. consider and follow without ceasing my last words, and so mayest thou stand firm. farewell." i kissed this letter and the hermit's grave many thousand times, and started on my way to seek for mankind. yet before i could find them i journeyed straight on for two whole days, and when night overtook me, sought out a hollow tree for my shelter, and my food was naught but beech-nuts which i picked up on the way: but on the third day i came to a pretty open field near gelnhausen, and there i enjoyed a veritable banquet, for the whole place was full of wheatsheaves which the peasants, being frightened away after the great battle of nördlingen, had for my good fortune not been able to carry off. inside a sheaf i set up my tent, for 'twas cruel cold, and filled my belly with the ears of corn which i rubbed in my hands: and such a meal i had not enjoyed for a long time. _chap. xix._: how simplicissimus was captured by hanau and hanau by simplicissimus when 'twas day i fed myself again with wheat, and thereafter betook myself to gelnhausen, and there i found the gates open and partly burnt, yet half barricaded with dung. so i went in, but was ware of no living creature there. indeed the streets were strewn here and there with dead, some of whom were stripped to their shirts, some stark naked. this was a terrifying spectacle, as any man can imagine. i, in my simplicity, could not guess what mishap had brought the place to such a plight. but not long after i learned that the imperialists had surprised a few of weimar's folk there. and hardly had i gone two-stones'-throw into the town when i had seen enough: so i turned me about and went across the meadows, and presently i came to a good road which brought me to the fine fortress of hanau. when i came to the first sentries i tried to pass; but two musqueteers made at me, who seized me and took me off to their guard-room. now must i first describe to the reader my wonderful dress at that time, before i tell him how i fared further. for my clothing and behaviour were altogether so strange, astonishing, and uncouth, that the governor had my picture painted. firstly, my hair had for two years and a half never been cut either greek, german, or french fashion, nor combed nor curled nor puffed, but stood in its natural wildness with more than a year's dust strewn on it instead of hair plunder or powder, or whatever they call the fools' work--and that so prettily that i looked with my pale face underneath it, like a great white owl that is about to bite or else watching for a mouse. and because i was accustomed at all times to go bareheaded and my hair was curly, i had the look of wearing a turkish turban. the rest of my garb answered to my head-gear; for i had on my hermit's coat, if i may now call it a coat at all, for the stuff out of which 'twas fashioned at first was now clean gone and nothing more remaining of it but the shape, which more than a thousand little patches of all colours, some put side by side, some sewn upon one another with manifold stitches, still represented. over this decayed and yet often improved coat i wore the hair-shirt mantle-fashion, for i needed the sleeves for breeches and had cut them off for that purpose. but my whole body was girt about with iron chains, most deftly disposed crosswise behind and before like the pictures of st. william; so that all together made up a figure like them that have once been captured by the turks and now wander through the land begging for their friends still in captivity. my shoes were cut out of wood and the laces woven out of strips of lime-bark: and my feet looked like boiled lobsters, as i had had on stockings of the spanish national colour or had dyed my skin with logwood. in truth i believe if any conjurer, mountebank, or stroller had had me and had given me out for a samoyede or a greenlander, he would have found many a fool that would have wasted a kreutzer on me. yet though any man in his wits could easily conclude, from my thin and starved looks and my decayed clothes, i came neither from a cook-shop nor a lady's bower, and still less had played truant from any great lord's court, nevertheless i was strictly examined in the guard-room, and even as the soldiers gaped at me so was i filled with wonder at the mad apparel of their officer to whom i must answer and give account. i knew not if it were he or she: for he wore his hair and beard french fashion, with long tails hanging down on each side like horse-tails, and his beard was so miserably handled and mutilated that between mouth and nose there were but a few hairs, and those had come off so ill that one could scarce see them. and not less did his wide breeches leave me in no small doubt of his sex, being such that they were as like a woman's petticoats as a man's breeches. so i thought, if this be a man he should have a proper beard, since the rogue is not so young as he pretends: but if a woman, why hath the old witch so much stubble round her mouth? sure 'tis a woman, thought i, for no honest man would ever let his beard be so lamentably bedevilled, seeing that even goats for pure shamefacedness venture not a step among a strange flock when their beards are clipped. so as i stood in doubt, knowing not of modern fashions, at last i held he was man and woman at once. and this mannish woman or this womanish man had me thoroughly searched, but could find nothing on me but a little book of birch-bark wherein i had written down my daily prayers, and had also left the letter which my pious hermit, as i have said in the last chapter, had bequeathed me for his farewell: that he took from me: but i, being loath to part from it, fell down before him and clasped both his knees and, "o my good hermaphrodite," says i, "leave me my little prayer-book." "thou fool," he answered, "who the devil told thee my name was hermann?" and therewith commanded two soldiers to lead me to the governor, giving them the book to take with them: for indeed this fop, as i at once did note, could neither read nor write himself. so i was led into the town, and all ran together as if a sea-monster were on show; and according as each one regarded me so each made something different out of me. some deemed me a spy, others a wild man, and some even a spirit, a spectre, or a monster, that should portend some strange happening. some, too, there were that counted me a mere fool, and they had indeed come nearest to the mark had i not had the knowledge of god our father. _chap. xx._: in what wise he was saved from prison and torture now when i was brought before the governor he asked me whence i came. i said i knew not. then said he again "whither wilt thou?" and again i answered, "i know not." "what the devil dost thou know, then?" says he, "what is thy business?" i answered as before, i knew not. he asked, "where dost thou dwell?" and as i again answered i knew not, his countenance was changed, i know not whether from anger or astonishment. but inasmuch as every man is wont to suspect evil, and specially the enemy being in the neighbourhood, having just, as above narrated, captured gelnhausen and therein put to shame a whole regiment of dragoons, he agreed with them that held me for a traitor or a spy, and ordered that i should be searched. but when he learned from the soldiers of the watch that this was already done, and nothing more found on me than the book there present which they delivered to him, he read a line or two therein and asked who had given me the book. i answered it was mine from the beginning: for i had made it and written it. then he asked, "why upon birch-bark?" i answered, because the bark of other trees was not fitted therefore. "thou rascal," says he, "i ask why thou didst not write on paper." "oh!" i answered him, "we had none in the wood." the governor asked, "where, in what wood?" and again i paid him in my old coin and said i did not know. then the governor turned to some of his officers that waited on him and said, "either this is an arch-rogue, or else a fool: and a fool he cannot be, that can write so well." and as he spake, he turned over the leaves to shew them my fine handwriting, and that so sharply that the hermit's letter fell out: and this he had picked up, while i turned pale, for that i held for my chiefest treasure and holy relic. that the governor noted and conceived yet greater suspicion of treason, specially when he had opened and read the letter, "for," says he, "i surely know this hand and know that it is written by an officer well known to me: yet can i not remember by whom." also the contents seemed to him strange and not to be understood: for he said, "this is without doubt a concerted language, which none other can understand save him to whom it is imparted." then asking me my name, when i said simplicissimus, "yes, yes," says he, "thou art one of the right kidney. away, away: put him at once in irons, hand and foot." so the two before-mentioned soldiers marched off with me to my bespoken lodging, namely, the lock-up, and handed me over to the gaoler, which, in accordance with his orders, adorned me with iron bands and chains on hands and feet, as if i had not had enough to carry with those that i had already bound round my body. nor was this way of welcoming me enough for the world, but there must come hangmen and their satellites, with horrible instruments of torture, which made my wretched plight truly grievous, though i could comfort myself with my innocence. "o! god!" says i to myself, "how am i rightly served! to this end did simplicissimus run from the service of god into the world, that such a misbirth of christianity should receive the just reward which he hath deserved for his wantonness! o, thou unhappy simplicissimus, whither hath thine ingratitude led thee! lo, god hath hardly brought thee to the knowledge of him and into his service when thou, contrariwise, must run off from his employ and turn thy back on him. couldest thou not go on eating of acorns and beans as before, and so serving thy creator? didst thou not know that thy faithful hermit and teacher had fled from the world and chosen the wilderness? o stupid stock, thou didst leave it in the hope to satisfy thy loose desire to see the world. and behold, while thou thinkest to feed thine eyes, thou must in this maze of dangers perish and be destroyed. couldst thou not, unwise creature, understand before this, that thy ever-blessed teacher would never have left the world for that hard life which he led in the desert, if he had hoped to find in the world true peace, and real rest, and eternal salvation? o poor simplicissimus, go thy way and receive the reward of the idle thoughts thou hast cherished and thy presumptuous folly. thou hast no wrong to complain of, neither any innocence to comfort thee with, for thou hast hastened to meet thine own torment and the death to follow thereafter." so i bewailed myself, and besought god for forgiveness and commended my soul to him. in the meanwhile we drew near to the prison, and when my need was greatest then was god's help nearest: for as i was surrounded by the hangman's mates, and stood there before the gaol with a great multitude of folk to wait till it was opened and i could be thrust in, lo, my good pastor, whose village had so lately been plundered and burned, must also see what was toward (himself being also under arrest). so as he looked out of window and saw me, he cried loudly, "o simplicissimus, is it thou?" when this i heard and saw, i could not help myself, but must lift up both hands to him and cry, "o father, father, father." so he asked what had i done. i answered, i knew not: they had brought me there of a certainty because i had deserted from the forest. but when he learned from the bystanders that they took me for a spy, he begged they would make a stay with me till he had explained my case to the lord governor, for that would be of use for my deliverance and for his, and so would hinder the governor from dealing wrongfully with both of us, since he knew me better than could any man. _chap. xxi._: how treacherous dame fortune cast on simplicissimus a friendly glance so 'twas allowed him to go to the governor, and a half-hour thereafter i was fetched out likewise and put in the servitors' room, where were already two tailors, a shoemaker with shoes, a haberdasher with stockings and hats, and another with all manner of apparel, so that i might forthwith be clothed. then took they off my coat, chains and all, and the hair-shirt, by which the tailors could take their measure aright: next appeared a barber with his lather and his sweet-smelling soaps, but even as he would exercise his art upon me came another order which did grievously terrify me: for it ran, i should put on my old clothes again. yet 'twas not so ill meant as i feared: for there came presently a painter with all his colours, namely vermilion and cinnabar for my eyelids, indigo and ultramarine for my coral lips, gamboge and ochre and yellow lead for my white teeth, which i was licking for sheer hunger, and lamp-black and burnt umber for my golden hair, white lead for my terrible eyes and every kind of paint for my weather-coloured coat: also had he a whole handful of brushes. this fellow began to gaze upon me, to take a sketch, to lay in a background and to hang his head on one side, the better to compare his work exactly with my figure: now he changed the eyes, now the hair, presently the nostrils; and, in a word, all he had not at first done aright, till at length he had executed a model true to nature; for a model simplicissimus was. and not till then might the barber whisk his razor over me: who twitched my head this way and that and spent full an hour and a half over my hair: and thereafter trimmed it in the fashion of that day: for i had hair enough and to spare. after that he brought me to a bathroom and cleansed my thin, starved body from more than three or four years' dirt. and scarce was he ended when they brought me a white shirt, shoes and stockings, together with a ruff or collar, and hat and feather. likewise the breeches were finely made and trimmed with gold lace; so all that was wanted was the cloak, and upon that the tailors were at work with all haste. then came the cook with a strong broth and the maid with a cup of drink: and there sat my lord simplicissimus like a young count, in the best of tempers. and i ate heartily though i knew not what they would do with me: for as yet i had never heard of the "condemned man's supper," and therefore the partaking of this glorious first meal was to me so pleasant and sweet that i cannot sufficiently express, declare, and boast of it to mankind; yea, hardly do i believe i ever tasted greater pleasure in my life than then. so when the cloak was ready i put it on, and in this new apparel shewed such an awkward figure that it might seem one had dressed up a hedge-stake: for the tailors had been ordered of intent to make the clothes too big for me, in the hope i should presently put more flesh on, which, considering the excellence of my feeding, seemed like to happen. but my forest dress, together with the chains and all appurtenances, were conveyed away to the museum, there to be added to other rare objects and antiquities, and my portrait, of life size, was set hard by. so after his supper, his lordship myself was put to bed in such a bed as i had never seen or heard of in my dad's house or while i dwelt with my hermit: yet did my belly so growl and grumble the whole night through that i could not sleep, perchance for no other reason than that it knew not yet what was good or because it wondered at the delightful new foods which had been given to it: but for me, i lay there quiet until the sweet sun shone bright again (for 'twas cold) and reflected what strange adventures i had passed through in a few days, and how god my father had so truly helped me and brought me into so goodly an heritage. _chap. xxiii._: who the hermit was by whom simplicissimus was cherished the same morning the governor's chamberlain commanded me, i should go to the before-mentioned pastor, and there learn what his lordship had said to him in my affair. likewise he sent an orderly to bring me to him. then the pastor took me into his library, and there he sat down and bade me also sit down, and says he, "my good simplicissimus, that same hermit with whom thou didst dwell in the wood was not only the lord governor's brother-in-law, but also his staunch supporter in war and his chiefest friend. as it pleased the governor to tell me, the same from his youth up had never failed either in the bravery of an heroical soldier nor in that godliness and piety which became the holiest of men: which two virtues it is not usual to find united. yet his spiritual mind, coupled with adverse circumstances, so checked the course of his earthly happiness that he rejected his nobility and resigned certain fine estates in scotland where he was born, and despised such because all worldly affairs now seemed to him vain, foolish, and contemptible. in a word, he hoped to exchange his earthly eminence for a better glory to come, for his noble spirit had a disgust at all temporal display, and all his thoughts and desires were set on that poor miserable life wherein thou didst find him in the forest and wherein thou didst bear him company till his death." "and in my opinion," said the pastor, "he had been seduced thereto by his reading of many popish books concerning the lives of the ancient eremites. yet will i not conceal from thee how he came into the spessart, and, in accord with his wish, into such a miserable hermit's life, that thou mayest hereafter be able to tell others thereof: for the second night after that bloody battle of höchst was lost, he came alone and unattended to my parsonage-house, even as i, my wife, and children were fallen asleep, and that towards morning, for because of the noise all over the country which both pursuers and pursued are wont to make in such cases, we had been awake all the night before and half of this present one. at first he knocked gently, and then sharply enough, till he wakened me and my sleep-drunken folk: and when i at his request, and after short exchange of words, which was on both sides full cautious, had opened the door, i saw the cavalier dismount from his mettlesome steed. his costly clothing was as thickly sprinkled with the blood of his enemies as it was decked with gold and silver; and inasmuch as he still held his drawn sword in his hand, fear and terror came upon me. yet when he sheathed his sword and shewed nothing but courtesy i must wonder that so noble a gentleman should so humbly beg a poor village pastor for shelter. and by reason of his handsome person and his noble carriage i addressed myself to him as to the count of mansfield himself: but said he, he could for this once be not only compared to the count of mansfield in respect of ill fortune but even preferred before him. three things did he lament: first, the loss of his lady, and her near her delivery, and then the loss of his battle; and last of all, that he had not had the luck to die therein, as did other honest soldiers, for the evangelical cause. then would i comfort him, but saw that his noble heart needed no comfort: so i set before him what the house afforded and bade them make for him a soldier's bed of clean straw, for in no other would he lie though much he needed rest. the next morning, the first thing he did was to give me his horse and his money (of which he had with him no mean sum in gold), and did share divers costly rings among my wife, children, and servants. this could i not understand in him, seeing that soldiers be wont far rather to take than to give: and therefore i had doubts whether to receive so great presents, and gave as a pretext that i had not deserved so much from him nor could again repay him: besides, said i, if folk saw such riches, and specially the splendid horse, which could not be hid, in my possession, many would conclude i had robbed or murdered him. but he said i should live without care on that score, for he would protect me from such danger with his own handwriting, yea, and he would desire to carry away out of my parsonage not even his shirt, let alone his clothes: and therewith he opened his design to become a hermit. i fought against that with might and main, for methought such a plan smacked of popery, reminding him that he could serve the gospel more with his sword, but in vain: for he argued so long and stoutly with me that at last i gave in and provided him with those books, pictures, and furniture which thou didst find in his hut. yet would he take nothing in return for all that he had presented to me save only the coverlet of wool, under which he had slept on the straw that night: and out of that he had a coat made. and my wagon chains (those which he always wore) must i exchange with him for a golden one whereon he wore his lady's portrait, so that he kept for himself neither money nor money's worth. then my servant led him to the wildest part of the wood, and there helped him to build his hut. and in what manner he there spent his life, and with what help at times i did assist him, thou knowest as well as i, yea, in part better. "now when lately the battle of nördlingen was lost and i, as thou knowest, was clean stripped of all and also evilly handled, i fled hither for safety; besides, i had here my chief possessions. and when my ready money was about to fail me, i took three rings and the before-mentioned chain, together with the portrait that i had from the hermit, among which was his signet-ring, and took them to a jew, to turn them into money. but he, on account of their value and fine workmanship, took them to the governor to sell, who forthwith knew the arms and portrait, and sent for me and asked where i had gotten such treasures. so i told him the truth and shewed him the hermit's handwriting or deed of gift, and narrated to him all his story; also how he had lived and died in the wood. such a tale he could not believe, but put me under arrest, till he could better learn the truth; and while he was at work sending out a party to take a survey of the dwelling and to fetch thee hither, here i beheld thee brought to the tower. now seeing that the governor hath no longer cause to doubt of my story, and seeing that i can call to witness the place where the hermit dwelt, and likewise thee and other living deponents, and most of all my sexton, which so often admitted thee and him to the church before day, and specially since the letter which he found in thy book of prayer doth afford an excellent testimony not only of the truth, but of the late hermit's holiness: therefore he will shew favour to me and thee for the sake of his dear departed brother-in-law. and now hast thou only to decide what thou wouldest he should do for thee. an thou wilt study, he pays the cost: desirest thou to learn a trade, he will have thee taught one: but if thou wilt stay with him he will hold thee as his own child: for he said if even a dog came to him from his departed brother-in-law he would cherish it." so i answered, 'twas all one to me what the lord governor would do with me. _chap. xxiii._: how simplicissimus became a page: and likewise, how the hermit's wife was lost now did the pastor keep me at his lodging till ten of the clock before he would go with me to the governor, to tell him of my resolve: for so could he be his guest at dinner: for the governor kept open house: 'tis true hanau was then blockaded, and with the common folk times were so hard (especially with them that had fled for refuge to the fortress) that some who seemed to themselves to be somewhat, were not ashamed to pick up the frozen turnip-peelings in the streets, which the rich had cast away. and my pastor was so lucky that he got to sit by the governor at the head of the table, while i waited on them with a plate in my hand as the chamberlain taught me, to which business i was as well fitted as an ass to play chess. yet my pastor made good with his tongue what the awkwardness of my person failed in. for he said i had been reared in the wilderness, and had never dwelt among men, and therefore must be excused, because i could not yet know how to carry myself: yet the faithfulness i had shewn to the hermit and the hard life i had endured with him were wonderful, and that alone deserved that folk should not only have patience with my awkwardness but should even put me before the finest young nobleman. furthermore, he related how the hermit had found all his joy in me because, as he often said, i was so like in face to his dear lady, and that he had often marvelled at my steadfastness and unchangeable will to remain with him, as also at many other virtues which he praised in me. lastly, he could not enough declare with what earnest fervency the hermit had, just before his death, commended me to him (the pastor) and had confessed he loved me as his own child. this tickled my ears so much that methought i had already received satisfaction enough for all i had endured with the hermit. then the governor asked, did not his late brother-in-law know he was commandant of hanau. "yea, truly," answered the pastor, "for i told him myself: but he listened as coldly (yet with a joyful face and a gentle smile) as he had never known any ramsay, so that even now when i think thereupon, i must wonder at this man's resolution and firm purpose, that he could bring his heart to this: not only to renounce the world but even to put out of his mind his best friend, when he had him close at hand." then were the governor's eyes full of tears, who yet had no soft woman's heart but was a brave and heroical soldier; and says he, "had i known he was yet alive and where he was to be found, i would have had him fetched even against his will, that i might repay his kindnesses: but since fortune hath denied me that, i will in his place cherish his simplicissimus." and "ah!" says he again, "the good cavalier had cause enough to lament his wife, great with child as she was; for in the pursuit she was captured by a party of imperialist troopers, and that too in the spessart. which when i heard, and knew not but that my brother-in-law was slain at höchst, at once i sent a trumpeter to the enemy to ask for my sister and ransom her: yet got no more thereby than to learn the said party of troopers had been scattered in the spessart by a few peasants, and that in that fight my sister had again been lost to them, so that to this hour i know not what became of her." this and the like made up the table-talk of the governor and the pastor regarding my hermit and his lady-wife: which pair were the more pitied because they had enjoyed each other's love but a year. but as to me, i became the governor's page, and so fine a fellow that the people, specially the peasants when i must announce them to my master, called me the young lord already: though indeed one seldom sees a youngster that hath been a lord, but oftentimes lords that have been youngsters. _chap. xxiv._: how simplicissimus blamed the world and saw many idols therein now at that time i had no precious possession save only a clear conscience and a right pious mind, and that clad and surrounded with the purest innocence and simplicity. of vice i knew no more than that i had at times heard it spoken of or read of it, and if i saw any man commit such sin then was it to me a fearful and a terrible thing, i being so brought up and reared as to have the presence of god ever before my eyes and most earnestly to live according to his holy will: and inasmuch as i knew all this, i could not but compare men's ways and works with that same will: and methought i saw naught but vileness. lord god! how did i wonder at the first when i considered the law and the gospel and the faithful warnings of christ, and saw, on the contrary part, the deeds of them that gave themselves out to be his disciples and followers! in place of the straightforward dealing which every true christian should have, i found mere hypocrisy; and besides, such numberless follies among all dwellers in the world that i must needs doubt whether i saw before me christians or not. for though i could see well that many had a serious knowledge of god's will: yet could i mark but little serious purpose to fulfil the same. so had i a thousand puzzles and strange thoughts in my mind, and fell into grievous difficulty upon that saying of christ, which saith, "judge not, that ye be not judged." nevertheless there came into my mind the words of st. paul in the fifth chapter of galatians, where he saith: "the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness," and so on: "of the which i tell you before as i have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of god." then i thought: every man doeth all these things openly: wherefore then should i not in this matter conclude from the apostle's word that there shall be few that are saved? moreover, pride and greed with their worthy accompaniments, gorging and swilling and loose living, were a daily occupation for them of substance: yet what did seem to me most terrible of all was this shameful thing, that some, and specially soldiers, in whose case vice is not wont to be severely punished, should make of both these things, their own godlessness and god's holy will, a mere jest. for example, i heard once an adulterer which after his deed of shame accomplished would treat thereof, and spake these godless words: "it serves the cowardly cuckold aright," says he, "to get a pair of horns from me: and if i confess the truth, i did the thing more to vex the husband than to please the wife, and so to be revenged on them." "o pitiful revenge!" says one honest heart that stood by, "by which a man staineth his own conscience and gaineth the shameful name of adulterer and fornicator!" "what! fornicator!" answered he, with a scornful laughter, "i am no fornicator because i have given this marriage a twist: a fornicator is he that the sixth commandment[ ] speaks of, where it forbids that any man get into another's garden and nick the fruit before the owner." how to prove that this was so to be understood, he forthwith explained according to his devil's catechism the seventh commandment, wherein it is said, "thou shalt not steal." and of such words he used many, so that i sighed within myself and thought, "o god-blaspheming sinner, thou callest thyself a marriage-twister: and so then god must be a marriage-breaker, seeing that he doth separate man and wife by death." and out of mine overflowing zeal and anger i said to him, officer though he was, "thinkest thou not, thou sinnest more with these godless words than by thine act of adultery." so he answered me, "thou rascal, must i give thee a buffet or two?" yea, and i believe i had received a handsome couple of such if the fellow had not stood in fear of my lord. so i held my peace, and thereafter i marked it was no rare case for single folk to cast eyes upon wedded folk and wedded folk upon such as were unwedded. now while i was yet studying, under my good hermit's care, the way to eternal life, i much wondered why god had so straitly forbidden idolatry to his people: for i imagined, if any one had ever known the true and eternal god, he would never again honour and pray to any other, and so in my stupid mind i resolved that this commandment was unnecessary and vain. but ah! fool as i was, i knew not what i thought i knew: for no sooner was i come into the great world, than i marked how (in spite of this commandment) wellnigh every man had his special idol: yet some had more than the old and new heathen themselves. some had their god in their money-bags, upon which they put all their trust and confidence: many a one had his idol at court, and trusted wholly and entirely on him: which idol was but a minion and often even such a pitiable lickspittle as his worshipper himself; for his airy godhead depended only on the april weather of a prince's smile: others found their idol in popularity, and fancied, if they could but attain to that they would themselves be demi-gods. yet others had their gods in their head, namely, those to whom the true god had granted a sound brain, so that they were able to learn certain arts and sciences: for these forgot the great giver and looked only to the gift, in the hope that gift would procure them all prosperity. yea, and there were many whose god was but their own belly, to which they daily offered sacrifice, as once the heathen did to bacchus and ceres, and when that god shewed himself unkind or when human failings shewed themselves in him, these miserable folk then made a god of their physician, and sought for their life's prolongation in the apothecary's shop, wherefrom they were more often sped on their way to death. and many fools made goddesses for themselves out of flattering harlots: these they called by all manner of outlandish names, worshipped them day and night with many thousand sighs, and made songs upon them which contained naught but praise of them, together with a humble prayer they would have mercy upon their folly and become as great fools as were their suitors. contrariwise were there women which had made their own beauty their idol. for this, they thought, will give me my livelihood, let god in heaven say what he will. and this idol was every day, in place of other offerings, adorned and sustained with paint, ointments, waters, powders, and the like daubs. there too i saw some which held houses luckily situated as their gods: for they said, so long as they had lived therein had they ever had health and wealth: and many said these had tumbled in through their windows. at this folly i did more especially wonder because i would well perceive the reason why the inhabitants so prospered. i knew one man who for some years could never sleep by reason of his trade in tobacco; for to this he had given up his heart, mind and soul, which should be dedicate to god alone: and to this idol he sent up night and day a thousand sighs, for 'twas by that he made his way in life. yet what did happen? the fool died and vanished like his own tobacco-smoke. then thought i, o thou miserable man! had but thy soul's happiness and the honour of the true god been so dear to thee as thine idol, which stands upon thy shop-sign in the shape of a brazilian, with a roll of tobacco under his arm and a pipe in his mouth, then am i sure and certain that thou hadst won a noble crown of honour to wear in the next world. another ass had yet more pitiful idols: for when in a great company it was being told by each how he had been fed and sustained during the great famine and scarcity of food, this fellow said in plain german: the snails and frogs had been his gods: for want of them he must have died of hunger. so i asked him what then had god himself been to him, who had provided such insects for his sustenance. the poor creature could answer nothing, and i wondered the more because i had never read that either the old idolatrous egyptians or the new american savages ever called such vermin their gods, as did this prater. i once went with a person of quality into his museum, wherein were fine curiosities: but among all none pleased me better than an "ecce homo" by reason of its moving portraiture, by which it stirred the spectator at once to sympathy. by it there hung a paper picture painted in china, whereon were chinese idols sitting in their majesty, and some in shape like devils. so the master of the house asked me which piece in this gallery pleased me most. and when i pointed to the said "ecce homo" he said i was wrong: for the chinese picture was rarer and therefore of more value: he would not lose it for a dozen such "ecce homos." so said i, "sir, is your heart like to your speech?" "surely," said he. "why then," said i, "your heart's god is that one whose picture you do confess with your mouth to be of most value." "fool," says he, "'tis the rarity i esteem." whereto i replied, "yet what can be rarer and more worthy of wonder than that god's son himself suffered in the way which this picture doth declare?" _chap. xxv._: how simplicissimus found the world all strange and the world found him strange likewise even as much as these and yet a greater number of idols were worshipped, so much on the contrary was the majesty of the true god despised: for as i never saw any desirous to keep his word and command, so i saw contrariwise many that resisted him in all things and excelled even the publicans in wickedness: which publicans were in the days when christ walked upon earth open sinners. and so saith christ: "love your enemies; bless them that curse you. if ye do good only to your brethren, what do ye that the publicans do not?" but i found not only no one that would follow this command of christ, but every man did the clean opposite. "the more a man hath kindred the more a man is hindered" was the word: and nowhere did i find more envy, hatred, malice, quarrel, and dispute than between brothers, sisters, and other born friends, specially if an inheritance fell to them. moreover, the handicraftsmen of every place hated one another, so that i could plainly see, and must conclude, that in comparison the open sinners, publicans and tax-gatherers, which by reason of their evil deeds were hated by many, were far better than we christians nowadays in exercise of brotherly love: seeing that christ bears testimony to them that at least they did love one another. then thought i, if we have no reward because we love our enemies, how great must our punishment be if we hate our friends! and where there should be the greatest love and good faith, there i found the worst treachery and the strongest hatred. for many a lord would fleece his true servants and subjects, and some retainers would play the rogue against the best of lords. so too between married folk i marked continual strife: many a tyrant treated his wedded wife worse than his dog, and many a loose baggage held her good husband but for a fool and an ass. so too, many currish lords and masters cheated their industrious servants of their due pay and pinched them both in food and drink: and contrariwise i saw many faithless servitors which by theft or neglect brought their kind masters to ruin. tradesfolk and craftsmen did vie with each other in jewish roguery: exacted usury: sucked the sweat of the poor peasant's brow by all manner of chicanery and over-reaching. on the other hand, there were peasants so godless that if they were not thoroughly well and cruelly fleeced, they would sneer at other folks or even their lords themselves for their simplicity. once did i see a soldier give another a sore buffet; and i conceived he that was smitten would turn the other cheek (for as yet i had been in no quarrel), but there was i wrong, for the insulted one drew on him, and dealt the offender a crack of the crown. so i cried at the top of my voice, "ah! friend, what dost thou?" "a coward must he be," says he, "that would not avenge himself: devil take me but i will, or i care not to live. what! he must be a knave that would let himself be so fobbed off." and between these two antagonists the quarrel waxed greater, for their backers on both sides, together with the bystanders, and any man moreover that came by chance to the spot, were presently by the ears: and there i heard men swear by god and their own souls, so lightly, that i could not believe they held those souls for their dearest treasure. but all this was but child's play: for they stayed not at such children's curses but presently 'twas so: "thunder, lightning, hail: strike me, tear me, devil take me," and the like, and not one thunder or lightning but a hundred thousand, "and snatch me away into the air." yea, and the blessed sacraments for them must have been not seven but a hundred thousand, and there with so many "bloodies," "dammes," and "cursemes" that my poor hair stood on end thereat. then thought i of christ's command wherein he saith, "swear not, let your speech be yea yea; and nay nay; for whatsoever is more is evil." now all this that i saw and heard i pondered in my heart: and at the last i firmly concluded, these bullies were no christians at all, and therefore i sought for other company. and worst of all it did terrify me when i heard some such swaggerers boast of their wickedness, sin, shame, and vice. for again and again i heard them so do, yea, day by day; and thus they would say: "'s blood, man, but we were foxed yesterday: three times in the day was i blind drunk and three times did vomit all." "my stars," says another, "how did we torment the rascal peasants!" and "hundred thousand devils!" says a third, "what sport did we have with the women and maids!" and so on. "i cut him down as if lightning had struck him." "i shot him--shot him so that he shewed the whites of his eyes!" or again: "i rode him down so cleverly, the devil only could fetch him off," "i put such a stone in his way that he must needs break his neck thereover." such and such-like heathen talk filled my ears every day: and more than that, i did hear and see sins done in god's name, which are much to be grieved for. such wickedness was specially practised by the soldiers, when they would say, "now in god's name let us forth on a foray," viz., to plunder, kidnap, shoot down, cut down, assault, capture and burn, and all the rest of their horrible works and practices. just as the usurers ever invoke god with their hypocritical "in god's name": and therewithal let their devilish avarice loose to flay and to strip honest folk. once did i see two rogues hanged, that would break into a house by night to steal, and even as they had placed their ladder one would mount it saying, "in god's name, there comes the householder": "and in the devil's name" says he also, and therewithal threw him down: where he broke a leg and so was captured, and a few days after strung up together with his comrade. but i, if i saw the like, must speak out, and out would i come with some passage of holy writ, or in other ways would warn the sinner: and all men therefore held me for a fool. yea, i was so often laughed out of countenance in return for my good intent that at length i took a disgust at it, and preferred altogether to keep silence, which yet for christian love i could not keep. i would that all men had been reared with my hermit, believing that then many would look on the world's ways with simplicissimus' eyes as i then beheld them. i had not the wit to see that if there were only simplicissimuses in the world then there were not so many vices to behold: meanwhile 'tis certain that a man of the world, as being accustomed to all vices and himself partaker thereof, cannot in the least understand on what a thorny path he and his likes do walk. _chap. xxvi._: a new and strange way for men to wish one another luck and to welcome one another having now, as i deemed, reason to doubt whether i were among christians or not, i went to the pastor and told him all that i had heard and seen, and what my thoughts were: namely, that i held these people for mockers of christ and his word, and no christians at all, with the request he would in any case help me out of my dream, that i might know what i should count my fellow men to be. the pastor answered: "of a surety they be christians, nor would i counsel thee to call them otherwise." "o god," said i, "how can that be? for if i point out to one or the other his sin that he committeth against god, then am i but mocked and laughed at." "marvel not at that," answered the pastor; "i believe if our first pious christians, which lived in the time of christ--yea, if the apostles themselves should now rise from the grave and come into the world, that they would put the like question, and in the end, like thee, would be accounted of many to be fools: yet that thou hast thus far seen and heard is but an ordinary thing and mere child's play compared with that which elsewhere, secretly and openly, with violence against god and man, doth happen and is perpetrated in the world. let not that vex thee! thou wilt find few christians such as was the late master samuel."[ ] now even as we spake together, some of the opposite party which had been taken prisoner were led across the market-place, and this broke up our discourse, for we too must go to look on the captives. here then i was ware of a folly whereof i could never have dreamed, and that was a new fashion of greeting and welcoming one another: for one of our garrison, who also had beforetime served the emperor, knew one of the prisoners: so he goes up to him, gives him his hand, and pressed his for sheer joy and heartiness, and says he: "devil take thee! art still alive, brother? 's blood, 'tis surely the devil that brings us together here! strike me blind, but i believed thou wert long since hanged." then answered the other: "curse me, but is it thee or not? devil take thee, how camest thou here? i never thought in all my born days i should meet thee again, but thought the devil had fetched thee long ago." and when they parted, one says to the other (in place of "god be wi' you"). "gallows' luck! gallows' luck! to-morrow will we meet again, and be nobly drunk together." "is not this a fine pious welcome?" said i to the pastor; "be not these noble christian wishes? have not these men a godly intent for the coming day? who could know them for christians or hearken to them without amazement? if they so talk with one another for christian love, how will it fare if they do quarrel? sir pastor, if these be christ's flock, and thou their appointed shepherd, i counsel thee to lead them in better pastures." "yea," answered the pastor, "dear child, 'tis ever so with these godless soldiers. god help us! if i said a word, i might as well preach to the deaf; and should gain naught from it but the perilous hatred of these godless fellows." at that i wondered, but talked yet awhile with the pastor, and went then to wait upon the governor; for at times had i leave to view the town and to visit the pastor, for my lord had wind of my simplicity, and thought such would cease if i went about seeing this and hearing that and being taught by others or, as folks say, being broken to harness. _chap. xxvii._: how simplicissimus discoursed with the secretary, and how he found a false friend now my lord's favour towards me increased daily, and the longer the greater, because i looked more and more like, not only to his sister whom the hermit had had to wife, but also to that good man himself, as good food and idleness made me sleeker. and this favour i enjoyed in many quarters: for whosoever had business with the governor shewed me favour also, and especially my lord's secretary was well affected to me; and as he must teach me my figures, he often found pastime in my simpleness and ignorance: he was but now fresh from the university, and therefore was cram-full of the jokes of the schools, which at times gave him the appearance of being a button short or a button too many: often would he convince me black was white or white black; so it came about that at first i believed him in everything and at last in nothing. once on a time i blamed him for his dirty inkhorn: so he answered 'twas the best piece of furniture in his office, for out of it he could conjure whatever he desired; his fine ducats of gold, his fine raiment, and, in a word, whatsoever he possessed, all that had he fished out of his inkhorn. then would i not believe that out of so small and inconsiderable a thing such noble possessions were to be had: so he answered all this came from the spiritus papyri (for so did he name his inks), and the ink-horn was for this reason named an ink-holder, because it held matters of importance. then i asked, how could a man bring them out since one could scarce put a couple of fingers in. to that he answered, he had an arm in his head fit to do such business, yea, and hoped presently to fish out a rich and handsome wife, and if he had luck he trusted also to bring out land of his own and servants of his own, as in earlier times would surely have happened. at these tricks of craft i wondered, and asked if other folk knew such arts. "surely," says he, "all chancellors, doctors, secretaries, proctors or advocates, commissaries, notaries, traders and merchants, and numberless others besides, which commonly, if they do but fish diligently in it, become rich lords thereby." then said i, "in this wise the peasants and other hard-working folk have no wit, in that they eat their bread in the sweat of their brow, and do not also learn this art." so he answered, "some know not the worth of an art, and therefore have no desire to learn it: some would fain learn it, but lack that arm in their head, or some other necessary thing; some learn the wit and have the arm, but know not the knack which the art requireth if a man will be rich thereby: and others know all and can do all that appertains thereto, yet they dwell on the unlucky side and have no opportunity, like me, to exercise this art properly." now as we reasoned in this fashion of the ink-holder (which of a truth reminded me of fortunatus his purse) it happened that the book of dignities came into my hand and therein, as it seemed to me then, i found more follies than had ever yet come before mine eyes. "and these," said i to the secretary, "be all adam's children and of one stuff, and that dust and ashes? whence cometh, then, so great a difference;--his holiness, his excellency, his serenity! be these not properties of god alone? here is one called 'gracious' and another 'worshipful.' and why must this word 'born' noble or 'well born' be ever added? we know well that no men fall from heaven and none rise out of the water and none grow out of the earth like cabbages." the secretary must needs laugh at me, and took the trouble to explain to me this and that title and all the words separately. yet did i insist that the titles did not do men right: for sure 'twas more credit to a man to be called merciful than worshipful: so, too, if the word "noble" signify in itself all incalculable virtues, why should it when placed in the midst of the word "high-born," which applieth only to princes, impair the dignity of the title. and as to the word "well-born," why 'twas a flat untruth: and that could any baron's mother testify; for if one should ask her if he was well born she could say whether 'twas "well" with her when she brought him into the world. and so we talked long: yet could he not convince me. but this favour of the secretary towards me lasted not long, for by reason of my boorish and filthy habits i presently, after his foregoing discourse, behaved myself so foully (yet without evil intent) in his presence that he must bid me betake myself to the pigs as to my best comrades. yet his disgust would have been the easier to bear had i not fallen into yet greater disgrace; for it fared so with me as with every honest man that cometh to court where the wicked and envious do make common cause against him. for my lord had besides me a double-dyed rascal for a page, which had already served him for two years: to him i gave my heart, for he was of like age with myself. "and this is jonathan," i thought, "and thou art david." but he was jealous of me by reason of the great favour that my lord shewed me, and that greater day by day: so he was concerned lest i should step into his shoes; and therefore in secret looked upon me with malicious and envious eyes, and sought occasion how he might put a stumbling-block for me and by my fall prevent his own. yet were mine eyes as doves' eyes[ ] and my intent far different from his: nay, i confided to him all my secrets, which yet consisted in naught else than in childish simplicity and piety. but he, innocent as i was, persuaded me to all manner of folly, which yet i accepted for truth and honesty, followed his counsels, and through the same (as shall not fail to be duly treated of in its proper place) fell into grievous misfortunes. _chap. xxviii._: how simplicissimus got two eyes out of one calf's-head the next day after my discourse with the secretary my master had appointed a princely entertainment for his officers and other good friends; for he had received the good news that his men had taken the strong castle of braunfels without loss of a single man: and there must i, as at that time 'twas my duty, like any other table-server, help to bring up dishes, pour out wine, and wait at table with a plate in my hand. the first day there was a big fat calf's-head (of which folk are wont to say no poor man may eat) handed to me to carry up. and because this calf's-head was soft-boiled, therefore he must needs have his whole eye with the appurtenance thereof hanging out; which was to me a charming and a tempting sight, and the fresh perfume of the bacon-broth and ginger sprinkled thereon alluring me, i felt such appetite that my mouth did water at it. in a word, the eye smiled at once on mine eyes, my nostrils, and my mouth, and besought me that i would incorporate it into my hungry belly. nor did i need long forcing, but followed my desires; for as i went, with a spoon that i had first received on that same day i did scoop the eye so masterly out, and sent it so swiftly and without let or hindrance to its proper place, that none perceived it till the dish came to table and there betrayed itself and me. for when they would carve it up, and one of its daintiest members was wanting, my lord at once perceived what made the carver start: and he was not a man to endure such mockery as that any should dare to say to him he had served up a calf's-head with one eye. so the cook must appear at table, and they that should have brought the dishes up were with him examined: and last of all it came out that 'twas to poor simplicissimus the calf's-head had last been entrusted, and that with two eyes: how it had fared thereafter no man could say. then my lord, as it seemed to me with a terrible countenance, asked what i had done with the calf's eye. so i whipt my spoon out of my pouch again and gave the calf's-head the second turn, and shewed briefly and well what they asked of me, for i swallowed the second eye like the first, in a wink. "pardieu," quoth my lord, "this trick savoureth better than ten calves." and thereupon all the gentlemen present praised that saying and spoke of my deed, which i had done for pure simplicity, as a wondrous device and a presage of future boldness and fearless and swift resolution: so that for this time, by the repeating of the very trick for which i had deserved punishment i not only escaped that punishment, but from a few merry jesters, flatterers, and boon companions gained the praise of acting wisely, inasmuch as i had lodged both eyes together, that so they might in the next world, as in this, afford help and company to each other, to which end they were at first appointed by nature. yet my lord warned me to play him no more such tricks. _chap. xxix._: how a man step by step may attain unto intoxication and finally unawares become blind drunk at this banquet (and i take it it happens likewise at others) all came to table like christians. grace was said very quietly, and to all appearance very piously. and this pious silence lasted as long as they had to deal with the soup and the first courses, as one had been at a quakers' meeting. but hardly had each one said "god's blessing!" three or four times when all was already livelier. nor can i describe how each one's voice grew louder and louder: i could but compare the whole company to an orator, that beginneth softly at the first and endeth with thunder. then dishes were served called savouries, which, being strongly seasoned, are appointed to be eaten before the drinking begin, that it may go the livelier, and likewise dessert, to give a flavour to the wine, to say nothing of all manner of french pottages and spanish olla podridas, which by a thousand artful preparations and unnumbered ingredients were in such wise spiced, devilled, disguised, and seasoned (and all to further the drinking) that they, by such added ingredients and spices, were altogether changed in their substance and different from what nature had made them, so that gnaeus manlius[ ] himself, though he had come direct from africa and had with him the best of cooks, yet had not recognised them. then thought i: "is't not like enough that these things should disturb the senses of any man who can take delight in them and the drink too (whereto they be specially appointed) and change him, or even transform him, to a beast? who knows if even circe used any other means but these when she did change ulysses his companions into swine?" for i saw how these guests at one time devoured the food like hogs and then swilled like sows, then carried themselves like asses, and last of all were as sick as farmers' dogs. the noble wines of hochheim, of bacharach, and of klingenberg they tipped into their bellies in glasses as big as buckets, which presently shewed their effects higher up, in the head. and thereupon i saw with wonder how all changed; for here were reputable folk, which just before were in possession of their five senses and sitting in peace by one another, now beginning of a sudden to act the fool and to play the silliest tricks in the world. and the great follies which they did commit and the huge draughts which they drank to each other became bigger as time went on, so that it seemed as if fooleries and draughts strove with each other which of them should be accounted the greater: but at last this contest ended in a filthy piggishness. 'twas not wonderful that i understood not whence their giddiness came: inasmuch as the effect of wine, and drunkenness itself, were until now quite unknown to me: and this left in my roguish remembrance thereafter all manner of merry pranks and fantastic imaginings: their strange looks i could see; but the cause of their condition i knew not. indeed up till then each one had emptied the pot with a good appetite: but when now their bellies were full 'twas as hard with them as with a waggoner, that can fare well enough with his team over level ground, yet up the hill can scarcely toil. but though their heads were bemused, their want of strength was made good: in one man's case by his courage, well soaked in wine: in another the loyal desire to drink yet one health to his friend: in a third that german chivalry which must do his neighbour right. but even such efforts must fail in the long run. then would one challenge another to pour the wine in in buckets to the health of the princes or of dear friends or of a mistress. and at this many a one's eyes turned in his head, and the cold sweat broke out: yet still the drinking must go on; yea, at the last they must make a noise with drums, fifes, and stringed instruments, and shot off the ordnance, doubtless for this cause, because the wine must take their bellies by assault. then did i wonder where they could be rid of it all, for i knew not that they would turn out the same before 'twas well warm within them (and that with great pains) out of the very place into which they had just before poured it to the great danger of their health. at this feast was also my pastor: and because he was a man like other men, he must retire for a while. so i followed him and "pastor," said i, "why do these folk behave so strangely? how comes it that they do reel this way and that? sure it seems to me they be no longer in their senses; for they have all eaten and drunken themselves full, and swear devil take them if they can drink more, and yet they cease not to swill. be they compelled thereto, or is it in god's despite that they of their free will waste all things so wantonly?" "dear child," answered the pastor, "when the wine is in the wit is out. this is nought compared with what is to come. to-morrow at daybreak 'twill be hardly time for them to break up; for though they have already crammed their bellies, yet they are not yet right merry." so i answered, "then do not their bellies burst if they stuff them so continually? can, then, their souls, which are god's image, abide in such fat hog's bodies, in which they lie, as it were, in dark cells and verminous dungeons, imprisoned without knowledge of god? their precious souls, i say, how can they so let themselves be tortured? be not their senses, of which their souls should be served, buried as in the bowels of unreasoning beasts?" "hold thou thy tongue," answered the pastor, "or thou mayest get thee a sound thrashing: here 'tis no time to preach, or i could do it better than thou." so when i heard this i looked on in silence further, and saw how they wantonly spoiled food and drink, notwithstanding that the poor lazarus, that might have been nourished therewith, languished, before our gates in the shape of many hundred expelled peasants of the wetterau, whose hunger looked out through their eyes: for in the town there was famine. _chap. xxx._: still treats of naught but of drinking bouts, and how to be rid of parsons thereat so this gormandising went on as before, and i must wait on them as from the beginning of the feast. my pastor was still there, and was forced to drink as well as the rest: yet would he not do like them, but said he cared not to drink in so beastly a fashion: so a valiant pot companion takes him up and shews him that he, a pastor, drinks like a beast, and he, the drunkard and others present, drink like men. "for," says he, "a beast drinks only so much as tastes well to him and quenches his thirst, for he knows not what is good, nor doth he care to drink wine at all. but 'tis the pleasure of us men to make the drink profit us, and to suck in the noble grape-juice as our forefathers did." "yes, yes," says the pastor, "but for me 'tis proper to keep due measure." "right," says the other, "a man of honour must keep his word": and thereupon he has a beaker filled which held a full measure, and with that in his hand he reels back to the pastor. but he was gone and left the tippler in the lurch with his wine-bucket. so when they were rid of the pastor all was confusion, and 'twas for all the world in appearance as if this feast was an agreed time and opportunity for each to disgrace his neighbour with drunkenness, to bring him to shame, or to play him some scurvy trick: for when one of them was so well settled that he could neither sit, walk, nor stand, the cry was, "now we are quits! thou didst brew a like draught for me: now must thou drink the like"; and so on. but he that could last longest and drink deepest was full of pride thereat, and seemed to himself a fellow of no mean parts; and at the last they tumbled about, as they had drunk henbane. 'twas indeed a wonderful pantomime to see how they did fool, and yet none wondered but i. one sang: one wept: one laughed: another moaned: one cursed: another prayed: one shouted "courage!" another could not even speak. one was quiet and peaceable: another would drive the devil out by swaggering: one slept and was silent, another talked so fast that none could stand up against him. one told stories of tender love adventures, another of his dreadful deeds in war. some talked of church and clergy, some of the constitution, of politics, of the affairs of the empire and of the world. some ran hither and thither and could not keep still: some lay where they were and could not stir a finger, much less stand up or walk. some were still eating like ploughmen, and as if they had been a week without food, while others were vomiting up what they had eaten that very day. in a word, their whole carriage was comical, strange and mad: and moreover sinful and godless. at the last there arose at the lower end of the table real quarrels, so that they flung glasses, cups, dishes, and plates at each other's heads and fought, not with fists only, but with chairs and legs of chairs, yea, with swords and whatever came to hand, till some had the red blood running down their ears: but to that my lord presently put an end. _chap. xxxi._: how the lord governor shot a very foul fox so when order was restored, the master-drinkers took with them the minstrels and the womenfolk, and away to another house wherein was a great room chosen and dedicated for another sort of folly. but my lord throws himself on his pallet-bed, for either from anger or from over-eating he was in pain: so i let him lie where he was, to rest and sleep, but hardly had i come to the door of the room when he must needs whistle to me: and that he could not. then he would call; but naught could he say but "simple!" so i ran back to him and found his eyes turn in his head as with a beast that is slaughtered: and there stood i before him like a stock-fish, neither did i know what to do. but he pointed to the washstand and stammered out. "bra-bra-bring me that, thou rogue: ha-ha-ha-hand me the basin. i mu-mu-must shoot a fo-fo-fo-fox!" so with all haste i brought him the silver wash-basin, but ere i could come to him he had a pair of cheeks like a trumpeter. then he took me quickly by the arm and made me so to stand that i must hold the basin right before his mouth. then all must out, with grievous retchings, and such foul stuff was discharged into the said basin that i near fainted away by reason of the unbearable stench, and specially because some fragments spurted up into my face. and nearly did i do the same: but when i marked how deadly pale he was, i gave that over for sheer fright and feared only his soul would leave him with his vomit. for the cold sweat broke out upon his forehead, and his face was like a dying man's. but when he recovered himself he bade me fetch fresh water, that with that he might rinse out the wine-skin into which he had made his belly. thereafter he bade me take away the fox: and because i knew not where i should bestow such a precious treasure, which, besides that it was in a silver dish, was composed of all manner of dainties that i had seen my lord eat, i took it to the steward: to him i shewed this fine stuff and asked what i should do with the fox. "thou fool," says he, "go and take it to the tanner to tan his hides therewith." so i asked where could i find the tanner: but he perceiving my simplicity. "nay," says he, "take it to the doctor, that he may see from it what our lord's state of health is." and such an april fool's journey had i surely gone, but that the steward was affrighted at what might follow: he bade me therefore take the filth to the kitchen, with orders that the maids should serve it up with seasoning. and this i did in all good faith, and was by those baggages soundly laughed at for my pains. _chap. xxxii._: how simplicissimus spoiled the dance just as i was free of my basin my lord was going forth: so i followed him to a great house, where in a room i saw gentlemen and ladies, bachelors and maidens, twisting about so quickly that everything spun round: with such stamping and noise that i deemed they were all gone mad, for i could not imagine what they could intend with this rage and fury: yea, the very sight of them was so terrible, so fearful, and so dreadful that all my hair stood on end, and i could believe nothing but that they were all bereft of reason. and as we came nearer i was aware that these were our guests, which had up till noon been in their right senses. "good god," thought i, "what do these poor folk intend to do? surely madness is come upon them." yet presently i thought these might perchance be hellish spirits, which under this disguise did make a mock of the whole human race by such wanton capers and monkey-tricks: for i thought, had they human souls and god's image in them, sure they would not act so unlike to men. when my lord came in and would enter the room, the tumult ceased, save that there was such bowing and ducking with the heads and such curtseying and scraping with the feet on the floor that methought they would scrape out the foot-tracks they had trodden in their furious madness. and by the sweat that ran down their faces, and by their puffing and blowing, i could perceive they had struggled hard: yet did their cheerful countenances declare that such labours had not vexed them. now was i fain to know what this mad behaviour might mean, and therefore asked of my comrade and trusted confidant what such lunatic doings might signify, or for what purpose this furious ramping and stamping was intended. and he, as the real truth, told me that all there present had agreed to stamp down the floor of the room. "for how," says he, "canst thou otherwise suppose that they would so stamp about? hast thou not seen how they broke all the windows for pastime? even so will they break in this floor." "good heavens!" quoth i, "then must we also fall, and in falling break our legs and our necks in their company?" "yea," quoth my comrade, "'tis their purpose, and therefore do they work so devilishly hard. and thou wilt see that when they do find themselves in danger of death each one seizes upon a fair lady or maiden, for 'tis said that to couples that fall holding one another in this way no grievous harm is wont to happen." now as i believed all this tale, there fell upon me such anguish and fear of death that i knew not where i should stand, and when the minstrels, which i had not before seen, made themselves likewise heard, and every man ran to his lady as soldiers run to their guns or to their ranks when they hear the drums beat the alarm, and each man took his partner by the hand, 'twas to me even as if i saw the floor already a-sinking, and my neck and those of many others a-breaking. but when they began to jump so that the whole building shook (for they played just then a lively galop), then thought i, "now is thy life at stake." for i thought nought else but that the whole building would suddenly tumble in: so in my deadly fear i seized upon a lady of high nobility and eminent virtues with whom my lord was even then conversing. her i caught all unawares by the arm, like a bear, and clung to her like a burr, but when she struggled, as not knowing what foolish fancies were in my head, i acted as one desperate, and for sheer despair began to scream as if they would murder me. now did the music cease of a sudden: the dancers and their partners stopped dancing, and the honourable lady to whose arm i still clung deemed herself grievously insulted; for she fancied my lord had had all this done for her annoyance, who thereupon commanded that i should be soundly whipped and then locked up somewhere, "for," said he, "'twas not the first trick i had played on him that day." yet the grooms which were to carry out his orders had sympathy with me, and spared me the whipping and locked me up in a goose-pen under the staircase. book ii. _chap. i._: how a goose and a gander were mated s? in my goose-pen i pondered on all that i have set down in black and white in my first part; of which, therefore, there is no need in this place to say more. yet can i not choose but say that even then i doubted whether the dancers in truth were so mad to stamp the floor down or whether i was only so led to believe. now will i further relate how i came again out of my goose prison. for three whole hours, namely, till that "praeludium veneris" (i should have said that seemly dance) was ended, i must perforce sit till one came softly and fumbled with the bolt: so i listened as quiet as any mouse, and presently the fellow that was at the door not only opened it but whipped in himself as quick as i would fain have whipped out, and with him by the hand he led in a lady, even as i had seen done at the dancing. i knew not what was to happen: but because i was now accustomed to all such strange adventures as had happened to me, poor fool, on that one day, and had made up my mind to bear with patience and silence whatever my fate might bring me, i crept close to the door and with fear and trembling waited for the end. so presently there was between these two a whispering, whereof i could understand naught save that the one party complained of the evil air of the place, and on the other hand the second party would console the first. thereupon i heard kisses and observed strange postures, yet knew not what this should mean, and therefore still kept still as a mouse. yet when a comical noise arose and the goose-pen, which was but of boards nailed together below the staircase, began to shake and crack, and moreover the lady seemed in trouble, i thought, surely these be two of those mad folk which helped to stamp on the floor, and have now betaken themselves hither to behave in like manner, and bring thee to thy death. as soon as these thoughts came into my head, i seized upon the door, so to escape death, and out i whipt with a cry of "murder" as loud as that which had brought me to that place. yet had i the sense to bolt the door behind me and make for the open house-door. this was now the first wedding i was ever present at in my life, and even to that i had not been invited: on the other hand, i needed to give no wedding-gift, though the bridegroom did mark up a heavy score against me, which i honourably discharged. gentle reader, i tell this story not that thou mayest laugh thereat, but that my history may be complete, and my readers may take to heart what honourable fruits are to be expected from this dancing. for this i hold for certain, that in these dances many a bargain is struck up, whereof the whole company hath cause thereafter to be shamed. _chap. ii._: concerning the merits and virtues of a good bath at the proper season and now, when i had luckily escaped from my goose-pen, i was then first aware of my sad plight. in my master's quarters all was sound asleep: so dared i not address myself to the sentry that stood before the house: and at the mainguard assuredly they would not entertain me: while to abide in the streets was too cold: so i knew not whither to betake myself. long past midnight it was when it came into my head to seek refuge with the pastor so often spoken of before; and this thought i followed so far as to knock at his door: and therein was so importunate that at last the maid, with much ill will, admitted me. but forthwith she began to chide with me; and this her master, who had by this time wellnigh slept off his wine, heard. so he called us both to him as he lay in his chamber: and ordered his maid, to put me to bed: for he could well perceive that i was numbed with the cold. yet was i hardly warm in my bed when day began to break and the good pastor stood by my bedside to hear how it had gone with me and how my business had fared, for i could not rise to go to him. so i told him all, and began with the tricks which my comrade the page had taught me, and how ill they had turned out. thereafter i must tell him how the guests, after he, the pastor, had left the table, had lost their wits and (as my comrade had told me) determined to stamp down the floor of the house: item into what fearful terror i thereupon fell, and in what fashion i tried to save my life: how thereafter i was shut up in a goose-pen and what i had noted in words and works of those two which had delivered me, and in what manner i had locked them both up in my stead. "simplicissimus," said the pastor, "thy case stands but lousily: thou hadst a good opportunity; but i fear, i fear thou hast fooled it away. get thee quick out of bed and pack out of my house, lest i come with thee under my lord's displeasure if thou be found here with me." so i must away, with my wet clothes, and now for the first time must understand how well he stands with all and sundry who doth but possess his master's favour: yet how askance he is looked upon when that favour halteth. away i went to my master's lodging, wherein all were yet sound asleep save the cook and a maid or two: these last were ordering the room wherein the day before had been the carouse, and the first was preparing from the remains of the feast a breakfast, or rather a luncheon. so first i betook myself to the maids: they had to deal with all manner of drinking-glasses and window-glass strewn up and down. in some places all was foul with what the guests had voided both upwards and downwards: in other places were great pools of spilt wine and beer, so that the floor looked like a map wherein a man could trace separate seas, islands, and continents. and in that room was the smell far worse than in my goose-pen: and therefore i delayed not long there but betook myself to the kitchen, and there had my clothes dried on my body before the fire, expecting with fear and trembling what tricks fortune would further play with me when my lord should awake. then did i reflect upon all the folly and senselessness of the world, and ran over in my mind all that happened to me in the past day and night and what i had seen and heard in that time. so when i thought thereon i did even deem the poor and miserable life which my old hermit led a happy one, and heartily i wished him and myself back in our old place. _chap. iii._: how the other page received payment for his teaching, and how simplicissimus was chosen to be a fool when my lord rose he sent his orderly to fetch me from the goose-pen: who brought news he had found the door open and a hole cut with a knife behind the bolt, by which means the prisoner had escaped. but before such report came my lord understood from others that i had for a long time been in the kitchen. meanwhile the servants must run hither and thither to fetch yesterday's guests to breakfast: among whom was also the pastor, who must appear earlier than the rest because my master would talk with him concerning me before they went to table. he asked him first, did he account me sane or mad, and whether i was in truth so simple or not the rather mischievous; and told him all: how unseemly i had carried myself all the day and evening before, which was in part taken amiss by his guests, and so regarded as if this had been done of malice and in their despite; item, that he had caused me to be shut up in a goose-pen to protect himself against such tricks as i might yet further have played him; which prison i had broken and now held my state in the kitchen like a gentleman who need no longer wait on him: in his lifetime no such trick had ever happened to him as i had played him in the presence of so many honourable persons: he knew not what to do with me save to have me soundly beaten, and, since i behaved myself so clownishly, to send me to the devil. meantime, while my master so complained of me, the guests assembled by degrees; so when he had said his say the pastor answered, if the lord governor would please to hearken to him with patience for a little while, he would tell him this and that regarding simplicissimus, from which not only his innocence could be known, but also all unfavourable thoughts removed from the minds of them that had taken a disgust at his conduct. now while they thus discoursed of me in the chamber above, that same mad ensign whom i in mine own person had imprisoned in my place makes a treaty with me below-stairs in the kitchen, and by threats and by a thaler which he put in my pouch, brought me to this, that i promised him to keep a still tongue concerning his doings. so the tables were set, and, as on the day before, furnished with food and with guests. there wormwood, sage wine, elecampane, quince and lemon drinks, with hippocras, were to clear the heads and stomachs of the drinkers; for for one and all there was the devil to pay. their first talk was of themselves, and that chiefly of how brave a bout of drinking they had had yesterday: nor was there any among them that would truly confess he had been drunk, albeit the evening before some had called the devil to witness they could drink no more. some indeed confessed that they had headaches: yet others would have it 'twas only since men had ceased to drink themselves full in the good old mode that such aches had come in fashion. but when they were tired both of hearing and talking of their own follies, poor simplicissimus must bear the brunt. and the governor himself reminded the pastor to tell of those merry happenings which he had promised. so the pastor begged first that none should take offence inasmuch as he must use words which might be accounted unbefitting his holy office. then he went on to tell how sorely i was plagued by nature, how i had caused great disgust thereby to the secretary in his office, and how i had learned, together with the art of prophecy, also certain enchantments[ ] against such mishaps, and how ill such arts had turned out when they were tried; item, how the dancing had seemed so strange to me, because i had never seen the like before, what an explication thereof i had heard from my comrade, and for what reason i had seized upon the noble lady, and thereupon had found my way into the goose-pen. all this he enounced with such a civil and discreet way of speaking that they were fit to split with laughing, and so completely forgave my simplicity and ignorance that i was restored to my master's favour and was allowed to wait at table again. but of what had happened to me in the goose-pen and how i was delivered therefrom would he say nought, for it seemed to him some old antediluvian images might have taken offence at him, which believe that pastors should always look sour. then again my master, to make sport for his guests, asked me what had i given to my comrade that had taught me those pretty tricks: so i said, "nothing at all." then says he, "i will pay him the school fees for thee." so he had him clapt in a winnowing basket and there soundly trounced: even as i had been dealt with the day before, when i tried those magical arts and found them false. so now my master had proof enough of my simplicity, and would fain give me the more occasion to make sport for him and his guests: he saw well that all the minstrels availed nothing so long as the company had me to make sport for them, for to every one it seemed that i, with my foolish fancies, was better than a dozen lutes. so he asked me why i had cut a hole in the door of the goose-pen. i answered, "another may have done it." "who then?" says he. "why," says i, "he that came to me." "and who came to thee?" quoth he. "nay," says i, "that may i tell no man." now my master was a man of a quick wit, and he saw well how one must go about with me: so he turns him about and of a sudden he asks me who it was that had forbidden me, and i of a sudden answered, "the mad ensign." then, when i perceived by the laughter of all that i had mightily committed myself, and the mad ensign who sat at table also grew red as a hot coal, i would say no more till by him it should be allowed. yet this was but a matter of a nod, which served my master instead of a command, to the ensign, and forthwith i might tell all i knew. and thereupon my master questioned me what the mad ensign had had to do with me in the goose-pen. "oh," says i, "he brought a young lady to me there." and thereupon there arose among all that were present such laughter that my master could hear me no longer, let alone ask me more questions; and 'twas not needful, for if he had, that honourable young maiden (forsooth) might have been put to shame. thereafter the controller of the household told all at table how a little before i had come home from the ramparts and had said i knew now where the thunder and lightning came from: for i had seen great beams on half-waggons, which were all hollow inside: into these, men rammed in onion-seed with an iron turnip with the tail off, and then tickled the beams behind with a spit, whereupon there was driven out in front smoke and thunder and hell-fire. then they told many more such stories of me, so that for the whole of that breakfast-time there was no other employ but to talk of me and laugh at me. and this was the cause of a general conclusion, to my destruction; which was that i should be soundly befooled. for with such treatment i should in time prove a rare jester, by whose means one could do honour to the greatest princes in the world and cause laughter to a dying man. _chap. iv._: concerning the man that pays the money, and of the military service that simplicissimus did for the crown of sweden: through which service he got the name of simplicissimus but now, as they began to carouse and to make merry as they had done the day before, the watch brings news, together with the delivery of letters to the governor, of a commissary that was at the gate, which same was appointed by the war council of the crown of sweden to review the garrison and survey the fortress. such news spoiled all jesting, and all jollity died away like the bellows of a bagpipe when the wind is gone out. the minstrels and the guests dispersed themselves even as tobacco-smoke, which leaves but a smell behind it: while my lord, with the adjutant who kept the keys, betook himself, together with a detachment from the mainguard and many torches, to the very gates, himself to give admittance to the blackguts, as he called him: he wished, he said, the devil had broke his neck in a thousand pieces ere ever he came to the city. yet so soon as he had let him in and welcomed him upon the inner drawbridge it wanted but a little, or nothing at all, but he would hold his stirrup for him to shew his devotion; yea, the courtesy to all outward shew was between the two so great that the commissary must dismount and walk on foot with my lord even to his lodging; and as they walked each would have the left-hand place. then thought i, "oh, what a wondrous spirit of falsehood doth govern all mankind, and so doth make one a fool through another's help." so we drew near to the mainguard, and the sentinel must call "who goes there?" though well he knew it was my lord: who would not answer but would leave the honour to that other: yet when the sentinel grew more impatient and repeated his challenge, the commissary answered to the last "who goes there?" "the man who pays the money." now as we passed the sentry-box, and i came last of all, i heard the before-mentioned sentry, which was a new recruit, and before that by profession a well-to-do young farmer on the vogelsberg, thus murmur to himself: "yea, and a lying customer thou art: a man, forsooth, that pays the money? a skin-the-flint that takes the money, that art thou. so much money hast thou wrung from me that i would to god thou wert struck dead before thou shouldst leave this town." so from that hour i conceived this belief that this foreign lord with the silk doublet must be a holy man: for not only did no curse harm him, but also even they that hated him shewed him all honour and love and kindness: and that night was he princely entreated and made blind drunk, and thereafter put to bed in a noble bedplace. next day, then, at the review of the troops everything was at sixes and sevens. and even i, poor simple creature, was clever enough to cheat that clever commissary (for to such offices and administrations ye may well know they do choose no simple babes). which same deceit i learned in less than an hour; for the whole art consisted therein, to beat five with the right hand and four with the left on a drum. for yet i was too little to represent a musqueteer. so they furnished me forth to that end with borrowed clothes (for my short page's breeches were in no wise military to look upon) and with a borrowed drum: without doubt for this reason, that i myself was but borrowed: and with all this i came happily through the inspection. thereafter, nevertheless, would no one trust my simple mind to keep in my memory any unaccustomed name, hearing which i should answer to it and step out of the ranks: and so must i keep the name of simplicius; and for a surname the governor himself added that of simplicissimus, and so had me written down in the muster-roll. and so he made me like a bastard, the first of my family; and that although, after his own shewing, i looked so like his own sister. so ever thereafter i bore this name and surname, until i knew my right name: and under that name i played my part pretty well to the profit of the governor and small danger to the crown of sweden. and this is all the service that ever i rendered to the crown of sweden in all my life: and the enemies of that crown can at least not lay more than this to my charge. _chap. v._: how simplicissimus was by four devils brought into hell and there treated with spanish wine now when the commissary had gone the abovementioned pastor bade me come secretly to him to his lodging; and then said he, "o simplicissimus: for thy youth i am sorry, and thy future misery moveth me to sympathy. hear, my child, and know of a surety, that thy master hath determined to deprive thee of all reason and so to make of thee a fool: yea, and to that end hath he already commanded raiment to be made ready for thee. so to-morrow must thou go to school: and in that school thou art to unlearn thy reason: and in that school without doubt they will so grievously torment thee, that, unless god help thee and other means be used against it, without doubt thou wilt become a madman. now, because such is a wrong and dangerous manner of dealing; and likewise because i, for thy hermit's piety's sake and for thine own innocence' sake, desire to serve thee, and with true christian love to assist thee with counsel and all necessary help, and to give thee relief in trouble, therefore follow thou now my teaching and take this powder, which will in such wise strengthen thy brain and wits that thou, without danger to thine understanding, mayst endure all things most easily. here likewise hast thou an ointment, with which thou must smear thy temples, thy spine and the nape of thy neck, and also thy nostrils; and both these things must thou use at evening-time when thou goest to bed, seeing at no time thou wilt be safe against being fetched forth from thy bed: but look thou that no one be ware of this my warning and the remedy that i impart to thee; else might it go ill with me and thee. and when they shall have thee under their accursed treatment, do thou heed not nor believe not all of which they will strive to persuade thee, and yet so carry thyself as if thou believest all. say but little, lest thine attendants mark in thy conduct that they do but thresh straw; for then will they change the fashion of thy torments; though in truth i know not in what manner they will go about to deal with thee. but when thou shalt be clad in thy plumes and thy fool's coat, then come again to me that i may further serve thee with counsel. and meanwhile will i pray god for thee, that he may protect thine understanding and thy health of body." with that he gives me the said powder and ointment, and so i betook myself home. now even as the pastor had said, so it happened. in my first sleep came four rogues disguised with frightful devils' masks into my room and to my bed, and there they capered around like mountebanks and twelfth-night fools. there had one a red-hot hook and another a torch in his hands; but the other two fell upon me and dragged me out of bed and danced around with me for a time, and then forced me to put on my clothes: while i so pretended as if i had taken them for true and natural devils, shrieked murder at the top of my voice, and shewed all the effects of the greatest terror. so they told me i must go with them: and with that they bound a napkin round my head so that i could neither see, hear nor cry out. then they led me by many winding ways up and down many stairs, and at last into a cellar wherein was a great fire burning, and when they had unbound the napkin then they began to drink to me in spanish wine and malmsey. and fain would they persuade me i was dead, and what is more, in the depths of hell: for i was careful to keep such a carriage as if i believed all that they pretended. then said they, "drink lustily; for thou must for ever abide with us: but if thou wilt not be a good fellow and take thy part, thou must forthwith into this fire that thou seest." these poor devils would have disguised their speech and voice: yet i marked at once they were my lord's grooms: yet i let them not perceive this, but laughed in my sleeve that they that would make me a fool must themselves be my fools. so i drank my share of the spanish wine; but they drank more than i, for such heavenly nectar cometh rarely to such customers; insomuch that i could swear they would be drunk sooner than i. but when it seemed to me to be the right time i so behaved myself with reeling this way and that, as i had seen my master's guests lately do, and at last would drink no more, but sleep; but no: they began to chase me all round the cellar and prick me with their prong, which all the time they had left to lie in the fire, till it seemed as if they themselves had gone mad, and that to make me drink more or at least not go to sleep. and whenever, being thus baited, i fell down (and this i often did purposely), then they seized upon me and made as if they would cast me into the fire. so was it with me as with a hawk that is kept from sleep[ ]: and this was my great torment. 'tis true i could have lasted them out both in respect of drunkenness and sleep; but they stayed not all the time altogether, but relieved one another's watch; and so at last must i have failed. three days and two nights did i spend in that smoky cellar, which had no other light but that which the fire gave out: and so my head began to hum and to feel as if 'twould burst, so that at last i must contrive some device to rid me at once of my torment and of my tormentors. and this did i even as does the fox when he cannot escape the hounds, and that so well that my devils could no longer endure to be near me. so to punish me they laid me in a sheet and trounced me so unmercifully that all my inward parts might well have come out, soul and all. and what they did further with me i know not, so gone was i from my senses. _chap. vi._: how simplicissimus went up to heaven and was turned into a calf now when i came to myself i found myself no longer in the gloomy cellar with the devils, but in a fine room under the charge of three of the foulest old wives that ever the earth bore: i held them at first, when i opened my eyes a little, for real spirits of hell: but had i then read the old heathen poets i should have deemed them to be the furies, or at least have taken one for tisiphone come from hell to rob me, like athamas, of my wits (for well i knew i was there to be turned into a fool). for she had a pair of eyes like two will-o'-the-wisps, and between the same a long, thin hawk's nose whose end or point reached at least to her lower lip: and two teeth only could i see in her mouth, and those so perfect, long, round, and thick that each might for its form be likened to a ring-finger, and for its colour to the gold ring itself. in a word, there was enough to make up a mouthful of teeth, yet ill distributed. her face was like spanish leather, and her grey hair hung in a strange confusion about her head, for they had but just fetched her from her bed. in truth it was a fearsome sight, which could serve for nought else but as an excellent remedy against the unreasonable lust of a salacious goat. the other two were no whit handsomer, save that they had blunt apes' noses and had put on their clothes somewhat more orderly. so when i had a little recovered myself, i perceived that the one was our dish-washer and the other two wives of two grooms. i pretended as though i could not move (and in truth i was in no condition for dancing): whereupon these honest old beldames stripped me stark naked and cleansed me from all filth like a young child; yea, while the work was a-doing they shewed me great patience and much compassion, insomuch that i nearly revealed to them how it truly stood with me: yet i thought, "nay, simplicissimus, trust thou in no old women; but consider thou hast victory enough if thou in thy youth canst deceive three such crafty old hags, with whose help one could catch the devil in the open field: from such beginnings thou mayst hope in thine old age to do yet greater things." so when they had ended with me they laid me in a splendid bed wherein i fell asleep without rocking: but they departed and took their tubs and other things wherewith they had washed me away with them, and my clothes likewise. then according to my reckoning did i sleep at one stretch twenty-four hours: and when i awoke there stood two pretty lads with wings before my bed, which were finely decked out with white shirts, taffety ribbons, pearls and jewels, as also golden chains and the like dazzling trinkets. one had a gilded trencher full of cakes, shortbread, marchpane, and other confectionery; but the other a gilded flagon in his hand. these two angels (for such they gave themselves out to be) sought to persuade me i was now in heaven, for that i had happily endured purgatory and had escaped from the devil and his dam: so need i only ask what my heart desired, for all that i could wish was at hand or, if not, they could presently fetch it. now i was tormented by thirst, and as i saw the beaker before me i desired only drink, which was willingly handed to me. yet was it no wine but a gentle sleeping-draught which i drank at one pull, and with that again fell asleep so soon as it grew warm within me. the next day i woke once more (for else had i still been sleeping), yet found myself no longer in bed nor in the aforesaid room, but in mine old goose-pen. there too was hideous darkness even as in the cellar, and besides that i had on a garment of calf-skins whereof the rough side was turned outwards: the breeches were cut in polish or swabian fashion and the doublet too shaped in a yet more foolish wise: and on my neck was a headpiece like a monk's cowl; this was drawn down over my head and ornamented with a fine pair of great asses' ears. then must i perforce laugh at mine own plight; for well i saw by the nest and the feathers what manner of bird i was to be. and at that time i first began to reason with myself and to reflect what i had best do. so this i determined: to play the fool to the uttermost, as i might have the chance now and again, and meanwhile to wait with patience how my fate would shape itself. _chap. vii._: how simplicissimus accommodated himself to the state of a brute beast now it had been easy for me, by means of the hole which the mad ensign had cut in the door before, to free myself. but because i must now be a fool, i let that alone: and not only did i behave like a fool who hath not the wit of his own motion to release himself, but did even present myself as a hungry calf that pineth for its mother: nor was it long before my bleating was heard of them that were appointed to watch me; for presently there came two soldiers to the goose-pen and asked who was in there. so i answered: "ye fools, hear ye not that a calf is in here." and with that they opened the pen and brought me out, and wondered how a calf could so speak: which forced performance became them even as well as doth the awkward attempt of a new-recruited comedian who cannot play his part; and that so much so that i thought often i must help them to play their jest out. so they took counsel what they should do with me, and agreed to make me a present to the governor as one who would give them a larger reward if i could speak than the butcher would pay for me. then they questioned me how i did, and i answered, "sorrily enough." so they asked why, and i said, "for this reason, that here it is the fashion to shut up honest calves in goose-pens. ye rogues must know that a proper ox will in due time come of me; and so must i be brought up as becometh an honourable steer." so after this brief discourse they had me with them across the street to the governor's quarters: a great crowd of boys following us, and inasmuch as they, like myself, all bleated loud like a calf, the very blind could have guessed by the hearing that a whole herd of calves was being driven past: whereas by our looks we might be likened to a pack of young fools and old. then was i by my two soldiers presented to the governor, for all the world as if they had taken me as plunder: them he rewarded with a gratification, but to me he promised the best post that i could have about him. so i thought of the goldsmith's[ ] apprentice and answered thus: "good, my lord, but none must clap me into goose-pens: for we calves can endure no such treatment if we are to grow and to turn into fine heads of cattle." the governor promised me better things, and thought himself a clever fellow to have made so presentable a fool out of me. "but no," thought i, "wait thou, my dear master; i have endured the trial by fire and therein have i been hardened: now will we try which of us two can best trick the other." now just then a peasant that had fled into the city was driving his cattle to drink. which when i saw forthwith i left the governor and ran to the cows, bleating like a calf, even as though i would suck: but they, when i came to them, were more terrified at me than a wolf, albeit i wore hair of their kind; yea, they were so affrighted and scattered so quickly from one another as if a hornet's nest had been let loose among them in august, so that their master could not again bring them together at the same place: which occasioned pretty sport. and in a wink a crowd of folk ran together to see this fool's jape, and as my lord laughed till he was fit to burst, at last he said, "truly one fool maketh a hundred more." but i thought to myself, "yea, and thou speakest this truth of thine own self." and as from that time forward each must call me the calf, so i for my part had a scoffing nickname for every one: which same, according to the opinion of all and especially of my lord, turned out most wittily; for i christened each as his qualities demanded. in a word; many did count me for a witless madman, while i held all for fools in their wits. and to my thinking this is still the way of the world: for each one is content with his own wits and esteemeth that he is of all men the cleverest. the said jest which i played with the peasant's cattle made a short forenoon still shorter; for 'twas then about the winter solstice. at dinner-time i waited as before, but besides that i played many quaint tricks: as that when i must eat no man could force me to take man's food or drink: for i said roundly i would have only grass, which at that time 'twas impossible to come by. so my lord had a fresh pair of calf-skins fetched from the butcher, and the same pulled over the heads of two little boys: and these he set by me at table, and for a first course set before us a dish of winter salad and bade us fall to lustily: yea, he commanded to bring a live calf and entice him with salt to eat the salad. so i looked on staring as if i wondered at this, but the thing gave me occasion to play my part the better. "of a certainty," said they, when they saw me so unmoved, "'tis no new thing if calves do eat flesh, fish, cheese, and butter; yea, and at times drink themselves soundly drunk: nowadays the beasts do know what is good. ay, and 'tis nowadays come to that, that but little difference is to be found between them and mankind. wilt thou not play thy part therein?" and to that i was the more easily persuaded in that i was hungry, and not because i had before seen with mine own eyes how men could be more swinish than pigs, more savage than lions, more lustful than goats, more envious than dogs, more unruly than horses, more stupid than asses, more mad for drink than the brutes, craftier than foxes, greedier than wolves, sillier than apes, and more poisonous than asps and toads; yet all alike partook of men's food, and only by their shape were discerned from the beasts, and specially in respect of innocence were they to be counted far below the poor calf. so i ate my fill with my fellow calves as much as my appetite demanded: and if a stranger had unexpectedly thus beheld me sitting at table, without doubt he had imagined that circe of old had risen up again to turn men into beasts; which art my master then knew and practised. and as i took my dinner, so was i treated at my supper, and even as my fellow guests or parasites fed with me, so must they with me to bed, though my lord would not permit that i should pass the night in the cow-byre. now all this i did to befool them that would have held me for a fool, and this sure conclusion did i make, that the most gracious god doth lend and impart to every man in his station to which he hath called him, so much wit as he hath need of there to maintain himself: yea, and moreover, that many do vainly imagine, doctors though they be or not, that they alone be men of wit and they only fit for every trade, whereas there be as many good fish[ ] in the sea yet. _chap. viii._: discourseth of the wondrous memory of some and the forgetfulness of others now when i awaked next morning were both my becalfed bedfellows up and away: so i rose up likewise, and when the adjutant came to fetch away the keys to open the town gates, out i slipped to my pastor; and to him i told all that had happened to me, as well in heaven as in hell. so when he saw that it vexed my conscience that i should deceive so many folk, and specially my master, whereas i pretended to be a fool, "why, upon that point," says he, "thou needest not to trouble thyself: this foolish world will be befooled; and if they have left thee thy wits, so use thou those same wits to thine own advantage, and imagine to thyself as if thou, like to the ph[oe]nix, hast been newly born from folly to understanding through fire, and so to a new human life. yet know thou withal thou art not yet out of the wood, but with risk of thy reason hast slipped into this fool's cap. yea, and these times be so out of joint that none can know whether thou yet escape without loss of thy life. for a man can run quickly into hell, but to get out again doth need a deal of puffing and blowing: and thou art not yet--no, not by a long way--man enough to escape the danger that lies before thee, as well thou mightest suppose. so wilt thou have need of more foresight and wit than in those days when thou knewest not what reason or unreason was: bide thou thy time and wait on the turn of the tide." now was his manner of speaking different from what it had been, and that because, i believe, he had read it in my countenance that i fancied myself to be somewhat, since i had with such masterly deceit and art slipped through the net. nay, i gathered this from his face, that he was sick and tired of me, for his looks shewed it; and indeed what part had he in me? with that i changed my discourse also, and busied myself to give him great thanks for the excellent remedies which he had imparted to me for the preserving of my wits: yea, and i made him impossible promises to repay him all that my debt to him demanded. now this tickled him and brought him again to a different humour, wherein he bepraised his medicine and told me simonides of melos had invented an art which metrodorus of skepsis had perfected, and that not without great pains, whereby he could teach men at the repeating of a single word to recount all that they had ever heard or read, and such a thing, said he, "were not possible without medicines to strengthen the head such as he had ministered to me." "yea," thought i, "my good master parson: yet have i read in thine own books, when i dwelt with my hermit, a different tale of that wherein the skepsian's mnemonic did consist." yet was i crafty enough to hold my peace: for if i must speak truth, 'twas now first, when i must be counted a fool, that i became keen-witted and more guarded in my talk. so the pastor continued, and told me how cyrus could call every one of his , soldiers by his right name; how lucius scipio could do the like with every citizen of rome; and how cineas, pyrrhus's ambassador, on the very day after he came to rome could repeat in their order the names of all the senators, and nobles. mithridates, the king of pontus, said he, had in his realm men speaking twenty-two languages, to all of which he could minister judgment in their own tongue: yea, and talk with each separately. so, too, the learned greek charmides could tell a man what each would know out of all the books in a whole library if he had but read them once through. lucius seneca could say names in order if they were once recited before him and, as ravisius tells, could repeat verses spoken by scholars from the last back to the first. so esdras knew the five books of moses by heart, and could dictate the same word by word to the scribes. themistocles in one year did learn the persian speech, and crassus, in asia, could talk the five separate dialects of the greek language, and in each administer the law to his subjects. julius cæsar could at the same time read, dictate, and give audiences. the holy jerome knew both hebrew, chaldee, greek, persian, median, arabic and latin, and the eremite antonius knew the whole bible by heart only from hearing it read. and so we know of a certain corsican that he could hear men's names recited and thereafter repeat them in proper order. "and all this i tell thee," said he further, "that thou mayest not hold it for an impossible thing that a man's memory should be excellently strengthened and maintained, even as it may, on the other hand, be in many ways weakened and even altogether destroyed. for in man there is no faculty so fleeting as that of memory: for by reason of sickness, terror, fear, or trouble and grief, it either vanisheth away or loseth a great part of its virtue. so do we read of a learned man at athens that after a stone had fallen on his head he forgot all he had ever learned, even to his alphabet. so too another, by reason of sickness, came to this, that he forgot his own servant's name: and messala corvinus knew not his own name, though aforetime he had a good memory. and a priest who had sucked blood from his own veins thereupon forgot how to read and write, yet otherwise kept his memory, and when after a year's time he had again drunken of the same blood at the same place and the same time, could again write and read. so if a man eat bear's brains, 'tis said he will fall into such a craze and strong delusion as if he himself were turned into a bear; as is shewn by the example of a spanish nobleman who, having eaten of it, ran wild in the woods and could believe nought else but that he was a bear. my good simplicissimus, had thy master but known this art, thou mightest well have been changed into a bear like callisto, rather than into a bull like jupiter." the pastor told me much more of the same sort, gave me more of his medicament, and instructed me as to my carriage for the time to come. so with that i betook myself home again, and with me more than one hundred boys, which all ran after me and again cried after me like calves: insomuch that my master, who was now risen, ran to the window, and when he saw so many fools all at once, was so gracious as to laugh heartily thereat. _chap. ix._: crooked praise of a proper lady now no sooner was i come into the house but i must forthwith to the parlour, for there were noble ladies with my lord which desired much to see and to hear his new fool. there i appeared and stood a-gaping like a dummy: whereupon she whom i had before caught at the dance took occasion to say she had been told this calf could speak, but now she did plainly perceive 'twas not true. whereto i made answer i had also heard apes could not speak, but now could plainly hear 'twas not so. "what;" says my lord, "opinest thou, then, that these ladies be apes?" so i answered, "be they not so already, yet they soon will be: for who knoweth how things will go; yea, i myself had never expected to become a calf; and yet am i that same." then my lord would ask me whereby i could tell that these ladies should become apes: so i answered him, "our ape here carrieth his hinder parts naked, but these ladies do so carry their bosom: which other maidens be wont to cover." "ah, rogue," saith my lord, "thou beest but a foolish calf, and as thou art so thou talkest: for these ladies do of purpose shew what 'tis worth men's while to gaze upon; whereas the poor ape goeth naked for sheer want of clothing. and now be thou quick to make good that wherein thou hast offended: else will we so bastinado thee and so hunt thee to thy goose-pen with dogs as men use to do with calves that know not how to behave themselves. yet let us hear if thou canst praise a lady as is becoming." so i looked upon the lady from head to foot and again from foot to head, and gazed upon her so fixedly and so lovingly as i would take her to wife: and at last, "sir," said i, "i see clearly where the fault lieth; for the rascal tailor is the cause of all. the villain hath left those parts, which should cover the neck and the breast, below in the skirts: and therefore do these so trail behind. the botcher should have his hand hewn off that can tailor no better than this." and "lady," quoth i to her, "be rid of him, or he will shame you; and have a care that you do deal with my dad's tailor, which same was hight master powle: for he could fashion fine plaited gowns for my mammy, our ann, and our ursula, and all cut even round about below. so did they never drag in the mud like yours: nay, and ye cannot believe what fine clothes he would make for the hussies." so says my lord, "were now thy father's ann and thy father's ursula handsomer than these ladies;" "nay," said i, "my lord, that may not be: this young maiden hath hair as yellow as sulphur, and the parting of her hair so white and smooth as though one had cut bristle-brushes therefrom; yea, and her hair so sweetly done up in rolls that it is like unto pipe-stems; yea, and as if one had hanged upon each side of her head a pound of candles or a dozen of sausages. look you now, what a smooth, fair brow she hath! is it not rounder than a plum-pudding and whiter than a dead man's skull that has hung long on the gallows in wind and rain. 'tis pity indeed that her tender skin is so stained by puff-powder; for when people see this who understand not such things, surely they will think this lady had the king's evil, which is wont to produce such a scaly humour; and this were surely pity: for look upon those sparkling eyes: they shine as black as did the soot on my dad's chimney; for that did use to shine so terribly when our ann stood there before it with a wisp of straw to warm the room as if fire were therein enough to set the world in a blaze. her cheeks be rosy enough, yet not so red as the red garters with which the swabian waggoners at ulm did truss up their breeches. yet the bright red which she hath on her lips doth far surpass the colour of those garters, and if she speak or laugh (i pray my masters give heed thereto), then can one see in her mouth two rows of teeth, so orderly and so sugary as if they were with one snip cut out of a white turnip. oh, lovely creature! i cannot believe that any one should feel pain if thou shouldst bite him therewith! so, too, her neck is as white as curdled milk and her bosom, which lieth beneath, of like colour. and oh, my masters, look upon her hands and fingers: they be so slender, so long, so slim, so supple, and so cunning as for all the world like a gipsy's fingers, ready to thrust into any man's pockets and there go a-fishing." with that there arose such a laughter that none could hear me, nor i talk: so i took french leave and off i went: for i would be mocked by others so long as i would, and no longer. _chap. x._: discourseth of naught but heroes and famous artists thereafter followed the midday meal, whereat i again did good service: for now had i made it my purpose to rebuke all follies and to chastise all vanities, to which end my present condition was excellent well fitted: for no guest was too exalted for me to reprove and upbraid his vices, and if there were any that shewed displeasure, then was he laughed out of countenance by the rest, or else my master would demonstrate to him that no wise man is wont to be vexed at a fool. as to the mad ensign, which was my worst enemy, him i put on the rack at once. yet the first who (at my lord's nod) did answer me reasonably was the secretary; for when i called him a "title-forger" and asked what title, then, had our first father adam, "thou talkest," answered he, "like an unreasoning calf: for thou knowest not how after our first parents different folk lived in the world, which by rare virtues such as wisdom, manly deeds of arms, and invention of useful arts, did in such wise ennoble themselves and their family that they by others were exalted above all earthly things, yea even above the stars to be gods: and wert thou a man, or hadst thou at least, like a man, read the histories, thou wouldst understand the difference that lies between men, and so wouldst thou gladly grant to each his title of honour; but since thou art but a calf, and so neither worthy nor capable of human honour, thou talkest of this matter like a stupid calf, and grudgest to the noble human race that wherein it can rejoice." so i answered: "i was once a man as much as thou, and i have read pretty much also, and so can i judge that thou either understandest not this business aright, or art for thine own advantage compelled to speak otherwise than as thou knowest. for tell me, what deeds so noble and what arts so fine have ever been devised as to be enough to give nobility to a whole family for hundreds of years after the death of these great heroes and craftsmen? did not the strength of the heroes and the wisdom and high understanding of the craftsmen die with them? and if thou seest not this, and if the qualities of the parents do descend to their children, then must i believe thy father was a stockfish and thy mother a plaice." "oho!" answered the secretary, "if the matter is to be settled by our reviling of each other, then can i cast in thy teeth thy father was but a clownish peasant of the spessart, and though in thy home and in thy family there be many famous blockheads, yet thou hast made thyself yet lower, seeing that thou art become an unreasoning calf." so i answered: "thou art right; 'tis even that that that i would maintain; namely, that the virtues of the parents descend not always to the children, and that therefore the children be not always worthy of their parent's titles of honour. for me it is no shame to have become a calf, seeing that in such case i have the honour to follow the great king nebuchadnezzar. who knoweth whether it may not please god that i, like him, may again become a man, yea, and a far greater one than my dad? yet do i praise those only that by their own virtues do make themselves nobles." "let it be so for the sake of argument," said the secretary, "that the children should not always inherit the titles of their parents, yet thou must acknowledge that they are worthy of all praise which do earn their nobility by a good conduct: and if that be so, it followeth that we do rightly honour the children for the parents' sake, since the apple falleth not far from the tree. and who would not honour in the descendants of alexander the great, if such there were to hand, their ancient forefather's high courage in the wars. for this man shewed in his youth his desire for fighting, in that he wept (though not yet able to bear arms) grieving lest his father might conquer all and leave him nothing to subdue. did not he before the thirtieth year of his age overcome all the world and wish for another to conquer? did not he in a battle against the indians, when he was deserted by his men, for sheer rage sweat blood? and was he not so terrible to look upon (as though he were all begirt with flames of fire) that even the savages must flee before him in battle? who would not esteem him higher and nobler than other men, of whom quintus curtius tells that his breath was like perfume and his sweat like musk and that his dead body smelt of precious spiceries? here could i cite the case of julius cæsar and pompeius, of whom the one, besides the victories which he won in the civil wars, did fifty times engage in pitched battles, and defeated and slew , , men: while the other, besides the taking of ships from the pirates, did from the alps to the uttermost parts of spain capture and subdue cities and towns. lucius siccius, the roman people's tribune, was engaged in pitched battles, and did eight times conquer them that challenged him: he could shew forty-five scars on his body, and those all in front and none behind: with nine generals-in-chief did he enter rome in their triumphs, which they did clearly earn by their courage. yea, and manlius capitolinus's honour in war were no less had he not at the end of his life himself abased his fame: for he too could shew thirty-three scars, without counting that he once did alone save the capitol with all its treasures from the french. what of hercules the strong and theseus and the rest, whose undying praise it is well-nigh impossible both to describe and to tell of? should not these be honoured in their descendants? but i will pass over war and weapons and turn to the arts, which, though they seem to make less noise in the world, yet do achieve great fame for the masters of them. what skill do we find in zeuxis, which by his ingenious brain and skilful hand did deceive the very birds of the air; and likewise in apelles, who did paint a venus so natural, so fine, so exquisite, and in all features so nice and so delicate that all bachelors did fall in love with her! doth not plutarch tell us how archimedes did draw with one hand and by a single rope through the midst of the marketplace at syracuse a great ship laden with merchants' ware as if he had but led a packhorse by the bridle? which thing not twenty oxen, to say nothing of two hundred calves like thee, could have effected. and should not this honest craftsman be endowed with a title of honour fitted to his art? this archimedes made a mirror wherewith he could set on fire an enemy's warship in mid-sea. and who would not praise him which first did invent letters? yea, who would not exalt him far above all artists who devised the noble and, for all the world, useful art of printing? if ceres was accounted a goddess because she is said to have invented agriculture and the grinding of corn, why were it not fair that others should have their praise with titles of honour allowed them? yet in truth it mattereth little whether thou, thou stupid calf, canst take such things into thy unreasoning bullock's brain or not. for 'tis with thee as with the dog which lay in the manger and would not let the ox eat of the hay, yet could not enjoy the same himself: thou art capable of no honour, and for that very cause thou grudgest such to those that do deserve it." with all this i found myself sorely bestead, yet made answer: "these mighty deeds were indeed highly to be praised were they not accomplished with the destruction and damage of other men. but what manner of praise is this which is stained with the bloodshed of so many innocents; and what manner of nobility that which is achieved and won by the ruin of so many thousand other folk! and as concerns the arts, what be they save merely vanities and follies! yea, they be as vain, idle, and unprofitable as the title of honour which might come to any man from these craftsmen; for they do but serve the greed, or the lust, or the luxury, or the corruption of others, like to those vile guns which lately i beheld on their half-waggons. yea, and well could we spare both printing and writing, according to the sentence and opinion of that holy man who held that the whole wide world was book enough for him, wherein to study the wonders of his creator and thereupon to recognise the almighty power of god." _chap. xi._: of the toilsome and dangerous office of a governor then my lord would also have his jest with me, and said: "i do well perceive that because thou trustest not thyself to be of gentle birth, therefore thou despisest the honourable titles of gentility." "sir," answered i, "if i could at this very hour enter upon your place of honour, yet would i not take it." my lord laughed and said; "that i believe, for for the ox his oaten straw is well enough: but an thou hadst a high spirit such as hearts of gentles should have, then wouldst thou with zeal aspire to high honours and dignities. i for my part count it no small thing that fortune raises me above my fellows." then did i sigh, and "o toilsome felicity!" said i. "sir, i assure you, ye are the most miserable man in hanau." "how so; how so, calf?" said my lord. "give me thy reasons, for such i find not in myself." so i answered, "if you know not and feel not that you are governor in hanau, and with how many cares and uneasiness in that account burdened, then either the devouring thirst of honour blinds you or else are you of iron and quite insensible; ye have, 'tis true, the right to command, and whosoever comes within your ken the same must obey you. but do they serve ye for naught? are ye not all men's servant? must ye not specially take care for each and all? see, ye are girded round with foes, and the safeguarding of this stronghold depends on you alone. ever must ye be devising how to do some damage to your opposites: and therein must ever be on your guard that your plans be not spied upon. must ye not often stand on guard like a common sentinel? besides, ye must ever be concerned that there be no failure in money, ammunition, food and folk, and for that reason be ever holding the whole land to contribution by continual exactions and extortions. send ye your men out to such an end, then is robbery, plunder, stealing, burning, and murder their highest task. even now of late they have plundered orb, captured braunfels, and laid staden in ashes. thence 'tis true they brought back booty, but ye have laid on them a grievous responsibility before god. i grant this, that those enjoyments which accompany thine honour do please thee well; but knowest thou who will enjoy such treasures as doubtless thou gatherest? and granted that such riches remain thine (whereof a man may doubt), yet must thou leave them in this world and takest nothing with thee but the sin whereby thou hast gained them. and even if thou hast the good luck to enjoy thy booty, yet thou dost but spend the sweat and blood of the poor, who do now in misery suffer want or even perish and die of hunger. how often do i see that thy thoughts, by reason of the cares of thine office, are distracted hither and thither, while i and other calves do sleep in peace without any care, and if thou dost not so, it shall cost thee thy head if aught be overlooked that should have been provided for the preservation of thy subject people and this fortress. look you, i am raised above such cares! and so, knowing that i do owe the debt of death to nature, i fear not lest an enemy should storm my stall or lest i should have with pains to fight for life. if i die young, so am i delivered from the toilsome life of a yoke-ox. but for thee men lay snares in a thousand fashions: and therefore is thy life naught but a continual care and sleeplessness; for thou must fear both friend and foe, which be ever devising to cheat thee of thy life or thy money, or thy reputation or thy command, or somewhat else whatever it be; even as thou thinkest to do by others. the enemy doth attack thee openly: and thy supposed friends do secretly envy thee thy good luck, and even as regards thy subjects art thou in no manner of safety. "i say naught of this, that daily thy burning desires do torment thee and drive thee hither and thither, whilst thou plannest to gain for thyself still greater name and fame, to rise higher in rank, to gather greater riches, to play the enemy a trick, to surprise this or that place; in a word, to do wellnigh everything that may vex others and prove harmful to thine own soul and grievous to god's majesty. yea, and the worst is this, that thou art so spoiled by thy flatterers that thou knowest not thyself, but art by them so captivated and drugged that thou canst not see the dangerous way thou goest; for all that thou doest they say is right and all thy vices are by them turned into virtues and so proclaimed; thy cruelty is to them stern justice: and when thou plunderest land and folk, thou art a brave soldier, say they, and do urge thee on to others' harm, that they may keep in thy favour and fill their purses too." "thou malingerer," said my lord, "who taught thee so to preach?" "good my lord," answered i, "say i not truly that thou art so spoiled by thine ear-wiggers and sycophants that already thou art past help? whereas contrariwise other folk do soon detect thy faults and condemn thee not only in high and mighty matters, but find enough to blame in thee in small things which are of little account. and of this hast thou not examples enough in the case of great men of old time? so the lacedaemonians railed at their own lycurgus for walking with his head bowed: the romans deemed it a foul fault in scipio that he snored so loud in his sleep: it seemed to them an ugly fault in pompey that he did scratch himself but with one finger: at cæsar they mocked for wearing his girdle awry; and the good cato was slandered for eating too greedily with both jaws at once; yea, the carthaginians spoke evil of hannibal for going with his breast bare and uncovered. how think ye now, my dear master? think ye i would change places with one that, besides twelve or thirteen boon companions, flatterers and parasites, hath more than one hundred, yea, 'tis like enough more than ten thousand, both open and secret foes, slanderers, and malicious enviers? besides, what happiness, what pleasure, and what joy can such a head have under whose care, protection, and guard so many men do live? is't not a duty laid upon thee to watch for all thy folk, to care for them, and listen to each one's complaints and grievances? were that not of itself troublesome enough even though thou hadst neither foes nor secret enemies? i can see well enough how hard 'tis for thee and yet how many grievances thou must endure. and, good my lord, what in the end will be thy reward? tell me what hast thou for it all? if thou canst not say, then suffer the grecian demosthenes to tell thee, who after he had bravely and loyally furthered and defended the common weal and rights of the athenians, was, contrary to all law and justice, banished the land and driven into miserable exile as an evil-doer. so socrates was requited with poison, and hannibal so ill rewarded by his countrymen that he must wander in the world as a poor wretched outlaw; yea, the greeks repaid lycurgus in such fashion that he was stoned and had an eye beaten out. do thou, therefore, keep thy high office to thyself, with the reward thou wilt have from it: seek not to share it with me; for even if all go well with thee, yet hast thou naught to carry home with thee but an ill conscience. and if thou art minded to obey that conscience, then wilt thou be quickly deposed from thy commands as incapable, for all the world as if thou too wert become a stupid calf." while i thus spake, the rest of the company looked hard upon me and wondered much that i should be able to hold such discourse, which, as they openly confessed, would have taxed the wits of a man of sense if he had been forced so to speak without preparation. _chap. xii._: of the sense and knowledge of certain unreasoning animals so i ended my discourse thus: "therefore," said i, "my excellent master, will i not change with thee: for indeed i have no call to do so since the brook affords me a healthy drink instead of thy costly wines; and he who allowed me to be turned into a calf will also in such wise know how to bless the fruits of the earth to my use, that they be to me as to nebuchadnezzar, no unfitting provision for food and sustenance: even so hath nature provided me with a good coat of fur; while as for thee, often thou loathest thy meat, thy wine splitteth thy head, and soon will bring thee into one sickness or another." then my lord answered: "i know not what i have in thee; meseemeth thou art for a calf far too wise: nay, i do surmise thou hast under that calf-skin clad thyself with a rogue-skin." with that i made as if i were angry, and said: "do ye men think, then, that we beasts be all fools? that may ye not imagine. i do maintain that if older beasts could speak as well as i, that they would tell you a very different story. if ye deem we are so stupid, then tell me who hath taught the wild wood-pigeons, the jays, the blackbirds, and the partridges to purge themselves with laurel-leaves, and doves, turtle-doves, and fowls with dandelions. who teacheth cat and dog to eat the dewy grass when they desire to purge a full belly? who hath taught the tortoise to heal a bite with hemlock or the stag when he is shot to have recourse to the dictamnus or calamint? who taught the weasel to use the rue when she will fight with bat or snake? who maketh the wild boar to know the ivy and the bear the mandrake, and saith to them it is their medicine? who giveth the swallow to understand that she should heal her fledglings' dim eyes with chelidonium? who did instruct the snake to eat of fennel when she will cast her slough and heal her darkened eyes? who teacheth the stork to purge himself, the pelican to let himself blood and the bear to get himself scarified by bees? nay, i might almost say, ye men have learned your arts and sciences from us beasts. ye eat and drink yourselves to death, and that we beasts do never do. lion or wolf, when he is by way of growing too fat, then he fasteth till again he is thin, active, and healthy. and which party dealeth most wisely herein? yea, above and beyond all this, consider the fowls of the air; regard the various architecture of their cunning nests, and inasmuch as all your labours can never imitate them, therefore ye must acknowledge they be both wiser and more ingenious than ye men yourselves. who telleth to our summer birds when they should come to us for the spring and hatch their young, or for the autumn, when they should again betake themselves from us to warmer climes? who teacheth them they must choose a gathering-place to that end? who leadeth them or sheweth them the way? do ye men lend them, perchance, a compass that they fall not out by the way? nay, my good friends, they do know the way without your help, and how long they must spend therein, and when they must depart from this place and the other, and therefore have no need of your compass nor your almanack. further, behold the industrious spider, whose web is wellnigh a miracle: look if you find a singly knot in all her weaving. what hunter or fisher hath taught her how to spread her net, and when she hath laid that net to catch her prey, to set herself either in the furthest corner or else full in the centre? ye men do admire the raven of whom plutarchus writeth that he threw into a vessel that was half full of water so many stones that the water rose until he could conveniently drink thereof. what would ye do if ye were to dwell among the beasts and there behold all the rest of their dealings, their doings, and their not-doings? then at all events would ye acknowledge 'twas plain that all beasts had somewhat of especial natural vigour and virtue in all their desires and instincts, as being now prudent, now strenuous, now gentle, now timid, now fierce, for your learning and instruction. each knoweth the other; they discern each from other; they seek after that which is useful to them, flee from what is harmful, avoid danger, gather together what is necessary for their sustenance--yea, and at times do befool you men yourselves. therefore have many ancient philosophers seriously pondered of such matters and have not been ashamed to question and to dispute whether unreasoning brutes might not have understanding. but i care not to speak further of these matters: get ye to the bees and see how they make wax and honey, and then come again and tell me how ye think of it." _chap. xiii._: of various matters which whoever will know must either read them or have them read to him thereupon various judgments were pronounced upon me by my lord's guests. the secretaries were of opinion i should be counted a fool because i esteemed myself a reasoning beast, and because they that had a tile or two slipped, and yet seemed to themselves wise, were the most complete and comical fools of all. others said, if 'twere possible to drive out of me the idea that i was a calf, or one could persuade me i was again turned into a man, i should surely be held reasonable, or at least sane enough. but my lord himself said, "i hold him for a fool because he telleth every man the truth so shamelessly; yet are his speeches so ordered that they belong to no fool." (now all this they spake in latin, that i might not understand.) then he asked me, had i studied while i was yet a man? i answered, i knew not what study was "but, dear sir," said i further, "tell me what manner of things are these studs with which men study? speakest thou, perchance, of the balls with which men bowl." then answered he they called the "mad ensign," "what will ye with the fellow? 'a hath a devil, 'a is possessed? 'tis sure the devil talking through his mouth." and on that my lord took occasion to ask me, since i had been turned into a calf, whether i still was accustomed to pray like other men and trusted to go to heaven. "surely," answered i, "yet have i my immortal human soul, which, as thou canst easily believe, will not lightly desire to come to hell again, specially since i fared therein so evilly once before. i am but changed as once was nebuchadnezzar, and in god's good time i might well become a man again." "and i hope thou mayst," said my lord, with a pretty deep sigh, whereupon i might easily judge that he repented him of having allowed me to be driven mad. "but let us hear," he went on, "how art thou wont to pray?" so i kneeled down and raised my eyes and hands to heaven in good hermit fashion, and because my lord's repentance which i had perceived touched my heart with exceeding comfort, i could not refrain my tears, and so to outward appearance prayed with deepest reverence, after the paternoster, for all christendom, for my friends and my enemies, and that god would vouchsafe to me so to live in this world that i might be worthy to praise him in eternal bliss. my hermit had taught me such a prayer in devout and well-ordered words. at that some soft-hearted onlookers were also nigh to weeping, for they had great pity for me, yea, my lord's own eyes were full of water. after dinner my lord sends for the pastor, and to him he told all that i had uttered, and gave him to understand that he was concerned lest all was not well[ ] with me, and perchance the devil had a finger in the pie, seeing that at first i had shewn myself altogether simple and ignorant yet now could utter things to make men wonder. the pastor, who knew my qualities better than any other, answered, that should have been thought on before 'twas allowed to make me a fool, for "men," said he, "were made in the image of god, and with such, and especially with such tender youth, one must not make sport as with beasts": yet would he never believe 'twas permitted to the evil spirit to interfere, seeing that i had ever commended myself to god with fervent prayer. yet if against all likelihood such a thing were decreed and permitted, then had men a sore account to answer for before god, inasmuch as there would scarcely be greater sin than for one man to rob another of his reason and thus withdraw him from the praise and service of god, whereto he was chiefly created. "i gave ye beforehand my assurance," said he, "that he had wit enough, but that he could not fit himself to the world was caused by this, that he was brought up first with his father, a rough peasant, and then with your brother-in-law in the wilderness, in all simplicity. had folk had but a little patience with him at first, he would with time have learned a better carriage; he was but a simple, god-fearing child, such as the evil-disposed world knew not. yet do i not doubt he can again be brought to his right mind, if we can but take from him this fantasy and bring him to believe no longer that he was turned into a calf. we read of one which did firmly believe he was changed into an earthen pot, and would beseech his friends to put him high on a shelf lest he should be trodden on and broken. another did imagine he was a cock, and in his infirmity crowed both day and night. and yet another fancied he was already dead and a wandering spirit, and therefore would partake of no medicine nor food nor drink, till a wise physician hired two fellows which gave themselves out likewise to be spirits, yet hearty drinkers, who joined themselves to him and persuaded him that nowadays spirits were wont to eat and drink, whereby he was brought to his senses. yea, i myself had a sick peasant in my parish, who, when i visited him, complained to me he had three or four barrels of water in his body; and could he be rid of that he trusted to be well again, and begged me either to have him ripped up, that the water might run away, or have him hung up in the smoke to dry it up. so i spoke him fair, and persuaded him i could draw off the water from him in another fashion; and with that i took a tap such as we use for wine and beer-casks, bound a strip of pig's guts to it, and the other end i fastened to the bung hole of a great puncheon, which to that end i had had filled with water; then i pretended as if i had stuck the tap into his belly, which he had had swathed in rags lest it should burst. then i let the water run out of the puncheon through tubes; whereat the poor creature rejoiced heartily and, throwing away his rags, was in a few days whole again. again, one that imagined he had all manner of horse-furniture, bits and the like, in his body, was in this wise cured: for his physician, having given him a strong purge, conveyed such things into the night-stool so that the fellow must needs believe he was rid of them by the purging. so, too, they tell of one madman that believed his nose was so long that it reached to the ground: for him they hung a sausage to his nose, and cut it away by little and little till they came to the real nose: who, as soon as he felt the knife touch his flesh, cried out the nose was in its right shape again. and our good simplicissimus can therefore be cured even as were these of whom i have spoken." "all this can i believe," answered my master, "only this gives me concern, that he was before so ignorant, and now can talk of all matters, and that in such perfect fashion as one cannot easily find even among persons older, more practised, and better read than he is: for he hath told me of many properties of beasts, and described mine own person so exactly as he had been all his life in the busy world, so that i must needs wonder and hold his speeches wellnigh for an oracle or a warning of god." "sir," answered the pastor, "this may well be true and yet natural: i know that he is well read, seeing that he, as well as his hermit, went through all my books which i had, and which were not few; and because the lad hath a good memory, and is now at leisure in his mind and forgetful of his own person, therefore he can utter what aforetime he stored in his brain: and therefore i do cherish the firm hope that with time he may again be brought to right reason." in this wise the pastor left the governor between hope and fear: and me and my cause he defended in the best way, and gained for me days of happiness and for himself (by the way) access to the governor. their crowning resolve was this, to deal with me for a time quietly; and that the pastor did more for his own sake than mine, for by going to and fro and acting as if he bestirred himself for my sake and felt great care for me, he gained the governor's favour, who gave him office and made him chaplain to the garrison, which in those hard times was no small matter: neither did i grudge it him. _chap. xiv._: how simplicissimus led the life of a nobleman, and how the croats robbed him of this when they stole himself so from this time forward i possessed in full the favour, grace, and love of my lord, of which i can boast with truth: nought i wanted to complete my good fortune but that my calfskin was too much and my years too little, though i knew it not myself. besides, the pastor would not yet have me brought to my senses, but it seemed to him not yet time, neither as yet profitable for his interest. but my lord, seeing my taste for music, had me to learn it, and hired for me an excellent lute-player, whose art i presently well understood and in this excelled him, that i could sing to the lute better than he. so could i serve my lord for his pleasure, for his pastime, delight, and admiration. likewise all the officers shewed me their respect and goodwill, the richest burghers sent me gratifications, and the household, like the soldiers, wished me well because they saw how well inclined my master was to me. one treated me here, another there; for they knew that often jesters have more power with their masters than honest men: and to this end were all their gifts; for some gave to me lest i should slander them, others for that very reason--namely, that i should slander others for their sake. in which manner i put together a pretty sum of money, which for the most part i handed to the pastor; for i knew not yet to what end it could be used. and as none dared look at me askance, so from this time forward i had no jealousy, care, or trouble to encounter with. all my thoughts i gave to my music, and to devising how i might courteously point out to one and the other his failings. so i grew like a pig in clover, and my strength of body increased palpably: soon could one see that i was no longer starving my body in the wood with water and acorns and beech-nuts and roots and herbs, but that over a good meal i found the rhenish wine and the hanau double-beer to my taste, which was indeed in those miserable times to be accounted a great favour of god: for at that time all germany was aflame with war and harried by hunger and pestilence, and hanau itself besieged by the enemy, all which disturbed me not in the least. but after the raising of the siege my master designed to make a present of me either to cardinal richelieu or duke bernhard of weimar, for besides that he hoped to earn great thanks for the gift, he said plainly 'twas not possible for him to bear the sight of me longer, because i presented to him in that fool's raiment the face of his lost sister, to whom i grew more like every day. in that the pastor opposed him, for he held that the time was not yet come when he was to do a miracle and make me a reasonable creature again, and therefore counselled the governor he should have a couple of calfskins prepared and put on two other boys, and thereafter appoint some third person who, in the shape of a physician, prophet or conjurer, should strip me and the said two boys and pretend he could make beasts into men and men into beasts: in this manner i might be restored, and without great pains might be brought to believe i had, like others, again become a man. which proposal when the governor approved, the pastor told me what he had agreed with my master, and easily persuaded me to consent thereto. but envious fortune would not so easily free me of my fool's clothes nor leave me longer to enjoy my noble life of pleasure. for while tanners and tailors were already at work on the apparel that appertained to this comedy, i was even then sporting with some other boys on the ice in front of the ramparts. and there some one, i know not who, brought upon us a party of croats, which seized upon us all, set us upon certain riderless farm-horses which they had just stolen, and carried us all off together. 'tis true they were at first in doubt whether to take me with them or not, till at last one said in bohemian, "mih werne daho blasna sebao, bowe deme ho gbabo oberstowi" ("take we the fool: bring we him to our colonel"). and another answered him, "prschis am bambo ano, mi ho nagonie possadeime wan rosumi niemezki, won bude mit kratock wille sebao" ("yes, by god, set we him on the horse. the colonel speaks german: he will have sport with him"). so i must to horse, and must learn how a single unlucky hour can rob one of all welfare and so separate him from all luck and happiness that all his life he must bear the consequences. _chap. xv._: of simplicissimus' life with the troopers, and what he saw and learned among the croats though 'tis true the hanauers raised an alarm at once, sallied forth on horseback, and for a while detained the croats and harassed them with skirmishing, yet could they get from them none of their booty; for being light troops, they escaped very cleverly, and took their way to büdingen, where they baited, and delivered to the burghers there the rich hanauers' sons to put to ransom, and there sold their stolen horses and other wares. from thence they decamped again before it was even fully night, let alone day again, and rode hard through the büdingen forest into the abbey-lands of fulda, and seized on the way all they could carry with them. for robbery and plunder hindered them not in the least in their swift march: like the devil, that can do mischief as he flies. and the same evening they arrived in the abbey-lands of hirschfeld, where they had their quarters, with great store of plunder. and this was divided; but me their colonel corpes took as his share. in the service of this master all appeared to me as unpleasing and wellnigh barbarous: the dainties of hanau had changed into coarse black bread and stringy beef, or by good luck a bit of stolen pork: wine and beer were now turned to water, and instead of a bed i must be content to lie by the horses in the straw. instead of that lute-playing which had delighted all men, now must i at times creep under the table like the other lads, howl like a dog, and suffer myself to be pricked with their spurs, which was for me but a poor jest. instead of my promenades at hanau, i must now ride on foraging parties, groom horses and clean out their stalls. now this same foraging is neither more nor less than attacking of villages (with great pains and labour: yea, often with danger to life and limb), and there threshing, grinding, baking, stealing, and taking all that can be found; harrying and spoiling the farmers, and shaming of their maids, their wives, and their daughters. and if the poor peasants did murmur, or were bold enough to rap a forager or two over the fingers, finding them at such work (and at that time were many such guests in hesse,) they were knocked on the head if they could be caught, or if not, their houses went up in smoke to heaven. now my master had no wife (for campaigners of his kidney be not wont to take ladies with them), no page, no chamberlain, no cook, but on the other hand a whole troop of grooms and boys which waited both on him and his horse; nor was he himself ashamed to saddle his own horse or give him a feed: he slept ever on straw or on the bare ground, and covered himself with a fur coat. so it came about that one could often see great fleas or lice walk upon his clothes, of which he was not ashamed at all, but would laugh if any one pocked one out. short hair he had, but a broad switzer's beard, which served his turn well, for he was wont to disguise himself as a peasant and so to go a-spying. yet though, as i have said, he kept no great household, yet was he by his own folk and others that knew him honoured, loved, and feared. never were we at rest, but now here, now there: now we attacked and now we were attacked: never for a moment were we idle in damaging the hessians' resources: nor on his part did melander[ ] leave us in peace: but cut off many a trooper and sent him prisoner to cassel. this restless life was not to my liking, and often i did wish myself back in hanau, yet in vain: my greatest torment was that i could not talk with the men, and must suffer myself to be kicked, plagued, beaten, and driven by each and all: and the chiefest pastime that my colonel had was that i should sing to him in german, and puff my cheeks like the other stable-lads, which 'tis true happened but seldom, yet then i got me such a shower of buffets that the red blood flowed, and i soon had enough. at last i began to do somewhat of cooking, and to keep my master's weapons clean, whereon he laid great stress: for i was as yet useless for foraging. and this answered so well that in the end i gained my master's favour, insomuch that he had a new fool's coat of calfskins made for me, with much greater asses' ears than i wore before. now as my master's palate was not delicate, i needed the less skill for my cookery: yet because i was too often without salt, grease or seasoning, i wearied of this employ also, and therefore devised day and night how i might most cleverly escape--and that the more because 'twas now springtime. so to accomplish this i undertook the work of clearing away the guts of sheep and oxen, with heaps of which our quarters were surrounded, so that they should no longer cause so foul a smell: and this the colonel approved. and being busied with this, i stayed outside altogether, and when it was dark slipped away to the nearest wood. _chap. xvi._: how simplicissimus found goodly spoils, and how he became a thievish brother of the woods yet to all appearance my condition grew worse and worse the further i went; yea, so grievous that i conceived i was born but for misfortune: for i was but a few miles distant from the croats when i was caught by highwaymen, which, without doubt, thought they had captured in me somewhat of value, for by reason of the dark night they could not see my fool's coat, and forthwith bade two of their number take me to their trysting-place in the forest. so when they had brought me thither, and 'twas still pitch-dark, one fellow would at once have money from me: to which end he laid aside his gauntlets and his fire-arms and began to search me, asking, "who art thou? hast thou money?" yet so soon as he was ware of my hairy clothing and the long asses' ears on my cap, which he took for horns, and at the same time perceived the shining sparks which the hides of beasts do commonly shew when they are stroked in the dark, he was so terrified that he shrank into himself. that did i presently mark: so before he could recover himself or devise aught, i stroked down my hide with both hands to such good purpose that it glittered as if i had been stuffed full of burning sulphur, and then i answered him in a terrible voice, "i am the devil, and i will break thy neck and thy fellow's too." which so terrified both that they fled through the thicket as swiftly as if the fires of hell were pursuing them; yea, though they dashed themselves against sticks and stones and trunks of trees, and yet more often tumbled, they were up again with all speed. so they went on till i could hear them no longer; while i laughed so loud that it echoed through the whole forest, which, without doubt, in that dark wilderness was horrible to hear. now when i would be gone i tripped over the musket; and that i took for myself, for already i had learned from the croats how to manage fire-arms: then as i walked on i came upon a knapsack which, like my coat, was made of calf-skin: that too i took up, and found that a cartridge-pouch, well stored with powder and shot and all appurtenance, hung below it. all this i hung on me, took the musket on my shoulder like a soldier, and hid myself not far off in a thicket, intending to sleep there awhile; but at daybreak came the whole crew to the spot, searching for the musket that was lost and the knapsack: so i pricked up mine ears like a fox and kept still as a mouse; and when they found nothing they mocked at those two that had fled before me. "shame," said they, "ye craven fools: shame on your very heart that ye could so suffer yourselves to be frighted and chased, and have your arms taken by a single man." yet one fellow swore the devil should take him if 'twere not the devil himself: his horns and his hairy hide he had well perceived; and the other waxed angry and said, "it may have been the devil or his dam, if i had but my knapsack back again." then one of them whom i took to be their captain answered him; and says he, "what thinkest thou the devil should do with thy knapsack and thy musket? i would wager my neck the rascal that ye so shamefully let go hath taken both with him." yet another took the contrary part, and said it might well happen that some countrymen had since passed that way who had found the things and taken them: and in the end all approved this, and 'twas believed by all the band they had had the devil himself in their hands, especially because the fellow that would search me in the darkness not only swore the same with horrid oaths, but also was able powerfully to describe and to magnify the rough and glittering skin and the two horns as certain signs of the devil's quality. nay, i do conceive that had i shewn myself again unawares the whole band would have run. so at last, when they had sought long enough and had found nothing, they went on their way again: but i opened the knapsack to make my breakfast thereof, and at the first trial i brought out a pouch in which were some ducats. and that i rejoiced thereat none need question, yet may the reader be assured that the knapsack pleased me yet more than this fine sum of money, since i found it well stored with provisions. and as such yellow-boys are far too sparsely strewn among common soldiers for them to take such with them on a raid, i judge that the fellow must have just snapped up these on that very excursion, and quickly whipped them into his knapsack that he might not be compelled to share them with the rest. thereupon i made a cheerful breakfast, and found too a merry little spring, at which i refreshed myself and counted my fine ducats. and if my life depended thereon, to say, in what land or place i then found myself, i could not tell. and first i stayed in the wood as long as my food lasted, with which i dealt right sparingly: then when my knapsack was empty, hunger drove me to the farmers' houses. and there i crept by night into cellar and kitchen and took what food i found and could carry off; and this i conveyed away to the wildest part of the wood. and so i led a hermit's life as before, save that i stole much and therefore prayed less, and had, moreover, no fixed abode, but wandered now here, now there. 'twas well for me indeed that it was now the beginning of summer, though i could kindle a fire with my musket whenever i would. _chap. xvii._: how simplicissimus was present at a dance of witches during these my wanderings there met me once and again in the woods different country-folk, who at all times fled from me. i know not if the cause was that they were by reason of the war turned so timid and were so hunted, and never left in peace in one place, or whether the highwaymen had spread abroad in the land the adventure they had had with me, so that all which saw me thereafter believed the evil one was of a truth prowling about in that part. but for this reason i must needs fear lest my provisions should fail and so i be brought to the uttermost misery; for then must i begin again to eat roots and herbs, to which i was no longer accustomed. as i pondered on this i heard two men cutting of wood, which rejoiced me mightily. so i followed the sound of the blows, and when i came in sight of the men i took a handful of ducats out of my pouch and, creeping nearer to them, shewed them the alluring gold and cried, "my masters, if ye will but wait for me i will give you this handful of gold." but as soon as they saw me and my gold, at once they took to their heels, and left their mallets and wedges together with their bag of bread and cheese; with this i filled my knapsack, and so betook myself back to the wood, doubting if in my life i should ever come to the company of men again. so after long pondering thereupon, i thought, "who knoweth what may chance to thee? thou hast money, and if thou comest in safety with it to honest folk, thou canst live on it a long while." so it came into my head to sew it up; and to that end i made, out of my asses' ears which made the folk so fly from me, two armlets, and companying my hanau ducats with those of the banditti, i packed all together into these armlets and bound them on mine arms above the elbow. and now, as i had thus secured my treasure, i attacked the farms again, and got from them what i needed and what i could snap up. and though i was but simple, yet i was sly enough never to come a second time to a place where i had stolen anything; and therefore was i very lucky in my thefts and was never caught pilfering. it fell out at the end of may, as i sought to replenish my store by my customary yet forbidden tricks, and to that end had crept into a farmyard, that i found my way into the kitchen, but soon perceived that there were people still awake (and here note that where dogs were i wisely stayed away); so i set the kitchen door, which opened into the yard, ajar, that if any danger threatened i could at once escape, and stayed still as a mouse till i might expect the people would go to bed. but meanwhile i took note of a crack that was in the kitchen-hatch that led to the living-room; thither i crept to see if the folk would not soon go to rest; but my hopes were deceived, for they had but now put on their clothes, and in place of a light there stood a sulphurous blue flame on a bench, by the light of which they anointed sticks, brooms, pitchforks, chairs, and benches, and on these flew out of the window one after another. at this i was horribly amazed, and felt great terror; yet, as being accustomed to greater horrors, and, moreover, in my whole life having never heard nor read of witches, i thought not much of this, and that chiefly because 'twas all so done in such stillness; but when all were gone i betook myself also to the living-room, and devising what i could take with me and where to find it, in such meditation sat me down straddle-wise upon a bench; whereon i had hardly sat down when i and the bench together flew straight out of the window, and left my gun and knapsack, which i had laid aside, as pay for that magical ointment. now my sitting down, my departure, and my descent were all in one moment, for i came, methought, in a trice to a great crowd of people; but it may be that from fear i took no count how long i took for this long journey. these folk were dancing of a wondrous dance, the like of which i saw never in my life, for they had taken hands and formed many rings within one another, with their backs turned to each other like the pictures of the three graces, so that all faced outwards. the inmost ring was of some seven or eight persons; the second of as many again: the third contained more than the first two put together, and so on, so that in the outermost ring there were over two hundred persons; and because one ring danced towards the right and the next towards the left, i could not see how many rings they formed, nor what was in the midst around which they danced. yet all looked monstrous strange, because all the heads wound in and out so comically. my bench that brought me alighted beside the minstrels which stood outside the rings all round the dancers, of which minstrels some had, instead of flutes, clarinets and shawms, nothing but adders, vipers and blind-worms, on which they blew right merrily: some had cats into whose breech they blew and fingered on the tail; which sounded like to bagpiper: others fiddled on horses' skulls as on the finest violins, and others played the harp upon a cow's skeleton such as lie in the slaughter-house yards: one was there, too, that had a bitch under his arm, on whose tail he fiddled and fingered on the teats; and throughout all the devils trumpeted with their noses till the whole wood resounded therewith: and when the dance was at an end, that whole hellish crew began to rave, to scream, to rage, to howl, to rant, to ramp, and to roar as they were all mad and lunatic. and now can any man think into what terror and fear i fell. in this tumult there came to me a fellow that had under his arm a monstrous toad, full as big as a kettledrum, whose guts were dragged out through its breech and stuffed into its mouth, which looked so filthy that i was fit to vomit at it. "lookye, simplicissimus," says he, "i know thou beest a good lute-player: let us hear a tune from thee." but i was so terrified (because the rogue called me by name) that i fell flat: and with that terror i grew dumb, and fancied i lay in an evil dream, and earnestly i prayed in my heart i might awake from it. now the fellow with the toad, whom i stared at all the time, went on thrusting his nose out and in like a turkey-cock, till at last it hit me on the breast, so that i was near choked. then in a wink 'twas all pitch-dark, and i so dismayed at the heart that i fell on the ground and crossed myself a good hundred times or more. _chap. xviii._: doth prove that no man can lay to simplicissimus' charge that he doth draw the long bow now since there be some, and indeed some learned folk among them, that believe not that there be witches and sorcerers, still less that they can fly from place to place in the air, therefore am i sure there will be some to say that here the good simplicissimus draws the long bow. with such folk i cannot argue; for since brag is become no longer an art, but nowadays wellnigh the commonest trade, i may not deny that i could practise this if i would; for an i could not, i were the veriest fool. but they that deny the witches' gallop to be true, let them but think of simon the magician, which was by the evil spirit raised aloft into the air, and at the prayer of st. peter fell again to earth. nicolas remigius, which was an honest, learned, and understanding man, who in the duchy of lorraine caused to be burned a good many more than a half-dozen of witches, tells us of john of hembach, that his mother (which same was a witch) in the sixteenth year of his age took him with her to their assembly, that he might play to them as they danced--for he had learned to play the fife. that to that end he mounted on a tree, piped to them and earnestly gazed upon the dancers (and that maybe because he marvelled so at it all). but at last, "god help us;" says he, "whence cometh all this mad and foolish folk?" and hardly had he said that word when down he fell from the tree, twisted his shoulder, and called for help. but there was nobody there but himself. when this was noised abroad, most held it for a fable, till a little after catherine prévost was arrested for witchcraft, who had been at the said dance: so she confessed all even as it had happened, save that she knew naught of the cry that hembach had uttered. majolus tells us of a servant that had been too common with his mistress, and of an adulterer that took his paramour's ointment-boxes and smeared himself with the same, and so both came to the witches' sabbath. so likewise they tell of a farm-servant that arose early to grease his waggon; but because he had taken the wrong pot of ointment in the dark, that waggon rose into the air and must be dragged down again. olaus magnus tells us of hading, king of denmark; how he, being driven from his kingdom by rebels, journeyed far over the sea through the air on the spirit of odin, which had turned himself to the shape of a horse. so do we know well enough, and too well, how wives and wenches in bohemia will fetch their paramours to them, on the backs of goats, by night and from a great distance. and what torquemada in his hexameron relateth of his schoolfellow may in his own words be read. so, too, ghirlandus speaketh of a nobleman which, when he marked that his wife anointed herself and thereafter flew out of the house, did once on a time compel her to take him with her to the sorcerers' assembly. and when they feasted there, and there was no salt, he demanded such, and having with great pains gotten it, did cry, "god be praised, here cometh the salt!" whereupon the lights went out and all vanished. so when now 'twas day he understood from the shepherds in that place that he was near to the town of benevento in the kingdom of naples, and therefore full five hundred miles from his home. and therefore, though he was rich, must he beg his way home, whither when he came he delated his wife for a witch before the magistrate, and she was burned. how doctor faust, too, and others, which were no enchanters, could journey through the air from one place to another is from his history sufficiently known. so i myself knew a wife and a maid (both dead at this time of writing, but the maid's father yet alive), which maid was once greasing of her mistress's shoes by the fire, and when she had finished one and set it by to grease the other, lo; the greased one flew up the chimney: which story, nevertheless, was hushed up. all this i have set down for this reason only, that men may believe that witches and wizards do in truth at certain seasons in their proper bodies journey to these their assemblies, and not to make any man to believe that i, as i have told you, went myself to such: for to me 'tis all one whether a man believe me or not; and he that will not believe may devise for himself another way for me to have come from the lands of fulda or hirschfeld (for i know not myself whither i had wandered in the woods) into the archbishopric of magdeburg, and that in so brief a space of time. _chap. xix._: how simplicissimus became a fool again as he had been a fool before so now i begin my history again with this: that i assure the reader that i lay on my belly till 'twas at least broad daylight; as not having the heart to stand up: therewithal i doubted whether the things i have told of were a dream or not; and though i was yet in great terror, yet was i bold enough at my waking, for i deemed i could be in no worse place than in the wild woods; and therein i had spent the most of my time since i was separated from my dad, and therefore was pretty well accustomed thereto. now it was about nine o'clock when there came foragers, which woke me up. and now for the first time i perceived i was in the open field. so they had me with them to certain windmills, and when they had ground their corn there, to the camp before magdeburg, where i fell to the share of a colonel of a foot-regiment, who asked me what was my story and what manner of master i had served. so i told him all to a nicety, and because i had no name for the croats, i did but describe their clothing and gave examples of their speech, and told how i escaped from them: yet of my ducats said i nought, and what i told of my journey through the air and of the witches' dance, that they all held to be imagination and folly, and that especially because in the rest of my discourse i seemed to talk wildly. meanwhile a crowd of folk gathered round me (for one fool makes a thousand), and among them was one that the year before had been made prisoner at hanau and there had taken service, yet afterwards had come back to the emperor's army: who, knowing me again, said at once, "hoho! 'tis the commandant's calf of hanau." thereupon the colonel questioned him further; but the fellow knew no more save that i could play the lute well, and that i had been captured outside the walls at hanau by the croats of colonel corpes' regiment, and, moreover, that the said commandant had been vexed at losing me; for i was a right clever fool. so then the colonel's wife sent to another colonel's wife that could play well upon the lute, and therefore always had one by her, and begged her for the loan of it: which, when it came, she handed to me with the command that i should play. but my view was they should first give me to eat; for an empty stomach accorded not well with a fat one, such as the lute had. so this was done, and when i had eaten my fill and drunk a good draught of zerbst beer, i let them hear what i could do both with my voice and with the lute: and therewithal i talked gibberish, all that first came into my head, so that i easily persuaded the folk to believe i was of the quality that my apparel represented. then the colonel asked me whither i would go; and i answering 'twas all one to me, we agreed thereupon that i should stay with him and be his page. yet would he know where my asses' ears had gone. "yea," said i to myself, "an thou knewest where they were: they would fit thee well enough." yet was i clever enough to say naught of their properties, for all my worldly goods lay in them. now in a brief space i was well known to all both in the emperor's and the elector's camp, but specially among the ladies, who would deck my hood, my sleeves, and my short-cut ears with ribbons of all colours, so that i verily believe that certain fops copied therefrom the fashion of to-day. but all the money that was given me by the officers, that i liberally gave away and spent all to the last farthing, drinking it away with jolly companions in beer of hamburg and zerbst, which liquors pleased me well: and besides this, in all places wheresoever i came there was plenty of chance of spunging. but when my colonel procured for me a lute of my own (for he trusted to have me ever with him), then i could no longer rove hither and thither in the two camps, but he appointed for me a governor who should look after me, and i to obey him. and this was a man after mine own heart, for he was quiet, discreet, learned, of sufficient conversation yet not too much, and (which was the chief matter), exceeding god-fearing, well read, and full of all arts and sciences. at night i must sleep in his tent, and by day i might not go out of his sight: he had once been a counsellor and minister of a prince, and indeed a rich man; but being by the swedes utterly ruined, his wife dead, and his only son unable to continue his studies for want of money, and therefore serving as a muster-roll clerk in the saxon army, he took service with this my colonel, and was content to serve as a lackey, to wait until the dangerous chances of war on the banks of the elbe should change and so the sun of his former happiness again shine upon him. _chap. xx._: is pretty long, and treats of playing with dice and what hangs thereby now because my governor was rather old than young, therefore could he not sleep all the night through: and that was the cause that he even in the first few weeks discovered my secret; namely, that i was no such fool as i gave out, of which he had before observed somewhat, and had conceived such a judgment from my face, for he was skilled in physiognomia. once i awoke at midnight, and having divers thoughts upon my life and its strange adventures, rose up, and by way of gratitude recounted all the benefits that god had done unto me, and all the dangers from which he had rescued me: then i lay down again with deep sighing and slept soundly till day. all this my governor heard, yet made as if he were sound asleep; and this happened several nights running, until he had fully convinced himself i had more understanding than many an older man who fancied himself to be somewhat. yet he spake thereof nought to me in our hut, because it had walls too thin, and because he for certain reasons would not have it that as yet (and before he was assured of my innocence) any one else should know this secret. once on a time i went to take the air outside the camp, and this he gladly allowed, because he had then the opportunity to come to look for me, and so the occasion to speak with me alone. so, as he wished, he found me in a lonely place, where indeed i was giving audience to my thoughts, and says he: "good and dear friend, 'tis because i seek for thy welfare that i rejoice to be able to speak with thee alone. i know thou art no fool as thou pretendest, and that thou hast no desire to continue in this miserable and despised state. if now thou holdest thy welfare dear and wilt trust to me as to a man of honour, and so canst tell me plainly the condition of thy fortunes, so will i for my part, whenever i can, be ready with word and deed to help thee out of this fool's coat." so thereupon i fell upon his neck, and so carried myself as he had been a prophet to release me from my fool's cap: and sitting both down upon the ground, i told him my whole story. then he examined my hands, and wondered both at the strange events which had befallen me and those which were to come: yet would in no wise counsel me to lay aside my fool's coat in haste, for he said that by means of palmistry he could see that my fate threatened me with imprisonment which should bring me danger of life and limb. so i thanked him for his good will and his counsel, and asked of god that he would reward him for his good faith, and of himself that he would be and ever remain my true friend and father. so we rose up and came to the gaming-place, where men tilt with the dice, and loudly they cursed with all the blood and thunder, wounds and damnation that they could lay their tongues to. the place was wellnigh as big as the old market at cologne, spread with cloaks and furnished with tables, and those full of gamesters: and every company had its four-cornered thieves' bones, on which they hazarded their luck; for share their money they must, and give it to one and take it from another. so likewise every cloak or table had its coupier (croupier i should have said, and might well have said[ ] "cooperer"), whose office 'twas to be judges and to see that none was cheated; they too lent the cloaks and tables and dice, and contrived so well to get their hire out of the winnings that they generally got the chief share: yet it bred them no advantage, for commonly they gamed it away again, or when it was best laid out, 'twas the sutler or the barber-surgeon that had it--for there were many broken heads to mend. at these fools one might well wonder, how they all thought to win, which was impossible, even if they had played at another's[ ] risk: and though all hoped for this, yet the cry was, the more players the more skill; for each thought on his own luck; and so it happened that some hit and some missed, some won and some lost. thereupon some cursed, some roared; some cheated and others were jockeyed--whereat the winners laughed and the losers gnashed their teeth: some sold their clothes and all they valued most, and others again won even that money from them: some wanted honest dice, and others, on the contrary part, would have false ones, and brought in such secretly, which again others threw away, broke in two, bit with their teeth, and tore the croupiers' cloaks. among the false dice were dutch ones, that one must cast with a good spin; for these had the sides, whereon the fives and sixes were, as sharp as the back of the wooden horse on which soldiers be punished: others were high german, to which a man must in casting give the bavarian swing. some were of stag's-horn, light above and heavy below. others were loaded with quicksilver or lead, and others, again, with split hairs, sponge, chaff, and charcoal: some had sharp corners, others had them pared quite away: some were long like logs and some broad like tortoises. all which kinds were made but for cheating: and what they were made for, that they did, whether they were thrown with a swing or trickled on to the board, and no coupling of them was of any avail; to say nothing of those that had two fives or two sixes or, on the other hand, two aces or two deuces. with these thieves' bones they stole, filched, and plundered each other's goods, which they themselves perchance had stolen, or at least with danger to life and limb, or other grievous trouble and labour, had won. so as i stood there and looked upon the gaming-place and the gamesters in their folly, my governor asked me how the thing pleased me. then answered i: "that men can so grievously curse god pleases me not: but for the rest, i leave it for what 'tis worth as a matter unknown to me, and of which i as yet understand nought." "know then," said my governor, "that this is the worst and vilest place in the whole camp, for here men seek one another's money and lose their own in doing so. and whoso doth but set a foot here, with intent to play, hath already broken the tenth commandment, which saith, 'thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods.'" and says he, "an thou play and win, specially by deceit and false dice, then thou transgressest the seventh and eighth commandments. yea, it may well happen that thou committest murder on him from whom thou hast won his money, as, for example, if his loss is so great that by reason of it he come into poverty and into utter need and recklessness, or else fall into other foul vices: nor will this plea help thee, that thou sayest, 'i did risk mine own and won honestly.' thou rogue, thou camest to the gaming-place with this intent, to grow rich through another's loss. and if thou lose, thou art not excused with the punishment of losing thine own, but, like the rich man in the parable, thou must answer it sorely to god that thou so uselessly hast squandered that which he lent thee for the support of thee and thine. whosoever goeth to the gaming-place to play, the same committeth himself to the danger of losing therein, not only his money, but his body and his life also; yea, what is most terrible of all, there can he lose his own soul. i tell thee this as news, my friend simplicissimus (because thou sayest gaming is unknown to thee), that thou mayest be on thy guard against it all thy life long." so i answered him: "dear sir," said i, "if gaming be so terrible and dangerous a thing, wherefore do our superiors allow it?" my governor answered: "i will not say 'twas because our officers themselves take part therein, but for this reason, that the soldiers will not--yea, cannot--do without it; for whosoever hath once given himself over to gaming, or whomsoever the habit or, rather, the devil of play hath seized upon, the same is by little and little (whether he win or lose) so set upon it that he can easier do without his natural sleep than that: as we see that some will rattle the dice the whole night through and will neglect the best of food and drink if they can but play--yea, even if they must go home shirtless. yet this gaming hath already been forbidden at divers times on pain of loss of life and limb, and at the command of headquarters hath been punished with an iron hand, through the means of provost-marshals, hangmen, and their satellites--openly and violently. yet 'twas all in vain; for the gamesters betook themselves to secret corners and behind hedges, won each other's money, quarrelled, and brake each others' necks thereupon: so that to prevent such murders and homicides, and specially because many would game away their arms and horse, yea, even their poor rations of food, therefore now 'tis not only publicly allowed, but this particular place is appointed therefore, that the mainguard may be at hand to prevent any harm that might happen: yet they cannot always hinder that one or the other fall not dead on the spot. and inasmuch as this gaming is the tormenting devil's own device, and bringeth him no small gain, therefore hath he ordained especial gaming-devils, that prowl around in the world and have naught else to do but to tempt men to play. to these divers wanton companions bind themselves by certain pacts and agreements, that the devil may suffer them to win: yet can a man among ten thousand gamesters scarce find a rich one: nay, on the contrary part, they are poor and needy because their winnings are lightly esteemed, and therefore either gambled away again or wasted in vile pleasures. hence is derived that true yet sad saying, 'the devil never leaveth the gamester, yet leaveth him ever poor,' for he taketh from them goods, courage, and honour, and then quitteth them no more (except god's infinite mercy save them) till he have made an end of their souls. yea, and should there be a gamester of so merry a heart by nature and so sprightly that by no ill-luck or loss he can be brought to despair, to recklessness, and all the accursed sins that spring therefrom, then doth the sly and cunning fiend suffer him to win mightily, that in the end he may, by waste and pride and gluttony and drunkenness and loose life, bring him into his net." thereat i crossed myself and blessed myself to think that in a christian army such things should be allowed which the devil himself invented, and specially because visibly and palpably such damage and harm for this world and the next followed therefrom. yet my governor said all that he had told me was as yet nought; for he who would undertake to describe all the harm that came from gaming would begin an impossible task. for as men say, so soon as the hazard is thrown 'tis now in the devil's hands, so should i fancy that with every die, as it rolled from the player's hand upon cloak or table, there ran a little devil, to guide it and make it shew as many points as his master's interest demanded. and further, i should reflect that 'twas not for nought that the devil entered into the game so heartily, but doubtless because he contrived to make fine gains out of it himself. "and with that note thou further," says he, "that just as there are wont to stand by the gaming-place certain chafferers and jews, which buy from the players at cheap rate what they have won, as rings, apparel or jewels, or are ready to change such for money for them to game away, so also there be devils walking to and fro, that they may arouse and foster thoughts that may destroy the souls in the gamesters that have ceased to play, be they winners or losers. for the winners the devil will build terrible castles in the air; but into them that have lost, whose spirit is already quite distraught and therefore the more apt to receive his harmful counsels, he instilleth, doubtless, such thoughts and designs as can but tend to their eternal ruin. yea, i assure thee, simplicissimus, i am of the mind to write a book hereupon so soon as i can come in peace to my own again. and in that i will describe first the loss of precious time, which is squandered to no purpose in gaming, and no less the fearful curses with which men blaspheme god over their gaming-tables. then will i likewise recount the taunts with which men provoke one another, and will adduce many fearful examples and stories which have happened in, during, and after play: and there will i not forget the duels and homicides that have happened by reason of gaming. yea, i will portray in their true colours set before men's eyes the greed, the rage, the envy, the jealousy, the falsehood, the deceit, the covetousness, the thievery, and, in a word all the senseless follies both of dicers and of card-players; that they who read this book but once, may conceive such a horror of gaming as if they had drunk sows' milk (which folk are wont to give to gamesters without their knowledge, to cure their madness). so will i shew to all christendom that the dear god is more blasphemed by a single regiment of gamesters than by a whole army with their curses." and this project i praised, and wished him the opportunity to carry it out. _chap. xxi._: is somewhat shorter and more entertaining than the last now my governor grew more and more kindly disposed to me, and i to him, yet kept we our friendship very secret: 'tis true i acted still as a fool, yet i played no bawdy tricks or buffooneries, so that my carriage and conduct were indeed simple enough yet rather witty than witless. my colonel, who had a mighty liking for the chase, took me with him once when he went out to catch partridges with the draw-net, which invention pleased me hugely. but because the dog we had was so hot that he would spring for the birds before we could pull the strings, and so we could catch but little, therefore i counselled the colonel to couple the bitch with a falcon or an osprey (as men do with horses and asses when they would have mules), that the young puppies might have wings, and so could with them catch the birds in the air. i proposed also, since it went right sleepily with the conquest of magdeburg, which we then besieged, to make ready a long rope as thick as a wine-cask, and encompassing the whole town therewith, to harness thereto all the men and all the cattle in the two camps, and so in one day pull the whole city head over heels. of such foolish quips and fantasies i devised every day an abundance, for 'twas my trade, and none ever found my workshop empty. and for this my master's secretary, which was an evil customer and a hardened rogue, gave me matter enough, whereby i was kept on the road which fools be wont to walk: for whatsoever this mocker told me, that i not only believed myself but told it to others, whenas i conversed with them, and the discourse turned on that subject. so when i asked him once what our regimental chaplain was, since he was distinguished from other folk by his apparel, "that," says he, "is master _dicis et non facis_, which is, being interpreted into german, a fellow that gives wives to others and takes none himself. he is the bitter enemy of thieves because they say not what they do, but he doth not what he says: likewise the thieves love him not because they be commonly hanged even then when their acquaintance with him is at its best." so when i afterwards addressed the good priest by that name, he was laughed at and i was held to be a rogue as well as a fool, and at his request well basted. further, the secretary persuaded me they had pulled down and set on fire all the houses behind the walls of prague, that the sparks and ashes might sow all over the world the seeds of evil weeds: so, too, he said that among soldiers no brave heroes and hearty fighters ever went to heaven, but only simple creatures, malingerers, and the like, that were content with their pay: likewise no elegant a la mode cavaliers, and sprightly ladies, but only patient jobs, henpecked husbands, tedious monks, melancholy parsons, devout women, and all manner of outcasts which in this world are good neither to bake nor to boil, and young children. he told me too a lying story of how hosts were called innkeepers only because in their business they endeavoured to keep in with both god and the devil. and of war he told me that at times golden bullets were used, and the more precious such were, the more damage they did. "yea," said he, "and a whole army with artillery, ammunition, and baggage-train can be so led by a golden chain." further, he persuaded me that of women more than half wore breeches, though one could not see them, and that many, though they were no enchantresses and no goddesses as was diana, yet could conjure bigger horns on to their husbands' heads than ever actaeon wore. in all which i believed him: so great a fool was i. on the other hand, my governor, when he was alone with me, entertained me with far different discourse. moreover, he brought me to know his son, who, as before mentioned, was a muster-clerk in the saxon army, and was a man of far different quality to my colonel's secretary: for which reason my colonel not only liked him well, but thought to get him from his captain and make him his regimental secretary, on which post his own secretary before mentioned had set his mind also. with this muster-clerk, whose name, like his father's, was ulrich herzbruder, i struck up such a friendship that we swore eternal brotherhood, in virtue of which we would never desert each other in weal or woe, in joy or sorrow; and because this was without his father's knowledge, therefore we held more stoutly and stiffly to our vow. by this was it made our chiefest care how i might be honourably freed from my fool's coat, and how we might honestly serve one another; all which however the old herzbruder, whom i honoured and looked to as my father, approved not, but said in so many words that if i was in haste to change my estate, such change would bring me grievous imprisonment and great danger to life and limb. and because he foretold for himself also and his son a great disgrace close at hand, he deemed, therefore, that he had reason to act more prudently and warily than to interfere in the affairs of a person whose great approaching danger he could foresee: for he was fearful he might be a sharer in my future ill luck if i declared myself, because he had long ago found out my secret and knew me inside and out, yet he never revealed my true condition to the colonel. and soon after i perceived yet better that my colonel's secretary envied my new brother desperately, as thinking he might be raised over his head to the post of regimental secretary; for i saw how at times he fretted, how ill will preyed upon him, and how he was always sighing and in deep thought whenever he looked upon the old or the young herzbruder. therefrom i judged he was making of calculations how he might trip and throw him. so i told to my brother, both from my faithful love to him and also as my certain duty, what i suspected, that he might a little be on his guard against this judas. but he did but take it with a shrug, as being more than enough superior to the secretary both with sword and pen, and besides enjoying the colonel's great favour and grace. _chap. xxii._: a rascally trick to step into another man's shoes 'tis commonly the custom in war to make provosts of old tried soldiers, and so it came about that we had in our regiment such a one, and to boot such a perfected rogue and villain that it might well be said of him he had seen enough and more than enough. for he was a fully qualified sorcerer, necromancer and wizard, and in his own person not only as wound-proof as steel, but could make others wound-proof also, yea, and conjure whole squadrons of cavalry into the field: his countenance was exactly like what our painters and poets would have saturn to be, save that he had neither stilts nor scythe. and though the poor soldier prisoners that came into his merciless hands, held themselves the more unlucky because of this his character, and his ever-abiding presence, yet were there folk that gladly consorted with this spoil-sport, specially oliver, our secretary. and the more his envy of young herzbruder increased--who was ever of a lively humour--the thicker grew the intimacy between him and the provost: whence i could easily calculate that the conjunction of saturn and mercury boded no good to the honest herzbruder. just then my colonel's lady was rejoiced at the coming of a young son, and the christening feast spread in wellnigh princely fashion: at which young herzbruder was brought to wait at table. which, when he of his courtesy willingly did, he gave the longed-for opportunity to oliver to bring into the world the piece of roguery of which he had long been in labour. for when all was over my colonel's great silver-gilt cup was missing; and this loss he made the more ado about because 'twas still there after all stranger guests had departed: 'tis true a page said he had last seen it in oliver's hands, but would not swear it. upon that the provost was fetched to give his counsel in the matter, and 'twas said aside to him that if he by his arts could discover the thief, they would so carry the matter that that thief should be known to none save the colonel: for officers of his own regiment had been present whom, even if one of them had forgotten himself in such a matter, he would not willingly bring to shame. so as we all knew ourselves to be innocent, we came merrily enough into the colonel's great tent, and there the sorcerer took charge of the matter. at that each looked on his neighbour, and desired to know how 'twould end and whence the lost cup would reappear. and no sooner had the rogue mumbled some words than there sprang out of each man's breeches, sleeves, boots and pockets, and all other openings in their clothes, one, two, three, or more young puppies. and these sniffed round and round in the tent, and pretty beasts they were, of all manner of colours, and each with some special ornament, so that 'twas a right merry sight. as to me, my tight croat breeches were so full of puppies that i must pull them off, and because my shirt had long before rotted away in the forest, there i must stand naked. last of all one sprang out of young herzbruder's pocket, the nimblest of all, and had on golden a collar. this one swallowed all the other puppies, though there were so many a-sprawling in the tent that one could not put his foot down by reason of them. and when it had destroyed all, it became smaller and smaller and the golden collar larger, till at last it turned into my colonel's cup. thereupon not only the colonel but all that were present must perforce believe that none other but young herzbruder could have stolen the cup: so said the colonel to him: "lookye, unthankful guest, have i deserved this, with my kindnesses to thee, this theft, which i had never believed of thee? for see: i had intended to-morrow to make thee my secretary; but thou hast this very day deserved rather that i should have thee hanged; and that i would forthwith have done had i not had a care of thy honourable and ancient father. now quick;" said he, "out of my camp, and so long as thou livest let me not see thee more." so poor ulrich would defend himself: yet would none listen to him, for his offence was plain: and when he departed, good old herzbruder must needs fall in a swoon; and there must all come to succour him, and the colonel himself to comfort him, which said, "a pious father was not to answer for this sinful son." thus, by the help of the devil did oliver attain to that whereto he had long hoped to come, but could not in any honourable fashion do so. _chap. xxiii._: how ulrich herzbruder sold himself for a hundred ducats now as soon as young herzbruder's captain heard this story he took from him his office and made a pikeman of him; from which time forward he was so despised that any dog might bark at him, and he himself wished for death; and his father was so vexed at the thing that he fell into a sore sickness and looked to die. and whereas he had himself prophesied that on the twenty-sixth day of july he should run risk of life and limb (which day was now close at hand), therefore he begged of the colonel that his son might come to him once more, that he might talk with him of inheritance and declare his last will. at this meeting i was not shut out, but made the third party in their grief. then i saw that the son needed no defence as far as his father was concerned, who knew his ways and his good upbringing, and therefore was assured of his innocence. he, as a wise, understanding, and deep-witted man, judged easily from the circumstances that oliver had laid this trap for his son through the provost: but what could he do against a sorcerer, from whom he had worse to expect if he attempted any revenge? besides, he looked but for death, yet could not die content because he must leave his son in such disgrace: in which plight the son desired not to live, but rather wished he might die before his father. and truly the grief of these two was so piteous to behold that i from my heart must weep. at last 'twas their common resolve to commit their cause to god in patience, and the son was to devise ways and means to be quit of his regiment, and seek his fortune elsewhere: but when they examined the matter, they had no money with which he might buy himself out of the service; and while they considered and lamented the miserable state in which their poverty kept them fast, and cut off all hope of improving of their present condition, i then first remembered my ducats that i had sewn up in my ass's ears, and so asked how much money they wanted in their need. so young herzbruder answered, "if there came one and brought us a hundred thalers, i could trust to be free from all my troubles." i answered him, "brother, if that will help thee, have a good heart; for i can give thee a hundred ducats." "alas, brother," says he, "what is this thou sayest? beest thou in truth a fool, or so wanton that thou makest jests upon us in our sore affliction?" "nay, nay," said i, "i will provide the money." so i stripped off my coat and took one of the asses' ears from my arm, and opened it and bade him to count out a hundred ducats and take them: the rest i kept and said, "herewith will i lend thy sick father if he need it." thereupon they both fell on my neck and kissed me, and knew not for very joy what they did; then they would give me an acknowledgment and therein assure me i should be the old herzbruder's co-heir together with his son, or that, if god should help them to their own again, they would return me the same with interest and with great thanks: of all which i would have nothing, but only commended myself to their perpetual friendship. after that, young herzbruder would have sworn to be revenged on oliver or to die. but his father forbade it, and prophesied that he that should slay oliver would meet his end at the hands of me, simplicissimus. "yet," said he, "i am well assured that ye two will never slay each other; for neither of you shall perish in fight." thereafter he pressed upon us that we should swear on oath to love one another till death and stand by each other in all straits. but young herzbruder bought his freedom for thirty-six thalers (for which his captain gave him an honourable discharge), and betook himself with the rest of the money, a good opportunity offering, to hamburg, and there equipped himself with two horses and enlisted in the swedish army as a volunteer trooper, commending his father to me in the meanwhile. _chap. xxiv._: how two prophecies were fulfilled at once now none of my colonel's people shewed himself better fitted to wait on old herzbruder in his sickness than i: and inasmuch as the sick man was also more than content with me, this office was entrusted to me by the colonel's wife, who shewed him much kindness; and by reason of good nursing, and being relieved in respect of his son, he grew better from day to day, so that before july the twenty-sixth he was almost restored to full health. yet would he stay in bed and give himself out to be sick till the said day, which he plainly dreaded, should be past. meanwhile all manner of officers from both armies came to visit him, to know their future fortune, bad or good; for because he was a good calculator and caster of horoscopes, and besides that an excellent physiognomist and palmist, his prophecies seldom failed: yea, he named the very day on which the battle of wittstock afterwards befel, since many came to him to whom he foretold a violent death on that day. my colonel's wife he assured she would end her lying-in in the camp, for before her six weeks were ended magdeburg would not be surrendered; and to the traitorous oliver, who was ever troublesome with his visits, he foretold that he must die a violent death, and that i should avenge that death, happen it when it would, and slay his murderer: for which cause oliver thereafter held me in high esteem. but to me myself he described the whole course of my life to come as particularly as if it were already ended and he had been by my side throughout; which at the time i esteemed but lightly, yet afterwards remembered many things which he had beforetime told me of, when they had already happened or had turned out true: but most of all did he warn me to beware of water, for he feared i might find my destruction therein. when now the twenty-sixth of july came, he charged me, and also the orderly whom the colonel at his desire had appointed him for that day, most straitly, we should suffer no one to enter the tent: there he lay and prayed without ceasing: but as 'twas near to afternoon there came a lieutenant riding from the cavalry quarters and asking for the colonel's master of the horse. so he was directed to us and forthwith by us denied entrance: yet would he not be denied, but begged the orderly (with promises intermixed) to admit him to see the master of the horse, as one with whom he must that very evening talk. when that availed not, he began to curse, to talk of blood and thunder, and to say he had many times ridden over to see the old man and had never found him: now that he had found him at home, should he not have the honour of speaking a single word with him? so he dismounted, and nothing could prevent him from unfastening the tent himself; and as he did that i bit his hand, and got for my pains a hearty buffet. so as soon as he saw mine old friend, "i ask his honour's pardon," says he, "for the freedom i have taken, to speak a word with him." "tis well," says herzbruder, "wherein can i pleasure his honour?" "only in this," says the lieutenant, "that i could beg of his honour that he would condescend upon the casting of my nativity." then the old man answered: "i hope the honourable gentleman will forgive me that i cannot, by reason of my sickness, do his pleasure herein: for whereas this task needs much reckoning, my poor head cannot accomplish it; but if he will be content to wait till to-morrow, i hope to give him full satisfaction." "very well," says the lieutenant, "but in the meantime let your honour tell my fortune by my hand." "sir," said old herzbruder, "that art is uncertain and deceiving; and so i beg your worship to spare me in that matter: tomorrow i will do all that your worship asks of me." yet the lieutenant could not be so put off, but he goes to the bed, holds his hand before the old man's eyes, and says he, "good sir, i beg but for a couple of words concerning my life's end, with the assurance that if they be evil i will accept the saying as a warning from god to order my life better; and so for god's sake i beg you not to conceal the truth." then the honest old man answered him in a word, and says he, "'tis well: then let the gentleman be on his guard, lest he be hanged before an hour be past." "what, thou old rogue," quoth the lieutenant, which was as drunk as a fly, "durst thou hold such language to a gentleman?" and drew his sword and stabbed my good old friend to death as he lay in his bed. the orderly and i cried "murder," so that all ran to arms: but the lieutenant was so speedy in his departure that without doubt he would have escaped, but that the elector of saxony with his staff at that very moment rode up, and had him arrested. so when he understood the business he turned to count hatzfeld, our general, and all he said was this: "'twould be bad discipline in an imperial camp that even a sick man in his bed were not safe from murderers." that was a sharp sentence, and enough to cost the lieutenant his life: for forthwith our general caused him to be hanged by his precious neck till he was dead. _chap. xxv._: how simplicissimus was transformed from a boy into a girl and fell into divers adventures of love from this veracious history it may be seen that all prophecies are not to be despised, as some foolish folk despise them, that will believe nothing. and so can any one conclude from this that it is hard for any man to avoid his predestined end, whether his mishap be predicted to him long before or shortly before by such prophecies as i have spoken of. and to the question, whether 'tis necessy, or helpful, and good for a man to have his fortune foretold and his nativity cast, i answer only this, that old herzbruder told me much that i often wished and still wish he had told me nothing of at all: for the misfortunes which he foretold i have never been able to shun, and those that still await me do turn my hair grey, and that to no purpose, because it matters not whether i torment myself or not: they will happen to me as did the rest. but as to strokes of good luck that are prophesied to any man, of them i hold that they be ever deceitful, or at least be not so fully accomplished as the unlucky prophecies. for how did it help me that old herzbruder swore by all that was holy i was born and bred of noble parents, since i knew of none but my dad and my mammy, which were but common peasants in the spessart? in like manner, how did it help wallenstein, the duke of friedland, that 'twas prophesied to him he should once be crowned king with stringed music thereto? doth not all the world know how he was lulled to his ruin at eger? others may worry their brains over such questions: but i must to my story. so when i had lost my two herzbruders in the manner before described, i took a disgust at the whole camp before magdeburg, which otherwise i had been wont to call a town of flax and straw with earthen walls. for now i was as tired of mine office of a fool as i had had to eat it up with iron spoons: this only i was resolved on: to suffer no man to fool me more, but to be rid of my jester's garb should it cost me life and limb. and that design i carried out but scurvily, for otherwise i had no opportunity. for oliver the secretary, which after the old herzbruder's death was appointed to be my governor, often gave me permission to ride with the servants a-foraging: so as we came once on a time to a great village, wherein was plunder very fit for the troopers' purpose, and as each went to and fro into the houses to find what could be carried off, i stole away, and searched to find some old peasant's clothing for which i could exchange my fool's cap: yet i found not what i desired but must be content with a woman's clothing: that i put on, seeing myself alone, and threw mine own away into a corner, imagining now nothing else but that i was delivered from all mine afflictions. in this dress i walked across the street, where were certain officers' wives, and made such mincing steps as perhaps achilles did when his mother brought him disguised as a maiden to consort with lycomedes his daughter: yet was i hardly outside the house when some foragers caught sight of me, and taught me to run faster: for when they cried "halt, halt;" i ran the quicker, and before they could overtake me i came to the said officers' ladies, and falling on my knees before them, besought them, in the name of all womanly honour and virtue, they should protect me from those rascals. and this my prayer not only found a good reception, but i was hired by the wife of a captain of horse, whom i served until magdeburg and the fort at werben and havelberg and perleberg were all taken by our people. the captain's wife was no baby, but yet young, and came so to dote on my smooth face and straight limbs that at length, after long trouble and vain circumlocutions, she gave me to understand in all too plain german where the shoe pinched. but at that time i was far too conscientious, and pretended i understood not, nor would i show any outward indication by which any man might judge me to be aught but a virtuous maiden. now the captain and his servant lay sick in that same hospital, so he bade his wife to have me better clothed that she might not be put to shame by my miserable peasant's kirtle. so that she did and more than she was bidden; for she dressed me up like a french doll, and that did but fan the fire wherewith all three were a-burning: yea, and it waxed so that master and man begged of me that which i could not grant to them, and that which i refused to the lady, though with all manner of courtesy. at last the captain determined to take an opportunity to get by force from me that which 'twas impossible he should have: but that his wife marked, and being in hopes to overcome my resistance in the end, blocked all the ways and laid all manner of obstacles in the path, so that he thought he must in the end go mad or lunatick. once on a time when my master and mistress were asleep, the servant came to the carriage in which i had to sleep every night, bemoaned his love for me with hot tears, and begged most solemnly for grace and mercy. but i shewed myself harder than any stone, and gave him to understand i would keep my chastity till i was married. then he offered me marriage a thousand times over, yet all he could get from me was an assurance 'twas impossible for me to marry him. whereupon he became desperate or pretended it, and drawing his sword, set the point at his breast and the hilt against the carriage, and acted just as if he would stab himself. so i thought, the devil is a rogue, and therefore spoke him fair and comforted him, saying i would next morning give him a certain answer: with that he was content and went to bed, but i stayed awake the longer because i reflected on my strange condition: for i could see that in the end my trick must be discovered, for the captain's wife became more and more importunate with her enticements, the captain more impudent in his designs, and the servant more desperate in his constant love: and out of such a labyrinth i could see no escape. yet if the lady left me in peace, the captain tormented me, and when i had peace from both of them at night, then the servant beset me, so that my women's clothes were worse to wear than my fool's cap. then indeed (but far too late) i thought of the departed herzbruder's prophecy and warning, and could imagine nothing else but that i was already fast in the prison he spoke of and in danger of life and limb. for the woman's apparel kept me imprisoned, since i could not get out of it, and the captain would have handled me roughly if he had once found out who i was, and had caught me at the toilet with his fair wife. what should i do? i resolved at length the same night to reveal myself to the servant as soon as 'twas day, for i thought, "his desires will then cease, and if thou art free with thy ducats to him he will help thee to man's clothes again and so out of all thy straits." which was all well devised enough if luck would have had it so: but that was against me. for my friend hans took day to begin just after midnight, and came to get his "yes" from me, and began to hammer on the carriage-cover even then when i was soundest asleep, calling out a little too loud, "sabina, sabina, oh my beloved, rise up and keep your promise to me," and so waked the captain before me, who had his tent close by the carriage. and now he saw green and yellow before his eyes, for jealousy had already got a hold of him: yet he came not out to disturb us, but only got up, to see how the thing would end. at last the servant woke me with his importunities, and would force me either to come out of the carriage to him or to let him in to me, but i rebuked him and asked did he take me for a whore? my promise of yesterday was on condition of marriage, without which he should have nought to do with me. he answered i must in any case rise, for it began to grow light, to prepare the food for the family in good time: then he would fetch wood and water and light the fire for me. "well," said i, "if thou wilt do that i can sleep the longer: only go away and i will soon follow." yet as the fool would not give over, i got up, more to do my work than to pleasure him, for methought his desperate madness of yesterday had left him. i should say that i would pass pretty well for a maid-servant in the field, for with the croats i had learned how to boil, bake, and wash: as for spinning, soldiers' wives do it not on a campaign. all other women's work which i could not do, such as brushing and braiding hair, my mistress gladly forgave me, for she knew well i had never learned it. but as i came out of the coach with my sleeves turned up, my hans was so inflamed by the sight of my white arms that he could not refrain himself, but must kiss me; and i not greatly resisting that, the captain, before whose eyes this took place, could bear it no longer, but sprang with drawn sword out of the tent to give my poor lover a thrust: but he ran off and forgot to come back; so says the captain to me, "thou whore in grain," says he, "i will teach thee ..." and more he could not say for very rage, but struck at me as if he were mad. but i beginning to cry out, he must needs stop lest he should alarm the camp: for both armies, saxon and imperialist, lay close together expecting the approach of the swedes under banér. _chap. xxvi._: how he was imprisoned for a traitor and enchanter as soon as it was day my master handed me over to the horse-boys, even as both armies were striking their tents: these were a pack of rascals, and therefore was the baiting which i must endure the greater and more dreadful: for they hastened with me to a thicket the better to satisfy their bestial desires, as is the custom of these devils' children when a woman is given over to them: and there followed them many fellows looking on at their scurvy tricks, and among them my hans, who let me not out of his sight, and when he saw 'twould go ill with me would rescue me by force, even should it cost him his head: who found backers enough when he said i was his betrothed wife; and they, shewing pity for him and me, were ready to help. but that the boys, who thought they had the better right to me, and would not let such a good prize go, would not have, and went about to repel force with force. so blows beginning to be dealt on both sides, the crowd and the noise became greater and greater till it seemed almost like a tournament in which each did his best for a fair lady's sake. all this terrible hubbub drew the provost-general to the spot, who came even then when my clothing had been torn from my body and 'twas plain that i was no woman: his coming made all quiet as mice, for he was feared far more than the devil himself; and those that had been at fisticuffs scattered. but he briefly inquired of the matter, and whereas i hoped he would save me, on the contrary he arrested me, because it was a strange and suspicious thing for a man to be found in an army in women's clothes. accordingly, he and his men walked off with me to the regiments (which were all afoot and ready to march), with intent to deliver me to the judge-advocate-general, or quartermaster-general: but when we were about to pass my colonel's regiment, i was known and accosted and furnished by my colonel with some poor clothes, and so given in custody to our old provost, who put me in irons hand and foot. it was mighty hard work for me so to march in fetters, and the old curmudgeon would have properly plagued me had not the secretary oliver paid for me; for i would not let my ducats, which i had thus far kept, see the light, for i should at the same time have lost them and also have fallen into greater danger. the said oliver informed me the same evening why i was kept in such close custody, and the regimental sheriff received orders at once to examine me, that my deposition might the sooner be laid before the judge-advocate-general, for they counted me not only for a spy, but also for one that could use witchcraft; for shortly after i left my colonel certain witches were burnt who confessed before their death that they had seen me at their general assembly, when they met together to dry up the elbe, that magdeburg might be taken the sooner. so the points on which i was to give an answer were these. ( ) whether i had not been a student, or at least could read and write? ( ) why i had come to the camp at magdeburg disguised as a fool, whereas in the captain's service i had been as sane as i was now? ( ) why i had disguised myself in women's apparel? ( ) whether i had not been at the witches' dance with other sorcerers? ( ) where i was born and who my parents were? ( ) where i had sojourned before i came to the camp before magdeburg? and ( ) where and to what end i had learned women's work such as washing, baking, cooking, and also lute-playing? thereupon i would have told my whole story, that the circumstances of my strange adventures might explain all; but the judge was not curious, only weary and peevish after his long march: so he desired only a round answer to each question; and that i answered in the following words, out of which no one could yet learn aught that was exact or precise--as thus: ( ) i had not been a student, but could read and write german. ( ) i had been forced to wear a fool's coat because i had no other. ( ) because i was weary of the fool's coat and could come at no men's clothes. ( ) i answered yes; but had gone against my will and knew naught of witchcraft. ( ) i was born in the spessart and my parents were peasants. ( ) with the governor of hanau and with a colonel of croats, corpes by name. ( ) among the croats i had been forced against my will to learn cooking and the like: but lute-playing at hanau because i had a liking thereto. so when my deposition was written out, "how canst thou deny," says he, "and say thou hast not studied, seeing that when thou didst pass for a fool, and the priest in the mass said 'domine non sum dignus,' thou didst answer in latin that he need not say that, for all knew it." "sir," said i, "others taught me that and persuaded me 'twas a prayer that one must use at mass, when our chaplain was saying it." "yes, yes," said he, "i see thou art the very kind of fellow whose tongue must be loosed by the torture." whereat i thought, "god help thee if thy tongue follow thy foolish head!" early next morning came orders from the judge-advocate-general to our provost that he should keep me well in charge; for he was minded as soon as the armies halted to examine me himself: in which case i must without doubt to the torture, had not god ordered it otherwise. in my bonds i thought ever of my pastor at hanau and old herzbruder that was dead, how both had foretold how it would fare with me if i were rid of my fool's coat again. _chap. xxvii._: how the provost fared in the battle of wittstock the same evening, and when we had hardly as yet pitched our tents, i was brought to the judge-advocate-general, who had before him my deposition and also writing materials; and he began to examine me more closely. but i, on the other part, told my story even as it had happened to me, yet was not believed, nor could the judge be sure whether he had a fool or a hard-bitten knave before him, so pat did question and answer fall and so strange was the whole history. he bade me take a pen and write, to see what i could do, and moreover to see if my handwriting was known, or if it had any marks in it that a man could recognise. i took pen and paper as handily as one that had been daily used to employ the same, and asked what i should write. the judge-advocate-general, who was perhaps vexed because my examination had prolonged itself far into the night, answered me thus: "what!" says he, "write down 'thy mother the whore.'" those words i did write down, and when they were read out they did but make my case worse,[ ] for the advocate-general said he was now well assured that i was a rogue. then he asked the provost, had they searched me and found any writings upon me? the provost answered him no; for how could they search a man that had been brought to them naked? but it availed nought! the provost must search me in the presence of all, and as he did that diligently (o ill-luck!) there he found my two asses' ears with the ducats in them bound round my arms. then said they: "what need we any further witness? this traitor hath without doubt undertaken some great plot, for why else should any honest man disguise himself in a fool's raiment, or a man conceal himself in women's garments? and how could any suppose that a man would carry on him so great a quantity of money, unless it were that he intended to do some great deed therewith?" for said they, did he not himself confess he had learned lute-playing under the cunningest soldier in the world, the commandant of hanau? "gentlemen," says they, "what think you he did not learn among those sharp-witted hessians? the shortest way is to have him to the torture and then to the stake: seeing he hath in any case been in the company of sorcerers and therefore deserveth no better." how i felt at that time any man can judge for himself; for i knew i was innocent and had strong trust in god: yet i could see my danger and lamented the loss of my fair ducats, which the judge-advocate-general had put in his own pocket. but before they could proceed to extremities with me banér's folk fell upon ours: at the first the two armies fought for the best position, and then secondly for the heavy artillery, which our people lost forthwith. our provost kept pretty far behind the line of battle with his helpers and his prisoners, yet were we so close to our brigade that we could tell each man by his clothing from behind; and when a swedish squadron attacked ours we were in danger of our lives as much as the fighters, for in a moment the air was so full of singing bullets that it seemed a volley had been fired in our honour. at that the timid ducked their heads, as they would have crept into themselves: but they that had courage and had been present at such sport before let the balls pass over their heads quite unconcerned. in the fighting itself every man sought to prevent his own death with the cutting down of the nearest that encountered him: and the terrible noise of the guns, the rattle of the harness, the crash of the pikes, and the cries both of the wounded and the attackers made up, together with the trumpets, drums and fifes, a horrible music. there could one see nought but thick smoke and dust, which seemed as it would conceal the fearful sight of the wounded and dead: in the midst of it could be heard the pitiful outcries of the dying and the cheers of them that were yet full of spirit: the very horses seemed as if they were more and more vigorous to defend their masters, so furious did they shew themselves in the performance of that duty which they were compelled to do. some of them one could see falling dead under their masters, full of wounds which they had undeservedly received for the reward of their faithful services: others for the same cause fell upon their riders, and thus in their death had the honour of being borne by those they had in life been forced to bear: others, again, being rid of the valiant burden that had guided them, fled from mankind in their fury and madness, and sought again their first freedom in the open field. the earth, whose custom it is to cover the dead was there itself covered with them, and those variously distinguished: for here lay heads that had lost their natural owners, and there bodies that lacked their heads: some had their bowels hanging out in most ghastly and pitiful fashion, and others had their heads cleft and their brains scattered: there one could see how lifeless bodies were deprived of their blood while the living were covered with the blood of others; here lay arms shot off, on which the fingers still moved, as if they would yet be fighting; and elsewhere rascals were in full flight that had shed no drop of blood: there lay severed legs, which though delivered from the burden of the body, yet were far heavier than they had been before: there could one see crippled soldiers begging for death, and on the contrary others beseeching quarter and the sparing of their lives. in a word, 'twas naught but a miserable and pitiful sight. the swedish conquerors drove our people from their position, which they had defended with such ill luck, and were scattered everywhere in pursuit. at which turn of things my provost, with us his prisoners, also took to flight, though we had deserved no enmity from the conquerors by reason of our resistance: but while the provost was threatening of us with death and so compelling us to go with him, young herzbruder galloped up with five other horsemen and saluted him with a pistol and, "lookye, old dog," says he, "is it the time now to breed young puppies? now will i pay thee for thy pains." but the shot harmed the provost as little as if it had struck an anvil. so "beest thou of that kidney," said herzbruder, "yet i will not have come to do thee a courtesy in vain: die thou must even if thy soul were grown into thy body." and with that he compelled a musqueteer of the provost's own guard, if he would himself have quarter, to cut him down with an axe. and so that provost got his reward: but i being known by herzbruder, he bade them free me from my fetters and bonds, set me on a horse, and charged his servant to bring me to a place of safety. _chap. xxviii._: of a great battle wherein the conqueror is captured in the hour of triumph but even then, while my rescuer's servant conveyed me out of danger, his own master was, by reason of his greed of honour and of gain, carried so far afield that he in his turn was taken prisoner. so when the conquerors were dividing of the spoil and burying their dead, and herzbruder was a-missing, his captain received as his inheritance me with his servant and his horses: whereby i must submit to be ranked as a horse-boy, and in exchange for that received nought, save only these promises: namely, that if i carried myself well and could grow a little older, he would mount me: that is, make a trooper of me: and with that i must be content. but presently thereafter my captain was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and i discharged the same office for him that david did for saul, for when we were in quarters i played the lute for him, and when we were on the march i must wear his cuirass after him, which was a sore burden to me: and although these arms were devised to protect their wearers against the buffets of the enemy, i found it the contrary, for mine own young which i hatched pursued me with the more security under the protection of those same arms: under the breastplate they had their free quarters, pastime, and playground, so that it seemed i wore the harness not for my protection but for theirs, for i could not reach them with my arms and could do no harm among them.[ ] i busied myself with the planning of all manner of campaigns against them, to destroy this invincible armada: yet had i neither time nor opportunity to drive them out by fire, (as is done in ovens) nor by water, nor by poison--though well i knew what quicksilver would do. much less had i the opportunity to be rid of them by a change of raiment or a clean shirt, but must carry them with me, and give them my body and blood to feed upon. and when they so tormented and bit me under the harness, i whipped out a pistol as if i would exchange shots with them: yet did only take out the ramrod and therewith drive them from their banquet. at last i discovered a plan, to wind a bit of fur round the ramrod and so make a pretty bird-lime for them: and when i could be at them under the harness with this louse-angler, i fished them out in dozens from their dens, and murdered them: but it availed me little. now it happened that my lieutenant-colonel was ordered to make an expedition into westphalia with a strong detachment; and if he had been as strong in cavalry as i was in my private garrison he would have terrified the whole world: but as 'twas not so he must needs go warily, and for that reason also hide in the gemmer mark (a wood so called between soest and ham). now even then i had come to a crisis with my friends: for they tormented me so with their excavations that i feared they might effect a lodgment between flesh and skin. let no man wonder that the brasilians do devour their lice, for mere rage and revenge, because they so torment them. at last i could bear my torment no longer, but when the troopers were busy--some feeding, some sleeping, and some keeping guard--i crept a little aside under a tree to wage war with mine enemies: to that end i took off mine armour (though others be wont to put it on when they fight) and began such a killing and murdering that my two swords, which were my thumbnails, dripped with blood and hung full of dead bodies, or rather empty skins: and all such as i could not slay i banished forthwith, and suffered them to take their walks under that same tree. now whenever this encounter comes into my remembrance forthwith my skin doth prick me everywhere, as if i were but now in the midst of the battle. 'tis true i doubted for a while whether i should so revenge myself on mine own blood, and specially against such true servants that would suffer themselves to be hanged with me--yea, and broken on the wheel with me, and on whom, by reason of their numbers, i had often lain softly in the open air on the hardest of earth. but i went on so furiously in my tyrannical ways that i did not even mark how the imperialists were at blows with my lieutenant-colonel, till at last they came to me, terrified my poor lice, and took me myself prisoner. nor had they any respect for my manhood, by the power of which i had just before slain my thousands, and even surpassed the fame of the tailor that killed "seven at a blow." i fell to the share of a dragoon, and the best booty he got from me was my lieutenant-colonel's cuirass, and that he sold at a fair price to the commandant at soest, where he was quartered. so he was in the course of this war my sixth master: for i must serve him as his foot-boy. _chap. xxix._: how a notably pious soldier fared in paradise, and how the huntsman filled his place now unless our hostess had been content to have herself and her whole house possessed by my army, 'twas certain she must be rid of them. and that she did, short and sharp, for she put my rags into the oven and burned them out as clean as an old tobacco-pipe, so that i lived again as 'twere in a rose-garden freed from my vermin: yea, and none can believe how good it was for me to be free from that torment wherein i had sat for months as in an ant's nest. but in recompense for that i had a new plague to encounter: namely, that my new master was one of those strange soldiers that do think to get to heaven: he was contented with his pay and never harmed a child. his whole fortune consisted in what he could earn by standing sentry and what he could save from his weekly pay; and that, poor as it was, he valued above all the pearls of the orient: each sixpence he got he sewed into his breeches, and that he might have more of such sixpences i and his horse must starve: i must break my teeth upon dry pumpernickel, and nourish myself with water, or at best with small beer, and that was a poor affair for me--inasmuch as my throat was raw from the dry black bread and my whole body wasted away. if i would eat i must needs steal, and even that with such secrecy that my master could by no manner of means be brought to book. as for him, gallows and torture, headsmen and their helpers--yea, and surgeons too--were but superfluous. sutlers and hawkers too must soon have beat a retreat from him: for his thoughts were far from eating and drinking, gaming and quarrelling: but when he was ordered out for a convoy or an expedition of any sort where pay was, there he would loiter and dawdle away his time. yea, i believe truly if this good old dragoon had not possessed these soldierly virtues of loitering, he would never have got me: for in that case he would have followed my lieutenant-colonel at the double. i could count on no cast clothes from him: for he himself went in such rags as did beforetime my hermit in the woods. his whole harness and saddle were scarce worth three-halfpence, and his horse so staggering for hunger that neither swede nor hessian needed to fear his attack. all these fair qualities did move his captain to send him to paradise--which was a monastery so called--on protection-duty: not indeed as if he were of much avail for that purpose, but that he might grow fat and buy himself a new nag: and most of all because the nuns had asked for a pious and conscientious and peaceable fellow for their guard. and so he rode thither and i behind him: for he had but one horse: and "zounds;" says he, "simbrecht; (for he could never frame to pronounce my name aright) when we come to paradise we will take our fill." and i answered him: "yes," said i, "the name is a good omen: god grant it that the place be like its name!" "yes, yes," says he, for he understood me not, "if we can get two ohms of the good westphalian beer every day we shall not fare ill. look to thyself: for i will now have a fine new cloak made, and thou canst have the old one: 'twill make a brave new coat for thee." well might he call it the old one: for i believe it could well remember the battle of pavia,[ ] so weatherbeaten and shabby was it: and with the giving of it he did me but little kindness. paradise we found as we would have it and still better: in place of angels we found fair maidens, who so entertained us with food and drink that presently i came again to my former fatness: the strongest beer we had, the best westphalian hams and smoked sausages and savoury and delicate meat, boiled in salt water and eaten cold. there too i learned to spread black bread a finger thick with salt butter, and put cheese on that so that it might slip down better: and when i could have a knuckle of mutton garnished with garlic and a good tankard of beer beside it, then would i refresh body and soul and forget all my past sufferings. in a word, this paradise pleased me as much as if it had been the true paradise: no other care had i except that i knew 'twould not always last, and i must fare forth again in my rags. but even as misfortune ever came to me in abundance when it once began to pursue me, so now it seemed to me that good fortune would run it hard: for when my master would send me to soest to fetch his baggage thence, i found on the road a pack, and in the same some ells of scarlet cloth cut for a cloak, and red silk also for the lining. that i took with me, and at soest i exchanged it with a clothier for common green woollen cloth fit for a coat and trappings, with the condition he should make such a coat and provide me also with a new hat: and inasmuch as i grievously needed also a new pair of shoes and a shirt, i gave the huckster the silver buttons and the lace that belonged to the cloak, for which he procured for me all that i wanted, and turned me out brand-new. so i returned to paradise to my master, who was mightily incensed that i had not brought my findings to him: yea, he talked of trouncings, and for a trifle, an he had not been shamed and had the coat fitted him, would have stript it off me for to wear it himself. but to my thinking i had done a good piece of trading. but now must the miserly fellow be ashamed that his lad went better clothed than he: therefore he rides to soest, borrows money from his captain and equips himself in the finest style, with the promise to repay all out of his weekly protection-pay: and that he carefully did. he had indeed himself means to pay that and more also, but was too sly to touch his stores: for had he done that his malingering was at an end, wherein he hoped to abide softly that winter through, and some other naked fellow had been put in his place: but now the captain must perforce leave him where he lay, or he would not recover his money he had lent. thenceforward we lived the laziest life in the world, wherein skittles was our chief exercise: when i had groomed my dragoon's horse, fed and given him to drink, then i played the gentleman and went a-walking. the convent was safeguarded also by our opponents the hessians with a musqueteer from lippstadt: the same was by trade a furrier, and for that reason not only a master-singer but also a first-rate fencer, and lest he should forget his art he daily exercised himself with me in all weapons, in which i became so expert that i was not afraid to challenge him whenever he would. my old dragoon, in place of fencing with him, would play at skittles, and that for no other wager but who should drink most beer at dinner: and so whoever lost the convent paid. this convent had its own game-preserves and therefore its own huntsman, and inasmuch as i also was clad in green i joined myself to him, and from him in that autumn and winter i learned all his arts, and especially all that concerns catching of small game. for that cause, and because also the name simplicissimus was somewhat uncommon and for the common folk easily forgotten or hard to pronounce, every one called me the "little huntsman": and meanwhile i learned to know every way and path, and that knowledge i made good use of thereafter. but when by reason of ill weather i could not take my walks abroad in the wood, then i read all manner of books which the bailiff of the convent lent me. and so soon as the good nuns knew that, besides my good voice, i could also play a little on the lute and the harpsichord, then did they give more heed to me, and because there was added to these qualities a prettily proportioned body and a handsome face enough, therefore they deemed all my manners and customs, my doings and my ways, to be the ways of nobility: and so became i all unexpectedly a much-loved gentleman, of whom one could but wonder that he should serve so scurvy a dragoon. but when i had spent the winter in the midst of such pleasures, my master was discharged: which vexed him so much (by reason of the good living he was to lose) that he fell sick, and inasmuch as that was aggravated by a violent fever (and likewise the old wounds that he had got in the wars in his lifetime helped the mischief), he had but short shrift, for in three weeks i had somewhat to bury, but this epitaph i wrote for him: "old miserly lies here, a soldier brave and good, who all his lifetime through shed ne'er a drop of blood." by right and custom the captain could take and inherit the man's horse and musquet and the general all else that he left: but since i was a lively, well-set-up lad, and gave hopes that in time i should not fear any man, it was offered me to take all, if only i would take the place of my dead master. and that i undertook the more readily because i knew my master had left a pretty number of ducats sewn into his old breeches, which he had raked together in his lifetime: and when in the process of things i must give in my name--namely, simplicius simplicissimus--and the muster-clerk (which was named cyriack) could not write it down aright, says he, "there is no devil in hell with such a name." thereon i asked him quickly, "was there one there named cyriack?" and clever as he thought himself, that he would not answer: and that pleased my captain so that from thenceforward he thought well of me. _chap. xxx._: how the huntsman carried himself when he began to learn the trade of war: wherefrom a young soldier may learn somewhat now the commandant in soest needed a lad in his stables, of the kind that i seemed to him to be, and for that reason he was not well pleased that i had turned soldier, but would try to have me yet: to that end he made a pretence of my youth and that i could not yet pass for a man: and having set this forth to my master, he sends to me and says he, "harkye, little huntsman, thou shalt be my servant." so i asked what would my duties be: to which he answered i should help to tend his horses. "no, sir," quoth i, "we are not for one another: i would rather have a master in whose service the horses should tend me: but seeing that i can find none such, i will sooner remain a soldier." "thy beard," says he, "is yet too small." "no, no," said i, "i will wager i can encounter any man of eighty years: a beard never yet killed a man, or goats would be in high esteem." "oho!" says he, "if thy courage be as high as thy wit, i will let thee pass for a soldier." i answered, "that can be tried upon the next occasion," and therewithal i gave him to understand i would not be used as a groom. so he left me as i was, and said the proof of the pudding was in the eating. so now i betook myself to my old dragoon's old breeches, and having dissected them, i recovered out of their entrails a good soldier's horse and the best musquet i could find: and all must for me be as bright as looking-glass. then i bought a new suit of green clothes: for this name of the "huntsman" suited well with my fancy: and my old suit i gave to my lad; for 'twas too small for me. and so could i ride on mine own account like a young nobleman, and thought no small beer of myself. yea, i made so bold as to deck my hat with a great plume like an officer: and with that i raised up for myself enviers and mislikers: and betwixt them and me were presently hot words and at last even buffets. yet hardly had i proved to one or two that same science which i had learned in paradise of the good furrier, when behold, not only would all leave me in peace but would have my friendship moreover. besides all this, i was ever ready to give my service for all expeditions on foot or on horseback: for i was a good rider and quicker on foot than most, and when it came to dealing with the enemy i must charge forward as for mere pleasure and ever be in the front rank. so was i in brief time known both among friends and foes, and so famous that both parties thought much of me, seeing that the most dangerous attacks were entrusted to me to carry out, and to that end whole detachments put under my command. and now i began to steal like any bohemian, and if i made any capture of value, i would give my officers so rich a share thereof that 'twas allowed me to play my tricks on forbidden ground, for whatever i did i was supported. general count götz had left remaining in westphalia three enemy's garrisons--to wit, in dorsten, in lippstadt, and in coesfeld: and all these three i mightily plagued! for i was before their gates, now here, now there, one day here and one day there, no less, and snapped up many a good prize, and because i ever escaped the folk came to believe of me i could make myself invisible and was as proof as iron or steel. so now was i feared like the plague itself, so that thirty men of the enemy would not be shamed to flee before me if they did but know i was in their neighbourhood with fifteen. and at last it came to this: that where a contribution must be levied from a place, i was the man for that: and my plunder from that became as great as my fame. mine officers and comrades loved their little huntsman: the chief partisans of the opposite side were terrified, and by fear and love i kept the countrymen on my side: for i knew how to punish my opposers, and them that did me the smallest service richly to repay: insomuch that i spent wellnigh the half of my booty in paying of my spies. and for that reason there went no reconnaissance, no convoy, no expedition out from the adversary whose departure was not made known to me: whereupon i laid my plans and founded my projects, and because i commonly brought the same to good effect by the help of good luck, all were astonished: and that chiefly at my youthful age: so that even many officers and good soldiers of the other party much desired to see me. to this must be added that i ever shewed myself courteous to my prisoners, so that they often cost me more than my booty was worth, and whensoever i could shew a courtesy to any of the adversary, and specially to any officer, without injury to my duty and to my allegiance to my master, i neglected it not. and by such behaviour i had surely been presently forwarded to the rank of officer, had not my youth hindered that: for whosoever, at the age wherein i then was, would be an ensign, must be of noble birth: besides, my captain could not promote me; for there were no vacancies in his own company and he would not let me go to another: for so would he have lost in me a milch-cow and more too. so must i be and remain a corporal. yet this honour, which i had gained over the heads of old soldiers, though 'twas but a small thing, yet this and the praise which daily i received were to me as spurs to urge me on to better things. and day and night i dreamed only of fresh plans to make myself greater: nay, i could not sleep by reason of such foolish phantasies. and because i saw that i wanted an opportunity to shew the courage which i felt in me, it vexed me that i could not every day have the chance to meet the adversary in arms and try the result. so then i wished the trojan war back again, or such a siege as was at ostende,[ ] and fool as i was, i never thought that a pitcher goes to the well till it breaks: and that also is true of a young soldier and a foolish, when he hath but money and luck and courage: thereupon follow haughtiness and pride: and by reason of that pride i hired, in place of one footboy, two serving-men, whom i equipped well and horsed them well, and so gained the envy of all the officers. _chap. xxxi._: how the devil stole the parson's bacon and how the huntsman caught himself now must i tell you a story or two of things that happened to me before i left the dragoons: and though they are trifling, yet are they amusing to be heard: for i undertook not only great things, but despised not also small affairs, if only i could be assured that thereby i should get reputation among the people. now my captain was ordered, with fifty odd men on foot, to schloss recklinghausen, and there to carry out a certain design: and as we thought that before the plan could be carried out we had best hide ourselves a day or two in the woods, each took with him provision for a week. but inasmuch as the rich convoy we waited for came not at the appointed time, our food gave out: and we dared not to steal, for so had we betrayed ourselves and caused our plan to come to nothing: and so hunger pressed us sore: moreover, i had in that quarter no good friends (as elsewhere) to bring me and my men food in secret. and therefore must we devise other means to line our bellies if we would not go home empty. my comrade, a journeyman latinist who had but lately run from school and enlisted, sighed in vain for the barley soup which beforetime his parents had served up for his delight, and which he had despised and left untasted: and as he thought on those meals of old, so he remembered his school satchel, beside which he had eaten them. "ah, brother;" says he to me, "is't not a shame that i have not learned arts enough to fill my belly now. brother, i know, _re vera_, if i could but get to the parson in that village, 'twould provide me with an excellent convivium." so i pondered on that word awhile and considered our condition, and because they that knew the country might not leave the ambush (for they had surely been recognised) while those that were unknown to the people knew of no chance to steal or buy in secret, i founded my plan on our student and laid the thing before our captain. and though 'twas dangerous for him also, yet was his trust in me so great, and our plight so evil, that he consented. so i changed clothes with another man, and with my student i shogged off to the said village and that by a wide circuit, though it lay but half an hour from us: and coming thither we forthwith knew the house next the church to be the priest's abode; for 'twas built town-fashion and abutted on the wall that surrounded the whole glebe. now i had already taught my comrade what he should say: for he had yet his worn-out old student's cloak on him: but i gave myself out for a journeyman painter, as thinking i could not well be called upon to exercise that art in the village; for farmers do not often have their houses decorated. the good divine was civil, and when my comrade had made him a deep latin reverence and told lies in great abundance to him, as how the soldiers had plundered him on his road and robbed him of all his journey-money, he offered him a piece of bread and butter and a draught of beer. but i made as though i belonged not to him, and said i would eat a snack in the inn and then call for him, that we might ere the day was spent come somewhat further on our way together. and to the inn i went, yet more to espy what i could fetch away that night than to appease mine hunger, and had also the luck on the way to find a peasant plastering up of his oven, in which he had great loaves of rye-bread, that should sit there and bake for four-and-twenty hours. with the innkeeper i did little business: for now i knew where bread was to be had: yet bought a few loaves of white bread for our captain, and when i came to the parsonage to warn my comrade to go, he had already had his fill, and had told the priest i was a painter and was minded to journey to holland, there to perfect my art. so the good man bade me welcome and begged me to go into the church with him, for he would shew me some pieces there that needed repair. and not to spoil the play, i must follow. so he took me through the kitchen, and as he opened the lock in the strong oaken door that led to the churchyard, o mirum! there i saw that the black heaven above was dark with lutes, flutes, and fiddles, meaning the hams, smoked sausages, and sides of bacon that hung in the chimney; at which i looked with content, for it seemed as if they smiled at me, and i wished, but in vain, to have them for my comrades in the wood: yet they were so obstinate as to hang where they were. then pondered i upon the means how i could couple them with the said oven full of bread, yet could not easily devise such, for, as aforesaid, the parson's yard was walled round and all windows sufficiently guarded with iron bars. furthermore there lay two monstrous great dogs in the courtyard which, as i feared, would of a surety not sleep by night if any would steal that whereon 'twas the reward of their faithful guardianship to feed by day. so now when we came into the church and talked of the pictures, and the priest would hire me to mend this and that, and i sought for excuses and pleaded my journey, says the sacristan or bellringer, "fellow," says he, "i take thee rather for a runaway soldier than a painter." to such rough talk i was no longer used, yet must put up with it: still i shook my head a little and answered him, "fellow, give me but a brush and colours, and in a wink i will have thee painted for the fool thou art." whereat the priest laughed, yet said to us both, 'twas not fitting to wrangle in so holy a place: with that i perceived he believed us both, both me and my student; so he gave us yet another draught and let us go. but my heart i left behind among the smoked sausages. before nightfall we came to our companions, where i took my clothes and arms again, told the captain my story, and chose out six stout fellows to bring the bread home. at midnight we came to the village and took the bread out of the oven: for we had a man among us that could charm dogs; and when we were to pass by the parsonage, i found it not in my heart to go further without bacon. in a word, i stood still and considered deeply whether 'twere not possible to come into the priest's kitchen, yet could find no other way but the chimney, which for this turn must be my door. the bread and our arms we took into the churchyard and into the bone-house, and fetched a ladder and rope from a shed close by. now i could go up and down chimneys as well as any chimney-sweep (for that i had learned in my youth in the hollow trees), so on to the roof i climbed with one other, which roof was covered with a double ceiling and a hollow between, and therefore convenient for my purpose. so i twisted my long hair into a bunch on my head, and lowered myself down with an end of the rope to my beloved bacon, and fastened one ham after another and one flitch after another to the rope which my comrade on the roof most regularly hauled up and gave to the others to carry to the bonehouse. but alack and well-a-day! even as i shut my shop and would out again a rafter broke under me, and poor simplicissimus tumbled down and the miserable huntsman found himself caught as in a mouse-trap: 'tis true, my comrades on the roof let down the rope to draw me up: but it broke before they could lift me from the ground. and, "now huntsman," thought i, "thou must abide a hunt in which thy hide will be as torn as was actaeon's," for the priest was awakened by my fall and bade his cook forthwith to kindle a light: who came in her nightdress into the kitchen with her gown hanging on her shoulders and stood so near me that she almost touched me: then she took up an ember, held the light to it, and began to blow: yet i blew harder, which so affrighted the good creature that she let both fire and candle fall and ran to her master. so i gained time to consider by what means i could help myself out: yet found i none. now my comrades gave me to understand through the chimney they would break the house open and have me forth: that would i not have, but bade them to look to their arms and leave only my especial comrade on the roof, and wait to see if i could not get away without noise and disturbance, lest our ambush should be frustrated: but if it could not be so, then might they do their best. meanwhile the good priest himself struck a light; while his cook told him a fearful spectre was in the kitchen who had two heads (for she had seen my hair in a bunch on my head and had mistook it for a second head). all this i heard, and accordingly smeared my face and arms with my hands, which were full of ashes, soot, and cinders, so vilely that without question i no longer could be likened to an angel, as those holy maidens in paradise had likened me: and that same sacristan, had he but seen me, would have granted me this, that i was a quick painter. and now i began to rattle round in the kitchen in fearful wise, and to throw the pots and pans about: and the kettle-ring coming to my hand, i hung it round my neck, and the fire-hook i kept in my hand to defend myself in case of need. all which dismayed not that good priest: for he came in procession with his cook, who bore two wax-lights in her hands and a holy-water stoup on her arm, he himself being vested in his surplice and stole, with the sprinkler in one hand and a book in the other, out of which he began to exorcise me and to ask who i was and what i did there. so as he took me to be the devil, i thought 'twas but fair i should play the devil's part as the father of lies, and so answered, "i am the devil, and will wring thy neck and thy cook's too." yet he went on with his conjuring and bade me take note i had no concern with him nor his cook; yea, and commanded me under the most solemn adjuration that i should depart to the place whence i had come. to which i answered with a horrible voice, that 'twas impossible even if i would. meanwhile my comrade on the roof, which was an arch-rogue and knew his latin well, had his part to play: for when he heard what time of day 'twas in the kitchen, he hooted like an owl, he barked like a dog, he neighed like a horse, he bleated like a goat, he brayed like an ass, and made himself heard down the chimney like a whole crew of cats bucking in february, and then again like a clucking hen: for the fellow could imitate any beasts' cry and, when he would, could howl as naturally as if a whole pack of wolves were there. and this terrified the priest and his cook more than anything: yet was my conscience sore to suffer myself to be abjured as the devil; for he truly took me for such as having read or heard that the devil loved to appear clad in green. now in the midst of these doubts, which troubled both parties alike, i was aware by good luck that the key in the lock of the door that led to the churchyard was not turned, but only the bolt shot: so i speedily drew it back and whipped out of the door into the churchyard, where i found my comrades standing with their musquets cocked, and left the parson to conjure devils as long as he would. so when my comrade had brought my hat down from the roof, and we had packed up our provands, we went off to our fellows, having no further business in the village save that we should have returned the borrowed ladder and rope to their owners. with our stolen food the whole party refreshed themselves, and all had cause enough to laugh over my adventure: only the student could not stomach it that i should rob the priest that had so nobly filled his belly, yea, he swore loud and long he would fain pay him for his bacon, had he but the means at hand; and yet ate of it as heartily as if he were hired for the business. so we lay in our ambush two days longer and waited for the convoy we had so long looked for; where we lost no single man in the attack, yet captured over thirty prisoners and as splendid booty as ever i did help to divide: and i had a double share because i had done best: and that was three fine friesland stallions laden with as much merchandise as we could carry off in our haste; and had we had time to examine the booty and to bring it to a place of safety, each for his own part would have been rich enough: but we had to leave more on the spot than we bore off, for we must hurry away with all speed, taking what we could carry: and for greater safety we betook ourselves to rehnen, and there we baited and shared the booty: for there lay our main body. and there i thought again on the priest, whose bacon i had stolen: and now may the reader think what a misguided, wanton, and overweening spirit was mine, when it was not enough for me to have robbed and terrified that pious man, but i must claim honour for it. to that end i took a sapphire set in a gold ring, which i had picked up on that same plundering expedition, and sent it from rehnen to my priest by a sure hand with this letter: "reverend sir,--had i but in these last days had aught in the wood to eat and so to live, i had had no cause to steal your reverence's bacon, in which matter 'tis likely you were terrified. i swear by all that is holy that such affright was against my will, and so the more do i hope for forgiveness. as concerning the bacon itself, 'tis but just it should be paid for, and therefore in place of money i send this present ring, given by those for whose behoof your goods must needs be taken, and beg your reverence will be pleased to accept the same: and add thereto that he will always find on all occasions an obedient and faithful servant in him whom his sacristan took to be no painter and who is otherwise known as 'the huntsman.'" but to the peasant whose oven they had emptied, the party sent out of the general booty sixteen rix-dollars: for i had taught them that in such wise they must bring the country-folk on their side, seeing that such could often help a party out of great difficulties or betray such another party and bring all to the gallows. from rehnen we marched to münster and thence to ham, and so home to soest to our headquarters, where i after some days received an answer from his reverence, as follows: "noble huntsman,--if he from whom you stole the bacon had known that you would appear to him in devilish guise, he had not so often wished to behold the notorious huntsman. but even as the borrowed meat and bread have been far too dearly paid for, so also is the fright inflicted the easier to forgive, especially because 'twas caused (against his will) by so famous a person, who is hereby forgiven, with the request that he will once more visit without fear him who fears not to conjure the devil.--vale." and so did i everywhere, and gained much fame: yea, and the more i gave away and spent, the more the booty flowed in, and i conceived that i had laid out that ring well, though 'twas worth some hundred rix-dollars. and so ends this second book. book iii _chap. i._: how the huntsman went too far to the left hand the gentle reader will have understood by the foregoing book how ambitious i had become in soest, and that i had sought and found honour, fame, and favour in deeds which in others had deserved punishment. and now will i tell how through my folly i let myself be further led astray, and so lived in constant danger of life and limb; for i was so busied to gain honour and fame that i could not sleep by reason of it, and being full of such fancies, and lying awake many a night to devise new plots and plans, i had many wondrous conceits. in this wise i contrived a kind of shoes that a man could put on hind part before, so that the heel came under his toes: and of these at mine own cost i caused thirty different pairs to be made, and when i had given these out to my fellows and with them went on a foray, 'twas clean impossible to follow our tracks: for now would we wear these, and now again our right shoes on our feet, and the others in our knapsacks. so that if a man came to a place where i had bidden them change shoes, 'twas for all the world, by the tracks, as if two parties had met together there and together had vanished away. but if i kept these new invented shoes on throughout, it seemed as i had gone thither whence in truth i had come, or had come from the place to which i now went. and besides this, my tracks were at all times confused, as in a maze, so that they who should pursue or seek news of me from the footprints could never come at me. often i was close by a party of the enemy who were minded to seek me far away: and still more often miles away from some thicket which they had surrounded, and were searching in hopes to find me. and as i managed with my parties on foot, so did i also when we were on horseback: for to me 'twas simple enough to dismount at cross-roads and forked ways and there have the horses' shoes set on hind part before. but the common tricks that soldiers use, being weak in numbers, to appear from the tracks to be strong, or being strong to appear weak, these were for me so common and i held them so cheap that i care not to tell of them. moreover, i devised an instrument wherewith if 'twas calm weather i could by night hear a trumpet blow three hours' march away, could hear a horse neigh or a dog bark at two hours' distance, and hear men's talk at three miles; which art i kept secret, and gained thereby great respect, for it seemed to all incredible. yet by day was this instrument, which i commonly kept with a perspective-glass in my breeches pouch, not so useful, even though 'twas in a quiet and lonely place: for with it one could not choose but hear every sound made by horses and cattle, yea, the smallest bird in the air and the frog in the water in all the country round, and all this could be as plainly heard as if one were in the midst of a market among men and beasts where all do make such noise that for the crying of one a man cannot understand another. 'tis true i know well there are folk who to this day will not believe this: but believe it or not, 'tis but the truth. with this instrument i can by night know any man that talks but so loud as his custom is, by his voice, though he be as far from me as where with a good perspective-glass one could by day know him by his clothes. yet can i blame no one if he believe not what i here write, for none of those would believe me which saw with their own eyes how i used the said instrument, and would say to them, "i hear cavalry, for the horses are shod," or "i hear peasants coming, for the horses are unshod," or "i hear waggoners, but 'tis only peasants; for i know them by their talk." "here come musqueteers, and so many, for i hear the rattling of their bandoliers." "there is a village near by, for i hear the cocks crow and the dogs bark." "there goes a herd of cattle; for i hear sheep bleat and cows low and pigs grunt"; and so forth. mine own comrades at first would hold this but for vain boasting, and when they found that all i said proved true in fact, then all must be witchcraft, and what i said must have been told to me by the devil and his dam. and so i believe will the gentle reader also think. nevertheless by such means did i often escape the adversary when he had news of me and came to capture me: and i deem that if i had published this discovery 'twould since have become common, for it would be of great service in war and notably in sieges. but i return to my history. if i was not needed for a foray, i would go a-stealing, and then were neither horses, cows, pigs, nor sheep safe from me that i could find for miles round: for i had a contrivance to put boots or shoes on the horses and cattle till i came to a frequented road, where none could trace them: and then i would shoe the horses hind part before, or if 'twas cows and oxen i put shoes on them which to that end i had caused to be made, and so brought them to a safe place. and the big fat swine-gentry, which by reason of laziness care not to travel by night, these i devised a masterly trick to bring away, however much they might grunt and refuse. for i made a savoury brew with meal and water and soaked a sponge in it: this i fastened to a strong cord, and let them for whom i angled swallow that sponge full of the broth, but kept the cord in my hand, whereupon without further parley they went contentedly with me and paid their score with hams and sausages. and all i brought home i faithfully shared both with the officers and my comrades: and so i got leave to fare forth again, and when my thefts were spied upon and betrayed, they helped me finely through. for the rest, i deemed myself far too good to steal from poor men, or rob hen-roosts and filch such small deer. and with all this i began by little and little to lead an epicurish life in regard of eating and drinking: for now i had forgot my hermit's teaching and had none to guide my youth or to whom i might look up: for my officers shared with me and caroused with me, and they that should have warned and chastised me rather enticed me to all vices. by this means i became so godless and wicked that no villainy was too great for me to compass. but at last i was secretly envied, specially by my comrades, as having a luckier hand at thieving than any other, and also by my officers because i cut such a figure, was lucky in forays, and made for myself a greater name and reputation than they themselves had. in a word, i am well assured one party or the other would have sacrificed me had i not spent so much. _chap. ii._: how the huntsman of soest did rid himself of the huntsman of wesel now as i was living in this fashion, and busied with this, namely, to have me certain devil-masks made and grisly raiment thereto appertaining with cloven hoofs, by which means to terrify our foes, and specially to take their goods from our friends unbeknown (for which the affair of the bacon-stealing gave me the first hint), i had news that a fellow was at wesel, which was a renowned partisan, went clad in green, and under my name practised divers rapes and robberies here and there in the land, but chiefly among our supporters, so that well-founded plaints against me were raised, and i must have paid for it smartly, had i not clearly shewn that at the very time he played these and other like tricks in my name i was elsewhere. now this i would not pardon him, much less suffer him longer to use my name, to plunder in my shape and so bring me to shame. so with the knowledge of the commandant at soest i sent him an invitation to the open field with swords or pistols. but as he had no heart to appear, i let it be known i would be revenged on him, even though it were in the very quarters of the commandant at wesel, who had failed to punish him. yea, i said openly if i found him on a foray i would treat him as an enemy. and that determined me to let my masks alone with which i had planned to do great things, to cut my green livery in pieces, and to burn it publicly in soest in front of my quarters, to say nothing of all my clothing and horse harness, which were worth well over a hundred ducats: yea, and in my wrath i swore that the next that should call me huntsman must either kill me or die by my hand, should it cost me my life: nor would i ever again lead a party (for i was not bound to do so, being no officer) till i had avenged myself on my counterfeit at wesel. so i kept myself to myself and did no more any exploits, save that i did my duty as sentry wheresoever i might be ordered to go, and that i performed as any malingerer might, and as sleepily as might well be. and this thing became known in the neighbourhood, and the advance-parties of the enemy became so bold and assured at this that they every day would bivouac close to our pickets: and that at last i could endure no longer. yet what plagued me most of all was this: that this huntsman of wesel went ever on his old way, giving himself out for me and under that name getting plunder enough and to spare. meanwhile, while all thought i had laid myself to sleep on a bearskin and should not soon rise from it, i was inquiring of the ways and works of my counterfeit at wesel, and found that he not only imitated me in name and clothing, but was also used to steal by night whenever he could find a chance: so i woke up again unexpectedly and laid my plans accordingly. now i had by little and little trained my two servants like watch-dogs, and they were so true to me that each at need would have run through fire for me, for with me they had good food and drink and gained plenty of booty. one of these i sent to mine enemy at wesel, to pretend that because i, that had been his master, was now begun to live like any idler and had sworn never again to ride on a raid, he cared not to stay longer with me, but was come to serve him, since 'twas he that had put on the huntsman's dress in his master's stead, and carried himself like a proper soldier: and he knew, said he, all highways and byways in the country, and could lay many a plan for him to gain good booty. my good simple fool believed it all, and let himself be persuaded to take the fellow into his service. so on a certain night he went with him and his comrade to a sheepfold to fetch away a few fat wethers: but there was i and jump-i'-th'-field my other servant already in waiting, and had bribed the shepherd to fasten up his dogs and to suffer the new-comers to burrow their way into the shed unhindered; for i would say grace for them over their mutton. so when they had made a hole through the wall, the huntsman of wesel would have it that my servant should slip in first: "but," says he, "no, for there might well be one on the watch that should deal me one on the head: i see plainly ye know not how to go a-mousing: one must first explore"; and therewith drew his sword and hung his hat on the point, and pushing it through the hole again and again, "so," says he, "we shall find out if the good man be at home or not." this ended, the huntsman of wesel was the first to creep through. and with that jump-i'-th'-field had him by the arm which held his sword, and asked, would he cry for quarter? that his fellow heard and would have run for it: but i, who knew not which was the huntsman, and was swifter of foot than he, overtook him in a few paces: so i asked him, "of what party?" says he, "of the emperor's." i asked, "what regiment? i am of the emperor's side: 'tis a rogue that denies his master!" he answered, "we are of the dragoons of soest, and are come to fetch a couple of sheep: i hope, brother, if ye be of the emperor's party too, ye will let us pass." i answered, "who are ye, then, from soest?" says he, "my comrade in the shed is the huntsman." "then are ye rogues," said i, "or why do ye plunder your own quarters? the huntsman of soest is no such fool as to let himself be taken in a sheep-fold." "nay, from wesel i should have said," says he: but while we thus disputed together came my servant and jump-i'-th'-field to us with my adversary: and, "lookye," says i, "is it thus we come together, thou honourable rascal, thou? were it not that i respect the emperor's arms which thou hast undertaken to bear against the enemy, i would incontinently send a ball through thy head: till now i have been the huntsman of soest, and thee i count for a rogue unless thou take one of these swords here present and measurest the other with me soldier-fashion." and with that my servant (who, like jump-i'-th'-field, had on horrible devil's apparel with goat's horns) laid a couple of swords at our feet which i had brought from soest, and gave the huntsman of wesel the choice, to take which he would: whereat the poor huntsman was so dismayed that it fared with him as with me at hanau when i spoiled the dance: he and his comrade trembled like wet dogs, fell on their knees, and begged for pardon. but jump-i'-th'-field growled out, as 'twere from the inside of a hollow pot, "nay, ye must fight, or i will break the neck of ye." "o honourable sir devil," says the huntsman, "i came not here to fight: oh, deliver me from this, master devil, and i will do what thou wilt." so as he talked thus wildly, my servant put one sword in his hand and gave me the other: yet he trembled so sore he could not hold it. now the moon was bright, and the shepherd and his men could see and hear all from out their hut: so i called to him to come, that i might have a witness of this bargain: but when he came, he made as though he saw not the two in devils' disguise, and said, what cause had i to bicker so long with these two fellows in his sheepfold: if i had aught to settle with them, i might do it elsewhere: for our business concerned him not at all: he paid his "conterbission" regularly every month, and hoped, therefore, he might live in peace with his sheep. to the two fellows he said, why did they so suffer one man to plague them, and did not knock me on the head at once. "why," said i, "thou rascal, they would have stolen thy sheep." "then let the devil wring their necks for them," says the peasant, and away he went. with that i would come to the fighting again: but my poor huntsman could, for sheer terror, no longer keep his feet, so that i pitied him: yea, he and his comrade uttered such piteous plaints that, in a word, i forgave and pardoned him all. but jump-i'-th'-field would not so be satisfied, but scratched the huntsman so grievously in the face that he looked as he had been at dinner with the cats, and with this poor revenge i must be content. so the huntsman vanished from wesel, for he was sore shamed: inasmuch as his comrade declared everywhere, and confirmed it with horrible oaths, that i had in real truth two devils in the flesh that waited on me; and so was i more feared, and contrariwise less loved. _chap. iii._: how the great god jupiter was captured and how he revealed the counsels of the gods of that i was soon aware: and therefore did i do away my godless way of life and give myself over to religion and good living. 'tis true i would ride on forays as before, yet now i shewed myself so courteous and kindly towards friend and foe, that all i had to deal with deemed it must be a different man from him they had heard of. nay, more, i made an end of my superfluous expense, and got together many bright ducats and jewels which i hid here and there in hollow trees in the country round soest; for so the well-known fortune-teller in that town advised me, and told me likewise i had more enemies in soest and in mine own regiment than outside the town and in the enemy's garrisons: and these, said she, were all plotting against me and my money. and when 'twas noised in this place or that, that the huntsman was off and away, presently i was all unexpectedly at the elbow of them that so flattered themselves, and before one village was rightly certain that i had done mischief in another, itself found that i was close at hand: for i was everywhere like a whirlwind, now here now there: so that i was more talked of than ever, and others gave themselves out to be me. now it happened that i lay with twenty-five musquets not far from dorsten and waited for a convoy that should come to the town: and as was my wont, i stood sentry myself as being near the enemy. to me there came a man all alone, very well dressed and flourishing a cane he had in his hand in strange wise: nor could i understand aught he said but this, "once for all will i punish the world, that will not render me divine honours." from that i guessed this might be some mighty prince that went thus disguised to find out his subjects' ways and works, and now proposed duly to punish the same, as not having found them to his liking. so i thought, "if this man be of the opposite party, it means a good ransom; but if not, thou canst treat him so courteously and so charm away his heart that he shall be profitable to thee all thy life long." with that i leapt out upon him, presented my gun at him at full-cock, and says i, "your worship will please to walk before me into yonder wood if he will not be treated as an enemy." so he answered very gravely, "to such treatment my likes are not accustomed": but i pushed him very politely along and, "your honour," said i, "will not for once refuse to bow to the necessities of the times." so when i had brought him safely to my people in the wood and had set my sentries again, i asked him who he was: to which he answered very haughtily i need not ask that, for i knew already he was a great god. i thought he might perhaps know me, and might be a nobleman of soest that thus spoke to rally me; for 'tis the custom to jeer at the people of soest about their great idol with the golden apron: but soon i was aware that instead of a prince i had caught a madman, one that had studied too much and gone mad over poetry: for when he grew a little more acquainted with me he told me plainly he was the great god jupiter himself. now did i heartily wish i had never made this capture: but since i had my fool, there i must needs keep him till we should depart: so, as the time otherwise would have been tedious, i thought i would humour the fellow and make his gifts of use to me; so i said to him, "now, worshipful jove, how comes it that thy high divinity thus leaves his heavenly throne and descends to earth? forgive, o jupiter, my question, which thou mightest deem one of curiosity: for we be also akin to the heavenly gods and nought but wood-spirits, born of fauns and nymphs, to whom this secret shall ever remain a secret." "i swear to thee by the styx," answered jupiter, "thou shouldst not know a word of the secret wert thou not so like to my cup-bearer ganymede, even wert thou paris's own son: but for his sake i communicate to thee this, that a great outcry concerning the sins of the world is come up to me through the clouds: upon which 'twas decided in the council of all the gods that i could justly destroy all the world with a flood: but inasmuch as i have always had a special favour to the human race, and moreover at all times shew kindness rather than severity, i am now wandering around to learn for myself the ways and works of men: and though i find all worse than i expected, yet am i not minded to destroy all men at once and without distinction, but to punish only those that deserve punishment and thereafter to bend the remainder to my will." i must needs laugh, yet checked myself, and said, "alas, jupiter, thy toil and trouble will be, i fear, all in vain unless thou punish the world with water, as before, or with fire: for if thou sendest a war, thither run together all vile and abandoned rogues that do but torment peaceable and pious men. an thou sendest a famine, 'tis but a godsend for the usurers, for then is their corn most valuable: and if thou sendest a pestilence, then the greedy and all the rest of mankind do find their account, for then do they inherit much. so must thou destroy the whole world root and branch, if thou wilt punish at all." _chap. iv._: of the german hero that shall conquer the whole world and bring peace to all nations so jupiter answered, "thou speakest of the matter like a mere man, as if thou didst not know that 'tis possible for us gods so to manage things that only the wicked shall be punished and the good saved: i will raise up a german hero that shall accomplish all with the edge of the sword; he shall destroy all evil men and preserve and exalt the righteous." "yea," said i, "but such a hero must needs have soldiers, and where soldiers are there is war, and where war is there must the innocent suffer as well as the guilty." "oho;" says jupiter, "be ye earthly gods minded like earthly men, that ye can understand so little? for i will send such a hero that he shall have need of no soldiers and yet shall reform the whole world; at his birth i will grant to him a body well formed and stronger than had ever hercules, adorned to the full with princeliness, wisdom, and understanding: to this shall venus add so comely a face that he shall excel narcissus, adonis, and even my ganymede: and she shall grant to him, besides his other fine parts, dignity, charm, and presence excelling all, and so make him beloved by all the world, for which cause i will look more kindly upon it in the hour of his birth. mercury, too, shall endow him with incomparable cleverness, and the inconstant moon shall be to him not harmful but useful, for she shall implant in him an invincible swiftness: pallas athene shall rear him on parnassus, and vulcan shall, under the influence of mars, forge for him his weapons, and specially a sword with which he shall conquer the whole world and make an end of all the godless, without the help of a single man as a soldier: for he shall need no assistance. every town shall tremble at his coming, and every fortress otherwise unconquerable he shall have in his power in the first quarter of an hour: in a word, he shall have the rule over the greatest potentates of the world, and so nobly bear sway over earth and sea that both gods and men shall rejoice thereat." "yea," said i, "but how can the destruction of all the godless and rule over the whole world be accomplished without specially great power and a strong arm? o jupiter, i tell thee plainly i can understand these things less than any mere mortal man." "at that," says jupiter, "i marvel not: for thou knowest not what power my hero's sword will have; vulcan shall make it of the same materials of which he doth forge my thunderbolts, and so direct its virtues that my hero, if he do but draw it and wave it in the air, can cut off the heads of a whole armada, though they be hidden behind a mountain or be a whole swiss mile distant from him, and so the poor devils shall lie there without heads before they know what has befallen them. and when he shall begin his triumphal progress and shall come before a town or a fortress, then shall he use tamburlaine's vein, and for a sign that he is there for peace and for the furthering of all good shall shew a white flag: then if they come forth to him and are content, 'tis well: if not, then will he draw his sword, and by its virtue, as before described, will hew off the heads of all enchanters and sorceresses throughout the town, and then raise a red flag: then if they be still obstinate, he shall destroy all murderers, usurers, thieves, rogues, adulterers, whores, and knaves in the said manner, and then hoist a black flag: whereupon if those that yet remain in the town refuse to come to him and humbly submit, then shall he destroy the whole town as a stiff-necked and disobedient folk: yet shall he only execute them that have hindered the others, and been the cause that the people would not submit. so shall he go from country to country, and give each town the country that lies around it to rule in peace, and from each town in all germany choose out two of the wisest and learnedest men to form his parliament, shall reconcile the towns with each other for ever, shall do away all villenage, and also all tolls, excises, interest, taxes, and octrois throughout germany, and take such order that none shall ever again hear of forced work, watch-duties, contributions, benevolences, war-taxes, and other burdens of the people, but that men shall live happier than in the elysian fields. and then," says jupiter, "will i often assemble all olympus and come down to visit the germans, to delight myself among their vines and fig-trees: and there will i set helicon on their borders and establish the muses anew thereon: germany will i bless with all plenty, yea, more than arabia felix, mesopotamia, and the land of damascus: then will i forswear the greek language, and only speak german; and, in a word, shew myself so good a german that in the end i shall grant to them, as once i did to the romans, the rule over all the earth." "but," said i, "great jupiter, what will princes and lords say to this, if this future hero so violently take from them their rights and hand them over to the towns? will they not resist with force, or at least protest against it before gods and men?" "the hero," answered jupiter, "will trouble himself little on that score: he will divide all the great into three classes: them which have lived wickedly and set an evil example he will punish together with the commons, for no earthly power can withstand his sword: to the rest he will give the choice whether to stay in the land or not. they that love their fatherland and abide must live like the commons, but the german people's way of living shall then be more plentiful and comfortable than is now the life and household of a king; yea, they shall be one and all like fabricius, that would not share king pyrrhus his kingdom because he loved his country and honour and virtue too much: and so much for the second class. but as to the third, which will still be lords and rulers, them will he lead through hungary and italy into moldavia, wallachia, into macedonia, thrace and greece, yea, over the hellespont into asia, and conquer these lands for them, give them as helpers all them that live by war in all germany, and make them all kings. then will he take constantinople in one day, and lay the heads of all turks that will not be converted and become obedient before their feet: then will he again set up the roman empire, and so betake himself again to germany, and with his lords of parliament (whom, as i have said, he shall choose in pairs from every city in germany, and name them the chiefs and fathers of his german fatherland) build a city in the midst of germany that shall be far greater than manoah[ ] in america, and richer than was jerusalem in solomon's time, whose walls shall be as high as the mountains of tirol and its ditches as broad as the sea between spain and africa. and there will he build a temple entirely of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, and in the treasury that he shall there build will he gather together rarities from the whole world out of the gifts that the kings in china and in persia, the great mogul in the east indies, the great khan of tartary, prester john in africa, and the great czar in muscovy will send to him. yea, the turkish emperor would be yet more ready to serve him if it were not that my hero will have taken his empire from him and given it as a fief to the roman emperor." then i asked my friend jupiter what in such case would become of the christian kings. so he answered, "those of england, sweden, and denmark (because they are of german race and descent), and those of spain, france, and portugal (because the germans of old conquered and ruled in those lands), shall receive their crowns, kingdoms, and incorporated lands in fee as fiefs of the german nation, and then will there be, as in augustus's time, a perpetual peace between all nations." _chap. v._: how he shall reconcile all religions and cast them in the same mould now jump-i'-th'-field, who also listened to us, had wellnigh enraged jupiter and spoiled the whole affair; for said he, "yea, yea; and then 'twill be in germany as in fairyland, where it rains muscatels and nought else, and where twopenny pies grow in the night like mushrooms: and i too shall have to eat with both cheeks full at once like a thresher, and drink myself blind with malvoisie." "yea, truly," said jupiter, "and that the more because i will curse thee with the undying hunger of erysichthon, for methinks thou art one of them that do deride my majesty," and to me said he, "i deemed i was among wood-spirits only: but meseems i have chanced upon a momus or a zoilus, the most envious creatures in the world. is one to reveal to such traitors the decrees of heaven and so to cast pearls before swine?" so i saw plainly he would not willingly brook laughter, and therefore kept down mine own as best i could, and "most gracious jupiter," said i, "thou wilt not, by reason of a rude forest-god's indiscretion, conceal from thy ganymede how things are further to happen in germany." "no, no," said he, "but i command this mocker, who is like to theon, to bridle his evil tongue in future, lest i turn him to a stone as mercury did battus. but do thou confess to me thou art truly my ganymede, and that my jealous juno hath driven thee from heaven in my absence." so i promised to tell him all when i should have heard what i desired to know. thereupon, "dear ganymede," says he, "for deny not that thou art he--in those days shall gold-making be as common in germany as is pot-making now, and every horse-boy shall carry the philosophers' stone about with him." "yea," said i, "but how can germany be so long in peace with all these different religions? will not the opposing clergy urge on their flocks and so hatch another war?" "no, no," says jupiter, "my hero will know how to meet that difficulty cleverly, and before all things to unite all christian religions in the world." "o wonderful," said i, "that were indeed a great work! how could it come about?" "i will with all my heart reveal it to thee," answered jupiter, "for after my hero hath made peace for all mankind he will address all the heads of the christian world both spiritual and temporal, in a most moving speech, and so excellently impress upon them their hitherto most pernicious divisions in belief, that of themselves they will desire a general reconciliation and give over to him the accomplishment of such according to his own great wisdom. then will he gather together the most skilful, most learned, and most pious theologians of all religions and appoint for them a place, as did once ptolemy for the seventy-two translators, in a cheerful and yet quiet spot, where one can consider weighty matters undisturbed, and there provide them all with meat and drink and all necessaries, and command them so soon as possible, and yet with the ripest and most careful consideration, first to lay aside the strifes that there be between their religions, and next to set down in writing and with full clearness the right, true, holy christian religion in accordance with holy writ; and with most ancient tradition, the recognised sense of the fathers. at which time pluto will sorely scratch his head as fearing the lessening of his kingdom: yea, and will devise all manner of plans and tricks to foist in an 'and,' and if not to stop the whole thing, yet at least to postpone it _sine die_, that is for ever. so will he hint to each theologian of his interest, his order, his peaceful life, his wife and child, and his privileges, and aught else that might sway his inclinations. but my brave hero also will not be idle: he will so long as this council shall last have all the bells in christendom rung, and so call all christian people to pray without ceasing to the almighty, and to ask for the sending of the spirit of truth. and if he shall see that one or another doth allow himself to be tempted by pluto, then will he plague the whole assembly with hunger as in a roman conclave, and if they yet delay to complete so holy a work, then will he preach them all a sermon through the gallows, or shew them his wonderful sword, and so first with kindness, but at last with severity and threats, bring them to come to the business in hand, and no longer as before to befool the world with their stiff-necked false doctrines. so when unity is arrived at, then will he proclaim a great festival and declare to the whole world this purified religion; and whosoever opposes it, him will he torment with pitch and sulphur or smear that heretic with box-grease and present him to pluto as a new year's gift. and now, dear ganymede, thou knowest all thou didst desire to know: and now tell me in turn the reason why thou hast left heaven, where thou hast poured me so many a draught of nectar." _chap. vi._: how the embassy of the fleas fared with jupiter now methought 'twas possible this fellow might be no such fool as he pretended, but might be serving me as i had served others in hanau to escape from us the better: so i determined to put him in a passion, for in such plight it is easiest to know a real madman; and says i, "the reason i am come down from heaven is that i missed thee there, and so took daedalus's wings and flew down to earth to seek thee. but when i came to ask for thee i found thee in all places but of ill repute; for zoilus and momus have throughout the world so slandered thee and all the other gods, and decried ye as wanton and stinking, that ye have lost all credit with mankind. thyself, say they, beest a lousy, adulterous caperer after woman-kind; how canst thou then, punish the world for such vices? vulcan they say is but a poltroon that let pass mars's adultery without proper revenge; and how can that halting cuckold forge any weapons of note? venus, too, is for her unchastity the most infamous baggage in the world: and how can she endow another with grace and favour? mars they say is but a murderer and a robber; apollo a shameless lecher; mercury an idle chatterer, thief and pander; priapus filth; hercules a brainsick ruffian; and, in a word, the whole crew of the gods so ill famed that they should of right be lodged nowhere but in augeas's stable, which even without them stinks in the nostrils of all the world." "aha;" says jupiter, "and who would wonder if i laid aside my graciousness and punished these wretched slanderers and blasphemous liars with thunder and lightning? how thinkest thou, my true and beloved ganymede, shall i curse these chatterers with eternal thirst like tantalus, or hang them up with that loose talker daphitas on mount thorax, or grind them with anaxarchus in a mortar, or set them in phalaris's red-hot bull of agrigent? nay, nay, ganymede: all these plagues and punishments together are too little: i will fill pandora's box anew and empty it upon the rogues' heads: then nemesis shall wake the furies and send them at their heels, and hercules shall borrow cerberus from pluto and hunt those wicked knaves with him like wolves, and when i have in this wise chased and tormented them enough, then will i bind them fast with hesiod and homer to a pillar in hell and there have them chastised for ever without pity by the furies." now while jupiter thus spake he began to make a hunt for the fleas he had upon him: for these, as one might perceive, did plague him sore. and as he did so he cried, "away with ye, ye little tormentors; i swear to ye by styx ye shall never have that, that ye so earnestly desire." so i asked him what he meant by such words. he answered, the nation of the fleas, as soon as they learned he was come on earth, had sent their ambassadors to compliment him: and there had complained to him that, though he had assigned to them the dogs' coats as a dwelling, yet on account of certain properties common to women, some poor souls went astray and trespassed on the ladies' furs; and such poor wandering creatures were by the women evil entreated, caught, and not only murdered, but first so miserably martyred and crushed between their fingers that it might move the heart of a stone. "yea," said jupiter further, "they did present their case to me so movingly and piteously that i must needs have sympathy with them and so promised them help, yet on condition i should first hear the women: to that they objected that if 'twas allowed to the women to plead their cause and to oppose them, they knew well they with their poisonous tongues would either impose upon my goodness and loving-kindness, and outcry the fleas themselves, or by their sweet words and their beauty would befool me and lead me astray to a wrong judgment. but if i must allow the women to hunt, catch, and with the hunters' privilege to slay them in their preserves, then their petition was that they might in future be executed in honourable wise, and either cut down with a pole-axe like oxen or snared like game, and no longer to be so scandalously crushed between the fingers and so broken on the wheel, by which means their own limbs were made instruments of torture." "gentlemen," said i, "ye must be greatly tormented when they thus tyrannise over ye." "yea, truly," said they, "they be so envious of us. is it right? can they not suffer us in their territories? for many of them so cleanse their lap-dogs with brushes, combs, soap and lye, and other like things, that we are compelled to leave our fatherland and to seek other dwellings." thereupon i allowed them to lodge with me and to make my person feel their presence, their ways and works, that i might judge accordingly: and then the rascally crew began so to plague me that, as ye have seen, i must again be rid of them. i will give them a privilege, but only this, that the women may squeeze them and crush them as much as they will: and if i catch any so pestilent a customer i will deal with him no better. _chap. vii._: how the huntsman again secured honour and booty now might we not laugh as heartily as we would, both because we must keep quiet and because this good fool liked it not: wherefore jump-i'-th'-field came nigh to burst. and just then our look-out man that we had posted in a tree called to us that he saw somewhat coming afar off. so i climbed the tree myself, and saw through my perspective-glass it must be the carriers for whom we lay in wait: they had no one on foot, but some thirty odd troopers for escort, and so i might easily judge they would not go through the wood wherein we lay, but would do their best to keep the open, and there we should have no advantage over them, though there was even there an awkward piece of road that led through the clearing some six hundred paces from us, and three hundred paces from the end of the wood or hill. now it vexed me to have lain there so long for nought, or at best to have captured only a fool; and so i quickly laid me another plan and that turned out well. for from our place of ambush there ran a brook in a cleft of the ground, which it was easy to ride along, down to the level country: the mouth of this i occupied with twenty men, took my post with them, and bade jump-i'-th'-field stay in the place where we had been posted to advantage, and ordered each one of my fellows, when the escort should come, that each should aim at his man, and commanded also that some should shoot and some should hold their fire for a reserve. some old veterans perceived what i intended and how i guessed that the escort would come that way, as having no cause for caution, and because certainly no peasant had been in such a place for a hundred years. but others that believed i could bewitch (for at that time i was in great reputation on that account) thought i would conjure the enemy into our hands. yet here i needed no devil's arts, only my jump-i'-th'-field; for even as the escort, riding pretty close together, was just about to pass by us, he began at my order to bellow most horribly like an ox, and to neigh like a horse; till the whole wood echoed therewith and any man would have sworn there were horses and cattle there. so when the escort heard that they thought to gain booty and to snap up somewhat, which yet was hard to find in such a country so laid waste. so altogether they rode so hard and disorderly into our ambush as if each would be the first to get the hardest blow, and this made them ride so close that in the first salute we gave them thirteen saddles were emptied, and some that fell were crushed under the horses' hoofs. then came jump-i'-th'-field leaping down the ravine and crying, "huntsman here!" at this the fellows were yet more terrified and so dismayed that they would ride neither backward, forward nor sideways, but leapt down and tried to escape on foot. yet i had them all seventeen prisoners with the lieutenant that had commanded them, and then attacked the waggons, where i unharnessed four-and-twenty horses, and yet got only a few bales of silk and holland: for i dared not spare the time to plunder the dead, far less to search the waggons well, for the waggoners were up and away on the horses as soon as the action began, and so might i be betrayed at dorsten, and caught again on the way back. so when we had packed up our plunder comes jupiter from the wood and cried to us, "would his ganymede desert him?" i answered him, yes, if he would not grant the fleas the privilege they demanded. "sooner," says he, "would i see them all lying in hell-fires." at that i must needs laugh, and because in any case i had horses to spare i had him set on one: yet as he could ride no better than a tailor, i must have him bound upon his horse: and then he told us our skirmish had reminded him of that of the lapithae and the centaurs at pirithous' wedding. so when all was over and we galloping away with our prisoners as if we were pursued, the lieutenant we had captured began to consider what a fault he had committed, as having delivered so bold a troop of riders into the hand of the enemy and given over thirteen brave fellows to be butchered, and so, being desperate, he refused the quarter i had given him, and would fain have compelled me to have him shot; for he thought that not only would this mistake turn to his great shame, and he be answerable, but also would hinder his advancement, even if it came not to this, that he must pay for his error with his head. so i talked with him and shewed him that with many a good soldier inconstant fortune had played her tricks; yet had i never seen any one that therefore had been driven desperate, and that so to act were a sign of faintheartedness: for brave soldiers were ever devising how to make up for losses sustained; nor should he ever bring me to break my plighted word or to commit so shameful a deed against all righteousness and against the custom and tradition of honourable soldiers. when he saw i would not do it he began to revile me in the hope to move me to anger, and said i had not fought with him honestly and openly, but like a rogue and a footpad, and had stolen the lives of his soldiers like a thief: and at this his own fellows that we had captured were mightily afraid, and mine so wroth that they would have riddled him like a sieve if i had allowed it; and i had enough to do to prevent it. yet i was in no wise moved at his talk, but called both friend and foe to witness of what happened, and had him bound and guarded as a madman, but promised him so soon as we came to our camp, and if my officers permitted, to equip him with mine own horses and weapons, of which he should have the choice, and prove to him in open field, with sword and pistol, that 'twas allowed in war to use craft against the adversary: and asked him why he had not stayed with the waggons, which he was ordered to do; or, if he must needs see what was in the wood, why he had not made a proper reconnaissance, which had been better for him than now to begin to play fool's tricks to which no one would take heed. herein both friend and foe approved me right, and said that among a hundred partisans they had never met one that would not for such words of reviling have not only shot the lieutenant dead, but would have sent all the prisoners to the grave after him. so next morning i brought my prisoners and plunder safely to soest, and gained more honour and fame from this foray than ever before: for each one said, "this will prove another young john de werth[ ]"; which tickled me greatly. yet would not the commandant permit me to exchange shots or to fight with the lieutenant: for he said i had twice overcome him. and the more my triumphs thus increased the more grew the envy of those that in any case would have grudged me my luck. _chap. viii._: how he found the devil in the trough, and how jump-i'-th'-field got fine horses now i could by no means be rid of my jupiter: for the commandant would have none of him, as a pigeon not worth the plucking, but said he made me a free gift of him. so now i had a fool of mine own and needed to buy none, though a year before i must needs allow others to treat me as such. so wondrous is fortune and so changeable the times! even now had the lice troubled me, and now had i the very god of fleas in my power; half a year before was i serving a miserable dragoon as page, and now i had command of two servants that called me master; and so i reflected at times that nothing is so certain in this world as its uncertainty. and so must i fear if ever fortune should let loose her hornets upon me it would altogether overwhelm my present happiness. now just then count von der wahl, as colonel in command of the westphalian circle, was collecting troops from all the garrisons to make a cavalry expedition through the bishopric of münster towards the vecht, meppen, lingen and such places, but specially to drive off two companies of hessian troopers in the bishopric of paderborn that lay two miles from the city and had there done our people much damage. so was i ordered out with our dragoons, and when a few troops had been collected at ham we beat up the quarters of the said troopers, which were but an ill-protected village, till the rest of our people came. they tried to escape, but we drove them back into their nest, and offered them to let them go without horse or weapons but with the clothes on their backs; to this they would not agree, but would defend themselves with their carbines like musqueteers. so it came to that, that in the same night i must try what luck i had in storming, for the dragoons led the way; and my luck was so good that i, together with jump-i'-th'-field, was among the first to come into the town, and that without hurt, and we soon cleared the streets; for all that bore arms were cut down, and the citizens had no stomach for fighting; so we entered the houses. then said jump-i'-th'-field, we should choose a house before which a big heap of dung stood, for in such the rich curmudgeons were wont to dwell, with whom commonly officers were billeted: on such a one we seized, and there jump-i'-th'-field would first visit the stable and i the house, on the condition each should share with the other whatever he could lay hands on. so then each lit his torch, and i called to the master of the house but had no answer, for all had hid themselves, but came upon a room wherein was nought but an empty bed and a covered kneading-trough. this i knocked open in hopes to find somewhat valuable, but as i raised the cover a coal-black thing rose up against me which i took for lucifer himself. nay, i can swear i was never in my life so terrified as i was then, when i so unawares beheld this black devil. "may all the powers of hell take thee," i cried in my fear, and raised my hatchet wherewith i had broke open the trough, yet had not the heart to split the creature's skull: so down he knelt, raised his hands to me, and says he, "o massa, i beg by de good god, gib me my life." with that i first knew 'twas no devil, for he spake of god and begged for his life; so i bade him get out of his trough: and that he did as naked as god made him. then i cut a piece of my torch off for him to light me, the which he did obediently, and brought me to a little room wherein i found the master of the house, who, together with his people, was looking on at this merry sight, and begged with trembling for mercy. and that he easily came by, for in any case we might not harm the burghers, and besides he handed me over the baggage of the hessian captain, among which was a fairly well-furnished, locked portmanteau, telling me the said captain and all his people, save one servant and the negro now present, were gone to their posts to defend themselves. meanwhile jump-i'-th'-field had made prize of the said servant and six fine saddle-horses in the stable: these we brought into the house, barred the doors, and bade the negro to put on his clothes; and told the burgher what story he should tell to his captain. but when the gate was opened and the posts occupied, and our general of ordnance, count von der wahl, was admitted, he lodged his staff in the very house where we were. so in dark night we must needs seek other quarters; and these we found with our comrades who had come in with the storming-parties: with them we made merry and spent the rest of the night in eating and drinking, when jump-i'-th'-field and i had divided our booty. for my share i received the negro and the two best horses, of which one was a spanish one, on which any soldier might meet his enemy, and with this thereafter i made no small show; but out of the portmanteau i got divers costly rings, and in a golden case set with rubies the prince of orange's portrait (for all the rest i left to jump-i'-th'-field), so that the whole, if i had desired to give it away, would with the horses have stood me in ducats: since for the negro, that was the poorest part of my booty, the master-general of ordnance to whom i presented him gave me two dozen thalers. thence we marched quickly to the ems, yet accomplished but little: and as it happened that we came near recklinghausen, i took leave, together with jump-i'-th'-field, to speak with my pastor from whom i had stolen the bacon. with him i made merry and told him the negro had made me feel the same terror which he and his cook had felt, and presented him, moreover, with a fine striking watch for a friendly remembrance, which i had had out of the captain's portmanteau: and so did i take care to make friends in all places of them that would otherwise have had cause to hate me. _chap. ix._: of an unequal combat in which the weakest wins the day and the conqueror is captured but with my good fortune my pride so increased that in the end it could bring me nothing but a fall. for as we were encamped some half-hour from rehnen, i had leave to go into the town with my dear comrade, there to have those arms furbished up which we had just received. and as it was our intent to be right merry with each other, we turned in to the best inn, and had minstrels sent for, to play our wine and beer down our throat. so we fell to drinking and roaring; and no sport was wanting, which could make the money fly: nay, i invited also lads from other regiments to be my guests, and so carried myself as a young prince who has command of land and folk and great sums to spend by the year. and thus we fared better than was pleasing to a company of troopers who sat there also at table, but with no such mad tricks as we. so, being angry, they began to jest upon us, "how comes it," said they to one another, "that these prop-hoppers[ ]" (for they took us for musqueteers, seeing that no animal in the world is more like a musqueteer than is a dragoon, and if a dragoon fall from his horse he rises up a musqueteer) "can make such a show with their halfpence?" "yonder lad," answered another, "is surely some straw-squire whose mother hath sent him the milk-pence, and those he now spends upon his comrades, that some time they may pull him out of the mud or through a ditch." with which words they aimed at me, for they took me for a young nobleman. of such talk the maid that waited brought me private news: yet since i heard it not myself, i could do no more than fill a great beer-glass with wine and let it go round to the health of all good musqueteers, and at every round made such a hubbub that none could hear himself speak. and this vexed them yet more, so that they said aloud, "what in the devil's name have these prop-hoppers for an easy life of it!" whereupon jump-i-'th'-field answered, "and what matters that to the bootblacks?" this passed well enough; for he looked so big and held so fierce and threatening a carriage that no one cared to give him the rub. yet he must again fall foul of them, and this time of a fellow of some consideration, who answered, "ay, and if these loiterers could not so swagger here on their own dung-hill (for he thought we lay there in garrison, because our clothes seemed not so weather-beaten as those of the poor musqueteers who must lie day and night in open field), where could they show themselves? who knows not that any of them in the battlefield is as surely the booty of the troopers as is the pigeon of the hawk?" but i answered him, "it is our business to take cities and fortresses, whereas ye troopers, if ye come but to the poorest rat's-nest of a town, can there drive no dog out of his den. why may we not then have your good leave to make merry in that which is more ours than yours?" the trooper answered, "him who is master in the field the fortresses must follow after: and that we troopers are masters in the field is proved by this: that i for myself not only fear not three such babes as thee, musquet and all, but could stick a couple such in my hat-band, and then ask the third where there were more to be found. and if i now sat by thee," said he with scorn, "i would bestow on my young squire a couple of buffets to prove the truth of this." "yea," said i, "and though i have as good a pair of pistols as thou, notwithstanding i am no trooper, but only a bastard between such and the musqueteers, yet, look you, even a child hath heart enough to shew himself alone in open field against such a bully on horseback as thou art, and against all thine armoury." "aha; thou swaggerer," said the fellow, "i hold thee for a rascal if thou make not good thy words forthwith as becomes an honourable nobleman." so i threw him my glove and, "see then," said i, "if i get this not from thee in fair field with my musquet only and on foot, so hast thou right and good leave to hold and to reproach me for such a one as thy presumption has even now named me." then we paid the reckoning and the trooper made ready his carbine and pistols, and i my musquet: and as he rode away with his comrades to the place agreed upon he told my comrade jump-i'-th'-field he might order my grave. so he answered him he had better give it in charge to one of his own fellows that he might order such for him. yet thereafter he rebuked me for my presumption, and said plainly he feared i should now play my last tune. but i did but laugh, for i had long since devised a plan how to encounter the best mounted of troopers, if ever such an one should attack me in the open field, though armed only with my musquet and on foot. so when we came to the place where this beggar's dance should be, i had my musquet already loaded with two balls, and put in fresh priming and smeared the cover of the pan with tallow as careful musqueteers be wont to do, to guard the touch-hole and powder in the pan from damp in rainy weather. before we engaged, our comrades on both sides agreed that we should fight in open field, and to that end that we should start, one from the east, the other from the west, in a fenced plot; and thereafter each should do his best against the other as a soldier would do in face of the enemy; and that no one should help either party before or during or after the fight, either to succour his comrade, or to avenge his death or hurt. so when they had thus engaged themselves with word and hand, i and my opposite gave each other our hand upon this, that each would forgive the other his death. in all which most unreasonable folly that ever a man of sense could entertain, each hoped to gain for his arm of the service the advantage, for all the world as if the entire honour and reputation of one or the other, depended upon the outcome of our devilish undertaking. now as i entered the stricken field at my appointed end with my match alight at both ends, and saw my adversary before my eyes, i made as if i shook out the old priming as i walked. yet i did not so, but spread priming powder only on the cover of the pan, blew up my match, and passed my two fingers over the pan, as is the custom, and before i could see the white of the eyes of my opposite, who kept me well in sight, i took aim, and set fire to the false priming powder on the cover of the pan. then the enemy, believing that my musquet had missed fire and that the touch-hole was stopped, rode straight down upon me pistol in hand, and all too anxious to pay me there and then for my presumption, but before he was aware i had the pan open and shut again, and gave him such a welcome that ball and fall came together. then i returned to my fellows, who received me with embraces; but his comrades, freeing his foot from the stirrup, dealt with him and with us as honest fellows, for they returned me my glove with all praise. but even when i deemed my reputation to be at its height, came five-and-twenty musqueteers from rehnen, who laid me and my comrades by the heels. then presently i was clapped in chains and sent to headquarters, for all duels were forbidden on pain of death. _chap. x._: how the master-general of ordnance granted the huntsman his life and held out hopes to him of great things now as our general of ordnance was wont to keep strict discipline, i looked to lose my head: yet had i hopes to escape, because i had at so early an age ever carried myself well against the enemy, and gained great name and fame for courage. yet was this hope uncertain because, by reason of such things happening daily, 'twas necessary to make an example. our men had but just beat up a dangerous nest of rats, and demanded a surrender, yet had received a denial; for the enemy knew we had no heavy artillery. for that reason count von der wahl appeared with all our force before the said place, demanded a surrender once more by a trumpeter, and threatened to storm the town. yet all he got thereby was the writing that here followeth: "high and well-born count, &c.,--from your excellency's letter to me i understand what you suggest to me in the name of his imperial roman majesty. now your excellency, with his great understanding, must be well aware how improper, nay unjustifiable, it were for a soldier to surrender a place like this to the adversary without especial necessity. for which reason your excellency will not, i hope, blame me if i wait till his means of attack are sufficient. but if your excellency have occasion to employ my small powers in any services but those touching my allegiance, i shall ever be, "your excellency's most obedient servant, "n. n." thereupon was much discussion in our camp about this place; for to leave it alone was not to be thought on: to storm it without a breach would have cost much blood, and 'twould have been uncertain even then whether we should succeed or not: and if we had to fetch our heavy pieces and all their equipment from münster and ham, 'twould cost much time, trouble, and expense. so while great and small were hard at work a-reasoning, it came into my head that i should use this opportunity to get free: so i set all my wits to work, and reflected how one might cheat the enemy, seeing 'twas only the cannon that were wanted. and pretty soon i had devised a trick and let my lieutenant-colonel know i had plans by which the place could be secured without trouble and expense, if only i could be pardoned and set free. yet some old and tried soldiers laughed and said, "drowning men catch at straws; and this good fellow thinks to talk himself out of gaol." but the lieutenant-colonel himself, with others that knew me, listened to my words as to an article of belief; wherefore he went himself to the master-general of the ordnance and laid before him my plan, with the recital, moreover, of many things that he could tell of me: and inasmuch as the count had already heard of the huntsman, he had me brought before him and for so long loosed from my bonds. he was set at table when i came, and my lieutenant-colonel told him how the spring before, having stood my first hour as sentry under st. james's gate at soest, a heavy rain with thunder and wind had suddenly come on, and when, each running from the fields and the gardens into the town, there was great press of foot and horse, i had had the wit to call out the guard, because in such a tumult a town was easiest to take. "at last," said the lieutenant-colonel further, "came an old woman dripping wet, and said even as she passed by the huntsman, 'yea, i have felt this storm in my back for a fortnight.' so the huntsman, hearing this and having a rod in his hand, smote her with it over the shoulder, and says he, 'thou old witch, couldst thou not let it loose before; must thou wait till i stood sentry?' and when his officer rebuked him he answered, 'she is rightly served: the old carrion crow had heard a month ago how all were crying out for rain: why did she not let honest folk have it before? it had been better for the barley and hops.'" at this the general, though he was in general a stern man, laughed heartily; but i thought, "if the colonel tell him of such fools' tricks, surely he will not have failed to speak of my other devices." so i was brought in, and when the general asked what was my plan i answered, "gracious sir, although my fault and your excellency's order and prohibition do both deny me my life, yet my most humble loyalty, which is due from me towards his imperial majesty, my most gracious lord, even to the death, bids me so far as lies in my weak power yet do the enemy a damage, and further the interests and arms of his majesty." so the general cut me short, and says he, "didst thou not lately give me the negro?" "yea, gracious sir," said i. then said he, "well, thy zeal and loyalty might perhaps serve to spare thy life: but what plan hast thou to bring the enemy out of this place without great loss in time and men?" so i answered, "since the town cannot resist heavy artillery, my humble opinion is that the enemy would soon come to terms if he did but really believe we had such pieces." "that," said the general, "a fool could have told me; but who will persuade them so to believe?" then i answered, "thine own eyes; i have examined their mainguard with a perspective-glass, and it can be easily deceived; if we did but set a few baulks of timber, shaped like water-pipes, on waggons, and haul them into the field with many horses, they will certainly believe they are heavy pieces, specially if your excellency will order works to be thrown up about the field as if to plant cannon there." "my dear little friend," answered the count, "they be not children in the town: they will not believe this pantomime, but will require to hear thy guns; and if the trick fail," says he to the officers that stood around, "we shall be mocked of all the world." but i answered, "gracious sir, an i can but have a pair of double musquets and a pretty large cask, i will make them to hear great guns: only beyond the sound there can be no further effect: but if against all expectation naught but mockery ensue, then shall i, the inventor, that must in any case die, take with me that mockery and purge it away with my life." yet the general liked it not, but my colonel persuaded him to it; for he said i was in such cases so lucky that he doubted not this trick would succeed: so the count ordered him to settle the matter as he thought it could best be done, and said to him in jest that the honour he should gain thereby should be reckoned to him alone. so three such baulks were brought to hand, and before each were harnessed four-and-twenty horses, though two had been sufficient: and these towards evening we brought up in full sight of the foe: and meanwhile i had gotten me three double musquets and a great cask from a mansion near at hand, and set all in order as i would have it: and by night this was added to our fool's artillery. the double musquets i charged twice over and had them discharged through the said cask, of which the bottom had been knocked out, as if it was three trial shots being fired. which sounded so thunderously that any man had sworn they were great serpents or demi-culverins. our general must needs laugh at such trickery, and again offered the enemy terms, with the addition that if they did not agree that same evening it would not go so easily with them the next day. thereupon hostages were exchanged and terms arranged, and the same night one gate of the town put into our hands, and this was well indeed for me: for the count not only granted me my life that by his order i had forfeited, but set me free the same night and commanded the lieutenant-colonel in my presence to appoint me to the first ensigncy that should fall vacant: which was not to his taste (for he had cousins and kinsmen many in waiting) that i should be promoted before them. _chap. xi._: contains all manner of matters of little import and great imagination on this expedition nothing more of note happened to me: but when i came again to soest i found the hessians from lippstadt had captured my servant that i had left to guard my baggage, together with one horse that was at pasture. from my servant the enemy learned of my ways and works, and therefore held me higher than before, as having been persuaded by common report i was but a sorcerer. he told them, moreover, he had been one of the devils that had so dismayed the huntsman of wesel in the sheep-fold: which when the said huntsman heard of, he was so shamed that he took to his heels again and fled from lippstadt to the hollanders. but it was my greatest good fortune that this servant of mine was taken, as will be seen in the sequel. now i began to behave myself somewhat more reputably than before, as having such fine hopes of presently being made ensign: so by degrees i joined company with officers and young noblemen that were eager for that office which i imagined i should soon get: for this reason these were my worst enemies, and yet gave themselves out to be my best friends: even the lieutenant-colonel was no longer so good to me; for he had orders to promote me before his own kindred. my captain was my enemy because i made a better show in horses, clothing, and arms than he, and no longer spent so much on the old miser as before. he had rather have seen my head hewn off than an ensigncy promised me: for he had thought to inherit my fine horses. in like manner my lieutenant hated me for a single word that i had lately without thought let slip: which came about thus: we two were on the last expedition ordered to a lonely post as vedettes: and as the turn to watch fell to me (which must be done lying down, besides that it was a pitch-dark night), the lieutenant comes to me creeping on his belly like a snake, and says he, "sentry, dost thou mark aught?" so i answered, "yea, herr lieutenant." and "what? what?" says he. i answered, "i mark that your honour is afeared." and from thenceforward i had no more favour with him. wherever the danger was greatest thither was i sent first of all; yea, he sought in all places and at all times to dust my jacket before i became ensign, and so could not defend myself. nor were the sergeants less my enemies, because i was preferred to them all. and as to the privates, they too began to fail in their love and friendship to me, because it seemed i despised them, inasmuch as i no longer consorted specially with them but, as aforesaid, with greater jacks, which loved me none the more. but the worst was that no man told me how each was minded towards me, and so i could not perceive it, for many a one talked with me in friendliest wise that had sooner seen me dead. so i lived like a blind man in all security and became ever haughtier: and though i knew it vexed this one and that if i made a greater show than noblemen and officers of rank, yet i held not back. i feared not to wear a collar of sixty rix-dollars, red-scarlet hose, and white satin sleeves, trimmed all over with gold, which was at that time the dress of the highest officers: and therefore an eyesore to all. yet was i a terrible young fool so to play the lord: for had i dealt otherwise and bestowed the money i so uselessly did hang upon my body in proper ways, i should have soon gained my ensigncy and also not have made so many enemies. yet i stopped not here, but decked out my best horse, which jump-i'-th'-field had gotten from the hessian captain, with saddle, bridle, and arms in such fashion that when i was mounted one might well have taken me for another st. george. and nothing grieved me more than to know i was no nobleman, and so could not clothe my servant and my horse-boys in my livery. yet, i thought, all things have their beginning; if thou hast a coat-of-arms then canst thou have thine own livery; and when thou art an ensign, thou must have a signet-ring, though thou art no nobleman. i was not long pregnant with these thoughts, but had a coat-of-arms devised for me by a herald, which was three red masks in a white field, and for a crest, a bust of a young jester in a calfskin with a pair of hare's ears, adorned with little balls in front: for i thought this suited best with my name, being called simplicissimus. and so would i have the fool to remind me in my future high estate what manner of fellow i had been in hanau, lest i should become too proud, for already i thought no small things of myself. and so was i properly the first of my name and race and escutcheon, and if any had jeered at me thereupon, i had without doubt presented him a sword or a pair of pistols. and though i had yet no thoughts of womenkind, yet all the same i went with the young nobles when they visited young ladies, of whom there were many in the town, to let myself be seen and to make a show with my fine hair, clothes, and plumes. i must confess that for the sake of my figure i was preferred before all, yet must i all the same hear how the spoilt baggages compared me with a fair and well-cut statue in which, beside its beauty, was neither strength nor sap; for that was all they desired in me: and except the lute-playing there was nothing i could do or perform to please them: for of love as yet i knew nothing. but when they that knew how to pay their court would gibe at me for my wooden behaviour and awkwardness, to make themselves more beloved and to show off their ready speech, then would i answer, 'twas enough for me if i could still find my pleasure in a bright sword or a good musquet, and the ladies held me right: and this angered the gentlemen so that they secretly swore to have my life, though there was none that had heart enough to challenge me or give me cause enough to challenge one of them, for which a couple of buffets or any insulting word had been sufficient; and i gave every chance for this by my loose talk, from which the ladies argued i must be a lad of mettle, and said openly my figure and my noble heart could plead better with any lady than all the compliments that cupid ever devised: and that made the rest angrier than ever. _chap. xii._: how fortune unexpectedly bestowed on the huntsman a noble present had two fine horses that were at that time all the joy i had in the world. every day i rode them in the riding-school or else for amusement, if i had naught else to do; not indeed that the horses had anything to learn, but i did it that people might see that the fine creatures belonged to me. and when i went pranking down a street, or rather the horse prancing under me, and the stupid multitude looking on and saying, "look, 'tis the huntsman! see what a fine horse! ah, what a handsome plume!" or "zounds! what a fine fellow is this!" i pricked up mine ears and was as pleased as if the queen of sheba had likened me to solomon in all his glory. yet, fool that i was, i heard not what perhaps at that time wise folk thought of me or mine enviers said of me: these last doubtless wished i might break my neck, since they could not do it for me: and others assuredly thought that if all men had their own i could not practise such foolish swaggering. in a word, the wisest must have held me without doubt for a young colin clout, whose pride would certainly not last long, because it stood upon a bad foundation and must be supported only by uncertain plunder. and if i must confess the truth, i must grant that these last judged not amiss, though then i understood it not, for 'twas this and only this with me: that i would have made his shirt warm for any man or adversary that had to deal with me, so that i might well have passed for a simple, good soldier though i was but a child. but 'twas this cause made me so great a man, that nowadays the veriest horse-boy can shoot the greatest hero in the world; and had not gunpowder been invented i must have put my pride in my pocket. now 'twas my custom in these rides to examine all ways and paths, all ditches, marshes, thickets, hills and streams, make myself acquainted with them and fix them in my memory, so that if one ever had occasion to skirmish with the enemy i might employ the advantage of the place both for defence and offence. to this end i rode once not far from the town by an old ruin where formerly a house had stood. at the first sight i thought this were a fit place to lay an ambush or to retreat to, specially for us dragoons if we should be outnumbered and chased by cavalry. so i rode into the courtyard, whose walls were pretty well ruined, to see if at a pinch one could take refuge there on horseback and how one could defend it on foot. but when to this end i would view all exactly and sought to ride by the cellar, the walls of which were still standing, i could neither with kindness nor force bring my horse, which commonly feared nought, to go where i would. i spurred him till i was vexed, but it availed not: so i dismounted and led him by the bridle down the ruined steps which he had shied at, so that i should know how to act another time: but he backed as much as he could; yet at length with gentle words and strokings i had him down, and while i patted and caressed him i found that he was sweating with fear, and ever staring into one corner of the cellar, into which he would by no means go, and in which i could see naught at which the most skittish beast could shy. but as i stood there full of wonder and looked upon my horse all a-tremble with fear, there came on me also such a terror that 'twas even as if i was dragged upwards by the hair and a bucket of cold water poured down my back; yet could i see nothing; but the horse acted more and more strangely, till i could fancy nothing else but that i was perhaps bewitched, horse and all, and should come by my end in that same cellar. so i would fain go back, but the horse would not follow, and thereat i grew more dismayed and so confused that in truth i knew not what i did. at last i took a pistol in my hand, and tied the horse to a strong elder-tree that grew in the cellar, intending to go forth and find people near by that could help to fetch the horse out; but as i was about this it came into my head that perchance some treasure lay hid in this old ruin, which was therefore haunted. to this conceit i gave heed, and looked round more exactly. and just in the place to which my horse refused to go i was ware of a part of the wall, unlike the rest both in colour and masonry, and about the bigness of a common chamber-shutter. but when i would approach 'twas with me as before, namely, that my hair stood on end; and this strengthened my belief that a treasure must there be hid. ten times, nay a hundred times, sooner would i have exchanged shots with an enemy than have found myself in such a terror. i was plagued and knew not by what: for i heard and saw naught. so i took the other pistol from the holster as meaning with it to go off and leave the horse, yet could i not again mount the steps, for as it seemed to me a strong draught of wind kept me back; and now i felt my flesh creep indeed. at last it came into my mind to fire the pistols that the peasants that worked in the fields close by might run to the spot and help me with word and deed. and this i did because i neither knew nor could think of any other means to escape from this evil place of wonders: and i was so enraged, or rather so desperate (for i knew not myself how 'twas with me), that as i fired i aimed my pistols at the very place wherein i believed the cause of my plight lay, and with both balls i hit the before-mentioned piece of the wall so hard that they made a hole wherein a man could set both his fists. now no sooner had i fired than my horse neighed and pricked up his ears, which heartily rejoiced me: i knew not whether 'twas because the goblin or spectre had vanished or because the poor beast was roused by the noise of fire-arms, but 'tis certain i plucked up heart again and went without hindrance or fear to the hole, which i had just opened by the shot; and there i began to break down the wall completely, and found of silver, gold, and jewels so rich a treasure as would have kept me in comfort to this day, if i had but known how to keep it and dispose of it well. there were six dozen old french silver table-tankards, a great gold cup, some double tankards, four silver and one golden salt-cellar, one old french golden chain, and divers diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires set in rings and in other jewellery; also a whole casquet full of pearls, but all spoiled or discoloured, and then in a mouldy leather bag eighty of the oldest joachim dollars of fine silver, likewise gold pieces with the french arms and an eagle, a coin which none could recognise, because, as folks said, no one could read the inscription. this money, with the rings and jewels, i strapped into my breeches-pockets, my boots and my holsters, and because i had no bag with me, since i had but ridden forth for pleasure, i cut the housing from my saddle, and into it i packed the silver vessels (for 'twas lined, and would serve me well as a sack), hung the golden chain round my neck, mounted my horse joyfully, and rode towards my quarters. but as i came out of the courtyard i was aware of two peasants, that would have run as soon as they saw me: yet having six feet and level country i easily overtook them, and asked why they would have fled and were so terribly afeared. so they said they had thought i was the ghost that dwelt in that deserted court, and if any came too near to him was wont to mishandle them miserably. then as i asked further of his ways, they told me that for fear of this monster 'twas often many years that no one came near that place, save some stranger that had lost his way and came thither by chance. the story went, they said, that an iron trough full of money lay within guarded by a black dog, and also a maiden that had a curse upon her; and to follow the old story they had themselves heard from their grandsires, there should come into the land a stranger nobleman that knew neither his father nor mother, and should rescue the maiden, and open the trough with a key of fire, and carry off the hidden gold. and of such foolish fables they told me many more; but because they are but ill to hear, i here cut them short for briefness. thereafter i did ask them what they too had been about, since at other times they dared not go into the ruin. they answered they had heard a shot and a loud cry; and had run up to see what was to do. but when i told them 'twas i that shot in the hope that people would come into the ruin, because i too was pretty much afeared, but knew nought of any cry, they answered, "there might be shots enough heard in that castle before any of our neighbourhood would come thither; for in truth 'tis so ghostly beset that we had not believed my lord if he had said he had been therein, an we had not ourselves seen him ride out thence." so then they would know many things of me, especially what manner of place it was within and whether i had not seen the damsel and the black dog sitting on the iron trough, so that if i had desired to brag i could have put strange fancies into their heads: but i said not the least word, not even that i had gotten the costly treasure, but rode away to my quarters and looked upon my find, which mightily delighted me. _chap. xiii._: of simplicissimus' strange fancies and castles in the air, and how he guarded his treasure now they that know the worth of money, and therefore take it for their god, have no little reason on their side; for if there be a man in the world that hath experienced its powers and wellnigh divine virtues, that man am i. for i know how a man fares that hath a fair provision thereof; yet have i never yet known how he should feel that had never a farthing in his pouch. yea, i could even take upon me to prove that this same money possesses all virtues and powers more than any precious stones; for it can drive away all melancholia like the diamond: it causeth love and inclination to study, like the emerald (for so comes it that commonly students have more money than poor folk's children): it taketh away fear and maketh man joyful and happy like unto the ruby: 'tis often an hindrance to sleep, like the garnet: on the other hand, it hath great power to produce repose of mind and so sleep, like the jacinth: it strengtheneth the heart and maketh a man jolly and companionable, lively and kind, like the sapphire and amethyst: it driveth away bad dreams, giveth joy, sharpeneth the understanding, and if one have a plaint against another it gaineth him the victory, like the sardius (and in especial if the judge's palm be first well oiled therewith): it quencheth unchaste desire, for by means of gold one can possess fair women: and in a word, 'tis not to be exprest what gold can do, as i have before set forth in my book intituled "black and white," if any man know how rightly to use and employ this information. as to mine own money that i had then brought together, both with robbery and the finding of this treasure, it had a special power of its own: for first of all it made me prouder than i was before, so much so that it vexed me to the heart that i must still be called "simplicissimus" only. it spoiled my sleep like the amethyst: for many a night i lay awake and did speculate how i could put it out to advantage and get more to put to it. yea, and it made me a most perfect reckoner, for i must calculate what mine uncoined silver and gold might be worth, and adding this to that which i had borrowed here and there, and which yet was in my purse, i found without the precious stones a fine overplus. yet did my money prove to me its inborn roguery and evil inclination to temptation, inasmuch as it did fully expound to me the proverb "he that hath much will ever have more," and made me so miserly that any man might well have hated me. from my money i got many foolish plans and strange fancies in my brain, and yet could follow out no conceit of all that i devised. at one time i thought i would leave the wars and betake myself somewhither and spend my days in fatness a-looking out of the window; but quickly i did repent me of that, and in especial because i considered what a free life i now led and what hopes i had to become a great jack. and then my thought was this, "up and away, simplicissimus, and get thyself made a nobleman and raise thine own company of dragoons for the emperor at thine own cost: and presently thou art a perfected young lord that with the times can rise yet higher." yet as soon as i reflected that this my greatness could be made small by any unlucky engagement, or be ended by a peace that should bring the war soon to a finish, i could not find this plan to my taste. so then i began to wish i had my full age as a man: for hadst thou that, said i to myself, thou couldst take a rich young wife, and so buy thee a nobleman's estate somewhere and lead a peaceful life. there would i betake myself to the rearing of cattle and enjoy my sufficiency to the full: yet as i knew i was too young for this, i must let that plan go by the board also. such and the like conceits had i many, till at last i resolved to give over my best effects to some man of substance in some safe town to keep, and to wait how fortune would further deal with me. now at that time i had my jupiter still with me: for indeed i could not be rid of him: and at times the man could talk most reasonably and for weeks together would be sane and sober: but above all things he held me dear for my goodness to him; and seeing me in deep thought he says to me, "dear son, give away your blood-money; gold, silver, and all." "and why?" said i, "dear jupiter?" "oh," says he, "to get you friends and be rid of your useless cares." to which i answered, "i would fain have more of such." then says he, "get more: but in such fashion will ye never in your life have more friends nor more peace: leave it to old misers to be greedy, but do ye so behave as becomes a fine young lad: for ye shall sooner lack good friends than good money." so i pondered on the matter, and found that jupiter reasoned well of the case: yet greed had such hold on me that i could not resolve to give away aught. yet i did at last present to the commandant a pair of silver-gilt double tankards and to my captain a couple of silver salt-cellars, by which i achieved nothing more than to make their mouths water for the rest: for these were rare pieces of antiquity. my true comrade jump-i'-th'-field i rewarded with twelve rix-dollars; who in return advised me i should either make away with my riches or else expect to fall into misfortune by their means: for, said he, it liked the officers not that a common soldier should have more money than they: and he himself had known this: that one comrade should secretly murder another for the sake of money: till now, said he, i had been able to keep secret what i had gotten in booty, for all believed i had spent it on clothes, horses, and arms: but now i could conceal nought nor make folks believe i had no secret store of money: for each one made out the treasure i had found to be greater than it was: and yet i spent not so much as before. nor could he help but hear what rumours went about among the men: and were he in my place he would let wars be wars: would settle himself in safety somewhere, and let our lord god rule the world as he will. but i answered, "harkye, brother, how can i throw to the winds my hopes of an ensigncy?" "yea, yea," says jump-i'-th'-field, "but devil take me if thou ever get thine ensigncy. the others that wait for it would help to break thy neck a thousand times over if they saw that such a post was vacant and thou to have it. teach me not how to know salmon from trout, for my father was a fisherman! and be not angry with me, brother, for i have seen how it fares in war longer than thou. seest thou not how many a sergeant grows grey with his spontoon that deserved to have a company before many others. thinkest thou they are not fellows that have some right to hope? and indeed they have more right to such promotion than thou, as thou thyself must confess." nor could i answer aught, for jump-i'-th'-field did but speak the truth from an honest german heart, and flattered me not: yet must i bite my lip in secret: for i thought at that time mighty well of myself. yet i weighed this speech and that of my jupiter full carefully, and considered that i had no single natural-born friend that would help me in straits or would revenge my death open or secret. and i myself could see plain enough how it stood with me: yet neither my desire of honour nor of money would leave me: and still less my hope to become great, to leave the wars, and to be in peace; nay, rather i held to my first plan; and when a chance offered for cologne, whither i, with some hundred dragoons, was ordered to convoy certain carriers and waggons of merchandise from münster, i packed up my treasure, took it with me, and gave it in charge to one of the first merchants of that city to be drawn out on production of an exact list of the things. now it was seventy-four marks of uncoined silver, fifteen marks of gold, eighty joachim dollars, and in a sealed casquet divers rings and jewels, which, with gold and precious stones, weighed eight and a half pounds in all, together with ancient golden coins that were worth each a gold gulden and a half. with me i took my jupiter, as he desired it, and had kinsfolk of repute in cologne: to whom he boasted of the good turns i had done him and caused me to be received of them with great honour. yet did he never cease to counsel me that i should bestow my money better and buy myself friends that would be of more service to me than money in my purse. _chap. xiv._: how the huntsman was captured by the enemy so on the journey home i pondered much how i should carry myself in future, so that i might get the favour of all: for jump-i'-th'-field had put a troublesome flea in my ear, and had made me to believe i was envied of all: and in truth 'twas no otherwise. and now came into my mind what the famous prophetess of soest had once said,[ ] and so i burdened myself with yet greater cares. yet with these thoughts did i sharpen my wit, and perceived that a man that should live without cares would be dull as any beast. then i considered for what reason one and the other might hate me, and how i might deal with each to have his goodwill again, yet most of all must i wonder how men could be so false and yet give me nought but good words whereas they loved me not. for that cause i determined to deal as others did, and to say what would please each, yea, to approach every man with respect though i felt it not: for most of all i felt 'twas mine own pride had burdened me with the most enemies. therefore i held it needful to shew myself humble again, though i was not, and to consort again with common folk, but to approach my betters hat in hand and to refrain from all finery in dress till my rank should be bettered. from the merchant in cologne i had drawn dollars, to repay the same with interest when he should return my treasure: these hundred dollars i was minded to spend on the way for the behoof of the escort, as now perceiving that greed makes no friends, and therefore was resolved on this very journey to alter my ways and make a new beginning. yet did i reckon without mine host; for as we would pass through the duchy of berg there waited for us in a post of vantage eighty musqueteers and fifty troopers, even when i was ordered forward with four others and a corporal to ride in front and to spy out the road. so the enemy kept quiet when we came into the ambush and let us pass, lest if they had attacked us the convoy should be warned before they came into the pass where they were: but after us they sent a cornet and eight troopers that kept us in sight till their people had attacked our escort itself, and we turned round to protect the waggons: at which they rode down upon us and asked, would we have quarter. now for my part i was well mounted: for i had my best horse under me: yet would i not run, but rode up a little hillock to see if honour was to be had by fighting. yet i was presently aware, by the noise of the volley that our people received, what o'clock it was, and so disposed myself to flight. but the cornet had thought of all, and already cut off our retreat, and as i was preparing to cut my way through he once again offered me quarter, for he thought me an officer. so i considered that to make sure of one's life is better than an uncertain hazard, and therefore asked, would he keep his promise of quarter as an honest soldier: he answered, "yes, honestly." so i presented him my sword and rendered myself up a prisoner. at once he asked me of what condition i was: for he took me for a nobleman and therefore an officer. but when i answered him, i was called the huntsman of soest, "then art thou lucky," says he, "that thou didst not fall into our hands a month ago: for then could i have given thee no quarter, since then thou wast commonly held among our people for a declared sorcerer." this cornet was a fine young cavalier and not more than two years older than i, and was mightily proud to have the honour of taking the famous huntsman: therefore he observed the promised quarter very honourably and in dutch fashion, which is to take from their spanish prisoners of war nothing that they carry under their belt: nay, he did not even have me searched; but i had wit enough to take the money out of my pockets and present it to him when they came to a division of spoils; and also i told the cornet secretly to look to it that he got as his share my horse, saddle, and harness, for he would find thirty ducats in the saddle, and the horse had hardly his equal anywhere. and for this cause the cornet was as much my friend as if i had been his own brother: for at once he mounted my horse and set me on his own. but of the escort no more than six were dead, and thirteen prisoners, of whom eight were wounded: the rest fled and had not heart enough to retake the booty from the enemy in fair field, the which they could have done, as being all mounted men against infantry. now when the plunder and the prisoners had been shared, the swedes and hessians (for they were from different garrisons) separated the same evening. but the cornet kept me and the corporal, together with three other dragoons, as his share because he had captured us: and so were we brought to a fortress which lay but a few miles from our own garrison.[ ] and inasmuch as i had raised plenty of smoke in that town before, my name was there well known and i myself more feared than loved. so when we had the place in sight the cornet sent a trooper in advance to announce his coming to the commandant, and to tell him how he had fared and who the prisoners were, whereat there was a concourse in the town that was not to be described, for each would fain see the huntsman. one said this of me, and another that; and the sight was for all the world as if some great potentate had made his entry. but we prisoners were brought straight to the commandant, who was much amazed at my youth; and asked, had i never served on the swedish side, and of what country i was: and when i told him the truth he would know if i had no desire to serve again on their side. i answered him that in other respects 'twas to me indifferent: but that i had sworn an oath to the emperor and therefore methought 'twas my duty to keep such. thereupon he ordered us to be taken to the prize-master, but allowed the cornet, at his request, to treat us as his guests, because i had before so treated mine own prisoners and among them his own brother. so when evening was come there was a gathering both of soldiers of fortune and cavaliers of birth at the cornet's quarters, who sent for me and the corporal: and there was i, to speak the truth, extraordinary courteously entreated by them. i made merry as if i had lost nothing, and carried myself as confidently and open-hearted as i had been no prisoner in the hands of my enemy but among my best friends. yet i shewed myself as modest as might be; for i could well imagine that my behaviour would be noted to the commandant, which was so, as i afterwards learned. next day we prisoners, one after another, were brought before the regimental judge-advocate-general, who examined us, the corporal first, and me second. but as soon as i entered the room he was filled with wonder at my youth, and to cast it in my teeth, "my child," says he, "what have the swedes done to thee that thou shouldst fight against them?" now this angered me: for i had seen as young soldiers among them as i was: so i answered, "the swedes had robbed me of my coral and bells and my baby's rattle, and i would have them back." and as i thus paid him back in his own coin, the officers that sat by him were shamed, insomuch that one of them began to say to him in latin he should treat me seriously, for he could hear that it was no child that he had before him. in that i was ware that his name was eusebius; for the officer so addressed him. so presently when he had asked my name, and i had told him, "there is no devil in hell," says he, "that is called simplicissimus." "nay," answered i, "and 'tis like there is none named eusebius." and so i paid him back like our old muster-clerk cyriack; yet this pleased not the officers, who bade me remember i was their prisoner, and was not brought there to pass jests. at this reproof i blushed not, but answered: inasmuch as they held me prisoner like a soldier, and would not let me run away like a child, i had taken care that they should not make sport with me as with a child: as i had been questioned, so had i answered and hoped i had done no wrong therein. so they asked me of my country and my family, but especially if i had never served on the swedish side: item, how it was with the garrison of soest: how strong it was, and all the rest. to all which i answered quick and short and well, and in respect of soest and its garrison as much as i could confidently state: yet i might well keep silence concerning my life as a jester, for of this i was ashamed. _chap. xv._: on what condition the huntsman was set free meanwhile 'twas known at soest how it had fared with the convoy, how i and the corporal had been captured and whither we had been taken; and therefore next day came a drummer to fetch us back: whereupon the corporal and the three others were delivered up, together with a letter to the following purport (for the commandant sent it to me to read): "monsieur, etc.,--by the bearer, your tambour, your message hath been delivered: and in answer thereto i restore herewith, in return for ransom received, the corporal and the three other prisoners: but as concerns simplicissimus, called the huntsman, the same cannot be allowed to return, as having once served on this side. but if i can serve your honour in any matters short of those touching my allegiance, you have in me a willing servant, and as such i remain, "your honour's obedient servant, "[daniel] de s[aint] a[ndrÉ]."[ ] now this letter did not half please me, yet i must return thanks to him for suffering me to see it. but when i asked to speak with the commandant i received answer he would himself send for me as soon as he had despatched the drummer, which should be done next morning: till then i must be patient. so when i had waited the appointed time, the commandant sent for me, and that just at dinner-time, and then for the first time the honour fell to me of sitting at table with him. and so long as the meal lasted he drank to my health and said no word, great or small, of the business he had with me; nor was it my part to begin. but the meal now ended and i being somewhat fuddled, says he, "my friend the huntsman, ye will have understood from my letter under what pretext i have kept ye here: and indeed i intend no wrong or anything contrary to reason and the usage of war, for yourself have confessed to me and the judge-advocate that you once served on our side in the main army, and therefore must resolve yourself to take service under my command. and in time, if ye behave yourself well, i will so advance you as ye could never have hoped for among the imperials, otherwise ye must not take it ill if i send you to that lieutenant-colonel from whom the dragoons before captured you." to which i answered, "worshipful colonel" (for at that time 'twas not the usage that soldiers of fortune were entitled "your honour" even though they were colonels), "i hope, since i am bound by oath neither to the crown of sweden nor its confederates, and still less to that lieutenant-colonel, that i am therefore not bound to take service with the swedes and so to break the oath which i swore to the emperor, and therefore beg the worshipful colonel with all humility to be good enough to relieve me from such a proposal." "how?" says the colonel, "do ye despise the swedish service? i would have you to know ye are my prisoner, and sooner than let you go to soest to do the enemy service i will bring you to another trial, or let you rot in prison." and so, said he, i might lay my account. truly at these words i was afeared, yet would not yet give in, but answered, god would protect me both from such despiteful treatment and from perjury: for the rest, i persisted in my humble hope that the colonel would, according to his known reputation, deal with me as with a soldier. "yea," said he, "i know well how i could treat ye if i would be strict; but be ye better advised, lest i find cause to shew you other countenance." and with that i was led back to the prison. and now can any man easily guess that i slept not much that night, but had all manner of thoughts: and next morning came certain officers with the cornet that had taken me, under colour of passing the time, but in truth to tell me that the colonel was minded to have me tried as a sorcerer if i would not otherwise be content. so would they have terrified me, and found out what my powers were: yet as i had the comfort of a good conscience, i took all coolly and said but little, as seeing well that the colonel cared for nothing but this: that he would fain have me no more at soest. and well might he suppose that if he once let me go i should not leave that place, where i hoped for promotion, and moreover had two fine horses there and other things of price. next day he had me brought to him again and asked, had i resolved otherwise. so i answered, "colonel, to this i am determined, that i will sooner die than be perjured. yet if the worshipful colonel will set me free and be pleased not to call upon me to do any warlike service, then will i promise him with heart, mouth, and hand to bear and use no arms against the swedes and hessians for the space of six months." to that he agreed at once, gave me his hand upon it, and forgave me my ransom; further, he commanded his secretary to draw up an agreement to that effect in duplicate, which we both subscribed, wherein he promised me protection and all freedom so long as i should remain in the fortress entrusted to him. on the other hand, i bound myself to the two points above named, videlicet: that i, so long as i should sojourn in the said fortress, would neither undertake anything to the hurt of the garrison and its commander, nor would conceal aught that was intended to their prejudice and damage, but would much more further their profit and benefit, and prevent any damage to them to the best of my ability--yea, that if the place were attacked i should and would help to defend it. thereupon he kept me to dine with him again, and shewed me more honour than i could in all my lifetime have looked for from the imperials: and so by little and little he won me over, till i would not have returned to soest even if he had let me go thither and had accounted me free from my promise. _chap. xvi._: how simplicissimus became a nobleman when a thing is to be, all things shape themselves to that end. now did i conceive that fortune had taken me to husband, or at least bound herself so close to me that the most contrary happenings must turn out to my profit: as when i learned at the commandant's table that my servant with my two fine horses had come from soest. but i knew not (what at last i found) that tricky fortune hath the sirens' art, who do shew themselves kindest to those to whom they wish most harm, and so doth raise a man the higher but for this end: to cast him down the deeper. now this servant, which i had before captured from the swedes, was beyond measure true to me, who had done him great kindnesses. he therefore had saddled my two horses and rode out a good way from soest to meet the drummer that should bring me back, that not only i might not have to walk so far, but also that i might not have to return to soest naked or in rags: for he conceived i had been stripped. so when he met the drummer and the rest of the prisoners there he had my best clothing in a pack. but when he saw me not, but understood i was kept back to take service with the adversary, he set spurs to his horse and says he, "adieu, tambours, and you too. corporal: where my master is there will i be also," so he escaped and came to me at the very time when the commandant had set me free and was shewing me such great honour: who thereupon bestowed my horses in an inn till i could find for myself a lodging to my liking, and called me fortunate by reason of my servant's faith, yet wondered that i, as a common dragoon, and so young to boot, should possess such fine horses and be so well equipped; nay, when i had taken leave and would go to my inn he praised one horse so loudly that i marked well he would fain have bought him from me. yet because from modesty he ventured not to make a bid, i said if i might beg for the honour of his keeping the horse it was at his service. but he refused roundly, more because i was fairly tipsy, and he would not have the reproach of talking a present out of a drunken man, who might thereafter repent of it, than because he would not fain have had that noble horse. that night i did consider how i would order my life in time to come; and did decide to remain for the six months even where i was, and so in peace to spend the winter which was now at hand, for which i knew i had money enough for my purposes, without breaking into my treasure at cologne. "in so long a time," thought i, "thou wilt be full grown and come to thy full strength, and so canst thou next spring take the field with more boldness among the emperor's troops." early next morning i reviewed my saddle, which was far better lined than the one i had presented to the cornet: and later on i had my horse led to the colonel's quarters and told him: as i had determined to spend the six months in which 'twas forbidden me to fight, peaceably and under the colonel's protection, here, my horses were of no use to me, which yet 'twere pity should be spoiled, and therefore begged him that he would consent to grant this charger here present a place among his own horses, and accept the same from me as a mark of grateful acknowledgment of favours received, and that without scruple. the colonel returned me thanks with great civility and very courteous offers of service, and the same afternoon sent me by his steward one fat ox alive, two fat pigs, a hogshead of wine, two hogsheads of beer, twelve cords of firewood; all which he caused to be brought to me in front of my new lodging, which i had even now hired for half a year, and sent a message: that as he saw i was to live with him, and could easily conceive that i was at first ill-provided with victual, he had therefore sent me for household use a draught of wine and a joint of meat, together with the fuel to cook the same: with this in addition, that whereinsoever he could help me he would not fail. for which i returned thanks as civilly as i could: presented the steward with two ducats, and begged him to commend me to his master. so when i saw i had gained such credit with the colonel for my liberality, i thought to earn praise also among the common folk, that none should take me for a mere malingerer: to that end i had my servant called before me in presence of my landlord, and "friend nicolas," said i, "thou hast shewn me more faithfulness than any master can expect from his servant; but now, when i know not how to make it up to thee, as having no master and no leave to fight, wherefrom i might gain booty enough to reward thee as i would fain do, and in respect also of the peaceful life which i do intend henceforth to live, and therefore do need no servitor, i herewith give thee as thy pay the other horse, with saddle, harness and pistols, with the request that thou wouldst be content for the present to seek another master. and if i hereafter can serve thee in any way, do thou not fail to ask me." with that he kissed my hands and for tears could not speak, but would by no means have the horse, but held it better i should turn it into money to use for my maintenance. yet at last i persuaded him to take it, after i had promised to take him again into my service so soon as i should need a man. at this parting my landlord was so moved that his eyes also filled with tears: and as my servant exalted me among the soldiers for this action, so did my landlord among the citizens. as to the commandant, he held me for so determined a fellow that he would have ventured to build upon my word, since i did not only truly keep the oath i had sworn to the emperor, but in order to keep that other promise, which i had made to himself, with great strictness had rid myself of my fine horses, my arms, and my most faithful servant. _chap. xvii._: how the huntsman disposed himself to pass his six months: and also somewhat of the prophetess i do think there is no man in the world that hath not a bee in his bonnet, for we be all men of one mould and by mine own fruits i can mark how others' ripen. oh coxcomb! say you; if thou beest a fool, thinkest thou others must be too? nay, that were to say too much: but this i maintain, that one man can hide his folly better than another. nor is a man a fool because he hath foolish fantasies, for in youth we do all have the like: and he that lets those fantasies run loose is held to be a fool because others keep the fool concealed, and others do but shew the half of him. they that keep such whims under altogether be but peevish fellows, but they that now and then allow them (as time affords an opportunity) to shew their ears and put their heads out of window to get air lest they be choked, these i hold for the best and wisest men. mine own fantasies i let forth only too far, as seeing myself so free and well provided with money; so that i took me a lad whom i clothed as a nobleman's page, and that in the most fantastic colours, to wit, light brown bordered with yellow, which must be my livery, for so i fancied it: and he must wait upon me as if i were a nobleman and not until just before a common dragoon; yea, and half a year before a poor horse-boy. now this, the first folly i committed in this town, though 'twas pretty gross, yet was remarked by none, much less blamed. but why? the world is so full of such fooleries that none marks them now, nor laughs at them, nor wonders at them, for all are used to them. and so was i held for a wise and good soldier, and not for a fool only fit for baby's shoes. then i bargained with my landlord for the feeding of my page and myself, and gave him, as payment on account, what the commandant had presented to me, as far as concerns food and fuel: but for the drink my page must keep the key, for i was very willing to give of such to all that visited me. and since i was neither citizen nor soldier, and therefore had no equals that were bound to keep me company, i consorted with both sides, and therefore daily found comrades enough; and these i sent not away dry. among the citizens i had most friendship with the organist, for music i loved and, without bragging, had an excellent voice which i had no mind to let rust: this man taught me how to compose, and to play better upon that instrument, as also upon the harp: on the lute i was already a master; so i got me one of mine own and daily diverted myself with it. and when i was tired of music i would send for that furrier that had instructed me in the use of all arms in paradise, and with him exercised myself to be yet more perfect. also i obtained leave from the commandant that one of his artillerymen should instruct me in gunnery and something of artillery-practice for a proper reward. for the rest, i kept myself quiet and retired, so that people wondered, seeing how i, that had been used to plunder and bloodshed, now sat always over my books like a student. but my host was the commandant's spy and my keeper, for well i noted that he reported to him all my ways and works; but that suited me well enough, for of warfare i had never a thought, and if there was talk of it i behaved myself as i had never been a soldier, and was only there to perform my daily exercises, of which i but now made mention. 'tis true i wished my six months at an end: yet could no man guess which side i would then serve. as often as i waited on the colonel he would have me to dine with him: and then at times the converse was so arranged that my intention might be known therefrom: but ever i answered so discreetly that none could know what i did mean. so once when he said to me, "how is't with ye, huntsman? will ye not yet turn swede? an ensign of mine is dead yesterday," i made answer, "worshipful colonel, seeing that it is but decent for a woman not to marry at once again after her husband's death, should i not also wait my six months?" in such fashion i escaped every time, and gained the colonel's good will more and more; so much so that he allowed me to take my walks both inside and outside the fortress: yea, at last i might hunt the hares, partridges, and birds, which was not permitted to his own soldiers. likewise did i fish in the lippe, and was so lucky at that, that it seemed as if i could conjure both fish and crayfish out of the water. for this i caused to be made a rough hunting-suit only, in which i crept by night into the territory of soest and collected my hidden treasures from here and there, and brought them to the said fortress, and so behaved as if i would for ever dwell among the swedes. by the same way came the prophetess of soest to me and said, "lookye, my son, did i not counsel thee well before that thou shouldst hide thy money outside the town of soest? i do assure thee 'tis thy greater good luck to have been captured: for hadst thou returned to soest, certain fellows that had sworn thy death, because thou wast preferred to them among the women, would have murdered thee in thy hunting." so i asked, "how could any be jealous of me, that meddled with women not at all?" "oh," says she, "of that opinion that thou art now, wilt thou not long remain: or the women will drive thee out of the country with mockery and shame. thou hast ever laughed at me when i foretold thee aught: wouldest thou once more refuse to believe me if i told thee more? dost thou not find in the place where thou art better friends than in soest? i do swear to thee they hold thee only too dear, and that such exceeding love will turn to thy harm, if thou submit not to it." so i answered her, if she truly knew so much as she gave out, she should reveal to me how it stood with my parents and whether i should ever in my life come to them again: she should not be so dark in her sayings, but out with it in good german. thereupon she said i might ask after my parents when my foster-father should meet me unawares, and lead my wet-nurse's daughter by a string: with that she laughed loud, and at the end said, she had of her own accord told to me more than to others that had begged it of her. but as i began to jest upon her she quickly took herself away, after i had presented her with a few thalers; for i had more silver coin than i could easily carry, having at that time a pretty sum of money and many rings and jewels of great price: for before this, whenever i heard of precious stones among the soldiers, or found such on expeditions or elsewhere, i bought them, and that for less than half the money they were worth. such treasures did always cry aloud to me to let them be seen in public: and i did willingly obey, for being of a pretty proud temper, i made a show with my wealth and feared not to let mine host see it, who made it out to others as greater than it was. and they did wonder whence i had gathered it all together, it being well known that i had made deposit at cologne of the treasure i had found, for the cornet had read the merchant's receipt when he took me prisoner. _chap. xviii._: how the huntsman went a wooing, and made a trade of it my intent to learn artillery practice and fencing in these six months was good, and that i knew: yet 'twas not enough to protect me from idleness, which is the root of many evils, and especially ill for me because i had no one to command me. 'tis true i sat industriously over books of all sorts, from which i learned much good: but a few came into my hands which were as good for me as grass for a sick dog. the incomparable "arcadia," from which i sought to learn eloquence, was the first book that led me aside from good stories to books of love and from true history to romances of chivalry. such sort of books i collected wherever i could, and when i found one i ceased not till i had read it through, though i should sit day and night over it. but these taught me, instead of eloquence, to practise lechery. yet was such desire at no time so violent and strong that one could, with seneca, call it a divine frenzy or, as it is described in thomas thomai's "forest garden," a serious sickness. for where i took a fancy there i had what i desired easily and without great trouble: and so had i no cause to complain as other wooers and lechers have had, which are chock full of fantastic thoughts, troubles, desires, secret pangs, anger, jealousy, revenge, madness, tears, bragging, threats and numberless other follies, and for sheer impatience wish for death. for i had money and was not too careful of it, and besides i had a fine voice, which daily i exercised with all manner of instruments. instead of shewing my bodily skill in the dance, which i did never love, i did display it in fencing, engaging with my furrier: moreover, i had a fine smooth face, and did practise myself in a certain gracious amiableness, so that the women, even those that i did not greatly seek after, did of themselves run after me, and that more than i desired. about this time came martinmas: then with us germans begins the eating and swilling, and that feast is full conscientiously observed till shrovetide: so was i invited to different houses, both among the officers and burghers, to help eat the martinmas goose. so 'twas that on such occasions i made acquaintance with the ladies. for my lute and my songs made all to look my way, and when they so looked, then was i ready to add such charming looks and actions to my new love-songs (which i did myself compose) that many a fair maid was befooled, and ere she knew it was in love with me. yet lest i should be held for a curmudgeon i gave likewise two banquets, one for the officers and one for the chief citizens, by which means i gained me favour of both parties and an entry to their houses; for i spared no expense in my entertainment. but all this was but for the sake of the sweet maids, and though i did not at once find what i sought with each and everyone (for some there were that could deny me), yet i went often to these also, that so they might bring them that did shew me more favour than becomes modest maidens into no suspicion, but might believe that i visited these last also only for the sake of conversation. and so separately i persuaded each one to believe this of the others, and to think she was the only one that enjoyed my love. just six i had that loved me well and i them in return: yet none possessed my heart or me alone: in one 'twas but the black eyes that pleased me; in another the golden hair; in a third a winning sweetness; and in the others was also somewhat that the rest had not. but if i, besides these, also visited others, 'twas either for the cause i mentioned or because their acquaintance was new and strange to me, and in any case i refused and despised nothing, as not purposing always to remain in the same place. my page, which was an arch-rogue, had enough to do with carrying of love-letters back and forth, and knew how to keep his mouth shut and my loose ways so secret from one and the other that nought was discovered: in reward for which he had from the baggages many presents, which yet cost me most, seeing that i spent a little fortune on them, and could well say, "what is won with the drum is lost with the fife." all the same, i kept my affairs so secret that not one man in a hundred would have taken me for a rake, save only the priest, from whom i borrowed not so many good books as formerly. _chap. xix._: by what means the huntsman made friends, and how he was moved by a sermon when fortune will cast a man down, she raiseth him first to the heights, and the good god doth faithfully warn every man before his fall. such a warning had i, but would have none of it. for i was stiffly persuaded of this, that my fortune was so firmly founded that no mishap could cast me down, because all, and specially the commandant himself, wished me well; those that he valued i won over by all manner of respect: his trusted servants i brought over to my side by presents, and with them perhaps more than with mine equals i did drink "brotherhood" and swore to them everlasting faith and friendship: so, too, the common citizens and soldiers loved me because i had a friendly word for all. "what a kindly man," said they often, "is the huntsman; he will talk with a child in the street, and hath a quarrel with no man!" if i had shot a hare or a few partridges i would send them to the kitchen of those whose friendship i sought, and also invited myself as a guest; at which time i would always have a sup of wine (which was in that place very dear) brought thither also: yea, i would so contrive it that the whole cost would fall upon me. and when at such banquets i fell in converse with any, i had praise for all save myself, and managed so to feign humility as i had never known pride. so because i thus gained the favour of all, and all thought much of me, i never conceived that any misfortune could encounter me, especially since my purse was still pretty well filled. often i went to the oldest priest of the town, who lent me many books from his library: and when i brought one back then would he discourse of all manner of matters with me, for we became so familiar together that one could easily bear with the other. so when not only the martinmas goose and the feast of pudding-broth were gone and over, but also the christmas holidays, i presented to him for the new year a bottle of strassburg branntwein, the which he, after westphalian use, liked to sip with sugar-candy, and thereafter came to visit him, even as he was a-reading my "joseph the chaste," which my host without my knowledge had lent him. i did blush that my work should fall into the hands of so learned a man, especially because men hold that one is best known by what he writes. but he would have me to sit by him and praised my invention, yet blamed me that i had lingered so long over the love-story of zuleika (which was potiphar's wife). "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," said he moreover, "and if my friend had not known how it fares with a wooer's heart he could never so well have treated of this woman's passion or in so lively fashion pictured it." i answered that what i had written was not mine own invention but extracted from other books to give me some practice in writing. "yes, yes," says he, "of course i am pleased to believe it: yet may you be sure i know more of your honour than he conceives." at these words i was dismayed and thought, "hath a little bird told thee?" but he, seeing how i changed colour, went on to say, "ye are lively and young, idle and handsome. ye do live a careless life, and as i hear in all luxury: therefore do i beseech you in the lord and exhort you to consider in what an evil case you stand: beware of the beast with the long hair, if you have any care for your happiness and health. ye may perhaps say, 'how concerneth it the priest what i do or not?' ('rightly guessed,' said i to myself) or, 'what right hath he to command me?' 'tis true i have but the care of souls: but, sir, be assured that your temporal good, as that of my benefactor, is for mere christian love as precious as if ye were mine own son. 'tis ever a pity, and never can ye answer such a charge before your heavenly father if ye do bury the talent he hath entrusted to you and leave to go to ruin that noble understanding which i do perceive in this your writing. my faithful and fatherly advice would be, ye should employ your youth and your means, which ye now do waste in such purposeless wise, to study, that some day ye may be helpful to god and man and yourself; and let war alone, in which, as i do hear, ye have so great a delight; and before ye get a shrewd knock and find the truth of that saying, 'young soldiers make old beggars.'" this predication i listened to with great impatience, for i was not used to hear the like: yet i shewed not how i felt, lest i should forfeit my reputation for politeness, but thanked him much for his straightforwardness and promised him to reflect upon his advice: yet thought i within myself, what did it concern the priest how i ordered my life; for just then i was at the height of my good fortune, and i could not do without those pleasures of dalliance i had once enjoyed. so is it ever with such warnings, when youth is unaccustomed to bit and bridle, and gallops hard away to meet destruction. _chap. xx._: how he gave the faithful priest other fish to fry, to cause him to forget his own hoggish life yet was i not so drowned in lust nor so dull as not to take care to keep all men's affection so long as i was minded to sojourn in that fortress, that is, till winter was over. and i knew well what trouble it might breed for a man if he should earn the ill will of the clergy, they being folk that in all nations, no matter of what religion they be, enjoy great credit; so i put on my considering cap, and the very next day i betook myself hot-foot to the said pastor, and told him in fine words such a heap of lies, how i had resolved to follow his advice, that he, as i could see from his carriage, was heartily rejoiced thereat. "yea," said i, "up till this time, yea and in soest also, there was wanting for me nothing but such an angelic counsellor as i have found in your reverence. were but the winter over, or at least the weather better, so that i could travel hence!" and thereafter i begged him to assist me with his advice as to which university i should attend. to that he answered, himself had studied in leyden, but he would counsel to go to geneva, for by my speech i must be from the high germany. "jesus maria!" said i, "geneva is farther from my home than leyden." "can i believe mine ears?" says he, "'tis plain your honour is a papist! great heavens, how am i deceived!" "how so, pastor?" said i, "must i be a papist because i will not to geneva?" "nay," says he, "but ye do call upon the name of mary!" "how," said i, "is't not well for a christian to name the mother of his redeemer?" "true," says he, "yet would i counsel your honour and beg of him as earnestly as i can to give honour to god only and further to tell me plainly to what religion he belongs, for i doubt much if he be evangelical (though i have seen him every sunday in my church), inasmuch as at this last christmastide he came not to the table of the lord neither here nor in the lutheran church." "nay," said i, "but your reverence knows well that i am a christian: were i not, i had not been so oft at the preaching: but for the rest, i must confess that i follow neither peter nor paul, but do believe simply all that the twelve articles of the christian faith do contain: nor will i bind myself to either party till one or the other shall bring me by sufficient proofs to believe that he, rather than the other, doth possess the one true religion of salvation." thereupon, "now," says he, "do i truly, and that for the first time, understand that ye have a true soldier's spirit, to risk your life here, there and everywhere, since ye can so live from day to day without religion or worship and can so risk your hope of eternal salvation! great heaven," says he, "how can a mortal man, that must hereafter be damned or saved, so defy all? your honour," says he, "was brought up in hanau: hath he learned there no better christianity than this? tell me, why do ye not follow in the footsteps of your parents in the pure religion of christ, or why will ye not betake yourself to this our belief, of which the foundations be so plain both in holy writ and nature that neither papist nor lutheran[ ] can ever upset them." "your reverence," i answered, "so say all of their own religion: yet which am i to believe? think ye 'tis so light a matter for me to entrust my soul's salvation to any one party that doth revile the other two and accuse them of false doctrine? i pray you to consider, with impartial eyes, what conrad vetter and johannes nas have written against luther, and also luther against the pope, but most of all what spangenberg hath written against francis of assisi, which for hundreds of years hath been held for a holy and god-like man, and all this in print. to which party shall i betake myself when each says of the other that 'tis unclean, unclean? doth your reverence think i am wrong if i stay awhile till i have got me more understanding and know black from white? would any man counsel me to plunge in like a fly into hot soup? nay, nay, your reverence cannot upon his conscience do that! without question one religion must be right and the other two wrong: and if i should betake myself to one without ripe reflection i might choose the wrong as easily as the right, and so repent of my choice for all eternity. i will sooner keep off the roads altogether than take the wrong one: besides, there be yet other religions besides these here in europe, as those of the armenians, the abyssinians, the greeks, the georgians, and so forth, and whichsoever i do choose, then must i with my fellow believers deny all the rest. but if your reverence will but play the part of ananias for me and open mine eyes, i will with thankfulness follow him and take up that religion to which he belongs." thereupon, "your honour," says he, "is in a great error: but i pray god to enlighten him and help him forth of the slough; to which end i will hereafter so prove to him the truth of our confession that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." i answered i would await such with great anxiety: yet in my heart i thought, "if thou trouble me no more anent my lecheries, i will be content with thy belief." and so can the reader judge what a godless, wicked rogue i then was: for i did but give the good pastor fruitless trouble, that he might leave me undisturbed in my vicious life, and thinks i, "before thou art ready with thy proofs i shall belike be where the pepper[ ] grows." _chap. xxi._: how simplicissimus all unawares was made a married man now over against my lodging there dwelt a lieutenant-colonel on half-pay, and the same had a very fair daughter of noble carriage, whose acquaintance i had long desired to make. and though at the first she seemed not such an one as i could love and no other and cleave to her for ever, yet i took many a walk for her sake, and wasted many a loving look; who yet was so carefully guarded against me that never once could i come to speak with her as i would have wished, neither might boldly accost her: for i had no acquaintance with her parents, and indeed they seemed far too high placed for a lad of such low descent as i deemed myself to be. at the most i could approach her in the going in and out of church, and then would i take opportunity to draw near and with great passion would heave out a couple of sighs, wherein i was a master, though all from a feigned heart. all which she, on the other hand, received so coldly that i must well believe she was not to be fooled like any small burgher's daughter: and the more i thought how hard 'twould be for me to compass her love, the hotter grew my desire for her. but the lucky star which first brought me to her was even that one which the scholars wear at a certain season, in everlasting remembrance of how the three wise men were by such a star led to bethlehem, and i took it for a good omen that such a star led me to her dwelling also. for her father sending for me, "monsieur," says he, "that position of neutrality which you do hold between citizens and soldiers is the cause why i have invited you hither: for i have need of an impartial witness in a matter which i have to settle between two parties." with that i thought he had some wondrous great undertaking in hand, for papers and pens lay on the table: so i tendered him my services for all honourable ends, adding thereto that i should hold it for a great honour indeed if i were fortunate enough to do him service to his liking. yet was the business nothing more than this (as is the usage in many places), to set up a kingdom, being as 'twas the eve of the three kings: and my part was to see that all was well and truly performed and the offices distributed by lot without respect of persons. and for this weighty concern (at which his secretary also was present) my colonel must have wine and confectionery served, for he was a doughty drinker and 'twas already past the time for supper. so then must the secretary write, and i read out the names, and the young lady draw the lots while her parents looked on: and how it all happened i know not, but so i made my first acquaintance in that house: and they complaining greatly how tedious were the winter nights, gave me to understand i should, to make them pass more easily, often visit them of evenings, for otherwise they had no great pastime: which was indeed the very thing i had of long time desired. so from that time forward (though for a while i must be on my good behaviour with the damsel) i began to play a new part, dancing on the limed twig and nibbling at the fool's bait till both the maid and her parents must needs believe i had swallowed the hook, though as yet i had not (by a long score) any serious intent. i spent all my day in arraying myself for the night (as witches use to do): and the morrow in poring over books of love, composing from them amorous letters to my mistress, as if i dwelt a hundred leagues off or saw her but once in many years: so at last i was become a familiar of the house, and my suit not frowned upon by her parents: nay, 'twas even proposed i should teach the daughter to play the lute. so there i had free entrance, not only by night but by day also, so that i could now alter my tune and no longer sing "on the bat's back do i fly after sunset merrily," but did write a pretty enough ditty, in the which i lauded my good fortune which had granted me, after so many happy evenings, so many joyous days also wherein i could feast mine eyes on the charms of my beloved and be refreshed thereby: yet in the same song did bemoan my hard fate that made my nights so miserable and granted me not that i should spend the night, like the day, in sweet enjoyment: which, though it seemed somewhat bold, i sang to my love with adoring sighs and an enchanting melody, wherein the lute also bore its part and with me besought the maid that she would lend her aid to make my nights as happy as my days. to all which i had but a cold response: for 'twas a prudent maid and could at will give me a fitting answer to all my feigned transports, though i might devise them never so wisely. yet was i shy of saying aught of matrimony: and if such were touched on in conversation, then would i make my speech brief and comprest. of that my damsel's married sister took note, and therefore barred all access for me to my mistress, so that we might not be so often together as before: for she perceived her sister was deep in love with me, and that the business would not in such fashion end well. there is no need to recount all the follies of my courtship, seeing that the books of love are full of such. it shall suffice for the gentle reader to know that at last i was bold to kiss my mistress, and thereafter to engage in other dalliance: which much desired advances i pursued with all manner of incitements, till at length i was admitted by her at night and laid myself by her side as naturally as if i were her own. and here, as every man knoweth what on such a merry tide is wont to happen, the reader may well suppose that i dealt dishonourably with the maiden. but no; for all my purpose was defeated, and i found such resistance as i had never thought to find in any woman: for her intent was only for honourable marriage, and though i promised all that and with the most solemn oaths, yet would she grant me nothing before wedlock but only this, to lie by her: and there at length, (quite worn out with disgust,) i fell asleep. but presently thereafter was i rudely awoke: for at four o'clock of the morning there stood my colonel before my bed, a pistol in one hand and a torch in the other, and "croat," he cries to his servant, that stood by him also with a drawn sword, "croat, go fetch the parson as quick as may be!" but i awaking and seeing in what danger i lay, "alas," thought i, "make thy peace with god before this man make an end of thee!" and 'twas all green and yellow before mine eyes, and i knew not whether i should open them or not. "thou lewd fellow!" says he to me, "must i find thee thus shaming of mine house? should i do thee wrong if i break the neck of thee and of this baggage that hath been thine whore? ah, thou beast, how can i refrain myself that i tear not thy heart from thy body and hew it in pieces and cast it for the dogs to eat?" and with that he gnashed with his teeth and rolled his eyes like a wild beast, i knowing not what to say and my bedfellow able to do naught but weep: yet at last i came to myself somewhat, and would have pleaded our innocence; but he bid me hold my peace, and now began upon fresh matter, to wit, how he had trusted me as a very different man and how i had repaid his trust with the worst treachery in the world: and thereafter came in his lady wife and began another brand-new sermon, till i would sooner have lain in a hedge of thorns: nay, i believe she had not stayed her speech for two hours or more had not the croat returned with the parson. now before he came i tried once or twice to arise: but the colonel, with a fierce aspect, bade me lie still: and so i was taught how little courage a fellow hath that is caught on an ill errand, and how it fares with the heart of a thief that hath broken a house and is captured yet having stolen nothing. for i remember the good old days when, if such a colonel and two such croats had fallen foul of me, i had made shift to put all three to flight: but now there i lay like any malingerer and had not the heart to use my tongue, let alone my fists. "see, master parson," quoth my colonel, "the fair sight to which i must perforce invite you, to be a witness of my shame"--and hardly had he said the word in his accustomed tone when he began again to yell hundred devils and thousand curses, till i could understand nothing of what he said save of breaking of necks and washing of hands in blood; for he foamed at the mouth like a wild boar and demeaned himself as if in truth he would take leave of his senses: i thinking every moment, "now will he send a ball through thy head." yet the good parson did his best to hinder him from any rash deed whereof he might repent him afterwards: for "how now; master colonel," says he, "how now! give your own sound reason room to act, and bethink you of the old saying that to what is done and cannot be undone it behoves to give the handsomest name: for this fine young couple (which can hardly be matched in the land) be not the first, nor will be the last, to be overcome by the invincible power of love. the fault which they have committed (for a fault we must needs call it) may by themselves be easily repaired. i cannot indeed approve this way of matching: yet have these young folks deserved neither gallows nor wheel, nor hath the herr colonel any shame to expect if he will but keep secret and forgive this fault, which otherwise no man hath knowledge of, and so give his consent to their marriage and allow such marriage to be confirmed by public ceremony in church." "what?" says the colonel, "am i, instead of punishing them, to come to them cap in hand and make them my compliments? sooner would i when the day comes have them trussed up together and drowned in the lippe; nay, ye shall wed them here and that at once, for to this end i had ye fetcht: else will i wring the necks of both like hens." but as to me, my thought was, "what wilt thou do? wilt thou eat thy leek or die? at least 'tis such a maid as thou needest not to be shamed of: and when thou thinkest of thine own lowly descent, say, art thou worthy to sit where she puts off her shoes?" yet loud and long i swore and asseverated we had wrought no dishonour with one another, but got only for answer, we should have so behaved that none could suspect evil of us, whereas by our way of dealing we could quiet no man's doubts. so were we married by the said clergyman, sitting up in bed, and the ceremony over, were forced to rise and to leave the house. but i, who had now recovered myself and felt a sword by my side, must crack my joke: and "papa-in-law," says i, "i know not why ye should carry yourself thus scurvily: when other young folk be wedded their next of kin do bring them to their bed-chamber, but your worship after my wedding doth cast me forth, not only from my bed but from the house: and in place of such congratulation as he should give me on my marriage, doth grudge me even the sight of my good brother-in-law's face and my service to him. verily if this fashion hold, there will be few friendships bred by weddings in this world." _chap. xxii._: how simplicissimus held his wedding-feast and how he purposed to begin his new life the people at my lodging were all astonished when i brought the young maid home with me, and yet more when they saw how unconcernedly she went to bed with me. for though this trick which had been played me stirred up great perplexity in my mind, yet was i not so foolish as to put my bride to shame. and so even while i had my dear in mine arms i had a thousand conceits in my head, how i should begin and end my behaviour in this matter. now thought i, "thou art rightly served": and yet again i considered that i had met with the greatest disgrace in the world, which i could not in honour pass over without due revenge. but when i remembered me that such revenge must harm my father-in-law and also my gentle and innocent bride, then all my plans were naught. at one time i was so sore ashamed that i planned to shut myself up and let no man see me again, and again i reflected that that would be to commit the chief and greatest folly. at the last i concluded that i would before all things win my father-in-law's friendship again, and would so carry myself to all others as if nothing had happened untoward, and as if i had made all things ready for my wedding. for, said i to myself, "seeing that this business hath had a strange beginning, thou must give it a like end: for should folk know thou wast trapped in thy marriage and wedded like a poor maiden to a rich old cripple, mockery only will be thy portion." being full of such thoughts, i rose betimes, though i had rather have lain longer. and first of all i sent to my brother-in-law who had married my wife's sister, and told him in a word how near akin to him i now was, and besought him to suffer his good wife to come and help to prepare somewhat wherewith i might entertain people at my wedding, and if he would be so good as to plead with our father and mother-in-law on my behalf, i would in the meantime busy myself to invite such guests as would promote a peace between me and him. the which he took upon him to do, and i betook myself to the commandant, to whom i told in merry fashion how quaint a device my father-in-law and i had hatched for making up of a match, which device was so swift of operation that i had in a single hour accomplished the betrothal, the wedding, and the bedding. but inasmuch as my father-in-law had grudged me the morning draught, i was minded instead thereof to bid certain honourable guests to the wedding-supper, to which also i respectfully begged to invite himself. the commandant was fit to burst with laughter at my comical story, and because i saw him in merry mood i made yet more free, giving as my excuse that i could not well be reasonable at such a time, seeing that bridegrooms for full four weeks before and after their wedding were never in their sober senses: but whereas they could play the fool without attracting note and in their four weeks by degrees return to their senses, i had had the whole business of matrimony thrust upon me in a wink, and so must play my tricks all at once, so as thereafter to enact the sober married man more reasonably. then he demanded me what of the dowry, and how much of the rhino my father-in-law had given for the wedding-feast--for of that, said he, the old curmudgeon had plenty. so i answered him that our marriage settlement consisted but in one clause--viz., that his daughter and i should never come in his sight again. but forasmuch as there was neither notary nor witness present i hoped the clause might be revoked, and that the more so because all marriages should tend to the furthering of good fellowship. so with such merry quips, which no one at such a time would have looked for from me, i obtained that the commandant and my father-in-law, whom he undertook to persuade, would appear at my wedding-supper. he sent likewise a cask of wine and a buck to my kitchen: and i made preparation as if i were to entertain princes, and indeed brought together a noble company, which did not only make merry with one another, but in the face of all men did so reconcile my father and mother-in-law with me that they gave me more blessing that night than cursing the night before. and so 'twas noised all over the town that our wedding had been of intent so arranged, lest any ill-natured folk should play some jest upon us. and me this speedy settlement of things suited full well. for had i come to be married with my banns called beforehand, as is the usage, 'twas much to be feared there would have been some baggages that would have given a world of trouble by way of hindrance: for i had among the burghers' daughters a round half-dozen that knew me only too well. the next day my father-in-law treated my wedding-guests, but not so well as i by far, being miserly. and then i must first say what profession i was minded to follow, and how i would maintain my household: wherein i was first aware that i had now lost my noble freedom and must live henceforth under orders. yet i carried myself obediently and was beforehand in asking my dear father-in-law, as a prudent gentleman, for his advice, to digest and to follow it: which speech the commandant approved and said, "this being a brisk young soldier, it were great folly that in the present wars he should think to follow any but the soldier's trade: for 'tis far better to stable one's horse in another man's stall than to feed another's nag in one's own. and so far as i am concerned, i promise him a company whenever he will." for this my father-in-law and i returned thanks, and i refused no more, but shewed the commandant the merchant's receipt, which had my treasure in keeping at cologne. "and this," said i, "i must first fetch away before i take service with the swedes: for should they learn that i served their enemies, they of cologne would laugh me to scorn and keep my treasure, which is not of such a kind as one can easily find by the roadside." this they approved, and so 'twas concluded promised and resolved between us three i should within a few days betake myself to cologne, possess myself of my treasure, and so return to the fortress and there take command of my company. furthermore a day was named on which a company should be made over to my father-in-law, together with the commission of lieutenant-colonel in the commandant's regiment. for count götz lying in westphalia with many imperial troops and his headquarters at dortmund, my commandant looked to be besieged next spring, and so was seeking to enlist good soldiers. yet was this care of his in vain: for the said count götz was, by reason of the defeat of john de werth in the breisgau, forced to leave westphalia that same spring and take the field against the duke of weimar on the rhine. _chap. xxiii._: how simplicissimus came to a certain town (which he nameth for convenience cologne) to fetch his treasure things do happen in different fashions. to one man ill luck cometh by degrees and slowly: another it doth fall upon in a heap. so hardly had i spent a week in the wedded state with my dear wife, when i took leave of her and her friends in my huntsman's dress with my gun upon my shoulder; and because all the roads were well known to me, i came luckily to my journey's end without danger threatening. nay, i was seen of no man till i came to the turnpike in deutz that lieth opposite cologne on this side the rhine. but i saw many, and specially a peasant in the land of berg, that reminded me much of my dad in the spessart; and his son was still more like the old simplicissimus. for the lad was herding swine as i was passing by: and the swine, scenting me, began to grunt and the lad to curse: "thunder and lightning strike them and the devil fly away with them too!" that the maidservant heard, and cried to the lad not to curse or she would tell his father. the boy answered, she might kiss ... and burn her mother too: but the peasant hearing it, runs out of the house with a whip and cries out, "wait, thou anointed rascal, i will teach thee to curse; strike thee blind and the devil take thy carcase": and with that he caught him by the collar, whipped him like a dancing bear, and at every stroke, "thou wicked boy," says he, "i'll teach thee to curse, devil take thee, i'll kiss ... for thee; i'll teach thee to talk of burning thy mother." which manner of correction did remind me naturally of me and my dad, and yet had i not such decency and piety as to thank god for bringing me out of such darkness and ignorance, and into greater knowledge and understanding. and how then could i expect that the good fortune which daily rained upon me should endure? so when i came to cologne i took up my abode with my jupiter, which was just then in his right mind. but when i told him wherefore i had come, he told me at once that he feared i should but thresh straw; for the merchant to whom i had given my money to keep it had become bankrupt and had fled: 'tis true my property had been officially sealed up and the merchant himself cited to appear; but 'twas greatly doubted if he would return, because he had taken with him all of value that could easily be carried; and before the case could be settled much water might flow under the bridges. how pleasing this news was to me any man can easily judge. i swore like a trooper, but what availed that? i did not get my property back so, and had no hope of ever doing so: besides, i had taken with me no more than ten thalers for the journey, and so could not stay so long as the matter required. moreover, 'twas dangerous for me to tarry there; for i had reason to fear that, as now being attached to an enemy's garrison, i might be found out, and so not only lose my goods but fall into a still worse plight. yet for me to return with the matter unsettled, leave my property wilfully behind, and have naught to show but the way back instead of the way thither, seemed to me also unwise. at last i determined i would stay in cologne till the case was settled, and let my wife know the reason of my delay: so i betook myself to an advocate, which was a notary, and told him my case, begging him to help me with counsel and action, for a proper reward; and if he hastened on the matter i would make him a good present besides the fixed fees. and as he hoped to get plenty out of me he received me willingly and undertook to board and lodge me: and thereupon next day he went with me to the officers whose business it is to settle bankrupts' affairs, and handed in a certified copy of the merchant's acknowledgment, and produced the original: to which the answer was, we must be patient till the full examination of the matter, inasmuch as the things of which the acknowledgment spoke were not all to be found. so now i prepared myself for another long time of idleness, in which i wished to see somewhat of life in great cities. my host was, as i have said, a notary and advocate: besides which he had half a dozen lodgers, and kept always eight horses in his stable which he used to hire out to travellers: moreover he had both a german and an italian groom, that could be used either for driving or riding and also tended the horses, so that with this threefold, or rather three-and-a-half-fold trade he not only earned a good living but also doubtless put by a good deal: for because no jews be allowed in that town he found it easier to make money in all manner of ways. i did learn much in the time i was with him, and especially to know all sicknesses of all men, which is the chiefest art of the doctor of medicine. for they say if the doctor do but know the disease, then is the patient already half cured. now 'twas my host that furnished the reason why i understood this science, for i began with him, and thereafter to examine the condition of other persons. and many a one i knew to be sick to death that knew not of his own sickness at all and that was held by his neighbours--yea, and by the doctors too--to be a hale and hearty man. so did i find people that were sick with evil temper, and when this disease attacked them their visages were changed like those of devils, they roared like lions, scratched like cats, laid about them like bears, bit like dogs, and to shew themselves even worse than savage animals they would throw about everything that they could get into their hands, like madmen. 'tis said this disease ariseth from the gall; but i do rather believe its origin is in this, that a fool hath a fool's pride: so if thou hear an angry man rage, especially about a small matter, be thou bold to believe that man hath more pride than sense. from this disease followeth endless mischance both for the patient and for others: for the patient, palsy, gout, and early death (and perhaps an eternal death also). yet can we with a good conscience refuse to call such men patients, be they never so dangerously ill, for patience is what they most do lack. some, too, i saw quite sick with envy, of whom 'tis said that they eat their own hearts out, because they do ever walk so pale and sad. and this disease do i hold to be the most dangerous, as coming directly from the devil himself, though yet it spring from mere good fortune which the sick man's enemy doth enjoy: and he that can quite cure such an one may wellnigh boast that he hath converted a lost sinner to the christian belief, for this disease can infect no true christians, which have a jealousy only of sin and vice. the gaming passion i hold likewise for a disease, not only because the name doth imply as much, but specially because they that are infected therewith are mad after the thing as if poisoned: it hath its rise from idleness and not from greed, as some do judge; and if thou take away from a man the chances of lust and idleness, that sickness will of itself depart. likewise i found that gluttony is a disease: and that it cometh from habit and not from overmuch wealth. poverty is indeed a good protective against it, but 'tis not thereby cured, for i saw beggars that revelled and rich misers that starved. it doth bring its own remedy on its back with it, and that is called want, if not of money yet of bodily health, so much so that these patients commonly must of themselves be healed when it comes to this, that either from poverty or from disease they can devour no more. as to pride, i took it for a kind of madness, having its rise in ignorance: for if a man do but know himself and remember whence he is and whither he goeth, 'tis clean impossible that he can go on in his foolish pride. when i do see a peacock or a turkey-cock strut and gobble, i must needs laugh like a fool that these unreasoning beasts can so cleverly mock at poor man in this his great malady: yet have i never been able to find a special remedy against it: for they that are sick of it are without humility, as little to be cured as other madmen. yea, i deemed, too, that immoderate laughter must be a disease, for philemon died of it and democritus was till his end sick of it. and so nowadays do our women say they could laugh till they died. 'tis said it hath its origin in the liver: but i do believe it cometh from immoderate folly, for much laughter is no sign of a reasonable man: nor is it needful to present a remedy for it, since 'tis not only a merry madness but often doth leave a man before he can well enjoy it. nor less did i remark how curiosity is but a disease and one born in the female sex: 'tis little to outside view yet in truth most dangerous, seeing that we all must pay for our first mother's curiosity. of the rest, as sloth, revenge, jealousy, presumption, the passions of love, and the like, i will for this turn say naught, since 'twas never my intent to write of such, but will return to mine host, which indeed gave me the hint to reflect upon such-like failings, seeing that he himself was utterly ruled and possessed by greed. _chap. xxiv._: how the huntsman caught a hare in the middle of a town the fellow had, as i have said, all manner of trades by which he scraped together money: he fed with his guests and not his guests with him, and he could have plentifully fed all his household with the money they brought him in, if the skinflint had so used it: but he fed us swabian fashion and kept a mighty deal back. at the first i ate not with his guests but with his children and household, because i had little money with me: there were but little morsels, that were like spanish fasting-food for my stomach, so long accustomed to the hearty westphalian diet. no single good joint of meat did we ever get but only what had been carried away a week before from the students' table, pretty well hacked at by them, and now, by reason of age, as grey as methuselah. over this the hostess, who must do the cooking herself (for he would pay for no maid to help her), poured a black, sour kind of gravy and bedevilled it with pepper. yet though the bones were sucked so dry that one could have made chessmen of them, yet were they not yet done with, but were put into a vessel kept for the purpose, and when our miser had a sufficient quantity, they must be chopped up fine and all the fat that remained boiled out of them. i know not whether this was used for seasoning soup or greasing shoes. but on fast-days, of which there happened more than enough, and which were all religiously observed (for therein was our host full of scruples), we had the run of our teeth on stinking herrings, salt cod, rotten stockfish, and other decayed marine creatures: for he bought all with regard to cheapness only, and grudged not the trouble to go himself to the fish-market and to pick up what the fishmongers themselves were about to throw away. our bread was commonly black and stale, our drink a thin, sour beer which wellnigh burst my belly, and yet must pass as fine old october. besides all this, i learned from his german servant that in summer-time 'twas yet worse: for then the bread was mouldy, the meal full of maggots, and the best dishes were then a couple of radishes at dinner and a handful of salad at supper. so i asked him why did he stay with the old miser. he answered he was mostly travelling, and therefore must count more on the drink-money of travellers than on that mouldy old jew, who he said would not even trust his wife and children with the cellar-key, for he grudged them even a drop of wine, and, in a word, was such a curmudgeon that his like would be hard to find; what i had seen up till now, said he, was nothing: if i did but stay there for a while i should perceive that he was not ashamed to skin a flea for its fat. once, said he, the old fellow had brought home six pounds of tripe or chitterlings and put it in his larder: but to the great delight of his children the grating chanced to be open: so they tied a tablespoon to a stick and fished all the chitterlings out, which they then ate up half-cooked, in great haste, and gave out 'twas the cat had done it. that the old coal-counter would not believe, but caught the cat and weighed her, and found that, skin, hair and all, she weighed not so much as his chitterlings. now as the fellow was so shameless a cheat, i desired no longer to eat at his private table but at that of the before-mentioned students, however much it might cost: and there 'twas certainly more royal fare; yet it availed me little, for all the dishes that were set before us were but half-cooked, which profited our host in two ways--first in fuel, which he thus saved, and secondly, because it spoiled our appetite: yea, methought he counted every mouthful we ate and scratched his head for vexation if ever we made a good meal. his wine, too, was well watered and not of a kind to aid digestion: and the cheese which was served at the end of every meal was hard as stone, and the dutch butter so salt that none could eat more than half an ounce of it at breakfast; as for the fruit, it had to be carried to and fro till it was ripe and fit to eat; and if any of us grumbled thereat, he would begin a terrible abusing of his wife loud enough for us to hear: but secretly gave her orders to go on in the same old way. once on a time one of his clients brought him a hare for a present: this did i see hang in his larder, and did think for once we might have game to our dinner: but the german servant said to me we need not lick our lips over that, for his master had so contracted with the boarders that he need not serve them such dainties; i should go to the old market in the afternoon and there see if the thing were not there for sale. so i cut a bit out of the hare's ear, and as we sat at our midday meal and the host was not there, i told them how our skinflint had a hare for sale, of which i was minded to cheat him, if one of them would follow me; for so should we not only have some pastime, but would get the hare too. every one of them consented; for they had long desired to play our host a trick of which he could not complain. so that afternoon we betook ourselves to the place which i had learned of from the servant, where our host was wont to stand if he gave a tradesman aught for sale, to watch what the buyer paid, lest he should be cheated of a farthing. there we found him in talk with some of the nobles. now i had engaged a fellow to go to the higgler that should sell the hare and to say, "friend, that hare is mine, and i claim it as stolen property: last night 'twas snatched out of my window, and if thou give it not up willingly, 'tis at thy risk and the risk of the costs in court." the huckster answered he must first inquire of the matter: for there stood the gentleman of repute that had given him the hare to sell; and he could surely not have stolen it. so as they disputed, they gathered a crowd round them; which when our miser was ware of and saw which way the cat jumped, he gave a wink to the higgler to let the hare go, for by reason of all his boarders he feared yet greater shame. but the fellow i had hired contrived very cleverly to shew every one present the piece of the ear and to fit it into the slit, so that all said he was right and voted him the hare. meanwhile i drew near with my company, as if we had come by chance, and stood by the fellow that had the hare and began to bargain with him, and when we were agreed i presented the hare to mine host with the request he would have it served up at our table: but the fellow i had engaged with i paid, instead of money for the hare, the price of a couple of cans of beer. so our skinflint must accept the hare, though with no good will, and dared not say a word, at which we had cause enough to laugh: and had i meant to stay longer in his house, i would have shewn him a few more such tricks. book iv _chap. i._: how and for what reason the huntsman was jockeyed away into france if you sharpen a razor too much you will notch the edge, and if you overbend the bow, at last 'twill break. the trick i played on my host with the hare was not enough for me, but i devised others to punish his insatiable greed. so did i teach the boarders to water the salted butter and so to get rid of the overplus salt; yea, and to grate the hard cheese like the parmesans and moisten it with wine, all which things were to the miser like stabs in his heart. nay, by my conjuring tricks at table i drew the water out of the wine, and made a song in which i compared the skinflint to a sow, from which there was no good to be looked for till the butcher had her dead upon the trestles. and so i myself furnished the reason why he paid me, and that well, with the trick ye shall now hear: for 'twas not my business to play such pranks in his house. the two young nobles that were his boarders received a letter of exchange, and the command to go into france and there to learn the language, just at a time when our host's german groom was on his travels and elsewhere, and to the italian, said he, he dared not trust his horses to him to take into france, for he knew little of him and feared he might forget to come back, and so should he lose his horses: and therefore he begged of me to do him the greatest service in the world and to accompany those two noblemen with his horses as far as paris, for in any case my suit could not be argued before four weeks were over; and he for his part would, if i would give him full powers, so faithfully further my interests as if i were there in person present. the young noblemen besought me also to the same end, and mine own desire to see france counselled me thereto: for now could i do this without special expense, and otherwise must spend those four weeks in idleness and spend money too. so i took to the road with my two noblemen, riding as their postilion; and on the way there happened to me nothing of note. but when we came to paris and there put up at the house of our host's correspondent, where also the young noblemen had their letter of exchange honoured, the very next day not only was i with the horses arrested, but a fellow that gave out that my host owed him a sum of money seized upon the beasts, with the leave of the commissary of the quartier, and sold them. the lord only doth know what i said to all this: but there i sat like a graven image and could not help myself, far less devise how i could return along a road so long and at that time so dangerous. the two noblemen shewed me great sympathy, and therefore honourably gave me a larger gratification: nor would they have me leave them before i should find either a good master or a good opportunity to return to germany. so they hired them a lodging, and for some days i stayed with them to wait upon one of them, which by reason of the long journey, as being unused thereto, was indisposed. and as i shewed myself so polite to him he gave to me all the clothing he put off: for he would be clad in the newest mode. their counsel was, i should stay a couple of years in paris, and learn the language: for what i had to fetch from cologne would not run away. so as i halted between two opinions and knew not what to do, the doctor which came every day to cure my sick nobleman heard me once play on the lute and sing a german ditty to it, which pleased him so that he offered me a good salary, together with board at his own table, if i would live with him and teach his two sons: for he knew better than i how my affairs stood and that i should not refuse a good master. thus were we soon agreed, for, both the noblemen furthered the business all they could, and greatly recommended me: yet would i not engage myself save from one quarter of a year to the next. the doctor spoke german as well as i did and italian like his mother tongue: and therefore i was the more pleased to take service with him: and as i sat at my last meal with my noblemen, he was there too, and there all manner of sad fancies came into my head: for i thought of my newly wedded wife, the ensigncy promised me, and my treasure at cologne, all which i let myself so easily be persuaded to leave: and as we came to speak of our former host i had a whim, and said i over the table, "who knoweth whether, perhaps, our host have not of intention trepanned me hither that he may claim and keep my property at cologne?" the doctor answered it might very well be so, especial if he deemed me a fellow of no family. "nay," said one of the nobles, "if our friend was sent here to the end he should stay here, 'twas done because he so plagued the host on account of his avarice." "nay," said the sick man, "i believe there is another reason: for as i stood of late in my chamber i heard the host talk loud with his italian man; so i listened to hear what 'twas all about, and at last from the servant's broken german i understood that the huntsman had accused him to the man's wife of not tending the horses well: all which the jealous knave, by reason of the man's imperfect speech, understood wrongly and in a dishonourable way, and therefore told the italian he need but wait, for the huntsman should presently be gone." since then, too, he had looked askance upon his wife and grumbled at her more than before, which i had myself remarked in the fool. then said the doctor, "from whatever cause 'twas done, i am content that matters have so turned out that he must remain here. but be not dismayed; i will at the first good opportunity help you back to germany. only write ye to the man at cologne to have a care of the money, or he will be called sharply to account. and this also doth raise suspicion in me that 'tis a plot--namely, that he that gave himself out for the creditor is a very good friend both of your host and of his correspondent here, and i do believe the bond, on which he seized and sold the horses, was brought here by yourself." _chap. ii._: how simplicissimus found a better host than before so monsieur canard (for so was my new master called) offered to help me in word and deed, that i might not lose my property at cologne; for he saw how much it troubled me. so as soon as he had me to his house, he begged i would tell him exactly how my affairs stood, that he might understand and so devise how i might best be helped. thereupon i thought 'twould avail me little if i revealed mine own poor birth, and so gave out i was a poor german nobleman that had neither father nor mother, but only some kinsfolk in a fortress wherein was a swedish garrison; all which, said i, i had perforce concealed from my host at cologne and my two noblemen, as being all of the emperor's party, that they might not confiscate my money as the enemy's property. my intention it was, said i, to write to the commandant of the said fortress, in whose regiment i had been promised an ensigncy, and not only inform him in what fashion i had been deluded hither but also to beg him to have the goodness to take possession of my property, and in the meantime, until i could find opportunity to return to my regiment, to put it at the disposition of my friends. this plan the good canard thought good, and promised me to forward the letters to their proper place though it were in mexico or even in china. accordingly i prepared letters to my wife, to my father-in-law, and to the colonel s(aint) a(ndré), commandant in lippstadt, to whom i addressed the whole packet, and enclosed the two others. the contents were: that i would present myself again as speedily as might be, if only i could get the means to perform so long a journey, and begged both my father-in-law and the colonel to do their best to endeavour to recover my property by military process before the grass was grown over it, and gave them a full list of the amounts in gold, silver, and jewels. all these letters i drew up in duplicate: and one copy monsieur canard took charge of: the other copy i did entrust to the post, that if one copy should go astray, the other at least might arrive safely. so now was i at ease in my mind again, and was the more able to teach my master's two sons, which were brought up like young princes: for because monsieur canard was rich, therefore was he beyond all measure proud, and must make a display; the which disease he had taken from the great men, with whom he daily had to do, and aped their ways. his house was like a prince's court, of which it wanted nothing save that none ever called him "gracious sir," and his conceit was so great that he would treat a marquis, when such came to visit him, as no better than himself. he was ready to help poor folk, and would take no small fees, but forgave them the money that his name might be more renowned. and because i was ever desirous of knowledge, and because i knew that he made much show of my person when i followed him with his other servants on a visit to some great man, i would help him in his laboratory in the preparation of his medicines. thus was i become well acquainted with him, and that the more because it ever pleased him to speak the german tongue: so once on a time i said to him, why did he not write himself down as "of" his nobleman's residence which he had newly bought near paris for , crowns, and why he would make simple doctors of his sons and would have them to study so hard. were it not better, since he himself had a title of nobility, to buy them offices, as did other chevaliers, and so bring them entirely into the class of nobles? "nay," he answered, "if i visit a prince, to me 'tis said, 'master doctor, be seated,' but to a nobleman, 'wait thy turn!'" so said i, "but doth the doctor not know that a physician hath three faces--the first, an angel's, when the sick man sees him first; the second, god's own, when he can help the sick; and the third, the devil's own, when a man is healed and can be rid of him? and so this honour of which ye speak doth but last so long as the sick man is plagued in his belly: but when 'tis over and the grumbling past there hath the honour an end, and 'master doctor,' quoth'a, 'there is the door!' and so the nobleman hath more honour in standing than the doctor in sitting, namely, because he waiteth ever on his own prince and hath the honour never to leave his side. did ye not of late master doctor, take of a prince's excrement into your mouth to try the taste? now i do say, i would sooner stand and wait for ten years than meddle with another man's dung, yea, even though i was bidden to be seated on beds of roses." to that he answered, "that i need not to have done, but did it willingly, that the prince might see how desperate anxious i was to understand his condition, and so my fee might be greater: and why should i not meddle with another's dirt, that payeth me perhaps a hundred pistoles for it, and i pay him naught that must eat filth of another kind at my bidding? ye talk of the thing like a german: and were ye not a german i had said, ye talk like a fool." with that saying i was content, for i saw he would presently be angry, and to bring him again into a good humour i begged him he would forgive my simplicity and began to talk of pleasanter matters. _chap. iii._: how he became a stage player and got himself a new name now as monsieur canard had more game to throw away than many have to eat, which yet have their own preserves, and thus more meat was sent to him by way of present than he and all his people could eat, so had he also daily many parasites, so that it seemed as if he kept open house. and once on a time there visited him the king's master of the ceremonies and other high personages, for whom he prepared a princely collation, as knowing well whom he needed to keep as his friends, namely, those that were ever about the king or stood well with him: and to shew them his great goodwill and give them every pleasure, he begged that i would, to honour him and to please the high personages present, let them hear a german song sung to the lute. this i did willingly, being in the mood (for commonly musicians be whimsical people), and so busied myself to play my best, and did so please the company that the master of the ceremonies said 'twas great pity i could not speak french: for so could he commend me greatly to the king and queen. but my master, that feared lest i might be taken from his service, answered him, i was of noble birth and thought not to sojourn long in france, and so could hardly be used as a common musician. thereupon the master of the ceremonies said he had never in his life found united in one person such rare beauty, so fine a voice, and such admirable skill upon the lute: and presently, said he, a comedy was to be played before the king at the louvre: and could he but have my services, he hoped to get great honour thereby. this monsieur canard did interpret to me: and i answered, if they would but tell me what person i was to represent and what manner of songs i was to sing, i could learn both tune and words by heart and sing them to my lute, even if they were in the french tongue: for perhaps my understanding might be as good as that of a schoolboy such as they commonly use for such parts, though these must first learn both words and actions by heart. so when the master of the ceremonies saw me so willing, he would have me promise to come to him next day in the louvre to try if i was fit for the part: and at the time appointed i was there. the tunes of the songs i had to sing i could play at once perfectly upon the lute; for i had the notes before me: and thereafter i received the french words, to learn them by heart and likewise to pronounce them, all which were interpreted for me in german, that i might use the actions fitted to the songs. all this was easy enough to me, and i was ready before any could have expected it, and that so perfectly (as monsieur canard declared) that ninety-nine out of a hundred that heard me sing would have sworn i was a born frenchman. and when we came together for the first rehearsal, i did behave myself so plaintively with my songs, tunes, and actions that all believed i had often played the part of orpheus, which i must then represent, and shew myself vexed for the loss of my eurydice. and in all my life i have never had so pleasant a day as that on which our comedy was played. monsieur canard gave me somewhat to make my voice clearer: but when he tried to improve my beauty with oleum talci and to powder my curly hair that shone so black he found he did but spoil all. so now was i crowned with a wreath of laurel and clad in an antique sea-green robe in which all could see my neck, the upper part of my breast, my arms above the elbow and my knees, all bare and naked. about it was wrapped a flesh-coloured cloak of taffety that was more like a flag than a cloak: and in this attire i languished over my eurydice, called on venus for help in a pretty song, and at last led off my bride: in all which action i did play my part excellently, and gazed upon my love with sighs and speaking eyes. but when i had lost my eurydice, then did i put on a dress of black throughout, made like the other, from out of which my white skin shone like snow. in this did i lament my lost wife, and did conjure up the case so piteously that in the midst of my sad tunes and melodies the tears would burst forth and my weeping choked the passage of my song: yet did i play my part right well till i came before pluto and proserpina in hell. to them i represented in a most moving song their own love that they bore to each other, and begged them to judge thereby with what great grief i and my eurydice must have parted, and prayed with the most piteous actions (and all the time i sang to my lute) they would give her leave to return to me: and when they had said me "yes," i took my leave with a joyful song to them, and was clever enough so to change my face, my actions, and my voice to a joyful tune that all that saw me were astonished. but when i again lost my eurydice all unexpectedly i did fancy to myself the greatest danger wherein a man could find himself, and thereupon became so pale as if i would faint away: for inasmuch as i was then alone upon the stage and all spectators looked on me, i played my part the more carefully and got therefrom the praise of having acted the best. thereafter i set me on a rock and began to deplore the loss of my bride with piteous words and a most mournful melody, and to summon all creatures to weep with me: upon that, all manner of wild beasts and tame, mountains, trees, and the like flocked round me, so that in truth it seemed as if 'twere all so done in unnatural fashion by enchantment. nor did i make any mistake at all till the end: but then when i had renounced the company of all women, had been murdered by the bacchantes and cast into the water (which had been so prepared that one could see only my head, for the rest of my body was beneath the stage in perfect safety), where the dragon was to devour me, and the fellow that was inside the dragon to work it could not see my head and so did let the dragon's head wag about close to mine, this seemed to me so laughable that i could not choose but make a wry face, which the ladies that looked hard upon me failed not to perceive. from this comedy i earned, besides the high praise that all gave me, not only an excellent reward, but i got me yet another nickname, for thenceforth the french would call me naught but "beau alman." and as 'twas then carnival-time, many such plays and ballets were represented, in all which i was employed: but at last i found i was envied by others because i mightily attracted the spectators, and in especial the women, to turn their eyes on me: so i made an end of it, and that particularly because i received much offence on one occasion, when, as i fought with achelous for dejanira, as hercules, and almost naked, i was so grossly treated as is not usual in a stage-play. by this means i became known to many high personages, and it seemed as if fortune would again shine upon me: for 'twas even offered me to enter the king's service, of which many a great jack hath not the chance: yet i refused: but much time i spent with ladies of quality that would have me sing and play to them, for both my person and my playing pleased them. nor will i deny that i gave myself up to the temptations of the frenchwomen, that entertained me secretly and rewarded me with many gifts for my services, till in the end i was wearied of so vile and shameful a trade, and determined so to play the fool no longer. note.--the fourth and fifth chapters of the original edition are devoted to a prolix and tedious account of an adventure--if adventure it may be called--of the kind hinted at in the last sentence of the third chapter. it is absolutely without connection with simplicissimus's career as an actor in the war; has no interest as a picture of manners; and finally, can be read much better in bandello, from whose much livelier story (vol. iv., novel , of the complete editions) it is copied. it is therefore omitted here. _chap. iv._; how simplicissimus departed secretly and how he believed he had the neapolitan disease by this my occupation i gathered together so many gratifications both in money and in things of worth that i was troubled for their safety, and i wondered no longer that women do betake themselves to the stews and do make a trade of this same beastly and lewd pursuit; since it is so profitable. but now i did begin to take this matter to heart, not indeed for any fear of god or prick of conscience, but because i dreaded that i might be caught in some such trick and paid according to my deserts. so now i planned to come back to germany, and that the more so because the commandant at lippstadt had written to me he had caught certain merchants of cologne, whom he would not let go out of his hands till my goods were first delivered to him: item, that he still kept for me the ensigncy he had promised, and would expect me to take it up before the spring: for if i came not then he must bestow it upon another. and with his letter my wife sent me one also full of all loving assurances of her hope to have me back. (had she but known how i had lived she had surely sent me a greeting of another sort.) now could i well conceive 'twould be hard to have my congé from monsieur canard, and so did i determine to depart secretly so soon as i could find opportunity: which (to my great misfortune) i found. for as i met on a time certain officers of the duke of weimar's army, i gave them to understand i was an ensign of the regiment of colonel s(aint) a(ndré) and had been a long time in paris on mine own affairs, yet now was resolved to return to my regiment, and so begged they would take me as their travelling-companion on their journey back. so they told me the day of their departure and were right willing to take me with them: thereupon i bought me a nag and made my provision for the journey as secretly as i could, got together my money (which was in all some doubloons, all which i had earned from those shameless women), and without asking leave of monsieur canard went off with them; yet did i write to him, and did date the letter from maestricht; so as he might think i was gone to cologne: in this i took leave of him, with the excuse that i could stay no longer when my business at home required my presence. but two nights out from paris 'twas with me as with one that hath the erysipelas, and my head did so ache that next morning i could not rise: and that in a poor village where i could have no doctor and, what was worse, none to wait upon me: for the officers rode on their way next morning and left me there, sick to death, as one that concerned them not: yet did they commend me and my horse to the host at their departure and left a message for the mayor of the place that he should have respect to me as an officer that served the king. so there i lay for a couple of days and knew naught of myself, but babbled like a fool. then they fetched the priest to me: but he could get nothing reasonable from me: and since he saw he could not heal my soul he thought on means to help my body as far as might be, to which end he had me bled and a sudorific given me, and had me put into a warm bed to sweat. this served me so well that the same night i did know where i was and whence i had come and that i was sick. next morning came the said priest to me again and found me desperate: for not only had my money all been stolen, but i did believe i had (saving your presence) the french disease: for i had deserved this more than my pistoles, and i was spotted over my whole body like a leopard: nor could i either walk or stand, or sit or lie: and now was my patience at an end: for though i could not well believe 'twas god had given me the gold i had lost, yet was i now so reckless that i saw 'twas the devil had stolen it from me! yea, and i behaved as if i were quite desperate, so that the good priest had much ado to comfort me, seeing that the shoe pinched me in two places. "my friend," says he, "behave yourself like a reasonable man, even if ye cannot embrace your cross like a good christian. what do ye? will ye with your money also lose your life and, what is more, your hopes of eternal salvation?" so i answered i cared not for the money; if i could but be rid of this accursed sickness or were at least in a place where i could be cured. "ye must have patience," answered the priest, "as must the poor children of whom there lie in this place over fifty sick of this disease." so when i heard that children also were sick of it, i was straightway cheered, for i could not well suppose that such would catch that filthy disease: so i reached for my valise to see what might still be there: but save my linen there was naught there but a casket with a lady's portrait, set round with rubies, that one at paris had presented to me. the portrait i took out and gave the rest to the priest with the request he would turn it into money in the next town, so that i might have somewhat to live upon. of which the end was that i got scarce the third part of its worth, and since that lasted not long my nag must go too: all which barely kept me till the pock-holes began to dry and i to get better. _chap. v._: how simplicissimus pondered on his past life, and how with the water up to his mouth he learned to swim wherewithal a man sinneth, therewith is he wont to be punished. this smallpox did so handle me that thenceforward i needed not to fear the women. i got such holes in my face that i looked like a barn-floor whereon they have threshed peas: yea, i became so foul of aspect that my fine curls in which so many women had been tangled were shamed of me and left their home: in place of which i got others that were so like a hog's bristles that i must needs wear a wig, and even as outwardly no beauty remained to me, so also my sweet voice departed--for i had had my throat full of sores. mine eyes, that heretofore none ever found to lack the fire of love enough to kindle any heart, were now as red and watery as those of any old wife of eighty years that hath the spleen. and above all i was in a foreign land, knew neither dog nor man that would treat me fairly, was ignorant of their language, and had no money left. so now i first began to reflect, and to lament the noble opportunities which had aforetime been granted to me for the furthering of my fortunes, which yet i had so wantonly let go by. i looked back and marked how my extraordinary luck in war and my treasure-trove had been naught but a cause and preparation for my ill fortune, which had never been able to cast me so far down had it not by a false countenance first raised me so high. yea, i found that the good things that had happened to me, and which i had accounted truly good, had been truly bad, and had brought me to the depth of misery. now was there no longer a hermit to deal so faithfully with me, no colonel ramsay to rescue me in my need, no priest to give me good advice; and, in a word, no one man that would do me a good turn: but when my money was gone i was told to be off and find a place elsewhere, and might, like the prodigal son, be glad to herd with the swine. so now first i bethought me of that priest's good advice, that counselled i should employ my youth and my wealth for study: but 'twas too late to shut the stable-door now that the horse was stolen. o swift and miserable change! four weeks ago i was a fellow to move princes to wonder, to charm women, and that made the people believe me a masterpiece of nature, yea an angel, but now so wretched that the very dogs did bark at me. i bethought me a thousand times what i must do: for the host turned me from the door so soon as i could pay no more. gladly would i have enlisted, but no recruiting officer would take me as a soldier, for i looked like a scarecrow: work could i not, for i was still too weak, and besides used to no handicraft. nothing did comfort me more than that 'twas now summer coming, and i could at a pinch lodge behind any hedge, for none would suffer me in any house. i had my fine apparel still, that i had had made for my journey, besides a valise full of costly linen that none would buy from me as fearing i might saddle him also with the disease. this i set on my shoulder, my sword in my hand and the road under my feet, which led me to a little town that even possessed an apothecary's shop. into this i went, and bade him make me an ointment to do away the pock-marks on my face, and because i had no money i gave him a fine soft shirt; for he was not so nice as the other fools that would take no clothes of me. for, i thought, if thou art but rid of these vile spots, 'twill soon better thy case for thee. yea, and i took the more heart because the apothecary assured me that in a week one would see little except the deep scars that the sores had eaten in my face. 'twas market-day there, and there too was a tooth-drawer that earned much money, in return for which he was always ready with his ribald jests for the crowd. "o fool," says i to myself, "why dost thou not also set up such a trade? beest thou so long with monsieur canard, and hast not learned enough to deceive a simple peasant and get thy victuals? then must thou be a poor creature indeed." _chap. vi._: how he became a vagabond quack and a cheat now at that time was i as hungry as a hunter: for my belly was not to be appeased; and yet i had naught in my poke save a single golden ring with a diamond that was worth some twenty crowns. this i sold for twelve: and because i could plainly see these would last but for a time if i could earn nothing besides, i determined to turn doctor. so i bought me the materials for an electuary and made it up: likewise out of herbs, roots, butter, and aromatic oils a green salve for all wounds, wherewith one might have cured a galled horse: also out of calamine, gravel, crab's-eyes, emery, and pumice-stone a powder to make the teeth white: furthermore a blue tincture out of lye, copper, sal ammoniac and camphor, to cure scurvy, toothache, and eye-ache. likewise i got me a number of little boxes of tin and wood to put my wares in; and to make a reputable show i had me a bill composed and printed in french, on which could be read for what purpose each of these remedies was fitted. and in three days i was ended with my task, and had scarce spent three crowns on my drugs and gallipots when i left the town. so i packed all up and determined to walk from one village to another as far as alsace and to dispose of my wares on the way, and thereafter, if opportunity offered, to get to the rhine at strassburg to betake myself with the traders to cologne, and from there to make my way to my wife. which design was good, but the plan failed altogether. now the first time i took my stand before a church with my wares and offered them my gain was small indeed, for i was far too shamefaced, and neither would my talk nor my bragging patter run well: and from that i saw at once i must go another way to work if i would gain money. so i went with my trumpery into the inn, and at dinner i learned from the host that in the afternoon all manner of folk would come together under the lime-tree before his house. and there he said i might sell something, if only my wares were good: but there were so many rogues in the land that people were mightily chary of their money unless they had real proof before their eyes that the medicine was truly good. so when i found where the shoe pinched i got me a half-wineglass full of strong strassburg branntwein, and caught a kind of toad called reling or möhmlein, that in spring and summer sits in dirty pools and croaks, gold colour or nearly salmon colour with black spots on its belly, most hateful to see. such an one i put in a wineglass with water and set it by my wares on a table under the lime-tree. and when the people began to gather together and stood round me, some thought i would, with the tongs that i had borrowed from the hostess, pull out teeth. but i began thus: "my masters and goot frients (for i could still speak but little french), i be no tooths-cracker, only i haf goot watter for ze eye, zat make all ze running go way from ze red eye." "yea," says one, "that can one see by thine own eyes, that be like to two will-o'-the-wisps." "and zat is true," says i, "but if i had not ze watter sure i were quite blint: besides, i sell not ze watter. ze elegtuary and ze powder for ze white tooths and ze wound-salve, zese will i sell, but ze watter i gif avay mit dem! for i be no quack nor no cheater: i do sell mine elegtuary: and when i haf tried it, if it blease you not you needs not to puy it." so i bade one of them that stood by to choose any one of my boxes of electuary, out of which i made a pill as large as a pea, and put it into my branntwein, which the people took for water, and there pounded it up and then picked up the toad with the tongs out of the water-glass and said, "see, my goot frients, if this fenomous worm do drink mine elegtuary wizout dying, so is ze ting no goot, and zenn puy it not." with that i put the poor toad, that had been born in water and could bear no other element or liquor, into the branntwein, and held it covered in with a paper so that he could not leap out: which began to struggle and to wriggle, yea, to do worse than if i had thrown him upon red-hot coals, for the branntwein was much too strong for him: and after a short time he died and stretched out his four legs. at that the peasants opened their mouths and their purses too when they saw so plain a proof with their own eyes: for now they believed there could be no better electuary on earth than mine, and i had enough to do to wrap up the stuff in the printed papers and take money for it. for some of them did buy three, four, five, six times so much, that they might at need be provided with so sure an antidote against poison: yea, they bought also for their friends and kinsfolk that dwelt in other places, so that from this foolery (though 'twas no market-day) i gained by the evening ten crowns, and still kept more than the half of my wares. the same night i betook myself to another village, as fearing lest some peasant should be so curious as to put a toad in water to try the virtue of my electuary, and if it should fail my back should suffer for it. but to shew the excellence of my antidote in another way, i made me, of meal, saffron, and galls, a yellow arsenic, and of meal and vitriol a sublimate of mercury; and when i would show the effect of it i had ready two like glasses of fresh water on the table, whereof one was pretty strongly mixed with aqua fortis: into this i stirred a little of my electuary and dropped in as much of my two poisons as was needed: then was one water, that had no electuary (but also no aqua fortis) in it, as black as ink, while the other, by reason of the aqua fortis, remained as it was. "aha," said they all, "see, that is truly a marvellous electuary for so little money!" and then when i poured both together again the whole was clear once more: at that the good peasants dragged out their purses and bought of me: which not only helped my hungry belly, but also i could take horse again, earned much money on the way, and so came safely to the german border. and so, my dear country-folks, put not your faith in quacks: or ye will be deceived by them, since they seek not your health but your wealth. _chap. vii._: how the doctor was fitted with a musquet under captain curmudgeon now as i passed through lorraine, my wares gave out, and because i must avoid garrison-towns i had no chance to get more: so must i devise another plan till i could make electuary again. so i bought me two measures of branntwein and coloured it with saffron, and sold it in half-ounce glasses to the people as a gold water of great price, good against fever, and so my two measures brought me in thirty gulden. but my little glasses running short, and i hearing of a glass-maker that dwelt in the county of fleckenstein, i betook myself thither to equip myself afresh, but seeking for by-paths was by chance caught by a picket from philippsburg that was quartered in the castle of wagelnburg, and so lost all that i had wrung out of the people by my cheats on the journey; and because the peasant that went with me to shew the way told the fellows i was a doctor, as a doctor i must willy-nilly be taken to philippsburg. there was i examined and spared not to say who i was in truth; which they believed not, but would make more of me than i could well be: for i should and must remain a doctor. then must i swear i belonged to the emperor's dragoons in soest and declare on my oath all that had happened to me from then to now and what i now intended. "but," said they, "the emperor had need of soldiers as much at philippsburg as at soest: and so would they give me entertainment, till i had good opportunity to come to my regiment: but if this plan was not to my taste, i might content myself to remain in prison and be treated as a doctor till i should be released; for as a doctor i had been taken." so i came down from a horse to a donkey, and must become a musqueteer against my will: which vexed me mightily, for want was master there, and the rations terrible small: i say not to no purpose "terrible" for i was terrified every morning when i received mine: for i knew i must make that suffice for the whole day which i could have made away with at a meal without trouble. and to tell truth 'tis a poor creature, a musqueteer, that must so pass his life in a garrison, and make dry bread suffice him--yea, and not half enough of that: for he is naught else than a prisoner that prolongs his miserable life with the bread and water of tribulation: nay, a prisoner hath the better lot, for he needs neither to watch, nor to go the rounds, nor stand sentry, but lies at rest and has as much hope as any such poor garrison-soldier in time at length to get out of his prison. 'tis true there were some that bettered their condition, and that in divers ways, but none that pleased me and seemed to me a reputable way to gain my food. for some in this miserable plight took to themselves wives (yea, the most vile women at need) for no other cause than to be kept by the said women's work, either with sewing, washing and spinning, or with selling of old clothes and higgling, or even with stealing: there was a she-ensign among the women that drew her pay as a corporal: another was a midwife, and so earned many a good meal for herself and her husband: another could starch and wash: others laundered for the unmarried soldiers and officers shirts, stockings, sleeping-breeches and i know not what else, from which they had each her special name. others did sell tobacco and provide pipes for the fellows that had need of them: others dealt in branntwein: another was a seamstress, and could do all manner of embroidery and cut patterns to earn money: another gained a livelihood from the fields only; in winter she gathered snails, in spring salad-herbs, in summer she took birds'-nests, and in autumn she would gather fruit of all kinds: a few carried wood for sale like asses, and others traded with this and that. yet to gain my support in such a way was not for me: for i had a wife already. other fellows did gain a livelihood by play, for at that they were better than sharpers and could get their simple comrades' money from them with false dice: but such a profession i loathed. others toiled like beasts of burden at the ramparts; but for that i was too lazy: and some knew and could practise a trade, but i, poor creature, had learned none such: 'tis true if any had had need of a musician i could have filled the place well, but that land of hunger was content with drums and fifes. some stood sentry for others and night and day came never off duty, but i would sooner starve than so torment my body: some got them booty by expeditions: but i was not even trusted to go outside the gates: others could go a-mousing better than any cat, but such a trade i hated worse than the plague. in a word, wherever i turned, i could hit on no way to fill my belly. yet what vexed me most of all was this, that i must needs endure all manner of gibes when my comrades said, "what, thou a doctor, and hast no art but to starve?" at length did hunger force me to inveigle a few fine carp out of the town ditch up to me on the wall: but as soon as the colonel was ware of it i must ride the torture-horse for it, and was forbidden on pain of death to exercise that art further. at the last others' misfortune proved my good luck. for having cured a few patients of jaundice and two of fever (all which must have had a particular belief in me), it was allowed me to go out of the fortress on the pretence of collecting roots and herbs for my medicines: instead of which i did set snares for hares and had the luck to catch two the first night: these i brought to the colonel, and so got not only a thaler as a present, but also leave to go out and catch hares whensoever i was not on duty. now because the country was waste and no man there to catch the beasts, which had therefore mightily multiplied, there came grist to my mill again, insomuch that it seemed as if it rained hares, or as if i could charm them into my snares. so when the officers saw they could trust me i was allowed to go out on plundering parties: and there i began again my life as at soest, save that i might no longer lead and command such parties as heretofore in westphalia; for for that 'twas needful to know all highways and byways and to be well acquainted with the rhine stream. _chap. viii._: how simplicissimus endured a cheerless bath in the rhine yet must i tell you of a couple of adventures before i say how i was again freed from my musquet, and one in truth of great danger to life and limb, the other only of danger to the soul, wherein i did obstinately persist: for i will conceal my vices no more than my virtues, in order that not only may my story be complete, but also that the untravelled reader may learn what strange blades there be in this world. as i said at the end of the last chapter, i might now go out with foraging-parties, which in garrison towns is not granted to every loose customer, but only to good soldiers. so once on a time nineteen of us together went up to the rhine to lie in wait for a ship of basel that was given out to carry secretly officers and goods of the duke of weimar's army. so above ottenheim we got us a fishing-boat wherein to cross over and post ourselves on an eyot that lay handy to compel all ships that drew near to come to land, to which end ten of us were safely ferried over by the fisherman. but when one of us that could at other times row well was fetching over the remaining nine, of whom i was one, the skiff suddenly capsized and in a twinkling we lay together in the rhine. i cared not much for the others, but thought of myself. but though i strained to the utmost and used all the arts of a good swimmer, yet the stream played with me as with a ball, tossing me about, sometimes over, sometimes under. i fought so manfully that i often came up to get breath: but had it been colder, i had never been able to hold out so long and to escape with my life. often did i try to win to the bank, but the eddies hindered me, tossing me from one side to another: and though 'twas but a short time before i came opposite goldscheur, it seemed to me so long that i despaired of my life. but when i had passed that village and had made sure i must pass under the strassburg rhine-bridge dead or alive, i was ware of a great tree whose branches stretched into the river not far from me. to this the stream flowed straight and strong: for which cause i put forth all the strength i had left to get to the tree, wherein i was most lucky, so that by the help both of the water and my own pains i found myself astride upon the biggest branch, which at first i had taken for a tree: which same was yet so beaten by waves and whirlpools that it kept bobbing up and down without ceasing, and so shook up my belly that i wellnigh spewed up lungs and liver. hardly could i keep my hold, for all things danced strangely before my eyes. and fain would i have slipped into the water again, yet found i was not man enough to endure even the hundredth part of such labour as i had so far accomplished. so must i stick there and hope for an uncertain deliverance, which god must send me if i was to get off alive. but in this respect my conscience gave me but cold comfort, bidding me remember that i had so wantonly rejected such gracious help a year or two before; yet did i hope for the best, and began to pray as piously as i had been reared in a cloister, determining to live more cleanly in future; yea, and made divers vows. thus did i renounce the soldier's life and forswore plundering for ever, did throw my cartridge-box and knapsack from me, and naught would suffice me but to become a hermit again and do penance for my sins, and be thankful to god's mercy for my hoped-for deliverance till the end of my days, and when i had spent two or three hours upon the branch between hope and fear there came down the rhine that very ship for which i was to help lie in wait. so i lifted up my voice piteously and screamed for help in the name of god and the last judgment, and because they must needs pass close to me, and therefore the more clearly see my wretched plight, all in the ship were moved to pity, so that they put to land to devise how best to help me. and because, by reason of the many eddies that were all round me (being caused by the roots and branches of the tree), it was not possible to swim out to me without risk of life nor to come to me with any vessel, small or great, my helping needed much thought: and how i fared in mind meanwhile is easy to guess. at last they sent two fellows into the river above me with a boat, that let a rope float down to me and kept one end of it themselves. the other end i with great trouble did secure, and bound it round my body as well as i could, so that i was drawn up by it into the boat like a fish on a line and so brought into the ship. so now when i had in this fashion escaped death, i had done well to fall on my knees on the bank and thank god's goodness for my deliverance, and moreover then begin to amend my life as i had vowed and promised in my deadly need. but far from it. for when they asked me who i was and how i had come into this peril i began so to lie to the people that it might have made the heavens turn black: for i thought, if thou sayst thou wast minded to help plunder them, they will cast thee into the rhine again. so i gave myself out for a banished organist, and said that as i would to strassburg to seek a place as schoolmaster or the like on the upper rhine, a party had captured me and stripped me and thrown me into the rhine, which brought me to that same tree. and as i contrived to trick out these my lies finely, and also strengthened them with oaths, i was believed, and all kindness shewn me in the matter of food and drink to refresh me, of which i had great need indeed. at the custom-house at strassburg most did land, and i with them, giving them all thanks; and among them i was ware of a young merchant whose face and gait and actions gave me to understand that i had seen him before: yet could i not remember where, but perceived by his speech that 'twas that very same cornet that had once made me prisoner: and now could i not conceive how from so fine a young soldier he had been turned into a merchant, specially since he was a gentleman born. yea, my curiosity to know if my eyes and ears deceived me or not urged me to go to him and say, "monsieur schönstein, is it you or not?" to which he answered, "i am no herr von schönstein but a simple trader." "and i too," says i, "was never a huntsman of soest but an organist, or rather a land-tramping beggar." and "o brother!" he answered, "what the devil trade art thou of? whither art thou bound?" "brother," said i, "if thou beest chosen by heaven to help preserve my life, as hath now happened for the second time, then 'tis certain that my destiny requires that i should not be far from thee." then did we embrace as two true friends, that had aforetime promised to love one another to the death. i must to his quarters and tell him all that had befallen me since i had left lippstadt for cologne to fetch my treasure, nor did i conceal from him how i had intended to lay wait for their ship with a party, and how we had fared therein. and he on his part confided to me how he had been sent by the hessian general staff to duke bernhard of weimar on business of the greatest import concerning the conduct of the war: to bring reports and to confer with him on future plans and campaigns, all which he had accomplished and was now on his way back in the disguise of a merchant, as i could see. by the way also he told me that my bride at his departure was expecting child-bed, and had been well entreated by her parents and kinsfolk, and furthermore that the colonel still kept the ensigncy for me. yet he jested at me by reason of my pock-marked face, and would have it that neither my wife nor the other women of lippstadt would take me for the huntsman. so we agreed i should lodge with him and on this opportunity return to lippstadt which was what i most desired. and because i had naught but rags upon me he lent me some trifle in money, wherewith i equipped myself like to an apprentice-lad. but as 'tis said, "what will be, must be," that i now found true: for as we sailed down the river and the ship was examined at rheinhausen, the philippsburgers knew me again, seized me and carried me off to philippsburg, where i had to play the musqueteer as before: all which angered my friend the cornet as much as myself: for now must we separate: and he could not much take my part, for he had enough to do to get through himself. _chap. ix._: wherefore clergymen should never eat hares that have been taken in a snare now hath the gentle reader heard in what danger of life i put myself. but as concerns the danger of my soul 'tis to be understood that as a musqueteer i became a right desperate fellow, that cared naught for god and his word. no wickedness was for me too great: and all the goodnesses and loving kindnesses that i had ever received from god quite forgotten: and so i cared neither for this world nor the next but lived like a beast. none would have believed that i had been brought up with a pious hermit: seldom i went to church and never to confess: and because i cared so little for my own soul's health, therefore i troubled my fellow men yet more. where i could cheat a man i failed not to do it, yea i prided myself upon it, so that none came off scot-free from his dealings with me. from this i often got me a whipping, and still more often the torture-horse; yea, i was often threatened with the strappado and the gibbet: but naught availed: i went on in my godless career till it seemed i would play the desperado and run post-haste to hell. and though i did no deed evil enough to forfeit my life, yet was i so reckless that, save for sorcerers and sodomites, no worse man could be found. of this our regiment's chaplain was ware, and being a right zealous saver of souls, at eastertide he sent for me to know why i had not been at confession and holy communion. but i treated his many faithful warnings as i had done those of the good pastor at lippstadt, so that the good man could make naught of me. so when it seemed as if christ and his baptism were lost in me, at the end says he, "o miserable man: i had believed that thou didst err through ignorance: now know i that thou goest on in thy sins from pure wickedness and of malice aforethought. who, thinkest thou, can feel compassion for thy poor soul and its damnation? for my part, i protest before god and the world that i am free of guilt as to that damnation; for i have done, and would have gone on to do without wearying, all that was necessary to further thy salvation. but henceforward 'twill not be my duty to do more than to provide that thy body, when thy poor soul shall leave it in such a desperate state, shall be conveyed to no dedicated place there to be buried with other departed pious christians, but to the carrion-pit with the carcases of dead beasts, or to that place where are bestowed other god-forgotten and desperate men." yet this severe threatening bore as little fruit as the earlier warnings, and that for this reason only, that i was shamed to confess. o fool that i was! for often i would tell of my knaves' tricks in great company and would lie to make them seem the greater; yet now, when i should be converted and confess my sins to a single man, and him standing in god's place, to receive absolution, then was i as a stock or a stone. i say the truth: i was stockish; and stockish i remained: for i answered, "i do serve the emperor as a soldier: and if i die as a soldier, 'twill be no wonder if i, like other soldiers (which cannot always be buried in holy ground, but must be content to lie anywhere on the field in ditches or in the maw of wolf and raven), must make shift outside the churchyard." and so i left the priest, which for his holy zeal for souls had no more return from me than that once i refused him a hare, which he urgently begged from me, on the pretence that since it had hanged itself in a noose and so taken its own life, therefore as a self-murderer it might not be buried in a holy place. _chap. x._: how simplicissimus was all unexpectedly quit of his musquet so were things no better with me, but the longer the worse. once did the colonel say to me he would discharge me for a rogue, since i would do no good. but because i knew he meant it not, i said 'twas easy enough, if only he would dismiss the hangman too, to bear me company. so he let it pass, for well could he conceive that i should hold it for no punishment but for a favour if he would let me go: and against my will i must remain a musqueteer and starve till the summer. but the nearer count von götz came with his army, the nearer came also my deliverance: for when that general had his headquarters at bruchsal, my friend herzbruder, that i had so faithfully helped with my money in the camp before magdeburg, was sent by the staff on certain business to our fortress, where all shewed him great honour. i was even then sentry before the colonel's quarters, and though he wore a coat of black velvet, yet i knew him at first sight, yet had not the heart to speak to him at once, as fearing lest, after the way of the world, he should be ashamed of me or would not know me, for by his clothes he was now of high rank and i but a lousy musqueteer. but so soon as i was relieved i asked of his servants his name and rank, to be assured that i did not address another in his place, and yet i had not the courage to speak to him, but wrote this billet to him and caused it to be handed to him in the morning by his chamberlain. "monsieur, etc.,--if it should please my worshipful master by his high influence to deliver one whom he once by his bravery saved from bonds and fetters on the field of wittstock, from the most miserable condition in the world, into which he hath been tossed like a ball by unkind fortune, 'twould cost him little pains and he would for ever oblige one, in any case his faithful servant but now the most wretched and deserted of men.--s. simplicissimus." no sooner had he read this than he had me to him and "fellow countryman," says he, "where is the man that gave thee this?" "sir," i answered, "he is a captive in this fortress." "well," says he, "now go to him and say i would deliver him an he had the halter round his neck." "sir," said i, "'twill not need so much trouble, for i am poor simplicissimus himself, come not only to give thanks for his rescue at wittstock, but also to beg to be freed from the musquet which i have been forced against my will to carry." but he suffered me not to make an end, but by embracing me shewed me how ready he was to help me: in a word, he did all that one faithful friend can do for another; and before he asked me how i came into the fortress and to such a service, he sent his servant to the jew to buy me a horse and clothing. and meanwhile i told him how it had fared with me since his father had died before magdeburg, and when he heard i was the huntsman of soest (whose many famous exploits he had heard of) he lamented that he had not known such before, for so could he well have helped me to a company. so when the jew came with a whole burden of soldiers' clothes, he chose out the best for me, bade me clothe myself, and so took me with him to the colonel. and to him, "sir," says he, "i have in your garrison found this good fellow here present, to whom i am so much bounden that i cannot leave him in this low estate even if his good qualities deserved no better: and therefore i beg the colonel to do me this favour, and either to give him a better place or to allow me to take him with me and to further his promotion in the army, for which perhaps the colonel has no great opportunity here." at that the colonel crossed himself for sheer wonder to hear any man praise me; and says he, "your honour will forgive me if i say it is his part to try whether i am willing to serve him so far as his deserts do require: and so far as that goes, let him demand aught else that lies in my power and he shall understand my willingness by my actions. but as to this fellow, he is, according to his own showing, no soldier of mine, but belongs to a regiment of dragoons, and is besides so pestilent a companion that since he hath been here he hath given more work to my provost than a whole company, so that i must needs believe no water will ever drown him." so he ended with a laugh and wished me luck. but for herzbruder this was not enough but he further begged the colonel not to refuse to invite me to his table, which favour he also obtained: and this he did to the end that he might tell the colonel in my presence what he only knew of me by hearsay in westphalia from the count von der wahl and the commandant of soest, all which actions he so praised that all must hold me for a good soldier. and i too carried myself so modestly that the colonel and his people that had known me before could but believe that with my new clothes i had become a new man. moreover, when the colonel would know how i had gotten the name of doctor, i told them the whole story of my journey from paris to philippsburg and how many peasants i had cheated to fill my belly: at which they laughed heartily. and in the end i confessed openly it had been my intention so to vex and weary him, the colonel, with all manner of tricks, that he must at last turn me out of the garrison, if he would live at peace from all the complaints that i caused him. thereupon he told of many rogueries i had committed while in the garrison, for example, how i had boiled up beans, poured grease over them, and sold the whole for pure grease; also sand for salt, filling the sacks with sand below and salt above; and again, how i had made a fool of one here and another there, and had made a jest of every man, so that during the whole meal they spoke only of me. yet had i not had such a friend at court these same acts would have been held deserving of severe punishment. and so i drew my conclusion how 'twould go at court if a rogue should gain a prince's favour. our meal ended, we found the jew had no horse which would serve herzbruder for me: but as he stood in such esteem that the colonel could hardly afford to lose his good word, therefore he presented us with one from his own stable, saddle and bridle and all, on which my lord simplicissimus was set and with his friend herzbruder rode joyfully forth from the fortress. and some of my comrades did cry, "good luck, brother, good luck," but others from envy, "the longer the halter the greater the luck." _chap. xi._: discourses of the order of the marauder brothers now on the way herzbruder agreed with me that i should give myself out for his cousin that i might receive greater respect: and he for his part would get me a horse and a servant and send me to the regiment of neuneck, wherein i could serve as a volunteer till an officer's place should fall vacant in the army, to which he could help me. and so in a wink i became a fellow that looked like a good soldier: but in that summer i did no great deeds, save that i helped to steal a few cattle here and there in the black forest and made myself well acquainted with the breisgau and alsace. for the rest, i had scant luck, for when my servant and his horse had been captured by the weimar troops at kenzingen i must needs work the other harder, and in the end so ride him to death that i was fain to join the order of the "merode-brüder." my friend herzbruder indeed would willingly have equipped me again: but seeing that i had so soon got rid of the first two horses, he held back, and thought to let me kick my heels till i had learned more foresight: nor did i desire it, for i found in my new companions so pleasant a society that till winter quarters should come i wished for no better employ. now must i tell you somewhat of these merode brothers, for without doubt there be some, and specially those that be ignorant of war, that know not who these people be. and so have i never found any writer that hath included in his work an account of their manners, customs, rights, and privileges: besides which 'tis well worth while that not only the generals of these days but also the peasants should know what this brotherhood is. and first as concerns their name, i do hope 'twill be no disgrace to that honourable cavalier in whose service they got that name, or i could not so openly tack it on to any man. for i once saw a kind of shoe that had in place of eyelet-holes twisted cords, that a man might more easily stamp through the mud: and these were called mansfeld's shoes because his troops first devised them. yet should any call count mansfeld himself "cobbler" on that account, i would count him for a fool. and so must you understand this name, that will last as long as germans do make war: and this was the beginning of it: when this gentleman (merode) first brought a newly raised regiment to the army his recruits proved as weak and crazy in body as the bretons,[ ] so that they could not endure the marching and other fatigues to which a soldier must submit in the field, for which reason their brigade soon became so weak that it could hardly protect the colours, and wherever you found one or more sick and lame in the market-place or in houses, and behind fences and hedges, and asked, "of what regiment?" the answer was wellnigh always "of merode." hence it arose that at length all that, whether sick or sound, wounded or not, were found straggling off the line of march or else did not have their quarters in the field with their own regiment, were called "merode-brothers," just as before they were known as "swine-catchers" and "bee-taylors": for they be like to the drones in the beehives which when they have lost their sting can work no more nor make honey, but only eat. if a trooper lose his horse or a musqueteer his health, or his wife and child fall ill and must stay behind, at once you have a pair and a half of merode-brothers, a crew that can be compared with none but gipsies, for not only do they straggle round the army in front, in the flanks, in the middle, as it pleases them, but also they be like the gipsies in manners and customs. for you can see them huddled together (like partridges in winter) behind the hedges in the shade or, if the season require it, in the sun, or else lying round a fire smoking tobacco and idling, while the good soldier meanwhile must endure with the colours heat, thirst, hunger, and all manner of misery. here again goes a pack of them pilfering alongside the line of march, while many a poor soldier is ready to sink under the weight of his arms. they plunder all they can find before, behind, and beside the army: and what they cannot consume that they spoil, so that the regiments, when they come to their quarters or into camp, do often find not even a good draught of water; and when they are strictly forced to stay with the baggage-train, you will often find this greater in number than the army itself. and though they do march together and lodge together, fight and make common cause, yet have they no captain to order them, no feldwebel nor sergeant to dust their jackets, no corporal to rouse them up, no drummer to summon them to picket or bivouac duty, and, in a word, no one to bring them into the line of battle like an adjutant nor to assign them their lodgings like a quartermaster, but they live like noblemen. howbeit whenever a commissariat-officer comes, they are the first to claim their share, undeserved though it be. yet are the provost-marshal and his fellows their greatest plague, being such as at times, when they play their tricks too scurvily, do set iron bracelets on their hands and feet, or even adorn them with a hempen collar and hang them up by their precious necks. they keep no watch, they dig no trenches, they serve on no forlorn hope, and they will never fight in line of battle, yet they be well nourished and fed. but what damage the general, the peasant, and the whole army, in which many such companions are to be found, do suffer, is not to be described. the basest of horse-boys, that doth naught but forage, is worth to the general more than one thousand such, that do make a trade of such foraging and lie at ease without excuse upon their bear-skins,[ ] till they be taken off by the adversary or be rapped over the fingers when they do meddle with the peasants. so is the army weakened and the enemy strengthened: and even if a scurvy rogue of this kind (i mean not the poor sick man, but the riders without horses that for sheer neglect do let their horses perish, and betake themselves to the brotherhood to save their skins) do so pass the summer, yet all the use one can have of him is to equip him again for the winter at great cost that he may have somewhat to lose in the next campaign. 'twere well to couple such together like greyhounds and teach them to make war in garrison towns, or even make them toil in chains in the galleys, if they will not serve on foot in the field till they can get a horse again. i say naught here of the many villages that, by chance or by malice, have been burned down by them; how many of their own comrades they entice away, plunder, rob, and even murder, nor how many a spy can be concealed among them if he know but enough to give the name of a regiment and a company in the army. to this honourable brotherhood i now must belong, and so remained till the day before the battle of wittenweier, at which time our headquarters were at schüttern: for going then with my comrades into the county of geroldseck to steal cows and oxen i was taken prisoner by the troops of weimar, that knew far better how to treat us, for they made us take musquets and distributed us in different regiments: and so i came into hattstein's regiment. _chap. xii._: of a desperate fight for life in which each party doth yet escape death now could i well understand i was born but for misfortune, for some weeks before the engagement happened i heard some lower officers of götz's army that talked of our war: and says one, "without a battle will this summer not pass: and if we win, in the next winter we shall surely take freiburg and the forest-towns: but if we earn a defeat we shall earn winter quarters too." upon this prophecy i laid my plans and said to myself, "now rejoice thee, simplicissimus, for next spring thou wilt drink good wine of the lake and the neckar and wilt enjoy all that the troops of weimar can win." yet therein i was mightily deceived, for being now of those troops myself, i was predestinated to help lay siege to breisach, for that siege was fully set afoot presently after the battle of wittenweier, and there must i, like other musqueteers, watch and dig trenches day and night, and gained naught thereby save that i learnt how to assail a fortress by approaches, to which matter i had paid but scant attention in the camp before magdeburg. for the rest, i was but lousily provided for, for two or three must lodge together, our purses were empty, and so were wine, beer, and meat a rarity. apples, with half as much bread as i could eat, were my finest dainties. and 'twas hard for me to bear this when i reflected on the fleshpots of egypt, that is, on the westphalian hams and sausages of lippstadt. yet did i think but little on my wife, and when i did so i did but plague myself with the thought that she might be untrue to me. at last was i so impatient that i declared to my captain how my affairs stood and wrote by the post to lippstadt, and so heard from colonel saint andré and my father-in-law that they had, by letters to the duke of weimar, secured that my captain should let me go with a pass. so about a week or four days before christmas i marched away with a good musquet on my shoulder from the camp down through the breisgau, being minded at this same christmas-tide to receive at strassburg twenty thalers sent to me by my brother-in-law, and then to betake myself down the rhine with the traders, since now there were no emperor's garrisons on the road. but when i was now past endingen and came to a lonely house, a shot was fired at me so close that the ball grazed the rim of my hat, and forthwith there sprang out upon me a strong, broad-shouldered fellow, crying to me to lay down my gun. so i answered, "by god, my friend, not to please thee," and therewith cocked my piece. thereupon he whipped out a monstrous thing that was more like to a headsman's sword than a rapier, and rushed upon me: and now that i saw his true intent i pulled the trigger and hit him so fair on the forehead that he reeled, and at last fell. so to take my advantage of this i quickly wrested his sword out of his hand and would have run him through with it, but it would not pierce him; and then suddenly he sprang to his feet and seized me by the hair and i him, but his sword i had thrown away. so upon that we began such a serious game together as plainly shewed the bitter rage of each against the other, and yet could neither be the other's master: now was i on top, and now he, and for a moment both on our feet, which lasted not long, for each would have the other's life. but as the blood gushed out in streams from my nose and mouth i spat it into mine enemy's face, since he so greatly desired it: and that served me well, for it hindered him from seeing. and so we hauled each other about in the snow for more than an hour, till we were so weary that to all appearance the weakness of one could not, with fists alone, have overcome the weariness of the other; nor could either have compassed the death of the other of his own strength and without weapon. yet the art of wrestling, wherein i had often exercised myself at lippstadt, now served me well, or i had doubtless paid the penalty: for my enemy was stronger than i, and moreover proof against steel. so when we had wearied us wellnigh to death says he at last, "brother, hold, i cry you mercy." so says i, "nay, thou hadst best have let me pass at the first." "and what profit hast thou if i die?" quoth he. "yea," said i, "and what profit hadst thou had if thou hadst shot me dead, seeing that i have not a penny in my pocket?" on that he begged my pardon, and i granted it, and suffered him to stand up after he had sworn to me solemnly that he would not only keep the peace but would be my faithful friend and servant. yet had i neither believed nor trusted him had i then known of the villainies he had already wrought. but when we were on our feet we shook hands upon this, that what had happened should be forgotten, and each wondered that he had found his master in the other; for he supposed that i was clad in the same rogue's hide as himself: and that i suffered him to believe, lest when he had gotten his gun again he should once more attack me. he had from my bullet a great bruise on his forehead, and i too had lost much blood. yet both were sorest about our necks, which were so twisted that neither could hold his head upright. but as it drew towards evening, and my adversary told me that till i came to the kinzig i should meet neither dog nor cat, still less a man, whereas he had in a lonely hut not far from the road a good piece of meat and a draught of the best, i let myself be persuaded and went with him, he protesting with sighs all the way how it grieved him to have done me a hurt. _chap. xiii._: how oliver conceived that he could excuse his brigand's tricks a determined soldier whose business it is to hold his life cheap and to adventure it easily, is but a stupid creature. out of a thousand fellows you could hardly have found one that would have gone as a guest to an unknown place with one that had even now tried to murder him. on the way i asked him which army he was of. so he said, he served no prince but was his own master, and asked of what party i was. i answered i had served the duke of weimar but had now my discharge, and was minded to betake myself home. then he asked my name, and when i said "simplicius" he turned him round (for i made him walk before me because i trusted him not) and looked me straight in the face. "is not thy name also simplicissimus?" quoth he. "yea," says i, "he is a rogue that denies his own name: and who art thou?" "why, brother," he answered, "i am oliver, whom thou wilt surely remember before magdeburg." with that he cast away his gun and fell on his knees to beg for my pardon that he had meant to do me an ill turn, saying he could well conceive he could have no better friend in the world than he would find in me, since according to old herzbruder's prophecy i was so bravely to avenge his death. and i for my part did wonder at so strange a meeting, but he said, "this is nothing new: mountain and valley can never meet, but what is truly strange is this, that i from a secretary have become a footpad and thou from a fool a brave soldier. be ye sure, brother, that if there were ten thousand like us, we could relieve breisach to-morrow and in the end make ourselves masters of the whole world." with such talk we came at nightfall to a little remote labourer's cottage: and though such boasting pleased me not, yet i said "yea," chiefly because his rogue's temper was well known to me, and though i trusted him not at all, yet went i with him into the said house, in which a peasant was even then lighting a fire: to him said oliver, "hast thou aught ready cooked?" "nay," said the peasant, "but i have still the cold leg of veal that i brought from waldkirch." "well then," said oliver, "go bring it here and likewise the little cask of wine." so when the peasant was gone, "brother," said i (for so i called him to be safer with him) "thou hast a willing host." "oh, devil thank the rogue," says he, "i do keep his wife and child for him and also he doth earn good booty for himself; for i do leave for him all the clothes that i capture, for him to turn to his own profit." so i asked where he kept his wife and child; to which oliver answered, he had them in safety in freiburg, where he visited them twice a week, and brought him from thence his food, as well as powder and shot. and further he told me he had long practised this freebooter's trade, and that it profited him more than to serve any lord: nor did he think to give it up till he had properly filled his purse. "brother," says i, "thou livest in a dangerous estate, and if thou art caught in such a villainy, how thinkest thou 'twould fare with thee?" "aha," says he, "i perceive thou art still the old simplicissimus: i know well that he that would win must stake somewhat: but remember that their lordships[ ] of nuremberg hang no man till they catch him." so i answered, "yea, but put the case, brother, that thou art not caught, which is yet but unlikely, since the pitcher that goes often to the well must break at last, yet is such a life as thou leadest the most shameful in the world, so that i scarce can believe thou canst desire to die in it." "what?" says he, "the most shameful? my brave simplicissimus, i assure thee that robbery is the most noble exercise that one in these days can find in the world. tell me how many kingdoms and principalities be there that have not been stolen by violence and so taken. or is it ever counted for evil of a king or a prince in the whole world that he enjoys the revenues of his lands, which commonly have been gained by his forefathers with violence and conquest? yea, what could be named more noble than the trade that i now follow? i well perceive that thou wouldst fain preach me a sermon showing how many have been hanged, drawn, and quartered for murder and robbery: but that i know already, for so the laws do command: yet wilt thou see none but poor and miserable thieves so put to death, as they indeed deserve for undertaking this noble craft, which is reserved for men of high parts and capacity. but when hast thou ever seen a person of quality punished by justice for that he has oppressed his people too much? yea, and more than that, when is the usurer punished, that yet doth pursue this noble trade in secret, and that too under the cloak of christian love? why, then, should i be punishable, i that practise it openly without concealment or hypocrisy? my good simplicissimus, thou hast never read thy machiavel. i am a man of honest mood, and do follow this manner of life openly and without shame. i do fight and do adventure my life upon it like the heroes of old, and do know that such trades, and likewise he that follows them, stand ever in peril: but since i do adventure my life thereupon, it doth follow without contradiction that 'tis but just and fair i should be allowed to follow my trade." to that i answered, "whether robbery and theft be allowed to thee or not, yet do i know that this is against the order of nature, that will not have it so that any man should do to another what he would not have done to himself. and this is wrong, too, as against the laws of this world, which ordain that thieves shall be hanged and robbers beheaded and murderers broken on the wheel: and lastly, 'tis also against the laws of god, which is the chiefest point of all: for he doth leave no sin unpunished." "yea," said oliver, "'tis as i said: thou art still the same old simplicissimus that hath not yet studied his machiavel: but if i could but set up a monarchy in this fashion, then would i fain see who would preach to me against it." and so had we disputed longer: but then came the peasant with meat and drink, and so we sat together and appeased our hunger, of which i at least had much need. _chap. xiv._: how oliver explained herzbruder's prophecy to his own profit, and so came to love his worst enemy our food was white bread and a cold leg of veal. and moreover we had a good sup of wine and a warm room. "aha! simplicissimus," said oliver, "'tis better here than in the trenches before breisach." "true," said i, "if one could enjoy such a life with safety and a good conscience." at that he laughed loud, and says he, "yea, are the poor devils in the trenches safer than we, that must every moment expect a sally of the garrison? my good simplicissimus, i do plainly see that, though thou hast cast aside thy fool's cap, thou hast kept thy fool's head, that cannot understand what is good and what is bad. and if thou wert any but that same simplicissimus that after herzbruder's prophecy must avenge my death, i would make thee to confess that i do lead a nobler life than any baron." with that i did think, "how will it go now? thou must devise another manner of speech, or this barbarous creature with the help of his peasant may well make an end of thee." so says i, "who did ever hear at any time that the scholar should know more than the master? and so, brother, if thou hast so happy a life as thou dost pretend, give me a share in thy good luck, for of good luck i have great need." to which oliver answered, "brother, be thou assured that i love thee as mine own self, and that the affront i put upon thee to-day doth pain me more than the bullet wherewith thou didst wound my forehead, when thou didst so defend thyself as should any proper man of courage. therefore why should i deny thee anything? if it please thee, stay thou here with me: i will provide for thee as for myself. or if thou hast no desire to stay with me, then will i give thee a good purse of money and go with thee whithersoever thou wilt. and that thou mayest believe that these words do come from my heart, i will tell thee the reason wherefore i do hold thee in such esteem: thou dost know how rightly old herzbruder did hit it off with his prophecies: and look you, that same did so prophesy to me when we lay before magdeburg, saying, 'oliver, look upon our fool as thou wilt, yet will he astonish thee by his courage, and play thee the worst tricks thou hast ever known, for which thou shalt give him good cause at a time when ye know not one another. yet will he not only spare thy life when it is in his hands, but after a long time he will come to the place where thou art to be slain: and there will he avenge thy death.' and for the sake of this prophecy, my dear simplicissimus, am i ready to share with thee the very heart in my breast. for already is a part of that prophecy fulfilled, seeing that i gave thee good reason to shoot me in the head like a valiant soldier and to take my sword from me (which no other hath ever done) and to grant me my life, when i lay under thee and was choking in blood: and so i doubt not that the rest of the prophecy which concerns my life shall be fulfilled. and from this matter of the revenge i must conclude, brother, that thou art my true friend, for an thou wert not, thou wouldest not take upon thee to avenge me. and now thou hast the innermost thoughts of my heart: so now do thou tell me what thou art minded to do." upon that i thought, "the devil trust thee, for i do not: if i take money from thee for the journey i may well be the first whom thou slayest: and if i stay with thee i must expect some time to be hanged with thee." so i determined i would befool him, tarrying with him till i could find opportunity to be quit of him: and so i said if he would suffer me i would stay with him a day or a week to see if i could accustom myself to his manner of life: and if it pleased me he should find in me a true friend and a good soldier: and if it pleased me not, we could at any time part in peace. and on that he drank to my health, yet i trusted him not, and feigned to be drunken before i was so, to see if he would be at me when i could not defend myself. meanwhile the fleas did mightily plague me, whereof i had brought good store from breisach; for when it grew warm they were no longer content to remain in my rags but walked abroad to take their pleasure. of that oliver was aware, and asked me had i lice? to which i answered, "yea, indeed, and more than i can hope to have ducats in my life." "say not so," said oliver, "for if thou wilt abide with me thou canst earn more ducats than thou hast lice now." i answered, "'tis as impossible as that i can be quit of my lice." "yea," says he, "but both are possible": and with that he commanded the peasant to fetch me a suit that lay in a hollow tree near the house; which was a grey hat, a cape of elk-skin, a pair of scarlet breeches, and a grey coat: and shoes and stockings would he give me next day. so as i saw him so generous i trusted him somewhat better than before, and went to bed content. _chap. xv._: how simplicissimus thought more piously when he went a-plundering than did oliver when he went to church so the next morning, as day began to break, says oliver, "up, simplicissimus; we will fare forth in god's name to see what we can come by." "good lord," thought i, "must i then in thy holy name go a-thieving?" i that aforetime when i left my good hermit could not hear without marvelling when one man said to another, "come, brother, we will in god's name take off a cup of wine together"? for that i counted a double sin, that a man should be drunken, and drunken in god's name. "my heavenly father," thought i, "how am i changed since then! my faithful lord, what will at last become of me if i turn not? oh! check thou my course, that will assuredly bring me to hell if i repent not." so speaking and so thinking did i follow oliver to a village wherein was no living creature: and there to have a better view we did go up into the church steeple: there had he in hiding the shoes and stockings that he had promised me the night before, and moreover two loaves of bread, some pieces of dried meat, and a barrel half full of wine, which would have easily afforded him provision for a week. so while i was putting on what he gave me he told me here was the place where he was wont to wait when he hoped for good booty, to which end he had so well provisioned himself, and, in a word, told me he had several such places, provided with meat and drink, so that if he could not find a friend at home in one place he might catch him elsewhere. for this must i praise his prudence, yet gave him to understand that 'twas not well so to misuse a place that was dedicated to god's service. "what," says he, "misuse? the churches themselves if they could speak would confess that what i do in them is naught in comparison with the sins that have aforetime been committed in them. how many a man and how many a woman, thinkst thou, have come into this church since it was built, on pretence of serving god, but truly only to shew their new clothes, their fine figure, and all their bravery! here cometh one into church like a peacock and putteth himself so before the altar as he would pray the very feet off the saints' images! and there standeth another in a corner to sigh like the publican in the temple, which sighs be yet only for his mistress on whose face he feedeth his eyes, yea, for whose sake he is come thither. another cometh to the church with a packet of papers like one that gathereth contributions for a fire, yet more to put his debtors in mind than to pray: and an he had not known those debtors would be in the church he had sat at home over his ledgers. yea, it doth happen often that when our masters will give notice of aught to a parish, it must be done of a sunday in the church, for which reason many a farmer doth fear the church more than any poor sinner doth fear the judge and jury. and thinkest thou not there be many buried in churches that have deserved sword, gallows, fire, and wheel? many a man could not have brought his lecherous intent to a good end had not the church helped him. is a bargain to be driven or a loan to be granted, 'tis done at the church door. many a usurer there is that can spare no time in the week to reckon up his rogueries, that can sit in church of a sunday and devise how to practise fresh villainies. yea, here they sit during mass and sermon to argue and talk as if the church were built for such purpose only: and there be matters talked of that in private houses none would speak about. some do sit and snore as if they had hired the place to sleep in: and some do naught but gossip of others and do whisper, 'how well did the pastor touch up this one or that one in his sermon!' and others do give heed to the discourse but for this reason only! not to be bettered by it, but that they may carp at and blame their minister if he do but stumble once at a word (as they understand the matter). and here will i say naught of the stories i have read of amorous intercourse that hath its beginning and end in a church; for i could not now remember all i could tell thee of that. yet canst thou see how men do not only defile churches with their vices while they live but do fill them with their vanity and folly after they be dead. go thou now into a church, and there by the gravestones and epitaphs thou wilt see how they that the worms have long ago devoured do yet boast themselves: look thou up and there wilt thou see more shields and helmets, and swords and banners, and boots and spurs than in many an armoury: so that 'tis no wonder that in this war the peasants have fought for their own in churches as if 'twere in fortresses. and why, then, should it not be allowed to me--to me, i say, as a soldier--to ply my trade in a church, whereas aforetime two holy fathers did for the mere sake of precedence cause such a blood-bath in a church[ ] that 'twas more like to a slaughter-house than a holy place? yea, i would not so act if any did come here to do god's service; for i am but of the lay people: yet they, that were clergymen, respected not the high majesty of the emperor himself. and why should it be forbidden to me to earn my living by the church when so many do so earn it? and is it just that so many a rich man can for a fee be buried in the church to bear witness of his own pride and his friends' pride, while yet the poor man (that may have been as good a christian as he and perchance a better), that can pay naught, must be buried in a corner without? 'tis as a man looks upon it: had i but known that thou wouldst scruple so to lay wait in a church i had devised another answer for thee: but in the meanwhile have thou patience till i can persuade thee to a better mind." now would i fain have answered oliver that they were but lewd fellows that did dishonour the churches as did he, and that they would yet have their reward. yet as i trusted him not, and had already once quarrelled with him, i let it pass. thereafter he asked me to tell him how it had fared with me since we parted before wittstock, and moreover why i had had the jester's clothes on when i came into the camp before magdeburg. yet as my throat did mightily pain me, i did excuse myself and prayed him he would tell me the story of his life, that perchance might have strange happenings in it. to that did he agree, and began in this manner to tell me of his wicked life. _chap. xvi._: of oliver's descent, and how he behaved in his youth, and specially at school "my father," said oliver, was born not far from aachen town of poor parents, for which reason he must in his youth take service with a rich trader that dealt in copper wares: and there did he carry himself so well that his master had him taught to write, read, and reckon, and set him over his whole household as did potiphar joseph. and that was well for both parties, for the merchant's wealth grew more and more through my father's zeal and prudence, and my father became prouder and prouder through his prosperity, so that he grew ashamed of his parents and despised them, of which they complained, yet to no purpose. so when he was five-and-twenty years of age, then died the merchant, and left an aged widow and one daughter, which last had played the fool and was not barren: but her child soon followed his grandfather. thereupon my father, when he saw her at once fatherless and childless but not moneyless, cared not at all that she could wear no maiden's garland again, but began to pay her court, the which her mother well allowed, not only because her daughter might so recover her reputation but also because my father possessed all knowledge of the business and in especial could well wield the jews' spear.[ ] and so by this marriage was my father in a moment a rich man and i his son and heir, whom for his wealth's sake he caused to be tenderly brought up: so was i kept in clothes like a young nobleman, in food like a baron, and in attendance like a count, for all which i had more to thank copper and calamine than silver and gold. "so before i reached my seventh year i had given good proof of what i was to be, for the nettle that is to be stings early: no roguery was too bad for me, and where i could play any man a trick i failed not to do so, for neither father nor mother punished me for it. i tramped with young rascals like myself through thick and thin in the streets and was already bold enough to fight boys stronger than myself: and did i get beat, my foolish parents would say, 'how now? is a great fellow like that to beat a mere child?' but if i won (for i would scratch and bite and throw stones), then said they, 'our little oliver will turn out a fine fellow.' and with that my indolence grew: for praying i was yet too young: and if i did curse like a trooper, 'twas said i knew not what i said. so i became worse and worse till i was sent to school: and there i did carry out what other wicked lads do mostly think of, yet dare not practise. and if i spoiled or tore my books, my mother would buy me others lest my miserly father should be wroth. my schoolmaster did i plague most, for he might not deal with me hardly, receiving many presents from my parents, whose foolish love to me was well known to him. in summer would i catch crickets and bring them secretly into the schoolroom, where they did play a merry tune. in winter would i steal snuff and scatter it in that place where 'tis the custom to whip the boys. and so if any stiff-necked scholar should struggle my powder would fly about and cause an agreeable pastime: for then must all sneeze together. "so now i deemed myself too great a man for small roguery, but all my striving was for higher things. often would i steal from one and put what i had stolen in another's pouch to earn him stripes, and with these tricks was i so sly that i was scarce ever caught. and of the wars we waged (wherein i was commonly colonel) and the blows i received--for i had ever a scratched face and a head full of bruises--i need not to speak: for every man doth know how boys do behave: and so from what i have said canst thou easily guess how in other respects i spent my youth." _chap. xviii._: how he studied at liege, and how he there demeaned himself "now the more my father's riches increased, the more flatterers and parasites he had round him, all which did praise my fine capacities for study, but said no word of all my other faults or at least would excuse them, seeing well that any that did not so could never stand well with my father and mother. and so had they more pleasure in their son than ever had a tomtit that has reared a young cuckoo. so they hired for me a special tutor, and sent me with him to liège, more to learn foreign tongues than to study: for i was to be no theologian, but a trader. he, moreover, had his orders not to be hard with me, lest that should breed in me a fearful and servile spirit. he was to allow me freely to consort with the students, lest i might become shamefaced, and must remember that 'twas to make, not a monk, but a man of the world of me, one that should know the difference between black and white. "but my said tutor needed no such instruction, being of himself given to all manner of knaveries. and how could he forbid me such or rebuke me for my little faults when he himself committed greater? to wine and women was he by nature most inclined, but i to wrestling and fighting: so did i prowl about the streets at night with him and his likes and learned of him in brief space more lechery than latin. but as to my studies, therein i could rely on a good memory and a keen wit, and was therefore the more careless, but for the rest i was sunk in all manner of vice, roguery, and wantonness: and already was my conscience so wide that one could have driven a waggon and horses through it. i heeded nothing if i could but read berni or burchiello or aretine during the sermon in church: nor did i hear any part of the service with greater joy than when 'twas said 'ite missa est.' "all which time i thought no little of myself but carried me right foppishly: every day was for me a feast-day, and because i behaved myself as a man of estate, and spent not only the great sums that my father sent me for my needs, but also my mother's plentiful pocket-money, therefore the women began to pay us court, but specially to my tutor. from these baggages i learned to wench and to game: how to quarrel, to wrestle, and to fight i knew well before, and my tutor in no wise forbade my debaucheries, since he himself was glad to take part in them. so for a year and a half did this monstrous fine life endure, till my father did hear of it from one that was his factor in liège, with whom indeed we had at first lodged: this man received orders to keep a sharper eye upon us, to dismiss my tutor at once, to shorten my tether, and to examine into my expense more carefully. which vexed us both mightily: and though he, my tutor, had now his congé, yet did we hold together, one way or the other, both by day and night: yet since we could no longer spend money as before, we did join ourselves to a rogue that robbed folks of their cloaks at night; yea, or did drown them in the meuse: and what we in this fashion earned with desperate peril of our lives, that we squandered with our whores, and let all studies go their way. "so one night as we, after our custom, were prowling by night, to plunder students of their cloaks, we were overcome, my tutor run through the body, and i, with five others that were right rascals, caught and laid by the heels: and next day we being examined and i naming my father's factor, that was a man much respected, the same was sent for, questioned concerning me, and i on his surety set free, yet so that i must remain in his house in arrest till further order taken. meanwhile was my tutor buried, the other five punished as rogues, robbers and murderers, and my father informed of my case: upon which he came himself with all haste to liège, settled my business with money, preached me a sharp sermon, and shewed me what trouble and unhappiness i had caused him, yea, and told me it seemed as my mother would go desperate by reason of my ill conduct: and further threatened me, in case i did not behave better, he would disinherit me and send me packing to the devil. so i promised amendment and rode home with him: and so ended my studies." _chap. xviii._: of the homecoming and departure of this worshipful student, and how he sought to obtain advancement in the wars "but when my father had me safely home, he found i was in very truth spoiled. i had proved no worshipful dominie as he had hoped, but a quarreller and a braggart, that imagined he knew everything. so hardly was i warm at home when he said to me, 'hearken, oliver, i do see thine asses' ears a-growing fast: thou beest a useless cumberer of the ground, a rogue that will never be worth aught: to learn a trade art thou too old: to serve a lord thou art too insolent, and to understand and follow my profession thou art but useless. alas, what have i accomplished with all the cost that i have spent on thee? for i did hope to have my joy in thee and to make of thee a man: and now must i buy thee out of the hangman's hand. oh fie, for shame! 'twere best i should set thee in a treadmill and let thee eat the bread of affliction till some better luck arise for thee, when thou shalt have purged thee of thine iniquities.' "now when i must day by day hear such lectures, at the last was i out of all patience, and told my father roundly i was not guilty of all, but he and my tutor, that led me astray: and had he no joy of me, so was he rightly served, that had given his parents no joy of him, but had let them come to beggary and starvation. on that he reached for a stick and would have paid me for my plain speaking, swearing loud and long he would have me to the house of correction at amsterdam. so away i went, and the same night betook me to his newly bought farm, watched my opportunity, and rode off to cologne on the best horse i could find in his stables. "this horse did i sell, and forthwith lit upon even such a crew of rogues and thieves as i had left at liège. so at play they did know me for what i was and i them, for both did know so much. straightway i was made one of their brotherhood, and was their helper in their nightly excursions. yet when presently one of our band was caught in the old market as he would relieve a lady of quality of her heavy purse, and specially when i had seen him stand an hour in the pillory with an iron collar on, and, further, had seen one of his ears cut off and himself well whipped, that trade pleased me no more, but i enlisted as a soldier: for just then the colonel with whom we served before magdeburg was a-recruiting. meanwhile had my father learned where i was, and so did write to his factor he should inquire concerning me: which befell even then when i had drawn my first pay: and that the factor told my father, which gave orders that he should buy me out, cost it what it might: but when i heard that, i had fear of the house of correction, and so would not be bought out. through this was my colonel aware i was a rich merchant's son, and so fixed his price so high that my father left me as i was, intending to let me kick my heels awhile in the wars and so perchance come to a better mind. "'twas not long before it happened that my colonel's writer died, in whose place he employed me, as thou knowest. and thereupon i began to have high thoughts, in hope to rise from one rank to another, and so in the end to become a general. from our secretary i did learn how to carry myself, and my intent to grow to a great man caused me to behave myself as a man of honour and repute, and no longer, as of old time, to play rogues' tricks. yet had i no luck till our secretary died, and then methought, 'thou must see to it that thou hast his place.' and all i could i spent: for when my mother heard i had begun to do well she ever sent me moneys. yet because young herzbruder was beloved by our colonel and was preferred to me, i purposed to have him out of the way, specially because i was sure the colonel would give him the secretary's place. and at the delaying of the promotion which i so much desired i was so impatient that i had me made bullet proof by our provost, so to fight with herzbruder and settle matters by the sword: yet could i not civilly come at him. yea, and our provost warned me from my purpose and said, 'even if thou makest him a sacrifice, yet will it do thee more harm than good, for thou wilt but have murdered the colonel's favourite.' "yet did he advise me i should steal somewhat in herzbruder's presence and give it to him: for so could he bring it about that he should lose the colonel's favour. to that i agreed, and stole the parcel-gilt cup at the colonel's christening-feast and gave it to the provost, by means of which he rid me of young herzbruder, as thou wilt surely remember, even then when he, by his sorcery, filled thy pockets with puppies." _chap. xix._: how simplicissimus fulfilled herzbruder's prophecy to oliver before yet either knew the other all was green and yellow before mine eyes when i must so hear from oliver's own mouth how he had gone about with my best friend, and yet i could take no revenge: mine inclination thereto i must needs pocket up lest he should mark it: and so begged he should tell me how it had further fared with him before the battle at wittstock. "why, in that encounter," said oliver, "i carried myself like no quill-driver that is set upon his inkstand, but like a good soldier, being well mounted and bullet-proof, and moreover being counted in no squadron: for so could i show my proper valour, as one that doth mean to rise higher by his sword or to die. so did i fly around our brigade like a whirlwind, both to exercise myself and to shew our men i was more fit for arms than for the pen. yet all availed nothing, for the swedes' luck prevailed, and i must share the ill-fortune of our folk and must accept that quarter which a little before i would have given to no man. "so was i with the other prisoners put into a foot regiment, which same was presently sent away to pomerania on furlough: where, since there were many raw recruits, and i had shown a very notable courage, i was promoted corporal. yet i was minded to make no long stay there, but as soon as might be to return to the emperor's service, to which party i was ever most affected, and that although doubtless my advancement had been far quicker among the swedes. and my escape i brought to pass thus. i was sent out with seven musqueteers to a neighbouring post to demand the contribution, which was in arrears: and so having got together some eight hundred gulden or more, i shewed my fellows the gold and caused their eyes to lust after it, so much so that we agreed to divide the same and so make our escape. this being settled, i did persuade three of them to help me to shoot the other four dead, and such being accomplished we divided the money, namely, gulden to each: and with that we marched off to westphalia. yet on the way did i persuade one of the three to help me to knock the other two on the head; and then when we two were to divide the spoil i did make an end with the last man, and so came by good luck safely with the money to wesel, where i took up my quarters and made merry with my money. "but when this was now nearly spent, and i still had my love of fine living, then did i hear of a certain young soldier of soest and what fine booty he had gained, and what a name he had earned: and so was i heartened up to follow in his footsteps. and as they called him, by reason of his green clothing, the huntsman, so did i have such green raiment made for myself, and under his name did so plunder and steal in his and our own quarters, and that with every circumstance of wanton mischief, that it came near to this, that foraging parties should be forbidden on both sides. he ('tis true) stayed at home, but when i still went on a-mousing in his name all i could, then did that same huntsman for that same reason challenge me. but the devil might fight with him: for, as 'twas told me, he had ever the devil in his jacket: and that devil had soon made an end of my wound-proof. yet could i not escape his craft, for with the help of a servant of his did he beguile me with my comrade into a sheep-fold, and there would force me, in the presence of two living devils that were his seconders by his side, to fight with him by moonlight. which when i refused, they did compel me to the most contemptible actions in the world, and that my comrade soon spread abroad: of which i was so shamed that i up and away to lippstadt and there took service with the hessians: yet there i remained not long, where none could trust me, but tramped away further to the dutch. and there did i find, 'tis true, more punctual payment, but too slow a war for my humour: for there were we kept in like monks and must live as chastely as nuns. "so since i could no more shew my face among either imperials, swedes or hessians, had i been willing wantonly to run the risk, as having deserted from all three, and since i could now no longer stay with the hollanders, having violently deflowered a maiden, which act seemed likely presently to bring about its results, i thought to take refuge with the spaniards, in the hope to escape home from them and to see how my parents fared. yet as i set about that plan i missed my points of the compass so foully that i fell among the bavarians, with whom i marched among the merodians, from westphalia as far as the breisgau, and earned me a living by dicing and stealing. when i had aught i spent my day on the gaming-ground and my night among the sutlers: had i naught, i stole what i could, and often in a day two or three horses, both from pasture and from stables, sold them, and gamed away what i got, and then at night i would burrow under the soldiers' tents and steal away their purses from under their very heads. were we on the march i would keep a watchful eye on the portmantles that the women did carry behind them; these would i cut away. and so i kept myself alive till the battle before wittenweier, wherein i was made prisoner, once more thrust into a foot-regiment, and so made one of weimar's soldiers. but the camp before breisach liked me not, so i left it early and went off to forage for myself, as thou seest i do. and be thou well assured, brother, that already i have laid low many a proud fellow and have earned a noble stock of money: nor am i minded to cease till i see i can get no more. and now it doth come to thy turn to tell me of thy life and fortunes." _chap. xx._: how it doth fare with a man on whom evil fortune doth rain cats and dogs now when oliver had ended his discourse, i could not enough admire the providence of god. now could i understand how the good god had not alone protected me like a father from this monster in westphalia, but had, moreover, so brought it about that he should go in fear of me. now could i see what a trick i had played on him, to which the old herzbruder's prophecy did apply, yet which he himself expounded, as may be seen in the fourteenth chapter, in another way, and that to my great profit. for had this beast but known i was the huntsman of soest he had surely made me drink of the same cup i served to him before at the sheep-fold. i considered, moreover, how wisely and darkly herzbruder had delivered his predictions, and thought in myself that, though his prophecies were wont commonly to turn out true, yet 'twould go hard and must happen strangely if i was to revenge the death of one that had deserved the wheel and the gallows: i found it also good for my health that i had not first told him of my life, for so had i told him the way how i before had disgraced him. and as i thought thereupon, i did mark in oliver's face certain scratches that he had not at magdeburg, and so did conceive that these scars were the tokens of jump-i'-th'-field, when at that former time he, in the likeness of a devil, did thus scrabble his face, and so asked him whence he had those signs, adding thereto that, though he had told me his whole life, yet i must gather that he had left out the best part, since he had not yet told me who had so marked him. "ah, brother," answered he, "were i to tell all my tricks and rogueries the time would be too long both for you and me: yet to shew thee that i conceal from thee none of my adventures i will tell thee the truth of this, though methinks 'tis but a sorry story for me. "i am fully assured that from my mother's womb i was predestined to a scratched face, for in my very childhood i was so treated by my schoolfellows when i wrangled with them: and so likewise one of those devils that waited on the huntsman of soest handled me so roughly that six weeks long one could see the marks of his claws in my face: but the scars thou seest in my face had another beginning, to wit this. when i lay in winter quarters with the swedes in pomerania, and had a fair mistress by me, mine host must leave his bed, for us to lie there: but his cat that had been used to sleep therein would come every night and plague us, as one that could not so easily spare her wonted bed-place as her master and mistress had done: this did vex my wench (that could at no time abide a cat) so sore that she did swear loudly she would shew me no more favour till i had made an end of this cat. so being desirous to have her society yet, i devised how not only to please her but so to avenge myself of the cat as to have sport therein. with that i packed the beast in a bag, took my host's two great watch-dogs (which at any time had no love for cats, but were familiar with me), and the cat in the sack, to a broad and pleasant meadow, and there thought to have my jest, for i deemed, since there was no tree hard by for the cat to escape to, that the dogs would chase her up and down for a while on the plain like a hare, and so would afford me fine pastime. but zounds; it turned out for me not only dogs' luck, as people say, but cats' luck (which sort of luck few can have known or 'twould assuredly long ago have been made a proverb of), since the cat, when i did open the bag, seeing only an open field and on it her two fierce enemies, and nothing high whereto she could escape, would not so easily take the field and so be torn to pieces, but betook herself to mine own head as finding no higher place, and as i sought to keep her away my hat fell off: so the more i tried to pull her down, the deeper she stuck in her claws so as to hold fast. such a combat the dogs could not endure to see, but joined the sport themselves, and jumped up with open jaws in front, behind, and on either side of me to come at the cat, which yet would not leave my head, but maintained her place by fastening of her claws both in my face and my head, as best she could. and if she missed to give the dogs a pat with her glove of thorns, be sure she missed not me: yet because she did sometimes strike the dogs on the nose, therefore they busied themselves to bring her down with their claws, and in so doing dealt me many a shrewd scratch in the face: yea, and if i with both hands strove to tear the cat from her place, then would she bite and scratch me to the best of her ability. and thus was i, both by the dogs and the cat at once so attacked, so mauled, and so terribly handled that i scarce looked like a man at all, and, what was worst of all, i must run the risk that if they so snapped at the cat they might by chance catch me by the ear or nose and bite it off. my collar and jerkin were so bloody that they were like to a smith's travise on st. stephen's day, when the horses are let blood; nor could i devise any means to save myself from this torment, but at last must cast myself on the ground that the dogs might so seize the cat, unless i was willing to allow my poll to continue to be their battle-ground: 'tis true the dogs did then kill the cat, but i had by no means so noble sport from this as i had hoped, but only mockery and such a face as now thou seest before thee. at which i was so enraged that i shot both dogs dead, and did so bastinado my mistress that had given me cause for this fool's trick that she ran away from me, doubtless because she could no longer love so horrible a mask." _chap. xxi._: a brief example of that trade which oliver followed, wherein he was a master and simplicissimus should be a prentice fain would i have laughed at this story of oliver's, yet must show compassion only: and even as i began to tell him my history we saw a coach come up the road with two outriders. on that we came down from the church-tower and posted ourselves in a house that stood by the wayside and was very convenient for the waylaying of passengers. i must keep my loaded piece in reserve, but oliver with one shot brought down at once one rider and his horse before they were ware of us: upon which the other forthwith fled: and while i, with my piece cocked, made the coachman halt and descend, oliver leapt upon him and with his broad sword did cleave his head to the teeth, yea, and would thereafter have butchered the lady and the children that sat in the carriage and already looked more like dead folk than live ones: but i roundly said, that i would not have, but told him if he would do such a deed he must first slay me. "ah," says he, "thou foolish simplicissimus, i had never believed thou wert so wicked a fellow as thou dost seem." "but brother," said i, "what hast thou against these innocents? an they were men that could defend themselves 'twere another story." "how," he answered: "cook your eggs and there will be no chickens hatched. i know these young cockatrices well: their father the major is a proper skinflint, and the worst jacket-duster in the world." and with such words he would have gone on to slay them: yet i restrained him so long that in the end i softened him: and 'twas a major's wife, her maids, and three fair children, for whom it grieved me much: these we shut up in a cellar that they might not too soon betray us, in which they had nothing to eat but fruit and turnips till they might chance to be released by some one: thereafter we plundered the coach, and rode off with seven fine horses into the wood where it was thickest. so when we had tied them up and i had looked round me a little i was ware of a fellow that stood stock-still by a tree not far off: him i pointed out to oliver and said 'twere well to be on our guard. "why, thou fool," said he, "'tis a jew that i did tie up there: but the rogue is long ago frozen and dead." so he goes up to him and chucks him under the chin, and says he, "aha; thou dog, thou didst bring me many a fair ducat": and as he so shook his chin there rolled out of his mouth a few doubloons that the poor rogue had rescued even in the hour of death. at that oliver put his hand in his mouth and brought out twelve doubloons and a ruby of great price, and says he, "this booty have i to thank thee for, simplicissimus"; and with that gave me the ruby, took the gold himself, and went off to fetch the peasant, bidding me in the meanwhile to stay by the horses and beware lest the dead jew should bite me, whereby he meant i had no such courage as himself. but he being gone to fetch his peasant, i had heavy thoughts, and did consider in what a dangerous state i now lived. and first i thought i would mount one of the horses and escape: yet did i fear lest oliver should catch me in the act and shoot me; for i had my suspicion that he did but try my good faith for this once, and so stood near by to watch me. again i thought to run away on foot, but then must fear, even if i should give oliver the slip, that i should not escape from the peasants of the black forest, which were then famous for the knocking of soldiers on the head. "and suppose," said i, "thou takest all the horses with thee, so that oliver shall have no means to pursue thee, yet if thou be caught by the troops of weimar, thou wilt as a convicted murderer be broken on the wheel." in a word, i could devise no safe means for my flight, and chiefly because i was there in a desolate forest where i knew neither highway nor by-way: and besides all that my conscience was now awake and did torment me, because i had stopped the coach and had been the cause that the driver had so miserably lost his life, and both the ladies with the innocent children had been laid fast in the cellar, wherein perchance, like this jew, they must perish and die. then again i would comfort me on the score of mine innocence, as being compelled against my will: yet there contrariwise my conscience answered me, i had long before deserved for my rogueries to fall into the hands of justice in the company of this arch-murderer, and so receive my due reward, and perhaps, methought, just heaven had so provided that i should even so be brought to book. at the last i began to hope for better things and besought god's goodness to help me forth from this plight, and being in so pious a mood i said to myself, "thou fool, thou art neither imprisoned nor fettered: the whole wide world stands open before thee: hast thou not horses enough to take to flight? or, if thou wilt not ride, yet are thy feet swift enough to save thee." but as i thus plagued and tormented myself and yet could come to no plan, came oliver back with our peasant, which guided us with the horses to another farm, where we did bait and, taking turn by turn, did each get two hours' sleep. after midnight we rode on, and about noon came to the uttermost boundary of the switzers, where oliver was well known, and had us nobly entertained: and while we made merry the host sends for a couple of jews, that bought the horses from us at half their price. and all was so plainly and clearly settled that there was little need of parley. for the jews' chief question was, were the horses from the emperor's side or the swedes': and thereupon hearing they were from weimar's army, "then," said they, "must we ride them not to basel but into swabia to the bavarians." at which close acquaintance and familiarity i must needs wonder. so we feasted like princes, and heartily did i enjoy the good forest-trout and the savoury crayfish. and when 'twas evening we took to the road again, loading our peasant with baked meats and other victual like a pack-horse: with all which we came the next day to a lonesome farm, where we were friendly welcomed and entertained, and by reason of ill weather stayed two days: thereafter through woods and by-ways we came to that very hut whither oliver did take me when first he had me to his companion. _chap. xxii._: how oliver bit the dust and took six good men with him so as we sat down to refresh our bodies and to rest, oliver sent the peasant out to buy food and also powder and shot. he being gone, he takes off his coat and says he, "brother, i can no longer carry this devils' money about with me alone": and with that unbound a pair of bags like sausages that he wore on his naked body, threw them on the table, and went on, "of these thou must take care till i come to my holidays and we both have enough, for the accursed stuff hath worked sores upon my body, so that i can no longer carry it." i answered, "brother, hadst thou as little as i, 'twould not gall thee." but he cut me short. "how," says he, "what is mine is also thine; and what we do further win shall be fairly-shared." so i took up the two sausages and found they were indeed mighty heavy, being gold pieces only. then i told him 'twas all ill-packed, and an he would, i would so sew the money in that it should not vex him half so much in the carrying. and when he agreed to this he had me with him to a hollow tree wherein he had scissors, needles, and thread: and there i made for him and me a pair of knapsacks out of a pair of breeches, and many a fine red penny i sewed therein. so having put the same on under our shirts, 'twas as if we had golden armour behind and before, by means of which we were become, if not proof against bullets, yet against swords. then did i wonder why he kept no silver coin: to which he answered he had more than a thousand thalers lying in a tree from which he allowed the peasant to buy victuals, and never asked for a reckoning, as not greatly valuing such trash. this done and the money packed, away we went to our hut, and there cooked our food and warmed ourselves by the stove all night. and thither at one o'clock of the day, when we did least expect it, came six musqueteers with a corporal to our hut with their pieces ready and their matches burning, who burst in the door and cried to us to surrender. but oliver (that, like me, had ever his loaded piece lying by him and his sharp sword also, and then sat behind the table, and i by the stove behind the door) answered them with a couple of musquet-balls, wherewith he brought two to the ground, while i with a like shot slew one and wounded the fourth. then oliver whipped out his terrible sword (that could cut hairs asunder and might well be compared to caliburn, the sword of king arthur of england) and therewith he clove the fifth man from the shoulder to the belly, so that his bowels gushed out and he himself fell down beside them in gruesome fashion. and meanwhile i knocked the sixth man on the head with the butt-end of my piece, so that he fell lifeless: but oliver got even such a blow from the seventh, and that with such force that his brains flew out, and i in turn dealt him that did that such a crack that he must needs join his comrades on the dead muster-roll. so when the one that i had shot at and wounded was ware of such cuffs and saw that i made for him with the butt of my piece also, he threw away his gun and began to run as if the devil was at his heels. yet all this fight lasted no longer than one could say a paternoster, in which brief space seven brave soldiers did bite the dust. now when i thus found myself master of the field, i examined oliver to see if he had a breath left in him, but finding him quite dead, methought 'twas folly to leave so much money on a corpse that could not need it, and so i stripped him of his golden fleece that i had made but yesterday and hung it round my neck with the other. and having broken mine own gun, i took oliver's musquet and sharp battle-sword to myself, wherewith i provided me against all chances, and so away i went and that by the road by which i knew our peasant must return: and sitting down by the wayside i waited for him and further considered what i should now do. _chap. xxiii._: how simplicissimus became a rich man and herzbruder fell into great misery now i sat but half an hour in thought when there comes to me our peasant puffing like a bear, and, running with all his might, was not ware of me till i had him fast: and "why so fast?" says i, "what news?" "quick," he answered, "away with ye! for here cometh a corporal with six musqueteers that are to seize you and oliver and bring you to liechteneck dead or alive: they took me and would have it i should lead them to you: yet am i luckily escaped and come hither to warn ye." "o villain," thought i, "thou hast betrayed us to get oliver's money that lieth in the tree." yet of this i let him mark nothing (for i would have him to shew me the way), but told him both oliver and they that should take him were dead: which when he would not believe, i was good enough to go with him that he might see the miserable sight of the seven bodies, and says i, "the seventh of them that should take us i let go: and would to god i could bring these to life again, for i would not fail to do it." at that the peasant was amazed with fear and asked, "what plan have ye now?" "why," quoth i, "the plan is already resolved on: for i give thee the choice of three things: either lead me by safe by-ways through the wood to villingen, or shew me oliver's money that lieth in the tree, or die here and keep these dead men company: an thou bringest me to villingen thou hast oliver's money for thyself alone: if thou wilt shew it me i will share it with thee: but if thou wilt do neither, i shoot thee dead and go my way." then would he fain have made off, but feared the musquet, and so fell on his knees and offered to guide me through the wood. so we started in haste and walked the whole of that day and the next night, which was by great good luck a very bright one, without food or drink or rest of any kind, till towards daybreak we saw the town of villingen lie before us, and there i let my peasant go. and what supported us in this long journey was: for the peasant the fear of death and for me the desire to escape, myself and my money; yea, i do wellnigh believe that gold lendeth a man strength: for though i carried a heavy enough load of it yet i felt no especial weariness. i held it for a lucky omen that even as i came to the gates of villingen they were being opened, where the officer of the watch examined me; and hearing that i gave myself out to be a volunteer trooper of that regiment to which herzbruder had appointed me when he released me from my musquet at philippsburg, and also said that i had escaped from weimar's camp before breisach, by whose men i had been captured at wittenweier and made to serve among them, and that i now desired to come to my regiment among the bavarians, he gave me in charge to a musqueteer, who led me to the commandant. the same was yet asleep, for he had spent half the night awake about his affairs, so that i must wait a full hour and a half before his quarters, and because the folk just then came from early mass i had a crowd of citizens and soldiers around me that would all know how matters stood before breisach: at which clamour the commandant awoke and without further delay had me brought to him. then began he to examine me, and i said even as i did at the gate. whereupon he asked me of certain particularities of the siege and so forth, and at that i confessed all; namely, how i had spent some few days with a fellow that had also escaped, and with him had attacked and plundered a coach, with intent to get so much booty from weimar's people that we could get us horses, and so properly equipped could come to our regiments again; but yesterday we had been attacked unawares by a corporal and six other fellows that would have taken us, whereby my comrade had been left dead on the field with six of the enemy, while the seventh as well as i had escaped: but he to his own party. but of the rest, namely, how i would have come to my wife at lippstadt, and how i had two such well-stuffed breast and back-plates, of that i said no word, and made no scruple to conceal it, for what did it concern him? nor did he ask me of it at all, but much more was amazed and would hardly believe that oliver and i had killed six men and put the seventh to flight, even though my comrade had paid with his life. so as we talked there was occasion to speak of oliver's wonderful sword that i had by my side: which pleased him so well that if i would part civilly from him and get a pass i must hand it over to him in return for another that he gave me. and in truth it was a fine and beautiful blade, with a perpetual calendar engraved thereupon, nor shall any persuade me 'twas not forged by vulcan _in hora martis_, and altogether so prepared as is told of that sword in the heldenbuch, by which all other swords are cleft asunder and the most courageous and lion-hearted foes are put to flight like fearful hares. so when he had dismissed me and commanded to give me a pass i went the nearest way to an inn, and knew not whether i should first eat or sleep: for i needed both. yet would i sooner appease my belly, and so commanded meat and drink, and considered how i should lay my plans to come in safety to my wife at lippstadt with my money; for i was as little minded to go to my regiment as to break my neck. but while i so speculated and mused of one and another cunning device, there limped into the room a fellow with a stick in his hand, his head bound up, one arm in a sling, and clothes so poor that i would have given him not a penny for them: and so soon as the drawer was ware of him he would have cast him forth, for he smelt vilely and was so full of lice that a man could have garrisoned the whole swabian[ ] heath with them. yet he prayed he might but be allowed to warm himself, which yet was not granted. but i taking pity on him and interceding for him, with difficulty he was let to come to the stove: and there he looked upon me, as i thought, with a curious longing and a great attention to my drinking, and uttered many sighs. so when the drawer went to fetch me a dish of meat, he came to me at my table and held out an earthen penny-pot, so that i might well understand what he would have: so i took the can and filled up his little pot for him before he asked. but "o friend," says he, "for herzbruder's sake give me somewhat to eat also." which when he said it cut me to the heart; for well i saw it was herzbruder himself. then had i nearly swooned to see him in so evil a plight, yet i recovered myself and fell upon his neck and set him by me, where the tears did gush from our eyes: his for joy and mine for pity. _chap. xxiv._: of the manner in which herzbruder fell into such evil plight now by reason of the suddenness of this our meeting we could neither eat nor drink, but only ask one of the other how it had fared with each since we had last met. yet as the host and the drawer went ever in and out, we could have no private discourse: and the host marvelling that i could suffer so lousy a companion by me, i told him that in time of war such was the custom among good soldiers that were comrades: and when i understood further how herzbruder had till now been in the spital, and there had been supported by alms, and his wounds but sorrily bound up, i hired of the host a separate chamber, put herzbruder to bed, and sent for the best surgeon i could find, besides a tailor and a sempstress to clothe him and to rid him of his lice: and having in my purse those same doubloons that oliver had fetched out of the dead jew's mouth, i cast them on the table, and says i to herzbruder, in the host's hearing, "see, brother; there is my money: that will i spend on thee and consume with thee." so with that the host entertained us nobly: but to the surgeon i showed the ruby that had belonged to the said jew, and was worth some thalers, and told him that as i purposed to spend such small moneys as i had for our food and for the clothing of my comrade, therefore i would give him that ring if he would quickly and thoroughly cure my said comrade, with which he was content, and bestowed his best care upon that cure. and so i tended herzbruder like my second self, and caused a modest suit of grey cloth to be made for him. but first i went to the commandant for my pass, and told him how i had met a comrade sorely wounded: for him i would wait till he was sound, for were i to leave him behind me i could not answer for it to my regiment: which intention the commandant approved and allowed me to stay as long as i listed, with the further offer that when my comrade could follow me he would provide us both with sufficient passes. then, coming back to herzbruder and sitting by his bed alone, i begged him he would freely tell me how he had come into so evil a plight: for i thought he might perchance have been driven from his former place for weighty reasons or for some fault, and so degraded and brought to his present evil case. but "brother," said he, "thou knowest that i was the count of götz his factotum and dearest intimate friend: on t'other hand thou knowest well how evil an end this last campaign hath come to under his generalship and command, wherein we not only lost the battle of wittenweier, but did also fail to raise the siege of breisach. seeing, then, that on this account all manner of rumours be afloat, and that most unfair ones, and in especial now that the said count is cited to vienna to justify himself, therefore for fear and shame i do willingly live in this humble plight, and often do wish either to die in this misery or at least so long to lie concealed till the said count shall have proved his innocence: for so far as i know he was at all times true to the roman emperor: and that in this set year he hath had no good luck is, in my opinion, more to be ascribed to the providence of god (who giveth victory to whom he will) than to the count his neglectfulness. "now when we were to relieve breisach and i saw that on our side all was done so sleepily, i armed mine own self and marched forth with the rest upon the bridge of boats as if i in person were to finish the business; which was neither my profession nor my duty: yet i did it for an example to others, because we had accomplished so little that summer then past. but luck or ill-luck would so have it that i, being among the first to sally forth, was also among the first to look the enemy in the face upon the bridge, where was a sharp encounter, and as i had been foremost in attack, so when we gave way before the furious charge of the french i was the last to retreat, and so fell into the enemy's hands: and there did i receive a bullet in the right arm and another in the leg, so that i could neither run nor hold a sword: and as the straitness of the place and the desperateness of the action allowed no talk of giving or taking of quarter, i got me a crack on the head which brought me to the ground, and there, being finely clad, i was by some stripped and in the confusion thrown into the rhine for dead: in which sore strait i called to god for help and left myself to his good pleasure; and while i offered up my prayers i found his help at hand: for the rhine did cast me up on land where i did staunch my wounds with moss: and though in so doing i was nigh frozen, yet i found in me a special strength to creep from thence (for god helped me) so that i, though miserably wounded, came to certain merode-brothers[ ] and soldiers' wives, that one and all had compassion on me though they knew me not: yet all already despaired of the relief of that fortress; and that did hurt me more than all my wounds: but they refreshed and clothed me by their fire, and before i could even bandage up my wounds i must behold how our people prepared for a shameful retreat and gave up our cause as lost: which caused me dreadful pain: and for that reason i resolved to make myself known to none, and so not to make myself a mark for mockery: wherefore i joined myself to certain wounded men of our army that had their own surgeon with them: to him i gave a golden cross that i still had about my neck, for which he bound up my wounds so as to last till now. and in such poor plight, my good simplicissimus, have i made shift so far, and am minded to reveal to no man who i am till i see how the count of götz his affair will turn out. and now that i see thy goodness and faith, it breedeth in me great comfort that the good god hath not forsaken me: for this very morning, when i came from early mass and saw thee stand before the commandant's quarters, i did fancy that god had sent thee to me in shape of an angel to help me in my need." so i did comfort him as best i could, and secretly told him i had yet more money than those doubloons that he had seen; and that all was at his service. therewith i also told him of oliver's end, and how i had perforce avenged his death, which so enlivened his spirits that it also helped his body, in such wise that every day he grew better of his wounds. book v _chap. i._; how simplicissimus turned palmer and went on a pilgrimage with herzbruder now herzbruder being wholly restored and healed of his wounds, he told me in secret he had in his greatest need made a vow to go on a pilgrimage to einsiedeln. and since in any case he was now so near to switzerland, he would perform the same though he must beg his way thither. this was pleasant hearing for me: so i offered him my money and my company, yea, and would buy a couple of nags to do the journey upon, not indeed for the reason that religion urged me thereto, but rather to see the confederates' country as the one land wherein sacred peace yet flourished. so i rejoiced much to have the opportunity to serve herzbruder on such a journey, seeing that i loved him almost more than myself. yet he refused both my help and my company with the excuse that his pilgrimage must be performed on foot and with peas in his shoes: and should i be in his company not only should i hinder him in his pious thoughts, but should also bring on myself great discomfort by reason of his slow going. all which he said to be rid of me, because he did scruple on so holy a journey to spend money that had been gained by robbery and murder: besides, he would not put me to too great expense, and said openly that i had already done more for him than i owed him or he could hope to repay: upon which we fell into a friendly dispute, which same was so pleasant a quarrel that i have never heard the like, for we talked of nothing but this, that each one said he had not yet done for his fellow so much as one friend should for another, nay, was yet far from making up for the benefits he had received. yet all this would not move him to take me for a companion, till i perceived that he had a disgust both at oliver's money and mine own godless life: therefore i made shift with a lie and persuaded him that my intent to reform my life did move me to go to einsiedeln: and should he hinder me from so good a work, and i thereupon should die, he should hardly answer for it: by which i persuaded him to suffer me to visit that holy place with him, especially since i (though 'twas all lies) made an appearance of great penitence for my wicked life, and moreover did persuade him i had laid on myself a penance to go to einsiedeln on peas even as he. but this quarrel was scarce over ere we fell into another, for herzbruder was too full of scruples: and hardly would he suffer me to use the commandant's pass, because 'twas made out for me to go to my regiment. "how now!" said he, "is it not our intent to better our lives and to go to einsiedeln? and now see, in heaven's name wilt thou make a beginning with deceit and blind men's eyes with falsehood? 'he that denieth me before the world him will i deny before my heavenly father,' saith christ. what faint-hearted cowards be we! if all christ's martyrs and confessors had done the same there would be few saints in heaven. let us go in god's name and under his protection whither our holy intent and desires lead us, and let god contrive for us the rest: for so will he bring us in safety where our souls shall find peace." but when i set before him how man should not tempt god, but suit himself to the times, and use such means as could not be done without, and specially because to go on pilgrimage was an unwonted thing for the soldatesca, so that if we revealed our purpose we should be accounted rather deserters than pilgrims, which might bring us great trouble and danger: and chiefly how the holy apostle st. paul, to whom we could not compare ourselves, had wonderfully suited himself to the times and needs of this world, at the last he consented that i should get a pass to go to my regiment. with this we passed out of the town at the shutting of the gates, with a trusty guide, as we would go to rotweil; but turned off short by a by-way and came the same night over the switzers' boundary and next morning to a village, where we equipped ourselves with long black cloaks, pilgrims' staves, and rosaries, and sent our guide home with a good wage. and here in comparison with other german lands the country seemed to me as strange as if i had been in brazil or china. i saw how the people did trade and traffic in peace, how the stalls were full of cattle and the farmyards crowded with fowls, geese, and ducks, the roads were used in safety by travellers, and the inns were full of people making merry. there was no fear of an enemy, no dread of plundering, and no terror of losing goods and life and limb; each man lived under his own vine and fig-tree, and that moreover (in comparison with other german lands) in joy and delight, so that i held this land for an earthly paradise, though by nature it seemed rough as might be. so it came about that all along the road i did but gape at this and that, whereas herzbruder was praying on his rosary, for which i earned many a reproof from him; for he would have it i should pray without ceasing, to which i could not accustom myself. but at zurich he found me out and told me the truth as tartly as might be. for having rested the night at schaffhausen, where the peas did mightily gall my feet, and i fearing to walk upon them next day, i had them boiled and put into my shoes again, and so came happily to zurich, while he found himself in sorry plight, and said to me, "brother, thou hast great favour of god, that notwithstanding the peas in thy shoes thou canst walk so well." "yea," said i, "dear herzbruder: but i did boil them, or i had not been able so far to walk upon them." "god-a-mercy!" says he, "what hast done? thou hadst better have put them out of thy shoes if thou didst but act a mockery with them. i fear me lest god punish thee and me alike. take it not evil of me, brother, if i of brotherly love do tell thee in plain german what i have at heart, namely this, that i fear, unless thou dealest otherwise with god, thine eternal salvation standeth in jeopardy: i do assure thee, i love no man more than thee, yet i deny not that if thou betterest not thyself i must scruple to bear such love to thee further." at which i was struck so dumb with fear that i could not at all recover myself, but freely confessed to him i had put the peas in my shoes not for piety but to please him, that he might take me with him on his journey. "ah, brother," quoth he, "i see thou art far from the way of salvation, peas or no peas: god give thee a better mind; for without such cannot our friendship endure." from that time forward i followed him sorrowfully as one going to the gallows; for my conscience began to smite me; and as i reflected on all manner of things, all the tricks i had played in my life did pass before mine eyes: and first i lamented that my lost innocence, that i had brought out from the forest and in the world had in so many ways forfeited; and what increased my trouble was this, that herzbruder spake now but little with me, and looked not upon me save with sighs, so that it seemed to me as he were certain of my damnation and lamented it. _chap. ii._: how simplicissimus, being terrified of the devil, was converted in such fashion we came even to einsiedeln, and so into the church even as the priest was casting out an evil spirit: which was to me a new and strange sight, wherefore i left herzbruder to kneel and pray as much as he listed and went off from curiosity to see such a spectacle. but hardly had i drawn nigh when the evil spirit cried out of the poor man, "oho! rascal, doth ill-luck send thee hither? i did think to find thee with oliver in our hellish abode when i should return, and now i see thou art to be found here. thou adulterous, murderous whoremonger, canst thou think to escape us? o ye priests, have naught to do with him: he is a worse hypocrite and liar than i: he doth but mock and make a jest of god and religion." thereupon the exorcist commanded the spirit to be silent, for none would believe him as being an arch-liar. "yes, yes," he answered, "ask this runagate monk's companion and he can well tell you that this atheist is not afraid to boil the peas upon which he vowed to travel hither." upon which i knew not whether i stood on my head or my heels, hearing all this and all men staring upon me: but the priest rebuked the spirit and bade him be silent: yet would not that day cast him out. in the meanwhile came herzbruder, even as i looked for very terror more like a dead than a live man, and between hope and fear knew not what to be at. so he comforted me as best he could, assuring the bystanders, and especially the good fathers, that in my life i had never been a monk, but certainly a soldier that perhaps might have done more evil than good: and added, the devil was a liar and had made the story of the peas much worse than it really was. yet was i so confounded in spirit that 'twas with me even as if i already felt the pains of hell, so that the priests had much ado to comfort me: yea, they bade me go to confession and communion, but the spirit cried again out of the man possessed, "yes, yes: he will make a fine confession, that knoweth not even what confession is: and indeed what would ye have of him? for he is of a heretic mind and belongeth to us: yea, his parents were more of anabaptists than calvinists...." but at that the exorcist again commanded the spirit to hold his peace and said to him, "so will it grieve thee the more if this poor lost sheep be snatched out of thy jaws and gathered into the fold of christ": at which the spirit began to roar so fearfully that 'twas terrible to hear: yet in that grisly song i found my greatest comfort; for i thought if i could not again enjoy god's favour the devil would not take it so ill. now although i was then in no wise prepared for confession, and though in my lifetime it had never come into my thoughts, but i had always for mere shame feared it as the devil fears holy water, yet at that moment i felt in me such repentance for my sins and such a desire to do penance and to lead a better life that forthwith i asked for a confessor; at which sudden conversion and amendment of life herzbruder rejoiced greatly; for he had perceived and well knew that so far i had belonged to no religion. thereafter i openly professed myself of the catholic church, went to confession and to mass after absolution received, with all which i felt so light and easy at my heart that 'tis not to be expressed: and what is most marvellous is this, that the devil in the possessed man henceforward left me in peace, whereas before my confession and absolution he cast up against me certain knaveries i had committed, with such particularities as he had been ordained for naught else but to point out my sins: yet the hearers believed him not, as being a liar, especially since my honourable pilgrim's dress shewed me in another light. in this gracious place we abode fourteen days, and there i thanked god for my conversion, and marked the miracles that were there done: all which did incite me to some shew of piety and godliness. yet did the same last but as long as it might: for even as my conversion took its beginning, not from love of god but from dread and fear of damnation, so did i by degrees become lukewarm and slothful, because i little by little forgot the terror that the evil one had struck into me. so when we had sufficiently viewed the relics of the saints, the vestments, and other remarkable things of the abbey, we betook ourselves to baden, there to spend the winter. _chap. iii._: how the two friends spent the winter there did i hire a cheerful parlour and a chamber for us, such as the visitors to the baths do commonly use to have, especially in summer: which be mostly rich switzers that do resort here more to pass the time and make a show than to take baths for any disease. so also i bargained for our food, and herzbruder, seeing how princely i began, counselled me frugality, and reminded me of the long hard winter that we had yet to pass, for he dreamt not that my money would hold out so long; and i should need all i had, he said, for the spring when we should depart: for much money was soon spent if one ever took from it and never added to it: 'twas blown away like smoke and was certain never to return, etc. at such loyal counsel i could no longer conceal from herzbruder how rich my treasury was, and how i was minded to spend it for the good of both of us, since its extraction and growth were so unholy that i could not think to buy lands with it; and even if i were not minded to spend it so as to maintain so my best friend on earth, yet it were but right that he, herzbruder, should enjoy oliver's money in revenge for the insult he had before received from him before magdeburg. and when i knew myself to be in all safety, i drew off my two shoulder-bags, divided the ducats and pistoles, and said to herzbruder he might dispose of this money at will, and spend and disburse it as he would, so that it might best profit us both. when he saw, besides the greatness of my faith in him, how much the money was, with which i, without him, could have been a pretty rich man, "brother," says he, "since i have known thee thou hast done naught but shew thy constant love and truth to meward. but tell me, how thinkest thou that i can ever repay thee? i speak not of the money, for this perchance might in time be repaid, but of thy love and faith, and especially of the exceeding trust thou hast in me, which is not to be estimated. in a word, brother, thy noble soul doth make me thy slave, and the favour thou shewest me is more easy to admire than to repay. o honest simplicissimus, into whose mind it never entereth (even in these godless days in which the world is full of knavery) to think how poor, needy herzbruder might with this fair stock of money make off and in his place leave thee in want! of a surety, brother, this proof of true friendship bindeth me more to thee than if a rich lord should give me thousands. only i beg thee, my brother, remain master guardian and steward of thine own money. for me 'tis enough that thou art my friend." to this i answered, "what strange discourses be these, my honoured herzbruder? ye give me to understand ye are much bounden to me, and yet will ye not see to it that i spend not my money vainly and to your damage and mine!" and so we disputed with one another childishly enough, because each was drunken with love of the other: thus was herzbruder made at once my steward, my treasurer, my servant, and my master: and in our time of leisure he told me of his life and by what means he was known and promoted by count götz, whereupon i told him how i had fared since his father (of pious memory) died: for until then we had never had so much time. but when he heard i had a young wife in lippstadt, he did reprove me that i had not repaired to her rather than with him to switzerland, for that had been more fitting, and was my duty moreover: and when i would excuse myself, that i could not find it in my heart to leave him, my best friend, in misery, he persuaded me to write to my wife and tell her of my condition, with the promise to visit her as soon as might be: to that i did add excuses for my long absence, namely, all manner of contrarious happenings, though greatly i had desired to be with her long ere now. meanwhile herzbruder, learning from the public prints that it stood well with general count götz, and that in particular he would succeed in his vindication before his imperial majesty, would be set free, and even again receive command of an army, sent an account of how he stood to that general at vienna, and wrote also to the bavarian army on the score of his baggage that he had there: yea, and began to hope his fortunes would again flourish. upon which we concluded to part in the spring, he going to the said count, and i to my wife at lippstadt: yet not to pass the winter in idleness we did learn from an engineer to make more fortifications on paper than the kings of france and spain together could build: so too i made acquaintance with certain alchymists that, because they saw i had money at my back, would teach me to make gold, an i would but bear the expense of it: yea, and i do believe they had persuaded me thereto had not herzbruder given them their congé, saying that he that possessed such an art would not need to go about like a beggar, nor to ask others for money. but though herzbruder did receive from vienna a gracious answer from the said count and fine promises, i heard no single word from lippstadt, though on several post-days i did write in duplicate. which put me in ill humour and was the cause that that spring i went not to westphalia, but obtained from herzbruder that he should take me with him to vienna and let me share in his hoped-for good fortune. so with my money we equipped ourselves like two cavaliers, both in clothing, horses, servants, and arms, and travelled by constance to ulm, where we embarked upon the danube, and from thence in eight days came safely to vienna. _chap. iv._; in what manner simplicissimus and herzbruder went to the wars again and returned thence things be strangely ordered in this changeful world; 'tis said he that should know all things would soon be rich: but i say he that always could seize his opportunity would soon be great and powerful. for many a skinflint or cheese-parer (both which honourable titles are given to misers) gets rich enough by knowing and using some knack of gain: yet is he not therefore great, but is and remaineth always of less estimation than when he was poor: but he that can make himself great and powerful, him riches follow after close. so did luck, that is wont to give power and riches, look on me favourably for once, and gave me when i had been some eight days in vienna opportunity in hand to mount upon the rungs of fame without hindrance: yet i did it not. and why? i hold 'twas because my fate had willed for me another road, namely, that along which my foolishness did lead me. for the count von der wahl, under whose command i had before made myself famous in westphalia, was even then in vienna when i came thither with herzbruder: which last was at a banquet when divers imperialist councillors of war were present with the count of götz and others, where the talk was of all manner of strange fellows, soldiers of different qualities, and famous partisans: and there was mention made of the huntsman of soest, and such famous exploits of him told that some wondered at the youth of the fellow and lamented that the crafty hessian colonel saint andré had hung a weight round his neck so that he must either lay aside the sword or serve under swedish colours: for the said count von der wahl had found out all the trick which the same colonel had played me at lippstadt. herzbruder, that was there present and would fain have forwarded my interest, asked for indulgence and leave to speak, and said he knew that huntsman of soest better than any man in the world, which was not only a good soldier that feared not the smell of powder, but also a good rider, a perfected fencer, an excellent professor of musquetry and artillery, and besides all this one that would yield place to no engineer in the world: that he had left not only his wife (that had been so shamefully imposed upon him), but all that he had at lippstadt, and again sought the emperor's service, and so had in the last campaign served under the count of götz, and being then taken by the troops of weimar and desiring to return to the imperialists, had with his comrade slain a corporal and six musqueteers that had pursued them and would bring them back, and had earned rich booty thereby, and so had come with him to vienna with intent to offer his service once more against his imperial majesty's enemies, provided only he could have such terms as suited him: for as a common soldier he would serve no more. by this time the worshipful company were so flustered with good liquor that they must satisfy their curiosity to see the huntsman: to which end herzbruder was sent to fetch me in a coach: who on the way instructed me how i should carry myself among these persons of quality, since my fortune in time to come depended on this. so when i came to them, at first i answered all questions very short and sententiously, so that they began to admire me as one who said nothing that had not a prudent meaning: in a word, i so presented myself that i pleased all, besides this, that i had from count von wahl the reputation of a good soldier. but with all this i got drunk, and well can i believe that in that condition i proved to all how little i had been at court. and this was the end of it all: that a colonel of foot promised me a company in his regiment, which i refused not: for i thought, "to be a captain is indeed no trifle." yet herzbruder next day rebuked me for my folly, and said, had i but held out longer i had risen to high rank. so was i presented to a company as their captain, which company, although with me 'twas in respect of officers fully staffed, yet counted no more than seven privates that could stand sentry. besides, my under-officers were such old cripples that i must needs scratch my head when i looked upon them. and so it came about that in the next engagement, which happened not long after, i was with them miserably beaten: in which affair count von götz lost his life and herzbruder his testicles, which were shot away: and i had my share in the leg though 'twas but a trifling wound. whereupon we betook ourselves to vienna, there to be cured, and also because we had there left all our property. but besides these wounds, which were soon healed, there appeared in herzbruder other evil symptoms which the doctors could not at first recognise, for he was paralysed in all his extremities like a choleric person whom his gall doth plague, to which complexion he was no more given than to anger. nevertheless he was counselled to take the waters, and to that end the griesbach in the black forest was commended to him. and so doth fortune suddenly change. for herzbruder just before had been minded to marry a young lady of quality, and to that end to get him made a freiherr and me a nobleman: but now must he make other plans; for having lost that by which he had meant to propagate his family, and being, moreover, threatened with a tedious sickness ensuing upon that loss, in which he would have need of good friends, he made his will, and appointed me heir of all his property, the more so because he saw how for his sake i cast my fortune to the winds and gave up my command, that i might bear him company to the spa and there wait on him till he should recover his health. _chap. v._: how simplicissimus rode courier and in the likeness of mercury learned from jove what his design was as regards war and peace so as soon as herzbruder could ride we despatched our money (for now we had but one purse in common) by way of banker's draft to basel, equipped ourselves with horses and servants, and made our way up the danube to ulm and thence to the spa before mentioned, for now 'twas may and pleasant travelling. there did we hire a lodging: but i rid to strassburg, not only to receive in part our money which we had conveyed thither by way of basel, but also to inquire for the medicos of experience that should prescribe for herzbruder recipes and the manner of his taking the baths. these came to me, and were of opinion that herzbruder had indeed been poisoned, yet was the poison not strong enough to kill him offhand, and therefore it had made its way into his limbs, from whence it must be evacuated by drugs, antidotes and sweating-baths, which cure would last some eight weeks or so. at that herzbruder remembered at once when and by whom that poison had been given him; namely, by them that would have had his place in the army: and when he further learned from the physicians that his cure needed no spa, then was he assured the field-surgeon had by his enemies been bribed to send him so far away: yet did he resolve to complete his cure there at the spa, for 'twas not only a healthy air but also there was cheerful company among the bathing-guests. this time would i not waste: for i had a desire to see my wife once more: and since herzbruder needed me not greatly, i did open to him my project, which he did praise, and advised me i should visit her, giving me also certain trinkets of price which i should on his behalf present to her, and therewith beg her pardon for that he had been the cause why i had not before sought her out. with that i rode to strassburg, and not only provided myself with moneys but inquired also how i might prosecute my journey in the safest way: whereupon i found 'twas not to be accomplished by a horseman riding alone; for the roads were made unsafe by the parties sent out from so many garrisons of the two contending armies. so i got me a pass for a post-rider of strassburg, and drew up certain letters to my wife, her sisters, and her parents, as i would send him with them to lippstadt: yet feigned to be of a different mind, took back the pass from the messenger, sent back my horse and servant, and disguised myself in a red and white livery: in that i journeyed by ship to cologne, which was at that time neutral between the two parties. and first i must go to visit my jupiter, that had aforetime appointed me his ganymede, to ask how it fared with the property i had left there: but him i found quite brain-sick again and full of anger against the human race. "o mercury," says he, as soon as he saw me, "what news from münster? do men conceive they can make peace without my good will? nay, never! they did have peace. why kept they it not? was not vice everywhere triumphant when they provoked me to send them war? and how have they deserved that i should give them peace again? have they since been converted? are they not become worse, and do they not run into war as to a festival? or have they perchance repented them by reason of the famine that i sent among them, whereof so many thousands died of hunger? or hath the grievous pestilence terrified them to better their ways, whereby so many millions were cut off? nay, nay, mercurius, they that remain, that did see these dreadful sufferings with their own eyes, have not only not repented, but be grown worse than ever they were. and if they have not been turned by so many sore plagues, nor have ceased to live in godless wise in the midst of such trial and tribulation, what will they do if i should grant them again the delights of golden peace? then must i fear lest, as once did the giants, so they now should try to storm my heaven. but such overweening i will check in good time and leave them to perish in their war." but i knowing how one must go about with this god if one would make him hear reason, "oh, great god," says i, "all the world doth sigh for peace and promise great amendment: why wilt thou then continue to refuse them such?" "yea," answered jupiter, "doubtless they sigh: yet not for my sake but their own: not that each may praise god under his own vine and fig-tree, but that they may enjoy the fruit thereof in peace and delight. of late i asked of a scurvy tailor, should i give him peace? he gave me answer, 'twas the same to him, that must ply his needle as well in peace as in war: and the like answer i got from a brazier, which said if he could get no bells to found in peace time, yet in time of war he had enough to do with cannon and mortars. so likewise, a smith replied to me and said, 'though i have no ploughs and hay-carts to mend in war-time, yet have i so many war-horses and army waggons to deal with that i can well afford to do without peace.' lookye then, dear mercurius, why should i grant them peace? true there be some that do desire it, yet only as i say, for their belly's sake and their pleasure: contrariwise there be others that will still have war, not because 'tis my will, but because 'tis for their profit. and just as the masons and carpenters desire peace, to earn money by the building again of ruined houses, so others that be not sure of earning a living by their handicraft in time of peace do hope for the continuing of war, wherein they can steal." now when i found my jupiter so to go about with these matters, i could well conceive that he, with so confused a mind, could give me little account of mine own, and so i made not my business known to him, but took the bull by the horns, and away by by-paths well known to me, to lippstadt, where i inquired for my father-in-law as i were a messenger from foreign parts, and learned at once that he, with his wife, had quitted this world six months before, and secondly, that my dear wife, having been delivered of a man-child, that was now with her sister, had in like manner straightway, after her lying-in, quitted this mortal scene. upon that i delivered to my brother-in-law the writings which i had before addressed to my father-in-law, to my wife, and to him, my wife's brother. who would have entertained me himself, to learn from me, as from a messenger, how it fared with simplicissimus and of what rank he was now. in the end mine own sister-in-law did at length converse with me, i telling of myself all the good i knew; for my pock-pitted face had so marred and changed me that no man could know me more, save herr von schönstein: and he, as my true friend, did hold his tongue. but i telling her at length how herr simplicissimus had many fine horses and servants and rode abroad in a black-velvet coat all trimmed with gold, "yea," said she, "i did ever believe he was of no such low descent as he gave himself out to be: the commandant of this place did ever persuade my late parents, with great assurances, that they had made a good match with him for my sister, which had ever been a virtuous maiden: yet of all that i myself could never look for a good ending. nevertheless did he content himself and resolve to take upon him either swedish or hessian service in the garrison here: and to that end would he fetch hither his goods that he had left at cologne: which turned out ill, and he himself was by clean roguery spirited away into france, leaving my sister, that had had him to husband but for four weeks, yea, and a half-dozen of citizens' daughters likewise, with child by him; all which one after another, and my sister last of all, were brought to bed of boys. so since my father and mother were dead, and i and my husband without hope of children, we did adopt my sister's child to be the heir of all our property, and with the help of the commandant here did get possession of his father's money at cologne; which same might be reckoned at three thousand gulden; and so the young lad when he shall come of age shall have no cause to count himself among the paupers. yea, i and my husband do love the child so much that we would not yield him up to his own father though he came in person to fetch him away: moreover, he is the comeliest of all his half-brothers, and so like to his father as he had been cut out on his very pattern: and i know if my brother-in-law did but hear what a fair son he hath he would not delay to come hither were it but to see the little sweetheart." the like talk my sister-in-law held, by which i might well perceive her love to my child, which now ran about in his first breeches, and rejoiced mine heart: and with that i brought out the trinkets that herzbruder had given me to present on his behalf to my wife: which, said i, master simplicissimus had given me to deliver to his wife for a salutation: who being dead, i accounted it fair to leave the same for his child: all which my brother-in-law and his wife received with joy, and were convinced thereby that i had no want of means, but must indeed be a fellow of a different sort from that which they had fancied me to be. so now i pressed for leave to be gone, and having obtained such, i begged in the name of simplicissimus to kiss simplicissimus the younger, that i might tell the same to his father for a token. and this being done with the goodwill of my sister-in-law, my nose and the child's began at once and together to bleed, till i thought my heart would break: yet did i hide my feelings, and that none might have time to mark the cause of this sympathy, i took myself off at once, and after fourteen days of much trouble and danger came again to the spa in beggar's garb: for on the way i had been plundered and stripped. _chap. vi._: a story of a trick that simplicissimus played at the spa so being returned, i found herzbruder rather worse than better, though the doctors and apothecaries had plucked him cleaner than any pigeon: nay, more: he seemed to me now to be childish, nor could he walk straight. i did hearten him up as best i could, but his was an ill plight; himself perceiving well by his loss of strength that he could not last long; and his chief comfort was this, that i should be by his side when he should close his eyes. contrariwise i was merry, and sought my pleasure where i thought to find it: though in such wise that herzbruder lacked none of my care. yet because i knew myself now for a widower, the fine weather and my young blood enticed me to wantonness, whereunto i did fully give myself over; for the fear that had possessed me at einsiedeln i had now quite forgot. now there was at the spa a fair lady[ ] that gave herself out to be a person of quality, yet was to my thinking more "mobilis" than "nobilis": to this man-trap did i pay my constant court as to one that seemed a bona roba, and in brief space of time did obtain not only free entry to her but also all such favours as i could desire. yet had i from the first a disgust at her lightness, and so did devise how i might in all courtesy be rid of her: for methought she had her eye more on my purse than on me for a bridegroom: yea, and did persecute me with hot and wanton glances and the like tokens of her burning love wheresoever i might be, till i must be shamed both for her sake and mine own. at that time there was at the baths a rich switzer of quality: from whom was stolen not only his money, but his wife's jewellery, which was of gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones. and since 'tis as grievous to lose such things as 'tis hard to get them, therefore the said switzer would move heaven and earth to come by them again, and did even send for the famous devil-driver of the goatskin,[ ] which did so plague the thief by his charms that he must needs restore the stolen goods to their proper place: for which the wizard earned ten rix-dollars. with this enchanter i had fain conversed: but, as i then conceived, it could not be, without lessening of my dignity (for at that time i thought no small beer of myself). so i did engage my servant to be drunk with him that same night (having learned he was a toper of the first quality) to see if by such means i could have his acquaintance: for so many strange things were told to me of him that i could not believe till i had heard them from himself. to that end did i disguise myself as a strolling quack, and sat down by him at table to see if he could guess or the devil could tell him who i was: yet could i mark no such knowledge in him, but he would drink and drink, taking me for that which my raiment proclaimed me, yea, and drank some few glasses to my health, yet shewed more respect to my knave than to me. for to him he told in all confidence that if he that had robbed the switzer had thrown but the smallest part thereof into running water and so shared the booty with the devil, it had been impossible either to name the thief or to get back the goods. to all these silly conceits i listened, and wondered how the father of deceits and lies can by so small a thing bring men into his clutches. i could easily conceive that this was a clause in our enchanter's indenture with the devil, and perceive how such a trick could not help the thief if only another exorcist were fetched in to detect the theft, in whose compact this condition was not to be found: and so charged my knave, that could steal better than any gipsy, to make the man drunk and then steal his ten rix-dollars, and presently thereafter to cast a couple of batzen into the river rench. this he did with all diligence, and when the witch-doctor next morning missed his money, he betook himself to a thicket by the bank of the rench, doubtless to confer with his familiar spirit: by whom he was so ill-handled that he came off with a face all bruised and scratched; whereat i felt such pity for the poor old rogue that i gave him back his money and sent him a message that, since he now could see what a traitorous, evil spirit the devil was, he might renounce his service and company, and turn to god again: which warning brought me but little profit, for presently my two fair horses sickened and died by witchcraft; and what else could i expect? for i lived like epicurus in his stye and never did commend my goods to god's care: why, therefore, should the wizard not be able to revenge himself on me? _chap. vii._: how herzbruder died and how simplicissimus again fell to wanton courses with the spa i was the more pleased the longer i stayed, for not only did the guests increase daily, but the place and the manner of life also delighted me hugely. i joined acquaintance with the merriest that resorted thither and did begin to learn courtesy and compliment, wherewith i had till then troubled myself but little: and so was counted as of the nobility, my people calling me ever "noble captain"; for no mere soldier of fortune did ever gain so high a post at that age at which i still was. so with these rich fops i made, and they with me, not acquaintance only but sworn friendship; and pastime, play, eating, and drinking were all my work and care, which robbed me of many a fair ducat without my much perceiving or marking of it: for my purse was yet fairly heavy with oliver's legacy. meanwhile things went from bad to worse with herzbruder, till at last he must pay the debt of nature, all doctors and physicians now deserting him on whom they had fattened so long. so he confirmed once more his last will and testament and made me heir of all he had to receive from his late father's property. and in return i gave him a noble funeral and sent his servants on their way with mourning and money withal. yet his disease heartily vexed me, and especially because he had been poisoned: and though i could not change that, yet it changed me: for now i eschewed all company and sought only for solitude to give a hearing to my sad thoughts: to which end i would hide myself in some thicket and there would muse, not only upon what a friend i had lost, but also how i should never in my life find such another one. at times i would lay all manner of plans for my future life and yet could resolve on none: now i thought i would to the wars again: and then bethought me how even the poorest peasant in this land was better off than any colonel: for into those mountains came never a foraging party. yea, i could well fancy what an army would find to do there in ravaging of the country, seeing that all the farmhouses were well kept, as if in peace-time, and all the stalls full of cattle, while in many a village of germany in the plains neither dog nor cat could be found. so as i delighted myself with hearing of the sweet song of birds, and did fancifully conceive how the nightingale should by her dulcet song silence all other birds and force them to listen either from shame or to steal somewhat of her pleasant strains, there came to the opposite bank of the stream a beauty, that did move me more, because she wore but the habit of a peasant girl, than could any fine demoiselle have done; which took a basket from her head wherein she had a pack of fresh butter, to sell at the spa: this did she cool in the water that it might not melt by reason of the great heat, and meanwhile, sitting down upon the grass, did throw aside her kerchief and her peasant hat and wipe the sweat from her face, so that i could exactly observe her and feed my curious eyes upon her: and truly methought i had never seen a fairer form in my life: for the mould of her figure seemed perfect and without blemish, her arms and hands white as snow, her face fresh and sweet, but her black eyes full of fire and amorous looks. so as she was packing of her butter up again i cried across to her, "ah, maiden, 'tis true ye have cooled your butter in the water with your fair hands, yet with your bright eyes have ye set my heart afire." but she no sooner saw and heard me but away she ran as if she were pursued, without answering me a word, and so left me possessed with all the follies wherewith fantastic lovers are wont to be tormented. but my desire to be further illumined by this sun left me not in peace in the solitude i had chosen, but caused me to care no more for the song of the nightingale than for the howl of a wolf: therefore i made my way to the spa, and did send my page in front to accost the pretty butter-seller and to bargain with her till i should come: so he did his best, and i, when i came, did mine also: but found a heart of stone, and such coldness as i had never thought to find in any peasant-girl, which made me yet more in love, especially since i, that had been much a scholar in such schools, might well judge by such a carriage she would not easily be befooled. and now should i have had either a great enemy or a great friend: either an enemy to think of and devise evil against, and so to forget my fool's love, or a friend that should give me other counsel and warn me from the folly i proposed. but alas! i had naught but my money, which did but dazzle me, and my blind desires which led me astray, i giving them the rein, and mine own impudence, that ruined me and brought me to disaster. fool that i was, i should have judged by our clothes, as by an evil omen, that her love would work me woe. for i having lost herzbruder and the girl her parents, we were both dressed in mourning clothes when we first met: and so what joy could our love portend? in a word, i was properly caught in a fool's snare, and therefore as blind and without reason as the boy cupid himself: and because i had no hope otherwise to satisfy my bestial desires, i did determine to marry her. "for how!" thought i, "thou beest by descent but a peasant's brat and wilt never in thy life keep thy castle: and this fair champaign is a noble land, that throughout this grisly war hath, in comparison with other parts, maintained itself in peace and prosperity: besides, thou hast gold enough to buy thee even the best farm in this countryside: and now shalt thou marry with this honest peasant-girl and get thee a lord's reputation among the country-folk. and where couldst find a cheerfuller dwelling-place than near the spa, where thou canst, by reason of the coming and going of the guests, see a new world every six weeks, and so conceive how the great world doth change from one age to another?" such and a thousand like plans i made, till at length i sought my sweetheart in marriage and (yet not without pains) did obtain her consent. _chap. viii._: how simplicissimus found his second marriage turn out, and how he met with his dad and learned who his parents had been so i made fine preparation for the wedding: for all seemed rose-colour to me. not only did i buy up the whole farm whereon my bride had been born, but began also a fine new building besides, as if i would rather keep court than keep house: and before the wedding was over i had already more than thirty head of cattle on the farm; for so many could it maintain all the year round: in a word, i had the best of everything and such fine household plenishing as only folly like mine could devise. but soon i must whistle to a different tune, for i found my bride too knowing; and now, all too late, was i ware of the cause why she had been so loath to take me: and what vexed me most was that i could tell to no man my silly plight. i knew well enough that 'twas reasonable i must pay the piper; yet the knowledge made me not more patient, still less better in life; nay, rather i thought to betray the traitress, and so began to go a-grazing where i could find pasture: which kept me rather in good company at the spa than at home, and for a year at least i left my housekeeping to take care of itself. and for her part my wife was as slovenly as i: an ox that i had had slaughtered for household use she salted in baskets like pork, and when she was to prepare a sucking-pig for me she tried to pluck it like a fowl: yea, she would cook crayfish with a roasting-jack and trout on a spit: from which examples a man may judge what manner of housewife i found her: and withal she would drink freely of the good wine and share it with her good friends: and that was a sign of my coming disasters. now it fell out that as i was walking down the valley with some fops of the spa to visit a company at the lower baths, there met us an old peasant with a goat on a string, that he wished to sell, and because methought i had seen him before, i asked whence he came with his goat. at which he doffed his cap and "your worship," says he, "that i may not tell you." "how," said i, "surely thou hast not stolen the beast?" "nay," answered the peasant, "but i bring him from a village there in the valley, the which i may not mention to your worship in the presence of a goat"[ ] which caused my company to laugh, and because i changed colour they deemed i was vexed or ashamed that the peasant did answer me so neatly. yet my thoughts were otherwise, for by the great wart that this peasant had, like an unicorn, in the middle of his forehead, i was assured 'twas my dad from the spessart, and so would first play the conjurer before i would make myself known and delight him with so fine a son as my clothes shewed me to be. so i said to him, "good father, is not your home in the spessart?" "yes, your worship," says he. "then," said i, "did ye not some eighteen year agone have your house and farm plundered and burnt by the troopers?" "yea, god-a-mercy," quoth the peasant, "yet 'tis not so long ago": but i asked him further, "did ye not, then, have two children, a grown daughter and a young lad that kept your sheep?" "nay, your worship," says my dad, "the daughter was my child but not the boy: yet would i bring him up as mine own." and by that i understood i was no son of this rough yokel: and that in part rejoiced me yet again troubled me, for i thought now i must be some bastard or foundling, and therefore asked my dad how he had come by the said boy or what reason he had had to rear him as his own. "ah," says he, "i had strange luck with him: by war i got him and by war i lost him." but now being afeared lest some fact should come to light that would disgrace my birth, i turned the discourse upon the goat again and asked if he had sold it to the hostess for cooking, which would seem strange to me as knowing that her guests used not to eat old goat's flesh. but "nay, your worship," quoth the peasant, "the hostess hath goats enow and will pay naught for such: i do bring her for the countess that is at the spa to bathe. for doctor busybody hath ordered certain herbs for this goat to eat: and the milk that she gives therefrom the doctor taketh to make a medicine for the countess, that is to drink the milk and so be cured: for they say the countess hath no stomach, and if the goat help her 'twill do more than the doctor and all his sawbones together." while he thus talked i considered how i might have further speech with him, and so offered him for the goat a dollar more than the doctor or the countess would give: to which he readily agreed (for small gain will easily turn folk), yet on condition he should first tell the countess that i had bid a thaler more: and if she would give as much she should have the preference: if not, he would bring me the goat and would in the evening let me know how the business stood. with that my dad went his way and i, with my company, ours: yet could i and would i not stay longer with them, but turned me back and went where i found my dad again: who still had his goat, for others would not give him so much as i: which, for so rich people, did amaze me, yet made me not more niggardly: for i took him to my new-bought farm and paid him for his goat, and when i had him half-foxed i asked of him whence came the lad to him of whom we spoke to-day. "ah, your worship," says he, "the mansfeld war brought him to me and the nördlingen battle took him away again." "and that," quoth i, "must be a merry story," and so i begged him, since we had naught else to talk of, to tell it me to pass the time. with that he began, and says he, "when mansfeld[ ] lost the battle at höchst, his people were scattered abroad as not knowing whither to flee: of whom many came into the spessart, seeking woods wherein to hide them: but though they had escaped death on the plains they found it in the hills: for since both parties thought it their right to plunder and murder one another on our lands, we peasants would have a finger in their pie too. so 'twas but seldom that a farmer would go into his woods without a musquet, for we could not bide at home with our hoes and ploughs. and in this wild business did i light upon a fair young lady mounted on a goodly horse, in a savage and lonesome wood, yet not far from my farm: and just before, i had heard shots fired: and at first i took her for a man, for she rode like such: yet when i saw her raise hands and eyes to heaven and in a pitiful voice, though in a strange tongue, cry aloud to god, i lowered my gun, with which i would have fired upon her, and uncocked it; for her cries and actions did well assure me 'twas a woman, and one in trouble withal. so we drew near to each other, and when she saw me, 'ah,' says she, 'if ye be a christian and an honest man, i pray you for god and his mercy, yea, and for that last judgment before which we must all give account of our deeds and misdeeds, to bring me to some married woman that with god's help may deliver me of my burden!' which words, as being of such import, together with the gentle speech and the troubled, yet fair and kind face of the poor lady, did compel me to such pity that i took her horse by the bridle and led her over bush and brier to the thickest part of the wood whither i had brought my wife, my child, my people, and my cattle for refuge: and there within half an hour was she delivered of that young boy of whom we did discourse to-day." with that my dad finished his story and his glass: for i was no niggard of my wine for him: and when he had emptied it i asked him how it fared thereafter with the lady: to which he answered thus: "when she was delivered she begged me to be godfather, and to bring the child to baptism as soon as might be, and told me her own and her husband's name that they might be written in the book of christenings: and then did she open her wallet wherein she had full costly trinkets, and of these gave so many to me, to my wife and child, my maid-servant and to another woman that was by, that we might well be content with her: but even while she did this, and told us of her husband, she died under our hands, having first commended the child to us. but since the tumult in the land was then so great that none could abide in his own house, we had much trouble to come by a clergyman that should baptize the child and attend the funeral. yet both being done, 'twas commanded me by our burgomaster and our priest that i should rear the child till 'twas grown, and for my trouble and cost should keep all the lady's property save a few rosaries and precious stones and jewellery, which i should keep for the child. so my wife did nourish the babe with goat's milk, and we loved the lad, and did think when he should be grown up to give him our daughter to wife: but after the battle at nördlingen did i lose both boy and girl and all that i possessed." "now," says i to my dad, "ye have told me a pretty tale enough and yet forgot the best part: for ye have not told me the name of the lady or her husband or the child." "your honour," he answered, "i thought not ye desired to know it: but the lady's name was susanna ramsay: her husband was captain sternfels, of fuchsheim, and because my name was melchior did i have the child baptized melchior sternfels, of fuchsheim, and so inscribed in the book." now from that i knew clearly that i was the true-born son of my hermit and of governor ramsay's sister; but alas! far too late, for my parents were both dead, and of my uncle ramsay could i learn nothing save that the hanauers had rid themselves of him and his swedish garrison, whereat he had gone crazy for rage and vexation. but i treated my godfather well with wine, and next day had his wife fetcht likewise: yet when i declared myself to them, would they not believe it, till i did shew them a black and hairy mole i had upon my breast. _chap. ix._: in what manner the pains of child-birth came upon him, and how he became a widower not long after this i did take my godfather with me, and ride into the spessart to get certain news and certificate of my descent and noble birth; which i gat without difficulty from the book of baptisms and my godfather's witness: and presently thereafter visited the priest that had dwelt at hanau and had taken care of me: which gave me a writing to declare where my late father had died, and that i had abode with him to his death and thereafter for a long time with master ramsay, the commandant at hanau, under the name of simplicissimus: yea, i had an instrument containing my whole history drawn up by a notary out of the mouth of witnesses; for i thought, "who knoweth when thou wilt have need of it?" and this journey did cost me thalers, for on my return i was captured by a party, dismounted, and plundered so that i and my dad or godfather came off naked and hardly with our lives. meanwhile things went ill at home: for as soon as my wife knew her husband was a nobleman she not only did play the great lady, but did neglect all housekeeping; which i bore in silence because she was big with child: moreover, misfortune came on my cattle and robbed me of my chiefest and best: all which 'twould have been possible to endure, but o gemini! misfortunes came not singly: for even then while my wife was delivered, the maid was brought to bed likewise: and the child she bore was indeed like to me, but that which my wife had was so like to the farm-servant as it had been cut on the pattern of his face. nay, more! for the lady of whom i writ above did in the same night cause one to be laid at my door with notice in writing that i was the father: and so did i get a family of three at once, and could not but expect that others would creep out of every corner, which caused me not a few grey hairs. but so will it fare with whoever doth follow his own bestial lusts in such a godless and wicked way of life as i had led. and now what to do! i must have the baptism and be soundly punished by the magistrate: and the government being then swedish, and i an old soldier of the emperor, the score was the heavier to pay: all which was but the preface to my complete ruination the second time. and although all these manifold disasters did greatly trouble me, yet my wife contrariwise took all lightly; yea, did mock at me day and night about the fine treasure that had been laid at my door and for which i had paid so dearly: yet had she but known how 'twas with me and the maid she would have plagued me yet worse: but that good creature was so complacent as to let herself be persuaded with as much money as i should other ways have been fined for her sake, to swear her child to a fop that had at times visited me the year before and had been at the wedding, but whom otherwise she knew not. yet must she go a-packing, for my wife did suspect what i thought of her and the farm-servant, yet dared not hint thereat: for else had i proved to her that i could not at once be with her and with the maid. yet all the while i was tormented with the thought that i must rear a child for my servant, and mine own sons should not be my heirs, and yet must i hold my peace and be glad that none else knew of it: and with such thoughts did i daily torment myself, while my wife revelled every hour in wine; for since our marriage she had so used herself to the bottle that 'twas seldom away from her mouth, and she herself scarce went to bed any night but half-drunk: by which means she robbed her child of its nourishment and so inflamed her inward parts that soon after they fell out, and so made me a widower the second time, which went so my heart that i wellnigh laughed myself into a sickness. _chap. x._: relation of certain peasants concerning the wonderful mummelsee so now did i find myself restored to mine ancient freedom, but with a purse pretty well emptied of gold, and yet a great household overburdened with cattle and servants. therefore i took my foster-father melchior to be as my father, and my foster-mother, his wife, to be my mother, and young bastard simplicissimus that had been laid at my door i made my heir, and handed over to these two old people house and farm, together with all my property save a few yellow-boys and jewels that i had saved and kept hidden to meet extreme need: for now had i conceived such a loathing for the company and society of all women that i had determined, having fared so ill with them, never to marry again. so this old couple, which in matters rustic could hardly meet their likes for skill, presently arranged my housekeeping in different fashion. for they got rid of such cattle and servants as were of no use, and in their place had for the farm such as would bring profit. so my old dad and my mammy bade me be of good cheer, and promised if i would let them manage all to keep me ever a good horse in the stable and myself so well furnished that i could now and then drink my measure of wine with any honest companion. and presently i was ware of what manner of people now managed my estate: for my foster-father with the labourers tilled the ground, and bargained for cattle and wood and resin sharper than any jew, while his wife gave herself to cattle-breeding and contrived to save the milk-penny and keep it better than ten such wives as i had had. in such wise my farmyard was in short space furnished with all needful implements and cattle small and great, so that soon 'twas esteemed one of the best in that country-side: and i meanwhile took my walks abroad and gave myself up to contemplations, for when i saw how my foster-mother earned more by her bees alone, in wax and honey, than my wife had gained from cattle, swine, and all the rest together, i could well conceive that in other matters she would not be caught napping. now it happened on a time that i took my walk in the spa, more for the sake of a draught of fresh water than, according to my former usage, to make acquaintance with the fops: for i had begun to imitate the thriftiness of my parents, who counselled me i should not much consort with folk that so wantonly wasted their own and their father's goods. yet i joined myself to a company of men of moderate rank who even then were in discourse concerning a strange matter, namely, of the mummelsee, which said they was bottomless, and which was situate on one of the highest mountains near by: and they had sent for several old peasants and would have them to tell all that one and the other had heard of this wondrous lake, to whose stories i hearkened with great delight, though i held them all to be as vain fables as be some of plinius's tales. for one said if any man should tie up an odd number of things such as peas or pebbles, or what not, in a kerchief, and let it down into the water, presently the number would be even. and if one should drop in an even number, at once it became odd. others, and indeed the most part, declared, and confirmed what they said by examples, that if a man should throw in one or more stones, however fair the skies might be till then, at once there would arise a terrible storm with fearful rain, hail and hurricane. from that they came to all manner of strange histories that had happened there, and what wondrous appearances of earth- and water-spirits had there been seen and how they had talked with mankind. one told how on a time, as certain herdsmen were keeping cattle by the lake, there arose a brown ox out of the water that mixed with the other cattle, but there followed him a little mannikin to drive him back into the lake; who would not obey till the little man had sworn that if he did not come back he should suffer all the ills of human kind. at which words ox and man again sank into the lake. another said it happened at a time when the lake was frozen over that a peasant, with his oxen and sundry trunks of trees, such as we hew planks out of, passed over the lake without harm; but when his dog would follow him the ice broke, and so the poor beast fell in and was never seen again. and yet another swore 'twas solemn truth that a huntsman following in the track of game was passing by the lake, and there saw a water-spirit sitting with a whole lapful of coined money and playing therewith; at whom when he would have shot, the spirit sank into the water, and cried, "hadst thou but prayed me to help thee in thy trade, i would have made thee and thine rich for life." such and the like tales, which seemed to me all as fables with which we do amuse our children, did i hearken to, and never deemed it possible that there could be such a bottomless lake upon a high mountain. but there were other peasants, and those old and credible men, that affirmed that within their own and their father's memory high and princely persons had journeyed to behold the said lake, and that a reigning duke of würtemberg had caused a raft to be made, and had put out into the lake thereupon to sound its depth: but that after the measures had already let down nine thread-cables (which is a measure of length better understanded of the peasants' wives of the black forest than of me or any other geometer) with a sinking-lead, and yet had found no bottom, the raft, contrary to the nature of wood, began to sink, so that they that were upon it must perforce give up their purpose and make all haste to land, and so to this day can be seen the fragments of the raft on the shore of the lake, with the arms of würtemberg and other matters carved upon the wood for a memorial of this history. others called many witnesses to prove that a certain archduke of austria had desired to drain the lake, but was by many dissuaded and at the petition of the people of the land the plan given up, for fear lest the whole country might be drowned and destroyed. furthermore, the said noble princes had caused barrels full of trout to be put into the lake; all which in less than an hour died before their eyes and floated away through the outlet of the lake, notwithstanding that the stream that flows under the mountain on which the lake lies and through the valley that takes its name therefrom produces by nature such fish, and that the outlet of the lake is into the said stream. _chap. xi._: of the marvellous thanksgiving of a patient, and of the holy thoughts thereby awakened in simplicissimus these last did so affirm what they said that i now began almost entirely to believe them, and they did so move my curiosity that i determined to visit this wondrous lake. but of those that with me had listened to the whole story one judged one way and another another, from which sufficiently appeared their different and contradictory ways of thinking. for my part i said the german name mummelsee[ ] sufficiently declared that there was about the thing, as about a masquerade, some disguise, so that none might fathom either its nature or its depth, which had never yet been discovered, though such high personages had attempted it. and with that i betook me to the same place where a year before i had seen my departed wife for the first time and drank in the sweet poison of love. and there i laid myself down on the green grass in the shade, yet took no heed as i had done before to what the nightingales did sing, but rather pondered on the changes i had suffered since then. i represented to myself how in that very place i had begun to be in place of a free man a slave of love, and how since then i had become from an officer a peasant, from a rich peasant a poor nobleman, from a simplicissimus a melchior, from a widower a husband, from a husband a cuckold, and from a cuckold a widower again; moreover, from a peasant's brat i had proved to be the son of a good soldier, and yet again the son of my old dad. then again i reflected how fate had robbed me of my herzbruder, and in his place had provided me with two old married folk. i thought of the godly life and decease of my father; the piteous death of my mother; and, further, of the manifold changes which i had undergone in my lifetime, till i could no longer refrain myself from tears. and even while i reflected how much good money i in my lifetime had possessed and squandered away, and began to lament therefore, there came two good soakers or winebibbers on whom the gout had fastened in their limbs, whereby they were crippled and needed both the baths and to drink the waters: these set themselves down by me, for 'twas a fair place to rest, and each bewailed to the other his sad case as thinking that they were alone. so said the one, "my doctor hath sent me here either as one of whose healing he despaired or else as one that with others might help him to repay my host here for the keg of butter he sent him: i would i had either never seen him in my life or else that he had at the first sent me to the spa, for so should i either have more money than now or else be sounder, for the waters suit my case right well." and "ah" says the other, "i thank my god that he hath given me no more money to spare than what i have, for had my doctor known that i had more behind he had never counselled me to come to the spa; but i must have shared all between him and his apothecaries, that for this cause do oil his palms year by year--yea, even though i should have died and perished in the meanwhile. these greedy fellows send not men like us to so healthful a place till they be well assured they can help us no more, or else find us pigeons they can pluck no longer: and if the truth must be confessed, he that once deals with them, and of whom they know that he has money, must pay them only to this end, that they keep him sick." and much more evil had these two to say of their doctors, but i care not to tell it all: otherwise might the gentlemen of that profession take it amiss and some time or other give me a dose that should purge my soul out of my body. nay, i do but mention it for this cause, because this second patient, in giving thanks to god that he had given him no more wealth, so comforted me that i banished clean out of my mind all vexations and heavy thoughts that had assailed me on the score of money: and i did resolve to strive no more for honour nor gold nor for aught else that the world loveth. yea, i determined to be a philosopher and to devote myself to a godly life, and in especial to lament mine own impenitence and to endeavour myself, like my dear departed father, to ascend to the highest degree of piety. _chap. xii._: how simplicissimus journeyed with the sylphs to the centre of the earth now this desire to visit the mummelsee increased with me when i learned from my foster-father that he had been there and knew the way thither; but when he heard that i likewise would go, "and what will ye gain," says he, "by going thither? my son with his old dad will see naught else but the picture of a pond lying in the midst of a great wood, and when he hath paid for his present taste with sore distaste, he will have naught but repentance and weary feet (for a man can hardly come to the place by riding) and the way back instead of the way thither. nor should ever any man have had me to go thither had i not been forced to flee there when doctor daniel (by which he meant duc d'anguin[ ]) marched with his troops down through the country to philippsburg." yet my curiosity would not be turned aside by his dissuasion, but i got me a fellow that should guide me thither; so my father, seeing my fixed intent, said, since the oat-crop was gathered in, and there was neither hoeing nor reaping to be done on the farm, he would even go with me and shew the way. for he loved me so that he would fain not let me out of his sight, and since all the people of the country believed i was his true-born son, he was proud of me; and so behaved to me and to all others as a poor man might well do in respect of a son whom good fortune, without his own help and assistance, had turned into a fine gentleman. so together we set off over hill and dale and came to the mummelsee; and that before we had gone six hours, for my dad was as lively as a cricket and as good a traveller as any young man. and there we consumed what meat and drink we had brought with us, for the long journey and the high mountain on which the lake lieth had made us both hungry and thirsty. so having refreshed ourselves i did inspect the lake, and found lying in it certain hewn timbers which my dad and i took to be the remains of the würtemberg raft: and i by geometry took or estimated the length and breadth of the water (for 'twas far too wearisome to go round the lake and measure it by paces or feet), and entered the dimensions, by means of the scale of reduction, in my tablets. and having done this, the sky being completely clear and the air windless and calm, i must needs try what truth was in the legend that a storm would arise if any should throw a stone into the lake; having already found those stories i had heard, how the lake would suffer no trout to live in it, to be true, by reason of the mineral taste of the waters. so to make trial of this, i walked along the lake to the left, where the water, which elsewhere is as clear as a crystal, doth begin, by reason of the monstrous depth, to shew as black as coal, and therefore is so dreadful of appearance that the mere look of it doth terrify. and there i began to cast in stones as great as i could carry; my foster-father or dad not only refusing to help me, but warning and begging me to give over, as much as in him lay: but i went busily on with my work, and such stones as by reason of their size and weight i could not carry, i rolled down till i had cast more than thirty such into the lake. then began the sky to be covered with black clouds, in which terrible thundering was heard, so that my dad, which stood on the other side of the lake by the outlet, lamenting over my work, cried out to me that i should escape, lest we be caught by the rain and the dreadful storm, or even a worse mishap chance to us. but in despite of all i answered him, "father, i will stay and await the end even though it rained pitchforks." "yea, yea," answered he, "ye act like all madcap boys, that care not if the world perish." but i, while i listened to his scolding, turned not mine eyes away from the depths of the lake, expecting to see certain bladders or bubbles rising up from the bottom, as is wont to happen when stones are thrown into deep water whether still or running. yet saw i naught of the kind, but was ware of certain creatures floating far down in the depths, which in form reminded me of frogs, and flitted about like sparks from a mounting rocket which in the air doth work its full effect: and as they came nearer and nearer to me they seemed to grow larger and more like to the human form: at which at first great wonder took hold of me, and at last, when i saw them hard by me, a great fear and trembling. "ah," said i then to myself in my terror and wonder, and yet so loud that my dad, that stood beyond the lake, could hear me, though the noise of the thunder was dreadful, "how great are the wondrous works of the creator! yea, even in the womb of the earth and the depths of the waters!" and scarce had i said these words when one of these sylphs appeared upon the waters and answered me, "aha, and thou dost acknowledge that before thou hast seen aught thereof: what wouldst say if thou wert for once in the centrum terrae and beheldest our dwelling which thy curiosity hath disturbed?" meanwhile there rose up here and there more of such water-spirits, like diving birds, all looking upon me and bringing up again the stones i had cast in, which amazed me much. and the first and chiefest among them, whose raiment shone like pure gold and silver, cast to me a shining stone of the bigness of a pigeon's egg and green and transparent as an emerald, with these words: "take thou this trinket, that thou mayst have somewhat to report of us and of our lake." but scarce had i picked it up and pocketed it when it seemed to me the air would choke or drown me, so that i could not stand upright but rolled about like a ball of yarn, and at last fell into the lake. yet no sooner was i in the water than i recovered, and through the virtue of the stone i had upon me could breathe in water instead of air: yea, i could with small effort float in the lake as well as could the water-spirits, yea, and with them descended into the depths; which reminded me of nothing so much as of a flock of birds that so descend in circles from the upper air to light upon the ground. but my dad having beheld this marvel in part (namely, so much of it as was done above the water), made off from the lake and home again as if his head were on fire. and there he told the whole history; but especially how the water-spirits had brought back those stones that i had cast into the lake, in the midst of the thunderstorm, and had laid them where they came from, but in exchange had taken me down with them. so some believed him but most accounted it a fable. others conceived that i had, like another empedocles of agrigentum (which cast himself into mount aetna that all might think, since he was nowhere to be found, that he was taken up to heaven), drowned myself in the lake, and charged my father to spread such tales about me to gain for me an immortal name: for, said they, it had long been marked by my melancholic humour that i was half-desperate. others would fain have believed, had they not known my strength of body, that my adopted father had himself murdered me to be rid of me (being a miserly old man) and so be master alone on my farm: so that at this time naught else but the mummelsee and me and my departure and my foster-father could be talked of or discoursed on either at the spa or in the countryside. _chaps. xiii.-xvi._ contain merely a farrago of nonsense conveyed in conversations with the prince of the mummelsee, who explains to simplicissimus the construction of the "earth's crust" and the nature of sylphs, and in turn is treated by him to an account of earthly affairs, on which he makes the usual commonplace satirical remarks (see the introduction). _chap. xvii._: how simplicissimus returned from the middle of the earth, and of his strange fancies, his aircastles, his calculations; and how he reckoned without his host meanwhile the time drew near that i should return home; therefore the king bade me declare my wishes, whereby i understood he was minded to do me a favour. so i said, no greater kindness could be shewn me than to cause a real medicinal spring to rise on my farm. "and is that all?" answered the king, "i had thought thou wouldst have taken with thee some of these great emeralds from the american sea and have asked to bear them with thee back to earth. now do i see that there is no greed among you christians." therewith he handed to me a stone of strange and glittering colours, and said, "put this in thy pouch, and wheresoever thou layest in on the ground, there will it begin to seek the centre of the earth again, and to pass through the most fitting mineralia, till it come back to us, and for our part we will send thee a noble mineral spring, that shall work thee such good and profit as thou hast deserved of us by thy declaration of the truth." so thereupon the prince of the mummelsee took me again under his charge, and passed with me through the road and the lake by which we had come. and this way back seemed to me far longer than the way thither, so that i reckoned it at three thousand five hundred german-swiss miles well measured; but doubtless the cause that the time seemed so long to me was that i had no speech of my escort, save that i learned from them they were from three to five hundred years old and lived all this time without the least disease. for the rest, i was in fancy so rich with my spring that all my wits and all my thoughts were busied with this, to wit, where i should plant it and how turn it to profit. and first i had my plans for the fine buildings that i must set up that the bathing-guests might be properly accommodated, and i for my part might gain great hire for lodgings. then i devised already by what bribes i could persuade the doctors to prefer my new miraculous spa to all the others, yea, even to that of schwalbach, and so procure for me a crowd of rich patients: in my fantasy i even levelled whole mountains lest they that came and went should find the way wearisome to travel: already i hired sharp-witted drawers, sparing cooks, careful chambermaids, watchful grooms, spruce intendants of the baths and springs, and already i thought of a place where in the midst of the wild mountains by my farm i might plant a fine level pleasure-garden, and there rear all manner of rare plants, that the bathing-guests and their wives that came from foreign parts might walk therein, where the sick might be cheered and the sound might be amused and exercised with all manner of sports and pastimes. then must the doctors, for a reward, write me a noble treatise on my spring and set down on paper its healing qualities; and this i would have printed with a fine plate wherein my farm should be depicted and a ground plan thereof given; by reading which any absent patient might at once believe and hope himself in health again. then would i have all my children fetched from lippstadt, to have them taught all that was needful to know of my new watering-place; for 'twas my intent to scarify my guests' purses well though not their backs. with such rich fancies and overweening castles in the air i came again into the upper world, for this oft-mentioned prince brought me again to land from his mummelsee with dry clothes; and there i must forthwith cast from me the talisman that he had at first given me when he fetched me away; else had i either been choked in the air or must have plunged my head under the water again, such was the effect of the said stone. which being done, and he having taken it to him again, we commended each other to the protection of the most high, as men that should never meet again; so he with his people dived under and sank into his depths; but i with my stone which the king had given me went thence as full of joy as if i had fetched the golden fleece home from colchis. but alas! my joy, of which i vainly hoped for the everlasting continuance, endured not long, for hardly was i gone from that lake of wonders when i began to go astray in that rhonstrous wood, for i had not marked from what direction my dad had brought me to the lake. yet i went some way on before i was aware of my mistake, ever making calculations how i could plant that noble spring on my farm, and build round it, and earn for myself a peaceful revenue as proprietor thereof. in this way i unawares strayed further and further from the place whither i desired to come and, worst of all, i found it not out till the sun was sinking and i was helpless. for there i stood in the midst of a wilderness like simple simon, without food or arms, of which i might well have need during the night that was coming on. yet i found comfort in my stone that i had brought with me from the very bowels of the earth. "patience, patience!" said i to myself: "this will again repay thee for all sufferings undergone. all good things take time, and fine rewards be not won without great toil and labour: else would every fool need but to wipe his beard to get possession at will of even such a noble spring as thou hast in thy poke." and having spoken thus i got with my new resolve new strength, so that i went forward with a bolder gait than heretofore, although night now overtook me. the full moon indeed shone on me brightly, but the tall fir-trees kept the light from me more than the deep sea had done that very day; yet i made my way on, till about midnight i was ware of a fire afar off, to which i straightway walked, and saw from a distance that there were certain woodmen about it, resin-gatherers; and though such folk be not at all times to be trusted yet my necessity compelled me and my own courage urged me on to speak to them. so i came quietly behind them and said, "good night or good day or good morrow or good even, gentlemen: for tell me what hour it is that i may know how to greet ye." with that the whole six stood or sat there all a-tremble with fear and knew not what to answer me. for i, being of great stature and just at that time, by reason of mourning for my late wife, being in black raiment; and in especial having a terrible cudgel in mine hand, on which i leaned like a wild man of the woods, my figure seemed to them dreadful. "how," says i, "will none answer me?" yet they stayed yet a good while in amazement, till at last one came to himself well enough to ask, "who be the gentleman?" by that i heard they must be of the swabian nation; which men esteem as simple-minded yet with little cause: so i said i was a travelling scholar, but newly come from the venusberg, where i had learned a heap of wondrous arts. "oho," quoth the eldest woodman, "praise god; for now do i believe that i shall live to see peace again, because the wandering scholars are on their travels anew!" _chap. xviii._: how simplicissimus wasted his spring in the wrong place in this wise we came to converse with one another, and i found so much courtesy among them that they invited me to sit down and offered me a piece of black bread and thin cow's milk cheese, both of which i did thankfully accept. at last they became so familiar with me that they hinted i should, as a travelling scholar, tell their fortunes: and i, knowing somewhat of physiognomies and palmistry, began to tell to one after the other such stuff as i deemed would content them, that i might not lose credit with them; for in spite of all i was not at my ease among these wild woodmen. then would they learn curious arts from me: but i fobbed them off with promises for the next day, and desired they would suffer me to rest a little. and having so played the gipsy for them. i laid myself down a little apart, more to listen and to perceive how they were minded than as having any great desire to sleep (though my appetite thereto was not lacking); and the more i snored the more wakeful they appeared. so they put their heads together and began to dispute one against another who i might be: they held that i could be no soldier because i wore black clothing, nor no townsman-blade, that could so suddenly appear far from all men's dwellings in the muckenloch (for so was the wood called) at so unwonted a time. at the last they resolved i must be a journeyman latinist[ ] that had lost his way, or, as i myself had declared, a travelling scholar, because i could so excellently tell fortunes. "yea," says another, "yet he knew not all for that reason: 'tis some wandering soldier, maybe, that hath so disguised himself to spy out our cattle and the secret ways of the wood. aha! if we knew that we would so put him to sleep that he should forget ever to wake again." but another quickly took him up, that held the contrary and would have me to be somewhat else. meanwhile i lay there and pricked up my ears and thought, "if these clodhoppers set upon me, two or three of them will need to bite the dust before they make an end of me." but while they took counsel and i tormented myself with fears, of a sudden i found myself lying in a pool of water. o horrors! now was troy lost and all my splendid plans gone to naught, for by the smell i perceived 'twas mine own mineral spring. with that, for very rage and despite, i fell into such a frenzy that i wellnigh had fallen on those six peasants and fought them all. "ye godless rogues," says i to them, and therewith sprang up with my terrible cudgel, "by this spring that welleth forth where i have lain ye well may see who i am; it were small wonder if i should so trounce ye all that the devil should fetch ye, because ye have dared to cherish such evil thoughts in your hearts," and thereto i added looks so threatening and terrible that all were afraid of me. yet presently i came to myself and perceived what folly i committed. "nay," thought i, "'tis better to lose the spring than one's life, and that thou canst easily forfeit if thou attack these clowns." so i gave them fair words again, and before they could recollect themselves: "arise," said i, "and taste of this noble spring which ye and all other woodmen and resin-gatherers will henceforth be able to enjoy in this wilderness through my help." now this my discourse they understood not, but looked one upon another like live stockfish till they saw me very soberly take the first draught out of my hat. then one by one they arose from beside their fire, and looked upon this miracle and tasted the water; but instead of being grateful to me as they should have been, they began to curse and said they would i had chanced on some other spot with my spring: for if their lord came to know of it, then must the whole district of dornstett do forced-work to make a road thither, which would bring great hardship upon them. "but," says i, "on the contrary, ye will all have your profit therefrom: for ye can turn your fowls, your eggs, your butter, and your cattle and the rest more easily into money." "nay, nay," said they, "the lord will put in an innkeeper that will take all the profit alone: and we must be his poor fools to keep road and path in trim for him, and earn no thanks thereby." but at last they disagreed: for two were for keeping the spring and four demanded of me that i should take it away; which, had it been in my power, i had willingly done whether it pleased them or teased them. so as day began to break, and i had no more to do there, but must rather take heed lest we came together by the ears, i said that unless they were minded that all the cows in that valley should give red milk as long as the spring flowed they must presently shew me the way to seebach; with which they were content, and to that end sent two of them with me; for one had feared to go with me alone. so i departed thence, and though the whole land there was barren and bore nothing but pine-cones, yet would i with a curse have made it yet poorer, for there i had lost all my hopes; yet went i silently enough with my guides till i came to the top of the hill, where i could a little trace my way by the lie of the country. and there i said to them, "now, my masters, ye can turn your new spring to fine profit if ye go forthwith and tell your lords of its coming up; for that will bring ye a rich reward, seeing that the prince will surely build about it for the glory and gain of the country, and for the promotion of his own interest will have it made known to all the world." "yea," said they, "fools should we be in truth so to bind rods for our own backs; we had rather the devil would take thee and thy spring too: thou hast heard enough to know why we desire it not." "ah, miscreants!" quoth i, "should i not call ye disloyal rogues that depart so far from the ways of your pious forefathers, which were so true to their prince that he could boast that he might venture to lay his head upon the knees of any of his subjects and there sleep in safety. but ye blackcaps, to 'scape a trifling task for which ye would in time be recompensed and of which all your posterity would reap a rich reward, ye be so dishonest as to refuse to make known this healing spring, which were both to the profit of your worshipful prince and also to the welfare and health of many a sick man. what would it cost ye though each should do a few days' forced work to that end?" "how," said they, "we would rather kill thee that thy spring might remain unknown." "ye night-birds," says i, "there must be more of ye for that," and therewith heaved up my cudgel and chased them to all the devils, and thereafter went my way down hill westwards and southwards, and so came after much toil and tumble about sunset to my farm, and found it true indeed what my dad had prophesied to me, namely, that i should get naught from this pilgrimage save weary legs and the way back for the way thither. _chap. xix._ is an uninteresting excursus on certain communities of anabaptists in hungary. _chap. xx._: treats of a trifling promenade from the black forest to moscow in russia the same autumn there drew near to us french, swedish, and hessian troops to refresh themselves among us and to keep the free city in the neighbourhood (which was built by an english king,[ ] and called after his name) blockaded, for which cause every man gathered together his cattle and the best of his goods and fled into the woods among the mountains. i too did as my neighbours did and left my house pretty well empty, wherein a swedish colonel on half-pay was lodged. the same found still remaining in my cabinet certain books, for in my haste i could not bring all away; and among others certain mathematical and geometrical essays, and also some on fortification, wherewith our engineers be principally busied, and therefore at once concluded that his quarters could belong to no common peasant, and so began to inquire of my character and to court my acquaintance, till by courteous offers and threats intermingled he wrought me to it that i should visit him at mine own farm, where he treated me very civilly and restrained his people, that they should do my goods no unnecessary damage or hurt. and by such friendly treatment he brought it about that i told him of all my business, and in especial of my family and descent. thereat he wondered that i in the midst of war could so dwell among peasants, and look on while another tied his horse to my manger, whereas i with more honour could tie mine own horse to another's: i should, said he, gird on the sword again and not allow my gift which god had bestowed on me to perish by the fireside, and behind the plough; for he knew, if i would enter the swedish service, my capacity and my knowledge of war would soon raise me to high rank. this i treated but coldly, and told him advancement was ever far off if a man had no friends to take him by the hand; whereto he replied that my good qualities would soon procure me both friends and advancement; nay, more: he doubted not that i should find kinsmen at the swedish headquarters, and those of some account, for there there were many scottish noblemen and men of rank. further, said he, a regiment had been promised to him himself by torstensohn; which promise if it were kept (of which he doubted not) then would he at once make me his lieutenant-colonel. with such and the like words he made my mouth to water, and inasmuch as there were now but scanty hopes of peace, and for me to suffer further billeting of troops did but mean utter ruin, therefore i resolved to serve again, and promised the colonel to go with him if only he would keep his word and give me the post of lieutenant-colonel in the regiment he was to have. and so the die was cast; and i sent for my dad or foster-father, which was still with my cattle at bairischbrunn;[ ] and to him and his wife i devised my farm as their own property; yet on condition that after his death my bastard simplicissimus that had been laid at my door should inherit it with all appurtenances, since there were no heirs born in wedlock. thereafter i fetched my horse and all the gold and trinkets i still had, and having settled all my affairs and taken order for the education of my said by-blow of a son, on a sudden the blockade i spoke of was raised, so that before we looked for it we must decamp and join the main army. under the colonel i served as a steward, and maintained him with his servants and horses and all his household by theft and robbery, which is called in soldiers' language foraging. but as to the promises of torstensohn, of which he had talked so big at my farm, they were not so great by a good deal as he had given out, but as it seemed to me he was rather looked at askance. "aha," says he to me, "some malicious dog hath slandered me at headquarters. yet i shall not need to wait long": but when he suspected that i should not endure to tarry longer with him he forged letters as if he had to raise a fresh regiment in livonia where his home was, and persuaded me to embark with him at wismar and to sail thither. and there too we found naught, for not only had he no regiment to raise, but was besides a nobleman as poor as a church mouse: and what he had came from his wife. yet though i had now been twice deceived and had suffered myself to be enticed so far afield, yet i took the bait the third time; for he shewed me writings he had received from moscow, in which, as he professed, high commands in the army were offered him, for so he interpreted the said letters to me and boasted loudly of good and punctual pay: and seeing that he started off with wife and child, i thought, surely he is on no wild-goose chase. and so with high hopes i took the road with him, for otherwise i saw no means or opportunity to get back to germany. but as soon as we came over the russian frontier, and sundry discharged german soldiers met us, i began to be alarmed and said to my colonel, "what the devil do we here? we leave the country where war is, and where there is peace and soldiers be of no account and disbanded, thither we come." yet still he gave me fair words and said i should leave it to him; he knew better what he was about than these fellows that were of no account. but when we came in safety to the city of moscow, i saw at once the game was up. 'tis true my colonel conferred daily with great men, but far more with bishops than boyars, which seemed to me not so much grand as far too monkish, and aroused in me all manner of fancies and reflections, though i could not conceive what he aimed at: but in the end he revealed to me that war was over and that his conscience urged him on to embrace the greek religion; and that his sincere advice to me was, inasmuch as otherwise he could help me no more as he had promised, to follow his example: for his majesty the czar had already good accounts of my person and my great capabilities: and would be graciously pleased, if i would agree to the conditions, to endow me as a knight with a fine estate and many serfs; which most gracious offer was not to be rejected, since for any man it was better to have in so great a monarch rather a gracious lord than an offended prince. at this i was much confounded, and knew not what to answer, for had i had the colonel in another place i would have answered him rather by deeds than words: but now i must play my cards otherwise, and consider the place where i was, and where i was like to a prisoner; and therefore was silent a long time before i could resolve upon an answer. at length i said to him i had indeed come with the purpose to serve the czar's majesty as a soldier, to which he, the colonel, had persuaded me; and if my services in war were not needed i could not help it; far less could i lay it to the charge of the czar that i had for his sake undertaken so long a journey in vain, for he had not written to me to come. but that his majesty condescended so graciously to dispense his royal favour to me would be a thing for me rather to boast of before all the world than most humbly to accept it and to earn it, since i could not just now determine to alter my religion, and only wished i were dwelling again in my farm in the black forest and so causing no man concern or inconveniency. to which he replied, "your honour may do as he pleases: only i had conceived that if god and good luck favoured him, he would do well to be thankful to both; but if he will accept no help and refuses to live like a prince, at least i hope he will believe that i have spared no pains to help him to the best of my ability." thereupon he made me a deep reverence, went his way, and left me in the lurch, not allowing me even to give him my company to the door. so as i sat there all perplexed and reviewed my present condition i heard two russian carriages before our lodging, and looking out of the window saw my good master colonel with his sons enter the one and his wife with her daughters the other. which were the czar's carriages and his livery, and divers priests there also which waited upon this honourable family and shewed them all kindness and good will. _chap. xxi._: how simplicissimus further fared in moscow from this time i was watched, not openly indeed, but secretly, by certain soldiers of the strelitz guard, and that without my knowledge; and my colonel and his family never once came in my sight, so that i knew not what was become of him: and all this, as may easily be thought, brought in my head strange conceits and many grey hairs also. there i made the acquaintance of the germans that dwell in moscow, some as traders, some as mechanics, and to them lamented my plight and how i had been deceived by guile; who gave me comfort and direction how i, with a fair opportunity, might return to germany. but so soon as they got wind of it that the czar had determined to keep me in the land and would force me to it, they all became dumb towards me, yea, avoided my company, and 'twas hard for me even to find a shelter for my head. for i had already devoured my horse, saddle and trappings and all, and was now doling out one to-day and to-morrow another of the ducats which i had wisely sewn into my clothes. at last i began to turn into money my rings and trinkets, in the hope to keep myself so until i could find a fair occasion to get back to germany. meanwhile a quarter of a year was gone, after which the said colonel, with all his household, was baptized again and provided with a fine nobleman's estate and many serfs. at that time there went out a decree that both among natives and foreigners no idlers should be allowed (and that with heavy penalties) as those that took the bread out of the mouth of the workers, and all strangers that would not work must quit the country in a month and the town in four-and-twenty hours. with that some fifty of us joined together with intent to make our way, with god's help, through podolia to germany; yet were we not two hours gone from the town when we were caught up by certain russian troopers, on the pretence that his majesty was greatly displeased that we had impudently dared to band together in such great numbers, and to traverse his land at pleasure without passports, saying further that his majesty would not be going beyond his rights in sending us all to siberia for our insolent conduct. on the way back i learned how my business stood: for the commander of the troop told me plainly, the czar would not let me forth of the country: and his sincere advice was that i should obey his majesty's most gracious will and join their religion, and (as the colonel had done) not despise a fine estate; assuring me also that if i refused this and would not live among them as a lord i must needs stay as a servant against my will: nor must his majesty be blamed that he would not allow to depart from his country a man so skilful as the before-mentioned colonel had reported me to be. then did i disparage mine own worth, and said the honourable colonel must surely have ascribed to me more arts, virtues, and knowledge than i possessed: 'twas true indeed i had come into the land to serve his majesty the czar and the worshipful russian people, even at the risk of my life, against their enemies: but to change my religion, to that i could not resolve me: yet so far as i could in any wise serve his majesty without burdening my conscience, i would not fail to do my utmost endeavour. then was i set apart from the rest and lodged with a merchant, where i was openly watched, yet daily provisioned from the court with rich food and costly liquors, and also daily had visitors that talked with me and now and again would invite me as a guest. in especial there was one to whose charge i had without doubt been chiefly commended, a crafty man, that entertained me daily with friendly talk; for now could i speak russian pretty well. so he discoursed with me oftentimes of all manner of mechanic arts, as well as of engines of war and others, and of fortification and artillery practice. at last, after much beating about the bush to find out whether i would give in to his master's wishes, when he found there was no hope of my changing even in the least point, he begged that i would for the honour of the great czar impart and communicate to their nation somewhat of my science: for his majesty would requite my complaisance with high and royal favours. to which i answered, my desires had ever been to that end, most dutifully to serve the czar, seeing that for this purpose i had come into his country, albeit i perceived that i was kept like a prisoner. but he replied, "nay, nay, sir, ye be no prisoner, but his majesty doth hold ye so dear that he cannot resolve to part with your person." so says i, "wherefore then am i guarded?" "because," he answered, "his majesty feareth lest any harm should happen to ye." so now understanding my proposals, he said the czar was graciously pleased to consider of digging for saltpetre in his own country and making of powder there; but because there was no one in the land that could deal with the matter, i should do him an acceptable service if i would undertake the work: to that end i should be provided with men and means enough ready to hand, and he in his own person would most sincerely beg of me not to reject such a gracious proposal, seeing that they were already well assured that i had a full knowledge of such matters. to which i answered, "sir, i say as i said before: if i can serve his majesty in anything, provided only he will be graciously content to leave me undisturbed in my religion, i will not fail to do my best." whereat the russian, which was one of their chief magnates, was heartily glad and pledged me in drink deeper than ever a german. next day there came from the czar two great nobles with an interpreter to make a final agreement with me, and presented me on behalf of the czar with a costly russian robe: and a few days after i began to seek for saltpetre and to instruct the russians that had been assigned to me how to separate it from the earth and refine it; and at the same time i drew up a plan of a powder-mill, and taught others to burn charcoal, so that in brief space we had ready a goodly amount both of musquet and ordnance powder; for i had people enough, besides mine own servants that were to wait on me, or, to speak more truly, to keep watch and ward over me. i being thus well started, there comes to me the before-mentioned colonel in russian clothes and nobly escorted by many servants; without doubt by such a show of glory to persuade me to go over to that religion. but i knew well that the clothes came from the czar his wardrobe, and were but lent him to make my mouth water: for 'tis the commonest of customs at the russian court: and that the reader may understand how 'tis managed, i will give him an instance of mine own self. for once was i busied with taking order at the powder-mills (which i caused to be built on the river outside moscow) as to what task one and the other of the people assigned to me should perform that day and the next, when of a sudden there was an alarm that the tartars, , horse strong, were but four miles away plundering the country and advancing continually: so must i and my people needs betake ourselves to the palace, to be equipped out of the czar's armoury and stables. and i for my part, in place of a cuirass, was clad in a quilted silk breastplate that would stop any arrow, but could not keep out any bullet: moreover boots and spurs and a princely head-dress with a heron plume, and a sabre that would split a hair, mounted with pure gold and studded with precious stones, were given to me, and of the czar's horses such an one was put between my legs as i had never seen the like of in my life, far less ridden; so i and my horses blazed with gold, silver, pearls and precious stones. i had a steel mace hanging by me that shone like a mirror, and was so well made and heavy that i had easily beaten to death any that i dealt a blow with it, so that the czar himself could not ride into battle better equipped: and there followed me a white standard with a double eagle to which the people flocked from all sides and corners, so that before two hours were over we were forty thousand strong and after four hours nigh sixty thousand, with whom we marched against the tartars; and every quarter of an hour i had my orders from the czar; which yet were but this, that i should this day approve myself a soldier, having given myself out for one, that his majesty might as such esteem and recognise me. so every moment our troop was increased with great and small soldiers and officers; yet in all this haste could i discover none that should command the whole body, or array the battle. it needs not that i should tell all, for my story is not much concerned with this encounter. i will but say this only, that we came suddenly upon the tartars in a valley or deep dip in the land, encumbered with tired horses and much booty, and least of all expecting us; whom we attacked on all sides with such fury that at the very onset we scattered them. there at the first attack i called to my followers in the russian speech, "come now, let each do as i do!" and that they all shouted to one another, while i with a loose rein charged at the enemy, and of the first i met, which was a mirza or prince's son, i cleft the head in twain, so that his brains were left hanging on my steel mace. this heroical example did the russians follow, so that the tartars might not withstand their attack, but turned to a general flight, while i dealt like a madman, or rather like one that from desperation seeketh death and cannot find it, for i smote down all that came before me, tartar and russian alike; and they that were commanded by the czar to watch me followed me so hard that i had ever my back guarded. there was the air so full of arrows as it had been swarms of bees, of which my share was one in the arm; for i had turned back my sleeve that so with less hindrance i might use my sword and came to cleave and batter; and until i received the wound my heart did laugh within me at such bloodshed; but when i saw mine own blood flow, that laughter was turned into a mad fury. so when these savage foes had been put to flight, it was commanded me by divers nobles in the name of the czar that i should carry to their emperor the news how the tartars had been defeated: and at their bidding i rode back with some hundred horsemen at my heels, with whom i rode through the town to the czar's palace, and was by all men received with triumph and gratulation; but so soon as i had made my report of the battle (albeit the czar had already news of all that happened) i must again doff my princely apparel, which was again stored away in the czar his wardrobe, though both it and the horse trappings were bespattered and befouled all over with blood and so almost entirely ruinated; whereas i had thought, since i had borne myself so knightly in the encounter, the clothes should at least have been left me, together with the horse, for a reward. but from this i could well judge how 'twas managed with the russian robe of state of which my colonel made use; for 'tis all but lent finery which, like all else in russia, pertaineth to the czar alone. _chap. xxii._: by what a short and merry road he came home to his dad now as long as my wound was a-healing 'tis true i was treated like a prince; for i walked abroad at all times clad in a furred gown of cloth of gold lined with sables, though the wound was neither mortal nor dangerous, and in all the days of my life i have never tasted such rich foods as then; but this was all the reward i had for my labours, save the praise which the czar favoured me with, and this too was spoiled for me by the envy of certain nobles. so now, being completely sound again, was i sent down the volga in a ship to astrachan, to set up a powder-mill there as in moscow, for 'twas not possible for the czar to furnish these frontier fortresses from moscow with fresh and good powder, which must needs be carried by water and that with great risk. and this service i willingly undertook, for i had promises that the czar, after the accomplishment of such business, would send me back to holland, and that with a good reward in money proportionable to my services. but alas! when we think we stand safest and most certain in the hopes and conceits we have formed, there comes a wind unawares, and in a wink blows away all the flimsy stuff whereon we had founded our hopes so long. yet the governor of astrachan treated me like the czar himself, and in brief space i had all on a good footing; his old ammunition which was quite spoiled and ruined and could do no harm to any, i refounded (as a tinker makes new tin spoons out of old ones), which was then a thing unheard of among the russians; by reason of which and other arts of mine some held me to be a sorcerer, others a new saint or prophet, and others, again, for a second empedocles or gorgias leontinus. but being hard at work and busied at night in a powder-mill outside the fortifications, i was in thievish wise captured and carried off by a horde of tartars, which took me with others so far into their country that i not only could see the herb borametz or sheep-plant growing but did even eat thereof: which is a most strange vegetable; for it is like a sheep to look upon, its wool can be spun and woven like natural sheep's wool, and its flesh is so like to mutton that even the wolves do love to eat thereof. but they that had captivated me did barter me away for certain wares of china to the tartars of nuichi, which again presented me as a rare gift to the king of corea, with whom they had but then made a truce. and there was i highly valued, for there could none be found like me in the handling of sword and rapier; and there i taught the king how, with his piece over his shoulder and his back turned to the target, he could yet hit the bull's-eye; in reward for which at my humble petition he gave me my liberty again, and let me go by way of japonia to the portuguese of macao, which made but small count of me. so i went about among them like a sheep that has strayed from the flock, till at last in marvellous fashion. i was captured by turkish corsairs, and by them, after they had dragged me about with them for a full year among strange foreign nations that do inhabit the isles of the east indies, sold to certain merchants of alexandria in egypt. these carried me with their wares to constantinople, and because the turkish emperor was just then fitting out galleys against the venetians and needed rowers, therefore must many turkish merchants part with their christian slaves (yet for ready payment), among whom i was one, as being a strong young fellow. and now must i learn to row; which heavy task nevertheless endured not more than two months: for our galley was in the levant right valiantly overcome by the venetians, and i with all my companions freed from the power of the turks: and the said galley being brought to venice with rich booty and divers turkish prisoners of high degree, i was set at liberty, as wishing to go to rome and on pilgrimage to loretto, to view those places and to thank god for my deliverance. to which end i easily obtained a passport, and moreover from several honourable persons, especially germans, reasonable help in money, so that now i could provide me with a pilgrim's staff and enter on my journey. so i betook me by the nearest way to rome, where i fared right well, for both from great and small i got me much alms; and tarrying there nigh six weeks, i took my way with other pilgrims, of whom some germans, and especially certain switzers, to loretto: from whence i came over the saint gotthard pass back through switzerland to my dad, which had kept my farm for me; and nothing remarkable did i bring home save a beard which i had grown in foreign parts. now had i been absent three years and some months, during which time i had fared over the most distant seas and seen all manner of peoples, but had commonly received from them more evil than good; of which a whole book might be writ. and in the meanwhile the westphalian treaty had been concluded, so that i could now live with my dad in peace and quiet: and him i left to manage and to keep house, but for myself i sat down to my books, which were now both my work and my delight. _chap. xxiii._: is very short and concerneth simplicissimus alone once did i read how the oracle of apollo gave as answer to the roman deputies, when they asked what they must do to rule their subjects in peace, this only, "nosce teipsum," which signifieth, "let each man know himself." this caused me to reflect upon the past and demand of myself an account of the life i had led, for i had naught else to do. so said i to myself: "thy life hath been no life but a death, thy days a toilsome shadow, thy years a troublous dream, thy pleasures grievous sins, thy youth a fantasy, and thy happiness an alchemist's treasure that is gone by the chimney and vanished ere thou canst perceive it. through many dangers thou hast followed the wars, and in the same encountered much good and ill luck: hast been now high, now low: now great, now small: now rich, now poor: now merry, now sorry: now loved, now hated: now honoured, now despised: but now, poor soul, what hast thou gained from thy long pilgrimage? this hast thou gained: i am poor in goods, my heart is burdened with cares, for all good purposes i am idle, lazy, and spoilt; and, worst of all, my conscience is heavy and vexed: but thou, my soul, art overwhelmed with sin and grievously defiled; the body is weary, the understanding bemused; thine innocence is gone, the best years of youth are past, the precious time lost: naught is there that gives me pleasure, and withal i am an enemy to myself. but when i came, after my sainted father's death, into the great world, then was i simple-minded and pure, upright and honest, truthful, humble, modest, temperate, chaste, shame-faced, pious and religious, but soon became malicious, false, treacherous, proud, restless, and above all altogether godless, all which vices i did learn without a teacher. mine honour have i guarded not for its own sake, but for mine own exaltation. i took note of time not to employ it well for mine own soul's welfare, but for the profit of my body. my life have i often put in jeopardy, and yet i have never busied myself to better it that i might die blest and comforted; for i looked only to the present and to my temporal profit, and never once thought on the future, much less remembered that i must some time give an account before the face of god almighty." with such thoughts i tormented myself daily; and just then there came into my hands certain writings of the franciscan friar quevara, of which i must here set down some; for they were of such power as fully to disgust me with the world. _chap. xxiv._: why and in what fashion simplicissimus left the world again the first part of the chapter is a fair translation, extending to many pages, of quevara's somewhat trite reflections on the vanity of a worldly life. it is taken from albertini's translation of a book called "of the burden and annoyance of a courtier's life." vo. amberg, . the only part of the chapter which concerns the story is as follows. all these words i pondered carefully and with continual thought, and they so pierced my heart that i left the world again and became a hermit. fain would i have dwelt by my spring in the muckenloch, but the peasants that dwelt near would not suffer it, though it had been for me a wilderness to my taste; for they feared i should reveal the spring and so move their lord to force them to make highways and byways thither, especially now that peace was secured. so i betook myself to another wilderness and began again my old life in the spessart; but whether i shall, like my father of blessed memory, persevere therein to the end, i know not. god grant us all his grace that we may all alike obtain from him what doth concern us most, namely, a happy end appendices appendix a the success of "simplicissimus" induced grimmelshausen to publish a "continuatio" or sequel, which certainly does not seem to have been contemplated when he wrote the last chapter of the original work. it, as well as three lesser "continuations" which were published later, is entirely unworthy of the author, though all four seem to be genuine products of his pen. it is a string of allegories, ghost stories, fables, and monotonous chronicles of adventure, not redeemed from dulness by occasional gross filth. for one reason only it deserves our attention; viz., the curious anticipation of the story of robinson crusoe which is contained in chapters xix. to xxii. a subjoined "relation" of jean cornelissen of harlem gives an account of his finding simplicissimus and leaving him on his island well provided with necessaries: but this narrative is so overloaded with childish stories of the castaway's miraculous powers and performances that an abstract of it only is here given at the end. from the middle of chapter xix. to the end of chapter xxiii. is fully translated. continuation _chap. xix._: how simplicissimus and a carpenter escaped from a shipwreck with their lives and were thereafter provided with a land of their own so taking ship and coming from the sinus arabicus or red sea into the ocean, and having a fair wind, we held our course to pass by the cape of good hope, and sailed for some weeks so happily that way that we could have desired no other weather: but when we deemed that we were now over against the isle of madagascar there suddenly arose such a hurricane that we had scarce time to take in sail. and the storm increasing, we must needs cut down the mast and leave the ship to the mercy of the waves, which carried us up, as it were, to the clouds, and in a trice plunged us down again to the depths; all which lasted a full half-hour and taught us all to pray most piously. at length were we cast upon a sunken reef with such force that the ship with a terrible crack broke all in pieces, at which there arose a lamentable and piteous outcry. then was the sea in a moment strown with chests, bales, and fragments of the ship, and then one could hear and see the unlucky folk, here and there, some on and some under the waves, clinging to anything that in such need came first within their grasp, and with dismal cries lamenting their ruin and commending of their souls to god. but i, with the ship's carpenter, lay upon a great timber of the vessel which had certain cross-pieces yet fast to it, to which we clung and spake to one another. and little by little the dreadful wind abated; the raging waves of the angry sea grew calmer and less; yet on the other hand there followed pitch-dark night with terrible rain, till it seemed as if we should be drowned from above in the midst of the sea. and this endured till midnight, by which time we had been in sore straits; but then was the sky clear again, so that we could see the stars, by which we perceived that the wind drove us more and more from the coast of africa towards the open sea and the unknown land of australia, which troubled us both greatly. now towards daybreak it grew dark again, so that we could not see each other though we lay close at hand: and in this darkness and piteous plight we drove ever onward, till of a sudden we were aware that we were aground and stuck fast. so the carpenter, which had an axe hanging to his girdle, tried with it the depth of the water and found it on the one side of us not a foot deep, which heartily rejoiced us and gave us sure hope that god had in some way helped us to land, as we perceived by a sweet odour that we smelt as soon as we came to ourselves a little. yet because 'twas dark and we both wearied out, and in especial looked presently for daylight, we had not courage enough to commit ourselves to the sea and make for land, notwithstanding we already thought to hear at a distance the song of divers birds, which indeed was so. but as soon as the blessed daylight shewed itself in the east, we saw through the dusk a small island overgrown with bushes lying close before us; whereupon we betook ourselves to the water on that side, which grew shallower and shallower till at length, with great joy, we came to dry land. so there we fell on our knees and kissed the ground, and thanked god above for his fatherly care in bringing of us to land; and in such fashion did i come to my island. as yet could we not know whether we were in an inhabited or an uninhabited land and whether on the mainland or an island: but this we marked at once, that it must be a right fertile soil; for all was overgrown thick with shrubs and trees like a hemp-field, so that we could hardly come through it. but when it was now broad day, and we had made our way through the shrubs some quarter of an hour's march from the shore, we could not only find no trace of human dwelling, but moreover lighted here and there upon many strange birds that had no fear of us, but suffered us to take them with our hands, from all which we might judge we were on an uninhabited island, yet most fruitful. there did we find citrons, pomegranates, and cocoanuts, with which fruits we refreshed ourselves right well; and when the sun rose we came to a plain covered with palm-trees, from which palm wine is made; the which was but too pleasing to my comrade, who loved the same more than was good for him. so there we set ourselves down in the sun to dry our clothes, which we stripped off and to that end hung them on the trees, but for our own parts walked about in our shirts: and my carpenter cutting a palm-tree with his axe, found it was full of wine: yet had we no vessel to catch it in, and for our hats, we had lost them both in the shipwreck. so the kindly sun having dried our clothes again, we put them on and climbed up the high, rocky mountain that lieth on the right hand towards the north between this plain and the sea, and looking about us found that we were on no mainland but on this island, which in circuit exceeded not an hour and a half's journey. and because we could see neither near nor far off any land but only sea and sky, we were both troubled, and lost all hope ever to see mankind again; yet contrariwise it did comfort us that the goodness of god had brought us to this land both safe and most fruitful, and not to a place that belike would prove barren or inhabited of man-eaters. so we began to consider of our way to act; and because we must live even as prisoners on this island with one another we did swear perpetual fidelity each to each. now on the said mountain there not only sat and flew many birds of divers kinds, but it was so full of nests with eggs that we could not sufficiently marvel thereat. of these eggs we did eat some and took still more with us down the hill, on which we found the spring of sweet water which flows into the sea towards the east with such force that it might well turn a small mill-wheel; at which we rejoiced anew and resolved to set up our abode beside the said spring. yet for our new housekeeping we had no other furniture but an axe, a spoon, three knives, a prong or fork, and a pair of scissors: and nothing more. 'tis true my comrade had some thirty ducats about him, but these we had gladly bartered for a tinder-box had we known where to buy one: for they were of no use to us at all; yea, less than my powder-horn, which was still full of priming; this did i dry, for it was all like a soft cake, in the sun, scattered some upon a stone, covered it with easy-burning stuff such as the moss and cotton which the cocoanut-trees furnished in plenty, and then drawing a knife sharply through the powder, kindled it, which rejoiced us as much as our rescue from the sea: and had we but had salt and bread and vessels to hold our drink we had esteemed ourselves the luckiest fellows in the world, though four-and-twenty hours before we might have been counted among the most miserable; so good and faithful and merciful is god, to whom be glory for ever and ever, amen. then we caught some birds forthwith, of which whole flocks flew about us, plucked, washed, and stuck them on a wooden spit, and so i began to turn the roast, while my comrade fetched me wood and prepared a shelter that, if it should come on to rain again, might protect us from the same, for these indian rains in the parts towards africa are wont to be very unhealthy; but our lack of salt we supplied with lemon-juice to give a flavour to our food. _chap. xx._: how they hired a fair cookmaid and by god's help were rid of her again this was the first meal of which we partook upon our island; and having ended it, we had naught else to do but gather dry wood to keep up our fire. we would fain have explored the whole island at once, but by reason of the fatigue we had passed through, sleep so overpowered us that we must needs lie down to rest and sleep till broad daylight. and finding it so, we walked down the brook or glade as far as its mouth where it flows into the sea, and saw with amazement how a great multitude of fish of the size of middling salmon or large carp swam up the little river into the fresh water, so that it seemed as a great herd of swine were driven violently in; and finding also certain bananas and sweet potatoes, which be excellent fruits, we said to each other we had surely found the land of cocaigne or monkeys' paradise, (though no four-footed beast there) if we had but company to help us to enjoy both the fruitfulness of this noble island and also the plenty of birds and fishes on it: yet could we find no single sign that ever men had been there. but as we began to take counsel how we should further order our housekeeping and whence we might have vessels wherein both to cook and to catch the juice from the palms and let it ferment in its own fashion, that we might have the full enjoyment of it, and as we walked on the shore in talk of this, we saw far out at sea something that tossed about, which we at a distance could not make out, though it seemed bigger than it really was. for when it came near and was driven ashore on the coast of the island it proved to be a woman, half-dead, lying on a chest, and with both hands fast clasped to the handles of it. her for christian charity we drew to dry land; and dreaming her to be a christian woman of abyssinia both by her clothing and certain marks she had on her face, we were the more busy to bring her to, to which end (yet with all honesty, as becomes them that deal with modest women in such a case) we set her on her head till a good deal of water had run out of her, and albeit we had no cordial to revive her more than our citron-juice, yet we ceased not to press under her nose that spirituous liquor which is found at the very end of the lemon-peel and to shake and move her about, till at last she began to stir of herself and to speak in portuguese: which as soon as my comrade heard, and as a lively colour began to shew itself in her face, he said to me, "this abyssinian was once on our ship as maid to a portuguese lady of quality; for i knew them both well: they dwelt at macao and were purposed to sail with us to the isle of annabon." and she, so soon as she heard him speak, shewed herself right glad, and called him by name, and told us not only of her whole journey, but how she was rejoiced both that he and she were still alive, as also that they had as old acquaintances met on dry land and out of all danger. at that my carpenter asked what manner of wares might be in the chest. to which she answered they were certain parcels of chinese apparel with firearms and weapons, besides divers vessels of porcelain both small and great, that should have been sent by her master to a great prince in portugal. at which news we rejoiced greatly, seeing that these were the things which we most needed. then did she beg of us that we would shew her kindness and keep her with us: for she would gladly serve us in cooking, washing, and other duties of a maid and obey us as a slave, if we would but keep her under our protection and suffer her to partake with us of the sustenance which fortune and nature provided in that place. so with great toil and trouble we dragged the chest to that place which we had chosen for our dwelling; where we did open it, and found therein things so fitted to our needs that we could have desired nothing better for our then condition and for the use of our household. these goods we unpacked and dried them in the sun, in which business our new maid shewed herself diligent and serviceable; and thereafter we began to slay, boil, and roast birds, and while my carpenter went to fetch palm-wine i climbed up the mountain to gather eggs for us, meaning to boil them hard and to use them in place of good bread. and as i went i considered with hearty gratitude the great gifts and goodness of god, that had with such fatherly kindness caused his providence to watch over us and gave us the promise of further help. there did i fall upon my face, and stretching out my arms and lifting up my heart to god i prayed thus: "o heavenly father of all mercies, now do i find indeed that thou art more ready to give than we to ask; yea, dearest lord, thou hast with the fulness of thy divine riches supplied us more quickly and more plentifully than we poor creatures ever thought to ask of thee at all. o faithful father, may it please thy infinite compassion to grant to us that we may never use these thy gifts and favours otherwise than as is agreeable to thy holy will and pleasure, and as may tend to the honour of thy great and unspeakable name, that we, with all the elect, may ever praise, honour, and glorify thee here on earth and hereafter in heaven for ever and for evermore." and with these and the like words, which flowed from the very depth of my soul, with hearty and true faith, i went on till i had gathered all the eggs we needed, and with them came back to our hut even as our supper stood excellently well served upon the chest we had that day fished out of the sea with our cook-maid, and which my comrade had made use of for a table. now while i was absent seeking for eggs, my comrade, which was a lad of some twenty odd years, i being now over forty, had struck a bargain with our maid that should be both for his ruin and mine; for finding themselves alone in my absence, and talking together of old times and also of the fruitfulness and great delight of this blessed, yea more than fortunate isle, they had grown so familiar that they had begun to speak of a match between them, of which the pretended abyssinian would not hear, unless 'twere agreed that my comrade the carpenter should make himself master of the island and rid them of me; for, said she, it were impossible for them to dwell in peace in wedlock so long as an unmarried man lived by them. "for bethink thyself," says she, "how would not suspicion and jealousy plague thee, if thou wert my husband, and yet the old fellow talking with me day by day, even if he should never think to make a cuckold of thee! nay, but i know a better plan: if i be to be married on this island, that well can feed a thousand or more persons to increase the human race, then let the old fellow marry me; for were it so 'twere but a year to count on, or perhaps twelve or at most fourteen, in which time he and i might breed a daughter and marry her to thee, who would not then be of the age that the old man is now; and in the meantime ye might cherish the certain hope that the one should be the other's father-in-law and the other his son-in-law, and so do away all evil suspicions and deliver me from all dangers which otherwise i might encounter with. doubtless 'tis true that a young woman like me would sooner wed with a young man than an old: yet must we suit ourselves to the circumstance as our present plight doth require, to provide that i and she that may be born of me shall be in safety." by this discourse, which lasted much longer and was more fully set forth than i have here described, and also by the beauty of the pretended abyssinian (which in the light of the fire did shine more perfect than ever in my comrade's eyes) and by her lively actions, my good carpenter was so captivated and befooled that he was not ashamed to say he would sooner throw the old man (meaning me) into the sea and send the whole island to the devil than deliver over to him so fair a lady: and thereupon was the bargain i spoke of concluded between them, namely, that he should slay me with his axe from behind or in my sleep; for he was afeared of my great strength of body, as well as of my staff, which he had himself fashioned for me as strong as a weaver's beam.[ ] so this compact being made, she shewed my comrade close to our dwelling a kind of fine potter's earth, of which she promised to make fine earthen vessels after the manner of the indian women on the guinea coast, and laid all manner of plans how she would maintain herself and her family on this island, rear them and provide for them a peaceful and sufficient livelihood, yea even to the hundredth generation: and could not boast enough of what profit she could make of the cocoanut-trees and the cotton which the same do bear or produce, out of which she would provide herself and all her children's children with clothing. but i, poor wretch, came knowing no word of this foul business, and sat down to enjoy what was yet before me, saying moreover, according to the worshipful christian usage, the benedicite; yet no sooner had i made the sign of the cross over the meats and over my companions at table and asked god's blessing, when our cookmaid vanished away with the chest and all that had been in it, and left behind her such an horrible stench that my comrade fainted clean away because of it. _chap. xxi._: how they thereafter kept house together and how they set to work now as soon as he was recovered and come to his senses, he knelt down before me and folded his hands, and for a full quarter of an hour continually said nothing but "oh, my father! o my brother! o my father! o my brother!" and then began with the repeating of these words to weep so bitterly that for very sobbing he could utter no word that could be understood, until i conceived that by reason of the fear and the stench he had lost his reason. but when he would not cease this behaviour and continually besought my forgiveness, i answered him, "dear friend, what have i to forgive thee that hast never harmed me in thy life? do but tell me how i can help thee." "nay," says he, "i seek for pardon; for i have sinned against god and thee and myself": and therewith began again his former lamentations, and went on so long that at last i said i knew no evil of him, and if he had done any such that weighed upon his conscience, i would not only from my heart forgive and condone anything that concerned myself, but also, so far as he might have sinned against god, would with him beseech the divine mercy for pardon. at which words he embraced my knees and kissed them, and looked upon me so sorrowfully that i was as one dumb, and could not conceive or guess what ailed the lad; but when i had taken him to my arms and embraced him, begging him to tell me what troubled him and how i could help him, he confessed to me in every particular his discourse with the pretended abyssinian, and the resolve he had formed in respect of me in despite of god and of nature and of christian love and of the laws of true friendship which we had solemnly sworn one to another: and this he did with such words and behaviour that from it his sincere repentance and contrite heart might easily be guessed and presumed. so i comforted him as well as i could, and said: god had peradventure sent us this as a warning, that we might in time to come be better aware of the devil's snares and temptations and live in the constant fear of god: that he had of a surety cause enough to pray god heartily for forgiveness for his evil intent, yet even greater cause to thank him for his goodness and mercy, seeing that he had in such fatherly wise plucked him forth from wicked satan's traps and snares and so saved him from destruction now and eternally: and that we must perforce here walk more circumspectly than if we dwelt in the midst of the world among other men; for should one or the other or both fall into temptation, there would be none at hand to help us but god himself, whom we must therefore the more diligently keep before our eyes and without ceasing pray for his help and assistance. by talk of such things he was, 'tis true, somewhat cheered, yet would not be altogether content, but humbly besought me to lay upon him a penance for his sin. so to raise up his prostrate spirit as far as might be, i said that he being a carpenter, and having yet his axe by him, should in the same place where we, as well as our hellish cookmaid, had come to land, set up a cross on the shore; whereby he would not only perform a penance well pleasing to god, but also bring it to pass that in time to come the evil spirit, who doth ever fear the sign of holy cross, would not again so easily attack our island. he answered, "not only a cross on the shore but two also on the mountain will i make ready and set up, if only, my father, i may again possess thy grace and favour and be assured of god's forgiveness." in which fervour he went away straightway and ceased not to toil till he had made ready three crosses, whereof we set up one on the sea-shore and the other two apart on the highest top of the hill, with the inscription that followeth: "to the honour of god almighty and in despite of the enemy of mankind, simon meron, of lisbon in portugal, with counsel and help of his faithful friend simplicius simplicissimus, a high german, did fashion and here set up this token of our saviour's sufferings, for jesus christ his sake." thenceforward we began to live somewhat more religiously than before; and in order to our reverencing and keeping of the sabbath, i every day, in place of an almanack, cut a notch in a post and on sundays a cross; and then would we sit together and talk of holy and godly things; and this fashion must i use because i had not yet invented anything to serve me in the stead of ink and paper, by means of which i might set down somewhat in writing to keep count of our life. and now to end this chapter i must make mention of a strange adventure that did greatly terrify and distress us on the evening after our cook her vanishing; for the first night we perceived it not, because sleep overpowered us at once by reason of fatigue and great weariness. and this was it. we having still before our eyes the thousand snares by which the accursed devil would have wrought our ruin in the form of the abyssinian, could not sleep, but passed the time in watching, and indeed for the most part in prayer; and so soon as it became a little dark we saw floating around us in the air an innumerable quantity of lights, which gave forth such a bright glow that we could discern the fruit on the trees from the leaves: this we deemed to be another invention of the enemy to torment us, and therefore kept still and quiet, but in the end found 'twas but a kind of firefly or glow-worm, as we call them in germany, which are generated by a particular kind of rotten wood that is found in this island, and shine so bright that one can well use them in place of a lighted candle; for i have written this book for the most part thus: and if they were as common in europe, asia, and africa as they be here, the candle-sellers would do a poor trade. _chap. xxii._: further sequel of the above story, and how simon meron left the island and this life, and how simplicissimus remained the sole lord of the island and now seeing we must perforce remain where we were, we began to order our housekeeping accordingly. so my comrade made out of a black wood that is almost like to iron mattocks and shovels for us both, with the help of which we first dug holes for the three crosses before mentioned, and secondly drew the sea-water into trenches, where, as i had seen at alexandria in egypt, it turned into salt; and thirdly we began to make us a cheerful garden; for we deemed that idleness would be for us the beginning of destruction; fourthly, we dug another channel for the brook, into which we could at pleasure turn it off, and so leave the old river-bed dry, and take out as many fish and crayfish as we would with hands and feet dry: fifthly, we found near the said brook a most beautiful potter's clay; and though we had neither lathe nor wheel and, most of all, no borer or other instruments so as to make anything of the kind and so mould for ourselves vessels, and though we had never learned the craft, yet we devised a plan by which we got what we wanted; for having kneaded and prepared the clay as it should be, we made rolls of it of the thickness and length of english tobacco-pipes, and these we stuck one upon another like a snail's shell and formed out of such whatever vessels we would, both great and small, pots and dishes, for cooking and drinking: and when our first baking of these prospered, we had no longer reason to complain of lack of anything; 'tis true we had no bread; but yet plenty of dried fish which we used in its stead. and in time our scheme for getting salt turned out well, so that now we had nothing to complain of but lived like the folk in the golden age of the world: and little by little we learned how with eggs, dried fish, and lemon peel, which two last we ground to a soft meal between two stones, and birds' fat, which we got from the birds called boobies and noddies, to bake savoury cakes in place of bread: likewise did my comrade devise how to draw off the palm-wine very cleverly into great pots and let it stand for a few days till it fermented; and then would he drink of it till he reeled, and this at last he came to do every day, and god knoweth how i dissuaded him therefrom. for he said if 'twas allowed to stand longer 'twould turn to vinegar; in which there was some truth; yet i answered him, he should not at one time draw so much but only enough for our needs; to which he replied that 'twas a sin to despise the gifts of god, and that the palm-trees must have a vein opened at proper times lest they should be choked with their own blood: and so must i give a loose rein to his appetites unless i would be told that i grudged him that of which we had plenty. and so, as i have said, we lived like the first men in the golden age, when a bountiful heaven produced for them all good things from the earth without labour on their part; but even as in this world there is no life so sweet and happy that is not at times made bitter by the gall of suffering, so happened it with us: for the richer we grew daily in larder and cellar, the more threadbare did our clothes from day to day become, till at last they rotted on our bodies. and 'twas well for us indeed that we thus far had had no winter; no, not the slightest cold; although by this time, when we began to go naked, we had by my notch-calendar spent more than a year and a half on the island, but all the year round 'twas such weather as is wont to be in europe in may and june, save that about august and a little before it used to rain mighty hard and there were great thunderstorms: moreover from one solstice to another the days did not vary in length more than an hour and a quarter. but although we were alone upon the island, yet would we not go naked like brute beasts, but clothed as became honest christians of europe: and had we but had four-footed beasts it had been easy to help ourselves by using their hides for clothing; for lack of which we skinned the birds we took, such as boobies and penguins, and made clothes of this; yet because for want of the needful tools and other material for the purpose we could not dress them so as to last, they became stiff and uneasy and fell away in pieces from our bodies before we were ware of it. 'tis true the cocoanut-trees bore cotton enough for us, yet could we neither weave nor spin: but my comrade, that had been some years in india, shewed me on the leaves at the very tip a thing like a sharp thorn; which if it be broken off and drawn along the stem of the leaf, as we do with the bean-pods called faseoli to strip them of their rind, there will remain hanging on the said pointed thorn a string as long as the stem or the leaf is, so that one can use the same for needle and thread too; and this provided me with opportunity to make for us breeches of those leaves and sew them together with the threads of their own growing. but while we thus lived together, and had so improved our condition that we had no longer any cause to trouble for overwork, waste, want, or calamity, my comrade went on daily tippling at his palm-wine as he had begun, and now had made a habit of it, till at last he so inflamed his lungs and liver that, before i was rightly ware of it, he by his untimely death left me and the island and palm-wine and all. him did i bury as well as i was able; and as i pondered upon the uncertainty of human life and other the like matters, i wrote for him this epitaph that followeth: "that i am buried here and not in ocean deep. nor in the flames of hell (from which may god us keep!) the cause was this: three things did for my soul contend: the first the raging sea: the next the infernal fiend. these two did i escape by god his help and grace: the third was wine of palms, which brought me to this place." so i became lord of the whole island and began again a hermit's life, for which i had now not only opportunity more than enough but also a fixed desire and purpose thereto. 'tis true i made all use of the good things and gifts of this place, with hearty thanks to god, whose goodness and might alone had so richly provided for me, but withal i was careful not to misuse this superfluity. and often did i wish that i had christian men with me that elsewhere must suffer poverty and need, to profit with me by the gifts that god had given: but because i knew that for his almighty power 'twas more than possible, if it were but his divine will, to bring thither more folk in easier and more miraculous fashion than i had been brought, it often gave me cause humbly to thank him for his divine providence in that he had in such fatherly wise cared for me more than many thousands of other men, and set me in a place so full of content and peace. _chap. xxiii._: in which the hermit concludes his story and therewith ends these his six books now had my comrade hardly been a week dead when i marked that my abode was haunted. "yea, yea," i thought, "simplicissimus, thou art now alone, and so 'twas to be expected that the evil one should endeavour to torment thee. didst not look that that malicious spirit would make thy life hard for thee? yet why take count of him, when thou hast god to thy friend? thou needest but somewhat wherein to exercise thyself; else wilt thou come to thy ruin from mere idleness and superfluity; for besides him thou hast no enemy but thine own self and the plenty and pleasaunce of this island; therefore make thy resolve to strive against him who in his own conceit is the strongest of all. for be he overcome by god his help, then shouldst thou, if god will, by his grace remain master of thyself." and with these thoughts i went my way for a day or two, and they made of me a better and a piouser man; for i did prepare myself for that encounter which without doubt i must endure with the evil spirit; yet herein did i for this time deceive myself; for as on a certain evening i perceived a somewhat that could be heard, i went out of my hut, which stood close beneath a spur of that mountain, beneath which was the spring of that sweet water that floweth through the island into the sea; and there saw i my comrade that scrabbled with his fingers in a cleft of the rock. then may ye easily understand that i was afeared; yet quickly i plucked up heart and commended myself to god's protection with the sign of holy cross, and thought, "this thing must be; 'twere better to-day than to-morrow." with that i went up to the spirit and used to him such words as be customary in such a case. and then forthwith i understood that 'twas my deceased comrade, which in his lifetime had there concealed his ducats, as thinking that if, sooner or later, a ship should come to the island, he would recover them and take them away with him; yea, and he gave me to know that he had trusted more in this handful of money, whereby he hoped again to come to his home, than on god; for which cause he must now do penance by such unrest after his death, and moreover against his will be a cause of uneasiness to myself. so at his desire i took forth the money, yet held it as less than naught, as will the sooner be believed because i had nothing on which to employ it. and this was now the first affright that i had after i was left alone; yet afterwards was plagued by spirits of other sorts than this one; whereof i will say no more, but this only, that by god's help and grace i attained to this, that i found no single enemy more, save only mine own thoughts, which were oft troubled enough; for these go not scot-free before god, as men do vainly talk, but in his good time a reckoning must be paid for these also. so that these might the less stain my soul with sins, i busied myself not only in the avoiding of that which profited naught, but did impose on myself a bodily task the which to perform with my customary prayer; for as man is born for work like the bird for flying, so on the other hand doth idleness inflict her sicknesses both on soul and body, and in the end, when we be least ware of it, eternal ruin. for this cause i planted me a garden, of which indeed i had less need than the waggon hath of a fifth wheel, seeing that the whole island might well be called one lovely pleasure-garden; so was my work of no other avail but that i brought this and that into completer order, albeit to many the natural disorder of the plants as they grew mingled together might appear more pleasing, and again that, as aforesaid, i shunned idleness. o how oft did i wish, when i had wearied out my body and must give it rest, that i had godly books wherein to comfort, to delight, and to edify myself! but such i could not come by. yet as i had once read of a holy man that he said the whole wide world was to him one great book; wherein to recognise the wondrous works of god and to be cheered to praise him, so i thought to follow him therein, howbeit i was, so to speak, no longer in the world. for that little island must be my whole world, and in the same, every thing, yea, every tree, an incitement to godliness and a reminder of such thoughts as a good christian should have. thus, did i see a prickly plant, forthwith i thought on christ his crown of thorns; saw i an apple or a pomegranate, then i reflected on the fall of our first parents and mourned therefore; when i did draw palm-wine from a tree, i fancied to myself how mercifully my redeemer had shed his blood for me on the tree of the holy cross; when i looked on sea or on mountain, then i remembered this or that miracle which our saviour had wrought in such places; and when i found one or more stones that were convenient for casting, i had before mine eyes the picture of the jews that would have stoned christ; and when i walked in my garden i thought on the prayer of agony in mount olivet, or on the grave of christ, and how after his resurrection he appeared to mary magdalene in the garden. such thoughts were my daily occupation; never did i eat but that i thought on the last supper, and never cooked my food without the fire reminding me of the eternal pains of hell. at last i found that with brazil-juice, of which there be several sorts on this island, when mixed with lemon-juice, 'twas easy to write on a kind of large palm-leaves; which rejoiced me greatly; for now could i devise and write out prayers in order; yea, in the end, considering with hearty repentance my whole life and my knavish tricks that i had committed from my youth up, and how the merciful god, despite all such gross sins, had not only thus far preserved me from everlasting damnation, but had given me time and opportunity to better myself and to be converted, to beg his forgiveness and to thank him for his mercies, i did write down all that had befallen me in this book made of the afore-mentioned palm-leaves, and laid them together with my comrade's ducats in this place, to the end that if at any time folk should come hither, they might find such, and therefrom learn who it was that before inhabited this island. and whoso shall find this and read it, be it to-day or to-morrow, either before or after my death, him i beg that if he meet therein with words which be not becoming, for one that would do better, to speak, much less to write, he will not be angered thereat, but will consider that the telling of light actions and stories demands words fitting thereto; and even as the houseleek cannot easily be soaked by any rain, that so a true and devout spirit cannot forthwith be infected, poisoned, and corrupted by any discourse, though it seem as wanton as you will. the honourably minded christian reader will rather wonder, and praise the divine mercy, when he shall find that so knavish a companion as i have been yet hath had such grace of god as to resign the world and to live in such a condition that therein he hopeth to come to eternal glory and to attain to everlasting blessedness by the sufferings of his redeemer, through a pious end appendix b attached to chap. xxiii. is the "relation of jean cornelissen of harlem, a dutch sea-captain, to his good friend german schleifheim von sulsfort concerning simplicissimus." its contents are as follows: on a voyage from the moluccas to the cape of good hope cornelissen is separated by stress of weather from the fleet with which he had sailed. having many of his crew sick, and no fresh water, he is delighted to discover simplicissimus' isle. his men go ashore and find the hermit's dwelling, which, as the captain only afterwards learn they plunder, and generally behave brutally. cornelissen finds the crosses and many pious inscriptions on trees, which prove to him that the unknown is a good christian though probably a papist. the crew track simplicissimus to a vast cavern, on entering which their lights are miraculously extinguished. there is an earthquake, and the seamen who had taken part in the plundering of the hermit's dwelling are smitten with madness. cornelissen, with the chaplain and officers, determines to find simplicissimus at any cost. they penetrate the cave, but their lights also go out, and simplicissimus addresses them from the darkness and remonstrates with them for their interference. the chaplain apologises, and asks how the madmen may be cured: he is told that they are to swallow the kernels of certain plums they had eaten. they offer to take him back to europe, but he refuses. after making a bargain with them to secure his being left in peace, simplicissimus shews himself surrounded with his glow-worms. he leads them out of the cave and shews them his ruined hut, and tells how his ducats and his book had been stolen. the madmen are brought to their senses again. simplicissimus recovers his book, which he entrusts to cornelissen, but again refuses to return to sinful europe. they rebuild his hut for him, provide him with plenty of tools, a burning-glass, cotton clothing, and a pair of rabbits for breeding purposes: and so, their sick being all recovered, sail away and leave him there. [a reference to the "introduction" will show that this island adventure could have had no place in the simplician cycle of romances; unless we suppose, which is highly improbable, that the author meant it to be subsequent to the inn episode, in which simplicissimus' family and friends all meet. most likely we have here the latest addition, in point of composition, to the legend.] [the following is given as a specimen of the nonsense of which the various continuations are made up.] appendix c "continuatio," _chap. xiii._: how simplicissimus in return for a night's lodging, taught his host a curious art now the evening before this i had lost a certain catalogue of those special arts which i had aforetime practised and written down that i might not forget them so easily: yet i depended not on this to remember how to perform them and with what helps. for example i do here set down the beginning of this list: so to prepare matches or fuses that they shall give out no smell, seeing that by such smell musqueteers be often betrayed and their plans defeated. to prepare match so that it will burn though it be wet. to prepare powder so that it will not burn though red-hot steel be thrust therein: very useful for fortresses that must harbour much of so dangerous a guest. to shoot men or birds with powder alone so that they shall lie as dead for a while and yet rise up again without harm. to give a man double strength without the use of carbine-thistle or other such forbidden means. if a sally from a fortress be checked, so to spike the enemy's guns in a moment that they must burst. to spoil a man's gun so that it will scare all game to cover till it be again cleansed with a certain other substance. to hit the bull's-eye in a target more quickly by laying the gun on the shoulder and firing backward, than if a man should take aim and fire in the accustomed way. a special art to provide that no bullet may hit thee. to prepare an instrument by means of which, specially on a still night, a man can in wondrous wise hear all that sounds or is spoken at an incredible distance (otherwise clean impossible and supernatural); very profitable for sentries and specially in sieges, etc. (bk. iii., chap. .). in like manner were many arts described in the said catalogue which mine host had found and read: so he came to me himself into my chamber, shewed me the list, and asked whether 'twas possible that these things could be done by natural means; for that could he scarce believe; yet must confess that in his youth, when he served as a page in italy with field-marshal von schauenburg, it was given out by some that the princes of savoy were proof against bullets: which the said field-marshal desired to make proof of in the person of prince thomas, whom he then kept besieged in a fortress; for when on a time both sides had agreed on a truce for an hour to bury the dead and to confer together, he had commanded a corporal of his regiment, that was held to be the best marksman in the whole army, to take aim at the said prince while he should be standing on the parapet of the wall for a parley, and so soon as the hour agreed upon should end, to fire at him with his piece, with which he could put a lighted candle out at fifty paces: that this corporal had taken careful note of the time and kept the said prince under observation the whole time of the truce, and at the very moment when it ended with the first stroke of the hour, fired at him: yet had his piece, contrary to all belief, missed fire, and before the corporal could make ready again the prince was gone behind the parapet; whereupon the corporal pointed out to the field-marshal, who had likewise come to him on the trenches, a switzer of the prince's guard, at whom he aimed and hit him in such fashion that he rolled over and over; wherefrom it plainly appeared that there was something in the story that no prince of the house of savoy could be hit or harmed. yet whether this was brought about by such arts, or whether perchance the said princely house enjoyed a special grace from god, being, as 'twas said, sprung from the race of the royal prophet david, he knew not. i answered, "i know not either, but this i do know of a surety, that the arts here specified be natural and no witchcraft." which if he would not believe, let him but say which he held to be the most wonderful and impossible and i would at once to satisfy him (provided only that 'twas one that asked not long time but only such means as i had then at hand), make trial of it, for i must presently be a-foot and pursue my journey. at that he said this seemed to him the most impossible, that gunpowder should not burn if fire were put to it, unless one should first pour the powder into water; which if i could by natural means effect he would believe concerning all the other arts, though there were over sixty of them, what he might not see and before such trial could not believe. i answered, let him bring me quickly a charge of powder and also a certain substance which i had need of, and fire also, and presently he should see that the trick would hold. this being done, i caused him to follow my process and then set light to the powder: yet could he do no more than burn here and there a grain though he worked at it for a quarter of an hour, and accomplished no more than that he cooled a red-hot iron and quenched matches and lighted coals in the very powder itself. "aha!" says he, "the powder is bad." but i answered him in act, and without much ado, before he could count a score, so worked it that the powder blew up when he had scarce touched it with the fire. footnotes: [footnote : _lit._, "bohemian villages," _i.e._, with unpronounceable names.] [footnote : william, duke of aquitaine, and afterwards a saint noted for the acerbity of his penances.] [footnote : a proverb: on saint gertrude's day spinning ceases and garden-work begins.] [footnote : viz. "ihnen den hintern zu lecken."] [footnote : the commandments are here numbered according to the roman arrangement, but the meaning is obscure.] [footnote : the hermit.] [footnote : _i.e._ full of innocence.] [footnote : given as an example of a roman of luxurious tastes.] [footnote : refers to an episode omitted in this translation.] [footnote : allusion to a cruel practice in use in falconry.] [footnote : proverbial: an allusion to a popular story.] [footnote : lit. there are folk dwelling beyond the mountains too.] [footnote : i.e., he was bewitched.] [footnote : hessian general.] [footnote : it is difficult to translate the german expression. probably this word, meaning a maritime trader in illicit wares, represents it best.] [footnote : obscure lines: many of the expressions in this chapter are now inexplicable.] [footnote : he wrote the words down as he was told as if they meant the _judge's_ mother.] [footnote : the cuirass would be well lined to prevent chafing.] [footnote : some years before.] [footnote : besieged by the spaniards from to .] [footnote : a kind of eldorado.] [footnote : the famous cavalry commander of the imperialists.] [footnote : the musqueteer supported his piece on a prop or stake.] [footnote : see chap. iii.] [footnote : viz. lippstadt.] [footnote : the initials only of the name are given in the original.] [footnote : the pastor was 'reformed' (i.e. calvinist).] [footnote : i.e., at the antipodes: "at the other end of the world."] [footnote : referring to a body of breton troops sent by richelieu to help guébriant. they turned out worthless.] [footnote : "bearskinner" was the troopers' name for a malingerer. it was taken from a very old legend.] [footnote : the allusion is to the escape of the robber-knight, eppelin von gailingen, from the castle of nuremberg.] [footnote : in the retainers of the bishop of hildesheim and the abbot of fulda fought in church at goslar, and much bloodshed ensued.] [footnote : act as a usurer or cheat.] [footnote : he may possibly mean the three old fortifications of which ruins still remain: schwaben-, schweden-, and alexander-schanze; all of which are close to his favourite spa at griesbach.] [footnote : see chap. xi. above.] [footnote : this was "courage," the heroine of some of grimmelshausen's later romances.] [footnote : unknown.] [footnote : the jest is now unintelligible.] [footnote : it was really christian of brunswick, marching to join mansfeld.] [footnote : "goblin" or rather "bogey" lake.] [footnote : d'enghien.] [footnote : a hedge schoolmaster.] [footnote : offa. offenburg.] [footnote : baiersbronn.] [footnote : literally "a bohemian ear-picker."] ballantyne & company ltd tavistock street covent garden london the mercenary _works by the same author._ crown vo, s. fortune's castaway. crown vo, s. his indolence of arras. popular edition, d. crown vo, s. the hearth of hutton. crown vo, s. the red neighbour. popular edition, s. crown vo, s. the background. crown vo, s. a demoiselle of france. crown vo, s. the second city. william blackwood & sons, edinburgh and london. the mercenary a tale of the thirty years' war by w. j. eccott author of 'his indolence of arras,' 'the red neighbour,' etc. william blackwood and sons edinburgh and london _all rights reserved_ contents. chap. page i. in search of booty ii. nigel collects his dues iii. tilly, count of tzerclaËs iv. on the road to erfurt v. two of the catholic faith vi. at the castle of hradschin vii. the road to eger viii. interlacing destinies ix. an italian and a spaniard x. father lamormain xi. the lost despatches found xii. nigel meets father lamormain xiii. a father, a confessor, and a daughter xiv. in the circle of the emperor xv. the archduchess and wallenstein xvi. nigel's new regiment xvii. farewell to the archduchess xviii. nigel's instructions, written and unwritten xix. the guests of the abbot of fulda xx. casting out a devil xxi. into the forest's heart xxii. the dragon's gorge xxiii. a clash of hearts xxiv. mistress and enemy xxv. breitenfeld xxvi. at halberstadt xxvii. the restlessness of stephanie xxviii. prepares the ground xxix. orbit and focus xxx. love and a locksmith xxxi. an assignation xxxii. pastor rad again xxxiii. the pastor's pilgrimage xxxiv. lutheran and jesuit xxxv. an embassy for stephanie xxxvi. a reconnaissance xxxvii. the defence of the lech xxxviii. a surprise at ratisbon xxxix. the clouds and sergeant blick xl. ride, ride together xli. a late arrival at nicholas kraft's xlii. in the abbey church the mercenary: a tale of the thirty years' war. [illustration] chapter i. in search of booty. it was the evening of the second day of the sack of magdeburg. nigel charteris, soldier of fortune by profession and in rank captain of musketeers, sought a certain house in the kloster strasse, if haply it were still standing. it troubled the captain little that magdeburg should be sacked. he was of the catholic faith. and magdeburg had proved herself malignantly protestant. she had flouted the edict of restitution. the emperor ferdinand ii., habsburger by race, catholic to the marrow, had proclaimed that the possessions, wrenched from the grasp of the catholics a hundred years before by the lutherans and calvinists, should be restored to catholic hands, that the mass bell should tinkle in every chancel, and all be as if that pestilent monk, that junker georg of the wartburg, had never been. rome had bided her time, as rome can always bide her time, and seize her opportunity. the emperor found himself with a right good flail and a stout husbandman, count tilly, to wield it. the husbandman with his flail had arrived before the threshing-floors of magdeburg in bleak march. it had taken him to jocund may to force an entrance, and then the threshing and the winnowing began. it was a question if the house in the kloster strasse still stood, for even before the turbulent entry of the emperor's troops fires had broken out, and still burned furiously. it was a city of shards and carcases. here and there streets still stood, as a patch of corn stands, left for to-morrow's cutting, amid the prone swathes. nigel wondered if he would be able to recognise the street that he had left as the dawn broke that morning. "this is the street, captain. the spire's had a shake!" said sergeant blick. nigel nodded, and strode over the stones, and the sheet-lead, and the broken images of stone and of human flesh that lay in his path. but for the loss of its church-tower the street was still passably whole. clambering over the barrier of ruins, a half company of musketeers followed in loose order, expectant of more plunder. all day they had spent in camp, and were now let out for their share in the ruthless harvesting. there was method too in their captain's gleaning. he halted his men, and addressed sergeant blick in the tone of a man used to command and accustomed to be obeyed. "now, sergeant, you and two men come with me. the rest may help themselves in this street. it is now seven o'clock. at nine they will fall in, and march back to camp. no throat-cutting! no drunkenness! and no mishandling of women!" sergeant blick wheeled about, marched three paces to the front, and repeated the orders in a fine sonorous voice. by way of making them more intelligible, he called his men "drunken pigs" and "little calves" and "blunderheads," and added a few very personal admonitions to the more wilfully or weakly inclined of the flock. then he wheeled about again, his two picked men followed, and nigel, in front of the three, marched up the street till he came to a tall house which stood with projecting upper storeys and an almost magisterial aspect amid its smaller fellows. the massive door yielded to a push, admitting them to a stone-paved hall, on either side of which there were some very meagrely furnished rooms, and behind it kitchens, larders, and servants' quarters equally bare. nothing of potable or eatable was to be seen. nor was there a single kitchen wench. having made this reconnaissance, nigel mounted the wide open staircase with sergeant blick at his heels, and the two musketeers, two steps behind, to preserve the distance prescribed by the sergeant's rank. they halted at the first landing. from behind the first door came the stifled cry of a woman, and a dull sound of a fall. sergeant blick essayed to open it in vain. nigel charteris rapped upon it with the hilt of his sword. "open in the name of the emperor!" he demanded. a key turned in the lock. "i warn you!" said a haughty voice, the voice of a woman of rank, rich and full. "you enter at your own peril!" for answer nigel thrust his foot and his steel cap into the opening as the door gave way a span, and a dagger descended with the breathless fury of a woman's onset, only to glance off the casque, while the assailed swung round and seized the wrist of the thruster. the dagger fell to the floor. blick stooped and picked it up and thrust it into his belt, where it had company of the same sort. it was worth a guilder, he reflected; and stood waiting just inside the door, his men without. the soldier of fortune was a tall man, and she who faced him, flushed and disappointed, was a tall woman. the soldier of fortune was a handsome fellow of a dark russet upon olive complexion, with a crisp curl to his moustaches and his hair, though little of that emerged from the steel cap inlaid with gold that had so well protected him. her eyes ran over him and said to her "lineage." his eyes in turn told him that the woman was sprung of a ruling race, incapable of fear, unused to any domination: told him also that she had dark hair in abundance, dark mist-laden eyes, a clear paleness of complexion which was neither white nor yellow nor pink nor olive; told him that her carriage was that of a queen, and that she was as virginal as the dawn. if the eagle in her held his eyes in its imperious clutch, hers encountered a spirit just as much an eagle's. high lineage and high poverty had been his portion, and no charteris had ever feared to look a haughty beauty in the eyes. it was the matter of an instant. nigel looked round. in the embrasure of the principal window, seated in a great chair, was the figure of an old man, whose dress denoted a lutheran pastor. his head was fallen helplessly sidelong on the pillows that had but a few moments ago supported it. he was dead. at his feet, half on the dais of the window, lay a golden-haired girl. the great white kerchief that covered her shoulders and bosom showed a red spot over the heart, and a little dagger was still enclosed by the listless fingers that lay quiet in her lap. she too looked like one that is dead. "your handiwork, brave captain!" said the dark lady bitterly. "pastor reinheit died of shock as you halted without. elspeth stabbed herself to save her honour as soon as she heard your footsteps on the stair. it was well done!" "count tilly does not make war upon girls!" said nigel angrily, striding across and kneeling beside the girl. "bring water, linen, and salve!" gently he laid her flat upon the floor with a cushion beneath her head. quickly he unfastened the neckerchief and staunched the blood till he could see the wound, of what width it was, and how the blood welled up into its mouth. then he looked at the dagger. "blick! look you here! a flesh wound! a thumbnail's depth? what say you?" sergeant blick gently pinched the wound. "aye, is it! more fright than hurt! a barber's stitch of a silk thread. a bandage and salve! 'tis all she needs." nigel looked up. the lady of the misty eyes looked down. "she lives!" said he. "you have but to wash the wound, put in three stitches, lay salve upon it and a bandage of linen. she will not bleed to death this time." the woman knelt down and did as she was bidden with deft long fingers and without a word. before the bandage was made secure the girl elspeth opened her eyes and her gaze fell first upon nigel. a red flush came to her cheek, perhaps because of her neck lying so uncovered before a man, perhaps by reason of other thoughts. and as the colour natural to her face, a healthy rosy hue, came back, nigel on his part gave a little start of surprise and turned away. he wondered that he had not known her again. yesterday she had worn a healthy ruddiness in her cheeks and a white dress upon her jolly plump form. to-day with the absolute pallor of her swoon and her sombre grey clothes his eyes had been cheated, or was it that his eyes had lost something of their natural sharpness in the duello with those others of the race of eagles? the service rendered to her golden-haired friend, the snowy neck once more shrouded in its covering kerchief, the dark lady resumed her haughty aloofness. a flash had broken through the mists of her eyes, as a passing gleam of the moon breaks for an instant through fast scudding clouds, when she saw the recognition pass. perhaps she wondered. elspeth was of the burgher-class, well-to-do it might be, and she who looked was noble by every outward token, and might well disregard such affairs as brought a poor gentleman of the sword, and an outlander to boot, into contact with a burgher-maiden at the sack of magdeburg. nigel charteris was indifferent. he concerned himself as little with the thoughts of either girl. his present business was the gathering of booty. no man became soldier or officer in tilly's army for his pay. pay was a mighty uncertain thing. so was the sack of a town. so many were the avenues to perdition, or to salvation, according to one's views of the future state, and of one's own destination in it. a shot from a window, a tile from a roof, a stab in a dark corner, any of the three might "his quietus make." it was only common justice in the soldier's rough code that, when dame fortune came his way and opened a town's gates to him, he should fill his pockets, and any odd sack he could bear with him on his march. how should he pay peter for the ultimate repose of his soul if not by relieving paul of those riches that were an actual impediment to paul's salvation? nigel took a brief survey of the room, and his eyes rested upon the motionless figure of the dead pastor, unreal-looking in posture and in face. he frowned and crossed himself. the proud lady followed his glance. "a brave piece of work your edict of restitution! is it not time to get on with your trade?" she taunted. "in good time!" he said curtly. "call in two men!" was his order to sergeant blick. the two men came in, muskets at the ready. "this lady will show you where to lay the old man!" he said. as before she obeyed, stepping across the room to a door which opened into a small bedchamber. the two men-at-arms at a sign from the sergeant lifted the body and laid it on the bed. elspeth of the golden-hair made an effort to rise, bent on following, but her strength had not yet returned. she lay back again on her cushion and wept silently. "peace! lie still, dear heart!" said the dark lady, kneeling beside her and holding her hand, raising about her the bulwark of her own compassion, as who should say to nigel charteris that he was without the pale. when the door of the dead man's chamber closed and the musketeers stood once more to command he bade them make ready their weapons. without a look at the women he strode across the chamber to another door at the opposite side of the room to that which he had entered and flung it open. in the doorway stood three very determined-looking men armed with pikes, and behind them a motley assembly of burghers, some armed, some not. a curiously interested expression came upon the face of her who knelt. to her mind tilly's captain was in the toils. but tilly's captain had quick ears. he had divined something of what lay behind the door. when he stepped backward three paces and drew his sword, there stood covering the door with their muskets his two men. the three men looked at one another. it was certain death for two out of the three. which two? would the others, their comrades, face it out and cut down the hated catholics? there was a certain disadvantage in knowing their fellows. they were not sure of them. they were quite sure about the musketeers and tilly's captain. nigel charteris had led a round dozen of storming parties. "come you!" said he with the short stern note of command. the man indicated came sullenly forward, laid his weapon in a corner and stood upright against the wall. one by one the rest did the same as he did. one of them was a young pastor whose thick, coarse, straw-coloured hair, heavy brow and lower jaw, companioned by two cold blue eyes, proclaimed physical energy and dour obstinacy to be his, whatever theology he carried in his wallet. "my bible is my weapon," he said, looking his captor in the face. "woe unto you who wound maidens and spoil the houses of the true faith! woe to the edict of restitution, edict of robbery and murder in the name of which you come! woe to the emperor, rightly named of rome, for from rome he has his orders, and from rome his monstrous superstitions!" his intention was to kneel beside elspeth, but nigel pointed to the wall. it was a medley of weapons; an old halbert or two, some ancient bows, swords of divers patterns, daggers not a few, pikes and hunting knives, two heavy smith's hammers, and half a dozen pistols and firelocks of ponderous make and uncertain utility. these made up the tale of them. it was a medley of men who surrendered them. some of their belts and other accoutrements proclaimed them the organised defenders of the city, other than the swedish soldiery that gustavus had thrown into the place together with his devoted officer falkenburg. the rest were merchants, artificers, apprentices, of whom some had doubtless assisted in the defence of the city, and others probably had continued to ply their callings with what peace they could. why they had mustered in this house round their old pastor, and with what hope remained, nigel could only guess. in fact he cared nothing to know. it was but a nest of hornets to destroy. sergeant blick whistled from the window. two more men appeared to guard the door. then he went off to gather the rest of his half company. chapter ii. nigel collects his dues. nigel's quick eye roved over the throng. "now, master scrivener!" he said, picking out a lean-faced worthy who shrank behind a burly citizen. "sit you at this table and write down the names and conditions of the prisoners!" the scrivener drew forth pen and inkhorn. "now, madame! yours!" "ottilie of thüringen!" she had risen to make the reply, and again their eyes met in silent combat. "it would be as well, your highness, if you carried your friend to another room! what is her name and condition?" "elspeth reinheit, daughter of andreas reinheit, farmer, of eisenach in thüringen!" then she motioned to the young pastor, who came forward with an air of defiance which sat ill upon him, and together they lifted the girl. at the mention of her name she had opened her still tear-laden eyes and let them seek those of nigel, who appeared not to see; but the young pastor, as he and the dark lady lifted their charge, knitted his brows as if a spasm of jealousy had waylaid him, who had some right to the feeling where the sick girl was concerned. they passed out by the door of the room which had harboured the magdeburgers. "now, sirs, step hither to the scrivener one by one; let him write your name and calling. and whatever of money or money's worth you carry on your persons place it here on the table." there was a low murmuring, but no open dispute of his will. a grim smile relaxed the features of the musketeers. a grave portly merchant came forward and announced himself as "ulrich pfeifer, silk mercer," and deposited a gold chain and a purse of money. the eyes of the soldiers glistened as they heard the clink of the good metal. if they had thought their captain was, though a hearty fighter, a somewhat indifferent gatherer of the spoils, they were ready to retract their opinion. as for nigel's face, it showed no eagerness or greed. the merchant of silk was followed by a tanner, a hosier, an armourer, a shoemaker, and a maker of gloves. there were a few gold chains in the company, and the money was in purses of divers kinds and conditions, and of all the currencies of europe. after the merchants came the craftsmen and artisans, who made but meagre contributions: and not a few lips trembled as the hard-earned and hardly-kept florins rattled on the table. then came the apprentices, shamefaced, turning out their pockets in proof that they had none but a few copper coins, which nigel charteris bade them pick up again. the scrivener's task being completed, together with the heaping of the spoil, nigel called for sergeant blick and bade him conduct the prisoners to the camp and set a guard over them, till he should come to take count tilly's instructions for their disposal. at which order they one and all looked more crestfallen than before, for it portended they knew not what. two months' leaguer with all its hardships, its alarms, its hunger; a week's storming with its perils from without, two days of horrors within, had left them all with a lively sense of the power of the emperor to enforce his edicts. and in their ears the name of count tilly was a synonym for an incarnation of the powers and practices of the evil one. but there was no appeal from the catholic captain. the young pastor, who had returned, and the scrivener headed the procession. the soldiers below received them. sergeant blick gave the orders, and the noise of their retreating feet came through the open window to the ears of nigel. "now," said he to the two men-at-arms, who had been with him from the beginning of the episode, "you can search the house for yourselves. touch nothing of that which belongs to the ladies who were here; nor load yourselves with that which is heavy to carry and of no certain worth. say to the lady ottilie of thüringen that i crave her presence here in a quarter of an hour. the other two of you remain on guard without." the order obeyed, he poured out his booty into a heap, picked out the gold pieces and the chain, that had been so cherished an adornment of the silk weaver, and put them in a purse of leather, which he fastened securely and disposed with equal care about him; then the silver pieces, which were far more numerous and bulky, he divided into four parts, two for sergeant blick, and one each for the musketeers, in case their ransacking of the house under the conditions laid down should provide them with but a meagre reward. these three weighty and bulky parcels, tied in separate purses, he fastened beneath his cloak to his sword-belt, and he had scarcely done so before the haughty ottilie made her entry. her bearing was serene and high. he rose from the chair and bade her be seated. she accepted the offer without thanks but without any show of disdain. she seemed to have allowed herself to enter upon a softer mood. "i have asked for an audience, your highness----" "why highness?" she asked. "in german lands that is for princesses." "it accords with your bearing! the grades of rank in these countries are bewildering. what would you be called?" "in thüringen i am styled plainly, madame!" "madame, be it then! are you the daughter of the landgrave of thüringen?" "in what way does that concern one of tilly's captains of musketeers? i go where i choose, and own no man for my master." nigel smiled at her petulance. "it concerns me in this way. magdeburg is a heap of ruins. it is true a few streets remain, but i have no mind to leave you and your friend elspeth reinheit to be the chance prey of fire, or of plunder-seeking cut-throats." "you describe your soldiery with admirable precision!" she interrupted. "i was referring to the human vermin that swarm from their haunts in cities whenever order gives way to disorder, and to camp-followers who are like unto them." his voice took on a deeper seriousness. "come to the window, it is beginning to get dusk, you will see them." she rose and moved across in her stately way to the casement. he pointed to the street. "do you see those?" three nondescript tattered ruffians and a woman with half-naked breasts, clad in remnants, gave vent to raucous laughter, and each man fingered a long knife at his girdle. on the back of each was a stuffed wallet, and at the sight of the lady they raised a shrill cry of glee, and made across. the lady shuddered. "i have men outside," he said. "but if they were not, do you think your puny dagger-play, or your proud tongue, would save you? they would hack off your slender fingers for their rings, strip you for your fine linen, and if they left you your life...." the girl's face blanched. "you need not go on! i understand. what are we to do?" "your friend elspeth reinheit dwells at eisenach? and you, madame, at some castle near by? is it not so?" "i have friends at the castle of the wartburg!" she said. "good! i will arrange an escort and send you both to your friends. it is about three days' journey." "elspeth will not be able to ride!" "then she must have a coach, if one can be found." "and the pastor?" "i cannot answer for him. there are too many of them as it is." "as to that," she said, "it depends on one's faith. but there is talk of a betrothal between them." the girl watched his face with a close scrutiny as she said it. "i do not know what count tilly may order concerning him. she is quite welcome to her pastor," he said with indifference. "as i said, there are far too many pastors, and priests too for that matter, for quiet living. if they would baptise the children, marry the youths and maidens, administer the sacraments, and amuse you women in between without interfering with the other business of the world, it would be far better." "we had better make ready!" she said. "and the dead pastor?" "he must be left to his flock. count tilly will dismiss the poorest prisoners. do you, madame, get your charge ready at once for her journey to the camp. the men shall make a litter!" "you are more an officer of wallenstein than of tilly!" she said. "were i you, i should seek employment with the former." "wallenstein! i was with wallenstein till the emperor accepted his resignation!" "the emperor will recall him!" she said confidently. nigel sprang towards her eagerly. "is this true? and if true, how do you know it? who are you?" she smiled a lofty, condescending, tantalising smile and left him. wallenstein! wallenstein in chief command again! wallenstein the supreme general of generals, the man who could pick men, place them in the exact rank they could fill, caring nothing for archdukes or landgraves, only for soldiers,--the man who could make war itself an orderly thing, not quartering rough soldiers promiscuously upon quiet burgher families, but levying contributions and spending them in pay and provisions like any merchant, getting good value for them. wallenstein appealed to the scot in nigel as a thorough man, no less brave than tilly, but a genius for organising armies, a good catholic, but no fanatic. it was like a shrill summons to nigel to hear that wallenstein might take the field again. but how could this proud damsel of thüringen know? who was she? to be the daughter of the landgrave of thüringen was to be almost the daughter of a prince. she had not admitted it, but that she came of very noble birth he was sure. she must be steeped in lutheranism to be in magdeburg during the siege. yet she seemed not to regard either the dead pastor or the living with the respect that one who was strong in the faith would be likely to show. his men-at-arms came in, doublets and pockets stuffed. they had found no wine at all events. he bade them take two of the old pikes from the pile of arms, tear down a curtain, and with them make a rough litter. "i must take one more look at my uncle," elspeth murmured when her companion returned with her, and nigel opened the door. she paid her last dues of affection, loth to leave her dead to a possibly unceremonious burial at strange hands. but ottilie had explained the matter to her. then she came out and lay down upon the litter. the two musketeers lifted her as if she had weighed but a few pounds, and tramped towards the door. her friend walked just beside her. nigel cast one look round and followed. then they made their way to the outskirts of the town beyond the ramparts and the fosses. when nigel had with infinite trouble found them privacy and housing for the night, the lady of thüringen responded graciously enough to his "good night!" adding, "i am glad my dagger failed me, sir captain. you are too courteous to die by a woman's hand." chapter iii. tilly, count of tzerclaËs. "so, sir, you would leave me for wallenstein!" said the dry, wiry old man with the short grey beard resting on a charger of ruff, looking keenly out of a pair of very sharp eyes, which were the eyes of general tilly, count of tzerclaës. "what in thunder made you think wallenstein was in favour again?" "it is true then, general?" "it may prove true in time. it depends on gustavus, on magdeburg, on saxony. are you by chance a necromancer? your calf country has produced a brood of them at times. and your king jamie, who was father-in-law to our famous winter king by the way, made rather a name for himself rooting out the witches, didn't he?" nigel charteris knew count tilly's predilection for a gird at foreign officers. but as the old general was in a good vein he made no attempt to defend the memory of king jamie, who was dead, and had died a protestant, to nigel in itself a proof of something lacking in his intelligence. "not i, general! i had it from a haughty damsel i found in the same house with the nest of magdeburgers i brought you." "who was she, captain?" "she gave herself out to be the lady ottilie of thüringen! she is of a surety highly-born. but i didn't know what to make of her. she is not given to much speech, and what there is is tart in flavour. would she by chance be a daughter of the landgrave? she hinted at the wartburg." "not she! the landgrave has no daughter. i should like to see this damsel. she may tell an old man more than she would tell a young one like yourself. send for her!" nigel gave an order to a soldier. "as for wallenstein, it may well be later on. at present it behoves me to let the emperor know fully about magdeburg, what men we have lost and what dispositions i am making, for, look you, this matter must needs rouse gustavus and bring him about my ears. i can well spare you for a matter of ten days to ride to vienna to bring me word again. what say you? will you be the messenger?" "with the greatest goodwill, general!" there was no mistaking the sentiments of the younger man. he was a soldier, and knew that this way leads to advancement. "it should serve your turn. i know a soldier when i see one, and you have quitted yourself manfully." "thanks, general!" nigel glowed all over with his commendation. at this moment the unknown lady made her entrance. count tilly signed to nigel to stay: raising his fine eyebrows with a movement that gave him a quizzical air, and a slightly amused look crept into his face. he rose and bowed politely-- "the lady ottilie of thüringen?" a look flashed from her eyes to count tilly's as she bowed in return. "it is the name by which i am known to your officer here!" "there is a singular likeness between your face and that of a lady i once met at the court of vienna," said count tilly, as if it were a matter of no moment. "indeed!" she said unmovedly. "at the present moment i am seeking a safe-conduct to thüringen, for myself and two persons in whom i am interested." "to what part?" "to eisenach, or, if not, then to any point on the frontiers!" "and your business, madame?" "to restore my friends to their families, and rest, after the horrors to which you have subjected us, count." tilly made no sign of displeasure. the air of amused courtesy still sat in his eyes, in his manner. "how long have you been in magdeburg?" he asked. "ten days, reckoned by time," she said with meaning. "you must have changed into a cat, or an owl, to get into the city ten days ago!" he said, surveying her calmly. "yes. it was possible to _you_. now, are you ready to start at once?" "within an hour, count!" "good! captain charteris here will escort you and your party as far as erfurt. after that you must make your own plans!" the lady ottilie von thüringen did not look overjoyed at the news. she stole a glance at the captain, who on his side evinced no rejoicing, and then at the general. one might have supposed that she suspected some design on the part of the elder man. "it is the utmost i can hope for, i suppose," she said grudgingly. "women should stay at home!" said the count. "especially girls of your age and condition," he added, waving his hand in token of dismissal. the lady's lips curled as she bowed and withdrew. it was plain she was accustomed to having her own way, and not accustomed to being rebuked by generals, however eminent. "my young friend," the count went on to nigel, "you will have a curious convoy as far as erfurt. when you leave them at erfurt, see that some trustworthy men are to accompany them. i seldom forget faces, and more rarely voices. be careful. look closely after her. find out what you can! don't make love to her! it is of no importance to you what i think. i may be misled by a resemblance. it is a thousand chances that i am. but for you, the less you know at the outset the better for you. it is a great protection sometimes not to know anything. here is an order for a lieutenant and twenty troopers. take any travelling carriage and four horses you can lay hands on. and stay, here are a hundred gold crowns for your expenses. on leaving erfurt you will go as fast as possible to vienna, after which, god be with you till we meet again!" nigel pocketed the crowns and the blessing with a good grace, thanked count tilly, and saluted. it was not often that an officer found such favour with the dry old general. he was too busy during the next hour with his preparations to trouble his head with the speculations of count tilly as to the identity of "dark ottilie," as he called her to himself. in point of fact he was rather disappointed to be called upon to act as escort even as far as erfurt. he would so much more willingly have ridden by the shortest road to vienna, where his ambition was already, if we may speak of a man's desire outstripping his body by three days or so. for his secret heart sang "wallenstein," and not "ottilie" dark or fair. yet wallenstein, for the little that nigel charteris had seen of him, or knew of him through others, was not a man to be beloved of men. he had been twice married, which might prove that he was beloved of women, or not, according to the side the pleader took. nigel could recall without difficulty the long narrow face with the large ears set close back against the head, the high deeply-furrowed brow, the thoughtful scrutinising eyes from which all laughter was absent, the plain linen collar turned flatly down over his cuirass, the little tuft on his chin, the look of solid power about the face as a whole, a face dominated by resolution rather than pride. what was it then that drew nigel charteris to him? it was perhaps the sense of the orderliness and discipline that prevailed about the famous general and emanated from him. it was perhaps the audacity that had led him to offer, in the dark days of the empire, to raise an army of twenty thousand men which should cost the emperor nothing but his mandate, or the sound foresight that in fact provided thirty thousand for the war of ' . nigel charteris had marched with him as a mere subaltern to the crushing defeat of mansfeld at dessau on the elbe, had joined in the resistless pursuit through silesia, through mähren into hungary, where mansfeld was striving to unite with bethlem gabor of siebenbürgen, most turbulent of electors. nigel had seen the army of thirty thousand grow into seventy thousand, and the emperor able to dictate in the affairs of europe. there had been nothing to equal wallenstein's army in the world. and then the habsburger, listening to jealousies, to his own fears perhaps, to the jesuits certainly, to maximilian of bavaria, had bidden wallenstein, laden as he was with honours and riches, lay down his baton. wallenstein had made no demur, raised no standard of rebellion, had gone into retirement. the army mouldered away regiment by regiment. some had joined tilly, like nigel. more had become idlers in the great cities. it had been wallenstein's army. without him to command even the emperor could not keep the snows from melting. and now came this mysterious message that wallenstein would be summoned again. his old officers would be flocking back. nigel felt it in his bones. loyalty to a great leader is one of the strongest engines in the world, least visible to the eye, most potent in effect. a travelling carriage was found, the body hung by leathern straps, steadied by light chains, to the solid box and hinder seats, which were just above the axles. from somewhere had sprung two serving maids, the one a plump, wide-chested, short saxon girl, evidently a retainer of elspeth reinheit; the other, an older, slightly-wizened woman of dark complexion, with a certain air about her of one accustomed to the chambers of great ladies, of one above the common herd of waiting women, and as plainly the attendant of ottilie of thüringen. the two had probably been hidden in some garret of the house in magdeburg, and followed their mistresses, having no other goal to make for, to the outskirts of the camp. the saxon girl was already on terms of familiarity with the troopers. the other held herself pursed up and aloof. nigel mounted the two on the hinder seat of the coach, their mistresses within, and presently gave the order to the lieutenant, who sent on two men in advance. nigel and the lieutenant followed at the head of ten troopers. the other eight rode behind as a rearguard. they gave a glance back at the smoking ruins of magdeburg, out of which still rose some spires of churches which had successfully defied the conflagration, and were no longer the objective of tilly's cannon, and rode along the level road towards strassfurt, comparing their military experiences of the last three days. the young pastor had been mounted on a horse of indifferent mettle, and rode as well as he was able behind the coach just in front of the rearguard. it was clear that he was not in a grateful frame of mind, notwithstanding his freedom. nor had he any great reason to be, for was not the fall of this great city of magdeburg, this stronghold of protestantism, an open and visible sign of the hated edict? chapter iv. on the road to erfurt. let your journeying be never so brief, it need not be tedious. the road was as flat from magdeburg to strassfurt, and that was twenty miles, as is the great plain that stretches from the zuider zee to warsaw and on and on. there were undulations. it was not as flat as a backgammon board, nor had it a hill that would have made an old horse out of breath. it was a sunshiny morning towards the end of may, and the sun rises early over the german lands in may, and shines hotly towards noon on the great plain. there was little or no shelter, but horses and men, even the pastor, though he came from the pine forests of thüringen, thought little of the heat and the dust. to the men it was a holiday jaunt after the military turmoils of the past two months. to the pastor it was a return to his flock with a wallet full, not of indulgences like that of johann tetzel, the dominican, of luther's day, but of doings and sufferings. how he would be able to point his sermons with what he had seen and heard! how he would inflame the whole forest with it! the fires, the murders, the even blacker horrors of the sack of magdeburg, should be caught up into the trumpet of his prophecy and belched forth in his own sonorous, if not altogether silvery voice, till every valley of thüringen and every hamlet in the hills rang with the fame and the shame of the edict. he conceived himself as a brand plucked from a literal burning. as he rode, innumerable texts rose to his remembrance; and pathways of thought, full of intricacies, opened out therefrom, till his head almost ached by reason of the fixity with which he gazed upon the hinder seat of the coach, while in his imagination he saw a mass of upturned faces on the hillside upturned to _him_. the beauty of the morning and the monotony or interest of the road were not for him. nor did they affect the saxon maid-servant, who from her high perch behind the coach could see every now and then the steel caps of the troopers in front glancing in the sun, and, when she felt sure the herr pastor was not thinking about her, she twisted her stout body about and twisted her short neck till she could win a good satisfying look at the foremost couple of horsemen behind him. as for her companion, the high-born lady's tiring woman, the saxon girl could make nothing of her. she belonged to the east, she said. the saxon girl had once been to dresden. further east was a mystery of all manner of strange peoples. the woman spoke german, but she did not look german, and she did not chatter, an unhealthy sign to the mind of the saxon girl. she had not a look for the troopers nor for the country-side. she was thinking of the little hoard of florins and kreuzers she had left in the hands of a respectable goldsmith before she set out on this ridiculous journey with the highly-born lady, who, subject to the god of greed, owned her body and soul. the writings relative to the hoard were in a little bag, which she wore in a secure place beneath her outward and visible garments. every now and again she pinched the spot to make sure they were there: a fact the saxon girl noticed, but forbore to question for the reason. for the lady and the farmer's daughter the road had different messages. both in their ways felt the loveliness of the morning and the welling up of spring in the blood. to the lowlier-born a little farmstead with its yellowish clayed walls and great black beams, its thatch of many seasons' straw, spoke of men and women and babes and kine. then she remembered, and called softly out of the window "pastor rad," and the pastor urged his horse beside her and said a few words, but soon dropped behind again. she could make nothing of him. he did not even ask after her wound. and "dark ottilie" of thüringen? the beauty of the morning set her pulses thrilling, and chanted in her ears a song of freedom. she knew well that she was not free, that she was playing the rebel against all orthodoxy of courts and the rule of princes for their women-folk. she had but these few weeks essayed the game of freedom, which had already led her into strange accidents, but danger and spring and pride made a heady mixture. she loved this flat open road because it was new to her, and led to strange little towns. "did that stupid old general tilly recognise her?" she asked herself the question, and answered that these old generals and statesmen were all full of craft and ruse, and it was impossible to say. why, if he did, should he let her go? then her thoughts evidently fell upon the scot: and, since he showed no sign of coming to her of his own accord, she had the word passed to him. nigel wheeled his horse and waited till the coach was abreast. the coach was high and he needed not to bend. he saluted and said-- "madame?" "what is the name of this place we make for?" "strassfurt!" "is it much farther?" "a league or so, madame!" "and then?" "we shall dine and proceed to aschersleben. then, if you are not too fatigued, we shall go on to sangershausen." then he looked across to elspeth and a look of friendliness came into his eyes. "how is your wound to-day, fräulein?" "better! much better, captain!" elspeth had another access of blushes. "of a truth," said "dark ottilie" to herself, "there must have been some passages between this gentleman and our pastor's niece;" and she herself began to observe him more closely, how well he sat his horse, what a figure he had, as gallant a soldier as she remembered to have seen. "captain!" she threw aside her haughtiness for a moment as she would have dropped a cloak when she had loosed the clasp. "whence came you?" "from scotland, madame!" "the country of marie stuart?" "she was the grandmother of our present king, charles!" "and what brought you here?" "a younger son's lack of fortune, and a taste for sword-play!" "but surely at the english court!" "there were already too many scots, too many younger sons, and a king who had no taste for sword-play, madame!" "they say the english ladies are rich and beautiful! were there none who would keep a scottish gentleman from crossing the seas to find a fortune, when she held one in her lap?" "i would not have looked beyond her face, madame, and, wanting a fortune of my own, would never have looked her in the face to ask for hers." "you are too proud, sir! and how long have you plied the trade of a soldier?" "since wallenstein raised his army and fought with mansfeld. five years, madame!" a strange rapt gleam came into her eyes at the name of wallenstein. "and the fortune?" she asked. "my lord verulam in his book tells us 'if a man look sharply and attentively he shall see fortune: for though she be blind yet she is not invisible,'" said the scot. "i am still looking for her." "it is a good saying: and your lord verulam plainly had a shrewd notion that fortune walks abroad in petticoats as often as she hides herself in the treasure-house of a king." nigel charteris looked into her face, wondering exactly what she meant by her commentary, and the dark eyes held a lurking demon of laughter somewhere about them for an instant, but the mist came over the twin lakes and her face resumed its lofty repose. they were not the only wayfarers: though the little groups were getting more and more infrequent. for the final attack on magdeburg, which had let loose into its streets and places thousands of soldiery on plunder intent, careless of violence to women and to babes, had also opened its gates for the egress of fugitives. those who had friends or relatives in the country made such haste as was possible in the deadly hubbub of the sack to steal out with their bare lives on to the roads and walk fast and far. many were the glances of hate at the troopers, and of wonder at elspeth reinheit, who was known to many as the "pastor's niece." as for the young pastor, the fugitives bowed or curtsied to him, and pitied him because they supposed him a prisoner; whereas they themselves possessed a precarious freedom, won out of the press of death that had confronted them in so many forms on the grisly days of the sack. the pastor, buried in his indignation, and in his thoughts of stirring themes for congregations not yet assembled, sometimes acknowledged their salutations, sometimes missed seeing them. one question in the intervals of his professional wrath came into his mind every now and again, and he was indignant at the intrusion. it was this: what had happened that elspeth should have had any dealings with tilly's captain? he had seen how her eyes had sought the captain's, the eyes of an accursed catholic, accursed in that his hands were imbrued, actually or vicariously, in the bloody wine-presses of the wrath of man, still more accursed that he had done what he had in furtherance of the policy of rome. and elspeth reinheit, though not formally betrothed to him, pastor rad, was looked upon as his by others than himself or herself. how was it possible that the soldier and she could have met, and he the pastor and lover not know it? how could there be a look of understanding or of gentle inquiry pass from her to him to his own exclusion? it filled him with vague uneasiness. it hurt his pride of possession. it raised suspicion of her integrity. no doubt pastor rad would have been still more surprised had he known that the highly-born sympathiser--he was not sure enough of her spiritual leanings to call her adherent,--ottilie of thüringen, was at this moment questioning elspeth on that very matter. "dearest elspeth, you have met yonder captain before yesterday? i am sure of it." she nodded towards his back as he trotted forward to the head of his men after the little conversation. "that is true!" said elspeth. "there is no need to keep it secret from you, though i dare not tell melchior rad. he would never understand." "as to that," said her companion, "i cannot advise you. you know the pastor. but your eyes have a most eloquent speech of their own, and are not easily veiled, and, when he and i carried you to your chamber, your eyes sought the captain's, and i could have sworn your pastor marked it." "oh dear!" said elspeth. "and he is so harsh; well, not exactly harsh, but you know what i mean." "these good men are hard in judgment!" said the other. "like diamonds for rarity and hardness. as for sparkle ... well, i should not say pastor rad sparkles, but never mind." "this is thursday!" said elspeth. "well, it was on tuesday night and nearly midnight. i had been sitting watching my uncle in too great anxiety to leave the dear old man, and went down into the kitchen to make him a warm posset. "as i crept into the kitchen in my night-rail and slippers, my hair down even, imagine, ottilie, with a candle in my hand, a man stood there in the outer doorway. he seized my hands in his and looked me straight in the face, the candle-light between us. "'no word, maiden!' he said in a low tone. 'give me food! give me a couch to lie upon! i am wearied to death!' "his face was blackened with smoke and streaked with sweat. his cloak and doublet and gauntlets were stained with i know not what. his voice was hoarse and weak. he was clearly wellnigh done for. i was frightened out of my life, but not out of all pity. and he was young and had fine eyes, ottilie. what could i do?" "and what did you do?" "'if thine enemy hunger, feed him,'" said elspeth. "i did not ask him on which side he fought. i gave him bread and meat and drink, and took him by the little stairs to my own chamber. it was the only safe place, and i bade him sleep there till i wakened him in the morning. "i spent the night watching my uncle and dozing by his bedside. in the morning, when it was an hour past dawn, i thought of my other charge and went to my chamber. he was gone." "god in heaven!" said ottilie. "and that was the captain there?" "i could not swear to it!" said elspeth, blushing again. "i think it was." "it is possible also that he came back to the house to see what had happened to you on the second day of the sack!" "i wonder if he did," said elspeth. "i should like to think so!" chapter v. two of the catholic faith. strassfurt gave the travellers too poor an entertainment to make them tarry by it. they got a change of horses and pushed on another ten miles, the ground rising steadily as they began to leave the plains and cross the eastern spurs of the harz mountains. at aschersleben the air was noticeably purer and laden with the resinous smell of the pines. they made a long rest here for the evening meal and then rode slowly, for the troopers' horses were tired and sore with the weight of men and mail. the lieutenant made his men walk up the steep hills, but it was late when they clattered and rumbled into little sangershausen and came to a good inn in the shadow of st ulrich. the inn was not large but the stables were spacious enough to take in all the troopers as well as their horses: a fortunate thing, since, at the late hour it was, to have made any endeavour to quarter them on the inhabitants would have been a possible cause of tumult. they were already sufficiently near to thüringen, a protestant state in the main, for protestant feeling to be uppermost. some news of the vengeance executed on protestant magdeburg would have preceded the travellers even at this remote town on the borders of the harz, and nigel and the lieutenant were both aware of the danger they ran, peaceful as their errand was. despite their fatigue they set off again early, covering the ten miles to frankenhausen with ease. then the road began to wind in and out among the hills, which lay across their path to erfurt. the lower slopes of the hills already showed corn ripening; the grass stood knee-deep in the valleys, but above the cornlands on every hillside rose the forest. there were a few woodcutters in the forest, a labourer or two here and there in the fields, and at long intervals tiny hamlets, with perhaps a mill or an indifferent inn. to the travellers one and all, the continuous ascents to high ground, the long forest roads, the descents into new valleys, became monotonous and seemingly interminable. they made no haste. it was no countryside for haste. at the best nigel expected to reach erfurt at sundown: for the horses had not thrown off the weariness of yesterday, and they could not expect to get a relay for the coach. at the inn where they made what midday meal the place was capable of they could get nothing but smoked ham, little tough cheeses, rye-bread and beer. fortunately there was plenty of the latter, and the troopers made no grumbling at its quality. elspeth reinheit appeared to be blessed with a good appetite, and found ham and rye-bread and cheese to her liking, for she did well by them. the other and more highly-born girl ate little and drank goat's milk, which has a sustaining quality for those who can put up with its richness. pastor rad was no more talkative than he had been the day before, and brooded alike in valley and on hill-top with a morose perseverance that foreboded a wealth of prophetic outburst, whenever he should come to his opportunity and to his flock. he watched nigel in all his approaches and conversation with elspeth, which the chance or the tedium of the journey brought about. nigel was on his side quite natural and unconstrained in his behaviour to the girl, who had done him a vital service which he had in his turn requited. there was no feeling except that of human kindness, which perhaps runs a little thicker as between man and woman, more so still if the man be comely and the woman not less well-seeming than a woman should be. the longest day of travel comes to an end: and at last they spied the cathedral and the sister church of saint severus perched on its eminence. then the spires of st martin, st michael, st laurence, and later on the walls of erfurt, rose to view. there were gates to pass, two waterways to cross by little bridges, which let one see a wilderness of little streets, and then they drew rein at a demure hostelry in the prediger strasse, well thought of by the protestant community of erfurt. nigel and the lieutenant having seen their charges safely housed, rode on with their escort, and readily found quarters for them with the soldiers of the garrison; for erfurt, if it showed no active partisanship at this time, was passively more for the emperor than for the cause of gustavus. originally one of the free cities of the hanseatic league, it had become annexed by some threads of service to the electorate of mainz, the elector being the archbishop, and so able to exercise influence, if not precisely dominion, by the spiritual arm as well as by his considerable secular forces. despite luther, erfurt was still to be reckoned as a catholic city, and not many months after this very day gustavus treated it accordingly in the swift foray that followed his victory of breitenfeld. the lieutenant being by habit a good companion and a great man at a bottle, where he could find both company and bottle, having once sat down with the officers of the garrison, was in no mood to leave them. nigel charteris, on the other hand, like many of his fellow-countrymen, was prone to content himself with his own company rather than make himself profoundly uncomfortable for the sake of being sociable. wine, woman, and song, as the triune object of german idolatry, especially in garrisons, camps, and universities, did not evoke any enthusiasm in him. he drank wine for good cheer. song he could bear rather than love, so it had a lilt in it. as for woman, as she followed the camp, or in the character of the helpless quarry of the licentious chase of officers and soldiers alike, or again as the fat helpmeet of the german burgher, redundant with all the virtues but lacking equally all the graces, nigel charteris paid her no heed. his gorge rose from one cause or another at all three. through all the coarse scenes of camp life, the brutalities of the sack of cities, he had preserved with religious fervour the memory of his mother, and of the maidens of gentle quality whom he had known in his own land, tall, straight-limbed women with broad foreheads and blue-grey or dark-brown eyes, looking boldly out upon a world that dared not asperse them. in ottilie von thüringen he had recognised at a glance one of their peers, with less of their frankness, with more of their pride of race, a woman of rare beauty, mysterious, tangible yet intangible. for the first time in his prime of manhood did he feel troubled in spirit by the consciousness that something in him strove towards the infinite that is the spirit of woman. but whether it was this, or the consciousness that of late he had been remiss in his devotions, he stole out beneath the intense blue of a starlit sky towards the cathedral, in the precincts of which he trusted to find a priest to hear his confession. the builders in their desire to set their holy city on a little hill, and the only hill having a steep declivity to more mundane levels, had constructed a series of under-buildings, called _cavaten_, till they got a continuous level on which to build the cathedral. and a penitent who has to mount a matter of fifty steps, and does so, certainly deserves well of mother church. so at least thought nigel charteris, as, somewhat breathless, he peered in and found it almost dark. a lantern standing on the floor in a corner announced the presence of some one, who proved to be the sacristan coming out of the sacristy. by the aid of a few small coins the sacristan remembered that father felix lodged at the priest's house close by, and offered to fetch him. while he was gone nigel made the round of the nave, the side-aisles, and the chancel. so lofty was the roof his eye could not pierce the gloom, but the cathedral was of no great extent, the chancel being in fact very nearly as large as the nave. the faint rays of the lantern lit up the carved and polished ages-old woodwork of the choir seats. beyond was a shadowy land round which he walked in the space of a few minutes. from the still deeper shadow of a group of pillars nigel was startled by a woman's sobbing. out of the great silence of the place it was audible, when his own footfall ceased for an instant, and then it ceased suddenly, as if the woman, learning that she was not alone, had regained command of herself. there ensued a soft murmur as of a recited prayer, one long familiar to her who prayed, and then as of some concluding personal petition, in which nigel was almost certain that he heard the name of albrecht von waldstein. his mind being intent upon this name, that he should think to hear it even in this solemn environment was not in itself strange, but nigel was inclined to regard the fancied recognition as having something of a supernatural significance. at this moment the priest and the sacristan entered, and the holy father and his soldier penitent entered the confessional. when nigel came out he walked slowly to the door, where he was joined by the priest, who, his office performed, was cheerfully curious as any layman to hear the latest details from magdeburg. news of the victory of the church, as every catholic was bound to esteem it, had reached him. he was willing to hear more, but made no comment. his sympathies, it appeared, were mainly confined to his own surroundings, his personal charge in erfurt, and did not travel outward to the greater world. he was curious to hear whether the jesuits were jubilant over the new phase in politics. it was clear that he at least was no jesuit. the priest _secular_ has always had a certain jealousy of the priest _regular_. nigel received his "pax vobiscum," and turned away to make for his quarters. a few, and those feeble, lights burned at a distance from the cathedral. there was the blue sky, starlit as when he had entered. standing still a moment or two to make sure of his direction in this solitary part of the city, he heard a light step beside him, and a tall closely-veiled lady asked him to set her on her way to the prediger strasse. muffled as the tones were, nigel recognised them. "then it was your ladyship in the cathedral a while ago?" "sir! i do not know of what you speak! can you not point me to the prediger strasse?" "it is useless to pretend! you are she who calls herself ottilie of thüringen! and you are of the holy catholic faith! i am nigel charteris!" "had the night been lighter," she said in a tone of vexation, "i should have asked no man! now i am forced to confide what i wished not to tell; i _am_ of your faith." "you may trust me!" said nigel, taking her by the arm and making across the mainzerhof bridge over the bergstrom, a branch of the main waterway that threads the town as a string does a row of paunchy beads from leipzig fair. "'tis not the shortest way, but it is the least lonely. tell me why you consorted with protestants even to the risk of death or worse in magdeburg?" "captain charteris!" she spoke in low clear tones which could reach his ear alone. "it is no article of our compact to tell you these things. it is just as well for you to know nothing. it is a great protection sometimes not to know anything." "count tilly said that same thing!" said nigel. "is it a password of the rosicrucians?" "then he warned you against me!" she said in a tone of triumph. nigel bit his lip for its indiscretion. "he gave it as a piece of general advice," he said. "but what is in our compact?" "merely this!" she replied. "you were to conduct us to erfurt. you were to put us into the company of trustworthy people so that we might pursue our way to eisenach." "that is true!" said nigel. "yet it is not to be wondered at if i cast about to know more of a noble lady who first tries to stab me with a dagger, then takes a passing interest in my parentage, whom next i find by an extraordinary chance sobbing in a dark corner of a cathedral, whom, finally, i have the honour of conducting to her lodging at an hour when most noble ladies are glad to be within doors." there was a vein of humour in his tone rather than in what he said. "you think i owe it to you, sir?" "does woman ever owe anything to man that she does not pay a thousand-fold? i count no woman my debtor!" he said it in a tone of tenderness she had not heard before from this soldier of fortune. "trust me then in turn! i tell you nothing! believe me, there are things i dare not tell my confessor that i _could_ tell you; only it is better not." "let it be so, madame! 'trust me all in all or not at all' is a proverb of my country." they had reached the further end of the street called fischersand and turned on to the long bridge, from which it was but the length of a small side street to the prediger strasse. they halted on the bridge and looked over the balustrade, up the waterway. there was candlelight here and there in the back windows of the houses that abutted on the water. their gaze could only penetrate a little way along the dark space between the houses. a few stars reflected themselves in the water at their feet. the lady ottilie of thüringen was in a restless mood, in that mood when a woman wants everything and nothing, when she is eager to reveal and careful to hide everything but her eagerness. to an older man perhaps there would have been no puzzle, but to nigel charteris, who had never known the spell of woman, she was a mysterious child following her own phantasies. she gazed into the dark vista for a full minute or so of silence--a silence only broken by the tramp of the guard going its rounds. then she said-- "have you ever known what love is?" nigel started at the question, for he was conscious of the exaltation of spirit that he felt at being alone with this mysterious child, who was a woman who had proud eyes, that he felt at being her protector in this old garrisoned city that was strange to both of them. "no, lady!" he spoke truth, and she knew it. "it is like this!" she said, and pointed downwards. "it is dark and in movement, and you see stars in it glittering,--wavy stars that you know are not real, though they look so near. you know that it would be cold to plunge in, and that you would not get your stars. there are the stars above in the blue at an immense distance.... it's like that too!" she pointed up the waterway into the darkness. "you can see a little of the way, and then it is all dark, all a mystery, and yet you know that you are eager to go, and that if you go far enough you will expect to reach the stars." nigel listened and was troubled--troubled because he was not by nature a poet, and could not well follow her thought, and troubled because he felt that her note was impersonal as relating to himself. if she was referring to a particular man it was not himself. "to think," she went on, "that a woman could be so stirred, so set above herself by any man that she would become even as his slave in return for nothing but his barest thanks, that her mind could be full of him day and night, that all he might do or say, were it to her own injury, would be right in her eyes!" "and yours--your mind is full of albrecht von waldstein, if i guess rightly?" nigel asked. "sir!" she flashed upon him, turning towards the pathway. "go you and seek your wallenstein! what think you that ottilie von thüringen can have in common with that cold seeker after power, with him who would use the habsburgs for a stepping-stone, and play the cæsar?" nigel was silent. he was confident that he had struck the keynote of her meditation, but refrained from placing his finger upon it with insistence, as he might have done, from fear that he should find that she resounded to none other. for he began willy-nilly to desire that this harpsichord of hers should give forth melody beneath his own fingers. but after a moment or two, with the directness of the scot, without irony, stating a fact, he said-- "lady, i would gladly be the man you spoke of!" she turned towards him, hurling him a look through her veil. "my tall captain! you would be a fool even to dream of it!" "so be it!" he said in his plain way. "here is your inn. to-morrow your escort will be here. at what hour?" "at eight, sir, if you can so contrive." chapter vi. at the castle of hradschin. it was not difficult to find at the sign of the lily a couple of worthy merchants who were returning on the morrow to gotha, and they readily promised nigel to act as escort so far. from gotha it would go hard if the girls did not get a safe journey to eisenach. the parting was brief. some tears sprang to the ready eyes of elspeth. ottilie's eyes showed nothing. her lips repeated, "till we meet again, captain!" the pastor nodded sulkily. no sooner had the coach rumbled off than nigel sprang to his saddle, and together with his comrade, the lieutenant, and the escort, trotted to the merry jingle of the accoutrements and the clash of hoofs out of erfurt over steiger hill on the road for rudolfstadt. in consultation with some of the garrison he had planned to ride through the forest to rudolfstadt, thence to plauen, pass the night there, cross the erzgebirge on the next day, and push into bohemia as far as pilsen; by good fortune they might be at budweis on the evening of the third day and in vienna by the afternoon of the fourth. after surmounting steiger the road lay straight enough across a broad valley through a round dozen of hamlets, and at the tenth mile they crossed the ilm and began to ascend a more winding road, which, six miles farther, brought them to rudolfstadt. here they made their midday meal, and without delaying over the wine-pot, made good speed into the hills that lay between them and plauen, the chief city of the vogtland. the vogt had been careful to choose a high country for his dwelling, and so the horses found it no easy finish to their day's work to climb as they had to do to bed and fodder. so far nigel had paid little heed to any demonstrations of lutheran spirit. erfurt, for all it had nursed luther out of monkhood into flat heresy, was still catholic. rudolfstadt was towards the outskirts of the thüringer wald and a mere hamlet, though it bore a kingly name. the other villages that lay between it and plauen were inconsiderable, and nigel did not let his men linger when traversing them. it was quite possible that the news of the sack of magdeburg had preceded him, but it was unlikely that any force of the soldiers of gustavus or of his allies were in the neighbourhood, and against any undisciplined throng of turbulent protestants nigel felt secure, if he were not greatly outnumbered. but as soon as the gates closed behind him and his men, he became aware from the looks of the people and their answers to his questions that he had come into a very hornet's nest. arms seemed to be the customary wear, and in at least two of the squares he noticed stout burghers and apprentices practising drill under the guidance of men of martial bearing. instead of making, as he would have done, for an inn, he rode right through the town to the castle of hradschin, which was the one place inside the town that promised security, if not good cheer, and was held on behalf of the emperor by an officer who represented in a shadowy way the ancient dignity and function of the vogt of long ago. there he found the drawbridge up and the sentinels on guard, but he was admitted without much parley to find that the officer in question was an old comrade of his wallenstein days, one hildebrand von hohendorf, who received him with open arms and a full flagon, and whose eyes roamed over the twenty well-appointed troopers with much satisfaction. the burly commandant's eye, as he sat back in his great chair after the first part of the supper was despatched, lit upon nigel with great good-humour. "so you are a captain of tilly's, my boy! and i warrant you get another step if you carry despatches safely to vienna! some people have all the luck. and i wager you've a good round bag of golden crowns in your wallet as it is." "as to that," said nigel, "i left a few odd thalers with an honest banker at erfurt. i know better than to carry much gold about me." "sly fellows, you scots! ha! ha! ha! a few odd thalers! why, the sack of miserly madgeburg must have been like drawing water in a bucket from a brimming well! and here i sit cooped up in hradschin, and draw a few groschen a day for running the risk of a lutheran bullet, or a crack from a sledge-hammer every time i go into the town, and the saints above know when i shall be able to get back to the wars." "why didn't you do the same as the others, and join tilly?" "in the first place, i got the offer of hradschin, and in the second place, my own little estate of hohendorf is but a few miles to the north, over by elsterberg, and i can keep a better eye upon it than if i were wandering about with tilly. and in the third place, when one has served with wallenstein, it isn't the same thing to serve with tilly." "and in the fourth place, hildebrand, you seem to have a good larder and a good cellar!" hildebrand laughed a hearty contented laugh. "i like them better than your restitution edict! well, hendrick?" a soldier had come in and stood at attention. "there is a tumult in the town, commandant. they have assembled on the other side of the moat with torches and weapons." "bid them all go to the devil and come back to-morrow morning!" "yes, commandant!" the soldier returned in a few minutes. "they will have speech with you, commandant!" "confound them all for disturbers of the peace! i am coming. this is a new caper!" the commandant donned his corselet and headpiece, and accompanied by nigel came out on the roof of a small tower that overlooked the drawbridge. there was the moat below and a narrow one at that. but it was a sufficient barrier. "silence for the commandant!" shouted the sergeant of the guard. there was silence in the grim-looking crowd that stood many deep on the other side, torches and lanterns lighting up the faces of some and leaving others mere shadowy patches, lighting up, too, the faces of many steel weapons and the barrels of many firelocks. "now johann pfarrer! in god's name tell us what this is all about, and let a man get back to his supper!" "magdeburg!" shouted johann pfarrer with a voice like a deep-toned trumpet. "aye! magdeburg!" the crowed echoed and roared it lustily with a curious note of wild anger in the throat. "well, friends? what have i to do with magdeburg?" "just this!" said johann pfarrer. "to-night we have heard an exact relation of the sack of magdeburg. you have with you one of tilly's captains and twenty of his hell-born riders." "faith, johann! you may be right! i don't know where they were born. they are all good germans!" "the more shame!" growled johann. "now, commandant, we are not joking. deliver them all up to us, officers and men!" "for what? who ever heard of a german delivering up his guests? tut! tut! man!" "there is no 'tut! tut!' about it," retorted johann. "we are going to hang them. blood for blood! vengeance for magdeburg!" "what nonsense you talk," said hildebrand in his jolly cajoling fashion. "why should you or i trouble about magdeburg? let the brandenburgers look after themselves. you don't owe them anything!" "they are our brothers in the faith," said another voice, and a lutheran pastor stood out from the throng. "yes! yes! our brothers in the faith." the bystanders took up the cry till it reached the outskirts of the throng, seemingly a long way back. "well! i take my orders from the emperor!" said hildebrand. "you had better go and ask him! i give up my guests for no one. now go away home to your suppers and your wives and don't trouble your heads with politics!" "you hear, friends?" shouted johann, turning to his comrades. "you hear what commandant von hohendorf tells us. shall we?" "no! a thousand noes!" was the reply from hundreds of throats, and the ominous rattle of weapons gave it emphasis. "storm the castle! burn down old hradschin! death to the hell-riders," came from all sides. nigel, standing on the battlements in the rear of the commandant, was not recognisable from below, but could very well distinguish the faces of most of those who stood in the front of the throng. they were drawn from all classes in the town, which, it was clear, was stirred to its depths. there were few women, and only two of these had ventured near to the leaders. nigel surveyed the assembly with the indifference of the soldier to the execrations of a crowd of citizens, and the added feeling of detachment from the exasperation which they felt at the slaughter of some of their own countrymen by others of their own countrymen in the pay of the emperor, who was far on the other side of the mountains. his curiosity was alert, however, and when his eyes rested on the two women, whose heads were enveloped in hoods that left most of the face in impenetrable shadow, he strove to estimate their condition, whether gentle or simple. in bearing they both seemed apart from the burghers with whom they mingled. one of them was tall for a woman, and, when she moved, did so with a gesture that marked her at least as no housewife. the other's movements were quick, and reminded nigel of a hen moving and pecking with sudden jerks of fussiness. then for a moment, as the commandant was speaking, the tall woman looked upward and the ruddy light from a neighbouring torch fell upon her face for a mere instant, but it was long enough. nigel drew his cloak about him with a shiver. the woman appeared to have the eyes and mouth of ottilie von thüringen. he was sure it was not she. she had started for gotha. he had seen her in the coach, and at the head of his men had ridden, not, it was true, at breakneck speed, but at a good pace, wasting no time. some one, it was clear, had arrived in the town who had witnessed the sack of magdeburg, and striven to and contrived to inflame the townspeople to a fever point. but even supposing, what was impossible, that the mysterious ottilie had ridden by other roads and reached plauen at his heels, what could her errand be? she was a catholic. it was unthinkable to believe that she could be seeking to inflame the minds of protestants to the butchery of a score of troopers in the service of the emperor out upon a peaceful task of escort duty. it passed through his mind and was dismissed. hildebrand turned to him. "the pigs! they will be less noisy in the morning. let us go in and finish our wine. hradschin can stand a few hard words and even a few knocks such as they can give, unless gustavus sends them a few cannon." as they went in the tumult grew in volume, but it was soon lost to their ears as they once more resumed their wine within the thick walls. "the devil of it is," said the commandant, "that there will be no getting out of the place while they are in this mind. they will guard all the roads. and your men are all needed here if they make an attack in force to-morrow." "the despatches do not admit of delay," said nigel, who had no mind to be cooped up in hradschin for a week. "if i cannot leave with the men, i must leave without them." "but how are you going to get out of the town? you must cross the river, and the bridge will be guarded. there's your horse, too. still, as you say, there are the despatches." "surely, if i start two hours before dawn, i can get the gates open after overpowering the guard. my twenty troopers ought to manage that. how far is it from here to the bridge?" "four hundred yards! but four hundred yards, of which at least a hundred are down a narrow street to the bridge-head, supposing the pigs are on the watch, are as bad as four miles. you know what it is to ride through a press of people. you and your troopers would be pulled from your horses in no time. we must think! pass the flagon, comrade!" "lieutenant! make the round of the ramparts with one of the commandant's soldiers and see what the dispositions are, whether one can leave the castle and how. one cannot make one's plans for leaving the town if one cannot first leave the castle." "true!" said hildebrand, who was secretly desirous of retaining the twenty troopers to defend hradschin. "and sound your men as to whether they will risk a rope with captain charteris or remain here with me." nigel would have been inclined to resent this, but as hildebrand was his host he said nothing, only being quite resolved that in the end his men should obey orders, hanging or no hanging. then they fell to discuss the road nigel should take. "pilsen is a long journey through the hills!" said the commandant. "why not make for eger? there is a strong garrison at eger. if you reach there in safety you can get another escort to vienna, and when things are quiet your men can slip out and go there to await your return." in this way the commandant made it a more familiar idea to nigel's mind that he should go alone. and nigel, on his part, resolved that alone, or accompanied, it would be easier to escape that night, when the citizens would be drowsy with their unwonted watching, say two hours before dawn, than on the morrow when the threatened attack began. the heart of the difficulty to his mind would be the gate at the bridge-head. even if the guard were overcome there would still be delay, and delay would be fatal. the lieutenant returned and reported that watch-fires were lit and burning at all the four avenues which gave egress from the neighbourhood of the castle, and at each was a strong guard, all armed with muskets. any one coming from the castle could be seen. the crowd had dispersed. the three soldiers put their heads together over a plan of the town, and nigel asked question after question till he had extracted all the facts he could from the commandant. then he asked the commandant for the quickest-witted of his men, and sent for sergeant blick, one of the escort, by special request of nigel, who had great confidence in his fidelity. in a quarter of an hour the two men dropped into a flat-bottomed boat kept at a small back gate of the castle for the convenience of the kitchens. and mooring it carefully on the other side, they stood half-way between the fires and the guards to the north and those to the south. the soldier belonging to the castle tapped at a window in the street which faced the castle again and again. presently the knock was answered. the casement opened. the soldier got through, and burly sergeant blick waited for the door to open. then he entered too. a few words with the goodwife, who supplied the soldiers of the garrison with spiced sausages, and they departed through a door at the back of the house into a darkness that could scarcely have been bettered. as the clock of the rathhaus struck one past midnight there gathered in its shadows a knot of men. by a quarter past there were twenty, and at half-past there were forty. every man came by himself and stealthily, and every man came armed, and was surprised to find so many others there before him, except only the first three, and they were very old in comradeship. as each man came up he murmured "waldstein," and waited in the gloom in silence. as the clock of the rathhaus struck one past midnight sergeant blick and two or three men who, like him, knew something about horses, were as silently as possible yoking horses, and in some cases oxen, which had complacently folded their legs and gone to sleep chewing the cud as industriously as usual, to the waggons that stood in the market street and market-place. the noise of horses and waggons clattering or creaking was nothing to the dwellers in that part of the town. one of the ostlers led away a waggon creaking and rumbling. the ostler was a good catholic, and had a solid crown piece in his breeches. then the other led away a waggon. then when the first ostler had returned, sergeant blick started, and by half-past one eight waggons were disposed across the streets that led to the castle and not far from the men round the watch-fires. the horses were brought back again. at half-past one the men in the shadows of the rathhaus saw one who walked like a soldier come towards them, and as he halted just outside the shadows they could see the glint of his casque and heard him call them sharply to attention. in a trice they had arranged themselves in two lines as they had been used to do in wallenstein's army. they had no doubt it was one of wallenstein's officers, and one or two thought they remembered the voice. they marched without hesitation towards the castle, and creeping past the waggons ranged up again in order. one or two of the guard not so overcome with sleep as the others--for your watch-fire, especially if it be smoky, as it can easily be, is a monstrous soporific--glanced round uneasily at the clink of arms and peered into the shadows and saw nothing. then came a word of command, and, before they could all spring to their weapons, nigel and his levy were upon them, had beaten every man to the earth, scattered the watch-fire where it would, and then, re-forming, passed on. they halted in front of the drawbridge of the castle. it was let down, and nineteen troopers and the lieutenant came over the moat and formed up. nigel said a word to the lieutenant and passed on with his footmen till he sighted the second watch-fire. once again his besom of men swept the watchers, and this time they were caught by the barricade of waggons, and every man, who was not laid flat and helpless by sword or pike or stave, was trussed up till further need. the waggons were dragged aside, and the horsemen trotted towards the narrow street that led to the bridge-head and the old soldiers marched behind as a rearguard, still led by nigel. when they got within bowshot of the gate the horsemen rode down upon the guard and made them deliver up the keys. the gates were opened. nigel sprang to the spare horse, and said a thankful farewell to the old soldiers and to plauen. his last words to the old soldiers had been-- "if wallenstein wants you again, will you come?" and every man had growled out, "aye, with a will!" chapter vii. the road to eger. once clear of the town and on the open road to olsnitz nigel's immediate anxiety was ended. he did not fear the pursuit of the townspeople. not despicable in quality is the valour which rouses and fills a man, and a man's fellows, in sight of their common hearthstone at the rathhaus, or of that, possibly dearer, rallying-place the rathskeller, where the favoured vintages of the burghers lie snug in cobwebs, only to be brought forth from the complete darkness of their resting-places to the still dim and broken daylight of the afternoon, or to the lantern-light cloven by the massive pillars of the low arches into patches of ruddy glow and pools of shadow. not despicable in quality is it, but it carries a mighty stroke only within the town's walls. to pursue with success a troop, however small, of trained mounted men, one must have the like. nigel and his men rode on into the darkness, which was just sufficiently permeated by the faint light of stars to let them see the road at their horses' feet and a few yards ahead; they rode sleepily, but feeling secure. the road they followed was the road to hof, which a few miles out throws out a branch to olsnitz, and this again at olsnitz fathers two younglings, the road to graslitz and pilsen, and the road to eger. nigel meant to bivouac by the roadside, beneath the pine-trees, where the bed was soft with the pine-needles and dry, and horses and men alike could sleep till an hour after dawn. he was not in the mind to lock himself in any more walled cities till he was in safer country. he had also resolved to make for eger rather than pilsen, because, from eger, which was a frontier post of some quality, he could perhaps send hildebrand von hohendorf some assistance. so having put an hour's riding between his troops and plauen he called a halt, and the men led their horses up the sloping banks into the forest, where they unsaddled, tethered their horses, and lay down quite contentedly. nigel, with his head on his saddle-bags and two sentries within hail, was asleep in a few seconds. a few seconds of sleep, so it seemed to the sleep-hungered soldier, and the persistent twittering of the birds, that outburst that hails the almost imperceptible rolling up of the night clouds, awoke him. the birds could see up there in the branches. where he lay it was dark enough to swear it was still night. out of the darkness he heard the voice of sergeant blick drowsily calling the birds "fools and heretics" for waking him, and he fell asleep again. another two or three seconds, which were an hour by the clock at olsnitz, and the birds, after their last nap, were again calling one another to the duty of seeing after breakfast. nigel rose and stamped his feet and shook himself, listened for the trickle of a spring, and went off to salute it. then he returned to his saddle and called for his horse. while this was being brought he put his hand into his saddle-bags where he carried the bulky despatches of count tilly: first the left, and then the right, then he searched his doublet, his holsters. there were no despatches. sleep had played him traitor, delivered him bound into the enemy's hand. into whose? nigel was possessed of common-sense, but when common-sense could give but a flimsy explanation, he was not disinclined to allow that the powers of darkness and witchcraft might, notwithstanding king jamie and his pronouncements, be of some potency. he was cautious too. while not suspecting any of his men, he thought that to keep the loss to himself was the surest way to discover the culprit, if he was among them. so he made no inquiry of the sentries. he had a sure memory, so clear and flawless, that he could repicture himself as in a mirror placing the papers in his saddle-bag. they were there when he placed his head upon the saddle. they were not there now. he searched his lair for any sign that it might give. there was still the impress where he had lain upon the pine-needles but nothing else. the loss was inexplicable as it was irreparable. his professional honour was in jeopardy. his reputation as an officer of approved sagacity was gone. he must go on. there was no help. he must go on and carry to the emperor the tale of his misfortune, which would sound but a sorry one in the light of vienna, and, instead of the despatches, such details as he could remember; wherein his excellent memory would doubtless replace all that count tilly could have set down. but tilly's foreshadowed plans? tilly's recommendation of himself? into whose hands had they fallen? if witches had stolen the despatches, were they protestant witches? no catholic could be a witch. that was an incompatibility. the men paraded in the road, and he and the lieutenant looked them over to see that every man was there and in marching order. and nigel scanned every face and pair of hands. no! they were as respectable a lot of ruffians in leather and headpiece as one could pick. the order was given to ride, and they rode clanking into olsnitz, where at the first inn they demanded beer and sausages and bread with the clamour born of a fast of eight hours and a night in the forest. nigel and his comrade were hungry too, and having satisfied the hunger for food, he summoned the ostler, taking him inside and questioning him if travellers had passed that way earlier in the morning. "three! two stayed on the road. the third came for a small truss of hay and paid for it and went away again. he was not of these parts." "which road did he take?" "the road to eger." nigel asked other questions, but the answer told him nothing except that he got a minute description of the man and of the horse, the latter more particularly being the ostler's business. it was a sorrel with one black hoof and three white. there were other marks, but that was enough. evidently the travellers were going far, and wished to go fast, and not to call at any inn for the space of a horse's feed and watering. nigel wasted no time getting to horse again. one of those three had the despatches. he must overtake them. so he rode on briskly, wondering who would steal them and why. to the first question he answered: "the protestants! for they would be in communication with gustavus, and would wish to be beforehand in the matter of tilly's plans." but why should they take the road to eger when gustavus was far to the north? rather should they ride north to saxony. the road, however, was plain enough along the valley of the elster, always rising a little, and steep hillsides on either bank. of bridle-tracks there were many without doubt, for those who knew the intricacies of the pine-covered hills. but it was not likely the three unknown would take to them. at adorf, nigel learned that three horsemen had passed an hour before. he was gaining upon them then. his men were somewhat surprised that the march was being forced, but they scented rest and a german trooper's welcome at eger. ten miles farther they had gained another half-hour. either the three had become careless, or their horses were tired, or they were poor horsemen. nigel would have them in the net at eger, and rode at a great pace. at one point, where the road took a wide bend, he even caught sight of three horses, mere little black spots on the white line of the road, and then he lost them. trees intervened. at the long last he saw them clearly enough pass through the gate of eger, and in a few minutes he and his troop clattered through the archway, and saw only that the town had swallowed them up. there was still a sorrel horse with one black hoof and three white ones for a clue. nigel bade the lieutenant find quarters for the night, and let the men eat and enjoy themselves. he also privately instructed sergeant blick to find the sorrel horse and not miss getting into converse with its rider, nor let him go before he could see him. then he rode up to the castle, the citadel of the town. he sought the commandant, and was surprised to find in him a fellow-countryman, one david gordon, a lean, lantern-jawed fellow, whose uniform bespoke the professional soldier, but whose talk reminded nigel of the ultra-sanctimonious burghers of edinburgh, on whom the spirit of knox in its narrowness had descended, but not the fire of his conviction, while gaining a smoky stubbornness and sourness of which knox would have been little proud. "sae yer coont tilly has warstled through into magdeburg, meester charteris?" "aye, has he!" said nigel, watching the cold glint of the little eyes beneath the heavy brows. "and ye'll be carrying the despatches to the emperor!" "yes!" "hooch aye!" the commandant rubbed a bristly chin, and watched nigel's face. "did ye have a peaceful journey?" "not exactly! i had trouble to get out of plauen, and i think you should send commandant von hohendorf a couple of companies. the townsfolk are out of hand." "ah! ha!" said the other. "tis the working of god's wrath at the sinful deeds at magdeburg!" if david gordon had been weighing out spices in a little shop in the canongate, the speech would have had its right surroundings. as it was, issuing from the mouth of one of the emperor's officers, it sounded out of place. "master gordon! that's a queer speech!" said nigel. "count tilly's been carrying out the edict." "aye! that's just it, the most abominable edict. save us, mebbe ye're a papist yersel'!" "yes! or i should not be doing the emperor's service!" nigel retorted with some heat. "whisht! whisht! man! a man must look to the bawbees, ye ken; but he should aye hould fast to his opeenions!" "'tis not for me to say what mr gordon should do, or not do," said nigel dryly. "my creed is where i take my pay, there i fight, and as for the cause i say nothing." "aye!" said commandant gordon with something like a sigh. "and what brought ye to eger, when it was a wheen shorter by pilsen?" he scrutinised nigel with a long careful scrutiny. "that i might tell you how matters stood with hohendorf. yours is the nearest garrison." "hooch aye!" the commandant appeared to be relieved of some anticipated trouble. "i dinna think i can spare ony, but ye've done your duty in reporting it. i thocht ye were maybe paying a veesit to yon warlock the new duke keeps at his hoose!" "what new duke?" "waldstein! man! waldstein! duke of friedland and the haill rickmatick!" "waldstein!" said nigel. "here? waldstein?" "aye! he's studying the stars, he and his warlock. he's naething else to do. he's just a spent cannon-ball: good iron but useless. speiring at the stars will he come back again or no, and speiring at gustavus of sweden whether he'll give him all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them, if he falls doon and worships him." "how do you know that he sends letters to gustavus? or what is in them?" "is it sae unlikely?" the other questioned cunningly. "i could believe onything of a popish recusant! waldstein was born a protestant of good lutheran parents, and ganged to a protestant university--altdorf--and then he wins clean over to the papists. noo i'm not saying onything against papistry, though i dinna believe in it mysel', but _ye_ come of a catholic family and have never known the truth. i peety but i dinna blame!" "i am your very humble servant, mr gordon," said nigel, bowing. "i am in need of food and lodgment. good-bye!" nigel took horse again and rode down into the town, pondering many things. at the foot of the hill he met sergeant blick. "the sorrel horse, captain, is in a stable at the white lamb." "good. we start to-morrow morning at dawn. therefore have every man ready!" "yes, captain!" "the man who rides the sorrel horse will ride northward before dawn. by whichever gate he passes, he must be caught and made to ride with us, whether he likes it or not, without noise or fuss." "yes, captain!" "where is the lieutenant?" "he is at the blue angel, captain!" "good! to-morrow at dawn!" nigel found the lieutenant sitting down to a dish of scrambled eggs with a plentiful dressing of chopped ham. "there is veal to follow, and then a couple of ducks!" said the lieutenant, concluding the remark with a great gurgle of beer in the recesses of a huge tankard. nigel made haste to catch up with the lieutenant. he had travelled with his comrade through the egg country, the calf country, and had reached duckland. two legs, a slice of the broad brown back, and some delicate spinach loaded up his plate, when the door opened and a man-servant with the bearing of a soldier entered. "captain charteris!" "that is i!" said nigel. "the count albrecht von waldstein desires the favour of your company for an hour." chapter viii. interlacing destinies. nigel looked ruefully at the duck. "stay and eat it, comrade!" said the lieutenant. "i must leave it! one does not keep waldstein waiting! i bequeath it to you. see that you give a good account of it." "that i can promise you!" said the still hungry lieutenant. "at dawn, you said?" "at dawn! and give a good look at the horses before you turn in!" then casting his cloak about him nigel went out into the deepening twilight. * * * * * nigel charteris had once, and only once, spoken to wallenstein face to face. for although nigel served as a subaltern all through the great campaign, the large armies commanded by the great general operated over tracts of country often miles apart, and months elapsed between one glimpse of him and the next. little by little, as the great game of war had come to mean something to nigel's mind, for at the first it had seemed but a sadly confused business, it came to him that albrecht von waldstein was a great player. since his experience with count tilly, nigel had been able to agree that he also was no mean antagonist, but not the equal of wallenstein. in that curious welter of the thirty years' war it wanted but little shaking of the dice-box for tilly and wallenstein to have been pitted against one another. as the dice fell, they never were so pitted, and by consequence what then might have happened is left to those skilful in conjecture, and not for us the chroniclers of what did happen. nigel, ushered by one servant to another, and finally by some great one to the presence of the great man, felt the awe that one does in meeting the supremely great in one's own profession; but as to his being a count of the holy roman empire, which the emperor had made him, a duke of friedland, which by comparison was a mere proclamation of landed nobility, nigel charteris of pencaitland in the lothians cared little. the man was gentle by birth as he himself was. whether he was a degree higher or lower was naught to a gentle scot, for the scot yields to no man in the pride of race. the house was a great house, rather deep than wide, with gardens full of trees behind. at some time it had belonged to the king of bohemia, but had been bestowed on one of the great nobles, and in the general disturbance of things ensuing upon the winter king's invasion of bohemia, albrecht von waldstein had bought it for a small part of its value. it was not the only instance of that faculty the exercise of which by the jews has gained them the contemptuous names of brokers and lombarders. in other words, wallenstein became rich, had become rich, not because he was a great and successful general, but because the same talents which enabled him to plan and organise his armies, enabled him also to plan his own fortunes in matters of estate. wallenstein received nigel in a spacious chamber, which had been an audience-chamber in older days. it was panelled with wood all round the walls, and the flat ceiling was also of wood, but painted with the royal arms of bohemia and those of the chief vassals, much of them faded and blackened. there was a great open fireplace with a goodly fire of logs blazing in it, and at a convenient distance from it was a small table, curiously carved as to the legs, a couple of flagons of wine, and two tall goblets of fine glass curiously wrought. in a great chair sat wallenstein, and at the door by which nigel entered stood two serving-men. nigel saluted his old commander-in-chief. wallenstein nodded, and bade a servant bring a chair. "you were with me in the late wars?" was his question, not in the abrupt military fashion, though there were no more words, but in a tone which bespoke a certain graciousness and a certain distance. "i was, your grace--lieutenant, then captain of musketeers!" "and are now with count tilly? you were at magdeburg?" "yes! i am now riding with despatches to the emperor!" this was the second time he had implied that he had the despatches to deliver, knowing in fact that he had none. he had lied boldly to gordon, the commandant who should have been a shopkeeper, and thought nothing of it. besides, gordon was a protestant. he did not like lying even by implication to wallenstein, but he had the wish not to give the great commander an ill opinion of his capacity. "it is well!" said wallenstein. "i do not ask you to show them to me. but i should like to know something of count tilly's dispositions. i am out of harness. i am enriched and decorated with titles, and put aside. the jesuits would like to use me as a flail to beat the protestants, but they do not want the flail for itself, or to beat them. the flail is a passably good flail, and will not wear out yet. how many men has count tilly?" "twenty thousand foot; two thousand horse!" said nigel promptly. "and artillery?" "fifty pieces of all kinds!" "and powder and ball and matches?" "sufficient store!" "ah!" said wallenstein. "if saxony and brandenburg together make up their minds they can find work for count tilly. and then there is gustavus! who is to oppose him, and with what? where do they say gustavus is?" "in pomerania, your grace!" "so i have heard, and is negotiating a treaty with france! if the protestants but knew it, they could beset tilly and ruin the emperor." "but you forget the elector maximilian?" "he is forgettable! he is a jesuit, who should have been a priest, but was unhappily born a prince. he has an arm, and that arm is pappenheim. with men enough pappenheim could face gustavus. but pappenheim is with tilly. an army can have but one head." "when the emperor's advisers grow frightened they will send again for your grace!" said nigel. "they must pay dearly!" was wallenstein's grim remark, with a curl of his thick lower lip. then he asked abruptly, in a tone which suggested an amused contempt for such toys, "do you believe in the stars?" had nigel been sitting over a flagon with hildebrand von hohendorf instead of with albrecht von waldstein he would have laughed out a "no." but two experiences, the sudden apparition of ottilie outside hradschin, a possible delusion of the sense of sight, and the disappearance of his despatches from beneath his head in defiance of sentries and all his senses, which was no delusion, had shaken his hitherto light esteem for witchcraft, star-gazing, horoscopes, alchemy, and all the other ingenious paltering with past and future. it had been whispered too among the armies that wallenstein had commanded that he, like many other great ones of the time, devout catholics all, consulted necromancers, and this came to nigel's mind. he made a cautious reply. "i have never had my horoscope cast. nor do i know anything of the science of the stars. it is an old belief that the stars affect the destinies of the great ones of the earth, and it would be a presumption in me, who am nobody but a poor scots gentleman, to treat it lightly." "destiny? what is it?" wallenstein asked. "man makes his own path out of the best materials to his hand or lets others buffet him into nothingness. there is no third way. but every man who carves his own pathway would fain learn by what implements he can arrive at the summit, so that he may use them at the earliest." "and suppose," said the other, "the end be a cannon-ball that cuts one in two, what better is a man for knowing it two years before?" "in truth," and into the eyes of wallenstein came a strange look, "i know not, but there is always the grim feeling that one may stumble upon a most exact presage of fatality. it draws one on." "then you have made some experiments, your grace?" "one must do something when one has too much leisure. there is a learned master, a jew, i think, but he tells little of his origin, who is to be found sometimes at vienna, sometimes elsewhere, who calls himself pietro bramante. he commended himself to me because he hates the jesuits. he showed skill in casting my horoscope, and has on several occasions given me good intelligence. he is here now." nigel involuntarily made the sign of the cross. wallenstein noticed it. "he does not traffic in devils, nor meddle with holy things. but he professes great skill in the mathematics, which he says are the root of all divination. he is learned in the cabal, the unwritten tradition of the jews, whereby solomon came to know the beginning, mediety, and consummation of times." the chamberlain of the household now came in, and bowing low said, "the learned pietro bramante bids me to acquaint you, my lord, that the constellations are in a favourable aspect for you to enter the house of knowledge, but that the stranger must enter also, for the orbit of his star conjoins with your lordship's." "come!" said wallenstein, his eyes lighting up into a curious eagerness, curious that is, in a man of his years, and more so to a scot such as nigel charteris was, for the scots are not given to appearing eager,--even of good fortune. and if the scot were forty-eight, which was the tale of wallenstein's years, and he were told that some one was ready to give him good news or bad, he would say, "weel! weel! it'll no lose in the tellin'," and never move his legs an inch faster. "come! let us see what this diviner has to say!" nigel was in truth by no means pleased. for he was a devout catholic, and hated alike jews and witchcraft, and thought little of horoscopes. the stars were a good guide on a clear night crossing a moor or in a strange country. that was all. but wallenstein had once held all the german lands in his hands, and might again. it was a waste of opportunity not to second his whimsies: and if there was nothing in divination but hocus-pocus, why, there was no harm could come of it. so he rose to his feet and followed: and wallenstein led him upstairs to a long gallery, and at the farther end was a curtain drawn across. portraits of many kings and princesses were ranged along the one wall, and upon the other where the windows were not. the windows looked out upon a balcony and the balcony upon a pleasaunce, but of this, it being now night, nigel could see little. at long intervals were lighted candles, and many unlit between. and their footfalls, soldier-like and decided, echoed by walls and ceiling, made a great noise in nigel's ear. so they came to the curtain and a voice bade draw, and pietro bramante stood there and moved not a whit. there were no candles alight near him, and all the light that was came from a copper bowl in which he burned some tow with a blue and now a green flame. the sage began a recitation in which he made much mention of the seventh house and divers stars and constellations being in opposition or in conjunction, and of this abracadabra nigel made nothing. the blue and green flame played upon his naturally brownish face and it was grey, and from wallenstein's all colour seemed to be gone; instead was his face like a parchment full of lines, all but the eyes, which glittered blackly, never losing gaze upon the sage's face. except for the latter's utterances there was deep silence, and the three seemed to be alone, for the chamberlain had retired, having ushered them into the gallery. then the sage blew out the flame, and his finger faintly glowing began to be visible writing on a wall, or some flat upright surface, and the figure he made was a circle, as truly drawn an o as messire michelangelo buonarrotti might have made. and the circle was of light and glowed through more strongly in one part than another. "behold the orbit of the life of albrecht von waldstein, a perfect circle. those lines are perfect circles that make a multiple of ten. it is in every tenth year that great causes may affect them--great upliftings of fortune, or great fatalities. "now regard truly this orbit of another life, which passeth through the centre of the first," and again with unerring finger he drew another curve, which may have been a section of a greater circle, or of an elliptical figure, or of a parabola, but it was a true curve, and cut the circle at its centre. "this orbit passeth through the field of mars and ariseth beyond the plane of the first orbit, and this signifieth that it is the life of a stranger by blood and nation." so the original glowed upon the void darkness, and the new line that came from afar and passed through the centre of the circle glowed; and yet another line pietro bramante drew, and this time it was an oval. "behold now the orbit of yet another life. it is an oval and signifieth the life of a woman. an oval hath two foci, and the one is the centre of the orbit of albrecht von wallenstein and the other is upon the circumference of the same circle. now the actions of woman proceed from two foci, the heart and the intelligence, and the heart focus is upon the centre of the circle and the other focus of the mind is upon the circumference or pathway of the same circle. wherefore i deduce that this woman, whoever she be, hath her affections firmly set upon the very essence which is the spirit of albrecht von wallenstein, and her intelligence is set steadfastly on the orbit of his destiny so that it may go fast or slow as she willeth. "now, sir!" he addressed nigel, "what was the day and hour of your birth?" "the year . the month july. the day the th, and the hour !" "behold figures full of portent," said pietro. "the year's numerals added together give ten, which is a complete number. sixteen hundred and three is a multiple of seven. the month is the seventh month. the day is the seventh. the hour is the seventh. they are propitious times and should give a favourable horoscope. now i will cast it, and calculate the orbit." pietro turned to his copper vessel, and by means which neither of his onlookers could guess the flame sprang up again, and taking a sheet of parchment he made calculations, and set down the fixed points his calculations showed. as the light burned, so the geometrical figures he had drawn before faded from sight. the two sat silently. nigel thus far was impressed against his will by the mathematical methods of the learned doctor. he stole a swift glance now and again at wallenstein, who sat stiffly, absorbed in the doings. nigel was more interested in the figures of the circle and of the ellipse as they applied to wallenstein, for wallenstein of all men was as little to be swayed by any feminine influence as any man. he had married twice. in both cases he had married a woman of noble birth, and of moderate, almost of great, fortune. but no one called wallenstein uxorious or accused him of careless living in the article of women. no one had imputed to him that he had mistresses, or that either of his wives had ruled him. his face betrayed no tendency to passion. the eyes had no amorousness. as to the lips, if the lower lip spoke of the senses, it was rather of good living. the many lines upon his brow spoke of thought and ambition. a smile or the semblance of a smile, and that sardonical, had passed across his face when the doctor had spoken of the mysterious woman who was to influence his life. at last pietro looked up from his calculations. there was a slight gleam in his worn eyes as of satisfaction, and he brought them his parchment. "the line of this life, sirs, from the figures of the birth, when affected by the influences which the constellations exercise, must pass through these points," and he showed points upon the parchment marked with greek letters. "now if i join these points," and he did so with the point of his pen, "a curve is produced." again he extinguished the flame of his lamp. "now, compare it with the curve i have just shown to you," and it was visible on the extinction of the other flame. "it is the same curve without doubt!" nigel was aware of some extraordinary exaltation of mind he could in no wise account for. with his colder intelligence he yet seemed incapable of resisting the belief that the conclusions of the reader of horoscopes were true, that his own path of life was in some momentous way linked up with that of wallenstein, the idol of his professional admiration, and that now and here that part of his earthly path had begun. "it seems," said wallenstein, turning to nigel, "that by all the rules of divination as practised by the learned doctors of these times, and in particular by pietro bramante, who has at divers times made notable experiments at the court of vienna and elsewhere, you are one of those whose birth is fortunate, and that you are destined to cross my orbit at its zenith and its nadir, and to pass through the very centre of my intelligence for good or ill." "you read aright, sir!" said pietro. "it is beyond my power to say if for good or for ill." "i would fain know," said wallenstein, "if you are a good catholic." "i am!" said nigel. "and have no dealings with the jesuits?" "no! i have had no commerce with them at any time!" "it is well!" said wallenstein. "for the rest you are a soldier of fortune, and your greatest desire----" "is to become a trusted officer in your grace's service, whenever it shall please the emperor to recall you!" said nigel heartily. "then let us read the presage as a fortunate one!" said wallenstein, "and god speed the fulfilment of your desires! and now, most learned doctor, surely your powers of divination do not end here. you have spoken of some unknown lady or perchance some uncouth beldame, whom the stars have chosen to become a benign power in my life. does not your art enable you to disclose at least her name? tell me at least whether she is of a dark and melancholic disposition, or of a sanguine inclination." nigel could not tell from the dry passionless utterance of the speaker whether irony lay at the root of his tongue: but he was at least as eager as wallenstein appeared to be indifferent as to the outcome. it was the difference between youth and maturity. if it had been permitted to look into the mind of that inscrutable man, one might have expected to find that on a stage where strode so many principal and, in their several parts, renowned actors, where war and high policy and ambition were the themes, wallenstein should count as nothing the staying or speeding of his actions by any woman. pietro bramante turned again to his lamp, which he relighted, and, drawing a curtain aside, the light fell upon a tall mirror of the height of a man set at such an angle that at the present it reflected nothing. at two paces from it he set a chafing-dish wherein burned glowing charcoal, and upon it sprinkled some powder from a little box of ebony; and from the dish rose up a white smoke of a sweet savour. and then pietro recited some latin verses, which to nigel, unversed in such incantations, bore no meaning. then, before they were aware, though both gazed intently upon the smoke, the form of a majestic woman appeared to gather substance, and at length her face in all its lineaments became plain to view. the eyes gazed in a kind of ecstasy fixedly, gravely benignant, towards wallenstein. nigel leaped up, spurred by his astonishment, even in opposition to the awe which the moment enjoined upon him, exclaiming "ottilie von thüringen!" and wallenstein, as if nigel had not been there, still in his seat, but filled with amaze, exclaimed under his breath-- "ferdinand's stephanie!" and then, "let me have speech of her! dost hear! pietro bramante?" but the vision had disappeared. pietro's voice made itself audible. "this that you saw was but a vision called up by my art. i must confirm it by my mathematics." chapter ix. an italian and a spaniard. an hour before dawn came sergeant blick to awaken nigel with the news, "we have the man on the sorrel horse!" nigel awoke completely, sprang out of bed, and was attired, even to his jack-boots and spurs, in a few minutes. then getting astride his horse he was out of eger and a mile on the road to pilsen in a very few more. "a kind of accursed jew fellow! some dark moorish infidel of a heretic!" was sergeant blick's summing up. sure enough it was that learned doctor pietro bramante himself. but this was not the field of prophecy or of divination. this was the atmosphere of dawn, the kingdom of cold fact. nigel nodded and said in his brief military manner-- "doctor! you must please turn out your saddle-bags and your pockets for some papers which are lost. sergeant, assist the doctor!" the learned doctor began to protest, as might have been expected, but nigel merely vouchsafed that it was "in the service of the emperor." he himself searched the prisoner, whose multifarious garments made the matter one of difficulty. and the fact that, if not an israelite, he was a very near relation, did not make the operation to nigel a pleasant one. but when he had finished, he was sure that nothing so bulky as count tilly's despatches were upon him. sergeant blick produced in his turn many curious vessels and books and bottles from the saddle-bags, crossing himself at sight of anything unusual, for he had no doubt that he was dealing, if not with the evil one, with one of his familiars. nothing was found. nigel with no excess of courtesy bade him pack up his belongings. "from what town came you to eger?" "even from hof by olsnitz!" "and for what reason got you half a truss of hay?" "to save the inn charges and time!" "and your companions?" "they rest in eger, being bound for gräslitz. i know them not. we did but join company for protection." "at what inn did they rest?" "i did not ask! neither did i tell them that i had business with the duke." "enough!" said nigel, and wheeled his horse. with a rueful countenance the diviner began to replace his utensils, carefully and patiently. he had at least learned two virtues. nigel, gravelled, rode back into the town in an ill-humour and called for his breakfast. by the time that was finished the troopers were at the door. there was no help but to go forward, and one may be assured that neither hill nor stream nor any wayside beauty of bohemia could do aught to bring his mind back to a calm mood. he suspected the "jew," as he called him. he suspected gordon, and as for the phantasmagoria of last night, he could make nothing of it. his tendency was to disbelieve, only his respect for wallenstein's powers of thought diminished his disbelief to something approaching mere doubt. the one thing that stood out was the vision of ottilie von thüringen. surely it was her "wraith." and if it had by chance been that of some familiar friend in scotland, or of some one of his blood relations, he would have been awed, but he would have regarded it, in accord with tradition, as portending or announcing some stroke of fate. he had been carried too much out of himself to hear what wallenstein had muttered, to observe closely how that great one received the vision. this at least he had garnered, that wallenstein also recognised her. but who then was she? there was another feeling that sprang up in his heart, an uneasy half-born pang, which he dismissed only to find it knocking at the door again. the "wraith" of ottilie had gazed at wallenstein, not with eyes of speculation, as the playwright shakespeare had it, but as one might gaze with open eyes in dream at some beloved object limned only in the brain behind. but she had gazed at wallenstein with a benignity which had softened the whole countenance, a benignity which he himself in his two days' contact with her had never surprised upon it. and this the geometrical hocus-pocus of the vile jew had foreshadowed when he contrived that the right focus of her orbit should also be the centre of wallenstein's. as nigel had no knowledge of geometry, and regarded it as a cabalistic invention, though he had heard of telescopes, and of columbus, and vessel charts, he esteemed this part of the diviner's doings as mere trickery, akin to the old devices of the magicians before pharaoh. but by no explanation of mere artifice could he doubt that he saw the "wraith" of ottilie, and that wallenstein also saw. while recognising her as some one he knew, had wallenstein thought of her in any close relation to himself? his attitude of surprise said no. but was it possible that wallenstein could forget so mysterious an occurrence, dismiss it as a mere dream? nigel had had five or six years of close companionship with men. there are men who, from their cradle to their grave, are attended and companioned by women, and shrink from the rough and, on the whole, kindly and bracing contact with their kind. nigel had thrust himself into the world of man at the dawn of manhood, and in the fellowship of arms he had found as mixed a chance-medley as the world of men could show, free from the namby-pamby of the courts, free from the court's petty chicane, free from the emulous avarice of the mart; not in some corners destitute of scholarship, though scholarship was rare; rejoicing in bodily strength and skill in arms, in hearty eating, in wine, and beer, and song, in which they honoured women much more than they ever did in such commerce of love or licence as the fortune of war or the conditions of the camp afforded. from his study of manhood this nigel had observed, that whereas among the younger men the talk of doings in the lists of love was as frequent as their flagons, it was almost entirely to seek among the older officers, as among the older soldiers, giving place to criticism of their professional doings, the appraising of the abilities of those more advanced in rank, to politics, to affairs more akin to those of that world without, that in some shape or form paid the reckoning. he reasoned from the general to the particular, from those who had failed to become wallensteins to him who had not failed. he was forty-eight, and if any man could find his interest in affairs of state or war that man was wallenstein. but the diviner had declared that wallenstein's future was bound up with a woman--had raised up, by what witchcraft or geometry nigel could give no guess, a vision of her with rapt eyes bent on wallenstein. was wallenstein at forty-eight proof against the lure, proof against the charm of a majestic lovely woman, in whom was nothing of circe, nothing of that helen of troy, whose face, so kit marlowe had phrased it, had "... launched a thousand ships, and burned the topless towers of ilium," yet whose bodily presence had left nigel with a hunger of the heart and an unrest unaccustomed, as it was unsought, and unappeasable? he knew it when he saw the vision, and he feared lest wallenstein should feel it, and, feeling it, stretch out his lion paw for the lioness destiny had offered. these thoughts occupied much of his time as he journeyed to pilsen, and, with the exception that a well equipped and horsed light travelling carriage passed them on the road with curtains closely drawn, no traveller had passed or met them. but nearing pilsen a pair of cavaliers on very excellent beasts overtook them, and, saluting nigel, made as if they would fain keep him company. he could not profess to be travelling faster seeing they had overtaken him, and a look at their horses showed that they were better-bred animals and in better condition than his own. their politeness was marked, and one of them appeared to be an italian and one a spaniard by his accent, though they addressed nigel and his lieutenant in good german. this they presently confirmed, for the italian gave his name as the cavalier marco strozzi and introduced the other as don phillipo di tortaugas. they were travelling to vienna, and their valets were coming behind, having been outstripped by their masters, who were eager to reach that city. nigel was bound to reciprocate their confidences by giving his own and his companion's names and conditions, mentioning that a military errand was taking him also to vienna. they were well-bred men and well travelled, for they spoke with assurance of many towns and cities and princes and gentlemen of repute of their acquaintance. they were curious to know of this edict of restitution, of which every one spoke, and displayed some measure of sympathy with the emperor, who was the instrument of the pope in the enforcing of it. in their countries they were thankful to say heresy was practically non-existent. in them the church was powerful and paramount, and they had no doubt of the ultimate success of the church in germany. they spoke of wallenstein, of whom they had heard much, and asked nigel if he thought wallenstein was well affected towards the edict. if so, why had he been requested by the emperor to give up his command? nigel cautiously answered that wallenstein was before all things a professional soldier, and had laid down his baton when the emperor had no more present need of him. by the time they arrived at pilsen the four gentlemen were on good terms and sat down together to the evening meal. the two cavaliers insisted on ordering the wine, whereof they themselves drank but sparingly, and made merry with numerous tales of italy and spain, so that nigel and his lieutenant thought that they had never spent a more sociable evening. at length the two cavaliers professed themselves sleepy and called for candles, and nigel and his comrade, not only professing, but most indubitably inclined the same way, also made for their night quarters. now it was nigel's custom to have his saddle-bags and holsters brought to his own chamber, and this had been done. sergeant blick had always this service to do, and nigel dismissed him to a final quart of beer, and was himself very soon asleep. in two hours he awoke,--a fact he set down to the account of the unusual quality of the wine he had taken, which was costly beyond his own purse limits, and some wines have the nature to be greatly soporific, yet the effect is of somewhat brief lasting. he turned on his side, and, as he did so, he thought he heard the creaking of a leathern strap, for his saddle-bags and holsters were new and did not easily open. then he took a deep audible breath and made as if he sank into sleep again. but his ears were fully alert, and he made sure that the noise was real. very silently he turned again upon his right side, meaning to possess himself of his sword, which was always placed near his right hand, stretching out to take it. in an instant his hand was caught in a noose and fastened to the bedpost. springing up to release it, his left ankle was seized and tied to another bedpost, and a very effective bandage pushed into his mouth. the rest of him was secured very quickly, and, as he could not cry out, he had the felicity of knowing that his possessions were being thoroughly ransacked by the two marauders, whoever they were. not a word was said. the room was in pitch darkness, and presently the thieves stole away. for long he could not release himself by as much as a single knot, but by infinite workings of his neck and chin and ankles and wrists, till all were sore alike, he wore some fastening loose. and just as he had attacked the last one, which bound his left leg, he heard the sound of horses below in the courtyard, and presently the great gates closed with a clang, and the hoofs of four horses sounded on the cobblestones of the street. he struck a light. all that he carried was on the floor, and saddle-bags and holsters were empty. nothing had been taken. his money, his clothes, his weapons were all there. it had not then been for these. it was a search for something, and that something was the despatches. and these had been already stolen. it was evident that the first plotters and the second were of diverse parties. the first might conceivably be men who served the protestant cause; but who were the second? it was to the interest of the protestant cause that their leaders throughout germany should know what forces they had to meet, what tilly was going to do next. but of whom else? chapter x. father lamormain. ferdinand of habsburg, king of austria by heirship, king of hungary by default of a better, rather than by force of arms, was in the ears of the world emperor of rome. considering that he neither owned nor governed a rood of land south of the po, that the title signified the headship of the german-speaking states, and that he had been elected to the high office by his fellow princes, who were each and all supreme and independent rulers over their own territories, and each and all eligible for the same high office, the name seems something misplaced; but it is not convenient to enter here into a historical dissertation showing how it came to be so. several generations of habsburgs in turn had been elected emperor, and doubtless there was good enough reason. it was perhaps more easy not to be jealous of a family which had borne the office for a century or two, than of a new one, however deserving in other respects. and there was this in addition, that austria and hungary were the outer wall of all the german-speaking states against the turk, and must in any case bear the first brunt of his activities. in that connection too, whatever dissensions might be rife, and there were always dissensions between german-speaking states, it is evident that there must be some organisation approaching to a mutual league against the turk. christians have always possessed the privilege of and the instinct for fighting amongst themselves, but a christian, however black in his theology, is still fairer than an infidel, and the infidels for very shame had to be kept out of christian german states at all costs. for one thing, they would have ruined the trade in spices. so, as the emperor resided at vienna, he was very sure to exercise his authority and demand aids for his own army from the others in sufficient time to present a stout front to the ottoman power, though on more than one occasion he was rather late in doing so. but if the emperor, who alone could call out the quotas of men from all the states, had happened to have lived, say, at mainz, half of the german lands might have been overrun before his army was collected. so on the whole the habsburgs, having begun to perform and got used to the exalted functions of the emperor of rome, might, so the electoral princes seemed to think at election after election, just as well continue to exercise them, and to be the outer wall against the paynim hosts. ferdinand was a good son of rome. brought up at the jesuit seminary of ingolstadt he had grown up strong in the faith, and had wasted no time, on coming to man's estate and the enjoyment of dominion as an elector, in purging his chief town of gratz, and all the habsburger land committed to his charge, of all pastors, lutheran or calvinist. he went to the root of the matter, and in all things deferred to his advisers, the jesuits, who went further than the root, and to maximilian of bavaria, who had also imbibed the milk of the learning of ingolstadt, and was if anything of a deeper shade of jesuitry, if that were possible, than the jesuits. but as ferdinand was a good son of rome, that meant in his case son of the general of the jesuits, the mysterious personality that even the holy father might bless or ban as he would, but never reduce to that exact degree of submission to his authority which is implied in any rank of the hierarchy below that of pontiff. like a good father, the general of the jesuits had no notion of allowing so intelligent and obedient a son to run wild after his own conceits. so he had wisely installed at the court of vienna father lamormain, one of the order, to keep a watchful eye upon the steps of ferdinand. father lamormain had that perfect confidence in ferdinand which is built upon a perfect understanding of character, with this reservation, that he preferred to know everything that had happened at least a little while, even if it were but a day, an hour, or even less, before his august pupil, so that whereas the emperor came to the subject ready to be actuated by surprise, alarm, soreness, vindictiveness, or any other human quality, father lamormain, who, if he ever felt these undesirable emotions, had got over them, and already bent his brilliant intellect to what was at issue, could at once gently and firmly insinuate a counsel carefully considered, a counsel which ferdinand would presently make his own. father lamormain had as usual heard the emperor's confession and retired to his own suite of apartments. there he found awaiting him two brethren of the order, who asked and received his blessing. their manners were as fine as father lamormain's. they exhibited just the shade of deference due from a gentleman, who is an officer, to another gentleman who is his superior officer. the reverend father and his visitors sat down. he did not toy with his correspondence, or his plans, or any other object. he sat reposeful in his chair and embraced both his guests at the same time in his pleasant smile, and his changes of bodily attitude were slight. "and you say he is really on his way?" "he cannot be many leagues away now!" said one. "and his name is nigel charteris?" in his mouth it sounded like "chartaire." "a catholic family of the south of scotland!" "like this?" asking father lamormain, writing the name on his tablets and erasing it. "yes!" "ah! very interesting! he is not a recent convert?" "no, father!" said the other one, catching his eye and smiling. "it is a pity even to seem to discourage a loyal son in the faith!" his tone conveyed a real regret. "you were obliged to resort to some slight measure of force? i trust it was slight?" the two exchanged glances and smiled in their fine ingenious way, showing their beautiful teeth. "we did nothing to disable him or to deface his coinage!" said the first. "but we certainly had to use effectual force!" said the other. "he is a gentleman, handsome, and of good manners?" "he is all three! and a veritable scot for caution! and for a soldier quite free from the prevailing laxities." "you make me quite solicitous to see him! and you found nothing?" "absolutely nothing! a few purely private papers, but no despatches!" "it is curious all the same that count tilly should send merely verbal messages by the mouth of a captain of musketeers to the emperor." "it is not likely that he had entrusted the writings to any of his troopers!" said one of the visitors. father lamormain thanked them for their good intentions and the pains they had been at, then dismissed them. there was no suggestion of blame for failure. infinite patience was the rule and practice of the order,--infinite polishing of weapons. subordinates are not polished by rancour. blame roughens the edge of service more often than it sharpens. the society of jesuits, founded by an enthusiast who was almost a fanatic, eschewed fanaticism, and provided channels for its enthusiasm of such fine workmanship as ensured that that precious fluid should reach the precise spot that was to be watered. the best that could be found in birth, the best that could be nurtured of scholarship, the best exponents of the social arts that make men charming companions for their fellows, were enrolled in the ranks after years of youthful training. implicit faith in their leaders, implicit obedience, became not so much a part of the rule of the order as a habit of the mind. no task was too rough or too delicate but that the order could somewhere place its finger on the man to execute it. and straightway he would rise and set about it. truly the society of jesus was an inspired engine which possessed powers far exceeding the knowledge of its founder and inventor. being by himself, the jesuit drew from a drawer a sheet of parchment which had evidently been folded and sealed. it was in cipher, but it may be held as certain that father lamormain possessed the keys of all the ciphers in use among the politicians of europe; and this was of no surprising intricacy. his secretary had unravelled it in a few minutes. he rang for him. he was a man of middle age, having the look of a recluse and a priest rather than a man of affairs. "this purports to be a copy of count tilly's despatch which the emperor expects?" "yes, father, or rather a short summary of it. it gives you, as you see, the numbers of all his troops and the disposition of them; indications of his next movements, and some other details." "and it accords nearly with what we know from our own sources?" "yes, father!" "it was taken from a messenger who left eger for the north?" "yes, father! the messenger was unfortunately killed!" father lamormain's lips moved in silence. he was offering up a prayer for this poor adversary's soul, for this poor fellow who had come unwittingly into contact with the engine invented by ignatius loyola, and been broken. "it might have been a false document intended to deceive gustavus and the protestants," said the father again meditatively. then he placed the parchment on one side as if for further perusal and proceeded to read over and sign a number of letters his secretary had brought him. the secretary having gathered up the papers, said-- "you were to have audience of the archduchess stephanie this morning!" "oh yes! i remember! the time is nearly due. see that no one enters in the interim." even as he spoke a servant called the secretary and he returned presently, ushering in with profound bows the archduchess. father lamormain had again spread out the supposed summary of tilly's despatch before him in a good light. there was nothing else on his table but the inkstand to distract attention. the archduchess, who was young and tall and slender with wonderful dark eyes, knelt and kissed the holy father's hand. as a good catholic she was bound to reverence her father's confessor. but father lamormain stood for more than that. he had held the same position when she was a mere poppet, marching about with an endless company of gouvernantes and ladies, in an absurd stiff brocade dress, which trailed on the ground just as theirs did, and her little neck surrounded by a ruff, a sweet monstrous epitome of queendom. there had been court functionaries in plenty, great officers of state then as now. but it was father lamormain who reigned supreme as the confidential counsellor of the family in all that pertained to the welfare of the house of habsburg; so that every member of the family of the emperor understood that father lamormain was a benevolent despot, who had always smoothed over all kinds of family troubles. dimly too they understood that the emperor himself, though a man by no means deficient in any particular quality of kingship, respected the jesuit's advice on matters of state. the archduchess seated herself. the secretary had withdrawn. "i should have craved audience of your highness in your own apartments," said father lamormain with great gentleness, "but what i had to say was for your own ears, and i wished not to excite curiosity nor to gratify it." the archduchess inclined her head, and with just a perceptible pause said, "your secretary?" for answer father lamormain rose, opened the door by which she had entered, a thick door, over which fell a heavy curtain of leather, and pointed to a farther door, ten feet along the passage, beyond which was the room where the secretary worked. she saw that they were indeed cut off from human earshot, for the room, in which they were, projected, at a considerable height, beyond the walls of the main building, and had nothing to right or left. her eyes seemed to sweep casually over the table and incidentally over the unsealed parchment, but with indifference. "was that to be the subject of the interview?" she asked herself. apparently not. "it behoves princes," said the priest, "to strengthen their families as well by alliances as by leagues and treaties, and especially by the marriages of their sons and daughters. and whereas the son of a prince, if he be a good son, will always be a stay and support to his father's kingdom, whomsoever he marry, a daughter may, by bringing him a stout son-in-law, who is also a prince, in a measure add that princedom and its power to her father's. contrariwise she may, if she be ill-advised or rash in her own choice, out of waywardness bring trouble to the prince her father, and no measure of help to her husband, as was the case of the princess elizabeth of england when she married the elector palatine, the pfalsgrave, whose dominion being but petty led him into dangerous enterprises to gain others, and being too far distant from his father-in-law, the king of england, was not afforded sufficient aid in the time of his undertakings to ensure success." "a very wise homily, father, and a most pertinent example!" the archduchess observed. "and now the application?" "your highness is of a ripe age for marriage!" said the priest gravely. "and has been," she rejoined, "these several years, according to the custom of princes. my cousin of spain was but sixteen when the king of england was agog for her to wed his son, who is now king charles, and it was through no unwillingness of hers that the match fell through. but i have had the more years of freedom. i am in no mind to be tied to any beardless boy, and sit a-tapestry-sewing for the rest of my life." the priest pursued his way without comment. "the dangers that environ the empire make it necessary beyond the ordinary to knit our friends to it by every means in our power." "the dangers would melt like the morning mist if the emperor recalled albrecht von walstein," she said with great decision. "it is for the emperor to choose his captains," the priest rejoined gently. "he is a possible servant, not a friend of the emperor. when i say 'knit our friends together,' i mean the princes, who are our peers in blood and of our faith." the archduchess was for a moment puzzled. "is it of france or spain you speak, father?" she said it wonderingly, because she knew of no princes of or nearly her own age in either kingdom. "of neither, your highness, but of those houses that are equal with your own in the right to be elected to the empire." "there are six electors! there are three archbishops--mainz, köln, trier--two are protestants, the palatine, the saxon,... you cannot mean the wittelsbacher!" the disgust that she felt showed itself unmistakably. "who is a greater friend to the habsburgs than maximilian of bavaria?" father lamormain dwelt almost affectionately on the syllables. "or a greater friend to your order?" the archduchess asked. this was a sharp thrust, and showed that the lady was well aware of the terms on which maximilian and the jesuits stood. father lamormain made a little gentle deprecating shrug. "let me remind your highness that, at the last election of the roman emperor, maximilian held the election in his hand, but he exercised his own vote in favour of your father. was this not proving himself a friend to whom any gratitude is due? and this was not the last or greatest of his services." "indeed?" said the archduchess. "what were the other services?" "did he not defeat, nay crush, the palatine on the white hills of prague?" "it was the work of general pappenheim, was it not?" "the merit was his! again i say, pappenheim was merely his captain. the elector maximilian found men and money for the campaign,--money which the emperor owes him to this day." "it has been sufficiently bruited about," the archduchess commented. "there is something of the jew about your maximilian." "he is a most noble worthy prince," said father lamormain, "and he is a widower!" "it is time he was done with wiving. he must be sixty years old." she gave a little shiver of disgust. "he is not so old as you think, your highness, neither is his vigour of mind and body much abated, but it is not becoming of me to discourse of these things to your highness. the elector maximilian desires to wed again, and to one of the emperor's daughters...." "and you wish me, the archduchess stephanie of austria, to listen to a proposal of marriage with maximilian of bavaria, whose grandson were a more fitting match. understand! i cannot and i will not. the emperor may assert his will, if he has any, apart from your order. but as for me i will go into a nunnery, or marry a private gentleman, or turn protestant." "as to the first," said the priest, "you would thereby run the risk of losing your soul instead of saving it, for you would be doing it out of frowardness. as for the second, your pride would never brook the extinction that would follow it. _as for the third, your highness, it is mooted that you have already strange leanings towards heretics if not heresy._" the archduchess flushed angrily. her eyes flashed. her whole face and form, as she rose to her feet, took on an aspect of terrible majesty. "enough, father lamormain! you trespass beyond your proper functions!" "no!" said the priest humbly enough. "your soul is dearer to me than my own. i can only pray that you do not jeopardise it." as if unconsciously his eyes fell from her own, which he had met with calm benignity, to the papers on the table, and then he suddenly lifted them and met her glance again. again came the rush of crimson to her cheeks, then pallor. she turned, and, sweeping aside the leathern curtain, passed out of the chamber. chapter xi. the lost despatches found. it was evening when nigel at length passed with his escort through the gates of vienna, and on arriving at the palace was received with abundance of courtesies by some officer of the household, who ushered him to a suite of apartments in the wing allotted to the gentlemen in attendance on his imperial majesty. the emperor was at dinner, and would expect him at his audience at an early hour on the morrow. a sumptuous supper was set before him, and he was assiduously waited on by two pages. dinner ended, the same officer appeared again, and asked if he desired to deliver his despatches to the emperor's secretaries, who would wait upon him, but nigel made excuse that his commission was to deliver them to the emperor. this answer the gentleman received civilly enough, and saying he would send some officers to bear him company, wished him a good night's rest after his journey. presently three gentlemen came in and joined him at the table, where, the remains of supper being cleared away and fresh wine set down, they sat and played skat, a game of cards which was then in great vogue among all the people of the eastern part of germany, and had wiled away the tedium of many a long evening in camp for nigel. with this and talk of magdeburg a couple of hours passed pleasantly, and then the party broke up. nigel was not sorry to be free to go to bed. it was a room of comfortable aspect. the walls were hung with embossed leather in the flemish manner; the bed was a wide and high four-poster, and the other furniture consisted of a great chest, a chair or two and some other necessaries. it looked out upon the courtyard of the palace, a large open space surrounded on four sides by piles of building. nigel could dimly see so much. the rest he left till morning. having performed his devotions he stretched himself out upon the bed, drew up the heavy quilted counterpane and prepared to sleep. but sleep was not to be wooed easily; for what was to happen on the morrow he could not foresee. the profound humiliation of having to confess in open audience to the emperor the loss of his despatches was perhaps the most poignant of his anticipations. and this he had passed through so often in his mind already that he could not imagine that any worse pang than he had already experienced could arise out of the reality. from this his mind roved to the punishment that might be inflicted. he expected that some military penalty would be his lot, confinement perhaps for a time, the loss of his rank as captain. the worst would be dismissal from the emperor's service; for like a true scot he had learned to love his profession, and the service he had chosen had become that which commanded all his loyalty. as a soldier of fortune, who had fought with wallenstein, he could make his way in any of the armies of europe, but he was not by nature a mercenary. dismissal would be the heaviest punishment of all. and then his thoughts, tired of dwelling on these painful themes, flew away to erfurt and to ottilie von thüringen, that mysterious high-born lady whose history was entwined with his own and wallenstein's. he had laughed scornfully as he rode to vienna, thinking of the poor figure pietro bramante had cut on the roadside among his pots and phials, wondered how wallenstein could ever have paid the attention to his hocus-pocus that he had. he had blamed himself for his credulity when the sunlight and the matter-of-fact incidents of his journey had made the doings at eger seem unreal. but ottilie was real. ottilie had left an abiding impression. for ottilie nigel felt he could abandon even the service of the emperor. could he but gain one look of rapt intentness, such as the vision of her had cast upon wallenstein, then all the world might go. the surprising softness of her cheek, the great dark liquid eyes laden with mist or charged with lightning, the rich tones of her proud voice,--he recalled them and dwelt upon them one by one, and his whole being was full of the delight of his contemplation. and then, bathed in a warm glow, he fell asleep. in the morning he was awakened by sergeant blick bringing him his holiday suit, or court suit, if it could be called so, for one who had never been at court before, with its freshly laundered lace collar and cuffs, its handsome doublet and breeches of dark-blue and silver, its fine spanish leathern boots with tiny gold spurs, its plumed hat to carry out the vain conceit of one having come off a journey. beneath the collar he wore a silver gorget and his sword, with its silver-tipped sheath burnished to the utmost, hung at his side. sergeant blick was determined that, as far as in him lay, his own captain of musketeers should make a comely gallant show before the emperor. he stayed till the last strap was secure and in its place. "now, captain, you look brave enough as far as outward fripperies go. but the devil snatch me, captain, bear yourself less like a man that is going to be hung. a little smack of the italian would not be amiss. it must not be said that tilly's men cannot prank it with these austrian rascals." then he stood back to see the effect, and even nigel, whose anticipations of evil had again possessed him but a whit less than they had the night before, was forced to laugh. "you're like an old hen with one chicken, blick. call for a pint of tokay and you shall see how i will outdo captain bobadillo!" a brace of pages and a servant appeared at the same time. the servant led away sergeant blick, not unwilling, to the buttery. the pages conducted nigel to his _salle à manger_, and furnished not only the needful flagon of tokay, but a substantial breakfast of smoked ham and sausages, a cold capon and dried fish. by the time he had finished he would have faced the emperor and the whole reichstag to boot. then the pages brought him scented water and soft linen to remove the traces of breakfast, and asked if he were ready. they led him down the stairs, across the courtyard, in which the guard of the palace were exercising, and nigel's eyes roved over their headpieces and corslets and muskets with the approval an officer must always bestow on a well-accoutred and disciplined troop. the pages crossed the courtyard and entered another door, again leading to some stairs, and pushing open two high doors, they led him into another long gallery, the walls of which were hung with many portraits of bygone habsburgs and of many grand dukes and princes with whom they had contracted alliances. he cast a glance here and there, asking the pages questions as he went. they told him that the hall of audience was at the other end, and that he would be summoned presently. there being no need of haste, he sauntered, giving more heed and indeed coming to a stand before a newly painted canvas of a princess. "the archduchess stephanie!" exclaimed both pages. nigel stood gazing at it. "by signor pourbus, a spaniard, who has but just painted the emperor!" they went on. "wondrous like!" was nigel's exclamation. "very like!" said the pages. "here comes her highness. she walks here a little while most mornings." and out of a chamber at the side the archduchess stephanie came, and nigel and the pages awaited her approach. she came with no hurried pace, and as she came nigel grew pale and red by turns, for here, if any one, was ottilie von thüringen, gloriously apparelled, her hair framing her face in a multitude of curling locks of raven hues, rows of pearls about her neck, suspending against the whiteness of her throat a jewelled dragon. the archduchess stayed in her walk, and having cast a look at nigel, said gently to one of the pages-- "hermann! who is this gentleman who waits for audience?" "if it please your highness," said the page, "it is captain nigel charteris, bearer of despatches from magdeburg!" "ah! i had forgotten." then she turned to nigel, who dropped upon his knees, extending him her hand to kiss, and he accomplished the obeisance with good grace, notwithstanding his lively emotion. "you are welcome to vienna, sir!" nigel was now uncertain. the tones of her voice seemed familiar, but not convincing. "you have doubtless had a troublous journey?" "in some measure, your highness!" he had gained courage to look straight into her eyes, but there was no look or sign of recognition. she made a little gesture to the page, who withdrew to wait at the end of the gallery. "tell me, sir, did you pass through eger on your way?" "yes, your highness!" "count albrecht von waldstein, is he not there?" "yes, your highness!" "did you see him?" "i did, your highness! he is my old commander. he wearies for a renewal of his service!" "ah!" it was almost a sigh. "it will come again. it was but yesterday i had a message from him asking me to use my offices with the emperor. he spoke of you and sent me a packet to give you." there was a cabinet much inlaid with ivory, from milan, as the pages had told him, which stood near by, and the archduchess brought a little key from her chatelaine wallet and opened it, as if to show him the curious work within. in one of the drawers which she pulled out was a leathern wallet. nigel's eye fastened greedily upon it. for it was the wallet in which he had carried the despatches. "it looks," said nigel, "as if it and i, your highness, were old acquaintances thrust apart by circumstance. may i look within?" the archduchess said, without any sign of interest, "it is for you, sir; open it." inside was the precious packet. nigel could not restrain his eyes from glowing, his face from flushing, or his fingers from a little tremor. he turned it round. it was intact as he had lost it. the seal of count tilly was perfect. "your highness is surely my good angel," he said gratefully, forgetting for the moment the old ottilie von thüringen in the new and glorious archduchess stephanie. "this that wallenstein has sent me will justify my coming hither. without it i had been dubbed, and rightly, a blundering knave, for your highness should know i was robbed of it in a forest while i slept, and with two sentries on guard." "it was a fault albrecht von waldstein would have borne hardly, had he been captain-general. but in this case fortune has been kind to you." nigel bowed. "i would that your highness would continue to represent the goddess in my regard." she said nothing but some word of adieu, and passed on her way solitary, gliding like a swan. and before nigel could form any opinion on this strange rencontre with the proud princess, one of the gentlemen-in-waiting came and begged his attendance in the audience-chamber. chapter xii. nigel meets father lamormain. as nigel passed out of the gallery and crossed the landing at the top of another staircase, a door to the left of him opened from another gallery at right angles to the one he had just left, and two jesuit priests came out in the dress of their order, shaven and tonsured. he saluted, and they acknowledged his salutation with a brief benediction in the latin tongue and passed on. the eyes of both seemed familiar to him, though for the moment, being bent upon his errand, he could not have told why. the doors of the audience-chamber opened, and an officer of the household announced in a loud voice-- "sire! the noble and high-born captain nigel charteris with despatches from tilly, count of tzerclaës!" nigel advanced, preceded by the gentleman-in-waiting, bowed three times as he did so, following the example set him, and presently stood at the emperor's left hand, where stood the principal secretary, who received the despatches, and, having glanced at the seal, handed it to the emperor, who, giving it to the chancellor of the empire, at his right hand, commanded him to break the seals. the emperor had acknowledged nigel's presence at the side of his secretary with a slight but perceptible movement of the eyes, which rested upon him for a few seconds, and of the head, and then relapsed into an austere aloofness. nigel, standing alert and ready for further business, if it should concern him, observed that ferdinand was a man to all appearance of some fifty odd years, lean, of yellowish complexion, with eyes of a bluish tinge, dark-brown hair, a moustache twisted fiercely upwards, a short pointed beard with strands of grey in it, and dark scanty eyebrows. he wore a large stiff ruff about his neck. his doublet was of dark genoese velvet, and a single gold chain suspended a medallion or badge of some order of knighthood. he sat in an easy attitude, attentive, but as a man wearied of affairs, yet of that fixity of will that lets nothing go by him that he should set his hand to. the long, slightly aquiline nose, fleshy towards the point, together with the projecting tufted lower lip, proclaimed him habsburg. his chair was raised upon a dais, so that he sat on a higher level by some inches than the great officers of the council who sat at the table. nigel could not help noticing the slenderness of his hands and the length of the tapering fingers, which were beyond the common measure of men's hands, and reminded him of the hands of ottilie von thüringen. from the emperor his gaze fell upon a familiar figure that of a man who sat back from the table, as if to give more play to his long legs, and at the emperor's right hand. it needed but a glance at the face, ennobled by its fine expanse of forehead from which the hair had receded, and the flowing black locks, still making a brave show of plenty, which fell to his deep lace collar, to recognise maximilian of bavaria. the fine delicate dark brows, the large humorous dark eyes, the aquiline nose, the pointed chin decked with a pointed and unmistakably grey beard, the short upper lip with a soft flowing moustache, composed a face easy to remember, and somewhat suggestive of a life spent in thought and deep designs rather than in the field, where, however, he had borne no mean nor infrequent burden. the chancellor proceeded to read count tilly's despatch, which set forth with a brevity worthy of his reputation as a general the final operations before magdeburg, the taking of the city, the number of men killed and wounded on both sides. count tilly here strongly commended the bavarian general pappenheim, who had rendered very notable assistance in the siege and storm. then followed the roster of the army as it was on the morning of nigel's departure, and an intimation that it was not possible to quarter the troops in the town itself on account of the destruction of the houses, and of the fear of pestilence. pending further instructions, count tilly intimated that he should form a fortified camp not far from the city, making such excursions into the neighbouring country as might be necessary to continue the enforcement of the edict, or to oppose the operations of gustavus. in the event of the electors of saxony and brandenburg, or either of them, declaring openly for gustavus, he proposed to enter saxony and endeavour to bring the elector to submission. the emperor questioned nigel as to the extent of the destruction of magdeburg and the cause of it; and nigel gave such answer as he was able, saying that, no quarter being given on either side, the entrance into the city was the cause of much bloodshed, owing to the tenacity of the burghers, many of whom set fire to their houses to entrap the soldiery and frustrate the sacking. "you passed through erfurt, plauen, and eger?" the emperor asked. "how was the edict being received?" "erfurt and eger, sire, are mainly of the catholic faith, and have strong garrisons. plauen would willingly have hung me and my escort, incited to rebellion by the news from magdeburg!" "but you escaped hanging, captain?" the emperor asked without a smile. "i took the burghers unawares, and escaped by night!" said nigel. "you have our thanks, captain! you will remain at vienna some days till our plans are made, when you will receive our further orders. we shall recommend count tilly to advance you in rank for your services." nigel murmured a few words of thanks, and again bowing three times as he retreated, found himself outside the audience-chamber in company with the friendly gentleman-in-waiting who had ushered him in, very well pleased to have had such a favourable interview, and, where he had expected so lately as that very morning at least disgrace, to have received the promise of promotion, than which nothing could be more grateful to his ambition as a soldier. the more he thought of the miraculous recovery of his wallet the less could he understand it. it must have been brought to wallenstein by some emissary who had intercepted the robber. or was it the man on the sorrel horse, that man of pots and phials and orbits and horoscopes, after all? had he sought to propitiate wallenstein, and had wallenstein, recognising his duty to the emperor, taken this circuitous way of returning it to the messenger, knowing full well what penalty he might otherwise expect? yes! that was the solution without doubt. his old admiration of wallenstein as a commander was now strengthened by gratitude towards him as a man. and the archduchess? pietro bramante's conjuration was, if as inexplicable as ever, of the archduchess. hence wallenstein's exclamation, which he had only faintly heard in the midst of his own excitement. some curious resemblance, no doubt, there must have been between the unknown ottilie and the archduchess, but the method of sending the wallet proved that wallenstein accepted the prediction in the faith that it was the archduchess stephanie, who on her part had at least fulfilled the commission with a tact and secrecy that spoke of a willingness to respond to the wish of the sender. he had, whilst working out this satisfactory conclusion, accompanied the gentleman aforesaid to the gardens of the palace, where, said his guide, he would probably find sufficient to amuse him for an hour or so, when he could easily find his way back to his quarters, and further arrangements would be made to entertain him. there was a profusion of statuary. there were peacocks. there were flowers arranged in precise beds, and short clipped hedges of green shrubs in the italian fashion. the morning was sunny, and in his elation he found everything exceeding well. it was a golden day. he sauntered here and there. and so by the merest chance did father lamormain, that peaceful refined priest, in a cassock which did credit to the tailor who fashioned it, though it was cut strictly according to the rule of the jesuits. nigel had never set eyes on father lamormain, and, if he had heard of him, it was in the vague way in which people of middle station hear the name of the king's physician, or of the king's barber, and forget it. father lamormain had not been at the audience. his duty was best done in the emperor's private apartment, or in his own, to which even the emperor repaired on occasions. but father lamormain knew quite well what had taken place, all that the chancellor had read aloud and as much of it as the chancellor had kept to himself. for father lamormain was not for nothing the most trusted jesuit in the country east of the rhine. at first nigel passed the priest, who was to all appearance a jesuit, with a bow. the priest desisted from telling his beads and bowed also. in their saunter they bowed again, and the priest very gently expressed a hope that nigel was "enjoying the beauty of the morning." "father," said nigel, "it is indeed a fair morning, but good news makes the worst of mornings joyous!" "ah, youth! ah, youth, the beautiful!" said the father. "youth is the season when one has good news! in after years the news never seems wholly good. there is always some little drawback." nigel inclined his head deferentially. middle-aged men always spoke in this way. they were jealous of youth. but being in great spirits he thought to humour the priest, and said-- "there speaks a wide experience and a wide knowledge!" "surely," said the priest, "you are of the scottish nation, and a soldier! am i right, sir?" "what makes you think so?" said nigel, much amused. "in the first place, the scottish gentlemen are amongst the most courteous of men, and pronounce german very well; and as to the second, one could not miss that you were a soldier by your bearing." there being at least two compliments wrapped up along with a commonplace, nigel took another look at the priest and saw that the priest was a man of benign countenance, very courtly, and that his face was lined with many fine lines about the brow and eyes, which themselves were very penetrating. nigel reflected on the latin poet who feared greeks and people bringing gifts. so he asked-- "is there a college of your order in vienna?" "what makes you think so, sir? does one swallow make a summer?" "would not three in succession lead one to imagine it was near?" nigel asked again. "see how the scotsman answers a question by asking another!" the priest observed with a smile, which was very becoming to his countenance. "is that the way of my nation?" nigel asked. "in the parts about haddington!" the priest replied very gently, and nigel was very much perplexed at the reply. "but did you say just now that you had seen three swallows, or was it three brethren of my order, this morning?" "i met two on the staircase of the palace this morning, and you are the third!" said nigel. "it will have been father george and father john. there is a small hostel of our order in vienna." "they resembled two gentlemen i met a few days back, two cavaliers!" "ah?" said the priest, inviting confidence. "but _they_ were cavaliers!" said nigel. "so there was nothing in the resemblance. there seem a good many people in the world who resemble one another!" he added. father lamormain was a little disappointed in this exuberant young officer, who went off into mere platitudes. but there was an element of persistence in his nature. "you have doubtless come some distance to vienna?" he went on. "i inferred from what you said just now that you had business in the palace, and i happened to notice that one of the emperor's gentlemen brought you hither; and i know, i think i may say, all the people who dwell therein." he indicated the palace with his hand. "so i judged you to be a stranger. did you have a peaceful journey?" "on the whole it was so!" said the scot. "you had peradventure an encounter with robbers?" "if it could be called so, an encounter! two men set upon me in the dark as i slept, and having bound and gagged me, ransacked my holsters, my saddle-bags, my clothes, and went away having taken nothing." "and did you not see their faces, hear their voices?" "neither sight nor sound!" "and you accomplished your errand successfully?" "quite, father!" "you were either very astute or very fortunate! you will doubtless be employed again. now let me introduce myself. i am father lamormain, the emperor's confessor." "i am much honoured by your company," said nigel. "my name is nigel charteris, captain of musketeers." "from magdeburg, is it not?" the priest smiled. chapter xiii. a father, a confessor, and a daughter. the emperor ferdinand and father lamormain were together in the emperor's private apartments. "she was always stephanie the intractable!" said the emperor, with something like a smile on his grave face. after all he had many memories of her that father lamormain could never have of any child. "yes!" said father lamormain. "but in this case your imperial majesty should permit itself to use its parental authority." "even to harshness?" "even to harshness!" said the priest in a gentle voice. "your majesty knows that the elector maximilian still claims that the empire owes him thirteen millions of crowns for his aid in the war against the elector palatine, and that he wanted the palatinate, and would have had it but for the opposition of brandenburg and saxony. now if brandenburg and saxony join gustavus, as they must, what can we say to maximilian if he prefers his claim again?" "he must have it, i suppose!" said the emperor in a tone that suggested that he was rather tired. "then he will ask for bohemia as the price for allowing his army to support tilly against gustavus." "bohemia is another affair!" said the emperor more briskly. "now if her highness the archduchess would only consent to marry the elector maximilian, we should hear nothing more of the thirteen millions, or of the palatinate, or of bohemia," reflected father lamormain aloud. "she is very young!" objected his majesty. "not too young for mischief, sire." "what new freak have you discovered, father?" "this!" said the father, producing the letter he had had before him on the previous day. "it is a summary of the roll of tilly's army, and it was found upon a messenger, who was unfortunately killed on his way to the north _before he could be questioned_." "but what has this to do with the archduchess stephanie?" "it is marvellously like her handwriting! it is in cipher, of course; but look for yourself, sire." the emperor looked at it. "it appears to be a woman's, and it is a most unclerkly scrawl. i should hesitate to attribute it to stephanie! and, if it were hers, what possible object could she have in obtaining it, and how could she have obtained it?" "it was in my hands, your majesty, before the despatches arrived." "but the seal on the despatches was intact. it was count tilly's seal. the chancellor was satisfied?" "yes, sire!" the tone signified that chancellors as a rule were easily satisfied. "come, father, do you seriously suggest that the officer who brought it allowed the despatches to leave his hands?" father lamormain had every cause to suppose so, but was unable for reasons of his own to state so. "i merely infer from this cipher!" "but it was not impossible that the roll of tilly's army should be known to others, within a little!" "your majesty's remark would be just if the messenger had been intercepted riding from magdeburg. but from eger, by which the officer passed? what then?" "that would be to doubt the officer's fidelity. to begin with, he is a scottish gentleman! he is of our faith! he is selected by tilly, who has a good eye for a man." "then your majesty does not wish the matter pursued in that direction." father lamormain was quite pleasant about it. he went on-- "i may say that i had a little talk with this young officer this morning in the gardens, and he appears to be a gentleman of good breeding, and of an ancient family, very well mannered, and wary withal. your majesty would be the better judge how far he is to be trusted if he were bidden to your reception after supper to-night. for the orders your majesty will send to tilly will be still more secret!" the father seemed full of the most paternal feelings towards this young man, at the same time very desirous that the young man should not prove a prodigal son. "as to the archduchess stephanie," said the emperor, "i will speak to her on the subject of maximilian. it is an ill time to consider marriages when there is so much at stake, but our faithful elector can scarcely be bidden to wait _at his age_!" the emperor had then a dry kind of humour. "you may send for her, father, on my behalf!" father lamormain pocketed his letter and retired. in a short time the archduchess made her entry into her father's presence. her face wore the softness that is the outcome of an affectionate nature. the fine meshes of the veil of rank that fell between her and the rest of the world, obscuring the expression, were absent. ferdinand's eye swept over her tall gracious form as she approached, and as she bent her knee to kiss his hand. he approved, but it made no difference. he was not a prince to be swayed by womanly beauty. some princes have spent their lives toying with women; some have made women their pastimes in the brief intervals of strenuous attention to war and to affairs; but ferdinand was a prince of affairs in which women had no place. as a father, however, he was not wanting in affection. "my stephanie!" he said, when he had kissed her upon the cheek. "politics are a very troublous thing, and all kinds of considerations come into play. the alliances in marriage between princes and princesses are dictated by the necessities of their states rather than by any inclination of their own." the emperor felt, because stephanie, sitting on a low stool at his side, had her hands upon her father's, that the blood stirred very palpably, and he knew that she listened. "the turn of events has brought your name into question. the elector maximilian has put forward a project of marriage. he asks for you." a crimson flush overspread those pale clear cheeks. so much ferdinand saw. she kept her gaze steadily away from him. "what do you think of it, little one?" she turned her head and looked up at her father, her eyes widely open. "i think it monstrous! that old man! a man who has already lived a thousand lives to make his last mumbling meal of me who am just newly come into my womanhood! monstrous! unspeakably monstrous!" "he is of a ripe age, certainly, is my cousin maximilian. he is in fact fifty-eight, as i am. but he is still full of vigour, a leader of men, a great and renowned prince, and our most trusty ally. once at least we had been in grave jeopardy but for his counsel and for his armies. even now we are employing his men and generals in support of our edicts." "to slay peaceable burghers, burn their goods, throw down their houses, ravish their daughters! say this rather!" "my daughter!" said ferdinand, and his voice became cold and haughty, "you forget! as a good son of the church i am bound to extirpate that most pernicious root of heresy from all german lands. there can be no peace till this is done." the archduchess stephanie had gauged her father's religious fanaticism and found it deep, deeper than any measuring-stick of hers. she did not sympathise with it. like most women she was herself prone to the practices of religion, and in the conduct of life a pagan. she saw no benefit that could come out of the edict of restitution. to her mind, money, or goods, or lands were to pass out of the hands of very worthy industrious burghers to maintain lazy and often very dirty priests and monks. she thought it was barely possible, but still possible, for people to get to heaven somehow without them. the emperor was quite satisfied that they could not. his intentions were sincere, and the archduchess knew that it was useless to pursue the attack along this line. "the fall of magdeburg," she said, "might bring about some sort of alliance of all the protestant powers. brandenburg and saxony at least must join gustavus. denmark, the united provinces, may follow." "the more reason have we to keep hold of such friends as we have by what entertainment we may." "have you so little faith in maximilian that you should judge him capable of drawing off his men when he learns that i will not wed him?" "i have always found maximilian loyal to the empire. but a friendship such as his should be requited." "then let him be requited with gold or with lands, but not with me. let him draw off his men, his pappenheim. then send for the man who shall sweep gustavus back to his ships, him for whom the empire waits, him who alone can create armies at a word and lead them." "who _is_ this achilles?" was the faintly ironical question of the emperor. "who but albrecht von waldstein?" was the instant, almost triumphant, answer of the archduchess. she had risen to her feet and faced him with it, voice and gesture and eyes aglow with a conviction that betrayed an intense energy of desire behind it. the emperor gazed at her with his pale scrutinising eyes, in which was no enthusiasm. "my dear stephanie," he said in his half-wearied tone, "if wallenstein were not a man of middle age, who has married a second wife, one might almost suspect that you were enamoured of him." she held herself erect, looking at the emperor, but her eyes were upon a vision far beyond. she said nothing, for the emperor had not made an end. he had dealt her this thrust of scorn. now he assailed her with reason. "it is a year since, on the elector's day at regensburg, they clamoured one and all for wallenstein's dismissal. they urged that he was become too powerful for a subject." "maximilian's jealousy!" she interposed. "maximilian was one amongst many! i judged the advice sound. i dismissed wallenstein. my foes were beaten down. there was no need to maintain an army of seventy thousand men in the field to nourish the ambition of a general. it is enough, stephanie. no good can come of princesses meddling in politics. look to it that you entreat not our cousin maximilian slightingly, or even with less than the graciousness that becomes a princess. i am too indulgent. the affair can wait till it be considered further. you would not be the first princess of the house of habsburg to wed without love. therefore make no grievance of it!" he held out his hand, which the archduchess bent over and kissed, and she left the emperor once more alone. chapter xiv. in the circle of the emperor. that evening nigel was not left to eat his meal in the little _salle à manger_ adjoining his bedchamber, but was invited by the officers of the guard to join them, a compliment that was worth the paying, seeing that the officers of the guard were drawn from the oldest families in austria and hungary, and that a mere sub-lieutenant in the guard ranked as a regimental captain in the army, and a captain was equal to a colonel, if not higher, in the point of distinction. notwithstanding that he was a regimental officer bearing the rank of captain, and an outlander, a fact which emphasised another fact, that he was a soldier of fortune, or, if we prefer it, a soldier without a fortune, whereas his hosts were men of high family and fortunes who happened to be soldiers, they received him with that perfection of politeness which already characterised the austrian nobility in so far as it came into daily contact with the court. something there was of the ceremony and grandiosity of spain, which the intermarriages of princes and princesses had brought about, mingled with the brightness and gaiety that sprung of a northern race and northern air, and of a greater activity of body and alertness of mind. they regarded the sack of magdeburg as a mere incident, but sufficiently interesting to men who professed the art of war to make them put to their guest a perfect array of questions as to the tactics employed, the relative value of the weapons, and tilly's projected movements. he had to tell at full length his adventure at plauen, and they contrived to let him know that he was more fortunate than they in having enjoyed such experiences. when the supper had proceeded to a pleasant length, if it were not quite so prolonged as that famous meal which mr howell, who was secretary to an embassy to denmark, has related in his letters, consisting as it did of forty courses and thirty-five toasts, the captain-general of the guard, a venerable officer, who wore the orders of half the kingdoms of europe, suspended by gold chains and gold brooches, giving almost the similitude of a cuirass, rose, and in the name of the emperor complimented their guest on the services he had rendered and the signal bravery he had shown at the siege and the storm of magdeburg. he ended by presenting him with a colonel's commission under the emperor's own hand and seal, and drank his health in the most handsome fashion--an example which the whole corps of officers followed with much zest and the draining of many flagons of tokay. nigel was taken indeed by surprise. his blushes testified at once to his habitual modesty, and to his youth. but for the honour of his race and country he regained his self-command in a short space, and made a speech of thanks which, for fluency in the german tongue and the spirit of loyalty to his chosen standard which infused it, gained him an even greater credit in the minds of his hearers. scotland was to most of them a far-off country, and being far was esteemed uncivilised, and they marvelled that a scottish gentleman could without effort assume the ease of manner and the air of compliment in the banqueting-hall of vienna as well as lead an attacking party, which any officer of proper valour and skill should be able to do. just as the supper had concluded and the tables had been cleared for wine and the dice-box, or whatever other pastime was forward, a page arrived to tell him that the emperor commanded his attendance at his card-party in half an hour. nigel would perhaps have more willingly sat over his wine with these jovial gallants of the guard. but there was no choice. so that he took leave of the captain-general and of his other hosts, some of whom had their military rounds to make, and hastened to refresh himself, and make what change in his dress he could for the ordeal of the court reception. on reaching his bedchamber he was amazed to find it lit up with many candles, and a court suit lying upon his bed, new and of rich stuffs. everything he needed was there, and a barber was in attendance together with a valet to assist him to make his outward appearance worthy of the occasion. nigel had heard of the lavish generosity of italian princes towards their friends. he knew of favourites both in spain and in britain who had been plentifully rewarded by the bestowal of public office or of pension. in france the king's cash-box, which was also the state's, was frequently opened to reward the deserving and undeserving. but it had never before happened to him that he was invited to be of the company of a prince and provided with a new court suit in the bargain. monarchs were often unmindful of these petty but costly trivialities. but since in his own case the emperor ferdinand had expended so much thoughtfulness and a goodly purse of crowns on his wedding garment, nigel was not disposed to blame him for departing from the usual rule. it was difficult besides not to feel uncommonly elated when fortune persisted in making him so avowedly her favourite. and if, while he was being dealt with by the barber, he did wonder how that slightly dry, tired-eyed emperor had contrived to think two consecutive thoughts about his, nigel's, wearing apparel, and fell back upon the archduchess stephanie as the possible donor, he dismissed the latter suggestion because he was not sufficiently full of conceit to credit it, and accepted the first as a very natural explanation, because his opinion of his own services unconsciously coincided with the sense of them he imputed to the emperor. it must not be forgotten that tokay in unstinted measure has a tendency to make a man reflect in the first instance what a really fine fellow he is. it is doubtless one of the first qualities of good wine to enhance in the man who drinks it the estimation of his own vintage. had the page, who as a fact knew nothing, or the barber, or the valet, breathed the name of father lamormain, of a surety nigel would have regarded the idea as humorous, and even at that rather wanting in point. if he had been solemnly assured that father lamormain, that very benign jesuit he had met for the first and only time in his life in the palace garden, was the donor of the suit, he would probably have worn it, but, as the gentleman in one of shakespeare's plays wore his rue, with a difference. not that nigel charteris in his braveries was one whit more a braggart or a fop or one iota less a scottish gentleman than when, stained with blood and smoke, begrimed and weary, he had taken shelter at the hands of elspeth reinheit in the old house at magdeburg. but that evening he did feel that the world was at his feet, and he did make a gallant figure as the doors flew open and the pages, announcing the "high-born and noble colonel nigel von charteris," admitted him to the presence of his emperor and the brilliant circle of the court. the emperor and his consort alone were seated. the guests were not yet all assembled, and stood about in groups within reach of the royal voices. there were perhaps eight or ten ladies, amongst whom, when his eyes had grown used to the numerous candles and the glitter of jewels, reflected and multiplied by the mirrors of venetian glass that hung upon the walls, nigel recognised the archduchess stephanie and a younger sister who more resembled the emperor. the archduchess shot him a swift glance of recognition, and the smile, which rather accompanied than followed it, bestowed not upon him but upon some chance-favoured auditor with whom she talked, seemed to imply approval of his choice of a court dress. that swift glance of hers was enough to tell him that their rencontre of the morning was, if it could not be swept from remembrance, at least to be treated as if it had not been. it was father lamormain who, gliding to his side, assumed the gracious part of cicerone. "and are you still pleased with your good news, colonel?" he asked with his benevolent smile of universal fatherhood. "more and more, father! this morning there was the promise. this evening it is in flower!" "the blossom," said the priest, looking at the court suit, "becomes the tree if the tree yield good fruit." a saying which left nigel puzzled, intimating as it did that his reward was not so much for service done as for services to do. he had no time to ponder it, for father lamormain had led him to the archduchess stephanie and was presenting him. "your highness! may i present to you the youngest colonel of musketeers in the imperial armies, mr nigel charteris, who has had the honour and the peril of bearing count tilly's despatches from magdeburg!" "i am pleased to greet you!" said the archduchess, giving him her hand to kiss. "i trust your journey was as pleasant as the issue was successful." as nigel had bent to kiss the long slender fingers that were so like the emperor's, he seemed to see again those of ottilie von thüringen binding up the wound of elspeth reinheit. he answered her-- "the journey was not so perilous, your highness, as the reward is great in your highness's gracious welcome!" and greatly daring he gazed for a moment with unfeigned admiration at the eyes of the archduchess. "count tilly's captains are swift to learn, father?" she said, smiling. "they are more teachable than princesses!" said father lamormain, with such banter in his tone as the privileged spiritual director of the family might employ. "and princesses," he added, "are swift to teach." a saying which the archduchess and nigel alike felt might be innocent or barbed with irony. father lamormain did not leave him till he had made the round of the guests. nigel's brain was becoming clearer as he became used to the scene, and the effects of the excellent tokay were wellnigh spent. he learned by observation in what very real respect the whole court held the jesuit father. this polished and witty priest had something in the way of compliment for all the ladies, something flattering for the great lords and lordlings. but for the father there was no covert sneer, or half attention, or sign of fear. there was real respect, and something that resembled the perfect confidence of friendship. last of all, the elector maximilian, with his eternal half-smile, left the emperor's immediate group and accosted nigel. "so father lamormain has taken you in hand, colonel! they say that this is a greater mark of honour than even the emperor can bestow. beware, however, of any love secrets. he will worm them out of you!" "he does not wear them upon his sleeve, your highness!" said the priest, with a glance over in the direction of the archduchess stephanie, which was not understood by nigel. "and in what plight are my bavarians?" the elector went on. father lamormain beat a retreat. they would find much to talk about, and if the fathoming of nigel's leanings were necessary maximilian was as astute as himself. luckily nigel held a high opinion of pappenheim, whom many regarded as the foremost general in germany, even before wallenstein, but who was a soldier and nothing more, no politician or ambitious seeker after power. "you were with tilly before?" "no, sire! with wallenstein from the campaign against mansfeld to the end of his command!" to the "ah" with which this was received nigel attached the significance it bore. "have you seen him since his ... resignation?" "yes, sire; at eger on my journey here." "and how does he bear his retirement?" "in truth i know almost nothing, sire. when i was under him i rarely saw him, and was not of his familiar circle, if indeed he had such. i do not know. he asked for my company at eger to divide a bottle of wine with him. he seems to occupy himself with astronomy and the mathematics." "i have heard," rejoined maximilian, "that he had great acquaintance and much controversy with a learned doctor, one paracelsus, but these matters are beyond my ken. men and women are more to me than the stars." several gentlemen of the court had gathered round the elector, and it was the hearing of the name of wallenstein that drew them, for it was well known that the elector and he were on terms of discord. in the days of the winter king it had been maximilian and his armies who had been in fact the emperor's legions, then as a counterpoise the emperor had raised up wallenstein. when wallenstein had made maximilian the pale shadow of an armed power, maximilian had plotted till wallenstein was deposed and his army scattered to the ten thousand hamlets of germany. "a veritable cincinnatus!" said an elderly gentleman. "he raised cabbages for sauerkraut, did he not?" a younger man asked. "your cincinnatus," said the elector, "raiseth weeds of a poisonous and rebellious nature." "such as, sire?" a staid and solemn-faced minister of state inquired. "ambition, my lord! it brought cæsar to the ground, and cæsar was a greater man. when wallenstein, then a rich bohemian landlord, discovered that he had the genius of organising an army, he began to think he had discovered in himself another cæsar. he thought that to command a great army, to find its food and pay, was absolute power. he forgot that that consent of the emperor, which alone had made it possible, was the real source of power, and that the consent might be withdrawn. you all know what happened in fact. he has no patriotism. his country, his emperor, his creed, is wallenstein; and he would as soon serve gustavus, if gustavus would promise him a kingdom, as serve the emperor." the elector maximilian had raised his voice a little as he spoke his last sentences. the emperor, turning in his chair from his cards not far away, said-- "your favourite topic, cousin! he did us good service in our need." "in truth, sire!" said the archduchess stephanie, also addressing maximilian. "age should be more lenient to age and honourable service." nigel wondered why the elector showed so much the symptoms of a frown when his mouth, so much of it as was visible, essayed a smile as he turned towards the archduchess. the emperor and father lamormain, who was of his party at cards, exchanged a guarded glance. "you remind me of that, stephanie, which in your presence i had forgotten." with which saying he strode to her side with an air of gallantry, which had sat well upon a younger man, and engaged her in a conversation out of earshot, as he meant, of the rest of the company. at this point a page came to the emperor and gave him a message in a low tone. the page went out, and in a moment the doors opened. "his grace the duke of friedland" was announced; and instantly the company sat or stood as if petrified. albrecht von walstein entered, attired not plainly, but as became a magnifico of the empire. there was violet velvet slashed with green silk and sewn with pearls, and all point devise. he made three obeisances as he approached the emperor, and kissed his hand, then that of his consort. the emperor bade him be seated. "you have been long coming to vienna, duke, but seeing that you are here you are well-come. you have news?" "sire! i was but a few days since at eger, where i have a poor dwelling-place, when i heard that the king of sweden has left frankfort, has marched to werben, where the river havel pours into the elbe, and has there entrenched his army in a fortified camp. brandenburg has given up spandau and custrin. we are shut off from the north." the emperor's face became a thought graver than usual. so did those of father lamormain and of maximilian, who, leaving the archduchess, drew near at a sign from the emperor. "how many men hath he?" "my report says forty thousand, all veteran troops. saxony and brandenburg can raise another forty thousand between them." "with a few reinforcements, tilly and pappenheim should be able to stay his march," said maximilian. to which wallenstein said nothing. his _rôle_ was the disinterested friend, the wealthy noble to whom war was of no moment. for a moment there was a curious silence. wallenstein would not ask for a command. to offer him a subordinate one was to invite a cold refusal. father lamormain and maximilian were resolutely opposed to any offer being made, and the emperor knew it. yet he felt by no means sure that tilly and pappenheim could stem the swedish tide, and he was the head and front and citadel of the empire, fully aware of his responsibilities towards the state and towards the church, especially the latter. at maximilian's words the archduchess stephanie made an involuntary movement forward, but checked herself and stood where she was. nigel, from the place where he stood amid a knot of courtiers, could see her face. it bore that strange rapt expression of the eyes that he had seen in the vision of bramante's conjuring, and the eyes were fixed on wallenstein. indeed, wallenstein looked up for an instant and saw them. nigel could have sworn that a flush swept below the swarthy and much-lined skin of the great commander; but the face with its high cheek-bones and small bright eyes had recovered its bronze composure in the instant. chapter xv. the archduchess and wallenstein. the persons who witnessed the unexpected arrival of wallenstein asked themselves why he had come; nigel because to his reflective mind the ostensible reason, anxiety to impart the news of gustavus to the emperor, was insufficient; the archduchess stephanie because she desired with all the intensity of woman that another cause might be at work. nigel in the camp with tilly had heard accounts, more or less garbled, of the famous meeting of the electors with the emperor at ratisbon a year before. reichstag, the diet, or day of the state, was the name of such meetings, and that had been a momentous one for wallenstein, for the world. all the electors were there save only the elector palatine, the winter-king, who was a wanderer over the face of europe. and without the conclave were friar joseph, "his grey eminence," the familiar of cardinal richelieu, and cardinal caraffa, the pope's nuncio. france and italy alike on this occasion were pulling at the electoral puppet-strings, and making them hold up hands for the dismissal of wallenstein, the "insolent wallenstein." and when a captain-general, for four years in the field, has set all the electors of germany, catholic and protestant, against him, it may be deduced that he has shown himself careless of giving offence, and has forgotten the respect due to princes. the emperor had wished to retain him. he knew that he had been well served, and in so far as his extreme religious views would allow him, he was a just and certainly courageous prince. but he had been forced to defer to the electors who had chosen him to be emperor. nigel agreed that a man as great as wallenstein would never have ridden from eger to vienna to bring this news to the emperor, notwithstanding that, if wallenstein had ever shown anything approaching to personal affection and deference to man, it had been to the emperor. he would have sent a swift messenger, or allowed the emperor to learn the news in his own way, as he would have learned it in a day or two at the most. and nigel was right in his conjecture. the following afternoon the archduchess stephanie, with two ladies in demure attendance, took the air in a light carriage, which, for its elegance, was still an object of admiration in the streets of vienna. it was said to have been a present to the emperor from his brother monarch, louis treize. and was not the queen of louis treize anne of austria? the carriage stopped at otto fugger's in the rudolf strasse. otto fugger was the richest banker in vienna, and was the brother of jacob fugger of antwerp, and cousin of wilhelm fugger of amsterdam, and of antonio fugger in venice. the archduchess descended and entered. all the aristocracy of europe dealt with the fuggers. and when the archduchess was ushered with great politeness by otto fugger himself into one of his several libraries on an upper floor, and the banker had bowed low and left her, she found one she expected standing by a casement which looked out into a beautiful garden. in the habit which he wore, of sombre hue and formal cut, rich withal but not conspicuous, he might have passed for one of those very prosperous merchants that were making their presence felt in the large cities, if the alert bearing of the man, and the air of domination, had not proclaimed one of a superior rank and a military caste. the man and the woman looked at one another. in the man's look was questioning. it asked, "how can this woman serve my purpose? what makes her wish to serve it?" in the woman's was rejoicing at some purpose partly achieved, and something of timidity. the looks were instantaneous; the pause before the speech but momentary. "at last, albrecht von waldstein!" she spoke in low soft tones, and held out both hands, as if he should take them both into captivity. "i am here because you have willed it, stephanie!" it was a personal touch, not an outcome of his immense pride. here they met on another plane than that of the life of courts. and stephanie was so young. he took her long slender fingers in his large masterful brown hands and kissed them both, in his heart rather amused. let us not be mistaken. wallenstein was not led to vienna by the god of love. nor did he imagine that he was. he came, and knew that he had come, because of the perfect circle of pietro bramante, who was rather the priest of apollo, because of the secant ellipse, whose right focus was the centre of his circle. he came because of the image of stephanie, which he had seen, or thought he had seen, at eger, even as saul saw the wraith of samuel, or thought he saw it, in the caves at endor. but pietro bramante had prophesied, or so wallenstein had read the prophecy, that his way to the complete circle was by making the heart of woman the pivot and centre of his intelligence. it was not easy for wallenstein to formulate the idea in words; but if there were a meaning in the mystery it must be that through the love of stephanie he would arrive at the culminating point of success; and stephanie was the daughter of the emperor. therefore he looked curiously at her, wondering at the miracle, as any man who experiences it must wonder at the miracle of the love of woman. wallenstein had never been a habitant of the palaces of kings. as little as need was had he come to vienna on sparse visits to the emperor. he had seen and spoken to the archduchess stephanie, when, six years before, he had laid his offer before the emperor. he remembered her as a tall, slim maiden with large, dark, wistful, following eyes, a child of moods. he remembered her when two years more had passed, what a glorious triumphant pair of years, in which he had gathered his army, marched against mansfeld, overcome him at dessau on the elbe, then harried him through silesia into hungary, forced his ally, bethlen gabor, to throw down his arms, and driven mansfeld over the border into bosnia to die of a broken fame. before going into winter quarters he had paid a fleeting visit to vienna to receive his first meed of commendation from the emperor. the archduchess stephanie had ripened to the first promise of a completer womanhood, gained in erectness, in rounder curves, and over her face and bearing had stolen virginal radiance and conscious modesty, not unmingled with the habsburg pride of race. wallenstein remembered how she too had greeted him in her own way with two sprigs of laurel and a little speech which died on her lips. and now she had reached the perfect may of womanhood. "what then? at last, albrecht von waldstein!" "i am here because you have willed it, stephanie!" "say rather because the fates have willed it!" she said in a tone in which awe and triumph were mingled, and her eyes looked out as through a mist. wallenstein felt a thrill go through him, something unknown to his cold intelligence, something which roused latent fire in him, and infused into him a spirit more akin in rarity to hers. he still held her slender fingers in his brown sinewy hands as if he would suck in more of that ethereal fluid fire. "you would have come of your own accord because of your interest in albrecht von waldstein?" there was approval, condescension, petition for her assent in his tones. "something of you grew into my girlhood, albrecht! i cannot tell how. when you, a simple gentleman of bohemia, came to my father and in his troubled hour offered to raise up an army to defend him against his enemies, i had a feeling of exultation. something told me that here was greatness, a new hercules come to earth." wallenstein's eyes, those cold eyes of his, glowed at her saying. prodigious egotist that he was! he accepted her words as those of an oracle. he drank in the significance of her words, but of their relation to the feelings of the priestess that uttered them he divined less even than he valued them. to him her words confirmed him in his own estimate of himself. but he was too little a connoisseur of precious nonsubstantial things to show surprise or wonder at the priceless worth of that young princess's worship. "six years ago," he said, "you acclaimed my star on the horizon of your heart." "yes, albrecht! and then when you came again, do you remember my poor sprigs of laurel which i was almost too shy to give you?" "i have them yet, stephanie!" it was true. he had them. they were an emblem of his advancing fortunes bestowed by the daughter of the emperor. of the heart that had prompted the gift, the shy, proud, full, maidenly heart, he had known nothing. "and as your star waxed, so i rejoiced and said, 'albrecht von waldstein is become equal to the greatest princes of the earth.' you and your armies filled all my mind. my pride in you became a great part of me." her eyes were cast down so that he saw little but the soft black fringes of the lids; her rich voice was modulated to all but a whisper. and as the man gazed at her, drinking in her words and watching the heave and fall of her bosom, an unusual gentleness crept over him and he began to see the wonder of her. "gracious and beautiful princess!" he said. "to think that as i climbed i knew nothing of the spirit that spoke secretly to mine and urged me forward and upward." there was something of self-reproach in his tone as for something beautiful in a glimpse of the valley that a climber misses and learns of in after days. she went on with her confession-- "i prayed for your success. i do not know what i would have had you do, until the day of ratisbon, when all the dogs in germany bayed at you and the emperor sent an embassy--it was that in fact--to beg you to lay down the power, the stupendous power, you wielded. then, oh the direful days they were! i hoped, i feared. i dreaded and longed to hear that, like cæsar of old, you were crossing the rubicon and were marching on the capital." wallenstein heaved a mighty sigh. "you felt, stephanie, what it cost me!" the archduchess looked up into his eyes. "it is true. my heart had awakened. the woman mourned and would not be comforted. she would have had you king! king, albrecht! and you put everything aside to resume a private station. and some said that therein you did the greatest act of your life to make the way easy for the emperor and bring peace into the land." "and you, stephanie?" "not i!" she raised her head proudly to its full eminence, that queenly brow with its twin lakes of unfathomable light. "not i! what to me was the peace of germany, or of the emperor? i would have had you march on to victory or death. fortune must be taken at the flood. she seldom comes twice for the same barque." "you have the spirit of your eagles, stephanie! trust me! i weighed the chances and put off the hour because the hour was destined to return again. it was tempting fortune; but it was better to resign my baton gracefully at the emperor's command than to lose all in one desperate, unconsidered rebellion." "rebellion is for subjects! but remember, albrecht von waldstein, that if you would mate with eagles you must prove yourself their peer. fly high and boldly!" wallenstein experienced another thrill. this time a fresh thought leapt into being. "mate with eagles? what could she mean?" an unwonted light broke over the cold, lined face. "you cannot mean that in the hour of victory you will be my hostage against the emperor, stephanie?" "the day you win bohemia for your crown i share it with you!" "bohemia! and you, stephanie?" even now he could scarcely believe his ears. he saw quite clearly the immense advantage it would be to him to wed stephanie: how it would tie the hands of the emperor and prevent the otherwise inevitable reprisals. "and holy church? i am wedded man!" "the church can give dispensations where she wishes. she shall wish, even if you have to march on rome!" "and you pledge yourself to help me counter their jesuit plans?" "i do, albrecht. see, i kiss the cross! i vow it solemnly! and as earnest, let me tell you they would have me marry maximilian!" "god in heaven!" exclaimed wallenstein. "that shall not be, if there be a nunnery to keep you safe on this side of the alps." wallenstein made no movement of passion. he looked at her and saw that she was desirable and lovely beyond the common allurement of women, beyond the beauty of all princesses he had seen. but he saw, too, that there was something lofty in her soul, a virgin chastity, that forbade all trivial thought of dalliance. it was a solemn compact. he knelt at her feet. she laid one soft hand upon his head and said-- "be my knight, albrecht, without fear. and when all the fields are won, i await you." he took her other hand and kissed it. the vibration of a strong emotion passed through him. he was left alone. chapter xvi. nigel's new regiment. on the next day wallenstein departed as secretly as he had come. father lamormain ascertained that he did not return to eger. one rumour had it that he had gone to his estate in friedland, which is in the north-eastern part of bohemia, bordered by silesia on one side and the kingdom of saxony on the other, a remote mountainous region, sparsely inhabited. the rumour may well have been true, for that was where the duchess of friedland lay at that time, and it had never been said that her lord neglected her for any other dame, unless it were dame bellona, who, ugly as she is, has in her time made many good wives jealous, and proved fatal to untold thousands of her wooers. three of these wooers, no longer perhaps so ardent or so able as of old, advised the emperor in warlike matters. colonel von falck had taken part in the wars against the turks in the days of the late emperor rudolf, and had lost an eye. he was almost patriarchal, but men said of him that he was a tremendous judge of tokay, and unerring in his selection of officers. of the former branch of military knowledge he gave almost daily proof, and his reputation in the latter, like many official reputations, rested on evidence which was quite irrefragable, since no one knew what it was. the second was a retired master of camp, a man just past middle age, who had had the misfortune to lose an arm, his left, fortunately, at the weisser berge. he was an acknowledged authority on waggons, horses, stores, cannon, and equipment generally. and an officer who has lost an arm by a cannon-ball must be admitted to have some practical knowledge of artillery. the third officer was the grand duke lothar, a blood relation of the emperor, who, owing to a very real lameness, acquired in his subaltern days, had been obliged to confine his military excursions within the narrow limits of vienna or ratisbon. but he had stored up a profound knowledge of cæsar's 'commentaries,' and was very well acquainted with the theory of war as it was then understood. it was the emperor, usually in consort with the experienced maximilian, who formed the general plan of campaign. if the council's opinion coincided with the emperor's, as it usually did, on a review of the plan, its execution was left in the hands of the general in command of the army, and the function of the council was then to take all possible steps to provide reinforcements, arms, and officers. before this sage professional committee nigel was summoned. "you have learned the manège, colonel?" was the abrupt inquiry of the oldest officer. "what is the complete equipment of a trooper?" was that of the camp-master. "how many troopers do you require in a regiment of dragoons, and what officers? how many squadrons could you make of it? how many troops go to a squadron?" these were lothar's. nigel, greatly wondering, answered all these readily and satisfactorily. then followed a catechism of the tactics of cavalry by the grand duke lothar, who drew lines on a sheet of paper to illustrate his meaning. these also nigel answered, for in a prolonged period of active service little had escaped his eye or his ear of what happened in any department of arms. the three military councillors exchanged nods and whispers of approval. "we are going to recommend his imperial majesty to cancel your commission in his musketeers and appoint you to the command of a new regiment of light horse!" said von falck. "i am forming the regiment," said the camp-master. "bohemians, austrians--all riders from their youth--with a sprinkling of old cavalrymen. they will need some shaping!" "the other officers are being selected," said the grand duke. "you will spend the next week or two getting them equipped, and horsed, and drilled. then your orders will be given you." "i am at your excellencies' service!" said nigel. three days afterwards, spent in wearisome discussions, conducted on the one side in half the patois of europe, and on the other in tolerably good german and an admixture of plain scots, the subject being horses, nigel was wishing devoutly that he had never seen vienna, never become the favoured child of fortune, never---- "well, blick, what is it _now_?" "magdeburg's wellnigh spent, colonel!" "is that so?" was nigel's rejoinder. "never saw such a place as vienna," said blick. "the beer is too light!" "well!" said nigel, "you must drink more of it, or less of it." "yes, colonel! and the stagshorn dice are too light above and too heavy below!" "worse and worse! you'll have to give up play!" "it'll give me up," said blick. "and the wenches, colonel!" "well? are they too light also?" "i am not a bad-looking fellow, colonel! but if i stay here ... they're the very devil ..." groaned sergeant blick. "you want to get back to count tilly? is that it?" "not for twenty rix-dollars!" "well! tell me! what is it you want?" "i want to be sergeant in your new regiment!" "what do you know of cavalry?" asked nigel. "i know men," said blick stubbornly. "i can drill them. i know horses. i can break them in. my father was a smith, and my uncle a horse-dealer. my grandfather was hung for stealing horses. it's in the blood. in three days i will have that mob of rascals at my heel. i am sergeant blick! i say it!" nigel looked at sergeant blick with a good deal of interest. he had looked at him before, as he had looked at interminable ranks of soldiers, and had never observed that in blick, as in himself, although blick knew no reading or writing, grew the stubborn thistle of ambition. he also remembered a dozen instances of good sergeantry which blick had displayed. it dawned upon his mind that, as it takes years to make a good ploughman, so it takes years to produce the good sergeant; and that without good sergeants it is impossible to make good regiments. sergeant blick, despite his words, stood stiffly at attention, awaiting the settlement of his destiny. there were at least two scars on his face, which were an abiding proof that he had faced both pike and sword, and his complexion, originally fair (he was a north german from münster), had been tanned and weather-beaten. the light-blue eyes, somewhat hard in the glint, were full of resolution and vigour, if the cheeks and the mouth did smack somewhat of the beer-can, as did the great girth of his waist, hardly counterbalanced by the greater girth of his shoulders. "sergeant is it? you can have it! you begin to-morrow; and keep all the corporals sober till we are ready to start, four days from now." "four days! the devil himself couldn't bring that mob of wild zigeuners and half-cooked hinds into the likeness of a regiment in four days." "nevertheless it must be done!" said nigel. the new sergeant grunted some guttural remarks, which nigel took in good part, as they were hurled less at himself than at things in general, which, as every one knows, are always deserving of the extreme of objurgation. then the sergeant paused. "well? you want something else?" "yes, colonel! this little bodkin that the lady at magdeburg tried to push through your steel cap! i tried to bargain with a dirty jew for a crown or so. he said it was good silver, but he asked how i came by it. i hit him a buffet, but he only snarled that neither he nor any other dealer in vienna would buy it because of something or other, arms or what not, on the hilt." "oh! let me look at it! so! it is a curious device. well, i'll give you a crown for it. at all events i have a good right to it if any one has. the point was meant for my head." sergeant blick took his crown with thanks, saluted, and went out. to realise one's ambition and a crown, albeit a silver one, in the same half-hour, is always worth while. it was true that to nigel the weapon, which, had it been used otherwise, might have slain him, was a possession of interest. but a further look at it, or rather at the ornamentation of the haft, which was good silversmith's work, revealed to him what it had revealed to the jew, who was too careful to buy that which might put a rope round his neck, something, in his opinion, stolen from some dangerously high place. again he asked himself, "who is ottilie von thüringen?" "by saint andrew!" he exclaimed as some one entered. "heilige frau!" the other cried in equal astonishment. "so you are my new colonel, charteris?" "and you, hildebrand?" "i am to be your major, it seems, by the grace of general von falck with one eye, camp-master von pratz with one arm, and his highness the grand duke lothar, to whom regiments are sheets of paper and the officers numbers." major hildebrand von hohendorf did not seem altogether gratified. "dear old comrade!" said nigel warmly, shaking him by the hand, "it would have given me greater pleasure to have been your major than it does to be your colonel. you were buried in hradschin. now you may conclude by becoming field-marshal." nigel knew that hildebrand was not one to nurse small jealousy, and was amenable to the gentle influence of a bottle and an honest friend taken together. the bottle was soon forthcoming, and so was hildebrand's pipe. "comes of helping to sack magdeburg and carrying despatches, i suppose," said hildebrand, a twinkle becoming apparent in his eyes. "or have you been making love to lothar's wife. they say she names most of the colonels! ha! what's this pretty thing?" he picked up the tiny dagger, which for the moment nigel had forgotten. "that's a little trifle a noble lady in magdeburg tried to stick into my neck!" said nigel. "my sergeant picked it up." "pretty thing!" said hildebrand, examining it. "bears the arms of the habsburgs, too!" the peculiarity did not seem to strike very deep, for he went off to another topic-- "now, what have we got to do? it seems to me we've got to make a regiment and then constitute ourselves free companions for a few weeks, maybe months, and then join tilly!" "listen!" said nigel. "we have to cross southern bohemia, the upper palatinate, enter würzburg, then hesse cassel, to frighten the landgrave, ride eastward to the elbe, and find gustavus. having satisfied ourselves of the direction of his march, we are to hang on to the advance-guard, and give early and constant information to count tilly and pappenheim. when the two armies come into touch we are to place our regiment under tilly's orders." "lord, what a riding and camping and sleeping under the trees," said hildebrand. "make us the most serviceable regiment of cavalry in the whole army," nigel consoled. "you'll be as thin as a pikestaff and as hard! no tokay in the thüringerwald!" "the beer might be worse!" rejoined hildebrand. "i've tasted it." chapter xvii. farewell to the archduchess. as nigel thought he owed that great windfall of fortune, the restoration of his cherished wallet of despatches, to the archduchess stephanie, insomuch as it was a direct outcome of her mysterious association with wallenstein, so he was inclined, without evidence, to attribute to her this second shaking of the tree, which had brought to his feet the still riper fruit of the command of the regiment of horse. perhaps the joking of hildebrand had left behind in his mind some traces of its passing. it certainly was not due to any conceit that he had made any impression on the heart of the archduchess. but it was just possible that her sympathy with the mind and destiny of wallenstein might have displayed itself in an endeavour to promote the fortunes of one who had been, and might some day be again, with wallenstein. an unquenchable desire pursued him. it had no effect upon his military duties, for at those he worked as one possessed. the horses, a motley but on the whole a useful collection, were allotted to their riders, the riders distributed into troops and half troops, the old soldiers converted into troop sergeants and corporals, and all kept busy at their exercising. hildebrand and all the other officers grumbled at this intolerable, but undoubtedly affable, scot, who let no man rest nor rested himself. but as daylight fell, and with it the last bulwarks of human patience, and the quarters and the taverns once more welcomed the "rough riders," as some wit of the canteens christened them, nigel was fain to seek rest and refresh himself. it was then, in the moments of relaxation, that the desire came upon him to seek out the archduchess. the strange likeness that she bore to the fugitive ottilie intrigued him. ottilie in the cathedral of erfurt had seemed, if his ears had not belied him, to pray for wallenstein. half an hour afterwards she had breathed scorn of wallenstein. the archduchess had named him in a way that gave a hint of an amiable alliance between them. had she any influence with lothar, or general von falck, or the redoubtable camp-master, and exercised it to gain him this commission? if not, to what circumstances did he owe it? could the emperor be so lacking in tried cavalry officers that he, who was not a cavalryman, should be selected? self-pride urged that his experience in the wars was his real recommendation for what must prove a perilous and delicate work. the scots have always been said to have a "gude conceit" of themselves; and nigel was not without it. but his scots caution tempered it. he gave self-pride its due weight and no more, and looked outside for the real reasons. but to approach the archduchess was not easy. he had been allotted other quarters in the part of the palace devoted to the officers of the guard. he could not without remark place himself in her way in the gallery of portraits. nor could he make an assignation to meet her, as the officers of the guard did, with the ladies-in-waiting, whom among themselves they called in their familiar german fashion gretchen, bette, or lotta. they might boast contemptuously of favours behind their charmers' backs, while professing a most poetical admiration to their faces. he could do neither. there was a gulf not easy to bridge between a lady-in-waiting and an archduchess. nigel had acquired a certain distrust of messages verbal or written, for his short intercourse with courtiers had engendered the belief that one half of the denizens of the palace, high and low, were spies upon the other half, and that father lamormain heard everything. but as write he must, he bethought him of certain poetical exercises of his which he had practised lamely enough while at the university of st andrews, in fond imitation of the poets of the court of queen elizabeth, where every one rhymed that could hold a quill. he drew with great pains the circle, the oval, and the curve of pietro bramante at the head, and, after many attempts in the long unaccustomed art, involving one hundred and four elisions and at least four separate drafts, he wrote beneath the figure the following lines, hoping that the whole might excite her curiosity if not her admiration, and lead to the audience so much desired:-- by eastern mage this secret figure limned is symbol that my barque of life, outbound from ports forgot for shores by mist bedimmed, should fetch the centre of this perfect round; nor should one miss to see the focus 'tis of a consummate oval: beacon light that points a haven to all argosies. imperial eyes, that do illume my night, my barque sets sail. suffer that she clear her harbour dues, and from her cargazon proffer these petalled blushes of the year, which, tho' they fade, as must my argus soon into the dim horizon, still implore but access, and a smile; they dare no more! --n. c. "now," said nigel to himself, "if i do but send sergeant blick to her waiting-maid with this sonnet ensconced in a basket of roses it is odds but her highness gets it, and if any one intercept it beshrew me if he make anything of it, for i can make little of it myself." the plan, clumsy or not, was successful. sergeant blick could be very stupid on occasions, till he knew he had what he wanted, and it cost him some pains before he could arrive at the personal attendant of the archduchess. then a handsome bribe for herself and the direct and not super-refined flatteries of the sergeant procured the faithful delivery of the gift. nigel had sent the drawing of the figure to meet either fortune. if she had not seen it before, it at all events assisted to explain the allusions of the sonnet; and if she had, by the hand of wallenstein, it would justify his request as showing that he himself understood the linking of the three destinies. as he sat with hildebrand at his evening meal the day following, he was summoned and bidden to attend in the garden of the palace at the hour of nine, when he would be met at the nearest gate. this involved some explanation to hildebrand, who, receiving the other's assent to his own hint of an assignation, merely laughed and asked no more. nigel was punctual, and the same page who had introduced him to the archduchess in the gallery met him, and bowing, led the way by a path little difficult to remember through the garden, where he had met father lamormain, to a little orchard close, which was separated from the garden by a thick hedge, within which was a wall. the page unlocked the gate of this with a key, which he then handed to nigel, bowed again, and turned as if to go. nigel entered the orchard close, and following a little path between two rows of trees came to an open bower, which had a carpet of thick sward, an old stone seat, a screen of yews and laurels all about save for the entrance and the exit opposite. the night was matchless with moonlight. the trees shone whitely. deep shadows fell from trees and bushes which were full of foliage. out of a shadow stepped the archduchess stephanie, a dark-hued velvet cloak dependent from her shoulders and open, displaying her milk-white neck and bosom, and a robe of some sheeny tissue of gold thread and silk that glittered here and there as she moved, whose texture caught the moonbeams. upon her head she wore a little golden fillet of antique work, which seemed to confine her profusion of black curls that for the rest framed in her glorious face and danced in the night breeze upon her shoulders. the dark eyebrows and the long lashes, like thickets half concealing twin lakes, made her complexion look paler than usual. but her red full lips parted in a smile. her beauty, intensified by the moonlight, and suffused with something more of air and sky, her ever astonishing resemblance to the strange ottilie von thüringen, together took nigel by storm. the shock of it thrilled him. no wallenstein of forty-eight, wrapped securely in the husk of his own fortunes, but a living man with all the ripe vintage of twenty-five surging in his veins, was nigel. what would the world of men of forty-eight not give to have the glorious energy, the unconquerable vigour, the joyous ardour for love of twenty-five, of twenty-five that can quaff and quaff again and still hold out the bowl for more? give? another world! was it perchance precisely fair? the law of archduchesses is sure their own, and no man can gainsay it. nigel, bewildered for a moment, stammered out-- "the queen of night!" and knelt to kiss her long slender fingers. as he rose to his feet again she laid a hand lightly on his arm and said with a twinkle of merriment in her rich voice-- "strange and inconsequent mixture are you, man! you face sword and fire, and lose not a heart-beat, nor a patch of colour. you meet a woman in the moonlight, and straightway your knees must knock, and you must tremble like a steeple in the wind." "i crave pardon, your highness!" said nigel, recovering his boldness. "great supreme beauty such as yours, if there be any like it anywhere, must needs give a man more than a feeling of awe!" "now you talk like a bold wooer and a poet. faith! you have more than a touch of the poet, though my skill in the english tongue is not great enough for me to put a right value on your verses. 'tis seven years since my cousin, the infanta, thought to wed england. we all learned english in those days." "but your highness understood!" said nigel eagerly. "it is but a day or two at most and i must ride into the very teeth of gustavus. i burned to see your highness, to thank you for my fortunes, and say that if your highness has need of me at any time--" "you will drop your regiment of rough-riders like a hot iron and ride for me? and this is loyalty to the house of habsburg!" her smile blunted the edge of her ridicule. "saving my duty as a soldier, your highness is _my_ house of habsburg!" he rejoined with such an earnestness that broke down her fence of raillery. "you scots! full of conceit! sensitive! brave to the degree that you do not even know you are brave! kindly, so that you would die and not grudge the gift!... i shall not tempt you from your duty; but if i call you by this sign"--she drew out the figure from its hiding-place--"come what may ... i look to you. it will be no little matter." nigel's eyes were full upon her, for there was a solemnity in her voice, a note of strong appeal as from one high spirit calling to another and conscious of the other's attuning. he drew his sword and pressed the hilt to his lips in token of his fealty. then it pleased the archduchess to pace to and fro for a while beneath the trees in silence. she was in truth full of emotion, which was all but too strong for her. the nearness of nigel, who walked beside her, was one cause of trouble. she had told herself that she loved wallenstein, the dark, inscrutable organiser of armies, that she had always loved him. but did she sway the spirit of wallenstein, the heart of wallenstein, so that it vibrated, if heart or spirit can vibrate, to her touch? she did not seek to answer it. she knew that this stranger scot with the eagle eyes and bearing was nearer to her in the spring of his years and of his intelligence, albeit one of her father's mercenaries, who might perchance become another tilly, never a wallenstein. "and why not?" she asked herself. then she answered it. "too much heart!" of a sudden she broke the silence again-- "i like you, colonel nigel! i trust you! i am perhaps going into a nunnery for a season; perhaps for always!" "your highness! into a nunnery!" nigel's astonishment and his sorrow were racing for the mastery. "they wish me to marry maximilian of bavaria!" "the jesuits? your highness will not?" "i have told them that asked, 'sooner a nunnery, or to wed a private gentleman who is not of the blood royal.'" the blood coursed like a river through the young officer's veins. if---- he put the thought away sternly. "many things may happen. i must gain time. some other league or bond may be formed and other interests may thwart it! i tell you so that if i be not here when you return, after you have driven gustavus back to the baltic, you will know. 'tis the fate of princesses who cannot control their own destinies." she had stopped in her walk as if to say a word or two before dismissing him. "i would i were to be nearer vienna than magdeburg!" said nigel. "but i have promised. and your highness is not an infanta of spain to be bartered here or there for an article in a treaty." "so you think!" she said, evidently pleased. "but we women are all alike in one thing, we are all fatalists, like the grand turk." "i have been very desirous of asking your highness a question," said nigel, drawing the little dagger from his belt and holding it so that she could see the hilt. "whose arms are those?" "habsburg," she said. "how came you by it?" "in magdeburg a lady tried to stab me with it." as her fingers closed round the hilt nigel seemed to see the hand again just as he saw it and grasped it at magdeburg. * * * * * "i wonder whether it was my cousin ottilie von thüringen," she said. "she is suspected of strong sympathies for the lutherans." "does she resemble your highness in person?" "yes! she did as a girl! there is a coldness between the families and we do not meet as we used. some say she is singularly like me. her mother was sister to mine! i remember myself giving her this dagger for a gift. 'tis very strange it should come into your hands and your eyes say that you wish it back in your own keeping. colonel nigel! i shall be jealous if you love my cousin ottilie! it is the way of princesses!" her eyes fastened upon nigel's: and his, fighting this uneven battle, drooped. "i do not know if i love her! but i love none other! and then she is not a princess!" "and one does not love the stars!" she interposed, rather with a touch of malice. "so you can worship but not love me, colonel nigel!" "what can i say, your highness? i must be true at all costs!" a mist came over her fine eyes. she gave him her hand. this time he bowed and kissed it. with a quick movement she turned, walked into the shadows, and he saw no more of her that night nor till he departed for his journey. chapter xviii. nigel's instructions, written and unwritten. it is not too much to say that the emperor ferdinand and the jesuits, which may be taken to include the duke of bavaria, were intoxicated by the fall of magdeburg. ferdinand was bent on carrying out his edict, bent on restoring to the church of rome its ancient possessions, bent on levelling the edifice of protestantism till not one stone should be left in company with another, as witness that within the bounds of the empire there had once been such a heresy as lutheranism, or such another heresy as calvinism. rather a tractless desert, which, for lack of a better name, he could call a catholic state, than well-cultivated provinces, studded thickly with prosperous towns and cities, wherein men and women worshipped their maker after any other fashion than his own. it was a dream of fanaticism. once the emperor had deemed that he was within reach of his desires, when wallenstein and his army had traversed the land driving the forces of protestantism before him, not all protestantism, mark you, but all that had courage enough to show an armed front in germany. and the diet of ratisbon had said, "your majesty must dismiss wallenstein." the jesuits had been foremost, for they had weighed wallenstein and found him wanting in their own kind of strenuousness. reluctantly the emperor had listened and agreed to let him go. gustavus had arisen. "another little enemy," said ferdinand, still full of the sensation of power that had crept into his heart with the aggrandisement of wallenstein's army. gustavus established himself in mecklenburg and in pomerania. "it is no great matter," said the emperor. "let our general tilly and your general pappenheim, duke maximilian, go on with their work and enforce the edict. brandenburg lies between gustavus and magdeburg, and george william is no fire-eater. he will stand by the empire. saxony, broad and rich in cities and men, lies next in his path, and john george is, protestant though he be, a staunch elector of the empire. let tilly and pappenheim go onward, maugre the threats of these northern migrants. we have seen christian of denmark driven back to his flat lands. so shall we see gustavus." and lo! tilly and pappenheim took magdeburg, and, whether they could help it or not, the city was burned and twenty thousand of its citizens died the death of the heretic: and the bruit of it had sent a shudder through all protestant germany. who indeed should stand at the last day against the arms of the empire? "and all without your vaunted wallenstein!" said duke maximilian. they set it down to impotence on the part of gustavus. the emperor ferdinand was not indisposed to show some other parts of germany that vienna was active, keeping them in mind, and he was not altogether sure of hesse cassel and its landgrave. he did not wish to send his new regiment to join tilly by the straight path through saxony, because saxony might take umbrage. it would help to preach submission if it took the road through hesse cassel and came by the north side of the mountains into the south of hanover, and got into sight of gustavus from the west bank of the elbe, it being presumed that the swedish king was upon the other side, and came up stream to tilly. this time nigel had no despatches to carry. the grand duke lothar had summoned him to read in his presence the instructions of the emperor, which he was to impart to major hildebrand von hohendorf. the only papers he was furnished with were general authorities to quarter his troops where he thought it expedient. money was given him, but not in such abundance as to cumber his march. last of all, he was bidden to father lamormain's apartments. the priest received him with the urbanity that sat so well upon him, and bade him be seated. "i trust that your visit to vienna has been a pleasant and a profitable one!" he said. "both the one and the other beyond all expectations!" said nigel heartily. "you are entering upon a perilous adventure," said the priest. "but the emperor and his councillors have great hopes that you will acquit yourself successfully. your journey is a long one, and you will pass through many states, towns, bishoprics, and it depends upon yourself what speed you make. i do not doubt but that your zeal will conduct you to our armies. but the emperor desires that you should note with care the disposition and affection of each district to his rule, so that he may know on whom to count for support or enmity. more than that, it is suspected here that the duke of friedland has intelligence with many princes and magistrates, even with gustavus of sweden." "impossible, father!" the young man interposed with a flush of indignation. "wallenstein a traitor!" father lamormain made a little movement with his hands. "i do not say treasonable! we live in times when we find it as difficult to say what is honour as pilate found it hard to say what was truth. besides, wallenstein, being a private gentleman holding no office, may if he so chooses write letters even to gustavus about ... shall we say butterflies, or forestry, or a thousand subjects." "but with the open enemy of the emperor!" protested nigel. the priest maintained his suavity. "injudicious, let us say, if it be true! it is suspected. now if you should in your journeying intercept any of his messengers, the emperor's service demands that you should possess yourself of his letters and hand them to the next regular priest you meet for transmission to the emperor." at the first grasp of the proposal nigel was inclined to hesitate. but at the second he saw that there was nothing essentially unbecoming in it. he was in the service of the emperor, and the emperor's enemies avowed or secret must be his. there could be no division of allegiance. besides, it was too impossible. father lamormain watched his face, saw the hesitation, and drew forth a written order, signed by the emperor himself, to seize the person of any messenger he would who carried letters, examine him, and send unbroken to the emperor any letters he might seize. nigel read it and nodded. "i understand, father. it is for the safety of the empire!" "and holy church!" added the priest. "your responsibility ceases when you report yourself to count tilly." nigel devoutly hoped that he would reach tilly in the shortest possible space of time. fighting was one thing. in so far as one did not get shot oneself or maimed, it was an impersonal thing. provided one did not have too much of it, it was exciting and almost enjoyable; besides that, it was the exercise of an old and honourable profession. but stopping messengers on the highroad, when there was no chance of reprisals on their part, questioning them at point of pistol, or rifling their holsters, seemed to be the work of a lower order entailing a certain stain upon him who performed it. "i would ask you a question, father. why have i been chosen for this work?" the priest smiled. "for your knowledge of your craft the archduke lothar vouches. for your being a good catholic the church vouches. and that you are of the scottish nation is good pledge that you will have no personal end to serve in germany but your own advancement. to you saxony is saxony, bavaria, bavaria, but they mean nothing. you have taken service with the emperor, and him only will you serve. so long as you serve the emperor with a single eye you will succeed. the blessing of heaven will follow you. the higher you climb, the more difficult the path will be. but only obey!" the openness of the priest's avowal and his fatherly manner, almost a benediction in itself, won upon nigel to a great degree, so that his suspicions of the jesuits and their ways were almost, if not quite, laid to rest. "to obey comes easy to the soldier, father! but it does not make some duties less irksome." "ah! there i disagree with you," said the priest. "the rule of my order is obedience. the patience, the skill demanded of us, the interest involved in carrying out the task to a complete and successful issue beyond the possibility of doubt, remove all that you call irksomeness. strive after our conception of obedience and all else becomes easy to you." "but in your case," said nigel, "there is no tie of blood that binds you. you admit neither father nor mother. the church and your order stand in their stead." "that is true! the member of the brotherhood of jesus reckons no human relationship as having any meaning in his regard, and being free he moves safely to his instructed purpose. there is but one human passion which can be a source of danger to you. you are young. you may love. at present no danger threatens. am i right?" nigel answered tersely enough. "no woman claims me. i claim no woman!" and his answer was as sincere as it appeared to be to father lamormain. for if his thoughts had often turned towards the lost ottilie, and his admiration been roused by the archduchess stephanie, the unknown distance of the one and the exalted rank of the other had stayed the fire, as trenches widely dug will upon a burning heath. nigel was sensible of the pervading influence of the priest. he had passed the stage at which he had silently questioned his instructions, nor did he think it strange that the confessor of the emperor should have been the channel of their conveyance: for by this time from one and another he had realised the peculiarly close leaning that the emperor had towards the church and towards its regular priests. he, however, did not recognise that one purpose of the interview was that father lamormain should make the further acquaintance with the instrument the emperor and himself proposed to use. on the whole, father lamormain was well pleased, and satisfied on the main head that nigel was no creature of wallenstein, though as a soldier he reverenced his old commander. for any further work beyond the present, time would show if this scottish gentleman might become a more confidential agent of the order. on the morrow nigel set forth from vienna with his three hundred "rough-riders," and if, horses and men, they presented an uncouth and unfinished appearance, they also had a certain aspect of the formidable that boded ill for any obstacle they might encounter. chapter xix. the guests of the abbot of fulda. of the earlier marches of colonel nigel charteris it is not needful to say anything. for the first day brought them across the plains to budweiss, where a strong garrison of the emperor's troops lay, and the next to the bohmerwald, crossing which they came into bavaria, and so on the evening of the fourth day made nuremberg. bavaria being a country ruled by that masterful duke maximilian, who was a pupil of the jesuits, though of a far more flexible mind than his cousin ferdinand, was a stronghold of catholicism, and, beyond a few natural grumbles at having to find quarters and food for so undesirable-looking a regiment, placed no obstacles in their way. nuremberg certainly showed a sullenness of the populace which seemed to indicate that below the surface there was a strong protestant feeling, despite maximilian's orthodoxy, but to nigel it mattered little. his march next led him to bamberg, a town entirely dominated by a catholic bishop, and a hostelry on the "priestlane" to the rhine, as the chain of bishoprics was called by the untaught lewd of the protestants. the next stage was fulda, the seat of the abbot of st boniface, across the bavarian border, and before him lay on one side the westernmost strip of the thüringian forest, and on the other the state of hesse cassel. now and again in bavaria nigel heard news of the army that was with pappenheim and tilly. he learned that no action had been fought, that the elector of saxony was still maintaining a neutrality, though he had gathered large numbers of troops. of gustavus he learned nothing. evidently he was still in pomerania. nigel anticipated a peaceful march through the territories he had yet to traverse, albeit they were territories still protestant in the main. the abbot of fulda was the chief of all the abbots of the empire. his territory extended twenty miles to the north and fifteen from east to west. it was for the most part a fertile plain of great cultivation lying between two ranges of hills which met at the northmost angle of a rough triangle. fulda itself was in the south of the domain and near the bavarian border. for forty years or more the abbots of fulda had kept lutheranism at bay with as much zeal as the emperor himself, while hesse cassel and thüringia, the neighbouring states, had as sedulously fostered the heresy. nigel and his men readily gained entry to the town, and were surprised, as they rode through, at the palace of the abbot and the buildings inhabited by his dependants and officers as well as those of the abbey itself, where the monks continued to extol, if not to emulate, the holiness of st boniface, whose bones lay beneath the altar in the chapel beneath the choir of the cathedral. the town reflected in its shops and dwellings as well as in the dress of its inhabitants the wealth and prosperity of the abbot, for the shrine of st boniface brought numerous pilgrims, and the long and orderly rule of the church for long generations over the domains had enabled the abbey to accumulate a considerable treasure. nor were evidences lacking that the abbot was alive to the scriptural advice about the strong man armed keeping his goods in peace. for the abbot commanded a goodly assemblage of lay brothers, who acted as his fighting force, for reprisals or for defence. the object of their visit being explained to the chief officer of the abbey, quarters were assigned to the men and horses in the outlying portions, while nigel and hildebrand were received with much ceremony into the palace of the prince-abbot himself, and treated with every courtesy as the representatives of the emperor. the abbot loved good cheer, and those who sat at meat with him had no cause to complain of famine or of drought, nor was he himself sparing. beside the two soldiers were two of the abbot's principal officers, and another gentleman, like the soldiers, a sojourner in the territories of fulda. the high cheek-bones and small dark eyes, the swarthy gipsy-like complexion, all denoted an eastern birthplace. the abbot presented the newcomers to him and named him as the count von teschen. his manners were pleasant. he was affable, but it was an affability that told nothing. "so you were at magdeburg!" said the abbot. "a grave blunder!" nigel looked questioningly. "not on your part, colonel! nor for that matter on tilly's. but the jesuits!" "but magdeburg had flouted the edict!" opposed nigel. "magdeburg was at fault too!" smiled the abbot. "the emperor is a good catholic. so am i, i trust. but the emperor is too spanish in his catholicism. lutheranism was a kind of quartan fever, a theologic plague, a wen into which all manner of foul humours of discontent drained till it burst. it should have been allowed to exhaust itself. what did my predecessors do? they sat fast. they rewarded their good faithful catholics. they made no wholesale persecution of the heretics, of whom there were a few. but the heretics found out that the true faith paid them better. here and there one was quietly deprived of his farm or of our custom. lutheranism grew stale, as all these violent uprisings must. the old order continued. little by little, when those tinged with heresy saw that we were not to be moved, they came back." "they were long-headed men, the abbots of fulda! now fulda trades with hesse cassel and with thuringia, which are both lutheran. we exchange our cattle and our wine and leather for their goods or their money, and do not find fault because either smells of lutheranism." "it sounds reasonable!" said the count von teschen. "edicts are all very well," the abbot continued, "but if edicts are going to destroy men and women and children, homesteads, workshops, trade, they are going to destroy our revenues." "but surely," suggested nigel, "our father the pope approved of the emperor's edict and the means he took to enforce it." the abbot smiled with great benignity. "if the grand turk issued an edict that all his subjects should become christians, would not the holy father approve? without a doubt! but if the grand turk applied to his holiness for a million of gold crowns to assist him in his task of conversion?" "i wager," said hildebrand, "his holiness would not subscribe a single rix-dollar!" "it would be a pious aspiration! and so was our pope's. they call him pope lutheranus. he was not willing to discourage the emperor ferdinand in his desires to restore to the church what the church had lost, but he has not shown himself willing to contribute out of the treasure of rome to set armies marching hither and thither over the peaceful lands of germany to enforce his aspiration. let well alone!" "the duke of friedland allowed himself to be dismissed," said the count von teschen, "because he saw that it was the emperor's desire to make him the instrument of oppression to the protestants." nigel's ears pricked up. who was this that spoke so intimately of wallenstein's mind? "doubtless he saw also," said the abbot, "that the ideas of the emperor would draw together all the protestant powers. it is coming to that. even my neighbour the landgrave of hesse cassel is but now on his way, if he has not already started, to join gustavus." "indeed!" said count von teschen. there was that in his look and tone which suggested to nigel that it was news to him, and unwelcome news. "moreover, my neighbours of thüringia are in a ferment and have raised up at least a regiment to march into saxony." "to what end?" said nigel. "it is thought the elector, john george, is too well affected to the emperor." "john george is by nature peaceful! but he is gathering an army. and if the emperor were as politic as he is a good catholic he would say to john george, 'come! let us talk no more about edicts. let us drive out the swedes.' but he cannot. he is too headstrong, and too sure of john george. and john george has his people to consider. do you think magdeburg has softened _them_? has not every village had its separate tale, and, as for thüringia, there is a preacher called pastor rad, who has painted the fall of magdeburg from one end of the forest to the other in the colours of sodom and gomorrah. beware how you and your troops ride through the forest. just now the sight of a casque or a gorget would madden the peasantry till not one trooper of your regiment would remain to ride his horse." nigel was not ungrateful to the abbot for his warning, though he suspected the dignitary of an inclination to exaggerate. he was no coward, but he had seen enough of the forest to know its solitudes of trees, the deep beds of leaves that lay in the hollows, undisturbed from year to year, till those of ten years ago had become thick black soft earth in which a man's body might lie and moulder silently and surely till the bones parted company. in the forest a shrewd bolt from an old cross-bow, an opportune thrust of pike from behind a tree, a stone well dropped from a bough, might each and all thin his ranks and no enemy be seen. but these gruesome forebodings were set aside by something the genial and talkative host was saying to count von teschen. "prague! i have never journeyed thither! they say the duke of friedland has a goodly dwelling." he looked round complacently. "our own is not amiss seeing what a patchwork the ages and my predecessors have made of it. is the duke's greater?" "it is in a great park!" said count von teschen. there are six gates to its outer walls, and he has twenty gentlemen of birth serving him as if he were the king of france. the servants and horsemen are numberless, and his riches make the whole expense appear but a tithe of them. "and how does he spend his time?" "you have heard of his astrologer?" "has he an astrologer of his own?" "aye! one master seni! 'tis not the only one, for i have heard of another, master pietro bramante, who travels up and down and visits him at times." "and what do they that a man cannot do for himself?" "i know not! all they do they do in secret. but 'tis said they both watch the stars for signs." "as cæsar watched the entrails of the sacrifice for signs!" said the abbot with a laugh. "but i wager that don cæsar could always find the auspices propitious, if his own plans were ripe." this caustic comment did not seem to please count von teschen, for he said nothing but smiled an unpleasant smile that showed his fine white teeth. "you may tell the duke that i was much gratified by his gift. that antique mitre of old goldsmith's work and the rochet will be famous additions to our abbey's treasure-house, and that which he has sent me of a more personal kind is very precious to an old man who finds much of his enjoyment in his toys." count von teschen expressed his thanks for the abbot's appreciation and promised deliverance of the message. the abbot, on his part, promised to show them the treasures of st boniface on the morrow, and after a little while of further talk the guests were shown with all ceremony to their bedchambers. nigel was nothing loth. but he had no sooner found his couch than he began to con over this count von teschen. that he was an emissary of wallenstein was plain: but that a rich nobleman should send presents appropriate in character to a rich prelate had nothing suspicious in it. if wallenstein had lost favour and power mainly through the loss of the support of the great catholic electors, the bishops of mainz, cologne, and treves, it was not so wonderful that he should by indirect methods attempt to curry favour with a man like the abbot of fulda, who was almost the equal of the great prince-bishops, and would share their politics and their fortunes. but was this _all_ the task of the emissary? was it not possibly a cover to his real purpose, an end in itself, but only a minor one? if it were so, how was nigel on the abbot's own friendly territory to bid count von teschen stand and deliver, backed though he was by three hundred indifferent horsemen, many of whom were count von teschen's own countrymen? it is to be feared that nigel's last prayers before sleep came were not for the salvation of father lamormain. the next morning nigel and hildebrand met the abbot, who had with him count von teschen, at the hour of nine, and made the round of the cathedral and the treasure-house and the principal apartments of the palace and the abbey, which occupied them well till the hour of dinner, when they were again treated with sumptuous liberality. the meal over, count von teschen took his leave, and nigel was unable to see him depart: but for this he had taken measures. the abbot seemed very willing to detain the others, and asked particularly to see the muster of the troops and an exercise or two, for his tastes seemed to lie strongly towards secular matters. nigel could do no less than gratify him, and though he himself was quite aware that his men were far from showing the discipline and skill of the veteran troops he had once led, the display pleased his host, and occupied a good deal of time. his first question of sergeant blick was as to the direction taken by the count. when he learned that it was on towards the borders of hesse cassel he was possessed by eagerness to set off, which, however, he had to restrain till he could take decent leave of the prelate. "you have a good many bohemians in your ranks, colonel!" said the abbot. it was significant that the abbot of st boniface could put two and two together. "aye," said nigel to himself, "corbies dinna pick oot corbies' een!" chapter xx. casting out a devil. it was thus two hours past noon when nigel and his men rode out of the north gate of fulda, and took the road that leads along the left bank of the river fulda, which steadily pursues its way till it finds an opening in taunus and so breaks into hesse cassel. whether count von teschen had taken that road, or returned, seemed of little moment, for he had at least two hours' start, and as he had but a single man-servant, and both of them were well mounted, pursuit promised little result; for the speed of nigel's command was perforce the speed of the worst horse. moreover, as they were approaching a country of doubtful friendliness, it was wiser to approach it in good order and condition than upon horses blown with haste. at the frontier of hesse was a small military post the captain of which challenged their further passage. nigel made a civil reply that he was commanding a regiment of the emperor's horse and purposed to ride through hesse cassel into lower saxony. the captain requested that he would stay his march till the wishes of the landgrave could be ascertained. to this nigel made the firm answer that he was unable to wait for such permission, the more so that the emperor was not at war with hesse but with sweden. the captain told him that he passed at his own peril, and called in his handful of men. nigel rode on to hersfeld. such of the inhabitants that he met or overtook preserved a sullen demeanour, which did not savour of anything but hostility. perhaps they regarded him and his men as the woeful harbingers of great armies, and few of them, indeed, made any guess as to the master he served, being disquieted at the uncouth aspect of the strangers. but at hersfeld he found something more than sullenness. for outside the gates on the town's common was drawn up a considerable body of well-armed infantry, and the numerous pennons showed that here was a muster camp. two regiments were disposed in battle array in the dense battalion formation usual with all armies but that of gustavus. a little in front of these was a group of richly-dressed officers, and in the middle one of high rank. nigel halted his men and rode forward with hildebrand till he came within saluting distance, when, after a cold acknowledgment, the general commanding the hessians motioned him to come forward. nigel advanced a few steps and reined in his horse. "who are you?" was the curt inquiry. "colonel nigel charteris of the imperial service, with my regiment of horse. i am leading them through the territories of hesse cassel to join count tilly." "by whose authority?" "the emperor's, and with the goodwill of the princes his allies!" "his majesty takes strange measures to preserve their goodwill, sir. i am william of hesse! these are my territories, not the emperor's." "your highness will surely of grace accord us a day's journey through your dominions, and such little provender as we pay for. it is a peaceful errand so far as your highness is concerned." "then you should have stayed at the frontier till my guards had asked my will." "i crave pardon, your highness. i was told in fulda that your highness had set out on a journey; and i might have waited an ill-convenient time." "it is possible, colonel. you might have gone other ways." "the emperor would doubtless be surprised to hear that the landgrave of hesse cassel was unwilling to give his men passage. but if it be denied to them, i have no instructions to make war." "'tis just as well!" said the landgrave with a grim smile on his thick lips. "we have that about us that would stop you. you will go hence, if you so choose, across the river into thüringia, and make what way you can. i am not ruler there. but further passage through hesse you cannot have." nigel showed no outward perturbation. he took one level, leisurely survey of the officers of the landgrave, saluted, and said-- "adieu, your highness! it will please the emperor to know that the hospitality, which is denied to him, is accorded to the duke of friedland." the point of this remark lay in this, that count von teschen was seated on horseback among the suite of the landgrave. "one does not inquire into the quality of the merchant, but into the goodness of his wares!" was the quick reply. for all his sternness the landgrave looked into nigel's eyes with a half smile, and made a little motion of farewell with gauntleted hand. he was a man and knew a man. nigel and hildebrand bade their regiment of rough-riders turn about and make for the river bank. the advance-guard was bidden to stop wherever the river should be fordable. then they planned to cross into thüringia and march north by the way of erfurt, and thence to the camp of gustavus. the _contretemps_ at hersfeld was a surprise to both of them. nor was it to be explained by the presence of count von teschen. it was plain that the landgrave was about to take up arms against the emperor, and that the emperor was ill-informed as to the real state of matters in the protestant states, of which hesse cassel was one of the smallest. as to wallenstein, nigel against his own inclination was beginning to have doubts of his loyalty. father lamormain had more than hinted them. the landgrave's irony about the merchant and his merchandise showed that at the opposite poles of policy and belief similar ideas were current. and nigel was honestly grieved. but his path at all events was plain. he was for the emperor. so having come to the ford he set his horse at the water, and though it reached his stirrups and ran swiftly, he made light of it. by the fall of evening they had reached the hamlet of salzungen and bivouacked by the river werra. water and green grass ripening into long hay were there in plenty, and nigel had learned in the school of wallenstein sufficient of the art of exacting creature-comforts for the men. it was merely an outskirt of the forest land, gently undulating from the hamlet church down to the river; and across the river farther down, where a wooden bridge spanned it, the road wound into gentle rising lands, behind which rose steeper pine-covered hills, and there was a great expanse of sky and comparatively open country. there was no chance of a surprise here, and except from equal numbers of cavalry, a thing unlikely to expect, there was nothing to fear. at the ford near hersfeld he had left a vedette of three picked men to watch and capture any one that crossed during the next five or six hours. there was still a hope that it might be the count von teschen. and if his path lay in another direction, it might be some messenger to rouse the opposition of the people of the forest. at midnight the vedette came in and reported that no one had crossed. when the vedette came nigel roused himself to hear their report, bade them take the refreshment provided for them, and go to sleep. the first sentinels had been relieved, and all was quiet save for the sound of horses tearing the rich grass as they took fresh mouthfuls, or the chant of some still unsated grasshoppers. he was soon asleep again. but not so heavily as before. the couch of hay on which he lay in an open shed did not, once his sleep was broken, prove quite so soft and alluring as it had three hours before. and at two o'clock, which sounded from the nearest steeple, he found himself cold and wakeful. then from the main street of the hamlet his ear caught the sound of horse's hoofs, not of a horse being ridden but led. one horse! two horses! it might be some early villager; or, again, it might be count von teschen. nigel got up, wrapped in his cloak as he was, went out and summoned the sentry who was on guard beside the hut. taking the man's musket himself, he bade him go and see who the horsemen were, and himself walked to and fro in the cold air, musket on arm. then after a few steps he stood still, for he had heard a low call. it was a familiar one, the call of the bohemian to his horse. some wakeful trooper might have uttered it in pure negligence. but it was repeated. and then from another direction, it was not easy to tell which, it was answered. nigel was alert now, wondering what this might mean. still dark, he had nothing but his ears to trust to, but down among the lines he thought he heard movements. so he roused the two nearest men, and sending one away in the direction of the noise he bade the other be on the alert. then he resumed his place, appearing to sleep on his post but in reality watching with ears and eyes. two forms began to make themselves apparent, wriggling and crouching along the ground in between the sleeping troopers, mere shapes, but moving, and moving towards the hut. of a sudden one sprang at him, knife in hand, to feel the butt of the sentry's musket hit him one tremendous blow beneath the chin and then nothing more upon earth. the other who made straight into the hut was faced at the opening by a trooper, who, firing his musket point-blank, blew half the man's face away, and in doing so roused the camp. "seize all the bohemians!" was the next order. but quickly as it was carried out in the almost total darkness, the confusion, the protests, the excitement among the horses, which threatened to stampede, all contributed to the partial success of the plot. for some twenty-five or thirty men galloped in wild disorder across the grasslands and gained the wooded bridge before they could be stopped, and for the present it was hopeless to pursue. the sentry was found by the roadside leading to the village, stunned by a blow from a pistol butt. nigel, except for hildebrand, kept his own counsel. but at dawn, as soon as the troopers had broken their fast and horses were fed and watered, he made a close inquiry, released such of the bohemians as seemed to have kept quiet, distributed them by twos and threes through the other troops, and the rest, about a dozen in all, he deprived of their arms and made them ride in the middle of the regiment, scowling and disconsolate. so count von teschen had scored his first point, and the second point. but nigel was determined not to let him get too far ahead, to husband his horses with all the skill he could command, and follow his own road to erfurt. if he could get even with von teschen on the way so much the better. it was a summer morning. not a few of the village folk came out to look at the regiment from a respectful distance. and as nigel and hildebrand rode over the little bridge whence they could see in either direction the little river peacefully meandering, the line of tiny trees along its banks, the shimmering haze over the meadows, and heard the church bell summoning the faithful to early mass, all the world seemed at peace. over the low hill to another hamlet called schweina, where they got a stirrup-cup, and then the road, still mounting, wound by an ascent that tried the horses towards the castle of altenstein, which was nearly the highest point of the range of hills they had to cross, peering out of the thick woods. as yet they had seen no sign of the count von teschen. a short halt to breathe the horses and then onward again, and after a short farther ascent they found on the ridge of the range a fair road, wooded to the left, and bounded on the right by grasslands which sloped down to the valley, a world of greenery beneath a canopy of the bluest sky. a mile further on, to avoid a long detour, they had to clamber by a rough path over a spur of the woody hill before meeting the road again, and here they became aware they were not the only wayfarers, for, as nigel was almost out of the woodland shade, he heard the murmur of many voices and the articulate sound of one strong resonant voice. nigel passed the word to halt, while he looked upon the business that was forward, and to do that the better he forced his horse through the undergrowth some few dozen yards farther along. upon a waggon, from which the horses had been taken, stood pastor rad. at first nigel saw vaguely a great multitude, and his first thought was that this was an assemblage of the lutherans for worship in a place convenient to the many scattered hamlets. then as his horse stood more steadily and he could choose his own window in the leaves, he saw that a great many of them were men, and that they were armed in some measure; and, thirdly, he noticed that whatever the ultimate business might be, that which was being transacted was a sort of trial. there was pastor rad standing in an ox-waggon, his long yellow hair partly matted on his brow and partly hanging in disorder, for he was manifestly very hot. down below, facing him, sat a girl, her hair flowing down to her waist, in a plain dusky blue robe. she was manifestly being talked at, preached at, the object of public ignominy. in a ring round her at a little distance sat two rows of grim-faced elders, or whatever functionaries corresponded to that body in the lutheran community. "come forth, satan!" bellowed pastor rad, so that it reached even to the ears of nigel and hildebrand. and all the ring of elders fell forthwith upon their knees and cried with a loud voice, "come forth, satan!" the girl involuntarily put her hands to her ears because of the clamour. "what in the name of heaven are they about?" nigel asked. "'tis an exorcising. the girl has an evil spirit!" said hildebrand, crossing himself. "'tis none of our business! let us get on!" but the girl wept and stood up crying aloud for a deliverer. she evidently dreaded the next step of the exorcisers. and with good reason, for pastor rad issued some brief directions and two men seized the girl, and, thrusting her hands between the rails of the waggon, were proceeding to bind them; another stood forward with a whip of many thongs. "god condemn the lutherans!" said hildebrand, and spat upon the ground. "they are going to whip the devil out of her." once more the girl tried to wrench herself free, and in doing so turned her face, throwing back her flowing hair as she did so, in such wise that nigel got a glimpse of it. "by god's son!" nigel exclaimed, with a burst of passionate indignation that almost startled hildebrand. "go back! lead the men into the open, halt them in three lines and await my order! tschk!" bowing his head and urging his horse he broke through the saplings and galloped to the girl's side. it needed but his brief "loose her!" to make her torturers undo the clumsy fastening they had begun, and "elspeth reinheit!" for her to fling her arms around his saddle-peak. "take me away! save me! save me! captain!" nigel unclasped her arms and bade her once more sit down upon the low bench. "fear no more, maiden!" he added with such decision in his voice as poured fresh courage into her. then he faced sternly up at the pastor and asked him-- "what have you against this maiden?" but the pastor, full to overflowing with spiritual drunkenness, shouted-- "the lord hath delivered into our hands her paramour also! behold him that sinned with the damsel. now shall the lying devil come out of her and she shall confess!" "what say you?" was nigel's response, hurled at the minister in a voice that spoke of his indignation. "that you, captain of the host of the evil one, did'st lie with the damsel at magdeburg! deny it not!" before the pastor knew what he did, nigel had leaned over in his stirrups and, seizing him by the raiment, tumbled him to the ground and struck him two shrewd blows with the flat of his sword, which completed his confusion. the men of the assembly sprang up, and with one accord were making for the bold intruder, but the immediate appearance of hildebrand and his men caused every one to stand stark still. "know all men!" shouted nigel in the temporary silence, "this maiden, elspeth reinheit, is as pure as snow. your pastor lies foully when he says other. it is true she succoured me when i was in sore need in magdeburg. but do not your scriptures say--'if thine enemy hunger, feed him. if he thirst, give him drink'? this did she, and for this i spared not only her life, but the life of her slanderer, pastor rad. is this true, maiden?" "before god, it is true!" said elspeth. "nevertheless, i leave her not here to your ruthlessness and your religion! maiden!" she sprang up at the word! nigel lifted her upon his saddle, and giving his horse the spur, bore her to the regiment, who, understanding nothing of what had gone before, manifested a jovial indifference not unmingled later with some rough jokes, which would perhaps have put nigel to the blush. for a woman, especially a woman in her youth, not ill-looking, was the ordained prey of the soldier of fortune, who having abducted her in one hour, as willingly dropped her in the next to patch up her life and the rags of her honour as she would. chapter xxi. into the forest's heart. before elspeth reinheit was aware of the providential character of the deliverance from her persecutors, she found herself descending the familiar, tortuous, narrow valley of the erbstrom, along which the houses of the village of ruhla are strung for fully a couple of miles. after a stony descent the regiment reached a tolerable inn, wherein nigel could gain speech in something like connected fashion with the girl. it seemed that from the day that nigel burst into the house at magdeburg pastor rad had conceived a violent jealousy in regard to elspeth, to whom previously he had paid such attentions as indicated a project of marriage. elspeth had till that time received his attentions with a kind of dutiful acquiescence; but as from that time his manner towards her changed into one of sullen suspicion, out of which arose interminable inquiries as to her relations with the scottish captain of musketeers, so her mood of acquiescence had changed also into one of complete indifference, not altogether free from a little feminine spite. unable to get any definite confession from her which would have condemned her, the minister had brooded over his own fancied wrongs along with the very real wrongs done to his fellow lutherans at magdeburg, and had finally concluded that she was possessed by a lying devil, who took pleasure in defeating him. this was a blow to his spiritual pride, and he had arranged to bring the matter to the test of a public discipline. to what lengths he might have gone in his extraordinary fury, supported as he was by the general renown he was just then enjoying as a prophet of protestantism, it was impossible to say. he was a fanatic, and a genuine believer in his own fanaticism, spurred on by a bitter residuum of admiration and desire for the maiden he had once fully intended to marry. as for the congregations he had summoned from every hamlet, little and big, for miles round, it was sufficient for them to have heard the bruit of the possession to believe it implicitly. even the very lawyers believed in such things, and unlearned persons were not prone to doubt what lawyers and clergy unitedly agreed was so. that she was a girl of the richer class of farmers, and therefore above most of themselves in social consideration, was in itself an inducement to believe ill of her. they had come to the assembly as to a holiday, with their wives and provisions, their pipes and tabors. there was to be a general muster afterwards of a military character, for had they not promised to raise a corps in aid of john george the elector of saxony, who was on the eve of rebellion against the emperor? the question nigel now put to elspeth was as to her next destination. her home was a little to the north of eisenach, but her father was a man who concerned himself more to stand well in the eyes of his neighbours, and especially those who bought and sold with him, than one to stand up starkly for his daughter's good name and safety. he had made a protest of sorts against her being haled before the congregations on such a charge, but he had not stood out long before the onslaught of pastor rad and some of the lay brethren. what had happened before might happen again. elspeth felt no surety in being restored at present to the parental homestead. "have you no more powerful friends who could give you refuge till pastor rad grows tired of his folly?" "there is the lady ottilie of thüringen!" said elspeth. "i know not where we may find her just now. she comes and goes like the forest deer. she is sometimes at the wartburg! if she were there, the landgravine would take me in, and pastor rad would never lay hands on me." a strange eager light came into nigel's face as the name of the mysterious ottilie fell innocently and naturally from the girl's lips. "who is she, this lady ottilie?" he asked in a tone of calculated indifference. "is she of the landgrave's family?" elspeth opened her own blue eyes more widely, and considered nigel's face with a calm gaze as she replied-- "she may be of their kin. i do not know. she is possessed of influence with them, and they treat her with much honour." they made plans together, for elspeth knew every path through the forest, and after an hour or so nigel gave orders to mount again. sergeant blick had improvised a pillion, and elspeth was mounted this time behind a solid german trooper, to whose belt she held tightly. she rode a few paces behind nigel, who was busy for a mile or two unfolding to hildebrand the inner history of the incident, and his own plans. so they rode on to a spot where a ridge of high open ground divides the thick forest valleys leading northwards from the one by which they had come. it is called hohe sonne. here hildebrand assumed command of the regiment, and was to lead them to the right by the road called weinstrasse and halt them at the edge of the forest, two miles to the east of the town of eisenach, while nigel with sergeant blick and four trustworthy troopers should make their way on foot with elspeth through the annathal to the wartburg. by this forest path they would be under cover all the way. their task accomplished, nigel and his party could rejoin the regiment. in the present state of thüringia, stirred from end to end as it evidently had been, nigel was bent on keeping as much as possible to the open road, and not allowing his force to be entangled in any tumult in the towns. at first the pathway led gently downwards through a wide undulating area of forest, which gradually contracted to a long sinuous ravine flanked by steep walls of rock. the sound of voices carried far along this rock-bound way in the stillness, that was broken by nothing but the light splashing of the brook and the "pink-pink" call of the birds. nigel and elspeth reinheit were far in front, for they were lighter of foot, and both eager, though from different causes. he was desirous to surrender his charge, pretty and young as she was, into safe keeping, for nigel had never played philanderer. he was also involuntarily full of the tumult, at once a wonder to himself and a pleasure, that came over him at the thought of ottilie von thüringen. elspeth in her ingenuous way was only too glad to leave the soldiers in the rear, in order to savour the unspoken delight she felt at being alone in the forest with her deliverer, at whose noble and martial aspect she kept taking little fleeting but soul-satisfying looks. she longed with all her maidenliness, and she was as sweet and chaste as the brook that gurgled by them, to throw her arms about him and tell him that she could love him to eternity. the affection of a thousand affectionate german girls, rippling over with endearing phrases of their love-making mother tongue, welled up to her lips, but did not pass them. only by an effort of will did she convert them to little outbursts of thankfulness that gushed out at intervals, and after short spaces of silence, renewed themselves in other words. even nigel could scarcely fail to be aware of the state of her feelings, for the tenderness of her tones filled out what might be lacking in her actual declarations. her beautiful golden hair had been gathered by her deft fingers into a coil, and surmounted rather than covered by a dainty coif; and with her clear blue eyes and pink cheeks, her supple figure, rather tall than otherwise, she was a feast for the eyes that some of the heroes of the nibelungen lied might well have coveted. one question bubbled to the surface of her mingled reverie and talk. "noble captain, have you ever seen the lady ottilie since we parted at erfurt?" nigel was too busy with the puzzling thoughts that the question called up to apprehend any subtlety in the question. so he said-- "once i fancied so! but it was not near enough to speak, and it was night." "do you long very much to see her again?" came the next question. "i? little one! i scarcely know! she is a mystery to me!" "perhaps that is why you would like to see her!" she conjectured. "now when you have brought me to a safe place _i_ shall never cease to wish to see _you_ again." nigel smiled as he answered-- "you must have a long patience, fräulein elspeth, for i may never come this way again." elspeth was on the verge of tears. "but what is this?" asked nigel. "it seems to me that the rocks close in and that there is no passage, though i suppose the brook runs out by some crevice. do we have to climb the rocks?" "we are coming to the dragon's gorge. after that we shall have the wide forest again." "we must wait till the men come up with us!" said nigel. "i could wait all day!" sighed the maiden, gazing at him with large eyes and then dropping her eyelids. in a minute or two they heard the sound of hurrying feet, in another sergeant blick and his men came panting up as fast as they could run. "the bohemians!" said blick. "count von teschen!" presently the jingle and clatter of men and horses echoed along the rocky walls. "no horses can get through the dragon's gorge," said elspeth. "come!" she led them to the rocks, and there a narrow passage disclosed itself, the width of a broad man, no more. it was as if the rocks had once been one and been split asunder by some mighty rent. the brook flowed to the opening, and the rocks' sides were covered with mosses and ferns up and up, through which there was an eternal trickle of water, and high above all were the tree-tops. "the question is, are they pursuing us, or are they merely making for the wartburg?" nigel asked sergeant blick. elspeth answered-- "they would never have come this way to _ride_ to the wartburg." "then they must never come through!" said nigel. "fräulein elspeth, lead these men through to the other end! blick, stay here with me." then nigel peered out from the mouth of the rocky passage. he espied count von teschen and his troop of bohemians riding along. then, as they in their turn made out the impossibility of going further, there was a general hubbub of voices. count von teschen was inclined to turn back and seek another way, but evidently some of his ruffians were for a pursuit on foot, thinking the rock passage but a temporary obstacle. five or six of them dismounted and throwing the reins on their horses' necks rushed forward splashing into the brook, and then one entered the dragon's gorge. he had no sooner peered round the first bend than he fell forward, for blick's musket butt was heavy and the arm that swung it strong. he fell face downwards into the stream. another of his fellows followed eagerly, and again the butt descended and he fell on top of the other. the water continued to trickle through the ferns and mosses. and the brook flowing on carried the flowing blood onwards to nigel's feet as he splashed forward towards the other end of the gorge. it was a strange fortress to hold, this rift in the rocks, and yet a fortress of a kind. one man at each end could hold it. it was tortuous and it was lofty. overhead were streaks of blue sky, alternating with patches of greenery and overhanging rocks. it would take more men than count von teschen had to spy down from above with the view of letting a big loose stone fall upon the heads of the defenders, for a yard to right or left for them brought invisibility. nigel pressed on to the other end, which opened out into a wider passage a few feet in length, and then discovered a still wider glen, with sloping sides thick with trees. two things were possible: the one to hasten forward and trust to their heels for putting the forest depths between them and the pursuers, which meant risking their lives once the count and his followers had made a circuit of the obstacle and possibly overtaken them, spreading out as they would be sure to do. the other was to lie in the fortress, stoutly guarding both ends, and trust to the foe giving up a hopeless task, and proceeding. the latter had this to recommend it, that darkness would fall at sunset, and the hours of this eventful day were hastening to their end. and with darkness and elspeth they might surely expect to evade the others and make their way to the wartburg. against this plan nigel's mind suggested that count von teschen was quite possibly himself journeying to that same castle, carrying letters to the landgrave, and if he reached there first, what hope could there be of a reception for elspeth, or safety for himself, especially now that blood had been shed. it became an immediate necessity to see what the enemy was doing. he sent one man back to support blick, one man he posted at the farther end of the gorge, outside, as a look-out, and the other two with elspeth stood in a little hollow just outside on a dry spot, with instructions to retire to the rocks if danger threatened. nigel then climbed the steep ascent at the further end and made his way along the lip of the rift till he could look down upon the count and his followers; they were all there as far as nigel could see, irresolute. finally they seemed to make up their minds, and one by one began to lead their horses in single file up a steep bank into the woodland. yet not all, for six remained to guard the inlet. very cautiously nigel leaned over and called to blick, whose cheery voice was heard in reply-- "two dead. no wounded, colonel!" chapter xxii. the dragon's gorge. nigel charteris prayed for the fall of night. night and the forest could save him and his handful. night and the forest would enable elspeth to lead them to the wartburg more swiftly than any horsemen could make their way. nigel prayed, but with him to pray was to labour. in a moment he was back again at the hinder end of the gorge and drew out his two men. in another moment they had spread forty yards apart, secure behind wide boles of trees on either side of the direction taken by the count. then a pause came. the count and his followers rode stealthily forward. they were evidently making a flank movement, but whether of departure or of surprise, it was not clear to nigel. either was undesirable. two puffs of smoke, two shots rang out, two of the bohemians fell from their saddles. six or seven of their comrades fired wildly in the direction of the smoke. but nigel's outposts had scuttled and taken up other positions. again two shots rang out, this time more in the rear of the count's party. one hit a horse, the other a rider. there was prancing and rearing, and three riderless horses tore back breakneck in the direction they had come. the count shouted hoarsely, bidding his men dismount and search. nigel ran swiftly back and called to blick and his comrade to follow the gorge to its hinder issue and await him. it may be imagined how blick splashed through the water and reached the trembling elspeth, who, standing as high as she could out of reach of the blood-stained water, was trembling all over at the unseen danger she ran. blick was for killing the count, but this nigel forbade, though there was justification enough. as far as his own deserters that was another matter. he wished to scatter them, disable them in detail, to avoid a hand-to-hand combat where numbers must tell against his little band, and gain time. the two outposts had fallen back upon the hinder mouth of the gorge. one was stationed behind elspeth to keep the pass. the other three with blick again spread out and lay _perdu_ until the searchers came near, so near that the muskets of nigel's men could scarcely fail to hit. then one by one their voices spoke, reverberating through the forest, given back by the rocks, repeated by other rocks, and again howls and curses rent the air. the bohemian deserters ran crouching here and there firing at trees they deemed men. and twice again the hidden marksmen hit the mark, and the count, watched carefully by nigel, was at his wits' end. with this kind of warfare he was plainly unfamiliar. he alone remained by his horse in company with a knot of five or six besides his body-servant. his guards were on the alert with their muskets ready to fire at the least sign, and every now and again a shot from one of nigel's holster pistols came whistling about their ears, sufficiently near to increase the strain of their attention and make them feel, despite their knowledge of nigel's strength, that the forest was full of enemies. once, twice, shots came perilously near hitting nigel, but his advantage of the thicker cover saved him. meanwhile sergeant blick managed his force of sharpshooters with amazing dexterity, advancing, retiring, picking off a man here or there. and the twilight came, less a state of light than of gloom. and the smoke of the powder hung just below the foliage, making everything uncertain. nigel began to smell victory instead of merely a skilful retreat. the orders were, at the end of every three fusilades to reassemble at the gorge. nigel led his men almost crawling through the bushes till they had the count and his body-guard within easy musket-shot. the rest were scattered, as blick had well contrived. then at a word four shots rang out together. four men of the guard fell wounded or dead, and with a rush at the count, sword in hand, nigel put the finishing touch, for the count in consternation threw down his own. the rest of his immediate followers grovelled on the ground and were quickly disarmed and bound. as for the others, who had grown dispirited by the slaughter and their wild-goose chase among the trees, as one by one they became acquainted with the culminating disaster, they slunk back to the rearguard, seized a horse apiece, and rode back on a harrying expedition of their own, which boded ill for pastor rad and his flock. some, that is to say, for others were of that spirit which must follow a master, as a dog prefers the company of man. these threw down their muskets at the brusque command of blick, and a few minutes afterwards blick had them on horseback without weapons, his own men in front and rear and the riderless horses beside them, awaiting the command to march. elspeth, all cheerfulness again, stood waiting. nigel and the count were a little way off. "there is no quarrel between us, count!" said nigel. "we have broken bread together in the house of our friend the abbot of fulda!" "a jolly host!" said the count in a tone of ingratiation, a little forced. "but," nigel continued, "it seems to me that your errand has an object which is not conducive to the emperor's service, which is mine." "in what, colonel?" "to find you at fulda bearing presents and messages from wallenstein was nothing that could offend the emperor. but to find you in the company of the landgrave of hesse?" "wherein was the offence?" the count inquired courteously. "i admit i had messages to the landgrave from the duke of friedland, from one count of the empire to another. what then?" "the landgrave had gathered an armed force. he is about to march to join gustavus. what else? to deliver messages from a subject of the emperor to an open foe is surely a grave matter of offence!" "i am sorry you should think so!" said the count. "it is not for me to weigh wars and parties. the duke of friedland bids me carry certain messages to certain of the great ones of the earth. i do it to the best of my poor ability. to bohemia the emperor is a name, a usurper of the kingship." "does that excuse the seduction of my men, who are the emperor's, paid, clothed, and fed by the emperor?" "as to that," the count smiled, "they chose to desert you to follow a countryman of their own! no great crime, surely? i could not compel them. they chose." "and chose badly, it seems," nigel responded grimly. "now before we proceed i must search you for any letters you may carry." "i carry none!" said the count, flushing, as nigel rapidly passed his hands into his pockets, over his hose, and other vestments. "as for your valise and holsters i can examine them later. meantime you are my prisoner, and will be shot down if you attempt to escape!" "but!" protested the count. "there is no 'but'!" said nigel. "be good enough to mount!" the count bit his moustache and mounted. nigel, having first perched elspeth on a horse, which he led, strode immediately in front, his left hand on the rein, his right hand holding his drawn sword in case of accidents. the road was a mere bridle-track where single file was a necessity. on the right for a mile or so it lay along the steep slope of the rising ground, not so much precipitous as steep. for horses and men alike it was necessary for progress to follow the pathway. every now and again cross paths came into view, but elspeth knew the forest as if it had been the highroad and kept steadily on. above them the high tree-tops towered, tall pines and straight slender beeches, whose foliage had learned to grow only upon the topmost boughs. now and again they came to a broad clearing where clear sky was. then the line of the ridge swept over to the east and the steepest declivities were to the left. the riders and nigel looked down into the great hollows in the woodland, flanked by great naked boulders that stood up out of the sea of leaves, the countless heaping of unnumbered years. and now the moon was up and patches of white light streaked the boles of trees, and the leaves, and ceased to be, for the further darkness of the shadows. now the pathway leads up by zigzags. elspeth whispers that they are now upon the wartburg itself, and bids nigel look down and out, and surely there in the moonlight he can see, a mile or two away, the outliers of the town of eisenach, else hidden by another hill which juts between. nigel calls a halt, and, to the count's chagrin, just concealed and no more, orders blick to descend with the count and the others to the camping-place without the town where the regiment should be. he himself with one soldier for his guard mounts the zigzags with elspeth, passes beneath the bridge wherefrom he is challenged by the sentry, and stands at the outer gate of luther's famous asylum. there is the clank of men-at-arms, the murky flicker of the lanthorns, rattling of bolts, and nigel is admitted. the guard fears no surprise from a single officer, a single trooper, and a maiden half dead with fatigue, whose stockings are soaked with water, and that the reddened water of the dragon's gorge. over the stones of the causeway of the outer court, through the arch below the guard-room, they reach the inner courtyard, bathed in the moonlight, serene, still, but for the splashing of the fountain. beyond, where the white walls of the castle are not, is the limitless night and the limitless sea of tree-tops just flecked by the moonlight. the doors are opened hospitably and the red glare of fires made visible. then the landgrave himself, the landgravine, with their gentlemen and ladies, troop into the hall. and almost before nigel can explain his errand, a lady steps out, tall beyond her fellows, and cries aloud-- "elspeth! little elspeth reinheit! in what a plight!" it was ottilie von thüringen. chapter xxiii. a clash of hearts. but for the dark eyes of ottilie von thüringen nigel charteris would have led his reluctant horse down to the camp. he had leisure to make this reflection as he sat at meat some degrees below the landgrave, who, though supper was over, still sat at the high table with a flask of rhenish wine before him. the landgravine had gone to her retiring room again. the lady ottilie had borne off elspeth, who, nigel reflected, must be very hungry. he did not know that this reflection he shared with the sage and high-born lady, who was at this time encouraging elspeth to make a hearty supper, not omitting a goblet of mead, which aided elspeth's tongue to recover its native fluency. it was true that the dark eyes of ottilie von thüringen had sparkled with delight and surprise at the sight of nigel. nigel was a scot, and therefore set the sparkle down to the credit of his account. but nigel was a scot, and therefore also asked himself why the lady's spirit, as reflected in her eyes, should be so elate. and ottilie herself could not have told why, would not have admitted that she was elated. and half an hour after she had carried off elspeth she had become so deeply interested in the account of the fight in the dragon's gorge that she had forgotten the scots colonel altogether, in her interest in the movements of count von teschen. who was he? elspeth reinheit did not know. the men with him were deserters from the emperor's troops. where was he? doubtless a prisoner with the regiment lying on the outskirts of eisenach. the scots colonel had brought the count's holsters and valise with him. she did not know why. elspeth, oblivious of the lady ottilie's anxieties, munched and drank. she had undoubtedly a healthy appetite, and was besides waxing sleepy. the landgrave said little. he yawned a good deal, and nigel had supped. he too felt drowsy. it was not wonderful after his long day. the serving-man who had attended to his needs took a silver candlestick and led him up the stair towards his chamber. but at the top, where two passages met on a broad landing, the lady ottilie swept out of the darkness and took the candlestick from the man's hand, and motioning to nigel to follow, herself ushered him into his bedroom. there was something womanly and homely about the action, that accorded well with nigel's notion of hospitality, yet she carried herself with the air of the chatelaine, as if she, and not the landgravine, who doubtless had deputed the courtesies to her, had been the mistress of wartburg. as he threw an involuntary glance about the chamber, noting the great four-posted and canopied bed, the ambry for linen, the venetian mirror, and other furnishings, she said-- "in magdeburg 'twas elspeth who gave up her bed to you. here do i the same. it is a small courtesy for your many." "did i not say to you at erfurt that a woman owes a man nothing that she does not pay a thousand-fold? but now you do me untold honour!" was nigel's word of thanks. "sweet thanks and compliments! and doubtless you gave as much and more to little elspeth at magdeburg. she has poured such a tale of colonel nigel charteris into my ears to-night i am wellnigh tired of him. who is your prisoner at the camp?" "a bohemian, a count von teschen!" "and his crime?" "he caused some of my troopers to desert, and then pursued me hotly on my road to the wartburg." "it was a scurvy trick!" there was genuine indignation in her tone. "you must beware! promise me, you will beware!" she pleaded; and nigel, looking at the dimming of her eyes and her lips on the brink of quivering, felt a wave of tenderness flow over him. he leaned towards her and took her hands. "you care for me, ottilie?" there was a world of eagerness in his tones, such eagerness as made his voice sound hoarsely in his own ears. she smiled a pitiful smile as she drew her hands from his as not trusting her silly tell-tales. then she said-- "do you so soon forget my words at erfurt, my tall captain?" "you said i should be a fool to dream of it!" she nodded, but this time sadly. "i shall play the fool, star ottilie! so help me, holy mother of heaven!" "not here then! i have stayed too long. what of your valise? give me an order. they shall bring your baggage." there was an inkhorn and paper at a little table and he wrote a line and signed it. "this is to my soldier servant!" he handed it to her in a dream of happiness. she went swiftly, and before many minutes had passed the man brought his baggage and holsters and laid them on the floor. the trooper was half asleep and bemused with the beer or the mead he had drunk. "and the count von teschen's?" nigel asked. the man waved an arm vaguely and explained something in an inarticulate way, and then stared and blinked at his colonel in a manner that made it clear at least that there would be no sense in his head till the morrow, and nigel sympathised with the man, for he was scarcely rested enough himself to take off his own boots. so he dismissed the man, and a few more minutes saw his devotions, addressed mainly to a mythical saint ottilie, and his ablutions, alike concluded, and the landgrave's four-poster shut him into dreamless oblivion. at five the sun streaming in, even finding its way between the curtains of the four-poster, awoke him. a moment to regain the sense of his position in the universe, during which the geometrical figure of the great pietro bramante sprang to his mind again, and made him wonder where he was on the line of his own orbit, and he leaped from the bed and gazed out and down upon that wonderful rolling sea of tree-tops and hills behind hills, all clad in pines, and little villages in green spaces here and there. he did not dawdle over his dressing, yet before it was half accomplished the landgrave's barber was at his door craving admittance with the implements of his art, and his expert fingers made the colonel's face as fresh and dapper as razor and soap could do. "the lady ottilie von thüringen bade me tell your lordship that your other baggage has been brought up by your trooper and placed in the little room which is beside this one." one may be sure that the colonel was not long in entering the room, which a look at the tambour frame, the spinning-wheel, and some other objects, told him was a small boudoir used by the ladies of the castle. upon a stout oaken table lay the valises and holsters of the mysterious emissary. nigel's hands were upon the straps when the lady ottilie came in, partly with the assured air of the woman in her own domain, partly showing the modest shyness of a woman who, liking a man beyond the common measure, seems to crave pardon for intrusion into his company. "you have slept well? i see you have, tall captain!" "thanks to you, ottilie!" he said, taking her hands and gazing into her proud beautiful face with something of mastery in his grip and in his eyes. her own countenance grew cold as she looked far beyond him out upon the pine-clad hills. "how well you begin the day, sir!" her glance fell scornfully upon the baggage. "the sack of cities! the plunder of travellers! a strange life!" there was no need to point the irony, a woman's irony, full of half truth and false inference. the blood flushed into his face. then he assumed command over his fiery temper. "the fortunes of war merely! this von teschen is i know not what. he comes from wallenstein." "from wallenstein!" she repeated it with eyes again seeking the pine-clothed hill-tops. "yes! from that cold seeker after power who would use the habsburgs for a stepping-stone and play the cæsar, as you said at erfurt. i have not forgotten your saying, ottilie!" "you are strangely familiar, sir, to a ..." she faltered. "to a cousin of the habsburgs," he put in. "who told you i was cousin to the habsburgs?" she asked promptly. "the archduchess stephanie! and in truth did i not know you to be the lady ottilie von thüringen, i could believe her highness was here." "her highness is very gracious to acknowledge me of kin. my interests and the habsburgs lie far apart." "and i," said nigel, "eat the bread of the habsburgs, and what i do must and shall be right in your eyes, if it be right in mine!" the lady ottilie's eyes blazed with scorn and resentment. "go on with your task of rifling the traveller's saddle-bags," she said, but made no movement to go. nigel smiled to himself as he bent again over the straps. first the holsters were rummaged. pistoles and a few travellers' necessaries. nothing! then the first saddle-bag revealed two rich suits, linen, the impedimenta of a man of rank on a long journey. nigel examined the sewing, the lining of the bag. again nothing. next came the turn of the other saddle-bag. in it were many rouleaux of gold, enclosed in many wrappings. again she taunted him. "said i not plunder?" she said. "surely a fair ransom for the count von teschen! pay for the troopers and their brave colonel!" again nigel heeded not a jot. if it bit into his pride, at least he smiled as he went on. packages of costly trinkets, jewels, articles of great price and workmanship. "it is no wonder the count helped himself to an escort!" she said. "and all for nought! to fall in with a robber lord from scotland! 'twas ill luck!" "and this is wallenstein!" said nigel. "these are his bribes, his compliments, his wheedlers to set honest landgraves and bishops and princes against his master, the emperor! i cannot understand it." "it is beyond the robber lord's understanding!" again the scorn whipped him. again he flushed, and for a moment ottilie von thüringen trembled for the outburst. it did not come. she marvelled at the strength of his will. and then she caught her breath, for her eyes saw something. her impulse was to snatch at it, beyond all the pride of race that was hers. but she also quelled herself. he saw it too and drew it forth. he knew the hand. it was wallenstein's. a sealed letter, and the superscription was to the high-born baroness ottilie von thüringen. with perfect coolness and grace he handed it to her. "our cæsar has strange postmen of his own!" he said. this time it was the lady ottilie who flushed, but whether it was with anger, or with joy, or confusion as with a woman who, while entertaining one suitor hears another announced, there was no guessing. she hid the letter in her bosom. "then the count was on his way to the wartburg!" nigel said aloud for her to hear. "he will be here in a short while!" she said serenely. "what do you mean, lady?" "just that! have you done with the count's saddle-bags?" there was nothing else in writing. nigel replaced everything. "and you take nothing, tall captain? neither gold, nor raiment, nor trinkets? what ails you?" "not a jot! he can come for his own if he can travel so far," said nigel. "and for your sweet aid, your comfortable words, your hospitality, i pray you, sweet ottilie, star of the night, and serpent of the morning, take this and this." and without more preamble he took her in his arms and kissed her willy-nilly passionately upon the brow, the eyes, the lips. and then in the same whirlwind he rushed down the stair and called for his horse, his man, his baggage, and in a few minutes rode down the hill at a breakneck speed. looking up at the great tower before he passed out of sight he saw a white arm extended and a scarf waved in the morning breeze. "god's truth! where am i?" he exclaimed, and waved his sword in the sunlight. chapter xxiv. mistress and enemy. there had been two human obstacles to the advance of gustavus adolphus. one was george william, elector of brandenburg, whose fortresses of custrin and spandau, held by any one but gustavus, were awkward things in the way of a retreat, if the swede had to make one. george william was very averse to the edict. magdeburg was one of the pearls of his principality. but not being sure that gustavus was strong enough to beat the emperor, he shilly-shallied. gustavus in his impetuous way had appeared at the gates of berlin with a bodyguard of swedes armed and trained to a fine point. george william saw them and hesitated no longer. custrin and spandau were lent to his friend gustavus. the advance of gustavus southward was thus secured till he should come to the elbe, and across fine flat country suitable for such a march. once across the elbe, he would be between tilly and the emperor. he would also be in saxony. but the obvious crossings of the elbe were at the bridge of dessau and the bridge of wittenburg, both in the hands of the elector of saxony, john george. john george had not made up his mind. he was an elector of the empire. he was also prince of a large territory. and the southern march of his lands was also the march of bohemia, and the south-west was the upper palatinate in the hands of maximilian since the days of the winter king. he was also averse to edicts and in favour of the pure gospel as represented by lutheranism. but like the young man in the days of the founder of the original gospel, he had great possessions. unlike his brother elector of brandenburg, he was not liable to a sudden nocturnal visit from the impetuous gustavus, since a very large and populous country lay between, but, apart from such forcible persuasion, the policy of saxony was not as yet to break from the emperor. in the days of the winter king he had refrained from joining in the mad escapades of the protestants. he had no desire to do so now. neither was he inclined to bow to the edict. and to meet the urgent demands of the emperor on that head, he had bethought himself of the strong man armed. he had armed accordingly. through the kindly offices of wallenstein, who was not unwilling to see the saxons arming, he had been able to secure a good lutheran general--one arnim, who, like his old captain, wallenstein, was without a command. the elector of saxony had forty thousand soldiers in spick and span new uniforms getting drilled by arnim. but whether they would ultimately fight gustavus, or merely grow fat and well-liking under the pay and treatment of arnim, and never fight at all, john george was not at present sure. there was the situation. gustavus was entrenched in a fortified camp at werben, where the havel joins the elbe, sixty miles north of magdeburg, with smaller forces holding spandau on the havel and custrin on the oder, a line of a hundred and fifty miles from west to east. tilly and pappenheim (maximilian's pappenheim) were near magdeburg. and sixty miles south of magdeburg were the brand-new forty thousand of john george. colonel nigel charteris had seen enough in his journey to hasten his march northward to tilly. from all directions he heard that the landgrave of hesse was marching to join gustavus. and the news of the preparations of john george had reached eisenach. the whole of thüringia was in ferment. but the reason of nigel's uncommon haste down the hill to his camp outside eisenach was on account of that curious ambassador, count von teschen. nigel feared some mischance. ottilie! star ottilie had said ... what matter? nigel galloped into camp. hildebrand handed him his own order brought earlier that morning by his own trooper, attended by one of the landgrave's huntsmen-- "_send the count to the wartburg under escort._ "#nigel charteris.#" the colonel made a gesture of annoyance. "a good imitation, hildebrand! confound him! the best thing we can do is to get on to erfurt." and on the road to erfurt he had leisure to blame himself for listening to her whom he omitted to "confound." one does not commit to the nether gods the woman one has kissed, and kissed in a very paroxysm of passion, whether she would be kissed or not--the woman who has let her scarf flutter an adieu to one, the affront notwithstanding, as one rode away. not even when she has tricked the affronter of a prisoner, an emissary of a traitor, who has sent the woman a letter full of ... the nether gods know what, treason or love. what part was she playing in the political intrigue? it was clear that she had recognised the count von teschen as the hand of wallenstein, that she knew him to be essential, so far as his possibilities went, to the furtherance of wallenstein's designs. there might easily be a dozen count von teschens, foxes with firebrands at their tails, rushing hither and thither, but foxes that knew their business and the right cornfields, and how themselves to escape the flames that they spread. nigel's own sense of duty permitted him no sympathy with wallenstein. yet he could understand how wallenstein, bereft of his command, hoping nothing more from the catholics, impatient of inaction, unable to bear the loss of prestige, more akin in spirit to the great captains of _condottieri_ that had ravaged italy, indifferent which prince they fought for, how such a wallenstein might endeavour to curry favour with the protestant princes rather than rust like an old ploughshare. it was intelligible, but only as the work of a man without gratitude, without loyalty, without any conviction of his religion. and what part was ottilie playing? she was a catholic. so was wallenstein. she had friends among the protestant princes. so had many members of catholic families. she had gone so far as almost to jeopardise her life, and, what was more, her honour, in the siege of magdeburg. to what had she trusted then to deliver her? she must indeed have been full of the ecstasy of religion if she supposed that god, who must have approved of the catholic cause, would shield her in the midst of carnage and the glutting of lust which had strewn the ruins of magdeburg with the bodies of the violated. nigel had surprised her in the cathedral at erfurt at her devotions. but even then, and especially in that walk afterwards together, he had not read her as devout; rather as a woman intensely capable, self-sufficing, made for love but not awakened to it, with the respect and instinct for religion that every woman should possess as part of her endowment. then she had spoken of wallenstein, and he could recall her tones, proud, indignant: "what think you that ottilie von thüringen can have in common with that cold seeker after power?" yet she had stood by him, nigel, full of taunts as he ransacked von teschen's saddle-bags, knowing that, or at least expecting, that he would find a letter for her under wallenstein's own hand and seal. was the erfurt episode a piece of acting, and was she then wallenstein's mistress, or bound to him by some tie of chivalry, some mimicry of the romances of torquato tasso? mistress? at the very thought nigel dug his spurs so savagely into his horse that the animal, disgusted and outraged, performed such a curvet as nearly threw him. no! such supreme and noble loveliness had never soiled its freshness by any breath of desire! this nigel would have sworn, and made good his oath, as any paladin of old time, with sword against sword. more, he would have sworn that his own lips in that frenzy, and gentle even in that frenzy, had been the first to ruffle the sweet fragrance and surprise the dewiness of hers, unconscious as she was that she had not merely suffered what she could not help. by that kiss he had sealed her his. and insensibly he began to regard her as in some measure two women,--one the star of his desire and worship, the other the mysterious ally of the emperor's enemies, against whom he must plot to unravel her designs and those of the arch-plotter wallenstein. from this point his thought jumped at a bound to that other mistress, the archduchess stephanie, whose loveliness, no less than ottilie's, impressed itself upon him, mingled with something of awe of the great habsburgs. she too was interested in the destiny of wallenstein. but of wallenstein himself or his plans she had told him nothing. the mystic circles and ovals interested or amused her perhaps, but of any intimate understanding between her and the duke of friedland nigel could not remember a trace. doubtless at the court of vienna there was a wallenstein party as well as a maximilian party. it was almost certain; and the archduchess stephanie might, as princesses have done, have flattered herself that she was leading a party, while in reality her name for a few aspiring nobles was merely a lure used by wire-pullers, who let her know nothing of their real machinations. still at the one end stood the lofty archduchess, at the other her lovely and almost twin cousin, ottilie von thüringen, and between wallenstein, the cold seeker after power, swaying, utilising both to further his schemes and ambition. nigel groaning in spirit, continued to ride on, and presently reached erfurt. at erfurt he found the small garrison full of rumours of an impending attack from the landgrave of hesse cassel, and although he had reason to believe that that prince was not yet in a posture to march, nigel thought it wise to leave his regiment there with hildebrand, partly to get further drilling and some rest for their horses, partly to overawe the townspeople and put the place in some condition to resist the landgrave should he venture to attack it. in the meantime, with a small escort, he rode as fast as his horses could go to wolmerstadt, where he found general tilly. the little great man received him with his customary grimness of demeanour. the thin hollow cheeks looked hollower than before, and the red feather in the small high peaked hat danced with a more sinister gaiety than ever. "well, colonel charteris?" tilly never forgot his officers nor their names. "where is your regiment?" "at erfurt, general!" "why?" "the landgrave of hesse was mustering his troops when i spoke to him seven days ago. they say he is marching now to join gustavus." "i'll give him something to march for! and he shall find little to eat on his march," barked tilly. "what artillery at erfurt?" nigel answered that they had twelve pieces of ordnance and sufficient ammunition. general tilly gave immediate order for two thousand foot and two thousand horse to be made ready to start. and the next day, trusting the command of the remainder of the army to pappenheim, the grim old general set out through the territories of saxe ernest and schwarzburg, laying waste the countryside, and allowing his troops to plunder and then burn the little town of frankenhausen by way of teaching the inhabitants not to have leanings towards sweden. in this way tilly reached erfurt, where he quartered his troops and levied a substantial voluntary contribution of money and provisions. thence he sent messengers to the landgrave, who had in fact not yet begun his march, with instructions couched in haughty language that he should disband his army and receive imperial garrisons into his fortresses. hildebrand and his regiment were sent on to the camp at wolmerstadt to await nigel, who, at the same time as tilly set out, had been ordered to carry out reconnaissances in the direction of werben and watch the movements of gustavus on that bank of the elbe. it was not so much that tilly feared the landgrave of hesse, as that he was fretting at the inactivity imposed upon him by the state of affairs. at wolmerstadt he and pappenheim were strong enough to attack gustavus, had it not been for the troops which the elector of saxony had mustered in his rear. gladly would he have attacked the elector if the emperor had given him permission. but as yet john george had not declared himself. so tilly contented himself by threatening the smaller prince of hesse cassel and wasting the borders of saxony. the landgrave of hesse was of a different mould from john george. this was his reply to tilly-- "as for admitting foreign troops into my fortresses, i will not. as for my troops, they are mine to do my will. as for your threatening, i can defend myself when you attack me." chapter xxv. breitenfeld. there is always a moment in every war when wary inaction gives way to movement, bred of an access of boldness to one side or the other. gustavus had received an addition of eight thousand swedes and six thousand english. he had persuaded george william, the brandenburger, to throw in his lot with him. pappenheim and tilly had made, but not followed up, an abortive attack on his fortified camp at werben. he decided to cross the elbe and advance to the southern limits of mark brandenburg, whether the emperor's generals resisted him or not. it is possible that he thought such an advance would assist john george of saxony, whose territory lay next in his path, to make up his mind. and at this time the emperor ferdinand was aware that count fürstenberg, his chief commander in austrian italy, had arrived by leisurely marches with twenty thousand veteran troops by way of franconia and the upper palatinate, to join tilly's army, so that, like gustavus, he also intended to assist john george of saxony to make up his mind. to pappenheim, tilly being still at erfurt, or in the confines of thüringia, nigel brought word of the advance of gustavus. pappenheim sent word to tilly, and tilly returned to concert operations. they had scarcely joined hands again when the emperor's messenger arrived bidding them forthwith march into saxony. imperial courtesy demanded that the emperor's general should give john george at least a single opportunity of submission. two officers of high rank were sent to the elector with an imperious demand. john george made a dignified reply as became a prince, entertained the officers with saxon hospitality as a prince, and at the close of the banqueting uttered this dry and humorous warning:-- "gentlemen, i perceive that the saxon confectionery, which has been so long kept back, is at length to be set upon the table. but, as it is usual to mix it with nuts and other hard ingredients, i pray you to take care of your teeth." in a short space tilly was before leipzig, threatening it with fire and sword, and the fate of magdeburg; and pappenheim was thirty miles to the west taking possession of merseburg. then john george made up his mind. then rode messengers offering alliance to gustavus, who, ever mindful of a possible evil day and a clear line of retreat, demanded the fortresses he had asked for before. john george offered these, offered his family as hostages--whatsoever gustavus would. magdeburg, which was another's, had failed to move him. but leipzig (the prudent city had surrendered on conditions to tilly) did move him. it might be dresden next. besides, he had forty thousand men in brand-new uniforms, bright and hard saxon confectionery, and arnim the lutheran, who had once commanded under wallenstein, to lead them. surely between his forces and gustavus they might trip up tilly and pappenheim, and knock the two elderly generals' heads together till they cracked. so it happened that before john george quite realised that war was upon him, that he had at last committed himself to a side, his beloved country was overrun with armies, and there dawned the day of breitenfeld, or as some prefer to call it, of leipzig. nigel and hildebrand were exchanging a few words over a hasty breakfast, while sergeant blick was, with the aid of the other officers, overlooking the arms and saddles of the troopers. "thank heaven!" said hildebrand, "we are meeting the swede at last! yet the old man looks grey this morning!" "aye!" said nigel. "tilly has not been himself since he made his headquarters in the gravedigger's house outside leipzig." "it was an ill omen that the only house that was left after our cannonade should be a gravedigger's, with skulls and cross-bones all over it," said the other lugubriously. "tut, man! so long as it kept out the weather! though why tilly let the swede and john george join forces without a shot puzzles me. he seems, though he says nothing, to hold the swede in too much respect." "well, the swede has all his work to do. tilly has made his dispositions well." they pushed back their seats and went out. behind them was a long range of hills, along which three hundred feet above where they stood were posted battery after battery of tilly's guns. the two officers looked out over a gently sloping plain to the eastward and descried the long line of a little river, marked here and there by clumps of willows, and the occasional gleam of the morning sun on its surface. beyond the rivulet at some miles' distance they could make out men and horses in movement, banners, and the play of light upon a rippling sea of weapons: but all was as yet indistinct, save that there seemed to be two separate armies with a considerable space of country between. "gustavus does not wish us to confound his well-trained veterans with the saxon gingerbread!" said hildebrand. "but which is which?" asked nigel. "for my part i ask nothing better than to let fly my rough-riders at the swedes, and let any one else hew down the saxons!" "hum!" said hildebrand. "heaven knows how our rascals will behave under fire!" nigel's eyes gleamed. "i'll cut down the first man that wavers!" "well," said hildebrand. "thank heaven again we're attached to tilly's division, for where that is will be the hottest of the fighting. he's a devil to fight is tilly." "it is the empire or the swede to-day. and tilly knows it. no wonder he looks grey. there he is! come along!" they took their places in front of the regiment. they were on the right wing of the centre division. the infantry in closely massed battalions stretched for a long distance. then came the cavalry of tilly's left. beyond them was a division of pappenheim stretching away into the haze. to nigel's right again was the division led by count fürstenberg, a formidable host in itself. "your men look mettlesome, colonel," tilly growled, as he rode along by nigel's regiment, his well-known red feather standing out in the westerly breeze. nigel saluted again. "they will give a good account of themselves, general!" he said loud enough for the regiment to hear. presently it was clear to all those who had good eyes that the swede was to oppose pappenheim, and was moving in a long line towards the rivulet, was, in fact, nearly at its bank. the guns of tilly on the hills sounded a salute to the great day, the first balls falling, however, short of the rivulet. tilly noted it and looked displeased enough. pappenheim noticed, and led his cavalry to the water's edge to dispute the passage. the battle had begun. even at the beginning the generalship of gustavus made itself felt. his men were disposed in two long lines of no great depth. there were no massed battalions to offer easy marks for tilly's cannon. his whole forces were distributed in small bodies, each able to move with celerity, and accustomed to draw to itself and oppose its own share of the attack, without, however, causing any break in the general plan. but his musketry made play upon the splendid cavalry that swept down in orderly fashion to meet them. and from the intervals of the regiments of musketeers came the steady cannon shots, well aimed and low, making little lanes of fallen horses and men in pappenheim's cavalry. pappenheim was obliged to withdraw his cavalry to re-form them, and the swedes began to cross the rivulet. the rivulet must needs be wide and deep that will stop any army extended over a wide front. pappenheim fired the village of podelwitz as he retreated, a village that lay between his first position and the rivulet. the west wind laden with smoke and dust blew strongly and into the faces of the swedes. but still they pressed on and began to get some of their artillery over. from his position on the lower slopes of the hill nigel could see the swedish lines gradually formed, and marked the new plan of setting out the battle. to his mind it seemed to be tempting fortune on the part of the swede to oppose a swarm of separate companies, of groups of companies, to the heavy masses that sooner or later in the day were to sweep steadily upon them. but he did not count upon the advantages the swede possessed in a more extended firing line, and in offering less conspicuous, if more numerous, targets to the enemy. nigel chafed at the inevitable delay till they should be ordered into action. for at least two hours the cannon along the ridge thundered over their heads and seemed to make little impression upon either swedes or saxons. then pappenheim with his two thousand cuirassiers launched forth again against gustavus himself, who commanded the right wing of the swedes. and nigel marked that the swedish right were wheeling towards the north, and that their fire was fierce and evenly sustained. at last the little general with the red feather gave orders for the centre to attack, and nigel gripped his saddle tighter with his knees, and led his regiment down on to the plain, keeping within the interval between two great double battalions of musketeers and pikemen. it was slow at first, till they drew near the enemy, and then came the turn of his troopers. the infantry having delivered their fire advanced slowly, while nigel's regiment and the other cavalry rode to the front rapidly, halted, fired, and fell back. this they did many times, but still the swedes did not give way. tilly felt not only the fire of the swedes in front but that of gustavus' right wing on his flank, so to avoid this and partly perhaps because the thing looked tempting, he took ground to the right, and ordered a rapid attack upon the saxons, who perhaps by accident had drawn rather towards tilly than to count fürstenberg. tilly was right in the one thing. he bore down upon the saxons, and the saxon army showed its rawness; for it gave way on all sides, and only a few regiments maintained their ground; the rest fled, and even john george himself. nigel's spirits rose with tilly's. tilly swept round again to fall upon the left wing of the swedes. but only to find that gustavus, apprised of the saxon flight, had reinforced his left with three more regiments, and that pappenheim on tilly's left was battling for dear life against gustavus himself, unable to maintain his ground. desperately did tilly endeavour to overcome. again and again and again he led his still unbroken masses against horn, the swedish general, and again and again the swedes hurled them back. again and again hildebrand and nigel charged with their rough-riders, who were no cowards, meeting alike musketeers and pikemen and even horn's cuirassiers. but it was of no avail. then came the news that pappenheim's men had broken and fled. then that the artillery on the hills were in the hands of gustavus, a fact that they soon became aware of. in face of them was the swedish left, behind them were their own guns, and on their left flank gustavus, marching through the _débris_ of pappenheim's host, was sweeping down upon them. the day was over. nigel and hildebrand rallied their tattered remnant of fifty saddles and rode after tilly to act as his bodyguard. nigel scanned the field with a quick eye and caught sight of him. a swedish captain of horse was on the point of taking the little general prisoner when nigel, spurring his horse, rode the swede down. * * * * * nigel's sword went through him. the man rolled over with the onset, and then fell with his upturned face grinning at his slayer in the very spasm of death. there was one final flash of recognition between four eyes. it was enough. nigel was out of his saddle in an instant, an instant of deadly peril, ransacked the man's doublet, took out a bulky letter, and sprang to horse again. they had remounted count tilly, who was barely able to sit his horse by reason of his wounds. nigel bade two sturdy troopers hold him on by any means; and taking the lead, rallying whatever troopers came his way, and sending word to the few remaining foot-regiments to follow, he pressed with all speed towards the open country to the northward. it was a miserable remnant of a mighty army which bivouacked at halle. the last glimpse of the field of battle that nigel caught had shown him pastor rad, with a regiment of swedes on their knees before him, offering up in stentorian tones a thanksgiving for the swedish victory over his german and catholic brethren. chapter xxvi. at halberstadt. it was the evening of the third day after breitenfeld. vague rumours of disaster had travelled across the intervening country of halberstadt, city, bishopric, and independent state in one, a stronghold for, rather than of, the empire, the domain and seat of leopold the bishop, a habsburger and cousin of ferdinand. the city was not strong enough to resist for long an attack by gustavus, should he choose to make one, but it was strong enough to serve for a short while as a rallying-place for tilly's fugitives. leopold the bishop and his spoiled favourite niece, as he chose to call her, the archduchess stephanie, stood on the flat roof of the tallest tower of the palace looking along the road to the southernward. on the face of leopold, a proud ecclesiastical face, rather rotund than ascetic, sat an extreme anxiety, and his sharp eyes roved restlessly from the road to the city walls, where men were mustered and ordnance trained, and officers bustled to and fro with an air of urgency. for who knew what a few hours might reveal, whether the banners of sweden, or of saxony, of brandenburg or hesse cassel, would come swaying and fluttering from the passes in the hills. the archduchess for the most part kept her gaze fixed upon the road, though, woman-like, she lost little of what went on below. her eyes glistened with eagerness, but her features betrayed little of the drawn look that the bishop's wore. if the bishop noticed it, he said nothing, putting her apparent lack of anxiety down to the score of youth. but absorbed as he was in the inward contemplation of the stakes at issue, he did not closely scrutinise the face of his niece. for him the turn of events meant a very possible siege, a defence of sorts, a storming and a sack, or a judicious submission, but in any case a great inroad into his treasure-chests. it promised indignities falling short of bodily suffering, but hard to bear, and an ultimate disposal of his lands and possessions in ways that would at once reduce his princely bishopric to the dimensions of a paltry benefice, until the lutheran tide should recede and the church take her own again. for the niece it meant excitement, peril, but peril that would pass. princesses might be held to ransom, but no more. she might be expected to sympathise with her father in the defeat of his armies, to feel aggrieved at fortune, who had dealt so hard a blow at her house, but not to be prostrated by her grief. she would still be the beautiful archduchess stephanie, and in the clash of armies and in the affairs of a hazardous campaign there was like to be scant attention paid to the matrimonial projects of maximilian. was this all? a cry broke from her lips, and she pointed to the farthest bend of the road visible from the tower. "now we shall know!" said the bishop, clenching his lips firmly as if to make sure they did not tremble. round the bend came thirty or forty troopers, and the first man carried a yellow pennon. "tilly's men!" the bishop exclaimed fervently. "to thee be thanks, o lord!" the archduchess's eyes were riveted. whether her emotion had really been restrained hitherto by pride or not, her eyes filled with tears: tears that she hastily brushed away, leaving her eyes again free to discern what they might. this time it was a group of officers, and in the middle could be distinguished the famous red feather, drooping, it is true, but there. "count tilly himself, uncle!" behind the little cavalcade came a regiment of foot, still preserving a martial appearance, with its pikemen and its musketeers, and after it another and yet another. it was almost pitiful to hear the proud bishop, secure except for the ears of his niece, ejaculating his thankfulness, as each addition to his possible defenders came in sight. then as the cavalcade of officers approached the town gates the lips of the archduchess murmured, "holy mother, i thank thee!" and she put her slender fingers into her uncle's as if to communicate to him something of what she felt. it was true that she had recognised colonel nigel charteris among the war-worn leaders as they rode through the gate of halberstadt, but why should the saving of this man's life more than those of a thousand others elicit her cry of devotion? within an hour leopold in his episcopal robes received tilly and his officers. beside him, arrayed in all her richest attire, sat the archduchess stephanie. the little general, the stains of his forced march removed as far as possible, his left arm in a sling, his head disfigured by the uncouth bandages of his barber surgeon, strode forward with a gallant air, but with an unmistakable limp. he had been wounded at breitenfeld full a half-dozen times, and only his dauntless spirit and his stalwart supporters had helped him to sustain the toils of the retreat. the bishop received him with great compassion and honour, giving him great praise for his courage and placing him beside him in a noble chair: not, however, before the general had bowed as low as his wounds permitted and kissed the hand of the archduchess, whose eyes melted at the sight of her father's faithful soldier, to whom fortune had shown herself so froward. "battered, your highness, beaten, but with god's grace i will face gustavus again!" he said to her. came nigel's turn. he presented himself, in default of a better, in the suit he had worn at breitenfeld. he was thin and yellowish for a man of his natural colouring. a day of battle and three days' flight before the pursuers had drained his vitality over and above his actual wounds, which had happily left his face unmarred and his limbs uncrippled. the archduchess claimed him. "colonel nigel charteris, uncle. he came to vienna with despatches from magdeburg. a scottish gentleman who has doubtless done good service in the battle!" she turned her eyes inquiringly towards count tilly. "but for him i might not have left the field!" said tilly briefly. "i scarce know whether he did me service or disservice, your highness," he added, with something between a grunt and a sigh. "he fights like a wild boar!" "a pity we had not a legion of such angels!" said the bishop as he laid his hand in fatherly fashion on his shoulder. the archduchess motioned nigel to her side. "believe me, colonel charteris, i am mighty glad that you have come through the battle unscathed; though you make not the figure of bravery you did at vienna!" "i am ashamed, your highness, to meet your eye in such mean clothing, but the swede gave us no time to pack our valises, and, after all, one's own skin with a live man within is better than a coat of many colours upon a corpse." the sun broke out in the eyes of the archduchess. "how you do take me at my word! you say nothing of surprise at finding me at halberstadt? does nothing surprise you?" "your highness spoke of nunneries at our last meeting, and i find you in a bishop's palace. in a nunnery i could not picture your radiance. here you are in your own place, and under the tutelage of the church, no less." "still the courtier of our camps! and have you met again our cousin ottilie?" she flung the question at him carelessly, or so it seemed, as if she were indifferent as to the answer. "that have i, your highness!" he answered, looking straightly into the eyes of the archduchess. and whether it was that he was fordone with his toils, his sudden remembrance of the wartburg brought the colour back into his pale cheeks. "so!" said the archduchess. "there have been passages of arms between you! ottilie is fortunate that she is not an archduchess." there was a shadowy pretence of petulance in the princess's tone. "did we not stipulate that you were our own cavalier?" "in all liege service, yes, your highness! even to the death! have i not fought for you at breitenfeld? have i not felt the lady ottilie pour out hot scorn upon me almost to the limit of man's forbearance, because i served the emperor, and in serving him, your highness?" "i should not have deemed you one to brook over much scorn," she said, veiling her eyes, then flooding his face with their searching gaze. "nor am i by nature very patient, your highness!" "then it must be that you love ottilie! that if i can claim your service, even your life, she, this meddler with the lutherans, can claim and hold your love?" the archduchess spoke in low tones. again nigel could almost persuade himself that it was ottilie who spoke, wishful to hear his avowal of passion. and yet it was not ottilie. "why should you begrudge her so small a gift, or rather so poor an offering, for i know not if she has accepted it?" he urged. "because a princess can never be sure that she commands love. service she knows she can command, even to the death. men will spend themselves for any bubble they call honour or duty. i grudge ottilie your love. i grudge any woman that is loved, her lover's love." the archduchess spoke with heat. nigel rejoiced that the archduchess made it clear to him that in seeking the heart of ottilie he was not spurning hers; that she was only giving tongue to the loneliness of rank. for in truth in the immediate presence of the archduchess, radiant, full of charm, he felt the memory of ottilie pale; and, loyal as he tried to be to his colours, whether in love or war, he would have been more than man not to have felt an answering emotion had anything she said given shape to the idea that she too loved him. so much they were able to say amid the ceremonious tumult of the arrivals. supper was set and the good things of halberstadt were lavished upon the officers who had accompanied the retreat. it was not long before the archduchess and her attendant ladies left the hall for their own chambers. and it was not till the morrow that nigel again saw the archduchess. the circumstances of a common peril loosened the observances of ceremony and made it possible for them to meet, after nigel had set in motion the springs of military duty which were immediately necessary. as before at vienna the archduchess received him in the gardens of the palace, but this time in broad daylight. "and bramante's figure?" she asked suddenly. "a vain imagining, your highness! though at the time i own i was amazed at his jugglery." "so you deemed it mere fooling?" "what could i else? 'tis true the course of my life has brought me into your highness's gracious presence. but what of wallenstein? the emperor will have none of him. gustavus has passed him by. he is as an old sword thrown in a chimney corner to stir ashes with." the habsburg pride and haughtiness made itself heard in her voice and seen on her lineaments. "you do not know albrecht von waldstein. he is too great to rust. can you not see that now, even now, when your armies have crumbled before gustavus, while tilly, the pride of ferdinand, and pappenheim, the pillar of maximilian, have been broken in two like straws, that the supreme moment has come, the moment when the emperor must and shall recall him, beg him as a suppliant to raise the fallen standards and gather yet again one of his mysterious and invincible armies, which shall drive saxon and brandenburger whimpering to their kennels, and gustavus and his pastors scattering to their ships!" the tones that began in pride and scorn had changed into tones of prophetic exaltation. and for the first time nigel comprehended that the fortunes of wallenstein were dearer to her heart than a lover's passion. she was not merely what he had imagined the titular queen of wallenstein's party in the court, but her mind and heart were engaged, enthralled by the idea of the future greatness of wallenstein himself. but nigel's straightforwardness would not let him budge from his self-appointed path. "wallenstein is not loyal to the emperor!" "loyalty!" she exclaimed in a fine note of scorn. "loyalty in german lands! in europe! to what? to one's faith? that does not hinder father slaying son or brother brother. to one's pacts? it is as it suits one's interests! feudalism is dead. the emperor's vassals rise against him. and albrecht von waldstein is no vassal of the emperor. he is a bohemian noble. true, our house of habsburg conquered bohemia, and our brother is in name their king. but bohemia is as free as it chooses, when it chooses." "but wallenstein served the emperor, amassed untold riches in his service. does he owe no allegiance?" "not a jot! he is of the race of achilles! he fights where his eagle mind dictates, not where some trembling agamemnon bids. but why call him disloyal?" "your highness! i yield to none in admiration of wallenstein's genius, but at every turn of my road i have met evidences of his emissaries being in touch with your father's enemies. this could have been borne, if he had boldly gone into the quarrel on the side of gustavus, but to stay skulking at prague while he sent out his poisonous messages...." "sir! i like not your adjectives!" she said, quickening her pace in her anger. "and then waiting the event," nigel proceeded, "to send this to gustavus, _if he should be victorious_." nigel thrust his hand into his tunic and brought out a packet. "read what is writ!" she said carelessly. "these for gustavus in the event of his gaining a complete victory over count tilly." "in the event," nigel commented. "spare the commentary, colonel charteris! what lies within?" "in substance it is an offer from wallenstein, begging for a command from gustavus of a pitiful twelve thousand men, and promising in return to drive the emperor and every habsburg out of austria." the eyes of the archduchess flashed. her colour rose. her bosom heaved and fell. she stretched forth her hand for the letter. nigel did not hesitate. he gave it. was it not his to give, his only spoil of the battlefield? "you have made no copy? told no one?" "no, your highness!" she held out her hand again in token of dismissal. nigel kissed it, gave one swift glance at her imperial face and went away to the ramparts. chapter xxvii. the restlessness of stephanie. the next few days passed at halberstadt in transforming the mass of fugitives into the semblance of an army. cavalry and infantry were re-mustered under their regimental standards, where a nucleus existed in the shape of an old regiment. where there was none, a new one was formed. all found an entry on some roster. the defences of the city were improved in all possible ways and provisions were got in. the little general busied himself in sending messages to all the imperial garrisons within reach to concentrate at a spot named, by the river weser, and it was from this source that he expected to collect another army rather than from any fresh enlistments. tilly with a bite and a sup would gladly have passed on. he fretted under the inaction which his numerous wounds made absolutely necessary: the more so that as yet he had no certain knowledge of the trend of the plans of his great adversary. sometimes he talked as though he had done with war. these were the days when his wounds did not look like healing. nigel knew the old war-dog well enough to ask, "who shall succeed?" that stiffened the count von tzerclaës quickly enough. he was one of those men who do not breed successors. but by the first days of october it was announced and confirmed that gustavus had turned to march westward, and that the elector of saxony was to march upon prague. tilly's plans soon took a definite shape. he, too, would march westward, but along the plains of lower saxony into brunswick, then towards the rhine, gathering garrisons as he went, till he could turn and meet gustavus with a force sufficient to annihilate him. nigel's rough-riders became the nucleus of a regiment, which was given to hildebrand von hohendorf, and he himself was again chosen by tilly for a confidential journey to the emperor. this time nothing was committed to writing save the commendations general tilly thought fit to make of nigel's conduct in the battle and during the retreat. tilly's plans for the future conduct of the campaign, and such requests as he had to make, were carefully committed to nigel's memory. a small escort was given him, for the task of getting from halberstadt to vienna without falling into the arms of gustavus's rearguard, or some of the widely-spread saxon contingents moving, as doubtless many of them would be doing, eastward, was one requiring great vigilance, skill, and, above all, speed, and numbers would have availed less than nothing. his plan was to make his way as straightly as possible to the nearest point of the bavarian border, and once across that, the roads to vienna were for the present likely to be free from swede and saxon alike. the only document he carried, in addition to count tilly's letter to the emperor, was the extraordinary letter from wallenstein taken from the dead count von teschen. this the archduchess stephanie had returned to him privately, with these few words inscribed upon the inside of the paper that enveloped them-- "_the ardour of a great loyalty createth a cloud of smoke, seen through which other men's actions may be distorted out of the natural semblance of beauty. so doth the ardour of a great love._" * * * * * pondering over this, nigel set out. as to the archduchess stephanie, no sooner was nigel set out than she began to feel a great restlessness, which manifested itself in very desultory marches, to the wearying of her ladies, up and down in the palace, with occasional forays out into the city and along the ramparts, in the course of which she pursued the officers of high rank with puzzling questions as to the possible course of the war. "but it is impossible, your highness, to give a guess!" said a grave and stout general officer. "when we know what force we have to dispose of----" "yes! yes!" said the impatient princess. "but still, what do you think?" "no one can say, your highness!" her highness left him to growl at his fellow-officers at the extraordinary habit of woman, even lovely woman, even a habsburger, to ask questions which did not admit of an answer, and in any case did not concern her. then she attacked the next she met with similar results. she even dared to beard the old general in his quarters, beginning with sympathetic inquiries after his wounds. the old general, taciturn and not over gracious by force of habit, unbent a little to the emperor's daughter. "give me time, your highness, and i shall beat the swede." "how?" "look you, your highness! the farther the swede marches from the baltic the longer must be his chain of garrisons in his rear, for if he once sustain a great defeat he must retreat. by the time he reaches the rhine his army of swedes must be greatly diminished, and his force consist largely of german protestants, recruited as he goes." "and do not protestants fight as well as catholics?" "when they are trained and disciplined!" "and where will _you_ get trained soldiers?" "from the imperial garrisons! then there are the spaniards in the rhenish palatinate, the best infantry in the world." "and if richelieu launches the french soldiers at them?" "it would be the devil!" count tilly became very thoughtful. "it is not to be expected that a catholic power would give aid to the swedes. was it not richelieu who turned the scales against wallenstein at ratisbon?" "but," objected the princess, "what did that prove? did it not result in the dispersal of wallenstein's army, and the weakening of the catholic power, of the imperial power?" "i am not politician, your highness! i hate cardinals and politicians equally. i am a soldier. if i have a moderate measure of fortune, and pappenheim does not make any more blunders, it is odds but we beat the swede, richelieu or no richelieu." the archduchess showed by her manner that she thought otherwise. "there is saxony! there is brandenburg! there is weimar!" "confound them all!" growled count tilly, who had done nothing else but look at the astonishing problem he proposed to face, and he at present tied by the leg with a mere eight or ten battalions under his banner. "and," this was an after-thought born of sheer impatience, "your highness, there is a lady who calls herself ottilie von thüringen, who takes a great interest in the lutheran cause." "indeed!" said the archduchess. "she was taken prisoner at magdeburg and sent under escort of colonel charteris to erfurt! i saw her and had some words with her." "yes?" said the archduchess. "she bore a singular likeness to your highness! i was wondering if you had any relative of that name!" "i have never heard of one!" said the archduchess. "a mere coincidence, doubtless!" said the general. "by the way, count, i am thinking of leaving halberstadt." "leaving halberstadt! does your highness propose to ride with me to raise an army?" "i might be of less use elsewhere!" she said, smiling, to tease the old general, whose dislike of petticoats was well known. "where is elsewhere?" "vienna!" "and how do you propose to get there?" "you can lend me an escort?" "impossible! you would want six battalions to fight off the rearguard of gustavus, or the left wing of the saxons." "but you have just let colonel charteris go with a mere handful!" "he will ride the faster! colonel charteris is a soldier, and the very devil for getting into trouble and out of it." "but the emperor's daughter?" "your highness, were you the daughter of twenty emperors it would still be impossible." "you think that i should not arrive at vienna in safety!" "except as a prisoner. but your highness came hither of your own choice." "assuredly! i intend to leave it of my own choice too." count tilly tugged at his long moustaches in despair. "princess!" and in addition to all his other cares! there was really only one princess, but she appeared to him by reason of her self-will to be at least half a dozen. she still stood there gazing at him out of those wonderful dancing black eyes. ("confound her eyes," tilly said to himself.) "perhaps gustavus or john george might give me a safe-conduct if i required it." "there are more unlikely things, your highness! particularly if your highness made your request in person!" "they could not be more obdurate than count tilly!" "at the present time, your highness, they are in better posture to afford courtesies than i am to spare men." her highness pouted and went in search of her uncle, the bishop. she thought to win him over before count tilly had seen him. but her uncle leopold, now that it seemed as if the tide of war was to sweep away from halberstadt, was not willing to part with his niece. even a bishop of the holy roman church, vowed to celibacy as he was, was not indifferent to ties of familial affection, and stephanie's beauty and youth and intelligence were all living and pleasant things, not to be lightly set aside. "you are as safe here, stephanie, as in vienna!". "but i am not afraid! i would rather be where my father is!" "but you came here to avoid marrying maximilian or going into a nunnery, which was it?" "both, uncle. but maximilian will be too busy for marrying for a long time to come. he has to find an army and beat gustavus." "in the next place, you can't get to vienna!" "hardly without an escort! but you could persuade count tilly to give me a hundred men and two officers." "it seems to me that count tilly would as soon go himself as part with half a company." "he does not seem very willing, but i am relying on your persuasion, uncle." "it is evident, stephanie, that you cannot go at once. in a week or two more men may have come in. in a week or two the roads may be clear of the enemy. promise me, dear niece, that you will defer the matter for ten days. you cannot grudge your old uncle ten days of your pleasant company!" the bishop looked affectionately at her. "for ten days longer, then, my uncle! then escort or no escort, i must go." "i will see what can be done!" said the bishop. the restlessness of the archduchess was by no means allayed. for in her mind events were singing "wallenstein." now or never, surely, did the portents point to wallenstein. where was the emperor going to lay his hands on a weapon to defend himself even against saxony? the saxons were about to pour down into bohemia. and after that vienna lay defenceless. as to wallenstein's letter to gustavus, so far from regarding it as evidence of treachery or of ingratitude, at the least she saw in it only design, design to lure gustavus on to his own destruction by making him think that the greatest army-leader in all german lands was willing to serve him. the archduchess told herself that the desire to see wallenstein, to know his plans, to further them, was at the root of her eagerness to depart. at vienna she felt sure that in this crisis she would be strong enough to fight father lamormain on his own territory, and bring about the recall of the hero of her political dreams. the archduchess repeated it to herself with an unnecessary insistence that bespoke questions arising within. when a woman acts from a single strong motive, the motive becomes less something perceived in the mind than felt in the heart, something that makes no room for gainsaying. whereas there was nigel, this scots colonel, this soldier without a fortune, who was so full of this thing, this vaporous thing, loyalty. colonel charteris had not been brought up at court, still less any court in europe. he had not acquired the ethics of the petty warfare that went on within every court, nor the still more elastic code of right and wrong as applied to the rivalries between court and court, nor a sympathy for the uncloaked knavery that dictated the moves in the game of treaties and alliances and attacks, provoked or unprovoked, that went on between the powers of france, of the united provinces, of spain, of italy. to her all these things had been familiar. this soldier from the north country had seemed astounded that wallenstein could act as he to all appearances had done. he had shown indignation, which not even her own royal presence had quelled. what a fiery soul beneath how noble a surface of manhood! she pictured him again and again with something of admiration, and admiration led her on, archduchess as she was, to ask which was the more commendable, the spirit of loyalty which was nigel's, or the spirit of entirely personal ambition which she herself was fanning in wallenstein. this question she answered by a subterfuge that loyalty was commendable in nigel, the more so that nothing engaged him to it but his precious pay, but that personal ambition was the crown and essence of wallenstein, and in him entirely laudable. as to her ability to reach vienna, the archduchess had no doubt. whether she had an escort of six, or sixty, or six thousand, her daring and resolute mind would convey her body there in safety. of that she was confident. a supremely beautiful woman, of high rank, possessed of money and of such resources of speech and intelligence as hers, would in the end defeat the saxon, swede, or brandenburger who should endeavour to stay her path. the real danger of the journey lay more in ignorant soldiery or lawless freebooters than in generals or politicians. for this and this only she would continue to press for an escort. chapter xxviii. prepares the ground. father lamormain had sent for nigel. this in itself was a relief from the daily dispiriting round. nothing could have been duller than the court of vienna six weeks or more after breitenfeld. the news which, despite a disunited germany in arms, came with frequency to father lamormain through his far-reaching jesuit agencies as well as by the military messengers, was to the effect that gustavus was besieging würzburg, and that the elector of saxony, john george, having recovered leipzig, was now clearing his province of lusatia of the imperial troops, sent there under rudolf von tiefbach, before he set out to the conquest of bohemia. nigel himself was fretting. for by this time tilly had gathered an army and had reached the rhine. nigel would fain have been with him. he found employment in vienna helping to enrol and drill the troops that were being enlisted with a view to resisting the threatened invasion of bohemia by the saxon elector, but men came in slowly. and over every one and every action brooded a spirit of depression. the outlook since the crushing defeat of breitenfeld was not a pleasant one. there was a vague belief that tilly on the rhine, pappenheim, who had managed to reach westphalia and raise men there, the spaniards in lorraine and the rhenish palatinate, and maximilian in bavaria, would in some way or other be too much for gustavus. but there was no good news. "how goes the recruiting, colonel?" "slowly! there is no spring in it, father!" "ah! how many men do you think we shall have to meet john george?" "that depends on bohemia!" "and bohemia means?" "wallenstein!" "i notice," said father lamormain, "that you do not pronounce the name in the same tone of admiration you once used to?" "it is, i suppose, father, that my eyes have been opened since i first came to vienna!" "you have sent many faithful reports of his unfaith, of his encouragement of protestant princes, even of his offers to serve gustavus! and you think that if your belief is true, he is unworthy!" "i should say vile!" nigel broke in. "yet upon him rests the possibility of resistance in bohemia?" "he lives in state in prague, so they say, with a court and a multitude of retainers. his name is still something to draw men!" "and what do you say if i tell you that the grand turk meditates an invasion of hungary?" "you must make your peace with saxony!" "the emperor has sent orders to rudolf von tiefbach to withdraw from lusatia." "saxony will look upon that as a sign of weakness rather than amity, and will invade us the quicker." "so i think!" said the father with a sigh. "but the emperor would have it so." "when you spoke of wallenstein as you did just now," he went on, "you showed that you did not understand wallenstein's point of view." the jesuit spoke in a contemplative, persuasive way. "i cannot understand disloyalty!" nigel interposed. "but is it? this man was a bohemian at a time when bohemia was not even an appanage of the house of austria. he offered to raise an army to assist the catholic cause. he was successful. wallenstein became great in name, in riches, with a great army marching to his orders, began to regard himself as one of the princes of europe, one of the greatest. the catholic league dismissed him. this was a great shock to his pride, but not to his riches or to his name. he still considered himself a prince, owning no hereditary allegiance to the habsburgs, none, in fact, to any man, free to offer his services, his alliance, where he would. his plan has been to fan the wind of protestantism, not because he loves it, but in order that he might raise the whirlwind of a gigantic war!" "yes?" nigel was eagerly attentive. "then gustavus came. hesse, saxony, all assisted in the incantation! tilly failed, pappenheim failed! it is incredible how they failed." nigel said merely-- "tilly failed because he departed from his original plan, and pappenheim was out-fought. one mistake in a big battle is too many!" "there is yet much that may happen. but we have still saxony to deal with, and now the grand turk." "it is possible that the emperor might need wallenstein again." the jesuit paused here and looked in a quizzical way at nigel. nigel flushed. he could not understand father lamormain talking in this way, as if he was the defender of wallenstein against obloquy, when a few months before the same father lamormain, in company with maximilian, was resolutely opposed to wallenstein, even against the emperor's inclination. "it is difficult to believe that the emperor would not rather die on the battlefield at the head of a faithful few than submit to such a course!" "i believe," said the jesuit, "that you would ride in the last charge by his side, as the old paladins did at roncesvaux." his eyes roved over nigel approvingly. he recognised the goodness of the metal from which with his own hammer he was striking the sparks. he was older, and his enthusiasm and his resolution were deeper down, not less there than nigel's. "but the war is of more importance than the emperor, or than wallenstein!" nigel looked puzzled. "i came into the world not to bring peace but a sword," said the father, crossing himself. "you mean?" asked nigel. "the war that the church has waged through all ages and will always wage! it is not by heroic deaths of emperors, but by the steady perennial application of means to ends that she wins her way. it is more to her ultimate purpose and advantage to maintain the habsburgs on the throne, to preserve their pomp and power, than to let them court certain destruction in order to add one more glittering legend to the roll of military saints!" "i begin to see something of your meaning!" said nigel. "then wallenstein is only an instrument that holy church intends to use?" "precisely!" said father lamormain, bringing his lips together firmly, as if he could have added something further and had swiftly decided against it. "and with what lure will you attract him?" asked nigel. "that we have yet to discover! he may decline altogether." "no, father. the man that has once commanded armies, not being a king, can never willingly lay down his baton to become a grazier of oxen, unless he be too old to march even in a litter." "i am a man of peace, you know!" said the jesuit. "but you will never lay down your baton till you die!" said nigel with understanding. beneath the suavity were _finesse_ and a high intelligence, but below all was the measureless strength of purpose and zeal for the cause that was of the essence of his life. nigel saw this as in a glass darkly. that to this quiet jesuit men and women and their personal emotions, their loves, their ambitions, their humiliations, were as nothing but tools to be used, or pipes to be played upon, nigel did not as yet even suspect--or perchance, had he suspected, might have craved leave to follow tilly, where hard knocks were plentiful and blood ran freely, to take part in a visible strife and with open foes, men of like manner to himself. "if you mean _this_!" said the father gravely, lifting his crucifix from his breast to his lips. "no! nor then! he will find work for my soul! but now," he went on in a changed voice, "i sent for you to send you on an errand. you are to be the tempter of wallenstein." "surely you can choose a legate of more credit and authority than me!" "possibly, but not one more likely to elicit wallenstein's candour." "and how will he receive an ambassador of my humble station? will he not rather deem it another affront, and throw his weight wholly into the opposite scale?" "as to rank, the emperor is pleased with your behaviour as a regimental commander, and your courage and conduct in the battle and the retreat from breitenfeld. your patent as major-general is being made out. wallenstein may appear cold. he may appear haughty, but you will let him understand that you are but the forerunner. you will explain that the emperor is desirous of knowing first, whether his grace the duke of friedland would be willing, should the occasion arise, to raise another army to oppose first saxony, then gustavus, on the part of the empire, and in the second place, what conditions his grace would expect to be fulfilled, and what powers must be included in his patent. once the general extent of his demands are known a negotiation may be set on foot through channels which will safeguard his dignity." the interview proceeded at some length, father lamormain laying down with great precision the details of the points on which nigel was to touch. "you will go to prague ostensibly in command of reinforcements for the garrison, and to report to the emperor the state of the defences of that city. in the ordinary course you will naturally beg the favour of being received by the duke, and so gain his private ear." "having learned all you can, you will return with all speed, for events are moving quickly." "i can but do my best," nigel said in conclusion, "and that best may be poor. meantime i crave the emperor's patience, and the opportunity afterwards to gain his further favour in some military employment, for to tell the truth, father, this embassy work is not suited to my bent. though i can but thank the emperor very heartily for the honour he does me in reposing so much of his confidence in me." so the interview ended as it had begun with a benediction, and the next day saw nigel and a considerable body of troops, with a full complement of officers, set out for prague. chapter xxix. orbit and focus. the best inn at znaim was a solidly built and roomy and uncomfortable place. znaim is on the road from vienna to prague, and is actually in the mark of mähren, neither in austria nor bohemia. whether that was a reason why his grace the duke of friedland should have affrighted, as much as overjoyed, the host of the golden fleece by his presence it is not possible to say, but he was there with an attendance of two gentlemen and six men-servants, not counting horse-boys. as he told no one why he was going to znaim, or whether he was passing beyond znaim, no one could satisfy the curiosity of the host, who having been warned by courier, had caused a large upper room to be swept, laid down a rug or two bought from a hungarian trader, who had bought them from a turk, and set a fire of logs roaring in the chimney by way of banishing the november damp. the great man had arrived at midday, dined with his gentlemen, who had afterwards set off on some journey to the southward. left alone, his men-servants dismissed for the time being, the duke amused himself by making plans and calculations on sheets of paper, also by walking to and fro, and peering out of the misty casement. the innkeeper took it into his head that the duke was expecting some one. and in the late afternoon, just as the duke had called for candles, the door opened and the man-servant announced "the countess ottilie von thüringen." from a hood of deep blue velvet edged with sable, a slight colour in her cheeks from the wind, the mysterious eyes looked out expectant and almost timid, if timidity had not been almost a stranger to the woman to whom they belonged. the grave cold face of wallenstein relaxed into a smile of welcome. he bowed and kissed her hand. "so you are on your way, countess ottilie! 'tis a long while since we met." "six months! albrecht! six months of inglorious rust!" there was an undertone of reproach, very faint, perhaps scarcely meant. she was a woman. the brow of wallenstein resumed its furrows. "you at least have not rusted," he said. "quicksilver could rust as soon. you have been busy, my confederate. but indeed i have not been exactly idle. and we may say truthfully that our efforts have succeeded." "in so far that protestant germany is aroused from end to end by the torch of gustavus, and that the catholic league was never so downcast as now." "you say rightly that gustavus applied the torch, but it is we who have gathered the dry faggots together and spread them on the common hearth!" "then you are pleased with me, albrecht!" the wistfulness in her tone was quite apparent. for a moment the great lady was merged into the woman seeking approval from the man who sat upon the throne of her admiration. "you are wonderful as well as beautiful!" said the duke, not as a lover says these things, but with the air of the connoisseur of minds, deeply surprised that he has discovered a masterpiece where he looked merely for an ordinary work of art. she coloured at his words and smiled. they pleased her, glibly as they ran off his tongue, but with a lover's ardour to waft them into air how much more would they have pleased her! "yes!" she went on as if following out another thought. "events are moving fast towards the point we aimed at, your recall." "my recall? yes! six months ago i was dreaming of recall." in an instant she leaned forward anxiously to ask-- "of what then do you now think if not of recall? to what end are you planning? towards what have i planned and journeyed and striven?" wallenstein felt the annoyance that all self-centred men feel at making others partners in their plans. but he showed nothing of it as he answered-- "of a confederacy of all german states on the basis of complete religious liberty! it is of that i am thinking." she threw back her hood and opened her cloak. then she asked with an amused air-- "and for this it is necessary to _drive the habsburgs over the alps_?" something very like a gleam of impatience, if not of anger, shot into his eyes. "could such a confederacy take place and the emperor ferdinand consent?" he asked. "no! nor could it take place while the order of jesus exists." "that also must go!" he showed plainly how indifferent it was. "but how did you learn so much of my intentions?" "the dead gave up what the living had not sufficient trust to reveal!" she said with some air of being hurt. "so von teschen is dead! at breitenfeld?" she nodded. "he was a useful servant, but too rash! still, i am sorry to have lost him!" "was it altogether worthy of albrecht von waldstein to wait the issue of a battle, and then to send congratulations to the victor?" the voice of ottilie von thüringen conveyed sorrow. her eyes, wide open, searched the duke's face, which showed nothing. "it is the handle of the sword i seek, not the point. there is nothing worthy or unworthy. without a command i cannot sway a single state! i must begin by taking the sword by the handle." "your grace seems to have forgotten the tenor of the compact made with a habsburger, a rebel, but still a habsburger. let me remind you of it. the objective was the restoration of your grace to the command of the armies of the emperor, or of the catholic league. to do this it was necessary to encourage the protestant powers to attack, and the greater the danger to the empire, the more sure would be your restoration. that accomplished, the sword once more in your hand, you were to demand the throne of bohemia." "and who says that my purpose does not hold?" "albrecht von waldstein seems to say it. he talks of confederacies, of driving out the habsburgs. he who aspires to sit beside a habsburg upon a throne must first be worthy of her, and not diminish her worth in lowering the lustre of her family and her name!" the splendid voice rang out with the pride and command of a great princess, rebuking a too aspiring courtier. wallenstein bowed to the utterance as to the throne itself, but raising his head again and throwing back his wide shoulders replied-- "i have not forgotten, ottilie! but the habsburg princess that would sit beside wallenstein upon the throne of bohemia derives her title from him. it is not ferdinand of aragon and isabella of castile, a joining of two monarchies. i confess that europe holds but one princess, and that a habsburger, who can be an equal mate by reason of her intelligence, her beauty, and her race, for wallenstein, but she must learn that what he does is right. forgive me if i set the matter out too harshly. no man ever played a greater game for greater stakes under auspices more divine; but wallenstein must play it." the eyes of the countess ottilie flashed in the light of the candles and the firelight as she turned her head to answer him. but her answer died upon her lips, for the man-servant knocked and entered. "a general officer from vienna passing by with troops for prague craves audience, your grace!" the countess ottilie resumed her hood and sat down again by the fire. wallenstein, anticipating no long interruption, understood that she would contrive to remain incognita while he admitted this stranger to a short audience. nigel charteris entered. as he came forward into the full light the duke of friedland started perceptibly. "it is an omen! the circle, the oval, and the arc once more!" he muttered. "ah! major-general! so _your_ star mounts! whilst _mine_ flickers in a far-off sky." "i had thought to have found your grace alone, duke!" said nigel, casting a glance at the hooded lady. "she is like yourself and myself a chance traveller to znaim. i know her. she is a friend before whom one may speak freely. what of the war?" nigel told briefly what was known in vienna, what he guessed that wallenstein already knew. the lady spread out her long slender fingers to the fire. nigel saw them without regarding them. he could not see her face, nor was he concerned to try. she was wallenstein's affair. nigel did not wish to let the occasion slip, nor to lay too much stress upon it. "in short," he said, after his recital of the position as a soldier understood it to explain to a soldier, "the affairs of the emperor are in a serious plight, and he looks round for aid." "is not his holiness the pope sending him an army, or at least an aid?" asked wallenstein. "it is said that his holiness has too much to occupy his troops in italy," said nigel. "meantime saxony is getting ready for the march." "the winter will stop him!" said wallenstein. "he is like to winter in prague!" said nigel. the lady by the fireplace may have shivered, or shrugged her shoulders in the least. a thought came to him that his prophecy might have gone home to the duke more truly than he knew. it was at prague that wallenstein maintained a princely house. he must, in the event of the saxons attacking prague, submit to their dominance, a thing unpleasant and inconsonant with wallenstein's character, or remove his household before their approach, or make an alliance with them and so cut himself entirely adrift from the empire, or raise troops for the emperor and defend the town. in any event out of the four he must make up his mind and act soon. "to whom then does the emperor look to save him from his enemies?" "there is but one, your grace, and that the duke of friedland!" again the lady at the hearth held out her fingers idly to the blaze, and nigel's eyes following the action saw the red glow of the blood between them, and this time he marked their slenderness. "the emperor must needs bid high!" said the duke. "and soon! the posture of affairs is not what it was. there must be no more talk of edicts! the time has come when there can be no more catholic states and protestant states but german states! if the emperor becomes strong again through his armies, it can only be in order to be able to treat on a more equal footing. but what possible price can he offer me to forego my private peace, my ease, the enjoyment of my revenues, and submit to the harassments of raising an army? i speak not yet of a supreme command. cæsar made war against the gauls because he needed money before he could gratify his ambition. i do not need money." nigel noticed that the lady's head gave an impatient toss, as who should say, "what ails the man?" "you do not covet the honour of the supreme command, and of driving saxony back to his frontiers and the swede across the baltic?" nigel said in genuine amazement. "for what? to become again a private gentleman?" "there would be the turks next, who are even now talking of invading hungary." "more toil! more glory, if you like, or perhaps death in the course of the task. and again to what end if successful?" "the great soldiers have never looked to the end when they began their campaigns," nigel replied, glowing; "but none of them has ever rested of his own will while great victories were yet to be won." "the emperor would scarce like to endow me with such powers as i should demand before i listened to him. there is but one wallenstein. when the emperor chooses to send his request in language plain and manifest, offering to confer such absolute power to raise him an army as i consider my least due, i will consider it. till then i lift no finger, not even if the saxons thunder at the doors of prague. tilly has failed. pappenheim has failed, maximilian will fail." the lady at the hearth put up her long fingers to adjust the hood more closely to her head. this time nigel saw them. he knew them. but were they ottilie's or stephanie's? the cloak? where had he seen that? his heart beat faster. for an instant he forgot wallenstein, the emperor, the whole of his mission in the presence, the hidden presence, of ottilie. he sprang to her side. a curious cold smile lit up the face of wallenstein. "ottilie!" nigel exclaimed. she threw back her hood, rose, faced him, held out her hands-- "ottilie is no more! i am stephanie!" "no more?" nigel murmured with quivering lips. "no more?" "stephanie was ottilie when she followed the star of wallenstein, worshipped his ambition and wrought as she did even to this day for his success. but no longer! she is satisfied. she could be one with the lofty spirit of a cæsar but not with the bargaining, bartering craft of merchant wallenstein, who asks what reward he shall receive at the very hand that opens the gate of the palace of glory." "i go to vienna, colonel charteris, you to prague. god speed you back again! now if you will see me to my carriage i need no longer be a hindrance to the chaffering!" it may be imagined what confusion this outburst, spoken in calm level tones, icy with suppressed passion, stirred in nigel's mind. the pressure of her hands, the first look into his eyes, had told him that what he had ravished from a not unwilling ottilie was his from stephanie, archduchess though she was, when time and season were more propitious; and the blood beat into his face. he bowed over her hands and went towards the door to give the order to the servants. then the archduchess turned to wallenstein-- "adieu, duke! our astrologer's figure holds another meaning than the one we gave it. bid him be more exact, and take into account what he has forgotten, the beatings of our hearts, ... of those of us that have hearts!" wallenstein bowed low. his face showed nothing of what he felt. "adieu, your highness! there is perhaps more in the spirit of wallenstein than the merchant, more than the politician, more than the soldier. i give your highness thanks for all your furtherance, while i deplore the rupture of the alliance, from which it is your highness's pleasure to withdraw. adieu!" nigel returned as the last word was spoken, and wallenstein proceeded-- "adieu also, general charteris! my best wishes go with you! if his imperial majesty should inquire, you have my authority to tell him in what state of mind you have found me, and nothing of what her highness has indiscreetly disclosed. i know that in all things i can rely upon your discretion." nigel gave him the assurance, and after a parting salutation led the archduchess to her coach. chapter xxx. love and a locksmith. the utter hopelessness of the affair was the first sane reflection that approached the gate of nigel's mind as he journeyed on to prague after the archduchess had set out for vienna. they would meet again. yes, it was in the minds of both. they were only at the beginning. they would both go on. they had made no pledge to go on; but having exchanged looks, clasped hands no more, he had gone northward and she southward, and nigel's first sane reflection, after the first glow of the supreme exaltation of spirit we call love had passed, was that in some way or other that journeying apart would be symbolical of their lives. he asked himself what would happen if some stranger from over seas, not being a prince of the blood, should in the court of king charles fall into a like passion for an english princess, were any old enough. he had no doubts upon the subject. the amorous fool would be despatched in haste to his native land. the princess would be dealt with by appointing a company of noble gaolers and a residence from which egress would be difficult, until a husband of the right hue of blood could be purchased for her, and there would be an end of youthful escapades. and nigel knew that he in his own country would have approved. the habsburgs were, if anything, prouder than the stuarts. what then could he, a scot, a plain gentleman, who by a series of strokes of fortune had risen in the imperial service to be a major-general, expect? dismissal! and the archduchess? the elector or a convent. as yet, nigel reflected, and this was after the first sane reflection set out above, as yet the secret, that secret that was more delicious, more thrilling than any in the world to them, lay in their own hearts. he would cherish it. she would cherish it. in time to come they would make plans, wild hazardous resolutions. would they find the courage to carry them out? he could answer for himself. her history, as far as he knew it, answered for her. she had an equal courage, a haughty daring, a mind full of resource, and eyes that could stir him to any deed. so he rode on to prague and disposed his troops in the garrison and went round the defences with the commander of the garrison, making suggestions, sage and otherwise, and incidentally learned how unpopular the emperor was: how he had quartered troops on protestant hamlets, and enforced mass, torn lands from protestant hands and handed them to catholics, or those who said they were. the commandant was not hopeful as to the front they would present to saxony. all nigel could offer was vague encouragement that something was in the wind that would put a different complexion on the affairs of the empire. then having accomplished his errand he returned to vienna and found father lamormain eager to hear the result of the interview with wallenstein. this nigel reported in a very few words, which father lamormain summed up by saying-- "you inferred, colonel charteris, that the duke is willing to treat on conditions!" "on conditions which he will impose himself!" "and these are?" "that the war is to be waged or not, as the necessity to redress the balance of power dictates, and that the settlement shall be on the basis of entire religious freedom for the empire." "that is the hardest condition! but we must needs bow to the tempest. time will bring its own opportunities afterwards. and the next?" "that all appointments of officers, from the highest downwards, shall be in the duke's gift without the need of reference to vienna." "the duke would be the fountain of honour, and every captain his sworn vassal. that is also a hard condition and smacks of cæsarism!" the jesuit commented. "freedom he asks and power absolute while he exercises his functions, but for reward, what reward does he crave?" "none that he spoke of to me!" "ah!" said the jesuit reflectively. "we are bidden to distrust the greeks and people bearing gifts. i am also inclined to look a little further when a man is willing to undergo great toil and asks nothing." "there will be the spoil of the cities and the ransom of the prisoners!" said nigel. "the spoil of stockholm?" the jesuit inquired with a smile. "now as to yourself, general. will you stay here and take your chance of a command under wallenstein, or join tilly?" "i would be where there is work to do!" said nigel. "and wallenstein may not name me!" "you would have made a good regular had you been trained early," said the father approvingly. "but some day woman will come into your life and divide it into the camps of love and duty." for an instant a flush came into nigel's cheeks and passed. had she not come sooner than the jesuit expected? the interview ended, nigel proffered a formal request to the war department to be allowed to join general tilly. as the permission did not depend upon the war department so much as upon the emperor, not upon the emperor so much as father lamormain, still a few days elapsed before he could set out. couriers were expected. negotiations had been begun with wallenstein with as much ceremony as if he had been a crowned head. to any man less genuinely a man of action, this compulsory and to himself excusable dawdling in the very neighbourhood of the archduchess, would have been a delightful interlude between the stern acts of war. such a man would have had the capacity for idleness in some measure, and some knowledge how to enjoy it rather than employ it. he would, far more quickly than nigel, have found a way to enjoy it, and to enjoy it in company with some beloved fair, or perhaps with several. nigel's love was a possession. the archduchess, mysterious combination of stephanie and ottilie, had the whole of his heart for her encampment. there was no little citadel or outward tower which her forces did not occupy. but as yet the exaltation of his love did not manifest itself in any outward signs. he neither talked more, as many lovers do, nor was more silent, as some are wont to be, nor manifested exceeding nor profuse gentleness, a manner unbecoming in a soldier. if any at vienna had known him well, they might have thought him more self-contained than usual. he felt that he must needs keep a close-knitted grip upon himself, for he told himself that, if he should come within arm's length of the object of his worship, his will would be as the green withes that bound samson, and his lips would incontinently profane the image of the goddess, as they had once before done when she had appeared under the humbler of her guises. that the archduchess, on her side, might be as fully and completely woman as he was man, did not realise itself to him. it was not possible that it should. so that he did not picture her as beating her wings against the palace cage, whose wires were the servant spies, stifling or trying to stifle in her generous heart the desire to give of her womanhood with lavishness to him whom her imagination had crowned and enthroned in a vision of perfect man. but where lover and beloved are within a bowshot length, and both are thirsty to gaze the one upon the other, both eager to exchange the story of their moods, surely the god cupid will find a way to bring about their meeting. and love, who laughs at locksmiths, employed one. one noon, as he returned from some of his military duties, nigel found an apprentice locksmith awaiting him in his quarters, whose grimy hand drew from his leathern apron a key bright from its new forging and chasing by the tools. nigel, being asked by the lad if it pleased him, replied with the wonderful presence of mind dan cupid gives, that it pleased him well. it was the duplicate of the key of that orchard close within the gardens of the palace. the place was no longer in doubt. where colonel charteris had been received in jocund may by the archduchess, nigel would meet stephanie in hoar december. and the hour? love dictated that the first hour of dusk was the first possible, and the first possible was the one of which love must avail himself. to gain access to the gardens by night it was necessary to reach them by one of the doors which led from one of the lower corridors of the palace into the orangery, and by one of those of the orangery into the garden terrace. that afternoon nigel spent an hour not unprofitably in the orangery examining the trees, learning their history from the gardeners, and where the keys hung by which one might let one's self out into the terrace. by this time his face and figure were too well known to the pages or the domestics of the palace to excite remark, and he easily contrived an errand to one of the officers on guard in the palace, which made it reasonable for him to be seen passing along the corridor in question and returning. but on his return he took the left hand into the orangery instead of the right into the courtyard, and an instant sufficed for him to find the key and let himself out on to the terrace. by what means the other conspirator would reach the rendezvous he did not know, but from the rambling building of the palace many doors led into the gardens. few of them showed any trace of usage, but one no doubt led to the private apartments of the archduchess. once more the moon befriended him, but this time she seemed to nigel to be like himself, or perhaps more justly like his mistress. for, fitfully gleaming, now wholly to be seen, now half in shadow, now again wholly lost, the moon seemed to scurry from one clot of cloud, ragged and grey and wintry, to another hiding-place still more opaque, and always scurrying. nigel knew well it was the wind in the upper air that drove the clouds across her face, but the image pleased him as he went by purposely circuitous ways towards the orchard close, his key securely in his pocket, his cloak wrapped round him, his hat pulled down well across his brows, his sword in its place at his side. there was nothing languorous about this night, nothing effeminate but the moon. but in chill december, as in soft breathing june, an assignation with a maid is as fruitful of lovers' walks and the exercise of lovers' patience. so he drew near to the orchard close, and paused in the shadows before he set key to lock. now that he was so near he felt more of love's awe. he wondered if it had been some rustic maiden--elspeth reinheit, for example--he would have felt it. but of elspeth reinheit he had never felt in such a way. many maidens in many places had cast questioning, subtly troubling, glances at him, and always till he had seen her, whom he had deemed ottilie the mysterious, their glances had fallen from him like spent arrows from a buckler. she alone was above all different in kind, a creature of a lone world where he was a hardy adventurer. he was a new pizarro penetrating a deserted temple of the incas, and finding a solitary priestess whose lofty mien and more than human beauty forbade him to desecrate the sanctuary, while she chanted in an unknown tongue songs of infinite allurement. he thrust the key into the lock. chapter xxxi. an assignation. the lock yielded. the door opened. but the walk was bare as far as the fitful moonlight showed. he strode forward almost as if he feared an ambush, though at this part of the garden the short bare trees and standards made but the cover of a spider's-web tracery, through which one sees what is beyond. only towards the middle of the orchard was there a spot where several walks met, and this was nearly surrounded by evergreen bushes and laurel and holly. this alone loomed blackly in front of him. towards this he strode. and even as he gained the entrance a tall figure of a woman, cloaked and hooded, emerged from the encompassing dusk, and coming nearer, revealed itself as that of the archduchess. dimly nigel divined that she wore the deep blue velvet and sable furs which he had seen aforetime. more clearly he distinguished in the depths of the hood the dancing of those lustrous eyes, the pouting red lips of that royal mouth, the pallor of the cheeks. he took her hand to kiss, but she bent forward with a look of enticement. "nay! tall captain!" she said. "we need not use the fashion of the courts. it was not so you kissed ottilie, or so she told me." but nevertheless she tendered but her cheek, in token, as he understood it, that she had but surrendered the furthest outworks. that vain imagining of his, that to be within arm's length of her was to throw the reins upon the neck of passion and let it gallop, had vanished when he put the key in the lock. woman the queen, woman the giver and the withholder, leaned graciously towards him by reason of the love that had descended upon her, abasing her to him, exalting him to her, banishing all thrusting rebellious swashbuckling imaginations from the presence. tumultuous his thoughts sprang towards speech, but little could he find but an almost breathless-- "stephanie! of all living men to choose me for your lover?" "nay! tall captain!" craftily she had ranged herself beside him and rested her hand upon his shoulder, looking up into his eyes with her face of roguish wooer. "nay! tall captain! you had already taken my sister-half, ottilie, by assault, and it is not seeming that an archduchess should be bussed by more than one bold fellow, so i even proffer my cheek to the same smiter for honour's sake." the tone of raillery set him at his ease. he felt that beneath it beat the true womanly heart. and over him stole a great, a measureless content. he took her left hand in his, and holding so much of her closely to his side, they began to walk here and there about the orchard by first one and then another of its many paths. "it is amazing that i did not guess your riddle before, my love," he said. "count tilly guessed it at magdeburg!" she said. "but he feigned not to, thinking doubtless it would be as well my madcap freaks should not come to the emperor through him." "but you put on a different seeming! the voice was like, but the language of ottilie was different, smacked of the country lady. the face of ottilie was like that of the archduchess, but the manner and bearing were less haughty and less assured." "but the truth was that you saw me in distant places and in changed circumstances, so that you were prone to think of me as two distinct women." "and now tell me the meaning of this masquerade! it was for wallenstein! i am sure of that! you were in love with wallenstein?" "never! you are going to be my first lover and my last!" her tone was deep and serious. there was something of presage, of mystery, a hint of doom. "i was taken, as a girl will be, with the glamour that glowed about his name, as he rose from step to step by great leaps of success. it was the star of wallenstein that i followed. i dreamed of being caught up into its orbit, and, moving, throned above the nations in its company, sharing and contributing to its brightness." "and wallenstein? did he know?" "wallenstein knew that i was favouring his party and his plans. he knew that i was willing to run terrible risks, as i have done, to forward his aims. but wallenstein is a merchant, not a prince, a politician, not a man! the glamour became more transparent as time went on, and when i met you, nigel, it was as if a wind from the hills swept over the plain, sweeping away the mists of morning and leaving everything clear and visible. for you showed yourself a man. you were not old and full of wiles like father lamormain or maximilian. you were not like a mere courtier, as so many that i have known are, ready to agree to this and that and everything. you withstood me, thwarted me, outplayed me." "not always, stephanie! there was a castle called the wartburg!" at this reminiscence the archduchess flushed beneath her hood, which nigel did not see. but he felt the sly pinch that accompanied her cry. "speak not of it! you took more away with you than you brought!" the hood was turned up towards him now, and he could look down into the depths of those translucent womanly eyes, brimming with the tenderness of first love, more magical than which is nothing of human tenderness. "and i," said nigel, "had never loved woman till i saw you in the pastor's house at magdeburg. it was as if a bee had stung me. i felt the sharp prick, told myself it was naught. but the poison worked. at erfurt, when i knew it was you that had wept in the cathedral, and we stood by the bridge looking at the rivers and the stars and heard you speak of love, i recognised the pain again, i knew the longing that had set in, but also, knowing that you spoke not of me, again i brushed the thought aside. but never for long...." something seemed to come into his mind.... he paused awhile, the archduchess hanging upon his next words, savouring the essence of what had gone before.... "who stole my despatches?" "the same hand that restored them! speak not of them!" "i wondered if i had awakened what would have happened!" "a woman's wit----" "would have been little proof against a man's sword-thrust in the dark," said nigel sternly. "i will not run such a risk again," she said with humility, "unless it be to save you!" "foolish princess!" he rejoined, and held her suddenly in his arms. "you are bewitched! and so am i." this time there was no pretence of offering a cheek. it was a fortunate dark shadow in which they stood, and lips levied toll of lips, and were not satisfied with the rate of customs. heart beat to heart and beat the more, but nigel's reverence for her, for all he held her so closely, was as high as her greatness of soul. "it is enough, tall captain, and yet not enough. but our plans! we have already spent a foolish hour and made no plans." her warning tumbled nigel headlong out of his tower to an ungrateful earth. plans to what end? "oh, stephanie! my princess! to-morrow or the next day or the next i must set out for tilly's army. a plan to see you, to hold you, what need i but this key and your sweet graciousness?" "once to meet you in my orchard close! once was easy and possible. but do you think we could meet twice and not be spied upon. i know the palace of vienna and its ways as you can never know them. spies of father lamormain, hirelings of maximilian's, hirelings of france and spain." "and your love is a great and precious jewel," said nigel, "too great, too precious to be jeopardised." "if you would wear it and me forever," ... she murmured, "we must hide it now, peeping at it now and then in secret, till the time is ripe to run the great risk of our lives and proclaim it in the ears of the court and of europe. whether it will be a convent or death for me, or death for you and me, for i would die rather than wed maximilian, or life for both of us, is hidden behind the shadows as the dark encircles us now. but we must not barter our chances for any trifling joy----" "it is no trifling joy, stephanie! this, save the mark, is heaven to hold you to my heart." "oh! nigel! nigel!" she sighed. "your love is the love of a man that comes and goes in gusts, roaring like the wind, gentle as the breeze, and then it is gone till it awakens again. i say not you are inconstant, but you do not fear, as woman does, the hour of emptiness when there is no lover, no husband." "by heaven! i am no inconstant, stephanie! i can bide my time, and if i lose not my life in these wars, surely there shall be a roof-tree in bonnie scotland waiting us." "to-morrow, all being well, the archduchess shall send for colonel charteris to the long gallery, but for a brief talk of the affairs of state. the following evening i shall try to meet you here at the same time to say farewell. but remember how we may be beset, and use a double caution. look for a way into the gardens by another avenue than the palace. now i leave you! do not follow! wait a full half-hour! make sure you are not spied upon! make a wide circuit to the orangery and have a glib excuse if you are met. good-night." for a brief half-hour nigel waited, exploring the orchard close. there were two other gates, by one of which the archduchess had beaten her retreat. no sign of any lurking spy made itself apparent. this time cæsar's daughter had escaped suspicion, and the lovers had their precious hour of interlude. nigel's mind was more at rest after he had made the circuit of the place and sounded every shadow by the aid of the fitful moon. more than ever alive to the privilege of her love, he was equally alive to the danger that she ran. histories and mysteries of the courts of italy, of spain, of france, sprang to life in his mind, things read, or heard in the guard-room, or handed down in fearsome stories of the hearth at home. the fairy princess had been folded in his arms, had breathed kisses of mortal joy upon his lips, had gone. if she were not a fairy princess, then a thousand unknown dangers threatened them. he could guess maximilian as one very possible architect of evil; only maximilian was just then preparing to defend bavaria, and could know nothing if the very wind shouted "nigel and stephanie." father lamormain was another, nearer home, absolutely inexorable in working out his plans. at present in ignorance of this princely indiscretion he was friendly towards nigel, but let him gain an inkling and nigel felt that their projects of happiness would be thwarted by means impossible for himself and her to foresee and to avoid. as he turned the key in the lock and took one farewell look of that wintry orchard before closing the gate behind him his mind was full of joy; and as the gate closed joy fled before foreboding. chapter xxxii. pastor rad again. after the victory of the lutheran faith at breitenfeld, pastor rad had found himself without a definite mission. in his enthusiasm he had made his way to the camp of gustavus at werben and marched with the swedes to that field of triumph, using such opportunities as occurred to labour by way of exhortation and of prayer. so that his sonorous voice was lifted up, it mattered little who listened or regarded. at first the swedes, drafted into whose ranks were many brandenburgers, pomeranians, and saxons, listened to, if they only imperfectly understood, his vociferous ministrations. but after breitenfeld the jealousy of the swedish native ministers, who had at the beginning, while the issue was uncertain, held out the right hand of fellowship, manifested itself, and he was made to understand that his presence with the swedish portion of gustavus' army was superfluous. that army speedily moved onwards towards the west, and pastor rad, having reached erfurt along with it, considered it a suitable opportunity for making his way back to eisenach, where his flock, and his livelihood, lay peacefully enfolded in the forest. his reception did not savour of fervency. the interest of utterly rural communities in external events happening a hundred miles away is hard to kindle, and, when kindled, needs much application of the bellows to keep it at a red heat. magdeburg had fired them. his own narratives and sermons had blown up their sparks to a blaze, but, with the marching of a small body of their young men to join gustavus, the countryside had returned to its arduous agricultural pursuits, to its wood chopping and charcoal burning, to its smithies and its inns. "here comes pastor rad!" said jacob putkammer, the tailor. "now we shall hear!" "about breitenfeld?" was the pastor's eager question. "it was glorious." "yes! yes! the swede beat tilly till there was not a whole suit of clothes in his army! we know all that." "what we want to know," said marx englehart, the smith, "is what has become of elspeth reinheit?" "elspeth reinheit?" queried the pastor in astonishment. "you remember, pastor, how you set about driving the devil out of her! over yonder at ruhla!" the pastor flushed at the remembrance. "yes! didn't some soldier come interfering and carry her off?" said the smith. "i wasn't there. i had too much to do at the time to make a holiday." "holiday! marx!" said the pastor sternly. "it was a solemn duty we had to perform, and we were shamefully interrupted." the tailor's eyes glinted as he said-- "i can picture him now dusting your gown for you!" the pastor looked, as he felt, very angry. "i don't know what became of her." "well!" said the smith, "i shouldn't advise you to go too near old reinheit, her father. he's in an awful fume against you, pastor. of course at the time he thought it was all for her good, but he did not expect you would go to the length of whipping the poor girl." "how else should one persuade the devil out of a woman?" asked pastor rad. "ah!" said the tailor. "we are not learned in these matters. now if you had been married to her, no one would have complained. there is no better way." "there was a good deal of talk before that that you were cocking your cap at her!" said the smith slowly. "and might have done worse! old reinheit's got a fine stocking of gold somewhere, and look at his farm," said the tailor. "lay not up for yourselves----" began the pastor. "that's all very well!" said the tailor. "but a good-looking wench, even if she has got a devil, is none the worse for having a rich father. _she_ didn't lay up the treasure. besides, i wouldn't give half a batz for a woman who hadn't got a bit of the devil in her." "come! come! jacob!" said the pastor. "your tongue speaketh of vanity as your trade does. as for nicholas reinheit, i shall even go up to his house and comfort him." "well!" said the smith. "it is only just and manly so to do, but look after your skin, for he is a man who can still use his hands if he is a bit over sixty." a good many people met pastor rad as he went through the town to nicholas reinheit's farm, and every one of them asked him-- "where is elspeth reinheit?" and some careless people even put it in this way-- "what have you done with elspeth reinheit?" it was bad enough to be asked where she was. it was iniquitous that he should be taxed with having put her away. it was not very strange that pastor rad should not have known what had become of elspeth. he had seen nigel carry her off. that was all of a piece with his own unworthy suspicions of elspeth's character. as to her after-fate pastor rad had very little doubt of that. she would have been abandoned in some city to her own wretchedness and shame, not daring to return home. all armies left a track of human litter that had once been spotless maidens and chaste wives. he felt himself aggrieved at his own personal loss. he had fully intended to wed elspeth in due time and inherit as much as he could of nicholas reinheit's wealth. nicholas the farmer had not been overmuch in favour of the idea, but old pastor reinheit, the girl's uncle, who had died at magdeburg, was desirous that the wedding should come about. altogether pastor rad was not very eager to meet the girl's father, but the tailor and the smith, who represented public opinion in eisenach, had led him in his haste to declare that he would face nicholas, and he would. pastor rad's consciousness of his own honesty of purpose upheld him. nicholas gave him a grudging "good-day!" he was a stoutly built, rather fat man, but anxiety had perceptibly thinned him, and his cheeks hung loose and baggy. "the lord comfort you in your affliction!" said pastor rad. the old man turned on him with a snarl-- "it is easy to say. you took away my daughter. you set some silly tale going about her being possessed till the countryside demanded that she should suffer discipline. fool! it was you that was possessed. and you set about giving her a public whipping, my daughter elspeth, as good and true a maid as ever walked, and all those mawkish fools of elders and hugger-muggers sitting in a ring all about you mum and not lifting a finger." "the discipline has been found efficacious in cases of possession!" said pastor rad. "very likely," retorted nicholas, "where some servant girl has gone distraught and howled like a wolf up and down the village, or an old witch has given a man's horse the murrain. whip 'em! burn 'em! drown 'em. but my daughter elspeth! and then forsooth one of the emperor's captains takes her out of your hands and rides away with her, and you with your three or four hundred men with muskets and pikes never move a finger. where is she now? tell me that! is she alive or dead? you professed to have a liking for her at one time. why, man, if you had had a spark of love in you, you would have followed that captain's troops till you dropped! pastor! pastor means shepherd, doesn't it? what manner of shepherd are you that lets the wolf snatch his lamb out of his very fingers?" nicholas spat solemnly on the hearth. "you forget," expostulated pastor rad, "that there were above three hundred troopers, well armed and well horsed. we should have been cut in pieces." "and would they have gone scathless? has the forest lost all its manhood?" "what was done or left undone cannot be remedied!" said the pastor. "did you know the man?" the farmer asked after a pause. "yes, it is the same fellow, a scot, so they told me, who broke into the house at magdeburg!" "and saved all your lives, so elspeth told me! 'tis a pity he saved yours!" "friend nicholas! you are too much beside yourself with grief. i was but an instrument of god." "he rode with you to erfurt, as i mind," the farmer went on. "did he treat elspeth as a light o' love?" as a matter of fact, the pastor had been too much engaged in the contemplation of his coming sermons to remember, so he answered truthfully enough-- "i noticed nothing unseemly in his behaviour either to elspeth or to ottilie von thüringen!" "it may be that the captain but took her to a place of safety, thinking her in danger!" said the farmer, growing more placid as the thought sprang up that there was ground for hope. "i remember a regiment staying near here the night after your hocus-pocus at ruhla. they came at nightfall, and with the dawn, or soon after, an officer came riding helter-skelter down the hill from the wartburg with a single soldier after him, and in half an hour they mounted and rode away. maybe he was the very man." "but if he brought elspeth thither why did he not send her to you?" propounded pastor rad. "because the girl would have had more sense than to get in your path again!" "as if i had no work of the lord's to do, where the hosts of the lord were drawn out unto battle?" "depend upon it," said the farmer, "elspeth's in the wartburg hiding!" the pastor shook his head. he would have liked to know that she was. after all, there was an air of solid comfort about old reinheit's abode, sadly marred by the lack of elspeth's trim figure in coif and apron trotting to and fro. the more he thought of it the more he wanted to see her. at last he said-- "it may be that the lord will vouchsafe light i will go even unto the wartburg and question the landgravine, if peradventure she knows where the maiden is." "you need not darken my door again if you find her not," said nicholas reinheit. "she can milk against any maid, make butter against any maid or wife in the forest, bake against any, brew against any. god in heaven! she must come back. and i shan't go to the church till she does." pastor rad was too much surprised to say anything. for nicholas had been a very steadfast pillar of the church, and it boded ill for pastor rad if he did not succeed in restoring the lost lamb to the fold. so he picked up his staff and trudged thoughtfully away up the steep path to the wartburg. but the quest did not end there. for the landgravine told him that the lady ottilie von thüringen had taken elspeth away with her when she set out for halberstadt, which was the next day, or the next day but one, after the emperor's colonel had brought her. this news acted like a spur upon pastor rad. he stayed long enough to send word by one of reinheit's cowherds that he had learned something about elspeth and had gone to find her. if he heard nothing of elspeth, at least he was sure of getting trace of the lady ottilie, who had many threads of connection with the protestant leaders in various places. and he did not have to go farther than erfurt before he received some information which caused him to return southward and set his face towards bohemia. chapter xxxiii. the pastor's pilgrimage. the archduchess stephanie had rightly counted on a safe journey from halberstadt to bohemia, however small an escort she might be accorded. for, as the countess ottilie von thüringen she claimed safe conduct whenever there was any risk of getting embroiled with small bodies of protestant levies, and her escort was far too mindful of its own safety to risk giving any other account of her than she chose to give. as it was a matter of knowledge to the chief conspirators in each place that she was a medium of communication between wallenstein and the protestant leaders, her name was sufficient to guarantee her safety through country patrolled by their troops. so it was the track of the countess ottilie von thüringen that pastor rad picked up at erfurt. he learned that she had an escort of twenty imperial troopers: that she had in her train several women servants or companions, the information not being very exact or well-defined: that she was making her way to prague. to prague, then, the pastor made his way easily enough. the man that had come through the fires at magdeburg and run innumerable risks at breitenfeld, although not himself using the arms of the soldiery but only spiritual weapons, was in a measure a kind of prodigious heroic creature, and fared well accordingly. much talking and preaching made him exceedingly hungry, and the farmers and burghers, who one after the other housed and fed him, were as much amazed at, and respected him as a trencherman, a thing they were well able to judge of, as they were at his exploits, of which they were, in truth, obliged to take the greater part at his own telling. prague was in a great turmoil. for bruit of the advance of the saxon troops was in every mouth, though no one knew anything for certain. indeed pastor rad knew as well as any one, though he kept his own counsel. the way of things was indeed greatly to his liking. the lutherans were getting the upper hand, just as but a short year before the catholics had done. it was in this wise. the catholics had learned that no sufficient aid could reach them from vienna. they had looked for wallenstein to organise their defence, and had he chosen to raise his own banner, it is possible that a sufficient force of catholic gentry and their retainers could have been mustered that, together with the imperial garrisons, might have given the saxons a very long pause. but to the amazement of all, wallenstein dismantled his house, collected his furniture in waggons and his household in coaches, and set out without haste towards vienna. in fact, he rested at znaim. this had given the signal for something like panic, and although it was the dead of winter, catholic family after catholic family followed in his wake, each departure making it still more difficult for the next, and creating confusion through the desperate efforts of each not to be the hindermost. from the innkeepers pastor rad learned that the countess ottilie had rested but a night and gone on to znaim, which being learned, the pastor could not resist the temptation of spending a day or two in the congenial company of the lutherans of prague, proving how well he could bray out prophetic denunciations against the fleeing catholics. as he took his daily stand near the south gate of the city, his exuberant yellow locks floating in the wind, he was able to assail with his scriptural invective all the fugitives, with the certainty that some of his words at least would be, if not exactly treasured, at all events remembered by dint of his unwearied reiteration. it was only when the burghers of prague, tenacious of their privileges and of the well-ordering of their city, even with the dismal prospect before them of an occupation by their friends the saxons, awakened to a sense of the unseemliness of his clamour, that pastor rad remembered the lady ottilie and elspeth reinheit, whose father was so well-to-do. once again he took staff in hand and trudged on to znaim. at znaim the host could only say that the lady ottilie had set out a full month before for vienna. he looked blank at the prospect. but he was by nature persistent, and unwilling to give up his search, which was now somewhat uninviting. vienna meant popery rampant, jesuits in scores, rough soldiery, not rougher than usual, but with the licence of authority to subject a mere lutheran pastor to all kinds of insults. there would be lutherans even in vienna, but those few and needy, and for companions on the road he would overtake the very catholics he had so denounced. of money he had no great store, but he had contrived some replenishing of his purse at prague, and husbanded his money as much as possible, taking advantage of every opportunity that offered of a free meal. in this way he accomplished the journey without much interruption, a few hard blows from the servants of those who remembered his oratory at prague, excepted. vienna with its populace, as it seemed to him, speaking all the tongues except german and curiously garbed, thronging with priests and nuns and soldiers, stared at him, professed not to understand his speech. he slunk into the first inn that offered a semblance of refuge and frugal fare at a modest price. having slept as well as he was able, he set out the next morning to find the lady ottilie von thüringen. having first approached some of his own belief and discovered that they knew nothing of her, not even her name, he accosted some of the better class of burgesses, who showed him greater courtesy than he expected, but could give him no information. failing with the citizens, he addressed himself with more politeness than he was in the habit of using (he had no very abundant stock in his wallet) to some of the gentlemen who aired themselves and their newest raiment in the principal streets. one or two of them manifested sufficient interest to take note of the name on their tablets and asked him to describe the lady, which he did with much particularity. these having heard, dismissed him with a vague negative, but left a disturbing impression on his mind that they knew more than they pretended. two days went by in this manner and in losing his way and finding it in the tortuous streets of the city. on the third day, however, he saw, as he stood gazing at the palace of the emperor, an officer of high rank, as it seemed, come out and mount his horse which had been held by a soldier at the entrance. the pastor's eyes roved wearily over this new subject, noting with contemptuous attention the plumed hat, the gold lace galloons and other striking embellishments, when something familiar in the officer's features or attitude came home to his consciousness. then he recognised nigel as the miscreant of magdeburg, who had given him that never-to-be-forgotten chastisement. pulling his hat over his brows the pastor followed nigel to his lodgings, and from midday till dusk he watched, following when nigel set out, waiting when he returned. in what way he was to come at his desired end he did not know; but his old suspicion that between nigel and elspeth was some dark secret understanding had leapt to his mind with renewed vigour. it was a great joy to him when at dusk nigel once more emerged, wrapped in a military cloak, bent upon some, so the pastor judged, furtive errand. the dusk that favoured nigel favoured him also. he followed with all the sleuth-hound in his composition, alert and noiseless. he wanted no second rencontre with that energetic scot, but he did want to know very much whither he was bound. he had much ado to keep pace, for nigel walked quickly, but the pastor was a sturdy man and young. he kept well up and always in the shadow. the road lay away from the main streets into meaner ones, then left the houses altogether. on the left lay the city walls, furnished now and again with guard-houses, and defensive angles, and projections. on the right was a high bank, surmounted by a wall, of what height or thickness he could not gauge. at a certain point nigel stopped, looked round a moment, and then began to climb the bank. the pastor stood in the nearest shadow at the foot and watched till nigel was at the top. then the darkness was too much for him. very stealthily the pastor climbed too. he was not a forest man for nothing. at the top it was clear that nigel had disappeared. he must therefore have climbed the wall. the wall was high, about twice the height of a man, with a coping-stone at the top, pent-house-wise, and grown thickly with moss and lichen and wild flowers. the wall was also rough, and the little clumps of moss showing in the interstices marked uneven places of which a climber might take advantage if he had long fingers and stout toes. but how to get off the ground was a problem. for a few moments he groped, half inclined to impute to "the popish captain," as he called him, the sin of witchcraft, in addition to those of greed, unchastity, impiety, and a string of others of which the pastor was satisfied already. then something that flicked him in the face, to wit, the leafless bough of a tree, brought him the solution. to spring for one a little above his head, and use it for a hand-grip while he stepped from toe-place to toe-place, and finally could dig his fingers securely into a great clump of moss at the coping with his right hand and haul himself up, took but a short interval of time. the getting down was not difficult. the darkness had swallowed up nigel. the grass made his footfall noiseless. the pastor's eyes, accustomed to the half darkness of the forest, were well fitted to the task at present. they enabled him merely to avoid or to thread the tangle of the bushes and get more and more into the open where the sky, now starlit, now cloudy by turns, allowed him a longer vision. at last he saw that the belt of grassland dotted by bushes was succeeded by formal walks and beds for flowers. a mile or so ahead he caught fitful glimpses of lights in some tall pile of buildings, which he conjectured to be the palace. these must be the demesnes of the emperor's dwelling-place. his popish captain was bent upon a rendezvous, doubtless with elspeth. but where? cautiously he stalked along making a straight line for the palace, keeping to turf or soft flower-beds by preference, and every now and then standing in the shadow of a sapling to seek for the amorous pair, to listen for the whispers that might betoken their presence. and so going farther and farther he came to a hedge, behind which was another wall, this time of no great height, but still sufficient. along this he crept seeking for a gate. here was a garden close for growing fruit, he argued, and the lovers might well have left a door unfastened in their eagerness. but having made the circuit and discovered three doors all secure, he found he must prove again his skill in climbing. the wind blowing just sufficiently to make the twigs and boughs keep up a low whistling, made it impossible to judge where he should make his attempt. so he selected the corner with an eye to an easy ascent. once upon the wall he paused, lying flat and clasping its top with both hands. there he lay listening with both ears, trying to get used to the whispering of the branches till he could distinguish the tones of human murmuring. then he dragged himself along a few more yards. pastor rad felt that providence was with him. his motive was excellent in his own eyes. he was engaged in the pursuit of the evil-doer. what he should do when he had found him was not at present clear. providence would point out by process of revelation what the next step should be. for the time being he crawled to the detriment of his clothing along the wall. his patience and his stealth, the latter not usually mentioned in connection with providence, were rewarded. he heard voices, a man's and a woman's. the one was that of the ruthless catholic scotsman, the betrayer of elspeth reinheit. had he not cause to remember its deep tones? the other was not elspeth's. for a few instants he was at a loss. they were also deep and rich and aristocratic; the words they uttered were choice rather than homely. then something in them recalled the very woman he was seeking, ottilie von thüringen. at this moment when he waited for the inspiration he expected, an untoward interruption befell. he dislodged a large stone, which fell with a very noticeable thud on the inner side of the wall, and he was at the same time clutched by the leg, and very unceremoniously pulled to the ground on the outside of the wall by a pair of ruffians, who, with a choice garnishment of oaths growled under their breaths, proceeded first to rifle his pockets quite thoroughly, and then to bind his arms behind his back, his legs together, and to lay him, so trussed, on his back. then they began to clamber up the wall, only to find that the love-birds they had come to seek had flown. pastor rad wriggled in vain while his captors explored the orchard close, and at the end of their fruitless search they returned, untied his legs and marched him firmly and rudely towards the palace, where they placed him in a guard-room, satisfied that if they had missed a salmon they had at least caught a dog-fish. chapter xxxiv. lutheran and jesuit. the officer of the guard at the palace was not clear as to what he was to do with his unintended catch. the fact that he was, or styled himself, a lutheran pastor, was, in vienna, in the eyes of such an officer, a criminal offence in itself. in addition, he had been caught upon the wall of the orchard close in the gardens of the palace. upon examination he proved to be reticent even to moroseness. his only explanation was that he had come to vienna in search of a high-born lady, the countess ottilie von thüringen. the officer of the guard had never heard of her, and till the morning had no one to consult. so pastor rad spent an uncomfortable night. his supper was meagre. the stone floor of the guard-room was hard, and the wind swept in under the massive door and up the capacious chimney, incidentally swirling round the pastor's head and shoulders on its way. half a dozen soldiers, who smelt very vilely, sat round the fire and played cards with great zest, and with oaths the most blood-curdling that pastor rad, who had heard many things spoken in his lifetime, had ever heard. he slept badly. the next day father lamormain, who heard of everything, heard of this incident and sent for pastor rad. it was the mark of father lamormain that he was uniformly courteous. he kept all his hatred under lock and key. and his hatred of lutheranism was perhaps the profoundest passion of his life, next to the love he bore to his own order of the regular priests. if father lamormain could have gathered all the lutheran ministry together, and compounded them into one man, and severed that man's head from his body, he would have acquiesced in that monstrous execution, without personal gratification, but with a sense that the most desirable of events had come to pass. but to address an individual lutheran (minister and layman were alike to him) with a frown, with harsh speech, or even with mild contempt, was impossible to him. pastor rad, unkempt as to his abundant yellow hair, muddy as to his raiment, presented an object for easy ridicule. father lamormain's secretary led him in with an air of apology. the emperor's confessor requested him to be seated, and asked him if he had broken his fast. pastor rad, much taken aback by his reception at the hands of this renowned enemy of his faith, said no! father lamormain bade his secretary give him what he needed, and bring him back in an hour. the secretary, understanding all his instructions implied, brought him back washed, combed, brushed, and recognisable as a lutheran pastor as far as externals went. pastor rad was greatly mollified by these attentions, and found grace enough to return thanks. "and now," said father lamormain, "you will pardon me, pastor rad, if i ask you a few questions. you came to vienna from prague?" "yes!" said the pastor. "at prague, i understand, you found it necessary to speed some of the catholic fugitives with exhortations?" pastor rad admitted it. on reflection this seemed to be a gentle description of his sonorous revilings; but he wondered how much father lamormain knew and how he knew it. he also considered that it behoved him to be careful. "may i ask you what brought you to prague?" "in search of one, a maiden, named elspeth reinheit, a member of my flock from eisenach." "how did she come thither?" "i had learned that she set out for prague in company of a certain countess ottilie von thüringen." "yes?" "i learned that the countess had set out for vienna, and followed." "truly a good shepherd!" said father lamormain pleasantly. "you left the ninety-and-nine at eisenach to discover your one lost lamb in vienna!" "and this countess?" "no one knows her in vienna!" "so you went to look for her in the orchard close in the palace gardens?" pastor rad hesitated. then he said-- "i did not seek her there. but she was there!" "yes!" said father lamormain. "you saw her!" "no, i heard her voice!" "so you knew her voice?" "yes, i had met her in magdeburg during the siege!" "she is a lutheran also?" "she consorted with the lutherans! i know nothing of her except that she has been at the wartburg staying with the landgrave's family." pastor rad suddenly began to suspect that he was too confidential. "she is evidently a lady of rank!" said the jesuit. "she was alone in the orchard?" "no! she was with a cavalier." "ah! you knew him also?" "yes! i do not know his name! i saw him first at magdeburg. he was a fierce fighter. he is a foreigner. i saw him yesterday as he rode away from the palace, and he lodges in the fremdengasse. he is an officer." "you seemed to have followed him! did you suspect him of stealing your lamb?" "yes!" said pastor rad with an indignation which was not fictitious. "and instead you found him with this strange countess! can you describe her to me?" "she is very tall. she has dark hair, dark eyes, red lips, a pale complexion, and bears herself proudly!" "ah! such a one can hardly escape notice in vienna!" said the jesuit. "and what is your purpose with this maiden--this elspeth reinheit?" "to take her back to her father, and if she be indeed yet a true maid, to marry her!" "she would scarcely have suffered loss in company of a great lady?" "i do not know anything of great ladies! but i have many reasons to think this foreign officer may have wronged her--even in magdeburg." "'judge not, that ye be not judged,' pastor rad. i promise that, if she be in vienna, she shall be handed over to you. see to it that you deal tenderly with your lamb in return for our gentle dealing with you." "i was robbed of my money!" pastor rad complained. "it shall be repaid to you twice over," said the jesuit. "how much was it?" the pastor told him, and the jesuit noted it on his tablets. "now get to your lodgings and wait there a day. a servant shall go with you." on the same day nigel charteris was summoned by the emperor's military council, and bidden make his way through bavaria to join his old commander count tilly. there and not in austria or bohemia it was thought that a period might be put to the king of sweden's progress. tilly had men enough in conjunction with the elector maximilian's, but lacked officers. the council feared the saxons less, who were at prague, and so in a manner at their doors, than the foreigner gustavus, who had so signally shown his mastery alike upon the elbe and upon the rhine. asking what forces he was to conduct, he was told that a mere escort would be sufficient. the road was open, and speed alone was necessary. nigel was more flattered than if three regiments had been confided to him, for the council made it appear that it was he, nigel, and not regiments, that was wanted. he knew that at the moment there was no superfluity of troops in and around vienna to defend it should the saxons decide to move southward, but his experience of the behaviour of the saxon troops at breitenfeld had left him with a poor opinion of their courage, their initiative, and their leadership. father lamormain saw him after he had received his orders. he made no reference to pastor rad, of whose nearness nigel was unaware, nor to the orchard close, nor to stephanie. that some prowler or other had been about the trysting-place nigel was aware, and, on account of the archduchess, he had refrained from encountering him. having seen nothing himself, he imagined that his own and his mistress's persons had enjoyed a like invisibility. unaccustomed to fear himself, he had not understood why stephanie in her concluding embrace had trembled and clung to him with the mingled weakness, tenderness, and passionate strength of which woman is capable at supreme moments of danger. it had touched his heart. it had left him determined that nothing at the last should separate them but the hand of death itself. so he looked upon this expected summons to resume duty at the front with the confidence of youth, that nothing but a few short weeks lay between him and her he loved,--weeks perhaps in which he might compass more of that military glory he coveted, and so lessen the distance that yawned between them. what if he should find the opportunity to wrest from the pretendedly reluctant and chaffering wallenstein the laurels of the empire to lay at her feet? so nigel met father lamormain with no suspicion at the back of his mind, but rather with brave hopes and the supreme joy that a man feels who knows that he is beloved by her whom he conceives to be the star of womanhood. father lamormain bade him exert himself to the utmost. he told him that the armies of tilly and maximilian constituted the final barrier that prevented the swedish hosts, reinforced by germans from every protestant state, from rolling through bavaria, resistless as the danube in flood, and finally reaching vienna. he made him feel, as the clumsy brief remarks and explanations of the army council had not, though they had borne some suggestion, that on his own personal devotion and intelligence depended the whole fortune of the empire. the appeal was the more sure that it was in the first place an appeal to his simple loyalty as a mercenary soldier, and not to his nationality. in the second place, father lamormain appealed to his faith. he spoke in no uncertain way of the fate of those heretics who should fall, striving against the emperor and holy church. he touched slightly on the indifference of the holy father, urban the eighth, to the calls of the emperor for succour, and the apparent hostility of the fervently catholic king of france and his cardinal minister. he deplored them, but did not gloss them over. he was evidently, so nigel thought, working towards producing in nigel a proper state of mind from which might spring the spiritual flower of a heroic death. it was the rule of the order. for the individual, sacrifice; for the cause of the order, everything that might enhance its progress. it was as if the jesuit strove to wean him from earthly aims, to instil into him something of the essence of his own self-lessness: and, for the brief while that the audience lasted, nigel's soul and mind took some impress in its wax of youth of the deep and hard graven die that was the jesuit's. more than before nigel felt that an active benevolence in regard to him ran like a golden thread through the tissue of father lamormain's talk, that, while urging self-immolation on the altar of the empire, he urged it only as a means of spiritual safety from pitfalls that otherwise yawned for him in this world and the next. to the hidden meaning nigel possessed no clue. the one all-obliterating fact of his love for the archduchess and her love for him prevented the die of the jesuit making more than a faint permanent impression upon his mind, sufficient only to be memorable. father lamormain seemed to be aware of this faintness of impression, for he sighed deeply as nigel, having received his last benediction, took his final leave. nigel rode forth towards bavaria fully determined to fight the swede, but whether the eyes of stephanie, or the heavenly crown pictured for him by father lamormain, glittered the more brightly to his thoughts, is a question each one must settle for himself. one thing father lamormain had kept back, and that was the progress of the negotiations between the emperor and wallenstein, which were still at a delicate stage, and were yet shaping towards success. chapter xxxv. an embassy for stephanie. two months slipped past for gustavus adolphus, two months of strenuous nights and days, two months of petty hostilities and multifarious negotiations. richelieu was attempting to isolate austria, bargaining with the princes of the league that they should stand aside as neutrals, bargaining with gustavus that, if they did, he should respect their neutrality. then there could be nothing to prevent gustavus from crushing austria, and richelieu's cup of joy would be full. maximilian had indeed made a secret treaty with france, hoping to save his dominions from the swede. but richelieu's plan for isolation fell through, for gustavus found reason to suspect the intentions of maximilian, and marched into franconia, whence count tilly had driven out gustavus's general, horn. when gustavus marched, he had with him horn, and banner, and duke william of weimar, and forty thousand men. count tilly was forced to retreat to the very confines of bavaria, while gustavus made a triumphant entry into nuremberg, which received him with immense ovations. two months had also slipped past for ferdinand and much had happened in austria. it was summed up in this that wallenstein had been gathering an army. he had refused to consider the question of its command in the field. he had undertaken its muster, contented to show the emperor once again how potent was the name of wallenstein wherewith to conjure men from all the quarters of germany and beyond. but ferdinand the emperor and his father confessor, encouraged yet to hope, resting on the fact that an army was being mustered between vienna and prague, at znaim, to which haven wallenstein had returned, making it his headquarters, were nevertheless perturbed about the attitude of the elector maximilian. father lamormain knew that the french cardinal was endeavouring to detach him from the emperor, knew also that maximilian had much to gain from neutrality, immunity for his country, which had hitherto been spared the devastations of the war, and eventual aggrandisement for himself if the sun of austria sank to its setting. on the other hand, both the jesuit and the emperor remembered oft-repeated proofs of maximilian's fidelity to the catholic faith and to the emperor. "your majesty must send an ambassador!" said father lamormain. "such an ambassador as by his own nobility and charm of person and of eloquence shall sway the mind of the elector, nay, his very heart, so that it shall tend towards your majesty and thereby abide. and that quickly!" ferdinand smiled that pallid half-sardonic smile of his which seemed to sum up the weariness of generations of habsburgs, and to be in itself a satiric comment upon the futility of human endeavours to stem the progress of events. he put a question-- "whom?" "the archduchess stephanie!" the emperor frowned the merest suspicion of a frown. father lamormain watched him peacefully, as if it had been an affair of shuttlecocks and not a deep political design. "alone? since when has austria depended upon its women?" "to the first question your majesty, no! to the second, always!" "ah!" said the emperor. "my son ferdinand." "the archduke ferdinand! and with him the archduchess stephanie." "is she likely to add such cogency to our arguments that bavaria will steady itself to be our last buttress?" "the elector maximilian has sought her in marriage. the project has been deferred by the war, but the living princess, with pleading in her tones and promises in her eyes, should outweigh all the bribes of richelieu." "if stephanie chose, she could bewitch him that he could not but choose to adhere to our side. but it has seemed to me that she was indifferent to his suit." "princesses can have no choice of their spouses!" said father lamormain. "your majesty must be round with her, leave her no room for wavering, bid her to her duty." "you have as much influence with her as i, father. if i do my part, so must you." "your majesty may count on my endeavour! it is a happy moment when the need of austria must outbalance all personal whims." "the roads are open? you can arrange for a sufficient and well-equipped retinue, for a small company of our goodliest dames and demoiselles?" "we are still austria, your majesty!" "the project is good, father! put it in hand at once. the more haste the better." ferdinand's face cleared perceptibly. on further reflection father lamormain judged it the wiser plan to prepare the mind of the archduchess for the order of the emperor. he knew perhaps better than any one, except stephanie, how rebellious a habsburger there was in her. it is even possible that the archduchess considered her own doings as fulfilling all the _reasonable_ demand of the parental laws. she would, however, have placed her own interpretation on the meaning of "_reasonable_." he lost no time in seeking her out in her own apartments, and entreating a few moments' conversation. he began by asking her whether by any chance a young woman, elspeth reinheit by name, had travelled with her from prague, on her way home from halberstadt. the archduchess, evidently astonished at the question, said-- "no! what makes you ask?" "there is a certain lutheran pastor, your highness, who has journeyed to vienna, one melchior rad, who seeks this elspeth reinheit." "yes! but what has that to do with me?" "he is convinced that this girl was brought by a certain mysterious countess ottilie von thüringen, _of whom i have more than once heard_, to prague, that she set out for znaim, and from znaim for vienna." "indeed! i know of no countess of the name!" "nor do i," said the jesuit. "though i have searched the records of heraldry," he added quietly. the archduchess felt that the jesuit was playing the cat to her mouse. he proceeded: "but the singular thing is that when asked to describe the countess ottilie he described your highness passably well." "whom he may have seen at halberstadt!" said the archduchess, determined that the cat should not gobble her. "only he has not been there!" said father lamormain. "a prodigy!" said the archduchess. "more prodigious still, he recognised your voice, though he did not see your highness by reason of the darkness!" "recognised my voice!" said the archduchess, now roused to a fine appearance of indignation. "where was this prowling lutheran that he could hear my voice and neither see me nor be seen?" "upon the wall of the orchard close in the gardens of the palace of vienna!" but the archduchess was quick of wit. "dear father lamormain," she said without a blush, and with an amused irony in her tones, "since when is it reported that i have taken to assignations in the dark in orchard closes?" "nay!" said father lamormain. "perchance i used not the right words. it was clumsy of me! the honest pastor rad but recognised the voice of his countess talking to her lover in the orchard close!" "and the lover?" the archduchess asked with an accent of merriment. "did his lutheran sapience recognise him also?" "he had followed him thither!" said the jesuit. "it was no other than our faithful scot, who has to-day departed for tilly's army!" "i believe none of your pastor's tales! there is no elspeth reinheit about the palace, even in the kitchens, no ottilie von thüringen that i have ever heard of in vienna. as for me i have a suitor, or had one, of whom you have spoken aforetime, the elector maximilian. one suitor at a time is trouble enough." the jesuit knew too many particulars of the doings of ottilie von thüringen to be in any doubt as to her identity, but his suspicions of nigel were too slight to credit the whole story of the pastor, so he said-- "it would be a great ease to the mind of the emperor could you but take the elector's suit in grave earnest," and he sighed heavily. "for the empire is in great jeopardy. the swede advances towards us. we have nothing as yet to oppose him but tilly's army, gathered from a hundred garrisons. the holy father refuses his aid. france, ever jealous of us, seeks to bribe maximilian into neutrality. with maximilian and the other princes of the league neutral, what chance does austria stand?" there was no mistaking the priest's seriousness. it impressed the archduchess more than if he had preached a sermon on the end of all things. she had an uneasy conscience, for had she not helped to pull down the empire? "but what can i do?" she asked. "you can give yourself for the empire! in a time of peace you would have been wedded before this to whomsoever the emperor judged it fit. in this time of war you can gain eternal salvation by offering yourself to our old ally." "but how?" "an embassy goes out to bavaria to meet maximilian to beg him to delay his scheme of neutrality, to oppose a strong front, to let his cities be besieged but not surrendered, to fight inch by inch of his soil, until we can bring a fresh army to his aid and drive back the swede." "and the embassy consists of?" "the archduke ferdinand! your highness might well go with him, and some of our ladies. when maximilian hears you plead for the empire, hears you offer to stay with him and share his toils and his glory, there will be dealt the death-blow to the plots of france, and for sweden it will be the beginning of the end." "and what if the elector flout me? it is ill offering the goods in the market that have once been denied to the buyer." the father confessor smiled. "we have never denied maximilian. and the good wine has become the mellower in our austrian cellars!" the archduchess drew up her head and pouted her red lips. "we will consider this matter. the empire shall not perish for need of us. though, in faith, wanting maximilian, the empire still has wallenstein!" she looked covertly at the priest as she mentioned the name. "your highness has at times much prized our wallenstein!" "yes, and with cause! by wallenstein and not by maximilian shall we be delivered. by all means let us use maximilian as our buttress, but our sword and buckler in the open field will be wallenstein. i would it were he and not maximilian that i had to seek out!" father lamormain marked the maidenly flush that accompanied the outspokenness, and adding them to what he had already known of her doings, he began to regard the tale of pastor rad as arising from some strange ferment in his brain. in any case his main point was gained. the archduchess would go. how deep were her feelings towards the elector, or towards wallenstein, he could not gauge. but he knew the depth of the habsburg pride, that, rebellious or not, must in the long-run fan the altar flame in the shrine of the imperial house. but father lamormain, reader of hearts and minds, of eyes and mouths and tones, was not omniscient, and he did not read the archduchess stephanie; for how should he know that in one short hour she had thrown down the image of wallenstein and set up that of the scottish soldier of fortune. had he reflected that the western road might lead to the scot as easily as to the elector? the cat was allowing the mouse too much law. chapter xxxvi. a reconnaissance. gustavus, in view of the proposals for the neutrality of the elector, had granted a fortnight's cessation from hostilities. the elector made use of it to strengthen his positions, and an intercepted letter showed gustavus that, whatever richelieu might think, the elector had no intention of being neutral. gustavus, once undeceived, marched with all the army he could muster against tilly, and drove him out of franconia. tilly, advised by maximilian, came to a stand on the banks of the lech, which forms one of the frontiers of bavaria. the firm intention of tilly was to hold back gustavus from the virgin territories of maximilian. the army of count tilly was drawn up in a position chosen by himself, astride the main road from donauwerth to neuburg, ingolstadt, and ratisbon, a position naturally defended on three sides by water, strongly fortified and armed. no bridges lent the swedish army access. they had been destroyed. along tilly's front in an almost straight line was the river lech in a state of turbulence and flood. gustavus stigmatised it as a brook, but even brooks have played a great part in the history of battles; and, sanguine leader that he was, it is doubtful if he expected to cross it by a wild rush through its treacherous waters. disposed in earthworks at suitable intervals behind the river were numerous pieces of ordnance ready to dispute the passage of the swedes. and into the rear of the defences maximilian himself had led up those regiments that constituted the household troops of his command, as opposed to those that formed part of the imperial army under count tilly. the conjoined host was a formidable one, well armed, provisioned, rested, numbering not much less than the forty thousand of the swede. a week before nigel had ridden into tilly's camp, much to the old general's surprise. "i had thought wallenstein would have clapped hands upon you to command a brigade!" "i am not rich enough!" said nigel. "besides, who knows whether he will be needed." "h'm!" was the old general's comment. "if old tilly gets knocked on the head he will be needed, and soon. but what am i to do with you? had you brought me three or four regiments now! said there was a lack of officers, did they? fools! of captains and lieutenants? yes! they have a habit of getting killed! of colonels even i lack one or two, but of generals! i warrant gustavus has not half as many. 'tis the way of imperial armies!" "'tis no matter what i am called!" said nigel. "give me a regiment. i am content to be called 'colonel.' give me a chance of having at them, sword, musket, gun, anyhow." "you shall stand just as good a chance of getting killed as i do," grunted the count. nigel was satisfied. the old general's thirst for danger was well known, and he had not forgotten breitenfeld. presently count tilly assigned him his command. it was a small brigade, comprising three regiments of musketeers and two batteries of ten pieces each. one of the regiments had just lost its colonel, the colonels of the other two were but young in experience, and had but recently been promoted. the artillery was commanded by a major, who, tilly said, might be relied upon to handle his pieces and his men in a soldier-like fashion, but had no head for tactics. this nigel was to supply. nigel's lines were well up the lech towards the little town of rain, and the northern angle of the triangle that formed the whole position of the camp. for some days at least nigel did nothing but drill and exercise his little force, make himself acquainted with his officers, and make reconnaissances along the road by which gustavus must come. the next best thing to a solitary hill-top for descrying an advancing host is a church spire, and one such, in a village some ten scots miles from rain, and a mile or two off the road to donauwerth, nigel had marked for a look-out tower. before the late sunrise of a wintry morning, wrapped in his ample horseman's cloak, he had crossed the lech by the only and that a pontoon bridge and galloped for the village. there was but a faint glimmer of dawn visible over the flat country as he approached the place, and little more as he slid from his horse, tethered it in a farmer's half-filled barn, and strode forward to the village church. cautiously he stole in at the door and up the winding stone stair to the belfry tower, and then up a rickety ladder into the spire itself as far as he could get. there was an open trap-door at the top, and inside was darkness. he pulled himself up, and, feeling with his hands that a gangway of planks was laid against the outer framework of the spire, he crawled along it, hoping to find a convenient chink, or a small window hatch, to serve his purpose. the cold damp wind of the morning rather than the light apprised him that such a peep-hole was near him, and he felt about and about for the fastenings. it was just when his hands had in fact touched the rusty hasp that the feeling came over him that he was not alone. the place was dark but not noiseless, for the wind whistled eerily and partially lifted loose laths of wood by one end, only to let them fall again as if in mockery of the work of men's hands. but over and above these noises was something more. it was as if other hands at some other point of the circumference were seeking slowly and noiselessly to undo a stubborn latch or rusty bolt. this muffled noise had made itself heard once or twice, and nigel crouched warily on guard. then, framed in a pause, came a clink of metal, of a sword against a spur, then silence. through a hundred little chinks the dawn began to steal and make of the darkness merely a misty gloom. nigel had risen to his feet, and there across the unfloored space loomed the figure of another man, in cloak and headpiece like himself, standing stark against the roof. with a grim quick motion nigel ripped open his hatch, and with an answering jerk the stranger opened his. the wind rushed across with a roar and a whistle, and the dawn poured in till it made a twilight. "eh! sir! it's braw and snell the morn!" said the stranger, making a polite salute with his sword. "aye is it!" said nigel, surprised beyond measure by the sound of the scots tongue, but returning the compliment in kind. "mebbe ye wouldna refuse a wee tassie o' usquebaugh!" the stranger went on affably. "when i know, sir, whether you come here as friend or enemy," said nigel, looking across at the weather-tanned but open face something suspiciously. "man! ye should never refuse a cup offered in kindness, be it by friend or enemy. but to lat ye ken, i'm just ane o' yon gustavus' officers, and i came here to spy out count tilly's dispositions. give me twa glimpses and a keek oot o' this spy-hole and i'm your very humble servant." and without more ado he bowed, turned round, and scanned the camp at rain, which he could see quite well through a glass. and under his breath he counted and added-- "thirty thousand, or mebbe thirty-twa! and a wheen o' cannon! and a river in front and the highroad behind. it's ower safe! i wouldna give a fig to be in yon." there was a note of good-natured contempt in his voice. "eh! sir!" "and why, sir?" asked nigel, amused by the coolness of this gentleman, for gentleman he seemed for all his plainness of speech, which, it struck nigel, might have been assumed. "i have no liking to fight through the bars of a hencoop with the back out. give me a gentle hillside and a wide plain, where there's no rinnin' awa' till all's daen, where there's room to get each at other. i dinna favour your fortified camps!" "as for me," said nigel, "i have had experience of both kinds of fighting, but on this occasion it is for me to await you on the other side of the river. i am with count tilly!" "i gave you credit, sir, for more sense, seeing you'd a scots tongue in your heid!" was the commentary. "but it's richt ye should tak' your fill o' what ye can see! i'm for doon the stair," he added. nigel made a movement to intercept him. he waved his glove in friendly deprecation. "hoots aye! i'll wait for you at the foot! ye'll be perverse enough to be wishing to carry me back to breakfast in tilly's camp. and i've made up my mind to tak' ye back with me to sup our brose! i'll wait! never fear!" with which he went quietly and unhurried down the stair--and nigel took a long look from his hatch. very dimly he descried something in movement along the road from donauwerth, and on the wings of the morning air came the sound of a solitary trumpet. gustavus was advancing, and it behoved nigel to get back to the camp. he descended the stair, and found the enemy standing, stamping his feet in the roadway. "now, sir! where's your horse? mine's here. i've no wish to carry you, or you me, and there's no need to hack the puir beasties, so if it's all the same to you we'll fight on foot!" "it's all the same to me," said nigel, throwing off his cloak. "my horse is in the barn yonder." "good!" said the other. "swords is it? and the first man to be disabled is the other's prisoner! are these the conditions of the combat?" nigel saluted. "my name and condition is,--nigel charteris of pencaitland--major-general--commanding a brigade under count tilly." "and mine is sir john hepburn, captain-general of the scots brigade, serving with gustavus adolphus. it is a rare pity we should meet so. i kent your father lang syne. even now i am willing to go my ways and allow you to do the same." a swirl of remembrance gushed into nigel's brain at the words, "sir john hepburn!" "it is just that you are sir john hepburn that i dare not!" said nigel. "were you a lesser man!" sir john hepburn stood on guard, a man of forty, broad-shouldered, well-knit, wary. "have at you, sir john!" said nigel, and the battle began. they were both good swordsmen, but the fact that each had made up his mind to disarm the other without doing him much bodily hurt, engendered such an excess of caution as made it an affair of more length than bloodshed. both men were winded before either had scored a scratch. by mutual consent they dropped their points and took breath, but spoke never a word. both had wrists of the hardest sinew, and both had learned most of the tricks of fence that spain, italy, and france could teach. it was curious how each divined a change in the attack, and attuned his defence to meet it. the one fact that emerged from the continual parry and thrust was that nigel was the better able to recover his wind, and slightly the more agile, and so, given an equal fortune, would wear his opponent down. "faith! nigel charteris! ye're a wise chiel at the swords!" blurted sir john at the end of the fourth bout. once more they crossed, and the sparks flew from their weapons, and this time indeed neither man came off scathless, though the wounds were too slight to hinder either, and then came nigel's opportunity: for in making a new attack sir john did not recover himself quickly enough to prevent fleet-footed nigel slipping beneath his guard, and by a turn of the wrist making it necessary for sir john to have his own broken, or to let go his sword. nigel had him at his mercy. "do you yield yourself a prisoner, sir john?" "aye! do i! but for no long time!" he picked up his sword, and wiped it with a lace handkerchief and thrust it into its scabbard. nigel looked round. coming at a sharp trot was a small troop of horsemen from the direction of donauwerth. "i doubt ye'd best cry quits and tak' your horse. they won't follow you if you're by yourself, but if you're hampered with a prisoner, i canna vouch for them." there was a kindly gleam in his eyes as he said it. nigel took the hint, and holding out his hand said, "farewell, sir john! and thanks for your courtesy." "farewell, mr charteris, and if at any time you should see fit to change camps, or need a friend in other ways, call upon jock hepburn!" and while nigel sought his horse, the other turned to his, and meeting the horsemen rode off with them. chapter xxxvii. the defence of the lech. two bavarians had been recommended to him as aides-de-camp, men of good breeding and great courtesy. they had arrived with the elector maximilian, but had asked tilly as a favour to be attached to an officer of experience with the view of learning all they could. in some way nigel's name came up, and to nigel they were attached. nigel found their society and their comradeship very agreeable, and kept them constantly employed. at the table their talk ran much on the notable warriors of old and modern times, and personal daring and valour they extolled as the most godlike virtues: from which nigel deduced that they had seen little of actual service, for men who have been through the grim experience of a hardly-fought campaign, not to say two or three, know how little these avail at one time, how greatly at another, according to the twists and turns of fortune or the success of strategy: know how they are displayed by the commonest soldier or by the greatest general without bragging, or any claim to be considered unusual. but the two aides were not much older than himself, and very devout men, and there was no harm in their talk if it was rather too much in one tune. gustavus' army made a formidable show as it took up a position on the high ground on the opposite bank of the lech. nigel noted that his artillery was lighter and more numerous than tilly's, and his batteries were placed more closely together on ground that was somewhat higher than tilly's, and therefore should have more effect gun for gun, and showed an intention of making a great attack on one spot. nigel knew that their own position was a strong one, and with the river swollen as it was by melting snows, that it was practically impossible for gustavus to push home his attack, however heavy the fire of his artillery, without a bridge. on the morrow when day broke the artillery on both sides began their clamour, and, although a few shots fell into the midst of the most forwardly placed regiments, the battle for hours was between artillery. the position chosen for his artillery by gustavus showed at once the eye of the strategist, for the fire swept across the northern angle of the triangle, and in that area the fire was constant and appalling in its severity. if tilly had chosen the post of posts for nigel that offered the greatest number of chances of death, that was it. nigel even thought that father lamormain's exhortations to get slain, if possible, were in a fair way to fulfilment. and to his surprise his two aides-de-camp, unaccustomed as they were, showed a noble rivalry in devotion. they dared the most hazardous risks, while they carried his orders to the different contingents, with an air of doing nothing notable which charmed nigel, though it made him shake his head. for his own part he urged upon his artillery commander the greatest economy in his fire, to direct it with the greatest care upon one selected spot till he had put the enemy's guns to silence, and to reserve himself and his men as much as possible for the attempt to cross that would surely be made later in the day. then on the swedish bank of the river a great smoke arose from fires of damp wood and straw. the wind blew it into tilly's camp, where it mingled with the smoke of the artillery. it soon became difficult to see what was forward. "the bridge!" said nigel. "he is building a bridge!" for long it was impossible to be sure where it was being begun. the noise of hammering was lost in the noise of the firing. the smoke belched forth for hundreds of yards along the river bank. the fire of gustavus' ordnance continued, relentlessly pounding away upon all the batteries of tilly within range, and being light, their position was changed from one half-hour to another as the swedish officers thought fit. "a bold swimmer might spy it out!" was the suggestion of one aide-de-camp. nigel had thought of it; but for a man to go into that icy and turbulent water was to meet certain death, even were he roped. he would be numbed before he could see anything, or shot by some of the swedes, who doubtless lay securely along their higher bank. a boat, a raft, anything that floated on the surface would be a mark. no! there was but one way, to wait till the bridge workers had advanced to mid-river and then shatter their handiwork. but with what engine? nigel had discovered that the guns of the swedes from their slightly higher elevation commanded all the available pieces of count tilly, raking the imperial entrenchments with a desolating precision. yet a reply had to be made. every officer that could be spared was busy encouraging the gunners to face the enemy and load their pieces, sponge, ladle in the powder, ram home the fresh charges, with the certainty that here and there along the line a great ball would come, smashing backs and limbs, or terrifying the manhood out of their veins. again and yet again nigel himself would snatch the rammer from a trembling wretch and ram home the charge: would point the gun, wedging it up to get the greater height needed. it was desperate work. and his two aides worked like him, shirking nothing. a little change in the breeze and he saw where the swedish engineers, working like men possessed, pushed out the bridge a few planks at a time, fastening them to pontoons which others rolled down to them. now he knew his direction, and five of his guns were trained directly on to the growing bridge. but scarcely had they dropped their first hustling load of round-shot than a furious cannonade of the swedes put the whole five out action. no gunners' bravery availed, or could avail. it was tempting useless slaughter. then nigel led down files of musketeers from the entrenchment and disposed them along the banks to scare away the workers, but the enemy did likewise, and so harassed the musketeers that few of their shots reached a mark at all. all along the banks on either side the battle raged in some sort. mainly it was an affair of cannon-balls, but wherever musketry could be expected to make an impression tilly ordered his men forward, exposing himself to the continual cannon fire. but everywhere the swedes made the greater havoc, though the position, if resolutely defended, was still impregnable, and the imperialists became more and more depressed. the bridge crept out another yard. it could be seen how gustavus was bringing up a fresh picked body of his veterans, swedes all of them, calm, resolute, bearded men, bronzed and scarred with many a fight, ready for the rush across that would herald the hand-to-hand fighting that would follow. nigel hated the suspense. he longed for the moment when he could lead down his musketeers and pikemen to the crash of the charge. and yet was it wise to wait? could nothing be done? a raft with twenty men upon it? dare he? he named it to his aides. dare? they would dare. they need not risk his life, more valuable than theirs. here was greater fighting to be done. there was no taunting. but how skilfully they plied him too! up the river four hundred yards to give it greater impact they got some of the bavarian woodmen to lash logs together and cross them with other logs, and three men from the banks of the danube to guide the raft as well as they could and fend it off the banks with long poles. a small keg of powder and a hatchet apiece made the cargo for this short voyage. except the polemen, the rest crouched low, holding by the ropes. nigel was there. he did not ask himself why he was there, risking his life, but what he would be able to do. the river boiled and swirled. the logs creaked. the whole raft would have turned if it could, if it had not been for the frantic straining of the polemen. the setting out of the voyagers was unnoticed amid so much din and turmoil, but they had scarcely fared half the way in less than a minute of time than musket-shot came scrambling among them. two hundred yards more, a mere leap it looked along the water. they held their breath and braced their limbs for the shock. there was the half-built bridge. a crash! what a rending, and churning of the waters! they were upon it, the raft driven half upon it; of the raft's crew half of them were hurled into the river, the other half upon the bridge. five of the bridge builders went down before them, two of them to nigel's sword. then the keg of powder was staved in and set endwise under the planking and a match made ready. but the bridge builders were reinforced by twenty stout pikemen, who pushed on to the bridge head and thrust at nigel's men with fury. it was an unequal contest, for while five men engaged the enemy, the other five or six endeavoured to free the raft from the timbers of the bridge, and nigel waited in the deadliest peril, firing the match. the raft was wellnigh free, the water began to take hold of it again, twisting it determinedly, when the swedes, checked for the moment by the stubbornness of the imperialists, bore down their opponents. but nigel had got the tarred rope well alight. "now for your lives!" he said, and regardless of pike-thrust and musket-shot they flung themselves on to the raft and swept on, while the powder sullenly exploded, breaking loose a full half of the work completed, and blowing seven or eight stout pikemen into the waves. for nigel there was the rushing water, a volley of musketry, a sharp pain followed by a momentary sensation of falling into the stream, then nothing. but night was drawing in, and gustavus could not cross. chapter xxxviii. a surprise at ratisbon. nigel awoke to the jolting of an ox-waggon, over which was a rough covering. he was lying in his cloak on a truss of straw. beside him sat one of his aides-de-camp, captain von grätz. but just now he looked strangely unlike a military man, and was reciting prayers, fingering a rosary which hung about his neck while he did so, with an earnestness that suggested that some one was on the point of death. for a moment or two or three nigel could not bring his mind to any clear understanding. the officer had a lantern. outside, through the opening in the rough hood, was a blue sky and frosty-looking stars. tramp! tramp! the army was on the march. whither and why? heaven, what a pain! in his side, or was it in his shoulder? nigel felt stiff for the most part, but the pain was sharp and not always in one place. the aide-de-camp raised the lantern and looked at him, gave him a draught of some kind, which sent the blood circulating more warmly, and made his stiff limbs feel as if they were being teased by a thousand pricks. then he said "hush!" and went on praying till nigel fell asleep. in the morning they had reached neuburg, and nigel was sufficiently himself to understand what had happened. count tilly had had his right leg shattered by a cannon-ball, and a man of seventy-three, tough even as tilly, does not suffer such wounds with impunity. altringer, his next in command, was dead. the elector maximilian, swayed by tilly, had ordered a retreat from that wellnigh impregnable position. with nightfall the retreat had begun, to neuburg first. then it was to be ingolstadt, where another stand would be made. count tilly was still alive. the next question nigel put was for the other aide-de-camp. he had been drowned in the lech. he had "died for the faith," as his comrade-in-arms said. "you are a regular priest?" the aide-de-camp inclined his head in token of assent. "we obey orders!" he said softly. "what is the matter with me?" "you had a pike-thrust through your left shoulder, a musket-shot grazed your ribs, you were knocked unconscious from a blow from the raft as you fell into the water. the poleman just snatched you from the gates of heaven!" the jesuit sighed as he said the last words. "as for myself, it is not time yet." nigel had no reply ready. he decided however that, as he did not feel any resentment against the poleman, he was not yet prepared for the end his companion, evidently in good faith, desired for him. a night and a day at neuburg and the army with its men and its waggons, its artillery, its swarms of camp-followers, passed on to ingolstadt. count tilly still lived, and while he lived maximilian acted upon his advice. "defend ingolstadt as long as possible. throw troops forward into ratisbon and hold that. holding the two you hold the danube!" other advice he gave, that all wounded and camp-followers should be sent forward to ratisbon. ingolstadt was strongly fortified and might turn the edge of gustavus' sword if it contained nothing but fighting men. ratisbon would be a safe refuge for a few weeks. nigel was carried into the presence of count tilly at ingolstadt. the old general, looking shrivelled, sunken, his eyes feverishly bright, lay in his bed. his hat with the red feather and his sword hung upon the wall. he looked up and recognised nigel. "you too, boy?" "not badly!" said nigel. "go on to ratisbon! you'll be well enough to fight the swede again in three weeks!" his voice faltered even in its weakness. he turned his head away a minute or two. nigel knew what the old warrior was thinking, and could not find it in him to utter the worthless consolatory hopes that he might. "but _i_ shall never fight again! the swede has beaten me. i would that we had fought in the open and not cooped up behind trenches and rivers. well! it is wallenstein's chance now, and for _me_ nothing but the priest's viaticum. god be with you, boy!" nigel clasped his thin sword-hand with his own, and the young soldier of fortune looked into the eyes, the stern, sharp, wistful, wild eyes of the old soldier, who was doomed beyond possible help of army surgeon, and the old man knew that the young one held him for a brave man, who had been staunch to his profession, and loyal to the emperor even to the death. there was more comfort in nigel's eyes than in a thousand protestations from men who had never faced ball and pike-thrust on a hard-fought field. nigel gulped down something and whispered hoarsely-- "good-bye, general. the holy saints help you!" his orderlies carried him out, and two days afterwards tilly died, the sound of gustavus' cannon, without the walls of ingolstadt, ringing in his ears. nigel reached ratisbon in the train of the troops sent on to defend it. every day he was under the ministrations of the jesuit, who combined the art of the healer with that of spiritual director, as if he had never, sword in hand, hewn down swedish pikemen on the bridge at the lech. every day made him gain something of ease. and once lodged in a comfortable upper room at ratisbon he began to recover the usage of his legs. but he was still far from the recovery of his full vigour, and spent most of the day looking from a window seat, his shoulders leaning against cushions because of his wounds, upon the passing trivialities of the street, while the aide-de-camp was out about his military duties. it was while he was thus employed that his soldier servant announced, "a high-born lady visiting the sick, colonel!" wondering what new adventure this might be, he bade the soldier bring her up. first came a sour-visaged dame, whom nigel half recognised and then decided that he did not. hard on her heels came one that brought a sudden flush into his pallor. it was the archduchess stephanie. it was clearly as unexpected on her part. but with wonderful presence of mind she entreated him not to rise, and bade her maid set down her basket and wait below. then as the door closed she sprang to him. "nigel! my love, nigel! in ratisbon!" she knelt at his side, and placing his arm about her neck laid her face against his, and crooned softly to him as she would have done to a babe. and he could say little but press her dear hand closer to him and whisper "stephanie! you too in ratisbon!" "we came, my brother ferdinand and i, to strengthen the hands of the elector maximilian, so that he fell not into the sin of neutrality." "you and ferdinand?" there was a world of inquiry in his tone. "yes, nigel! ferdinand was to play the fisherman and i the bait." she sprang from him and dropped a stately curtsey, pulling her face straight, serene and wonderful to behold for any one, but to nigel not the queen of sheba nor zenobia of palmyra would have seemed more wonderful. "and i the bait!" she repeated and laughed. "but maximilian had hopelessly broken his neutrality by the time you arrived!" said nigel. "we could not know it till we came! and then i told the elector what i had told him in any hazard, i would not wed him were he twenty times elector and the great mogul besides. it is not in my blood or my humour." nigel's eyes spoke the admiration for her boldness that he felt. "then you have tricked the emperor, and father lamormain, and flouted maximilian----" "to follow you, tall captain, or carry you off in my arms, or what shall i do? i had no certain knowledge you were here. i had learned that the camp had been broken up, that tilly had retired to ingolstadt, and when i heard that the wounded were sent on to ratisbon i began my search, wondering how much of you i might find." "it is naught!" said nigel, getting up. "i have lost blood. i have a scratch in the ribs, a thrust of pike in my left shoulder, but they heal. a jesuit is living with me, captain von grätz, salving me, preaching to me, and doing military duty too." "not a word to him! father lamormain suspects! i know not how much, but much!" "you must plan, and i must plan!" said nigel. "we are in a serious case. if we be not wedded in a little, wedded we two shall never be. it is too much to set the emperor and the elector at defiance and not expect reprisals. but if we be wedded, beloved stephanie, we may even get off with a hair shirt and smock, saving your highness, and exile to some remote castle in the grisons." nigel was no screech-owl, nor in the way of seeing ill before it came except to prevent it, so his tone was gay; but there was doubt beneath. "how did the elector take it?" he went on. "faith, nigel mine, but like as a pinch of sunshine peeps out between the gathering clouds and is now quite shut out, so he seemed to smile, but his brows were threatening black and his teeth gleamed a little. "there is a touch of fantasy about the wittelsbachers. born in a lowlier station, maximilian might have become a sad kind of troubadour, or a prophesying friar. being a prince, he is capable of carrying out any wild imagining he might have to snatch me to him, or to wreak his disappointment." "and we are in his hands here!" said nigel. "to-morrow, think you, tall captain, if i took the air on horseback without the walls, the swede not yet being come up, that you could mount a charger and meet me by chance three leagues distance. if there were no guards out we might perchance slip further still and make our way----" "to what port of shelter?" "to znaim! sure wallenstein would make you one of his new captains, and znaim would be a veritable city of refuge!" nigel drew in his breath. "stephanie, you have a godlike courage! to wallenstein! and yet why not? he will want officers. here i am on the list of the sick. there shall i be serving the emperor! it is a bold plan, stephanie, but we must venture all, or be forever cravens!" "to-morrow! nigel! heaven send not the swedes too soon to close the gates. at midday three leagues away by the road from the eastern gate!" "and to-morrow if it see not our wedding shall see the eve of the bridal!" she took nigel by both hands, dealing as tenderly as with any babe, and looked upon him with such a look of mystery and love and motherhood in her eyes as caught him up into heaven and left him entranced while one might count a hundred. her look smote through his eyes and on to his very soul, and put her impress there as it had been the seal of the greatest empire of all the world. then they kissed in solemn troth-plight, and the archduchess went down the stair leaving the room a darkness, though it was still broad day. chapter xxxix. the clouds and sergeant blick. not for the first time in his military life did nigel feel lonely. in this town of ratisbon he had many military comrades, but no friend who would be as a wall against which he could set his back when it came to the grim push of steel against a half-ring of foemen. in bonnie scotland, had he sought to carry off a king's daughter, he could have raised a sturdy dare-all troop of kinsfolk, men of his blood and name, who would have broken down the west port, scaled the crags of edinburgh castle, risking their necks and their lands in a desperate endeavour to win the guerdon for him of his heart's desire. and desperate though it might be, with the king's daughter willing, what scottish noble would not have made the essay with a light heart? and here in ratisbon was no one on whom he might rely for a stout arm and a reckless generosity of service. a friend such as he needed, not to speak of ten friends, must be told everything. one cannot ask a friend to aid one in carrying off a king's daughter without telling him what the dangers are. rapidly he told off the officers he knew in ratisbon. all were in the pay of the emperor or the elector. at the mention of either the shoulders would go up, there would be long draughts of beer, a cloud of smoke, pursed-up brows, and "not to be thought of, my friend!" they were trusty fellows for the most part, would not betray his confidence, but neither would they throw themselves whole-heartedly into an enterprise which, successful, would bring to some certain death, and to the rest a very intangible reward, and failing would involve all in equal ruin. then again there were the jesuits. which of his trusty friends might not be jesuits, if not, like his remaining aide-de-camp, a regular priest in an officer's uniform, then an officer, drawing jesuit pay as well as the emperor's? he thought of the emperor with his proud, cold, supercilious face. there was as little reason for hope of forgiveness as there was hope of consent from him. from the emperor he passed to maximilian, the prince who should have been a jesuit, as he was the foster-child of jesuitism. of a lineage as proud as that of the habsburgs, of a renown for policy as for valour, ruler of some of the fairest provinces and greatest cities of the empire, he would of a surety in his love be as relentless an adversary as fate. men of his dark complexion take the malady of love not lightly. least of all men, being who he was, would he be pitiful. brook a rival, once disclosed to him, in a scots mercenary, were he wallace wight himself? as well might the danube cease to flow eastward, ever eastward. and behind, but peering between these two haughty and melancholy faces in nigel's thought, was father lamormain's gentle, suave, and smiling countenance, from whose mouth had flowed persuasive speech that clothed the stern resolved marching orders of that sinister brotherhood in whom there was no shadow of turning. into no conceivable scheme of father lamormain's could fit any idea of the marriage of nigel with the archduchess. he had shown himself favourable to the elector's suit. nigel's service to the emperor would not count for aught if he should stand in the way of the jesuit advance. nigel looked out upon the clouds of peril. he might win through with the archduchess, make her his wife, reach wallenstein. so much was possible, keeping their own counsel, acting swiftly with one mind, one courage. as for wallenstein, it was impossible to predict how he might receive them, as friends, as hostages, or with cold negatives that should say "it lies not with my interest." nigel charteris gazed upon the clouds of peril, and gazed undaunted. he was in that uplifted mood into which a mighty love exalts the soul, so that from its peak of splendour it can look down upon the clouds below hurtling their lightnings and sending up dim reverberations of their embattled thunders. for one hour of ecstasy shared by stephanie he would cheerfully meet the after-doom. he heard a footstep on the stair, a heavy tread, and the clank of spurs. his reverie was dissipated like a bubble. what new thing was to happen? "blick!" "me! colonel!" it was blick, big-shouldered, red-faced, bull-necked, smacking somewhat of beer and other liquors, soldierly sergeant blick. "how in the name of----?" nigel began. "sent out foraging from ingolstadt, general! got through the swedish lines at night, waggons and all, but couldn't get back again. met an infernal ambush of swedes in a forest road. my men stood stoutly by me, and we gave a round dozen of them their 'fall out,' but what with their muskets and the trees it was no go. so we set spurs to our horses and made straight for ratisbon. the devil was in it, for they got our waggons, a load of hams and a few barrels of good bavarian beer, a score of lean fowls----" "enough, blick! i warrant you left nothing of meat and drink but what you could not carry off! so you came to ratisbon, and found me out?" "yes, colonel! ingolstadt will come tumbling down in a day or two at most, and then the swedes will come here after the elector, as some say, or be off to ransack munich, where he keeps his treasures, as others say. and in faith i don't see what's to stay him, now poor old tilly's dead!" "dead?" "aye! died as gustavus fired the first round of his cannon. he was a tough fighter, and his soldiers ever got leave to sack a town in their own way. no fine manners and milk and water about the old general with the red feather. rest his soul!" "amen!" said nigel devoutly, making the sign of the cross. "now what are you going to do?" "i've reported myself and men to the general in command of ratisbon. he says, 'wait till the army retreats from ingolstadt and then join it.' meantime i'm just looking after the horses and taking a ride to keep them in condition and get fodder for them, and there's mighty little in ratisbon!" nigel smiled. he knew that blick considered it a lamentable thing when he and his troop, not to mention the horses, did not get full rations, and that, if the regulations did not bring him and his to eat, he helped himself to the best with a very fair ability. "if the swedes are not upon us to-morrow, blick, i want you to do me a service." "how many troopers?" "two besides yourself, men you can trust, men who are good swordsmen, and see that your three horses are good for a long journey if need be. and above all a quiet tongue, blick, for you are meddling in a strange business. if any trouble come of it to you, you may blame me, as you obeyed orders. meet me at the eastern gate with my horse at eleven. you will find him at the stables of the 'cloister bell.'" "yes, colonel! two men, your own horse. swords and pistols, at eleven, eastern gate!" blick saluted cheerfully. he wondered what was in the wind, but it was in any case a pastime, and nigel, though not a spendthrift, always paid well for his services. when the aide-de-camp returned that evening nigel said nothing of his visitors, merely that he felt almost well enough to adventure the saddle on the morrow, and should try a short ride. the jesuit examined his wounds carefully, and said he thought a gentle ride would do him no harm. nothing more was said upon that score, though they talked freely about the progress of the swede at ingolstadt. "it is a hard fortress to take," said the jesuit, "and it may well be that the swede may waste much powder and many good men before its walls and then not take it. every week he spends before it is a week gained for us!" "how?" asked nigel. "we are shut up here!" "wallenstein's army grows daily, i hear. it is wonderful the magic of his name. from all places men are hastening." nigel expressed great wonder. he was surprised that, at a time when the emperor was at his wits' end for men, wallenstein could find them from the ends of the earth. but he also wished the jesuit to tell him more. but the jesuit said nothing of how he had heard the news. only the shadow of a fear ran across nigel's heart that news went fro, as well as to, over great distances, through this wonderful chain of the brotherhood that served father lamormain. and he wondered whether this kindly, helpful aide-de-camp, who had practically set him on his legs again, would not with an equal kindliness conduct him to the strongest dungeon in the citadel if he received orders. he knew it would be so. the next morning saw nigel at the hour named at the east gate, saw his eager charger nuzzling in his shoulder for joy, saw him gather his reins and mount, and, followed by the escort, set out briskly, as a man should, to his trysting-place. chapter xl. ride, ride together. to cover three leagues in an hour on such a horse as nigel bestrode was no great affair. it may have been a little more or a little less when sergeant blick, with his watchful eyes, descried that his former colonel was rapidly overtaking a little party that rode in the same direction. it consisted apparently of a lady habited in a riding-dress suitable for the winter, surmounted by a military-looking cloak, and a groom on another horse just behind. as sergeant blick was a long way off when he saw so much, he did not even attempt to guess who she might be. there were many highly-born ladies in ratisbon just at that time, though blick did not know why. he was not long before he noticed that nigel rode up on the lady's right and saluted her, and that her movements were such as to suggest to an observer that the meeting was a chance rencontre and a surprise. the groom, who, like themselves, carried pistols in his holsters, fell back and gradually took up a position not far in front of sergeant blick, but kept his horse trotting at a certain distance as if aware of the soldiers, and not willing to mingle with them. but the colonel did not seem to have any intention of leaving the lady to conclude her promenade alone. the two, in fact, rode quickly side by side, as if bent on reaching some still distant goal in company. and it was some time before it dawned upon blick's mind that this had been a rendezvous, and that his former colonel had entered upon the first phase of the enterprise to which he had referred the night before. had blick been a frenchman instead of a german he would have sniffed out an affair of the heart as soon as he caught a glimpse of a petticoat, but blick was a german soldier, who had begun to get grizzled, and was already weather-beaten and scarred, and cared a vast deal more for a good dinner and a jovial emptying of beer-mugs than for toying with wenches, and on the occasions when cupid had asserted his rights of dominion over him, the manifestations of sergeant blick's possession had been uncouth and rough, and in nowise redolent of sentiment or of poetry. nor had he ever observed any amorous tendencies in his former captain and colonel. he, on the contrary, had seemed to shun all such opportunities of dalliance as the fortune of war threw in his way, to care nothing, in fact, for women kind or unkind, only moderately for the more gratifying enjoyments of wine and meat, and prodigiously, for an officer, for clean muskets and well-sharpened pikes, or for well-groomed horses and bright swords. sergeant blick could not account for the change, and did not in his heart approve of it, the more that he could make no manner of guess who the lady was. so he urged his horse a little more till he came alongside the groom, whom he saluted civilly enough and asked plumply who his mistress was, to which the groom replied with equal civility that she was the countess ottilie von thüringen. "gott im himmel!" said sergeant blick, and plied no more questions. he remembered well the countess ottilie in the early episodes, and wondered the more. then he gave up wondering, and remembered that he had not drunk for over two hours, an unprecedented thing for him, when not actually engaged on the stern duties of his vocation. besides, the effort of thinking could only be borne by the aid of liquor. "she was mixed up with those ... lutherans! so she was!" said blick to himself. blick's thirst found relief in time, for nigel halted at the first convenient inn which promised passable entertainment in the town of straubing, eight and a half leagues from the city of ratisbon. he knew that no hostelry on the road to znaim could in the nature of things produce a meal fit to set before this rare daughter of the habsburgs. for her nothing could be too kingly, but as the best that could be got was coarse, he had perforce to trust to her love and a traveller's appetite. they did well to find a hostelry which had another room than that used by the common wayfarers. nigel bade blick give his men and the groom a good meal, feed and water the horses sparingly, and have all ready in an hour. then they spoke of their immediate plans. having encountered no obstacles hitherto, they decided to push on and gain the furthest town they could before the hour of shutting gates. the archduchess would lodge in the convent. the town they thought to reach was passau, which possessed two convents as well as a number of churches of old name and fame, in one of which they had it in mind on the morrow to hear the priest pronounce over them the words "conjungo vos," by which they should become one till death. "you are firm of purpose, stephanie? there is still time to go back!" said nigel solemnly, looking into her eyes. "i am plighted, nigel!" she replied with an equal seriousness. "let us go on!" they rose up from the table and went out, mounted and rode on to plattling. and this time nigel bade blick and the troopers ride in front so that they might bring back word if any hindrance barred the road. for nigel had noticed, and so had blick, that the roads were patrolled by parties of the elector's own bodyguard of horse, a circumstance which would have had no significance if they had been upon the road between ratisbon and ingolstadt, from which the swedish troops might at any time arrive. still, beyond a salute the bavarian troopers gave no sign. the two rode on. but as they neared plattling and the bridge across the isar by which they would reach the road to passau, sergeant blick came back in haste and warned them that the passing of the bridge was forbidden by a strong party of cavalry in charge of an officer. nigel spurred his horse forward, and the archduchess did the like. they were soon at the bridge. the officer was unknown to nigel, but they saluted with great ceremony. the officer saluted with still greater ceremony the archduchess. "my escort, captain, tells me you are unable to let us pass the bridge!" said nigel. "my instructions are that in sum!" said the officer. "it would give us pleasure to hear them," said the archduchess. "as regards your imperial highness," said the officer, "my instructions were that, should you at any time desire to cross, i was to take care that you had an escort of at least fifty men and two officers. i can furnish them at once." "and general charteris?" "his case comes under the second section. no officer or man of the imperial army may cross the bridge except by the written order of the elector, or unless he be carrying despatches to vienna." "for what reason is the second order?" "to prevent desertions from the elector and the emperor's troops here to join wallenstein's!" "the elector is very solicitous for our safety and your loyalty, general charteris. it seems that we must need curtail our pleasurable excursion and return." the officer looked confused. he had no wish to cross the whim of an archduchess, but to disobey the elector was worse. he bowed and made numerous apologies. force it was impossible to use. the bridge at bogen, which was a mile or two to the eastward of straubing, would be equally guarded. reluctantly, but without appearance of reluctance, they turned their horses and went back. to nigel it appeared to be pure mischance. "no! where the jesuits are, dear nigel, all is fore-thoughted. our secret is known or guessed. this was the elector's prevision!" "then we must hasten back before the gates close!" said nigel, perturbed to the depths. "you must be able to say that you had ridden further in admiration of this beautiful country than you intended, and accepted my escort, not wishing to be incommoded by a train of attendants." the archduchess was full of foreboding. "if we are only back in time my excuse will at all events bear an appearance of probability. but what are we to do next? you are not yet strong enough to take the field. yet you may depend upon the elector finding you some pressing duty out of ratisbon, and he may urge that you were strong enough to ride with me." "i must obey!" said nigel. "but i could not leave you without putting our marriage beyond question. once holy church pronounces the blessed words 'conjungo vos,' stephanie, nor emperors nor electors can dissolve the union." "it shall be, nigel! it shall be before midnight to-morrow. leave the plan, the place, the time to me. i have learned some of the secret ways of ratisbon. and if you be ordered to-morrow on some futile quest, you must use delay. oh! dearest! i cannot help but fear, though i shall be cool in plan and firm in execution." "courage!" said nigel stoutly. though he felt something creeping over him which seemed to give his very voice the lie. presently as they interchanged some further words his voice sounded so hollow and feeble that her woman's ear caught the change. "nigel! what is it, nigel?" "i feel a faintness!" he said. "it will pass!" "thank the saints we are near straubing! let us walk our horses. it may be we can get wine and supper, and a posting carriage. her accents betrayed the deep concern, the measureless pity the woman felt for the man she had chosen. could they be those of the proud archduchess? even faintly as they reached his ears they brought the thought to his mind, and filled his soul with a strange ecstasy of strength, carrying on the action of his will, when will seemed to have no more to say. they reached the black eagle of straubing. brandy and hot soup was served, and, once alone with him, the archduchess stripped off his cloak, his tunic, and with a table-knife ripped open his shirt from his wounded shoulder, as she feared the wound had reopened with the toil of riding. blick was sent for an apothecary, salve and bandages. fortunately the man of drugs was to be found, and the wound washed and salved and bound up anew. the archduchess paid him with a golden crown, bade him hold his peace for ever, and dismissed him. then blick found post-horses and a carriage, and they set forth once more. yet there was time, if the coachman and postboys did their best, and the promise of gold was tempting. as the carriage bounded and rumbled along the starlit road, stephanie took her lover's head upon her soft shoulder, putting her arm about him and drawing him to her as a mother does her child, and kissed him softly, tenderly, as a mother does, and nigel fell into a deep, peaceful slumber, his last murmur being her name--"stephanie." very peacefully he slept, despite the rumbling and swaying of the carriage, and the archduchess, satisfied that his breathing was natural, gave herself up to the maturing of her plan, listening now and then to the clattering of the hoofs of their attendants' horses upon the hard road not far behind. at the rate they had travelled she decided that there was yet time to spare. she feared the elector not at all, her brother ferdinand about as much, as far as her own self was concerned. but she feared immeasurably for nigel. the thought that she must be parted from him almost inevitably, directly they had pledged their mutual marriage vows, crushed her with a leaden weight. they stopped somewhere. she could not guess. the horses were steaming with their exertions. men threw cloths over them while they rested in their traces. then they resumed the journey, and presently nigel awoke, ashamed that he had slept, but with strength of mind and body renewed. they reached a little village called obertraubling, two leagues short of ratisbon. the carriage stopped. nigel sprang out. it was of no use, the postboy said. one horse had gone lame. he could kill the horse by thrashing him, but to get to ratisbon with the carriage was impossible in the time. he had done his best. neither blick nor his troopers nor his groom had come up. nigel went from one poor house and inn to another in search of one or two fresh horses. not a horse was to be found. "no one had a horse if not farmer grabstein, the last house in the village." postboy and coachman led the stumbling horses along to the house of farmer grabstein. no one was about. nigel knocked at the door and it yielded. there was a fire upon the hearth. there was food of a rough sort upon the table. there were even candles hanging from a beam. he lit one at the embers and stuck it in a candlestick. then he went back to the carriage and bade stephanie alight. she came into the farmhouse and sat down on a bench in the fireplace to warm herself while nigel made a search. downstairs there was no one. upstairs (it was a rough wooden stair, steep as a ladder) were garrets under the thatch. rolled up in undistinguishable bundles appeared to be some human beings. the air was fetid with their breath and their personal exhalations. was it worth while to wake them? at all events the archduchess could not go up that stair. then he bade the men put their horses in the stable and sleep there beside them. it would at least be warm. "stephanie! my beloved! there is no help for it but wait here till blick comes up. then he must get into ratisbon and bring out horses by hook or by crook! the night is yet young. our plans have gone dismally awry. yet i would not have it different if it were not for the tongue of rumour that will even now be busy in ratisbon!" she knew well what he meant. the honour of the emperor's daughter would be besmirched, despite anything that might be said or done or attested: and were it but one day's stain, that stain should not lie between her and the husband she had chosen. "show me the place!" she said with a touch of her old hauteur. nigel took the candle and preceded her. there was yet another room on this floor, an apartment hung with leather, and having a good chest or two of carved work, an oaken table and some chairs: the farmer's state-room, doubtless used on high occasions. "here will i abide! go you, tall captain, and fetch me some old dame from the village, so she be clean and not smelling of the cow-byre more than ordinary, and bid her bring a blanket or two." nigel went off into the dark again. but she without loss of a moment examined the room and found a door which led into an outermost room, where guns, boots, powder-flasks, and other utensils of the chase hung, and beyond was a great door bolted and barred. this she undid, though it taxed her strength, and found that it opened on to the stable-yard. that she crossed and entered the stable, roused one of the men and bade him rub down the soundest of the horses, feed and water it, and then strap on a saddle she had found in the gun-room, in one hour's time. he would be awakened if necessary. she would ride to ratisbon. neither his mate nor any one else was to know. the present of a gold crown made him promise mountains and marvels. she returned to their kitchen and awaited nigel by the fire. chapter xli. a late arrival at nicholas kraft's. in one of the old burgher palaces of ratisbon, then the dwelling of nicholas kraft, whose guest he was, the elector maximilian held a reception after supper each evening in the manner of the french monarch. at these the ladies and gentlemen of his own household, ferdinand the archduke and his sister the archduchess, with their suite, were expected to attend, together with some of the great burghers and their wives, who, whether they possessed patents of nobility or not, were in point of wealth and culture noble, and had the right of entry. the ruling classes of the great free cities had long been accustomed to exchange courtesies on something like equal terms with the princes and nobles who happened to be within their gates, but not to exhibit any undue servility in their regard. maximilian fully understood this. in munich, his capital city, there would be differences, but ratisbon was ratisbon. ferdinand the archduke held himself much aloof. as the son of the emperor, and possibly his successor, if the electors should again choose a habsburg, he possessed much of the habsburg pride of demeanour and tendency to self-isolation. the guests had not all assembled. maximilian himself, though talking affably with the principal burghers, the few officers present, or some of the ladies, looked gloomy. indeed he had much to occupy his mind. the latest advices from ingolstadt told that the fortress town still held out stoutly, and was still closely beset by gustavus. of movement towards ratisbon there were rumours enough, but maximilian was being well served with information, and these rumours did not trouble him so much as they did the burghers. as in all the great free cities, there was a party favouring gustavus, another favouring the emperor, a third whose one desire was to maintain an exact neutrality. all wished the war was at an end, because it interfered wofully with trade. "i had thought to have seen the archduchess here to-night!" said maximilian to the brother of the absent lady. "in truth," said ferdinand, "i cannot tell. she is accustomed to follow her whims. i learned that she went out riding to-day. it may be that she is late in returning, and is even now at supper." maximilian smiled sombrely and made some polite and meaningless reply, but his manner suggested that he was not at his ease. "at what hour, burgomaster, do you close the city gates?" maximilian asked of his next fellow-guest. "at eight, your highness!" "and the keys?" "are brought to my house, your highness!" "ah! very salutary! you have all things well-ordered in ratisbon." "your highness is good enough to commend us. nevertheless, there are many things that may well be improved." an hour slipped by. some of the party played _truc_, some _scat_. in a corner some musicians discoursed on viols and lutes and a clavier. the archduke grew impatient and sent a page to the lodging of the archduchess, bidding her attendance. an answer came back that she was indisposed, but that, if the elector wished to see her particularly, she would endeavour to throw off her migraine and come. the archduke sent a still more peremptory message. maximilian looked still more sombre. this time he stopped to speak to an officer who had just come in. they stood apart. "the gates are shut?" was maximilian's inquiry. "yes, your highness!" "has the archduchess in fact returned?" "no, your highness!" "have you had any message?" "her coach broke down at obertraubling, three leagues from ratisbon! she is spending the night at a farmhouse!" "alone?" there was a perceptible quiver in his voice. "the scottish officer, general charteris, is with her!" "ah! he has recovered from his wounds?" "i should have thought not! i have been doing my best, your highness. two days ago he was too weak to mount a horse. but the eyes of an archduchess, your highness, are a very potent salve!" again the elector frowned. "can you make anything of this escapade?" the jesuit returned the look in the elector's eyes. each seemed to search the other's. "whatever it was meant to be it has been frustrated, and your highness will find her submissive enough to-morrow." "but if she has given herself...." "your highness need not fear. she has but walked into one mouse-trap and the scot into another." maximilian simply grumbled a dissatisfied "h'm!" his knowledge of the jesuits and their deep schemes was tempered by an insatiable jealousy where the archduchess was concerned, and a knowledge of the wiles of women, which he deemed must be superior to that of any jesuit but one, that one being father lamormain. "it is time to apprise the archduke ferdinand that he is being fooled by her women." then he left the jesuit abruptly and crossed over to ferdinand. "our dear stephanie will not, i fear, be here to-night!" "why not, cousin?" was ferdinand's somewhat petulant query. he was not at all gratified at having come to ratisbon, only to find that maximilian was once again defeated. he would almost have preferred him to have taken up the position of the neutral. he was angry with the archduchess for her persistent opposition to his father's wish for the match with maximilian: annoyed with maximilian for his continual fidgeting about her absence, to which ferdinand attached no importance. "because she is not in ratisbon!" "but i have had messages from her!" "from her women, who are doubtless in league to deceive you!" ferdinand looked much that he did not utter. he looked at the clock that stood in one corner of the apartment. "ten o'clock, and not returned. you must lend me a troop of your hussars to scour the roads!" "with pleasure! but i beg that you will use discretion. the name of a princess that will one day be electress of bavaria may not be lightly bandied. may i suggest captain von grätz?" "as you will, cousin!" they had just signed to the jesuit when the door opened, and the servants announced-- "her imperial highness, the archduchess stephanie!" the faces of the three men turned towards the door in amazement and expectation. it was the archduchess. she came clad in amber silk, heavy with the richest embroidered work of raised flowers, a high stiff collar, her round neck and swelling bosom bare, save for the velvet of darker hue than the stuff which framed them, and a necklace of rare pearls. her train was upheld by two of the fairest dames of her company, and these and two others and two pages were all attired as richly, yet served as a foil nevertheless to her supreme dark beauty. in her eyes was the lurking light of laughter, though her lip had more than usual of its proud upward curl. her eyes danced as with her quick gaze they lit upon the three astounded faces of her suitor, her brother, and the officer they called von grätz. nicholas kraft and his wife hastened forward and bent the knee before her. to them all graciousness she said-- "it is to seem an unwilling guest to arrive at your hospitable house so late, but you must please excuse me for the chapter of accidents that has done nothing but beset me this day." the elector strode forward, his eyes roving over her as if they would devour her, for he ever found fresh enchantment and delight in her beauty, fain though he was not to betray himself too much. the archduke followed, but not too eagerly. captain von grätz alone remained where he was, prey to a hundred vexations, but showing nothing in his calm face. "so eager yet, cousin maximilian!" "say rather anxious, dear stephanie! i have done my best to have the roads patrolled, but i fear your horse or your escort must have been indifferent that you have been so delayed." "i am afraid it was my own fault, cousin, that i went too far and forgot that my scottish gentleman equerry for the day was but lately wounded in your service and could ill bear the saddle. as it is, i have left him behind me, and i fear that he will be but a fit subject for his bed for some days to come! how triumphantly your music sounds!" "it should ring twice as bravely from thrice as many trumpets as we have viols, would you but give me leave, stephanie, and bid me don a bridal suit. you are vastly goddess-like to-night?" "because i am happy, despite the war that makes you all so gloomy!" "if i could think your happiness was in being here in ratisbon with me, then should not war last a week. i would even make terms and bid gustavus to our nuptials." "and sacrifice the future of wallenstein?" she asked with a pretty malice. "why? what of wallenstein?" "wallenstein's army grows greater every day!" "'tis well! we could make the better bargain with gustavus." "and the emperor?" "would console himself for the loss of glory in finding a son-in-law who would adventure the care of his rebellious stephanie." the elector's brow had cleared. he was enraptured to find her in so winning a mood that he proposed a pavane. and in a few minutes dancing was the order of the evening. the jesuit watched and noticed how the elector surrendered to his passion, confident at last that he had virtually won the hand of the princess. at last he left the court circle alone and quietly, and went to the lodging he shared with nigel. there another surprise awaited him, for nigel lay asleep in his bed. the jesuit examined the bandages, saw that they had been freshly put on, and that tied in the final knot was a single long black hair. chapter xlii. in the abbey church. it was as the clock at the cathedral boomed out eight on the next night but one that the old abbey church of st jacob, which by some is called the scots church, by reason that the benedictines to whom it once belonged were mostly of scottish or irish parentage, was dimly lit as to a chapel on the left side of the choir. nigel groped his way up the nave towards it. another shadow crept out of the darkness of a side door on the northern side, and as it came into the dim circle of light from the single swinging lamp depending from the arch of the chapel, nigel made out that it was a woman, and that woman the archduchess stephanie. they exchanged a whispered greeting and knelt down together upon the cushion prepared for them upon the threshold of the chapel. two men entered by the door of the nave, cloaked, booted, and spurred, as was nigel, and strode with firm steps up towards the same chapel, and halting sat down upon the nearest seat. they had doffed their hats as they entered, hats with long plumes, and the cloaks did not altogether conceal the steel gorgets which they wore, for the light, dim though it was, caught them. their stern war-worn faces looked steadily towards the chapel. from the small door beside the chapel came a priest and his acolyte, a choir boy. rapidly the priest read through a short homily in an accent, though the words were german, which betrayed an original acquaintance with the country from which nigel sprang. then he proceeded with more deliberation to recite the marriage service and to ask the questions and to prompt the replies which are therein set forth. low and prompt and firm came the answers from nigel. low and musical, though not without some tremor in her utterance, came the responses from the archduchess stephanie. then came the moment of intense solemnity when the priest placed the ring upon her finger with the words, "conjungo vos," and an irrepressible sigh came from her, the sigh of relief after a suspense not so long as profound. still they knelt, and the priest began to celebrate the sacrament of the mass preparatory to giving the two souls before him the blessing of holy church. the two knelt oblivious to everything but the presence of one another, and their ears strained not to lose any of the precious words which fell from the priest's lips--words long familiar, sanctified in themselves, sanctified further by long usage, thrice holy in being uttered on this most solemn occasion in their lives. but while they knelt a procession of shadows seemed to the two onlookers to come into the church, stealthily and slowly, and the two looking round as stealthily, saw that a portion of the nave, and of the side aisles, was being filled. very quietly one of the two men departed by the door by which the archduchess had come. he was there one instant, the next he had melted into the shadow. the mass went on. the acolyte did his office. the priest his. not a falter came into his voice. he seemed even more absorbed in his office than his two kneeling listeners. scarcely had he pronounced his final benediction, to which the now solitary onlooker added a deep-toned "amen," than all four, nigel and his archduchess just risen from their knees, the solitary onlooker, and the priest, were startled by the sound of a trumpet, and in a trice the church seemed to be filled with lighted torches. the light fell upon a noble assemblage, which moved forward to the open space before the choir. in the forefront were the elector maximilian and the archduke ferdinand. behind them came the principal officers of their suite and of the garrison. upon the faces of the elector and of the archduke sat stern determination. upon the others, more or less attuned to those of their masters, sat a natural wonder, and on some something of dismay. they had been bidden. they had come. they could only wonder what reason could bring the elector and his guest to the st jacob's church at such a time. round about stood a guard of perhaps fifty men of the elector's bodyguard, bearing torches and arms. as the facts gradually displaced the first natural burst of astonishment in the mind of nigel and the archduchess, they drew involuntarily closer together, and the priest preceding them with the paten still in his hand they approached the elector. the priest said in a loud clear voice-- "be it known to your highnesses and all men and all women that the archduchess stephanie has this day espoused nigel charteris of pencaitland and has become his wife. they are now man and wife according to the ordinance and the blessing of holy church. let no man seek to separate them on pain of the loss of his eternal salvation. amen." "good father," said the elector, "you have now done your office. we also, as representing the emperor, the faithful son of the church, do pronounce that, insomuch as the archduchess has taken upon herself to marry in direct disobedience to her father's wishes, she is hereby cast out from his family, and from all the rights and privileges of her birth, and henceforth will enjoy neither princely rank nor any fortune except such as she may still hold according to the law as a private person." "and now," said the archduke ferdinand, "insomuch as general nigel charteris, being a trusted officer of the emperor, has endeavoured to desert, carrying with him the daughter of the emperor and our sister, in which he has committed two heinous crimes against the emperor's majesty, he will be immediately arrested and tried by a court-martial for the first crime, and by ourselves for the second. of the issue there can be no doubt." "i deny, your highness," said nigel in a loud firm voice, "that i ever had the intention of deserting the emperor's service. nor have your highnesses any evidence of such intention. my services are a complete answer to the charge. "as to marrying the archduchess stephanie, i am a scottish gentleman whose forebears are of as old and gentle a race as your own. i admit the right of no man, be he called elector or emperor, to say me nay." "arrest him!" said the archduke. "you must reach him through my body!" said the archduchess, throwing herself in front of nigel. "you had best bid your lover good-bye, and waste no words!" said the elector grimly, and motioned the captain of the guard to come forward. "halt!" rang out a grim harsh voice, which resounded strangely through the domes and hollows of the church. and the solitary onlooker of the two, who had witnessed the marriage, strode into the ring of light, fronting the elector. "i am sir john hepburn of the scots brigade, serving gustavus of sweden!" the elector scanned his lineaments. the archduke had never seen this renowned leader in the field as the elector had, and was inclined to doubt. "you are a bold knight to place yourself in the hands of your enemies like this!" said the elector. "the age of chivalry is past, if it ever was! what have you to say?" "but this, your highness! i crave nothing. the lands of charteris and the lands of hepburn in broad scotland march together. we fight on different sides, but we do not forget for all that and all that, that we are brother scots the world o'er. i came here to witness the wedding of nigel charteris to stephanie of habsburg. i have seen it and shall return to gustavus." "we shall not hinder you, sir john hepburn," said the elector. "the men of your nation have strange customs, and it may be this is one of them to penetrate into the enemy's camp to carry out a domestic rite. you are free to go as you have come!" "free to go!" the voice rang out like a gusty clarion. "look around you! it is for us to do as we will. you are all prisoners, every one of you." involuntarily elector, archduke, officers, gentlemen, and ladies turned their heads apprehensively. out of the semi-darkness beyond the ring of the torches gleamed rough-bearded faces and the glint of a hundred claymores. nay there were two hundred, three hundred. the effect of the darkness was doubtless to add a mystery to what they saw. an officer sprang towards the door to raise the alarm. it was useless. the hilt of a sword knocked him senseless upon the stones. "do you see my warrant? aye! i know well you do. what i undertake i carry out. here and now deliver nigel charteris his safe-conduct to join wallenstein, and i wager he will yet do the emperor more service than he has yet done, though i would fain he was upon our side instead of against us. come, your highness! to the sacristy and sign the priest's book and a safe-conduct. swallow your arrests and your court-martial! as for the archduchess, she will after her man or she is no true woman." the elector and the archduke exchanged looks. their guard was hopelessly outnumbered, and it was clear that sir john hepburn held them in the hollow of his hand. "if the scots are like you, sir john hepburn!" said the archduchess, holding out her hand, which the scots leader bowed over and kissed in courtly fashion, "i am glad to marry a scot. next to my husband shall i rank you as the first of my friends." "aye, madame, and yonder sir archibald ruthven as the second, for he it was who brought up our little army. now let us sign!" he motioned to the elector and the archduke. the priest led the way to the sacristy, and there, willy-nilly, maximilian of bavaria and the archduke ferdinand wrote their names as present at the marriage of nigel charteris and the archduchess stephanie of habsburg, and then, to sir john's dictation, inscribed on parchment a full safe-conduct which, if words could do it, granted safety to the newly-wedded pair from all reprisals or attacks from imperial troops or officers, so long as nigel charteris remained in the emperor's service, and permitted his safe departure from germany whensoever that service should end. then at the doors of the church, when they were at length thrown open, were found a coach and four horses, and an escort of horse, at the head of which was the doughty sergeant blick, waiting to conduct their beloved colonel upon the first stage of his journey. with hearty hand-clasping and good wishes the colonel and his bride mounted the coach and set out. then sir john hepburn courteously saluted the elector and the archduke, and putting himself at the head of his men marched them to the western gate at ratisbon, lit by the torches of their foes, and set out upon his ride back to ingolstadt. thus ended a hitherto unrecorded episode in the thirty years' war, and a most momentous chapter in the history of nigel charteris of pencaitland and his rebel habsburger. the end. printed by william blackwood and sons. blackwoods' shilling editions of popular novels. bound in cloth. with coloured illustration on wrapper. _=by neil munro.=_ the daft days. fancy farm. _=by ian hay.=_ "pip": #a romance of youth#. the right stuff. a man's man. a safety match. _=by maud diver.=_ captain desmond, v.c. the great amulet. candles in the wind. _=by f. marion crawford.=_ saracinesca. _=by beth ellis.=_ the moon of bath. _=by katherine cecil thurston.=_ john chilcote, m.p. _=by j. storer clouston.=_ the lunatic at large. _=by sydney c. grier.=_ the power of the keys. the advanced-guard. _=by w. j. eccott.=_ the red neighbour. _=by ole luk-oie.=_ the green curve. _=by hugh foulis.=_ para handy. _=by wymond carey.=_ "no. ." william blackwood & sons, #edinburgh and london#. transcriber's note: text in italics is marked with _underscore_, bold text with the =equals sign= and small capitals with the #number sign#. a number of printing errors have been corrected without comment (e.g. missing quotation mark, missing letter). there are some inconsistencies in how the author spelled german cities/regions in the original publication. notations in english, german with umlauts and german without umlauts are found. the following changes have been made: wurzburg changed to würzburg, siebenburgen to siebenbürgen, nuremburg to nuremberg, furstenberg and furstenburg to fürstenberg. on pg. portable was changed to potable. archaic spelling retained. memoirs of a cavalier or a military journal of the wars in germany, and the wars in england. from the year to the year . by daniel defoe edited with introduction and notes by elizabeth o'neill introduction. daniel defoe is, perhaps, best known to us as the author of _robinson crusoe_, a book which has been the delight of generations of boys and girls ever since the beginning of the eighteenth century. for it was then that defoe lived and wrote, being one of the new school of prose writers which grew up at that time and which gave england new forms of literature almost unknown to an earlier age. defoe was a vigorous pamphleteer, writing first on the whig side and later for the tories in the reigns of william iii and anne. he did much to foster the growth of the newspaper, a form of literature which henceforth became popular. he also did much towards the development of the modern novel, though he did not write novels in our sense of the word. his books were more simple than is the modern novel. what he really wrote were long stories told, as is _robinson crusoe_, in the first person and with so much detail that it is hard to believe that they are works of imagination and not true stories. "the little art he is truly master of, is of forging a story and imposing it upon the world as truth." so wrote one of his contemporaries. charles lamb, in criticizing defoe, notices this minuteness of detail and remarks that he is, therefore, an author suited only for "servants" (meaning that this method can appeal only to comparatively uneducated minds). really as every boy and girl knows, a good story ought to have this quality of seeming true, and the fact that defoe can so deceive us makes his work the more excellent reading. the _memoirs of a cavalier_ resembles _robinson crusoe_ in so far as it is a tale told by a man of his own experiences and adventures. it has just the same air of truth and for a long time after its first publication in people were divided in opinion as to whether it was a book of real memoirs or not. a critical examination has shown that it is defoe's own work and not, as he declares, the contents of a manuscript which he found "by great accident, among other valuable papers" belonging to one of king william's secretaries of state. although his gifts of imagination enabled him to throw himself into the position of the cavalier he lapses occasionally into his own characteristic prose and the style is often that of the eighteenth rather than the seventeenth century, more eloquent than quaint. again, he is not careful to hide inconsistencies between his preface and the text. thus, he says in his preface that he discovered the manuscript in ; yet we find in the _memoirs_ a reference to the restoration, which shows that it must have been written after at least. there is abundant proof that the book is really a work of fiction and that the cavalier is an imaginary character; but, in one sense, it is a true history, inasmuch as the author has studied the events and spirit of the time in which his scene is laid and, though he makes many mistakes of detail, he gives us a very true picture of one of the most interesting periods in english and european history. the _memoirs_ thus represent the english historical novel in its beginnings, a much simpler thing than it was to become in the hands of scott and later writers. the period in which the scene is laid is that of the english civil war, in which the cavalier fought on the side of king charles i against the puritans. but his adventures in this war belong to the second part of the book. in the first part, he tells of his birth and parentage, the foreign travel which was the fashionable completion of the education of a gentleman in the seventeenth century, and his adventures as a volunteer officer in the swedish army, where he gained the experience which was to serve him well in the civil war at home. many a real cavalier must have had just such a career as defoe's hero describes as his own. after a short time at oxford, "long enough for a gentleman," he embarked on a period of travel, going to italy by way of france. the cavalier, however, devotes but little space to description, vivid enough as far as it goes, of his adventures in these two counties for a space of over two years. italy, especially, attracted the attention of gentlemen and scholars in those days, but the cavalier was more bent on soldiering than sightseeing and he hurries on to tell of his adventures in germany, where he first really took part in warfare, becoming a volunteer officer in the army of gustavus adolphus, the hero king of sweden, and where he met with those adventures the story of which forms the bulk of the first part of the _memoirs_. to appreciate the tale, it will be necessary to have a clear idea of the state of affairs in europe at the time. the war which was convulsing germany, and in which almost every other european power interfered at some time, was the thirty years' war ( -- ), a struggle having a special character of its own as the last of the religious wars which had torn europe asunder for a century and the first of a long series of wars in which the new and purely political principle of the balance of power can be seen at work. the struggle was, nominally, between protestant and catholic germany for, during the reformation period, germany, which consisted of numerous states under the headship of the emperor, had split into two great camps. the northern states had become protestant under their protestant princes. the southern states had remained, for the most part, catholic or had been won back to catholicism in the religious reaction known as the counter-reformation. as the catholic movement spread, under a catholic emperor like ferdinand of styria, who was elected in , it was inevitable that the privileges granted to protestants should be curtailed. they determined to resist and, as the emperor had the support of spain, the protestant union found it necessary to call in help from outside. thus it was that the other european powers came to interfere in german affairs. some helped the protestants from motives of religion, more still from considerations of policy, and the long struggle of thirty years may be divided into marked periods in which one power after another, denmark, sweden, france, allied themselves with the protestants against the emperor. the _memoirs_ are concerned with the first two years of the swedish period of the war ( -- ), during which gustavus adolphus almost won victory for the protestants who were, however, to lose the advantage of his brilliant generalship through his death at the battle of lützen in . through the death of "this conquering king," the swedes lost the fruits of their victory and the battle of lützen marks the end of what may be termed the heroic period of the war. gustavus adolphus stands out among the men of his day for the loftiness of his character as well as for the genius of his generalship. it is, therefore, fitting enough that defoe should make his cavalier withdraw from the swedish service after the death of the "glorious king" whom he "could never mention without some remark of his extraordinary merit." for two years longer, he wanders through germany still watching the course of the war and then returns to england, soon to take part in another war at home, namely the civil war, in which the english people were divided into two great parties according as they supported king charles i or the members of the long parliament who opposed him. according to the _memoirs_, the cavalier "went into arms" without troubling himself "to examine sides." defoe probably considered this attitude as typical of many of the cavalier party, and, of course, loyalty to the king's person was one of their strongest motives. the cavalier does not enter largely into the causes of the war. what he gives us is a picture of army life in that troubled period. it will be well, however, to bear in mind the chief facts in the history of the times. from the beginning of his reign, charles had had trouble with his parliaments, which had already become very restless under james i. charles's parliaments disapproved of his foreign policy and their unwillingness to grant subsidies led him to fall back on questionable methods of raising money, especially during the eleven years ( -- ) in which he ruled without a parliament. charles had no great scheme of tyranny, but avoided parliaments because of their criticism of his policy. at first the opposition had been purely political, but the parliament of had attacked also charles's religious policy. he favoured the schemes of laud (archbishop of canterbury -- ) and the arminian school among the clergy, who wished to revive many of the old catholic practices and some of the beliefs which had been swept away by the reformation. many people in england objected not only to these but even to the wearing of the surplice, the simplest of the old vestments, on the use of which laud tried to insist. this party came to be known as puritans and they formed the chief strength of the opposition to the king in the long parliament which met in . for their attack on the church led many who had at first opposed the king's arbitrary methods to go over to his side. thus, the moderate men as well as the loyalists formed a king's party and the opposition was almost confined to men who hated the church as much as the king. the puritans who loved simplicity of dress and severity of manners and despised the flowing locks and worldly vanities which the cavaliers loved were, by these, nicknamed roundheads on account of their short hair. defoe, in the _memoirs_, gives us less of this side of the history of the times than might have been expected. the war actually began in august, , and what defoe gives us is military history, correct in essentials and full of detail, which is, however, far from accurate. for instance, in his account of the battle of marston moor, he makes prince rupert command the left wing, whereas he really commanded the right wing, the left being led by lord goring who, according to defoe's account, commanded the main battle. he conveys to us, however, the true spirit of the war, emphasizing the ability and the mistakes on both sides, showing how the king's miscalculations or rupert's rashness deprived the royalist party of the advantages of the superior generalship and fighting power which were theirs in the first part of the war and how gradually the roundheads got the better of the cavaliers. the detailed narrative comes to an end with the delivery of the king to the parliament by the scots, to whom he had given himself up in his extremity. a few lines tell of his trial and execution and the _memoirs_ end with some pages of "remarks and observations" on the war and a list of coincidences which had been noted in its course. the latter, savouring somewhat of superstition, appear natural in what purports to be a seventeenth century text, but the summing up of conclusions about the war is rather such as might be made by a more or less impartial observer at a later date than by one who had taken an active part in the struggle. in reading the _memoirs_ this mixture of what belongs to the seventeenth century with the reflections of defoe, in many ways a typical eighteenth century figure, must be borne in mind. the inaccuracies are pointed out in the notes, but these need not prevent us from entering with zest into the spirit of the story. e. o'neill. _march_ . contents introduction. preface to the first edition. text: part i. part ii. notes. preface to the first edition. as an evidence that 'tis very probable these memorials were written many years ago, the persons now concerned in the publication assure the reader that they have had them in their possession finished, as they now appear, above twenty years; that they were so long ago found by great accident, among other valuable papers, in the closet of an eminent public minister, of no less figure than one of king william's secretaries of state. as it is not proper to trace them any farther, so neither is there any need to trace them at all, to give reputation to the story related, seeing the actions here mentioned have a sufficient sanction from all the histories of the times to which they relate, with this addition, that the admirable manner of relating them and the wonderful variety of incidents with which they are beautified in the course of a private gentleman's story, add such delight in the reading, and give such a lustre, as well to the accounts themselves as to the person who was the actor, that no story, we believe, extant in the world ever came abroad with such advantage. it must naturally give some concern in the reading that the name of a person of so much gallantry and honour, and so many ways valuable to the world, should be lost to the readers. we assure them no small labour has been thrown away upon the inquiry, and all we have been able to arrive to of discovery in this affair is, that a memorandum was found with this manuscript, in these words, but not signed by any name, only the two letters of a name, which gives us no light into the matter, which memoir was as follows:-- _memorandum_. "i found this manuscript among my father's writings, and i understand that he got them as plunder, at, or after, the fight at worcester, where he served as major of ----'s regiment of horse on the side of the parliament. i.k." as this has been of no use but to terminate the inquiry after the person, so, however, it seems most naturally to give an authority to the original of the work, viz., that it was born of a soldier; and indeed it is through every part related with so soldierly a style, and in the very language of the field, that it seems impossible anything but the very person who was present in every action here related, could be the relater of them. the accounts of battles, the sieges, and the several actions of which this work is so full, are all recorded in the histories of those times; such as the great battle of leipsic, the sacking of magdeburg, the siege of nuremburg, the passing the river lech in bavaria; such also as the battle of kineton, or edgehill, the battles of newbury, marston moor, and naseby, and the like: they are all, we say, recorded in other histories, and written by those who lived in those times, and perhaps had good authority for what they wrote. but do those relations give any of the beautiful ideas of things formed in this account? have they one half of the circumstances and incidents of the actions themselves that this man's eyes were witness to, and which his memory has thus preserved? he that has read the best accounts of those battles will be surprised to see the particulars of the story so preserved, so nicely and so agreeably described, and will confess what we allege, that the story is inimitably told; and even the great actions of the glorious king gustavus adolphus receive a lustre from this man's relations which the world was never made sensible of before, and which the present age has much wanted of late, in order to give their affections a turn in favour of his late glorious successor. in the story of our own country's unnatural wars, he carries on the same spirit. how effectually does he record the virtues and glorious actions of king charles the first, at the same time that he frequently enters upon the mistakes of his majesty's conduct, and of his friends, which gave his enemies all those fatal advantages against him, which ended in the overthrow of his armies, the loss of his crown and life, and the ruin of the constitution! in all his accounts he does justice to his enemies, and honours the merit of those whose cause he fought against; and many accounts recorded in his story, are not to be found even in the best histories of those times. what applause does he give to gallantry of sir thomas fairfax, to his modesty, to his conduct, under which he himself was subdued, and to the justice he did the king's troops when they laid down their arms! his description of the scots troops in the beginning of the war, and the behaviour of the party under the earl of holland, who went over against them, are admirable; and his censure of their conduct, who pushed the king upon the quarrel, and then would not let him fight, is no more than what many of the king's friends (though less knowing as soldiers) have often complained of. in a word, this work is a confutation of many errors in all the writers upon the subject of our wars in england, and even in that extraordinary history written by the earl of clarendon; but the editors were so just that when, near twenty years ago, a person who had written a whole volume in folio, by way of answer to and confutation of clarendon's "history of the rebellion," would have borrowed the clauses in this account, which clash with that history, and confront it,--we say the editors were so just as to refuse them. there can be nothing objected against the general credit of this work, seeing its truth is established upon universal history; and almost all the facts, especially those of moment, are confirmed for their general part by all the writers of those times. if they are here embellished with particulars, which are nowhere else to be found, that is the beauty we boast of; and that it is that much recommend this work to all the men of sense and judgment that read it. the only objection we find possible to make against this work is, that it is not carried on farther, or, as we may say finished, with the finishing the war of the time; and this we complain of also. but then we complain of it as a misfortune to the world, not as a fault in the author; for how do we know but that this author might carry it on, and have another part finished which might not fall into the same hands, or may still remain with some of his family, and which they cannot indeed publish, to make it seem anything perfect, for want of the other parts which we have, and which we have now made public? nor is it very improbable but that if any such farther part is in being, the publishing these two parts may occasion the proprietors of the third to let the world see it, and that by such a discovery the name of the person may also come to be known, which would, no doubt, be a great satisfaction to the reader as well as us. this, however, must be said, that if the same author should have written another part of this work, and carried it on to the end of those times, yet as the residue of those melancholy days, to the restoration, were filled with the intrigues of government, the political management of illegal power, and the dissensions and factions of a people who were then even in themselves but a faction, and that there was very little action in the field, it is more than probable that our author, who was a man of arms, had little share in those things, and might not care to trouble himself with looking at them. but besides all this, it might happen that he might go abroad again at that time, as most of the gentlemen of quality, and who had an abhorrence for the power that then governed here, did. nor are we certain that he might live to the end of that time, so we can give no account whether he had any share in the subsequent actions of that time. 'tis enough that we have the authorities above to recommend this part to us that is now published. the relation, we are persuaded, will recommend itself, and nothing more can be needful, because nothing more can invite than the story itself, which, when the reader enters into, he will find it very hard to get out of till he has gone through it. memoirs of a cavalier. part i. it may suffice the reader, without being very inquisitive after my name, that i was born in the county of salop, in the year , under the government of what star i was never astrologer enough to examine; but the consequences of my life may allow me to suppose some extraordinary influence affected my birth. my father was a gentleman of a very plentiful fortune, having an estate of above £ per annum, of a family nearly allied to several of the principal nobility, and lived about six miles from the town; and my mother being at ---- on some particular occasion, was surprised there at a friend's house, and brought me very safe into the world. i was my father's second son, and therefore was not altogether so much slighted as younger sons of good families generally are. but my father saw something in my genius also which particularly pleased him, and so made him take extraordinary care of my education. i was taught, therefore, by the best masters that could be had, everything that was needful to accomplish a young gentleman for the world; and at seventeen years old my tutor told my father an academic education was very proper for a person of quality, and he thought me very fit for it: so my father entered me of ---- college in oxford, where i continued three years. a collegiate life did not suit me at all, though i loved books well enough. it was never designed that i should be either a lawyer, physician, or divine; and i wrote to my father that i thought i had stayed there long enough for a gentleman, and with his leave i desired to give him a visit. during my stay at oxford, though i passed through the proper exercises of the house, yet my chief reading was upon history and geography, as that which pleased my mind best, and supplied me with ideas most suitable to my genius; by one i understood what great actions had been done in the world, and by the other i understood where they had been done. my father readily complied with my desire of coming home; for besides that he thought, as i did, that three years' time at the university was enough, he also most passionately loved me, and began to think of my settling near him. at my arrival i found myself extraordinarily caressed by my father, and he seemed to take a particular delight in my conversation. my mother, who lived in perfect union with him both in desires and affection, received me very passionately. apartments were provided for me by myself, and horses and servants allowed me in particular. my father never went a-hunting, an exercise he was exceeding fond of, but he would have me with him; and it pleased him when he found me like the sport. i lived thus, in all the pleasures 'twas possible for me to enjoy, for about a year more, when going out one morning with my father to hunt a stag, and having had a very hard chase, and gotten a great way off from home, we had leisure enough to ride gently back; and as we returned my father took occasion to enter into a serious discourse with me concerning the manner of my settling in the world. he told me, with a great deal of passion, that he loved me above all the rest of his children, and that therefore he intended to do very well for me; and that my eldest brother being already married and settled, he had designed the same for me, and proposed a very advantageous match for me, with a young lady of very extraordinary fortune and merit, and offered to make a settlement of £ per annum on me, which he said he would purchase for me without diminishing his paternal estate. there was too much tenderness in this discourse not to affect me exceedingly. i told him i would perfectly resign myself unto his disposal. but as my father had, together with his love for me, a very nice judgment in his discourse, he fixed his eyes very attentively on me, and though my answer was without the least reserve, yet he thought he saw some uneasiness in me at the proposal, and from thence concluded that my compliance was rather an act of discretion than inclination; and that, however i seemed so absolutely given up to what he had proposed, yet my answer was really an effect of my obedience rather than my choice. so he returned very quick upon me: "look you, son, though i give you my own thoughts in the matter, yet i would have you be very plain with me; for if your own choice does not agree with mine, i will be your adviser, but will never impose upon you, and therefore let me know your mind freely." "i don't reckon myself capable, sir," said i, with a great deal of respect, "to make so good a choice for myself as you can for me; and though my opinion differed from yours, its being your opinion would reform mine, and my judgment would as readily comply as my duty." "i gather at least from thence," said my father, "that your designs lay another way before, however they may comply with mine; and therefore i would know what it was you would have asked of me if i had not offered this to you; and you must not deny me your obedience in this, if you expect i should believe your readiness in the other." "sir," said i, "'twas impossible i should lay out for myself just what you have proposed; but if my inclinations were never so contrary, though at your command you shall know them, yet i declare them to be wholly subjected to your order. i confess my thoughts did not tend towards marriage or a settlement; for, though i had no reason to question your care of me, yet i thought a gentleman ought always to see something of the world before he confined himself to any part of it. and if i had been to ask your consent to anything, it should have been to give me leave to travel for a short time, in order to qualify myself to appear at home like a son to so good a father." "in what capacity would you travel?" replied my father. "you must go abroad either as a private gentleman, as a scholar, or as a soldier." "if it were in the latter capacity, sir," said i, returning pretty quick, "i hope i should not misbehave myself; but i am not so determined as not to be ruled by your judgment." "truly," replied my father, "i see no war abroad at this time worth while for a man to appear in, whether we talk of the cause or the encouragement; and indeed, son, i am afraid you need not go far for adventures of that nature, for times seem to look as if this part of europe would find us work enough." my father spake then relating to the quarrel likely to happen between the king of england and the spaniard,' [ ] for i believe he had no notions of a civil war in his head. in short, my father, perceiving my inclinations very forward to go abroad, gave me leave to travel, upon condition i would promise to return in two years at farthest, or sooner, if he sent for me. while i was at oxford i happened into the society of a young gentleman, of a good family, but of a low fortune, being a younger brother, and who had indeed instilled into me the first desires of going abroad, and who, i knew, passionately longed to travel, but had not sufficient allowance to defray his expenses as a gentleman. we had contracted a very close friendship, and our humours being very agreeable to one another, we daily enjoyed the conversation of letters. he was of a generous free temper, without the least affectation or deceit, a handsome proper person, a strong body, very good mien, and brave to the last degree. his name was fielding and we called him captain, though it be a very unusual title in a college; but fate had some hand in the title, for he had certainly the lines of a soldier drawn in his countenance. i imparted to him the resolutions i had taken, and how i had my father's consent to go abroad, and would know his mind whether he would go with me. he sent me word he would go with all his heart. my father, when he saw him, for i sent for him immediately to come to me, mightily approved my choice; so we got our equipage ready, and came away for london. 'twas on the nd of april , when we embarked at dover, landed in a few hours at calais, and immediately took post for paris. i shall not trouble the reader with a journal of my travels, nor with the description of places, which every geographer can do better than i; but these memoirs being only a relation of what happened either to ourselves, or in our own knowledge, i shall confine myself to that part of it. we had indeed some diverting passages in our journey to paris, as first, the horse my comrade was upon fell so very lame with a slip that he could not go, and hardly stand, and the fellow that rid with us express, pretended to ride away to a town five miles off to get a fresh horse, and so left us on the road with one horse between two of us. we followed as well as we could, but being strangers, missed the way, and wandered a great way out the road. whether the man performed in reasonable time or not we could not be sure, but if it had not been for an old priest, we had never found him. we met this man, by a very good accident, near a little village whereof he was curate. we spoke latin enough just to make him understand us, and he did not speak it much better himself; but he carried us into the village to his house, gave us wine and bread, and entertained us with wonderful courtesy. after this he sent into the village, hired a peasant, and a horse for my captain, and sent him to guide us into the road. at parting he made a great many compliments to us in french, which we could just understand; but the sum was, to excuse him for a question he had a mind to ask us. after leave to ask what he pleased, it was if we wanted any money for our journey, and pulled out two pistoles, which he offered either to give or lend us. i mention this exceeding courtesy of the curate because, though civility is very much in use in france, and especially to strangers, yet 'tis a very unusual thing to have them part with their money. we let the priest know, first, that we did not want money, and next that we were very sensible of the obligation he had put upon us; and i told him in particular, if i lived to see him again, i would acknowledge it. this accident of our horse was, as we afterwards found, of some use to us. we had left our two servants behind us at calais to bring our baggage after us, by reason of some dispute between the captain of the packet and the custom-house officer, which could not be adjusted, and we were willing to be at paris. the fellows followed as fast as they could, and, as near as we could learn, in the time we lost our way, were robbed, and our portmanteaus opened. they took what they pleased; but as there was no money there, but linen and necessaries, the loss was not great. our guide carried us to amiens, where we found the express and our two servants, who the express meeting on the road with a spare horse, had brought back with him thither. we took this for a good omen of our successful journey, having escaped a danger which might have been greater to us than it was to our servants; for the highwaymen in france do not always give a traveller the civility of bidding him stand and deliver his money, but frequently fire on him first, and then take his money. we stayed one day at amiens, to adjust this little disorder, and walked about the town, and into the great church, but saw nothing very remarkable there; but going across a broad street near the great church, we saw a crowd of people gazing at a mountebank doctor, who made a long harangue to them with a thousand antic postures, and gave out bills this way, and boxes of physic that way, and had a great trade, when on a sudden the people raised a cry, "_larron, larron_!" (in english, "thief, thief"), on the other side the street, and all the auditors ran away, from mr doctor to see what the matter was. among the rest we went to see, and the case was plain and short enough. two english gentlemen and a scotchman, travellers as we were, were standing gazing at this prating doctor, and one of them catched a fellow picking his pocket. the fellow had got some of his money, for he dropped two or three pieces just by him, and had got hold of his watch, but being surprised let it slip again. but the reason of telling this story is for the management of it. this thief had his seconds so ready, that as soon as the englishman had seized him they fell in, pretended to be mighty zealous for the stranger, takes the fellow by the throat, and makes a great bustle; the gentleman not doubting but the man was secured let go his own hold of him, and left him to them. the hubbub was great, and 'twas these fellows cried, "_larron, larron_!" but with a dexterity peculiar to themselves had let the right fellow go, and pretended to be all upon one of their own gang. at last they bring the man to the gentleman to ask him what the fellow had done, who, when he saw the person they seized on, presently told them that was not the man. then they seemed to be in more consternation than before, and spread themselves all over the street, crying, "_larron, larron_!" pretending to search for the fellow; and so one one way, one another, they were all gone, the noise went over, the gentlemen stood looking one at another, and the bawling doctor began to have the crowd about him again. this was the first french trick i had the opportunity of seeing, but i was told they have a great many more as dexterous as this. we soon got acquaintance with these gentlemen, who were going to paris, as well as we; so the next day we made up our company with them, and were a pretty troop of five gentlemen and four servants. as we had really no design to stay long at paris, so indeed, excepting the city itself, there was not much to be seen there. cardinal richelieu, who was not only a supreme minister in the church, but prime minister in the state, was now made also general of the king's forces, with a title never known in france before nor since, viz., lieutenant-general "au place du roi," in the king's stead, or, as some have since translated it, representing the person of the king. under this character he pretended to execute all the royal powers in the army without appeal to the king, or without waiting for orders; and having parted from paris the winter before had now actually begun the war against the duke of savoy, in the process of which he restored the duke of mantua, and having taken pignerol from the duke, put it into such a state of defence as the duke could never force it out of his hands, and reduced the duke, rather by manage and conduct than by force, to make peace without it; so as annexing it to the crown of france it has ever since been a thorn in his foot that has always made the peace of savoy lame and precarious, and france has since made pignerol one of the strongest fortresses in the world. as the cardinal, with all the military part of the court, was in the field, so the king, to be near him, was gone with the queen and all the court, just before i reached paris, to reside at lyons. all these considered, there was nothing to do at paris; the court looked like a citizen's house when the family was all gone into the country, and i thought the whole city looked very melancholy, compared to all the fine things i had heard of it. the queen-mother and her party were chagrined at the cardinal, who, though he owed his grandeur to her immediate favour, was now grown too great any longer to be at the command of her majesty, or indeed in her interest; and therefore the queen was under dissatisfaction and her party looked very much down. the protestants were everywhere disconsolate, for the losses they had received at rochelle, nimes, and montpelier had reduced them to an absolute dependence on the king's will, without all possible hopes of ever recovering themselves, or being so much as in a condition to take arms for their religion, and therefore the wisest of them plainly foresaw their own entire reduction, as it since came to pass. and i remember very well that a protestant gentleman told me once, as we were passing from orleans to lyons, that the english had ruined them; and therefore, says he, "i think the next occasion the king takes to use us ill, as i know 'twill not be long before he does, we must all fly over to england, where you are bound to maintain us for having helped to turn us out of our own country." i asked him what he meant by saying the english had done it? he returned short upon me: "i do not mean," says he, "by not relieving rochelle, but by helping to ruin rochelle, when you and the dutch lent ships to beat our fleet, which all the ships in france could not have done without you." i was too young in the world to be very sensible of this before, and therefore was something startled at the charge; but when i came to discourse with this gentleman, i soon saw the truth of what he said was undeniable, and have since reflected on it with regret, that the naval power of the protestants, which was then superior to the royal, would certainly have been the recovery of all their fortunes, had it not been unhappily broke by their brethren of england and holland, the former lending seven men-of-war, and the latter twenty, for the destruction of the rochellers' fleet; and by these very ships the rochellers' fleet were actually beaten and destroyed, and they never afterwards recovered their force at sea, and by consequence sunk under the siege, which the english afterwards in vain attempted to prevent. these things made the protestants look very dull, and expected the ruin of all their party, which had certainly happened had the cardinal lived a few years longer. we stayed in paris, about three weeks, as well to see the court and what rarities the place afforded, as by an occasion which had like to have put a short period to our ramble. walking one morning before the gate of the louvre, with a design to see the swiss drawn up, which they always did, and exercised just before they relieved the guards, a page came up to me, and speaking english to me, "sir," says he, "the captain must needs have your immediate assistance." i, that had not the knowledge of any person in paris but my own companion, whom i called captain, had no room to question, but it was he that sent for me; and crying out hastily to him, "where?" followed the fellow as fast as 'twas possible. he led me through several passages which i knew not, and at last through a tennis-court and into a large room, where three men, like gentlemen, were engaged very briskly two against one. the room was very dark, so that i could not easily know them asunder, but being fully possessed with an opinion before of my captain's danger, i ran into the room with my sword in my hand. i had not particularly engaged any of them, nor so much as made a pass at any, when i received a very dangerous thrust in my thigh, rather occasioned by my too hasty running in, than a real design of the person; but enraged at the hurt, without examining who it was hurt me, i threw myself upon him, and run my sword quite through his body. the novelty of the adventure, and the unexpected fall of the man by a stranger come in nobody knew how, had becalmed the other two, that they really stood gazing at me. by this time i had discovered that my captain was not there, and that 'twas some strange accident brought me thither. i could speak but little french, and supposed they could speak no english, so i stepped to the door to see for the page that brought me thither, but seeing nobody there and the passage clear, i made off as fast as i could, without speaking a word; nor did the other two gentlemen offer to stop me. but i was in a strange confusion when, coming into those entries and passages which the page led me through, i could by no means find my way out. at last seeing a door open that looked through a house into the street, i went in, and out at the other door; but then i was at as great a loss to know where i was, and which was the way to my lodgings. the wound in my thigh bled apace, and i could feel the blood in my breeches. in this interval came by a chair; i called, and went into it, and bid them, as well as i could, go to the louvre; for though i knew not the name of the street where i lodged, i knew i could find the way to it when i was at the bastille. the chairmen went on their own way, and being stopped by a company of the guards as they went, set me down till the soldiers were marched by; when looking out i found i was just at my own lodging, and the captain was standing at the door looking for me. i beckoned him to me, and, whispering, told him i was very much hurt, but bid him pay the chairmen, and ask no questions but come to me. i made the best of my way upstairs, but had lost so much blood, that i had hardly spirits enough to keep me from swooning till he came in. he was equally concerned with me to see me in such a bloody condition, and presently called up our landlord, and he as quickly called in his neighbours, that i had a room full of people about me in a quarter of an hour. but this had like to have been of worse consequence to me than the other, for by this time there was great inquiring after the person who killed a man at the tennis-court. my landlord was then sensible of his mistake, and came to me and told me the danger i was in, and very honestly offered to convey me to a friend's of his, where i should be very secure; i thanked him, and suffered myself to be carried at midnight whither he pleased. he visited me very often, till i was well enough to walk about, which was not in less than ten days, and then we thought fit to be gone, so we took post for orleans. but when i came upon the road i found myself in a new error, for my wound opened again with riding, and i was in a worse condition than before, being forced to take up at a little village on the road, called ----, about ---- miles from orleans, where there was no surgeon to be had, but a sorry country barber, who nevertheless dressed me as well as he could, and in about a week more i was able to walk to orleans at three times. here i stayed till i was quite well, and took coach for lyons and so through savoy into italy. i spent nearly two years' time after this bad beginning in travelling through italy, and to the several courts of rome, naples, venice, and vienna. when i came to lyons the king was gone from thence to grenoble to meet the cardinal, but the queens were both at lyons. the french affairs seemed at this time to have but an indifferent aspect. there was no life in anything but where the cardinal was: he pushed on everything with extraordinary conduct, and generally with success; he had taken susa and pignerol from the duke of savoy, and was preparing to push the duke even out of all his dominions. but in the meantime everywhere else things looked ill; the troops were ill-paid, the magazines empty, the people mutinous, and a general disorder seized the minds of the court; and the cardinal, who was the soul of everything, desired this interview at grenoble, in order to put things into some better method. this politic minister always ordered matters so, that if there was success in anything the glory was his, but if things miscarried it was all laid upon the king. this conduct was so much the more nice, as it is the direct contrary to the custom in like cases, where kings assume the glory of all the success in an action, and when a thing miscarries make themselves easy by sacrificing their ministers and favourites to the complaints and resentments of the people; but this accurate refined statesman got over this point. while we were at lyons, and as i remember, the third day after our coming thither, we had like to have been involved in a state broil, without knowing where we were. it was of a sunday in the evening, the people of lyons, who had been sorely oppressed in taxes, and the war in italy pinching their trade, began to be very tumultuous. we found the day before the mob got together in great crowds, and talked oddly; the king was everywhere reviled, and spoken disrespectfully of, and the magistrates of the city either winked at, or durst not attempt to meddle, lest they should provoke the people. but on sunday night, about midnight, we were waked by a prodigious noise in the street. i jumped out of bed, and running to the window, i saw the street as full of mob as it could hold, some armed with muskets and halberds, marched in very good order; others in disorderly crowds, all shouting and crying out, "du paix le roi," and the like. one that led a great party of this rabble carried a loaf of bread upon the top of a pike, and other lesser loaves, signifying the smallness of their bread, occasioned by dearness. by morning this crowd was gathered to a great height; they ran roving over the whole city, shut up all the shops, and forced all the people to join with them from thence. they went up to the castle, and renewing the clamour, a strange consternation seized all the princes. they broke open the doors of the officers, collectors of the new taxes, and plundered their houses, and had not the persons themselves fled in time they had been very ill-treated. the queen-mother, as she was very much displeased to see such consequences of the government, in whose management she had no share, so i suppose she had the less concern upon her. however, she came into the court of the castle and showed herself to the people, gave money amongst them, and spoke gently to them; and by a way peculiar to herself, and which obliged all she talked with, she pacified the mob gradually, sent them home with promises of redress and the like; and so appeased this tumult in two days by her prudence, which the guards in the castle had small mind to meddle with, and if they had, would in all probability have made the better side the worse. there had been several seditions of the like nature in sundry other parts of france, and the very army began to murmur, though not to mutiny, for want of provisions. this sedition at lyons was not quite over when we left the place, for, finding the city all in a broil, we considered we had no business there, and what the consequence of a popular tumult might be we did not see, so we prepared to be gone. we had not rid above three miles out of the city but we were brought as prisoners of war, by a party of mutineers, who had been abroad upon the scout, and were charged with being messengers sent to the cardinal for forces to reduce the citizens. with these pretences they brought us back in triumph, and the queen-mother, being by this time grown something familiar to them, they carried us before her. when they inquired of us who we were, we called ourselves scots; for as the english were very much out of favour in france at this time, the peace having been made not many months, and not supposed to be very durable, because particularly displeasing to the people of england, so the scots were on the other extreme with the french. nothing was so much caressed as the scots, and a man had no more to do in france, if he would be well received there, than to say he was a scotchman. when we came before the queen-mother she seemed to receive us with some stiffness at first, and caused her guards to take us into custody; but as she was a lady of most exquisite politics, she did this to amuse the mob, and we were immediately after dismissed; and the queen herself made a handsome excuse to us for the rudeness we had suffered, alleging the troubles of the times; and the next morning we had three dragoons of the guards to convoy us out of the jurisdiction of lyons. i confess this little adventure gave me an aversion to popular tumults all my life after, and if nothing else had been in the cause, would have biassed me to espouse the king's party in england when our popular heats carried all before it at home. but i must say, that when i called to mind since, the address, the management, the compliance in show, and in general the whole conduct of the queen-mother with the mutinous people of lyons, and compared it with the conduct of my unhappy master the king of england, i could not but see that the queen understood much better than king charles the management of politics and the clamours of the people. had this princess been at the helm in england, she would have prevented all the calamities of the civil war here, and yet not have parted with what that good prince yielded in order to peace neither. she would have yielded gradually, and then gained upon them gradually; she would have managed them to the point she had designed them, as she did all parties in france; and none could effectually subject her but the very man she had raised to be her principal support--i mean the cardinal. we went from hence to grenoble, and arrived there the same day that the king and the cardinal with the whole court went out to view a body of swiss foot, which the cardinal had wheedled the cantons to grant to the king to help to ruin their neighbour the duke of savoy. the troops were exceeding fine, well-accoutred, brave, clean-limbed, stout fellows indeed. here i saw the cardinal; there was an air of church gravity in his habit, but all the vigour of a general, and the sprightliness of a vast genius in his face. he affected a little stiffness in his behaviour, but managed all his affairs with such clearness, such steadiness, and such application, that it was no wonder he had such success in every undertaking. here i saw the king, whose figure was mean, his countenance hollow, and always seemed dejected, and every way discovering that weakness in his countenance that appeared in his actions. if he was ever sprightly and vigorous it was when the cardinal was with him, for he depended so much on everything he did, he that was at the utmost dilemma when he was absent, always timorous, jealous, and irresolute. after the review the cardinal was absent some days, having been to wait on the queen-mother at lyons, where, as it was discoursed, they were at least seemingly reconciled. i observed while the cardinal was gone there was no court, the king was seldom to be seen, very small attendance given, and no bustle at the castle; but as soon as the cardinal returned, the great councils were assembled, the coaches of the ambassadors went every day to the castle, and a face of business appeared upon the whole court. here the measures of the duke of savoy's ruin were concerted, and in order to it the king and the cardinal put themselves at the head of the army, with which they immediately reduced all savoy, took chamberri and the whole duchy except montmelian. the army that did this was not above , men, including the swiss, and but indifferent troops neither, especially the french foot, who, compared to the infantry i have since seen in the german and swedish armies, were not fit to be called soldiers. on the other hand, considering the savoyards and italian troops, they were good troops; but the cardinal's conduct made amends for all these deficiencies. from hence i went to pignerol, which was then little more than a single fortification on the hill near the town called st bride's, but the situation of that was very strong. i mention this because of the prodigious works since added to it, by which it has since obtained the name of "the right hand of france." they had begun a new line below the hill, and some works were marked out on the side of the town next the fort; but the cardinal afterwards drew the plan of the works with his own hand, by which it was made one of the strongest fortresses in europe. while i was at pignerol, the governor of milan, for the spaniards, came with an army and sat down before casale. the grand quarrel, and for which the war in this part of italy was begun, was this: the spaniards and germans pretended to the duchy of mantua; the duke of nevers, a frenchman, had not only a title to it, but had got possession of it; but being ill-supported by the french, was beaten out by the imperialists, and after a long siege the germans took mantua itself, and drove the poor duke quite out of the country. the taking of mantua elevated the spirits of the duke of savoy, and the germans and spaniards being now at more leisure, with a complete army came to his assistance, and formed the siege of montferrat. for as the spaniards pushed the duke of mantua, so the french by way of diversion lay hard upon the duke of savoy. they had seized montferrat, and held it for the duke of mantua, and had a strong french garrison under thoiras, a brave and experienced commander; and thus affairs stood when we came into the french army. i had no business there as a soldier, but having passed as a scotch gentleman with the mob at lyons, and after with her majesty the queen-mother, when we obtained the guard of her dragoons, we had also her majesty's pass, with which we came and went where we pleased. and the cardinal, who was then not on very good terms with the queen, but willing to keep smooth water there, when two or three times our passes came to be examined, showed a more than ordinary respect to us on that very account, our passes being from the queen. casale being besieged, as i have observed, began to be in danger, for the cardinal, who 'twas thought had formed a design to ruin savoy, was more intent upon that than upon the succour of the duke of mantua; but necessity calling upon him to deliver so great a captain as thoiras, and not to let such a place as casale fall into the hands of the enemy, the king, or cardinal rather, ordered the duke of montmorency, and the maréchal d'effiat, with , foot and horse, to march and join the maréchals de la force and schomberg, who lay already with an army on the frontiers of genoa, but too weak to attempt the raising the siege of casale. as all men thought there would be a battle between the french and the spaniards, i could not prevail with myself to lose the opportunity, and therefore by the help of the passes above mentioned, i came to the french army under the duke of montmorency. we marched through the enemy's country with great boldness and no small hazard, for the duke of savoy appeared frequently with great bodies of horse on the rear of the army, and frequently skirmished with our troops, in one of which i had the folly--i can call it no better, for i had no business there--to go out and see the sport, as the french gentlemen called it. i was but a raw soldier, and did not like the sport at all, for this party was surrounded by the duke of savoy, and almost all killed, for as to quarter they neither asked nor gave. i ran away very fairly, one of the first, and my companion with me, and by the goodness of our horses got out of the fray, and being not much known in the army, we came into the camp an hour or two after, as if we had been only riding abroad for the air. this little rout made the general very cautious, for the savoyards were stronger in horse by three or four thousand, and the army always marched in a body, and kept their parties in or very near hand. i escaped another rub in this french army about five days after, which had like to have made me pay dear for my curiosity. the duke de montmorency and the maréchal schomberg joined their army about four or five days after, and immediately, according to the cardinal's instructions, put themselves on the march for the relief of casale. the army had marched over a great plain, with some marshy grounds on the right and the po on the left, and as the country was so well discovered that 'twas thought impossible any mischief should happen, the generals observed the less caution. at the end of this plain was a long wood and a lane or narrow defile through the middle of it. through this pass the army was to march, and the van began to file through it about four o'clock. by three hours' time all the army was got through, or into the pass, and the artillery was just entered when the duke of savoy with horse and dragoons with every horseman a footman behind him, whether he had swam the po or passed it above at a bridge, and made a long march after, was not examined, but he came boldly up the plain and charged our rear with a great deal of fury. our artillery was in the lane, and as it was impossible to turn them about and make way for the army, so the rear was obliged to support themselves and maintain the fight for above an hour and a half. in this time we lost abundance of men, and if it had not been for two accidents all that line had been cut off. one was, that the wood was so near that those regiments which were disordered presently sheltered themselves in the wood; the other was, that by this time the maréchal schomberg, with the horse of the van, began to get back through the lane, and to make good the ground from whence the other had been beaten, till at last by this means it came to almost a pitched battle. there were two regiments of french dragoons who did excellent service in this action, and maintained their ground till they were almost all killed. had the duke of savoy contented himself with the defeat of five regiments on the right, which he quite broke and drove into the wood, and with the slaughter and havoc which he had made among the rest, he had come off with honour, and might have called it a victory; but endeavouring to break the whole party and carry off some cannon, the obstinate resistance of these few dragoons lost him his advantages, and held him in play till so many fresh troops got through the pass again as made us too strong for him, and had not night parted them he had been entirely defeated. at last, finding our troops increase and spread themselves on his flank, he retired and gave over. we had no great stomach to pursue him neither, though some horse were ordered to follow a little way. the duke lost about a thousand men, and we almost twice as many, and but for those dragoons had lost the whole rear-guard and half our cannon. i was in a very sorry case in this action too. i was with the rear in the regiment of horse of perigoort, with a captain of which regiment i had contracted some acquaintance. i would have rid off at first, as the captain desired me, but there was no doing it, for the cannon was in the lane, and the horse and dragoons of the van eagerly pressing back through the lane must have run me down or carried me with them. as for the wood, it was a good shelter to save one's life, but was so thick there was no passing it on horseback. our regiment was one of the first that was broke, and being all in confusion, with the duke of savoy's men at our heels, away we ran into the wood. never was there so much disorder among a parcel of runaways as when we came to this wood; it was so exceeding bushy and thick at the bottom there was no entering it, and a volley of small shot from a regiment of savoy's dragoons poured in upon us at our breaking into the wood made terrible work among our horses. for my part i was got into the wood, but was forced to quit my horse, and by that means, with a great deal of difficulty, got a little farther in, where there was a little open place, and being quite spent with labouring among the bushes i sat down resolving to take my fate there, let it be what it would, for i was not able to go any farther. i had twenty or thirty more in the same condition come to me in less than half-an-hour, and here we waited very securely the success of the battle, which was as before. it was no small relief to those with me to hear the savoyards were beaten, for otherwise they had all been lost; as for me, i confess, i was glad as it was because of the danger, but otherwise i cared not much which had the better, for i designed no service among them. one kindness it did me, that i began to consider what i had to do here, and as i could give but a very slender account of myself for what it was i run all these risks, so i resolved they should fight it among themselves, for i would come among them no more. the captain with whom, as i noted above, i had contracted some acquaintance in this regiment, was killed in this action, and the french had really a great blow here, though they took care to conceal it all they could; and i cannot, without smiling, read some of the histories and memoirs of this action, which they are not ashamed to call a victory. we marched on to saluzzo, and the next day the duke of savoy presented himself in battalia on the other side of a small river, giving us a fair challenge to pass and engage him. we always said in our camp that the orders were to fight the duke of savoy wherever we met him; but though he braved us in our view we did not care to engage him, but we brought saluzzo to surrender upon articles, which the duke could not relieve without attacking our camp, which he did not care to do. the next morning we had news of the surrender of mantua to the imperial army. we heard of it first from the duke of savoy's cannon, which he fired by way of rejoicing, and which seemed to make him amends for the loss of saluzzo. as this was a mortification to the french, so it quite damped the success of the campaign, for the duke de montmorency imagining that the imperial general would send immediate assistance to the marquis spinola, who besieged casale, they called frequent councils of war what course to take, and at last resolved to halt in piedmont. a few days after their resolutions were changed again by the news of the death of the duke of savoy, charles emanuel, who died, as some say, agitated with the extremes of joy and grief. this put our generals upon considering again whether they should march to the relief of casale, but the chimera of the germans put them by, and so they took up quarters in piedmont. they took several small places from the duke of savoy, making advantage of the consternation the duke's subjects were in on the death of their prince, and spread themselves from the seaside to the banks of the po. but here an enemy did that for them which the savoyards could not, for the plague got into their quarters and destroyed abundance of people, both of the army and of the country. i thought then it was time for me to be gone, for i had no manner of courage for that risk; and i think verily i was more afraid of being taken sick in a strange country than ever i was of being killed in battle. upon this resolution i procured a pass to go for genoa, and accordingly began my journey, but was arrested at villa franca by a slow lingering fever, which held me about five days, and then turned to a burning malignancy, and at last to the plague. my friend, the captain, never left me night nor day; and though for four days more i knew nobody, nor was capable of so much as thinking of myself, yet it pleased god that the distemper gathered in my neck, swelled and broke. during the swelling i was raging mad with the violence of pain, which being so near my head swelled that also in proportion, that my eyes were swelled up, and for the twenty-four hours my tongue and mouth; then, as my servant told me, all the physicians gave me over, as past all remedy, but by the good providence of god the swelling broke. the prodigious collection of matter which this swelling discharged gave me immediate relief, and i became sensible in less than an hour's time; and in two hours or thereabouts fell into a little slumber which recovered my spirits and sensibly revived me. here i lay by it till the middle of september. my captain fell sick after me, but recovered quickly. his man had the plague, and died in two days; my man held it out well. about the middle of september we heard of a truce concluded between all parties, and being unwilling to winter at villa franca, i got passes, and though we were both but weak, we began to travel in litters for milan. and here i experienced the truth of an old english proverb, that standers-by see more than the gamesters. the french, savoyards, and spaniards made this peace or truce all for separate and several grounds, and every one were mistaken. the french yielded to it because they had given over the relief of casale, and were very much afraid it would fall into the hands of the marquis spinola. the savoyards yielded to it because they were afraid the french would winter in piedmont; the spaniards yielded to it because the duke of savoy being dead, and the count de colalto, the imperial general, giving no assistance, and his army weakened by sickness and the fatigues of the siege, he foresaw he should never take the town, and wanted but to come off with honour. the french were mistaken, because really spinola was so weak that had they marched on into montferrat the spaniards must have raised the siege; the duke of savoy was mistaken, because the plague had so weakened the french that they durst not have stayed to winter in piedmont; and spinola was mistaken, for though he was very slow, if he had stayed before the town one fortnight longer, thoiras the governor must have surrendered, being brought to the last extremity. of all these mistakes the french had the advantage, for casale, was relieved, the army had time to be recruited, and the french had the best of it by an early campaign. i passed through montferrat in my way to milan just as the truce was declared, and saw the miserable remains of the spanish army, who by sickness, fatigue, hard duty, the sallies of the garrison and such like consequences, were reduced to less than men, and of them above lay wounded and sick in the camp. here were several regiments which i saw drawn out to their arms that could not make up above seventy or eighty men, officers and all, and those half starved with hunger, almost naked, and in a lamentable condition. from thence i went into the town, and there things were still in a worse condition, the houses beaten down, the walls and works ruined, the garrison, by continual duty, reduced from men to less than , without clothes, money, or provisions, the brave governor weak with continual fatigue, and the whole face of things in a miserable case. the french generals had just sent them , crowns for present supply, which heartened them a little, but had not the truce been made as it was, they must have surrendered upon what terms the spaniards had pleased to make them. never were two armies in such fear of one another with so little cause; the spaniards afraid of the french whom the plague had devoured, and the french afraid of the spaniards whom the siege had almost ruined. the grief of this mistake, together with the sense of his master, the spaniards, leaving him without supplies to complete the siege of casale, so affected the marquis spinola, that he died for grief, and in him fell the last of that rare breed of low country soldiers, who gave the world so great and just a character of the spanish infantry, as the best soldiers of the world; a character which we see them so very much degenerated from since, that they hardly deserve the name of soldiers. i tarried at milan the rest of the winter, both for the recovery of my health, and also for supplies from england. here it was i first heard the name of gustavus adolphus, the king of sweden, who now began his war with the emperor; and while the king of france was at lyons, the league with sweden was made, in which the french contributed , , crowns in money, and , per annum to the attempt of gustavus adolphus. about this time he landed in pomerania, took the towns of stettin and stralsund, and from thence proceeded in that prodigious manner of which i shall have occasion to be very particular in the prosecution of these memoirs. i had indeed no thoughts of seeing that king or his armies. i had been so roughly handled already, that i had given over the thoughts of appearing among the fighting people, and resolved in the spring to pursue my journey to venice, and so for the rest of italy. yet i cannot deny that as every gazette gave us some accounts of the conquests and victories of this glorious prince, it prepossessed my thoughts with secret wishes of seeing him, but these were so young and unsettled, that i drew no resolutions from them for a long while after. about the middle of january i left milan and came to genoa, from thence by sea to leghorn, then to naples, rome, and venice, but saw nothing in italy that gave me any diversion. as for what is modern, i saw nothing but lewdness, private murders, stabbing men at the corner of a street, or in the dark, hiring of bravos, and the like. these were to me the modern excellencies of italy; and i had no gust to antiquities. 'twas pleasant indeed when i was at rome to say here stood the capitol, there the colossus of nero, here was the amphitheatre of titus, there the aqueduct of----, here the forum, there the catacombs, here the temple of venus, there of jupiter, here the pantheon, and the like; but i never designed to write a book. as much as was useful i kept in my head, and for the rest, i left it to others. i observed the people degenerated from the ancient glorious inhabitants, who were generous, brave, and the most valiant of all nations, to a vicious baseness of soul, barbarous, treacherous, jealous and revengeful, lewd and cowardly, intolerably proud and haughty, bigoted to blind, incoherent devotion, and the grossest of idolatry. indeed, i think the unsuitableness of the people made the place unpleasant to me, for there is so little in a country to recommend it when the people disgrace it, that no beauties of the creation can make up for the want of those excellencies which suitable society procure the defect of. this made italy a very unpleasant country to me; the people were the foil to the place, all manner of hateful vices reigning in their general way of living. i confess i was not very religious myself, and being come abroad into the world young enough, might easily have been drawn into evils that had recommended themselves with any tolerable agreeableness to nature and common manners; but when wickedness presented itself full-grown in its grossest freedoms and liberties, it quite took away all the gust to vice that the devil had furnished me with. the prodigious stupid bigotry of the people also was irksome to me; i thought there was something in it very sordid. the entire empire the priests have over both the souls and bodies of the people, gave me a specimen of that meanness of spirit, which is nowhere else to be seen but in italy, especially in the city of rome. at venice i perceived it quite different, the civil authority having a visible superiority over the ecclesiastic, and the church being more subject there to the state than in any other part of italy. for these reasons i took no pleasure in filling my memoirs of italy with remarks of places or things. all the antiquities and valuable remains of the roman nation are done better than i can pretend to by such people who made it more their business; as for me, i went to see, and not to write, and as little thought then of these memoirs as i ill furnished myself to write them. i left italy in april, and taking the tour of bavaria, though very much out of the way, i passed through munich, passau, lintz, and at last to vienna. i came to vienna the th of april , intending to have gone from thence down the danube into hungary, and by means of a pass, which i had obtained from the english ambassador at constantinople, i designed to have seen all the great towns on the danube, which were then in the hands of the turks, and which i had read much of in the history of the war between the turks and the germans; but i was diverted from my design by the following occasion. there had been a long bloody war in the empire of germany for twelve years, between the emperor, the duke of bavaria, the king of spain, and the popish princes and electors on the one side, and the protestant princes on the other; and both sides having been exhausted by the war, and even the catholics themselves beginning to dislike the growing power of the house of austria, 'twas thought all parties were willing to make peace. nay, things were brought to that pass that some of the popish princes and electors began to talk of making alliances with the king of sweden. here it is necessary to observe, that the two dukes of mecklenburg having been dispossessed of most of their dominions by the tyranny of the emperor ferdinand, and being in danger of losing the rest, earnestly solicited the king of sweden to come to their assistance; and that prince, as he was related to the house of mecklenburg, and especially as he was willing to lay hold of any opportunity to break with the emperor, against whom he had laid up an implacable prejudice, was very ready and forward to come to their assistance. the reasons of his quarrel with the emperor were grounded upon the imperialists concerning themselves in the war of poland, where the emperor had sent foot and horse to join the polish army against the king, and had thereby given some check to his arms in that war. in pursuance, therefore, of his resolution to quarrel with the emperor, but more particularly at the instances of the princes above-named, his swedish majesty had landed the year before at stralsund with about , men, and having joined with some forces which he had left in polish prussia, all which did not make , men, he began a war with the emperor, the greatest in event, filled with the most famous battles, sieges, and extraordinary actions, including its wonderful success and happy conclusion, of any war ever maintained in the world. the king of sweden had already taken stettin, stralsund, rostock, wismar, and all the strong places on the baltic, and began to spread himself in germany. he had made a league with the french, as i observed in my story of saxony; he had now made a treaty with the duke of brandenburg, and, in short, began to be terrible to the empire. in this conjuncture the emperor called the general diet of the empire to be held at ratisbon, where, as was pretended, all sides were to treat of peace and to join forces to beat the swedes out of the empire. here the emperor, by a most exquisite management, brought the affairs of the diet to a conclusion, exceedingly to his own advantage, and to the farther oppression of the protestants; and, in particular, in that the war against the king of sweden was to be carried on in such manner as that the whole burden and charge would lie on the protestants themselves, and they be made the instruments to oppose their best friends. other matters also ended equally to their disadvantage, as the methods resolved on to recover the church lands, and to prevent the education of the protestant clergy; and what remained was referred to another general diet to be held at frankfort-au-main in august . i won't pretend to say the other protestant princes of germany had never made any overtures to the king of sweden to come to their assistance, but 'tis plain they had entered into no league with him; that appears from the difficulties which retarded the fixing of the treaties afterward, both with the dukes of brandenburg and saxony, which unhappily occasioned the ruin of magdeburg. but 'tis plain the swede was resolved on a war with the emperor. his swedish majesty might, and indeed could not but foresee that if he once showed himself with a sufficient force on the frontiers of the empire, all the protestant princes would be obliged by their interest or by his arms to fall in with him, and this the consequence made appear to be a just conclusion, for the electors of brandenburg and saxony were both forced to join with him. first, they were willing to join with him--at least they could not find in their hearts to join with the emperor, of whose power they had such just apprehensions. they wished the swedes success, and would have been very glad to have had the work done at another man's charge, but, like true germans, they were more willing to be saved than to save themselves, and therefore hung back and stood upon terms. secondly, they were at last forced to it. the first was forced to join by the king of sweden himself, who being come so far was not to be dallied with, and had not the duke of brandenburg complied as he did, he had been ruined by the swede. the saxon was driven into the arms of the swede by force, for count tilly, ravaging his country, made him comply with any terms to be saved from destruction. thus matters stood at the end of the diet at ratisbon. the king of sweden began to see himself leagued against at the diet both by protestant and papist; and, as i have often heard his majesty say since, he had resolved to try to force them off from the emperor, and to treat them as enemies equally with the rest if they did not. but the protestants convinced him soon after, that though they were tricked into the outward appearance of a league against him at ratisbon, they had no such intentions; and by their ambassadors to him let him know that they only wanted his powerful assistance to defend their councils, when they would soon convince him that they had a due sense of the emperor's designs, and would do their utmost for their liberty. and these i take to be the first invitations the king of sweden had to undertake the protestant cause as such, and which entitled him to say he fought for the liberty and religion of the german nation. i have had some particular opportunities to hear these things form the mouths of some of the very princes themselves, and therefore am the forwarder to relate them; and i place them here because, previous to the part i acted on this bloody scene, 'tis necessary to let the reader into some part of that story, and to show him in what manner and on what occasions this terrible war began. the protestants, alarmed at the usage they had met with at the former diet, had secretly proposed among themselves to form a general union or confederacy, for preventing that ruin which they saw, unless some speedy remedies were applied, would be inevitable. the elector of saxony, the head of the protestants, a vigorous and politic prince, was the first that moved it; and the landgrave of hesse, a zealous and gallant prince, being consulted with, it rested a great while between those two, no method being found practicable to bring it to pass, the emperor being so powerful in all parts, that they foresaw the petty princes would not dare to negotiate an affair of such a nature, being surrounded with the imperial forces, who by their two generals, wallenstein and tilly, kept them in continual subjection and terror. this dilemma had like to have stifled the thoughts of the union as a thing impracticable, when one seigensius, a lutheran minister, a person of great abilities, and one whom the elector of saxony made great use of in matters of policy as well as religion, contrived for them this excellent expedient. i had the honour to be acquainted with this gentleman while i was at leipsic. it pleased him exceedingly to have been the contriver of so fine a structure as the conclusions of leipsic, and he was glad to be entertained on that subject. i had the relation from his own mouth, when, but very modestly, he told me he thought 'twas an inspiration darted on a sudden into his thoughts, when the duke of saxony calling him into his closet one morning, with a face full of concern, shaking his head, and looking very earnestly, "what will become of us, doctor?" said the duke; "we shall all be undone at frankfort-au-main." "why so, please your highness?" says the doctor. "why, they will fight with the king of sweden with our armies and our money," says the duke, "and devour our friends and ourselves by the help of our friends and ourselves." "but what is become of the confederacy, then," said the doctor, "which your highness had so happily framed in your thoughts, and which the landgrave of hesse was so pleased with?" "become of it?" says the duke, "'tis a good thought enough, but 'tis impossible to bring it to pass among so many members of the protestant princes as are to be consulted with, for we neither have time to treat, nor will half of them dare to negotiate the matter, the imperialists being quartered in their very bowels." "but may not some expedient be found out," says the doctor, "to bring them all together to treat of it in a general meeting?" "'tis well proposed," says the duke, "but in what town or city shall they assemble where the very deputies shall not be besieged by tilly or wallenstein in fourteen days' time, and sacrificed to the cruelty and fury of the emperor ferdinand?" "will your highness be the easier in it," replies the doctor, "if a way may be found out to call such an assembly upon other causes, at which the emperor may have no umbrage, and perhaps give his assent? you know the diet at frankfort is at hand; 'tis necessary the protestants should have an assembly of their own to prepare matters for the general diet, and it may be no difficult matter to obtain it." the duke, surprised with joy at the motion, embraced the doctor with an extraordinary transport. "thou hast done it, doctor," said he, and immediately caused him to draw a form of a letter to the emperor, which he did with the utmost dexterity of style, in which he was a great master, representing to his imperial majesty that, in order to put an end to the troubles of germany, his majesty would be pleased to permit the protestant princes of the empire to hold a diet to themselves, to consider of such matters as they were to treat of at the general diet, in order to conform themselves to the will and pleasure of his imperial majesty, to drive out foreigners, and settle a lasting peace in the empire. he also insinuated something of their resolutions unanimously to give their suffrages in favour of the king of hungary at the election of a king of the romans, a thing which he knew the emperor had in his thought, and would push at with all his might at the diet. this letter was sent, and the bait so neatly concealed, that the electors of bavaria and mentz, the king of hungary, and several of the popish princes, not foreseeing that the ruin of them all lay in the bottom of it, foolishly advised the emperor to consent to it. in consenting to this the emperor signed his own destruction, for here began the conjunction of the german protestants with the swede, which was the fatalest blow to ferdinand, and which he could never recover. accordingly the diet was held at leipsic, february , , where the protestants agreed on several heads for their mutual defence, which were the grounds of the following war. these were the famous conclusions of leipsic, which so alarmed the emperor and the whole empire, that to crush it in the beginning, the emperor commanded count tilly immediately to fall upon the landgrave of hesse and the duke of saxony as the principal heads of the union; but it was too late. the conclusions were digested into ten heads:-- . that since their sins had brought god's judgments upon the whole protestant church, they should command public prayers to be made to almighty god for the diverting the calamities that attended them. . that a treaty of peace might be set on foot, in order to come to a right understanding with the catholic princes. . that a time for such a treaty being obtained, they should appoint an assembly of delegates to meet preparatory to the treaty. . that all their complaints should be humbly represented to his imperial majesty and the catholic electors, in order to a peaceable accommodation. . that they claim the protection of the emperor, according to the laws of the empire, and the present emperor's solemn oath and promise. . that they would appoint deputies who should meet at certain times to consult of their common interest, and who should be always empowered to conclude of what should be thought needful for their safety. . that they will raise a competent force to maintain and defend their liberties, rights, and religion. . that it is agreeable to the constitution of the empire, concluded in the diet at augsburg, to do so. . that the arming for their necessary defence shall by no means hinder their obedience to his imperial majesty, but that they will still continue their loyalty to him. . they agree to proportion their forces, which in all amounted to , men. the emperor, exceedingly startled at the conclusions, issued out a severe proclamation or ban against them, which imported much the same thing as a declaration of war, and commanded tilly to begin, and immediately to fall on the duke of saxony with all the fury imaginable, as i have already observed. here began the flame to break out; for upon the emperor's ban, the protestants send away to the king of sweden for succour. his swedish majesty had already conquered mecklenburg, and part of pomerania, and was advancing with his victorious troops, increased by the addition of some regiments raised in those parts, in order to carry on the war against the emperor, having designed to follow up the oder into silesia, and so to push the war home to the emperor's hereditary countries of austria and bohemia, when the first messengers came to him in this case; but this changed his measures, and brought him to the frontiers of brandenburg resolved to answer the desires of the protestants. but here the duke of brandenburg began to halt, making some difficulties and demanding terms, which drove the king to use some extremities with him, and stopped the swedes for a while, who had otherwise been on the banks of the elbe as soon as tilly, the imperial general, had entered saxony, which if they had done, the miserable destruction of magdeburg had been prevented, as i observed before. the king had been invited into the union, and when he first came back from the banks of the oder he had accepted it, and was preparing to back it with all his power. the duke of saxony had already a good army which he had with infinite diligence recruited, and mustered them under the cannon of leipsic. the king of sweden having, by his ambassador at leipsic, entered into the union of the protestants, was advancing victoriously to their aid, just as count tilly had entered the duke of saxony's dominions. the fame of the swedish conquests, and of the hero who commanded them, shook my resolution of travelling into turkey, being resolved to see the conjunction of the protestant armies, and before the fire was broke out too far to take the advantage of seeing both sides. while i remained at vienna, uncertain which way i should proceed, i remember i observed they talked of the king of sweden as a prince of no consideration, one that they might let go on and tire himself in mecklenburg and thereabout, till they could find leisure to deal with him, and then might be crushed as they pleased; but 'tis never safe to despise an enemy, so this was not an enemy to be despised, as they afterwards found. as to the conclusions of leipsic, indeed, at first they gave the imperial court some uneasiness, but when they found the imperial armies, began to fright the members out of the union, and that the several branches had no considerable forces on foot, it was the general discourse at vienna, that the union at leipsic only gave the emperor an opportunity to crush absolutely the dukes of saxony, brandenburg, and the landgrave of hesse, and they looked upon it as a thing certain. i never saw any real concern in their faces at vienna till news came to court that the king of sweden had entered into the union; but as this made them very uneasy, they began to move the powerfulest methods possible to divert this storm; and upon this news tilly was hastened to fall into saxony before this union could proceed to a conjunction of forces. this was certainly a very good resolution, and no measure could have been more exactly concerted, had not the diligence of the saxons prevented it. the gathering of this storm, which from a cloud began to spread over the empire, and from the little duchy of mecklenburg began to threaten all germany, absolutely determined me, as i noted before, as to travelling, and laying aside the thoughts of hungary, i resolved, if possible, to see the king of sweden's army. i parted from vienna the middle of may, and took post for great glogau in silesia, as if i had purposed to pass into poland, but designing indeed to go down the oder to custrim in the marquisate of brandenburg, and so to berlin. but when i came to the frontiers of silesia, though i had passes, i could go no farther, the guards on all the frontiers were so strict, so i was obliged to come back into bohemia, and went to prague. from hence i found i could easily pass through the imperial provinces to the lower saxony, and accordingly took passes for hamburg, designing, however, to use them no farther than i found occasion. by virtue of these passes i got into the imperial army, under count tilly, then at the siege of magdeburg, may the nd. i confess i did not foresee the fate of this city, neither, i believe, did count tilly himself expect to glut his fury with so entire a desolation, much less did the people expect it. i did believe they must capitulate, and i perceived by discourse in the army that tilly would give them but very indifferent conditions; but it fell out otherwise. the treaty of surrender was, as it were, begun, nay, some say concluded, when some of the out-guards of the imperialists finding the citizens had abandoned the guards of the works, and looked to themselves with less diligence than usual, they broke in, carried an half-moon, sword in hand, with little resistance; and though it was a surprise on both sides, the citizens neither fearing, nor the army expecting the occasion, the garrison, with as much resolution as could be expected under such a fright, flew to the walls, twice beat the imperialists off, but fresh men coming up, and the administrator of magdeburg himself being wounded and taken, the enemy broke in, took the city by storm, and entered with such terrible fury, that, without respect to age or condition, they put all the garrison and inhabitants, man, woman, and child, to the sword, plundered the city, and when they had done this set it on fire. this calamity sure was the dreadfulest sight that ever i saw; the rage of the imperial soldiers was most intolerable, and not to be expressed. of , , some said , people, there was not a soul to be seen alive, till the flames drove those that were hid in vaults and secret places to seek death in the streets rather than perish in the fire. of these miserable creatures some were killed too by the furious soldiers, but at last they saved the lives of such as came out of their cellars and holes, and so about two thousand poor desperate creatures were left. the exact number of those that perished in this city could never be known, because those the soldiers had first butchered the flames afterwards devoured. i was on the outer side of the elbe when this dreadful piece of butchery was done. the city of magdeburg had a sconce or fort over against it called the toll-house, which joined to the city by a very fine bridge of boats. this fort was taken by the imperialists a few days before, and having a mind to see it, and the rather because from thence i could have a very good view of the city, i was going over tilley's bridge of boats to view this fort. about ten o'clock in the morning i perceived they were storming by the firing, and immediately all ran to the works; i little thought of the taking the city, but imagined it might be some outwork attacked, for we all expected the city would surrender that day, or next, and they might have capitulated upon very good terms. being upon the works of the fort, on a sudden i heard the dreadfulest cry raised in the city that can be imagined; 'tis not possible to express the manner of it, and i could see the women and children running about the streets in a most lamentable condition. the city wall did not run along the side where the river was with so great a height, but we could plainly see the market-place and the several streets which run down to the river. in about an hour's time after this first cry all was in confusion; there was little shooting, the execution was all cutting of throats and mere house murders. the resolute garrison, with the brave baron falkenberg, fought it out to the last, and were cut in pieces, and by this time the imperial soldiers having broke open the gates and entered on all sides, the slaughter was very dreadful. we could see the poor people in crowds driven down the streets, flying from the fury of the soldiers, who followed butchering them as fast as they could, and refused mercy to anybody, till driving them to the river's edge, the desperate wretches would throw themselves into the river, where thousands of them perished, especially women and children. several men that could swim got over to our side, where the soldiers not heated with fight gave them quarter, and took them up, and i cannot but do this justice to the german officers in the fort: they had five small flat boats, and they gave leave to the soldiers to go off in them, and get what booty they could, but charged them not to kill anybody, but take them all prisoners. nor was their humanity ill rewarded, for the soldiers, wisely avoiding those places where their fellows were employed in butchering the miserable people, rowed to other places, where crowds of people stood crying out for help, and expecting to be every minute either drowned or murdered; of these at sundry times they fetched over near six hundred, but took care to take in none but such as offered them good pay. never was money or jewels of greater service than now, for those that had anything of that sort to offer were soonest helped. there was a burgher of the town who, seeing a boat coming near him, but out of his call, by the help of a speaking trumpet, told the soldiers in it he would give them , dollars to fetch him off. they rowed close to the shore, and got him with his wife and six children into the boat, but such throngs of people got about the boat that had like to have sunk her, so that the soldiers were fain to drive a great many out again by main force, and while they were doing this some of the enemies coming down the street desperately drove them all into the water. the boat, however, brought the burgher and his wife and children safe, and though they had not all that wealth about them, yet in jewels and money he gave them so much as made all the fellows very rich. i cannot pretend to describe the cruelty of this day: the town by five in the afternoon was all in a flame; the wealth consumed was inestimable, and a loss to the very conqueror. i think there was little or nothing left but the great church and about a hundred houses. this was a sad welcome into the army for me, and gave me a horror and aversion to the emperor's people, as well as to his cause. i quitted the camp the third day after this execution, while the fire was hardly out in the city; and from thence getting safe-conduct to pass into the palatinate, i turned out of the road at a small village on the elbe, called emerfield, and by ways and towns i can give but small account of, having a boor for our guide, whom we could hardly understand, i arrived at leipsic on the th of may. we found the elector intense upon the strengthening of his army, but the people in the greatest terror imaginable, every day expecting tilly with the german army, who by his cruelty at magdeburg was become so dreadful to the protestants that they expected no mercy wherever he came. the emperor's power was made so formidable to all the protestants, particularly since the diet at ratisbon left them in a worse case than it found them, that they had not only formed the conclusions of leipsic, which all men looked on as the effect of desperation rather than any probable means of their deliverance, but had privately implored the protection and assistance of foreign powers, and particularly the king of sweden, from whom they had promises of a speedy and powerful assistance. and truly if the swede had not with a very strong hand rescued them, all their conclusions at leipsic had served but to hasten their ruin. i remember very well when i was in the imperial army they discoursed with such contempt of the forces of the protestant, that not only the imperialists but the protestants themselves gave them up as lost. the emperor had not less than , men in several armies on foot, who most of them were on the back of the protestants in every corner. if tilly did but write a threatening letter to any city or prince of the union, they presently submitted, renounced the conclusions of leipsic, and received imperial garrisons, as the cities of ulm and memmingen, the duchy of wirtemberg, and several others, and almost all suaben. only the duke of saxony and the landgrave of hesse upheld the drooping courage of the protestants, and refused all terms of peace, slighted all the threatenings of the imperial generals, and the duke of brandenburg was brought in afterward almost by force. the duke of saxony mustered his forces under the walls of leipsic, and i having returned to leipsic, two days before, saw them pass the review. the duke, gallantly mounted, rode through the ranks, attended by his field-marshal arnheim, and seemed mighty well pleased with them, and indeed the troops made a very fine appearance; but i that had seen tilly's army and his old weather-beaten soldiers, whose discipline and exercises were so exact, and their courage so often tried, could not look on the saxon army without some concern for them when i considered who they had to deal with. tilly's men were rugged surly fellows, their faces had an air of hardy courage, mangled with wounds and scars, their armour showed the bruises of musket bullets, and the rust of the winter storms. i observed of them their clothes were always dirty, but their arms were clean and bright; they were used to camp in the open fields, and sleep in the frosts and rain; their horses were strong and hardy like themselves, and well taught their exercises; the soldiers knew their business so exactly that general orders were enough; every private man was fit to command, and their wheelings, marchings, counter-marchings and exercise were done with such order and readiness, that the distinct words of command were hardly of any use among them; they were flushed with victory, and hardly knew what it was to fly. there had passed some messages between tilly and the duke, and he gave always such ambiguous answers as he thought might serve to gain time; but tilly was not to be put off with words, and drawing his army towards saxony, sends four propositions to him to sign, and demands an immediate reply. the propositions were positive. . to cause his troops to enter into the emperor's service, and to march in person with them against the king of sweden. . to give the imperial army quarters in his country, and supply them with necessary provisions. . to relinquish the union of leipsic, and disown the ten conclusions. . to make restitution of the goods and lands of the church. the duke being pressed by tilly's trumpeter for an immediate answer sat all night, and part of the next day, in council with his privy councillors, debating what reply to give him, which at last was concluded, in short, that he would live and die in defence of the protestant religion, and the conclusions of leipsic, and bade tilly defiance. the die being thus cast, he immediately decamped with his whole army for torgau, fearing that tilly should get there before him, and so prevent his conjunction with the swede. the duke had not yet concluded any positive treaty with the king of swedeland, and the duke of brandenburg having made some difficulty of joining, they both stood on some niceties till they had like to have ruined themselves all at once. brandenburg had given up the town of spandau to the king by a former treaty to secure a retreat for his army, and the king was advanced as far as frankfort-upon-the-oder, when on a sudden some small difficulties arising, brandenburg seems cold in the matter, and with a sort of indifference demands to have his town of spandau restored to him again. gustavus adolphus, who began presently to imagine the duke had made his peace with the emperor, and so would either be his enemy or pretend a neutrality, generously delivered him his town of spandau, but immediately turns about, and with his whole army besieges him in his capital city of berlin. this brought the duke to know his error, and by the interpositions of the ladies, the queen of sweden being the duke's sister, the matter was accommodated, and the duke joined his forces with the king. but the duke of saxony had like to have been undone by this delay, for the imperialists, under count de furstenberg, were entered his country, and had possessed themselves of halle, and tilly was on his march to join him, as he afterwards did, and ravaging the whole country laid siege to leipsic itself. the duke driven to this extremity rather flies to the swede than treats with him, and on the nd of september the duke's army joined with the king of sweden. i had not come to leipsic but to see the duke of saxony's army, and that being marched, as i have said, for torgau, i had no business there, but if i had, the approach of tilly and the imperial army was enough to hasten me away, for i had no occasion to be besieged there; so on the th of august i left the town, as several of the principal inhabitants had done before, and more would have done had not the governor published a proclamation against it, and besides they knew not whither to fly, for all places were alike exposed. the poor people were under dreadful apprehensions of a siege, and of the merciless usage of the imperial soldiers, the example of magdeburg being fresh before them, the duke and his army gone from them, and the town, though well furnished, but indifferently fortified. in this condition i left them, buying up stores of provisions, working hard to scour their moats, set up palisadoes, repair their fortifications, and preparing all things for a siege; and following the saxon army to torgau, i continued in the camp till a few days before they joined the king of sweden. i had much ado to persuade my companion from entering into the service of the duke of saxony, one of whose colonels, with whom we had contracted a particular acquaintance, offering him a commission to be cornet in one of the old regiments of horse; but the difference i had observed between this new army and tilly's old troops had made such an impression on me, that i confess i had yet no manner of inclination for the service, and therefore persuaded him to wait a while till we had seen a little further into affairs, and particularly till we had seen the swedish army which we had heard so much of. the difficulties which the elector-duke of saxony made of joining with the king were made up by a treaty concluded with the king on the nd of september at coswig, a small town on the elbe, whither the king's army was arrived the night before; for general tilly being now entered into the duke's country, had plundered and ruined all the lower part of it, and was now actually besieging the capital city of leipsic. these necessities made almost any conditions easy to him; the greatest difficulty was that the king of sweden demanded the absolute command of the army, which the duke submitted to with less goodwill than he had reason to do, the king's experience and conduct considered. i had not patience to attend the conclusions of their particular treaties, but as soon as ever the passage was clear i quitted the saxon camp and went to see the swedish army. i fell in with the out-guards of the swedes at a little town called beltsig, on the river wersa, just as they were relieving the guards and going to march, and having a pass from the english ambassador was very well received by the officer who changed the guards, and with him i went back into the army. by nine in the morning the army was in full march, the king himself at the head of them on a grey pad, and riding from one brigade to another, ordered the march of every line himself. when i saw the swedish troops, their exact discipline, their order, the modesty and familiarity of their officers, and the regular living of the soldiers, their camp seemed a well-ordered city; the meanest country woman with her market ware was as safe from violence as in the streets of vienna. there were no women in the camp but such as being known to the provosts to be the wives of the soldiers, who were necessary for washing linen, taking care of the soldiers' clothes, and dressing their victuals. the soldiers were well clad, not gay, furnished with excellent arms, and exceedingly careful of them; and though they did not seem so terrible as i thought tilly's men did when i first saw them, yet the figure they made, together with what we had heard of them, made them seem to me invincible: the discipline and order of their marchings, camping, and exercise was excellent and singular, and, which was to be seen in no armies but the king's, his own skill, judgment, and vigilance having added much to the general conduct of armies then in use. as i met the swedes on their march i had no opportunity to acquaint myself with anybody till after the conjunction of the saxon army, and then it being but four days to the great battle of leipsic, our acquaintance was but small, saving what fell out accidentally by conversation. i met with several gentlemen in the king's army who spoke english very well; besides that there were three regiments of scots in the army, the colonels whereof i found were extraordinarily esteemed by the king, as the lord reay, colonel lumsdell, and sir john hepburn. the latter of these, after i had by an accident become acquainted with, i found had been for many years acquainted with my father, and on that account i received a great deal of civility from him, which afterwards grew into a kind of intimate friendship. he was a complete soldier indeed, and for that reason so well beloved by that gallant king, that he hardly knew how to go about any great action without him. it was impossible for me now to restrain my young comrade from entering into the swedish service, and indeed everything was so inviting that i could not blame him. a captain in sir john hepburn's regiment had picked acquaintance with him, and he having as much gallantry in his face as real courage in his heart, the captain had persuaded him to take service, and promised to use his interest to get him a company in the scotch brigade. i had made him promise me not to part from me in my travels without my consent, which was the only obstacle to his desires of entering into the swedish pay; and being one evening in the captain's tent with him and discoursing very freely together, the captain asked him very short but friendly, and looking earnestly at me, "is this the gentleman, mr fielding, that has done so much prejudice to the king of sweden's service?" i was doubly surprised at the expression, and at the colonel, sir john hepburn, coming at that very moment into the tent. the colonel hearing something of the question, but knowing nothing of the reason of it, any more than as i seemed a little to concern myself at it, yet after the ceremony due to his character was over, would needs know what i had done to hinder his majesty's service. "so much truly," says the captain, "that if his majesty knew it he would think himself very little beholden to him." "i am sorry, sir," said i, "that i should offend in anything, who am but a stranger; but if you would please to inform me, i would endeavour to alter anything in my behaviour that is prejudicial to any one, much less to his majesty's service." "i shall take you at your word, sir," says the captain; "the king of sweden, sir, has a particular request to you." "i should be glad to know two things, sir," said i; "first, how that can be possible, since i am not yet known to any man in the army, much less to his majesty? and secondly, what the request can be?" "why, sir, his majesty desires you would not hinder this gentleman from entering into his service, who it seems desires nothing more, if he may have your consent to it." "i have too much honour for his majesty," returned i, "to deny anything which he pleases to command me; but methinks 'tis some hardship you should make that the king's order, which 'tis very probable he knows nothing of." sir john hepburn took the case up something gravely, and drinking a glass of leipsic beer to the captain, said, "come, captain, don't press these gentlemen; the king desires no man's service but what is purely volunteer." so we entered into other discourse, and the colonel perceiving by my talk that i had seen tilly's army, was mighty curious in his questions, and seeming very well satisfied with the account i gave him. the next day the army having passed the elbe at wittenberg, and joined the saxon army near torgau, his majesty caused both armies to draw up in battalia, giving every brigade the same post in the lines as he purposed to fight in. i must do the memory of that glorious general this honour, that i never saw an army drawn up with so much variety, order, and exact regularity since, though i have seen many armies drawn up by some of the greatest captains of the age. the order by which his men were directed to flank and relieve one another, the methods of receiving one body of men if disordered into another, and rallying one squadron without disordering another was so admirable; the horse everywhere flanked lined and defended by the foot, and the foot by the horse, and both by the cannon, was such that if those orders were but as punctually obeyed, 'twere impossible to put an army so modelled into any confusion. the view being over, and the troops returned to their camps, the captain with whom we drank the day before meeting me told me i must come and sup with him in his tent, where he would ask my pardon for the affront he gave me before. i told him he needed not put himself to the trouble, i was not affronted at all; that i would do myself the honour to wait on him, provided he would give me his word not to speak any more of it as an affront. we had not been a quarter of an hour in his tent but sir john hepburn came in again, and addressing to me, told me he was glad to find me there; that he came to the captain's tent to inquire how to send to me; and that i must do him the honour to go with him to wait on the king, who had a mind to hear the account i could give him of the imperial army from my own mouth. i must confess i was at some loss in my mind how to make my address to his majesty, but i had heard so much of the conversable temper of the king, and his particular sweetness of humour with the meanest soldier, that i made no more difficulty, but having paid my respects to colonel hepburn, thanked him for the honour he had done me, and offered to rise and wait upon him. "nay," says the colonel, "we will eat first, for i find gourdon," which was the captain's name, "has got something for supper, and the king's order is at seven o'clock." so we went to supper, and sir john, becoming very friendly, must know my name; which, when i had told him, and of what place and family, he rose from his seat, and embracing me, told me he knew my father very well, and had been intimately acquainted with him, and told me several passages wherein my father had particularly obliged him. after this we went to supper, and the king's health being drank round, the colonel moved the sooner because he had a mind to talk with me. when we were going to the king he inquired of me where i had been, and what occasion brought me to the army. i told him the short history of my travels, and that i came hither from vienna on purpose to see the king of sweden and his army. he asked me if there was any service he could do me, by which he meant, whether i desired an employment. i pretended not to take him so, but told him the protection his acquaintance would afford me was more than i could have asked, since i might thereby have opportunity to satisfy my curiosity, which was the chief end of my coming abroad. he perceiving by this that i had no mind to be a soldier, told me very kindly i should command him in anything; that his tent and equipage, horses and servants should always have orders to be at my service; but that as a piece of friendship, he would advise me to retire to some place distant from the army, for that the army would march to-morrow, and the king was resolved to fight general tilly, and he would not have me hazard myself; that if i thought fit to take his advice, he would have me take that interval to see the court at berlin, whither he would send one of his servants to wait on me. his discourse was too kind not to extort the tenderest acknowledgment from me that i was capable of. i told him his care of me was so obliging, that i knew not what return to make him, but if he pleased to leave me to my choice i desired no greater favour than to trail a pike under his command in the ensuing battle. "i can never answer it to your father," says he, "to suffer you to expose yourself so far." i told him my father would certainly acknowledge his friendship in the proposal made me; but i believed he knew him better than to think he would be well pleased with me if i should accept of it; that i was sure my father would have rode post five hundred miles to have been at such a battle under such a general, and it should never be told him that his son had rode fifty miles to be out of it. he seemed to be something concerned at the resolution i had taken, and replied very quickly upon me, that he approved very well of my courage; "but," says he, "no man gets any credit by running upon needless adventures, nor loses any by shunning hazards which he has no order for. 'tis enough," says he, "for a gentleman to behave well when he is commanded upon any service; i have had fighting enough," says he, "upon these points of honour, and i never got anything but reproof for it from the king himself." "well, sir," said i, "however if a man expects to rise by his valour, he must show it somewhere; and if i were to have any command in an army, i would first try whether i could deserve it. i have never yet seen any service, and must have my induction some time or other. i shall never have a better schoolmaster than yourself, nor a better school than such an army." "well," says sir john, "but you may have the same school and the same teaching after this battle is over; for i must tell you beforehand, this will be a bloody touch. tilly has a great army of old lads that are used to boxing, fellows with iron faces, and 'tis a little too much to engage so hotly the first entrance into the wars. you may see our discipline this winter, and make your campaign with us next summer, when you need not fear but we shall have fighting enough, and you will be better acquainted with things. we do never put our common soldiers upon pitched battles the first campaign, but place our new men in garrisons and try them in parties first." "sir," said i, with a little more freedom, "i believe i shall not make a trade of the war, and therefore need not serve an apprenticeship to it; 'tis a hard battle where none escapes. if i come off, i hope i shall not disgrace you, and if not, 'twill be some satisfaction to my father to hear his son died fighting under the command of sir john hepburn, in the army of the king of sweden, and i desire no better epitaph upon my tomb." "well," says sir john, and by this time we were just come to the king's quarters, and the guards calling to us interrupted his reply; so we went into the courtyard where the king was lodged, which was in an indifferent house of one of the burghers of dieben, and sir john stepping up, met the king coming down some steps into a large room which looked over the town wall into a field where part of the artillery was drawn up. sir john hepburn sent his man presently to me to come up, which i did; and sir john without any ceremony carries me directly up to the king, who was leaning on his elbow in the window. the king turning about, "this is the english gentleman," says sir john, "who i told your majesty had been in the imperial army." "how then did he get hither," says the king, "without being taken by the scouts?" at which question, sir john saying nothing, "by a pass, and please your majesty, from the english ambassador's secretary at vienna," said i, making a profound reverence. "have you then been at vienna?" says the king. "yes, and please your majesty," said i; upon which the king, folding up a letter he had in his hand, seemed much more earnest to talk about vienna than about tilly. "and, pray, what news had you at vienna?" "nothing, sir," said i, "but daily accounts one in the neck of another of their own misfortunes, and your majesty's conquests, which makes a very melancholy court there." "but, pray," said the king, "what is the common opinion there about these affairs?" "the common people are terrified to the last degree," said i, "and when your majesty took frankfort-upon-oder, if your army had marched but twenty miles into silesia, half the people would have run out of vienna, and i left them fortifying the city." "they need not," replied the king, smiling; "i have no design to trouble them, it is the protestant countries i must be for." upon this the duke of saxony entered the room, and finding the king engaged, offered to retire; but the king, beckoning with his hand, called to him in french; "cousin," says the king, "this gentleman has been travelling and comes from vienna," and so made me repeat what i had said before; at which the king went on with me, and sir john hepburn informing his majesty that i spoke high dutch, he changed his language, and asked me in dutch where it was that i saw general tilly's army. i told his majesty at the siege of magdeburg. "at magdeburg!" said the king, shaking his head; "tilly must answer to me some day for that city, and if not to me, to a greater king than i. can you guess what army he had with him?" said the king. "he had two armies with him," said i, "but one i suppose will do your majesty no harm." "two armies!" said the king. "yes, sir, he has one army of about , men," said i, "and another of about , women and their attendants," at which the king laughed heartily. "ay, ay," says the king, "those , do us as much harm as the , , for they eat up the country, and devour the poor protestants more than the men. well," says the king, "do they talk of fighting us?" "they talk big enough, sir," said i, "but your majesty has not been so often fought with as beaten in their discourse." "i know not for the men," says the king, "but the old man is as likely to do it as talk of it, and i hope to try them in a day or two." the king inquired after that several matters of me about the low countries, the prince of orange, and of the court and affairs in england; and sir john hepburn informing his majesty that i was the son of an english gentleman of his acquaintance, the king had the goodness to ask him what care he had taken of me against the day of battle. upon which sir john repeated to him the discourse we had together by the way; the king seeming particularly pleased with it, began to take me to task himself. "you english gentlemen," says he, "are too forward in the wars, which makes you leave them too soon again." "your majesty," replied i, "makes war in so pleasant a manner as makes all the world fond of fighting under your conduct." "not so pleasant neither," says the king, "here's a man can tell you that sometimes it is not very pleasant." "i know not much of the warrior, sir," said i, "nor of the world, but if always to conquer be the pleasure of the war, your majesty's soldiers have all that can be desired." "well," says the king, "but however, considering all things, i think you would do well to take the advice sir john hepburn has given you." "your majesty may command me to anything, but where your majesty and so many gallant gentlemen hazard their lives, mine is not worth mentioning; and i should not dare to tell my father at my return into england that i was in your majesty's army, and made so mean a figure that your majesty would not permit me to fight under that royal standard." "nay," replied the king, "i lay no commands upon you, but you are young." "i can never die, sir," said i, "with more honour than in your majesty's service." i spake this with so much freedom, and his majesty was so pleased with it, that he asked me how i would choose to serve, on horseback or on foot. i told his majesty i should be glad to receive any of his majesty's commands, but if i had not that honour i had purposed to trail a pike under sir john hepburn, who had done me so much honour as to introduce me into his majesty's presence. "do so, then," replied the king, and turning to sir john hepburn, said, "and pray, do you take care of him." at which, overcome with the goodness of his discourse, i could not answer a word, but made him a profound reverence and retired. the next day but one, being the th of september, before day the army marched from dieben to a large field about a mile from leipsic, where we found tilly's army in full battalia in admirable order, which made a show both glorious and terrible. tilly, like a fair gamester, had taken up but one side of the plain, and left the other free, and all the avenues open for the king's army; nor did he stir to the charge till the king's army was completely drawn up and advanced toward him. he had in his army , old soldiers, every way answerable to what i have said of them before; and i shall only add, a better army, i believe, never was so soundly beaten. the king was not much inferior in force, being joined with the saxons, who were reckoned , men, and who drew up on the left, making a main battle and two wings, as the king did on the right. the king placed himself at the right wing of his own horse, gustavus horn had the main battle of the swedes, the duke of saxony had the main battle of his own troops, and general arnheim the right wing of his horse. the second line of the swedes consisted of the two scotch brigades, and three swedish, with the finland horse in the wings. in the beginning of the fight, tilly's right wing charged with such irresistible fury upon the left of the king's army where the saxons were posted, that nothing could withstand them. the saxons fled amain, and some of them carried the news over the country that all was lost, and the king's army overthrown; and indeed it passed for an oversight with some that the king did not place some of his old troops among the saxons, who were new-raised men. the saxons lost here near men, and hardly ever showed their faces again all the battle, except some few of their horse. i was posted with my comrade, the captain, at the head of three scottish regiments of foot, commanded by sir john hepburn, with express directions from the colonel to keep by him. our post was in the second line, as a reserve to the king of sweden's main battle, and, which was strange, the main battle, which consisted of four great brigades of foot, were never charged during the whole fight; and yet we, who had the reserve, were obliged to endure the whole weight of the imperial army. the occasion was, the right wing of the imperialists having defeated the saxons, and being eager in the chase, tilly, who was an old soldier, and ready to prevent all mistakes, forbids any pursuit. "let them go," says he, "but let us beat the swedes, or we do nothing." upon this the victorious troops fell in upon the flank of the king's army, which, the saxons being fled, lay open to them. gustavus horn commanded the left wing of the swedes, and having first defeated some regiments which charged him, falls in upon the rear of the imperial right wing, and separates them from the van, who were advanced a great way forward in pursuit of the saxons, and having routed the said rear or reserve, falls on upon tilly's main battle, and defeated part of them; the other part was gone in chase of the saxons, and now also returned, fell in upon the rear of the left wing of the swedes, charging them in the flank, for they drew up upon the very ground which the saxons had quitted. this changed the whole front, and made the swedes face about to the left, and made a great front on their flank to make this good. our brigades, who were placed as a reserve for the main battle, were, by special order from the king, wheeled about to the left, and placed for the right of this new front to charge the imperialists; they were about , of their best foot, besides horse, and flushed with the execution of the saxons, fell on like furies. the king by this time had almost defeated the imperialists' left wing; their horse, with more haste than good speed, had charged faster than their foot could follow, and having broke into the king's first line, he let them go, where, while the second line bears the shock, and bravely resisted them, the king follows them on the crupper with thirteen troops of horse, and some musketeers, by which being hemmed in, they were all cut down in a moment as it were, and the army never disordered with them. this fatal blow to the left wing gave the king more leisure to defeat the foot which followed, and to send some assistance to gustavus horn in his left wing, who had his hands full with the main battle of the imperialists. but those troops who, as i said, had routed the saxons, being called off from the pursuit, had charged our flank, and were now grown very strong, renewed the battle in a terrible manner. here it was i saw our men go to wreck. colonel hall, a brave soldier, commanded the rear of the swede's left wing; he fought like a lion, but was slain, and most of his regiment cut off, though not unrevenged, for they entirely ruined furstenberg's regiment of foot. colonel cullembach, with his regiment of horse, was extremely overlaid also, and the colonel and many brave officers killed, and in short all that wing was shattered, and in an ill condition. in this juncture came the king, and having seen what havoc the enemy made of cullembach's troops, he comes riding along the front of our three brigades, and himself led us on to the charge; the colonel of his guards, the baron dyvel, was shot dead just as the king had given him some orders. when the scots advanced, seconded by some regiments of horse which the king also sent to the charge, the bloodiest fight began that ever men beheld, for the scottish brigades, giving fire three ranks at a time over one another's heads, poured in their shot so thick, that the enemy were cut down like grass before a scythe; and following into the thickest of their foot with the clubs of their muskets made a most dreadful slaughter, and yet was there no flying. tilly's men might be killed and knocked down, but no man turned his back, nor would give an inch of ground, but as they were wheeled, or marched, or retreated by their officers. there was a regiment of cuirassiers which stood whole to the last, and fought like lions; they went ranging over the field when all their army was broken, and nobody cared for charging them; they were commanded by baron kronenburg, and at last went off from the battle whole. these were armed in black armour from head to foot, and they carried off their general. about six o'clock the field was cleared of the enemy, except at one place on the king's side, where some of them rallied, and though they knew all was lost would take no quarter, but fought it out to the last man, being found dead the next day in rank and file as they were drawn up. i had the good fortune to receive no hurt in this battle, excepting a small scratch on the side of my neck by the push of a pike; but my friend received a very dangerous wound when the battle was as good as over. he had engaged with a german colonel, whose name we could never learn, and having killed his man, and pressed very close upon him, so that he had shot his horse, the horse in the fall kept the colonel down, lying on one of his legs; upon which he demanded quarter, which captain fielding granting, helped him to quit his horse, and having disarmed him, was bringing him into the line, when the regiment of cuirassiers, which i mentioned, commanded by baron kronenburg, came roving over the field, and with a flying charge saluted our front with a salvo of carabine shot, which wounded us a great many men, and among the rest the captain received a shot in his thigh, which laid him on the ground, and being separated from the line, his prisoner got away with them. this was the first service i was in, and indeed i never saw any fight since maintained with such gallantry, such desperate valour, together with such dexterity of management, both sides being composed of soldiers fully tried, bred to the wars, expert in everything, exact in their order, and incapable of fear, which made the battle be much more bloody than usual. sir john hepburn, at my request, took particular care of my comrade, and sent his own surgeon to look after him; and afterwards, when the city of leipsic was retaken, provided him lodgings there, and came very often to see him; and indeed i was in great care for him too, the surgeons being very doubtful of him a great while; for having lain in the field all night among the dead, his wound, for want of dressing, and with the extremity of cold, was in a very ill condition, and the pain of it had thrown him into a fever. 'twas quite dusk before the fight ended, especially where the last rallied troops fought so long, and therefore we durst not break our order to seek out our friends, so that 'twas near seven o'clock the next morning before we found the captain, who, though very weak by the loss of blood, had raised himself up, and placed his back against the buttock of a dead horse. i was the first that knew him, and running to him, embraced him with a great deal of joy; he was not able to speak, but made signs to let me see he knew me, so we brought him into the camp, and sir john hepburn, as i noted before, sent his own surgeons to look after him. the darkness of the night prevented any pursuit, and was the only refuge the enemy had left: for had there been three hours more daylight ten thousand more lives had been lost, for the swedes (and saxons especially) enraged by the obstinacy of the enemy, were so thoroughly heated that they would have given quarter but to few. the retreat was not sounded till seven o'clock, when the king drew up the whole army upon the field of battle, and gave strict command that none should stir from their order; so the army lay under their arms all night, which was another reason why the wounded soldiers suffered very much by the cold; for the king, who had a bold enemy to deal with, was not ignorant what a small body of desperate men rallied together might have done in the darkness of the night, and therefore he lay in his coach all night at the head of the line, though it froze very hard. as soon as the day began to peep the trumpets sounded to horse, and all the dragoons and light-horse in the army were commanded to the pursuit. the cuirassiers and some commanded musketeers advanced some miles, if need were, to make good their retreat, and all the foot stood to their arms for a reverse; but in half-an-hour word was brought to the king that the enemy were quite dispersed, upon which detachments were made out of every regiment to search among the dead for any of our friends that were wounded; and the king himself gave a strict order, that if any were found wounded and alive among the enemy none should kill them, but take care to bring them into the camp--a piece of humanity which saved the lives of near a thousand of the enemies. this piece of service being over, the enemy's camp was seized upon, and the soldiers were permitted to plunder it; all the cannon, arms, and ammunition was secured for the king's use, the rest was given up to the soldiers, who found so much plunder that they had no reason to quarrel for shares. for my share, i was so busy with my wounded captain that i got nothing but a sword, which i found just by him when i first saw him; but my man brought me a very good horse with a furniture on him, and one pistol of extraordinary workmanship. i bade him get upon his back and make the best of the day for himself, which he did, and i saw him no more till three days after, when he found me out at leipsic, so richly dressed that i hardly knew him; and after making his excuse for his long absence, gave me a very pleasant account where he had been. he told me that, according to my order, being mounted on the horse he had brought me, he first rid into the field among the dead to get some clothes suitable to the equipage of his horse, and having seized on a laced coat, a helmet, a sword, and an extraordinary good cane, was resolved to see what was become of the enemy; and following the track of the dragoons, which he could easily do by the bodies on the road, he fell in with a small party of twenty-five dragoons, under no command but a corporal, making to a village where some of the enemies' horse had been quartered. the dragoons, taking him for an officer by his horse, desired him to command them, told him the enemy was very rich, and they doubted not a good booty. he was a bold, brisk fellow, and told them, with all his heart, but said he had but one pistol, the other being broken with firing; so they lent him a pair of pistols, and a small piece they had taken, and he led them on. there had been a regiment of horse and some troops of crabats in the village, but they were fled on the first notice of the pursuit, excepting three troops, and these, on sight of this small party, supposing them to be only the first of a greater number, fled in the greatest confusion imaginable. they took the village, and about fifty horses, with all the plunder of the enemy, and with the heat of the service he had spoiled my horse, he said, for which he had brought me two more; for he, passing for the commander of the party, had all the advantage the custom of war gives an officer in like cases. i was very well pleased with the relation the fellow gave me, and, laughing at him, "well, captain," said i, "and what plunder have ye got?" "enough to make me a captain, sir," says he, "if you please, and a troop ready raised too; for the party of dragoons are posted in the village by my command, till they have farther orders." in short, he pulled out sixty or seventy pieces of gold, five or six watches, thirteen or fourteen rings, whereof two were diamond rings, one of which was worth fifty dollars, silver as much as his pockets would hold; besides that he had brought three horses, two of which were laden with baggage, and a boor he had hired to stay with them at leipsic till he had found me out. "but i am afraid, captain," says i, "you have plundered the village instead of plundering the enemy." "no indeed, not we," says he, "but the crabats had done it for us and we light of them just as they were carrying it off." "well," said i, "but what will you do with your men, for when you come to give them orders they will know you well enough?" "no, no," says he, "i took care of that, for just now i gave a soldier five dollars to carry them news that the army was marched to merseburg, and that they should follow thither to the regiment." having secured his money in my lodgings, he asked me if i pleased to see his horses, and to have one for myself? i told him i would go and see them in the afternoon; but the fellow being impatient goes and fetches them. there were three horses, one whereof was a very good one, and by the furniture was an officer's horse of the crabats, and that my man would have me accept, for the other he had spoiled, as he said. i was but indifferently horsed before, so i accepted of the horse, and went down with him to see the rest of his plunder there. he had got three or four pair of pistols, two or three bundles of officers' linen, and lace, a field-bed, and a tent, and several other things of value; but at last, coming to a small fardel, "and this," says he, "i took whole from a crabat running away with it under his arm," so he brought it up into my chamber. he had not looked into it, he said, but he understood 'twas some plunder the soldiers had made, and finding it heavy took it by consent. we opened it and found it was a bundle of some linen, thirteen or fourteen pieces of plate, and in a small cup, three rings, a fine necklace of pearl and the value of rix-dollars in money. the fellow was amazed at his own good fortune, and hardly knew what to do with himself; i bid him go take care of his other things, and of his horses, and come again. so he went and discharged the boor that waited and packed up all his plunder, and came up to me in his old clothes again. "how now, captain," says i, "what, have you altered your equipage already?" "i am no more ashamed, sir, of your livery," answered he, "than of your service, and nevertheless your servant for what i have got by it." "well," says i to him, "but what will you do now with all your money?" "i wish my poor father had some of it," says he, "and for the rest i got it for you, sir, and desire you would take it." he spoke it with so much honesty and freedom that i could not but take it very kindly; but, however, i told him i would not take a farthing from him as his master, but i would have him play the good husband with it, now he had such good fortune to get it. he told me he would take my directions in everything. "why, then," said i, "i'll tell you what i would advise you to do, turn it all into ready money, and convey it by return home into england, and follow yourself the first opportunity, and with good management you may put yourself in a good posture of living with it." the fellow, with a sort of dejection in his looks, asked me if he had disobliged me in anything? "why?" says i. "that i was willing to turn him out of his service." "no, george" (that was his name), says i, "but you may live on this money without being a servant." "i'd throw it all into the elbe," says he, "over torgau bridge, rather than leave your service; and besides," says he, "can't i save my money without going from you? i got it in your service, and i'll never spend it out of your service, unless you put me away. i hope my money won't make me the worse servant; if i thought it would, i'd soon have little enough." "nay, george," says i, "i shall not oblige you to it, for i am not willing to lose you neither: come, then," says i, "let us put it all together, and see what it will come to." so he laid it all together on the table, and by our computation he had gotten as much plunder as was worth about rix-dollars, besides three horses with their furniture, a tent, a bed, and some wearing linen. then he takes the necklace of pearl, a very good watch, a diamond ring, and pieces of gold, and lays them by themselves, and having, according to our best calculation, valued the things, he put up all the rest, and as i was going to ask him what they were left out for, he takes them up in his hand, and coming round the table, told me, that if i did not think him unworthy of my service and favour, he begged i would give him leave to make that present to me; that it was my first thought his going out, that he had got it all in my service, and he should think i had no kindness for him if i should refuse it. i was resolved in my mind not to take it from him, and yet i could find no means to resist his importunity. at last i told him, i would accept of part of his present, and that i esteemed his respect in that as much as the whole, and that i would not have him importune me farther; so i took the ring and watch, with the horse and furniture as before, and made him turn all the rest into money at leipsic, and not suffering him to wear his livery, made him put himself into a tolerable equipage, and taking a young leipsicer into my service, he attended me as a gentleman from that time forward. the king's army never entered leipsic, but proceeded to merseberg, and from thence to halle, and so marched on into franconia, while the duke of saxony employed his forces in recovering leipsic and driving the imperialists out of his country. i continued at leipsic twelve days, being not willing to leave my comrade till he was recovered; but sir john hepburn so often importuned me to come into the army, and sent me word that the king had very often inquired for me, that at last i consented to go without him; so having made our appointment where to meet, and how to correspond by letters, i went to wait on sir john hepburn, who then lay with the king's army at the city of erfurt in saxony. as i was riding between leipsic and halle, i observed my horse went very awkwardly and uneasy, and sweat very much, though the weather was cold, and we had rid but very softly; i fancied therefore that the saddle might hurt the horse, and calls my new captain up. "george," says i, "i believe this saddle hurts the horse." so we alighted, and looking under the saddle found the back of the horse extremely galled; so i bid him take off the saddle, which he did, and giving the horse to my young leipsicer to lead, we sat down to see if we could mend it, for there was no town near us. says george, pointing with his finger, "if you please to cut open the pannel there, i'll get something to stuff into it which will bear it from the horse's back." so while he looked for something to thrust in, i cut a hole in the pannel of the saddle, and, following it with my finger, i felt something hard, which seemed to move up and down. again, as i thrust it with my finger, "here's something that should not be here," says i, not yet imagining what afterwards fell out, and calling, "run back," bade him put up his finger. "whatever 'tis," says he, "'tis this hurts the horse, for it bears just on his back when the saddle is set on." so we strove to take hold on it, but could not reach it; at last we took the upper part of the saddle quite from the pannel, and there lay a small silk purse wrapped in a piece of leather, and full of gold ducats. "thou art born to be rich, george," says i to him, "here's more money." we opened the purse and found in it four hundred and thirty-eight small pieces of gold. there i had a new skirmish with him whose the money should be. i told him 'twas his, he told me no; i had accepted of the horse and furniture, and all that was about him was mine, and solemnly vowed he would not have a penny of it. i saw no remedy, but put up the money for the present, mended our saddle, and went on. we lay that night at halle, and having had such a booty in the saddle, i made him search the saddles of the other two horses, in one of which we found three french crowns, but nothing in the other. we arrived at erfurt the th of september, but the army was removed, and entered into franconia, and at the siege of koningshoven we came up with them. the first thing i did was to pay my civilities to sir john hepburn, who received me very kindly, but told me withal that i had not done well to be so long from him, and the king had particularly inquired for me, had commanded him to bring me to him at my return. i told him the reason of my stay at leipsic, and how i had left that place and my comrade, before he was cured of his wounds, to wait on him according to his letters. he told me the king had spoken some things very obliging about me, and he believed would offer me some command in the army, if i thought well to accept of it. i told him i had promised my father not to take service in an army without his leave, and yet if his majesty should offer it, i neither knew how to resist it, nor had i an inclination to anything more than the service, and such a leader, though i had much rather have served as a volunteer at my own charge (which, as he knew, was the custom of our english gentlemen) than in any command. he replied, "do as you think fit; but some gentlemen would give , crowns to stand so fair for advancement as you do." the town of koningshoven capitulated that day, and sir john was ordered to treat with the citizens, so i had no further discourse with him then; and the town being taken, the army immediately advanced down the river maine, for the king had his eye upon frankfort and mentz, two great cities, both which he soon became master of, chiefly by the prodigious expedition of his march; for within a month after the battle, he was in the lower parts of the empire, and had passed from the elbe to the rhine, an incredible conquest, had taken all the strong cities, the bishoprics of bamberg, of wurtzburg, and almost all the circle of franconia, with part of schawberland--a conquest large enough to be seven years a-making by the common course of arms. business going on thus, the king had not leisure to think of small matters, and i being not thoroughly resolved in my mind, did not press sir john to introduce me. i had wrote to my father with an account of my reception in the army, the civilities of sir john hepburn, the particulars of the battle, and had indeed pressed him to give me leave to serve the king of sweden, to which particular i waited for an answer, but the following occasion determined me before an answer could possibly reach me. the king was before the strong castle of marienburg, which commands the city of wurtzburg. he had taken the city, but the garrison and richer part of the burghers were retired into the castle, and trusting to the strength of the place, which was thought impregnable, they bade the swedes do their worst; 'twas well provided with all things, and a strong garrison in it, so that the army indeed expected 'twould be a long piece of work. the castle stood on a high rock, and on the steep of the rock was a bastion which defended the only passage up the hill into the castle; the scots were chose out to make this attack, and the king was an eye-witness of their gallantry. in the action sir john was not commanded out, but sir james ramsey led them on; but i observed that most of the scotch officers in the other regiments prepared to serve as volunteers for the honour of their countrymen, and sir john hepburn led them on. i was resolved to see this piece of service, and therefore joined myself to the volunteers. we were armed with partisans, and each man two pistols at our belt. it was a piece of service that seemed perfectly desperate, the advantage of the hill, the precipice we were to mount, the height of the bastion, the resolute courage and number of the garrison, who from a complete covert made a terrible fire upon us, all joined to make the action hopeless. but the fury of the scots musketeers was not to be abated by any difficulties; they mounted the hill, scaled the works like madmen, running upon the enemies' pikes, and after two hours' desperate fight in the midst of fire and smoke, took it by storm, and put all the garrison to the sword. the volunteers did their part, and had their share of the loss too, for thirteen or fourteen were killed out of thirty-seven, besides the wounded, among whom i received a hurt more troublesome than dangerous by a thrust of a halberd into my arm, which proved a very painful wound, and i was a great while before it was thoroughly recovered. the king received us as we drew off at the foot of the hill, calling the soldiers his brave scots, and commending the officers by name. the next morning the castle was also taken by storm, and the greatest booty that ever was found in any one conquest in the whole war; the soldiers got here so much money that they knew not what to do with it, and the plunder they got here and at the battle of leipsic made them so unruly, that had not the king been the best master of discipline in the world, they had never been kept in any reasonable bounds. the king had taken notice of our small party of volunteers, and though i thought he had not seen me, yet he sent the next morning for sir john hepburn, and asked him if i were not come to the army? "yes," says sir john, "he has been here two or three days." and as he was forming an excuse for not having brought me to wait on his majesty, says the king, interrupting him, "i wonder you would let him thrust himself into a hot piece of service as storming the port graft. pray let him know i saw him, and have a very good account of his behaviour." sir john returned with this account to me, and pressed me to pay my duty to his majesty the next morning; and accordingly, though i had but an ill night with the pain of my wound, i was with him at the levee in the castle. i cannot but give some short account of the glory of the morning; the castle had been cleared of the dead bodies of the enemies, and what was not pillaged by the soldiers was placed under a guard. there was first a magazine of very good arms for about , or , foot, and horse, a very good train of artillery of about eighteen pieces of battery, thirty-two brass field-pieces, and four mortars. the bishop's treasure, and other public monies not plundered by the soldiers, was telling out by the officers, and amounted to , florins in money; and the burghers of the town in solemn procession, bareheaded, brought the king three tons of gold as a composition to exempt the city from plunder. here was also a stable of gallant horses which the king had the curiosity to go and see. when the ceremony of the burghers was over, the king came down into the castle court, walked on the parade (where the great train of artillery was placed on their carriages) and round the walls, and gave order for repairing the bastion that was stormed by the scots; and as at the entrance of the parade sir john hepburn and i made our reverence to the king, "ho, cavalier!" said the king to me, "i am glad to see you," and so passed forward. i made my bow very low, but his majesty said no more at that time. when the view was over the king went up into the lodgings, and sir john and i walked in an antechamber for about a quarter of an hour, when one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber came out to sir john, and told him the king asked for him; he stayed but a little with the king, and come out to me and told me the king had ordered him to bring me to him. his majesty, with a countenance full of honour and goodness, interrupted my compliment, and asked me how i did; at which answering only with a bow, says the king, "i am sorry to see you are hurt; i would have laid my commands on you not to have shown yourself in so sharp a piece of service, if i had known you had been in the camp." "your majesty does me too much honour," said i, "in your care of a life that has yet done nothing to deserve your favour." his majesty was pleased to say something very kind to me relating to my behaviour in the battle of leipsic, which i have not vanity enough to write; at the conclusion whereof, when i replied very humbly that i was not sensible that any service i had done, or could do, could possibly merit so much goodness, he told me he had ordered me a small testimony of his esteem, and withal gave me his hand to kiss. i was now conquered, and with a sort of surprise told his majesty i found myself so much engaged by his goodness, as well as my own inclination, that if his majesty would please to accept of my devoir, i was resolved to serve in his army, or wherever he pleased to command me. "serve me," says the king, "why, so you do, but i must not have you be a musketeer; a poor soldier at a dollar a week will do that." "pray, sir john," says the king, "give him what commission he desires." "no commission, sir," says i, "would please me better than leave to fight near your majesty's person, and to serve you at my own charge till i am qualified by more experience to receive your commands." "why, then, it shall be so," said the king, "and i charge you, hepburn," says he, "when anything offers that is either fit for him, or he desires, that you tell me of it;" and giving me his hand again to kiss, i withdrew. i was followed before i had passed the castle gate by one of the king's pages, who brought me a warrant, directed to sir john hepburn, to go to the master of the horse for an immediate delivery of things ordered by the king himself for my account, where being come, the equerry produced me a very good coach with four horses, harness, and equipage, and two very fine saddle-horses, out of the stable of the bishop's horses afore-mentioned; with these there was a list for three servants, and a warrant to the steward of the king's baggage to defray me, my horses, and servants at the king's charge till farther order. i was very much at a loss how to manage myself in this so strange freedom of so great a prince, and consulting with sir john hepburn, i was proposing to him whether it was not proper to go immediately back to pay my duty to his majesty, and acknowledge his bounty in the best terms i could; but while we were resolving to do so, the guards stood to their arms, and we saw the king go out at the gate in his coach to pass into the city, so we were diverted from it for that time. i acknowledge the bounty of the king was very surprising, but i must say it was not so very strange to me when i afterwards saw the course of his management. bounty in him was his natural talent, but he never distributed his favours but where he thought himself both loved and faithfully served, and when he was so, even the single actions of his private soldiers he would take particular notice of himself, and publicly own, acknowledge, and reward them, of which i am obliged to give some instances. a private musketeer at the storming the castle of wurtzburg, when all the detachment was beaten off, stood in the face of the enemy and fired his piece, and though he had a thousand shot made at him, stood unconcerned, and charged his piece again, and let fly at the enemy, continuing to do so three times, at the same time beckoning with his hand to his fellows to come on again, which they did, animated by his example, and carried the place for the king. when the town was taken the king ordered the regiment to be drawn out, and calling for that soldier, thanked him before them all for taking the town for him, gave him a thousand dollars in money, and a commission with his own hand for a foot company, or leave to go home, which he would. the soldier took the commission on his knees, kissed it, and put it into his bosom, and told the king, he would never leave his service as long as he lived. this bounty of the king's, timed and suited by his judgment, was the reason that he was very well served, entirely beloved, and most punctually obeyed by his soldiers, who were sure to be cherished and encouraged if they did well, having the king generally an eye-witness of their behaviour. my indiscretion rather than valour had engaged me so far at the battle of leipsic, that being in the van of sir john hepburn's brigade, almost three whole companies of us were separated from our line, and surrounded by the enemies' pikes. i cannot but say also that we were disengaged rather by a desperate charge sir john made with the whole regiment to fetch us off, than by our own valour, though we were not wanting to ourselves neither, but this part of the action being talked of very much to the advantage of the young english volunteer, and possibly more than i deserved, was the occasion of all the distinction the king used me with ever after. i had by this time letters from my father, in which, though with some reluctance, he left me at liberty to enter into arms if i thought fit, always obliging me to be directed, and, as he said, commanded by sir john hepburn. at the same time he wrote to sir john hepburn, commending his son's fortunes, as he called it, to his care, which letters sir john showed the king unknown to me. i took care always to acquaint my father of every circumstance, and forgot not to mention his majesty's extraordinary favour, which so affected my father, that he obtained a very honourable mention of it in a letter from king charles to the king of sweden, written by his own hand. i had waited on his majesty, with sir john hepburn, to give him thanks for his magnificent present, and was received with his usual goodness, and after that i was every day among the gentlemen of his ordinary attendance. and if his majesty went out on a party, as he would often do, or to view the country, i always attended him among the volunteers, of whom a great many always followed him; and he would often call me out, talk with me, send me upon messages to towns, to princes, free cities, and the like, upon extraordinary occasions. the first piece of service he put me upon had like to have embroiled me with one of his favourite colonels. the king was marching through the bergstraet, a low country on the edge of the rhine, and, as all men thought, was going to besiege heidelberg, but on a sudden orders a party of his guards, with five companies of scots, to be drawn out; while they were drawing out this detachment the king calls me to him, "ho, cavalier," says he, that was his usual word, "you shall command this party;" and thereupon gives me orders to march back all night, and in the morning, by break of day, to take post under the walls of the fort of oppenheim, and immediately to entrench myself as well as i could. grave neels, the colonel of his guards, thought himself injured by this command, but the king took the matter upon himself, and grave neels told me very familiarly afterwards, "we have such a master," says he, "that no man can be affronted by. i thought myself wronged," says he, "when you commanded my men over my head; and for my life," says he, "i knew not which way to be angry." i executed my commission so punctually that by break of day i was set down within musket-shot of the fort, under covert of a little mount, on which stood a windmill, and had indifferently fortified myself, and at the same time had posted some of my men on two other passes, but at farther distance from the fort, so that the fort was effectually blocked up on the land side. in the afternoon the enemy sallied on my first entrenchment, but being covered from their cannon, and defended by a ditch which i had drawn across the road, they were so well received by my musketeers that they retired with the loss of six or seven men. the next day sir john hepburn was sent with two brigades of foot to carry on the work, and so my commission ended. the king expressed himself very well pleased with what i had done, and when he was so was never sparing of telling of it, for he used to say that public commendations were a great encouragement to valour. while sir john hepburn lay before the fort and was preparing to storm it, the king's design was to get over the rhine, but the spaniards which were in oppenheim had sunk all the boats they could find. at last the king, being informed where some lay that were sunk, caused them to be weighed with all the expedition possible, and in the night of the th of december, in three boats, passed over his regiment of guards, about three miles above the town, and, as the king thought, secure from danger; but they were no sooner landed, and not drawn into order, but they were charged by a body of spanish horse, and had not the darkness given them opportunity to draw up in the enclosures in several little parties, they had been in great danger of being disordered; but by this means they lined the hedges and lanes so with musketeers, that the remainder had time to draw up in battalia, and saluted the horse with their muskets, so that they drew farther off. the king was very impatient, hearing his men engaged, having no boats nor possible means to get over to help them. at last, about eleven o'clock at night, the boats came back, and the king thrust another regiment into them, and though his officers dissuaded him, would go over himself with them on foot, and did so. this was three months that very day when the battle of leipsic was fought, and winter time too, that the progress of his arms had spread from the elbe, where it parts saxony and brandenburg, to the lower palatine and the rhine. i went over in the boat with the king. i never saw him in so much concern in my life, for he was in pain for his men; but before we got on shore the spaniards retired. however, the king landed, ordered his men, and prepared to entrench, but he had not time, for by that time the boats were put off again, the spaniards, not knowing more troops were landed, and being reinforced from oppenheim, came on again, and charged with great fury; but all things were now in order, and they were readily received and beaten back again. they came on again the third time, and with repeated charges attacked us; but at last finding us too strong for them they gave it over. by this time another regiment of foot was come over, and as soon as day appeared the king with the three regiments marched to the town, which surrendered at the first summons, and the next day the fort yielded to sir john hepburn. the castle at oppenheim held out still with a garrison of spaniards, and the king, leaving scots of sir james ramsey's men in the town, drew out to attack the castle. sir james ramsey being left wounded at wurtzburg, the king gave me the command of those men, which were a regiment, that is to say, all that were left of a gallant regiment of scots, which the king brought out of sweden with him, under that brave colonel. there was about thirty officers, who, having no soldiers, were yet in pay, and served as reformadoes with the regiment, and were over and above the men. the king designed to storm the castle on the lower side by the way that leads to mentz, and sir john hepburn landed from the other side and marched up to storm on the rhine port. my reformado scots, having observed that the town port of the castle was not so well guarded as the rest, all the eyes of the garrison being bent towards the king and sir john hepburn, came running to me, and told me they believed they could enter the castle, sword in hand, if i would give them leave. i told them i durst not give them orders, my commission being only to keep and defend the town; but they being very importunate, i told them they were volunteers, and might do what they pleased, that i would lend them fifty men, and draw up the rest to second them, or bring them off, as i saw occasion, so as i might not hazard the town. this was as much as they desired; they sallied immediately, and in a trice the volunteers scaled the port, cut in pieces the guard, and burst open the gate, at which the fifty entered. finding the gate won, i advanced immediately with musketeers more, having locked up all the gates of the town but the castle port, and leaving fifty still for a reserve just at that gate; the townsmen, too, seeing the castle, as it were, taken, ran to arms, and followed me with above men. the spaniards were knocked down by the scots before they knew what the matter was, and the king and sir john hepburn, advancing to storm, were surprised when, instead of resistance, they saw the spaniards throwing themselves over the walls to avoid the fury of the scots. few of the garrison got away, but were either killed or taken, and having cleared the castle, i set open the port on the king's side, and sent his majesty word the castle was his own. the king came on, and entered on foot. i received him at the head of the scots reformadoes; who all saluted him with their pikes. the king gave them his hat, and turning about, "brave scots, brave scots," says he smiling, "you were too quick for me;" then beckoning to me, made me tell him how and in what manner we had managed the storm, which he was exceeding well pleased with, but especially at the caution i had used to bring them off if they had miscarried, and secured the town. from hence the army marched to mentz, which in four days' time capitulated, with the fort and citadel, and the city paid his majesty , dollars to be exempted from the fury of the soldiers. here the king himself drew the plan of those invincible fortifications which to this day makes it one of the strongest cities in germany. friburg, koningstien, neustadt, kaiserslautern, and almost all the lower palatinate, surrendered at the very terror of the king of sweden's approach, and never suffered the danger of a siege. the king held a most magnificent court at mentz, attended by the landgrave of hesse, with an incredible number of princes and lords of the empire, with ambassadors and residents of foreign princes; and here his majesty stayed till march, when the queen, with a great retinue of swedish nobility, came from erfurt to see him. the king, attended by a gallant train of german nobility, went to frankfort, and from thence on to hoest, to meet the queen, where her majesty arrived february . during the king's stay in these parts, his armies were not idle, his troops, on one side under the rhinegrave, a brave and ever-fortunate commander, and under the landgrave of hesse, on the other, ranged the country from lorraine to luxemburg, and past the moselle on the west, and the weser on the north. nothing could stand before them: the spanish army which came to the relief of the catholic electors was everywhere defeated and beaten quite out of the country, and the lorraine army quite ruined. 'twas a most pleasant court sure as ever was seen, where every day expresses arrived of armies defeated, towns surrendered, contributions agreed upon, parties routed, prisoners taken, and princes sending ambassadors to sue for truces and neutralities, to make submissions and compositions, and to pay arrears and contributions. here arrived, february , the king of bohemia from england, and with him my lord craven, with a body of dutch horse, and a very fine train of english volunteers, who immediately, without any stay, marched on to hoest to wait upon his majesty of sweden, who received him with a great deal of civility, and was treated at a noble collation by the king and queen at frankfort. never had the unfortunate king so fair a prospect of being restored to his inheritance of the palatinate as at that time, and had king james, his father-in-law, had a soul answerable to the occasion, it had been effected before, but it was a strange thing to see him equipped from the english court with one lord and about forty or fifty english gentlemen in his attendance, whereas had the king of england now, as 'tis well known he might have done, furnished him with , or , english foot, nothing could have hindered him taking a full possession of his country; and yet even without that help did the king of sweden clear almost his whole country of imperialists, and after his death reinstal his son in the electorate; but no thanks to us. the lord craven did me the honour to inquire for me by name, and his majesty of sweden did me yet more by presenting me to the king of bohemia, and my lord craven gave me a letter from my father. and speaking something of my father having served under the prince of orange in the famous battle of nieuport, the king, smiling, returned, "and pray tell him from me his son has served as well in the warm battle of leipsic." my father being very much pleased with the honour i had received from so great a king, had ordered me to acquaint his majesty that, if he pleased to accept of their service, he would raise him a regiment of english horse at his own charge to be under my command, and to be sent over into holland; and my lord craven had orders from the king of england to signify his consent to the said levy. i acquainted my old friend sir john hepburn with the contents of the letter in order to have his advice, who being pleased with the proposal, would have me go to the king immediately with the letter, but present service put it off for some days. the taking of creutznach was the next service of any moment. the king drew out in person to the siege of this town. the town soon came to parley, but the castle seemed a work of difficulty, for its situation was so strong and so surrounded with works behind and above one and another, that most people thought the king would receive a check from it; but it was not easy to resist the resolution of the king of sweden. he never battered it but with two small pieces, but having viewed the works himself, ordered a mine under the first ravelin, which being sprung with success, he commands a storm. i think there was not more commanded men than volunteers, both english, scots, french, and germans. my old comrade was by this time recovered of his wound at leipsic, and made one. the first body of volunteers, of about forty, were led on by my lord craven, and i led the second, among whom were most of the reformado scots officers who took the castle of oppenheim. the first party was not able to make anything of it; the garrison fought with so much fury that many of the volunteer gentlemen being wounded, and some killed, the rest were beaten off with loss. the king was in some passion at his men, and rated them for running away, as he called it, though they really retreated in good order, and commanded the assault to be renewed. 'twas our turn to fall on next. our scots officers, not being used to be beaten, advanced immediately, and my lord craven with his volunteers pierced in with us, fighting gallantly in the breach with a pike in his hand; and, to give him the honour due to his bravery, he was with the first on the top of the rampart, and gave his hand to my comrade, and lifted him up after him. we helped one another up, till at last almost all the volunteers had gained the height of the ravelin, and maintained it with a great deal of resolution, expecting when the commanded men had gained the same height to advance upon the enemy; when one of the enemy's captains called to my lord craven, and told him if they might have honourable terms they would capitulate, which my lord telling him he would engage for, the garrison fired no more, and the captain, leaping down from the next rampart, came with my lord craven into the camp, where the conditions were agreed on, and the castle surrendered. after the taking of this town, the king, hearing of tilly's approach, and how he had beaten gustavus horn, the king's field-marshal, out of bamberg, began to draw his forces together, and leaving the care of his conquests in these parts to his chancellor oxenstiern, prepares to advance towards bavaria. i had taken an opportunity to wait upon his majesty with sir john hepburn and being about to introduce the discourse of my father's letter, the king told me he had received a compliment on my account in a letter from king charles. i told him his majesty had by his exceeding generosity bound me and all my friends to pay their acknowledgments to him, and that i supposed my father had obtained such a mention of it from the king of england, as gratitude moved him to that his majesty's favour had been shown in me to a family both willing and ready to serve him, that i had received some commands from my father, which, if his majesty pleased to do me the honour to accept of, might put me in a condition to acknowledge his majesty's goodness in a manner more proportioned to the sense i had of his favour; and with that i produced my father's letter, and read that clause in it which related to the regiment of horse, which was as follows:-- "i read with a great deal of satisfaction the account you give of the great and extraordinary conquests of the king of sweden, and with more his majesty's singular favour to you; i hope you will be careful to value and deserve so much honour. i am glad you rather chose to serve as a volunteer at your own charge, than to take any command, which, for want of experience, you might misbehave in. "i have obtained of the king that he will particularly thank his majesty of sweden for the honour he has done you, and if his majesty gives you so much freedom, i could be glad you should in the humblest manner thank his majesty in the name of an old broken soldier. "if you think yourself officer enough to command them, and his majesty pleased to accept them, i would have you offer to raise his majesty a regiment of horse, which, i think, i may near complete in our neighbourhood with some of your old acquaintance, who are very willing to see the world. if his majesty gives you the word, they shall receive his commands in the maes, the king having promised me to give them arms, and transport them for that service into holland; and i hope they may do his majesty such service as may be for your honour and the advantage of his majesty's interest and glory." "your loving father." "'tis an offer like a gentleman and like a soldier," says the king," and i'll accept of it on two conditions: first," says the king, "that i will pay your father the advance money for the raising the regiment; and next, that they shall be landed in the weser or the elbe; for which, if the king of england will not, i will pay the passage; for if they land in holland, it may prove very difficult to get them to us when the army shall be marched out of this part of the country." i returned this answer to my father, and sent my man george into england to order that regiment, and made him quartermaster. i sent blank commissions for the officers, signed by the king, to be filled up as my father should think fit; and when i had the king's order for the commissions, the secretary told me i must go back to the king with them. accordingly i went back to the king, who, opening the packet, laid all the commissions but one upon a table before him, and bade me take them, and keeping that one still in his hand, "now," says he, "you are one of my soldiers," and therewith gave me his commission, as colonel of horse in present pay. i took the commission kneeling, and humbly thanked his majesty. "but," says the king, "there is one article-of-war i expect of you more than of others." "your majesty can expect nothing of me which i shall not willingly comply with," said i, "as soon as i have the honour to understand what it is." "why, it is," says the king, "that you shall never fight but when you have orders, for i shall not be willing to lose my colonel before i have the regiment." "i shall be ready at all times, sir," returned i, "to obey your majesty's orders." i sent my man express with the king's answer and the commission to my father, who had the regiment completed in less than two months' time, and six of the officers, with a list of the rest, came away to me, whom i presented to his majesty when he lay before nuremberg, where they kissed his hand. one of the captains offered to bring the whole regiment travelling as private men into the army in six weeks' time, and either to transport their equipage, or buy it in germany, but 'twas thought impracticable. however, i had so many come in that manner that i had a complete troop always about me, and obtained the king's order to muster them as a troop. on the th of march the king decamped, and, marching up the river maine, bent his course directly for bavaria, taking several small places by the way, and expecting to engage with tilly, who he thought would dispute his entrance into bavaria, kept his army together; but tilly, finding himself too weak to encounter him, turned away, and leaving bavaria open to the king, marched into the upper palatinate. the king finding the country clear of the imperialists comes to nuremberg, made his entrance into that city the st of march, and being nobly treated by the citizens, he continued his march into bavaria, and on the th sat down before donauwerth. the town was taken the next day by storm, so swift were the conquests of this invincible captain. sir john hepburn, with the scots and the english volunteers at the head of them, entered the town first, and cut all the garrison to pieces, except such as escaped over the bridge. i had no share in the business of donauwerth, being now among the horse, but i was posted on the roads with five troops of horse, where we picked up a great many stragglers of the garrison, whom we made prisoners of war. 'tis observable that this town of donauwerth is a very strong place and well fortified, and yet such expedition did the king make, and such resolution did he use in his first attacks, that he carried the town without putting himself to the trouble of formal approaches. 'twas generally his way when he came before any town with a design to besiege it; he never would encamp at a distance and begin his trenches a great way off, but bring his men immediately within half musket-shot of the place; there getting under the best cover he could, he would immediately begin his batteries and trenches before their faces; and if there was any place possibly to be attacked, he would fall to storming immediately. by this resolute way of coming on he carried many a town in the first heat of his men, which would have held out many days against a more regular siege. this march of the king broke all tilly's measures, for now he was obliged to face about, and leaving the upper palatinate, to come to the assistance of the duke of bavaria; for the king being , strong, besides , foot and horse and dragoons which joined him from the duringer wald, was resolved to ruin the duke, who lay now open to him, and was the most powerful and inveterate enemy of the protestants in the empire. tilly was now joined with the duke of bavaria, and might together make about , men, and in order to keep the swedes out of the country of bavaria, had planted themselves along the banks of the river lech, which runs on the edge of the duke's territories; and having fortified the other side of the river, and planted his cannon for several miles at all the convenient places on the river, resolved to dispute the king's passage. i shall be the longer in relating this account of the lech, being esteemed in those days as great an action as any battle or siege of that age, and particularly famous for the disaster of the gallant old general tilly; and for that i can be more particular in it than other accounts, having been an eye-witness to every part of it. the king being truly informed of the disposition of the bavarian army, was once of the mind to have left the banks of the lech, have repassed the danube, and so setting down before ingolstadt, the duke's capital city, by the taking that strong town to have made his entrance into bavaria, and the conquest of such a fortress, one entire action; but the strength of the place and the difficulty of maintaining his leaguer in an enemy's country while tilly was so strong in the field, diverted him from that design; he therefore concluded that tilly was first to be beaten out of the country, and then the siege of ingolstadt would be the easier. whereupon the king resolved to go and view the situation of the enemy. his majesty went out the nd of april with a strong party of horse, which i had the honour to command. we marched as near as we could to the banks of the river, not to be too much exposed to the enemy's cannon, and having gained a little height, where the whole course of the river might be seen, the king halted, and commanded to draw up. the king alighted, and calling me to him, examined every reach and turning of the river by his glass, but finding the river run a long and almost a straight course he could find no place which he liked; but at last turning himself north, and looking down the stream, he found the river, stretching a long reach, doubles short upon itself, making a round and very narrow point. "there's a point will do our business," says the king, "and if the ground be good i'll pass there, let tilly do his worst." he immediately ordered a small party of horse to view the ground, and to bring him word particularly how high the bank was on each side and at the point. "and he shall have fifty dollars," says the king, "that will bring me word how deep the water is." i asked his majesty leave to let me go, which he would by no means allow of; but as the party was drawing out, a sergeant of dragoons told the king, if he pleased to let him go disguised as a boor, he would bring him an account of everything he desired. the king liked the notion well enough, and the fellow being very well acquainted with the country, puts on a ploughman's habit, and went away immediately with a long pole upon his shoulder. the horse lay all this while in the woods, and the king stood undiscerned by the enemy on the little hill aforesaid. the dragoon with his long pole comes down boldly to the bank of the river, and calling to the sentinels which tilly had placed on the other bank, talked with them, asked them if they could not help him over the river, and pretended he wanted to come to them. at last being come to the point where, as i said, the river makes a short turn, he stands parleying with them a great while, and sometimes, pretending to wade over, he puts his long pole into the water, then finding it pretty shallow he pulls off his hose and goes in, still thrusting his pole in before him, till being gotten up to his middle, he could reach beyond him, where it was too deep, and so shaking his head, comes back again. the soldiers on the other side, laughing at him, asked him if he could swim? he said, "no," "why, you fool you," says one of the sentinels, "the channel of the river is twenty feet deep." "how do you know that?" says the dragoon. "why, our engineer," says he, "measured it yesterday." this was what he wanted, but not yet fully satisfied, "ay, but," says he, "maybe it may not be very broad, and if one of you would wade in to meet me till i could reach you with my pole, i'd give him half a ducat to pull me over." the innocent way of his discourse so deluded the soldiers, that one of them immediately strips and goes in up to the shoulders, and our dragoon goes in on this side to meet him; but the stream took t' other soldier away, and he being a good swimmer, came swimming over to this side. the dragoon was then in a great deal of pain for fear of being discovered, and was once going to kill the fellow, and make off; but at last resolved to carry on the humour, and having entertained the fellow with a tale of a tub, about the swedes stealing his oats, the fellow being a-cold wanted to be gone, and he as willing to be rid of him, pretended to be very sorry he could not get over the river, and so makes off. by this, however, he learned both the depth and breadth of the channel, the bottom and nature of both shores, and everything the king wanted to know. we could see him from the hill by our glasses very plain, and could see the soldier naked with him. says the king, "he will certainly be discovered and knocked on the head from the other side: he is a fool," says the king, "he does not kill the fellow and run off." but when the dragoon told his tale, the king was extremely well satisfied with him, gave him a hundred dollars, and made him a quartermaster to a troop of cuirassiers. the king having farther examined the dragoon, he gave him a very distinct account of the shore and the ground on this side, which he found to be higher than the enemy's by ten or twelve foot, and a hard gravel. hereupon the king resolves to pass there, and in order to it gives, himself, particular directions for such a bridge as i believe never army passed a river on before nor since. his bridge was only loose planks laid upon large tressels in the same homely manner as i have seen bricklayers raise a low scaffold to build a brick wall; the tressels were made higher than one another to answer to the river as it became deeper or shallower, and was all framed and fitted before any appearance was made of attempting to pass. when all was ready the king brings his army down to the bank of the river, and plants his cannon as the enemy had done, some here and some there, to amuse them. at night, april th, the king commanded about men to march to the point, and to throw up a trench on either side, and quite round it with a battery of six pieces of cannon at each end, besides three small mounts, one at the point and one of each side, which had each of them two pieces upon them. this work was begun so briskly and so well carried on, the king firing all the night from the other parts of the river, that by daylight all the batteries at the new work were mounted, the trench lined with musketeers, and all the utensils of the bridge lay ready to be put together. now the imperialists discovered the design, but it was too late to hinder it; the musketeers in the great trench, and the five new batteries, made such continual fire that the other bank, which, as before, lay twelve feet below them, was too hot for the imperialists; whereupon tilly, to be provided for the king at his coming over, falls to work in a wood right against the point, and raises a great battery for twenty pieces of cannon, with a breastwork or line, as near the river as he could, to cover his men, thinking that when the king had built his bridge he might easily beat it down with his cannon. but the king had doubly prevented him, first by laying his bridge so low that none of tilly's shot could hurt it; for the bridge lay not above half a foot above the water's edge, by which means the king, who in that showed himself an excellent engineer, had secured it from any batteries to be made within the land, and the angle of the bank secured it from the remoter batteries on the other side, and the continual fire of the cannon and small shot beat the imperialists from their station just against it, they having no works to cover them. and in the second place, to secure his passage he sent over about men, and after that more, who had orders to cast up a large ravelin on the other bank, just where he designed to land his bridge. this was done with such expedition too, that it was finished before night, and in condition to receive all the shot of tilly's great battery, and effectually covered his bridge. while this was doing the king on his side lays over his bridge. both sides wrought hard all day and night, as if the spade, not the sword, had been to decide the controversy, and that he had got the victory whose trenches and batteries were first ready. in the meanwhile the cannon and musket bullets flew like hail, and made the service so hot that both sides had enough to do to make their men stand to their work. the king, in the hottest of it, animated his men by his presence, and tilly, to give him his due, did the same; for the execution was so great, and so many officers killed, general altringer wounded, and two sergeant-majors killed, that at last tilly himself was obliged to expose himself, and to come up to the very face of our line to encourage his men, and give his necessary orders. and here about one o'clock, much about the time that the king's brigade and works were finished, and just as they said he had ordered to fall on upon our ravelin with foot, was the brave old tilly slain with a musket ball in the thigh. he was carried off to ingolstadt, and lived some days after, but died of that wound the same day as the king had his horse shot under him at the siege of that town. we made no question of passing the river here, having brought everything so forward, and with such extraordinary success; but we should have found it a very hot piece of work if tilly had lived one day more, and, if i may give my opinion of it, having seen tilly's battery and breastwork, in the face of which we must have passed the river, i must say that, whenever we had marched, if tilly had fallen in with his horse and foot, placed in that trench, the whole army would have passed as much danger as in the face of a strong town in the storming a counterscarp. the king himself, when he saw with what judgment tilly had prepared his works, and what danger he must have run, would often say that day's success was every way equal to the victory of leipsic. tilly being hurt and carried off, as if the soul of the army had been lost, they began to draw off. the duke of bavaria took horse and rid away as if he had fled out of battle for his life. the other generals, with a little more caution, as well as courage, drew off by degrees, sending their cannon and baggage away first, and leaving some to continue firing on the bank of the river, to conceal their retreat. the river preventing any intelligence, we knew nothing of the disaster befallen them; and the king, who looked for blows, having finished his bridge and ravelin, ordered to run a line with palisadoes to take in more ground on the bank of the river, to cover the first troops he should send over. this being finished the same night, the king sends over a party of his guards to relieve the men who were in the ravelin, and commanded musketeers to man the new line out of the scots brigade. early in the morning a small party of scots, commanded by one captain forbes, of my lord reay's regiment, were sent out to learn something of the enemy, the king observing they had not fired all night; and while this party were abroad, the army stood in battalia; and my old friend sir john hepburn, whom of all men the king most depended upon for any desperate service, was ordered to pass the bridge with his brigade, and to draw up without the line, with command to advance as he found the horse, who were to second him, come over. sir john being passed without the trench, meets captain forbes with some prisoners, and the good news of the enemy's retreat. he sends him directly to the king, who was by this time at the head of his army, in full battalia, ready to follow his vanguard, expecting a hot day's work of it. sir john sends messenger after messenger to the king, entreating him to give him orders to advance; but the king would not suffer him, for he was ever upon his guard, and would not venture a surprise; so the army continued on this side the lech all day and the next night. in the morning the king sent for me, and ordered me to draw out horse, and a colonel with horse, and a colonel with dragoons, and ordered us to enter the wood by three ways, but so as to be able to relieve one another; and then ordered sir john hepburn with his brigade to advance to the edge of the wood to secure our retreat, and at the same time commanded another brigade of foot to pass the bridge, if need were, to second sir john hepburn, so warily did this prudent general proceed. we advanced with our horse into the bavarian camp, which we found forsaken. the plunder of it was inconsiderable, for the exceeding caution the king had used gave them time to carry off all their baggage. we followed them three or four miles, and returned to our camp. i confess i was most diverted that day with viewing the works which tilly had cast up, and must own again that had he not been taken off we had met with as desperate a piece of work as ever was attempted. the next day the rest of the cavalry came up to us, commanded by gustavus horn, and the king and the whole army followed. we advanced through the heart of bavaria, took rain at the first summons, and several other small towns, and sat down before augsburg. augsburg, though a protestant city, had a popish bavarian garrison in it of above men, commanded by a fugger, a great family in bavaria. the governor had posted several little parties as out-scouts at the distance of two miles and a half or three miles from the town. the king, at his coming up to this town, sends me with my little troop and three companies of dragoons to beat in these out-scouts. the first party i lighted on was not above sixteen men, who had made a small barricado across the road, and stood resolutely upon their guard. i commanded the dragoons to alight and open the barricado, which, while they resolutely performed, the sixteen men gave them two volleys of their muskets, and through the enclosures made their retreat to a turnpike about a quarter of a mile farther. we passed their first traverse, and coming up to the turnpike, i found it defended by musketeers. i prepared to attack them, sending word to the king how strong the enemy was, and desired some foot to be sent me. my dragoons fell on, and though the enemy made a very hot fire, had beat them from this post before foot, which the king had sent me, had come up. being joined with the foot, i followed the enemy, who retreated fighting, till they came under the cannon of a strong redoubt, where they drew up, and i could see another body of foot of about join them out of the works; upon which i halted, and considering i was in view of the town, and a great way from the army, i faced about and began to march off. as we marched i found the enemy followed, but kept at a distance, as if they only designed to observe me. i had not marched far, but i heard a volley of small shot, answered by two or three more, which i presently apprehended to be at the turnpike, where i had left a small guard of twenty-six men with a lieutenant. immediately i detached dragoons to relieve my men and secure my retreat, following myself as fast as the foot could march. the lieutenant sent me back word the post was taken by the enemy, and my men cut off. upon this i doubled my pace, and when i came up i found it as the lieutenant said; for the post was taken and manned with musketeers and three troops of horse. by this time, also, i found the party in my rear made up towards me, so that i was like to be charged in a narrow place both in front and rear. i saw there was no remedy but with all my force to fall upon that party before me, and so to break through before those from the town could come up with me; wherefore, commanding my dragoons to alight, i ordered them to fall on upon the foot. their horse were drawn up in an enclosed field on one side of the road, a great ditch securing the other side, so that they thought if i charged the foot in front they would fall upon my flank, while those behind would charge my rear; and, indeed, had the other come in time, they had cut me off. my dragoons made three fair charges on their foot, but were received with so much resolution and so brisk a fire, that they were beaten off, and sixteen men killed. seeing them so rudely handled, and the horse ready to fall in, i relieved them with musketeers, and they renewed the attack; at the same time, with my troop of horse, flanked on both wings with fifty musketeers, i faced their horse, but did not offer to charge them. the case grew now desperate, and the enemy behind were just at my heels with near men. the captain who commanded the musketeers who flanked my horse came up to me; says he, "if we do not force this pass all will be lost; if you will draw out your troop and twenty of my foot, and fall in, i'll engage to keep off the horse with the rest." "with all my heart," says i. immediately i wheeled off my troop, and a small party of the musketeers followed me, and fell in with the dragoons and foot, who, seeing the danger too as well as i, fought like madmen. the foot at the turnpike were not able to hinder our breaking through, so we made our way out, killing about of them, and put the rest into confusion. but now was i in as great a difficulty as before how to fetch off my brave captain of foot, for they charged home upon him. he defended himself with extraordinary gallantry, having the benefit of a piece of a hedge to cover him, but he lost half his men, and was just upon the point of being defeated when the king, informed by a soldier that escaped from the turnpike, one of twenty-six, had sent a party of dragoons to bring me off; these came upon the spur, and joined with me just as i had broke through the turnpike. the enemy's foot rallied behind their horse, and by this time their other party was come in; but seeing our relief they drew off together. i lost above men in these skirmishes, and killed them about . we secured the turnpike, and placed a company of foot there with dragoons, and came back well beaten to the army. the king, to prevent such uncertain skirmishes, advanced the next day in view of the town, and, according to his custom, sits down with his whole army within cannon-shot of their walls. the king won this great city by force of words, for by two or three messages and letters to and from the citizens, the town was gained, the garrison not daring to defend them against their wills. his majesty made his public entrance into the city on the th of april, and receiving the compliments of the citizens, advanced immediately to ingolstadt, which is accounted, and really is, the strongest town in all these parts. the town had a very strong garrison in it, and the duke of bavaria lay entrenched with his army under the walls of it, on the other side of the river. the king, who never loved long sieges, having viewed the town, and brought his army within musket-shot of it, called a council of war, where it was the king's opinion, in short, that the town would lose him more than 'twas worth, and therefore he resolved to raise his siege. here the king going to view the town had his horse shot with a cannon-bullet from the works, which tumbled the king and his horse over one another, that everybody thought he had been killed; but he received no hurt at all. that very minute, as near as could be learnt, general tilly died in the town of the shot he received on the bank of the lech, as aforesaid. i was not in the camp when the king was hurt, for the king had sent almost all the horse and dragoons, under gustavus horn, to face the duke of bavaria's camp, and after that to plunder the country; which truly was a work the soldiers were very glad of, for it was very seldom they had that liberty given them, and they made very good use of it when it was, for the country of bavaria was rich and plentiful, having seen no enemy before during the whole war. the army having left the siege of ingolstadt, proceeds to take in the rest of bavaria. sir john hepburn, with three brigades of foot, and gustavus horn, with horse and dragoons, went to the landshut, and took it the same day. the garrison was all horse, and gave us several camisadoes at our approach, in one of which i lost two of my troops, but when we had beat them into close quarters they presently capitulated. the general got a great sum of money of the town, besides a great many presents to the officers. and from thence the king went on to munich, the duke of bavaria's court. some of the general officers would fain have had the plundering of the duke's palace, but the king was too generous. the city paid him , dollars; and the duke's magazine was there seized, in which was pieces of cannon, and small arms for above , men. the great chamber of the duke's rarities was preserved, by the king's special order, with a great deal of care. i expected to have stayed here some time, and to have taken a very exact account of this curious laboratory; but being commanded away, i had no time, and the fate of the war never gave me opportunity to see it again. the imperialists, under the command of commissary osta, had besieged biberach, an imperial city not very well fortified; and the inhabitants being under the swedes' protection, defended themselves as well as they could, but were in great danger, and sent several expresses to the king for help. the king immediately detaches a strong body of horse and foot to relieve biberach, and would be the commander himself. i marched among the horse, but the imperialists saved us the labour; for the news of the king's coming frighted away osta, that he left biberach, and hardly looked behind him till he got up to the bodensee, on the confines of switzerland. at our return from this expedition the king had the first news of wallenstein's approach, who, on the death of count tilly, being declared generalissimo of the emperor's forces, had played the tyrant in bohemia, and was now advancing with , men, as they reported, to relieve the duke of bavaria. the king, therefore, in order to be in a posture to receive this great general, resolves to quit bavaria, and to expect him on the frontiers of franconia. and because he knew the nurembergers for their kindness to him would be the first sacrifice, he resolved to defend that city against him whatever it cost. nevertheless he did not leave bavaria without a defence; but, on the one hand, he left sir john baner with , men about augsburg, and the duke of saxe-weimar with another like army about ulm and meningen, with orders so to direct their march as that they might join him upon any occasion in a few days. we encamped about nuremberg the middle of june. the army, after so many detachments, was not above , men. the imperial army, joined with the bavarian, were not so numerous as was reported, but were really , men. the king, not strong enough to fight, yet, as he used to say, was strong enough not to be forced to fight, formed his camp so under the cannon of nuremberg that there was no besieging the town but they must besiege him too; and he fortified his camp in so formidable a manner that wallenstein never durst attack him. on the th of june wallenstein's troops appeared, and on the th of july encamped close by the king, and posted themselves not on the bavarian side, but between the king and his own friends of schwaben and frankenland, in order to intercept his provisions, and, as they thought, to starve him out of his camp. here they lay to see, as it were, who could subsist longest. the king was strong in horse, for we had full horse and dragoons in the army, and this gave us great advantage in the several skirmishes we had with the enemy. the enemy had possession of the whole country, and had taken effectual care to furnish their army with provisions; they placed their guards in such excellent order, to secure their convoys, that their waggons went from stage to stage as quiet as in a time of peace, and were relieved every five miles by parties constantly posted on the road. and thus the imperial general sat down by us, not doubting but he should force the king either to fight his way through on very disadvantageous terms, or to rise for want of provisions, and leave the city of nuremberg a prey to his army; for he had vowed the destruction of the city, and to make it a second magdeburg. but the king, who was not to be easily deceived, had countermined all wallenstein's designs. he had passed his honour to the nurembergers that he would not leave them, and they had undertaken to victual his army, and secure him from want, which they did so effectually, that he had no occasion to expose his troops to any hazard or fatigues for convoys or forage on any account whatever. the city of nuremberg is a very rich and populous city, and the king being very sensible of their danger, had given his word for their defence. and when they, being terrified at the threats of the imperialists, sent their deputies to beseech the king to take care of them, he sent them word he would, and be besieged with them. they, on the other hand, laid in such stores of all sorts of provision, both for men and horse, that had wallenstein lain before it six months longer, there would have been no scarcity. every private house was a magazine, the camp was plentifully supplied with all manner of provisions, and the market always full, and as cheap as in times of peace. the magistrates were so careful, and preserved so excellent an order in the disposal of all sorts of provision, that no engrossing of corn could be practised, for the prices were every day directed at the town-house; and if any man offered to demand more money for corn than the stated price, he could not sell, because at the town store-house you might buy cheaper. here are two instances of good and bad conduct: the city of magdeburg had been entreated by the king to settle funds, and raise money for their provision and security, and to have a sufficient garrison to defend them, but they made difficulties, either to raise men for themselves, or to admit the king's troops to assist them, for fear of the charge of maintaining them; and this was the cause of the city's ruin. the city of nuremberg opened their arms to receive the assistance proffered by the swedes, and their purses to defend their town and common cause; and this was the saving them absolutely from destruction. the rich burghers and magistrates kept open houses, where the officers of the army were always welcome; and the council of the city took such care of the poor that there was no complaining nor disorders in the whole city. there is no doubt but it cost the city a great deal of money; but i never saw a public charge borne with so much cheerfulness, nor managed with so much prudence and conduct in my life. the city fed above , mouths every day, including their own poor, besides themselves; and yet when the king had lain thus three months, and finding his armies longer in coming up than he expected, asked the burgrave how their magazines held out, he answered, they desired his majesty not to hasten things for them, for they could maintain themselves and him twelve months longer if there was occasion. this plenty kept both the army and city in good health, as well as in good heart; whereas nothing was to be had of us but blows, for we fetched nothing from without our works, nor had no business without the line but to interrupt the enemy. the manner of the king's encampment deserves a particular chapter. he was a complete surveyor and a master in fortification, not to be outdone by anybody. he had posted his army in the suburbs of the town, and drawn lines round the whole circumference, so that he begirt the whole city with his army. his works were large, the ditch deep, flanked with innumerable bastions, ravelins, horn-works, forts, redoubts, batteries, and palisadoes, the incessant work of men for about fourteen days; besides that, the king was adding something or other to it every day, and the very posture of his camp was enough to tell a bigger army than wallenstein's that he was not to be assaulted in his trenches. the king's design appeared chiefly to be the preservation of the city; but that was not all. he had three armies acting abroad in three several places. gustavus horn was on the moselle, the chancellor oxenstiern about mentz, cologne, and the rhine, duke william and duke bernhard, together with general baner, in bavaria. and though he designed they should all join him, and had wrote to them all to that purpose, yet he did not hasten them, knowing that while he kept the main army at bay about nuremberg, they would, without opposition, reduce those several countries they were acting in to his power. this occasioned his lying longer in the camp at nuremberg than he would have done, and this occasioned his giving the imperialists so many alarms by his strong parties of horse, of which he was well provided, that they might not be able to make any considerable detachments for the relief of their friends. and here he showed his mastership in the war, for by this means his conquests went on as effectually as if he had been abroad himself. in the meantime it was not to be expected two such armies should lie long so near without some action. the imperial army, being masters of the field, laid the country for twenty miles round nuremberg in a manner desolate. what the inhabitants could carry away had been before secured in such strong towns as had garrisons to protect them, and what was left the hungry crabats devoured or set on fire; but sometimes they were met with by our men, who often paid them home for it. there had passed several small rencounters between our parties and theirs; and as it falls out in such cases, sometimes one side, sometimes the other, got the better. but i have observed there never was any party sent out by the king's special appointment but always came home with victory. the first considerable attempt, as i remember, was made on a convoy of ammunition. the party sent out was commanded by a saxon colonel, and consisted of horse and dragoons, who burnt above waggons loaded with ammunition and stores for the army, besides taking about muskets, which they brought back to the army. the latter end of july the king received advice that the imperialists had formed a magazine for provision at a town called freynstat, twenty miles from nuremberg. hither all the booty and contributions raised in the upper palatinate, and parts adjacent, was brought and laid up as in a place of security, a garrison of men being placed to defend it; and when a quantity of provisions was got together, convoys were appointed to fetch it off. the king was resolved, if possible, to take or destroy this magazine; and sending for colonel dubalt, a swede, and a man of extraordinary conduct, he tells him his design, and withal that he must be the man to put it in execution, and ordered him to take what forces he thought convenient. the colonel, who knew the town very well, and the country about it, told his majesty he would attempt it with all his heart; but he was afraid 'twould require some foot to make the attack. "but we can't stay for that," says the king; "you must then take some dragoons with you;" and immediately the king called for me. i was just coming up the stairs as the king's page was come out to inquire for me, so i went immediately in to the king. "here is a piece of hot work for you," says the king, "dubalt will tell it you; go together and contrive it." we immediately withdrew, and the colonel told me the design, and what the king and he had discoursed; that, in his opinion, foot would be wanted: but the king had declared there was no time for the foot to march, and had proposed dragoons. i told him, i thought dragoons might do as well; so we agreed to take horse and dragoons. the king, impatient in his design, came into the room to us to know what we had resolved on, approved our measures, gave us orders immediately; and, turning to me, "you shall command the dragoons," says the king, "but dubalt must be general in this case, for he knows the country." "your majesty," said i, "shall be always served by me in any figure you please." the king wished us good speed, and hurried us away the same afternoon, in order to come to the place in time. we marched slowly on because of the carriages we had with us, and came to freynstat about one o'clock in the night perfectly undiscovered. the guards were so negligent, that we came to the very port before they had notice of us, and a sergeant with twelve dragoons thrust in upon the out-sentinels, and killed them without noise. immediately ladders were placed to the half-moon which defended the gate, which the dragoons mounted and carried in a trice, about twenty-eight men being cut in pieces within. as soon as the ravelin was taken, they burst open the gate, at which i entered at the head of dragoons, and seized the drawbridge. by this time the town was in alarm, and the drums beat to arms, but it was too late, for by the help of a petard we broke open the gate, and entered the town. the garrison made an obstinate fight for about half-an-hour, but our men being all in, and three troops of horse dismounted coming to our assistance with their carabines, the town was entirely mastered by three of the clock, and guards set to prevent anybody running to give notice to the enemy. there were about of the garrison killed, and the rest taken prisoners. the town being thus secured, the gates were opened, and colonel dubalt came in with the horse. the guards being set, we entered the magazine, where we found an incredible quantity of all sorts of provision. there was tons of bread, sacks of meal, sacks of oats, and of other provisions in proportion. we caused as much of it as could be loaded to be brought away in such waggons and carriages as we found, and set the rest on fire, town and all. we stayed by it till we saw it past a possibility of being saved, and then drew off with waggons, which we found in the place, most of which we loaded with bread, meal, and oats. while we were doing this we sent a party of dragoons into the fields, who met us again as we came out, with above head of black cattle, besides sheep. our next care was to bring this booty home without meeting with the enemy, to secure which, the colonel immediately despatched an express to the king, to let him know of our success, and to desire a detachment might be made to secure our retreat, being charged with so much plunder. and it was no more than need; for though we had used all the diligence possible to prevent any notice, yet somebody, more forward than ordinary, had escaped away, and carried news of it to the imperial army. the general, upon this bad news, detaches major-general sparr with a body of men to cut off our retreat. the king, who had notice of this detachment, marches out in person with men to wait upon general sparr. all this was the account of one day. the king met general sparr at the moment when his troops were divided, fell upon them, routed one part of them, and the rest in a few hours after, killed them men, and took the general prisoner. in the interval of this action we came safe to the camp with our booty, which was very considerable, and would have supplied our whole army for a month. thus we feasted at the enemy's cost, and beat them into the bargain. the king gave all the live cattle to the nurembergers, who, though they had really no want of provisions, yet fresh meat was not so plentiful as such provisions which were stored up in vessels and laid by. after this skirmish we had the country more at command than before, and daily fetched in fresh provisions and forage in the fields. the two armies had now lain a long time in sight of one another, and daily skirmishes had considerably weakened them; and the king, beginning to be impatient, hastened the advancement of his friends to join him, in which also they were not backward; but having drawn together their forces from several parts, and all joined the chancellor oxenstiern, news came, the th of august, that they were in full march to join us; and being come to a small town called brock, the king went out of the camp with about horse to view them. i went along with the horse, and the st of august saw the review of all the armies together, which were , men, in extraordinary equipage, old soldiers, and commanded by officers of the greatest conduct and experience in the world. there was the rich chancellor of sweden, who commanded as general; gustavus horn and john baner, both swedes and old generals; duke william and duke bernhard of weimar; the landgrave of hesse-cassel, the palatine of birkenfelt, and abundance of princes and lords of the empire. the armies being joined, the king, who was now a match for wallenstein, quits his camp and draws up in battalia before the imperial trenches: but the scene was changed. wallenstein was no more able to fight now than the king was before; but, keeping within his trenches, stood upon his guard. the king coming up close to his works, plants batteries, and cannonaded him in his very camp. the imperialists, finding the king press upon them, retreat into a woody country about three leagues, and, taking possession of an old ruined castle, posted their army behind it. this old castle they fortified, and placed a very strong guard there. the king, having viewed the place, though it was a very strong post, resolved to attack it with the whole right wing. the attack was made with a great deal of order and resolution, the king leading the first party on with sword in hand, and the fight was maintained on both sides with the utmost gallantry and obstinacy all the day and the next night too, for the cannon and musket never gave over till the morning; but the imperialists having the advantage of the hill, of their works and batteries, and being continually relieved, and the swedes naked, without cannon or works, the post was maintained, and the king, finding it would cost him too much blood, drew off in the morning. this was the famous fight at altemberg, where the imperialists boasted to have shown the world the king of sweden was not invincible. they call it the victory at altemberg; 'tis true the king failed in his attempt of carrying their works, but there was so little of a victory in it, that the imperial general thought fit not to venture a second brush, but to draw off their army as soon as they could to a safer quarter. i had no share in this attack, very few of the horse being in the action, but my comrade, who was always among the scots volunteers, was wounded and taken prisoner by the enemy. they used him very civilly, and the king and wallenstein straining courtesies with one another, the king released major-general sparr without ransom, and the imperial general sent home colonel tortenson, a swede, and sixteen volunteer gentlemen, who were taken in the heat of the action, among whom my captain was one. the king lay fourteen days facing the imperial army, and using all the stratagems possible to bring them to a battle, but to no purpose, during which time we had parties continually out, and very often skirmishes with the enemy. i had a command of one of these parties in an adventure, wherein i got no booty, nor much honour. the king had received advice of a convoy of provisions which was to come to the enemy's camp from the upper palatinate, and having a great mind to surprise them, he commanded us to waylay them with horse, and dragoons. i had exact directions given me of the way they were to come, and posting my horse in a village a little out of the road, i lay with my dragoons in a wood, by which they were to pass by break of day. the enemy appeared with their convoy, and being very wary, their out-scouts discovered us in the wood, and fired upon the sentinel i had posted in a tree at the entrance of the wood. finding myself discovered, i would have retreated to the village where my horse were posted, but in a moment the wood was skirted with the enemy's horse, and commanded musketeers advanced to beat me out. in this pickle i sent away three messengers one after another for the horse, who were within two miles of me, to advance to my relief; but all my messengers fell into the enemy's hands. four hundred of my dragoons on foot, whom i had placed at a little distance before me, stood to their work, and beat off two charges of the enemy's foot with some loss on both sides. meantime of my men faced about, and rushing out of the wood, broke through a party of the enemy's horse, who stood to watch our coming out. i confess i was exceedingly surprised at it, thinking those fellows had done it to make their escape, or else were gone over to the enemy; and my men were so discouraged at it, that they began to look about which way to run to save themselves, and were just upon the point of disbanding to shift for themselves, when one of the captains called to me aloud to beat a parley and treat. i made no answer, but, as if i had not heard him, immediately gave the word for all the captains to come together. the consultation was but short, for the musketeers were advancing to a third charge, with numbers which we were not likely to deal with. in short, we resolved to beat a parley, and demand quarter, for that was all we could expect, when on a sudden the body of horse i had posted in the village, being directed by the noise, had advanced to relieve me, if they saw occasion, and had met the dragoons, who guided them directly to the spot where they had broke through, and altogether fell upon the horse of the enemy, who were posted on that side, and, mastering them before they could be relieved, cut them all to pieces and brought me off. under the shelter of this party, we made good our retreat to the village, but we lost above men, and were glad to make off from the village too, for the enemy were very much too strong for us. returning thence towards the camp, we fell foul with crabats, who had been upon the plundering account. we made ourselves some amends upon them for our former loss, for we showed them no mercy; but our misfortunes were not ended, for we had but just despatched those crabats when we fell in with imperial horse, who, on the expectation of the aforesaid convoy, were sent out to secure them. all i could do could not persuade my men to stand their ground against this party; so that finding they would run away in confusion, i agreed to make off, and facing to the right, we went over a large common a full trot, till at last fear, which always increases in a flight, brought us to a plain flight, the enemy at our heels. i must confess i was never so mortified in my life; 'twas to no purpose to turn head, no man would stand by us; we run for life, and a great many we left by the way who were either wounded by the enemy's shot, or else could not keep race with us. at last, having got over the common, which was near two miles, we came to a lane; one of our captains, a saxon by country, and a gentleman of a good fortune, alighted at the entrance of the lane, and with a bold heart faced about, shot his own horse, and called his men to stand by him and defend the lane. some of his men halted, and we rallied about men, which we posted as well as we could, to defend the pass; but the enemy charged us with great fury. the saxon gentleman, after defending himself with exceeding gallantry, and refusing quarter, was killed upon the spot. a german dragoon, as i thought him, gave me a rude blow with the stock of his piece on the side of my head, and was just going to repeat it, when one of my men shot him dead. i was so stunned with the blow, that i knew nothing; but recovering, i found myself in the hands of two of the enemy's officers, who offered me quarter, which i accepted; and indeed, to give them their due, they used me very civilly. thus this whole party was defeated, and not above men got safe to the army; nor had half the number escaped, had not the saxon captain made so bold a stand at the head of the lane. several other parties of the king's army revenged our quarrel, and paid them home for it; but i had a particular loss in this defeat, that i never saw the king after; for though his majesty sent a trumpet to reclaim us as prisoners the very next day, yet i was not delivered, some scruple happening about exchanging, till after the battle of lützen, where that gallant prince lost his life. the imperial army rose from their camp about eight or ten days after the king had removed, and i was carried prisoner in the army till they sat down to the siege of coburg castle, and then was left with other prisoners of war, in the custody of colonel spezuter, in a small castle near the camp called neustadt. here we continued indifferent well treated, but could learn nothing of what action the armies were upon, till the duke of friedland, having been beaten off from the castle of coburg, marched into saxony, and the prisoners were sent for into the camp, as was said, in order to be exchanged. i came into the imperial leaguer at the siege of leipsic, and within three days after my coming, the city was surrendered, and i got liberty to lodge at my old quarters in the town upon my parole. the king of sweden was at the heels of the imperialists, for finding wallenstein resolved to ruin the elector of saxony, the king had re-collected as much of his divided army as he could, and came upon him just as he was going to besiege torgau. as it is not my design to write a history of any more of these wars than i was actually concerned in, so i shall only note that, upon the king's approach, wallenstein halted, and likewise called all his troops together, for he apprehended the king would fall on him, and we that were prisoners fancied the imperial soldiers went unwillingly out, for the very name of the king of sweden was become terrible to them. in short, they drew all the soldiers of the garrison they could spare out of leipsic; sent for pappenheim again, who was gone but three days before with men on a private expedition. on the th of november, the armies met on the plains of lützen; a long and bloody battle was fought, the imperialists were entirely routed and beaten, , slain upon the spot, their cannon, baggage, and prisoners taken, but the king of sweden lost his life, being killed at the head of his troops in the beginning of the fight. it is impossible to describe the consternation the death of this conquering king struck into all the princes of germany; the grief for him exceeded all manner of human sorrow. all people looked upon themselves as ruined and swallowed up; the inhabitants of two-thirds of all germany put themselves into mourning for him; when the ministers mentioned him in their sermons or prayers, whole congregations would burst out into tears. the elector of saxony was utterly inconsolable, and would for several days walk about his palace like a distracted man, crying the saviour of germany was lost, the refuge of abused princes was gone, the soul of the war was dead; and from that hour was so hopeless of out-living the war, that he sought to make peace with the emperor. three days after this mournful victory, the saxons recovered the town of leipsic by stratagem. the duke of saxony's forces lay at torgau, and perceiving the confusion the imperialists were in at the news of the overthrow of their army, they resolved to attempt the recovery of the town. they sent about twenty scattering troopers, who, pretending themselves to be imperialists fled from the battle, were let in one by one, and still as they came in, they stayed at the court of guard in the port, entertaining the soldiers with discourse about the fight, and how they escaped, and the like, till the whole number being got in, at a watchword they fell on the guard, and cut them all in pieces; and immediately opening the gate to three troops of saxon horse, the town was taken in a moment. it was a welcome surprise to me, for i was at liberty of course; and the war being now on another foot, as i thought, and the king dead, i resolved to quit the service. i had sent my man, as i have already noted, into england, in order to bring over the troops my father had raised for the king of sweden. he executed his commission so well, that he landed with five troops at embden in very good condition; and orders were sent them by the king, to join the duke of lunenberg's army, which they did at the siege of boxtude, in the lower saxony. here by long and very sharp service they were most of them cut off, and though they were several times recruited, yet i understood there were not three full troops left. the duke of saxe-weimar, a gentleman of great courage, had the command of the army after the king's death, and managed it with so much prudence, that all things were in as much order as could be expected, after so great a loss; for the imperialists were everywhere beaten, and wallenstein never made any advantage of the king's death. i waited on him at heilbronn, whither he was gone to meet the great chancellor of sweden, where i paid him my respects, and desired he would bestow the remainder of my regiment on my comrade the captain, which he did with all the civility and readiness imaginable. so i took my leave of him, and prepared to come for england. i shall only note this, that at this diet, the protestant princes of the empire renewed their league with one another, and with the crown of sweden, and came to several regulations and conclusions for the carrying on the war, which they afterwards prosecuted, under the direction of the said chancellor of sweden. but it was not the work of a small difficulty nor of a short time. and having been persuaded to continue almost two years afterwards at frankfort, heilbronn, and there-about, by the particular friendship of that noble wise man, and extraordinary statesman, axeli oxenstiern, chancellor of sweden, i had opportunity to be concerned in, and present at, several treaties of extraordinary consequence, sufficient for a history, if that were my design. particularly i had the happiness to be present at, and have some concern in, the treaty for the restoring the posterity of the truly noble palsgrave, king of bohemia. king james of england had indeed too much neglected the whole family; and i may say with authority enough, from my own knowledge of affairs, had nothing been done for them but what was from england, that family had remained desolate and forsaken to this day. but that glorious king, whom i can never mention without some remark of his extraordinary merit, had left particular instructions with his chancellor to rescue the palatinate to its rightful lord, as a proof of his design to restore the liberty of germany, and reinstate the oppressed princes who were subjected to the tyranny of the house of austria. pursuant to this resolution, the chancellor proceeded very much like a man of honour; and though the king of bohemia was dead a little before, yet he carefully managed the treaty, answered the objections of several princes, who, in the general ruin of the family, had reaped private advantages, settled the capitulations for the quota of contributions very much for their advantage, and fully reinstalled the prince charles in the possession of all his dominions in the lower palatinate, which afterwards was confirmed to him and his posterity by the peace of westphalia, where all these bloody wars were finished in a peace, which has since been the foundation of the protestants' liberty, and the best security of the whole empire. i spent two years rather in wandering up and down than travelling; for though i had no mind to serve, yet i could not find in my heart to leave germany; and i had obtained some so very close intimacies with the general officers that i was often in the army, and sometimes they did me the honour to bring me into their councils of war. particularly, at that eminent council before the battle of nördlingen, i was invited to the council of war, both by duke bernhard of weimar and by gustavus horn. they were generals of equal worth, and their courage and experience had been so well, and so often tried, that more than ordinary regard was always given to what they said. duke bernhard was indeed the younger man, and gustavus had served longer under our great schoolmaster the king; but it was hard to judge which was the better general, since both had experience enough, and shown undeniable proofs both of their bravery and conduct. i am obliged, in the course of my relation, so often to mention the great respect i often received from these great men, that it makes me sometimes jealous, lest the reader may think i affect it as a vanity. the truth is, that i am ready to confess, the honours i received, upon all occasions, from persons of such worth, and who had such an eminent share in the greatest action of that age, very much pleased me, and particularly, as they gave me occasions to see everything that was doing on the whole stage of the war. for being under no command, but at liberty to rove about, i could come to no swedish garrison or party, but, sending my name to the commanding officer, i could have the word sent me; and if i came into the army, i was often treated as i was now at this famous battle of nördlingen. but i cannot but say, that i always looked upon this particular respect to be the effect of more than ordinary regard the great king of sweden always showed me, rather than any merit of my own; and the veneration they all had for his memory, made them continue to show me all the marks of a suitable esteem. but to return to the council of war, the great and, indeed, the only question before us was, shall we give battle to the imperialists, or not? gustavus horn was against it, and gave, as i thought, the most invincible arguments against a battle that reason could imagine. first, they were weaker than the enemy by above men. secondly, the cardinal-infant of spain, who was in the imperial army with men, was but there _en passant_, being going from italy to flanders, to take upon him the government of the low countries; and if he saw no prospect of immediate action, would be gone in a few days. thirdly, they had two reinforcements, one of men, under the command of colonel cratz, and one of men, under the rhinegrave, who were just at hand--the last within three days' march of them: and, lastly, they had already saved their honour; in that they had put foot into the town of nördlingen, in the face of the enemy's army, and consequently the town might hold out some days the longer. fate, rather than reason, certainly blinded the rest of the generals against such arguments as these. duke bernhard and almost all the generals were for fighting, alleging the affront it would be to the swedish reputation to see their friends in the town lost before their faces. gustavus horn stood stiff to his cautious advice, and was against it, and i thought the baron d'offkirk treated him a little indecently; for, being very warm in the matter, he told them, that if gustavus adolphus had been governed by such cowardly counsel, he had never been conqueror of half germany in two years. "no," replied old general horn, very smartly, "but he had been now alive to have testified for me, that i was never taken by him for a coward: and yet," says he, "the king was never for a victory with a hazard, when he could have it without." i was asked my opinion, which i would have declined, being in no commission; but they pressed me to speak. i told them i was for staying at least till the rhinegrave came up, who, at least, might, if expresses were sent to hasten him, be up with us in twenty-four hours. but offkirk could not hold his passion, and had not he been overruled he would have almost quarrelled with marshal horn. upon which the old general, not to foment him, with a great deal of mildness stood up, and spoke thus-- "come, offkirk," says he, "i'll submit my opinion to you, and the majority of our fellow-soldiers. we will fight, but, upon my word, we shall have our hands full." the resolution thus taken, they attacked the imperial army. i must confess the counsels of this day seemed as confused as the resolutions of the night. duke bernhard was to lead the van of the left wing, and to post himself upon a hill which was on the enemy's right without their entrenchments, so that, having secured that post, they might level their cannon upon the foot, who stood behind the lines, and relieved the town at pleasure. he marched accordingly by break of day, and falling with great fury upon eight regiments of foot, which were posted at the foot of the hill, he presently routed them, and made himself master of the post. flushed with this success, he never regards his own concerted measures of stopping there and possessing what he had got, but pushes on and falls in with the main body of the enemy's army. while this was doing, gustavus horn attacks another post on the hill, where the spaniards had posted and lodged themselves behind some works they had cast up on the side of the hill. here they defended themselves with extreme obstinacy for five hours, and at last obliged the swedes to give it over with loss. this extraordinary gallantry of the spaniards was the saving of the imperial army; for duke bernhard having all this while resisted the frequent charges of the imperialists, and borne the weight of two-thirds of their army, was not able to stand any longer, but sending one messenger on the neck of another to gustavus horn for more foot, he, finding he could not carry his point, had given it over, and was in full march to second the duke. but now it was too late, for the king of hungary seeing the duke's men, as it were, wavering, and having notice of horn's wheeling about to second him, falls in with all his force upon his flank, and with his hungarian hussars, made such a furious charge, that the swedes could stand no longer. the rout of the left wing was so much the more unhappy, as it happened just upon gustavus horn's coming up; for, being pushed on with the enemies at their heels, they were driven upon their own friends, who, having no ground to open and give them way, were trodden down by their own runaway brethren. this brought all into the utmost confusion. the imperialists cried "victoria!" and fell into the middle of the infantry with a terrible slaughter. i have always observed, 'tis fatal to upbraid an old experienced officer with want of courage. if gustavus horn had not been whetted with the reproaches of the baron d'offkirk, and some of the other general officers, i believe it had saved the lives of a thousand men; for when all was thus lost, several officers advised him to make a retreat with such regiments as he had yet unbroken; but nothing could persuade him to stir a foot. but turning his flank into a front, he saluted the enemy, as they passed by him in pursuit of the rest, with such terrible volleys of small shot, as cost them the lives of abundance of their men. the imperialists, eager in the pursuit, left him unbroken, till the spanish brigade came up and charged him. these he bravely repulsed with a great slaughter, and after them a body of dragoons; till being laid at on every side, and most of his men killed, the brave old general, with all the rest who were left, were made prisoners. the swedes had a terrible loss here, for almost all their infantry were killed or taken prisoners. gustavus horn refused quarter several times; and still those that attacked him were cut down by his men, who fought like furies, and by the example of their general, behaved themselves like lions. but at last, these poor remains of a body of the bravest men in the world were forced to submit. i have heard him say, he had much rather have died than been taken, but that he yielded in compassion to so many brave men as were about him; for none of them would take quarter till he gave his consent. i had the worst share in this battle that ever i had in any action of my life; and that was to be posted among as brave a body of horse as any in germany, and yet not be able to succour our own men; but our foot were cut in pieces (as it were) before our faces, and the situation of the ground was such as we could not fall in. all that we were able to do, was to carry off about of the foot, who, running away in the rout of the left wing, rallied among our squadrons, and got away with us. thus we stood till we saw all was lost, and then made the best retreat we could to save ourselves, several regiments having never charged, nor fired a shot; for the foot had so embarrassed themselves among the lines and works of the enemy, and in the vineyards and mountains, that the horse were rendered absolutely unserviceable. the rhinegrave had made such expedition to join us, that he reached within three miles of the place of action that night, and he was a great safeguard for us in rallying our dispersed men, who else had fallen into the enemy's hands, and in checking the pursuit of the enemy. and indeed, had but any considerable body of the foot made an orderly retreat, it had been very probable they had given the enemy a brush that would have turned the scale of victory; for our horse being whole, and in a manner untouched, the enemy found such a check in the pursuit, that of their forwardest men following too eagerly, fell in with the rhinegrave's advanced troops the next day, and were cut in pieces without mercy. this gave us some satisfaction for the loss, but it was but small compared to the ruin of that day. we lost near men upon the spot, and above prisoners, all our cannon and baggage, and colours. i thought i never made so indifferent a figure in my life, and so we thought all; to come away, lose our infantry, our general, and our honour, and never fight for it. duke bernhard was utterly disconsolate for old gustavus horn, for he concluded him killed; he tore the hair from his head like a madman, and telling the rhinegrave the story of the council of war, would reproach himself with not taking his advice, often repeating it in his passion. "tis i," said he, "have been the death of the bravest general in germany;" would call himself fool and boy, and such names, for not listening to the reasons of an old experienced soldier. but when he heard he was alive in the enemy's hands he was the easier, and applied himself to the recruiting his troops, and the like business of the war; and it was not long before he paid the imperialists with interest. i returned to frankfort-au-main after this action, which happened the th of august ; but the progress of the imperialists was so great that there was no staying at frankfort. the chancellor oxenstiern removed to magdeburg, duke bernhard and the landgrave marched into alsatia, and the imperialists carried all before them for all the rest of the campaign. they took philipsburg by surprise; they took augsburg by famine, spire and treves by sieges, taking the elector prisoner. but this success did one piece of service to the swedes, that it brought the french into the war on their side, for the elector of treves was their confederate. the french gave the conduct of the war to duke bernhard. this, though the duke of saxony fell off, and fought against them, turned the scale so much in their favour, that they recovered their losses, and proved a terror to all germany. the farther accounts of the war i refer to the histories of those times, which i have since read with a great deal of delight. i confess when i saw the progress of the imperial army, after the battle of nördlingen, and the duke of saxony turning his arms against them, i thought their affairs declining; and, giving them over for lost, i left frankfort, and came down the rhine to cologne, and from thence into holland. i came to the hague the th of march , having spent three years and a half in germany, and the greatest part of it in the swedish army. i spent some time in holland viewing the wonderful power of art, which i observed in the fortifications of their towns, where the very bastions stand on bottomless morasses, and yet are as firm as any in the world. there i had the opportunity of seeing the dutch army, and their famous general, prince maurice. 'tis true, the men behaved themselves well enough in action, when they were put to it, but the prince's way of beating his enemies without fighting, was so unlike the gallantry of my royal instructor, that it had no manner of relish with me. our way in germany was always to seek out the enemy and fight him; and, give the imperialists their due, they were seldom hard to be found, but were as free of their flesh as we were. whereas prince maurice would lie in a camp till he starved half his men, if by lying there he could but starve two-thirds of his enemies; so that indeed the war in holland had more of fatigues and hardships in it, and ours had more of fighting and blows. hasty marches, long and unwholesome encampments, winter parties, counter-marching, dodging and entrenching, were the exercises of his men, and oftentimes killed him more men with hunger, cold and diseases, than he could do with fighting. not that it required less courage, but rather more, for a soldier had at any time rather die in the field _a la coup de mousquet_, than be starved with hunger, or frozen to death in the trenches. nor do i think i lessen the reputation of that great general; for 'tis most certain he ruined the spaniard more by spinning the war thus out in length, than he could possibly have done by a swift conquest. for had he, gustavus-like, with a torrent of victory dislodged the spaniard of all the twelve provinces in five years, whereas he was forty years a-beating them out of seven, he had left them rich and strong at home, and able to keep them in constant apprehensions of a return of his power. whereas, by the long continuance of the war, he so broke the very heart of the spanish monarchy, so absolutely and irrecoverably impoverished them, that they have ever since languished of the disease, till they are fallen from the most powerful, to be the most despicable nation in the world. the prodigious charge the king of spain was at in losing the seven provinces, broke the very spirit of the nation; and that so much, that all the wealth of their peruvian mountains have not been able to retrieve it; king philip having often declared that war, besides his armada for invading england, had cost him , , of ducats, and , , of the best soldiers in europe; whereof, by an unreasonable spanish obstinacy, above , lost their lives before ostend, a town not worth a sixth part either of the blood or money it cost in a siege of three years; and which at last he had never taken, but that prince maurice thought it not worth the charge of defending it any longer. however, i say, their way of fighting in holland did not relish with me at all. the prince lay a long time before a little fort called schenkenschanz, which the spaniard took by surprise, and i thought he might have taken it much sooner. perhaps it might be my mistake, but i fancied my hero, the king of sweden, would have carried it sword in hand, in half the time. however it was, i did not like it; so in the latter end of the year i came to the hague, and took shipping for england, where i arrived, to the great satisfaction of my father and all my friends. my father was then in london, and carried me to kiss the king's hand. his majesty was pleased to receive me very well, and to say a great many very obliging things to my father upon my account. i spent my time very retired from court, for i was almost wholly in the country; and it being so much different from my genius, which hankered after a warmer sport than hunting among our welsh mountains, i could not but be peeping in all the foreign accounts from germany, to see who and who was together. there i could never hear of a battle, and the germans being beaten, but i began to wish myself there. but when an account came of the progress of john baner, the swedish general in saxony, and of the constant victories he had there over the saxons, i could no longer contain myself, but told my father this life was very disagreeable to me; that i lost my time here, and might to much more advantage go into germany, where i was sure i might make my fortune upon my own terms; that, as young as i was, i might have been a general officer by this time, if i had not laid down my commission; that general baner, or the marshal horn, had either of them so much respect for me, that i was sure i might have anything of them; and that if he pleased to give me leave, i would go for germany again. my father was very unwilling to let me go, but seeing me uneasy, told me that, if i was resolved, he would oblige me to stay no longer in england than the next spring, and i should have his consent. the winter following began to look very unpleasant upon us in england, and my father used often to sigh at it; and would tell me sometimes he was afraid we should have no need to send englishmen to fight in germany. the cloud that seemed to threaten most was from scotland. my father, who had made himself master of the arguments on both sides, used to be often saying he feared there was some about the king who exasperated him too much against the scots, and drove things too high. for my part, i confess i did not much trouble my head with the cause; but all my fear was they would not fall out, and we should have no fighting. i have often reflected since, that i ought to have known better, that had seen how the most flourishing provinces of germany were reduced to the most miserable condition that ever any country in the world was, by the ravagings of soldiers, and the calamities of war. how much soever i was to blame, yet so it was, i had a secret joy at the news of the king's raising an army, and nothing could have withheld me from appearing in it; but my eagerness was anticipated by an express the king sent to my father, to know if his son was in england; and my father having ordered me to carry the answer myself, i waited upon his majesty with the messenger. the king received me with his usual kindness, and asked me if i was willing to serve him against the scots? i answered, i was ready to serve him against any that his majesty thought fit to account his enemies, and should count it an honour to receive his commands. hereupon his majesty offered me a commission. i told him, i supposed there would not be much time for raising of men; that if his majesty pleased i would be at the rendezvous with as many gentlemen as i could get together, to serve his majesty as volunteers. the truth is, i found all the regiments of horse the king designed to raise were but two as regiments; the rest of the horse were such as the nobility raised in their several countries, and commanded them themselves; and, as i had commanded a regiment of horse abroad, it looked a little odd to serve with a single troop at home; and the king took the thing presently. "indeed 'twill be a volunteer war," said the king, "for the northern gentry have sent me an account of above horse they have already." i bowed, and told his majesty i was glad to hear his subjects were forward to serve him. so taking his majesty's orders to be at york by the end of march, i returned to my father. my father was very glad i had not taken a commission, for i know not from what kind of emulation between the western and northern gentry. the gentlemen of our side were not very forward in the service; their loyalty to the king in the succeeding times made it appear it was not for any disaffection to his majesty's interest or person, or to the cause; but this, however, made it difficult for me when i came home to get any gentlemen of quality to serve with me, so that i presented myself to his majesty only as a volunteer, with eight gentlemen and about thirty-six countrymen well mounted and armed. and as it proved, these were enough, for this expedition ended in an accommodation with the scots; and they not advancing so much as to their own borders, we never came to any action. but the armies lay in the counties of northumberland and durham, ate up the country, and spent the king a vast sum of money; and so this war ended, a pacification was made, and both sides returned. the truth is, i never saw such a despicable appearance of men in arms to begin a war in my life; whether it was that i had seen so many braver armies abroad that prejudiced me against them, or that it really was so; for to me they seemed little better than a rabble met together to devour, rather than fight for their king and country. there was indeed a great appearance of gentlemen, and those of extraordinary quality; but their garb, their equipages, and their mien, did not look like war; their troops were filled with footmen and servants, and wretchedly armed, god wot. i believe i might say, without vanity, one regiment of finland horse would have made sport at beating them all. there were such crowds of parsons (for this was a church war in particular) that the camp and court was full of them; and the king was so eternally besieged with clergymen of one sort or another, that it gave offence to the chief of the nobility. as was the appearance, so was the service. the army marched to the borders, and the headquarter was at berwick-upon-tweed; but the scots never appeared, no, not so much as their scouts; whereupon the king called a council of war, and there it was resolved to send the earl of holland with a party of horse into scotland, to learn some news of the enemy. and truly the first news he brought us was, that finding their army encamped about coldingham, fifteen miles from berwick, as soon as he appeared, the scots drew out a party to charge him, upon which most of his men halted--i don't say run away, but 'twas next door to it--for they could not be persuaded to fire their pistols, and wheel of like soldiers, but retreated in such a disorderly and shameful manner, that had the enemy but had either the courage or conduct to have followed them, it must have certainly ended in the ruin of the whole party. [footnote : upon the breach of the match between the king of england and the infanta of spain; and particularly upon the old quarrel of the king of bohemia and the palatinate.] the second part i confess, when i went into arms at the beginning of this war, i never troubled myself to examine sides: i was glad to hear the drums beat for soldiers, as if i had been a mere swiss, that had not cared which side went up or down, so i had my pay. i went as eagerly and blindly about my business, as the meanest wretch that 'listed in the army; nor had i the least compassionate thought for the miseries of my native country, till after the fight at edgehill. i had known as much, and perhaps more than most in the army, what it was to have an enemy ranging in the bowels of a kingdom; i had seen the most flourishing provinces of germany reduced to perfect deserts, and the voracious crabats, with inhuman barbarity, quenching the fires of the plundered villages with the blood of the inhabitants. whether this had hardened me against the natural tenderness which i afterwards found return upon me, or not, i cannot tell; but i reflected upon myself afterwards with a great deal of trouble, for the unconcernedness of my temper at the approaching ruin of my native country. i was in the first army at york, as i have already noted, and, i must confess, had the least diversion there that ever i found in an army in my life. for when i was in germany with the king of sweden, we used to see the king with the general officers every morning on horseback viewing his men, his artillery, his horses, and always something going forward. here we saw nothing but courtiers and clergymen, bishops and parsons, as busy as if the direction of the war had been in them. the king was seldom seen among us, and never without some of them always about him. those few of us that had seen the wars, and would have made a short end of this for him, began to be very uneasy; and particularly a certain nobleman took the freedom to tell the king that the clergy would certainly ruin the expedition. the case was this: he would have had the king have immediately marched into scotland, and put the matter to the trial of a battle; and he urged it every day. and the king finding his reasons very good, would often be of his opinion; but next morning he would be of another mind. this gentleman was a man of conduct enough, and of unquestioned courage, and afterwards lost his life for the king. he saw we had an army of young stout fellows numerous enough; and though they had not yet seen much service, he was for bringing them to action, that the scots might not have time to strengthen themselves, nor they have time by idleness and sotting, the bane of soldiers, to make themselves unfit for anything. i was one morning in company with this gentleman; and as he was a warm man, and eager in his discourse, "a pox of these priests," says he, "'tis for them the king has raised this army, and put his friends to a vast charge; and now we are come, they won't let us fight." but i was afterwards convinced the clergy saw further into the matter than we did. they saw the scots had a better army than we had--bold and ready, commanded by brave officers--and they foresaw that if we fought we should be beaten, and if beaten, they were undone. and 'twas very true, we had all been ruined if we had engaged. it is true when we came to the pacification which followed, i confess i was of the same mind the gentleman had been of; for we had better have fought and been beaten than have made so dishonourable a treaty without striking a stroke. this pacification seems to me to have laid the scheme of all the blood and confusion which followed in the civil war. for whatever the king and his friends might pretend to do by talking big, the scots saw he was to be bullied into anything, and that when it came to the push the courtiers never cared to bring it to blows. i have little or nothing to say as to action in this mock expedition. the king was persuaded at last to march to berwick; and, as i have said already, a party of horse went out to learn news of the scots, and as soon as they saw them, ran away from them bravely. this made the scots so insolent that, whereas before they lay encamped behind a river, and never showed themselves, in a sort of modest deference to their king, which was the pretence of not being aggressors or invaders, only arming in their own defence, now, having been invaded by the english troops entering scotland, they had what they wanted. and to show it was not fear that retained them before, but policy, now they came up in parties to our very gates, braving and facing us every day. i had, with more curiosity than discretion, put myself as a volunteer at the head of one of our parties of horse, under my lord holland, when they went out to discover the enemy; they went, they said, to see what the scots were a-doing. we had not marched far, but our scouts brought word they had discovered some horse, but could not come up to them, because a river parted them. at the heels of these came another party of our men upon the spur to us, and said the enemy was behind, which might be true for aught we knew; but it was so far behind that nobody could see them, and yet the country was plain and open for above a mile before us. hereupon we made a halt, and, indeed, i was afraid it would have been an odd sort of a halt, for our men began to look one upon another, as they do in like cases, when they are going to break; and when the scouts came galloping in the men were in such disorder, that had but one man broke away, i am satisfied they had all run for it. i found my lord holland did not perceive it; but after the first surprise was a little over i told my lord what i had observed, and that unless some course was immediately taken they would all run at the first sight of the enemy. i found he was much concerned at it, and began to consult what course to take to prevent it. i confess 'tis a hard question how to make men stand and face an enemy, when fear has possessed their minds with an inclination to run away. but i'll give that honour to the memory of that noble gentleman, who, though his experience in matters of war was small, having never been in much service, yet his courage made amends for it; for i daresay he would not have turned his horse from an army of enemies, nor have saved his life at the price of running away for it. my lord soon saw, as well as i, the fright the men were in, after i had given him a hint of it; and to encourage them, rode through their ranks and spoke cheerfully to them, and used what arguments he thought proper to settle their minds. i remembered a saying which i heard old marshal gustavus horn speak in germany, "if you find your men falter, or in doubt, never suffer them to halt, but keep them advancing; for while they are going forward, it keeps up their courage." as soon as i could get opportunity to speak to him, i gave him this as my opinion. "that's very well," says my lord, "but i am studying," says he, "to post them so as that they can't run if they would; and if they stand but once to face the enemy, i don't fear them afterwards." while we were discoursing thus, word was brought that several parties of the enemies were seen on the farther side of the river, upon which my lord gave the word to march; and as we were marching on, my lord calls out a lieutenant who had been an old soldier, with only five troopers whom he had most confidence in, and having given him his lesson, he sends him away. in a quarter of an hour one of the five troopers comes back galloping and hallooing, and tells us his lieutenant had, with his small party, beaten a party of twenty of the enemy's horse over the river, and had secured the pass, and desired my lord would march up to him immediately. tis a strange thing that men's spirits should be subjected to such sudden changes, and capable of so much alteration from shadows of things. they were for running before they saw the enemy, now they are in haste to be led on, and but that in raw men we are obliged to bear with anything, the disorder in both was intolerable. the story was a premeditated sham, and not a word of truth in it, invented to raise their spirits, and cheat them out of their cowardly phlegmatic apprehensions, and my lord had his end in it; for they were all on fire to fall on. and i am persuaded, had they been led immediately into a battle begun to their hands, they would have laid about them like furies; for there is nothing like victory to flush a young soldier. thus, while the humour was high, and the fermentation lasted, away we marched, and, passing one of their great commons, which they call moors, we came to the river, as he called it, where our lieutenant was posted with his four men; 'twas a little brook fordable with ease, and, leaving a guard at the pass, we advanced to the top of a small ascent, from whence we had a fair view of the scots army, as they lay behind another river larger than the former. our men were posted well enough, behind a small enclosure, with a narrow lane in their front. and my lord had caused his dragoons to be placed in the front to line the hedges; and in this posture he stood viewing the enemy at a distance. the scots, who had some intelligence of our coming, drew out three small parties, and sent them by different ways to observe our number; and, forming a fourth party, which i guessed to be about horse, advanced to the top of the plain, and drew up to face us, but never offered to attack us. one of the small parties, making about men, one third foot, passes upon our flank in view, but out of reach; and, as they marched, shouted at us, which our men, better pleased with that work than with fighting, readily enough answered, and would fain have fired at them for the pleasure of making a noise, for they were too far off to hit them. i observed that these parties had always some foot with them; and yet if the horse galloped, or pushed on ever so forward, the foot were as forward as they, which was an extraordinary advantage. gustavus adolphus, that king of soldiers, was the first that i have ever observed found the advantage of mixing small bodies of musketeers among his horse; and, had he had such nimble strong fellows as these, he would have prized them above all the rest of his men. these were those they call highlanders. they would run on foot with their arms and all their accoutrements, and keep very good order too, and yet keep pace with the horse, let them go at what rate they would. when i saw the foot thus interlined among the horse, together with the way of ordering their flying parties, it presently occurred to my mind that here was some of our old scots come home out of germany that had the ordering of matters, and if so, i knew we were not a match for them. thus we stood facing the enemy till our scouts brought us word the whole scots army was in motion, and in full march to attack us; and, though it was not true, and the fear of our men doubled every object, yet 'twas thought convenient to make our retreat. the whole matter was that the scouts having informed them what they could of our strength, the were ordered to march towards us, and three regiments of foot were drawn out to support the horse. i know not whether they would have ventured to attack us, at least before their foot had come up; but whether they would have put it to the hazard or no, we were resolved not to hazard the trial, so we drew down to the pass. and, as retreating looks something like running away, especially when an enemy is at hand, our men had much ado to make their retreat pass for a march, and not a flight; and, by their often looking behind them, anybody might know what they would have done if they had been pressed. i confess, i was heartily ashamed when the scots, coming up to the place where we had been posted, stood and shouted at us. i would have persuaded my lord to have charged them, and he would have done it with all his heart, but he saw it was not practicable; so we stood at gaze with them above two hours, by which time their foot were come up to them, and yet they did not offer to attack us. i never was so ashamed of myself in my life; we were all dispirited. the scots gentlemen would come out single, within shot of our post, which in a time of war is always accounted a challenge to any single gentleman, to come out and exchange a pistol with them, and nobody would stir; at last our old lieutenant rides out to meet a scotchman that came pickeering on his quarter. this lieutenant was a brave and a strong fellow, had been a soldier in the low countries; and though he was not of any quality, only a mere soldier, had his preferment for his conduct. he gallops bravely up to his adversary, and exchanging their pistols, the lieutenant's horse happened to be killed. the scotchman very generously dismounts, and engages him with his sword, and fairly masters him, and carries him away prisoner; and i think this horse was all the blood was shed in that war. the lieutenant's name thus conquered was english, and as he was a very stout old soldier, the disgrace of it broke his heart. the scotchman, indeed, used him very generously; for he treated him in the camp very courteously, gave him another horse, and set him at liberty, gratis. but the man laid it so to heart, that he never would appear in the army, but went home to his own country and died. i had enough of party-making, and was quite sick with indignation at the cowardice of the men; and my lord was in as great a fret as i, but there was no remedy. we durst not go about to retreat, for we should have been in such confusion that the enemy must have discovered it; so my lord resolved to keep the post, if possible, and send to the king for some foot. then were our men ready to fight with one another who should be the messenger; and at last when a lieutenant with twenty dragoons was despatched, he told us afterwards he found himself an hundred strong before he was gotten a mile from the place. in short, as soon as ever the day declined, and the dusk of the evening began to shelter the designs of the men, they dropped away from us one by one; and at last in such numbers, that if we had stayed till the morning, we had not had fifty men left; out of horse and dragoons. when i saw how it was, consulting with some of the officers, we all went to my lord holland, and pressed him to retreat, before the enemy should discern the flight of our men; so he drew us off, and we came to the camp the next morning, in the shamefullest condition that ever poor men could do. and this was the end of the worst expedition ever i made in my life. to fight and be beaten is a casualty common to a soldier, and i have since had enough of it; but to run away at the sight of an enemy, and neither strike or be stricken, this is the very shame of the profession, and no man that has done it ought to show his face again in the field, unless disadvantages of place or number make it tolerable, neither of which was our case. my lord holland made another march a few days after, in hopes to retrieve this miscarriage; but i had enough of it, so i kept in my quarters. and though his men did not desert him as before, yet upon the appearance of the enemy they did not think fit to fight, and came off with but little more honour than they did before. there was no need to go out to seek the enemy after this, for they came, as i have noted, and pitched in sight of us, and their parties came up every day to the very out-works of berwick, but nobody cared to meddle with them. and in this posture things stood when the pacification was agreed on by both parties, which, like a short truce, only gave both sides breath to prepare for a new war more ridiculously managed than the former. when the treaty was so near a conclusion as that conversation was admitted on both sides, i went over to the scotch camp to satisfy my curiosity, as many of our english officers did also. i confess the soldiers made a very uncouth figure, especially the highlanders. the oddness and barbarity of their garb and arms seemed to have something in it remarkable. they were generally tall swinging fellows; their swords were extravagantly, and, i think, insignificantly broad, and they carried great wooden targets, large enough to cover the upper part of their bodies. their dress was as antique as the rest; a cap on their heads, called by them a bonnet, long hanging sleeves behind, and their doublet, breeches, and stockings of a stuff they called plaid, striped across red and yellow, with short cloaks of the same. these fellows looked, when drawn out, like a regiment of merry-andrews, ready for bartholomew fair. they are in companies all of a name, and therefore call one another only by their christian names, as jemmy, jocky, that is, john, and sawny, that is, alexander, and the like. and they scorn to be commanded but by one of their own clan or family. they are all gentlemen, and proud enough to be kings. the meanest fellow among them is as tenacious of his honour as the best nobleman in the country, and they will fight and cut one another's throats for every trifling affront. but to their own clans or lairds, they are the willingest and most obedient fellows in nature. give them their due, were their skill in exercises and discipline proportioned to their courage, they would make the bravest soldiers in the world. they are large bodies, and prodigiously strong; and two qualities they have above other nations, viz., hardy to endure hunger, cold, and hardships, and wonderfully swift of foot. the latter is such an advantage in the field that i know none like it; for if they conquer, no enemy can escape them, and if they run, even the horse can hardly overtake them. these were some of them, who, as i observed before, went out in parties with their horse. there were three or four thousand of these in the scots army, armed only with swords and targets; and in their belts some of them had a pistol, but no muskets at that time among them. but there were also a great many regiments of disciplined men, who, by their carrying their arms, looked as if they understood their business, and by their faces, that they durst see an enemy. i had not been half-an-hour in their camp after the ceremony of giving our names, and passing their out-guards and main-guard was over, but i was saluted by several of my acquaintance; and in particular, by one who led the scotch volunteers at the taking the castle of oppenheim, of which i have given an account. they used me with all the respect they thought due to me, on account of old affairs, gave me the word, and a sergeant waited upon me whenever i pleased to go abroad. i continued twelve or fourteen days among them, till the pacification was concluded; and they were ordered to march home. they spoke very respectfully of the king, but i found were exasperated to the last degree at archbishop laud and the english bishops, for endeavouring to impose the common prayer book upon them; and they always talked with the utmost contempt of our soldiers and army. i always waived the discourse about the clergy, and the occasion of the war, but i could not but be too sensible what they said of our men was true; and by this i perceived they had an universal intelligence from among us, both of what we were doing, and what sort of people we were that were doing it; and they were mighty desirous of coming to blows with us. i had an invitation from their general, but i declined it, lest i should give offence. i found they accepted the pacification as a thing not likely to hold, or that they did not design should hold; and that they were resolved to keep their forces on foot, notwithstanding the agreement. their whole army was full of brave officers, men of as much experience and conduct as any in the world; and all men who know anything of the war, know good officers presently make a good army. things being thus huddled up, the english came back to york, where the army separated, and the scots went home to increase theirs; for i easily foresaw that peace was the farthest thing from their thoughts. the next year the flame broke out again. the king draws his forces down into the north, as before, and expresses were sent to all the gentlemen that had commands to be at the place by the th of july. as i had accepted of no command in the army, so i had no inclination at all to go, for i foresaw there would be nothing but disgrace attend it. my father, observing such an alteration in my usual forwardness, asked me one day what was the matter, that i who used to be so forward to go into the army, and so eager to run abroad to fight, now showed no inclination to appear when the service of the king and country called me to it? i told him i had as much zeal as ever for the king's service, and for the country too: but he knew a soldier could not abide to be beaten; and being from thence a little more inquisitive, i told him the observations i had made in the scots army, and the people i had conversed with there. "and, sir," says i, "assure yourself, if the king offers to fight them, he will be beaten; and i don't love to engage when my judgment tells me beforehand i shall be worsted." and as i had foreseen, it came to pass; for the scots resolving to proceed, never stood upon the ceremony of aggression, as before, but on the th of august they entered england with their army. however, as my father desired, i went to the king's army, which was then at york, but not gotten all together. the king himself was at london, but upon this news takes post for the army, and advancing a part of his forces, he posted the lord conway and sir jacob astley, with a brigade of foot and some horse, at newburn, upon the river tyne, to keep the scots from passing that river. the scots could have passed the tyne without fighting; but to let us see that they were able to force their passage, they fall upon his body of men and notwithstanding all the advantages of the place, they beat them from the post, took their baggage and two pieces of cannon, with some prisoners. sir jacob astley made what resistance he could, but the scots charged with so much fury, and being also overpowered, he was soon put into confusion. immediately the scots made themselves masters of newcastle, and the next day of durham, and laid those two counties under intolerable contributions. now was the king absolutely ruined; for among his own people the discontents before were so plain, that had the clergy had any forecast, they would never have embroiled him with the scots, till he had fully brought matters to an understanding at home. but the case was thus: the king, by the good husbandry of bishop juxon, his treasurer, had a million of ready money in his treasury, and upon that account, having no need of a parliament, had not called one in twelve years; and perhaps had never called another, if he had not by this unhappy circumstance been reduced to a necessity of it; for now this ready money was spent in two foolish expeditions, and his army appeared in a condition not fit to engage the scots. the detachment under sir jacob astley, which were of the flower of his men, had been routed at newburn, and the enemy had possession of two entire counties. all men blamed laud for prompting the king to provoke the scots, a headstrong nation, and zealous for their own way of worship; and laud himself found too late the consequences of it, both to the whole cause and to himself; for the scots, whose native temper is not easily to forgive an injury, pursued him by their party in england, and never gave it over till they laid his head on the block. the ruined country now clamoured in his majesty's ears with daily petitions, and the gentry of other neighbouring counties cry out for peace and parliament. the king, embarrassed with these difficulties, and quite empty of money, calls a great council of the nobility at york, and demands their advice, which any one could have told him before would be to call a parliament. i cannot, without regret, look back upon the misfortune of the king, who, as he was one of the best princes in his personal conduct that ever reigned in england, had yet some of the greatest unhappinesses in his conduct as a king, that ever prince had, and the whole course of his life demonstrated it. . an impolitic honesty. his enemies called it obstinacy; but as i was perfectly acquainted with his temper, i cannot but think it was his judgment, when he thought he was in the right, to adhere to it as a duty though against his interest. . too much compliance when he was complying. no man but himself would have denied what at some times he denied, and have granted what at other times he granted; and this uncertainty of counsel proceeded from two things. . the heat of the clergy, to whom he was exceedingly devoted, and for whom, indeed, he ruined himself. . the wisdom of his nobility. thus when the counsel of his priests prevailed, all was fire and fury; the scots were rebels, and must be subdued, and the parliament's demands were to be rejected as exorbitant. but whenever the king's judgment was led by the grave and steady advice of his nobility and counsellors, he was always inclined by them to temperate his measures between the two extremes. and had he gone on in such a temper, he had never met with the misfortunes which afterward attended him, or had so many thousands of his friends lost their lives and fortunes in his service. i am sure we that knew what it was to fight for him, and that loved him better than any of the clergy could pretend to, have had many a consultation how to bring over our master from so espousing their interest, as to ruin himself for it; but 'twas in vain. i took this interval when i sat still and only looked on, to make these remarks, because i remember the best friends the king had were at this time of that opinion, that 'twas an unaccountable piece of indiscretion, to commence a quarrel with the scots, a poor and obstinate people, for a ceremony and book of church discipline, at a time when the king stood but upon indifferent terms with his people at home. the consequence was, it put arms into the hands of his subjects to rebel against him; it embroiled him with his parliament in england, to whom he was fain to stoop in a fatal and unusual manner to get money, all his own being spent, and so to buy off the scots whom he could not beat off. i cannot but give one instance of the unaccountable politics of his ministers. if they overruled this unhappy king to it, with design to exhaust and impoverish him, they were the worst of traitors; if not, the grossest of fools. they prompted the king to equip a fleet against the scots, and to put on board it land men. had this been all, the design had been good, that while the king had faced the army upon the borders, these , landing in the firth of edinburgh, might have put that whole nation into disorder. but in order to this, they advised the king to lay out his money in fitting out the biggest ships he had, and the "royal sovereign," the biggest ship the world had ever seen, which cost him no less than £ , , was now built, and fitted out for this voyage. this was the most incongruous and ridiculous advice that could be given, and made us all believe we were betrayed, though we knew not by whom. to fit out ships of guns to invade scotland, which had not one man-of-war in the world, nor any open confederacy with any prince or state that had any fleet, 'twas a most ridiculous thing. an hundred sail of newcastle colliers, to carry the men with their stores and provisions, and ten frigates of guns each, had been as good a fleet as reason and the nature of the thing could have made tolerable. thus things were carried on, till the king, beggared by the mismanagement of his counsels, and beaten by the scots, was driven to the necessity of calling a parliament in england. it is not my design to enter into the feuds and brangles of this parliament. i have noted, by observations of their mistakes, who brought the king to this happy necessity of calling them. his majesty had tried parliaments upon several occasions before, but never found himself so much embroiled with them but he could send them home, and there was an end of it; but as he could not avoid calling these, so they took care to put him out of a condition to dismiss them. the scots army was now quartered upon the english. the counties, the gentry, and the assembly of lords at york, petitioned for a parliament. the scots presented their demands to the king, in which it was observed that matters were concerted between them and a party in england; and i confess when i saw that, i began to think the king in an ill case; for as the scots pretended grievances, we thought, the king redressing those grievances, they could ask no more; and therefore all men advised the king to grant their full demands. and whereas the king had not money to supply the scots in their march home, i know there were several meetings of gentlemen with a design to advance considerable sums of money to the king to set him free, and in order to reinstate his majesty, as before. not that we ever advised the king to rule without a parliament, but we were very desirous of putting him out of the necessity of calling them, at least just then. but the eighth article of the scots' demands expressly required, that an english parliament might be called to remove all obstructions of commerce, and to settle peace, religion, and liberty; and in another article they tell the king, the th of september being the time his majesty appointed for the meeting of the peers, will make it too long ere the parliament meet. and in another, that a parliament was the only way of settling peace, and bring them to his majesty's obedience. when we saw this in the army, 'twas time to look about. everybody perceived that the scots army would call an english parliament; and whatever aversion the king had to it, we all saw he would be obliged to comply with it; and now they all began to see their error, who advised the king to this scotch war. while these things were transacting, the assembly of the peers meet at york, and by their advice a treaty was begun with the scots. i had the honour to be sent with the first message which was in writing. i brought it, attended by a trumpet and a guard of horse, to the scots quarters. i was stopped at darlington, and my errand being known, general leslie sent a scots major and fifty horses to receive me, but would let neither my trumpet or guard set foot within their quarters. in this manner i was conducted to audience in the chapter-house at durham, where a committee of scots lords who attended the army received me very courteously, and gave me their answer in writing also. 'twas in this answer that they showed, at least to me, their design of embroiling the king with his english subjects; they discoursed very freely with me, and did not order me to withdraw when they debated their private opinions. they drew up several answers but did not like them; at last they gave me one which i did not receive, i thought it was too insolent to be borne with. as near as i can remember it was thus: the commissioners of scotland attending the service in the army, do refuse any treaty in the city of york. one of the commissioners who treated me with more distinction than the rest, and discoursed freely with me, gave me an opportunity to speak more freely of this than i expected. i told them if they would return to his majesty an answer fit for me to carry, or if they would say they would not treat at all, i would deliver such a message. but i entreated them to consider the answer was to their sovereign, and to whom they made a great profession of duty and respect, and at least they ought to give their reasons why they declined a treaty at york, and to name some other place, or humbly to desire his majesty to name some other place; but to send word they would not treat at york, i could deliver no such message, for when put into english it would signify they would not treat at all. i used a great many reasons and arguments with them on this head, and at last with some difficulty obtained of them to give the reason, which was the earl of strafford's having the chief command at york, whom they declared their mortal enemy, he having declared them rebels in ireland. with this answer i returned. i could make no observations in the short time i was with them, for as i stayed but one night, so i was guarded as a close prisoner all the while. i saw several of their officers whom i knew, but they durst not speak to me, and if they would have ventured, my guard would not have permitted them. in this manner i was conducted out of their quarters to my own party again, and having delivered my message to the king and told his majesty the circumstances, i saw the king receive the account of the haughty behaviour of the scots with some regret; however, it was his majesty's time now to bear, and therefore the scots were complied with, and the treaty appointed at ripon; where, after much debate, several preliminary articles were agreed on, as a cessation of arms, quarters, and bounds to the armies, subsistence to the scots army, and the residue of the demands was referred to a treaty at london, &c. we were all amazed at the treaty, and i cannot but remember we used to wish much rather we had been suffered to fight; for though we had been worsted at first, the power and strength of the king's interest, which was not yet tried, must, in fine, have been too strong for the scots, whereas now we saw the king was for complying with anything, and all his friends would be ruined. i confess i had nothing to fear, and so was not much concerned, but our predictions soon came to pass, for no sooner was this parliament called but abundance of those who had embroiled their king with his people of both kingdoms, like the disciples when their master was betrayed to the jews, forsook him and fled; and now parliament tyranny began to succeed church tyranny, and we soldiers were glad to see it at first. the bishops trembled, the judges went to gaol, the officers of the customs were laid hold on; and the parliament began to lay their fingers on the great ones, particularly archbishop laud and the earl of strafford. we had no great concern for the first, but the last was a man of so much conduct and gallantry, and so beloved by the soldiers and principal gentry of england, that everybody was touched with his misfortune. the parliament now grew mad in their turn, and as the prosperity of any party is the time to show their discretion, the parliament showed they knew as little where to stop as other people. the king was not in a condition to deny anything, and nothing could be demanded but they pushed it. they attainted the earl of strafford, and thereby made the king cut off his right hand to save his left, and yet not save it neither. they obtained another bill to empower them to sit during their own pleasure, and after them, triennial parliaments to meet, whether the king call them or no; and granting this completed his majesty's ruin. had the house only regulated the abuses of the court, punished evil counsellors, and restored parliaments to their original and just powers, all had been well, and the king, though he had been more than mortified, had yet reaped the benefit of future peace; for now the scots were sent home, after having eaten up two counties, and received a prodigious sum of money to boot. and the king, though too late, goes in person to edinburgh, and grants them all they could desire, and more than they asked; but in england, the desires of ours were unbounded, and drove at all extremes. they drew out the bishops from sitting in the house, made a protestation equivalent to the scotch covenant, and this done, print their remonstrance. this so provoked the king, that he resolves upon seizing some of the members, and in an ill hour enters the house in person to take them. thus one imprudent thing on one hand produced another of the other hand, till the king was obliged to leave them to themselves, for fear of being mobbed into something or other unworthy of himself. these proceedings began to alarm the gentry and nobility of england; for, however willing we were to have evil counsellors removed, and the government return to a settled and legal course, according to the happy constitution of this nation, and might have been forward enough to have owned the king had been misled, and imposed upon to do things which he had rather had not been done, yet it did not follow, that all the powers and prerogatives of the crown should devolve upon the parliament, and the king in a manner be deposed, or else sacrificed to the fury of the rabble. the heats of the house running them thus to all extremes, and at last to take from the king the power of the militia, which indeed was all that was left to make him anything of a king, put the king upon opposing force with force; and thus the flame of civil war began. however backward i was in engaging in the second year's expedition against the scots, i was as forward now, for i waited on the king at york, where a gallant company of gentlemen as ever were seen in england, engaged themselves to enter into his service; and here some of us formed ourselves into troops for the guard of his person. the king having been waited upon by the gentry of yorkshire, and having told them his resolution of erecting his royal standard, and received from them hearty assurances of support, dismisses them, and marches to hull, where lay the train of artillery, and all the arms and ammunition belonging to the northern army which had been disbanded. but here the parliament had been beforehand with his majesty, so that when he came to hull, he found the gates shut, and sir john hotham, the governor, upon the walls, though with a great deal of seeming humility and protestations of loyalty to his person, yet with a positive denial to admit any of the king's attendants into the town. if his majesty pleased to enter the town in person with any reasonable number of his household, he would submit, but would not be prevailed on to receive the king as he would be received, with his forces, though those forces were then but very few. the king was exceedingly provoked at this repulse, and indeed it was a great surprise to us all, for certainly never prince began a war against the whole strength of his kingdom under the circumstances that he was in. he had not a garrison, or a company of soldiers in his pay, not a stand of arms, or a barrel of powder, a musket, cannon or mortar, not a ship of all the fleet, or money in his treasury to procure them; whereas the parliament had all his navy, and ordnance, stores, magazines, arms, ammunition, and revenue in their keeping. and this i take to be another defect of the king's counsel, and a sad instance of the distraction of his affairs, that when he saw how all things were going to wreck, as it was impossible but he should see it, and 'tis plain he did see it, that he should not long enough before it came to extremities secure the navy, magazines, and stores of war, in the hands of his trusty servants, that would have been sure to have preserved them for his use, at a time when he wanted them. it cannot be supposed but the gentry of england, who generally preserved their loyalty for their royal master, and at last heartily showed it, were exceedingly discouraged at first when they saw the parliament had all the means of making war in their own hands, and the king was naked and destitute either of arms or ammunition, or money to procure them. not but that the king, by extraordinary application, recovered the disorder the want of these things had thrown him into, and supplied himself with all things needful. but my observation was this, had his majesty had the magazines, navy, and forts in his own hand, the gentry, who wanted but the prospect of something to encourage them, had come in at first, and the parliament, being unprovided, would have been presently reduced to reason. but this was it that balked the gentry of yorkshire, who went home again, giving the king good promises, but never appeared for him, till by raising a good army in shropshire and wales, he marched towards london, and they saw there was a prospect of their being supported. in this condition the king erected his standard at nottingham, nd august , and i confess, i had very melancholy apprehensions of the king's affairs, for the appearance to the royal standard was but small. the affront the king had met with at hull, had balked and dispirited the northern gentry, and the king's affairs looked with a very dismal aspect. we had expresses from london of the prodigious success of the parliament levies, how their men came in faster than they could entertain them, and that arms were delivered out to whole companies listed together, and the like. and all this while the king had not got together a thousand foot, and had no arms for them neither. when the king saw this, he immediately despatches five several messengers, whereof one went to the marquis of worcester into wales; one went to the queen, then at windsor; one to the duke of newcastle, then marquis of newcastle, into the north; one into scotland; and one into france, where the queen soon after arrived to raise money, and buy arms, and to get what assistance she could among her own friends. nor was her majesty idle, for she sent over several ships laden with arms and ammunition, with a fine train of artillery, and a great many very good officers; and though one of the first fell into the hands of the parliament, with three hundred barrels of powder and some arms, and one hundred and fifty gentlemen, yet most of the gentlemen found means, one way or other, to get to us, and most of the ships the queen freighted arrived; and at last her majesty came herself, and brought an extraordinary supply both of men, money, arms, &c., with which she joined the king's forces under the earl of newcastle in the north. finding his majesty thus bestirring himself to muster his friends together, i asked him if he thought it might not be for his majesty's service to let me go among my friends, and his loyal subjects about shrewsbury? "yes," says the king, smiling, "i intend you shall, and i design to go with you myself." i did not understand what the king meant then, and did not think it good manners to inquire, but the next day i found all things disposed for a march, and the king on horseback by eight of the clock; when calling me to him, he told me i should go before, and let my father and all my friends know he would be at shrewsbury the saturday following. i left my equipages, and taking post with only one servant, was at my father's the next morning by break of day. my father was not surprised at the news of the king's coming at all, for, it seems, he, together with the royal gentry of those parts, had sent particularly to give the king an invitation to move that way, which i was not made privy to, with an account what encouragement they had there in the endeavours made for his interest. in short, the whole country was entirely for the king, and such was the universal joy the people showed when the news of his majesty's coming down was positively known, that all manner of business was laid aside, and the whole body of the people seemed to be resolved upon the war. as this gave a new face to the king's affairs, so i must own it filled me with joy; for i was astonished before, when i considered what the king and his friends were like to be exposed to. the news of the proceedings of the parliament, and their powerful preparations, were now no more terrible; the king came at the time appointed, and having lain at my father's house one night, entered shrewsbury in the morning. the acclamations of the people, the concourse of the nobility and gentry about his person, and the crowds which now came every day into the standard, were incredible. the loyalty of the english gentry was not only worth notice, but the power of the gentry is extraordinary visible in this matter. the king, in about six weeks' time, which was the most of his stay at shrewsbury, was supplied with money, arms, ammunition, and a train of artillery, and listed a body of an army upwards of , men. his majesty seeing the general alacrity of his people, immediately issued out commissions, and formed regiments of horse and foot; and having some experienced officers about him, together with about sixteen who came from france, with a ship loaded with arms and some field-pieces which came very seasonably into the severn, the men were exercised, regularly disciplined, and quartered, and now we began to look like soldiers. my father had raised a regiment of horse at his own charge, and completed them, and the king gave out arms to them from the supplies which i mentioned came from abroad. another party of horse, all brave stout fellows, and well mounted, came in from lancashire, and the earl of derby at the head of them. the welshmen came in by droves; and so great was the concourse of people, that the king began to think of marching, and gave the command, as well as the trust of regulating the army, to the brave earl of lindsey, as general of the foot. the parliament general being the earl of essex, two braver men, or two better officers, were not in the kingdom; they had both been old soldiers, and had served together as volunteers in the low country wars, under prince maurice. they had been comrades and companions abroad, and now came to face one another as enemies in the field. such was the expedition used by the king and his friends, in the levies of this first army, that notwithstanding the wonderful expedition the parliament made, the king was in the field before them; and now the gentry in other parts of the nation bestirred themselves, and seized upon, and garrisoned several considerable places, for the king. in the north, the earl of newcastle not only garrisoned the most considerable places, but even the general possession of the north was for the king, excepting hull, and some few places, which the old lord fairfax had taken up for the parliament. on the other hand, entire cornwall and most of the western counties were the king's. the parliament had their chief interest in the south and eastern part of england, as kent, surrey, and, sussex, essex, suffolk, norfolk, cambridge, bedford, huntingdon, hertford, buckinghamshire, and the other midland counties. these were called, or some of them at least, the associated counties, and felt little of the war, other than the charges; but the main support of the parliament was the city of london. the king made the seat of his court at oxford, which he caused to be regularly fortified. the lord say had been here, and had possession of the city for the enemy, and was debating about fortifying it, but came to no resolution, which was a very great over-sight in them; the situation of the place, and the importance of it, on many accounts, to the city of london, considered; and they would have retrieved this error afterwards, but then 'twas too late; for the king made it the headquarter, and received great supplies and assistance from the wealth of the colleges, and the plenty of the neighbouring country. abingdon, wallingford, basing, and reading, were all garrisoned and fortified as outworks to defend this as the centre. and thus all england became the theatre of blood, and war was spread into every corner of the country, though as yet there was no stroke struck. i had no command in this army. my father led his own regiment, and, old as he was, would not leave his royal master, and my elder brother stayed at home to support the family. as for me, i rode a volunteer in the royal troop of guards, which may very well deserve the title of a royal troop, for it was composed of young gentlemen, sons of the nobility, and some of the prime gentry of the nation, and i think not a person of so mean a birth or fortune as myself. we reckoned in this troop two and thirty lords, or who came afterwards to be such, and eight and thirty of younger sons of the nobility, five french noblemen, and all the rest gentlemen of very good families and estates. and that i may give the due to their personal valour, many of this troop lived afterwards to have regiments and troops under their command in the service of the king, many of them lost their lives for him, and most of them their estates. nor did they behave unworthy of themselves in their first showing their faces to the enemy, as shall be mentioned in its place. while the king remained at shrewsbury, his loyal friends bestirred themselves in several parts of the kingdom. goring had secured portsmouth, but being young in matters of war, and not in time relieved, though the marquis of hertford was marching to relieve him, yet he was obliged to quit the place, and shipped himself for holland, from whence he returned with relief for the king, and afterwards did very good service upon all occasions, and so effectually cleared himself of the scandal the hasty surrender of portsmouth had brought upon his courage. the chief power of the king's forces lay in three places, in cornwall, in yorkshire, and at shrewsbury. in cornwall, sir ralph hopton, afterwards lord hopton, sir bevil grenvile, and sir nicholas slanning secured all the country, and afterwards spread themselves over devonshire and somersetshire, took exeter from the parliament, fortified bridgewater and barnstaple, and beat sir william waller at the battle of roundway down, as i shall touch at more particularly when i come to recite the part of my own travels that way. in the north, the marquis of newcastle secured all the country, garrisoned york, scarborough, carlisle, newcastle, pomfret, leeds, and all the considerable places, and took the field with a very good army, though afterwards he proved more unsuccessful than the rest, having the whole power of a kingdom at his back, the scots coming in with an army to the assistance of the parliament, which, indeed, was the general turn of the scale of the war; for had it not been for this scots army, the king had most certainly reduced the parliament, at least to good terms of peace, in two years' time. the king was the third article. his force at shrewsbury i have noted already. the alacrity of the gentry filled him with hopes, and all his army with vigour, and the th of october , his majesty gave orders to march. the earl of essex had spent above a month after his leaving london (for he went thence the th of september) in modelling and drawing together his forces; his rendezvous was at st albans, from whence he marched to northampton, coventry, and warwick, and leaving garrisons in them, he comes on to worcester. being thus advanced, he possesses oxford, as i noted before, banbury, bristol, gloucester, and worcester, out of all which places, except gloucester, we drove him back to london in a very little while. sir john byron had raised a very good party of horse, most gentlemen, for the king, and had possessed oxford; but on the approach of the lord say quitted it, being now but an open town, and retreated to worcester, from whence, on the approach of essex's army, he retreated to the king. and now all things grew ripe for action, both parties having secured their posts, and settled their schemes of the war, taken their posts and places as their measures and opportunities directed. the field was next in their eye, and the soldiers began to inquire when they should fight, for as yet there had been little or no blood drawn; and 'twas not long before they had enough of it; for, i believe, i may challenge all the historians in europe to tell me of any war in the world where, in the space of four years, there were so many pitched battles, sieges, fights, and skirmishes, as in this war. we never encamped or entrenched, never fortified the avenues to our posts, or lay fenced with rivers and defiles; here was no leaguers in the field, as at the story of nuremberg, neither had our soldiers any tents, or what they call heavy baggage. 'twas the general maxim of this war, "where is the enemy? let us go and fight them," or, on the other hand, if the enemy was coming, "what was to be done?" "why, what should be done? draw out into the fields and fight them." i cannot say 'twas the prudence of the parties, and had the king fought less he had gained more. and i shall remark several times when the eagerness of fighting was the worst counsel, and proved our loss. this benefit, however, happened in general to the country, that it made a quick, though a bloody, end of the war, which otherwise had lasted till it might have ruined the whole nation. on the th of october the king's army was in full march, his majesty, generalissimo, the earl of lindsey, general of the foot, prince rupert, general of the horse; and the first action in the field was by prince rupert and sir john byron. sir john had brought his body of horse, as i noted already, from oxford to worcester; the lord say, with a strong party, being in the neighbourhood of oxford, and expected in the town, colonel sandys, a hot man, and who had more courage than judgment, advances with about horse and dragoons, with design to beat sir john byron out of worcester, and take post there for the parliament. the king had notice that the earl of essex designed for worcester, and prince rupert was ordered to advance with a body of horse and dragoons to face the enemy, and bring off sir john byron. this his majesty did to amuse the earl of essex, that he might expect him that way; whereas the king's design was to get between the earl of essex's army and the city of london; and his majesty's end was doubly answered, for he not only drew essex on to worcester, where he spent more time than he needed, but he beat the party into the bargain. i went volunteer in this party, and rode in my father's regiment; for though we really expected not to see the enemy, yet i was tired with lying still. we came to worcester just as notice was brought to sir john byron, that a party of the enemy was on their march for worcester, upon which the prince immediately consulting what was to be done, resolves to march the next morning and fight them. the enemy, who lay at pershore, about eight miles from worcester, and, as i believe, had no notice of our march, came on very confidently in the morning, and found us fairly drawn up to receive them. i must confess this was the bluntest, downright way of making war that ever was seen. the enemy, who, in all the little knowledge i had of war, ought to have discovered our numbers, and guessed by our posture what our design was, might easily have informed themselves that we intended to attack them, and so might have secured the advantage of a bridge in their front; but without any regard to these methods of policy, they came on at all hazards. upon this notice, my father proposed to the prince to halt for them, and suffer ourselves to be attacked, since we found them willing to give us the advantage. the prince approved of the advice, so we halted within view of a bridge, leaving space enough on our front for about half the number of their forces to pass and draw up; and at the bridge was posted about fifty dragoons, with orders to retire as soon as the enemy advanced, as if they had been afraid. on the right of the road was a ditch, and a very high bank behind, where we had placed dragoons, with orders to lie flat on their faces till the enemy had passed the bridge, and to let fly among them as soon as our trumpets sounded a charge. nobody but colonel sandys would have been caught in such a snare, for he might easily have seen that when he was over the bridge there was not room enough for him to fight in. but the lord of hosts was so much in their mouths, for that was the word for that day, that they took little heed how to conduct the host of the lord to their own advantage. as we expected, they appeared, beat our dragoons from the bridge, and passed it. we stood firm in one line with a reserve, and expected a charge, but colonel sandys, showing a great deal more judgment than we thought he was master of, extends himself to the left, finding the ground too strait, and began to form his men with a great deal of readiness and skill, for by this time he saw our number was greater than he expected. the prince perceiving it, and foreseeing that the stratagem of the dragoons would be frustrated by this, immediately charges with the horse, and the dragoons at the same time standing upon their feet, poured in their shot upon those that were passing the bridge. this surprise put them into such disorder, that we had but little work with them. for though colonel sandys with the troops next him sustained the shock very well, and behaved themselves gallantly enough, yet the confusion beginning in their rear, those that had not yet passed the bridge were kept back by the fire of the dragoons, and the rest were easily cut in pieces. colonel sandys was mortally wounded and taken prisoner, and the crowd was so great to get back, that many pushed into the water, and were rather smothered than drowned. some of them who never came into the fight, were so frighted, that they never looked behind them till they came to pershore, and, as we were afterwards informed, the lifeguards of the general who had quartered in the town, left it in disorder enough, expecting us at the heels of their men. if our business had been to keep the parliament army from coming to worcester, we had a very good opportunity to have secured the bridge at pershore; but our design lay another way, as i have said, and the king was for drawing essex on to the severn, in hopes to get behind him, which fell out accordingly. essex, spurred by this affront in the infancy of their affairs, advances the next day, and came to pershore time enough to be at the funeral of some of his men; and from thence he advances to worcester. we marched back to worcester extremely pleased with the good success of our first attack, and our men were so flushed with this little victory that it put vigour into the whole army. the enemy lost about men, and we carried away near prisoners, with horses, some standards and arms, and among the prisoners their colonel; but he died a little after of his wounds. upon the approach of the enemy, worcester was quitted, and the forces marched back to join the king's army, which lay then at bridgnorth, ludlow, and thereabout. as the king expected, it fell out; essex found so much work at worcester to settle parliament quarters, and secure bristol, gloucester, and hereford, that it gave the king a full day's march of him. so the king, having the start of him, moves towards london; and essex, nettled to be both beaten in fight and outdone in conduct, decamps, and follows the king. the parliament, and the londoners too, were in a strange consternation at this mistake of their general; and had the king, whose great misfortune was always to follow precipitant advices,--had the king, i say, pushed on his first design, which he had formed with very good reason, and for which he had been dodging with essex eight or ten days, viz., of marching directly to london, where he had a very great interest, and where his friends were not yet oppressed and impoverished, as they were afterwards, he had turned the scale of his affairs. and every man expected it; for the members began to shift for themselves, expresses were sent on the heels of one another to the earl of essex to hasten after the king, and, if possible, to bring him to a battle. some of these letters fell into our hands, and we might easily discover that the parliament were in the last confusion at the thoughts of our coming to london. besides this, the city was in a worse fright than the house, and the great moving men began to go out of town. in short, they expected us, and we expected to come, but providence for our ruin had otherwise determined it. essex, upon news of the king's march, and upon receipt of the parliament's letters, makes long marches after us, and on the rd of october reaches the village of kineton, in warwickshire. the king was almost as far as banbury, and there calls a council of war. some of the old officers that foresaw the advantage the king had, the concern the city was in, and the vast addition, both to the reputation of his forces and the increase of his interest, it would be if the king could gain that point, urged the king to march on to london. prince rupert and the fresh colonels pressed for fighting, told the king it dispirited their men to march with the enemy at their heels; that the parliament army was inferior to him by men, and fatigued with hasty marching; that as their orders were to fight, he had nothing to do but to post himself to advantage, and receive them to their destruction; that the action near worcester had let them know how easy it was to deal with a rash enemy; and that 'twas a dishonour for him, whose forces were so much superior, to be pursued by his subjects in rebellion. these and the like arguments prevailed with the king to alter his wiser measures and resolve to fight. nor was this all; when a resolution of fighting was taken, that part of the advice which they who were for fighting gave, as a reason for their opinion, was forgot, and instead of halting and posting ourselves to advantage till the enemy came up, we were ordered to march back and meet them. nay, so eager was the prince for fighting, that when, from the top of edgehill, the enemy's army was descried in the bottom between them and the village of kineton, and that the enemy had bid us defiance, by discharging three cannons, we accepted the challenge, and answering with two shots from our army, we must needs forsake the advantages of the hills, which they must have mounted under the command of our cannon, and march down to them into the plain. i confess, i thought here was a great deal more gallantry than discretion; for it was plainly taking an advantage out of our own hands, and putting it into the hands of the enemy. an enemy that must fight, may always be fought with to advantage. my old hero, the glorious gustavus adolphus, was as forward to fight as any man of true valour mixed with any policy need to be, or ought to be; but he used to say, "an enemy reduced to a necessity of fighting is half beaten." tis true, we were all but young in the war; the soldiers hot and forward, and eagerly desired to come to hands with the enemy. but i take the more notice of it here, because the king in this acted against his own measures; for it was the king himself had laid the design of getting the start of essex, and marching to london. his friends had invited him thither, and expected him, and suffered deeply for the omission; and yet he gave way to these hasty counsels, and suffered his judgment to be overruled by majority of voices; an error, i say, the king of sweden was never guilty of. for if all the officers at a council of war were of a different opinion, yet unless their reasons mastered his judgment, their votes never altered his measures. but this was the error of our good, but unfortunate master, three times in this war, and particularly in two of the greatest battles of the time, viz., this of edgehill, and that of naseby. the resolution for fighting being published in the army, gave an universal joy to the soldiers, who expressed an extraordinary ardour for fighting. i remember my father talking with me about it, asked me what i thought of the approaching battle. i told him i thought the king had done very well; for at that time i did not consult the extent of the design, and had a mighty mind, like other rash people, to see it brought to a day, which made me answer my father as i did. "but," said i, "sir, i doubt there will be but indifferent doings on both sides, between two armies both made up of fresh men, that have never seen any service." my father minded little what i spoke of that; but when i seemed pleased that the king had resolved to fight, he looked angrily at me, and told me he was sorry i could see no farther into things. "i tell you," says he hastily, "if the king should kill and take prisoners this whole army, general and all, the parliament will have the victory; for we have lost more by slipping this opportunity of getting into london, than we shall ever get by ten battles." i saw enough of this afterwards to convince me of the weight of what my father said, and so did the king too; but it was then too late. advantages slipped in war are never recovered. we were now in a full march to fight the earl of essex. it was on sunday morning the th of october , fair weather overhead, but the ground very heavy and dirty. as soon as we came to the top of edgehill, we discovered their whole army. they were not drawn up, having had two miles to march that morning, but they were very busy forming their lines, and posting the regiments as they came up. some of their horse were exceedingly fatigued, having marched forty-eight hours together; and had they been suffered to follow us three or four days' march farther, several of their regiments of horse would have been quite ruined, and their foot would have been rendered unserviceable for the present. but we had no patience. as soon as our whole army was come to the top of the hill, we were drawn up in order of battle. the king's army made a very fine appearance; and indeed they were a body of gallant men as ever appeared in the field, and as well furnished at all points; the horse exceedingly well accoutred, being most of them gentlemen and volunteers, some whole regiments serving without pay; their horses very good and fit for service as could be desired. the whole army were not above , men, and the enemy not over or under, though we had been told they were not above , ; but they had been reinforced with men from northampton. the king was with the general, the earl of lindsey, in the main battle; prince rupert commanded the right wing, and the marquis of hertford, the lord willoughby, and several other very good officers the left. the signal of battle being given with two cannon shots, we marched in order of battalia down the hill, being drawn up in two lines with bodies of reserve; the enemy advanced to meet us much in the same form, with this difference only, that they had placed their cannon on their right, and the king had placed ours in the centre, before, or rather between two great brigades of foot. their cannon began with us first, and did some mischief among the dragoons of our left wing; but our officers, perceiving the shot took the men and missed the horses, ordered all to alight, and every man leading his horse, to advance in the same order; and this saved our men, for most of the enemy's shot flew over their heads. our cannon made a terrible execution upon their foot for a quarter of an hour, and put them into great confusion, till the general obliged them to halt, and changed the posture of his front, marching round a small rising ground by which he avoided the fury of our artillery. by this time the wings were engaged, the king having given the signal of battle, and ordered the right wing to fall on. prince rupert, who, as is said, commanded that wing, fell on with such fury, and pushed the left wing of the parliament army so effectually, that in a moment he filled all with terror and confusion. commissary-general ramsey, a scotsman, a low country soldier, and an experienced officer, commanded their left wing, and though he did all that an expert soldier, and a brave commander could do, yet 'twas to no purpose; his lines were immediately broken, and all overwhelmed in a trice. two regiments of foot, whether as part of the left wing, or on the left of the main body, i know not, were disordered by their own horse, and rather trampled to death by the horses, than beaten by our men; but they were so entirely broken and disordered, that i do not remember that ever they made one volley upon our men; for their own horse running away, and falling foul on these foot, were so vigorously followed by our men, that the foot never had a moment to rally or look behind them. the point of the left wing of horse were not so soon broken as the rest, and three regiments of them stood firm for some time. the dexterous officers of the other regiments taking the opportunity, rallied a great many of their scattered men behind them, and pieced in some troops with those regiments; but after two or three charges, which a brigade of our second line, following the prince, made upon them, they also were broken with the rest. i remember that at the great battle of leipsic, the right wing of the imperialists having fallen in upon the saxons with like fury to this, bore down all before them, and beat the saxons quite out of the field; upon which the soldiers cried, "victoria, let us follow." "no, no," said the old general tilly, "let them go, but let us beat the swedes too, and then all's our own." had prince rupert taken this method, and instead of following the fugitives, who were dispersed so effectually that two regiments would have secured them from rallying--i say, had he fallen in upon the foot, or wheeled to the left, and fallen in upon the rear of the enemy's right wing of horse, or returned to the assistance of the left wing of our horse, we had gained the most absolute and complete victory that could be; nor had men of the enemy's army got off. but this prince, who was full of fire, and pleased to see the rout of an enemy, pursued them quite to the town of kineton, where indeed he killed abundance of their men, and some time also was lost in plundering the baggage. but in the meantime, the glory and advantage of the day was lost to the king, for the right wing of the parliament horse could not be so broken. sir william balfour made a desperate charge upon the point of the king's left, and had it not been for two regiments of dragoons who were planted in the reserve, had routed the whole wing, for he broke through the first line, and staggered the second, who advanced to their assistance, but was so warmly received by those dragoons, who came seasonably in, and gave their first fire on horseback, that his fury was checked, and having lost a great many men, was forced to wheel about to his own men; and had the king had but three regiments of horse at hand to have charged him, he had been routed. the rest of this wing kept their ground, and received the first fury of the enemy with great firmness; after which, advancing in their turn, they were at once masters of the earl of essex's cannon. and here we lost another advantage; for if any foot had been at hand to support these horse, they had carried off the cannon, or turned it upon the main battle of the enemy's foot, but the foot were otherwise engaged. the horse on this side fought with great obstinacy and variety of success a great while. sir philip stapleton, who commanded the guards of the earl of essex, being engaged with a party of our shrewsbury cavaliers, as we called them, was once in a fair way to have been cut off by a brigade of our foot, who, being advanced to fall on upon the parliament's main body, flanked sir philip's horse in their way, and facing to the left, so furiously charged him with their pikes, that he was obliged to retire in great disorder, and with the loss of a great many men and horses. all this while the foot on both sides were desperately engaged, and coming close up to the teeth of one another with the clubbed musket and push of pike, fought with great resolution, and a terrible slaughter on both sides, giving no quarter for a great while; and they continued to do thus, till, as if they were tired, and out of wind, either party seemed willing enough to leave off, and take breath. those which suffered most were that brigade which had charged sir william stapleton's horse, who being bravely engaged in the front with the enemy's foot, were, on the sudden, charged again in front and flank by sir william balfour's horse and disordered, after a very desperate defence. here the king's standard was taken, the standard-bearer, sir edward verney, being killed; but it was rescued again by captain smith, and brought to the king the same night, for which the king knighted the captain. this brigade of foot had fought all the day, and had not been broken at last, if any horse had been at hand to support them. the field began to be now clear; both armies stood, as it were, gazing at one another, only the king, having rallied his foot, seemed inclined to renew the charge, and began to cannonade them, which they could not return, most of their cannon being nailed while they were in our possession, and all the cannoniers killed or fled; and our gunners did execution upon sir william balfour's troops for a good while. my father's regiment being in the right with the prince, i saw little of the fight but the rout of the enemy's left, and we had as full a victory there as we could desire, but spent too much time in it. we killed about men in that part of the action, and having totally dispersed them, and plundered their baggage, began to think of our fellows when 'twas too late to help them. we returned, however, victorious to the king, just as the battle was over. the king asked the prince what news? he told him he could give his majesty a good account of the enemy's horse. "ay, by g--d," says a gentleman that stood by me, "and of their carts too." that word was spoken with such a sense of the misfortune, and made such an impression on the whole army, that it occasioned some ill blood afterwards among us; and but that the king took up the business, it had been of ill consequence, for some person who had heard the gentleman speak it, informed the prince who it was, and the prince resenting it, spoke something about it in the hearing of the party when the king was present. the gentleman, not at all surprised, told his highness openly he had said the words; and though he owned he had no disrespect for his highness, yet he could not but say, if it had not been so, the enemy's army had been better beaten. the prince replied something very disobliging; upon which the gentleman came up to the king, and kneeling, humbly besought his majesty to accept of his commission, and to give him leave to tell the prince, that whenever his highness pleased, he was ready to give him satisfaction. the prince was exceedingly provoked, and as he was very passionate, began to talk very oddly, and without all government of himself. the gentleman, as bold as he, but much calmer preserved his temper, but maintained his quarrel; and the king was so concerned, that he was very much out of humour with the prince about it. however, his majesty, upon consideration, soon ended the dispute, by laying his commands on them both to speak no more of it for that day; and refusing the commission from the colonel, for he was no less, sent for them both next morning in private, and made them friends again. but to return to our story. we came back to the king timely enough to put the earl of essex's men out of all humour of renewing the fight, and as i observed before, both parties stood gazing at one another, and our cannon playing upon them obliged sir william balfour's horse to wheel off in some disorder, but they returned us none again, which, as we afterwards understood, was, as i said before, for want of both powder and gunners, for the cannoniers and firemen were killed, or had quitted their train in the fight, when our horse had possession of their artillery; and as they had spiked up some of the cannon, so they had carried away fifteen carriages of powder. night coming on, ended all discourse of more fighting, and the king drew off and marched towards the hills. i know no other token of victory which the enemy had than their lying in the field of battle all night, which they did for no other reason than that, having lost their baggage and provisions, they had nowhere to go, and which we did not, because we had good quarters at hand. the number of prisoners and of the slain were not very unequal; the enemy lost more men, we most of quality. six thousand men on both sides were killed on the spot, whereof, when our rolls were examined, we missed . we lost our brave general the old earl of lindsey, who was wounded and taken prisoner, and died of his wounds; sir edward stradling, colonel lundsford, prisoners; and sir edward verney and a great many gentlemen of quality slain. on the other hand, we carried off colonel essex, colonel ramsey, and the lord st john, who also died of his wounds; we took five ammunition waggons full of powder, and brought off about horse in the defeat of the left wing, with eighteen standards and colours, and lost seventeen. the slaughter of the left wing was so great, and the flight so effectual, that several of the officers rid clear away, coasting round, and got to london, where they reported that the parliament army was entirely defeated--all lost, killed, or taken, as if none but them were left alive to carry the news. this filled them with consternation for a while, but when other messengers followed, all was restored to quiet again, and the parliament cried up their victory and sufficiently mocked god and their general with their public thanks for it. truly, as the fight was a deliverance to them, they were in the right to give thanks for it; but as to its being a victory, neither side had much to boast of, and they less a great deal than we had. i got no hurt in this fight, and indeed we of the right wing had but little fighting; i think i had discharged my pistols but once, and my carabine twice, for we had more fatigue than fight; the enemy fled, and we had little to do but to follow and kill those we could overtake. i spoiled a good horse, and got a better from the enemy in his room, and came home weary enough. my father lost his horse, and in the fall was bruised in his thigh by another horse treading on him, which disabled him for some time, and at his request, by his majesty's consent, i commanded the regiment in his absence. the enemy received a recruit of men the next morning; if they had not, i believe they had gone back towards worcester; but, encouraged by that reinforcement, they called a council of war, and had a long debate whether they could attack us again; but notwithstanding their great victory, they durst not attempt it, though this addition of strength made them superior to us by men. the king indeed expected, that when these troops joined them they would advance, and we were preparing to receive them at a village called aynho, where the headquarters continued three or four days; and had they really esteemed the first day's work a victory, as they called it, they would have done it, but they thought not good to venture, but march away to warwick, and from thence to coventry. the king, to urge them to venture upon him, and come to a second battle, sits down before banbury, and takes both town and castle; and two entire regiments of foot, and one troop of horse, quit the parliament service, and take up their arms for the king. this was done almost before their faces, which was a better proof of a victory on our side, than any they could pretend to. from banbury we marched to oxford; and now all men saw the parliament had made a great mistake, for they were not always in the right any more than we, to leave oxford without a garrison. the king caused new regular works to be drawn round it, and seven royal bastions with ravelins and out-works, a double ditch, counterscarp, and covered way; all which, added to the advantage of its situation, made it a formidable place, and from this time it became our place of arms, and the centre of affairs on the king's side. if the parliament had the honour of the field, the king reaped the fruits of the victory; for all this part of the country submitted to him. essex's army made the best of their way to london, and were but in an ill condition when they came there, especially their horse. the parliament, sensible of this, and receiving daily accounts of the progress we made, began to cool a little in their temper, abated of their first rage, and voted an address for peace; and sent to the king to let him know they were desirous to prevent the effusion of more blood, and to bring things to an accommodation, or, as they called it, a right understanding. i was now, by the king's particular favour, summoned to the councils of war, my father continuing absent and ill; and now i began to think of the real grounds, and which was more, of the fatal issue of this war. i say, i now began it; for i cannot say that i ever rightly stated matters in my own mind before, though i had been enough used to blood, and to see the destruction of people, sacking of towns, and plundering the country; yet 'twas in germany, and among strangers; but i found a strange, secret and unaccountable sadness upon my spirits, to see this acting in my own native country. it grieved me to the heart, even in the rout of our enemies, to see the slaughter of them; and even in the fight, to hear a man cry for quarter in english, moved me to a compassion which i had never been used to; nay, sometimes it looked to me as if some of my own men had been beaten; and when i heard a soldier cry, "o god, i am shot," i looked behind me to see which of my own troop was fallen. here i saw myself at the cutting of the throats of my friends; and indeed some of my near relations. my old comrades and fellow-soldiers in germany were some with us, some against us, as their opinions happened to differ in religion. for my part, i confess i had not much religion in me, at that time; but i thought religion rightly practised on both sides would have made us all better friends; and therefore sometimes i began to think, that both the bishops of our side, and the preachers on theirs, made religion rather the pretence than the cause of the war. and from those thoughts i vigorously argued it at the council of war against marching to brentford, while the address for a treaty of peace from the parliament was in hand: for i was for taking the parliament by the handle which they had given us, and entering into a negotiation, with the advantage of its being at their own request. i thought the king had now in his hands an opportunity to make an honourable peace; for this battle of edgehill, as much as they boasted of the victory to hearten up their friends, had sorely weakened their army, and discouraged their party too, which in effect was worse as to their army. the horse were particularly in an ill case, and the foot greatly diminished, and the remainder very sickly; but besides this, the parliament were greatly alarmed at the progress we made afterward; and still fearing the king's surprising them, had sent for the earl of essex to london, to defend them; by which the country was, as it were, defeated and abandoned, and left to be plundered; our parties overrun all places at pleasure. all this while i considered, that whatever the soldiers of fortune meant by the war, our desires were to suppress the exorbitant power of a party, to establish our king in his just and legal rights; but not with a design to destroy the constitution of government, and the being of parliament. and therefore i thought now was the time for peace, and there were a great many worthy gentlemen in the army of my mind; and, had our master had ears to hear us, the war might have had an end here. this address for peace was received by the king at maidenhead, whither this army was now advanced, and his majesty returned answer by sir peter killegrew, that he desired nothing more, and would not be wanting on his part. upon this the parliament name commissioners, and his majesty excepting against sir john evelyn, they left him out, and sent others; and desired the king to appoint his residence near london, where the commissioners might wait upon him. accordingly the king appointed windsor for the place of treaty, and desired the treaty might be hastened. and thus all things looked with a favourable aspect, when one unlucky action knocked it all on the head, and filled both parties with more implacable animosities than they had before, and all hopes of peace vanished. during this progress of the king's armies, we were always abroad with the horse ravaging the country, and plundering the roundheads. prince rupert, a most active vigilant party man, and i must own, fitter for such than for a general, was never lying still, and i seldom stayed behind; for our regiment being very well mounted, he would always send for us, if he had any extraordinary design in hand. one time in particular he had a design upon aylesbury, the capital of buckinghamshire; indeed our view at first was rather to beat the enemy out of town and demolish their works, and perhaps raise some contributions on the rich country round it, than to garrison the place, and keep it; for we wanted no more garrisons, being masters of the field. the prince had horse with him in this expedition, but no foot; the town had some foot raised in the country by mr hampden, and two regiments of country militia, whom we made light of, but we found they stood to their tackle better than well enough. we came very early to the town, and thought they had no notice of us; but some false brother had given them the alarm, and we found them all in arms, the hedges without the town lined with musketeers, on that side in particular where they expected us, and two regiments of foot drawn up in view to support them, with some horse in the rear of all. the prince, willing, however, to do something, caused some of his horse to alight, and serve as dragoons; and having broken a way into the enclosures, the horse beat the foot from behind the hedges, while the rest who were alighted charged them in the lane which leads to the town. here they had cast up some works, and fired from their lines very regularly, considering them as militia only, the governor encouraging them by his example; so that finding without some foot there would be no good to be done, we gave it over, and drew off; and so aylesbury escaped a scouring for that time. i cannot deny but these flying parties of horse committed great spoil among the country people; and sometimes the prince gave a liberty to some cruelties which were not at all for the king's interest; because it being still upon our own country, and the king's own subjects, whom in all his declarations he protested to be careful of, it seemed to contradict all those protestations and declarations, and served to aggravate and exasperate the common people; and the king's enemies made all the advantages of it that was possible, by crying out of twice as many extravagancies as were committed. tis true, the king, who naturally abhorred such things, could not restrain his men, no, nor his generals, so absolutely as he would have done. the war, on his side, was very much _à la_ volunteer; many gentlemen served him at their own charge, and some paid whole regiments themselves: sometimes also the king's affairs were straiter than ordinary, and his men were not very well paid, and this obliged him to wink at their excursions upon the country, though he did not approve of them. and yet i must own, that in those parts of england where the war was hottest, there never was seen that ruin and depopulation, murders, and barbarities, which i have seen even among protestant armies abroad, in germany and other foreign parts of the world. and if the parliament people had seen those things abroad, as i had, they would not have complained. the most i have seen was plundering the towns for provisions, drinking up their beer, and turning our horses into their fields, or stacks of corn; and sometimes the soldiers would be a little rude with the wenches; but alas! what was this to count tilly's ravages in saxony? or what was our taking of leicester by storm, where they cried out of our barbarities, to the sacking of new brandenburg, or the taking of magdeburg? in leicester, of or people in the town, were killed; in magdeburg, of , scarce were left, and the whole town burnt to ashes. i myself have seen seventeen or eighteen villages on fire in a day, and the people driven away from their dwellings, like herds of cattle. i do not instance these greater barbarities to justify lesser actions, which are nevertheless irregular; but i do say, that circumstances considered, this war was managed with as much humanity on both sides as could be expected, especially also considering the animosity of parties. but to return to the prince: he had not always the same success in these enterprises, for sometimes we came short home. and i cannot omit one pleasant adventure which happened to a party of ours, in one of these excursions into buckinghamshire. the major of our regiment was soundly beaten by a party, which, as i may say, was led by a woman; and, if i had not rescued him, i know not but he had been taken prisoner by a woman. it seems our men had besieged some fortified house about oxfordshire, towards thame, and the house being defended by the lady in her husband's absence, she had yielded the house upon a capitulation; one of the articles of which was, to march out with all her servants, soldiers, and goods, and to be conveyed to thame. whether she thought to have gone no farther, or that she reckoned herself safe there, i know not; but my major, with two troops of horse, meets with this lady and her party, about five miles from thame, as we were coming back from our defeated attack of aylesbury. we reckoned ourselves in an enemy's country, and had lived a little at large, or at discretion, as 'tis called abroad; and these two troops, with the major, were returning to our detachment from a little village, where, at the farmer's house, they had met with some liquor, and truly some of his men were so drunk they could but just sit upon their horses. the major himself was not much better, and the whole body were but in a sorry condition to fight. upon the road they meet this party; the lady having no design of fighting, and being, as she thought, under the protection of the articles, sounds a parley, and desired to speak with the officer. the major, as drunk as he was, could tell her, that by the articles she was to be assured no farther than thame, and being now five miles beyond it, she was a fair enemy, and therefore demanded to render themselves prisoners. the lady seemed surprised, but being sensible she was in the wrong, offered to compound for her goods, and would have given him £ , and i think seven or eight horses. the major would certainly have taken it, if he had not been drunk; but he refused it, and gave threatening words to her, blustering in language which he thought proper to fright a woman, viz., that he would cut them all to pieces, and give no quarter, and the like. the lady, who had been more used to the smell of powder than he imagined, called some of her servants to her, and, consulting with them what to do, they all unanimously encouraged her to let them fight; told her it was plain that the commander was drunk, and all that were with him were rather worse than he, and hardly able to sit their horses; and that therefore one bold charge would put them all into confusion. in a word, she consented, and, as she was a woman, they desired her to secure herself among the waggons; but she refused, and told them bravely she would take her fate with them. in short, she boldly bade my major defiance, and that he might do his worst, since she had offered him fair, and he had refused it; her mind was altered now, and she would give him nothing, and bade his officer that parleyed longer with her be gone; so the parley ended. after this she gave him fair leave to go back to his men; but before he could tell his tale to them she was at his heels with all her men, and gave him such a home charge as put his men into disorder, and, being too drunk to rally, they were knocked down before they knew what to do with themselves, and in a few minutes more they took to a plain flight. but what was still worse, the men, being some of them very drunk, when they came to run for their lives fell over one another, and tumbled over their horses, and made such work that a troop of women might have beaten them all. in this pickle, with the enemy at his heels, i came in with him, hearing the noise. when i appeared the pursuers retreated, and, seeing what a condition my people were in, and not knowing the strength of the enemy, i contented myself with bringing them off without pursuing the other; nor could i ever hear positively who this female captain was. we lost seventeen or eighteen of our men, and about thirty horses; but when the particulars of the story was told us, our major was so laughed at by the whole army, and laughed at everywhere, that he was ashamed to show himself for a week or a fortnight after. but to return to the king: his majesty, as i observed, was at maidenhead addressed by the parliament for peace, and windsor being appointed for the place of treaty, the van of his army lay at colebrook. in the meantime, whether it were true or only a pretence, but it was reported the parliament general had sent a body of his troops, with a train of artillery, to hammersmith, in order to fall upon some part of our army, or to take some advanced post, which was to the prejudice of our men; whereupon the king ordered the army to march, and, by the favour of a thick mist, came within half a mile of brentford before he was discovered. there were two regiments of foot, and about horse into the town, of the enemy's best troops; these taking the alarm, posted themselves on the bridge at the west end of the town. the king attacked them with a select detachment of his best infantry, and they defended themselves with incredible obstinacy. i must own i never saw raw men, for they could not have been in arms above four months, act like them in my life. in short, there was no forcing these men, for, though two whole brigades of our foot, backed by our horse, made five several attacks upon them they could not break them, and we lost a great many brave men in that action. at last, seeing the obstinacy of these men, a party of horse was ordered to go round from osterley; and, entering the town on the north side, where, though the horse made some resistance, it was not considerable, the town was presently taken. i led my regiment through an enclosure, and came into the town nearer to the bridge than the rest, by which means i got first into the town; but i had this loss by my expedition, that the foot charged me before the body was come up, and poured in their shot very furiously. my men were but in an ill case, and would not have stood much longer, if the rest of the horse coming up the lane had not found them other employment. when the horse were thus entered, they immediately dispersed the enemy's horse, who fled away towards london, and falling in sword in hand upon the rear of the foot, who were engaged at the bridge, they were all cut in pieces, except about , who, scorning to ask quarter, desperately threw themselves into the river of thames, where they were most of them drowned. the parliament and their party made a great outcry at this attempt--that it was base and treacherous while in a treaty of peace; and that the king, having amused them with hearkening to a treaty, designed to have seized upon their train of artillery first, and, after that, to have surprised both the city of london and the parliament. and i have observed since, that our historians note this action as contrary to the laws of honour and treaties, though as there was no cessation of arms agreed on, nothing is more contrary to the laws of war than to suggest it. that it was a very unhappy thing to the king and whole nation, as it broke off the hopes of peace, and was the occasion of bringing the scots army in upon us, i readily acknowledge, but that there was anything dishonourable in it, i cannot allow. for though the parliament had addressed to the king for peace, and such steps were taken in it as before, yet, as i have said, there was no proposals made on either side for a cessation of arms, and all the world must allow, that in such cases the war goes on in the field, while the peace goes on in the cabinet. and if the war goes on, admit the king had designed to surprise the city or parliament, or all of them, it had been no more than the custom of war allows, and what they would have done by him if they could. the treaty of westphalia, or peace of munster, which ended the bloody wars of germany, was a precedent for this. that treaty was actually negotiating seven years, and yet the war went on with all the vigour and rancour imaginable, even to the last. nay, the very time after the conclusion of it, but before the news could be brought to the army, did he that was afterwards king of sweden, carolus gustavus, take the city of prague by surprise, and therein an inestimable booty. besides, all the wars of europe are full of examples of this kind, and therefore i cannot see any reason to blame the king for this action as to the fairness of it. indeed, as to the policy of it, i can say little; but the case was this. the king had a gallant army, flushed with success, and things hitherto had gone on very prosperously, both with his own army and elsewhere; he had above , men in his own army, including his garrison left at banbury, shrewsbury, worcester, oxford, wallingford, abingdon, reading, and places adjacent. on the other hand, the parliament army came back to london in but a very sorry condition;[ ] for what with their loss in their victory, as they called it, at edgehill, their sickness, and a hasty march to london, they were very much diminished, though at london they soon recruited them again. and this prosperity of the king's affairs might encourage him to strike this blow, thinking to bring the parliament to the better terms by the apprehensions of the superior strength of the king's forces. but, however it was, the success did not equally answer the king's expectation. the vigorous defence the troops posted at brentford made as above, gave the earl of essex opportunity, with extraordinary application, to draw his forces out to turnham green. and the exceeding alacrity of the enemy was such, that their whole army appeared with them, making together an army of , men, drawn up in view of our forces by eight o'clock the next morning. the city regiments were placed between the regular troops, and all together offered us battle, but we were not in a condition to accept it. the king indeed was sometimes of the mind to charge them, and once or twice ordered parties to advance to begin to skirmish, but upon better advice altered his mind, and indeed it was the wisest counsel to defer the fighting at that time. the parliament generals were as unfixed in their resolutions, on the other side, as the king; sometimes they sent out parties, and then called them back again. one strong party of near men marched off towards acton, with orders to amuse us on that side, but were countermanded. indeed, i was of the opinion we might have ventured the battle, for though the parliament's army were more numerous, yet the city trained bands, which made up of their foot, were not much esteemed, and the king was a great deal stronger in horse than they. but the main reason that hindered the engagement, was want of ammunition, which the king having duly weighed, he caused the carriages and cannon to draw off first, and then the foot, the horse continuing to force the enemy till all was clear gone; and then we drew off too and marched to kingston, and the next day to reading. now the king saw his mistake in not continuing his march for london, instead of facing about to fight the enemy at edgehill. and all the honour we had gained in so many successful enterprises lay buried in this shameful retreat from an army of citizens' wives; for truly that appearance at turnham green was gay, but not great. there was as many lookers-on as actors. the crowds of ladies, apprentices, and mob was so great, that when the parties of our army advanced, and as they thought, to charge, the coaches, horsemen, and crowd, that cluttered away to be out of harm's way, looked little better than a rout. and i was persuaded a good home charge from our horse would have sent their whole army after them. but so it was, that this crowd of an army was to triumph over us, and they did it, for all the kingdom was carefully informed how their dreadful looks had frightened us away. upon our retreat, the parliament resent this attack, which they call treacherous, and vote no accommodation; but they considered of it afterwards, and sent six commissioners to the king with propositions. but the change of the scene of action changed the terms of peace, and now they made terms like conquerors, petition him to desert his army, and return to the parliament, and the like. had his majesty, at the head of his army, with the full reputation they had before, and in the ebb of their affairs, rested at windsor, and commenced a treaty, they had certainly made more reasonable proposals; but now the scabbard seemed to be thrown away on both sides. the rest of the winter was spent in strengthening parties and places, also in fruitless treaties of peace, messages, remonstrances, and paper war on both sides, and no action remarkable happened anywhere that i remember. yet the king gained ground everywhere, and his forces in the north increased under the earl of newcastle; also my lord goring, then only called colonel goring, arrived from holland, bringing three ships laden with arms and ammunition, and notice that the queen was following with more. goring brought barrels of gunpowder, and , small arms; all which came very seasonably, for the king was in great want of them, especially the powder. upon this recruit the earl of newcastle draws down to york, and being above , strong, made sir thomas fairfax give ground, and retreat to hull. whoever lay still, prince rupert was always abroad, and i chose to go out with his highness as often as i had opportunity, for hitherto he was always successful. about this time the prince being at oxford, i gave him intelligence of a party of the enemy who lived a little at large, too much for good soldiers, about cirencester. the prince, glad of the news, resolved to attack them, and though it was a wet season, and the ways exceeding bad, being in february, yet we marched all night in the dark, which occasioned the loss of some horses and men too, in sloughs and holes, which the darkness of the night had suffered them to fall into. we were a very strong party, being about horse and dragoons, and coming to cirencester very early in the morning, to our great satisfaction the enemy were perfectly surprised, not having the least notice of our march, which answered our end more ways than one. however, the earl of stamford's regiment made some resistance; but the town having no works to defend it, saving a slight breastwork at the entrance of the road, with a turnpike, our dragoons alighted, and forcing their way over the bellies of stamford's foot, they beat them from their defence, and followed them at their heels into the town. stamford's regiment was entirely cut in pieces, and several others, to the number of about men, and the town entered without any other resistance. we took prisoners, arms, and the county magazine, which at that time was considerable; for there was about barrels of powder, and all things in proportion. i received the first hurt i got in this war at this action, for having followed the dragoons and brought my regiment within the barricado which they had gained, a musket bullet struck my horse just in the head, and that so effectually that he fell down as dead as a stone all at once. the fall plunged me into a puddle of water and daubed me; and my man having brought me another horse and cleaned me a little, i was just getting up, when another bullet struck me on my left hand, which i had just clapped on the horse's main to lift myself into the saddle. the blow broke one of my fingers, and bruised my hand very much; and it proved a very painful hurt to me. for the present i did not much concern myself about it, but made my man tie it up close in my handkerchief, and led up my men to the market-place, where we had a very smart brush with some musketeers who were posted in the churchyard; but our dragoons soon beat them out there, and the whole town was then our own. we made no stay here, but marched back with all our booty to oxford, for we knew the enemy were very strong at gloucester, and that way. much about the same time, the earl of northampton, with a strong party, set upon lichfield, and took the town, but could not take the close; but they beat a body of men coming to the relief of the town, under sir john gell, of derbyshire, and sir william brereton, of cheshire, and killing of them, dispersed the rest. our second campaign now began to open; the king marched from oxford to relieve reading, which was besieged by the parliament forces; but general fielding, lieutenant-governor, sir arthur ashton being wounded, surrendered to essex before the king could come up; for which he was tried by martial law, and condemned to die, but the king forbore to execute the sentence. this was the first town we had lost in the war, for still the success of the king's affairs was very encouraging. this bad news, however, was overbalanced by an account brought the king at the same time, by an express from york, that the queen had landed in the north, and had brought over a great magazine of arms and ammunition, besides some men. some time after this her majesty, marching southward to meet the king, joined the army near edgehill, where the first battle was fought. she brought the king foot, horse and dragoons, six pieces of cannon, barrels of powder, , small arms. during this prosperity of the king's affairs his armies increased mightily in the western counties also. sir william waller, indeed, commanded for the parliament in those parts too, and particularly in dorsetshire, hampshire, and berkshire, where he carried on their cause but too fast; but farther west, sir nicholas slanning, sir ralph hopton, and sir bevil grenvile had extended the king's quarters from cornwall through devonshire, and into somersetshire, where they took exeter, barnstaple, and bideford; and the first of these they fortified very well, making it a place of arms for the west, and afterwards it was the residence of the queen. at last, the famous sir william waller and the king's forces met, and came to a pitched battle, where sir william lost all his honour again. this was at roundway down in wiltshire. waller had engaged our cornish army at lansdown, and in a very obstinate fight had the better of them, and made them retreat to the devizes. sir william hopton, however, having a good body of foot untouched, sent expresses and messengers one in the neck of another to the king for some horse, and the king being in great concern for that army, who were composed of the flower of the cornish men, commanded me to march with all possible secrecy, as well as expedition, with horse and dragoons from oxford, to join them. we set out in the depth of the night, to avoid, if possible, any intelligence being given of our route, and soon joined with the cornish army, when it was as soon resolved to give battle to waller; and, give him his due, he was as forward to fight as we. as it is easy to meet when both sides are willing to be found, sir william waller met us upon roundway down, where we had a fair field on both sides, and room enough to draw up our horse. in a word, there was little ceremony to the work; the armies joined, and we charged his horse with so much resolution, that they quickly fled, and quitted the field; for we over-matched him in horse, and this was the entire destruction of their army. for the infantry, which outnumbered ours by , were now at our mercy; some faint resistance they made, just enough to give us occasion to break into their ranks with our horse, where we gave time to our foot to defeat others that stood to their work, upon which they began to disband, and run every way they could; but our horse having surrounded them, we made a fearful havoc of them. we lost not about men in this action; waller lost about killed and taken, and as many dispersed that never returned to their colours. those of foot that escaped got into bristol, and waller, with the poor remains of his routed regiments, got to london; so that it is plain some ran east, and some ran west, that is to say, they fled every way they could. my going with this detachment prevented my being at the siege of bristol, which prince rupert attacked much about the same time, and it surrendered in three days. the parliament questioned colonel nathaniel fiennes, the governor, and had him tried as a coward by a court-martial, and condemned to die, but suspended the execution also, as the king did the governor of reading. i have often heard prince rupert say, they did colonel fiennes wrong in that affair; and that if the colonel would have summoned him, he would have demanded a passport of the parliament, and have come up and convinced the court that colonel fiennes had not misbehaved himself, and that he had not a sufficient garrison to defend a city of that extent; having not above men in the town, excepting some of waller's runaways, most of whom were unfit for service, and without arms; and that the citizens in general being disaffected to him, and ready on the first occasion to open the gates to the king's forces, it was impossible for him to have kept the city. "and when i had farther informed them," said the prince, "of the measures i had taken for a general assault the next day, i am confident i should have convinced them that i had taken the city by storm, if he had not surrendered." the king's affairs were now in a very good posture, and three armies in the north, west, and in the centre, counted in the musters about , men besides small garrisons and parties abroad. several of the lords, and more of the commons, began to fall off from the parliament, and make their peace with the king; and the affairs of the parliament began to look very ill. the city of london was their inexhaustible support and magazine, both for men, money, and all things necessary; and whenever their army was out of order, the clergy of their party in but one sunday or two, would preach the young citizens out of their shops, the labourers from their masters, into the army, and recruit them on a sudden. and all this was still owing to the omission i first observed, of not marching to london, when it might have been so easily effected. we had now another, or a fairer opportunity, than before, but as ill use was made of it. the king, as i have observed, was in a very good posture; he had three large armies roving at large over the kingdom. the cornish army, victorious and numerous, had beaten waller, secured and fortified exeter, which the queen had made her residence, and was there delivered of a daughter, the princess henrietta maria, afterwards duchess of orleans, and mother of the duchess dowager of savoy, commonly known in the french style by the title of madam royal. they had secured salisbury, sherborne castle, weymouth, winchester, and basing-house, and commanded the whole country, except bridgewater and taunton, plymouth and lynn; all which places they held blocked up. the king was also entirely master of all wales, monmouthshire, cheshire, shropshire, staffordshire, worcestershire, oxfordshire, berkshire, and all the towns from windsor up the thames to cirencester, except reading and henley; and of the whole severn, except gloucester. the earl of newcastle had garrisons in every strong place in the north, from berwick-upon-tweed to boston in lincolnshire, and newark-upon-trent, hull only excepted, whither the lord fairfax and his son sir thomas were retreated, their troops being routed and broken, sir thomas fairfax his baggage, with his lady and servants taken prisoners, and himself hardly scaping. and now a great council of war was held in the king's quarters, what enterprise to go upon; and it happened to be the very same day when the parliament were in a serious debate what should become of them, and whose help they should seek. and indeed they had cause for it; and had our counsels been as ready and well-grounded as theirs, we had put an end to the war in a month's time. in this council the king proposed the marching to london, to put an end to the parliament and encourage his friends and loyal subjects in kent, who were ready to rise for him; and showed us letters from the earl of newcastle, wherein he offered to join his majesty with a detachment of horse, and foot, if his majesty thought fit to march southward, and yet leave forces sufficient to guard the north from any invasion. i confess, when i saw the scheme the king had himself drawn for this attempt, i felt an unusual satisfaction in my mind, from the hopes that he might bring this war to some tolerable end; for i professed myself on all occasions heartily weary with fighting with friends, brothers, neighbours, and acquaintance, and i made no question but this motion of the king's would effectually bring the parliament to reason. all men seemed to like the enterprise but the earl of worcester, who, on particular views for securing the country behind, as he called it, proposed the taking in the town of gloucester and hereford first. he made a long speech of the danger of leaving massey, an active bold fellow, with a strong party in the heart of all the king's quarters, ready on all occasions to sally out and surprise the neighbouring garrisons, as he had done sudley castle and others; and of the ease and freedom to all those western parts to have them fully cleared of the enemy. interest presently backs this advice, and all those gentlemen whose estates lay that way, or whose friends lived about worcester, shrewsbury, bridgnorth, or the borders, and who, as they said, had heard the frequent wishes of the country to have the city of gloucester reduced, fell in with this advice, alleging the consequence it was for the commerce of the country to have the navigation of the severn free, which was only interrupted by this one town from the sea up to shrewsbury, &c. i opposed this, and so did several others. prince rupert was vehemently against it; and we both offered, with the troops of the country, to keep gloucester blocked up during the king's march for london, so that massey should not be able to stir. this proposal made the earl of worcester's party more eager for the siege than before, for they had no mind to a blockade which would leave the country to maintain the troops all the summer; and of all men the prince did not please them, for, he having no extraordinary character for discipline, his company was not much desired even by our friends. thus, in an ill hour, 'twas resolved to sit down before gloucester. the king had a gallant army of , men whereof , horse, the finest body of gentlemen that ever i saw together in my life; their horses without comparison, and their equipages the finest and the best in the world, and their persons englishmen, which, i think, is enough to say of them. according to the resolution taken in the council of war, the army marched westward, and sat down before gloucester the beginning of august. there we spent a month to the least purpose that ever army did. our men received frequent affronts from the desperate sallies of an inconsiderable enemy. i cannot forbear reflecting on the misfortunes of this siege. our men were strangely dispirited in all the assaults they gave upon the place; there was something looked like disaster and mismanagement, and our men went on with an ill will and no resolution. the king despised the place, and thinking to carry it sword in hand, made no regular approaches, and the garrison, being desperate, made therefore the greater slaughter. in this work our horse, who were so numerous and so fine, had no employment. two thousand horse had been enough for this business, and the enemy had no garrison or party within forty miles of us, so that we had nothing to do but look on with infinite regret upon the losses of our foot. the enemy made frequent and desperate sallies, in one of which i had my share. i was posted upon a parade, or place of arms, with part of my regiment, and part of colonel goring's regiment of horse, in order to support a body of foot, who were ordered to storm the point of a breastwork which the enemy had raised to defend one of the avenues to the town. the foot were beat off with loss, as they always were; and massey, the governor, not content to have beaten them from his works, sallies out with near men, and falling in upon the foot as they were rallying under the cover of our horse, we put ourselves in the best posture we could to receive them. as massey did not expect, i suppose, to engage with any horse, he had no pikes with him, which encouraged us to treat him the more rudely; but as to desperate men danger is no danger, when he found he must clear his hands of us, before he could despatch the foot, he faces up to us, fires but one volley of his small shot, and fell to battering us with the stocks of their muskets in such a manner that one would have thought they had been madmen. we at first despised this way of clubbing us, and charging through them, laid a great many of them upon the ground, and in repeating our charge, trampled more of them under our horses' feet; and wheeling thus continually, beat them off from our foot, who were just upon the point of disbanding. upon this they charged us again with their fire, and at one volley killed thirty-three or thirty-four men and horses; and had they had pikes with them, i know not what we should have done with them. but at last charging through them again, we divided them; one part of them being hemmed in between us and our own foot, were cut in pieces to a man; the rest as i understood afterwards, retreated into the town, having lost of their men. in this last charge i received a rude blow from a stout fellow on foot with the butt end of his musket which perfectly stunned me, and fetched me off from my horse; and had not some near me took care of me, i had been trod to death by our own men. but the fellow being immediately killed, and my friends finding me alive, had taken me up, and carried me off some distance, where i came to myself again after some time, but knew little of what i did or said that night. this was the reason why i say i afterwards understood the enemy retreated; for i saw no more what they did then, nor indeed was i well of this blow for all the rest of the summer, but had frequent pains in my head, dizzinesses and swimming, that gave me some fears the blow had injured the skull; but it wore off again, nor did it at all hinder my attending my charge. this action, i think, was the only one that looked like a defeat given the enemy at this siege. we killed them near men, as i have said, and lost about sixty of our troopers. all this time, while the king was harassing and weakening the best army he ever saw together during the whole war, the parliament generals, or rather preachers, were recruiting theirs; for the preachers were better than drummers to raise volunteers, zealously exhorting the london dames to part with their husbands, and the city to send some of their trained bands to join the army for the relief of gloucester; and now they began to advance towards us. the king hearing of the advance of essex's army, who by this time was come to aylesbury, had summoned what forces he had within call, to join him; and accordingly he received foot from somersetshire; and having battered the town for thirty-six hours, and made a fair breach, resolves upon an assault, if possible, to carry the town before the enemy came up. the assault was begun about seven in the evening, and the men boldly mounted the breach; but after a very obstinate and bloody dispute, were beaten out again by the besieged with great loss. being thus often repulsed, and the earl of essex's army approaching, the king calls a council of war, and proposed to fight essex's army. the officers of the horse were for fighting; and without doubt we were superior to him both in number and goodness of our horse, but the foot were not in an equal condition; and the colonels of foot representing to the king the weakness of their regiments, and how their men had been balked and disheartened at this cursed siege, the graver counsel prevailed, and it was resolved to raise the siege, and retreat towards bristol, till the army was recruited. pursuant to this resolution, the th of september, the king, having before sent away his heavy cannon and baggage, raised the siege, and marched to berkeley castle. the earl of essex came the next day to birdlip hills; and understanding by messengers from colonel massey, that the siege was raised, sends a recruit of men into the city, and followed us himself with a great body of horse. this body of horse showed themselves to us once in a large field fit to have entertained them in; and our scouts having assured us they were not above , and had no foot with them, the king ordered a detachment of about the same number to face them. i desired his majesty to let us have two regiments of dragoons with us, which was then men in a regiment, lest there might be some dragoons among the enemy; which the king granted, and accordingly we marched, and drew up in view of them. they stood their ground, having, as they supposed, some advantage of the manner they were posted in, and expected we would charge them. the king, who did us the honour to command this party, finding they would not stir, calls me to him, and ordered me with the dragoons, and my own regiment, to take a circuit round by a village to a certain lane, where in their retreat they must have passed, and which opened to a small common on the flank; with orders, if they engaged, to advance and charge them in the flank. i marched immediately; but though the country about there was almost all enclosures, yet their scouts were so vigilant, that they discovered me, and gave notice to the body; upon which their whole party moved to the left, as if they intended to charge me, before the king with his body of horse could come. but the king was too vigilant to be circumvented so; and therefore his majesty perceiving this, sends away three regiments of horse to second me, and a messenger before them, to order me to halt, and expect the enemy, for that he would follow with the whole body. but before this order reached me, i had halted for some time; for finding myself discovered, and not judging it safe to be entirely cut off from the main body, i stopped at the village, and causing my dragoons to alight, and line a thick hedge on my left, i drew up my horse just at the entrance into the village opening to a common. the enemy came up on the trot to charge me, but were saluted with a terrible fire from the dragoons out of the hedge, which killed them near men. this being a perfect surprise to them, they halted, and just at that moment they received orders from their main body to retreat; the king at the same time appearing upon some heights in their rear, which obliged them to think of retreating, or coming to a general battle, which was none of their design. i had no occasion to follow them, not being in a condition to attack the whole body; but the dragoons coming out into the common, gave them another volley at a distance, which reached them effectually, for it killed about twenty of them, and wounded more; but they drew off, and never fired a shot at us, fearing to be enclosed between two parties, and so marched away to their general's quarters, leaving ten or twelve more of their fellows killed, and about horses. our men, after the country fashion, gave them a shout at parting, to let them see we knew they were afraid of us. however, this relieving of gloucester raised the spirits as well as the reputation of the parliament forces, and was a great defeat to us; and from this time things began to look with a melancholy aspect, for the prosperous condition of the king's affairs began to decline. the opportunities he had let slip were never to be recovered, and the parliament, in their former extremity, having voted an invitation to the scots to march to their assistance, we had now new enemies to encounter; and, indeed, there began the ruin of his majesty's affairs, for the earl of newcastle, not able to defend himself against the scots on his rear, the earl of manchester in his front, and sir thomas fairfax on his flank, was everywhere routed and defeated, and his forces obliged to quit the field to the enemy. about this time it was that we first began to hear of one oliver cromwell, who, like a little cloud, rose out of the east, and spread first into the north, till it shed down a flood that overwhelmed the three kingdoms. he first was a private captain of horse, but now commanded a regiment whom he armed _cap-à-pie à la cuirassier_; and, joining with the earl of manchester, the first action we heard of him that made him anything famous was about grantham, where, with only his own regiment, he defeated twenty-four troops of horse and dragoons of the king's forces; then, at gainsborough, with two regiments, his own of horse and one of dragoons, where he defeated near of the earl of newcastle's men, killed lieutenant-general cavendish, brother to the earl of devonshire, who commanded them, and relieved gainsborough; and though the whole army came in to the rescue, he made good his retreat to lincoln with little loss; and the next week he defeated sir john henderson at winceby, near horncastle, with sixteen regiments of horse and dragoons, himself having not half that number; killed the lord widdrington, sir ingram hopton, and several gentlemen of quality. thus this firebrand of war began to blaze, and he soon grew a terror to the north; for victory attended him like a page of honour, and he was scarce ever known to be beaten during the whole war. now we began to reflect again on the misfortune of our master's counsels. had we marched to london, instead of besieging gloucester, we had finished the war with a stroke. the parliament's army was in a most despicable condition, and had never been recruited, had we not given them a month's time, which we lingered away at this fatal town of gloucester. but 'twas too late to reflect; we were a disheartened army, but we were not beaten yet, nor broken. we had a large country to recruit in, and we lost no time but raised men apace. in the meantime his majesty, after a short stay at bristol, makes back again towards oxford with a part of the foot and all the horse. at cirencester we had a brush again with essex; that town owed us a shrewd turn for having handled them coarsely enough before, when prince rupert seized the county magazine. i happened to be in the town that night with sir nicholas crisp, whose regiment of horse quartered there with colonel spencer and some foot; my own regiment was gone before to oxford. about ten at night, a party of essex's men beat up our quarters by surprise, just as we had served them before. they fell in with us, just as people were going to bed, and having beaten the out-guards, were gotten into the middle of the town before our men could get on horseback. sir nicholas crisp, hearing the alarm, gets up, and with some of his clothes on, and some off, comes into my chamber. "we are all undone," says he, "the roundheads are upon us." we had but little time to consult, but being in one of the principal inns in the town, we presently ordered the gates of the inn to be shut, and sent to all the inns where our men were quartered to do the like, with orders, if they had any back-doors, or ways to get out, to come to us. by this means, however, we got so much time as to get on horseback, and so many of our men came to us by back ways, that we had near horse in the yards and places behind the house. and now we began to think of breaking out by a lane which led from the back side of the inn, but a new accident determined us another, though a worse way. the enemy being entered, and our men cooped up in the yards of the inns, colonel spencer, the other colonel, whose regiment of horse lay also in the town, had got on horseback before us, and engaged with the enemy, but being overpowered, retreated fighting, and sends to sir nicholas crisp for help. sir nicholas, moved to see the distress of his friend, turning to me, says he, "what can we do for him?" i told him i thought 'twas time to help him, if possible; upon which, opening the inn gates, we sallied out in very good order, about horse. and several of the troops from other parts of the town joining us, we recovered colonel spencer, and charging home, beat back the enemy to their main body. but finding their foot drawn up in the churchyard, and several detachments moving to charge us, we retreated in as good order as we could. they did not think fit to pursue us, but they took all the carriages which were under the convoy of this party, and laden with provisions and ammunition, and above of our horse, the foot shifted away as well as they could. thus we made off in a shattered condition towards farringdon, and so to oxford, and i was very glad my regiment was not there. we had small rest at oxford, or indeed anywhere else; for the king was marched from thence, and we followed him. i was something uneasy at my absence from my regiment, and did not know how the king might resent it, which caused me to ride after them with all expedition. but the armies were engaged that very day at newbury, and i came in too late. i had not behaved myself so as to be suspected of a wilful shunning the action; but a colonel of a regiment ought to avoid absence from his regiment in time of fight, be the excuse never so just, as carefully as he would a surprise in his quarters. the truth is, 'twas an error of my own, and owing to two day's stay i made at the bath, where i met with some ladies who were my relations. and this is far from being an excuse; for if the king had been a gustavus adolphus, i had certainly received a check for it. this fight was very obstinate, and could our horse have come to action as freely as the foot, the parliament army had suffered much more; for we had here a much better body of horse than they, and we never failed beating them where the weight of the work lay upon the horse. here the city train-bands, of which there was two regiments, and whom we used to despise, fought very well. they lost one of their colonels, and several officers in the action; and i heard our men say, they behaved themselves as well as any forces the parliament had. the parliament cried victory here too, as they always did; and indeed where the foot were concerned they had some advantage; but our horse defeated them evidently. the king drew up his army in battalia, in person, and faced them all the next day, inviting them to renew the fight; but they had no stomach to come on again. it was a kind of a hedge fight, for neither army was drawn out in the field; if it had, 'twould never have held from six in the morning to ten at night. but they fought for advantages; sometimes one side had the better, sometimes another. they fought twice through the town, in at one end, and out at the other; and in the hedges and lanes, with exceeding fury. the king lost the most men, his foot having suffered for want of the succour of their horse, who on two several occasions could not come at them. but the parliament foot suffered also, and two regiments were entirely cut in pieces, and the king kept the field. essex, the parliament general, had the pillage of the dead, and left us to bury them; for while we stood all day to our arms, having given them a fair field to fight us in, their camp rabble stripped the dead bodies, and they not daring to venture a second engagement with us, marched away towards london. the king lost in this action the earls of carnarvon and sunderland, the lord falkland, a french marquis and some very gallant officers, and about men. the earl of carnarvon was brought into an inn in newbury, where the king came to see him. he had just life enough to speak to his majesty, and died in his presence. the king was exceedingly concerned for him, and was observed to shed tears at the sight of it. we were indeed all of us troubled for the loss of so brave a gentleman, but the concern our royal master discovered, moved us more than ordinary. everybody endeavoured to have the king out of the room, but he would not stir from the bedside, till he saw all hopes of life was gone. the indefatigable industry of the king, his servants and friends, continually to supply and recruit his forces, and to harass and fatigue the enemy, was such, that we should still have given a good account of the war had the scots stood neuter. but bad news came every day out of the north; as for other places, parties were always in action. sir william waller and sir ralph hopton beat one another by turns; and sir ralph had extended the king's quarters from launceston in cornwall, to farnham in surrey, where he gave sir william waller a rub, and drove him into the castle. but in the north, the storm grew thick, the scots advanced to the borders, and entered england in confederacy with the parliament, against their king; for which the parliament requited them afterwards as they deserved. had it not been for this scotch army, the parliament had easily been reduced to terms of peace; but after this they never made any proposals fit for the king to receive. want of success before had made them differ among themselves. essex and waller could never agree; the earl of manchester and the lord willoughby differed to the highest degree; and the king's affairs went never the worse for it. but this storm in the north ruined us all; for the scots prevailed in yorkshire, and being joined with fairfax, manchester, and cromwell, carried all before them; so that the king was obliged to send prince rupert, with a body of horse, to the assistance of the earl of newcastle, where that prince finished the destruction of the king's interest, by the rashest and unaccountablest action in the world, of which i shall speak in its place. another action of the king's, though in itself no greater a cause of offence than the calling the scots into the nation, gave great offence in general, and even the king's own friends disliked it; and was carefully improved by his enemies to the disadvantage of the king, and of his cause. the rebels in ireland had, ever since the bloody massacre of the protestants, maintained a war against the english, and the earl of ormond was general and governor for the king. the king, finding his affairs pinch him at home, sends orders to the earl of ormond to consent to a cessation of arms with the rebels, and to ship over certain of his regiments hither to his majesty's assistance. 'tis true, the irish had deserved to be very ill treated by the english; but while the parliament pressed the king with a cruel and unnatural war at home, and called in an army out of scotland to support their quarrel with their king, i could never be convinced, that it was such a dishonourable action for the king to suspend the correction of his irish rebels till he was in a capacity to do it with safety to himself; or to delay any farther assistance to preserve himself at home; and the troops he recalled being his own, it was no breach of his honour to make use of them, since he now wanted them for his own security against those who fought against him at home. but the king was persuaded to make one step farther, and that, i confess, was unpleasing to us all; and some of his best and most faithful servants took the freedom to speak plainly to him of it; and that was bringing some regiments of the irish themselves over. this cast, as we thought, an odium upon our whole nation, being some of those very wretches who had dipped their hands in the innocent blood of the protestants, and, with unheard-of butcheries, had massacred so many thousands of english in cool blood. abundance of gentlemen forsook the king upon this score; and seeing they could not brook the fighting in conjunction with this wicked generation, came into the declaration of the parliament, and making composition for their estates, lived retired lives all the rest of war, or went abroad. but as exigences and necessities oblige us to do things which at other times we would not do, and is, as to man, some excuse for such things; so i cannot but think the guilt and dishonour of such an action must lie, very much of it, at least, at their doors, who drove the king to these necessities and distresses, by calling in an army of his own subjects whom he had not injured, but had complied with them in everything, to make war upon him without any provocation. as to the quarrel between the king and his parliament, there may something be said on both sides; and the king saw cause himself to disown and dislike some things he had done, which the parliament objected against, such as levying money without consent of parliament, infractions on their privileges, and the like. here, i say, was some room for an argument at least, and concessions on both sides were needful to come to a peace. but for the scots, all their demands had been answered, all their grievances had been redressed, they had made articles with their sovereign, and he had performed those articles; their capital enemy episcopacy was abolished; they had not one thing to demand of the king which he had not granted. and therefore they had no more cause to take up arms against their sovereign than they had against the grand seignior. but it must for ever lie against them as a brand of infamy, and as a reproach on their whole nation that, purchased by the parliament's money, they sold their honesty, and rebelled against their king for hire; and it was not many years before, as i have said already, they were fully paid the wages of their unrighteousness, and chastised for their treachery by the very same people whom they thus basely assisted. then they would have retrieved it, if it had not been too late. but i could not but accuse this age of injustice and partiality, who while they reproached the king for his cessation of arms with the irish rebels, and not prosecuting them with the utmost severity, though he was constrained by the necessities of the war to do it, could yet, at the same time, justify the scots taking up arms in a quarrel they had no concern in, and against their own king, with whom they had articled and capitulated, and who had so punctually complied with all their demands, that they had no claim upon him, no grievances to be redressed, no oppression to cry out of, nor could ask anything of him which he had not granted. but as no action in the world is so vile, but the actors can cover with some specious pretence, so the scots now passing into england publish a declaration to justify their assisting the parliament. to which i shall only say, in my opinion, it was no justification at all; for admit the parliament's quarrel had been never so just, it could not be just in them to aid them, because 'twas against their own king too, to whom they had sworn allegiance, or at least had crowned him, and thereby had recognised his authority. for if maladministration be, according to prynne's doctrine, or according to their own buchanan, a sufficient reason for subjects to take up arms against their prince, the breach of his coronation oath being supposed to dissolve the oath of allegiance, which however i cannot believe; yet this can never be extended to make it lawful, that because a king of england may, by maladministration, discharge the subjects of england from their allegiance, that therefore the subjects of scotland may take up arms against the king of scotland, he having not infringed the compact of government as to them, and they having nothing to complain of for themselves. thus i thought their own arguments were against them, and heaven seemed to concur with it; for although they did carry the cause for the english rebels, yet the most of them left their bones here in the quarrel. but what signifies reason to the drum and the trumpet! the parliament had the supreme argument with those men, viz., the money; and having accordingly advanced a good round sum, upon payment of this (for the scots would not stir a foot without it) they entered england on the th of january [- ], with an army of , men, under the command of old leslie, now earl of leven, an old soldier of great experience, having been bred to arms from a youth in the service of the prince of orange. the scots were no sooner entered england but they were joined by all the friends to the parliament party in the north; and first, colonel grey, brother to the lord grey, joined them with a regiment of horse, and several out of westmoreland and cumberland, and so they advanced to newcastle, which they summon to surrender. the earl of newcastle, who rather saw than was able to prevent this storm, was in newcastle, and did his best to defend it; but the scots, increased by this time to above , , lay close siege to the place, which was but meanly fortified, and having repulsed the garrison upon several sallies, and pressing the place very close, after a siege of twelve days, or thereabouts, they enter the town sword in hand. the earl of newcastle got away, and afterwards gathered what forces together he could, but [was] not strong enough to hinder the scots from advancing to durham, which he quitted to them, nor to hinder the conjunction of the scots with the forces of fairfax, manchester, and cromwell. whereupon the earl, seeing all things thus going to wreck, he sends his horse away, and retreats with his foot into york, making all necessary preparations for a vigorous defence there, in case he should be attacked, which he was pretty sure of, as indeed afterwards happened. york was in a very good posture of defence, the fortifications very regular, and exceeding strong; well furnished with provisions, and had now a garrison of , men in it. the governor under the earl of newcastle was sir thomas glemham, a good soldier, and a gentleman brave enough. the scots, as i have said, having taken durham, tynemouth castle, and sunderland, and being joined by sir thomas fairfax, who had taken selby, resolve, with their united strength, to besiege york; but when they came to view the city, and saw a plan of the works, and had intelligence of the strength of the garrison, they sent expresses to manchester and cromwell for help, who came on, and joined them with , making together about , men, rather more than less. now had the earl of newcastle's repeated messengers convinced the king that it was absolutely necessary to send some forces to his assistance, or else all would be lost in the north. whereupon prince rupert was detached, with orders first to go into lancashire and relieve lathom house, defended by the brave countess of derby, and then, taking all the forces he could collect in cheshire, lancashire, and yorkshire, to march to relieve york. the prince marched from oxford with but three regiments of horse and one of dragoons, making in all about men. the colonels of horse were colonel charles goring, the lord byron, and myself; the dragoons were of colonel smith. in our march we were joined by a regiment of horse from banbury, one of dragoons from bristol, and three regiments of horse from chester, so that when we came into lancashire we were about horse and dragoons. these horse we received from chester were those who, having been at the siege of nantwich, were obliged to raise the siege by sir thomas fairfax; and the foot having yielded, the horse made good their retreat to chester, being about , of whom three regiments now joined us. we received also foot from west chester, and more out of wales, and with this strength we entered lancashire. we had not much time to spend, and a great deal of work to do. bolton and liverpool felt the first fury of our prince; at bolton, indeed, he had some provocation, for here we were like to be beaten off. when first the prince came to the town, he sent a summons to demand the town for the king, but received no answer but from their guns, commanding the messenger to keep off at his peril. they had raised some works about the town, and having by their intelligence learnt that we had no artillery, and were only a flying party (so they called us), they contemned the summons, and showed themselves upon their ramparts, ready for us. the prince was resolved to humble them, if possible, and takes up his quarters close to the town. in the evening he orders me to advance with one regiment of dragoons and my horse, to bring them off, if occasion was, and to post myself as near as possible i could to the lines, yet so as not to be discovered; and at the same time, having concluded what part of the works to fall upon, he draws up his men on two other sides, as if he would storm them there; and, on a signal, i was to begin the real assault on my side with my dragoons. i had got so near the town with my dragoons, making them creep upon their bellies a great way, that we could hear the soldiers talk on the walls, when the prince, believing one regiment would be too few, sends me word that he had ordered a regiment of foot to help, and that i should not discover myself till they were come up to me. this broke our measures, for the march of this regiment was discovered by the enemy, and they took the alarm. upon this i sent to the prince, to desire he would put off the storm for that night, and i would answer for it the next day; but the prince was impatient, and sent orders we should fall on as soon as the foot came up to us. the foot marched out of the way, missed us, and fell in with a road that leads to another part of the town; and being not able to find us, make an attack upon the town themselves; but the defendants, being ready for them, received them very warmly, and beat them off with great loss. i was at a loss now what to do; for hearing the guns, and by the noise knowing it was an assault upon the town, i was very uneasy to have my share in it; but as i had learnt under the king of sweden punctually to adhere to the execution of orders, and my orders being to lie still till the foot came up with me, i would not stir if i had been sure to have done never so much service; but, however, to satisfy myself, i sent to the prince to let him know that i continued in the same place expecting the foot, and none being yet come, i desired farther orders. the prince was a little amazed at this, and finding there must be some mistake, came galloping away in the dark to the place and drew off the men, which was no hard matter, for they were willing enough to give it over. as for me, the prince ordered me to come off so privately as not to be discovered, if possible, which i effectually did; and so we were balked for that night. the next day the prince fell on upon another quarter with three regiments of foot, but was beaten off with loss, and the like a third time. at last the prince resolved to carry it, doubled his numbers, and, renewing the attack with fresh men, the foot entered the town over their works, killing in the first heat of the action all that came in their way; some of the foot at the same time letting in the horse, and so the town was entirely won. there was about of the enemy killed, and we lost above in all, which was owing to the foolish mistakes we made. our men got some plunder here, which the parliament made a great noise about; but it was their due, and they bought it dear enough. liverpool did not cost us so much, nor did we get so much by it, the people having sent their women and children and best goods on board the ships in the road; and as we had no boats to board them with, we could not get at them. here, as at bolton, the town and fort was taken by storm, and the garrison were many of them cut in pieces, which, by the way, was their own faults. our next step was lathom house, which the countess of derby had gallantly defended above eighteen weeks against the parliament forces; and this lady not only encouraged her men by her cheerful and noble maintenance of them, but by examples of her own undaunted spirit, exposing herself upon the walls in the midst of the enemy's shot, would be with her men in the greatest dangers; and she well deserved our care of her person, for the enemy were prepared to use her very rudely if she fell into their hands. upon our approach the enemy drew off, and the prince not only effectually relieved this vigorous lady, but left her a good quantity of all sorts of ammunition, three great guns, arms, and men, commanded by a major, as her extraordinary guard. here the way being now opened, and our success answering our expectation, several bodies of foot came in to us from westmoreland and from cumberland; and here it was that the prince found means to surprise the town of newcastle-upon-tyne, which was recovered for the king by the management of the mayor of the town, and some loyal gentlemen of the county, and a garrison placed there again for the king. but our main design being the relief of york, the prince advanced that way apace, his army still increasing; and being joined by the lord goring from richmondshire with horse, which were the same the earl of newcastle had sent away when he threw himself into york with the infantry, we were now , effective men, whereof , horse and dragoons; so the prince, full of hopes, and his men in good heart, boldly marched directly for york. the scots, as much surprised at the taking of newcastle as at the coming of their enemy, began to inquire which way they should get home, if they should be beaten; and calling a council of war, they all agreed to raise the siege. the prince, who drew with him a great train of carriages charged with provision and ammunition for the relief of the city, like a wary general, kept at a distance from the enemy, and fetching a great compass about, brings all safe into the city, and enters into york himself with all his army. no action of this whole war had gained the prince so much honour, or the king's affairs so much advantage, as this, had the prince but had the power to have restrained his courage after this, and checked his fatal eagerness for fighting. here was a siege raised, the reputation of the enemy justly stirred, a city relieved, and furnished with all things necessary in the face of an army superior in a number by near , men, and commanded by a triumvirate of generals leven, fairfax, and manchester. had the prince but remembered the proceeding of the great duke of parma at the relief of paris, he would have seen the relieving the city was his business; 'twas the enemy's business to fight if possible, 'twas his to avoid it; for, having delivered the city, and put the disgrace of raising the siege upon the enemy, he had nothing further to do but to have waited till he had seen what course the enemy would take, and taken his further measures from their motion. but the prince, a continual friend to precipitant counsels, would hear no advice. i entreated him not to put it to the hazard; i told him that he ought to consider if he lost the day he lost the kingdom, and took the crown off from the king's head. i put him in mind that it was impossible those three generals should continue long together; and that if they did, they would not agree long in their counsels, which would be as well for us as their separating. 'twas plain manchester and cromwell must return to the associated counties, who would not suffer them to stay, for fear the king should attempt them. that he could subsist well enough, having york city and river at his back; but the scots would eat up the country, make themselves odious, and dwindle away to nothing, if he would but hold them at bay a little. other general officers were of the same mind; but all i could say, or they either, to a man deaf to anything but his own courage, signified nothing. he would draw out and fight; there was no persuading him to the contrary, unless a man would run the risk of being upbraided with being a coward, and afraid of the work. the enemy's army lay on a large common, called marston moor, doubtful what to do. some were for fighting the prince, the scots were against it, being uneasy at having the garrison of newcastle at their backs; but the prince brought their councils of war to a result, for he let them know they must fight him, whether they would or no; for the prince being, as before, , men, and the earl of newcastle having joined him with foot out of the city, were marched in quest of the enemy, had entered the moor in view of their army, and began to draw up in order of battle; but the night coming on, the armies only viewed each other at a distance for that time. we lay all night upon our arms, and with the first of the day were in order of battle; the enemy was getting ready, but part of manchester's men were not in the field, but lay about three miles off, and made a hasty march to come up. the prince's army was exceedingly well managed; he himself commanded the left wing, the earl of newcastle the right wing; and the lord goring, as general of the foot, assisted by major-general porter and sir charles lucas, led the main battle. i had prevailed with the prince, according to the method of the king of sweden, to place some small bodies of musketeers in the intervals of his horse, in the left wing, but could not prevail upon the earl of newcastle to do it in the right, which he afterwards repented. in this posture we stood facing the enemy, expecting they would advance to us, which at last they did; and the prince began the day by saluting them with his artillery, which, being placed very well, galled them terribly for a quarter of an hour. they could not shift their front, so they advanced the hastier to get within our great guns, and consequently out of their danger, which brought the fight the sooner on. the enemy's army was thus ordered; sir thomas fairfax had the right wing, in which was the scots horse, and the horse of his own and his father's army; cromwell led the left wing, with his own and the earl of manchester's horse, and the three generals, leslie, old fairfax, and manchester, led the main battle. the prince, with our left wing, fell on first, and, with his usual fury, broke like a clap of thunder into the right wing of the scots horse, led by sir thomas fairfax, and, as nothing could stand in his way, he broke through and through them, and entirely routed them, pursuing them quite out of the field. sir thomas fairfax, with a regiment of lances, and about of his own horse, made good the ground for some time; but our musketeers, which, as i said, were such an unlooked-for sort of an article in a fight among the horse, that those lances, which otherwise were brave fellows, were mowed down with their shot, and all was put into confusion. sir thomas fairfax was wounded in the face, his brother killed, and a great slaughter was made of the scots, to whom i confess we showed no favour at all. while this was doing on our left, the lord goring with the main battle charged the enemy's foot; and particularly one brigade commanded by major-general porter, being mostly pikemen, not regarding the fire of the enemy, charged with that fury in a close body of pikes, that they overturned all that came in their way, and breaking into the middle of the enemy's foot, filled all with terror and confusion, insomuch that the three generals, thinking all had been lost, fled, and quitted the field. but matters went not so well with that always unfortunate gentleman the earl of newcastle and our right wing of horse; for cromwell charged the earl of newcastle with a powerful body of horse. and though the earl, and those about him, did what men could do, and behaved themselves with all possible gallantry, yet there was no withstanding cromwell's horse, but, like prince rupert, they bore down all before them. and now the victory was wrung out of our hands by our own gross miscarriage; for the prince, as 'twas his custom, too eager in the chase of the enemy, was gone and could not be heard of. the foot in the centre, the right wing of the horse being routed by cromwell, was left, and without the guard of his horse; cromwell having routed the earl of newcastle, and beaten him quite out of the field, and sir thomas fairfax rallying his dispersed troops, they fall all together upon the foot. general lord goring, like himself, fought like a lion, but, forsaken of his horse, was hemmed in on all sides, and overthrown; and an hour after this, the prince returning, too late to recover his friends, was obliged with the rest to quit the field to conquerors. this was a fatal day to the king's affairs, and the risk too much for any man in his wits to run; we lost men on the spot, prisoners, among whom was sir charles lucas, major-general porter, major-general tilyard, and about gentlemen of quality. we lost all our baggage, twenty-five pieces of cannon, carriages, barrels of powder, , arms. the prince got into york with the earl of newcastle, and a great many gentlemen; and or of the men, as well horse as foot. i had but very coarse treatment in this fight; for returning with the prince from the pursuit of the right wing, and finding all lost, i halted with some other officers, to consider what to do. at first we were for making our retreat in a body, and might have done so well enough, if we had known what had happened, before we saw ourselves in the middle of the enemy; for sir thomas fairfax, who had got together his scattered troops, and joined by some of the left wing, knowing who we were, charged us with great fury. 'twas not a time to think of anything but getting away, or dying upon the spot; the prince kept on in the front, and sir thomas fairfax by this charge cut off about three regiments of us from our body; but bending his main strength at the prince, left us, as it were, behind him, in the middle of the field of battle. we took this for the only opportunity we could have to get off, and joining together, we made across the place of battle in as good order as we could, with our carabines presented. in this posture we passed by several bodies of the enemy's foot, who stood with their pikes charged to keep us off; but they had no occasion, for we had no design to meddle with them, but to get from them. thus we made a swift march, and thought ourselves pretty secure; but our work was not done yet, for on a sudden we saw ourselves under a necessity of fighting our way through a great body of manchester's horse, who came galloping upon us over the moor. they had, as we suppose, been pursuing some of our broken troops which were fled before, and seeing us, they gave us a home charge. we received them as well as we could, but pushed to get through them, which at last we did with a considerable loss to them. however, we lost so many men, either killed or separated from us (for all could not follow the same way), that of our three regiments we could not be above horse together when we got quite clear, and these were mixed men, some of one troop and regiment, some of another. not that i believe many of us were killed in the last attack, for we had plainly the better of the enemy, but our design being to get off, some shifted for themselves one way and some another, in the best manner they could, and as their several fortunes guided them. four hundred more of this body, as i afterwards understood, having broke through the enemy's body another way, kept together, and got into pontefract castle, and more made northward and to skipton, where the prince afterwards fetched them off. these few of us that were left together, with whom i was, being now pretty clear of pursuit, halted, and began to inquire who and who we were, and what we should do; and on a short debate, i proposed we should make to the first garrison of the king's that we could recover, and that we should keep together, lest the country people should insult us upon the roads. with this resolution we pushed on westward for lancashire, but our misfortunes were not yet at an end. we travelled very hard, and got to a village upon the river wharfe, near wetherby. at wetherby there was a bridge, but we understood that a party from leeds had secured the town and the post, in order to stop the flying cavaliers, and that 'twould be very hard to get through there, though, as we understood afterwards, there were no soldiers there but a guard of the townsmen. in this pickle we consulted what course to take. to stay where we were till morning, we all concluded, would not be safe. some advised to take the stream with our horses, but the river, which is deep, and the current strong, seemed to bid us have a care what we did of that kind, especially in the night. we resolved therefore to refresh ourselves and our horses, which indeed is more than we did, and go on till we might come to a ford or bridge, where we might get over. some guides we had, but they either were foolish or false, for after we had rode eight or nine miles, they plunged us into a river at a place they called a ford, but 'twas a very ill one, for most of our horses swam, and seven or eight were lost, but we saved the men. however, we got all over. we made bold with our first convenience to trespass upon the country for a few horses, where we could find them, to remount our men whose horses were drowned, and continued our march. but being obliged to refresh ourselves at a small village on the edge of bramham moor, we found the country alarmed by our taking some horses, and we were no sooner got on horseback in the morning, and entering on the moor, but we understood we were pursued by some troops of horse. there was no remedy but we must pass this moor; and though our horses were exceedingly tired, yet we pressed on upon a round trot, and recovered an enclosed country on the other side, where we halted. and here, necessity putting us upon it, we were obliged to look out for more horses, for several of our men were dismounted, and others' horses disabled by carrying double, those who lost their horses getting up behind them. but we were supplied by our enemies against their will. the enemy followed us over the moor, and we having a woody enclosed country about us, where we were, i observed by their moving, they had lost sight of us; upon which i proposed concealing ourselves till we might judge of their numbers. we did so, and lying close in a wood, they passed hastily by us, without skirting or searching the wood, which was what on another occasion they would not have done. i found they were not above horse, and considering, that to let them go before us, would be to alarm the country, and stop our design, i thought, since we might be able to deal with them, we should not meet with a better place for it, and told the rest of our officers my mind, which all our party presently (for we had not time for a long debate) agreed to. immediately upon this i caused two men to fire their pistols in the wood, at two different places, as far asunder as i could. this i did to give them an alarm, and amuse them; for being in the lane, they would otherwise have got through before we had been ready, and i resolved to engage them there, as soon as 'twas possible. after this alarm, we rushed out of the wood, with about a hundred horse, and charged them on the flank in a broad lane, the wood being on their right. our passage into the lane being narrow, gave us some difficulty in our getting out; but the surprise of the charge did our work; for the enemy, thinking we had been a mile or two before, had not the least thoughts of this onset, till they heard us in the wood, and then they who were before could not come back. we broke into the lane just in the middle of them, and by that means divided them; and facing to the left, charged the rear. first our dismounted men, which were near fifty, lined the edge of the wood, and fired with their carabines upon those which were before, so warmly, that they put them into a great disorder. meanwhile fifty more of our horse from the farther part of the wood showed themselves in the lane upon their front. this put them of the foremost party into a great perplexity, and they began to face about, to fall upon us who were engaged in the rear. but their facing about in a lane where there was no room to wheel, as one who understands the manner of wheeling a troop of horse must imagine, put them into a great disorder. our party in the head of the lane taking the advantage of this mistake of the enemy, charged in upon them, and routed them entirely. some found means to break into the enclosures on the other side of the lane, and get away. about thirty were killed, and about twenty-five made prisoners, and forty very good horses were taken; all this while not a man of ours was lost, and not above seven or eight wounded. those in the rear behaved themselves better, for they stood our charge with a great deal of resolution, and all we could do could not break them; but at last our men who had fired on foot through the hedges at the other party, coming to do the like here, there was no standing it any longer. the rear of them faced about and retreated out of the lane, and drew up in the open field to receive and rally their fellows. we killed about seventeen of them, and followed them to the end of the lane, but had no mind to have any more fighting than needs must, our condition at that time not making it proper, the towns round us being all in the enemy's hands, and the country but indifferently pleased with us; however, we stood facing them till they thought fit to march away. thus we were supplied with horses enough to remount our men, and pursued our first design of getting into lancashire. as for our prisoners, we let them off on foot. but the country being by this time alarmed, and the rout of our army everywhere known, we foresaw abundance of difficulties before us; we were not strong enough to venture into any great towns, and we were too many to be concealed in small ones. upon this we resolved to halt in a great wood about three miles beyond the place where we had the last skirmish, and sent our scouts to discover the country, and learn what they could, either of the enemy or of our friends. anybody may suppose we had but indifferent quarters here, either for ourselves or for our horses; but, however, we made shift to lie here two days and one night. in the interim i took upon me, with two more, to go to leeds to learn some news; we were disguised like country ploughmen; the clothes we got at a farmer's house, which for that particular occasion we plundered; and i cannot say no blood was shed in a manner too rash, and which i could not have done at another time; but our case was desperate, and the people too surly, and shot at us out of the window, wounded one man and shot a horse, which we counted as great a loss to us as a man, for our safety depended upon our horses. here we got clothes of all sorts, enough for both sexes, and thus dressing myself up _au paysan,_ with a white cap on my head, and a fork on my shoulder, and one of my comrades in the farmer's wife's russet gown and petticoat, like a woman, the other with an old crutch like a lame man, and all mounted on such horses as we had taken the day before from the country, away we go to leeds by three several ways, and agreed to meet upon the bridge. my pretended country woman acted her part to the life, though the party was a gentleman of good quality, of the earl of worcester's family; and the cripple did as well as he; but i thought myself very awkward in my dress, which made me very shy, especially among the soldiers. we passed their sentinels and guards at leeds unobserved, and put up our horses at several houses in the town, from whence we went up and down to make our remarks. my cripple was the fittest to go among the soldiers, because there was less danger of being pressed. there he informed himself of the matters of war, particularly that the enemy sat down again to the siege of york; that flying parties were in pursuit of the cavaliers; and there he heard that horse of the lord manchester's men had followed a party of cavaliers over bramham moor, and that entering a lane, the cavaliers, who were strong, fell upon them, and killed them all but about fifty. this, though it was a lie, was very pleasant to us to hear, knowing it was our party, because of the other part of the story, which was thus: that the cavaliers had taken possession of such a wood, where they rallied all the troops of their flying army; that they had plundered the country as they came, taking all the horses they could get; that they had plundered goodman thomson's house, which was the farmer i mentioned, and killed man, woman, and child; and that they were about strong. my other friend in woman's clothes got among the good wives at an inn, where she set up her horse, and there she heard the same sad and dreadful tidings; and that this party was so strong, none of the neighbouring garrisons durst stir out; but that they had sent expresses to york, for a party of horse to come to their assistance. i walked up and down the town, but fancied myself so ill disguised, and so easy to be known, that i cared not to talk with anybody. we met at the bridge exactly at our time, and compared our intelligence, found it answered our end of coming, and that we had nothing to do but to get back to our men; but my cripple told me, he would not stir till he bought some victuals: so away he hops with his crutch, and buys four or five great pieces of bacon, as many of hung beef, and two or three loaves; and borrowing a sack at the inn (which i suppose he never restored), he loads his horse, and getting a large leather bottle, he filled that of aqua-vitae instead of small beer; my woman comrade did the like. i was uneasy in my mind, and took no care but to get out of the town; however, we all came off well enough; but 'twas well for me that i had no provisions with me, as you will hear presently. we came, as i said, into the town by several ways, and so we went out; but about three miles from the town we met again exactly where we had agreed. i being about a quarter of a mile from the rest, i meets three country fellows on horseback; one had a long pole on his shoulder, another a fork, the third no weapon at all, that i saw. i gave them the road very orderly, being habited like one of their brethren; but one of them stopping short at me, and looking earnestly calls out, "hark thee, friend," says he, in a broad north-country tone, "whar hast thou thilk horse?" i must confess i was in the utmost confusion at the question, neither being able to answer the question, nor to speak in his tone; so i made as if i did not hear him, and went on. "na, but ye's not gang soa," says the boor, and comes up to me, and takes hold of the horse's bridle to stop me; at which, vexed at heart that i could not tell how to talk to him, i reached him a great knock on the pate with my fork, and fetched him off of his horse, and then began to mend my pace. the other clowns, though it seems they knew not what the fellow wanted, pursued me, and finding they had better heels than i, i saw there was no remedy but to make use of my hands, and faced about. the first that came up with me was he that had no weapons, so i thought i might parley with him, and speaking as country-like as i could, i asked him what he wanted? "thou'st knaw that soon," says yorkshire, "and ise but come at thee." "then keep awa', man," said i, "or ise brain thee." by this time the third man came up, and the parley ended; for he gave me no words, but laid at me with his long pole, and that with such fury, that i began to be doubtful of him. i was loth to shoot the fellow, though i had pistols under my grey frock, as well for that the noise of a pistol might bring more people in, the village being on our rear, and also because i could not imagine what the fellow meant, or would have. but at last, finding he would be too many for me with that long weapon, and a hardy strong fellow, i threw myself off my horse, and running in with him, stabbed my fork into his horse. the horse being wounded, staggered awhile, and then fell down, and the booby had not the sense to get down in time, but fell with him. upon which, giving him a knock or two with my fork, i secured him. the other, by this time, had furnished himself with a great stick out of a hedge, and before i was disengaged from the last fellow, gave me two such blows, that if the last had not missed my head and hit me on the shoulder, i had ended the fight and my life together. 'twas time to look about me now, for this was a madman. i defended myself with my fork, but 'twould not do. at last, in short, i was forced to pistol him and get on horseback again, and with all the speed i could make, get away to the wood to our men. if my two fellow-spies had not been behind, i had never known what was the meaning of this quarrel of the three countrymen, but my cripple had all the particulars. for he being behind us, as i have already observed, when he came up to the first fellow who began the fray, he found him beginning to come to himself. so he gets off, and pretends to help him, and sets him up upon his breech, and being a very merry fellow, talked to him: "well, and what's the matter now?" says he to him. "ah, wae's me," says the fellow, "i is killed." "not quite, mon," says the cripple. "oh, that's a fau thief," says he, and thus they parleyed. my cripple got him on's feet, and gave him a dram of his aqua-vitae bottle, and made much of him, in order to know what was the occasion of the quarrel. our disguised woman pitied the fellow too, and together they set him up again upon his horse, and then he told him that that fellow was got upon one of his brother's horses who lived at wetherby. they said the cavaliers stole him, but 'twas like such rogues. no mischief could be done in the country, but 'twas the poor cavaliers must bear the blame, and the like, and thus they jogged on till they came to the place where the other two lay. the first fellow they assisted as they had done t'other, and gave him a dram out of the leather bottle, but the last fellow was past their care, so they came away. for when they understood that 'twas my horse they claimed, they began to be afraid that their own horses might be known too, and then they had been betrayed in a worse pickle than i, and must have been forced to have done some mischief or other to have got away. i had sent out two troopers to fetch them off, if there was any occasion; but their stay was not long and the two troopers saw them at a distance coming towards us, so they returned. i had enough of going for a spy, and my companions had enough of staying in the wood for other intelligences agreed with ours, and all concurred in this, that it was time to be going; however, this use we made of it, that while the country thought us so strong we were in the less danger of being attacked, though in the more of being observed; but all this while we heard nothing of our friends till the next day. we heard prince rupert, with about horse, was at skipton, and from thence marched away to westmoreland. we concluded now we had two or three days' time good; for, since messengers were sent to york for a party to suppress us, we must have at least two days' march of them, and therefore all concluded we were to make the best of our way. early in the morning, therefore, we decamped from those dull quarters; and as we marched through a village we found the people very civil to us, and the women cried out, "god bless them, 'tis pity the roundheads should make such work with such brave men," and the like. finding we were among our friends, we resolved to halt a little and refresh ourselves; and, indeed, the people were very kind to us, gave us victuals and drink, and took care of our horses. it happened to be my lot to stop at a house where the good woman took a great deal of pains to provide for us; but i observed the good man walked about with a cap upon his head, and very much out of order. i took no great notice of it, being very sleepy, and having asked my landlady to let me have a bed, i lay down and slept heartily. when i waked i found my landlord on another bed groaning very heavily. when i came downstairs, i found my cripple talking with my landlady; he was now out of his disguise, but we called him cripple still; and the other, who put on the woman's clothes, we called goody thompson. as soon as he saw me, he called me out, "do you know," says he, "the man of the house you are quartered in?" "no, not i," says i. "no; so i believe, nor they you," says he; "if they did, the good wife would not have made you a posset, and fetched a white loaf for you." "what do you mean?" says i. "have you seen the man?" says he. "seen him," says i; "yes, and heard him too; the man's sick, and groans so heavily," says i, "that i could not lie upon the bed any longer for him." "why, this is the poor man," says he, "that you knocked down with your fork yesterday, and i have had all the story out yonder at the next door." i confess it grieved me to have been forced to treat one so roughly who was one of our friends, but to make some amends, we contrived to give the poor man his brother's horse; and my cripple told him a formal story, that he believed the horse was taken away from the fellow by some of our men, and if he knew him again, if 'twas his friend's horse, he should have him. the man came down upon the news, and i caused six or seven horses, which were taken at the same time, to be shown him; he immediately chose the right; so i gave him the horse, and we pretended a great deal of sorrow for the man's hurt, and that we had not knocked the fellow on the head as well as took away the horse. the man was so overjoyed at the revenge he thought was taken on the fellow, that we heard him groan no more. we ventured to stay all day at this town and the next night, and got guides to lead us to blackstone edge, a ridge of mountains which part this side of yorkshire from lancashire. early in the morning we marched, and kept our scouts very carefully out every way, who brought us no news for this day. we kept on all night, and made our horses do penance for that little rest they had, and the next morning we passed the hills and got into lancashire, to a town called littlebrough, and from thence to rochdale, a little market town. and now we thought ourselves safe as to the pursuit of enemies from the side of york. our design was to get to bolton, but all the county was full of the enemy in flying parties, and how to get to bolton we knew not. at last we resolved to send a messenger to bolton; but he came back and told us he had with lurking and hiding tried all the ways that he thought possible, but to no purpose, for he could not get into the town. we sent another, and he never returned, and some time after we understood he was taken by the enemy. at last one got into the town, but brought us word they were tired out with constant alarms, had been strictly blocked up, and every day expected a siege, and therefore advised us either to go northward where prince rupert and the lord goring ranged at liberty, or to get over warrington bridge, and so secure our retreat to chester. this double direction divided our opinions. i was for getting into chester, both to recruit myself with horses and with money, both which i wanted, and to get refreshment, which we all wanted; but the major part of our men were for the north. first they said there was their general, and 'twas their duty to the cause, and the king's interest obliged us to go where we could do best service; and there was their friends, and every man might hear some news of his own regiment, for we belonged to several regiments. besides, all the towns to the left of us were possessed by sir william brereton, warrington, and northwich, garrisoned by the enemy, and a strong party at manchester, so that 'twas very likely we should be beaten and dispersed before we could get to chester. these reasons, and especially the last, determined us for the north, and we had resolved to march the next morning, when other intelligence brought us to more speedy resolutions. we kept our scouts continually abroad to bring us intelligence of the enemy, whom we expected on our backs, and also to keep an eye upon the country; for, as we lived upon them something at large, they were ready enough to do us any ill turn, as it lay in their power. the first messenger that came to us was from our friends at bolton, to inform us that they were preparing at manchester to attack us. one of our parties had been as far as stockport, on the edge of cheshire, and was pursued by a party of the enemy, but got off by the help of the night. thus, all things looked black to the south, we had resolved to march northward in the morning, when one of our scouts from the side of manchester, assured us sir thomas middleton, with some of the parliament forces and the country troops, making above men, were on the march to attack us, and would certainly beat up our quarters that night. upon this advice we resolved to be gone; and, getting all things in readiness, we began to march about two hours before night. and having gotten a trusty fellow for a guide, a fellow that we found was a friend to our side, he put a project into my head which saved us all for that time; and that was, to give out in the village that we were marched to yorkshire, resolving to get into pontefract castle; and accordingly he leads us out of the town the same way we came in, and, taking a boy with him, he sends the boy back just at night, and bade him say he saw us go up the hills at blackstone edge; and it happened very well, for this party were so sure of us, that they had placed men on the road to the northward to intercept our retreat that way, and had left no way for us, as they thought, to get away but back again. about ten o'clock at night, they assaulted our quarters, but found we were gone; and being informed which way, they followed upon the spur, and travelling all night, being moonlight, they found themselves the next day about fifteen miles east, just out of their way. for we had, by the help of our guide, turned short at the foot of the hills, and through blind, untrodden paths, and with difficulty enough, by noon the next day had reached almost twenty-five miles north, near a town called clitheroe. here we halted in the open field, and sent out our people to see how things were in the country. this part of the country, almost unpassable, and walled round with hills, was indifferent quiet, and we got some refreshment for ourselves, but very little horse-meat, and so went on. but we had not marched far before we found ourselves discovered, and the horse sent to lie in wait for us as before, having understood which way we went, followed us hard; and by letters to some of their friends at preston, we found we were beset again. our guide began now to be out of his knowledge, and our scouts brought us word, the enemy's horse was posted before us, and we knew they were in our rear. in this exigence, we resolved to divide our small body, and so amusing them, at least one might get off, if the other miscarried. i took about eighty horse with me, among which were all that i had of our own regiment, amounting to above thirty-two, and took the hills towards yorkshire. here we met with such unpassable hills, vast moors, rocks, and stonyways, as lamed all our horses and tired our men; and some times i was ready to think we should never be able to get over them, till our horses failing, and jackboots being but indifferent things to travel in, we might be starved before we should find any road, or towns; for guide we had none, but a boy who knew but little, and would cry when we asked him any questions. i believe neither men nor horses ever passed in some places where we went, and for twenty hours we saw not a town nor a house, excepting sometimes from the top of the mountains, at a vast distance. i am persuaded we might have encamped here, if we had had provisions, till the war had been over, and have met with no disturbance; and i have often wondered since, how we got into such horrible places, as much as how we got out. that which was worse to us than all the rest, was, that we knew not where we were going, nor what part of the country we should come into, when we came out of those desolate crags. at last, after a terrible fatigue, we began to see the western parts of yorkshire, some few villages, and the country at a distance looked a little like england, for i thought before it looked like old brennus hill, which the grisons call "the grandfather of the alps." we got some relief in the villages, which indeed some of us had so much need of, that they were hardly able to sit their horses, and others were forced to help them off, they were so faint. i never felt so much of the power of hunger in my life, for having not eaten in thirty hours, i was as ravenous as a hound; and if i had had a piece of horse-flesh, i believe i should not have had patience to have staid dressing it, but have fallen upon it raw, and have eaten it as greedily as a tartar. however i ate very cautiously, having often seen the danger of men's eating heartily after long fasting. our next care was to inquire our way. halifax, they told us, was on our right. there we durst not think of going. skipton was before us, and there we knew not how it was, for a body of horse, sent out by the enemy in pursuit of prince rupert, had been there but two days before, and the country people could not tell us whether they were gone, or no. and manchester's horse, which were sent out after our party, were then at halifax, in quest of us, and afterwards marched into cheshire. in this distress we would have hired a guide, but none of the country people would go with us, for the roundheads would hang them, they said, when they came there. upon this i called a fellow to me, "hark ye, friend," says i, "dost thee know the way so as to bring us into westmoreland, and not keep the great road from york?" "ay, merry," says he, "i ken the ways weel enou!" "and you would go and guide us," said i, "but that you are afraid the roundheads will hang you?" "indeed would i," says the fellow. "why then," says i, "thou hadst as good be hanged by a cavalier as a roundhead, for if thou wilt not go, i'll hang thee just now." "na, and ye serve me soa," says the fellow, "ise ene gang with ye, for i care not for hanging; and ye'll get me a good horse, ise gang and be one of ye, for i'll nere come heame more." this pleased us still better, and we mounted the fellow, for three of our men died that night with the extreme fatigue of the last service. next morning, when our new trooper was mounted and clothed we hardly knew him; and this fellow led us by such ways, such wildernesses, and yet with such prudence, keeping the hills to the left, that we might have the villages to refresh ourselves, that without him, we had certainly either perished in those mountains, or fallen into the enemy's hands. we passed the great road from york so critically as to time, that from one of the hills he showed us a party of the enemy's horse who were then marching into westmoreland. we lay still that day, finding we were not discovered by them; and our guide proved the best scout that we could have had; for he would go out ten miles at a time, and bring us in all the news of the country. here he brought us word, that york was surrendered upon articles, and that newcastle, which had been surprised by the king's party, was besieged by another army of scots advanced to help their brethren. along the edges of those vast mountains we passed with the help of our guide, till we came into the forest of swale; and finding ourselves perfectly concealed here, for no soldier had ever been here all the war, nor perhaps would not, if it had lasted seven years, we thought we wanted a few days' rest, at least for our horses. so we resolved to halt; and while we did so, we made some disguises, and sent out some spies into the country; but as here were no great towns, nor no post road, we got very little intelligence. we rested four days, and then marched again; and indeed having no great stock of money about us, and not very free of that we had, four days was enough for those poor places to be able to maintain us. we thought ourselves pretty secure now; but our chief care was how to get over those terrible mountains; for having passed the great road that leads from york to lancaster, the crags, the farther northward we looked, looked still the worse, and our business was all on the other side. our guide told us, he would bring us out, if we would have patience, which we were obliged to, and kept on this slow march, till he brought us to stanhope, in the country of durham; where some of goring's horse, and two regiments of foot, had their quarters. this was nineteen days from the battle of marston moor. the prince, who was then at kendal in westmoreland, and who had given me over as lost, when he had news of our arrival, sent an express to me, to meet him at appleby. i went thither accordingly, and gave him an account of our journey, and there i heard the short history of the other part of our men, whom we parted from in lancashire. they made the best of their way north; they had two resolute gentlemen who commanded; and being so closely pursued by the enemy, that they found themselves under a necessity of fighting, they halted, and faced about, expecting the charge. the boldness of the action made the officer who led the enemy's horse (which it seems were the county horse only) afraid of them; which they perceiving, taking the advantage of his fears, bravely advance, and charge them; and though they were above horse, they routed them, killed about thirty or forty, got some horses, and some money, and pushed on their march night and day; but coming near lancaster, they were so waylaid and pursued, that they agreed to separate, and shift every man for himself. many of them fell into the enemy's hands; some were killed attempting to pass through the river lune; some went back, six or seven got to bolton, and about eighteen got safe to prince rupert. the prince was in a better condition hereabouts than i expected; he and my lord goring, with the help of sir marmaduke langdale, and the gentlemen of cumberland, had gotten a body of horse, and about foot; they had retaken newcastle, tynemouth, durham, stockton, and several towns of consequence from the scots, and might have cut them out work enough still, if that base people, resolved to engage their whole interest to ruin their sovereign, had not sent a second army of , men, under the earl of callander, to help their first. these came and laid siege to newcastle, but found more vigorous resistance now than they had done before. there were in the town sir john morley, the lord crawford, lord reay, and maxwell, scots; and old soldiers, who were resolved their countrymen should buy the town very dear, if they had it; and had it not been for our disaster at marston moor, they had never had it; for callander, finding he was not able to carry the town, sends to general leven to come from the siege of york to help him. meantime the prince forms a very good army, and the lord goring, with , men, shows himself on the borders of scotland, to try if that might not cause the scots to recall their forces; and, i am persuaded, had he entered scotland, the parliament of scotland had recalled the earl of callander, for they had but men left in arms to send against him; but they were loth to venture. however, this effect it had, that it called the scots northward again, and found them work there for the rest of the summer to reduce the several towns in the bishopric of durham. i found with the prince the poor remains of my regiment, which, when joined with those that had been with me, could not all make up three troops, and but two captains, three lieutenants, and one cornet; the rest were dispersed, killed, or taken prisoners. however, with those, which we still called a regiment, i joined the prince, and after having done all we could on that side, the scots being returned from york, the prince returned through lancashire to chester. the enemy often appeared and alarmed us, and once fell on one of our parties, and killed us about a hundred men; but we were too many for them to pretend to fight us, so we came to bolton, beat the troops of the enemy near warrington, where i got a cut with a halberd in my face, and arrived at chester the beginning of august. the parliament, upon their great success in the north, thinking the king's forces quite unbroken, had sent their general essex into the west, where the king's army was commanded by prince maurice, prince rupert's elder brother, but not very strong; and the king being, as they supposed, by the absence of prince rupert, weakened so much as that he might be checked by sir william waller, who, with foot, and horse, was at that time about winchester, having lately beaten sir ralph hopton;--upon all these considerations, the earl of essex marches westward. the forces in the west being too weak to oppose him, everything gave way to him, and all people expected he would besiege exeter, where the queen was newly lying-in, and sent a trumpet to desire he would forbear the city, while she could be removed, which he did, and passed on westward, took tiverton, bideford, barnstaple, launceston, relieved plymouth, drove sir richard grenvile up into cornwall, and followed him thither, but left prince maurice behind him with men about barnstaple and exeter. the king, in the meantime, marches from oxford into worcester, with waller at his heels. at edgehill his majesty turns upon waller, and gave him a brush, to put him in mind of the place. the king goes on to worcester, sends horse to relieve durley castle, besieged by the earl of denby, and sending part of his forces to bristol, returns to oxford. his majesty had now firmly resolved to march into the west, not having yet any account of our misfortunes in the north. waller and middleton waylay the king at cropredy bridge. the king assaults middleton at the bridge. waller's men were posted with some cannon to guard a pass. middleton's men put a regiment of the king's foot to the rout, and pursued them. waller's men, willing to come in for the plunder, a thing their general had often used them to, quit their post at the pass, and their great guns, to have part in the victory. the king coming in seasonably to the relief of his men, routs middleton, and at the same time sends a party round, who clapped in between sir william waller's men and their great guns, and secured the pass and the cannon too. the king took three colonels, besides other officers, and about men prisoners, with eight great guns, nineteen carriages of ammunition, and killed about men. waller lost his reputation in this fight, and was exceedingly slighted ever after, even by his own party; but especially by such as were of general essex's party, between whom and waller there had been jealousies and misunderstandings for some time. the king, about strong, marched on to bristol, where sir william hopton joined him, and from thence he follows essex into cornwall. essex still following grenvile, the king comes to exeter, and joining with prince maurice, resolves to pursue essex; and now the earl of essex began to see his mistake, being cooped up between two seas, the king's army in his rear, the country his enemy, and sir richard grenvile in his van. the king, who always took the best measures when he was left to his own counsel, wisely refuses to engage, though superior in number, and much stronger in horse. essex often drew out to fight, but the king fortifies, takes the passes and bridges, plants cannon, and secures the country to keep off provisions, and continually straitens their quarters, but would not fight. now essex sends away to the parliament for help, and they write to waller, and middleton, and manchester to follow, and come up with the king in his rear; but some were too far off, and could not, as manchester and fairfax; others made no haste, as having no mind to it, as waller and middleton, and if they had, it had been too late. at last the earl of essex, finding nothing to be done, and unwilling to fall into the king's hands, takes shipping, and leaves his army to shift for themselves. the horse, under sir william balfour, the best horse officer, and, without comparison, the bravest in all the parliament army, advanced in small parties, as if to skirmish, but following in with the whole body, being horse, broke through, and got off. though this was a loss to the king's victory, yet the foot were now in a condition so much the worse. brave old skippon proposed to fight through with the foot and die, as he called it, like englishmen, with sword in hand; but the rest of the officers shook their heads at it, for, being well paid, they had at present no occasion for dying. seeing it thus, they agreed to treat, and the king grants them conditions, upon laying down their arms, to march off free. this was too much. had his majesty but obliged them upon oath not to serve again for a certain time, he had done his business; but this was not thought of; so they passed free, only disarmed, the soldiers not being allowed so much as their swords. the king gained by this treaty forty pieces of cannon, all of brass, barrels of gunpowder, arms, swords, match and bullet in proportion, waggons, colours and standards, all the bag and baggage of the army, and about of the men listed in his army. this was a complete victory without bloodshed; and had the king but secured the men from serving but for six months, it had most effectually answered the battle of marston moor. as it was, it infused new life into all his majesty's forces and friends, and retrieved his affairs very much; but especially it encouraged us in the north, who were more sensible of the blow received at marston moor, and of the destruction the scots were bringing upon us all. while i was at chester, we had some small skirmishes with sir william brereton. one morning in particular sir william drew up, and faced us, and one of our colonels of horse observing the enemy to be not, as he thought, above , desires leave of prince rupert to attack them with the like number, and accordingly he sallied out with horse. i stood drawn up without the city with more, ready to bring him off, if he should be put to the worst, which happened accordingly; for, not having discovered neither the country nor the enemy as he ought, sir william brereton drew him into an ambuscade; so that before he came up with sir william's forces, near enough to charge, he finds about horse in his rear. though he was surprised at this, yet, being a man of a ready courage, he boldly faces about with of his men, leaving the other fifty to face sir william. with this small party, he desperately charges the horse in his rear, and putting them into disorder, breaks through them, and, had there been no greater force, he had cut them all in pieces. flushed with this success, and loth to desert the fifty men he had left behind, he faces about again, and charges through them again, and with these two charges entirely routs them. sir william brereton finding himself a little disappointed, advances, and falls upon the fifty men just as the colonel came up to them; they fought him with a great deal of bravery, but the colonel being unfortunately killed in the first charge, the men gave way, and came flying all in confusion, with the enemy at their heels. as soon as i saw this, i advanced, according to my orders, and the enemy, as soon as i appeared, gave over the pursuit. this gentleman, as i remember, was colonel marrow; we fetched off his body, and retreated into chester. the next morning the prince drew out of the city with about horse and foot, and attacked sir william brereton in his quarters. the fight was very sharp for the time, and near men, on both sides, were killed; but sir william would not put it to a general engagement, so the prince drew off, contenting himself to have insulted him in his quarters. we now had received orders from the king to join him; but i representing to the prince the condition of my regiment, which was now men, and that, being within twenty-five miles of my father's house, i might soon recruit it, my father having got some men together already, i desired leave to lie at shrewsbury for a month, to make up my men. accordingly, having obtained his leave, i marched to wrexham, where in two days' time i got twenty men, and so on to shrewsbury. i had not been here above ten days, but i received an express to come away with what recruits i had got together, prince rupert having positive orders to meet the king by a certain day. i had not mounted men, though i had listed above , when these orders came; but leaving my father to complete them for me, i marched with those i had and came to oxford. the king, after the rout of the parliament forces in the west, was marched back, took barnstaple, plympton, launceston, tiverton, and several other places, and left plymouth besieged by sir richard grenvile, met with sir william waller at shaftesbury, and again at andover, and boxed him at both places, and marched for newbury. here the king sent for prince rupert to meet him, who with horse made long marches to join him; but the parliament having joined their three armies together, manchester from the north, waller and essex (the men being clothed and armed) from the west, had attacked the king and obliged him to fight the day before the prince came up. the king had so posted himself, as that he could not be obliged to fight but with advantage, the parliament's forces being superior in number, and therefore, when they attacked him, he galled them with his cannon, and declining to come to a general battle, stood upon the defensive, expecting prince rupert with the horse. the parliament's forces had some advantage over our foot, and took the earl of cleveland prisoner. but the king, whose foot were not above one to two, drew his men under the cannon of donnington castle, and having secured his artillery and baggage, made a retreat with his foot in very good order, having not lost in all the fight above men, and the parliament as many. we lost five pieces of cannon and took two, having repulsed the earl of manchester's men on the north side of the town, with considerable loss. the king having lodged his train of artillery and baggage in donnington castle, marched the next day for oxford. there we joined him with horse and foot. encouraged with this reinforcement, the king appears upon the hills on the north-west of newbury, and faces the parliament army. the parliament having too many generals as well as soldiers, they could not agree whether they should fight or no. this was no great token of the victory they boasted of, for they were now twice our number in the whole, and their foot three for one. the king stood in battalia all day, and finding the parliament forces had no stomach to engage him, he drew away his cannon and baggage out of donnington castle in view of their whole army, and marched away to oxford. this was such a false step of the parliament's generals, that all the people cried shame of them. the parliament appointed a committee to inquire into it. cromwell accused manchester, and he waller, and so they laid the fault upon one another. waller would have been glad to have charged it upon essex, but as it happened he was not in the army, having been taken ill some days before. but as it generally is when a mistake is made, the actors fall out among themselves, so it was here. no doubt it was as false a step as that of cornwall, to let the king fetch away his baggage and cannon in the face of three armies, and never fire a shot at them. the king had not above foot in his army, and they above , . tis true the king had horse, a fine body, and much superior to theirs; but the foot might, with the greatest ease in the world, have prevented the removing the cannon, and in three days' time have taken the castle, with all that was in it. those differences produced their self-denying ordinance, and the putting by most of their old generals, as essex, waller, manchester, and the like; and sir thomas fairfax, a terrible man in the field, though the mildest of men out of it, was voted to have the command of all their forces, and lambert to take the command of sir thomas fairfax's troops in the north, old skippon being major-general. this winter was spent on the enemy's side in modelling, as they called it, their army, and on our side in recruiting ours, and some petty excursions. amongst the many addresses i observed one from sussex or surrey, complaining of the rudeness of their soldiers, from which i only observed that there were disorders among them as well as among us, only with this difference, that they, for reasons i mentioned before, were under circumstances to prevent it better than the king. but i must do the king's memory that justice, that he used all possible methods, by punishment of soldiers, charging, and sometimes entreating, the gentlemen not to suffer such disorders and such violences in their men; but it was to no purpose for his majesty to attempt it, while his officers, generals, and great men winked at it; for the licentiousness of the soldier is supposed to be approved by the officer when it is not corrected. the rudeness of the parliament soldiers began from the divisions among their officers; for in many places the soldiers grew so out of all discipline and so unsufferably rude, that they, in particular, refused to march when sir william waller went to weymouth. this had turned to good account for us, had these cursed scots been out of our way, but they were the staff of the party; and now they were daily solicited to march southward, which was a very great affliction to the king and all his friends. one booty the king got at this time, which was a very seasonable assistance to his affairs, viz., a great merchant ship, richly laden at london, and bound to the east indies, was, by the seamen, brought into bristol, and delivered up to the king. some merchants in bristol offered the king £ , for her, which his majesty ordered should be accepted, reserving only thirty great guns for his own use. the treaty at uxbridge now was begun, and we that had been well beaten in the war heartily wished the king would come to a peace; but we all foresaw the clergy would ruin it all. the commons were for presbytery, and would never agree the bishops should be restored. the king was willinger to comply with anything than this, and we foresaw it would be so; from whence we used to say among ourselves, "that the clergy was resolved if there should be no bishop there should be no king." this treaty at uxbridge was a perfect war between the men of the gown, ours was between those of the sword; and i cannot but take notice how the lawyers, statesmen, and the clergy of every side bestirred themselves, rather to hinder than promote the peace. there had been a treaty at oxford some time before, where the parliament insisting that the king should pass a bill to abolish episcopacy, quit the militia, abandon several of his faithful servants to be exempted from pardon, and making several other most extravagant demands, nothing was done, but the treaty broke off, both parties being rather farther exasperated, than inclined to hearken to conditions. however, soon after the success in the west, his majesty, to let them see that victory had not puffed him up so as to make him reject the peace, sends a message to the parliament, to put them in mind of messages of like nature which they had slighted; and to let them know, that notwithstanding he had beaten their forces, he was yet willing to hearken to a reasonable proposal for putting an end to the war. the parliament pretended the king, in his message, did not treat with them as a legal parliament, and so made hesitations; but after long debates and delays they agreed to draw up propositions for peace to be sent to the king. as this message was sent to the houses about august, i think they made it the middle of november before they brought the propositions for peace; and, when they brought them, they had no power to enter either upon a treaty, or so much as preliminaries for a treaty, only to deliver the letter, and receive an answer. however, such were the circumstances of affairs at this time, that the king was uneasy to see himself thus treated, and take no notice of it: the king returned an answer to the propositions, and proposed a treaty by commissioners which the parliament appointed. three months more were spent in naming commissioners. there was much time spent in this treaty, but little done; the commissioners debated chiefly the article of religion, and of the militia; in the latter they were very likely to agree, in the former both sides seemed too positive. the king would by no means abandon episcopacy nor the parliament presbytery; for both in their opinion were _jure divino_. the commissioners finding this point hardest to adjust, went from it to that of the militia; but the time spinning out, the king's commissioners demanded longer time for the treaty; the other sent up for instructions, but the house refused to lengthen out the time. this was thought an insolence upon the king, and gave all good people a detestation of such haughty behaviour; and thus the hopes of peace vanished, both sides prepared for war with as much eagerness as before. the parliament was employed at this time in what they called a-modelling their army; that is to say, that now the independent party [was] beginning to prevail; and, as they outdid all the others in their resolution of carrying on the war to all extremities, so they were both the more vigorous and more politic party in carrying it on. indeed, the war was after this carried on with greater animosity than ever, and the generals pushed forward with a vigour that, as it had something in it unusual, so it told us plainly from this time, whatever they did before, they now pushed at the ruin even of the monarchy itself. all this while also the war went on, and though the parliament had no settled army, yet their regiments and troops were always in action; and the sword was at work in every part of the kingdom. among an infinite number of party skirmishings and fights this winter, one happened which nearly concerned me, which was the surprise of the town and castle of shrewsbury. colonel mitton, with about horse and foot, having intelligence with some people in the town, on a sunday morning early broke into the town and took it, castle and all. the loss for the quality, more than the number, was very great to the king's affairs. they took there fifteen pieces of cannon, prince maurice's magazine of arms and ammunition, prince rupert's baggage, above fifty persons of quality and officers. there was not above eight or ten men killed on both sides, for the town was surprised, not stormed. i had a particular loss in this action; for all the men and horses my father had got together for the recruiting my regiment were here lost and dispersed, and, which was the worse, my father happening to be then in the town, was taken prisoner, and carried to beeston castle in cheshire. i was quartered all this winter at banbury, and went little abroad; nor had we any action till the latter end of february, when i was ordered to march to leicester with sir marmaduke langdale, in order, as we thought, to raise a body of men in that county and staffordshire to join the king. we lay at daventry one night, and continuing our march to pass the river above northampton, that town being possessed by the enemy, we understood a party of northampton forces were abroad, and intended to attack us. accordingly, in the afternoon our scouts brought us word the enemy were quartered in some villages on the road to coventry. our commander, thinking it much better to set upon them in their quarters, than to wait for them in the field, resolves to attack them early in the morning before they were aware of it. we refreshed ourselves in the field for that day, and, getting into a great wood near the enemy, we stayed there all night, till almost break of day, without being discovered. in the morning very early we heard the enemy's trumpets sound to horse. this roused us to look abroad, and, sending out a scout, he brought us word a part of the enemy was at hand. we were vexed to be so disappointed, but finding their party small enough to be dealt with, sir marmaduke ordered me to charge them with horse and dragoons, while he at the same time entered the town. accordingly i lay still till they came to the very skirt of the wood where i was posted, when i saluted them with a volley from my dragoons out of the wood, and immediately showed myself with my horse on their front ready to charge them. they appeared not to be surprised, and received our charge with great resolution; and, being above men, they pushed me vigorously in their turn, putting my men into some disorder. in this extremity i sent to order my dragoons to charge them in the flank, which they did with great bravery, and the other still maintained the fight with desperate resolution. there was no want of courage in our men on both sides, but our dragoons had the advantage, and at last routed them, and drove them back to the village. here sir marmaduke langdale had his hands full too, for my firing had alarmed the towns adjacent, that when he came into the town he found them all in arms, and, contrary to his expectation, two regiments of foot, with about horse more. as sir marmaduke had no foot, only horse and dragoons, this was a surprise to him; but he caused his dragoons to enter the town and charge the foot, while his horse secured the avenues of the town. the dragoons bravely attacked the foot, and sir marmaduke falling in with his horse, the fight was obstinate and very bloody, when the horse that i had routed came flying into the street of the village, and my men at their heels. immediately i left the pursuit, and fell in with all my force to the assistance of my friends, and, after an obstinate resistance, we routed the whole party; we killed about men, took , officers, arms, all their baggage, and horses, and continued our march to harborough, where we halted to refresh ourselves. between harborough and leicester we met with a party of dragoons of the parliament forces. they, found themselves too few to attack us, and therefore to avoid us they had gotten into a small wood; but perceiving themselves discovered, they came boldly out, and placed themselves at the entrance into a lane, lining both sides of the hedges with their shot. we immediately attacked them, beat them from their hedges, beat them into the wood, and out of the wood again, and forced them at last to a downright run away, on foot, among the enclosures, where we could not follow them, killed about of them, and took prisoners, with all their horses, and came that night to leicester. when we came to leicester, and had taken up our quarters, sir marmaduke langdale sent for me to sup with him, and told me that he had a secret commission in his pocket, which his majesty had commanded him not to open till he came to leicester; that now he had sent for me to open it together, that we might know what it was we were to do, and to consider how to do it; so pulling out his sealed orders, we found we were to get what force we could together, and a certain number of carriages with ammunition, which the governor of leicester was to deliver us, and a certain quantity of provision, especially corn and salt, and to relieve newark. this town had been long besieged. the fortifications of the place, together with its situation, had rendered it the strongest place in england; and, as it was the greatest pass in england, so it was of vast consequence to the king's affairs. there was in it a garrison of brave old rugged boys, fellows that, like count tilly's germans, had iron faces, and they had defended themselves with extraordinary bravery a great while, but were reduced to an exceeding strait for want of provisions. accordingly we received the ammunition and provision, and away we went for newark; about melton mowbray, colonel rossiter set upon us, with above men; we were about the same number, having horse, and dragoons. we had some foot, but they were still at harborough, and were ordered to come after us. rossiter, like a brave officer as he was, charged us with great fury, and rather outdid us in number, while we defended ourselves with all the eagerness we could, and withal gave him to understand we were not so soon to be beaten as he expected. while the fight continued doubtful, especially on our side, our people, who had charge of the carriages and provisions, began to enclose our flanks with them, as if we had been marching, which, though it was done without orders, had two very good effects, and which did us extraordinary service. first, it secured us from being charged in the flank, which rossiter had twice attempted; and secondly, it secured our carriages from being plundered, which had spoiled our whole expedition. being thus enclosed, we fought with great security; and though rossiter made three desperate charges upon us; he could never break us. our men received him with so much courage, and kept their order so well, that the enemy, finding it impossible to force us, gave it over, and left us to pursue our orders. we did not offer to chase them, but contented enough to have repulsed and beaten them off, and our business being to relieve newark, we proceeded. if we are to reckon by the enemy's usual method, we got the victory, because we kept the field, and had the pillage of their dead; but otherwise, neither side had any great cause to boast. we lost about men, and near as many hurt; they left on the spot, and carried off some. how many they had wounded we could not tell; we got seventy or eighty horses, which helped to remount some of our men that had lost theirs in the fight. we had, however, this advantage, that we were to march on immediately after this service, the enemy only to retire to their quarters, which was but hard by. this was an injury to our wounded men, who we were after obliged to leave at belvoir castle, and from thence we advanced to newark. our business at newark was to relieve the place, and this we resolved to do whatever it cost, though, at the same time, we resolved not to fight unless we were forced to it. the town was rather blocked up than besieged; the garrison was strong, but ill-provided; we had sent them word of our coming to them, and our orders to relieve them, and they proposed some measures for our doing it. the chief strength of the enemy lay on the other side of the river; but they having also some notice of our design, had sent over forces to strengthen their leaguer on this side. the garrison had often surprised them by sallies, and indeed had chiefly subsisted for some time by what they brought in on this manner. sir marmaduke langdale, who was our general for the expedition, was for a general attempt to raise the siege, but i had persuaded him off of that; first, because, if we should be beaten, as might be probable, we then lost the town. sir marmaduke briskly replied, "a soldier ought never to suppose he shall be beaten." "but, sir," says i, "you'll get more honour by relieving the town, than by beating them. one will be a credit to your conduct, as the other will be to your courage; and if you think you can beat them, you may do it afterward, and then if you are mistaken, the town is nevertheless secured, and half your victory gained." he was prevailed with to adhere to this advice, and accordingly we appeared before the town about two hours before night. the horse drew up before the enemy's works; the enemy drew up within their works, and seeing no foot, expected when our dragoons would dismount and attack them. they were in the right to let us attack them, because of the advantage of their batteries and works, if that had been our design; but, as we intended only to amuse them, this caution of theirs effected our design; for, while we thus faced them with our horse, two regiments of foot, which came up to us but the night before, and was all the infantry we had, with the waggons of provisions, and dragoons, taking a compass clean round the town, posted themselves on the lower side of the town by the river. upon a signal the garrison agreed on before, they sallied out at this very juncture with all the men they could spare, and dividing themselves in two parties, while one party moved to the left to meet our relief, the other party fell on upon part of that body which faced us. we kept in motion, and upon this signal advanced to their works, and our dragoons fired upon them, and the horse, wheeling and counter-marching often, kept them continually expecting to be attacked. by this means the enemy were kept employed, and our foot, with the waggons, appearing on that quarter where they were least expected, easily defeated the advanced guards and forced that post, where, entering the leaguer, the other part of the garrison, who had sallied that way, came up to them, received the waggons, and the dragoons entered with them into the town. that party which we faced on the other side of the works knew nothing of what was done till all was over; the garrison retreated in good order, and we drew off, having finished what we came for without fighting. thus we plentifully stored the town with all things wanting, and with an addition of dragoons to their garrison; after which we marched away without fighting a stroke. our next orders were to relieve pontefract castle, another garrison of the king's, which had been besieged ever since a few days after the fight at marston moor, by the lord fairfax, sir thomas fairfax, and other generals in their turn. by the way we were joined with horse out of derbyshire, and some foot, so many as made us about men in all. colonel forbes, a scotchman, commanded at the siege, in the absence of the lord fairfax. the colonel had sent to my lord for more troops, and his lordship was gathering his forces to come up to him, but he was pleased to come too late. we came up with the enemy's leaguer about the break of day, and having been discovered by their scouts, they, with more courage than discretion, drew out to meet us. we saw no reason to avoid them, being stronger in horse than they; and though we had but a few foot, we had dragoons, which helped us out. we had placed our horse and foot throughout in one line, with two reserves of horse, and between every division of horse a division of foot, only that on the extremes of our wings there were two parties of horse on each point by themselves, and the dragoons in the centre on foot. their foot charged us home, and stood with push of pike a great while; but their horse charging our horse and musketeers, and being closed on the flanks, with those two extended troops on our wings, they were presently disordered, and fled out of the field. the foot, thus deserted, were charged on every side and broken. they retreated still fighting, and in good order for a while; but the garrison sallying upon them at the same time, and being followed close by our horse, they were scattered, entirely routed, and most of them killed. the lord fairfax was come with his horse as far as ferrybridge, but the fight was over, and all he could do was to rally those that fled, and save some of their carriages, which else had fallen into our hands. we drew up our little army in order of battle the next day, expecting the lord fairfax would have charged us; but his lordship was so far from any such thoughts that he placed a party of dragoons, with orders to fortify the pass at ferrybridge, to prevent our falling upon him in his retreat, which he needed not have done; for, having raised the siege of pontefract, our business was done, we had nothing to say to him, unless we had been strong enough to stay. we lost not above thirty men in this action, and the enemy , with about prisoners, one piece of cannon, all their ammunition, arms, and most of their baggage, and colonel lambert was once taken prisoner, being wounded, but got off again. we brought no relief for the garrison, but the opportunity to furnish themselves out of the country, which they did very plentifully. the ammunition taken from the enemy was given to them, which they wanted, and was their due, for they had seized it in the sally they made, before the enemy was quite defeated. i cannot omit taking notice on all occasions how exceeding serviceable this method was of posting musketeers in the intervals, among the horse, in all this war. i persuaded our generals to it as much as possible, and i never knew a body of horse beaten that did so: yet i had great difficulty to prevail upon our people to believe it, though it was taught me by the greatest general in the world, viz., the king of sweden. prince rupert did it at the battle of marston moor; and had the earl of newcastle not been obstinate against it in his right wing, as i observed before, the day had not been lost. in discoursing this with sir marmaduke langdale, i had related several examples of the serviceableness of these small bodies of firemen, and with great difficulty brought him to agree, telling him i would be answerable for the success. but after the fight, he told me plainly he saw the advantage of it, and would never fight otherwise again if he had any foot to place. so having relieved these two places, we hastened by long marches through derbyshire, to join prince rupert on the edge of shropshire and cheshire. we found colonel rossiter had followed us at a distance ever since the business at melton mowbray, but never cared to attack us, and we found he did the like still. our general would fain have been doing with him again, but we found him too shy. once we laid a trap for him at dovebridge, between derby and burton-upon-trent, the body being marched two days before. three hundred dragoons were left to guard the bridge, as if we were afraid he should fall upon us. upon this we marched, as i said, on to burton, and the next day, fetching a compass round, came to a village near titbury castle, whose name i forgot, where we lay still expecting our dragoons would be attacked. accordingly, the colonel, strengthened with some troops of horse from yorkshire, comes up to the bridge, and finding some dragoons posted, advances to charge them. the dragoons immediately get a-horseback, and run for it, as they were ordered. but the old lad was not to be caught so, for he halts immediately at the bridge, and would not come over till he had sent three or four flying parties abroad to discover the country. one of these parties fell into our hands, and received but coarse entertainment. finding the plot would not take, we appeared and drew up in view of the bridge, but he would not stir. so we continued our march into cheshire, where we joined prince rupert and prince maurice, making together a fine body, being above horse and dragoons. this was the best and most successful expedition i was in during this war. 'twas well concerted, and executed with as much expedition and conduct as could be desired, and the success was answerable to it. and indeed, considering the season of the year (for we set out from oxford the latter end of february), the ways bad, and the season wet, it was a terrible march of above miles, in continual action, and continually dodged and observed by a vigilant enemy, and at a time when the north was overrun by their armies, and the scots wanting employment for their forces. yet in less than twenty-three days we marched miles, fought the enemy in open field four times, relieved one garrison besieged, and raised the siege of another, and joined our friends at last in safety. the enemy was in great pain for sir william brereton and his forces, and expresses rode night and day to the scots in the north, and to the parties in lancashire to come to his help. the prince, who used to be rather too forward to fight than otherwise, could not be persuaded to make use of this opportunity, but loitered, if i may be allowed to say so, till the scots, with a brigade of horse and foot, had joined him; and then 'twas not thought proper to engage them. i took this opportunity to go to shrewsbury to visit my father, who was a prisoner of war there, getting a pass from the enemy's governor. they allowed him the liberty of the town, and sometimes to go to his own house upon his parole, so that his confinement was not very much to his personal injury. but this, together with the charges he had been at in raising the regiment, and above £ , in money and plate, which at several times he had lent, or given rather to the king, had reduced our family to very ill circumstances; and now they talked of cutting down his woods. i had a great deal of discourse with my father on this affair; and, finding him extremely concerned, i offered to go to the king and desire his leave to go to london and treat about his composition, or to render myself a prisoner in his stead, while he went up himself. in this difficulty i treated with the governor of the town, who very civilly offered me his pass to go for london, which i accepted, and, waiting on prince rupert, who was then at worcester, i acquainted him with my design. the prince was unwilling i should go to london; but told me he had some prisoners of the parliament's friends in cumberland, and he would get an exchange for my father. i told him if he would give me his word for it i knew i might depend upon it, otherwise there was so many of the king's party in their hands, that his majesty was tired with solicitations for exchanges, for we never had a prisoner but there was ten offers of exchanges for him. the prince told me i should depend upon him; and he was as good as his word quickly after. while the prince lay at worcester he made an incursion into herefordshire, and having made some of the gentlemen prisoners, brought them to worcester; and though it was an action which had not been usual, they being persons not in arms, yet the like being my father's case, who was really not in commission, nor in any military service, having resigned his regiment three years before to me, the prince insisted on exchanging them for such as the parliament had in custody in like circumstances. the gentlemen seeing no remedy, solicited their own case at the parliament, and got it passed in their behalf; and by this means my father got his liberty, and by the assistance of the earl of denbigh got leave to come to london to make a composition as a delinquent for his estate. this they charged at £ , but by the assistance of the same noble person he got off for £ . some members of the committee moved very kindly that my father should oblige me to quit the king's service, but that, as a thing which might be out of his power, was not insisted on. the modelling the parliament army took them up all this winter, and we were in great hopes the divisions which appeared amongst them might have weakened their party; but when they voted sir thomas fairfax to be general, i confess i was convinced the king's affairs were lost and desperate. sir thomas, abating the zeal of his party, and the mistaken opinion of his cause, was the fittest man amongst them to undertake the charge. he was a complete general, strict in his discipline, wary in conduct, fearless in action, unwearied in the fatigue of the war, and withal, of a modest, noble, generous disposition. we all apprehended danger from him, and heartily wished him of our own side; and the king was so sensible, though he would not discover it, that when an account was brought him of the choice they had made, he replied, "he was sorry for it; he had rather it had been anybody than he." the first attempts of this new general and new army were at oxford, which, by the neighbourhood of a numerous garrison in abingdon, began to be very much straitened for provisions; and the new forces under cromwell and skippon, one lieutenant-general, the other major-general to fairfax, approaching with a design to block it up, the king left the place, supposing his absence would draw them away, as it soon did. the king resolving to leave oxford, marches from thence with all his forces, the garrison excepted, with design to have gone to bristol; but the plague was in bristol, which altered the measures, and changed the course of the king's designs, so he marched for worcester about the beginning of june . the foot, with a train of forty pieces of cannon, marching into worcester, the horse stayed behind some time in gloucestershire. the first action our army did, was to raise the siege of chester; sir william brereton had besieged it, or rather blocked it up, and when his majesty came to worcester, he sent prince rupert with horse and dragoons, with orders to join some foot out of wales, to raise the siege; but sir william thought fit to withdraw, and not stay for them, and the town was freed without fighting. the governor took care in this interval to furnish himself with all things necessary for another siege; and, as for ammunition and other necessaries, he was in no want. i was sent with a party into staffordshire, with design to intercept a convoy of stores coming from london, for the use of sir william brereton; but they having some notice of the design, stopped, and went out of the road to burton-upon-trent, and so i missed them; but that we might not come back quite empty, we attacked hawkesley house, and took it, where we got good booty, and brought eighty prisoners back to worcester. from worcester the king advanced into shropshire, and took his headquarters at bridgnorth. this was a very happy march of the king's, and had his majesty proceeded, he had certainly cleared the north once more of his enemies, for the country was generally for him. at his advancing so far as bridgnorth, sir william brereton fled up into lancashire; the scots brigades who were with him retreated into the north, while yet the king was above forty miles from them, and all things lay open for conquest. the new generals, fairfax and cromwell, lay about oxford, preparing as if they would besiege it, and gave the king's army so much leisure, that his majesty might have been at newcastle before they could have been half way to him. but heaven, when the ruin of a person or party is determined, always so infatuates their counsels as to make them instrumental to it themselves. the king let slip this great opportunity, as some thought, intending to break into the associated counties of northampton, cambridge, norfolk, where he had some interests forming. what the design was, we knew not, but the king turns eastward, and marches into leicestershire, and having treated the country but very indifferently, as having deserved no better of us, laid siege to leicester. this was but a short siege; for the king, resolving not to lose time, fell on with his great guns, and having beaten down their works, our foot entered, after a vigorous resistance, and took the town by storm. there was some blood shed here, the town being carried by assault; but it was their own faults; for after the town was taken, the soldiers and townsmen obstinately fought us in the market-place; insomuch that the horse was called to enter the town to clear the streets. but this was not all; i was commanded to advance with these horse, being three regiments, and to enter the town; the foot, who were engaged in the streets, crying out, "horse, horse." immediately i advanced to the gate, for we were drawn up about musket-shot from the works, to have supported our foot in case of a sally. having seized the gate, i placed a guard of horse there, with orders to let nobody pass in or out, and dividing my troops, rode up by two ways towards the market-place. the garrison defending themselves in the market-place, and in the churchyard with great obstinacy, killed us a great many men; but as soon as our horse appeared they demanded quarter, which our foot refused them in the first heat, as is frequent in all nations, in like cases, till at last they threw down their arms, and yielded at discretion; and then i can testify to the world, that fair quarter was given them. i am the more particular in this relation, having been an eye-witness of the action, because the king was reproached in all the public libels, with which those times abounded, for having put a great many to death, and hanged the committee of the parliament, and some scots, in cold blood, which was a notorious forgery; and as i am sure there was no such thing done, so i must acknowledge i never saw any inclination in his majesty to cruelty, or to act anything which was not practised by the general laws of war, and by men of honour in all nations. but the matter of fact, in respect to the garrison, was as i have related; and, if they had thrown down their arms sooner, they had had mercy sooner; but it was not for a conquering army, entering a town by storm, to offer conditions of quarter in the streets. another circumstance was, that a great many of the inhabitants, both men and women, were killed, which is most true; and the case was thus: the inhabitants, to show their over-forward zeal to defend the town, fought in the breach; nay, the very women, to the honour of the leicester ladies, if they like it, officiously did their parts; and after the town was taken, and when, if they had had any brains in their zeal, they would have kept their houses, and been quiet, they fired upon our men out of their windows, and from the tops of their houses, and threw tiles upon their heads; and i had several of my men wounded so, and seven or eight killed. this exasperated us to the last degree; and, finding one house better manned than ordinary, and many shot fired at us out of the windows, i caused my men to attack it, resolved to make them an example for the rest; which they did, and breaking open the doors, they killed all they found there, without distinction; and i appeal to the world if they were to blame. if the parliament committee, or the scots deputies were here, they ought to have been quiet, since the town was taken; but they began with us, and, i think, brought it upon themselves. this is the whole case, so far as came within my knowledge, for which his majesty was so much abused. we took here colonel gray and captain hacker, and about prisoners, and about more were killed. this was the last day of may . his majesty having given over oxford for lost, continued here some days, viewed the town, ordered the fortifications to be augmented, and prepares to make it the seat of war. but the parliament, roused at this appearance of the king's army, orders their general to raise the siege of oxford, where the garrison had, in a sally, ruined some of their works, and killed them men, taking several prisoners, and carrying them with them into the city; and orders him to march towards leicester, to observe the king. the king had now a small, but gallant army, all brave tried soldiers, and seemed eager to engage the new-modelled army; and his majesty, hearing that sir thomas fairfax, having raised the siege of oxford, advanced towards him, fairly saves him the trouble of a long march, and meets him half way. the army lay at daventry, and fairfax at towcester, about eight miles off. here the king sends away horse, with head of cattle, to relieve his people in oxford; the cattle he might have spared better than the men. the king having thus victualled oxford, changes his resolution of fighting fairfax, to whom cromwell was now joined with men, or was within a day's march, and marches northward. this was unhappy counsel, because late given. had we marched northward at first, we had done it; but thus it was. now we marched with a triumphing enemy at our heels, and at naseby their advanced parties attacked our rear. the king, upon this, alters his resolution again, and resolves to fight, and at midnight calls us up at harborough to come to a council of war. fate and the king's opinion determined the council of war; and 'twas resolved to fight. accordingly the van, in which was prince rupert's brigade of horse, of which my regiment was a part, counter-marched early in the morning. by five o'clock in the morning, the whole army, in order of battle, began to descry the enemy from the rising grounds, about a mile from naseby, and moved towards them. they were drawn up on a little ascent in a large common fallow field, in one line extended from one side of the field to the other, the field something more than a mile over, our army in the same order, in one line, with the reserve. the king led the main battle of foot, prince rupert the right wing of the horse, and sir marmaduke langdale the left. of the enemy fairfax and skippon led the body, cromwell and rossiter the right, and ireton the left, the numbers of both armies so equal, as not to differ men, save that the king had most horse by about , and fairfax most foot by about . the number was in each army about , men. the armies coming close up, the wings engaged first. the prince with his right wing charged with his wonted fury, and drove all the parliament's wing of horse, one division excepted, clear out of the field; ireton, who commanded this wing, give him his due, rallied often, and fought like a lion; but our wing bore down all before them, and pursued them with a terrible execution. ireton seeing one division of his horse left, repaired to them, and keeping his ground, fell foul of a brigade of our foot, who coming up to the head of the line, he like a madman charges them with his horse. but they with their pikes tore him to pieces; so that this division was entirely ruined. ireton himself, thrust through the thigh with a pike, wounded in the face with a halberd, was unhorsed and taken prisoner. cromwell, who commanded the parliament's right wing, charged sir marmaduke langdale with extraordinary fury, but he, an old tried soldier, stood firm, and received the charge with equal gallantry, exchanging all their shot, carabines and pistols and then fell on sword in hand. rossiter and whalley had the better on the point of the wing, and routed two divisions of horse, pushed them behind the reserves, where they rallied and charged again, but were at last defeated; the rest of the horse, now charged in the flank, retreated fighting, and were pushed behind the reserves of foot. while this was doing the foot engaged with equal fierceness, and for two hours there was a terrible fire. the king's foot, backed with gallant officers, and full of rage at the rout of their horse, bore down the enemy's brigade led by skippon. the old man, wounded, bleeding, retreats to their reserves. all the foot, except the general's brigade, were thus driven into the reserves, where their officers rallied them, and bring them on to a fresh charge; and here the horse, having driven our horse above a quarter of a mile from the foot, face about, and fall in on the rear of the foot. had our right wing done thus, the day had been secured; but prince rupert, according to his custom, following the flying enemy, never concerned himself with the safety of those behind; and yet he returned sooner than he had done in like cases too. at our return we found all in confusion, our foot broken, all but one brigade, which, though charged in the front, flank, and rear, could not be broken till sir thomas fairfax himself came up to the charge with fresh men, and then they were rather cut in pieces than beaten, for they stood with their pikes charged every way to the last extremity. in this condition, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, we saw the king rallying his horse, and preparing to renew the fight; and our wing of horse coming up to him, gave him opportunity to draw up a large body of horse, so large that all the enemy's horse facing us stood still and looked on, but did not think fit to charge us till their foot, who had entirely broken our main battle, were put in order again, and brought up to us. the officers about the king advised his majesty rather to draw off; for, since our foot were lost, it would be too much odds to expose the horse to the fury of their whole army, and would but be sacrificing his best troops without any hopes of success. the king, though with great regret at the loss of his foot, yet seeing there was no other hope, took this advice, and retreated in good order to harborough, and from thence to leicester. this was the occasion of the enemy having so great a number of prisoners; for the horse being thus gone off, the foot had no means to make their retreat, and were obliged to yield themselves. commissary-general ireton being taken by a captain of foot, makes the captain his prisoner, to save his life, and gives him his liberty for his courtesy before. cromwell and rossiter, with all the enemy's horse, followed us as far as leicester, and killed all that they could lay hold on straggling from the body, but durst not attempt to charge us in a body. the king, expecting the enemy would come to leicester, removes to ashby-de-la-zouch, where we had some time to recollect ourselves. this was the most fatal action of the whole war, not so much for the loss of our cannon, ammunition, and baggage, of which the enemy boasted so much, but as it was impossible for the king ever to retrieve it. the foot, the best that ever he was master of, could never be supplied; his army in the west was exposed to certain ruin, the north overrun with the scots; in short, the case grew desperate, and the king was once upon the point of bidding us all disband, and shift for ourselves. we lost in this fight not above slain, and the parliament near as many, but the prisoners were a great number; the whole body of foot being, as i have said, dispersed, there were prisoners, besides officers, horses, pieces of cannon, barrels of powder, all the king's baggage, coaches, most of his servants, and his secretary, with his cabinet of letters, of which the parliament made great improvement, and basely enough caused his private letters--between his majesty and the queen, her majesty's letters to the king, and a great deal of such stuff--to be printed. after this fatal blow, being retreated, as i have said, to ashby-de-la-zouch in leicestershire, the king ordered us to divide; his majesty, with a body of horse, about , went to lichfield, and through cheshire into north wales, and sir marmaduke langdale, with about , went to newark. the king remained in wales for several months; and though the length of the war had almost drained that country of men, yet the king raised a great many men there, recruited his horse regiments, and got together six or seven regiments of foot, which seemed to look like the beginning of a new army. i had frequent discourses with his majesty in this low ebb of his affairs, and he would often wish he had not exposed his army at naseby. i took the freedom once to make a proposition to his majesty, which, if it had taken effect, i verily believe would have given a new turn to his affairs; and that was, at once to slight all his garrisons in the kingdom, and give private orders to all the soldiers in every place, to join in bodies, and meet at two general rendezvous, which i would have appointed to be, one at bristol, and one at west chester. i demonstrated how easily all the forces might reach these two places; and both being strong and wealthy places, and both seaports, he would have a free communication by sea with ireland, and with his friends abroad; and having wales entirely his own, he might yet have an opportunity to make good terms for himself, or else have another fair field with the enemy. upon a fair calculation of his troops in several garrisons and small bodies dispersed about, i convinced the king, by his own accounts, that he might have two complete armies, each of , foot, horse, and dragoons; that the lord goring and the lord hopton might ship all their forces, and come by sea in two tides, and be with him in a shorter time than the enemy could follow. with two such bodies he might face the enemy, and make a day of it; but now his men were only sacrificed, and eaten up by piecemeal in a party-war, and spent their lives and estates to do him no service. that if the parliament garrisoned the towns and castles he should quit, they would lessen their army, and not dare to see him in the field: and if they did not, but left them open, then 'twould be no loss to him, but he might possess them as often as he pleased. this advice i pressed with such arguments, that the king was once going to despatch orders for the doing it; but to be irresolute in counsel is always the companion of a declining fortune; the king was doubtful, and could not resolve till it was too late. and yet, though the king's forces were very low, his majesty was resolved to make one adventure more, and it was a strange one; for, with but a handful of men, he made a desperate march, almost miles in the middle of the whole kingdom, compassed about with armies and parties innumerable, traversed the heart of his enemy's country, entered their associated counties, where no army had ever yet come, and in spite of all their victorious troops facing and following him, alarmed even london itself and returned safe to oxford. his majesty continued in wales from the battle at naseby till the th or th of august, and till he had an account from all parts of the progress of his enemies, and the posture of his own affairs. here we found, that the enemy being hard pressed in somersetshire by the lord goring, and lord hopton's forces, who had taken bridgewater, and distressed taunton, which was now at the point of surrender, they had ordered fairfax and cromwell, and the whole army, to march westward to relieve the town; which they did, and goring's troops were worsted, and himself wounded at the fight at langport. the scots, who were always the dead weight upon the king's affairs, having no more work to do in the north, were, at the parliament's desire, advanced southward, and then ordered away towards south wales, and were set down to the siege of hereford. here this famous scotch army spent several months in a fruitless siege, ill provided of ammunition, and worse with money; and having sat near three months before the town, and done little but eaten up the country round them, upon the repeated accounts of the progress of the marquis of montrose in that kingdom, and pressing instances of their countrymen, they resolved to raise their siege, and go home to relieve their friends. the king, who was willing to be rid of the scots, upon good terms, and therefore to hasten them, and lest they should pretend to push on the siege to take the town first, gives it out, that he was resolved with all his forces to go into scotland, and join montrose; and so having secured scotland, to renew the war from thence. and accordingly his majesty marches northwards, with a body of horse; and, had the king really done this, and with that body of horse marched away (for he had the start of all his enemies, by above a fortnight's march), he had then had the fairest opportunity for a general turn of all his affairs, that he ever had in all the latter part of this war. for montrose, a gallant daring soldier, who from the least shadow of force in the farthest corner of this country, had, rolling like a snowball, spread all over scotland, was come into the south parts, and had summoned edinburgh, frighted away their statesmen, beaten their soldiers at dundee and other places; and letters and messengers in the heels of one another, repeated their cries to their brethren in england, to lay before them the sad condition of the country, and to hasten the army to their relief. the scots lords of the enemy's party fled to berwick, and the chancellor of scotland goes himself to general leslie, to press him for help. in this extremity of affairs scotland lay when we marched out of wales. the scots, at the siege of hereford, hearing the king was gone northward with his horse, conclude he was gone directly for scotland, and immediately send leslie with horse and foot to follow, but did not yet raise the siege. but the king, still irresolute, turns away to the eastward, and comes to lichfield, where he showed his resentments at colonel hastings for his easy surrender of leicester. in this march the enemy took heart. we had troops of horse on every side upon us like hounds started at a fresh stag. leslie, with the scots, and a strong body followed in our rear, major-general poyntz, sir john gell, colonel rossiter, and others in our way; they pretended to be , horse, and yet never durst face us. the scots made one attempt upon a troop which stayed a little behind, and took some prisoners; but when a regiment of our horse faced them they retired. at a village near lichfield another party of about horse attacked my regiment. we were on the left of the army, and at a little too far a distance. i happened to be with the king at that time, and my lieutenant-colonel with me, so that the major had charge of the regiment. he made a very handsome defence, but sent messengers for speedy relief. we were on a march, and therefore all ready, and the king orders me a regiment of dragoons and horse, and the body halted to bring us off, not knowing how strong the enemy might be. when i came to the place i found my major hard laid to, but fighting like a lion. the enemy had broke in upon him in two places, and had routed one troop, cutting them off from the body, and had made them all prisoners. upon this i fell in with the horse, and cleared my major from a party who charged him in the flank; the dragoons immediately lighting, one party of them comes up on my wing, and saluting the enemy with their muskets, put them to a stand, the other party of dragoons wheeling to the left endeavouring to get behind them. the enemy, perceiving they should be overpowered, retreated in as good order as they could, but left us most of our prisoners, and about thirty of their own. we lost about fifteen of our men, and the enemy about forty, chiefly by the fire of our dragoons in their retreat. in this posture we continued our march; and though the king halted at lichfield--which was a dangerous article, having so many of the enemy's troops upon his hands, and this time gave them opportunity to get into a body--yet the scots, with their general leslie, resolving for the north, the rest of the troops were not able to face us, till, having ravaged the enemy's country through staffordshire, warwick, leicester, and nottinghamshire, we came to the leaguer before newark. the king was once more in the mind to have gone into scotland, and called a council of war to that purpose; but then it was resolved by all hands that it would be too late to attempt it, for the scots and major-general poyntz were before us, and several strong bodies of horse in our rear; and there was no venturing now, unless any advantage presented to rout one of those parties which attended us. upon these and like considerations we resolved for newark; on our approach the forces which blocked up that town drew off, being too weak to oppose us, for the king was now above horse and dragoons, besides horse and dragoons he took with him from newark. we halted at newark to assist the garrison, or give them time rather to furnish themselves from the country with what they wanted, which they were very diligent in doing; for in two days' time they filled a large island which lies under the town, between the two branches of the trent, with sheep, oxen, cows, and horses, an incredible number; and our affairs being now something desperate, we were not very nice in our usage of the country, for really if it was not with a resolution both to punish the enemy and enrich ourselves, no man can give any rational account why this desperate journey was undertaken. 'tis certain the newarkers, in the respite they gained by our coming, got above £ , from the country round them in corn, cattle, money, and other plunder. from hence we broke into lincolnshire, and the king lay at belvoir castle, and from belvoir castle to stamford. the swiftness of our march was a terrible surprise to the enemy; for our van being at a village on the great road called stilton, the country people fled into the isle of ely, and every way, as if all was lost. indeed our dragoons treated the country very coarsely, and all our men in general made themselves rich. between stilton and huntingdon we had a small bustle with some of the associated troops of horse, but they were soon routed, and fled to huntingdon, where they gave such an account of us to their fellows that they did not think fit to stay for us, but left their foot to defend themselves as well as they could. while this was doing in the van a party from burleigh house, near stamford, the seat of the earl of exeter, pursued four troops of our horse, who, straggling towards peterborough, and committing some disorders there, were surprised before they could get into a posture of fighting; and encumbered, as i suppose, with their plunder, they were entirely routed, lost most of their horses, and were forced to come away on foot; but finding themselves in this condition, they got in a body into the enclosures, and in that posture turning dragoons, they lined the hedges, and fired upon the enemy with their carabines. this way of fighting, though not very pleasant to troopers, put the enemy's horse to some stand, and encouraged our men to venture into a village, where the enemy had secured forty of their horse; and boldly charging the guard, they beat them off, and recovering those horses, the rest made their retreat good to wansford bridge; but we lost near horses, and about twelve of our men taken prisoners. the next day the king took huntingdon; the foot which were left in the town, as i observed by their horse, had posted themselves at the foot of the bridge, and fortified the pass, with such things as the haste and shortness of the time would allow; and in this posture they seemed resolute to defend themselves. i confess, had they in time planted a good force here, they might have put a full stop to our little army; for the river is large and deep, the country on the left marshy, full of drains and ditches, and unfit for horse, and we must have either turned back, or took the right hand into bedfordshire; but here not being above foot, and they forsaken of their horse, the resistance they made was to no other purpose than to give us occasion to knock them on the head, and plunder the town. however, they defended the bridge, as i have said, and opposed our passage. i was this day in the van, and our forlorn having entered huntingdon without any great resistance till they came to the bridge, finding it barricaded, they sent me word; i caused the troops to halt, and rode up to the forlorn, to view the countenance of the enemy, and found by the posture they had put themselves in, that they resolved to sell us the passage as dear as they could. i sent to the king for some dragoons, and gave him account of what i observed of the enemy, and that i judged them to be men; for i could not particularly see their numbers. accordingly the king ordered dragoons to attack the bridge, commanded by a major; the enemy had musketeers placed on the bridge, their barricade served them for a breastwork on the front, and the low walls on the bridge served to secure their flanks. two bodies of their foot were placed on the opposite banks of the river, and a reserve stood in the highway on the rear. the number of their men could not have been better ordered, and they wanted not courage answerable to the conduct of the party. they were commanded by one bennet, a resolute officer, who stood in the front of his men on the bridge with a pike in his hand. before we began to fall on, the king ordered to view the river, to see if it was nowhere passable, or any boat to be had; but the river being not fordable, and the boats all secured on the other side, the attack was resolved on, and the dragoons fell on with extraordinary bravery. the foot defended themselves obstinately, and beat off our dragoons twice, and though bennet was killed upon the spot, and after him his lieutenant, yet their officers relieving them with fresh men, they would certainly have beat us all off, had not a venturous fellow, one of our dragoons, thrown himself into the river, swam over, and, in the midst of a shower of musket-bullets, cut the rope which tied a great flat-bottom boat, and brought her over. with the help of this boat, i got over troopers first, and then their horses, and then more without their horses; and with this party fell in with one of the small bodies of foot that were posted on that side, and having routed them, and after them the reserve which stood on the road, i made up to the other party. they stood their ground, and having rallied the runaways of both the other parties, charged me with their pikes, and brought me to a retreat; but by this time the king had sent over men more, and they coming up to me, the foot retreated. those on the bridge finding how 'twas, and having no supplies sent them, as before, fainted, and fled; and the dragoons rushing forward, most of them were killed; about of the enemy were killed, of which all the officers at the bridge, the rest run away. the town suffered for it, for our men left them little of anything they could carry. here we halted and raised contributions, took money of the country and of the open towns, to exempt them from plunder. twice we faced the town of cambridge, and several of our officers advised his majesty to storm it. but having no foot, and but dragoons, wiser heads diverted him from it, and leaving cambridge on the left, we marched to woburn, in bedfordshire, and our parties raised money all over the country quite into hertfordshire, within five miles of st alban's. the swiftness of our march, and uncertainty which way we intended, prevented all possible preparation to oppose us, and we met with no party able to make head against us. from woburn the king went through buckingham to oxford; some of our men straggling in the villages for plunder, were often picked up by the enemy. but in all this long march we did not lose men, got an incredible booty, and brought six waggons laden with money, besides horses and head of cattle, into oxford. from oxford his majesty moves again into gloucestershire, having left about of his horse at oxford to scour the country, and raise contributions, which they did as far as reading. sir thomas fairfax was returned from taking bridgewater, and was sat down before bristol, in which prince rupert commanded with a strong garrison, foot and horse. we had not force enough to attempt anything there. but the scots, who lay still before hereford, were afraid of us, having before parted with all their horse under lieutenant-general leslie, and but ill stored with provisions; and if we came on their backs, were in a fair way to be starved, or made to buy their provisions at the price of their blood. his majesty was sensible of this, and had we had but ten regiments of foot, would certainly have fought the scots. but we had no foot, or so few as was not worth while to march them. however, the king marched to worcester, and the scots, apprehending they should be blocked up, immediately raised the siege, pretending it was to go help their brethren in scotland, and away they marched northwards. we picked up some of their stragglers, but they were so poor, had been so ill paid, and so harassed at the siege, that they had neither money nor clothes; and the poor soldiers fed upon apples and roots, and ate the very green corn as it grew in the fields, which reduced them to a very sorry condition of health, for they died like people infected with the plague. 'twas now debated whether we should yet march for scotland, but two things prevented--( .) the plague was broke out there, and multitudes died of it, which made the king backward, and the men more backward. ( .) the marquis of montrose, having routed a whole brigade of leslie's best horse, and carried all before him, wrote to his majesty that he did not now want assistance, but was in hopes in a few days to send a body of foot into england to his majesty's assistance. this over-confidence of his was his ruin; for, on the contrary, had he earnestly pressed the king to have marched, and fallen in with his horse, the king had done it, and been absolutely master of scotland in a fortnight's time; but montrose was too confident, and defied them all, till at last they got their forces together, and leslie with his horse out of england, and worsted him in two or three encounters, and then never left him till they drove him out of scotland. while his majesty stayed at worcester, several messengers came to him from cheshire for relief, being exceedingly straitened by the forces of the parliament; in order to which the king marched, but shrewsbury being in the enemy's hands, he was obliged to go round by ludlow, where he was joined by some foot out of wales. i took this opportunity to ask his majesty's leave to go by shrewsbury to my father's, and, taking only two servants, i left the army two days before they marched. this was the most unsoldier-like action that ever i was guilty of, to go out of the army to pay a visit when a time of action was just at hand; and, though i protest i had not the least intimation, no, not from my own thoughts, that the army would engage, at least before they came to chester, before which i intended to meet them, yet it looked so ill, so like an excuse or a sham of cowardice, or disaffection to the cause and to my master's interest, or something i know not what, that i could not bear to think of it, nor never had the heart to see the king's face after it. from ludlow the king marched to relieve chester. poyntz, who commanded the parliament's forces, follows the king, with design to join with the forces before chester, under colonel jones, before the king could come up. to that end poyntz passes through shrewsbury the day that the king marched from ludlow; yet the king's forces got the start of him, and forced him to engage. had the king engaged him but three hours sooner, and consequently farther off from chester, he had ruined him, for poyntz's men, not able to stand the shock of the king's horse, gave ground, and would in half-an-hour more have been beaten out of the field; but colonel jones, with a strong party from the camp, which was within two miles; comes up in the heat of the action, falls on in the king's rear, and turned the scale of the day. the body was, after an obstinate fight, defeated, and a great many gentlemen of quality killed and taken prisoners. the earl of lichfield was of the number of the former, and sixty-seven officers of the latter, with others. the king, with about horse, got into chester, and from thence into wales, whither all that could get away made up to him as fast as they could, but in a bad condition. this was the last stroke they struck; the rest of the war was nothing but taking all his garrisons from him one by one, till they finished the war with the captivating his person, and then, for want of other business, fell to fighting with one another. i was quite disconsolate at the news of this last action, and the more because i was not there. my regiment wholly dispersed, my lieutenant-colonel, a gentleman of a good family, and a near relation to my mother, was prisoner, my major and three captains killed, and most of the rest prisoners. the king, hopeless of any considerable party in wales, bristol being surrendered, sends for prince rupert and prince maurice, who came to him. with them, and the lord digby, sir marmaduke langdale, and a great train of gentlemen, his majesty marches to newark again, leaves horse with sir william vaughan to attempt the relief of chester, in doing whereof he was routed the second time by jones and his men, and entirely dispersed. the chief strength the king had in these parts was at newark, and the parliament were very earnest with the scots to march southward and to lay siege to newark; and while the parliament pressed them to it, and they sat still and delayed it, several heats began, and some ill blood between them, which afterwards broke out into open war. the english reproached the scots with pretending to help them, and really hindering their affairs. the scots returned that they came to fight for them, and are left to be starved, and can neither get money nor clothes. at last they came to this, the scots will come to the siege if the parliament will send them money, but not before. however, as people sooner agree in doing ill than in doing well, they came to terms, and the scots came with their whole army to the siege of newark. the king, foreseeing the siege, calls his friends about him, tells them he sees his circumstances are such that they can help him but little, nor he protect them, and advises them to separate. the lord digby, with sir marmaduke langdale, with a strong body of horse, attempt to get into scotland to join with montrose, who was still in the highlands, though reduced to a low ebb, but these gentlemen are fallen upon on every side and routed, and at last, being totally broken and dispersed, they fly to the earl of derby's protection in the isle of man. prince rupert, prince maurice, colonel gerard, and above gentlemen, all officers of horse, lay their commissions down, and seizing upon wootton house for a retreat, make proposals to the parliament to leave the kingdom, upon their parole not to return again in arms against the parliament, which was accepted, though afterwards the prince declined it. i sent my man post to the prince to be included in this treaty, and for leave for all that would accept of like conditions, but they had given in the list of their names, and could not alter it. this was a sad time. the poor remains of the king's fortunes went everywhere to wreck. every garrison of the enemy was full of the cavalier prisoners, and every garrison the king had was beset with enemies, either blocked up or besieged. goring and the lord hopton were the only remainders of the king's forces which kept in a body, and fairfax was pushing them with all imaginable vigour with his whole army about exeter and other parts of devonshire and cornwall. in this condition the king left newark in the night, and got to oxford. the king had in oxford men, and the towns of banbury, farringdon, donnington castle, and such places as might have been brought together in twenty-four hours, , or , men, with which, if he had then resolved to have quitted the place, and collected the forces in worcester, hereford, lichfield, ashby-de-la-zouch, and all the small castles and garrisons he had thereabouts, he might have had near , men, might have beaten the scots from newark, colonel jones from chester, and all, before fairfax, who was in the west, could be able to come to their relief. and this his majesty's friends in north wales had concerted; and, in order to it, sir jacob ashby gathered what forces he could, in our parts, and attempted to join the king at oxford, and to have proposed it to him; but sir jacob was entirely routed at stow-on-the-wold, and taken prisoner, and of men not above came to oxford. all the king's garrisons dropped one by one; hereford, which had stood out against the whole army of the scots, was surprised by six men and a lieutenant dressed up for country labourers, and a constable pressed to work, who cut the guards in pieces, and let in a party of the enemy. chester was reduced by famine, all the attempts the king made to relieve it being frustrated. sir thomas fairfax routed the lord hopton at torrington, and drove him to such extremities, that he was forced up into the farthest corner of cornwall. the lord hopton had a gallant body of horse with him of nine brigades, but no foot; fairfax, a great army. heartless, and tired out with continual ill news, and ill success, i had frequent meetings with some gentlemen who had escaped from the rout of sir william vaughan, and we agreed upon a meeting at worcester, of all the friends we could get, to see if we could raise a body fit to do any service; or, if not, to consider what was to be done. at this meeting we had almost as many opinions as people; our strength appeared too weak to make any attempt, the game was too far gone in our parts to be retrieved; all we could make up did not amount to above horse. 'twas unanimously agreed not to go into the parliament as long as our royal master did not give up the cause; but in all places, and by all possible methods, to do him all the service we could. some proposed one thing, some another; at last we proposed getting vessels to carry us to the isle of man to the earl of derby, as sir marmaduke langdale, lord digby, and others had done. i did not foresee any service it would be to the king's affairs, but i started a proposal that, marching to pembroke in a body, we should there seize upon all the vessels we could, and embarking ourselves, horses, and what foot we could get, cross the severn sea, and land in cornwall to the assistance of prince charles, who was in the army of the lord hopton, and where only there seemed to be any possibility of a chance for the remaining part of our cause. this proposal was not without its difficulties, as how to get to the seaside, and, when there, what assurance of shipping. the enemy, under major-general langhorn, had overrun wales, and 'twould be next to impossible to effect it. we could never carry our proposal with the whole assembly; but, however, about of us resolved to attempt it, and [the] meeting being broken up without coming to any conclusion, we had a private meeting among ourselves to effect it. we despatched private messengers to swansea and pembroke, and other places; but they all discouraged us from the attempt that way, and advised us to go higher towards north wales, where the king's interest had more friends, and the parliament no forces. upon this we met, and resolved, and having sent several messengers that way, one of my men provided us two small vessels in a little creek near harlech castle, in merionethshire. we marched away with what expedition we could, and embarked in the two vessels accordingly. it was the worst voyage sure that ever man went; for first we had no manner of accommodation for so many people, hay for our horses we got none, or very little, but good store of oats, which served us for our own bread as well as provender for the horses. in this condition we put off to sea, and had a fair wind all the first night, but early in the morning a sudden storm drove us within two or three leagues of ireland. in this pickle, sea-sick, our horses rolling about upon one another, and ourselves stifled for want of room, no cabins nor beds, very cold weather, and very indifferent diet, we wished ourselves ashore again a thousand times; and yet we were not willing to go ashore in ireland if we could help it; for the rebels having possession of every place, that was just having our throats cut at once. having rolled about at the mercy of the winds all day, the storm ceasing in the evening, we had fair weather again, but wind enough, which being large, in two days and a night we came upon the coast of cornwall, and, to our no small comfort, landed the next day at st ives, in the county of cornwall. we rested ourselves here, and sent an express to the lord hopton, who was then in devonshire, of our arrival, and desired him to assign us quarters, and send us his farther orders. his lordship expressed a very great satisfaction at our arrival, and left it to our own conduct to join him as we saw convenient. we were marching to join him, when news came that fairfax had given him an entire defeat at torrington. this was but the old story over again. we had been used to ill news a great while, and 'twas the less surprise to us. upon this news we halted at bodmin, till we should hear farther; and it was not long before we saw a confirmation of the news before our eyes, for the lord hopton, with the remainder of his horse, which he had brought off at torrington in a very shattered condition, retreated to launceston, the first town in cornwall, and hearing that fairfax pursued him, came on to bodmin. hither he summoned all the troops which he had left, which, when he had got together, were a fine body indeed of horse, but few foot but what were at pendennis, barnstaple, and other garrisons. these were commanded by the lord hopton. the lord goring had taken shipping for france to get relief a few days before. here a grand council of war was called, and several things were proposed, but as it always is in distress, people are most irresolute, so 'twas here. some were for breaking through by force, our number being superior to the enemy's horse. to fight them with their foot would be desperation and ridiculous; and to retreat would but be to coop up themselves in a narrow place, where at last they must be forced to fight upon disadvantage, or yield at mercy. others opposed this as a desperate action, and without probability of success, and all were of different opinions. i confess, when i saw how things were, i saw 'twas a lost game, and i was for the opinion of breaking through, and doing it now, while the country was open and large, and not being forced to it when it must be with more disadvantage. but nothing was resolved on, and so we retreated before the enemy. some small skirmishes there happened near bodmin, but none that were very considerable. 'twas the st of march when we quitted bodmin, and quartered at large at columb, st dennis, and truro, and the enemy took his quarters at bodmin, posting his horse at the passes from padstow on the north, to wadebridge, lostwithiel, and fowey, spreading so from sea to sea, that now breaking through was impossible. there was no more room for counsel; for unless we had ships to carry us off, we had nothing to do but when we were fallen upon, to defend ourselves, and sell victory as dear as we could to the enemies. the prince of wales seeing the distress we were in, and loth to fall into the enemy's hands, ships himself on board some vessels at falmouth, with about lords and gentlemen. and as i had no command here to oblige my attendance, i was once going to make one, but my comrades, whom i had been the principal occasion of bringing hither, began to take it ill, that i would leave them, and so i resolved we would take our fate together. while thus we had nothing before us but a soldier's death, a fair field, and a strong enemy, and people began to look one upon another, the soldiers asked how their officers looked, and the officers asked how their soldiers looked, and every day we expected to be our last, when unexpectedly the enemy's general sent a trumpet to truro to my lord hopton, with a very handsome gentlemanlike offer:-- that since the general could not be ignorant of his present condition, and that the place he was in could not afford him subsistence or defence; and especially considering that the state of our affairs were such, that if we should escape from thence we could not remove to our advantage, he had thought good to let us know, that if we would deliver up our horses and arms, he would, for avoiding the effusion of christian blood, or the putting any unsoldierly extremities upon us, allow such honourable and safe conditions, as were rather better than our present circumstances could demand, and such as should discharge him to all the world, as a gentleman, as a soldier, and as a christian. after this followed the conditions he would give us, which were as follows, viz.:--that all the soldiery, as well english as foreigners, should have liberty to go beyond the seas, or to their own dwellings, as they pleased; and to such as shall choose to live at home, protection for their liberty, and from all violence and plundering of soldiers, and to give them bag and baggage, and all their goods, except horses and arms. that for officers in commissions, and gentlemen of quality, he would allow them horses for themselves and one servant, or more, suitable to their quality, and such arms as are suitable to gentlemen of such quality travelling in times of peace; and such officers as would go beyond sea, should take with them their full arms and number of horses as are allowed in the army to such officers. that all the troopers shall receive on the delivery of their horses, s. a man to carry them home; and the general's pass and recommendation to any gentleman who desires to go to the parliament to settle the composition for their estates. lastly, a very honourable mention of the general, and offer of their mediation to the parliament, to treat him as a man of honour, and one who has been tender of the country, and behaved himself with all the moderation and candour that could be expected from an enemy. upon the unexpected receipt of this message, a council of war was called, and the letter read; no man offered to speak a word; the general moved it, but every one was loth to begin. at last an old colonel starts up, and asked the general what he thought might occasion the writing this letter? the general told him, he could not tell; but he could tell, he was sure, of one thing, that he knew what was not the occasion of it, viz., that is, not any want of force in their army to oblige us to other terms. then a doubt was started, whether the king and parliament were not in any treaty, which this agreement might be prejudicial to. this occasioned a letter to my lord fairfax, wherein our general returning the civilities, and neither accepting nor refusing his proposal, put it upon his honour, whether there was not some agreement or concession between his majesty and the parliament, in order to a general peace, which this treaty might be prejudicial to, or thereby be prejudicial to us. the lord fairfax ingenuously declared, he had heard the king had made some concessions, and he heartily wished he would make such as would settle the kingdom in peace, that englishmen might not wound and destroy one another; but that he declared he knew of no treaty commenced, nor anything passed which could give us the least shadow of hope for any advantage in not accepting his conditions; at last telling us, that though he did not insult over our circumstances, yet if we thought fit, upon any such supposition, to refuse his offers, he was not to seek in his measures. and it appeared so, for he immediately advanced his forlorns, and dispossessed us of two advanced quarters, and thereby straitened us yet more. we had now nothing to say, but treat, and our general was so sensible of our condition, that he returned the trumpet with a safe-conduct for commissioners at twelve o'clock that night; upon which a cessation of arms was agreed on, we quitting truro to the lord fairfax, and he left st allen to us to keep our headquarters. the conditions were soon agreed on; we disbanded nine full brigades of horse, and all the conditions were observed with the most honour and care by the enemy that ever i saw in my life. nor can i omit to make very honourable mention of this noble gentleman, though i did not like his cause; but i never saw a man of a more pleasant, calm, courteous, downright, honest behaviour in my life; and for his courage and personal bravery in the field, that we had felt enough of. no man in the world had more fire and fury in him while in action, or more temper and softness out of it. in short, and i cannot do him greater honour, he exceedingly came near the character of my foreign hero, gustavus adolphus, and in my account is, of all the soldiers in europe, the fittest to be reckoned in the second place of honour to him. i had particular occasion to see much of his temper in all this action, being one of the hostages given by our general for the performance of the conditions, in which circumstance the general did me several times the honour to send to me to dine with him; and was exceedingly pleased to discourse with me about the passages of the wars in germany, which i had served in, he having been at the same time in the low countries in the service of prince maurice; but i observed if at any time my civilities extended to commendations of his own actions, and especially to comparing him to gustavus adolphus, he would blush like a woman, and be uneasy, declining the discourse, and in this he was still more like him. let no man scruple my honourable mention of this noble enemy, since no man can suspect me of favouring the cause he embarked in, which i served as heartily against as any man in the army; but i cannot conceal extraordinary merit for its being placed in an enemy. this was the end of our making war, for now we were all under parole never to bear arms against the parliament; and though some of us did not keep our word, yet i think a soldier's parole ought to be the most sacred in such case, that a soldier may be the easier trusted at all times upon his word. for my part, i went home fully contented, since i could do my royal master no better service, that i had come off no worse. the enemy going now on in a full current of success, and the king reduced to the last extremity, and fairfax, by long marches, being come back within five miles of oxford, his majesty, loth to be cooped up in a town which could on no account hold long out, quits the town in a disguise, leaving sir thomas clemham governor, and being only attended with mr ashburnham and one more, rides away to newark, and there fatally committed himself to the honour and fidelity of the scots under general leven. there had been some little bickering between the parliament and the scots commissioners concerning the propositions which the scots were for a treaty with the king upon, and the parliament refused it. the parliament, upon all proposals of peace, had formerly invited the king to come and throw himself upon the honour, fidelity, and affection of his parliament. and now the king from oxford offering to come up to london on the protection of the parliament for the safety of his person, they refused him, and the scots differed from them in it, and were for a personal treaty. this, in our opinion, was the reason which prompted the king to throw himself upon the fidelity of the scots, who really by their infidelity had been the ruin of all his affairs, and now, by their perfidious breach of honour and faith with him, will be virtually and mediately the ruin of his person. the scots were, as all the nation besides them was, surprised at the king's coming among them; the parliament began very high with them, and send an order to general leven to send the king to warwick castle; but he was not so hasty to part with so rich a prize. as soon as the king came to the general, he signs an order to colonel bellasis, the governor of newark, to surrender it, and immediately the scots decamp homewards, carrying the king in the camp with them, and marching on, a house was ordered to be provided for the king at newcastle. and now the parliament saw their error, in refusing his majesty a personal treaty, which, if they had accepted (their army was not yet taught the way of huffing their masters), the kingdom might have been settled in peace. upon this the parliament send to general leven to have his majesty not be sent, which was their first language, but be suffered to come to london to treat with his parliament; before it was, "let the king be sent to warwick castle"; now 'tis, "to let his majesty come to london to treat with his people." but neither one or the other would do with the scots; but we who knew the scots best knew that there was one thing would do with them, if the other would not, and that was money; and therefore our hearts ached for the king. the scots, as i said, had retreated to newcastle with the king, and there they quartered their whole army at large upon the country; the parliament voted they had no farther occasion for the scots, and desired them to go home about their business. i do not say it was in these words, but in whatsoever good words their messages might be expressed, this and nothing less was the english of it. the scots reply, by setting forth their losses, damages, and dues, the substance of which was, "pay us our money and we will be gone, or else we won't stir." the parliament call for an account of their demands, which the scots give in, amounting to a million; but, according to their custom, and especially finding that the army under fairfax inclined gradually that way, fall down to £ , , and at last to £ , ; but all the while this is transacting a separate treaty is carried on at london with the commissioners of scotland, and afterwards at edinburgh, by which it is given them to understand that, whereas upon payment of the money, the scots army is to march out of england, and to give up all the towns and garrisons which they hold in this kingdom, so they are to take it for granted that 'tis the meaning of the treaty that they shall leave the king in the hands of the english parliament. to make this go down the better, the scotch parliament, upon his majesty's desire to go with their army into scotland, send him for answer, that it cannot be for the safety of his majesty or of the state to come into scotland, not having taken the covenant, and this was carried in their parliament but by two voices. the scots having refused his coming into scotland, as was concerted between the two houses, and their army being to march out of england, the delivering up the king became a consequence of the thing--unavoidable, and of necessity. his majesty, thus deserted of those into whose hands he had thrown himself, took his leave of the scots general at newcastle, telling him only, in few words, this sad truth, that he was bought and sold. the parliament commissioners received him at newcastle from the scots, and brought him to holmby house, in northamptonshire; from whence, upon the quarrels and feuds of parties, he was fetched by a party of horse, commanded by one cornet joyce, from the army, upon their mutinous rendezvous at triplow heath; and, after this, suffering many violences and varieties of circumstances among the army, was carried to hampton court, from whence his majesty very readily made his escape; but not having notice enough to provide effectual means for his more effectual deliverance, was obliged to deliver himself to colonel hammond in the isle of wight. here, after some very indifferent usage, the parliament pursued a farther treaty with him, and all points were agreed but two: the entire abolishing episcopacy, which the king declared to be against his conscience and his coronation oath; and the sale of the church lands, which he declared, being most of them gifts to god and the church, by persons deceased, his majesty thought could not be alienated without the highest sacrilege, and if taken from the uses to which they were appointed by the wills of the donors, ought to be restored back to the heirs and families of the persons who bequeathed them. and these two articles so stuck with his majesty, that he ventured his fortune, and royal family, and his own life for them. however, at last, the king condescended so far in these, that the parliament voted his majesty's concessions to be sufficient to settle and establish the peace of the nation. this vote discovered the bottom of all the counsels which then prevailed; for the army, who knew if peace were once settled, they should be undone, took the alarm at this, and clubbing together in committees and councils, at last brought themselves to a degree of hardness above all that ever this nation saw; for calling into question the proceedings of their masters who employed them, they immediately fall to work upon the parliament, remove colonel hammond, who had the charge of the king, and used him honourably, place a new guard upon him, dismiss the commissioners, and put a stop to the treaty; and, following their blow, march to london, place regiments of foot at the parliament-house door, and, as the members came up, seize upon all those whom they had down in a list as promoters of the settlement and treaty, and would not suffer them to sit; but the rest who, being of their own stamp, are permitted to go on, carry on the designs of the army, revive their votes of non-addresses to the king, and then, upon the army's petition to bring all delinquents to justice, the mask was thrown off, the word all is declared to be meant the king, as well as every man else they pleased. 'tis too sad a story, and too much a matter of grief to me, and to all good men, to renew the blackness of those days, when law and justice was under the feet of power; the army ruled the parliament, the private officers their generals, the common soldiers their officers, and confusion was in every part of the government. in this hurry they sacrificed their king, and shed the blood of the english nobility without mercy. the history of the times will supply the particulars which i omit, being willing to confine myself to my own accounts and observations. i was now no more an actor, but a melancholy observator of the misfortunes of the times. i had given my parole not to take up arms against the parliament, and i saw nothing to invite me to engage on their side. i saw a world of confusion in all their counsels, and i always expected that in a chain of distractions, as it generally falls out, the last link would be destruction; and though i pretended to no prophecy, yet the progress of affairs have brought it to pass, and i have seen providence, who suffered, for the correction of this nation, the sword to govern and devour us, has at last brought destruction by the sword upon the head of most of the party who first drew it. * * * * * if together with the brief account of what concern i had in the active part of the war, i leave behind me some of my own remarks and observations, it may be pertinent enough to my design, and not unuseful to posterity. . i observed by the sequel of things that it may be some excuse to the first parliament, who began this war, to say that they manifested their designs were not aimed at the monarchy, nor their quarrel at the person of the king; because, when they had in their power, though against his will, they would have restored both his person and dignity as a king, only loading it with such clogs of the people's power as they at first pretended to, viz., the militia, and power of naming the great officers at court, and the like; which powers, it was never denied, had been stretched too far in the beginning of this king's reign, and several things done illegally, which his majesty had been sensible of, and was willing to rectify; but they having obtained the power by victory, resolved so to secure themselves, as that, whenever they laid down their arms, the king should not be able to do the like again. and thus far they were not to be so much blamed, and we did not on our own part blame them, when they had obtained the power, for parting with it on good terms. but when i have thus far advocated for the enemies, i must be very free to state the crimes of this bloody war by the events of it. 'tis manifest there were among them from the beginning a party who aimed at the very root of the government, and at the very thing which they brought to pass, viz., the deposing and murdering of their sovereign; and, as the devil is always master where mischief is the work, this party prevailed, turned the other out of doors, and overturned all that little honesty that might be in the first beginning of this unhappy strife. the consequence of this was, the presbyterians saw their error when it was too late, and then would gladly have joined the royal party to have suppressed this new leaven which had infected the lump; and this is very remarkable, that most of the first champions of this war who bore the brunt of it, when the king was powerful and prosperous, and when there was nothing to be got by it but blows, first or last, were so ill used by this independent, powerful party, who tripped up the heels of all their honesty, that they were either forced by ill treatment to take up arms on our side, or suppressed and reduced by them. in this the justice of providence seemed very conspicuous, that these having pushed all things by violence against the king, and by arms and force brought him to their will, were at once both robbed of the end, their church government, and punished for drawing their swords against their masters, by their own servants drawing the sword against them; and god, in his due time, punished the others too. and what was yet farther strange, the punishment of this crime of making war against their king, singled out those very men, both in the army and in the parliament, who were the greatest champions of the presbyterian cause in the council and in the field. some minutes, too, of circumstances i cannot forbear observing, though they are not very material, as to the fatality and revolutions of days and times. a roman catholic gentleman of lancashire, a very religious man in his way, who had kept a calculate of times, and had observed mightily the fatality of times, places, and actions, being at my father's house, was discoursing once upon the just judgment of god in dating his providences, so as to signify to us his displeasure at particular circumstances; and, among an infinite number of collections he had made, these were some which i took particular notice of, and from whence i began to observe the like:-- . that king edward vi. died the very same day of the same month in which he caused the altar to be taken down, and the image of the blessed virgin in the cathedral of st paul's. . that cranmer was burnt at oxford the same day and month that he gave king henry viii. advice to divorce his queen catherine. . that queen elizabeth died the same day and month that she resolved, in her privy council, to behead the queen of scots. . that king james died the same day that he published his book against bellarmine. . that king charles's long parliament, which ruined him, began the very same day and month which that parliament began, that at the request of his predecessor robbed the roman church of all her revenues, and suppressed abbeys and monasteries. how just his calculations were, or how true the matter of fact, i cannot tell, but it put me upon the same in several actions and successes of this war. and i found a great many circumstances, as to time or action, which befell both his majesty and his parties first; then others which befell the parliament and presbyterian faction, which raised the war; then the independent tyranny which succeeded and supplanted the first party; then the scots who acted on both sides; lastly, the restoration and re-establishment of the loyalty and religion of our ancestors. . for king charles i.; 'tis observable, that the charge against the earl of strafford, a thing which his majesty blamed himself for all the days of his life, and at the moment of his last suffering, was first read in the lords' house on the th of january, the same day of the month six years that the king himself was brought to the block. . that the king was carried away prisoner from newark, by the scots, may , the same day six years that, against his conscience and promise, he passed the bill of attainder against the loyal, noble earl of strafford. . the same day seven years that the king entered the house of commons for the five members, which all his friends blamed him for, the same day the rump voted bringing his majesty to trial, after they had set by the lords for not agreeing to it, which was the rd of january . . the th of may , being the surrender of newark, the parliament held a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing, for the reduction of the king and his party, and finishing the war, which was the same day five years that the earl of strafford was beheaded. . the battle at naseby, which ruined the king's affairs, and where his secretary and his office was taken, was the th of june, the same day and month the first commission was given out by his majesty to raise forces. . the queen voted a traitor by the parliament the rd of may, the same day and month she carried the jewels into france. . the same day the king defeated essex in the west, his son, king charles ii., was defeated at worcester. . archbishop laud's house at lambeth assaulted by the mob, the same day of the same month that he advised the king to make war upon the scots. . impeached the th of december , the same day twelvemonth that he ordered the common prayer-book of scotland to be printed, in order to be imposed upon the scots, from which all our troubles began. but many more, and more strange, are the critical junctures of affairs in the case of the enemy, or at least more observed by me:-- . sir john hotham, who repulsed his majesty and refused him admittance into hull before the war, was seized at hull by the same parliament for whom he had done it, the same th day of august two years that he drew the first blood in that war. . hampden of buckinghamshire killed the same day one year that the mob petition from bucks was presented to the king about him, as one of the five members. . young captain hotham executed the st of january, the same day that he assisted sir thomas fairfax in the first skirmish with the king's forces at bramham moor. . the same day and month, being the th of august , that the parliament voted to raise an army against the king, the same day and month, _anno_ , the parliament were assaulted and turned out of doors by that very army, and none left to sit but who the soldiers pleased, which were therefore called the rump. . the earl of holland deserted the king, who had made him general of the horse, and went over to the parliament, and the th of march , carried the commons' reproaching declaration to the king; and afterwards taking up arms for the king against the parliament, was beheaded by them the th of march , just seven years after. . the earl of holland was sent by the king to come to his assistance and refused, the th of july , and that very day seven years after was taken by the parliament at st neots. . colonel massey defended gloucester against the king, and beat him off the th of september ; was taken after by cromwell's men fighting for the king, on the th of september , two or three days after the fight at worcester. . richard cromwell resigning, because he could not help it, the parliament voted a free commonwealth, without a single person or house of lords. this was the th of may ; the th of may , the king landed at dover, and restored the government of a single person and house of lords. . lambert was proclaimed a traitor by the parliament april the th, being the same day he proposed to oliver cromwell to take upon him the title of king. . monk being taken prisoner at nantwich by sir thomas fairfax, revolted to the parliament the same day nineteen years he declared for the king, and thereby restored the royal authority. . the parliament voted to approve of sir john hotham's repulsing the king at hull, the th of april ; the th of april , the parliament first debated in the house the restoring the king to the crown. . the agitators of the army formed themselves into a cabal, and held their first meeting to seize on the king's person, and take him into their custody from holmby, the th of april ; the same day, , the parliament voted the agitators to be taken into custody, and committed as many of them as could be found. . the parliament voted the queen a traitor for assisting her husband, the king, may the rd, ; her son, king charles ii., was presented with the votes of parliament to restore him, and the present of £ , , the rd of may . . the same day the parliament passed the act for recognition of oliver cromwell, october th, , lambert broke up the parliament and set up the army, , october the th. some other observations i have made, which, as not so pertinent, i forbear to publish, among which i have noted the fatality of some days to parties, as-- the nd of september: the fight at dunbar; the fight at worcester; the oath against a single person passed; oliver's first parliament called. for the enemy. the nd of september: essex defeated in cornwall; oliver died; city works demolished. for the king. the th of may: prince charles born; leicester taken by storm; king charles ii. restored. ditto. fatality of circumstances in this unhappy war, as-- . the english parliament call in the scots, to invade their king, and are invaded themselves by the same scots, in defence of the king whose case, and the design of the parliament, the scots had mistaken. . the scots, who unjustly assisted the parliament to conquer their lawful sovereign, contrary to their oath of allegiance, and without any pretence on the king's part, are afterwards absolutely conquered and subdued by the same parliament they assisted. . the parliament, who raised an army to depose their king, deposed by the very army they had raised. . the army broke three parliaments, and are at last broke by a free parliament; and all they had done by the military power, undone at once by the civil. . abundance of the chief men, who by their fiery spirits involved the nation in a civil war, and took up arms against their prince, first or last met with ruin or disgrace from their own party. ( .) sir john hotham and his son, who struck the first stroke, both beheaded or hanged by the parliament. ( .) major-general massey three times taken prisoner by them, and once wounded at worcester. ( .) major-general langhorn, ( .) colonel poyer, and ( .) colonel powell, changed sides, and at last taken, could obtain no other favour than to draw lots for their lives; colonel poyer drew the dead lot, and was shot to death. ( .) earl of holland: who, when the house voted who should be reprieved, lord goring, who had been their worst enemy, or the earl of holland, who excepting one offence, had been their constant servant, voted goring to be spared, and the earl to die. ( .) the earl of essex, their first general; ( .) sir william waller; ( .) lieutenant-general ludlow; ( .) the earl of manchester; --all disgusted and voted out of the army, though they had stood the first shock of the war, to make way for the new model of the army, and introduce a party. * * * * * in all these confusions i have observed two great errors, one of the king, and one of his friends. of the king, that when he was in their custody, and at their mercy, he did not comply with their propositions of peace, before their army, for want of employment, fell into heats and mutinies; that he did not at first grant the scots their own conditions, which, if he had done, he had gone into scotland; and then, if the english would have fought the scots for him, he had a reserve of his loyal friends, who would have had room to have fallen in with the scots to his assistance, who were after dispersed and destroyed in small parties attempting to serve him. while his majesty remained at newcastle, the queen wrote to him, persuading him to make peace upon any terms; and in politics her majesty's advice was certainly the best. for, however low he was brought by a peace, it must have been better than the condition he was then in. the error i mention of the king's friends was this, that after they saw all was lost, they could not be content to sit still, and reserve themselves for better fortunes, and wait the happy time when the divisions of the enemy would bring them to certain ruin; but must hasten their own miseries by frequent fruitless risings, in the face of a victorious enemy, in small parties; and i always found these effects from it:-- . the enemy, who were always together by the ears, when they were let alone, were united and reconciled when we gave them any interruption; as particularly, in the case of the first assault the army made upon them, when colonel pride, with his regiment, garbled the house, as they called it. at that time a fair opportunity offered; but it was omitted till it was too late. that insult upon the house had been attempted the year before, but was hindered by the little insurrection of the royal party, and the sooner they had fallen out, the better. . these risings being desperate, with vast disadvantages, and always suppressed, ruined all our friends; the remnants of the cavaliers were lessened, the stoutest and most daring were cut off, and the king's interest exceedingly weakened, there not being less than , of his best friends cut off in the several attempts made at maidstone, colchester, lancashire, pembroke, pontefract, kingston, preston, warrington, worcester, and other places. had these men all reserved their fortunes to a conjunction with the scots, at either of the invasions they made into this kingdom, and acted with the conduct and courage they were known masters of, perhaps neither of those scots armies had been defeated. but the impatience of our friends ruined all; for my part, i had as good a mind to put my hand to the ruin of the enemy as any of them, but i never saw any tolerable appearance of a force able to match the enemy, and i had no mind to be beaten and then hanged. had we let them alone, they would have fallen into so many parties and factions, and so effectually have torn one another to pieces, that whichsoever party had come to us, we should, with them, have been too hard for all the rest. this was plain by the course of things afterwards; when the independent army had ruffled the presbyterian parliament, the soldiery of that party made no scruple to join us, and would have restored the king with all their hearts, and many of them did join us at last. and the consequence, though late, ended so; for they fell out so many times, army and parliament, parliament and army, and alternately pulled one another down so often till at last the presbyterians who began the war, ended it, and, to be rid of their enemies, rather than for any love to the monarchy, restored king charles the second, and brought him in on the very day that they themselves had formerly resolved the ruin of his father's government, being the th of may, the same day twenty years that the private cabal in london concluded their secret league with the scots, to embroil his father king charles the first. [footnote : general ludlow, in his memoirs, p. , says their men returned from warwick to london, not like men who had obtained a victory, but like men that had been beaten.] notes. p. . the preface to the first edition, which appeared in , was written by defoe as "editor" of the manuscript. the second edition appeared between and , after the death of defoe. (he was probably born in and he died in .) in the preface to that edition it was argued that the cavalier was certainly a real person. p. , l. . "nicely" is here used in the stricter and more uncommon sense of "minutely." this use of words in a slightly different sense from their common modern significance will be noticed frequently; cf. p. , l. "passionately," p. , l. "refined," p. , l. "particular." p. , l. . charles xii the famous soldier king of sweden died in . p. , l. . edward hyde, earl of clarendon, was one of the staunchest supporters of charles i, and chancellor under charles ii. his _history of the rebellion_ is naturally written from the royalist standpoint. this statement concerning "the editors" can only be intended by defoe to give colour of truth to his story of the manuscript. p. , l. . england had been nominally at war with spain since the beginning of the reign of charles i. peace was actually made in . p. , l. . a pistole was a gold coin used chiefly in france and spain. its value varied but it was generally worth about fifteen or sixteen shillings. p. , l. . cardinal richelieu, one of the greatest statesmen of the seventeenth century, was practically supreme in france during the reign of louis xiii. p. , l. . the cause of the war with savoy is told at length on page . savoy being the frontier province between france and italy it was important that france should maintain her influence there. p. , l. . pinerolo was a frontier fortress. p. , l. . the queen-mother was mary de medicis who had been regent during the minority of louis xiii. p. , l. . the protestants or huguenots of southern france had been tolerated since but richelieu deprived them of many of their privileges. p. , l. . in when england was in alliance with france english ships had been joined with the french fleet to reduce la rochelle, the great stronghold of protestantism in southern france. p. , l. . the louvre, now famous as a picture gallery and museum, was formerly one of the palaces of the french kings. p. , l. . the bastille was the famous prison destroyed in at the outbreak of the french revolution. p. , l. . in the seventeenth century italy was still divided into several states each with its own prince. p. , l. . susa was another savoyard fortress. p. , l. . a halberd was a weapon consisting of a long wooden shaft surmounted by an axe-like head. p. , l. . the cantons were the political divisions of switzerland. p. , l. . casale, a strong town on the po. p. , l. . a dragoon was a cavalry soldier armed with an infantry firearm and trained to fight on foot as well as on horseback. p. , l. . saluzzo a town s.e. of pinerolo. p. , l. . this truce prepared for the definite "peace of cherasco," april , which confirmed the duchy of mantua to the duke of nevers but left only pinerolo in the hands of the french. p. , l. . this refers to the treaty of bärwalde, , by which gustavus adolphus promised to consider the interests of the french (who were the natural enemies of the empire). p. , l. . in the duke of pomerania had been obliged to put his coast line under the care of the imperial troops. in attacking it therefore in gustavus adolphus was aiming a blow at the emperor and obtaining a good basis for further conquests. p. , l. . _gazette_ is the old name for _newspaper_. p. , l. . bavaria was the chief catholic state not under the direct government of the emperor. maximilian, its elector, was appointed head of the catholic league which was formed in in opposition to the protestant union which had been formed in . p. , l. . by the end of the sixteenth century the turks had advanced far into europe, had detached half of hungary from the emperor's dominions and made him pay tribute for the other half. during the seventeenth century, however, they were slowly driven back. p. , l. . in the two dukes of mecklenburg had been "put to the ban" by the emperor for having given help to christian of denmark who had taken up the cause of the protestants. p. , l. . gustavus adolphus had been at war with poland from to . p. , l. . this was not a treaty of active alliance. both john george of saxony and george william of brandenburg were protestant princes but they were at first anxious to maintain neutrality between sweden and the emperor. the impolitic action of ferdinand drove them to join gustavus adolphus in . p. , l. . the german diet was the meeting of the german princes to consult on imperial matters. ratisbon is one of the chief towns of bavaria. p. , l. . the story of magdeburg is told on p. . p. , l. . count tilly was a bavarian general of genius who had been put at the head of the forces of the catholic league in . p. , l. . the protestant union formed in had been forced to dissolve itself in . p. , l. . wallenstein is one of the greatest generals and the most interesting figure in seventeenth century history. a bohemian by birth he fought for the emperor with an army raised by himself. p. , l. . the conclusions of leipsic are described on p. . p. , l. . the king of hungary was ferdinand (afterwards ferdinand iii) son of ferdinand ii. the "king of the romans" was a title bestowed on the person who was destined to become emperor. (the empire was elective but tended to become hereditary.) p. , l. . the peace of augsburg, , had been intended to settle the differences between the lutherans and catholics but it had left many problems unsolved. p. , l. . the protestant bishopric of magdeburg had been forcibly restored to the catholics in . in the citizens of their own accord, relying on swedish help, declared against the emperor. p. , l. . torgau, a strongly fortified town in saxony. p. , l. . the prince of orange at this time was william ii who married mary, daughter of charles i. p. , l. . except for the date, which should be th of september, and the numbers on both sides which he exaggerates, the cavalier's account of the battle of leipsic is fairly accurate. p. , l. . cuirassiers were heavy cavalry wearing helmet and cuirass (two plates fastened together for the protection of the breast and back). p. , l. . _crabats_ is an old form of _croats_ the name of the inhabitants of croatia. p. , l. . _rix dollar_ is the english form of _reichsthaler_ or imperial dollar. p. , l. . "husband" is here used in the sense of "thrifty person." p. , l. . a ducat was a gold coin generally worth about nine shillings. p. , l. . this passage describes the conquest of the string of ecclesiastical territories known as the "priest's lane." p. , l. . a partisan was a military weapon used by footmen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and not unlike the halberd in form. p. , l. . "bastion" is the name given to certain projecting portions of a fortified building. p. , l. . the palatinate (divided into upper and lower) was a protestant state whose elector, the son-in-law of james i, had been driven out by the emperor in . p. , l. . _reformado_: a military term borrowed from the spanish, signifying an officer who, for some disgrace is deprived of his command but retains his rank. defoe uses it to describe an officer not having a regular command. p. , l. . frederick, elector palatine, had been elected king by the protestants of bohemia in opposition to the emperor ferdinand. it was his acceptance of this position which led to the confiscation of his palatinate together with his new kingdom. p. , l. . james i had, after much hesitation, sent in an expedition to the aid of the elector, but it had miscarried. charles i was too much occupied at home to prosecute an active foreign policy. p. , l. . the elector died in the same year as gustavus adolphus. his son charles lewis was restored to the lower palatinate only, which was confirmed to him at the end of the war in . p. , l. . the battle of nieuport, one of the great battles between holland and spain, was fought in near the flemish town of that name. prince maurice won a brilliant victory under very difficult conditions. p. , l. . a ravelin is an outwork of a fortified building. p. , l. . it was the attempt in to force catholicism on the protestants of the free city of donauwörth which led to the formation of the protestant union in . p. , l. . the duringer wald.--thuringia wald. p. , l. . camisado (fr. latin camisia=a shirt) is generally used to denote a night attack. p. , l. . note the inconsistency between this statement of the cavaliers interest in the curiosities at munich and his indifference in italy where he had "no gust to antiquities." p. , l. . gustavus adolphus had entered nuremberg march . wallenstein was now bent on re-taking it. p. , l. . the cavalier's enthusiasm for gustavus adolphus leads to misrepresentation. the swedish king has sometimes been blamed for failing to succour magdeburg. p. , l. . redoubts are the most strongly fortified points in the temporary fortification of a large space. p. , l. . the cavalier glosses over the fact that gustavus adolphus really retreated from his camp at nuremberg, being practically starved out, as wallenstein refused to come to an engagement. p. , l. . though the honours of war in the battle of lützen went to the swedes it is probable that they lost more men than did the imperialists. p. , l. . the battle of nördlingen was one of the decisive battles of the war. it restored to the catholics the bishoprics of the south which gustavus adolphus had taken. p. , l. . the title "infant" or "infante" belongs to all princes of the royal house in spain. the cardinal infant really brought men to the help of the emperor. p. , l. . the king of hungary had succeeded to the command of the imperial army after the murder of wallenstein in . p. , l. . the treaty of westphalia in ended the thirty years' war by a compromise. the emperor recognised that he could have no real authority in matters of religion over the states governed by protestant princes, north germany remained protestant, the south, catholic. p. , l. . this statement is an anachronism. prince maurice of nassau the famous son of william the silent died in . p. , l. . the netherlands belonged to spain in the seventeenth century but revolted. the northern provinces which were protestant won their independence, the southern provinces which were catholic (modern belgium) submitted to spain on conditions. p. , l. . the siege of ostend, then in the hands of the dutch, was begun in july and came to an end in september , when the garrison surrendered with the honours of war. p. , l. . in laud had tried to force a new liturgy on scotland but this had been forcibly resisted. in the national covenant against "papistry" was signed by all classes in scotland. in the same year episcopacy was abolished there and charles thereupon resolved to subdue the scots by arms. this led to the first "bishops' war" of which the cavalier proceeds to describe. p. , l. . mercenaries (soldiers who fought in any army for the mere pay) were chiefly drawn from switzerland in the seventeenth century. p. , l. . by the treaty of berwick signed in june charles consented to allow the scotch to settle their own ecclesiastical affairs. when they again resolved to abolish episcopacy he broke his word and in the second "bishops' war" took place. it was the expenses of these wars which forced charles to call parliament again. p. , l. . it was the english prayer book with some slight changes that laud had attempted to impose on the scotch. p. , l. . charles had in fact called the "short parliament" to meet between these two expeditions but had quarrelled with it and dissolved it. p. , l. . the scotch had no real part in the death of the king. the presbyterians indeed upheld monarchy though not as charles understood it. p. , l. . the long parliament of passed an act by which it could not be dissolved without its own consent. p. , l. . the treaty of ripon (october ) left northumberland and durham in the hands of the scotch until the king should be able to pay the £ a day during their stay in england which he promised them. p. , l. . the permanent treaty signed in gave consent to all the demands of the scotch, including their freedom to abolish episcopacy. p. , l. . the earl of stafford had been the chief supporter of charles' method of government without parliament. he was executed in and laud suffered the same fate in . p. , l. . by the "grand remonstrance" the parliament tried to seize on the royal power. p. , l. . the "gentry" of england were not, of course, all on the royalist side. many of them, and some of the nobility, fought for the parliament, though it is true that the majority were for the king. p. , l. . in by the solemn league and covenant the scotch consented to help parliament against the king on condition that presbyterianism should be adopted as the english state religion. p. , l. . the left wing was under the command of lord wilmot. p. , l. . leicester was taken by the king in . p. , l. . the cavalier ascribes to himself the part taken by prince maurice (the brother of prince rupert) and lord wilmot in bringing aid to hopton. p. , l. . it was the king rather than the parliamentarians who was anxious to give battle. the royalists barred the way to london. p. , l. . see note to p. , l. . p. , l. . the parliamentarians certainly won a victory at the second battle of newbury. p. , l. . the scotch nobles, alarmed at the violence of the parliamentarians, supported charles in the second civil war ( ), and after his death scotland recognised charles ii as king. cromwell however conquered their country. p. , l. . in a great irish rebellion had followed the recall of strafford who had been lord lieutenant of that country. p. , l. . it was not until , when his cause was declining in england, that charles determined to seek direct help from the irish. this he did in the glamorgan treaty of that year by which he agreed to the legal restoration of catholicism in ireland. but the treaty was discovered by the parliament and charles denied any knowledge of it. p. , l. . the "grand seignior" was the name generally given to the sultan of turkey. p. , l. . william prynne was the famous puritan lawyer whose imprisonment by the star chamber had made him one of the heroes of puritanism. george buchanan was the famous scotch scholar from whom james i had derived much of his learning. p. , l. . the dates are given both according to our present mode of reckoning and according to the old system by which the year commenced on th march. p. , l. . the scots besieged newcastle for nine months, not merely a few days as the cavalier relates. p. , l. . the great spanish general, the duke of parma, went to the relief of paris which was in the hands of the catholics and was being besieged by the then protestant henry of navarre in . p. , l. . as pointed out in the introduction the cavalier's account of the disposition of forces in this battle is inaccurate. p. , l. . it was really rupert's hitherto unconquered cavalry which was thus borne down by cromwell's horse. p. , l. . a posset was a drink of milk curdled with an acid liquid. p. , l. . the grisons are the people of one of the swiss cantons. p. , l. . newcastle was not retaken by rupert. p. , l. . by the self-denying ordinance of all members of parliament were compelled to resign their commands. this rid the parliamentarians of some of their most incapable commanders. exception was made in favour of cromwell who was soon appointed lieutenant general. p. , l. . on the "new model" the armies of the parliamentary side were reorganized as a whole, made permanent, and given a uniform and regular pay. p. , l. . it was not only the ecclesiastical conditions laid down by the parliamentarians at the treaty of uxbridge which determined the king's refusal. he was asked besides taking the covenant to surrender the militia. p. , l. . the estates of many of the cavalier gentlemen were forfeited. some were allowed to "compound," i.e. to keep part of their estates on payment of a sum of money. p. , l. . montrose had created a royalist party in scotland and was fighting there for the king. p. , l. . the "forlorn" was a body of men sent in advance of an expedition. p. , l. . after the defeat of the royalists dissension arose between the parliament and the army and naturally the army was able to coerce the parliament. p. , l. . cornet joyce secured the person of the king by the order of cromwell, the idol of the army. p. , l. . the cavalier exaggerates the likelihood of an understanding between the king and the parliament. in reality charles was merely playing off one party against the other. p. , l. . in january parliament had passed a vote of "no addresses," renouncing any further negotiation with the king, but after the second civil war of that year (in which the presbyterians joined the king) they resumed them again in the treaty of newport. the army however became more violent, and the result was the forcible exclusion of all moderate members of parliament in "pride's purge," december . the trial and execution of the king followed. p. , l. . the cavalier refers to the acts of retaliation which followed the restoration of charles ii. p. , l. . there were many republicans among the "independents" or "sectaries" in the army, but the policy actually carried out can hardly have been planned before the war. p. , l. . cardinal bellarmine was one of the great controversialists of the counter-reformation. this ebook was produced by david widger [note: there is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. d.w.] the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume life and death of john of barneveld, v , chapter xvi. maurice revolutionizes the provinces--danckaert's libellous pamphlet --barneveld's appeal to the prince--barneveld'a remonstrance to the states--the stadholder at amsterdam--the treaty of truce nearly expired--king of spain and archduke albert--scheme for recovering the provinces--secret plot to make maurice sovereign. early in the year ( ) maurice set himself about revolutionizing the provinces on which he could not yet thoroughly rely. the town of nymegen since its recovery from the spaniards near the close of the preceding century had held its municipal government, as it were, at the option of the prince. during the war he had been, by the terms of surrender, empowered to appoint and to change its magistracy at will. no change had occurred for many years, but as the government had of late fallen into the hands of the barneveldians, and as maurice considered the truce to be a continuance of the war, he appeared suddenly, in the city at the head of a body of troops and surrounded by his lifeguard. summoning the whole board of magistrates into the townhouse, he gave them all notice to quit, disbanding them like a company of mutinous soldiery, and immediately afterwards appointed a fresh list of functionaries in their stead. this done, he proceeded to arnhem, where the states of gelderland were in session, appeared before that body, and made a brief announcement of the revolution which he had so succinctly effected in the most considerable town of their province. the assembly, which seems, like many other assemblies at precisely this epoch, to have had an extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence, made but little resistance to the extreme measures now undertaken by the stadholder, and not only highly applauded the subjugation of nymegen, but listened with sympathy to his arguments against the waartgelders and in favour of the synod. having accomplished so much by a very brief visit to gelderland, the prince proceeded, to overyssel, and had as little difficulty in bringing over the wavering minds of that province into orthodoxy and obedience. thus there remained but two provinces out of seven that were still "waartgeldered" and refused to be "synodized." it was rebellion against rebellion. maurice and his adherents accused the states' right party of mutiny against himself and the states-general. the states' right party accused the contra-remonstrants in the cities of mutiny against the lawful sovereignty of each province. the oath of the soldiery, since the foundation of the republic, had been to maintain obedience and fidelity to the states-general, the stadholder, and the province in which they were garrisoned, and at whose expense they were paid. it was impossible to harmonize such conflicting duties and doctrines. theory had done its best and its worst. the time was fast approaching, as it always must approach, when fact with its violent besom would brush away the fine-spun cobwebs which had been so long undisturbed. "i will grind the advocate and all his party into fine meal," said the prince on one occasion. a clever caricature of the time represented a pair of scales hung up in a great hall. in the one was a heap of parchments, gold chains, and magisterial robes; the whole bundle being marked the "holy right of each city." in the other lay a big square, solid, ironclasped volume, marked "institutes of calvin." each scale was respectively watched by gomarus and by arminius. the judges, gowned, furred, and ruffed, were looking decorously on, when suddenly the stadholder, in full military attire, was seen rushing into the apartment and flinging his sword into the scale with the institutes. the civic and legal trumpery was of course made to kick the beam. maurice had organized his campaign this year against the advocate and his party as deliberately as he had ever arranged the details of a series of battles and sieges against the spaniard. and he was proving himself as consummate master in political strife as in the great science of war. he no longer made any secret of his conviction that barneveld was a traitor to his country, bought with spanish gold. there was not the slightest proof for these suspicions, but he asserted them roundly. "the advocate is travelling straight to spain," he said to count cuylenborg. "but we will see who has got the longest purse." and as if it had been a part of the campaign, a prearranged diversion to the more direct and general assault on the entrenchments of the states' right party, a horrible personal onslaught was now made from many quarters upon the advocate. it was an age of pamphleteering, of venomous, virulent, unscrupulous libels. and never even in that age had there been anything to equal the savage attacks upon this great statesman. it moves the gall of an honest man, even after the lapse of two centuries and a half, to turn over those long forgotten pages and mark the depths to which political and theological party spirit could descend. that human creatures can assimilate themselves so closely to the reptile, and to the subtle devil within the reptile, when a party end is to be gained is enough to make the very name of man a term of reproach. day by day appeared pamphlets, each one more poisonous than its predecessor. there was hardly a crime that was not laid at the door of barneveld and all his kindred. the man who had borne a matchlock in early youth against the foreign tyrant in days when unsuccessful rebellion meant martyrdom and torture; who had successfully guided the councils of the infant commonwealth at a period when most of his accusers were in their cradles, and when mistake was ruin to the republic; he on whose strong arm the father of his country had leaned for support; the man who had organized a political system out of chaos; who had laid down the internal laws, negotiated the great indispensable alliances, directed the complicated foreign policy, established the system of national defence, presided over the successful financial administration of a state struggling out of mutiny into national existence; who had rocked the republic in its cradle and ever borne her in his heart; who had made her name beloved at home and honoured and dreaded abroad; who had been the first, when the great taciturn had at last fallen a victim to the murderous tyrant of spain, to place the youthful maurice in his father's place, and to inspire the whole country with sublime courage to persist rather than falter in purpose after so deadly a blow; who was as truly the founder of the republic as william had been the author of its independence,--was now denounced as a traitor, a pope, a tyrant, a venal hucksterer of his country's liberties. his family name, which had long been an ancient and knightly one, was defiled and its nobility disputed; his father and mother, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, accused of every imaginable and unimaginable crime, of murder, incest, robbery, bastardy, fraud, forgery, blasphemy. he had received waggon-loads of spanish pistoles; he had been paid , ducats by spain for negotiating the truce; he was in secret treaty with archduke albert to bring , spanish mercenaries across the border to defeat the machinations of prince maurice, destroy his life, or drive him from the country; all these foul and bitter charges and a thousand similar ones were rained almost daily upon that grey head. one day the loose sheets of a more than commonly libellous pamphlet were picked up in the streets of the hague and placed in the advocate's hands. it was the work of the drunken notary danckaerts already mentioned, then resident in amsterdam, and among the papers thus found was a list of wealthy merchants of that city who had contributed to the expense of its publication. the opposition of barneveld to the west india corporation could never be forgiven. the advocate was notified in this production that he was soon to be summoned to answer for his crimes. the country was weary of him, he was told, and his life was forfeited. stung at last beyond endurance by the persistent malice of his enemies, he came before the states of holland for redress. upon his remonstrance the author of this vile libel was summoned to answer before the upper tribunal at the hague for his crime. the city of amsterdam covered him with the shield 'de non evocando,' which had so often in cases of less consequence proved of no protective value, and the notary was never punished, but on the contrary after a brief lapse of time rewarded as for a meritorious action. meantime, the states of holland, by formal act, took the name and honour of barneveld under their immediate protection as a treasure belonging specially to themselves. heavy penalties were denounced upon the authors and printers of these libellous attacks, and large rewards offered for their detection. nothing came, however, of such measures. on the th april the advocate addressed a frank, dignified, and conciliatory letter to the prince. the rapid progress of calumny against him had at last alarmed even his steadfast soul, and he thought it best to make a last appeal to the justice and to the clear intellect of william the silent's son. "gracious prince," he said, "i observe to my greatest sorrow an entire estrangement of your excellency from me, and i fear lest what was said six months since by certain clerical persons and afterwards by some politicians concerning your dissatisfaction with me, which until now i have not been able to believe, must be true. i declare nevertheless with a sincere heart to have never willingly given cause for any such feeling; having always been your very faithful servant and with god's help hoping as such to die. ten years ago during the negotiations for the truce i clearly observed the beginning of this estrangement, but your excellency will be graciously pleased to remember that i declared to you at that time my upright and sincere intention in these negotiations to promote the service of the country and the interests of your excellency, and that i nevertheless offered at the time not only to resign all my functions but to leave the country rather than remain in office and in the country to the dissatisfaction of your excellency." he then rapidly reviewed the causes which had produced the alienation of which he complained and the melancholy divisions caused by the want of mutual religious toleration in the provinces; spoke of his efforts to foster a spirit of conciliation on the dread subject of predestination, and referred to the letter of the king of great britain deprecating discussion and schism on this subject, and urging that those favourable to the views of the remonstrants ought not to be persecuted. referring to the intimate relations which uytenbogaert had so long enjoyed with the prince, the advocate alluded to the difficulty he had in believing that his excellency intended to act in opposition to the efforts of the states of holland in the cause of mutual toleration, to the manifest detriment of the country and of many of its best and truest patriots and the greater number of the magistrates in all the cities. he reminded the prince that all attempts to accommodate these fearful quarrels had been frustrated, and that on his departure the previous year to utrecht on account of his health he had again offered to resign all his offices and to leave holland altogether rather than find himself in perpetual opposition to his excellency. "i begged you in such case," he said, "to lend your hand to the procuring for me an honourable discharge from my lords the states, but your excellency declared that you could in no wise approve such a step and gave me hope that some means of accommodating the dissensions would yet be proposed." "i went then to vianen, being much indisposed; thence i repaired to utrecht to consult my old friend doctor saulo saul, in whose hands i remained six weeks, not being able, as i hoped, to pass my seventieth birthday on the th september last in my birthplace, the city of amersfoort. all this time i heard not one single word or proposal of accommodation. on the contrary it was determined that by a majority vote, a thing never heard of before, it was intended against the solemn resolves of the states of holland, of utrecht, and of overyssel to bring these religious differences before the assembly of my lords the states- general, a proceeding directly in the teeth of the act of union and other treaties, and before a synod which people called national, and that meantime every effort was making to discredit all those who stood up for the laws of these provinces and to make them odious and despicable in the eyes of the common people. "especially it was i that was thus made the object of hatred and contempt in their eyes. hundreds of lies and calumnies, circulated in the form of libels, seditious pamphlets, and lampoons, compelled me to return from utrecht to the hague. since that time i have repeatedly offered my services to your excellency for the promotion of mutual accommodation and reconciliation of differences, but without success." he then alluded to the publication with which the country was ringing, 'the necessary and living discourse of a spanish counsellor', and which was attributed to his former confidential friend, now become his deadliest foe, ex-ambassador francis aerssens, and warned the prince that if he chose, which god forbid, to follow the advice of that seditious libel, nothing but ruin to the beloved fatherland and its lovers, to the princely house of orange-nassau and to the christian religion could be the issue. "the spanish government could desire no better counsel," he said, "than this which these fellows give you; to encourage distrust and estrangement between your excellency and the nobles, the cities, and the magistrates of the land and to propose high and haughty imaginings which are easy enough to write, but most difficult to practise, and which can only enure to the advantage of spain. therefore most respectfully i beg your excellency not to believe these fellows, but to reject their counsels . . . . among them are many malignant hypocrites and ambitious men who are seeking their own profit in these changes of government--many utterly ragged and beggarly fellows and many infamous traitors coming from the provinces which have remained under the dominion of the spaniard, and who are filled with revenge, envy, and jealousy at the greater prosperity and bloom of these independent states than they find at home. "i fear," he said in conclusion, "that i have troubled your excellency too long, but to the fulfilment of my duty and discharge of my conscience i could not be more brief. it saddens me deeply that in recompense for my long and manifold services i am attacked by so many calumnious, lying, seditious, and fraudulent libels, and that these indecencies find their pretext and their food in the evil disposition of your excellency towards me. and although for one-and-thirty years long i have been able to live down such things with silence, well-doing, and truth, still do i now find myself compelled in this my advanced old age and infirmity to make some utterances in defence of myself and those belonging to me, however much against my heart and inclinations." he ended by enclosing a copy of the solemn state paper which he was about to lay before the states of holland in defence of his honour, and subscribed himself the lifelong and faithful servant of the prince. the remonstrance to the states contained a summary review of the political events of his life, which was indeed nothing more nor less than the history of his country and almost of europe itself during that period, broadly and vividly sketched with the hand of a master. it was published at once and strengthened the affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies. it is not necessary to our purpose to reproduce or even analyse the document, the main facts and opinions contained in it being already familiar to the reader. the frankness however with which, in reply to the charges so profusely brought against him of having grown rich by extortion, treason, and corruption, of having gorged himself with plunder at home and bribery from the enemy, of being the great pensioner of europe and the marshal d'ancre of the netherlands--he alluded to the exact condition of his private affairs and the growth and sources of his revenue, giving, as it were, a kind of schedule of his property, has in it something half humorous, half touching in its simplicity. he set forth the very slender salaries attached to his high offices of advocate of holland, keeper of the seals, and other functions. he answered the charge that he always had at his disposition , florins to bribe foreign agents withal by saying that his whole allowance for extraordinary expenses and trouble in maintaining his diplomatic and internal correspondence was exactly florins yearly. he alluded to the slanders circulated as to his wealth and its sources by those who envied him for his position and hated him for his services. "but i beg you to believe, my lords," he continued, "that my property is neither so great nor so small as some people represent it to be. "in the year ' i married my wife," he said. "i was pleased with her person. i was likewise pleased with the dowry which was promptly paid over to me, with firm expectation of increase and betterment . . . . i ac knowledge that forty-three years ago my wife and myself had got together so much of real and personal property that we could live honourably upon it. i had at that time as good pay and practice as any advocate in the courts which brought me in a good florins a year; there being but eight advocates practising at the time, of whom i was certainly not the one least employed. in the beginning of the year ' i came into the service of the city of rotterdam as 'pensionary. upon my salary from that town i was enabled to support my family, having then but two children. now i can clearly prove that between the years and inclusive i have inherited in my own right or that of my wife, from our relatives, for ourselves and our children by lawful succession, more than holland morgens of land (about acres), more than florins yearly of redeemable rents, a good house in the city of delft, some houses in the open country, and several thousand florins in ready money. i have likewise reclaimed in the course of the past forty years out of the water and swamps by dyking more than an equal number of acres to those inherited, and have bought and sold property during the same period to the value of , florins; having sometimes bought , florins' worth and sold , of it for , , and so on." it was evident that the thrifty advocate during his long life had understood how to turn over his money, and it was not necessary to imagine "waggon-loads of spanish pistoles" and bribes on a gigantic scale from the hereditary enemy in order to account for a reasonable opulence on his part. "i have had nothing to do with trade," he continued, "it having been the custom of my ancestors to risk no money except where the plough goes. in the great east india company however, which with four years of hard work, public and private, i have helped establish, in order to inflict damage on the spaniards and portuguese, i have adventured somewhat more than florins . . . . now even if my condition be reasonably good, i think no one has reason to envy me. nevertheless i have said it in your lordships' assembly, and i repeat it solemnly on this occasion, that i have pondered the state of my affairs during my recent illness and found that in order to leave my children unencumbered estates i must sell property to the value of , or , florins. this i would rather do than leave the charge to my children. that i should have got thus behindhand through bad management, i beg your highnesses not to believe. but i have inherited, with the succession of four persons whose only heir i was and with that of others to whom i was co-heir, many burthens as well. i have bought property with encumbrances, and i have dyked and bettered several estates with borrowed money. now should it please your lordships to institute a census and valuation of the property of your subjects, i for one should be very well pleased. for i know full well that those who in the estimates of capital in the year rated themselves at , or , florins now may boast of having twice as much property as i have. yet in that year out of patriotism i placed myself on the list of those liable for the very highest contributions, being assessed on a property of , florins." the advocate alluded with haughty contempt to the notorious lies circulated by his libellers in regard to his lineage, as if the vast services and unquestioned abilities of such a statesman would not have illustrated the obscurest origin. but as he happened to be of ancient and honourable descent, he chose to vindicate his position in that regard. "i was born in the city of amersfoort," he said, "by the father's side an oldenbarneveld; an old and noble race, from generation to generation steadfast and true; who have been duly summoned for many hundred years to the assembly of the nobles of their province as they are to this day. by my mother's side i am sprung from the ancient and knightly family of amersfoort, which for three or four hundred years has been known as foremost among the nobles of utrecht in all state affairs and as landed proprietors." it is only for the sake of opening these domestic and private lights upon an historical character whose life was so pre-eminently and almost exclusively a public one that we have drawn some attention to this stately defence made by the advocate of his birth, life, and services to the state. the public portions of the state paper belong exclusively to history, and have already been sufficiently detailed. the letter to prince maurice was delivered into his hands by cornelis van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld. no reply to it was ever sent, but several days afterwards the stadholder called from his open window to van der myle, who happened to be passing by. he then informed him that he neither admitted the premises nor the conclusion of the advocate's letter, saying that many things set down in it were false. he furthermore told him a story of a certain old man who, having in his youth invented many things and told them often for truth, believed them when he came to old age to be actually true and was ever ready to stake his salvation upon them. whereupon he shut the window and left van der myle to make such application of the parable as he thought proper, vouchsafing no further answer to barneveld's communication. dudley carleton related the anecdote to his government with much glee, but it may be doubted whether this bold way of giving the lie to a venerable statesman through his son-in-law would have been accounted as triumphant argumentation anywhere out of a barrack. as for the remonstrance to the states of holland, although most respectfully received in that assembly except by the five opposition cities, its immediate effect on the public was to bring down a fresh "snow storm"--to use the expression of a contemporary--of pamphlets, libels, caricatures, and broadsheets upon the head of the advocate. in every bookseller's and print shop window in all the cities of the country, the fallen statesman was represented in all possible ludicrous, contemptible, and hateful shapes, while hags and blind beggars about the streets screeched filthy and cursing ballads against him, even at his very doors. the effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny has rarely been more strikingly illustrated than in the case of this statesman. blackened daily all over by a thousand trowels, the purest and noblest character must have been defiled, and it is no wonder that the incrustation upon the advocate's fame should have lasted for two centuries and a half. it may perhaps endure for as many more: not even the vile marshal d'ancre, who had so recently perished, was more the mark of obloquy in a country which he had dishonoured, flouted, and picked to the bone than was barneveld in a commonwealth which he had almost created and had served faithfully from youth to old age. it was even the fashion to compare him with concini in order to heighten the wrath of the public, as if any parallel between the ignoble, foreign paramour of a stupid and sensual queen, and the great statesman, patriot, and jurist of whom civilization will be always proud, could ever enter any but an idiot's brain. meantime the stadholder, who had so successfully handled the assembly of gelderland and overyssel, now sailed across the zuiderzee from kampen to amsterdam. on his approach to the stately northern venice, standing full of life and commercial bustle upon its vast submerged forest of norwegian pines, he was met by a fleet of yachts and escorted through the water gates of the into the city. here an immense assemblage of vessels of every class, from the humble gondola to the bulky east indianian and the first-rate ship of war, gaily bannered with the orange colours and thronged from deck to topmast by enthusiastic multitudes, was waiting to receive their beloved stadholder. a deafening cannonade saluted him on his approach. the prince was escorted to the square or dam, where on a high scaffolding covered with blue velvet in front of the stately mediaeval town-hall the burgomasters and board of magistrates in their robes of office were waiting to receive him. the strains of that most inspiriting and suggestive of national melodies, the 'wilhelmus van nassouwen,' rang through the air, and when they were silent, the chief magistrate poured forth a very eloquent and tedious oration, and concluded by presenting him with a large orange in solid gold; maurice having succeeded to the principality a few months before on the death of his half-brother philip william. the "blooming in love," as one of the chambers of "rhetoric " in which the hard-handed but half-artistic mechanics and shopkeepers of the netherlands loved to disport themselves was called, then exhibited upon an opposite scaffold a magnificent representation of jupiter astride upon an eagle and banding down to the stadholder as if from the clouds that same principality. nothing could be neater or more mythological. the prince and his escort, sitting in the windows of the town-hall, the square beneath being covered with or burgher militia in full uniform, with orange plumes in their hats and orange scarves on their breasts, saw still other sights. a gorgeous procession set forth by the "netherlandish academy," another chamber of rhetoric, and filled with those emblematic impersonations so dear to the hearts of netherlanders, had been sweeping through all the canals and along the splendid quays of the city. the maid of holland, twenty feet high, led the van, followed by the counterfeit presentment of each of her six sisters. an orange tree full of flowers and fruit was conspicuous in one barge, while in another, strangely and lugubriously enough, lay the murdered william the silent in the arms of his wife and surrounded by his weeping sons and daughters all attired in white satin. in the evening the netherland academy, to improve the general hilarity, and as if believing exhibitions of murder the most appropriate means of welcoming the prince, invited him to a scenic representation of the assassination of count florence v. of holland by gerrit van velsen and other nobles. there seemed no especial reason for the selection, unless perhaps the local one; one of the perpetrators of this crime against an ancient predecessor of william the silent in the sovereignty of holland having been a former lord proprietor of amsterdam and the adjacent territories, gysbrecht van amatel. maurice returned to the hague. five of the seven provinces were entirely his own. utrecht too was already wavering, while there could be no doubt of the warm allegiance to himself of the important commercial metropolis of holland, the only province in which barneveld's influence was still paramount. owing to the watchfulness and distrust of barneveld, which had never faltered, spain had not secured the entire control of the disputed duchies, but she had at least secured the head of a venerated saint. "the bargain is completed for the head of the glorious saint lawrence, which you know i so much desire," wrote philip triumphantly to the archduke albert. he had, however, not got it for nothing. the abbot of glamart in julich, then in possession of that treasure, had stipulated before delivering it that if at any time the heretics or other enemies should destroy the monastery his majesty would establish them in spanish flanders and give them the same revenues as they now enjoyed in julich. count herman van den berg was to give a guarantee to that effect. meantime the long controversy in the duchies having tacitly come to a standstill upon the basis of 'uti possidetis,' the spanish government had leisure in the midst of their preparation for the general crusade upon european heresy to observe and enjoy the internal religious dissensions in their revolted provinces. although they had concluded the convention with them as with countries over which they had no pretensions, they had never at heart allowed more virtue to the conjunction "as," which really contained the essence of the treaty, than grammatically belonged to it. spain still chose to regard the independence of the seven provinces as a pleasant fiction to be dispelled when, the truce having expired by its own limitation, she should resume, as she fully meant to do, her sovereignty over all the seventeen netherlands, the united as well as the obedient. thus at any rate the question of state rights or central sovereignty would be settled by a very summary process. the spanish ambassador was wroth, as may well be supposed, when the agent of the rebel provinces received in london the rank, title, and recognition of ambassador. gondemar at least refused to acknowledge noel de caron as his diplomatic equal or even as his colleague, and was vehement in his protestations on the subject. but james, much as he dreaded the spanish envoy and fawned upon his master, was not besotted enough to comply with these demands at the expense of his most powerful ally, the republic of the netherlands. the spanish king however declared his ambassador's proceedings to be in exact accordance with his instructions. he was sorry, he said, if the affair had caused discontent to the king of great britain; he intended in all respects to maintain the treaty of truce of which his majesty had been one of the guarantors, but as that treaty had but a few more years to run, after which he should be reinstated in his former right of sovereignty over all the netherlands, he entirely justified the conduct of count gondemar. it may well be conceived that, as the years passed by, as the period of the truce grew nearer and the religious disputes became every day more envenomed, the government at madrid should look on the tumultuous scene with saturnine satisfaction. there was little doubt now, they thought, that the provinces, sick of their rebellion and that fancied independence which had led them into a whirlpool of political and religious misery, and convinced of their incompetence to govern themselves, would be only too happy to seek the forgiving arms of their lawful sovereign. above all they must have learned that their great heresy had carried its chastisement with it, that within something they called a reformed church other heresies had been developed which demanded condign punishment at the hands of that new church, and that there could be neither rest for them in this world nor salvation in the next except by returning to the bosom of their ancient mother. now was the time, so it was thought, to throw forward a strong force of jesuits as skirmishers into the provinces by whom the way would be opened for the reconquest of the whole territory. "by the advices coming to us continually from thence," wrote the king of spain to archduke albert, "we understand that the disquiets and differences continue in holland on matters relating to their sects, and that from this has resulted the conversion of many to the catholic religion. so it has been taken into consideration whether it would not be expedient that some fathers of the company of jesuits be sent secretly from rome to holland, who should negotiate concerning the conversion of that people. before taking a resolution, i have thought best to give an account of this matter to your highness. i should be glad if you would inform me what priests are going to holland, what fruits they yield, and what can be done for the continuance of their labours. please to advise me very particularly together with any suggestions that may occur to you in this matter." the archduke, who was nearer the scene, was not so sure that the old religion was making such progress as his royal nephew or those who spoke in his name believed. at any rate, if it were not rapidly gaining ground, it would be neither for want of discord among the protestants nor for lack of jesuits to profit by it. "i do not understand," said he in reply, "nor is it generally considered certain that from the differences and disturbances that the hollanders are having among themselves there has resulted the conversion of any of them to our blessed catholic faith, because their disputes are of certain points concerning which there are different opinions within their sect. there has always been a goodly number of priests here, the greater part of whom belong to the company. they are very diligent and fervent, and the catholics derive much comfort from them. to send more of them would do more harm than good. it might be found out, and then they would perhaps be driven out of holland or even chastised. so it seems better to leave things as they are for the present." the spanish government was not discouraged however, but was pricking up its ears anew at strange communications it was receiving from the very bosom of the council of state in the netherlands. this body, as will be remembered, had been much opposed to barneveld and to the policy pursued under his leadership by the states of holland. some of its members were secretly catholic and still more secretly disposed to effect a revolution in the government, the object of which should be to fuse the united provinces with the obedient netherlands in a single independent monarchy to be placed under the sceptre of the son of philip iii. a paper containing the outlines of this scheme had been sent to spain, and the king at once forwarded it in cipher to the archduke at brussels for his opinion and co-operation. "you will see," he said, "the plan which a certain person zealous for the public good has proposed for reducing the netherlanders to my obedience. . . . . you will please advise with count frederic van den berg and let me know with much particularity and profound secrecy what is thought, what is occurring, and the form in which this matter ought to be negotiated, and the proper way to make it march." unquestionably the paper was of grave importance. it informed the king of spain that some principal personages in the united netherlands, members of the council of state, were of opinion that if his majesty or archduke albert should propose peace, it could be accomplished at that moment more easily than ever before. they had arrived at the conviction that no assistance was to be obtained from the king of france, who was too much weakened by tumults and sedition at home, while nothing good could be expected from the king of england. the greater part of the province of gelderland, they said, with all friesland, utrecht, groningen, and overyssel were inclined to a permanent peace. being all of them frontier provinces, they were constantly exposed to the brunt of hostilities. besides this, the war expenses alone would now be more than , , florins a year. thus the people were kept perpetually harassed, and although evil-intentioned persons approved these burthens under the pretence that such heavy taxation served to free them from the tyranny of spain, those of sense and quality reproved them and knew the contrary to be true. "many here know," continued these traitors in the heart of the state council, "how good it would be for the people of the netherlands to have a prince, and those having this desire being on the frontier are determined to accept the son of your majesty for their ruler." the conditions of the proposed arrangement were to be that the prince with his successors who were thus to possess all the netherlands were to be independent sovereigns not subject in any way to the crown of spain, and that the great governments and dignities of the country were to remain in the hands then holding them. this last condition was obviously inserted in the plan for the special benefit of prince maurice and count lewis, although there is not an atom of evidence that they had ever heard of the intrigue or doubt that, if they had, they would have signally chastised its guilty authors. it was further stated that the catholics having in each town a church and free exercise of their religion would soon be in a great majority. thus the political and religious counter-revolution would be triumphantly accomplished. it was proposed that the management of the business should be entrusted to some gentleman of the country possessing property there who "under pretext of the public good should make people comprehend what a great thing it would be if they could obtain this favour from the spanish king, thus extricating themselves from so many calamities and miseries, and obtaining free traffic and a prince of their own." it would be necessary for the king and archduke to write many letters and promise great rewards to persons who might otherwise embarrass the good work. the plot was an ingenious one. there seemed in the opinion of these conspirators in the state council but one great obstacle to its success. it should be kept absolutely concealed from the states of holland. the great stipendiary of spain, john of barneveld, whose coffers were filled with spanish pistoles, whose name and surname might be read by all men in the account-books at brussels heading the register of mighty bribe- takers, the man who was howled at in a thousand lampoons as a traitor ever ready to sell his country, whom even prince maurice "partly believed" to be the pensionary of philip, must not hear a whisper of this scheme to restore the republic to spanish control and place it under the sceptre of a spanish prince. the states of holland at that moment and so long as he was a member of the body were barneveld and barneveld only; thinking his thoughts, speaking with his tongue, writing with his pen. of this neither friend nor foe ever expressed a doubt. indeed it was one of the staple accusations against him. yet this paper in which the spanish king in confidential cipher and profound secrecy communicated to archduke albert his hopes and his schemes for recovering the revolted provinces as a kingdom for his son contained these words of caution. "the states of holland and zealand will be opposed to the plan," it said. "if the treaty come to the knowledge of the states and council of holland before it has been acted upon by the five frontier provinces the whole plan will be demolished." such was the opinion entertained by philip himself of the man who was supposed to be his stipendiary. i am not aware that this paper has ever been alluded to in any document or treatise private or public from the day of its date to this hour. it certainly has never been published, but it lies deciphered in the archives of the kingdom at brussels, and is alone sufficient to put to shame the slanderers of the advocate's loyalty. yet let it be remembered that in this very summer exactly at the moment when these intrigues were going on between the king of spain and the class of men most opposed to barneveld, the accusations against his fidelity were loudest and rifest. before the stadholder had so suddenly slipped down to brielle in order to secure that important stronghold for the contra-remonstrant party, reports had been carefully strewn among the people that the advocate was about to deliver that place and other fortresses to spain. brielle, flushing, rammekens, the very cautionary towns and keys to the country which he had so recently and in such masterly manner delivered from the grasp of the hereditary ally he was now about to surrender to the ancient enemy. the spaniards were already on the sea, it was said. had it not been for his excellency's watchfulness and promptitude, they would already under guidance of barneveld and his crew have mastered the city of brielle. flushing too through barneveld's advice and connivance was open at a particular point, in order that the spaniards, who had their eye upon it, might conveniently enter and take possession of the place. the air was full of wild rumours to this effect, and already the humbler classes who sided with the stadholder saw in him the saviour of the country from the treason of the advocate and the renewed tyranny of spain. the prince made no such pretence, but simply took possession of the fortress in order to be beforehand with the waartgelders. the contra- remonstrants in brielle had desired that "men should see who had the hardest fists," and it would certainly have been difficult to find harder ones than those of the hero of nieuwpoort. besides the jesuits coming in so skilfully to triumph over the warring sects of calvinists, there were other engineers on whom the spanish government relied to effect the reconquest of the netherlands. especially it was an object to wreak vengeance on holland, that head and front of the revolt, both for its persistence in rebellion and for the immense prosperity and progress by which that rebellion had been rewarded. holland had grown fat and strong, while the obedient netherlands were withered to the marrow of their bones. but there was a practical person then resident in spain to whom the netherlands were well known, to whom indeed everything was well known, who had laid before the king a magnificent scheme for destroying the commerce and with it the very existence of holland to the great advantage of the spanish finances and of the spanish netherlands. philip of course laid it before the archduke as usual, that he might ponder it well and afterwards, if approved, direct its execution. the practical person set forth in an elaborate memoir that the hollanders were making rapid progress in commerce, arts, and manufactures, while the obedient provinces were sinking as swiftly into decay. the spanish netherlands were almost entirely shut off from the sea, the rivers scheldt and meuse being hardly navigable for them on account of the control of those waters by holland. the dutch were attracting to their dominions all artisans, navigators, and traders. despising all other nations and giving them the law, they had ruined the obedient provinces. ostend, nieuwpoort, dunkerk were wasting away, and ought to be restored. "i have profoundly studied forty years long the subjects of commerce and navigation," said the practical person, "and i have succeeded in penetrating the secrets and acquiring, as it were, universal knowledge-- let me not be suspected of boasting--of the whole discovered world and of the ocean. i have been assisted by study of the best works of geography and history, by my own labours, and by those of my late father, a man of illustrious genius and heroical conceptions and very zealous in the catholic faith." the modest and practical son of an illustrious but anonymous father, then coming to the point, said it would be the easiest thing in the world to direct the course of the scheldt into an entirely new channel through spanish flanders to the sea. thus the dutch ports and forts which had been constructed with such magnificence and at such vast expense would be left high and dry; the spaniards would build new ones in flanders, and thus control the whole navigation and deprive the hollanders of that empire of the sea which they now so proudly arrogated. this scheme was much simpler to carry out than the vulgar might suppose, and, when. accomplished, it would destroy the commerce, navigation, and fisheries of the hollanders, throwing it all into the hands of the archdukes. this would cause such ruin, poverty, and tumults everywhere that all would be changed. the republic of the united states would annihilate itself and fall to pieces; the religious dissensions, the war of one sect with another, and the jealousy of the house of nassau, suspected of plans hostile to popular liberties, finishing the work of destruction. "then the republic," said the man of universal science, warming at sight of the picture he was painting, "laden with debt and steeped in poverty, will fall to the ground of its own weight, and thus debilitated will crawl humbly to place itself in the paternal hands of the illustrious house of austria." it would be better, he thought, to set about the work, before the expiration of the truce. at any rate, the preparation for it, or the mere threat of it, would ensure a renewal of that treaty on juster terms. it was most important too to begin at once the construction of a port on the coast of flanders, looking to the north. there was a position, he said, without naming it, in which whole navies could ride in safety, secure from all tempests, beyond the reach of the hollanders, open at all times to traffic to and from england, france, spain, norway, sweden, russia--a perfectly free commerce, beyond the reach of any rights or duties claimed or levied by the insolent republic. in this port would assemble all the navigators of the country, and it would become in time of war a terror to the hollanders, english, and all northern peoples. in order to attract, protect, and preserve these navigators and this commerce, many great public edifices must be built, together with splendid streets of houses and impregnable fortifications. it should be a walled and stately city, and its name should be philipopolis. if these simple projects, so easy of execution, pleased his majesty, the practical person was ready to explain them in all their details. his majesty was enchanted with the glowing picture, but before quite deciding on carrying the scheme into execution thought it best to consult the archduke. the reply of albert has not been preserved. it was probably not enthusiastic, and the man who without boasting had declared himself to know everything was never commissioned to convert his schemes into realities. that magnificent walled city, philipopolis, with its gorgeous streets and bristling fortresses, remained unbuilt, the scheldt has placidly flowed through its old channel to the sea from that day to this, and the republic remained in possession of the unexampled foreign trade with which rebellion had enriched it. these various intrigues and projects show plainly enough however the encouragement given to the enemies of the united provinces and of protestantism everywhere by these disastrous internal dissensions. but yesterday and the republic led by barneveld in council and maurice of nassau in the field stood at the head of the great army of resistance to the general crusade organized by spain and rome against all unbelievers. and now that the war was absolutely beginning in bohemia, the republic was falling upon its own sword instead of smiting with it the universal foe. it was not the king of spain alone that cast longing eyes on the fair territory of that commonwealth which the unparalleled tyranny of his father had driven to renounce his sceptre. both in the netherlands and france, among the extreme orthodox party, there were secret schemes, to which maurice was not privy, to raise maurice to the sovereignty of the provinces. other conspirators with a wider scope and more treasonable design were disposed to surrender their country to the dominion of france, stipulating of course large rewards and offices for themselves and the vice-royalty of what should then be the french netherlands to maurice. the schemes were wild enough perhaps, but their very existence, which is undoubted, is another proof, if more proof were wanted, of the lamentable tendency, in times of civil and religious dissension, of political passion to burn out the very first principles of patriotism. it is also important, on account of the direct influence exerted by these intrigues upon subsequent events of the gravest character, to throw a beam of light on matters which were thought to have been shrouded for ever in impenetrable darkness. langerac, the states' ambassador in paris, was the very reverse of his predecessor, the wily, unscrupulous, and accomplished francis aerssens. the envoys of the republic were rarely dull, but langerac was a simpleton. they were renowned for political experience, skill, familiarity with foreign languages, knowledge of literature, history, and public law; but he was ignorant, spoke french very imperfectly, at a court where not a human being could address him in his own tongue, had never been employed in diplomacy or in high office of any kind, and could carry but small personal weight at a post where of all others the representative of the great republic should have commanded deference both for his own qualities and for the majesty of his government. at a period when france was left without a master or a guide the dutch ambassador, under a becoming show of profound respect, might really have governed the country so far as regarded at least the all important relations which bound the two nations together. but langerac was a mere picker-up of trifles, a newsmonger who wrote a despatch to-day with information which a despatch was written on the morrow to contradict, while in itself conveying additional intelligence absolutely certain to be falsified soon afterwards. the emperor of germany had gone mad; prince maurice had been assassinated in the hague, a fact which his correspondents, the states-general, might be supposed already to know, if it were one; there had been a revolution in the royal bed-chamber; the spanish cook of the young queen had arrived from madrid; the duke of nevers was behaving very oddly at vienna; such communications, and others equally startling, were the staple of his correspondence. still he was honest enough, very mild, perfectly docile to barneveld, dependent upon his guidance, and fervently attached to that statesman so long as his wheel was going up the hill. moreover, his industry in obtaining information and his passion for imparting it made it probable that nothing very momentous would be neglected should it be laid before him, but that his masters, and especially the advocate, would be enabled to judge for themselves as to the attention due to it. "with this you will be apprised of some very high and weighty matters," he wrote privately and in cipher to barneveld, "which you will make use of according to your great wisdom and forethought for the country's service." he requested that the matter might also be confided to m. van der myle, that he might assist his father-in-law, so overburdened with business, in the task of deciphering the communication. he then stated that he had been "very earnestly informed three days before by m. du agean"--member of the privy council of france--"that it had recently come to the king's ears, and his majesty knew it to be authentic, that there was a secret and very dangerous conspiracy in holland of persons belonging to the reformed religion in which others were also mixed. this party held very earnest and very secret correspondence with the factious portion of the contra-remonstrants both in the netherlands and france, seeking under pretext of the religious dissensions or by means of them to confer the sovereignty upon prince maurice by general consent of the contra- remonstrants. their object was also to strengthen and augment the force of the same religious party in france, to which end the duc de bouillon and m. de chatillon were very earnestly co-operating. langerac had already been informed by chatillon that the contra-remonstrants had determined to make a public declaration against the remonstrants, and come to an open separation from them. "others propose however," said the ambassador, "that the king himself should use the occasion to seize the sovereignty of the united provinces for himself and to appoint prince maurice viceroy, giving him in marriage madame henriette of france." the object of this movement would be to frustrate the plots of the contra-remonstrants, who were known to be passionately hostile to the king and to france, and who had been constantly traversing the negotiations of m. du maurier. there was a disposition to send a special and solemn embassy to the states, but it was feared that the british king would at once do the same, to the immense disadvantage of the remonstrants. "m. de barneveld," said the envoy, "is deeply sympathized with here and commiserated. the chancellor has repeatedly requested me to present to you his very sincere and very hearty respects, exhorting you to continue in your manly steadfastness and courage." he also assured the advocate that the french ambassador, m. du maurier, enjoyed the entire confidence of his government, and of the principal members of the council, and that the king, although contemplating, as we have seen, the seizure of the sovereignty of the country, was most amicably disposed towards it, and so soon as the peace of savoy was settled "had something very good for it in his mind." whether the something very good was this very design to deprive it of independence, the ambassador did not state. he however recommended the use of sundry small presents at the french court--especially to madame de luynes, wife of the new favourite of lewis since the death of concini, in which he had aided, now rising rapidly to consideration, and to madame du agean--and asked to be supplied with funds accordingly. by these means he thought it probable that at least the payment to the states of the long arrears of the french subsidy might be secured. three weeks later, returning to the subject, the ambassador reported another conversation with m. du agean. that politician assured him, "with high protestations," as a perfectly certain fact that a frenchman duly qualified had arrived in paris from holland who had been in communication not only with him but with several of the most confidential members of the privy council of france. this duly qualified gentleman had been secretly commissioned to say that in opinion of the conspirators already indicated the occasion was exactly offered by these religious dissensions in the netherlands for bringing the whole country under the obedience of the king. this would be done with perfect ease if he would only be willing to favour a little the one party, that of the contra- remonstrants, and promise his excellency "perfect and perpetual authority in the government with other compensations." the proposition, said du agean, had been rejected by the privy councillors with a declaration that they would not mix themselves up with any factions, nor assist any party, but that they would gladly work with the government for the accommodation of these difficulties and differences in the provinces. "i send you all this nakedly," concluded langerac, "exactly as it has been communicated to me, having always answered according to my duty and with a view by negotiating with these persons to discover the intentions as well of one side as the other." the advocate was not profoundly impressed by these revelations. he was too experienced a statesman to doubt that in times when civil and religious passion was running high there was never lack of fishers in troubled waters, and that if a body of conspirators could secure a handsome compensation by selling their country to a foreign prince, they would always be ready to do it. but although believed by maurice to be himself a stipendiary of spain, he was above suspecting the prince of any share in the low and stupid intrigue which du agean had imagined or disclosed. that the stadholder was ambitious of greater power, he hardly doubted, but that he was seeking to acquire it by such corrupt and circuitous means, he did not dream. he confidentially communicated the plot as in duty bound to some members of the states, and had the prince been accused in any conversation or statement of being privy to the scheme, he would have thought himself bound to mention it to him. the story came to the ears of maurice however, and helped to feed his wrath against the advocate, as if he were responsible for a plot, if plot it were, which had been concocted by his own deadliest enemies. the prince wrote a letter alluding to this communication of langerac and giving much alarm to that functionary. he thought his despatches must have been intercepted and proposed in future to write always by special courier. barneveld thought that unnecessary except when there were more important matters than those appeared to him to be and requiring more haste. "the letter of his excellency," said he to the ambassador, "is caused in my opinion by the fact that some of the deputies to this assembly to whom i secretly imparted your letter or its substance did not rightly comprehend or report it. you did not say that his excellency had any such design or project, but that it had been said that the contra- remonstrants were entertaining such a scheme. i would have shown the letter to him myself, but i thought it not fair, for good reasons, to make m. du agean known as the informant. i do not think it amiss for you to write yourself to his excellency and tell him what is said, but whether it would be proper to give up the name of your author, i think doubtful. at all events one must consult about it. we live in a strange world, and one knows not whom to trust." he instructed the ambassador to enquire into the foundation of these statements of du agean and send advices by every occasion of this affair and others of equal interest. he was however much more occupied with securing the goodwill of the french government, which he no more suspected of tampering in these schemes against the independence of the republic than he did maurice himself. he relied and he had reason to rely on their steady good offices in the cause of moderation and reconciliation. "we are not yet brought to the necessary and much desired unity," he said, "but we do not despair, hoping that his majesty's efforts through m. du maurier, both privately and publicly, will do much good. be assured that they are very agreeable to all rightly disposed people . . . . my trust is that god the lord will give us a happy issue and save this country from perdition." he approved of the presents to the two ladies as suggested by langerac if by so doing the payment of the arrearages could be furthered. he was still hopeful and confident in the justice of his cause and the purity of his conscience. "aerssens is crowing like a cock," he said, "but the truth will surely prevail." chapter xvii. a deputation from utrecht to maurice--the fair at utrecht--maurice and the states' deputies at utrecht--ogle refuses to act in opposition to the states--the stadholder disbands the waartgelders-- the prince appoints forty magistrates--the states formally disband the waartgelders. the eventful midsummer had arrived. the lime-tree blossoms were fragrant in the leafy bowers overshadowing the beautiful little rural capital of the commonwealth. the anniversary of the nieuwpoort victory, july , had come and gone, and the stadholder was known to be resolved that his political campaign this year should be as victorious as that memorable military one of eighteen years before. before the dog-days should begin to rage, the fierce heats of theological and political passion were to wax daily more and more intense. the party at utrecht in favour of a compromise and in awe of the stadholder sent a deputation to the hague with the express but secret purpose of conferring with maurice. they were eight in number, three of whom, including gillis van ledenberg, lodged at the house of daniel tressel, first clerk of the states-general. the leaders of the barneveld party, aware of the purport of this mission and determined to frustrate it, contrived a meeting between the utrecht commissioners and grotius, hoogerbeets, de haan, and de lange at tressel's house. grotius was spokesman. maurice had accused the states of holland of mutiny and rebellion, and the distinguished pensionary of rotterdam now retorted the charges of mutiny, disobedience, and mischief-making upon those who, under the mask of religion, were attempting to violate the sovereignty of the states, the privileges and laws of the province, the authority of the, magistrates, and to subject them to the power of others. to prevent such a catastrophe many cities had enlisted waartgelders. by this means they had held such mutineers to their duty, as had been seen at leyden, haarlem, and other places. the states of utrecht had secured themselves in the same way. but the mischiefmakers and the ill-disposed had been seeking everywhere to counteract these wholesome measures and to bring about a general disbanding of these troops. this it was necessary to resist with spirit. it was the very foundation of the provinces' sovereignty, to maintain which the public means must be employed. it was in vain to drive the foe out of the country if one could not remain in safety within one's own doors. they had heard with sorrow that utrecht was thinking of cashiering its troops, and the speaker proceeded therefore to urge with all the eloquence he was master of the necessity of pausing before taking so fatal a step. the deputies of utrecht answered by pleading the great pecuniary burthen which the maintenance of the mercenaries imposed upon that province, and complained that there was no one to come to their assistance, exposed as they were to a sudden and overwhelming attack from many quarters. the states-general had not only written but sent commissioners to utrecht insisting on the disbandment. they could plainly see the displeasure of the prince. it was a very different affair in holland, but the states of utrecht found it necessary of two evils to choose the least. they had therefore instructed their commissioners to request the prince to remove the foreign garrison from their capital and to send the old companies of native militia in their place, to be in the pay of the episcopate. in this case the states would agree to disband the new levies. grotius in reply again warned the commissioners against communicating with maurice according to their instructions, intimated that the native militia on which they were proposing to rely might have been debauched, and he held out hopes that perhaps the states of utrecht might derive some relief from certain financial measures now contemplated in holland. the utrechters resolved to wait at least several days before opening the subject of their mission to the prince. meantime ledenberg made a rough draft of a report of what had occurred between them and grotius and his colleagues which it was resolved to lay secretly before the states of utrecht. the hollanders hoped that they had at last persuaded the commissioners to maintain the waartgelders. the states of holland now passed a solemn resolution to the effect that these new levies had been made to secure municipal order and maintain the laws from subversion by civil tumults. if this object could be obtained by other means, if the stadholder were willing to remove garrisons of foreign mercenaries on whom there could be no reliance, and supply their place with native troops both in holland and utrecht, an arrangement could be made for disbanding the waartgelders. barneveld, at the head of thirty deputies from the nobles and cities, waited upon maurice and verbally communicated to him this resolution. he made a cold and unsatisfactory reply, although it seems to have been understood that by according twenty companies of native troops he might have contented both holland and utrecht. ledenberg and his colleagues took their departure from the hague without communicating their message to maurice. soon afterwards the states- general appointed a commission to utrecht with the stadholder at the head of it. the states of holland appointed another with grotius as its chairman. on the th july grotius and pensionary hoogerbeets with two colleagues arrived in utrecht. gillis van ledenberg was there to receive them. a tall, handsome, bald- headed, well-featured, mild, gentlemanlike man was this secretary of the utrecht assembly, and certainly not aware, while passing to and fro on such half diplomatic missions between two sovereign assemblies, that he was committing high-treason. he might well imagine however, should maurice discover that it was he who had prevented the commissioners from conferring with him as instructed, that it would go hard with him. ledenberg forthwith introduced grotius and his committee to the assembly at utrecht. while these great personages were thus holding solemn and secret council, another and still greater personage came upon the scene. the stadholder with the deputation from the states-general arrived at utrecht. evidently the threads of this political drama were converging to a catastrophe, and it might prove a tragical one. meantime all looked merry enough in the old episcopal city. there were few towns in lower or in upper germany more elegant and imposing than utrecht. situate on the slender and feeble channel of the ancient rhine as it falters languidly to the sea, surrounded by trim gardens and orchards, and embowered in groves of beeches and limetrees, with busy canals fringed with poplars, lined with solid quays, and crossed by innumerable bridges; with the stately brick tower of st. martin's rising to a daring height above one of the most magnificent gothic cathedrals in the netherlands; this seat of the anglo-saxon willebrord, who eight hundred years before had preached christianity to the frisians, and had founded that long line of hard-fighting, indomitable bishops, obstinately contesting for centuries the possession of the swamps and pastures about them with counts, kings, and emperors, was still worthy of its history and its position. it was here too that sixty-one years before the famous articles of union were signed. by that fundamental treaty of the confederacy, the provinces agreed to remain eternally united as if they were but one province, to make no war nor peace save by unanimous consent, while on lesser matters a majority should rule; to admit both catholics and protestants to the union provided they obeyed its articles and conducted themselves as good patriots, and expressly declared that no province or city should interfere with another in the matter of divine worship. from this memorable compact, so enduring a landmark in the history of human freedom, and distinguished by such breadth of view for the times both in religion and politics, the city had gained the title of cradle of liberty: 'cunabula libertatis'. was it still to deserve the name? at that particular moment the mass of the population was comparatively indifferent to the terrible questions pending. it was the kermis or annual fair, and all the world was keeping holiday in utrecht. the pedlars and itinerant merchants from all the cities and provinces had brought their wares jewellery and crockery, ribbons and laces, ploughs and harrows, carriages and horses, cows and sheep, cheeses and butter firkins, doublets and petticoats, guns and pistols, everything that could serve the city and country-side for months to come--and displayed them in temporary booths or on the ground, in every street and along every canal. the town was one vast bazaar. the peasant-women from the country, with their gold and silver tiaras and the year's rent of a comfortable farm in their earrings and necklaces, and the sturdy frisian peasants, many of whom had borne their matchlocks in the great wars which had lasted through their own and their fathers' lifetime, trudged through the city, enjoying the blessings of peace. bands of music and merry-go-rounds in all the open places and squares; open-air bakeries of pancakes and waffles; theatrical exhibitions, raree- shows, jugglers, and mountebanks at every corner--all these phenomena which had been at every kermis for centuries, and were to repeat themselves for centuries afterwards, now enlivened the atmosphere of the grey, episcopal city. pasted against the walls of public edifices were the most recent placards and counter-placards of the states-general and the states of utrecht on the great subject of religious schisms and popular tumults. in the shop-windows and on the bookstalls of contra- remonstrant tradesmen, now becoming more and more defiant as the last allies of holland, the states of utrecht, were gradually losing courage, were seen the freshest ballads and caricatures against the advocate. here an engraving represented him seated at table with grotius, hoogerbeets, and others, discussing the national synod, while a flap of the picture being lifted put the head of the duke of alva on the legs of barneveld, his companions being transformed in similar manner into spanish priests and cardinals assembled at the terrible council of blood- with rows of protestant martyrs burning and hanging in the distance. another print showed prince maurice and the states-general shaking the leading statesmen of the commonwealth in a mighty sieve through which came tumbling head foremost to perdition the hated advocate and his abettors. another showed the arminians as a row of crest-fallen cocks rained upon by the wrath of the stadholder--arminians by a detestable pun being converted into "arme haenen" or "poor cocks." one represented the pope and king of spain blowing thousands of ducats out of a golden bellows into the lap of the advocate, who was holding up his official robes to receive them, or whole carriage-loads of arminians starting off bag and baggage on the road to rome, with lucifer in the perspective waiting to give them a warm welcome in his own dominions; and so on, and so on. moving through the throng, with iron calque on their heads and halberd in hand, were groups of waartgelders scowling fiercely at many popular demonstrations such as they had been enlisted to suppress, but while off duty concealing outward symptoms of wrath which in many instances perhaps would have been far from genuine. for although these mercenaries knew that the states of holland, who were responsible for the pay of the regular troops then in utrecht, authorized them to obey no orders save from the local authorities, yet it was becoming a grave question for the waartgelders whether their own wages were perfectly safe, a circumstance which made them susceptible to the atmosphere of contra-remonstrantism which was steadily enwrapping the whole country. a still graver question was whether such resistance as they could offer to the renowned stadholder, whose name was magic to every soldier's heart not only in his own land but throughout christendom, would not be like parrying a lance's thrust with a bulrush. in truth the senior captain of the waartgelders, harteveld by name, had privately informed the leaders of the barneveld party in utrecht that he would not draw his sword against prince maurice and the states-general. "who asks you to do so?" said some of the deputies, while ledenberg on the other hand flatly accused him of cowardice. for this affront the captain had vowed revenge. and in the midst of this scene of jollity and confusion, that midsummer night, entered the stern stadholder with his fellow commissioners; the feeble plans for shutting the gates upon him not having been carried into effect. "you hardly expected such a guest at your fair," said he to the magistrates, with a grim smile on his face as who should say, "and what do you think of me now i have came?" meantime the secret conference of grotius and colleagues with the states of utrecht proceeded. as a provisional measure, sir john ogle, commander of the forces paid by holland, had been warned as to where his obedience was due. it had likewise been intimated that the guard should be doubled at the amersfoort gate, and a watch set on the river lek above and below the city in order to prevent fresh troops of the states-general from being introduced by surprise. these precautions had been suggested a year before, as we have seen, in a private autograph letter from barneveld to secretary ledenberg. sir john ogle had flatly refused to act in opposition to the stadholder and the states-general, whom he recognized as his lawful superiors and masters, and he warned ledenberg and his companions as to the perilous nature of the course which they were pursuing. great was the indignation of the utrechters and the holland commissioners in consequence. grotius in his speech enlarged on the possibility of violence being used by the stadholder, while some of the members of the assembly likewise thought it likely that he would smite the gates open by force. grotius, when reproved afterwards for such strong language towards prince maurice, said that true hollanders were no courtiers, but were wont to call everything by its right name. he stated in strong language the regret felt by holland that a majority of the states of utrecht had determined to disband the waartgelders which had been constitutionally enlisted according to the right of each province under the st article of the union of utrecht to protect itself and its laws. next day there were conferences between maurice and the states of utrecht and between him and the holland deputies. the stadholder calmly demanded the disbandment and the synod. the hollanders spoke of securing first the persons and rights of the magistracy. "the magistrates are to be protected," said maurice, "but we must first know how they are going to govern. people have tried to introduce five false points into the divine worship. people have tried to turn me out of the stadholdership and to drive me from the country. but i have taken my measures. i know well what i am about. i have got five provinces on my side, and six cities of holland will send deputies to utrecht to sustain me here." the hollanders protested that there was no design whatever, so far as they knew, against his princely dignity or person. all were ready to recognize his rank and services by every means in their power. but it was desirable by conciliation and compromise, not by stern decree, to arrange these religious and political differences. the stadholder replied by again insisting on the synod. "as for the waartgelders," he continued, "they are worse than spanish fortresses. they must away." after a little further conversation in this vein the prince grew more excited. "everything is the fault of the advocate," he cried. "if barneveld were dead," replied grotius, "all the rest of us would still deem ourselves bound to maintain the laws. people seem to despise holland and to wish to subject it to the other provinces." "on the contrary," cried the prince, "it is the advocate who wishes to make holland the states-general." maurice was tired of argument. there had been much ale-house talk some three months before by a certain blusterous gentleman called van ostrum about the necessity of keeping the stadholder in check. "if the prince should undertake," said this pot-valiant hero, "to attack any of the cities of utrecht or holland with the hard hand, it is settled to station or , soldiers in convenient places. then we shall say to the prince, if you don't leave us alone, we shall make an arrangement with the archduke of austria and resume obedience to him. we can make such a treaty with him as will give us religious freedom and save us from tyranny of any kind. i don't say this for myself, but have heard it on good authority from very eminent persons." this talk had floated through the air to the stadholder. what evidence could be more conclusive of a deep design on the part of barneveld to sell the republic to the archduke and drive maurice into exile? had not esquire van ostrum solemnly declared it at a tavern table? and although he had mentioned no names, could the "eminent personages" thus cited at second hand be anybody but the advocate? three nights after his last conference with the hollanders, maurice quietly ordered a force of regular troops in utrecht to be under arms at half past three o'clock next morning. about infantry, including companies of ernest of nassau's command at arnhem and of brederode's from vianen, besides a portion of the regular garrison of the place, had accordingly been assembled without beat of drum, before half past three in the morning, and were now drawn up on the market-place or neu. at break of day the prince himself appeared on horseback surrounded by his staff on the neu or neude, a large, long, irregular square into which the seven or eight principal streets and thoroughfares of the town emptied themselves. it was adorned by public buildings and other handsome edifices, and the tall steeple of st. martin's with its beautiful open- work spire, lighted with the first rays of the midsummer sun, looked tranquilly down upon the scene. each of the entrances to the square had been securely guarded by maurice's orders, and cannon planted to command all the streets. a single company of the famous waartgelders was stationed in the neu or near it. the prince rode calmly towards them and ordered them to lay down their arms. they obeyed without a murmur. he then sent through the city to summon all the other companies of waartgelders to the neu. this was done with perfect promptness, and in a short space of time the whole body of mercenaries, nearly in number, had laid down their arms at the feet of the prince. the snaphances and halberds being then neatly stacked in the square, the stadholder went home to his early breakfast. there was an end to those mercenaries thenceforth and for ever. the faint and sickly resistance to the authority of maurice offered at utrecht was attempted nowhere else. for days there had been vague but fearful expectations of a "blood bath," of street battles, rioting, and plunder. yet the stadholder with the consummate art which characterized all his military manoeuvres had so admirably carried out his measure that not a shot was fired, not a blow given, not a single burgher disturbed in his peaceful slumbers. when the population had taken off their nightcaps, they woke to find the awful bugbear removed which had so long been appalling them. the waartgelders were numbered with the terrors of the past, and not a cat had mewed at their disappearance. charter-books, parchments, th articles, barneveld's teeth, arminian forts, flowery orations of grotius, tavern talk of van ostrum, city immunities, states' rights, provincial laws, waartgelders and all--the martial stadholder, with the orange plume in his hat and the sword of nieuwpoort on his thigh, strode through them as easily as through the whirligigs and mountebanks, the wades and fritters, encumbering the streets of utrecht on the night of his arrival. secretary ledenberg and other leading members of the states had escaped the night before. grotius and his colleagues also took a precipitate departure. as they drove out of town in the twilight, they met the deputies of the six opposition cities of holland just arriving in their coach from the hague. had they tarried an hour longer, they would have found themselves safely in prison. four days afterwards the stadholder at the head of his body-guard appeared at the town-house. his halberdmen tramped up the broad staircase, heralding his arrival to the assembled magistracy. he announced his intention of changing the whole board then and there. the process was summary. the forty members were required to supply forty other names, and the prince added twenty more. from the hundred candidates thus furnished the prince appointed forty magistrates such as suited himself. it is needless to say that but few of the old bench remained, and that those few were devoted to the synod, the states- general, and the stadholder. he furthermore announced that these new magistrates were to hold office for life, whereas the board had previously been changed every year. the cathedral church was at once assigned for the use of the contra-remonstrants. this process was soon to be repeated throughout the two insubordinate provinces utrecht and holland. the prince was accused of aiming at the sovereignty of the whole country, and one of his grief's against the advocate was that he had begged the princess-widow, louise de coligny, to warn her son-in-law of the dangers of such ambition. but so long as an individual, sword in hand, could exercise such unlimited sway over the whole municipal, and provincial organization of the commonwealth, it mattered but little whether he was called king or kaiser, doge or stadholder. sovereign he was for the time being at least, while courteously acknowledging the states-general as his sovereign. less than three weeks afterwards the states-general issued a decree formally disbanding the waartgelders; an almost superfluous edict, as they had almost ceased to exist, and there were none to resist the measure. grotius recommended complete acquiescence. barneveld's soul could no longer animate with courage a whole people. the invitations which had already in the month of june been prepared for the synod to meet in the city of dortor dordtrecht-were now issued. the states of holland sent back the notification unopened, deeming it an unwarrantable invasion of their rights that an assembly resisted by a large majority of their body should be convoked in a city on their own territory. but this was before the disbandment of the waartgelders and the general change of magistracies had been effected. earnest consultations were now held as to the possibility of devising some means of compromise; of providing that the decisions of the synod should not be considered binding until after having been ratified by the separate states. in the opinion of barneveld they were within a few hours' work of a favourable result when their deliberations were interrupted by a startling event. chapter xviii. fruitless interview between barneveld and maurice--the advocate, warned of his danger, resolves to remain at the hague--arrest of barneveld, of qrotius, and of hoogerbeets--the states-general assume the responsibility in a "billet"--the states of holland protest-- the advocate's letter to his family--audience of boississe-- mischief-making of aerssens--the french ambassadors intercede for barneveld--the king of england opposes their efforts--langerac's treachery to the advocate--maurice continues his changes in the magistracy throughout the country--vote of thanks by the states of holland. the advocate, having done what he believed to be his duty, and exhausted himself in efforts to defend ancient law and to procure moderation and mutual toleration in religion, was disposed to acquiesce in the inevitable. his letters giving official and private information of those grave events were neither vindictive nor vehement. "i send you the last declaration of my lords of holland," he said to caron, "in regard to the national synod, with the counter-declaration of dordtrecht and the other five cities. yesterday was begun the debate about cashiering the enrolled soldiers called waartgelders. to-day the late m. van kereburg was buried." nothing could be calmer than his tone. after the waartgelders had been disbanded, utrecht revolutionized by main force, the national synod decided upon, and the process of changing the municipal magistracies everywhere in the interest of contra-remonstrants begun, he continued to urge moderation and respect for law. even now, although discouraged, he was not despondent, and was disposed to make the best even of the synod. he wished at this supreme moment to have a personal interview with the prince in order to devise some means for calming the universal agitation and effecting, if possible, a reconciliation among conflicting passions and warring sects. he had stood at the side of maurice and of maurice's great father in darker hours even than these. they had turned to him on all trying and tragical occasions and had never found his courage wavering or his judgment at fault. "not a friend to the house of nassau, but a father," thus had maurice with his own lips described the advocate to the widow of william the silent. incapable of an unpatriotic thought, animated by sincere desire to avert evil and procure moderate action, barneveld saw no reason whatever why, despite all that had been said and done, he should not once more hold council with the prince. he had a conversation accordingly with count lewis, who had always honoured the advocate while differing with him on the religious question. the stadholder of friesland, one of the foremost men of his day in military and scientific affairs, in administrative ability and philanthropic instincts, and, in a family perhaps the most renowned in europe for heroic qualities and achievements, hardly second to any who had borne the name, was in favour of the proposed interview, spoke immediately to prince maurice about it, but was not hopeful as to its results. he knew his cousin well and felt that he was at that moment resentful, perhaps implacably so, against the whole remonstrant party and especially against their great leader. count lewis was small of stature, but dignified, not to say pompous, in demeanour. his style of writing to one of lower social rank than himself was lofty, almost regal, and full of old world formality. noble, severe, right worshipful, highly learned and discreet, special good friend," he wrote to barneveld; "we have spoken to his excellency concerning the expediency of what you requested of us this forenoon. we find however that his excellency is not to be moved to entertain any other measure than the national synod which he has himself proposed in person to all the provinces, to the furtherance of which he has made so many exertions, and which has already been announced by the states- general. "we will see by what opportunity his excellency will appoint the interview, and so far as lies in us you may rely on our good offices. we could not answer sooner as the french ambassadors had audience of us this forenoon and we were visiting his excellency in the afternoon. wishing your worship good evening, we are your very good friend." next day count william wrote again. "we have taken occasion," he said, "to inform his excellency that you were inclined to enter into communication with him in regard to an accommodation of the religious difficulties and to the cashiering of the waartgelders. he answered that he could accept no change in the matter of the national synod, but nevertheless would be at your disposal whenever your worship should be pleased to come to him." two days afterwards barneveld made his appearance at the apartments of the stadholder. the two great men on whom the fabric of the republic had so long rested stood face to face once more. the advocate, with long grey beard and stern blue eye, haggard with illness and anxiety, tall but bent with age, leaning on his staff and wrapped in black velvet cloak--an imposing magisterial figure; the florid, plethoric prince in brown doublet, big russet boots, narrow ruff, and shabby felt hat with its string of diamonds, with hand clutched on swordhilt, and eyes full of angry menace, the very type of the high-born, imperious soldier--thus they surveyed each other as men, once friends, between whom a gulf had opened. barneveld sought to convince the prince that in the proceedings at utrecht, founded as they were on strict adherence to the laws and traditions of the provinces, no disrespect had been intended to him, no invasion of his constitutional rights, and that on his part his lifelong devotion to the house of nassau had suffered no change. he repeated his usual incontrovertible arguments against the synod, as illegal and directly tending to subject the magistracy to the priesthood, a course of things which eight-and-twenty years before had nearly brought destruction on the country and led both the prince and himself to captivity in a foreign land. the prince sternly replied in very few words that the national synod was a settled matter, that he would never draw back from his position, and could not do so without singular disservice to the country and to his own disreputation. he expressed his displeasure at the particular oath exacted from the waartgelders. it diminished his lawful authority and the respect due to him, and might be used per indirectum to the oppression of those of the religion which he had sworn to maintain. his brow grew black when he spoke of the proceedings at utrecht, which he denounced as a conspiracy against his own person and the constitution of the country. barneveld used in vain the powers of argument by which he had guided kings and republics, cabinets and assemblies, during so many years. his eloquence fell powerless upon the iron taciturnity of the stadholder. maurice had expressed his determination and had no other argument to sustain it but his usual exasperating silence. the interview ended as hopelessly as count lewis william had anticipated, and the prince and the advocate separated to meet no more on earth. "you have doubtless heard already," wrote barneveld to the ambassador in london, "of all that has been passing here and in utrecht. one must pray to god that everything may prosper to his honour and the welfare of the country. they are resolved to go through with the national synod, the government of utrecht after the change made in it having consented with the rest. i hope that his majesty, according to your statement, will send some good, learned, and peace-loving personages here, giving them wholesome instructions to help bring our affairs into christian unity, accommodation, and love, by which his majesty and these provinces would be best served." were these the words of a baffled conspirator and traitor? were they uttered to produce an effect upon public opinion and avert a merited condemnation by all good men? there is not in them a syllable of reproach, of anger, of despair. and let it be remembered that they were not written for the public at all. they were never known to the public, hardly heard of either by the advocate's enemies or friends, save the one to whom they were addressed and the monarch to whom that friend was accredited. they were not contained in official despatches, but in private, confidential outpourings to a trusted political and personal associate of many years. from the day they were written until this hour they have never been printed, and for centuries perhaps not read. he proceeded to explain what he considered to be the law in the netherlands with regard to military allegiance. it is not probable that there was in the country a more competent expounder of it; and defective and even absurd as such a system was, it had carried the provinces successfully through a great war, and a better method for changing it might have been found among so law-loving and conservative a people as the netherlanders than brute force. "information has apparently been sent to england," he said, "that my lords of holland through their commissioners in utrecht dictated to the soldiery standing at their charges something that was unreasonable. the truth is that the states of holland, as many of them as were assembled, understanding that great haste was made to send his excellency and some deputies from the other provinces to utrecht, while the members of the utrecht assembly were gone to report these difficulties to their constituents and get fresh instructions from them, wishing that the return of those members should be waited for and that the assembly of holland might also be complete--a request which was refused--sent a committee to utrecht, as the matter brooked no delay, to give information to the states of that province of what was passing here and to offer their good offices. "they sent letters also to his excellency to move him to reasonable accommodation without taking extreme measures in opposition to those resolutions of the states of utrecht which his excellency had promised to conform with and to cause to be maintained by all officers and soldiers. should his excellency make difficulty in this, the commissioners were instructed to declare to him that they were ordered to warn the colonels and captains standing in the payment of holland, by letter and word of mouth, that they were bound by oath to obey the states of holland as their paymasters and likewise to carry out the orders of the provincial and municipal magistrates in the places where they were employed. the soldiery was not to act or permit anything to be done against those resolutions, but help to carry them out, his excellency himself and the troops paid by the states of holland being indisputably bound by oath and duty so to do." doubtless a more convenient arrangement from a military point of view might be imagined than a system of quotas by which each province in a confederacy claimed allegiance and exacted obedience from the troops paid by itself in what was after all a general army. still this was the logical and inevitable result of state rights pushed to the extreme and indeed had been the indisputable theory and practice in the netherlands ever since their revolt from spain. to pretend that the proceedings and the oath were new because they were embarrassing was absurd. it was only because the dominant party saw the extreme inconvenience of the system, now that it was turned against itself, that individuals contemptuous of law and ignorant of history denounced it as a novelty. but the strong and beneficent principle that lay at the bottom of the advocate's conduct was his unflagging resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military in time of peace. what liberal or healthy government would be possible otherwise? exactly as he opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood or the mob, so he now defended it against the power of the sword. there was no justification whatever for a claim on the part of maurice to exact obedience from all the armies of the republic, especially in time of peace. he was himself by oath sworn to obey the states of holland, of utrecht, and of the three other provinces of which he was governor. he was not commander-in-chief. in two of the seven provinces he had no functions whatever, military or civil. they had another governor. yet the exposition of the law, as it stood, by the advocate and his claim that both troops and stadholder should be held to their oaths was accounted a crime. he had invented a new oath--it was said--and sought to diminish the power of the prince. these were charges, unjust as they were, which might one day be used with deadly effect. "we live in a world where everything is interpreted to the worst," he said. "my physical weakness continues and is increased by this affliction. i place my trust in god the lord and in my upright and conscientious determination to serve the country, his excellency, and the religion in which through god's grace i hope to continue to the end." on the th august of a warm afternoon, barneveld was seated on a porcelain seat in an arbor in his garden. councillor berkhout, accompanied by a friend, called to see him, and after a brief conversation gave him solemn warning that danger was impending, that there was even a rumour of an intention to arrest him. the advocate answered gravely, "yes, there are wicked men about." presently he lifted his hat courteously and said, "i thank you, gentlemen, for the warning." it seems scarcely to have occurred to him that he had been engaged in anything beyond a constitutional party struggle in which he had defended what in his view was the side of law and order. he never dreamt of seeking safety in flight. some weeks before, he had been warmly advised to do as both he and maurice had done in former times in order to escape the stratagems of leicester, to take refuge in some strong city devoted to his interests rather than remain at the hague. but he had declined the counsel. "i will await the issue of this business," he said, "in the hague, where my home is, and where i have faithfully served my masters. i had rather for the sake of the fatherland suffer what god chooses to send me for having served well than that through me and on my account any city should fall into trouble and difficulties." next morning, wednesday, at seven o'clock, uytenbogaert paid him a visit. he wished to consult him concerning a certain statement in regard to the synod which he desired him to lay before the states of holland. the preacher did not find his friend busily occupied at his desk, as usual, with writing and other work. the advocate had pushed his chair away from the table encumbered with books and papers, and sat with his back leaning against it, lost in thought. his stern, stoical face was like that of a lion at bay. uytenbogaert tried to arouse him from his gloom, consoling him by reflections on the innumerable instances, in all countries and ages, of patriotic statesmen who for faithful service had reaped nothing but ingratitude. soon afterwards he took his leave, feeling a presentiment of evil within him which it was impossible for him to shake off as he pressed barneveld's hand at parting. two hours later, the advocate went in his coach to the session of the states of holland. the place of the assembly as well as that of the states-general was within what was called the binnenhof or inner court; the large quadrangle enclosing the ancient hall once the residence of the sovereign counts of holland. the apartments of the stadholder composed the south-western portion of the large series of buildings surrounding this court. passing by these lodgings on his way to the assembly, he was accosted by a chamberlain of the prince and informed that his highness desired to speak with him. he followed him towards the room where such interviews were usually held, but in the antechamber was met by lieutenant nythof, of the prince's bodyguard. this officer told him that he had been ordered to arrest him in the name of the states-general. the advocate demanded an interview with the prince. it was absolutely refused. physical resistance on the part of a man of seventy-two, stooping with age and leaning on a staff, to military force, of which nythof was the representative, was impossible. barneveld put a cheerful face on the matter, and was even inclined to converse. he was at once carried off a prisoner and locked up in a room belonging to maurice's apartments. soon afterwards, grotius on his way to the states-general was invited in precisely the same manner to go to the prince, with whom, as he was informed, the advocate was at that moment conferring. as soon as he had ascended the stairs however, he was arrested by captain van der meulen in the name of the states-general, and taken to a chamber in the same apartments, where he was guarded by two halberdmen. in the evening he was removed to another chamber where the window shutters were barred, and where he remained three days and nights. he was much cast down and silent. pensionary hoogerbeets was made prisoner in precisely the same manner. thus the three statesmen--culprits as they were considered by their enemies--were secured without noise or disturbance, each without knowing the fate that had befallen the other. nothing could have been more neatly done. in the same quiet way orders were sent to secure secretary ledenberg, who had returned to utrecht, and who now after a short confinement in that city was brought to the hague and imprisoned in the hof. at the very moment of the advocate's arrest his son-in-law van der myle happened to be paying a visit to sir dudley carleton, who had arrived very late the night before from england. it was some hours before he or any other member of the family learned what had befallen. the ambassador reported to his sovereign that the deed was highly applauded by the well disposed as the only means left for the security of the state. "the arminians," he said, "condemn it as violent and insufferable in a free republic." impartial persons, he thought, considered it a superfluous proceeding now that the synod had been voted and the waartgelders disbanded. while he was writing his despatch, the stadholder came to call upon him, attended by his cousin count lewis william. the crowd of citizens following at a little distance, excited by the news with which the city was now ringing, mingled with maurice's gentlemen and bodyguards and surged up almost into the ambassador's doors. carleton informed his guests, in the course of conversation, as to the general opinion of indifferent judges of these events. maurice replied that he had disbanded the waartgelders, but it had now become necessary to deal with their colonel and the chief captains, meaning thereby barneveld and the two other prisoners. the news of this arrest was soon carried to the house of barneveld, and filled his aged wife, his son, and sons-in-law with grief and indignation. his eldest son william, commonly called the seignior van groeneveld, accompanied by his two brothers-in-law, veenhuyzen, president of the upper council, and van der myle, obtained an interview with the stadholder that same afternoon. they earnestly requested that the advocate, in consideration of his advanced age, might on giving proper bail be kept prisoner in his own house. the prince received them at first with courtesy. "it is the work of the states-general," he said, " no harm shall come to your father any more than to myself." veenhuyzen sought to excuse the opposition which the advocate had made to the cloister church. the word was scarcely out of his mouth when the prince fiercely interrupted him--"any man who says a word against the cloister church," he cried in a rage, "his feet shall not carry him from this place." the interview gave them on the whole but little satisfaction. very soon afterwards two gentlemen, asperen and schagen, belonging to the chamber of nobles, and great adherents of barneveld, who had procured their enrolment in that branch, forced their way into the stadholder's apartments and penetrated to the door of the room where the advocate was imprisoned. according to carleton they were filled with wine as well as rage, and made a great disturbance, loudly demanding their patron's liberation. maurice came out of his own cabinet on hearing the noise in the corridor, and ordered them to be disarmed and placed under arrest. in the evening however they were released. soon afterwards van der myle fled to paris, where he endeavoured to make influence with the government in favour of the advocate. his departure without leave, being, as he was, a member of the chamber of nobles and of the council of state, was accounted a great offence. uytenbogaert also made his escape, as did taurinus, author of the balance, van moersbergen of utrecht, and many others more or less implicated in these commotions. there was profound silence in the states of holland when the arrest of barneveld was announced. the majority sat like men distraught. at last matenesse said, "you have taken from us our head, our tongue, and our hand, henceforth we can only sit still and look on." the states-general now took the responsibility of the arrest, which eight individuals calling themselves the states-general had authorized by secret resolution the day before ( th august). on the th accordingly, the following "billet," as it was entitled, was read to the assembly and ordered to be printed and circulated among the community. it was without date or signature. "whereas in the course of the changes within the city of utrecht and in other places brought about by the high and mighty lords the states- general of the united netherlands, through his excellency and their lordships' committee to him adjoined, sundry things have been discovered of which previously there had been great suspicion, tending to the great prejudice of the provinces in general and of each province in particular, not without apparent danger to the state of the country, and that thereby not only the city of utrecht, but various other cities of the united provinces would have fallen into a blood bath; and whereas the chief ringleaders in these things are considered to be john van barneveld, advocate of holland, rombout hoogerbeets, and hugo grotius, whereof hereafter shall declaration and announcement be made, therefore their high mightinesses, in order to prevent these and similar inconveniences, to place the country in security, and to bring the good burghers of all the cities into friendly unity again, have resolved to arrest those three persons, in order that out of their imprisonment they may be held to answer duly for their actions and offences." the deputies of holland in the states-general protested on the same day against the arrest, declaring themselves extraordinarily amazed at such proceedings, without their knowledge, with usurpation of their jurisdiction, and that they should refer to their principals for instructions in the matter. they reported accordingly at once to the states of holland in session in the same building. soon afterwards however a committee of five from the states-general appeared before the assembly to justify the proceeding. on their departure there arose a great debate, the six cities of course taking part with maurice and the general government. it was finally resolved by the majority to send a committee to the stadholder to remonstrate with, and by the six opposition cities another committee to congratulate him, on his recent performances. his answer was to this effect: "what had happened was not by his order, but had been done by the states- general, who must be supposed not to have acted without good cause. touching the laws and jurisdiction of holland he would not himself dispute, but the states of holland would know how to settle that matter with the states-general." next day it was resolved in the holland assembly to let the affair remain as it was for the time being. rapid changes were soon to be expected in that body, hitherto so staunch for the cause of municipal laws and state rights. meantime barneveld sat closely guarded in the apartments of the stadholder, while the country and very soon all europe were ringing with the news of his downfall, imprisonment, and disgrace. the news was a thunder-bolt to the lovers of religious liberty, a ray of dazzling sunlight after a storm to the orthodox. the showers of pamphlets, villanous lampoons, and libels began afresh. the relatives of the fallen statesman could not appear in the streets without being exposed to insult, and without hearing scurrilous and obscene verses against their father and themselves, in which neither sex nor age was spared, howled in their ears by all the ballad-mongers and broadsheet vendors of the town. the unsigned publication of the states- general, with its dark allusions to horrible discoveries and promised revelations which were never made, but which reduced themselves at last to the gibberish of a pot-house bully, the ingenious libels, the powerfully concocted and poisonous calumnies, caricatures, and lampoons, had done their work. people stared at each other in the streets with open mouths as they heard how the advocate had for years and years been the hireling of spain, whose government had bribed him largely to bring about the truce and kill the west india company; how his pockets and his coffers were running over with spanish ducats; how his plot to sell the whole country to the ancient tyrant, drive the prince of orange into exile, and bring every city of the netherlands into a "blood-bath," had, just in time, been discovered. and the people believed it and hated the man they had so lately honoured, and were ready to tear him to pieces in the streets. men feared to defend him lest they too should be accused of being stipendiaries of spain. it was a piteous spectacle; not for the venerable statesman sitting alone there in his prison, but for the republic in its lunacy, for human nature in its meanness and shame. he whom count lewis, although opposed to his politics, had so lately called one of the two columns on which the whole fabric of the states reposed, prince maurice being the other, now lay prostrate in the dust and reviled of all men. "many who had been promoted by him to high places," said a contemporary, "and were wont to worship him as a god, in hope that he would lift them up still higher, now deserted him, and ridiculed him, and joined the rest of the world in heaping dirt upon him." on the third day of his imprisonment the advocate wrote this letter to his family:-- "my very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren,--i know that you are sorrowful for the troubles which have come upon me, but i beg you to seek consolation from god the almighty and to comfort each other. i know before the lord god of having given no single lawful reason for the misfortunes which have come upon me, and i will with patience await from his divine hand and from my lawful superiors a happy issue, knowing well that you and my other well-wishers will with your prayers and good offices do all that you can to that end. "and so, very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren, i commend you to god's holy keeping. "i have been thus far well and honourably treated and accommodated, for which i thank his princely excellency. "from my chamber of arrest, last of august, anno . "your dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grand father, "john of barneveld." on the margin was written: "from the first i have requested and have at last obtained materials for writing." a fortnight before the arrest, but while great troubles were known to be impending, the french ambassador extraordinary, de boississe, had audience before the assembly of the states-general. he entreated them to maintain the cause of unity and peace as the foundation of their state; "that state," he said, "which lifts its head so high that it equals or surpasses the mightiest republics that ever existed, and which could not have risen to such a height of honour and grandeur in so short a time, but through harmony and union of all the provinces, through the valour of his excellency, and through your own wise counsels, both sustained by our great king, whose aid is continued by his son."--"the king my master," he continued, "knows not the cause of your disturbances. you have not communicated them to him, but their most apparent cause is a difference of opinion, born in the schools, thence brought before the public, upon a point of theology. that point has long been deemed by many to be so hard and so high that the best advice to give about it is to follow what god's word teaches touching god's secrets; to wit, that one should use moderation and modesty therein and should not rashly press too far into that which he wishes to be covered with the veil of reverence and wonder. that is a wise ignorance to keep one's eyes from that which god chooses to conceal. he calls us not to eternal life through subtle and perplexing questions." and further exhorting them to conciliation and compromise, he enlarged on the effect of their internal dissensions on their exterior relations. "what joy, what rapture you are preparing for your neighbours by your quarrels! how they will scorn you! how they will laugh! what a hope do you give them of revenging themselves upon you without danger to themselves! let me implore you to baffle their malice, to turn their joy into mourning, to unite yourselves to confound them." he spoke much more in the same vein, expressing wise and moderate sentiments. he might as well have gone down to the neighbouring beach when a south-west gale was blowing and talked of moderation to the waves of the german ocean. the tempest of passion and prejudice had risen in its might and was sweeping all before it. yet the speech, like other speeches and intercessions made at this epoch by de boississe and by the regular french ambassador, du maurier, was statesmanlike and reasonable. it is superfluous to say that it was in unison with the opinions of barneveld, for barneveld had probably furnished the text of the oration. even as he had a few years before supplied the letters which king james had signed and subsequently had struggled so desperately to disavow, so now the advocate's imperious intellect had swayed the docile and amiable minds of the royal envoys into complete sympathy with his policy. he usually dictated their general instructions. but an end had come to such triumphs. dudley carleton had returned from his leave of absence in england, where he had found his sovereign hating the advocate as doctors hate who have been worsted in theological arguments and despots who have been baffled in their imperious designs. who shall measure the influence on the destiny of this statesman caused by the french-spanish marriages, the sermons of james through the mouth of carleton, and the mutual jealousy of france and england? but the advocate was in prison, and the earth seemed to have closed over him. hardly a ripple of indignation was perceptible on the calm surface of affairs, although in the states-general as in the states of holland his absence seemed to have reduced both bodies to paralysis. they were the more easily handled by the prudent, skilful, and determined maurice. the arrest of the four gentlemen had been communicated to the kings of france and great britain and the elector-palatine in an identical letter from the states-general. it is noticeable that on this occasion the central government spoke of giving orders to the prince of orange, over whom they would seem to have had no legitimate authority, while on the other hand he had expressed indignation on more than one occasion that the respective states of the five provinces where he was governor and to whom he had sworn obedience should presume to issue commands to him. in france, where the advocate was honoured and beloved, the intelligence excited profound sorrow. a few weeks previously the government of that country had, as we have seen, sent a special ambassador to the states, m. de boississe, to aid the resident envoy, du maurier, in his efforts to bring about a reconciliation of parties and a termination of the religious feud. their exertions were sincere and unceasing. they were as steadily countermined by francis aerssens, for the aim of that diplomatist was to bring about a state of bad feeling, even at cost of rupture, between the republic and france, because france was friendly to the man he most hated and whose ruin he had sworn. during the summer a bitter personal controversy had been going on, sufficiently vulgar in tone, between aerssens and another diplomatist, barneveld's son-in-law, cornelis van der myle. it related to the recall of aerssens from the french embassy of which enough has already been laid before the reader. van der myle by the production of the secret letters of the queen-dowager and her counsellors had proved beyond dispute that it was at the express wish of the french government that the ambassador had retired, and that indeed they had distinctly refused to receive him, should he return. foul words resulting in propositions for a hostile meeting on the frontier, which however came to nothing, were interchanged and aerssens in the course of his altercation with the son-inlaw had found ample opportunity for venting his spleen upon his former patron the now fallen statesman. four days after the arrest of barneveld he brought the whole matter before the states-general, and the intention with which he thus raked up the old quarrel with france after the death of henry, and his charges in regard to the spanish marriages, was as obvious as it was deliberate. the french ambassadors were furious. boississe had arrived not simply as friend of the advocate, but to assure the states of the strong desire entertained by the french government to cultivate warmest relations with them. it had been desired by the contra-remonstrant party that deputies from the protestant churches of france should participate in the synod, and the french king had been much assailed by the catholic powers for listening to those suggestions. the papal nuncius, the spanish ambassador, the envoy of the archduke, had made a great disturbance at court concerning the mission of boississe. they urged with earnestness that his majesty was acting against the sentiments of spain, rome, and the whole catholic church, and that he ought not to assist with his counsel those heretics who were quarrelling among themselves over points in their heretical religion and wishing to destroy each other. notwithstanding this outcry the weather was smooth enough until the proceedings of aerssens came to stir up a tempest at the french court. a special courier came from boississe, a meeting of the whole council, although it was sunday, was instantly called, and the reply of the states-general to the remonstrance of the ambassador in the aerssens affair was pronounced to be so great an affront to the king that, but for overpowering reasons, diplomatic intercourse would have at once been suspended. "now instead of friendship there is great anger here," said langerac. the king forbade under vigorous penalties the departure of any french theologians to take part in the synod, although the royal consent had nearly been given. the government complained that no justice was done in the netherlands to the french nation, that leading personages there openly expressed contempt for the french alliance, denouncing the country as "hispaniolized," and declaring that all the council were regularly pensioned by spain for the express purpose of keeping up the civil dissensions in the united provinces. aerssens had publicly and officially declared that a majority of the french council since the death of henry had declared the crown in its temporal as well as spiritual essence to be dependent on the pope, and that the spanish marriages had been made under express condition of the renunciation of the friendship and alliance of the states. such were among the first-fruits of the fall of barneveld and the triumph of aerssens, for it was he in reality who had won the victory, and he had gained it over both stadholder and advocate. who was to profit by the estrangement between the republic and its powerful ally at a moment too when that great kingdom was at last beginning to emerge from the darkness and nothingness of many years, with the faint glimmering dawn of a new great policy? barneveld, whose masterful statesmanship, following out the traditions of william the silent, had ever maintained through good and ill report cordial and beneficent relations between the two countries, had always comprehended, even as a great cardinal-minister was ere long to teach the world, that the permanent identification of france with spain and the roman league was unnatural and impossible. meantime barneveld sat in his solitary prison, knowing not what was passing on that great stage where he had so long been the chief actor, while small intriguers now attempted to control events. it was the intention of aerssens to return to the embassy in paris whence he had been driven, in his own opinion, so unjustly. to render himself indispensable, he had begun by making himself provisionally formidable to the king's government. later, there would be other deeds to do before the prize was within his grasp. thus the very moment when france was disposed to cultivate the most earnest friendship with the republic had been seized for fastening an insult upon her. the twelve years' truce with spain was running to its close, the relations between france and spain were unusually cold, and her friendship therefore more valuable than ever. on the other hand the british king was drawing closer his relations with spain, and his alliance was demonstrably of small account. the phantom of the spanish bride had become more real to his excited vision than ever, so that early in the year, in order to please gondemar, he had been willing to offer an affront to the french ambassador. the prince of wales had given a splendid masquerade at court, to which the envoy of his most catholic majesty was bidden. much to his amazement the representative of the most christian king received no invitation, notwithstanding that he had taken great pains to procure one. m. de la boderie was very angry, and went about complaining to the states' ambassador and his other colleagues of the slight, and darkened the lives of the court functionaries having charge of such matters with his vengeance and despair. it was represented to him that he had himself been asked to a festival the year before when count gondemar was left out. it was hinted to him that the king had good reasons for what he did, as the marriage with the daughter of spain was now in train, and it was desirable that the spanish ambassador should be able to observe the prince's disposition and make a more correct report of it to his government. it was in vain. m. de la boderie refused to be comforted, and asserted that one had no right to leave the french ambassador uninvited to any "festival or triumph" at court. there was an endless disturbance. de la boderie sent his secretary off to paris to complain to the king that his ambassador was of no account in london, while much favour was heaped upon the spaniard. the secretary returned with instructions from lewis that the ambassador was to come home immediately, and he went off accordingly in dudgeon. "i could see that he was in the highest degree indignant," said caron, who saw him before he left, "and i doubt not that his departure will increase and keep up the former jealousy between the governments." the ill-humor created by this event lasted a long time, serving to neutralize or at least perceptibly diminish the spanish influence produced in france by the spanish marriages. in the autumn, secretary de puysieux by command of the king ordered every spaniard to leave the french court. all the "spanish ladies and gentlemen, great and small," who had accompanied the queen from madrid were included in this expulsion with the exception of four individuals, her majesty's father confessor, physician, apothecary, and cook. the fair young queen was much vexed and shed bitter tears at this calamity, which, as she spoke nothing but spanish, left her isolated at the court, but she was a little consoled by the promise that thenceforth the king would share her couch. it had not yet occurred to him that he was married. the french envoys at the hague exhausted themselves in efforts, both private and public, in favour of the prisoners, but it was a thankless task. now that the great man and his chief pupils and adherents were out of sight, a war of shameless calumny was began upon him, such as has scarcely a parallel in political history. it was as if a whole tribe of noxious and obscene reptiles were swarming out of the earth which had suddenly swallowed him. but it was not alone the obscure or the anonymous who now triumphantly vilified him. men in high places who had partaken of his patronage, who had caressed him and grovelled before him, who had grown great through his tuition and rich through his bounty, now rejoiced in his ruin or hastened at least to save themselves from being involved in it. not a man of them all but fell away from him like water. even the great soldier forgot whose respectful but powerful hand it was which, at the most tragical moment, had lifted him from the high school at leyden into the post of greatest power and responsibility, and had guided his first faltering footsteps by the light of his genius and experience. francis aerssens, master of the field, had now become the political tutor of the mature stadholder. step by step we have been studying the inmost thoughts of the advocate as revealed in his secret and confidential correspondence, and the reader has been enabled to judge of the wantonness of the calumny which converted the determined antagonist into the secret friend of spain. yet it had produced its effect upon maurice. he told the french ambassadors a month after the arrest that barneveld had been endeavouring, during and since the truce negotiations, to bring back the provinces, especially holland, if not under the dominion of, at least under some kind of vassalage to spain. persons had been feeling the public pulse as to the possibility of securing permanent peace by paying tribute to spain, and this secret plan of barneveld had so alienated him from the prince as to cause him to attempt every possible means of diminishing or destroying altogether his authority. he had spread through many cities that maurice wished to make himself master of the state by using the religious dissensions to keep the people weakened and divided. there is not a particle of evidence, and no attempt was ever made to produce any, that the advocate had such plan, but certainly, if ever, man had made himself master of a state, that man was maurice. he continued however to place himself before the world as the servant of the states- general, which he never was, either theoretically or in fact. the french ambassadors became every day more indignant and more discouraged. it was obvious that aerssens, their avowed enemy, was controlling the public policy of the government. not only was there no satisfaction to be had for the offensive manner in which he had filled the country with his ancient grievances and his nearly forgotten charges against the queen-dowager and those who had assisted her in the regency, but they were repulsed at every turn when by order of their sovereign they attempted to use his good offices in favour of the man who had ever been the steady friend of france. the stadholder also professed friendship for that country, and referred to colonel-general chatillon, who had for a long time commanded the french regiments in the netherlands, for confirmation of his uniform affection for those troops and attachment to their sovereign. he would do wonders, he said, if lewis would declare war upon spain by land and sea. "such fruits are not ripe," said boississe, "nor has your love for france been very manifest in recent events." "barneveld," replied the prince, "has personally offended me, and has boasted that he would drive me out of the country like leicester. he is accused of having wished to trouble the country in order to bring it back under the yoke of spain. justice will decide. the states only are sovereign to judge this question. you must address yourself to them." "the states," replied the ambassadors, "will require to be aided by your counsels." the prince made no reply and remained chill and "impregnable." the ambassadors continued their intercessions in behalf of the prisoners both by public address to the assembly and by private appeals to the stadholder and his influential friends. in virtue of the intimate alliance and mutual guarantees existing between their government and the republic they claimed the acceptance of their good offices. they insisted upon a regular trial of the prisoners according to the laws of the land, that is to say, by the high court of holland, which alone had jurisdiction in the premises. if they had been guilty of high-treason, they should be duly arraigned. in the name of the signal services of barneveld and of the constant friendship of that great magistrate for france, the king demanded clemency or proof of his crimes. his majesty complained through his ambassadors of the little respect shown for his counsels and for his friendship. "in times past you found ever prompt and favourable action in your time of need." "this discourse," said maurice to chatillon, "proceeds from evil intention." thus the prisoners had disappeared from human sight, and their enemies ran riot in slandering them. yet thus far no public charges had been made. "nothing appears against them," said du maurier, "and people are beginning to open their mouths with incredible freedom. while waiting for the condemnation of the prisoners, one is determined to dishonour them." the french ambassadors were instructed to intercede to the last, but they were steadily repulsed--while the king of great britain, anxious to gain favour with spain by aiding in the ruin of one whom he knew and spain knew to be her determined foe, did all he could through his ambassador to frustrate their efforts and bring on a catastrophe. the states-general and maurice were now on as confidential terms with carleton as they were cold and repellent to boississe and du maurier. "to recall to them the benefits of the king," said du maurier, "is to beat the air. and then aerssens bewitches them, and they imagine that after having played runaway horses his majesty will be only too happy to receive them back, caress them, and, in order to have their friendship, approve everything they have been doing right or wrong." aerssens had it all his own way, and the states-general had just paid him , francs in cash on the ground that langerac's salary was larger than his had been when at the head of the same embassy many years before. his elevation into the body of nobles, which maurice had just stocked with five other of his partisans, was accounted an additional affront to france, while on the other hand the queen-mother, having through epernon's assistance made her escape from blois, where she had been kept in durance since the death of concini, now enumerated among other grievances for which she was willing to take up arms against her son that the king's government had favoured barneveld. it was strange that all the devotees of spain--mary de' medici, and epernon, as well as james i. and his courtiers--should be thus embittered against the man who had sold the netherlands to spain. at last the prince told the french ambassadors that the "people of the provinces considered their persistent intercessions an invasion of their sovereignty." few would have anything to say to them. "no one listens to us, no one replies to us," said du maurier, "everyone visiting us is observed, and it is conceived a reproach here to speak to the ambassadors of france." certainly the days were changed since henry iv. leaned on the arm of barneveld, and consulted with him, and with him only, among all the statesmen of europe on his great schemes for regenerating christendom and averting that general war which, now that the great king had been murdered and the advocate imprisoned, had already begun to ravage europe. van der myle had gone to paris to make such exertions as he could among the leading members of the council in favour of his father-in-law. langerac, the states' ambassador there, who but yesterday had been turning at every moment to the advocate for light and warmth as to the sun, now hastened to disavow all respect or regard for him. he scoffed at the slender sympathy van der myle was finding in the bleak political atmosphere. he had done his best to find out what he had been negotiating with the members of the council and was glad to say that it was so inconsiderable as to be not worth reporting. he had not spoken with or seen the king. jeannin, his own and his father-in-law's principal and most confidential friend, had only spoken with him half an hour and then departed for burgundy, although promising to confer with him sympathetically on his return. "i am very displeased at his coming here," said langerac, " . . . . . but he has found little friendship or confidence, and is full of woe and apprehension." the ambassador's labours were now confined to personally soliciting the king's permission for deputations from the reformed churches of france to go to the synod, now opened ( th november) at dordtrecht, and to clearing his own skirts with the prince and states-general of any suspicion of sympathy with barneveld. in the first object he was unsuccessful, the king telling him at last "with clear and significant words that this was impossible, on account of his conscience, his respect for the catholic religion, and many other reasons." in regard to the second point he acted with great promptness. he received a summons in january from the states-general and the prince to send them all letters that he had ever received from barneveld. he crawled at once to maurice on his knees, with the letters in his hand. "most illustrious, high-born prince, most gracious lord," he said; "obeying the commands which it has pleased the states and your princely grace to give me, i send back the letters of advocate barneveld. if your princely grace should find anything in them showing that the said advocate had any confidence in me, i most humbly beg your princely grace to believe that i never entertained any affection for, him, except only in respect to and so far as he was in credit and good authority with the government, and according to the upright zeal which i thought i could see in him for the service of my high and puissant lords the states-general and of your princely grace." greater humbleness could be expected of no ambassador. most nobly did the devoted friend and pupil of the great statesman remember his duty to the illustrious prince and their high mightinesses. most promptly did he abjure his patron now that he had fallen into the abyss. "nor will it be found," he continued, "that i have had any sympathy or communication with the said advocate except alone in things concerning my service. the great trust i had in him as the foremost and oldest counsellor of the state, as the one who so confidentially instructed me on my departure for france, and who had obtained for himself so great authority that all the most important affairs of the country were entrusted to him, was the cause that i simply and sincerely wrote to him all that people were in the habit of saying at this court. "if i had known in the least or suspected that he was not what he ought to be in the service of my lords the states and of your princely grace and for the welfare and tranquillity of the land, i should have been well on my guard against letting myself in the least into any kind of communication with him whatever." the reader has seen how steadily and frankly the advocate had kept langerac as well as caron informed of passing events, and how little concealment he made of his views in regard to the synod, the waartgelders, and the respective authority of the states-general and states-provincial. not only had langerac no reason to suspect that barneveld was not what he ought to be, but he absolutely knew the contrary from that most confidential correspondence with him which he was now so abjectly repudiating. the advocate, in a protracted constitutional controversy, had made no secret of his views either officially or privately. whether his positions were tenable or flimsy, they had been openly taken. "what is more," proceeded the ambassador, "had i thought that any account ought to be made of what i wrote to him concerning the sovereignty of the provinces, i should for a certainty not have failed to advise your grace of it above all." he then, after profuse and maudlin protestations of his most dutiful zeal all the days of his life for "the service, honour, reputation, and contentment of your princely grace," observed that he had not thought it necessary to give him notice of such idle and unfounded matters, as being likely to give the prince annoyance and displeasure. he had however always kept within himself the resolution duly to notify him in case he found that any belief was attached to the reports in paris. "but the reports," he said, "were popular and calumnious inventions of which no man had ever been willing or able to name to him the authors." the ambassador's memory was treacherous, and he had doubtless neglected to read over the minutes, if he had kept them, of his wonderful disclosures on the subject of the sovereignty before thus exculpating himself. it will be remembered that he had narrated the story of the plot for conferring sovereignty upon maurice not as a popular calumny flying about paris with no man to father it, but he had given it to barneveld on the authority of a privy councillor of france and of the king himself. "his majesty knows it to be authentic," he had said in his letter. that letter was a pompous one, full of mystery and so secretly ciphered that he had desired that his friend van der myle, whom he was now deriding for his efforts in paris to save his father-inlaw from his fate, might assist the advocate in unravelling its contents. he had now discovered that it had been idle gossip not worthy of a moment's attention. the reader will remember too that barneveld, without attaching much importance to the tale, had distinctly pointed out to langerac that the prince himself was not implicated in the plot and had instructed the ambassador to communicate the story to maurice. this advice had not been taken, but he had kept the perilous stuff upon his breast. he now sought to lay the blame, if it were possible to do so, upon the man to whom he had communicated it and who had not believed it. the business of the states-general, led by the advocate's enemies this winter, was to accumulate all kind of tales, reports, and accusations to his discredit on which to form something like a bill of indictment. they had demanded all his private and confidential correspondence with caron and langerae. the ambassador in paris had been served, moreover, with a string of nine interrogatories which he was ordered to answer on oath and honour. this he did and appended the reply to his letter. the nine questions had simply for their object to discover what barneveld had been secretly writing to the ambassador concerning the synod, the enlisted troops, and the supposed projects of maurice concerning the sovereignty. langerac was obliged to admit in his replies that nothing had been written except the regular correspondence which he endorsed, and of which the reader has been able to see the sum and substance in the copious extracts which have been given. he stated also that he had never received any secret instructions save the marginal notes to the list of questions addressed by him, when about leaving for paris in , to barneveld. most of these were of a trivial and commonplace nature. they had however a direct bearing on the process to be instituted against the advocate, and the letter too which we have been examining will prove to be of much importance. certainly pains enough were taken to detect the least trace of treason in a very loyal correspondence. langerac concluded by enclosing the barneveld correspondence since the beginning of the year , protesting that not a single letter had been kept back or destroyed. "once more i recommend myself to mercy, if not to favour," he added, "as the most faithful, most obedient, most zealous servant of their high mightinesses and your princely grace, to whom i have devoted and sacrificed my honour and life in most humble service; and am now and forever the most humble, most obedient, most faithful servant of my most serene, most illustrious, most highly born prince, most gracious lord and princeliest grace." the former adherent of plain advocate barneveld could hardly find superlatives enough to bestow upon the man whose displeasure that prisoner had incurred. directly after the arrest the stadholder had resumed his tour through the provinces in order to change the governments. sliding over any opposition which recent events had rendered idle, his course in every city was nearly the same. a regiment or two and a train of eighty or a hundred waggons coming through the city-gate preceded by the prince and his body-guard of , a tramp of halberdmen up the great staircase of the town-hall, a jingle of spurs in the assembly-room, and the whole board of magistrates were summoned into the presence of the stadholder. they were then informed that the world had no further need of their services, and were allowed to bow themselves out of the presence. a new list was then announced, prepared beforehand by maurice on the suggestion of those on whom he could rely. a faint resistance was here and there attempted by magistrates and burghers who could not forget in a moment the rights of self-government and the code of laws which had been enjoyed for centuries. at hoorn, for instance, there was deep indignation among the citizens. an imprudent word or two from the authorities might have brought about a "blood-bath." the burgomaster ventured indeed to expostulate. they requested the prince not to change the magistracy. "this is against our privileges," they said, "which it is our duty to uphold. you will see what deep displeasure will seize the burghers, and how much disturbance and tumult will follow. if any faults have been committed by any member of the government, let him be accused and let him answer for them. let your excellency not only dismiss but punish such as cannot properly justify themselves." but his excellency summoned them all to the town-house and as usual deposed them all. a regiment was drawn up in half-moon on the square beneath the windows. to the magistrates asking why they were deposed, he briefly replied, "the quiet of the land requires it. it is necessary to have unanimous resolutions in the states-general at the hague. this cannot be accomplished without these preliminary changes. i believe that you had good intentions and have been faithful servants of the fatherland. but this time it must be so." and so the faithful servants of the fatherland were dismissed into space. otherwise how could there be unanimous voting in parliament? it must be regarded perhaps as fortunate that the force of character, undaunted courage, and quiet decision of maurice enabled him to effect this violent series of revolutions with such masterly simplicity. it is questionable whether the stadholder's commission technically empowered him thus to trample on municipal law; it is certain that, if it did, the boasted liberties of the netherlands were a dream; but it is equally true that, in the circumstances then existing, a vulgar, cowardly, or incompetent personage might have marked his pathway with massacres without restoring tranquillity. sometimes there was even a comic aspect to these strokes of state. the lists of new magistrates being hurriedly furnished by the prince's adherents to supply the place of those evicted, it often happened that men not quahified by property, residence, or other attributes were appointed to the government, so that many became magistrates before they were citizens. on being respectfully asked sometimes who such a magistrate might be whose face and name were equally unknown to his colleagues and to the townsmen in general; "do i know the fellows?" he would say with a cheerful laugh. and indeed they might have all been dead men, those new functionaries, for aught he did know. and so on through medemblik and alkmaar, brielle, delft, monnikendam, and many other cities progressed the prince, sowing new municipalities broadcast as he passed along. at the hague on his return a vote of thanks to the prince was passed by the nobles and most of the cities for the trouble he had taken in this reforming process. but the unanimous vote had not yet been secured, the strongholds of arminianism, as it was the fashion to call them, not being yet reduced. the prince, in reply to the vote of thanks, said that "in what he had done and was going to do his intention sincerely and uprightly had been no other than to promote the interests and tranquillity of the country, without admixture of anything personal and without prejudice to the general commonwealth or the laws and privileges of the cities." he desired further that "note might be taken of this declaration as record of his good and upright intentions." but the sincerest and most upright intentions may be refracted by party atmosphere from their aim, and the purest gold from the mint elude the direct grasp through the clearest fluid in existence. at any rate it would have been difficult to convince the host of deposed magistrates hurled from office, although recognized as faithful servants of the fatherland, that such violent removal had taken place without detriment to the laws and privileges. and the stadholder went to the few cities where some of the leaven still lingered. he arrived at leyden on the nd october, "accompanied by a great suite of colonels, ritmeesters, and captains," having sent on his body-guard to the town strengthened by other troops. he was received by the magistrates at the "prince's court" with great reverence and entertained by them in the evening at a magnificent banquet. next morning he summoned the whole forty of them to the town-house, disbanded them all, and appointed new ones in their stead; some of the old members however who could be relied upon being admitted to the revolutionized board. the populace, mainly of the stadholder's party, made themselves merry over the discomfited "arminians". they hung wisps of straw as derisive wreaths of triumph over the dismantled palisade lately encircling the town-hall, disposed of the famous "oldenbarneveld's teeth" at auction in the public square, and chased many a poor cock and hen, with their feathers completely plucked from their bodies, about the street, crying "arme haenen, arme haenen"--arminians or poor fowls--according to the practical witticism much esteemed at that period. certainly the unfortunate barneveldians or arminians, or however the remonstrants might be designated, had been sufficiently stripped of their plumes. the prince, after having made proclamation from the town-house enjoining "modesty upon the mob" and a general abstention from "perverseness and petulance," went his way to haarlem, where he dismissed the magistrates and appointed new ones, and then proceeded to rotterdam, to gouda, and to amsterdam. it seemed scarcely necessary to carry, out the process in the commercial capital, the abode of peter plancius, the seat of the west india company, the head-quarters of all most opposed to the advocate, most devoted to the stadholder. but although the majority of the city government was an overwhelming one, there was still a respectable minority who, it was thought possible, might under a change of circumstances effect much mischief and even grow into a majority. the prince therefore summoned the board before him according to his usual style of proceeding and dismissed them all. they submitted without a word of remonstrance. ex-burgomaster hooft, a man of seventy-two-father of the illustrious pieter corneliszoon hooft, one of the greatest historians of the netherlands or of any country, then a man of thirty-seven-shocked at the humiliating silence, asked his colleagues if they had none of them a word to say in defence of their laws and privileges. they answered with one accord "no." the old man, a personal friend of barneveld and born the same year, then got on his feet and addressed the stadholder. he spoke manfully and well, characterizing the summary deposition of the magistracy as illegal and unnecessary, recalling to the memory of those who heard him that he had been thirty-six years long a member of the government and always a warm friend of the house of nassau, and respectfully submitting that the small minority in the municipal government, while differing from their colleagues and from the greater number of the states-general, had limited their opposition to strictly constitutional means, never resorting to acts of violence or to secret conspiracy. nothing could be more truly respectable than the appearance of this ancient magistrate, in long black robe with fur edgings, high ruff around his thin, pointed face, and decent skull-cap covering his bald old head, quavering forth to unsympathetic ears a temperate and unanswerable defence of things which in all ages the noblest minds have deemed most valuable. his harangue was not very long. maurice's reply was very short. "grandpapa," he said, "it must be so this time. necessity and the service of the country require it." with that he dismissed the thirty-six magistrates and next day appointed a new board, who were duly sworn to fidelity to the states-general. of course a large proportion of the old members were renominated. scarcely had the echo of the prince's footsteps ceased to resound through the country as he tramped from one city to another, moulding each to his will, when the states of holland, now thoroughly reorganized, passed a solemn vote of thanks to him for all that he had done. the six cities of the minority had now become the majority, and there was unanimity at the hague. the seven provinces, states-general and states-provincial, were as one, and the synod was secured. whether the prize was worth the sacrifices which it had cost and was still to cost might at least be considered doubtful. etext editor's bookmarks: affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies depths theological party spirit could descend extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence human nature in its meanness and shame it had not yet occurred to him that he was married make the very name of man a term of reproach never lack of fishers in troubled waters opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood pot-valiant hero resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military tempest of passion and prejudice the effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny yes, there are wicked men about the piccolomini by frederich schiller translated by s. t. coleridge. "upon the whole there can be no doubt that this trilogy forms, in its original tongue, one of the most splendid specimens of tragic art the world has witnessed; and none at all, that the execution of the version from which we have quoted so largely, places mr. coleridge in the very first rank of poetical translators. he is, perhaps, the solitary example of a man of very great original genius submitting to all the labors, and reaping all the honors of this species of literary exertion."--blackwood, . preface. the two dramas,--piccolomini, or the first part of wallenstein, and the death of wallenstein, are introduced in the original manuscript by a prelude in one act, entitled wallenstein's camp. this is written in rhyme, and in nine-syllable verse, in the same lilting metre (if that expression may be permitted), with the second eclogue of spenser's shepherd's calendar. this prelude possesses a sort of broad humor, and is not deficient in character: but to have translated it into prose, or into any other metre than that of the original, would have given a false idea both of its style and purport; to have translated it into the same metre would have been incompatible with a faithful adherence to the sense of the german from the comparative poverty of our language in rhymes; and it would have been unadvisable, from the incongruity of those lax verses with the present taste of the english public. schiller's intention seems to have been merely to have prepared his reader for the tragedies by a lively picture of laxity of discipline and the mutinous dispositions of wallenstein's soldiery. it is not necessary as a preliminary explanation. for these reasons it has been thought expedient not to translate it. the admirers of schiller, who have abstracted their idea of that author from the robbers, and the cabal and love, plays in which the main interest is produced by the excitement of curiosity, and in which the curiosity is excited by terrible and extraordinary incident, will not have perused without some portion of disappointment the dramas, which it has been my employment to translate. they should, however, reflect that these are historical dramas taken from a popular german history; that we must, therefore, judge of them in some measure with the feelings of germans; or, by analogy, with the interest excited in us by similar dramas in our own language. few, i trust, would be rash or ignorant enough to compare schiller with shakspeare; yet, merely as illustration, i would say that we should proceed to the perusal of wallenstein, not from lear or othello, but from richard ii., or the three parts of henry vi. we scarcely expect rapidity in an historical drama; and many prolix speeches are pardoned from characters whose names and actions have formed the most amusing tales of our early life. on the other hand, there exist in these plays more individual beauties, more passages whose excellence will bear reflection than in the former productions of schiller. the description of the astrological tower, and the reflections of the young lover, which follow it, form in the original a fine poem; and my translation must have been wretched indeed if it can have wholly overclouded the beauties of the scene in the first act of the first play between questenberg, max, and octavio piccolomini. if we except the scene of the setting sun in the robbers, i know of no part in schiller's plays which equals the first scene of the fifth act of the concluding plays. [in this edition, scene iii., act v.] it would be unbecoming in me to be more diffuse on this subject. a translator stands connected with the original author by a certain law of subordination which makes it more decorous to point out excellences than defects; indeed, he is not likely to be a fair judge of either. the pleasure or disgust from his own labor will mingle with the feelings that arise from an afterview of the original. even in the first perusal of a work in any foreign language which we understand, we are apt to attribute to it more excellence than it really possesses from our own pleasurable sense of difficulty overcome without effort. translation of poetry into poetry is difficult, because the translator must give a brilliancy to his language without that warmth of original conception from which such brilliancy would follow of its own accord. but the translator of a living author is incumbered with additional inconveniences. if he render his original faithfully as to the sense of each passage, he must necessarily destroy a considerable portion of the spirit; if he endeavor to give a work executed according to laws of compensation he subjects himself to imputations of vanity or misrepresentation. i have thought it my duty to remain bound by the sense of my original with as few exceptions as the nature of the languages rendered possible. s. t. c. the piccolomini. dramatis personae. wallenstein, duke of friedland, generalissimo of the imperial forces in the thirty years' war. octavio piccolomini, lieutenant-general. max. piccolomini, his son, colonel of a regiment of cuirassiers. count terzky, the commander of several regiments, and brother-in-law of wallenstein. illo, field-marshal, wallenstein's confidant. isolani, general of the croats. butler, an irishman, commander of a regiment of dragoons. tiefenbach, | don maradas, | generals under wallenstein. goetz, | kolatto, | neumann, captain of cavalry, aide-de-camp to terzky. von questenberg, the war commissioner, imperial envoy. baptista seni, an astrologer. duchess of friedland, wife of wallenstein. thekla, her daughter, princess of friedland. the countess terzry, sister of the duchess. a cornet. colonels and generals (several). pages and attendants belonging to wallenstein. attendants and hoboists belonging to terzky. master of the cellar to count terzky. valet de chambre of count piccolomini. act i. scene i. an old gothic chamber in the council-house at pilsen, decorated with colors and other war insignia. illo, with butler and isolani. illo. ye have come too late-but ye are come! the distance, count isolani, excuses your delay. isolani. add this too, that we come not empty-handed. at donauwerth [ ] it was reported to us, a swedish caravan was on its way, transporting a rich cargo of provision, almost six hundreds wagons. this my croats plunged down upon and seized, this weighty prize!-- we bring it hither---- illo. just in time to banquet the illustrious company assembled here. butler. 'tis all alive! a stirring scene here! isolani. ay! the very churches are full of soldiers. [casts his eye round. and in the council-house, too, i observe, you're settled quite at home! well, well! we soldiers must shift and suit us in what way we can. illo. we have the colonels here of thirty regiments. you'll find count terzky here, and tiefenbach, kolatto, goetz, maradas, hinnersam, the piccolomini, both son and father-- you'll meet with many an unexpected greeting from many an old friend and acquaintance. only gallas is wanting still, and altringer. butler. expect not gallas. illo (hesitating). how so? do you know---- isolani (interrupting him). max. piccolomini here? o bring me to him. i see him yet ('tis now ten years ago, we were engaged with mansfeldt hard by dessau), i see the youth, in my mind's eye i see him, leap his black war-horse from the bridge adown, and t'ward his father, then in extreme peril, beat up against the strong tide of the elbe. the down was scarce upon his chin! i hear he has made good the promise of his youth, and the full hero now is finished in him. illo. you'll see him yet ere evening. he conducts the duchess friedland hither, and the princess [ ] from caernthen [ ]. we expect them here at noon. butler. both wife and daughter does the duke call hither? he crowds in visitants from all sides. isolani. hm! so much the better! i had framed my mind to hear of naught but warlike circumstance, of marches and attacks, and batteries; and lo! the duke provides, and something too of gentler sort and lovely, should be present to feast our eyes. illo (who has been standing in the attitude of meditation, to butler, whom he leads a little on one side). and how came you to know that the count gallas joins us not? butler. because he importuned me to remain behind. illo (with warmth). and you? you hold out firmly! [grasping his hand with affection. noble butler! butler. after the obligation which the duke had laid so newly on me---- illo. i had forgotten a pleasant duty--major-general, i wish you joy! isolani. what, you mean, of this regiment? i hear, too, that to make the gift still sweeter, the duke has given him the very same in which he first saw service, and since then worked himself step by step, through each preferment, from the ranks upwards. and verily, it gives a precedent of hope, a spur of action to the whole corps, if once in their remembrance an old deserving soldier makes his way. butler. i am perplexed and doubtful whether or no i dare accept this your congratulation. the emperor has not yet confirmed the appointment. isolani. seize it, friend, seize it! the hand which in that post placed you is strong enough to keep you there, spite of the emperor and his ministers! illo. ay, if we would but so consider it!-- if we would all of us consider it so! the emperor gives us nothing; from the duke comes all--whate'er we hope, whate'er we have. isolani (to illo). my noble brother! did i tell you how the duke will satisfy my creditors? will be himself my bankers for the future, make me once more a creditable man! and this is now the third time, think of that! this kingly-minded man has rescued me from absolute ruin and restored my honor. illo. oh that his power but kept pace with his wishes! why, friend! he'd give the whole world to his soldiers. but at vienna, brother!--here's the grievance,-- what politic schemes do they not lay to shorten his arm, and where they can to clip his pinions. then these new dainty requisitions! these which this same questenberg brings hither! butler. ay! those requisitions of the emperor-- i too have heard about them; but i hope the duke will not draw back a single inch! illo. not from his right most surely, unless first from office! butler (shocked and confused). know you aught then? you alarm me. isolani (at the same time with butler, and in a hurrying voice). we should be ruined, every one of us! illo. yonder i see our worthy friend [spoken with a sneer] approaching with the lieutenant-general piccolomini. butler (shaking his head significantly). i fear we shall not go hence as we came. scene ii. enter octavio piccolomini and questenberg. octavio (still in the distance). ay! ah! more still! still more new visitors! acknowledge, friend! that never was a camp, which held at once so many heads of heroes. questenberg. let none approach a camp of friedland's troops who dares to think unworthily of war; e'en i myself had nigh forgot its evils when i surveyed that lofty soul of order, by which, while it destroys the world--itself maintains the greatness which itself created. octavio (approaching nearer). welcome, count isolani! isolani. my noble brother! even now am i arrived; it has been else my duty---- octavio. and colonel butler--trust me, i rejoice thus to renew acquaintance with a man whose worth and services i know and honor. see, see, my friend! there might we place at once before our eyes the sum of war's whole trade and mystery-- [to questenberg, presenting butler and isolani at the same time to him. these two the total sum--strength and despatch. questenberg (to octavio). and lo! betwixt them both, experienced prudence! octavio (presenting questenberg to butler and isolani). the chamberlain and war-commissioner questenberg. the bearer of the emperor's behests,-- the long-tried friend and patron of all soldiers, we honor in this noble visitor. [universal silence. illo (moving towards questenberg). 'tis not the first time, noble minister, you've shown our camp this honor. questenberg. once before i stood beside these colors. illo. perchance too you remember where that was; it was at znaeim [ ] in moravia, where you did present yourself upon the part of the emperor to supplicate our duke that he would straight assume the chief command. questenburg. to supplicate? nay, bold general! so far extended neither my commission (at least to my own knowledge) nor my zeal. illo. well, well, then--to compel him, if you choose, i can remember me right well, count tilly had suffered total rout upon the lech. bavaria lay all open to the enemy, whom there was nothing to delay from pressing onwards into the very heart of austria. at that time you and werdenberg appeared before our general, storming him with prayers, and menacing the emperor's displeasure, unless he took compassion on this wretchedness. isolani (steps up to them). yes, yes, 'tis comprehensible enough, wherefore with your commission of to-day, you were not all too willing to remember your former one. questenberg. why not, count isolani? no contradiction sure exists between them. it was the urgent business of that time to snatch bavaria from her enemy's hand; and my commission of to-day instructs me to free her from her good friends and protectors. illo. a worthy office! after with our blood we have wrested this bohemia from the saxon, to be swept out of it is all our thanks, the sole reward of all our hard-won victories. questenberg. unless that wretched land be doomed to suffer only a change of evils, it must be freed from the scourge alike of friend or foe. illo. what? 'twas a favorable year; the boors can answer fresh demands already. questenberg. nay, if you discourse of herds and meadow-grounds---- isolani. the war maintains the war. are the boors ruined the emperor gains so many more new soldiers. questenberg. and is the poorer by even so many subjects. isolani. poh! we are all his subjects. questenberg. yet with a difference, general! the one fill with profitable industry the purse, the others are well skilled to empty it. the sword has made the emperor poor; the plough must reinvigorate his resources. isolani. sure! times are not yet so bad. methinks i see [examining with his eye the dress and ornaments of questenberg. good store of gold that still remains uncoined. questenberg. thank heaven! that means have been found out to hide some little from the fingers of the croats. illo. there! the stawata and the martinitz, on whom the emperor heaps his gifts and graces, to the heart-burning of all good bohemians-- those minions of court favor, those court harpies, who fatten on the wrecks of citizens driven from their house and home--who reap no harvests save in the general calamity-- who now, with kingly pomp, insult and mock the desolation of their country--these, let these, and such as these, support the war, the fatal war, which they alone enkindled! butler. and those state-parasites, who have their feet so constantly beneath the emperor's table, who cannot let a benefice fall, but they snap at it with dogs' hunger--they, forsooth, would pare the soldiers bread and cross his reckoning! isolani. my life long will it anger me to think, how when i went to court seven years ago, to see about new horses for our regiment, how from one antechamber to another they dragged me on and left me by the hour to kick my heels among a crowd of simpering feast-fattened slaves, as if i had come thither a mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favor that fell beneath their tables. and, at last, whom should they send me but a capuchin! straight i began to muster up my sins for absolution--but no such luck for me! this was the man, this capuchin, with whom i was to treat concerning the army horses! and i was forced at last to quit the field, the business unaccomplished. afterwards the duke procured me in three days what i could not obtain in thirty at vienna. questenberg. yes, yes! your travelling bills soon found their way to us! too well i know we have still accounts to settle. illo. war is violent trade; one cannot always finish one's work by soft means; every trifle must not be blackened into sacrilege. if we should wait till you, in solemn council, with due deliberation had selected the smallest out of four-and-twenty evils, i' faith we should wait long-- "dash! and through with it!" that's the better watchword. then after come what may come. 'tis man's nature to make the best of a bad thing once past. a bitter and perplexed "what shall i do?" is worse to man than worst necessity. questenberg. ay, doubtless, it is true; the duke does spare us the troublesome task of choosing. butler. yes, the duke cares with a father's feelings for his troops; but how the emperor feels for us, we see. questenberg. his cares and feelings all ranks share alike, nor will he offer one up to another. isolani. and therefore thrusts he us into the deserts as beasts of prey, that so he may preserve his dear sheep fattening in his fields at home. questenberg (with a sneer). count! this comparison you make, not i. illo. why, were we all the court supposes us 'twere dangerous, sure, to give us liberty. questenberg (gravely). you have taken liberty--it was not given you, and therefore it becomes an urgent duty to rein it in with the curbs. illo. expect to find a restive steed in us. questenberg. a better rider may be found to rule it. illo. he only brooks the rider who has tamed him. questenberg. ay, tame him once, and then a child may lead him. illo. the child, we know, is found for him already. questenberg. be duty, sir, your study, not a name. butler (who has stood aside with piccolomini, but with visible interest in the conversation, advances). sir president, the emperor has in germany a splendid host assembled; in this kingdom full twenty thousand soldiers are cantoned, with sixteen thousand in silesia; ten regiments are posted on the weser, the rhine, and maine; in swabia there are six, and in bavaria twelve, to face the swedes; without including in the account the garrisons who on the frontiers hold the fortresses. this vast and mighty host is all obedient to friedland's captains; and its brave commanders, bred in one school, and nurtured with one milk, are all excited by one heart and soul; they are as strangers on the soil they tread, the service is their only house and home. no zeal inspires then for their country's cause, for thousands like myself were born abroad; nor care they for the emperor, for one half deserting other service fled to ours, indifferent what their banner, whether 'twere, the double eagle, lily, or the lion. yet one sole man can rein this fiery host by equal rule, by equal love and fear; blending the many-nationed whole in one; and like the lightning's fires securely led down the conducting rod, e'en thus his power rules all the mass, from guarded post to post, from where the sentry hears the baltic roar, or views the fertile vales of the adige, e'en to the body-guard, who holds his watch within the precincts of the imperial palace! questenberg. what's the short meaning of this long harangue? butler. that the respect, the love, the confidence, which makes us willing subjects of duke friedland, are not to be transferred to the first comer that austria's court may please to send to us. we have not yet so readily forgotten how the command came into friedland's hands. was it, forsooth, the emperor's majesty that gave the army ready to his hand, and only sought a leader for it? no. the army then had no existence. he, friedland, it was who called it into being, and gave it to his sovereign--but receiving no army at his hand; nor did the emperor give wallenstein to us as general. no, it was from wallenstein we first received the emperor as our master and our sovereign; and he, he only, binds us to our banners! octavio (interposing and addressing questenberg). my noble friend, this is no more than a remembrancing that you are now in camp, and among warriors; the soldier's boldness constitutes his freedom. could he act daringly, unless he dared talk even so? one runs into the other. the boldness of this worthy officer, [pointing to butler. which now is but mistaken in its mark, preserved, when naught but boldness could preserve it, to the emperor, his capital city, prague, in a most formidable mutiny of the whole garrison. [military music at a distance. hah! here they come! illo. the sentries are saluting them: this signal announces the arrival of the duchess. octavio (to questenberg). then my son max., too, has returned. 'twas he fetched and attended them from caernthen hither. isolani (to illo). shall we not go in company to greet them? illo. well, let us go--ho! colonel butler, come. [to octavio. you'll not forget that yet ere noon we meet the noble envoy at the general's palace. [exeunt all but questenberg and octavio. scene iii. questenberg and octavio. questenberg (with signs of aversion and astonishment). what have i not been forced to hear, octavio! what sentiments! what fierce, uncurbed defiance! and were this spirit universal---- octavio. hm! you're now acquainted with three-fourths of the army. questenberg. where must we seek, then, for a second host to have the custody of this? that illo thinks worse, i fear me, than he speaks. and then this butler, too--he cannot even conceal the passionate workings of his ill intentions. octavio. quickness of temper--irritated pride; 'twas nothing more. i cannot give up butler. i know a spell that will soon dispossess the evil spirit in him. questenberg (walking up and down in evident disquiet). friend, friend! o! this is worse, far worse, than we had suffered ourselves to dream of at vienna. there we saw it only with a courtier's eyes, eyes dazzled by the splendor of the throne. we had not seen the war-chief, the commander, the man all-powerful in his camp. here, here, 'tis quite another thing. here is no emperor more--the duke is emperor. alas, my friend! alas, my noble friend! this walk which you have ta'en me through the camp strikes my hopes prostrate. octavio. now you see yourself of what a perilous kind the office is, which you deliver to me from the court. the least suspicion of the general costs me my freedom and my life, and would but hasten his most desperate enterprise. questenberg. where was our reason sleeping when we trusted this madman with the sword, and placed such power in such a hand? i tell you, he'll refuse, flatly refuse to obey the imperial orders. friend, he can do it, and what he can, he will. and then the impunity of his defiance-- oh! what a proclamation of our weakness! octavio. d'ye think, too, he has brought his wife and daughter without a purpose hither? here in camp! and at the very point of time in which we're arming for the war? that he has taken these, the last pledges of his loyalty, away from out the emperor's dominions-- this is no doubtful token of the nearness of some eruption. questenberg. how shall we hold footing beneath this tempest, which collects itself and threats us from all quarters? the enemy of the empire on our borders, now already the master of the danube, and still farther, and farther still, extending every hour! in our interior the alarum-bells of insurrection--peasantry in arms-- all orders discontented--and the army, just in the moment of our expectation of aidance from it--lo! this very army seduced, run wild, lost to all discipline, loosened, and rent asunder from the state and from their sovereign, the blind instrument of the most daring of mankind, a weapon of fearful power, which at his will he wields. octavio. nay, nay, friend! let us not despair too soon men's words are even bolder than their deeds; and many a resolute, who now appears made up to all extremes, will, on a sudden, find in his breast a heart he wot not of, let but a single honest man speak out the true name of his crime! remember, too, we stand not yet so wholly unprotected. counts altringer and gallas have maintained their little army faithful to its duty, and daily it becomes more numerous. nor can he take us by surprise; you know i hold him all encompassed by my listeners. what'er he does, is mine, even while 'tis doing-- no step so small, but instantly i hear it; yea, his own mouth discloses it. questenberg. 'tis quite incomprehensible, that he detects not the foe so near! octavio. beware, you do not think, that i, by lying arts, and complaisant hypocrisy, have sulked into his graces, or with the substance of smooth professions nourish his all-confiding friendship! no-- compelled alike by prudence, and that duty which we all owe our country and our sovereign, to hide my genuine feelings from him, yet ne'er have i duped him with base counterfeits! questenberg. it is the visible ordinance of heaven. octavio. i know not what it is that so attracts and links him both to me and to my son. comrades and friends we always were--long habit, adventurous deeds performed in company, and all those many and various incidents which stores a soldier's memory with affections, had bound us long and early to each other-- yet i can name the day, when all at once his heart rose on me, and his confidence shot out into sudden growth. it was the morning before the memorable fight at luetzen. urged by an ugly dream, i sought him out, to press him to accept another charger. at a distance from the tents, beneath a tree, i found him in a sleep. when i had waked him and had related all my bodings to him, long time he stared upon me, like a man astounded: thereon fell upon my neck, and manifested to me an emotion that far outstripped the worth of that small service. since then his confidence has followed me with the same pace that mine has fled from him. questenberg. you lead your son into the secret? octavio. no! questenberg. what! and not warn him either, what bad hands his lot has placed him in? octavio. i must perforce leave him in wardship to his innocence. his young and open soul--dissimulation is foreign to its habits! ignorance alone can keep alive the cheerful air, the unembarrassed sense and light free spirit, that makes the duke secure. questenberg (anxiously). my honored friend! most highly do i deem of colonel piccolomini--yet--if-- reflect a little---- octavio. i must venture it. hush! there he comes! scene iv. max. piccolomini, octavio piccolomini, questenberg. max. ha! there he is himself. welcome, my father! [he embraces his father. as he turns round, he observes questenberg, and draws back with a cold and reserved air. you are engaged, i see. i'll not disturb you. octavio. how, max.? look closer at this visitor. attention, max., an old friend merits--reverence belongs of right to the envoy of your sovereign. max. (drily). von questenberg!--welcome--if you bring with you aught good to our headquarters. questenberg (seizing his hand). nay, draw not your hand away, count piccolimini! not on my own account alone i seized it, and nothing common will i say therewith. [taking the hands of both. octavio--max. piccolomini! o savior names, and full of happy omen! ne'er will her prosperous genius turn from austria, while two such stars, with blessed influences beaming protection, shine above her hosts. max. heh! noble minister! you miss your part. you come not here to act a panegyric. you're sent, i know, to find fault and to scold us-- i must not be beforehand with my comrades. octavio (to max.). he comes from court, where people are not quite so well contented with the duke as here. max. what now have they contrived to find out in him? that he alone determines for himself what he himself alone doth understand! well, therein he does right, and will persist in't heaven never meant him for that passive thing that can be struck and hammered out to suit another's taste and fancy. he'll not dance to every tune of every minister. it goes against his nature--he can't do it, he is possessed by a commanding spirit, and his, too, is the station of command. and well for us it is so! there exist few fit to rule themselves, but few that use their intellects intelligently. then well for the whole, if there be found a man who makes himself what nature destined him, the pause, the central point, to thousand thousands stands fixed and stately, like a firm-built column, where all may press with joy and confidence-- now such a man is wallenstein; and if another better suits the court--no other but such a one as he can serve the army. questenberg. the army? doubtless! max. what delight to observe how he incites and strengthens all around him, infusing life and vigor. every power seems as it were redoubled by his presence he draws forth every latent energy, showing to each his own peculiar talent, yet leaving all to be what nature made them, and watching only that they be naught else in the right place and time; and he has skill to mould the power's of all to his own end. questenberg. but who denies his knowledge of mankind, and skill to use it? our complaint is this: that in the master he forgets the servant, as if he claimed by birth his present honors. max. and does he not so? is he not endowed with every gift and power to carry out the high intents of nature, and to win a ruler's station by a ruler's talent? questenberg. so then it seems to rest with him alone what is the worth of all mankind beside! max. uncommon men require no common trust; give him but scope and he will set the bounds. questenberg. the proof is yet to come. max. thus are ye ever. ye shrink from every thing of depth, and think yourselves are only safe while ye're in shallows. octavio (to questenberg). 'twere best to yield with a good grace, my friend; of him there you'll make nothing. max. (continuing). in their fear they call a spirit up, and when he comes, straight their flesh creeps and quivers, and they dread him more than the ills for which they called him up. the uncommon, the sublime, must seem and be like things of every day. but in the field, ay, there the present being makes itself felt. the personal must command, the actual eye examine. if to be the chieftain asks all that is great in nature, let it be likewise his privilege to move and act in all the correspondences of greatness. the oracle within him, that which lives, he must invoke and question--not dead books, not ordinances, not mould-rotted papers. octavio. my son! of those old narrow ordinances let us not hold too lightly. they are weights of priceless value, which oppressed mankind, tied to the volatile will of their oppressors. for always formidable was the league and partnership of free power with free will. the way of ancient ordinance, though it winds, is yet no devious path. straight forward goes the lightning's path, and straight the fearful path of the cannon-ball. direct it flies, and rapid; shattering that it may reach, and shattering what it reaches, my son, the road the human being travels, that, on which blessing comes and goes, doth follow the river's course, the valley's playful windings, curves round the cornfield and the hill of vines, honoring the holy bounds of property! and thus secure, though late, leads to its end. questenberg. oh, hear your father, noble youth! hear him who is at once the hero and the man. octavio. my son, the nursling of the camp spoke in thee! a war of fifteen years hath been thy education and thy school. peace hast thou never witnessed! there exists an higher than the warrior's excellence. in war itself war is no ultimate purpose, the vast and sudden deeds of violence, adventures wild, and wonders of the moment, these are not they, my son, that generate the calm, the blissful, and the enduring mighty! lo there! the soldier, rapid architect! builds his light town of canvas, and at once the whole scene moves and bustles momently. with arms, and neighing steeds, and mirth and quarrel the motley market fills; the roads, the streams are crowded with new freights; trade stirs and hurries, but on some morrow morn, all suddenly, the tents drop down, the horde renews its march. dreary, and solitary as a churchyard; the meadow and down-trodden seed-plot lie, and the year's harvest is gone utterly. max. oh, let the emperor make peace, my father! most gladly would i give the blood-stained laurel for the first violet [ ] of the leafless spring, plucked in those quiet fields where i have journeyed. octavio. what ails thee? what so moves thee all at once? max. peace have i ne'er beheld? i have beheld it. from thence am i come hither: oh, that sight, it glimmers still before me, like some landscape left in the distance,--some delicious landscape! my road conducted me through countries where the war has not yet reached. life, life, my father-- my venerable father, life has charms which we have never experienced. we have been but voyaging along its barren coasts, like some poor ever-roaming horde of pirates, that, crowded in the rank and narrow ship, house on the wild sea with wild usages, nor know aught of the mainland, but the bays where safeliest they may venture a thieves' landing. whate'er in the inland dales the land conceals of fair and exquisite, oh, nothing, nothing, do we behold of that in our rude voyage. octavio (attentive, with an appearance of uneasiness). and so your journey has revealed this to you? max. 'twas the first leisure of my life. o tell me, what is the meed and purpose of the toil, the painful toil which robbed me of my youth, left me a heart unsouled and solitary, a spirit uninformed, unornamented! for the camp's stir, and crowd, and ceaseless larum, the neighing war-horse, the air-shattering trumpet, the unvaried, still returning hour of duty, word of command, and exercise of arms-- there's nothing here, there's nothing in all this, to satisfy the heart, the gasping heart! mere bustling nothingness, where the soul is not-- this cannot be the sole felicity, these cannot be man's best and only pleasures! octavio. much hast thou learnt, my son, in this short journey. max. oh day, thrice lovely! when at length the soldier returns home into life; when he becomes a fellow-man among his fellow-men. the colors are unfurled, the cavalcade mashals, and now the buzz is hushed, and hark! now the soft peace-march beats, home, brothers, home! the caps and helmet are all garlanded with green boughs, the last plundering of the fields. the city gates fly open of themselves, they need no longer the petard to tear them. the ramparts are all filled with men and women, with peaceful men and women, that send onwards. kisses and welcomings upon the air, which they make breezy with affectionate gestures. from all the towers rings out the merry peal, the joyous vespers of a bloody day. o happy man, o fortunate! for whom the well-known door, the faithful arms are open, the faithful tender arms with mute embracing. questenberg (apparently much affected). o that you should speak of such a distant, distant time, and not of the to-morrow, not of this to-day. max. (turning round to him quick and vehement). where lies the fault but on you in vienna! i will deal openly with you, questenberg. just now, as first i saw you standing here (i'll own it to you freely), indignation crowded and pressed my inmost soul together. 'tis ye that hinder peace, ye!--and the warrior, it is the warrior that must force it from you. ye fret the general's life out, blacken him, hold him up as a rebel, and heaven knows what else still worse, because he spares the saxons, and tries to awaken confidence in the enemy; which yet's the only way to peace: for if war intermit not during war, how then and whence can peace come? your own plagues fall on you! even as i love what's virtuous, hate i you. and here i make this vow, here pledge myself, my blood shall spurt out for this wallenstein, and my heart drain off, drop by drop, ere ye shall revel and dance jubilee o'er his ruin. [exit. scene v. questenberg, octavio piccolomini. questenberg. alas! alas! and stands it so? [then in pressing and impatient tones. what friend! and do we let him go away in this delusion--let him go away? not call him back immediately, not open his eyes, upon the spot? octavio (recovering himself out of a deep study). he has now opened mine, and i see more than pleases me. questenberg. what is it? octavio. curse on this journey! questenberg. but why so? what is it? octavio. come, come along, friend! i must follow up the ominous track immediately. mine eyes are opened now, and i must use them. come! [draws questenberg on with him. questenberg. what now? where go you then? octavio. to her herself. questenberg. to---- octavio (interrupting him and correcting himself). to the duke. come, let us go 'tis done, 'tis done, i see the net that is thrown over him. oh! he returns not to me as he went. questenberg. nay, but explain yourself. octavio. and that i should not foresee it, not prevent this journey! wherefore did i keep it from him? you were in the right. i should have warned him. now it is too late. questenberg. but what's too late? bethink yourself, my friend, that you are talking absolute riddles to me. octavio (more collected). come i to the duke's. 'tis close upon the hour which he appointed you for audience. come! a curse, a threefold curse, upon this journey! [he leads questenberg off. act ii. scene i. changes to a spacious chamber in the house of the duke of friedland. servants employed in putting the tables and chairs in order. during this enters seni, like an old italian doctor, in black, and clothed somewhat fantastically. he carries a white staff, with which he marks out the quarters of the heavens. first servant. come--to it, lads, to it! make an end of it. i hear the sentry call out, "stand to your arms!" they will be here in a minute. second servant. why were we not told before that the audience would be held here? nothing prepared--no orders--no instructions. third servant. ay, and why was the balcony chamber countermanded, that with the great worked carpet? there one can look about one. first servant. nay, that you must ask the mathematician there. he says it is an unlucky chamber. second servant. poh! stuff and nonsense! that's what i call a hum. a chamber is a chamber; what much can the place signify in the affair? seni (with gravity). my son, there's nothing insignificant, nothing! but yet in every earthly thing, first and most principal is place and time. first servant (to the second). say nothing to him, nat. the duke himself must let him have his own will. seni (counts the chairs, half in a loud, half in a low voice, till he comes to eleven, which he repeats). eleven! an evil number! set twelve chairs. twelve! twelve signs hath the zodiac: five and seven, the holy numbers, include themselves in twelve. second servant. and what may you have to object against eleven? i should like to know that now. seni. eleven is transgression; eleven oversteps the ten commandments. second servant. that's good? and why do you call five a holy number? seni. five is the soul of man: for even as man is mingled up of good and evil, so the five is the first number that's made up of even and odd. second servant. the foolish old coxcomb! first servant. ay! let him alone though. i like to hear him; there is more in his words than can be seen at first sight. third servant. off, they come. second servant. there! out at the side-door. [they hurry off: seni follows slowly. a page brings the staff of command on a red cushion, and places it on the table, near the duke's chair. they are announced from without, and the wings of the door fly open. scene ii. wallenstein, duchess. wallenstein. you went, then, through vienna, were presented to the queen of hungary? duchess. yes; and to the empress, too, and by both majesties were we admitted to kiss the hand. wallenstein. and how was it received, that i had sent for wife and daughter hither to the camp, in winter-time? duchess. i did even that which you commissioned me to do. i told them you had determined on our daughter's marriage, and wished, ere yet you went into the field, to show the elected husband his betrothed. wallenstein. and did they guess the choice which i had made? duchess. they only hoped and wished it may have fallen upon no foreign nor yet lutheran noble. wallenstein. and you--what do you wish, elizabeth? duchess. your will, you know, was always mine. wallenstein (after a pause). well, then,-- and in all else, of what kind and complexion was your reception at the court? [the duchess casts her eyes on the ground, and remains silent. hide nothing from me. how were you received? duchess. o! my dear lord, all is not what it was. a canker-worm, my lord, a canker-worm has stolen into the bud. wallenstein. ay! is it so? what, they were lax? they failed of the old respect? duchess. not of respect. no honors were omitted, no outward courtesy; but in the place of condescending, confidential kindness, familiar and endearing, there were given me only these honors and that solemn courtesy. ah! and the tenderness which was put on, it was the guise of pity, not of favor. no! albrecht's wife, duke albrecht's princely wife, count harrach's noble daughter, should not so-- not wholly so should she have been received. wallenstein. yes, yes; they have taken offence. my latest conduct they railed at it, no doubt. duchess. o that they had! i have been long accustomed to defend you, to heal and pacify distempered spirits. no; no one railed at you. they wrapped them up, o heaven! in such oppressive, solemn silence! here is no every-day misunderstanding, no transient pique, no cloud that passes over; something most luckless, most unhealable, has taken place. the queen of hungary used formerly to call me her dear aunt, and ever at departure to embrace me---- wallenstein. now she omitted it? duchess (wiping away her tears after a pause). she did embrace me, but then first when i had already taken my formal leave, and when the door already had closed upon me, then did she come out in haste, as she had suddenly bethought herself, and pressed me to her bosom, more with anguish than tenderness. wallenstein (seizes her hand soothingly). nay, now collect yourself. and what of eggenberg and lichtenstein, and of our other friends there? duchess (shaking her head). i saw none. wallenstein. the ambassador from spain, who once was wont to plead so warmly for me? duchess. silent, silent! wallenstein. these suns then are eclipsed for us. henceforward must we roll on, our own fire, our own light. duchess. and were it--were it, my dear lord, in that which moved about the court in buzz and whisper, but in the country let itself be heard aloud--in that which father lanormain in sundry hints and---- wallenstein (eagerly). lanormain! what said he? duchess. that you're accused of having daringly o'erstepped the powers intrusted to you, charged with traitorous contempt of the emperor and his supreme behests. the proud bavarian, he and the spaniards stand up your accusers-- that there's a storm collecting over you of far more fearful menace than the former one which whirled you headlong down at regensburg. and people talk, said he, of----ah! [stifling extreme emotion. wallenstein. proceed! duchess. i cannot utter it! wallenstein. proceed! duchess. they talk---- wallenstein. well! duchess. of a second---- (catches her voice and hesitates.) wallenstein. second---- duchess. most disgraceful dismission. wallenstein. talk they? [strides across the chamber in vehement agitation. oh! they force, they thrust me with violence, against my own will, onward! duchess (presses near him in entreaty). oh! if there yet be time, my husband, if by giving way and by submission, this can be averted--my dear lord, give way! win down your proud heart to it! tell the heart, it is your sovereign lord, your emperor, before whom you retreat. oh! no longer low trickling malice blacken your good meaning with abhorred venomous glosses. stand you up shielded and helmed and weaponed with the truth, and drive before you into uttermost shame these slanderous liars! few firm friends have we-- you know it! the swift growth of our good fortune it hath but set us up a mark for hatred. what are we, if the sovereign's grace and favor stand not before us! scene iii. enter the countess terzky, leading in her hand the princess thekla, richly adorned with brilliants. countess, tekla, wallenstein, duchess. countess. how sister? what, already upon business? [observing the countenance of the duchess. and business of no pleasing kind i see, ere he has gladdened at his child. the first moment belongs to joy. here, friedland! father! this is thy daughter. [thekla approaches with a shy and timid air, and bends herself as about to kiss his hand. he receives her in his arms, and remains standing for some time lost in the feeling of her presence. wallenstein. yes! pure and lovely hath hope risen on me, i take her as the pledge of greater fortune. duchess. 'twas but a little child when you departed to raise up that great army for the emperor and after, at the close of the campaign, when you returned home out of pomerania, your daughter was already in the convent, wherein she has remained till now. wallenstein. the while we in the field here gave our cares and toils to make her great, and fight her a free way to the loftiest earthly good; lo! mother nature within the peaceful, silent convent walls, has done her part, and out of her free grace hath she bestowed on the beloved child the god-like; and now leads her thus adorned to meet her splendid fortune, and my hope. duchess (to thekla). thou wouldst not now have recognized thy father, wouldst thou, my child? she counted scarce eight years when last she saw your face. thekla. o yes, yes, mother! at the first glance! my father has not altered. the form that stands before me falsifies no feature of the image that hath lived so long within me! wallenstein. the voice of my child! [then after a pause. i was indignant at my destiny, that it denied me a man-child, to be heir of my name and of my prosperous fortune, and re-illume my soon-extinguished being in a proud line of princes. i wronged my destiny. here upon this head, so lovely in its maiden bloom, will i let fall the garland of a life of war, nor deem it lost, if only i can wreath it, transmuted to a regal ornament, around these beauteous brows. [he clasps her in his arms as piccolomini enters. scene iv. enter max. piccolomini, and some time after count terzky, the others remaining as before. countess. there comes the paladin who protected us. wallenstein. max.! welcome, ever welcome! always wert thou the morning star of my best joys! max. my general---- wallenstein. till now it was the emperor who rewarded thee, i but the instrument. this day thou hast bound the father to thee, max.! the fortunate father, and this debt friedland's self must pay. max. my prince! you made no common hurry to transfer it. i come with shame: yea, not without a pang! for scarce have i arrived here, scarce delivered the mother and the daughter to your arms, but there is brought to me from your equerry [ ] a splendid richly-plated hunting dress so to remunerate me for my troubles-- yes, yes, remunerate me,--since a trouble it must be, a mere office, not a favor which i leaped forward to receive, and which i came with grateful heart to thank you for. no! 'twas not so intended, that my business should be my highest best good fortune! [terzky enters; and delivers letters to the duke, which he breaks open hurriedly. countess (to max.). remunerate your trouble! for his joy, he makes you recompense. 'tis not unfitting for you, count piccolomini, to feel so tenderly--my brother it beseems to show himself forever great and princely. thekla. then i too must have scruples of his love: for his munificent hands did ornament me ere yet the father's heart had spoken to me. max yes; 'tis his nature ever to be giving and making happy. [he grasps the hand of the duchess with still increasing warmth. how my heart pours out its all of thanks to him! o! how i seem to utter all things in the dear name--friedland. while i shall live, so long will i remain the captive of this name: in it shall bloom my every fortune, every lovely hope. inextricably as in some magic ring in this name hath my destiny charm-bound me! countess (who during this time has been anxiously watching the duke, and remarks that he is lost in thought over the letters). my brother wishes us to leave him. come. wallenstein (turns himself round quick, collects himself, and speaks with cheerfulness to the duchess). once more i bid thee welcome to the camp, thou art the hostess of this court. you, max., will now again administer your old office, while we perform the sovereign's business here. [max. piccolomini offers the duchess his arm; the countess accompanies the princess. terzky (calling after him). max., we depend on seeing you at the meeting. scene v. wallenstein, count terzky. wallenstein (in deep thought, to himself). she has seen all things as they are--it is so, and squares completely with my other notices, they have determined finally in vienna, have given me my successor already; it is the king of hungary, ferdinand, the emperor's delicate son! he's now their savior, he's the new star that's rising now! of us they think themselves already fairly rid, and as we were deceased, the heir already is entering on possession--therefore--despatch! [as he turns round he observes terzky, and gives him a letter. count altringer will have himself excused, and gallas too--i like not this! terzky. and if thou loiterest longer, all will fall away, one following the other. wallenstein. altringer is master of the tyrol passes. i must forthwith send some one to him, that he let not in the spaniards on me from the milanese. --well, and the old sesin, that ancient trader in contraband negotiations, he has shown himself again of late. what brings he from the count thur? terzky. the count communicates he has found out the swedish chancellor at halberstadt, where the convention's held, who says, you've tired him out, and that he'll have no further dealings with you. wallenstein. and why so? terzky. he says, you are never in earnest in your speeches; that you decoy the swedes--to make fools of them; will league yourself with saxony against them, and at last make yourself a riddance of them with a paltry sum of money. wallenstein. so then, doubtless, yes, doubtless, this same modest swede expects that i shall yield him some fair german tract for his prey and booty, that ourselves at last on our own soil and native territory may be no longer our own lords and masters! an excellent scheme! no, no! they must be off, off, off! away! we want no such neighbors. terzky. nay, yield them up that dot, that speck of land-- it goes not from your portion. if you win the game, what matters it to you who pays it? wallenstein. off with them, off! thou understand'st not this. never shall it be said of me, i parcelled my native land away, dismembered germany, betrayed it to a foreigner, in order to come with stealthy tread, and filch away my own share of the plunder--never! never! no foreign power shall strike root in the empire, and least of all these goths! these hungry wolves! who send such envious, hot, and greedy glances toward the rich blessings of our german lands! i'll have their aid to cast and draw my nets, but not a single fish of all the draught shall they come in for. terzky. you will deal, however, more fairly with the saxons? they lose patience while you shift round and make so many curves. say, to what purpose all these masks? your friends are plunged in doubts, baffled, and led astray in you. there's oxenstiern, there's arnheim--neither knows what he should think of your procrastinations, and in the end i prove the liar; all passes through me. i've not even your handwriting. wallenstein. i never give handwriting; and thou knowest it. terzky. but how can it be known that you are in earnest, if the act follows not upon the word? you must yourself acknowledge, that in all your intercourses hitherto with the enemy, you might have done with safety all you have done. had you meant nothing further than to gull him for the emperor's service. wallenstein (after a pause, during which he looks narrowly on terzky). and from whence dost thou know that i'm not gulling him for the emperor's service? whence knowest thou that i'm not gulling all of you? dost thou know me so well? when made i thee the intendant of my secret purposes? i am not conscious that i ever opened my inmost thoughts to thee. the emperor, it is true, hath dealt with me amiss; and if i would i could repay him with usurious interest for the evil he hath done me. it delights me to know my power; but whether i shall use it, of that i should have thought that thou couldst speak no wiser than thy fellows. terzky. so hast thou always played thy game with us. [enter illo. scene vi. illo, wallenstein, terzky. wallenstein. how stand affairs without? are they prepared? illo. you'll find them in the very mood you wish. they know about the emperor's requisition, and are tumultuous. wallenstein. how hath isolani declared himself? illo. he's yours, both soul and body, since you built up again his faro-bank. wallenstein. and which way doth kolatto bend? hast thou made sure of tiefenbach and deodati? illo. what piccolomini does that they do too. wallenstein. you mean, then, i may venture somewhat with them? illo. if you are assured of the piccolomini. wallenstein. not more assured of mine own self. terzky. and yet i would you trusted not so much to octavio, the fox! wallenstein. thou teachest me to know my man? sixteen campaigns i have made with that old warrior. besides, i have his horoscope; we both are born beneath like stars--in short, [with an air of mystery. to this belongs its own peculiar aspect, if therefore thou canst warrant me the rest---- illo. there is among them all but this one voice, you must not lay down the command. i hear they mean to send a deputation to you. wallenstein. if i'm in aught to bind myself to them they too must bind themselves to me. illo. of course. wallenstein. their words of honor they must give, their oaths, give them in writing to me, promising devotion to my service unconditional. illo. why not? terzky. devotion unconditional? the exception of their duties towards austria they'll always place among the premises. with this reserve---- wallenstein (shaking his head). all unconditional; no premises, no reserves. illo. a thought has struck me. does not count terzky give us a set banquet this evening? terzky. yes; and all the generals have been invited. illo (to wallenstein). say, will you here fully commission me to use my own discretion? i'll gain for you the generals' word of honor, even as you wish. wallenstein. gain me their signatures! how you come by them that is your concern. illo. and if i bring it to you in black on white, that all the leaders who are present here give themselves up to you, without condition; say, will you then--then will you show yourself in earnest, and with some decisive action try your fortune. wallenstein. get but the signatures! illo. think what thou dost, thou canst not execute the emperor's orders, nor reduce thine army, nor send the regiments to the spaniards' aid, unless thou wouldst resign thy power forever. think on the other hand--thou canst not spurn the emperor's high commands and solemn orders, nor longer temporize, nor seek evasion, wouldst thou avoid a rupture with the court. resolve then! wilt thou now by one bold act anticipate their ends, or, doubting still, await the extremity? wallenstein. there's time before the extremity arrives. illo. seize, seize the hour, ere it slips from you. seldom comes the moment in life, which is indeed sublime and weighty. to make a great decision possible, o! many things, all transient and all rapid, must meet at once: and, haply, they thus met may by that confluence be enforced to pause time long-enough for wisdom, though too short, far, far too short a time for doubt and scruple! this is that moment. see, our army chieftains, our best, our noblest, are assembled round you, their king-like leader! on your nod they wait. the single threads, which here your prosperous fortune hath woven together in one potent web instinct with destiny, o! let them not unravel of themselves. if you permit these chiefs to separate, so unanimous bring you them not a second time together. 'tis the high tide that heaves the stranded ship, and every individual's spirit waxes in the great stream of multitudes. behold they are still here, here still! but soon the war bursts them once more asunder, and in small particular anxieties and interests scatters their spirit, and the sympathy of each man with the whole. he who to-day forgets himself, forced onward with the stream, will become sober, seeing but himself. feel only his own weakness, and with speed will face about, and march on in the old high road of duty, the old broad-trodden road, and seek but to make shelter in good plight. wallenstein. the time is not yet come. terzky. so you say always. but when will it be time? wallenstein. when i shall say it. illo. you'll wait upon the stars, and on their hours, till the earthly hour escapes you. oh, believe me, in your own bosom are your destiny's stars. confidence in yourself, prompt resolution, this is your venus! and the sole malignant, the only one that harmeth you is doubt. wallenstein. thou speakest as thou understandest. how oft and many a time i've told thee jupiter, that lustrous god, was setting at thy birth. thy visual power subdues no mysteries; mole-eyed thou mayest but burrow in the earth, blind as the subterrestrial, who with wan lead-colored shine lighted thee into life. the common, the terrestrial, thou mayest see, with serviceable cunning knit together, the nearest with the nearest; and therein i trust thee and believe thee! but whate'er full of mysterious import nature weaves, and fashions in the depths--the spirit's ladder, that from this gross and visible world of dust, even to the starry world, with thousand rounds, builds itself up; on which the unseen powers move up and down on heavenly ministries-- the circles in the circles, that approach the central sun with ever-narrowing orbit-- these see the glance alone, the unsealed eye, of jupiter's glad children born in lustre. [he walks across the chamber, then returns, and standing still, proceeds. the heavenly constellations make not merely the day and nights, summer and spring, not merely signify to the husbandman the seasons of sowing and of harvest. human action, that is the seed, too, of contingencies, strewed on the dark land of futurity in hopes to reconcile the powers of fate whence it behoves us to seek out the seed-time, to watch the stars, select their proper hours, and trace with searching eye the heavenly houses, whether the enemy of growth and thriving hide himself not, malignant, in his corner. therefore permit me my own time. meanwhile do you your part. as yet i cannot say what i shall do--only, give way i will not, depose me, too, they shall not. on these points you may rely. page (entering). my lords, the generals. wallenstein. let them come in. terzky. shall all the chiefs be present? wallenstein. 'twere needless. both the piccolomini maradas, butler, forgoetsch, deodati, karaffa, isolani--these may come. [terzky goes out with the page. wallenstein (to illo). hast thou taken heed that questenberg was watched? had he no means of secret intercourse? illo. i have watched him closely--and he spoke with none but with octavio. scene vii. wallenstrin, terzky, illo.--to them enter questenberg, octavio, and max. piccolomini, butler, isolani, maradas, and three other generals. wallenstein motions questenberg, who in consequence takes the chair directly opposite to him; the others follow, arranging themselves according to their rank. there reigns a momentary silence. wallenstein. i have understood, 'tis true, the sum and import, questenberg, of your instructions. i have weighed them well, and formed my final, absolute resolve; yet it seems fitting that the generals should hear the will of the emperor from your mouth. may it please you then to open your commission before these noble chieftains? questenberg. i am ready to obey you; but will first entreat your highness, and all these noble chieftains, to consider, the imperial dignity and sovereign right speaks from my mouth, and not my own presumption. wallenstein. we excuse all preface. questenberg. when his majesty the emperor to his courageous armies presented in the person of duke friedland a most experienced and renowned commander, he did it in glad hope and confidence to give thereby to the fortune of the war a rapid and auspicious change. the onset was favorable to his royal wishes. bohemia was delivered from the saxons, the swede's career of conquest checked! these lands began to draw breath freely, as duke friedland from all the streams of germany forced hither the scattered armies of the enemy; hither invoked as round one magic circle the rhinegrave, bernhard, banner, oxenstiern, yea, and the never-conquered king himself; here finally, before the eye of nuernberg, the fearful game of battle to decide. wallenstein. to the point, so please you. questenberg. a new spirit at once proclaimed to us the new commander. no longer strove blind rage with rage more blind; but in the enlightened field of skill was shown how fortitude can triumph over boldness, and scientific art outweary courage. in vain they tempt him to the fight. he only entrenches him still deeper in his hold, as if to build an everlasting fortress. at length grown desperate, now, the king resolves to storm the camp and lead his wasted legions, who daily fall by famine and by plague, to quicker deaths and hunger and disease. through lines of barricades behind whose fence death lurks within a thousand mouths of fire, he yet unconquered strives to storm his way. there was attack, and there resistance, such as mortal eye had never seen before; repulsed at last, the king withdrew his troops from this so murderous field, and not a foot of ground was gained by all that fearful slaughter. wallenstein. pray spare us these recitals from gazettes, which we ourselves beheld with deepest horror. questenberg. in nuernberg's camp the swedish monarch left his fame--in luetzen's plains his life. but who stood not astounded, when victorious friedland after this day of triumph, this proud day, marched toward bohemia with the speed of flight, and vanished from the theatre of war? while the young weimar hero [ ] forced his way into franconia, to the danube, like some delving winter-stream, which, where it rushes, makes its own channel; with such sudden speed he marched, and now at once 'fore regensburg stood to the affright of all good catholic christians. then did bavaria's well-deserving prince entreat swift aidance in his extreme need; the emperor sends seven horsemen to duke friedland, seven horsemen couriers sends he with the entreaty he superadds his own, and supplicates where as the sovereign lord he can command. in vain his supplication! at this moment the duke hears only his old hate and grudge, barters the general good to gratify private revenge--and so falls regensburg. wallenstein. max., to what period of the war alludes he? my recollection fails me here. max. he means when we were in silesia. wallenstein. ay! is it so! but what had we to do there? max. to beat out the swedes and saxons from the province. wallenstein. true; in that description which the minister gave, i seemed to have forgotten the whole war. [to questenberg. well, but proceed a little. questenberg. we hoped upon the oder to regain what on the danube shamefully was lost. we looked for deeds of all-astounding grandeur upon a theatre of war, on which a friedland led in person to the field, and the famed rival of the great gustavus had but a thurn and arnheim to oppose him! yet the encounter of their mighty hosts served but to feast and entertain each other. our country groaned beneath the woes of war, yet naught but peace prevailed in friedland's camp! wallenstein. full many a bloody strife is fought in vain, because its youthful general needs a victory. but 'tis the privilege of the old commander to spare the costs of fighting useless battles merely to show that he knows how to conquer. it would have little helped my fame to boast of conquest o'er an arnheim; but far more would my forbearance have availed my country, had i succeeded to dissolve the alliance existing 'twixt the saxon and the swede. questenberg. but you did not succeed, and so commenced the fearful strife anew. and here at length, beside the river oder did the duke assert his ancient fame. upon the fields of steinau did the swedes lay down their arms, subdued without a blow. and here, with others, the righteousness of heaven to his avenger delivered that long-practised stirrer-up of insurrection, that curse-laden torch and kindler of this war, matthias thurn. but he had fallen into magnanimous hands instead of punishment he found reward, and with rich presents did the duke dismiss the arch-foe of his emperor. wallenstein (laughs). i know, i know you had already in vienna your windows and your balconies forestalled to see him on the executioner's cart. i might have lost the battle, lost it too with infamy, and still retained your graces-- but, to have cheated them of a spectacle, oh! that the good folks of vienna never, no, never can forgive me! questenberg. so silesia was freed, and all things loudly called the duke into bavaria, now pressed hard on all sides. and he did put his troops in motion: slowly, quite at his ease, and by the longest road he traverses bohemia; but ere ever he hath once seen the enemy, faces round, breaks up the march, and takes to winter-quarters. wallenstein. the troops were pitiably destitute of every necessary, every comfort, the winter came. what thinks his majesty his troops are made of? aren't we men; subjected like other men to wet, and cold, and all the circumstances of necessity? oh, miserable lot of the poor soldier! wherever he comes in all flee before him, and when he goes away the general curse follows him on his route. all must be seized. nothing is given him. and compelled to seize from every man he's every man's abhorrence. behold, here stand my generals. karaffa! count deodati! butler! tell this man how long the soldier's pay is in arrears. butler. already a full year. wallenstein. and 'tis the hire that constitutes the hireling's name and duties, the soldier's pay is the soldier's covenant. [ ] questenberg. ah! this is a far other tone from that in which the duke spoke eight, nine years ago. wallenstein. yes! 'tis my fault, i know it: i myself have spoilt the emperor by indulging him. nine years ago, during the danish war, i raised him up a force, a mighty force, forty or fifty thousand men, that cost him of his own purse no doit. through saxony the fury goddess of the war marched on, e'en to the surf-rocks of the baltic, bearing the terrors of his name. that was a time! in the whole imperial realm no name like mine honored with festival and celebration-- and albrecht wallenstein, it was the title of the third jewel in his crown! but at the diet, when the princes met at regensburg, there, there the whole broke out, there 'twas laid open, there it was made known out of what money-bag i had paid the host, and what were now my thanks, what had i now that i, a faithful servant of the sovereign, had loaded on myself the people's curses, and let the princes of the empire pay the expenses of this war that aggrandizes the emperor alone. what thanks had i? what? i was offered up to their complaint dismissed, degraded! questenberg. but your highness knows what little freedom he possessed of action in that disastrous diet. wallenstein. death and hell! i had that which could have procured him freedom no! since 'twas proved so inauspicious to me to serve the emperor at the empire's cost, i have been taught far other trains of thinking of the empire and the diet of the empire. from the emperor, doubtless, i received this staff, but now i hold it as the empire's general,-- for the common weal, the universal interest, and no more for that one man's aggrandizement! but to the point. what is it that's desired of me? questenberg. first, his imperial majesty hath willed that without pretexts of delay the army evacuate bohemia. wallenstein. in this season? and to what quarter wills the emperor that we direct our course? questenberg. to the enemy. his majesty resolves, that regensburg be purified from the enemy ere easter, that lutheranism may be no longer preached in that cathedral, nor heretical defilement desecrate the celebration of that pure festival. wallenstein. my generals, can this be realized? illo. 'tis not possible. butler. it can't be realized. questenberg. the emperor already hath commanded colonel suys to advance towards bavaria. wallenstein. what did suys? questenberg. that which his duty prompted. he advanced. wallenstein. what! he advanced? and i, his general, had given him orders, peremptory orders not to desert his station! stands it thus with my authority? is this the obedience due to my office, which being thrown aside, no war can be conducted? chieftains, speak you be the judges, generals. what deserves that officer who, of his oath neglectful, is guilty of contempt of orders? illo. death. wallenstein (raising his voice, as all but illo had remained silent and seemingly scrupulous). count piccolomini! what has he deserved? max. piccolomini (after a long pause). according to the letter of the law, death. isolani. death. butler. death, by the laws of war. [questenberg rises from his seat, wallenstein follows, all the rest rise. wallenstein. to this the law condemns him, and not i. and if i show him favor, 'twill arise from the reverence that i owe my emperor. questenberg. if so, i can say nothing further--here! wallenstein. i accepted the command but on conditions! and this the first, that to the diminution of my authority no human being, not even the emperor's self, should be entitled to do aught, or to say aught, with the army. if i stand warranter of the event, placing my honor and my head in pledge, needs must i have full mastery in all the means thereto. what rendered this gustavus resistless, and unconquered upon earth? this--that he was the monarch in his army! a monarch, one who is indeed a monarch, was never yet subdued but by his equal. but to the point! the best is yet to come, attend now, generals! questenberg. the prince cardinal begins his route at the approach of spring from the milanese; and leads a spanish army through germany into the netherlands. that he may march secure and unimpeded, 'tis the emperor's will you grant him a detachment of eight horse-regiments from the army here. wallenstein. yes, yes! i understand! eight regiments! well, right well concerted, father lanormain! eight thousand horse! yes, yes! 'tis as it should be i see it coming. questenberg. there is nothing coming. all stands in front: the counsel of state-prudence, the dictate of necessity! wallenstein. what then? what, my lord envoy? may i not be suffered to understand that folks are tired of seeing the sword's hilt in my grasp, and that your court snatch eagerly at this pretence, and use the spanish title, and drain off my forces, to lead into the empire a new army unsubjected to my control? to throw me plumply aside,--i am still too powerful for you to venture that. my stipulation runs, that all the imperial forces shall obey me where'er the german is the native language. of spanish troops and of prince cardinals, that take their route as visitors, through the empire, there stands no syllable in my stipulation. no syllable! and so the politic court steals in on tiptoe, and creeps round behind it; first makes me weaker, then to be dispensed with, till it dares strike at length a bolder blow, and make short work with me. what need of all these crooked ways, lord envoy? straightforward, man! his compact with me pinches the emperor. he would that i moved off! well! i will gratify him! [here there commences an agitation among the generals, which increases continually. it grieves me for my noble officers' sakes; i see not yet by what means they will come at the moneys they have advanced, or how obtain the recompense their services demand. still a new leader brings new claimants forward, and prior merit superannuates quickly. there serve here many foreigners in the army, and were the man in all else brave and gallant, i was not wont to make nice scrutiny after his pedigree or catechism. this will be otherwise i' the time to come. well; me no longer it concerns. [he seats himself. forbid it, heaven, that it should come to this! our troops will swell in dreadful fermentation-- the emperor is abused--it cannot be. isolani. it cannot be; all goes to instant wreck. wallenstein. thou hast said truly, faithful isolani! what we with toil and foresight have built up will go to wreck--all go to instant wreck. what then? another chieftain is soon found, another army likewise (who dares doubt it?) will flock from all sides to the emperor, at the first beat of his recruiting drum. [during this speech, isolani, terzky, illo, and maradas talk confusedly with great agitation. max. piccolomini (busily and passionately going from one to another, and soothing them). hear, my commander' hear me, generals! let me conjure you, duke! determine nothing, till we have met and represented to you our joint remonstrances! nay, calmer! friends! i hope all may yet be set right again. terzky. away! let us away! in the antechamber find we the others. [they go. butler (to questenberg). if good counsel gain due audience from your wisdom, my lord envoy, you will be cautious how you show yourself in public for some hours to come--or hardly will that gold key protect you from maltreatment. [commotions heard from without. wallenstein. a salutary counsel--thou, octavio! wilt answer for the safety of our guest. farewell, von questenberg! [questenburg is about to speak. nay, not a word. not one word more of that detested subject! you have performed your duty. we know now to separate the office from the man. [as questenberg is going off with octavio, goetz, tiefenbach, kolatto, press in, several other generals following them. goetz. where's he who means to rob us of our general? tiefenbach (at the same time). what are we forced to bear? that thou wilt leave us? kolatto (at the same time). we will live with thee, we will die with thee. wallenstein (with stateliness, and pointing to illo). there! the field-marshal knows our will. [exit. [while all are going off the stage, the curtain drops. act iii. scene i. a small chamber. illo and terzky. terzky. now for this evening's business! how intend you to manage with the generals at the banquet? illo. attend! we frame a formal declaration, wherein we to the duke consign ourselves collectively, to be and to remain his, both with life and limb, and not to spare the last drop of our blood for him, provided, so doing we infringe no oath or duty we may be under to the emperor. mark! this reservation we expressly make in a particular clause, and save the conscience. now hear! this formula so framed and worded will be presented to them for perusal before the banquet. no one will find in it cause of offence or scruple. hear now further! after the feast, when now the vapering wine opens the heart, and shuts the eyes, we let a counterfeited paper, in the which this one particular clause has been left out, go round for signatures. terzky. how! think you then that they'll believe themselves bound by an oath, which we have tricked them into by a juggle? illo. we shall have caught and caged them! let them then beat their wings bare against the wires, and rave loud as they may against our treachery; at court their signatures will be believed far more than their most holy affirmations. traitors they are, and must be; therefore wisely will make a virtue of necessity. terzky. well, well, it shall content me: let but something be done, let only some decisive blow set us in motion. illo. besides, 'tis of subordinate importance how, or how far, we may thereby propel the generals. 'tis enough that we persuade the duke that they are his. let him but act in his determined mood, as if he had them, and he will have them. where he plunges in, he makes a whirlpool, and all stream down to it. terzky. his policy is such a labyrinth, that many a time when i have thought myself close at his side, he's gone at once, and left me ignorant of the ground where i was standing. he lends the enemy his ear, permits me to write to them, to arnheim; to sesina himself comes forward blank and undisguised; talks with us by the hour about his plans, and when i think i have him--off at once-- he has slipped from me, and appears as if he had no scheme, but to retain his place. illo. he give up his old plans! i'll tell you, friend! his soul is occupied with nothing else, even in his sleep--they are his thoughts, his dreams, that day by day he questions for this purpose the motions of the planets---- terzky. ah! you know this night, that is now coming, he with seni, shuts himself up in the astrological tower to make joint observations--for i hear it is to be a night of weight and crisis; and something great, and of long expectation, takes place in heaven. illo. o that it might take place on earth! the generals are full of zeal, and would with ease be led to anything rather than lose their chief. observe, too, that we have at last a fair excuse before us to form a close alliance 'gainst the court, yet innocent its title, bearing simply that we support him only in command. but in the ardor of pursuit thou knowest men soon forget the goal from which they started. the object i've in view is that the prince shall either find them, or believe them ready for every hazard. opportunity will tempt him on. be the great step once taken, which at vienna's court can ne'er be pardoned, the force of circumstances will lead him onward the farther still and farther. 'tis the choice that makes him undecisive--come but need, and all his powers and wisdom will come with it. terzky. 'tis this alone the enemy awaits to change their chief and join their force with ours. illo. come! be we bold and make despatch. the work in this next day or two must thrive and grow more than it has for years. and let but only things first turn up auspicious here below-- mark what i say--the right stars, too, will show themselves. come to the generals. all is in the glow, and must be beaten while 'tis malleable. terzky. do you go thither, illo? i must stay and wait here for the countess terzky. know that we, too, are not idle. break one string, a second is in readiness. illo. yes! yes! i saw your lady smile with such sly meaning. what's in the wind? terzky. a secret. hush! she comes. [exit illo. scene ii. the countess steps out from a closet. count and countess terzky. terzky. well--is she coming? i can keep him back no longer. countess. she will be here instantly, you only send him. terzky. i am not quite certain, i must confess it, countess, whether or not we are earning the duke's thanks hereby. you know no ray has broke out from him on this point. you have o'erruled me, and yourself know best how far you dare proceed. countess. i take it on me. [talking to herself while she is advancing. here's no heed of full powers and commissions; my cloudy duke! we understand each other-- and without words. what could i not unriddle, wherefore the daughter should be sent for hither, why first he, and no other should be chosen to fetch her hither? this sham of betrothing her to a bridegroom [ ], whom no one knows--no! no! this may blind others! i see through thee, brother! but it beseems thee not to draw a card at such a game. not yet! it all remains mutely delivered up to my finessing. well--thou shalt not have been deceived, duke friedland, in her who is thy sister. servant (enters). the commanders! [exit. terzky (to the countess). take care you heat his fancy and affections-- possess him with a reverie, and send him, absent and dreaming to the banquet; that he may not boggle at the signature. countess. take care of your guests! go, send him hither. terzky. all rests upon his undersigning. countess (interrupting him). go to your guests! go---- illo (comes back). where art staying, terzky? the house is full, and all expecting you. terzky. instantly! instantly! [to the countess. and let him not stay here too long. it might awake suspicion in the old man---- countess. a truce with your precautions! [exeunt terzky and illo. scene iii. countess, max. piccolomini. max. (peeping in on the stage slyly). aunt terzky! may i venture? [advances to the middle of the stage, and looks around him with uneasiness. she's not here! where is she? countess. look but somewhat narrowly in yonder corner, lest perhaps she lie concealed behind that screen. max. there lie her gloves! [snatches at them, but the countess takes them herself. you unkind lady! you refuse me this, you make it an amusement to torment me. countess. and this the thanks you give me for my trouble? max. o, if you felt the oppression at my heart! since we've been here, so to constrain myself with such poor stealth to hazard words and glances. these, these are not my habits! countess. you have still many new habits to acquire, young friend! but on this proof of your obedient temper i must continue to insist; and only on this condition can i play the agent for your concerns. max. but wherefore comes she not? where is she? countess. into my hands you must place it whole and entire. whom could you find, indeed, more zealously affected to your interest? no soul on earth must know it--not your father; he must not, above all. max. alas! what danger? here is no face on which i might concentre all the enraptured soul stirs up within me. o lady! tell me, is all changed around me? or is it only i? i find myself, as among strangers! not a trace is left of all my former wishes, former joys. where has it vanished to? there was a time when even, methought, with such a world as this, i was not discontented. now how flat! how stale! no life, no bloom, no flavor in it! my comrades are intolerable to me. my father--even to him i can say nothing. my arms, my military duties--o! they are such wearying toys! countess. but gentle friend! i must entreat it of your condescension, you would be pleased to sink your eye, and favor with one short glance or two this poor stale world, where even now much, and of much moment, is on the eve of its completion. max. something, i can't but know is going forward round me. i see it gathering, crowding, driving on, in wild uncustomary movements. well, in due time, doubtless, it will reach even me. where think you i have been, dear lady? nay, no raillery. the turmoil of the camp, the spring-tide of acquaintance rolling in, the pointless jest, the empty conversation, oppressed and stifled me. i gasped for air-- i could not breathe--i was constrained to fly, to seek a silence out for my full heart; and a pure spot wherein to feel my happiness. no smiling, countess! in the church was i. there is a cloister here "to the heaven's gate," [ ] thither i went, there found myself alone. over the altar hung a holy mother; a wretched painting 'twas, yet 'twas the friend that i was seeking in this moment. ah, how oft have i beheld that glorious form in splendor, 'mid ecstatic worshippers; yet, still it moved me not! and now at once was my devotion cloudless as my love. countess. enjoy your fortune and felicity! forget the world around you. meantime, friendship shall keep strict vigils for you, anxious, active. only be manageable when that friendship points you the road to full accomplishment. max. but where abides she then? oh, golden time of travel, when each morning sun united and but the coming night divided us; then ran no sand, then struck no hour for us, and time, in our excess of happiness, seemed on its course eternal to stand still. oh, he hath fallen from out his heaven of bliss who can descend to count the changing hours, no clock strikes ever for the happy! countess. how long is it since you declared your passion? max. this morning did i hazard the first word. countess. this morning the first time in twenty days? max. 'twas at that hunting-castle, betwixt here and nepomuck, where you had joined us, and that was the last relay of the whole journey; in a balcony we were standing mute, and gazing out upon the dreary field before us the dragoons were riding onward, the safeguard which the duke had sent us--heavy; the inquietude of parting lay upon me, and trembling ventured at length these words: this all reminds me, noble maiden, that to-day i must take leave of my good fortune. a few hours more, and you will find a father, will see yourself surrounded by new friends, and i henceforth shall be but as a stranger, lost in the many--"speak with my aunt terzky!" with hurrying voice she interrupted me. she faltered. i beheld a glowing red possess her beautiful cheeks, and from the ground raised slowly up her eye met mine--no longer did i control myself. [the princess thekla appears at the door, and remains standing, observed by the countess, but not by piccolomini. with instant boldness i caught her in my arms, my lips touched hers; there was a rustling in the room close by; it parted us--'twas you. what since has happened you know. countess (after a pause, with a stolen glance at thekla). and is it your excess of modesty or are you so incurious, that you do not ask me too of my secret? max. of your secret? countess. why, yes! when in the instant after you i stepped into the room, and found my niece there; what she in this first moment of the heart taken with surprise---- max. (with eagerness). well? scene iv. thekla (hurries forward), countess, max. piccolomini. thekla (to the countess). spare yourself the trouble: that hears he better from myself. max. (stepping backward). my princess! what have you let her hear me say, aunt terzky? thekla (to the countess). has he been here long? countess. yes; and soon must go, where have you stayed so long? thekla. alas! my mother, wept so again! and i--i see her suffer, yet cannot keep myself from being happy. max. now once again i have courage to look on you. to-day at noon i could not. the dazzle of the jewels that played round you hid the beloved from me. thekla. then you saw me with your eye only--and not with your heart? max. this morning, when i found you in the circle of all your kindred, in your father's arms, beheld myself an alien in this circle, o! what an impulse felt i in that moment to fall upon his neck, to call him father! but his stern eye o'erpowered the swelling passion, it dared not but be silent. and those brilliants, that like a crown of stars enwreathed your brows, they scared me too! o wherefore, wherefore should be at the first meeting spread as 'twere the ban of excommunication round you,--wherefore dress up the angel as for sacrifice. and cast upon the light and joyous heart the mournful burden of his station? fitly may love dare woo for love; but such a splendor might none but monarchs venture to approach. thekla. hush! not a word more of this mummery; you see how soon the burden is thrown off. [to the countess. he is not in spirits. wherefore is he not? 'tis you, aunt, that have made him all so gloomy! he had quite another nature on the journey-- so calm, so bright, so joyous eloquent. [to max. it was my wish to see you always so, and never otherwise! max. you find yourself in your great father's arms, beloved lady! all in a new world, which does homage to you, and which, were't only by its novelty, delights your eye. thekla. yes; i confess to you that many things delight me here: this camp, this motley stage of warriors, which renews so manifold the image of my fancy, and binds to life, binds to reality, what hitherto had but been present to me as a sweet dream! max. alas! not so to me. it makes a dream of my reality. upon some island in the ethereal heights i've lived for these last days. this mass of men forces me down to earth. it is a bridge that, reconducting to my former life, divides me and my heaven. thekla. the game of life looks cheerful, when one carries in one's heart the unalienable treasure. 'tis a game, which, having once reviewed, i turn more joyous back to my deeper and appropriate bliss. [breaking off, and in a sportive tone. in this short time that i've been present here. what new unheard-of things have i not seen; and yet they all must give place to the wond which this mysterious castle guards. countess (recollecting). and what can this be then? methought i was acquainted with all the dusky corners of this house. thekla (smiling). ay, but the road thereto is watched by spirits, two griffins still stand sentry at the door. countess (laughs). the astrological tower! how happens it that this same sanctuary, whose access is to all others so impracticable, opens before you even at your approach? thekla. a dwarfish old man with a friendly face and snow-white hairs, whose gracious services were mine at first sight, opened me the doors. max. that is the duke's astrologer, old seni. thekla. he questioned me on many points; for instance, when i was born, what month, and on what day, whether by day or in the night. countess. he wished to erect a figure for your horoscope. thekla. my hand too he examined, shook his head with much sad meaning, and the lines, methought, did not square over truly with his wishes. countess. well, princess, and what found you in this tower? my highest privilege has been to snatch a side-glance, and away! thekla. it was a strange sensation that came o'er me, when at first from the broad sunshine i stepped in; and now the narrowing line of daylight, that ran after the closing door, was gone; and all about me 'twas pale and dusky night, with many shadows fantastically cast. here six or seven colossal statues, and all kings, stood round me in a half-circle. each one in his hand a sceptre bore, and on his head a star; and in the tower no other light was there but from these stars all seemed to come from them. "these are the planets," said that low old man, "they govern worldly fates, and for that cause are imaged here as kings. he farthest from you, spiteful and cold, an old man melancholy, with bent and yellow forehead, he is saturn. he opposite, the king with the red light, an armed man for the battle, that is mars; and both these bring but little luck to man." but at his side a lovely lady stood, the star upon her head was soft and bright, oh, that was venus, the bright star of joy. and the left hand, lo! mercury, with wings quite in the middle glittered silver bright. a cheerful man, and with a monarch's mien; and this was jupiter, my father's star and at his side i saw the sun and moon. max. oh, never rudely will i blame his faith in the might of stars and angels. 'tis not merely the human being's pride that peoples space with life and mystical predominance; since likewise for the stricken heart of love this visible nature, and this common world, is all too narrow; yea, a deeper import lurks in the legend told my infant years than lies upon that truth, we live to learn. for fable is love's world, his home, his birth-place; delightedly dwells he among fays and talismans, and spirits; and delightedly believes divinities, being himself divine the intelligible forms of ancient poets, the fair humanities of old religion, the power, the beauty, and the majesty, that had her haunts in dale, or piny mountain, or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring, or chasms, and watery depths, all these have vanished. they live no longer in the faith of reason! but still the heart doth need a language, still doth the old instinct bring back the old names; and to yon starry world they now are gone, spirits or gods, that used to share this earth with man as with their friend [ ], and to the lover yonder they move, from yonder visible sky shoot influence down: and even at this day 'this jupiter who brings whate'er is great, and venus who brings everything that's fair! thekla. and if this be the science of the stars, i, too, with glad and zealous industry, will learn acquaintance with this cheerful faith. it is a gentle and affectionate thought, that in immeasurable heights above us, at our first birth, the wreath of love was woven, with sparkling stars for flowers. countess. not only roses and thorns too hath the heaven, and well for you leave they your wreath of love inviolate: what venus twined, the bearer of glad fortune, the sullen orb of mars soon tears to pieces. max. soon will this gloomy empire reach its close. blest be the general's zeal: into the laurel will he inweave the olive-branch, presenting peace to the shouting nations. then no wish will have remained for his great heart. enough has he performed for glory, and can now live for himself and his. to his domains will he retire; he has a stately seat of fairest view at gitschin, reichenberg, and friedland castle, both lie pleasantly; even to the foot of the huge mountains here stretches the chase and covers of his forests: his ruling passion to create the splendid he can indulge without restraint; can give a princely patronage to every art, and to all worth a sovereign's protection. can build, can plant, can watch the starry courses---- countess. yet i would have you look, and look again, before you lay aside your arms, young friend! a gentle bride, as she is, is well worth it, that you should woo and win her with the sword. max. oh, that the sword could win her! countess. what was that? did you hear nothing? seemed as if i heard tumult and larum in the banquet-room. [exit countess. scene v. thekla and max. piccolomini. thekla (as soon as the countess is out of sight, in a quick, low voice to piccolomini). don't trust them! they are false! max. impossible! thekla. trust no one here but me. i saw at once, they had a purpose. max. purpose! but what purpose? and how can we be instrumental to it? thekla. i know no more than you; but yet believe me there's some design in this; to make us happy, to realize our union--trust me, love! they but pretend to wish it. max. but these terzkys-- why use we them at all? why not your mother? excellent creature! she deserves from us a full and filial confidence. thekla. she doth love you, doth rate you high before all others--but-- but such a secret--she would never have the courage to conceal it from my father. for her own peace of mind we must preserve it a secret from her too. max. why any secret? i love not secrets. mark what i will do. i'll throw me at your father's feet--let him decide upon my fortune! he is true, he wears no mask--he hates all crooked ways-- he is so good, so noble! thekla. (falls on his neck). that are you! max. you knew him only from this morn! but i have lived ten years already in his presence; and who knows whether in this very moment he is not merely waiting for us both to own our loves in order to unite us? you are silent! you look at me with such a hopelessness! what have you to object against your father? thekla. i? nothing. only he's so occupied-- he has no leisure time to think about the happiness of us two. [taking his hand tenderly. follow me let us not place too great a faith in men. these terzkys--we will still be grateful to them for every kindness, but not trust them further than they deserve;--and in all else rely on our own hearts! max. o! shall we e'er be happy? thekla. are we not happy now? art thou not mine? am i not thine? there lives within my soul a lofty courage--'tis love gives it me! i ought to be less open--ought to hide my heart more from thee--so decorum dictates: but where in this place couldst thou seek for truth, if in my mouth thou didst not find it? we now have met, then let us hold each other clasped in a lasting and a firm embrace. believe me this was more than their intent. then be our loves like some blest relic kept within the deep recesses of the heart. from heaven alone the love has been bestowed, to heaven alone our gratitude is due; it can work wonders for us still. scene vi. to them enters the countess terzky. countess (in a pressing manner). come, come! my husband sends me for you. it is now the latest moment. [they not appearing to attend to what she says, she steps between them. part you! thekla. oh, not yet! it has been scarce a moment. countess. ay! then time flies swiftly with your highness, princess niece! max. there is no hurry, aunt. countess. away! away! the folks begin to miss you. twice already his father has asked for him. thekla. ha! his father! countess. you understand that, niece! thekla. why needs he to go at all to that society? 'tis not his proper company. they may be worthy men, but he's too young for them; in brief, he suits not such society. countess. you mean, you'd rather keep him wholly here? thekla (with energy). yes! you have hit it aunt! that is my meaning, leave him here wholly! tell the company---- countess. what! have you lost your senses, niece? count, you remember the conditions. come! max (to thekla). lady, i must obey. fairwell, dear lady! [thekla turns away from him with a quick motion. what say you then, dear lady? thekla (without looking at him). nothing. go! max. can i when you are angry---- [he draws up to her, their eyes meet, she stands silent a moment, then throws herself into his arms; he presses her fast to his heart. countess. off! heavens! if any one should come! hark! what's that noise! it comes this way. off! [max. tears himself away out of her arms and goes. the countess accompanies him. thekla follows him with her eyes at first, walks restlessly across the room, then stops, and remains standing, lost in thought. a guitar lies on the table, she seizes it as by a sudden emotion, and after she has played awhile an irregular and melancholy symphony, she falls gradually into the music and sings. scene vii. thekla (plays and sings). the cloud doth gather, the greenwood roar, the damsel paces along the shore; the billows, they tumble with might, with might; and she flings out her voice to the darksome night; her bosom is swelling with sorrow; the world it is empty, the heart will die, there's nothing to wish for beneath the sky thou holy one, call thy child away! i've lived and loved, and that was to-day; make ready my grave-clothes to-morrow. [ ] scene viii. countess (returns), thekla. countess. fie, lady niece! to throw yourself upon him like a poor gift to one who cares not for it, and so must be flung after him! for you, duke friedland's only child, i should have thought it had been more beseeming to have shown yourself more chary of your person. thekla (rising). and what mean you? duchess. i mean, niece, that you should not have forgotten who you are, and who he is. but perchance that never once occurred to you. thekla. what then? countess. that you're the daughter of the prince duke friedland. thekla. well, and what farther? duchess. what? a pretty question! thekla. he was born that which we have but become. he's of an ancient lombard family, son of a reigning princess. countess. are you dreaming? talking in sleep? an excellent jest, forsooth! we shall no doubt right courteously entreat him to honor with his hand the richest heiress in europe. thekla. that will not be necessary. countess. methinks 'twere well, though, not to run the hazard. thehla. his father loves him; count octavio will interpose no difficulty---- countess. his! his father! his! but yours, niece, what of yours? therla. why, i begin to think you fear his father, so anxiously you hide it from the man! his father, his, i mean. countess (looks at her as scrutinizing). niece, you are false. thebla. are you then wounded? o, be friends with me! countess. you hold your game for won already. do not triumph too soon! thekla (interrupting her, and attempting to soothe her). nay now, be friends with me. countess. it is not yet so far gone. thekla. i believe you. countess. did you suppose your father had laid out his most important life in toils of war, denied himself each quiet earthly bliss, had banished slumbers from his tent, devoted his noble head to care, and for this only, to make a happier pair of you? at length to draw you from your convent, and conduct in easy triumph to your arms the man that chanced to please your eyes! all this, methinks, he might have purchased at a cheaper rate. thekla. that which he did not plant for me might yet bear me fair fruitage of its own accord. and if my friendly and affectionate fate, out of his fearful and enormous being, will but prepare the joys of life for me---- countess. thou seest it with a lovelorn maiden's eyes, cast thine eye round, bethink thee who thou art;-- into no house of joyance hast thou stepped, for no espousals dost thou find the walls decked out, no guests the nuptial garland wearing; here is no splendor but of arms. or thinkest thou that all these thousands are here congregated to lead up the long dances at thy wedding! thou see'st thy father's forehead full of thought, thy mother's eye in tears: upon the balance lies the great destiny of all our house. leave now the puny wish, the girlish feeling; oh, thrust it far behind thee! give thou proof thou'rt the daughter of the mighty--his who where he moves creates the wonderful. not to herself the woman must belong, annexed and bound to alien destinies. but she performs the best part, she the wisest, who can transmute the alien into self, meet and disarm necessity by choice; and what must be, take freely to her heart, and bear and foster it with mother's love. thekla. such ever was my lesson in the convent. i had no loves, no wishes, knew myself only as his--his daughter--his, the mighty! his fame, the echo of whose blast drove to me from the far distance, weakened in my soul no other thought than this--i am appointed to offer myself up in passiveness to him. countess. that is thy fate. mould thou thy wishes to it-- i and thy mother gave thee the example. thekla. my fate hath shown me him, to whom behoves it that i should offer up myself. in gladness him will i follow. countess. not thy fate hath shown him! thy heart, say rather--'twas thy heart, my child! thekla. faith hath no voice but the heart's impulses. i am all his! his present--his alone. is this new life, which lives in me? he hath a right to his own creature. what was i ere his fair love infused a soul into me? countess. thou wouldst oppose thy father, then, should he have otherwise determined with thy person? [thekla remains silent. the countess continues. thou meanest to force him to thy liking? child, his name is friedland. thekla. my name too is friedland. he shall have found a genuine daughter in me. countess. what! he has vanquished all impediment, and in the wilful mood of his own daughter shall a new struggle rise for him? child! child! as yet thou hast seen thy father's smiles alone; the eye of his rage thou hast not seen. dear child, i will not frighten thee. to that extreme, i trust it ne'er shall come. his will is yet unknown to me; 'tis possible his aims may have the same direction as thy wish. but this can never, never be his will, that thou, the daughter of his haughty fortunes, shouldest e'er demean thee as a lovesick maiden and like some poor cost-nothing, fling thyself toward the man, who, if that high prize ever be destined to await him, yet with sacrifices the highest love can bring, must pay for it. [exit countess. scene ix. thekla (who during the last speech had been standing evidently lost in her reflections). i thank thee for the hint. it turns my sad presentiment to certainty. and it is so! not one friend have we here, not one true heart! we've nothing but ourselves! oh, she said rightly--no auspicious signs beam on this covenant of our affections. this is no theatre where hope abides the dull thick noise of war alone stirs here, and love himself, as he were armed in steel, steps forth, and girds him for the strife of death. [music from the banquet-room is heard. there's a dark spirit walking in our house. and swiftly will the destiny close on us. it drove me hither from my calm asylum, it mocks my soul with charming witchery, it lures me forward in a seraph's shape, i see it near, i see it nearer floating, it draws, it pulls me with a godlike power-- and lo! the abyss--and thither am i moving-- i have no power within me not to move! [the music from the banquet-room becomes louder. oh, when a house is, doomed in fire to perish, many and dark heaven drives his clouds together, yea, shoots his lightnings down from sunny heights, flames burst from out the subterraneous chasms, and fiends and angels, mingling in their fury, sling firebrands at the burning edifice. [ ] [exit thekla. act iv. scene i. a large saloon lighted up with festal splendor; in the midst of it, and in the centre of the stage a table richly set out, at which eight generals are sitting, among whom are octavio piccolomini, terzky, and maradas. right and left of this, but further back, two other tables, at each of which six persons are placed. the middle door, which is standing open, gives to the prospect a fourth table with the same number of persons. more forward stands the sideboard. the whole front of the stage is kept open, for the pages and servants-in-waiting. all is in motion. the band of music belonging to terzky's regiment march across the stage, and draw up around the tables. before they are quite off from the front of the stage, max. piccolomini appears, terzky advances towards him with a paper, isolani comes up to meet him with a beaker, or service-cup. terzky, isolani, max. piccolomini. isolani. here, brother, what we love! why, where hast been? off to thy place--quick! terzky here has given the mother's holiday wine up to free booty. here it goes on as at the heidelberg castle. already hast thou lost the best. they're giving at yonder table ducal crowns in shares; there sternberg's lands and chattels are put up, with eggenberg's, stawata's, lichtenstein's, and all the great bohemian feudalities. be nimble, lad! and something may turn up for thee, who knows? off--to thy place! quick! march! tiefenbach and goetz (call out from the second and third tables). count piccolomini! terzky. stop, ye shall have him in an instant. read this oath here, whether as 'tis here set forth, the wording satisfies you. they've all read it, each in his turn, and each one will subscribe his individual signature. max. (reads). "ingratis servire nefas." isolani. that sounds to my ears very much like latin, and being interpreted, pray what may it mean? terzky. no honest man will serve a thankless master. max. "inasmuch as our supreme commander, the illustrious duke of friedland, in consequence of the manifold affronts and grievances which he has received, had expressed his determination to quit the emperor, but on our unanimous entreaty has graciously consented to remain still with the army, and not to part from us without our approbation thereof, so we, collectively and each in particular, in the stead of an oath personally taken, do, hereby oblige ourselves--likewise by him honorably and faithfully to hold, and in nowise whatsoever from him to part, and to be ready to shed for his interests the last drop of our blood, so far, namely, as our oath to the emperor will permit it. (these last words are repeated by isolani.) in testimony of which we subscribe our names." terzky. now! are you willing to subscribe to this paper? isolani. why should he not? all officers of honor can do it, ay, must do it. pen and ink here! terzky. nay, let it rest till after meal. isolani (drawing max. along). come, max! [both seat themselves at their table. scene ii. terzky, neumann. terzky (beckons to neumann, who is waiting at the side-table and steps forward with him to the edge of the stage). have you the copy with you, neumann? give it. it may be changed for the other? neumann. i have copied it letter by letter, line by line; no eye would e'er discover other difference, save only the omission of that clause, according to your excellency's order. terzky. right i lay it yonder and away with this-- it has performed its business--to the fire with it. [neumann lays the copy on the table, and steps back again to the side-table. scene iii. illo (comes out from the second chamber), terzky. illo. how goes it with young piccolomini! terzky. all right, i think. he has started no object. illo. he is the only one i fear about-- he and his father. have an eye on both! terzky. how looks it at your table: you forget not to keep them warm and stirring? illo. oh, quite cordial, they are quite cordial in the scheme. we have them and 'tis as i predicted too. already it is the talk, not merely to maintain the duke in station. "since we're once for all together and unanimous, why not," says montecuculi, "ay, why not onward, and make conditions with the emperor there in his own venice?" trust me, count, were it not for these said piccolomini, we might have spared ourselves the cheat. terzey. and butler? how goes it there? hush! scene iv. to them enter butler from a second table. butler. don't disturb yourselves; field-marshal, i have understood you perfectly. good luck be to the scheme; and as to me, [with an air of mystery. you may depend upon me. illo (with vivacity). may we, butler? butler. with or without the clause, all one to me! you understand me! my fidelity the duke may put to any proof--i'm with him tell him so! i'm the emperor's officer, as long as 'tis his pleasure to remain the emperor's general! and friedland's servant, as soon as it shall please him to become his own lord. terzky. you would make a good exchange. no stern economist, no ferdinand, is he to whom you plight your services. butler (with a haughty look). i do not put up my fidelity to sale, count terzky! half a year ago i would not have advised you to have made me an overture to that, to which i now offer myself of my own free accord. but that is past! and to the duke, field-marshal, i bring myself, together with my regiment. and mark you, 'tis my humor to believe, the example which i give will not remain without an influence. illo. who is ignorant, that the whole army looks to colonel butler as to a light that moves before them? butler. ay? then i repent me not of that fidelity which for the length of forty years i held, if in my sixtieth year my good old name can purchase for me a revenge so full. start not at what i say, sir generals! my real motives--they concern not you. and you yourselves, i trust, could not expect that this your game had crooked my judgment--or that fickleness, quick blood, or such like cause, has driven the old man from the track of honor, which he so long had trodden. come, my friends! i'm not thereto determined with less firmness, because i know and have looked steadily at that on which i have determined. illo. say, and speak roundly, what are we to deem you? butler. a friend! i give you here my hand! i'm yours with all i have. not only men, but money will the duke want. go, tell him, sirs! i've earned and laid up somewhat in his service, i lend it him; and is he my survivor, it has been already long ago bequeathed to him; he is my heir. for me, i stand alone here in the world; naught know i of the feeling that binds the husband to a wife and children. my name dies with me, my existence ends. illo. 'tis not your money that he needs--a heart like yours weighs tons of gold down, weighs down millions! butler. i came a simple soldier's boy from ireland to prague--and with a master, whom i buried. from lowest stable duty i climbed up, such was the fate of war, to this high rank, the plaything of a whimsical good fortune. and wallenstein too is a child of luck: i love a fortune that is like my own. illo. all powerful souls have kindred with each other. butler. this is an awful moment! to the brave, to the determined, an auspicious moment. the prince of weimar arms, upon the maine, to found a mighty dukedom. he of halberstadt, that mansfeldt, wanted but a longer life to have marked out with his good sword a lordship that should reward his courage. who of these equals our friedland? there is nothing, nothing so high, but he may set the ladder to it! terzky. that's spoken like a man! butler. do you secure the spaniard and italian-- i'll be your warrant for the scotchman lesly. come to the company! terzky. where is the master of the cellar? ho! let the best wines come up. ho! cheerly, boy! luck comes to-day, so give her hearty welcome. [exeunt, each to his table. scene v. the master of the cellar, advancing with neumann, servants passing backwards and forwards. master of the cellar. the best wine! oh, if my old mistress, his lady mother, could but see these wild goings on she would turn herself round in her grave. yes, yes, sir officer! 'tis all down the hill with this noble house! no end, no moderation! and this marriage with the duke's sister, a splendid connection, a very splendid connection! but i will tell you, sir officer, it looks no good. neumann. heaven forbid! why, at this very moment the whole prospect is in bud and blossom! master of the cellar. you think so? well, well! much may be said on that head. first servant (comes). burgundy for the fourth table. master of the cellar. now, sir lieutenant, if this aint the seventieth flask---- first servant. why, the reason is, that german lord, tiefenbach, sits at that table. master of the cellar (continuing his discourse to neumann). they are soaring too high. they would rival kings and electors in their pomp and splendor; and wherever the duke leaps, not a minute does my gracious master, the count, loiter on the brink--(to the servants). what do you stand there listening for? i will let you know you have legs presently. off! see to the tables, see to the flasks! look there! count palfi has an empty glass before him! runner (comes). the great service-cup is wanted, sir, that rich gold cup with the bohemian arms on it. the count says you know which it is. master of the cellar. ay! that was made for frederick's coronation by the artist william--there was not such another prize in the whole booty at prague. runner. the same!--a health is to go round in him. master of the cellar (shaking his head while he fetches and rinses the cups). this will be something for the tale-bearers--this goes to vienna. neumann. permit me to look at it. well, this is a cup indeed! how heavy! as well it may be, being all gold. and what neat things are embossed on it! how natural and elegant they look! there, on the first quarter, let me see. that proud amazon there on horseback, she that is taking a leap over the crosier and mitres, and carries on a wand a hat together with a banner, on which there's a goblet represented. can you tell me what all this signifies? master of the cellar. the woman you see there on horseback is the free election of the bohemian crown. that is signified by the round hat and by that fiery steed on which she is riding. the hat is the pride of man; for he who cannot keep his hat on before kings and emperors is no free man. neumann. but what is the cup there on the banner. master of the cellar. the cup signifies the freedom of the bohemian church, as it was in our forefathers' times. our forefathers in the wars of the hussites forced from the pope this noble privilege; for the pope, you know, will not grant the cup to any layman. your true moravian values nothing beyond the cup; it is his costly jewel, and has cost the bohemians their precious blood in many and many a battle. neumann. and what says that chart that hangs in the air there, over it all? master of the cellar. that signifies the bohemian letter-royal which we forced from the emperor rudolph--a precious, never to be enough valued parchment, that secures to the new church the old privileges of free ringing and open psalmody. but since he of steiermark has ruled over us that is at an end; and after the battle at prague, in which count palatine frederick lost crown and empire, our faith hangs upon the pulpit and the altar--and our brethren look at their homes over their shoulders; but the letter-royal the emperor himself cut to pieces with his scissors. neumann. why, my good master of the cellar! you are deep read in the chronicles of your country. master of the cellar. so were my forefathers, and for that reason were they minstrels, and served under procopius and ziska. peace be with their ashes! well, well! they fought for a good cause though. there! carry it up! neumann. stay! let me but look at this second quarter. look there! that is, when at prague castle, the imperial counsellors, martinitz and stawata, were hurled down head over heels. 'tis even so! there stands count thur who commands it. [runner takes the service-cup and goes off with it. master of the cellar. oh, let me never more hear of that day. it was the three-and-twentieth of may in the year of our lord one thousand six hundred and eighteen. it seems to me as it were but yesterday--from that unlucky day it all began, all the heartaches of the country. since that day it is now sixteen years, and there has never once been peace on the earth. [health drunk aloud at the second table. the prince of weimar! hurrah! [at the third and fourth tables. long live prince william! long live duke bernard! hurrah! [music strikes up. first servant. hear 'em! hear 'em! what an uproar! second servant (comes in running). did you hear? they have drunk the prince of weimar's health. third servant. the swedish chief commander! first servant (speaking at the same time). the lutheran! second servant. just before, when count deodati gave out the emperor's health, they were all as mum as a nibbling mouse. master of the cellar. po, po! when the wine goes in strange things come out. a good servant hears, and hears not! you should be nothing but eyes and feet, except when you are called to. second servant. [to the runner, to whom he gives secretly a flask of wine, keeping his eye on the master of the cellar, standing between him and the runner. quick, thomas! before the master of the cellar runs this way; 'tis a flask of frontignac! snapped it up at the third table. canst go off with it? runner (hides it in his, pocket). all right! [exit the second servant. third servant (aside to the first). be on the hark, jack! that we may have right plenty to tell to father quivoga. he will give us right plenty of absolution in return for it. first servant. for that very purpose i am always having something to do behind illo's chair. he is the man for speeches to make you stare with. master of the cellar (to neumann). who, pray, may that swarthy man be, he with the cross, that is chatting so confidently with esterhats? neumann. ay, he too is one of those to whom they confide too much. he calls himself maradas; a spaniard is he. master of the cellar (impatiently). spaniard! spaniard! i tell you, friend, nothing good comes of those spaniards. all these outlandish fellows are little better than rogues. neumann. fy, fy! you should not say so, friend. there are among them our very best generals, and those on whom the duke at this moment relies the most. master of the cellar. [taking the flask out of runner's pocket. my son, it will be broken to pieces in your pocket. [terzky hurries in, fetches away the paper, and calls to a servant for pen and ink, and goes to the back of the stage. master of the cellar (to the servants). the lieutenant-general stands up. be on the watch. now! they break up. off, and move back the forms. [they rise at all the tables, the servants hurry off the front of the stage to the tables; part of the guests come forward. scene vi. octavio piccolomini enters, in conversation with maradas, and both place themselves quite on the edge of the stage on one side of the proscenium. on the side directly opposite, max. piccolomini, by himself, lost in thought, and taking no part in anything that is going forward. the middle space between both, but rather more distant from the edge of the stage, is filled up by butler, isolani, goetz, tiefenbach, and kolatto. isolani (while the company is coming forward). good-night, good-night, kolatto! good-night, lieutenant-general! i should rather say good-morning. goetz (to tiefenbach). noble brother! (making the usual compliment after meals). tiefenbach. ay! 'twas a royal feast indeed. goetz. yes, my lady countess understands these matters. her mother-in-law, heaven rest her soul, taught her! ah! that was a housewife for you! tiefenbach. there was not her like in all bohemia for setting out a table. octavio (aside to maradas). do me the favor to talk to me--talk of what you will--or of nothing. only preserve the appearance at least of talking. i would not wish to stand by myself, and yet i conjecture that there will be goings on here worthy of our attentive observation. (he continues to fix his eye on the whole following scene.) isolani (on the point of going). lights! lights! terzky (advances with the paper to isolani). noble brother; two minutes longer! here is something to subscribe. isolani. subscribe as much as you like--but you must excuse me from reading it. terzky. there is no need. it is the oath which you have already read. only a few marks of your pen! [isolani hands over the paper to octavio respectfully. terzky. nay, nay, first come, first served. there is no precedence here. [octavio runs over the paper with apparent indifference. terzky watches him at some distance. goetz (to terzky). noble count! with your permission--good-night. terkzy. where's the hurry? come, one other composing draught. (to the servants). ho! goetz. excuse me--aint able. terzky. a thimble-full. goetz. excuse me. tiefenbach (sits down). pardon me, nobles! this standing does not agree with me. terzky. consult your own convenience, general. tiefenbach. clear at head, sound in stomach--only my legs won't carry me any longer. isolani (pointing at his corpulence). poor legs! how should they! such an unmerciful load! [octavio subscribes his name, and reaches over the paper to terzky, who gives it to isolani; and he goes to the table to sign his name. tiefenbach. 'twas that war in pomerania that first brought it on. out in all weathers--ice and snow--no help for it. i shall never get the better of it all the days of my life. goetz. why, in simple verity, your swedes make no nice inquiries about the season. terzky (observing isolani, whose hand trembles excessively so that he can scarce direct his pen). have you had that ugly complaint long, noble brother? despatch it. isolani. the sins of youth! i have already tried the chalybeate waters. well--i must bear it. [terzky gives the paper to maradas; he steps to the table to subscribe. octavio (advancing to butler). you are not over-fond of the orgies of bacchus, colonel! i have observed it. you would, i think, find yourself more to your liking in the uproar of a battle than of a feast. butler. i must confess 'tis not in my way. octavio (stepping nearer to him friendlily). nor in mine neither, i can assure you; and i am not a little glad, my much-honored colonel butler, that we agree so well in our opinions. a half-dozen good friends at most, at a small round table, a glass of genuine tokay, open hearts, and a rational conversation--that's my taste. butler. and mine, too, when it can be had. [the paper comes to tiefenbach, who glances over it at the same time with goetz and kolatto. maradas in the meantime returns to octavio. all this takes places, the conversation with butler proceeding uninterrupted. octavio (introducing madaras to butler.) don balthasar maradas! likewise a man of our stamp, and long ago your admirer. [butler bows. octavio (continuing). you are a stranger here--'twas but yesterday you arrived--you are ignorant of the ways and means here. 'tis a wretched place. i know at your age one loves to be snug and quiet. what if you move your lodgings? come, be my visitor. (butler makes a low bow.) nay, without compliment! for a friend like you i have still a corner remaining. butler (coldly). your obliged humble servant, my lord lieutenant-general. [the paper comes to butler, who goes to the table to subscribe it. the front of the stage is vacant, so that both the piccolominis, each on the side where he had been from the commencement of the scene, remain alone. octavio (after having some time watched his son in silence, advances somewhat nearer to him). you were long absent from us, friend! max. i--urgent business detained me. octavio. and, i observe, you are still absent! max. you know this crowd and bustle always makes me silent. octavio (advancing still nearer). may i be permitted to ask what the business was that detained you? terzky knows it without asking. max. what does terzky know? octavio. he was the only one who did not miss you. isolani (who has been attending to them for some distance steps up). well done, father! rout out his baggage! beat up his quarters! there is something there that should not be. terzky (with the paper). is there none wanting? have the whole subscribed? octavio. all. terzky (calling aloud). ho! who subscribes? butler (to terzky). count the names. there ought to be just thirty. terzky. here is a cross. tiefenbach. that's my mark! isolani. he cannot write; but his cross is a good cross, and is honored by jews as well as christians. octavio (presses on to max.). come, general! let us go. it is late. terzky. one piccolomini only has signed. isolani (pointing to max.). look! that is your man, that statue there, who has had neither eye, ear, nor tongue for us the whole evening. [max. receives the paper from terzky, which he looks upon vacantly. scene vii. to these enter illo from the inner room. he has in his hand a golden service-cup, and is extremely distempered with drinking; goetz and butler follow him, endeavoring to keep him back. illo. what do you want! let me go. goetz and butler. drink no more, illo! for heaven's sake, drink no more. illo (goes up to octavio, and shakes him cordially by the hand, and then drinks). octavio! i bring this to you! let all grudge be drowned in this friendly bowl! i know well enough you never loved me--devil take me! and i never loved you! i am always even with people in that way! let what's past be past--that is, you understand--forgotten! i esteem you infinitely. (embracing him repeatedly.) you have not a dearer friend on earth than i, but that you know. the fellow that cries rogue to you calls me villain, and i'll strangle him! my dear friend! terzky (whispering to him). art in thy senses? for heaven's sake, illo, think where you are! illo (aloud). what do you mean? there are none but friends here, are there? (looks round the whole circle with a jolly and triumphant air.) not a sneaker amongst us, thank heaven. terzky (to butler, eagerly). take him off with you, force him off, i entreat you, butler! butler (to illo). field-marshal! a word with you. (leads to the side-board.) illo (cordially). a thousand for one. fill; fill it once more up to the brim. to this gallant man's health! isolani (to max., who all the while has been staring on the paper with fixed but vacant eyes). slow and sure, my noble brother! hast parsed it all yet? some words yet to go through? ha? max. (waking as from a dream). what am i to do? terzky, and at the same time isolani. sign your name. (octavio directs his eyes on him with intense anxiety). max. (returns the paper). let it stay till to-morrow. it is business; to-day i am not sufficiently collected. send it to me to-morrow. terzky. nay, collect yourself a little. isolani. awake man, awake! come, thy signature, and have done with it! what! thou art the youngest in the whole company, and would be wiser than all of us together! look there! thy father has signed; we have all signed. terzky (to octavio). use your influence. instruct him. octavio. my son is at the age of discretion. illo (leaves the service-cup on the sideboard). what's the dispute? terzky. he declines subscribing the paper. max. i say it may as well stay till to-morrow. illo. it cannot stay. we have all subscribed to it--and so must you. you must subscribe. max. illo, good-night! illo. no! you come not off so! the duke shall learn who are his friends. (all collect round illo and max.) max. what my sentiments are towards the duke, the duke knows, every one knows--what need of this wild stuff? illo. this is the thanks the duke gets for his partiality to italians and foreigners. us bohemians he holds for little better than dullards-- nothing pleases him but what's outlandish. terzky (in extreme embarrassment, to the commanders, who at illo's words give a sudden start as preparing to resent them). it is the wine that speaks, and not his reason. attend not to him, i entreat you. isolani (with a bitter laugh). wine invents nothing: it only tattles. illo. he who is not with me is against me. your tender consciences! unless they can slip out by a back-door, by a puny proviso---- terzky (interrupting him). he is stark mad--don't listen to him! illo (raising his voice to the highest pitch). unless they can slip out by a proviso. what of the proviso? the devil take this proviso! max. (has his attention roused, and looks again into the paper). what is there here then of such perilous import? you make me curious--i must look closer at it. terzky (in a low voice to illo). what are you doing, illo? you are ruining us. tiefenbach (to kolatto). ay, ay! i observed, that before we sat down to supper, it was read differently. goetz. why, i seemed to think so too. isolani. what do i care for that? where there stand other names mine can stand too. tiefenbach. before supper there was a certain proviso therein, or short clause, concerning our duties to the emperor. butler (to one of the commanders). for shame, for shame! bethink you. what is the main business here? the question now is, whether we shall keep our general, or let him retire. one must not take these things too nicely, and over-scrupulously. isolani (to one of the generals). did the duke make any of these provisos when he gave you your regiment? terzky (to goetz). or when he gave you the office of army-purveyancer, which brings you in yearly a thousand pistoles! illo. he is a rascal who makes us out to be rogues. if there be any one that wants satisfaction, let him say so,--i am his man. tiefenbach. softly, softly? 'twas but a word or two. max. (having read the paper gives it back). till to-morrow therefore! illo (stammering with rage and fury, loses all command over himself and presents the paper to max. with one hand, and his sword in the other). subscribe--judas! isolani. out upon you, illo! octavio, terzky, butler (all together). down with the sword! max. (rushes on him suddenly and disarms him, then to count terzky). take him off to bed! [max leaves the stage. illo cursing and raving is held back by some of the officers, and amidst a universal confusion the curtain drops. act v. scene i. a chamber in piccolomini's mansion. it is night. octavio piccolomini. a valet de chambre with lights. octavio. and when my son comes in, conduct him hither. what is the hour? valet. 'tis on the point of morning. octavio. set down the light. we mean not to undress. you may retire to sleep. [exit valet. octavio paces, musing, across the chamber; max. piccolomini enters unobserved, and looks at his father for some moments in silence. max. art thou offended with me? heaven knows that odious business was no fault of mine. 'tis true, indeed, i saw thy signature, what thou hast sanctioned, should not, it might seem, have come amiss to me. but--'tis my nature-- thou know'st that in such matters i must follow my own light, not another's. octavio (goes up to him and embraces him). follow it, oh, follow it still further, my best son! to-night, dear boy! it hath more faithfully guided thee than the example of thy father. max. declare thyself less darkly. octavio. i will do so; for after what has taken place this night, there must remain no secrets 'twixt us two. [both seat themselves. max. piccolomini! what thinkest thou of the oath that was sent round for signatures? max. i hold it for a thing of harmless import, although i love not these set declarations. octavio. and on no other ground hast thou refused the signature they fain had wrested from thee? max. it was a serious business. i was absent-- the affair itself seemed not so urgent to me. octavio. be open, max. thou hadst then no suspicion? max. suspicion! what suspicion? not the least. octavio. thank thy good angel, piccolomini; he drew thee back unconscious from the abyss. max. i know not what thou meanest. octavio. i will tell thee. fain would they have extorted from thee, son, the sanction of thy name to villany; yes, with a single flourish of thy pen, made thee renounce thy duty and thy honor! max. (rises). octavio! octavio. patience! seat yourself. much yet hast thou to hear from me, friend! hast for years lived in incomprehensible illusion. before thine eyes is treason drawing out as black a web as e'er was spun for venom: a power of hell o'erclouds thy understanding. i dare no longer stand in silence--dare no longer see thee wandering on in darkness, nor pluck the bandage from thine eyes. max. my father! yet, ere thou speakest, a moment's pause of thought! if your disclosures should appear to be conjectures only--and almost i fear they will be nothing further--spare them! i am not in that collected mood at present, that i could listen to them quietly. octavio. the deeper cause thou hast to hate this light, the more impatient cause have i, my son, to force it on thee. to the innocence and wisdom of thy heart i could have trusted thee with calm assurance--but i see the net preparing--and it is thy heart itself alarms me, for thine innocence--that secret, [fixing his eyes steadfastly on his son's face. which thou concealest, forces mine from me. [max. attempts to answer, but hesitates, and casts his eyes to the ground embarrassed. octavio (after a pause). know, then, they are duping thee!--a most foul game with thee and with us all--nay, hear me calmly-- the duke even now is playing. he assumes the mask, as if he would forsake the army; and in this moment makes he preparations that army from the emperor to steal, and carry it over to the enemy! max. that low priest's legend i know well, but did not expect to hear it from thy mouth. octavio. that mouth, from which thou hearest it at this present moment, doth warrant thee that it is no priest's legend. max. how mere a maniac they supposed the duke; what, he can meditate?--the duke?--can dream that he can lure away full thirty thousand tried troops and true, all honorable soldiers, more than a thousand noblemen among them, from oaths, from duty, from their honor lure them, and make them all unanimous to do a deed that brands them scoundrels? octavio. such a deed, with such a front of infamy, the duke no way desires--what he requires of us bears a far gentler appellation. nothing he wishes but to give the empire peace. and so, because the emperor hates this peace, therefore the duke--the duke will force him to it. all parts of the empire will he pacify, and for his trouble will retain in payment (what he has already in his gripe)--bohemia! max. has he, octavio, merited of us, that we--that we should think so vilely of him? octavio. what we would think is not the question here, the affair speaks for itself--and clearest proofs! hear me, my son--'tis not unknown to thee, in what ill credit with the court we stand. but little dost thou know, or guess what tricks, what base intrigues, what lying artifices, have been employed--for this sole end--to sow mutiny in the camp! all bands are loosed-- loosed all the bands that link the officer to his liege emperor, all that bind the soldier affectionately to the citizen. lawless he stands, and threateningly beleaguers the state he's bound to guard. to such a height 'tis swollen, that at this hour the emperor before his armies--his own armies--trembles; yea, in his capital, his palace, fears the traitor's poniard, and is meditating to hurry off and hide his tender offspring-- not from the swedes, not from the lutherans--no, from his own troops to hide and hurry them! max. cease, cease! thou torturest, shatterest me. i know that oft we tremble at an empty terror; but the false phantasm brings a real misery. octavio. it is no phantasm. an intestine war, of all the most unnatural and cruel, will burst out into flames, if instantly we do not fly and stifle it. the generals are many of them long ago won over; the subalterns are vacillating; whole regiments and garrisons are vacillating. to foreigners our strongholds are intrusted; to that suspected schafgotch is the whole force of silesia given up: to terzky five regiments, foot and horse; to isolani, to illo, kinsky, butler, the best troops. max. likewise to both of us. octavio. because the duke believes he has secured us, means to lure us still further on by splendid promises. to me he portions forth the princedoms, glatz and sagan; and too plain i see the bait with which he doubts not but to catch thee. max. no! no! i tell thee, no! octavio. oh, open yet thine eyes! and to what purpose think'st thou he has called hither to pilsen? to avail himself of our advice? oh, when did friedland ever need our advice? be calm, and listen to me. to sell ourselves are we called hither, and decline we that, to be his hostages. therefore doth noble gallas stand aloof; thy father, too, thou wouldst not have seen here, if higher duties had not held him fettered. max. he makes no secret of it--needs make none-- that we're called hither for his sake--he owns it. he needs our aidance to maintain himself-- he did so much for us; and 'tis but fair that we, too, should do somewhat now for him. octavio. and know'st thou what it is which we must do? that illo's drunken mood betrayed it to thee. bethink thyself, what hast thou heard, what seen? the counterfeited paper, the omission of that particular clause, so full of meaning, does it not prove that they would bind us down to nothing good? max. that counterfeited paper appears to me no other than a trick of illo's own device. these underhand traders in great men's interests ever use to urge and hurry all things to the extreme. they see the duke at variance with the court, and fondly think to serve him, when they widen the breach irreparably. trust me, father, the duke knows nothing of all this. octavio. it grieves me that i must dash to earth, that i must shatter a faith so specious; but i may not spare thee! for this is not a time for tenderness. thou must take measured, speedy ones, must act. i therefore will confess to thee that all which i've intrusted to thee now, that all which seems to thee so unbelievable, that--yes, i will tell thee, (a pause) max.! i had it all from his own mouth, from the duke's mouth i had it. max (in excessive agitation). no! no! never! octavio. himself confided to me what i, 'tis true, had long before discovered by other means; himself confided to me, that 'twas his settled plan to join the swedes; and, at the head of the united armies, compel the emperor---- max. he is passionate, the court has stung him; he is sore all over with injuries and affronts; and in a moment of irritation, what if he, for once, forgot himself? he's an impetuous man. octavio. nay, in cold blood he did confess this to me and having construed my astonishment into a scruple of his power, he showed me his written evidences--showed me letters, both from the saxon and the swede, that gave promise of aidance, and defined the amount. max. it cannot be!--cannot be! cannot be! dost thou not see, it cannot! thou wouldst of necessity have shown him such horror, such deep loathing--that or he had taken thee for his better genius, or thou stood'st not now a living man before me. octavio. i have laid open my objections to him, dissuaded him with pressing earnestness; but my abhorrence, the full sentiment of my whole heart--that i have still kept safe to my own consciousness. max. and thou hast been so treacherous? that looks not like my father! i trusted not thy words, when thou didst tell me evil of him; much less can i now do it, that thou calumniatest thy own self. octavio. i did not thrust myself into his secrecy. max. uprightness merited his confidence. octavio. he was no longer worthy of sincerity. max. dissimulation, sure, was still less worthy of thee, octavio! octavio. gave i him a cause to entertain a scruple of my honor? max. that he did not evince his confidence. octavio. dear son, it is not always possible still to preserve that infant purity which the voice teaches in our inmost heart, still in alarm, forever on the watch against the wiles of wicked men: e'en virtue will sometimes bear away her outward robes soiled in the wrestle with iniquity. this is the curse of every evil deed that, propagating still, it brings forth evil. i do not cheat my better soul with sophisms; i but perform my orders; the emperor prescribes my conduct to me. dearest boy, far better were it, doubtless, if we all obeyed the heart at all times; but so doing, in this our present sojourn with bad men, we must abandon many an honest object. 'tis now our call to serve the emperor; by what means he can best be served--the heart may whisper what it will--this is our call! max. it seems a thing appointed, that to-day i should not comprehend, not understand thee. the duke, thou sayest, did honestly pour out his heart to thee, but for an evil purpose: and thou dishonestly hast cheated him for a good purpose! silence, i entreat thee-- my friend, thou stealest not from me-- let me not lose my father! octavio (suppressing resentment). as yet thou knowest not all, my son. i have yet somewhat to disclose to thee. [after a pause. duke friedland hath made his preparations. he relies upon the stars. he deems us unprovided, and thinks to fall upon us by surprise. yea, in his dream of hope, he grasps already the golden circle in his hand. he errs, we, too, have been in action--he but grasps his evil fate, most evil, most mysterious! max. oh, nothing rash, my sire! by all that's good, let me invoke thee--no precipitation! octavio. with light tread stole he on his evil way, and light of tread hath vengeance stole on after him. unseen she stands already, dark behind him but one step more--he shudders in her grasp! thou hast seen questenberg with me. as yet thou knowest but his ostensible commission: he brought with him a private one, my son! and that was for me only. max. may i know it? octavio (seizes the patent). max! in this disclosure place i in thy hands [a pause. the empire's welfare and thy father's life. dear to thy inmost heart is wallenstein a powerful tie of love, of veneration, hath knit thee to him from thy earliest youth. thou nourishest the wish,--o let me still anticipate thy loitering confidence! the hope thou nourishest to knit thyself yet closer to him---- max. father---- octavio. oh, my son! i trust thy heart undoubtingly. but am i equally sure of thy collectedness? wilt thou be able, with calm countenance, to enter this man's presence, when that i have trusted to thee his whole fate? max. according as thou dost trust me, father, with his crime. [octavio takes a paper out of his escritoire and gives it to him. max. what! how! a full imperial patent! octavio. read it. max. (just glances on it). duke friedland sentenced and condemned! octavio. even so. max. (throws down the paper). oh, this is too much! o unhappy error! octavio. read on. collect thyself. max. (after he has read further, with a look of affright and astonishment on his father). how! what! thou! thou! octavio. but for the present moment, till the king of hungary may safely join the army, is the command assigned to me. max. and think'st thou, dost thou believe, that thou wilt tear it from him? oh, never hope it! father! father! father! an inauspicious office is enjoined thee. this paper here!--this! and wilt thou enforce it? the mighty in the middle of his host, surrounded by his thousands, him wouldst thou disarm--degrade! thou art lost, both thou and all of us. octavio. what hazard i incur thereby, i know. in the great hand of god i stand. the almighty will cover with his shield the imperial house, and shatter, in his wrath, the work of darkness. the emperor hath true servants still; and even here in the camp, there are enough brave men who for the good cause will fight gallantly. the faithful have been warned--the dangerous are closely watched. i wait but the first step, and then immediately---- max. what? on suspicion? immediately? octavio. the emperor is no tyrant. the deed alone he'll punish, not the wish. the duke hath yet his destiny in his power. let him but leave the treason uncompleted, he will be silently displaced from office, and make way to his emperor's royal son. an honorable exile to his castles will be a benefaction to him rather than punishment. but the first open step---- max. what callest thou such a step? a wicked step ne'er will he take; but thou mightest easily, yea, thou hast done it, misinterpret him. octavio. nay, howsoever punishable were duke friedland's purposes, yet still the steps which he hath taken openly permit a mild construction. it is my intention to leave this paper wholly unenforced till some act is committed which convicts him of high treason, without doubt or plea, and that shall sentence him. max. but who the judge octavio. thyself. max. forever, then, this paper will lie idle. octavio. too soon, i fear, its powers must all be proved. after the counter-promise of this evening, it cannot be but he must deem himself secure of the majority with us; and of the army's general sentiment he hath a pleasing proof in that petition, which thou delivered'st to him from the regiments. add this too--i have letters that the rhinegrave hath changed his route, and travels by forced marches to the bohemian forests. what this purports remains unknown; and, to confirm suspicion, this night a swedish nobleman arrived here. max. i have thy word. thou'lt not proceed to action before thou hast convinced me--me myself. octavio. is it possible? still, after all thou know'st, canst thou believe still in his innocence? max. (with enthusiasm). thy judgment may mistake; my heart cannot. [moderates his voice and manner. these reasons might expound thy spirit or mine; but they expound not friedland--i have faith: for as he knits his fortunes to the stars, even so doth he resemble them in secret, wonderful, still inexplicable courses! trust me, they do him wrong. all will be solved. these smokes at once will kindle into flame-- the edges of this black and stormy cloud will brighten suddenly, and we shall view the unapproachable glide out in splendor. octavio. i will await it. scene ii. octavio and max. as before. to then the valet of the chamber. octavio. how now, then? valet. a despatch is at the door. octavio. so early? from whom comes he then? who is it? valet. that he refused to tell me. octavio. lead him in: and, hark you--let it not transpire. [exit valet: the cornet steps in. octavio. ha! cornet--is it you; and from count gallas? give me your letters. cornet. the lieutenant-general trusted it not to letters. octavio. and what is it? cornet. he bade me tell you--dare i speak openly here? octavio. my son knows all. cornet. we have him. octavio. whom? cornet. sesina, the old negotiator. octavio (eagerly). and you have him? cornet. in the bohemian forest captain mohrbrand found and secured him yester-morning early. he was proceeding then to regensburg, and on him were despatches for the swede. octavio. and the despatches---- cornet. the lieutenant-general sent them that instant to vienna, and the prisoner with them. octavio. this is, indeed, a tiding! that fellow is a precious casket to us, enclosing weighty things. was much found on him? cornet. i think, six packets, with count terzky's arms. octavio. none in the duke's own hand? cornet. not that i know. octavio. and old sesina. cornet. he was sorely frightened. when it was told him he must to vienna; but the count altringer bade him take heart, would he but make a full and free confession. octavio. is altringer then with your lord? i heard that he lay sick at linz. cornet. these three days past he's with my master, the lieutenant-general, at frauenburg. already have they sixty small companies together, chosen men; respectfully they greet you with assurances, that they are only waiting your commands. octavio. in a few days may great events take place. and when must you return? cornet. i wait your orders. octavio. remain till evening. [cornet signifies his assent and obeisance, and is going. no one saw you--ha? cornet. no living creature. through the cloister wicket the capuchins, as usual, let me in. octavio. go, rest your limbs, and keep yourself concealed. i hold it probable that yet ere evening i shall despatch you. the development of this affair approaches: ere the day, that even now is dawning in the heaven, ere this eventful day hath set, the lot that must decide our fortunes will be drawn. [exit cornet. scene iii. octavio and max. piccolomini. octavio. well--and what now, son? all will soon be clear; for all, i'm certain, went through that sesina. max. (who through the whole of the foregoing scene has been in a violent and visible struggle of feelings, at length starts as one resolved). i will procure me light a shorter way. farewell. octavio. where now? remain here. max. to the duke. octavio (alarmed). what---- max. (returning). if thou hast believed that i shall act a part in this thy play, thou hast miscalculated on me grievously. my way must be straight on. true with the tongue, false with the heart--i may not, cannot be nor can i suffer that a man should trust me-- as his friend trust me--and then lull my conscience with such low pleas as these: "i ask him not-- he did it all at his own hazard--and my mouth has never lied to him." no, no! what a friend takes me for, that i must be. i'll to the duke; ere yet this day is ended will i demand of him that he do save his good name from the world, and with one stride break through and rend this fine-spun web of yours. he can, he will! i still am his believer, yet i'll not pledge myself, but that those letters may furnish you, perchance, with proofs against him. how far may not this terzky have proceeded-- what may not he himself too have permitted himself to do, to snare the enemy, the laws of war excusing? nothing, save his own mouth shall convict him--nothing less! and face to face will i go question him. octavio. thou wilt. max. i will, as sure as this heart beats. octavio. i have, indeed, miscalculated on thee. i calculated on a prudent son, who would have blessed the hand beneficent that plucked him back from the abyss--and lo! a fascinated being i discover, whom his two eyes befool, whom passion wilders, whom not the broadest light of noon can heal. go, question him! be mad enough, i pray thee. the purpose of thy father, of thy emperor, go, give it up free booty! force me, drive me to an open breach before the time. and now, now that a miracle of heaven had guarded my secret purpose even to this hour, and laid to sleep suspicion's piercing eyes, let me have lived to see that mine own son, with frantic enterprise, annihilates my toilsome labors and state policy. max. ay--this state policy! oh, how i curse it! you will some time, with your state policy, compel him to the measure: it may happen, because ye are determined that he is guilty, guilty ye'll make him. all retreat cut off, you close up every outlet, hem him in narrower and narrower, till at length ye force him-- yes, ye, ye force him, in his desperation, to set fire to his prison. father! father! that never can end well--it cannot--will not! and let it be decided as it may, i see with boding heart the near approach of an ill-starred, unblest catastrophe. for this great monarch-spirit, if he fall, will drag a world into the ruin with him. and as a ship that midway on the ocean takes fire, at once, and with a thunder-burst explodes, and with itself shoots out its crew in smoke and ruin betwixt sea and heaven! so will he, falling, draw down in his fall all us, who're fixed and mortised to his fortune, deem of it what thou wilt; but pardon me, that i must bear me on in my own way. all must remain pure betwixt him and me; and, ere the daylight dawns, it must be known which i must lose--my father or my friend. [during his exit the curtain drops. footnotes. [ ] a town about twelve german miles n.e. of ulm. [ ] the dukes in germany being always reigning powers, their sons and daughters are entitled princes and princesses. [ ] carinthia. [ ] a town not far from the mine-mountains, on the high road from vienna to prague. [ ] in the original,-- "den blut'gen lorbeer geb' ich hin mit freuden fuers erste veilchen, das der maerz uns bringt, das duerftige pfand der neuverjuengten erde." [ ] a reviewer in the literary gazette observes that, in these lines, mr. coleridge has misapprehended the meaning of the word "zug," a team, translating it as "anzug," a suit of clothes. the following version, as a substitute, i propose:-- when from your stables there is brought to me a team of four most richly harnessed horses. the term, however, is "jagd-zug" which may mean a "hunting equipage," or a "hunting stud;" although hilpert gives only "a team of four horses." [ ] bernhard of saxe-weimar, who succeeded gustavus in command. [ ] the original is not translatable into english:-- --und sein sold muss dem soldaten werden, darnach heisst er. it might perhaps have been thus rendered:-- and that for which he sold his services, the soldier must receive-- but a false or doubtful etymology is no more than a dull pun. [ ] in germany, after honorable addresses have been paid and formally accepted, the lovers are called bride and bridegreoom, even though the marriage should not take place till years afterwards. [ ] i am doubtful whether this be the dedication of the cloister, or the name of one of the city gates, near which it stood. i have translated it in the former sense; but fearful of having made some blunder, i add the original,-- es ist ein kloster hier zur himmelspforte. [ ] no more of talk, where god or angel guest with man, as with his friend familiar, used to sit indulgent. paradise lost, b. ix. [ ] i found it not in my power to translate this song with literal fidelity preserving at the same time the alcaic movement, and have therefore added the original, with a prose translation. some of my readers may be more fortunate. thekla (spielt and singt). der eichwald brauset, die wolken ziehn, das maegdlein wandelt an ufers gruen; es bricht sich die welle mit macht, mit macht, und sie singt hinaus in die finstre nacht, das auge von weinen getruebet: das herz is gestorben, die welt ist leer, und weiter giebt sie dem wunsche nichts mehr. du heilige, rufe dein kind zurueck, ich babe genossen das irdische glueck, ich babe gelebt and geliebet. literal translation. thekla (plays and sings). the oak-forest bellows, the clouds gather, the damsel walks to and fro on the green of the shore; the wave breaks with might, with might, and she sings out into the dark night, her eye discolored with weeping: the heart is dead, the world is empty, and further gives it nothing more to the wish. thou holy one, call thy child home. i have enjoyed the happiness of this world, i have lived and have loved. i cannot but add here an imitation of this song, with which my friend, charles lamb, has favored me, and which appears to me to have caught the happiest manner of our old ballads:-- the clouds are blackening, the storms are threatening, the cavern doth mutter, the greenwood moan! billows are breaking, the damsel's heart aching, thus in the dark night she singeth alone, he eye upward roving: the world is empty, the heart is dead surely, in this world plainly all seemeth amiss; to thy heaven, holy one, take home thy little one. i have partaken of all earth's bliss, both living and loving. [ ] there are few who will not have taste enough to laugh at the two concluding lines of this soliloquy: and still fewer, i would fain hope, who would not have been more disposed to shudder, had i given a faithful translation. for the readers of german i have added the original:-- blind-wuethend schleudert selbst der gott der freude den pechkranz in das brennende gebaeude. this ebook was produced by david widger [note: there is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. d.w.] the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume the life and death of john of barneveld, v - chapter ii. passion of henry iv. for margaret de montmorency--her marriage with the prince of conde--their departure for the country--their flight to the netherlands-rage of the king--intrigues of spain--reception of the prince and princess of conde by the archdukes at brussels-- splendid entertainments by spinola--attempts of the king to bring the fugitives back--mission of de coeuvres to brussels--difficult position of the republic--vast but secret preparations for war. "if the prince of conde comes back." what had the prince of conde, his comings and his goings, to do with this vast enterprise? it is time to point to the golden thread of most fantastic passion which runs throughout this dark and eventful history. one evening in the beginning of the year which had just come to its close there was to be a splendid fancy ball at the louvre in the course of which several young ladies of highest rank were to perform a dance in mythological costume. the king, on ill terms with the queen, who harassed him with scenes of affected jealousy, while engaged in permanent plots with her paramour and master, the italian concini, against his policy and his life; on still worse terms with his latest mistress in chief, the marquise de verneuil, who hated him and revenged herself for enduring his caresses by making him the butt of her venomous wit, had taken the festivities of a court in dudgeon where he possessed hosts of enemies and flatterers but scarcely a single friend. he refused to attend any of the rehearsals of the ballet, but one day a group of diana and her nymphs passed him in the great gallery of the palace. one of the nymphs as she went by turned and aimed her gilded javelin at his heart. henry looked and saw the most beautiful young creature, so he thought, that mortal eye had ever gazed upon, and according to his wont fell instantly over head and ears in love. he said afterwards that he felt himself pierced to the heart and was ready to faint away. the lady was just fifteen years of age. the king was turned of fifty- five. the disparity of age seemed to make the royal passion ridiculous. to henry the situation seemed poetical and pathetic. after this first interview he never missed a single rehearsal. in the intervals he called perpetually for the services of the court poet malherbe, who certainly contrived to perpetrate in his behalf some of the most detestable verses that even he had ever composed. the nymph was marguerite de montmorency, daughter of the constable of france, and destined one day to become the mother of the great conde, hero of rocroy. there can be no doubt that she was exquisitely beautiful. fair-haired, with a complexion of dazzling purity, large expressive eyes, delicate but commanding features, she had a singular fascination of look and gesture, and a winning, almost childlike, simplicity of manner. without feminine artifice or commonplace coquetry, she seemed to bewitch and subdue at a glance men of all ranks, ages, and pursuits; kings and cardinals, great generals, ambassadors and statesmen, as well as humbler mortals whether spanish, italian, french, or flemish. the constable, an ignorant man who, as the king averred, could neither write nor read, understood as well as more learned sages the manners and humours of the court. he had destined his daughter for the young and brilliant bassompierre, the most dazzling of all the cavaliers of the day. the two were betrothed. but the love-stricken henry, then confined to his bed with the gout, sent for the chosen husband of the beautiful margaret. "bassompierre, my friend," said the aged king, as the youthful lover knelt before him at the bedside, "i have become not in love, but mad, out of my senses, furious for mademoiselle de montmorency. if she should love you, i should hate you. if she should love me, you would hate me. 'tis better that this should not be the cause of breaking up our good intelligence, for i love you with affection and inclination. i am resolved to marry her to my nephew the prince of conde, and to keep her near my family. she will be the consolation and support of my old age into which i am now about to enter. i shall give my nephew, who loves the chase a thousand times better than he does ladies, , livres a year, and i wish no other favour from her than her affection without making further pretensions." it was eight o'clock of a black winter's morning, and the tears as he spoke ran down the cheeks of the hero of ivry and bedewed the face of the kneeling bassompierre. the courtly lover sighed and--obeyed. he renounced the hand of the beautiful margaret, and came daily to play at dice with the king at his bedside with one or two other companions. and every day the duchess of angouleme, sister of the constable, brought her fair niece to visit and converse with the royal invalid. but for the dark and tragic clouds which were gradually closing around that eventful and heroic existence there would be something almost comic in the spectacle of the sufferer making the palace and all france ring with the howlings of his grotesque passion for a child of fifteen as he lay helpless and crippled with the gout. one day as the duchess of angouleme led her niece away from their morning visit to the king, margaret as she passed by bassompierre shrugged her shoulders with a scornful glance. stung by this expression of contempt, the lover who had renounced her sprang from the dice table, buried his face in his hat, pretending that his nose was bleeding, and rushed frantically from the palace. two days long he spent in solitude, unable to eat, drink, or sleep, abandoned to despair and bewailing his wretched fate, and it was long before he could recover sufficient equanimity to face his lost margaret and resume his place at the king's dicing table. when he made his appearance, he was according to his own account so pale, changed, and emaciated that his friends could not recognise him. the marriage with conde, first prince of the blood, took place early in the spring. the bride received magnificent presents, and the husband a, pension of , livres a year. the attentions of the king became soon outrageous and the reigning scandal of the hour. henry, discarding the grey jacket and simple costume on which he was wont to pride himself, paraded himself about in perfumed ruffs and glittering doublet, an ancient fop, very little heroic, and much ridiculed. the princess made merry with the antics of her royal adorer, while her vanity at least, if not her affection, was really touched, and there was one great round of court festivities in her honour, at which the king and herself were ever the central figures. but conde was not at all amused. not liking the part assigned to him in the comedy thus skilfully arranged by his cousin king, never much enamoured of his bride, while highly appreciating the , livres of pension, he remonstrated violently with his wife, bitterly reproached the king, and made himself generally offensive. "the prince is here," wrote henry to sully, "and is playing the very devil. you would be in a rage and be ashamed of the things he says of me. but at last i am losing patience, and am resolved to give him a bit of my mind." he wrote in the same terms to montmorency. the constable, whose conduct throughout the affair was odious and pitiable, promised to do his best to induce the prince, instead of playing the devil, to listen to reason, as he and the duchess of angouleme understood reason. henry had even the ineffable folly to appeal to the queen to use her influence with the refractory conde. mary de' medici replied that there were already thirty go-betweens at work, and she had no idea of being the thirty-first--[henrard, ]. conde, surrounded by a conspiracy against his honour and happiness, suddenly carried off his wife to the country, much to the amazement and rage of henry. in the autumn he entertained a hunting party at a seat of his, the abbey of verneuille, on the borders of picardy. de traigny, governor of amiens, invited the prince, princess, and the dowager-princess to a banquet at his chateau not far from the abbey. on their road thither they passed a group of huntsmen and grooms in the royal livery. among them was an aged lackey with a plaister over one eye, holding a couple of hounds in leash. the princess recognized at a glance under that ridiculous disguise the king. "what a madman!" she murmured as she passed him, "i will never forgive you;" but as she confessed many years afterwards, this act of gallantly did not displease her.' in truth, even in mythological fable, trove has scarcely ever reduced demi-god or hero to more fantastic plight than was this travesty of the great henry. after dinner madame de traigny led her fair guest about the castle to show her the various points of view. at one window she paused, saying that it commanded a particularly fine prospect. the princess looked from it across a courtyard, and saw at an opposite window an old gentleman holding his left hand tightly upon his heart to show that it was wounded, and blowing kisses to her with the other: "my god! it is the king himself," she cried to her hostess. the princess with this exclamation rushed from the window, feeling or affecting much indignation, ordered horses to her carriage instantly, and overwhelmed madame de traigny with reproaches. the king himself, hastening to the scene, was received with passionate invectives, and in vain attempted to assuage the princess's wrath and induce her to remain. they left the chateau at once, both prince and princess. one night, not many weeks afterwards, the due de sully, in the arsenal at paris, had just got into bed at past eleven o'clock when he received a visit from captain de praslin, who walked straight into his bed-chamber, informing him that the king instantly required his presence. sully remonstrated. he was obliged to rise at three the next morning, he said, enumerating pressing and most important work which henry required to be completed with all possible haste. "the king said you would be very angry," replied praslin; "but there is no help for it. come you must, for the man you know of has gone out of the country, as you said he would, and has carried away the lady on the crupper behind him." "ho, ho," said the duke, "i am wanted for that affair, am i?" and the two proceeded straightway to the louvre, and were ushered, of all apartments in the world, into the queen's bedchamber. mary de' medici had given birth only four days before to an infant, henrietta maria, future queen of charles i. of england. the room was crowded with ministers and courtiers; villeroy, the chancellor, bassompierre, and others, being stuck against the wall at small intervals like statues, dumb, motionless, scarcely daring to breathe. the king, with his hands behind him and his grey beard sunk on his breast, was pacing up and down the room in a paroxysm of rage and despair. "well," said he, turning to sully as he entered, "our man has gone off and carried everything with him. what do you say to that?" the duke beyond the boding "i told you so" phrase of consolation which he was entitled to use, having repeatedly warned his sovereign that precisely this catastrophe was impending, declined that night to offer advice. he insisted on sleeping on it. the manner in which the proceedings of the king at this juncture would be regarded by the archdukes albert and isabella--for there could be no doubt that conde had escaped to their territory--and by the king of spain, in complicity with whom the step had unquestionably been taken--was of gravest political importance. henry had heard the intelligence but an hour before. he was at cards in his cabinet with bassompierre and others when d'elbene entered and made a private communication to him. "bassompierre, my friend," whispered the king immediately in that courtier's ear, "i am lost. this man has carried his wife off into a wood. i don't know if it is to kill her or to take her out of france. take care of my money and keep up the game." bassompierre followed the king shortly afterwards and brought him his money. he said that he had never seen a man so desperate, so transported. the matter was indeed one of deepest and universal import. the reader has seen by the preceding narrative how absurd is the legend often believed in even to our own days that war was made by france upon the archdukes and upon spain to recover the princess of conde from captivity in brussels. from contemporary sources both printed and unpublished; from most confidential conversations and revelations, we have seen how broad, deliberate, and deeply considered were the warlike and political combinations in the king's ever restless brain. but although the abduction of the new helen by her own menelaus was not the cause of the impending, iliad, there is no doubt whatever that the incident had much to do with the crisis, was the turning point in a great tragedy, and that but for the vehement passion of the king for this youthful princess events might have developed themselves on a far different scale from that which they were destined to assume. for this reason a court intrigue, which history under other conditions might justly disdain, assumes vast proportions and is taken quite away from the scandalous chronicle which rarely busies itself with grave affairs of state. "the flight of conde," wrote aerssens, "is the catastrophe to the comedy which has been long enacting. 'tis to be hoped that the sequel may not prove tragical." "the prince," for simply by that title he was usually called to distinguish him from all other princes in france, was next of blood. had henry no sons, he would have succeeded him on the throne. it was a favourite scheme of the spanish party to invalidate henry's divorce from margaret of valois, and thus to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the dauphin and the other children of mary de' medici. the prince in the hands of the spanish government might prove a docile and most dangerous instrument to the internal repose of france not only after henry's death but in his life-time. conde's character was frivolous, unstable, excitable, weak, easy to be played upon by designing politicians, and he had now the deepest cause for anger and for indulging in ambitious dreams. he had been wont during this unhappy first year of his marriage to loudly accuse henry of tyranny, and was now likely by public declaration to assign that as the motive of his flight. henry had protested in reply that he had never been guilty of tyranny but once in his life, and that was when he allowed this youth to take the name and title of conde? for the princess-dowager his mother had lain for years in prison, under the terrible accusation of having murdered her husband, in complicity with her paramour, a gascon page, named belcastel. the present prince had been born several months after his reputed father's death. henry, out of good nature, or perhaps for less creditable reasons, had come to the rescue of the accused princess, and had caused the process to be stopped, further enquiry to be quashed, and the son to be recognized as legitimate prince of conde. the dowager had subsequently done her best to further the king's suit to her son's wife, for which the prince bitterly reproached her to her face, heaping on her epithets which she well deserved. henry at once began to threaten a revival of the criminal suit, with a view of bastardizing him again, although the dowager had acted on all occasions with great docility in henry's interests. the flight of the prince and princess was thus not only an incident of great importance to the internal politics of trance, but had a direct and important bearing on the impending hostilities. its intimate connection with the affairs of the netherland commonwealth was obvious. it was probable that the fugitives would make their way towards the archdukes' territory, and that afterwards their first point of destination would be breda, of which philip william of orange, eldest brother of prince maurice, was the titular proprietor. since the truce recently concluded the brothers, divided so entirely by politics and religion, could meet on fraternal and friendly terms, and breda, although a city of the commonwealth, received its feudal lord. the princess of orange was the sister of conde. the morning after the flight the king, before daybreak, sent for the dutch ambassador. he directed him to despatch a courier forthwith to barneveld, notifying him that the prince had left the kingdom without the permission or knowledge of his sovereign, and stating the king's belief that he had fled to the territory of the archdukes. if he should come to breda or to any other place within the jurisdiction of the states, they were requested to make sure of his person at once, and not to permit him to retire until further instructions should be received from the king. de praslin, captain of the body-guards and lieutenant of champagne, it was further mentioned, was to be sent immediately on secret mission concerning this affair to the states and to the archdukes. the king suspected conde of crime, so the advocate was to be informed. he believed him to be implicated in the conspiracy of poitou; the six who had been taken prisoners having confessed that they had thrice conferred with a prince at paris, and that the motive of the plot was to free themselves and france from the tyranny of henry iv. the king insisted peremptorily, despite of any objections from aerssens, that the thing must be done and his instructions carried out to the letter. so much he expected of the states, and they should care no more for ulterior consequences, he said, than he had done for the wrath of spain when he frankly undertook their cause. conde was important only because his relative, and he declared that if the prince should escape, having once entered the territory of the republic, he should lay the blame on its government. "if you proceed languidly in the affair," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "our affairs will suffer for ever." nobody at court believed in the poitou conspiracy, or that conde had any knowledge of it. the reason of his flight was a mystery to none, but as it was immediately followed by an intrigue with spain, it seemed ingenious to henry to make, use of a transparent pretext to conceal the ugliness of the whole affair. he hoped that the prince would be arrested at breda and sent back by the states. villeroy said that if it was not done, they would be guilty of black ingratitude. it would be an awkward undertaking, however, and the states devoutly prayed that they might not be put to the test. the crafty aerssens suggested to barneveld that if conde was not within their territory it would be well to assure the king that, had he been there, he would have been delivered up at once. "by this means," said the ambassador, "you will give no cause of offence to the prince, and will at the same time satisfy the king. it is important that he should think that you depend immediately upon him. if you see that after his arrest they take severe measures against him, you will have a thousand ways of parrying the blame which posterity might throw upon you. history teaches you plenty of them." he added that neither sully nor anyone else thought much of the poitou conspiracy. those implicated asserted that they had intended to raise troops there to assist the king in the cleve expedition. some people said that henry had invented this plot against his throne and life. the ambassador, in a spirit of prophecy, quoted the saying of domitian: "misera conditio imperantium quibus de conspiratione non creditor nisi occisis." meantime the fugitives continued their journey. the prince was accompanied by one of his dependants, a rude officer, de rochefort, who carried the princess on a pillion behind him. she had with her a lady- in-waiting named du certeau and a lady's maid named philippote. she had no clothes but those on her back, not even a change of linen. thus the young and delicate lady made the wintry journey through the forests. they crossed the frontier at landrecies, then in the spanish netherlands, intending to traverse the archduke's territory in order to reach breda, where conde meant to leave his wife in charge of his sister, the princess of orange, and then to proceed to brussels. he wrote from the little inn at landrecies to notify the archduke of his project. he was subsequently informed that albert would not prevent his passing through his territories, but should object to his making a fixed residence within them. the prince also wrote subsequently to the king of spain and to the king of france. to henry he expressed his great regret at being obliged to leave the kingdom in order to save his honour and his life, but that he had no intention of being anything else than his very humble and faithful cousin, subject, and servant. he would do nothing against his service, he said, unless forced thereto, and he begged the king not to take it amiss if he refused to receive letters from any one whomsoever at court, saving only such letters as his majesty himself might honour him by writing. the result of this communication to the king was of course to enrage that monarch to the utmost, and his first impulse on finding that the prince was out of his reach was to march to brussels at once and take possession of him and the princess by main force. more moderate counsels prevailed for the moment however, and negotiations were attempted. praslin did not contrive to intercept the fugitives, but the states- general, under the advice of barneveld, absolutely forbade their coming to breda or entering any part of their jurisdiction. the result of conde's application to the king of spain was an ultimate offer of assistance and asylum, through a special emissary, one anover; for the politicians of madrid were astute enough to see what a card the prince might prove in their hands. henry instructed his ambassador in spain to use strong and threatening language in regard to the harbouring a rebel and a conspirator against the throne of france; while on the other hand he expressed his satisfaction with the states for having prohibited the prince from entering their territory. he would have preferred, he said, if they had allowed him entrance and forbidden his departure, but on the whole he was content. it was thought in paris that the netherland government had acted with much adroitness in thus abstaining both from a violation of the law of nations and from giving offence to the king. a valet of conde was taken with some papers of the prince about him, which proved a determination on his part never to return to france during the lifetime of henry. they made no statement of the cause of his flight, except to intimate that it might be left to the judgment of every one, as it was unfortunately but too well known to all. refused entrance into the dutch territory, the prince was obliged to renounce his project in regard to breda, and brought his wife to brussels. he gave bentivoglio, the papal nuncio, two letters to forward to italy, one to the pope, the other to his nephew, cardinal borghese. encouraged by the advices which he had received from spain, he justified his flight from france both by the danger to his honour and to his life, recommending both to the protection of his holiness and his eminence. bentivoglio sent the letters, but while admitting the invincible reasons for his departure growing out of the king's pursuit of the princess, he refused all credence to the pretended violence against conde himself. conde informed de praslin that he would not consent to return to france. subsequently he imposed as conditions of return that the king should assign to him certain cities and strongholds in guienne, of which province he was governor, far from paris and very near the spanish frontier; a measure dictated by spain and which inflamed henry's wrath almost to madness. the king insisted on his instant return, placing himself and of course the princess entirely in his hands and receiving a full pardon for this effort to save his honour. the prince and princess of orange came from breda to brussels to visit their brother and his wife. here they established them in the palace of nassau, once the residence in his brilliant youth of william the silent; a magnificent mansion, surrounded by park and garden, built on the brow of the almost precipitous hill, beneath which is spread out so picturesquely the antique and beautiful capital of brabant. the archdukes received them with stately courtesy at their own palace. on their first ceremonious visit to the sovereigns of the land, the formal archduke, coldest and chastest of mankind, scarcely lifted his eyes to gaze on the wondrous beauty of the princess, yet assured her after he had led her through a portrait gallery of fair women that formerly these had been accounted beauties, but that henceforth it was impossible to speak of any beauty but her own. the great spinola fell in love with her at once, sent for the illustrious rubens from antwerp to paint her portrait, and offered mademoiselle de chateau vert , crowns in gold if she would do her best to further his suit with her mistress. the genoese banker-soldier made love, war, and finance on a grand scale. he gave a magnificent banquet and ball in her honour on twelfth night, and the festival was the wonder of the town. nothing like it had been seen in brussels for years. at six in the evening spinola in splendid costume, accompanied by don luis velasco, count ottavio visconti, count bucquoy, with other nobles of lesser note, drove to the nassau palace to bring the prince and princess and their suite to the marquis's mansion. here a guard of honour of thirty musketeers was standing before the door, and they were conducted from their coaches by spinola preceded by twenty-four torch-bearers up the grand staircase to a hall, where they were received by the princesses of mansfeld, velasco, and other distinguished dames. thence they were led through several apartments rich with tapestry and blazing with crystal and silver plate to a splendid saloon where was a silken canopy, under which the princess of conde and the princess of orange seated themselves, the nuncius bentivoglio to his delight being placed next the beautiful margaret. after reposing for a little while they were led to the ball- room, brilliantly lighted with innumerable torches of perfumed wax and hung with tapestry of gold and silk, representing in fourteen embroidered designs the chief military exploits of spinola. here the banquet, a cold collation, was already spread on a table decked and lighted with regal splendour. as soon as the guests were seated, an admirable concert of instrumental music began. spinola walked up and down providing for the comforts of his company, the duke of aumale stood behind the two princesses to entertain them with conversation, don luis velasco served the princess of conde with plates, handed her the dishes, the wine, the napkins, while bucquoy and visconti in like manner waited upon the princess of orange; other nobles attending to the other ladies. forty- eight pages in white, yellow, and red scarves brought and removed the dishes. the dinner, of courses innumerable, lasted two hours and a half, and the ladies, being thus fortified for the more serious business of the evening, were led to the tiring-rooms while the hall was made ready for dancing. the ball was opened by the princess of conde and spinola, and lasted until two in the morning. as the apartment grew warm, two of the pages went about with long staves and broke all the windows until not a single pane of glass remained. the festival was estimated by the thrifty chronicler of antwerp to have cost from to crowns. it was, he says, "an earthly paradise of which soon not a vapour remained." he added that he gave a detailed account of it "not because he took pleasure in such voluptuous pomp and extravagance, but that one might thus learn the vanity of the world." these courtesies and assiduities on the part of the great "shopkeeper," as the constable called him, had so much effect, if not on the princess, at least on conde himself, that he threatened to throw his wife out of window if she refused to caress spinola. these and similar accusations were made by the father and aunt when attempting to bring about a divorce of the princess from her husband. the nuncius bentivoglio, too, fell in love with her, devoting himself to her service, and his facile and eloquent pen to chronicling her story. even poor little philip of spain in the depths of the escurial heard of her charms, and tried to imagine himself in love with her by proxy. thenceforth there was a succession of brilliant festivals in honour of the princess. the spanish party was radiant with triumph, the french maddened with rage. henry in paris was chafing like a lion at bay. a petty sovereign whom he could crush at one vigorous bound was protecting the lady for whose love he was dying. he had secured conde's exclusion from holland, but here were the fugitives splendidly established in brussels; the princess surrounded by most formidable suitors, the prince encouraged in his rebellious and dangerous schemes by the power which the king most hated on earth, and whose eternal downfall he had long since sworn to accomplish. for the weak and frivolous conde began to prattle publicly of his deep projects of revenge. aided by spanish money and spanish troops he would show one day who was the real heir to the throne of france--the illegitimately born dauphin or himself. the king sent for the first president of parliament, harlay, and consulted with him as to the proper means of reviving the suppressed process against the dowager and of publicly degrading conde from his position of first prince of the blood which he had been permitted to usurp. he likewise procured a decree accusing him of high-treason and ordering him to be punished at his majesty's pleasure, to be prepared by the parliament of paris; going down to the court himself in his impatience and seating himself in everyday costume on the bench of judges to see that it was immediately proclaimed. instead of at once attacking the archdukes in force as he intended in the first ebullition of his wrath, he resolved to send de boutteville- montmorency, a relative of the constable, on special and urgent mission to brussels. he was to propose that conde and his wife should return with the prince and princess of orange to breda, the king pledging himself that for three or four months nothing should be undertaken against him. here was a sudden change of determination fit to surprise the states-general, but the king's resolution veered and whirled about hourly in the tempests of his wrath and love. that excellent old couple, the constable and the duchess of angouleme, did their best to assist their sovereign in his fierce attempts to get their daughter and niece into his power. the constable procured a piteous letter to be written to archduke albert, signed "montmorency his mark," imploring him not to "suffer that his daughter, since the prince refused to return to france, should leave brussels to be a wanderer about the world following a young prince who had no fixed purpose in his mind." archduke albert, through his ambassador in paris, peter pecquius, suggested the possibility of a reconciliation between henry and his kinsman, and offered himself as intermediary. he enquired whether the king would find it agreeable that he should ask for pardon in name of the prince. henry replied that he was willing that the archduke should accord to conde secure residence for the time within his dominions on three inexorable conditions:--firstly, that the prince should ask for pardon without any stipulations, the king refusing to listen to any treaty or to assign him towns or places of security as had been vaguely suggested, and holding it utterly unreasonable that a man sueing for pardon should, instead of deserved punishment, talk of terms and acquisitions; secondly, that, if conde should reject the proposition, albert should immediately turn him out of his country, showing himself justly irritated at finding his advice disregarded; thirdly, that, sending away the prince, the archduke should forthwith restore the princess to her father the constable and her aunt angouleme, who had already made their petitions to albert and isabella for that end, to which the king now added his own most particular prayers. if the archduke should refuse consent to these three conditions, henry begged that he would abstain from any farther attempt to effect a reconciliation and not suffer conde to remain any longer within his territories. pecquius replied that he thought his master might agree to the two first propositions while demurring to the third, as it would probably not seem honourable to him to separate man and wife, and as it was doubtful whether the princess would return of her own accord. the king, in reporting the substance of this conversation to aerssens, intimated his conviction that they were only wishing in brussels to gain time; that they were waiting for letters from spain, which they were expecting ever since the return of conde's secretary from milan, whither he had been sent to confer with the governor, count fuentes. he said farther that he doubted whether the princess would go to breda, which he should now like, but which conde would not now permit. this he imputed in part to the princess of orange, who had written a letter full of invectives against himself to the dowager--princess of conde which she had at once sent to him. henry expressed at the same time his great satisfaction with the states-general and with barneveld in this affair, repeating his assurances that they were the truest and best friends he had. the news of conde's ceremonious visit to leopold in julich could not fail to exasperate the king almost as much as the pompous manner in which he was subsequently received at brussels; spinola and the spanish ambassador going forth to meet him. at the same moment the secretary of vaucelles, henry's ambassador in madrid, arrived in paris, confirming the king's suspicions that conde's flight had been concerted with don inigo de cardenas, and was part of a general plot of spain against the peace of the kingdom. the duc d'epernon, one of the most dangerous plotters at the court, and deep in the intimacy of the queen and of all the secret adherents of the spanish policy, had been sojourning a long time at metz, under pretence of attending to his health, had sent his children to spain, as hostages according to henry's belief, had made himself master of the citadel, and was turning a deaf ear to all the commands of the king. the supporters of conde in france were openly changing their note and proclaiming by the prince's command that he had left the kingdom in order to preserve his quality of first prince of the blood, and that he meant to make good his right of primogeniture against the dauphin and all competitors. such bold language and such open reliance on the support of spain in disputing the primogeniture of the dauphin were fast driving the most pacifically inclined in france into enthusiasm for the war. the states, too, saw their opportunity more vividly every day. "what could we desire more," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "than open war between france and spain? posterity will for ever blame us if we reject this great occasion." peter pecquius, smoothest and sliest of diplomatists, did his best to make things comfortable, for there could be little doubt that his masters most sincerely deprecated war. on their heads would come the first blows, to their provinces would return the great desolation out of which they had hardly emerged. still the archduke, while racking his brains for the means of accommodation, refused, to his honour, to wink at any violation of the law of nations, gave a secret promise, in which the infanta joined, that the princess should not be allowed to leave brussels without her husband's permission, and resolutely declined separating the pair except with the full consent of both. in order to protect himself from the king's threats, he suggested sending conde to some neutral place for six or eight months, to prague, to breda, or anywhere else; but henry knew that conde would never allow this unless he had the means by spanish gold of bribing the garrison there, and so of holding the place in pretended neutrality, but in reality at the devotion of the king of spain. meantime henry had despatched the marquis de coeuvres, brother of the beautiful gabrielle, duchess de beaufort, and one of the most audacious and unscrupulous of courtiers, on a special mission to brussels. de coeuvres saw conde before presenting his credentials to the archduke, and found him quite impracticable. acting under the advice of the prince of orange, he expressed his willingness to retire to some neutral city of germany or italy, drawing meanwhile from henry a pension of , crowns a year. but de coeuvres firmly replied that the king would make no terms with his vassal nor allow conde to prescribe conditions to him. to leave him in germany or italy, he said, was to leave him in the dependence of spain. the king would not have this constant apprehension of her intrigues while, living, nor leave such matter in dying for turbulence in his kingdom. if it appeared that the spaniards wished to make use of the prince for such purposes, he would be beforehand with them, and show them how much more injury he could inflict on spain than they on france. obviously committed to spain, conde replied to the entreaties of the emissary that if the king would give him half his kingdom he would not accept the offer nor return to france; at least before the th of february, by which date he expected advices from spain. he had given his word, he said, to lend his ear to no overtures before that time. he made use of many threats, and swore that he would throw himself entirely into the arms of the spanish king if henry would not accord him the terms which he had proposed. to do this was an impossibility. to grant him places of security would, as the king said, be to plant a standard for all the malcontents of france to rally around. conde had evidently renounced all hopes of a reconciliation, however painfully his host the archduke might intercede for it. he meant to go to spain. spinola was urging this daily and hourly, said henry, for he had fallen in love with the princess, who complained of all these persecutions in her letters to her father, and said that she would rather die than go to spain. the king's advices from de coeuvres were however to the effect that the step would probably be taken, that the arrangements were making, and that spinola had been shut up with conde six hours long with nobody present but rochefort and a certain counsellor of the prince of orange named keeremans. henry was taking measures to intercept them on their flight by land, but there was some thought of their proceeding to spain by sea. he therefore requested the states to send two ships of war, swift sailors, well equipped, one to watch in the roads of st. jean and the other on the english coast. these ships were to receive their instructions from admiral de vicq, who would be well informed of all the movements of the prince and give warning to the captains of the dutch vessels by a preconcerted signal. the king begged that barneveld would do him this favour, if he loved him, and that none might have knowledge of it but the advocate and prince maurice. the ships would be required for two or three months only, but should be equipped and sent forth as soon as possible. the states had no objection to performing this service, although it subsequently proved to be unnecessary, and they were quite ready at that moment to go openly into the war to settle the affairs of clove, and once for all to drive the spaniards out of the netherlands and beyond seas and mountains. yet strange to say, those most conversant with the state of affairs could not yet quite persuade themselves that matters were serious, and that the king's mind was fixed. should conde return, renounce his spanish stratagems, and bring back the princess to court, it was felt by the king's best and most confidential friends that all might grow languid again, the spanish faction get the upper hand in the king's councils, and the states find themselves in a terrible embarrassment. on the other hand, the most prying and adroit of politicians were puzzled to read the signs of the times. despite henry's garrulity, or perhaps in consequence of it, the envoys of spain, the empire, and of archduke albert were ignorant whether peace were likely to be broken or not, in spite of rumours which filled the air. so well had the secrets been kept which the reader has seen discussed in confidential conversations--the record of which has always remained unpublished--between the king and those admitted to his intimacy that very late in the winter pecquius, while sadly admitting to his masters that the king was likely to take part against the emperor in the affair of the duchies, expressed the decided opinion that it would be limited to the secret sending of succour to brandenburg and neuburg as formerly to the united provinces, but that he would never send troops into cleve, or march thither himself. it is important, therefore, to follow closely the development of these political and amorous intrigues, for they furnish one of the most curious and instructive lessons of history; there being not the slightest doubt that upon their issue chiefly depended the question of a great and general war. pecquius, not yet despairing that his master would effect a reconciliation between the king and conde, proposed again that the prince should be permitted to reside for a time in some place not within the jurisdiction of spain or of the archdukes, being allowed meantime to draw his annual pension of , livres. henry ridiculed the idea of conde's drawing money from him while occupying his time abroad with intrigues against his throne and his children's succession. he scoffed at the envoy's pretences that conde was not in receipt of money from spain, as if a man so needy and in so embarrassing a position could live without money from some source; and as if he were not aware, from his correspondents in spain, that funds were both promised and furnished to the prince. he repeated his determination not to accord him pardon unless he returned to france, which he had no cause to leave, and, turning suddenly on pecquius, demanded why, the subject of reconciliation having failed, the archduke did not immediately fulfil his promise of turning conde out of his dominions. upon this albert's minister drew back with the air of one amazed, asking how and when the archduke had ever made such a promise. "to the marquis de coeuvres," replied henry. pecquius asked if his ears had not deceived him, and if the king had really said that de coeuvres had made such a statement. henry repeated and confirmed the story. upon the minister's reply that he had himself received no such intelligence from the archduke, the king suddenly changed his tone, and said, "no, i was mistaken--i was confused--the marquis never wrote me this; but did you not say yourself that i might be assured that there would be no difficulty about it if the prince remained obstinate." pecquius replied that he had made such a proposition to his masters by his majesty's request; but there had been no answer received, nor time for one, as the hope of reconciliation had not yet been renounced. he begged henry to consider whether, without instructions from his master, he could have thus engaged his word. "well," said the king, "since you disavow it, i see very well that the archduke has no wish to give me pleasure, and that these are nothing but tricks that you have been amusing me with all this time. very good; each of us will know what we have to do." pecquius considered that the king had tried to get him into a net, and to entrap him into the avowal of a promise which he had never made. henry remained obstinate in his assertions, notwithstanding all the envoy's protestations. "a fine trick, indeed, and unworthy of a king, 'si dicere fas est,'" he wrote to secretary of state praets. "but the force of truth is such that he who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself." henry concluded the subject of conde at this interview by saying that he could have his pardon on the conditions already named, and not otherwise. he also made some complaints about archduke leopold, who, he said, notwithstanding his demonstrations of wishing a treaty of compromise, was taking towns by surprise which he could not hold, and was getting his troops massacred on credit. pecquius expressed the opinion that it would be better to leave the germans to make their own arrangements among themselves, adding that neither his masters nor the king of spain meant to mix themselves up in the matter. "let them mix themselves in it or keep out of it, as they like," said henry, "i shall not fail to mix myself up in it." the king was marvellously out of humour. before finishing the interview, he asked pecquius whether marquis spinola was going to spain very soon, as he had permission from his majesty to do so, and as he had information that he would be on the road early in lent. the minister replied that this would depend on the will of the archduke, and upon various circumstances. the answer seemed to displease the king, and pecquius was puzzled to know why. he was not aware, of course, of henry's project to kidnap the marquis on the road, and keep him as a surety for conde. the envoy saw villeroy after the audience, who told him not to mind the king's ill-temper, but to bear it as patiently as he could. his majesty could not digest, he said, his infinite displeasure at the obstinacy of the prince; but they must nevertheless strive for a reconciliation. the king was quick in words, but slow in deeds, as the ambassador might have observed before, and they must all try to maintain peace, to which he would himself lend his best efforts. as the secretary of state was thoroughly aware that the king was making vast preparations for war, and had given in his own adhesion to the project, it is refreshing to observe the candour with which he assured the representative of the adverse party of his determination that friendliest relations should be preserved. it is still more refreshing to find villeroy, the same afternoon, warmly uniting with sully, lesdiguieres, and the chancellor, in the decision that war should begin forthwith. for the king held a council at the arsenal immediately after this interview with pecquius, in which he had become convinced that conde would never return. he took the queen with him, and there was not a dissentient voice as to the necessity of beginning hostilities at once. sully, however, was alone in urging that the main force of the attack should be in the north, upon the rhine and meuse. villeroy and those who were secretly in the spanish interest were for beginning it with the southern combination and against milan. sully believed the duke of savoy to be variable and attached in his heart to spain, and he thought it contrary to the interests of france to permit an italian prince to grow so great on her frontier. he therefore thoroughly disapproved the plan, and explained to the dutch ambassador that all this urgency to carry on the war in the south came from hatred to the united provinces, jealousy of their aggrandizement, detestation of the reformed religion, and hope to engage henry in a campaign which he could not carry on successfully. but he assured aerssens that he had the means of counteracting these designs and of bringing on an invasion for obtaining possession of the meuse. if the possessory princes found henry making war in the milanese only, they would feel themselves ruined, and might throw up the game. he begged that barneveld would come on to paris at once, as now or never was the moment to assure the republic for all time. the king had acted with malicious adroitness in turning the tables upon the prince and treating him as a rebel and a traitor because, to save his own and his wife's honour, he had fled from a kingdom where he had but too good reason to suppose that neither was safe. the prince, with infinite want of tact, had played into the king's hands. he had bragged of his connection with spain and of his deep designs, and had shown to all the world that he was thenceforth but an instrument in the hands of the spanish cabinet, while all the world knew the single reason for which he had fled. the king, hopeless now of compelling the return of conde, had become most anxious to separate him from his wife. already the subject of divorce between the two had been broached, and it being obvious that the prince would immediately betake himself into the spanish dominions, the king was determined that the princess should not follow him thither. he had the incredible effrontery and folly to request the queen to address a letter to her at brussels, urging her to return to france. but mary de' medici assured her husband that she had no intention of becoming his assistant, using, to express her thought, the plainest and most vigorous word that the italian language could supply. henry had then recourse once more to the father and aunt. that venerable couple being about to wait upon the archduke's envoy, in compliance with the royal request, pecquius, out of respect to their advanced age, went to the constable's residence. here both the duchess and constable, with tears in their eyes, besought that diplomatist to do his utmost to prevent the princess from the sad fate of any longer sharing her husband's fortunes. the father protested that he would never have consented to her marriage, preferring infinitely that she should have espoused any honest gentleman with crowns a year than this first prince of the blood, with a character such as it had proved to be; but that he had not dared to disobey the king. he spoke of the indignities and cruelties to which she was subjected, said that rochefort, whom conde had employed to assist him in their flight from france, and on the crupper of whose horse the princess had performed the journey, was constantly guilty of acts of rudeness and incivility towards her; that but a few days past he had fired off pistols in her apartment where she was sitting alone with the princess of orange, exclaiming that this was the way he would treat anyone who interfered with the commands of his master, conde; that the prince was incessantly railing at her for refusing to caress the marquis of spinola; and that, in short, he would rather she were safe in the palace of the archduchess isabella, even in the humblest position among her gentlewomen, than to know her vagabondizing miserably about the world with her husband. this, he said, was the greatest fear he had, and he would rather see her dead than condemned to such a fate. he trusted that the archdukes were incapable of believing the stories that he and the duchess of angouleme were influenced in the appeals they made for the separation of the prince and princess by a desire to serve the purposes of the king. those were fables put about by conde. all that the constable and his sister desired was that the archduchess would receive the princess kindly when she should throw herself at her feet, and not allow her to be torn away against her will. the constable spoke with great gravity and simplicity, and with all the signs of genuine emotion, and peter pecquius was much moved. he assured the aged pair that he would do his best to comply with their wishes, and should immediately apprise the archdukes of the interview which had just taken place. most certainly they were entirely disposed to gratify the constable and the duchess as well as the princess herself, whose virtues, qualities, and graces had inspired them with affection, but it must be remembered that the law both human and divine required wives to submit themselves to the commands of their husbands and to be the companions of their good and evil fortunes. nevertheless, he hoped that the lord would so conduct the affairs of the prince of conde that the most christian king and the archdukes would all be satisfied. these pious and consolatory commonplaces on the part of peter pecquius deeply affected the constable. he fell upon the envoy's neck, embraced him repeatedly, and again wept plentifully. chapter, iii. strange scene at the archduke's palace--henry's plot frustrated-- his triumph changed to despair--conversation of the dutch ambassador with the king--the war determined upon. it was in the latter part of the carnival, the saturday night preceding shrove tuesday, . the winter had been a rigorous one in brussels, and the snow lay in drifts three feet deep in the streets. within and about the splendid palace of nassau there was much commotion. lights and flambeaux were glancing, loud voices, martial music, discharge of pistols and even of artillery were heard together with the trampling of many feet, but there was nothing much resembling the wild revelry or cheerful mummery of that holiday season. a throng of the great nobles of belgium with drawn swords and menacing aspect were assembled in the chief apartments, a detachment of the archduke's mounted body-guard was stationed in the courtyard, and five hundred halberdiers of the burgher guilds kept watch and ward about the palace. the prince of conde, a square-built, athletic young man of middle stature, with regular features, but a sulky expression, deepened at this moment into ferocity, was seen chasing the secretary of the french resident minister out of the courtyard, thwacking him lustily about the shoulders with his drawn sword, and threatening to kill him or any other frenchman on the spot, should he show himself in that palace. he was heard shouting rather than speaking, in furious language against the king, against coeuvres, against berny, and bitterly bewailing his misfortunes, as if his wife were already in paris instead of brussels. upstairs in her own apartment which she had kept for some days on pretext of illness sat the princess margaret, in company' of madame de berny, wife of the french minister, and of the marquis de coeuvres, henry's special envoy, and a few other frenchmen. she was passionately fond of dancing. the adoring cardinal described her as marvellously graceful and perfect in that accomplishment. she had begged her other adorer, the marquis spinola, "with sweetest words," that she might remain a few days longer in the nassau palace before removing to the archduke's residence, and that the great general, according to the custom in france and flanders, would be the one to present her with the violins. but spinola, knowing the artifice concealed beneath these "sweetest words," had summoned up valour enough to resist her blandishments, and had refused a second entertainment. it was not, therefore, the disappointment at losing her ball that now made the princess sad. she and her companions saw that there had been a catastrophe; a plot discovered. there was bitter disappointment and deep dismay upon their faces. the plot had been an excellent one. de coeuvres had arranged it all, especially instigated thereto by the father of the princess acting in concurrence with the king. that night when all was expected to be in accustomed quiet, the princess, wrapped in her mantilla, was to have stolen down into the garden, accompanied only by her maid the adventurous and faithful philipotte, to have gone through a breach which led through a garden wall to the city ramparts, thence across the foss to the counterscarp, where a number of horsemen under trustworthy commanders were waiting. mounting on the crupper behind one of the officers of the escort, she was then to fly to the frontier, relays of horses having been provided at every stage until she should reach rocroy, the first pausing place within french territory; a perilous adventure for the young and delicate princess in a winter of almost unexampled severity. on the very morning of the day assigned for the adventure, despatches brought by special couriers from the nuncius and the spanish ambassador at paris gave notice of the plot to the archdukes and to conde, although up to that moment none knew of it in brussels. albert, having been apprised that many frenchmen had been arriving during the past few days, and swarming about the hostelries of the city and suburbs, was at once disposed to believe in the story. when conde came to him, therefore, with confirmation from his own letters, and demanding a detachment of the body-guard in addition to the burgher militiamen already granted by the magistrates, he made no difficulty granting the request. it was as if there had been a threatened assault of the city, rather than the attempted elopement of a young lady escorted by a handful of cavaliers. the courtyard of the nassau palace was filled with cavalry sent by the archduke, while five hundred burgher guards sent by the magistrates were drawn up around the gate. the noise and uproar, gaining at every moment more mysterious meaning by the darkness of night, soon spread through the city. the whole population was awake, and swarming through the streets. such a tumult had not for years been witnessed in brussels, and the rumour flew about and was generally believed that the king of france at the head of an army was at the gates of the city determined to carry off the princess by force. but although the superfluous and very scandalous explosion might have been prevented, there could be no doubt that the stratagem had been defeated. nevertheless, the effrontery and ingenuity of de coeuvres became now sublime. accompanied by his colleague, the resident minister, de berny, who was sure not to betray the secret because he had never known it--his wife alone having been in the confidence of the princess--he proceeded straightway to the archduke's palace, and, late in the night as it was, insisted on an audience. here putting on his boldest face when admitted to the presence, he complained loudly of the plot, of which he had just become aware, contrived by the prince of conde to carry off his wife to spain against her will, by main force, and by assistance of flemish nobles, archiducal body-guard, and burgher militia. it was all a plot of conde, he said, to palliate still more his flight from france. every one knew that the princess could not fly back to paris through the air. to take her out of a house filled with people, to pierce or scale the walls of the city, to arrange her journey by ordinary means, and to protect the whole route by stations of cavalry, reaching from brussels to the frontier, and to do all this in profound secrecy, was equally impossible. such a scheme had never been arranged nor even imagined, he said. the true plotter was conde, aided by ministers in flanders hostile to france, and as the honour of the king and the reputation of the princess had been injured by this scandal, the ambassador loudly demanded a thorough investigation of the affair in order that vengeance might fall where it was due. the prudent albert was equal to the occasion. not wishing to state the full knowledge which he possessed of de coeuvres' agency and the king's complicity in the scheme of abduction to france, he reasoned calmly with the excited marquis, while his colleague looked and listened in dumb amazement, having previously been more vociferous and infinitely more sincere than his colleague in expressions of indignation. the archduke said that he had not thought the plot imputed to the king and his ambassador very probable. nevertheless, the assertions of the prince had been so positive as to make it impossible to refuse the guards requested by him. he trusted, however, that the truth would soon be known, and that it would leave no stain on the princess, nor give any offence to the king. surprised and indignant at the turn given to the adventure by the french envoys, he nevertheless took care to conceal these sentiments, to abstain from accusation, and calmly to inform them that the princess next morning would be established under his own roof; and enjoy the protection of the archduchess. for it had been arranged several days before that margaret should leave the palace of nassau for that of albert and isabella on the th, and the abduction had been fixed for the night of the th precisely because the conspirators wished to profit by the confusion incident on a change of domicile. the irrepressible de coeuvres, even then hardly willing to give up the whole stratagem as lost, was at least determined to discover how and by whom the plot had been revealed. in a cemetery piled three feet deep with snow on the evening following that mid-winter's night which had been fixed for the princess's flight, the unfortunate ambassador waited until a certain vallobre, a gentleman of spinola's, who was the go-between of the enamoured genoese and the princess, but whom de coeuvres had gained over, came at last to meet him by appointment. when he arrived, it was only to inform him of the manner in which he had been baffled, to convince him that the game was up, and that nothing was left him but to retreat utterly foiled in his attempt, and to be stigmatized as a blockhead by his enraged sovereign. next day the princess removed her residence to the palace of the archdukes, where she was treated with distinguished honour by isabella, and installed ceremoniously in the most stately, the most virtuous, and the most dismal of courts. her father and aunt professed themselves as highly pleased with the result, and pecquius wrote that "they were glad to know her safe from the importunities of the old fop who seemed as mad as if he had been stung by a tarantula." and how had the plot been revealed? simply through the incorrigible garrulity of the king himself. apprised of the arrangement in all its details by the constable, who had first received the special couriers of de coeuvres, he could not keep the secret to himself for a moment, and the person of all others in the world to whom he thought good to confide it was the queen herself. she received the information with a smile, but straightway sent for the nuncius ubaldini, who at her desire instantly despatched a special courier to spinola with full particulars of the time and mode of the proposed abduction. nevertheless the ingenuous henry, confiding in the capacity of his deeply offended queen to keep the secret which he had himself divulged, could scarcely contain himself for joy. off he went to saint-germain with a train of coaches, impatient to get the first news from de coeuvres after the scheme should have been carried into effect, and intending to travel post towards flanders to meet and welcome the princess. "pleasant farce for shrove tuesday," wrote the secretary of pecquius, "is that which the frenchmen have been arranging down there! he in whose favour the abduction is to be made was seen going out the same day spangled and smart, contrary to his usual fashion, making a gambado towards saint-germain-en-laye with four carriages and four to meet the nymph." great was the king's wrath and mortification at this ridiculous exposure of his detestable scheme. vociferous were villeroy's expressions of henry's indignation at being supposed to have had any knowledge of or complicity in the affair. "his majesty cannot approve of the means one has taken to guard against a pretended plot for carrying off the princess," said the secretary of state; "a fear which was simulated by the prince in order to defame the king." he added that there was no reason to suspect the king, as he had never attempted anything of the sort in his life, and that the archduke might have removed the princess to his palace without sending an army to the hotel of the prince of orange, and causing such an alarm in the city, firing artillery on the rampart as if the town had been full of frenchmen in arms, whereas one was ashamed next morning to find that there had been but fifteen in all. "but it was all marquis spinola's fault," he said, "who wished to show himself off as a warrior." the king, having thus through the mouth of his secretary of state warmly protested against his supposed implication in the attempted abduction, began as furiously to rail at de coeuvres for its failure; telling the duc de vendome that his uncle was an idiot, and writing that unlucky envoy most abusive letters for blundering in the scheme which had been so well concerted between them. then he sent for malherbe, who straightway perpetrated more poems to express the king's despair, in which henry was made to liken himself to a skeleton with a dried skin, and likewise to a violet turned up by the ploughshare and left to wither. he kept up through madame de berny a correspondence with "his beautiful angel," as he called the princess, whom he chose to consider a prisoner and a victim; while she, wearied to death with the frigid monotony and sepulchral gaieties of the archiducal court, which she openly called her "dungeon" diverted herself with the freaks and fantasies of her royal adorer, called him in very ill-spelled letters "her chevalier, her heart, her all the world," and frequently wrote to beg him, at the suggestion of the intriguing chateau vert, to devise some means of rescuing her from prison. the constable and duchess meanwhile affected to be sufficiently satisfied with the state of things. conde, however, received a letter from the king, formally summoning him to return to france, and, in case of refusal, declaring him guilty of high-treason for leaving the kingdom without the leave and against the express commands of the king. to this letter, brought to him by de coeuvres, the prince replied by a paper, drawn up and served by a notary of brussels, to the effect that he had left france to save his life and honour; that he was ready to return when guarantees were given him for the security of both. he would live and die, he said, faithful to the king. but when the king, departing from the paths of justice, proceeded through those of violence against him, he maintained that every such act against his person was null and invalid. henry had even the incredible meanness and folly to request the queen to write to the archdukes, begging that the princess might be restored to assist at her coronation. mary de' medici vigorously replied once more that, although obliged to wink at the king's amours, she declined to be his procuress. conde then went off to milan very soon after the scene at the nassau palace and the removal of the princess to the care of the archdukes. he was very angry with his wife, from whom he expressed a determination to be divorced, and furious with the king, the validity of whose second marriage and the legitimacy of whose children he proposed with spanish help to dispute. the constable was in favour of the divorce, or pretended to be so, and caused importunate letters to be written, which he signed, to both albert and isabella, begging that his daughter might be restored to him to be the staff of his old age, and likewise to be present at the queen's coronation. the archdukes, however, resolutely refused to permit her to leave their protection without conde's consent, or until after a divorce had been effected, notwithstanding that the father and aunt demanded it. the constable and duchess however, acquiesced in the decision, and expressed immense gratitude to isabella. "the father and aunt have been talking to pecquius," said henry very dismally; "but they give me much pain. they are even colder than the season, but my fire thaws them as soon as i approach." "p. s.--i am so pining away in my anguish that i am nothing but skin and bones. nothing gives me pleasure. i fly from company, and if in order to comply with the law of nations i go into some assembly or other, instead of enlivening, it nearly kills me."--[lettres missives de henri vii. ]. and the king took to his bed. whether from gout, fever, or the pangs of disappointed love, he became seriously ill. furious with every one, with conde, the constable, de coeuvres, the queen, spinola, with the prince of orange, whose councillor keeremans had been encouraging conde in his rebellion and in going to spain with spinola, he was now resolved that tho war should go on. aerssens, cautious of saying too much on paper of this very delicate affair, always intimated to barneveld that, if the princess could be restored, peace was still possible, and that by moving an inch ahead of the king in the cleve matter the states at the last moment might be left in the lurch. he distinctly told the advocate, on his expressing a hope that henry might consent to the prince's residence in some neutral place until a reconciliation could be effected, that the pinch of the matter was not there, and that van der myle, who knew all about it, could easily explain it. alluding to the project of reviving the process against the dowager, and of divorcing the prince and princess, he said these steps would do much harm, as they would too much justify the true cause of the retreat of the prince, who was not believed when he merely talked of his right of primogeniture: "the matter weighs upon us very heavily," he said, "but the trouble is that we don't search for the true remedies. the matter is so delicate that i don't dare to discuss it to the very bottom." the ambassador had a long interview with the king as he lay in his bed feverish and excited. he was more impatient than ever for the arrival of the states' special embassy, reluctantly acquiesced in the reasons assigned for the delay, but trusted that it would arrive soon with barneveld at the head, and with count lewis william as a member for "the sword part of it." he railed at the prince of orange, not believing that keeremans would have dared to do what he had done but with the orders of his master. he said that the king of spain would supply conde with money and with everything he wanted, knowing that he could make use of him to trouble his kingdom. it was strange, he thought, that philip should venture to these extremities with his affairs in such condition, and when he had so much need of repose. he recalled all his ancient grievances against spain, his rights to the kingdom of navarre and the county of st. pol violated; the conspiracy of biron, the intrigues of bouillon, the plots of the count of auvergne and the marchioness of verneuil, the treason of meragne, the corruption of l'hoste, and an infinity of other plots of the king and his ministers; of deep injuries to him and to the public repose, not to be tolerated by a mighty king like himself, with a grey beard. he would be revenged, he said, for this last blow, and so for all the rest. he would not leave a troublesome war on the hands of his young son. the occasion was favourable. it was just to defend the oppressed princes with the promptly accorded assistance of the states-general. the king of great britain was favourable. the duke of savoy was pledged. it was better to begin the war in his green old age than to wait the pleasure and opportunity of the king of spain. all this he said while racked with fever, and dismissed the envoy at last, after a long interview, with these words: "mr. ambassador--i have always spoken roundly and frankly to you, and you will one day be my witness that i have done all that i could to draw the prince out of the plight into which he has put himself. but he is struggling for the succession to this crown under instructions from the spaniards, to whom he has entirely pledged himself. he has already received crowns for his equipment. i know that you and my other friends will work for the conservation of this monarchy, and will never abandon me in my designs to weaken the power of spain. pray god for my health." the king kept his bed a few days afterwards, but soon recovered. villeroy sent word to barneveld in answer to his suggestions of reconciliation that it was too late, that conde was entirely desperate and spanish. the crown of france was at stake, he said, and the prince was promising himself miracles and mountains with the aid of spain, loudly declaring the marriage of mary de' medici illegal, and himself heir to the throne. the secretary of state professed himself as impatient as his master for the arrival of the embassy; the states being the best friends france ever had and the only allies to make the war succeed. jeannin, who was now never called to the council, said that the war was not for germany but for conde, and that henry could carry it on for eight years. he too was most anxious for barneveld's arrival, and was of his opinion that it would have been better for conde to be persuaded to remain at breda and be supported by his brother-in-law, the prince of orange. the impetuosity of the king had however swept everything before it, and conde had been driven to declare himself spanish and a pretender to the crown. there was no issue now but war. boderie, the king's envoy in great britain, wrote that james would be willing to make a defensive league for the affairs of cleve and julich only, which was the slenderest amount of assistance; but henry always suspected master jacques of intentions to baulk him if possible and traverse his designs. but the die was cast. spinola had carried off conde in triumph; the princess was pining in her gilt cage in brussels, and demanding a divorce for desertion and cruel treatment; the king considered himself as having done as much as honour allowed him to effect a reconciliation, and it was obvious that, as the states' ambassador said, he could no longer retire from the war without shame, which would be the greatest danger of all. "the tragedy is ready to begin," said aerssens. "they are only waiting now for the arrival of our ambassadors." on the th march the king before going to fontainebleau for a few days summoned that envoy to the louvre. impatient at a slight delay in his arrival, henry came down into the courtyard as he was arriving and asked eagerly if barneveld was coming to paris. aerssens replied, that the advocate had been hastening as much as possible the departure of the special embassy, but that the condition of affairs at home was such as not to permit him to leave the country at that moment. van der myle, who would be one of the ambassadors, would more fully explain this by word of mouth. the king manifested infinite annoyance and disappointment that barneveld was not to make part of the embassy. "he says that he reposes such singular confidence in your authority in the state, experience in affairs, and affection for himself," wrote aerssens, "that he might treat with you in detail and with open heart of all his designs. he fears now that the ambassadors will be limited in their powers and instructions, and unable to reply at once on the articles which at different times have been proposed to me for our enterprise. thus much valuable time will be wasted in sending backwards and forwards." the king also expressed great anxiety to consult with count lewis william in regard to military details, but his chief sorrow was in regard to the advocate. "he acquiesced only with deep displeasure and regret in your reasons," said the ambassador, "and says that he can hope for nothing firm now that you refuse to come." villeroy intimated that barneveld did not come for fear of exciting the jealousy of the english. etext editor's bookmarks: he who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself most detestable verses that even he had ever composed she declined to be his procuress transcriber's notes: . page scan source: http://books.google.com/books?id=wd aaaayaaj . [=n] designates an "n" with macron above; the diphthong oe is designated by [oe] [illustration: death of tzerclas.--p. ] my lady rotha a romance by stanley j. weyman author of "a gentleman of france," "under the red robe," "the house of the wolf," etc. new york longmans, green, and co. copyright, , by stanley j. weyman. contents chapter i. heritzburg. ii. the countess rotha. iii. the burgomaster's demand. iv. the fire alight. v. marie wort. vi. rupert the great. vii. the pride of youth. viii. a catastrophe. ix. walnuts of gold. x. the camp in the forest. xi. stolen. xii. near the edge. xiii. our quarters. xiv. the opening of a duel. xv. the duel continued. xvi. the general's banquet. xvii. stalhanske's finns. xviii. a sudden expedition. xix. in a green valley. xx. more haste, less speed. xxi. among the wounded. xxii. greek and greek. xxiii. the flight. xxiv. missing. xxv. nuremberg. xxvi. the face at the window. xxvii. the house in the churchyard. xxviii. under the tiles. xxix. in the house by st. austin's. xxx. the end of the day. xxxi. the trial. xxxii. a poor guerdon. xxxiii. two men. xxxiv. suspense. xxxv. st. bartholomew's day. xxxvi. a wingless cupid. list of illustrations death of tzerclas. _frontispiece_ ... she came presently to me with a bowl of broth in her hands and a timid smile on her lips. ... with her own hands she drove the nail.... then she turned. ... ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, continued to stamp and scream. the general waited on her with the utmost attention, riding by her bridle-rein. we were alone.... i whispered in her ear. before i could recover myself a pair of strong arms closed round mine and bound them to my sides. but with all--she controlled herself. she rose stiffly from her seat. my lady rotha. chapter i. heritzburg. i never saw anything more remarkable than the change which the death of my lady's uncle, count tilly, in the spring of , worked at heritzburg. until the day when that news reached us, we went on in our quiet corner as if there were no war. we heard, and some of us believed, that the palatine elector, a good calvinist like ourselves, had made himself king of bohemia in the emperor's teeth; and shortly afterwards--which we were much more ready to believe--that he was footing it among the dutchmen. we heard that the king of denmark had taken up his cause, but taken little by the motion; and then that the king of sweden had made it his own. but these things affected us little: they were like the pattering of the storm to a man hugging himself by the fireside. through all we lay snug and warm, and kept christmas and drank the emperor's health. even the great sack of magdeburg, which was such an event as the world, i believe, will never see again, moved us less to fear than to pity; though the city lies something less than fifty leagues northeast of us. the reason of this i am going to tell you. our town stands, as all men know, in a nook of the thuringian forest, facing south and west towards hesse, of which my lady rotha, countess of heritzburg, holds it, though all the land about is saxon, belonging either to coburg, or weimar, or altenburg, or the upper duchy. on the north and east the forest rises in rolling black ridges, with a grey crag shooting up spire-like here and there; so that from this quarter it was not wonderful that no sound of war reached us. toward the south and west, where is the mouth of the valley, and whither our people point when they talk of the world, a spur of the mountain runs down on either side to the werra, which used to be crossed at this point by a wooden bridge. but this bridge was swept away by floods in the winter of , and never repaired as long as the war lasted. henceforth to come to heritzburg travellers had to cross in old joachim's boat, or if the river was very low, tuck up and take the chances. unless they came by forest paths over the mountains. such a position favoured peace. our friends could not easily trouble us; our allies were under no temptation to quarter troops upon us. for our enemies, we feared them even less. against them we had a rampart higher than the mountains and wider than the werra, in the name of tilly. in those days the name of the great walloon, victor in thirty fights, was a word to conjure with from the tyrol to the elbe. mothers used it to scare their children, priests to blast their foes. his courage, his cruelty, and his zeal for the roman catholic church combined to make him the terror of the protestants, while his strange personality and mis-shapen form gave rise to a thousand legends, which men still tell by the fireside. i think i see him now--as i did see him thrice in his lifetime--a meagre dwarfish man with a long face like a horse's face, and large whiskers. he dressed always in green satin, and wore a small high-peaked hat on his huge wrinkled forehead. a red feather drooped from it, and reached to his waist. at first sight one took him for a natural; for one of those strange monstrosities which princes keep to make them sport; but a single glance from his eyes sent simple men to their prayers, and cowed alike plain burgher and wild croat. few loved him, all feared him. i have heard it said that he had no shadow, but i can testify of my own knowledge and not merely for the honour of the family that this was false. he was brother to my lady's mother, the countess juliana. at the time of the match my late lord was thought to have disparaged his blood by mating with a flemish lady of no more than gentle family. but as count tilly rose in the world first to be commander of the bavarian armies and later to be generalissimo of the forces of the empire and a knight of the golden fleece, we heard less and less of this. the sneer lost its force until we became glad, calvinists though we were, to lie secure under his shadow; and even felt a shamed pride in his prowess. when my lord died, early in the war, leaving the county of heritzburg to his only child, the protection we derived in this way grew more and more valuable. we of heritzburg, and we only, lost nothing by the war, except a parcel of idle fellows, of whom more hereafter. our cows came lowing to their stalls, our corn full weight to the granary. we slept more safely under the distaff than others under the sword; and all because my lady had the right to wear among her sixteen quarterings the coat of tilly. some i know, but only since his death, have cried shame on us for accepting his protection. they profess to think that we should have shut our gates on the butcher of magdeburg, and bidden him do his worst. they say that the spirit of the old protestants is dead within us, and that it is no wonder the cause lies languishing and swedes alone fight single-eyed. but those who say these things have seldom, i notice, corn or cows: and moreover, as i have hinted, they kept a very still tongue while tilly lived. there is our late burgomaster, hofman, for instance, he is given to talking after that fashion; and, it is true, he has plenty, though not so much since my lady fined him. but i well remember the last time tilly visited us. it was after the fall of magdeburg, and there was a shadow on his grim countenance, which men said never left it again until the day when the cannon-shot struck him in the ford of the lech, and they carried him to ingolstadt to die. as he rode under the arch by the red hart people looked strangely at him--for it was difficult to forget what he had done--as if, but for the croats in the camp across the river, they would have torn him from his horse. but who, i pray you, so polite that day as master hofman? who but he was first to hold the stirrup and cry, hail? it was 'my lord count' this, and 'my lord count' that, until the door closed on the crooked little figure and the great gold spurs. and then it was the same with the captain of the escort. faugh! i grow sick when i think of such men, and know that they were the first to turn round and make trouble when the time came, and the old grey wolf was dead. for my part i have always been my lady's man since i came out of the forest to serve her. it was enough for me that the count was her guest and of her kin. but for flattering him and putting myself forward to do him honour, i left that to the hofmans. however, the gloom we saw on tilly's face proved truly to be the shadow of coming misfortune; for three weeks after he left us, was fought the great battle of breitenfeld. men say that the energy and decision he had shown all his life forsook him there; that he hesitated and suffered himself to be led by others; and that so it was from the day of magdeburg to his death. this may be true, i think, for he had the blood of women and children on his head; or it may be that at last he met a foeman worthy of his steel. but in either case the news of the swede's victory rang through north germany like a trumpet call. it broke with startling abruptness the spell of victory which had hitherto--for thirteen long years--graced the emperor's flag and the roman church. in hesse, to the west of us, where the landgrave william had been the first of all german princes to throw in his lot with the swedes and defy the emperor, it awoke such a shout of jubilation and vengeance as crossed even the werra; while from the saxon lands to the east of us, which this victory saved from spoliation, and punishment, came an answering cry of thankfulness and joy. even in heritzburg it stirred our blood. it roused new thoughts and new ambitions. we were protestants; we were of the north. those who had fought and won were our brethren. and this was right. nor for a time did i see anything wrong or any sign of mischief brewing; though tongues in the town wagged more freely, as the cloud of war rolled ever southward and away from us. but six months later the news of count tilly's death reached us. then, or it might be a fortnight afterwards--so long i think respect for my lady's loss and the new hatchment restrained the good-for-naughts--the trouble began. how it arose, and what shape it took, and how i came athwart it, i am going to tell you without further preface. it was about the third monday in may of that year, . a broken lock in one of the rooms at the castle had baffled the skill of our smith, and about nightfall, thinking to take a cup of beer at the red hart on my way back, i went down to peter the locksmith's in the town. his forge stands in the winding lane, which joins the high street at the red hart, after running half round the town inside the wall; so that one errand was a fair excuse for the other. when i had given him his order and come out again, i found that what with the darkness of the lane and the blaze of his fire which had got into my eyes, i could not see a yard before me. a little fine rain was falling with a chilly east wind, and the town seemed dead. the pavement felt greasy under foot, and gave out a rank smell. however, i thought of the cheery kitchen at the red hart and stumbled along as fast as i could, until turning a corner i came in sight of the lanthorn which hangs over the entrance to the lane. i saw it, but short of it, something took and held my eye: a warm stream of light, which shone across the path, and fell brightly on the rough surface of the town-wall. it came from a small window on my left. i had to pass close beside this window, and out of curiosity i looked in. what i saw was so surprising that i stopped to look again. the room inside was low and small and bare, with an earthen floor and no fireplace. on a ragged pallet in one corner lay an elderly man, to whose wasted face and pallid cheeks a long white moustache, which strayed over the coverlet, gave an air of incongruous fierceness. his bright eyes were fixed on the door as if he listened. a child, three or four years old, sat on the floor beside him, playing with a yellow cat. it was neither of these figures, however, which held my gaze, but that of a young girl who knelt on the floor near the head of the bed. a little crucifix stood propped against the wall before her, and she had a string of beads in her hands. her face was turned from me, but i felt that her lips moved. i had never seen a romanist at prayer before, and i lingered a moment, thinking in the first place that she would have done better had she swung the shutter against the window; and in the next, that with her dark hair hanging about her neck and her head bent devoutly, she looked so weak and fragile that the stoutest protestant could not have found it in his heart to harm her. suddenly a noise, which dully reached me where i stood outside the casement, caused her to start in alarm, and turn her head. at the same moment the cat sprang away affrighted, and the man on the bed stirred and tried to rise. this breaking the spell, i stole quietly away and went round the corner to the door of the inn. though i had never considered the girl closely before, i knew who she was. some eight months earlier, while tilly, hard pressed by the king of sweden, still stood at bay, keeping down saxony with one hand, and hesse with the other, the man on the pallet, stephen wort, a sergeant of jagers, had been wounded in a skirmish beyond the river. why tilly, who was used to seeing men die round him like flies in winter, gave a second thought to this man more than to others, i cannot say. but for some reason, when he visited us before breitenfeld, he brought the wounded sergeant in his train, and when he went left him at the inn. some said that the man had saved his life, others that the two were born on the same day and shared the same horoscope. more probably tilly knew nothing of the man, and the captain of the escort was the active party. i imagine he had a kindness for wort, and knowing that outside our little valley a wounded man of tilly's army would find as short shrift as a hamstrung wolf, took occasion to leave him with us. i thought of all this as i stood fumbling about the door for the great bell. the times were such that even inns shut their doors at night, and i had to wait and blow on my fingers--for no wind is colder than a may wind--until i was admitted. inside, however, the blazing fire and cheerful kitchen with its show of gleaming pewter, and its great polished settles winking solemnly in the heat, made amends for all. i forgot the wounded man and his daughter and the fog outside. there were eight or nine men present, among them hofman, who was then burgomaster, dietz, the town minister, and klink our host. they were people i met every day, and sometimes more than once a day, and they greeted me with a silent nod. the lad who waited brought me a cup of beer, and i said that the night was cold for the time of year. some one assented, but the company in general sat silent, sagely sucking their lips, or exchanging glances which seemed to indicate a secret understanding. i was not slow to see that this had to do with me and that my entrance had cut short some jest or story. i waited patiently to learn what it was, and presently i was enlightened. after a few minutes klink the host rose from his seat. first looking from one to another of his neighbours, as if to assure himself of their sympathy, he stole quietly across the kitchen to a door which stood in one corner. here he paused a moment listening, and then on a sudden struck the door a couple of blows, which made the pewters ring again. 'hi! within there!' he cried in his great voice. are you packing? are you packing, wench? because out you go to-morrow, pack or no pack! out you go, do you hear?' he stood a moment waiting for an answer, but seemed to get none; on which he came back to his seat, and chuckling fatly to himself, looked round on his neighbours for applause. one winked and another rubbed his calves. the greater number eyed the fire with a sly smile. for my part i was slow of apprehension. i did not understand but waited to hear more. for five minutes we all sat silent, sucking our lips. then klink rose again with a knowing look, and crossed the kitchen on tiptoe with the same parade of caution as before. bang!' he struck the door until it rattled on its hinges. 'hi! you there!' he thundered. 'do you hear, you jade? are you packing? are you packing, i say? because pack or no pack, to-morrow you go! i am a man of my word.' he did not wait this time for an answer, but came back to us with a self-satisfied grin on his face. he drank some beer--he was a big ponderous man with a red face and small pig's eyes--and pointed over his shoulders with the cup. 'eh?' he said, raising his eye-brows. 'good!' a man growled who sat opposite to him. 'quite right!' said a second in the same tone. 'popish baggage!' hofman said nothing, but nodded, with a sly glance at me. dietz the minister nodded curtly also, and looked hard at the fire. the rest laughed. for my part i felt very little like laughing. when i considered that this clumsy jest was being played at the expense of the poor girl, whom i had seen at her prayers, and that likely enough it was being played for the tenth time--when i reflected that these heavy fellows were sitting at their ease by this great fire watching the logs blaze and the ruddy light flicker up the chimney, while she sat in cold and discomfort, fearing every sound and trembling at every whisper, i could have found it in my heart to get up and say what i thought of it. and my speech would have astonished them. but i remembered, in time, that least said is soonest mended, and that after all words break no bones, and i did no more than sniff and shrug my shoulders. klink, however, chose to take offence in his stupid fashion. 'eh?' he said. 'you are of another mind, master schwartz?' 'what is the good of talking like that,' i said, 'when you do not mean it?' he puffed himself out, and after staring at me for a time, answered slowly: 'but what if i do mean it, master steward? what if i do mean it?' 'you don't,' i said. 'the man pays his way.' i thought to end the matter with that. i soon found that it was not to be shelved so easily. for a moment indeed no one answered me. we are a slow speaking race, and love to have time to think. a minute had not elapsed, however, before one of the men who had spoken earlier took up the cudgels. 'ay, he pays his way,' he said, thrusting his head forward. 'he pays his way, master; but how? tell me that.' i did not answer him. 'out of the peasant's pocket!' the fellow replied slowly. 'out of the plunder and booty of magdeburg. with blood-money, master.' 'i ask no more than to meet one of his kind in the fields,' the man sitting next him, who had also spoken before, chimed in. 'with no one looking on, master. there would be one less wolf in the world then, i will answer for that. he pays his way? oh, yes, he pays it here.' i thought a shrug of the shoulders a sufficient answer. these two belonged to the company my lady had raised in the preceding year to serve with the landgrave according to her tenure. they had come back to the town a week before this with money to spend; some people saying that they had deserted, and some that they had returned to raise volunteers. either way i was not surprised to find them a little bit above themselves; for foreign service spoils the best, and these had never been anything but loiterers and vagrants, whom it angered me to see on a bench cheek by jowl with the burgomaster. i thought to treat them with silent contempt, but i soon found that they did not stand alone. the minister was the first to come to their support. 'you forget that these people are papists, master schwartz. rank roman papists,' he said. 'so was tilly!' i retorted, stung to anger. 'yet you managed to do with him.' 'that was different,' he answered sourly; but he winced. then hofman began on me. 'you see, master steward,' he said slowly, 'we are a protestant town--we are a protestant town. and it ill beseems us--it ill beseems us to harbour papists. i have thought over that a long while. and now i think it is time to rid ourselves of them--to abate the nuisance in fact. you see we are a protestant town, master schwartz. you forget that.' 'then were we not a protestant town,' i cried, jumping up in a rage, and forgetting all my discretion, 'when we entertained count tilly? when you held his stirrup, burgomaster? and you, master dietz, uncovered to him? were not these people papists when they came here, and when you received them? but i will tell you what it is,' i continued, looking round scornfully, and giving my anger vent, for such meanness disgusted me. 'when there was a bavarian army across the river, and you could get anything out of tilly, you were ready to oblige him, and clean his boots. you could take in romanists then, but now that he is dead and your side is uppermost, you grow scrupulous, pah! i am ashamed of you! you are only fit to bully children and girls, and such like!' and i turned away to take up my iron-shod staff. they were all very red in the face by this time, and the two soldiers were on their feet. but the burgomaster restrained them. 'fine words!' he said, puffing out his cheeks--'fine words! dare say the girl can hear him. but let him be, let him be--let him have his say!' 'there is some else will have a say in the matter, master hofman!' i retorted warmly, as i turned to the door, 'and that is my lady. i would advise you to think twice before you act. that is all!' 'hoop-de-doo-dem-doo!' cried one in derision, and others echoed it. but i did not stay to hear; i turned a deaf ear to the uproar, wherein all seemed to be crying after me at once, and shrugging my shoulders i opened the door and went out. the sudden change from the warm noisy kitchen to the cold night air sobered me in a moment. as i climbed the dark slippery street which rises to the foot of the castle steps, i began to wish that i had let the matter be. after all, what call had i to interfere, and make bad blood between myself and my neighbours? it was no business of mine. the three were romanists. doubtless the man had robbed and hectored in his time, and while his hand was strong; and now he suffered as others had suffered. it was ten chances to one the burgomaster would carry the matter to my lady in some shape or other, and the minister would back him up, and i should be reprimanded; or if the countess saw with my eyes, and sent them off with a flea in their ears, then we should have all the rabble of the town who were at klink's beck and call, going up and down making mischief, and crying, 'no popery!' either way i foresaw trouble, and wished that i had let the matter be, or better still had kept away that night from the red hart. but then on a sudden there rose before me, as plainly as if i had still been looking through the window, a vision of the half-lit room looking on the lane, with the sick man on the pallet, and the slender figure kneeling beside the bed. i saw the cat leap, saw again the girl's frightened gesture as she turned towards the door, and i grew almost as hot as i had been in the kitchen. 'the cowards!' i muttered--'the cowards! but i will be beforehand with them. i will go to my lady early and tell her all.' you see i had my misgivings, but i little thought what that evening was really to bring forth, or that i had done that in the red hart kitchen which would alter all my life, and all my lady's life; and spreading still, as a little crack in ice will spread from bank to bank, would leave scarce a man in heritzburg unchanged, and scarce a woman's fate untouched. chapter ii. the countess rotha. my lady rotha, countess of heritzburg in her own right, was at this time twenty-five years old and unmarried. her maiden state, which seems to call for explanation, i attribute to two things. partly to the influence of her friend and companion fraulein anna max of utrecht, who was reputed in the castle to know seven languages, and to consider marriage a sacrifice; and partly to the countess's own disposition, which led her to set a high value on the power and possessions that had descended to her from her father. count tilly's protection, which had exempted heritzburg from the evils of the war, had rendered the support of a husband less necessary; and so she had been left to follow her own will in the matter, and was now little likely to surrender her independence unless her heart went with the gift. not that suitors were lacking, for my lady, besides her wealth, was possessed of the handsomest figure in the world, with beautiful features, and the most gracious and winning address ever known. i remember as if it were yesterday prince albert of rammingen, a great match but an old man. he came in his chariot with a numerous retinue, and stayed long, taking it very hardly that my lady was not to be won; but after a while he went. his place was taken by count frederick, a brother of the margrave of anspach, a young gentleman who had received his education in france, and was full of airs and graces, going sober to bed every night, and speaking german with a french accent. him my lady soon sent about his business. the next was a more famous man, count thurn of bohemia, he who began the war by throwing slawata and martinitz out of window in prague, in ' , and paid for it by fifteen years of exile. he wore such an air of mystery, and had such tales to tell of flight and battle and hairbreadth escapes, that he was scarcely less an object of curiosity in the town than tilly himself; but he knelt in vain. and in fine so it was with them all. my lady would have none of them, but kept her maiden state and governed heritzburg and saw the years go by, content to all appearance with fraulein anna and her talk, which was all of voetius and beza and scores of other learned men, whose names i could never remember from one hour to another. it was my duty to wait upon her every day after morning service, and receive her orders, and inform her of anything which i thought she ought to know. at that hour she was to be found in her parlour, a long room on the first floor of the castle, lighted by three deeply-recessed windows and hung with old tapestry worked by her great-grandmother in the dark days of the emperor charles, when the count of heritzburg shared the imprisonment of the good landgrave of hesse. a screen stood a little way within the door, and behind this it was my business to wait, until i was called. on this morning, however, i had no patience to wait, and i made myself so objectionable by my constant coughing that at last she cried, with a cheerful laugh, 'what is it, martin? come and tell me. has there been a fire in the forest? but it is not the right time of year for that.' 'no, my lady,' i said, going forward. then out of shyness or sheer contradictoriness i found myself giving her the usual report of this and that and the other, but never a word of what was in my mind. she sat, according to her custom in summer, in the recess of the farthest window, while fraulein anna occupied a stool placed before a reading-desk. behind the two the great window gave upon the valley. by merely turning the head either of them could look over the red roofs of heritzburg to the green plain, which here was tolerably wide, and beyond that again to the dark line of forest, which in spring and autumn showed as blue to the eye as thick wood smoke. while i spoke my lady toyed with a book she had been reading, and fraulein anna turned over the pages on the desk with an impatient hand, sometimes looking at my lady and sometimes tapping with her foot on the floor. she was plump and fair and short, dressing plainly, and always looking into the distance; whether because she thought much and on deep matters, or because, as the countess's woman once told me, she could see nothing beyond the length of her arm, i cannot say. when i had finished my report, and paused, she looked up at my lady and said, 'now, rotha, are you ready?' 'not quite, anna,' my lady answered, smiling. 'martin has not done yet.' 'he tells in ten minutes what another would in five,' fraulein said crossly. 'but to finish?' 'yes, martin, what is it?' my lady assented. 'we have eaten all the pastry. the meat i am sure is yet to come.' i saw that there was nothing else for it, and after all it was what i had come to do. 'your excellency knows the bavarian soldier and his daughter, who have been lodging these six months past at the red hart?' i said. 'to be sure.' 'klink talks of turning them out,' i continued, feeling my face grow red i scarcely knew why. 'is their money at an end?' the countess asked shrewdly. she was a great woman of business. 'no,' i answered, 'but i dare say it is low.' 'then what is the matter?' my lady continued, looking at me somewhat curiously. 'he says that they are papists,' i answered. 'and it is true, as your excellency knows, but it is not for him to say it. the man will not be safe for an hour outside the walls, nor the girl much longer. and there is a small child besides. and they have no where else to go.' my lady's face grew grave while i spoke. when i stopped she rose and stood fronting me, tapping on the reading-desk with her fingers. 'this must not be allowed, martin,' she said firmly. 'you were right to tell me.' 'master hofman and the minister----' 'yes,' she interposed, nodding quickly. 'go to them. they will see klink, and----' 'they are just pushing him on,' i said, with a groan. 'what!' she cried; and i remember to this day how her grey eyes flashed and how she threw back her head in generous amazement. 'do you mean to say that this is being done in spite, martin? that after escaping all the perils of this wretched war these men are so thankless as to turn on the first scape-goat that falls into their hands? it is not possible!' 'it looks like it, my lady,' i muttered, wondering whether i had not perhaps carried the matter too far. 'no, no,' she said, shaking her head, 'you must have made a mistake; but go to klink. go to klink and tell him from me to keep the man for a week at least. i will be answerable for the cost, and we can consider in the meantime what to do. my cousin the waldgrave rupert visits me in a day or two, and i will consult him.' still i did not like to go without giving her a hint that she might meet with opposition, and i hesitated, considering how i might warn her without causing needless alarm or seeming to presume. fraulein anna, who had listened throughout with the greatest impatience, took advantage of the pause to interfere. 'come, rotha,' she said. 'enough trifling. let us go back to voetius and our day's work.' 'my dear,' the countess answered somewhat coldly, 'this is my day's work. i am trying to do it.' 'your work is to improve and store your mind,' fraulein anna retorted with peevishness. 'true,' my lady said quietly; 'but for a purpose.' 'there can be no purpose higher than the acquirement of philosophy--and, religion,' fraulein anna said. her last words sounded like an afterthought. my lady shook her head. 'the duty of a princess is to govern,' she said. 'how can she govern unless she has prepared her mind by study and thought?' fraulein anna asked triumphantly. 'i agree within limits,' my lady answered. 'but----' 'there is no _but!_ nor are there any limits that i see!' the other rejoined eagerly. 'let me read to you out of voetius himself. in his maxims----' 'not this minute,' the countess answered firmly. and thereby she interrupted not fraulein anna alone but a calculation on which, without any light from voetius, i was engaged; namely, how long it would take a man to mow an acre of ground if he spent all his time in sharpening his scythe! low matters of that kind however have nothing in common with philosophy i suppose; and my lady's voice soon brought me back to the point. 'what is it you want to say, martin?' she asked. 'i see that you have something still on your mind.' 'i wish your excellency to be aware that there may be a good deal of feeling in the town on this matter,' i said. 'you mean that i may make myself unpopular,' she answered. that was what i did mean--that at the least. and i bowed. my lady shook her head with a grave smile. 'i might give you an answer from voetius, martin,' she said; 'that they who govern are created to protect the weak against the strong. and if not, _cui bono?_ but that, you may not understand. shall i say then instead that i, and not hofman or dietz, am countess of heritzburg.' 'my lady,' i cried--and i could have knelt before her--'that is answer enough for me!' 'then go,' she said, her face bright, 'and do as i told you.' she turned away, and i made my reverence and went out and down the stairs and through the great court with my head high and my heart high also. i might not understand voetius; but i understood that my lady was one, who in face of all and in spite of all, come hofman or dietz, come peace or war, would not blench, but stand by the right! and it did me good. he is a bad horse that will not jump when his rider's heart is right, and a bad servant that will not follow when his master goes before! i hummed a tune, i rattled my staff on the stones. i said to myself it was a thousand pities so gallant a spirit should be wasted on a woman: and then again i fancied that i could not have served a man as i knew i could and would serve her should time and the call ever put me to the test. the castle at heritzburg, rising abruptly above the roofs of the houses, is accessible from the town by a flight of steps cut in the rock. on the other three sides the knob on which it stands is separated from the wooded hills to which it belongs by a narrow ravine, crossed in one place by a light horse-bridge made in modern days. this forms the chief entrance to the castle, but the road which leads to it from the town goes so far round that it is seldom used, the flight of steps i have mentioned leading at once and more conveniently from the end of the high street. half way down the high street on the right hand side is the market-place, a small paved square, shaded by tall wooden houses, and having a carved stone pump in the middle. a hundred paces beyond this on the same side is the red hart, standing just within the west gate. from one end of the town to the other is scarcely a step, and i was at the inn before the countess's voice had ceased to sound in my ears. the door stood open, and i went in, expecting to find the kitchen empty or nearly so at that hour of the day. to my surprise, i found at least a dozen people in it, with as much noise and excitement going forward as if the yearly fair had been in progress. for a moment i was not observed. i had time to see who were present--klink, the two soldiers who had put themselves forward the evening before, and half a score of idlers. then the landlord's eye fell on me and he passed the word. a sudden silence followed and a dozen faces turned my way; so that the room, which was low in the roof with wide beetle-browed windows, seemed to lighten. 'just in time, master schwartz!' cried one fellow. 'you, can write, and we are about a petition! perhaps you will draw it up for us.' 'a petition,' i said shortly, eyeing the fellow with contempt. 'what petition?' 'against papists!' he answered boldly. 'and favourers, aiders, and abettors!' exclaimed another in the background. 'master klink, master klink,' i said, trying to frown down the crowd, 'you would do well to have a care. these ragamuffins----' 'have a care yourself, master jackanapes!' the same voice cried. 'this is a town meeting.' 'town meeting!' i said, looking round contemptuously. 'gaol-meeting, you mean, and likely to be a gaol-filling. but i do not speak to you; i leave that to the constable. for master klink, if he will take a word of advice, i will speak with him alone.' they cried out to him not to speak to me. but klink had still sense enough to know that he might be going too fast, and though they hooted and laughed at him--being for the most part people who had nothing to lose--he came out of the house with me and crossed the street that we might talk unheard. as civilly as i could i delivered my message; and as exactly, for i saw that the issue might be serious. i was not surprised when he groaned, and in a kind of a tremor shook his hands. 'i am not my own master, schwartz,' he said. 'and that is the truth.' 'you were your own master last night,' i retorted. 'these fellows are all for "no popery."' 'ay, and who gave them the cue?' i said sharply. 'it is not the first time that the fat burgher has raised the lean kine and been eaten by them. nor will it be the last. it serves you right.' 'i am willing enough to do what my lady wishes,' he whimpered; 'but----' 'but you are not master of your own house, do you mean?' i exclaimed. 'then fetch the constable. that is simple. or the burgomaster.' 'hush!' he said, 'he is hotter than any one.' 'then,' i answered flatly, 'he had better cool, and you too. that is all i have to say. and mark me, klink,' i continued sternly, 'see that no harm happens to that girl or her father. they are in your house, and you have heard what my lady says. let those ruffians interfere with them and you will be held to answer for it.' 'that is easy talking,' he muttered peevishly; 'but if i cannot help it?' 'you will have to help it!' i rejoined, losing my temper a little. 'you were fool enough, or i am much mistaken, to set a light to this stack, and now you will have to smother the flame, or pay for it. that is all, my friend. you have had fair warning. the rest is in your own hands.' and with that i left him. he was a stupid man but a sly one too, and i doubted his sincerity, or i might have taken another way with him. in the end, doubtless, it would have been the same. as i turned on my heel to go, the troop round the door raised a kind of hoot; and this pursued me as i went up the street, bringing the blood to my cheeks and almost provoking me to return. i checked the impulse however, and strode on as if i did not hear; and by the time i reached the market-place the cry had ceased. here however it began afresh; a number of loose fellows and lads who were loafing about the stalls crying 'no popery!' and 'popish schwartz!' as i passed, in a way which showed that the thing was premeditated and that they had been lying in wait for me. i stopped and scowled at them, and for a moment they ceased. but the instant my back was turned the hooting began again--with an ugly savage note in it--and i had not got quite clear of the place when some one flung a bundle of carrots, which hit me sharply on the back. i swung round in a rage at that, and dashed hot foot into the middle of the stalls in the hope of catching the fellow. but i was too late; an old woman over whom i fell was the only sufferer. the rascals had fled down an alley, and, contenting myself with crying after them that they were a set of cowards, i set the old lady on her legs, and went on my way. but i had my thoughts. such an insult had not been offered to me since i first came to the town to serve my lady, and it filled me with indignation. it seemed, besides, not a thing to be sneezed at. i took it for a sign of change, of bad times coming. moreover--and this troubled me as much as anything--i had recognised among the fellows in the square two more of the fifty men my lady had sent to serve with hesse. there seemed ground for fearing that they had deserted in a body and come back and were in hiding. if this were so, and the burgomaster, instead of repressing them, encouraged their excesses, they were likely to prove a source of trouble and danger--real danger. i paused on the steps leading up to the castle, in two minds whether i should not go to the burgomaster and tell him plainly what i thought; for i felt the responsibility. my lady had no male protector, no higher servant than myself, and we had not a dozen capable men in the castle. the landgrave of hesse, our over-lord, was away with the king of sweden, and we could expect no immediate support from him. in the event of a riot in the town therefore--and i knew that, in the great peasants' war of a century before, our town had been rebellious enough--we should be practically helpless. an hour and a little ill-fortune might place my lady in the hands of her mutinous subjects; and though the landgrave would be certain sooner or later to chastise them, many things might happen in the interval. in the end i went on up the steps, thinking that i had better leave hofman alone, since i could not trust him, and should only by applying to him disclose our weakness. there was a way indeed which occurred to me as i reached the head of the stairs, but i had not taken two steps across the terrace, as we call that part of the court which overlooks the town, before it was immediately driven out again. fraulein max was walking up and down with a book, sunning herself. i think that she had been watching for me, for the moment i appeared she called to me. i went up to her reluctantly. i was anxious, and in no mood to listen to one of those learned disquisitions with which she would sometimes favour us, without any thought whether we understood her or no. but this i soon found was not what i had to fear. her face wore a frown and her tone was peevish; but she closed her book, keeping her place in it with her finger. 'master martin,' she said, peering at me with her shortsighted eyes, 'you are a very foolish man, i think.' 'fraulein!' i muttered in surprise. what did she mean? 'a very foolish one!' she repeated. 'why are you disturbing your lady? why do you not leave her to her studies and her peace instead of distracting her mind with these stories of a man and a girl? a man and a girl, and papists! piff! what are they to us? don't you understand that your lady has higher work and something else to do? go you and look after your man and girl.' 'but my lady's subjects, fraulein----' 'her subjects?' she replied, almost violently. 'papists are no subjects. or to what purpose the _cujus regio?_ but what do you know of government? you have heard and you repeat.' 'but, fraulein,' i said humbly, for her way of talking made me seem altogether in the wrong, and a monster of indiscretion, 'if my lady does not interfere, the man and the girl you speak of will suffer. that is clear.' she snapped her fingers. 'piff!' she cried, screwing up her eyes still more. 'what has that to do with us? is there not suffering going on from one end of germany to the other? do not scores die every day, every hour? can we prevent it? no. then why trouble us for this one little, little matter? it is theirs to suffer, and ours to think and read, and learn and write. we were at peace to do all this, and then you come with your man and girl, and the peace is gone!' 'but, fraulein----' 'you do no good by saying fraulein, fraulein!' she replied. 'look at things in the light of reason. trouble us no more. that is what you have to do. what are this man and girl to you that you should endanger your mistress for their sakes?' 'they are nothing to me,' i answered. 'then let them go!' she replied with suppressed passion. 'and undo your folly the best way you can, and the sooner the better! chut! that when the mind is set on higher things it should be distracted by such mean and miserable objects! if they are nothing to you, why in heaven's name obtrude them on us?' after that she would not hear another word, but dismissed me with a wave of her hand as if the thing were fully settled and over; burying herself in her book and turning away, while i went into the house with my tail between my legs and all my doubts and misgivings increased a hundredfold. for this which she had put into words was the very thought, the very way out of it, which had occurred to me! i had only to let the matter drop, i had only to leave these people to their fate, and the danger and difficulty were at once at an end. for a time my lady's authority might suffer perhaps; but at the proper season, when the landgrave was at home and could help us, we might cheaply assert and confirm it. all that day i went about in doubt what i should do; and night came without resolving my perplexities. at one moment i thought of my duty to my lady, and the calamities in which i might involve her. at another i pictured the girl i had seen praying by her father's bed--pictured her alone and defenceless, hourly insulted by klink, and with terror and uncertainty looming each day larger before her eyes: or, worse still, abandoned to all the dangers which awaited her, in the event of the town refusing to give her shelter. considering that i had seen her once only--to notice her--it was wonderful how clearly i remembered her. chapter iii. the burgomaster's demand. as it turned out, the other party took the burden of decision from my shoulders. when i came out of chapel next morning, i found hofman on the terrace waiting for me, and with him master dietz wearing his geneva gown and a sour face. they wished to see my lady. i said it was early yet, and tried to hold them in talk if only that i might learn what they would be at. but they repulsed my advances, said that they knew her excellency always transacted her business at this hour--which was perfectly true--and at last sent me to the parlour whether i would or no. under such circumstances i did not linger behind the screen, but advanced at once, and interrupting fraulein max, who had just begun to read aloud, while my lady worked, said that the burgomaster desired the honour of an interview with the countess. the latter passed her needle once through the stuff, and then looked up. 'do you know what he wants, martin?' she said in a quiet tone. i said i did not. she bent her head and worked for a moment in silence. then she sighed gently, and without looking up, nodded to me. 'very well, i will see him here,' she said. 'but first send grissel and gretchen to wait on me. let franz bring two stools and place them, and bid him and ernst keep the door. my footstool also. and let the two jacobs wait in the hall.' i gave the orders and took on myself to place two extra lackeys in the hall that we might not seem to be short of men. then i went to the burgomaster, and attended him and master dietz to the parlour. they bowed three times according to custom as they advanced, and my lady, taking one step forward, gave her hand to the burgomaster to kiss. then she stepped back and sat down, looking with a pleasant face at the minister. 'i would fain apologise for troubling your excellency,' the mayor began slowly and heavily. 'but the times are trying.' 'your presence needs no apology, master hofman,' my lady answered, smiling frankly. 'it is your right to see me on behalf of the town at all times. it would grieve me much, if you did not sometimes exercise the privilege. and for master dietz, who may be able to assist us, i am glad to see him also.' the minister bowed low. the burgomaster only puffed out his cheeks. doubtless he felt that courage at the red hart and courage in my lady's parlour were two different things. but it was too late to retreat, for the minister was there to report what passed; and after a glance at dietz's face he proceeded. 'i am not here in a private capacity, if it please your excellency,' he said. 'and i beg your excellency to bear this in mind. i am here as burgomaster, having on my mind the peace of the town; which at present is endangered--very greatly, endangered,' he repeated pompously. 'i am sorry to hear that,' my lady answered. 'nevertheless it is so,' he replied with a kind of obstinacy. 'endangered by the presence of certain persons in the town, whose manners are not conformable. these persons are papists, and the town, your excellency remembers, is a protestant town.' 'certainly i remember that,' my lady said gravely. 'hence of this combination, your excellency will understand, comes a likelihood of evil,' he continued. 'on which, hearing you took an interest in these persons, however little deserved, it seemed to be my duty to lay the matter before you.' 'you have done very rightly,' the countess answered quietly. 'do i understand then, master hofman, that the papists you complain of are conspiring to break the peace of the town?' the burgomaster gasped. he was too obtuse to see at once that my lady was playing with him. he only wondered how he had managed to convey so strange a notion to her mind. he hastened to set her right. 'no--oh, no,' he said. 'there is no fear of that. there are but three of them.' 'are they presuming to perform their rites in public then?' my lady rejoined. 'if so, of course it cannot be permitted. it is against the law of the town.' 'no,' he answered, more slowly and more reluctantly as the drift of her questions began to dawn upon him. 'i do not know that that is so. i have not heard that it is so. but they are papists.' 'well, but with their consciences we have nothing to do!' she said more sharply. 'i confess, i fail as yet to see, master hofman, how they threaten the peace of the town.' the burgomaster stared. 'i do not know that they threaten it themselves,' he said slowly. 'but their presence stirs up the people, if your excellency understands; and may lead, if the matter goes on, to a riot or worse.' 'ha! now i comprehend!' my lady cried in a hearty tone. 'you fear your constables may fail to cope with the rabble?' he admitted that that was so. 'and you desire such assistance as i can offer towards maintaining the law and protecting these persons; who have of course a right to protection?' master hofman began to see whither he had been led, and glared at the countess with his mouth wide open. but for the moment he could not find a word to say. never did i see a man look more at a loss. 'well, i must consider,' my lady resumed, her finger to her cheek. 'rest assured, you shall be supported. martin,' she continued, turning to me, 'let word be sent to the four foresters at gatz to come down to the castle this evening. and send also to the charcoal-burners' camp. how many men should there be in it?' 'some half-score, my lady,' i answered, adding two-thirds to the truth. 'ah? and let the huntsman come down and bring a couple of feeders. doubtless with our own men, we shall be able to place a score or thirty at your disposal, master hofman, and stout fellows. these, with your constables and such of the peaceful burghers as you see fit to call to your assistance, should be sufficient to quell the disorderly.' i could have laughed aloud, master hofman looked so confounded. never man had an air of being more completely taken aback. by offering her help to put down any mob, the countess had deprived him of the plea he had come to prefer; that he was afraid he could not answer for the safety of the papists, and that therefore they must withdraw or be expelled. this he could no longer put forward, and consequently he was driven either to adopt my lady's line, or side openly with the party of disorder. i saw his heavy face turn a deep red, and his jaw fall, as he grasped the situation. his wits worked slowly; and had he been left to himself, i do not doubt that he would have allowed things to remain as they were, and taken the part assigned to him. but master dietz, who had listened with a lengthening face, at this moment interposed. 'will your excellency permit me to say a few words?' he said. 'i think the burgomaster has made the matter clear,' my lady answered. 'not in one respect,' the minister rejoined. 'he has not informed your excellency that in the opinion of the majority of the burghers and inhabitants of this town the presence of these people is an offence and an eyesore.' 'it is legal,' my lady answered icily. 'i do not know what opinion has to do with it.' 'the opinion of the majority.' 'sir!' my lady said, speaking abruptly and with heightened colour, 'in heritzburg i am the majority, by your leave.' he frowned and set his face hard, but his eyes sank before hers. 'nevertheless your excellency will allow,' he said in a lower tone, 'that the opinion of grave and orderly men deserves consideration?' 'when it is on the side of law, every consideration,' the countess answered, her eyes sparkling. 'but when it is ranged against three defenceless people in violation of the law, none. and more, master dietz,' she continued, her voice ringing with indignation, 'it is to check such opinion, and defend against it those who otherwise would have no defence, that i conceive i sit here. and by my faith i will do it!' she uttered the last words with so much fire and with her beautiful face so full of feeling, that i started forward where i stood; and for a farthing would have flung dietz through the window. the little minister was of a stern and hard nature, however. the nobility of my lady's position was lost upon him. he feared her less than he would have feared a man under the same circumstances; and though he stood cowed, and silenced for the moment, he presently returned to the attack. 'your excellency perhaps forgets,' he said with a dry cough, 'that the times are full of bloodshed and strife, though we at heritzburg have hitherto enjoyed peace. i suggest with respect therefore, is it prudent to run the risk of bringing these evils into the town for the sake of one or two papists, whom it is only proposed to send elsewhere?' my lady rose suddenly from her chair, and pointed with a finger, which trembled slightly, to the great window beside her. 'step up here!' she said curtly. master dietz, wondering greatly, stepped on to the daïs. thence the red roofs of the town, some new and smart, and some stained and grey with lichens, and all the green valley stretching away to the dark line of wood, were visible, bathed in sunshine. the day was fine, the air clear, the smoke from the chimneys rose straight upward. 'do you see?' she said. the minister bowed. 'then take this for answer,' she replied. 'all that you see is mine to rule. it came to me by inheritance, and i prize the possession of it, though i am a woman, more highly than my life; for it came to me from heaven and my fathers. but were it a hundred times as large, master dietz--were there a house for every brick that now stands there, and an acre for every furrow, and sheep as many as birds in the air, even then i would risk all, and double and treble all, rather than desert those whom my law defends, be they three, or thirty, or three hundred! let that be your answer! and for the peace you speak of,' she continued, turning on a sudden and confronting us, her face aglow with anger, 'the peace, i mean, which you have hitherto enjoyed, it should shame you to hear it mentioned! have the papists harried you? have you suffered in life or limb, or property? no. and why? because of my honoured uncle, a papist! for shame!--for shame, i say! as it has been dealt out to you, go and do to others!' but for the respect which held me in her presence, i could have cried 'huzza!' to her speech; and i can tell you, it made master minister look as small as a mouse. he stepped down from the daïs with his face dark and his head trembling; and after that i never doubted that he was at the bottom of the movement against the worts, though the ruffianly deserters i have mentioned supplied him with the tools, wanting which he might not have taken up the work. he stood a moment on the floor looking very black and grim, and with not a word to say, but i doubted he was not beaten. what line he would have taken, however, i cannot tell, for he had scarcely descended--my lady had not resumed her seat--when there rose from the court below a sudden babel of noise, the trampling of hoofs and feet on the pavement, and a confused murmur of voices. for a moment i looked at my lady and she at me. it struck me that that at which the burgomaster had hinted was come to pass: that some of the town ragamuffins had dared to invade the castle. the same idea doubtless occurred to her, for she stepped, though without any appearance of alarm, to the window, which commanded a side view of the terrace. she looked out. i, a little to her right, saw her smile: then in a moment she turned. 'this could not be better,' she said, resuming in an instant her ordinary manner. i think she was a little ashamed, as people of quality are wont to be, of the feeling she had betrayed. 'i see some one below who will advise me, and who, if i am doing wrong, as you seem to fear, master burgomaster, will tell me of it. my cousin, the waldgrave rupert, whom i expected to-morrow, has arrived to-day. be good enough to wait while i receive him, and i will then return to you.' bidding me have the two served with some refreshment, she stepped down from the daïs, and withdrew with fraulein max and her women, leaving the townsmen to discuss the new arrival with what appetite they might. they liked it little, i fancy. in a moment their importance was gone, their consequence at an end. the name of the waldgrave rupert made them feel how small they were, despite their boasting, beside the youngest member of the family. the very swish of my lady's robe as she swept through the doorway flouted them, her departure was an offence; and this, following on the scolding they had received, produced a soreness and irritation in their minds, which ill-prepared them, i think, for the sequel. i have sometimes thought that had i remained with them, and paid them some attentions, the end might have been different; but my duties called me elsewhere. the house was in a ferment; i was wanted here and there, both to give orders and to see them carried out. it was some time before i was at liberty even to go to the hall whither my lady had descended to receive her guest, and where i found the two standing together on the hearth, under the great red hart which is the cognizance of the family. i had not seen the waldgrave rupert--a cadet of the noble house of weimar and my lady's cousin once removed--since his boyhood. i found him grown into a splendid man, as tall and almost as wide as myself; who used to be called in the old forest days before i entered my lady's service 'the strong man of pippel.' as he stood on the hearth, fair-haired and ruddy-faced, with a noble carriage and a frank boyish smile, i had seldom looked on a handsomer youth. he fell short of my lady's age by two years; but as i looked from one to the other, they seemed so fitting a pair, the disparity went for nothing. he was young and strong, full of spirit and energy and fire. surely, i thought, the right man has come at last! in this belief i was more than confirmed when he came forward and greeted me pleasantly, vowing that he remembered me well. his voice and laugh seemed to fill the room; the very ring of his spurs on the stones gave assurance of power. i saw my lady look at him with an air of affectionate pride--she had seen him more lately than i had--as if his youth, and strength, and beauty already belonged to her. as for his smile, it was infectious. we grew in a moment brighter, younger, and more cheerful. the house which yesterday had seemed quiet and lonesome--we were a small family for so great a dwelling--took on a new air. the servants went about their tasks more quickly, the maids laughed behind doors. the place seemed in an hour transformed, as i have seen a valley in the mountains changed on a sudden by the rising of the sun. as a fact, when i had been in his presence five minutes, the burgomaster and the minister upstairs seemed as common and mean and insignificant a pair of fellows as any in germany. i wondered that i could ever have feared them. the countess had told him the story, and he asked me one or two questions about them, his tone high, and his head in the air. i answered him, and was for accompanying him upstairs, when he went to see them, with my lady by his side, and his whip slapping his great thigh boots until the staircase rang again. but my lady had an errand and sent me on it, and so i was not present at the end of this interview which i had myself brought about. but i suppose that the scolding my lady had given them was no more than a flea-bite beside the rating the young waldgrave inflicted! it was notorious for a score of leagues round, and he told them so in good round terms, that the heritzburg land had been spared by friend and foe for count tilly's sake; for his sake and his alone--a papist. how, then, he asked them, had they the face to do this dirty trick, and threaten my lady besides? with much more of the same kind, and hard words, not to say menaces; sparing neither mayor nor minister, so that they went off at last like whipped dogs or thieves that have seen the gallows. afterwards something was said; but at the time no one missed them. except by myself, scarce a thought was given to them after they went out of the door. the house was all agog about the new-comer; the still-room full of work and the chimneys smoking. the young lord was everywhere, and the maids were mad about him. i had my hands full, and every one in the house seemed to be in the same case. no one had time to look abroad. except fraulein anna max, my lady's companion. i found her about four o'clock in the afternoon sitting alone in the hall. she had a book before her as usual, but on my entrance she pushed it away from her, and looked up at me, screwing up her eyes in the odd way peculiar to her. 'well, master steward,' she said--and her voice sounded ill-natured, 'so the fire has been lit--but not by you.' 'the fire?' i answered, utterly at a loss for the moment. 'ay,' she rejoined, with a bitter smile, 'the fire. don't you hear it burning?' 'i hear nothing,' i said coldly. 'go to the terrace, and perhaps you will!' she answered. her words filled me with a vague uneasiness, but i was too proud to go then or seem to heed them. an hour or two later, however, when the sun was half down, and the shadows of the chimneys lay far over the roofs, and the eastern woods were aglow, i went to the wall which bounds the terrace and looked down. the hum of the town came up to my ears as it has come up to that wall any time these hundred years. but was i mistaken, or did there mingle with it this evening a harsher note than usual, a rancorous murmur, as of angry voices; and something sterner, lower, and more menacing, the clamour of a great crowd? chapter iv. the fire alight. i laughed at my own fears when the morning came, and showed no change except that cheerful one, which our guest's presence had worked inside the castle. below, today was as yesterday. the sun shone as brightly on the roofs, the smoke of the chimneys rose as peacefully in the air; the swallows circling round the eaves swung this way and that as swiftly and noiselessly as of old. the common sounds of everyday life, the clank of the pump in the market-place as the old crones drew water, and the cry of the wood-cutter hawking his stuff, alone broke the stillness. i sniffed the air, and smiling at fraulein anna's warning, went back into the house, where any fears which yet lingered in my mind took instant flight at sound of the waldgrave's voice, so cheerful was it, so full of life and strength and confidence. i do not know what it was in him, but something there was which carried us all the way he wished us to go. did he laugh at the thought of danger; straightway we laughed too, and this though i knew heritzburg and he did not. did he speak scornfully of the burghers; forthwith they seemed to us a petty lot. when he strode up and down the terrace, showing us how a single gun placed here or there, or in the corner, would in an hour reduce the town; on the instant we deemed him a tilly. when he dubbed hofman and dietz, 'old fat and lean,' the groom-boys, who could not be kept from his heels, sniggered, and had to be whipped back to the stables. in a word, he won us all. his youth, his gaiety, his confidence, were irresistible. he dared even to scold my lady, saying that she had cosseted the townsfolk and brought this trouble on herself by pleasuring them; and she, who seemed to us the proudest of the proud, took it meekly, laughing in his face. it required no conjuror to perceive that he admired her, and would fain shine in her presence. that was to be expected. but about my mistress i was less certain, until after breakfast nothing would suit her but an immediate excursion to the white maiden--the great grey spire which stands on the summit of the oberwald. then i knew that she had it in her mind to make the best figure she could; for though she talked of showing him game in that direction, and there was a grand parade of taking dogs, all the world knows that the other side of the valley is the better hunting-ground. i was left to guess that the white maiden was chosen because all the wide heritzburg land can be seen from its foot, and not corn and woodland, pasture and meadow only, but the gem of all--the town nestling babelike in the lap of the valley, with the grey towers rising like the face of some harsh nurse above it. my lord jumped at the plan. doubtless he liked the prospect of a ride through the forest by her side. when she raised some little demur, stepping in the way of her own proposal, as i have noticed women will, and said something about the safety of the castle, if so many left it, he cried out eagerly that she need not fear. 'i will leave my people,' he said. 'then you will feel quite sure that the place is safe. i will answer for them that they will hold your castle against wallenstein himself.' 'but how many are with you?' my lady asked curiously; a little in mischief too, perhaps, for i think she knew. his handsome face reddened and he looked rather foolish for a moment. 'well, only four, as a fact,' he said. 'but they are perfect paladins, and as good as forty. in your defence, cousin, i would pit them against a score of the hardiest swedes that ever followed the king.' my lady laughed gaily. 'well, for this day, i will trust them,' she said. 'martin, order the grooms to saddle pushka for me. and you, cousin, shall have the honour of mounting me. it is an age since i have had a frolic.' sometimes i doubt if my lady ever had such a frolic again. happier days she saw, i think, and many and many of them, i hope; but such a day of careless sunny gaiety, spent in the may greenwood, with joy and youth riding by her, with old servants at her heels, and all the beauties of her inheritance spread before her in light and shadow, she never again enjoyed. we went by forest paths, which winding round the valley, passed through woodlands, where the horses sank fetlock-deep in moss, and the laughing voices of the riders died away among the distant trunks. here were fairy rings deep-plunged in bracken, and chalky bottoms whence springs rose bright as crystal, and dim aisles of beeches narrowing into darkness, where last year's leaves rustled ghostlike under foot, and the shadow of a squirrel startled the boldest. once, emerging on the open down where the sun lay hot and bright, my lady gave her horse the rein, and for a mile or more we sped across the turf, with hoofs thundering on either hand, and bits jingling, and horses pulling, only to fall into a walk again with flushed cheeks and brighter eyes, on the edge of the farther wood. thence another mile, athwart the steep hillside through dwarf oaks and huge blackthorn trees, brought us to the foot of the maiden, and we drew rein and dismounted, and stood looking down on the vale of heritzburg, while the grooms unpacked the dinner. there is a niche in the great pillar, a man's height from the ground, in which one person may conveniently sit. the young waldgrave spied it. 'up to the throne, cousin!' he cried, and he helped her to it, sitting himself on the ledge at her feet, with his legs dangling. 'why, there is the werra!' he continued. a large quantity of rain had fallen that spring, and the river which commonly runs low between its banks, was plainly visible, a silver streak crossing the distant mouth of the valley. 'yes,' my lady answered. 'that is the werra, and beyond it is, i suppose, the world.' 'whither i must go back this day week,' he said, between sighing and smiling. 'then, hey for the south and nuremberg, the good cause and the great king.' 'you have seen him?' 'once only.' 'and is he so great a fighter?' my lady asked curiously. 'how can he fail to be when he and his men fight and pray alternately,' the waldgrave answered; 'when there is no license in the camp, and a swede thinks death the same as victory?' 'where is he now?' 'at munich, in bavaria.' 'how it would have grieved my uncle,' my lady said, with a sigh. 'he died as he would have wished to die,' the waldgrave answered gently. 'he believed in his cause, as the king of sweden believes in his; and he died for it. what more can a man ask? but here is franz with all sorts of good things. and i am afraid a feast of beauty, however perfect, does not prevent a man getting hungry.' 'that is a very pretty compliment to heritzburg,' my lady said, laughing. 'or its chatelaine!' i heard him murmur, with a tender look. but my lady only laughed again and called to me to come and name the hills, and tell my lord what land went with each of the three hamlets between which the lower valley is divided. doubtless that was but one of a hundred gallant things he said to her, and whereat she laughed, during the pleasant hour they whiled away at the foot of the pillar, basking in the warm sunshine, and telling the valley farm by farm. for the day was perfect, the season spring. i lay on my side and dreamed my own dream under the trees, with the hum of insects in my ears. no one was in a hurry to rise, or set a term to such a time. still we had plenty of daylight before us when my lady mounted and turned her face homewards, thinking to reach the castle a little after five. but a hare got up as we crossed the open down, and showing good sport, as these long-legged mountain hares will, led us far out of our way, and caused us to spend nearly an hour in the chase. then my lady spied a rare flower on the cliffside; and the young waldgrave must needs get it for her. and so it wanted little of sunset when we came at last in sight of the bridge which spans the ravine at the back of the castle. i saw in the distance a lad seated on the parapet, apparently looking out for us, but i thought nothing of it. the descent was steep and we rode down slowly, my lady and the waldgrave laughing and talking, and the rest of us sitting at our ease. nor did the least thought of ill occur to my mind until i saw that the lad had jumped down from the wall and was running towards us waving his cap. my lady, too, saw him. 'what is it, martin?' she said, turning her head to speak to me. i told her i would see, and trotted forward along the side of the path until i came within call. then i cried sharply to the lad to know what it was. i saw something in his face which frightened me; and being frightened and blaming myself, i was ready to fall on the first i met. 'the town!' he answered, panting up to my stirrup. 'there is fighting going on, master martin. they are pulling down klink's house.' 'so, so,' i answered, for at the first sight of his face i had feared worse. 'have you closed the gate at the head of the steps?' 'yes,' he said, 'and my lord's men are guarding it.' 'right!' i answered. and then my lady came up, and i had to break the news to her. of course the young waldgrave heard also, and i saw his eyes sparkle with pleasure. 'ha! the rascals!' he cried. 'now we will trounce them! trust me, cousin, we will teach these boors such a lesson as they shall long remember. but what is it?' he continued, turning to my lady who had not spoken. 'the queen of heritzburg is not afraid of her rebellious subjects?' my lady's eyes flashed. 'no, i am not afraid,' she said, with contempt. 'but klink's house? do you mean the red hart, martin?' i said i did. she plucked her horse by the head, and stopped short under the arch of the gateway. i think i see her now bending from her saddle with the light on the woods behind her, and her face in shadow. 'then those people are in danger!' she said, her voice quivering with excitement. 'martin, take what men you have and go down into the town. bring them off at all risks! see to it yourself. if harm come to them, i shall not forgive you easily.' the waldgrave sprang from his horse, and cried out that he would go. but my lady called to him to stay with her. 'martin knows the streets, and you do not,' she said, sliding unassisted to the ground. 'but he shall take your men, if you do not object.' we dismounted, in a confused medley of men and horses, in the stable court, which is small, and being surrounded by high buildings, was almost dark. the grooms left at home had gone to the front of the house to see the sight, and there was no one to receive us. i bade the five men who had ridden with us get their arms, and leaving the horses loose to be caught and cared for by the lad who had met us, i hastened after my lady and the waldgrave, who had already disappeared under the arch which leads to the terrace court. to pass through this was to pass from night to day, so startling was the change. from one end to the other the terrace was aglow with red light. the last level beams of the sun shone straight in our eyes as we emerged, and so blinded us, that i advanced, seeing nothing before me but a row of dark figures leaning over the parapet. if we could not see, however, we could hear. a hoarse murmur, unlike anything i had heard before, came up from the town, and rising and falling in waves of sound, now a mere whisper, and now a dull savage roar, caused the boldest to tremble. i heard my lady cry, 'those poor people! those poor people!' and saw her clench her hands in impotent anger; and that sight, or the sound--which seemed the more weirdly menacing as the town lay in twilight below us, and we could make out no more than a few knots of women standing in the market-place--or it may be some memory of the helpless girl i had seen at klink's, so worked upon me that i had got the gate unbarred and was standing at the head of the steps outside before i knew that i had stirred or given an order. some one thrust a half pike into my hand, and mechanically i counted out the men--four of the waldgrave's and five, six, seven of our own. a strange voice--but it may have been my own--cried, 'not by the high street. through the lane by the wall!' and the next moment we were down out of the sunlight and taking the rough steps three at a time. the high street reached, we swung round in a body to the right, and plunging into shoe wynd, came to the locksmith's, and thence went on by the way i had gone that other evening. the noise was less down in the streets. the houses intervened and deadened it. at some of the doors women were standing, listening and looking out with grey faces, but one and all fled in at our approach, which seemed to be the signal, wherever we came, for barring doors and shooting bolts; once a man took to his heels before us, and again near the locksmith's we encountered a woman bare-headed and carrying something in her arms. she almost ran into the midst of us, and at the last moment only avoided us by darting up the side-alley by the forge. whether these people knew us for what we were, and so fled from us, or took us for a party of the rioters, it was impossible to say. the narrow lanes were growing dark, night was falling on the town; only the over-hanging eaves showed clear and black against a pale sky. the way we had to go was short, but it seemed long to me; for a dozen times between the castle steps and klink's house i thought of the poor girl at her prayers, and pictured what might be happening. yet we could not have been more than five minutes going from the steps to the corner beyond the forge, whence we could see klink's side window. a red glare shone though it, and cleaving the dark mist which filled the alley fell ruddily on the town wall. it seemed to say that we were too late; and my heart sank at the sight. nor at the sight only, for as we turned the corner, the hoarse murmur we had heard on the terrace, and which even there had sounded ominous, swelled to an angry roar, made up of cries and cursing, with bursts of reckless cheering, and now and again a yell of pain. the street away before us, where the lane ran into it, was full of smoky light and upturned faces; but i took no heed of it, my business was with the window. i cried to the men behind me and hurried on till i stood before it, and clutching the bars--the glass was broken long ago--looked in. the room was full of men. for a moment i could see nothing but heads and shoulders and grim faces, all crowded together, and all alike distorted by the lurid light shed by a couple of torches held close to the ceiling. some of the men standing in such groups as the constant jostling permitted, were talking, or rather shouting to one another. others were savagely forcing back their fellows who wished to enter; while a full third were gathered with their faces all one way round the corner where i had seen the sick man. here the light was strongest, and in this direction i gazed most anxiously. but the crowded figures intercepted all view; neither there nor anywhere else could i detect any sign of the girl or child. the men in that corner seemed to be gazing at something low down on the floor, something i could not see. a few were silent, more were shouting and gesticulating. i stretched my hands through the bars, and grasping a man by the shoulders, dragged him to me. 'what is it?' i cried in his ear, heedless whether he knew me, or took me for one of the ruffians who were everywhere battling to get into the house--at the window we had anticipated some by a second only. 'what is it?' i repeated fiercely, resisting all his efforts to get free. 'nothing!' he answered, glaring at me. 'the man is dead; cannot you see?' 'i can see nothing!' i retorted. 'dead is he?' 'ay, dead, and a good job too!' the rascal answered, making a fresh attempt to get away. 'dead when we came in.' 'and the girl?' 'gone, the papist witch, on a broomstick!' he answered. 'through the wall or the ceiling or the keyhole, or through this window; but only on a broomstick. the bars would skin a cat!' i let him go and looked at the bars. they were an inch thick, and a very few inches apart. it seemed impossible that a child, much more a grown woman, could pass between them. as the fellow said, there was barely room for a cat to pass. yet my mind clung to the bars. klink might have hidden the girl, for without doubt he had neither foreseen nor meant anything like this. but something told me that she had gone by the window, and i turned from it with renewed hope. it was time i did turn. the crowd had got wind of our presence and resented it. all who could not get into the house to slake their curiosity or anger, had pressed into the narrow alley where we stood, while the air rang with cries of 'no popery! down with the papists!' when i turned i found my fellows hard put to it to keep their position. to retreat, close pressed as we were, seemed as difficult as to stand; but by making a resolute movement all together, we charged to the front for a moment, and then taking advantage of the interval, fell back as quickly as we could, facing round whenever it seemed that our followers were coming on too boldly for safety. in this way, the knaves with me being stout and some of them used to the work, we retreated in good order and without hurt as far as the end of shoe wynd. then i discovered to my dismay that a portion of the mob had made along the high street and were waiting for us on the steep ascent where the wynd runs into the street. hitherto no harm had been done on either side, but we now found ourselves beset front and back, and to add to the confusion of the scene night had set in. the narrow wynd was as dark as pitch, save where the light of a chance torch showed crowded forms and snarling faces, while the din and tumult were enough to daunt the boldest. that moment, i confess, was one of the worst i have known. i felt my men waver; a little more and they might break and the mob deal with us as it would. on the other hand? i knew that to plunge, exposed to attack as we were from behind, into the mass of men who blocked the way to the steps, would be madness. we should be surrounded and trodden down. there were not perhaps fifty really dangerous fellows in the town; but a mob i have noticed is a strange thing. men who join it, intending merely to look on, are carried away by excitement, and soon find themselves cursing and fighting, burning and raiding with the foremost. a brief pause and i gave the word to face about again. as i expected, the gang in the alley gave way before us, and the pursued became the pursuers. my men's blood was up now, their patience exhausted; and for a few moments pike and staff played a merry tune. but quickly the mob behind closed up on our heels. stones began to be thrown, and presently one, dropped i think from a window, struck a man beside me and felled him to the ground. that was our first loss. drunken steve, a great gross fellow, always in trouble, but a giant in strength, picked him up--we could not leave the man to be murdered--and plunged on with us bearing him under his arm. 'good man!' i cried between my teeth. and i swore it should save the drunkard from many a scrape. but the next moment another was down, and him i had to pick up myself. then i saw that we were as good as doomed. against the stones we had no shield. the men saw it too, and cried out, beside themselves with rage. we were as rats, set in a pit to be worried--in the dark with a hundred foes tearing at us. and the town seemed to have gone mad--mad! above the screams and wicked laughter, and all the din about us, i heard the great church bell begin to ring, and hurling its notes, now sharp, now dull, down upon the seething streets, swell and swell the tumult until the very sky seemed one in the league against us! blind with fury--for what had we done?--we turned on the mob which followed us and hurled it back--back almost to the high street. but that way was no exit for us; the crowd stood so close that they could not even fly. round we whirled again, wild and desperate now, and charged down the alley towards the west gate, thinking possibly to win through and out by that way. we had almost reached the locksmith's--then another man fell. he was of the waldgrave's following, and his comrade stooped to raise him; but only to fall over him, wounded in his turn. what happened after that i only knew in part, for from that moment all was a medley of random blows and stragglings in the dark. the crowd seeing half of us down, and the rest entangled, took heart of grace to finish us. i remember a man dashing a torch in my face, and the blow blinding me. nevertheless i staggered forward to close with him. then something tripped me up, something or some one struck me from behind as i fell. i went down like an ox, and for me the fight was over. drunken steve and two of the waldgrave's men fought across me, i am told, for a minute or more. then steve fell and an odd thing happened. the mob took fright at nothing--took fright at their own work, and coming suddenly to their senses, poured pell-mell out of the alley faster than they had come into it. the two strangers, knowing nothing of the way or the town, knocked at the nearest door and were taken in, and sheltered till morning. chapter v. marie wort. there never was one of my forefathers could read, or knew so much as a horn-book when he saw it; and therefore i, though a clerk, have a brain pan that will stand as much as any scholar's and more than many a simple man's. otherwise the blow i got that night must have done me some great mischief, instead of merely throwing me into a swoon, in which i lay until the morning was well advanced. when i came to myself with an aching head and a dry mouth, i was hard put to it for a time to think what had happened to me. the place in which i lay was dark, with spots of red lights like flaming eyes here and there. an odour of fire and leather and iron filled my nostrils. a hoarse soughing as of a winded horse came and went regularly, with a dull rumbling and creaking that seemed to shake the place. dizzy as i was, i rose on my elbow with an effort, and looked round. but my eyes swam, i could see nothing which enlightened me, and with a groan i fell back. then i found that i was lying on a straw-bed, with bandages round my head, and gradually the events of the night came back to me. my mind grew clearer. yet it still failed to tell me where i was, or whence came the hoarse choking sound, like the sighing of some giant of the harz, which i heard. at last, while i lay wondering and fearing, a door opened and let into the dark place a flood of ruddy light. framed in this light a young girl appeared, standing on the threshold. she held a tray in her hand, and paused to close the door behind her. the bright glow which shone round her, gave her a strange unearthly air, picking out gold in her black locks and warming her pale cheeks; but for all that i recognised her, and never was i more astonished. she was no other than the daughter of the papist wort--the girl to rescue whom we had gone down to the red hart. i could not restrain an exclamation of surprise, and the girl started and stopped, peering into the corner in which i lay. 'master martin,' she said in a low tone, 'was that you?' i had never heard her speak before, and i found, perhaps by reason of my low state, and a softness which pain induces in the roughest, a peculiar sweetness in her voice. i would not answer for a moment. i made her speak again. 'master martin,' she said, advancing timidly, 'are you yourself again?' 'i don't know,' i muttered. in very fact i was so much puzzled that this was nearly the truth. 'if you will tell me where i am, i may be able to say,' i added, turning my head with an effort. 'you are in the kitchen behind the locksmith's forge,' she answered plainly. 'he is a good man, and you are in no danger. the window is shuttered to keep the light from your eyes.' 'and the noise i hear is the bellows at work?' 'yes,' she answered, coming near. 'it is almost noon. if you will drink this broth you will get your strength again.' i seized the bowl and drank greedily. when i set it down, my eyes seemed clearer and my mind stronger. 'you escaped?' i said. the more i grew able to think, the more remarkable it seemed to me that the girl should be here--here in the same house in which i lay. 'through the window,' she answered, in a faint voice. as she spoke she turned from me, and i knew that she was thinking of her father and would fain hide her face. 'but the bars?' i said. 'i am very small,' she answered in the same low tone. i do not know why, but perhaps because of the weakness and softness i have mentioned, i found something very pitiful in the answer. it stirred a sudden rush of anger in my heart. i pictured this, helpless girl chased through the streets by the howling pack of cravens we had encountered, and for a few seconds, bruised and battered as i was, i felt the fighting spirit again. i half rose, then turned giddy, and sank back again. it was a minute or more before i could ask another question. at last i murmured-- 'you have not told me how you came here?' 'i was coming up the alley,' she answered, shuddering, 'when at the corner by this house i met men coming to meet me. i fled into the passage to escape them, and finding no outlet, and seeing a light here, i knocked. i thought that some woman might pity me and take me in.' 'and peter did?' 'yes,' she answered simply. 'may our lady reward him.' 'we were the men you met,' i said drowsily. 'i remember now. you were carrying your brother.' 'my brother?' 'yes, the child.' 'oh, yes,' she answered, in rather a strange fashion; but i was too dull to do more than notice it. 'the child of course.' i could ask no more, for my head was already splitting with pain. i lay back, and i suppose went off into a swoon again, sleeping all that day and until the morning of the next was far advanced. then i awoke to find the place in which i lay changed from a cave of mystery to a low-roofed dingy room; the shutter of the window standing half-open, admitted a ray of sunshine and a breath of pure air. a small fire burned on the hearth, a black pot bubbled beside it. for the room itself, a litter of old iron stood in every corner; bunches of keys and rows of rusty locks--padlocks, fetter-locks, and door-locks--hung on all the walls. one or two chests, worm-eaten and rickety, but prized by their present possessor for the antiquity of their fastenings, stood here and there; with a great open press full of gun-locks, matchlocks, wheel-locks, spring-locks and the like. half a dozen arquebuses and pistols decorated the mantel-piece, giving the room something of the air of an armoury. in the midst of all this litter sat old peter himself, working away, with a pair of horn glasses on his forehead, at a small lock; which seemed to be giving him a vast amount of trouble. a dozen times at least i watched him fit a number of tiny parts together, only to scatter them again in his leather apron, and begin to pare one or other of them with a little file. at length he laid the work down, as if he were tired, and looking up found my eyes fixed upon him. he nodded cheerfully. 'good,' he said. 'now you look yourself, martin. no more need of febrifuges. another night's sleep, and you may go abroad.' 'what day is it?' i said, striving to collect my thoughts. 'friday,' he answered, looking at me with his shrewd, pleasant eyes. he was an old man, over sixty, a widower with two young children, and clever at his trade. i never knew a better man. 'wednesday night you came here,' he continued, showing in his countenance the pleasure it gave him to see me recovering. 'i must go to the castle,' i exclaimed, rising abruptly and sitting up. 'do you hear? i must go.' 'i do not see the necessity,' he answered, looking at me coolly, and without budging an inch. 'my lady will need me.' 'not at all,' he answered, in the same quiet tone. 'you may make your mind easy about that. the countess is safe and well. she is in the castle, and the gates are shut.' 'but she has not----' then i stopped. i was going to say too much. 'she has not half a dozen men with her, you would say,' he replied. 'well, no. but one is a man, it seems. the young lord has turned a couple of cannon on the town, and all our valiant scoundrels are shaking in their shoes.' 'a couple of cannon! but there are no cannon in the castle!' 'you are mistaken,' peter answered drily. he had a very dry way with him at times. 'i have seen the muzzles of them, myself, and you can see them, if you please, from the attic window. one is trained on the market-place, and one to fire down the high street. to-morrow morning our burgomaster and the minister are to go up and make their peace. and i can tell you some of our brisk boys feel the rope already round their necks.' 'is this true?' i said, hardly able to believe the tale. 'as true as you please,' he answered. 'if you will take my advice you will lie quietly here until to-morrow morning, and then go up to the castle. no one will molest you. the townsfolk will be only too glad to find you alive, and that they have so much the less to pay for. i should not wonder if you saved half a dozen necks,' peter added regretfully. 'for i hear the countess is finely mad about you.' at this mention of my lady's regard my eyes filled so that i had much ado to hide my feelings. affecting to find the light too strong i turned my back on peter, and then for the first time became aware that i had a companion in misfortune. on a heap of straw behind me lay another man, so bandaged about the head that i could see nothing of his features. 'hallo!' i exclaimed, raising myself that i might have a better view of him. 'who is this?' 'your man steve,' peter said briefly. 'but for him and another, master martin, i do not think that you would be here.' 'you do well to remind me,' i answered, feeling shame that i had not yet thanked him, or asked how i came to be in safety. 'how was it?' 'well,' he said, 'it began with the girl. the doings on wednesday night were not much to my mind, as you may suppose, and i shut up early and kept myself close. about seven, when the racket had not yet risen to its height, there came a knocking at my door. for a while i took no notice of it, but presently, as it continued, i went to listen, and heard such a sobbing on the step as the heart of man could not resist. so i opened and found the papist girl there with a child. i do not know,' peter continued, pushing forward his greasy old cap and rubbing his head, 'that i should have opened it if i had been sure who it was. but as the door was open, the girl had to come in.' 'i do not think you will repent it!' i said. 'i don't know that i shall,' he answered thoughtfully. 'however, she had not been long inside and the bolts shot on us, when there began a most tremendous skirmish in the lane, which lasted off and on for half an hour. then followed a sudden silence. i had given the girl some food, and told her she might sleep with the children upstairs, and we were sitting before the fire while she cried a bit--she was all over of a shake, you understand--when on a sudden she stood up, and listened. '"what is it?" i said. 'she did not answer for a while, but still stood listening, looking now at me and now towards the forge in a queer eager kind of way. i told her to sit down, but she did not seem to hear, and presently she cried, "there is some one there!" '"well," said i, "they will stop there then. i don't open that door again to-night." 'she looked at me pitifully, but sat down for all the world as if i had struck her. not for long, however. in a minute she was up again, and began to go to and fro between the kitchen and the forge door like nothing else but a cat looking for her kittens. "sit down, wench," i said. but this time she took no heed, and at last the sight of her going up and down like a dumb creature in pain was too much for me, and i got up and undid the door. she was out in a minute, seeming not a bit afraid for herself, and sure enough, there were you and steve lying one on the top of the other on the step, and so still that i thought you gone. heaven only knows how she heard you.' 'peter,' i said abruptly, 'have you any water handy?' 'to be sure,' he replied, starting up. 'are you thirsty?' i nodded, and he went to get it, blaming himself for his thoughtlessness. he need not have reproached himself, however. i was not thirsty; but i could not bear that he should sit and look at me at that moment. the story he had told had touched me--and i was still weak; and i could not answer for it, i should not burst into tears like a woman. the thought of this girl's persistence, who in everything else was so weak, of her boldness who in her own defence was a hare, of her strange instinct on our behalf who seemed made only to be herself protected--the thought of these things touched me to the heart and filled me with an odd mixture of pity and gratitude! i had gone to save her, and she had saved me! i had gone to shield her from harm, and heaven had led me to her door, not in strength but in weakness. she had fled from me who came to help her; that when i needed help, she might be at hand to give it! 'where is she?' i muttered, when he came back and i had drunk. 'who? marie?' he asked. 'yes, if that is her name,' i said, drinking again. 'she is lying down upstairs,' he answered. 'she is worn out, poor child. not that in one sense, master martin,' he continued, dropping his voice and nodding with a mysterious air, 'she _is_ poor. though you might think it.' 'how do you mean?' i said, raising my head and meeting his eyes. he nodded. 'it is between ourselves,' he said; 'but i am afraid there is a good deal in what our rascals here say. i am afraid, to be plain, master martin, that the father was like all his kind: plundered many an honest citizen, and roasted many a poor farmer before his own fire. it is the way of soldiers in that army; and god help the country they march in, be it friend's or foe's!' 'well?' i said impatiently; 'but what of that now?' the mention of these things fretted me. i wanted to hear nothing about the father. 'the man is dead,' i said. 'ay, he is,' peter answered slowly and impressively. 'but the daughter? she has got a necklace round her neck now, worth--worth i dare say two hundred men at arms.' 'what, ducats?' 'ay, ducats! gold ducats. it is worth all that.' 'how do you know?' i said, staring at him. 'i have never seen such a thing on her. and i have seen the girl two or three times.' 'well, i will tell you,' he answered, glancing first at the window and then at steve to be sure that we were not overheard. 'i'll tell you. when we had carried you into the house the other night she took off her kerchief, to tear a piece from it to bind up your head. that uncovered the necklace. she was quick to cover it up, when she remembered herself, but not quick enough.' 'is it of gold?' i asked. he nodded. 'fifteen or sixteen links i should say, and each as big as a small walnut. carved and shaped like a walnut too.' 'it may be silver-gilt.' he laughed. 'i am a smith, though only a locksmith,' he said. 'trust me for knowing gold. i doubt it came from magdeburg; i doubt it did. magdeburg, or halle, which my lord tilly ravaged about that time. and if so there is blood upon it. it will bring the girl no luck, depend upon it.' 'if we talk about it, i'll be sworn it will not!' i answered savagely. 'there are plenty here who would twist her neck for so much as a link of it.' 'you are right, master martin,' he answered meekly. 'perhaps i should not have mentioned it; but i know that you are safe. and after all the girl has done nothing.' that was true, but it did not content me. i wished he had not seen what he had, or that he had not told me the tale. a minute before i had been able to think of the girl with pure satisfaction; to picture with a pleasant warmth about my heart her gentleness, her courage, her dark mild beauty that belonged as much to childhood as womanhood, the thought for others that made her flight a perpetual saving. but this spoiled all. the mere possession of this necklace, much more the use of it, seemed to sully her in my eyes, to taint her freshness, to steal the perfume from her youth. [illustration: ... she came presently to me with a bowl of broth in her hands and a timid smile on her lips....] for i am peasant born, of those on whom the free-companions have battened from the beginning; and spoil won in such a way seemed to me to be accursed. whether i would or no, horrid tales of the storming of magdeburg came into my mind: tales of streets awash with blood, of churches blocked with slain, of women lying dead with living babes in their arms. and i shuddered. i felt the necklace a blot on all. i shrank from one, who, with the face of a saint, wore under her kerchief gold dyed in such a fashion! that was while i lay alone, tossing from side to side, and troubling myself unreasonably about the matter; since the girl was nothing to me, and a papist. but when she came presently to me with a bowl of broth in her hands and a timid smile on her lips--a smile which gave the lie to the sadness of her eyes and the red rims that surrounded them--i forgot all, necklace and creed. i took the bowl silently, as she gave it. i gave it back with only one 'thank you,' which sounded hoarse and rustic in my ears; but i suppose my eyes were more eloquent, for she blushed and trembled. and in the evening she did not come. instead one of the children brought my supper, and sitting down on the straw beside me, twittered of marie and 'go' and other things. 'who is go?' i said. 'go is marie's brother,' the child answered, open-eyed at my ignorance. 'you not know go?' 'it is a strange name,' i said, striving to excuse myself. '_he_ is a strange man,' the little one retorted, pointing to steve. 'he does not speak. now you speak. marie says--' 'what does marie say?' i asked. 'marie says you saved his life.' 'well, you can tell her it was the other way,' i exclaimed roughly. twice that night when i awoke i heard a light footstep, and turned to see the girl, moving to and fro among the rusty locks and ancient chests in attendance on steve. he mended but slowly. she did not come near me at these times, and after a glance i pretended to fall asleep that i might listen unnoticed to her movements, and she be more free to do her will. but whenever i heard her and opened my eyes to see her slender figure moving in that dingy place, i felt the warmth about my heart again. i forgot the gold necklace; i thought no more of the rosary, only of the girl. for what is there which so well becomes a woman as tending the sick; an office which in a lover's eyes should set off his mistress beyond velvet and flanders lace. chapter vi. rupert the great. i have known a man very strong and very confident, whom the muzzle of a loaded pistol, set fairly against his head, has reduced to reason marvellously. so it fared with heritzburg on this occasion. my lady's cannon, which i went up to the roof at daybreak to see--and did see, to my great astonishment, trained one on the market square, and one down the high street--formed the pistol, under the cooling influence of which the town had so far come to its senses, that the game was now in my lady's hands. peter assured me that the place was in a panic, that the countess could hardly ask any amends that would not be made, and that as a preliminary the burgomaster and minister were to go to the castle before noon to sue for pardon. he suggested that i and the girl should accompany them. 'but does hofman know that we are here?' i asked. 'since yesterday morning,' the locksmith answered, with a grin. 'and no one more pleased to hear it! if he had not you to present as a peace-offering, i doubt he would have fled the town before he would have gone up. as it is, they had fine work with him at the town-council yesterday.' 'he is in a panic? serve him right!' i said. 'i am told that his cheeks shake like jelly,' peter answered. 'two of the waldgrave's men are dead, you know, and some say that the countess will hang him out of hand. but you will go up with him?' 'yes,' i said. 'i see no objection.' some one else objected, however. when the plan was broached to the girl, she looked troubled. for a moment she did not speak, but stood before us silent and confused. then she pointed to steve. 'when is he going, if you please?' she asked, in a troubled voice. 'he must go in a litter by the road,' i answered. 'peter here will see to it this morning.' 'could i not go with him?' she said. i looked at peter, and he at me. he nodded. 'i see no reason why you should not, if you prefer it,' i said. 'either way you will be safe.' 'i should prefer it,' she muttered, in a low tone. and then she went out to get something for steve, and we saw her no more. 'drunken steve is in luck,' peter said, looking after her with a smile. 'she is wonderfully taken with him. she is a--she is a good girl, papist or no papist,' he added thoughtfully. i am not sure that he would have indorsed that later in the day. at the last moment, when i was about to leave the house to go up to the castle my way, and steve and his party were on the point of starting by the west gate and the road, something happened which gave both of us a kind of shock, though neither said a word to the other. marie had brought down the little boy, a brave-eyed, fair-haired child about three years old, and she was standing with us in the forge waiting with the child clinging to her skirt, when on a sudden she turned to peter and began to thank him. a word and she broke down. 'pooh, child!' peter said kindly, patting her on the shoulder. 'it was little enough, and i am glad i did it. no thank's.' she answered between her sobs that it was beyond thanks, and called on heaven to reward him. 'if i had anything,' she continued, looking at him timidly, 'if i had anything i could give you to prove my gratitude, i would so gladly give it. but i am alone, and i have nothing worth your acceptance. i have nothing in the world, unless,' she added with an effort, 'you would like my rosary.' 'no,' peter said almost roughly. i noticed that he avoided my eye. 'i do not want it. it is not a thing i use.' she said she had nothing; and we knew she had that chain! yet heaven knows her face as she said it was fair enough to convert a beza! she said she had nothing; we knew she had. yet if ever genuine gratitude and thankfulness seemed to shine out of wet human eyes, they shone out of hers then. what i could not stomach was the ingratitude. the fraud was too gross, too gratuitous, since she need have offered nothing. i turned away and went out of the forge without waiting for her to recover herself. i dreaded lest she should thank me in the same way. i knew peter, and knew he could have no motive for traducing her. he was old enough to be her grandfather, and a quiet good man. therefore i was sure that she had the chain, three or four links of which should be worth his shop of old iron. but besides i had the evidence of my own eyes. there was a crinkle, a crease in her kerchief, for which the presence of the necklace would account; it was such a crease as a necklace of that size would cause. i had marked it when she brought the child into the room in her arms. the boy's right arm had been round her neck, and i had seen him relax his hold of her hair and steady himself by placing his little palm on that wrinkle, as on a sure and certain and familiar stay. so i knew that she had the necklace, and that she had lied about it. but after all it was nothing to me. the girl was a papist, a bavarian, the daughter of a roistering freebooting rider, versed in camp life. if with a fair outside she proved to be at heart what every reasonable man would expect to find her, what then? i had no need to trouble my head. i had affairs enough of my own on my hands. yet the affair did trouble me. the false innocence of the child's face haunted and perplexed me, and would not leave me, though i tried to think of other things and had other things to think of. i was to meet the burgomaster in the market-place, and go thence with him, and i had promised myself that i would make good use of my opportunities; that i would lose no point of the town's behaviour, that not a lowering face should escape me, nor a quarter whence danger might arise in the future. but the girl's eyes made havoc of all my resolutions, and i had fairly reached the market-place before i remembered what i was doing. there indeed a sight, which in a moment swept the cobwebs from my brain, awaited me. the square was full of people, not closely packed, but standing in loose groups, and all talking in voices so low as to produce a dull sullen sound more striking than silence. the mayor and four or five councillors occupied the steps of the market-house. raised a head and shoulders above the throng, and glancing at it askance from time to time with scarcely disguised apprehension, they wore an air of irresolution it was impossible to mistake. hofman in particular looked like a man with the rope already round his neck. his face was pale, his fat cheeks hung pendulous, his eyes never rested on anything for more than a second. they presently lit on me, and then if farther proof of the state of his mind was needed, i found it in the relief with which he hailed my appearance; relief, not the less genuine because he hastened to veil it from the jealous eyes that from every part of the square watched his proceedings. the crowd made way for me silently. one in every two, perhaps, greeted me, and some who did not greet me, smiled at me fatuously. on the other hand, i was struck by the air of gloomy expectation which prevailed. i discerned that a very little would turn it into desperation, and saw, or thought i saw, that cannon, or no cannon, this was a case for delicate and skilful handling. the town was panic-stricken, partly at the thought of what it had done, partly at the sight of the danger which threatened it. but panic is a double-edged weapon. it takes little to turn it into fury. i made for the opening into the high street, and the burgomaster, coming down the steps, passed through the crowd and met me there. 'this is a bad business, master martin,' he said, facing me with an odd mixture of shamefacedness and bravado. 'we must do our best to patch it up.' 'you had your warning,' i answered coldly, turning with him up the street, every window and doorway in which had its occupant. dietz and two or three councillors followed us, the minister's face looking flushed and angry, and as spiteful as a cat's. 'two lives have been lost,' i continued, 'and some one must pay for them.' hofman mopped his face. 'surely,' he said, 'the three lead on our side, master martin----' 'i do not see what they have to do with it,' i answered, maintaining a cold and uninterested air, which was torture to him. 'it is your affair, however, not mine.' 'but, my dear friend--martin,' he stammered, plucking my sleeve, 'you are not revengeful. you will not make it worse? you won't do that?' 'worse?' i retorted. 'it is bad enough already. and i am afraid you will find it so.' he winced and looked at me askance, his eyes rolling in a fever of apprehension. for a moment i really thought that he would turn and go back. but the crowd was behind; he was on the horns of a dilemma, and with a groan of misery he moved on, looking from time to time at the terrace above us. 'those cursed cannon,' i heard him mutter, as he wiped his brow. 'ay,' i said, sharply, 'if it had not been for the cannon you would have seen our throats cut before you would have moved. i quite understand that. but you see it is our turn now.' we were on the steps and he did not answer. i looked up, expecting to see the wall by the wicket-gate well-manned; but i was mistaken. no row of faces looked down from it. all was silent. a single man, on guard at the wicket, alone appeared. he bade us stand, and passed the word to another. he in his turn disappeared and presently old jacob, with a half-pike on his shoulder, and a couple of men at his back, came stiffly out to receive us with all the formality and discipline of a garrison in time of war. he acknowledged my presence by a wink, but saluted my companions in the coldest manner possible, proceeding at once to march us without a word spoken to the door of the house, where we were again bidden to stand. all this filled me with satisfaction. i knew what effect it would have on hofman, and how it would send his soul into his shoes. at the same time my satisfaction was not unmixed. i felt a degree of strangeness myself. the place seemed changed, the men, moving stiffly, had an unfamiliar air. i missed the respect i had enjoyed in the house. for the moment i was nobody; a prisoner, an alien person admitted grudgingly, and on sufferance. i comforted myself with the reflection that all would be well when i reached the presence. but i was mistaken. i saw indeed my lady's colour come and go when i entered, and her eyes fell. but she kept her seat, she looked no more at me than at my companions, she uttered no greeting or word of acknowledgment. it was the waldgrave who spoke--the waldgrave who acted. in a second there came over me a bitter feeling that all was changed; that the old state of things at heritzburg was past, and a rule to which i was a stranger set in its place. three or four of my lady's women were grouped behind her, while franz and ernst stood like statues at the farther door. fraulein anna sat on a stool in the window-bay, and my lady's own presence was, as at all times, marked by a stateliness and dignity which seemed to render it impossible that she should pass for second in any company. but for all that the waldgrave, standing up straight and tall behind her, with his comeliness, his youth, and his manhood and the red light from the coat of arms in the stained window just touching his fair hair, did seem to me to efface her. it was he who stood there to pardon or punish, praise or blame, and not my lady. and i resented it. not that his first words to me were not words of kindness. 'ha, martin,' he cried, his face lighting up, 'i hear you fought like an ancient trojan, and broke as many heads as hector. and that your own proved too hard for them! welcome back. in a moment i may want a word with you; but you must wait.' i stood aside, obeying his gesture; and he apologised, but with a very stern aspect, to hofman and his companions for addressing me first. 'the countess rotha, however, master burgomaster,' he continued, with grim suavity, 'much as she desires to treat your office with respect, cannot but discern between the innocent and the guilty.' 'the guilty, my lord?' hofman cried, in such a hurry and trepidation, i could have laughed. 'i trust that there are none here.' 'at any rate you represent them,' the waldgrave retorted. 'i, my lord?' the mayor's hair almost stood on end at the thought. 'ay, you; or why are you here?' the waldgrave answered. 'i understood that you came to offer such amends as the town can make, and your lady accept.' poor hofman's jaw fell at this statement of his position, and he stood the picture of dismay and misery. the waldgrave's peremptory manner, which shook him out of the rut of his slow wits, and upset his balanced periods, left him prostrate without a word to say. he gasped and remained silent. he was one of those people whose dull self-importance is always thrusting them into positions which they are not intended to fill. 'well?' the waldgrave said, after a pause, 'as you seem to have nothing to say, and judgment must ultimately come from your lady, i will proceed at once to declare it. and firstly, it is her will, master burgomaster, that within forty-eight hours you present to her on behalf of the town a humble petition and apology, acknowledging your fault; and that the same be entered on the town records.' 'it shall be done,' master hofman cried. his eagerness to assent was laughable. 'secondly, that you pay a fine of a hundred gold ducats for the benefit of the children of the men wantonly killed in the riot.' 'it shall be done,' master hofman said,--but this time not so readily. 'and lastly,' the waldgrave continued in a very clear voice,' that you deliver up for execution two in the marketplace, one at the foot of the castle steps, and one at the west gate, for a warning to all who may be disposed to offend again--four of the principal offenders in the late riot.' 'my lord!' the mayor cried, aghast. 'my lord, if you please,' the waldgrave answered coldly. 'but do you consent?' hofman looked blanker than ever. 'four?' he stammered. 'precisely; four,' the young lord answered. 'but who? i do not know them,' the mayor faltered. the waldgrave shook his head gently. 'that is your concern, burgomaster,' he said, with a smile. 'in forty-eight hours much may be done.' hofman's hair stood fairly on end. craven as he was, the thought of the crowd in the market-place, the thought of the reception he would have, if he assented to such terms, gave him courage. 'i will consult with my colleagues,' he said with a great gulp. 'i am afraid that you will not have the opportunity,' the waldgrave rejoined, in a peculiarly suave tone. 'until the four are given up to us, we prefer to take care of you and the learned minister. i see that you have brought two or three friends with you; they will serve to convey what has passed to the town. and i doubt not that within a few hours we shall be able to release you.' master hofman fell a trembling. 'my lord,' he cried, between tears and rage, 'my privileges!' 'master mayor,' the waldgrave answered, with a sudden snap and snarl, which showed his strong white teeth, '_my dead servants_.' after that there was no more to be said. the burgomaster shrank back with a white face, and though dietz, with rage burning in his sallow cheeks, cried 'woe to him' who separated the shepherd from the sheep, and would have added half-a-dozen like texts, old jacob cut him short by dropping his halberd on his toes and promptly removed him and the quavering burgomaster to strong quarters in the tower. meanwhile the other members of the party were marched nothing loth to the steps, and despatched through the gate with the same formality which had surprised us on our arrival. then for a few moments i was happy, in spite of doubts and forebodings; for the moment the room was cleared of servants, my lady came down from her place, and with tears in her eyes, laid her hand on my rough shoulder, and thanked me, saying such things to me, and so sweetly, that though many a silken fool has laughed at me, as a clown knowing no knee service, i knelt there and then before her, and rose tenfold more her servant than before. for of this i am sure, that if the great knew their power, we should hear no more of peasants' wars and rainbow banners. a smile buys for them what gold will not for another. a word from their lips stands guerdon for a life, and a look for the service of the heart. however, few die of happiness, and almost before i was off my knees i found a little bitter in the cup. 'well, well,' the waldgrave said, with a comical laugh, and i saw my lady blush, 'these are fine doings. but next time you go to battle, martin, remember, more haste less speed. where would you have been now, i should like to know, without my cannon?' 'perhaps still in peter's forge,' i answered bluntly. 'but that puzzles me less, my lord,' i continued, 'than where you found your cannon.' he laughed in high good humour. 'so you are bit, are you?' he said. 'i warrant you thought we could do nothing without you. but the cannon, where do you think we did find them? you should know your own house.' 'i know of none here,' i answered slowly, 'except the old cracked pieces the landgrave philip left.' 'well?' he retorted, smiling. 'and what if these be they?' 'but they are cracked and foundered!' i cried warmly. 'you could no more fire powder in them, my lord, than in the countess's comfit-box!' 'but if you do not want to burn powder?' he replied. 'if the sight of the muzzles be enough? what then, master wiseacre?' 'why, then, my lord,' i answered, drily, after a pause of astonishment,' i think that the game is a risky one.' 'chut, you are jealous!' he said, laughing. 'and should be played very moderately.' 'chut,' he said again, 'you are jealous! is he not, rotha? he is jealous.' my lady looked at me laughing. 'i think he is a little,' she said. 'you must acknowledge, martin,' she continued, pleasantly, 'that the waldgrave has managed very well?' i must have assented, however loth; but he saved me the trouble. he did not want to hear my opinion. 'very well?' he exclaimed, with a laugh of pleasure; 'i should think i have. why, i have so brightened up your old serving-men that they make quite a tolerable garrison--mount guard, relieve, give the word and all, like so many swedes. oh, i can tell you a little briskness and a few new fashions do no harm. but now,' he continued, complacently, 'since you are so clever, my friend, where is the risk?' 'if it becomes known in the town,' i said, 'that the cannon are dummies----' 'it is not known,' he answered peremptorily. 'still, under the circumstances,' i persisted, 'i should with submission have imposed terms less stringent. especially i should not have detained master hofman, my lord, who is a timid man, making for peace. he has influence. shut up here he cannot use it.' 'but our terms will show that we are not afraid,' the waldgrave answered. 'and that is everything.' i shrugged my shoulders. 'chut!' he said, half in annoyance and half in good humour. 'depend upon it, there is nothing like putting a bold face on things. that is my policy. but the truth is you are jealous, my friend--jealous of my excellent generalship; but for which i verily believe you would be decorating a gallows in the market-place at this moment. come, fair cousin,' he added, gleefully, turning from me and snatching up my lady's gloves and handing them to her, 'let us out. let us go and look down at our conquest, and leave this green-eyed fellow to rub his bruises.' my lady looked at me kindly and laughed. still she assented, and my chance was gone. it was my place now to hold the door with lowered head, not to argue. and i did so. after all i had been well treated; i had spoken boldly and been heard. for a time after the sound of their voices had died away on the stairs, i stood still. the room was quiet and i felt blank and purposeless. in the first moments of return every-day duties had an air of dulness and staleness. i thought of one after another, but had not yet brought myself to the point of moving, when a hand, raising the latch of one of the inner doors, effectually roused me. i turned and saw fraulein anna gliding in. she did not speak at once, but came towards me as she had a way of coming--close up before she spoke. it had more than once disturbed me. it did so now. 'well, master martin,' she said at last, in her mild spiteful tone, 'i hope you are satisfied with your work; i hope my lord's service may suit you as well as my lady's.' chapter vii. the pride of youth. but i am not going to relate the talk we had on that, fraulein anna and i. i learned one thing, and one only, and that i can put very shortly. i saw my face as it were in a glass, and i was not pleased with the reflection. listening to fraulein anna's biting hints and sidelong speeches--she did not spare them--i recognized that i was jealous; that the ascendency the young lord had gained with my lady and in the castle did not please me; and that if i would not make a fool of myself and step out of my place, i must take myself roundly to task. much might be forgiven to fraulein anna, who saw the quiet realm wherein she reigned invaded, and the friend she had gained won from her in an hour. but her case differed from mine. i was a servant, and woe to me if i forgot my place! perhaps, also, it gave me pleasure to find my uneasiness shared. at any rate, i felt better afterwards, and a message from my lady, bidding me rest my head and do nothing for the day, comforted me still further. i went out, and finding the terrace quiet, and deserted by all except the sentry at the wicket, i sat down on one of the stone seats which overlook the town and there began to think. the sun was behind a cloud and the air was fresh and cool, and i presently fell asleep with my head on my arms. while i slept my lady and the waldgrave came and began to walk up and down the terrace, and gradually little bits of their talk slid into my dreams, until i found myself listening to them between sleeping and waking. the waldgrave was doing most of the speaking, in the boyish, confident tone which became him so well. presently i heard him say-- 'the whole art of war is changed, fair cousin. i had it from one who knows, bernard of weimar. the heavy battalions, the great masses, the slow movements, the system invented by the great captain of cordova are gone. breitenfeld was their death-blow.' 'yet my uncle was a great commander,' my lady said, with a little touch of impatience in her tone. 'of the old school.' i heard her laugh. 'you speak as if you had been a soldier for a score of years, rupert,' she said. 'age is not experience,' he answered hardily. 'that is the mistake. how old was alexander when he conquered egypt? twenty-three, cousin, and i am twenty-three. how old was the emperor augustus when he became consul of rome? nineteen. how old was henry of england when he conquered france? twenty-seven. and charles the fifth, at pavia? twenty-five.' 'sceptres are easy leading-staves,' my lady answered deftly. 'all these were kings, or the like.' 'then take don john at lepanto. he, too, was twenty-five.' 'a king's son,' my lady replied quickly. 'then i will give you one to whom you can make no objection,' he answered in a tone of triumph: 'gaston de foix, the thunderbolt of italy. he who conquered at como, at milan, at ravenna. how old was he when he died, leaving a name never to be forgotten in arms? twenty-three, fair cousin. and i am twenty-three.' 'but then you are not gaston de foix,' my lady retorted, laughter bubbling to her lips; 'nor a king's nephew.' 'but i may be.' 'what? a king's nephew?' the countess answered, laughing outright. 'pray where is the king's niece?' 'king's niece?' he exclaimed reproachfully--and i doubt not with a kind look at her, and a movement as if he would have paid her for her sauciness. 'you know i want no king's niece. there is no king's niece in the world so sweet to my taste, so fair, or so gracious as the cousin i have been fortunate enough to serve during the last few days; and that i will maintain against the world.' 'so here is my glove!' my lady answered gaily, finishing the speech for him. 'very prettily said, rupert. i make you a thousand curtsies. but a truce to compliments. tell me more.' he needed no second bidding; though i think that she would have listened without displeasure to another pretty speech, and an older man would certainly have made one. but he was full of the future and fame--and himself. he had never had such a listener before, and he poured forth his hopes and aspirations, as he strode up and down, so gallant of figure and frank of face that it was impossible not to feel with him. he was going to do this; he was going to do that. he would make the name of rupert of weimar stand with that of bernard. never was such a time for enterprise. gustavus adolphus, with sweden and north germany at his back, was at munich; bavaria, franconia, and the rhine bishoprics were at his feet. the hereditary dominions of the empire, austria, silesia, moravia, with bohemia, hungary, and the tyrol, must soon be his; their conquest was certain. then would come the division of the spoil. the house of weimar, which had suffered more in the protestant cause than any other princely house of germany, which had resigned for its sake the electoral throne and the rights of primogeniture, must stand foremost for reward. 'and which kingdom shall you choose?' my lady asked, with a twinkle in her eye which belied her gravity. 'bohemia or hungary? or bavaria? munich i am told is a pleasant capital.' 'you are laughing at me!' he said, a little hurt. 'forgive me,' she said, changing her tone so prettily that he was appeased on the instant. 'but, speaking soberly, are you not curing the skin before the bear is dead? the great wallenstein is said to be collecting an army in bohemia, and if the latest rumour is to be believed, he has already driven out the saxons and retaken prague. the tide of conquest seems already to be turning.' 'we shall see,' the waldgrave answered. 'very well,' my lady replied. 'but, besides, is there not a proverb about the lion's share? will the lion of the north forego his?' 'we shall make him,' the young lord answered. 'he goes as far as we wish and no farther. without german allies he could not maintain his footing for a month.' 'germany should blush to need his help,' my lady said warmly. 'never mind. better times are coming,' he answered. 'and soon, i hope.' with that they moved out of hearing, crossing to the other side of the court and beginning to walk up and down there; and i heard no more. but i had heard enough to enable me to arrive at two or three conclusions. for one thing, i felt jealous no longer. my lady's tone when she spoke to the waldgrave convinced me that whatever the future might bring forth, she regarded him in the present with liking, and some pride perhaps, but with no love worthy of the name. a woman, she took pleasure in his handsome looks and gallant bearing; she was fond of listening to his aspirations. but the former pleased her eye without touching her heart, and the latter never for a moment carried her away. i was glad to be sure of this, because i discerned something lacking on his side also. it was 'rotha,' 'sweet cousin,' 'fair cousin,' too soon with him. he felt no reverence, suffered no pangs, trembled under no misgivings, sank under no sense of unworthiness. he thought that all was to be had for pleasant words and the asking. heritzburg seemed a rustic place to him, and my lady's life so dull and uneventful, my lady herself so little of a goddess, that he deemed himself above all risk of refusal. a little difficulty, a little doubt, the appearance of a rival, might awaken real love. but it was not in him now. he felt only a passing fancy, the light offspring of propinquity and youth. but how, it may be asked, was i so wise that, from a few sentences heard between sleeping and waking, i could gather all this, and draw as many inferences from a laugh as fraulein anna max from a page of crabbed latin? the question put to me then, as i sat day-dreaming over heritzburg, might have posed me. i am clear enough about it now. i could answer it if i chose. but a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse, and a horse with eyes needs neither one nor the other. presently i saw fraulein anna come out and go sliding along one side of the court to gain another door. she had a great book under her arm and blinked like an owl in the sunshine, and would have run against my lady if the waldgrave had not called out good-humouredly. she shot away at that with a show of excessive haste, and was in the act of disappearing like a near-sighted rabbit, when my lady called to her pleasantly to come back. she came slowly, hugging the great book, and with her lips pursed tightly. i fancy she had been sitting at a window watching my lady and her companion, and that every laugh which rose to her ears, every merry word, nay the very sunshine in which they walked, while she sat in the dull room with her unread book before her, wounded her. 'what have you been doing, anna?' my lady asked kindly. 'i have been reading the "praise of folly,"' fraulein max answered primly. 'i am going to my voetius now.' 'it is such a fine day,' my lady pleaded. 'i never miss my voetius,' fraulein answered. the waldgrave looked at her quizzically, with scarcely veiled contempt. 'voetius?' he said. 'what is that? you excite my curiosity.' perhaps it was the contrast between them, between his strength and comeliness and her weak figure and pale frowning face, that moved me; but i know that as he said that, i felt a sudden pity for her. and she, i think, for herself. she reddened and looked down and seemed to go smaller. scholarship is a fine thing; i have heard fraulein anna herself say that knowledge is power. but i never yet saw a bookworm that did not pale his fires before a soldier of fortune, nor a scholar that did not follow the courtier and the ruffler with eyes of envy. perhaps my lady felt as i did, for she came to the rescue. 'you are too bad,' she said. 'anna is my friend, and i will not have her teased. as for voetius, he is a writer of learning, and you would know more about many things, if you could read his works, sir.' 'do you read them?' he asked. 'i do!' she answered. 'good heavens!' he exclaimed, staring at her freely and affecting to be astonished. 'well, all i can say is that you do not look like it!' my lady fired up at that. i think she felt for her friend. 'i do not thank you,' she said sharply. 'a truce to such compliments, if you please. anna,' she continued, 'have you been to see this poor girl from the town?' 'no,' fraulein max answered. 'she has come, has she not?' 'and gone--to the stables!' and fraulein anna laughed spitefully. 'she is used to camp life, i suppose, and prefers them.' 'but that is not right,' my lady said, with a look of annoyance. she turned and called to me. 'martin,' she said, 'come here. this girl--the papist from the town--why has she not been brought to the women's quarters in the house?' i answered that i did not know; that she should have been. 'we will go and see,' my lady answered, nodding her head in a way that premised trouble should any one be found in fault. and without a moment's hesitation she led the way to the inner court, the waldgrave walking beside her, and fraulein anna following a pace or two behind. the latter still hugged her book, and her face wore a look of secret anticipation. i took on myself to go too, and followed at a respectful distance, my mind in a ferment. the stable court at heritzburg is small. the rays of the sun even at noon scarcely warm it, and a shadow seemed to fall on our party as we entered. two grooms, not on guard, were going about their ordinary duties. they started on seeing my lady, who seldom entered that part without notice; and hastened to do reverence to her. 'where is the girl who was brought here from the town?' she said, in a peremptory tone. the men looked at one another, scared by her presence, yet not knowing what was amiss. then one said, 'please your excellency, she is in the room over the granary.' 'she should be in the house, not here,' my lady answered harshly. 'take me to her.' the man stared, and the waldgrave, seeing his look of astonishment, interposed, murmuring that perhaps the place was scarcely fit. 'for me?' my lady said, cutting him short, with a high look which reminded me of her uncle, count tilly. 'you forget, sir cousin, that i am not a woman only, but mistress here. ignorance, which may be seemly in a woman, does not become me. lead on, my man.' the fellow led the way up a flight of outside steps which gave access to the upper granary floor; and my lady followed, rejecting the waldgrave's hand and gazing with an unmoved eye at the unfenced edge on her left; for the stairs had no rail. at the top the groom opened the door and squeezed himself aside, and my lady entered. the waldgrave had given place to fraulein anna--whom desire to see what would happen had blinded to the risks of the stairs--and she was not slow to follow. the young lord and i pressed in a pace behind. 'this is not a fit place for a maiden!' i heard my lady say severely; and then she stopped. that was before i could see inside, the sudden pause coming as i entered. the loft was dark, the unglazed windows being shuttered; but my eyes are good, and i knew the place, and saw at once--what my lady had seen, i think, at a second glance only--that the man beside whom the girl was kneeling--or had been kneeling, for as i entered she rose to her feet with a word of alarm--was bandaged from his chin to his crown, was helpless and maundering, talking strange nonsense, and rolling his head restlessly from side to side. 'why, you are a child!' my lady said; and this time her voice was soft and low and full of surprise. 'who is this?' she continued, pointing to the man; who never ceased to babble and move. 'it is steve, my lady,' i said. 'he was hurt below, in the town, and the girl has been nursing him. i suppose she--i think no one told her to go elsewhere,' i added by way of apology for her. 'where could she be better?' my lady said in a low voice. 'child,' she continued gently,' come here. do not be afraid.' the girl had shrunk back at the sound of my lady's first words, or at sight of so large a company, and had taken her stand on the farther side of steve, where she crouched trembling and looking at us with a terrified face. hearing herself summoned, she came slowly and timidly forward, the little boy who had run to her holding her hand, and hiding his face in her skirts. 'i am the countess,' my lady said, looking at her closely, but with kindness, 'and i have come to see how you fare.' it was a hard moment for the girl, but she did the very best thing she could have done, and one that commended her to my lady's heart for ever. for, bursting into tears--i doubt not the sound of a woman's voice speaking mildly to her touched her heart--she dropped on her knees before the countess and kissed her hand, sobbing piteous words of thankfulness and appeal. 'chut! chut!' my lady said, a little tremor in her own voice. 'you are safe now. be comforted. you shall be protected here, whatever betide. but you have lost your father? yes, i remember, child. well, it is over now. you are quite safe. see, this gentleman shall be your champion. and martin there. he is a match for any two. tell me your name.' 'marie--marie wort.' the girl answered suppressing her tears with an effort. 'how old are you?' 'seventeen, please your excellency.' 'and where were you born, marie?' 'at munich, in bavaria.' 'you are a romanist, i hear?' 'if it please your excellency.' 'it does not please me at all,' my lady answered promptly; but she said it with so much mildness that marie's eyes filled again. 'i warn you, we shall, try to convert you--by kindness. so you are nursing this poor fellow?' and my lady went up to steve, and touched his hand and spoke to him. but he did not know her, and she stepped back, looking grave. 'the fever is on him now,' marie said timidly. 'he is at his worst; but he will be better by-and-by, if your excellency pleases.' 'he is fortunate in his nurse,' my lady answered, gazing searchingly at the other's pale face. 'will you stay with him, child, or would you rather come into the house, where my women could take care of you, and you would be more comfortable?' a look of distress flickered in the girl's eyes. she hesitated and looked down, colouring painfully. i dare say that with feminine tact she knew that my lady even now thought it scarcely proper for her to be there--in a house where only the men about the stable lived. but she found her answer. 'he was hurt trying to protect me,' she murmured, in a low voice. my lady nodded. 'very well,' she said; and i saw that she was not displeased. 'you shall stay with him. i will see that you are taken care of. come, rupert, i think we have seen enough.' she signed to us to go before her, and we all went out, and she closed the door. at the head of the steps, when the waldgrave offered her his hand, she waved it away, and stood. 'bring me a hammer and a nail,' she cried. three or four men, nearly half our garrison, had collected below, hearing where we were. one of these ran and fetched what she called for; while we all waited and wondered what she meant. i took the hammer and nail from the man and went up again with them. [illustration: ... with her own hands she drove the nail.... then she turned ...] 'give me my glove,' she said, turning abruptly to the waldgrave. he had possessed himself of one in the course of the conversation i have partly detailed; and no doubt he did not give it up very willingly. but there was no refusing her under the circumstances. 'hold it against the door!' she said. he obeyed, and with her own hands she drove the nail through the glove, pinning it to the middle of the door. then she turned with a little colour in her face. 'that is my room!' she said, with a ring of menace in her tone. 'let no one presume to enter it. and have a care, men! whatever is wanted inside, place at the threshold and begone.' then she came down, followed by the waldgrave, and walked through the middle of us and went back to the terrace, with fraulein anna at her heels. the waldgrave lingered a moment to look at a sick horse, and i to give an order. when we reached the terrace court a few minutes later, we found my lady walking up and down alone in the sunshine. 'why, where is the learned anna?' the waldgrave said. 'she is gone to amuse herself,' my lady answered, laughing. 'voetius is put aside for the moment in favour of master dietz!' 'no?' the young lord exclaimed, in a tone of surprise. 'that yellow-faced atomy? she is not in love with him?' 'no, sir, certainly not.' 'then what is it?' 'well, i think she is a little jealous,' my lady answered with a smile. 'we have been so long colloguing with a papist, anna thinks some amends are due to the church. and she is gone to make them. at any rate, she asked me a few minutes ago if she might pay a visit to dietz. "for what purpose?" i said. "to discuss a point with him," she answered. so i told her to go, if she liked, and by this time i don't doubt that they are hard at it.' 'over voetius?' 'no, sir,' my lady answered gaily. 'beza more probably, or calvin. you know little of either, i expect. i do not wonder that anna is driven to seek more improving company.' chapter viii. a catastrophe. all that day the town remained quiet, and all day the waldgrave and my lady walked to and fro in the sunshine; or my lady sat working on one of the stone seats, while he built castles in the air, which she knocked down with a sly word or a merry glance. fraulein anna, always with the big book, flitted from door to door, like an unquiet spirit. the sentries dozed at their posts, old jacob in his chair in the guard-room, the cannons under their breech-clouts. if this could be said to be a state of siege, it was the most gentle and joyous one paladin ever shared or mistress imagined. but no message reached us from the town, and that disturbed me. half a dozen times i went to the wall and, leaning over it, listened. each time i came away satisfied. all seemed quiet; the market-place rather fuller perhaps than on common days, the hum of life more steady and persistent; but neither to any great extent. despite this i could not shake off a feeling of uneasiness. i remembered certain faces i had seen in the town, grim faces lurking in corners, seen over men's shoulders or through half-open doors; and a dog barking startled me, the shadow of a crow flying over the court made me jump a yard. night only added to my nervousness. i doubled all the guards, stationing two men at the town-wicket and two at the stable-gate, which leads to the bridge. and not content with these precautions, though the waldgrave laughed at them and me, i got out of bed three times in the night, and went the round to assure myself that the men were at their posts. when morning came without mishap, but also without bringing any overture from the town, the waldgrave laughed still more loudly. but my lady looked grave. i did not dare to interfere or give advice--having been once admitted to say my say--but i felt that it would be a serious thing if the forty-eight hours elapsed and the town refused to make amends. my lady felt this too, i think; and by-and-by she held a council with the waldgrave; and about midday my lord came to me, and with a somewhat wry face bade me have the prisoners conducted to the parlour. he sent 'me at the same time on an errand to another part of the castle, and so i cannot say what passed. i believe my lady dealt with the two very firmly; reiterating her judgment of the day before, and only adding that in clemency she had thought better of imprisoning them, and would now suffer them to go to their homes, in the hope that they would use their influence to save the town from worse trouble. i met the two crossing the terrace on their way to the gate and was struck by something peculiar in their aspect. master hofman was all of a tremble with excitement and eagerness to be gone. his fat, half-moon of a face shone with anxiety. he stuttered when he tried to give me good day as i passed; and he seemed to have eyes only for the gate, dragging his smaller companion along by the arm, and more than once whispering in his ear as if to adjure him not to waste a moment. the little minister, on the other hand, hung back and marched slowly, his face wearing a look of triumph which showed very plainly--or so i construed it--that he regarded his release in the light of a victory. his sallow cheeks were flushed, and his eyes gleamed spitefully as he looked from side to side. he held himself bolt upright, with a square bible clasped to his breast, and as he passed me he could not refrain from a characteristic outbreak. doubtless to bridle himself before my lady had almost choked him. he laughed in my face. 'dry bones!' he cackled. 'and mouths that speak not!' 'speak plainly yourself, master dietz,' i answered, for i have never thought ministers more than other men. 'then perhaps i shall be able to understand you.' 'sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal!' he replied, cracking his fingers in my face and laughing triumphantly. he would have said more, i imagine; but at that moment the burgomaster fell bodily upon him, and drove him by main force through the gate which had been opened. outside even, he made some attempts to return and defy us, crying out 'whited sepulchres!' and the like. but the steps were narrow and steep, and hofman stood like a feather bed in the way, and presently he desisted. the two stumbled down together and we saw no more of them. the men about me laughed; but i had reason for thinking it far from a laughing matter, and i hastened into the house that i might tell my lady. when i entered the parlour, however, where i found her with the waldgrave and fraulein anna, she held up her hand to check me. she and the waldgrave were laughing, and fraulein anna, half shy and half sullen, was leaning against the table looking at the floor, with her cheeks red. 'come,' my lady was saying, 'you were with him half an hour, anna. you can surely tell us what you talked about. don't be afraid of martin. he knows all our secrets.' 'or perhaps we are indiscreet,' the waldgrave said gravely, but with a twinkle in his eye. 'when a young lady visits a gentleman in captivity, the conversation should be of a tender nature.' 'which shows, sir, that you know little about it,' fraulein anna answered indignantly. 'we talked of voetius.' 'dear me!' my lord said. 'then master dietz knows voetius?' 'he does not. he said he considered such pagan learning useless,' fraulein anna answered, warming with her subject. 'that it tended to pride, and puffed up instead of giving grace. i said that he only saw one side of the matter.' 'in that resembling me,' my lord murmured. my lady repressed him with a look. 'yes,' she said pleasantly. 'and what then, anna?' 'and that he might be wrong in this, as in other matters. he asked me what other matters,' fraulein max continued, growing voluble, and almost confident, as she reviewed the scene. 'i said, the inferiority of women to men. he said, yes, he maintained that, following peter martyr. well, i said he was wrong, and so was peter martyr. "but you do not convince me," he answered. "you say that i am wrong on this as on other points. cite a point, then, on which i am wrong." "you know no greek, you know no oriental tongue, you know no hebrew!" i retorted. "all pagan learning," he said. "cite a point on which i am wrong. i am not often wrong. cite a point on which i am confessedly wrong." so'--fraulein anna laughed a little, excited laugh of pleasure--'i thought i would take him at his word, and i said, "will you abide by that? if i show you that you have been wrong, that you have been deceived only to-day, will you acknowledge that peter martyr was wrong?" he said, oh yes, he would, if i could convince him. i said, "exemplum! you came here because you were afraid of our cannon. granted? yes. well, our cannon are cracked. they are _brutum fulmen_--an empty threat. we could not fire them, if we would. so there, you see, you were wrong." well, on that----' but what master dietz said on that, and what she answered, we never knew, for the waldgrave, bounding from the table, with a crash which shook the room, swore a very pagan oath. 'himmel!' he cried in a voice of passion. 'the woman has ruined us! do you understand, countess? she has told them! and they have taken the news to the town!' 'i do understand,' my lady said softly, but with a paling face. 'by this time it is known.' 'known! yes; and our shutting up that poisonous little snake will only make him the more bitter!' my lord answered, striking the table a great blow in his wrath. 'we are undone! oh, you idiot, you idiot!' and breaking off suddenly he turned to fraulein max, who stood weeping and trembling by the table. 'why did you do it?' 'hush!' my lady said nobly; and she put her arm round fraulein anna. 'she is so absent. it was my fault. i should not have let her see them. besides, she did not know that they were going to be released. and it is done now, and cannot be undone. the question is, what ought we to do?' 'yes, what?' my lord cried bitterly, with a glance at the culprit, which showed that he was very far from forgiving her. 'i am sure i do not know, any more than the dog there!' my lady looked at me anxiously. 'well, martin,' she said, 'what do you say?' but i had nothing to say, i felt myself at a loss. i knew, better than any of them, the minister's sour nature, and i had seen with my own eyes the state of resentment and rage in which he had left us. his news would fall like a spark dropped on powder. the town, brooding in gloom, foreboding, and terror, would in a moment blaze into fierce wrath. every ruffian who had felt his neck endangered by the countess's sentence, every family that had lost a member in the late riot, every one who had an old grievance to avenge, or a new object to gain, would in an hour be in arms; while those whose advantage lay commonly on the side of order might stand aloof now--some at the instance of dietz, and others through timidity and that fear of a mob which exists in the mind of every burgher. what, then, had we to expect? my lady must look to have her authority flouted--that for certain; but would the matter end with that? would the disorder stop at the foot of the steps? 'i think we are safe enough here, if your excellency asks me,' i said, after a moment's thought. 'a dozen men could hold the wicket-gate against a thousand.' 'safe!' my lady cried in a tone of surprise. 'yes, martin, safe! but what of those who look to me for protection? am i to stand by and see the law defied? am i to----' she paused. 'what is that?' she said in a different tone, raising her hand for silence. she listened, and we listened, looking at one another with meaning eyes; and in a moment she had her answer. through the open windows, with the air and sunshine, came a sound which rose and fell at intervals. it was the noise of distant cheering. full and deep, leaping up again and again, in insolent mockery and defiance, it reached us where we stood in the quiet room, and told us that all was known. while we still listened, another sound, nearer at hand, broke the inner stillness of the house--the tramp of a hurrying foot on the stairs. old jacob thrust in his head and looked at me. 'you can speak,' i said. 'there is something wrong below,' he muttered, abashed at finding himself in the presence. 'we know it, jacob,' my lady said bravely. 'we are considering how to right it. in the mean time, do you go to the gates, my friend, and see that they are well guarded.' 'we could send to hesse-cassel,' the waldgrave suggested, when we were again alone. 'it would be useless,' my lady answered. 'the landgrave is at munich with the king of sweden; so is leuchtenstein.' 'if leuchtenstein were only at home----' 'ah!' the countess answered with a touch of impatience; 'but then he is not. if he were--well, even he could scarcely make troops where there are none.' 'there are generally some to be hired,' the waldgrave answered. 'what if we send to halle, or weimar, and inquire? a couple of hundred pikes would settle the matter.' 'god forbid!' my lady answered with a shudder. 'i have heard enough of the doings of such soldiers. the town has not deserved that.' the waldgrave looked at me, and slightly shrugged his shoulders; as much as to say that my lady was impracticable. but i, agreeing with every word she said, only loved her the more, and could make him no answer, even if my duty had permitted it. i hastened to suggest that, the castle being safe, the better plan was to wait, keeping on our guard, and see what happened; which, indeed, seemed also to be the only course open to us. my lady saw this and agreed; i withdrew, to spend the rest of the day in a feverish march between the one gate and the other. we could muster no more than twelve effective men, including the waldgrave; and though these might suffice for the bare defence of the place, which had only two assailable points, the paucity of our numbers kept me in perpetual fear. i knew my lady's proud nature so well that i dreaded humiliation for her as i might have feared death for another; with a terror which made the possibility of her capture by the malcontents a misery to me, a nightmare which would neither let me rest nor sleep. my lord soon recovered his spirits. in an hour or two he was as buoyant and cheerful as before, dividing the blame of the _contretemps_ between fraulein anna and myself, and hinting that if he had been left to manage the matter, the guilty would have suffered, and dietz not gone scot-free. but i trembled. i did not see how we could be surprised; i thought it improbable that the townsfolk would try to effect anything against us; impossible that they should succeed. yet, when the stern swell of one of luther's hymns rose from the town at sunset, and i remembered how easily men's hearts were inflamed by those strains; and again, when a huge bonfire in the market-place dispelled the night, and for hours kept the town restless and waking, i shuddered, fearing i knew not what. i will answer for it, my lady, who never ceased to wear a cheerful countenance, did not sleep that night one half so ill as i. and yet i was caught napping. a little before daybreak, when all was quiet, i went to take an hour's rest. i had lain down, and, as far as i could judge later, had just fallen into a doze, when a tremendous shock, which made the very walls round me tremble, drew me to my feet as if a giant hand had plucked me from the bed. a crashing sound, mingled with the shiver of falling glass, filled the air. for a few seconds i stood trembling and bewildered in the middle of the room--in the state of disorder natural to a man rudely awakened. i could not on the instant collect myself or comprehend what had happened. then, in a flash, the fears of the day returned to my mind, and springing to the door, half-dressed as i was, i ran down to the courtyard. some of the servants were already there, a white-cheeked, panic-stricken group of men and women intermixed; but, for a moment, i could get no answer to my questions. all spoke at once, none knew. then--it was just growing light--from the direction of the stable-gate a man came running out of the dusk with a half-pike on his shoulder. 'quick!' he cried. 'this way, give me a musket.' 'what is it?' i answered, seizing him by the arm. 'they have blown up the bridge--the bridge over the ravine!' he replied, panting. 'quick, a gun! a part is left, and they are hacking it down!' in a moment i saw all. 'to your posts!' i shouted. 'and the women into the house! see to the wicket-gate, jacob, and do not leave it!' then i sprang into the guardhouse and snatched down a carbine, three or four of which hung loaded in the loops. the sentry who had brought the news seized another, and we ran together through the stable court and to the gate, four or five of the servants following us. elsewhere it was growing light. here a thick cloud of smoke and dust still hung in the air, with a stifling reek of powder. but looking through one of the loopholes in the gate, i was able to discern that the farther end of the bridge which spanned the ravine was gone--or gone in part. the right-hand wall, with three or four feet of the roadway, still hung in air, but half a dozen men, whose figures loomed indistinctly through a haze of dust and gloom, were working at it furiously, demolishing it with bars and pickaxes. at that sight i fell into a rage. i saw in a flash what would happen if the bridge sank and we were cut off from all exit except through the town-gate. the dastardly nature of the surprise, too, and the fiendish energy of the men combined to madden me. i gave no warning and cried out no word, but thrusting my weapon through the loophole aimed at the nearest worker, and fired. the man dropped his tool and threw up his arms, staggered forward a couple of paces, and fell sheer over the broken edge into the gulf. his fellows stood a moment in terror, looking after him, but the sentry who had warned me fired through the other loophole, and that started them. they flung down their tools and bolted like so many rabbits. the smoke of the carbine was scarce out of the muzzle, before the bridge, or what remained of it, was clear. i turned round and found the waldgrave at my elbow. 'well done!' he said heartily. 'that will teach the rascals a lesson!' i was trembling in every limb with excitement, but before i answered him, i handed my gun to one of the men who had followed me. 'load,' i said,' and if a man comes near the bridge, shoot him down. keep your eye on the bridge, and do nothing else until i come back.' then i walked away through the stable-court with the waldgrave; who looked at me curiously. 'you were only just in time,' he said. 'only just,' i muttered. 'there is enough left for a horse to cross.' 'yes,' i answered, 'to-day.' 'why to-day?' he asked, still looking at me. i think he was surprised to see me so much moved. 'because the rest will be blown up to-night,' i answered bluntly. 'or may be. how can we guard it in the dark? it is fifty paces from the gate. we cannot risk men there--with our numbers.' 'still it may not be,' he said. 'we must keep a sharp look-out.' 'but if it _is?_' i answered, halting suddenly, and looking him full in the face. 'if it is, my lord?' i continued. 'we are provisioned for a week only. it is not autumn, you see. then the pickle tubs would be full, the larder stocked, the rafters groaning, the still-room supplied. but it is may, and there is little left. the last three days we have been thinking of other things than provisions; and we have thirty mouths to feed.' the waldgrave's face fell. 'i had not thought of that,' he said. 'the bridge gone, they may starve us, you mean?' 'into submission to whatever terms they please,' i answered. 'we are too few to cut our way through the town, and there would be no other way of escape.' 'what do you advise, then?' he asked, drawing me aside with a flustered air. 'flight?' 'a horse might cross the bridge to-day,' i said. 'but any terms would be better than that!' he replied with vehemence. 'what if they demand the expulsion of the catholic girl, my lord, whom the countess has taken under her protection?' 'they will not!' he said. 'they may,' i persisted. 'then we will not give her up.' 'but the alternative--starvation?' 'pooh! it will not come to that!' he answered lightly. 'you leap before you reach the stile.' 'because, my lord, there will be no leaping if we do reach it.' 'nonsense!' he cried masterfully. 'something must be risked. to give up a strong place like this to a parcel of clodhoppers--it is absurd! at the worst we could parley.' 'i do not think my lady would consent to parley.' 'i shall say nothing to her about it,' he answered. 'she is no judge of such things.' i had been thinking all the while that he had that in his mind, and on the spot i answered him squarely that i would not consent. 'my lady must know all,' i said, 'and decide for herself.' he started, looking at me with his face very red. 'why, man,' he said, 'would you browbeat me?' 'no, my lord,' i said firmly, 'but my lady must know.' 'you are insolent!' he cried, in a passion. 'you forget yourself, man, and that your mistress has placed me in command here!' 'i forget nothing, my lord,' i answered, waxing firmer. 'what i remember is that she is my mistress.' he glared at me a moment, his face dark with anger, and then with a contemptuous gesture he left me and walked twice or thrice across the court. doubtless the air did him good, for presently he came back to me. 'you are an ill-bred meddler!' he said with his head high, 'and i shall remember it. but for the present have your way. i will tell the countess and take her opinion.' he went into the house to do it, and i waited patiently in the courtyard, watching the sun rise and all the roofs grow red; listening to the twittering of the birds, and wondering what the answer would be. i had not set myself against him without misgiving, for in a little while all might be in his hands. but fear for my mistress outweighed fears on my own account; and in the thought of her shame, should she awake some morning and find herself trapped, i lost thought of my own interest and advancement. i have heard it said that he builds best for himself who builds for another. it was so on this occasion. he came back presently, looking thoughtful, as if my lady had talked to him very freely, and shown him a side of her character that had escaped him. the anger was clean gone from his face, and he spoke to me without embarrassment; in apparent forgetfulness that there had been any difference between us. nor did i ever find him bear malice long. 'the countess decides to go,' he said, 'either to cassel or frankfort, according to the state of the roads. she will take with her fraulein max, her two women, and the catholic girl, and as many men as you can horse. she thinks she may safely leave the castle in charge of old jacob and franz, with a letter directed to the burgomaster and council, throwing the responsibility for its custody on them. when do you think we should start?' 'soon after dark this evening,' i answered, 'if my lady pleases.' 'then that decides it,' he replied carelessly, the dawn of a new plan and new prospects lighting up his handsome face. 'see to it, will you?' chapter ix. walnuts of gold. night is like a lady's riding-mask, which gives to the most familiar features a strange and uncanny aspect. when to night are added silence and alarm, and that worst burden of all, responsibility--responsibility where a broken twig may mean a shot, and a rolling stone capture, where in a moment the evil is done--then you have a scene and a time to try the stoutest. to walk boldly into a wall of darkness, relying on daylight knowledge, which says there is no wall; to step over the precipice on the faith of its depth being shadow--this demands nerve in those who are not used to the vagaries of night. but when the darkness may at any instant belch forth a sheet of flame; when every bush may hide a cowardly foe and every turn a pitfall, and there are women in company and helpless children, then a man had need to be an old soldier or forest-born, if he would keep his head cool, and tell one horse from another by the sound of its hoofs. we started about eight, and started well. the waldgrave and half a dozen men crossed first on foot, and took post to protect the farther end of the bridge. then i led over the horses, beginning with the four sumpter beasts. satisfied after this that the arch remained uninjured, and that there was room and to spare, i told my lady, and she rode over by herself on pushka. marie wort tripped after her with the child in her arms. fraulein max i carried. my lady's women crossed hand in hand. then the rest. so like a troop of ghosts or shadows, with hardly a word spoken or an order given, we flitted into the darkness, and met under the trees, where those who had not yet mounted got to horse. led by young jacob, who knew every path in the valley and could find his way blindfold, we struck away from the road without delay, and taking lanes and tracks which ran beside it, presently hit it again a league or more beyond the town and far on the way. that was a ride not to be forgotten. the night was dark. at a distance the dim lights of the town did not show. the valley in which we rode, and which grows straighter as it approaches the mouth and the river, seemed like a black box without a lid. the wind, laden with mysterious rustlings and the thousand sad noises of the night, blew in our faces. now and then an owl hooted, or a branch creaked, or a horse stumbled and its rider railed at it. but for the most part we rode in silence, the women trembling and crossing themselves--as most of our people do to this day, when they are frightened--and the men riding warily, with straining eyes and ears on the stretch. before we reached the ford, which lies nearly eight miles from the castle, the waldgrave, who had his place beside my lady, began to talk; and then, if not before, i knew that _his_ love for her was a poor thing. for, being in high spirits at the success of our plan--which he had come to consider _his_ plan--and delighted to find himself again in the saddle with an adventure before him, he forgot that the matter must wear a different aspect in her eyes. she was leaving her home--the old rooms, the old books, and presses and stores, the duties, stately or simple, in which her life had been passed. and leaving them, not in the daylight, and with a safe and assured future before her, but by stealth and under cover of night, with a mind full of anxious questionings! to my lord it seemed a fine thing to have the world before him; to know that all germany beyond the werra was convulsed by war, and a theatre wherein a bold man might look to play his part. but to a woman, however high-spirited, the knowledge was not reassuring. to one who was exchanging her own demesne and peace and plenty for a wandering life and dependence on the protection of men, it was the reverse. so, while my lord talked gaily, my lady, i think, wept; doing that under cover of darkness and her mask, which she would never have done in the light. he talked on, planning and proposing; and where a true lover would have been quick to divine the woman's weakness, he felt no misgiving, thrilled with no sympathy. then i knew that he lacked the subtle instinct which real love creates; which teaches the strong what it is the feeble dread, and gives a woman the daring of a man. as we drew near the ford, i dropped back to see that all crossed safely. pushka, i knew, would carry my lady over, but some of the others were worse mounted. this brought me abreast of the catholic girl, though the darkness was such that i recognized her only by the dark mass before her, which i knew to be the child. we had had some difficulty in separating her from steve, and persuading her that the man ran no risk where he lay; otherwise she had behaved admirably. i did not speak to her, but when i saw the gleam of water before us, and heard the horses of the leaders begin to splash through the shallows, i leant over and took hold of the boy. 'you had better give him to me,' i said gruffly. 'you will have both hands free then. keep your feet high, and hold by the pommel. if your horse begins to swim leave its head loose.' i expected her to make a to-do about giving up the child; but she did not, and i lifted it to the withers of my horse. she muttered something in a tone which sounded grateful, and then we splashed on in silence, the horses putting one foot gingerly before the other; some sniffing the air with loud snorts and outstretched necks, and some stopping outright. i rode on the upstream side of the girl, to break the force of the water. not that the ford is dangerous in the daytime (it has been bridged these five years), but at night, and with so many horses, it was possible one or another might stray from the track; for the ford is not straight, but slants across the stream. however, we all passed safely; and yet the crossing remains in my memory. as i held the child before me--it was a gallant little thing, and clung to me without cry or word--i felt something rough round its neck. at the moment i was deep in the water, and i had no hand to spare. but by-and-by, as we rode out and began to clamber up the farther bank, i laid my hand on its neck, suspecting already what i should find. i was not mistaken. under my fingers lay the very necklace which peter had described to me with so much care! i could trace the shape and roughness of the walnuts. i could almost count them. even of the length of the chain i could fairly judge. it was long enough to go twice round the child's neck. as soon as i had made certain, i let it be, lest the child should cry out; and i rode on, thinking hard. what, i wondered, had induced the girl to put the chain round its neck at that juncture? she had hidden it so carefully hitherto, that no eye but peter's, so far as i could judge, had seen it. why this carelessness now, then? certainly it was dark, and, as far as eyes went, the chain was safe. but round her own neck, under her kerchief, where it had lain before, it was still safer. why had she removed it? we had topped the farther bank by this time, and were riding slowly along the right-hand side of the river; but i was still turning this over in my mind, when i heard her on a sudden give a little gasp. i knew in a moment what it was. she had bethought her where the necklace was. i was not a whit surprised when she asked me in a tremulous tone to give her back the child. 'it is very well here,' i said, to try her. 'it will trouble you,' she muttered faintly. 'i will say when it does,' i answered. she did not answer anything to that, but i heard her breathing hard, and knew that she was racking her brains for some excuse to get the child from me. for what if daylight came and i still rode with it, the necklace in full view? or what if we stopped at some house and lights were brought? or what, again, if i perceived the necklace and took possession of it! this last idea so charmed me--i was in a grim humour--that my hand was on the necklace, and almost before i knew what i was doing, i was feeling for the clasp which fastened it. some fiend brought the thing under my fingers in a twinkling. the necklace seemed to fall loose of its own accord. in a moment it was swinging and swaying in my hand. in another i had gathered it up and slid it into my pouch. the trick was done so easily and so quickly that i think some devil must have helped me; the child neither moving nor crying out, though it was old enough to take notice, and could even speak, as children of that age can speak--intelligibly to those who know them, gibberish to strangers. i need not say that i never meant to steal a link of the thing. the temptation which moved me was the temptation to tease the girl. i thought this a good way of punishing her. i thought, first to torment her by making her think the necklace gone; and then to shame her by producing it, and giving it back to her with a dry word that should show her i understood her deceit. so, even when the thing was done, and the chain snug in my pocket, i did not for a while repent, but hugged myself on the jest and smiled under cover of the darkness. i carried the child a mile farther, and then handed it down to marie, with an appearance of unconsciousness which it was not very hard to assume, since she could not see my face. but doubtless every yard of that mile had been a torture to her. i heard her sigh with relief as her arms closed round the boy. then, the next moment i knew that she had discovered her loss. she uttered a sobbing cry, and i heard her passing her hands through the child's clothing, while her breath came and went in gasps. she plucked at her bridle so suddenly that those who rode behind ran into us. i made way for them to pass. 'what is it?' i said roughly. 'what is the matter?' she muttered under her breath, with her hands still searching the child, that she had lost something. 'if you have, it is gone,' i said bluntly. 'you would hardly find a hayrick to-night. you must have dropped it coming through the ford?' she did not answer, but i heard her begin to sob, and then for the first time i felt uncomfortable. i repented of what i had done, and wished with all my heart that the chain was round the child's neck again. 'come, come,' i said awkwardly, 'it was not of much value, i suppose. at any rate, it is no good crying over it.' she did not answer; she was still searching. i could hear what she was doing, though i could not see; there were trees overhead, and it was as much as i could do to make out her figure. at last i grew angry, partly with myself, partly with her. 'come,' i said roughly, 'we cannot stay here all night. we must be moving.' she assented meekly, and we rode on. but still i heard her crying; and she seemed to be hugging the child to her, as if, now the necklace was gone, she had nothing but the boy left. i tried to see the humour in the joke as i had seen it a few minutes before, but the sparkle had gone out of it, i felt that i had been a brute. i began to reflect that this girl, a stranger and helpless, in a strange land, had nothing upon which she could depend but these few links of gold. what wonder, then, if she valued them; if, like all other women, she hid them away and fibbed about them; if she wept over them now they were gone? of course it was in my power in a moment to bring them back again; and nothing had seemed easier, a few minutes before, than to hand them back--with a little speech which should cover her with confusion and leave me unmoved. now, though i wished them round her neck again with all the good-will in life, and though to effect my wish i had only to do what i had planned--only to stretch out my hand with that word or two--i sat in my saddle hot and tongue-tied, my fingers sticking to the chain. her grief had somehow put a new face on the matter. i could not bear to confess that i had caused it wantonly and for a jest. the right words would not come, while every moment which prolonged the silence between us made the attempt seem more hopeless, the task more difficult; till, like the short-sighted craven i was, i thrust back the chain into my pocket, and, determining to take some secret way of restoring it, put off the crisis. in a degree i was hurried to this decision by our arrival at the place where we were to rest. this was an outlying farm belonging to heritzburg and long used by the family, when journeying to cassel. alas! when we came to it, cold, shivering, and hungry, we found it ruined and tenantless, with war's grim brand so deeply stamped upon the face of everything that even the darkness of night failed to hide the scars. i had not expected this, and for a while i forgot the necklace in anxiety for my lady's comfort. i had to get lights and see fires kindled, to order the disposal of the horses, to unpack the food: for we found no scrap, even of fodder for the beasts, in the grimy, smoke-stained barn, which i had known so well stored. nor was the house in better case. bed and board were gone, and half the roof. the door lay shattered on the threshold, the window-frames, smashed in wanton fury, covered the floor. the wind moaned through the empty rooms; here and there water stood in puddles. round the hearth lay broken flasks, and rotting _débris_, and pewter plates bent double-- the relics of the ravager's debauch. we walked about, with lights held above our heads, and looked at all this miserably enough. it was our first glimpse of war, and it silenced even the waldgrave. as for my mistress, i well remember the look her face wore, when i left her standing with her women, who were already in tears, in the middle of the small chamber assigned to her. i had known her long enough to be able to read the look, and to be sure that she was wondering whether it would always be so now. had she exchanged heritzburg, its peace and comfort, for such nights as these, divided between secret flittings and lodgings fit only for the homeless and wretched? but neither by word nor sign did she betray her fears; and in the morning she showed a face that vied with the waldgrave's in cheerfulness. our horses had had little exercise of late and were in poor condition for travelling. we gave them, therefore, until noon to rest, and a little after that hour got away; one and all, i think--with the exception perhaps of marie wort--in better spirits. the sun was high, the weather fine, the country on either side of us woodland, with fine wild prospects. hence we saw few signs of the ravages which were sure to thrust themselves on the attention wherever man's hand appeared. we could forget for the moment war, and even our own troubles. we proposed to reach the little village of erbe by sunset, but darkness overtook us on the road. the track, overgrown and narrowed by spring shoots, was hard to follow in daylight; to attempt to pursue it after nightfall seemed hopeless. we had halted, therefore, and the waldgrave and my lady were considering whether we should camp where we were, or pick our way to a more sheltered spot, when young jacob, who was leading, cried out that he saw the glimmer of a camp-fire some way off among the trees. the news threw our party into the greatest doubt. my lady was for stopping where we were, the waldgrave for going on. in the end the latter had his way, and it was agreed that we should join the company before us, or at any rate parley with them and learn their intentions. accordingly we shook up our tired horses and moved cautiously forward. the distant gleam which had first caught jacob's eye soon widened into a warm and ruddy glow, in which the polished beech-trunks stood up like the pillars of some great building. still drawing nearer, we saw that there were two fires built a score of paces apart, in a slight hollow. round the one a number of men were moving, whose black figures sometimes intervened between us and the blaze. two or three dogs sprang up and barked at us, and a horse neighed out of the darkness beyond. the other fire seemed at first sight to be deserted; but as the dogs ran towards us, still barking, first one man, then another, rose beside it, and stood looking at us. the arrival of a second party in such a spot was no doubt unexpected. judging that these two were the leaders of the party, i went forward to announce my lady's rank. one of the men, the shorter and younger, a man of middle height and middle age and dark, stern complexion, came a few paces to meet me. 'who are you?' he said bluntly, looking beyond me at those who followed. 'the countess rotha of heritzburg, travelling this way to cassel,' i answered; 'and with her, her excellency's kinsman, the noble rupert, waldgrave of weimar.' the stranger's face lightened strangely, and he laughed. 'take me to her,' he said. properly i should have first asked him his name and condition; but he had the air, beyond all things, of a man not to be trifled with, and i turned with him. my lady had halted with her company a score of paces from the fire. i led him to her bridle. 'this,' i said, wondering much who he was, 'is her excellency the countess of heritzburg.' my lady looked at him. he had uncovered and stood before her, a smile that was almost a laugh in his eyes. 'and i,' he said, 'have the honour to be her excellency's humble and distant cousin, general john tzerclas, sometimes called, of tilly.' chapter x. the camp in the forest. as the stranger made his announcement, i chanced to turn my eyes on the waldgrave's face; and if there was one thing more noteworthy at the moment than the speaker's air of perfect and assured composure, it was my lord's look of chagrin. i could imagine that this sudden and unexpected discovery of a kinsman was little to his mind; while the stranger's manner was as little calculated to reconcile him to it. but there was something more than this. i fancy that from the moment he heard tzerclas' name he scented a rival. my lady, on the other hand, did not disguise her satisfaction. 'i am pleased to make your acquaintance,' she exclaimed, looking at the stranger with frank surprise. 'your name, general tzerclas, has long been known to me. but i was under the impression that you were at present in command of a body of saxon troops in bohemia.' 'my troops, such as they are, lie a little nearer,' he answered, smiling; 'so near that they and their leader are equally at your service, countess.' 'for the present i shall be content to claim your hospitality only,' my lady answered lightly. 'this is my cousin, the waldgrave rupert.' 'of weimar?' the general said, bowing. 'of weimar, sir,' the young lord answered. the stranger said no more, but saluting him with a kind of careless punctilio, took hold of my lady's rein and led her horse forward into the firelight. while he assisted her to dismount i had time to glance round; and the cheerful glow of the fire, which disclosed arms and accoutrements and camp equipments flung here and there in splendid profusion, did not blind me to other appearances less pleasant. indeed, that very profusion did something to open my eyes to those appearances, and thereby to the nature of the men amongst whom we had come. the glittering hilts and battered plate, the gaudy cloaks and velvet housings which i saw lying about the roots of the trees, seemed to smack less of a travellers' camp than a robbers' bivouac; while the fierce, swarthy faces which clustered round the farther fire, reminded me of nothing so much as of the swash-buckling escort which had more than once accompanied count tilly to heritzburg. then, indeed, under the old tiger's paw tilly's riders had been as lambs. but we were not now at heritzburg, nor was count tilly here. and whether these knaves would be as amenable in the greenwood, whether the waldgrave had not done us all an ill service when he voted for moving on, were questions i had a difficulty in answering to my satisfaction; the more as, even before we were off our horses, the rude stare the men fixed on my lady raised my choler. on the other hand their leader's bearing left nothing to be desired. he welcomed my mistress to the camp with perfect good breeding, the waldgrave with civility. he hastened the preparation of supper, and in every way seemed bent on making us comfortable; sending his knaves to and fro with a hearty good-will, which showed that whoever stood in awe of them, he did not. meanwhile, i had a third fire kindled a score of paces away, where a small thicket held out the hope of privacy, and here i placed our women, bidding three or four of the steadier men remain with them. the injunction was scarcely needed however. our servants were simple fellows born in heritzburg. they eyed with shyness and awe the swaggering airs and warlike demeanour of tzerclas' followers, and would not for a year's wages have intruded on their circle without invitation. the moment i had seen to this i returned to my lady, and then for the first time i had an opportunity of examining our host. a man of middle height, sinewy and well-formed, with an upright carriage, he looked from head to foot the model of a soldier of fortune, and moved with a careless grace, which spoke of years of manly exercise. his face was handsome, cold, dark, stern; the nose prominent, the forehead high and narrow. trimly pointed moustachios and a small pointed beard, both perfectly black, gave him a peculiar and somewhat cynical aspect; and nothing i ever witnessed of his dealings with his troops led me to suppose that this belied the man. he could be, as he was now, courteous, polished, almost genial. i judged that he could be also the reverse. he was richly, even splendidly, dressed, and seemed to be about forty years of age. my lady sent me for fraulein max, who had been overlooked, and was found cowering beside the newly kindled fire in company with marie wort and the women. though i think she had only herself to thank for her effacement, she was inclined to be offended. but i had no time to waste on words, and disregarding her ill temper i brought her, feebly sniffing, to my lady, who introduced her to her new-found kinsman. 'pardon me,' he said, looking negligently round him. 'that reminds me. i, too, have a presentation to make. where is--oh yes, here is friend von werder. i thought, my friend,' he continued, addressing the other and older man whom we had seen by his fire, 'that you had disappeared as mysteriously as you came. herr von werder, countess, was my first chance guest to-night. you are the second.' he spoke in a tone of easy patronage, with his back half turned to the person he mentioned. i looked at the man. he seemed to be over fifty years old, tall, strong, and grey-moustachioed. and that was almost all i could see, for, as if acknowledging an inferiority, and admitting that the terms on which he had been with his host were now altered, he had withdrawn himself a pace from the fire. sitting on the opposite side of it near the outer edge of light and wearing a heavy cloak, he disclosed little of his appearance, even when he rose in acknowledgment of my lady's salute. 'herr von werder is not travelling with you, then?' my lady said; chiefly, i think, for the sake of saying something that should include the man. 'no, he is not of my persuasion,' the general answered in the same tone of good-natured contempt. 'whither are you bound, my friend?' he continued, glancing over his shoulder and throwing a note of command into his voice. 'i did not ask you, and you did not tell me.' 'i am going north,' the stranger answered in a husky tone. 'it may be as far as magdeburg, general.' 'and you come from?' 'last, sir? frankfort.' 'well, as you say last, whence before that?' 'the rhine bishoprics.' 'ah! then you have seen something of the war? if you were there before it swept into bavaria, that is. but a truce to this,' he continued. 'here is supper. i beg you not to judge of my hospitality by this night's performance, countess. i hope to entertain you more fittingly before we part.' though he made this apology, the supper needed none. indeed, it was such as made me stare--there in the forest--and was served in a style and with accompaniments i little expected to find in a soldiers' camp. silver dishes and chased and curious flagons, flasks of old rhenish and burgundy, glass from nuremberg, a dozen things which made my lady's road equipage seem poor and trifling, appeared on the board. and the cooking was equal to the serving. the wine had not gone round many times before the waldgrave lost his air of reserve. he complimented our host, expressed his surprise at the excellence of the entertainment, asked with a laugh how it was done, and completely resumed his usual manner. perhaps he talked a little too freely, a little too fast, and viewed by the other's side, he grew younger. what my lady saw or thought as she sat between the two men it was impossible to say, but she seemed in high spirits. she too talked gaily and laughed often; and doubtless the novelty of the scene, the great fires, the dark background, the burnished trunks of the beeches, the bizarre splendour of the feast, the laughter and snatches of song which came from the other fire, were well calculated to excite and amuse her. 'these are not all your troops?' i heard her ask. 'not quite,' the general answered drily. 'my men lie six hours south of us. i hope that you will do me the honour of reviewing them to-morrow.' 'you are marching south, then?' 'yes. everything and every one goes south this year.' 'to join the king of sweden?' 'yes,' the general answered, holding out his silver cup to be filled, and for that reason perhaps speaking very deliberately, 'to join the king of sweden--at nuremberg. but you have not yet told me, countess,' he continued, 'why you are afield. this part is not in a very settled state, and i should have thought that the present time was----' 'a bad one for travelling?' my lady answered. 'yes. but, i regret to say, heritzburg is not in a very settled state either.' and thereon, without dwelling much on the cause of her troubles, she told him the main facts which had led to her departure. i saw his lip curl and his eyes flicker with scorn. 'but had you no gunpowder?' he said, turning to the waldgrave. 'we had, but no cannon,' he answered confidently. 'what of that?' the general retorted icily. 'i would have made a bomb, no matter of what, and fired it out of a leather boot hooped with cask-irons! i would have had half a dozen of their houses burning about their ears before they knew where they were, the insolents!' the waldgrave looked ashamed of himself. 'i did not think of that,' he said; and he hastened to hide his confusion in his glass. 'well, it is not too late,' general tzerclas rejoined, showing his teeth in a smile. 'if the countess pleases, we will soon teach her subjects a lesson. i am not pushed for time. i will detach four troops of horse and return with you to-morrow, and settle the matter in a trice.' but my lady said that she would not have that, and persisted so firmly in her refusal that though he pressed the offer upon her, and i could see was keenly interested in its acceptance, he had to give way. the reasons she put forward were the loss of his time and the injury to his cause; the real one consisted, i knew, in her merciful reluctance to give over the town to his troops, a reluctance for which i honoured her. to appease him, however, for he seemed inclined to take her refusal in bad part, she consented to go out of her way to visit his camp. at this point my lady sent me on an errand to her women, which caused me to be away some minutes. when i came back i found that a change had taken place. the waldgrave was speaking, and, from his heated face and the tone of his voice, it was evident that the old wine which had begun by opening his heart had ended by rousing his pugnacity. 'pooh! i protest _in toto!_' he said as i came up. 'i deny it altogether. you will tell me next that the germans are worse soldiers than the swedes!' 'pardon me, i did not say so,' general tzerclas answered. the wine had taken no effect on him, or perhaps he had drunk less. he was as suave and cold as ever. 'but you meant it!' the younger man retorted. 'no, i did not mean it,' the general answered, still unmoved. 'what i said was that germany had produced no great commander in this war, which has now lasted thirteen years.' 'prince bernard of weimar, my kinsman!' the waldgrave cried. 'pardon me,' tzerclas replied politely. 'pardon me again if i say that i do not think he has earned that title. he is a soldier of merit. no more.' 'wallenstein, then?' 'you forget. he is a bohemian.' 'count tilly, then?' 'a walloon,' the general answered with a shrug. 'the king of sweden? a swede, of course.' 'a german by the mother's side,' my lady said with a smile. 'as you, countess, are a walloon,' tzerclas answered with a low bow. 'yet doubtless you count yourself a german?' 'yes,' she said, blushing. 'i am proud to do so.' what courteous answer he would have made to this i do not know. she had scarcely spoken before a deep voice on the farther side of the fire was heard to ask 'what of count pappenheim?' the speaker was von werder, who had long sat so modestly silent that i had forgotten his presence. he seemed scarcely to belong to the party; though fraulein max, who sat on the waldgrave's left hand, formed a sort of link stretched out towards him. tzerclas had forgotten him too, i think, for he started at the sound of his voice and gave him but a curt answer. 'he is no general,' he said sharply. 'a great leader of horse he is; great at fighting, great at burning, greatest at plundering. no more.' 'it seems that you allow no merit in a german!' the waldgrave cried with a sneer. he had drunk too much. but tzerclas was not to be moved. there was something fine in the toleration he extended to the younger man. 'not at all,' he said quietly. 'yet i am of opinion that, even apart from arms, germany has shown since the beginning of this war few men of merit.' 'the duke of bavaria,' the same deep voice beyond the fire suggested. 'maximilian?' tzerclas answered. this time he did not seem to resent the stranger's interference. 'yes, he is something of a statesman. you are right, my friend. he and leuchtenstein, the landgrave's minister--he too is a man. i will give you those two. but even they play second parts. the fate of germany lies in no german hands. it lies in the hands of gustavus adolphus and oxenstierna, swedes; of wallenstein, a bohemian; of--i know not who will be the next foreigner.' 'that is all very well; but you are a foreigner yourself,' the waldgrave cried. 'yes, i am a walloon,' tzerclas said, still quietly, though this time i saw his eyes flicker. 'it is true; why should i deny it? you represent the native, and i the foreign element. the countess stands between us, representing both.' the waldgrave rose with an oath and a flushed face, and for a moment i thought that we were going to have trouble. but he remembered himself in time, and sitting down again in silence, gazed sulkily at the fire. the movement, however, was enough for my lady. she rose to her feet to break up the party; and turning her shoulder to the offender, began to thank general tzerclas for his entertainment. this made the waldgrave, who was compelled to stand by and listen, look more sulky than ever; but she continued to take no notice of him, and though he remained awkwardly regarding her and waiting for a word, as long as she stood, she went away without once turning her eyes on him. the general snatched a torch from me and lighted her with his own hand to our part of the camp, where he took a respectful leave of her; adding, as he withdrew, that he would march at any hour in the morning that might suit her, and that in all things she might command his servants and himself. he had sent over for her use a small tent, provided originally, no doubt, for his own sleeping quarters; and we found that in a hundred other ways he had shown himself thoughtful for her comfort. she stood a moment looking about her with satisfaction; and when she turned to dismiss me, there was, or i was mistaken, a gleam of amusement in her eye. after all, she was a woman. chapter xi. stolen! the night was still young, and when i had seen my mistress and her women comfortably settled, i sauntered back towards the middle of the camp. the three fires stood here, and there, and there, among the trees, like the feet of a three-legged stool; while between them lay a middle space which partook of the light of all, and yet remained shadowy and ill-defined. a single beech which stood in this space, and served in some degree to screen our fire from observation, added to the darkness of the borderland. at times the flames blazed up, disclosing trunk and branches; again they waned, and only a shadowy mass filled the middle space. i went and stood under this tree and looked about me. the waldgrave had disappeared, probably to his couch. so had von werder. only general tzerclas remained beside the fire at which we had supped, and he no longer sat erect. covered with a great cloak he lay at his ease on a pile of furs, reading by the light of the fire in a small fat book, which even at that distance i could see was thumbed and dog's-eared. such an employment in such a man--in huge contrast with the noisy brawling and laughter of his following--struck me as remarkable. i felt a great curiosity to know what he was studying, and in particular whether it was the bible. but the distance between us was too great and the light too uncertain; and after straining my eyes awhile i gave up the attempt, consoling myself with the thought that had i been nearer i had perhaps been no wiser. i was about to withdraw, tolerably satisfied, to seek my own rest, when a stick snapped sharply behind me. unwilling to be caught spying, i turned quickly and found myself face to face with a tall figure, which had come up noiselessly behind me. the unknown was so close to me, i recoiled in alarm; but the next moment he lowered his cloak from his face, and i saw that it was von werder. 'hush, man!' he said, raising his hand to enforce caution. 'a word with you. come this way.' he gave me no time to demur or ask questions, but taking obedience for granted, turned and led the way down a narrow path, proceeding steadily onwards until the glare of the fire sank into a distant gleam behind us. then he stopped suddenly and faced me, but the darkness in which we stood among the tree-trunks still prevented me seeing his features, and gave to the whole interview an air of mystery. 'you are the countess of heritzburg's steward?' he said abruptly. 'i am,' i answered, wondering at the change in his tone, which, deep before, had become on a sudden imperative. by the fire and in tzerclas' company he had spoken with a kind of diffidence, an air of acknowledged inferiority. not a trace of that remained. 'the waldgrave rupert,' he continued--'he is a new acquaintance?' 'he is not an old friend,' i replied. i could not think what he would be at with his questions. all my instincts were on the side of refusing to answer them. but his manner imposed upon me, though his figure and face were hidden; and though i wondered, i answered. 'he is young,' he said, as if to himself. 'yes, he is young,' i answered dryly. 'he will grow older.' he remained silent a moment, apparently in thought. then he spoke suddenly and bluntly. 'you are an honest man, i believe,' he said. 'i watched you at supper, and i think i can trust you. i will be plain with you. your mistress had better have stayed at heritzburg, steward.' 'it is possible,' i said. i was more than half inclined to think so myself. 'she has come abroad, however. that being so, the sooner she is in cassel, the better.' 'we are going thither,' i answered. 'you were!' he replied; and the meaning in his voice gave me a start. 'you were, i say?' he continued strenuously. 'whither you are going now will depend, unless you exert yourself and are careful, on general john tzerclas of the saxon service. you visit his camp to-morrow. take a hint. get your mistress out of it and inside the walls of cassel as soon as you can.' 'why?' i said stubbornly. 'why?' for it seemed to me that i was being asked all and told nothing. the man's vague warnings chimed in with my own fears, and yet i resented them coming from a stranger. i tried to pierce the darkness, to read his face, to solve the mystery of his altered tone. but the night baffled me; i could see nothing save a tall, dark form, and i fell back upon words and obstruction. 'why?' i asked jealously. 'he is my lady's cousin.' 'after a fashion,' the stranger rejoined coldly and slowly, and not at all as if he meant to argue with me. 'i should be better content, man, if he were her uncle. however, i have said enough. do you bear it in mind, and as you are faithful, be wary. so much for that. and now,' he continued, in a different tone, a tone in which a note of anxiety lurked whether he would or no, 'i have a question to ask on my own account, friend. have you heard at any time within the last twelve months of a lost child being picked up to the north of this, in heritzburg or the neighbourhood?' 'a lost child?' i repeated in astonishment. 'yes!' he retorted impatiently. and i felt, though i could not see, that he was peering at me as i had lately peered at him. 'isn't that plain german? a lost child, man? there is nothing hard to understand in it. such a thing has been heard of before--and found, i suppose. a little boy, two years old.' 'no,' i said, 'i have heard nothing of one. a child two years old? why, it could not go alone; it could not walk!' in the darkness, which is a wonderful sharpener of ears, i heard the man move hastily. 'no,' he said with a stern note in his voice, 'i suppose not; i suppose it could not. at any rate, you have not heard of it?' 'no,' i said, 'certainly not.' 'if it had been found heritzburg way,' he continued jealously, 'you would have, i suppose?' 'i should have--if any one,' i answered. 'thank you,' he said curtly. 'that is all now. good night.' and suddenly, with that only, and no warning or further farewell, he turned and strode off. i heard him go plunging through the last year's leaves, and the noise told me that he trod them sternly and heavily, with the foot of a man disappointed, and not for the first time. 'it must be his child,' i thought, looking after him. i waited until the last sound of his retreat had died away, and then i made my own way back to the camp. as chance would have it, i hit it close to the servants' fire, and before i could turn was espied by some of those who sat at it. one, a stout, swarthy fellow, with bright black eyes, and a small feather in his cap, sprang up and came towards me. 'why so shy, comrade?' he cried, with a hiccough in his voice. 'himmel! there are a pair of us!' and he raised his hand and laid it on my head--with an effort, for i am six feet and two inches. 'peace!' and he touched me on the breast. 'war!' and he touched himself. 'and a good broad piece you are, and a big piece, and a heavy piece, i'll warrant!' he continued. 'i might say the same for you!' i retorted, suffering him to lead me to the fire. 'oh, i?' he cried with a drunken swagger. 'i am a double gold ducat, true metal, stamped with the emperor's man-at-arms! melted in the low countries under spinola--that is, these thirteen years back--minted by wallenstein, tried by the noble general! "clink! clink! clink! sword and stirrup and spur. ride! ride! ride! fast as feather or fur!" that is my sort! but come, welcome! will you drink? will you play? will you 'list? come, the night is young, "for the night-sky is red, and the burgher's abed, and bold pappenheim's raiding the lea!" which shall it be, friend?' 'i will drink with you or play with you, captain,' i answered, seeing nothing else for it, 'so far as a poor man may; but as for enlisting, i am satisfied with my present service.' 'ha! ha! i can quite understand that!' he answered, winking tipsily. 'woman, lovely woman! here's to her! here's to her! here's to her, lads of the free company! "drink, lads, drink! firkin and flagon and flask. hands, lads, hands! a round to the maid in the mask!" why, man, you look like a death's head! you are too sober! shame on you, and you a german!' 'an italian were as good a toper!' one of the men beside him growled. 'or a whey-fed switzer!' 'perhaps you are better with the dice!' the captain, intendant, or what he was, continued. 'you will throw a main? come, for the honour of your mistress!' i had nearly a score of ducats of my own in my pouch, and so far i could pay if i lost. i thought that i might get some clue to tzerclas' nature and plans by humouring the man, and i assented. 'the dice, lads, the dice!' he cried. ludwig, the others called him. '"ho, the roof shall be red o'er the heretic's head, for bold pappenheim's raiding the lea!" the dice, the dice!' 'your guest looks scared,' one said, looking at me grimly. 'perhaps he is a heretic!' 'chut! we are all heretics for the present!' ludwig answered recklessly. 'a fig for a credo and a fig for a psalm! give me a good horse and a good sword and fat farmhouses. i ask no more. shall it be a short life and a merry one? the highest to have it?' 'content,' i said, trying to fall into his humour. 'a ducat a throw?' he asked, posing the caster. a man, as he spoke, placed a saddle between us, while half a dozen others pressed round to watch us. the flame leaping up shone on their dark, lean faces and gleaming eyes, or picked out here and there the haft of a knife or the butt of a pistol. some wore steel caps, some caps of fur, some gaudy handkerchiefs twisted round their heads. there were spaniards, bohemians, walloons among them; a croat or two; a few saxons. 'come,' cried the captain, rattling the dice-box. 'a ducat a throw, master peace? between gentlemen?' 'content,' i said, though my heart beat fast. i had never even seen men play so high. 'so!' growled a german who crouched beside me--a one-eyed man, fat and fair, the one fair-faced man in the company; ''tis a cock of a fine hackle!' 'see me strip him!' captain ludwig rejoined gleefully. and he threw and i threw, and i won; while the flame, leaping and sinking, flung its ruddy light on the walls of our huge, leafy chamber. then he won. then i won. i won again, again, again! 'he has the fiend's own luck!' a pole cried with a curse. 'steady, ludwig!' quoth another. 'will you be beaten by a clod-pate?' 'fill his cup!' my opponent cried hardily. 'he has the knack of it! but i will strip him! beat up the fire there! i can't see the spots. that is nine ducats you have won, good broad-piece! throw away!' i threw, and at it we went again, but now luck began to run against me, though slowly. the hollow rattle of the dice, the voices calling the numbers, the oath and the cry of triumph want on monotonously: went on--and i think the spirit of play had fairly got hold of me--when a stern voice suddenly broke in on our game. 'put up, there, you rascals!' tzerclas cried from his fire. 'have done, do you hear, or it will be the worse for you! kennel, i say!' captain ludwig swore under his breath. 'ugh!' he muttered, 'just as i was getting my hand in! what is the score? seven ducats to me; and little enough for the trouble. hand over, comrade. you know the proverb.' in haste to be gone after the warning we had received, i plunged my hand into my pouch, and drew out in a hurry, not a fistful of ducats as i intended, but a score of links of gold chain, which for a moment glittered in the firelight. as quickly as i could i thrust the chain--it was marie wort's, of course--back into my pocket, but not before the german sitting beside me had seen it. i looked at him guiltily while i fumbled for the money, and he tried to look as if he had seen nothing. but his one eye sparkled evilly, and i saw his lips tremble with greed. he made no remark, however, and in a moment i found the money and paid my debt. most of the men had already laid themselves down and were snoring, with their feet to the fire. i muttered good night, and seizing my cap went off. to gain my quarters, i had to walk across the open under the beech-tree. i had just reached this tree, and was passing through the shadow under the branches, when the sound of a light footstep at my heels startled me, and turning in my tracks i surprised the one-eyed german. 'well,' i said wrathfully--i was not in the best of tempers at losing--'what do you want?' the action and the challenge took him aback. 'want?' he grumbled, recoiling a step. 'nothing. is this your private property?' he had _thief_ written all over his fat, pale face, and i knew very well what private property he wanted. if i ever saw a sneaking, hang-dog visage it was his! the more i looked at him the more i loathed him. 'go!' i said; 'get home, you cur! or i will break every bone in your body.' he glared at me with a curse in his one eye, but he saw that i was too big for him. besides, general tzerclas lay reading by his fire thirty paces away. baffled and furious, the rascal slunk off with a muttered word, and went back the way he had come. i found ernst on guard, and after seeing to the fire and hearing that all was well, i lay down beside him in my cloak. but i found it less easy to sleep. the firelight, playing among the leaves and branches overhead, formed likenesses of the men i had left, now grotesque masks, and now scowling faces, fierce-eyed and grim. von werder's warning, too, recurred to me with added weight and would not leave me at peace. i wondered what he meant; i wondered what he suspected, still more, what he knew. and yet had i need to wonder, or do more than look round and use my wits? what was our position? how were we situate? in the camp and in the hands of a soldier of fortune; a man cold and polite, probably cruel and possibly brutal, lacking enthusiasm, lacking, or i was mistaken, religion, without any check save such as his ambition or fears imposed upon him. and for his power, i saw him surrounded by desperadoes, soldiers in name, banditti in fact, savage, reckless, and unscrupulous; the men, or the twin-brothers of the men, who under another banner had sacked magdeburg and ravaged halle. what was to prevent such a man making his advantage out of us? what was to prevent him marching back to heritzburg and seizing town and castle under cover of my lady's name, or detaining us as long as he saw fit, or as suited his purpose? the landgrave and his minister were far away, plunged in the turmoil of a great war. the emperor's authority was at an end. the saxon circle to which we belonged was disorganized. all law, all order, all administration outside the walls of the cities were in abeyance. in his own camp and as far beyond it as his sword could reach the soldier of fortune was lord, absolute and uncontrolled. this trouble kept me turning and tossing for a good hour. at one moment, i made up my mind to rouse my lady before it was light and be gone with the dawn, if i could persuade her; at another, i judged it better to wait until the camp was struck and the horses were saddled, and then to bid tzerclas, while our numbers were something like equal, go his way and let us go ours--to frankfort or cassel, or wherever strong walls and honest citizens, with wives and daughters of their own, held out a prospect of safety. the mind once roused to activity works, whether a man will or no. when i had thought that matter threadbare, i fell, in my own despite and to my great torment, on another; the gold necklace. through the day, and pending some opportunity of restoring the chain by stealth, i had shunned its owner. her dejection, her silence, the way in which she drooped in the saddle, all had reproached me. to avoid that reproach, still more to avoid the meekness of her eyes, i had ridden at a distance from her, sometimes at the head of our company, sometimes at the tail, but never where she rode. and all day i had had a dozen things to consider. yet, in spite of this care and preoccupation, i had not succeeded in keeping her out of my mind. at fords and broken bits of the road, or at steep places where the track wound above the werra, the thought, 'how will she cross this?' had occurred to me, so that i had found it hard to hold off from her at such places. and, then, there was the necklace. it burned in my pocket. it made me feel, whenever my hand lighted on it, like a thief, and as mean as the meanest. for a time, it is true, after our meeting with tzerclas, i had managed to forget it; but now, in the watches of the night, i was consumed with longing to be rid of the thing, to see it back in her possession, to close the matter before some inconceivable trick of spiteful fortune put it out of my power to do so. for, what if an accident happened to me and the chain were found in my pocket? what would she think of me then? or if the last accident of all befell me, and she never got her own? these imaginations, working in a mind already fevered, spurred me so painfully that i felt i could hardly wait till morning. two or three times in the night i rose on my elbow and looked round the sleeping camp, and wished that i could return the chain to her then and there. i could not. and at last, not long before daybreak, i fell asleep. but even then the chain did not leave me at peace. it haunted my dreams. it slid through my fingers and fell away into unfathomable depths. or a man with his face hidden dangled it before my eyes, and went away, away, away, while i stood unable to move hand or foot. or i was digging in a pit for it, digging with nails and bleeding fingers, believing it to be another inch, always another inch below, yet never able to reach it however hard i worked. i awoke at last, bathed in perspiration and unrefreshed, to find the sun an hour up and the camp beginning to stir itself. here and there a man was renewing the fires, while his fellows sat up yawning, or, crouching chin and knees together, looked on drowsily. the chill morning air, the curling smoke, the song of the lark as it soared into the blue heaven, the snort and neigh of the tethered horses, the sounds of waking life and reality seemed to bless me. i thanked heaven it was a dream. young jacob was tending our fire, and i sat awhile, watching him sleepily. 'it will be a fine day,' i said at last, preparing to get to my feet. 'for certain,' he answered. then he looked at me shyly. 'you were in the wars, last night, master martin?' he said. 'in the wars?' i exclaimed. 'what do you mean?' and i stared at him; waiting, with one knee and one foot on the ground for his answer. he pointed to my cloak. i looked down, and saw to my surprise a great slit in it--a clean cut in the stuff, a foot long. for a moment i looked at the slit, wondering stupidly and trying to remember how i could have done it. then a sudden flash, of intelligence entered my mind, and with a dreadful pang of terror, i thrust my hand into my pouch. the chain was gone! i sprang to my feet. i tore off the pouch and peered into it. i shook my clothes like one possessed. i stooped and searched the ground where i had lain. but all fruitlessly. the chain was gone! as soon as i knew this for certain, i turned on jacob, and seizing him by the throat, shook him to and fro. 'wretch!' i said. 'you have slept! you have slept and let us be robbed! you have ruined me!' he gurgled out a startled denial, and the others came round us and got him from me. but my outcry had roused all our part of the camp; even my lady put her head out of the tent and asked what was the matter. some one told her. 'that is bad,' she said kindly. 'what is it you have lost, martin?' over her shoulder i saw a pale face peer out--marie wort's; and on the instant i felt my rage die down into a miserable chill, the chill of despair. 'seven ducats,' i said sullenly, looking down at the ground, for the truth, at sight of her, crushed me. i was a thief! this had made me one. who was i to cry out that i was robbed? 'it must be one of the strangers,' my lady said in a low voice and with an air of disturbance. 'do you----' i sprang away without waiting to hear more--they must have thought me mad. i tore to the spot where i had diced the night before. three or four men sat round the fire, swearing and grumbling, as is the manner of their kind in the morning; but the man i wanted was not among them. 'where is ludwig?' i panted. 'where is he?' a form, wrapped head and all in a cloak, struggled for a moment with its coverings, and freeing itself at last, rose to a sitting posture. it was captain ludwig. 'who wants me?' he muttered sleepily. 'i!' i cried, stooping and seizing him by the shoulder. i was trembling with excitement. 'i have been robbed! do you hear, man? i have been robbed! in the night!' he shook me off impatiently. 'well, what is that to me?' he grunted. and he turned to warm himself. 'where is the saxon who sat by me last night?' i demanded, almost beside myself with fury. 'how do i know?' he answered, shrugging his shoulders peevishly. 'robbed? well, you are not the first person that has been robbed. you need not make such an outcry about it. there is more than one thief about, eh, taddeo?' and he winked cunningly at his comrade. the man's indifference maddened me. i could scarcely keep my hands off him. fortunately, taddeo's answer put an end to my doubts. [illustration: . . . ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, continued to stamp and scream . . .] 'there is one less, at any rate, captain,' he said carelessly, stooping forward to stir the embers. 'the saxon is gone.' 'himmel! he has, has he? without leave?' ludwig answered. 'the worse for him if we catch him, that is all!' 'he went off with the german and his servants an hour before sunrise,' taddeo said with a yawn. 'he had better not let our noble general overtake him!' ludwig answered grimly, while i stood still, stricken dumb by the news. 'but enough of that. where is my cap?' taddeo pushed it towards him with his foot, and he took it up and put it on. he had no sooner done so, however, than a thought seemed to strike him. he snatched the cap off again, and, plunging his hand into it, groped in the lining. the next instant he sprang to his feet with a howl of rage. taddeo looked at him in astonishment. 'what is it?' he asked. for answer, ludwig ran at him and dealt him a tremendous kick. 'there, pig, that is for you!' he cried vengefully, his eyes almost starting from his head. 'you will not ask what it is next time! that saxon hound has robbed me--that is what it is. but he shall pay for it. he shall hang before night! every ducat i had he has taken, pig, dog, vermin that he is! but i'll be even with him. i'll lash----' and master ludwig, all his indifference cast to the winds, continued to stamp and scream so loudly that in the end tzerclas overheard him, and appeared. 'what is this?' the general said harshly. 'is that man mad?' ludwig grew a little calmer at sight of him. 'the saxon, heller,' he answered, scowling. 'he has deserted with fifty ducats of mine, general; good honest money!' 'the worse for you,' tzerclas answered cynically. 'and the worse for him, if i catch him. he will hang.' 'he has taken a gold chain of mine also,' i said, thrusting myself forward. the general looked hard at me. 'umph!' he said. 'which way has he gone?' 'he left with the german gentleman and his two servants at daybreak,' taddeo answered, rubbing himself. 'i thought that he had orders to go with them.' 'he has gone north, then?' 'north they started,' taddeo whimpered. the general turned to ludwig. 'take two men,' he said curtly, 'and follow him. but, whether you catch him or not, see that you are back two hours before noon. and let me have no more noise.' ludwig saluted hastily, and, it will be believed, lost no time in obeying his orders. in two minutes he was in the saddle, and dashed out of camp, followed by two of his men and one of my lady's, whom i took leave to add to the party for the better care of my property, should it be recovered. i looked after them with longing eyes, and listened to the last beat of the hoofs as they passed through the forest. and then for three hours i had to wait in a dreadful state of suspense and inaction. at the end of that time the party rode in again, the horses bloody with spurring, the riders gloomy and chapfallen. they had galloped four leagues without coming on the slightest trace of the fugitive or his companions. 'the german never went north,' ludwig said, looking darkly at his chief. tzerclas smoothed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. 'are you sure of that?' he asked. 'quite, general. they have all gone south together,' ludwig answered, 'and are far enough away by this time.' 'umph! well, we start in an hour.' and that was all! i wandered away and stood staring at the ground. i remembered that peter the locksmith had valued the chain at two hundred ducats, a sum exceeding any i could pay. but that was not the worst. what was i to say to the girl? how was i to explain a piece of folly, mischief, call it what you will, that had turned out so badly? if i told her the truth, would she believe me? at that thought i started. why tell her the truth at all? why not leave her in ignorance? she would be none the worse, for the chain was gone. and i, who had never meant to steal it, should be the better, seeing that i should escape the humiliation of confessing what i had done. confession could do no good to her. and in what a position it would place me! leaning against a tree and driving my heel moodily into the soil, i was still battling with this temptation--for a temptation i knew it was, even then--when a light touch fell on my sleeve. i turned, and there was the girl herself, waiting to speak to me! chapter xii. near the edge. 'will you give me back my--my chain, if you please?' she said timidly. and she stood with clasped hands and blushing cheeks, as if she were the culprit. her eyes looked anywhere to avoid mine. her voice trembled, and she seemed ready to sink into the earth with shame. she was small, weak, helpless. but her words! had they come from the judge sitting on his bench, with axe and branding-iron by his side, they could not have cowed me more completely, or deprived me more quickly of wit and courage. 'your chain?' i stammered, stricken almost voiceless. 'what do you mean?' 'if you please,' she whispered, her face flushing more and more, her eyes filling. 'my chain.' 'but how--what makes you think that i have got it?' i muttered hoarsely. 'what makes you come to me?' to confess, of my own motive and unsuspected, had been bad enough and shameful enough; but to be accused, unmasked, convicted--and by her! this was too much. my face burned, my eyes were hot as fire. she twisted the fingers of one hand tightly round the other, but she did not look up. 'you took it from the child's neck as we passed through the ford,' she said in a low voice, 'that night i lost it.' 'i did!' i exclaimed. 'i did, girl?' she nodded firmly, her lip trembling. but she never looked up; nor into my face! yet her insistence angered me. how did she know, how could she know? i put the question into words. 'how do you know?' i said harshly. 'who told you so? who told you this--this lie, woman?' 'the child,' she answered, shivering under my words. i opened my mouth and drew in my breath. i had never thought of that. i had never thought, save once for a brief moment, of the child talking, and, on the instant, i stood speechless; convicted and confounded! then i found my voice again. 'the child told you!' i muttered incredulously. 'the child? why, it cannot talk!' 'it can,' she said, her voice breaking. 'it can talk to me, and i can understand it. oh, i am so sorry!' and with that she broke down. she turned away and, covering her face with her hands, began to sob bitterly. her shoulders heaved, and her slender frame shook with the storm. a thief, and a liar! that was what i had made myself. i stood glaring at her, my breast full of sullen passion. i hated her and her necklace. i wished that it had been buried a thousand fathoms deep in the sea! that moment in the ford, one moment only, a moment of folly, had wrecked me. i raged against her and against myself. i could have struck her. if she had only left me alone, if she had not come to question me and accuse me, i should not have lied; and then, perhaps, i might have recovered the necklace, somehow and some day, and, giving it back to her, told her the story and kept my honesty. now i had lied, and she knew it. and i hated her. i hated her, sobbing and shaking and shivering before me. and then a ray of sunlight, passing through the branches, fell on her bowed head. a hundred paces away, little more, they were striking the camp. the men's voices, their harsh jests and rude laughter, reached us. i heard one man called, and another, and orders given, and the jingle of the bits and bridles. all was unchanged, everything was proceeding in its usual course. one thing only in the world was altered--martin schwartz, the steward. i found no words to lie to her farther, to deny or protest; and when we had stood thus for a short time, she turned. she began to move slowly away from me, though the passion of her tears seemed to increase rather than slacken as she went, and shook her frame with such vehemence that she could scarcely walk. for a time i stood looking after her in sullen shame, doing and saying nothing to stay her. then, suddenly, a change came over me. she looked so friendless, so frail, and gentle and helpless, that, in the middle of my selfish shame, my heart smote me. i felt a sudden welling up of pity and repentance, which worked so quickly and wonderfully in me, that before she had gone a score of paces from me, my hand was on her shoulder. 'stop! stay a moment!' i muttered hoarsely. 'i have been lying to you. i took the necklace--from the child's neck. it is all true.' she ceased crying, but she did not turn or look at me. she seemed to be struggling for composure, and presently, with her face still averted, she murmured-- 'why did you take it? will you please to tell me?' as well as i could, i did tell her; how and why i had taken it, what i had done with it, and how i had lost it. she listened, but she made no sign, she said nothing; and her silence hurt me at last so keenly that i added with bitterness-- 'i lied before, and you need not believe what i say now. still, it is true.' she turned her face quickly to me, and i saw that her cheeks were hot and her eyes shining. 'i believe it--every word,' she said. 'i will not lie to you again.' 'you never did,' she answered. and she stole a glance at me, a faint smile flickering about her lips. 'your face never did, master martin.' 'yet you wept sore enough for your chain,' i said. she looked at me for a moment with something like anger in her gentle eyes, so that for that instant she seemed transformed. and she drew away from me. 'did you think that i wept for that?' she said in a tone of offence. 'i did not.' 'then for what?' i asked clumsily. she looked two or three ways before she answered, and in the distance some one called me. 'there! you are wanted,' she said hurriedly. 'but you have not answered my question,' i said. she took a step from me and paused, with her head half turned. 'i wept--i wept because i thought that i had lost a friend,' she said in a low voice. 'and i have few, master martin.' she was gone, before i could answer, through the trees and back to the camp. and i had to follow. half a dozen voices in half a dozen places were calling my name. the general's trumpet was sounding. i slipped aside and joined the camp from another quarter, and in a moment was in the middle of the hubbub, beset by restive horses and swaying poles, clanging kettles and swearing riders, and all the hurry and confusion of the start. my lady called to me sharply to know where i had been, and why i was late. the waldgrave wanted this, fraulein max that. the general frowned at me from afar. it would have been no great wonder if i had lost my temper. but i did not; i was in no risk of doing so. i had gone near the edge and had been plucked back. late, and when all seemed over, i had been given a place for repentance; and gratitude and relief so filled my breast that i had a smile for every one. the sun seemed to shine more brightly, the wind to blow more softly--the wind which blew from marie wort to me. thank god! as i fell in behind my lady--the general riding alone some way in the rear--the waldgrave came up and took his place at her side; greeting her with an awkward air which seemed to prove that this was his first appearance in her neighbourhood. he made a show of hiding his uneasiness under a face of careless gaiety, such as was his natural wear; and for awhile he rattled on gallantly. but my lady's cool tone and short answers soon stripped him, and left him with no other resource but to take offence. he took it, and for a mile or so rode on in gloomy silence, brooding over his wrongs. then, anger giving way to self-reproach, he grew tired of this. with a sudden gesture he leaned over and laid his hand on the withers of my lady's horse. 'tell me, what is the matter, fair cousin?' he said in a softened tone. 'what have i done?' 'you should know,' she answered, giving him one keen glance, but speaking more gently than before. 'i know?' he replied hardily. 'i am sure i don't.' my lady shook her head. 'i think you do,' she said. 'i suppose you are angry with me for--for standing up for germany last night?' he muttered, withdrawing his hand and speaking coldly in his turn. 'no, not for that,' my lady rejoined. 'certainly not for that. but for being too german in one of your habits, rupert. which do you think made the better figure last night--you who were flushed with wine, or general tzerclas who kept his head cool? you who bragged like a boy, or general tzerclas who said less than he meant? you who were rude to your host; or he who made every allowance for his guest?' 'allowance!' my lord cried, firing up at the word. and i could see that he reddened to the nape of his neck with anger. 'there was no need!' 'yes, allowance,' my lady answered firmly. 'there was every need.' 'you would have me drink nothing, i suppose?' he said fretting and fuming. 'i would rather you drank nothing than too much,' she replied. 'because a german and a drunkard have come to mean the same thing, is that a reason for deepening the reproach? for shame, rupert!' 'you treat me like a boy!' he cried bitterly. and i thought that she was hard on him. 'well, you have only yourself to thank,' she retorted cruelly, 'if i do. you behave like a boy. and i do not like to have to blush for my friends.' that cut him deeply. he uttered a half-stifled cry of anger and reined in his horse. 'you have said enough,' he said, speaking thickly. 'you shall have no farther cause to blush in my case. i will relieve you.' and on the instant, with a low bow, he turned his horse's head and rode down the column towards the rear, leaving my lady to go on alone. i confess i thought that she had been hard on him; perhaps she thought so too, now he was gone. and here were the beginnings of a pretty quarrel. but i did not guess the direction it was likely to take, until a horseman spurred quickly by me, and in a moment general tzerclas, his velvet cloak hanging at his shoulder, had taken the waldgrave's place, and with his head bent low over his horse's neck was talking to my lady. i saw him indicate this and that quarter with his gauntleted hand. i could fancy that this was cassel, and that frankfort, and another his camp, and that he was proposing plans and routes. but what he said i could not hear. he had a low, quiet way of talking, very characteristic of him, which flattered those to whom he addressed himself and baffled others. and this, i suppose, it was that made me suspicious. for the longer i rode behind him and the more i considered him, the less i liked both him and the prospect. he was in the prime of his age and strength, inferior to the waldgrave in height and the air of youth, but superior in that which the other lacked--the bearing of a man of the world, tried by good and evil fortune, and versed in many perils. cool and resolute, handsome in a hard-bitten fashion, gifted, as i guessed, with infinite address, he possessed much to take the fancy of a woman; particularly of such a one as my lady, long used to comfort, and now learning in ill-fortune the value of a strong arm. the possibility of such an alliance, thus suddenly thrust on my notice, chilled me. anything, i said, rather than that. the waldgrave had not left his post five minutes before i began to think of him with longing, before i began to invest him with all manner of virtues. at least, he was a german, of a great and noble family, tied to the soil, and fettered in his dealings by a hundred traditions; while this man riding before me possessed not one of these qualities! von werder's warning, which the loss of marie wort's necklace had driven from my mind for a time, recurred with double force now, and did not tend to reassure me. i listened with all my might, trying to learn whether my lady was pledging herself to any course, for i knew that if she once promised i should find it hard to move her. but i could not catch a syllable, and presently there came an interruption which diverted my thoughts. one of the two men who rode in front, and served for the advanced guard of our party, came galloping back with his hand raised and a grin on his dark face. he pulled up his horse a few paces short of general tzerclas and my lady, and reported that he had found the saxon. 'what! heller?' the general exclaimed. 'here, ludwig! where are you?' ludwig, and i, and two or three more, spurred forward, and passing by my lady, who reined in her horse, came a hundred paces farther on upon the other trooper. he had dismounted and was stooping over a man's body, which lay under a great tree that stood a few yards from the track. 'so, so? he is dead, is he?' the captain cried, leaping from his saddle. 'ay, this hour or more,' the trooper answered with a grunt. 'and robbed!' 'robbed?' ludwig shrieked. 'then you have done it, you scoundrel.' 'not i!' the fellow said coolly. 'who ever it was killed him, robbed him. you can see for yourself that he has been dead an hour or more.' the sudden hope which had dawned in my breast sank again. the man lay on his back, with his one eye staring, and his mean, livid face turned up to the tree and the sunshine. his cap had fallen off, and a shock of hay-coloured hair added to the horror of his appearance. i tried in vain to hide a qualm as i watched the soldiers passing their practised hands over his clothes; but i was alone in this. no one else seemed to feel any emotion. the dead man lay and his comrades searched him, and i heard a hundred ribald and loose things said, but not one that smacked of pity or regret. so the man had lived, without love or mercy, and so he died. ludwig stood up at last. 'he has not the worth of his boots upon him!' he said, with a savage snarl. and he kicked the body. 'look in his cap!' i said. a man took it up, but only to hold it out to me. some one had already ripped it up with a knife. 'his boots!' i suggested desperately. in a moment they were drawn off, turned up, and shaken. but nothing fell out. the dead man had been stripped clean. there was not so much as a silver piece upon him. we got to horse gloomily, one man the richer by his belt, another by his boots. his arms were gone already. and so we left him lying under the tree for the next traveller to bury, if he pleased. i know it has an ill sound now, but we were in an evil mood, and the times were rough. 'the dog is dead, let the dog lie!' one growled. and that was his epitaph. with him disappeared, as it seemed to me, my last chance of recovering the necklace. whoever had robbed him, that was gone. a week might see it pass through a score of hands, a day might see it broken up, and spent, a link here and a link there. it was gone, and i had to face the fact and make up my mind to its consequences. i am bound to say that the reflection gave me less pain than i could have believed possible a few hours before. then it would almost have maddened me. now it troubled me, but not beyond endurance, leading me to go over with a jealous eye all the particulars of my interview with marie, but renewing none of the shame which had attended the first discovery of my loss. by turning my head i could see the girl plodding patiently on, a little behind me in the ranks; and i turned often. it no longer pained me to meet her eyes. an hour before sunset we crossed the brow of a low, furze-covered hill, and saw before us a shallow green valley or basin, through which the river wound in a hundred zigzags. the hovels of a small village, with one or two houses of a better size, stood dotted about the banks of the stream. over the largest of the buildings a banner hung idly on a pole, and from this as from the centre of a circle ran out long rows of wattled huts, which in the distance looked like bee-hives. endless ranks of horses stood hobbled in another place, with a forest of carts and sledges, and here a drove of oxen, and there a monstrous flock of sheep. one of the men with us blew a few notes on a trumpet; and the sound, being taken up at once and repeated, in a moment filled the mimic streets with a hurrying, buzzing crowd, that lent the scene all the animation possible. 'so, this is your camp?' my lady exclaimed, her eyes sparkling. 'this is my camp,' general tzerclas answered quietly. 'and it and i are equally at your service. presently we will bid you welcome after a more fitting fashion, countess.' 'and how many men have you here?' she asked quickly. 'two thousand,' he answered, with a faint smile. chapter xiii. our quarters. at this time i had never seen a camp, nor viewed any large number of armed men together, and my curiosity, as we dropped gently down the hill, while the sun set and the shadows of evening fell upon the busy scene, was mingled with some uneasiness. the babble of voices, of traders crying their wares, of men quarrelling at play, of women screaming and scolding, rose up continually, as from a fair; and the nearer we approached the more like a fair, the less like my anticipations, seemed the place we were entering. i looked to see something gay and splendid, the glitter of weapons and the gleam of flags, some reflection of the rich surroundings the general allowed himself. i saw nothing of the kind; no show of ordered lines, no battalia drilling, no picquets, outposts, or sentinels. on the contrary, all before us seemed squalid, noisy, turbulent; so that as i descended into the midst of it, and left the quiet uplands and the evening behind us, i felt my gorge rise, and shivered as with cold. a furlong short of the camp a troop of officers on horseback came to meet us, and saluting their general--some with hiccoughs--fell in tumultuously behind us; and their feathered hats and haphazard armour took the eye finely. but the next to meet us were of a different kind--beggars; troops of whom, men, women, and children, assailed us with loud cries, and, wailing and imploring aid, ran beside our horses, until tzerclas' men rode out at them and beat them off. to these succeeded a second horde, this time of gaudy, slatternly women, who hung about the entrance to the camp, with hucksters, peddlers, thieves, and the like, without number; so that our way seemed to lie through the lowest haunts of a great city. not one in four of all i saw had the air of a soldier or counted himself one. and this was the case inside the camp as well as outside. everywhere booths and stalls stood among the huts, and sutlers plied their trade. everywhere men wrangled, and women screamed, and naked children scuttered up and down. while we passed, the general's presence procured momentary respect and silence. the moment we were gone, the stream of ribaldry poured across our path, and the tide of riot set in. i saw plenty of bearded ruffians, dark men with scowling faces, chaffering, gaming or sleeping; but little that was soldierly, little that was orderly, nothing to proclaim that this was the lager of a military force, until we had left the camp itself behind us and entered the village. here in a few scattered houses were the quarters of the principal officers; and here a degree of quiet and decency and some show met the eye. a watch was set in the street, which was ankle-deep in filth. a few pennons fluttered from the eaves, or before the doors. in front of the largest house a dozen cannon, the wheels locked together with chains, were drawn up, and behind the buildings were groups of tethered horses. two trumpeters, who seemed to be waiting for us, blew a blast as we appeared, and a dozen officers on foot, some with pikes and some with partisans, came up to greet the general. but even here ugly looks and insolent faces were plentiful. the splendour was faded, the rich garments were set on awry. hard by the cannon, in the shadow of the house, a corpse hung and dangled from the branch of an oak. the man had kicked off his shoes before he died, or some one had taken them, and the naked feet, shining in the dusk, brushed the shoulders of the passers-by. some might have taken it for an evil omen; i found it a good one, yet wished more than ever that we had not met general tzerclas. but my lady, riding beside him and listening to his low-voiced talk, seemed not a whit disappointed by what she saw, by the lack of discipline, or the sordid crowd. either she had known better than i what to expect in a camp, or she had eyes only for such brightness as existed. possibly von werder's warning had so coloured my vision that i saw everything in sombre tints. we found quarters prepared for us, not in the general's house, the large one by the cannon, but in a house of four rooms, a little farther down the street. it was convenient, it had been cleaned for us, and we found a meal awaiting us; and so far i was bound to confess that we had no ground for complaint. the general accompanied my lady to the door, and there left her with many bows, requesting permission to wait on her next day, and begging her in the mean time to send to him for anything that was lacking to her comfort. when he was gone, and my lady had surveyed the place, she let her satisfaction be seen. the main room had been made habitable enough. she stood in her redingote, tapping the table with her whip. 'well, martin, this is better than the forest,' she said. 'yes, your excellency,' i answered reluctantly. 'i think we have done very well,' she continued; and she smiled to herself. 'we are safe from the rain, at any rate,' i said bluntly. my tongue itched to tell her von werder's warning, but fraulein anna and marie wort were in the room, and i did not think it safe to speak. i could not stay and not tell, however, and i jumped at the first excuse for retiring. there was a kind of wooden platform in front of the houses, and running their whole length; a walk, raised out of the mud of the street and sheltered overhead by the low, wide eaves. a woman and some children had climbed on to it, and begging with their palms through the windows almost deafened us. i ran out and drove them off, and set a man in front to keep the place free. but the wretched creatures' entreaties haunted me, and when i returned i was in a worse temper than before. the waldgrave met me at the door, and to my surprise laid his hand on my shoulder. 'this way, martin,' he said in a low voice. 'i want a word with you.' i went with him across the road, and leaned against the fallen trunk of a tree, which was just visible in the darkness. through the unglazed windows of the house we could see the lighted rooms, the countess and her attendants moving about, fraulein anna sitting with her feet tucked up in a corner, the servants bringing in the meal. all in a frame of blackness, with the hoarse sounds of the camp in our ears, and the pitiful wailing of the beggars dying away in the distance. it was a dark night, and still. the waldgrave laughed. 'dilly, dilly, dilly! come and be killed,' he muttered. 'two thousand soldiers? two thousand cut-throats, martin. pappenheim's black riders were gentlemen beside these fellows!' 'things may look more cheerful by daylight,' i said. 'or worse!' he answered. i told him frankly that i thought the sooner we were out of the camp the better. 'if we can get out! of course, it is better for the mouse when it is out of the trap!' he answered with a sneer. 'but there is the rub.' 'he would not dare to detain us,' i said. i did not believe my words, however. 'he will dare one of two things,' the waldgrave answered firmly, 'you may be sure of that: either he will march your lady back to heritzburg, and take possession in her name, with this tail at his heels--in which case, heaven help her and the town. or he will keep her here.' i tried to think that he was prejudiced in the matter, and that his jealousy of general tzerclas led him to see evil where none was meant. but his fears agreed so exactly with my own, that i found it difficult to treat his suggestions lightly. what the camp was, i had seen; how helpless we were in the midst of it, i knew; what advantage might be taken of us, i could imagine. presently i found an argument. 'you forget one thing, my lord,' i said. 'general tzerclas is on his way to the south. in a week we shall be with the main army at nuremberg, and able to appeal to the king of sweden or the landgrave or a hundred friends, ready and willing to help us.' the waldgrave laid his hand on my arm. 'he does not intend to go south,' he said. i could not believe that; and i was about to state my objections when the noisy march of a body of men approaching along the road disturbed us. the waldgrave raised his hand and listened. 'another time!' he muttered--already we began to fear and be secret--'go now!' in a trice he disappeared in the darkness, while i went more slowly into the house, where i found my lady inquiring anxiously after him. i thought that the young lord would follow me in, and i said i had seen him. but he did not come, and presently wild strains of music, rising on the air outside, took us all by surprise and effectually diverted my lady's thoughts. the players proved to be the general's band, sent to serenade us. as the weird, strange sweetness of the air, with its southern turns and melancholy cadences, stole into the room and held the women entranced--while moths fluttered round the lights and the servants pressed to the door to listen, and now and then a harsh scream or a distant oath betrayed the surrounding savagery--i felt my eyes drawn to my lady's face. she sat listening with a rapt expression. her eyes were downcast, her lashes drooped and veiled them; but some pleasant thought, some playful remembrance curved her full lips and dimpled her chin. what was the thought, i wondered? was it gratification, pleasure, complacency, or only amusement? i longed to know. on one point i was resolved. my lady should not sleep that night until she had heard the warning i had received from von werder. to that end i did all i could to catch her alone, but in the result i had to content myself with an occasion when only fraulein anna was with her. time pressed, and perhaps the dutch girl's presence confused me, or the delicacy of the position occurred to me _in mediis rebus_, as i think the fraulein called it. at any rate, i blurted out the story a little too roughly, and found myself called sharply to order. 'stay!' my lady said, and i saw too late that her colour was high. 'not so fast, man! i think, martin, that since we left heritzburg you have lost some of your manners! see to it, you recover them. who told you this tale?' 'herr von werder,' i answered with humility; and i was going on with my story. but she raised her hand. 'herr von werder!' she said haughtily. 'who is he?' 'the gentleman who supped with us last night,' i reminded her. she stamped the floor impatiently. 'fool!' she cried, 'i know that! but who is he? who is he? he should be some great man to prate of my affairs so lightly.' i stuttered and stammered, and felt my cheek redden with shame. _i did not know_. and the man was not here, and i could not reproduce for her the air of authority, the tone and look which had imposed on me: which had given weight to words i might otherwise have slighted, and importance to a warning that i now remembered was a stranger's. i stood, looking foolish. my lady saw her advantage. 'well,' she said harshly, 'who is he? out with it, man! do not keep us waiting.' i muttered that i knew no more of him than his name. 'perhaps not that,' she retorted scornfully. i admitted that it might be so. my lady's eyes sparkled and her cheeks flamed. 'before heaven, you are a fool!' she cried. 'how dare you come to me with such a story? how dare you traduce a man without proof or warranty! and my cousin! why, it passes belief. on the word of a nameless wanderer admitted to our table on sufferance you accuse an honourable gentleman, our kinsman and our host, of--heaven knows of what, i don't! i tell you, you shame me!' she continued vehemently. 'you abuse my kindness. you abuse the shelter given to us. you must be mad, stark mad, to think such things. or----' she stopped on a sudden and looked down frowning. when she looked up again her face was changed. 'tell me,' she said in a constrained voice, 'did any one--did the waldgrave rupert suggest this to you?' 'god forbid!' i said. the answer seemed to embarrass her. 'where is he?' she asked, looking at me suspiciously. i told her that i did not know. 'why did he not come to supper?' she persisted. again i said i did not know. 'you are a fool!' she replied sharply. but i saw that her anger had died down, and i was not surprised when she continued in a changed tone, 'tell me; what has general tzerclas done to you that you dislike him so? what is your grudge against him, martin?' 'i have no grudge against him, your excellency,' i answered. 'you dislike him?' i looked down and kept silence. 'i see you do,' my lady continued. 'why? tell me why, martin.' but i felt so certain that every word i said against him would in her present mood only set him higher in her favour that i was resolved not to answer. at last, being pressed, i told her that i distrusted him as a soldier of fortune--a class the country folk everywhere hold in abhorrence; and that nothing i had seen in his camp had tended to lessen the feeling. 'a soldier of fortune!' she replied, with a slight tinge of wonder and scorn. 'what of that? my uncle was one. lord craven, the englishman, the truest knight-errant that ever followed banished queen--if all i hear be true--he is one; and his comrade, the lord horace vere. and count leslie, the scotchman, who commands in stralsund for the swede, i never heard aught but good of him. and count thurn of bohemia--him i know. he is a brave man and honourable. a soldier of fortune!' she continued thoughtfully, tapping the table with her fingers. 'and why not? why not?' my choler rose at her words. 'he has the sweepings of germany in his train,' i muttered. 'look at his camp, my lady.' she shrugged her shoulders. 'a camp is not a nunnery,' she said. 'and at any rate, he is on the right side.' 'his own!' i exclaimed. i could have bitten my tongue the next moment, but it was too late. my lady looked at me sternly. 'you grow too quick-witted,' she said. 'i have talked too much to you, i see. i am no longer in heritzburg, but i will be respected, martin. go! go at once, and to-morrow be more careful.' result--that i had offended her and done no good. i wondered what the waldgrave would say, and i went to bed with a heart full of fancies and forebodings, that, battening on themselves, grew stronger and more formidable the longer i lay awake. the night was well advanced and the immediate neighbourhood of our quarters was quiet. the sentry's footsteps echoed monotonously as he tramped up and down the wooden platform before them. i could almost hear the breathing of the sleepers in the other rooms, the creak of the floor as one rose or another turned. there was nothing to keep me from sleep. but my thoughts would not be confined to the four walls or the neighbourhood; my ears lent themselves to every sound that came from the encircling camp, the coarse song chanted by drunken revellers, the oath of anger, the shrill taunt, the cry of surprise. and once, a little before midnight, i heard something more than these: a sudden roar of voices that swelled up and up, louder and fiercer, and then died in a moment into silence--to be followed an instant later by fierce screams of pain--shriek upon shriek of such mortal agony and writhing that i sat up on my pallet, trembling all over and bathed in perspiration; and even the sleepers turned and moaned in their dreams. the cries grew fainter. then, thank heaven! silence. but the incident left me in no better mood for sleep, and with every nerve on the stretch i was turning on the other side for the twentieth time when i fancied i heard whispering outside; a faint muttering as of some one talking to the sentinel. the sentry's step still kept time, however, and i was beginning to think that my imagination had played me a trick, when the creak of a door in the house, followed by a rustling sound, confirmed my suspicions. i rose to my feet. the next instant a low scream and the harsh voice of the watchman told me that something had happened. i passed out of the house, without alarming any one, and was not surprised to find jacob pinning a captive against the wall with one hand, while he threatened him with his pike. there was just light enough to see this, and no more, the wide eaves casting a black shadow on the prisoner's face. 'what is it, jacob?' i said, going to his assistance. 'whom have you got?' 'i do not know,' he answered sturdily, 'but i'll keep him. he was trying to get in or out. steady now,' he added gruffly to his captive, 'or i will spoil your beauty for you!' 'in or out?' i said. 'ay, i think he was coming out.' there was a fire burning in the road a score of paces away. i ran to it and fetched a brand, and blowing the smouldering wood into a blaze, threw the light on the fellow's face. jacob dropped his hand with a cry of surprise, and i recoiled. his prisoner was a woman--marie wort. she hung down her head, trembling violently. jacob had thrust back the hood from her face, and her loosened hair covered her shoulders. 'what does it mean?' i cried, struggling with my bewilderment. 'why are you here, girl?' instead of answering she cowered nearer the wall, and i saw that she was trying to hide something behind her under cover of her cloak. 'what have you got there?' i said quickly, laying my hand on her wrist. she flashed a look at me, her small teeth showing, a mutinous glare on her little pale face. 'not my chain!' she snapped. i dropped her arm and recoiled as if she had struck me; though the words did not so much hurt as surprise me. and i was quick to recover myself. 'what is it, then?' i said, returning to the attack. 'i must know, marie, and what you are doing here at this time of night.' as she did not answer i put her cloak aside, and discovered, to my great astonishment, that she was holding a platter full of food. it shook in her hand. she began to cry. 'heavens, girl!' i exclaimed in my wonder, 'have you not had enough to eat?' she lifted her head and looked at me through her tears, her eyes sparkling with indignation. 'i have!' she said almost fiercely. 'but what of these?'--and she flung her disengaged hand abroad, with a gesture i did not at once comprehend. 'can you sleep in their beds, and lie in their houses, and eat from their meal-tubs, and think of them starving, and not get up and help them? can you hear them whining for food like dogs, and starve them as you would not starve a dog? i cannot. i cannot!' she repeated wildly. 'but you, you others, you of the north, you have no hearts! you lie soft and care nothing!' 'but what--who are starving?' i said in amazement. her words outran my wits. 'and where is the man in whose bed i am lying?' 'under the sky! in the ditch!' she answered passionately. 'are you blind?' she continued, speaking more quietly and drawing nearer. 'do you think your general built this village? if not, where are the people who lived in it a month ago? whining for a crust at the camp gate. living on offal, or starving. fighting with the dogs for bones. i heard a man outside this house cry that it was all his, and that he was starving. you drove him off. i heard his wife and babes wailing outside a while ago, and i came out. i could not bear it.' i looked at jacob. he nodded gravely. 'there was a woman here, with a child,' he said. 'heaven forgive us!' i cried. then--'go in, girl,' i continued. 'i will see the food put where they will get it; but do you go to bed.' she obeyed meekly, leaving me wondering at the strange mixture of courage and fearfulness which makes up some women, and those the best; who fly from a rat, yet face every extremity of pain without flinching. a romanist? and what of that? it seemed to me a small thing, as i watched her gliding in. if she knew little and that awry, she loved much. i looked at jacob and he at me. 'is it true, do you think?' i said. 'i doubt it is,' he answered stolidly, dropping the smouldering brand on the ground and treading, it out with his heel. 'i have seen soldiers and sutlers and women since i came into camp; and beggars. but peasants not one. i doubt we have eaten them out, master martin. but soldiers must live.' the little heap of red embers glowed dully in the road and gave no light. the darkness shut us in on every side, even as the camp shut us in. i looked out into it and shuddered. it seemed to my eyes peopled with horrors: with gaping mouths that cursed us as they set in death, with lean hands that threatened us, and tortured faces of maids and children; with the despair of the poor. ghosts of starving men and women glared at us out of spectral eyes. and the night seemed full of omens. chapter xiv. the opening of a duel. i never knew where the waldgrave spent that night, but i think it must have been with the fairies. for when he showed himself early next morning, before my lady appeared, i noticed at once a change in him; and though at first i was at a loss to explain it, i presently saw that that had happened which might have been expected. the appearance of a rival had laid the spark to his heart, and while the love-light was in his eyes, a new gravity, a new gentleness added grace to his bearing. the temper and pettiness of yesterday were gone. other things, too, i saw--that his face flushed when my lady's voice was heard at the door, that his eyes shone when she entered. he had a nosegay of flowers for her--wild flowers he had gathered in the early morning, with the dew upon them--which he offered her with a little touch of humility. doubtless the fret and passion of yesterday had not been thrown away on him. he had learned in the night both that he loved, and the lowliness that comes of love. it wanted but that, it seemed to me, to make him perfect in a woman's eyes; and i saw my lady's dwell very kindly on him as he turned away. a little, i think, she wondered; his tone was so different, his desire to please so transparent, his avoidance of everything that might offend so ready. but such service wins its way; and my lady's own kindness and gaiety disposing her to meet his advances, she seemed in a few moments to have forgotten whatever cause of complaint he had given her. the general's band came early, to play while she ate, but i noticed with satisfaction that the music moved her little this morning, either because she was taken up with talking to her companion, or because the romantic circumstances of the evening, darkness and vague surroundings, and the lassitude of fatigue, were lacking. with the sunshine and fresh air pouring in through the open windows, the strains which yesterday awoke a hundred associations and stirred mysterious impulses fell almost flat. the waldgrave made no attempt to resume the conversation he had held with me by the fallen tree. either love, or respect for his mistress, made him reticent, or he was practising self-control. and i said nothing. but i understood, and set myself keenly to watch this duel between the two men. if i read the general's intentions aright, the young lord's influence with the countess could scarcely grow except at the general's expense; his suit, if successful, must oust that which the elder man, i was sure, meditated. and this being so, all my wishes were on one side. my fear of the general had so grown in the night, that i suspected him of a hundred things; and could only think of him as an antagonist to be defeated--a foe from whom we must expect the worst that force or fraud could effect. he came soon after breakfast to pay his respects to my lady, and alighted at the door with great attendance and endless jingling of bits and spurs. he brought with him several of his officers, and these he presented to the countess with so much respect and politeness that even i could find no fault with the action. one or two of the men, rough silesians, were uncouth enough; but he covered their mistakes so cleverly that they served only to set off his own good breeding. he had not been in the room five minutes, however, before i saw that he remarked the change which had come over the waldgrave, and perhaps some corresponding change in my lady's manner; and i saw that it chafed him. he did not lose his air of composure, but he grew less talkative and more watchful. presently he let drop something aimed at the young man; a light word, inoffensive, yet likely to draw the other into a debate. but the waldgrave refrained, and the general soon afterwards rose to take leave. he had come, it seemed, to invite my lady's presence at a shooting-match which was to take place outside the camp at noon. he spoke of the match as a thing arranged before our arrival, but i have no doubt that the plan had its origin in a desire to please my lady and fill the day. he spoke, besides, of a hunting-party to take place next morning, with a banquet at his quarters to follow; of a review fixed for the day after that; and, in the still remoter distance, of races and a trip to a neighboring waterfall, with other diversions. i heard the arrangements made, and my lady's frank acceptance, with a sinking heart; for under the perfect courtesy of his manner, behind the frank desire to give her pleasure which he professed, i felt his power. while he spoke, though i could find no fault with him, i felt the steel hand inside the silk glove. and these plans? even my lady, though her eyes sparkled with anticipation--she loved pleasure with a healthy, honest love--looked a little startled. 'but i thought that you were marching southwards, general tzerclas,' she said. 'at once i mean?' 'i am,' he answered, bowing easily--he had already risen. 'but an army, countess, marches more slowly than a travelling party. and i am expecting despatches which may vary my route.' 'from the king of sweden?' 'yes,' he answered. 'the king has arrived at nuremberg, and expects shortly to be attacked by wallenstein, who is on the march from egra.' 'but shall you be in time for the battle?' she asked, her eyes shining. 'i hope so,' he replied, smiling. 'or my part may be less glorious--to cut off the enemy's convoys.' 'i should not like that!' she exclaimed. 'nevertheless, it is a very necessary function,' he said. 'as the waldgrave rupert will tell your excellency.' the young lord agreed, and a moment later the general with his jingling attendants took his leave and clattered out and mounted before the door. my lady went to the window and waved adieu to him, and he lowered his great plumed hat to his stirrup. 'at noon?' he cried, making his horse curvet in the roadway. 'without fail!' my lady answered gaily, and she stood at the window looking out until the last gleam of steel sank in a cloud of dust and the beggars closed in before the door. the waldgrave leaned against the wall behind her with his lips set and a grave face. but he said nothing, and when she turned he had a smile for her. it seemed to me that these two had changed places; the waldgrave had grown older and my lady younger. a few minutes before noon, captain ludwig and a sub-officer of the same rank, a pole with long hair, came to conduct my lady to the scene of the match. they were arrayed in all their finery, and made a show of such etiquette as they knew. for our part we did not keep them waiting; five minutes saw us mounted and riding through the camp. this wore, to-day, a more martial and less disorderly appearance. the part we traversed was clear of women and gamesters, while sentries stationed at the gate, and a guard of honour which fell in behind us at the same spot, proved that the eye of the master could even here turn chaos into order. i do not know that the change pleased me much, for if it lessened my dread of the cutthroats by whom we were surrounded, it increased the awe in which i held their chief. the shooting was fixed to take place in a narrow valley diverging from the river, a mile or more from the camp. it was a green, gently-sloping place, such as sheep love; but the sheep had long ago been driven into quarters, and the shepherd to the listing-sergeant or the pike. a few ruined huts told the tale; the hills which rose on either side were silent and untrodden. not so the valley itself, which lay bathed in sunshine. it roared with the babel of a great multitude. a straight course, two hundred yards in length, had been roped off for the shooting, and round this the crowd thronged and pushed, or, breaking here or there into fragments, wandered up and down outside the lines, talking and gesticulating, so that the place seemed to swarm with life and movement and colour. i had seen such a spectacle and as large a crowd at heritzburg--once a year, it may be. but there the gathering had not the wild and savage elements which here caught the eye; the hairy, swarthy faces and black, gleaming eyes, the wild garb, and brandished weapons and fierce gestures, that made this crowd at once curious and formidable. the babel of unknown tongues rose on every side. poland and lithuania, scotland and the rhine, equally with hungary, italy, and bohemia, had their representatives in this strange army. general tzerclas and his staff occupied a mound near the lower end of the valley. on seeing our party approach, he rode down to meet us, followed by thirty or forty officers, whose dress and equipments, even more than those of their men, fixed the attention; for while some wore steel caps and clumsy cuirasses, with silk sashes and greasy trunk-hose, others, better acquainted with the mode, affected huge flapped hats and velvet doublets, with falling collars of lace, and untanned boots reaching to the middle of the thigh. one or two wore almost complete armour; others, gay silks, stained with wine and weather. their horses, too, were of all sizes, from tall flemings to small, wiry hungarians, and their arms were as various. one huge fat man, whose flesh swayed as he moved, carried a steel mace at his saddle-bow. another swept along with a lance, raking the sky behind him. great horse-pistols were common, and swords with blades so long that they ploughed the ground. varying in everything else, in one thing these warlike gentry agreed. as they came prancing towards us, i did not see a face among them that did not repel me, nor one that i could look at with respect or liking. where dissipation had not set its seal so plainly as to oust all others, or some old wound did not disfigure, cruelty, greed, and recklessness were written large. the glare of the bully shone alike under flapped hat and iron cap. one might show a swollen visage, flushed with excess, and another a thin, white, cruel face; but that was all the odds. the sight of such a crew should have opened my lady's eyes and enlightened her as to the position in which we stood. but women see differently from men. too often they take swagger for courage, and recklessness for manhood. and, besides, the very defects of these men, their swashbuckling manners and banditti guise, only set off the more the perfect dress and quiet bearing of their leader, who, riding in their midst, seemed, with his cold, calm face and air of pride, like nothing so much as the fairy prince among the swine. he wore a suit of black velvet, with a falling collar of utrecht lace, and a white sash. a feather adorned his hat, and his furniture and sword-hilt were of steel. this, i afterwards learned, was a favourite costume with him. at odd times he relapsed into finery, but commonly he affected a simplicity which suited his air and features, and lost nothing by comparison with the tawdriness of his attendants. he sprang from his horse at the foot of the slope, and, resigning it to a groom, took my lady's rein and, bareheaded, led her to the summit of the mound. the waldgrave with fraulein anna followed, and the rest of us as closely as we could. the officers crowded thick upon us and would have edged us out, but i had primed my men, and though they quailed before the others' scowls and curses, they kept together, so that we not only had the advantage of watching the sport from a position immediately behind the countess, but heard all that passed. at the end of the open space i have mentioned stood three targets in a line. these were peculiar, for they consisted of dummies cased in leather, shaped so exactly to the form of men, that, at a distance of two hundred yards, it was only by the face i could tell that they were not men. where the features should have been was a whitened circle, and on, the breast of each a heart in chalk. they were so life-like that they gave an air of savagery to the sport, and made me shudder. when i had scanned them, i turned and found captain ludwig at my elbow. 'what is it?' he said, grinning. 'our targets? fine practice, comrade. they are the general's own invention, and i have known them put to good use.' 'how?' i asked. he spoke under his breath. i adopted the same tone. 'you will know by, and by,' he answered, with a wink. 'sometimes we find a traitor in the camp; or we catch a spy. then--but you need not fear. drawing-room practice to-day. there is no one in them.' 'in them?' i muttered, unable to take my eyes from his face. he nodded. 'ay, in them,' he answered, smiling at my look of consternation. 'time has been i have known one in each, and cross-bow practice. that makes them squeal! with powder and a flint-lock--pouf! it is all over. unless you put the butter-fingers first; then there is sport, perhaps.' little wonder that after that i paid no attention to the shooting, which had begun; nor to the brawling and disagreement which from the first accompanied it, and which it needed all the general's authority to quell. i thought only of our position among these wretches. if i had felt any doubt of general tzerclas' character before, the doubt troubled me no more. but it did occur to me that ludwig might be practising on me, and i turned to him sharply. 'i see!' i said, pretending that i had found him out. 'a good joke, captain!' he grinned again. 'you would not call it one,' he said dryly, 'if you were once in the leather. but have it your own way. come, there is a good shot, now. he is a swiss, that fellow.' but i could take no interest in the shooting, with that ghastly tale in my head. i felt for the moment the veriest coward. we were ten in the midst of two thousand--ten men and four helpless women! our own strength could not avail us, and we had nothing else under heaven to depend upon, except the scruples, or interest, or fears of a mercenary captain; a man whose hardness the thin veil of politeness barely hid, who might be scrupulous, gentle, merciful--might be, in a word, all that was honourable. but whence, then, this story? why this tale of cruelty, passing the bounds of discipline? it so disheartened me that for some time i scarcely noticed what was passing before me; and i might have continued longer in this dull state if the waldgrave's voice, civilly declining some proposition, had not caught my ear. i gathered then what the offer was. among the matches was one for officers, and in this the general was politely inviting his guest to compete. but the waldgrave continued firm. 'you are very good,' he answered with perfect frankness and good temper. 'but i think i will not expose myself. i shoot badly with a strange gun.' it was so unlike him to miss a chance of distinction, or underrate his merits, that i stared. he was changed, indeed, to-day; or he thought the position very critical, the need of caution very great. the general continued to urge him; and so strongly that i began to think that our host had his own interests to serve. 'oh, come,' he said, in a light, gibing tone which just stopped short of the offensive. 'you must not decline. there are five competitors--two bohemians, a scot, a pole, and a walloon; but no german. you cannot refuse to shoot for germany, waldgrave?' the waldgrave shook his head, however. 'i should do germany small honour, i am afraid,' he said. the general smiled unpleasantly. 'you are too modest,' he said. 'it is not a national failing,' the waldgrave answered, smiling also. 'i fancy it must be,' the general retorted. 'and that is the reason we see so little of germans in the war!' the words were almost an insult, though a dull man, deceived by the civility of the speaker's tone, might have overlooked it. the waldgrave understood, however. i saw him redden and his brow grow dark. but he restrained himself, and even found a good answer. 'germany will find her champions,' he said, 'when she seriously needs them.' 'abroad!' the general replied, speaking in a flash, as it were. the instant the word was said, i saw that he repented it. he had gone farther than he intended, and changed his tone. 'well, if you will not, you will not,' he continued smoothly. 'unless our fair cousin can succeed where i have failed, and persuade you.' 'i?' my lady said--she had not been attending very closely. 'i will do what i can. why will you not enter, rupert? you are a good shot.' 'you wish me to shoot?' the waldgrave said slowly. 'of course!' she answered. 'i think it is a shame general tzerclas has so few german officers. if i could shoot, i would shoot for the honour of germany myself.' the waldgrave bowed. 'i will shoot,' he said coldly. 'good!' general tzerclas answered, with a show of _bonhomie_. 'that is excellent. will you descend with me? each competitor is to fire two shots at the figure at eighty paces. those who lodge both shots in the target, to fire one shot at the head only.' the young lord bowed and prepared to follow him. 'comrade,' ludwig said in my ear, as i watched them go, 'your master had better have stood by his first word.' 'why?' 'he will do no good.' 'why not?' i asked. 'the bohemian yonder--the fat man--will shoot round him. his little pig's eyes see farther than others. besides, the devil has blessed his gun. he cannot miss.' 'what! that tun of flesh?' i cried, for he was pointing to the gross, unwieldy man, at whose saddle-bow i had marked the iron mace. 'is he a bohemian?' ludwig nodded. 'count waska, they call him. there is no man in the camp can shoot with him or drink with him.' 'we shall see,' i said grimly. i had little hope, however. the waldgrave was a good shot; but a man was not likely to have a reputation for shooting in such a camp as this, where every one handled pistol or petronel, unless his aim was something out of the common. and listening to the talk round me, i found that count waska's comrades took his victory for granted. their confidence explained general tzerclas' anxiety to trap the waldgrave into shooting. the jealous feeling which had been all on the waldgrave's side yesterday, had spread to him to-day. he wished to see his rival beaten in my lady's presence. i longed to disappoint him; i felt sore besides for the honour of germany. i could not leave my lady, or i would have gone down to see that the waldgrave had fair play, and a clean pan, and silence when he fired. but i watched with as much excitement as any in the field, all that passed; i doubt if i ever took part in a match myself with greater keenness and interest than i felt as a spectator of this one. from our elevated position we could see everything, and the sight was a curious one. the rabble of spectators--soldiers and women, sutlers and horse-boys--stretched away in two dark lines, ten deep, being kept off the range by a dozen men armed with whips. the clamour of their hoarse shouting went up continuously, and sometimes almost deafened us. immediately below us, at the foot of the mound, the champions and their friends were gathered, settling rests, keying up the wheels of their locks, and trying the flints. owing to the waldgrave's presence, which somewhat imposed upon the other officers both by reason of his rank and strangeness, the contest seemed likely to be conducted more decently than those which had preceded it. he was invited to shoot first, and when he excused himself on the ground that he was not yet familiar with his gun, count waska good-humouredly consented to open the match. his weapon, i remarked--and i treasured up the knowledge and have since made use of it--was smaller in the bore than the others. he came forward and fired very carelessly, scarcely stooping to the rest; but he hit the figure fairly in the breast with both bullets and retired, a stolid smile on his large countenance. the waldgrave was the next to advance, and if he felt one half of the anxiety i felt myself, it was a wonder he let off his gun at all. general tzerclas had returned to the countess's side, and was speaking to her; but he paused at the critical moment, and both stood gazing, my lady with her lips parted and her eyes bright. the desire to see the stranger shoot was so general that something like silence prevailed while he aimed. i had time to conjure up half a dozen miseries--the gun might not be true, the powder weak; and then, bang! i saw the figure rock. he had hit it fairly in the breast, and i breathed again. my lady cried, 'vivat! good shot!' and he looked up at her before he primed his pan for a second trial. this time i felt less fear, the crowd less interest. the babel began afresh. his second bullet struck somewhat lower, but struck; and he stood back, his face flushed with pleasure. honour, at any rate, was safe. the scot hit with both balls, the pole with one only. last of all the walloon, a grim dark officer in a stained buff coat, who seemed to be unpopular with the soldiery, fired in the midst of such a storm of gibes and hisses that i wondered he could aim at all. he did, however, and hit with his second bullet. even so he and the pole stood out, leaving the waldgrave, count waska, and the scot to fire at the head. huge was the clamour which followed on this, half the company bellowing out offers to stake all that they had on the count--money, chains, armour. meanwhile i looked at the general to see how he took it. he had fallen silent, and my lady also. they stood gazing down on the competitors and their preparations, as if they were aware that more hung on the issue than a simple match at arms. count waska advanced for the final shot, and this time he made ample use of the rest, aiming long and carefully over it. he fired, and i looked eagerly at the target. a roar of applause greeted the shot. the bullet had pierced the whitened face a little to the left, high up. it was the waldgrave's turn now. he came forward, with an air of quiet confidence, and set his weapon on the crutch. this time two or three voice's were raised, gibing him; the crowd was growing jealous of its champion's reputation. i longed to be down among them, and i saw my lady's eyes flash and her colour rise. she looked indignantly at tzerclas. but the general's face was set. he did not seem to hear. flash! plop! in a moment i was shouting with the rest, shouting lustily for the honour of the house! the waldgrave had lodged his ball in the upper part of the face towards the right-hand side. if waska had put in the one eye, he had put in the other. we shouted. but the camp hung silent, gloomily wondering whether this were luck or skill. and the general stood silent too. it was not until my lady had cried, 'vivat! vivat weimar!' in her frank, brave voice, that he spoke and echoed the compliment. when he had spoken, sullen silence fell upon the crowd again. i saw men look at us--not pleasantly; until the scot by taking his place at the crutch diverted their attention. it seemed to me that he was an hour arranging the rest and his weapon, scraping his priming this way and that, and putting in a fresh flint at the last moment. at length he fired. a roar of laughter followed. he had missed the target altogether. how it was arranged i do not know, but we saw at once that waska and the waldgrave were about to take another shot. the bohemian, as he levelled his weapon with care, looked up at us. 'we have put in his eyes,' he said in his guttural tones. 'i propose to put in his nose. if his excellency can better that, i give him the bone.' he aimed very diligently, amid such a silence you could have heard a feather drop, and fired. he did as he had promised. his ball pierced the very middle of the face, a little below and between the two shots. a wild roar of applause greeted the achievement. even we who felt our honour at stake shouted with the rest and threw up our caps; while my lady took off in her admiration a slender gold chain which she wore round her neck and flung it to the champion, crying 'vivat bohemia! vivat waska!' he bowed with grotesque gallantry, and one of the bystanders picked up the chain and gave it to him. we smiled; for, too fat to kneel or stoop, he could no more have recovered the gift himself than he could have taken wings and flown. fraulein anna muttered something about tantalus and water, but i did not understand her, and in a moment the waldgrave gave me something else to think about. he stepped forward when the noise and cheering had somewhat subsided, and like his antagonist he looked up also. 'i do not see what there is left for me to do,' he said, with a gallant air. 'i could give him a mouth, but i fear i may set it on awry.' thrice he took aim, and, dissatisfied, forbore to fire. the crowd, silent at first, and confident of their champion's victory, began to jeer. at length he pulled. plop! the smoke cleared away. an inch below waska's last shot appeared another orifice. the waldgrave had put in the mouth. we waved our caps and shouted until we were hoarse; and the crowd shouted. but it soon became evident, amid the universal clamour and uproar, that there were two parties: one acclaiming the waldgrave's success, and another and larger one crying fiercely that he was beaten--that he was beaten! that his shot was not so near the centre of the target as count waska's. the waldgrave's promise to make the mouth had been heard by a few only, mainly his friends; and while these, headed by the bohemian, who showed that his clumsy carcase still contained some sparks of chivalry, tried to explain the matter to others, the camp with one voice bellowed against him, the more excited brandishing fists and weapons in the air, while the less moved kept up a stubborn and monotonous chant of 'waska! waska! waska!' the only person unaffected by the tumult appeared to be the waldgrave himself; who stood looking up at us in silence, a smile on his face. presently, the noise still continuing, i saw him clap count waska on the shoulder, and the two shook hands. the count seemed by his gestures--for the uproar and tumult were so great that all was done in dumb show--to be deprecating his retreat. but the younger man persisted, and by-and-by, after saluting the other competitors, he turned away, and began to force his way up the mound. it was time he did; the crowd had burst its bounds and flooded the range. the scene below was now a sea of wild confusion. such an ending seemed stupid in the extreme; in any place where ordinary discipline prevailed, it would have been easy to procure silence and restore order. and my lady, her face flushed with indignation, turned impatiently to the general, to see if he would not interfere. but he was, or he affected to be, powerless. he shrugged his shoulders with an indulgent smile, and a moment later, seeing the waldgrave on his way to join us and the crowd still persistent, he gave the word to retire. the officers, who in the last hour had pressed on us inconveniently, fell back, and waiting only for the waldgrave to reach his horse, we rode down the mound, and turned our faces towards the camp. for a space, and while the uproar still rang in my ears, i could scarcely speak for indignation. then came a reaction. i saw my lady's face as she rode alongside the waldgrave and talked to him. and my spirits rose. general tzerclas had the place on her other hand, but she had not a word for him. it was not so much that the young lord had distinguished himself and done well, but that in an awkward position he had borne himself with dignity and self-control. that pleased her. i saw her eyes shine as she looked at him, and her mouth grow tender; and i told myself with exultation that the waldgrave had done something more than rival waska--he had scored the first hit in the fight, and that no light one. the general would be wise, if he looked to his guard; fortunate, if he did not look too late. chapter xv. the duel continued. i fell to wondering, as we rode home, whether we should find all safe; for we had left marie wort and my lady's woman to keep house with two only of the men. from that, again, i strayed into thoughts of the chain, and of marie herself, so that the very head of what happened when we reached the house escaped me. the first i knew of it, fraulein anna's horse backed suddenly into mine, and brought us all up short with a deal of jostling and plunging. when i looked forward to learn what was amiss, i saw a man lying on his face under my lady's horse, and so near it that the beast's feet were touching his head. the man was crying out something in a pitiful tone, and two or three of the general's officers who were riding abreast of me were swearing roundly, and there was great confusion. general tzerclas said something, but my lady overbore him. 'what is it?' i heard her cry. 'get up, man, and speak. don't lie there. what is it?' the man rose to his knees, and cried out, 'justice, justice, lady!' in a wild sort of way, adding something--which i could not understand, for he spoke in a vile _patois_--about a house. he was in a miserable plight, and looked scarcely human. his face was sallow, his eyes shone with famine, his shrunken limbs peered through mud-stained rags that only half covered him. 'which is your house?' my lady asked gently. and when one of the officers who had ridden up abreast of her would have intervened, she raised her hand with a gesture there was no mistaking. 'which is your house?' she repeated. the man pointed to the one in which we had our quarters. 'what! that one?' my lady cried incredulously. 'then what has brought you to this?' for the creature looked the veriest scarecrow that ever hung about a church-porch. his head and feet had no covering, his hair was foully matted. he was filthy, hideous, famine-stricken. and desperate. for, half-cringing, half-defiant, he pointed his accusing finger at the general. 'he has! he and his army!; he cried. 'that house was mine. those fields were mine. i had cattle, they have eaten them. i had wood, they have burned it. i had meat, they have taken it. i was rich, and i am _this!_ i had, and i have not--only a wife and babes, and they are dying in a ditch. may the curse of god----' 'hush!' my lady cried, in an unsteady voice. and, without adding a word, she turned to general tzerclas and looked at him; as if this were heritzburg, and she the judge, he the criminal. doubtless the position was an awkward one. but he showed himself equal to it. 'there has been foul play here,' he said firmly. 'i think i remember the man's face.' then he turned and raised his hand. 'let all stand back,' he said in a stern, curt tone. we fell back out of hearing, leaving him and my lady with the man. for some time the general seemed to be putting questions to the fellow, speaking to my mistress between whiles. presently he called sharply for ludwig. the captain went forward to them, and then it was very plain what was going on, for the general raised his voice, and made the rating he administered to his subaltern audible even by us. back ludwig came by-and-by, with a dark sneer on his face, and we saw the general hand money to the man. 'teufel!' one of the fellows who rode beside me muttered, surprise in his voice. 'when the general gives, look to your necks. it will cost some one dear, this! i would not be in that clod's shoes for his booty ten times told!' possibly. but i was not so much interested on the clown's account as on my lady's; and one needed only half an eye to see what the general's liberality had effected with her. she was all smiles again, speaking to him with the utmost animation, leaning towards him as she rode. she forgot the waldgrave, who had fallen back with the rest of us; she forgot all but the general. he went with her to the door of the house, gave his hand to help her to dismount, lingered talking to her on the threshold. and my heart sank. i could have gnashed my teeth with anger as i stood aside uncovered, waiting for him to go. for how could we combat the man? such an episode as this, which should have opened my lady's eyes to his true character, served only to restore him to favour and blind her more effectually. it had undone all the good of the afternoon; it had effaced alike the waldgrave's success and the general's remissness; it had given tzerclas, who all day had been losing slowly, the upper hand once more. i felt the disappointment keenly. i suppose it was that which made me think of consulting fraulein anna, and begging her to use her influence with my lady to get out of the camp. at any rate, the idea occurred to me. i could not catch her then; but later in the evening, when some acrobats, whom the general had sent for the countess's diversion, were performing outside, and my lady had gone out to the fallen tree to see them the better, i found the fraulein alone in the outer room. she looked up at my entrance. 'who is it?' she said sharply, peering at me with her white, short-sighted face. 'oh, it is you, mr. thickhead, is it? i know whom you have sneaked in to see!' she added spitefully. 'that is well,' i answered civilly. 'for i came in to see you, fraulein.' 'oh!' she retorted, nodding her head in a very unpleasant manner. 'then you want something. i can guess what it is. but go on.' 'if i want something,' i answered, 'and i do, it is in your own behalf, fraulein. you heard what i said to my lady last night? i did not persuade her. can you persuade her--to leave the camp and its commander?' fraulein max shook her head. 'why should i?' she said, smoothing out her skirt with her hands, and looking at me with a cunning smile. 'what have i to gain by persuading her, master schwartz?' 'safety,' i said. 'oh!' she cried ironically. 'then let me remind you of something. when we were all safe and comfortable at heritzburg--safe, mind you--who was it disturbed us? who was it stirred up my lady to make trouble--_more improbi anseris_--and though i warned him what would come of it, persisted in it until we had all to flee at night like so many vagrants? ay, and have never had a quiet night since! who was that, master martin?' 'fraulein,' i answered patiently, forbearing to remind her how much she had been herself in fault, 'i may have been wrong then. it does not alter the situation now.' 'does it not?' she replied. 'but i think it does. you had your way at heritzburg, and what came of it? trouble and misery. you want your way now, but i shall not help you to it. i have had enough of your way, and i do not like it.' she laughed triumphantly, seeing me silenced; and i stood looking at her, wondering what argument i could use. doubtless she had had a comfortless time on the journey from heritzburg, jogging through fords and over ruts, and along steep places, wet, tired, and scared, deprived of her books and all her home pleasures. she had had time and to spare to lay up many a grudge against me. now it was her turn, and i read in her face her determination to make the most of it. i might frighten her; and that seemed my only chance. 'well, fraulein,' i said after a pause, 'you may have been right then, and you may be right now. but i hope you have counted the cost. if my lady shows herself determined to leave, to-morrow and perhaps the next day the power of going will remain in her hands. later it will have passed from her. familiarity breeds contempt, and even the countess of heritzburg cannot stay long in such a camp as this, where nothing is respected, without losing that respect which for the moment protects her. in a day or two, in a few days, the hedge will fall. and then, fraulein, we may all look to ourselves.' but fraulein anna laughed shrilly. '_o tu anser!_' she cried contemptuously. 'open your eyes! cannot you see that the general is knee-deep in love with her? in a week he will be head over ears, and her slave!' i stared at her. doubtless she knew; she was a woman. i drew a deep breath. 'well,' i said, 'and what of that?' she looked at me spitefully. 'ask my lady!' she said. 'how should i know?' i returned her gaze, and thought awhile. then i said coldly, 'i think it is you who are the fool, fraulein. take it for granted that what you tell me is true. have you considered what will happen should my lady repulse him? what will happen to her and to us?' 'she will not,' fraulein max answered. but i saw that the shaft had gone home. she fidgeted on her seat. and i persisted. 'still, if she does?' i said. 'what then?' 'she will not!' she answered. 'she must not!' 'by heaven!' i cried, 'you are on his side!' she blinked at me with her short-sighted eyes. 'and why not?' she said slowly. 'on whose side should i be? my lord waldgrave's? he never gives me a word, and seldom recognises my existence. on yours? if you want help, go to the black-eyed puling girl you have brought in, who is always creeping and crawling round us, and would oust me if she and you could manage it and she had the breeding. chut! don't talk to me,' she continued maliciously, the colour rising to her pale cheeks. 'i wonder that you dare to come to me with such proposals! is my lady to be ruled by her servants? has she no judgment of her own? why, you fool, i have but to tell her, and you are disgraced!' 'as you please, fraulein,' i said sullenly, stung to anger by one part of her harangue. 'but as to marie wort----' 'marie wort?' she cried, catching me up and mocking my tone. 'who said anything about her, i should like to know? though for my part, had i my way, the popish chit should be whipped!' 'fraulein!' i cried. she laughed bitterly. 'oh, you are fools, you men!' she said. 'but i have made you angry, and that is enough. go! yes, go. i have supped on folly. go, before your mistress comes in; or i must out with all, and lose a power over you.' i went sullenly. while we had been talking the room had been growing dark. then it had grown light again with a smoky, dancing glare that played fantastically on the walls and seemed to rise and sink with the murmur of applause outside. they had brought torches made of pine-knots that my lady might see the longer, and in the yellow circle of light which these shed, the mountebanks, monstrously dressed and casting weird shadows, were wrestling and leaping and writhing. the light reached, but fitfully and by flashes, the log on which my lady sat enthroned, with general tzerclas and the waldgrave at her side. still farther away the crowd surged and laughed and gibed in the darkness. i looked at my lady and found one look enough. i read the utter hopelessness of the attempt i had just made. she was enjoying herself. fear was not natural to her, and she saw nothing to fear either in the man beside her or the crowd beyond. suspicion was no part of her character, and she saw nothing to suspect. had i won fraulein max over to my side, as i felt sure that the general had bought her to his, i should equally have had my trouble for my pains, and no more. my only hope lay in the waldgrave. he alone, could he once warm into flower the love that hung trembling in the bud, might move her as i would have her moved. but, then, the time? every hour we remained where we were, every day that rose and found us in the camp, rendered retreat more difficult, the general's plans more definite. he might not yet have made up his mind; he might not yet have hardened his heart to the point of employing force; _his_ passion might be still in the bud, his ambition unshaped. but how long dared i give him? assured that here lay the stress, i watched the young lord's progress with an anxiety scarcely less than his own. and the longer i watched the higher rose my hopes. it seemed to me that he went steadily forward in favour, while the general stood still. more than once during the next two days the latter showed himself irritable or capricious. the iron hand began to push through the silken glove. and though, on every one of these occasions, tzerclas covered his mistake with the dexterity of a man of the world, and my lady's eyes could scarcely be said to be opened, a little coolness resulted, of which the waldgrave had the benefit. he, on his part, seemed imperturbable. love had to all appearance changed his nature. a dozen times in the two days the impulse to fly at his rival's throat must have been strong upon him, yet through all he remained calm, pleasant, and courteous, and carried an old head on young shoulders. i wondered at last why he did not speak, for i marked the cloud on the general's brow growing darker and darker, and i found the forced inaction and suspense intolerable. then i gathered, i cannot say why, that the waldgrave would not speak until after the great banquet to which the general had bidden my lady. it had been deferred a day or two, but on the third day after the shooting-match it took place. chapter xvi. the general's banquet. i suppose it was not love only that enabled the waldgrave to carry himself so prudently at this time; but with it a sense of the peril in which we all stood. he was so far from betraying this, however, that no one could have worn an air more gallant or seemed in every way more free from care. general tzerclas had supplied us with a couple of tailors, and there were rich stuffs to be bought in the camp; and the young lord did not neglect these opportunities. when he came on the morning of the great day to attend my lady to the banquet, he wore a suit of dark-blue velvet with a falling collar of white lace, and sash and points of lighter blue--the latter setting off his fair complexion to advantage. his hair, which had grown somewhat, flowed from under a broad-leafed hat decked with an ostrich feather, and he wore golden spurs, and high boots with the tops turned down. as he caracoled up and down before the house, with the sun shining on his fair head, he looked to my eyes as beautiful as apollo. what the women thought of him, i do not know, but i saw my lady gazing at him from a window when his back was turned, and then, again, when he looked towards the house, she was gone. and i thought i knew what that meant. she wore, herself, a grey riding-coat with a little silver braid about it, and a silver belt; and we all made what show we could; so that when we started to the general's quarters we were something to look at. the camp itself nothing could cleanse, but the village had been swept and the street watered. pennons and cornets waved here and there in the sunshine, and green boughs garnished the fronts of the houses. two tall poles, painted after the venetian fashion and hung with streamers, stood before the general's quarters, the windows of which were almost hidden by a large trophy formed of glittering pikes and flags of many colours. the road here was strewn with green rushes, and opposite the house were ranked twelve trumpeters, who proclaimed my lady's arrival with a blare which shook the village. on either side of the door a guard of honour was drawn up. i was not disposed to admire anything much, but it must be confessed that the sun shining on pike and corselet and steel cap, and on all the gay and gaudy colours and green leaves, produced a lively and striking effect. the moment my lady's horse stopped, four officers stepped from the doorway and stood at attention; after whom the general himself appeared bare-headed, and held my lady's stirrup while she dismounted. the waldgrave performed a like service for fraulein anna, and i and jacob for marie wort and the women. our host first conducted my lady into a withdrawing-room, where were only count waska and three colonels. this room, which was small, was fitted with a rich carpet and chairs covered with spanish leather, as good as any my lady had in the castle at heritzburg; and the walls were hidden behind cordovan hangings. here among other things were a large cage of larks and a strange, misshapen dwarf that stood hardly as high as my waist-belt, but was rumoured to be forty years old. he said several witty things to my lady, and one or two that i fancy the general had taught him, for they brought the blood to her cheeks. on a table stood another very rare and curious thing--a gold or silver-gilt fountain that threw up distilled waters, and continually cooled and sweetened the air. there were besides, gold cups and plates and jewelled arms and venice glass, which fairly dazzled me; so that as i stood at the door with jacob and the two maids i wondered at the richness and splendour of everything, and yet could not get out of my head the squalor of the hot, seething camp outside, and the poverty of the country round, which the army had eaten as bare as my hand. after a short interval spent in listening to the dwarfs quips and cranks, general tzerclas conducted my lady with much ceremony to the next room, where the banquet was laid. the floor of this larger room was strewn with scented rushes, the walls being adorned with trophies of arms and heads of deer and wolves, peering from ambushes of green leaves. at the upper end, where was the private door of entrance, was a dais table laid for eight persons; below were tables for forty or more. on the dais the general sat in the middle, having my lady on the right, and next to her count waska; on his left he had the waldgrave, and beyond him fraulein anna. the two women stood behind my lady, holding her fan and vinaigrette. at the lower end of the room the general's band, placed in a kind of cage, played soft airs, while between the courses a gipsy girl danced very prettily, and a juggler diverted the company with his tricks. as for the diversity of meats and fishes, and especially of birds, which was set on, it surprised me beyond measure; nor can i understand whence, in the wasted condition of the country, it was procured. for wines, burgundy, frontignac, and tokay were served at the high table, and rhine wines below. the courses continued to succeed one another for nearly three hours, but such was the skill of the musicians that the time seemed short. one man in particular won my lady's approbation. he played on a new instrument, shaped somewhat like a viol, but smaller and more roundly framed. though it had three strings only and was a trifle shrill, it had a wonderful power of touching the heart, arousing the memory and producing a sweet melancholy. the general would have had my lady accept it, and said that he could easily procure another from the milanese; but she declined gracefully, on the ground that without the player it would be a dumb boon. there was so much gaiety in all this--and decent observance too, for the general's presence kept good order--that i did not wonder that my lady's eyes sparkled and betrayed the gratification she felt. all was for her, all in her honour. even i, who looked at the scene through green glasses and could not hear a word the general said without striving to place some ill construction on it--even i felt myself somewhat carried away, when the first toast, that of the emperor, was given in the midst of cheering, partly serious, partly ironical. it was followed by that of the elector of saxony. the king of sweden came next, and was received in an equally equivocal manner. not so, however, the fourth, which was given by general tzerclas standing, with his plumed hat in his hand. 'all in tokay!' he cried in his deep voice. 'the most noble and high-born, the countess rotha of heritzburg, who honours us with her presence! hoch! hoch! hoch!' and draining his goblet, which was of green nuremberg glass, and of no mean value, he dashed it to the floor, an example which was immediately followed by all present, so that the crash of glass and clang of sword-hilts filled the room with high-pitched sounds that seemed to intoxicate the ear. my lady rose and bowed thrice, with her cheek crimson and her eyes soft. then she turned to retire, while all remained standing. the general accompanied her as far as the door of the withdrawing-room, the waldgrave following with fraulein anna; while the dwarf marched side by side with me, keeping step with an absurd gravity which filled the room with laughter. on the threshold the general and his companions left us with low bows; but in a trice tzerclas came back to say a word in my ear. 'see to the other door,' he muttered, flashing a grim look at me. 'there may be deep drinking. if any offer so much as a word of rudeness here, he shall hang, drunk or sober. have a care, therefore, that no one has the chance.' then my heart sank, for i knew, hearing his tone and seeing his face, as he said that, that fraulein anna was right. he loved my mistress. he loved her! i went away to my place by the door, feeling as if he had struck me in the face. for if she loved him in return that were bad enough; and if she did not, what then, seeing that we were in his power? certainly he had omitted nothing on this occasion that might charm her. i thought the feast over; but in the withdrawing-room a fresh collation of dainty sweets and syrups awaited my lady, with a great gold bowl of rosewater. the man, too, who had played on the italian viol brought it in, that she might see and examine it more closely. from my post at the door, i saw fraulein anna flitting about, bringing her short-sighted eyes down to everything, thrusting her face into the rose-water, and peering at the weapons and stuffs as if she would eat them. all the while, too, i could hear her prattling ceaseless praise of everything--the general's taste, the general's wealth, his generosity, his skill in latin, his love for cæsar--the fat book i had seen him studying by the fire--above all, his appreciation of voetius, of whom i shrewdly believe he had never heard before. my lady sat almost silent under the steady shower of words, listening and thinking, and now and then touching the strings of the viol which lay forgotten on her lap. perhaps she was dreaming of her two admirers, perhaps only giving ear to the growing tumult in the room we had left, where the revellers were still at their wine. by-and-by we heard them break into song, and then in thunder the chorus came rolling out-- 'hoch! who rides with old pappenheim knee to knee the sword is his title, the world is his fee! he knows nor monarch, nor sire, nor clime who follows the banner of bold pappenheim!' my lady's lip curled. 'is there no one on our side they can sing?' she muttered, tapping the viol impatiently with her fingers. 'have we no heroes? has count bernard never headed a charge or won a fight? pappenheim? i am tired of the man.' the note jarred on her, as it had on me when i first heard these men, paid by the north, singing the praises of the great southern raider. but a moment later she turned her head to hear better, and her face grew thoughtful. a great shout of 'waska! waska!' rang above the jingling of glasses and snatches of song; and then, 'the waldgrave! the waldgrave!' this time the cry was less boisterous, the voices were fewer. my lady turned to me. 'what is it?' she said, a note of anxiety in her voice. i was unable to tell her and i listened. by-and-by a roar of laughter made itself heard, and was followed by a cry of 'waska!' as before. and then, 'the thuringian code! the thuringian code! it is his turn!' 'they are drinking, your excellency,' i said reluctantly. 'it is a drinking match, i think!' she rose with a grand gesture, and set the little viol back on the table. 'i am going,' she said, almost fiercely. 'let the horses be called.' fraulein max looked scared, but my lady's face forbade argument or reply; and for my part i was not a whit unwilling. i turned and gave the order to jacob. while he was away the countess remained standing, tapping the floor with her foot. 'on this day--on this day they might have abstained!' she muttered wrathfully, as the chorus of riot and laughter grew each moment louder and wilder. i thought so too, and was glad besides of anything which might work a breach between her and the general. but i little knew what was going to happen. it came upon us while we waited, with no more warning than i have described. the door by which we had left the banqueting chamber flew suddenly open, and three men, borne in on a wave of cheering and uproar, staggered in upon us, the leader reeling under the blows which his applauding followers rained upon his shoulders. 'there! said i not so?' he cried thickly, lurching to one side to escape them, and almost falling. 'where ish your waska. your waska now i'd like to know! waska is great, but i am--greater--greater, you see. i can shoot, drink, fight, and make love better than any man here! eh! who shays i can't? eh? itsh the countesh! my cousin the countesh! ah!' alas, it was the waldgrave! and yet not the waldgrave. this man's face was pale and swollen and covered with perspiration. his eyes were heavy and sodden, and his hair strayed over them. his collar and his coat were open at the neck, and his sash and the front of his dress were stained and reeking with wine. his hands trembled, his legs reeled, his tongue was too large for his mouth. he smiled fatuously at us. yet it _was_ the waldgrave--drunk! my lady's face froze as she looked at him. she raised her hand, and the men behind him fell back abashed and left him standing there, propping himself uncertainly against the wall. 'well, your excellenshy,' he stuttered with a hiccough--the sudden silence surprised him--'you don't congratulatsh me! waska is under table. under table, i shay!' my lady looked at him, her eyes blazing with scorn. but she said nothing; only her fingers opened and closed convulsively. i turned to see if jacob had come back. he entered at that moment and general tzerclas with him. 'your excellency's horses are coming,' the general said in his usual tone. then he saw the waldgrave and the open door, and he started with surprise. 'what is this?' he said. his face was flushed and his eyes were bright. but he was sober. the drunken man tried to straighten himself. 'ashk waska!' he said. alas! his good looks were gone. i regarded him with horror, i knew what he had done. 'the horses?' the general muttered. my lady drew a deep breath, as a person recovering consciousness does, and turned slowly towards him. 'yes,' she said, shuddering from head to foot, 'if you please. i wish to go.' the young lord heard the horses come to the door, and staggered forward. 'yesh, letsh go. i'll go too,' he stuttered with a foolish laugh. 'letsh all go. except waska! he is under the table. letsh all go, i say! eh? whatsh thish?' i pushed him back and held him against the wall while the general led my lady out. but, oh the pity of it, the wrath, the disappointment that filled my breast as i did so! this was the end of my duel! this was the stay to which i had trusted! the waldgrave's influence with my lady? it was gone--gone as if it had never been. a spider's web, a rope of sand, a straw were after this a stronger thing to depend upon, a more sure safeguard, a stouter holdfast for a man in peril! * * * * * he came to my lady next morning about two hours after sunrise, when the dew was still on the grass and the birds--such as had lost their first broods or were mating late--were in full song. the camp was sleeping off its debauch, and the village street was bright and empty, with a dog here and there gnawing a bone, or sneaking round the corner of a building. my lady had gone out early to the fallen tree with her psalm book; and was sitting there in the freshness of the morning, with her back to the house and the street, when his shadow fell across the page and she looked up and saw him. she said 'good morning' very coldly, and he for a moment said nothing, but stood, sullenly making a hole in the dust with his toe and looking down at it. his face was pale, where it was not red with shame, and his eyes were heavy and dull; but otherwise the wine he had taken had left no mark on his vigorous youth. my lady after speaking looked down at her book again, and he continued to stand before her like a whipped schoolboy, stealing every now and then a furtive look at her. at length she looked up again. 'do you want anything?' she said. this time he returned her gaze, with his face on fire, trying to melt her. and i think that there were not many more unhappy men at that moment than he. his fancy, liking, love were centred in the woman before him; in a mad freak he had outraged, insulted, estranged her. he did not know what to do, how to begin, what plan to put forward. he could for the moment only look, with shame and misery in his face. it was a plea that would have melted many, but my lady only grew harder. 'did you hear me?' she said proudly. 'do you want anything?' 'you know!' he cried impetuously, and his voice broke out fiercely and seemed to beat against her impassiveness as a bird against the bars of its cage. 'i was a beast last night. but, oh, rotha, forgive me.' 'i think that we had better not talk about it,' my lady answered him stonily. 'it is past, and we need not quarrel over it. i shall be wiser next time,' she added. 'that is all.' 'wiser?' he muttered. 'yes; wiser than to trust myself to your protection,' she replied ruthlessly. he shrank back as if she had struck him, and for a moment pain and rage brought the blood surging to his cheeks. he even took a step as if to leave her; but when love and pride struggle in a young man, love commonly has it, and he turned again and stood hesitating, the picture of misery. 'is that all you will say to me?' he muttered, his voice unsteady. my lady moved her feet uneasily. then she shut her book, and looked round as if she would have willingly escaped. but she was not stone; and when at length she turned to him, her face was changed. 'what do you want me to say?' she asked gently. 'that some day you will forgive me.' 'i forgive you now,' she rejoined firmly. 'but i cannot forget. i do not think i ever can,' she went on. 'last night i was in your charge among strangers. if danger had arisen, whose arm was to shield me, if not yours? if any had insulted me, to whom was i to look, if not to you? yes, you may well hide your face,' my lady continued, waxing bitter, despite herself. 'i am not at heritzburg now, and you should have remembered that. i am here with scanty protection, with few means to exact respect, a refugee, if you like, a mark for scandal, and your kinswoman. and you? for shame, rupert!' he fell on his knees and seized her hand. 'you are killing me!' he cried in a choking voice, his face pale, his breath coming quickly. 'for i love you, rotha, i love you! and every word of reproach you utter is death to me.' 'hush, rupert!' she said quickly. and she tried to withdraw her hand. he had taken her by surprise. but he was not to be silenced; he kept her hand, though he rose to his feet. 'it is true,' he answered. 'i have waited long enough. i must speak now, or it may be too late. i tell you, i love you!' the countess's face was crimson, her brow dark with vexation. 'hush!' she said again, and more imperatively. 'i have heard enough. it is useless.' 'you have not heard me!' he answered. 'don't say so until you have heard me.' and he sat down suddenly on the tree beside her, and looked into her face with pleading eyes. 'you are letting last night weigh against me,' he went on. 'if that be all, i will never drink more than three cups of wine at a time as long as i live. i swear it.' she shook her head rather sadly. 'that is not all, rupert,' she said. 'then what will you have?' he answered eagerly. he saw the change in her, and his eyes began to burn with hope as he looked. her milder tone, her downcast head, her altered aspect, all encouraged him. 'i love you, rotha!' he cried, raising her hand to his lips. 'what more will you have? tell me. all i have, and all i ever shall have--and i am young and may do great things--are yours. i have been riding behind you day by day, until i know every turn of your head, and every note of your voice. i know your step when you walk, and the rustle of your skirt among a hundred! and there is no other woman in the world for me! what if i am the youngest cadet of my house?' he continued, leaning towards her; 'this war will last many a year yet, and i will carve you a second county with my sword. wallenstein did. who was he? a simple gentleman. now he is duke of friedland. and that englishman who married a king's sister? they succeeded, why should not i? only give me your love, rotha! trust me; trust me once more and always, and i will not fail you.' he tried to draw her nearer to him, but the countess shook her head, and looked at him with tears in her eyes. 'poor boy,' she said slowly. 'poor boy! i am sorry, but it cannot be. it can never be.' 'why?' he cried, starting as if she had stung him. 'because i do not love you,' she said. he dropped her hand and sat glaring at her. 'you are thinking of last night!' he muttered. she shook her head. 'i am not,' she said simply. 'i suppose that if i loved you, that and worse would go for nothing. but i do not.' her calmness, her even tone went to his heart and chilled it. he winced, and uttering a low cry turned from her and hid his face in his hands. 'why not?' he said thickly, after an interval. 'why can you not love me?' 'why does the swallow nest here and not there?' the countess answered gently. 'i do not know. why did my father love a foreigner and not one of his own people? i do not know. neither do i know why i do not love you. unless,' she added, with rising colour, 'it is that you are young, younger than i am; and a woman turns naturally to one older than herself.' her words seemed to point so surely to general tzerclas that the young man ground his teeth together. but he had not spirit to turn and reproach her then; and after remaining silent for some minutes, he rose. 'good-bye,' he said in a broken voice. and he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. the countess started. the words, the action impressed her disagreeably. 'you are not going--away i mean?' she said. 'no,' he answered slowly. 'but things are--changed. when we meet again it will be as----' 'friends!' she cried, her voice tender almost to yearning. 'say it shall be so. let it be so always. you will not leave me alone here?' 'no,' he said simply, and with dignity. 'i shall not.' then he went away, quite quietly; and if the beginning of the interview had shown him to small advantage, the same could not be said of the end. he went down the street and through the camp with his head on his breast and a mist before his eyes. the light was gone out of the sunshine, the greenness from the trees. the day was grey and dreary and miserable. the blight was on all he saw. so it is with men. when they cannot have that which seems to them the best and fairest and most desirable thing in the world, nothing is good or pleasant or to be desired any longer. chapter xvii. stalhanske's finns. it was my ill luck, on that day which began so inauspiciously, to see two shadows: one on a man's face, the waldgrave's, and of that i need say no more; the other, the shadow of a man's body, an odd, sinister outline, crooked and strange and tremulous, that i came upon in a remote corner of the camp, to which i had wandered in my perplexity; a place where a few stunted trees ran down a steep bank to the river. i had never been to this place before, and, after a glance which showed me that it was the common sink and rubbish-bed of the camp, i was turning moodily away, when first this shadow and then the body which cast it caught my eye. the latter hung from the branch of an old gnarled thorn, the feet a few inches from the ground. a shuddering kind of curiosity led me to go up and look at the dead man's face, which was doubled up on his breast; and then the desire to test the nerves, which is common to most men, induced me to stand staring at him. the time was two hours after noon, and there were few persons moving. the camp was half asleep. heat, and flies, and dust were everywhere--and this gruesome thing. the body was stripped, and the features were swollen and disfigured; but, after a moment's thought, i recognized them, and saw that i had before me the poor wretch who had appealed to my lady's compassion after the shooting-match, and to whom the general had opened his hand so freely. the grim remarks i had then heard recurred now, and set me shuddering. if any doubt still remained in my mind, it was dissipated a moment later by a placard which had once hung round the dead man's neck, but now lay in the dust at his feet. i turned it over. chalked on it in large letters were the words 'beggars, beware!' i felt at first, on making the discovery, only horror and indignation, and a violent loathing of the camp. but these feelings soon passed, and left me free to consider how the deed touched us. could i prove it? could i bring it home to the general to my lady's satisfaction, beyond denial or escape, and so open her eyes? and if i could, would it be wise, by doing so, to rouse his anger while she remained in the camp and in general tzerclas' power? i might only hasten the catastrophe. i found this a hard nut to crack, and was still puzzling over it, with my eyes on the senseless form which was already so far out of my thoughts, when a heavy hand fell on my shoulder and a harsh voice grated on my ear. 'well, master steward, a penny for your thoughts! they should be worth having, to judge by the way you rub your chin.' i started and looked round. the speaker was captain ludwig, who, with two of his fellows, had come up behind me while i mused. something in his tone rather than his words--a note of menace--warned me to be careful; while the glum looks of his companions, as they glanced from me to the dead man, added point to the hint, and filled my mind with a sudden sense of danger. i had learned more than i had been intended to learn; i had found out something i had not been intended to find out. the very quietness and sunshine and the solitude of the place added horror to the moment. it was all i could do to hide my discomfiture and face them without flinching. 'my thoughts?' i said, forcing a grin. 'they were not very difficult to guess. a sharp shrift, and a short rope? what else should a man think here?' 'ay?' ludwig said, watching me closely with his eyes half closed and his lips parted. he would say no more, and i was forced to go on. 'it is not the first time i have seen a man dancing on nothing!' i said recklessly; 'but it gave me a turn.' he kicked the placard. 'you are a scholar,' he said. 'what is this?' my face grew hot. i dared not deny my learning, for i did not know how much he knew; but, for the nonce, i wished heartily that i had never been taught to read. 'that?' i said, affecting a jovial tone to cover my momentary hesitation. 'a seasonable warning. they are as thick here as nuts in autumn. we could spare a few more, for the matter of that.' 'ay, but this one?' he retorted, coolly tapping the dead man with a little stick he carried, and then turning to look me in the face. 'you have seen him before.' i made a great show of staring at the body, but i suppose i played my part ill, for before i could speak ludwig broke in with a brutal laugh. 'chut, man!' he said, with a sneer of contempt; 'you know him; i see you do. and knew him all along. well, if fools will poke their noses into things that do not concern them, it is not my affair. i must trouble you for your company awhile.' 'whither?' i said, setting my teeth together and frowning at him. 'to my master,' he replied, with a curt nod. 'don't say you won't,' he continued with meaning, 'for he is not one to be denied.' i looked from one to another of the three men, and for a moment the desperate clinging to liberty, which makes even the craven bold, set my hands tingling and sent the blood surging to my head. but reason spoke in time. i saw that the contest was too unequal, the advantage of a few minutes' freedom too trivial, since the general must sooner or later lay his hand on me; and i crushed down the impulse to resist. 'what scares you, comrades?' i said, laughing savagely. they had recoiled a foot. 'do you see a ghost or a swede, that you look so pale? your general wants me? then let him have me. lead on! i won't run away, i warrant you.' ludwig nodded as he placed himself by my side. 'that is the right way to take it,' he said. 'i thought that you might be going to be a fool, comrade.' 'like our friend there,' i said dryly, pointing to the senseless form we were leaving. 'he made a fuss, i suppose?' ludwig shrugged his shoulders. 'no,' he answered, 'not he so much; but his wife. donner! i think i hear her screams now. and she cursed us! ah!' i shuddered, and after that was silent. but more than once before we reached the general's quarters the frantic desire to escape seized me, and had to be repressed. i felt that this was the beginning of the end, the first proof of the strong grasp which held us all helpless. i thought of my lady, i thought of marie wort, and i could have shrieked like a woman; for i was powerless like a woman--gripped in a hand i could not resist. the camp grilling and festering in the sunshine--how i hated it! it seemed an age i had lived in its dusty brightness, an age of vague fears and anxieties. i passed through it now in a feverish dream, until an exclamation, uttered by my companion as we turned into the street, aroused me. the street was full of loiterers, all standing in groups, and all staring at a little band of horsemen who sat motionless in their saddles in front of the general's quarters. for a moment i took these to be the general's staff. then i saw that they were dressed all alike, that their broad, ruddy faces were alike, that they held themselves with the same unbending precision, and seemed, in a word, to be ten copies of one stalwart man. near them, a servant on foot was leading two horses up and down, and they and he had the air of being on show. captain ludwig, holding me fast by the arm, stopped at the first group of starers we came to. 'who are these?' he asked gruffly. the man he addressed turned round, eager to impart his knowledge. 'finns!' he said; 'from head-quarters--stalhanske's finns. no less, captain.' my companion whistled. 'what are they doing here?' he asked. the other shook his head. 'i don't know,' he said. 'their leader is with the general. what do you think of them, master ludwig?' but ludwig only grunted, looking with disparaging eyes at the motionless riders, whose air betrayed a certain consciousness of their fame and the notice which they were exciting. from steel cap to spurred boot, they showed all metal and leather. nothing gay, nothing gaudy; not a chain or a sash differenced one from another. grim, stern, and silent, they stared before them. had no one named the king of sweden's great regiment, i had known that i was looking no longer on brigands, but on soldiers--on part of the iron line that at breitenfeld broke the long repute of years, and swept pappenheim from the hillside like chaff before the storm. after hesitating a moment, ludwig went forward a few paces, as if to enter the house, taking me with him. then he paused. at the same instant the man who was leading the two horses turned. his eye lit on me, and i saw an extraordinary change come over the fellow's face. he stopped short and, pulling up his horses, stared at me. it seemed to me, too, that i had seen him before, and i returned his look; but while i was trying to remember where, the door of the general's quarters opened. two or three men who were loitering before it, stepped quickly aside, and a tall, stalwart man came out, followed by general tzerclas himself. i looked at the foremost, and in a twinkling recognized him. it was von werder. but an extraordinary change had come over the traveller. he was still plainly dressed, in a buff coat, with untanned boots, a leather sword-belt, and a grey hat with a red feather; and in all of these there was nothing to catch the eye. but his air and manner as he spoke to his companion were no longer those of an inferior, while his stern eye, as it travelled over the crowd in the street, expressed cold and steady contempt. as the servant brought up his horse, he spoke to his companion. 'you are sure that you can do it--with these?' he said, flicking his riding-whip towards the silent throng. 'you may consider it done,' the general answered rather grimly. 'good! i am glad. well, man, what is it?' he spoke the last words to his servant. the man pointed to me and said something. von werder looked at me. in a moment every one looked at me. then von werder swung himself into his saddle, and turned to general tzerclas. 'that is the man, i am told,' he said, pointing suddenly to me with his whip. 'he is at your service,' the general answered with a shrug of indifference.' in an instant von werder's horse was at my side. 'a word with you, my man,' he said sharply. 'come with me.' ludwig had hold of my arm still. he had not loosed me, and at this he interposed. 'my lord,' he cried to the general, 'this man--i have something to----' 'silence, fool!' tzerclas growled. 'and stand aside, if you value your skin!' ludwig let me go; immediately, as if an angel had descended to speak for me, the crowd parted, and i was free--free and walking away down the street by the side of the stranger, who continued to look at me from time to time, but still kept silence. when we had gone in this fashion a couple of hundred paces or more, and were clear of the crowd, he seemed no longer able to control himself, though he looked like a man apt at self-command. he waved his escort back and reined in his horse. 'you are the man to whom i talked the other night,' he said, fixing me with his eyes--'the countess of heritzburg's steward?' i replied that i was. his face as he looked down at me, with his back to his following, betrayed so much agitation that i wondered more and more. was he going to save us? could he save us? who was he? what did it all mean? then his next question scattered all these thoughts and doubled my surprise. 'you had a chain stolen from you,' he said harshly, 'the night i lay in your camp?' i stared at him with my mouth open. 'a chain?' i stammered. 'ay, fool, a chain!' he replied, his eyes glaring, his cheeks swelling with impatience. 'a gold chain--with links like walnuts.' 'it is true,' i said stupidly. 'i had. but----' 'where did you get it?' i looked away. to answer was easy; to refrain from answering, with his eye upon me, hard. but i thought of marie wort. i did not know how the chain had come into her hands, and i asked him a question in return. 'have you the chain?' i said. 'i have!' he snarled. and then in a sudden outburst of wrath he cried, 'listen, fool! and then perhaps you will answer me more quickly. i am hugo of leuchtenstein, governor of cassel and marburg, and president of the landgrave's council. the chain was mine and came back to me. the rogue who stole it from you, and joined himself to my company, blabbed of it, and where he got it. he let my men see it. he would not give it up, and they killed him. will that satisfy you?' he continued, his face on fire with impatience. 'then tell me all--all, man, or it will be the worse for you! my time is precious, and i cannot stay!' i uncovered myself. 'your excellency,' i stammered, 'the chain was entrusted to me by a--a woman.' 'a woman?' he exclaimed, his eyes lightening. 'man, you are wringing my heart. a woman with a child?' i nodded. 'a child three years old?' 'about that, your excellency.' on which, to my astonishment, he covered his face with both his hands, and i saw the strong man's frame heave with ill-suppressed emotion. 'my god, i thank thee!' i heard him whisper; and if ever words came from the heart, those did. it was a minute or more before he dared to uncover his face, and then his eyes were moist and his features worked with emotion. 'you shall be rewarded!' he said unsteadily. 'do not fear. and now take me to him--to her.' i was in a maze of astonishment, but i had sense enough to understand the order. we had halted scarcely more than a hundred yards from my lady's quarters, and i led the way thither, comprehending little more than that something advantageous had happened to us. at the door he sprang from his horse, and taking me by the arm, as if he were afraid to suffer me out of his reach, he entered, pushing me before him. the principal room was empty, and i judged my lady was out. i cried 'marie! marie!' softly; and then he and i stood listening. the sunshine poured in through the windows; the house was still with the stillness of afternoon. a bird in a cage in the corner pecked at the bars. outside the bits jingled, and a horse pawed the road impatiently. 'marie!' i cried. 'marie!' she came in at last through a door which led to the back of the house, and i stepped forward to speak to her. but the moment i saw her clearly, the words died on my lips. the pallor of her face, the disorder of her hair struck me dumb. i forgot our business, my companion, all. 'what is it?' was all i could say. 'what is the matter?' 'the child!' she cried, her dark eyes wild with anxiety. 'the child! it is lost! it is lost and gone. i cannot find it!' 'the child? gone?' i answered, my voice rising almost to a shout, in my surprise. 'it is missing? now?' 'i cannot find it,' she answered monotonously. 'i left it for a moment at the back there. it was playing on the grass. now it is gone.' i looked at. count leuchtenstein. he was staring at the girl, listening and watching, his brow contracted, his face pale. but i suppose that this sudden alarm, this momentary disappearance did not affect him, from whom the child had been so long absent, as it affected us; for his first words referred to the past. 'this child, woman?' he said in his deep voice, which shook despite all his efforts. 'when you found it, it had a chain round its neck?' but marie was so wrapped up in her sudden loss that she answered him without thought, listening the while. 'yes,' she said mechanically, 'it had.' 'where did you find it, then--the child?' he asked eagerly. 'in the forest by vach,' she replied, in the same indifferent tone. 'was it alone?' 'it was with a dead woman,' she answered. she was listening still, with a strained face--listening for the pattering of the little feet, the shrill music of the piping voice. only half of her mind was with us. her hands opened and closed continually with anxiety; she held her head on one side, her ear to the door. when the count went to put another question, she turned upon him so fiercely, i hardly knew her. 'hush!' she said, 'will you? they are here, but they have not found him. they have not found him!' and she was right; though i, whose ears were not sharpened by love, did not discern this until two men, who had been left at home with her, and who had been out to search, came in empty-handed and with scared looks. they had hunted on all sides and found no trace of the child, and, certain that it could not have strayed far itself, pronounced positively that it had been kidnapped. marie at that burst into weeping so pitiful, that i was glad to send the men out, bidding them make a larger circuit and inquire in the camp. when they were gone, i turned to count leuchtenstein to see how he took it. i found him leaning against the wall, his face grave, dark, and thoughtful. 'there seems a fatality in it!' he muttered, meeting my eyes, but speaking to himself. 'that it should be lost again--at this moment! yet, god's will be done. he who sent the chain to my hands can still take care of the child.' he paused a moment in deep thought, and then, advancing to marie wort, who had thrown herself into a chair and was sobbing passionately with her face on the table, he touched her on the shoulder. 'good girl!' he said kindly. 'good girl! but doubtless the child is safe. before night it will be found.' she sprang up and faced him, her cheeks flaming with anger. i suppose the questions he had put to her had made no distinct impression on her mind. 'oh,' she cried, in the voice of a shrew, 'how you prate! by night it will be found, will it? how do you know? but the child is nothing to you--nothing!' 'girl,' he said solemnly, yet gently, 'the child is my child--my only child, and the hope of my house.' she looked at him wildly. 'who are you, then?' she said, her voice sinking almost to a whisper. 'i am his father,' he answered; when i looked to hear him state his name and titles. 'and as his father, i thank and bless you for all that you have done for him.' 'his mother?' she whispered, open-eyed with awe. 'his mother is dead. she died three years ago,' he answered gravely. 'and now tell me your name, for i must go.' 'you must go!' she exclaimed. 'you will go--you can go--and your child lost and wandering?' 'yes,' he replied, with a dignity which silenced her, 'i can, for i have other and greater interests to guard than those of my house, and i dare not be negligent. he may be found to-morrow, but what i have to do to-day cannot be done to-morrow. see, take that,' he continued more gently, laying a heavy purse on the table before her. 'it is for you, for your own use--for your dowry, if you have a lover. and remember always that, in the house of hugo of leuchtenstein, at cassel, or marburg, or at the schloss by leuchtenstein, you will find a home and shelter, and stout friends whenever you need them. now give me your name.' she stared at him dumfounded and was silent. i told him marie wort of munich, at present in attendance on the countess of heritzburg; and he set it down in his tablets. 'good,' he said. and then in his stern, grave fashion he turned to me. 'master steward,' he said, in a measured tone which nevertheless stirred my blood, 'are you an ambitious man? if so, search for my child, and bring him to cassel or marburg, or my house, and i will fulfil your ambition. would you have a command, i will see to it; or a farm, it shall be yours. you can do for me, my friend' he continued strenuously, laying his hand on my arm, 'what in this stress of war and statecraft i cannot do for myself. i have a hundred at my call, but they are not here; and by to-night i must be ten leagues hence, by to-morrow night beyond the main. yet god, i believe,' he went on, uncovering himself and speaking with reverent earnestness, 'who brought me to this place, and permitted me to hear again of my son, will not let his purpose fail because he calls me elsewhere.' and he maintained this grave composure to the last. a man more worthy of his high repute, not in hesse only, but in the swedish camp, at dresden, and vienna, i thought that i had never seen. yet still under the mask i discerned the workings of a human heart. his eye, as he turned to go, wandered round the room; i knew that it was seeking some trace of his boy's presence. on the threshold he halted suddenly; i knew that he was listening. but no sound rewarded him. he nodded sternly to me and went out. i followed to hold his stirrup. the finland riders, sitting upright in their saddles, looked as if they had not moved an eyelash in our absence. as i had left them so i found them. he gave a short, sharp word of command; a sudden jingling of bridles followed; the troop walked forward, broke into a trot, and in a twinkling disappeared down the road in a cloud of dust. then, and not till then, i remembered that i had not said a word to him about my lady's position. his personality and the loss of the child had driven it from my mind. now it recurred to me; but it was too late, and after stamping up and down in vexation for a while, i turned and went into the house. marie wort had fallen back into the old position at the table, and was sitting with her face on her arms, sobbing bitterly. i went up to her and saw the purse lying by her side. 'come,' i said, trying awkwardly to cheer her, 'the child will be found, never fear. when my lady returns she will send to the general, and he will have it cried through the camp. it is sure to be found. and you have made a powerful friend.' but she took no heed of me. she continued to weep; and her sobs hurt me. she seemed so small and lonely and helpless that i had not the heart to leave her by herself in the house and go out into the sunshine to search. and so--i scarcely know how it came about--in a moment she was sobbing out her grief on my shoulder and i was whispering in her ear. of love? of our love? no, for to have spoken of that while she wept for the child, would have seemed to me no better than sacrilege. and, besides, i think that we took it for granted. for when her sobs presently ceased, and she lay quiet, listening, and i found her soft dark hair on my shoulder, i kissed it a hundred times; and still she lay silent, her cheek against my rough coat. our eyes had spoken morning and evening, at dawn when we met, and at night when we parted; and now that this matter of the chain was settled, it seemed fitting that she should come to me for comfort--without words. at length she drew herself away from me, her cheek dark and her eyes downcast. 'not now,' she said, gently stopping me--for then i think i should have spoken. 'will you please to go out and search? no, i will not grieve.' 'but your purse!' i reminded her. she was leaving it on the table, and it was not safe there. 'you should put it in a place of safety, marie.' she took it up and very simply placed it in my hands. 'he said it was for my--dowry,' she whispered, blushing. and then she fled away shamefaced to her room. chapter xviii. a sudden expedition. i did not after that suffer the grass to grow under my feet. i went out, and with my own eyes searched the fields at the back, and every ditch and water-hole. i had the loss cried in the camp, my lady on her return offered a reward, we sent even to the nearer villages, we patrolled the roads, we omitted nothing that could by any chance avail us. yet evening fell, and night, and found us still searching; and no nearer, as far as we could see, to success. the child was gone mysteriously. left to play alone for two minutes in the stillness of the afternoon, he had vanished as completely as if the earth had opened and swallowed him. baffled, we began to ask, while marie sat pale and brooding in a corner, or now and again stole to the door to listen, who could have taken him and with what motive? there were men and women in the camp capable of anything. it seemed probable to some that these had stolen the child for the sake of his clothes. others suggested witchcraft. but in my own mind, i leaned to neither of these theories. i suspected, though i dared not utter the thought, that the general had done it. without knowing how much of the story count hugo had confided to him, i took it as certain that the father had said enough to apprise him of the boy's value. and this being so, what more probable than that the general, whom i was prepared to credit with any atrocity, had taken instant steps to possess himself of the child? my lady said and did all that was kind on the occasion, and for a few hours it occupied all our thoughts. at the end of that time, however, about sunset, general tzerclas rode to the door, and with him, to my surprise, the waldgrave. they would see her, and detained her so long that when she sent for me on their departure, i was sore on marie's, account, and inclined to blame her as indifferent to our loss. but a single glance at her face put another colour on the matter. i saw that something had occurred to excite and disturb her. 'martin,' she said earnestly, 'i am going to employ you on an errand of importance. listen to me and do not interrupt me. general tzerclas starts to-morrow with the larger part of his forces to intercept one of wallenstein's convoys, which is expected to pass twelve leagues to the south of this. there will be sharp fighting, i am told, and my cousin, the waldgrave rupert, is going. he is not at present--i mean, i am afraid he may do something rash. he is young,' my lady continued with dignity and a heightened colour, 'and i wish he would stay here. but he will not.' i guessed at once that this affair of the convoy was the business which had brought count hugo to the camp. and i was beginning to consider what advantage we might make of it, and whether the general's absence might not afford us both a pretext for departure and the opportunity, when my lady's next words dispelled my visions. 'i want you,' she said slowly, 'to go with him. he has a high opinion of you, and will listen to you.' 'the general?' i cried in amazement. 'who spoke of him?' she exclaimed angrily. 'i said the waldgrave rupert. i wish you to go with him to see that he does not run any unnecessary risk.' i coughed dryly, and stood silent. 'well?' my lady said with a frown. 'do you understand?' 'i understand, my lady,' i answered firmly; 'but i cannot go.' '_you cannot go!_ when i send you!' she murmured, unable, i think, to believe her ears. 'why not, sirrah? why not, if you please?' 'because my first duty is to your excellency,' i stammered. 'and as long as you are here, i dare not--and will not leave you!' 'as long as i am here!' she retorted, red with anger and surprise. 'you have still that maggot in your head, then? by my soul, master martin, if we were at home i would find means to drive it out! but i know what it is! what you really want is to stay by the side of that puling girl! oh, i am not blind,' my lady continued viciously, seeing that she had found at last the way to hurt me. 'i know what has been going on.' 'but count leuchtenstein----' i muttered. 'don't bring him in!' my lady cried, in such a voice that i dared go no farther. 'general tzerclas has told me of him. i understand what is between them, and you do not. presumptuous booby!' she continued, flashing at me a glance of scorn, which made me tremble. 'but i will thwart you! since you will not leave me, i will go myself. i will go, but mistress marie shall stay here till we return.' 'but if there is to be fighting?' i said humbly. 'ah! so you have changed your note, have you!' she cried triumphantly. i had seldom seen her more moved. 'if there is to be fighting'--she mocked my tone. 'well, there is to be, but i shall go. and now do you go, and have all ready for a start at daybreak, or it will be the worse for you! one of my women will accompany me. fraulein anna will stay here with your--other mistress!' she pointed to the door as she spoke, and once more charged me to be ready; and i went away dazed. everything seemed on a sudden to be turned upside down--the child lost, my lady offended, the waldgrave desperate, the general in favour. it was hard to see which way my duty lay. i would fain have stayed in the camp a day to make farther search for the child, but i must go. i would gladly have got clear of the camp, but we were to travel in the general's company. as to leaving marie, my lady wronged me. i knew of no special danger which threatened the girl, nor any reason why she should not be safe where she was. if the child were found she would be here to receive it. on the other hand, there was my discovery of the beggar's fate, from the immediate consequences of which count hugo's arrival had saved me. this sudden expedition should favour me there; the general would have his hands full of other things, and ludwig be hard put to it to gain his ear. i might now, if i pleased, discover the matter to my lady, and open her eyes. but i had no proof; even if time permitted, and i could take the countess to that part of the camp, i could not be sure that the body was still there. and to accuse general tzerclas of such a thing without proof would be to court my own ruin. while i was puzzling over this, i saw the waldgrave outside, and, thinking to profit by his advice, i went to meet him. but i found him in a peculiar mood, talking, laughing, and breaking into snatches of song; all with a wildness and _abandon_ that frightened while they puzzled me. he laughed at my doubts, and walking up and down, while his servants scoured his breast-piece and cleaned his harness by the light of a lantern, he persisted in talking of nothing but the expedition before us and the pleasure of striking a blow or two. 'we are rusting, man!' he cried feverishly, clapping me on the back. 'you have the rust on you yet, martin but-- "clink, clink, clink! sword and stirrup and spur! ride, ride, ride, fast as feather or fur!" to-morrow or the next day we will have it off.' 'you have heard about the child, my lord,' i said gravely, trying to bring him back to the present. 'i have heard that von werder, the dullest man at a board i ever met, turns out to be hugo of leuchtenstein, whom god preserve!' he answered recklessly. 'and that your girl's brat of a brother turns out to be his brat! and no sooner is the father found than the son is lost; and that both have gone as mysteriously as they came. but himmel! man, what's the odds when we are going to fight to-morrow! what compares with that? �a! ça! steady and the point!' i thought of marie; and it seemed to me that there were other things in the world besides fighting. for love makes a man both brave and a coward. but the argument would scarcely have been to the waldgrave's mind, and, seeing that he would neither talk nor hear reason, i left him and went away to make my preparations. but on the road next day i noticed that though now and then he flashed into the same wild merriment, he was on the whole as dull as he had been gay. our party rode at the head of the column, that we might escape the dust and have the best of the road, the general and his principal officers accompanying us and leaving the guidance of the march to inferiors. our force consisted of about six hundred horse and four hundred foot; and as we were to return to the camp, we took with us neither sutlers nor ordinary baggage, while camp followers were interdicted under pain of death. yet the amount of our impedimenta astonished me. half a dozen sumpter horses were needed to carry the general's tent and equipage; his officers required a score more. the ammunition for the foot soldiers, who were sufficiently burdened with their heavy matchlocks, provided farther loads; and in fine, while supposed to be marching in light fighting order, we had something like a hundred packhorses in our train. then there were men to lead them, and cooks and pages and foot-boys and the general's band, and but that our way lay through woodland tracks and by-routes, i verily believe that we should have had his coach and dwarf also. the sight of all these men and horses in motion was so novel and exhilarating, and the morning air so brisk, that i soon recovered from my parting with marie, and began to take a more cheerful view of the position. i came near to sympathizing with my lady, whose pleasure and delight knew no bounds. the long lines of horsemen winding through the wood, the trailing pikes and waving pennons, gratified her youthful fancy for war; while as our march lay through the forest, she was shocked by none of those traces of its ravages which had appalled us on first leaving heritzburg. the general waited on her with the utmost attention, riding by her bridle-rein and talking with her by the hour together. whenever i looked at them i noticed that her eye was bright and her colour high, and i guessed that he was unfolding the plan of ambition which i was sure he masked under a cold and reserved demeanour. alas! i could think of nothing more likely to take my lady's fancy, no course more sure to enlist her sympathy and interest. but i was helpless; i could do nothing. and for the waldgrave, if he still had any power he would not use it. my lady gave him opportunities. several times i saw her try to draw him into conversation, and whenever general tzerclas left her for a while she turned to the younger man and would have talked to him. but he seemed unable to respond. when he was not noisily gay, he rode like a mute. he seemed half sullen, half afraid; and she presently gave him up, but not before her efforts had caught tzerclas' eye. the general had been called for some purpose to the rear of the column, and on his return found the two talking, my lady's attitude such that it was very evident she was the provocant. he did not try to resume his place, but fell in behind them; and riding there, almost, if not quite, within earshot, cast such ugly glances at them as more than confirmed me in the belief that in his own secret way he loved my mistress; and that, after a more dangerous fashion than the waldgrave. [illustration: the general waited on her with the utmost attention, riding by her bridle-rein ...] this was late in the afternoon, and another hour brought us who marched at the head of the column to our camping-ground for the night. we lay in a rugged, wooded valley, not very commodious, but chosen because only one high ridge divided it from a second valley, through which the main road and the river had their course. our instructions were that the convoy, which was bound for wallenstein's army then marching on nuremberg, would pass through this second valley some time during the following day; but until the hour came for making the proper dispositions, all persons in our force were forbidden to mount the intervening ridge under pain of death. we had even to do without fires--lest the smoke should betray our presence--and for this one night lay under something like the strict discipline which i had expected to find prevailing in a military camp. the only fire that was permitted cooked the general's meal, which he shared with my lady and the waldgrave and the principal officers. even so the order caused trouble. the pikemen and musketeers did not come in till an hour before midnight, when they trudged into camp dusty and footsore and murmuring at their leaders. when, in this state, they learned that fires were not to be lighted, disgust grew rapidly into open disobedience. on a sudden, in half a dozen quarters at once, flames flickered up, and the camp, dark before, became peopled in a moment with strange forms, whose eighteen-foot weapons and cumbrous headpieces flung long shadows across the valley. we had lain down to rest, but at the sound of the altercation and the various cries of 'pikes! pikes!' and 'mutiny!' which broke out, we came out of our lairs in the bracken to learn what was happening. calling young jacob and three or four of the heritzburg men to my side, i ran to my lady to see that nothing befell her in the confusion. the noise had roused her, and we found her at the door of her tent looking out. the newly-kindled fires, flaming and crackling on the sloping sides of the valley, lit up a strange scene of disorder--of hurrying men and plunging horses, for the alarm had extended to the horse lines--and for a moment i thought that the mutiny might spread and cut the knot of our difficulties, or whelm us all in the same ruin. i had scarcely conceived the thought, when the general passed near us on his way from his tent, whence he had just been called; and at the sight my new-born hopes vanished. he was bare-headed; he carried no arms, and had nothing in his hand but a riding-switch. but the stern, grim aspect of his face, in which was no mercy and no quailing, was worth a thousand pikes. the firelight shone on his pale, olive cheek and brooding eyes, as he went by us, not seeing us; and after that i did not doubt what would happen, although for a moment the tumult of oaths and cries seemed to swell rather than sink, and i saw more than one pale-lipped officer climbing into his saddle that he might be able to fly, if necessary. the issue agreed with my expectations. the heart of the disorder lay in a part of the camp separated from our quarters by a brook, but near enough in point of distance; so that we saw, my lady and all, pretty clearly what followed. for a moment, for a few seconds, during which you could hear a pin drop through the camp, the general stood, his life in the balance, unarmed in the midst of armed men. but he had that set courage which seems to daunt the common sort and paralyse the finger on the trigger; and he prevailed. the knaves lowered their weapons and shrank back cowering before him. in a twinkling the fires were beaten out by a hundred eager feet, and the general strode back to us through the silent, obsequious camp. he distinguished my lady standing at the door of her tent, and stepped aside. 'i am sorry that you have been disturbed, countess,' he said politely. 'it shall not occur again. i will hang up a dozen of those hounds to-morrow, and we shall have less barking.' 'you are not hurt?' my lady asked, in a voice unlike her own. he laughed, deigning no answer in words. then he said, 'you have no fire? camp rules are not for you. pray have one lit.' and he went on to his tent. i had the curiosity to pass near it when my lady retired. i found a dozen men, cuirassiers of his privileged troop, peeping and squinting under the canvas which had been hung round the fire. i joined them and looked; and saw him lying at length, wrapped in his cloak, reading 'cæsar's campaigns' by the light of the blaze, as if nothing had happened. chapter xix. in a green valley. he was as good as his word. before the sun had been up an hour six of the mutineers, chosen by lot from a hundred of the more guilty, dangled from a great tree which overhung the brook, and were already forgotten--so short are soldiers' memories--in the hurry and bustle of a new undertaking. the slope of the ridge which divided us from the neighbouring valley was quickly dotted with parties of men making their way up it, through bracken and furze which reached nearly to the waist; while the horse under count waska rode slowly off to make the circuit of the hill and enter the next valley by an easier road. my lady chose to climb the hill on foot, in the track of the pikemen, though the heavy dew, which the sun had not yet drunk up, soon drenched her skirts, and she might, had she willed it, have been carried to the top on men's shoulders. the fern and long grass delayed her and made our progress slow, so that the general's dispositions were in great part made when we reached the summit. busy as he still was, however, he had eyes for us. he came at once and placed us in a small coppice of fir trees that crowned one of the knobs of the ridge. from this point, where he took up his own position, we could command, ourselves unseen, the whole valley, the road, and river--the scene of the coming surprise--and see clearly, what no one below could discern, where our footmen lay in ambush in parties of fifty; the pikemen among some black thorns, close to the north end of the valley, the musketmen a little farther within and almost immediately below us. the latter, prone in the fern, looked, viewed from above, like lines of sheep feeding, until the light gleamed on a gun-barrel or sword-hilt and dispelled the peaceful illusion. the sun had not yet risen above the hill on which we stood, and the valley below us lay cool and green and very pleasant to the eye. about a league in length, it was nowhere, except at its southern extremity, where it widened into a small plain, more than half a mile across. at its northern end, below us, and a little to the right, it diminished to a mere wooded defile, through which the river ran over rocks and boulders, with a dull roar that came plainly to our ears. a solitary house of some size, with two or three hovels clustered about it, stood near the middle of the valley; but no smoke rose from the chimney, no cock crowed, no dog barked. and, looking more closely, i saw that the place was deserted. so quiet it seemed in this peaceful thuringian valley, i shuddered when i thought of the purpose which brought us hither; and i saw my lady's face grow sad with a like reflection. but general tzerclas viewed all with another mind. the stillness, the sunshine, the very song of the lark, as it rose up and up and up above us, and, still unwearied, sang its song of praise, touched no chord in his breast. the quietude pleased him, but only because it favoured his plans; the lark's hymn, because it covered with a fair mask his lurking ambush; the sunshine, because it seemed a good augury. his keen and vigilant eye, the smile which curled his lip, the set expression of his face, showed that he saw before him a battle-field and no more; a step upwards--a triumph, a victory, and that was all. i blamed him then. i confess now, i misjudged him. he who leads on such occasions risks more than his life, and bears a weight of responsibility that may well crush from his mind all moods or thoughts of weather. at least, i did him, i had to do him, this justice: that he betrayed no anxiety, uttered no word of doubt or misgiving. standing with his back against a tree and his eyes on the northern pass, he remained placidly silent, or talked at his ease. in this he contrasted well with the waldgrave, who continually paced up and down in the background, as if the fir-grove were a prison and he a captive waiting to be freed. 'at what hour should they be here?' my lady asked presently, breaking a long silence. she tried to speak in her ordinary tone, but her voice sounded uncertain. a woman, however brave, is a woman still. it began to dawn upon her that things were going to happen which it might be unpleasant to see, and scarcely more pleasant to remember. 'i am afraid i cannot say,' the general answered lightly. 'i have done my part; i am here. between this and night they should be here too.' 'unless they have been warned.' 'precisely,' he answered,' unless they have been warned.' after that my lady composed herself anew, and the day wore on, in desultory conversation and a grim kind of picnic. noon came, and afternoon, and the countess grew nervous and irritable. but general tzerclas, though the hours, as they passed without event, without bringing that for which he waited, must have tried him severely, showed to advantage throughout. he was ready to talk, satisfied to be silent. late in the day, when my lady, drowsy with the heat, dozed a little, he brought out his cæsar, and read, in it, as if nothing depended on the day, and he were the most indifferent of spectators. she awoke and found him reading, and, for a time, sat staring at him, wondering where she was. at last she remembered. she sat up with a start, and gazed at him. 'are we still waiting?' she said. 'we are still waiting,' he answered, closing his book with a smile. 'but,' he continued, a moment later, 'i think i hear something now. keep back a little, if you please, countess.' we all stood up among the trees, listening, and presently, though the murmuring of the river in the pass prevented us hearing duller sounds, a sharp noise, often repeated, came to our ears. it resembled the snapping of sticks under foot. 'whips!' general tzerclas muttered. 'stand back, if you please.' the words were scarcely out of his mouth before a handful of horsemen appeared on a sudden in the road below us. they came on like tired men, some with their feet dangling, some sitting sideways on their horses. many had kerchiefs wound round their heads, and carried their steel caps at the saddle-bow; others nodded in their seats, as if asleep. they were abreast of our pikemen when we first saw them, and we watched them advance, until a couple of hundred yards brought them into line with the musketmen. these, too, they passed without suspicion, and so went jolting and clinking down the valley, every man with a bundle at his crupper, and strange odds and ends banging and swinging against his horse's sides. two hundred paces behind them the first waggon appeared, dragged slowly on by four labouring horses, and guarded by a dozen foot soldiers--heavy-browed fellows, lounging along beside the wheels, with their hands in their breeches pockets. their long, trailing weapons they had tied at the tail of the waggon. close on their heels came another waggon creaking and groaning, and another, and another, with a drowsy, stumbling train of teamsters and horse-boys, and here and there an officer or a knot of men-at-arms. but the foot soldiers had mostly climbed up into the waggons, and lay sprawling on the loads, with arms thrown wide, and heads rolling from side to side with each movement of the straining team. we watched eighty of these waggons go by; the first must have been a mile and more in front of the last. after them followed a disorderly band of stragglers, among whom were some women. then a thick, solid cloud of dust, far exceeding all that had gone before, came down the pass. it advanced by fits and starts, now plunging forward, now halting, while the heart of it gave forth a dull roaring sound that rose above the murmur of the river. 'cattle!' general tzerclas muttered. 'five hundred head, i should say. there can be nothing behind that dust. be ready, trumpeter.' the man he addressed stood a few paces behind us; and at intervals along the ridge others lay hidden, ready to pass the signal to an officer stationed on the farthest knob, who as soon as he heard the call would spring up, and with a flag pass the order to the cavalry below him. the suspense of the moment was such, it seemed an age before the general gave the word. he stood and appeared to calculate, now looking keenly towards the head of the convoy, which was fast disappearing in a haze of dust, now gazing down at the bellowing, struggling, wavering mass below us. at length, when the cattle had all but cleared the pass, he raised his hand and cried sharply-- 'now!' the harsh blare of the trumpet pierced the upper stillness in which we stood. it was repeated--repeated again; then it died away shrilly in the distance. in its place, hoarse clamour filled the valley below us. we pressed forward to see what was happening. the surprise was complete; and yet it was a sorry sight we saw down in the bottom, where the sunshine was dying, and guns were flashing, and men were chasing one another in the grey evening light. our musketmen, springing out of ambush, had shot down the horses of the last half-dozen waggons, and, when we looked, were falling pell-mell upon the unlucky troop of stragglers who followed. these, flying all ways, filled the air with horrid screams. farther to the rear, our pikemen had seized the pass, and penning the cattle into it rendered escape by that road hopeless. forward, however, despite the confusion and dismay, things were different. our cavalry did not appear--the dust prevented us seeing what they were doing. and here the enemy had a moment's respite, a moment in which to think, to fly, to stand on their defence. and soon, while we looked on breathless, it was evident that they were taking advantage of it. possibly the general had not counted on the dust or the lateness of the hour. he began to gaze forward towards the head of the column, and to mutter savagely at the footmen below us, who seemed more eager to overtake the fugitives and strip the dead, than to press forward and break down opposition. he sent down ludwig with orders; then another. but the mischief was done already, and still the cavalry did not appear; being delayed, as we afterwards learned, by an unforeseen brook. some one with a head on his shoulders had quickly drawn together all those among the enemy who could fight, or had a mind to fight. we saw two waggons driven out of the line, and in a moment overturned; in a twinkling the panic-stricken troopers and teamsters had a haven in which they could stand at bay. its value was soon proved. a company of our musketeers, pursuing some stragglers through the medley of flying horses and maddened cattle which covered the ground near the pass, came upon this rude fortress, and charged against it, recklessly, or in ignorance. in a moment a volley from the waggons laid half a dozen on the ground. the rest fell back, and scattered hither and thither. they were scarcely dispersed before a handful of the enemy's officers and mounted men came riding back from the front. stabbing their horses in the intervals between the waggons, they took post inside. every moment others, some with arms and some without, came straggling up. when our cavalry at last arrived on the scene, there were full three hundred men in the waggon work, and these the flower of the enemy. all except one had dismounted. this one, a man on a white charger, seemed to be the soul of the defence. our horse, flushed with triumph and yelling loudly, came down the line like a torrent, sabreing all who fell in their way. half rode on one side of the convoy and half on the other. they had met with no resistance hitherto, and expected none, and, like the musketmen, were on the barricade before they knew of its existence. in the open, the stoutest hedgehog of pikes could scarcely have resisted a charge driven home with such blind recklessness; but behind the waggons it was different. every interstice bristled with pike-heads, while the musketmen poured in a deadly fire from the waggon-tops. for a few seconds the place belched flame and smoke. two or three score of the foremost assailants went down horse and man. the rest, saving themselves as best they could, swerved off to either side amid a roar of execrations and shouts of triumph. my lady, trembling with horror, had long ago retired. she would no longer look. the waldgrave, too, was gone; with her, i supposed. half the general's attendants had been sent down the hill, some with one order, some with another. in this crisis--for i saw clearly that it was a crisis, and that if the defenders could hold out until darkness fell, the issue must be doubtful--i turned to look at our commander. he was still cool, but his brow was dark with passion. at one moment he stepped forward as if to go down into the _mêlée_; the next he repressed the impulse. the level rays of the sun which just caught the top of the hill shone in our eyes, while dust and smoke began to veil the field. we could still make out that the cavalry were sweeping round and round the barricade, pouring in now and then a volley of pistol shots; but they appeared to be suffering more loss than they caused. given a ring of waggons in the open, stoutly defended by resolute men, and i know nothing more difficult to reduce. gazing in a kind of fascination into the depths where the smoke whirled and eddied, as the steam rolls this way and that on a caldron, i was wondering what i should do were i in command, when i saw on a sudden what some one was doing; and i heard general tzerclas utter an oath of relief. back from the front of the convoy came three waggons, surrounded and urged on by a mob of footmen; jolting and bumping over the uneven ground, and often nearly overturned, still they came on, and behind them a larger troop of men. finally they came almost abreast of the enemy's position, and some thirty paces to one side of it. there perforce they stayed, for the leading horses fell shot; but it was near enough. in an instant our men swarmed up behind them and began to fire volleys into the enemy's fortress, while the horse moving to and fro at a little distance forbade any attempt at a sally. 'that man has a head on his shoulders!' general tzerclas muttered between his teeth. 'that is ludwig! now we have them!' but i saw that it was not ludwig; and presently the general saw it too. i read it in his face. the man who had brought up the waggons, and who could still be seen exposing himself, mounted and bare-headed in the hottest of the fire, ordering, threatening, inciting, leading, so that we could almost hear his voice where we stood, was the waldgrave! his blue velvet cloak and bright fair head were unmistakable, though darkness was fast closing over the fight, and it was only at intervals that we could see anything through the pall of smoke. 'vivat weimar!' i cried involuntarily, a glow of warmth and pride coursing through my veins. in that moment i loved the young man as if he had been my son. the next i fell from the clouds. what would my lady say if anything happened to him? what should i say if i stood by and saw him fall? and he with no headpiece, breast or back! it was madness of him to expose himself! i started forward, stung by the thought, and before i knew what i was doing--for, in fact, i could have done no good--i was on the slope and descending the hill. almost at the same moment the general gave the word to those who remained with him, and began to descend also. the hill was steep there, and it took us five minutes to reach the scene of action. if i had foolishly thought that i could do anything, i was disappointed. by this time the battle was over. manning every waggon within range, and pouring in a steady fire, our sharp-shooters had thinned the ranks behind the barricade. the enemy's fire had first slackened, and then ceased. a little later, one wing, unable to bear the shower of shot, had broken and tried to fly, and in a moment our pikemen had gained the work. we heard the flight and pursuit go wailing up the valley, but the disorder, and darkness, and noise at the foot of the hill where we found ourselves, were such that i stood scared and bewildered, uncertain which way to turn or whither to go. on every side of me men were stripping the dead, the wounded were crying for water, and cattle and horses, wounded or maddened, were rushing up and down among broken waggons and prostrate loads. such eyes of cruelty and greed glared at me out of the gloom, such shouts cursed me across dead men that i drew my sword and carried it drawn. but the scene robbed me of half my faculties; i did not know which way to turn; i did not know what to do; and until i came upon ludwig, i wandered aimlessly about, looking for the waldgrave without plan or system. it was my first experience of the darker side of war, and it surpassed in horror anything i had imagined or thought possible. ludwig, badly wounded in the leg, i found under a waggon. i had stood beside him some time without seeing him, and he had not spoken. but when i moved away i suppose he recognized my figure or step, for when i had gone a few paces i heard a hoarse voice calling my name. i went cautiously back to the waggon, and after a moment's search detected him peering from under it with a white, fierce face, which reminded me of a savage creature at bay. 'hallo!' i said. 'why did you not speak before, man?' 'get me some water,' he whispered painfully. 'water, for the love of heaven!' i told him that i had no flask or bottle, or i should before this have fetched some for others'. he gave me his, and i was starting off when i remembered that he might know how the waldgrave had fared. i asked him. 'he led the pursuit,' he muttered. 'he is all right.' then, as i was again turning away, he clutched my arm and continued, 'have you a pistol?' 'yes,' i said. 'lend it to me until you come back,' he gasped. 'if these vultures find me they will finish me. i know them. that is better. i shall win through yet.' i marked where his waggon stood, and left him. the river was distant less than a quarter of a mile, but it lay low, and the banks were steep; and in the darkness it was not easy to find a way down to the water. succeeding at last--and how still and peaceful it seemed as i bent over the gently flowing surface and heard the plash and gurgle of the willows in the stream!--i filled my bottle and climbed back to the plain level. here i found a change in progress. at intervals up and down the valley great fires had been kindled. some of these, burning high already, lit up the wrecked convoy and the dark groups that moved round it, and even threw a red, uncertain glare far up the slopes of the hills. aided by the light, i hastened back, and finding ludwig without much difficulty, held the bottle to his lips. he seemed nearly gone, but the draught revived him marvellously. when he had drunk i asked him if i could do anything else for him. he looked already more like himself. 'yes,' he said, propping his back against the wheel and speaking with his usual hardihood. 'tell our little general where i am. that is all. i shall do now we have light. i am not afraid of these skulkers any longer. but here, friend martin. you asked about your waldgrave just now?' 'yes,' i said. 'has he returned?' 'he never went,' he replied coolly. 'but if i had told you when you first asked me, you would not have gone for water for me. he is down. he fell, as nearly as i can remember, on the farther side of the second fire from here.' with a curse i ran from him, raging, and searched round that fire and the next, like one beside himself. many of the dead lay stripped to the skin, so that it was necessary to examine faces. and this ghastly task, performed with trembling fingers and by an uncertain light, took a long time. there were men prowling about with knives and bundles, whom i more than once interrupted in their work; but the sight of my pistol, and my face--for i was full of fierce loathing and would have shot them like rats--drove them off wherever i came. not once but many times the wounded and dying begged me to stay by them and protect them; but my water was at an end and my time was not my own. i left them, and ran from place to place in a fever of dread, which allowed of no rest or relaxation. at last, when i had well-nigh given up hope, i found him lying half-stripped among a heap of dead and wounded, at the farthest corner of the barricade. all his finery was gone, and his handsome face and fair hair were stained and bedabbled with dust and blood. but he was not dead. i could feel his heart beating faintly in his breast; and though he lay senseless and showed no other signs of life, i was thankful to find hope remained. i bore him out tenderly, and laid him down by himself and moistened his lips with the drainings of my flask. but what next? i could not leave him; the plunderers who had already robbed him might return at any moment. and yet, without cordials, and coverings, and many things i had not, the feeble spark of life left in him must go out. i stood up and looked round in despair. a lurid glare, a pitiful wailing, a passing of dark figures filled the valley. a hundred round us needed help; a hundred were beyond help. there were none to give it. i was about to raise him in my arms and carry him in search of it--though i feared the effect of the motion on his wounds--when, to my joy and relief, the measured tramp of footsteps broke on my ears, and i distinguished with delight a party of men approaching with torches. a few mounted officers followed them, and two waggons creaked slowly behind. they were collecting the wounded. i ran to meet them. 'quick!' i cried breathlessly. 'this way!' 'not so fast!' a harsh voice interposed; and, looking up, i saw that the general himself was directing the party. 'not so fast, my friend,' he repeated. 'who is it?' and leaning forward in his saddle, he looked down at me. 'the waldgrave rupert,' i answered impatiently. 'he is hurt almost to death. but he is alive, and may live, your excellency. only direct them to come quickly.' sitting on his horse in the full glare of the torches, he gazed down at me, his face wearing a strange expression of hesitation. 'he is alive?' he said at last. 'yes, at present. but he will soon be dead if we do not go to him,' i retorted. 'this way! he lies yonder.' 'lead on!' the general said. i obeyed, and a moment brought our party to the spot, where the waldgrave still lay insensible, his face pale and drawn, his eyes half open and disclosing the whites. under the glare of the torches he looked so like a corpse and so far beyond aid, that it was not until i had again thrust my hand into his breast, and felt the movement of his heart that i was reassured. as for the general, after looking down at him for awhile, he said quietly, 'he is dead.' 'not so, your excellency,' i answered, rising briskly from my knees. 'he is stunned. that is all.' 'he is dead,' the general replied coldly. 'leave him. we must help those first who need help.' they were actually turning away. they had moved a couple of paces before i could believe it. then i sprang to the general's rein. 'you mistake, your excellency!' i cried, my voice shrill with excitement. 'in heaven's name, stop! he is alive! i can feel his breathing. i swear that he is alive!' i was trembling with emotion and terror. 'he is dead!' he said harshly. 'stand back!' then i understood. in a flash his wicked purpose lay bared before me, and i knew that he was playing with me; i read in the cold, derisive menace of his eye that he knew the waldgrave lived, that he knew he might live, might survive, might see the dawn, and that he was resolved that he should not. the perspiration sprang out on my brow. i choked with indignation. 'mein gott!' i cried breathless, 'and but for him you would have been beaten.' 'stand back!' he muttered through his closed teeth; and his eyes flickered with rage. 'are you tired of your life, man?' 'ay, if you live!' i roared; and i shook his rein so that his horse reared and almost unseated him. but still i clung to it. 'come back! come back!' i cried, mad with passion, wild with indignation at treachery so vile, so cold-blooded, 'or i will heave you from your horse, you villain! i will----' i stumbled as i spoke over a broken shaft of a waggon, and in a moment half a dozen strong arms closed round me. i was down and up again and again down. i fought savagely, passionately, at the last desperately, having that cold, sneering face before me, and knowing that it was for my life. but they were many to one. they crushed me down and knelt on me, and presently i lay panting and quiet. one of the men who held me had unsheathed his dagger and stood looking to the general for a signal. i closed my eyes expecting the blow, and involuntarily drew in my breast, as if that poor effort might avert the stroke. but the general did not give the signal. he sat gazing down at me with a ruthless smile on his face. 'tie him up,' he said slowly, when he had enjoyed his triumph to the full. 'tie him up tightly. when we get back to the camp we will have a shooting-match, and he shall find us sport. you knave!' he continued, riding up to me in a paroxysm of anger, and slashing me across the face with his riding-whip so cruelly that the flesh rose in great wheals, and i fell back into the men's arms blind and shuddering with pain, 'i have had my eye on you! but you will work me no more mischief. throw him into the waggon there,' he continued. 'tie up his mouth if he makes a noise. has any one seen ludwig?' chapter xx. more haste, less speed. the dawn came slowly. night, loth to unveil what the valley had to show, hung there long after the wooded knobs that rose along the ridge had begun to appear, looking like grey and misty islands in a sea of vapour. many cried for the light--what night passes that some do not?--but none more impatiently than a woman, whose unquiet figure began with the first glimmer to pace the top of the hill. sometimes she walked to and fro with her face to the sky; sometimes she stood and peered into the depths where the fires still glowed fitfully; or again listened with shrinking ears to the wailing that rose out of the darkness. it was the countess. she had lain down, because they had bidden her do so, and told her that nothing could be done while night lasted. but with the first dawn she was on foot, so impatient that her own people dared not come near her, so imperious that the general's troopers crept away abashed. the fight in the valley and the dreadful things she had seen and heard at nightfall had shaken her nerves. the absence of her friends had finished the work. she was almost distraught this morning. if this was war--this merciless butchery, this infliction of horrible pain on man and beast--their screams still rang in her ears--she had seen enough. only let her get her friends back, and escape to some place where these things would not happen, and she asked no more. the light, as it grew stronger, the sun, as it rose, filling the sky with glory, failed to comfort her; for the one disclosed the dead, lying white and stripped in the valley below, like a flock of sheep grazing, the other seemed by its very cheerfulness to mock her. she was raging like a lioness, when the general at last appeared, and came towards her, his hat in his hand. his eye had still the brightness, his cheek the flush of victory. he had lain much of the night, thinking his own thoughts, until he had become so wrapped in himself and his plans that his shrewdness was for once at fault, and he failed to read the signs in her face which his own soldiers had interpreted. he was all fire and triumph; she, sick of bloodshed and ambition. for the first time since they had come together, she was likely to see him as he was. 'countess,' he said, as he stopped before her, 'you will do yourself harm, i fear. you were on foot, i am told, before it was light.' 'it is true,' she said, shuddering and restraining herself by an effort. 'it was foolish,' he replied. 'you may be sure that as soon as anything is heard the news will be brought to you. and to be missing is not to be dead--necessarily.' 'thank you,' she answered, her lip quivering. she flashed a look of scorn at him, but he did not see it. her hands opened and closed convulsively. 'he was last seen in the pursuit,' the general continued smoothly, flattering himself that in suppressing his own triumphant thoughts and purposes and talking her talk he was doing much. 'a score or more, of them got away together. it is quite possible that they carried him off a prisoner.' 'and martin?' she said in a choking voice. she could not stand still, and had begun already to pace up and down again. he walked beside her. he shrugged his shoulders. 'i know nothing about him,' he said, scarcely concealing a sneer. 'the man went where he was not sent. i hope for the best, but----' he spread out his hands and shook his head. 'oh!' she said. she was bursting with indignation. the sight of the dead lying below had stirred her nature to its depths. she felt intuitively the shallowness of his sympathy, the selfishness of his thoughts. she knew that he had it on his lips to talk to her of his triumph, and hated him for it. the horror which the day-old battlefield sometimes inspires in the veteran was on her. she was trembling all over, and only by a great effort kept herself from tears and fainting. 'the man is useful to you?' he said after a pause. he felt that he had gone wrong. she bowed in silence. 'almost necessary, i suppose?' she bowed again. she could not speak. it was wonderful. yesterday she had liked this man, to-day she almost hated him. but he knew nothing of that, as he looked round with pride. below, in the valley, parties of men were going to and fro with a sparkle and sheen of pikes. now and again a trumpet spoke, giving an order. on the hill, not far from where they walked, a group of officers who had ascended with him sat round a fire watching the preparation of breakfast. and of all he was the lord. he had only to raise a finger to be obeyed. he saw before him a vista of such battles and victories, ending--god knows in what. the emperor's throne was not above the dreams of such a man. and it moved him to speak. the flush on his cheek was deeper when he turned to her again. 'yes, i suppose he was necessary to you,' he said, 'but it should not be so. the countess of heritzburg should look elsewhere for help than to a servant. let me speak plainly, countess,' he continued earnestly. 'it is becoming i should so speak, for i am a plain man. i am neither baron, count, nor prince, margrave, nor waldgrave. i have no title but my sword, and no heritage save these who follow me. yet, if i cannot with the help of the one and the other carve out a principality as long and as wide as heritzburg, i am not john tzerclas!' 'poor germany!' the countess said with a faint smile. he interpreted the words in his own favour, and shrugged his shoulders. '_v[oe] victis!_' he said proudly. 'there was a time when your ancestors took heritzburg with the strong hand. such another time is coming. the future is for those who dare, for those who can raise themselves above an old and sinking system, and on its ruins build their fortunes. of these men i intend to be one.' the countess was an ambitious woman. at another time she might have heard his tale with sympathy. but at this moment her heart was full of anxiety for others, and she saw with perfect clearness the selfishness, the narrowness, the hardness of his aims. she was angry, too, that he should speak to her now--with the dead lying unburied, and the lost unfound, and strewn all round them the ghastly relics of the fight. she looked at him hardly, but she did not say a word; and he, following the exultant march of his own thoughts, went on. 'albert of wallenstein, starting from far less than i stand here, has become the first man in germany,' he said, heedless of her silence--'emperor in all but the name. your uncle and mine, from a country squire, became marshal and count of the empire, and saw the greatest quail before him. ernest of mansfeld, he was base-born and crook-backed too, but he lay softly and ruled men all his days, and left a name to tremble at. countess,' the general continued, speaking more hurriedly, and addressing himself, though he did not know it, to the feeling which was uppermost in her mind, 'you may think that in saying what i am going to say, i am choosing an untimely moment; that with this round us, and the air scarce free from powder, i am a fool to talk of love. but'--he hesitated, yet waved his hand abroad with a proud gesture, as if to show that the pause was intentional--'i think i am right. for i offer you no palace, no bed of down, but only myself and my sword. i ask you to share a soldier's fortunes, and be the wife and follow the fate of john tzerclas. may it be?' his form seemed to swell as he spoke. he had an air half savage, half triumphant as he turned to her with that question. the joy of battle was still in his veins; he seemed but half sober, though he had drunk nothing. a timid woman might have succumbed to him, one of lesser soul might have shrunk before him; but the countess faced him with a pride as great as his own. 'you have spoken plainly,' she said, undaunted. 'perhaps you will pardon me if i speak plainly too.' 'i ask no more, sweet cousin,' he answered. 'then let me remind you,' she replied, 'that you have said much about john tzerclas, and little about the countess of heritzburg. you have given excellent reasons why you should speak here, but none why i should answer. for shame, sir,' the countess continued tremulously, letting her indignation appear. 'i lost last night my nearest relative and my old servant. i am still distracted with anxiety on their account. yet, because i stand alone, unprotected, and with none of my kin by my side, you choose this time to press your suit. for shame, general tzerclas!' 'himmel!' he exclaimed, forgetting himself in his annoyance--the fever of excitement was still in his blood--'do you think the presence of that dandified silken scarf would have kept me silent? no, my lady!' she looked at him for a moment, astonished. the contemptuous reference to the waldgrave, the change of tone, opened her eyes still wider. 'i think you do not understand me,' she said coldly. 'i do more; i love you,' he answered hotly. and his eyes burned as he looked at her. 'you are fit to be a queen, my queen! and if i live, sweet cousin, i will make you one!' 'let that go by,' she said contemptuously, bearing up against his look of admiration as well as she could and continuing to move, so that he had to walk also. 'what you do not understand is my nature--which is, not to desert my friends when they are in trouble, nor to play when those who have served me faithfully are missing.' 'i can help neither the one nor the other,' he answered. but his brow began to darken, and he stood silent a moment. then he broke out in a different tone. 'by heaven!' he said, 'i am in no mood for play. and i think that you are playing with me!' 'i do not understand you!' she said. her tone should have frozen him. 'i have asked a question. will you answer me yes or no,' he persisted. 'will you be my wife, or will you not?' she did not blench. 'this is rather rough wooing, is it not?' she said with fine scorn. 'this is a camp, and i am a soldier.' she shrugged her shoulders. 'i do not think i like rough ways,' she said. he controlled himself by a mighty effort. 'pardon me,' he said with a sickly smile, which sat ill on his flushed and angry face. 'perhaps i am somewhat spoiled, and forget myself. but, like the man in the bible, i am accustomed to say to some, "go," and they go, and to others, "do it," and it is done. and woe to those who disobey me. possibly this makes me a rough wooer. but, countess, the ways of the world are rough; the times are rough. we do not know what to-morrow will bring forth, and whatever we want we want quickly. more, sweetheart,' he continued, drawing a step nearer to her and speaking in a voice he vainly strove to modulate, 'a little roughness before marriage is better than ill-treatment afterwards. i have known men who wooed on their knees bring their wives to theirs very quickly after the knot was tied. i am not of that kind.' my lady's heart sickened. despite the assurance of his last words, she saw the man as he was; she read his will in his eyes; and though his sudden frankness was in reality the result of overmastering excitement, she had the added horror of supposing it to be dictated by her friendless position and the absence of the last men who might have protected her. she knew that her only hope lay in her courage, and, though her heart leapt under her bodice, she faced him boldly. 'you wish for an answer?' she asked. 'i have said so,' he answered. 'then i shall not give you one now,' she replied with a quiet smile. 'you see, general, i am not one of those to whom you can say "go," and they go, and "do," and it is done. i must choose my own time for saying yes or no. and this time'--she continued, looking round, and suffering a little shudder to escape her, as she pointed to the valley below--'i do not like. i am no coward, but i do not love the smell of blood. i will take time to consider your offer, if you please; and, meanwhile, i think you gallant gentleman enough not to press me against my will.' she had a fan in her hand, and she began to walk again; she held it up, between her face and the sun, which was still low. he walked by her side, his brow as black as thunder. he read her thoughts so far correctly that he felt the evasion boded him no good; but the influence of her courage and pride was such that he shrank from throwing down the mask altogether, or using words which only force could make good. true, it wanted only a little to urge him over the edge, but her lucky star and bold demeanour prevailed for the time, and perhaps the cool, fresh air had sobered him. 'i suppose a lady's wish must be law,' he muttered, though still he scowled. 'but i hope that you will not make a long demand on my patience.' 'that, too, you must leave to me,' she replied with a flash of coquetry, which it cost her much to assume. 'this morning i am so full of anxiety, that i scarcely know what i am saying. surely your people must know by this time if they--they are among the dead?' 'they are not,' he answered sulkily. 'then they must have been captured?' she said, a tremor in her voice. he nodded. at that moment a man came up to say that breakfast was ready. the general repeated the message to her. 'with your leave i will take it with my women,' she answered with presence of mind. 'i slept ill, and i am poor company this morning,' she added, smiling faintly. the ordeal over, she could scarcely keep her feet. she longed to weep. she felt herself within an inch of swooning. he saw that she had turned pale, and he assented with a tolerable grace. 'let me give you my hand to your fire,' he said anxiously. 'willingly,' she answered. it was the last effort of her diplomacy, and she hated herself for it. still, it won her what she wanted--peace, a respite, a little time to think. yet as she sat and shivered in the sunshine, and made believe to eat, and tried to hide her thoughts, even from her women, a crushing sense of her loneliness took possession of her. she had read often and often, with scarce a quickening of the pulse, of men and women in tragic straits--of men and women brought face to face with death, nay, choosing it. but she had never pictured their feelings till now--their despair, their shrinkings, their bitter lookings back, as the iron doors closed upon them. she had never considered that such facts might enter into her own life. now, on a sudden, she found herself face to face with inexorable things, with the grim realities that have closed, like the narrowing walls of the inquisition dungeons, on many a gay life. in the valley below they were burying men like rotten sheep. the waldgrave was gone, captured or killed. martin was gone. she was alone. life seemed a cheap and uncertain thing, death very near. pleasure--folly--a dancing on the grave. of her own free will she had placed herself in the power of a man who loved her, and whom she now hated with an untimely hatred, that was half fear and half loathing. in his power! her heart stood still, and then beat faster, as she framed the thought. the sunshine, though it was summer, seemed to fall grey and pale on the hill sward; the morning air, though the day was warm, made her shiver. the trumpet call, the sharp command, the glitter of weapons, that had so often charmed her imagination, startled her now. the food was like ashes in her mouth; she could not swallow it. she had been blind, and now she must pay for her folly. she bad passed the night in the lee of one of the wooded knolls that studded the ridge, and her fire had been kindled there. the nearest group of soldiers--tzerclas' staff, whose harsh voices and reckless laughter came to her ears at intervals--had their fire full a hundred paces away. for a moment she entertained the desperate idea that she might slip away, alone, or with her women, and, passing from clump to clump, might gain the valley from which she had ascended, and, hiding in the woods, get somehow to cassel. the smallest reflection showed her that the plan was not possible, and it was rejected as soon as formed. but a moment later she was tempted to wish that she had put it into effect. an officer made his appearance, with his hat in his hand and an air of haste, and wished to know, with the general's service, whether she could be ready in an hour. 'for what?' she asked, rising. she had been sitting on the grass. 'to start, your excellency,' he replied politely. 'to start!' she exclaimed, taken by surprise. 'whither, sir?' 'on the return journey. to the camp.' the blood rushed to her face. 'to the camp?' she repeated. 'but is the general going to start this morning? now?' 'in an hour, madam.' 'and leave the waldgrave rupert--and my servant?' she cried, in a voice of burning indignation. 'are they to be abandoned? it is impossible! i will see the general. where is he?' she continued impetuously. 'he is in the valley,' the man answered. 'then take me to him,' she said, stepping forward. 'i will speak to him. he cannot know. he has not thought.' but the officer stood silent, without offering to move. the countess's eyes flashed. 'do you hear, sir?' she cried. 'lead on, if you please. i asked you to take me to him.' 'i heard, madam,' he replied in a low voice, 'and i crave your pardon. but this is an army, and i am part of it. i can take orders only from general tzerclas. i have received them, and i cannot go beyond them.' for a moment the countess stood glaring at him, her face on fire with wrath and indignation. she had been so long used to command, she was of a nature so frank and imperious, that she trembled on the verge of an outburst that could only have destroyed the little dignity it was still possible for her to retain. fortunately in the nick of time her eyes met those of a group of officers who stood at a distance, watching her. she thought that she read amusement in their gaze, and a pride greater than that which had impelled her to anger came to her aid. she controlled herself by a mighty effort. the colour left her cheeks as quickly as it had flown to them. she looked at the man coldly and disdainfully. 'true,' she said, 'you do well to remind me. it is not easy to remember that in war many things must give way. you may go, sir. i shall be ready.' but as she stood and saw her horses saddled, her heart sank like lead. all the misery of her false position came home to her. she felt that now she was alone indeed, and powerless. she was leaving behind her the only chance that remained of regaining her friends. she was going back to put herself more completely, if that were possible, in the general's hands. yet she dared not resist! she dared not court defeat! as her only hope and reserve lay in her wits and in the prestige of her rank and beauty, to lower that prestige by an unavailing struggle, by an unwomanly display, would be to destroy at a blow half her defences. the countess saw this; and though her heart ached for her friends, and her eyes often turned back in unavailing hope, she mounted with a serene brow. her horses had been brought to the top of the hill, and she rode down by a path which had been discovered. when she had gone a league on the backward road she came upon the foremost part of the captured convoy; which, was immediately halted and drawn aside, that she might pass more conveniently and escape the noise and dust it occasioned. among the rest were three waggons laden with wounded. awnings had been spread to veil them from the sun, and she was spared the sight of their sufferings. but their meanings and cries, as the waggons jolted and creaked over the rough road, drove the blood from her cheeks. she passed them quickly--they were many and she was one, and she could do nothing--and rode on, little thinking who lay under the awnings, or whose eyes followed her as she went. chapter xxi. among the wounded. when a man lies fettered at the bottom of a jolting waggon, and, unable to help himself, is made a pillow for wounded wretches, whose feverish struggles go near to stifling him; and when to these miseries are added the heat of a sultry night, thirst, and the near prospect of death, passion soon dies down. anger gives place to pain and the chill of apprehension. the man begins to know himself again--forgets his enemies, thinks of his friends. it was so with me. the general's back was not turned before i ceased to cry out; and that gained me the one alleviation i had--that i was not gagged. they piled the waggon with bleeding, groaning men,--of our side, of course, for no quarter was given to the other,--and i shuddered as each mangled wretch came in. still, i had my mouth free. if i could not move, i could breathe, and hear what passed round me. i could see the dark night sky lit up by the glare of the fires, or, later, watch the stars shining coldly and indifferently down on this scene of pain and misery. when the waggon was full they drove us, jolting and wailing, to an appointed place, and took out some, leaving only enough to cover the floor thickly. and then, ah me! the night began. that which at first had been an inconvenience, became in time intolerable pain. the ropes cut into my flesh, the boards burned my back; we were so closely packed, and i was so tightly bound that i could not move a limb. every moment the wounded cried for water, and those in pain wailed and lamented, while all night the wolves howled round the camp. in one corner, a man whose eyes were injured babbled unceasingly of his mother and his home. hour by hour, for the frenzy held him all night, he rolled his head, and chattered, and laughed! in the morning he died, and we thanked god for it. the peasant and the soldier sup the real miseries of war; the noble and the officer, whose it is to dare death in the field, but rarely, very rarely to lie wounded under the burning sun or through the freezing night, only taste them. a place of arms falls; there is quarter for my lord and a pass and courtesy for my lady, but edge and point for the common herd. to risk all and get nothing--or a penny a day, unpaid--is the lot of most. when morning at last dawned, i was half dead. my head seemed bursting; my hands were purple with the tightness of my bonds. deep groans broke from me. i moved my eyes--the only things i could move--in an agony. round me i heard the sick thanking god as the light grew stronger, and muttering words of hope. but the light helped me little. where i lay, trussed like a fowl, i could see nothing except the sky--whence the sun would soon add to my miseries--and the heads of the two men who sat propped against the waggon boards next to me. i took one of these to be dead, for he had slipped to one side, and the arm with which he had stayed himself against the floor of the waggon stood out stiff and stark. the other man had the comfort of the corner; there was a cloak under him and a pad behind him. but his head was sunk on his breast, and for a while i thought him dead too, and had a horrible dread that he would slide over on to my face and stifle me. but he did not, and by-and-by, when the sun had risen, and i felt that i could bear it no longer, he woke up and raised his fierce, white face and groaned. it was ludwig. he stared at me for a minute or more in a dazed, stupid fashion. then he moved his leg and cried out with pain. after that he looked at me more sensibly, and by-and-by spoke. 'donner, man!' he said. 'what is it? you look like a ripe mulberry.' i tried to answer him, but my lips and throat were so parched and swollen i could only murmur. he saw my lips move, however, and guessed how it was with me. 'they have tied you up with a vengeance!' he said with a grim smile. 'here, franz! willibrod! who is there? come, some one. do you hear, you lazy knaves?' he continued in a hoarse croak. 'when i am about again i will find some of you quicker heels!' a man just risen came grumbling to the side of the waggon. ludwig bade him climb in and loosen my bonds, and set me up against the side. 'and take away that carrion!' he added brutally. 'dead men pay no fares. that is better. ay, give him some water. he will come round.' i did presently, though for a time the blood flowing where it had been before restrained, caused me horrible pain, and my tongue, when i tried to thank him, seemed to be too large for my mouth. but i could now sit up, and stretch my limbs, and even raise my hands to my mouth. hope returned. my thoughts flew back to marie wort. her pale face and large eyes rose before my eyes, and filled them with tears. then there was my lady. and the waldgrave. doubtless he, poor fellow, was dead. but the rest lived--lived, and would soon look to me, look to any one for help. on that i became myself again. i shook off the pain and lethargy and despair of the night, and took up the burden of life. if my wits could save us, or, failing them, some happy accident, i would not be wanting. i had still a day or two, and all the chances of a journey. ludwig gave me food and a drink from his flask. i thanked him again. 'you are a man!' he said, shrugging his shoulders. 'it was a pity you would knot your own rope. as for these chicken-hearted tremblers,' he continued, squinting askance at our companions, 'a fico for them! to call themselves soldiers and pule like women! faugh! i am sick of them!' for my part, the sights i saw from the waggon seemed more depressing. in every direction parties were moving, burying our dead, putting wounded horses out of their misery, collecting plunder. one division was at work driving the poor lowing cattle, already over-driven, back the way they had come, through the pass and up the river bank. another was righting such of the waggons as had been overturned, or dragging them out of the nether part of the valley. everywhere men were working, shouting, swearing, spurning the dead. all showed that the general did not mean to linger, but would secure his booty by a timely retreat to his camp. they came by-and-by and horsed our waggon and turned us round, and presently we took our place in the slow, creaking procession, and began to move up the pass. i looked everywhere for my lady, but could see nothing of her. the noise was prodigious, the dust terrible, the glare intolerable. i was thankful when some kind heart brought a waggon cloth and stretched it over us. after that things were better; and between the heat and the monotony of the motion i fell asleep, and slept until the afternoon was well advanced. then a singular thing occurred. the waggon which followed ours was drawn by four horses abreast, whose heads as they plodded wearily along at the tail of our waggon were so close to us that we could see easily into the vehicle, which was full of wounded men, and covered with an awning. we could see easily, i say; but the steady cloud of dust through which we moved and the white glare of the sunlight gave to everything so phantom-like an appearance that it was hard to say whether we were looking on real things. be that as it may, the first thing i saw when i awoke and rubbed my eyes, was the waldgrave's face! he lay in the front part of the waggon, his head on the side-board. thinking i dreamed, or that the dust deceived me, i rubbed my eyes again and looked. still it was he. his eyes were closed. he was pale, where the dust did not hide all colour; his head moved with the motion of the wheels. but he seemed to be alive, for even while i looked, a man who sat by him leaned forward and moistened his forehead with water. trembling with excitement, i touched ludwig on the shoulder. 'look!' i said. 'the waldgrave!' he looked and nodded. 'yes,' he said, chuckling. 'now you see what you have done for yourself. and all for nothing!' 'but who took him up?' i persisted. 'the general,' he answered sententiously. 'who else?' 'why?' i cried in a fever. 'why did he do it?' ludwig shrugged his shoulders. 'he knows his own business,' he said. 'i suppose that he found he had life in him.' 'did he take him up at once? after i was seized?' 'of course. whether he will live or no is another matter.' the helpless way in which the dusty, bedraggled head rolled as the waggon jolted, warned me of that. still, he was alive. he might live; and i longed to be beside him, to tend and nurse him, to make the most of the least hope. but my eyes fell on my fettered hands; and when i looked again he had disappeared. he had sunk down in the cart, and was out of sight. i was left to wonder whether he was dead, or had only changed his posture for another more comfortable. and the dust growing ever thicker, and the sun-glare less as the day advanced, i presently lost sight even of the waggon. we lay that night in a coppice on the left bank of the river. each waggon halted where it stood at sunset, so that there was no common camp, but all along the road a line of bivouacs. but for the cloud of anxiety which darkened my mind, and the cords which bound my hands and constantly reminded me of my troubles, i might have enjoyed the comparative quietness of that night, the evening coolness, the soft green light, the freshness of leaf and bough, which lapped us round and seemed so much the more refreshing, as we had passed the day in a fever of heat and dust. but the unexpected sight of the waldgrave had excited me; and i confess that as we came nearer to the camp, the tremors i felt on my own account grew more violent. i recalled with a shudder the shooting-match at which i had been present, and the leather targets. i drew vivid pictures of another shooting-match in the same valley--of my lady looking on in ignorance, of minutes of suspense, of a sudden pang, a gagged scream, of hours of lingering torture. against such dreams the silence and beauty of the night were powerless, and the morning found me wakeful and unrefreshed, divided between reluctance to desert my lady and the instinct which bade me make an attempt at escape by the way, and while the chances of the journey were still mine. how i might have acted had a favourable opportunity presented itself, i cannot say; but as things went, i did nothing, and a little before sunset on the third day we gained the camp. then, i confess, i wished with all my heart that i had taken any chance, however slight. at sight of the familiar lines, the dusty, littered roads, the squalid crowds that came out to meet us, my gorge rose. the very smell of the place which i had so hated gave me qualms. i turned hot and cold as we rumbled slowly through the throng and one pointed me out to another, and i saw round me again the dark, lowering faces, the unsexed women, the horde of vile sutlers and footboys. they surged round the waggon, jeering and staring; and if i had shrunk from them when my hands were free, i loathed them still more now that i lay a prisoner and any moment might place me at their mercy. i had seen nothing of the waldgrave or the waggon which carried him for nearly two days, but as we passed through the gates i caught sight of the latter moving slowly on, a little way in front of us. both waggons halted inside the camp while the wounded were taken out. i prepared to follow, but was bidden to stay. then i began to realize my position. when the waggon bore me on alone--alone, though two or three pikemen and a rabble of gibing, grinning horse-boys marched beside me--i felt my blood run cold, and found my only consolation in the fact that the other waggon still went in front, and seemed to be bound for the same goal. 'what are you going to do with me?' i asked one of the ruffians who guarded me. 'prison,' he answered laconically. and a strange prison it was. on the verge of the camp, near the river, where a snug farmhouse had once stood, rose four gaunt walls, blackened with smoke. the roof was gone--burned off; but the rooftree, charred and soot-begrimed, still ran from gable to gable. a strong, high gate filled the room of the door; the windows had been bricked up. when i saw the waggon which preceded me halt before this melancholy place, i looked out between hope and fear--fearing some act of treachery, hoping to see the waldgrave. but the blackguard crowd which surrounded the doorway was so great that it hid everything; and i had to curb my impatience until in turn my waggon stopped in the midst of them. a mocking voice called to me to descend, and though i liked the look of the place little, and the aspect of the gang still less, i had no choice but to obey. i scrambled down, and passed as quickly as i could down the lane opened for me. a row of more villainous faces it has seldom been my fate to see, but the last on the right by the gate was so much the worst, that it caught my eye instantly. it was seamed with scars and bloated with drink, and it wore a ferocious grin. i was not surprised when the knave, a huge pikeman, dealt me, as i passed, a brutal shove with his knee, which sent me staggering into the enclosure, where i fell all at length on my face. the blow hurt my hip cruelly, and yet the sight of that drunken, ugly giant filled me with a rush of joy and hope that effaced all other feelings. i forgot my fellow-prisoners, i forgot even the waldgrave--who to be sure was there, sitting doubled up against the wall, and looking very white and sick. for the man with the seamed face was drunken steve of heritzburg, whom we had left behind us in the castle, to be cured of his wounds. i had punished him a dozen times; almost as often my lady had threatened to drive him from the place and her service. always he had had the name of a sullen, wilful fellow. but i had found him staunch as any tyke in time of need. for dogged fidelity and a ferocious courage, proof against the utmost danger, i knew that i could depend on him against the world; while the prompt line of conduct he had adopted at sight of me led me to hope something from wits which drink had not yet deadened. it was well i had this spark of hope, for i found the waldgrave so ill as to be beyond comfort or counsel, and without it i should have been in a parlous state. the place of our confinement was roofless, ill-smelling, strewn with refuse and filth, a mere dog-yard. a little straw alone protected us from the soil. everything we did was watched through the open bars of the gate; and bad as this place was, we shared it with two soldiers, who lay, heavily shackled, in one corner, and sullenly eyed my movements. i did what i could for the waldgrave, and then, as darkness fell, i sat down with my back to the wall and thought over our position--miserably enough. half an hour passed, and i was beginning to nod, when a slight noise as of a rat gnawing a board caught my ear. i raised my head and listened; the sound came from the gate. i stood up and crept towards it. as i expected, i found steve on guard outside. even in the darkness it was impossible to mistake his huge figure. 'hush!' he muttered. 'is it you, master?' 'yes,' i replied in the same tone. 'are you alone?' 'for the moment,' he answered hoarsely. 'not for long. so speak quickly. what is to be done?' alas! that was more than i could say. 'what of my lady?' i replied vaguely. 'is she here? in the camp?' 'to be sure.' 'and marie wort? the papist girl?' 'yes, yes.' 'then you must see marie,' i answered. 'she will know my lady's mind. until we know that, we can do nothing. do not tell her where i am--it may hurt the girl; or of the waldgrave, but learn how they are. if things are bad with my lady, bid them gain time. you understand?' 'yes, yes,' he grunted. 'and that is to be all, is it? you will have nothing done to-night?' 'what, here?' 'to be sure.' 'no, no,' i replied, trembling for the man's rashness. 'we can do nothing here until horses are got and placed for us, and the pass-word learned, and provisions gathered, and half a dozen other things.' 'donner! i don't know how all that is to be done,' he muttered despondently. 'nor i,' i said with a shiver. 'you have not heard anything of a--a shooting-match, have you?' 'it is for sunday,' he answered. 'and to-day is tuesday,' i said. 'steve! you will not lose time?' 'no, no.' 'you will see her in the morning? in the morning, lad,' i continued feverishly, clinging to the bars and peering out at him. 'i must get out of this before sunday! and this is tuesday! steve!' 'hush!' he answered. 'they are coming back.' chapter xxii. greek and greek. what my lady's thoughts were during her long ride back to the camp, i do not know. but i have heard her say that when she rode into the village, a day and a half in advance of the dusty, lumbering convoy, she could scarcely believe that it was the place she had left, the place in which she had lived for a fortnight. and this, though all remained the same. so much does the point from which we look at things alter their aspect. the general had sent on the news of the waldgrave's loss by messenger, that she might be spared the pain of telling it; and fraulein max and marie wort were waiting on the wooden platform before the house when she rode wearily in. the sight of those two gave her a certain sense of relief and home coming, merely because they were women and wore petticoats. but that was all. the village, the reeking camp, the squalid soldiery, the whining beggars filled her--now that her eyes were opened and she saw this ugly face of war stripped of the glamour with which her fancy had invested it--with fear and repulsion. she wondered that she could ever have liked the place and been gay in it, or drawn pleasure from the amusements which now seemed poor and tawdry. fraulein max ran down into the road to meet her, and when she had dismounted, covered her with tearful caresses. but the countess, after receiving her greetings, still looked round wistfully as if she missed some one; and then in a moment moved from her, and mounting the steps went swiftly to the dark corner by the porch whither marie wort had run, and where she now stood leaning against the house with her face to the wall. my lady, whom few had ever seen unbend, took the girl in her arms, and laid her head on her shoulder and stroked her hair pitifully. 'hush, hush, child!' she murmured, her eyes wet with tears. 'poor child, poor child! is it so very bad?' but marie could only sob. they went into the house in a moment after that, those three, with the waiting-women. and then a change came over the countess. fraulein max blinked to see it. my lady who, outside, had been so tender, began, before her riding cloak was off, to walk up and down like a caged wolf, with hard eyes and cheeks burning with indignation. fraulein max spoke to her timidly--said that the meal was ready, that my lady's woman was waiting, that my lady must be tired. but the countess put her by almost with an oath. for hours she had been playing a part, a thing her proud soul loathed. for hours she had hidden, not her sorrow only and her anger, but her anxieties, her fears, her terrors. now she must be herself or die. besides, the thing pressed! she had her woman's wits, and might stave off the general's offer for a few days, for a week. but a week--what was that? no wonder that she looked on the four helpless women round her, and realised that these were her only helpers now, her only protection; no wonder that she cried out. 'i have been a fool!' she said, looking at them with burning eyes. 'a fool! when martin warned me, i would not listen; when the waldgrave hinted, i laughed at him. i was bewitched, like a silly fool in her teens! don't contradict me!' and she stamped her foot impatiently. fraulein max had raised her hand. 'i don't,' the fraulein answered. 'i don't understand you.' 'do you understand that empty, chair?' my lady answered bitterly. 'or that empty stool?' fraulein anna blinked more and more. 'but war,' she said mildly--'a necessary evil, voetius calls it--war, countess----' 'oh!' my lady cried in a fury. 'as carried on by these, it is a horror, a fiendish thing! i did not know before. now i have seen it. wait, wait, girl, until it takes those you love, and threatens your own safety, and then talk to me of war!' but fraulein anna set her face mutinously. 'still, i do not understand,' she said slowly, winking her short-sighted eyes like an owl in the daylight. 'you talk as if we had cause not only to grieve--as we have, indeed--but to fear. are we not safe here? general tzerclas----' 'bah!' the countess cried, trembling with emotion. 'don't let me hear his name! i hate him. he is false. false, girl. i do not trust him; i do not believe him; and i would to heaven we were out of his hands!' even marie wort, sitting white and quiet in a corner, looked up at that. as for fraulein max, she passed her tongue slowly over her lips, but did not answer; and for a moment there was silence in the room. then marie said very softly, 'thank god!' my lady turned to her roughly. 'why do you say that?' she said. 'because of what i have learned since you left us,' the girl answered, in a frightened whisper. 'there was a man who lived in this house, my lady.' 'yes, yes,' the countess muttered eagerly. 'i remember he begged of me, and general tzerclas gave him money. that was one of the things that blinded me.' 'he hung him afterwards,' the girl whispered in a shaking voice. 'by the river, in the south-east corner of the camp.' the countess stared at her incredulously, rage and horror in her face. 'that man whom i saw?' she cried. 'it is not possible! you have been deceived.' but marie wort shook her head. 'it is true,' she said simply. 'then heaven help us all!' the countess whispered in a thrilling tone. 'for we are in that man's power!' there was a stricken silence after that, which lasted some minutes. the room seemed to grow darker, the house more silent, the road on which they looked through the unglazed window more dusty, squalid, dreary--dreary with the summer dreariness of drought. one of the waiting-women began to cry. the other stood bolt upright, looking out with startled eyes, and lips half open. 'yes, all,' the countess presently went on, her voice hard and composed. 'he has asked me to be his wife. he has honoured me so far.' she laughed a thin, mirthless laugh. 'if i am willing, therefore, well. if i am not--still he will wed me. after that he will keep us here in the midst of these horrors. or he will march to heritzburg, and then god help heritzburg and my people!' fraulein anna passed her tongue over her lips again, and shifted her hands in her lap. she was paler than usual. but she did not speak. 'the child?' the countess said presently, in a different tone. 'has it been recovered?' marie shook her head; and a moment later threw her kerchief over her face and went out. they heard her sobs as she went along the passage. my lady frowned. 'if we could get a message to count leuchtenstein,' she murmured thoughtfully. 'but i do not know where he is. he may return to seek the child, however; and that is our best chance, i think.' they brought food in after that, and the council broke up. it is to be feared that the countess found herself little the better for its advice. in the evening the general called to learn whether she was much fatigued; and she fancied she detected in his manner a masterfulness and a familiarity from which it had been free. but her suspicions rendered her so prone to read between the lines, that it is possible that she saw some things that were not there. her own feelings she succeeded in masking, except in one matter. he brought count waska with him; and it occurred to her, in her fear and helplessness, that she might enlist the bohemian on her side. such schemes come to women, even to proud women; and though waska, half sportsman and half sot, and in body a mountain of flesh, was an unlikely knight-errant, she plied him so craftily, that when the two were gone she sat for an hour in a state of exaltation, believing that here a new and unexpected way to safety might open. the bohemian was second in command, though at a great interval. he was popular, and in some points a gentleman. could she excite in him jealousy, discontent, even passion, her position was such that she was in no mood to stand on scruples. but when the general came next day, _he did not bring waska_; nor the day after. and he showed so plainly that he saw through the design, and suspected her, that he left her white and furious. indeed it was a question who was left by this interview the more excited, my lady, who saw the circle growing ever narrower round her, and read with growing clearness the man's determination to win her at all costs and by all means; or the general, whose passion every day augmented, who saw in her both the woman he desired and the heiress, and would fain, if he could, have won her heart as well as her person. the possession of power tempts to the use of it, and he began to lose patience. he had a screw in readiness, he fancied, that would bend even that proud neck and humble those knees. a day or two more he would give her, and then he would turn it. hate itself is not more cruel than love despised! but he did not count on her influence over him. the day or two passed, and another day or two, and still she kept him amused and kept him at bay. sometimes he saw through her wiles, and came near to vowing that he would not give her another hour. will she, nill she, she should wed him. but then the glamour of her presence and her beauty blinded him again. and so a week went slowly by; each day won, at what a cost of pride, of courage, of self-respect! at the end of that time my lady's face had grown so white and drawn under the strain, that when she sat alone she looked years older than her age. the light still flashed in her eyes; they had grown only the larger. but her cheeks and her lips had lost their colour, her hair its gloss. when no one was watching her, she glanced round her like a hunted animal. when anything crossed her, she flew into fearful rages with her women. they were so useless, so helpless! she was like a scorpion i have heard of, that, ringed round with fire, stings all within its reach. how many nights she tossed, sleepless; how often she went over the odds against her; grasped at this idea or that; thought of horses and roads, ways and means, the distance to cassel, or the chances of leuchtenstein's return, i cannot say; but i can guess. at last, during one of these night vigils, something happened. she was lying, torturing herself with the thought that to this constant putting off there could only be one end, when she heard sneaking footsteps moving in the passage. the wall which divided it from her room ran beside her bed, and, lying still, she heard the rustling of garments against the boards. something like this she had feared in her worst moments; and on the instant she sat up and listened, her heart beating wildly. since her return the two waiting-women had lain in her room. she could hear them breathing now. but beside and above that, she could hear the stealthy rustling sound she had heard before. then it ceased. she rose trembling. the windows were shuttered, and the lamp which commonly burned in a basin had gone out. the room, therefore, was quite dark. without awaking the women she stole across the floor to the door, and there set her ear to the panels and listened. but she heard nothing except the distant shout of a reveller, and the mournful howling of one of the pack of curs that infested the camp; all was still. still she crouched there listening, and presently her patience was rewarded. some one entered by the outer door, and went quickly along the passage, the boards creaking so loudly that it was a wonder the women were not aroused. the footsteps went straight to the room where fraulein max and marie wort slept. some one had been out and returned! there was a hint of treachery here, and my lady stood up, her face growing hard. which of the two was it? in a moment she had her answer. a dozen times in the last week marie had puzzled her; a dozen times the papist girl's easy resignation had angered her. she had caught her more than once smiling--smiling childish smiles that would not be repressed. this was the secret, then! the countess grew hot, and in a moment was out of her room and at the door of that other room. a taper still burned there; its light showed through the cracks. without hesitation she thrust the door open, and entering surprised marie wort in the very act. the girl was standing in the middle of the floor taking off a cloak. guilt and fear were written on her face. 'you wicked girl!' the countess cried, her eyes blazing. then she stopped. for marie, instead of retreating before her, pointed with a warning finger to a second empty pallet; and my lady looking round saw with astonishment that fraulein max was missing. 'what does this mean?' the countess muttered in a different tone. marie, trembling and listening, put her finger to her lips. 'hush, hush, my lady,' she whispered. 'she must not find you here! she must not, indeed. i heard her go out, and i followed. i have heard all.' 'all?' the countess stammered, and she began to tremble. 'yes,' the girl answered. then 'go, go! my lady,' she cried. she was shaking with agitation, and looked round as if for a way of escape. but there was no second door to the room. 'if she finds you here we are lost. go back, and in the morning----' she stopped abruptly, and her eyes grew wide. the countess listening too, and catching the infection of her fear, heard a board creak below. for a moment the two stood in the middle of the floor, gazing into one another's eyes. then marie, with a sudden movement, thrust my lady down on her pallet, and with the other hand put out the light. they lay, scarcely daring to breathe, and heard fraulein anna grope her way in, and stand awhile, silent and listening, as if she found something suspicious in the extinction of the light. but the taper--it was a mere rushlight--had done this before, and marie stirred so naturally, that fraulein max's doubts passed away. she put off her cloak quickly, and presently--but not, as it seemed to the countess, until an hour had elapsed--they heard her begin to breathe regularly. a few minutes more and they had no doubt she slept. then marie touched my lady's arm, and the latter, rising softly, stole out of the room. the adventure left the countess's thoughts in a whirl. she hated double-dealing as much as any one, and she could scarcely contain herself before fraulein max. it was as much as she could do to wear a smooth face for an hour, until a chance occasion, which fortunately came early in the day, left her alone with marie. then she turned, almost fiercely, on the girl. 'what is this?' she said. 'what does it all mean? himmel! tell me! tell me quickly!' marie wort looked at her with tears in her eyes. 'you should be able to guess, my lady,' she said sadly. 'there is a traitor among us.' 'fraulein anna?' marie nodded. 'she is in his pay,' she said simply. 'his? the general's?' 'yes,' marie answered, speaking quickly, with her eyes on the door. 'she met him last night, and told him what you feel about him.' the countess drew a deep breath. her face turned a shade paler. she sat up straight in her chair. 'all?' she said huskily. marie nodded. 'and he?' 'he said he would have an answer to-day. then i left. i did not hear any more.' the countess sat for a minute as if turned to stone. here was an end of putting off--of smiles, and pleasant words, and the little craftinesses which had hitherto served her. stern necessity, hard fate were before her. she was of a high courage, but terror was fast mastering her, when marie touched her on the arm. 'if you can put him off, until this evening,' the girl muttered, 'i think something may be done.' 'what?' 'something. i do not know what,' the girl answered in a troubled tone. the countess rose suddenly. 'ah! i would like to choke her!' she cried hoarsely. she stretched out her arms. 'hush, hush, my lady!' marie whispered. the countess's violence frightened her. 'i think, if you can put him off until to-night, we may contrive something.' 'we? you and i?' my lady said in scorn. but as she looked at the other's pale, earnest face, her own softened, her tone changed. 'well, it shall be as you wish,' she said, letting her arms drop. 'you are a better plotter than i am. but i fear fraulein cat, fraulein snake, fraulein fox will prove the best of all!' marie's frightened face showed that she thought this possible, but she said no more, and would give my lady no explanation, though the countess pressed for it. it was decided in the end that the countess should plead sudden illness, and use that pretext both to avoid fraulein max, and postpone her interview with the general until the evening. he came at noon, and the countess heard his horses pawing and fretting in the road, and she sat up in her darkened room with a white face. what if he would not accept the excuse? if he would see her? what if the moment had come in which his will and hers must decide the struggle? she rose and stood listening, as fierce in her beauty as any trapped savage creature. her heartbeat wildly, her bosom heaved. but in a moment she heard the horses move away, and presently marie came in to tell her that he would wait till evening. 'no longer?' the countess asked, hiding her face in the pillow. 'not an hour, he said,' marie answered, indicating by a gesture that the door was open, and that fraulein max was listening. 'he was--different,' she whispered. 'how?' my lady muttered. 'he swore at me,' marie answered in the same tone. 'and he spoke of you--somehow differently.' the countess laughed, but far from joyously. 'i suppose to-night--i must see him?' she said. she tried as she spoke to press herself more deeply into the pillows, as if she might escape that way. her flesh crept, and she shivered though she was as hot as fire. once or twice in the hours which followed she was almost beside herself. sometimes she prayed. more often she walked up and down the room like one in a fever. she did not know on what she was trusting, and she could have struck marie when the girl, appealed to again and again, would explain nothing, and name no quarter from which help might come. all the afternoon the camp lay grilling in the sunshine, and in the shuttered room in the middle of it my lady suffered. had the house lain by the river she might have tried to escape; but the camp girdled it on three sides, and on the fourth, where a swampy inlet guarded one flank of the village, a deep ditch as well as the morass forbade all passage. she remained in her room until she heard the unwelcome sounds which told of the general's return. then she came into the outer room, her eyes glittering, a red spot on either cheek, all pretence at an end. her glance withered fraulein max, who sat blinking in a corner with a very evil conscience. and to marie wort, when the girl came near her on the pretence of adjusting her lace sleeves, she had only one word to say. 'you slut!' she hissed, her breath hot on the girl's cheek. 'if you fail me i will kill you. begone out of my sight!' the child, excited before, broke down at that, and, bursting into a fit of weeping, ran out. her sobs were still in the air when general tzerclas entered. the countess's face was flushed, and her bearing, full of passion and defiance, must have warned him what to expect, if he felt any doubt before. the sun was just setting, the room growing dusk. he stood awhile, after saluting her, in doubt how he should come to the point, or in admiration; for her scorn and anger only increased her beauty and his feeling for her. at length he pointed lightly to the women, who kept their places by the door. 'is it your wish, fair cousin,' he said slowly, 'that i should speak before these, or will you see me alone?' 'your spy, that cat there,' my lady answered, carried away by her temper, 'may go! the women will stay.' fraulein max, singled out by that merciless finger, sprang forward, her face mottled with surprise and terror. for a second she hesitated. then she rushed towards her friend, as if she would embrace her. 'countess!' she cried. 'rotha! surely you are mad! you cannot think that i would----' my lady turned, and in a flash struck her fiercely on the cheek with her open hand. 'liar!' she cried; 'go to your master, you whipped hound!' the dutch woman recoiled with a cry of pain, and sobbing wildly went back to her place. the general laughed harshly. 'you hold with me, sweetheart,' he said. 'discipline before everything. but you have not my patience.' she looked at him--angry with him, angry with herself, her hand to her bosom--but she did not answer. 'for you must allow,' he continued--his tone and his eyes still bantered her--'that i have been patient. i have been like a man athirst in the desert; but i have waited day after day, until now i can wait no longer, sweetheart.' 'so you tamper with my--with that woman!' she said scornfully. the general shrugged his shoulders and laughed grimly. 'why not?' he said. 'what are waiting-women and the like made for, if not to be bribed--or slapped?' she hated him for that sly hit--if never before; but she controlled herself. she would throw the burden on him. he read the thought, and it led him to change his tone. there was a gloomy fire in his eyes, and smouldering passion in his voice, when he spoke again. 'well, countess,' he said, 'i am here for your answer.' 'to what?' 'to the question i asked you some time ago,' he rejoined, dwelling on her with sullen eyes. 'i asked you to be my wife. your answer?' 'prythee!' she said proudly, 'this is a strange way of wooing.' 'it is not of my choice that i woo in company,' he answered, shrugging his shoulders. 'my answer; that is all i want--and you.' 'then you shall have the first, and not the last,' she exclaimed on a sudden impulse. 'no, no--a hundred times no! if you do not see that by pressing me now,' she continued impetuously, 'when i am alone, friendless, and unprotected, you insult me, you should see it, and i do.' for a moment there was silence. then he laughed; but his voice, notwithstanding his mastery over it and in spite of that laugh, shook with rage and resentment. 'as i expected,' he said. 'i knew last night that you hated me. you have been playing a part throughout. you loathe me. yes, madam, you may wince,' he continued bitterly, 'for you shall still be my wife; and when you are my wife we will talk of that.' 'never!' she said, with a brave face; but her heart beat wildly, and a mist rose before her eyes. he laughed. 'my legions are round me,' he said. 'where are yours?' 'you are a gentleman,' she answered with an effort. 'you will let me go.' 'if i do not?' 'there are those who will know how to avenge me.' he laughed again. 'i do not know them, countess,' he said contemptuously. 'for hesse cassel, he has his hands full at nuremberg, and will be likely, when wallenstein has done with him, to need help himself. the king of sweden--the brightest morning ends soonest in rain--and he will end at nuremberg. bernhard of weimar, leuchtenstein, all the fanatics fall with him. only the banner of the free companies stands and waves ever the wider. be advised,' he continued grimly. 'bend, countess, or i have the means to break you.' 'never!' she said. 'so you say now,' he answered slowly. 'you will not say so in five minutes. if you care nothing for yourself, have a care for your friends.' 'you said i had none,' she retorted hoarsely. 'none that can help you,' he replied; 'some that you can help.' she started and looked at him wildly, her lips apart, her eyes wide with hope, fear, expectation. what did he mean? what could he mean by this new turn? ha! she had her face towards the window, and dark as the room was growing--outside the light was failing fast--he read the thought in her eyes, and nodded. 'the waldgrave?' he said lightly. 'yes, he is alive, countess, at present; and your steward also.' 'they are prisoners?' she whispered, her cheeks grown white. 'prisoners; and under sentence of death.' 'where?' 'in my camp.' 'why?' she muttered. but alas! she knew; she knew already. 'they are hostages for your good behaviour,' he answered in his cold, mocking tone. 'if their principal satisfies me, good; they will go free. if not, they die--to-morrow.' 'to-morrow?' she gasped. 'to-morrow,' he answered ruthlessly. 'now i think we understand one another.' she threw up her hand suddenly, as if she were about to vent on him all the passions which consumed her--the terror, rage, and shame which swelled in her breast. but something in his gibing tone, something in the set lines of his figure--she could not see his face--checked her. she let her hand fall in a gesture of despair, and shrank into herself, shuddering. she looked at him as at a serpent--that fascinated her. at last she murmured-- 'you will not dare. what have they done to you?' 'nothing,' he answered. 'it is not their affair; it is yours.' for a moment after that they stood confronting one another while the sound of the women sobbing in a corner, and the occasional jingle of a bridle outside, alone broke the silence. behind her the room was dark; behind him, through the open windows, lay the road, glimmering pale through the dusk. suddenly the door at her back opened, and a bright light flashed on his face. it was marie wort bringing in a lamp. no one spoke, and she set the lamp on the table, and going by him began to close the shutters. still the countess stood as if turned to stone, and he stood watching her. 'where are they?' she moaned at last, though he had already told her. 'in the camp,' he said. 'can i--can i see them?' she panted. 'afterwards,' he answered, with the smile of a fiend; 'when you are my wife.' that added the last straw. she took two steps to the table, and sitting down blindly, covered her face with her hands. her shoulders began to tremble, her head sank lower and lower on the table. her pride was gone. 'heaven help us!' she whispered in a passion of grief. 'heaven help us, for there is no help here!' 'that is better,' he said, eyeing her coldly. 'we shall soon come to terms now.' in his exultation he went a step nearer to her. he was about to touch her--to lay his hand on her hair, believing his evil victory won, when suddenly two dark figures rose like shadows behind her chair. he recoiled, dropping his hand. in a moment a pistol barrel was thrust into his face. he fell back another step. 'one word and you are a dead man!' a stern voice hissed in his ear. then he saw another barrel gleam in the lamplight, and he stood still. 'what is this?' he said, looking from one to the other, his voice trembling with rage. 'justice!' the same speaker answered harshly. 'but stand still and be silent, and you shall have your life. give the alarm, and you die, general, though we die the next minute. sit down in that chair.' he hesitated. but the two shining barrels converging on his head, the two grim faces behind them, were convincing; in a moment he obeyed. chapter xxiii. the flight. one of the men--it was i--muttered something to marie, and she snuffed the wick, and blew up the light. in a moment it filled the room, disclosing a strange medley of levelled weapons, startled faces, and flashing eyes. in one corner fraulein max and the two women cowered behind one another, trembling and staring. at the table sat my lady, with dull, dazed eyes, looking on, yet scarcely understanding what was happening. on either side of her stood steve and i, covering the general with our pistols, while the waldgrave, who was still too weak for much exertion, kept guard at the door. tzerclas was the first to speak. 'what is this foolery?' he said, scowling unutterable curses at us. 'what does this mean?' 'this!' i said, producing a piece of hide rope. 'we are going to tie you up. if you struggle, general, you die. if you submit, you live. that is all. go to work, steve.' there was a gleam in tzerclas' eye, which warned me to stand back and crook my finger. his face was black with fury, and for an instant i thought that he would spring upon us and dare all. but prudence and the pistols prevailed. with an evil look he sat still, and in a trice steve had a loop round his arms and was binding him to the heavy chair. i knew then that as far as he was concerned we were safe; and i turned to bid the women get cloaks and food, adjuring them to be quick, since every moment was precious. 'bring nothing but cloaks and food and wine,' i said. 'we have to go a league on foot and can carry little.' the countess heard my words, and looked at me with growing comprehension. 'the waldgrave?' she muttered. 'is he here?' he came forward from the door to speak to her; but when she saw him, and how pale and thin he was, with great hollows in his cheeks and his eyes grown too large for his face, she began to cry weakly, as any other woman might have cried, being overwrought. i bade marie, who alone kept her wits, to bring her wine and make her take it; and in a minute she smiled at us, and would have thanked us. 'wait!' i said bluntly, feeling a great horror upon me whenever i looked towards the general or caught his eye. 'you may have small cause to thank us. if we fail, heaven and you forgive us, my lady, for this man will not. if we are retaken----' 'we will not be retaken!' she cried hardily. 'you have horses?' 'five only,' i answered. 'they are all steve could get, and they are a league away. we must go to them on foot. there are eight of us here, and young jacob and ernst are watching outside. are all ready?' my lady looked round; her eye fell on fraulein max, who with a little bundle in her arms had just re-entered and stood shivering by the door. the dutch girl winced under her glance, and dropping her bundle, stooped hurriedly to pick it up. 'that woman does not go!' the countess said suddenly. i answered in a low tone that i thought she must. 'no!' my lady cried harshly--she could be cruel sometimes--'not with us. she does not belong to our party. let her stay with her paymaster, and to-morrow he will doubtless reward her.' what reward she was likely to get fraulein max knew well. she flung herself at my lady's feet in an agony of fear, and clutching her skirts, cried abjectly for mercy; she would carry, she would help, she would do anything, if she might go! knowing that we dared not leave her since she would be certain to release the general as soon as our backs were turned, i was glad when marie, whose heart was touched, joined her prayers to the culprit's and won a reluctant consent. it has taken long to tell these things. they passed very quickly. i suppose not more than a quarter of an hour elapsed between our first appearance and this juncture, which saw us all standing in the lamplight, laden and ready to be gone; while the general glowered at us in sullen rage, and my lady, with a new thought in her mind, looked round in dismay. she drew me aside. 'martin,' she said, 'his orderly is waiting in the road with his horse. the moment we are gone he will shout to him.' 'we have provided for that,' i answered, nodding. then assuring myself by a last look round that all were ready, i gave the word. 'now, steve!' i said sharply. in a twinkling he flung over the general's head a small sack doubled inwards. we heard a stifled oath and a cry of rage. the bars of the strong chair creaked as our prisoner struggled, and for a moment it seemed as if the knots would barely hold. but the work had been well done, and in less than half a minute steve had secured the sack to the chair-back. it was as good as a gag, and safer. then we took up the chair between us, and lifting it into the back room, put it down and locked the door upon our captive. as we turned from it steve looked at me. 'if he catches us after this, master martin,' he said, 'it won't be an easy death we shall die!' 'heaven forbid!' i muttered. 'let us be off!' he gave the word and we stole out into the darkness at the back of the house, steve, who had surveyed the ground, going first. my lady followed him; then came the waldgrave; after him the two women and fraulein max, with jacob and ernst; last of all, marie and i. it was no time for love-making, but as we all stood a minute in the night, while steve listened, i drew marie's little figure to me and kissed her pale face again and again; and she clung to me, trembling, her eyes shining into mine. then she put me away bravely; but i took her bundle, and with full hearts we followed the others across the field at the back and through the ditch. that passed, we found ourselves on the edge of the village, with the lights of the camp forming five-sixths of a circle round us. in one direction only, where the swamp and creek fringed the place, a dark gap broke the ring of twinkling fires. towards this gap steve led the way, and we, a silent line of gliding figures, followed him. the moon had not yet risen. the gloom was such that i could barely make out the third figure before me; and though all manner of noises--the chorus of a song, the voice of a scolding hag, even the rattle of dice on a drumhead--came clearly to my ears, and we seemed to be enclosed on all sides, the darkness proved an effectual shield. we met no one, and five minutes after leaving the house, reached the bank of the little creek i have mentioned. here we paused and waited, a group of huddled figures, while steve groped about for a plank he had hidden. before us lay the stream, behind us the camp. at any moment the alarm might be raised. i pictured the outcry, the sudden flickering of lights, the galloping this way and that, the discovery. and then, thank heaven! steve found his plank, and in the work of passing the women over i forgot my fears. the darkness, the peril--for the water on the nearer side was deep--the nervous haste of some, and the terror of others, made the task no easy one. i was hot as fire and wet to the waist before it was over, and we all stood ankle-deep in the ooze which formed the farther bank. alas! our troubles were only beginning. through this ooze we had to wade for a mile or more, sometimes in doubt, always in darkness; now plashing into pools, now stumbling over a submerged log, often up to our knees in mud and water. the frogs croaked round us, the bog moaned and gurgled; in the depth of the marsh the bitterns boomed mournfully. if we stood a moment we sank. it was a horrible time; and the more horrible, as through it all we had only to turn to see the camp lights behind us, a poor half-mile or so away. none but desperate men could have exposed women to such a labour; nor could any but women without hope and at their wit's end have accomplished it. as it was, fraulein max, who never ceased to whimper, twice sank down and would go no farther, and we had to pluck her up roughly and force her on. my lady's women, who wept in their misery, were little better. wet to the waist, draggled, and worn out by the clinging slime and the reek of the marsh, they were kept moving only with difficulty; so that, but for steve's giant strength and my lady's courage, i think we should have stayed there till daylight, and been caught like birds limed on a bough. as it was, we plunged and strove for more than an hour in that place, the dark sky above us, the quaking bog below, the women's weeping in our ears. then, at last, when i had almost given up hope, we struggled out one by one upon the road, and stood panting and shaking, astonished to find solid ground under our feet. we had still two miles to walk, but on dry soil; and though at another time the task might have seemed to the women full of adventure and arduous, it failed to frighten them after what we had gone through. steve took fraulein anna, and i one of the women. my lady and the waldgrave went hand in hand; the one giving, i fancy, as much help as the other. for marie, her small, white face was a beacon of hope in the darkness. in the marsh she had never failed or fainted. on the road the tears came into my eyes for pity and love and admiration. at length steve bade us stand, and leaving us in the way, plunged into the denser blackness of a thicket, which lay between it and the river. i heard him parting the branches before him, and stumbling and swearing, until presently the sounds died away in the distance, and we remained shivering and waiting. what if the horses were gone? what if they had strayed from the place where he had tethered them early in the day, or some one had found and removed them? the thought threw me into a cold sweat. then i heard him coming back, and i caught the ring of iron hoofs. he had them! i breathed again. in a moment he emerged, and behind him a string of shadows--five horses tied head and tail. 'quick!' he muttered. he had been long enough alone to grow nervous. 'we are two hours gone, and if they have not yet discovered him they must soon! it is a short start, and half of us on foot!' no one answered, but in a moment we had the waldgrave, my lady, fraulein, and one of the women mounted. then we put up marie, who was no heavier than a feather, and the lighter of the women on the remaining horse; and steve hurrying beside the leader, and i, ernst, and jacob bringing up the rear, we were well on the road within two minutes of the appearance of the horses. those who rode had only sacking for saddles and loops of rope for stirrups; but no one complained. even fraulein max began to recover herself, and to dwell more upon the peril of capture than on aching legs and chafed knees. the road was good, and we made, as far as i could judge, about six miles in the first hour. this placed us nine miles from the camp; the time, a little after midnight. at this point the clouds, which had aided us so far by increasing the darkness of the night, fell in a great storm of rain, that, hissing on the road and among the trees, in a few minutes drenched us to the skin. but no one complained. steve muttered that it would make it the more difficult to track us; and for another hour we plodded on gallantly. then our leader called a halt, and we stood listening. the rain had left the sky lighter. a waning moon, floating in a wrack of watery clouds to westward, shed a faint gleam on the landscape. to the right of us it disclosed a bare plain, rising gradually as it receded, and offering no cover. on our left, between us and the river, it was different. here a wilderness of osiers--a grey willow swamp that in the moonlight shimmered like the best utrecht--stretched as far as we could see. the road where we stood rose a few feet above it, so that our eyes were on a level with the highest shoots; but a hundred yards farther on the road sank a little. we could see the water standing on the track in pools, and glimmering palely. 'this is the place,' steve muttered. 'it will be dawn in another hour. what do you think, master martin?' 'that we had better get off the road,' i answered. 'take it they found him at midnight; the orderly's patience would scarcely last longer. then, if they started after us a quarter of an hour later, they should be here in another twenty minutes.' 'it is an aguey place,' he said doubtfully. 'it will suit us better than the camp,' i answered. no one else expressed an opinion, and steve, taking my lady's rein, led her horse on until he came to the hollow part of the road. here the moonlight disclosed a kind of water-lane, running away between the osiers, at right angles from the road. steve turned into it, leading my lady's horse, and in a moment was wading a foot deep in water. the waldgrave followed, then the women. i came last, with marie's rein in my hand. we kept down the lane about one hundred and fifty paces, the horses snorting and moving unwillingly, and the water growing ever deeper. then steve turned out of it, and began to advance, but more cautiously, parallel with the road. we had waded about as far in this direction, sidling between the stumps and stools as well as we could, when he came again to a stand and passed back the word for me. i waded on, and joined him. the osiers, which were interspersed here and there with great willows, rose above our heads and shut out the moonlight. the water gurgled black about our knees. each step might lead us into a hole, or we might trip over the roots of the osiers. it was impossible to see a foot before us, or anything above us save the still, black rods and the grey sky. 'it should be in this direction,' steve said, with an accent of doubt. 'but i cannot see. we shall have the horses down.' 'let me go first,' i said. 'we must not separate,' he answered hastily. 'no, no,' i said, my teeth beginning to chatter. 'but are you sure that there is an eyot here?' 'i did not go to it,' he answered, scratching his head. 'but i saw a clump of willows rising well above the level, and they looked to me as if they grew on dry land.' he stood a moment irresolutely, first one and then another of the horses shaking itself till the women could scarcely keep their seats. 'why do we not go on?' my lady asked in a low voice. 'because steve is not sure of the place, my lady,' i said. 'and it is almost impossible to move, it is so dark, and the osiers grow so closely. i doubt we should have waited until daylight.' 'then we should have run the risk of being intercepted,' she answered feverishly. 'are you very wet?' 'no,' i said, though my feet were growing numb, 'not very. i see what we must do. one of us must climb into a willow and look out.' we had passed a small one not long before. i plashed my way back to it, along the line of shivering women, and, pulling myself heavily into the branches, managed to scramble up a few feet. the tree swayed under my weight, but it bore me. the first dawn was whitening the sky and casting a faint, reflected light on the glistening sea of osiers, that seemed to my eyes--for i was not high enough to look beyond it--to stretch far and away on every side. here and there a large willow, rising in a round, dark clump, stood out above the level; and in one place, about a hundred paces away on the riverside of us, a group of these formed a shadowy mound. i marked the spot, and dropped gently into the water. 'i have found it,' i said. 'i will go first, and do you bring my lady, steve. and mind the stumps. it will be rough work.' it was rough work. we had to wind in and out, leading and coaxing the frightened horses, that again and again stumbled to their knees. every minute i feared that we should find the way impassable or meet with a mishap. but in time, going very patiently, we made out the willows in front of us. then the water grew more shallow, and this gave the animals courage. twenty steps farther, and we passed into the shadow of the trees. a last struggle, and, plunging one by one up the muddy bank, we stood panting on the eyot. it was such a place as only despair could choose for a refuge. in shape like the back of some large submerged beast, it lay in length about forty paces, in breadth half as many. the highest point was a poor foot above the water. seven great willows took up half the space; it was as much as our horses, sinking in the moist mud to the fetlock, could do to find standing-room on the remainder. coarse grass and reeds covered it; and the flotsam of the last flood whitened the trunks of the willows, and hung in squalid wisps from their lower branches. for the first time we saw one another's faces, and how pale and woe-begone, mudstained and draggled we were! the cold, grey light, which so mercilessly unmasked our refuge, did not spare us. it helped even my lady to look her worst. fraulein anna sat a mere lifeless lump in her saddle. the waiting-women cried softly; they had cried all night. the waldgrave looked dazed, as if he barely understood where he was or why he was there. to think over-much in such a place was to weep. instead, i hastened to get them all off their horses, and with steve's help and a great bundle of osiers and branches which we cut, i made nests for them in the lower boughs of the willows, well out of reach of the water. when they had all taken their places, i served out food and a dram of dantzic waters, which some of us needed; for a white mist, drawn up from the swamp by the rising sun, began to enshroud us, and, hanging among the osiers for more than an hour, prolonged the misery of the night. still, even that rolled away at last--about six o'clock--and let us see the sun shining overhead in a heaven of blue distance and golden clouds. larks rose up and sang, and all the birds of the marsh began to twitter and tweet. in a trice our mud island was changed to a bower--a place of warmth and life and refreshment--where light and shade lay on the dappled floor, and the sunshine fell through green leaves. then i took the cloaks, and the saddles, and everything that was wet, and spread them out on branches to dry; and leaving the women to make themselves comfortable in their own way and shift themselves as they pleased, we two, with the waldgrave and the two servants, went away to the other end of the eyot. 'i shall sleep,' steve said drowsily. the insects were beginning to hum. the horses stood huddled together, swishing their long tails. 'you think they won't track us?' i asked. 'certain,' he said. 'there are six hundred yards of mud and water, eel-holes, and willow shoots between us and the road.' the waldgrave assented mechanically; it seemed so to me too. and by-and-by, worn out with the night's work, i fell asleep, and slept, i suppose, for a good many hours, with the sun and shade passing slowly across my face, and the bees droning in my ears, and the mellow warmth of the summer day soaking into my bones. when i awoke i lay for a time revelling in lazy enjoyment. the oily plop of a water-rat, as it dived from a stump, or the scream of a distant jay, alone broke the laden silence. i looked at the sun. it lay south-west. it was three o'clock then. [illustration: we were alone.... i whispered in her ear ...] a light touch fell on my knee. i started, looked down, and for a moment stared in sleepy wonder. a tiny bunch of blue flowers, such as i could see growing in a dozen places on the edge of the island, lay on it, tied up with a thread of purple silk. i started up on my elbow, and--there, close beside me, with her cheeks full of colour, and the sunshine finding golden threads in her dark hair, sat marie, toying with more flowers. 'ha!' i said foolishly. 'what is it?' 'my lady sent me to you,' she answered. 'yes,' i asked eagerly. 'does she want me?' but marie hung her head, and played with the flowers. 'i don't think so,' she whispered. 'she only sent me to you.' then i understood. the waldgrave had gone to the farther end. steve and the men were tending the horses half a dozen paces beyond the screen of willow-leaves. we were alone. a rat plashed into the water, and drove marie nearer to me; and she laid her head on my shoulder, and i whispered in her ear, till the lashes sank down over her eyes and her lips trembled. if i had loved her from the first, what was the length and height and breadth of my love now, when i had seen her in darkness and peril, sunshine and storm, strong when others failed, brave when others flinched, always helpful, ready, tireless! and she so small! so frail, i almost feared to press her to me; so pale, the blood that leapt to her cheeks at my touch seemed a mere reflection of the sunlight. i told her how steve had made the guards at the prison drunk with wine bought with her dowry; how the horses he had purchased and taken out of the camp by twos and threes had been paid for from the same source; and how many ducats had gone for meats and messes to keep the life, that still ran sluggishly, in the waldgrave's veins. she listened and lay still. 'so you have no dowry now, little one,' i said, when i had told her all. 'and your gold chain is gone. i believe you have nothing but the frock you stand up in. why, then, should i marry you?' i felt her heart give a great leap under my hand, and a shiver ran through her. but she did not raise her head, and i, who had thought to tease her into looking at me, had to put back her little face till it gazed into mine. 'why?' i said; 'why?'--drawing her closer and closer to me. then the colour came into her face like the sunlight itself. 'because you love me,' she whispered, shutting her eyes. and i did not gainsay her. chapter xxiv. missing! we lay in the osier bed two whole days and a night, during which time two at least of us were not unhappy, in spite of peril and hardship. we left it at last, only because our meagre provision gave out, and we must move or starve. we felt far from sure that the danger was over, for steve, who spent the second day in a thick bush near the road, saw two troops of horse go by; and others, we believed, passed in the night. but we had no choice. the neighbourhood was bleak and bare. such small homesteads as existed had been eaten up, and lay abandoned. if we had felt inclined to venture out for food, none was to be had. and, in fine, though we trembled at the thought of the open road, and my heart for one grew sick as i looked from marie to my lady, and reckoned the long tale of leagues which lay between us and cassel, the risk had to be run. steve had discovered a more easy though longer way out of the willow-bed, and two hours before midnight on the second night, he and i mounted the women and prepared to set out. he arranged that we should go in the same order in which we had come: that he should lead the march, and i bring up the rear, while the waldgrave, who was still far from well, and whose continued lack of vigour troubled us the more as we said little about it, should ride with my lady. the night seemed likely to be fine, but the darkness, the sough of the wind as it swept over the plain, and the melancholy plashing of the water as our horses plodded through it, were not things of a kind to allay our fears. when we at last left our covert, and reaching the road stood to listen, the fall of a leaf made us start. though no sounds but those of the night came to our ears--and some of these were of a kind to reassure us--we said 'hush!' again and again, and only moved on after a hundred alarums and assurances. i walked by marie, with my hand on the withers of her horse, but we did not talk. the two waiting-women riding double were before us, and their muttered fears alone broke the silence which prevailed at the end of the train. we went at the rate of about two leagues an hour, steve and i and the men running where the roads were good, and everywhere and at all times urging the horses to do their best. the haste of our movements, the darkness, our constant alarm, and the occasional confusion when the rear pressed on the van at an awkward place, had the effect of upsetting the balance of our minds; so that the most common impulse of flight--to press forward with ever-increasing recklessness--began presently to possess us. once or twice i had to check the foremost, or they would have outrun the rear; and this kind of race brought us gradually into such a state of alarm, that by-and-by, when the line came to a sudden stop on the brow of a gentle descent, i could hardly restrain my impatience. 'what is it?' i asked eagerly. 'why are we stopping?' surely the road is good enough here.' no one answered, but it was significant that on the instant one of the women began to cry. 'stop that folly!' i said. 'what is in front there? cannot some one speak?' 'the waldgrave thinks that he hears horsemen before us,' fraulein max answered. in another moment the waldgrave's figure loomed out of the darkness. 'martin,' he said--i noticed that his voice shook--'go forward. they are in front. man alive, be quick!' he continued fiercely. 'do you want to have them into us?' i left my girl's rein, and pushing past the women and fraulein, joined steve, who was standing by my lady's rein. 'what is it?' i said. 'nothing, i think,' he answered in an uncertain tone. i stood a moment listening, but i too could hear nothing. i began to argue with him. 'who heard it?' i asked impatiently. 'the waldgrave,' he answered. i did not like to say before my lady what i thought--that the waldgrave was not quite himself, nor to be depended upon; and instead i proposed to go forward on foot and learn if anything was amiss. the road ran straight down the hill, and the party could scarcely pass me, even in the gloom. if i found all well, i would whistle, and they could come on. my lady agreed, and, leaving them halted, i started cautiously down the hill. the darkness was not extreme; the cloud drift was broken here and there, and showed light patches of sky between; i could make out the shapes of things, and more than once took a clump of bushes for a lurking ambush. but halfway down, a line of poplars began to shadow the road on our side, and from that point i might have walked into a regiment and never seen a man. this, the being suddenly alone, and the constant rustling of the leaves overhead, which moved with the slightest air, shook my nerves, and i went very warily, with my heart in my mouth and a cry trembling on my lips. still i had reached the hillfoot before anything happened. then i stopped abruptly, hearing quite distinctly in front of me the sound of footsteps. it was impossible that this could be the sound that the waldgrave had heard, for only one man seemed to be stirring, and he moved stealthily; but i crouched down and listened, and in a moment i was rewarded. a dark figure came out of the densest of the shadow and stood in the middle of the road. i sank lower, noiselessly. the man seemed to be listening. it flashed into my head that he was a sentry; and i thought how fortunate it was that i had come on alone. presently he moved again. he stole along the track towards me, stooping, as i fancied, and more than once standing to listen, as if he were not satisfied. i sank down still lower, and he passed me without notice, and went on, and i heard his footsteps slowly retreating until they quite died away. but in a moment, before i had risen to my full height, i heard them again. he came back, and passed me, breathing quickly and loudly. i wondered if he had detected our party and was going to give the alarm; and i stood up, anxious and uncertain, at a loss whether i should follow him or run back. at that instant a fierce yell broke the silence, and rent the darkness as a flash of lightning might rend it. it came from behind me, from the brow of the hill; and i started as if i had been struck. hard on it a volley of shouts and screams flared up in the same direction, and while my heart stood still with terror and fear of what had happened, i heard the thunder of hoofs come down the road, with a clatter of blows and whips. they were coming headlong--my lady and the rest. the danger was behind them, then. i had just time to turn and get to the side of the road before they were on me at a gallop. i could not see who was who in the darkness, but i caught at the nearest stirrup, and, narrowly escaping being ridden down, ran on beside the rider. the horses, spurred down the slope, had gained such an impetus that it was all i could do to keep up. i had no breath to ask questions, nor state my fear that there was danger ahead also. i had to stride like a giant to keep my legs and run. some one else was less lucky. we had not swept fifty yards from where i joined them, when a dark figure showed for a moment in the road before us. i saw it; it seemed to hang and hesitate. the next instant it was among us. i heard a shrill scream, a heavy fall, and we were over it, and charging on and on and on through the darkness. to the foot of the hill and across the bottom, and up the opposite slope. i do not know how far we had sped, when steve's voice was heard, calling on us to halt. 'pull up! pull up!' he cried, with an angry oath. 'it is a false alarm! what fool set it going? there is no one behind us. donner und blitzen! where is martin?' the horses were beginning to flag, and gladly came to a trot, and then to a walk. 'here! i panted. 'himmel! i thought we had ridden you down!' he said, leaving my lady's side. his voice shook with passion and loss of breath. 'who was it? we might all have broken our necks, and for nothing!' the waldgrave--it was his stirrup i had caught--turned his horse round. 'i heard them--close behind us!' he panted. there was a note of wildness in his voice. my elbow was against his knee, and i felt him tremble. 'a bird in the hedge,' steve said rudely. 'it has cost some one dear. whose horse was it struck him?' no one answered. i left the waldgrave's side and went back a few paces. the women were sobbing. ernst and jacob stood by them, breathing hard after their run. i thought the men's silence strange. i looked again. there was a figure missing; a horse missing. 'where is marie?' i cried. she did not answer. no one answered; and i knew. steve swore again. i think he had known from the beginning. i began to tremble. on a sudden my lady lifted up her voice and cried shrilly-- 'marie! marie!' again no answer. but this time i did not wait to listen. i ran from them into the darkness the way we had come, my legs quivering under me, and my mouth full of broken prayers. i remembered a certain solitary tree fronting the poplars, on the other side of the way, which i had marked mechanically at the moment of the fall--an ash, whose light upper boughs had come for an instant between my eyes and the sky. it stood on a little mound, where the moorland began to rise on that side. i came to it now, and stopped and looked. at first i could see nothing, and i trod forward fearfully. then, a couple of paces on, i made out a dark figure, lying head and feet across the road. i sprang to it, and kneeling, passed my hands over it. alas! it was a woman's. i raised the light form in my arms, crying passionately on her name, while the wind swayed the boughs overhead, and, besides that and my voice, all the countryside was still. she did not answer. she hung limp in my arms. kneeling in the dust beside her, i felt blindly for a pulse, a heart-beat. i found neither--neither; the woman was dead. and yet it was not that which made me lay the body down so quickly and stand up peering round me. no; something else. the blood drummed in my ears, my heart beat wildly. the woman was dead; but she was not marie. she was an old woman, sixty years old. when i stooped again, after assuring myself that there was no other body near, and peered into her face, i saw that it was seamed and wrinkled. she was barefoot, and her clothes were foul and mean. she had the reek of one who slept in ditches and washed seldom. her toothless gums grinned at me. she was a horrible mockery of all that men love in women. when i had marked so much, i stood up again, my head reeling. where was the man i had seen scouting up and down? where was marie? for a moment the wild idea that she had become this thing, that death or magic had transformed the fair young girl into this toothless hag, was not too wild for me. an owl hooted in the distance, and i started and shivered and stood looking round me fearfully. such things were; and marie was gone. in her place this woman, grim and dead and unsightly, lay at my feet. what was i to think? i got no answer. i raised my voice and called, trembling, on marie. i ran to one side of the road and the other and called, and still got no answer. i climbed the mound on which the ash-tree stood, and sent my voice thrilling through the darkness of the bottom. but only the owl answered. then, knowing nothing else i could do, i went down wringing my hands, and found my lady standing over the body in the road. she had come back with steve and the others. i had to listen to their amazement, and a hundred guesses and fancies, which, god help me! had nothing certain in them, and gave me no help. the men searched both sides of the road, and beat the moor for a distance, and tried to track the horse--for that was missing too, and there lay my only hope--but to no purpose. at last my lady came to me and said sorrowfully that nothing more could be done. 'in the morning!' i cried jealously. no one spoke, and i looked from one to another. the men had returned from the search, and stood in a dark group round the body, which they had drawn to the side of the road. it wanted an hour of daylight yet, and i could not see their faces, but i read in their silence the answer that no one liked to put into words. 'be a man!' steve muttered, after a long pause. 'god help the girl. but god help us too if we are found here!' still my lady did not speak, and i knew her brave heart too well to doubt her, though she had been the first to talk of going. 'get to horse,' i said roughly. 'no, no,' my lady cried at last. 'we will all stay, martin.' 'ay, all stay or all go!' steve muttered. 'then all go!' i said, choking down the sobs that would rise. and i turned first from the place. i will not try to state what that cost me. i saw my girl's face everywhere--everywhere in the darkness, and the eyes reproached me. that she of all should suffer, who had never fainted, never faltered, whose patience and courage had been the women's stay from the first--that she should suffer! i thought of the tender, weak body, and of all the things that might happen to her, and i seemed, as i went away from her, the vilest thing that lived. but reason was against me. if i stayed there and waited on the road by the old crone's body until morning, what could i do? whither could i turn? marie was gone and already might be half a dozen miles away. so the bonds of custom and duty held me. dazed and bewildered, i lacked the strength that was needed to run counter to all. i was no knight-errant, but a plain man, and i reeled on through the last hour of the night and the first grey streaks of dawn, with my head on my breast and sobs of despair in my throat. chapter xxv. nuremberg. if it had been our fate after that to continue our flight in the same weary fashion we had before devised, lying in woods by day, and all night riding jaded horses, until we passed the gates of some free city, i do not think that i could have gone through with it. doubtless it was my duty to go with my lady. but the long hours of daylight inaction, the slow brooding tramp, must have proved intolerable. and at some time or other, in some way or other, i must have snapped the ties that bound me. but, as if the loss of my heart had rid us of some spell cast over us, by noon of that day we stood safe. for, an hour before noon, while we lay in a fir-wood not far from weimar, and jacob kept watch on the road below, and the rest slept as we pleased, a party of horse came along the way, and made as if to pass below us. they numbered more than a hundred, and jacob's heart failed him, lest some ring or buckle of our accoutrements should sparkle and catch their eyes. to shift the burden he called us, and we went to watch them. 'do they go north or south?' i asked him as i rose. 'north,' he whispered. after that they were nothing to me, but i went with the rest. our lair was in some rocks overhanging the road. by the time we looked over, the horsemen were below us, and we could see nothing of them; though the sullen tramp of their horses, and the jingle of bit and spur, reached us clearly. presently they came into sight again on the road beyond, riding steadily away with their backs to us. 'that is not general tzerclas?' my lady muttered anxiously. 'nor any of his people!' steve said with an oath. that led me to look more closely, and i saw in a moment something that lifted me out of my moodiness. i sprang on the rock against which i was leaning and shouted long and loudly. 'himmel!' steve cried, seizing me by the ankle. 'are you mad, man?' but i only shouted again, and waved my cap frantically. then i slipped down, sobered. 'they see us,' i cried. 'they are leuchtenstein's riders. and count hugo is with them. you are safe, my lady.' she turned white and red, and i saw her clutch at the rock to keep herself on her feet. 'are you sure?' she said. the troop had halted and were wheeling slowly and in perfect order. 'quite sure, my lady,' i answered, with a touch of bitterness in my tone. why had not this happened yesterday or the day before? then my girl would have been saved. now it came too late! too late! no wonder i felt bitterly about it. we went down into the road on foot, a little party of nine--four women and five men. the horsemen, as they came up, looked at us in wonder. our clothes, even my lady's, were dyed with mud and torn in a score of places. we had not washed for days, and our faces were lean with famine. some of the women were shoeless and had their hair about their ears, while steve was bare-headed and bare-armed, and looked so huge a ruffian the stocks must have yawned for him anywhere. they drew up and gazed at us, and then count hugo came riding down the column and saw us. my lady went forward a step. 'count leuchtenstein,' she said, her voice breaking; she had only seen him once, and then under the mask of a plain name. but he was safety, honour, life now, and i think that she could have kissed him. i think for a little she could have fallen into his arms. 'countess!' he said, as he sprang from his horse in wonder. 'is it really you? gott im himmel! these are strange times. waldgrave! your pardon. ach! have you come on foot?' 'not i. but these brave men have,' my lady answered, tears in her voice. he looked at steve and grunted. then he looked at me and his eyes lightened. 'are these all your party?' he said hurriedly. 'all,' my lady answered in a low voice. he did not ask farther, but he sighed, and i knew that he had looked for his child. 'i came north upon a reconnaissance, and was about to turn,' he said. 'i am thankful that i did not turn before. is tzerclas in pursuit of you?' 'i do not know,' my lady answered, and told him shortly of our flight, and how we had lain two days and a night in the osier-bed. 'it was a good thought,' he said. 'but i fear that you are half famished.' and he called for food and wine, and served my lady with his own hands, while he saw that we did not go without. 'campaigner's fare,' he said. 'but you come of a fighting stock, countess, and can put up with it.' 'shame on me if i could not,' she answered. there was a quaver in her voice, which showed how the rencontre moved her, how full her heart was of unspoken gratitude. 'when you have finished, we will get to horse,' he said. 'i must take you with me to nuremberg, for i am not strong enough to detach a party. but this evening we will make a long halt at hesel, and secure you a good night's rest.' 'i am sorry to be so burdensome,' my lady said timidly. he shrugged his shoulders without compliment, but i did not hear what he answered. for i could bear no more. marie seemed so forgotten in this crowd, so much a thing of the past, that my gorge rose. no word of her, no thought of her, no talk of a search party! i pictured her forlorn, helpless little figure, her pale, uncomplaining face--i and no one else; and i had to go away into the bushes to hide myself. she was forgotten already. she had done all for them, i said to myself, and they forgot her. then, in the thicket screened from the party, i had a thought--to go back and look for her, myself. now my lady was safe, there was nothing to prevent me. i had only to lie close among the rocks until count hugo left, and then i might plod back on foot and search as i pleased. in a flash i saw the poplars, and the road running beneath the ash-tree, and the woman's body lying stiff and stark on the sward. and i burned to be there. left to myself i should have gone too. but the plan was no sooner formed than shattered. while i stood, hotfoot to be about it, and pausing only to consider which way i could steal off most safely, a rustling warned me that some one was coming, and before i could stir, a burly trooper broke through the bushes and confronted me. he saluted me stolidly. 'sergeant,' he said, 'the general is waiting for you.' 'the general?' i said. 'the count, if you like it better,' he answered. 'come, if you please.' i followed him, full of vexation. it was but a step into the road. the moment i appeared, some one gave the word 'mount!' a horse was thrust in front of me, two or three troopers who still remained afoot swung themselves into the saddle; and i followed their example. in a trice we were moving down the valley at a dull, steady pace--southwards, southwards. i looked back, and saw the fir trees and rocks where we had lain hidden, and then we turned a corner, and they were gone. gone, and all round me i heard the measured tramp of the troop-horses, the swinging tones of the men, and the clink and jingle of sword and spur. i called myself a cur, but i went on, swept away by the force of numbers, as the straw by the current. once i caught count hugo's eye fixed on me, and i fancied he had a message for me, but i failed to interpret it. steve rode by me, and his face too was moody. i suppose that we should all of us have thanked god the peril was past. but my lady rode in another part with count leuchtenstein and the waldgrave; and steve yearned, i fancy, for the old days of trouble and equality, when there was no one to come between us. i saw count hugo that night. he sent for me to his quarters at hesel, and told me frankly that he would have let me go back had he thought good could come of it. 'but it would have been looking for a needle in a bundle of hay, my friend,' he continued. 'tzerclas' men would have picked you up, or the peasants killed you for a soldier, and in a month perhaps the girl would have returned safe and sound, to find you dead.' 'my lord!' i cried passionately, 'she saved your child. it was to her as her own!' 'i know it,' he answered with gravity, which of itself rebuked me. 'and where is my child?' i shook my head. 'yet i do not give up my work and the task god and the times have given me, and go out looking for it!' he answered severely. 'leaving scot, and swede, and pole, and switzer to divide my country. for shame! you have your work too, and it lies by your lady's side. see to it that you do it. for the rest i have scouts out, who know the country; if i learn anything through them you shall hear it. and now of another matter. how long has the waldgrave been like this, my friend?' 'like this, my lord?' i muttered stupidly. he nodded. 'yes, like this,' he repeated. 'i have heard him called a brave man. coming of his stock, he should be; and when i saw him in tzerclas' camp he had the air of one. now he starts at a shadow, is in a trance half his time, and a tremor the other half. what ails him?' i told him how he had been wounded, fighting bravely, and that since that he had not been himself. count hugo rubbed his chin gravely. 'it is a pity,' he said. 'we want all--every german arm and every german head. we want you. man alive!' he continued, roused to anger, i suppose, by my dull face, 'do you know what is in front of you?' 'no, my lord,' i said in apathy. he opened his mouth as if to hurl a volley of words at me. but he thought better of it and shut his lips tight. 'very well,' he said grimly. 'wait three days and you will see.' but in truth, i had not to wait three days. before sunset of the next i began to see, and, downcast as i was, to prick up my ears in wonder. beyond romhild and between that town and bamberg, the great road which runs through the valley of the pegnitz, was such a sight as i had never seen. for many miles together a column of dust marked its course, and under this went on endless marching. we were but a link in a long chain, dragging slowly southwards. now it was a herd of oxen that passed along, moving tediously and painfully, driven by half-naked cattle-men and guarded by a troop of grimy horse. now it was a reinforcement of foot from fulda, rank upon rank of shambling men trailing long pikes, and footsore, and parched as they were, getting over the ground in a wonderful fashion. after them would come a long string of waggons, bearing corn, and hay, and malt, and wines; all lurching slowly forward, slowly southward; often delayed, for every quarter of a mile a horse fell or an axle broke, yet getting forward. and then the most wonderful sight of all, a regiment of swedish horse passed us, marching from erfurt. all their horses were grey, and all their head-pieces, backs and breasts of black metal, matched one another. as they came on through the dust with a tramp which shook the ground, they sang, company by company, to the music of drums and trumpets, a hymn, 'versage nicht, du häuflein klein!' behind them a line of light waggons carried their wives and children, also singing. and so they went by us, eight hundred swords, and i thought it a marvel i should never see beaten. when they were gone out of sight, there were still droves of horses and mighty flocks of sheep to come, and cargoes of pork, and more foot and horse and guns. some companies wore buff coats and small steel caps, and carried arquebuses; and some marched smothered in huge headpieces with backs and breasts to match. and besides all the things i have mentioned and the crowds of sutlers and horse-boys that went with them, there were munition waggons closely guarded, and pack-horses laden with powder, and always and always waggons of corn and hay. and all hurrying, jostling, crawling southwards. it seemed to me that the world was marching southwards; that if we went on we must fall in at the end of this with every one we knew. and the thought comforted me. steve put it into words after his fashion. 'it must be a big place we are going to,' he said, about noon of the second day, 'or who is to eat all this? and do you mark, master martin? we meet no one coming back. all go south. this place nuremberg that they talk of must be worth seeing.' 'it should be,' i said. and after that the excitement of the march began to take hold of me. i began to think and wonder, and look forward, with an eagerness i did not understand, to the issues of this. we lay a night at bamberg, where the crowd and confusion and the stress of people were so great that steve would have it we had come to nuremberg. and certainly i had never known such a hurly-burly, nor heard of it except at the great fair at dantzic. the night after we lay at erlangen, which we found fortified, trenched, and guarded, with troops lying in the square, and the streets turned into stables. from that place to nuremberg was a matter of ten miles only; but the press was so great on the road that it took us a good part of the day to ride from one to the other. in the open country on either side of the way strong bodies of horse and foot were disposed. it seemed to me that here was already an army and a camp. but when late in the afternoon we entered nuremberg itself, and viewed the traffic in the streets, and the endless lines of gabled houses, the splendid mansions and bridges, the climbing roofs and turrets and spires of this, the greatest city in germany, then we thought little of all we had seen before. here thousands upon thousands rubbed shoulders in the streets; here continuous boats turned the river into solid land. here we were told were baked every day a hundred thousand loaves of bread; and i saw with my own eyes a list of a hundred and thirty-eight bakehouses. the roar of the ways, choked with soldiers and citizens, the babel of strange tongues, the clamour of bells and trumpets, deafened us. the constant crowding and pushing and halting turned our heads. i forgot my grief and my hope too. who but a madman would look to find a single face where thousands gazed from the windows? or could deem himself important with this swarming, teeming hive before him? steve stared stupidly about him; i rode dazed and perplexed. the troopers laughed at us, or promised us greater things when we should see the swedish lager outside the town, and wallenstein's great camp arrayed against it. but i noticed that even they, as we drew nearer to the heart of the city, fell silent at times, and looked at one another, surprised at the great influx of people and the shifting scenes which the streets presented. for myself and steve and the men, we were as good as nought. a house in the ritter-strasse was assigned to my lady for her quarters--no one could lodge in the city without the leave of the magistrates; and we were glad to get into it and cool our dizzy heads, and look at one another. count hugo stayed awhile, standing with my lady and the waldgrave in one of the great oriels that overlooked the street. but a mounted messenger, sent on from the town house, summoned him, and he took horse again for the camp. i do not know what we should have done without him at entering. the soldiers, who crowded the streets, showed scant respect for names, and would as soon have jostled my lady as a citizen's wife; but wherever he came hats were doffed and voices lowered, and in the greatest press a way was made for him as by magic. for that night we had seen enough. i thought we had seen all, or that nothing in my life would ever surprise me again. but next day my lady went up to the burg on the hill in the middle of the city to look abroad, and took steve and myself with her. and then i found that i had not seen the half. the city, all roofs and spires and bridges, girt with a wall of seventy towers, roared beneath us; and that i had expected. but outside the wall i now saw a second city of huts and tents, with a great earthwork about it, and bastions and demilunes and picquets posted. this was the swedish lager. it lay principally to the south of the city proper, though on all sides it encircled it more or less. they told me that there lay in it about forty thousand soldiers and twenty thousand horses, and twenty thousand camp followers; but the number was constantly increasing, death and disease notwithstanding, so that it presently stood as high as sixty thousand fighting men and half as many followers, to say nothing of the garrison that lay in the city, or the troops posted to guard the approaches. it seemed to me, gazing over that mighty multitude from the top of the hill, that nothing could resist such a force; and i looked abroad with curiosity for the enemy. i expected to view his army cheek by jowl with us; and i was disappointed when i saw beyond our camp to southward, where i was told he lay, only a clear plain with the little river rednitz flowing through it. this plain was a league and more in width, and it was empty of men. beyond it rose a black wooded ridge, very steep and hairy. my lady explained that wallenstein's army lay along this ridge--seventy thousand men, and forty thousand horses, and wallenstein himself. his camp we heard was eight miles round, the front guarded by a line of cannon, and taking in whole villages and castles. and now i looked again i saw the smoke hang among the trees. they whispered in nuremberg that no man in that army took pay; that all served for booty; and that the troopers that sacked magdeburg and followed tilly were, beside these, gentle and kindly men. 'god help us!' my lady cried fervently. 'god help this great city! god help the north! never was such a battle fought as must be fought here!' we went down very much sobered, filled with awe and wonder and great thoughts, the dullest of us feeling the air heavy with portents, the more clerkly considering of armageddon and the last fight. briefly--for thirteen years the emperor and the papists had hustled and harried the protestants; had dragooned donauwörth, and held down bohemia, and plundered the palatinate, and crushed the king of denmark, and wherever there was a weak protestant state had pressed sorely on it. then one short year before i stood on the burg above the pegnitz, the protestant king had come out of the north like a thunderbolt, had shattered in a month the papist armies, had run like a devouring fire down the priests' lane, rushed over bohemia, shaken the emperor on his throne! but could he maintain himself? that was now to be seen. to the emperor's help had come all who loved the old system, and would have it that the south was germany; all who wished to chain men's minds and saw their profit in the shadow of the imperial throne; all who lived by license and plunder, and reckoned a mass to-day against a murder to-morrow. all these had come, from the great duke of friedland grasping at empire, to the meanest freebooter with peasant's blood on his hands and in his veins; and there they lay opposite us, impregnably placed on the burgstall, waiting patiently until famine and the sword should weaken the fair city, and enable them to plunge their vulture's talons into its vitals. no wonder that in nuremberg the citizens could be distinguished from the soldiers by their careworn faces; or that many a man stood morning and evening to gaze at the carved and lofty front of his house--by st. sebald's or behind the new cathedral--and wondered how long the fire would spare it. the magistrates who had staked all--their own and the city's--on this cast, went about with stern, grave faces and feared almost to meet the public eye. with a doubled population, with a huge army to feed, with order to keep, with houses and wives and daughters of their own to protect, with sack and storm looming luridly in the future, who had cares like theirs? one man only, and him i saw as we went home from the burg. it was near the foot of the burg hill, where the strasse meets three other ways. at that time count tilly's crooked, dwarfish figure and pale horse's face, and the great hat and boots which seemed to swallow him up, were fresh in my mind; and sometimes i had wondered whether this other great commander were like him. well, i was to know; for through the crowd at the junction of these four roads, while we stood waiting to pass, there came a man on a white horse, followed by half a score of others on horseback; and in a moment i knew from the shouting and the way women thrust papers into his hands that we saw the king of sweden. he wore a plain buff coat and a grey flapped hat with a feather; a tall man and rather bulky, his face massive and fleshy, with a close moustache trimmed to a point and a small tuft on his chin. his aspect was grave; he looked about him with a calm eye, and the shouting did not seem to move him. they told me that it was ba[=n]er, the swedish general, who rode with him, and our bernard of weimar who followed. but my eye fell more quickly on count leuchtenstein, who rode after, with the great chancellor oxenstierna; in him, in his steady gaze and serene brow and wholesome strength, i traced the nearest likeness to the king. and so i first saw the great gustavus adolphus. it was said that he would at times fall into fits of berserk rage, and that in the field he was another man, keen as his sword, swift as fire, pitiless to those who flinched, among the foremost in the charge, a very thunderbolt of war. but as i saw him taking papers from women's hands at the end of the burg strasse, he had rather the air of a quiet, worthy prince--of coburg or darmstadt, it might be,--no dresser and no brawler; nor would any one, to see him then, have thought that this was the lion of the north who had dashed the pride of pappenheim and flung aside the firebrands of the south. or that even now he had on his shoulders the burden of two great nations and the fate of a million of men. chapter xxvi. the face at the window. after this it fared with us as it fares at last with the driftwood that chance or the woodman's axe has given to a forest stream in heritzburg. after rippling over the shallows and shooting giddily down slopes--or perchance lying cooped for days in some dark bend, until the splash of the otter or the spring freshet has sent it dancing on in sunshine and shadow--it reaches at last the werra. it floats out on the bosom of the great stream, and no longer tossed and chafed by each tiny pebble, feels the force of wind and stream--the great forces of the world. the banks recede from sight, and one of a million atoms, it is borne on gently and irresistibly, whither it does not know. so it was with us. from the day we fell in with count leuchtenstein and set our faces towards nuremberg, and in a greater degree after we reached that city, we embarked on a wider current of adventure, a fuller and less selfish life. if we had still our own cares and griefs, hopes and perils--as must be the case, i suppose, until we die--we had other common ones which we shared with tens of thousands, rich and poor, gentle and simple. we had to dread sack and storm; we prayed for relief and safety in company with all who rose and lay down within the walls. when a hundred waggons of corn slipped through the croats and came in, or duke bernard of weimar beat up a corner of the burgstall and gave wallenstein a bad night, we ran out into the streets to tell and hear the news. similarly, when tidings came that tzerclas with his two thousand ruffians had burned the king of sweden's colours, put on green sashes, and marched into the enemy's camp, we were not alone in our gloomy anticipations. we still had our private adventures, and i am going to tell them. but besides these, it should be remembered that we ran the risks, and rose every morning fresh to the fears, of nuremberg. when bread rose to ten, to fifteen, to twenty times its normal price; when the city, where many died every day of famine, plague, and wounds, began to groan and heave in its misery; when through all the country round the peasants crawled and died among the dead; when wallenstein, that dark man, heedless of the fearful mortality in his own camp, still sat implacable on the heights and refused all the king's invitations to battle, we grew pale and gloomy, stern-eyed and thin-cheeked with the rest. we dreamed of magdeburg as they did; and as the hot august days passed slowly over the starving city and still no end appeared, but only with each day some addition of misery, we felt our hearts sink in unison with theirs. and we had to share, not their lot only, but their labours. we had not been in the town twenty-four hours before steve, jacob, and ernst were enrolled in the town militia; to me, either out of respect to my lady, or on account of my stature, a commission as lieutenant was granted. we drilled every morning from six o'clock until eight in the fields outside the new gate; the others went again at sunset to practise their weapons, but i was exempt from this drill, that the women might not be left alone. at all times we had our appointed rendezvous in case of alarm or assault. the swedish veterans strolled out of the camp and stood to laugh at our clumsiness. but the excellent order which prevailed among them made them favourites, and we let them laugh, and laughed again. the waldgrave, who had long had duke bernard's promise, received a regiment of horse, so that he lay in the camp and should have been a contented man, since his strength had come back to him. but to my surprise he showed signs of lukewarmness. he seemed little interested in the service, and was often at my lady's house in the ritter strasse, when he would have been better at his post. at first i set this down to his passion for my lady, and it seemed excusable; but within a week i stood convinced that this no longer troubled him. he paid scant attention to her, but would sit for hours looking moodily into the street. and i--and not i alone--began to watch him closely. i soon found that count hugo was right. the once gallant and splendid young fellow was a changed man. he was still comely and a brave figure, but the spirit in him was quenched. he was nervous, absent, irritable. his eyes had a wild look; on strangers he made an unfavourable impression. doubtless, though his wounds had healed, there remained some subtle injury that spoiled the man; and often i caught my lady looking at him sadly, and knew that i was not the only one with cause for mourning. but how strange he was we did not know until a certain day, when my lady and i were engaged together over some accounts. it was evening, and the three men were away drilling. the house was very quiet. suddenly he flung in upon us with a great noise, his colour high, his eyes glittering. his first action was to throw his feathered hat on one chair, and himself into another. 'i've seen him!' he said. 'himmel! he is a clever fellow. he will worst you, cousin, yet--see if he does not. oh, he is a clever one!' 'who?' my lady said, looking at him in some displeasure. 'who? tzerclas, to be sure!' he answered, chuckling. 'you have seen him!' she exclaimed, rising. 'of course i have!' he answered. 'and you will see him too, one of these days.' my lady looked at me, frowning. but i shook my head. he was not drunk. 'where?' she asked, after a pause. 'where did you see him, rupert?' 'in the street--where you see other men,' he answered, chuckling again. 'he should not be there, but who is to keep him out? he is too clever. he will get his way in the end, see if he does not!' 'rupert!' my lady cried in wrathful amazement, 'to hear you, one would suppose you admired him.' 'so i do,' he replied coolly. 'why not? he has all the wits of the family. he is as cunning as the devil. take a hint, cousin; put yourself on the right side. he will win in the end!' and the waldgrave rose restlessly from his chair, and, going to the window, began to whistle. my lady came swiftly to me, and it grieved me to see the pain and woe in her face. 'is he mad?' she muttered. i shook my head. 'do you think he has really seen him?' she whispered. we both stood with our eyes on him. 'i fear so, my lady,' i said with reluctance. 'but it would cost _him_ his life,' she muttered eagerly, 'if he were found here!' 'he is a bold man,' i answered. 'ah! so was he--once,' she replied in a peculiar tone, and she pointed stealthily to the unconscious man in the window. 'a month ago he would have taken him by the throat anywhere. what has come to him?' 'god knows,' i answered reverently. 'grant only he may do us no harm!' he turned round at that, humming gaily, and went out, seeming almost unconscious of our presence; and i made as light of the matter to my lady as i could. but tzerclas in the city, the waldgrave mad, or at any rate not sane, and last, but not least, the strange light in which the latter chose to regard the former, were circumstances i could not easily digest. they filled me with uneasy fears and surmises. i began to perambulate the crowd, seeking furtively for a face; and was entirely determined what i would do if i found it. the town was full, as all besieged cities are, of rumours of spies and treachery, and of reported overtures made now to the city behind the back of the army, and now to the army to betray the city. a single word of denunciation, and tzerclas' life would not be worth three minutes' purchase--a rope and the nearest butcher's hook would end it. my mind was made up to say the word. i suppose i had been going about in this state of vigilance three days or more, when something, but not the thing i sought, rewarded it. at the time i was on my way back from morning drill. it was a little after eight, and the streets and the people wore an air bright, yet haggard. night, with its perils, was over; day, with its privations, lay before us. my mind was on the common fortunes, but i suppose my eyes were mechanically doing their work, for on a sudden i saw something at a window, took perhaps half a step, and stopped as if i had been shot. i had seen marie's face! nay, i still saw it, while a man might count two. then it was gone. and i stood gasping. i suppose i stood so for half a minute, waiting, with the blood racing from my heart to my head, and every pulse in my body beating. but she did not reappear. the door of the house did not open. nothing happened. yet i had certainly seen her; for i remembered particulars--the expression of her face, the surprise that had leapt into her eyes as they met mine, the opening of the lips in an exclamation. and still i stood gazing at the window and nothing happened. at last i came to myself, and i scanned the house. it was a large house of four stories, three gables in width. the upper stories jutted out; the beams on which they rested were finely carved, the gables were finished off with rich, wooden pinnacles. in each story, the lowest excepted, were three long, low windows of the common nuremberg type, and the whole had a substantial and reputable air. the window at which i had seen marie was farthest from the door, on the first floor. to go to the door i had to lose sight of it, and perhaps for that reason i stood the longer. at last i went and knocked, and waited in a fever for some one to come. the street was a thoroughfare. there were a number of people passing. i thought that all the town would go by before a dragging foot at last sounded inside, and the great nail-studded door was opened on the chain. a stout, red-faced woman showed herself in the aperture. 'what is it?' she asked. 'you have a girl in this house, named marie wort,' i answered breathlessly. 'i saw her a moment ago at the window. i know her, and i wish to speak to her.' the woman's little eyes dwelt on me stolidly for a space. then she made as if she would shut the door. 'for shame!' she said spitefully. 'we have no girls here. begone with you!' but i put my foot against the door. 'whose house is this?' i said. 'herr krapp's,' she answered crustily. 'is he at home?' 'no, he is not,' she retorted; 'and if he were, we have no baggages here.' and again she tried to shut the door, but i prevented her. 'where is he?' i asked sternly. 'he is at morning drill, if you must know,' she snapped; 'and his two sons. now, will you let me shut my door? or must i cry out?' 'nonsense, mother!' i said. 'who is in the house besides yourself?' 'what is that to you?' she replied, breathing short. 'i have told you,' i said, trying to control my anger. 'i----' but, quick as lightning, the door slammed to and cut me short. i had thoughtlessly moved my foot. i heard the woman chuckle and go slipshod down the passage, and though i knocked again in a rage, the door remained closed. i fell back and looked at the house. an elderly man in a grave, sober dress was passing, among others, and i caught his eye. 'whose house is that?' i asked him. 'herr krapp's,' he answered. 'i am a stranger,' i said. 'is he a man of substance?' the person i addressed smiled. 'he is a member of the council of safety,' he said dryly. 'his brother is prefect of this ward. but here is herr krapp. doubtless he has been at st. sebald's drilling.' i thanked him, and made but two steps to herr krapp's side. he was the other's twin--elderly, soberly dressed, his only distinction a sword and pistol in his girdle and a white shoulder sash. 'herr krapp?' i said. 'the same,' he answered, eying me gravely. 'i am the countess of heritzburg's steward,' i said. i began to see the need of explanation. 'doubtless you have heard that she is in the city?' 'certainly,' he answered. 'in the ritter strasse.' 'yes,' i replied. 'a fortnight ago she missed a young woman, one of her attendants. she was lost in a night adventure,' i continued, my throat dry and husky. 'a few minutes ago i saw her looking from one of your windows.' 'from one of my windows?' he exclaimed in a tone of surprise. 'yes,' i said stiffly. he opened his eyes wide. 'here?' he said. he pointed to his house. i nodded. 'impossible!' he replied, shutting his lips suddenly. 'quite impossible, my friend. my household consists of my two sons and myself. we have a housekeeper only, and two lads. i have no young women in the house.' 'yet i saw her face, herr krapp, at your window,' i answered obstinately. 'wait,' he said; 'i will ask.' but when the old housekeeper came she had only the same tale to tell. she was alone. no young woman had crossed the threshold for a week past. there was no other woman there, young or old. 'you will have it that i have a young man in the house next!' she grumbled, shooting scorn at me. 'i can assure you that there is no one here,' herr krapp said civilly. 'dorcas has been with me many years, and i can trust her. still if you like you can walk through the rooms.' but i hesitated to do that. the man's manner evidenced his sincerity, and in face of it my belief wavered. fancy, i began to think, had played me a trick. it was no great wonder if the features which were often before me in my dreams, and sometimes painted themselves on the darkness while i lay wakeful, had for once taken shape in the daylight, and so vividly as to deceive me. i apologised. i said what was proper, and, with a heavy sigh, went from the door. ay, and with bent head. the passing crowd and the sunshine and the distant music of drum and trumpet grated on me. for there was yet another explanation. and i feared that marie was dead. i was still brooding sadly over the matter when i reached home. steve met me at the door, but, feeling in no mood for small talk just then, i would have passed him by and gone in, if he had not stopped me. 'i have a message for you, lieutenant,' he said. 'what is it?' i asked without curiosity. 'a little boy gave it to me at the door,' he answered. 'i was to ask you to be in the street opposite herr krapp's half an hour after sunset this evening.' i gasped. 'herr krapp's!' i exclaimed. steve nodded, looking at me queerly. 'yes; do you know him?' he said. 'i do now,' i muttered, gulping down my amazement. but my face was as red as fire, the blood drummed in my ears. i had to turn away to hide my emotion. 'what was the boy like?' i asked. but it seemed that the lad had made off the moment he had done his errand, and steve had not noticed him particularly. 'i called after him to know who sent him,' he added, 'but he had gone too far.' i nodded and mumbled something, and went on into the house. perhaps i was still a little sore on my girl's account, and resented the easy way in which she had dropped out of others' lives. at any rate, my instinct was to keep the thing to myself. the face at the window, and then this strange assignation, could have only one meaning; but, good or bad, it was for me. and i hugged myself on it, and said nothing even to my lady. the day seemed long, but at length the evening came, and when the men had gone to drill and the house was quiet, i slipped out. the streets were full at this hour of men passing to and fro to their drill-stations, and of women who had been out to see the camp, and were returning before the gates closed. the bells of many of the churches were ringing; some had services. i had to push my way to reach herr krapp's house in time; but once there the crowd of passers served my purpose by screening me, as i loitered, from farther remark; while i took care, by posting myself in a doorway opposite the window, to make it easy for any one who expected me to find me. and then i waited with my heart beating. the clocks were striking a half after seven when i took my place, and for a time i stood in a ferment of excitement, now staring with bated breath at the casement, where i had seen marie, now scanning all the neighbouring doorways, and then again letting my eyes rove from window to window both of krapp's house and the next one on either side. as the latter were built with many quaint oriels, and tiny dormers, and had lattices in side-nooks, where one least looked to find them, i was kept expecting and employed. i was never quite sure, look where i would, what eyes were upon me. but little by little, as time passed and nothing happened, and the strollers all went by without accosting me, and no faces save strange ones showed at the windows, the heat of expectation left me. the chill of disappointment took its place. i began to doubt and fear. the clocks struck eight. the sun had been down an hour. half that time i had been waiting. to remain passive was no longer bearable, and sick of caution, i stepped out and began to walk up and down the street, courting rather than avoiding notice. the traffic was beginning to slacken. i could see farther and mark people at a distance; but still no one spoke to me, no one came to me. here and there lights began to shine in the houses, on gleaming oak ceilings and carved mantels. the roofs were growing black against the paling sky. in nooks and corners it was dark. the half-hour sounded, and still i walked, fighting down doubt, clinging to hope. but when another quarter had gone by, doubt became conviction. i had been fooled! either some one who had seen me loitering at krapp's in the morning and heard my tale had gone straight off, and played me this trick; or--gott im himmel!--or i had been lured here that i might be out of the way at home. that thought, which should have entered my thick head an hour before, sped me from the street, as if it had been a very catapult. before i reached the corner i was running; and i ran through street after street, sweating with fear. but quickly as i went, my thoughts outpaced me. my lady was alone save for her women. the men were drilling, the waldgrave was in the camp. the crowded state of the streets at sunset, and the number of strangers who thronged the city favoured certain kinds of crime; in a great crowd, as in a great solitude, everything is possible. i had this in my mind. judge, then, of my horror, when, as i approached the ritter strasse, i became aware of a dull, roaring sound; and hastening to turn the corner, saw a large mob gathered in front of our house, and filling the street from wall to wall. the glare of torches shone on a thousand upturned faces, and flamed from a hundred casements. at the windows, on the roofs, peering over balconies and coping-stones and gables, and looking out of doorways were more faces, all red in the torchlight. and all the time as the smoking light rose and fell, the yelling, as it seemed to me, rose and fell with it--now swelling into a stern roar of exultation, now sinking into an ugly, snarling noise, above which a man might hear his neighbour speak. i seized the first i came to--a man standing on the skirts of the mob, and rather looking on than taking part. 'what is it?' i said, shaking him roughly by the arm. 'what is the matter here?' 'hallo!' he answered, starting as he turned to me. 'is it you again, my friend?' i had hit on herr krapp!' yes!' i cried breathlessly. 'what is it? what is amiss?' he shrugged his shoulders. 'they are hanging a spy,' he answered. 'nothing more. irregular, but wholesome.' i drew a deep breath. 'is that all?' i said. he eyed me curiously. 'to be sure,' he said. 'what did you think it was?' 'i feared that there might be something wrong at my lady's,' i said, beginning to get my breath again. 'i left her alone at sunset. and when i saw this crowd before the house i--i could almost have cut off my hand. thank god, i was mistaken!' he looked at me again and seemed to reflect a moment. then he said, 'you have not found the young woman you were seeking?' i shook my head. 'well, it occurred to me afterwards--but at which window did you see her?' 'at a window on the first floor; the farthest from the door,' i answered. 'the second from the door end of the house?' he asked. 'no, the third.' he nodded with an air of quiet triumph. 'just so!' he said. 'i thought so afterwards. but the fact is, my friend, my house ends with the second gable. the third gable-end does not belong to it, though doubtless it once did.' 'no?' i exclaimed. and for a moment i stood taken aback, cursing my carelessness. then i stammered, 'but this third gable--i saw no door in it, herr krapp.' 'no, the door is in another street,' he answered. 'or rather it opens on the churchyard at the back of st. austin's. so you may have seen her after all. well, i wish you well,' he continued. 'i must be going.' the crowd was beginning to separate, moving away by twos and threes, talking loudly. the lights were dying down. he nodded and was gone; while i still stood gaping. for how did the matter stand? if i had really seen marie at the window--as seemed possible now--and if nothing turned out to be amiss at home, then i had not been tricked after all, and the message was genuine. true she had not kept her appointment. but she might be in durance, or one of a hundred things might have frustrated her intention. still i could do nothing now except go home, and cutting short my speculations, i forced myself through the press, and with some labour managed to reach the door. as i did so i turned to look back, and the sight, though the people were moving away fast, was sufficiently striking. almost opposite us in a beetling archway, the bowed head and shoulders of a man stood up above the common level. there was a little space round him, whence men held back; and the red glow of the smouldering links which the executioners had cast on the ground at his feet, shone upwards on his swollen lips and starting eyeballs. as i looked, the body seemed to writhe in its bonds; but it was only the wind swayed it. i went in shuddering. on the stairs i met count hugo coming down, and knew the moment i saw him that there was something wrong. he stopped me, his eyes full of wrath. 'my man,' he said sternly, 'i thought that you were to be trusted! where have you been? what have you been doing? _donner!_ is your lady to be left at dark with no one to man this door?' conscience-stricken, i muttered that i hoped nothing had gone amiss. 'no, but something easily might!' he answered grimly. 'when i came here i found three as ugly looking rogues whispering and peering in your doorway as man could wish to see! yes, master martin, and if i had not ridden up at that moment i will not answer for it, that they would not have been in! it is a pity a few more knaves are not where that one is,' he continued sourly, pointing through the open door. 'we could spare them. but do you see and have more care for the future. or, mein gott, i will take other measures, my friend!' so it had been a ruse after all! i went up sick at heart. chapter xxvii. the house in the churchyard. the heat which count leuchtenstein had thrown into the matter surprised me somewhat when i came to think of it, but i was soon to be more surprised. i did not go to my lady at once on coming in, for on the landing the sound of voices and laughter met me, and i learned that there were still two or three young officers sitting with her who had outstayed count hugo. i waited until they were gone--clanking and jingling down the stairs; and then, about the hour at which i usually went to take orders before retiring, i knocked at the door. commonly one of the women opened to me. to-night the door remained closed. i waited, knocked again, and then went in. i could see no one, but the lamps were flickering, and i saw that the window was open. at that moment, while i stood uncertain, she came in through it; and blinded, i suppose, by the lights, did not see me. for at the first chair she reached just within the window, she sat down suddenly and burst into tears! 'mein gott!' i cried clumsily. i should have known better; but the laughter of the young fellows as they trooped down the stairs was still in my ears, and i was dumfounded. she sprang up on the instant, and glared at me through her tears. 'who are--how dare you? how dare you come into the room without knocking?' she cried violently. 'i did knock, my lady,' i stammered, 'asking your pardon.' 'then now go! go out, do you hear?' she cried, stamping her foot with passion. 'i want nothing. go!' i turned and crept towards the door like a beaten hound. but i was not to go; when my hand was on the latch, her mood changed. 'no, stay,' she said in a different tone. 'you may come back. after all, martin, i had rather it was you than any one else.' she dried her tears as she spoke, standing up very straight and proud, and hiding nothing. i felt a pang as i looked at her. i had neglected her of late. i had been thinking more of others. 'it is nothing, martin,' she said after a pause, and when she had quite composed her face. 'you need not be frightened. all women cry a little sometimes, as men swear,' she added, smiling. 'you have been looking at that thing outside,' i said, grumbling. 'perhaps it did upset me,' she replied. 'but i think it was that i felt--a little lonely.' that sounded so strange a complaint on her lips, seeing that the echo of the young sparks' laughter was barely dead in the room, that i stared. but i took it, on second thoughts, to refer to fraulein max, whom she had kept at a distance since our escape, never sitting down with her, or speaking to her except on formal occasions; and i said bluntly-- 'you need a woman friend, my lady.' she looked at me keenly, and i fancied her colour rose. but she only answered, 'yes, martin. but you see i have not one. i am alone.' 'and lonely, my lady?' 'sometimes,' she answered, smiling sadly. 'but this evening?' i replied, feeling that there was still something i did not understand. 'i should not have thought you would be feeling that way. i have not been here, but when i came in, my lady----' 'pshaw!' she answered with a laugh of disdain. 'those boys, martin? they can laugh, fight, and ride; but for the rest, pouf! they are not company. however, it is bedtime, and you must go. i think you have done me good. good night. i wish--i wish i could do you good,' she added kindly, almost timidly. to some extent she had. i went away feeling that mine was not the only trouble in the world, nor my loneliness the only loneliness. she was a stranger in a besieged city, a woman among men, exposed, despite her rank, to many of a woman's perils; and doubtless she had felt fraulein max's defection and the waldgrave's strange conduct more deeply than any one watching her daily bearing would have supposed. so much the greater reason was there that i should do my duty loyally, and putting her first to whom i owed so much, let no sorrow of my own taint my service. but god knows there is one passion that defies argument. the house next herr krapp's had a fascination for me which i could not resist; and though i did not again leave my lady unguarded, but arranged that steve should stop at home and watch the door, four o'clock the next afternoon saw me sneaking away in search of st. austin's. of course i soon found it; but there i came to a check. round the churchyard stood a number of quiet family houses, many-gabled and shaded by limes, and doubtless once occupied by reverend canons and prebendaries. but no one of these held such a position that it could shoulder herr krapp's, or be by any possibility the house i wanted. the churchyard lay too far from the street for that. i walked up the row twice before i would admit this; but at last i made it certain. still herr krapp must know his own premises, and not much cast down, i was going to knock at a chance door and put the question, when my eyes fell on a man who sat at work in the churchyard. he wore a mason's apron, and was busily deepening the inscription on a tablet let into the church wall. he seemed to be the very man to know, and i went to him. 'i want a house which looks into the neu strasse,' i said. 'it is the next house to herr krapp's. can you direct me to the door?' he looked at me for a moment, his hammer suspended. then he pointed to the farther end of the row. 'there is an alley,' he said in a hoarse, croaking voice. 'the door is at the end.' i thought his occupation an odd one, considering the state of the city; but i had other things to dwell on, and hastened off to the place he indicated. here, sure enough, i found the mouth of a very narrow passage which, starting between the last house and a blind wall, ran in the required direction. it was a queer place, scarcely wider than my shoulders, and with two turns so sharp that i remember wondering how they brought their dead out. in one part it wound under the timbers of a house; it was dark and somewhat foul, and altogether so ill-favoured a path that i was glad i had brought my arms. in the end it ran into a small, paved court, damp but clean, and by comparison light. here i saw the door i wanted facing me. above it the house, with its narrow front of one window on each floor, and every floor jutting out a little, gave a strange impression of gloomy height. the windows were barred and dusty, the plaster was mildewed, the beams were dark with age. whatever secrets, innocent or the reverse, lay within, one thing was plain--this front gave the lie to the other. i liked the aspect of things so little that it was with a secret tremor i knocked, and heard the hollow sound go echoing through the house. so certain did i feel that something was wrong, that i wondered what the inmates would do, and whether they would lie quiet and refuse to answer, or show force and baffle me that way. no foreign windows looked into the little court in which i stood; three of the walls were blind. the longer i gazed about me, the more i misdoubted the place. yet i turned to knock again; but did not, being anticipated. the door slid open under my hand, slowly wide open, and brought me face to face with an old toothless hag, whose bleared eyes winked at me like a bat's in sunshine. i was so surprised both by her appearance and the opening of the door, that i stood tongue-tied, staring at her and at the bare, dusty, unswept hall behind her. 'who lives here?' i blurted out at last. if i had stopped to choose my words i had done no better. she shook her head and pointed first to her ears, and then to her lips. the woman was deaf and dumb! i would not believe it at the first blush. i tried her again. 'who lives here, mother?' i cried more loudly. she smiled vacuously, showing her toothless gums. and that was all. still i tried again, shouting and making signs to her to fetch whoever was in the house. the sign she seemed to understand, for she shook her head violently. but that helped me no farther. all the time the door stood wide open. i could see the hall, and that it contained no furniture or traces of habitation. the woman was alone, therefore a mere caretaker. why should i not enter and satisfy myself? i made as if i would do so. but the moment i set my foot across the threshold the old crone began to mow and gibber so horribly, putting herself in my way, that i fell back cowed. i had not the heart to use force to her, alone as she was, and in her duty. besides, what right had i to thrust myself in? i should be putting myself in the wrong if i did. i retired. she did not at once shut the door, but continued to tremble and make faces at me awhile as if she were cursing me. then with her old hand pressed to her side, she slowly but with evident passion clanged the door home. i stood a moment outside, and then i retreated. i had been driven to believe herr krapp. why should i not believe this old creature? here was an empty house, and so an end. and yet--and yet i was puzzled. as i went through the churchyard, i passed my friend the mason, and saw he had a companion. if he had looked up i should have asked him a question or two. but he did not, and the other's back was towards me. i walked on. in the silent street, however, three minutes later, a sudden thought brought me to a stand. an empty house? was there not something odd in this empty house, when quarters were so scarce in nuremberg, and even my lady had got lodgings assigned to her as a favour and at a price? the town swarmed with people who had taken refuge behind its walls. where one had lain two lay now. yet here was an empty house! in a twinkling i was walking briskly towards the neu strasse, determined to look farther into the matter. it was again the hour of evening drill; the ways were crowded, the bells of the churches were ringing. using some little care as i approached herr krapp's, i slipped into a doorway, which commanded it from a distance, and thence began to watch the fatal window. if the old hag had not lied with her dumb lips i should see no one; or at best should only see her. half an hour passed; an hour passed. hundreds of people passed, among them the man i had seen talking with the mason in the churchyard. i noticed him, because he went by twice. but the window remained blank. then on a sudden, as the light began to fail, i saw the waldgrave at it. the waldgrave? 'gott im himmel!' i muttered, the blood rushing to my face. what was the meaning of this? what was the magic of this cursed window? first i had seen my love at it. then the waldgrave. while i stood thunderstruck, he was gone again, leaving the window blank and black. the crowd passed below, chattering thoughtlessly. groups of men with pikes and muskets went by. all seemed unchanged. but my mind was in a whirl. rage, jealousy, and wonder played with it. what did it all mean? first marie, then the waldgrave! marie, whom we had left thirty leagues away in the forest; the waldgrave, whom i had seen that morning. i stood gaping at the window, as if it could speak, and gradually my mind regained its balance. my jealousy died out, hope took its place. i did not think so ill of the waldgrave as to believe that knowing of marie's existence he would hide it from me, and for that reason i could not explain or understand how he came to be in the same house with her. but it was undeniable that his presence there encouraged me. there must be some middle link between them; perhaps some one controlling both. and then i thought of tzerclas. the waldgrave had seen him in the town, and had even spoken to him. what if it were he who occupied this house close by the new gate, with a convenient secretive entrance, and used it for his machinations? marie might well have fallen into his hands. she might be in his power now, behind the very walls on which i gazed. from that moment i breathed and lived only to see the inside of that house. nothing else would satisfy me. i scanned it with greedy eyes, its steep gable, its four windows one above another, its carved weather-boards. i might attack it on this side; or by way of the alley and door. but i quickly discarded the latter idea. though i had seen only the old woman, i judged that there were defenders in the background, and in the solitude of the alley i might be easily despatched. it remained to enter from the front, or by way of the roof. i pondered a moment, and then i went across to herr krapp's and knocked. he opened the door himself. i almost pushed my way in. 'what do you want, my friend?' he said, recoiling before me, and looking somewhat astonished. 'to get into your neighbour's house,' i answered bluntly. chapter xxviii. under the tiles. he had a light in his hand, and he held it up to my face. 'so?' he said. 'is that what you would be at? but you go fast. it takes two to that, master steward.' 'yes,' i answered. 'i am the one, and you are the other, herr krapp.' he turned from me and closed the door, and, coming back, held the light again to my face. 'so you still think that it was your lady's woman you saw at the window?' 'i am sure of it,' i answered. he set down his light on a chair and, leaning against the wall, seemed to consider me. after a pause, 'and you have been to the house?' 'i have been to the house--fruitlessly.' 'you learned nothing?' 'nothing.' 'then what do you want to do now?' he asked, softly rubbing his chin. 'to see the inside of it.' 'and you propose----?' 'to enter it from yours,' i answered. 'surely you have some dormer, some trap-door, some roof-way, by which a bold man may get from this house to the next one.' he shook his head. 'i know of none,' he said. 'but that is not all. you are asking a strange thing. i am a peaceful man, and, i hope, a good neighbour; and this which you ask me to do cannot be called neighbourly. however, i need say the less about it, because the thing cannot be done.' 'will you let me try?' i cried. he seemed to reflect. in the end he made a strange answer. 'what time did you call at the house?' he said. 'perhaps an hour ago--perhaps more.' 'did you see any one in the churchyard as you passed?' 'yes,' i said, thinking; 'there was a man at work there. i asked him the way.' herr krapp nodded, and seemed to reflect again. 'well,' he said at last,' it is a strong thing you ask, my friend. but i have my own reasons for suspecting that all is not right next door, and therefore you shall have your way as far as looking round goes. but i do not think that you will be able to do anything.' 'i ask no more than that,' i said, trembling with eagerness. he looked at me again as he took up the light. 'you are a big man,' he said, 'but are you armed? strength is of little avail against a bullet.' i showed him that i had a brace of pistols, and he turned towards the stairs. 'dorcas is in the kitchen,' he said. 'my sons are out, and so are the lads. nevertheless, i am not very proud of our errand; so step softly, my friend, and do not grumble if you have your labour for your pains.' he led the way up the stairs with that, and i followed him. the house was very silent, and the higher we ascended the more the silence grew upon us, until, in the empty upper part, every footfall seemed to make a hollow echo, and every board that creaked under our tread to whisper that we were about a work of danger. when we reached the uppermost landing of all, herr krapp stopped, and, raising his light, pointed to the unceiled rafters. 'see, there is no way out,' he said. 'and if you could get out, you could not get in.' i nodded as i looked round. clearly, this floor was not much used. in a corner a room had been at some period roughly partitioned off; otherwise the place was a huge garret, the boards covered with scraps of mortar, the corners full of shadows and old lumber and dense cobwebs. in the sloping roof were two dormer windows, unglazed but shuttered; and, beside the great yawning well of the staircase by which we had ascended, lay a packing-box and some straw, and two or three old rotting pallets tied together with ropes. i shivered as i looked round. the place, viewed by the light of our one candle, had a forlorn, depressing aspect. the air under the tiles was hot and close; the straw gave out a musty smell. i was glad when herr krapp went to one of the windows and, letting down the bar, opened the shutters. on the instant a draught, which all but extinguished his candle, poured in, and with it a dull, persistent noise unheard before--the murmur of the city, of the streets, the voice of nuremberg. i thrust my head out into the cool night air, and rejoiced to see the lights flickering in the streets below, and the shadowy figures moving this way and that. above the opposite houses the low sky was red; but the chimneys stood out black against it, and in the streets it was dark night. i took all this in, and then i turned to the right and looked at the next house. i saw as much as i expected; more, enough to set my heart beating. the dormer window next to that from which i leaned, and on a level with it, was open; if i might judge from the stream of light which poured through it, and was every now and then cut off as if by a moving figure that passed at intervals between the casement and the candle. who or what this was i could not say. it might be marie; it might not. but at the mere thought i leaned out farther, and greedily measured the distance between us. alas! between the dormer-gable in which i stood and the one in the next house lay twelve feet of steep roof, on which a cat would have been puzzled to stand. its edge towards the street was guarded by no gutter, ledge, or coping-stone, but ended smoothly in a frail, wooden waterpipe, four inches square. below that, yawned a sheer, giddy drop, sixty feet to the pavement of the street. i drew in my head with a shiver, and found herr krapp at my elbow. 'well,' he said, 'what do you see?' 'the next window is open,' i answered. 'how can i get to it?' 'ah!' he replied dryly, 'i did not undertake that you should.' he took my place at the window and leaned out in his turn. he had set the candle in a corner where it was sheltered from the draught. i strode to it, and moved it a little in sheer impatience--i was burning to be at the window again. as i came back, crunching the scraps of mortar underfoot, my eyes fell on a bit of old dusty rope lying coiled on the floor, and in a second i saw a way. when herr krapp turned from the window he missed me. 'hallo!' he cried. 'where are you, my friend?' 'here,' i answered, from the head of the stairs. as he advanced, i came out of the darkness to meet him, staggering under the bundle of pallets which i had seen lying by the stair-head. he whistled. 'what are you going to do with those?' he said. 'by your leave, i want this rope,' i answered. 'what will you do with it?' he asked soberly. he was one of those even-tempered men to whom excitement, irritation, fear, are all foreign. 'make a loop and throw it over the little pinnacle on the top of yonder dormer,' i answered briefly, 'and use it for a hand-rail.' 'can you throw it over?' 'i think so.' 'the pinnacle will hold?' 'i hope so.' he shrugged his shoulders, and stood for a moment staring at me as i unwound the rope and formed a noose. at length: 'but the noise, my friend?' he said. 'if you miss the first time, and the second, the rope falling and sliding over the tiles will give the alarm.' 'two cats ran along the ridge a while ago,' i answered. 'once, and, perhaps, twice, the noise will be set down to them. the third time i must succeed.' i thought it likely that he would forbid the attempt; but he did not. on the contrary, he silently took hold of my belt, that i might lean out the farther and use my hands with greater freedom. against the window i placed the bundle of pallets; setting one foot on them and the other heel on the pipe outside, i found i could whirl the loop with some chance of success. still, it was an anxious moment. as i craned over the dark street and, poising myself, fixed my eyes on the black, slender spirelet which surmounted the neighbouring window, i felt a shudder more than once run through me. i shrank from looking down. at last i threw: the rope fell short. luckily it dropped clear of the window, and came home again against the wall below me, and so made no noise. the second time i threw with better heart; but i had the same fortune, except that i nearly overbalanced myself, and, for a moment, shut my eyes in terror. the third time, letting out a little more rope, i struck the pinnacle, but below the knob. the rope fell on the tiles, and slid down them with some noise, and for a full minute i stood motionless, half inside the room and half outside, expecting each instant to see a head thrust out of the other window. but no one appeared, no one spoke, though the light was still obscured at intervals; and presently i took courage to make a fourth attempt. i flung, and this time the rope fell with a dull thud on the tiles, and stopped there: the noose was round the pinnacle. gently i drew it tight, and then, letting it hang, i slipped back into the room, where we had before taken the precaution to put out the light. herr krapp asked me in a whisper if the rope was fast. 'yes,' i said. 'i must secure this end to something.' he passed it round the hinge of the left-hand shutter and made it safe. then for a moment we stood together in the darkness. 'all right?' he said. 'all right,' i answered hoarsely. the next moment the thing was done. i was outside, the rope in my hands, my feet on the bending pipe, the cool night air round my temples--below me, sheer giddiness, dancing lights, and blackness. for the moment i tottered. i balanced myself where i stood, and clung to the rope, shutting my eyes. if the pinnacle had given way then, i must have fallen like a plummet and been killed. one crash against the wall below, one grip at the rope as it tore its way through my fingers--and an end! but the pinnacle held, and in a few seconds i gained wit and courage. one step, then another, and then a third, taken warily, along the pipe, as i have seen rope-walkers take them at heritzburg fair, and i was almost within reach of my goal. two more, and, stooping, i could touch, with my right hand, the tiles of the little gable, while my left, raised above my head, still clutched the rope. then came an anxious moment. i had to pass under the rope, which was between me and the street, and between me and the window also--the window, my goal. i did it; but in my new position i found a new difficulty, and a grim one, confronting me. standing outside the rope now, with my right hand clinging to it, i could not, with all my stretching, reach with my other hand any part of the window, or anything of which i could get a firm grip. the smooth tiles and crumbling mortar of the little gable gave no hold, while the rope, my grip on which i dared not for my life relax, prevented me stooping sufficiently to reach the sill or the window-case. it was a horrible position. i stood still, sweating, trembling, and felt the wooden pipe bend and yield under me. behind me, the depth, the street, yawned for me; before me, the black roof, shutting off the sky. my head reeled, my fingers closed on the ropes like claws; for a second i shut my eyes, and thought i was falling. in that moment i forgot marie--i forgot everything, except the pavement below, the cruel stones, the depth; i would have given all, coward that i was, to be back in herr krapp's room. then the fit passed, and i stood, thinking. to take my hand from the rope would be to fall--to die. but could i lower the rope so that, still holding it, i could reach the sill, or the hinges, or some part of the window-case that would furnish a grip? i could think of only one way, and that a dangerous one; but i had no choice, nor any time to lose, if i would keep my head. i drew out my knife, and, leaning forward on the rope, with one knee on the tiles, i began to sever the cord as far away to my right as i could reach. this was to cut off my retreat--my connection with the window i had left; but i dared not let myself think much of that or of anything. i hacked away in a frenzy, and in a twinkling the rope flew apart, and i slipped forward on the tiles, clutching the piece that remained to me in a grasp of iron. so far, good! i was trembling all over, but i was safe, and i lost not a moment in passing the loose end twice round the fingers of my right hand. this done, only one thing remained to be done--only one thing: to lean over the abyss, trusting all my weight to the frail cord, and to grope for the sill. only that! well, i did it. my hair stood up straight as the pinnacle groaned and bent under my weight; my eyes must have been astare with terror; all my flesh crept. i clung to the face of the gable like a fly, but i did it! i reached the sill, clutched it, loosed the rope, and in a moment was lying on my breast, half in and half out of the window--safe!' i do not know how long i hung there, recovering my breath and strength, but i suppose only a minute or two, though it seemed to me an hour. a while before i should have thought such a position, without foothold, above the dizzy street, perilous enough. now it seemed to be safety. nevertheless, as i grew cooler i began to think of getting in, of whom i should find there, of the issue of the attempt. and presently, lifting one leg over the sill, i stretched out a hand and drew aside a scanty curtain which hid the room from view. it was this curtain that, rising and falling with the draught, had led me to picture a figure moving to and fro. there was no one to be seen, and for a moment i fancied that the room was empty. the light was on the other side, and my act disclosed nothing but a dusky corner under a sloping roof. the next instant, however, a harsh voice, which shook the rafters, cried, with an oath-- 'what is that?' i let the curtain fall and, as softly as i could, scrambled over the sill. my courage came back in face of a danger more familiar; my hand grew steady. as i sat on the sill, i drew out a pistol; but i dared not cock it. 'speak, or i shoot!' cried the same voice. 'one, two! was it the wind--himmel--or one of those cats?' i remained motionless. the speaker, whose voice i seemed to know, was clearly uncertain and a little sleepy. i hoped that he would not rouse the house and waste a shot on no better evidence; and i sat still in the smallest compass into which i could draw myself. i could see the light through the curtain, a makeshift thing of thin stuff, unbleached--and i tried to discern his figure, but in vain. at last i heard him sink back, grumbling uneasily. i waited a few minutes, until his breathing became more regular, and then, with a cautious hand, i once more drew the curtain aside. as i had judged, the light stood on the floor, by the end of the pallet. on the pallet, his head uneasily pillowed on his arm, while the other hand almost touched the butt of a pistol which lay beside the candle, sprawled the man who had spoken--a swarthy, reckless-looking fellow, still in his boots and dressed. his attitude as he slept, alone in this quiet room, no less than the presence of the light and pistol, spoke of danger and suspicion. but i did not need the one sign or the other to warn me that my hopes and fears were alike realized. the man was ludwig! i dropped the curtain again, and sat thinking. i could not hope to overcome such a man without a struggle and noise that must alarm the house; and yet i must pass him, if i would do any good. my only course seemed to be to slip by him by stealth, open the door in the same manner, and gain the stairs. after that the house would be open to me, and it would go hard with any one who came between me and marie. i did not doubt now that she was there. i waited until his more regular breathing seemed to show that he slept, and then, after softly cocking my pistol, i set my feet to the floor, and began to cross it. unluckily my nerves were still ajar with my roof-work. at the third step a board creaked under me; at the same moment i caught a glimpse of a huge, dark figure at my elbow, and though this was only my shadow, cast on the sloping roof by the candle, i sprang aside in a fright. the noise was enough to awaken the sleeper. as my eyes came back to him he opened his and saw me, and, raising himself, in a trice groped for his pistol. he could not on the instant find it, however, and i had time to cover him with mine. 'have done!' i hissed. 'be still, or you are a dead man!' 'martin schwartz!' he cried, with a frightful oath. 'yes,' i rejoined; 'and mark me, if you raise a finger, i fire.' he glared at me, and so we stood a moment. then i said, 'push that pistol to me with your foot. don't put out your hand, or it will be the worse for you.' he looked at me for a moment, his face distorted with rage, as if he were minded to disobey at all risks; then he drew up his foot sullenly and set it against the pistol. i stepped back a pace and for an instant took my eyes from his--intending to snatch up the firearm as soon as it was out of his reach. in that instant he dashed out the light with his foot; i heard him spring up--and we were in darkness. the surprise was complete, and i did not fire; but i had the presence of mind, believing that he had secured his pistol, to change my position--almost as quickly as he changed his. however, he did not fire; and so there we were in the pitchy darkness of the room, both armed, and neither knowing where the other stood. i felt every nerve in my body tingle; but with rage, not fear. i dared not change my position again, lest a creaking board should betray me, now all was silent; but i crouched low in the darkness with the pistol in one hand and my knife drawn in the other, and listened for his breathing. the same consideration--we were both heavy men--kept him motionless also; and i remember to this day, that as we waited, scarcely daring to breathe--and for my part each moment expecting the flash and roar of a shot--one of the city clocks struck slowly and solemnly ten. the strokes ceased. in the room i could not hear a sound, and i felt nervously round me with my knife; but without avail. i crouched still lower, lower, with a beating heart. the curtain obscured the window, there was no moon, no light showed under the door. the darkness was so complete that, but for a kind of fainter blackness that outlined the window, i could not have said in what part of the room i stood. suddenly a sharp loud 'thud' broke the silence. it seemed to come from a point so close to me that i almost fired on that side before i could control my fingers. the next moment i knew that it was well i had not. it was ludwig's knife flung at a venture--and now buried, as i guessed, an inch deep in the door--which had made the noise. still, the action gave me a sort of inkling where he was, and, noiselessly facing round a trifle, i raised my pistol, and waited for some movement that might direct my aim. i feared that he had a second knife; i hoped that in drawing it from its sheath he would make some noise. but all was still. sharpen my ears as i might, i could hear nothing; strain my eyes as i might, i could see no shadow, no bulk in the darkness. a silence as of death prevailed. i could scarcely believe that he was still in the room. my courage, hot and fierce at first, began to wane under the trial. i felt the point of his knife already in my back; i winced and longed to be sheltered by the wall, yet dared not move to go to it. in another minute i think i should have fired at a sheer venture, rather than bear the strain longer; but at last a sound broke on my ear. the sound was not in the room, but in the house below. some one was coming up the stairs. the step reached a landing, and i heard it pause; a stumble, and it came on again up the next flight. another pause, this time a longer one. then it mounted again, and gradually a faint line of light shone under the door. i felt my breath come quickly. one glance at the door, which was near me on the right hand, and i peered away again, balancing the pistol in my hand. if ludwig cried out or spoke, i would fire in the direction of the voice. between two foes i was growing desperate. [illustration: before i could recover myself a pair of strong arms closed round mine and bound them to my sides.] the step came on and stopped at the door; still ludwig held his peace. the new-comer rapped; not loudly, or i think i should have started and betrayed myself--to such a point were my feelings wound up--but softly and timidly. i set my teeth together and grasped my knife. ludwig on his part kept silence; the person outside, getting no answer, knocked again, and yet again, each time more loudly. still no answer. then i heard a hand touch the latch. it grated. a moment of suspense, and a flood of light burst in--close to me on my right hand--dazzling me. i looked round quickly, in fear; and there, in the doorway, holding a taper in her hand, i saw marie--marie wort! while i stood open-mouthed, gazing, she saw me, the light falling on me. her lips opened, her breast heaved, i think she must have seen my danger; but if so the shriek she uttered came too late to save me. i heard it, but even as i heard it a sudden blow in the back hurled me gasping to my knees at her feet. before i could recover myself a pair of strong arms closed round mine and bound them to my sides. breathless and taken at advantage i made a struggle to rise; but i heaved and strained without avail. in a moment my hands were tied, and i lay helpless and a prisoner. after that i was conscious only of a tumult round me; of a woman shrieking, of loud trampling, and lights and faces, among these tzerclas' dark countenance, with a look of fiendish pleasure on it. even these things i only noted dully. in the middle of all i was wool-gathering. i suppose i was taken downstairs, but i remember nothing of it; and in effect i took little note of anything until, my breath coming back to me, i found myself being borne through a doorway--on the ground floor, i think--into a lighted room. a man held me by either arm, and there were three other men in the room. chapter xxix. in the house by st. austin's. two of these men sat facing one another at a great table covered with papers. as i entered they turned their faces to me, and on the instant one sprang to his feet with an exclamation of rage that made the roof ring. 'general!' he cried passionately, 'what--what devil's trick is this? why have you brought that man here?' 'why?' tzerclas answered easily, insolently. 'does he know you?' he had come in just before us. he smiled; the man's excitement seemed to amuse him. 'by ----, he does!' the other exclaimed through his teeth. 'are you mad?' 'i think not,' the general answered, still smiling. 'you will understand in a minute. but his business can wait. first'--he took up a paper and scanned it carefully--'let us complete this list of----' 'no!' the stranger replied impetuously. and he dashed the paper back on the table and looked from one to another like a wild beast in a trap. he was a tall, very thin, hawk-nosed man, whom i had seen once at my lady's--the commander of a saxon regiment in the city's service, with the name of a reckless soldier. 'no!' he repeated, scowling, until his brows nearly met his moustachios. 'not another gun, not another measurement will i give, until i know where i stand! and whether you are the man i think you, general, or the blackest double-dyed liar that ever did satan's work!' the general laughed grimly--the laugh that always chilled my blood. 'gently, gently,' he said. 'if you must know, i have brought him into this room, in the first place, because it is convenient, and in the second, because----' 'well?' neumann snarled, with an ugly gleam in his eyes. 'because dead men tell no tales,' tzerclas continued quietly. 'and our friend here is a dead man. now, do you see? i answer for it, you run no risk.' 'himmel!' the other exclaimed; in a different tone, however. 'but in that case, why bring him here at all? why not despatch him upstairs?' 'because he knows one or two things which i wish to know,' the general answered, looking at me curiously. 'and he is going to make us as wise as himself. he has been drilling in the south-east bastion by the orchard, you see, and knows what guns are mounted there.' 'cannot you get them from the fool in the other room?' neumann grunted. 'he will tell nothing.' 'then why do you have him hanging about here day after day, risking everything? the man is mad.' 'because, my dear colonel, i have a use for _him_ too,' tzerclas replied. then he turned to me. 'listen, knave,' he said harshly. 'do you understand what i have been saying?' i did, and i was desperate. i remembered what i had done to him, how we had outwitted, tricked, and bound him; and now that i was in his power i knew what i had to expect; that nothing i could say would avail me. i looked him in the face. 'yes,' i said. 'you had the laugh on your side the last time we met,' he smiled. 'now it is my turn.' 'so it seems,' i answered stolidly. i think it annoyed him to see me so little moved. but he hid the feeling. 'what guns are in the orchard bastion?' he asked. i laughed. 'you should have asked me that,' i said, 'before you told me what you were going to do with me. the dead tell no tales, general.' 'you fool!' he replied. 'do you think that death is the worst you have to fear? look round you! do you see these windows? they are boarded up. do you see the door? it is guarded. the house? the walls are thick, and we have gags. answer me, then, and quickly, or i will find the way to make you. what guns are in the orchard bastion?' he took up a paper with the last word and looked at me over it, waiting for my answer. for a moment not a sound broke the silence of the room. the other men stood all at gaze, watching me, neumann with a scowl on his face. the lights in the room burned high, but the frowning masks of boards that hid the windows, the litter of papers on the table, the grimy floor, the cloaks and arms cast down on it in a medley--all these marks of haste and secrecy gave a strange and lowering look to the chamber, despite its brightness. my heart beat wildly like a bird in a man's hand. i feared horribly. but i hid my fear; and suddenly i had a thought. 'you have forgotten one thing,' i said. they started. it was not the answer they expected. 'what?' tzerclas asked curtly, in a tone that boded ill for me--if worse were possible. 'to ask how i came into the house.' the general looked death at ludwig. 'what is this, knave?' he thundered. 'you told me that he came in by the window?' 'he did, general,' ludwig answered, shrugging his shoulders. 'yes, from the next house,' i said coolly. 'where my friends are now waiting for me.' 'which house?' tzerclas demanded. 'herr krapp's.' i was completely in their hands. but they knew, and i knew, that their lives were scarcely more secure than mine; that, given a word, a sign, a traitor among them--and they were all traitors, more or less--all their boarded windows and locked doors would avail them not ten minutes against the frenzied mob. that thought blanched more than one cheek while i spoke; made more than one listen fearfully and cast eyes at the door; so that i wondered no longer, seeing their grisly faces, why the room, in spite of its brightness, had that strange and sombre look. treachery, fear, suspicion, all lurked under the lights. tzerclas alone was unmoved; perhaps because he had something less to fear than the faithless neumann. 'herr krapp's?' he said scornfully. 'is that all? i will answer for that house myself. i have a man watching it, and if danger threatens from that direction, we shall know it in good time. he marks all who go in or out.' 'you can trust him?' neumann muttered, wiping his brow. 'i am trusting him,' the general answered dryly. 'and i am not often deceived. this man and the puling girl upstairs tricked me once; but they will not do so again. now, sirrah!' and he turned to me afresh, a cruel gleam in his eyes. 'that bird will not fly. to business. will you tell me how many guns are in the orchard bastion?' 'no!' i cried. i was desperate now. 'you will not?' 'no!' 'you talk bravely,' he answered. 'but i have known men talk as bravely, and whimper and tremble like flogged children five minutes later. ludwig--ah, there is no fire. get a bit of thin whip-cord, and twist it round his head with your knife-handle. but first,' he continued, devouring me with his hard, smiling eyes, 'call in taddeo. you will need another man to handle him neatly.' at the word my blood ran cold with horror, and then burning hot. my gorge rose; i set my teeth and felt all my limbs swell. there was a mist of blood before my eyes, as if the cord were already tight and my brain bursting. i heaved in my bonds and heard them crack and crack. but, alas! they held. 'try again!' he said, sneering at me. 'you fiend!' i burst out in a fury. 'but i defy you. do your worst, i will balk you yet!' he looked at me hard. then he smiled. 'ah!' he said. 'so you think you will beat me. well, you are an obstinate knave, i know; and i have not much time to spare. yet i shall beat you. ludwig,' he continued, raising his voice, though his smiling eyes did not leave me. 'is taddeo there?' 'he is coming, general.' 'then bid him fetch the girl down! yes, master martin,' he continued with a ruthless look, 'we will see. i have a little account against her too. do not think that i have kept her all this time for nothing. we will put the cord not round your head--you are a stubborn fool, i know--but round hers, my friend. round her pretty little brow. we will see if that will loosen your tongue.' the room reeled before my eyes, the lights danced, the men's faces, some agrin, some darkly watchful, seemed to be looking at me through a mist that dimmed everything. i cried out wild oaths, scarcely knowing what i said, that he would not, that he dared not. he laughed. 'you think not, master martin?' he said. 'wait until the slut comes. ludwig has a way of singeing their hands with a lamp--that will afford you, i think, the last amusement you will ever enjoy!' i knew that he spoke truly, and that he and his like had done things as horrible, as barbarous, a hundred times in the course of this cursed war! i knew that i had nothing to expect from their pity or their scruples. and the frenzy of passion, which for a moment had almost choked me, died down on a sudden, leaving me cold as the coldest there and possessed by one thought only, one hope, one aim--to get my hands free for a moment and kill this man. the boarded windows, the guarded doors, the stern faces round me, the silence of the gloomy house all forbade hope; but revenge remained. rather than marie should suffer, rather than that childish frame should be racked by their cruel arts, i would tell all, everything they wanted. but if by any trick or chance i went afterwards free for so much as a second, i would choke him with my naked hands! i waited, looking at the door, my mind made up. the moments passed like lead. so apparently thought some one else, for suddenly on the silence came an interruption. 'is this business going to last all night?' neumann burst out impatiently. 'hang the man out of hand, if he is to be hanged!' 'my good friend, revenge is sweet,' tzerclas answered, with an ugly smile. 'these two fooled me a while ago; and i have no mind to be fooled with impunity. but it will not take long. we will singe her a little for his pleasure--he will like to hear her sing--and then we will hang him for her pleasure. after which----' 'do what you like!' neumann burst out, interrupting him wrathfully. 'only be quick about it. if the girl is here----' 'she is coming. she is coming, now,' tzerclas answered. i had gone through so much that my feelings were blunted. i could no longer suffer keenly, and i waited for her appearance with a composure that now surprises me. the door opened, taddeo came in! looked beyond him, but saw no one else; then i looked at him. the ruffian was trembling. his face was pale. he stammered something. tzerclas made but one stride to him. 'dolt!' he cried, 'what is it?' 'she is gone!' the man stuttered. 'gone?' 'yes, your excellency.' for an instant tzerclas stood glaring at him. then like lightning his hand went lip and his pistol-butt crashed down on the man's temple. the wretch threw up his arms and fell as if a thunderbolt had struck him--senseless, or lifeless; no one asked which, for his assailant, like a beast half-sated, stood glaring round for a second victim. but ludwig, who had come down with taddeo, knew his master, and kept his distance by the door. the other two men shrank behind me. 'well?' tzerclas cried, as soon as passion allowed him to speak. 'are you dumb? have you lost your tongue? what is it that liar meant?' 'the girl is away,' ludwig muttered. 'she got out through a window.' 'through what window?' 'the window of my room, under the roof,' the man answered sullenly. 'the one--through which that fool came in,' he continued, nodding towards me. 'ah!' the general cried, his voice hissing with rage. 'well, we have still got him. how did she go?' 'heaven knows, unless she had wings,' ludwig answered. 'the window is at the top of the house, and there is neither rope nor ladder there, nor foothold for anything but a bird. she is gone, however.' the general ground his teeth together. 'there is some cursed treachery here!' he said. the saxon colonel laughed in scorn. 'maybe!' he retorted in a mocking tone, 'but i will answer for it, that there is something else, and that is cursed mismanagement! i tell you what it is, general tzerclas,' he continued fiercely. 'with your private revenges, and your public plots, and your tame cats who are mad, and your wild cats who have wings--you think yourself a very clever man. but heaven help those who trust you!' the general's eyes sparkled. 'and those who cross me?' he cried in a voice that made his men tremble. 'but there, sir, what ground of complaint have you? the girl never saw you.' 'no, but that man has seen me!' neumann retorted, pointing to me. 'and who knows how soon she may be back with a regiment at her heels? then it will be "save yourselves!" and he will be left to hang me.' the general laughed without mirth. 'have no fear!' he said. 'we will hang him out of hand. ludwig, while we collect these papers, take the other two men and string him up in the hall. when they break in they shall find some one to receive them!' i had thought that the agony of death was passed; but i suppose that the news of marie's escape had awakened my hopes as well as rekindled my love of life; for at these words, i felt my courage run from me like water. i shrank back against the wall, my limbs trembling under me, my heart leaping as if it would burst from my breast. i felt the rope already round my neck, and when the men laid hold on me, i cried out, almost in spite of myself, that i would tell what guns there were in the orchard bastion, that i knew other things, that---- 'away with him!' tzerclas snarled, stamping his foot passionately. he was already hurrying papers together, and did not give me a glance. 'string him up, knaves, and see this time that you obey orders. we must be gone, so pull his legs.' i would have said something more; i would have tried again. even a minute, a minute's delay meant hope. but my voice failed me, and they hustled me out. i am no coward, and i had thought myself past fear; but the flesh is weak. at this pinch, when their hands were on me, and i looked round desperately and found no one to whom i could appeal--while hope and rescue might be so near and yet come too late--i shrank. death in this vile den seemed horrible. my knees trembled; i could scarcely stand. the hall into which they dragged me was the same dusty, desolate place into which, little foreseeing what would happen there, i had looked over the deaf hag's shoulder. ludwig's candle only half dispersed the darkness which reigned in it. two of the men held me while he went to and fro with the light raised high above his head. 'ha! here it is!' he said at last. 'i thought that there was a hook. bring him here, lads.' they forced me, resisting feebly, to the place. the candle stood beside him; he was forming a noose. the light, which left all behind them dark, lit up the men's harsh faces; but i read no pity there, no hope, no relenting; and after a hoarse attempt to bribe them with promises of what my lady would give for my life, i stood waiting. i tried to pray, to think of marie, of my soul and the future; but my mind was taken up with rage and dread, with the wild revolt against death, and the rush of indignation that would have had me scream like a woman! on a sudden, out of the darkness grew a fourth face that looked at me, smiling. it was no more softened by ruth or pity than the others were; the laughing eyes mocked me, the lip curled as with a jest. and yet, at sight of it, i gasped. hope awoke. i tried to speak, i tried to implore his help, i tried but my voice failed me, no words came. the face was the waldgrave's. yet he nodded as if i had spoken. 'yes,' he said, smiling more broadly, 'i see, martin, that you are in trouble. you should have taken my advice in better time. i told you that he would get the better of you.' ludwig, who had not seen him before he spoke, dropped the rope, and stood, stupefied, gazing at him. i cried out hoarsely that they were going to hang me. 'no, no, not as bad as that!' he said lightly, between jest and earnest. 'but i gave you fair warning, you know, martin. oh, he is----' waldgrave, waldgrave!' i panted, trying to get to him; but the men held me back. 'they will hang me! they will! it is no joke. in god's name, save me, save me! i saved you once, and----' 'chut, chut!' he replied easily. 'of course i will save you. i will go to the general and arrange it now. don't be afraid. my sweet cousin must not lose her steward. why, you are shaking like an aspen, man. but i told you, did i not? oh, he is the---- wait, fellow,' he continued to ludwig, 'until i come back. where is your master?' 'upstairs,' ludwig answered sullenly, an ugly gleam in his eyes. the waldgrave turned from me carelessly, and went towards the stairs, which were at the end of the hall. ludwig, as he did so, picked up the rope with a stealthy gesture. i read his mind, and called pitifully to the waldgrave to stop. 'they will hang me while you are away,' i cried. 'and he is not upstairs! they are lying to you. he is in the room on the left.' the waldgrave halted and came back, his handsome face troubled. ludwig, looking as if he would strike me, swore under his breath. 'upstairs, your excellency, upstairs!' he cried. 'you will find him there. why should i----' 'hush!' one of the other men said, and i felt his grasp on my arm relax. 'what is that, captain--that noise?' but ludwig was intent on the waldgrave. 'upstairs!' he continued to cry, waving his hand in that direction. 'i assure you, my lord----' 'steady!' the man who had cut him short before exclaimed. 'they are at the door, ludwig. listen, man, listen, or we shall be taken like wolves in a trap!' this time ludwig condescended to listen, scowling. a noise like that made by a rat gnawing at wood could be heard. my heart beat fast and faster. the man who had given the alarm had released my arm altogether. the other held me carelessly. with a yell which startled all, i burst suddenly from him and sprang past the waldgrave. bound as i was, i had the start and should have been on the stairs in another second, when, with a crash and a blinding glare, a shock, which loosened the very foundations of the house, flung me on my face. i lay a moment, gasping for breath, wondering where i was hurt. out of the darkness round me came a medley of groans and shrieks. the air was full of choking smoke, through which a red glare presently shone, and grew gradually brighter. i could see little, understand less of what was happening; but i heard shots and oaths, and once a rush of charging feet passed over me. after that, growing more sensible, i tried to rise, but a weight lay on my legs--my arms were still tied--and i sank again. i took the fancy then that the house was on fire and that i should be burned alive; but before i had more than tasted the horror of the thought, a crowd of men came round me, and rough hands plucked me up. 'here is another of them!' a voice cried. 'have him out! to the churchyard with him! the trees will have a fine crop!' 'halloa! he is tied up already!' a second chimed in. i gazed round stupidly, meeting everywhere vengeful looks and savage faces. a butcher, with his axe on his shoulder, hauled at me. 'bring him along!' he shouted. 'this way, friends! hurry him. to the churchyard!' my wits were still wool-gathering, and i should have gone quietly; but a man pushed his way to the front and looked at me. 'stop! stop!' he cried in a voice of authority. 'this is a friend. this is the man who got in by the roof. cut the ropes, will you? see how his hands are swollen. that is better. bring him out into the air. he will revive.' the speaker was herr krapp. in a moment a dozen friendly arms lifted me up and carried me through the crowd, and set me down in the little court. the cool night air swept my brow. i looked up and saw the stars shining in the quiet heaven, and i leant against the wall, sobbing like a woman. chapter xxx. the end of the day. ludwig was found dead in the hall, slain on the spot by the explosion of the petard which had driven in the door. his two comrades, less fortunate, were taken alive, and, with the hag who kept the house, were hanged within the hour on the elms in st. austin's churchyard. the waldgrave and neumann, both wounded, the former by the explosion and the latter in his desperate resistance, were captured and held for trial. but tzerclas, the chief of all, arch-tempter and arch-traitor, vanished in the confusion of the assault, and made his escape, no one knew how. some said that he went by way of a secret passage known only to himself; some, that he had a compact with the devil, and vanished by his aid; some, that he had friends in the crowd who sheltered him. for my part, i set down his disappearance to his own cool wits and iron nerves, and asked no further explanation. for an hour the little dark court behind the ill-omened house seethed with a furious mob. no sooner were one party satisfied than another swept in with links and torches and ransacked the house, tore down the panels, groped through the cellars, and probed the chimneys; all with so much rage, and with gestures so wild and extravagant, that an indifferent spectator might have thought them mad. nor were those who did these things of the lowest class; on the contrary, they were mostly burghers and traders, solid townsfolk and their apprentices, men who, with wives and daughters and sweethearts, could not sleep at night for thoughts of storm and sack, and in whom the bare idea that they had amongst them wretches ready to open the gates, was enough to kindle every fierce and cruel passion. i stood for a time unnoticed, gazing at the scene in a kind of stupor, which the noise and tumult aggravated. little by little, however, the cool air did its work; memory and reason began to return, and, with anxiety awaking in my breast, i looked round for herr krapp. presently i saw him coming towards me with a leather flask in his hand. 'drink some of this,' he said, looking at me keenly. 'why so wild, man?' 'the girl?' i stammered. i had not spoken before since my release, and my voice sounded strange and unnatural. 'she is safe,' he answered, nodding kindly. 'i was at my window when she swung herself on to the roof by the rope which you left hanging. donner! you may be proud of her! but she was distraught, or she would not have tried such a feat. she must inevitably have fallen if i had not seen her. i called out to her to stand still and hold fast; and my son, who had come upstairs, ran down for a twelve-foot pike. we thrust that out to her, and, holding it, she tottered along the pike to my window, where i caught her skirts, and we dragged her in in a moment.' i shuddered, remembering how i had suffered, hanging above the yawning street. 'i suppose that it was she who warned you and sent you here?' i said. 'no,' he answered. 'this house had been watched for two days, though i did not tell you so. we had been suspicious of it for a week or more, or i should not have helped you into a neighbour's house as i did. however, all is well that ends well; and though we have not got that bloodthirsty villain to hang, we have stopped his plans for this time.' he was just proposing that, if i now felt able, i should return to my lady's, when a rush of people from the house almost carried me off my feet. in a moment we were pushed aside and squeezed against the wall. a hoarse yell, like the cry of a wild beast, rose from the crowd, a hundred hands were brandished in the air, weapons appeared as if by magic. the glare of torches, falling on the raging sea of men, picked out here and there a scared face, a wandering eye; but for the most part the mob seemed to feel only one passion--the thirst for blood. 'what is it?' i shouted in herr krapp's ear. 'the prisoners,' he answered. 'they are bringing them out. your friend the waldgrave, and the other. they will need a guard.' and truly it was a grim thing to see men make at them, striking over the shoulders of the guard, leaping at them wolf-like, with burning eyes and gnashing teeth, striving to tear them with naked hands. down the narrow passage to the churchyard the soldiers had an easy task; but in the open graveyard, whither herr krapp and i followed slowly, the party were flung this way and that, and tossed to and fro--though they were strong men, armed, and numbered three or four score--like a cork floating on rapids. their way lay through the ritter strasse, and i went with them so far. though it was midnight, the town, easily roused from its feverish sleep, was up and waking. scared faces looked from windows, from eaves, from the very roofs. men who had snatched up their arms and left their clothes peered from doorways. the roar of the mob, as it swayed through narrow ways, rose and fell by turns, now loud as the booming of cavern-waves, now so low that it left the air quivering. when it died away at last towards the burg, i took leave of herr krapp, and hurried to my lady's, passing the threshold in a tumult of memories, of emotions, and thankfulness. i could fancy that i had lived an age since i last crossed it--eight hours before. the house, like every other house, was up. herr krapp had sent the news of my escape before me, and i looked forward with a tremulous, foolish expectation that was not far from tears to the first words two women would say to me. but though men and women met me with hearty greetings on the threshold, on the stairs, on the landing, and steve clapped me on the back until i coughed again, _they_ did not appear. it was after midnight, but the house was still lighted as if the sun had just set, and i went up to the long parlour that looked on the street. my heart beat, and my face grew hot as i entered; but i might have spared myself. there was only fraulein max in the room. she came towards me, blinking. 'so sancho panza has turned knight-errant,' she said with a sneer, 'as well as governor?' i did not understand her, and i asked gently where my lady was. she laughed in her gibing way. 'you beg for a stone and expect bread,' she said. 'you care no more where my lady is than where i am! you mean, where is your romanist chit, with her white face and wheedling ways.' i saw that she was bursting with spite; that marie's return and the stir made about it had been too much for her small, jealous nature, and i was not for answering her. she was out of favour; let her spit, her venom would be gone the sooner. but she had not done yet. 'of course she has had some wonderful adventures!' she continued, her face working with malice and ill-nature. 'and we are all to admire her. but to a lover does she not seem somewhat _blandula, vagula?_ here to-day and gone to-morrow. _dolus latet in generalibus_, the countess says'--and here the dutch girl mimicked my lady, her eyes gleaming with scorn. 'but _dolus latet in virginibus_, too, master martin, as you will find some day! oh, a great escape, a heroic escape,--but from her friends!' 'if you mean to infer, fraulein----' i said hotly. 'oh, i infer nothing. i leave you to do that!' she replied, smirking. 'but pigs go back to the dirt, i read. you know where you found her and the brat!' 'i know where we should all be to-day,' i cried, trembling with indignation, 'if it had not been for her!' 'perhaps not worse off than we are now,' she snapped. 'however, keep your eyes shut, if it pleases you.' my raised voice had reached the countess's chamber, and as fraulein max, giggling spitefully, went out through one door the other opened and stood open. my anger melted away. i stood trembling, and looking, and waiting. they came in together, my lady with her arm round marie, the two women i loved best in the world. i have heard it said that evil runs to evil as drops of water to one another. but the saying is equally true of good. little had i thought, a few weeks back, that my lady would come to treat the outcast girl from klink's as a friend; nor i believe were there ever two people less alike, and yet both good, than these two. but that one quality--which is so quick to see its face mirrored in another's heart--had brought them close together, and made each to recognise the other; so that, as they came in to me, there was not a line of my lady's figure, not a curve of her head, not a glance of her proud eyes, that was not in sympathy with the girl who clung to her--romanist stranger, low born as she was. i looked and worshipped, and would have changed nothing. i found the dignity of the one as beautiful as the dependence of the other. not a word was spoken. i had wondered what they would say to me--and they said nothing. but my lady put her into my arms, and she clung to me, hiding her face. the countess laughed, yet there were tears in her voice. 'be happy,' she said. 'child, from the day you were lost he never forgave me. martin, see where the rope has cut her wrist. she did it to save you.' 'and myself!' marie whispered on my breast. 'no!' my lady said. 'i will not have it so! you will spoil both him and my love-story. _per tecta, per terram_, you have sought one another. you have gone down _sub orco_. you have bought one another back from death, as alcestis bought her husband admetus. at the first it was a gold chain that linked you together, soon----' i felt marie start in my arms. she freed herself gently, and looked at my lady with trouble in her eyes. 'oh,' she said, 'i had forgotten!' 'what?' the countess said. 'what have you forgotten?' 'the child!' marie replied, clasping her hands. 'i should have told you before!' 'you have had no time to tell us much!' my lady answered smiling. 'and you are trembling like an aspen now. sit down, girl. sit down at once!' she continued imperatively. 'or, no! you shall go to your bed, and we will hear it in the morning.' but marie seemed so much distressed by this that my lady did not insist; and in a few minutes the girl had told us a tale so remarkable that consideration of her fatigue was swallowed up in wonder. 'it was the night i was lost,' she said; 'the night when the alarm was given on the hill, and we rode down it. i clung to my saddle--it was all i could do--and remember only a dreadful shock, from which i recovered to find myself lying in the road, shaken and bruised. fear of those whom i believed to be behind us was still in my mind, and i rose, giddy and confused, my one thought to get off the road. as i staggered towards the bank, however, i stumbled over something. to my horror i found that it was a woman. she was dead or senseless, but she had a child in her arms; it cried as i felt her face. i dared not stay, but, on the impulse of the moment--i could not move the woman, and i expected our pursuers to ride down the hill each instant--i snatched the child up and ran into the brushwood. after that i only remember stumbling blindly on through bog and fern, often falling in my haste, but always rising and pushing on. i heard cries behind me, but they only spurred me to greater exertions. at last i reached a little wood, and there, unable to go farther, i sank down, exhausted, and, i suppose, lost my senses, for i awoke, chilled and aching, in the first grey dawn. the leaves were black overhead, but the white birch trunks round me glimmered like pale ghosts. something stirred in my arms. i looked down, and saw the face of my child--the child i found in the wood by vach.' 'what!' the countess cried, rising and staring at her. 'impossible! your wits were straying, girl. it was some other child.' but marie shook her head gently. 'no, my lady,' she said. 'it was my child.' 'count leuchtenstein's?' 'yes, if the child i found was his.' 'but how--did it come where you found it?' the countess asked. 'i think that the woman whom i left in the road was the poor creature who used to beg at our house in the camp,' marie answered, hesitating somewhat--'the wife of the man whom general tzerclas hung, my lady. i saw her face by a glimmer of light only, and, at the moment, i thought nothing. afterwards it flashed across me that she was that woman. if so, i think that she stole the child to avenge herself. she thought that we were general tzerclas' friends.' 'but then where is the child?' my lady exclaimed, her eyes shining. i was excited myself; but the delight, the pleasure which i saw in her face took me by surprise. i stared at her, thinking that i had never seen her look so beautiful. then, as marie answered, her face fell. 'i do not know,' my girl said. 'after a time i found my way back to the road, but i had scarcely set foot on it when general tzerclas' troopers surprised me. i gave myself up for lost; i thought that he would kill me. but he only gibed at me, until i almost died of fear, and then he bade one of his men take me up behind him. they carried me with them to the camp outside this city, and three days ago brought me in and shut me up in that house.' 'but the child?' my lady cried. 'what of it?' 'he took it from me,' marie said. 'i have never seen it since, but i think that he has it in the camp.' 'does he know whose child it is?' 'i told him,' marie replied. 'otherwise they might have let it die on the road. it was a burden to them.' the countess shuddered, but in a moment recovered herself. '"while there is life there is hope,"' she said. 'martin, here is more work for you. we will leave no stone unturned. count leuchtenstein must know, of course, but i will tell him myself. if we could get the child back and hand it safe and sound to its father, it would be---- perhaps the waldgrave may be able to help us?' 'i think that he will need all his wits to help himself,' i said bluntly. 'why?' my lady questioned, looking at me in wonder. 'why?' i cried in astonishment. 'have you heard nothing about him, my lady?' 'nothing,' she said. 'not that he was taken to-night, in tzerclas' company,' i answered, 'and is a prisoner at this moment at the burg, charged, along with the villain neumann, with a plot to admit the enemy into the city?' my lady sat down, her face pale, her aspect changed, as the countryside changes when the sun goes down. 'he was there' she muttered--'with tzerclas?' i nodded. 'the waldgrave rupert--my cousin?' she murmured, as if the thing passed the bounds of reason. 'yes, my lady,' i said, as gently as i could. 'but he is mad. i am assured that he is mad. he has been mad for weeks past. we know it. we have known it. besides, he knew nothing, i am sure, of tzerclas' plans.' 'but--he was _there!_' she cried. 'he was one of those two men they carried by? one of those!' 'yes,' i said. she sat for a moment stricken and silent, the ghost of herself. then, in a voice little above a whisper, she asked what they would do to him. i shrugged my shoulders. to be candid, i had not given the waldgrave much thought, though in a way he had saved my life. now, the longer i considered the matter, the less room for comfort i found. certainly he was mad. we knew him to be mad. but how were we to persuade others? for weeks his bodily health had been good; he had carried himself indoors and out-of-doors like a sane man; he had done duty in the trenches, and mixed, though grudgingly, with his fellows, and gone about the ordinary business of life. how, in the face of all this, could we prove him mad, or make his judges, stern men, fighting with their backs to the wall, see the man as we saw him? 'i suppose that there will be a trial?' my lady said at last, breaking the silence. i told her yes--at once. 'the town is in a frenzy of rage,' i continued. 'the guards had a hard task to save them to-night. perhaps prince bernard of weimar----' 'don't count on him,' my lady answered. 'he is as hard as he is gallant. he would hang his brother if he thought him guilty of such a thing as this. no; our only hope is in'--she hesitated an instant, and then ended the sentence abruptly--'count leuchtenstein. you must go to him, martin, at seven, or as soon after as you can catch him. he is a just man, and he has watched the waldgrave and noticed him to be odd. the court will hear him. if not, i know no better plan.' nor did i, and i said i would go; and shortly afterwards i took my leave. but as i crept to my bed at last, the clocks striking two, and my head athrob with excitement and gratitude, i wondered what was in my lady's mind. remembering the waldgrave's gallant presence and manly grace, recalling his hopes, his courage, and his overweening confidence, as displayed in those last days at heritzburg, i could feel no surprise that so sad a downfall touched her heart. but--was that all? once i had deemed him the man to win her. then i had seen good cause to think otherwise. now again i began to fancy that his mishaps might be crowned with a happiness which fortune had denied to him in his days of success. chapter xxxi. the trial. late as it was when i fell asleep--for these thoughts long kept me waking--i was up and on my way to count leuchtenstein's before the bells rang seven. it was the th of august, and the sun, already high, flashed light from a hundred oriels and casements. below, in the streets, it sparkled on pikeheads and steel caps; above, it glittered on vane and weather-cock; it burnished old bells hung high in air, and decked the waking city with a hundred points of splendour. everywhere the cool brightness of early morning met the eye, and spoke of things i could not see--the dew on forest leaves, the werra where it shoals among the stones. but as i went i saw things that belied the sunshine, things to which i could not shut my eyes. i met men whose meagre forms and shrunken cheeks made a shadow round them; and others, whose hungry vulture eyes, as they prowled in the kennel for garbage, seemed to belong to belated night-birds rather than to creatures of the day. wan, pinched women, with white-faced children, signs of the deeper distress that lay hidden away in courts and alleys, shuffled along beside the houses; while the common crowd, on whose features famine had not yet laid its hand, wore a stern pre-occupied look, as if the gaunt spectre stood always before their eyes--visible, and no long way off. in the excitement of the last few days i had failed to note these things or their increase; i had gone about my business thinking of little else, seeing nothing beyond it. now my eyes were rudely opened, and i recognised with a kind of shock the progress which dearth and disease were making, and had made, in the city. north and south and east and west of me, in endless multitude, the roofs and spires of nuremberg rose splendid and sparkling in the sunshine. north and south, and east and west, in city and lager lay scores of thousands of armed men, tens of thousands of horses--a host that might fitly be called invincible; and all come together in its defence. but, in corners, as i went along i heard men whisper that duke bernard's convoy had been cut off, that the saxon forage had not come in, that the croats were gripping the bamberg road, that a thousand waggons of corn had reached the imperial army. and perforce i remembered that an army must not only fight but eat. the soldiers must be fed, the city must be fed. i began to see that if wallenstein, secure in his impregnable position on the hills, declined still to move or fight, the time would come when the swedish king must choose between two courses, and either attack the enemy on the alta veste against all odds of position, or march away and leave the city to its fate. i ceased to wonder that care sat on men's faces, and seemed to be a feature of the streets. the passion which the mob had displayed in the night, no longer surprised me. the hungry man is no better than a brute. opposite count leuchtenstein's lodgings they were quelling a riot at a bakehouse, and the wolfish cries and screams rang in my ears long after i had turned into the house. the count had been on night service, and was newly risen, and not yet dressed, but his servant consented to admit me. i passed on the stairs a grey-haired sergeant, scarred, stiff, and belted, who was waiting with a bundle of lists and reports. in the ante-chamber two or three gentlemen in buff coats, who talked in low, earnest voices and eyed me curiously as i passed, sat at breakfast. i noted the order and stillness which prevailed everywhere in the house, and nowhere more than in the count's chamber; where i found him dressing before a plain table, on which a small, fat bible had the place of a pouncet-box, and a pair of silver-mounted pistols figured instead of a scent-case. not that the appointments of the room were mean. on a little stand beside the bible was the chain of gold walnuts which i had good cause to remember; and this was balanced on the other side by a miniature of a beautiful woman, set in gold and surmounted by a coat-of-arms. he was vigorously brushing his grey hair and moustachios when i entered, and the air, which the open window freely admitted, lent a brightness to his eyes and a freshness to his complexion that took off ten of his years. he betrayed some surprise at seeing me so early; but he received me with good nature, congratulated me on my adventure, the main facts of which had reached him, and in the same breath lamented tzerclas' escape. 'but we shall have the fox one of these days,' he continued. 'he is a clever scoundrel, and thinks to be a wallenstein. but the world has only space for one monster at a time, friend steward. and to be anything lower than wallenstein, whom i take to be unique,--to be a pappenheim, for instance,--a man must have a heart as well as a head, or men will not follow him. however, you did not come to me to discuss tzerclas,' he continued genially. 'what is your errand, my friend?' 'to ask your excellency's influence on behalf of the waldgrave rupert.' he paused with his brushes suspended. 'on your own account?' he asked; and he looked at me with sudden keenness. 'no, my lord,' i answered. 'my lady sent me. she would have come herself, but the hour was early; and she feared to let the matter stand, lest summary measures should be taken against him.' 'it is likely very summary measures will be taken!' he answered dryly, and with a sensible change in his manner; his voice seemed to grow harsher, his features more rigid. 'but why,' he continued, looking at me again, 'does not the countess leave him in prince bernard's hands? he is his near kinsman.' 'she fears, my lord, that prince bernard may not----' 'be inclined to help him?' the count said. 'well, and i think that that is very likely, and i am not surprised. see you how the matter stands? this young gallant should have been, since his arrival here, foremost in every skirmish; he should have spent his days in the saddle, and his nights in his cloak, and been the first to mount and the last to leave the works. instead of that, he has shown himself lukewarm throughout, master steward. he has done no credit to his friends or his commission; he has done everything to lend colour to this charge; and, by my faith, i do not know what can be done for him--nor that it behoves us to do anything.' 'but he is not guilty of this, if your excellency pleases,' i said boldly. the count's manner of speaking of him was hard and so nearly hostile that my choler rose a little. 'he has not done his duty!' 'because he has not been himself,' i replied. 'well, we have enough to do in these evil days to protect those who are!' he answered sharply. 'besides, this matter is a city matter. it is in the citizens' hands, and i do not know what we have to do with it. look now,' he continued, almost querulously, 'it is an invidious thing to meddle with them. we of the army are risking our lives and no more, but our hosts are risking all--wives and daughters, sweethearts, and children, and homes! and i say it is an awkward thing meddling with them. for neumann the sooner they hang the dog the better; and for this young spark i can think of nothing that he has done that binds us to go out of our way to save him. marienbad! what brought him into that den of thieves?' 'my lord,' i said, taken aback by his severity--'since he received a wound some months back he has not been himself.' 'he has been sufficiently himself to hang about a woman's apron-strings,' the count answered with a flash of querulous contempt, 'instead of doing his duty. however, what you say is true. i have seen it myself. but, again, why does not your lady leave prince bernard to settle the matter?' 'she fears that he may not be sufficiently interested.' he turned away abruptly; unless i was mistaken, he winced. and in a moment a light broke in upon me. the peevishness and irritability with which he had received the first mention of the waldgrave's name had puzzled me. i had not expected such a display in a man of his grave, equable nature, of his high station, his great name. i had given him credit for a less churlish spirit and a judgment more evenly balanced. and i had felt surprised and disappointed. now, on a sudden, i saw light--in an unexpected quarter. for a moment i could have laughed both at myself and at him. the man was jealous; jealous, at his age and with his grey hairs! at the first blush of the thing i could have laughed, the feeling and the passion it implied seemed alike so preposterous. there on the table before me stood the miniature of his first wife, and his child's necklace. and the man himself was old enough to be my lady's father. what if he was tall and strong; and still vigorous though grey-haired; and a man of great name. when i thought of the waldgrave--of his splendid youth and gallant presence, his gracious head and sunny smile, and pictured this staid, sober man beside him, i could have found it in my heart to laugh. while i stood, busy with these thoughts, the count walked the length of the room more than once with his head bent and his shoulder turned to me. at length he stopped and spoke; nor could my sharpened ear now detect anything unusual in his voice. 'very well,' he said, his tone one of half-peevish resignation, 'you have done your errand. i think i understand, and you may tell your mistress--i will do what i can. the king of sweden will doubtless remit the matter to the citizens, and there will be some sort of a hearing to-day. i will be at it. but there is a stiff spirit abroad, and men are in an ugly mood--and i promise nothing. but i will do my best. now go, my friend. i have business.' with that he dismissed me in a manner so much like his usual manner that i wondered whether i had deceived myself. and i finally left the room in a haze of uncertainty. however, i had succeeded in the object of my visit; that was something. he had taken care to guard his promise, but i did not doubt that he would perform it. for there are men whose lightest word is weightier than another's bond; and i took it, i scarcely know why, that the count belonged to these. nevertheless, i saw things, as i went through the streets, that fed my doubts. while famine menaced the poorer people, the richer held a sack, with all the horrors which magdeburg had suffered, in equal dread. the discovery of neumann's plot had taught them how small a matter might expose them to that extremity; and as i went along i saw scarcely, a burgher whose face was not sternly set, no magistrate whose brow was not dark with purpose. consequently, when i attended my lady to the rath-haus at two o'clock, the hour fixed for the inquiry, i was not surprised to find these signs even more conspicuous. the streets were thronged, and ugly looks and suspicious glances met us on all sides, merely because it was known that the waldgrave had been much at my lady's house. we were made to feel that nuremberg was a free city, and that we were no more than its guests. it is true, no one insulted us; but the crowd which filled the open space before the town-house eyed us with so little favour that i was glad to think that the magistrates with all their independence must still be guided by the sword, and that the sword was the king of sweden's. my lady, i saw, shared my apprehensions. but she came of a stock not easily daunted, and would as soon have dreamed of putting out one of her eyes because it displeased a chance acquaintance, as of deserting a friend because the nurembergers frowned upon him. her eyes sparkled and her colour rose as we proceeded; the ominous silence which greeted us only stiffened her carriage. by the time we reached the rath-haus i knew not whether to fear more from her indiscretion, or hope more from her courage. the court sat in private, but orders that we should be admitted had been given; and after a brief delay we were ushered into the hall of audience--a lofty, panelled chamber, carved and fretted, having six deep bays, and in each a window of stained glass. a number of scutcheons and banners depended from the roof; at one end a huge double eagle wearing the imperial crown pranced in all the pomp of gold and tinctures; and behind the court, which consisted of the chief magistrate and four colleagues, the sword of justice was displayed. but that which struck me far more than these things, was the stillness that prevailed; which was such that, though there were a dozen persons present when we entered, the creaking of our boots as we walked up the floor, and the booming of distant cannon, seemed to be equally audible. the chief magistrate rose and received my lady with due ceremony, ordering a chair to be placed for her, and requesting her to be seated at the end of the dais-table, behind which he sat. i took my stand at a respectful distance behind her; and so far we had nothing to complain of; but i felt my spirits sensibly dashed both by the stillness and the sombre and almost forbidding faces of the five judges. two or three attendants stood by the doors, but neither the king of sweden nor any of his officers were present. i looked in vain for count leuchtenstein; i could see nothing of him or of the prisoners. the solemn air of the room, the silence, and the privacy of the proceedings, all contributed to chill me. i could fancy myself before a court of inquisitors, a vehm-gericht, or that famous council of ten which sits, i have heard, at venice; but for any of the common circumstances of such tribunals as are usual in germany, i could not find them. i think that my lady was somewhat taken aback too; but she did not betray it. after courteously thanking the council for granting her an audience, she explained that her object in seeking it was to state certain facts on behalf of the waldgrave rupert of weimar, her kinsman, and to offer the evidence of her steward, a person of respectability. 'we are quite willing to hear your excellency,' the chief magistrate answered in a grave, dry voice. 'but perhaps you will first inform us to what these facts tend? it may shorten the inquiry.' 'some weeks ago,' my lady answered with dignity, 'the waldgrave rupert was wounded in the head. from that time he has not been himself.' 'does your excellency mean that he is not aware of his actions?' 'no,' my lady answered quietly. 'i do not go as far as that.'' 'or that he is not aware in what company he is?' the magistrate persisted. 'oh no.' 'or that he is ignorant at any time where he is?' 'no, but----' 'one moment!' the chief magistrate stopped her with a courteous gesture. 'pardon me. in an instant, your excellency--to whom i assure you that the court are obliged, since we desire only to do justice--will see to what my questions lead. i crave leave to put one more, and then to put the same question to your steward. it is this: do you admit, countess, that the waldgrave rupert was last night in the house with tzerclas, neumann, and the other persons inculpated?' 'certainly,' my lady answered. 'i am so informed. i did not know that that was in question,' she added, looking round with a puzzled air. 'and you, my friend?' the chief magistrate fixed me with his small, keen eyes. 'but first, what is your name?' 'martin schwartz.' 'yes, i remember. the man who was saved from the villains. we could have no better evidence. what do you say, then? 'was the waldgrave rupert last night in this house--the house in question?' 'i saw him in the house,' i answered warily. 'in the hall. but he was not in the room with tzerclas and neumann--the room in which i saw the maps and plans.' 'a fair answer,' the burgomaster replied, nodding his head, 'and your evidence might avail the accused. but the fact is--it is to this point we desire to call your excellency's attention,' he continued, turning with a dusty smile to my lady--'the waldgrave steadily denies that he was in the house at all.' 'he denies that he was there?' my lady said. 'but was he not arrested in the house?' 'yes,' the chief magistrate answered dryly, 'he was.' and he looked at us in silence. 'but--what does he say?' my lady asked faintly. 'he affects to be ignorant of everything that has occurred in connection with the house. he pretends that he does not know how he comes to be in custody, that he does not know many things that have lately occurred. for instance, three days ago,' the burgomaster continued with a chill smile,' i had the honour of meeting him at the king of sweden's quarters and talking with him. he says to-day that i am a stranger to him, that we did not meet, that we did not talk, and that he does not know where the king of sweden's quarters are.' 'then,' my lady said sorrowfully, 'he is worse than he was. he is now quite mad.' 'i am afraid not,' the magistrate replied, shaking his head gravely. 'he is sane enough on other points. only he will answer no questions that relate to this conspiracy, or to his guilt.' 'he is not guilty,' the countess cried impetuously. 'believe me, however strangely he talks, he is incapable of such treachery!' 'your excellency forgets--that he was in this house!' 'but with no evil intentions!' 'yet denies that he was there!' the burgomaster concluded gravely. that silenced my lady, and she sat rolling her kerchief in her hands. against the five impassive faces that confronted her, the ten inscrutable eyes that watched her; above all, against this strange, this inexplicable denial, she could do nothing! at last-- 'will you hear my steward?' she asked--in despair, i think. 'certainly,' the burgomaster answered. 'we wish to do so.' on that i told them all i knew; in what terms i had heard neumann and general tzerclas refer to the waldgrave; how unexpected had been his appearance in the hall; how this interference had saved my life; and, finally, my own conviction that he was not privy to tzerclas' designs. the court heard me with attention; the burgomaster put a few questions, and i answered them. then, afraid to stop--for their faces showed no relenting--i began to repeat what i had said before. but now the court remained silent; i stumbled, stammered, finally sank into silence myself. the air of the place froze me; i seemed to be talking to statues. the countess was the first to break the spell. 'well?' she cried, her voice tremulous, yet defiant. the burgomaster consulted his colleagues, and for the first time something of animation appeared in their faces. but it lasted an instant only. then the others sat back in their chairs, and he turned to my lady. 'we are obliged to your excellency,' he said gravely and formally. 'and to your servant. but the court sees no reason to change its decision.' 'and that is?' the countess's voice was husky. she knew what was coming. 'that both prisoners suffer together.' for an instant i feared that my lady would do something unbecoming her dignity, and either break into womanish sobs and lamentations, or stoop to threats and insistence that must be equally unavailing. but she had learned in command the man's lesson of control; and never had i seen her more equal to herself. i knew that her heart was bounding wildly; that her breast was heaving with indignation, pity, horror; that she saw, as i saw, the fair head for which she pleaded, rolling in the dust. but with all--she controlled herself. she rose stiffly from her seat. 'i am obliged to you for your patience, sir,' she said, trembling but composed. 'i had expected one to aid me in my prayer, who is not here. and i can say no more. on his head be it. only--i trust that you may never plead with as good a cause--and be refused.' they rose and stood while she turned from them; and the two court ushers with their wands went before her as she walked down the hall. the silence, the formality, the creaking shoes, the very gules and purpure that lay in pools on the floor--i think that they stifled her as they stifled me; for when she reached the open air at last and i saw her face, i saw that she was white to the lips. but she bore herself bravely; the surly crowd, that filled the market square and hailed our appearance with a harsh murmur, grew silent under her scornful eye, and partly out of respect, partly out of complaisance, because they now felt sure of their victim, doffed their caps to her and made room for us to pass. every moment i expected her to break down: to weep or cover her face. but she passed through all proudly, and walked, unfaltering, back to our lodging. there on the threshold she did pause at last, just when i wished her to go on. she stood and turned her head, listening. [illustration: but with all--she controlled herself. she rose stiffly from her seat.] 'what is that?' she said. 'cannon,' i answered hastily. 'in the trenches, my lady.' 'no,' she said quietly. 'it is shouting. they have read the sentence.' she said no more, not another word; and went in quietly and upstairs to her room. but i wondered and feared. such composure as this seemed to be unnatural, almost cruel. i could not think of the waldgrave myself without a lump coming in my throat. i could not face the sunshine. and steve and the men, when they heard, were no better. we stood inside the doorway in a little knot, and looked at one another mournfully. a man who passed--and did not know the house or who we were--stopped to tell us that the sentence would be carried out at sunset; and, pleased to have given us the news, went whistling down the stale, sunny street. steve growled out an oath. 'who are these people,' he said savagely, 'that they should say my lady nay? when the countess stoops to ask a life--himmel!--is she not to have it?' 'not here,' i said, shaking my head. 'and why not?' 'because we are not at heritzburg now,' i answered sadly. 'but--are we nobody here?' he growled in a rage. 'are we going to sit still and let them kill my lady's own cousin?' i shrugged my shoulders. 'we have done all we can,' i said. 'but there is some one can say nay to these curs!' he cried. and he spat contemptuously into the street. he had a countryman's scorn of townsfolk. 'why don't we take the law into our own hands, master martin?' 'it is likely,' i said. 'one against ten thousand! and for the matter of that, if the people are angry, it is not without cause. did you see the man under the archway?' steve nodded. 'dead,' he muttered. 'starved,' i said. 'he was a cripple. first the cripples. then the sound men. life is cheap here.' steve swore another oath. 'those are curs. but our man--why don't we go to the king of sweden? i suppose he is a sort of cousin to my lady?' 'we have as good as gone to him,' i answered. at another time i might have smiled at steve's notion of my lady's importance. 'we have been to one equally able to help us. and he has done us no good. and for the matter of that, there is not time to go to the camp and back.' steve began to fume and fret. the minutes went like lead. we were all miserable together. outside, the kennel simmered in the sun, the low rumble of the cannon filled the air. i hated nuremberg, the streets, the people, the heat. i wished that i had never seen a stone of it. presently one of the women came down stairs to us. 'do you know if there has been any fighting in the trenches to-day?' she asked. 'nothing to speak of,' i answered. 'as far as i have heard. why?' 'the countess wishes to know,' she said. 'you have not heard of any one being killed?' 'no.' 'nor wounded?' 'no.' she nodded and turned away. i called after her to know the reason of her questions, but she flitted upstairs without giving me an answer, and left us looking at one another. in a second, however, she was down again. 'my lady will see no one,' she said, with a face of mystery. 'you understand, master martin? but--if any come of importance, you can take her will.' i nodded. the woman cast a lingering look into the street and went upstairs again. chapter xxxii. a poor guerdon. i had slept scantily the night before, and the excitement of the last twenty-four hours had worn me out. i was grieved for the gallant life so swiftly ebbing, and miserable on my lady's account; but sorrow of this kind is a sleepy thing, and the day was hot. i did not feel about the waldgrave as i had about marie; and gradually my head nodded, and nodded again, until i fell fast asleep, on the seat within the door. a man's voice, clear and penetrating, awoke me. 'let him be,' it said. 'hark you, fellow, let him be. he was up last night; i will announce myself.' i was drowsy and understood only half of what i heard; and i should have taken the speaker at his word, and turning over dropped off again, if steve had not kicked me and brought me to my feet with a cry of pain. i stood an instant, bewildered, dazzled by the sunlight, nursing my ankle in my hand. then i made out where i was, and saw through the arch of the entrance count leuchtenstein dismounting in the street. as i looked, he threw the reins to a trooper who accompanied him, and turned to come in. 'ah, my friend,' he said, nodding pleasantly, 'you are awake. i will see your mistress.' i was not quite myself, and his presence took me aback. i stood looking at him awkwardly. 'if your excellency will wait a moment,' i faltered at last, 'i will take her pleasure.' he glanced at me a moment, as if surprised. then he laughed. 'go,' he said. 'i am not often kept waiting.' i was glad to get away, and i ran upstairs; and knocking hurriedly at the parlour door, went in. my lady, pale and frowning, with a little book in her hand, got up hastily--from her knees, i thought. marie wort, with tears on her cheeks, and fraulein max, looking scared, stood behind her. the countess looked at me, her eyes flashing. 'what is it?' she asked sharply. 'count leuchtenstein is below,' i said. 'well?' 'he wishes to see your excellency.' 'did i not say that i would see no one?' 'but count leuchtenstein?' she laughed a shrill laugh full of pain--a laugh that had something hysterical in it. 'you thought that i would see _him?_' she cried. 'him, i suppose, of all people? go down, fool, and tell him that even here, in this poor house, my doors are open to my friends and to them only! not to those who profess much and do nothing! or to those who bark and do not bite! count leuchtenstein? pah, tell him---- silence, woman!' this to marie, who would have interrupted her. 'tell him what i have told you, man, word for word. or no'--and she caught herself up with a mocking smile, such as i had never seen on her face before. 'tell him this instead--that the countess rotha is engaged with the waldgrave rupert, and wants no other company! yes, tell him that--it will bite home, if he has a conscience! he might have saved him, and he would not! now, when i would pray, which is all women can do, he comes here! oh, i am sick! i am sick!' i saw that she was almost beside herself with grief; and i stood irresolute, my heart aching for her. what i dared not do, marie did. she sprang forward, and seizing the countess's hand, knelt beside her, covering it with kisses. 'oh, my lady!' she cried through her tears. 'don't be so hard. see him. see him. even at this last moment.' with an inarticulate cry the countess flung her off so forcibly that the girl fell to the ground. 'be silent!' my lady cried, her eyes on fire. 'or go to your prayers, wench. to your prayers! and do you begone! begone, and on your peril give my message, word for word!' i saw nothing for it but to obey; and i went down full of dismay. i could understand my lady's grief, and that i had come upon her at an inopportune moment. but the self-control which she had exhibited before the court rendered the violence of her rage now the more surprising. i had never seen her in this mood, and her hardness shocked me. i felt myself equally bewildered and grieved. i found count leuchtenstein waiting on the step, with his face to the street. he turned as i descended. 'well?' he said, smiling. 'am i to go up, my friend?' i saw that he had not the slightest doubt of my answer, and his cheerfulness kindled a sort of resentment in my breast. he seemed to be so well content, so certain of his reception, so calm and strong--and, at this very moment--for the sunshine had left the street and was creeping up the tiles--they might be leading out the waldgrave! i had liked my lady's message very little when she gave it to me; now i rejoiced that i could sting him with it. 'my lady is not very well,' i said. 'the sentence on the waldgrave has upset her.' he smiled. 'but she will receive me?' he said. 'craving your excellency's indulgence, i do not think that she will receive any one.' 'you told her that i was here?' 'yes, your excellency. and she said----' his face fell. 'tut! tut!' he exclaimed. 'but i come on purpose to---- what did she say, man?' the smile was gone from his lips, but i caught it lurking in his eyes; and it hardened me to do her bidding. 'i was to tell your excellency that she could not receive you,' i said, 'that she was engaged with the waldgrave.' he started and stared at me, his expression slowly passing from amazement to anger. 'what!' he exclaimed at last, in a cutting tone. 'already?' and his lip curled with a kind of disgust. 'you have given me the message exactly, have you?' 'yes, your excellency,' i said, quailing a little. but servants know when to be stupid, and i affected stupidity, fixing my eyes on his breast and pretending to see nothing. he turned, and for a moment i thought that he was going without a word. then on the steps he turned again. 'you have heard the news, then?' he said sourly. he had already regained his self-control. 'yes, my lord.' 'ah! well, you lose no time in your house,' he replied grimly. 'call my horse!' i called the man, who had wandered a little way up the street, and he brought it. as i held the count's stirrup for him to mount, i noticed how heavily he climbed to his saddle, and that he settled himself into it with a sigh; but the next moment he laughed, as at himself. i stood back expecting him to say something more, or to leave some message, but he did not even look at me again; he touched his horse with the spur, and walked away steadily. i stood and watched him until he reached the end of the street--until he turned the corner and disappeared. even then i still stood looking after him, partly sorry and partly puzzled, for quite a long time. it was only when i turned to go in that i missed steve and the men, and began to wonder what had become of them. i had left them with the count at the door--they were gone now. i looked up and down, i could see them nowhere. i went in and asked the women; but they were not with them. the sunset gun had just gone off, and one of the girls was crying hysterically, while the others sat round her, white and frightened. this did not cheer me, nor enliven the house. i came out again, vowing vengeance on the truants; and there in the entrance, facing me, standing where the count had stood a few minutes before, i saw the last man i looked to see! i gasped and gave back a step. the sun was gone, the evening light was behind the man, and his face was in the shadow. his figure showed dark against the street. 'ach gott!' i cried, and stood still, stricken. it was the waldgrave! 'martin!' he said. i gave back another step. the street was quiet, the house like the grave. for a moment the figure did not move, but stood there gazing at me. then-- 'why, martin!' he cried. 'don't you know me?' then, not until then, i did--for a man and not a ghost; and i caught his hand with a cry of joy. 'welcome, my lord, welcome!' i said, grown hot all over. 'thank god that you have escaped!' 'yes,' he said, and his tone was his own old tone, 'thank god; him first, and then my friends. steve and ernst i have seen already; they heard the news from the count's man, and came to meet me, and i have sent them on an errand, by your leave. and now, where is my cousin?' 'above,' i answered. 'but----' 'but what?' he said quickly. 'i think that i had better prepare her.' 'she does not know?' 'no, your excellency. nor did i, until i saw you.' 'but count leuchtenstein has been here. did he not tell you?' he asked in surprise. 'not a word!' i answered. and then i stopped, conscience-stricken. 'himmel! i remember now,' i said. 'he asked me if we had heard the news; and i, like a dullard, dreaming that he meant other news, and the worst, said yes!' the waldgrave shrugged his shoulders. 'well, go to her now, and tell her,' he said. 'i want to see her; i want to thank her. i have a hundred things to say to her. quick, martin, for i am laden with debts, and i choke to pay some of them.' i ran upstairs, marvelling. on the lobby i met fraulein max coming down. 'what is it?' she asked impatiently. 'the waldgrave! he has been released! he is here!' i cried in a breath. she stared at me while a man might count ten. then to my astonishment she laughed aloud. 'who released him?' she asked. 'the magistrates,' i said. 'i suppose so. i don't know.' i had not given the matter a thought. 'not count leuchtenstein?' i started. 'so!' i muttered, staring at her in my turn. 'it must have been he. the waldgrave said something about him. and he must have come here to tell us.' 'and you gave him my lady's message?' 'alas! yes.' fraulein max laughed again, and kept on laughing, until i grew hot all over, and could have struck her for her malice. she saw at last that i was angry, and she stopped. 'tut! tut!' she said, 'it is nothing. but that disposes of the old man. now for the young one. he is here?' 'yes.' 'then why do you not show him up?' 'she must be prepared,' i muttered. she laughed again; this time after a different fashion. 'oh you fools of men!' she said. 'she must be prepared? do you think that women are made of glass and that a shock breaks them? that she will die of joy? or would have died of grief? send him up, gaby, and i will prepare her! send him up.' i supposed that she knew women's ways, and i gave in to her, and sent him up; and i do not know that any harm was done. but, as a result of this, i was not present when my lady and the waldgrave met, and i only learned by hearsay what happened. * * * * * an hour or two later, when the bustle of shrieks and questions had subsided, and the excitement caused by his return had somewhat worn itself out, marie slipped out to me on the stairs, and sat with me in the darkness, talking. the gate of curious ironwork which guarded the house entrance was closed for the night; but the moon was up, and its light, falling through the scrollwork, lay like a pale, reedy pool at our feet. the men were at supper, the house was quiet, the city was for a little while still. not a foot sounded on the roadway; only sometimes a skulking dog came ghost-like to the bars and sniffed, and sneaked noiselessly away. i have said that we talked, but in truth we sat long silent, as lovers have sat these thousand years, i suppose, in such intervals of calm. the peace of the night lapped us round; after the perils and hurry, the storm and stress of many days, we were together and at rest, and content to be silent. all round us, under the covert of darkness, under the moonlight, the city lay quaking; dreading the future, torn by pangs in the present; sleepless, or dreaming of death and outrage, ridden by the nightmare of wallenstein. but for the moment we recked nothing of this, nothing of the great camp round us, nothing of the crash of nations. we were of none of these. we had one another, and it was enough; loved one another, and the rest went by. for the moment we tasted perfect peace; and in the midst of the besieged city, were as much alone, as if the moonlight at our feet had been, indeed, a forest pool high in the hills over heritzburg. does some old man smile? do i smile myself now, though sadly? a brief madness, was it? nay; but what if then only we were sane, and for a moment saw things as they are--lost sight of the unreal and awoke to the real? i once heard a wise man from basle say something like that at my lady's table. the men, i remember, stared; the women looked thoughtful. for all that, it was marie who on this occasion broke the trance. the town clock struck ten, and at the sound hundreds, i dare swear, turned on their pillows, thinking of the husbands and sons and lovers whom the next light must imperil. my girl stirred. 'ah!' she murmured, 'the poor countess! can we do nothing?' 'do?' i said. 'what should, we do? the waldgrave is back, and in his right mind; which of all the things i have ever known, is the oddest. that a man should lose his senses under one blow, and recover them under another, and remember nothing that has happened in the interval--it almost passes belief.' 'yet it is true.' 'i suppose so,' i answered. 'the waldgrave was mad--i can bear witness to it--and now he is sane. there is no more to be said.' 'but the countess, martin?' 'well, i do not know that she is the worse,' i answered stupidly. 'she sent off the count with a flea in his ear, and a poor return it was. but she can explain it to him, and after all, she has got the waldgrave back, safe and sound. that is the main thing.' marie sighed, and moved restlessly. 'is it?' she said. 'i wish i knew.' 'what?' i asked, drawing her little head on to my shoulder. 'what my lady wishes?' 'eh?' 'which?' my jaw fell. i stared into the darkness open-mouthed. 'why,' i exclaimed at last, 'he is sixty--or fifty-five at least, girl!' marie laughed softly, with her face on my breast. 'if she loves him,' she murmured. 'if she loves him.' and she hung on me. i sat amazed, confounded, thinking no more of marie, though my arm was round her, than of a doll. 'but he is fifty five,' i said. 'and if you were fifty-five, do you think that i should not love you?' she whispered. 'when you are fifty-five, do you think that i shall not love you? besides, he is strong, brave, famous--a man; and she is not a girl, but a woman. if the count be too old, is not the waldgrave too young?' 'yes,' i said cunningly. 'but why either?' 'because love is in the air,' marie answered; and i knew that she smiled, though the gloom hid her face. 'because there is a change in her. because she knows things and sees things and feels things of which she was ignorant before. and because--because it is so, my lord.' i whistled. this was beyond me. 'and yet you don't know which?' i said. 'no; i suspect.' 'well--but the waldgrave?' i exclaimed. 'why, mädchen, he is one of the handsomest men i have ever seen. an apollo! a fairy prince! it is not possible that she should prefer the other.' marie laughed. 'ah!' she said, 'if men chose all the husbands, there would be few wives.' * * * * * chapter xxxiii. two men. the waldgrave's return to his old self, and to the frankness and gaiety that, when we first knew him at heritzburg, had surrounded him with a halo of youth, was perhaps the most noteworthy event of all within my experience. for the return proved permanent, the transformation was perfect. the moodiness, the crookedness, the crafty humours that for weeks had darkened and distorted the man's nature--so that another and a worse man seemed to look out of his eyes and speak with his mouth--were gone, leaving no cloud or remembrance. he had been mad; he was now as sane as the best. only one peculiarity remained--and for a few days a little pallor and weakness--of all the things that had befallen him between his first wound and his second, he could remember nothing, not a jot or tittle; nor could any amount of allusion or questioning bring these things back to him. after many attempts we desisted; but there were always some who, from this date, regarded him with a certain degree of awe--as a man who had been for a time in the flesh, and yet not of it. with sanity returned also all the wholesome ambitions and desires that had formerly moved the man; and amongst these his passion for my lady. he lay at our house that night, and spent the next two days there, recovering his strength; and i had more than one opportunity of marking the assiduity with which he followed all the countess's movements with his eyes, the change which his voice underwent when he spoke to her, and his manner when he came into her presence. in a word, he seemed to take up his love where he had dropped it--at the point it had reached when he rode down into the green valley and secured his rival's victory at so great a cost; at the point at which tzerclas' admiration and my lady's rebuff had at once strengthened and purified it. now tzerclas was gone from the field--magically, as it seemed to the waldgrave. and, magically also--for he knew nothing of its flight--time had passed; days and weeks running into months--a sufficiency of time, he hoped, to remove unfavourable impressions from her mind, to obliterate the memory of that unhappy banquet, and replace him on the pinnacle he had occupied at heritzburg. but he soon found that, though tzerclas was gone and the field seemed open, all was not to be had for the asking. my lady was kind; she had a smile for him, and pleasant words, and a ready ear. but before he had been in the house twenty-four hours, he came and confided to me that something was wrong. the countess was changed; was pettish as he had never seen her before; absent and thoughtful, traits equally new; restless--and placid dignity had been one of her chief characteristics. 'what is it, martin?' he said, knitting his brows and striding to and fro in frank perplexity. 'it cannot be that, after all that has passed, she is fretting for that villain tzerclas?' 'after risking her life to escape from him?' i answered dryly. 'no, i think not, my lord.' 'if i ever set eyes on him again i will end him!' the waldgrave cried, still clinging, i think, to his idea, and exasperated by it. he strode up and down a time or two, and did not grow cooler. 'if it is not that, what is it?' he said at last. 'there are not many light hearts in nuremberg,' i suggested. 'and of those, few are women's. there must be an end of this soon.' 'you think it is that?' he said. 'why not?' i answered. 'i am told that the horses are dying by hundreds in the camp. the men will die next. in the end the king will have to march away, or see his army perish piecemeal. in either case the city will pay for all. wallenstein will swoop down on it, and make of it another and greater magdeburg. that is a poor prospect for the weak and helpless.' 'it is those rascally croats!' the waldgrave groaned. 'they cover the country like flies--are here and there and nowhere all in the same minute, and burn and harry and leave us nothing. we have no troops of that kind.' 'there was plundering in the wert suburb last night,' i said. 'the king blames the germans.' 'soldiers are bad to starve,' the waldgrave answered. 'yes; they will see the townsfolk suffer first,' i rejoined, with a touch of bitterness. 'but look whichever way you please, it is a gloomy outlook, my lord, and i do not wonder that my lady is down-hearted.' he nodded, but presently he said something that showed that he was not satisfied. 'the countess used to be of a bolder spirit,' he muttered. 'i don't understand it.' i did not know how to answer him, and fortunately, at that moment, marie came down to say that my lady proposed to visit count leuchtenstein, and that i was to go to her. the waldgrave heard, and raced up before me, crying out that he would go too. i followed. when i reached the parlour i found them confronting one another, my lady standing in the oriel with her back to the street. 'but would it not be more seemly?' the waldgrave was saying as i entered. 'as your cousin, and----' 'i would rather go alone,' the countess replied curtly. 'to the camp?' he exclaimed. 'he is not in his city quarters.' 'yes, to the camp,' my lady answered, with, a spark of anger in her eyes. on that he stood, fidgety and discomfited, and the countess gave me her orders. but he could not believe that she did not need him, and the moment she was silent, he began again. 'you do not want me; but you do not object to my company, i suppose?' he said airily. 'i have to thank the count, cousin, and i must go to-day or to-morrow. there is no time like the present, and if you are going now----' 'i should prefer to go alone,' my lady said stiffly. his face fell; he stood looking foolish. 'oh, i did not know,' he stammered at last; 'i thought----' 'what?' the countess said. 'that you liked me well enough--to--to be glad of my company,' he answered, half offended, half in deprecation. 'i liked you well enough to abase myself for you!' my lady retorted cruelly. and i dare say that she said more, but i did not hear it. i had to go down and prepare for her visit. when i next saw him, he was much subdued. he seemed to be turning something over in his mind, and by-and-by he asked me a question about count leuchtenstein. i saw which way his thoughts were tending, or fancied that i did; but it was not my business to interfere one way or the other, and i answered him and made no comment. the horses were at the door then, and in a moment my lady came down, looking pale and depressed. the waldgrave went humbly to her, and put her into her saddle, touching her foot as if it had been glass; and i mounted marie, who was to attend her. i expected that my lady--who had a very tender heart under her queenly manner--would say something to him before we started; but she seemed to be quite taken up with her thoughts, and to be barely conscious, if conscious at all, of his presence. she said 'thank you,' but it was mechanically. and the next moment we were moving, ernst making up the escort. my eyes soon furnished me with other matter for thought than the waldgrave. throughout the city the summer drought had dried up the foliage of the trees; and the grass, where it had not been plucked by the poor and boiled for food, had been eaten to the roots by starving cattle. the whole city under the blaze of sunshine wore an arid, dusty, parched appearance, and seemed to reflect on its face the look of dreary endurance which was worn by too many of the countenances we observed in the streets. pain creeps by instinct to some dark and solitary place; but here was a whole city in pain, gasping and suffering under the pitiless sunshine; and the contrast between the blue sky above and the scene below added indescribably to the gloom and dreariness of the latter. i know that i got a horror of sunshine there that lasted for many a month after. either twenty-four hours had aggravated the pinch of famine, which was possible, or i had a more open mind to perceive it. i marked more hollow cheeks than ever, more hungry eyes, more faces with the glare of brutes. and in the bearing of the crowd that filled the streets--though no business was done, no trade carried on--i thought that i saw a change. wherever it was thickest, i noticed that men walked in one of two ways, either hurrying along feverishly and in haste, as if time were of the utmost value, or moving listlessly, with dragging feet and lacklustre eyes, as if nothing had any longer power to stir them. i even noticed that the same men went in both ways within the space of a minute, passing in a second and apparently without intention from feverish activity to the moodiness of despair. and no wonder. not only famine, but pestilence had tightened its grasp on the city; and from this the rich had as much to fear as the poor. as we drew near the walls the smell of carrion, which had hitherto but spoiled the air, filled the nostrils and sickened the whole man. in some places scores of horses lay unburied, while it was whispered that in obscure corners death had so far outstripped the grave-diggers that corpses lay in the houses and the living slept with the dead. there was fighting in front of the bakers' shops in more than one place--my lady had to throw money before we could pass; in the kennels women screamed and fought for offal; from the open doors of churches prayers and wailing poured forth; at the gates, where gibbets, laden with corpses, rose for a warning, multitudes stood waiting and listening for news. and on all, dead and living, the sun shone hotly, steadily, ruthlessly, so that men asked with one voice, 'how long? how long?' in the camp, which had just received huge reinforcements of men and horses, we found order and discipline at least. rows of kettles and piles of arms proclaimed it, and lines of pennons that stretched almost as far as the eye could reach. but here, too, were knitted brows, and gloomy looks, and loud murmurings, that grew and swelled as we passed. count leuchtenstein's quarters were on the border of the swedish camp, near the finland regiments, and not far from the king's. a knot of officers, who stood talking in front of them and knew my lady, came to place themselves at her service. but the offer proved to be abortive, for the first thing she learned was that the count was absent. he had gone at dawn in the direction of altdorf to cover the entrance of a convoy. i felt that she was grievously disappointed, for whether she loved him or not, i could understand the humiliation under which she smarted, and would smart until she had set herself right with him. but she veiled her chagrin admirably, and, lightly refusing the offer of refreshment, turned her horse's head at once, so that in a twinkling we were on our road home again. by the way, i saw only what i had seen before. but the countess, whose figure began to droop, saw, i think, with other eyes than those through which she had looked on the outward journey. her thoughts no longer occupied, she saw in their fulness the ravages which famine and plague were making in the town, once so prosperous. when she reached her lodgings her first act was to send money, of which we had no great store, to the magistrates, that a free meal in addition to the starvation rations might be given to the poor; and her next, to declare that henceforth she would keep the house. accordingly, instead of going again to the count's, she sent me next day with a letter. i found the camp in an uproar, which was fast spreading to the city. a rumour had just got wind that the king was about to break up his camp and give battle to the enemy at all hazards; and so many were riding and running into the city with the news that i could scarcely make head against the current. arriving at last, however, i was fortunate enough to find the count in his quarters and alone. my lady had charged me--with a blushing cheek but stern eyes--to deliver the letter with my own hands, and i dismounted. i thought that i had nothing to do but deliver it; i foresaw no trouble. but at the last moment, as a trooper led me through the antechamber, who should appear at my side but the waldgrave! 'you did not expect to see me?' he said, nodding grimly. 'no, my lord,' i answered. 'so i thought,' he rejoined. 'but before you give the count that letter, i have a word to say to him.' i looked at him in astonishment. what had the letter to do with him? my first idea was that he had been drinking, for his colour was high and his eye bright. but a second glance showed that he was sober, though excited. and while i hesitated the trooper held up the curtain, and perforce i marched in. count leuchtenstein, wearing his plain buff suit, sat writing at a table. his corselet, steel cap, and gauntlets lay beside him, and seemed to show that he had just come in from the field. he looked up and nodded to me; i had been announced before. then he saw the waldgrave and rose; reluctantly, i fancied. i thought, too, that a shade of gloom fell on his face; but as the table was laden with papers and despatches and maps and lists, and the sight reminded me that he bore on his shoulders all the affairs of hesse, and the responsibility for the boldest course taken by any german prince in these troubles, i reflected that this might arise from a hundred causes. he greeted the waldgrave civilly nevertheless; then he turned to me. 'you have a letter for me, have you not, my friend?' he said. 'yes, my lord,' i answered. 'but,' the waldgrave interposed, 'before you read it, i have a word to say, by your leave, count leuchtenstein.' i think i never saw a man more astonished than the count. 'to me?' he said. 'by your leave, yes.' 'in regard to--this letter?' 'yes.' 'but what do you know about this letter?' 'too much, i am afraid,' the waldgrave answered; and i am bound to say that, putting aside the extraordinary character of his interference, he bore himself well. i could detect nothing of wildness or delusion in his manner. his face glowed, and he threw back his head with a hint of defiance; but he seemed sane. 'too much,' he continued rapidly, before the count could stop him; 'and, before the matter goes farther, i will have my say.' the count stared at him. 'by what right?' he said at last. 'as the countess rotha's nearest kinsman,' the waldgrave answered. 'indeed?' i could see that the count was hard put to it to keep his temper; that the old lion in him was stirring, and would soon have way. but for the moment he controlled himself. 'say on,' he cried. 'i will, in a few words,' the waldgrave answered. 'and what i have to say amounts to this: i have become aware--no matter how--of the bargain you have made, count leuchtenstein, and i will not have it.' 'the bargain!' the count ejaculated; 'you will not have it!' 'the bargain; and i will not have it!' the waldgrave rejoined. count leuchtenstein drew a deep breath, and stared at him like a man demented. 'i think that you must be mad,' he said at last. 'if not, tell me what you mean.' 'what i say,' the waldgrave answered stubbornly. 'i forbid the bargain to which i have no doubt that that letter relates.' 'in heaven's name, what bargain?' the count cried. 'you think that i do not know,' the waldgrave replied, with a touch of bitterness; 'it did not require a solomon to read the riddle. i found my cousin distrait, absent, moody, sad, preoccupied, unlike herself. she had moved heaven and earth, i was told, to save me; in the last resort, had come to you, and you saved me. yet when she saw me safe, she met me as much in sorrow as in joy. the mere mention of your name clouded her face; and she must see you, and she must write to you, and all in a fever. i say, it does not require a solomon to read this riddle, count leuchtenstein.' 'you think?' said the count, bluntly. 'i do not yet know what you think.' 'i think that she sold herself to you to win my pardon,' the waldgrave answered. for a moment i did not know how count leuchtenstein would take it. he stood gazing at the waldgrave, his hand on a chair, his face purple, his eyes starting. at length, to my relief and the waldgrave's utter dismay and shame, he sank into the chair and broke into a hoarse shout of laughter--laughter that was not all merriment, but rolled, in its depths something stern and sardonic. the waldgrave changed colour, glared and fumed; but the count was pitiless, and laughed on. at last: 'thanks, waldgrave, thanks,' he said. 'i am glad i let you go on to the end. but pardon me if i say that you seem to do the lady rotha something less than justice, and yourself something more.' 'how?' the waldgrave stammered. he was quite out of countenance. 'by flattering yourself that she could rate you so highly,' count leuchtenstein retorted, 'or fall herself so low. nay, do not threaten me,' he continued with grim severity. 'it was not i who brought her name into question. i never dreamed of, never heard of, never conceived such a bargain as you have described; nor, i may add, ever thought of the lady rotha except with reverence and chivalrous regard. have i said enough?' he continued, rising, and speaking with growing indignation, with eyes that seemed to search the culprit; 'or must i say too, waldgrave, that i do not traffic in men's lives, nor buy women's favours, nor sell pardons? that such power as god and my master have given me i use to their honour and not for my own pleasure? and, finally, that this, of which you accuse me, i would not do, though to do it were to prolong my race through a dozen centuries? for shame, boy, for shame!' he continued more calmly. 'if my mind has gone the way you trace it, i call it back to-day. i have done with love; i am too old for aught but duty, if love can lead even a young man's mind so far astray.' the waldgrave shivered; but the position was beyond words, and he essayed none. with a slight movement of his hand, as if he would have shielded himself, or deprecated the other's wrath, he turned towards the door. i saw his face for an instant; it was pale, despairing--and with reason. he had exposed my lady. he had exposed himself. he had invited such a chastisement as must for ever bring the blood to his cheeks. and his cousin: what would she say? he had lost her. she would never forgive him--never! he groped blindly for the opening in the curtain. his hand was on it--and i think that, for all his manhood, the tears were very near his eyes--when the other called after him in an altered tone. 'stay!' count leuchtenstein said. 'we will not part thus. i can see that you are sorry. do not be so hasty another time, and do not be too quick to think evil. for the rest, our friend here will be silent, and i will be silent.' the waldgrave gazed at him, his lips quivering, his eyes full. at last: 'you will not tell--the countess rotha?' he said almost in a whisper. the count looked down at his table, and pettishly pushed some papers together. for an instant he did not answer. then he said gruffly,--'no. why should she know? if she chooses you, well and good; if not, why trouble her with tales?' 'then!' the waldgrave cried with a sob in his voice, 'you are a better man than i am!' the count shrugged his shoulders rather sadly. 'no,' he said, 'only an older one.' chapter xxxiv. suspense. for a little while after the waldgrave had retired, count leuchtenstein stood turning my lady's letter over in his hands, his thoughts apparently busy. i had leisure during this time to compare the plainness of his dress with the greatness of his part, to which his conduct a moment before had called my attention; and the man with his reputation. no german had at this time so much influence with the king of sweden as he; nor did the world ever doubt that it was at his instance that the landgrave, first of all german princes, flung his sword into the swedish scale. yet no man could be more unlike the dark wallenstein, the crafty arnim, the imperious oxenstierna, or the sleepless french cardinal, whose star has since risen--as i have heard these men described; for leuchtenstein carried his credentials in his face. an honest, massive downrightness and a plain sagacity seemed to mark him, and commend him to all who loved the german blood. my eyes presently wandered from him, and detected among the papers on the table the two stands i had seen in his town quarters--the one bearing his child's necklace, the other his wife's portrait. doubtless they lay on the table wherever he went--among assessments and imposts, regimental tallies and state papers. i confess that my heart warmed at the sight; that i found something pleasing in it; greatness had not choked the man. and then my thoughts were diverted: he broke open my lady's letter, and turning his back on me began to read. i waited, somewhat impatiently. he seemed to be a long time over it, and still he read, his eyes glued to the page. i heard the paper rustle in his hands. at last he turned, and i saw with a kind of shock that his face was dark and flushed. there was a strange gleam in his eyes as he looked at me. he struck the paper twice with his hand. 'why was this kept from me?' he exclaimed. 'why? why?' 'my lord!' i said in astonishment. 'it was delivered to me only an hour ago.' 'fool!' he answered harshly, bending his bushy eyebrows. 'when did that girl get free?' 'that girl?' 'ay, that girl! girl, i said. what is her name? marie wort?' 'this is saturday. wednesday night,' i said. 'wednesday night? and she told you of the child then; of my child--that this villain has it yonder! and you kept it from me all thursday and friday--thursday and friday,' he repeated with a fierce gesture, 'when i might have done something, when i might have acted! now you tell me of it, when we march out to-morrow, and it is too late. ah! it was ungenerous of her--it was not like her!' 'the countess came yesterday in person,' i muttered. 'ay, but the day before!' he retorted. 'you saw me in the morning! you said nothing. in the evening i called at the countess's lodgings; she would not see me. a mistake was it? yes, but grant the mistake; was it kind, was it generous to withhold _this?_ if i had been as remiss as she thought me, as slack a friend--was it just, was it womanly? in heaven's name, no! no!' he repeated fiercely. 'we were taken up with the waldgrave's peril,' i muttered, conscience-stricken. 'and yesterday, my lady----' 'ay, yesterday!' he retorted bitterly. 'she would have told me yesterday. but why not the day before? the truth is, you thought much of your own concerns and your lady's kin, but of mine and my child--nothing! nothing!' he repeated sternly. and i could not but feel that his anger was justified. for myself, i had clean forgotten the child; hence my silence at my former interview. for my lady, i think that at first the waldgrave's danger and later, when she knew of his safety, remorse for the part she had played, occupied her wholly, yet, every allowance made, i felt that the thing had an evil appearance; and i did not know what to say to him. he sighed, staring absently before him. at last, after a prolonged silence, 'well, it is too late now,' he said. 'too late. the king moves out to-morrow, and my hands are full, and god only knows the issue, or who of us will be living three days hence. so there is an end.' 'my lord!' i cried impulsively. 'god forgive me, i forgot.' he shrugged his shoulders with a grand kind of patience. 'just so,' he said. 'and now, go back to your mistress. if i live i will answer her letter. if not--it matters not.' i was terribly afraid of him, but my love for marie had taught me some things; and though he waved me to the door, i stood my ground a moment. 'to you, my lord, no,' i said. 'nothing. but to her, if you fall without answering her letter----' 'what?'he said. 'you can best judge from the letter, my lord.' 'you think that she would suffer?' he answered harshly, his face growing red again. 'well, what say you, man? does she not deserve to suffer? do you know what this delay may cost me? what it may mean for my child? mein gott,' he continued, raising his voice and striking his hand heavily on the table, 'you try me too far! your mistress was angry. have i no right to be angry? have i no right to punish? go! i have no more to say.' and i had to go, then and there, enraged with myself, and fearful that i had said too much in my lady's behalf. i had invited this last rebuff, and i did not see how i should dare to tell her of it, or that i had exposed her to it. i had made things worse instead of better, and perhaps, after all, the message he had framed might not have hurt her much, or fallen far short of her expectations. i should have troubled myself longer about this, but for the increasing bustle and stir of preparation that had spread by this time from the camp to the city; and filling the way with a throng of people whom the news affected in the most different ways, soon diverted my attention. while some, ready to welcome any change, shouted with joy, others wept and wrung their hands, crying out that the city was betrayed, and that the king was abandoning it. others again anticipated an easy victory, looked on the frowning heights of the alta veste as already conquered, and divided wallenstein's spoils. everywhere i saw men laughing, wailing, or shaking hands; some eating of their private hoards, others buying and selling horses, others again whooping like lunatics. in the city the shops, long shut, were being opened, orderlies were riding to and fro, crowds were hurrying to the churches to pray for the king's success; a general stir of relief and expectancy was abroad. the sunshine still fell hot on the streets, but under it life moved and throbbed. the apathy of suffering was gone, and with it the savage gloom that had darkened innumerable brows. from window and dormer, from low door-ways, from carven eaves and gables, gaunt faces looked down on the stir, and pale lips prayed, and dull eyes glowed with hope. while i was still a long way off i saw my lady at the oriel watching for me. i saw her face light up when she caught sight of me; and if, after that, i could have found any excuse for loitering in the street, or putting off my report, i should have been thankful. but there was no escape. in a moment the animation of the street was behind me, the silence of the house 'fell round me, and i stood before her. she was alone. i think that marie had been with her; if so, she had sent her away. 'well?' she said, looking keenly at me, and doubtless drawing her conclusions from my face. 'the count was away?' 'no, my lady.' 'then--you saw him?' with surprise. 'yes.' 'and gave him the letter?' 'yes, my lady.' 'well'--this with impatience, and her foot began to tap the floor--'did he give you no answer?' 'no, my lady.' she looked astonished, offended, then troubled. 'neither in writing nor by word of mouth?' she said faintly. 'only--that the king was about to give battle,' i stammered; 'and that if he survived, he would answer your excellency.' she started, and looked at me searchingly, her colour fading gradually. 'that was all!' she said at last, a quaver in her voice. 'tell me all, martin. count leuchtenstein was offended, was he not?' 'i think that he was hurt, your excellency,' i confessed. 'he thought that the news about his child--should have been sent to him sooner. that was all.' 'all!' she ejaculated; and for a moment she said no more, but with that word, which thrilled me, she began to pace the floor. 'all!' she repeated presently. 'but i--yes, i am justly punished. i cannot confess to him; i will confess to you. your girl would have had me tell him this, or let her tell him this. she pressed me; she went on her knees to me that evening. but i hardened my heart, and now i am punished. i am justly punished.' i was astonished. not that she took it lightly, for there was that in her tone as well as in her face that forbade the thought; but that she took it with so little passion, without tears or anger, and having been schooled so seldom in her life bore this schooling so patiently. she stood for a time after she had spoken, looking from the window with a wistful air, and her head drooping; and i fancied that she had forgotten my presence. but by-and-by she began to ask questions about the camp, and the preparations, and what men thought of the issue, and whether wallenstein would come down from his heights or the king be driven to the desperate task of assaulting them. i told her all that i had heard. then she said quietly that she would go to church; and she sent me to call fraulein max to go with her. i found the dutch girl sitting in a corner with her back to the windows, through which marie and the women were gazing at the bustle and uproar and growing excitement of the street. she was reading in a great dusty book, and did not look up when i entered. seeing her so engrossed, i had the curiosity to ask her, before i gave her my lady's message, what the book was. '"the siege of leyden,"' she said, lifting her pale face for an instant, and then returning to her reading. 'by bor.' i could not refrain from smiling. it seemed to me so whimsical that she could find interest in the printed page, in this second-hand account of a siege, and none in the actual thing, though she had only to go to the window to see it passing before her eyes. doubtless she read in bor how men and women thronged the streets of leyden to hear each new rumour; how at every crisis the bells summoned the unarmed to church; how through long days and nights the citizens waited for relief--and she found these things of interest. but here were the same portents passing before her eyes, and she read bor! 'you are busy, i am afraid,' i said. 'i am using my time,' she answered primly. 'i am sorry,' i rejoined; 'for my lady wants you to go to church with her.' she shut up her book with peevish violence, and looked at me with her weak eyes. 'why does not your papist go with her?' she said spitefully. 'and then you could do without me. as you do without me when you have secrets to tell! but i suppose you have brought things to such a pass now that there is nothing for it but church. and so i am called in!' 'i have given my lady's message,' i said patiently. 'oh, i know that you are a faithful messenger!' she replied mockingly. 'who writes love letters grows thin; who carries them, fat. you are growing a big man, master martin.' chapter xxxv. st. bartholomew's day. that was a night that saw few in nuremberg sleep soundly. under the moon the great city lay waiting; watching and fasting through the short summer night. hour by hour the solemn voices of sentinels, tramping the walls and towers, told the tale of time; to men, who, hearing it, muttered a prayer, and, turning on the other side, slept again; to women, who lay, trembling and sleepless, their every breath a prayer. for who would see the next night? who that went out would come in? how many, parting at dawn, would meet again? the howling of the dogs that, wild as wolves, roved round the camp and scratched in the shallow graveyards, made dreary answer. many there were, even then i remember, who thought the king foolhardy, and preached patience; and would have had him still sit quiet and play the game of starvation against his enemy, even to the bitter end. but these were of the harder sort--men who, with brain, might have been wallensteins. and few of them knew the real state of things. i say nothing of the city. who died there in those months, in holes and corners and dark places, the magistrates may have known, no others. but in the camp, for many days before the king marched out, a hundred men died of plague and want every day; so that in the sum, twenty thousand men entered his lines who never left them. moderate men set the loss of the city at ten thousand more. add to these items that the plague was increasing, that all stores of food were nearly exhausted, that if the issue were longer delayed the cavalry would have no horses on which to advance or retreat, and it will be clear, i think, that the king, whose judgment had never yet deceived him, was right in this also. or, if he erred, it was on the side of mercy. at dawn all the northern walls and battlements were covered with white-faced women, come together to see the army leave the camp, in which it had lain so many weeks. i went up with my lady to the burg, whence we could command, not only the city with its necklace of walls and towers, but the camp encircling it like another and greater city, encompassed in its turn with gates and ramparts and bastions. and, beyond this, we had an incomparable view of the country; of our own stream, the pegnitz, gliding away through the level plain, to fall presently into the rednitz; of the rednitz, a low line of willows, running athwart the western meadows; and beyond this, a league and a half away, of the frowning heights of the alta veste, where wallenstein hung, vulture-like, waiting to pounce on the city. as the sun rose behind us, the shadow of the burg on which we stood fell almost to the foot of the distant heights, and covered, as with a pall, the departing army, which was beginning to pass out of the camp by the northern and western gates. at the same time the level beams shone on the dark brow of the alta veste, and caught there the flash of lurking steel. i think that the hearts of many among us sank at the omen. if so, it was not for long, for the sun rose swiftly in the summer sky and, as it overtopped our little eminence, showed us an innumerable host pressing out of the camp in long lines, like ants from a hill. while we gazed, they began to swarm on the plain between the city and the rednitz. the colours of a thousand waving pennons, the sheen of a forest of lances, the duller gleam of cannon crawling slowly along the roads, caught the sun and the eye; but between them moved other and darker masses--the regiments of east and west gothland, the smäland horse, stalhanske's finns, the yellow and blue regiments, the sombre, steady veterans of the swedish force, marching with a neatness and wheeling with a precision, noticeable even at that distance. doubtless it was a grand and splendid sight, this marching out of a hundred thousand men--for the army fell little short of that prodigious number--under the first captain of the age, to fight before the walls of the richest city in the world. and i have often taken blame to myself and regretted that i did not regard it with closer attention, and imprint it more carefully on my memory. but at the time i was anxious. somewhere in that great host rode the waldgrave and count leuchtenstein; and i looked for them, though i had no hope of finding them. then little things continually diverted the mind. a single waggon, which broke down at the gate below us, and could not for a time be removed, swelled into a matter that obstructed my view of the whole army; an officer, whose horse ran away in an orchard at our feet, became, for a moment, more important than a hundred banners. when i had done with these trifles, the sun had climbed halfway up the sky, and the foremost troops were already crossing the rednitz by furth, with a sound of trumpets and the flashing of corselets. a cannon shot, and then another, and then long rolling thunder from the heights, over which a pillar of smoke began to gather. my lady sighed. below us, in the streets, on the walls, on the towers, women and men fell on their knees and prayed aloud. across the plain horsemen galloped this way or that, hurrying the laggards through the dust. the great battle was beginning. and then on a sudden the firing ceased; the pillar of smoke on the heights melted away; the rear-guard and the cloud of dust in which it moved, rolled farther and farther towards the rednitz and furth--and still the guns remained silent. it was noon by this time; soon it was afternoon. but the suspense was so great that no one went away to eat; and still the silence prevailed. towards two o'clock i persuaded the countess to go to her lodgings to eat; but within the hour she was back again. an officer on the burg, who had a perspective glass, reported that wallenstein was moving; that cannon and troops could be seen passing through the trees on the alta veste, as if he were descending to meet the king; and for a time our excitement rose to the highest pitch. but before sunset, news came that he was quiet; that the king was forming a new camp beyond the rednitz, and almost under the enemy's guns; and that the battle would take place on the morrow. the morrow! it seemed to some of us, it was always the morrow. yet i think that we slept better that night. earliest dawn saw us again on the burg, staring and straining our eyes westwards. but minutes passed, hours passed, the sun rose and declined, and still no sound of battle reached us. women, with pinched faces, clutched babies to their breasts; men, pale and stern, gazed into the distance. those who had murmured that the king was too hasty, murmured now that he dallied; for every day the grip of famine grew tighter, its signs more marked. this evening all my lady's horses were requisitioned and carried off, to mount the king's staff, it was said, of whom some were going afoot. a third day rose on the anxious city, and yet a fourth, and still the armies stood inactive. communication with the new camp was easy, but as each day, and all day, a battle was expected, such news as we heard rather heightened than relieved our fears. on this fourth morning, i received a message from the waldgrave, asking me to come to him in the camp; that he had something to say to me, and could not leave. i was not unwilling to see for myself how things stood there; and i determined to go. i did not tell the countess, however, nor marie, thinking it useless to alarm them; but i left steve in charge, and, bidding him be on his guard, promised to be back by noon at the latest. as i had no horse, i had to do the journey on foot, and soon was down in the plain myself, threading the orchards and plodding along the trampled roads, where so many thousands had preceded me. the ground in some spots was actually ploughed up; dust covered everything; the trees were bruised, the fences broken down. old boots and shattered pike-staves marked the route, and here and there--saddest sight of all--dead horses, fast breeding the plague. the sky, for the first time for days, was clouded, and making the most of the coolness i gained the river bank by nine o'clock, and crossing found myself close to the new camp. the army had just marched out, yet the lines seemed full. the king had strictly forbidden all women and camp-followers to cross the rednitz; but an army in these days needs so many drivers and sutlers that i found myself one among thousands. i asked for the waldgrave, and got as many answers as there were men within hearing. one said that he was with his regiment of horse on the left flank; another, that he was with duke bernard's staff; a third, that he was not with the army at all. despairing of hearing anything in the confusion, i was in two minds about turning back; but in the end i took heart of grace and determined to seek him in the field. fortunately, the last regiments had barely cleared the lines, and a few minutes' rapid walking set me abreast of the rearmost, which was hastening into position. here also at the first glance i saw nothing but confusion; but a second resolved the mass into two parts, and then i saw that the king's army lay in two long lines facing the heights. an interval of about three hundred paces divided the lines, but behind each was a small reserve. in the first were most of the german regiments, the second being composed of finns, swedes, and northerners. the cavalry were grouped on the flanks, and seemed stronger on the left flank. in the rear of all, as well as in gaps left between the pikes and musketmen, were the king's ordnance--drakes, serpents, falcons, and cartows, with the light two- and four-pounders for which he was famous. such an array--so many thousand men, gay with steel, and a thousand pennons--seemed to the eye to be invincible; and i looked for the enemy. he was not to be seen, but fronting the lines at a distance of three or four hundred paces rose the alta veste--a steep, rugged hill, scarred and seamed, and planted thickly with pines and jagged stumps and undergrowth. here and there among the trees great rocks peeped out, or dark holes yawned. the dry beds of two torrents furrowed this natural glacis; and opposite these i noticed that our strongest regiments were placed. but of the enemy i could see nothing, except here and there a sparkle of steel among the trees; i could hear nothing, except now and then the fall of a stone, that, slipping under an unseen foot, fell from ledge to ledge until it reached the plain. everywhere the hush of expectation stirred the heart; for in the presence of that great host silence seemed a thing supernatural. as the regiment i had joined, the last to arrive, wheeled into position in the middle of the right wing, i asked one of the officers, who stood near me, if the enemy had retired. 'wait!' he said grimly--he spoke with a foreign accent--'and you will see. but to what regiment do you belong, comrade?' 'to none here,' i said. he looked astonished, and asked me what i was doing there, then. i had my lips apart to answer him, when a trumpet sounded, and in an instant, all along the line, the swedish cannon began to fire, shaking the earth and filling the air round us with smoke, that in a twinkling hid everything. this lasted for two or three minutes with a deafening noise; but as far as i could hear, the enemy were still silent. i was wondering what would happen next, and hoping that they had given up the position, when my new friend touched my arm and pointed to the front. i peered through the smoke, and saw dimly that the regiment before us, a german brigade about eight hundred strong, was moving on at a run and making for the hill. a minute elapsed, the smoke rolled between. i listened, trembling. afterwards i learned that at the same moment two other parties sprang forward and dashed to the assault. then, at last, with an ear-splitting roar that seemed to silence our guns, the enemy spoke. the hill in front, hidden the second before by smoke, became in a moment visible, lit up by a thousand darting flames. dark masses seemed to topple down, rocks hung midway in air, and involuntarily i stepped back and uttered a cry of horror. out of that hell of fire came an answering wail of shrieks and curses--the feeble voice of man! 'ach gott!' i said, trembling. my hair stood on end. 'steady, comrade, steady!' muttered the man who had before spoken to me. 'presently it will be our turn.' he had scarcely spoken, when a man came riding along the front with his hat in his hand. he rode a white horse, and wore no back or breast, nor, as far as i could see, any armour. 'steady, swedes, steady!' he cried in a loud voice--he was a big, stout man with a fine presence. 'your time will come by-and-by. then remember breitenfeld!' it was the king of sweden. in a moment he was gone, passing along the lines; and i drew breath again, wondering what would happen next. i had not long to wait. men came straggling back across our front, some wounded, some helping their comrades along, all with faces ghastly under the powder-stains. and then like magic a new regiment stood before us, where the other had stood. again the king's guns pealed along the line, again i heard the hoarse cry 'vorwärts!' waited a minute, and once more the hill seemed to be rent by the explosion. from every cave and ledge guns flashed forth, lighting up the smoke. the roar died away again--slowly, from west to east--in cries and shrieks; and presently a few men, scores where there had been hundreds, came wandering back like ghosts through the reek. 'this looks ill!' i muttered. i was no longer scared. the gunpowder was getting into my head. 'pooh!' my friend answered. 'this is only the beginning. it will take men to fill that gap. wait till our turn comes.' by this time the waldgrave and my errand were forgotten, and i thought only of the battle. i watched two more assaults, saw two more regiments hurl themselves vainly against the fiery breast of the hill; then came a diversion. as the scattered fragments of the last came reeling back, a sudden roar of many voices startled me. the ground seemed to shake, and right across our front came a charge of horse--out of the smoke and into the smoke! in an instant our stragglers were trodden down, cut up, and swept away, before our eyes and within shot of us. the men round me uttered shouts of rage. the line swayed, there was an instant's confusion. then a harsh voice cried above the tumult, 'steady, gothlanders, steady! pikes forward! blow your matches! steady! steady!' and in a twinkling, with a crash, such as the ninth wave makes when it falls on a pebbly beach, the horse were on us. i had a glimpse through the smoke of rearing breasts, and floating manes, and grinning teeth, and of men's faces grim and white, held low behind the steel; and i struck out blindly with my half-pike. still they came on, and something hit me on the chest and i fell: but instantly a clash of long pikes met over my body, and i scrambled to my feet unhurt! then a dozen spurts of flame leapt out round me, and the horsemen seemed to melt away. into the smoke; but before i had time to know that they were gone, they had wheeled and were back again like the wind, led by a man on a black horse, who came on so gallantly to the very pike-points, that i thought it must be pappenheim himself. he wore the black breastplate and helmet of pappenheim's cuirassiers; and it was only when his horse reared up on end within a pike's length of me, and he fired his pistol among us, wounding two men, that i espied under the helmet the stern face and flashing eyes of tzerclas. he recognised me at the same moment, and hurling his empty pistol in my face, tried to spur his horse over me. but the long pikes meeting before me kept him off, his men vanished, some falling, some flying, and in a moment he stood almost alone. even then his courage did not fail him. scornfully eyeing our line from end to end, he hurled a bitter taunt at us, and wheeling his horse coolly, prepared to ride off. i think that we should have let him go, in pure admiration of his courage. but a wounded man on whom he trod houghed the horse with his sword. in a moment he was down, and two men running out of the line, fixed him to the earth with their pikes. i confess, for myself, i would have spared him for his courage; and i ran to him to see if he was dead. he was not quite gone. he recognised me, and tried to speak. forgetting the dangers round me, the uproar and tumult, the dim figures of men and horses flying through the smoke, i knelt down by him. 'what is it?' i said. after all, he was my lady's cousin. 'tell him--tell him--the child! he will never get it!' he breathed. with each word the blood-stained froth rose to his lips, and he clutched my hand in a cold grip. he strove to say something more, and raised himself with a last effort on his elbow. 'tell her,' he gasped, his dark face distorted--'tell her--i--i----' no more. his eyes turned, his head fell back. he was dead. what he would have said of my lady, whether he would have sent her a message or what, no man will know here. but i fancied it like the man, who might have been great had he ever given a thought to others, that his last word was--"i." his head was scarcely down before i had to run back within the pikes. a fresh charge of horse swept over him, we received them with a volley; they broke, and a swedish regiment, the west gothland horse, rode them down. meanwhile our man[oe]uvres had brought us insensibly into the first line. i found that we were close under the hill, and i was not surprised when a handful of horse whirled up to us out of the _mêlée_, and one, disengaging himself from the others, rode along our front. it was the king. his face was stained with powder, his horse was bleeding, a ball had ripped up his boot; it was said that he had been placing and pointing cannon with his own hands. but as the regiment greeted him with a hoarse cheer, he smiled as if he had been in a ball-room. he raised his hand for silence; such silence as could be obtained where every moment men shot off a cannon, and at no great distance a mortal combat was in progress. 'men of gothland!' he cried, in a clear, ringing voice, 'it is your turn now! you are my children. take me this hill! be steady, strike home, flinch not! show these germans what you can do! the word is, god with us. remember st. bartholomew's, and forward! forward! forward!' my heart beat furiously; but there was no retreat. rather than be left standing on the ground, i would have died there. in a moment we were moving on elbow to elbow, with a stern, heavy step. some one struck up a swedish psalm, and to the thunder of its rhythm we strode on--on to the very foot of the hill; on, until we reached the rough shale, and the rugged steep stood above us. with a gallant shout an officer flung his hat on to the slope, a score of ritt-meisters sprang forward together; and then for a moment we and all things seemed to stand still. the wood above us belched fire, the eyes were blinded, the ears stunned, rocks and stones rolled down, all creation seemed to be falling on us in fearful ruin. men were hurled this way and that, or fell in their places, or, reeling to and fro, clutched one another. for an instant, i say, we stood still. but for an instant only. then with a shout of rage the swedes sprang forward, and grasping boughs, stumps, rocks, swung themselves up, doing such things in their fury as no cool man could do. a row of jagged stakes barred the way; men set their naked breasts against them, and others climbed over on their shoulders. bleeding, wounded, singed, torn by splinters, all who lived climbed. to get up--up--up--higher, in face of the storm of shot and iron; up, over the bursting mines and through the smoke; up, to where they stood and butchered us, was the only instinct left. and we did get up--to a bastion, jutting from the hillside, where a company of picked men with pikes and three cannons waited for us behind a breastwork. they thought to stop us, and stood firm; our men were mad. flinging themselves against the mouths of the cannon, they scaled the work in a moment, and left not one defender alive! god with us! stern and high the shout rang out; but breath was everything, and the scarp still rose above us and the shot still tore our ranks! on! up a torrent bed now, round one corner and another, to where we were a little out of the line of fire, and an overhanging shoulder covered us. here we had room to take breath; and for the first time, some hope of life, of ultimate escape, entered my breast. the officer who led us--i learned afterwards that he was the great general torstensohn--cried, 'well done, swedes!' and with the confidence of giants we were once more breasting the ascent, when a withering volley, poured in at short range, checked the head of the column. before we could recover way, a body of pikes rushed to meet us, and in an instant, having the vantage of the ground, rolled us, still fighting desperately, down the steep. the general was swept away, the ritt-meisters were down. once we rallied, but ineffectually. the enemy were reinforced, and in a moment the rout was complete. at the moment the tide turned and our men fell back, i happened to be against the rock-wall, in something of a niche; and the stream passed me by. i had two slight wounds, and i stood an instant, giddy and confused, taking breath. the instant showed me my comrades in the act of being slaughtered one by one, and a great horror seized me. i found no hope anywhere. below were the cruel pikes, in a moment their savage bearers would be reascending; above were the enemy. but above, if i climbed on, i might live a little while; and in that desperate hope i scrambled out of the torrent bed and up the sheer hill on the right. two or three saw me from the torrent bed, and fired at me; and others shouted, and began to follow. but i only pressed on, right up the scarp, which was there like the side of a house. a dozen times i all but fell back; still in a fever of dread i kept on. the sweat poured down me; i had no hope or aim, i thought only of the pikes behind. presently i came to a jutting shoulder that all but overhung me; to pass it seemed to be impossible. but in my frenzy i did the impossible. i swung myself from root to root; where one stone gave, i clutched another, and yet another; i hung on with tooth and nail. i flattened myself against the rock. i heard the pursuers rail and curse, heard the bullets strike the earth round me, and then in a moment i was up. up; but only to come instantly on a wall crossing the steep and barring my way, and to find a dozen pikes levelled at my breast. desperate, giving up hope at last--i had long dropped my weapon--i cried mechanically, 'god with us!' and threw up my arms. i nearly fell backwards--for what did it matter? but the men were quick. in a moment one had me by the collar. 'and god! they were friends! they were friends, and i was saved. one of the first faces that i saw, as i leaned breathless against the wall, unable for the time to answer the questions that poured upon me, was the waldgrave's--the waldgrave's, with the light of battle in his eyes, a laugh of triumph on his lips. he was wounded, bandaged, blackened, his fair hair singed; but he was happy. presently i understood why; and why i was safe and among friends. 'a little earlier,' he said--he seemed in his exaltation not a whit surprised to see me--'and you would have had a different reception, martin. we only turned them out of this an hour ago!' all his superior officers had fallen, and his had been the voice that had cheered on the forlorn, to which he was attached--acting from the right flank--and heartened them, just when all seemed lost, to make one more effort, ending in the capture of this sconce. joined to the mass of the hill only by a narrow neck, it commanded the enemy's position. 'we only want cannon!' he said, and in a moment i was as one of the garrison. 'three guns, and the day is ours. when will they come? when will they come?' 'you have sent for them?' 'i have sent a dozen times.' and he sent as many times more; while we, a mere handful, tired and worn and famished, but every man with a hero's thoughts, leaned against the breastwork, and gazed down into the plain, where, under the smoke, pigmy troops rushed to and fro, and nuremberg's fate hung in the balance. in an hour it would be night. and still no reinforcements came, no cannon. thrice the enemy tried to drive us out. but the neck was narrow, and, pressed along their front by three assaults, they came on half-heartedly and fell back lightly; and we held it. in the mean time, it became more and more clear that elsewhere the day was going against us. until night fell, and through long hours of darkness, forlorn after forlorn was flung against the heights--in vain. regiment after regiment, the core of the swedish army, came on undaunted, only to be repulsed with awful loss; with the single exception of the waldgrave's little sconce not a foot of the hill was captured. about nine o'clock reinforcements reached us, and some food, but no guns. two hours later the king drew sullenly back into his lines, and the attack ceased. even then we looked to see the fight resumed with the dawn; we looked still for victory and revenge. we could not believe that all was over. but towards three o'clock in the morning rain fell, rendering the slopes slippery and impassable; and with the first flush of sunrise came an order from prince bernard directing us to withdraw. perhaps the defeat fell as lightly on the waldgrave as on any man, though to him it was a huge disappointment. for he alone of all had made his footing good. i thought that it was that which made him look so cheerful; but while the rank and file were falling in, he came to me. 'well, martin,' he said. 'we are both veterans now.' i laughed. the rain had ceased. the sun was getting up, and the air was fresh. far off in the plain the city sparkled with a thousand gems. i thought of marie, i thought of life, and i thanked god that i was alive. 'i have an errand for you,' he continued, a laugh in his eyes. 'come and see what we took yesterday, besides this sconce.' at the back of the work were two low huts, that had perhaps been guardrooms or officers' quarters. he led the way into one, bending his head as he passed under the low lintel. 'an odd place,' he said. 'yes, my lord.' 'yes, but i mean--an odd place for what i found here,' he rejoined. 'look, man.' there were two low bunks in the hut, and on these and on the floor lay a medley of soldiers' cloaks, pouches, weapons, and ammunition. there was blood on the one wall and the door was shattered, and in a corner, thrown one on another, were two corpses. the waldgrave took no heed of these, but stepped to the corner bunk and drew away a cloak that lay on it. something--the sound in that place scared me as a cannon-shot would not have--began to wail. on the bed, staring at us between tears and wonder, lay a child. 'so!' i said, and stared at it. 'do you know it?' the waldgrave asked. 'know it? no,' i answered. 'are you sure?' he replied, smiling. 'look again.' 'not i!' i said. 'how did it come here? a child! a baby! it is horrible.' he shrugged his shoulders. 'we found it in this hut; in that bed. a man to whom we gave quarter said it was----' 'no!' i shouted. 'yes,' he answered, nodding. 'tzerclas' child! count leuchtenstein's child! do you mean it?' i cried. he nodded. 'tzerclas' child, the man said. the other's child, i guess. nay, i am certain. it knows your girl's name.' 'marie's?' the waldgrave nodded. 'take it up,' he said. 'and take charge of it.' but i only stared at it. the thing seemed too wonderful to be true. i told the waldgrave of tzerclas' death, and of what he had muttered about the child. 'yes, he was a clever man,' the waldgrave answered. 'but, you see, god has proved too clever for him. come, take it, man.' i took it. 'i had better carry it straight to the count's quarters?' i said. the waldgrave paused, looked away, then looked at me. 'no,' he said at last, and slowly, 'take it to lady rotha. let her give it to him.' i understood him, i guessed all he meant; but i made no answer, and we went out together. the rain was still in the air, but the sky was blue, the distance clear. the spire of the distant city shone like my lady's amethysts. below us the dead lay in thousands. but we were alive. chapter xxxvi. a wingless cupid. that was a dreary procession that a little before noon on the th of august wound its way back into nuremberg. the king, repulsed but not defeated, remained in his camp beyond the rednitz, and with trumpets sounding and banners displayed, strove vainly to tempt his wily antagonist into the plain. those who returned on this day, therefore, carrying with them the certain news of ill-fortune, were the wounded and the useless, a few prisoners, two or three envoys, half a dozen horse-dealers, and a train of waggons bearing crippled and dying men to the hospital. of this company i made one, and i doubt if there were six others who bore in their breasts hearts as light, or who could look on the sunny roofs and peaked gables of the city with eyes as cheerful. prince bernard had spoken kindly to me; the king had sent for me to inquire where i last saw general torstensohn; i had stood up a man amongst men; and i deemed these things cheaply bought at the cost of a little blood. on the other hand, the horrors of the day were still so fresh in my mind that my heart overflowed with thankfulness and the love of life; feelings which welled up anew whenever i looked abroad and saw the rednitz flowing gently between the willows, or looked within and pictured the werra rippling swiftly down the shallows under cool shade of oak and birch and alder. add to all these things one more. i had just learned that count leuchtenstein lived and was unhurt, and on the saddle before me under a cloak i bore his son. more than one asked me what booty i had taken, where others had found only lead or steel, that i hugged my treasure so closely and smiled to myself. but i gave them no answer. i only held the child the tighter, and pushing on more quickly, reached the city a little after twelve. i say nothing of the gloomy looks and sad faces that i encountered at the gate, of the sullen press that would hardly give way, or of the thousand questions i had to parry. i hardened my heart, and, disengaging myself as quickly as i could, i rode straight to my lady's lodgings; and it was fortunate that i did so. for i was only just in time. as i dismounted at the door--receiving such a welcome from steve and the other men as almost discovered my treasure, whether i would or no--i saw count leuchtenstein turn into the street by the other end and ride slowly towards me, a trooper behind him. the men would have detained me. they wanted to hear the news and the details of the battle, and where i had been. but i thrust my way through them and darted in. quick as i was, one was still quicker, and as i went out of the light into the cool darkness of the entrance, flew down the stairs to meet me, and, before i could see, was in my arms, covering me with tears and laughter and little cries of thanksgiving. how the child fared between us i do not know, for for a minute i forgot it, my lady, the count, everything, in the sweetness of that greeting; in the clinging of those slender arms round my neck, and the joy of the little face given up to my kisses. but in a moment, the child, being, i suppose, half choked between us, uttered a feeble cry; and marie sprang back, startled and scared, and perhaps something more. 'what is it?' she cried, beginning to tremble. 'what have you got?' i did not know how to tell her on the instant, and i had no time to prepare her, and i stood stammering. suddenly,'give it to me!' she cried in a strange voice. but i thought that in the fulness of her joy and surprise she might swoon or something, and i held back. 'you won't drop it,' i said feebly, 'when you know what it is?' her eyes flashed in the half light. 'fool!' she cried--yes, though i could scarcely believe my ears. 'give it to me.' i was so taken aback that i gave it up meekly on the spot. she flew off with it into a corner, and jealously turned her back on me before she uncovered the child; then all in a moment she fell to crying, and laughing, crooning over it and making strange noises. i heard the count's horse at the door, and i stepped to her. 'you are sure that it _is_ your child?' i said. '_sure?_' she cried; and she darted a glance at me that for scorn outdid all my lady's. after that i had no doubt left. 'then bring it to the countess, my girl,' i said. 'he is here. and it is she who should give it to him.' 'who is here?' she cried sharply. 'count leuchtenstein.' she stared at me for a moment, and then suddenly quailed and broke down, as it were. she blushed crimson; her eyes looked at me piteously, like those of a beaten dog. 'oh,' she said, 'i forgot that it was you!' 'never mind that,' i said. 'take the child to my lady.' she nodded, in quick comprehension. as the count crossed the threshold below, she sped up the stairs, and i after her. my lady was in the parlour, walking the length of it impatiently, with a set face; but whether the impatience was on my account, because i had delayed below so long, or on the count's, whose arrival she had probably seen from the window, i will not say, for as i entered and before she could speak, marie ran to her with the child and placed it in her arms. my lady turned for a moment quite pale. 'what is it?' she said faintly, holding it from her awkwardly. marie cried out between laughing and crying, 'the child! the child, my lady.' 'and count leuchtenstein is on the stairs,' i said. the colour swept back into the countess's face in a flood and covered it from brow to neck. for a moment, taken by surprise, she forgot her pride and looked at us shyly, timidly. 'where--where did you recover it?' she murmured. 'the waldgrave recovered it,' i answered hurriedly, 'and sent it to your excellency, that you might give it to count leuchtenstein.' 'the waldgrave!' she cried. 'yes, my lady, with that message,' i answered strenuously. the countess looked to marie for help. i could hear steps on the stairs--at the door; and i suppose that the two women settled it with their eyes. for no words passed, but in a twinkling marie snatched the child, which was just beginning to cry, from the countess and ran away with it through an inner door. as that door fell to, the other opened, and ernst announced count leuchtenstein. he came in, looking embarrassed, and a little stiff. his buff coat showed marks of the corselet--he had not changed it--and his boots were dusty. it seemed to me that he brought in a faint reek of powder with him, but i forgot this the next moment in the look of melancholy kindness i espied in his eyes--a look that enabled me for the first time to see him as my lady saw him. she met him very quietly, with a heightened colour, but the most perfect self-possession. i marvelled to see how in a moment she was herself again. 'i rejoice to see you safe, count leuchtenstein,' she said. 'i heard early this morning that you were unhurt.' 'yes,' he answered. 'i have not a scratch, where so many younger men have fallen.' 'alas! there will be tears on many hearths,' my lady said. 'yes. poor germany!' he answered. 'poor germany! it is a fearful thing. god forgive us who have to do with the making of war. yet we may hope, as long as our young men show such valour and courage as some showed yesterday; and none more conspicuously than the waldgrave rupert.' 'i am glad,' my lady said, colouring, 'that he justified your interference on his behalf, count leuchtenstein. it was right that he should; and right that i should do more--ask your pardon for the miserable ingratitude of which my passion made me guilty a while ago.' 'countess!' he cried. 'no,' she said, stopping him with a gesture full of dignity. 'you must hear me out, for now that i have confessed, we are quits. i behaved ill--so ill that i deserved a heavy punishment. you thought so--and inflicted it!' her voice dropped with the last words. he turned very red, and looked at her wistfully; but i suppose that he dared not draw conclusions. for he remained silent, and she resumed, more lightly. 'so rupert did well yesterday?' she said. 'i am glad, for he will be pleased.' 'he did more than well!' count leuchtenstein answered, with awkward warmth. 'he distinguished himself in the face of the whole army. his courage and coolness were above praise. as we have----' the count paused, then blundered on hastily--'quarrelled, dare i say, countess, over him, i am anxious to make him the ground of our reconciliation also. i have formed the highest opinion of him; and i hope to advance his interests in every way.' my lady raised her eyebrows. 'with me?' she said quaintly. the count fidgeted, and looked very ill at ease. 'may i speak quite plainly?' he said at last. 'surely,' the countess answered. 'then it can be no secret to you that he has--formed an attachment to you. it would be strange if he had not,' the count added gallantly. 'and he has asked you to speak for him?' my lady exclaimed, in an odd tone. 'no, not exactly. but----' 'you think that it--it would be a good match for me,' she said, her voice trembling, but whether with tears or laughter, i could not tell. 'you think that, being a woman, and for the present houseless, and almost friendless, i should do well to marry him?' 'he is a brave and honest man,' the count muttered, looking all ways--and looking very miserable. 'and he loves you!' he added with an effort. 'and you think that i should marry him?' my lady persisted mercilessly. 'answer me, if you please, count leuchtenstein, or you are a poor ambassador.' 'i am not an ambassador,' he replied, thus goaded. 'but i thought----' 'that i ought to marry him?' 'if you love him,' the count muttered. my lady took a turn to the window, looked out, and came back. when she spoke at last, i could not tell whether the harshness in her voice was real or assumed. 'i see how it is,' she said, 'very clearly, count leuchtenstein. i have confessed, and i have been punished; but i am not forgiven. i must do something more, it seems. wait!' he was going to protest, to remonstrate, to deny; but she was gone, out through the door, to return on the instant with something in her arms. she took it to the count and held it out to him. 'see!' she said, her voice broken by sobs; 'it is your child. god has given it back again. god has given it to you, because you trusted in him. it is your child.' he stood as if turned to stone. 'is it?' he said at last, in a low, strained voice. 'is it? then thank god for his mercy to my house. but how--shall i know it?' 'the girl knows it. marie knows it,' my lady cried; 'and the child knows her. and martin--martin will tell you how it was found--how the waldgrave found it.' 'the waldgrave?' the count cried. 'yes, the waldgrave,' she answered; 'and he sent it to me to give to you.' then i went to him and told him all i knew; and marie, who, like my lady, was laughing through her tears, took the child, and showed him how it knew her, and remembered my name and my lady's, and had this mark and that mark, and so forth, until he was convinced; and while in that hour all nuremberg outside our house mourned and lamented, within, i think, there were as thankful hearts as anywhere in the world, so that even steve, when he came peeping through the door to see what was the matter, went blubbering down again. presently count leuchtenstein said something handsome to marie about her care of the child, and slipping off a gold chain that he was wearing, threw it round her neck, with a pleasant word to me. marie, covered with blushes, took this as a signal to go, and would have left the child with his father; but the boy objected strongly, and the count, with a laugh, bade her take him. 'if he were a little older!' he said. 'but i have not much accommodation for a child in my quarters. next week i am going to cassel, and then----' 'you will take him with you?' my lady said. the count looked at the closing door, as it fell to behind marie, and when the latch dropped, he spoke. 'countess,' he said bluntly, 'have i misunderstood you?' my lady's eyes fell. 'i do not know,' she said softly. 'i should think not. i have spoken very plainly.' 'i am almost an old man,' he said, looking at her kindly, 'and you are a young woman. have you been amusing yourself at my expense?' the countess shook her head. 'no,' she said, with a gleam of laughter in her eyes; 'i have done with that. i began to amuse myself with general tzerclas, and i found it so perilous a pleasure that i determined to forswear it. though,' she added, looking down and playing with her bracelet, 'why i should tell you this, i do not know.' 'because--henceforth i hope that you will tell me everything,' the count said suddenly. 'very well,' my lady answered, colouring deeply. 'and will be my wife?' 'i will--if you desire it.' the count walked to the window and returned. 'that is not enough,' he said, looking at her with a smile of infinite tenderness. 'it must not be unless _you_ desire it; for i have all to gain, you little or nothing. consider, child,' he went on, laying his hand gently on her shoulder as she sat, but not now looking at her. 'consider; i am a man past middle age. i have been married already, and the portrait of my child's mother stands always on my table. even of the life left to me--a soldier's life--i can offer you only a part; the rest i owe to my country, to the poor and the peasant who cry for peace, to my master, than whom god has given no state a better ruler, to god himself, who places power in my hands. all these i cannot and will not desert. countess, i love you, and men can still love when youth is past. but i would far rather never feel the touch of your hand or of your lips than i would give up these things. do you understand?' 'perfectly,' my lady said, looking steadfastly before her, though her heaving breast betrayed her emotion. 'and i desire to be your wife, and to help you in these things as the greatest happiness god can give me.' the count stooped gently and kissed her forehead. 'thank you,' he said. * * * * * i have very little to add. all the world knows that the king of sweden, unable to entice wallenstein from his lines, remained in his camp before nuremberg for fifteen days longer, during which period the city and the army suffered all the extremities of famine and plague. after that, satisfied that he had so far reduced the duke of friedland's strength that it no longer menaced the city, he marched away with his army into thuringia; and there, two months later, on the immortal field of lutzen, defeated his enemy, and fell, some say by a traitor's hand, in the moment of victory; leaving to all who ever looked upon his face the memory of a sovereign and soldier without a rival, modest in sunshine and undaunted in storm. i saw him seven times and i say this. and all the world knows in what a welter of war and battles and sieges and famines we have since lain, so that no man foresees the end, and many suppose that happiness has quite fled from the earth, or at least from german soil. yet this is not so. it is true in comparison with the old days, when my lady kept her maiden court at heritzburg, and our greatest excitement was a visit from count tilly, we lead a troubled life. my lady's eyes are often grave, and the days when she goes with her two brave boys to the summit of the schloss and looks southward with a wistful face, are many; many, for the count, though he verges on seventy, still keeps the field and is a tower in the councils of the north. but with all that, the life is a full one--full of worthy things and help given to others, and a great example greatly set, and peace honestly if vainly pursued. and for this and for other reasons, i believe that my lady, doing her duty, hoping and praying and training her children, is happy; perhaps as happy as in the old days when fraulein anna prosed of virtue and felicity and voetius. the waldgrave rupert, still the handsomest of men, but sobered by the stress of war, comes to see us in the intervals of battles and sieges. on these occasions the children flock round him, and he tells tales--of nordlingen, and leipzig, and the leaguer of breysach; and blue eyes grow stern, and chubby faces grim, and shell-white teeth are ground together, while marie sits pale and quaking, devouring her boys with hungry mother's eyes. but they do not laugh at her now; they have not since the day when the waldgrave bade them guess who was the bravest person he had ever known. 'father!' my lady's sons cried. and marie's, not to be outdone, cried the same. but the waldgrave shook his head. 'no,' he said, 'try again.' my youngest guessed the king of sweden. 'no,' the waldgrave answered him. 'your mother.' the end. this ebook was produced by david widger, widger@cecomet.net the works of frederick schiller translated from the german illustrated history of the thirty years' war in germany. book iv. the weak bond of union, by which gustavus adolphus contrived to hold together the protestant members of the empire, was dissolved by his death: the allies were now again at liberty, and their alliance, to last, must be formed anew. by the former event, if unremedied, they would lose all the advantages they had gained at the cost of so much bloodshed, and expose themselves to the inevitable danger of becoming one after the other the prey of an enemy, whom, by their union alone, they had been able to oppose and to master. neither sweden, nor any of the states of the empire, was singly a match with the emperor and the league; and, by seeking a peace under the present state of things, they would necessarily be obliged to receive laws from the enemy. union was, therefore, equally indispensable, either for concluding a peace or continuing the war. but a peace, sought under the present circumstances, could not fail to be disadvantageous to the allied powers. with the death of gustavus adolphus, the enemy had formed new hopes; and however gloomy might be the situation of his affairs after the battle of lutzen, still the death of his dreaded rival was an event too disastrous to the allies, and too favourable for the emperor, not to justify him in entertaining the most brilliant expectations, and not to encourage him to the prosecution of the war. its inevitable consequence, for the moment at least, must be want of union among the allies, and what might not the emperor and the league gain from such a division of their enemies? he was not likely to sacrifice such prospects, as the present turn of affairs held out to him, for any peace, not highly beneficial to himself; and such a peace the allies would not be disposed to accept. they naturally determined, therefore, to continue the war, and for this purpose, the maintenance of the existing union was acknowledged to be indispensable. but how was this union to be renewed? and whence were to be derived the necessary means for continuing the war? it was not the power of sweden, but the talents and personal influence of its late king, which had given him so overwhelming an influence in germany, so great a command over the minds of men; and even he had innumerable difficulties to overcome, before he could establish among the states even a weak and wavering alliance. with his death vanished all, which his personal qualities alone had rendered practicable; and the mutual obligation of the states seemed to cease with the hopes on which it had been founded. several impatiently threw off the yoke which had always been irksome; others hastened to seize the helm which they had unwillingly seen in the hands of gustavus, but which, during his lifetime, they did not dare to dispute with him. some were tempted, by the seductive promises of the emperor, to abandon the alliance; others, oppressed by the heavy burdens of a fourteen years' war, longed for the repose of peace, upon any conditions, however ruinous. the generals of the army, partly german princes, acknowledged no common head, and no one would stoop to receive orders from another. unanimity vanished alike from the cabinet and the field, and their common weal was threatened with ruin, by the spirit of disunion. gustavus had left no male heir to the crown of sweden: his daughter christina, then six years old, was the natural heir. the unavoidable weakness of a regency, suited ill with that energy and resolution, which sweden would be called upon to display in this trying conjuncture. the wide reaching mind of gustavus adolphus had raised this unimportant, and hitherto unknown kingdom, to a rank among the powers of europe, which it could not retain without the fortune and genius of its author, and from which it could not recede, without a humiliating confession of weakness. though the german war had been conducted chiefly on the resources of germany, yet even the small contribution of men and money, which sweden furnished, had sufficed to exhaust the finances of that poor kingdom, and the peasantry groaned beneath the imposts necessarily laid upon them. the plunder gained in germany enriched only a few individuals, among the nobles and the soldiers, while sweden itself remained poor as before. for a time, it is true, the national glory reconciled the subject to these burdens, and the sums exacted, seemed but as a loan placed at interest, in the fortunate hand of gustavus adolphus, to be richly repaid by the grateful monarch at the conclusion of a glorious peace. but with the king's death this hope vanished, and the deluded people now loudly demanded relief from their burdens. but the spirit of gustavus adolphus still lived in the men to whom he had confided the administration of the kingdom. however dreadful to them, and unexpected, was the intelligence of his death, it did not deprive them of their manly courage; and the spirit of ancient rome, under the invasion of brennus and hannibal, animated this noble assembly. the greater the price, at which these hard-gained advantages had been purchased, the less readily could they reconcile themselves to renounce them: not unrevenged was a king to be sacrificed. called on to choose between a doubtful and exhausting war, and a profitable but disgraceful peace, the swedish council of state boldly espoused the side of danger and honour; and with agreeable surprise, men beheld this venerable senate acting with all the energy and enthusiasm of youth. surrounded with watchful enemies, both within and without, and threatened on every side with danger, they armed themselves against them all, with equal prudence and heroism, and laboured to extend their kingdom, even at the moment when they had to struggle for its existence. the decease of the king, and the minority of his daughter christina, renewed the claims of poland to the swedish throne; and king ladislaus, the son of sigismund, spared no intrigues to gain a party in sweden. on this ground, the regency lost no time in proclaiming the young queen, and arranging the administration of the regency. all the officers of the kingdom were summoned to do homage to their new princess; all correspondence with poland prohibited, and the edicts of previous monarchs against the heirs of sigismund, confirmed by a solemn act of the nation. the alliance with the czar of muscovy was carefully renewed, in order, by the arms of this prince, to keep the hostile poles in check. the death of gustavus adolphus had put an end to the jealousy of denmark, and removed the grounds of alarm which had stood in the way of a good understanding between the two states. the representations by which the enemy sought to stir up christian iv. against sweden were no longer listened to; and the strong wish the danish monarch entertained for the marriage of his son ulrick with the young princess, combined, with the dictates of a sounder policy, to incline him to a neutrality. at the same time, england, holland, and france came forward with the gratifying assurances to the regency of continued friendship and support, and encouraged them, with one voice, to prosecute with activity the war, which hitherto had been conducted with so much glory. whatever reason france might have to congratulate itself on the death of the swedish conqueror, it was as fully sensible of the expediency of maintaining the alliance with sweden. without exposing itself to great danger, it could not allow the power of sweden to sink in germany. want of resources of its own, would either drive sweden to conclude a hasty and disadvantageous peace with austria, and then all the past efforts to lower the ascendancy of this dangerous power would be thrown away; or necessity and despair would drive the armies to extort from the roman catholic states the means of support, and france would then be regarded as the betrayer of those very states, who had placed themselves under her powerful protection. the death of gustavus, far from breaking up the alliance between france and sweden, had only rendered it more necessary for both, and more profitable for france. now, for the first time, since he was dead who had stretched his protecting arm over germany, and guarded its frontiers against the encroaching designs of france, could the latter safely pursue its designs upon alsace, and thus be enabled to sell its aid to the german protestants at a dearer rate. strengthened by these alliances, secured in its interior, and defended from without by strong frontier garrisons and fleets, the regency did not delay an instant to continue a war, by which sweden had little of its own to lose, while, if success attended its arms, one or more of the german provinces might be won, either as a conquest, or indemnification of its expenses. secure amidst its seas, sweden, even if driven out of germany, would scarcely be exposed to greater peril, than if it voluntarily retired from the contest, while the former measure was as honourable, as the latter was disgraceful. the more boldness the regency displayed, the more confidence would they inspire among their confederates, the more respect among their enemies, and the more favourable conditions might they anticipate in the event of peace. if they found themselves too weak to execute the wide-ranging projects of gustavus, they at least owed it to this lofty model to do their utmost, and to yield to no difficulty short of absolute necessity. alas, that motives of self-interest had too great a share in this noble determination, to demand our unqualified admiration! for those who had nothing themselves to suffer from the calamities of war, but were rather to be enriched by it, it was an easy matter to resolve upon its continuation; for the german empire was, in the end, to defray the expenses; and the provinces on which they reckoned, would be cheaply purchased with the few troops they sacrificed to them, and with the generals who were placed at the head of armies, composed for the most part of germans, and with the honourable superintendence of all the operations, both military and political. but this superintendence was irreconcileable with the distance of the swedish regency from the scene of action, and with the slowness which necessarily accompanies all the movements of a council. to one comprehensive mind must be intrusted the management of swedish interests in germany, and with full powers to determine at discretion all questions of war and peace, the necessary alliances, or the acquisitions made. with dictatorial power, and with the whole influence of the crown which he was to represent, must this important magistrate be invested, in order to maintain its dignity, to enforce united and combined operations, to give effect to his orders, and to supply the place of the monarch whom he succeeded. such a man was found in the chancellor oxenstiern, the first minister, and what is more, the friend of the deceased king, who, acquainted with all the secrets of his master, versed in the politics of germany, and in the relations of all the states of europe, was unquestionably the fittest instrument to carry out the plans of gustavus adolphus in their full extent. oxenstiern was on his way to upper germany, in order to assemble the four upper circles, when the news of the king's death reached him at hanau. this was a heavy blow, both to the friend and the statesman. sweden, indeed, had lost but a king, germany a protector; but oxenstiern, the author of his fortunes, the friend of his soul, and the object of his admiration. though the greatest sufferer in the general loss, he was the first who by his energy rose from the blow, and the only one qualified to repair it. his penetrating glance foresaw all the obstacles which would oppose the execution of his plans, the discouragement of the estates, the intrigues of hostile courts, the breaking up of the confederacy, the jealousy of the leaders, and the dislike of princes of the empire to submit to foreign authority. but even this deep insight into the existing state of things, which revealed the whole extent of the evil, showed him also the means by which it might be overcome. it was essential to revive the drooping courage of the weaker states, to meet the secret machinations of the enemy, to allay the jealousy of the more powerful allies, to rouse the friendly powers, and france in particular, to active assistance; but above all, to repair the ruined edifice of the german alliance, and to reunite the scattered strength of the party by a close and permanent bond of union. the dismay which the loss of their leader occasioned the german protestants, might as readily dispose them to a closer alliance with sweden, as to a hasty peace with the emperor; and it depended entirely upon the course pursued, which of these alternatives they would adopt. every thing might be lost by the slightest sign of despondency; nothing, but the confidence which sweden showed in herself, could kindle among the germans a noble feeling of self-confidence. all the attempts of austria, to detach these princes from the swedish alliance, would be unavailing, the moment their eyes became opened to their true interests, and they were instigated to a public and formal breach with the emperor. before these measures could be taken, and the necessary points settled between the regency and their minister, a precious opportunity of action would, it is true, be lost to the swedish army, of which the enemy would be sure to take the utmost advantage. it was, in short, in the power of the emperor totally to ruin the swedish interest in germany, and to this he was actually invited by the prudent councils of the duke of friedland. wallenstein advised him to proclaim a universal amnesty, and to meet the protestant states with favourable conditions. in the first consternation produced by the fall of gustavus adolphus, such a declaration would have had the most powerful effects, and probably would have brought the wavering states back to their allegiance. but blinded by this unexpected turn of fortune, and infatuated by spanish counsels, he anticipated a more brilliant issue from war, and, instead of listening to these propositions of an accommodation, he hastened to augment his forces. spain, enriched by the grant of the tenth of the ecclesiastical possessions, which the pope confirmed, sent him considerable supplies, negociated for him at the saxon court, and hastily levied troops for him in italy to be employed in germany. the elector of bavaria also considerably increased his military force; and the restless disposition of the duke of lorraine did not permit him to remain inactive in this favourable change of fortune. but while the enemy were thus busy to profit by the disaster of sweden, oxenstiern was diligent to avert its most fatal consequences. less apprehensive of open enemies, than of the jealousy of the friendly powers, he left upper germany, which he had secured by conquests and alliances, and set out in person to prevent a total defection of the lower german states, or, what would have been almost equally ruinous to sweden, a private alliance among themselves. offended at the boldness with which the chancellor assumed the direction of affairs, and inwardly exasperated at the thought of being dictated to by a swedish nobleman, the elector of saxony again meditated a dangerous separation from sweden; and the only question in his mind was, whether he should make full terms with the emperor, or place himself at the head of the protestants and form a third party in germany. similar ideas were cherished by duke ulric of brunswick, who, indeed, showed them openly enough by forbidding the swedes from recruiting within his dominions, and inviting the lower saxon states to luneburg, for the purpose of forming a confederacy among themselves. the elector of brandenburg, jealous of the influence which saxony was likely to attain in lower germany, alone manifested any zeal for the interests of the swedish throne, which, in thought, he already destined for his son. at the court of saxony, oxenstiern was no doubt honourably received; but, notwithstanding the personal efforts of the elector of brandenburg, empty promises of continued friendship were all which he could obtain. with the duke of brunswick he was more successful, for with him he ventured to assume a bolder tone. sweden was at the time in possession of the see of magdeburg, the bishop of which had the power of assembling the lower saxon circle. the chancellor now asserted the rights of the crown, and by this spirited proceeding, put a stop for the present to this dangerous assembly designed by the duke. the main object, however, of his present journey and of his future endeavours, a general confederacy of the protestants, miscarried entirely, and he was obliged to content himself with some unsteady alliances in the saxon circles, and with the weaker assistance of upper germany. as the bavarians were too powerful on the danube, the assembly of the four upper circles, which should have been held at ulm, was removed to heilbronn, where deputies of more than twelve cities of the empire, with a brilliant crowd of doctors, counts, and princes, attended. the ambassadors of foreign powers likewise, france, england, and holland, attended this congress, at which oxenstiern appeared in person, with all the splendour of the crown whose representative he was. he himself opened the proceedings, and conducted the deliberations. after receiving from all the assembled estates assurances of unshaken fidelity, perseverance, and unity, he required of them solemnly and formally to declare the emperor and the league as enemies. but desirable as it was for sweden to exasperate the ill-feeling between the emperor and the estates into a formal rupture, the latter, on the other hand, were equally indisposed to shut out the possibility of reconciliation, by so decided a step, and to place themselves entirely in the hands of the swedes. they maintained, that any formal declaration of war was useless and superfluous, where the act would speak for itself, and their firmness on this point silenced at last the chancellor. warmer disputes arose on the third and principal article of the treaty, concerning the means of prosecuting the war, and the quota which the several states ought to furnish for the support of the army. oxenstiern's maxim, to throw as much as possible of the common burden on the states, did not suit very well with their determination to give as little as possible. the swedish chancellor now experienced, what had been felt by thirty emperors before him, to their cost, that of all difficult undertakings, the most difficult was to extort money from the germans. instead of granting the necessary sums for the new armies to be raised, they eloquently dwelt upon the calamities occasioned by the former, and demanded relief from the old burdens, when they were required to submit to new. the irritation which the chancellor's demand for money raised among the states, gave rise to a thousand complaints; and the outrages committed by the troops, in their marches and quarters, were dwelt upon with a startling minuteness and truth. in the service of two absolute monarchs, oxenstiern had but little opportunity to become accustomed to the formalities and cautious proceedings of republican deliberations, or to bear opposition with patience. ready to act, the instant the necessity of action was apparent, and inflexible in his resolution, when he had once taken it, he was at a loss to comprehend the inconsistency of most men, who, while they desire the end, are yet averse to the means. prompt and impetuous by nature, he was so on this occasion from principle; for every thing depended on concealing the weakness of sweden, under a firm and confident speech, and by assuming the tone of a lawgiver, really to become so. it was nothing wonderful, therefore, if, amidst these interminable discussions with german doctors and deputies, he was entirely out of his sphere, and if the deliberateness which distinguishes the character of the germans in their public deliberations, had driven him almost to despair. without respecting a custom, to which even the most powerful of the emperors had been obliged to conform, he rejected all written deliberations which suited so well with the national slowness of resolve. he could not conceive how ten days could be spent in debating a measure, which with himself was decided upon its bare suggestion. harshly, however, as he treated the states, he found them ready enough to assent to his fourth motion, which concerned himself. when he pointed out the necessity of giving a head and a director to the new confederation, that honour was unanimously assigned to sweden, and he himself was humbly requested to give to the common cause the benefit of his enlightened experience, and to take upon himself the burden of the supreme command. but in order to prevent his abusing the great powers thus conferred upon him, it was proposed, not without french influence, to appoint a number of overseers, in fact, under the name of assistants, to control the expenditure of the common treasure, and to consult with him as to the levies, marches, and quarterings of the troops. oxenstiern long and strenuously resisted this limitation of his authority, which could not fail to trammel him in the execution of every enterprise requiring promptitude or secrecy, and at last succeeded, with difficulty, in obtaining so far a modification of it, that his management in affairs of war was to be uncontrolled. the chancellor finally approached the delicate point of the indemnification which sweden was to expect at the conclusion of the war, from the gratitude of the allies, and flattered himself with the hope that pomerania, the main object of sweden, would be assigned to her, and that he would obtain from the provinces, assurances of effectual cooperation in its acquisition. but he could obtain nothing more than a vague assurance, that in a general peace the interests of all parties would be attended to. that on this point, the caution of the estates was not owing to any regard for the constitution of the empire, became manifest from the liberality they evinced towards the chancellor, at the expense of the most sacred laws of the empire. they were ready to grant him the archbishopric of mentz, (which he already held as a conquest,) and only with difficulty did the french ambassador succeed in preventing a step, which was as impolitic as it was disgraceful. though on the whole, the result of the congress had fallen far short of oxenstiern's expectations, he had at least gained for himself and his crown his main object, namely, the direction of the whole confederacy; he had also succeeded in strengthening the bond of union between the four upper circles, and obtained from the states a yearly contribution of two millions and a half of dollars, for the maintenance of the army. these concessions on the part of the states, demanded some return from sweden. a few weeks after the death of gustavus adolphus, sorrow ended the days of the unfortunate elector palatine. for eight months he had swelled the pomp of his protector's court, and expended on it the small remainder of his patrimony. he was, at last, approaching the goal of his wishes, and the prospect of a brighter future was opening, when death deprived him of his protector. but what he regarded as the greatest calamity, was highly favourable to his heirs. gustavus might venture to delay the restoration of his dominions, or to load the gift with hard conditions; but oxenstiern, to whom the friendship of england, holland, and brandenburg, and the good opinion of the reformed states were indispensable, felt the necessity of immediately fulfilling the obligations of justice. at this assembly, at heilbronn, therefore, he engaged to surrender to frederick's heirs the whole palatinate, both the part already conquered, and that which remained to be conquered, with the exception of manheim, which the swedes were to hold, until they should be indemnified for their expenses. the chancellor did not confine his liberality to the family of the palatine alone; the other allied princes received proofs, though at a later period, of the gratitude of sweden, which, however, she dispensed at little cost to herself. impartiality, the most sacred obligation of the historian, here compels us to an admission, not much to the honour of the champions of german liberty. however the protestant princes might boast of the justice of their cause, and the sincerity of their conviction, still the motives from which they acted were selfish enough; and the desire of stripping others of their possessions, had at least as great a share in the commencement of hostilities, as the fear of being deprived of their own. gustavus soon found that he might reckon much more on these selfish motives, than on their patriotic zeal, and did not fail to avail himself of them. each of his confederates received from him the promise of some possession, either already wrested, or to be afterwards taken from the enemy; and death alone prevented him from fulfilling these engagements. what prudence had suggested to the king, necessity now prescribed to his successor. if it was his object to continue the war, he must be ready to divide the spoil among the allies, and promise them advantages from the confusion which it was his object to continue. thus he promised to the landgrave of hesse, the abbacies of paderborn, corvey, munster, and fulda; to duke bernard of weimar, the franconian bishoprics; to the duke of wirtemberg, the ecclesiastical domains, and the austrian counties lying within his territories, all under the title of fiefs of sweden. this spectacle, so strange and so dishonourable to the german character, surprised the chancellor, who found it difficult to repress his contempt, and on one occasion exclaimed, "let it be writ in our records, for an everlasting memorial, that a german prince made such a request of a swedish nobleman, and that the swedish nobleman granted it to the german upon german ground!" after these successful measures, he was in a condition to take the field, and prosecute the war with fresh vigour. soon after the victory at lutzen, the troops of saxony and lunenburg united with the swedish main body; and the imperialists were, in a short time, totally driven from saxony. the united army again divided: the saxons marched towards lusatia and silesia, to act in conjunction with count thurn against the austrians in that quarter; a part of the swedish army was led by the duke of weimar into franconia, and the other by george, duke of brunswick, into westphalia and lower saxony. the conquests on the lech and the danube, during gustavus's expedition into saxony, had been maintained by the palatine of birkenfeld, and the swedish general banner, against the bavarians; but unable to hold their ground against the victorious progress of the latter, supported as they were by the bravery and military experience of the imperial general altringer, they were under the necessity of summoning the swedish general horn to their assistance, from alsace. this experienced general having captured the towns of benfeld, schlettstadt, colmar, and hagenau, committed the defence of them to the rhinegrave otto louis, and hastily crossed the rhine to form a junction with banner's army. but although the combined force amounted to more than , , they could not prevent the enemy from obtaining a strong position on the swabian frontier, taking kempten, and being joined by seven regiments from bohemia. in order to retain the command of the important banks of the lech and the danube, they were under the necessity of recalling the rhinegrave otto louis from alsace, where he had, after the departure of horn, found it difficult to defend himself against the exasperated peasantry. with his army, he was now summoned to strengthen the army on the danube; and as even this reinforcement was insufficient, duke bernard of weimar was earnestly pressed to turn his arms into this quarter. duke bernard, soon after the opening of the campaign of , had made himself master of the town and territory of bamberg, and was now threatening wurtzburg. but on receiving the summons of general horn, without delay he began his march towards the danube, defeated on his way a bavarian army under john de werth, and joined the swedes near donauwerth. this numerous force, commanded by excellent generals, now threatened bavaria with a fearful inroad. the bishopric of eichstadt was completely overrun, and ingoldstadt was on the point of being delivered up by treachery to the swedes. altringer, fettered in his movements by the express order of the duke of friedland, and left without assistance from bohemia, was unable to check the progress of the enemy. the most favourable circumstances combined to further the progress of the swedish arms in this quarter, when the operations of the army were at once stopped by a mutiny among the officers. all the previous successes in germany were owing altogether to arms; the greatness of gustavus himself was the work of the army, the fruit of their discipline, their bravery, and their persevering courage under numberless dangers and privations. however wisely his plans were laid in the cabinet, it was to the army ultimately that he was indebted for their execution; and the expanding designs of the general did but continually impose new burdens on the soldiers. all the decisive advantages of the war, had been violently gained by a barbarous sacrifice of the soldiers' lives in winter campaigns, forced marches, stormings, and pitched battles; for it was gustavus's maxim never to decline a battle, so long as it cost him nothing but men. the soldiers could not long be kept ignorant of their own importance, and they justly demanded a share in the spoil which had been won by their own blood. yet, frequently, they hardly received their pay; and the rapacity of individual generals, or the wants of the state, generally swallowed up the greater part of the sums raised by contributions, or levied upon the conquered provinces. for all the privations he endured, the soldier had no other recompense than the doubtful chance either of plunder or promotion, in both of which he was often disappointed. during the lifetime of gustavus adolphus, the combined influence of fear and hope had suppressed any open complaint, but after his death, the murmurs were loud and universal; and the soldiery seized the most dangerous moment to impress their superiors with a sense of their importance. two officers, pfuhl and mitschefal, notorious as restless characters, even during the king's life, set the example in the camp on the danube, which in a few days was imitated by almost all the officers of the army. they solemnly bound themselves to obey no orders, till these arrears, now outstanding for months, and even years, should be paid up, and a gratuity, either in money or lands, made to each man, according to his services. "immense sums," they said, "were daily raised by contributions, and all dissipated by a few. they were called out to serve amidst frost and snow, and no reward requited their incessant labours. the soldiers' excesses at heilbronn had been blamed, but no one ever talked of their services. the world rung with the tidings of conquests and victories, but it was by their hands that they had been fought and won." the number of the malcontents daily increased; and they even attempted by letters, (which were fortunately intercepted,) to seduce the armies on the rhine and in saxony. neither the representations of bernard of weimar, nor the stern reproaches of his harsher associate in command, could suppress this mutiny, while the vehemence of horn seemed only to increase the insolence of the insurgents. the conditions they insisted on, were that certain towns should be assigned to each regiment for the payment of arrears. four weeks were allowed to the swedish chancellor to comply with these demands; and in case of refusal, they announced that they would pay themselves, and never more draw a sword for sweden. these pressing demands, made at the very time when the military chest was exhausted, and credit at a low ebb, greatly embarrassed the chancellor. the remedy, he saw, must be found quickly, before the contagion should spread to the other troops, and he should be deserted by all his armies at once. among all the swedish generals, there was only one of sufficient authority and influence with the soldiers to put an end to this dispute. the duke of weimar was the favourite of the army, and his prudent moderation had won the good-will of the soldiers, while his military experience had excited their admiration. he now undertook the task of appeasing the discontented troops; but, aware of his importance, he embraced the opportunity to make advantageous stipulations for himself, and to make the embarrassment of the chancellor subservient to his own views. gustavus adolphus had flattered him with the promise of the duchy of franconia, to be formed out of the bishoprics of wurtzburg and bamberg, and he now insisted on the performance of this pledge. he at the same time demanded the chief command, as generalissimo of sweden. the abuse which the duke of weimar thus made of his influence, so irritated oxenstiern, that, in the first moment of his displeasure, he gave him his dismissal from the swedish service. but he soon thought better of it, and determined, instead of sacrificing so important a leader, to attach him to the swedish interests at any cost. he therefore granted to him the franconian bishoprics, as a fief of the swedish crown, reserving, however, the two fortresses of wurtzburg and koenigshofen, which were to be garrisoned by the swedes; and also engaged, in name of the swedish crown, to secure these territories to the duke. his demand of the supreme authority was evaded on some specious pretext. the duke did not delay to display his gratitude for this valuable grant, and by his influence and activity soon restored tranquillity to the army. large sums of money, and still more extensive estates, were divided among the officers, amounting in value to about five millions of dollars, and to which they had no other right but that of conquest. in the mean time, however, the opportunity for a great undertaking had been lost, and the united generals divided their forces to oppose the enemy in other quarters. gustavus horn, after a short inroad into the upper palatinate, and the capture of neumark, directed his march towards the swabian frontier, where the imperialists, strongly reinforced, threatened wuertemberg. at his approach, the enemy retired to the lake of constance, but only to show the swedes the road into a district hitherto unvisited by war. a post on the entrance to switzerland, would be highly serviceable to the swedes, and the town of kostnitz seemed peculiarly well fitted to be a point of communication between him and the confederated cantons. accordingly, gustavus horn immediately commenced the siege of it; but destitute of artillery, for which he was obliged to send to wirtemberg, he could not press the attack with sufficient vigour, to prevent the enemy from throwing supplies into the town, which the lake afforded them convenient opportunity of doing. he, therefore, after an ineffectual attempt, quitted the place and its neighbourhood, and hastened to meet a more threatening danger upon the danube. at the emperor's instigation, the cardinal infante, the brother of philip iv. of spain, and the viceroy of milan, had raised an army of , men, intended to act upon the rhine, independently of wallenstein, and to protect alsace. this force now appeared in bavaria, under the command of the duke of feria, a spaniard; and, that they might be directly employed against the swedes, altringer was ordered to join them with his corps. upon the first intelligence of their approach, horn had summoned to his assistance the palsgrave of birkenfeld, from the rhine; and being joined by him at stockach, boldly advanced to meet the enemy's army of , men. the latter had taken the route across the danube into swabia, where gustavus horn came so close upon them, that the two armies were only separated from each other by half a german mile. but, instead of accepting the offer of battle, the imperialists moved by the forest towns towards briesgau and alsace, where they arrived in time to relieve breysack, and to arrest the victorious progress of the rhinegrave, otto louis. the latter had, shortly before, taken the forest towns, and, supported by the palatine of birkenfeld, who had liberated the lower palatinate and beaten the duke of lorraine out of the field, had once more given the superiority to the swedish arms in that quarter. he was now forced to retire before the superior numbers of the enemy; but horn and birkenfeld quickly advanced to his support, and the imperialists, after a brief triumph, were again expelled from alsace. the severity of the autumn, in which this hapless retreat had to be conducted, proved fatal to most of the italians; and their leader, the duke of feria, died of grief at the failure of his enterprise. in the mean time, duke bernard of weimar had taken up his position on the danube, with eighteen regiments of infantry and squadrons of horse, to cover franconia, and to watch the movements of the imperial-bavarian army upon that river. no sooner had altringer departed, to join the italians under feria, than bernard, profiting by his absence, hastened across the danube, and with the rapidity of lightning appeared before ratisbon. the possession of this town would ensure the success of the swedish designs upon bavaria and austria; it would establish them firmly on the danube, and provide a safe refuge in case of defeat, while it alone could give permanence to their conquests in that quarter. to defend ratisbon, was the urgent advice which the dying tilly left to the elector; and gustavus adolphus had lamented it as an irreparable loss, that the bavarians had anticipated him in taking possession of this place. indescribable, therefore, was the consternation of maximilian, when duke bernard suddenly appeared before the town, and prepared in earnest to besiege it. the garrison consisted of not more than fifteen companies, mostly newly-raised soldiers; although that number was more than sufficient to weary out an enemy of far superior force, if supported by well-disposed and warlike inhabitants. but this was not the greatest danger which the bavarian garrison had to contend against. the protestant inhabitants of ratisbon, equally jealous of their civil and religious freedom, had unwillingly submitted to the yoke of bavaria, and had long looked with impatience for the appearance of a deliverer. bernard's arrival before the walls filled them with lively joy; and there was much reason to fear that they would support the attempts of the besiegers without, by exciting a tumult within. in this perplexity, the elector addressed the most pressing entreaties to the emperor and the duke of friedland to assist him, were it only with , men. seven messengers in succession were despatched by ferdinand to wallenstein, who promised immediate succours, and even announced to the elector the near advance of , men under gallas; but at the same time forbade that general, under pain of death, to march. meanwhile the bavarian commandant of ratisbon, in the hope of speedy assistance, made the best preparations for defence, armed the roman catholic peasants, disarmed and carefully watched the protestant citizens, lest they should attempt any hostile design against the garrison. but as no relief arrived, and the enemy's artillery incessantly battered the walls, he consulted his own safety, and that of the garrison, by an honourable capitulation, and abandoned the bavarian officials and ecclesiastics to the conqueror's mercy. the possession of ratisbon, enlarged the projects of the duke, and bavaria itself now appeared too narrow a field for his bold designs. he determined to penetrate to the frontiers of austria, to arm the protestant peasantry against the emperor, and restore to them their religious liberty. he had already taken straubingen, while another swedish army was advancing successfully along the northern bank of the danube. at the head of his swedes, bidding defiance to the severity of the weather, he reached the mouth of the iser, which he passed in the presence of the bavarian general werth, who was encamped on that river. passau and lintz trembled for their fate; the terrified emperor redoubled his entreaties and commands to wallenstein, to hasten with all speed to the relief of the hard-pressed bavarians. but here the victorious bernard, of his own accord, checked his career of conquest. having in front of him the river inn, guarded by a number of strong fortresses, and behind him two hostile armies, a disaffected country, and the river iser, while his rear was covered by no tenable position, and no entrenchment could be made in the frozen ground, and threatened by the whole force of wallenstein, who had at last resolved to march to the danube, by a timely retreat he escaped the danger of being cut off from ratisbon, and surrounded by the enemy. he hastened across the iser to the danube, to defend the conquests he had made in the upper palatinate against wallenstein, and fully resolved not to decline a battle, if necessary, with that general. but wallenstein, who was not disposed for any great exploits on the danube, did not wait for his approach; and before the bavarians could congratulate themselves on his arrival, he suddenly withdrew again into bohemia. the duke thus ended his victorious campaign, and allowed his troops their well-earned repose in winter quarters upon an enemy's country. while in swabia the war was thus successfully conducted by gustavus horn, and on the upper and lower rhine by the palatine of birkenfeld, general baudissen, and the rhinegrave otto louis, and by duke bernard on the danube; the reputation of the swedish arms was as gloriously sustained in lower saxony and westphalia by the duke of lunenburg and the landgrave of hesse cassel. the fortress of hamel was taken by duke george, after a brave defence, and a brilliant victory obtained over the imperial general gronsfeld, by the united swedish and hessian armies, near oldendorf. count wasaburg, a natural son of gustavus adolphus, showed himself in this battle worthy of his descent. sixteen pieces of cannon, the whole baggage of the imperialists, together with colours, fell into the hands of the swedes; , of the enemy perished on the field, and nearly the same number were taken prisoners. the town of osnaburg surrendered to the swedish colonel knyphausen, and paderborn to the landgrave of hesse; while, on the other hand, bueckeburg, a very important place for the swedes, fell into the hands of the imperialists. the swedish banners were victorious in almost every quarter of germany; and the year after the death of gustavus, left no trace of the loss which had been sustained in the person of that great leader. in a review of the important events which signalized the campaign of , the inactivity of a man, of whom the highest expectations had been formed, justly excites astonishment. among all the generals who distinguished themselves in this campaign, none could be compared with wallenstein, in experience, talents, and reputation; and yet, after the battle of lutzen, we lose sight of him entirely. the fall of his great rival had left the whole theatre of glory open to him; all europe was now attentively awaiting those exploits, which should efface the remembrance of his defeat, and still prove to the world his military superiority. nevertheless, he continued inactive in bohemia, while the emperor's losses in bavaria, lower saxony, and the rhine, pressingly called for his presence--a conduct equally unintelligible to friend and foe--the terror, and, at the same time, the last hope of the emperor. after the defeat of lutzen he had hastened into bohemia, where he instituted the strictest inquiry into the conduct of his officers in that battle. those whom the council of war declared guilty of misconduct, were put to death without mercy, those who had behaved with bravery, rewarded with princely munificence, and the memory of the dead honoured by splendid monuments. during the winter, he oppressed the imperial provinces by enormous contributions, and exhausted the austrian territories by his winter quarters, which he purposely avoided taking up in an enemy's country. and in the spring of , instead of being the first to open the campaign, with this well-chosen and well-appointed army, and to make a worthy display of his great abilities, he was the last who appeared in the field; and even then, it was an hereditary province of austria, which he selected as the seat of war. of all the austrian provinces, silesia was most exposed to danger. three different armies, a swedish under count thurn, a saxon under arnheim and the duke of lauenburg, and one of brandenburg under borgsdorf, had at the same time carried the war into this country; they had already taken possession of the most important places, and even breslau had embraced the cause of the allies. but this crowd of commanders and armies was the very means of saving this province to the emperor; for the jealousy of the generals, and the mutual hatred of the saxons and the swedes, never allowed them to act with unanimity. arnheim and thurn contended for the chief command; the troops of brandenburg and saxony combined against the swedes, whom they looked upon as troublesome strangers who ought to be got rid of as soon as possible. the saxons, on the contrary, lived on a very intimate footing with the imperialists, and the officers of both these hostile armies often visited and entertained each other. the imperialists were allowed to remove their property without hindrance, and many did not affect to conceal that they had received large sums from vienna. among such equivocal allies, the swedes saw themselves sold and betrayed; and any great enterprise was out of the question, while so bad an understanding prevailed between the troops. general arnheim, too, was absent the greater part of the time; and when he at last returned, wallenstein was fast approaching the frontiers with a formidable force. his army amounted to , men, while to oppose him the allies had only , . they nevertheless resolved to give him battle, and marched to munsterberg, where he had formed an intrenched camp. but wallenstein remained inactive for eight days; he then left his intrenchments, and marched slowly and with composure to the enemy's camp. but even after quitting his position, and when the enemy, emboldened by his past delay, manfully prepared to receive him, he declined the opportunity of fighting. the caution with which he avoided a battle was imputed to fear; but the well-established reputation of wallenstein enabled him to despise this suspicion. the vanity of the allies allowed them not to see that he purposely saved them a defeat, because a victory at that time would not have served his own ends. to convince them of his superior power, and that his inactivity proceeded not from any fear of them, he put to death the commander of a castle that fell into his hands, because he had refused at once to surrender an untenable place. for nine days, did the two armies remain within musket-shot of each other, when count terzky, from the camp of the imperialists, appeared with a trumpeter in that of the allies, inviting general arnheim to a conference. the purport was, that wallenstein, notwithstanding his superiority, was willing to agree to a cessation of arms for six weeks. "he was come," he said, "to conclude a lasting peace with the swedes, and with the princes of the empire, to pay the soldiers, and to satisfy every one. all this was in his power; and if the austrian court hesitated to confirm his agreement, he would unite with the allies, and (as he privately whispered to arnheim) hunt the emperor to the devil." at the second conference, he expressed himself still more plainly to count thurn. "all the privileges of the bohemians," he engaged, "should be confirmed anew, the exiles recalled and restored to their estates, and he himself would be the first to resign his share of them. the jesuits, as the authors of all past grievances, should be banished, the swedish crown indemnified by stated payments, and all the superfluous troops on both sides employed against the turks." the last article explained the whole mystery. "if," he continued, "he should obtain the crown of bohemia, all the exiles would have reason to applaud his generosity; perfect toleration of religions should be established within the kingdom, the palatine family be reinstated in its rights, and he would accept the margraviate of moravia as a compensation for mecklenburg. the allied armies would then, under his command, advance upon vienna, and sword in hand, compel the emperor to ratify the treaty." thus was the veil at last removed from the schemes, over which he had brooded for years in mysterious silence. every circumstance now convinced him that not a moment was to be lost in its execution. nothing but a blind confidence in the good fortune and military genius of the duke of friedland, had induced the emperor, in the face of the remonstrances of bavaria and spain, and at the expense of his own reputation, to confer upon this imperious leader such an unlimited command. but this belief in wallenstein's being invincible, had been much weakened by his inaction, and almost entirely overthrown by the defeat at lutzen. his enemies at the imperial court now renewed their intrigues; and the emperor's disappointment at the failure of his hopes, procured for their remonstrances a favourable reception. wallenstein's whole conduct was now reviewed with the most malicious criticism; his ambitious haughtiness, his disobedience to the emperor's orders, were recalled to the recollection of that jealous prince, as well as the complaints of the austrian subjects against his boundless oppression; his fidelity was questioned, and alarming hints thrown out as to his secret views. these insinuations, which the conduct of the duke seemed but too well to justify, failed not to make a deep impression on ferdinand; but the step had been taken, and the great power with which wallenstein had been invested, could not be taken from him without danger. insensibly to diminish that power, was the only course that now remained, and, to effect this, it must in the first place be divided; but, above all, the emperor's present dependence on the good will of his general put an end to. but even this right had been resigned in his engagement with wallenstein, and the emperor's own handwriting secured him against every attempt to unite another general with him in the command, or to exercise any immediate act of authority over the troops. as this disadvantageous contract could neither be kept nor broken, recourse was had to artifice. wallenstein was imperial generalissimo in germany, but his command extended no further, and he could not presume to exercise any authority over a foreign army. a spanish army was accordingly raised in milan, and marched into germany under a spanish general. wallenstein now ceased to be indispensable because he was no longer supreme, and in case of necessity, the emperor was now provided with the means of support even against him. the duke quickly and deeply felt whence this blow came, and whither it was aimed. in vain did he protest against this violation of the compact, to the cardinal infante; the italian army continued its march, and he was forced to detach general altringer to join it with a reinforcement. he took care, indeed, so closely to fetter the latter, as to prevent the italian army from acquiring any great reputation in alsace and swabia; but this bold step of the court awakened him from his security, and warned him of the approach of danger. that he might not a second time be deprived of his command, and lose the fruit of all his labours, he must accelerate the accomplishment of his long meditated designs. he secured the attachment of his troops by removing the doubtful officers, and by his liberality to the rest. he had sacrificed to the welfare of the army every other order in the state, every consideration of justice and humanity, and therefore he reckoned upon their gratitude. at the very moment when he meditated an unparalleled act of ingratitude against the author of his own good fortune, he founded all his hopes upon the gratitude which was due to himself. the leaders of the silesian armies had no authority from their principals to consent, on their own discretion, to such important proposals as those of wallenstein, and they did not even feel themselves warranted in granting, for more than a fortnight, the cessation of hostilities which he demanded. before the duke disclosed his designs to sweden and saxony, he had deemed it advisable to secure the sanction of france to his bold undertaking. for this purpose, a secret negociation had been carried on with the greatest possible caution and distrust, by count kinsky with feuquieres, the french ambassador at dresden, and had terminated according to his wishes. feuquieres received orders from his court to promise every assistance on the part of france, and to offer the duke a considerable pecuniary aid in case of need. but it was this excessive caution to secure himself on all sides, that led to his ruin. the french ambassador with astonishment discovered that a plan, which, more than any other, required secrecy, had been communicated to the swedes and the saxons. and yet it was generally known that the saxon ministry was in the interests of the emperor, and on the other hand, the conditions offered to the swedes fell too far short of their expectations to be likely to be accepted. feuquieres, therefore, could not believe that the duke could be serious in calculating upon the aid of the latter, and the silence of the former. he communicated accordingly his doubts and anxieties to the swedish chancellor, who equally distrusted the views of wallenstein, and disliked his plans. although it was no secret to oxenstiern, that the duke had formerly entered into a similar negociation with gustavus adolphus, he could not credit the possibility of inducing a whole army to revolt, and of his extravagant promises. so daring a design, and such imprudent conduct, seemed not to be consistent with the duke's reserved and suspicious temper, and he was the more inclined to consider the whole as the result of dissimulation and treachery, because he had less reason to doubt his prudence than his honesty. oxenstiern's doubts at last affected arnheim himself, who, in full confidence in wallenstein's sincerity, had repaired to the chancellor at gelnhausen, to persuade him to lend some of his best regiments to the duke, to aid him in the execution of the plan. they began to suspect that the whole proposal was only a snare to disarm the allies, and to betray the flower of their troops into the hands of the emperor. wallenstein's well-known character did not contradict the suspicion, and the inconsistencies in which he afterwards involved himself, entirely destroyed all confidence in his sincerity. while he was endeavouring to draw the swedes into this alliance, and requiring the help of their best troops, he declared to arnheim that they must begin with expelling the swedes from the empire; and while the saxon officers, relying upon the security of the truce, repaired in great numbers to his camp, he made an unsuccessful attempt to seize them. he was the first to break the truce, which some months afterwards he renewed, though not without great difficulty. all confidence in his sincerity was lost; his whole conduct was regarded as a tissue of deceit and low cunning, devised to weaken the allies and repair his own strength. this indeed he actually did effect, as his own army daily augmented, while that of the allies was reduced nearly one half by desertion and bad provisions. but he did not make that use of his superiority which vienna expected. when all men were looking for a decisive blow to be struck, he suddenly renewed the negociations; and when the truce lulled the allies into security, he as suddenly recommenced hostilities. all these contradictions arose out of the double and irreconcileable designs to ruin at once the emperor and the swedes, and to conclude a separate peace with the saxons. impatient at the ill success of his negociations, he at last determined to display his strength; the more so, as the pressing distress within the empire, and the growing dissatisfaction of the imperial court, admitted not of his making any longer delay. before the last cessation of hostilities, general holk, from bohemia, had attacked the circle of meissen, laid waste every thing on his route with fire and sword, driven the elector into his fortresses, and taken the town of leipzig. but the truce in silesia put a period to his ravages, and the consequences of his excesses brought him to the grave at adorf. as soon as hostilities were recommenced, wallenstein made a movement, as if he designed to penetrate through lusatia into saxony, and circulated the report that piccolomini had already invaded that country. arnheim immediately broke up his camp in silesia, to follow him, and hastened to the assistance of the electorate. by this means the swedes were left exposed, who were encamped in small force under count thurn, at steinau, on the oder, and this was exactly what wallenstein desired. he allowed the saxon general to advance sixteen miles towards meissen, and then suddenly turning towards the oder, surprised the swedish army in the most complete security. their cavalry were first beaten by general schafgotsch, who was sent against them, and the infantry completely surrounded at steinau by the duke's army which followed. wallenstein gave count thurn half an hour to deliberate whether he would defend himself with , men, against more than , , or surrender at discretion. but there was no room for deliberation. the army surrendered, and the most complete victory was obtained without bloodshed. colours, baggage, and artillery all fell into the hands of the victors, the officers were taken into custody, the privates drafted into the army of wallenstein. and now at last, after a banishment of fourteen years, after numberless changes of fortune, the author of the bohemian insurrection, and the remote origin of this destructive war, the notorious count thurn, was in the power of his enemies. with blood-thirsty impatience, the arrival of this great criminal was looked for in vienna, where they already anticipated the malicious triumph of sacrificing so distinguished a victim to public justice. but to deprive the jesuits of this pleasure, was a still sweeter triumph to wallenstein, and thurn was set at liberty. fortunately for him, he knew more than it was prudent to have divulged in vienna, and his enemies were also those of wallenstein. a defeat might have been forgiven in vienna, but this disappointment of their hopes they could not pardon. "what should i have done with this madman?" he writes, with a malicious sneer, to the minister who called him to account for this unseasonable magnanimity. "would to heaven the enemy had no generals but such as he. at the head of the swedish army, he will render us much better service than in prison." the victory of steinau was followed by the capture of liegnitz, grossglogau, and even of frankfort on the oder. schafgotsch, who remained in silesia to complete the subjugation of that province, blockaded brieg, and threatened breslau, though in vain, as that free town was jealous of its privileges, and devoted to the swedes. colonels illo and goetz were ordered by wallenstein to the warta, to push forwards into pomerania, and to the coasts of the baltic, and actually obtained possession of landsberg, the key of pomerania. while thus the elector of brandenburg and the duke of pomerania were made to tremble for their dominions, wallenstein himself, with the remainder of his army, burst suddenly into lusatia, where he took goerlitz by storm, and forced bautzen to surrender. but his object was merely to alarm the elector of saxony, not to follow up the advantages already obtained; and therefore, even with the sword in his hand, he continued his negociations for peace with brandenburg and saxony, but with no better success than before, as the inconsistencies of his conduct had destroyed all confidence in his sincerity. he was therefore on the point of turning his whole force in earnest against the unfortunate saxons, and effecting his object by force of arms, when circumstances compelled him to leave these territories. the conquests of duke bernard upon the danube, which threatened austria itself with immediate danger, urgently demanded his presence in bavaria; and the expulsion of the saxons and swedes from silesia, deprived him of every pretext for longer resisting the imperial orders, and leaving the elector of bavaria without assistance. with his main body, therefore, he immediately set out for the upper palatinate, and his retreat freed upper saxony for ever of this formidable enemy. so long as was possible, he had delayed to move to the rescue of bavaria, and on every pretext evaded the commands of the emperor. he had, indeed, after reiterated remonstrances, despatched from bohemia a reinforcement of some regiments to count altringer, who was defending the lech and the danube against horn and bernard, but under the express condition of his acting merely on the defensive. he referred the emperor and the elector, whenever they applied to him for aid, to altringer, who, as he publicly gave out, had received unlimited powers; secretly, however, he tied up his hands by the strictest injunctions, and even threatened him with death, if he exceeded his orders. when duke bernard had appeared before ratisbon, and the emperor as well as the elector repeated still more urgently their demand for succour, he pretended he was about to despatch general gallas with a considerable army to the danube; but this movement also was delayed, and ratisbon, straubing, and cham, as well as the bishopric of eichstaedt, fell into the hands of the swedes. when at last he could no longer neglect the orders of the court, he marched slowly toward the bavarian frontier, where he invested the town of cham, which had been taken by the swedes. but no sooner did he learn that on the swedish side a diversion was contemplated, by an inroad of the saxons into bohemia, than he availed himself of the report, as a pretext for immediately retreating into that kingdom. every consideration, he urged, must be postponed to the defence and preservation of the hereditary dominions of the emperor; and on this plea, he remained firmly fixed in bohemia, which he guarded as if it had been his own property. and when the emperor laid upon him his commands to move towards the danube, and prevent the duke of weimar from establishing himself in so dangerous a position on the frontiers of austria, wallenstein thought proper to conclude the campaign a second time, and quartered his troops for the winter in this exhausted kingdom. such continued insolence and unexampled contempt of the imperial orders, as well as obvious neglect of the common cause, joined to his equivocal behaviour towards the enemy, tended at last to convince the emperor of the truth of those unfavourable reports with regard to the duke, which were current through germany. the latter had, for a long time, succeeded in glozing over his criminal correspondence with the enemy, and persuading the emperor, still prepossessed in his favour, that the sole object of his secret conferences was to obtain peace for germany. but impenetrable as he himself believed his proceedings to be, in the course of his conduct, enough transpired to justify the insinuations with which his rivals incessantly loaded the ear of the emperor. in order to satisfy himself of the truth or falsehood of these rumours, ferdinand had already, at different times, sent spies into wallenstein's camp; but as the duke took the precaution never to commit anything to writing, they returned with nothing but conjectures. but when, at last, those ministers who formerly had been his champions at the court, in consequence of their estates not being exempted by wallenstein from the general exactions, joined his enemies; when the elector of bavaria threatened, in case of wallenstein being any longer retained in the supreme command, to unite with the swedes; when the spanish ambassador insisted on his dismissal, and threatened, in case of refusal, to withdraw the subsidies furnished by his crown, the emperor found himself a second time compelled to deprive him of the command. the emperor's authoritative and direct interference with the army, soon convinced the duke that the compact with himself was regarded as at an end, and that his dismissal was inevitable. one of his inferior generals in austria, whom he had forbidden, under pain of death, to obey the orders of the court, received the positive commands of the emperor to join the elector of bavaria; and wallenstein himself was imperiously ordered to send some regiments to reinforce the army of the cardinal infante, who was on his march from italy. all these measures convinced him that the plan was finally arranged to disarm him by degrees, and at once, when he was weak and defenceless, to complete his ruin. in self-defence, must he now hasten to carry into execution the plans which he had originally formed only with the view to aggrandizement. he had delayed too long, either because the favourable configuration of the stars had not yet presented itself, or, as he used to say, to check the impatience of his friends, because the time was not yet come. the time, even now, was not come: but the pressure of circumstances no longer allowed him to await the favour of the stars. the first step was to assure himself of the sentiments of his principal officers, and then to try the attachment of the army, which he had so long confidently reckoned on. three of them, colonels kinsky, terzky, and illo, had long been in his secrets, and the two first were further united to his interests by the ties of relationship. the same wild ambition, the same bitter hatred of the government, and the hope of enormous rewards, bound them in the closest manner to wallenstein, who, to increase the number of his adherents, could stoop to the lowest means. he had once advised colonel illo to solicit, in vienna, the title of count, and had promised to back his application with his powerful mediation. but he secretly wrote to the ministry, advising them to refuse his request, as to grant it would give rise to similar demands from others, whose services and claims were equal to his. on illo's return to the camp, wallenstein immediately demanded to know the success of his mission; and when informed by illo of its failure, he broke out into the bitterest complaints against the court. "thus," said he, "are our faithful services rewarded. my recommendation is disregarded, and your merit denied so trifling a reward! who would any longer devote his services to so ungrateful a master? no, for my part, i am henceforth the determined foe of austria." illo agreed with him, and a close alliance was cemented between them. but what was known to these three confidants of the duke, was long an impenetrable secret to the rest; and the confidence with which wallenstein spoke of the devotion of his officers, was founded merely on the favours he had lavished on them, and on their known dissatisfaction with the court. but this vague presumption must be converted into certainty, before he could venture to lay aside the mask, or take any open step against the emperor. count piccolomini, who had distinguished himself by his unparalleled bravery at lutzen, was the first whose fidelity he put to the proof. he had, he thought, gained the attachment of this general by large presents, and preferred him to all others, because born under the same constellations with himself. he disclosed to him, that, in consequence of the emperor's ingratitude, and the near approach of his own danger, he had irrevocably determined entirely to abandon the party of austria, to join the enemy with the best part of his army, and to make war upon the house of austria, on all sides of its dominions, till he had wholly extirpated it. in the execution of this plan, he principally reckoned on the services of piccolomini, and had beforehand promised him the greatest rewards. when the latter, to conceal his amazement at this extraordinary communication, spoke of the dangers and obstacles which would oppose so hazardous an enterprise, wallenstein ridiculed his fears. "in such enterprises," he maintained, "nothing was difficult but the commencement. the stars were propitious to him, the opportunity the best that could be wished for, and something must always be trusted to fortune. his resolution was taken, and if it could not be otherwise, he would encounter the hazard at the head of a thousand horse." piccolomini was careful not to excite wallenstein's suspicions by longer opposition, and yielded apparently to the force of his reasoning. such was the infatuation of the duke, that notwithstanding the warnings of count terzky, he never doubted the sincerity of this man, who lost not a moment in communicating to the court at vienna this important conversation. preparatory to taking the last decisive step, he, in january , called a meeting of all the commanders of the army at pilsen, whither he had marched after his retreat from bavaria. the emperor's recent orders to spare his hereditary dominions from winter quarterings, to recover ratisbon in the middle of winter, and to reduce the army by a detachment of six thousand horse to the cardinal infante, were matters sufficiently grave to be laid before a council of war; and this plausible pretext served to conceal from the curious the real object of the meeting. sweden and saxony received invitations to be present, in order to treat with the duke of friedland for a peace; to the leaders of more distant armies, written communications were made. of the commanders thus summoned, twenty appeared; but three most influential, gallas, colloredo, and altringer, were absent. the duke reiterated his summons to them, and in the mean time, in expectation of their speedy arrival, proceeded to execute his designs. it was no light task that he had to perform: a nobleman, proud, brave, and jealous of his honour, was to declare himself capable of the basest treachery, in the very presence of those who had been accustomed to regard him as the representative of majesty, the judge of their actions, and the supporter of their laws, and to show himself suddenly as a traitor, a cheat, and a rebel. it was no easy task, either, to shake to its foundations a legitimate sovereignty, strengthened by time and consecrated by laws and religion; to dissolve all the charms of the senses and the imagination, those formidable guardians of an established throne, and to attempt forcibly to uproot those invincible feelings of duty, which plead so loudly and so powerfully in the breast of the subject, in favour of his sovereign. but, blinded by the splendour of a crown, wallenstein observed not the precipice that yawned beneath his feet; and in full reliance on his own strength, the common case with energetic and daring minds, he stopped not to consider the magnitude and the number of the difficulties that opposed him. wallenstein saw nothing but an army, partly indifferent and partly exasperated against the court, accustomed, with a blind submission, to do homage to his great name, to bow to him as their legislator and judge, and with trembling reverence to follow his orders as the decrees of fate. in the extravagant flatteries which were paid to his omnipotence, in the bold abuse of the court government, in which a lawless soldiery indulged, and which the wild licence of the camp excused, he thought he read the sentiments of the army; and the boldness with which they were ready to censure the monarch's measures, passed with him for a readiness to renounce their allegiance to a sovereign so little respected. but that which he had regarded as the lightest matter, proved the most formidable obstacle with which he had to contend; the soldiers' feelings of allegiance were the rock on which his hopes were wrecked. deceived by the profound respect in which he was held by these lawless bands, he ascribed the whole to his own personal greatness, without distinguishing how much he owed to himself, and how much to the dignity with which he was invested. all trembled before him, while he exercised a legitimate authority, while obedience to him was a duty, and while his consequence was supported by the majesty of the sovereign. greatness, in and of itself, may excite terror and admiration; but legitimate greatness alone can inspire reverence and submission; and of this decisive advantage he deprived himself, the instant he avowed himself a traitor. field-marshal illo undertook to learn the sentiments of the officers, and to prepare them for the step which was expected of them. he began by laying before them the new orders of the court to the general and the army; and by the obnoxious turn he skilfully gave to them, he found it easy to excite the indignation of the assembly. after this well chosen introduction, he expatiated with much eloquence upon the merits of the army and the general, and the ingratitude with which the emperor was accustomed to requite them. "spanish influence," he maintained, "governed the court; the ministry were in the pay of spain; the duke of friedland alone had hitherto opposed this tyranny, and had thus drawn down upon himself the deadly enmity of the spaniards. to remove him from the command, or to make away with him entirely," he continued, "had long been the end of their desires; and, until they could succeed in one or other, they endeavoured to abridge his power in the field. the command was to be placed in the hands of the king of hungary, for no other reason than the better to promote the spanish power in germany; because this prince, as the ready instrument of foreign counsels, might be led at pleasure. it was merely with the view of weakening the army, that the six thousand troops were required for the cardinal infante; it was solely for the purpose of harassing it by a winter campaign, that they were now called on, in this inhospitable season, to undertake the recovery of ratisbon. the means of subsistence were everywhere rendered difficult, while the jesuits and the ministry enriched themselves with the sweat of the provinces, and squandered the money intended for the pay of the troops. the general, abandoned by the court, acknowledges his inability to keep his engagements to the army. for all the services which, for two and twenty years, he had rendered the house of austria; for all the difficulties with which he had struggled; for all the treasures of his own, which he had expended in the imperial service, a second disgraceful dismissal awaited him. but he was resolved the matter should not come to this; he was determined voluntarily to resign the command, before it should be wrested from his hands; and this," continued the orator, "is what, through me, he now makes known to his officers. it was now for them to say whether it would be advisable to lose such a general. let each consider who was to refund him the sums he had expended in the emperor's service, and where he was now to reap the reward of their bravery, when he who was their evidence removed from the scene." a universal cry, that they would not allow their general to be taken from them, interrupted the speaker. four of the principal officers were deputed to lay before him the wish of the assembly, and earnestly to request that he would not leave the army. the duke made a show of resistance, and only yielded after the second deputation. this concession on his side, seemed to demand a return on theirs; as he engaged not to quit the service without the knowledge and consent of the generals, he required of them, on the other hand, a written promise to truly and firmly adhere to him, neither to separate nor to allow themselves to be separated from him, and to shed their last drop of blood in his defence. whoever should break this covenant, was to be regarded as a perfidious traitor, and treated by the rest as a common enemy. the express condition which was added, "as long as wallenstein shall employ the army in the emperor's service," seemed to exclude all misconception, and none of the assembled generals hesitated at once to accede to a demand, apparently so innocent and so reasonable. this document was publicly read before an entertainment, which field-marshal illo had expressly prepared for the purpose; it was to be signed, after they rose from table. the host did his utmost to stupify his guests by strong potations; and it was not until he saw them affected with the wine, that he produced the paper for signature. most of them wrote their names, without knowing what they were subscribing; a few only, more curious or more distrustful, read the paper over again, and discovered with astonishment that the clause "as long as wallenstein shall employ the army for the emperor's service" was omitted. illo had, in fact, artfully contrived to substitute for the first another copy, in which these words were wanting. the trick was manifest, and many refused now to sign. piccolomini, who had seen through the whole cheat, and had been present at this scene merely with the view of giving information of the whole to the court, forgot himself so far in his cups as to drink the emperor's health. but count terzky now rose, and declared that all were perjured villains who should recede from their engagement. his menaces, the idea of the inevitable danger to which they who resisted any longer would be exposed, the example of the rest, and illo's rhetoric, at last overcame their scruples; and the paper was signed by all without exception. wallenstein had now effected his purpose; but the unexpected resistance he had met with from the commanders roused him at last from the fond illusions in which he had hitherto indulged. besides, most of the names were scrawled so illegibly, that some deceit was evidently intended. but instead of being recalled to his discretion by this warning, he gave vent to his injured pride in undignified complaints and reproaches. he assembled the generals the next day, and undertook personally to confirm the whole tenor of the agreement which illo had submitted to them the day before. after pouring out the bitterest reproaches and abuse against the court, he reminded them of their opposition to the proposition of the previous day, and declared that this circumstance had induced him to retract his own promise. the generals withdrew in silence and confusion; but after a short consultation in the antichamber, they returned to apologize for their late conduct, and offered to sign the paper anew. nothing now remained, but to obtain a similar assurance from the absent generals, or, on their refusal, to seize their persons. wallenstein renewed his invitation to them, and earnestly urged them to hasten their arrival. but a rumour of the doings at pilsen reached them on their journey, and suddenly stopped their further progress. altringer, on pretence of sickness, remained in the strong fortress of frauenberg. gallas made his appearance, but merely with the design of better qualifying himself as an eyewitness, to keep the emperor informed of all wallenstein's proceedings. the intelligence which he and piccolomini gave, at once converted the suspicions of the court into an alarming certainty. similar disclosures, which were at the same time made from other quarters, left no room for farther doubt; and the sudden change of the commanders in austria and silesia, appeared to be the prelude to some important enterprise. the danger was pressing, and the remedy must be speedy, but the court was unwilling to proceed at once to the execution of the sentence, till the regular forms of justice were complied with. secret instructions were therefore issued to the principal officers, on whose fidelity reliance could be placed, to seize the persons of the duke of friedland and of his two associates, illo and terzky, and keep them in close confinement, till they should have an opportunity of being heard, and of answering for their conduct; but if this could not be accomplished quietly, the public danger required that they should be taken dead or live. at the same time, general gallas received a patent commission, by which these orders of the emperor were made known to the colonels and officers, and the army was released from its obedience to the traitor, and placed under lieutenant-general gallas, till a new generalissimo could be appointed. in order to bring back the seduced and deluded to their duty, and not to drive the guilty to despair, a general amnesty was proclaimed, in regard to all offences against the imperial majesty committed at pilsen. general gallas was not pleased with the honour which was done him. he was at pilsen, under the eye of the person whose fate he was to dispose of; in the power of an enemy, who had a hundred eyes to watch his motions. if wallenstein once discovered the secret of his commission, nothing could save him from the effects of his vengeance and despair. but if it was thus dangerous to be the secret depositary of such a commission, how much more so to execute it? the sentiments of the generals were uncertain; and it was at least doubtful whether, after the step they had taken, they would be ready to trust the emperor's promises, and at once to abandon the brilliant expectations they had built upon wallenstein's enterprise. it was also hazardous to attempt to lay hands on the person of a man who, till now, had been considered inviolable; who from long exercise of supreme power, and from habitual obedience, had become the object of deepest respect; who was invested with every attribute of outward majesty and inward greatness; whose very aspect inspired terror, and who by a nod disposed of life and death! to seize such a man, like a common criminal, in the midst of the guards by whom he was surrounded, and in a city apparently devoted to him; to convert the object of this deep and habitual veneration into a subject of compassion, or of contempt, was a commission calculated to make even the boldest hesitate. so deeply was fear and veneration for their general engraven in the breasts of the soldiers, that even the atrocious crime of high treason could not wholly eradicate these sentiments. gallas perceived the impossibility of executing his commission under the eyes of the duke; and his most anxious wish was, before venturing on any steps, to have an interview with altringer. as the long absence of the latter had already begun to excite the duke's suspicions, gallas offered to repair in person to frauenberg, and to prevail on altringer, his relation, to return with him. wallenstein was so pleased with this proof of his zeal, that he even lent him his own equipage for the journey. rejoicing at the success of his stratagem, he left pilsen without delay, leaving to count piccolomini the task of watching wallenstein's further movements. he did not fail, as he went along, to make use of the imperial patent, and the sentiments of the troops proved more favourable than he had expected. instead of taking back his friend to pilsen, he despatched him to vienna, to warn the emperor against the intended attack, while he himself repaired to upper austria, of which the safety was threatened by the near approach of duke bernard. in bohemia, the towns of budweiss and tabor were again garrisoned for the emperor, and every precaution taken to oppose with energy the designs of the traitor. as gallas did not appear disposed to return, piccolomini determined to put wallenstein's credulity once more to the test. he begged to be sent to bring back gallas, and wallenstein suffered himself a second time to be overreached. this inconceivable blindness can only be accounted for as the result of his pride, which never retracted the opinion it had once formed of any person, and would not acknowledge, even to itself, the possibility of being deceived. he conveyed count piccolomini in his own carriage to lintz, where the latter immediately followed the example of gallas, and even went a step farther. he had promised the duke to return. he did so, but it was at the head of an army, intending to surprise the duke in pilsen. another army under general suys hastened to prague, to secure that capital in its allegiance, and to defend it against the rebels. gallas, at the same time, announced himself to the different imperial armies as the commander-in-chief, from whom they were henceforth to receive orders. placards were circulated through all the imperial camps, denouncing the duke and his four confidants, and absolving the soldiers from all obedience to him. the example which had been set at lintz, was universally followed; imprecations were showered on the traitor, and he was forsaken by all the armies. at last, when even piccolomini returned no more, the mist fell from wallenstein's eyes, and in consternation he awoke from his dream. yet his faith in the truth of astrology, and in the fidelity of the army was unshaken. immediately after the intelligence of piccolomini's defection, he issued orders, that in future no commands were to be obeyed, which did not proceed directly from himself, or from terzky, or illo. he prepared, in all haste, to advance upon prague, where he intended to throw off the mask, and openly to declare against the emperor. all the troops were to assemble before that city, and from thence to pour down with rapidity upon austria. duke bernard, who had joined the conspiracy, was to support the operations of the duke, with the swedish troops, and to effect a diversion upon the danube. terzky was already upon his march towards prague; and nothing, but the want of horses, prevented the duke from following him with the regiments who still adhered faithfully to him. but when, with the most anxious expectation, he awaited the intelligence from prague, he suddenly received information of the loss of that town, the defection of his generals, the desertion of his troops, the discovery of his whole plot, and the rapid advance of piccolomini, who was sworn to his destruction. suddenly and fearfully had all his projects been ruined--all his hopes annihilated. he stood alone, abandoned by all to whom he had been a benefactor, betrayed by all on whom he had depended. but it is under such circumstances that great minds reveal themselves. though deceived in all his expectations, he refused to abandon one of his designs; he despaired of nothing, so long as life remained. the time was now come, when he absolutely required that assistance, which he had so often solicited from the swedes and the saxons, and when all doubts of the sincerity of his purposes must be dispelled. and now, when oxenstiern and arnheim were convinced of the sincerity of his intentions, and were aware of his necessities, they no longer hesitated to embrace the favourable opportunity, and to offer him their protection. on the part of saxony, the duke francis albert of saxe lauenberg was to join him with , men; and duke bernard, and the palatine christian of birkenfeld, with , from sweden, all chosen troops. wallenstein left pilsen, with terzky's regiment, and the few who either were, or pretended to be, faithful to him, and hastened to egra, on the frontiers of the kingdom, in order to be near the upper palatinate, and to facilitate his junction with duke bernard. he was not yet informed of the decree by which he was proclaimed a public enemy and traitor; this thunder-stroke awaited him at egra. he still reckoned on the army, which general schafgotsch was preparing for him in silesia, and flattered himself with the hope that many even of those who had forsaken him, would return with the first dawning of success. even during his flight to egra (so little humility had he learned from melancholy experience) he was still occupied with the colossal scheme of dethroning the emperor. it was under these circumstances, that one of his suite asked leave to offer him his advice. "under the emperor," said he, "your highness is certain of being a great and respected noble; with the enemy, you are at best but a precarious king. it is unwise to risk certainty for uncertainty. the enemy will avail themselves of your personal influence, while the opportunity lasts; but you will ever be regarded with suspicion, and they will always be fearful lest you should treat them as you have done the emperor. return, then, to your allegiance, while there is yet time."--"and how is that to be done?" said wallenstein, interrupting him: "you have , men-at-arms," rejoined he, (meaning ducats, which were stamped with the figure of an armed man,) "take them with you, and go straight to the imperial court; then declare that the steps you have hitherto taken were merely designed to test the fidelity of the emperor's servants, and of distinguishing the loyal from the doubtful; and since most have shown a disposition to revolt, say you are come to warn his imperial majesty against those dangerous men. thus you will make those appear as traitors, who are labouring to represent you as a false villain. at the imperial court, a man is sure to be welcome with , ducats, and friedland will be again as he was at the first."--"the advice is good," said wallenstein, after a pause, "but let the devil trust to it." while the duke, in his retirement in egra, was energetically pushing his negociations with the enemy, consulting the stars, and indulging in new hopes, the dagger which was to put an end to his existence was unsheathed almost under his very eyes. the imperial decree which proclaimed him an outlaw, had not failed of its effect; and an avenging nemesis ordained that the ungrateful should fall beneath the blow of ingratitude. among his officers, wallenstein had particularly distinguished one leslie, an irishman, and had made his fortune. [schiller is mistaken as to this point. leslie was a scotchman, and buttler an irishman and a papist. he died a general in the emperor's service, and founded, at prague, a convent of irish franciscans which still exists.--ed.] this was the man who now felt himself called on to execute the sentence against him, and to earn the price of blood. no sooner had he reached egra, in the suite of the duke, than he disclosed to the commandant of the town, colonel buttler, and to lieutenant-colonel gordon, two protestant scotchmen, the treasonable designs of the duke, which the latter had imprudently enough communicated to him during the journey. in these two individuals, he had found men capable of a determined resolution. they were now called on to choose between treason and duty, between their legitimate sovereign and a fugitive abandoned rebel; and though the latter was their common benefactor, the choice could not remain for a moment doubtful. they were solemnly pledged to the allegiance of the emperor, and this duty required them to take the most rapid measures against the public enemy. the opportunity was favourable; his evil genius seemed to have delivered him into the hands of vengeance. but not to encroach on the province of justice, they resolved to deliver up their victim alive; and they parted with the bold resolve to take their general prisoner. this dark plot was buried in the deepest silence; and wallenstein, far from suspecting his impending ruin, flattered himself that in the garrison of egra he possessed his bravest and most faithful champions. at this time, he became acquainted with the imperial proclamations containing his sentence, and which had been published in all the camps. he now became aware of the full extent of the danger which encompassed him, the utter impossibility of retracing his steps, his fearfully forlorn condition, and the absolute necessity of at once trusting himself to the faith and honour of the emperor's enemies. to leslie he poured forth all the anguish of his wounded spirit, and the vehemence of his agitation extracted from him his last remaining secret. he disclosed to this officer his intention to deliver up egra and ellenbogen, the passes of the kingdom, to the palatine of birkenfeld, and at the same time, informed him of the near approach of duke bernard, of whose arrival he hoped to receive tidings that very night. these disclosures, which leslie immediately communicated to the conspirators, made them change their original plan. the urgency of the danger admitted not of half measures. egra might in a moment be in the enemy's hands, and a sudden revolution set their prisoner at liberty. to anticipate this mischance, they resolved to assassinate him and his associates the following night. in order to execute this design with less noise, it was arranged that the fearful deed should be perpetrated at an entertainment which colonel buttler should give in the castle of egra. all the guests, except wallenstein, made their appearance, who being in too great anxiety of mind to enjoy company excused himself. with regard to him, therefore, their plan must be again changed; but they resolved to execute their design against the others. the three colonels, illo, terzky, and william kinsky, came in with careless confidence, and with them captain neumann, an officer of ability, whose advice terzky sought in every intricate affair. previous to their arrival, trusty soldiers of the garrison, to whom the plot had been communicated, were admitted into the castle, all the avenues leading from it guarded, and six of buttler's dragoons concealed in an apartment close to the banqueting-room, who, on a concerted signal, were to rush in and kill the traitors. without suspecting the danger that hung over them, the guests gaily abandoned themselves to the pleasures of the table, and wallenstein's health was drunk in full bumpers, not as a servant of the emperor, but as a sovereign prince. the wine opened their hearts, and illo, with exultation, boasted that in three days an army would arrive, such as wallenstein had never before been at the head of. "yes," cried neumann, "and then he hopes to bathe his hands in austrian blood." during this conversation, the dessert was brought in, and leslie gave the concerted signal to raise the drawbridges, while he himself received the keys of the gates. in an instant, the hall was filled with armed men, who, with the unexpected greeting of "long live ferdinand!" placed themselves behind the chairs of the marked guests. surprised, and with a presentiment of their fate, they sprang from the table. kinsky and terzky were killed upon the spot, and before they could put themselves upon their guard. neumann, during the confusion in the hall, escaped into the court, where, however, he was instantly recognised and cut down. illo alone had the presence of mind to defend himself. he placed his back against a window, from whence he poured the bitterest reproaches upon gordon, and challenged him to fight him fairly and honourably. after a gallant resistance, in which he slew two of his assailants, he fell to the ground overpowered by numbers, and pierced with ten wounds. the deed was no sooner accomplished, than leslie hastened into the town to prevent a tumult. the sentinels at the castle gate, seeing him running and out of breath, and believing he belonged to the rebels, fired their muskets after him, but without effect. the firing, however, aroused the town-guard, and all leslie's presence of mind was requisite to allay the tumult. he hastily detailed to them all the circumstances of wallenstein's conspiracy, the measures which had been already taken to counteract it, the fate of the four rebels, as well as that which awaited their chief. finding the troops well disposed, he exacted from them a new oath of fidelity to the emperor, and to live and die for the good cause. a hundred of buttler's dragoons were sent from the castle into the town to patrol the streets, to overawe the partisans of the duke, and to prevent tumult. all the gates of egra were at the same time seized, and every avenue to wallenstein's residence, which adjoined the market-place, guarded by a numerous and trusty body of troops, sufficient to prevent either his escape or his receiving any assistance from without. but before they proceeded finally to execute the deed, a long conference was held among the conspirators in the castle, whether they should kill him, or content themselves with making him prisoner. besprinkled as they were with the blood, and deliberating almost over the very corpses of his murdered associates, even these furious men yet shuddered at the horror of taking away so illustrious a life. they saw before their mind's eye him their leader in battle, in the days of his good fortune, surrounded by his victorious army, clothed with all the pomp of military greatness, and long-accustomed awe again seized their minds. but this transitory emotion was soon effaced by the thought of the immediate danger. they remembered the hints which neumann and illo had thrown out at table, the near approach of a formidable army of swedes and saxons, and they clearly saw that the death of the traitor was their only chance of safety. they adhered, therefore, to their first resolution, and captain deveroux, an irishman, who had already been retained for the murderous purpose, received decisive orders to act. while these three officers were thus deciding upon his fate in the castle of egra, wallenstein was occupied in reading the stars with seni. "the danger is not yet over," said the astrologer with prophetic spirit. "it is," replied the duke, who would give the law even to heaven. "but," he continued with equally prophetic spirit, "that thou friend seni thyself shall soon be thrown into prison, that also is written in the stars." the astrologer had taken his leave, and wallenstein had retired to bed, when captain deveroux appeared before his residence with six halberdiers, and was immediately admitted by the guard, who were accustomed to see him visit the general at all hours. a page who met him upon the stairs, and attempted to raise an alarm, was run through the body with a pike. in the antichamber, the assassins met a servant, who had just come out of the sleeping-room of his master, and had taken with him the key. putting his finger upon his mouth, the terrified domestic made a sign to them to make no noise, as the duke was asleep. "friend," cried deveroux, "it is time to awake him;" and with these words he rushed against the door, which was also bolted from within, and burst it open. wallenstein had been roused from his first sleep, by the report of a musket which had accidentally gone off, and had sprung to the window to call the guard. at the same moment, he heard, from the adjoining building, the shrieks of the countesses terzky and kinsky, who had just learnt the violent fate of their husbands. ere he had time to reflect on these terrible events, deveroux, with the other murderers, was in his chamber. the duke was in his shirt, as he had leaped out of bed, and leaning on a table near the window. "art thou the villain," cried deveroux to him, "who intends to deliver up the emperor's troops to the enemy, and to tear the crown from the head of his majesty? now thou must die!" he paused for a few moments, as if expecting an answer; but scorn and astonishment kept wallenstein silent. throwing his arms wide open, he received in his breast, the deadly blow of the halberds, and without uttering a groan, fell weltering in his blood. the next day, an express arrived from the duke of lauenburg, announcing his approach. the messenger was secured, and another in wallenstein's livery despatched to the duke, to decoy him into egra. the stratagem succeeded, and francis albert fell into the hands of the enemy. duke bernard of weimar, who was on his march towards egra, was nearly sharing the same fate. fortunately, he heard of wallenstein's death in time to save himself by a retreat. ferdinand shed a tear over the fate of his general, and ordered three thousand masses to be said for his soul at vienna; but, at the same time, he did not forget to reward his assassins with gold chains, chamberlains' keys, dignities, and estates. thus did wallenstein, at the age of fifty, terminate his active and extraordinary life. to ambition, he owed both his greatness and his ruin; with all his failings, he possessed great and admirable qualities, and had he kept himself within due bounds, he would have lived and died without an equal. the virtues of the ruler and of the hero, prudence, justice, firmness, and courage, are strikingly prominent features in his character; but he wanted the gentler virtues of the man, which adorn the hero, and make the ruler beloved. terror was the talisman with which he worked; extreme in his punishments as in his rewards, he knew how to keep alive the zeal of his followers, while no general of ancient or modern times could boast of being obeyed with equal alacrity. submission to his will was more prized by him than bravery; for, if the soldiers work by the latter, it is on the former that the general depends. he continually kept up the obedience of his troops by capricious orders, and profusely rewarded the readiness to obey even in trifles; because he looked rather to the act itself, than its object. he once issued a decree, with the penalty of death on disobedience, that none but red sashes should be worn in the army. a captain of horse no sooner heard the order, than pulling off his gold-embroidered sash, he trampled it under foot; wallenstein, on being informed of the circumstance, promoted him on the spot to the rank of colonel. his comprehensive glance was always directed to the whole, and in all his apparent caprice, he steadily kept in view some general scope or bearing. the robberies committed by the soldiers in a friendly country, had led to the severest orders against marauders; and all who should be caught thieving, were threatened with the halter. wallenstein himself having met a straggler in the open country upon the field, commanded him to be seized without trial, as a transgressor of the law, and in his usual voice of thunder, exclaimed, "hang the fellow," against which no opposition ever availed. the soldier pleaded and proved his innocence, but the irrevocable sentence had gone forth. "hang then innocent," cried the inexorable wallenstein, "the guilty will have then more reason to tremble." preparations were already making to execute the sentence, when the soldier, who gave himself up for lost, formed the desperate resolution of not dying without revenge. he fell furiously upon his judge, but was overpowered by numbers, and disarmed before he could fulfil his design. "now let him go," said the duke, "it will excite sufficient terror." his munificence was supported by an immense income, which was estimated at three millions of florins yearly, without reckoning the enormous sums which he raised under the name of contributions. his liberality and clearness of understanding, raised him above the religious prejudices of his age; and the jesuits never forgave him for having seen through their system, and for regarding the pope as nothing more than a bishop of rome. but as no one ever yet came to a fortunate end who quarrelled with the church, wallenstein also must augment the number of its victims. through the intrigues of monks, he lost at ratisbon the command of the army, and at egra his life; by the same arts, perhaps, he lost what was of more consequence, his honourable name and good repute with posterity. for in justice it must be admitted, that the pens which have traced the history of this extraordinary man are not untinged with partiality, and that the treachery of the duke, and his designs upon the throne of bohemia, rest not so much upon proven facts, as upon probable conjecture. no documents have yet been brought to light, which disclose with historical certainty the secret motives of his conduct; and among all his public and well attested actions, there is, perhaps, not one which could not have had an innocent end. many of his most obnoxious measures proved nothing but the earnest wish he entertained for peace; most of the others are explained and justified by the well-founded distrust he entertained of the emperor, and the excusable wish of maintaining his own importance. it is true, that his conduct towards the elector of bavaria looks too like an unworthy revenge, and the dictates of an implacable spirit; but still, none of his actions perhaps warrant us in holding his treason to be proved. if necessity and despair at last forced him to deserve the sentence which had been pronounced against him while innocent, still this, if true, will not justify that sentence. thus wallenstein fell, not because he was a rebel, but he became a rebel because he fell. unfortunate in life that he made a victorious party his enemy, and still more unfortunate in death, that the same party survived him and wrote his history. this ebook was produced by david widger, widger@cecomet.net the works of frederick schiller translated from the german illustrated history of the thirty years' war in germany. book iii. the glorious battle of leipzig effected a great change in the conduct of gustavus adolphus, as well as in the opinion which both friends and foes entertained of him. successfully had he confronted the greatest general of the age, and had matched the strength of his tactics and the courage of his swedes against the elite of the imperial army, the most experienced troops in europe. from this moment he felt a firm confidence in his own powers--self-confidence has always been the parent of great actions. in all his subsequent operations more boldness and decision are observable; greater determination, even amidst the most unfavourable circumstances, a more lofty tone towards his adversaries, a more dignified bearing towards his allies, and even in his clemency, something of the forbearance of a conqueror. his natural courage was farther heightened by the pious ardour of his imagination. he saw in his own cause that of heaven, and in the defeat of tilly beheld the decisive interference of providence against his enemies, and in himself the instrument of divine vengeance. leaving his crown and his country far behind, he advanced on the wings of victory into the heart of germany, which for centuries had seen no foreign conqueror within its bosom. the warlike spirit of its inhabitants, the vigilance of its numerous princes, the artful confederation of its states, the number of its strong castles, its many and broad rivers, had long restrained the ambition of its neighbours; and frequently as its extensive frontier had been attacked, its interior had been free from hostile invasion. the empire had hitherto enjoyed the equivocal privilege of being its own enemy, though invincible from without. even now, it was merely the disunion of its members, and the intolerance of religious zeal, that paved the way for the swedish invader. the bond of union between the states, which alone had rendered the empire invincible, was now dissolved; and gustavus derived from germany itself the power by which he subdued it. with as much courage as prudence, he availed himself of all that the favourable moment afforded; and equally at home in the cabinet and the field, he tore asunder the web of the artful policy, with as much ease, as he shattered walls with the thunder of his cannon. uninterruptedly he pursued his conquests from one end of germany to the other, without breaking the line of posts which commanded a secure retreat at any moment; and whether on the banks of the rhine, or at the mouth of the lech, alike maintaining his communication with his hereditary dominions. the consternation of the emperor and the league at tilly's defeat at leipzig, was scarcely greater than the surprise and embarrassment of the allies of the king of sweden at his unexpected success. it was beyond both their expectations and their wishes. annihilated in a moment was that formidable army which, while it checked his progress and set bounds to his ambition, rendered him in some measure dependent on themselves. he now stood in the heart of germany, alone, without a rival or without an adversary who was a match for him. nothing could stop his progress, or check his pretensions, if the intoxication of success should tempt him to abuse his victory. if formerly they had dreaded the emperor's irresistible power, there was no less cause now to fear every thing for the empire, from the violence of a foreign conqueror, and for the catholic church, from the religious zeal of a protestant king. the distrust and jealousy of some of the combined powers, which a stronger fear of the emperor had for a time repressed, now revived; and scarcely had gustavus adolphus merited, by his courage and success, their confidence, when they began covertly to circumvent all his plans. through a continual struggle with the arts of enemies, and the distrust of his own allies, must his victories henceforth be won; yet resolution, penetration, and prudence made their way through all impediments. but while his success excited the jealousy of his more powerful allies, france and saxony, it gave courage to the weaker, and emboldened them openly to declare their sentiments and join his party. those who could neither vie with gustavus adolphus in importance, nor suffer from his ambition, expected the more from the magnanimity of their powerful ally, who enriched them with the spoils of their enemies, and protected them against the oppression of their stronger neighbours. his strength covered their weakness, and, inconsiderable in themselves, they acquired weight and influence from their union with the swedish hero. this was the case with most of the free cities, and particularly with the weaker protestant states. it was these that introduced the king into the heart of germany; these covered his rear, supplied his troops with necessaries, received them into their fortresses, while they exposed their own lives in his battles. his prudent regard to their national pride, his popular deportment, some brilliant acts of justice, and his respect for the laws, were so many ties by which he bound the german protestants to his cause; while the crying atrocities of the imperialists, the spaniards, and the troops of lorraine, powerfully contributed to set his own conduct and that of his army in a favourable light. if gustavus adolphus owed his success chiefly to his own genius, at the same time, it must be owned, he was greatly favoured by fortune and by circumstances. two great advantages gave him a decided superiority over the enemy. while he removed the scene of war into the lands of the league, drew their youth as recruits, enriched himself with booty, and used the revenues of their fugitive princes as his own, he at once took from the enemy the means of effectual resistance, and maintained an expensive war with little cost to himself. and, moreover, while his opponents, the princes of the league, divided among themselves, and governed by different and often conflicting interests, acted without unanimity, and therefore without energy; while their generals were deficient in authority, their troops in obedience, the operations of their scattered armies without concert; while the general was separated from the lawgiver and the statesman; these several functions were united in gustavus adolphus, the only source from which authority flowed, the sole object to which the eye of the warrior turned; the soul of his party, the inventor as well as the executor of his plans. in him, therefore, the protestants had a centre of unity and harmony, which was altogether wanting to their opponents. no wonder, then, if favoured by such advantages, at the head of such an army, with such a genius to direct it, and guided by such political prudence, gustavus adolphus was irresistible. with the sword in one hand, and mercy in the other, he traversed germany as a conqueror, a lawgiver, and a judge, in as short a time almost as the tourist of pleasure. the keys of towns and fortresses were delivered to him, as if to the native sovereign. no fortress was inaccessible; no river checked his victorious career. he conquered by the very terror of his name. the swedish standards were planted along the whole stream of the maine: the lower palatinate was free, the troops of spain and lorraine had fled across the rhine and the moselle. the swedes and hessians poured like a torrent into the territories of mentz, of wurtzburg, and bamberg, and three fugitive bishops, at a distance from their sees, suffered dearly for their unfortunate attachment to the emperor. it was now the turn for maximilian, the leader of the league, to feel in his own dominions the miseries he had inflicted upon others. neither the terrible fate of his allies, nor the peaceful overtures of gustavus, who, in the midst of conquest, ever held out the hand of friendship, could conquer the obstinacy of this prince. the torrent of war now poured into bavaria. like the banks of the rhine, those of the lecke and the donau were crowded with swedish troops. creeping into his fortresses, the defeated elector abandoned to the ravages of the foe his dominions, hitherto unscathed by war, and on which the bigoted violence of the bavarians seemed to invite retaliation. munich itself opened its gates to the invincible monarch, and the fugitive palatine, frederick v., in the forsaken residence of his rival, consoled himself for a time for the loss of his dominions. while gustavus adolphus was extending his conquests in the south, his generals and allies were gaining similar triumphs in the other provinces. lower saxony shook off the yoke of austria, the enemy abandoned mecklenburg, and the imperial garrisons retired from the banks of the weser and the elbe. in westphalia and the upper rhine, william, landgrave of hesse, rendered himself formidable; the duke of weimar in thuringia, and the french in the electorate of treves; while to the eastward the whole kingdom of bohemia was conquered by the saxons. the turks were preparing to attack hungary, and in the heart of austria a dangerous insurrection was threatened. in vain did the emperor look around to the courts of europe for support; in vain did he summon the spaniards to his assistance, for the bravery of the flemings afforded them ample employment beyond the rhine; in vain did he call upon the roman court and the whole church to come to his rescue. the offended pope sported, in pompous processions and idle anathemas, with the embarrassments of ferdinand, and instead of the desired subsidy he was shown the devastation of mantua. on all sides of his extensive monarchy hostile arms surrounded him. with the states of the league, now overrun by the enemy, those ramparts were thrown down, behind which austria had so long defended herself, and the embers of war were now smouldering upon her unguarded frontiers. his most zealous allies were disarmed; maximilian of bavaria, his firmest support, was scarce able to defend himself. his armies, weakened by desertion and repeated defeat, and dispirited by continued misfortunes had unlearnt, under beaten generals, that warlike impetuosity which, as it is the consequence, so it is the guarantee of success. the danger was extreme, and extraordinary means alone could raise the imperial power from the degradation into which it was fallen. the most urgent want was that of a general; and the only one from whom he could hope for the revival of his former splendour, had been removed from his command by an envious cabal. so low had the emperor now fallen, that he was forced to make the most humiliating proposals to his injured subject and servant, and meanly to press upon the imperious duke of friedland the acceptance of the powers which no less meanly had been taken from him. a new spirit began from this moment to animate the expiring body of austria; and a sudden change in the aspect of affairs bespoke the firm hand which guided them. to the absolute king of sweden, a general equally absolute was now opposed; and one victorious hero was confronted with another. both armies were again to engage in the doubtful struggle; and the prize of victory, already almost secured in the hands of gustavus adolphus, was to be the object of another and a severer trial. the storm of war gathered around nuremberg; before its walls the hostile armies encamped; gazing on each other with dread and respect, longing for, and yet shrinking from, the moment that was to close them together in the shock of battle. the eyes of europe turned to the scene in curiosity and alarm, while nuremberg, in dismay, expected soon to lend its name to a more decisive battle than that of leipzig. suddenly the clouds broke, and the storm rolled away from franconia, to burst upon the plains of saxony. near lutzen fell the thunder that had menaced nuremberg; the victory, half lost, was purchased by the death of the king. fortune, which had never forsaken him in his lifetime, favoured the king of sweden even in his death, with the rare privilege of falling in the fulness of his glory and an untarnished fame. by a timely death, his protecting genius rescued him from the inevitable fate of man--that of forgetting moderation in the intoxication of success, and justice in the plenitude of power. it may be doubted whether, had he lived longer, he would still have deserved the tears which germany shed over his grave, or maintained his title to the admiration with which posterity regards him, as the first and only just conqueror that the world has produced. the untimely fall of their great leader seemed to threaten the ruin of his party; but to the power which rules the world, no loss of a single man is irreparable. as the helm of war dropped from the hand of the falling hero, it was seized by two great statesmen, oxenstiern and richelieu. destiny still pursued its relentless course, and for full sixteen years longer the flames of war blazed over the ashes of the long-forgotten king and soldier. i may now be permitted to take a cursory retrospect of gustavus adolphus in his victorious career; glance at the scene in which he alone was the great actor; and then, when austria becomes reduced to extremity by the successes of the swedes, and by a series of disasters is driven to the most humiliating and desperate expedients, to return to the history of the emperor. as soon as the plan of operations had been concerted at halle, between the king of sweden and the elector of saxony; as soon as the alliance had been concluded with the neighbouring princes of weimar and anhalt, and preparations made for the recovery of the bishopric of magdeburg, the king began his march into the empire. he had here no despicable foe to contend with. within the empire, the emperor was still powerful; throughout franconia, swabia, and the palatinate, imperial garrisons were posted, with whom the possession of every place of importance must be disputed sword in hand. on the rhine he was opposed by the spaniards, who had overrun the territory of the banished elector palatine, seized all its strong places, and would everywhere dispute with him the passage over that river. on his rear was tilly, who was fast recruiting his force, and would soon be joined by the auxiliaries from lorraine. every papist presented an inveterate foe, while his connexion with france did not leave him at liberty to act with freedom against the roman catholics. gustavus had foreseen all these obstacles, but at the same time the means by which they were to be overcome. the strength of the imperialists was broken and divided among different garrisons, while he would bring against them one by one his whole united force. if he was to be opposed by the fanaticism of the roman catholics, and the awe in which the lesser states regarded the emperor's power, he might depend on the active support of the protestants, and their hatred to austrian oppression. the ravages of the imperialist and spanish troops also powerfully aided him in these quarters; where the ill-treated husbandman and citizen sighed alike for a deliverer, and where the mere change of yoke seemed to promise a relief. emissaries were despatched to gain over to the swedish side the principal free cities, particularly nuremberg and frankfort. the first that lay in the king's march, and which he could not leave unoccupied in his rear, was erfurt. here the protestant party among the citizens opened to him, without a blow, the gates of the town and the citadel. from the inhabitants of this, as of every important place which afterwards submitted, he exacted an oath of allegiance, while he secured its possession by a sufficient garrison. to his ally, duke william of weimar, he intrusted the command of an army to be raised in thuringia. he also left his queen in erfurt, and promised to increase its privileges. the swedish army now crossed the thuringian forest in two columns, by gotha and arnstadt, and having delivered, in its march, the county of henneberg from the imperialists, formed a junction on the third day near koenigshofen, on the frontiers of franconia. francis, bishop of wurtzburg, the bitter enemy of the protestants, and the most zealous member of the league, was the first to feel the indignation of gustavus adolphus. a few threats gained for the swedes possession of his fortress of koenigshofen, and with it the key of the whole province. at the news of this rapid conquest, dismay seized all the roman catholic towns of the circle. the bishops of wurtzburg and bamberg trembled in their castles; they already saw their sees tottering, their churches profaned, and their religion degraded. the malice of his enemies had circulated the most frightful representations of the persecuting spirit and the mode of warfare pursued by the swedish king and his soldiers, which neither the repeated assurances of the king, nor the most splendid examples of humanity and toleration, ever entirely effaced. many feared to suffer at the hands of another what in similar circumstances they were conscious of inflicting themselves. many of the richest roman catholics hastened to secure by flight their property, their religion, and their persons, from the sanguinary fanaticism of the swedes. the bishop himself set the example. in the midst of the alarm, which his bigoted zeal had caused, he abandoned his dominions, and fled to paris, to excite, if possible, the french ministry against the common enemy of religion. the further progress of gustavus adolphus in the ecclesiastical territories agreed with this brilliant commencement. schweinfurt, and soon afterwards wurtzburg, abandoned by their imperial garrisons, surrendered; but marienberg he was obliged to carry by storm. in this place, which was believed to be impregnable, the enemy had collected a large store of provisions and ammunition, all of which fell into the hands of the swedes. the king found a valuable prize in the library of the jesuits, which he sent to upsal, while his soldiers found a still more agreeable one in the prelate's well-filled cellars; his treasures the bishop had in good time removed. the whole bishopric followed the example of the capital, and submitted to the swedes. the king compelled all the bishop's subjects to swear allegiance to himself; and, in the absence of the lawful sovereign, appointed a regency, one half of whose members were protestants. in every roman catholic town which gustavus took, he opened the churches to the protestant people, but without retaliating on the papists the cruelties which they had practised on the former. on such only as sword in hand refused to submit, were the fearful rights of war enforced; and for the occasional acts of violence committed by a few of the more lawless soldiers, in the blind rage of the first attack, their humane leader is not justly responsible. those who were peaceably disposed, or defenceless, were treated with mildness. it was a sacred principle of gustavus to spare the blood of his enemies, as well as that of his own troops. on the first news of the swedish irruption, the bishop of wurtzburg, without regarding the treaty which he had entered into with the king of sweden, had earnestly pressed the general of the league to hasten to the assistance of the bishopric. that defeated commander had, in the mean time, collected on the weser the shattered remnant of his army, reinforced himself from the garrisons of lower saxony, and effected a junction in hesse with altringer and fugger, who commanded under him. again at the head of a considerable force, tilly burned with impatience to wipe out the stain of his first defeat by a splendid victory. from his camp at fulda, whither he had marched with his army, he earnestly requested permission from the duke of bavaria to give battle to gustavus adolphus. but, in the event of tilly's defeat, the league had no second army to fall back upon, and maximilian was too cautious to risk again the fate of his party on a single battle. with tears in his eyes, tilly read the commands of his superior, which compelled him to inactivity. thus his march to franconia was delayed, and gustavus adolphus gained time to overrun the whole bishopric. it was in vain that tilly, reinforced at aschaffenburg by a body of , men from lorraine, marched with an overwhelming force to the relief of wurtzburg. the town and citadel were already in the hands of the swedes, and maximilian of bavaria was generally blamed (and not without cause, perhaps) for having, by his scruples, occasioned the loss of the bishopric. commanded to avoid a battle, tilly contented himself with checking the farther advance of the enemy; but he could save only a few of the towns from the impetuosity of the swedes. baffled in an attempt to reinforce the weak garrison of hanau, which it was highly important to the swedes to gain, he crossed the maine, near seligenstadt, and took the direction of the bergstrasse, to protect the palatinate from the conqueror. tilly, however, was not the sole enemy whom gustavus adolphus met in franconia, and drove before him. charles, duke of lorraine, celebrated in the annals of the time for his unsteadiness of character, his vain projects, and his misfortunes, ventured to raise a weak arm against the swedish hero, in the hope of obtaining from the emperor the electoral dignity. deaf to the suggestions of a rational policy, he listened only to the dictates of heated ambition; by supporting the emperor, he exasperated france, his formidable neighbour; and in the pursuit of a visionary phantom in another country, left undefended his own dominions, which were instantly overrun by a french army. austria willingly conceded to him, as well as to the other princes of the league, the honour of being ruined in her cause. intoxicated with vain hopes, this prince collected a force of , men, which he proposed to lead in person against the swedes. if these troops were deficient in discipline and courage, they were at least attractive by the splendour of their accoutrements; and however sparing they were of their prowess against the foe, they were liberal enough with it against the defenceless citizens and peasantry, whom they were summoned to defend. against the bravery, and the formidable discipline of the swedes this splendidly attired army, however, made no long stand. on the first advance of the swedish cavalry a panic seized them, and they were driven without difficulty from their cantonments in wurtzburg; the defeat of a few regiments occasioned a general rout, and the scattered remnant sought a covert from the swedish valour in the towns beyond the rhine. loaded with shame and ridicule, the duke hurried home by strasburg, too fortunate in escaping, by a submissive written apology, the indignation of his conqueror, who had first beaten him out of the field, and then called upon him to account for his hostilities. it is related upon this occasion that, in a village on the rhine a peasant struck the horse of the duke as he rode past, exclaiming, "haste, sir, you must go quicker to escape the great king of sweden!" the example of his neighbours' misfortunes had taught the bishop of bamberg prudence. to avert the plundering of his territories, he made offers of peace, though these were intended only to delay the king's course till the arrival of assistance. gustavus adolphus, too honourable himself to suspect dishonesty in another, readily accepted the bishop's proposals, and named the conditions on which he was willing to save his territories from hostile treatment. he was the more inclined to peace, as he had no time to lose in the conquest of bamberg, and his other designs called him to the rhine. the rapidity with which he followed up these plans, cost him the loss of those pecuniary supplies which, by a longer residence in franconia, he might easily have extorted from the weak and terrified bishop. this artful prelate broke off the negotiation the instant the storm of war passed away from his own territories. no sooner had gustavus marched onwards than he threw himself under the protection of tilly, and received the troops of the emperor into the very towns and fortresses, which shortly before he had shown himself ready to open to the swedes. by this stratagem, however, he only delayed for a brief interval the ruin of his bishopric. a swedish general who had been left in franconia, undertook to punish the perfidy of the bishop; and the ecclesiastical territory became the seat of war, and was ravaged alike by friends and foes. the formidable presence of the imperialists had hitherto been a check upon the franconian states; but their retreat, and the humane conduct of the swedish king, emboldened the nobility and other inhabitants of this circle to declare in his favour. nuremberg joyfully committed itself to his protection; and the franconian nobles were won to his cause by flattering proclamations, in which he condescended to apologize for his hostile appearance in the dominions. the fertility of franconia, and the rigorous honesty of the swedish soldiers in their dealings with the inhabitants, brought abundance to the camp of the king. the high esteem which the nobility of the circle felt for gustavus, the respect and admiration with which they regarded his brilliant exploits, the promises of rich booty which the service of this monarch held out, greatly facilitated the recruiting of his troops; a step which was made necessary by detaching so many garrisons from the main body. at the sound of his drums, recruits flocked to his standard from all quarters. the king had scarcely spent more time in conquering franconia, than he would have required to cross it. he now left behind him gustavus horn, one of his best generals, with a force of , men, to complete and retain his conquest. he himself with his main army, reinforced by the late recruits, hastened towards the rhine in order to secure this frontier of the empire from the spaniards; to disarm the ecclesiastical electors, and to obtain from their fertile territories new resources for the prosecution of the war. following the course of the maine, he subjected, in the course of his march, seligenstadt, aschaffenburg, steinheim, the whole territory on both sides of the river. the imperial garrisons seldom awaited his approach, and never attempted resistance. in the meanwhile one of his colonels had been fortunate enough to take by surprise the town and citadel of hanau, for whose preservation tilly had shown such anxiety. eager to be free of the oppressive burden of the imperialists, the count of hanau gladly placed himself under the milder yoke of the king of sweden. gustavus adolphus now turned his whole attention to frankfort, for it was his constant maxim to cover his rear by the friendship and possession of the more important towns. frankfort was among the free cities which, even from saxony, he had endeavoured to prepare for his reception; and he now called upon it, by a summons from offenbach, to allow him a free passage, and to admit a swedish garrison. willingly would this city have dispensed with the necessity of choosing between the king of sweden and the emperor; for, whatever party they might embrace, the inhabitants had a like reason to fear for their privileges and trade. the emperor's vengeance would certainly fall heavily upon them, if they were in a hurry to submit to the king of sweden, and afterwards he should prove unable to protect his adherents in germany. but still more ruinous for them would be the displeasure of an irresistible conqueror, who, with a formidable army, was already before their gates, and who might punish their opposition by the ruin of their commerce and prosperity. in vain did their deputies plead the danger which menaced their fairs, their privileges, perhaps their constitution itself, if, by espousing the party of the swedes, they were to incur the emperor's displeasure. gustavus adolphus expressed to them his astonishment that, when the liberties of germany and the protestant religion were at stake, the citizens of frankfort should talk of their annual fairs, and postpone for temporal interests the great cause of their country and their conscience. he had, he continued, in a menacing tone, found the keys of every town and fortress, from the isle of rugen to the maine, and knew also where to find a key to frankfort; the safety of germany, and the freedom of the protestant church, were, he assured them, the sole objects of his invasion; conscious of the justice of his cause, he was determined not to allow any obstacle to impede his progress. "the inhabitants of frankfort, he was well aware, wished to stretch out only a finger to him, but he must have the whole hand in order to have something to grasp." at the head of the army, he closely followed the deputies as they carried back his answer, and in order of battle awaited, near saxenhausen, the decision of the council. if frankfort hesitated to submit to the swedes, it was solely from fear of the emperor; their own inclinations did not allow them a moment to doubt between the oppressor of germany and its protector. the menacing preparations amidst which gustavus adolphus now compelled them to decide, would lessen the guilt of their revolt in the eyes of the emperor, and by an appearance of compulsion justify the step which they willingly took. the gates were therefore opened to the king of sweden, who marched his army through this imperial town in magnificent procession, and in admirable order. a garrison of men was left in saxenhausen; while the king himself advanced the same evening, with the rest of his army, against the town of hoechst in mentz, which surrendered to him before night. while gustavus was thus extending his conquests along the maine, fortune crowned also the efforts of his generals and allies in the north of germany. rostock, wismar, and doemitz, the only strong places in the duchy of mecklenburg which still sighed under the yoke of the imperialists, were recovered by their legitimate sovereign, the duke john albert, under the swedish general, achatius tott. in vain did the imperial general, wolf count von mansfeld, endeavour to recover from the swedes the territories of halberstadt, of which they had taken possession immediately upon the victory of leipzig; he was even compelled to leave magdeburg itself in their hands. the swedish general, banner, who with , men remained upon the elbe, closely blockaded that city, and had defeated several imperial regiments which had been sent to its relief. count mansfeld defended it in person with great resolution; but his garrison being too weak to oppose for any length of time the numerous force of the besiegers, he was already about to surrender on conditions, when pappenheim advanced to his assistance, and gave employment elsewhere to the swedish arms. magdeburg, however, or rather the wretched huts that peeped out miserably from among the ruins of that once great town, was afterwards voluntarily abandoned by the imperialists, and immediately taken possession of by the swedes. even lower saxony, encouraged by the progress of the king, ventured to raise its head from the disasters of the unfortunate danish war. they held a congress at hamburg, and resolved upon raising three regiments, which they hoped would be sufficient to free them from the oppressive garrisons of the imperialists. the bishop of bremen, a relation of gustavus adolphus, was not content even with this; but assembled troops of his own, and terrified the unfortunate monks and priests of the neighbourhood, but was quickly compelled by the imperial general, count gronsfeld, to lay down his arms. even george, duke of lunenburg, formerly a colonel in the emperor's service, embraced the party of gustavus, for whom he raised several regiments, and by occupying the attention of the imperialists in lower saxony, materially assisted him. but more important service was rendered to the king by the landgrave william of hesse cassel, whose victorious arms struck with terror the greater part of westphalia and lower saxony, the bishopric of fulda, and even the electorate of cologne. it has been already stated that immediately after the conclusion of the alliance between the landgrave and gustavus adolphus at werben, two imperial generals, fugger and altringer, were ordered by tilly to march into hesse, to punish the landgrave for his revolt from the emperor. but this prince had as firmly withstood the arms of his enemies, as his subjects had the proclamations of tilly inciting them to rebellion, and the battle of leipzig presently relieved him of their presence. he availed himself of their absence with courage and resolution; in a short time, vach, muenden and hoexter surrendered to him, while his rapid advance alarmed the bishoprics of fulda, paderborn, and the ecclesiastical territories which bordered on hesse. the terrified states hastened by a speedy submission to set limits to his progress, and by considerable contributions to purchase exemption from plunder. after these successful enterprises, the landgrave united his victorious army with that of gustavus adolphus, and concerted with him at frankfort their future plan of operations. in this city, a number of princes and ambassadors were assembled to congratulate gustavus on his success, and either to conciliate his favour or to appease his indignation. among them was the fugitive king of bohemia, the palatine frederick v., who had hastened from holland to throw himself into the arms of his avenger and protector. gustavus gave him the unprofitable honour of greeting him as a crowned head, and endeavoured, by a respectful sympathy, to soften his sense of his misfortunes. but great as the advantages were, which frederick had promised himself from the power and good fortune of his protector; and high as were the expectations he had built on his justice and magnanimity, the chance of this unfortunate prince's reinstatement in his kingdom was as distant as ever. the inactivity and contradictory politics of the english court had abated the zeal of gustavus adolphus, and an irritability which he could not always repress, made him on this occasion forget the glorious vocation of protector of the oppressed, in which, on his invasion of germany, he had so loudly announced himself. the terrors of the king's irresistible strength, and the near prospect of his vengeance, had also compelled george, landgrave of hesse darmstadt, to a timely submission. his connection with the emperor, and his indifference to the protestant cause, were no secret to the king, but he was satisfied with laughing at so impotent an enemy. as the landgrave knew his own strength and the political situation of germany so little, as to offer himself as mediator between the contending parties, gustavus used jestingly to call him the peacemaker. he was frequently heard to say, when at play he was winning from the landgrave, "that the money afforded double satisfaction, as it was imperial coin." to his affinity with the elector of saxony, whom gustavus had cause to treat with forbearance, the landgrave was indebted for the favourable terms he obtained from the king, who contented himself with the surrender of his fortress of russelheim, and his promise of observing a strict neutrality during the war. the counts of westerwald and wetteran also visited the king in frankfort, to offer him their assistance against the spaniards, and to conclude an alliance, which was afterwards of great service to him. the town of frankfort itself had reason to rejoice at the presence of this monarch, who took their commerce under his protection, and by the most effectual measures restored the fairs, which had been greatly interrupted by the war. the swedish army was now reinforced by ten thousand hessians, which the landgrave of casse commanded. gustavus adolphus had already invested koenigstein; kostheim and floersheim surrendered after a short siege; he was in command of the maine; and transports were preparing with all speed at hoechst to carry his troops across the rhine. these preparations filled the elector of mentz, anselm casimir, with consternation; and he no longer doubted but that the storm of war would next fall upon him. as a partisan of the emperor, and one of the most active members of the league, he could expect no better treatment than his confederates, the bishops of wurtzburg and bamberg, had already experienced. the situation of his territories upon the rhine made it necessary for the enemy to secure them, while the fertility afforded an irresistible temptation to a necessitous army. miscalculating his own strength and that of his adversaries, the elector flattered himself that he was able to repel force by force, and weary out the valour of the swedes by the strength of his fortresses. he ordered the fortifications of his capital to be repaired with all diligence, provided it with every necessary for sustaining a long siege, and received into the town a garrison of , spaniards, under don philip de sylva. to prevent the approach of the swedish transports, he endeavoured to close the mouth of the maine by driving piles, and sinking large heaps of stones and vessels. he himself, however, accompanied by the bishop of worms, and carrying with him his most precious effects, took refuge in cologne, and abandoned his capital and territories to the rapacity of a tyrannical garrison. but these preparations, which bespoke less of true courage than of weak and overweening confidence, did not prevent the swedes from marching against mentz, and making serious preparations for an attack upon the city. while one body of their troops poured into the rheingau, routed the spaniards who remained there, and levied contributions on the inhabitants, another laid the roman catholic towns in westerwald and wetterau under similar contributions. the main army had encamped at cassel, opposite mentz; and bernhard, duke of weimar, made himself master of the maeusethurm and the castle of ehrenfels, on the other side of the rhine. gustavus was now actively preparing to cross the river, and to blockade the town on the land side, when the movements of tilly in franconia suddenly called him from the siege, and obtained for the elector a short repose. the danger of nuremberg, which, during the absence of gustavus adolphus on the rhine, tilly had made a show of besieging, and, in the event of resistance, threatened with the cruel fate of magdeburg, occasioned the king suddenly to retire from before mentz. lest he should expose himself a second time to the reproaches of germany, and the disgrace of abandoning a confederate city to a ferocious enemy, he hastened to its relief by forced marches. on his arrival at frankfort, however, he heard of its spirited resistance, and of the retreat of tilly, and lost not a moment in prosecuting his designs against mentz. failing in an attempt to cross the rhine at cassel, under the cannon of the besieged, he directed his march towards the bergstrasse, with a view of approaching the town from an opposite quarter. here he quickly made himself master of all the places of importance, and at stockstadt, between gernsheim and oppenheim, appeared a second time upon the banks of the rhine. the whole of the bergstrasse was abandoned by the spaniards, who endeavoured obstinately to defend the other bank of the river. for this purpose, they had burned or sunk all the vessels in the neighbourhood, and arranged a formidable force on the banks, in case the king should attempt the passage at that place. on this occasion, the king's impetuosity exposed him to great danger of falling into the hands of the enemy. in order to reconnoitre the opposite bank, he crossed the river in a small boat; he had scarcely landed when he was attacked by a party of spanish horse, from whose hands he only saved himself by a precipitate retreat. having at last, with the assistance of the neighbouring fishermen, succeeded in procuring a few transports, he despatched two of them across the river, bearing count brahe and swedes. scarcely had this officer time to entrench himself on the opposite bank, when he was attacked by squadrons of spanish dragoons and cuirassiers. superior as the enemy was in number, count brahe, with his small force, bravely defended himself, and gained time for the king to support him with fresh troops. the spaniards at last retired with the loss of men, some taking refuge in oppenheim, and others in mentz. a lion of marble on a high pillar, holding a naked sword in his paw, and a helmet on his head, was erected seventy years after the event, to point out to the traveller the spot where the immortal monarch crossed the great river of germany. gustavus adolphus now conveyed his artillery and the greater part of his troops over the river, and laid siege to oppenheim, which, after a brave resistance, was, on the th december, , carried by storm. five hundred spaniards, who had so courageously defended the place, fell indiscriminately a sacrifice to the fury of the swedes. the crossing of the rhine by gustavus struck terror into the spaniards and lorrainers, who had thought themselves protected by the river from the vengeance of the swedes. rapid flight was now their only security; every place incapable of an effectual defence was immediately abandoned. after a long train of outrages on the defenceless citizens, the troops of lorraine evacuated worms, which, before their departure, they treated with wanton cruelty. the spaniards hastened to shut themselves up in frankenthal, where they hoped to defy the victorious arms of gustavus adolphus. the king lost no time in prosecuting his designs against mentz, into which the flower of the spanish troops had thrown themselves. while he advanced on the left bank of the rhine, the landgrave of hesse cassel moved forward on the other, reducing several strong places on his march. the besieged spaniards, though hemmed in on both sides, displayed at first a bold determination, and threw, for several days, a shower of bombs into the swedish camp, which cost the king many of his bravest soldiers. but notwithstanding, the swedes continually gained ground, and had at last advanced so close to the ditch that they prepared seriously for storming the place. the courage of the besieged now began to droop. they trembled before the furious impetuosity of the swedish soldiers, of which marienberg, in wurtzburg, had afforded so fearful an example. the same dreadful fate awaited mentz, if taken by storm; and the enemy might even be easily tempted to revenge the carnage of magdeburg on this rich and magnificent residence of a roman catholic prince. to save the town, rather than their own lives, the spanish garrison capitulated on the fourth day, and obtained from the magnanimity of gustavus a safe conduct to luxembourg; the greater part of them, however, following the example of many others, enlisted in the service of sweden. on the th december, , the king made his entry into the conquered town, and fixed his quarters in the palace of the elector. eighty pieces of cannon fell into his hands, and the citizens were obliged to redeem their property from pillage, by a payment of , florins. the benefits of this redemption did not extend to the jews and the clergy, who were obliged to make large and separate contributions for themselves. the library of the elector was seized by the king as his share, and presented by him to his chancellor, oxenstiern, who intended it for the academy of westerrah, but the vessel in which it was shipped to sweden foundered at sea. after the loss of mentz, misfortune still pursued the spaniards on the rhine. shortly before the capture of that city, the landgrave of hesse cassel had taken falkenstein and reifenberg, and the fortress of koningstein surrendered to the hessians. the rhinegrave, otto louis, one of the king's generals, defeated nine spanish squadrons who were on their march for frankenthal, and made himself master of the most important towns upon the rhine, from boppart to bacharach. after the capture of the fortress of braunfels, which was effected by the count of wetterau, with the co-operation of the swedes, the spaniards quickly lost every place in wetterau, while in the palatinate they retained few places besides frankenthal. landau and kronweisenberg openly declared for the swedes; spires offered troops for the king's service; manheim was gained through the prudence of the duke bernard of weimar, and the negligence of its governor, who, for this misconduct, was tried before the council of war, at heidelberg, and beheaded. the king had protracted the campaign into the depth of winter, and the severity of the season was perhaps one cause of the advantage his soldiers gained over those of the enemy. but the exhausted troops now stood in need of the repose of winter quarters, which, after the surrender of mentz, gustavus assigned to them, in its neighbourhood. he himself employed the interval of inactivity in the field, which the season of the year enjoined, in arranging, with his chancellor, the affairs of his cabinet, in treating for a neutrality with some of his enemies, and adjusting some political disputes which had sprung up with a neighbouring ally. he chose the city of mentz for his winter quarters, and the settlement of these state affairs, and showed a greater partiality for this town, than seemed consistent with the interests of the german princes, or the shortness of his visit to the empire. not content with strongly fortifying it, he erected at the opposite angle which the maine forms with the rhine, a new citadel, which was named gustavusburg from its founder, but which is better known under the title of pfaffenraub or pfaffenzwang.--[priests' plunder; alluding to the means by which the expense of its erection had been defrayed.] while gustavus adolphus made himself master of the rhine, and threatened the three neighbouring electorates with his victorious arms, his vigilant enemies in paris and st. germain's made use of every artifice to deprive him of the support of france, and, if possible, to involve him in a war with that power. by his sudden and equivocal march to the rhine, he had surprised his friends, and furnished his enemies with the means of exciting a distrust of his intentions. after the conquest of wurtzburg, and of the greater part of franconia, the road into bavaria and austria lay open to him through bamberg and the upper palatinate; and the expectation was as general, as it was natural, that he would not delay to attack the emperor and the duke of bavaria in the very centre of their power, and, by the reduction of his two principal enemies, bring the war immediately to an end. but to the surprise of both parties, gustavus left the path which general expectation had thus marked out for him; and instead of advancing to the right, turned to the left, to make the less important and more innocent princes of the rhine feel his power, while he gave time to his more formidable opponents to recruit their strength. nothing but the paramount design of reinstating the unfortunate palatine, frederick v., in the possession of his territories, by the expulsion of the spaniards, could seem to account for this strange step; and the belief that gustavus was about to effect that restoration, silenced for a while the suspicions of his friends and the calumnies of his enemies. but the lower palatinate was now almost entirely cleared of the enemy; and yet gustavus continued to form new schemes of conquest on the rhine, and to withhold the reconquered country from the palatine, its rightful owner. in vain did the english ambassador remind him of what justice demanded, and what his own solemn engagement made a duty of honour; gustavus replied to these demands with bitter complaints of the inactivity of the english court, and prepared to carry his victorious standard into alsace, and even into lorraine. a distrust of the swedish monarch was now loud and open, while the malice of his enemies busily circulated the most injurious reports as to his intentions. richelieu, the minister of louis xiii., had long witnessed with anxiety the king's progress towards the french frontier, and the suspicious temper of louis rendered him but too accessible to the evil surmises which the occasion gave rise to. france was at this time involved in a civil war with her protestant subjects, and the fear was not altogether groundless, that the approach of a victorious monarch of their party might revive their drooping spirit, and encourage them to a more desperate resistance. this might be the case, even if gustavus adolphus was far from showing a disposition to encourage them, or to act unfaithfully towards his ally, the king of france. but the vindictive bishop of wurtzburg, who was anxious to avenge the loss of his dominions, the envenomed rhetoric of the jesuits and the active zeal of the bavarian minister, represented this dreaded alliance between the huguenots and the swedes as an undoubted fact, and filled the timid mind of louis with the most alarming fears. not merely chimerical politicians, but many of the best informed roman catholics, fully believed that the king was on the point of breaking into the heart of france, to make common cause with the huguenots, and to overturn the catholic religion within the kingdom. fanatical zealots already saw him, with his army, crossing the alps, and dethroning the viceregent of christ in italy. such reports no doubt soon refute themselves; yet it cannot be denied that gustavus, by his manoeuvres on the rhine, gave a dangerous handle to the malice of his enemies, and in some measure justified the suspicion that he directed his arms, not so much against the emperor and the duke of bavaria, as against the roman catholic religion itself. the general clamour of discontent which the jesuits raised in all the catholic courts, against the alliance between france and the enemy of the church, at last compelled cardinal richelieu to take a decisive step for the security of his religion, and at once to convince the roman catholic world of the zeal of france, and of the selfish policy of the ecclesiastical states of germany. convinced that the views of the king of sweden, like his own, aimed solely at the humiliation of the power of austria, he hesitated not to promise to the princes of the league, on the part of sweden, a complete neutrality, immediately they abandoned their alliance with the emperor and withdrew their troops. whatever the resolution these princes should adopt, richelieu would equally attain his object. by their separation from the austrian interest, ferdinand would be exposed to the combined attack of france and sweden; and gustavus adolphus, freed from his other enemies in germany, would be able to direct his undivided force against the hereditary dominions of austria. in that event, the fall of austria was inevitable, and this great object of richelieu's policy would be gained without injury to the church. if, on the other hand, the princes of the league persisted in their opposition, and adhered to the austrian alliance, the result would indeed be more doubtful, but still france would have sufficiently proved to all europe the sincerity of her attachment to the catholic cause, and performed her duty as a member of the roman church. the princes of the league would then appear the sole authors of those evils, which the continuance of the war would unavoidably bring upon the roman catholics of germany; they alone, by their wilful and obstinate adherence to the emperor, would frustrate the measures employed for their protection, involve the church in danger, and themselves in ruin. richelieu pursued this plan with greater zeal, the more he was embarrassed by the repeated demands of the elector of bavaria for assistance from france; for this prince, as already stated, when he first began to entertain suspicions of the emperor, entered immediately into a secret alliance with france, by which, in the event of any change in the emperor's sentiments, he hoped to secure the possession of the palatinate. but though the origin of the treaty clearly showed against what enemy it was directed, maximilian now thought proper to make use of it against the king of sweden, and did not hesitate to demand from france that assistance against her ally, which she had simply promised against austria. richelieu, embarrassed by this conflicting alliance with two hostile powers, had no resource left but to endeavour to put a speedy termination to their hostilities; and as little inclined to sacrifice bavaria, as he was disabled, by his treaty with sweden, from assisting it, he set himself, with all diligence, to bring about a neutrality, as the only means of fulfilling his obligations to both. for this purpose, the marquis of breze was sent, as his plenipotentiary, to the king of sweden at mentz, to learn his sentiments on this point, and to procure from him favourable conditions for the allied princes. but if louis xiii. had powerful motives for wishing for this neutrality, gustavus adolphus had as grave reasons for desiring the contrary. convinced by numerous proofs that the hatred of the princes of the league to the protestant religion was invincible, their aversion to the foreign power of the swedes inextinguishable, and their attachment to the house of austria irrevocable, he apprehended less danger from their open hostility, than from a neutrality which was so little in unison with their real inclinations; and, moreover, as he was constrained to carry on the war in germany at the expense of the enemy, he manifestly sustained great loss if he diminished their number without increasing that of his friends. it was not surprising, therefore, if gustavus evinced little inclination to purchase the neutrality of the league, by which he was likely to gain so little, at the expense of the advantages he had already obtained. the conditions, accordingly, upon which he offered to adopt the neutrality towards bavaria were severe, and suited to these views. he required of the whole league a full and entire cessation from all hostilities; the recall of their troops from the imperial army, from the conquered towns, and from all the protestant countries; the reduction of their military force; the exclusion of the imperial armies from their territories, and from supplies either of men, provisions, or ammunition. hard as the conditions were, which the victor thus imposed upon the vanquished, the french mediator flattered himself he should be able to induce the elector of bavaria to accept them. in order to give time for an accommodation, gustavus had agreed to a cessation of hostilities for a fortnight. but at the very time when this monarch was receiving from the french agents repeated assurances of the favourable progress of the negociation, an intercepted letter from the elector to pappenheim, the imperial general in westphalia, revealed the perfidy of that prince, as having no other object in view by the whole negociation, than to gain time for his measures of defence. far from intending to fetter his military operations by a truce with sweden, the artful prince hastened his preparations, and employed the leisure which his enemy afforded him, in making the most active dispositions for resistance. the negociation accordingly failed, and served only to increase the animosity of the bavarians and the swedes. tilly's augmented force, with which he threatened to overrun franconia, urgently required the king's presence in that circle; but it was necessary to expel previously the spaniards from the rhine, and to cut off their means of invading germany from the netherlands. with this view, gustavus adolphus had made an offer of neutrality to the elector of treves, philip von zeltern, on condition that the fortress of hermanstein should be delivered up to him, and a free passage granted to his troops through coblentz. but unwillingly as the elector had beheld the spaniards within his territories, he was still less disposed to commit his estates to the suspicious protection of a heretic, and to make the swedish conqueror master of his destinies. too weak to maintain his independence between two such powerful competitors, he took refuge in the protection of france. with his usual prudence, richelieu profited by the embarrassments of this prince to augment the power of france, and to gain for her an important ally on the german frontier. a numerous french army was despatched to protect the territory of treves, and a french garrison was received into ehrenbreitstein. but the object which had moved the elector to this bold step was not completely gained, for the offended pride of gustavus adolphus was not appeased till he had obtained a free passage for his troops through treves. pending these negociations with treves and france, the king's generals had entirely cleared the territory of mentz of the spanish garrisons, and gustavus himself completed the conquest of this district by the capture of kreutznach. to protect these conquests, the chancellor oxenstiern was left with a division of the army upon the middle rhine, while the main body, under the king himself, began its march against the enemy in franconia. the possession of this circle had, in the mean time, been disputed with variable success, between count tilly and the swedish general horn, whom gustavus had left there with , men; and the bishopric of bamberg, in particular, was at once the prize and the scene of their struggle. called away to the rhine by his other projects, the king had left to his general the chastisement of the bishop, whose perfidy had excited his indignation, and the activity of horn justified the choice. in a short time, he subdued the greater part of the bishopric; and the capital itself, abandoned by its imperial garrison, was carried by storm. the banished bishop urgently demanded assistance from the elector of bavaria, who was at length persuaded to put an end to tilly's inactivity. fully empowered by his master's order to restore the bishop to his possessions, this general collected his troops, who were scattered over the upper palatinate, and with an army of , men advanced upon bamberg. firmly resolved to maintain his conquest even against this overwhelming force, horn awaited the enemy within the walls of bamberg; but was obliged to yield to the vanguard of tilly what he had thought to be able to dispute with his whole army. a panic which suddenly seized his troops, and which no presence of mind of their general could check, opened the gates to the enemy, and it was with difficulty that the troops, baggage, and artillery, were saved. the reconquest of bamberg was the fruit of this victory; but tilly, with all his activity, was unable to overtake the swedish general, who retired in good order behind the maine. the king's appearance in franconia, and his junction with gustavus horn at kitzingen, put a stop to tilly's conquests, and compelled him to provide for his own safety by a rapid retreat. the king made a general review of his troops at aschaffenburg. after his junction with gustavus horn, banner, and duke william of weimar, they amounted to nearly , men. his progress through franconia was uninterrupted; for tilly, far too weak to encounter an enemy so superior in numbers, had retreated, by rapid marches, towards the danube. bohemia and bavaria were now equally near to the king, and, uncertain whither his victorious course might be directed, maximilian could form no immediate resolution. the choice of the king, and the fate of both provinces, now depended on the road that should be left open to count tilly. it was dangerous, during the approach of so formidable an enemy, to leave bavaria undefended, in order to protect austria; still more dangerous, by receiving tilly into bavaria, to draw thither the enemy also, and to render it the seat of a destructive war. the cares of the sovereign finally overcame the scruples of the statesman, and tilly received orders, at all hazards, to cover the frontiers of bavaria with his army. nuremberg received with triumphant joy the protector of the protestant religion and german freedom, and the enthusiasm of the citizens expressed itself on his arrival in loud transports of admiration and joy. even gustavus could not contain his astonishment, to see himself in this city, which was the very centre of germany, where he had never expected to be able to penetrate. the noble appearance of his person, completed the impression produced by his glorious exploits, and the condescension with which he received the congratulations of this free city won all hearts. he now confirmed the alliance he had concluded with it on the shores of the baltic, and excited the citizens to zealous activity and fraternal unity against the common enemy. after a short stay in nuremberg, he followed his army to the danube, and appeared unexpectedly before the frontier town of donauwerth. a numerous bavarian garrison defended the place; and their commander, rodolph maximilian, duke of saxe lauenburg, showed at first a resolute determination to defend it till the arrival of tilly. but the vigour with which gustavus adolphus prosecuted the siege, soon compelled him to take measures for a speedy and secure retreat, which amidst a tremendous fire from the swedish artillery he successfully executed. the conquest of donauwerth opened to the king the further side of the danube, and now the small river lech alone separated him from bavaria. the immediate danger of his dominions aroused all maximilian's activity; and however little he had hitherto disturbed the enemy's progress to his frontier, he now determined to dispute as resolutely the remainder of their course. on the opposite bank of the lech, near the small town of rain, tilly occupied a strongly fortified camp, which, surrounded by three rivers, bade defiance to all attack. all the bridges over the lech were destroyed; the whole course of the stream protected by strong garrisons as far as augsburg; and that town itself, which had long betrayed its impatience to follow the example of nuremberg and frankfort, secured by a bavarian garrison, and the disarming of its inhabitants. the elector himself, with all the troops he could collect, threw himself into tilly's camp, as if all his hopes centred on this single point, and here the good fortune of the swedes was to suffer shipwreck for ever. gustavus adolphus, after subduing the whole territory of augsburg, on his own side of the river, and opening to his troops a rich supply of necessaries from that quarter, soon appeared on the bank opposite the bavarian entrenchments. it was now the month of march, when the river, swollen by frequent rains, and the melting of the snow from the mountains of the tyrol, flowed full and rapid between its steep banks. its boiling current threatened the rash assailants with certain destruction, while from the opposite side the enemy's cannon showed their murderous mouths. if, in despite of the fury both of fire and water, they should accomplish this almost impossible passage, a fresh and vigorous enemy awaited the exhausted troops in an impregnable camp; and when they needed repose and refreshment they must prepare for battle. with exhausted powers they must ascend the hostile entrenchments, whose strength seemed to bid defiance to every assault. a defeat sustained upon this shore would be attended with inevitable destruction, since the same stream which impeded their advance would also cut off their retreat, if fortune should abandon them. the swedish council of war, which the king now assembled, strongly urged upon him all these considerations, in order to deter him from this dangerous undertaking. the most intrepid were appalled, and a troop of honourable warriors, who had grown gray in the field, did not hesitate to express their alarm. but the king's resolution was fixed. "what!" said he to gustavus horn, who spoke for the rest, "have we crossed the baltic, and so many great rivers of germany, and shall we now be checked by a brook like the lech?" gustavus had already, at great personal risk, reconnoitred the whole country, and discovered that his own side of the river was higher than the other, and consequently gave a considerable advantage to the fire of the swedish artillery over that of the enemy. with great presence of mind he determined to profit by this circumstance. at the point where the left bank of the lech forms an angle with the right, he immediately caused three batteries to be erected, from which field-pieces maintained a cross fire upon the enemy. while this tremendous cannonade drove the bavarians from the opposite bank, he caused to be erected a bridge over the river with all possible rapidity. a thick smoke, kept up by burning wood and wet straw, concealed for some time the progress of the work from the enemy, while the continued thunder of the cannon overpowered the noise of the axes. he kept alive by his own example the courage of his troops, and discharged more than cannon with his own hand. the cannonade was returned by the bavarians with equal vivacity for two hours, though with less effect, as the swedish batteries swept the lower opposite bank, while their height served as a breast-work to their own troops. in vain, therefore, did the bavarians attempt to destroy these works; the superior fire of the swedes threw them into disorder, and the bridge was completed under their very eyes. on this dreadful day, tilly did every thing in his power to encourage his troops; and no danger could drive him from the bank. at length he found the death which he sought, a cannon ball shattered his leg; and altringer, his brave companion-in-arms, was, soon after, dangerously wounded in the head. deprived of the animating presence of their two generals, the bavarians gave way at last, and maximilian, in spite of his own judgment, was driven to adopt a pusillanimous resolve. overcome by the persuasions of the dying tilly, whose wonted firmness was overpowered by the near approach of death, he gave up his impregnable position for lost; and the discovery by the swedes of a ford, by which their cavalry were on the point of passing, accelerated his inglorious retreat. the same night, before a single soldier of the enemy had crossed the lech, he broke up his camp, and, without giving time for the king to harass him in his march, retreated in good order to neuburgh and ingolstadt. with astonishment did gustavus adolphus, who completed the passage of the river on the following day behold the hostile camp abandoned; and the elector's flight surprised him still more, when he saw the strength of the position he had quitted. "had i been the bavarian," said he, "though a cannon ball had carried away my beard and chin, never would i have abandoned a position like this, and laid open my territory to my enemies." bavaria now lay exposed to the conqueror; and, for the first time, the tide of war, which had hitherto only beat against its frontier, now flowed over its long spared and fertile fields. before, however, the king proceeded to the conquest of these provinces, he delivered the town of augsburg from the yoke of bavaria; exacted an oath of allegiance from the citizens; and to secure its observance, left a garrison in the town. he then advanced, by rapid marches, against ingolstadt, in order, by the capture of this important fortress, which the elector covered with the greater part of his army, to secure his conquests in bavaria, and obtain a firm footing on the danube. shortly after the appearance of the swedish king before ingolstadt, the wounded tilly, after experiencing the caprice of unstable fortune, terminated his career within the walls of that town. conquered by the superior generalship of gustavus adolphus, he lost, at the close of his days, all the laurels of his earlier victories, and appeased, by a series of misfortunes, the demands of justice, and the avenging manes of magdeburg. in his death, the imperial army and that of the league sustained an irreparable loss; the roman catholic religion was deprived of its most zealous defender, and maximilian of bavaria of the most faithful of his servants, who sealed his fidelity by his death, and even in his dying moments fulfilled the duties of a general. his last message to the elector was an urgent advice to take possession of ratisbon, in order to maintain the command of the danube, and to keep open the communication with bohemia. with the confidence which was the natural fruit of so many victories, gustavus adolphus commenced the siege of ingolstadt, hoping to gain the town by the fury of his first assault. but the strength of its fortifications, and the bravery of its garrison, presented obstacles greater than any he had had to encounter since the battle of breitenfeld, and the walls of ingolstadt were near putting an end to his career. while reconnoitring the works, a -pounder killed his horse under him, and he fell to the ground, while almost immediately afterwards another ball struck his favourite, the young margrave of baden, by his side. with perfect self-possession the king rose, and quieted the fears of his troops by immediately mounting another horse. the occupation of ratisbon by the bavarians, who, by the advice of tilly, had surprised this town by stratagem, and placed in it a strong garrison, quickly changed the king's plan of operations. he had flattered himself with the hope of gaining this town, which favoured the protestant cause, and to find in it an ally as devoted to him as nuremberg, augsburg, and frankfort. its seizure by the bavarians seemed to postpone for a long time the fulfilment of his favourite project of making himself master of the danube, and cutting off his adversaries' supplies from bohemia. he suddenly raised the siege of ingolstadt, before which he had wasted both his time and his troops, and penetrated into the interior of bavaria, in order to draw the elector into that quarter for the defence of his territories, and thus to strip the danube of its defenders. the whole country, as far as munich, now lay open to the conqueror. mosburg, landshut, and the whole territory of freysingen, submitted; nothing could resist his arms. but if he met with no regular force to oppose his progress, he had to contend against a still more implacable enemy in the heart of every bavarian--religious fanaticism. soldiers who did not believe in the pope were, in this country, a new and unheard-of phenomenon; the blind zeal of the priests represented them to the peasantry as monsters, the children of hell, and their leader as antichrist. no wonder, then, if they thought themselves released from all the ties of nature and humanity towards this brood of satan, and justified in committing the most savage atrocities upon them. woe to the swedish soldier who fell into their hands! all the torments which inventive malice could devise were exercised upon these unhappy victims; and the sight of their mangled bodies exasperated the army to a fearful retaliation. gustavus adolphus, alone, sullied the lustre of his heroic character by no act of revenge; and the aversion which the bavarians felt towards his religion, far from making him depart from the obligations of humanity towards that unfortunate people, seemed to impose upon him the stricter duty to honour his religion by a more constant clemency. the approach of the king spread terror and consternation in the capital, which, stripped of its defenders, and abandoned by its principal inhabitants, placed all its hopes in the magnanimity of the conqueror. by an unconditional and voluntary surrender, it hoped to disarm his vengeance; and sent deputies even to freysingen to lay at his feet the keys of the city. strongly as the king might have been tempted by the inhumanity of the bavarians, and the hostility of their sovereign, to make a dreadful use of the rights of victory; pressed as he was by germans to avenge the fate of magdeburg on the capital of its destroyer, this great prince scorned this mean revenge; and the very helplessness of his enemies disarmed his severity. contented with the more noble triumph of conducting the palatine frederick with the pomp of a victor into the very palace of the prince who had been the chief instrument of his ruin, and the usurper of his territories, he heightened the brilliancy of his triumphal entry by the brighter splendour of moderation and clemency. the king found in munich only a forsaken palace, for the elector's treasures had been transported to werfen. the magnificence of the building astonished him; and he asked the guide who showed the apartments who was the architect. "no other," replied he, "than the elector himself."--"i wish," said the king, "i had this architect to send to stockholm." "that," he was answered, "the architect will take care to prevent." when the arsenal was examined, they found nothing but carriages, stripped of their cannon. the latter had been so artfully concealed under the floor, that no traces of them remained; and but for the treachery of a workman, the deceit would not have been detected. "rise up from the dead," said the king, "and come to judgment." the floor was pulled up, and pieces of cannon discovered, some of extraordinary calibre, which had been principally taken in the palatinate and bohemia. a treasure of , gold ducats, concealed in one of the largest, completed the pleasure which the king received from this valuable acquisition. a far more welcome spectacle still would have been the bavarian army itself; for his march into the heart of bavaria had been undertaken chiefly with the view of luring them from their entrenchments. in this expectation he was disappointed. no enemy appeared; no entreaties, however urgent, on the part of his subjects, could induce the elector to risk the remainder of his army to the chances of a battle. shut up in ratisbon, he awaited the reinforcements which wallenstein was bringing from bohemia; and endeavoured, in the mean time, to amuse his enemy and keep him inactive, by reviving the negociation for a neutrality. but the king's distrust, too often and too justly excited by his previous conduct, frustrated this design; and the intentional delay of wallenstein abandoned bavaria to the swedes. thus far had gustavus advanced from victory to victory, without meeting with an enemy able to cope with him. a part of bavaria and swabia, the bishoprics of franconia, the lower palatinate, and the archbishopric of mentz, lay conquered in his rear. an uninterrupted career of conquest had conducted him to the threshold of austria; and the most brilliant success had fully justified the plan of operations which he had formed after the battle of breitenfeld. if he had not succeeded to his wish in promoting a confederacy among the protestant states, he had at least disarmed or weakened the league, carried on the war chiefly at its expense, lessened the emperor's resources, emboldened the weaker states, and while he laid under contribution the allies of the emperor, forced a way through their territories into austria itself. where arms were unavailing, the greatest service was rendered by the friendship of the free cities, whose affections he had gained, by the double ties of policy and religion; and, as long as he should maintain his superiority in the field, he might reckon on every thing from their zeal. by his conquests on the rhine, the spaniards were cut off from the lower palatinate, even if the state of the war in the netherlands left them at liberty to interfere in the affairs of germany. the duke of lorraine, too, after his unfortunate campaign, had been glad to adopt a neutrality. even the numerous garrisons he had left behind him, in his progress through germany, had not diminished his army; and, fresh and vigorous as when he first began his march, he now stood in the centre of bavaria, determined and prepared to carry the war into the heart of austria. while gustavus adolphus thus maintained his superiority within the empire, fortune, in another quarter, had been no less favourable to his ally, the elector of saxony. by the arrangement concerted between these princes at halle, after the battle of leipzig, the conquest of bohemia was intrusted to the elector of saxony, while the king reserved for himself the attack upon the territories of the league. the first fruits which the elector reaped from the battle of breitenfeld, was the reconquest of leipzig, which was shortly followed by the expulsion of the austrian garrisons from the entire circle. reinforced by the troops who deserted to him from the hostile garrisons, the saxon general, arnheim, marched towards lusatia, which had been overrun by an imperial general, rudolph von tiefenbach, in order to chastise the elector for embracing the cause of the enemy. he had already commenced in this weakly defended province the usual course of devastation, taken several towns, and terrified dresden itself by his approach, when his destructive progress was suddenly stopped, by an express mandate from the emperor to spare the possessions of the king of saxony. ferdinand had perceived too late the errors of that policy, which reduced the elector of saxony to extremities, and forcibly driven this powerful monarch into an alliance with sweden. by moderation, equally ill-timed, he now wished to repair if possible the consequences of his haughtiness; and thus committed a second error in endeavouring to repair the first. to deprive his enemy of so powerful an ally, he had opened, through the intervention of spain, a negociation with the elector; and in order to facilitate an accommodation, tiefenbach was ordered immediately to retire from saxony. but these concessions of the emperor, far from producing the desired effect, only revealed to the elector the embarrassment of his adversary and his own importance, and emboldened him the more to prosecute the advantages he had already obtained. how could he, moreover, without becoming chargeable with the most shameful ingratitude, abandon an ally to whom he had given the most solemn assurances of fidelity, and to whom he was indebted for the preservation of his dominions, and even of his electoral dignity? the saxon army, now relieved from the necessity of marching into lusatia, advanced towards bohemia, where a combination of favourable circumstances seemed to ensure them an easy victory. in this kingdom, the first scene of this fatal war, the flames of dissension still smouldered beneath the ashes, while the discontent of the inhabitants was fomented by daily acts of oppression and tyranny. on every side, this unfortunate country showed signs of a mournful change. whole districts had changed their proprietors, and groaned under the hated yoke of roman catholic masters, whom the favour of the emperor and the jesuits had enriched with the plunder and possessions of the exiled protestants. others, taking advantage themselves of the general distress, had purchased, at a low rate, the confiscated estates. the blood of the most eminent champions of liberty had been shed upon the scaffold; and such as by a timely flight avoided that fate, were wandering in misery far from their native land, while the obsequious slaves of despotism enjoyed their patrimony. still more insupportable than the oppression of these petty tyrants, was the restraint of conscience which was imposed without distinction on all the protestants of that kingdom. no external danger, no opposition on the part of the nation, however steadfast, not even the fearful lessons of past experience could check in the jesuits the rage of proselytism; where fair means were ineffectual, recourse was had to military force to bring the deluded wanderers within the pale of the church. the inhabitants of joachimsthal, on the frontiers between bohemia and meissen, were the chief sufferers from this violence. two imperial commissaries, accompanied by as many jesuits, and supported by fifteen musketeers, made their appearance in this peaceful valley to preach the gospel to the heretics. where the rhetoric of the former was ineffectual, the forcibly quartering the latter upon the houses, and threats of banishment and fines were tried. but on this occasion, the good cause prevailed, and the bold resistance of this small district compelled the emperor disgracefully to recall his mandate of conversion. the example of the court had, however, afforded a precedent to the roman catholics of the empire, and seemed to justify every act of oppression which their insolence tempted them to wreak upon the protestants. it is not surprising, then, if this persecuted party was favourable to a revolution, and saw with pleasure their deliverers on the frontiers. the saxon army was already on its march towards prague, the imperial garrisons everywhere retired before them. schloeckenau, tetschen, aussig, leutmeritz, soon fell into the enemy's hands, and every roman catholic place was abandoned to plunder. consternation seized all the papists of the empire; and conscious of the outrages which they themselves had committed on the protestants, they did not venture to abide the vengeful arrival of a protestant army. all the roman catholics, who had anything to lose, fled hastily from the country to the capital, which again they presently abandoned. prague was unprepared for an attack, and was too weakly garrisoned to sustain a long siege. too late had the emperor resolved to despatch field-marshal tiefenbach to the defence of this capital. before the imperial orders could reach the head-quarters of that general, in silesia, the saxons were already close to prague, the protestant inhabitants of which showed little zeal, while the weakness of the garrison left no room to hope a long resistance. in this fearful state of embarrassment, the roman catholics of prague looked for security to wallenstein, who now lived in that city as a private individual. but far from lending his military experience, and the weight of his name, towards its defence, he seized the favourable opportunity to satiate his thirst for revenge. if he did not actually invite the saxons to prague, at least his conduct facilitated its capture. though unprepared, the town might still hold out until succours could arrive; and an imperial colonel, count maradas, showed serious intentions of undertaking its defence. but without command and authority, and having no support but his own zeal and courage, he did not dare to venture upon such a step without the advice of a superior. he therefore consulted the duke of friedland, whose approbation might supply the want of authority from the emperor, and to whom the bohemian generals were referred by an express edict of the court in the last extremity. he, however, artfully excused himself, on the plea of holding no official appointment, and his long retirement from the political world; while he weakened the resolution of the subalterns by the scruples which he suggested, and painted in the strongest colours. at last, to render the consternation general and complete, he quitted the capital with his whole court, however little he had to fear from its capture; and the city was lost, because, by his departure, he showed that he despaired of its safety. his example was followed by all the roman catholic nobility, the generals with their troops, the clergy, and all the officers of the crown. all night the people were employed in saving their persons and effects. the roads to vienna were crowded with fugitives, who scarcely recovered from their consternation till they reached the imperial city. maradas himself, despairing of the safety of prague, followed the rest, and led his small detachment to tabor, where he awaited the event. profound silence reigned in prague, when the saxons next morning appeared before it; no preparations were made for defence; not a single shot from the walls announced an intention of resistance. on the contrary, a crowd of spectators from the town, allured by curiosity, came flocking round, to behold the foreign army; and the peaceful confidence with which they advanced, resembled a friendly salutation, more than a hostile reception. from the concurrent reports of these people, the saxons learned that the town had been deserted by the troops, and that the government had fled to budweiss. this unexpected and inexplicable absence of resistance excited arnheim's distrust the more, as the speedy approach of the silesian succours was no secret to him, and as he knew that the saxon army was too indifferently provided with materials for undertaking a siege, and by far too weak in numbers to attempt to take the place by storm. apprehensive of stratagem, he redoubled his vigilance; and he continued in this conviction until wallenstein's house-steward, whom he discovered among the crowd, confirmed to him this intelligence. "the town is ours without a blow!" exclaimed he in astonishment to his officers, and immediately summoned it by a trumpeter. the citizens of prague, thus shamefully abandoned by their defenders, had long taken their resolution; all that they had to do was to secure their properties and liberties by an advantageous capitulation. no sooner was the treaty signed by the saxon general, in his master's name, than the gates were opened, without farther opposition; and upon the th of november, , the army made their triumphal entry. the elector soon after followed in person, to receive the homage of those whom he had newly taken under his protection; for it was only in the character of protector that the three towns of prague had surrendered to him. their allegiance to the austrian monarchy was not to be dissolved by the step they had taken. in proportion as the papists' apprehensions of reprisals on the part of the protestants had been exaggerated, so was their surprise great at the moderation of the elector, and the discipline of his troops. field-marshal arnheim plainly evinced, on this occasion, his respect for wallenstein. not content with sparing his estates on his march, he now placed guards over his palace, in prague, to prevent the plunder of any of his effects. the roman catholics of the town were allowed the fullest liberty of conscience; and of all the churches they had wrested from the protestants, four only were now taken back from them. from this general indulgence, none were excluded but the jesuits, who were generally considered as the authors of all past grievances, and thus banished the kingdom. john george belied not the submission and dependence with which the terror of the imperial name inspired him; nor did he indulge at prague, in a course of conduct which would assuredly have been pursued against himself in dresden, by imperial generals, such as tilly or wallenstein. he carefully distinguished between the enemy with whom he was at war, and the head of the empire, to whom he owed obedience. he did not venture to touch the household furniture of the latter, while, without scruple, he appropriated and transported to dresden the cannon of the former. he did not take up his residence in the imperial palace, but the house of lichtenstein; too modest to use the apartments of one whom he had deprived of a kingdom. had this trait been related of a great man and a hero, it would irresistibly excite our admiration; but the character of this prince leaves us in doubt whether this moderation ought to be ascribed to a noble self-command, or to the littleness of a weak mind, which even good fortune could not embolden, and liberty itself could not strip of its habituated fetters. the surrender of prague, which was quickly followed by that of most of the other towns, effected a great and sudden change in bohemia. many of the protestant nobility, who had hitherto been wandering about in misery, now returned to their native country; and count thurn, the famous author of the bohemian insurrection, enjoyed the triumph of returning as a conqueror to the scene of his crime and his condemnation. over the very bridge where the heads of his adherents, exposed to view, held out a fearful picture of the fate which had threatened himself, he now made his triumphal entry; and to remove these ghastly objects was his first care. the exiles again took possession of their properties, without thinking of recompensing for the purchase money the present possessors, who had mostly taken to flight. even though they had received a price for their estates, they seized on every thing which had once been their own; and many had reason to rejoice at the economy of the late possessors. the lands and cattle had greatly improved in their hands; the apartments were now decorated with the most costly furniture; the cellars, which had been left empty, were richly filled; the stables supplied; the magazines stored with provisions. but distrusting the constancy of that good fortune, which had so unexpectedly smiled upon them, they hastened to get quit of these insecure possessions, and to convert their immoveable into transferable property. the presence of the saxons inspired all the protestants of the kingdom with courage; and, both in the country and the capital, crowds flocked to the newly opened protestant churches. many, whom fear alone had retained in their adherence to popery, now openly professed the new doctrine; and many of the late converts to roman catholicism gladly renounced a compulsory persuasion, to follow the earlier conviction of their conscience. all the moderation of the new regency, could not restrain the manifestation of that just displeasure, which this persecuted people felt against their oppressors. they made a fearful and cruel use of their newly recovered rights; and, in many parts of the kingdom, their hatred of the religion which they had been compelled to profess, could be satiated only by the blood of its adherents. meantime the succours which the imperial generals, goetz and tiefenbach, were conducting from silesia, had entered bohemia, where they were joined by some of tilly's regiments, from the upper palatinate. in order to disperse them before they should receive any further reinforcement, arnheim advanced with part of his army from prague, and made a vigorous attack on their entrenchments near limburg, on the elbe. after a severe action, not without great loss, he drove the enemy from their fortified camp, and forced them, by his heavy fire, to recross the elbe, and to destroy the bridge which they had built over that river. nevertheless, the imperialists obtained the advantage in several skirmishes, and the croats pushed their incursions to the very gates of prague. brilliant and promising as the opening of the bohemian campaign had been, the issue by no means satisfied the expectations of gustavus adolphus. instead of vigorously following up their advantages, by forcing a passage to the swedish army through the conquered country, and then, with it, attacking the imperial power in its centre, the saxons weakened themselves in a war of skirmishes, in which they were not always successful, while they lost the time which should have been devoted to greater undertakings. but the elector's subsequent conduct betrayed the motives which had prevented him from pushing his advantage over the emperor, and by consistent measures promoting the plans of the king of sweden. the emperor had now lost the greater part of bohemia, and the saxons were advancing against austria, while the swedish monarch was rapidly moving to the same point through franconia, swabia, and bavaria. a long war had exhausted the strength of the austrian monarchy, wasted the country, and diminished its armies. the renown of its victories was no more, as well as the confidence inspired by constant success; its troops had lost the obedience and discipline to which those of the swedish monarch owed all their superiority in the field. the confederates of the emperor were disarmed, or their fidelity shaken by the danger which threatened themselves. even maximilian of bavaria, austria's most powerful ally, seemed disposed to yield to the seductive proposition of neutrality; while his suspicious alliance with france had long been a subject of apprehension to the emperor. the bishops of wurtzburg and bamberg, the elector of mentz, and the duke of lorraine, were either expelled from their territories, or threatened with immediate attack; treves had placed itself under the protection of france. the bravery of the hollanders gave full employment to the spanish arms in the netherlands; while gustavus had driven them from the rhine. poland was still fettered by the truce which subsisted between that country and sweden. the hungarian frontier was threatened by the transylvanian prince, ragotsky, a successor of bethlen gabor, and the inheritor of his restless mind; while the porte was making great preparation to profit by the favourable conjuncture for aggression. most of the protestant states, encouraged by their protector's success, were openly and actively declaring against the emperor. all the resources which had been obtained by the violent and oppressive extortions of tilly and wallenstein were exhausted; all these depots, magazines, and rallying-points, were now lost to the emperor; and the war could no longer be carried on as before at the cost of others. to complete his embarrassment, a dangerous insurrection broke out in the territory of the ens, where the ill-timed religious zeal of the government had provoked the protestants to resistance; and thus fanaticism lit its torch within the empire, while a foreign enemy was already on its frontier. after so long a continuance of good fortune, such brilliant victories and extensive conquests, such fruitless effusion of blood, the emperor saw himself a second time on the brink of that abyss, into which he was so near falling at the commencement of his reign. if bavaria should embrace the neutrality; if saxony should resist the tempting offers he had held out; and france resolve to attack the spanish power at the same time in the netherlands, in italy and in catalonia, the ruin of austria would be complete; the allied powers would divide its spoils, and the political system of germany would undergo a total change. the chain of these disasters began with the battle of breitenfeld, the unfortunate issue of which plainly revealed the long decided decline of the austrian power, whose weakness had hitherto been concealed under the dazzling glitter of a grand name. the chief cause of the swedes' superiority in the field, was evidently to be ascribed to the unlimited power of their leader, who concentrated in himself the whole strength of his party; and, unfettered in his enterprises by any higher authority, was complete master of every favourable opportunity, could control all his means to the accomplishment of his ends, and was responsible to none but himself. but since wallenstein's dismissal, and tilly's defeat, the very reverse of this course was pursued by the emperor and the league. the generals wanted authority over their troops, and liberty of acting at their discretion; the soldiers were deficient in discipline and obedience; the scattered corps in combined operation; the states in attachment to the cause; the leaders in harmony among themselves, in quickness to resolve, and firmness to execute. what gave the emperor's enemy so decided an advantage over him, was not so much their superior power, as their manner of using it. the league and the emperor did not want means, but a mind capable of directing them with energy and effect. even had count tilly not lost his old renown, distrust of bavaria would not allow the emperor to place the fate of austria in the hands of one who had never concealed his attachment to the bavarian elector. the urgent want which ferdinand felt, was for a general possessed of sufficient experience to form and to command an army, and willing at the same time to dedicate his services, with blind devotion, to the austrian monarchy. this choice now occupied the attention of the emperor's privy council, and divided the opinions of its members. in order to oppose one monarch to another, and by the presence of their sovereign to animate the courage of the troops, ferdinand, in the ardour of the moment, had offered himself to be the leader of his army; but little trouble was required to overturn a resolution which was the offspring of despair alone, and which yielded at once to calm reflection. but the situation which his dignity, and the duties of administration, prevented the emperor from holding, might be filled by his son, a youth of talents and bravery, and of whom the subjects of austria had already formed great expectations. called by his birth to the defence of a monarchy, of whose crowns he wore two already, ferdinand iii., king of hungary and bohemia, united, with the natural dignity of heir to the throne, the respect of the army, and the attachment of the people, whose co-operation was indispensable to him in the conduct of the war. none but the beloved heir to the crown could venture to impose new burdens on a people already severely oppressed; his personal presence with the army could alone suppress the pernicious jealousies of the several leaders, and by the influence of his name, restore the neglected discipline of the troops to its former rigour. if so young a leader was devoid of the maturity of judgment, prudence, and military experience which practice alone could impart, this deficiency might be supplied by a judicious choice of counsellors and assistants, who, under the cover of his name, might be vested with supreme authority. but plausible as were the arguments with which a part of the ministry supported this plan, it was met by difficulties not less serious, arising from the distrust, perhaps even the jealousy, of the emperor, and also from the desperate state of affairs. how dangerous was it to entrust the fate of the monarchy to a youth, who was himself in need of counsel and support! how hazardous to oppose to the greatest general of his age, a tyro, whose fitness for so important a post had never yet been tested by experience; whose name, as yet unknown to fame, was far too powerless to inspire a dispirited army with the assurance of future victory! what a new burden on the country, to support the state a royal leader was required to maintain, and which the prejudices of the age considered as inseparable from his presence with the army! how serious a consideration for the prince himself, to commence his political career, with an office which must make him the scourge of his people, and the oppressor of the territories which he was hereafter to rule. but not only was a general to be found for the army; an army must also be found for the general. since the compulsory resignation of wallenstein, the emperor had defended himself more by the assistance of bavaria and the league, than by his own armies; and it was this dependence on equivocal allies, which he was endeavouring to escape, by the appointment of a general of his own. but what possibility was there of raising an army out of nothing, without the all-powerful aid of gold, and the inspiriting name of a victorious commander; above all, an army which, by its discipline, warlike spirit, and activity, should be fit to cope with the experienced troops of the northern conqueror? in all europe, there was but one man equal to this, and that one had been mortally affronted. the moment had at last arrived, when more than ordinary satisfaction was to be done to the wounded pride of the duke of friedland. fate itself had been his avenger, and an unbroken chain of disasters, which had assailed austria from the day of his dismissal, had wrung from the emperor the humiliating confession, that with this general he had lost his right arm. every defeat of his troops opened afresh this wound; every town which he lost, revived in the mind of the deceived monarch the memory of his own weakness and ingratitude. it would have been well for him, if, in the offended general, he had only lost a leader of his troops, and a defender of his dominions; but he was destined to find in him an enemy, and the most dangerous of all, since he was least armed against the stroke of treason. removed from the theatre of war, and condemned to irksome inaction, while his rivals gathered laurels on the field of glory, the haughty duke had beheld these changes of fortune with affected composure, and concealed, under a glittering and theatrical pomp, the dark designs of his restless genius. torn by burning passions within, while all without bespoke calmness and indifference, he brooded over projects of ambition and revenge, and slowly, but surely, advanced towards his end. all that he owed to the emperor was effaced from his mind; what he himself had done for the emperor was imprinted in burning characters on his memory. to his insatiable thirst for power, the emperor's ingratitude was welcome, as it seemed to tear in pieces the record of past favours, to absolve him from every obligation towards his former benefactor. in the disguise of a righteous retaliation, the projects dictated by his ambition now appeared to him just and pure. in proportion as the external circle of his operations was narrowed, the world of hope expanded before him, and his dreamy imagination revelled in boundless projects, which, in any mind but such as his, madness alone could have given birth to. his services had raised him to the proudest height which it was possible for a man, by his own efforts, to attain. fortune had denied him nothing which the subject and the citizen could lawfully enjoy. till the moment of his dismissal, his demands had met with no refusal, his ambition had met with no check; but the blow which, at the diet of ratisbon, humbled him, showed him the difference between original and deputed power, the distance between the subject and his sovereign. roused from the intoxication of his own greatness by this sudden reverse of fortune, he compared the authority which he had possessed, with that which had deprived him of it; and his ambition marked the steps which it had yet to surmount upon the ladder of fortune. from the moment he had so bitterly experienced the weight of sovereign power, his efforts were directed to attain it for himself; the wrong which he himself had suffered made him a robber. had he not been outraged by injustice, he might have obediently moved in his orbit round the majesty of the throne, satisfied with the glory of being the brightest of its satellites. it was only when violently forced from its sphere, that his wandering star threw in disorder the system to which it belonged, and came in destructive collision with its sun. gustavus adolphus had overrun the north of germany; one place after another was lost; and at leipzig, the flower of the austrian army had fallen. the intelligence of this defeat soon reached the ears of wallenstein, who, in the retired obscurity of a private station in prague, contemplated from a calm distance the tumult of war. the news, which filled the breasts of the roman catholics with dismay, announced to him the return of greatness and good fortune. for him was gustavus adolphus labouring. scarce had the king begun to gain reputation by his exploits, when wallenstein lost not a moment to court his friendship, and to make common cause with this successful enemy of austria. the banished count thurn, who had long entered the service of sweden, undertook to convey wallenstein's congratulations to the king, and to invite him to a close alliance with the duke. wallenstein required , men from the king; and with these, and the troops he himself engaged to raise, he undertook to conquer bohemia and moravia, to surprise vienna, and drive his master, the emperor, before him into italy. welcome as was this unexpected proposition, its extravagant promises were naturally calculated to excite suspicion. gustavus adolphus was too good a judge of merit to reject with coldness the offers of one who might be so important a friend. but when wallenstein, encouraged by the favourable reception of his first message, renewed it after the battle of breitenfeld, and pressed for a decisive answer, the prudent monarch hesitated to trust his reputation to the chimerical projects of so daring an adventurer, and to commit so large a force to the honesty of a man who felt no shame in openly avowing himself a traitor. he excused himself, therefore, on the plea of the weakness of his army which, if diminished by so large a detachment, would certainly suffer in its march through the empire; and thus, perhaps, by excess of caution, lost an opportunity of putting an immediate end to the war. he afterwards endeavoured to renew the negociation; but the favourable moment was past, and wallenstein's offended pride never forgave the first neglect. but the king's hesitation, perhaps, only accelerated the breach, which their characters made inevitable sooner or later. both framed by nature to give laws, not to receive them, they could not long have co-operated in an enterprise, which eminently demanded mutual submission and sacrifices. wallenstein was nothing where he was not everything; he must either act with unlimited power, or not at all. so cordially, too, did gustavus dislike control, that he had almost renounced his advantageous alliance with france, because it threatened to fetter his own independent judgment. wallenstein was lost to a party, if he could not lead; the latter was, if possible, still less disposed to obey the instructions of another. if the pretensions of a rival would be so irksome to the duke of friedland, in the conduct of combined operations, in the division of the spoil they would be insupportable. the proud monarch might condescend to accept the assistance of a rebellious subject against the emperor, and to reward his valuable services with regal munificence; but he never could so far lose sight of his own dignity, and the majesty of royalty, as to bestow the recompense which the extravagant ambition of wallenstein demanded; and requite an act of treason, however useful, with a crown. in him, therefore, even if all europe should tacitly acquiesce, wallenstein had reason to expect the most decided and formidable opponent to his views on the bohemian crown; and in all europe he was the only one who could enforce his opposition. constituted dictator in germany by wallenstein himself, he might turn his arms against him, and consider himself bound by no obligations to one who was himself a traitor. there was no room for a wallenstein under such an ally; and it was, apparently, this conviction, and not any supposed designs upon the imperial throne, that he alluded to, when, after the death of the king of sweden, he exclaimed, "it is well for him and me that he is gone. the german empire does not require two such leaders." his first scheme of revenge on the house of austria had indeed failed; but the purpose itself remained unalterable; the choice of means alone was changed. what he had failed in effecting with the king of sweden, he hoped to obtain with less difficulty and more advantage from the elector of saxony. him he was as certain of being able to bend to his views, as he had always been doubtful of gustavus adolphus. having always maintained a good understanding with his old friend arnheim, he now made use of him to bring about an alliance with saxony, by which he hoped to render himself equally formidable to the emperor and the king of sweden. he had reason to expect that a scheme, which, if successful, would deprive the swedish monarch of his influence in germany, would be welcomed by the elector of saxony, who he knew was jealous of the power and offended at the lofty pretensions of gustavus adolphus. if he succeeded in separating saxony from the swedish alliance, and in establishing, conjointly with that power, a third party in the empire, the fate of the war would be placed in his hand; and by this single step he would succeed in gratifying his revenge against the emperor, revenging the neglect of the swedish monarch, and on the ruin of both, raising the edifice of his own greatness. but whatever course he might follow in the prosecution of his designs, he could not carry them into effect without an army entirely devoted to him. such a force could not be secretly raised without its coming to the knowledge of the imperial court, where it would naturally excite suspicion, and thus frustrate his design in the very outset. from the army, too, the rebellious purposes for which it was destined, must be concealed till the very moment of execution, since it could scarcely be expected that they would at once be prepared to listen to the voice of a traitor, and serve against their legitimate sovereign. wallenstein, therefore, must raise it publicly and in name of the emperor, and be placed at its head, with unlimited authority, by the emperor himself. but how could this be accomplished, otherwise than by his being appointed to the command of the army, and entrusted with full powers to conduct the war. yet neither his pride, nor his interest, permitted him to sue in person for this post, and as a suppliant to accept from the favour of the emperor a limited power, when an unlimited authority might be extorted from his fears. in order to make himself the master of the terms on which he would resume the command of the army, his course was to wait until the post should be forced upon him. this was the advice he received from arnheim, and this the end for which he laboured with profound policy and restless activity. convinced that extreme necessity would alone conquer the emperor's irresolution, and render powerless the opposition of his bitter enemies, bavaria and spain, he henceforth occupied himself in promoting the success of the enemy, and in increasing the embarrassments of his master. it was apparently by his instigation and advice, that the saxons, when on the route to lusatia and silesia, had turned their march towards bohemia, and overrun that defenceless kingdom, where their rapid conquests was partly the result of his measures. by the fears which he affected to entertain, he paralyzed every effort at resistance; and his precipitate retreat caused the delivery of the capital to the enemy. at a conference with the saxon general, which was held at kaunitz under the pretext of negociating for a peace, the seal was put to the conspiracy, and the conquest of bohemia was the first fruits of this mutual understanding. while wallenstein was thus personally endeavouring to heighten the perplexities of austria, and while the rapid movements of the swedes upon the rhine effectually promoted his designs, his friends and bribed adherents in vienna uttered loud complaints of the public calamities, and represented the dismissal of the general as the sole cause of all these misfortunes. "had wallenstein commanded, matters would never have come to this," exclaimed a thousand voices; while their opinions found supporters, even in the emperor's privy council. their repeated remonstrances were not needed to convince the embarrassed emperor of his general's merits, and of his own error. his dependence on bavaria and the league had soon become insupportable; but hitherto this dependence permitted him not to show his distrust, or irritate the elector by the recall of wallenstein. but now when his necessities grew every day more pressing, and the weakness of bavaria more apparent, he could no longer hesitate to listen to the friends of the duke, and to consider their overtures for his restoration to command. the immense riches wallenstein possessed, the universal reputation he enjoyed, the rapidity with which six years before he had assembled an army of , men, the little expense at which he had maintained this formidable force, the actions he had performed at its head, and lastly, the zeal and fidelity he had displayed for his master's honour, still lived in the emperor's recollection, and made wallenstein seem to him the ablest instrument to restore the balance between the belligerent powers, to save austria, and preserve the catholic religion. however sensibly the imperial pride might feel the humiliation, in being forced to make so unequivocal an admission of past errors and present necessity; however painful it was to descend to humble entreaties, from the height of imperial command; however doubtful the fidelity of so deeply injured and implacable a character; however loudly and urgently the spanish minister and the elector of bavaria protested against this step, the immediate pressure of necessity finally overcame every other consideration, and the friends of the duke were empowered to consult him on the subject, and to hold out the prospect of his restoration. informed of all that was transacted in the emperor's cabinet to his advantage, wallenstein possessed sufficient self-command to conceal his inward triumph and to assume the mask of indifference. the moment of vengeance was at last come, and his proud heart exulted in the prospect of repaying with interest the injuries of the emperor. with artful eloquence, he expatiated upon the happy tranquillity of a private station, which had blessed him since his retirement from a political stage. too long, he said, had he tasted the pleasures of ease and independence, to sacrifice to the vain phantom of glory, the uncertain favour of princes. all his desire of power and distinction were extinct: tranquillity and repose were now the sole object of his wishes. the better to conceal his real impatience, he declined the emperor's invitation to the court, but at the same time, to facilitate the negociations, came to znaim in moravia. at first, it was proposed to limit the authority to be intrusted to him, by the presence of a superior, in order, by this expedient, to silence the objections of the elector of bavaria. the imperial deputies, questenberg and werdenberg, who, as old friends of the duke, had been employed in this delicate mission, were instructed to propose that the king of hungary should remain with the army, and learn the art of war under wallenstein. but the very mention of his name threatened to put a period to the whole negociation. "no! never," exclaimed wallenstein, "will i submit to a colleague in my office. no--not even if it were god himself, with whom i should have to share my command." but even when this obnoxious point was given up, prince eggenberg, the emperor's minister and favourite, who had always been the steady friend and zealous champion of wallenstein, and was therefore expressly sent to him, exhausted his eloquence in vain to overcome the pretended reluctance of the duke. "the emperor," he admitted, "had, in wallenstein, thrown away the most costly jewel in his crown: but unwillingly and compulsorily only had he taken this step, which he had since deeply repented of; while his esteem for the duke had remained unaltered, his favour for him undiminished. of these sentiments he now gave the most decisive proof, by reposing unlimited confidence in his fidelity and capacity to repair the mistakes of his predecessors, and to change the whole aspect of affairs. it would be great and noble to sacrifice his just indignation to the good of his country; dignified and worthy of him to refute the evil calumny of his enemies by the double warmth of his zeal. this victory over himself," concluded the prince, "would crown his other unparalleled services to the empire, and render him the greatest man of his age." these humiliating confessions, and flattering assurances, seemed at last to disarm the anger of the duke; but not before he had disburdened his heart of his reproaches against the emperor, pompously dwelt upon his own services, and humbled to the utmost the monarch who solicited his assistance, did he condescend to listen to the attractive proposals of the minister. as if he yielded entirely to the force of their arguments, he condescended with a haughty reluctance to that which was the most ardent wish of his heart; and deigned to favour the ambassadors with a ray of hope. but far from putting an end to the emperor's embarrassments, by giving at once a full and unconditional consent, he only acceded to a part of his demands, that he might exalt the value of that which still remained, and was of most importance. he accepted the command, but only for three months; merely for the purpose of raising, but not of leading, an army. he wished only to show his power and ability in its organization, and to display before the eyes of the emperor, the greatness of that assistance, which he still retained in his hands. convinced that an army raised by his name alone, would, if deprived of its creator, soon sink again into nothing, he intended it to serve only as a decoy to draw more important concessions from his master. and yet ferdinand congratulated himself, even in having gained so much as he had. wallenstein did not long delay to fulfil those promises which all germany regarded as chimerical, and which gustavus adolphus had considered as extravagant. but the foundation for the present enterprise had been long laid, and he now only put in motion the machinery, which many years had been prepared for the purpose. scarcely had the news spread of wallenstein's levies, when, from every quarter of the austrian monarchy, crowds of soldiers repaired to try their fortunes under this experienced general. many, who had before fought under his standards, had been admiring eye-witnesses of his great actions, and experienced his magnanimity, came forward from their retirement, to share with him a second time both booty and glory. the greatness of the pay he promised attracted thousands, and the plentiful supplies the soldier was likely to enjoy at the cost of the peasant, was to the latter an irresistible inducement to embrace the military life at once, rather than be the victim of its oppression. all the austrian provinces were compelled to assist in the equipment. no class was exempt from taxation--no dignity or privilege from capitation. the spanish court, as well as the king of hungary, agreed to contribute a considerable sum. the ministers made large presents, while wallenstein himself advanced , dollars from his own income to hasten the armament. the poorer officers he supported out of his own revenues; and, by his own example, by brilliant promotions, and still more brilliant promises, he induced all, who were able, to raise troops at their own expense. whoever raised a corps at his own cost was to be its commander. in the appointment of officers, religion made no difference. riches, bravery and experience were more regarded than creed. by this uniform treatment of different religious sects, and still more by his express declaration, that his present levy had nothing to do with religion, the protestant subjects of the empire were tranquillized, and reconciled to bear their share of the public burdens. the duke, at the same time, did not omit to treat, in his own name, with foreign states for men and money. he prevailed on the duke of lorraine, a second time, to espouse the cause of the emperor. poland was urged to supply him with cossacks, and italy with warlike necessaries. before the three months were expired, the army which was assembled in moravia, amounted to no less than , men, chiefly drawn from the unconquered parts of bohemia, from moravia, silesia, and the german provinces of the house of austria. what to every one had appeared impracticable, wallenstein, to the astonishment of all europe, had in a short time effected. the charm of his name, his treasures, and his genius, had assembled thousands in arms, where before austria had only looked for hundreds. furnished, even to superfluity, with all necessaries, commanded by experienced officers, and inflamed by enthusiasm which assured itself of victory, this newly created army only awaited the signal of their leader to show themselves, by the bravery of their deeds, worthy of his choice. the duke had fulfilled his promise, and the troops were ready to take the field; he then retired, and left to the emperor to choose a commander. but it would have been as easy to raise a second army like the first, as to find any other commander for it than wallenstein. this promising army, the last hope of the emperor, was nothing but an illusion, as soon as the charm was dissolved which had called it into existence; by wallenstein it had been raised, and, without him, it sank like a creation of magic into its original nothingness. its officers were either bound to him as his debtors, or, as his creditors, closely connected with his interests, and the preservation of his power. the regiments he had entrusted to his own relations, creatures, and favourites. he, and he alone, could discharge to the troops the extravagant promises by which they had been lured into his service. his pledged word was the only security on which their bold expectations rested; a blind reliance on his omnipotence, the only tie which linked together in one common life and soul the various impulses of their zeal. there was an end of the good fortune of each individual, if he retired, who alone was the voucher of its fulfilment. however little wallenstein was serious in his refusal, he successfully employed this means to terrify the emperor into consenting to his extravagant conditions. the progress of the enemy every day increased the pressure of the emperor's difficulties, while the remedy was also close at hand; a word from him might terminate the general embarrassment. prince eggenberg at length received orders, for the third and last time, at any cost and sacrifice, to induce his friend, wallenstein, to accept the command. he found him at znaim in moravia, pompously surrounded by the troops, the possession of which he made the emperor so earnestly to long for. as a suppliant did the haughty subject receive the deputy of his sovereign. "he never could trust," he said, "to a restoration to command, which he owed to the emperor's necessities, and not to his sense of justice. he was now courted, because the danger had reached its height, and safety was hoped for from his arm only; but his successful services would soon cause the servant to be forgotten, and the return of security would bring back renewed ingratitude. if he deceived the expectations formed of him, his long earned renown would be forfeited; even if he fulfilled them, his repose and happiness must be sacrificed. soon would envy be excited anew, and the dependent monarch would not hesitate, a second time, to make an offering of convenience to a servant whom he could now dispense with. better for him at once, and voluntarily, to resign a post from which sooner or later the intrigues of his enemies would expel him. security and content were to be found in the bosom of private life; and nothing but the wish to oblige the emperor had induced him, reluctantly enough, to relinquish for a time his blissful repose." tired of this long farce, the minister at last assumed a serious tone, and threatened the obstinate duke with the emperor's resentment, if he persisted in his refusal. "low enough had the imperial dignity," he added, "stooped already; and yet, instead of exciting his magnanimity by its condescension, had only flattered his pride and increased his obstinacy. if this sacrifice had been made in vain, he would not answer, but that the suppliant might be converted into the sovereign, and that the monarch might not avenge his injured dignity on his rebellious subject. however greatly ferdinand may have erred, the emperor at least had a claim to obedience; the man might be mistaken, but the monarch could not confess his error. if the duke of friedland had suffered by an unjust decree, he might yet be recompensed for all his losses; the wound which it had itself inflicted, the hand of majesty might heal. if he asked security for his person and his dignities, the emperor's equity would refuse him no reasonable demand. majesty contemned, admitted not of any atonement; disobedience to its commands cancelled the most brilliant services. the emperor required his services, and as emperor he demanded them. whatever price wallenstein might set upon them, the emperor would readily agree to; but he demanded obedience, or the weight of his indignation should crush the refractory servant." wallenstein, whose extensive possessions within the austrian monarchy were momentarily exposed to the power of the emperor, was keenly sensible that this was no idle threat; yet it was not fear that at last overcame his affected reluctance. this imperious tone of itself, was to his mind a plain proof of the weakness and despair which dictated it, while the emperor's readiness to yield all his demands, convinced him that he had attained the summit of his wishes. he now made a show of yielding to the persuasions of eggenberg; and left him, in order to write down the conditions on which he accepted the command. not without apprehension, did the minister receive the writing, in which the proudest of subjects had prescribed laws to the proudest of sovereigns. but however little confidence he had in the moderation of his friend, the extravagant contents of his writing surpassed even his worst expectations. wallenstein required the uncontrolled command over all the german armies of austria and spain, with unlimited powers to reward and punish. neither the king of hungary, nor the emperor himself, were to appear in the army, still less to exercise any act of authority over it. no commission in the army, no pension or letter of grace, was to be granted by the emperor without wallenstein's approval. all the conquests and confiscations that should take place, were to be placed entirely at wallenstein's disposal, to the exclusion of every other tribunal. for his ordinary pay, an imperial hereditary estate was to be assigned him, with another of the conquered estates within the empire for his extraordinary expenses. every austrian province was to be opened to him if he required it in case of retreat. he farther demanded the assurance of the possession of the duchy of mecklenburg, in the event of a future peace; and a formal and timely intimation, if it should be deemed necessary a second time to deprive him of the command. in vain the minister entreated him to moderate his demands, which, if granted, would deprive the emperor of all authority over his own troops, and make him absolutely dependent on his general. the value placed on his services had been too plainly manifested to prevent him dictating the price at which they were to be purchased. if the pressure of circumstances compelled the emperor to grant these demands, it was more than a mere feeling of haughtiness and desire of revenge which induced the duke to make them. his plans of rebellion were formed, to their success, every one of the conditions for which wallenstein stipulated in this treaty with the court, was indispensable. those plans required that the emperor should be deprived of all authority in germany, and be placed at the mercy of his general; and this object would be attained, the moment ferdinand subscribed the required conditions. the use which wallenstein intended to make of his army, (widely different indeed from that for which it was entrusted to him,) brooked not of a divided power, and still less of an authority superior to his own. to be the sole master of the will of his troops, he must also be the sole master of their destinies; insensibly to supplant his sovereign, and to transfer permanently to his own person the rights of sovereignty, which were only lent to him for a time by a higher authority, he must cautiously keep the latter out of the view of the army. hence his obstinate refusal to allow any prince of the house of austria to be present with the army. the liberty of free disposal of all the conquered and confiscated estates in the empire, would also afford him fearful means of purchasing dependents and instruments of his plans, and of acting the dictator in germany more absolutely than ever any emperor did in time of peace. by the right to use any of the austrian provinces as a place of refuge, in case of need, he had full power to hold the emperor a prisoner by means of his own forces, and within his own dominions; to exhaust the strength and resources of these countries, and to undermine the power of austria in its very foundation. whatever might be the issue, he had equally secured his own advantage, by the conditions he had extorted from the emperor. if circumstances proved favourable to his daring project, this treaty with the emperor facilitated its execution; if on the contrary, the course of things ran counter to it, it would at least afford him a brilliant compensation for the failure of his plans. but how could he consider an agreement valid, which was extorted from his sovereign, and based upon treason? how could he hope to bind the emperor by a written agreement, in the face of a law which condemned to death every one who should have the presumption to impose conditions upon him? but this criminal was the most indispensable man in the empire, and ferdinand, well practised in dissimulation, granted him for the present all he required. at last, then, the imperial army had found a commander-in-chief worthy of the name. every other authority in the army, even that of the emperor himself, ceased from the moment wallenstein assumed the commander's baton, and every act was invalid which did not proceed from him. from the banks of the danube, to those of the weser and the oder, was felt the life-giving dawning of this new star; a new spirit seemed to inspire the troops of the emperor, a new epoch of the war began. the papists form fresh hopes, the protestant beholds with anxiety the changed course of affairs. the greater the price at which the services of the new general had been purchased, the greater justly were the expectations from those which the court of the emperor entertained. but the duke was in no hurry to fulfil these expectations. already in the vicinity of bohemia, and at the head of a formidable force, he had but to show himself there, in order to overpower the exhausted force of the saxons, and brilliantly to commence his new career by the reconquest of that kingdom. but, contented with harassing the enemy with indecisive skirmishes of his croats, he abandoned the best part of that kingdom to be plundered, and moved calmly forward in pursuit of his own selfish plans. his design was, not to conquer the saxons, but to unite with them. exclusively occupied with this important object, he remained inactive in the hope of conquering more surely by means of negociation. he left no expedient untried, to detach this prince from the swedish alliance; and ferdinand himself, ever inclined to an accommodation with this prince, approved of this proceeding. but the great debt which saxony owed to sweden, was as yet too freshly remembered to allow of such an act of perfidy; and even had the elector been disposed to yield to the temptation, the equivocal character of wallenstein, and the bad character of austrian policy, precluded any reliance in the integrity of its promises. notorious already as a treacherous statesman, he met not with faith upon the very occasion when perhaps he intended to act honestly; and, moreover, was denied, by circumstances, the opportunity of proving the sincerity of his intentions, by the disclosure of his real motives. he, therefore, unwillingly resolved to extort, by force of arms, what he could not obtain by negociation. suddenly assembling his troops, he appeared before prague ere the saxons had time to advance to its relief. after a short resistance, the treachery of some capuchins opens the gates to one of his regiments; and the garrison, who had taken refuge in the citadel, soon laid down their arms upon disgraceful conditions. master of the capital, he hoped to carry on more successfully his negociations at the saxon court; but even while he was renewing his proposals to arnheim, he did not hesitate to give them weight by striking a decisive blow. he hastened to seize the narrow passes between aussig and pirna, with a view of cutting off the retreat of the saxons into their own country; but the rapidity of arnheim's operations fortunately extricated them from the danger. after the retreat of this general, egra and leutmeritz, the last strongholds of the saxons, surrendered to the conqueror: and the whole kingdom was restored to its legitimate sovereign, in less time than it had been lost. wallenstein, less occupied with the interests of his master, than with the furtherance of his own plans, now purposed to carry the war into saxony, and by ravaging his territories, compel the elector to enter into a private treaty with the emperor, or rather with himself. but, however little accustomed he was to make his will bend to circumstances, he now perceived the necessity of postponing his favourite scheme for a time, to a more pressing emergency. while he was driving the saxons from bohemia, gustavus adolphus had been gaining the victories, already detailed, on the rhine and the danube, and carried the war through franconia and swabia, to the frontiers of bavaria. maximilian, defeated on the lech, and deprived by death of count tilly, his best support, urgently solicited the emperor to send with all speed the duke of friedland to his assistance, from bohemia, and by the defence of bavaria, to avert the danger from austria itself. he also made the same request to wallenstein, and entreated him, till he could himself come with the main force, to despatch in the mean time a few regiments to his aid. ferdinand seconded the request with all his influence, and one messenger after another was sent to wallenstein, urging him to move towards the danube. it now appeared how completely the emperor had sacrificed his authority, in surrendering to another the supreme command of his troops. indifferent to maximilian's entreaties, and deaf to the emperor's repeated commands, wallenstein remained inactive in bohemia, and abandoned the elector to his fate. the remembrance of the evil service which maximilian had rendered him with the emperor, at the diet at ratisbon, was deeply engraved on the implacable mind of the duke, and the elector's late attempts to prevent his reinstatement, were no secret to him. the moment of revenging this affront had now arrived, and maximilian was doomed to pay dearly for his folly, in provoking the most revengeful of men. wallenstein maintained, that bohemia ought not to be left exposed, and that austria could not be better protected, than by allowing the swedish army to waste its strength before the bavarian fortress. thus, by the arm of the swedes, he chastised his enemy; and while one place after another fell into their hands, he allowed the elector vainly to await his arrival in ratisbon. it was only when the complete subjugation of bohemia left him without excuse, and the conquests of gustavus adolphus in bavaria threatened austria itself, that he yielded to the pressing entreaties of the elector and the emperor, and determined to effect the long-expected union with the former; an event, which, according to the general anticipation of the roman catholics, would decide the fate of the campaign. gustavus adolphus, too weak in numbers to cope even with wallenstein's force alone, naturally dreaded the junction of such powerful armies, and the little energy he used to prevent it, was the occasion of great surprise. apparently he reckoned too much on the hatred which alienated the leaders, and seemed to render their effectual co-operation improbable; when the event contradicted his views, it was too late to repair his error. on the first certain intelligence he received of their designs, he hastened to the upper palatinate, for the purpose of intercepting the elector: but the latter had already arrived there, and the junction had been effected at egra. this frontier town had been chosen by wallenstein, for the scene of his triumph over his proud rival. not content with having seen him, as it were, a suppliant at his feet, he imposed upon him the hard condition of leaving his territories in his rear exposed to the enemy, and declaring by this long march to meet him, the necessity and distress to which he was reduced. even to this humiliation, the haughty prince patiently submitted. it had cost him a severe struggle to ask for protection of the man who, if his own wishes had been consulted, would never have had the power of granting it: but having once made up his mind to it, he was ready to bear all the annoyances which were inseparable from that resolve, and sufficiently master of himself to put up with petty grievances, when an important end was in view. but whatever pains it had cost to effect this junction, it was equally difficult to settle the conditions on which it was to be maintained. the united army must be placed under the command of one individual, if any object was to be gained by the union, and each general was equally averse to yield to the superior authority of the other. if maximilian rested his claim on his electoral dignity, the nobleness of his descent, and his influence in the empire, wallenstein's military renown, and the unlimited command conferred on him by the emperor, gave an equally strong title to it. if it was deeply humiliating to the pride of the former to serve under an imperial subject, the idea of imposing laws on so imperious a spirit, flattered in the same degree the haughtiness of wallenstein. an obstinate dispute ensued, which, however, terminated in a mutual compromise to wallenstein's advantage. to him was assigned the unlimited command of both armies, particularly in battle, while the elector was deprived of all power of altering the order of battle, or even the route of the army. he retained only the bare right of punishing and rewarding his own troops, and the free use of these, when not acting in conjunction with the imperialists. after these preliminaries were settled, the two generals at last ventured upon an interview; but not until they had mutually promised to bury the past in oblivion, and all the outward formalities of a reconciliation had been settled. according to agreement, they publicly embraced in the sight of their troops, and made mutual professions of friendship, while in reality the hearts of both were overflowing with malice. maximilian, well versed in dissimulation, had sufficient command over himself, not to betray in a single feature his real feelings; but a malicious triumph sparkled in the eyes of wallenstein, and the constraint which was visible in all his movements, betrayed the violence of the emotion which overpowered his proud soul. the combined imperial and bavarian armies amounted to nearly , men, chiefly veterans. before this force, the king of sweden was not in a condition to keep the field. as his attempt to prevent their junction had failed, he commenced a rapid retreat into franconia, and awaited there for some decisive movement on the part of the enemy, in order to form his own plans. the position of the combined armies between the frontiers of saxony and bavaria, left it for some time doubtful whether they would remove the war into the former, or endeavour to drive the swedes from the danube, and deliver bavaria. saxony had been stripped of troops by arnheim, who was pursuing his conquests in silesia; not without a secret design, it was generally supposed, of favouring the entrance of the duke of friedland into that electorate, and of thus driving the irresolute john george into peace with the emperor. gustavus adolphus himself, fully persuaded that wallenstein's views were directed against saxony, hastily despatched a strong reinforcement to the assistance of his confederate, with the intention, as soon as circumstances would allow, of following with the main body. but the movements of wallenstein's army soon led him to suspect that he himself was the object of attack; and the duke's march through the upper palatinate, placed the matter beyond a doubt. the question now was, how to provide for his own security, and the prize was no longer his supremacy, but his very existence. his fertile genius must now supply the means, not of conquest, but of preservation. the approach of the enemy had surprised him before he had time to concentrate his troops, which were scattered all over germany, or to summon his allies to his aid. too weak to meet the enemy in the field, he had no choice left, but either to throw himself into nuremberg, and run the risk of being shut up in its walls, or to sacrifice that city, and await a reinforcement under the cannon of donauwerth. indifferent to danger or difficulty, while he obeyed the call of humanity or honour, he chose the first without hesitation, firmly resolved to bury himself with his whole army under the ruins of nuremberg, rather than to purchase his own safety by the sacrifice of his confederates. measures were immediately taken to surround the city and suburbs with redoubts, and to form an entrenched camp. several thousand workmen immediately commenced this extensive work, and an heroic determination to hazard life and property in the common cause, animated the inhabitants of nuremberg. a trench, eight feet deep and twelve broad, surrounded the whole fortification; the lines were defended by redoubts and batteries, the gates by half moons. the river pegnitz, which flows through nuremberg, divided the whole camp into two semicircles, whose communication was secured by several bridges. about three hundred pieces of cannon defended the town-walls and the intrenchments. the peasantry from the neighbouring villages, and the inhabitants of nuremberg, assisted the swedish soldiers so zealously, that on the seventh day the army was able to enter the camp, and, in a fortnight, this great work was completed. while these operations were carried on without the walls, the magistrates of nuremberg were busily occupied in filling the magazines with provisions and ammunition for a long siege. measures were taken, at the same time, to secure the health of the inhabitants, which was likely to be endangered by the conflux of so many people; cleanliness was enforced by the strictest regulations. in order, if necessary, to support the king, the youth of the city were embodied and trained to arms, the militia of the town considerably reinforced, and a new regiment raised, consisting of four-and-twenty names, according to the letters of the alphabet. gustavus had, in the mean time, called to his assistance his allies, duke william of weimar, and the landgrave of hesse cassel; and ordered his generals on the rhine, in thuringia and lower saxony, to commence their march immediately, and join him with their troops in nuremberg. his army, which was encamped within the lines, did not amount to more than , men, scarcely a third of the enemy. the imperialists had, in the mean time, by slow marches, advanced to neumark, where wallenstein made a general review. at the sight of this formidable force, he could not refrain from indulging in a childish boast: "in four days," said he, "it will be shown whether i or the king of sweden is to be master of the world." yet, notwithstanding his superiority, he did nothing to fulfil his promise; and even let slip the opportunity of crushing his enemy, when the latter had the hardihood to leave his lines to meet him. "battles enough have been fought," was his answer to those who advised him to attack the king, "it is now time to try another method." wallenstein's well-founded reputation required not any of those rash enterprises on which younger soldiers rush, in the hope of gaining a name. satisfied that the enemy's despair would dearly sell a victory, while a defeat would irretrievably ruin the emperor's affairs, he resolved to wear out the ardour of his opponent by a tedious blockade, and by thus depriving him of every opportunity of availing himself of his impetuous bravery, take from him the very advantage which had hitherto rendered him invincible. without making any attack, therefore, he erected a strong fortified camp on the other side of the pegnitz, and opposite nuremberg; and, by this well chosen position, cut off from the city and the camp of gustavus all supplies from franconia, swabia, and thuringia. thus he held in siege at once the city and the king, and flattered himself with the hope of slowly, but surely, wearing out by famine and pestilence the courage of his opponent whom he had no wish to encounter in the field. little aware, however, of the resources and the strength of his adversary, wallenstein had not taken sufficient precautions to avert from himself the fate he was designing for others. from the whole of the neighbouring country, the peasantry had fled with their property; and what little provision remained, must be obstinately contested with the swedes. the king spared the magazines within the town, as long as it was possible to provision his army from without; and these forays produced constant skirmishes between the croats and the swedish cavalry, of which the surrounding country exhibited the most melancholy traces. the necessaries of life must be obtained sword in hand; and the foraging parties could not venture out without a numerous escort. and when this supply failed, the town opened its magazines to the king, but wallenstein had to support his troops from a distance. a large convoy from bavaria was on its way to him, with an escort of a thousand men. gustavus adolphus having received intelligence of its approach, immediately sent out a regiment of cavalry to intercept it; and the darkness of the night favoured the enterprise. the whole convoy, with the town in which it was, fell into the hands of the swedes; the imperial escort was cut to pieces; about , cattle carried off; and a thousand waggons, loaded with bread, which could not be brought away, were set on fire. seven regiments, which wallenstein had sent forward to altdorp to cover the entrance of the long and anxiously expected convoy, were attacked by the king, who had, in like manner, advanced to cover the retreat of his cavalry, and routed after an obstinate action, being driven back into the imperial camp, with the loss of men. so many checks and difficulties, and so firm and unexpected a resistance on the part of the king, made the duke of friedland repent that he had declined to hazard a battle. the strength of the swedish camp rendered an attack impracticable; and the armed youth of nuremberg served the king as a nursery from which he could supply his loss of troops. the want of provisions, which began to be felt in the imperial camp as strongly as in the swedish, rendered it uncertain which party would be first compelled to give way. fifteen days had the two armies now remained in view of each other, equally defended by inaccessible entrenchments, without attempting anything more than slight attacks and unimportant skirmishes. on both sides, infectious diseases, the natural consequence of bad food, and a crowded population, had occasioned a greater loss than the sword. and this evil daily increased. but at length, the long expected succours arrived in the swedish camp; and by this strong reinforcement, the king was now enabled to obey the dictates of his native courage, and to break the chains which had hitherto fettered him. in obedience to his requisitions, the duke of weimar had hastily drawn together a corps from the garrisons in lower saxony and thuringia, which, at schweinfurt in franconia, was joined by four saxon regiments, and at kitzingen by the corps of the rhine, which the landgrave of hesse, and the palatine of birkenfeld, despatched to the relief of the king. the chancellor, oxenstiern, undertook to lead this force to its destination. after being joined at windsheim by the duke of weimar himself, and the swedish general banner, he advanced by rapid marches to bruck and eltersdorf, where he passed the rednitz, and reached the swedish camp in safety. this reinforcement amounted to nearly , men, and was attended by a train of pieces of cannon, and , baggage waggons. gustavus now saw himself at the head of an army of nearly , strong, without reckoning the militia of nuremberg, which, in case of necessity, could bring into the field about , fighting men; a formidable force, opposed to another not less formidable. the war seemed at length compressed to the point of a single battle, which was to decide its fearful issue. with divided sympathies, europe looked with anxiety to this scene, where the whole strength of the two contending parties was fearfully drawn, as it were, to a focus. if, before the arrival of the swedish succours, a want of provisions had been felt, the evil was now fearfully increased to a dreadful height in both camps, for wallenstein had also received reinforcements from bavaria. besides the , men confronted to each other, and more than , horses, in the two armies, and besides the inhabitants of nuremberg, whose number far exceeded the swedish army, there were in the camp of wallenstein about , women, with as many drivers, and nearly the same number in that of the swedes. the custom of the time permitted the soldier to carry his family with him to the field. a number of prostitutes followed the imperialists; while, with the view of preventing such excesses, gustavus's care for the morals of his soldiers promoted marriages. for the rising generation, who had this camp for their home and country, regular military schools were established, which educated a race of excellent warriors, by which means the army might in a manner recruit itself in the course of a long campaign. no wonder, then, if these wandering nations exhausted every territory in which they encamped, and by their immense consumption raised the necessaries of life to an exorbitant price. all the mills of nuremberg were insufficient to grind the corn required for each day; and , pounds of bread, which were daily delivered, by the town into the swedish camp, excited, without allaying, the hunger of the soldiers. the laudable exertions of the magistrates of nuremberg could not prevent the greater part of the horses from dying for want of forage, while the increasing mortality in the camp consigned more than a hundred men daily to the grave. to put an end to these distresses, gustavus adolphus, relying on his numerical superiority, left his lines on the th day, forming before the enemy in order of battle, while he cannonaded the duke's camp from three batteries erected on the side of the rednitz. but the duke remained immoveable in his entrenchments, and contented himself with answering this challenge by a distant fire of cannon and musketry. his plan was to wear out the king by his inactivity, and by the force of famine to overcome his resolute determination; and neither the remonstrances of maximilian, and the impatience of his army, nor the ridicule of his opponent, could shake his purpose. gustavus, deceived in his hope of forcing a battle, and compelled by his increasing necessities, now attempted impossibilities, and resolved to storm a position which art and nature had combined to render impregnable. intrusting his own camp to the militia of nuremberg, on the fifty-eighth day of his encampment, (the festival of st. bartholomew,) he advanced in full order of battle, and passing the rednitz at furth, easily drove the enemy's outposts before him. the main army of the imperialists was posted on the steep heights between the biber and the rednitz, called the old fortress and altenberg; while the camp itself, commanded by these eminences, spread out immeasurably along the plain. on these heights, the whole of the artillery was placed. deep trenches surrounded inaccessible redoubts, while thick barricadoes, with pointed palisades, defended the approaches to the heights, from the summits of which, wallenstein calmly and securely discharged the lightnings of his artillery from amid the dark thunder-clouds of smoke. a destructive fire of musketry was maintained behind the breastworks, and a hundred pieces of cannon threatened the desperate assailant with certain destruction. against this dangerous post gustavus now directed his attack; five hundred musketeers, supported by a few infantry, (for a greater number could not act in the narrow space,) enjoyed the unenvied privilege of first throwing themselves into the open jaws of death. the assault was furious, the resistance obstinate. exposed to the whole fire of the enemy's artillery, and infuriate by the prospect of inevitable death, these determined warriors rushed forward to storm the heights; which, in an instant, converted into a flaming volcano, discharged on them a shower of shot. at the same moment, the heavy cavalry rushed forward into the openings which the artillery had made in the close ranks of the assailants, and divided them; till the intrepid band, conquered by the strength of nature and of man, took to flight, leaving a hundred dead upon the field. to germans had gustavus yielded this post of honour. exasperated at their retreat, he now led on his finlanders to the attack, thinking, by their northern courage, to shame the cowardice of the germans. but they, also, after a similar hot reception, yielded to the superiority of the enemy; and a third regiment succeeded them to experience the same fate. this was replaced by a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth; so that, during a ten hours' action, every regiment was brought to the attack to retire with bloody loss from the contest. a thousand mangled bodies covered the field; yet gustavus undauntedly maintained the attack, and wallenstein held his position unshaken. in the mean time, a sharp contest had taken place between the imperial cavalry and the left wing of the swedes, which was posted in a thicket on the rednitz, with varying success, but with equal intrepidity and loss on both sides. the duke of friedland and prince bernard of weimar had each a horse shot under them; the king himself had the sole of his boot carried off by a cannon ball. the combat was maintained with undiminished obstinacy, till the approach of night separated the combatants. but the swedes had advanced too far to retreat without hazard. while the king was seeking an officer to convey to the regiments the order to retreat, he met colonel hepburn, a brave scotchman, whose native courage alone had drawn him from the camp to share in the dangers of the day. offended with the king for having not long before preferred a younger officer for some post of danger, he had rashly vowed never again to draw his sword for the king. to him gustavus now addressed himself, praising his courage, and requesting him to order the regiments to retreat. "sire," replied the brave soldier, "it is the only service i cannot refuse to your majesty; for it is a hazardous one,"--and immediately hastened to carry the command. one of the heights above the old fortress had, in the heat of the action, been carried by the duke of weimar. it commanded the hills and the whole camp. but the heavy rain which fell during the night, rendered it impossible to draw up the cannon; and this post, which had been gained with so much bloodshed, was also voluntarily abandoned. diffident of fortune, which forsook him on this decisive day, the king did not venture the following morning to renew the attack with his exhausted troops; and vanquished for the first time, even because he was not victor, he led back his troops over the rednitz. two thousand dead which he left behind him on the field, testified to the extent of his loss; and the duke of friedland remained unconquered within his lines. for fourteen days after this action, the two armies still continued in front of each other, each in the hope that the other would be the first to give way. every day reduced their provisions, and as scarcity became greater, the excesses of the soldiers rendered furious, exercised the wildest outrages on the peasantry. the increasing distress broke up all discipline and order in the swedish camp; and the german regiments, in particular, distinguished themselves for the ravages they practised indiscriminately on friend and foe. the weak hand of a single individual could not check excesses, encouraged by the silence, if not the actual example, of the inferior officers. these shameful breaches of discipline, on the maintenance of which he had hitherto justly prided himself, severely pained the king; and the vehemence with which he reproached the german officers for their negligence, bespoke the liveliness of his emotion. "it is you yourselves, germans," said he, "that rob your native country, and ruin your own confederates in the faith. as god is my judge, i abhor you, i loathe you; my heart sinks within me whenever i look upon you. ye break my orders; ye are the cause that the world curses me, that the tears of poverty follow me, that complaints ring in my ear--'the king, our friend, does us more harm than even our worst enemies.' on your account i have stripped my own kingdom of its treasures, and spent upon you more than tons of gold; --[a ton of gold in sweden amounts to , rix dollars.]--while from your german empire i have not received the least aid. i gave you a share of all that god had given to me; and had ye regarded my orders, i would have gladly shared with you all my future acquisitions. your want of discipline convinces me of your evil intentions, whatever cause i might otherwise have to applaud your bravery." nuremberg had exerted itself, almost beyond its power, to subsist for eleven weeks the vast crowd which was compressed within its boundaries; but its means were at length exhausted, and the king's more numerous party was obliged to determine on a retreat. by the casualties of war and sickness, nuremberg had lost more than , of its inhabitants, and gustavus adolphus nearly , of his soldiers. the fields around the city were trampled down, the villages lay in ashes, the plundered peasantry lay faint and dying on the highways; foul odours infected the air, and bad food, the exhalations from so dense a population, and so many putrifying carcasses, together with the heat of the dog-days, produced a desolating pestilence which raged among men and beasts, and long after the retreat of both armies, continued to load the country with misery and distress. affected by the general distress, and despairing of conquering the steady determination of the duke of friedland, the king broke up his camp on the th september, leaving in nuremberg a sufficient garrison. he advanced in full order of battle before the enemy, who remained motionless, and did not attempt in the least to harass his retreat. his route lay by the aisch and windsheim towards neustadt, where he halted five days to refresh his troops, and also to be near to nuremberg, in case the enemy should make an attempt upon the town. but wallenstein, as exhausted as himself, had only awaited the retreat of the swedes to commence his own. five days afterwards, he broke up his camp at zirndorf, and set it on fire. a hundred columns of smoke, rising from all the burning villages in the neighbourhood, announced his retreat, and showed the city the fate it had escaped. his march, which was directed on forchheim, was marked by the most frightful ravages; but he was too far advanced to be overtaken by the king. the latter now divided his army, which the exhausted country was unable to support, and leaving one division to protect franconia, with the other he prosecuted in person his conquests in bavaria. in the mean time, the imperial bavarian army had marched into the bishopric of bamberg, where the duke of friedland a second time mustered his troops. he found this force, which so lately had amounted to , men, diminished by the sword, desertion, and disease, to about , , and of these a fourth were bavarians. thus had the encampments before nuremberg weakened both parties more than two great battles would have done, apparently without advancing the termination of the war, or satisfying, by any decisive result, the expectations of europe. the king's conquests in bavaria, were, it is true, checked for a time by this diversion before nuremberg, and austria itself secured against the danger of immediate invasion; but by the retreat of the king from that city, he was again left at full liberty to make bavaria the seat of war. indifferent towards the fate of that country, and weary of the restraint which his union with the elector imposed upon him, the duke of friedland eagerly seized the opportunity of separating from this burdensome associate, and prosecuting, with renewed earnestness, his favourite plans. still adhering to his purpose of detaching saxony from its swedish alliance, he selected that country for his winter quarters, hoping by his destructive presence to force the elector the more readily into his views. no conjuncture could be more favourable for his designs. the saxons had invaded silesia, where, reinforced by troops from brandenburgh and sweden, they had gained several advantages over the emperor's troops. silesia would be saved by a diversion against the elector in his own territories, and the attempt was the more easy, as saxony, left undefended during the war in silesia, lay open on every side to attack. the pretext of rescuing from the enemy an hereditary dominion of austria, would silence the remonstrances of the elector of bavaria, and, under the mask of a patriotic zeal for the emperor's interests, maximilian might be sacrificed without much difficulty. by giving up the rich country of bavaria to the swedes, he hoped to be left unmolested by them in his enterprise against saxony, while the increasing coldness between gustavus and the saxon court, gave him little reason to apprehend any extraordinary zeal for the deliverance of john george. thus a second time abandoned by his artful protector, the elector separated from wallenstein at bamberg, to protect his defenceless territory with the small remains of his troops, while the imperial army, under wallenstein, directed its march through bayreuth and coburg towards the thuringian forest. an imperial general, holk, had previously been sent into vogtland with , men, to waste this defenceless province with fire and sword, he was soon followed by gallas, another of the duke's generals, and an equally faithful instrument of his inhuman orders. finally, pappenheim, too, was recalled from lower saxony, to reinforce the diminished army of the duke, and to complete the miseries of the devoted country. ruined churches, villages in ashes, harvests wilfully destroyed, families plundered, and murdered peasants, marked the progress of these barbarians, under whose scourge the whole of thuringia, vogtland, and meissen, lay defenceless. yet this was but the prelude to greater sufferings, with which wallenstein himself, at the head of the main army, threatened saxony. after having left behind him fearful monuments of his fury, in his march through franconia and thuringia, he arrived with his whole army in the circle of leipzig, and compelled the city, after a short resistance, to surrender. his design was to push on to dresden, and by the conquest of the whole country, to prescribe laws to the elector. he had already approached the mulda, threatening to overpower the saxon army which had advanced as far as torgau to meet him, when the king of sweden's arrival at erfurt gave an unexpected check to his operations. placed between the saxon and swedish armies, which were likely to be farther reinforced by the troops of george, duke of luneburg, from lower saxony, he hastily retired upon meresberg, to form a junction there with count pappenheim, and to repel the further advance of the swedes. gustavus adolphus had witnessed, with great uneasiness, the arts employed by spain and austria to detach his allies from him. the more important his alliance with saxony, the more anxiety the inconstant temper of john george caused him. between himself and the elector, a sincere friendship could never subsist. a prince, proud of his political importance, and accustomed to consider himself as the head of his party, could not see without annoyance the interference of a foreign power in the affairs of the empire; and nothing, but the extreme danger of his dominions, could overcome the aversion with which he had long witnessed the progress of this unwelcome intruder. the increasing influence of the king in germany, his authority with the protestant states, the unambiguous proofs which he gave of his ambitious views, which were of a character calculated to excite the jealousies of all the states of the empire, awakened in the elector's breast a thousand anxieties, which the imperial emissaries did not fail skilfully to keep alive and cherish. every arbitrary step on the part of the king, every demand, however reasonable, which he addressed to the princes of the empire, was followed by bitter complaints from the elector, which seemed to announce an approaching rupture. even the generals of the two powers, whenever they were called upon to act in common, manifested the same jealousy as divided their leaders. john george's natural aversion to war, and a lingering attachment to austria, favoured the efforts of arnheim; who, maintaining a constant correspondence with wallenstein, laboured incessantly to effect a private treaty between his master and the emperor; and if his representations were long disregarded, still the event proved that they were not altogether without effect. gustavus adolphus, naturally apprehensive of the consequences which the defection of so powerful an ally would produce on his future prospects in germany, spared no pains to avert so pernicious an event; and his remonstrances had hitherto had some effect upon the elector. but the formidable power with which the emperor seconded his seductive proposals, and the miseries which, in the case of hesitation, he threatened to accumulate upon saxony, might at length overcome the resolution of the elector, should he be left exposed to the vengeance of his enemies; while an indifference to the fate of so powerful a confederate, would irreparably destroy the confidence of the other allies in their protector. this consideration induced the king a second time to yield to the pressing entreaties of the elector, and to sacrifice his own brilliant prospects to the safety of this ally. he had already resolved upon a second attack on ingoldstadt; and the weakness of the elector of bavaria gave him hopes of soon forcing this exhausted enemy to accede to a neutrality. an insurrection of the peasantry in upper austria, opened to him a passage into that country, and the capital might be in his possession, before wallenstein could have time to advance to its defence. all these views he now gave up for the sake of an ally, who, neither by his services nor his fidelity, was worthy of the sacrifice; who, on the pressing occasions of common good, had steadily adhered to his own selfish projects; and who was important, not for the services he was expected to render, but merely for the injuries he had it in his power to inflict. is it possible, then, to refrain from indignation, when we know that, in this expedition, undertaken for the benefit of such an ally, the great king was destined to terminate his career? rapidly assembling his troops in franconia, he followed the route of wallenstein through thuringia. duke bernard of weimar, who had been despatched to act against pappenheim, joined the king at armstadt, who now saw himself at the head of , veterans. at erfurt he took leave of his queen, who was not to behold him, save in his coffin, at weissenfels. their anxious adieus seemed to forbode an eternal separation. he reached naumburg on the st november, , before the corps, which the duke of friedland had despatched for that purpose, could make itself master of that place. the inhabitants of the surrounding country flocked in crowds to look upon the hero, the avenger, the great king, who, a year before, had first appeared in that quarter, like a guardian angel. shouts of joy everywhere attended his progress; the people knelt before him, and struggled for the honour of touching the sheath of his sword, or the hem of his garment. the modest hero disliked this innocent tribute which a sincerely grateful and admiring multitude paid him. "is it not," said he, "as if this people would make a god of me? our affairs prosper, indeed; but i fear the vengeance of heaven will punish me for this presumption, and soon enough reveal to this deluded multitude my human weakness and mortality!" how amiable does gustavus appear before us at this moment, when about to leave us for ever! even in the plenitude of success, he honours an avenging nemesis, declines that homage which is due only to the immortal, and strengthens his title to our tears, the nearer the moment approaches that is to call them forth! in the mean time, the duke of friedland had determined to advance to meet the king, as far as weissenfels, and even at the hazard of a battle, to secure his winter-quarters in saxony. his inactivity before nuremberg had occasioned a suspicion that he was unwilling to measure his powers with those of the hero of the north, and his hard-earned reputation would be at stake, if, a second time, he should decline a battle. his present superiority in numbers, though much less than what it was at the beginning of the siege of nuremberg, was still enough to give him hopes of victory, if he could compel the king to give battle before his junction with the saxons. but his present reliance was not so much in his numerical superiority, as in the predictions of his astrologer seni, who had read in the stars that the good fortune of the swedish monarch would decline in the month of november. besides, between naumburg and weissenfels there was also a range of narrow defiles, formed by a long mountainous ridge, and the river saal, which ran at their foot, along which the swedes could not advance without difficulty, and which might, with the assistance of a few troops, be rendered almost impassable. if attacked there, the king would have no choice but either to penetrate with great danger through the defiles, or commence a laborious retreat through thuringia, and to expose the greater part of his army to a march through a desert country, deficient in every necessary for their support. but the rapidity with which gustavus adolphus had taken possession of naumburg, disappointed this plan, and it was now wallenstein himself who awaited the attack. but in this expectation he was disappointed; for the king, instead of advancing to meet him at weissenfels, made preparations for entrenching himself near naumburg, with the intention of awaiting there the reinforcements which the duke of lunenburg was bringing up. undecided whether to advance against the king through the narrow passes between weissenfels and naumburg, or to remain inactive in his camp, he called a council of war, in order to have the opinion of his most experienced generals. none of these thought it prudent to attack the king in his advantageous position. on the other hand, the preparations which the latter made to fortify his camp, plainly showed that it was not his intention soon to abandon it. but the approach of winter rendered it impossible to prolong the campaign, and by a continued encampment to exhaust the strength of the army, already so much in need of repose. all voices were in favour of immediately terminating the campaign: and, the more so, as the important city of cologne upon the rhine was threatened by the dutch, while the progress of the enemy in westphalia and the lower rhine called for effective reinforcements in that quarter. wallenstein yielded to the weight of these arguments, and almost convinced that, at this season, he had no reason to apprehend an attack from the king, he put his troops into winter-quarters, but so that, if necessary, they might be rapidly assembled. count pappenheim was despatched, with great part of the army, to the assistance of cologne, with orders to take possession, on his march, of the fortress of moritzburg, in the territory of halle. different corps took up their winter-quarters in the neighbouring towns, to watch, on all sides, the motions of the enemy. count colloredo guarded the castle of weissenfels, and wallenstein himself encamped with the remainder not far from merseburg, between flotzgaben and the saal, from whence he purposed to march to leipzig, and to cut off the communication between the saxons and the swedish army. scarcely had gustavus adolphus been informed of pappenheim's departure, when suddenly breaking up his camp at naumburg, he hastened with his whole force to attack the enemy, now weakened to one half. he advanced, by rapid marches, towards weissenfels, from whence the news of his arrival quickly reached the enemy, and greatly astonished the duke of friedland. but a speedy resolution was now necessary; and the measures of wallenstein were soon taken. though he had little more than , men to oppose to the , of the enemy, he might hope to maintain his ground until the return of pappenheim, who could not have advanced farther than halle, five miles distant. messengers were hastily despatched to recall him, while wallenstein moved forward into the wide plain between the canal and lutzen, where he awaited the king in full order of battle, and, by this position, cut off his communication with leipzig and the saxon auxiliaries. three cannon shots, fired by count colloredo from the castle of weissenfels, announced the king's approach; and at this concerted signal, the light troops of the duke of friedland, under the command of the croatian general isolani, moved forward to possess themselves of the villages lying upon the rippach. their weak resistance did not impede the advance of the enemy, who crossed the rippach, near the village of that name, and formed in line below lutzen, opposite the imperialists. the high road which goes from weissenfels to leipzig, is intersected between lutzen and markranstadt by the canal which extends from zeitz to merseburg, and unites the elster with the saal. on this canal, rested the left wing of the imperialists, and the right of the king of sweden; but so that the cavalry of both extended themselves along the opposite side. to the northward, behind lutzen, was wallenstein's right wing, and to the south of that town was posted the left wing of the swedes; both armies fronted the high road, which ran between them, and divided their order of battle; but the evening before the battle, wallenstein, to the great disadvantage of his opponent, had possessed himself of this highway, deepened the trenches which ran along its sides, and planted them with musketeers, so as to make the crossing of it both difficult and dangerous. behind these, again, was erected a battery of seven large pieces of cannon, to support the fire from the trenches; and at the windmills, close behind lutzen, fourteen smaller field pieces were ranged on an eminence, from which they could sweep the greater part of the plain. the infantry, divided into no more than five unwieldy brigades, was drawn up at the distance of paces from the road, and the cavalry covered the flanks. all the baggage was sent to leipzig, that it might not impede the movements of the army; and the ammunition-waggons alone remained, which were placed in rear of the line. to conceal the weakness of the imperialists, all the camp-followers and sutlers were mounted, and posted on the left wing, but only until pappenheim's troops arrived. these arrangements were made during the darkness of the night; and when the morning dawned, all was ready for the reception of the enemy. on the evening of the same day, gustavus adolphus appeared on the opposite plain, and formed his troops in the order of attack. his disposition was the same as that which had been so successful the year before at leipzig. small squadrons of horse were interspersed among the divisions of the infantry, and troops of musketeers placed here and there among the cavalry. the army was arranged in two lines, the canal on the right and in its rear, the high road in front, and the town on the left. in the centre, the infantry was formed, under the command of count brahe; the cavalry on the wings; the artillery in front. to the german hero, bernard, duke of weimar, was intrusted the command of the german cavalry of the left wing; while, on the right, the king led on the swedes in person, in order to excite the emulation of the two nations to a noble competition. the second line was formed in the same manner; and behind these was placed the reserve, commanded by henderson, a scotchman. in this position, they awaited the eventful dawn of morning, to begin a contest, which long delay, rather than the probability of decisive consequences, and the picked body, rather than the number of the combatants, was to render so terrible and remarkable. the strained expectation of europe, so disappointed before nuremberg, was now to be gratified on the plains of lutzen. during the whole course of the war, two such generals, so equally matched in renown and ability, had not before been pitted against each other. never, as yet, had daring been cooled by so awful a hazard, or hope animated by so glorious a prize. europe was next day to learn who was her greatest general:--to-morrow, the leader, who had hitherto been invincible, must acknowledge a victor. this morning was to place it beyond a doubt, whether the victories of gustavus at leipzig and on the lech, were owing to his own military genius, or to the incompetency of his opponent; whether the services of wallenstein were to vindicate the emperor's choice, and justify the high price at which they had been purchased. the victory was as yet doubtful, but certain were the labour and the bloodshed by which it must be earned. every private in both armies, felt a jealous share in their leader's reputation, and under every corslet beat the same emotions that inflamed the bosoms of the generals. each army knew the enemy to which it was to be opposed: and the anxiety which each in vain attempted to repress, was a convincing proof of their opponent's strength. at last the fateful morning dawned; but an impenetrable fog, which spread over the plain, delayed the attack till noon. kneeling in front of his lines, the king offered up his devotions; and the whole army, at the same moment dropping on their knees, burst into a moving hymn, accompanied by the military music. the king then mounted his horse, and clad only in a leathern doublet and surtout, (for a wound he had formerly received prevented his wearing armour,) rode along the ranks, to animate the courage of his troops with a joyful confidence, which, however, the forboding presentiment of his own bosom contradicted. "god with us!" was the war-cry of the swedes; "jesus maria!" that of the imperialists. about eleven the fog began to disperse, and the enemy became visible. at the same moment lutzen was seen in flames, having been set on fire by command of the duke, to prevent his being outflanked on that side. the charge was now sounded; the cavalry rushed upon the enemy, and the infantry advanced against the trenches. received by a tremendous fire of musketry and heavy artillery, these intrepid battalions maintained the attack with undaunted courage, till the enemy's musketeers abandoned their posts, the trenches were passed, the battery carried and turned against the enemy. they pressed forward with irresistible impetuosity; the first of the five imperial brigades was immediately routed, the second soon after, and the third put to flight. but here the genius of wallenstein opposed itself to their progress. with the rapidity of lightning he was on the spot to rally his discomfited troops; and his powerful word was itself sufficient to stop the flight of the fugitives. supported by three regiments of cavalry, the vanquished brigades, forming anew, faced the enemy, and pressed vigorously into the broken ranks of the swedes. a murderous conflict ensued. the nearness of the enemy left no room for fire-arms, the fury of the attack no time for loading; man was matched to man, the useless musket exchanged for the sword and pike, and science gave way to desperation. overpowered by numbers, the wearied swedes at last retire beyond the trenches; and the captured battery is again lost by the retreat. a thousand mangled bodies already strewed the plain, and as yet not a single step of ground had been won. in the mean time, the king's right wing, led by himself, had fallen upon the enemy's left. the first impetuous shock of the heavy finland cuirassiers dispersed the lightly-mounted poles and croats, who were posted here, and their disorderly flight spread terror and confusion among the rest of the cavalry. at this moment notice was brought the king, that his infantry were retreating over the trenches, and also that his left wing, exposed to a severe fire from the enemy's cannon posted at the windmills was beginning to give way. with rapid decision he committed to general horn the pursuit of the enemy's left, while he flew, at the head of the regiment of steinbock, to repair the disorder of his right wing. his noble charger bore him with the velocity of lightning across the trenches, but the squadrons that followed could not come on with the same speed, and only a few horsemen, among whom was francis albert, duke of saxe lauenburg, were able to keep up with the king. he rode directly to the place where his infantry were most closely pressed, and while he was reconnoitring the enemy's line for an exposed point of attack, the shortness of his sight unfortunately led him too close to their ranks. an imperial gefreyter,--[a person exempt from watching duty, nearly corresponding to the corporal.]--remarking that every one respectfully made way for him as he rode along, immediately ordered a musketeer to take aim at him. "fire at him yonder," said he, "that must be a man of consequence." the soldier fired, and the king's left arm was shattered. at that moment his squadron came hurrying up, and a confused cry of "the king bleeds! the king is shot!" spread terror and consternation through all the ranks. "it is nothing--follow me," cried the king, collecting his whole strength; but overcome by pain, and nearly fainting, he requested the duke of lauenburg, in french, to lead him unobserved out of the tumult. while the duke proceeded towards the right wing with the king, making a long circuit to keep this discouraging sight from the disordered infantry, his majesty received a second shot through the back, which deprived him of his remaining strength. "brother," said he, with a dying voice, "i have enough! look only to your own life." at the same moment he fell from his horse pierced by several more shots; and abandoned by all his attendants, he breathed his last amidst the plundering hands of the croats. his charger, flying without its rider, and covered with blood, soon made known to the swedish cavalry the fall of their king. they rushed madly forward to rescue his sacred remains from the hands of the enemy. a murderous conflict ensued over the body, till his mangled remains were buried beneath a heap of slain. the mournful tidings soon ran through the swedish army; but instead of destroying the courage of these brave troops, it but excited it into a new, a wild, and consuming flame. life had lessened in value, now that the most sacred life of all was gone; death had no terrors for the lowly since the anointed head was not spared. with the fury of lions the upland, smaeland, finland, east and west gothland regiments rushed a second time upon the left wing of the enemy, which, already making but feeble resistance to general horn, was now entirely beaten from the field. bernard, duke of saxe-weimar, gave to the bereaved swedes a noble leader in his own person; and the spirit of gustavus led his victorious squadrons anew. the left wing quickly formed again, and vigorously pressed the right of the imperialists. the artillery at the windmills, which had maintained so murderous a fire upon the swedes, was captured and turned against the enemy. the centre, also, of the swedish infantry, commanded by the duke and knyphausen, advanced a second time against the trenches, which they successfully passed, and retook the battery of seven cannons. the attack was now renewed with redoubled fury upon the heavy battalions of the enemy's centre; their resistance became gradually less, and chance conspired with swedish valour to complete the defeat. the imperial powder-waggons took fire, and, with a tremendous explosion, grenades and bombs filled the air. the enemy, now in confusion, thought they were attacked in the rear, while the swedish brigades pressed them in front. their courage began to fail them. their left wing was already beaten, their right wavering, and their artillery in the enemy's hands. the battle seemed to be almost decided; another moment would decide the fate of the day, when pappenheim appeared on the field, with his cuirassiers and dragoons; all the advantages already gained were lost, and the battle was to be fought anew. the order which recalled that general to lutzen had reached him in halle, while his troops were still plundering the town. it was impossible to collect the scattered infantry with that rapidity, which the urgency of the order, and pappenheim's impatience required. without waiting for it, therefore, he ordered eight regiments of cavalry to mount; and at their head he galloped at full speed for lutzen, to share in the battle. he arrived in time to witness the flight of the imperial right wing, which gustavus horn was driving from the field, and to be at first involved in their rout. but with rapid presence of mind he rallied the flying troops, and led them once more against the enemy. carried away by his wild bravery, and impatient to encounter the king, who he supposed was at the head of this wing, he burst furiously upon the swedish ranks, which, exhausted by victory, and inferior in numbers, were, after a noble resistance, overpowered by this fresh body of enemies. pappenheim's unexpected appearance revived the drooping courage of the imperialists, and the duke of friedland quickly availed himself of the favourable moment to re-form his line. the closely serried battalions of the swedes were, after a tremendous conflict, again driven across the trenches; and the battery, which had been twice lost, again rescued from their hands. the whole yellow regiment, the finest of all that distinguished themselves in this dreadful day, lay dead on the field, covering the ground almost in the same excellent order which, when alive, they maintained with such unyielding courage. the same fate befel another regiment of blues, which count piccolomini attacked with the imperial cavalry, and cut down after a desperate contest. seven times did this intrepid general renew the attack; seven horses were shot under him, and he himself was pierced with six musket balls; yet he would not leave the field, until he was carried along in the general rout of the whole army. wallenstein himself was seen riding through his ranks with cool intrepidity, amidst a shower of balls, assisting the distressed, encouraging the valiant with praise, and the wavering by his fearful glance. around and close by him his men were falling thick, and his own mantle was perforated by several shots. but avenging destiny this day protected that breast, for which another weapon was reserved; on the same field where the noble gustavus expired, wallenstein was not allowed to terminate his guilty career. less fortunate was pappenheim, the telamon of the army, the bravest soldier of austria and the church. an ardent desire to encounter the king in person, carried this daring leader into the thickest of the fight, where he thought his noble opponent was most surely to be met. gustavus had also expressed a wish to meet his brave antagonist, but these hostile wishes remained ungratified; death first brought together these two great heroes. two musket-balls pierced the breast of pappenheim; and his men forcibly carried him from the field. while they were conveying him to the rear, a murmur reached him, that he whom he had sought, lay dead upon the plain. when the truth of the report was confirmed to him, his look became brighter, his dying eye sparkled with a last gleam of joy. "tell the duke of friedland," said he, "that i lie without hope of life, but that i die happy, since i know that the implacable enemy of my religion has fallen on the same day." with pappenheim, the good fortune of the imperialists departed. the cavalry of the left wing, already beaten, and only rallied by his exertions, no sooner missed their victorious leader, than they gave up everything for lost, and abandoned the field of battle in spiritless despair. the right wing fell into the same confusion, with the exception of a few regiments, which the bravery of their colonels gotz, terzky, colloredo, and piccolomini, compelled to keep their ground. the swedish infantry, with prompt determination, profited by the enemy's confusion. to fill up the gaps which death had made in the front line, they formed both lines into one, and with it made the final and decisive charge. a third time they crossed the trenches, and a third time they captured the battery. the sun was setting when the two lines closed. the strife grew hotter as it drew to an end; the last efforts of strength were mutually exerted, and skill and courage did their utmost to repair in these precious moments the fortune of the day. it was in vain; despair endows every one with superhuman strength; no one can conquer, no one will give way. the art of war seemed to exhaust its powers on one side, only to unfold some new and untried masterpiece of skill on the other. night and darkness at last put an end to the fight, before the fury of the combatants was exhausted; and the contest only ceased, when no one could any longer find an antagonist. both armies separated, as if by tacit agreement; the trumpets sounded, and each party claiming the victory, quitted the field. the artillery on both sides, as the horses could not be found, remained all night upon the field, at once the reward and the evidence of victory to him who should hold it. wallenstein, in his haste to leave leipzig and saxony, forgot to remove his part. not long after the battle was ended, pappenheim's infantry, who had been unable to follow the rapid movements of their general, and who amounted to six regiments, marched on the field, but the work was done. a few hours earlier, so considerable a reinforcement would perhaps have decided the day in favour of the imperialists; and, even now, by remaining on the field, they might have saved the duke's artillery, and made a prize of that of the swedes. but they had received no orders to act; and, uncertain as to the issue of the battle, they retired to leipzig, where they hoped to join the main body. the duke of friedland had retreated thither, and was followed on the morrow by the scattered remains of his army, without artillery, without colours, and almost without arms. the duke of weimar, it appears, after the toils of this bloody day, allowed the swedish army some repose, between lutzen and weissenfels, near enough to the field of battle to oppose any attempt the enemy might make to recover it. of the two armies, more than , men lay dead; a still greater number were wounded, and among the imperialists, scarcely a man escaped from the field uninjured. the entire plain from lutzen to the canal was strewed with the wounded, the dying, and the dead. many of the principal nobility had fallen on both sides. even the abbot of fulda, who had mingled in the combat as a spectator, paid for his curiosity and his ill-timed zeal with his life. history says nothing of prisoners; a further proof of the animosity of the combatants, who neither gave nor took quarter. pappenheim died the next day of his wounds at leipzig; an irreparable loss to the imperial army, which this brave warrior had so often led on to victory. the battle of prague, where, together with wallenstein, he was present as colonel, was the beginning of his heroic career. dangerously wounded, with a few troops, he made an impetuous attack on a regiment of the enemy, and lay for several hours mixed with the dead upon the field, beneath the weight of his horse, till he was discovered by some of his own men in plundering. with a small force he defeated, in three different engagements, the rebels in upper austria, though , strong. at the battle of leipzig, he for a long time delayed the defeat of tilly by his bravery, and led the arms of the emperor on the elbe and the weser to victory. the wild impetuous fire of his temperament, which no danger, however apparent, could cool, or impossibilities check, made him the most powerful arm of the imperial force, but unfitted him for acting at its head. the battle of leipzig, if tilly may be believed, was lost through his rash ardour. at the destruction of magdeburg, his hands were deeply steeped in blood; war rendered savage and ferocious his disposition, which had been cultivated by youthful studies and various travels. on his forehead, two red streaks, like swords, were perceptible, with which nature had marked him at his very birth. even in his later years, these became visible, as often as his blood was stirred by passion; and superstition easily persuaded itself, that the future destiny of the man was thus impressed upon the forehead of the child. as a faithful servant of the house of austria, he had the strongest claims on the gratitude of both its lines, but he did not survive to enjoy the most brilliant proof of their regard. a messenger was already on his way from madrid, bearing to him the order of the golden fleece, when death overtook him at leipzig. though te deum, in all spanish and austrian lands, was sung in honour of a victory, wallenstein himself, by the haste with which he quitted leipzig, and soon after all saxony, and by renouncing his original design of fixing there his winter quarters, openly confessed his defeat. it is true he made one more feeble attempt to dispute, even in his flight, the honour of victory, by sending out his croats next morning to the field; but the sight of the swedish army drawn up in order of battle, immediately dispersed these flying bands, and duke bernard, by keeping possession of the field, and soon after by the capture of leipzig, maintained indisputably his claim to the title of victor. but it was a dear conquest, a dearer triumph! it was not till the fury of the contest was over, that the full weight of the loss sustained was felt, and the shout of triumph died away into a silent gloom of despair. he, who had led them to the charge, returned not with them; there he lay upon the field which he had won, mingled with the dead bodies of the common crowd. after a long and almost fruitless search, the corpse of the king was discovered, not far from the great stone, which, for a hundred years before, had stood between lutzen and the canal, and which, from the memorable disaster of that day, still bears the name of the stone of the swede. covered with blood and wounds, so as scarcely to be recognised, trampled beneath the horses' hoofs, stripped by the rude hands of plunderers of its ornaments and clothes, his body was drawn from beneath a heap of dead, conveyed to weissenfels, and there delivered up to the lamentations of his soldiers, and the last embraces of his queen. the first tribute had been paid to revenge, and blood had atoned for the blood of the monarch; but now affection assumes its rights, and tears of grief must flow for the man. the universal sorrow absorbs all individual woes. the generals, still stupefied by the unexpected blow, stood speechless and motionless around his bier, and no one trusted himself enough to contemplate the full extent of their loss. the emperor, we are told by khevenhuller, showed symptoms of deep, and apparently sincere feeling, at the sight of the king's doublet stained with blood, which had been stripped from him during the battle, and carried to vienna. "willingly," said he, "would i have granted to the unfortunate prince a longer life, and a safe return to his kingdom, had germany been at peace." but when a trait, which is nothing more than a proof of a yet lingering humanity, and which a mere regard to appearances and even self-love, would have extorted from the most insensible, and the absence of which could exist only in the most inhuman heart, has, by a roman catholic writer of modern times and acknowledged merit, been made the subject of the highest eulogium, and compared with the magnanimous tears of alexander, for the fall of darius, our distrust is excited of the other virtues of the writer's hero, and what is still worse, of his own ideas of moral dignity. but even such praise, whatever its amount, is much for one, whose memory his biographer has to clear from the suspicion of being privy to the assassination of a king. it was scarcely to be expected, that the strong leaning of mankind to the marvellous, would leave to the common course of nature the glory of ending the career of gustavus adolphus. the death of so formidable a rival was too important an event for the emperor, not to excite in his bitter opponent a ready suspicion, that what was so much to his interests, was also the result of his instigation. for the execution, however, of this dark deed, the emperor would require the aid of a foreign arm, and this it was generally believed he had found in francis albert, duke of saxe lauenburg. the rank of the latter permitted him a free access to the king's person, while it at the same time seemed to place him above the suspicion of so foul a deed. this prince, however, was in fact not incapable of this atrocity, and he had moreover sufficient motives for its commission. francis albert, the youngest of four sons of francis ii, duke of lauenburg, and related by the mother's side to the race of vasa, had, in his early years, found a most friendly reception at the swedish court. some offence which he had committed against gustavus adolphus, in the queen's chamber, was, it is said, repaid by this fiery youth with a box on the ear; which, though immediately repented of, and amply apologized for, laid the foundation of an irreconcileable hate in the vindictive heart of the duke. francis albert subsequently entered the imperial service, where he rose to the command of a regiment, and formed a close intimacy with wallenstein, and condescended to be the instrument of a secret negociation with the saxon court, which did little honour to his rank. without any sufficient cause being assigned, he suddenly quitted the austrian service, and appeared in the king's camp at nuremberg, to offer his services as a volunteer. by his show of zeal for the protestant cause, and prepossessing and flattering deportment, he gained the heart of the king, who, warned in vain by oxenstiern, continued to lavish his favour and friendship on this suspicious new comer. the battle of lutzen soon followed, in which francis albert, like an evil genius, kept close to the king's side and did not leave him till he fell. he owed, it was thought, his own safety amidst the fire of the enemy, to a green sash which he wore, the colour of the imperialists. he was at any rate the first to convey to his friend wallenstein the intelligence of the king's death. after the battle, he exchanged the swedish service for the saxon; and, after the murder of wallenstein, being charged with being an accomplice of that general, he only escaped the sword of justice by abjuring his faith. his last appearance in life was as commander of an imperial army in silesia, where he died of the wounds he had received before schweidnitz. it requires some effort to believe in the innocence of a man, who had run through a career like this, of the act charged against him; but, however great may be the moral and physical possibility of his committing such a crime, it must still be allowed that there are no certain grounds for imputing it to him. gustavus adolphus, it is well known, exposed himself to danger, like the meanest soldier in his army, and where thousands fell, he, too, might naturally meet his death. how it reached him, remains indeed buried in mystery; but here, more than anywhere, does the maxim apply, that where the ordinary course of things is fully sufficient to account for the fact, the honour of human nature ought not to be stained by any suspicion of moral atrocity. but by whatever hand he fell, his extraordinary destiny must appear a great interposition of providence. history, too often confined to the ungrateful task of analyzing the uniform play of human passions, is occasionally rewarded by the appearance of events, which strike like a hand from heaven, into the nicely adjusted machinery of human plans, and carry the contemplative mind to a higher order of things. of this kind, is the sudden retirement of gustavus adolphus from the scene;--stopping for a time the whole movement of the political machine, and disappointing all the calculations of human prudence. yesterday, the very soul, the great and animating principle of his own creation; to-day, struck unpitiably to the ground in the very midst of his eagle flight; untimely torn from a whole world of great designs, and from the ripening harvest of his expectations, he left his bereaved party disconsolate; and the proud edifice of his past greatness sunk into ruins. the protestant party had identified its hopes with its invincible leader, and scarcely can it now separate them from him; with him, they now fear all good fortune is buried. but it was no longer the benefactor of germany who fell at lutzen: the beneficent part of his career, gustavus adolphus had already terminated; and now the greatest service which he could render to the liberties of germany was--to die. the all-engrossing power of an individual was at an end, but many came forward to essay their strength; the equivocal assistance of an over-powerful protector, gave place to a more noble self-exertion on the part of the estates; and those who were formerly the mere instruments of his aggrandizement, now began to work for themselves. they now looked to their own exertions for the emancipation, which could not be received without danger from the hand of the mighty; and the swedish power, now incapable of sinking into the oppressor, was henceforth restricted to the more modest part of an ally. the ambition of the swedish monarch aspired unquestionably to establish a power within germany, and to attain a firm footing in the centre of the empire, which was inconsistent with the liberties of the estates. his aim was the imperial crown; and this dignity, supported by his power, and maintained by his energy and activity, would in his hands be liable to more abuse than had ever been feared from the house of austria. born in a foreign country, educated in the maxims of arbitrary power, and by principles and enthusiasm a determined enemy to popery, he was ill qualified to maintain inviolate the constitution of the german states, or to respect their liberties. the coercive homage which augsburg, with many other cities, was forced to pay to the swedish crown, bespoke the conqueror, rather than the protector of the empire; and this town, prouder of the title of a royal city, than of the higher dignity of the freedom of the empire, flattered itself with the anticipation of becoming the capital of his future kingdom. his ill-disguised attempts upon the electorate of mentz, which he first intended to bestow upon the elector of brandenburg, as the dower of his daughter christina, and afterwards destined for his chancellor and friend oxenstiern, evinced plainly what liberties he was disposed to take with the constitution of the empire. his allies, the protestant princes, had claims on his gratitude, which could be satisfied only at the expense of their roman catholic neighbours, and particularly of the immediate ecclesiastical chapters; and it seems probable a plan was early formed for dividing the conquered provinces, (after the precedent of the barbarian hordes who overran the german empire,) as a common spoil, among the german and swedish confederates. in his treatment of the elector palatine, he entirely belied the magnanimity of the hero, and forgot the sacred character of a protector. the palatinate was in his hands, and the obligations both of justice and honour demanded its full and immediate restoration to the legitimate sovereign. but, by a subtlety unworthy of a great mind, and disgraceful to the honourable title of protector of the oppressed, he eluded that obligation. he treated the palatinate as a conquest wrested from the enemy, and thought that this circumstance gave him a right to deal with it as he pleased. he surrendered it to the elector as a favour, not as a debt; and that, too, as a swedish fief, fettered by conditions which diminished half its value, and degraded this unfortunate prince into a humble vassal of sweden. one of these conditions obliged the elector, after the conclusion of the war, to furnish, along with the other princes, his contribution towards the maintenance of the swedish army, a condition which plainly indicates the fate which, in the event of the ultimate success of the king, awaited germany. his sudden disappearance secured the liberties of germany, and saved his reputation, while it probably spared him the mortification of seeing his own allies in arms against him, and all the fruits of his victories torn from him by a disadvantageous peace. saxony was already disposed to abandon him, denmark viewed his success with alarm and jealousy; and even france, the firmest and most potent of his allies, terrified at the rapid growth of his power and the imperious tone which he assumed, looked around at the very moment he past the lech, for foreign alliances, in order to check the progress of the goths, and restore to europe the balance of power. this ebook was produced by david widger [note: there is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. d.w.] the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume life and death of john of barneveld, v , - chapter xxi. barneveld's execution--the advocate's conduct on the scaffold--the sentence printed and sent to the provinces--the proceedings irregular and inequitable. in the beautiful village capital of the "count's park," commonly called the hague, the most striking and picturesque spot then as now was that where the transformed remains of the old moated castle of those feudal sovereigns were still to be seen. a three-storied range of simple, substantial buildings in brown brickwork, picked out with white stone in a style since made familiar both in england and america, and associated with a somewhat later epoch in the history of the house of orange, surrounded three sides of a spacious inner paved quadrangle called the inner court, the fourth or eastern side being overshadowed by a beechen grove. a square tower flanked each angle, and on both sides of the south-western turret extended the commodious apartments of the stadholder. the great gateway on the south-west opened into a wide open space called the outer courtyard. along the north-west side a broad and beautiful sheet of water, in which the walls, turrets, and chapel-spires of the enclosed castle mirrored themselves, was spread between the mass of buildings and an umbrageous promenade called the vyverberg, consisting of a sextuple alley of lime-trees and embowering here and there a stately villa. a small island, fringed with weeping willows and tufted all over with lilacs, laburnums, and other shrubs then in full flower, lay in the centre of the miniature lake, and the tall solid tower of the great church, surmounted by a light openwork spire, looked down from a little distance over the scene. it was a bright morning in may. the white swans were sailing tranquilly to and fro over the silver basin, and the mavis, blackbird, and nightingale, which haunted the groves surrounding the castle and the town, were singing as if the daybreak were ushering in a summer festival. but it was not to a merry-making that the soldiers were marching and the citizens. thronging so eagerly from every street and alley towards the castle. by four o'clock the outer and inner courts had been lined with detachments of the prince's guard and companies of other regiments to the number of men. occupying the north-eastern side of the court rose the grim, time-worn front of the ancient hall, consisting of one tall pyramidal gable of ancient grey brickwork flanked with two tall slender towers, the whole with the lancet-shaped windows and severe style of the twelfth century, excepting a rose-window in the centre with the decorated mullions of a somewhat later period. in front of the lower window, with its gothic archway hastily converted into a door, a shapeless platform of rough, unhewn planks had that night been rudely patched together. this was the scaffold. a slight railing around it served to protect it from the crowd, and a heap of coarse sand had been thrown upon it. a squalid, unclean box of unplaned boards, originally prepared as a coffin for a frenchman who some time before had been condemned to death for murdering the son of goswyn meurskens, a hague tavern-keeper, but pardoned by the stadholder--lay on the scaffold. it was recognized from having been left for a long time, half forgotten, at the public execution-place of the hague. upon this coffin now sat two common soldiers of ruffianly aspect playing at dice, betting whether the lord or the devil would get the soul of barneveld. many a foul and ribald jest at the expense of the prisoner was exchanged between these gamblers, some of their comrades, and a few townsmen, who were grouped about at that early hour. the horrible libels, caricatures, and calumnies which had been circulated, exhibited, and sung in all the streets for so many months had at last thoroughly poisoned the minds of the vulgar against the fallen statesman. the great mass of the spectators had forced their way by daybreak into the hall itself to hear the sentence, so that the inner courtyard had remained comparatively empty. at last, at half past nine o'clock, a shout arose, "there he comes! there he comes!" and the populace flowed out from the hall of judgment into the courtyard like a tidal wave. in an instant the binnenhof was filled with more than three thousand spectators. the old statesman, leaning on his staff, walked out upon the scaffold and calmly surveyed the scene. lifting his eyes to heaven, he was heard to murmur, "o god! what does man come to!" then he said bitterly once more: "this, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the state!" la motte, who attended him, said fervently: "it is no longer time to think of this. let us prepare your coming before god." "is there no cushion or stool to kneel upon?" said barneveld, looking around him. the provost said he would send for one, but the old man knelt at once on the bare planks. his servant, who waited upon him as calmly and composedly as if he had been serving him at dinner, held him by the arm. it was remarked that neither master nor man, true stoics and hollanders both, shed a single tear upon the scaffold. la motte prayed for a quarter of an hour, the advocate remaining on his knees. he then rose and said to john franken, "see that he does not come near me," pointing to the executioner who stood in the background grasping his long double-handed sword. barneveld then rapidly unbuttoned his doublet with his own hands and the valet helped him off with it. "make haste! make haste!" said his master. the statesman then came forward and said in a loud, firm voice to the people: "men, do not believe that i am a traitor to the country. i have ever acted uprightly and loyally as a good patriot, and as such i shall die." the crowd was perfectly silent. he then took his cap from john franken, drew it over his eyes, and went forward towards the sand, saying: "christ shall be my guide. o lord, my heavenly father, receive my spirit." as he was about to kneel with his face to the south, the provost said: "my lord will be pleased to move to the other side, not where the sun is in his face." he knelt accordingly with his face towards his own house. the servant took farewell of him, and barneveld said to the executioner: "be quick about it. be quick." the executioner then struck his head off at a single blow. many persons from the crowd now sprang, in spite of all opposition, upon the scaffold and dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, cut wet splinters from the boards, or grubbed up the sand that was steeped in it; driving many bargains afterwards for these relics to be treasured, with various feelings of sorrow, joy, glutted or expiated vengeance. it has been recorded, and has been constantly repeated to this day, that the stadholder, whose windows exactly faced the scaffold, looked out upon the execution with a spy-glass; saying as he did so: "see the old scoundrel, how he trembles! he is afraid of the stroke." but this is calumny. colonel hauterive declared that he was with maurice in his cabinet during the whole period of the execution, that by order of the prince all the windows and shutters were kept closed, that no person wearing his livery was allowed to be abroad, that he anxiously received messages as to the proceedings, and heard of the final catastrophe with sorrowful emotion. it must be admitted, however, that the letter which maurice wrote on the same morning to his cousin william lewis does not show much pathos. "after the judges," he said, "have been busy here with the sentence against the advocate barneveld for several days, at last it has been pronounced, and this morning, between nine o'clock and half past, carried into execution with the sword, in the binnenhof before the great hall. "the reasons they had for this you will see from the sentence, which will doubtless be printed, and which i will send you. "the wife of the aforesaid barneveld and also some of his sons and sons- in-law or other friends have never presented any supplication for his pardon, but till now have vehemently demanded that law and justice should be done to him, and have daily let the report run through the people that he would soon come out. they also planted a may-pole before their house adorned with garlands and ribbands, and practised other jollities and impertinences, while they ought to have conducted themselves in a humble and lowly fashion. this is no proper manner of behaving, and moreover not a practical one to move the judges to any favour even if they had been thereto inclined." the sentence was printed and sent to the separate provinces. it was accompanied by a declaration of the states-general that they had received information from the judges of various points, not mentioned in the sentence, which had been laid to the charge of the late advocate, and which gave much reason to doubt whether he had not perhaps turned his eyes toward the enemy. they could not however legally give judgment to that effect without a sharper investigation, which on account of his great age and for other reasons it was thought best to spare him. a meaner or more malignant postscript to a state paper recounting the issue of a great trial it would be difficult to imagine. the first statesman of the country had just been condemned and executed on a narrative, without indictment of any specified crime. and now, by a kind of apologetic after-thought, six or eight individuals calling themselves the states-general insinuated that he had been looking towards the enemy, and that, had they not mercifully spared him the rack, which is all that could be meant by their sharper investigation, he would probably have confessed the charge. and thus the dead man's fame was blackened by those who had not hesitated to kill him, but had shrunk from enquiring into his alleged crime. not entirely without semblance of truth did grotius subsequently say that the men who had taken his life would hardly have abstained from torturing him if they had really hoped by so doing to extract from him a confession of treason. the sentence was sent likewise to france, accompanied with a statement that barneveld had been guilty of unpardonable crimes which had not been set down in the act of condemnation. complaints were also made of the conduct of du maurier in thrusting himself into the internal affairs of the states and taking sides so ostentatiously against the government. the king and his ministers were indignant with these rebukes, and sustained the ambassador. jeannin and de boississe expressed the opinion that he had died innocent of any crime, and only by reason of his strong political opposition to the prince. the judges had been unanimous in finding him guilty of the acts recorded in their narrative, but three of them had held out for some time in favour of a sentence of perpetual imprisonment rather than decapitation. they withdrew at last their opposition to the death penalty for the wonderful reason that reports had been circulated of attempts likely to be made to assassinate prince maurice. the stadholder himself treated these rumours and the consequent admonition of the states-general that he would take more than usual precautions for his safety with perfect indifference, but they were conclusive with the judges of barneveld. "republica poscit exemplum," said commissioner junius, one of the three, as he sided with the death-warrant party. the same doctor junius a year afterwards happened to dine, in company of one of his fellow-commissioners, with attorney-general sylla at utrecht, and took occasion to ask them why it was supposed that barneveld had been hanging his head towards spain, as not one word of that stood in the sentence. the question was ingenuous on the part of one learned judge to his colleagues in one of the most famous state trials of history, propounded as a bit of after-dinner casuistry, when the victim had been more than a year in his grave. but perhaps the answer was still more artless. his brother lawyers replied that the charge was easily to be deduced from the sentence, because a man who breaks up the foundation of the state makes the country indefensible, and therefore invites the enemy to invade it. and this barneveld had done, who had turned the union, religion, alliances, and finances upside down by his proceedings. certainly if every constitutional minister, accused by the opposition party of turning things upside down by his proceedings, were assumed to be guilty of deliberately inviting a hostile invasion of his country, there would have been few from that day to this to escape hanging. constructive treason could scarcely go farther than it was made to do in these attempts to prove, after his death, that the advocate had, as it was euphuistically expressed, been looking towards the enemy. and no better demonstrations than these have ever been discovered. he died at the age of seventy-one years seven months and eighteen days. his body and head were huddled into the box upon which the soldiers had been shaking the dice, and was placed that night in the vault of the chapel in the inner court. it was subsequently granted as a boon to the widow and children that it might be taken thence and decently buried in the family vault at amersfoort. on the day of the execution a formal entry was made in the register of the states of holland. "monday, th may . to-day was executed with the sword here in the hague, on a scaffold thereto erected in the binnenhof before the steps of the great hall, mr. john of barneveld, in his life knight, lord of berkel, rodenrys, &c., advocate of holland and west friesland, for reasons expressed in the sentence and otherwise, with confiscation of his property, after he had served the state thirty-three years two months and five days since th march .; a man of great activity, business, memory, and wisdom--yes, extraordinary in every respect. he that stands let him see that he does not fall, and may god be merciful to his soul. amen?" a year later-on application made by the widow and children of the deceased to compound for the confiscation of his property by payment of a certain sum, eighty florins or a similar trifle, according to an ancient privilege of the order of nobility--the question was raised whether he had been guilty of high-treason, as he had not been sentenced for such a crime, and as it was only in case of sentence for lese-majesty that this composition was disallowed. it was deemed proper therefore to ask the court for what crime the prisoner had been condemned. certainly a more sarcastic question could not have been asked. but the court had ceased to exist. the commission had done its work and was dissolved. some of its members were dead. letters however were addressed by the states- general to the individual commissioners requesting them to assemble at the hague for the purpose of stating whether it was because the prisoners had committed lese-majesty that their property had been confiscated. they never assembled. some of them were perhaps ignorant of the exact nature of that crime. several of them did not understand the words. twelve of them, among whom were a few jurists, sent written answers to the questions proposed. the question was, "did you confiscate the property because the crime was lese-majesty?" the reply was, "the crime was lese-majesty, although not so stated in the sentence, because we confiscated the property." in one of these remarkable documents this was stated to be "the unanimous opinion of almost all the judges." the point was referred to the commissioners, some of whom attended the court of the hague in person, while others sent written opinions. all agreed that the criminal had committed high-treason because otherwise his property would not have been confiscated. a more wonderful example of the argument in a circle was never heard of. moreover it is difficult to understand by what right the high commission, which had been dissolved a year before, after having completed its work, could be deemed competent to emit afterwards a judicial decision. but the fact is curious as giving one more proof of the irregular, unphilosophical, and inequitable nature of these famous proceedings. chapter xxii. grotius urged to ask forgiveness--grotius shows great weakness-- hoogerbeets and grotius imprisoned for life--grotius confined at loevestein--grotius' early attainments--grotius' deportment in prison--escape of grotius--deventer's rage at grotius' escape. two days after the execution of the advocate, judgment was pronounced upon gillis van ledenberg. it would have been difficult to try him, or to extort a confession of high-treason from him by the rack or otherwise, as the unfortunate gentleman had been dead for more than seven months. not often has a court of justice pronounced a man, without trial, to be guilty of a capital offence. not often has a dead man been condemned and executed. but this was the lot of secretary ledenberg. he was sentenced to be hanged, his property declared confiscated. his unburied corpse, reduced to the condition of a mummy, was brought out of its lurking-place, thrust into a coffin, dragged on a hurdle to the golgotha outside the hague, on the road to ryswyk, and there hung on a gibbet in company of the bodies of other malefactors swinging there in chains. his prudent scheme to save his property for his children by committing suicide in prison was thus thwarted. the reading of the sentence of ledenberg, as had been previously the case with that of barneveld, had been heard by grotius through the open window of his prison, as he lay on his bed. the scaffold on which the advocate had suffered was left standing, three executioners were still in the town, and there was every reason for both grotius and hoogerbeets to expect a similar doom. great efforts were made to induce the friends of the distinguished prisoners to sue for their pardon. but even as in the case of the barneveld family these attempts were fruitless. the austere stoicism both on the part of the sufferers and their relatives excites something like wonder. three of the judges went in person to the prison chamber of hoogerbeets, urging him to ask forgiveness himself or to allow his friends to demand it for him. "if my wife and children do ask," he said, "i will protest against it. i need no pardon. let justice take its course. think not, gentlemen, that i mean by asking for pardon to justify your proceedings." he stoutly refused to do either. the judges, astonished, took their departure, saying: "then you will fare as barneveld. the scaffold is still standing." he expected consequently nothing but death, and said many years afterwards that he knew from personal experience how a man feels who goes out of prison to be beheaded. the wife of grotius sternly replied to urgent intimations from a high source that she should ask pardon for her husband, "i shall not do it. if he has deserved it, let them strike off his head." yet no woman could be more devoted to her husband than was maria van reigersbergen to hugo de groot, as time was to prove. the prince subsequently told her at a personal interview that "one of two roads must be taken, that of the law or that of pardon." soon after the arrest it was rumoured that grotius was ready to make important revelations if he could first be assured of the prince's protection. his friends were indignant at the statement. his wife stoutly denied its truth, but, to make sure, wrote to her husband on the subject. "one thing amazes me," she said; "some people here pretend to say that you have stated to one gentleman in private that you have something to disclose greatly important to the country, but that you desired beforehand to be taken under the protection of his excellency. i have not chosen to believe this, nor do i, for i hold that to be certain which you have already told me--that you know no secrets. i see no reason therefore why you should require the protection of any man. and there is no one to believe this, but i thought best to write to you of it. let me, in order that i may contradict the story with more authority, have by the bearer of this a simple yes or no. study quietly, take care of your health, have some days' patience, for the advocate has not yet been heard." the answer has not been preserved, but there is an allusion to the subject in an unpublished memorandum of grotius written while he was in prison. it must be confessed that the heart of the great theologian and jurist seems to have somewhat failed him after his arrest, and although he was incapable of treachery--even if he had been possessed of any secrets, which certainly was not the case--he did not show the same spartan firmness as his wife, and was very far from possessing the heroic calm of barneveld. he was much disposed to extricate himself from his unhappy plight by making humble, if not abject, submission to maurice. he differed from his wife in thinking that he had no need of the prince's protection. "i begged the chamberlain, matthew de cors," he said, a few days after his arrest, "that i might be allowed to speak with his excellency of certain things which i would not willingly trust to the pen. my meaning was to leave all public employment and to offer my service to his excellency in his domestic affairs. thus i hoped that the motives for my imprisonment would cease. this was afterwards misinterpreted as if i had had wonderful things to reveal." but grotius towards the end of his trial showed still greater weakness. after repeated refusals, he had at last obtained permission of the judges to draw up in writing the heads of his defence. to do this he was allowed a single sheet of paper, and four hours of time, the trial having lasted several months. and in the document thus prepared he showed faltering in his faith as to his great friend's innocence, and admitted, without any reason whatever, the possibility of there being truth in some of the vile and anonymous calumnies against him. "the friendship of the advocate of holland i had always highly prized," he said, "hoping from the conversation of so wise and experienced a person to learn much that was good . . . . i firmly believed that his excellency, notwithstanding occasional differences as to the conduct of public affairs, considered him a true and upright servant of the land . . . i have been therefore surprised to understand, during my imprisonment, that the gentlemen had proofs in hand not alone of his correspondence with the enemy, but also of his having received money from them. "he being thus accused, i have indicated by word of mouth and afterwards resumed in writing all matters which i thought--the above-mentioned proofs being made good--might be thereto indirectly referred, in order to show that for me no friendships were so dear as the preservation of the freedom of the land. i wish that he may give explanation of all to the contentment of the judges, and that therefore his actions--which, supposing the said correspondence to be true, are subject to a bad interpretation--may be taken in another sense." alas! could the advocate--among whose first words after hearing of his own condemnation to death were, "and must my grotius die too?" adding, with a sigh of relief when assured of the contrary, "i should deeply grieve for that; he is so young and may live to do the state much service "could he have read those faltering and ungenerous words from one he so held in his heart, he would have felt them like the stab of brutus. grotius lived to know that there were no such proofs, that the judges did not dare even allude to the charge in their sentence, and long years afterwards he drew a picture of the martyred patriot such as one might have expected from his pen. but these written words of doubt must have haunted him to his grave. on the th may --on the fifty-first anniversary, as grotius remarked, of the condemnation of egmont and hoorn by the blood tribunal of alva--the two remaining victims were summoned to receive their doom. the fiscal sylla, entering de groot's chamber early in the morning to conduct him before the judges, informed him that he was not instructed to communicate the nature of the sentence. "but," he said, maliciously, "you are aware of what has befallen the advocate." "i have heard with my own ears," answered grotius, "the judgment pronounced upon barneveld and upon ledenberg. whatever may be my fate, i have patience to bear it." the sentence, read in the same place and in the same manner as had been that upon the advocate, condemned both hoogerbeets and grotius to perpetual imprisonment. the course of the trial and the enumeration of the offences were nearly identical with the leading process which has been elaborately described. grotius made no remark whatever in the court-room. on returning to his chamber he observed that his admissions of facts had been tortured into confessions of guilt, that he had been tried and sentenced against all principles and forms of law, and that he had been deprived of what the humblest criminal could claim, the right of defence and the examination of testimony. in regard to the penalty against him, he said, there was no such thing as perpetual imprisonment except in hell. alluding to the leading cause of all these troubles, he observed that it was with the stadholder and the advocate as cato had said of caesar and pompey. the great misery had come not from their being enemies, but from their having once been friends. on the night of th june the prisoners were taken from their prison in the hague and conveyed to the castle of loevestein. this fortress, destined thenceforth to be famous in history and--from its frequent use in after-times as a state-prison for men of similar constitutional views to those of grotius and the advocate--to give its name to a political party, was a place of extraordinary strength. nature and art had made it, according to military ideas of that age, almost impregnable. as a prison it seemed the very castle of despair. "abandon all hope ye who enter" seemed engraven over its portal. situate in the very narrow, acute angle where the broad, deep, and turbid waal--the chief of the three branches into which the rhine divides itself on entering the netherlands--mingles its current with the silver meuse whose name it adopts as the united rivers roll to the sea, it was guarded on many sides by these deep and dangerous streams. on the land-side it was surrounded by high walls and a double foss, which protected it against any hostile invasion from brabant. as the twelve years' truce was running to its close, it was certain that pains would be taken to strengthen the walls and deepen the ditches, that the place might be proof against all marauders and land-robbers likely to swarm over from the territory of the archdukes. the town of gorcum was exactly opposite on the northern side of the waal, while worcum was about a league's distance from the castle on the southern side, but separated from it by the meuse. the prisoners, after crossing the drawbridge, were led through thirteen separate doors, each one secured by iron bolts and heavy locks, until they reached their separate apartments. they were never to see or have any communication with each other. it had been accorded by the states-general however that the wives of the two gentlemen were to have access to their prison, were to cook for them in the castle kitchen, and, if they chose to inhabit the fortress, might cross to the neighbouring town of gorcum from time to time to make purchases, and even make visits to the hague. twenty-four stuivers, or two shillings, a day were allowed by the states-general for the support of each prisoner and his family. as the family property of grotius was at once sequestered, with a view to its ultimate confiscation, it was clear that abject indigence as well as imprisonment was to be the lifelong lot of this illustrious person, who had hitherto lived in modest affluence, occupying the most considerable of social positions. the commandant of the fortress was inspired from the outset with a desire to render the prisoner's situation as hateful as it was in his power to make it. and much was in his power. he resolved that the family should really live upon their daily pittance. yet madame de groot, before the final confiscation of her own and her husband's estates, had been able to effect considerable loans, both to carry on process against government for what the prisoners contended was an unjust confiscation, and for providing for the household on a decent scale and somewhat in accordance with the requirements of the prisoner's health. thus there was a wearisome and ignoble altercation, revived from day to day, between the commandant and madame de groot. it might have been thought enough of torture for this virtuous and accomplished lady, but twenty-nine years of age and belonging to one of the eminent families of the country, to see her husband, for his genius and accomplishments the wonder of europe, thus cut off in the flower of his age and doomed to a living grave. she was nevertheless to be subjected to the perpetual inquisition of the market-basket, which she was not ashamed with her maid to take to and from gorcum, and to petty wrangles about the kitchen fire where she was proud to superintend the cooking of the scanty fare for her husband and her five children. there was a reason for the spite of the military jailer. lieutenant prouninx, called deventer, commandant of loevestein, was son of the notorious gerard prouninx, formerly burgomaster of utrecht, one of the ringleaders of the leicester faction in the days when the earl made his famous attempts upon the four cities. he had sworn revenge upon all those concerned in his father's downfall, and it was a delight therefore to wreak a personal vengeance on one who had since become so illustrious a member of that party by which the former burgomaster had been deposed, although grotius at the time of leicester's government had scarcely left his cradle. thus these ladies were to work in the kitchen and go to market from time to time, performing this menial drudgery under the personal inspection of the warrior who governed the garrison and fortress, but who in vain attempted to make maria van reigersbergen tremble at his frown. hugo de groot, when thus for life immured, after having already undergone a preliminary imprisonment of nine months, was just thirty-six years of age. although comparatively so young, he had been long regarded as one of the great luminaries of europe for learning and genius. of an ancient and knightly race, his immediate ancestors had been as famous for literature, science, and municipal abilities as their more distant progenitors for deeds of arms in the feudal struggles of holland in the middle ages. his father and grandfather had alike been eminent for hebrew, greek, and latin scholarship, and both had occupied high positions in the university of leyden from its beginning. hugo, born and nurtured under such quickening influences, had been a scholar and poet almost from his cradle. he wrote respectable latin verses at the age of seven, he was matriculated at leyden at the age of eleven. that school, founded amid the storms and darkness of terrible war, was not lightly to be entered. it was already illustrated by a galaxy of shining lights in science and letters, which radiated over christendom. his professors were joseph scaliger, francis junius, paulus merula, and a host of others. his fellow-students were men like scriverius, vossius, baudius, daniel heinsius. the famous soldier and poet douza, who had commanded the forces of leyden during the immortal siege, addressed him on his admission to the university as "magne peer magni dignissime cura parentis," in a copy of eloquent verses. when fourteen years old, he took his bachelor's degree, after a rigorous examination not only in the classics but astronomy, mathematics, jurisprudence, and theology, at an age when most youths would have been accounted brilliant if able to enter that high school with credit. on leaving the university he was attached to the embassy of barneveld and justinus van nassau to the court of henry iv. here he attracted the attention of that monarch, who pointed him out to his courtiers as the "miracle of holland," presented him with a gold chain with his miniature attached to it, and proposed to confer on him the dignity of knighthood, which the boy from motives of family pride appears to have refused. while in france he received from the university of orleans, before the age of fifteen, the honorary degree of doctor of laws in a very eulogistic diploma. on his return to holland he published an edition of the poet johannes capella with valuable annotations, besides giving to the public other learned and classical works and several tragedies of more or less merit. at the age of seventeen he was already an advocate in full practice before the supreme tribunals of the hague, and when twenty-three years old he was selected by prince maurice from a list of three candidates for the important post of fiscal or attorney-general of holland. other civic dignities, embassies, and offices of various kinds, had been thrust upon him one after another, in all of which he had acquitted himself with dignity and brilliancy. he was but twenty-six when he published his argument for the liberty of the sea, the famous mare liberum, and a little later appeared his work on the antiquity of the batavian republic, which procured for him in spain the title of "hugo grotius, auctor damnatus." at the age of twenty-nine he had completed his latin history of the netherlands from the period immediately preceding the war of independence down to the conclusion of the truce, - --a work which has been a classic ever since its appearance, although not published until after his death. a chief magistrate of rotterdam, member of the states of holland and the states-general, jurist, advocate, attorney-general, poet, scholar, historian, editor of the greek and latin classics, writer of tragedies, of law treatises, of theological disquisitions, he stood foremost among a crowd of famous contemporaries. his genius, eloquence, and learning were esteemed among the treasures not only of his own country but of europe. he had been part and parcel of his country's history from his earliest manhood, and although a child in years compared to barneveld, it was upon him that the great statesman had mainly relied ever since the youth's first appearance in public affairs. impressible, emotional, and susceptive, he had been accused from time to time, perhaps not entirely without reason, of infirmity of purpose, or at least of vacillation in opinion; but his worst enemies had never assailed the purity of his heart or integrity of his character. he had not yet written the great work on the 'rights of war and peace', which was to make an epoch in the history of civilization and to be the foundation of a new science, but the materials lay already in the ample storehouse of his memory and his brain. possessed of singular personal beauty--which the masterly portraits of miereveld attest to the present day--tall, brown-haired; straight- featured, with a delicate aquiline nose and piercing dark blue eyes, he was also athletic of frame and a proficient in manly exercises. this was the statesman and the scholar, of whom it is difficult to speak but in terms of affectionate but not exaggerated eulogy, and for whom the republic of the netherlands could now find no better use than to shut him up in the grim fortress of loevestein for the remainder of his days. a commonwealth must have deemed itself rich in men which, after cutting off the head of barneveld, could afford to bury alive hugo grotius. his deportment in prison was a magnificent moral lesson. shut up in a kind of cage consisting of a bedroom and a study, he was debarred from physical exercise, so necessary for his mental and bodily health. not choosing for the gratification of lieutenant deventer to indulge in weak complaints, he procured a huge top, which he employed himself in whipping several hours a day; while for intellectual employment he plunged once more into those classical, juridical, and theological studies which had always employed his leisure hours from childhood upwards. it had been forbidden by the states-general to sell his likeness in the shops. the copper plates on which they had been engraved had as far as possible been destroyed. the wish of the government, especially of his judges, was that his name and memory should die at once and for ever. they were not destined to be successful, for it would be equally difficult to-day to find an educated man in christendom ignorant of the name of hugo grotius, or acquainted with that of a single one of his judges. and his friends had not forgotten him as he lay there living in his tomb. especially the learned scriverius, vossius, and other professors, were permitted to correspond with him at intervals on literary subjects, the letters being subjected to preliminary inspection. scriverius sent him many books from his well-stocked library, de groot's own books and papers having been confiscated by the government. at a somewhat later period the celebrated orientalist erpenius sent him from time to time a large chest of books, the precious freight being occasionally renewed and the chest passing to and from loevestein by way of gorcum. at this town lived a sister of erpenius, married to one daatselaer, a considerable dealer in thread and ribbons, which he exported to england. the house of daatselaer became a place of constant resort for madame de groot as well as the wife of hoogerbeets, both dames going every few days from the castle across the waal to gorcum, to make their various purchases for the use of their forlorn little households in the prison. madame daatselaer therefore received and forwarded into loevestein or into holland many parcels and boxes, besides attending to the periodical transmission of the mighty chest of books. professor vossius was then publishing a new edition of the tragedies of seneca, and at his request grotius enriched that work, from his prison, with valuable notes. he employed himself also in translating the moral sentences extracted by stobaeus from the greek tragedies; drawing consolation from the ethics and philosophy of the ancient dramatists, whom he had always admired, especially the tragedies of euripides; he formed a complete moral anthology from that poet and from the works of sophocles, menander, and others, which he translated into fluent dutch verse. becoming more and more interested in the subject, he executed a masterly rhymed translation of the 'theban brothers' of euripides, thus seeking distraction from his own tragic doom in the portraiture of antique, distant, and heroic sorrow. turning again to legal science, he completed an introduction to the jurisprudence of holland, a work which as soon as published became thenceforward a text-book and an oracle in the law courts and the high schools of the country. not forgetting theology, he composed for the use of the humbler classes, especially for sailors, in whose lot, so exposed to danger and temptation, be ever took deep interest, a work on the proofs of christianity in easy and familiar rhyme--a book of gold, as it was called at once, which became rapidly popular with those for whom it was designed. at a somewhat later period professor erpenius, publishing a new edition of the new testament in greek, with translations in arabic, syriac, and ethiopian, solicited his friend's help both in translations and in the latin commentaries and expositions with which he proposed to accompany the work. the prisoner began with a modest disclaimer, saying that after the labours of erasmus and beza, maldonatus and jasenius, there was little for him to glean. becoming more enthusiastic as he went on, he completed a masterly commentary on the four evangelists, a work for which the learned and religious world has ever recognized a kind of debt of gratitude to the castle of loevestein, and hailed in him the founder of a school of manly biblical criticism. and thus nearly two years wore away. spinning his great top for exercise; soothing his active and prolific brain with greek tragedy, with flemish verse, with jurisprudence, history, theology; creating, expounding, adorning, by the warmth of his vivid intellect; moving the world, and doing good to his race from the depths of his stony sepulchre; hugo grotius rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive. the man is not to be envied who is not moved by so noble an example of great calamity manfully endured. the wife of hoogerbeets, already advanced in years, sickened during the imprisonment and died at loevestein after a lingering illness, leaving six children to the care of her unfortunate husband. madame de groot had not been permitted by the prison authorities to minister to her in sickness, nor to her children after her death. early in the year francis aerssens, lord of sommelsdyk, the arch enemy of barneveld and of grotius, was appointed special ambassador to paris. the intelligence--although hardly unexpected, for the stratagems of aerssens had been completely successful--moved the prisoner deeply. he felt that this mortal enemy, not glutted with vengeance by the beheading of the advocate and the perpetual imprisonment of his friend, would do his best at the french court to defame and to blacken him. he did what he could to obviate this danger by urgent letters to friends on whom he could rely. at about the same time muis van holy, one of the twenty-four commissioners, not yet satisfied with the misery he had helped to inflict, informed the states-general that madame de groot had been buying ropes at gorcum. on his motion a committee was sent to investigate the matter at castle loevestein, where it was believed that the ropes had been concealed for the purpose of enabling grotius to make his escape from prison. lieutenant deventer had heard nothing of the story. he was in high spirits at the rumour however, and conducted the committee very eagerly over the castle, causing minute search to be made in the apartment of grotius for the ropes which, as they were assured by him and his wife, had never existed save in the imagination of judge muis. they succeeded at least in inflicting much superfluous annoyance on their victims, and in satisfying themselves that it would be as easy for the prisoner to fly out of the fortress on wings as to make his escape with ropes, even if he had them. grotius soon afterwards addressed a letter to the states-general denouncing the statement of muis as a fable, and these persistent attempts to injure him as cowardly and wicked. a few months later madame de groot happened to be in the house of daatselaer on one of her periodical visits to gorcum. conversation turning on these rumours march of attempts at escape, she asked madame daatselaer if she would not be much embarrassed, should grotius suddenly make his appearance there. "oh no," said the good woman with a laugh; "only let him come. we will take excellent care of him." at another visit one saturday, th march, ( ) madame de groot asked her friend why all the bells of gorcum march were ringing. "because to-morrow begins our yearly fair," replied dame daatselaer. "well, i suppose that all exiles and outlaws may come to gorcum on this occasion," said madame de groot. "such is the law, they say," answered her friend. "and my husband might come too?" "no doubt," said madame daatselaer with a merry laugh, rejoiced at finding the wife of grotius able to speak so cheerfully of her husband in his perpetual and hopeless captivity. "send him hither. he shall have, a warm welcome." "what a good woman you are!" said madame de groot with a sigh as she rose to take leave. "but you know very well that if he were a bird he could never get out of the castle, so closely, he is caged there." next morning a wild equinoctial storm was howling around the battlements of the castle. of a sudden cornelia, daughter of the de groots, nine years of age, said to her mother without any reason whatever, "to-morrow papa must be off to gorcum, whatever the weather may be." de groot, as well as his wife, was aghast at the child's remark, and took it as a direct indication from heaven. for while madame daatselaer had considered the recent observations of her visitor from loevestein as idle jests, and perhaps wondered that madame de groot could be frivolous and apparently lighthearted on so dismal a topic, there had been really a hidden meaning in her words. for several weeks past the prisoner had been brooding over a means of escape. his wife, whose every thought was devoted to him, had often cast her eyes on the great chest or trunk in which the books of erpenius had been conveyed between loevestein and gorcum for the use of the prisoner. at first the trunk had been carefully opened and its contents examined every time it entered or left the castle. as nothing had ever been found in it save hebrew, greek, and latin folios, uninviting enough to the commandant, that warrior had gradually ceased to inspect the chest very closely, and had at last discontinued the practice altogether. it had been kept for some weeks past in the prisoner's study. his wife thought--although it was two finger breadths less than four feet in length, and not very broad or deep in proportion--that it might be possible for him to get into it. he was considerably above middle height, but found that by curling himself up very closely he could just manage to lie in it with the cover closed. very secretly they had many times rehearsed the scheme which had now taken possession of their minds, but had not breathed a word of it to any one. he had lain in the chest with the lid fastened, and with his wife sitting upon the top of it, two hours at a time by the hour-glass. they had decided at last that the plan, though fraught with danger, was not absolutely impossible, and they were only waiting now for a favourable opportunity. the chance remark of the child cornelia settled the time for hazarding the adventure. by a strange coincidence, too, the commandant of the fortress, lieutenant deventer, had just been promoted to a captaincy, and was to go to heusden to receive his company. he left the castle for a brief absence that very sunday evening. as a precautionary measure, the trunk filled with books had been sent to gorcum and returned after the usual interval only a few days before. the maid-servant of the de groots, a young girl of twenty, elsje van houwening by name, quick, intelligent, devoted, and courageous, was now taken into their confidence. the scheme was explained to her, and she was asked if she were willing to take the chest under her charge with her master in it, instead of the usual freight of books, and accompany it to gorcum. she naturally asked what punishment could be inflicted upon her in case the plot were discovered. "none legally," answered her master; "but i too am innocent of any crime, and you see to what sufferings i have been condemned." "whatever come of it," said elsje stoutly; "i will take the risk and accompany my master." every detail was then secretly arranged, and it was provided beforehand, as well as possible, what should be said or done in the many contingencies that might arise. on sunday evening madame de groot then went to the wife of the commandant, with whom she had always been on more friendly terms than with her malicious husband. she had also recently propitiated her affections by means of venison and other dainties brought from gorcum. she expressed the hope that, notwithstanding the absence of captain deventer, she might be permitted to send the trunk full of books next day from the castle. "my husband is wearing himself out," she said, "with his perpetual studies. i shall be glad for a little time to be rid of some of these folios." the commandant's wife made no objection to this slight request. on monday morning the gale continued to beat with unabated violence on the turrets. the turbid waal, swollen by the tempest, rolled darkly and dangerously along the castle walls. but the die was cast. grotius rose betimes, fell on his knees, and prayed fervently an hour long. dressed only in linen underclothes with a pair of silk stockings, he got into the chest with the help of his wife. the big testament of erpenius, with some bunches of thread placed upon it, served him as a pillow. a few books and papers were placed in the interstices left by the curves of his body, and as much pains as possible taken to prevent his being seriously injured or incommoded during the hazardous journey he was contemplating. his wife then took solemn farewell of him, fastened the lock, which she kissed, and gave the key to elsje. the usual garments worn by the prisoner were thrown on a chair by the bedside and his slippers placed before it. madame de groot then returned to her bed, drew the curtains close, and rang the bell. it was answered by the servant who usually waited on the prisoner, and who was now informed by the lady that it had been her intention to go herself to gorcum, taking charge of the books which were valuable. as the weather was so tempestuous however, and as she was somewhat indisposed, it had been decided that elsje should accompany the trunk. she requested that some soldiers might be sent as usual to take it down to the vessel. two or three of the garrison came accordingly, and seeing the clothes and slippers of grotius lying about, and the bed-curtains closed, felt no suspicion. on lifting the chest, however, one of them said, half in jest: "the arminian must be in it himself, it seems so heavy," "not the arminian," replied madame de groot, in a careless voice, from the bed; "only heavy arminian books." partly lifting, partly dragging the ponderous box, the soldiers managed to get it down the stairs and through the thirteen barred and bolted doors. four several times one or other of the soldiers expressed the opinion that grotius himself must be locked within it, but they never spoke quite seriously, and elsje was ever ready to turn aside the remark with a jest. a soldier's wife, just as the box was approaching the wharf, told a story of a malefactor who had once been carried out of the castle in a chest. "and if a malefactor, why not a lawyer?" she added. a soldier said he would get a gimlet and bore a hole into the arminian. "then you must get a gimlet that will reach to the top of the castle, where the arminian lies abed and asleep," said elsje. not much heed was given to this careless talk, the soldiers, before leaving the chamber of grotius, having satisfied themselves that there were no apertures in the chest save the keyhole, and that it would be impossible by that means alone for sufficient air to penetrate to keep a man enclosed in it from smothering. madame deventer was asked if she chose to inspect the contents of the trunk, and she enquired whether the commandant had been wont so to do. when told that such search had been for a long time discontinued, as nothing had ever been found there but books, she observed that there was no reason why she should be more strict than her husband, and ordered the soldiers to take their heavy load to the vessel. elsje insisted that the boatmen should place a doubly thick plank for sliding the box on board, as it seemed probable, she said, that the usual one would break in two, and then the valuable books borrowed of professor erpenius would be damaged or destroyed. the request caused much further grumbling, but was complied with at last and the chest deposited on the deck. the wind still continued to blow with great fury, and as soon as the sails were set the vessel heeled over so much, that elsje implored the skipper to cause the box to be securely lashed, as it seemed in imminent danger, at the first lurch of the vessel, of sliding into the sea. this done, elsje sat herself down and threw her white handkerchief over her head, letting it flutter in the wind. one of the crew asked her why she did so, and she replied that the servant in the castle had been tormenting her, saying that she would never dare to sail to gorcum in such tempestuous weather, and she was now signalling him that she had been as good as her word. whereupon she continued to wave the handkerchief. in reality the signal was for her mistress, who was now straining her eyes from the barred window which looked out upon the waal, and with whom the maid had agreed that if all went prosperously she would give this token of success. otherwise she would sit with her head in her hands. during the voyage an officer of the garrison, who happened to be on board, threw himself upon the chest as a convenient seat, and began drumming and pounding with his heels upon it. the ever watchful elsje, feeling the dreadful inconvenience to the prisoner of these proceedings, who perhaps was already smothering and would struggle for air if not relieved, politely addressed the gentleman and induced him to remove to another seat by telling him that, besides the books, there was some valuable porcelain in the chest which might easily be broken. no further incident occurred. the wind, although violent, was favourable, and gorcum in due time was reached. elsje insisted upon having her own precious freight carried first into the town, although the skipper for some time was obstinately bent on leaving it to the very last, while all the other merchandise in the vessel should be previously unshipped. at last on promise of payment of ten stuivers, which was considered an exorbitant sum, the skipper and son agreed to transport the chest between them on a hand-barrow. while they were trudging with it to the town, the son remarked to his father that there was some living thing in the box. for the prisoner in the anguish of his confinement had not been able to restrain a slight movement. "do you hear what my son says?" cried the skipper to elsje. "he says you have got something alive in your trunk." "yes, yes," replied the cheerful maid-servant; "arminian books are always alive, always full of motion and spirit." they arrived at daatselaer's house, moving with difficulty through the crowd which, notwithstanding the boisterous weather, had been collected by the annual fair. many people were assembled in front of the building, which was a warehouse of great resort, while next door was a book- seller's shop thronged with professors, clergymen, and other literary persons. the carriers accordingly entered by the backway, and elsje, deliberately paying them their ten stuivers, and seeing them depart, left the box lying in a room at the rear and hastened to the shop in front. here she found the thread and ribbon dealer and his wife, busy with their customers, unpacking and exhibiting their wares. she instantly whispered in madame daatselaer's ear, "i have got my master here in your back parlour." the dame turned white as a sheet, and was near fainting on the spot. it was the first imprudence elsje had committed. the good woman recovered somewhat of her composure by a strong effort however, and instantly went with elsje to the rear of the house. "master! master!" cried elsje, rapping on the chest. there was no answer. "my god! my god!" shrieked the poor maid-servant. "my poor master is dead." "ah!" said madame daatselaer, "your mistress has made a bad business of it. yesterday she had a living husband. now she has a dead one." but soon there was a vigorous rap on the inside of the lid, and a cry from the prisoner: "open the chest! i am not dead, but did not at first recognize your voice." the lock was instantly unfastened, the lid thrown open, and grotius arose in his linen clothing, like a dead man from his coffin. the dame instantly accompanied the two through a trapdoor into an upper room. grotius asked her if she was always so deadly pale. "no," she replied, "but i am frightened to see you here. my lord is no common person. the whole world is talking of you. i fear this will cause the loss of all my property and perhaps bring my husband into prison in your place." grotius rejoined: "i made my prayers to god before as much as this had been gained, and i have just been uttering fervent thanks to him for my deliverance so far as it has been effected. but if the consequences are to be as you fear, i am ready at once to get into the chest again and be carried back to prison." but she answered, "no; whatever comes of it, we have you here and will do all that we can to help you on." grotius being faint from his sufferings, the lady brought him a glass of spanish wine, but was too much flustered to find even a cloak or shawl to throw over him. leaving him sitting there in his very thin attire, just as he had got out of the chest, she went to the front warehouse to call her husband. but he prudently declined to go to his unexpected guest. it would be better in the examination sure to follow, he said, for him to say with truth that he had not seen him and knew nothing of the escape, from first to last. grotius entirely approved of the answer when told to him. meantime madame daatselaer had gone to her brother-in-law van der veen, a clothier by trade, whom she found in his shop talking with an officer of the loevestein garrison. she whispered in the clothier's ear, and he, making an excuse to the officer, followed her home at once. they found grotius sitting where he had been left. van der veen gave him his hand, saying: "sir, you are the man of whom the whole country is talking?" "yes, here i am," was the reply, "and i put myself in your hands--" "there isn't a moment to lose," replied the clothier. "we must help you away at once." he went immediately in search of one john lambertsen, a man in whom he knew he could confide, a lutheran in religion, a master-mason by occupation. he found him on a scaffold against the gable-end of a house, working at his trade. he told him that there was a good deed to be done which he could do better than any man, that his conscience would never reproach him for it, and that he would at the same time earn no trifling reward. he begged the mason to procure a complete dress as for a journeyman, and to follow him to the house of his brother-in-law daatselaer. lambertsen soon made his appearance with the doublet, trunk-hose, and shoes of a bricklayer, together with trowel and measuring-rod. he was informed who his new journeyman was to be, and grotius at once put on the disguise. the doublet did not reach to the waistband of the trunkhose, while those nether garments stopped short of his knees; the whole attire belonging to a smaller man than the unfortunate statesman. his delicate white hands, much exposed by the shortness of the sleeves, looked very unlike those of a day-labourer, and altogether the new mason presented a somewhat incongruous and wobegone aspect. grotius was fearful too lest some of the preachers and professors frequenting the book-shop next door would recognize him through his disguise. madame daatselaer smeared his face and hands with chalk and plaster however and whispered encouragement, and so with a felt hat slouched over his forehead and a yardstick in his hand, he walked calmly forth into the thronged marketplace and through the town to the ferry, accompanied by the friendly lambertsen. it had been agreed that van der veen should leave the house in another direction and meet them at the landing-place. when they got to the ferry, they found the weather as boisterous as ever. the boatmen absolutely refused to make the dangerous crossing of the merwede over which their course lay to the land of altona, and so into the spanish netherlands, for two such insignificant personages as this mason and his scarecrow journeyman. lambertsen assured them that it was of the utmost importance that he should cross the water at once. he had a large contract for purchasing stone at altona for a public building on which he was engaged. van der veen coming up added his entreaties, protesting that he too was interested in this great stone purchase, and so by means of offering a larger price than they at first dared to propose, they were able to effect their passage. after landing, lambertsen and grotius walked to waalwyk, van der veen returning the same evening to gorcum. it was four o'clock in the afternoon when they reached waalwyk, where a carriage was hired to convey the fugitive to antwerp. the friendly mason here took leave of his illustrious journeyman, having first told the driver that his companion was a disguised bankrupt fleeing from holland into foreign territory to avoid pursuit by his creditors. this would explain his slightly concealing his face in passing through a crowd in any village. grotius proved so ignorant of the value of different coins in making small payments on the road, that the honest waggoner, on being occasionally asked who the odd-looking stranger was, answered that he was a bankrupt, and no wonder, for he did not know one piece of money from another. for, his part he thought him little better than a fool. such was the depreciatory opinion formed by the waalwyk coachman as to the "rising light of the world" and the "miracle of holland." they travelled all night and, arriving on the morning of the st within a few leagues of antwerp, met a patrol of soldiers, who asked grotius for his passport. he enquired in whose service they were, and was told in that of "red rod," as the chief bailiff of antwerp was called. that functionary happened to be near, and the traveller approaching him said that his passport was on his feet, and forthwith told him his name and story. red rod treated him at once with perfect courtesy, offered him a horse for himself with a mounted escort, and so furthered his immediate entrance to antwerp. grotius rode straight to the house of a banished friend of his, the preacher grevinkhoven. he was told by the daughter of that clergyman that her father was upstairs ministering at the bedside of his sick wife. but so soon as the traveller had sent up his name, both the preacher and the invalid came rushing downstairs to fall upon the neck of one who seemed as if risen from the dead. the news spread, and episcopius and other exiled friends soon thronged to the house of grevinkhoven, where they all dined together in great glee, grotius, still in his journeyman's clothes, narrating the particulars of his wonderful escape. he had no intention of tarrying in his resting-place at antwerp longer than was absolutely necessary. intimations were covertly made to him that a brilliant destiny might be in store for him should he consent to enter the service of the archdukes, nor were there waning rumours, circulated as a matter of course by his host of enemies, that he was about to become a renegade to country and religion. there was as much truth in the slanders as in the rest of the calumnies of which he had been the victim during his career. he placed on record a proof of his loyal devotion to his country in the letters which he wrote from antwerp within a week of his arrival there. with his subsequent history, his appearance and long residence at the french court as ambassador of sweden, his memorable labours in history, diplomacy, poetry, theology, the present narrative is not concerned. driven from the service of his fatherland, of which his name to all time is one of the proudest garlands, he continued to be a benefactor not only to her but to all mankind. if refutation is sought of the charge that republics are ungrateful, it will certainly not be found in the history of hugo grotius or john of barneveld. nor is there need to portray the wrath of captain deventer when he returned to castle loevestein. "here is the cage, but your bird is flown," said corpulent maria grotius with a placid smile. the commandant solaced himself by uttering imprecations on her, on her husband, and on elsje van houwening. but these curses could not bring back the fugitive. he flew to gorcum to browbeat the daatselaers and to search the famous trunk. he found in it the big new testament and some skeins of thread, together with an octavo or two of theology and of greek tragedies; but the arminian was not in it, and was gone from the custody of the valiant deventer for ever. after a brief period madame de groot was released and rejoined her husband. elsje van houwening, true heroine of the adventure, was subsequently married to the faithful servant of grotius, who during the two years' imprisonment had been taught latin and the rudiments of law by his master, so that he subsequently rose to be a thriving and respectable advocate at the tribunals of holland. the stadholder, when informed of the escape of the prisoner, observed, "i always thought the black pig was deceiving me," making not very complimentary allusion to the complexion and size of the lady who had thus aided the escape of her husband. he is also reported as saying that it "is no wonder they could not keep grotius in prison, as he has more wit than all his judges put together." chapter xxiii. barneveld's sons plot against maurice--the conspiracy betrayed to maurice--escape of stoutenburg--groeneveld is arrested--mary of barneveld appeals to the stadholder--groeneveld condemned to death-- execution of groeneveld. the widow of barneveld had remained, since the last scene of the fatal tragedy on the binnenhof, in hopeless desolation. the wife of the man who during a whole generation of mankind had stood foremost among the foremost of the world, and had been one of those chief actors and directors in human affairs to whom men's eyes turned instinctively from near and from afar, had led a life of unbroken prosperity. an heiress in her own right, maria van utrecht had laid the foundation of her husband's wealth by her union with the rising young lawyer and statesman. her two sons and two daughters had grown up around her, all four being married into the leading families of the land, and with apparently long lives of prosperity and usefulness before them. and now the headsman's sword had shivered all this grandeur and happiness at a blow. the name of the dead statesman had become a word of scoffing and reproach; vagabond mountebanks enacted ribald scenes to his dishonour in the public squares and streets; ballad-mongers yelled blasphemous libels upon him in the very ears of his widow and children. for party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk. it would be idle to paint the misery of this brokenhearted woman. the great painters of the epoch have preserved her face to posterity; the grief-stricken face of a hard-featured but commanding and not uncomely woman, the fountains of whose tears seem exhausted; a face of austere and noble despair. a decorous veil should be thrown over the form of that aged matron, for whose long life and prosperity fate took such merciless vengeance at last. for the woes of maria of barneveld had scarcely begun. desolation had become her portion, but dishonour had not yet crossed her threshold. there were sterner strokes in store for her than that which smote her husband on the scaffold. she had two sons, both in the prime of life. the eldest, reinier, lord of groeneveld, who had married a widow of rank and wealth, madame de brandwyk, was living since the death of his father in comparative ease, but entire obscurity. an easy-tempered, genial, kindly gentleman, he had been always much beloved by his friends and, until the great family catastrophe, was popular with the public, but of an infirm and vacillating character, easily impressed by others, and apt to be led by stronger natures than his own. he had held the lucrative office of head forester of delfland of which he had now been deprived. the younger son william, called, from an estate conferred on him by his father, lord of stoutenburg, was of a far different mould. we have seen him at an earlier period of this narrative attached to the embassy of francis aerssens in paris, bearing then from another estate the unmusical title of craimgepolder, and giving his subtle and dangerous chief great cause of complaint by his irregular, expensive habits. he had been however rather a favourite with henry iv., who had so profound a respect for the father as to consult him, and him only of all foreign statesmen, in the gravest affairs of his reign, and he had even held an office of honour and emolument at his court. subsequently he had embraced the military career, and was esteemed a soldier of courage and promise. as captain of cavalry and governor of the fortress of bergen op zoom, he occupied a distinguished and lucrative position, and was likely, so soon as the truce ran to its close, to make a name for himself in that gigantic political and religious war which had already opened in bohemia, and in which it was evident the republic would soon be desperately involved. his wife, walburg de marnix, was daughter to one of the noblest characters in the history of the netherlands, or of any history, the illustrious sainte-aldegonde. two thousand florins a year from his father's estate had been settled on him at his marriage, which, in addition to his official and military income, placed him in a position of affluence. after the death of his father the family estates were confiscated, and he was likewise deprived of his captaincy and his governorship. he was reduced at a blow from luxury and high station to beggary and obscurity. at the renewal of the war he found himself, for no fault of his own, excluded from the service of his country. yet the advocate almost in his last breath had recommended his sons to the stadholder, and maurice had sent a message in response that so long as the sons conducted themselves well they might rely upon his support. hitherto they had not conducted themselves otherwise than well. stoutenburg, who now dwelt in his house with his mother, was of a dark, revengeful, turbulent disposition. in the career of arms he had a right to look forward to success, but thus condemned to brood in idleness on the cruel wrongs to himself and his house it was not improbable that he might become dangerous. years long he fed on projects of vengeance as his daily bread. he was convinced that his personal grievances were closely entwined with the welfare of the commonwealth, and he had sworn to avenge the death of his father, the misery of his mother, and the wrongs which he was himself suffering, upon the stadholder, whom he considered the author of all their woe. to effect a revolution in the government, and to bring back to power all the municipal regents whom maurice had displaced so summarily, in order, as the son believed, to effect the downfall of the hated advocate, this was the determination of stoutenburg. he did not pause to reflect whether the arm which had been strong enough to smite to nothingness the venerable statesman in the plenitude of his power would be too weak to repel the attack of an obscure and disarmed partisan. he saw only a hated tyrant, murderer, and oppressor, as he considered him, and he meant to have his life. he had around him a set of daring and desperate men to whom he had from time to time half confided his designs. a certain unfrocked preacher of the remonstrant persuasion, who, according to the fashion of the learned of that day, had translated his name out of hendrik sleet into henricus slatius, was one of his most unscrupulous instruments. slatius, a big, swarthy, shag-eared, beetle-browed hollander, possessed learning of no ordinary degree, a tempestuous kind of eloquence, and a habit of dealing with men; especially those of the humbler classes. he was passionate, greedy, overbearing, violent, and loose of life. he had sworn vengeance upon the remonstrants in consequence of a private quarrel, but this did not prevent him from breathing fire and fury against the contra- remonstrants also, and especially against the stadholder, whom he affected to consider the arch-enemy of the whole commonwealth. another twelvemonth went by. the advocate had been nearly four years in his grave. the terrible german war was in full blaze. the twelve years' truce had expired, the republic was once more at war, and stoutenburg, forbidden at the head of his troop to campaign with the stadholder against the archdukes, nourished more fiercely than ever his plan against the stadholder's life. besides the ferocious slatius he had other associates. there was his cousin by marriage, van der dussen, a catholic gentleman, who had married a daughter of elias barneveld, and who shared all stoutenburg's feelings of resentment towards maurice. there was korenwinder, another catholic, formerly occupying an official position of responsibility as secretary of the town of berkel, a man of immense corpulence, but none the less an active and dangerous conspirator. there was van dyk, a secretary of bleiswyk, equally active and dangerous, and as lean and hungry as korenwinder was fat. stoutenburg, besides other rewards, had promised him a cornetcy of cavalry, should their plans be successful. and there was the brother-in-law of slatius, one cornelis gerritaen, a joiner by trade, living at rotterdam, who made himself very useful in all the details of the conspiracy. for the plot was now arranged, the men just mentioned being its active agents and in constant communication with stoutenburg. korenwinder and van dyk in the last days of december drew up a scheme on paper, which was submitted to their chief and met with his approval. the document began with a violent invective against the crimes and tyranny of the stadholder, demonstrated the necessity of a general change in the government, and of getting rid of maurice as an indispensable preliminary, and laid down the means and method of doing this deed. the prince was in the daily habit of driving, unattended by his body- guard, to ryswyk, about two miles from the hague. it would not be difficult for a determined band of men divided into two parties to set upon him between the stables and his coach, either when alighting from or about to enter it--the one party to kill him while the other protected the retreat of the assassins, and beat down such defence as the few lackeys of the stadholder could offer. the scheme, thus mapped out, was submitted to stoutenburg, who gave it his approval after suggesting a few amendments. the document was then burnt. it was estimated that twenty men would be needed for the job, and that to pay them handsomely would require about guilders. the expenses and other details of the infamous plot were discussed as calmly as if it had been an industrial or commercial speculation. but guilders was an immense sum to raise, and the seigneur de stoutenburg was a beggar. his associates were as forlorn as himself, but his brother-in-law, the ex-ambassador van der myle, was living at beverwyk under the supervision of the police, his property not having been confiscated. stoutenburg paid him a visit, accompanied by the reverend slatius, in hopes of getting funds from him, but at the first obscure hint of the infamous design van der myle faced them with such looks, gestures, and words of disgust and indignation that the murderous couple recoiled, the son of barneveld saying to the expreacher: "let us be off, slaet,'tis a mere cur. nothing is to be made of him." the other son of barneveld, the seigneur de groeneveld, had means and credit. his brother had darkly hinted to him the necessity of getting rid of maurice, and tried to draw him into the plot. groeneveld, more unstable than water, neither repelled nor encouraged these advances. he joined in many conversations with stoutenburg, van dyk, and korenwinder, but always weakly affected not to know what they were driving at. "when we talk of business," said van dyk to him one day, "you are always turning off from us and from the subject. you had better remain." many anonymous letters were sent to him, calling on him to strike for vengeance on the murderer of his father, and for the redemption of his native land and the remonstrant religion from foul oppression. at last yielding to the persuasions and threats of his fierce younger brother, who assured him that the plot would succeed, the government be revolutionized, and that then all property would be at the mercy of the victors, he agreed to endorse certain bills which korenwinder undertook to negotiate. nothing could be meaner, more cowardly, and more murderous than the proceedings of the seigneur de groeneveld. he seems to have felt no intense desire of vengeance upon maurice, which certainly would not have been unnatural, but he was willing to supply money for his assassination. at the same time he was careful to insist that this pecuniary advance was by no means a free gift, but only a loan to be repaid by his more bloodthirsty brother upon demand with interest. with a businesslike caution, in ghastly contrast with the foulness of the contract, he exacted a note of hand from stoutenburg covering the whole amount of his disbursements. there might come a time, he thought, when his brother's paper would be more negotiable than it was at that moment. korenwinder found no difficulty in discounting groeneveld's bills, and the necessary capital was thus raised for the vile enterprise. van dyk, the lean and hungry conspirator, now occupied himself vigorously in engaging the assassins, while his corpulent colleague remained as treasurer of the company. two brothers blansaerts, woollen manufacturers at leyden--one of whom had been a student of theology in the remonstrant church and had occasionally preached--and a certain william party, a walloon by birth, but likewise a woollen worker at leyden, agreed to the secretary's propositions. he had at first told, them that their services would be merely required for the forcible liberation of two remonstrant clergymen, niellius and poppius, from the prison at haarlem. entertaining his new companions at dinner, however, towards the end of january, van dyk, getting very drunk, informed them that the object of the enterprise was to kill the stadholder; that arrangements had been made for effecting an immediate change in the magistracies in all the chief cities of holland so soon as the deed was done; that all the recently deposed regents would enter the hague at once, supported by a train of armed peasants from the country; and that better times for the oppressed religion, for the fatherland, and especially for everyone engaged in the great undertaking, would begin with the death of the tyrant. each man taking direct part in the assassination would receive at least guilders, besides being advanced to offices of honour and profit according to his capacity. the blansaerts assured their superior that entire reliance might be placed on their fidelity, and that they knew of three or four other men in leyden "as firm as trees and fierce as lions," whom they would engage --a fustian worker, a tailor, a chimney-sweeper, and one or two other mechanics. the looseness and utter recklessness with which this hideous conspiracy was arranged excites amazement. van dyk gave the two brothers pistoles in gold--a coin about equal to a guinea--for their immediate reward as well as for that of the comrades to be engaged. yet it seems almost certain from subsequent revelations that they were intending all the time to deceive him, to take as much money as they could get from him, "to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk," as william party expressed it, and then to turn round upon and betray him. it was a dangerous game however, which might not prove entirely successful. van dyk duly communicated with stoutenburg, who grew more and more feverish with hatred and impatience as the time for gratifying those passions drew nigh, and frequently said that he would like to tear the stadholder to pieces with his own hands. he preferred however to act as controlling director over the band of murderers now enrolled. for in addition to the leyden party, the reverend slatius, supplied with funds by van dyk, had engaged at rotterdam his brother-in-law gerritsen, a joiner, living in that city, together with three sailors named respectively dirk, john, and herman. the ex-clergyman's house was also the arsenal of the conspiracy, and here were stored away a stock of pistols, snaphances, and sledge-hammers-- together with that other death-dealing machinery, the whole edition of the 'clearshining torch', an inflammatory, pamphlet by slatius--all to be used on the fatal day fast approaching. on the st february van dyk visited slatius at rotterdam. he found gerritsen hard at work. there in a dark back kitchen, by the lurid light of the fire in a dim wintry afternoon, stood the burly slatius, with his swarthy face and heavy eyebrows, accompanied by his brother-in-law the joiner, both in workman's dress, melting lead, running bullets, drying powder, and burnishing and arranging the fire-arms and other tools to be used in the great crime now so rapidly maturing. the lean, busy, restless van dyk, with his adust and sinister visage, came peering in upon the couple thus engaged, and observed their preparations with warm approval. he recommended that in addition to dirk, john, and herman, a few more hardy seafaring men should be engaged, and slatius accordingly secured next day the services of one jerome ewouts and three other sailors. they were not informed of the exact nature of the enterprise, but were told that it was a dangerous although not a desperate one, and sure to be of great service to the fatherland. they received, as all the rest had done, between and guilders in gold, that they would all be promoted to be captains and first mates. it was agreed that all the conspirators should assemble four days later at the hague on sunday, the th february, at the inn of the "golden helmet." the next day, monday the th, had been fixed by stoutenburg for doing the deed. van dyk, who had great confidence in the eloquence of william party, the walloon wool manufacturer, had arranged that he should make a discourse to them all in a solitary place in the downs between that city and the sea-shore, taking for his theme or brief the clearshining torch of slatius. on saturday that eminent divine entertained his sister and her husband gerritsen, jerome ewouts, who was at dinner but half informed as to the scope of the great enterprise, and several other friends who were entirely ignorant of it. slatius was in high spirits, although his sister, who had at last become acquainted with the vile plot, had done nothing but weep all day long. they had better be worms, with a promise of further reward and an intimation she said, and eat dirt for their food, than crawl in so base a business. her brother comforted her with assurances that the project was sure to result in a triumph for religion and fatherland, and drank many healths at his table to the success of all engaged in it. that evening he sent off a great chest filled with arms and ammunition to the "golden helmet" at the hague under the charge of jerome ewouts and his three mates. van dyk had already written a letter to the landlord of that hostelry engaging a room there, and saying that the chest contained valuable books and documents to be used in a lawsuit, in which he was soon to be engaged, before the supreme tribunal. on the sunday this bustling conspirator had john blansaert and william party to dine with him at the "golden helmet" in the hague, and produced seven packages neatly folded, each containing gold pieces to the amount of twenty pounds sterling. these were for themselves and the others whom they had reported as engaged by them in leyden. getting drunk as usual, he began to bluster of the great political revolution impending, and after dinner examined the carbines of his guests. he asked if those weapons were to be relied upon. "we can blow a hair to pieces with them at twenty paces," they replied. "ah! would that i too could be of the party," said van dyk, seizing one of the carbines. "no, no," said john blansaert, "we can do the deed better without you than with you. you must look out for the defence." van dyk then informed them that they, with one of the rotterdam sailors, were to attack maurice as he got out of his coach at ryswyk, pin him between the stables and the coach, and then and there do him to death. "you are not to leave him," he cried, "till his soul has left his body." the two expressed their hearty concurrence with this arrangement, and took leave of their host for the night, going, they said, to distribute the seven packages of blood-money. they found adam blansaert waiting for them in the downs, and immediately divided the whole amount between themselves and him--the chimney-sweeper, tailor, and fustian worker, "firm as trees and fierce as lions," having never had any existence save in their fertile imaginations. on monday, th february, van dyk had a closing interview with stoutenburg and his brother at the house of groeneveld, and informed them that the execution of the plot had been deferred to the following day. stoutenburg expressed disgust and impatience at the delay. "i should like to tear the stadholder to pieces with my own hands!" he cried. he was pacified on hearing that the arrangements had been securely made for the morrow, and turning to his brother observed, "remember that you can never retract. you are in our power and all your estates at our mercy." he then explained the manner in which the magistracies of leyden, gouda, rotterdam, and other cities were to be instantly remodelled after the death of maurice, the ex-regents of the hague at the head of a band of armed peasants being ready at a moment's warning to take possession of the political capital. prince frederic henry moreover, he hinted darkly and falsely, but in a manner not to be mistaken, was favourable to the movement, and would after the murder of maurice take the government into his hands. stoutenburg then went quietly home to pass the day and sleep at his mother's house awaiting the eventful morning of tuesday. van dyk went back to his room at the "golden helmet" and began inspecting the contents of the arms and ammunition chest which jerome ewouts and his three mates had brought the night before from rotterdam. he had been somewhat unquiet at having seen nothing of those mariners during the day; when looking out of window, he saw one of them in conference with some soldiers. a minute afterwards he heard a bustle in the rooms below, and found that the house was occupied by a guard, and that gerritsen, with the three first engaged sailors dirk, peter, and herman, had been arrested at the zotje. he tried in vain to throw the arms back into the chest and conceal it under the bed, but it was too late. seizing his hat and wrapping himself in his cloak, with his sword by his side, he walked calmly down the stairs looking carelessly at the group of soldiers and prisoners who filled the passages. a waiter informed the provost-marshal in command that the gentleman was a respectable boarder at the tavern, well known to him for many years. the conspirator passed unchallenged and went straight to inform stoutenburg. the four mariners, last engaged by slatius at rotterdam, had signally exemplified the danger of half confidences. surprised that they should have been so mysteriously entrusted with the execution of an enterprise the particulars of which were concealed from them, and suspecting that crime alone could command such very high prices as had been paid and promised by the ex-clergyman, they had gone straight to the residence of the stadholder, after depositing the chest at the "golden helmet." finding that he had driven as usual to ryswyk, they followed him thither, and by dint of much importunity obtained an audience. if the enterprise was a patriotic one, they reasoned, he would probably know of it and approve it. if it were criminal, it would be useful for them to reveal and dangerous to conceal it. they told the story so far as they knew it to the prince and showed him the money, florins apiece, which they had already received from slatius. maurice hesitated not an instant. it was evident that a dark conspiracy was afoot. he ordered the sailors to return to the hague by another and circuitous road through voorburg, while he lost not a moment himself in hurrying back as fast as his horses would carry him. summoning the president and several councillors of the chief tribunal, he took instant measures to take possession of the two taverns, and arrest all the strangers found in them. meantime van dyk came into the house of the widow barneveld and found stoutenburg in the stable-yard. he told him the plot was discovered, the chest of arms at the "golden helmet" found. "are there any private letters or papers in the bog?" asked stoutenburg. "none relating to the affair," was the answer. "take yourself off as fast as possible," said stoutenburg. van dyk needed no urging. he escaped through the stables and across the fields in the direction of leyden. after skulking about for a week however and making very little progress, he was arrested at hazerswoude, having broken through the ice while attempting to skate across the inundated and frozen pastures in that region. proclamations were at once made, denouncing the foul conspiracy in which the sons of the late advocate barneveld, the remonstrant clergyman slatius, and others, were the ringleaders, and offering florins each for their apprehension. a public thanksgiving for the deliverance was made in all the churches on the th february. on the th february the states-general sent letters to all their ambassadors and foreign agents, informing them of this execrable plot to overthrow the commonwealth and take the life of the stadholder, set on foot by certain arminian preachers and others of that faction, and this too in winter, when the ice and snow made hostile invasion practicable, and when the enemy was encamped in so many places in the neighbourhood. "the arminians," said the despatch, "are so filled with bitterness that they would rather the republic should be lost than that their pretended grievances should go unredressed." almost every pulpit shook with contra-remonstrant thunder against the whole society of remonstrants, who were held up to the world as rebels and prince-murderers; the criminal conspiracy being charged upon them as a body. hardly a man of that persuasion dared venture into the streets and public places, for fear of being put to death by the rabble. the chevalier william of nassau, natural son of the stadholder, was very loud and violent in all the taverns and tap-rooms, drinking mighty draughts to the damnation of the arminians. many of the timid in consequence shrank away from the society and joined the contra-remonstrant church, while the more courageous members, together with the leaders of that now abhorred communion, published long and stirring appeals to the universal sense of justice, which was outraged by the spectacle of a whole sect being punished for a crime committed by a few individuals, who had once been unworthy members of it. meantime hue and cry was made after the fugitive conspirators. the blansaerts and william party having set off from leyden towards the hague on monday night, in order, as they said, to betray their employers, whose money they had taken, and whose criminal orders they had agreed to execute, attempted to escape, but were arrested within ten days. they were exhibited at their prison at amsterdam to an immense concourse at a shilling a peep, the sums thus collected being distributed to the poor. slatius made his way disguised as a boor into friesland, and after various adventures attempted to cross the bourtange moors to lingen. stopping to refresh himself at a tavern near koevorden, he found himself in the tap-room in presence of quartermaster blau and a company of soldiers from the garrison. the dark scowling boor, travel-stained and weary, with felt hat slouched over his forbidding visage, fierce and timorous at once like a hunted wild beast, excited their suspicion. seeing himself watched, he got up, paid his scot, and departed, leaving his can of beer untasted. this decided the quartermaster, who accordingly followed the peasant out of the house, and arrested him as a spanish spy on the watch for the train of specie which the soldiers were then conveying into koevorden castle. slatius protested his innocence of any such design, and vehemently besought the officer to release him, telling him as a reason for his urgency and an explanation of his unprepossessing aspect--that he was an oculist from amsterdam, john hermansen by name, that he had just committed a homicide in that place, and was fleeing from justice. the honest quartermaster saw no reason why a suspected spy should go free because he proclaimed himself a murderer, nor why an oculist should escape the penalties of homicide. "the more reason," he said, "why thou shouldst be my prisoner." the ex-preacher was arrested and shut up in the state prison at the hague. the famous engraver visser executed a likeness on copper-plate of the grim malefactor as he appeared in his boor's disguise. the portrait, accompanied by a fiercely written broadsheet attacking the remonstrant church, had a great circulation, and deepened the animosity against the sect upon which the unfrocked preacher had sworn vengeance. his evil face and fame thus became familiar to the public, while the term hendrik slaet became a proverb at pot-houses, being held equivalent among tipplers to shirking the bottle. korenwinder, the treasurer of the association, coming to visit stoutenburg soon after van dyk had left him, was informed of the discovery of the plot and did his best to escape, but was arrested within a fortnight's time. stoutenburg himself acted with his usual promptness and coolness. having gone straightway to his brother to notify him of the discovery and to urge him to instant flight, he contrived to disappear. a few days later a chest of merchandise was brought to the house of a certain citizen of rotterdam, who had once been a fiddler, but was now a man of considerable property. the chest, when opened, was found to contain the seigneur de stoutenburg, who in past times had laid the fiddler under obligations, and in whose house he now lay concealed for many days, and until the strictness with which all roads and ferries in the neighbourhood were watched at first had somewhat given way. meantime his cousin van der dussen had also effected his escape, and had joined him in rotterdam. the faithful fiddler then, for a thousand florins, chartered a trading vessel commanded by one jacob beltje to take a cargo of dutch cheese to wesel on the rhine. by this means, after a few adventures, they effected their escape, and, arriving not long afterwards at brussels, were formally taken under the protection of the archduchess isabella. stoutenburg afterwards travelled in france and italy, and returned to brussels. his wife, loathing his crime and spurning all further communication with him, abandoned him to his fate. the daughter of marnix of sainte-aldegonde had endured poverty, obscurity, and unmerited obloquy, which had become the lot of the great statesman's family after his tragic end, but she came of a race that would not brook dishonour. the conspirator and suborner of murder and treason, the hirer and companion of assassins, was no mate for her. stoutenburg hesitated for years as to his future career, strangely enough keeping up a hope of being allowed to return to his country. subsequently he embraced the cause of his country's enemies, converted himself to the roman church, and obtained a captaincy of horse in the spanish service. he was seen one day, to the disgust of many spectators, to enter antwerp in black foreign uniform, at the head of his troopers, waving a standard with a death's-head embroidered upon it, and wearing, like his soldiers, a sable scarf and plume. history disdains to follow further the career of the renegade, traitor, end assassin. when the seigneur de groeneveld learned from his younger brother, on the eventful th of february, that the plot had been discovered, he gave himself up for lost. remorse and despair, fastening upon his naturally feeble character, seemed to render him powerless. his wife, of more hopeful disposition than himself and of less heroic mould than walburg de marnix, encouraged him to fly. he fled accordingly, through the desolate sandy downs which roll between the hague and the sea, to scheveningen, then an obscure fishing village on the coast, at a league's distance from the capital. here a fisherman, devoted to him and his family, received him in his hut, disguised him in boatman's attire, and went with him to the strand, proposing to launch his pinkie, put out at once to sea, and to land him on the english coast, the french coast, in hamburg--where he would. the sight of that long, sandy beach stretching for more than seventy miles in an unbroken, melancholy line, without cove, curve, or indentation to break its cruel monotony, and with the wild waves of the german ocean, lashed by a wintry storm, breaking into white foam as far as the eye could reach, appalled the fugitive criminal. with the certainty of an ignominious death behind him, he shrank abjectly from the terrors of the sea, and, despite the honest fisherman's entreaties, refused to enter the boat and face the storm. he wandered feebly along the coast, still accompanied by his humble friend, to another little village, where the fisherman procured a waggon, which took them as far as sandvoort. thence he made his way through egmond and petten and across the marsdiep to tegel, where not deeming himself safe he had himself ferried over to the neighbouring island of vlieland. here amongst the quicksands, whirlpools, and shallows which mark the last verge of habitable holland, the unhappy fugitive stood at bay. meantime information had come to the authorities that a suspicious stranger had been seen at scheveningen. the fisherman's wife was arrested. threatened with torture she at last confessed with whom her husband had fled and whither. information was sent to the bailiff of vlieland, who with a party of followers made a strict search through his narrow precincts. a group of seamen seated on the sands was soon discovered, among whom, dressed in shaggy pea jacket with long fisherman's boots, was the seigneur de groeneveld, who, easily recognized through his disguise, submitted to his captors without a struggle. the scheveningen fisherman, who had been so faithful to him, making a sudden spring, eluded his pursuers and disappeared; thus escaping the gibbet which would probably have been his doom instead of the reward of golden guilders which he might have had for betraying him. thus a sum more than double the amount originally furnished by groeneveld, as the capital of the assassination company, had been rejected by the rotterdam boatman who saved stoutenburg, and by the scheveningen fisherman who was ready to save groeneveld. on the th february, within less than a fortnight from the explosion of the conspiracy, the eldest son of barneveld was lodged in the gevangen poort or state prison of the hague. the awful news of the th february had struck the widow of barneveld as with a thunderbolt. both her sons were proclaimed as murderers and suborners of assassins, and a price put upon their heads. she remained for days neither speaking nor weeping; scarcely eating, drinking, or sleeping. she seemed frozen to stone. her daughters and friends could not tell whether she were dying or had lost her reason. at length the escape of stoutenburg and the capture of groeneveld seemed to rouse her from her trance. she then stooped to do what she had sternly refused to do when her husband was in the hands of the authorities. accompanied by the wife and infant son of groeneveld she obtained an audience of the stern stadholder, fell on her knees before him, and implored mercy and pardon for her son. maurice received her calmly and not discourteously, but held out no hopes of pardon. the criminal was in the hands of justice, he said, and he had no power to interfere. but there can scarcely be a doubt that he had power after the sentence to forgive or to commute, and it will be remembered that when barneveld himself was about to suffer, the prince had asked the clergyman walaeus with much anxiety whether the prisoner in his message had said nothing of pardon. referring to the bitter past, maurice asked madame de barneveld why she not asked mercy for her son, having refused to do so for her husband. her answer was simple and noble: "my husband was innocent of crime," she said; "my son is guilty." the idea of pardon in this case was of course preposterous. certainly if groeneveld had been forgiven, it would have been impossible to punish the thirteen less guilty conspirators, already in the hands of justice, whom he had hired to commit the assassination. the spectacle of the two cowardly ringleaders going free while the meaner criminals were gibbeted would have been a shock to the most rudimentary ideas of justice. it would have been an equal outrage to pardon the younger barnevelds for intended murder, in which they had almost succeeded, when their great father had already suffered for a constructive lese-majesty, the guilt of which had been stoutly denied. yet such is the dreary chain of cause and effect that it is certain, had pardon been nobly offered to the statesman, whose views of constitutional law varied from those of the dominant party, the later crime would never have been committed. but francis aerssens--considering his own and other partisans lives at stake if the states' right party did not fall--had been able to bear down all thoughts of mercy. he was successful, was called to the house of nobles, and regained the embassy of paris, while the house of barneveld was trodden into the dust of dishonour and ruin. rarely has an offended politician's revenge been more thorough than his. never did the mocking fiend betray his victims into the hands of the avenger more sardonically than was done in this sombre tragedy. the trials of the prisoners were rapidly conducted. van dyk, cruelly tortured, confessed on the rack all the details of the conspiracy as they were afterwards embodied in the sentences and have been stated in the preceding narrative. groeneveld was not tortured. his answers to the interrogatories were so vague as to excite amazement at his general ignorance of the foul transaction or at the feebleness of his memory, while there was no attempt on his part to exculpate himself from the damning charge. that it was he who had furnished funds for the proposed murder and mutiny, knowing the purpose to which they were to be applied, was proved beyond all cavil and fully avowed by him. on the th may, he, korenwinder, and van dyk were notified that they were to appear next day in the courthouse to hear their sentence, which would immediately afterwards be executed. that night his mother, wife, and son paid him a long visit of farewell in his prison. the gevangen poort of the hague, an antique but mean building of brown brick and commonplace aspect, still stands in one of the most public parts of the city. a gloomy archway, surmounted by windows grimly guarded by iron lattice-work, forms the general thoroughfare from the aristocratic plaats and kneuterdyk and vyverberg to the inner court of the ancient palace. the cells within are dark, noisome, and dimly lighted, and even to this day the very instruments of torture, used in the trials of these and other prisoners, may be seen by the curious. half a century later the brothers de witt were dragged from this prison to be literally torn to pieces by an infuriated mob. the misery of that midnight interview between the widow of barneveld, her daughter-in-law, and the condemned son and husband need not be described. as the morning approached, the gaoler warned the matrons to take their departure that the prisoner might sleep. "what a woful widow you will be," said groeneveld to his wife, as she sank choking with tears upon the ground. the words suddenly aroused in her the sense of respect for their name. "at least for all this misery endured," she said firmly, "do me enough honour to die like a gentleman." he promised it. the mother then took leave of the son, and history drops a decorous veil henceforth over the grief-stricken form of mary of barneveld. next morning the life-guards of the stadholder and other troops were drawn up in battle-array in the outer and inner courtyard of the supreme tribunal and palace. at ten o'clock groeneveld came forth from the prison. the stadholder had granted as a boon to the family that he might be neither fettered nor guarded as he walked to the tribunal. the prisoner did not forget his parting promise to his wife. he appeared full-dressed in velvet cloak and plumed hat, with rapier by his side, walking calmly through the inner courtyard to the great hall. observing the windows of the stadholder's apartments crowded with spectators, among whom he seemed to recognize the prince's face, he took off his hat and made a graceful and dignified salute. he greeted with courtesy many acquaintances among the crowd through which he passed. he entered the hall and listened in silence to the sentence condemning him to be immediately executed with the sword. van dyk and korenwinder shared the same doom, but were provisionally taken back to prison. groeneveld then walked calmly and gracefully as before from the hall to the scaffold, attended by his own valet, and preceded by the provost- marshal and assistants. he was to suffer, not where his father had been beheaded, but on the "green sod." this public place of execution for ordinary criminals was singularly enough in the most elegant and frequented quarter of the hague. a few rods from the gevangen poort, at the western end of the vyverberg, on the edge of the cheerful triangle called the plaats, and looking directly down the broad and stately kneuterdyk, at the end of which stood aremberg house, lately the residence of the great advocate, was the mean and sordid scaffold. groeneveld ascended it with perfect composure. the man who had been browbeaten into crime by an overbearing and ferocious brother, who had quailed before the angry waves of the north sea, which would have borne him to a place of entire security, now faced his fate with a smile upon his lips. he took off his hat, cloak, and sword, and handed them to his valet. he calmly undid his ruff and wristbands of pointlace, and tossed them on the ground. with his own hands and the assistance of his servant he unbuttoned his doublet, laying breast and neck open without suffering the headsman's hands to approach him. he then walked to the heap of sand and spoke a very few words to the vast throng of spectators. "desire of vengeance and evil counsel," he said, "have brought me here. if i have wronged any man among you, i beg him for christ's sake to forgive me." kneeling on the sand with his face turned towards his father's house at the end of the kneuterdyk, he said his prayers. then putting a red velvet cap over his eyes, he was heard to mutter: "o god! what a man i was once, and what am i now?" calmly folding his hands, he said, "patience." the executioner then struck off his head at a blow. his body, wrapped in a black cloak, was sent to his house and buried in his father's tomb. van dyk and korenwinder were executed immediately afterwards. they were quartered and their heads exposed on stakes. the joiner gerritsen and the three sailors had already been beheaded. the blansaerts and william party, together with the grim slatius, who was savage and turbulent to the last, had suffered on the th of may. fourteen in all were executed for this crime, including an unfortunate tailor and two other mechanics of leyden, who had heard something whispered about the conspiracy, had nothing whatever to do with it, but from ignorance, apathy, or timidity did not denounce it. the ringleader and the equally guilty van der dussen had, as has been seen, effected their escape. thus ended the long tragedy of the barnevelds. the result of this foul conspiracy and its failure to effect the crime proposed strengthened immensely the power, popularity, and influence of the stadholder, made the orthodox church triumphant, and nearly ruined the sect of the remonstrants, the arminians--most unjustly in reality, although with a pitiful show of reason--being held guilty of the crime of stoutenburg and slatius. the republic--that magnificent commonwealth which in its infancy had confronted, single-handed, the greatest empire of the earth, and had wrested its independence from the ancient despot after a forty years' struggle--had now been rent in twain, although in very unequal portions, by the fiend of political and religious hatred. thus crippled, she was to go forth and take her share in that awful conflict now in full blaze, and of which after-ages were to speak with a shudder as the thirty years' war. etext editor's bookmarks: argument in a circle he that stands let him see that he does not fall if he has deserved it, let them strike off his head misery had come not from their being enemies o god! what does man come to! party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive this, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the state to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk this ebook was produced by david widger, widger@cecomet.net the works of frederick schiller translated from the german illustrated preface to the sixth edition. the present is the best collected edition of the important works of schiller which is accessible to readers in the english language. detached poems or dramas have been translated at various times since the first publication of the original works; and in several instances these versions have been incorporated into this collection. schiller was not less efficiently qualified by nature for an historian than for a dramatist. he was formed to excel in all departments of literature, and the admirable lucidity of style and soundness and impartiality of judgment displayed in his historical writings will not easily be surpassed, and will always recommend them as popular expositions of the periods of which they treat. since the publication of the first english edition many corrections and improvements have been made, with a view to rendering it as acceptable as possible to english readers; and, notwithstanding the disadvantages of a translation, the publishers feel sure that schiller will be heartily acceptable to english readers, and that the influence of his writings will continue to increase. the history of the revolt of the netherlands was translated by lieut. e. b. eastwick, and originally published abroad for students' use. but this translation was too strictly literal for general readers. it has been carefully revised, and some portions have been entirely rewritten by the rev. a. j. w. morrison, who also has so ably translated the history of the thirty years war. the camp of wallenstein was translated by mr. james churchill, and first appeared in "frazer's magazine." it is an exceedingly happy version of what has always been deemed the most untranslatable of schiller's works. the piccolomini and death of wallenstein are the admirable version of s. t. coleridge, completed by the addition of all those passages which he has omitted, and by a restoration of schiller's own arrangement of the acts and scenes. it is said, in defence of the variations which exist between the german original and the version given by coleridge, that he translated from a prompter's copy in manuscript, before the drama had been printed, and that schiller himself subsequently altered it, by omitting some passages, adding others, and even engrafting several of coleridge's adaptations. wilhelm tell is translated by theodore martin, esq., whose well-known position as a writer, and whose special acquaintance with german literature make any recommendation superfluous. don carlos is translated by r. d. boylan, esq., and, in the opinion of competent judges, the version is eminently successful. mr. theodore martin kindly gave some assistance, and, it is but justice to state, has enhanced the value of the work by his judicious suggestions. the translation of mary stuart is that by the late joseph mellish, who appears to have been on terms of intimate friendship with schiller. his version was made from the prompter's copy, before the play was published, and, like coleridge's wallenstein, contains many passages not found in the printed edition. these are distinguished by brackets. on the other hand, mr. mellish omitted many passages which now form part of the printed drama, all of which are now added. the translation, as a whole, stands out from similar works of the time ( ) in almost as marked a degree as coleridge's wallenstein, and some passages exhibit powers of a high order; a few, however, especially in the earlier scenes, seemed capable of improvement, and these have been revised, but, in deference to the translator, with a sparing hand. the maid of orleans is contributed by miss anna swanwick, whose translation of faust has since become well known. it has been. carefully revised, and is now, for the first time, published complete. the bride of messina, which has been regarded as the poetical masterpiece of schiller, and, perhaps of all his works, presents the greatest difficulties to the translator, is rendered by a. lodge, esq., m. a. this version, on its first publication in england, a few years ago, was received with deserved eulogy by distinguished critics. to the present edition has been prefixed schiller's essay on the use of the chorus in tragedy, in which the author's favorite theory of the "ideal of art" is enforced with great ingenuity and eloquence. contents: book i. introduction.--general effects of the reformation.--revolt of matthias. --the emperor cedes austria and hungary to him.--matthias acknowledged king of bohemia.--the elector of cologne abjures the catholic religion. --consequences.--the elector palatine.--dispute respecting the succession of juliers.--designs of henry iv. of france.--formation of the union.--the league.--death of the emperor rodolph.--matthias succeeds him.--troubles in bohemia.--civil war.--ferdinand extirpates the protestant religion from styria.--the elector palatine, frederick v., is chosen king by the bohemians.--he accepts the crown of bohemia.-- bethlen gabor, prince of transylvania, invades austria.--the duke of bavaria and the princes of the league embrace the cause of ferdinand.-- the union arm for frederick.--the battle of prague and total subjection of bohemia. book ii. state of the empire.--of europe.--mansfeld.--christian, duke of brunswick.--wallenstein raises an imperial army at his own expense. --the king of denmark defeated.--death of mansfeld.--edict of restitution in .--diet at ratisbon.--negociations.--wallenstein deprived of the command.--gustavus adolphus.--swedish army.--gustavus adolphus takes his leave of the states at stockholm.--invasion by the swedes.--their progress in germany.--count tilly takes the command of the imperial troops.--treaty with france.--congress at leipzig.--siege and cruel fate of magdeburg.--firmness of the landgrave of cassel.-- junction of the saxons with the swedes.--battle of leipzig.-- consequences of that victory. book iii. situation of gustavus adolphus after the battle of leipzig.--progress of gustavus adolphus.--the french invade lorraine.--frankfort taken.-- capitulation of mentz.--tilly ordered by maximilian to protect bavaria. --gustavus adolphus passes the lech.--defeat and death of tilly.-- gustavus takes munich.--the saxon army invades bohemia, and takes prague.--distress of the emperor.--secret triumph of wallenstein.-- he offers to join gustavus adolphus.--wallenstein re-assumes the command.--junction of wallenstein with the bavarians.--gustavus adolphus defends nuremberg.--attacks wallenstein's intrenchments.--enters saxony.--goes to the succour of the elector of saxony.--marches against wallenstein.--battle of lutzen.--death of gustavus adolphus.--situation of germany after the battle of lutzen. book iv. closer alliance between france and sweden.--oxenstiern takes the direction of affairs.--death of the elector palatine.--revolt of the swedish officers.--duke bernhard takes ratisbon.--wallenstein enters silesia.--forms treasonable designs.--forsaken by the army.--retires to egra.--his associates put to death.--wallenstein's death.--his character. book v. battle of nordlingen.--france enters into an alliance against austria.-- treaty of prague.--saxony joins the emperor.--battle of wistock gained by the swedes.--battle of rheinfeld gained by bernhard, duke of weimar. --he takes brisach.--his death.--death of ferdinand ii.--ferdinand iii. succeeds him.--celebrated retreat of banner in pomerania.--his successes.--death.--torstensohn takes the command.--death of richelieu and louis xiii.--swedish victory at jankowitz.--french defeated at freyburg.--battle of nordlingen gained by turenne and conde.--wrangel takes the command of the swedish army.--melander made commander of the emperor's army.--the elector of bavaria breaks the armistice.--he adopts the same policy towards the emperor as france towards the swedes.--the weimerian cavalry go over to the swedes.--conquest of new prague by koenigsmark, and termination of the thirty years' war. history of the thirty years' war in germany. book i. from the beginning of the religious wars in germany, to the peace of munster, scarcely any thing great or remarkable occurred in the political world of europe in which the reformation had not an important share. all the events of this period, if they did not originate in, soon became mixed up with, the question of religion, and no state was either too great or too little to feel directly or indirectly more or less of its influence. against the reformed doctrine and its adherents, the house of austria directed, almost exclusively, the whole of its immense political power. in france, the reformation had enkindled a civil war which, under four stormy reigns, shook the kingdom to its foundations, brought foreign armies into the heart of the country, and for half a century rendered it the scene of the most mournful disorders. it was the reformation, too, that rendered the spanish yoke intolerable to the flemings, and awakened in them both the desire and the courage to throw off its fetters, while it also principally furnished them with the means of their emancipation. and as to england, all the evils with which philip the second threatened elizabeth, were mainly intended in revenge for her having taken his protestant subjects under her protection, and placing herself at the head of a religious party which it was his aim and endeavour to extirpate. in germany, the schisms in the church produced also a lasting political schism, which made that country for more than a century the theatre of confusion, but at the same time threw up a firm barrier against political oppression. it was, too, the reformation principally that first drew the northern powers, denmark and sweden, into the political system of europe; and while on the one hand the protestant league was strengthened by their adhesion, it on the other was indispensable to their interests. states which hitherto scarcely concerned themselves with one another's existence, acquired through the reformation an attractive centre of interest, and began to be united by new political sympathies. and as through its influence new relations sprang up between citizen and citizen, and between rulers and subjects, so also entire states were forced by it into new relative positions. thus, by a strange course of events, religious disputes were the means of cementing a closer union among the nations of europe. fearful indeed, and destructive, was the first movement in which this general political sympathy announced itself; a desolating war of thirty years, which, from the interior of bohemia to the mouth of the scheldt, and from the banks of the po to the coasts of the baltic, devastated whole countries, destroyed harvests, and reduced towns and villages to ashes; which opened a grave for many thousand combatants, and for half a century smothered the glimmering sparks of civilization in germany, and threw back the improving manners of the country into their pristine barbarity and wildness. yet out of this fearful war europe came forth free and independent. in it she first learned to recognize herself as a community of nations; and this intercommunion of states, which originated in the thirty years' war, may alone be sufficient to reconcile the philosopher to its horrors. the hand of industry has slowly but gradually effaced the traces of its ravages, while its beneficent influence still survives; and this general sympathy among the states of europe, which grew out of the troubles in bohemia, is our guarantee for the continuance of that peace which was the result of the war. as the sparks of destruction found their way from the interior of bohemia, moravia, and austria, to kindle germany, france, and the half of europe, so also will the torch of civilization make a path for itself from the latter to enlighten the former countries. all this was effected by religion. religion alone could have rendered possible all that was accomplished, but it was far from being the sole motive of the war. had not private advantages and state interests been closely connected with it, vain and powerless would have been the arguments of theologians; and the cry of the people would never have met with princes so willing to espouse their cause, nor the new doctrines have found such numerous, brave, and persevering champions. the reformation is undoubtedly owing in a great measure to the invincible power of truth, or of opinions which were held as such. the abuses in the old church, the absurdity of many of its dogmas, the extravagance of its requisitions, necessarily revolted the tempers of men, already half-won with the promise of a better light, and favourably disposed them towards the new doctrines. the charm of independence, the rich plunder of monastic institutions, made the reformation attractive in the eyes of princes, and tended not a little to strengthen their inward convictions. nothing, however, but political considerations could have driven them to espouse it. had not charles the fifth, in the intoxication of success, made an attempt on the independence of the german states, a protestant league would scarcely have rushed to arms in defence of freedom of belief; but for the ambition of the guises, the calvinists in france would never have beheld a conde or a coligny at their head. without the exaction of the tenth and the twentieth penny, the see of rome had never lost the united netherlands. princes fought in self-defence or for aggrandizement, while religious enthusiasm recruited their armies, and opened to them the treasures of their subjects. of the multitude who flocked to their standards, such as were not lured by the hope of plunder imagined they were fighting for the truth, while in fact they were shedding their blood for the personal objects of their princes. and well was it for the people that, on this occasion, their interests coincided with those of their princes. to this coincidence alone were they indebted for their deliverance from popery. well was it also for the rulers, that the subject contended too for his own cause, while he was fighting their battles. fortunately at this date no european sovereign was so absolute as to be able, in the pursuit of his political designs, to dispense with the goodwill of his subjects. yet how difficult was it to gain and to set to work this goodwill! the most impressive arguments drawn from reasons of state fall powerless on the ear of the subject, who seldom understands, and still more rarely is interested in them. in such circumstances, the only course open to a prudent prince is to connect the interests of the cabinet with some one that sits nearer to the people's heart, if such exists, or if not, to create it. in such a position stood the greater part of those princes who embraced the cause of the reformation. by a strange concatenation of events, the divisions of the church were associated with two circumstances, without which, in all probability, they would have had a very different conclusion. these were, the increasing power of the house of austria, which threatened the liberties of europe, and its active zeal for the old religion. the first aroused the princes, while the second armed the people. the abolition of a foreign jurisdiction within their own territories, the supremacy in ecclesiastical matters, the stopping of the treasure which had so long flowed to rome, the rich plunder of religious foundations, were tempting advantages to every sovereign. why, then, it may be asked, did they not operate with equal force upon the princes of the house of austria? what prevented this house, particularly in its german branch, from yielding to the pressing demands of so many of its subjects, and, after the example of other princes, enriching itself at the expense of a defenceless clergy? it is difficult to credit that a belief in the infallibility of the romish church had any greater influence on the pious adherence of this house, than the opposite conviction had on the revolt of the protestant princes. in fact, several circumstances combined to make the austrian princes zealous supporters of popery. spain and italy, from which austria derived its principal strength, were still devoted to the see of rome with that blind obedience which, ever since the days of the gothic dynasty, had been the peculiar characteristic of the spaniard. the slightest approximation, in a spanish prince, to the obnoxious tenets of luther and calvin, would have alienated for ever the affections of his subjects, and a defection from the pope would have cost him the kingdom. a spanish prince had no alternative but orthodoxy or abdication. the same restraint was imposed upon austria by her italian dominions, which she was obliged to treat, if possible, with even greater indulgence; impatient as they naturally were of a foreign yoke, and possessing also ready means of shaking it off. in regard to the latter provinces, moreover, the rival pretensions of france, and the neighbourhood of the pope, were motives sufficient to prevent the emperor from declaring in favour of a party which strove to annihilate the papal see, and also to induce him to show the most active zeal in behalf of the old religion. these general considerations, which must have been equally weighty with every spanish monarch, were, in the particular case of charles v., still further enforced by peculiar and personal motives. in italy this monarch had a formidable rival in the king of france, under whose protection that country might throw itself the instant that charles should incur the slightest suspicion of heresy. distrust on the part of the roman catholics, and a rupture with the church, would have been fatal also to many of his most cherished designs. moreover, when charles was first called upon to make his election between the two parties, the new doctrine had not yet attained to a full and commanding influence, and there still subsisted a prospect of its reconciliation with the old. in his son and successor, philip the second, a monastic education combined with a gloomy and despotic disposition to generate an unmitigated hostility to all innovations in religion; a feeling which the thought that his most formidable political opponents were also the enemies of his faith was not calculated to weaken. as his european possessions, scattered as they were over so many countries, were on all sides exposed to the seductions of foreign opinions, the progress of the reformation in other quarters could not well be a matter of indifference to him. his immediate interests, therefore, urged him to attach himself devotedly to the old church, in order to close up the sources of the heretical contagion. thus, circumstances naturally placed this prince at the head of the league which the roman catholics formed against the reformers. the principles which had actuated the long and active reigns of charles v. and philip the second, remained a law for their successors; and the more the breach in the church widened, the firmer became the attachment of the spaniards to roman catholicism. the german line of the house of austria was apparently more unfettered; but, in reality, though free from many of these restraints, it was yet confined by others. the possession of the imperial throne--a dignity it was impossible for a protestant to hold, (for with what consistency could an apostate from the romish church wear the crown of a roman emperor?) bound the successors of ferdinand i. to the see of rome. ferdinand himself was, from conscientious motives, heartily attached to it. besides, the german princes of the house of austria were not powerful enough to dispense with the support of spain, which, however, they would have forfeited by the least show of leaning towards the new doctrines. the imperial dignity, also, required them to preserve the existing political system of germany, with which the maintenance of their own authority was closely bound up, but which it was the aim of the protestant league to destroy. if to these grounds we add the indifference of the protestants to the emperor's necessities and to the common dangers of the empire, their encroachments on the temporalities of the church, and their aggressive violence when they became conscious of their own power, we can easily conceive how so many concurring motives must have determined the emperors to the side of popery, and how their own interests came to be intimately interwoven with those of the roman church. as its fate seemed to depend altogether on the part taken by austria, the princes of this house came to be regarded by all europe as the pillars of popery. the hatred, therefore, which the protestants bore against the latter, was turned exclusively upon austria; and the cause became gradually confounded with its protector. but this irreconcileable enemy of the reformation--the house of austria --by its ambitious projects and the overwhelming force which it could bring to their support, endangered, in no small degree, the freedom of europe, and more especially of the german states. this circumstance could not fail to rouse the latter from their security, and to render them vigilant in self-defence. their ordinary resources were quite insufficient to resist so formidable a power. extraordinary exertions were required from their subjects; and when even these proved far from adequate, they had recourse to foreign assistance; and, by means of a common league, they endeavoured to oppose a power which, singly, they were unable to withstand. but the strong political inducements which the german princes had to resist the pretensions of the house of austria, naturally did not extend to their subjects. it is only immediate advantages or immediate evils that set the people in action, and for these a sound policy cannot wait. ill then would it have fared with these princes, if by good fortune another effectual motive had not offered itself, which roused the passions of the people, and kindled in them an enthusiasm which might be directed against the political danger, as having with it a common cause of alarm. this motive was their avowed hatred of the religion which austria protected, and their enthusiastic attachment to a doctrine which that house was endeavouring to extirpate by fire and sword. their attachment was ardent, their hatred invincible. religious fanaticism anticipates even the remotest dangers. enthusiasm never calculates its sacrifices. what the most pressing danger of the state could not gain from the citizens, was effected by religious zeal. for the state, or for the prince, few would have drawn the sword; but for religion, the merchant, the artist, the peasant, all cheerfully flew to arms. for the state, or for the prince, even the smallest additional impost would have been avoided; but for religion the people readily staked at once life, fortune, and all earthly hopes. it trebled the contributions which flowed into the exchequer of the princes, and the armies which marched to the field; and, in the ardent excitement produced in all minds by the peril to which their faith was exposed, the subject felt not the pressure of those burdens and privations under which, in cooler moments, he would have sunk exhausted. the terrors of the spanish inquisition, and the massacre of st. bartholomew's, procured for the prince of orange, the admiral coligny, the british queen elizabeth, and the protestant princes of germany, supplies of men and money from their subjects, to a degree which at present is inconceivable. but, with all their exertions, they would have effected little against a power which was an overmatch for any single adversary, however powerful. at this period of imperfect policy, accidental circumstances alone could determine distant states to afford one another a mutual support. the differences of government, of laws, of language, of manners, and of character, which hitherto had kept whole nations and countries as it were insulated, and raised a lasting barrier between them, rendered one state insensible to the distresses of another, save where national jealousy could indulge a malicious joy at the reverses of a rival. this barrier the reformation destroyed. an interest more intense and more immediate than national aggrandizement or patriotism, and entirely independent of private utility, began to animate whole states and individual citizens; an interest capable of uniting numerous and distant nations, even while it frequently lost its force among the subjects of the same government. with the inhabitants of geneva, for instance, of england, of germany, or of holland, the french calvinist possessed a common point of union which he had not with his own countrymen. thus, in one important particular, he ceased to be the citizen of a single state, and to confine his views and sympathies to his own country alone. the sphere of his views became enlarged. he began to calculate his own fate from that of other nations of the same religious profession, and to make their cause his own. now for the first time did princes venture to bring the affairs of other countries before their own councils; for the first time could they hope for a willing ear to their own necessities, and prompt assistance from others. foreign affairs had now become a matter of domestic policy, and that aid was readily granted to the religious confederate which would have been denied to the mere neighbour, and still more to the distant stranger. the inhabitant of the palatinate leaves his native fields to fight side by side with his religious associate of france, against the common enemy of their faith. the huguenot draws his sword against the country which persecutes him, and sheds his blood in defence of the liberties of holland. swiss is arrayed against swiss; german against german, to determine, on the banks of the loire and the seine, the succession of the french crown. the dane crosses the eider, and the swede the baltic, to break the chains which are forged for germany. it is difficult to say what would have been the fate of the reformation, and the liberties of the empire, had not the formidable power of austria declared against them. this, however, appears certain, that nothing so completely damped the austrian hopes of universal monarchy, as the obstinate war which they had to wage against the new religious opinions. under no other circumstances could the weaker princes have roused their subjects to such extraordinary exertions against the ambition of austria, or the states themselves have united so closely against the common enemy. the power of austria never stood higher than after the victory which charles v. gained over the germans at muehlberg. with the treaty of smalcalde the freedom of germany lay, as it seemed, prostrate for ever; but it revived under maurice of saxony, once its most formidable enemy. all the fruits of the victory of muehlberg were lost again in the congress of passau, and the diet of augsburg; and every scheme for civil and religious oppression terminated in the concessions of an equitable peace. the diet of augsburg divided germany into two religious and two political parties, by recognizing the independent rights and existence of both. hitherto the protestants had been looked on as rebels; they were henceforth to be regarded as brethren--not indeed through affection, but necessity. by the interim, the confession of augsburg was allowed temporarily to take a sisterly place alongside of the olden religion, though only as a tolerated neighbour. [a system of theology so called, prepared by order of the emperor charles v. for the use of germany, to reconcile the differences between the roman catholics and the lutherans, which, however, was rejected by both parties--ed.] to every secular state was conceded the right of establishing the religion it acknowledged as supreme and exclusive within its own territories, and of forbidding the open profession of its rival. subjects were to be free to quit a country where their own religion was not tolerated. the doctrines of luther for the first time received a positive sanction; and if they were trampled under foot in bavaria and austria, they predominated in saxony and thuringia. but the sovereigns alone were to determine what form of religion should prevail within their territories; the feelings of subjects who had no representatives in the diet were little attended to in the pacification. in the ecclesiastical territories, indeed, where the unreformed religion enjoyed an undisputed supremacy, the free exercise of their religion was obtained for all who had previously embraced the protestant doctrines; but this indulgence rested only on the personal guarantee of ferdinand, king of the romans, by whose endeavours chiefly this peace was effected; a guarantee, which, being rejected by the roman catholic members of the diet, and only inserted in the treaty under their protest, could not of course have the force of law. if it had been opinions only that thus divided the minds of men, with what indifference would all have regarded the division! but on these opinions depended riches, dignities, and rights; and it was this which so deeply aggravated the evils of division. of two brothers, as it were, who had hitherto enjoyed a paternal inheritance in common, one now remained, while the other was compelled to leave his father's house, and hence arose the necessity of dividing the patrimony. for this separation, which he could not have foreseen, the father had made no provision. by the beneficent donations of pious ancestors the riches of the church had been accumulating through a thousand years, and these benefactors were as much the progenitors of the departing brother as of him who remained. was the right of inheritance then to be limited to the paternal house, or to be extended to blood? the gifts had been made to the church in communion with rome, because at that time no other existed,--to the first-born, as it were, because he was as yet the only son. was then a right of primogeniture to be admitted in the church, as in noble families? were the pretensions of one party to be favoured by a prescription from times when the claims of the other could not have come into existence? could the lutherans be justly excluded from these possessions, to which the benevolence of their forefathers had contributed, merely on the ground that, at the date of their foundation, the differences between lutheranism and romanism were unknown? both parties have disputed, and still dispute, with equal plausibility, on these points. both alike have found it difficult to prove their right. law can be applied only to conceivable cases, and perhaps spiritual foundations are not among the number of these, and still less where the conditions of the founders generally extended to a system of doctrines; for how is it conceivable that a permanent endowment should be made of opinions left open to change? what law cannot decide, is usually determined by might, and such was the case here. the one party held firmly all that could no longer be wrested from it--the other defended what it still possessed. all the bishoprics and abbeys which had been secularized before the peace, remained with the protestants; but, by an express clause, the unreformed catholics provided that none should thereafter be secularized. every impropriator of an ecclesiastical foundation, who held immediately of the empire, whether elector, bishop, or abbot, forfeited his benefice and dignity the moment he embraced the protestant belief; he was obliged in that event instantly to resign its emoluments, and the chapter was to proceed to a new election, exactly as if his place had been vacated by death. by this sacred anchor of the ecclesiastical reservation, (`reservatum ecclesiasticum',) which makes the temporal existence of a spiritual prince entirely dependent on his fidelity to the olden religion, the roman catholic church in germany is still held fast; and precarious, indeed, would be its situation were this anchor to give way. the principle of the ecclesiastical reservation was strongly opposed by the protestants; and though it was at last adopted into the treaty of peace, its insertion was qualified with the declaration, that parties had come to no final determination on the point. could it then be more binding on the protestants than ferdinand's guarantee in favour of protestant subjects of ecclesiastical states was upon the roman catholics? thus were two important subjects of dispute left unsettled in the treaty of peace, and by them the war was rekindled. such was the position of things with regard to religious toleration and ecclesiastical property: it was the same with regard to rights and dignities. the existing german system provided only for one church, because one only was in existence when that system was framed. the church had now divided; the diet had broken into two religious parties; was the whole system of the empire still exclusively to follow the one? the emperors had hitherto been members of the romish church, because till now that religion had no rival. but was it his connexion with rome which constituted a german emperor, or was it not rather germany which was to be represented in its head? the protestants were now spread over the whole empire, and how could they justly still be represented by an unbroken line of roman catholic emperors? in the imperial chamber the german states judge themselves, for they elect the judges; it was the very end of its institution that they should do so, in order that equal justice should be dispensed to all; but would this be still possible, if the representatives of both professions were not equally admissible to a seat in the chamber? that one religion only existed in germany at the time of its establishment, was accidental; that no one estate should have the means of legally oppressing another, was the essential purpose of the institution. now this object would be entirely frustrated if one religious party were to have the exclusive power of deciding for the other. must, then, the design be sacrificed, because that which was merely accidental had changed? with great difficulty the protestants, at last, obtained for the representatives of their religion a place in the supreme council, but still there was far from being a perfect equality of voices. to this day no protestant prince has been raised to the imperial throne. whatever may be said of the equality which the peace of augsburg was to have established between the two german churches, the roman catholic had unquestionably still the advantage. all that the lutheran church gained by it was toleration; all that the romish church conceded, was a sacrifice to necessity, not an offering to justice. very far was it from being a peace between two equal powers, but a truce between a sovereign and unconquered rebels. from this principle all the proceedings of the roman catholics against the protestants seemed to flow, and still continue to do so. to join the reformed faith was still a crime, since it was to be visited with so severe a penalty as that which the ecclesiastical reservation held suspended over the apostacy of the spiritual princes. even to the last, the romish church preferred to risk to loss of every thing by force, than voluntarily to yield the smallest matter to justice. the loss was accidental and might be repaired; but the abandonment of its pretensions, the concession of a single point to the protestants, would shake the foundations of the church itself. even in the treaty of peace this principle was not lost sight of. whatever in this peace was yielded to the protestants was always under condition. it was expressly declared, that affairs were to remain on the stipulated footing only till the next general council, which was to be called with the view of effecting an union between the two confessions. then only, when this last attempt should have failed, was the religious treaty to become valid and conclusive. however little hope there might be of such a reconciliation, however little perhaps the romanists themselves were in earnest with it, still it was something to have clogged the peace with these stipulations. thus this religious treaty, which was to extinguish for ever the flames of civil war, was, in fact, but a temporary truce, extorted by force and necessity; not dictated by justice, nor emanating from just notions either of religion or toleration. a religious treaty of this kind the roman catholics were as incapable of granting, to be candid, as in truth the lutherans were unqualified to receive. far from evincing a tolerant spirit towards the roman catholics, when it was in their power, they even oppressed the calvinists; who indeed just as little deserved toleration, since they were unwilling to practise it. for such a peace the times were not yet ripe--the minds of men not yet sufficiently enlightened. how could one party expect from another what itself was incapable of performing? what each side saved or gained by the treaty of augsburg, it owed to the imposing attitude of strength which it maintained at the time of its negociation. what was won by force was to be maintained also by force; if the peace was to be permanent, the two parties to it must preserve the same relative positions. the boundaries of the two churches had been marked out with the sword; with the sword they must be preserved, or woe to that party which should be first disarmed! a sad and fearful prospect for the tranquillity of germany, when peace itself bore so threatening an aspect. a momentary lull now pervaded the empire; a transitory bond of concord appeared to unite its scattered limbs into one body, so that for a time a feeling also for the common weal returned. but the division had penetrated its inmost being, and to restore its original harmony was impossible. carefully as the treaty of peace appeared to have defined the rights of both parties, its interpretation was nevertheless the subject of many disputes. in the heat of conflict it had produced a cessation of hostilities; it covered, not extinguished, the fire, and unsatisfied claims remained on either side. the romanists imagined they had lost too much, the protestants that they had gained too little; and the treaty which neither party could venture to violate, was interpreted by each in its own favour. the seizure of the ecclesiastical benefices, the motive which had so strongly tempted the majority of the protestant princes to embrace the doctrines of luther, was not less powerful after than before the peace; of those whose founders had not held their fiefs immediately of the empire, such as were not already in their possession would it was evident soon be so. the whole of lower germany was already secularized; and if it were otherwise in upper germany, it was owing to the vehement resistance of the catholics, who had there the preponderance. each party, where it was the most powerful, oppressed the adherents of the other; the ecclesiastical princes in particular, as the most defenceless members of the empire, were incessantly tormented by the ambition of their protestant neighbours. those who were too weak to repel force by force, took refuge under the wings of justice; and the complaints of spoliation were heaped up against the protestants in the imperial chamber, which was ready enough to pursue the accused with judgments, but found too little support to carry them into effect. the peace which stipulated for complete religious toleration for the dignitaries of the empire, had provided also for the subject, by enabling him, without interruption, to leave the country in which the exercise of his religion was prohibited. but from the wrongs which the violence of a sovereign might inflict on an obnoxious subject; from the nameless oppressions by which he might harass and annoy the emigrant; from the artful snares in which subtilty combined with power might enmesh him--from these, the dead letter of the treaty could afford him no protection. the catholic subject of protestant princes complained loudly of violations of the religious peace--the lutherans still more loudly of the oppression they experienced under their romanist suzerains. the rancour and animosities of theologians infused a poison into every occurrence, however inconsiderable, and inflamed the minds of the people. happy would it have been had this theological hatred exhausted its zeal upon the common enemy, instead of venting its virus on the adherents of a kindred faith! unanimity amongst the protestants might, by preserving the balance between the contending parties, have prolonged the peace; but as if to complete the confusion, all concord was quickly broken. the doctrines which had been propagated by zuingli in zurich, and by calvin in geneva, soon spread to germany, and divided the protestants among themselves, with little in unison save their common hatred to popery. the protestants of this date bore but slight resemblance to those who, fifty years before, drew up the confession of augsburg; and the cause of the change is to be sought in that confession itself. it had prescribed a positive boundary to the protestant faith, before the newly awakened spirit of inquiry had satisfied itself as to the limits it ought to set; and the protestants seemed unwittingly to have thrown away much of the advantage acquired by their rejection of popery. common complaints of the romish hierarchy, and of ecclesiastical abuses, and a common disapprobation of its dogmas, formed a sufficient centre of union for the protestants; but not content with this, they sought a rallying point in the promulgation of a new and positive creed, in which they sought to embody the distinctions, the privileges, and the essence of the church, and to this they referred the convention entered into with their opponents. it was as professors of this creed that they had acceded to the treaty; and in the benefits of this peace the advocates of the confession were alone entitled to participate. in any case, therefore, the situation of its adherents was embarrassing. if a blind obedience were yielded to the dicta of the confession, a lasting bound would be set to the spirit of inquiry; if, on the other hand, they dissented from the formulae agreed upon, the point of union would be lost. unfortunately both incidents occurred, and the evil results of both were quickly felt. one party rigorously adhered to the original symbol of faith, and the other abandoned it, only to adopt another with equal exclusiveness. nothing could have furnished the common enemy a more plausible defence of his cause than this dissension; no spectacle could have been more gratifying to him than the rancour with which the protestants alternately persecuted each other. who could condemn the roman catholics, if they laughed at the audacity with which the reformers had presumed to announce the only true belief?--if from protestants they borrowed the weapons against protestants?--if, in the midst of this clashing of opinions, they held fast to the authority of their own church, for which, in part, there spoke an honourable antiquity, and a yet more honourable plurality of voices. but this division placed the protestants in still more serious embarrassments. as the covenants of the treaty applied only to the partisans of the confession, their opponents, with some reason, called upon them to explain who were to be recognized as the adherents of that creed. the lutherans could not, without offending conscience, include the calvinists in their communion, except at the risk of converting a useful friend into a dangerous enemy, could they exclude them. this unfortunate difference opened a way for the machinations of the jesuits to sow distrust between both parties, and to destroy the unity of their measures. fettered by the double fear of their direct adversaries, and of their opponents among themselves, the protestants lost for ever the opportunity of placing their church on a perfect equality with the catholic. all these difficulties would have been avoided, and the defection of the calvinists would not have prejudiced the common cause, if the point of union had been placed simply in the abandonment of romanism, instead of in the confession of augsburg. but however divided on other points, they concurred in this--that the security which had resulted from equality of power could only be maintained by the preservation of that balance. in the meanwhile, the continual reforms of one party, and the opposing measures of the other, kept both upon the watch, while the interpretation of the religious treaty was a never-ending subject of dispute. each party maintained that every step taken by its opponent was an infraction of the peace, while of every movement of its own it was asserted that it was essential to its maintenance. yet all the measures of the catholics did not, as their opponents alleged, proceed from a spirit of encroachment--many of them were the necessary precautions of self-defence. the protestants had shown unequivocally enough what the romanists might expect if they were unfortunate enough to become the weaker party. the greediness of the former for the property of the church, gave no reason to expect indulgence;--their bitter hatred left no hope of magnanimity or forbearance. but the protestants, likewise, were excusable if they too placed little confidence in the sincerity of the roman catholics. by the treacherous and inhuman treatment which their brethren in spain, france, and the netherlands, had suffered; by the disgraceful subterfuge of the romish princes, who held that the pope had power to relieve them from the obligation of the most solemn oaths; and above all, by the detestable maxim, that faith was not to be kept with heretics, the roman church, in the eyes of all honest men, had lost its honour. no engagement, no oath, however sacred, from a roman catholic, could satisfy a protestant. what security then could the religious peace afford, when, throughout germany, the jesuits represented it as a measure of mere temporary convenience, and in rome itself it was solemnly repudiated. the general council, to which reference had been made in the treaty, had already been held in the city of trent; but, as might have been foreseen, without accommodating the religious differences, or taking a single step to effect such accommodation, and even without being attended by the protestants. the latter, indeed, were now solemnly excommunicated by it in the name of the church, whose representative the council gave itself out to be. could, then, a secular treaty, extorted moreover by force of arms, afford them adequate protection against the ban of the church; a treaty, too, based on a condition which the decision of the council seemed entirely to abolish? there was then a show of right for violating the peace, if only the romanists possessed the power; and henceforward the protestants were protected by nothing but the respect for their formidable array. other circumstances combined to augment this distrust. spain, on whose support the romanists in germany chiefly relied, was engaged in a bloody conflict with the flemings. by it, the flower of the spanish troops were drawn to the confines of germany. with what ease might they be introduced within the empire, if a decisive stroke should render their presence necessary? germany was at that time a magazine of war for nearly all the powers of europe. the religious war had crowded it with soldiers, whom the peace left destitute; its many independent princes found it easy to assemble armies, and afterwards, for the sake of gain, or the interests of party, hire them out to other powers. with german troops, philip the second waged war against the netherlands, and with german troops they defended themselves. every such levy in germany was a subject of alarm to the one party or the other, since it might be intended for their oppression. the arrival of an ambassador, an extraordinary legate of the pope, a conference of princes, every unusual incident, must, it was thought, be pregnant with destruction to some party. thus, for nearly half a century, stood germany, her hand upon the sword; every rustle of a leaf alarmed her. ferdinand the first, king of hungary, and his excellent son, maximilian the second, held at this memorable epoch the reins of government. with a heart full of sincerity, with a truly heroic patience, had ferdinand brought about the religious peace of augsburg, and afterwards, in the council of trent, laboured assiduously, though vainly, at the ungrateful task of reconciling the two religions. abandoned by his nephew, philip of spain, and hard pressed both in hungary and transylvania by the victorious armies of the turks, it was not likely that this emperor would entertain the idea of violating the religious peace, and thereby destroying his own painful work. the heavy expenses of the perpetually recurring war with turkey could not be defrayed by the meagre contributions of his exhausted hereditary dominions. he stood, therefore, in need of the assistance of the whole empire; and the religious peace alone preserved in one body the otherwise divided empire. financial necessities made the protestant as needful to him as the romanist, and imposed upon him the obligation of treating both parties with equal justice, which, amidst so many contradictory claims, was truly a colossal task. very far, however, was the result from answering his expectations. his indulgence of the protestants served only to bring upon his successors a war, which death saved himself the mortification of witnessing. scarcely more fortunate was his son maximilian, with whom perhaps the pressure of circumstances was the only obstacle, and a longer life perhaps the only want, to his establishing the new religion upon the imperial throne. necessity had taught the father forbearance towards the protestants--necessity and justice dictated the same course to the son. the grandson had reason to repent that he neither listened to justice, nor yielded to necessity. maximilian left six sons, of whom the eldest, the archduke rodolph, inherited his dominions, and ascended the imperial throne. the other brothers were put off with petty appanages. a few mesne fiefs were held by a collateral branch, which had their uncle, charles of styria, at its head; and even these were afterwards, under his son, ferdinand the second, incorporated with the rest of the family dominions. with this exception, the whole of the imposing power of austria was now wielded by a single, but unfortunately weak hand. rodolph the second was not devoid of those virtues which might have gained him the esteem of mankind, had the lot of a private station fallen to him. his character was mild, he loved peace and the sciences, particularly astronomy, natural history, chemistry, and the study of antiquities. to these he applied with a passionate zeal, which, at the very time when the critical posture of affairs demanded all his attention, and his exhausted finances the most rigid economy, diverted his attention from state affairs, and involved him in pernicious expenses. his taste for astronomy soon lost itself in those astrological reveries to which timid and melancholy temperaments like his are but too disposed. this, together with a youth passed in spain, opened his ears to the evil counsels of the jesuits, and the influence of the spanish court, by which at last he was wholly governed. ruled by tastes so little in accordance with the dignity of his station, and alarmed by ridiculous prophecies, he withdrew, after the spanish custom, from the eyes of his subjects, to bury himself amidst his gems and antiques, or to make experiments in his laboratory, while the most fatal discords loosened all the bands of the empire, and the flames of rebellion began to burst out at the very footsteps of his throne. all access to his person was denied, the most urgent matters were neglected. the prospect of the rich inheritance of spain was closed against him, while he was trying to make up his mind to offer his hand to the infanta isabella. a fearful anarchy threatened the empire, for though without an heir of his own body, he could not be persuaded to allow the election of a king of the romans. the austrian states renounced their allegiance, hungary and transylvania threw off his supremacy, and bohemia was not slow in following their example. the descendant of the once so formidable charles the fifth was in perpetual danger, either of losing one part of his possessions to the turks, or another to the protestants, and of sinking, beyond redemption, under the formidable coalition which a great monarch of europe had formed against him. the events which now took place in the interior of germany were such as usually happened when either the throne was without an emperor, or the emperor without a sense of his imperial dignity. outraged or abandoned by their head, the states of the empire were left to help themselves; and alliances among themselves must supply the defective authority of the emperor. germany was divided into two leagues, which stood in arms arrayed against each other: between both, rodolph, the despised opponent of the one, and the impotent protector of the other, remained irresolute and useless, equally unable to destroy the former or to command the latter. what had the empire to look for from a prince incapable even of defending his hereditary dominions against its domestic enemies? to prevent the utter ruin of the house of austria, his own family combined against him; and a powerful party threw itself into the arms of his brother. driven from his hereditary dominions, nothing was now left him to lose but the imperial dignity; and he was only spared this last disgrace by a timely death. at this critical moment, when only a supple policy, united with a vigorous arm, could have maintained the tranquillity of the empire, its evil genius gave it a rodolph for emperor. at a more peaceful period the germanic union would have managed its own interests, and rodolph, like so many others of his rank, might have hidden his deficiencies in a mysterious obscurity. but the urgent demand for the qualities in which he was most deficient revealed his incapacity. the position of germany called for an emperor who, by his known energies, could give weight to his resolves; and the hereditary dominions of rodolph, considerable as they were, were at present in a situation to occasion the greatest embarrassment to the governors. the austrian princes, it is true were roman catholics, and in addition to that, the supporters of popery, but their countries were far from being so. the reformed opinions had penetrated even these, and favoured by ferdinand's necessities and maximilian's mildness, had met with a rapid success. the austrian provinces exhibited in miniature what germany did on a larger scale. the great nobles and the ritter class or knights were chiefly evangelical, and in the cities the protestants had a decided preponderance. if they succeeded in bringing a few of their party into the country, they contrived imperceptibly to fill all places of trust and the magistracy with their own adherents, and to exclude the catholics. against the numerous order of the nobles and knights, and the deputies from the towns, the voice of a few prelates was powerless; and the unseemly ridicule and offensive contempt of the former soon drove them entirely from the provincial diets. thus the whole of the austrian diet had imperceptibly become protestant, and the reformation was making rapid strides towards its public recognition. the prince was dependent on the estates, who had it in their power to grant or refuse supplies. accordingly, they availed themselves of the financial necessities of ferdinand and his son to extort one religious concession after another. to the nobles and knights, maximilian at last conceded the free exercise of their religion, but only within their own territories and castles. the intemperate enthusiasm of the protestant preachers overstepped the boundaries which prudence had prescribed. in defiance of the express prohibition, several of them ventured to preach publicly, not only in the towns, but in vienna itself, and the people flocked in crowds to this new doctrine, the best seasoning of which was personality and abuse. thus continued food was supplied to fanaticism, and the hatred of two churches, that were such near neighbours, was farther envenomed by the sting of an impure zeal. among the hereditary dominions of the house of austria, hungary and transylvania were the most unstable, and the most difficult to retain. the impossibility of holding these two countries against the neighbouring and overwhelming power of the turks, had already driven ferdinand to the inglorious expedient of recognizing, by an annual tribute, the porte's supremacy over transylvania; a shameful confession of weakness, and a still more dangerous temptation to the turbulent nobility, when they fancied they had any reason to complain of their master. not without conditions had the hungarians submitted to the house of austria. they asserted the elective freedom of their crown, and boldly contended for all those prerogatives of their order which are inseparable from this freedom of election. the near neighbourhood of turkey, the facility of changing masters with impunity, encouraged the magnates still more in their presumption; discontented with the austrian government they threw themselves into the arms of the turks; dissatisfied with these, they returned again to their german sovereigns. the frequency and rapidity of these transitions from one government to another, had communicated its influences also to their mode of thinking; and as their country wavered between the turkish and austrian rule, so their minds vacillated between revolt and submission. the more unfortunate each nation felt itself in being degraded into a province of a foreign kingdom, the stronger desire did they feel to obey a monarch chosen from amongst themselves, and thus it was always easy for an enterprising noble to obtain their support. the nearest turkish pasha was always ready to bestow the hungarian sceptre and crown on a rebel against austria; just as ready was austria to confirm to any adventurer the possession of provinces which he had wrested from the porte, satisfied with preserving thereby the shadow of authority, and with erecting at the same time a barrier against the turks. in this way several of these magnates, batbori, boschkai, ragoczi, and bethlen succeeded in establishing themselves, one after another, as tributary sovereigns in transylvania and hungary; and they maintained their ground by no deeper policy than that of occasionally joining the enemy, in order to render themselves more formidable to their own prince. ferdinand, maximilian, and rodolph, who were all sovereigns of hungary and transylvania, exhausted their other territories in endeavouring to defend these from the hostile inroads of the turks, and to put down intestine rebellion. in this quarter destructive wars were succeeded but by brief truces, which were scarcely less hurtful: far and wide the land lay waste, while the injured serf had to complain equally of his enemy and his protector. into these countries also the reformation had penetrated; and protected by the freedom of the states, and under the cover of the internal disorders, had made a noticeable progress. here too it was incautiously attacked, and party spirit thus became yet more dangerous from religious enthusiasm. headed by a bold rebel, boschkai, the nobles of hungary and transylvania raised the standard of rebellion. the hungarian insurgents were upon the point of making common cause with the discontented protestants in austria, moravia, and bohemia, and uniting all those countries in one fearful revolt. the downfall of popery in these lands would then have been inevitable. long had the austrian archdukes, the brothers of the emperor, beheld with silent indignation the impending ruin of their house; this last event hastened their decision. the archduke matthias, maximilian's second son, viceroy in hungary, and rodolph's presumptive heir, now came forward as the stay of the falling house of hapsburg. in his youth, misled by a false ambition, this prince, disregarding the interests of his family, had listened to the overtures of the flemish insurgents, who invited him into the netherlands to conduct the defence of their liberties against the oppression of his own relative, philip the second. mistaking the voice of an insulated faction for that of the entire nation, matthias obeyed the call. but the event answered the expectations of the men of brabant as little as his own, and from this imprudent enterprise he retired with little credit. far more honourable was his second appearance in the political world. perceiving that his repeated remonstrances with the emperor were unavailing, he assembled the archdukes, his brothers and cousins, at presburg, and consulted with them on the growing perils of their house, when they unanimously assigned to him, as the oldest, the duty of defending that patrimony which a feeble brother was endangering. in his hands they placed all their powers and rights, and vested him with sovereign authority, to act at his discretion for the common good. matthias immediately opened a communication with the porte and the hungarian rebels, and through his skilful management succeeded in saving, by a peace with the turks, the remainder of hungary, and by a treaty with the rebels, preserved the claims of austria to the lost provinces. but rodolph, as jealous as he had hitherto been careless of his sovereign authority, refused to ratify this treaty, which he regarded as a criminal encroachment on his sovereign rights. he accused the archduke of keeping up a secret understanding with the enemy, and of cherishing treasonable designs on the crown of hungary. the activity of matthias was, in truth, anything but disinterested; the conduct of the emperor only accelerated the execution of his ambitious views. secure, from motives of gratitude, of the devotion of the hungarians, for whom he had so lately obtained the blessings of peace; assured by his agents of the favourable disposition of the nobles, and certain of the support of a large party, even in austria, he now ventured to assume a bolder attitude, and, sword in hand, to discuss his grievances with the emperor. the protestants in austria and moravia, long ripe for revolt, and now won over to the archduke by his promises of toleration, loudly and openly espoused his cause, and their long-menaced alliance with the hungarian rebels was actually effected. almost at once a formidable conspiracy was planned and matured against the emperor. too late did he resolve to amend his past errors; in vain did he attempt to break up this fatal alliance. already the whole empire was in arms; hungary, austria, and moravia had done homage to matthias, who was already on his march to bohemia to seize the emperor in his palace, and to cut at once the sinews of his power. bohemia was not a more peaceable possession for austria than hungary; with this difference only, that, in the latter, political considerations, in the former, religious dissensions, fomented disorders. in bohemia, a century before the days of luther, the first spark of the religious war had been kindled; a century after luther, the first flames of the thirty years' war burst out in bohemia. the sect which owed its rise to john huss, still existed in that country;--it agreed with the romish church in ceremonies and doctrines, with the single exception of the administration of the communion, in which the hussites communicated in both kinds. this privilege had been conceded to the followers of huss by the council of basle, in an express treaty, (the bohemian compact); and though it was afterwards disavowed by the popes, they nevertheless continued to profit by it under the sanction of the government. as the use of the cup formed the only important distinction of their body, they were usually designated by the name of utraquists; and they readily adopted an appellation which reminded them of their dearly valued privilege. but under this title lurked also the far stricter sects of the bohemian and moravian brethren, who differed from the predominant church in more important particulars, and bore, in fact, a great resemblance to the german protestants. among them both, the german and swiss opinions on religion made rapid progress; while the name of utraquists, under which they managed to disguise the change of their principles, shielded them from persecution. in truth, they had nothing in common with the utraquists but the name; essentially, they were altogether protestant. confident in the strength of their party, and the emperor's toleration under maximilian, they had openly avowed their tenets. after the example of the germans, they drew up a confession of their own, in which lutherans as well as calvinists recognized their own doctrines, and they sought to transfer to the new confession the privileges of the original utraquists. in this they were opposed by their roman catholic countrymen, and forced to rest content with the emperor's verbal assurance of protection. as long as maximilian lived, they enjoyed complete toleration, even under the new form they had taken. under his successor the scene changed. an imperial edict appeared, which deprived the bohemian brethren of their religious freedom. now these differed in nothing from the other utraquists. the sentence, therefore, of their condemnation, obviously included all the partisans of the bohemian confession. accordingly, they all combined to oppose the imperial mandate in the diet, but without being able to procure its revocation. the emperor and the roman catholic estates took their ground on the compact and the bohemian constitution; in which nothing appeared in favour of a religion which had not then obtained the voice of the country. since that time, how completely had affairs changed! what then formed but an inconsiderable opinion, had now become the predominant religion of the country. and what was it then, but a subterfuge to limit a newly spreading religion by the terms of obsolete treaties? the bohemian protestants appealed to the verbal guarantee of maximilian, and the religious freedom of the germans, with whom they argued they ought to be on a footing of equality. it was in vain--their appeal was dismissed. such was the posture of affairs in bohemia, when matthias, already master of hungary, austria, and moravia, appeared in kolin, to raise the bohemian estates also against the emperor. the embarrassment of the latter was now at its height. abandoned by all his other subjects, he placed his last hopes on the bohemians, who, it might be foreseen, would take advantage of his necessities to enforce their own demands. after an interval of many years, he once more appeared publicly in the diet at prague; and to convince the people that he was really still in existence, orders were given that all the windows should be opened in the streets through which he was to pass--proof enough how far things had gone with him. the event justified his fears. the estates, conscious of their own power, refused to take a single step until their privileges were confirmed, and religious toleration fully assured to them. it was in vain to have recourse now to the old system of evasion. the emperor's fate was in their hands, and he must yield to necessity. at present, however, he only granted their other demands--religious matters he reserved for consideration at the next diet. the bohemians now took up arms in defence of the emperor, and a bloody war between the two brothers was on the point of breaking out. but rodolph, who feared nothing so much as remaining in this slavish dependence on the estates, waited not for a warlike issue, but hastened to effect a reconciliation with his brother by more peaceable means. by a formal act of abdication he resigned to matthias, what indeed he had no chance of wresting from him, austria and the kingdom of hungary, and acknowledged him as his successor to the crown of bohemia. dearly enough had the emperor extricated himself from one difficulty, only to get immediately involved in another. the settlement of the religious affairs of bohemia had been referred to the next diet, which was held in . the reformed bohemians demanded the free exercise of their faith, as under the former emperors; a consistory of their own; the cession of the university of prague; and the right of electing `defenders', or `protectors' of `liberty', from their own body. the answer was the same as before; for the timid emperor was now entirely fettered by the unreformed party. however often, and in however threatening language the estates renewed their remonstrances, the emperor persisted in his first declaration of granting nothing beyond the old compact. the diet broke up without coming to a decision; and the estates, exasperated against the emperor, arranged a general meeting at prague, upon their own authority, to right themselves. they appeared at prague in great force. in defiance of the imperial prohibition, they carried on their deliberations almost under the very eyes of the emperor. the yielding compliance which he began to show, only proved how much they were feared, and increased their audacity. yet on the main point he remained inflexible. they fulfilled their threats, and at last resolved to establish, by their own power, the free and universal exercise of their religion, and to abandon the emperor to his necessities until he should confirm this resolution. they even went farther, and elected for themselves the defenders which the emperor had refused them. ten were nominated by each of the three estates; they also determined to raise, as soon as possible, an armed force, at the head of which count thurn, the chief organizer of the revolt, should be placed as general defender of the liberties of bohemia. their determination brought the emperor to submission, to which he was now counselled even by the spaniards. apprehensive lest the exasperated estates should throw themselves into the arms of the king of hungary, he signed the memorable letter of majesty for bohemia, by which, under the successors of the emperor, that people justified their rebellion. the bohemian confession, which the states had laid before the emperor maximilian, was, by the letter of majesty, placed on a footing of equality with the olden profession. the utraquists, for by this title the bohemian protestants continued to designate themselves, were put in possession of the university of prague, and allowed a consistory of their own, entirely independent of the archiepiscopal see of that city. all the churches in the cities, villages, and market towns, which they held at the date of the letter, were secured to them; and if in addition they wished to erect others, it was permitted to the nobles, and knights, and the free cities to do so. this last clause in the letter of majesty gave rise to the unfortunate disputes which subsequently rekindled the flames of war in europe. the letter of majesty erected the protestant part of bohemia into a kind of republic. the estates had learned to feel the power which they gained by perseverance, unity, and harmony in their measures. the emperor now retained little more than the shadow of his sovereign authority; while by the new dignity of the so-called defenders of liberty, a dangerous stimulus was given to the spirit of revolt. the example and success of bohemia afforded a tempting seduction to the other hereditary dominions of austria, and all attempted by similar means to extort similar privileges. the spirit of liberty spread from one province to another; and as it was chiefly the disunion among the austrian princes that had enabled the protestants so materially to improve their advantages, they now hastened to effect a reconciliation between the emperor and the king of hungary. but the reconciliation could not be sincere. the wrong was too great to be forgiven, and rodolph continued to nourish at heart an unextinguishable hatred of matthias. with grief and indignation he brooded over the thought, that the bohemian sceptre was finally to descend into the hands of his enemy; and the prospect was not more consoling, even if matthias should die without issue. in that case, ferdinand, archduke of graetz, whom he equally disliked, was the head of the family. to exclude the latter as well as matthias from the succession to the throne of bohemia, he fell upon the project of diverting that inheritance to ferdinand's brother, the archduke leopold, bishop of passau, who among all his relatives had ever been the dearest and most deserving. the prejudices of the bohemians in favour of the elective freedom of their crown, and their attachment to leopold's person, seemed to favour this scheme, in which rodolph consulted rather his own partiality and vindictiveness than the good of his house. but to carry out this project, a military force was requisite, and rodolph actually assembled an army in the bishopric of passau. the object of this force was hidden from all. an inroad, however, which, for want of pay it made suddenly and without the emperor's knowledge into bohemia, and the outrages which it there committed, stirred up the whole kingdom against him. in vain he asserted his innocence to the bohemian estates; they would not believe his protestations; vainly did he attempt to restrain the violence of his soldiery; they disregarded his orders. persuaded that the emperor's object was to annul the letter of majesty, the protectors of liberty armed the whole of protestant bohemia, and invited matthias into the country. after the dispersion of the force he had collected at passau, the emperor remained helpless at prague, where he was kept shut up like a prisoner in his palace, and separated from all his councillors. in the meantime, matthias entered prague amidst universal rejoicings, where rodolph was soon afterwards weak enough to acknowledge him king of bohemia. so hard a fate befell this emperor; he was compelled, during his life, to abdicate in favour of his enemy that very throne, of which he had been endeavouring to deprive him after his own death. to complete his degradation, he was obliged, by a personal act of renunciation, to release his subjects in bohemia, silesia, and lusatia from their allegiance, and he did it with a broken heart. all, even those he thought he had most attached to his person, had abandoned him. when he had signed the instrument, he threw his hat upon the ground, and gnawed the pen which had rendered so shameful a service. while rodolph thus lost one hereditary dominion after another, the imperial dignity was not much better maintained by him. each of the religious parties into which germany was divided, continued its efforts to advance itself at the expense of the other, or to guard against its attacks. the weaker the hand that held the sceptre, and the more the protestants and roman catholics felt they were left to themselves, the more vigilant necessarily became their watchfulness, and the greater their distrust of each other. it was enough that the emperor was ruled by jesuits, and was guided by spanish counsels, to excite the apprehension of the protestants, and to afford a pretext for hostility. the rash zeal of the jesuits, which in the pulpit and by the press disputed the validity of the religious peace, increased this distrust, and caused their adversaries to see a dangerous design in the most indifferent measures of the roman catholics. every step taken in the hereditary dominions of the emperor, for the repression of the reformed religion, was sure to draw the attention of all the protestants of germany; and this powerful support which the reformed subjects of austria met, or expected to meet with from their religious confederates in the rest of germany, was no small cause of their confidence, and of the rapid success of matthias. it was the general belief of the empire, that they owed the long enjoyment of the religious peace merely to the difficulties in which the emperor was placed by the internal troubles in his dominions, and consequently they were in no haste to relieve him from them. almost all the affairs of the diet were neglected, either through the procrastination of the emperor, or through the fault of the protestant estates, who had determined to make no provision for the common wants of the empire till their own grievances were removed. these grievances related principally to the misgovernment of the emperor; the violation of the religious treaty, and the presumptuous usurpations of the aulic council, which in the present reign had begun to extend its jurisdiction at the expense of the imperial chamber. formerly, in all disputes between the estates, which could not be settled by club law, the emperors had in the last resort decided of themselves, if the case were trifling, and in conjunction with the princes, if it were important; or they determined them by the advice of imperial judges who followed the court. this superior jurisdiction they had, in the end of the fifteenth century, assigned to a regular and permanent tribunal, the imperial chamber of spires, in which the estates of the empire, that they might not be oppressed by the arbitrary appointment of the emperor, had reserved to themselves the right of electing the assessors, and of periodically reviewing its decrees. by the religious peace, these rights of the estates, (called the rights of presentation and visitation,) were extended also to the lutherans, so that protestant judges had a voice in protestant causes, and a seeming equality obtained for both religions in this supreme tribunal. but the enemies of the reformation and of the freedom of the estates, vigilant to take advantage of every incident that favoured their views, soon found means to neutralize the beneficial effects of this institution. a supreme jurisdiction over the imperial states was gradually and skilfully usurped by a private imperial tribunal, the aulic council in vienna, a court at first intended merely to advise the emperor in the exercise of his undoubted, imperial, and personal prerogatives; a court, whose members being appointed and paid by him, had no law but the interest of their master, and no standard of equity but the advancement of the unreformed religion of which they were partisans. before the aulic council were now brought several suits originating between estates differing in religion, and which, therefore, properly belonged to the imperial chamber. it was not surprising if the decrees of this tribunal bore traces of their origin; if the interests of the roman church and of the emperor were preferred to justice by roman catholic judges, and the creatures of the emperor. although all the estates of germany seemed to have equal cause for resisting so perilous an abuse, the protestants alone, who most sensibly felt it, and even these not all at once and in a body, came forward as the defenders of german liberty, which the establishment of so arbitrary a tribunal had outraged in its most sacred point, the administration of justice. in fact, germany would have had little cause to congratulate itself upon the abolition of club-law, and in the institution of the imperial chamber, if an arbitrary tribunal of the emperor was allowed to interfere with the latter. the estates of the german empire would indeed have improved little upon the days of barbarism, if the chamber of justice in which they sat along with the emperor as judges, and for which they had abandoned their original princely prerogative, should cease to be a court of the last resort. but the strangest contradictions were at this date to be found in the minds of men. the name of emperor, a remnant of roman despotism, was still associated with an idea of autocracy, which, though it formed a ridiculous inconsistency with the privileges of the estates, was nevertheless argued for by jurists, diffused by the partisans of despotism, and believed by the ignorant. to these general grievances was gradually added a chain of singular incidents, which at length converted the anxiety of the protestants into utter distrust. during the spanish persecutions in the netherlands, several protestant families had taken refuge in aix-la-chapelle, an imperial city, and attached to the roman catholic faith, where they settled and insensibly extended their adherents. having succeeded by stratagem in introducing some of their members into the municipal council, they demanded a church and the public exercise of their worship, and the demand being unfavourably received, they succeeded by violence in enforcing it, and also in usurping the entire government of the city. to see so important a city in protestant hands was too heavy a blow for the emperor and the roman catholics. after all the emperor's requests and commands for the restoration of the olden government had proved ineffectual, the aulic council proclaimed the city under the ban of the empire, which, however, was not put in force till the following reign. of yet greater importance were two other attempts of the protestants to extend their influence and their power. the elector gebhard, of cologne, (born truchsess--[grand-master of the kitchen.]--of waldburg,) conceived for the young countess agnes, of mansfield, canoness of gerresheim, a passion which was not unreturned. as the eyes of all germany were directed to this intercourse, the brothers of the countess, two zealous calvinists, demanded satisfaction for the injured honour of their house, which, as long as the elector remained a roman catholic prelate, could not be repaired by marriage. they threatened the elector they would wash out this stain in his blood and their sister's, unless he either abandoned all further connexion with the countess, or consented to re-establish her reputation at the altar. the elector, indifferent to all the consequences of this step, listened to nothing but the voice of love. whether it was in consequence of his previous inclination to the reformed doctrines, or that the charms of his mistress alone effected this wonder, he renounced the roman catholic faith, and led the beautiful agnes to the altar. this event was of the greatest importance. by the letter of the clause reserving the ecclesiastical states from the general operation of the religious peace, the elector had, by his apostacy, forfeited all right to the temporalities of his bishopric; and if, in any case, it was important for the catholics to enforce the clause, it was so especially in the case of electorates. on the other hand, the relinquishment of so high a dignity was a severe sacrifice, and peculiarly so in the case of a tender husband, who had wished to enhance the value of his heart and hand by the gift of a principality. moreover, the reservatum ecclesiasticum was a disputed article of the treaty of augsburg; and all the german protestants were aware of the extreme importance of wresting this fourth electorate from the opponents of their faith.--[saxony, brandenburg, and the palatinate were already protestant.]--the example had already been set in several of the ecclesiastical benefices of lower germany, and attended with success. several canons of cologne had also already embraced the protestant confession, and were on the elector's side, while, in the city itself, he could depend upon the support of a numerous protestant party. all these considerations, greatly strengthened by the persuasions of his friends and relations, and the promises of several german courts, determined the elector to retain his dominions, while he changed his religion. but it was soon apparent that he had entered upon a contest which he could not carry through. even the free toleration of the protestant service within the territories of cologne, had already occasioned a violent opposition on the part of the canons and roman catholic `estates' of that province. the intervention of the emperor, and a papal ban from rome, which anathematized the elector as an apostate, and deprived him of all his dignities, temporal and spiritual, armed his own subjects and chapter against him. the elector assembled a military force; the chapter did the same. to ensure also the aid of a strong arm, they proceeded forthwith to a new election, and chose the bishop of liege, a prince of bavaria. a civil war now commenced, which, from the strong interest which both religious parties in germany necessarily felt in the conjuncture, was likely to terminate in a general breaking up of the religious peace. what most made the protestants indignant, was that the pope should have presumed, by a pretended apostolic power, to deprive a prince of the empire of his imperial dignities. even in the golden days of their spiritual domination, this prerogative of the pope had been disputed; how much more likely was it to be questioned at a period when his authority was entirely disowned by one party, while even with the other it rested on a tottering foundation. all the protestant princes took up the affair warmly against the emperor; and henry iv. of france, then king of navarre, left no means of negotiation untried to urge the german princes to the vigorous assertion of their rights. the issue would decide for ever the liberties of germany. four protestant against three roman catholic voices in the electoral college must at once have given the preponderance to the former, and for ever excluded the house of austria from the imperial throne. but the elector gebhard had embraced the calvinist, not the lutheran religion; and this circumstance alone was his ruin. the mutual rancour of these two churches would not permit the lutheran estates to regard the elector as one of their party, and as such to lend him their effectual support. all indeed had encouraged, and promised him assistance; but only one appanaged prince of the palatine house, the palsgrave john casimir, a zealous calvinist, kept his word. despite of the imperial prohibition, he hastened with his little army into the territories of cologne; but without being able to effect any thing, because the elector, who was destitute even of the first necessaries, left him totally without help. so much the more rapid was the progress of the newly-chosen elector, whom his bavarian relations and the spaniards from the netherlands supported with the utmost vigour. the troops of gebhard, left by their master without pay, abandoned one place after another to the enemy; by whom others were compelled to surrender. in his westphalian territories, gebhard held out for some time longer, till here, too, he was at last obliged to yield to superior force. after several vain attempts in holland and england to obtain means for his restoration, he retired into the chapter of strasburg, and died dean of that cathedral; the first sacrifice to the ecclesiastical reservation, or rather to the want of harmony among the german protestants. to this dispute in cologne was soon added another in strasburg. several protestant canons of cologne, who had been included in the same papal ban with the elector, had taken refuge within this bishopric, where they likewise held prebends. as the roman catholic canons of strasburg hesitated to allow them, as being under the ban, the enjoyment of their prebends, they took violent possession of their benefices, and the support of a powerful protestant party among the citizens soon gave them the preponderance in the chapter. the other canons thereupon retired to alsace-saverne, where, under the protection of the bishop, they established themselves as the only lawful chapter, and denounced that which remained in strasburg as illegal. the latter, in the meantime, had so strengthened themselves by the reception of several protestant colleagues of high rank, that they could venture, upon the death of the bishop, to nominate a new protestant bishop in the person of john george of brandenburg. the roman catholic canons, far from allowing this election, nominated the bishop of metz, a prince of lorraine, to that dignity, who announced his promotion by immediately commencing hostilities against the territories of strasburg. that city now took up arms in defence of its protestant chapter and the prince of brandenburg, while the other party, with the assistance of the troops of lorraine, endeavoured to possess themselves of the temporalities of the chapter. a tedious war was the consequence, which, according to the spirit of the times, was attended with barbarous devastations. in vain did the emperor interpose with his supreme authority to terminate the dispute; the ecclesiastical property remained for a long time divided between the two parties, till at last the protestant prince, for a moderate pecuniary equivalent, renounced his claims; and thus, in this dispute also, the roman church came off victorious. an occurrence which, soon after the adjustment of this dispute, took place in donauwerth, a free city of suabia, was still more critical for the whole of protestant germany. in this once roman catholic city, the protestants, during the reigns of ferdinand and his son, had, in the usual way, become so completely predominant, that the roman catholics were obliged to content themselves with a church in the monastery of the holy cross, and for fear of offending the protestants, were even forced to suppress the greater part of their religious rites. at length a fanatical abbot of this monastery ventured to defy the popular prejudices, and to arrange a public procession, preceded by the cross and banners flying; but he was soon compelled to desist from the attempt. when, a year afterwards, encouraged by a favourable imperial proclamation, the same abbot attempted to renew this procession, the citizens proceeded to open violence. the inhabitants shut the gates against the monks on their return, trampled their colours under foot, and followed them home with clamour and abuse. an imperial citation was the consequence of this act of violence; and as the exasperated populace even threatened to assault the imperial commissaries, and all attempts at an amicable adjustment were frustrated by the fanaticism of the multitude, the city was at last formally placed under the ban of the empire, the execution of which was intrusted to maximilian, duke of bavaria. the citizens, formerly so insolent, were seized with terror at the approach of the bavarian army; pusillanimity now possessed them, though once so full of defiance, and they laid down their arms without striking a blow. the total abolition of the protestant religion within the walls of the city was the punishment of their rebellion; it was deprived of its privileges, and, from a free city of suabia, converted into a municipal town of bavaria. two circumstances connected with this proceeding must have strongly excited the attention of the protestants, even if the interests of religion had been less powerful on their minds. first of all, the sentence had been pronounced by the aulic council, an arbitrary and exclusively roman catholic tribunal, whose jurisdiction besides had been so warmly disputed by them; and secondly, its execution had been intrusted to the duke of bavaria, the head of another circle. these unconstitutional steps seemed to be the harbingers of further violent measures on the roman catholic side, the result, probably, of secret conferences and dangerous designs, which might perhaps end in the entire subversion of their religious liberty. in circumstances where the law of force prevails, and security depends upon power alone, the weakest party is naturally the most busy to place itself in a posture of defence. this was now the case in germany. if the roman catholics really meditated any evil against the protestants in germany, the probability was that the blow would fall on the south rather than the north, because, in lower germany, the protestants were connected together through a long unbroken tract of country, and could therefore easily combine for their mutual support; while those in the south, detached from each other, and surrounded on all sides by roman catholic states, were exposed to every inroad. if, moreover, as was to be expected, the catholics availed themselves of the divisions amongst the protestants, and levelled their attack against one of the religious parties, it was the calvinists who, as the weaker, and as being besides excluded from the religious treaty, were apparently in the greatest danger, and upon them would probably fall the first attack. both these circumstances took place in the dominions of the elector palatine, which possessed, in the duke of bavaria, a formidable neighbour, and which, by reason of their defection to calvinism, received no protection from the religious peace, and had little hope of succour from the lutheran states. no country in germany had experienced so many revolutions in religion in so short a time as the palatinate. in the space of sixty years this country, an unfortunate toy in the hands of its rulers, had twice adopted the doctrines of luther, and twice relinquished them for calvinism. the elector frederick iii. first abandoned the confession of augsburg, which his eldest son and successor, lewis, immediately re-established. the calvinists throughout the whole country were deprived of their churches, their preachers and even their teachers banished beyond the frontiers; while the prince, in his lutheran zeal, persecuted them even in his will, by appointing none but strict and orthodox lutherans as the guardians of his son, a minor. but this illegal testament was disregarded by his brother the count palatine, john casimir, who, by the regulations of the golden bull, assumed the guardianship and administration of the state. calvinistic teachers were given to the elector frederick iv., then only nine years of age, who were ordered, if necessary, to drive the lutheran heresy out of the soul of their pupil with blows. if such was the treatment of the sovereign, that of the subjects may be easily conceived. it was under this frederick that the palatine court exerted itself so vigorously to unite the protestant states of germany in joint measures against the house of austria, and, if possible, bring about the formation of a general confederacy. besides that this court had always been guided by the counsels of france, with whom hatred of the house of austria was the ruling principle, a regard for his own safety urged him to secure in time the doubtful assistance of the lutherans against a near and overwhelming enemy. great difficulties, however, opposed this union, because the lutherans' dislike of the reformed was scarcely less than the common aversion of both to the romanists. an attempt was first made to reconcile the two professions, in order to facilitate a political union; but all these attempts failed, and generally ended in both parties adhering the more strongly to their respective opinions. nothing then remained but to increase the fear and the distrust of the evangelicals, and in this way to impress upon them the necessity of this alliance. the power of the roman catholics and the magnitude of the danger were exaggerated, accidental incidents were ascribed to deliberate plans, innocent actions misrepresented by invidious constructions, and the whole conduct of the professors of the olden religion was interpreted as the result of a well-weighed and systematic plan, which, in all probability, they were very far from having concerted. the diet of ratisbon, to which the protestants had looked forward with the hope of obtaining a renewal of the religious peace, had broken up without coming to a decision, and to the former grievances of the protestant party was now added the late oppression of donauwerth. with incredible speed, the union, so long attempted, was now brought to bear. a conference took place at anhausen, in franconia, at which were present the elector frederick iv., from the palatinate, the palsgrave of neuburg, two margraves of brandenburg, the margrave of baden, and the duke john frederick of wirtemburg,--lutherans as well as calvinists,-- who for themselves and their heirs entered into a close confederacy under the title of the evangelical union. the purport of this union was, that the allied princes should, in all matters relating to religion and their civil rights, support each other with arms and counsel against every aggressor, and should all stand as one man; that in case any member of the alliance should be attacked, he should be assisted by the rest with an armed force; that, if necessary, the territories, towns, and castles of the allied states should be open to his troops; and that, whatever conquests were made, should be divided among all the confederates, in proportion to the contingent furnished by each. the direction of the whole confederacy in time of peace was conferred upon the elector palatine, but with a limited power. to meet the necessary expenses, subsidies were demanded, and a common fund established. differences of religion (betwixt the lutherans and the calvinists) were to have no effect on this alliance, which was to subsist for ten years, every member of the union engaged at the same time to procure new members to it. the electorate of brandenburg adopted the alliance, that of saxony rejected it. hesse-cashel could not be prevailed upon to declare itself, the dukes of brunswick and luneburg also hesitated. but the three cities of the empire, strasburg, nuremburg, and ulm, were no unimportant acquisition for the league, which was in great want of their money, while their example, besides, might be followed by other imperial cities. after the formation of this alliance, the confederate states, dispirited, and singly, little feared, adopted a bolder language. through prince christian of anhalt, they laid their common grievances and demands before the emperor; among which the principal were the restoration of donauwerth, the abolition of the imperial court, the reformation of the emperor's own administration and that of his counsellors. for these remonstrances, they chose the moment when the emperor had scarcely recovered breath from the troubles in his hereditary dominions,--when he had lost hungary and austria to matthias, and had barely preserved his bohemian throne by the concession of the letter of majesty, and finally, when through the succession of juliers he was already threatened with the distant prospect of a new war. no wonder, then, that this dilatory prince was more irresolute than ever in his decision, and that the confederates took up arms before he could bethink himself. the roman catholics regarded this confederacy with a jealous eye; the union viewed them and the emperor with the like distrust; the emperor was equally suspicious of both; and thus, on all sides, alarm and animosity had reached their climax. and, as if to crown the whole, at this critical conjuncture by the death of the duke john william of juliers, a highly disputable succession became vacant in the territories of juliers and cleves. eight competitors laid claim to this territory, the indivisibility of which had been guaranteed by solemn treaties; and the emperor, who seemed disposed to enter upon it as a vacant fief, might be considered as the ninth. four of these, the elector of brandenburg, the count palatine of neuburg, the count palatine of deux ponts, and the margrave of burgau, an austrian prince, claimed it as a female fief in name of four princesses, sisters of the late duke. two others, the elector of saxony, of the line of albert, and the duke of saxony, of the line of ernest, laid claim to it under a prior right of reversion granted to them by the emperor frederick iii., and confirmed to both saxon houses by maximilian i. the pretensions of some foreign princes were little regarded. the best right was perhaps on the side of brandenburg and neuburg, and between the claims of these two it was not easy to decide. both courts, as soon as the succession was vacant, proceeded to take possession; brandenburg beginning, and neuburg following the example. both commenced their dispute with the pen, and would probably have ended it with the sword; but the interference of the emperor, by proceeding to bring the cause before his own cognizance, and, during the progress of the suit, sequestrating the disputed countries, soon brought the contending parties to an agreement, in order to avert the common danger. they agreed to govern the duchy conjointly. in vain did the emperor prohibit the estates from doing homage to their new masters; in vain did he send his own relation, the archduke leopold, bishop of passau and strasburg, into the territory of juliers, in order, by his presence, to strengthen the imperial party. the whole country, with the exception of juliers itself, had submitted to the protestant princes, and in that capital the imperialists were besieged. the dispute about the succession of juliers was an important one to the whole german empire, and also attracted the attention of several european courts. it was not so much the question, who was or was not to possess the duchy of juliers;--the real question was, which of the two religious parties in germany, the roman catholic or the protestant, was to be strengthened by so important an accession--for which of the two religions this territory was to be lost or won. the question in short was, whether austria was to be allowed to persevere in her usurpations, and to gratify her lust of dominion by another robbery; or whether the liberties of germany, and the balance of power, were to be maintained against her encroachments. the disputed succession of juliers, therefore, was matter which interested all who were favourable to liberty, and hostile to austria. the evangelical union, holland, england, and particularly henry iv. of france, were drawn into the strife. this monarch, the flower of whose life had been spent in opposing the house of austria and spain, and by persevering heroism alone had surmounted the obstacles which this house had thrown between him and the french throne, had been no idle spectator of the troubles in germany. this contest of the estates with the emperor was the means of giving and securing peace to france. the protestants and the turks were the two salutary weights which kept down the austrian power in the east and west; but it would rise again in all its terrors, if once it were allowed to remove this pressure. henry the fourth had before his eyes for half a lifetime, the uninterrupted spectacle of austrian ambition and austrian lust of dominion, which neither adversity nor poverty of talents, though generally they check all human passions, could extinguish in a bosom wherein flowed one drop of the blood of ferdinand of arragon. austrian ambition had destroyed for a century the peace of europe, and effected the most violent changes in the heart of its most considerable states. it had deprived the fields of husbandmen, the workshops of artisans, to fill the land with enormous armies, and to cover the commercial sea with hostile fleets. it had imposed upon the princes of europe the necessity of fettering the industry of their subjects by unheard-of imposts; and of wasting in self-defence the best strength of their states, which was thus lost to the prosperity of their inhabitants. for europe there was no peace, for its states no welfare, for the people's happiness no security or permanence, so long as this dangerous house was permitted to disturb at pleasure the repose of the world. such considerations clouded the mind of henry at the close of his glorious career. what had it not cost him to reduce to order the troubled chaos into which france had been plunged by the tumult of civil war, fomented and supported by this very austria! every great mind labours for eternity; and what security had henry for the endurance of that prosperity which he had gained for france, so long as austria and spain formed a single power, which did indeed lie exhausted for the present, but which required only one lucky chance to be speedily re-united, and to spring up again as formidable as ever. if he would bequeath to his successors a firmly established throne, and a durable prosperity to his subjects, this dangerous power must be for ever disarmed. this was the source of that irreconcileable enmity which henry had sworn to the house of austria, a hatred unextinguishable, ardent, and well-founded as that of hannibal against the people of romulus, but ennobled by a purer origin. the other european powers had the same inducements to action as henry, but all of them had not that enlightened policy, nor that disinterested courage to act upon the impulse. all men, without distinction, are allured by immediate advantages; great minds alone are excited by distant good. so long as wisdom in its projects calculates upon wisdom, or relies upon its own strength, it forms none but chimerical schemes, and runs a risk of making itself the laughter of the world; but it is certain of success, and may reckon upon aid and admiration when it finds a place in its intellectual plans for barbarism, rapacity, and superstition, and can render the selfish passions of mankind the executors of its purposes. in the first point of view, henry's well-known project of expelling the house of austria from all its possessions, and dividing the spoil among the european powers, deserves the title of a chimera, which men have so liberally bestowed upon it; but did it merit that appellation in the second? it had never entered into the head of that excellent monarch, in the choice of those who must be the instruments of his designs, to reckon on the sufficiency of such motives as animated himself and sully to the enterprise. all the states whose co-operation was necessary, were to be persuaded to the work by the strongest motives that can set a political power in action. from the protestants in germany nothing more was required than that which, on other grounds, had been long their object,--their throwing off the austrian yoke; from the flemings, a similar revolt from the spaniards. to the pope and all the italian republics no inducement could be more powerful than the hope of driving the spaniards for ever from their peninsula; for england, nothing more desirable than a revolution which should free it from its bitterest enemy. by this division of the austrian conquests, every power gained either land or freedom, new possessions or security for the old; and as all gained, the balance of power remained undisturbed. france might magnanimously decline a share in the spoil, because by the ruin of austria it doubly profited, and was most powerful if it did not become more powerful. finally, upon condition of ridding europe of their presence, the posterity of hapsburg were to be allowed the liberty of augmenting her territories in all the other known or yet undiscovered portions of the globe. but the dagger of ravaillac delivered austria from her danger, to postpone for some centuries longer the tranquillity of europe. with his view directed to this project, henry felt the necessity of taking a prompt and active part in the important events of the evangelical union, and the disputed succession of juliers. his emissaries were busy in all the courts of germany, and the little which they published or allowed to escape of the great political secrets of their master, was sufficient to win over minds inflamed by so ardent a hatred to austria, and by so strong a desire of aggrandizement. the prudent policy of henry cemented the union still more closely, and the powerful aid which he bound himself to furnish, raised the courage of the confederates into the firmest confidence. a numerous french army, led by the king in person, was to meet the troops of the union on the banks of the rhine, and to assist in effecting the conquest of juliers and cleves; then, in conjunction with the germans, it was to march into italy, (where savoy, venice, and the pope were even now ready with a powerful reinforcement,) and to overthrow the spanish dominion in that quarter. this victorious army was then to penetrate by lombardy into the hereditary dominions of hapsburg; and there, favoured by a general insurrection of the protestants, destroy the power of austria in all its german territories, in bohemia, hungary, and transylvania. the brabanters and hollanders, supported by french auxiliaries, would in the meantime shake off the spanish tyranny in the netherlands; and thus the mighty stream which, only a short time before, had so fearfully overflowed its banks, threatening to overwhelm in its troubled waters the liberties of europe, would then roll silent and forgotten behind the pyrenean mountains. at other times, the french had boasted of their rapidity of action, but upon this occasion they were outstripped by the germans. an army of the confederates entered alsace before henry made his appearance there, and an austrian army, which the bishop of strasburg and passau had assembled in that quarter for an expedition against juliers, was dispersed. henry iv. had formed his plan as a statesman and a king, but he had intrusted its execution to plunderers. according to his design, no roman catholic state was to have cause to think this preparation aimed against itself, or to make the quarrel of austria its own. religion was in nowise to be mixed up with the matter. but how could the german princes forget their own purposes in furthering the plans of henry? actuated as they were by the desire of aggrandizement and by religious hatred, was it to be supposed that they would not gratify, in every passing opportunity, their ruling passions to the utmost? like vultures, they stooped upon the territories of the ecclesiastical princes, and always chose those rich countries for their quarters, though to reach them they must make ever so wide a detour from their direct route. they levied contributions as in an enemy's country, seized upon the revenues, and exacted, by violence, what they could not obtain of free-will. not to leave the roman catholics in doubt as to the true objects of their expedition, they announced, openly and intelligibly enough, the fate that awaited the property of the church. so little had henry iv. and the german princes understood each other in their plan of operations, so much had the excellent king been mistaken in his instruments. it is an unfailing maxim, that, if policy enjoins an act of violence, its execution ought never to be entrusted to the violent; and that he only ought to be trusted with the violation of order by whom order is held sacred. both the past conduct of the union, which was condemned even by several of the evangelical states, and the apprehension of even worse treatment, aroused the roman catholics to something beyond mere inactive indignation. as to the emperor, his authority had sunk too low to afford them any security against such an enemy. it was their union that rendered the confederates so formidable and so insolent; and another union must now be opposed to them. the bishop of wurtzburg formed the plan of the catholic union, which was distinguished from the evangelical by the title of the league. the objects agreed upon were nearly the same as those which constituted the groundwork of the union. bishops formed its principal members, and at its head was placed maximilian, duke of bavaria. as the only influential secular member of the confederacy, he was entrusted with far more extensive powers than the protestants had committed to their chief. in addition to the duke's being the sole head of the league's military power, whereby their operations acquired a speed and weight unattainable by the union, they had also the advantage that supplies flowed in much more regularly from the rich prelates, than the latter could obtain them from the poor evangelical states. without offering to the emperor, as the sovereign of a roman catholic state, any share in their confederacy, without even communicating its existence to him as emperor, the league arose at once formidable and threatening; with strength sufficient to crush the protestant union and to maintain itself under three emperors. it contended, indeed, for austria, in so far as it fought against the protestant princes; but austria herself had soon cause to tremble before it. the arms of the union had, in the meantime, been tolerably successful in juliers and in alsace; juliers was closely blockaded, and the whole bishopric of strasburg was in their power. but here their splendid achievements came to an end. no french army appeared upon the rhine; for he who was to be its leader, he who was the animating soul of the whole enterprize, henry iv., was no more! their supplies were on the wane; the estates refused to grant new subsidies; and the confederate free cities were offended that their money should be liberally, but their advice so sparingly called for. especially were they displeased at being put to expense for the expedition against juliers, which had been expressly excluded from the affairs of the union--at the united princes appropriating to themselves large pensions out of the common treasure--and, above all, at their refusing to give any account of its expenditure. the union was thus verging to its fall, at the moment when the league started to oppose it in the vigour of its strength. want of supplies disabled the confederates from any longer keeping the field. and yet it was dangerous to lay down their weapons in the sight of an armed enemy. to secure themselves at least on one side, they hastened to conclude a peace with their old enemy, the archduke leopold; and both parties agreed to withdraw their troops from alsace, to exchange prisoners, and to bury all that had been done in oblivion. thus ended in nothing all these promising preparations. the same imperious tone with which the union, in the confidence of its strength, had menaced the roman catholics of germany, was now retorted by the league upon themselves and their troops. the traces of their march were pointed out to them, and plainly branded with the hard epithets they had deserved. the chapters of wurtzburg, bamberg, strasburg, mentz, treves, cologne, and several others, had experienced their destructive presence; to all these the damage done was to be made good, the free passage by land and by water restored, (for the protestants had even seized on the navigation of the rhine,) and everything replaced on its former footing. above all, the parties to the union were called on to declare expressly and unequivocally its intentions. it was now their turn to yield to superior strength. they had not calculated on so formidable an opponent; but they themselves had taught the roman catholics the secret of their strength. it was humiliating to their pride to sue for peace, but they might think themselves fortunate in obtaining it. the one party promised restitution, the other forgiveness. all laid down their arms. the storm of war once more rolled by, and a temporary calm succeeded. the insurrection in bohemia then broke out, which deprived the emperor of the last of his hereditary dominions, but in this dispute neither the union nor the league took any share. at length the emperor died in , as little regretted in his coffin as noticed on the throne. long afterwards, when the miseries of succeeding reigns had made the misfortunes of his reign forgotten, a halo spread about his memory, and so fearful a night set in upon germany, that, with tears of blood, people prayed for the return of such an emperor. rodolph never could be prevailed upon to choose a successor in the empire, and all awaited with anxiety the approaching vacancy of the throne; but, beyond all hope, matthias at once ascended it, and without opposition. the roman catholics gave him their voices, because they hoped the best from his vigour and activity; the protestants gave him theirs, because they hoped every thing from his weakness. it is not difficult to reconcile this contradiction. the one relied on what he had once appeared; the other judged him by what he seemed at present. the moment of a new accession is always a day of hope; and the first diet of a king in elective monarchies is usually his severest trial. every old grievance is brought forward, and new ones are sought out, that they may be included in the expected reform; quite a new world is expected to commence with the new reign. the important services which, in his insurrection, their religious confederates in austria had rendered to matthias, were still fresh in the minds of the protestant free cities, and, above all, the price which they had exacted for their services seemed now to serve them also as a model. it was by the favour of the protestant estates in austria and moravia that matthias had sought and really found the way to his brother's throne; but, hurried on by his ambitious views, he never reflected that a way was thus opened for the states to give laws to their sovereign. this discovery soon awoke him from the intoxication of success. scarcely had he shown himself in triumph to his austrian subjects, after his victorious expedition to bohemia, when a humble petition awaited him which was quite sufficient to poison his whole triumph. they required, before doing homage, unlimited religious toleration in the cities and market towns, perfect equality of rights between roman catholics and protestants, and a full and equal admissibility of the latter to all offices of state. in several places, they of themselves assumed these privileges, and, reckoning on a change of administration, restored the protestant religion where the late emperor had suppressed it. matthias, it is true, had not scrupled to make use of the grievances of the protestants for his own ends against the emperor; but it was far from being his intention to relieve them. by a firm and resolute tone he hoped to check, at once, these presumptuous demands. he spoke of his hereditary title to these territories, and would hear of no stipulations before the act of homage. a like unconditional submission had been rendered by their neighbours, the inhabitants of styria, to the archduke ferdinand, who, however, had soon reason to repent of it. warned by this example, the austrian states persisted in their refusal; and, to avoid being compelled by force to do homage, their deputies (after urging their roman catholic colleagues to a similar resistance) immediately left the capital, and began to levy troops. they took steps to renew their old alliance with hungary, drew the protestant princes into their interests, and set themselves seriously to work to accomplish their object by force of arms. with the more exorbitant demands of the hungarians matthias had not hesitated to comply. for hungary was an elective monarchy, and the republican constitution of the country justified to himself their demands, and to the roman catholic world his concessions. in austria, on the contrary, his predecessors had exercised far higher prerogatives, which he could not relinquish at the demand of the estates without incurring the scorn of roman catholic europe, the enmity of spain and rome, and the contempt of his own roman catholic subjects. his exclusively romish council, among which the bishop of vienna, melchio kiesel, had the chief influence, exhorted him to see all the churches extorted from him by the protestants, rather than to concede one to them as a matter of right. but by ill luck this difficulty occurred at a time when the emperor rodolph was yet alive, and a spectator of this scene, and who might easily have been tempted to employ against his brother the same weapons which the latter had successfully directed against him--namely, an understanding with his rebellious subjects. to avoid this blow, matthias willingly availed himself of the offer made by moravia, to act as mediator between him and the estates of austria. representatives of both parties met in vienna, when the austrian deputies held language which would have excited surprise even in the english parliament. "the protestants," they said, "are determined to be not worse treated in their native country than the handful of romanists. by the help of his protestant nobles had matthias reduced the emperor to submission; where papists were to be found, protestant barons might be counted. the example of rodolph should be a warning to matthias. he should take care that he did not lose the terrestrial, in attempting to make conquests for the celestial." as the moravian states, instead of using their powers as mediators for the emperor's advantage, finally adopted the cause of their co-religionists of austria; as the union in germany came forward to afford them its most active support, and as matthias dreaded reprisals on the part of the emperor, he was at length compelled to make the desired declaration in favour of the evangelical church. this behaviour of the austrian estates towards their archduke was now imitated by the protestant estates of the empire towards their emperor, and they promised themselves the same favourable results. at his first diet at ratisbon in , when the most pressing affairs were waiting for decision--when a general contribution was indispensable for a war against turkey, and against bethlem gabor in transylvania, who by turkish aid had forcibly usurped the sovereignty of that land, and even threatened hungary--they surprised him with an entirely new demand. the roman catholic votes were still the most numerous in the diet; and as every thing was decided by a plurality of voices, the protestant party, however closely united, were entirely without consideration. the advantage of this majority the roman catholics were now called on to relinquish; henceforward no one religious party was to be permitted to dictate to the other by means of its invariable superiority. and in truth, if the evangelical religion was really to be represented in the diet, it was self-evident that it must not be shut out from the possibility of making use of that privilege, merely from the constitution of the diet itself. complaints of the judicial usurpations of the aulic council, and of the oppression of the protestants, accompanied this demand, and the deputies of the estates were instructed to take no part in any general deliberations till a favourable answer should be given on this preliminary point. the diet was torn asunder by this dangerous division, which threatened to destroy for ever the unity of its deliberations. sincerely as the emperor might have wished, after the example of his father maximilian, to preserve a prudent balance between the two religions, the present conduct of the protestants seemed to leave him nothing but a critical choice between the two. in his present necessities a general contribution from the estates was indispensable to him; and yet he could not conciliate the one party without sacrificing the support of the other. insecure as he felt his situation to be in his own hereditary dominions, he could not but tremble at the idea, however remote, of an open war with the protestants. but the eyes of the whole roman catholic world, which were attentively regarding his conduct, the remonstrances of the roman catholic estates, and of the courts of rome and spain, as little permitted him to favour the protestant at the expense of the romish religion. so critical a situation would have paralysed a greater mind than matthias; and his own prudence would scarcely have extricated him from his dilemma. but the interests of the roman catholics were closely interwoven with the imperial authority; if they suffered this to fall, the ecclesiastical princes in particular would be without a bulwark against the attacks of the protestants. now, then, that they saw the emperor wavering, they thought it high time to reassure his sinking courage. they imparted to him the secret of their league, and acquainted him with its whole constitution, resources and power. little comforting as such a revelation must have been to the emperor, the prospect of so powerful a support gave him greater boldness to oppose the protestants. their demands were rejected, and the diet broke up without coming to a decision. but matthias was the victim of this dispute. the protestants refused him their supplies, and made him alone suffer for the inflexibility of the roman catholics. the turks, however, appeared willing to prolong the cessation of hostilities, and bethlem gabor was left in peaceable possession of transylvania. the empire was now free from foreign enemies; and even at home, in the midst of all these fearful disputes, peace still reigned. an unexpected accident had given a singular turn to the dispute as to the succession of juliers. this duchy was still ruled conjointly by the electoral house of brandenburg and the palatine of neuburg; and a marriage between the prince of neuburg and a princess of brandenburg was to have inseparably united the interests of the two houses. but the whole scheme was upset by a box on the ear, which, in a drunken brawl, the elector of brandenburg unfortunately inflicted upon his intended son-in-law. from this moment the good understanding between the two houses was at an end. the prince of neuburg embraced popery. the hand of a princess of bavaria rewarded his apostacy, and the strong support of bavaria and spain was the natural result of both. to secure to the palatine the exclusive possession of juliers, the spanish troops from the netherlands were marched into the palatinate. to rid himself of these guests, the elector of brandenburg called the flemings to his assistance, whom he sought to propitiate by embracing the calvinist religion. both spanish and dutch armies appeared, but, as it seemed, only to make conquests for themselves. the neighbouring war of the netherlands seemed now about to be decided on german ground; and what an inexhaustible mine of combustibles lay here ready for it! the protestants saw with consternation the spaniards establishing themselves upon the lower rhine; with still greater anxiety did the roman catholics see the hollanders bursting through the frontiers of the empire. it was in the west that the mine was expected to explode which had long been dug under the whole of germany. to the west, apprehension and anxiety turned; but the spark which kindled the flame came unexpectedly from the east. the tranquillity which rodolph ii.'s 'letter of majesty' had established in bohemia lasted for some time, under the administration of matthias, till the nomination of a new heir to this kingdom in the person of ferdinand of gratz. this prince, whom we shall afterwards become better acquainted with under the title of ferdinand ii., emperor of germany, had, by the violent extirpation of the protestant religion within his hereditary dominions, announced himself as an inexorable zealot for popery, and was consequently looked upon by the roman catholic part of bohemia as the future pillar of their church. the declining health of the emperor brought on this hour rapidly; and, relying on so powerful a supporter, the bohemian papists began to treat the protestants with little moderation. the protestant vassals of roman catholic nobles, in particular, experienced the harshest treatment. at length several of the former were incautious enough to speak somewhat loudly of their hopes, and by threatening hints to awaken among the protestants a suspicion of their future sovereign. but this mistrust would never have broken out into actual violence, had the roman catholics confined themselves to general expressions, and not by attacks on individuals furnished the discontent of the people with enterprising leaders. henry matthias, count thurn, not a native of bohemia, but proprietor of some estates in that kingdom, had, by his zeal for the protestant cause, and an enthusiastic attachment to his newly adopted country, gained the entire confidence of the utraquists, which opened him the way to the most important posts. he had fought with great glory against the turks, and won by a flattering address the hearts of the multitude. of a hot and impetuous disposition, which loved tumult because his talents shone in it--rash and thoughtless enough to undertake things which cold prudence and a calmer temper would not have ventured upon--unscrupulous enough, where the gratification of his passions was concerned, to sport with the fate of thousands, and at the same time politic enough to hold in leading-strings such a people as the bohemians then were. he had already taken an active part in the troubles under rodolph's administration; and the letter of majesty which the states had extorted from that emperor, was chiefly to be laid to his merit. the court had intrusted to him, as burgrave or castellan of calstein, the custody of the bohemian crown, and of the national charter. but the nation had placed in his hands something far more important--itself--with the office of defender or protector of the faith. the aristocracy by which the emperor was ruled, imprudently deprived him of this harmless guardianship of the dead, to leave him his full influence over the living. they took from him his office of burgrave, or constable of the castle, which had rendered him dependent on the court, thereby opening his eyes to the importance of the other which remained, and wounded his vanity, which yet was the thing that made his ambition harmless. from this moment he was actuated solely by a desire of revenge; and the opportunity of gratifying it was not long wanting. in the royal letter which the bohemians had extorted from rodolph ii., as well as in the german religious treaty, one material article remained undetermined. all the privileges granted by the latter to the protestants, were conceived in favour of the estates or governing bodies, not of the subjects; for only to those of the ecclesiastical states had a toleration, and that precarious, been conceded. the bohemian letter of majesty, in the same manner, spoke only of the estates and imperial towns, the magistrates of which had contrived to obtain equal privileges with the former. these alone were free to erect churches and schools, and openly to celebrate their protestant worship; in all other towns, it was left entirely to the government to which they belonged, to determine the religion of the inhabitants. the estates of the empire had availed themselves of this privilege in its fullest extent; the secular indeed without opposition; while the ecclesiastical, in whose case the declaration of ferdinand had limited this privilege, disputed, not without reason, the validity of that limitation. what was a disputed point in the religious treaty, was left still more doubtful in the letter of majesty; in the former, the construction was not doubtful, but it was a question how far obedience might be compulsory; in the latter, the interpretation was left to the states. the subjects of the ecclesiastical estates in bohemia thought themselves entitled to the same rights which the declaration of ferdinand secured to the subjects of german bishops, they considered themselves on an equality with the subjects of imperial towns, because they looked upon the ecclesiastical property as part of the royal demesnes. in the little town of klostergrab, subject to the archbishop of prague; and in braunau, which belonged to the abbot of that monastery, churches were founded by the protestants, and completed notwithstanding the opposition of their superiors, and the disapprobation of the emperor. in the meantime, the vigilance of the defenders had somewhat relaxed, and the court thought it might venture on a decisive step. by the emperor's orders, the church at klostergrab was pulled down; that at braunau forcibly shut up, and the most turbulent of the citizens thrown into prison. a general commotion among the protestants was the consequence of this measure; a loud outcry was everywhere raised at this violation of the letter of majesty; and count thurn, animated by revenge, and particularly called upon by his office of defender, showed himself not a little busy in inflaming the minds of the people. at his instigation deputies were summoned to prague from every circle in the empire, to concert the necessary measures against the common danger. it was resolved to petition the emperor to press for the liberation of the prisoners. the answer of the emperor, already offensive to the states, from its being addressed, not to them, but to his viceroy, denounced their conduct as illegal and rebellious, justified what had been done at klostergrab and braunau as the result of an imperial mandate, and contained some passages that might be construed into threats. count thurn did not fail to augment the unfavourable impression which this imperial edict made upon the assembled estates. he pointed out to them the danger in which all who had signed the petition were involved, and sought by working on their resentment and fears to hurry them into violent resolutions. to have caused their immediate revolt against the emperor, would have been, as yet, too bold a measure. it was only step by step that he would lead them on to this unavoidable result. he held it, therefore, advisable first to direct their indignation against the emperor's counsellors; and for that purpose circulated a report, that the imperial proclamation had been drawn up by the government at prague, and only signed in vienna. among the imperial delegates, the chief objects of the popular hatred, were the president of the chamber, slawata, and baron martinitz, who had been elected in place of count thurn, burgrave of calstein. both had long before evinced pretty openly their hostile feelings towards the protestants, by alone refusing to be present at the sitting at which the letter of majesty had been inserted in the bohemian constitution. a threat was made at the time to make them responsible for every violation of the letter of majesty; and from this moment, whatever evil befell the protestants was set down, and not without reason, to their account. of all the roman catholic nobles, these two had treated their protestant vassals with the greatest harshness. they were accused of hunting them with dogs to the mass, and of endeavouring to drive them to popery by a denial of the rites of baptism, marriage, and burial. against two characters so unpopular the public indignation was easily excited, and they were marked out for a sacrifice to the general indignation. on the rd of may, , the deputies appeared armed, and in great numbers, at the royal palace, and forced their way into the hall where the commissioners sternberg, martinitz, lobkowitz, and slawata were assembled. in a threatening tone they demanded to know from each of them, whether he had taken any part, or had consented to, the imperial proclamation. sternberg received them with composure, martinitz and slawata with defiance. this decided their fate; sternberg and lobkowitz, less hated, and more feared, were led by the arm out of the room; martinitz and slawata were seized, dragged to a window, and precipitated from a height of eighty feet, into the castle trench. their creature, the secretary fabricius, was thrown after them. this singular mode of execution naturally excited the surprise of civilized nations. the bohemians justified it as a national custom, and saw nothing remarkable in the whole affair, excepting that any one should have got up again safe and sound after such a fall. a dunghill, on which the imperial commissioners chanced to be deposited, had saved them from injury. it was not to be expected that this summary mode of proceeding would much increase the favour of the parties with the emperor, but this was the very position to which count thurn wished to bring them. if, from the fear of uncertain danger, they had permitted themselves such an act of violence, the certain expectation of punishment, and the now urgent necessity of making themselves secure, would plunge them still deeper into guilt. by this brutal act of self-redress, no room was left for irresolution or repentance, and it seemed as if a single crime could be absolved only by a series of violences. as the deed itself could not be undone, nothing was left but to disarm the hand of punishment. thirty directors were appointed to organise a regular insurrection. they seized upon all the offices of state, and all the imperial revenues, took into their own service the royal functionaries and the soldiers, and summoned the whole bohemian nation to avenge the common cause. the jesuits, whom the common hatred accused as the instigators of every previous oppression, were banished the kingdom, and this harsh measure the estates found it necessary to justify in a formal manifesto. these various steps were taken for the preservation of the royal authority and the laws--the language of all rebels till fortune has decided in their favour. the emotion which the news of the bohemian insurrection excited at the imperial court, was much less lively than such intelligence deserved. the emperor matthias was no longer the resolute spirit that formerly sought out his king and master in the very bosom of his people, and hurled him from three thrones. the confidence and courage which had animated him in an usurpation, deserted him in a legitimate self-defence. the bohemian rebels had first taken up arms, and the nature of circumstances drove him to join them. but he could not hope to confine such a war to bohemia. in all the territories under his dominion, the protestants were united by a dangerous sympathy--the common danger of their religion might suddenly combine them all into a formidable republic. what could he oppose to such an enemy, if the protestant portion of his subjects deserted him? and would not both parties exhaust themselves in so ruinous a civil war? how much was at stake if he lost; and if he won, whom else would he destroy but his own subjects? considerations such as these inclined the emperor and his council to concessions and pacific measures, but it was in this very spirit of concession that, as others would have it, lay the origin of the evil. the archduke ferdinand of gratz congratulated the emperor upon an event, which would justify in the eyes of all europe the severest measures against the bohemian protestants. "disobedience, lawlessness, and insurrection," he said, "went always hand-in-hand with protestantism. every privilege which had been conceded to the estates by himself and his predecessor, had had no other effect than to raise their demands. all the measures of the heretics were aimed against the imperial authority. step by step had they advanced from defiance to defiance up to this last aggression; in a short time they would assail all that remained to be assailed, in the person of the emperor. in arms alone was there any safety against such an enemy--peace and subordination could be only established upon the ruins of their dangerous privileges; security for the catholic belief was to be found only in the total destruction of this sect. uncertain, it was true, might be the event of the war, but inevitable was the ruin if it were pretermitted. the confiscation of the lands of the rebels would richly indemnify them for its expenses, while the terror of punishment would teach the other states the wisdom of a prompt obedience in future." were the bohemian protestants to blame, if they armed themselves in time against the enforcement of such maxims? the insurrection in bohemia, besides, was directed only against the successor of the emperor, not against himself, who had done nothing to justify the alarm of the protestants. to exclude this prince from the bohemian throne, arms had before been taken up under matthias, though as long as this emperor lived, his subjects had kept within the bounds of an apparent submission. but bohemia was in arms, and unarmed, the emperor dared not even offer them peace. for this purpose, spain supplied gold, and promised to send troops from italy and the netherlands. count bucquoi, a native of the netherlands, was named generalissimo, because no native could be trusted, and count dampierre, another foreigner, commanded under him. before the army took the field, the emperor endeavoured to bring about an amicable arrangement, by the publication of a manifesto. in this he assured the bohemians, "that he held sacred the letter of majesty--that he had not formed any resolutions inimical to their religion or their privileges, and that his present preparations were forced upon him by their own. as soon as the nation laid down their arms, he also would disband his army." but this gracious letter failed of its effect, because the leaders of the insurrection contrived to hide from the people the emperor's good intentions. instead of this, they circulated the most alarming reports from the pulpit, and by pamphlets, and terrified the deluded populace with threatened horrors of another saint bartholomew's that existed only in their own imagination. all bohemia, with the exception of three towns, budweiss, krummau, and pilsen, took part in this insurrection. these three towns, inhabited principally by roman catholics, alone had the courage, in this general revolt, to hold out for the emperor, who promised them assistance. but it could not escape count thurn, how dangerous it was to leave in hostile hands three places of such importance, which would at all times keep open for the imperial troops an entrance into the kingdom. with prompt determination he appeared before budweiss and krummau, in the hope of terrifying them into a surrender. krummau surrendered, but all his attacks were steadfastly repulsed by budweiss. and now, too, the emperor began to show more earnestness and energy. bucquoi and dampierre, with two armies, fell upon the bohemian territories, which they treated as a hostile country. but the imperial generals found the march to prague more difficult than they had expected. every pass, every position that was the least tenable, must be opened by the sword, and resistance increased at each fresh step they took, for the outrages of their troops, chiefly consisting of hungarians and walloons, drove their friends to revolt and their enemies to despair. but even now that his troops had penetrated into bohemia, the emperor continued to offer the estates peace, and to show himself ready for an amicable adjustment. but the new prospects which opened upon them, raised the courage of the revolters. moravia espoused their party; and from germany appeared to them a defender equally intrepid and unexpected, in the person of count mansfeld. the heads of the evangelic union had been silent but not inactive spectators of the movements in bohemia. both were contending for the same cause, and against the same enemy. in the fate of the bohemians, their confederates in the faith might read their own; and the cause of this people was represented as of solemn concern to the whole german union. true to these principles, the unionists supported the courage of the insurgents by promises of assistance; and a fortunate accident now enabled them, beyond their hopes, to fulfil them. the instrument by which the house of austria was humbled in germany, was peter ernest, count mansfeld, the son of a distinguished austrian officer, ernest von mansfeld, who for some time had commanded with repute the spanish army in the netherlands. his first campaigns in juliers and alsace had been made in the service of this house, and under the banner of the archduke leopold, against the protestant religion and the liberties of germany. but insensibly won by the principles of this religion, he abandoned a leader whose selfishness denied him the reimbursement of the monies expended in his cause, and he transferred his zeal and a victorious sword to the evangelic union. it happened just then that the duke of savoy, an ally of the union, demanded assistance in a war against spain. they assigned to him their newly acquired servant, and mansfeld received instructions to raise an army of men in germany, in the cause and in the pay of the duke. the army was ready to march at the very moment when the flames of war burst out in bohemia, and the duke, who at the time did not stand in need of its services, placed it at the disposal of the union. nothing could be more welcome to these troops than the prospect of aiding their confederates in bohemia, at the cost of a third party. mansfeld received orders forthwith to march with these men into that kingdom; and a pretended bohemian commission was given to blind the public as to the true author of this levy. this mansfeld now appeared in bohemia, and, by the occupation of pilsen, strongly fortified and favourable to the emperor, obtained a firm footing in the country. the courage of the rebels was farther increased by succours which the silesian states despatched to their assistance. between these and the imperialists, several battles were fought, far indeed from decisive, but only on that account the more destructive, which served as the prelude to a more serious war. to check the vigour of his military operations, a negotiation was entered into with the emperor, and a disposition was shown to accept the proffered mediation of saxony. but before the event could prove how little sincerity there was in these proposals, the emperor was removed from the scene by death. what now had matthias done to justify the expectations which he had excited by the overthrow of his predecessor? was it worth while to ascend a brother's throne through guilt, and then maintain it with so little dignity, and leave it with so little renown? as long as matthias sat on the throne, he had to atone for the imprudence by which he had gained it. to enjoy the regal dignity a few years sooner, he had shackled the free exercise of its prerogatives. the slender portion of independence left him by the growing power of the estates, was still farther lessened by the encroachments of his relations. sickly and childless he saw the attention of the world turned to an ambitious heir who was impatiently anticipating his fate; and who, by his interference with the closing administration, was already opening his own. with matthias, the reigning line of the german house of austria was in a manner extinct; for of all the sons of maximilian, one only was now alive, the weak and childless archduke albert, in the netherlands, who had already renounced his claims to the inheritance in favour of the line of gratz. the spanish house had also, in a secret bond, resigned its pretensions to the austrian possessions in behalf of the archduke ferdinand of styria, in whom the branch of hapsburg was about to put forth new shoots, and the former greatness of austria to experience a revival. the father of ferdinand was the archduke charles of carniola, carinthia, and styria, the youngest brother of the emperor maximilian ii.; his mother a princess of bavaria. having lost his father at twelve years of age, he was intrusted by the archduchess to the guardianship of her brother william, duke of bavaria, under whose eyes he was instructed and educated by jesuits at the academy of ingolstadt. what principles he was likely to imbibe by his intercourse with a prince, who from motives of devotion had abdicated his government, may be easily conceived. care was taken to point out to him, on the one hand, the weak indulgence of maximilian's house towards the adherents of the new doctrines, and the consequent troubles of their dominions; on the other, the blessings of bavaria, and the inflexible religious zeal of its rulers; between these two examples he was left to choose for himself. formed in this school to be a stout champion of the faith, and a prompt instrument of the church, he left bavaria, after a residence of five years, to assume the government of his hereditary dominions. the estates of carniola, carinthia, and styria, who, before doing homage, demanded a guarantee for freedom of religion, were told that religious liberty has nothing to do with their allegiance. the oath was put to them without conditions, and unconditionally taken. many years, however, elapsed, ere the designs which had been planned at ingolstadt were ripe for execution. before attempting to carry them into effect, he sought in person at loretto the favour of the virgin, and received the apostolic benediction in rome at the feet of clement viii. these designs were nothing less than the expulsion of protestantism from a country where it had the advantage of numbers, and had been legally recognized by a formal act of toleration, granted by his father to the noble and knightly estates of the land. a grant so formally ratified could not be revoked without danger; but no difficulties could deter the pious pupil of the jesuits. the example of other states, both roman catholic and protestant, which within their own territories had exercised unquestioned a right of reformation, and the abuse which the estates of styria made of their religious liberties, would serve as a justification of this violent procedure. under the shelter of an absurd positive law, those of equity and prudence might, it was thought, be safely despised. in the execution of these unrighteous designs, ferdinand did, it must be owned, display no common courage and perseverance. without tumult, and we may add, without cruelty, he suppressed the protestant service in one town after another, and in a few years, to the astonishment of germany, this dangerous work was brought to a successful end. but, while the roman catholics admired him as a hero, and the champion of the church, the protestants began to combine against him as against their most dangerous enemy. and yet matthias's intention to bequeath to him the succession, met with little or no opposition in the elective states of austria. even the bohemians agreed to receive him as their future king, on very favourable conditions. it was not until afterwards, when they had experienced the pernicious influence of his councils on the administration of the emperor, that their anxiety was first excited; and then several projects, in his handwriting, which an unlucky chance threw into their hands, as they plainly evinced his disposition towards them, carried their apprehension to the utmost pitch. in particular, they were alarmed by a secret family compact with spain, by which, in default of heirs-male of his own body, ferdinand bequeathed to that crown the kingdom of bohemia, without first consulting the wishes of that nation, and without regard to its right of free election. the many enemies, too, which by his reforms in styria that prince had provoked among the protestants, were very prejudicial to his interests in bohemia; and some styrian emigrants, who had taken refuge there, bringing with them into their adopted country hearts overflowing with a desire of revenge, were particularly active in exciting the flame of revolt. thus ill-affected did ferdinand find the bohemians, when he succeeded matthias. so bad an understanding between the nation and the candidate for the throne, would have raised a storm even in the most peaceable succession; how much more so at the present moment, before the ardour of insurrection had cooled; when the nation had just recovered its dignity, and reasserted its rights; when they still held arms in their hands, and the consciousness of unity had awakened an enthusiastic reliance on their own strength; when by past success, by the promises of foreign assistance, and by visionary expectations of the future, their courage had been raised to an undoubting confidence. disregarding the rights already conferred on ferdinand, the estates declared the throne vacant, and their right of election entirely unfettered. all hopes of their peaceful submission were at an end, and if ferdinand wished still to wear the crown of bohemia, he must choose between purchasing it at the sacrifice of all that would make a crown desirable, or winning it sword in hand. but with what means was it to be won? turn his eyes where he would, the fire of revolt was burning. silesia had already joined the insurgents in bohemia; moravia was on the point of following its example. in upper and lower austria the spirit of liberty was awake, as it had been under rodolph, and the estates refused to do homage. hungary was menaced with an inroad by prince bethlen gabor, on the side of transylvania; a secret arming among the turks spread consternation among the provinces to the eastward; and, to complete his perplexities, the protestants also, in his hereditary dominions, stimulated by the general example, were again raising their heads. in that quarter, their numbers were overwhelming; in most places they had possession of the revenues which ferdinand would need for the maintenance of the war. the neutral began to waver, the faithful to be discouraged, the turbulent alone to be animated and confident. one half of germany encouraged the rebels, the other inactively awaited the issue; spanish assistance was still very remote. the moment which had brought him every thing, threatened also to deprive him of all. and when he now, yielding to the stern law of necessity, made overtures to the bohemian rebels, all his proposals for peace were insolently rejected. count thurn, at the head of an army, entered moravia to bring this province, which alone continued to waver, to a decision. the appearance of their friends is the signal of revolt for the moravian protestants. bruenn is taken, the remainder of the country yields with free will, throughout the province government and religion are changed. swelling as it flows, the torrent of rebellion pours down upon austria, where a party, holding similar sentiments, receives it with a joyful concurrence. henceforth, there should be no more distinctions of religion; equality of rights should be guaranteed to all christian churches. they hear that a foreign force has been invited into the country to oppress the bohemians. let them be sought out, and the enemies of liberty pursued to the ends of the earth. not an arm is raised in defence of the archduke, and the rebels, at length, encamp before vienna to besiege their sovereign. ferdinand had sent his children from gratz, where they were no longer safe, to the tyrol; he himself awaited the insurgents in his capital. a handful of soldiers was all he could oppose to the enraged multitude; these few were without pay or provisions, and therefore little to be depended on. vienna was unprepared for a long siege. the party of the protestants, ready at any moment to join the bohemians, had the preponderance in the city; those in the country had already begun to levy troops against him. already, in imagination, the protestant populace saw the emperor shut up in a monastery, his territories divided, and his children educated as protestants. confiding in secret, and surrounded by public enemies, he saw the chasm every moment widening to engulf his hopes and even himself. the bohemian bullets were already falling upon the imperial palace, when sixteen austrian barons forcibly entered his chamber, and inveighing against him with loud and bitter reproaches, endeavoured to force him into a confederation with the bohemians. one of them, seizing him by the button of his doublet, demanded, in a tone of menace, "ferdinand, wilt thou sign it?" who would not be pardoned had he wavered in this frightful situation? yet ferdinand still remembered the dignity of a roman emperor. no alternative seemed left to him but an immediate flight or submission; laymen urged him to the one, priests to the other. if he abandoned the city, it would fall into the enemy's hands; with vienna, austria was lost; with austria, the imperial throne. ferdinand abandoned not his capital, and as little would he hear of conditions. the archduke is still engaged in altercation with the deputed barons, when all at once a sound of trumpets is heard in the palace square. terror and astonishment take possession of all present; a fearful report pervades the palace; one deputy after another disappears. many of the nobility and the citizens hastily take refuge in the camp of thurn. this sudden change is effected by a regiment of dampierre's cuirassiers, who at that moment marched into the city to defend the archduke. a body of infantry soon followed; reassured by their appearance, several of the roman catholic citizens, and even the students themselves, take up arms. a report which arrived just at the same time from bohemia made his deliverance complete. the flemish general, bucquoi, had totally defeated count mansfeld at budweiss, and was marching upon prague. the bohemians hastily broke up their camp before vienna to protect their own capital. and now also the passes were free which the enemy had taken possession of, in order to obstruct ferdinand's progress to his coronation at frankfort. if the accession to the imperial throne was important for the plans of the king of hungary, it was of still greater consequence at the present moment, when his nomination as emperor would afford the most unsuspicious and decisive proof of the dignity of his person, and of the justice of his cause, while, at the same time, it would give him a hope of support from the empire. but the same cabal which opposed him in his hereditary dominions, laboured also to counteract him in his canvass for the imperial dignity. no austrian prince, they maintained, ought to ascend the throne; least of all ferdinand, the bigoted persecutor of their religion, the slave of spain and of the jesuits. to prevent this, the crown had been offered, even during the lifetime of matthias, to the duke of bavaria, and on his refusal, to the duke of savoy. as some difficulty was experienced in settling with the latter the conditions of acceptance, it was sought, at all events, to delay the election till some decisive blow in austria or bohemia should annihilate all the hopes of ferdinand, and incapacitate him from any competition for this dignity. the members of the union left no stone unturned to gain over from ferdinand the electorate of saxony, which was bound to austrian interests; they represented to this court the dangers with which the protestant religion, and even the constitution of the empire, were threatened by the principles of this prince and his spanish alliance. by the elevation of ferdinand to the imperial throne, germany, they further asserted, would be involved in the private quarrels of this prince, and bring upon itself the arms of bohemia. but in spite of all opposing influences, the day of election was fixed, ferdinand summoned to it as lawful king of bohemia, and his electoral vote, after a fruitless resistance on the part of the bohemian estates, acknowledged to be good. the votes of the three ecclesiastical electorates were for him, saxony was favourable to him, brandenburg made no opposition, and a decided majority declared him emperor in . thus he saw the most doubtful of his crowns placed first of all on his head; but a few days after he lost that which he had reckoned among the most certain of his possessions. while he was thus elected emperor in frankfort, he was in prague deprived of the bohemian throne. almost all of his german hereditary dominions had in the meantime entered into a formidable league with the bohemians, whose insolence now exceeded all bounds. in a general diet, the latter, on the th of august, , proclaimed the emperor an enemy to the bohemian religion and liberties, who by his pernicious counsels had alienated from them the affections of the late emperor, had furnished troops to oppress them, had given their country as a prey to foreigners, and finally, in contravention of the national rights, had bequeathed the crown, by a secret compact, to spain: they therefore declared that he had forfeited whatever title he might otherwise have had to the crown, and immediately proceeded to a new election. as this sentence was pronounced by protestants, their choice could not well fall upon a roman catholic prince, though, to save appearances, some voices were raised for bavaria and savoy. but the violent religious animosities which divided the evangelical and the reformed parties among the protestants, impeded for some time the election even of a protestant king; till at last the address and activity of the calvinists carried the day from the numerical superiority of the lutherans. among all the princes who were competitors for this dignity, the elector palatine frederick v. had the best grounded claims on the confidence and gratitude of the bohemians; and among them all, there was no one in whose case the private interests of particular estates, and the attachment of the people, seemed to be justified by so many considerations of state. frederick v. was of a free and lively spirit, of great goodness of heart, and regal liberality. he was the head of the calvinistic party in germany, the leader of the union, whose resources were at his disposal, a near relation of the duke of bavaria, and a son-in-law of the king of great britain, who might lend him his powerful support. all these considerations were prominently and successfully brought forward by the calvinists, and frederick v. was chosen king by the assembly at prague, amidst prayers and tears of joy. the whole proceedings of the diet at prague had been premeditated, and frederick himself had taken too active a share in the matter to feel at all surprised at the offer made to him by the bohemians. but now the immediate glitter of this throne dazzled him, and the magnitude both of his elevation and his delinquency made his weak mind to tremble. after the usual manner of pusillanimous spirits, he sought to confirm himself in his purpose by the opinions of others; but these opinions had no weight with him when they ran counter to his own cherished wishes. saxony and bavaria, of whom he sought advice, all his brother electors, all who compared the magnitude of the design with his capacities and resources, warned him of the danger into which he was about to rush. even king james of england preferred to see his son-in-law deprived of this crown, than that the sacred majesty of kings should be outraged by so dangerous a precedent. but of what avail was the voice of prudence against the seductive glitter of a crown? in the moment of boldest determination, when they are indignantly rejecting the consecrated branch of a race which had governed them for two centuries, a free people throws itself into his arms. confiding in his courage, they choose him as their leader in the dangerous career of glory and liberty. to him, as to its born champion, an oppressed religion looks for shelter and support against its persecutors. could he have the weakness to listen to his fears, and to betray the cause of religion and liberty? this religion proclaims to him its own preponderance, and the weakness of its rival,--two-thirds of the power of austria are now in arms against austria itself, while a formidable confederacy, already formed in transylvania, would, by a hostile attack, further distract even the weak remnant of its power. could inducements such as these fail to awaken his ambition, or such hopes to animate and inflame his resolution? a few moments of calm consideration would have sufficed to show the danger of the undertaking, and the comparative worthlessness of the prize. but the temptation spoke to his feelings; the warning only to his reason. it was his misfortune that his nearest and most influential counsellors espoused the side of his passions. the aggrandizement of their master's power opened to the ambition and avarice of his palatine servants an unlimited field for their gratification; this anticipated triumph of their church kindled the ardour of the calvinistic fanatic. could a mind so weak as that of ferdinand resist the delusions of his counsellors, who exaggerated his resources and his strength, as much as they underrated those of his enemies; or the exhortations of his preachers, who announced the effusions of their fanatical zeal as the immediate inspiration of heaven? the dreams of astrology filled his mind with visionary hopes; even love conspired, with its irresistible fascination, to complete the seduction. "had you," demanded the electress, "confidence enough in yourself to accept the hand of a king's daughter, and have you misgivings about taking a crown which is voluntarily offered you? i would rather eat bread at thy kingly table, than feast at thy electoral board." frederick accepted the bohemian crown. the coronation was celebrated with unexampled pomp at prague, for the nation displayed all its riches in honour of its own work. silesia and moravia, the adjoining provinces to bohemia, followed their example, and did homage to frederick. the reformed faith was enthroned in all the churches of the kingdom; the rejoicings were unbounded, their attachment to their new king bordered on adoration. denmark and sweden, holland and venice, and several of the dutch states, acknowledged him as lawful sovereign, and frederick now prepared to maintain his new acquisition. his principal hopes rested on prince bethlen gabor of transylvania. this formidable enemy of austria, and of the roman catholic church, not content with the principality which, with the assistance of the turks, he had wrested from his legitimate prince, gabriel bathori, gladly seized this opportunity of aggrandizing himself at the expense of austria, which had hesitated to acknowledge him as sovereign of transylvania. an attack upon hungary and austria was concerted with the bohemian rebels, and both armies were to unite before the capital. meantime, bethlen gabor, under the mask of friendship, disguised the true object of his warlike preparations, artfully promising the emperor to lure the bohemians into the toils, by a pretended offer of assistance, and to deliver up to him alive the leaders of the insurrection. all at once, however, he appeared in a hostile attitude in upper hungary. before him went terror, and devastation behind; all opposition yielded, and at presburg he received the hungarian crown. the emperor's brother, who governed in vienna, trembled for the capital. he hastily summoned general bucquoi to his assistance, and the retreat of the imperialists drew the bohemians, a second time, before the walls of vienna. reinforced by twelve thousand transylvanians, and soon after joined by the victorious army of bethlen gabor, they again menaced the capital with assault; all the country round vienna was laid waste, the navigation of the danube closed, all supplies cut off, and the horrors of famine were threatened. ferdinand, hastily recalled to his capital by this urgent danger, saw himself a second time on the brink of ruin. but want of provisions, and the inclement weather, finally compelled the bohemians to go into quarters, a defeat in hungary recalled bethlen gabor, and thus once more had fortune rescued the emperor. in a few weeks the scene was changed, and by his prudence and activity ferdinand improved his position as rapidly as frederick, by indolence and impolicy, ruined his. the estates of lower austria were regained to their allegiance by a confirmation of their privileges; and the few who still held out were declared guilty of `lese-majeste' and high treason. during the election of frankfort, he had contrived, by personal representations, to win over to his cause the ecclesiastical electors, and also maximilian, duke of bavaria, at munich. the whole issue of the war, the fate of frederick and the emperor, were now dependent on the part which the union and the league should take in the troubles of bohemia. it was evidently of importance to all the protestants of germany that the king of bohemia should be supported, while it was equally the interest of the roman catholics to prevent the ruin of the emperor. if the protestants succeeded in bohemia, all the roman catholic princes in germany might tremble for their possessions; if they failed, the emperor would give laws to protestant germany. thus ferdinand put the league, frederick the union, in motion. the ties of relationship and a personal attachment to the emperor, his brother-in-law, with whom he had been educated at ingolstadt, zeal for the roman catholic religion, which seemed to be in the most imminent peril, and the suggestions of the jesuits, combined with the suspicious movements of the union, moved the duke of bavaria, and all the princes of the league, to make the cause of ferdinand their own. according to the terms of a treaty with the emperor, which assured to the duke of bavaria compensation for all the expenses of the war, or the losses he might sustain, maximilian took, with full powers, the command of the troops of the league, which were ordered to march to the assistance of the emperor against the bohemian rebels. the leaders of the union, instead of delaying by every means this dangerous coalition of the league with the emperor, did every thing in their power to accelerate it. could they, they thought, but once drive the roman catholic league to take an open part in the bohemian war, they might reckon on similar measures from all the members and allies of the union. without some open step taken by the roman catholics against the union, no effectual confederacy of the protestant powers was to be looked for. they seized, therefore, the present emergency of the troubles in bohemia to demand from the roman catholics the abolition of their past grievances, and full security for the future exercise of their religion. they addressed this demand, which was moreover couched in threatening language, to the duke of bavaria, as the head of the roman catholics, and they insisted on an immediate and categorical answer. maximilian might decide for or against them, still their point was gained; his concession, if he yielded, would deprive the roman catholic party of its most powerful protector; his refusal would arm the whole protestant party, and render inevitable a war in which they hoped to be the conquerors. maximilian, firmly attached to the opposite party from so many other considerations, took the demands of the union as a formal declaration of hostilities, and quickened his preparations. while bavaria and the league were thus arming in the emperor's cause, negotiations for a subsidy were opened with the spanish court. all the difficulties with which the indolent policy of that ministry met this demand were happily surmounted by the imperial ambassador at madrid, count khevenhuller. in addition to a subsidy of a million of florins, which from time to time were doled out by this court, an attack upon the lower palatinate, from the side of the spanish netherlands, was at the same time agreed upon. during these attempts to draw all the roman catholic powers into the league, every exertion was made against the counter-league of the protestants. to this end, it was important to alarm the elector of saxony and the other evangelical powers, and accordingly the union were diligent in propagating a rumour that the preparations of the league had for their object to deprive them of the ecclesiastical foundations they had secularized. a written assurance to the contrary calmed the fears of the duke of saxony, whom moreover private jealousy of the palatine, and the insinuations of his chaplain, who was in the pay of austria, and mortification at having been passed over by the bohemians in the election to the throne, strongly inclined to the side of austria. the fanaticism of the lutherans could never forgive the reformed party for having drawn, as they expressed it, so many fair provinces into the gulf of calvinism, and rejecting the roman antichrist only to make way for an helvetian one. while ferdinand used every effort to improve the unfavourable situation of his affairs, frederick was daily injuring his good cause. by his close and questionable connexion with the prince of transylvania, the open ally of the porte, he gave offence to weak minds; and a general rumour accused him of furthering his own ambition at the expense of christendom, and arming the turks against germany. his inconsiderate zeal for the calvinistic scheme irritated the lutherans of bohemia, his attacks on image-worship incensed the papists of this kingdom against him. new and oppressive imposts alienated the affections of all his subjects. the disappointed hopes of the bohemian nobles cooled their zeal; the absence of foreign succours abated their confidence. instead of devoting himself with untiring energies to the affairs of his kingdom, frederick wasted his time in amusements; instead of filling his treasury by a wise economy, he squandered his revenues by a needless theatrical pomp, and a misplaced munificence. with a light-minded carelessness, he did but gaze at himself in his new dignity, and in the ill-timed desire to enjoy his crown, he forgot the more pressing duty of securing it on his head. but greatly as men had erred in their opinion of him, frederick himself had not less miscalculated his foreign resources. most of the members of the union considered the affairs of bohemia as foreign to the real object of their confederacy; others, who were devoted to him, were overawed by fear of the emperor. saxony and hesse darmstadt had already been gained over by ferdinand; lower austria, on which side a powerful diversion had been looked for, had made its submission to the emperor; and bethlen gabor had concluded a truce with him. by its embassies, the court of vienna had induced denmark to remain inactive, and to occupy sweden in a war with the poles. the republic of holland had enough to do to defend itself against the arms of the spaniards; venice and saxony remained inactive; king james of england was overreached by the artifice of spain. one friend after another withdrew; one hope vanished after another--so rapidly in a few months was every thing changed. in the mean time, the leaders of the union assembled an army;--the emperor and the league did the same. the troops of the latter were assembled under the banners of maximilian at donauwerth, those of the union at ulm, under the margrave of anspach. the decisive moment seemed at length to have arrived which was to end these long dissensions by a vigorous blow, and irrevocably to settle the relation of the two churches in germany. anxiously on the stretch was the expectation of both parties. how great then was their astonishment when suddenly the intelligence of peace arrived, and both armies separated without striking a blow! the intervention of france effected this peace, which was equally acceptable to both parties. the french cabinet, no longer swayed by the counsels of henry the great, and whose maxims of state were perhaps not applicable to the present condition of that kingdom, was now far less alarmed at the preponderance of austria, than of the increase which would accrue to the strength of the calvinists, if the palatine house should be able to retain the throne of bohemia. involved at the time in a dangerous conflict with its own calvinistic subjects, it was of the utmost importance to france that the protestant faction in bohemia should be suppressed before the huguenots could copy their dangerous example. in order therefore to facilitate the emperor's operations against the bohemians, she offered her mediation to the union and the league, and effected this unexpected treaty, of which the main article was, "that the union should abandon all interference in the affairs of bohemia, and confine the aid which they might afford to frederick the fifth, to his palatine territories." to this disgraceful treaty, the union were moved by the firmness of maximilian, and the fear of being pressed at once by the troops of the league, and a new imperial army which was on its march from the netherlands. the whole force of bavaria and the league was now at the disposal of the emperor to be employed against the bohemians, who by the pacification of ulm were abandoned to their fate. with a rapid movement, and before a rumour of the proceedings at ulm could reach there, maximilian appeared in upper austria, when the estates, surprised and unprepared for an enemy, purchased the emperor's pardon by an immediate and unconditional submission. in lower austria, the duke formed a junction with the troops from the low countries under bucquoi, and without loss of time the united imperial and bavarian forces, amounting to , men, entered bohemia. all the bohemian troops, which were dispersed over lower austria and moravia, were driven before them; every town which attempted resistance was quickly taken by storm; others, terrified by the report of the punishment inflicted on these, voluntarily opened their gates; nothing in short interrupted the impetuous career of maximilian. the bohemian army, commanded by the brave prince christian of anhalt, retreated to the neighbourhood of prague; where, under the walls of the city, maximilian offered him battle. the wretched condition in which he hoped to surprise the insurgents, justified the rapidity of the duke's movements, and secured him the victory. frederick's army did not amount to , men. eight thousand of these were furnished by the prince of anhalt; , were hungarians, whom bethlen gabor had despatched to his assistance. an inroad of the elector of saxony upon lusatia, had cut off all succours from that country, and from silesia; the pacification of austria put an end to all his expectations from that quarter; bethlen gabor, his most powerful ally, remained inactive in transylvania; the union had betrayed his cause to the emperor. nothing remained to him but his bohemians; and they were without goodwill to his cause, and without unity and courage. the bohemian magnates were indignant that german generals should be put over their heads; count mansfeld remained in pilsen, at a distance from the camp, to avoid the mortification of serving under anhalt and hohenlohe. the soldiers, in want of necessaries, became dispirited; and the little discipline that was observed, gave occasion to bitter complaints from the peasantry. it was in vain that frederick made his appearance in the camp, in the hope of reviving the courage of the soldiers by his presence, and of kindling the emulation of the nobles by his example. the bohemians had begun to entrench themselves on the white mountain near prague, when they were attacked by the imperial and bavarian armies, on the th november, . in the beginning of the action, some advantages were gained by the cavalry of the prince of anhalt; but the superior numbers of the enemy soon neutralized them. the charge of the bavarians and walloons was irresistible. the hungarian cavalry was the first to retreat. the bohemian infantry soon followed their example; and the germans were at last carried along with them in the general flight. ten cannons, composing the whole of frederick's artillery, were taken by the enemy; four thousand bohemians fell in the flight and on the field; while of the imperialists and soldiers of the league only a few hundred were killed. in less than an hour this decisive action was over. frederick was seated at table in prague, while his army was thus cut to pieces. it is probable that he had not expected the attack on this day, since he had ordered an entertainment for it. a messenger summoned him from table, to show him from the walls the whole frightful scene. he requested a cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours for deliberation; but eight was all the duke of bavaria would allow him. frederick availed himself of these to fly by night from the capital, with his wife, and the chief officers of his army. this flight was so hurried, that the prince of anhalt left behind him his most private papers, and frederick his crown. "i know now what i am," said this unfortunate prince to those who endeavoured to comfort him; "there are virtues which misfortune only can teach us, and it is in adversity alone that princes learn to know themselves." prague was not irretrievably lost when frederick's pusillanimity abandoned it. the light troops of mansfeld were still in pilsen, and were not engaged in the action. bethlen gabor might at any moment have assumed an offensive attitude, and drawn off the emperor's army to the hungarian frontier. the defeated bohemians might rally. sickness, famine, and the inclement weather, might wear out the enemy; but all these hopes disappeared before the immediate alarm. frederick dreaded the fickleness of the bohemians, who might probably yield to the temptation to purchase, by the surrender of his person, the pardon of the emperor. thurn, and those of this party who were in the same condemnation with him, found it equally inexpedient to await their destiny within the walls of prague. they retired towards moravia, with a view of seeking refuge in transylvania. frederick fled to breslau, where, however, he only remained a short time. he removed from thence to the court of the elector of brandenburg, and finally took shelter in holland. the battle of prague had decided the fate of bohemia. prague surrendered the next day to the victors; the other towns followed the example of the capital. the estates did homage without conditions, and the same was done by those of silesia and moravia. the emperor allowed three months to elapse, before instituting any inquiry into the past. reassured by this apparent clemency, many who, at first, had fled in terror appeared again in the capital. all at once, however, the storm burst forth; forty-eight of the most active among the insurgents were arrested on the same day and hour, and tried by an extraordinary commission, composed of native bohemians and austrians. of these, twenty-seven, and of the common people an immense number, expired on the scaffold. the absenting offenders were summoned to appear to their trial, and failing to do so, condemned to death, as traitors and offenders against his catholic majesty, their estates confiscated, and their names affixed to the gallows. the property also of the rebels who had fallen in the field was seized. this tyranny might have been borne, as it affected individuals only, and while the ruin of one enriched another; but more intolerable was the oppression which extended to the whole kingdom, without exception. all the protestant preachers were banished from the country; the bohemians first, and afterwards those of germany. the `letter of majesty', ferdinand tore with his own hand, and burnt the seal. seven years after the battle of prague, the toleration of the protestant religion within the kingdom was entirely revoked. but whatever violence the emperor allowed himself against the religious privileges of his subjects, he carefully abstained from interfering with their political constitution; and while he deprived them of the liberty of thought, he magnanimously left them the prerogative of taxing themselves. the victory of the white mountain put ferdinand in possession of all his dominions. it even invested him with greater authority over them than his predecessors enjoyed, since their allegiance had been unconditionally pledged to him, and no letter of majesty now existed to limit his sovereignty. all his wishes were now gratified, to a degree surpassing his most sanguine expectations. it was now in his power to dismiss his allies, and disband his army. if he was just, there was an end of the war--if he was both magnanimous and just, punishment was also at an end. the fate of germany was in his hands; the happiness and misery of millions depended on the resolution he should take. never was so great a decision resting on a single mind; never did the blindness of one man produce so much ruin. this ebook was produced by david widger [note: there is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. d.w.] the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume the life of john of barneveld, v , - chapter vi. establishment of the condominium in the duchies--dissensions between the neuburgers and brandenburgers--occupation of julich by the brandenburgers assisted by the states-general--indignation in spain and at the court of the archdukes--subsidy despatched to brussels spinola descends upon aix-la-chapelle and takes possession of orsoy and other places--surrender of wesel--conference at xanten--treaty permanently dividing the territory between brandenburg and neuburg-- prohibition from spain--delays and disagreements. thus the 'condominium' had been peaceably established. three or four years passed away in the course of which the evils of a joint and undivided sovereignty of two rival houses over the same territory could not fail to manifest themselves. brandenburg, calvinist in religion, and for other reasons more intimately connected with and more favoured by the states' government than his rival, gained ground in the duchies. the palatine of neuburg, originally of lutheran faith like his father, soon manifested catholic tendencies, which excited suspicion in the netherlands. these suspicions grew into certainties at the moment when he espoused the sister of maximilian of bavaria and of the elector of cologne. that this close connection with the very heads of the catholic league could bode no good to the cause of which the states- general were the great promoters was self-evident. very soon afterwards the palatine, a man of mature age and of considerable talents, openly announced his conversion to the ancient church. obviously the sympathies of the states could not thenceforth fail to be on the side of brandenburg. the elector's brother died and was succeeded in the governorship of the condeminium by the elector's brother, a youth of eighteen. he took up his abode in cleve, leaving dusseldorf to be the sole residence of his co-stadholder. rivalry growing warmer, on account of this difference of religion, between the respective partisans of neuburg and brandenburg, an attempt was made in dusseldorf by a sudden entirely unsuspected rising of the brandenburgers to drive their antagonist colleagues and their portion of the garrison out of the city. it failed, but excited great anger. a more successful effort was soon afterwards made in julich; the neuburgers were driven out, and the brandenburgers remained in sole possession of the town and citadel, far the most important stronghold in the whole territory. this was partly avenged by the neuburgers, who gained absolute control of dusseldorf. here were however no important fortifications, the place being merely an agreeable palatial residence and a thriving mart. the states-general, not concealing their predilection for brandenburg, but under pretext of guarding the peace which they had done so much to establish, placed a garrison of infantry and a troop or two of horse in the citadel of julich. dire was the anger not unjustly excited in spain when the news of this violation of neutrality reached that government. julich, placed midway between liege and cologne, and commanding those fertile plains which make up the opulent duchy, seemed virtually converted into a province of the detested heretical republic. the german gate of the spanish netherlands was literally in the hands of its most formidable foe. the spaniards about the court of the archduke did not dissemble their rage. the seizure of julich was a stain upon his reputation, they cried. was it not enough, they asked, for the united provinces to have made a truce to the manifest detriment and discredit of spain, and to have treated her during all the negotiation with such insolence? were they now to be permitted to invade neutral territory, to violate public faith, to act under no responsibility save to their own will? what was left for them to do except to set up a tribunal in holland for giving laws to the whole of northern europe? arrogating to themselves absolute power over the controverted states of cleve, julich, and the dependencies, they now pretended to dispose of them at their pleasure in order at the end insolently to take possession of them for themselves. these were the egregious fruits of the truce, they said tauntingly to the discomfited archduke. it had caused a loss of reputation, the very soul of empires, to the crown of spain. and now, to conclude her abasement, the troops in flanders had been shaven down with such parsimony as to make the monarch seem a shopkeeper, not a king. one would suppose the obedient netherlands to be in the heart of spain rather than outlying provinces surrounded by their deadliest enemies. the heretics had gained possession of the government at aix-la-chapelle; they had converted the insignificant town of mulheim into a thriving and fortified town in defiance of cologne and to its manifest detriment, and in various other ways they had insulted the catholics throughout those regions. and who could wonder at such insolence, seeing that the army in flanders, formerly the terror of heretics, had become since the truce so weak as to be the laughing-stock of the united provinces? if it was expensive to maintain these armies in the obedient netherlands, let there be economy elsewhere, they urged. from india came gold and jewels. from other kingdoms came ostentation and a long series of vain titles for the crown of spain. flanders was its place of arms, its nursery of soldiers, its bulwark in europe, and so it should be preserved. there was ground for these complaints. the army at the disposition of the archduke had been reduced to infantry and a handful of cavalry. the peace establishment of the republic amounted to , foot, horse, besides the french and english regiments. so soon as the news of the occupation of julich was officially communicated to the spanish cabinet, a subsidy of , crowns was at once despatched to brussels. levies of walloons and germans were made without delay by order of archduke albert and under guidance of spinola, so that by midsummer the army was swollen to , foot and horse. with these the great genoese captain took the field in the middle of august. on the nd of that month the army was encamped on some plains mid-way between maestricht and aachen. there was profound mystery both at brussels and at the hague as to the objective point of these military movements. anticipating an attack upon julich, the states had meantime strengthened the garrison of that important place with infantry and a regiment of horse. it seemed scarcely probable therefore that spinola would venture a foolhardy blow at a citadel so well fortified and defended. moreover, there was not only no declaration of war, but strict orders had been given by each of the apparent belligerents to their military commanders to abstain from all offensive movements against the adversary. and now began one of the strangest series of warlike evolution's that were ever recorded. maurice at the head of an army of , foot and horse manoeuvred in the neighbourhood of his great antagonist and professional rival without exchanging a blow. it was a phantom campaign, the prophetic rehearsal of dreadful marches and tragic histories yet to be, and which were to be enacted on that very stage and on still wider ones during a whole generation of mankind. that cynical commerce in human lives which was to become one of the chief branches of human industry in the century had already begun. spinola, after hovering for a few days in the neighbourhood, descended upon the imperial city of aachen (aix-la-chapelle). this had been one of the earliest towns in germany to embrace the reformed religion, and up to the close of the sixteenth century the control of the magistracy had been in the hands of the votaries of that creed. subsequently the catholics had contrived to acquire and keep the municipal ascendency, secretly supported by archduke albert, and much oppressing the protestants with imprisonments, fines, and banishment, until a new revolution which had occurred in the year , and which aroused the wrath of spinola. certainly, according to the ideas of that day, it did not seem unnatural in a city where a very large majority of the population were protestants that protestants should have a majority in the town council. it seemed, however, to those who surrounded the archduke an outrage which could no longer be tolerated, especially as a garrison of germans, supposed to have formed part of the states' army, had recently been introduced into the town. aachen, lying mostly on an extended plain, had but very slight fortifications, and it was commanded by a neighbouring range of hills. it had no garrison but the germans. spinola placed a battery or two on the hills, and within three days the town surrendered. the inhabitants expected a scene of carnage and pillage, but not a life was lost. no injury whatever was inflicted on person or property, according to the strict injunctions of the archduke. the germans were driven out, and other germans then serving under catholic banners were put in their places to protect the catholic minority, to whose keeping the municipal government was now confided. spinola, then entering the territory of cleve, took session of orsoy, an important place on the rhine, besides duren, duisburg, kaster, greevenbroek and berchem. leaving garrisons in these places, he razed the fortifications of mulheim, much to the joy of the archbishop and his faithful subjects of cologne, then crossed the rhine at rheinberg, and swooped down upon wesel. this flourishing and prosperous city had formerly belonged to the duchy of cleve. placed at the junction of the rhine and lippe and commanding both rivers, it had become both powerful and protestant, and had set itself up as a free imperial city, recognising its dukes no longer as sovereigns, but only as protectors. so fervent was it in the practice of the reformed religion that it was called the rhenish geneva, the cradle of german calvinism. so important was its preservation considered to the cause of protestantism that the states-general had urged its authorities to accept from them a garrison. they refused. had they complied, the city would have been saved, because it was the rule in this extraordinary campaign that the belligerents made war not upon each other, nor in each others territory, but against neutrals and upon neutral soil. the catholic forces under spinola or his lieutenants, meeting occasionally and accidentally with the protestants under maurice or his generals, exchanged no cannon shots or buffets, but only acts of courtesy; falling away each before the other, and each ceding to the other with extreme politeness the possession of towns which one had preceded the other in besieging. the citizens of wesel were amazed at being attacked, considering themselves as imperial burghers. they regretted too late that they had refused a garrison from maurice, which would have prevented spinola from assailing them. they had now nothing for it but to surrender, which they did within three days. the principal condition of the capitulation was that when julich should be given up by the states wesel should be restored to its former position. spinola then took and garrisoned the city of xanten, but went no further. having weakened his army sufficiently by the garrisons taken from it for the cities captured by him, he declined to make any demonstration upon the neighbouring and important towns of emmerich and rees. the catholic commander falling back, the protestant moved forward. maurice seized both emmerich and rees, and placed garrisons within them, besides occupying goch, kranenburg, gennip, and various places in the county of mark. this closed the amicable campaign. spinola established himself and his forces near wesel. the prince encamped near rees. the two armies were within two hours' march of each other. the duke of neuburg--for the palatine had now succeeded on his father's death to the ancestral dukedom and to his share of the condominium of the debateable provinces--now joined spinola with an army of foot and horse. the young prince of brandenburg came to maurice with cavalry and an infantry regiment of the elector- palatine. negotiations destined to be as spectral and fleeting as the campaign had been illusory now began. the whole protestant world was aflame with indignation at the loss of wesel. the states' government had already proposed to deposit julich in the hands of a neutral power if the archduke would abstain from military movements. but albert, proud of his achievements in aachen, refused to pause in his career. let them make the deposit first, he said. both belligerents, being now satiated with such military glory as could flow from the capture of defenceless cities belonging to neutrals, agreed to hold conferences at xanten. to this town, in the duchy of cleve, and midway between the rival camps, came sir henry wotton and sir dudley carleton, ambassadors of great britain; de refuge and de russy, the special and the resident ambassador of france at the hague; chancellor peter pecquius and counsellor visser, to represent the archdukes; seven deputies from the united provinces, three from the elector of cologne, three from brandenburg, three from neuburg, and two from the elector- palatine, as representative of the protestant league. in the earlier conferences the envoys of the archduke and of the elector of cologne were left out, but they were informed daily of each step in the negotiation. the most important point at starting was thought to be to get rid of the 'condominium.' there could be no harmony nor peace in joint possession. the whole territory should be cut provisionally in halves, and each possessory prince rule exclusively within the portion assigned to him. there might also be an exchange of domain between the two every six months. as for wesel and julich, they could remain respectively in the hands then holding them, or the fortifications of julich might be dismantled and wesel restored to the status quo. the latter alternative would have best suited the states, who were growing daily more irritated at seeing wesel, that protestant stronghold, with an exclusively calvinistic population, in the hands of catholics. the spanish ambassador at brussels remonstrated, however, at the thought of restoring his precious conquest, obtained without loss of time, money, or blood, into the hands of heretics, at least before consultation with the government at madrid and without full consent of the king. "how important to your majesty's affairs in flanders," wrote guadaleste to philip, "is the acquisition of wesel may be seen by the manifest grief of your enemies. they see with immense displeasure your royal ensigns planted on the most important place on the rhine, and one which would become the chief military station for all the armies of flanders to assemble in at any moment. "as no acquisition could therefore be greater, so your majesty should never be deprived of it without thorough consideration of the case. the archduke fears, and so do his ministers, that if we refuse to restore wesel, the united provinces would break the truce. for my part i believe, and there are many who agree with me, that they would on the contrary be more inclined to stand by the truce, hoping to obtain by negotiation that which it must be obvious to them they cannot hope to capture by force. but let wesel be at once restored. let that be done which is so much desired by the united provinces and other great enemies and rivals of your majesty, and what security will there be that the same provinces will not again attempt the same invasion? is not the example of julich fresh? and how much more important is wesel! julich was after all not situate on their frontiers, while wesel lies at their principal gates. your majesty now sees the good and upright intentions of those provinces and their friends. they have made a settlement between brandenburg and neuburg, not in order to breed concord but confusion between those two, not tranquillity for the country, but greater turbulence than ever before. nor have they done this with any other thought than that the united provinces might find new opportunities to derive the same profit from fresh tumults as they have already done so shamelessly from those which are past. after all i don't say that wesel should never be restored, if circumstances require it, and if your majesty, approving the treaty of xanten, should sanction the measure. but such a result should be reached only after full consultation with your majesty, to whose glorious military exploits these splendid results are chiefly owing." the treaty finally decided upon rejected the principle of alternate possession, and established a permanent division of the territory in dispute between brandenburg and neuburg. the two portions were to be made as equal as possible, and lots were to be thrown or drawn by the two princes for the first choice. to the one side were assigned the duchy of cleve, the county of mark, and the seigniories of ravensberg and ravenstein, with some other baronies and feuds in brabant and flanders; to the other the duchies of julich and berg with their dependencies. each prince was to reside exclusively within the territory assigned to him by lot. the troops introduced by either party were to be withdrawn, fortifications made since the preceding month of may to be razed, and all persons who had been expelled, or who had emigrated, to be restored to their offices, property, or benefices. it was also stipulated that no place within the whole debateable territory should be put in the hands of a third power. these articles were signed by the ambassadors of france and england, by the deputies of the elector-palatine and of the united provinces, all binding their superiors to the execution of the treaty. the arrangement was supposed to refer to the previous conventions between those two crowns, with the republic, and the protestant princes and powers. count zollern, whom we have seen bearing himself so arrogantly as envoy from the emperor rudolph to henry iv., was now despatched by matthias on as fruitless a mission to the congress at xanten, and did his best to prevent the signature of the treaty, except with full concurrence of the imperial government. he likewise renewed the frivolous proposition that the emperor should hold all the provinces in sequestration until the question of rightful sovereignty should be decided. the "proud and haggard" ambassador was not more successful in this than in the diplomatic task previously entrusted to him, and he then went to brussels, there to renew his remonstrances, menaces, and intrigues. for the treaty thus elaborately constructed, and in appearance a triumphant settlement of questions so complicated and so burning as to threaten to set christendom at any moment in a blaze, was destined to an impotent and most unsatisfactory conclusion. the signatures were more easily obtained than the ratifications. execution was surrounded with insurmountable difficulties which in negotiation had been lightly skipped over at the stroke of a pen. at the very first step, that of military evacuation, there was a stumble. maurice and spinola were expected to withdraw their forces, and to undertake to bring in no troops in the future, and to make no invasion of the disputed territory. but spinola construed this undertaking as absolute; the prince as only binding in consequence of, with reference to, and for the duration of; the treaty of xanten. the ambassadors and other commissioners, disgusted with the long controversy which ensued, were making up their minds to depart when a courier arrived from spain, bringing not a ratification but strict prohibition of the treaty. the articles were not to be executed, no change whatever was to be made, and, above all, wesel was not to be restored without fresh negotiations with philip, followed by his explicit concurrence. thus the whole great negotiation began to dissolve into a shadowy, unsatisfactory pageant. the solid barriers which were to imprison the vast threatening elements of religious animosity and dynastic hatreds, and to secure a peaceful future for christendom, melted into films of gossamer, and the great war of demons, no longer to be quelled by the commonplaces of diplomatic exorcism, revealed its close approach. the prospects of europe grew blacker than ever. the ambassadors, thoroughly disheartened and disgusted, all took their departure from xanten, and the treaty remained rather a by-word than a solution or even a suggestion. "the accord could not be prevented," wrote archduke albert to philip, "because it depended alone on the will of the signers. nor can the promise to restore wesel be violated, should julich be restored. who can doubt that such contravention would arouse great jealousies in france, england, the united provinces, and all the members of the heretic league of germany? who can dispute that those interested ought to procure the execution of the treaty? suspicions will not remain suspicions, but they light up the flames of public evil and disturbance. either your majesty wishes to maintain the truce, in which case wesel must be restored, or to break the truce, a result which is certain if wesel be retained. but the reasons which induced your majesty to lay down your arms remain the same as ever. our affairs are not looking better, nor is the requisition of wesel of so great importance as to justify our involving flanders in a new and more atrocious war than that which has so lately been suspended. the restitution is due to the tribunal of public faith. it is a great advantage when actions done for the sole end of justice are united to that of utility. consider the great successes we have had. how well the affairs of aachen and mulbeim have been arranged; those of the duke of neuburg how completely re-established. the catholic cause, always identical with that of the house of austria, remains in great superiority to the cause of the heretics. we should use these advantages well, and to do so we should not immaturely pursue greater ones. fortune changes, flies when we most depend on her, and delights in making her chief sport of the highest quality of mortals." thus wrote the archduke sensibly, honourably from his point of view, and with an intelligent regard to the interests of spain and the catholic cause. after months of delay came conditional consent from madrid to the conventions, but with express condition that there should be absolute undertaking on the part of the united provinces never to send or maintain troops in the duchies. tedious and futile correspondence followed between brussels, the hague, london, paris. but the difficulties grew every moment. it was a penelope's web of negotiation, said one of the envoys. amid pertinacious and wire-drawn subtleties, every trace of practical business vanished. neuburg departed to look after his patrimonial estates; leaving his interests in the duchies to be watched over by the archduke. even count zollern, after six months of wrangling in brussels, took his departure. prince maurice distributed his army in various places within the debateable land, and spinola did the same, leaving a garrison of foot and horse in the important city of wesel. the town and citadel of julich were as firmly held by maurice for the protestant cause. thus the duchies were jointly occupied by the forces of catholicism and protestantism, while nominally possessed and administered by the princes of brandenburg and neuburg. and so they were destined to remain until that thirty years' war, now so near its outbreak, should sweep over the earth, and bring its fiery solution at last to all these great debates. chapter vii. proud position of the republic--france obeys her--hatred of carleton --position and character of aerssens--claim for the "third"--recall of aerssens--rivalry between maurice and barneveld, who always sustains the separate sovereignties of the provinces--conflict between church and state added to other elements of discord in the commonwealth--religion a necessary element in the life of all classes. thus the republic had placed itself in as proud a position as it was possible for commonwealth or kingdom to occupy. it had dictated the policy and directed the combined military movements of protestantism. it had gathered into a solid mass the various elements out of which the great germanic mutiny against rome, spain, and austria had been compounded. a breathing space of uncertain duration had come to interrupt and postpone the general and inevitable conflict. meantime the republic was encamped upon the enemy's soil. france, which had hitherto commanded, now obeyed. england, vacillating and discontented, now threatening and now cajoling, saw for the time at least its influence over the councils of the netherlands neutralized by the genius of the great statesman who still governed the provinces, supreme in all but name. the hatred of the british government towards the republic, while in reality more malignant than at any previous period, could now only find vent in tremendous, theological pamphlets, composed by the king in the form of diplomatic instructions, and hurled almost weekly at the heads of the states-general, by his ambassador, dudley carleton. few men hated barneveld more bitterly than did carleton. i wish to describe as rapidly, but as faithfully, as i can the outline at least of the events by which one of the saddest and most superfluous catastrophes in modern history was brought about. the web was a complex one, wrought apparently of many materials; but the more completely it is unravelled the more clearly we shall detect the presence of the few simple but elemental fibres which make up the tissue of most human destinies, whether illustrious or obscure, and out of which the most moving pictures of human history are composed. the religious element, which seems at first view to be the all pervading and controlling one, is in reality rather the atmosphere which surrounds and colours than the essence which constitutes the tragedy to be delineated. personal, sometimes even paltry, jealousy; love of power, of money, of place; rivalry between civil and military ambition for predominance in a free state; struggles between church and state to control and oppress each other; conflict between the cautious and healthy, but provincial and centrifugal, spirit on the one side, and the ardent centralizing, imperial, but dangerous, instinct on the other, for ascendancy in a federation; mortal combat between aristocracy disguised in the plebeian form of trading and political corporations and democracy sheltering itself under a famous sword and an ancient and illustrious name;--all these principles and passions will be found hotly at work in the melancholy five years with which we are now to be occupied, as they have entered, and will always enter, into every political combination in the great tragi-comedy which we call human history. as a study, a lesson, and a warning, perhaps the fate of barneveld is as deserving of serious attention as most political tragedies of the last few centuries. francis aerssens, as we have seen, continued to be the dutch ambassador after the murder of henry iv. many of the preceding pages of this volume have been occupied with his opinions, his pictures, his conversations, and his political intrigues during a memorable epoch in the history of the netherlands and of france. he was beyond all doubt one of the ablest diplomatists in europe. versed in many languages, a classical student, familiar with history and international law, a man of the world and familiar with its usages, accustomed to associate with dignity and tact on friendliest terms with sovereigns, eminent statesmen, and men of letters; endowed with a facile tongue, a fluent pen, and an eye and ear of singular acuteness and delicacy; distinguished for unflagging industry and singular aptitude for secret and intricate affairs;--he had by the exercise of these various qualities during a period of nearly twenty years at the court of henry the great been able to render inestimable services to the republic which he represented. of respectable but not distinguished lineage, not a hollander, but a belgian by birth, son of cornelis aerssens, grefter of the states-general, long employed in that important post, he had been brought forward from a youth by barneveld and early placed by him in the diplomatic career, of which through his favour and his own eminent talents he had now achieved the highest honours. he had enjoyed the intimacy and even the confidence of henry iv., so far as any man could be said to possess that monarch's confidence, and his friendly relations and familiar access to the king gave him political advantages superior to those of any of his colleagues at the same court. acting entirely and faithfully according to the instructions of the advocate of holland, he always gratefully and copiously acknowledged the privilege of being guided and sustained in the difficult paths he had to traverse by so powerful and active an intellect. i have seldom alluded in terms to the instructions and despatches of the chief, but every position, negotiation, and opinion of the envoy--and the reader has seen many of them--is pervaded by their spirit. certainly the correspondence of aerssens is full to overflowing of gratitude, respect, fervent attachment to the person and exalted appreciation of the intellect and high character of the advocate. there can be no question of aerssen's consummate abilities. whether his heart were as sound as his head, whether his protestations of devotion had the ring of true gold or not, time would show. hitherto barneveld had not doubted him, nor had he found cause to murmur at barneveld. but the france of henry iv., where the dutch envoy was so all-powerful, had ceased to exist. a duller eye than that of aerssens could have seen at a glance that the potent kingdom and firm ally of the republic had been converted, for a long time to come at least, into a spanish province. the double spanish marriages (that of the young louis xiii. with the infanta anna, and of his sister with the infante, one day to be philip iv.), were now certain, for it was to make them certain that the knife of ravaillac had been employed. the condition precedent to those marriages had long been known. it was the renunciation of the alliance between france and holland. it was the condemnation to death, so far as france had the power to condemn her to death, of the young republic. had not don pedro de toledo pompously announced this condition a year and a half before? had not henry spurned the bribe with scorn? and now had not francis aerssens been the first to communicate to his masters the fruit which had already ripened upon henry's grave? as we have seen, he had revealed these intrigues long before they were known to the world, and the french court knew that he had revealed them. his position had become untenable. his friendship for henry could not be of use to him with the delicate-featured, double-chinned, smooth and sluggish florentine, who had passively authorized and actively profited by her husband's murder. it was time for the envoy to be gone. the queen-regent and concini thought so. and so did villeroy and sillery and the rest of the old servants of the king, now become pensionaries of spain. but aerssens did not think so. he liked his position, changed as it was. he was deep in the plottings of bouillon and conde and the other malcontents against the queen-regent. these schemes, being entirely personal, the rank growth of the corruption and apparent disintegration of france, were perpetually changing, and could be reduced to no principle. it was a mere struggle of the great lords of france to wrest places, money, governments, military commands from the queen-regent, and frantic attempts on her part to save as much as possible of the general wreck for her lord and master concini. it was ridiculous to ascribe any intense desire on the part of the duc de bouillon to aid the protestant cause against spain at that moment, acting as he was in combination with conde, whom we have just seen employed by spain as the chief instrument to effect the destruction of france and the bastardy of the queen's children. nor did the sincere and devout protestants who had clung to the cause through good and bad report, men like duplessis-mornay, for example, and those who usually acted with him, believe in any of these schemes for partitioning france on pretence of saving protestantism. but bouillon, greatest of all french fishermen in troubled waters, was brother-in-law of prince maurice of nassau, and aerssens instinctively felt that the time had come when he should anchor himself to firm holding ground at home. the ambassador had also a personal grievance. many of his most secret despatches to the states-general in which he expressed himself very freely, forcibly, and accurately on the general situation in france, especially in regard to the spanish marriages and the treaty of hampton court, had been transcribed at the hague and copies of them sent to the french government. no baser act of treachery to an envoy could be imagined. it was not surprising that aerssens complained bitterly of the deed. he secretly suspected barneveld, but with injustice, of having played him this evil turn, and the incident first planted the seeds of the deadly hatred which was to bear such fatal fruit. "a notable treason has been played upon me," he wrote to jacques de maldere, "which has outraged my heart. all the despatches which i have been sending for several months to m. de barneveld have been communicated by copy in whole or in extracts to this court. villeroy quoted from them at our interview to-day, and i was left as it were without power of reply. the despatches were long, solid, omitting no particularity for giving means to form the best judgment of the designs and intrigues of this court. no greater damage could be done to me and my usefulness. all those from whom i have hitherto derived information, princes and great personages, will shut themselves up from me . . . . what can be more ticklish than to pass judgment on the tricks of those who are governing this state? this single blow has knocked me down completely. for i was moving about among all of them, making my profit of all, without any reserve. m. de barneveld knew by this means the condition of this kingdom as well as i do. certainly in a well-ordered republic it would cost the life of a man who had thus trifled with the reputation of an ambassador. i believe m. de barneveld will be sorry, but this will never restore to me the confidence which i have lost. if one was jealous of my position at this court, certainly i deserved rather pity from those who should contemplate it closely. if one wished to procure my downfall in order to raise oneself above me, there was no need of these tricks. i have been offering to resign my embassy this long time, which will now produce nothing but thorns for me. how can i negotiate after my private despatches have been read? l'hoste, the clerk of villeroy, was not so great a criminal as the man who revealed my despatches; and l'hoste was torn by four horses after his death. four months long i have been complaining of this to m. de barneveld. . . . patience! i am groaning without being able to hope for justice. i console myself, for my term of office will soon arrive. would that my embassy could have finished under the agreeable and friendly circumstances with which it began. the man who may succeed me will not find that this vile trick will help him much . . . . pray find out whence and from whom this intrigue has come." certainly an envoy's position could hardly be more utterly compromised. most unquestionably aerssens had reason to be indignant, believing as he did that his conscientious efforts in the service of his government had been made use of by his chief to undermine his credit and blast his character. there was an intrigue between the newly appointed french minister, de russy, at the hague and the enemies of aerssens to represent him to his own government as mischievous, passionate, unreasonably vehement in supporting the claims and dignity of his own country at the court to which he was accredited. not often in diplomatic history has an ambassador of a free state been censured or removed for believing and maintaining in controversy that his own government is in the right. it was natural that the french government should be disturbed by the vivid light which he had flashed upon their pernicious intrigues with spain to the detriment of the republic, and at the pertinacity with which he resisted their preposterous claim to be reimbursed for one-third of the money which the late king had advanced as a free subsidy towards the war of the netherlands for independence. but no injustice could be more outrageous than for the envoy's own government to unite with the foreign state in damaging the character of its own agent for the crime of fidelity to itself. of such cruel perfidy aerssens had been the victim, and he most wrongfully suspected his chief as its real perpetrator. the claim for what was called the "third" had been invented after the death of henry. as already explained, the "third" was not a gift from england to the netherlands. it was a loan from england to france, or more properly a consent to abstain from pressing for payment for this proportion of an old debt. james, who was always needy, had often desired, but never obtained, the payment of this sum from henry. now that the king was dead, he applied to the regent's government, and the regent's government called upon the netherlands, to pay the money. aerssens, as the agent of the republic, protested firmly against such claim. the money had been advanced by the king as a free gift, as his contribution to a war in which he was deeply interested, although he was nominally at peace with spain. as to the private arrangements between france and england, the republic, said the dutch envoy, was in no sense bound by them. he was no party to the treaty of hampton court, and knew nothing of its stipulations. courtiers and politicians in plenty at the french court, now that henry was dead, were quite sure that they had heard him say over and over again that the netherlands had bound themselves to pay the third. they persuaded mary de' medici that she likewise had often heard him say so, and induced her to take high ground on the subject in her interviews with aerssens. the luckless queen, who was always in want of money to satisfy the insatiable greed of her favourites, and to buy off the enmity of the great princes, was very vehement--although she knew as much of those transactions as of the finances of prester john or the lama of thibet --in maintaining this claim of her government upon the states. "after talking with the ministers," said aerssens, "i had an interview with the queen. i knew that she had been taught her lesson, to insist on the payment of the third. so i did not speak at all of the matter, but talked exclusively and at length of the french regiments in the states' service. she was embarrassed, and did not know exactly what to say. at last, without replying a single word to what i had been saying, she became very red in the face, and asked me if i were not instructed to speak of the money due to england. whereupon i spoke in the sense already indicated. she interrupted me by saying she had a perfect recollection that the late king intended and understood that we were to pay the third to england, and had talked with her very seriously on the subject. if he were living, he would think it very strange, she said, that we refused; and so on. "soissons, too, pretends to remember perfectly that such were the king's intentions. 'tis a very strange thing, sir. every one knows now the secrets of the late king, if you are willing to listen. yet he was not in the habit of taking all the world into his confidence. the queen takes her opinions as they give them to her. 'tis a very good princess, but i am sorry she is so ignorant of affairs. as she says she remembers, one is obliged to say one believes her. but i, who knew the king so intimately, and saw him so constantly, know that he could only have said that the third was paid in acquittal of his debts to and for account of the king of england, and not that we were to make restitution thereof. the chancellor tells me my refusal has been taken as an affront by the queen, and puysieux says it is a contempt which she can't swallow." aerssens on his part remained firm; his pertinacity being the greater as he thoroughly understood the subject which he was talking about, an advantage which was rarely shared in by those with whom he conversed. the queen, highly scandalized by his demeanour, became from that time forth his bitter enemy, and, as already stated, was resolved to be rid of him. nor was the envoy at first desirous of remaining. he had felt after henry's death and sully's disgrace, and the complete transformation of the france which he had known, that his power of usefulness was gone. "our enemies," he said, "have got the advantage which i used to have in times past, and i recognize a great coldness towards us, which is increasing every day." nevertheless, he yielded reluctantly to barneveld's request that he should for the time at least remain at his post. later on, as the intrigues against him began to unfold themselves, and his faithful services were made use of at home to blacken his character and procure his removal, he refused to resign, as to do so would be to play into the hands of his enemies, and by inference at least to accuse himself of infidelity to his trust. but his concealed rage and his rancor grew more deadly every day. he was fully aware of the plots against him, although he found it difficult to trace them to their source. "i doubt not," he wrote to jacques de maldere, the distinguished diplomatist and senator, who had recently returned from his embassy to england, "that this beautiful proposition of de russy has been sent to your province of zealand. does it not seem to you a plot well woven as well in holland as at this court to remove me from my post with disreputation? what have i done that should cause the queen to disapprove my proceedings? since the death of the late king i have always opposed the third, which they have been trying to fix upon the treasury, on the ground that henry never spoke to me of restitution, that the receipts given were simple ones, and that the money given was spent for the common benefit of france and the states under direction of the king's government. but i am expected here to obey m. de villeroy, who says that it was the intention of the late king to oblige us to make the payment. i am not accustomed to obey authority if it be not supported by reason. it is for my masters to reply and to defend me. the queen has no reason to complain. i have maintained the interests of my superiors. but this is not the cause of the complaints. my misfortune is that all my despatches have been sent from holland in copy to this court. most of them contained free pictures of the condition and dealings of those who govern here. m. de villeroy has found himself depicted often, and now under pretext of a public negotiation he has found an opportunity of revenging himself . . . . besides this cause which villeroy has found for combing my head, russy has given notice here that i have kept my masters in the hopes of being honourably exempted from the claims of this government. the long letter which i wrote to m. de barneveld justifies my proceedings." it is no wonder that the ambassador was galled to the quick by the outrage which those concerned in the government were seeking to put upon him. how could an honest man fail to be overwhelmed with rage and anguish at being dishonoured before the world by his masters for scrupulously doing his duty, and for maintaining the rights and dignity of his own country? he knew that the charges were but pretexts, that the motives of his enemies were as base as the intrigues themselves, but he also knew that the world usually sides with the government against the individual, and that a man's reputation is rarely strong enough to maintain itself unsullied in a foreign land when his own government stretches forth its hand not to, shield, but to stab him. [see the similarity of aerssens position to that of motley years later, in the biographical sketch of motley by oliver wendell holmes. d.w.] "i know," he said, "that this plot has been woven partly in holland and partly here by good correspondence, in order to drive me from my post with disreputation. to this has tended the communication of my despatches to make me lose my best friends. this too was the object of the particular imparting to de russy of all my propositions, in order to draw a complaint against me from this court. "but as i have discovered this accurately, i have resolved to offer to my masters the continuance of my very humble service for such time and under such conditions as they may think good to prescribe. i prefer forcing my natural and private inclinations to giving an opportunity for the ministers of this kingdom to discredit us, and to my enemies to succeed in injuring me, and by fraud and malice to force me from my post . . . i am truly sorry, being ready to retire, wishing to have an honourable testimony in recompense of my labours, that one is in such hurry to take advantage of my fall. i cannot believe that my masters wish to suffer this. they are too prudent, and cannot be ignorant of the treachery which has been practised on me. i have maintained their cause. if they have chosen to throw down the fruits of my industry, the blame should be imputed to those who consider their own ambition more than the interests of the public . . . . what envoy will ever dare to speak with vigour if he is not sustained by the government at home? . . . . . . my enemies have misrepresented my actions, and my language as passionate, exaggerated, mischievous, but i have no passion except for the service of my superiors. they say that i have a dark and distrustful disposition, but i have been alarmed at the alliance now forming here with the king of spain, through the policy of m. de villeroy. i was the first to discover this intrigue, which they thought buried in the bosom of the triumvirate. i gave notice of it to my lords the states as in duty bound. it all came back to the government in the copies furnished of my secret despatches. this is the real source of the complaints against me. the rest of the charges, relating to the third and other matters, are but pretexts. to parry the blow, they pretend that all that is said and done with the spaniard is but feigning. who is going to believe that? has not the pope intervened in the affair? . . . i tell you they are furious here because i have my eyes open. i see too far into their affairs to suit their purposes. a new man would suit them better." his position was hopelessly compromised. he remained in paris, however, month after month, and even year after year, defying his enemies both at the queen's court and in holland, feeding fat the grudge he bore to barneveld as the supposed author of the intrigue against him, and drawing closer the personal bands which united him to bouillon and through him to prince maurice. the wrath of the ambassador flamed forth without disguise against barneveld and all his adherents when his removal, as will be related on a subsequent page, was at last effected. and his hatred was likely to be deadly. a man with a shrewd, vivid face, cleanly cut features and a restless eye; wearing a close-fitting skull cap, which gave him something the lock of a monk, but with the thoroughbred and facile demeanour of one familiar with the world; stealthy, smooth, and cruel, a man coldly intellectual, who feared no one, loved but few, and never forgot or forgave; francis d'aerssens, devoured by ambition and burning with revenge, was a dangerous enemy. time was soon to show whether it was safe to injure him. barneveld, from well-considered motives of public policy, was favouring his honourable recall. but he allowed a decorous interval of more than three years to elapse in which to terminate his affairs, and to take a deliberate departure from that french embassy to which the advocate had originally promoted him, and in which there had been so many years of mutual benefit and confidence between the two statesmen. he used no underhand means. he did not abuse the power of the states-general which he wielded to cast him suddenly and brutally from the distinguished post which he occupied, and so to attempt to dishonour him before the world. nothing could be more respectful and conciliatory than the attitude of the government from first to last towards this distinguished functionary. the republic respected itself too much to deal with honourable agents whose services it felt obliged to dispense with as with vulgar malefactors who had been detected in crime. but aerssens believed that it was the advocate who had caused copies of his despatches to be sent to the french court, and that he had deliberately and for a fixed purpose been undermining his influence at home and abroad and blackening his character. all his ancient feelings of devotion, if they had ever genuinely existed towards his former friend and patron, turned to gall. he was almost ready to deny that he had ever respected barneveld, appreciated his public services, admired his intellect, or felt gratitude for his guidance. a fierce controversy--to which at a later period it will be necessary to call the reader's attention, because it is intimately connected with dark scenes afterwards to be enacted--took place between the late ambassador and cornelis van der myle. meantime barneveld pursued the policy which he had marked out for the states-general in regard to france. certainly it was a difficult problem. there could be no doubt that metamorphosed france could only be a dangerous ally for the republic. it was in reality impossible that she should be her ally at all. and this barneveld knew. still it was better, so he thought, for the netherlands that france should exist than that it should fall into utter decomposition. france, though under the influence of spain, and doubly allied by marriage contracts to spain, was better than spain itself in the place of france. this seemed to be the only choice between two evils. should the whole weight of the states-general be thrown into the scale of the malcontent and mutinous princes against the established but tottering government of france, it was difficult to say how soon spain might literally, as well as inferentially, reign in paris. between the rebellion and the legitimate government, therefore, barneveld did not hesitate. france, corporate france, with which the republic had bean so long in close and mutually advantageous alliance, and from whose late monarch she had received such constant and valuable benefits, was in the advocate's opinion the only power to be recognised, papal and spanish though it was. the advantage of an alliance with the fickle, self- seeking, and ever changing mutiny, that was seeking to make use of protestantism to effect its own ends, was in his eyes rather specious than real. by this policy, while making the breach irreparable with aerssens and as many leading politicians as aerssens could influence, he first brought on himself the stupid accusation of swerving towards spain. dull murmurs like these, which were now but faintly making themselves heard against the reputation of the advocate, were destined ere long to swell into a mighty roar; but he hardly listened now to insinuations which seemed infinitely below his contempt. he still effectually ruled the nation through his influence in the states of holland, where he reigned supreme. thus far barneveld and my lords the states-general were one personage. but there was another great man in the state who had at last grown impatient of the advocate's power, and was secretly resolved to brook it no longer. maurice of nassau had felt himself too long rebuked by the genius of the advocate. the prince had perhaps never forgiven him for the political guardianship which he had exercised over him ever since the death of william the silent. he resented the leading strings by which his youthful footstep had been sustained, and which he seemed always to feel about his limbs so long as barneveld existed. he had never forgotten the unpalatable advice given to him by the advocate through the princess-dowager. the brief campaign in cleve and julich was the last great political operation in which the two were likely to act in even apparent harmony. but the rivalry between the two had already pronounced itself emphatically during the negotiations for the truce. the advocate had felt it absolutely necessary for the republic to suspend the war at the first moment when she could treat with her ancient sovereign on a footing of equality. spain, exhausted with the conflict, had at last consented to what she considered the humiliation of treating with her rebellious provinces as with free states over which she claimed no authority. the peace party, led by barneveld, had triumphed, notwithstanding the steady opposition of prince maurice and his adherents. why had maurice opposed the treaty? because his vocation was over, because he was the greatest captain of the age, because his emoluments, his consideration, his dignity before the world, his personal power, were all vastly greater in war than in his opinion they could possibly be in peace. it was easy for him to persuade himself that what was manifestly for his individual interest was likewise essential to the prosperity of the country. the diminution in his revenues consequent on the return to peace was made good to him, his brother, and his cousin, by most munificent endowments and pensions. and it was owing to the strenuous exertions of the advocate that these large sums were voted. a hollow friendship was kept up between the two during the first few years of the truce, but resentment and jealousy lay deep in maurice's heart. at about the period of the return of aerssens from his french embassy, the suppressed fire was ready to flame forth at the first fanning by that artful hand. it was impossible, so aerssens thought and whispered, that two heads could remain on one body politic. there was no room in the netherlands for both the advocate and the prince. barneveld was in all civil affairs dictator, chief magistrate, supreme judge; but he occupied this high station by the force of intellect, will, and experience, not through any constitutional provision. in time of war the prince was generalissimo, commander-in-chief of all the armies of the republic. yet constitutionally he was not captain-general at all. he was only stadholder of five out of seven provinces. barneveld suspected him of still wishing to make himself sovereign of the country. perhaps his suspicions were incorrect. yet there was every reason why maurice should be ambitious of that position. it would have been in accordance with the openly expressed desire of henry iv. and other powerful allies of the netherlands. his father's assassination had alone prevented his elevation to the rank of sovereign count of holland. the federal policy of the provinces had drifted into a republican form after their renunciation of their spanish sovereign, not because the people, or the states as representing the people, had deliberately chosen a republican system, but because they could get no powerful monarch to accept the sovereignty. they had offered to become subjects of protestant england and of catholic france. both powers had refused the offer, and refused it with something like contumely. however deep the subsequent regret on the part of both, there was no doubt of the fact. but the internal policy in all the provinces, and in all the towns, was republican. local self-government existed everywhere. each city magistracy was a little republic in itself. the death of william the silent, before he had been invested with the sovereign power of all seven provinces, again left that sovereignty in abeyance. was the supreme power of the union, created at utrecht in , vested in the states- general? they were beginning theoretically to claim it, but barneveld denied the existence of any such power either in law or fact. it was a league of sovereignties, he maintained; a confederacy of seven independent states, united for certain purposes by a treaty made some thirty years before. nothing could be more imbecile, judging by the light of subsequent events and the experience of centuries, than such an organization. the independent and sovereign republic of zealand or of groningen, for example, would have made a poor figure campaigning, or negotiating, or exhibiting itself on its own account before the world. yet it was difficult to show any charter, precedent, or prescription for the sovereignty of the states-general. necessary as such an incorporation was for the very existence of the union, no constitutional union had ever been enacted. practically the province of holland, representing more than half the population, wealth, strength, and intellect of the whole confederation, had achieved an irregular supremacy in the states-general. but its undeniable superiority was now causing a rank growth of envy, hatred, and jealousy throughout the country, and the great advocate of holland, who was identified with the province, and had so long wielded its power, was beginning to reap the full harvest of that malice. thus while there was so much of vagueness in theory and practice as to the sovereignty, there was nothing criminal on the part of maurice if he was ambitious of obtaining the sovereignty himself. he was not seeking to compass it by base artifice or by intrigue of any kind. it was very natural that he should be restive under the dictatorship of the advocate. if a single burgher and lawyer could make himself despot of the netherlands, how much more reasonable that he--with the noblest blood of europe in his veins, whose direct ancestor three centuries before had been emperor not only of those provinces, but of all germany and half christendom besides, whose immortal father had under god been the creator and saviour of the new commonwealth, had made sacrifices such as man never made for a people, and had at last laid down his life in its defence; who had himself fought daily from boyhood upwards in the great cause, who had led national armies from victory to victory till he had placed his country as a military school and a belligerent power foremost among the nations, and had at last so exhausted and humbled the great adversary and former tyrant that he had been glad of a truce while the rebel chief would have preferred to continue the war--should aspire to rule by hereditary right a land with which his name and his race were indelibly associated by countless sacrifices and heroic achievements. it was no crime in maurice to desire the sovereignty. it was still less a crime in barneveld to believe that he desired it. there was no special reason why the prince should love the republican form of government provided that an hereditary one could be legally substituted for it. he had sworn allegiance to the statutes, customs, and privileges of each of the provinces of which he had been elected stadholder, but there would have been no treason on his part if the name and dignity of stadholder should be changed by the states themselves for those of king or sovereign prince. yet it was a chief grievance against the advocate on the part of the prince that barneveld believed him capable of this ambition. the republic existed as a fact, but it had not long existed, nor had it ever received a formal baptism. so undefined was its constitution, and so conflicting were the various opinions in regard to it of eminent men, that it would be difficult to say how high-treason could be committed against it. great lawyers of highest intellect and learning believed the sovereign power to reside in the separate states, others found that sovereignty in the city magistracies, while during a feverish period of war and tumult the supreme function had without any written constitution, any organic law, practically devolved upon the states-general, who had now begun to claim it as a right. the republic was neither venerable by age nor impregnable in law. it was an improvised aristocracy of lawyers, manufacturers, bankers, and corporations which had done immense work and exhibited astonishing sagacity and courage, but which might never have achieved the independence of the provinces unaided by the sword of orange-nassau and the magic spell which belonged to that name. thus a bitter conflict was rapidly developing itself in the heart of the commonwealth. there was the civil element struggling with the military for predominance; sword against gown; states' rights against central authority; peace against war; above all the rivalry of one prominent personage against another, whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans. and now another element of discord had come, more potent than all the rest: the terrible, never ending, struggle of church against state. theological hatred which forty years long had found vent in the exchange of acrimony between the ancient and the reformed churches was now assuming other shapes. religion in that age and country was more than has often been the case in history the atmosphere of men's daily lives. but during the great war for independence, although the hostility between the two religious forces was always intense, it was modified especially towards the close of the struggle by other controlling influences. the love of independence and the passion for nationality, the devotion to ancient political privileges, was often as fervid and genuine in catholic bosoms as in those of protestants, and sincere adherents of the ancient church had fought to the death against spain in defence of chartered rights. at that very moment it is probable that half the population of the united provinces was catholic. yet it would be ridiculous to deny that the aggressive, uncompromising; self-sacrificing, intensely believing, perfectly fearless spirit of calvinism had been the animating soul, the motive power of the great revolt. for the provinces to have encountered spain and rome without calvinism, and relying upon municipal enthusiasm only, would have been to throw away the sword and fight with the scabbard. but it is equally certain that those hot gospellers who had suffered so much martyrdom and achieved so many miracles were fully aware of their power and despotic in its exercise. against the oligarchy of commercial and juridical corporations they stood there the most terrible aristocracy of all: the aristocracy of god's elect, predestined from all time and to all eternity to take precedence of and to look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures. it was inevitable that this aristocracy, which had done so much, which had breathed into a new-born commonwealth the breath of its life, should be intolerant, haughty, dogmatic. the church of rome, which had been dethroned after inflicting such exquisite tortures during its period of power, was not to raise its head. although so large a proportion of the inhabitants of the country were secretly or openly attached to that faith, it was a penal offence to participate openly in its rites and ceremonies. religious equality, except in the minds of a few individuals, was an unimaginable idea. there was still one church which arrogated to itself the sole possession of truth, the church of geneva. those who admitted the possibility of other forms and creeds were either atheists or, what was deemed worse than atheists, papists, because papists were assumed to be traitors also, and desirous of selling the country to spain. an undevout man in that land and at that epoch was an almost unknown phenomenon. religion was as much a recognized necessity of existence as food or drink. it were as easy to find people about without clothes as without religious convictions. the advocate, who had always adhered to the humble spirit of his ancestral device, "nil scire tutissima fedes," and almost alone among his fellow citizens (save those immediate apostles and pupils of his who became involved in his fate) in favour of religious toleration, began to be suspected of treason and papacy because, had he been able to give the law, it was thought he would have permitted such horrors as the public exercise of the roman catholic religion. the hissings and screamings of the vulgar against him as he moved forward on his stedfast course he heeded less than those of geese on a common. but there was coming a time when this proud and scornful statesman, conscious of the superiority conferred by great talents and unparalleled experience, would find it less easy to treat the voice of slanderers, whether idiots or powerful and intellectual enemies, with contempt. chapter viii. schism in the church a public fact--struggle for power between the sacerdotal and political orders--dispute between arminius and gomarus--rage of james i. at the appointment of voratius--arminians called remonstrants--hague conference--contra-remonstrance by gomarites of seven points to the remonstrants' five--fierce theological disputes throughout the country--ryswyk secession-- maurice wishes to remain neutral, but finds himself the chieftain of the contra-remonstrant party--the states of holland remonstrant by a large majority--the states-general contra-remonstrant--sir ralph winwood leaves the hague--three armies to take the field against protestantism. schism in the church had become a public fact, and theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country. the great practical question in the church had been as to the appointment of preachers, wardens, schoolmasters, and other officers. by the ecclesiastical arrangements of great power was conceded to the civil authority in church matters, especially in regard to such appointments, which were made by a commission consisting of four members named by the churches and four by the magistrates in each district. barneveld, who above all things desired peace in the church, had wished to revive this ordinance, and in it had been resolved by the states of holland that each city or village should, if the magistracy approved, provisionally conform to it. the states of utrecht made at the same time a similar arrangement. it was the controversy which has been going on since the beginning of history and is likely to be prolonged to the end of time--the struggle for power between the sacerdotal and political orders; the controversy whether priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests. this was the practical question involved in the fierce dispute as to dogma. the famous duel between arminius and gomarus; the splendid theological tournaments which succeeded; six champions on a side armed in full theological panoply and swinging the sharpest curtal axes which learning, passion, and acute intellect could devise, had as yet produced no beneficent result. nobody had been convinced by the shock of argument, by the exchange of those desperate blows. the high council of the hague had declared that no difference of opinion in the church existed sufficient to prevent fraternal harmony and happiness. but gomarus loudly declared that, if there were no means of putting down the heresy of arminius, there would before long be a struggle such as would set province against province, village against village, family against family, throughout the land. he should be afraid to die in such doctrine. he shuddered that any one should dare to come before god's tribunal with such blasphemies. meantime his great adversary, the learned and eloquent, the musical, frolicsome, hospitable heresiarch was no more. worn out with controversy, but peaceful and happy in the convictions which were so bitterly denounced by gomarus and a large proportion of both preachers and laymen in the netherlands, and convinced that the schism which in his view had been created by those who called themselves the orthodox would weaken the cause of protestantism throughout europe, arminius died at the age of forty-nine. the magistrates throughout holland, with the exception of a few cities, were arminian, the preachers gomarian; for arminius ascribed to the civil authority the right to decide upon church matters, while gomarus maintained that ecclesiastical affairs should be regulated in ecclesiastical assemblies. the overseers of leyden university appointed conrad vorstius to be professor of theology in place of arminius. the selection filled to the brim the cup of bitterness, for no man was more audaciously latitudinarian than he. he was even suspected of socinianism. there came a shriek from king james, fierce and shrill enough to rouse arminius from his grave. james foamed to the mouth at the insolence of the overseers in appointing such a monster of infidelity to the professorship. he ordered his books to be publicly burned in st. paul's churchyard and at both universities, and would have burned the professor himself with as much delight as torquemada or peter titelman ever felt in roasting their victims, had not the day for such festivities gone by. he ordered the states of holland on pain of for ever forfeiting his friendship to exclude vorstius at once from the theological chair and to forbid him from "nestling anywhere in the country." he declared his amazement that they should tolerate such a pest as conrad vorstius. had they not had enough of the seed sown by that foe of god, arminius? he ordered the states-general to chase the blasphemous monster from the land, or else he would cut off all connection with their false and heretic churches and make the other reformed churches of europe do the same, nor should the youth of england ever be allowed to frequent the university of leyden. in point of fact the professor was never allowed to qualify, to preach, or to teach; so tremendous was the outcry of peter plancius and many orthodox preachers, echoing the wrath of the king. he lived at gouda in a private capacity for several years, until the synod of dordrecht at last publicly condemned his opinions and deprived him of his professorship. meantime, the preachers who were disciples of arminius had in a private assembly drawn up what was called a remonstrance, addressed to the states of holland, and defending themselves from the reproach that they were seeking change in the divine service and desirous of creating tumult and schism. this remonstrance, set forth by the pen of the famous uytenbogaert, whom gomarus called the court trumpeter, because for a long time he had been prince maurice's favourite preacher, was placed in the hands of barneveld, for delivery to the states of holland. thenceforth the arminians were called remonstrants. the hague conference followed, six preachers on a side, and the states of holland exhorted to fraternal compromise. until further notice, they decreed that no man should be required to believe more than had been laid down in the five points: i. god has from eternity resolved to choose to eternal life those who through his grace believe in jesus christ, and in faith and obedience so continue to the end, and to condemn the unbelieving and unconverted to eternal damnation. ii. jesus christ died for all; so, nevertheless, that no one actually except believers is redeemed by his death. iii. man has not the saving belief from himself, nor out of his free will, but he needs thereto god's grace in christ. iv. this grace is the beginning, continuation, and completion of man's salvation; all good deeds must be ascribed to it, but it does not work irresistibly. v. god's grace gives sufficient strength to the true believers to overcome evil; but whether they cannot lose grace should be more closely examined before it should be taught in full security. afterwards they expressed themselves more distinctly on this point, and declared that a true believer, through his own fault, can fall away from god and lose faith. before the conference, however, the gomarite preachers had drawn up a contra-remonstrance of seven points in opposition to the remonstrants' five. they demanded the holding of a national synod to settle the difference between these five and seven points, or the sending of them to foreign universities for arbitration, a mutual promise being given by the contending parties to abide by the decision. thus much it has been necessary to state concerning what in the seventeenth century was called the platform of the two great parties: a term which has been perpetuated in our own country, and is familiar to all the world in the nineteenth. these were the seven points: i. god has chosen from eternity certain persons out of the human race, which in and with adam fell into sin and has no more power to believe and convert itself than a dead man to restore himself to life, in order to make them blessed through christ; while he passes by the rest through his righteous judgment, and leaves them lying in their sins. ii. children of believing parents, as well as full-grown believers, are to be considered as elect so long as they with action do not prove the contrary. iii. god in his election has not looked at the belief and the repentance of the elect; but, on the contrary, in his eternal and unchangeable design, has resolved to give to the elect faith and stedfastness, and thus to make them blessed. iv. he, to this end, in the first place, presented to them his only begotten son, whose sufferings, although sufficient for the expiation of all men's sins, nevertheless, according to god's decree, serves alone to the reconciliation of the elect. v. god causest he gospel to be preached to them, making the same through the holy ghost, of strength upon their minds; so that they not merely obtain power to repent and to believe, but also actually and voluntarily do repent and believe. vi. such elect, through the same power of the holy ghost through which they have once become repentant and believing, are kept in such wise that they indeed through weakness fall into heavy sins; but can never wholly and for always lose the true faith. vii. true believers from this, however, draw no reason for fleshly quiet, it being impossible that they who through a true faith were planted in christ should bring forth no fruits of thankfulness; the promises of god's help and the warnings of scripture tending to make their salvation work in them in fear and trembling, and to cause them more earnestly to desire help from that spirit without which they can do nothing. there shall be no more setting forth of these subtle and finely wrought abstractions in our pages. we aspire not to the lofty heights of theological and supernatural contemplation, where the atmosphere becomes too rarefied for ordinary constitutions. rather we attempt an objective and level survey of remarkable phenomena manifesting themselves on the earth; direct or secondary emanations from those distant spheres. for in those days, and in that land especially, theology and politics were one. it may be questioned at least whether this practical fusion of elements, which may with more safety to the commonwealth be kept separate, did not tend quite as much to lower and contaminate the religious sentiments as to elevate the political idea. to mix habitually the solemn phraseology which men love to reserve for their highest and most sacred needs with the familiar slang of politics and trade seems to our generation not a very desirable proceeding. the aroma of doubly distilled and highly sublimated dogma is more difficult to catch than to comprehend the broader and more practical distinctions of every-day party strife. king james was furious at the thought that common men--the vulgar, the people in short--should dare to discuss deep problems of divinity which, as he confessed, had puzzled even his royal mind. barneveld modestly disclaimed the power of seeing with absolute clearness into things beyond the reach of the human intellect. but the honest netherlanders were not abashed by thunder from the royal pulpit, nor perplexed by hesitations which darkened the soul of the great advocate. in burghers' mansions, peasants' cottages, mechanics' back-parlours, on board herring smacks, canal boats, and east indiamen; in shops, counting- rooms, farmyards, guard-rooms, ale-houses; on the exchange, in the tennis-court, on the mall; at banquets, at burials, christenings, or bridals; wherever and whenever human creatures met each other, there was ever to be found the fierce wrangle of remonstrant and contra- remonstrant, the hissing of red-hot theological rhetoric, the pelting of hostile texts. the blacksmith's iron cooled on the anvil, the tinker dropped a kettle half mended, the broker left a bargain unclinched, the scheveningen fisherman in his wooden shoes forgot the cracks in his pinkie, while each paused to hold high converse with friend or foe on fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge; losing himself in wandering mazes whence there was no issue. province against province, city against city, family against family; it was one vast scene of bickering, denunciation, heart-burnings, mutual excommunication and hatred. alas! a generation of mankind before, men had stood banded together to resist, with all the might that comes from union, the fell spirit of the holy inquisition, which was dooming all who had wandered from the ancient fold or resisted foreign tyranny to the axe, the faggot, the living grave. there had been small leisure then for men who fought for fatherland, and for comparative liberty of conscience, to tear each others' characters in pieces, and to indulge in mutual hatreds and loathing on the question of predestination. as a rule the population, especially of the humbler classes, and a great majority of the preachers were contra-remonstrant; the magistrates, the burgher patricians, were remonstrant. in holland the controlling influence was remonstrant; but amsterdam and four or five other cities of that province held to the opposite doctrine. these cities formed therefore a small minority in the states assembly of holland sustained by a large majority in the states-general. the province of utrecht was almost unanimously remonstrant. the five other provinces were decidedly contra-remonstrant. it is obvious therefore that the influence of barneveld, hitherto so all- controlling in the states-general, and which rested on the complete submission of the states of holland to his will, was tottering. the battle-line between church and state was now drawn up; and it was at the same time a battle between the union and the principles of state sovereignty. it had long since been declared through the mouth of the advocate, but in a solemn state manifesto, that my lords the states-general were the foster-fathers and the natural protectors of the church, to whom supreme authority in church matters belonged. the contra-remonstrants, on the other hand, maintained that all the various churches made up one indivisible church, seated above the states, whether provincial or general, and governed by the holy ghost acting directly upon the congregations. as the schism grew deeper and the states-general receded from the position which they had taken up under the lead of the advocate, the scene was changed. a majority of the provinces being contra-remonstrant, and therefore in favour of a national synod, the states-general as a body were of necessity for the synod. it was felt by the clergy that, if many churches existed, they would all remain subject to the civil authority. the power of the priesthood would thus sink before that of the burgher aristocracy. there must be one church--the church of geneva and heidelberg--if that theocracy which the gomarites meant to establish was not to vanish as a dream. it was founded on divine right, and knew no chief magistrate but the holy ghost. a few years before the states-general had agreed to a national synod, but with a condition that there should be revision of the netherland confession and the heidelberg catechism. against this the orthodox infallibilists had protested and thundered, because it was an admission that the vile arminian heresy might perhaps be declared correct. it was now however a matter of certainty that the states-general would cease to oppose the unconditional synod, because the majority sided with the priesthood. the magistrates of leyden had not long before opposed the demand for a synod on the ground that the war against spain was not undertaken to maintain one sect; that men of various sects and creeds had fought with equal valour against the common foe; that religious compulsion was hateful, and that no synod had a right to claim netherlanders as slaves. to thoughtful politicians like barneveld, hugo grotius, and men who acted with them, fraught with danger to the state, that seemed a doctrine by which mankind were not regarded as saved or doomed according to belief or deeds, but as individuals divided from all eternity into two classes which could never be united, but must ever mutually regard each other as enemies. and like enemies netherlanders were indeed beginning to regard each other. the man who, banded like brothers, had so heroically fought for two generations long for liberty against an almost superhuman despotism, now howling and jeering against each other like demons, seemed determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt. where the remonstrants were in the ascendant, they excited the hatred and disgust of the orthodox by their overbearing determination to carry their five points. a broker in rotterdam of the contra-remonstrant persuasion, being about to take a wife, swore he had rather be married by a pig than a parson. for this sparkling epigram he was punished by the remonstrant magistracy with loss of his citizenship for a year and the right to practise his trade for life. a casuistical tinker, expressing himself violently in the same city against the five points, and disrespectfully towards the magistrates for tolerating them, was banished from the town. a printer in the neighbourhood, disgusted with these and similar efforts of tyranny on the part of the dominant party, thrust a couple of lines of doggrel into the lottery: "in name of the prince of orange, i ask once and again, what difference between the inquisition of rotterdam and spain?" for this poetical effort the printer was sentenced to forfeit the prize that he had drawn in the lottery, and to be kept in prison on bread and water for a fortnight. certainly such punishments were hardly as severe as being beheaded or burned or buried alive, as would have been the lot of tinkers and printers and brokers who opposed the established church in the days of alva, but the demon of intolerance, although its fangs were drawn, still survived, and had taken possession of both parties in the reformed church. for it was the remonstrants who had possession of the churches at rotterdam, and the printer's distich is valuable as pointing out that the name of orange was beginning to identify itself with the contra- remonstrant faction. at this time, on the other hand, the gabble that barneveld had been bought by spanish gold, and was about to sell his country to spain, became louder than a whisper. men were not ashamed, from theological hatred, to utter such senseless calumnies against a venerable statesman whose long life had been devoted to the cause of his country's independence and to the death struggle with spain. as if because a man admitted the possibility of all his fellow-creatures being saved from damnation through repentance and the grace of god, he must inevitably be a traitor to his country and a pensionary of her deadliest foe. and where the contra-remonstrants held possession of the churches and the city governments, acts of tyranny which did not then seem ridiculous were of everyday occurrence. clergymen, suspected of the five points, were driven out of the pulpits with bludgeons or assailed with brickbats at the church door. at amsterdam, simon goulart, for preaching the doctrine of universal salvation and for disputing the eternal damnation of young children, was forbidden thenceforth to preach at all. but it was at the hague that the schism in religion and politics first fatally widened itself. henry rosaeus, an eloquent divine, disgusted with his colleague uytenbogaert, refused all communion with him, and was in consequence suspended. excluded from the great church, where he had formerly ministered, he preached every sunday at ryswyk, two or three miles distant. seven hundred contra-remonstrants of the hague followed their beloved pastor, and, as the roads to ryswyk were muddy and sloppy in winter, acquired the unsavoury nickname of the "mud beggars." the vulgarity of heart which suggested the appellation does not inspire to-day great sympathy with the remonstrant party, even if one were inclined to admit, what is not the fact, that they represented the cause of religious equality. for even the illustrious grotius was at that very moment repudiating the notion that there could be two religions in one state. "difference in public worship," he said, "was in kingdoms pernicious, but in free commonwealths in the highest degree destructive." it was the struggle between church and state for supremacy over the whole body politic. "the reformation," said grotius, "was not brought about by synods, but by kings, princes, and magistrates." it was the same eternal story, the same terrible two-edged weapon, "cujus reggio ejus religio," found in the arsenal of the first reformers, and in every politico- religious arsenal of history. "by an eternal decree of god," said gomarus in accordance with calvin, "it has been fixed who are to be saved and who damned. by his decree some are drawn to faith and godliness, and, being drawn, can never fall away. god leaves all the rest in the general corruption of human nature and their own misdeeds." "god has from eternity made this distinction in the fallen human race," said arminius, "that he pardons those who desist from their sins and put their faith in christ, and will give them eternal life, but will punish those who remain impenitent. moreover, it is pleasanter to god that all men should repent, and, coming to knowledge of truth, remain therein, but he compels none." this was the vital difference of dogma. and it was because they could hold no communion with those who believed in the efficacy of repentance that rosaeus and his followers had seceded to ryswyk, and the reformed church had been torn into two very unequal parts. but it is difficult to believe that out of this arid field of controversy so plentiful a harvest of hatred and civil convulsion could have ripened. more practical than the insoluble problems, whether repentance could effect salvation, and whether dead infants were hopelessly damned, was the question who should rule both church and state. there could be but one church. on that remonstrants and contra- remonstrants were agreed. but should the five points or the seven points obtain the mastery? should that framework of hammered iron, the confession and catechism, be maintained in all its rigidity around the sheepfold, or should the disciples of the arch-heretic arminius, the salvation-mongers, be permitted to prowl within it? was barneveld, who hated the reformed religion (so men told each other), and who believed in nothing, to continue dictator of the whole republic through his influence over one province, prescribing its religious dogmas and laying down its laws; or had not the time come for the states-general to vindicate the rights of the church, and to crush for ever the pernicious principle of state sovereignty and burgher oligarchy? the abyss was wide and deep, and the wild waves were raging more madly every hour. the advocate, anxious and troubled, but undismayed, did his best in the terrible emergency. he conferred with prince maurice on the subject of the ryswyk secession, and men said that he sought to impress upon him, as chief of the military forces, the necessity of putting down religious schism with the armed hand. the prince had not yet taken a decided position. he was still under the influence of john uytenbogaert, who with arminius and the advocate made up the fateful three from whom deadly disasters were deemed to have come upon the commonwealth. he wished to remain neutral. but no man can be neutral in civil contentions threatening the life of the body politic any more than the heart can be indifferent if the human frame is sawn in two. "i am a soldier," said maurice, "not a divine. these are matters of theology which i don't understand, and about which i don't trouble myself." on another occasion he is reported to have said, "i know nothing of predestination, whether it is green or whether it is blue; but i do know that the advocate's pipe and mine will never play the same tune." it was not long before he fully comprehended the part which he must necessarily play. to say that he was indifferent to religious matters was as ridiculous as to make a like charge against barneveld. both were religious men. it would have been almost impossible to find an irreligious character in that country, certainly not among its highest- placed and leading minds. maurice had strong intellectual powers. he was a regular attendant on divine worship, and was accustomed to hear daily religious discussions. to avoid them indeed, he would have been obliged not only to fly his country, but to leave europe. he had a profound reverence for the memory of his father, calbo y calbanista, as william the silent had called himself. but the great prince had died before these fierce disputes had torn the bosom of the reformed church, and while reformers still were brethren. but if maurice were a religious man, he was also a keen politician; a less capable politician, however, than a soldier, for he was confessedly the first captain of his age. he was not rapid in his conceptions, but he was sure in the end to comprehend his opportunity. the church, the people, the union--the sacerdotal, the democratic, and the national element--united under a name so potent to conjure with as the name of orange-nassau, was stronger than any other possible combination. instinctively and logically therefore the stadholder found himself the chieftain of the contra-remonstrant party, and without the necessity of an apostasy such as had been required of his great contemporary to make himself master of france. the power of barneveld and his partisans was now put to a severe strain. his efforts to bring back the hague seceders were powerless. the influence of uytenbogaert over the stadholder steadily diminished. he prayed to be relieved from his post in the great church of the hague, especially objecting to serve with a contra-remonstrant preacher whom maurice wished to officiate there in place of the seceding rosaeus. but the stadholder refused to let him go, fearing his influence in other places. "there is stuff in him," said maurice, "to outweigh half a dozen contra-remonstrant preachers." everywhere in holland the opponents of the five points refused to go to the churches, and set up tabernacles for themselves in barns, outhouses, canal-boats. and the authorities in town and village nailed up the barn-doors, and dispersed the canal boat congregations, while the populace pelted them with stones. the seceders appealed to the stadholder, pleading that at least they ought to be allowed to hear the word of god as they understood it without being forced into churches where they were obliged to hear arminian blasphemy. at least their barns might be left them. "barns," said maurice, "barns and outhouses! are we to preach in barns? the churches belong to us, and we mean to have them too." not long afterwards the stadholder, clapping his hand on his sword hilt, observed that these differences could only be settled by force of arms. an ominous remark and a dreary comment on the forty years' war against the inquisition. and the same scenes that were enacting in holland were going on in overyssel and friesland and groningen; but with a difference. here it was the five points men who were driven into secession, whose barns were nailed up, and whose preachers were mobbed. a lugubrious spectacle, but less painful certainly than the hangings and drownings and burnings alive in the previous century to prevent secession from the indivisible church. it is certain that stadholders and all other magistrates ever since the establishment of independence were sworn to maintain the reformed religion and to prevent a public divine worship under any other form. it is equally certain that by the th article of the act of union--the organic law of the confederation made at utrecht in --each province reserved for itself full control of religious questions. it would indeed seem almost unimaginable in a country where not only every province, but every city, every municipal board, was so jealous of its local privileges and traditional rights that the absolute disposition over the highest, gravest, and most difficult questions that can inspire and perplex humanity should be left to a general government, and one moreover which had scarcely come into existence. yet into this entirely illogical position the commonwealth was steadily drifting. the cause was simple enough. the states of holland, as already observed, were remonstrant by a large majority. the states- general were contra-remonstrant by a still greater majority. the church, rigidly attached to the confession and catechism, and refusing all change except through decree of a synod to be called by the general government which it controlled, represented the national idea. it thus identified itself with the republic, and was in sympathy with a large majority of the population. logic, law, historical tradition were on the side of the advocate and the states' right party. the instinct of national self-preservation, repudiating the narrow and destructive doctrine of provincial sovereignty, were on the side of the states-general and the church. meantime james of great britain had written letters both to the states of holland and the states-general expressing his satisfaction with the five points, and deciding that there was nothing objectionable in the doctrine of predestination therein set forth. he had recommended unity and peace in church and assembly, and urged especially that these controverted points should not be discussed in the pulpit to the irritation and perplexity of the common people. the king's letters had produced much satisfaction in the moderate party. barneveld and his followers were then still in the ascendant, and it seemed possible that the commonwealth might enjoy a few moments of tranquillity. that james had given a new exhibition of his astounding inconsistency was a matter very indifferent to all but himself, and he was the last man to trouble himself for that reproach. it might happen, when be should come to realize how absolutely he had obeyed the tuition of the advocate and favoured the party which he had been so vehemently opposing, that he might regret and prove willing to retract. but for the time being the course of politics had seemed running smoother. the acrimony of the relations between the english government and dominant party at the hague was sensibly diminished. the king seemed for an instant to have obtained a true insight into the nature of the struggle in the states. that it was after all less a theological than a political question which divided parties had at last dawned upon him. "if you have occasion to write on the subject," said barneveld, "it is above all necessary to make it clear that ecclesiastical persons and their affairs must stand under the direction of the sovereign authority, for our preachers understand that the disposal of ecclesiastical persons and affairs belongs to them, so that they alone are to appoint preachers, elders, deacons, and other clerical persons, and to regulate the whole ecclesiastical administration according to their pleasure or by a popular government which they call the community." "the counts of holland from all ancient times were never willing under the papacy to surrender their right of presentation to the churches and control of all spiritual and ecclesiastical benefices. the emperor charles and king philip even, as counts of holland, kept these rights to themselves, save that they in enfeoffing more than a hundred gentlemen, of noble and ancient families with seigniorial manors, enfeoffed them also with the right of presentation to churches and benefices on their respective estates. our preachers pretend to have won this right against the countship, the gentlemen, nobles, and others, and that it belongs to them." it is easy to see that this was a grave, constitutional, legal, and historical problem not to be solved offhand by vehement citations from scripture, nor by pragmatical dissertations from the lips of foreign ambassadors. "i believe this point," continued barneveld, "to be the most difficult question of all, importing far more than subtle searchings and conflicting sentiments as to passages of holy writ, or disputations concerning god's eternal predestination and other points thereupon depending. of these doctrines the archbishop of canterbury well observed in the conference of that one ought to teach them ascendendo and not descendendo." the letters of the king had been very favourably received both in the states-general and in the assembly of holland. "you will present the replies," wrote barneveld to the ambassador in london, "at the best opportunity and with becoming compliments. you may be assured and assure his majesty that they have been very agreeable to both assemblies. our commissioners over there on the east indian matter ought to know nothing of these letters." this statement is worthy of notice, as grotius was one of those commissioners, and, as will subsequently appear, was accused of being the author of the letters. "i understand from others," continued the advocate, "that the gentleman well known to you--[obviously francis aerssens]--is not well pleased that through other agency than his these letters have been written and presented. i think too that the other business is much against his grain, but on the whole since your departure he has accommodated himself to the situation." but if aerssens for the moment seemed quiet, the orthodox clergy were restive. "i know," said barneveld, "that some of our ministers are so audacious that of themselves, or through others, they mean to work by direct or indirect means against these letters. they mean to show likewise that there are other and greater differences of doctrine than those already discussed. you will keep a sharp eye on the sails and provide against the effect of counter-currents. to maintain the authority of their great mightinesses over ecclesiastical matters is more than necessary for the conservation of the country's welfare and of the true christian religion. as his majesty would not allow this principle to be controverted in his own realms, as his books clearly prove, so we trust that he will not find it good that it should be controverted in our state as sure to lead to a very disastrous and inequitable sequel." and a few weeks later the advocate and the whole party of toleration found themselves, as is so apt to be the case, between two fires. the catholics became as turbulent as the extreme calvinists, and already hopes were entertained by spanish emissaries and spies that this rapidly growing schism in the reformed church might be dexterously made use of to bring the provinces, when they should become fairly distracted, back to the dominion of spain. "our precise zealots in the reformed religion, on the one side," wrote barneveld, "and the jesuits on the other, are vigorously kindling the fire of discord. keep a good lookout for the countermine which is now working against the good advice of his majesty for mutual toleration. the publication of the letters was done without order, but i believe with good intent, in the hope that the vehemence and exorbitance of some precise puritans in our state should thereby be checked. that which is now doing against us in printed libels is the work of the aforesaid puritans and a few jesuits. the pretence in those libels, that there are other differences in the matter of doctrine, is mere fiction designed to make trouble and confusion." in the course of the autumn, sir ralph winwood departed from the hague, to assume soon afterwards in england the position of secretary of state for foreign affairs. he did not take personal farewell of barneveld, the advocate being absent in north holland at the moment, and detained there by indisposition. the leave-taking was therefore by letter. he had done much to injure the cause which the dutch statesman held vital to the republic, and in so doing he had faithfully carried out the instructions of his master. now that james had written these conciliatory letters to the states, recommending toleration, letters destined to be famous, barneveld was anxious that the retiring ambassador should foster the spirit of moderation, which for a moment prevailed at the british court. but he was not very hopeful in the matter. "mr. winwood is doubtless over there now," he wrote to caron. "he has promised in public and private to do all good offices. the states- general made him a present on his departure of the value of l . i fear nevertheless that he, especially in religious matters, will not do the best offices. for besides that he is himself very hard and precise, those who in this country are hard and precise have made a dead set at him, and tried to make him devoted to their cause, through many fictitious and untruthful means." the advocate, as so often before, sent assurances to the king that "the states-general, and especially the states of holland, were resolved to maintain the genuine reformed religion, and oppose all novelties and impurities conflicting with it," and the ambassador was instructed to see that the countermine, worked so industriously against his majesty's service and the honour and reputation of the provinces, did not prove successful. "to let the good mob play the master," he said, "and to permit hypocrites and traitors in the flemish manner to get possession of the government of the provinces and cities, and to cause upright patriots whose faith and truth has so long been proved, to be abandoned, by the blessing of god, shall never be accomplished. be of good heart, and cause these flemish tricks to be understood on every occasion, and let men know that we mean to maintain, with unchanging constancy, the authority of the government, the privileges and laws of the country, as well as the true reformed religion." the statesman was more than ever anxious for moderate counsels in the religious questions, for it was now more important than ever that there should be concord in the provinces, for the cause of protestantism, and with it the existence of the republic, seemed in greater danger than at any moment since the truce. it appeared certain that the alliance between france and spain had been arranged, and that the pope, spain, the grand-duke of tuscany, and their various adherents had organized a strong combination, and were enrolling large armies to take the field in the spring, against the protestant league of the princes and electors in germany. the great king was dead. the queen-regent was in the hand of spain, or dreamed at least of an impossible neutrality, while the priest who was one day to resume the part of henry, and to hang upon the sword of france the scales in which the opposing weights of protestantism and catholicism in europe were through so many awful years to be balanced, was still an obscure bishop. the premonitory signs of the great religious war in germany were not to be mistaken. in truth, the great conflict had already opened in the duchies, although few men as yet comprehended the full extent of that movement. the superficial imagined that questions of hereditary succession, like those involved in the dispute, were easily to be settled by statutes of descent, expounded by doctors of law, and sustained, if needful, by a couple of comparatively bloodless campaigns. those who looked more deeply into causes felt that the limitations of imperial authority, the ambition of a great republic, suddenly starting into existence out of nothing, and the great issues of the religious reformation, were matters not so easily arranged. when the scene shifted, as it was so soon to do, to the heart of bohemia, when protestantism had taken the holy roman empire by the beard in its ancient palace, and thrown imperial stadholders out of window, it would be evident to the blindest that something serious was taking place. meantime barneveld, ever watchful of passing events, knew that great forces of catholicism were marshalling in the south. three armies were to take the field against protestantism at the orders of spain and the pope. one at the door of the republic, and directed especially against the netherlands, was to resume the campaign in the duchies, and to prevent any aid going to protestant germany from great britain or from holland. another in the upper palatinate was to make the chief movement against the evangelical hosts. a third in austria was to keep down the protestant party in bohemia, hungary, austria, moravia, and silesia. to sustain this movement, it was understood that all the troops then in italy were to be kept all the winter on a war footing.' was this a time for the great protestant party in the netherlands to tear itself in pieces for a theological subtlety, about which good christians might differ without taking each other by the throat? "i do not lightly believe or fear," said the advocate, in communicating a survey of european affairs at that moment to carom "but present advices from abroad make me apprehend dangers." etext editor's bookmarks: aristocracy of god's elect determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt disputing the eternal damnation of young children fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge louis xiii. no man can be neutral in civil contentions no synod had a right to claim netherlanders as slaves philip iv. priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests schism in the church had become a public fact that cynical commerce in human lives the voice of slanderers theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country theology and politics were one to look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures whether dead infants were hopelessly damned whether repentance could effect salvation whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans work of the aforesaid puritans and a few jesuits transcriber's note: every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including anglicized spellings of the names of some places and people. some changes have been made. they are listed at the end of the text, apart from some changes of puctuation in the index. oe ligatures have been expanded. italic text has been marked with _underscores_. bold text has been marked with =equals signs=. epochs of history edited by edward e. morris, m.a. the era of the thirty years' war, - . s. r. gardiner. _epochs selected._ =the era of the protestant revolution.= by f. seebohm, author of 'the oxford reformers.'--_now ready._ =the crusades.= by the rev. g. w. cox, m.a.; author of the 'history of greece.'--_now ready._ =the thirty years' war, - .= by samuel rawson gardiner.--_nearly ready._ =the beginning of the middle ages=; charles the great and alfred; the history of england in its connexion with that of europe in the ninth century. by the very rev. r. w. church, m.a. dean of st. paul's. =the norman kings and the feudal system.= by the rev. a. h. johnson, m.a. =the early plantagenets= and their relation to the history of europe; the foundation and growth of constitutional government. by the rev. william stubbs, m.a. &c. regius professor of modern history in the university of oxford. =edward iii.= by the rev. w. warburton, m.a. =the houses of lancaster and york=; with the conquest and loss of france. by james gairdner of the public record office. =the age of elizabeth.= by the rev. m. creighton, m.a. =the stuarts and the puritan revolution.= by j. langton sanford, author of 'studies and illustrations of the great rebellion.' =the fall of the stuarts=; and western europe from to . by the rev. edward hale, m.a. assistant-master at eton. =the age of anne=. by edward e. morris, m.a. editor of the series. =frederick the great= and the =seven years' war=. by f. w. longman, of balliol college, oxford. =the war of american independence.= by john malcolm ludlow. each vol. mo., cloth, uniform. price, $ . . new york: scribner, armstrong & co. the thirty years' war - by samuel rawson gardiner _late student of christ church author of 'history of england from the accession of james i. to the disgrace of justice coke' and 'prince charles and the spanish marriage'_ new york: scribner, armstrong & co. . jas. b. rodgers co., electrotypers and printers, & n. sixth st., philadelphia. preface. if the present work should appear to be written for more advanced students than those for whom most if not all the other books of the series are designed, the nature of the subject must be pleaded in excuse. the mere fact that it relates exclusively to continental history makes it unlikely that junior pupils would approach it in any shape, and it is probably impossible to make the very complicated relations between the german states and other european nations interesting to those who are for the first time, or almost the first time, attempting to acquire historical knowledge. every history, to be a history, must have a unity of its own, and here we have no unity of national life such as that which is reflected in the institutions of england and france, not even the unity of a great race of sovereigns handing down the traditions of government from one generation to another. the unity of the subject which i have chosen must be sought in the growth of the principle of religious toleration as it is adopted or repelled by the institutions under which germany and france, the two principal nations with which we are concerned, are living. thus the history of the period may be compared to a gigantic dissolving view. as we enter upon it our minds are filled with german men and things. but germany fails to find the solution of the problem before it. gradually france comes with increasing distinctness before us. it succeeds where germany had failed, and occupies us more and more till it fills the whole field of action. but though, as i have said, the present work is not intended for young children, neither is it intended for those who require the results of original research. the data for a final judgment on the story are scattered in so many repositories that the germans themselves have now discovered that a complete investigation into one or other of the sections into which the war naturally falls, is sufficient work for any man. there must surely, however, be many, as well in the upper classes of schools as in more advanced life, who would be glad to know at second hand what is the result of recent inquiry in germany into the causes of the failure of the last attempt, before our own day, to constitute a united german nation. the writer who undertakes such a task encounters, with his eyes open, all the hazards to which a second-hand narrative is liable. his impressions are less sharp, and are exposed to greater risk of error than those of one who goes direct to the fountain head. he must be content to be the retailer rather than the manufacturer of history, knowing that each kind of work has its use. not that the present book is a mere collection of other men's words. if i have often adopted without much change the narrative or opinions of german writers, i have never said any thing which i have not made my own, by passing it through my own mind. to reproduce with mere paste and scissors passages from the writings of men so opposed to one another as ranke, gindely, ritter, opel, hurter, droysen, gfrörer, klopp, förster, villermont, uetterodt, koch, and others, would be to bewilder, not to instruct. and in forming my own opinions i have had the advantage not merely of being in the habit of writing from original documents, but of having studied at least some of the letters and state papers of the time. i have thus, for example, been able, from my knowledge of the despatches of sir robert anstruther, to neglect droysen's elaborate argument that christian iv. took part in the war through jealousy of gustavus adolphus; and to speak, in opposition to onno klopp, of the persistence of the dukes of mecklenburg in the support which they gave to the king of denmark. more valuable than the little additional knowledge thus obtained is the insight into the feelings and thoughts of the catholic princes gained by a very slight acquaintance with their own correspondence. to start by trying to understand what a man appears to himself, and only when that has been done, to try him by the standard of the judgment of others, is in my opinion the first canon of historical portraiture; and it is one which till very recent times has been more neglected by writers on the thirty years' war than by students of any other portion of history. my teachers in germany from whom i have borrowed so freely, and according to the rules of the series, without acknowledgment in foot-notes, will, i hope, accept this little book, not as an attempt to do that which they are so much better qualified to execute, but as an expression of the sympathy which an englishman cannot but feel for the misfortunes as well as the achievements of his kindred on the continent, and as an effort to tell something of the by-gone fortunes of their race to those amongst his own countrymen to whom, from youth or from circumstances of education, german literature is a sealed book. i have only to add that the dates are according to the new style. ten days must be deducted to bring them in accordance with those used at the time in england. contents. _events in english history not noticed in the text, or only referred to, are printed in italics._ chapter i. causes of the thirty years' war. section i.--_political institutions of germany_ ( - ). page national institutions of germany defective (_a_) as regarded the emperor (_b_) as regarded the great vassals attempts made to introduce order by giving a regular form to the diet these, though only partially successful, are not altogether useless constitution of the diet section ii.--_protestantism in germany_ ( - ). protestantism acceptable to the majority of the nation, but rejected by the emperor and the diet the result is a civil war, resulting in a compromise, called the peace of augsburg ( ). its terms being ambiguous on some important points, give rise to controversy but as protestantism is on the increase, the ambiguous points are, at first, construed by the protestants in their own favour the main points at issue relate to the right of protestants to hold bishoprics, and to the right of protestant princes to secularize church lands section iii.--_reaction against protestantism_ ( - ). theological controversies are carried on with bitterness amongst the protestants the catholics, accordingly, begin to gain ground and having the emperor and diet on their side, are able to use force as well as persuasion want of any popular representation prevents any fair settlement of the dispute section iv.--_three parties and three leaders_ ( - ). catholics, lutherans, and calvinists are respectively guided by maximilian duke of bavaria, john george elector of saxony, and christian of anhalt character and policy of maximilian dangerous to the protestants the protestants of the south more alive to the danger than the protestants of the north spread of calvinism, especially in the south, accounted for by the greater danger from catholic states character and policy of christian of anhalt _accession of james i. of england_ _gunpowder plot_ donauwörth occupied by maximilian formation of the protestant union and the catholic league the quarrel for the succession of cleves does not result in open war john george fruitlessly attempts to mediate between the catholics and the calvinists _marriage of frederick v., elector palatine, to elizabeth, daughter of james i. of england_ chapter ii. the bohemian revolution. section i.--_the house of austria and its subjects_ ( - ). political and religious dissensions between the rulers and their subjects the emperor rudolph, as king of bohemia, grants the royal charter to bohemia he is succeeded by matthias in spite of the intrigues of christian of anhalt matthias evades the charter ferdinand accepted by the bohemian diet as king by hereditary right the protestant churches on ecclesiastical lands declared illegal by the government of matthias; one at braunau shut up, one at klostergrab pulled down section ii.--_the revolution at prague_ (march-may ). mar. . meeting of the protestant estates of bohemia may . attack headed by thurn upon the regents at prague. martinitz and slawata thrown out of window. beginning of the thirty years' war appointment of thirty directors as a revolutionary government in bohemia section iii.--_the war in bohemia (may -february )._ aug. . bohemia invaded by the emperor's general, bucquoi. the bohemians look abroad for help. mansfeld brings troops to them. he besieges pilsen, whilst thurn makes head against bucquoi nov. . pilsen surrenders christian of anhalt urges frederick v., elector palatine, to intervene on behalf of the bohemians, and asks the duke of savoy to help them the duke of savoy talks of dividing the austrian feb. dominions with frederick section iv.--_ferdinand on his defence (march-november )._ mar. . death of matthias june . vienna besieged by thurn. ferdinand threatened by a deputation from the estates of lower austria he is delivered by a regiment of horse, and thurn raises the siege aug. . ferdinand ii. elected emperor aug. . frederick, elector palatine, elected king of bohemia, ferdinand having been previously deposed nov. . frederick crowned at prague chapter iii. imperialist victories in bohemia and the palatinate section i.--_the attack upon frederick (november -january )._ maximilian of bavaria prepares for war vienna fruitlessly attacked by bethlen gabor frederick finds no support in the union the north german princes agree to neutrality at mar. mühlhausen june . spinola, the spanish general, prepares to attack the palatinate, and the union, being frightened, signs the treaty of ulm, by which it agrees to observe neutrality towards the league june . maximilian, with tilly in command of his army, enters austria and compels the austrian estates to submit, whilst spinola reduces the western palatinate maximilian joins bucquoi, and enters bohemia sep. . frederick, having failed to organize resistance, joins the bohemian army nov. . defeat of frederick at the battle of the white hill, and submission of bohemia to the emperor jan. . frederick put to the ban of the empire section ii.--_the war in the upper palatinate (january-october )._ frederick does not abandon hope of regaining bohemia jan. ap. . the treaty of mentz dissolves the union bad character of mansfeld's army may mansfeld takes the offensive aug. recommencement of the war in the lower palatinate oct. mansfeld unable to hold out in the upper palatinate oct. . signs an engagement to disband his forces, but escapes with them to alsace section iii.--_frederick's allies (october -may )._ james i. of england proposes to take mansfeld into his pay, but he cannot agree with the house of commons, and is therefore in want of money he then tries to obtain a settlement of the german disputes with the aid of spain may a conference for the pacification of germany held at brussels frederick prepares for war, with the help of mansfeld, the margrave of baden, and christian of brunswick, the latter being a protestant administrator of the bishopric of halberstadt he ravages the diocese of paderborn section iv.--_the fight for the lower palatinate (april-july )._ ap. . frederick joins mansfeld. tilly defeats the margrave may . of baden at wimpfen june frederick, hopeful of success, refuses to consent to a treaty, and seizes the landgrave of darmstadt but is driven by tilly to retreat june . defeat of christian of brunswick at höchst july mansfeld abandons the palatinate, and frederick, after taking refuge at sedan, retires to the hague chapter iv. mansfeld and christian in north germany. section i.--_mansfeld's march into the netherlands (july-november )._ tilly proceeds to reduce the fortified places in the lower palatinate the electorate transferred from frederick to maximilian feb. change of feeling in north germany aug. mansfeld and christian establish themselves in lorraine, and then try to cut their way through the spanish netherlands to join the duke aug. . battle of fleurus. christian loses his arm nov. mansfeld establishes himself in east friesland section ii.--_christian of brunswick in lower saxony (november -august )._ the lower saxon circle urged by tilly to join him against mansfeld, and by christian of brunswick to join him against tilly warlike preparations of the circle feb. aug. . christian expelled from the circle, and defeated by tilly at stadtlohn section iii.--_danger of the lower saxon circle (august-december )._ the north german protestant bishoprics in danger aug. alarm in the lower saxon circle dec. but nothing is done, and its troops are disbanded section iv.--_england and france (october -august )._ oct. foreign powers ready to interfere return of the prince of wales from madrid divergence between the english house of commons feb.-may and james i. upon the mode of recovering the palatinate position of the huguenots in france section v.--_rise of richelieu (august -september )._ aug. lewis xiii. makes richelieu his chief minister. he is divided between a desire to combat spain and a desire to reduce the huguenots to submission richelieu's position less strong than it afterwards became. he has to make great allowances for the king's humour dec. french attack upon the spanish garrisons in the valtelline failure of mansfeld's expedition intended by james jan.-june to recover the palatinate jan. richelieu's plans for engaging more deeply in the war frustrated by the rising of the huguenots of rochelle sept. the huguenot fleet is defeated, but rochelle holds out chapter v. intervention of the king of denmark. section i.--_christian iv. and gustavus adolphus ( )._ character and position of christian iv., king of denmark genius of gustavus adolphus sketch of the earlier part of his reign his interest in german affairs section ii.--_english diplomacy (august -july )._ the kings of denmark and sweden asked by james aug. i. to join him in recovering the palatinate the english government, thinking the demands of jan. gustavus exorbitant, forms an alliance with christian iv. june _meeting of the first parliament of charles i._ june gustavus directs his forces against poland mar. . death of james i. accession of charles i. july . christian iv., at the head of the circle of lower saxony, enters upon war with the army of the league commanded by tilly aug. _dissolution of the first parliament of charles i._ section iii.--_wallenstein's armament (july -february )._ the emperor needs more forces wallenstein offers to raise an army for him. account of wallenstein's early life the system by which the army is to be supported is to be one of forced contributions oppressive burdens laid thereby on the country wallenstein enters the dioceses of magdeburg and halberstadt, and lies quietly there during the winter failure of negotiations for peace feb. section iv.--_defeat of mansfeld and christian iv. (february-august )._ numerical superiority on the side of the king of feb. denmark, but the imperialists are superior in other respects failure of the supplies promised to christian by charles i. feb. _meeting of the second parliament of charles i.--impeachment of buckingham_ ap. . mansfeld defeated by wallenstein at the bridge of dessau june _dissolution of the second parliament of charles i._ aug. . christian iv. defeated by tilly at lutter wallenstein pursues mansfeld into hungary chapter vi. stralsund and rochelle. section i.--_fresh successes of wallenstein (august -october )._ divergence between the league and wallenstein nov. wallenstein advocates religious equality and the predominance of the army he persuades ferdinand to increase his army, and is jan. created duke of friedland, in spite of the growing dissatisfaction with his proceedings may-aug. the king of denmark hopes to resist tilly, but wallenstein returns from hungary, and gains possession of silesia sept. . defeat of the margrave of baden at heiligenhafen oct. christian iv. flies to the island of fünen, leaving jutland to wallenstein section ii.--_resistance to wallenstein in the empire (october -february )._ meeting of the electors at mühlhausen. they complain oct. of wallenstein the commercial towns of north germany jealous of wallenstein feb. the emperor declares the dukes of mecklenburg to have forfeited their lands and titles, and pledges the territory to wallenstein wallenstein tries in vain to gain over the hanse towns he attempts to establish himself on the coast of the baltic by getting possession of the towns section iii.--_the siege of stralsund (august-february )._ feb. as stralsund refuses to admit a garrison, it is attacked by wallenstein's orders may it is succoured by denmark and sweden aug. . the siege is raised section iv.--_the siege of rochelle ( - )._ richelieu would have made peace with the huguenots if he had been able an agreement is effected, but comes to nothing through the jealousy of charles i. war between france and england, buckingham's expedition to rhé nov. richelieu besieges rochelle mar. _meeting of the third parliament of charles i._ may failure of an english fleet to succour rochelle june _the petition of right granted_ aug. murder of the duke of buckingham nov. . surrender of rochelle contrast between france and germany. toleration granted to the huguenots chapter vii. the edict of restitution. section i.--_oppression of the protestants (march -may )._ mar. surrender of stade to tilly jan. wallenstein fails to take glückstadt mar. _dissolution of the third parliament of charles i._ may . peace of lübeck between christian iv. and the emperor wallenstein invested with the duchy of mecklenburg the protestants oppressed in the south of germany issue of the edict of restitution mar. . section ii.--_french intervention in italy ( - )._ war in italy for the succession to the duchy of mantua richelieu enters italy, and compels the spaniards to mar. raise the siege of casale rebellion of rohan in the south of france richelieu again enters italy, seizes pignerol and saluces, and again forces the spaniards to raise the siege of casale negotiations between france and sweden section iii.--_wallenstein deprived of his command (march -september )._ wallenstein increases his forces jealousy between him and the catholic electors assembly at ratisbon july . it demands that wallenstein be deprived of his command july . landing of gustavus adolphus in germany sept. dismissal of wallenstein tilly in command section iv.--_the swedes establish themselves on the coast of the baltic (july -january )._ july discipline in the swedish army the duke of pomerania submits to him, but the elector of brandenburg declares himself neutral the treaty of bärwalde between france and sweden section v.--_the fall of magdeburg (january-may )._ jan. success of gustavus on the baltic coast march the electors of saxony hold a protestant assembly at leipzig tilly attacks the swedes, but is driven to retreat ap. . treaty of cherasco between france and the english may . convention between gustavus and the elector of brandenburg may . magdeburg stormed, plundered, and burnt the emperor refuses to cancel the edict of restitution chapter viii. the victories of gustavus adolphus. section i.--_alliance between the swedes and the saxons (june-september )._ june . gustavus compels the elector of brandenburg to an alliance july gustavus at the camp of werben aug. tilly summons the elector of saxony to submit sept. he attacks saxony, upon which the elector forms an alliance with gustavus gustavus joins the saxons section ii.--_battle of breitenfeld (september )._ sept. . victory of gustavus over tilly at breitenfeld wallenstein's intrigues with gustavus wallenstein and gustavus unlikely to agree political and military designs of gustavus he looks for a basis of operations on the rhine section iii.--_march of gustavus into south germany (october -may )._ oct. march of gustavus to mentz in spite of the objections of the french, he attacks bavaria ap. . tilly defeated and mortally wounded at the passage of the lech may . gustavus enters munich section iv.--_wallenstein's restoration to command (september -june )._ sept. wallenstein breaks off all intercourse with gustavus nov. attempts to reconcile the elector of saxony with the emperor dec. is reinstated temporarily in the command of the imperial army character of that army april wallenstein permanently appointed commander may offers peace to the saxons, and drives them out of bohemia june gustavus does not approve of the terms of peace offered by wallenstein section v.--_struggle between gustavus and wallenstein (june-october )._ june gustavus and wallenstein opposed to one another at nüremberg efforts of gustavus to maintain discipline sept. . fails to storm wallenstein's lines sept. . gustavus leaves nüremberg oct. wallenstein marches into saxony section vi.--_the battle of lützen (october-november )._ oct. gustavus follows wallenstein into saxony nov. . battle of lützen death of gustavus victory of the swedes irreparable loss by the death of gustavus to the protestants chapter ix. the death of wallenstein and the treaty of prague. section i.--_french influence in germany (november -april )._ differences between bernhard and oxenstjerna ap. . the league of heilbronn signed firm establishment of richelieu's authority in france richelieu's interposition in german affairs section ii.--_wallenstein's attempt to dictate peace (april-december )._ wallenstein's peace negotiations with the swedes and saxons oct. he drives the saxons out of silesia nov. ratisbon taken by bernhard spanish opposition to a peace which would leave spain exposed to french attacks dec. wallenstein thinks of making peace, whether the emperor consents or not section iii.--_resistance to wallenstein's plans (january-february )._ oñate, the spanish ambassador, persuades the emperor jan. that wallenstein is a traitor ferdinand determines to displace wallenstein feb. . wallenstein engages the colonels to support him section iv.--_assassination of wallenstein (february )._ feb. . wallenstein declared a traitor feb. . the garrison of prague declares against him feb. . wallenstein at eger feb. . he is assassinated comparison between gustavus and wallenstein section v.--_imperialist victories and the treaty of prague (february -may )._ the king of hungary reorganizes the imperial feb. army sept. . in conjunction with the cardinal-infant, he defeats bernhard at nördlingen consequent necessity of an increased french intervention peace of prague may . it is not universally accepted miserable condition of germany. notes of an english traveller chapter x. the preponderance of france. section i.--_open intervention of france (may )._ protestantism not out of danger may close alliance of some of the princes with france importance of the possession of alsace and lorraine may . france declares war against spain section ii.--_spanish successes (may -december )._ failure of the french attack on the spanish netherlands spanish invasion of france oct. . baner's victory at wittstock death of ferdinand ii. accession of ferdinand iii. feb. . imperialist success in germany section iii.--_the struggle for alsace (january -july )._ bernhard's victories in the breisgau and alsace july . death of bernhard section iv.--_french successes (july -dec. )._ french maritime successes spanish fleet taking refuge in the downs it is destroyed by the dutch insurrection of catalonia nov. independence of portugal defeat of the imperialists at wolfenbüttel defeat of the imperialists at kempten aug. _charles i. sets up his standard. beginning of the english civil war_ dec. . death of richelieu section v.--_aims and character of richelieu (december -may )._ richelieu's domestic policy contrast between france and england richelieu's foreign policy moderation of his aims may . death of lewis xiii section vi.--_more french victories (may --august )._ rule of cardinal mazarin may . enghien defeats the spaniards at rocroy the french kept in check in germany enghien and turenne. battle of freiburg july _battle of marston moor_ second battle of nördlingen aug. . mar. . swedish victory at jankow chapter xi. the end of the war. section i.--_turenne's strategy (june -october )._ negotiations for peace begun june _battle of naseby_ aims of the emperor and the duke of bavaria turenne outmanoeuvres the imperialists truce between the french and the bavarians may-sept. defeat of the bavarians at zusmarshausen may . section ii.--_the treaty of westphalia (oct. )._ terms of the peace oct. . how far was toleration effected by it general desire for peace section iii.--_condition of germany._ debasing effects of the war decrease of the population moral and intellectual decadence disintegration of germany protestantism saved, and with it the future culture of germany section iv.--_continuance of the war between france and spain ( - )._ recognition of the independence of the dutch republic _execution of charles i._ the fronde continuance of the war with spain alliance between france and cromwell treaty of pyrenees french greatness based on tolerance intolerance of lewis xiv. and downfall of the french monarchy the thirty years' war. chapter i. causes of the thirty years' war. section i.--_political institutions of germany._ [sidenote: § . want of national institutions in germany.] it was the misfortune of germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that, with most of the conditions requisite for the formation of national unity, she had no really national institutions. there was an emperor, who looked something like an english king, and a diet, or general assembly, which looked something like an english parliament, but the resemblance was far greater in appearance than in reality. [sidenote: § . the emperor.] the emperor was chosen by three ecclesiastical electors, the archbishops of mentz, treves and cologne, and four lay electors, the elector palatine, the electors of saxony and brandenburg, and the king of bohemia. in theory he was the successor of the roman emperors julius and constantine, the ruler of the world, or of so much of it at least as he could bring under his sway. more particularly, he was the successor of charles the great and otto the great, the lay head of western christendom. the emperor sigismund, on his death-bed, had directed that his body should lie in state for some days, that men might see 'that the lord of all the world was dead.' 'we have chosen your grace,' said the electors to frederick iii., 'as head, protector, and governor of all christendom.' yet it would be hard to find a single fragment of reality corresponding to the magnificence of the claim. [sidenote: § . the german kingship.] as far, however, as the period now under review is concerned, though the name of emperor was retained, it is unnecessary to trouble ourselves with the rights, real or imaginary, connected with the imperial dignity. charles the great, before the imperial crown was conferred on him, ruled as king, by national assent or by conquest, over a great part of western europe. when his dominions were divided amongst his successors, the rule of those successors in germany or elsewhere had no necessary connexion with the imperial crown. henry the fowler, one of the greatest of the kings of the germans, was never an emperor at all, and though, after the reign of his son otto the great, the german kings claimed from the pope the imperial crown as their right, they never failed also to receive a special german crown at aachen (_aix-la-chapelle_) or at frankfort as the symbol of their headship over german lands and german men. [sidenote: § . its connexion with the empire.] when, therefore, the writers of the th or th centuries speak of the rights of the emperor in germany, they really mean to speak of the rights of the emperor in his capacity of german king, just as, when they speak of the empire, they mean what we call germany, together with certain surrounding districts, such as switzerland, the netherlands, lorraine, and eastern burgundy or franche comté, which are not now, if alsace and the newly-conquered part of lorraine be excepted, included under that name. in the same way the mere fragments of feudal supremacy, and the payment of feudal dues which the emperors claimed in italy, belonged to them, not as emperors, but simply as italian kings, and as wearers of the iron crown of lombardy, which, as the legends told, was formed of nails taken from the saviour's cross. [sidenote: § . some confusion unavoidable.] not that it would be wise, even if it were possible, to do otherwise than to follow the practice of contemporaries. the strange form, emperor of germany, by which, at a later period, men unfamiliar with germany history strove to reconcile the old claims with something like the actual fact, had not been yet invented. and, after all, the confusions of history, the use of words and titles when their meaning is changed, are so many tokens to remind us of the unity of successive generations, and of the impossibility of any one of them building anew without regarding the foundations of their fathers. all that is needed is to remember that the emperor of later times is a personage whose rights and functions can be profitably compared with those of henry viii. of england or lewis xiv. of france, not with julius or constantine whose successor he professed himself to be. [sidenote: § . the great vassals.] 'take away the rights of the emperor,' said a law book of the fifteenth century, in language which would have startled an old roman legislator, 'and who can say, "this house is mine, this village belongs to me?"' but the princes and bishops, the counts and cities, who were glad enough to plead on their own behalf that their lands were held directly from the head of the empire, took care to allow him scarcely any real authority. this kingly dignity which passed under the name of the empire was indeed very weak. it had never outgrown the needs of the middle ages, and was still essentially a feudal kingship. from circumstances which it would take too much space to notice here, it had failed in placing itself at the head of a national organization, and in becoming the guardian of the rights of the tillers of the soil and the burghers of the towns, who found no place in the ranks of the feudal chivalry. [sidenote: § . their independence.] the immediate vassals of the empire, in fact, were almost independent sovereigns, like the dukes of normandy in the france of the tenth century, or the dukes of burgundy in the france of the fifteenth century. they quarrelled and made war with one another like the kings of england and france. their own vassals, their own peasants, their own towns could only reach the emperor through them, if anybody thought it worth while to reach him at all. [sidenote: § . prospect of order.] the prospect of reviving the german kingship which was veiled under the august title of emperor seemed far distant at the beginning of the fifteenth century. but whilst the empire, in its old sense, with its claims to universal dominion, was a dream, this german kingship needed but wisdom in the occupant of the throne to seize the national feeling, which was certain sooner or later to call out for a national ruler, in order to clothe itself in all the authority which was needed for the maintenance of the unity and the safety of the german people. that, when the time came, the man to grasp the opportunity was not there, was the chief amongst the causes of that unhappy tragedy of disunion which culminated in the thirty years' war. [sidenote: § . attempts to introduce order.] in the middle of the fifteenth century an effort was made to introduce a system of regular assemblies, under the name of a diet, in order to stem the tide of anarchy. but it never entered into the mind of the wisest statesman living to summon any general representation of the people. in the old feudal assemblies no one had taken part who was not an immediate vassal of the empire, and the diet professed to be only a more regular organization of the old feudal assemblies. [sidenote: § . the diet, or general assemblies of the empire.] from the diet, therefore, all subjects of the territorial princes were rigorously excluded. whatever their wishes or opinions might be, they had neither part nor lot in the counsels of the nation. there was nothing in the diet answering to those representatives of english counties, men not great enough to assume the state of independent princes, nor small enough to be content simply to register without question the decrees of those in authority who with us did more than any other class to cement town and country, king and people together. nor did even the less powerful of the immediate vassals take part in the meetings. like the lesser barons of the early plantagenet reigns, they slipped out of a position to which they seemed to have a right by the fact that they held their few square miles of land as directly from the emperor as the dukes of bavaria or the electors of saxony held the goodly principalities over which they ruled. [sidenote: § . the princes care little for the diet.] such a body was more like a congress of the representatives of european sovereigns than an english parliament. each member came in his own right. he might or might not speak the sentiments of his subjects, and, even if he did, he naturally preferred deciding pretty much as he pleased at home to allowing the question to be debated by an assembly of his equals. an elector of saxony, a landgrave of hesse, or an archduke of austria knew that taxes were levied, armies trained, temporal and spiritual wants provided for at his own court at dresden, at cassel, or at vienna, and he had no wish that it should be otherwise. nor was it easy, even when a prince had made himself so obnoxious as to call down upon himself the condemnation of his fellows, to subject him to punishment. he might, indeed, be put to the ban of the empire, a kind of secular excommunication. but if he were powerful himself, and had powerful friends, it might be difficult to put it in execution. it would be necessary to levy war against him, and that war might not be successful. [sidenote: § . some sort of order established.] still, at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries some progress was made. an imperial court (_reichskammergericht_) came into existence, mainly nominated by the princes of the empire, and authorized to pronounce judgment upon cases arising between the rulers of the various territories. in order to secure the better execution of the sentences of this court, germany was divided into circles, in each of which the princes and cities who were entitled to a voice in the diet of the empire were authorized to meet together and to levy troops for the maintenance of order. [sidenote: § . the three houses of the diet.] these princes, lay and ecclesiastical, together with the cities holding immediately from the empire, were called the estates of the empire. when they met in the general diet they voted in three houses. the first house was composed of the seven electors, though it was only at an imperial election that the number was complete. at all ordinary meetings for legislation, or for the dispatch of business, the king of bohemia was excluded, and six electors only appeared. the next house was the house of princes, comprising all those persons, lay or ecclesiastical, who had the right of sitting in the diet. lastly, came the free imperial cities, the only popular element in the diet. but they were treated as decidedly inferior to the other two houses. when the electors and the princes had agreed upon a proposition, then and not till then it was submitted to the house of cities. [sidenote: § . the cities too weak.] the special risk attending such a constitution was that it provided almost exclusively for the wants of the princes and electors. in the diet, in the circles, and in the imperial court, the princes and electors exercised a preponderating, if not quite an exclusive influence. in ordinary times there might be no danger. but if extraordinary times arose, if any great movement swept over the surface of the nation, it might very well be that the nation would be on one side and the princes and the electors on the other. and if this were the case there would be great difficulty in bringing the nation into harmony with its institutions. in england the sovereign could alter a hostile majority in the house of lords by a fresh creation of peers, and the constituencies could alter a hostile majority of the house of commons by a fresh election. in germany there was no house of commons, and an emperor who should try to create fresh princes out of the immediate vassals who were too weak to be summoned to the diet would only render himself ridiculous by an attempt to place in check the real possessors of power by the help of those who had the mere appearance of it. section ii.--_protestantism in germany._ [sidenote: § . the german people in favor of protestantism; the diet opposed to it.] when, in the sixteenth century, protestantism suddenly raised its head, the institutions of the empire were tried to the uttermost. for the mass of the nation declared itself in favour of change, and the diet was so composed as to be hostile to change, as soon as it appeared that it was likely to take the direction of lutheranism. in the electoral house, indeed, the votes of the three ecclesiastical electors were met by the votes of the three lay electors. but in the house of princes there were thirty-eight ecclesiastical dignitaries and but eighteen laymen. it was a body, in short, like the english house of lords before the reformation, and there was no henry viii. to bring it into harmony with the direction which lay society was taking, by some act equivalent to the dissolution of the monasteries, and the consequent exclusion of the mitred abbots from their seats in parliament. to pass measures favourable to protestantism through such a house was simply impossible. yet it can hardly be doubted that a really national parliament would have adopted lutheranism, more or less modified, as the religion of the nation. before protestantism was fifty years old, in spite of all difficulties, ninety per cent. of the population of germany were protestant. [sidenote: § . most of the lay princes adopt it.] in default of national action in favor of protestantism, it was adopted and supported by most of the lay princes and electors. a new principle of disintegration was thus introduced into germany, as these princes were forced to act in opposition to the views adopted by the diet. [sidenote: § . the emperor charles v.] if the diet was unlikely to play the part of an english parliament, neither was the emperor likely to play the part of henry viii. for the interests of germany, charles v., who had been elected in , was weak where he ought to have been strong, and strong where he ought to have been weak. as emperor, he was nothing. as feudal sovereign and national ruler, he was very little. but he was also a prince of the empire, and as such he ruled over the austrian duchies and tyrol. further than this, he was one of the most powerful sovereigns of europe. he was king of spain, and of the indies with all their mines. in italy, he disposed of naples and the milanese. sicily and sardinia were his, and, under various titles, he ruled over the fragments of the old burgundian inheritance, franche comté, and the seventeen provinces of the netherlands. such a man would influence the progress of affairs in germany with a weight out of all proportion to his position in the german constitution. and unhappily, with the power of a foreign sovereign, he brought the mind of a foreigner. his mother's spanish blood beat in his veins, and he had the instinctive aversion of a spaniard to anything which savoured of opposition to the doctrines of the church. 'that man,' he said, when he caught sight of luther for the first time, 'shall never make me a heretic.' [sidenote: . § . the convention of passau.] of this antagonism between the minority of the princes backed by the majority of the nation, and the majority of the princes backed by an emperor who was also a foreign sovereign, civil war was the natural result. in the end, the triumph of the protestants was so far secured that they forced their opponents in to yield to the convention of passau, by which it was arranged that a diet should be held as soon as possible for a general pacification. [sidenote: . § . the peace of augsburg.] that diet, which was assembled at augsburg in , met under remarkably favourable circumstances. charles v., baffled and disappointed, had retired from the scene, and had left behind him, as his representative, his more conciliatory brother ferdinand, who was already king of hungary and bohemia, and was his destined successor in the german possessions of the house of austria. both he and the leading men on either side were anxious for peace, and were jealous of the influence which philip, the son of charles v., and his successor in spain, italy, and the netherlands, might gain from a continuance of the war. [sidenote: § . its terms.] there was little difficulty in arranging that the protestant princes, who, before the date of the convention of passau, had seized ecclesiastical property within their own territories, either for their own purposes or for the support of protestant worship, should no longer be subject to the law or authority of the catholic clergy. the real difficulty arose in providing for the future. with protestantism as a growing religion, the princes might be inclined to proceed further with the secularizing of the church property still left untouched within their own territories; and besides this, it was possible that even bishops or abbots themselves, being princes of the empire, might be inclined to abandon their religion, and to adopt protestantism. [sidenote: § . might the princes seize more lands?] the first of these difficulties was left by the treaty in some obscurity; but, from the stress laid on the abandonment by the catholics of the lands secularized before the convention of passau, it would seem that they might fairly urge that they had never abandoned their claims to lands which at that date had not been secularized. [sidenote: § . might the ecclesiastics turn protestants?] the second difficulty led to long discussions. the protestants wished that any bishop or abbot who pleased might be allowed to turn protestant, and might then establish protestantism as the religion of his subjects. the catholics insisted that any bishop or abbot who changed his religion should be compelled to vacate his post, and this view of the case prevailed, under the name of the ecclesiastical reservation. it was further agreed that the peace should apply to the lutheran church alone, no other confession having been as yet adopted by any of the princes. [sidenote: § . dangers of the future.] such a peace, acceptable as it was at the time, was pregnant with future evil. owing its origin to a diet in which everything was arranged by the princes and electors, it settled all questions as if nobody but princes and electors had any interest in the matter. and, besides this, there was a most unstatesmanlike want of provision for future change. the year was to give the line by which the religious institutions of germany were to be measured for all time. there was nothing elastic about such legislation. it did not, on the one hand, adopt the religion of the vast majority as the established religion of the empire. it did not, on the other hand, adopt the principle of religious liberty. in thinking of themselves and their rights, the princes had forgotten the german people. [sidenote: § . fresh encroachments upon church lands.] the barriers set up against protestantism were so plainly artificial that they soon gave way. the princes claimed the right of continuing to secularize church lands within their territories as inseparable from their general right of providing for the religion of their subjects. at all events they had might on their side. about a hundred monasteries are said to have fallen victims in the palatinate alone, and an almost equal number, the gleanings of a richer harvest which had been reaped before the convention of passau, were taken possession of in northern germany. [sidenote: § . the ecclesiastical reservation.] the ecclesiastical reservation applied to a different class of property, namely, to the bishoprics and abbeys held immediately of the empire. here, too, the protestants found an excuse for evading the treaty of augsburg. the object of the reservation, they argued, was not to keep the bishoprics in catholic hands, but to prevent quarrels arising between the bishops and their chapters. if, therefore, a bishop elected as a catholic chose to turn protestant, he must resign his see in order to avoid giving offence to the catholic chapter. but where a chapter, itself already protestant, elected a protestant bishop, he might take the see without hesitation, and hold it as long as he lived. [sidenote: § . the northern bishoprics protestant.] in this way eight of the great northern bishoprics soon came under protestant rule. not that the protestant occupant was in any real sense of the word a bishop. he was simply an elected prince, calling himself a bishop, or often more modestly an administrator, and looking after the temporal affairs of his dominions. [sidenote: § . good and bad side of the arrangement.] in some respects the arrangement was a good one. the populations of these territories were mainly protestant, and they had no cause to complain. besides, if only a sufficient number of these bishoprics could be gained to protestantism, the factitious majority in the diet might be reversed, and an assembly obtained more truly representing the nation than that which was in existence. but it must be acknowledged that the whole thing had an ugly look; and it is no wonder that catholics pronounced these administrators to be no bishops at all, and to have no right to hold the bishops' lands, or to take their seat as bishops in the diet of the empire. section iii.--_reaction against protestantism._ [sidenote: § . theological disputes among protestants.] in course of time protestantism, in its turn, exposed itself to attack. each petty court soon had its own school of theologians, whose minds were dwarfed to the limits of the circle which they influenced with their logic and their eloquence. the healthful feeling which springs from action on a large stage was wanting to them. bitterly wrangling with one another, they were eager to call in the secular arm against their opponents. seizing the opportunity, the newly-constituted order of jesuits stepped forward to bid silence in the name of the renovated papal church, alone, as they urged, able to give peace instead of strife, certainty instead of disputation. the protestants were taken at a disadvantage. the enthusiasm of a national life, which repelled the jesuits in the england of the sixteenth century, and the enthusiasm of scientific knowledge which repels them in the germany of the nineteenth century, were alike wanting to a germany in which national life was a dream of the past, and science a dream of the future. luther had long ago passed away from the world. melanchthon's last days were spent in hopeless protest against the evil around him. 'for two reasons,' he said, as he lay upon his death-bed, 'i desire to leave this life: first, that i may enjoy the sight, which i long for, of the son of god and of the church in heaven. next, that i may be set free from the monstrous and implacable hatreds of the theologians.' [sidenote: § . the catholics make progress.] in the face of a divided people, or self-seeking princes, and of conflicting theories, the jesuits made their way. step by step the catholic reaction gained ground, not without compulsion, but also not without that moral force which makes compulsion possible. the bishops and abbots gave their subjects the choice between conversion and exile. an attempt made by the archbishop of cologne to marry and turn protestant was too plainly in contradiction to the ecclesiastical reservation to prosper, and when the protestant majority of the chapter of strasburg elected a protestant bishop they were soon overpowered. a protestant archbishop of magdeburg offering to take his place amongst the princes of the empire at the diet was refused admission, and though nothing was done to dispossess him and the other northern administrators of their sees, yet a slur had been cast upon their title which they were anxious to efface. a few years later a legal decision was obtained in the cases of four monasteries secularized after the convention of passau, and that decision was adverse to the claim of the protestants. [sidenote: § . the disputes which led finally to war.] out of these two disputes--the dispute about the protestant administrators and the dispute about the secularized lands--the thirty years' war arose. the catholic party stood upon the strict letter of the law, according, at least, to their own interpretation, and asked that everything might be replaced in the condition in which it was in , the date of the convention of passau. the protestant view, that consideration should be taken for changes, many of which at the end of the sixteenth century were at least a generation old, may or may not have been in accordance with the law, but it was certainly in accordance with the desires of the greater part of the population affected by them. [sidenote: § . no popular representation.] there is every reason to believe that if germany had possessed anything like a popular representation its voice would have spoken in favour of some kind of compromise. there is no trace of any mutual hostility between the populations of the catholic and protestant districts apart from their rulers. section iv.--_three parties and three leaders._ [sidenote: § . the leaders of parties.] two men stood forward to personify the elements of strife--maximilian, the catholic duke of bavaria, and the calvinist prince christian of anhalt, whilst the warmest advocate of peace was john george, the lutheran elector of saxony. [sidenote: § . maximilian of bavaria.] maximilian of bavaria was the only lay prince of any importance on the side of the catholics. he had long been known as a wise administrator of his own dominions. no other ruler was provided with so well-filled a treasury, or so disciplined an army. no other ruler was so capable of forming designs which were likely to win the approbation of others, or so patient in waiting till the proper time arrived for their execution. 'what the duke of bavaria does,' said one of his most discerning opponents, 'has hands and feet.' his plans, when once they were launched into the world, seemed to march forwards of themselves to success. [sidenote: § . his love of legality.] such a man was not likely to take up the wild theories which were here and there springing up, of the duty of uprooting protestantism at all times and all places, or to declare, as some were declaring, that the peace of augsburg was invalid because it had never been confirmed by the pope. to him the peace of augsburg was the legal settlement by which all questions were to be tried. what he read there was hostile to the protestant administrators and the secularizing princes. yet he did not propose to carry his views into instant action. he would await his opportunity. but he would do his best to be strong, in order that he might not be found wanting when the opportunity arrived, and, in spite of his enthusiasm for legal rights, it was by no means unlikely that, if a difficult point arose, he might be inclined to strain the law in his own favour. [sidenote: § . danger of the protestants.] such an opponent, so moderate and yet so resolute, was a far more dangerous enemy to the protestants than the most blatant declaimer against their doctrines. naturally, the protestants regarded his views as entirely inadmissible. they implied nothing less than the forcible conversion of the thousands of protestants who were inhabitants of the administrators' dominions, and the occupation by the catholic clergy of points of vantage which would serve them in their operations upon the surrounding districts. it is true that the change, if effected would simply replace matters in the position which had been found endurable in . but that which could be borne when the catholics were weak and despondent might be an intolerable menace when they were confident and aggressive. [sidenote: § . danger of the protestants.] resistance, therefore, became a duty, a duty to which the princes were all the more likely to pay attention because it coincided with their private interest. in the bishoprics and chapters they found provision for their younger sons, from which they would be cut off if protestants were hereafter to be excluded. [sidenote: § . protestants of the north and south.] the only question was in what spirit the resistance should be offered. the tie which bound the empire together was so loose, and resistance to law, or what was thought to be law, was so likely to lead to resistance to law in general, that it was the more incumbent on the protestants to choose their ground well. and in germany, at least, there was not likely to be any hasty provocation to give maximilian an excuse for reclaiming the bishoprics. far removed from the danger, these northern lutherans found it difficult to conceive that there was any real danger at all. the states of the south, lying like a wedge driven into the heart of european catholicism, were forced by their geographical position to be ever on the alert. they knew that they were the advanced guard of protestantism. on the one flank was the catholic duchy of bavaria, and the bishoprics of würzburg and bamberg. on the other flank were the ecclesiastical electorates on the rhine and the moselle, the bishoprics of worms, spires, and strasburg, the austrian lands in swabia and alsace, and the long line of the spanish frontier in franche comté and the netherlands garrisoned by the troops of the first military monarchy in europe. what wonder if men so endangered were in haste to cut the knot which threatened to strangle them, and to meet the enemy by flying in his face rather than by awaiting the onslaught which they believed to be inevitable. [sidenote: § . spread of calvinism.] under the influence of this feeling the princes of these southern regions for the most part adopted a religion very different from the courtly lutheranism of the north. if würtemberg continued lutheran under the influence of the university of tübingen, the rulers of the palatinate, of hesse cassel, of baden-durlach, of zwei-brücken, sought for strength in the iron discipline of calvinism, a form of religion which always came into favour when there was an immediate prospect of a death-struggle with rome. [sidenote: § . courtly character of calvinism in germany.] unhappily, german calvinism differed from that of scotland and the netherlands. owing to its adoption by the princes rather than by the people, it failed in gaining that hardy growth which made it invincible on its native soil. it had less of the discipline of an army about it, less resolute defiance, less strength altogether. and whilst it was weaker it was more provocative. excluded from the benefits of the peace of augsburg, which knew of no protestant body except the lutheran, the calvinists were apt to talk about the institutions of the empire in a manner so disparaging as to give offence to lutherans and catholics alike. [sidenote: § . frederick iv., elector palatine.] of this calvinist feeling christian of anhalt became the impersonation. the leadership of the calvinist states in the beginning of the seventeenth century would naturally have devolved on frederick iv., elector palatine. but frederick was an incapable drunkard, and his councillors, with christian at their head, were left to act in his name. [sidenote: § . christian of anhalt.] christian of anhalt possessed a brain of inexhaustible fertility. as soon as one plan which he had framed appeared impracticable, he was ready with another. he was a born diplomatist, and all the chief politicians of europe were intimately known to him by report, whilst with many of them he carried on a close personal intercourse. his leading idea was that the maintenance of peace was hopeless, and that either protestantism must get rid of the house of austria, or the house of austria would get rid of protestantism. whether this were true or false, it is certain that he committed the terrible fault of underestimating his enemy. whilst maximilian was drilling soldiers and saving money, christian was trusting to mere diplomatic finesse. he had no idea of the tenacity with which men will cling to institutions, however rotten, till they feel sure that some other institutions will be substituted for them, or of the strength which maximilian derived from the appearance of conservatism in which his revolutionary designs were shrouded even from his own observation. in order to give to protestantism that development which in christian's eyes was necessary to its safety, it would be needful to overthrow the authority of the emperor and of the diet. and if the emperor and the diet were overthrown, what had christian to offer to save germany from anarchy? if his plan included, as there is little doubt that it did, the seizure of the lands of the neighbouring bishops, and a fresh secularization of ecclesiastical property, even protestant towns might begin to ask whether their turn would not come next. a return to the old days of private war and the law of the strongest would be welcome to very few. [sidenote: . § . the occupation of donauwörth.] in an event occurred which raised the alarm of the southern protestants to fever heat. in the free city of donauwörth the abbot of a monastery saw fit to send out a procession to flaunt its banners in the face of an almost entirely protestant population. before the starting-point was regained mud and stones were thrown, and some of those who had taken part in the proceedings were roughly handled. the imperial court (_reichskammergericht_), whose duty it was to settle such quarrels, was out of working order in consequence of the religious disputes; but there was an imperial council (_reichshofrath_), consisting of nominees of the emperor, and professing to act out of the plenitude of imperial authority. by this council donauwörth was put to the ban of the empire without due form of trial, and maximilian was appointed to execute the decree. he at once marched a small army into the place, and, taking possession of the town, declared his intention of retaining his hold till his expenses had been paid, handing over the parish church in the meanwhile to the catholic clergy. it had only been given over to protestant worship after the date of the convention of passau, and maximilian could persuade himself that he was only carrying out the law. [sidenote: . § . the diet of .] it was a flagrant case of religious aggression under the name of the law. the knowledge that a partial tribunal was ready to give effect to the complaints of catholics at once threw the great protestant cities of the south--nüremberg, ulm, and strasburg into the arms of the neighbouring princes of whom they had hitherto been jealous. yet there was much in the policy of those princes which would hardly have reassured them. at the diet of the representatives of the elector palatine were foremost in demanding that the minority should not be bound by the majority in questions of taxation or religion; that is to say, that they should not contribute to the common defence unless they pleased, and that they should not be subject to any regulation about ecclesiastical property unless they pleased. did this mean only that they were to keep what they had got, or that they might take more as soon as it was convenient? the one was the protestant, the other the catholic interpretation of their theory. [sidenote: § . formation of the union.] on may , , the protestant union, to which lutherans and calvinists were alike admitted, came into existence under the guidance of christian of anhalt. it was mainly composed of the princes and towns of the south. its ostensible purpose was for self-defence, and in this sense it was accepted by most of those who took part in it. its leaders had very different views. [sidenote: § . formation of the league.] a catholic league was at once formed under maximilian. it was composed of a large number of bishops and abbots, who believed that the princes of the union wished to annex their territories. maximilian's ability gave it a unity of action which the union never possessed. it, too, was constituted for self-defence, but whether that word was to include the resumption of the lands lost since the convention of passau was a question probably left for circumstances to decide. [sidenote: § . revolutionary tendencies of the union.] whatever the majority of the princes of the union may have meant, there can be no doubt that christian of anhalt meant aggression. he believed that the safety of protestantism could not be secured without the overthrow of the german branch of the house of austria, and he was sanguine enough to fancy that an act which would call up all catholic europe in arms against him was a very easy undertaking. [sidenote: . § . the succession of cleves.] scarcely had the union been formed when events occurred which almost dragged germany into war. in the spring of the duke of cleves died. the elector of brandenburg and the son of the duke of neuburg laid claim to the succession. on the plea that the emperor had the right to settle the point, a catholic army advanced to take possession of the country. the two pretenders, both of them lutherans, made common cause against the invaders. [sidenote: .] henry iv. of france found in the dispute a pretext for commencing his long-meditated attack upon spain and her allies. but his life was cut short by an assassin, and his widow only thought of sending a small french force to join the english and the dutch in maintaining the claims of the two princes, who were ready to unite for a time against a third party. [sidenote: . § . the box on the ear.] it was not easy to bring the princes to an arrangement for the future. one day the young prince of neuburg proposed what seemed to him an excellent way out of the difficulty. 'he was ready,' he said, 'to marry the elector's daughter, if only he might have the territory.' enraged at the impudence of the proposal, the elector raised his hand and boxed his young rival's ears. the blow had unexpected consequences. the injured prince renounced his protestantism, and invoked, as a good catholic, the aid of spain and the league. the elector passed from lutheranism to calvinism, and took a more active part than before in the affairs of the union. that immediate war in germany did not result from the quarrel is probably the strongest possible evidence of the reluctance of the german people to break the peace. [sidenote: . § . john george, elector of saxony.] the third party, the german lutherans, looked with equal abhorrence upon aggression on either side. their leader, john george, elector of saxony, stood aloof alike from christian of anhalt, and from maximilian of bavaria. he was attached by the traditions of his house as well as by his own character to the empire and the house of austria. but he was anxious to obtain security for his brother protestants. he saw there must be a change; but he wisely desired to make the change as slight as possible. in , therefore, he proposed that the highest jurisdiction should still be retained by the imperial council, but that the council, though still nominated by the emperor, should contain an equal number of catholics and protestants. sentences such as that which had deprived donauwörth of its civil rights would be in future impossible. [sidenote: § . his weakness of character.] unhappily, john george had not the gift of ruling men. he was a hard drinker and a bold huntsman, but to convert his wishes into actual facts was beyond his power. when he saw his plan threatened with opposition on either side he left it to take care of itself. in a diet met, and broke up in confusion, leaving matters in such a state that any spark might give rise to a general conflagration. chapter ii. the bohemian revolution. section i.--_the house of austria and its subjects._ [sidenote: § . the austrian dominions.] at the beginning of the seventeenth century the dominions of the german branch of the house of austria were parcelled out amongst the various descendants of ferdinand i., the brother of charles v. the head of the family, the emperor rudolph ii., was archduke of austria--a name which in those days was used simply to indicate the archduchy itself, and not the group of territories which are at present ruled over by the austrian sovereign--and he was also king of bohemia and of hungary. his brother maximilian governed tyrol, and his cousin ferdinand ruled in styria, carinthia, and carniola. [sidenote: § . aristocracy and protestantism.] the main difficulty of government arose from the fact that whilst every member of the family clung firmly to the old creed, the greater part of the population, excepting in tyrol, had adopted the new; that is to say, that on the great question of the day the subjects and the rulers had no thoughts in common. and this difficulty was aggravated by the further fact that protestantism prospered mainly from the support given to it by a powerful aristocracy, so that political disagreement was added to the difference in religion. ferdinand had, indeed, contrived to put down with a strong hand the exercise of protestantism in his own dominions so easily as almost to suggest the inference that it had not taken very deep root in those alpine regions. but rudolph was quite incapable of following his example. if not absolutely insane, he was subject to sudden outbursts of temper, proceeding from mental disease. [sidenote: . § . rudolph and matthias.] in , a peace having been concluded with the turks, rudolph fancied that his hands were at last free to deal with his subjects as ferdinand had dealt with his. the result was a general uprising, and if rudolph's brother matthias had not placed himself at the head of the movement, in order to save the interests of the family, some stranger would probably have been selected as a rival to the princes of the house of austria. in the end, two years later, austria and hungary were assigned to matthias, whilst bohemia, moravia and silesia were left to rudolph for his lifetime. [sidenote: . § . the royal charter of bohemia.] the result of rudolph's ill-advised energy was to strengthen the hands of the protestant nobility. in hungary the turks were too near to make it easy for matthias to refuse concessions to a people who might, at any time, throw themselves into the arms of the enemy, and in austria he was driven, after some resistance, to agree to a compromise. in bohemia, in , the estates extorted from rudolph the royal charter (_majestätts brief_) which guaranteed freedom of conscience to every inhabitant of bohemia, as long as he kept to certain recognised creeds. but freedom of conscience did not by any means imply freedom of worship. a man might think as he pleased, but the building of churches and the performance of divine service were matters for the authorities to decide upon. the only question was, who the authorities were. [sidenote: § . position of the landowner.] by the royal charter this authority was given over to members of the estates, that is to say, to about , of the feudal aristocracy and towns. in an agreement attached to the charter, a special exception was made for the royal domains. a protestant landowner could and would prohibit the erection of a catholic church on his own lands, but the king was not to have that privilege. on his domains worship was to be free. [sidenote: § . rudolph tries to get rid of it.] from this bondage, as he counted it, rudolph struggled to liberate himself. there was fresh violence, ending in in rudolph's dethronement in favour of matthias, who thus became king of bohemia. the next year he died, and matthias succeeded him as emperor also. [sidenote: § . christian of anhalt hopes for general confusion.] during all these troubles, christian of anhalt had done all that he could to frustrate a peaceful settlement. 'when hungary, moravia, austria, and silesia are on our side,' he explained, before the royal charter had been granted, to a diplomatist in his employment, 'the house of hapsburg will have no further strength to resist us, except in bohemia, bavaria, and a few bishoprics. speaking humanly, we shall be strong enough not only to resist these, but to reform all the clergy, and bring them into submission to our religion. the game will begin in this fashion. as soon as bavaria arms to use compulsion against austria,' (that is to say, against the austrian protestants, who were at that time resisting matthias) 'we shall arm to attack bavaria, and retake donauwörth. in the same way, we shall get hold of two or three bishops to supply us with money. certainly, it seems that by proceeding dexterously we shall give the law to all, and set up for rulers whom we will.' [sidenote: § . matthias king of bohemia.] for the time christian was disappointed. the dominions of matthias settled down into quietness. but matthias was preparing another opportunity for his antagonist. whether it would have been possible in those days for a catholic king to have kept a protestant nation in working order we cannot say. at all events, matthias did not give the experiment a fair trial. he did not, indeed, attack the royal charter directly on the lands of the aristocracy. but he did his best to undermine it on his own. the protestants of braunau, on the lands of the abbot of braunau and the protestants of klostergrab, on the lands of the archbishop of prague, built churches for themselves, the use of which was prohibited by the abbot and the archbishop. a dispute immediately arose as to the rights of ecclesiastical landowners, and it was argued on the protestant side, that their lands were technically crown lands, and that they had therefore no right to close the churches. matthias took the opposite view. [sidenote: § . he evades the charter.] on his own estates matthias found means to evade the charter. he appointed catholic priests to protestant churches, and allowed measures to be taken to compel protestants to attend the catholic service. yet for a long time the protestant nobility kept quiet. matthias was old and infirm, and when he died they would, as they supposed, have an opportunity of choosing their next king, and it was generally believed that the election would fall upon a protestant. the only question was whether the elector palatine or the elector of saxony would be chosen. [sidenote: . § . ferdinand proposed as king of bohemia.] suddenly, in , the bohemian diet was summoned. when the estates of the kingdom met they were told that it was a mistake to suppose that the crown of bohemia was elective. evidence was produced that for some time before the election of matthias the estates had acknowledged the throne to be hereditary, and the precedent of matthias was to be set aside as occurring in revolutionary times. intimidation was used to assist the argument, and men in the confidence of the court whispered in the ears of those who refused to be convinced that it was to be hoped that they had at least two heads on their shoulders. [sidenote: § . the bohemians acknowledge him as their king.] if ever there was a moment for resistance, if resistance was to be made at all, it was this. the arguments of the court were undoubtedly strong, but a skilful lawyer could easily have found technicalities on the other side, and the real evasion of the royal charter might have been urged as a reason why the court had no right to press technical arguments too closely. the danger was all the greater as it was known that by the renunciation of all intermediate heirs the hereditary right fell upon ferdinand of styria, the man who had already stamped protestantism out in his own dominions. yet, in spite of this, the diet did as it was bidden, and renounced the right of election by acknowledging ferdinand as their hereditary king. [sidenote: § . his character.] the new king was more of a devotee and less of a statesman than maximilian of bavaria, his cousin on his mother's side. but their judgments of events were formed on the same lines. neither of them were mere ordinary bigots, keeping no faith with heretics. but they were both likely to be guided in their interpretation of the law by that which they conceived to be profitable to their church. ferdinand was personally brave; but except when his course was very clear before him, he was apt to let difficulties settle themselves rather than come to a decision. [sidenote: § . he takes the oath to the royal charter.] he had at once to consider whether he would swear to the royal charter. he consulted the jesuits, and was told that, though it had been a sin to grant it, it was no sin to accept it now that it was the law of the land. as he walked in state to his coronation, he turned to a nobleman who was by his side. 'i am glad,' he said, 'that i have attained the bohemian crown without any pangs of conscience.' he took the oath without further difficulty. the bohemians were not long in feeling the effects of the change. hitherto the hold of the house of austria upon the country had been limited to the life of one old man. it had now, by the admission of the diet itself, fixed itself for ever upon bohemia. the proceedings against the protestants on the royal domains assumed a sharper character. the braunau worshippers were rigorously excluded from their church. the walls of the new church of klostergrab were actually levelled with the ground. section ii.--_the revolution at prague._ [sidenote: . § . the bohemians petition matthias.] the bohemians had thus to resist in , under every disadvantage, the attack which they had done nothing to meet in . certain persons named defensors had, by law, the right of summoning an assembly of representatives of the protestant estates. such an assembly met on march , and having prepared a petition to matthias, who was absent from the kingdom, adjourned to may . [sidenote: § . reply of matthias.] long before the time of meeting came, an answer was sent from matthias justifying all that had been done, and declaring the assembly illegal. it was believed at the time, though incorrectly, that the answer was prepared by slawata and martinitz, two members of the regency who had been notorious for the vigour of their opposition to protestantism. [sidenote: § . violent counsels.] in the protestant assembly there was a knot of men, headed by count henry of thurn, which was bent on the dethronement of ferdinand. they resolved to take advantage of the popular feeling to effect the murder of the two regents, and so to place an impassable gulf between the nation and the king. [sidenote: § . martinitz and slawata thrown out of window.] accordingly, on the morning of may , the 'beginning and cause,' as a contemporary calls it, 'of all the coming evil,' the first day, though men as yet knew it not, of thirty years of war, thurn sallied forth at the head of a band of noblemen and their followers, all of them with arms in their hands. trooping into the room where the regents were seated, they charged the obnoxious two with being the authors of the king's reply. after a bitter altercation both martinitz and slawata were dragged to a window which overlooked the fosse below from a dizzy height of some seventy feet. martinitz, struggling against his enemies, pleaded hard for a confessor. 'commend thy soul to god,' was the stern answer. 'shall we allow the jesuit scoundrels to come here?' in an instant he was hurled out, crying, 'jesus, mary!' 'let us see,' said some one mockingly, 'whether his mary will help him.' a moment later he added: 'by god, his mary has helped him.' slawata followed, and then the secretary fabricius. by a wonderful preservation, in which pious catholics discerned the protecting hand of god, all three crawled away from the spot without serious hurt. [sidenote: § . a bad beginning.] there are moments when the character of a nation or party stands revealed as by a lightning flash, and this was one of them. it is not in such a way as this that successful revolutions are begun. [sidenote: § . the revolutionary government.] the first steps to constitute a new government were easy. thirty directors were appointed, and the jesuits were expelled from bohemia. the diet met and ordered soldiers to be levied to form an army. but to support this army money would be needed, and the existing taxes were insufficient. a loan was accordingly thought of, and the nobles resolved to request the towns to make up the sum, they themselves contributing nothing. the project falling dead upon the resistance of the towns, new taxes were voted; but no steps were taken to collect them, and the army was left to depend in a great measure upon chance. [sidenote: § . the elector of saxony wishes for peace.] would the princes of germany come to the help of the directors? john george of saxony told them that he deeply sympathized with them, but that rebellion was a serious matter. to one who asked him what he meant to do, he replied, 'help to put out the fire.' [sidenote: § . the elector palatine holds out hopes of assistance.] there was more help for them at heidelberg than at dresden. frederick iv. had died in , and his son, the young frederick v., looked up to christian of anhalt as the first statesman of his age. by his marriage with elizabeth, the daughter of james i. of england, he had contracted an alliance which gave him the appearance rather than the reality of strength. he offered every encouragement to the bohemians, but for the time held back from giving them actual assistance. section iii.--_the war in bohemia._ [sidenote: § . outbreak of war.] the directors were thus thrown on their own resources. ferdinand had secured his election as king of hungary, and, returning to vienna, had taken up the reins of government in the name of matthias. he had got together an army of , men, under the command of bucquoi, an officer from the great school of military art in the netherlands, and on august , the bohemian frontier was invaded. war could hardly be avoided by either side. budweis and pilsen, two catholic towns in bohemia, naturally clung to their sovereign, and as soon as the directors ordered an attack upon budweis, the troops of matthias prepared to advance to its succour. [sidenote: § . the bohemians vote men, but object to paying taxes.] the directors took alarm, and proposed to the diet that new taxes should be raised and not merely voted, and that, in addition to the army of regular soldiers, there should be a general levy of a large portion of the population. to the levy the diet consented without difficulty. but before the day fixed for discussing the proposed taxes arrived, the majority of the members deliberately returned to their homes, and no new taxes were to be had. [sidenote: § . they are not likely to prosper.] this day, august , may fairly be taken as the date of the political suicide of the bohemian aristocracy. in almost every country in europe order was maintained by concentrating the chief powers of the state in the hands of a single governor, whether he were called king, duke, or elector. to this rule there were exceptions in venice, switzerland, and the netherlands, and by-and-by there would be an exception on a grander scale in england. but the peoples who formed these exceptions had proved themselves worthy of the distinction, and there would be no room in the world for men who had got rid of their king without being able to establish order upon another basis. [sidenote: § . help from savoy.] still there were too many governments in europe hostile to the house of austria to allow the bohemians to fall at once. charles emmanuel, duke of savoy, had just brought a war with spain to a close, but he had not become any better disposed towards his late adversary. he accordingly entered into an agreement with the leaders of the union, by which , men who had been raised for his service were to be placed at the disposal of the bohemian directors. [sidenote: § . mansfeld.] the commander of these troops was count ernest of mansfeld, an illegitimate son of a famous general in the service of spain. he had changed his religion and deserted his king. he now put himself forward as a champion of protestantism. he was brave, active, and versatile, and was possessed of those gifts which win the confidence of professional soldiers. but he was already notorious for the readiness with which he allowed his soldiers to support themselves on the most unbridled pillage. an adventurer himself, he was just the man to lead an army of adventurers. [sidenote: § . a forced loan.] soon after his arrival in bohemia, mansfeld was employed in the siege of pilsen, whilst thurn was occupied with holding bucquoi in check. the failure in obtaining additional taxes had led the directors to adopt the simple expedient of levying a forced loan from the few rich. [sidenote: § . success of the bohemians.] for a time this desperate expedient was successful. the help offered to ferdinand by spain was not great, and it was long in coming. the prudent maximilian refused to ruin himself by engaging in an apparently hopeless cause. at last the silesians, who had hesitated long, threw in their lot with their neighbours, and sent their troops to their help early in november. bucquoi was in full retreat to budweis. on the st pilsen surrendered to mansfeld. further warfare was stopped as winter came on--a terrible winter for the unhappy dwellers in southern bohemia. starving armies are not particular in their methods of supplying their wants. plunder, devastation and reckless atrocities of every kind fell to the lot of the doomed peasants, bucquoi's hungarians being conspicuous for barbarity. [sidenote: § . scheme of christian of anhalt.] meanwhile, christian of anhalt was luring on the young elector palatine to more active intervention. the bohemian leaders had already begun to talk of placing the crown on frederick's head. frederick, anxious and undecided, consented on the one hand, at the emperor's invitation, to join the duke of bavaria and the electors of mentz and saxony in mediating an arrangement, whilst, on the other hand, he gave his assent to an embassy to turin, the object of which was to dazzle the duke of savoy with the prospect of obtaining the imperial crown after the death of matthias, and to urge him to join in an attack upon the german dominions of the house of austria. [sidenote: § . coolness of the union.] the path on which frederick was entering was the more evidently unsafe, as the union, which met at heilbronn in september, had shown great coolness in the bohemian cause. christian of anhalt had not ventured even to hint at the projects which he entertained. if he was afterwards deserted by the union he could not say that its members as a body had engaged to support him. [sidenote: . § . the duke of savoy gives hopes.] the duke of savoy, on the other hand, at least talked as if the austrian territories were at his feet. in august he had given his consent to the proposed elevation of frederick to the bohemian throne. in february he explained that he wished to have bohemia for himself. frederick might be compensated with the austrian lands in alsace and swabia. he might, perhaps, have the archduchy of austria too, or become king of hungary. if he wished to fall upon the bishops' lands, let him do it quickly, before the pope had time to interfere. this sort of talk, wild as it was, delighted the little circle of frederick's confidants. the margrave of anspach, who, as general of the army of the union, was admitted into the secret, was beyond measure pleased: 'we have now,' he said, 'the means of upsetting the world.' [sidenote: § . conservative feeling alienated.] for the present, these negotiations were veiled in secresy. they engendered a confident levity, which was certain to shock that conservative, peace-loving feeling which the bohemians had already done much to alienate. section iv.--_ferdinand on his defence._ [sidenote: § . the bohemians look for aid from foreign powers.] if the assistance of the union was thus likely to do more harm than good to the bohemians, their hopes of aid from other powers were still more delusive. the dutch, indeed, sent something, and would willingly have sent more, but they had too many difficulties at home to be very profuse in their offers. james of england told his son-in-law plainly that he would have nothing to do with any encroachment upon the rights of others, and he had undertaken at the instigation of spain a formal mediation between the bohemians and their king--a mediation which had been offered him merely in order to keep his hands tied whilst others were arming. [sidenote: § . attack upon vienna.] on march , before the next campaign opened, matthias died. ferdinand's renewed promises to respect the royal charter--made doubtless under the reservation of putting his own interpretation upon the disputed points--were rejected with scorn by the directors. the sword was to decide the quarrel. with the money received from the dutch, and with aid in money and munitions of war from heidelberg, thurn and mansfeld were enabled to take the field. the latter remained to watch bucquoi, whilst the former undertook to win the other territories, which had hitherto submitted to matthias, and had stood aloof from the movement in bohemia. without much difficulty he succeeded in revolutionizing moravia, and he arrived on june under the walls of vienna. within was ferdinand himself, with a petty garrison of men, and as many volunteers as he could attach to his cause. thurn hoped that his partisans inside the cities would open the gates to admit him. but he lost time in negotiations with the austrian nobility. the estates of the two territories of upper and lower austria were to a great extent protestant, and they had refused to do homage to ferdinand on the death of matthias. the lower austrians now sent a deputation to vienna to demand permission to form a confederation with the bohemians, on terms which would practically have converted the whole country, from the styrian frontier to the borders of silesia, into a federal aristocratic republic. [sidenote: § . ferdinand resists the demands of the lower austrian estates.] in ferdinand they had to do with a man who was not to be overawed by personal danger. he knew well that by yielding he would be giving a legal basis to a system which he regarded as opposed to all law, human and divine. throwing himself before the crucifix, he found strength for the conflict into which he entered on behalf of his family, his church, and, as he firmly believed, of his country and his god--strength none the less real because the figure on the cross did not, as men not long afterwards came fondly to believe, bow its head towards the suppliant, or utter the consoling words: 'ferdinand, i will not forsake thee.' [sidenote: § . rescue arrives.] to a deputation from the austrian estates he was firm and unbending. they might threaten as they pleased, but the confederation with bohemia he would not sign. rougher and rougher grew the menaces addressed to him. some one, it is said, talked of dethroning him and of educating his children in the protestant religion. suddenly the blare of a trumpet was heard in the court below. a regiment of horses had slipped in through a gate unguarded by thurn, and had hurried to ferdinand's defence. the deputation, lately so imperious, slunk away, glad enough to escape punishment. [sidenote: § . the siege raised.] little would so slight a reinforcement have availed if thurn had been capable of assaulting the city. but, unprovided with stores of food or siege munitions, he had counted on treason within. disappointed of his prey, he returned to bohemia, to find that bucquoi had broken out of budweis, and had inflicted a serious defeat on mansfeld. [sidenote: § . the imperial election.] ferdinand did not linger at vienna to dispute his rights with his austrian subjects. the election of a new emperor was to take place at frankfort, and it was of importance to him to be on the spot. to the german protestants the transfer of the imperial crown to his head could not be a matter of indifference. if he succeeded, as there seemed every probability of his succeeding, in re-establishing his authority over bohemia, he would weigh with a far heavier weight than matthias upon the disputes by which germany was distracted. the elector palatine and his councillors had a thousand schemes for getting rid of him, without fixing upon any. john george of saxony, in as in , had a definite plan to propose. ferdinand, he said, was not in possession of bohemia, and could not, therefore, vote as king of bohemia at the election. the election must, therefore, be postponed till the bohemian question had been settled by mediation. if only the three protestant electors could have been brought to agree to this course, an immediate choice of ferdinand would have been impossible. [sidenote: § . ferdinand chosen emperor.] whatever might be the merits of the proposal itself, it had the inestimable advantage of embarking the lutherans of the north and the calvinists of the south in a common cause. but frederick distrusted john george, and preferred another plan of his own. john george lost his temper, and voted unconditionally for ferdinand. frederick, if he did not mean to be left alone in impotent isolation, had nothing for it but to follow his example. he had no other candidate seriously to propose; and on august , , ferdinand was chosen by a unanimous vote. he was now known as the emperor ferdinand ii. [sidenote: § . frederick elected king of bohemia.] two days before, another election had taken place at prague. the bohemians, after deposing ferdinand from the throne, which in they had acknowledged to be his, chose frederick to fill the vacant seat. [sidenote: § . he accepts the throne.] would frederick accept the perilous offer? opinions round him were divided on the advisability of the step. the princes of the union, and even his own councillors, took opposite sides. in his own family, his mother raised a voice of warning. his wife, elizabeth of england, the beautiful and high-spirited, urged him to the enterprise. the poor young man himself was well-nigh distracted. at last he found a consolation in the comfortable belief that his election was the act of god. amidst the tears of the good people of heidelberg he set out from the proud castle, magnificent even now in its ruins as it looks down upon the rushing stream of the neckar. 'he is carrying the palatinate into bohemia,' said his sorrowing mother. on november he was crowned at prague, and the last act of the bohemian revolution was accomplished. chapter iii. imperialist victories in bohemia and the palatinate. section i.--_the attack upon frederick._ [sidenote: § . maximilian prepares for war.] the news of frederick's acceptance of the bohemian crown sent a thrill of confidence through the ranks of his opponents. 'that prince,' said the pope, 'has cast himself into a fine labyrinth.' 'he will only be a winter-king,' whispered the jesuits to one another, certain that the summer's campaign would see his pretensions at an end. up to that time the bohemian cause stood upon its own merits. but if one prince of the empire was to be allowed, on any pretext, to seize upon the territories of another, what bulwark was there against a return of the old fist-right, or general anarchy? frederick had attacked the foundations on which the institutions of his time rested, without calling up anything to take their place. [sidenote: § . makes use of frederick's mistakes.] maximilian saw more clearly than any one the mistake that had been committed. in an interview with the new emperor he engaged to forsake his inaction. hitherto he had kept quiet, because he knew well that the apparent aggressor would have the general opinion of the world against him. now that the blunder had been committed, he was ready to take advantage of it. at the same time, he did not forget his own interests, and he stipulated that, when all was over, frederick's electoral dignity--not necessarily his territory--should be transferred to himself, and that he should retain upper austria in pledge till his military expenses had been repaid. [sidenote: § . bethlen gabor attacks austria.] the effect of the change from the passive endurance of ferdinand to the active vigour of maximilian was immediately perceptible. his first object was to gain over or neutralize the german protestants, and events in the east were seconding him to a marvel. about one-fifth only of hungary was in ferdinand's possession. the rest was about equally divided between the turks and bethlen gabor, the protestant prince of transylvania, a semi-barbarous but energetic chieftain, who hoped, with turkish support, to make himself master of all hungary, if not of austria as well. in the first days of november, his hordes, in friendly alliance with the bohemians, were burning and plundering round the walls of vienna. but such armies as his can only support themselves by continuous success; and bethlen gabor found the capture of vienna as hopeless in the winter as thurn had found it in the summer. retiring eastwards, he left behind him a bitter indignation against those who had abetted his proceedings, and who had not been ashamed, as their adversaries declared, to plant the crescent upon the ruins of christianity and civilization. [sidenote: § . the union refuses to support frederick.] such declamation, overstrained as it was, was not without its effect. german protestantism had no enthusiasm to spare for frederick's enterprise in bohemia. at a meeting of the union at nüremberg, frederick's cause found no support. maximilian could well afford to leave the union to its own hesitation, and to think only of conciliating the elector of saxony and the north german princes. [sidenote: . § . the agreement of mühlhausen.] that john george should have taken serious alarm at his rival's increase of power is not surprising. not only did it assail whatever shadow still remained of the protecting institutions of the empire, but it did so in a way likely to be especially disagreeable at dresden. the revolution at prague did not simply raise an otherwise powerless person into ferdinand's place. it gave the crown of bohemia to a man whose territories were already so extensive that if he managed to consolidate his new dominion with them he would unite in his hands a power which would be unequalled in the empire, and which would bring with it the unheard-of accumulation of two votes upon one person at imperial elections. john george would descend from being one of the first of the german princes to a mere second-rate position. [sidenote: § . the ecclesiastical lands held by protestants guaranteed under conditions.] john george was not to be won for nothing. at an assembly held at mühlhausen in march , the league promised that they would never attempt to recover by force the lands of the protestant administrators, or the secularized lands in the northern territories, as long as the holders continued to act as loyal subjects; and this promise was confirmed by the emperor. [sidenote: § . spinola prepares to attack the palatinate.] that this engagement was not enough, later events were to show. for the present it seemed satisfactory to john george, and maximilian was able to turn his attention to the actual preparations for war. in may orders had been issued from madrid to spinola, the spanish general in the netherlands, to make ready to march to the emperor's defence; and on june the frightened union signed the treaty of ulm, by which they promised to observe neutrality towards the league, thus securing to maximilian freedom from attack in the rear during his march into bohemia. the union, however, if it should be attacked, was to be allowed to defend its own territories, including the palatinate. [sidenote: § . the invasions.] at the head of maximilian's army was the walloon tilly, a man capable of inspiring confidence alike by the probity of his character and by the possession of eminent military capacity. on june he crossed the austrian frontier. on august the estates of upper austria unconditionally bowed to ferdinand as their lord and master. lower austria had already submitted to its fate. about the same time john george had entered lusatia, and was besieging bautzen in ferdinand's name. spinola, too, had marched along the rhine, and had reached mentz by the end of august. [sidenote: § . spinola subdues the western palatinate.] the army of the union was drawn up to oppose the spaniards. but there was no harmony amongst the leaders; no spirit in the troops. falling upon one town after another, spinola now brought into his power nearly the whole of that portion of the palatinate which lay on the left bank of the rhine. the army of the union retreated helplessly to worms, waiting for what might happen next. [sidenote: § . invasion of bohemia.] maximilian was now ready to attack bohemia. he soon effected a junction with bucquoi. frederick's position was deplorable. [sidenote: § . growing unpopularity of frederick.] at first he had been received at prague with the liveliest joy. when a son was born to him, who was in after days to become the prince rupert of our english civil wars, every sign of rejoicing accompanied the child to the font. but it was not long before frederick's lutheran subjects were offended by his calvinistic proceedings. in the royal chapel pictures of the saints were ruthlessly torn down from the walls, and the great crucifix, an object of reverence to the lutheran as well as the catholic, was tossed aside like a common log of wood. the treasures of art which rudolph ii. had collected during his life of seclusion were catalogued that they might be offered for sale; and it is said that many of them were carried off by the officials entrusted with the duty. and besides real grievances, there were others that were purely imaginary. a story has been told which, whether true or false, is a good illustration of the impracticable nature of the bohemian aristocracy. frederick is said to have convened some of them to council early in the morning and to have received an answer that it was against their privileges to get up so soon. [sidenote: § . frederick brings no strength to the bohemians.] the bohemians were not long in discovering that no real strength had been brought to them by frederick. he had been set upon the throne, not for his personal qualities, but because he was supposed to have good friends, and to be able to prop up the falling cause of bohemia by aid from all parts of protestant europe. but his friends gave him little or no help, and he was himself looking tranquilly on whilst the storm was gathering before his eyes. in his ranks there was neither organization nor devotion. christian of anhalt had been placed in command of the army, but, though personally brave he did not inspire confidence. the other generals were quarrelling about precedence. new levies were ordered, but the men either remained at home or took the earliest opportunity to slink away. those who remained, scantily provided with the necessities of life, were on the verge of mutiny. [sidenote: § . march of tilly and bucquoi.] on september frederick joined the army. he still cherished hope. bethlen gabor, who had deserted his cause a few months before, had repented his defection, and was now coming to his aid. sickness was raging in the enemy's camp. yet, in spite of sickness, tilly pressed on, taking town after town, and choosing his positions too skilfully to be compelled to fight unless it suited him. on the morning of november the imperialists were close upon prague. the enemy was posted on the white hill, a rising ground of no great height outside the walls. the imperial army had been weakened by its sufferings; and bucquoi still counselled delay. but tilly knew better, and urged an immediate advance. as the commanders were disputing, a dominican friar, who accompanied the armies, stepped forward. 'sons of the church,' he said, 'why do you hang back? we ought to march straight forward, for the lord hath delivered the enemy into our hands. we shall overcome them as sure as we are alive.' then showing them a figure of the virgin which had been defaced by protestant hands, 'see here,' he said, 'what they have done. the prayers of the holy virgin shall be yours. trust in god, and go boldly to the battle. he fights on your side, and will give you the victory.' before the fiery utterances of the friar bucquoi withdrew his opposition. [sidenote: § . the battle of the white hill.] it was a sunday morning, and the gospel of the day contained the words, 'render unto cæsar the things that be cæsar's,' and the warriors of the cæsar at vienna felt themselves inspired to fulfil the saviour's words. the task which they had before them was more difficult in appearance than in reality. frederick was inside the city entertaining two english ambassadors at dinner whilst the blow was being struck. some hungarians on whom he chiefly relied set the example of flight, and the day was irretrievably lost. frederick fled for his life through north germany, till he found a refuge at the hague. [sidenote: § . submission of bohemia.] the reign of the bohemian aristocracy was at an end. tilly, indeed, had mercifully given time to the leaders to make their escape. but, blind in adversity as they had been in prosperity, they made no use of the opportunity. the chiefs perished on the scaffold. their lands were confiscated, and a new german and catholic nobility arose, which owed its possessions to its sovereign, and which, even if the royal charter had remained in existence, would have entered into the privileges which allowed their predecessors to convert the churches in their domains to what use they pleased. but the royal charter was declared to have been forfeited by rebellion, and the protestant churches in the towns and on the royal estates had nothing to depend on but the will of the conqueror. the ministers of one great body,--the bohemian brethren--were expelled at once. the lutherans were spared for a time. [sidenote: § . frederick put to the ban.] was it yet possible to keep the bohemian war from growing into a german one? ferdinand and maximilian were hardly likely to stop of themselves in their career of victory. to them frederick was a mere aggressor, on whom they were bound to inflict condign punishment. would he not, if he were allowed to recover strength, play the same game over again? besides, the expenses of the war had been heavy. ferdinand had been obliged to leave upper austria in pledge with maximilian till his share of those expenses had been repaid to him. it would be much pleasanter for both parties if maximilian could have a slice of the palatinate instead. with this and the promised transference of the electorate to maximilian, there would be some chance of securing order and a due respect for the catholic ecclesiastical lands. on january , therefore, frederick was solemnly put to the ban, and his lands and dignities declared to be forfeited. [sidenote: § . danger of the protestants.] whether ferdinand was justified in doing this was long a moot point. he had certainly promised at his election that he would not put anyone to the ban without giving him the benefit of a fair trial. but he argued that this only applied to one whose guilt was doubtful, and that frederick's guilt had been open and palpable. however this may have been, something of far greater importance than a legal or personal question was at issue. for frederick there was little sympathy in germany; but there was a strong feeling that it would not do to allow a protestant country to fall into catholic hands, both for its own sake and for the sake of its protestant neighbours. section ii.--_the war in the upper palatinate._ [sidenote: § . frederick does not give up hope.] if frederick could only have made it clear that he had really renounced all his pretensions to meddle with other people's lands he might possibly have ended his days peaceably at heidelberg. but he could not give up his hopes of regaining his lost kingdom. one day he talked of peace; another day he talked of war. when he was most peaceably inclined he would give up his claim if he could have an amnesty for the past. but he would not first give up his claim and then ask for an amnesty. [sidenote: § . part taken by james of england.] even to this he had been driven half unwillingly by his father-in-law. the king of england charged himself with the office of a mediator, and fancied that it was unnecessary to arm in the meantime. [sidenote: § . dissolution of the union.] the states of the union were in great perplexity. the landgrave of hesse cassel was compelled by his own subjects to come to terms with spinola. the cities of strasburg, ulm, and nüremberg were the next to give way. on april a treaty was signed at mentz, by which the union dissolved itself, and engaged to withdraw its troops from the palatinate. on the other hand, spinola promised to suspend hostilities till may . [sidenote: § . chances in frederick's favour.] the danger to which the palatinate was exposed, and the hints let drop that the conquest of the palatinate might be followed by the transference of the electorate, caused alarm in quarters by no means favourable to frederick. john george began to raise objections, and even the catholic ecclesiastics were frightened at the prospects of the enlargement of the war, and at the risk of seeing many powers, hitherto neutral, taking the part of the proscribed elector. [sidenote: § . he still holds places in bohemia.] the claim kept up by frederick to bohemia was something more than a claim to an empty title. he had appointed mansfeld to act there as his general; and, though mansfeld had lost one post after another, at the end of april he still held tabor and wittingau in frederick's name. [sidenote: § . mansfeld's army.] the appointment of mansfeld was unfortunately in itself fatal to the chances of peace. ever since the capture of pilsen, his troops, destitute of support, had been the terror of the country they were called upon to defend. in those days, indeed, the most disciplined army was often guilty of excesses from which in our days the most depraved outcasts would shrink. the soldiers, engaged merely for as long a time as they happened to be wanted, passed from side to side as the prospect of pay or booty allured them. no tie of nationality bound the mercenary to the standard under which accident had placed him. he had sold himself to his hirer for the time being, and he sought his recompense in the gratification of every evil passion of which human nature in its deepest degradation is capable. [sidenote: § . soldiers of the thirty years' war.] yet, even in this terrible war, there was a difference between one army and another. in an enemy's country all plundered alike. tilly's bavarians had been guilty of horrible excesses in bohemia. but a commander like tilly, who could pay his soldiers, and could inspire them with confidence in his generalship, had it in his power to preserve some sort of discipline; and if, as tilly once told a complaining official, his men were not nuns, they were at all events able to refrain on occasion from outrageous villany. a commander, like mansfeld, who could not pay his soldiers, must, of necessity, plunder wherever he was. his movements would not be governed by military or political reasons. as soon as his men had eaten up one part of the country they must go to another, if they were not to die of starvation. they obeyed, like the elements, a law of their own, quite independent of the wishes or needs of the sovereign whose interests they were supposed to serve. [sidenote: § . mansfeld takes the offensive.] before the end of may the breaking up of the army of the union sent fresh swarms of recruits to mansfeld's camp. he was soon at the head of a force of , men in the upper palatinate. the inhabitants suffered terribly, but he was strong enough to maintain his position for a time. nor was he content with standing on the defensive. he seized a post within the frontiers of bohemia, and threatened to harry the lands of the bishop of bamberg and würzburg if he did not withdraw his troops from the army of the league. he then fell upon leuchtenberg, and carried off the landgrave a prisoner to his camp. [sidenote: § . a truce impossible for him.] the first attack of the bavarians failed entirely. bethlen gabor, too, was again moving in hungary, had slain bucquoi, and was driving the emperor's army before him. under these circumstances, even ferdinand seems to have hesitated, and to have doubted whether he had not better accept the english offer of mediation. yet such was the character of mansfeld's army that it made mediation impossible. it must attack somebody in order to exist. [sidenote: § . vere in the lower palatinate.] yet it was in the lower, not in the upper, palatinate that the first blow was struck. sir horace vere, who had gone out the year before, with a regiment of english volunteers, was now in command for frederick. but frederick had neither money nor provisions to give him, and the supplies of the palatinate were almost exhausted. the existing truce had been prolonged by the spaniards. but the lands of the bishop of spires lay temptingly near. salving his conscience by issuing the strictest orders against pillage, he quartered some of his men upon them. [sidenote: § . war recommenced in the lower palatinate.] the whole catholic party was roused to indignation. cordova, left in command of the spanish troops after spinola's return to brussels, declared the truce to have been broken, and commenced operations against vere. [sidenote: § . mansfeld driven from the upper palatinate.] by this time mansfeld's power of defending the upper palatinate was at an end. the magistrates of the towns were sick of his presence, and preferred coming to terms with maximilian to submitting any longer to the extortions of their master's army. mansfeld, seeing how matters stood, offered to sell himself and his troops to the emperor. but he had no real intention of carrying out the bargain. on october he signed an engagement to disband his forces. before the next sun arose he had slipped away, and was in full march for heidelberg. tilly followed hard upon his heels. but mansfeld did not stop to fight him. throwing himself upon alsace, he seized upon hagenau, and converted it into a place of strength. section iii.--_frederick's allies._ [sidenote: § . proposal to take mansfeld into english pay.] the winter was coming on, and there would be time for negotiations before another blow was struck. but to give negotiations a chance it was necessary that mansfeld's army should be fed, in order that he might be able to keep quiet while the diplomatists were disputing. james, therefore, wisely proposed to provide a sum of money for this purpose. but a quarrel with the house of commons hurried on a dissolution, and he was unable to raise money sufficient for the purpose without a grant from parliament. [sidenote: § . england and spain.] james, poor and helpless, was thus compelled to fall back upon the friendship of spain, a friendship which he hoped to knit more closely by a marriage between his son, the prince of wales, and a spanish infanta. the spanish government was anxious, if possible, to avoid an extension of the war in germany. though all the riches of the indies were at its disposal, that government was miserably poor. in a land where industry, the source of wealth, was held in dishonour, all the gold in the world was thrown away. scarcely able to pay the armies she maintained in time of peace, spain had now again to find money for the war in the netherlands. in the twelve years' truce with the dutch had come to an end, and spinola's armies in brabant and flanders could not live, like mansfeld's at the expense of the country, for fear of throwing the whole of the obedient provinces, as they were called, into the enemies' hands. if possible, therefore, that yawning gulf of the german war, which threatened to swallow up so many millions of ducats, must be closed. and yet how was it to be done? the great difficulty in the way of peace did not lie in frederick's pretensions. they could easily be swept aside. the great difficulty lay in this--that the catholics, having already the institutions of the empire in their hands, were now also in possession of a successful army. how, under such circumstances, was protestantism, with which so many temporal interests were bound up, to feel itself secure? and without giving security to protestantism, how could a permanent peace be obtained? [sidenote: § . spanish plans.] to this problem the spanish ministers did not care to address themselves. they thought that it would be enough to satisfy personal interests. they offered james a larger portion with the infanta than any other sovereign in europe would have given. they opposed tooth and nail the project for transferring the electorate to maximilian, as likely to lead to endless war. but into the heart of the great question they dared not go, tied and bound as they were by their devotion to the church. could not frederick and james, they asked, be bought off by the assurance of the palatinate to frederick's heirs, on the simple condition of his delivering up his eldest son to be educated at vienna? though they said nothing whatever about any change in the boy's religion, they undoubtedly hoped that he would there learn to become a good catholic. [sidenote: § . frederick not likely to accede to them.] such a policy was hopeless from the beginning. frederick had many faults. he was shallow and obstinate. but he really did believe in his religion as firmly as any spaniard in madrid believed in his; and it was certain that he would never expose his children to the allurements of the jesuits of vienna. [sidenote: § . a conference to be held at brussels.] it was settled that a conference should be held at brussels, the capital of the spanish netherlands, first to arrange terms for a suspension of arms, and then to prepare the way for a general peace. the spanish plan of pacification was not yet announced. but frederick can hardly be blamed for suspecting that no good would come from diplomacy, or for discerning that a few regiments on his side would weigh more heavily in his favour than a million of words. [sidenote: § . where was frederick to expect help?] the only question for him to decide was the quarter in which he should seek for strength. his weakness had hitherto arisen from his confidence in physical strength alone. to get together as many thousand men as possible and to launch them at the enemy had been his only policy, and he had done nothing to conciliate the order-loving portion of the population. the cities stood aloof from his cause. the north german princes would have nothing to say to him. if he could only have renounced his past, if he could have acknowledged that all he had hitherto done had been the fruitful root of disaster, if he could, with noble self-renunciation, have entreated others to take up the cause of german protestantism, which in his hands had suffered so deeply, then it is not impossible that opinion, whilst opinion was still a power in germany, would have passed over to his side, and that the coming mischief might yet have been averted. [sidenote: § . his preparations for war.] but frederick did not do this. if he had been capable of doing it he must have been other than he was. in , as in , the pupil of christian of anhalt looked to the mere development of numerical strength, without regard to the moral basis of force. [sidenote: § . frederick's allies.] it must be acknowledged that if numbers could give power, frederick's prospects were never better than in the spring of . mansfeld's army was not, this time, to stand alone. in the south the margrave of baden-durlach was arming in frederick's cause. in the north, christian of brunswick was preparing to march to the aid of the palatinate. such names as these call up at once before us the two main difficulties which would have remained in the way of peace even if the question of the palatinate could have been laid aside. [sidenote: § . the margrave of baden.] the margrave of baden-durlach had long been notorious for the skill with which he had found excuses for appropriating ecclesiastical property, and for defeating legal attempts to embarrass him in his proceedings. [sidenote: . § . christian of brunswick.] christian of brunswick was a younger brother of the duke of brunswick-wolfenbüttel. by the influence of his family he secured in his election to the bishopric or administratorship of halberstadt. the ceremonies observed at the institution of the youth, who had nothing of the bishop but the name, may well have seemed a degrading profanation in the eyes of a catholic of that day. as he entered the cathedral the _te deum_ was sung to the pealing organ. he was led to the high altar amidst the blaze of lighted candles. then, whilst the choir sang 'oh lord! save thy people,' the four eldest canons placed him upon the altar. subsequently he descended and, kneeling with the canons before the altar, three times intoned the words 'oh lord, save thy servant.' then he was placed again upon the altar whilst a hymn of praise was sung. lastly, he took his place opposite the pulpit whilst the courtly preacher explained that christian's election had been in accordance with the express will of god. 'this,' he cried triumphantly, 'is the bishop whom god himself has elected. this is the man whom god has set as the ruler of the land.' [sidenote: § . christian's fondness for fighting.] christian's subsequent proceedings by no means corresponded with the expectations of his enthusiastic admirers. like one who has been handed down to evil renown in early english history, he did nought bishoplike. he was not even a good ruler of his domain. he left his people to be misgoverned by officials, whilst he wandered about the world in quest of action. as brainless for all higher purposes as murat, the young bishop was a born cavalry officer. he took to fighting for very love of it, just as young men in more peaceful times take to athletic sports. [sidenote: § . he takes up the cause of elizabeth.] and, if he was to fight at all, there could be no question on which side he would be found. there was a certain heroism about him which made him love to look upon himself as the champion of high causes and the promoter of noble aims. to such an one it would seem to be altogether debasing to hold his bishopric on the mere tenure of the agreement of mühlhausen, to be debarred from taking the place due to him in the diet of the empire, and to be told that if he was very loyal and very obedient to the emperor, no force would be employed to wrest from him that part of the property of the church which he held through a system of iniquitous robbery. then, too, came a visit to the hague, where the bright eyes of his fair cousin the titular queen of bohemia chained him for ever to her cause, a cause which might soon become his own. for who could tell, when once the palatinate was lost, whether the agreement of mühlhausen would be any longer regarded? [sidenote: § . his ravages in the diocese of paderborn.] in the summer of christian levied a force with which he marched into the catholic bishopric of paderborn. the country was in the course of forcible conversion by its bishop, and there was still in it a strong lutheran element, which would perhaps have answered the appeal of a leader who was less purely an adventurer. but except in word, catholic and protestant were alike to christian, so long as money could be got to support his army. castles, towns, farmhouses were ransacked for the treasure of the rich, and the scanty hoard of the poor. we need not be too hard on him if he tore down the silver shrine of a saint in the cathedral of paderborn, and melted it into coin bearing the legend:--'the friend of god and the enemy of the priests.' but it is impossible to forget he was the enemy of the peasants as well. burning-masters appear among the regular officers of his army; and many a village, unable to satisfy his demands, went up in flames, with its peaceful industry ruined for ever. at last, satiated with plunder, he turned southward to the support of mansfeld. [sidenote: § . mansfeld will not make peace.] such were the commanders into whose hands the fortunes of german protestantism had fallen. mansfeld told vere plainly that whether there were a truce or not, he at least would not lay down his arms unless he were indemnified for his expenses by a slice out of the austrian possession of alsace. [sidenote: § . tilly in the midst of his enemies.] if the three armies of the margrave of baden, of christian of brunswick, and of mansfeld, could be brought to co-operate, tilly, even if supported by cordova's spaniards, would be in a decided numerical inferiority. but he had the advantage of a central situation, of commanding veteran troops by whom he was trusted, and above all of being able to march or remain quiet at his pleasure, as not being dependent on mere pillage for his commissariat. he was inspired, too, by a childlike faith in the cause for which he was fighting as the cause of order and religion against anarchy and vice. section iv.--_the fight for the lower palatinate._ [sidenote: § . frederick joins mansfeld in the palatinate.] by the middle of april the hostile armies were in movement, converging upon the palatinate, where the fortresses of heidelberg, mannheim, and frankenthal were safe in vere's keeping. frederick himself had joined mansfeld's army in alsace, and his first operations were attended with success. effecting a junction with the margrave of baden he inflicted a severe check upon tilly at wiesloch. the old walloon retreated to wimpfen, calling cordova to his aid, and he did not call in vain. mansfeld, on the other hand, and the margrave could not agree. each had his own plan for the campaign, and neither would give way to the other. besides, there were no means of feeding so large an army if it kept together. mansfeld marched away, leaving the margrave to his fate. [sidenote: § . battle of wimpfen.] the battle of wimpfen was the result. on may tilly and cordova caught the margrave alone, and defeated him completely. as soon as the action was over, cordova left the field to resist the progress of mansfeld; and mansfeld, whose men were almost starving, was unable to overcome serious resistance. there was nothing for it but a speedy retreat to alsace. [sidenote: § . the congress at brussels.] in the meantime the diplomatists had met at brussels. after some difficulties of form had been got over, sir richard weston, the representative of england, sent to ask frederick to agree to a truce. when the message reached him the battle of wimpfen had not been fought, and his hopes were still high. a truce, he wrote to his father-in-law, would be his utter ruin. the country was exhausted. unless his army lived by plunder it could not exist. a few days later he was a beaten man. on may he gave way, and promised to agree to the truce. on the th all was again changed. he had learned that the margrave of baden hoped to bring back his army into the field. he knew that christian of brunswick was approaching from beyond the main; and he informed weston that he could do nothing to assist the negotiations at brussels. [sidenote: § . seizure of the landgrave of darmstadt.] on june frederick and mansfeld marched out of mannheim to meet christian. on their way they passed by darmstadt. the landgrave was especially obnoxious to them, as a lutheran prince who had warmly adopted the emperor's side. love of peace, combined with pretensions to lands in dispute with the landgrave of hesse cassel, in which he hoped to be supported by ferdinand, had made him a bitter enemy of mansfeld and his proceedings; and though it was not known at the time that he was actually in receipt of a spanish pension, frederick was not likely to attribute to other than interested motives a line of action which seemed so incomprehensible. [sidenote: § . mansfeld unable to pass the main.] as soon as the troops reached darmstadt, they commenced their usual work, ravaging the country, and driving off the cattle. to the landgrave, who recommended submission to the emperor as the best way of recovering peace, frederick used high language. it was not in quest of peace that he had come so far. the landgrave had a fortified post which commanded a passage over the main, and its possession would enable the army to join christian without difficulty. but the landgrave was firm; and finding that a denial would not be taken, tried to avoid his importunate guests by flight. he was overtaken and brought back a prisoner. but even in this plight he would give no orders for the surrender of the post, and its commander resolutely refused to give it up without instructions. before another passage could be found, tilly had received reinforcements, and frederick, carrying the landgrave with him, was driven to retreat to mannheim, not without loss. [sidenote: § . condition of mansfeld's army.] once more frederick was ready to consent to the cessation of arms proposed at brussels. but cordova and tilly were now of a different opinion. christian, they knew, would soon be on the main, and they were resolved to crush him whilst he was still unaided. lord chichester, who had come out to care for english interests in the palatinate, and who judged all that he saw with the eye of an experienced soldier, perceived clearly the causes of frederick's failure. 'i observe,' he wrote, 'so much of the armies of the margrave of baden and of count mansfeld, which i have seen, and of their ill discipline and order, that i must conceive that kingdom and principality for which they shall fight to be in great danger and hazard. the duke of brunswick's, it is said, is not much better governed: and how can it be better or otherwise where men are raised out of the scum of the people by princes who have no dominion over them, nor power, for want of pay, to punish them, nor means to reward them, living only upon rapine and spoil as they do?' [sidenote: § . battle of höchst.] on june , the day before these words were written, tilly and cordova had met with christian at höchst, and though they did not prevent him from crossing the main, they inflicted on him such enormous losses that he joined mansfeld with the mere fragments of his army. [sidenote: § . mansfeld abandons the palatinate.] great was the consternation at mannheim when the truth was known. the margrave of baden at once abandoned his associates. mansfeld and christian, taking frederick with them, retreated into alsace, where frederick formally dismissed them from his service, and thus washed his hands of all responsibility for their future proceedings. [sidenote: § . frederick goes back to the hague.] retiring for a time to sedan, he watched events as they passed from that quiet retreat. 'would to god,' he wrote to his wife, 'that we possessed a little corner of the earth where we could rest together in peace.' the destinies of germany and europe had to be decided by clearer heads and stronger wills than his. after a short delay he found his way back to the hague, to prove, as many a wiser man had proved before him, how bitter a lot it is to go up and down on the stairs which lead to the antechambers of the great: to plead for help which never is given, and to plan victories which never come. chapter iv. mansfeld and christian in north germany. section i.--_mansfeld's march into the netherlands._ [sidenote: § . reduction of the palatinate.] when once tilly had got the better of the armies in the field, the reduction of the fortresses in the palatinate was merely a work of time. heidelberg surrendered on september . on november vere found mannheim no longer tenable. frankenthal alone held out for a few months longer, and was then given up to the spaniards. [sidenote: § . aims of the catholics.] james still hoped that peace was possible, though the conference at brussels had broken up in september. in the meanwhile, ferdinand and maximilian were pushing on to the end which they had long foreseen; and an assembly of princes was invited to meet at ratisbon in november to assent to the transference of the electorate to the duke of bavaria. [sidenote: . § . the electorate transferred to maximilian.] constitutional opposition on the part of the protestants was impossible. in addition to the majority against them amongst the princes, there was now, by the mere fact of frederick's exclusion, a majority against them amongst the electors, a majority which was all the more firmly established when, on february , the transfer was solemnly declared. maximilian was to be elector for his lifetime. if any of frederick's relations claimed that the electorate ought rather to pass over to them, they would be heard, and if their case appeared to be a good one, they would receive what was due to them after maximilian's death. if, in the meanwhile, frederick chose to ask humbly for forgiveness, and to abandon his claim to the electoral dignity, the emperor would take his request for the restitution of his lands into favourable consideration. against all this the spanish ambassador protested; but the protest was evidently not meant to be followed by action. [sidenote: § . the north german protestants.] the question of peace or war now depended mainly on the north german protestants. nobody doubted that, if they could hit upon a united plan of action, and if they vigorously set to work to carry it out, they would bring an irresistible weight to bear upon the points at issue. unfortunately, however, such uniformity of action was of all things most improbable. john george, indeed, had more than once been urged in different directions during the past years by events as they successively arose. the invasion of the palatinate had shaken him in his friendship for the emperor. then had come the kidnapping of the landgrave of darmstadt to give him a shock on the other side. later in the year the news that an excuse had been found for driving the lutheran clergy out of bohemia had deeply exasperated him, and his exasperation had been increased by the transference of the electorate, by which the protestants were left in a hopeless minority in the electoral house. but the idea of making war upon the emperor, and unsettling what yet remained as a security for peace, was altogether so displeasing to john george that it is doubtful whether anything short of absolute necessity would have driven him to war. what he would have liked would have been a solemn meeting, at which he might have had the opportunity of advancing his views. but if those views had been seriously opposed he would hardly have drawn the sword to uphold them. [sidenote: § . mansfeld and christian of brunswick.] if the only danger to be apprehended by the north germans had been the march of tilly's army, it is not unlikely that the war would here have come to an end. ferdinand and maximilian would doubtless have respected the agreement of mühlhausen, and there would hardly have been found sufficient determination in the northern princes to induce them to arm for the recovery of the palatinate. but a new danger had arisen. mansfeld and christian had not laid down their arms when frederick dismissed them in july, and so far from being ready to make sacrifices for peace, they were ready to make any sacrifices for the sake of the continuance of the war. [sidenote: . § . they establish themselves in lorraine.] it was not long before the adventurers were forced to leave alsace. they had eaten up everything that was to be eaten there, and the enemy was known to be on their track. throwing themselves into lorraine, they settled down for a time like a swarm of locusts upon that smiling land. but where were they to turn next? the french government hurried up reinforcements to guard their frontier. that road, at all events, was barred to them, and christian, whose troops were in a state of mutiny, tried in vain to lead them towards the lower rhine. whilst the leaders hardly knew what to do, they received an invitation to place themselves for three months at the disposal of the dutch republic. [sidenote: § . battle of fleurus.] matters had not been going well with the dutch since the re-opening of the war in . their garrison at juliers had surrendered to spinola in the winter, and the great spanish commander was now laying siege to bergen-op-zoom, with every prospect of reducing it. to come to its relief mansfeld would have to march across the spanish netherlands. on august he found cordova on his way to fleurus, as he had stood in his way in the palatinate the year before. worse than all, two of his own regiments broke out into mutiny, refusing to fight unless they were paid. at such a time mansfeld was at his best. he was a man of cool courage and infinite resource, and he rode up to the mutineers, entreating them if they would not fight at least to look as if they meant to fight. then, with the rest of his force, he charged the enemy. christian seconded him bravely at the head of his cavalry, fighting on in spite of a shot in his left arm. three horses were killed under him. the loss was enormous on both sides, but mansfeld gained his object, and was able to pursue his way in safety. [sidenote: § . christian loses his arm.] christian's arm was amputated. he ordered that the operation should be performed to the sound of trumpets. 'the arm that is left,' he said, 'shall give my enemies enough to do.' he coined money out of the silver he had taken from the spaniards, with the inscription '_altera restat_.' [sidenote: § . mansfeld in münster and east friesland.] bergen-op-zoom was saved. spinola raised the siege. but mansfeld's disorderly habits did not comport well with the regular discipline of the dutch army. those whom he had served were glad to be rid of him. in november he was dismissed, and marched to seek his fortune in the diocese of münster. but the enemy was too strong for him there, and he turned his steps to east friesland, a land rich and fertile, easily fortified against attack, yet perfectly helpless. there he settled down to remain till the stock of money and provisions which he was able to wring from the inhabitants had been exhausted. section ii.--_christian of brunswick in lower saxony._ [sidenote: § . difficulties of the lower saxon circle.] here then was a new rock of offence, a new call for the emperor to interfere, if he was in any way to be regarded as the preserver of the peace of the empire. but a march of tilly against an enemy in east friesland was not a simply military operation. not a few amongst the northern princes doubted whether a victorious catholic army would respect the agreement of mühlhausen. christian of brunswick, of course, lost no time in favouring the doubt. for, whatever else might be questionable there was no question that the diocese of halberstadt was no longer secured by the provisions of that agreement. neither the league nor the emperor had given any promise to those administrators who did not continue loyal to the emperor, and no one could for a moment contend that christian had ever shown a spark of loyalty. [sidenote: § . christian and tilly urge them to opposite courses.] on the one side was christian, assuring those poor princes that neutrality was impossible, and that it was their plain duty to fight for the bishoprics and protestantism. on the other side was tilly, equally assuring them that neutrality was impossible, but asserting that it was their plain duty to fight for their emperor against mansfeld and brigandage. the princes felt that it was all very hard. how desirable it would be if only the war would take some other direction, or if tilly and christian would mutually exterminate one another, and rid them of the difficulty of solving such terrible questions! [sidenote: § . halberstadt in danger.] but the question could not be disposed of. halberstadt was a member of the lower saxon circle, one of those districts of which the princes and cities were legally bound together for mutual defence. the lower saxon circle, therefore, was placed between two fires. the catholic troops were gathering round them on the south. mansfeld was issuing forth from his fastness in east friesland and threatening to occupy the line of the weser on the north. [sidenote: § . warlike preparations.] in february the circle determined to levy troops and prepare for war. but the preparations were rather directed against mansfeld than against tilly. if the emperor could only have given satisfaction about the bishoprics, he would have had no vassals more loyal than the lower saxon princes. but in ferdinand's eyes to acknowledge more than had been acknowledged at mühlhausen would be to make himself partaker in other men's sins. it would have been to acknowledge that robbery might give a lawful title to possession. [sidenote: § . christian invited to take service under his brother.] almost unavoidably the circle became further involved in opposition to the emperor. christian's brother, frederick ulric, the reigning duke of brunswick-wolfenbüttel, was a weak and incompetent prince much under his mother's guidance. anxious to save her favourite son, the dashing christian, from destruction, the duchess persuaded the duke to offer his brother a refuge in his dominions. if he would bring his troops there, he and they would be taken into the service of the duke, a respectable law-abiding prince, and time would be afforded him to make his peace with the emperor. [sidenote: § . the battle of stadtlohn.] christian at once accepted the offer, and entered into negotiations with ferdinand. but he had never any thought of really abandoning his adventurous career. young princes, eager for distinction, levied troops and gathered round his standard. every week the number of his followers increased. at last the neighbouring states could bear it no longer. the authorities of the circle told him plainly to be gone. reproaching them for their sluggishness in thus abandoning the cause of the gospel, he started for the dutch netherlands, with tilly following closely upon him. on august he was overtaken at stadtlohn, within a few hours' march of the frontier, behind which he would have been in safety. his hastily levied recruits were no match for tilly's veterans. of , men only , found their way across the border. section iii.--_danger of the lower saxon circle._ [sidenote: § . danger of the northern bishoprics.] christian's defeat, however disastrous, settled nothing. mansfeld was still in east friesland. the princes of lower saxony were still anxious about the bishoprics. even if the agreement of mühlhausen were scrupulously observed, was it so very certain that the bishoprics might not be wrenched from them in another way than by force of arms? the administrators held the sees simply because they had been elected by the chapters, and if only a catholic majority could be obtained in a chapter the election at the next vacancy would be certain to fall upon a catholic. often it happened that the protestant majority had taken care to perpetuate its power by methods of very doubtful legality, and it would be open to the emperor to question those methods. it might even come to pass that strict law might turn the majority into a minority. already, on april , the chapter of osnabrück had chosen a catholic to succeed a protestant bishop, perhaps not altogether uninfluenced by the near neighbourhood of a catholic army. christian of brunswick, certain that he would not be allowed to retain his see, had formally given in his resignation, and it was not impossible that with some manipulation the chapter of halberstadt might be induced to follow the example of osnabrück. the question of the bishoprics had, no doubt, its low and petty side. it may be spoken of simply as a question interesting to a handful of aristocratic sinecurists, who had had the luck to reap the good things of the old bishops without doing their work. but this would be a very incomplete account of the matter. scattered as these bishoprics were over the surface of north germany, their restitution meant nothing less than the occupation by the emperor and his armies of points of vantage over the whole of the north. no one who casts his eyes over the map can doubt for an instant that, with these bishoprics open to the troops of the league, or it might be even to the troops of the king of spain, the independence of the princes would have been a thing of the past; and it must never be forgotten that, as matters stood, the cause of the independence of the princes was inextricably bound up with the independence of protestantism. if ferdinand and maximilian had their way, german protestantism would exist merely upon sufferance; and whatever they and the jesuits might say, german protestantism was, in spite of all its shortcomings, too noble a creed to exist on sufferance. [sidenote: § . the lower saxon circle does nothing.] would the members of the circle of lower saxony be strong enough to maintain their neutrality? they sent ambassadors to the emperor, asking him to settle the question of the bishoprics in their favour, and to john george to ask for his support. the emperor replied that he would not go beyond the agreement of mühlhausen. john george gave them good advice, but nothing more. and, worse than all, they were disunited amongst themselves. princes and towns, after agreeing to support troops for the common defence, had done their best to evade their duties. as few men as possible had been sent, and the money needed for their support was still slower in coming in. as usual, unpaid men were more dangerous to the country which they were called upon to protect than to the enemy. the circle came to the conclusion that it would be better to send the troops home than to keep them under arms. by the beginning of the new year, lower saxony was undefended, a tempting prey to him who could first stretch out his hand to take it. [sidenote: § . low state of public feeling.] it was the old story. with the empire, the diet and the church in the hands of mere partisans, there was nothing to remind men of their duty as citizens of a great nation. even the idea of being members of a circle was too high to be seriously entertained. the cities strove to thrust the burden of defence upon the princes, and the princes thrust it back upon the cities. the flood was rising rapidly which was to swallow them all. section iv.--_england and france._ [sidenote: § . foreign powers ready to interfere.] in the spring of there was rest for a moment. mansfeld, having stripped east friesland bare, drew back into the netherlands. the only army still on foot was the army of the league, and if germany had been an island in the middle of the atlantic, exercising no influence upon other powers and uninfluenced by them, the continuance in arms of those troops might fairly be cited in evidence that the emperor and the league wished to push their advantages still further, in spite of their assertions that they wanted nothing more than assurance of peace. [sidenote: § . ferdinand's weakness.] but germany was not an island. around it lay a multitude of powers with conflicting interests, but all finding in her distractions a fair field for pursuing their own objects. ferdinand, in fact, had made himself just strong enough to raise the jealousy of his neighbours, but not strong enough to impose an impassible barrier to their attacks. he had got on his side the legal and military elements of success. he had put down all resistance. he had frightened those who dreaded anarchy. but he had not touched the national heart. he had taught men to make it a mere matter of calculation whether a foreign invasion was likely to do them more damage than the success of their own emperor. whilst he affected to speak in the name of germany, more than half of germany was neutral if not adverse in the struggle. [sidenote: . § . breach between england and spain.] england, at last, was giving signs of warlike preparation. prince charles had paid a visit to madrid in hopes of bringing home a spanish bride, and of regaining the palatinate for his brother-in-law. he had come back without a wife, and with the prospect of getting back the palatinate as distant as ever. he had learned what the spanish plan was, that wonderful scheme for educating frederick's children at vienna, with all ostensible guarantees for keeping them in their father's faith, which were, however, almost certain to come to nothing when reduced to practice. and so he came back angry with the spaniards, and resolved to urge his father to take up arms. in the spring of all negotiations between england and spain were brought to an end, and parliament was discussing with the king the best means of recovering the palatinate. [sidenote: § . english plans.] in the english house of commons there was but little real knowledge of german affairs. the progress of the emperor and the league was of too recent a date to be thoroughly comprehended. men, remembering the days of philip ii., were inclined to overestimate the power of spain, and to underestimate the power of the emperor. they therefore fancied that it would be enough to attack spain by sea, and to send a few thousand soldiers to the aid of the dutch republic. [sidenote: § . question between the king and the house of commons.] james, if he was not prompt in action, at all events knew better than this. he believed that the imperial power was now too firmly rooted in germany to fall before anything short of a great european confederacy. from this the commons shrunk. a war upon the continent would be extremely expensive, and, after all, their wrath had been directed against spain, which had meddled with their internal affairs, rather than against the emperor, who had never taken the slightest interest in english politics. the utmost they would do was to accept the king's statement that he would enter into negotiations with other powers and would lay the results before them in the winter. [sidenote: § . the french government and the huguenots.] james first applied to france. he saw truly that the moment the struggle in germany developed into a european war the key to success would lie in the hands of the french government. in that great country, then as now, ideas of the most opposite character were striving for the mastery. old thoughts which had been abandoned in england in the sixteenth century were at issue with new thoughts which would hardly be adopted in england before the eighteenth. in france as well as in england and germany, the question of the day was how religious toleration could be granted without breaking up the national unity. in england that unity was so strong that no party in the state could yet be brought to acknowledge that toleration should be granted at all. but for that very reason the question was on the fair way to a better settlement than it could have in france or germany. when the nation was once brought face to face with the difficulty, men would ask, not whether one religion should be established in northumberland and another in cornwall, but what amount of religious liberty was good for men as men all over england. in germany it could not be so. there the only question was where the geographical frontier was to be drawn between two religions. neither those who wished to increase the power of the princes, nor those who wished to increase the power of the emperor, were able to rise above the idea of a local and geographical division. and to some extent france was in the same condition. the edict of nantes had recognised some hundreds of the country houses of the aristocracy, and certain cities and towns, as places where the reformed religious doctrines might be preached without interference. but in france the ideal of national unity, though far weaker than it was in england, was far stronger than it was in germany. in order to give security to the protestant, or huguenot towns as they were called in france, they had been allowed the right of garrisoning themselves, and of excluding the royal troops. they had thus maintained themselves as petty republics in the heart of france, practically independent of the royal authority. section v.--_rise of richelieu._ [sidenote: § . lewis xiii.] such a state of things could not last. the idea involved in the exaltation of the monarchy was the unity of the nation. the idea involved in the maintenance of these guarantees was its disintegration. ever since the young king, lewis xiii., had been old enough to take an active part in affairs he had been striving to establish his authority from one end of the kingdom to the other. [sidenote: § . his ideas.] the supremacy and greatness of the monarchy was the thought in which he lived and moved. his intellect was not of a high order, and he was not likely to originate statesmanlike projects, or to carry them out successfully to execution. but he was capable of appreciating merit, and he would give his undivided confidence to any man who could do the thing which he desired to have done, without himself exactly knowing how to do it. [sidenote: § . early years of his reign.] during the first years of his reign everything seemed falling to pieces. as soon as his father's strong hand was removed some of the nobility fell back into half-independence of the crown, whilst others submitted to it in consideration of receiving large pensions and high positions in the state. to this lewis was for the time obliged to submit. but the privileges of the huguenot towns roused his indignation. it was not long before he levied war upon them, determined to reduce them to submission to the royal authority. [sidenote: § . the intolerant party at court.] all this foreboded a future for france not unlike the future which appeared to be opening upon germany. there were too many signs that the establishment of the king's authority over the towns would be followed by the forcible establishment of his religion. there was a large party at court crying out with bigoted intolerance against any attempt to treat the huguenots with consideration, and that cry found an echo in the mind of the king. for he was himself a devout catholic, and nothing would have pleased him better than to see the victories of his arms attended by the victories of the church to which he was attached. [sidenote: § . lewis jealous of spain.] if lewis was not a ferdinand, it was not because he was a nobler or a better man, but because he had his eye open to dangers from more quarters than one. when the troubles in germany first broke out, french influence was exerted on the side of the emperor. french ambassadors had taken part in the negotiations which preceded the treaty of ulm, and had thrown all their weight in the scale to secure the safety of maximilian's march into bohemia. but in the conquest of the palatinate brought other thoughts into the mind of the king of france. his monarchical authority was likely to suffer far more from the victorious union between the two branches of the house of austria than from a few huguenot towns. for many a long year spain had planted her standards not only beyond the pyrenees, but in naples, milan, franche comté, and the netherlands. frankenthal and the western palatinate were now garrisoned by her troops, and behind those troops was the old shadowy empire once more taking form and substance, and presenting itself before the world as a power hereafter to be counted with. in , accordingly, lewis made peace with the huguenots at home. in he sent some slight aid to mansfeld. in he called richelieu to his counsels. [sidenote: § . richelieu's accession to power.] it would be a mistake to suppose that the cool and far-sighted cardinal who was thus suddenly placed at the head of the french ministry had it all his own way from the first. he had to take into account the ebb and flow of feeling in the court and the country, and the ebb and flow of feeling in lewis himself. there was still with lewis the old anxiety to crush the huguenots and to make himself absolute master at home, alongside with the new anxiety to shake off the superiority of the house of austria abroad. it was richelieu's task to show him how to satisfy both his longings; how to strike down rebellion whilst welcoming religious liberty, and how, by uniting catholic and protestant in willing obedience to his throne, he might make himself feared abroad in proportion as he was respected at home. [sidenote: § . marriage of henrietta maria.] richelieu's first idea was not altogether a successful one. he encouraged lewis to pursue the negotiation which had been already commenced for a marriage between his sister and the prince of wales. at the wish either of lewis himself or of richelieu the marriage was hampered with conditions for the religious liberty of the english catholics, to which the prince, when he afterwards came to the throne as charles i., was unwilling or unable to give effect. these conditions were therefore the beginning of an ill feeling between the two crowns, which helped ultimately to bring about a state of war. [sidenote: § . foreign policy of lewis and richelieu.] nor were other causes of dispute wanting. james and his son expected france to join them in an avowed league for the recovery of the palatinate. but to this lewis and richelieu refused to consent. lewis was proud of the name of catholic, and he was unwilling to engage in open war with the declared champions of the catholic cause. but he was also king of france, and he was ready to satisfy his conscience by refusing to join the league, though he had no scruple in sending money to the support of armies who were fighting for protestantism. he agreed to pay large subsidies to the dutch, and to join the king of england in promoting an expedition which was to march under mansfeld through france to alsace, with the object of attacking the palatinate. at the same time he was ready to carry on war in italy. the spaniards had taken military possession of the valtelline, a valley through which lay the only secure military road from their possessions in italy to the austrian lands in germany. before the end of the year a french army entered the valley and drove out the spaniards with ease. [sidenote: § . mansfeld's expedition.] mansfeld's expedition, on the other hand, never reached alsace at all. before the troops of which it was composed were ready to sail from england, richelieu had found an excuse for diverting its course. spinola had laid siege to breda, and the dutch were as anxiously seeking for means to succour it as they had sought for means to succour bergen-op-zoom when it was besieged in . the french averred that mansfeld would be far better employed at breda than in alsace. at all events, they now declined positively to allow him to pass through france. [sidenote: . § . failure of the expedition.] james grumbled and remonstrated in vain. at last, after long delays, mansfeld was allowed to sail for the dutch coast, with strict orders to march to the palatinate without going near breda. he had with him , english foot, and was to be accompanied by , french horse under christian of brunswick. no good came of the expedition. james had consented to conditions appended to his son's marriage contract which he did not venture to submit to discussion in the house of commons, and parliament was not, therefore, allowed to meet. without help from parliament the exchequer was almost empty, and james was unable to send money with mansfeld to pay his men. upon their landing, the poor fellows, pressed a few weeks before, and utterly without military experience, found themselves destitute of everything in a hard frost. before long they were dying like flies in winter. the help which they were at last permitted to give could not save breda from surrender, and the handful which remained were far too few to cross the frontier into germany. [sidenote: § . the rising of the french huguenots.] richelieu had hoped to signalize the year by a larger effort than that of . he had mastered the valtelline in alliance with venice and savoy, and french troops were to help the duke of savoy to take genoa, a city which was in close friendship with spain. there was further talk of driving the spaniards out of the duchy of milan, and even intervention in germany was desired by richelieu, though no decision had been come to on the subject. in the midst of these thoughts he was suddenly reminded that he was not completely master at home. the peace made with the huguenots in had not been fairly kept: royal officials had encroached upon their lands, and had failed to observe the terms of the treaty. on a sudden, soubise, a powerful huguenot nobleman with a fleet of his own, swooped down upon some of the king's ships lying at blavet, in brittany, and carried them off as his prize. sailing to rochelle, he persuaded that great commercial city to come to an understanding with him, and to declare for open resistance to the king's authority. [sidenote: § . interruption to richelieu's plans for intervening in germany.] if richelieu intended seriously to take part in the german war, this was cause enough for hesitation. cleverly availing himself of the expectations formed of the french alliance in england and holland, he contrived to borrow ships from both those countries, and before the autumn was over soubise was driven to take refuge in england. but rochelle and the huguenots on land were still unconquered, and ferdinand was safe for the moment from any considerable participation of france in the german war. whether richelieu would at any time be able to take up again the thread of his plans depended in the first place upon his success in suppressing rebellion, but quite as much upon the use which he might make of victory if the event proved favourable to him. a tolerant france might make war with some chances in its favour. a france composed of conquerors and conquered, in which each party regarded the other as evil-doers to be suppressed, not as erring brothers to be argued with, would weigh lightly enough in the scale of european politics. chapter v. intervention of the king of denmark. section i.--_christian iv. and gustavus adolphus._ [sidenote: § . denmark and sweden.] whilst france was thus temporarily hindered from taking part in german affairs, and whilst james and his son were promising more than their poverty would allow them to perform, the rulers of denmark and sweden were watching with increasing interest the tide of war as it rolled northwards. [sidenote: § . christian iv.] christian iv. of denmark had every reason to look with anxiety upon the future. as duke of holstein, he was a member of the lower saxon circle, and he had long been doing his best to extend his influence over the coasts of the north sea. by his new fortifications at glückstadt he aimed at intercepting the commerce of hamburg, and his success in procuring for one of his sons the bishopric of verden and the coadjutorship and eventual succession to the archbishopric of bremen was doubtless specially grateful to him on account of the position he thus acquired on the elbe and the weser. the question of the protestant bishoprics was therefore a very important question to him personally, and he was well aware that a real national empire in germany would make short work with his attempts to establish his dominion over the mouths of the german rivers. [sidenote: § . his early interest in the war.] his attention was not now called for the first time to the progress of the war. like all the lutheran princes, he had thoroughly disapproved of frederick's bohemian enterprise. but when frederick was a fugitive he had seen that a strong force was needed to stop the emperor from a retaliation which would be ruinous to the protestants, and he had in the beginning of given a willing ear to james's proposal for a joint armament in defence of the palatinate. had the war been undertaken then, with the character of moderation which james and christian would have been certain to impress upon it, the world might perhaps have been spared the spectacle of mansfeld's plunderings, with their unhappy results. but james came too soon to the conclusion that it was unnecessary to arm till mediation had failed; and christian, auguring no good from such a course, drew back and left the palatinate to its fate. but the events which followed had increased his anxiety, and in his mind was distracted between his desire to check the growth of the imperial power and his hesitation to act with allies so vacillating and helpless as the lower saxon princes were proving themselves to be. in his own lands he had shown himself a good administrator and able ruler. whether he was possessed of sufficient military capacity to cope with tilly remained to be seen. [sidenote: § . gustavus adolphus.] gustavus adolphus, king of sweden, was a man of a higher stamp. his is the one of the few names which relieve the continental protestantism of the seventeenth century from the charge of barrenness. possessed of a high and brilliant imagination, and of a temperament restless and indefatigable, to which inaction was the sorest of trials, he was never happier than when he was infusing his own glowing spirit into the comrades of some perilous enterprise. christian of brunswick was not more ready than he to lead a charge or to conduct a storm. but he had, too, that of which no thought ever entered the mind of christian for an instant--the power of seeing facts in their infinite variety as they really were, and the self-restraint with which he curbed in his struggling spirit and his passionate longing for action whenever a calm survey of the conditions around showed him that action was inexpedient. in all the pages of history there is probably no man who leaves such an impression of that energy under restraint, which is the truest mark of greatness in human character as it is the source of all that is sublime or lovely in nature or in art. [sidenote: § . his conflict with poland and russia.] such a man was certain not to be a mere enthusiast embarking heedlessly in a protestant crusade. neither would he be careful for mere temporal or political power, regardless of the higher interests of his time. his first duty, and he never forgot it, was to his country. when he came to the throne, in , sweden was overrun by danish armies, and in an almost desperate condition. in two years he had wrested a peace from the invaders, under conditions hard indeed, but which at least secured the independence of sweden. his next effort, an effort which to the day of his death he never relaxed, was to bring into his own hands the dominion of the baltic. he drove the russians from its coasts. 'now,' he said triumphantly in , 'this enemy cannot, without our permission launch a single boat upon the baltic.' he had another enemy more dangerous than russia. sigismund, king of poland, was his cousin, the son of his father's elder brother, who had been driven from the throne of sweden for his attachment to the catholic belief. and so gustavus was involved in the great question which was agitating europe. the bare legal right which gave the whole of the seventeen provinces of the netherlands to spain, which gave bohemia to ferdinand, and the protestant bishoprics and the secularized lands to the catholic clergy, gave also sweden to sigismund. was it strange if gustavus stood forth to combat this doctrine to the death, or if in his mind the growth of the two branches of the house of austria, by whom this doctrine was maintained, became inextricably blended with the creed which that doctrine was to favour? was it strange, too, if protestantism and the national right of each separate country to go its own way untrammelled by such a doctrine appeared in his eyes, as in his days for the most part they really were, but two forms of the same spirit? [sidenote: § . his visit to germany.] the peace concluded by gustavus with russia in was accompanied by a fresh outbreak of the war with poland; and this renewal of the contest with the old rival of his house naturally drew the king's attention to affairs in germany; for ferdinand, now rising into power, was the brother-in-law of sigismund, and likely to give him what aid he could in his swedish enterprise. and gustavus, too, was not quite a foreigner in germany. through his mother german blood ran in his veins, and when, in the summer of , he visited berlin in secret, he was won by the lovely face of the daughter of that energetic elector of brandenburg who after boxing the ears of the rival candidate for the dukedom of cleves had adopted the calvinist creed and had entered the union. the death of the elector delayed the marriage, and it was not till that, on a second visit, gustavus wrung a consent from the new elector, george william, whose weakness and vacillation were to be a sore trial to the swedish king in after years. in strict incognito, gustavus travelled as far as heidelberg, at a time when the elector was far away, in the midst of his short-lived splendour at prague. gustavus learned something from that visit which he never forgot. he saw the rich luxuriance of that fair rhine valley, stretching away till the western hills are but dimly visible in the blue distance, and which, compared by venetian travellers to the green lombard plain, must have caused strange sensations of wonder in the wanderer from the cold and barren north. and he saw another sight, too, which he never forgot--the wealth and magnificence of the rhenish prelates. 'if these priests were subjects to the king my master' (he spoke in the assumed character of a swedish nobleman) 'he would long ago have taught them that modesty, humility, and obedience are the true characteristics of their profession.' [sidenote: § . his daring and prudence.] plainly in this man there was something of christian of anhalt, something of the desire to overthrow existing institutions. but there was that in him which christian of anhalt was ignorant of--the long and calm preparation for the crisis, and the power of establishing a new order, if his life should be prolonged, to take the place of the old which was falling away. [sidenote: § . renewed war with poland.] gustavus returned to carry on the war with poland with renewed vigour. in riga surrendered to him. the next year he concluded a truce which gave him leisure to look about him. [sidenote: § . his interest in the german war.] the year brought with it fresh alarm. the empire, hostile to sweden and the religion of sweden, was growing terribly strong. unlike christian of denmark, gustavus had sympathized with frederick's bohemian undertaking, although he had expected but little from an enterprise under frederick's guidance. and now the tide of victory was running northward. an empire with a firm grasp on the shores of mecklenburg and pomerania would soon call in question the swedish dominion of the baltic. if this was to be the end, gustavus had gained but little by his victories over russia and poland. [sidenote: § . character of his policy.] it all sounds like mere selfishness,--christian alarmed for his family bishoprics, and his hold upon the elbe and the weser; gustavus providing against an attack upon his lordship in the baltic. but it does not follow that with both of them, and especially with gustavus, the defence of the persecuted gospel was not a very real thing. historians coolly dissect a man's thoughts as they please, and label them like specimens in a naturalist's cabinet. such a thing, they argue, was done for mere personal aggrandizement; such a thing for national objects; such a thing from high religious motives. in real life we may be sure it was not so. as with ferdinand and maximilian, the love of law and orderly government was indissolubly blended with the desire to propagate the faith on which their own spiritual life was based; so it was with gustavus. to extend the power of sweden, to support the princes of germany against the emperor's encroachments, to give a firm and unassailable standing ground to german protestantism, were all to him parts of one great work, scarcely even in thought to be separated from one another. and, after all, let it never be forgotten that the unity which he attacked was the unity of the jesuit and the soldier. it had no national standing ground at all. the germany of a future day, the germany of free intelligence and ordered discipline, would have far more in common with the destroyer than with the upholder of the hollow unity of the seventeenth century. section ii.--_english diplomacy._ [sidenote: § . english proposal to sweden and denmark.] in august two english ambassadors, sir robert anstruther and sir james spens, set out from london; the first to the king of denmark, the second to the king of sweden. the object of the embassies was identical, to urge upon the two kings the necessity of stirring themselves up to take part in a war for the recovery of the palatinate, and for the re-establishment of the old condition of things in germany. [sidenote: § . the danish answer.] christian hesitated only so far as to wish to be quite sure that james was too much in earnest to turn back as he had turned back in . anstruther was to go around the circle of the princes of lower saxony, and as soon as a favorable report was received from them, and the impression made by that report was strengthened by the news of mansfeld's preparations in england, christian engaged to take part in the war. [sidenote: § . foresight of gustavus.] gustavus was far more cautious. never doubting for a moment that the task before him was one of enormous magnitude, he argued that it would not be too much if all who had reason to complain of the house of austria, from bethlen gabor in the east to lewis of france in the west, were to join heart and soul in the great enterprise. with this view he was already in close communication with his brother-in-law, george william, the elector of brandenburg, who for once in his life was eager for war, perhaps because he had hardly reached to a full conception of all that such a war implied. [sidenote: § . his answer.] gustavus, too, had his own ideas about the way in which the war was to be carried on. in the first place there must be no divided command, and he himself must have the whole military direction of the troops. a certain number of men must be actually levied, and a certain sum of money actually paid into his hands. to the mere promises which satisfied christian he would not listen. and besides, two ports, one on the baltic, the other on the north sea, must be given over to him in order to secure his communications. perhaps, however, the part of his scheme which gives the greatest evidence of his prescience is that which relates to france. avoiding the rock upon which the english government was splitting, he made no attempt to force a catholic sovereign like lewis into over-close union with the protestant powers. help from france he would most willingly have if he could get it; but he argued that it would be better for the french forces to find a sphere of action for themselves in south germany or italy, far away from the regions in which gustavus himself hoped to operate at the head of a purely protestant army. [sidenote: . § . england adopts the danish plan.] in january the answers of the two kings were known in england. of the , men demanded by gustavus, , were to be paid out of the english exchequer. till four months' pay had been provided he would not stir. he, for his part, had no intention of being a second mansfeld, the leader of an army driven by sheer necessity to exist upon pillage. [sidenote: § . thinking it easier to satisfy christian than gustavus.] christian's ideas were framed on a more moderate scale. he thought that , men would be sufficient altogether, and that , would be enough to fall to the share of england. both james and charles declared that if they must make a choice they preferred the danish plan. even , men would cost them , _l._ a month, and, though the french marriage was settled, parliament had not yet been summoned to vote the subsidies on which alone such an expenditure could be based. but they did not yet understand that a choice was necessary. they thought that gustavus might still come in as an auxiliary to the danish armament. to this suggestion, however, gustavus turned a deaf ear. he had no confidence in christian, or in allies who had taken so scant a measure of the difficulties before them. it was true, he replied to a remonstrance from the english ambassador, that he had asked for hard conditions. 'but,' he added, 'if anyone thinks it easy to make war upon the most powerful potentate in europe, and upon one, too, who has the support of spain and of so many of the german princes, besides being supported, in a word, with the whole strength of the roman catholic alliance; and if he also thinks it easy to bring into common action so many minds, each having in view their own separate object and to regain for their own masters so many lands out of the power of those who tenaciously hold them, we shall be quite willing to leave to him the glory of his achievement, and all its accompanying advantages.' [sidenote: § . gustavus attacks poland.] with these words of bitter irony gustavus turned away for a time from the german war to fight out his own quarrel with the king of poland, a quarrel which he always held to be subservient to the general interests in so far as it hindered sigismund from taking part in the larger conflict. [sidenote: § . attempt of charles to fulfil his engagements.] christian's more sanguine ideas were soon to be put to the test. in march james of england died, and two months later charles i. entered into an engagement to supply the king of denmark with , _l._ a month, and scraped together , _l._ to make a beginning. mansfeld, it was arranged, should abandon his hopeless attempt to reach the palatinate along the rhine, and should convey the remnants of his force by the sea to the assistance of christian. [sidenote: § . commencement of the danish war.] after all, however, the main point was the success or failure of the king to gain support in germany itself. the circle of lower saxony, indeed, chose him for its military chief. but even then there was much division of opinion. with the commercial classes in the towns war against the emperor was as yet decidedly unpopular. they were tolerably well assured that they would reap no benefit from any accession of strength to the princes, whilst the danger from the emperor was still in the future. but they were not strong enough to carry the circle with them. a centre of resistance was formed, which must be broken down if the emperor's pretensions were not to be abated. on july tilly crossed the weser into lower saxony, and the danish war began. section iii.--_wallenstein's armament._ [sidenote: § . the emperor's need of support.] would tilly's force be sufficient to overcome the king of denmark and his foreign allies? ferdinand and his ministers doubted it. in proportion as his power increased, the basis on which it rested grew narrower. of his allies of the league alone supported him still. spain, exhausted for the time with the siege of breda, could do little for him, and contented herself with forming clever plans for cajoling the elector of saxony, and with urging the pope to flatter the lutherans by declaring them to be far better than the calvinists. of all such schemes as this nothing satisfactory was likely to come. john george of saxony, indeed, refused to join in the king of denmark's movement. he thought that the lower saxony princes ought to have been content with the agreement of mühlhausen, and that frederick ought to have made his submission to the emperor. but even in the eyes of john george the lower saxon war was very different from the bohemian war. the emperor's refusal to confirm permanently the protestant bishoprics had made it impossible for any protestant to give him more than a passive support. [sidenote: § . his numerous enemies.] and if the emperor's friends were fewer, his enemies were more numerous. christian iv. was more formidable than frederick. bethlen gabor, who had made peace in , was again threatening in the east; and no one could say how soon france might be drawn into the strife in the west. ferdinand needed another army besides tilly's. yet his treasury was so empty that he could not afford to pay a single additional regiment. [sidenote: § . wallenstein's offer.] suddenly, in the midst of his difficulties, one of his own subjects offered to take the burden on his shoulders. albert of waldstein, commonly known as wallenstein, sprang from an impoverished branch of one of the greatest of the families of the bohemian aristocracy. his parents were lutheran, but when, at the age of twelve, he was left an orphan, he was placed under the care of an uncle, who attempted to educate him in the strict school of the bohemian brotherhood, a body better known in later times under the name of moravians, and distinguished, as they are now, for their severe moral training. [sidenote: § . his early life.] the discipline of the brethren seems to have had much the same influence upon the young nobleman that the long sermons of the scotch presbyterians had upon charles ii. the boy found his way to the jesuits at olmütz, and adopted their religion, so far as he adopted any religion at all. his real faith was in himself and in the revelations of astrology, that mystic science which told him how the bright rulers of the sky had marked him out for fame. for a young protestant of ability without wealth there was no room in bohemia under the shadow of the great houses. with ferdinand, as yet ruler only of his three hereditary duchies, he found a soldier's welcome, and was not long in displaying a soldier's capacity for war. to wallenstein no path came amiss which led to fortune. a wealthy marriage made him the owner of large estates. when the revolution broke out he was colonel of one of the regiments in the service of the estates of moravia. the population and the soldiers were alike hostile to the emperor. seizing the cash-box of the estates he rode off, in spite of all opposition, to vienna. ferdinand refused to accept booty acquired after the fashion of a highwayman, and sent the money back to be used against himself. the moravians said openly that wallenstein was no gentleman. but the events which were hurrying on brought his name into prominence in connexion with more legitimate warfare, and he had become famous for many a deed of skill and daring before frederick's banner sunk before the victors on the white hill. [sidenote: § . offers to raise an army.] wallenstein was now in a position to profit by his master's victory. ferdinand was not a man of business. in peace as in war he gladly left details to others, and there were good pickings to be had out of the ruin of the defeated aristocracy. besides the lands which fell to wallenstein's share as a reward for his merit, he contrived to purchase large estates at merely nominal prices. before long he was the richest landowner in bohemia. he became prince of friedland. and now, when ferdinand's difficulties were at their height, wallenstein came forward offering to raise an army at his own cost. the emperor needed not to trouble himself about its pay. nor was it to be fed by mere casual plunder. wherever it was cantoned the general would raise contributions from the constituted authorities. discipline would thus be maintained, and the evils upon which mansfeld's projects had been wrecked would be easily avoided. [sidenote: § . the larger the better.] modern criticism has rejected the long accredited story of wallenstein's assertion at this time that he could find means to support an army of , men, but not an army of , . it is certain that his original request was for only , . but the idea was sure to occur to him sooner or later. government by military force was the essence of his proposal, and for that purpose the larger the number of his army the better. [sidenote: § . ferdinand cannot refuse.] the connexion between two men whose characters differed so widely as those of ferdinand and wallenstein was from first to last of a nature to excite curiosity. yet, after all, it was only the natural result of ferdinand's own methods of government. the ruler who knows nothing beyond the duty of putting the law in execution, whilst he shuts his eyes to the real requirements of those for whom the law ought to have been made, must in the end have recourse to the sword to maintain him and his legality from destruction. [sidenote: § . wallenstein's system.] the substitution of contributions for pillage may have seemed to ferdinand a mode of having recourse to a legal, orderly way of making war. unfortunately for him, it was not so. as the civil laws of the empire gave him no right to raise a penny for military purposes without the assent of the diet, and as, in the distracted condition of germany, the diet was no longer available for the purpose, no one was likely to regard money so raised as legal in any sense at all. in fact, it could only be justified as charles i. justified the forced loan of , as an act done out of the plenitude of power inherent in the crown, authorizing him to provide in cases of emergency for the good of his subjects. ferdinand, in truth had brought himself into a position from which he could neither advance nor retreat with honour. if he did not accept wallenstein's services he would almost certainly be beaten. if he did accept them, he would almost certainly raise a feeling in germany which would provoke a still stronger opposition than that which he had for the present to deal with. [sidenote: § . moderation impossible to wallenstein.] for the contributions were to be raised by military authority, with no check or control whatever from civil officials. even if the utmost moderation was used there was something utterly exasperating to the peasant or the townsman in having to pay over a greater or less share of his hoardings to a colonel who had no civil authority to produce, and who had no limit to his demands excepting in his own conscience. those who expected that moderation would be used must have formed a very sanguine idea of the influence of the events of the war upon ordinary military character. [sidenote: § . wallenstein's army.] in point of fact, neither wallenstein nor his soldiers thought of moderation. with him there was just enough of regularity to preserve the discipline he needed; just enough order to wring the utmost possible amount of money out of the country. 'god help the land to which these men come,' was the natural exclamation of a frightened official who watched the troops march past him. [sidenote: § . explanation of wallenstein's success.] how was it then, if wallenstein's system was no better than mansfeld's system more thoroughly organized, that he did not meet with mansfeld's misfortunes? the true explanation doubtless is that he was able to avoid the cause of mansfeld's misfortunes. mansfeld was a rolling stone from the beginning. with troops supporting themselves by plunder, he had to make head against armies in excellent condition, and commanded by such generals as tilly and cordova, before his own men had acquired the consistency of a disciplined army. wallenstein made up his mind that it should not be so with him. he would lead his new troops where there was much to be gained and little to do. in due course of time they would learn to have confidence in him as their leader, and would be ready to march further under his orders. [sidenote: § . wallenstein in the autumn of .] in the autumn, wallenstein entered the dioceses of magdeburg and halberstadt, levying the means of support for his army upon rich and poor. nor were the requirements of himself and his men like the modest requirements of tilly. with him every man was more highly paid. splendid equipments and magnificence of every kind were necessaries of life to the general and his officers, and the example was quickly followed, so far as imitation was possible, in the lower ranks of the army. to tilly's entreaties for aid wallenstein turned a deaf ear, and left him to carry on the war against the danes as best he could. he was doubtless wise in refusing to expose his recruits so early to the fierce trial of battle. with him everything was based on calculation. even his luxury and splendour would serve to fix upon him the eyes of his soldiers, and to hold out to them another prospect than that of the endless hardships, varied by an occasional debauch at the storming of a town, which was the lot of those who followed tilly. yet wallenstein never allowed this luxury and splendour to stand in the way of higher objects. he was himself a strategist of no mean order. he had a keen eye for military capacity. he never troubled himself to inquire what a man's religion was if he thought he could render good service as a soldier. there were generals in his army whose ancestry was as illustrious as that of any sovereign in europe, and generals who had no other title to eminence than their skill and valour. high and low were equal before his military code. honours and rewards were dispensed to the brave: his friendship was accorded to those who had been distinguished for special acts of daring. [sidenote: § . wallenstein not a german.] it was a new power in germany, a power which had no connexion with the princes of the empire, scarcely more than a nominal connexion with the emperor himself. and the man who wielded it was not even a german. by his birth he was a bohemian, of slavonian race. the foremost men of the war, tilly, wallenstein, gustavus, were foreigners. germany had failed to produce either a statesman or a warrior of the first rank. [sidenote: . § . failure of peace negotiations.] during the winter, negotiations for peace were opened at brunswick. but they foundered on the old rock. the emperor and the league would grant the terms of mühlhausen and nothing more. it was against their consciences to grant a permanent guarantee to the protestant administrators, and to admit them to the full enjoyment of the privileges of princes of the empire. with this the lower saxon princes refused to be contented. amongst the means by which the chapters had secured their protestant character were some acts of formal and even of technical illegality. such acts might easily be made use of by the emperor and his council to effect an alteration in the character of those bodies. the emperor and his council might possibly intend to be just, but somehow or another they always contrived to decide disputed questions in favour of their own partisans. on behalf of the religious and political institutions of protestant germany, the king of denmark and his allies refused to accept the terms which had been offered them, and demanded that protestant territories should receive a legal and permanent confirmation of their right to continue protestant. section iv.--_defeat of mansfeld and christian iv._ [sidenote: § . campaign of .] when the campaign opened, in the spring of , the numbers at the disposal of the two belligerents were not so very unequal. wallenstein's forces had been swelling far beyond his original reckoning. he and tilly together, it is said could command the services of , men, whilst , were ready to march against them. on christian's side were fighting mansfeld and christian of brunswick, and a nobler than either, john ernest of saxe-weimar, on whom, first of german men, the idea had dawned of composing the distractions of his fatherland by proclaiming a general toleration. bethlen gabor was once more threatening vienna from the side of hungary. even the protestant peasants in lower austria had risen in defence of their religion and their homes against the bavarian garrisons which guarded the land till their master's expenses had been paid. [sidenote: § . christian iv. at a disadvantage.] in other respects than numbers, however, the conditions were most unequal. tilly and wallenstein both quartered their troops on the enemy's country. in raising supplies they had no susceptibilities to consult, no friendly princes or cities to spare. christian, on the other hand, was still amongst his allies, and was forced, on pain of driving them over to the emperor, to show them every consideration. and in the midst of these difficulties one source of supply on which he had been justified in counting entirely failed him. [sidenote: . § . failure of the english supplies.] charles i. of england had engaged in the spring of to pay over to the king of denmark , _l._ a month, reckoning that parliament would enable him to fulfil his promise. parliament met in may, but it had no confidence either in charles or in his favourite and adviser, the duke of buckingham. a war carried on in germany with english money was most distasteful to the english feeling. the session came to an end after a vote of a bare , _l._, to meet a war expenditure scarcely, if at all, short of , , _l._ a year. still charles persisted. in the winter buckingham went over to holland and negotiated the treaty of the hague, by which the dutch were to pay , _l._ a month, and the english renewed their obligation to pay the , _l._ already promised to christian iv. this time, it was thought, a fresh parliament would be ready to take up the king's engagement. but the fresh parliament proved more recalcitrant than its predecessor. the sum of , _l._ which had been sent across the seas in may was the only representative of charles' promised support. [sidenote: . § . danger of the danish army.] christian of denmark and his allies, therefore, were to some extent in the position in which mansfeld had been in and . if not utterly without resource, they were sadly straitened, and were obliged to govern their movements by the necessity of finding supplies rather than by military calculations. [sidenote: § . mansfeld in the north.] mansfeld was the first to meet the enemy. for some time he had been quartered beyond the elbe, making himself troublesome to the lübeckers and the elector of brandenburg. but this could not go on for ever. wallenstein was in front of him, and he must fight him, or leave him to join tilly against the king. [sidenote: § . battle of the bridge of dessau.] wallenstein never, in his whole career, exposed his men to a battle in the open field if he could help it; and least of all was he likely to do so whilst they were yet untried. he seized upon the bridge of dessau over the elbe, and, having fortified it strongly, waited for mansfeld to do his work. on april mansfeld appeared. in vain he dashed his troops against the entrenchments. then, watching a favourable opportunity, wallenstein ordered a charge. the enemy fled in confusion and the victory was gained. [sidenote: § . mansfeld's march towards hungary.] not long after mansfeld's defeat at the bridge of dessau, christian of brunswick died. the remaining chiefs of the danish party had a desperate game to play. mansfeld, reinforced by john ernest of weimar, was dispatched through silesia, to hold out a hand to bethlen gabor. wallenstein followed in pursuit, after sending some of his regiments to the assistance of tilly. [sidenote: § . the battle of lutter.] what could christian do in the face of the danger? the english subsidies did not come. to remain on the defensive was to court starvation, with its inevitable accompaniment, mutiny. elated by a slight success over the enemy, he made a dash at thuringia, hoping to slip through into bohemia, and to combine with bethlen gabor and mansfeld in raising the old protestant flag in the heart of the emperor's hereditary dominions. but tilly was on the watch. on august he came up with the danish army at lutter. the fight was fiercely contested. but before it was decided a cry arose from some of the men in the danish ranks that they would fight no longer without pay. christian was driven from the field. in after days he complained bitterly that if the king of england had fulfilled his promises the battle would have ended otherwise. [sidenote: § . mansfeld's death.] the soldiers lent by wallenstein to tilly had borne them well in the fight. wallenstein himself was far away. mansfeld had been welcomed by the protestants of silesia, and when wallenstein followed he found the principal towns garrisoned by the enemy. by the time he reached hungary mansfeld had joined bethlen gabor. once more wallenstein pursued his old tactics. taking up a strong position, he left his opponents to do what they could. the events showed that his calculations were well founded. bethlen gabor had counted on help from the turks. but the turks gave him no adequate assistance, and he did not venture to repeat unaided the operation of the bridge of dessau, and to attack wallenstein in his entrenchments. he preferred making a truce, one of the conditions of which was that mansfeld should be expelled from hungary. on his way to venice the great adventurer was seized by a mortal disease. the unconquerable man, like an old northern warrior, refused to die in a bed. 'raise me up,' he said to his friends, 'i am dying now.' propped up in an upright position in their arms, and gazing out upon the dawn, which was lighting up the hills with the first rays of morning, he passed away. 'be united, united,' he murmured with his last breath; 'hold out like men.' his own absence from the scene would perhaps remove one of the chief difficulties in the way of union. chapter vi. stralsund and rochelle. section i.--_fresh successes of wallenstein._ [sidenote: . § . confiscations in the north.] differences had already arisen between wallenstein and the league. it was understood that the defeat of the northern rebels would lead to confiscations in the north, as the defeat of frederick had led to confiscations in the south. to part at least of the land of one of the defeated princes the elector of mentz laid claim. wallenstein wished to have it all for george of lüneburg, who, lutheran as he was, had held high command in the imperial army. [sidenote: § . wallenstein advocates religious equality.] the quarrel was more than a mere personal dispute. the league wished to pursue the old policy of pushing forward the interests of the catholic clergy under cover of legality. wallenstein wished catholic and protestant, already united in his army, to be equally united in the empire. rebellion would then be the only punishable crime; loyalty, and especially the loyalty of his own officers, the only virtue to be rewarded. [sidenote: § . comes into collision with the league.] another question between the two powers reached almost as deeply. the league demanded that wallenstein should support his army upon supplies taken from the protestants alone. wallenstein asserted his right, as the emperor's general, to quarter his men where he would, and to levy contributions for their maintenance even on the territories of the league. [sidenote: § . wallenstein could not found unity.] for the first time for many a long year, a friendly voice had been heard urging the emperor in the only wise direction. ferdinand, turning aside from the promotion of a sectional policy, was, if he would listen to wallenstein, to place the unity of the empire above the interests of the princes, by resting it on the basis of religious equality. unhappily that advice was tendered to him by a man who could not offer him security for the realization of so wise a policy. to stand above parties it is necessary to obtain the confidence of a nation, and how could men have confidence in wallenstein? durable institutions may be guarded by the sword. they cannot be founded by the sword. all that was known of wallenstein in germany was that he was master of an army more numerous and more oppressive than that of tilly. german unity, coming in the shape of boundless contributions and extortions, and enforced by the example of starving peasants and burning villages, was not likely to prove very attractive. [sidenote: § . wallenstein's conference with eggenberg.] it is strange that the better part of wallenstein's programme did not repel ferdinand at once. but ferdinand never made up his mind in a hurry when there were difficulties on both sides, and he was accustomed to defer to the opinion of his chief minister, eggenberg. in november wallenstein held a conference with that minister. he unfolded all his scheme. he would increase his army, if it were necessary, to , men. with such a force he would be able to avoid a pitched battle, always dangerous to troops not thoroughly inured to campaigning. by the occupation of superior strategical points, he would be able to out-manoeuvre the enemy. and then ferdinand would be master in germany. the whole of the empire would be brought under contribution. there would be submission at home, and abroad no power would be strong enough to lay a finger upon the re-established empire. [sidenote: . § . ferdinand supports wallenstein.] eggenberg was easily persuaded, and when eggenberg was won, ferdinand was won. in january, wallenstein was created duke of friedland, a higher title than that of prince of friedland, which he already bore, in token of the emperor's approbation. if only wallenstein could have shown ferdinand the way to win the hearts of germans as readily as he showed him the way to overpower their resistance, the history of germany and of europe would have been changed. [sidenote: § . preponderance of wallenstein.] the resistance of the protestants to the institutions of the empire had hitherto failed. they had been weak because there had been something revolutionary in all their proceedings. and now those institutions, which up to this time had been working harmoniously, were giving signs of breaking-up. there was a little rift in them which might any day become wider. "is the emperor," asked wallenstein, "to be a mere image which is never to move?" "it is not only the empire," answered the representatives of the league, "which is bound to the emperor. the emperor is also bound to the empire." there was nothing to reconcile the opposing theories. the emperor who claimed to be something had been the tool of a few bishops; he would be, if wallenstein had his way, the tool of a successful general. the empire, in the mouth of the representatives of the league, meant not the populations of germany, not even the true interest of the princes, but simply the interest of the bishops and their church. [sidenote: § . the campaign of .] the time had not yet come for an open quarrel. the enemy, though weakened, was still powerful. charles i., by dint of a forced loan, which every englishman except himself and his courtiers declared to be in violation of all constitutional precedents, contrived to get some money into his exchequer, and sir charles morgan was sent over to the king of denmark's aid with an army nominally of , men, but which in reality never reached two-thirds of that number. thurn, the old hero of the revolution at prague, and the margrave of baden-durlach, brought their experience, such as it was, to christian's aid, and a younger brother of john ernest's, soon to be known to fame as bernhard of weimar, was also to be found fighting under his banners. strong towns--wolfenbüttel, nordheim, and nienburg--still held out on his side, and peasants and citizens were eager to free the land from the oppressions of the soldiery and the yoke of the priests. [sidenote: § . submission of bethlen gabor.] once more the protestants of the north looked anxiously to the east. but bethlen gabor did not stir. without turkish help he could do nothing, and the turks, involved in a war with persia, resolved to negotiate a peace with the emperor. when peace was agreed upon in september bethlen gabor was powerless. [sidenote: § . wallenstein in silesia.] wallenstein's hands were freed as soon as these negotiations were opened. john ernest of weimar had died the year before, but his lieutenants were still in possession of silesia. in may, wallenstein sent duke george of lüneburg to cut off their retreat. in july, he was in silesia himself. his men were three to one of the enemy. place after place surrendered. only once did he meet with an attempt at resistance in the open field. before the end of august the whole of silesia was in his hands. fifty-five standards were sent in triumph to vienna. the silesian towns were set to ransom, and the money of the citizens went to swell the military chest of the emperor's general. [sidenote: § . combat of heiligenhafen.] when silesia was lost christian sought to avert destruction by offering terms of peace. but the two generals would accept nothing less than the surrender of holstein, and to that christian refused to accede. wallenstein and tilly joined their forces to drive him northwards before them. by this movement the margrave of baden was cut off from the rest of the danish army. making his way to the coast near wismar, he had long to wait before transports arrived to carry him across the sea to join the king of denmark. scarcely had he landed at heiligenhafen when a large body of imperialist troops arrived, and at once commenced the attack. he himself and a few of his principal officers escaped on ship-board. his men, seeing themselves deserted, took service under wallenstein, and seven of the best regiments in the danish army were lost to christian. [sidenote: § . conquest of schleswig and jutland.] tilly found occupation for his men in the siege of the strong places in lower saxony. wallenstein undertook to follow up the king of denmark. before the end of the year all schleswig and jutland, with the exception of two or three fortified towns, were in wallenstein's hands. [sidenote: § . wallenstein's schemes.] a few sieges, and all, it seemed, would be over. wallenstein had begun to cherish the wildest plans. when resistance had been put down in germany, he would place himself at the head of , men and drive the turks out of constantinople. such dreams, however, were to remain dreams. if denmark had been beaten down, tilly was still there, and tilly represented forces with which the new military empire was certain sooner or later to be brought into collision. section ii.--_resistance to wallenstein in the empire._ [sidenote: § . the assembly of mühlhausen.] in october, the electors in person, or by deputy, met at mühlhausen to take into consideration the condition of the empire. the ecclesiastical electors urged that the engagement given in to the protestant administrators was no longer valid. they had been told that they would not be dispossessed by force if they acted as loyal subjects. but they had not been loyal subjects. they had joined the king of denmark in a war in which, with the aid of foreign powers, he had attempted to dismember the empire. it was now time for justice to prevail, and for the church, so far as the peace of augsburg allowed, to come by its own. to this reasoning the new elector of bavaria gave the whole weight of his authority, and even the two protestant electors did not venture to meet the argument by an open denial. the circle of lower saxony had entered upon the war against the advice of john george, and he held that the administrators were only reaping the consequences of neglecting his counsel. [sidenote: § . the catholic electors complain of wallenstein.] the catholic electors felt themselves within reach of the settlement which they had long proclaimed as the object of their desires. they then proceeded to kick away the ladder by which they had climbed so high. it is not derogating from the merits of tilly and his veterans to say that without wallenstein they would have been unable to cope with the forces opposed to them. wallenstein's army had driven mansfeld back, had hemmed in bethlen gabor, had recovered silesia, had contributed to the victory of lutter. and yet that army threatened to establish itself upon the ruins of the authority of the princes and electors, and to set up a military despotism of the most intolerable kind. everywhere wallenstein's recruiting officers were beating their drums. quiet episcopal cities in the south of germany, which hoped to have seen the last of their troubles when mansfeld vanished westward out of alsace in , found themselves suddenly selected as a trysting-place for some new regiment. rough men poured in from every direction to be armed, clothed, lodged, and fed at their expense. the alarming doctrine that the army was to support itself, that men were to be raised for the purpose not of fighting the enemy, but of pressing contributions out of friends caused universal consternation. wallenstein's officers, too, had been heard to talk with military frankness about pulling down princes and electors, and making a real sovereign of the emperor. [sidenote: § . yet they cannot do without him.] the voice of complaint swelled loudly. but those who raised it did not see that their own policy was at fault; that but for their refusal to yield on the question of the bishoprics, there would have been no need for wallenstein's army at all. what they were doing required the aid of overpowering military force, and they were startled when he who wielded the sword insisted on being their master. for the present, therefore, the electors did not venture on anything more than a gentle remonstrance with wallenstein, and a petition to the emperor to remove the abuses which, as they well knew, were radically connected with the new system. [sidenote: . § . the commercial towns of the north.] the dislike of the rule of the sword which was felt amongst those for whom that sword had been drawn was sure to be felt far more strongly in the protestant cities of north germany. up to wallenstein's appearance the commercial oligarchies by which those cities were governed, had shown themselves at the best but lukewarm in the protestant cause. the towns of the south had been the first to desert the union. the towns of the north had been dragged half against their will into the danish war. to them the imperial sway was connected by a tradition of centuries with support against the encroachments of the princes. but they had no traditions in favour of an army living at free quarters amongst them, of bullying colonels and hectoring soldiers. magdeburg braved all the terrors of wallenstein's anger rather than admit a single company within its walls. hamburg declared itself ready to submit to the emperor's authority, but closed its gates against his army. and though magdeburg might be besieged when there was leisure, hamburg and the other maritime towns were less easily to be gained. all-powerful on land, wallenstein's authority ended at low-water mark. the king of denmark had fled to his islands. the king of sweden was master of the baltic. if it was doubtful whether they could set an army in battle array in germany, at least they could throw provisions and munitions of war into a besieged seaport town. if the empire was to be secured, these seaports must be brought under the emperor's authority. [sidenote: § . wallenstein in possession of the duchy of mecklenburg.] here, therefore, in the midst of the danger wallenstein determined to plant himself firmly, with the instinctive conviction that the post of danger is the post of power. the two dukes of mecklenburg had steadily supported the king of denmark in his struggle against the emperor. in , when most of the other states ceased to pay any contributions towards the war, they had continued to fulfil their engagements, and though they now professed their readiness to make their submission, it was wallenstein's interest to make the most of their treason, and the least of their repentance. in february, , the emperor, using the rights which he had claimed in the case of the elector palatine, declared them to have forfeited their lands and dignities, and placed the duchies in wallenstein's hands as a pledge for the payment of military expenses which still remained to be liquidated. it was significant of the change of feeling in germany that the ecclesiastical electors, who had seen nothing amiss in the deprivation of frederick, had not a good word to say for this concession to wallenstein. [sidenote: § . negotiation with the hanse towns.] in mecklenburg the imperial general had gained a footing on the baltic coast. but more than that was needed if he was to be safe from attack. all through the winter negotiations had been going on with the hanse towns, the maritime cities of the old commercial league, which had once taken up a dominant position in the north, and which, though shorn of its ancient glory, was still worth courting by a power which aspired to rule in germany. [sidenote: § . wallenstein's offers tempting.] reasons were not wanting to induce the hanse towns to accept the emperor's offers. there was something very tempting in the notion of having the power of the imperial armies to fall back upon in their conflicts for foreign states. hamburg especially had been the object of the jealousy of these states, as the mart from whence the western nations supplied themselves with the materials used in ship-building. the king of denmark had built glückstadt, lower down the elbe, in the hope of intercepting so lucrative a trade. the king of england had blockaded the river, and carried off hamburg vessels which he suspected of being freighted with timber and hemp for the use of his enemies in spain. [sidenote: § . but they are repelled when they understand his plan.] from the growth of a national authority in germany, therefore, the hanse towns would have had everything to gain. but ferdinand was not, could not be really national. what he had to offer was a special agreement with spain, which would have given them the monopoly of the trade between germany and the spanish dominions. such a trade could only be supported by war. it was a privilege which would bring with it a deadly conflict with england and holland, perhaps with denmark and sweden as well. and the prospect was none the more alluring because wallenstein was to play the principal part in the design. the general of the imperial forces was appointed admiral of the baltic, and the hanse towns were expected to find him a fleet. [sidenote: § . they decline to accept his proposal.] what a prospect for a body of calculating traders. the spanish monopoly, under such circumstances, was hardly to be recommended as a prudent investment. the emperor's overtures were politely declined. wallenstein, when he heard of their answer, rated them soundly. he had means, he said, to shut up their trade by land, and to seize goods which they might import either from england or the netherlands. he would deal with them, in short, as napoleon was to deal with them two centuries later. [sidenote: § . wallenstein and the baltic towns.] wallenstein's thoughts, however, were more immediately directed to the towns on the baltic. he had long been alarmed at the danger which threatened him from sweden. in november, , he had entered into negotiations with an adventurer who offered to set fire to the ships in the swedish harbours. but as the project had broken down there was nothing for it but to gain possession of the port towns on the baltic coast, and to bar them against the enemy. for no man could expect that gustavus would look on quietly, whilst a great military power was forming on the southern coast of the baltic. [sidenote: § . growth of his power.] wismar was soon in wallenstein's hands. the harbour of rostock was blocked up by a line of sunken ships. though boguslav, the duke of pomerania, promised to keep his long line of coast safe from attack, he was compelled to admit a strong imperialist force within his territory. everything seemed to be succeeding as wallenstein wished. section iii.--_the siege of stralsund._ [sidenote: § . stralsund holds out.] one town alone held out. stralsund was not a free city of the empire. but though it was nominally dependent on the duke of pomerania it was practically its own mistress. the citizens had no wish to put themselves forward in opposition to the emperor, far less to assist a foreign power to gain a footing in germany. but they would never admit a garrison of such troops as wallenstein's within their walls. [sidenote: § . he orders the siege to be commenced.] wallenstein would have all or nothing. he ordered his commander in those parts, the lutheran arnim, to enforce submission. "i will never," he wrote, "allow them to keep anything back from me, lest others should be encouraged to do the like." arnim, already master of rügen, seized dänholm, a smaller island commanding the mouth of the harbour. in february hostilities were commenced. in march the citizens attacked the imperialists in dänholm, and drove them out of the island. [sidenote: § . wallenstein's first check.] it was wallenstein's first check, and desperately did he struggle to wipe out the disgrace. every day the spirit of the citizens was rising. there were old soldiers there, fugitives from the danish war, and peasants who had fled from their desolated homes, and who had terrible tales to tell of the wretchedness which followed in the track of wallenstein's soldiers. in april, all within the town bound themselves by a solemn oath to defend their religion and their liberty to the last drop of their blood, and to admit no garrison within their walls. in the midst of their resistance they still kept up some recollection of their nationality, so far as any tie of nationality could still be said to exist. the name of the emperor was carefully avoided, but they professed attachment to the empire and its laws. [sidenote: § . succour from denmark and sweden.] practically, however, the shape in which the empire presented itself to them was that of wallenstein's army, and if they were to resist that army, the stralsunders must, whether they liked it or not, make common cause with those who were hostile to the empire. in may a danish embassy appeared amongst them, and the king of sweden sent a present of gunpowder. when the siege was formally opened, these overtures were followed by a succour of armed men. sweden and denmark were working together to break up the new military empire, and their forlorn hope was thrown into stralsund. [sidenote: § . wallenstein abandons the siege.] wallenstein saw that the case was serious, and came in person to the help of his lieutenant. according to a doubtful story, he exclaimed, 'i will have stralsund, even if it be fastened by chains to heaven.' it is certain that when a deputation from the citizens pleaded with him that he would abandon his demand that they should admit a garrison within their walls, he drew his hand along the surface of a table before him, and answered sternly, 'your town shall be made as flat as this.' but the problem of overcoming the resistance of a fortress open to unlimited succours by sea is one of the most difficult in the whole art of war. still, however, there were fearful odds in favour of the besiegers. without the walls wallenstein had no enemy to fear. he was himself duke of mecklenburg. with the elector of brandenburg and the duke of pomerania he was on friendly terms, and he had received the support of the latter in his attempts upon the town. within the walls there was no certainty of ultimate success. those who had anything to lose placed their property on shipboard. many sent their wives and daughters to seek a safe refuge in sweden. but whatever doubts might arise the defenders of the town fought sturdily on. week after week passed away, and stralsund was still untaken. wallenstein lowered his terms. he ceased to demand entrance for a garrison of his own men. it would be enough, he now said, if the citizens would entrust their walls to troops of their own ruler, the duke of pomerania, and would in this manner tear themselves away from the connexion with foreign powers hostile to the emperor. and to this offer the governing council of the town was ready to assent. but the general body of the citizens rejected it utterly. they deliberately preferred the alliance of the two foreign kings to submission, however indirect, to the emperor's authority. before this resolution, wallenstein, with all his armies, was powerless. on august he raised the siege. [sidenote: § . character of the resistance.] wallenstein's failure was an event of incalculable importance in the history of germany. it was much that one, and that not one of the first, towns of the empire should have beaten back the tide of conquest. but it was more that the resistance should have been attempted in a case which sooner or later would be the cause of the great majority of germans. ferdinand had floated to power because he personified order as opposed to anarchy. the stralsunders fought for the protestant religion and freedom from the presence of a garrison. ferdinand's order meant the rule of the priest, and the rule of the soldiers. slowly and unwillingly the citizens of stralsund declared for the presence of foreigners as better than such order as this. section iv.--_the siege of rochelle._ [sidenote: § . stralsund and rochelle.] the tide was on the turn in germany. but the tide was not on the turn in france. there, too, a maritime city, greater and wealthier than stralsund, and supported by fleets and armies from beyond the sea, was defending the cause of protestantism against the central government. mainly because in france the central government represented something more than the rule of the priest and the soldier, the resistance which was successful in germany was overpowered in france. [sidenote: . § . england and france.] during the year the coolness between england and france had been on the increase. the persecution of the english catholics by charles, in contravention of his promises, had greatly exasperated lewis, and the seizure by the english cruisers of numerous french vessels charged with carrying on a contraband traffic with the spanish netherlands had not contributed to calm his indignation. charles, on the other hand, regarded himself as the natural protector of the french protestants, and made demands in their favour which only served to make lewis more resolved to refuse every concession. [sidenote: § . richelieu would have made peace with the huguenots if he could.] richelieu had therefore a hard part to play. he knew perfectly well that the government had violated its engagements with the huguenots, especially in keeping up the fortifications of fort louis, a work commanding the entrance to the harbour of rochelle, which it had long ago promised to pull down. if richelieu had had his way he would have pulled down the fort, and by generous concessions to the huguenots would have carried them with him to the support of his foreign policy. but such a policy, in appearance so rash, in reality so wise, was not likely to be palatable to lewis, and richelieu had to steer his way between the danger of offending the king and the danger of lighting up still more vividly the flames of civil war. in the course of the winter all that could be done he did. deputies of the huguenot towns appeared to negotiate a peace, with the support of two english ambassadors. but they were instructed to demand the demolition of the fort, and to this the king steadily refused his consent. [sidenote: . § . an agreement effected.] the priests and the friends of the priests were delighted at the prospect of another civil war. the assembled clergy commissioned one of their number to offer to the king a considerable sum of money for the suppression of rebellion. the time was appointed for his audience, but richelieu contrived to put it off for a few hours longer, and, by a representation of the dangers of the situation, induced the huguenot deputies, with the support of the english ambassadors, to be satisfied with a loose verbal promise from the king. when the clerical train swept into the royal presence it was too late. the king had already promised the huguenot deputies that if they behaved as good subjects he would do for them more than they could possibly expect. his ministers had already assured them that these words pointed to the demolition of the fort. [sidenote: § . intervention of charles i.] if a peace thus made was to be enduring, it would be necessary to keep up for a long time the appearance of its being a submission and not a peace. unhappily, the intervention of the king of england was not likely to help to keep up appearances. he urged lewis to engage in the war in germany in the exact way and to the exact extent that suited the english government, and he put himself ostentatiously forward as the protector of the huguenots. [sidenote: § . lewis indignant.] such conduct awoke once more the susceptibilities of lewis. it was bad enough to be bearded by his own subjects. but it was worse to be bearded by a foreign sovereign. a group of huguenot communities in the south of france supported in practical independence by england would be as insupportable to him as the resistance of the hanse towns was two years later to wallenstein. [sidenote: . § . war between france and england.] fort louis, therefore, was not demolished. a peace was patched up between france and spain. charles grew more and more angry with lewis for deserting the common cause. fresh seizures of french ships by english cruisers came to exasperate the quarrel, and in the early months of war existed between the two nations, in reality if not in name. in july a great english fleet, with a land army on board, appeared off rochelle, under the command of charles' favourite, buckingham. a landing was effected on the isle of rhé, and siege was laid to the principal fort of the island. at last the garrison was almost starved out, and the commander offered to come the next morning into the english quarters to treat for terms of surrender. that night a stiff easterly breeze sprung up, and a french flotilla, heavily laden with provisions, put off from the main land. some of the boats were taken, but most of them made their way safely through the english guardships, and delivered their precious store under the guns of the fort. buckingham lingered for some weeks longer. every day the besiegers swept the horizon in vain with their glasses, looking for succour from england. but charles, without parliamentary support, was too poor to send off succours hurriedly, and when they were at last ready a long continuance of westerly winds prevented them from leaving the channel. before they could put to sea, a french force was landed on the island, and buckingham, to save himself from defeat, was forced to break up the siege and to return home discomfited. [sidenote: § . siege of rochelle.] richelieu and the king were now thoroughly of one mind. the french city which could enter into an understanding with the foreigner must be reduced to submission. an army of thirty thousand men gathered round the walls, and on the land side the town was as hopelessly blocked up as stralsund. the only question was whether it would be possible to cut off the entrance of english supplies by sea. by the end of november a commencement was made of the mole which was to shut off rochelle from all external help. piles were driven in with stones between them. heavily laden vessels were scuttled and sunk. richelieu himself directed the operations, this time with the full support of the clergy, who poured their money lavishly into the royal treasury. in may, , the work, in spite of the storms of winter, was almost completed. an english fleet, which came up to the succour of the town, retired without accomplishing anything. [sidenote: § . increasing despondency in the town.] inside the town distress was rapidly growing unendurable. the mayor, jean guiton, was still the soul of the resistance. but he had to struggle against an increasing number who counselled surrender. he did not venture to appear in the streets without a pistol in his hand and half-a-dozen stout guardians around him. [sidenote: § . failure of the english attempt to succour it.] the only hope for rochelle lay in the great armament which was known to be prepared in england, and which was to be conducted by buckingham in person. the house of commons had purchased the petition of right with large subsidies, and charles, for the first time in his reign, was enabled to make an effort worthy of his dignity. but the popular hatred found a representative in the murderer felton, and a knife struck home to the favourite's heart put an end to his projects for ever. the dissatisfaction which arrayed the english people against its government had found its way into the naval service. when the fleet arrived in september, under a new commander, all was disorganization and confusion. it returned to england without accomplishing a single object for which it had been sent forth. [sidenote: § . surrender of rochelle.] the surrender of rochelle followed as a matter of necessity. on november the king entered the conquered town in triumph. the independence of french cities was at an end. [sidenote: § . cause of richelieu's success.] the different success of the two great sieges of the year may partly be accounted for by the difference of vigour in the powers to which the threatened towns looked for succour. charles was very far from being a christian iv., much less a gustavus adolphus; and if england at unity with itself was stronger than sweden, england distracted by civil broils was weaker than sweden. but there were more serious reasons than these for richelieu's victory and wallenstein's failure. richelieu represented what wallenstein did not--the authority of the state. his armies were under the control of discipline; and, even if the taxation needed to support them pressed hardly upon the poor, the pressure of the hardest taxation was easy to be borne in comparison with a far lighter contribution exacted at random by a hungry and rapacious soldiery. if richelieu had thus an advantage over wallenstein, he had a still greater advantage over ferdinand and maximilian. he had been able to isolate the rochellese by making it clear to their fellow huguenots in the rest of france that no question of religion was at stake. the stralsunders fought with the knowledge that their cause was the cause of the whole of protestant germany. the rochellese knew that their resistance had been tacitly repudiated by the whole of protestant france. [sidenote: § . religious liberty of the huguenots.] when lewis appeared within the walls of rochelle he cancelled the privileges of the town, ordered its walls to be pulled down and its churches to be given over to the catholic worship. but under richelieu's guidance he announced his resolution to assure the protestants a continuance of the religious liberties granted by his father. no towns in france should be garrisoned by troops other than the king's. no authorities in france should give orders independently of the king. but wherever a religion which was not that of the king had succeeded in establishing its power over men's minds no attempt should be made to effect a change by force. armed with such a principle as this, france would soon be far stronger than her neighbours. if catholic and huguenot could come to regard one another as frenchmen and nothing else, what chance had foreign powers of resisting her? she had already beaten back the attack of a divided england. would she not soon acquire a preponderance over a divided germany? it is time for us now to ask what steps were being taken in germany to meet or to increase the danger. chapter vii. the edict of restitution. section i.--_oppression of the protestants._ [sidenote: . § . siege of glückstadt.] it was not at stralsund only that wallenstein learned that he could be successfully resisted. stade had surrendered with its english garrison to tilly in april, but glückstadt still held out. in vain wallenstein came in person to tilly's aid. the danish cruisers kept the sea open. wallenstein was obliged to retire. in january, , the works of the besiegers were destroyed by a sally of the garrison. [sidenote: . § . the peace of lübeck.] wallenstein, the great calculator, saw that peace with denmark was necessary. the swedes and the danes were beginning to act together, and resistance to one nation, if there must be resistance, would be easier than resistance to two. much to his satisfaction he found christian not unwilling to listen to the voice of his charming. just as the eagle eye of gustavus descried the first feeble beams of light on the horizon, the king of denmark, weary of misfortune and vexed at the prospect of having to crave help from his old competitor of sweden, laid down his arms. on may , , a treaty of peace was signed at lübeck. christian received back the whole of his hereditary possessions. in return he resigned all claim to the bishoprics held by his family in the empire, and engaged to meddle no further with the territorial arrangements of lower saxony. [sidenote: § . necessity of healing measures.] if the peace of lübeck was really to be a source of strength to ferdinand it must be accompanied by some such measures as those with which richelieu was accompanying his victory at rochelle. it was not enough to have got rid of a foreign enemy. some means must be found to allay the fears of the germans themselves, which had found expression in the resistance of stralsund. [sidenote: § . opposite views as to what measures are needed.] that there was much to be done in this direction was openly acknowledged by almost all who had been concerned in the imperialist successes. maximilian and the league held that it was above all things necessary to restrain the excesses of wallenstein and his soldiers. wallenstein held that it was above all things necessary to restrain the excessive demands of maximilian and the clergy. ferdinand, the man in whose hands fortune had placed the decision of the great question, probably stood alone in thinking that it was possible to satisfy both the soldiers and the priests without weakening his hold on the empire. the first act of ferdinand after the signature of the treaty was to invest wallenstein formally with the duchy of mecklenburg. offence was thus given to those who believed that the rights of territorial sovereignty had been unduly invaded, and who were jealous of the right claimed by the emperor to supersede by his own authority a prince of the empire in favour of a successful soldier. [sidenote: § . ill treatment of the protestants.] on the other side offence was given still more widely to those who wished to maintain the rights of protestantism. without wishing to enter upon a general persecution, ferdinand was resolved to allow no rights against his church to those who could not conclusively prove to his own satisfaction that those rights were under the guarantee of unassailable law. he had begun in his own hereditary dominions. it is true that in bohemia and austria no tortures were inflicted, no martyrs suffered either at the stake or on the scaffold. but it was found that the stern, relentless pressure of daily annoyance was sufficient for the purpose of producing at least external conformity. by the desired result had been obtained, and protestantism existed only as a proscribed religion. then came the turn of the palatinate. for a time there had been no open persecution. in maximilian had written to the governor of heidelberg not to let any opportunity slip, if he could find an excuse for turning out a protestant minister from his parish and replacing him by a catholic priest. in february, , the jesuits were able to report that they had made converts in heidelberg itself, and , in the neighbouring country districts. then came a further change. in march an agreement was drawn up between maximilian and ferdinand. the emperor received back upper austria, and made over to the elector of bavaria, in its stead, the upper palatinate and that part of the lower palatinate which lies on the right bank of the rhine. maximilian held that by this transfer he had acquired the full rights of a territorial prince, and that amongst these rights was that of disposing of the religion of his new subjects. in june all noblemen residing in the country were told that they must either change their religion within two months or go into exile. in september the order was extended to the inhabitants generally. [sidenote: § . the cities of south germany.] the year was a year of alarm over all protestant south germany. there at least ferdinand was ready to carry out the wishes expressed by the catholic electors at mühlhausen the year before. whilst maximilian was threatening the palatinate, imperial commissioners were passing through the other territories and cities, taking account of churches and church property which had come into protestant possession since the convention of passau. to the wishes of the populations not the slightest attention was paid. in nördlingen, for instance, not a single catholic was to be found. every church in the place was none the less marked down for re-delivery to the catholic clergy. in some places to which the commissioners came, shylock-like, to claim their pound of flesh, they demanded more even than the strict letter of the law allowed them. not content with restoring to the catholic worship churches which had with general consent been in the hands of protestants for half a century, they proceeded to compel the inhabitants of the towns to attend the mass. [sidenote: § . the edict of restitution.] the success of these outrageous measures in the south encouraged ferdinand to pursue the same course in the north. there he had to deal not merely with scattered towns, or a few abbeys, but with the great lay bishoprics, many of which were extensive enough to form the domain of a duke or a landgrave. on march , , before the peace of lübeck was actually signed, he issued the fatal edict of restitution. with a stroke of his pen, the two archbishoprics of magdeburg and bremen, the twelve bishoprics of minden, verden, halberstadt, lübeck, ratzeburg, misnia, merseburg, naumburg, brandenburg, havelberg, lebus, and camin, with about a hundred and twenty smaller ecclesiastical foundations, were restored to the catholic clergy. [sidenote: § . real weakness of the emperor.] the wheel had come full circle round since the day when christian of anhalt had planned the great uprising to sweep away the catholic bishops and the house of austria. the house of austria was firmer in its seat than ever. the catholic bishops were triumphant. but in the midst of their triumph the enemies of the empire were watching them keenly, and judging that both they and the emperor were all the weaker for this grand vindication of legality. section ii.--_french intervention in italy._ [sidenote: § . gustavus and richelieu.] in the north gustavus had an eye not likely to be deceived for the joints of ferdinand's harness. in the west richelieu was preparing for the day when he too might aid in the overthrow of the colossus. it is true that his first thought was of spain and not of germany. but he could hardly be brought into collision with one branch of the house of austria without having sooner or later to deal with the other. [sidenote: § . the mantuan war.] in italy, the death of the duke of mantua and montferrat without near heirs had given rise to war. the next heir was a very distant relation, the duke of nevers, whose family had long been naturalized in france. to spain the presence of a dependent of france so near her possessions in the milanese was in the highest degree undesirable, and she called upon ferdinand to sequester the territory till another way of disposing it could be found. if in germany before ferdinand's election the rights of the emperors had been but a shadow, those which they possessed in the old kingdom of italy were but the shadow of a shade. but whatever they were, ferdinand was the man to put them forth, and whilst richelieu was engaged at rochelle, spanish troops had overrun mantua, and in conjunction with the duke of savoy, ready now to seek his own interests by fighting for spain, as in earlier days to seek his own interests by fighting against her, were besieging the duke of nevers in casale, the only fortress which remained to him. [sidenote: § . italian feeling against the emperor.] this intervention of the spaniards in the emperor's name caused even greater indignation in italy than their intervention in the palatinate had caused in germany. for in germany the emperor's name was in still connected with the ideas of law and order. in italy it reminded men of nothing but foreign domination, a memory which was none the less vivid when the emperor used his authority, whatever it might be, to support the real foreign domination of the immediate present, the spanish domination in milan. the italian princes took alarm. venice and the pope summoned france to their aid, and in march, , richelieu, taking lewis with him across the snowy passes of the alps, reduced the duke of savoy to submission, and forced the spaniards to raise the siege of casale. [sidenote: § . check inflicted on him by richelieu.] casale was the stralsund of italy. a power which had ventured to clothe itself in the attributes of a national authority, with even less reason than in germany, had found its limits. richelieu had the general feeling on his side. [sidenote: § . the last huguenot rebellion.] he did not venture to do more in italy. the duke of rohan, the brother of that soubise who had begun the war of rochelle in , had roused the huguenots of languedoc and the cevennes to a fresh attempt at resistance, half protestant, half aristocratic. as if the rochellese had not sufficiently suffered for the mistake of calling in foreign aid, rohan followed their example, and was foolish enough to ask for help from spain. but the spanish troops came not to his aid. richelieu hurried back from italy, made peace with england, and pitilessly crushed the rebellion in the south. once more the victory was attended by the confirmation of the religious liberties of the huguenots. they might worship as they pleased, but political independence they were not to have. [sidenote: § . strength of france.] the french monarchy was stronger for external enterprise than ever. by crushing all resistance, it had no longer to fear occupation for its energies at home, and by its tolerance of religion it had rendered itself capable of accepting the service of all its subjects, and it could offer its alliance to protestant states without fear of suffering a rebuff. [sidenote: § . richelieu and the imperialists in italy.] richelieu was again able to turn his attention to italy. in the summer of an imperialist force of , men descended from the alps and laid siege to mantua. ferdinand, having established peace in germany, fancied that he could take up again in italy the work which had been too great for barbarossa. spinola came to his aid with an army of equal force, and recommenced the attack upon casale. in the spring of richelieu was once more in italy. cardinal as he was, he was placed in command of the army. but instead of marching against the spaniards, he turned first upon the duke of savoy. seizing pignerol and saluces, he gained possession of the alpine passes. then, with piedmont at his feet, he passed on to relieve casale, and forced the spanish besiegers to retreat. but richelieu was prudent as well as daring, and he left mantua for the present in the hands of spain and the emperor. [sidenote: § . state of germany.] it was a hard thing to attack the united forces of spain and the empire face to face. it might be easier to support their enemies abroad, and to favour dissensions at home. in the netherlands, the dutch, encouraged by the diversion of the italian war, were at last taking the offensive, and entering upon that aggressive warfare which ended by bringing the whole of north brabant under their authority. in the north, gustavus had concluded a peace with poland, and was making preparations for actual intervention in germany. in all this richelieu was deeply interested. an ambassador of lewis was engaged in arranging with gustavus the terms on which france should assist him in the attack upon the empire which he already contemplated. [sidenote: § . richelieu's expectations.] not that even richelieu foresaw the possibility of the magnificent results which were to follow from that enterprise. in , as in and , he would have preferred that a protestant power should not be too successful. he would rather conquer with sweden than not at all. but he would rather conquer with the help of the league than with the help of sweden. gustavus might be pushed on to do his best. he would effect a diversion, and that would be enough. section iii.--_wallenstein deprived of his command._ [sidenote: § . strong position of wallenstein.] the long expected breach between the league and the emperor's general had come at last. instead of reducing his forces after the peace of lübeck, wallenstein had increased them. he was now at the head of , men. from a military point of view no one could say it was too much. he had mantua to defend, the coasts of the north sea to watch, perhaps france to guard against, and that too with all the princes and peoples of germany exasperated against him. some efforts he made to curb the violence of his soldiers. but to restrain the monster he had created was beyond his power. and if his soldiers bore hard upon burgher and peasant, he himself treated the princes with contemptuous scorn. he asked why the electors and the other princes should not be treated as the bohemian nobles had been treated. the estates of the empire had no more right to independence than the estates of the kingdom. it was time for the emperor to make himself master of germany, as the kings of france and spain were masters of their own dominions. all this made the electors above measure indignant. "a new domination," they told ferdinand, "has arisen for the complete overthrow of the old and praiseworthy constitution of the empire." [sidenote: § . what could he effect?] a reconstruction of that old rotten edifice would have done no harm. but its overthrow by military violence was another matter. a new form of government, to be exercised by a soldier with the help of soldiers, could never be found in justice, for always formidable was the league and partnership of free power and free will. the way of ancient ordinances, though it winds, is yet no devious path. straight forward goes the lightning's path, and straight the fearful path of the cannon-ball. direct it flies, and rapid, shattering that it may reach, and shattering what it reaches. schiller's _piccolomini_, act i. scene . [sidenote: § . his partiality.] even whilst he was defending the universality of oppression on the principle that it was but fair that all estates should contribute to the common defence, he was exhibiting in his own case an extraordinary instance of partiality. whilst all germany was subjected to contributions and exactions, not a soldier was allowed to set foot on wallenstein's own duchy of mecklenburg. [sidenote: § . the edict of restitution carried out.] and if the catholic electors had good reason to complain of wallenstein, wallenstein had also good reason to complain of the electors. the process of carrying out the edict of restitution was increasing the number of his enemies. "the emperor," he said, "needed recruits, not reforms." ferdinand did not think so. he had persuaded the chapter of halberstadt to elect a younger son of his own as their bishop. he induced the chapter of magdeburg to depose their administrator, on the ground that he had taken part in the danish war. but, in spite of the edict of restitution, the chapter of magdeburg refused to choose a catholic bishop in his place, and preferred a son of the elector of saxony. john george was thereby brought by his family interests into collision with the edict of restitution. [sidenote: § . magdeburg refuses a garrison.] the city of magdeburg had not been on good terms with the chapter. wallenstein offered to support its resistance with the help of a garrison. but the city refused, and wallenstein, in the face of the growing opposition, did not venture to force it to accept his offer. [sidenote: § . growing opposition to wallenstein.] of the fact of the growing opposition no one could be doubtful. as to its causes there was much difference of opinion. the priests ascribed it to the barbarities of the soldiers. wallenstein ascribed it to the violence of the priests, and especially to the vigour with which they were attempting to reconvert the inhabitants of the archbishopric of bremen, which they had recovered in virtue of the edict of restitution. [sidenote: § . he talks of attacking the pope.] on every side the priests and their schemes were in the way of wallenstein's dazzling visions of a grand imperialist restoration. the pope, as an italian prince, had sympathized with france. "it is a hundred years," said wallenstein, "since rome has been plundered, and it is richer now than ever." [sidenote: § . assembly of ratisbon.] on july , , ferdinand assembled round him the princes and electors at ratisbon, in the hope of inducing them to elect his son, the king of hungary, as king of the romans, and therefore as his successor in the empire. but to this project the electors refused even to listen. all who attended the assembly came with their minds full of the excesses of wallenstein's soldiery. the commissioners of that very duke of pomerania who had served the imperial cause so well in the siege of stralsund, had a tale of distress to pour out before the princes. his master's subjects, he said, had been driven to feed upon grass and the leaves of trees. cases had occurred in which starving wretches had maintained life by devouring human flesh. a woman had even been known to feed upon her own child. [sidenote: § . the deprivation of wallenstein demanded.] other tales were told, bad enough, if not quite so bad as this, and the misery of the populations gave support to the political grievances of their rulers. ferdinand was plainly told that the electors did not mean to be subjected to military despotism. he must choose between them and wallenstein. [sidenote: § . richelieu's intrigues.] behind the catholic electors was richelieu himself. together with the recognized french ambassadors, the capuchin father joseph, richelieu's trusted confidant, had come to ratisbon, encouraging the opposition to wallenstein, and urging the electors to demand the neutrality of the empire, if a war broke out between france and spain. [sidenote: § . policy of the electors.] unhappily for germany, the policy of the electors was purely conservative. there was nothing constructive even in maximilian, the greatest of them all. the old loose relationship between the princes and the emperor was to be restored whether it was adequate to the emergency or not. at the very moment when he had every need of conciliating opposition, he and his brother electors were refusing the petition of the deputies of the duke of pomerania that their masters might be allowed to keep possession of the bishopric of camin. [sidenote: § . landing of gustavus.] at the moment when the offence was given, it was known at ratisbon that gustavus adolphus had landed on the coast of pomerania. [sidenote: § . gustavus comes without allies.] five years before gustavus had refused to stir against the emperor without the aid of a powerful coalition. he now ventured to throw himself alone into the midst of germany. he had no certainty even of french aid. the french ambassador had offered him money, but had accompanied the offer by conditions. gustavus thrust aside both the money and the conditions. if he went at all, he would go on his own terms. [sidenote: § . his hopefulness.] he knew well enough that the task before him, apparently far harder than in , was in reality far easier. he saw that between the ecclesiastical electors on the one hand, and wallenstein on the other, the protestant princes must cling to him for safety. to one who suggested that even if he were victorious the princes would seek to profit by his victory, he answered, with the assurance of genius, 'if i am victorious, they will be my prey.' [sidenote: § . dismissal of wallenstein.] events were working for him at ratisbon. before the persistent demand of the electors for wallenstein's dismissal ferdinand was powerless. even wallenstein would not have been strong enough to contend against the league, backed by france, with a whole protestant north bursting into insurrection in his rear. but, in truth, neither ferdinand nor wallenstein thought of resistance. the general, strong as his position was, at the head of the most numerous and well-appointed army in europe, retired into private life without a murmur. he may, perhaps, have calculated that it would not be long before he would be again needed. [sidenote: § . ferdinand's position.] that ferdinand felt the blow keenly it is impossible to doubt. he thought much of the maintenance of the imperial dignity, and the uprising of the electors was in some sort an uprising against himself. but the system which had fallen was the system of wallenstein rather than his own. he had sanctioned the contributions and exactions, feebly hoping that they were not so bad as they seemed, or that if anything was wrong a little more energy on wallenstein's part would set things straight. as to wallenstein's idea of a revolutionary empire founded on the ruins of the princes, ferdinand would have been the first to regard it with horror. his policy was in the main far more in accordance with that of maximilian than with that of wallenstein. [sidenote: § . concessions of ferdinand in italy.] wallenstein's dismissal was not the only sacrifice to which ferdinand was obliged to consent. he agreed to invest the duke of nevers with the duchy of mantua, hoping in return to secure the neutrality of france in his conflict with sweden. [sidenote: § . tilly in command.] the result of that conflict depended mainly on the attitude taken by the protestants of the north, whom ferdinand, in combination with the catholic electors, was doing his best to alienate. tilly was placed in command of the army which had lately been wallenstein's, as well as of his own. the variety of habits and of feeling in the two armies did not promise well for the future. but, numerically, tilly was far superior to gustavus. section iv.--_the swedes establish themselves on the coast of the baltic._ [sidenote: § . the swedish army.] gustavus, on the other hand, commanded a force inferior only in numbers. thoroughly disciplined, it was instinct with the spirit of its commander. it shared his religious enthusiasm and his devotion to the interests of his country. it had followed him in many a hardly-won fight, and had never known defeat under his orders. it believed with justice that his genius for war was far greater than that of any commander who was likely to be sent against him. [sidenote: § . the duke of pomerania submits to gustavus.] the first attempt of gustavus to win over a prince of the empire to his side was made before stettin, the capital of the duke of pomerania. he insisted on a personal interview with the aged boguslav, the last of the old wendish line. boguslav had ever been on good terms with the emperor. he had helped wallenstein at stralsund. but his deputies had pleaded in vain at ratisbon for his right to retain the bishopric of camin and for some amelioration of the misery of his subjects. he now pleaded in person with gustavus to be allowed to remain neutral. gustavus, like tilly in , would hear nothing of neutrality. the old man could hold out no longer. "be it as you wish, in god's name," he said. he begged the king to be a father to him. "nay," replied gustavus, "i would rather be your son." the inheritance of the childless man would make an excellent bulwark for the defence of the baltic. [sidenote: § . the elector of brandenburg prefers neutrality.] for some time longer gustavus was busy in securing a basis of operations along the coast by clearing pomerania and mecklenburg of imperialist garrisons. but, as yet, the northern princes were unwilling to support him. in vain gustavus reasoned with the ambassador of his brother-in-law, the elector of brandenburg, who had come to announce his master's neutrality. "it is time," he said, "for his highness to open his eyes, and to rouse himself from his ease, that his highness may no longer be in his own land a lieutenant of the emperor, nay, rather of the emperor's servant. he who makes a sheep of himself is eaten by the wolf. his highness must be my friend or enemy, when i come to his frontier. he must be hot or cold. no third course will be allowed, be you sure of that." the words were thrown away for the present. there may have been something of mere cowardice in the elector's resistance to the overtures made to him. frederick had failed, and christian had failed, and why not gustavus? but there was something, too, of the old german feeling remaining, of unwillingness to join with the foreigner against the empire. "to do so," said the brandenburg ambassador, "would be both dishonourable and disloyal." [sidenote: § . negotiations between sweden and france.] gustavus had but to wait till ferdinand's repeated blunders made loyalty impossible even with the much-enduring george william. fortunately for gustavus, he was now in a position in which he was able to wait a little. an attempt had been made in france to overthrow richelieu, in which the queen mother, mary of medici, had taken a leading part. richelieu, she warned her son, was leading him to slight the interests of the church. but lewis was unconvinced, and mary of medici found that all political authority was in richelieu's hands. [sidenote: . § . the treaty of bärwalde.] the complete success of the princes opposed to wallenstein had perhaps exceeded richelieu's expectations. a balance of power between wallenstein and the league would have served his purpose better. but if ferdinand was to be strong, it did not matter to france whether the army which gave him strength was commanded by wallenstein or by tilly. richelieu, therefore, made up his mind to grant subsidies to gustavus without asking for the conditions which had been refused in the preceding spring. on january the treaty of bärwalde was signed between france and sweden. a large payment of money was assured to gustavus for five years. gustavus, on his part, engaged to respect the constitutions of the empire as they were before ferdinand's victories, and to leave untouched the catholic religion wherever he found it established. out of the co-operation of catholic and protestant states, a milder way of treating religious differences was already arising, just as the final establishment of toleration in england grew out of the co-operation between the episcopal church and the nonconformists. section v.--_the fall of magdeburg._ [sidenote: § . hesitation of the elector of saxony.] further successes marked the early months of . but till the two protestant electors could make up their minds to throw in their lot with gustavus, nothing serious could be effected. john george felt that something ought to be done. all over north germany the protestants were appealing to him to place himself at their head. to say that he was vacillating and irresolute, born to watch events rather than to control them, is only to say that he had not changed his nature. but it must never be forgotten that the decision before him was a very hard one. in no sense could it be regarded otherwise than as a choice between two evils. on the one side lay the preponderance of a hostile religion. on the other side lay the abandonment of all hope of german unity, a unity which was nothing to gustavus, but which a german elector could not venture to disregard. it might be, indeed, that a new and better system would arise on the ruins of the old. but if saxony were victorious with the aid of sweden, the destruction of the existing order was certain, the establishment of a new one was problematical. [sidenote: § . the assembly at leipzig.] a great protestant assembly held at leipzig in march, determined to make one more appeal to the emperor. if only he would withdraw that fatal edict of restitution, the protestants of the north would willingly take their places as obedient estates of the empire. no foreign king should win them from their allegiance, or induce them to break asunder the last ties which bound them together to their head. but this time the appeal was accompanied by a step in the direction of active resistance. the protestant estates represented at leipzig agreed to levy soldiers, in order to be prepared for whatever might happen. [sidenote: § . tilly in the north.] time was pressing. the treaty of bärwalde had opened the eyes of maximilian and the league to the danger of procrastination. if they had entertained any hope that france would leave them to contend with gustavus alone, that hope was now at an end. tilly was despatched into the north to combat the swedish king. [sidenote: § . tilly's advance and retreat.] ferdinand had despised the danger from gustavus. "we have got a new little enemy," he said, laughing, when he heard of the disembarkation of the swedes. tilly knew better. he pressed rapidly forward, hoping to thrust himself between gustavus in pomerania and his lieutenant, horn, in mecklenburg. if he succeeded, the invading army would be cut in two, and liable to be defeated in detail. success at first attended his effort. on march , whilst the princes were debating at leipzig, he took new brandenburg, cutting down the whole swedish garrison of , men. but gustavus was too rapid for him. uniting his forces with those of horn, he presented a bold front to the enemy. tilly was driven back upon the elbe. the remaining fortresses on the baltic, and the important post of frankfort on the oder, garrisoned with eight imperialist regiments, fell into the power of the conqueror. [sidenote: § . magdeburg.] a greater and more important city than frankfort was at stake. the citizens of magdeburg had raised the standard of independence without waiting for leave from john george of saxony. gustavus had sent a swedish officer to conduct their defence. but without the support of the electors of saxony and brandenburg, he durst not bring his army to their assistance. [sidenote: § . treaty of cherasco.] the imperialists were gathering thickly round magdeburg. on april a treaty was signed at cherasco, between france and the empire, which restored peace in italy, and set free the emperor's troops beyond the alps for service in germany. if tilly saw matters still in a gloomy light, his fiery lieutenant, pappenheim, thought there was no reason to despair. "this summer," he wrote, "we can sweep our enemies before us. god give us grace thereto." [sidenote: § . convention with the elector of brandenburg.] as the siege went on, gustavus, writing under his enforced inaction, pleaded hard with the two electors. from the elector of brandenburg he demanded the right to occupy the two fortresses of küstrin and spandau. hopes were held out to him of the surrender of küstrin, but he was assured that spandau should never be his. accompanied by a picked body of troops, he marched straight upon berlin. on may , outside the city gates, he held a long conference with his brother-in-law, the elector. he argued in vain. to one of the dukes of mecklenburg, who had accompanied him, he spoke in bitter words. "i am marching," he said, "upon magdeburg, to deliver the city. if no one will assist me, i will retreat at once. i will offer peace to the emperor, and go home to stockholm. i know that the emperor will agree to my terms. but you protestants will have to answer at the day of judgment that you would do nothing for the cause of god. in this world, too, you will be punished. magdeburg will be taken, and, if i retire, you will have to look to yourselves." the next day the conference was resumed. from early morning till nine at night the elector persisted in his refusal. but the armed men who stood behind gustavus were the most powerful of arguments. at last the swedish king had his way. on the th the gates of spandau were thrown open to his troops. [sidenote: § . resistance of the elector of saxony.] but, if the elector of brandenburg had given way, the elector of saxony was not to be moved. he had not yet received an answer to his appeal to the emperor; and till that arrived he would enter into no alliance with a foreigner. further advance was impossible. cut to the heart by the refusal, gustavus withdrew, leaving magdeburg to its fate. [sidenote: § . storming of magdeburg.] that fate was not long in coming. the city was hardly in a state to make a desperate resistance. the council had levied men to fight their battle. but amongst the body of the townsmen there were some who counselled submission, and others who preferred taking their ease whilst the hired soldiers were manning the walls. on may , pappenheim stormed the city. in those days the sack of a town taken by storm was claimed as a right by the soldiers, as firmly by those of gustavus as by those of tilly and wallenstein. but a few weeks before, the protestant population of frankfort had been exposed to the violence and greed of the swedish army, simply because they had been unable to prevent the imperialists from defending the place. but the sack of magdeburg was accompanied by circumstances of peculiar horror. scarcely had the first rush taken place over the walls when, either intentionally or by accident, some of the houses were set on fire. in the excitement of plunder or of terror no one thought of stopping the progress of the flames. the conquerors, angered by the thought that their booty was being snatched away from before their eyes by an enemy more irresistible than themselves, were inflamed almost to madness. few could meet that infuriated soldiery and live. whilst every form of death, and of outrage worse than death, was encountered in the streets, the shrieks of the wretched victims were overpowered by the roaring of the flames. in a few hours the great city, the virgin fortress which had resisted charles v. and wallenstein, with the exception of the cathedral and a few houses around it, was reduced to a blackened ruin, beneath which lay the calcined bones of men, of tender women, and of innocent babes. [sidenote: § . tilly's part in the matter.] for the horrors of that day tilly was not personally responsible. he would have hindered the storm if he had been able. the tales which carried through all protestant germany the evil deeds of the old warrior, and represented him as hounding on his men to the wretched work, were pure inventions. he had nothing to gain by the destruction of magdeburg. he had everything to gain by saving it as a basis of operations for his army. [sidenote: § . false policy which led to the disaster.] but if tilly was not responsible for the consequences of the siege, he and his masters were responsible for the policy which had made the siege possible. that cathedral standing out from amidst the ruins of magdeburg was but too apt a symbol of the work which he and the league had set themselves to do. that the rights of the clergy and the church might be maintained, all the homes and dwellings of men in germany were to be laid waste, all the social and political arrangements to which they had attached themselves were to be dashed into ruin. [sidenote: § . ferdinand refuses to cancel the edict of restitution.] even now ferdinand was preparing his answer to the last appeal of the faithful protestant estates. the edict of restitution he would maintain to the uttermost. of the armament of the princes he spoke in terms of contemptuous arrogance. let john george and his companions in ill-doing dismiss their soldiers, and not presume to dictate terms by force to the head of the empire. ferdinand had declared the law as it was, and by the law he meant to abide. chapter viii. the victories of gustavus adolphus. section i.--_alliance between the swedes and the saxons._ [sidenote: . § . the camp of werben.] a great fear fell upon the minds of all protestant men. the cities of the south, augsburg and nüremberg, which had begun to protest against the execution of the edict, fell back into silence. in the north, gustavus, using terror to counteract terror, planted his cannon before the walls of berlin, and wrung from his reluctant brother-in-law the renunciation of his neutrality. but such friendship could last no longer than the force which imposed it, and john george could not be won so easily. william of hesse cassel was the first of the german princes to come voluntarily into the camp of gustavus. bernhard of saxe-weimar came too, young as he was, full of military experience, and full too of memories of his forefathers, the heroes of that old saxon line which had forfeited the saxon electorate for the sake of the gospel. but neither william nor bernhard could bring much more than their own swords. gustavus dared not take the offensive. throwing up an entrenched camp at werben, where the havel joins the elbe, he waited for tilly, and repulsed an attack made upon him. but what was such a victory worth? hardships and disease were thinning his ranks, and unless aid came, the end would be very near. [sidenote: § . tilly reinforced.] the aid which he needed was brought to him by the blindness of ferdinand. at last the results of the treaty of cherasco were making themselves felt. the troops from italy had reached the north, and, in august, tilly was at the head of , men. with the reinforcements came orders from the emperor. the tame deflection of john george from the line of strict obedience was no longer to be borne. tilly must compel him to lay down his arms, or to join in the war against the foreign invasion. [sidenote: § . summons john george to disarm.] these orders reached tilly on august . on the th he sent a message to the elector, asking him by what right he was in arms against the laws of the empire. john george had some difficulty in finding an answer, but he refused to dismiss his troops. [sidenote: § . attacks saxony.] if tilly had only let the elector alone, he would probably have had nothing to fear from him for some time to come. but tilly knew no policy beyond the letter of his instructions. he at once crossed the saxon frontier. pappenheim seized merseburg. tilly reduced leipzig to surrender by the threat that he would deal with the city worse than with magdeburg. the elector, so long unwilling to draw the sword, was beyond measure angry. he sent speedy couriers to gustavus, offering his alliance on any terms. [sidenote: § . union of the swedes and the saxons.] gustavus did not wait for a second bidding. the wish of his heart was at last accomplished. he put his forces at once in motion, bringing the elector of brandenburg with him. the saxon commander was the lutheran arnim, the very man who had led wallenstein's troops to the siege of stralsund. the edict of restitution had taught him that wallenstein's idea of a germany united without respect for differences of religion was not to be realized under ferdinand. he had thrown up his post, and had sought service with john george. without being in any way a man of commanding ability, he had much experience in war. [sidenote: § . the saxon troops.] the saxon soldiers were a splendid sight. new clothed and new armed, they had with them all the pomp and circumstance of glorious war. but they had had no experience of fighting. they were as raw as wallenstein's troops had been when he first entered the diocese of halberstadt in . [sidenote: § . the swedish troops.] the swedes were a rabble rout to look upon, at least in the eyes of the inexperienced saxons. their new allies laughed heartily at their uniforms, ragged with long service and soiled with the dust of the camp and the bivouac. but the war-worn men had confidence in their general, and their general had confidence in them. [sidenote: § . gustavus as a commander.] such confidence was based on even better grounds than the confidence of the veterans of the league in tilly. tilly was simply an excellent commander of the old spanish school. he had won his battles by his power of waiting till he was superior in numbers. when the battles came they were what are generally called soldiers' battles. the close-packed columns won their way to victory by sheer push of pike. but gustavus, like all great commanders, was an innovator in the art of war. to the heavy masses of the enemy he opposed lightness and flexibility. his cannon were more easily moved, his muskets more easily handled. in rapidity of fire he was as superior to the enemy as frederick the great with his iron ramrods at mollwitz, or moltke with his needle-guns at sadowa. he had, too, a new method of drill. his troops were drawn up three deep, and were capable of manoeuvering with a precision which might be looked for in vain from the solid columns of the imperialists. section ii.--_the battle of breitenfeld._ [sidenote: § . battle of breitenfeld.] on the morning of september swede and saxon were drawn up opposite tilly's army, close to the village of breitenfeld, some five miles distant from leipzig. gustavus had need of all his skill. before long the mocking saxons were flying in headlong rout. the victors, unlike rupert at marston moor, checked themselves to take the swedes in the flanks. then gustavus coolly drew back two brigades and presented a second front to the enemy. outnumbered though he was, the result was never for a moment doubtful. cannon shot and musket ball tore asunder the dense ranks of the imperialist army. tilly's own guns were wrenched from him and turned upon his infantry. the unwieldy host staggered before the deft blows of a more active antagonist. leaving six thousand of their number dying or dead upon the field, tilly's veterans, gathering round their aged leader, retreated slowly from their first defeat, extorting the admiration of their opponents by their steadiness and intrepidity. [sidenote: § . political importance of the victory.] the victory of breitenfeld, or leipzig--the battle bears both names--was no common victory. it was the grave of the edict of restitution, and of an effort to establish a sectarian domination in the guise of national unity. the bow, stretched beyond endurance, had broken at last. since the battle on the white hill, the emperor, the imperial council, the imperial diet, had declared themselves the only accredited organs of the national life. then had come a coolness between the emperor and the leaders of the diet. a good understanding had been re-established by the dismissal of wallenstein. but neither emperor nor diet had seen fit to take account of the feelings or wants of more than half the nation. they, and they alone, represented legal authority. the falsehood had now been dashed to the ground by gustavus. breitenfeld was the naseby of germany. [sidenote: § . victory of intelligence over routine.] like naseby, too, breitenfeld had in it something of more universal import. naseby was the victory of disciplined intelligence over disorderly bravery. breitenfeld was the victory of disciplined intelligence over the stiff routine of the spanish tactics. those tactics were, after all, but the military expression of the religious and political system in defence of which they were used. those solid columns just defeated were the types of what human nature was to become under the jesuit organization. the individual was swallowed up in the mass. as tilly had borne down by the sheer weight of his veterans adventurers like mansfeld and christian of brunswick, so the renewed catholic discipline had borne down the wrangling theologians who had stepped into the places of luther and melanchthon. but now an army had arisen to prove that order and obedience were weak unless they were supported by individual intelligence. the success of the principle upon which its operations were based could not be confined to mere fighting. it would make its way in morals and politics, in literature and science. [sidenote: § . wallenstein's intrigues with gustavus.] great was the joy in protestant germany when the news was told. the cities of the south prepared once more to resist their oppressors. all that was noblest in france hailed the tidings with acclamation. english eliot, writing from his prison in the tower, could speak of gustavus as that person whom fortune and virtue had reserved for the wonder of the world! even wallenstein, from his bohemian retreat, uttered a cry of satisfaction. for wallenstein was already in communication with gustavus, who, protestant as he was, was avenging him upon the league which had assailed him and the emperor who had abandoned him. he had offered to do great things, if he could be trusted with a swedish force of , men. he was well pleased to hear of tilly's defeat. "if such a thing had happened to me," he said to an emissary of gustavus, "i would kill myself. but it is a good thing for us." if only the king of sweden would trust him with men, he would soon bring together the officers of his old army. he would divide the goods of the jesuits and their followers amongst the soldiers. the greatest folly the bohemians had committed, he said, had been to throw martinitz and slawata out of window instead of thrusting a sword through their bodies. if his plan were accepted he would chase the emperor and the house of austria over the alps. but he hoped gustavus would not allow himself to be entangled too far in the french alliances. [sidenote: § . his designs.] wallenstein's whole character was expressed in these proposals, whether they were meant seriously or not. cut off from german ideas by his bohemian birth, he had no roots in germany. the reverence which others felt for religious or political institutions had no echo in his mind. as he had been ready to overthrow princes and electors in the emperor's name, so he was now ready to overthrow the emperor in the name of the king of sweden. yet there was withal a greatness about him which raised him above such mere adventurers as mansfeld. at the head of soldiers as uprooted as himself from all ties of home or nationality, he alone, amongst the leaders of the war, had embraced the two ideas which, if they had been welcomed by the statesmen of the empire, would have saved germany from intolerable evil. he wished for union and strength against foreign invasion, and he wished to found that union upon religious liberty. he would have kept out gustavus if he could. but if that could not be done, he would join gustavus in keeping out the french. [sidenote: § . impossibility of an understanding between wallenstein and gustavus.] yet between wallenstein and gustavus it was impossible that there should be anything really in common. wallenstein was large-minded because he was far removed from the ordinary prejudices of men. he was no more affected by their habits and thoughts than the course of a balloon is affected by the precipices and rivers below. gustavus trod firmly upon his mother earth. his swedish country, his lutheran religion, his opposition to the house of austria, were all very real to him. his greatness was the greatness which rules the world, the greatness of a man who, sharing the thoughts and feelings of men, rises above them just far enough to direct them, not too far to carry their sympathies with him. [sidenote: § . political plans of gustavus.] such a man was not likely to be content with mere military success. the vision of a soldier sovereignty to be shared with wallenstein had no charms for him. if the empire had fallen, it must be replaced not by an army but by fresh institutions; and those institutions, if they were to endure at all, must be based as far as possible on institutions already existing. protestant germany must be freed from oppression. it must be organized apart sufficiently for its own defence. such an organization, the _corpus evangelicorum_, as he called it, like the north german confederation of , might or might not spread into a greater germany of the future. it would need the support of sweden and of france. it would not, indeed, satisfy wallenstein's military ambition, or the more legitimate national longings of german patriots. but it had the advantage of being attainable if anything was attainable. it would form a certain bulwark against the aggression of the catholic states without necessitating any violent change in the existing territorial institutions. [sidenote: § . his military schemes.] if these were the views of gustavus--and though he never formally announced them to the world his whole subsequent conduct gives reason to believe that he had already entertained them--it becomes not so very hard to understand why he decided upon marching upon the rhine, and despatching the elector of saxony to rouse bohemia. it is true that oxenstjerna, the prudent chancellor of sweden, wise after the event, used to declare that his master had made a mistake, and later military historians, fancying that vienna was in the days of gustavus what it was in the days of napoleon, have held that a march upon ferdinand's capital would have been as decisive as a march upon the same capital in or . but the opinion of gustavus is at least as good as that of oxenstjerna, and it is certain that in vienna was not, in the modern sense of the word, a capital city. if we are to seek for a parallel at all, it was rather like madrid in the peninsular war. the king had resided at madrid. the emperor had resided at vienna. but neither madrid in nor vienna in formed the centre of force. no administrative threads controlling the military system stretched out from either. in the nineteenth century napoleon or wellington might be in possession of madrid and have no real hold of spain. in the seventeenth century, ferdinand and gustavus might be in possession of vienna and have no real hold on austria or bohemia. where an army was, there was power; and there would be an army wherever wallenstein, or some imitator of wallenstein, might choose to beat his drums. if gustavus had penetrated to vienna, there was nothing to prevent a fresh army springing up in his rear. [sidenote: § . necessity of finding a basis for his operations.] the real danger to be coped with was the military system which wallenstein had carried to perfection. and, in turning to the rhine, gustavus showed his resolution not to imitate wallenstein's example. his army was to be anchored firmly to the enthusiasm of the protestant populations. there lay the palatinate, to be freed from the oppressor. there lay the commercial cities augsburg, nüremberg, ulm, and strassburg, ready to welcome enthusiastically the liberator who had set his foot upon the edict of restitution; and if in bohemia too there were protestants to set free, they were not protestants on whom much dependence could be placed. if past experience was to be trusted, the chances of organizing resistance would be greater amongst germans on the rhine than amongst slavonians on the moldau. [sidenote: § . he resolves to march to the south-west.] for purposes of offence, too, there was much to induce gustavus to prefer the westward march. thither tilly had retreated with only the semblance of an army still in the field. there, too, were the long string of ecclesiastical territories, the priest's lane, as men called it, würzburg, bamberg, fulda, cologne, treves, mentz, worms, spires, the richest district in germany, which had furnished men and money to the armies of the league, and which were now to furnish at least money to gustavus. there spain, with its garrisons on the left bank of the rhine, was to be driven back, and france to be conciliated, whilst the foundations were laid of a policy which would provide for order in protestant germany, so as to enable gustavus to fulfil in a new and better spirit the work left undone by christian of anhalt. was it strange if the swedish king thought that such work as this would be better in his own hands than in those of john george of saxony? section iii.--_march of gustavus into south germany._ [sidenote: § . march of gustavus upon the rhine.] the march of the victorious army was a triumphal progress. on october , gustavus was at erfurt. on the th he entered würzburg: eight days later, the castle on its height beyond the main was stormed after a fierce defence. through all the north the priests were expelled from the districts which had been assigned them by the edict of restitution. gustavus was bent upon carrying on reprisals upon them in their own homes. on december , oppenheim was stormed and its spanish garrison put to the sword. the priest's lane was defenceless. gustavus kept his christmas at mentz. his men, fresh from the rough fare and hard quarters of the north, revelled in the luxuries of the southern land, and drank deep draughts of rhenish wine from their helmets. [sidenote: § . gustavus at mentz.] there is always a difficulty in conjecturing the intentions of gustavus. he did not, like ferdinand, form plans which were never to be changed. he did not, like wallenstein, form plans which he was ready to give up at a moment's notice for others entirely different. the essence of his policy was doubtless the formation, under his own leadership, of the _corpus evangelicorum_. what was to be done with the ecclesiastical territories which broke up the territorial continuity of south german protestantism he had, perhaps, not definitely decided. but everything points to the conclusion that he wished to deal with them as wallenstein would have dealt with them, to parcel them out amongst his officers and amongst the german princes who had followed his banner. in doing so, he would have given every security to the catholic population. gustavus, at least in germany, meddled with no man's religion. in sweden it was otherwise. there, according to the popular saying, there was one king, one religion, and one physician. [sidenote: § . the french startled at his victories.] he placed the conquered territories in sure hands. mentz itself was committed to the chancellor oxenstjerna. french ambassadors remonstrated with him roundly. richelieu had hoped that, if the house of austria were humbled, the german ecclesiastics would have been left to enjoy their dignities. the sudden uprising of a new power in europe had taken the french politicians as completely by surprise as the prussian victories took their successors by surprise in . "it is high time," said lewis, "to place a limit to the progress of this goth." gustavus, unable to refuse the french demands directly, laid down conditions of peace with the league which made negotiation hopeless. but the doubtful attitude of france made it all the more necessary that he should place himself in even a stronger position than he was in already. [sidenote: § . campaign in south germany.] on march he entered nüremberg. as he rode through the streets he was greeted with heartfelt acclamations. tears of joy streamed down the cheeks of bearded men as they welcomed the deliverer from the north, whose ready jest and beaming smile would have gone straight to the popular heart even if his deserts had been less. the picture of gustavus was soon in every house, and a learned citizen set to work at once to compose a pedigree by which he proved to his own satisfaction that the swedish king was descended from the old hereditary burggraves of the town. in all that dreary war, gustavus was the one man who had reached the heart of the nation, who had shown a capacity for giving them that for which they looked to their emperor and their princes, their clergy and their soldiers, in vain. [sidenote: § . gustavus at donauwörth.] gustavus did not tarry long with his enthusiastic hosts. on april he was before donauwörth. after a stout resistance the imperialists were driven out. once more a protestant easter was kept within the walls, and the ancient wrong was redressed. [sidenote: § . the passage of the lech and the death of tilly.] on the th the swedes found the passage of the lech guarded by tilly. every advantage appeared to be on the side of the defenders. but gustavus knew how to sweep their positions with a terrible fire of artillery, and to cross the river in the very teeth of the enemy. in the course of the battle tilly was struck down, wounded by a cannon shot above the knee. his friends mournfully carried him away to ingolstadt to die. his life's work was at an end. if simplicity of character and readiness to sacrifice his own personal interests be a title to esteem, that esteem is but tilly's due. to the higher capacity of a statesman he laid no claim. nor has he any place amongst the masters of the art of war. he was an excellent officer, knowing no other rule than the orders of constituted authorities, no virtue higher than obedience. the order which he reverenced was an impossible one, and there was nothing left him but to die for it. [sidenote: § . gustavus at augsburg and munich.] the conqueror pushed on. in augsburg he found a city which had suffered much from the commissions of resumption which had, in the south, preceded the edict of restitution. the lutheran clergy had been driven from their pulpits; the lutheran councillors had been expelled from the town hall. in the midst of the jubilant throng gustavus felt himself more strongly seated in the saddle. hitherto he had asked the magistrates of the recovered cities to swear fidelity to him as long as the war lasted. at augsburg he demanded the oath of obedience as from subjects to a sovereign. gustavus was beginning to fancy that he could do without france. then came the turn of bavaria. as gustavus rode into munich, frederick, the exiled elector palatine, was by his side, triumphing over the flight of his old enemy. it was not the fault of gustavus if frederick was not again ruling at heidelberg. gustavus had offered him his ancestral territories on the condition that he would allow swedish garrisons to occupy his fortresses during the war, and would give equal liberty to the lutheran and the calvinist forms of worship. against this latter demand frederick's narrow-hearted calvinism steeled itself, and when, not many months later, he was carried off by a fever at bacharach, he was still, through his own fault, a homeless wanderer on the face of the earth. [sidenote: § . gustavus at munich.] at munich gustavus demanded a high contribution. discovering that maximilian had buried a large number of guns in the arsenal, he had them dug up again by the bavarian peasants, who were glad enough to earn the money with which the foreign invader paid them for their labours. when this process was over--waking up the dead, he merrily called it--he prepared to leave the city with his booty. during his stay he had kept good discipline, and took especial care to prohibit any insult to the religion of the inhabitants. if, as may well have been the case, he was looking beyond the _corpus evangelicorum_ to the empire itself, if he thought it possible that the golden crown of ferdinand might rest next upon a lutheran head, he was resolved that religious liberty, not narrow orthodoxy, should be the corner-stone on which that empire should be built. [sidenote: § . strong position of gustavus.] all germany, except the hereditary dominions of the house of austria, was at his feet. and he knew well that, as far as those dominions were concerned, there was no strength to resist him. ferdinand had done enough to repress the manifestation of feeling, nothing to organize it. he would have been even more helpless to resist a serious attack than he had been in , and this time bavaria was as helpless as himself. even john george, who had fled hastily from the field of breitenfeld, marched through bohemia without finding the slightest resistance. his army entered prague amidst almost universal enthusiasm. section iv.--_wallenstein's restoration to command._ [sidenote: § . ferdinand looks about for help.] unless ferdinand could find help elsewhere than in his own subjects he was lost. abroad he could look to spain. but spain could not do very much under the eyes of richelieu. some amount of money it could send, and some advice. but that was all. [sidenote: . § . the spaniards recommend the recall of wallenstein.] what that advice would be could hardly be doubted. the dismissal of wallenstein had been a check for spain. he had been willing to join spain in a war with france. the electors had prevailed against him with french support, and the treaty of cherasco, by which the german troops had been withdrawn from fighting in support of the spanish domination in italy, had been the result. even before the battle of breitenfeld had been fought, the spanish government had recommended the reinstatement of wallenstein, and the spaniards found a support in eggenberg, wallenstein's old protector at court. [sidenote: § . wallenstein as the rival of gustavus.] soon after the battle of breitenfeld, wallenstein broke off his intercourse with gustavus. by that time it was evident that in any alliance which gustavus might make he meant to occupy the first place himself. even if this had been otherwise, the moral character and the political instincts of the two men were too diverse to make co-operation possible between them. gustavus was a king as well as a soldier, and he hoped to base his military power upon the political reconstruction of protestant germany, perhaps even of the whole empire. wallenstein owed everything to the sword, and he wished to bring all germany under the empire of the sword. [sidenote: § . his plan of a reconciliation with john george.] the arrival of the saxons in bohemia inspired wallenstein with the hope of a new combination, which would place the destinies of germany in his hands. the reluctance with which john george had abandoned the emperor was well known. if only ferdinand, taught by experience, could be induced to sacrifice the edict of restitution, might not the saxons be won over from their new allies? wallenstein's former plans would be realized, and united germany, nominally under ferdinand, in reality under his general, would rise to expel the foreigner and to bar the door against the frenchman and the swede. [sidenote: § . he is reinstated in the command.] in november, , wallenstein met his old lieutenant, arnim, now the saxon commander, to discuss the chances of the future. in december, just as gustavus was approaching the rhine, he received a visit from eggenberg, at znaim. eggenberg had come expressly to persuade him to accept the command once more. wallenstein gave his consent, on condition that the ecclesiastical lands should be left as they were before the edict of restitution. and besides this he was to wield an authority such as no general had ever claimed before. no army could be introduced into the empire excepting under his command. to him alone was to belong the right of confiscation and of pardon. as gustavus was proposing to deal with the ecclesiastical territories, so would wallenstein deal with the princes who refused to renounce their alliance with the swede. a new class of princes would arise, owing their existence to him alone. as for his own claims, if mecklenburg could not be recovered, a princely territory was to be found for him elsewhere. [sidenote: § . wallenstein's army.] after all it was not upon written documents that wallenstein's power was founded. the army which he gathered round him was no austrian army in any real sense of the word. it was the army of wallenstein--of the duke of friedland, as the soldiers loved to call him, thinking perhaps that his duchy of mecklenburg would prove but a transitory possession. its first expenses were met with the help of spanish subsidies. but after that it had to depend on itself. nor was it more than an accident that it was levied and equipped in bohemia. if gustavus had been at vienna instead of at munich, the thousands of stalwart men who trooped in at wallenstein's bare word would have gathered to any place where he had set up his standards. gustavus had to face the old evil of the war, which had grown worse and worse from the days of mansfeld to those of wallenstein, the evil of a military force existing by itself and for itself. from far distant shores men practised in arms came eagerly to the summons; from sunny italy, from hardy scotland, from every german land between the baltic and the alps. protestant and catholic were alike welcome there. the great german poet has breathed the spirit of this heterogeneous force into one of its officers, himself a wanderer from distant ireland, ever prodigal of her blood in the quarrels of others. "this vast and mighty host," he says (schiller, _the piccolomini_, act i. sc. ), is all obedient to friedland's captains; and its brave commanders. bred in one school, and nurtured with one milk, are all excited by one heart and soul. they are strangers on the soil they tread. the service is their only house and home. no zeal inspires them for their country's cause, for thousands like myself, were born abroad; nor care they for the emperor, for one half, deserting other service, fled to ours, indifferent what their banner, whether 'twere the double eagle, lily, or the lion;[a] yet one sole man can rein this fiery host, by equal rule, by equal love and fear, blending the many-nationed whole in one. was it, forsooth, the emperor's majesty that gave the army ready to his hand, and only sought a leader for it? no! the army then had no existence. he, friedland, it was who called it into being, and gave it to his sovereign--but receiving no army at his hand;--nor did the emperor give wallenstein to us as general. no, it was from wallenstein we first received the emperor as our master and our sovereign; and he, he only, binds us to our banner. [a] that is to say, the standard of the emperor, of france, or of sweden. [sidenote: § . he receives full powers.] wallenstein at first accepted the command for three months only. in april it was permanently conferred on him. the emperor was practically set aside in favour of a dictator. [sidenote: § . the saxons driven out of bohemia.] wallenstein turned first upon the saxons. in one hand he held the olive branch, in the other the sword. on may st his emissary was offering peace on the terms of the retractation of the edict of restitution. on the d wallenstein himself fell upon the saxon garrison of prague, and forced it to surrender. it was a plain hint to john george to make his mind up quickly. before long the saxons had been driven out of the whole of bohemia. [sidenote: § . but john george will not treat alone.] john george loved peace dearly, and he had joined sweden sorely against his will. but he was a man of his word, and he had promised gustavus not to come to terms with the enemy without his consent. he forwarded wallenstein's propositions to gustavus. [sidenote: § . demands of gustavus.] no man was so ready as gustavus to change his plans in all matters of secondary importance, as circumstances might require. in the face of wallenstein's armament and of the hesitations of the saxon court, he at once abandoned all thought of asking that the rhine bishoprics should remain in his hands. he was ready to assent to the solution of religious questions which satisfied wallenstein and john george. for himself, he expected the cession of at least part of pomerania, in order to protect himself from a future naval attack proceeding from the baltic ports. the elector of brandenburg had claims upon pomerania; but he might be satisfied with some of the bishoprics which it had been agreed to leave in protestant hands. [sidenote: § . impossibility of reconciling gustavus and wallenstein.] such terms would probably have met with opposition. but the real point of difference lay elsewhere. wallenstein would have restored the old unity of the empire, of which he hoped to be the inspiring genius. gustavus pressed for the formation of a separate protestant league, if not under his own guidance, at least in close alliance with sweden. wallenstein asked for confidence in himself and the emperor. gustavus had no confidence in either. [sidenote: § . hesitation of john george.] john george wavered between the two. he, too, distrusted wallenstein. but he did not see that he must either accept the empire, or help on its dissolution, unless he wished to leave the future of germany to chance. the imperial unity of wallenstein was something. the _corpus evangelicorum_ of gustavus was something. the protestant states, loosely combined, were doomed to defeat and ruin. section v.--_the struggle between gustavus and wallenstein._ [sidenote: § . gustavus proposes a league of cities.] long before john george's answer could reach gustavus the war had blazed out afresh. the swedish king did not yet know how little reliance he could place on the elector for the realization of his grand plan, when wallenstein broke up from bohemia, and directed his whole force upon nüremberg. gustavus threw himself into the town to defend it. here, too, his head was busy with the _corpus evangelicorum_. whilst he was offering to saxony to abandon the ecclesiastical territories, he proposed to the citizens of nüremberg to lay the foundations of a league in which the citizens alone should ally themselves with him, leaving the princes to come in afterwards if they would, whilst the ecclesiastical territories should remain in his own hands. there is nothing really discrepant in the two schemes. the one was a plan to be adopted only on condition of a final and permanent peace. the other was a plan for use as a weapon of war. the noticeable thing is the persistent way in which gustavus returned again and again to the idea of founding a political union as the basis of military strength. [sidenote: § . his proposal unacceptable.] he was no more successful with the citizens of nüremberg than with the elector of saxony. they replied that a matter of such importance should be treated in common by all the cities and princes interested. "in that case," he replied, bitterly, "the elector of saxony will dispute for half a year in whose name the summons to the meeting ought to be issued. when the cities, too, send deputies, they usually separate as they meet, discovering that there is a defect in their instructions, and so refer everything home again for further consideration, without coming to any conclusion whatever." can it be doubted that the political incompetence of the germans, caused by their internal divisions and their long disuse of such institutions as would have enabled them to act in common, was a thorn in the side of gustavus, felt by him more deeply than the appearance in the field, however unexpected, of wallenstein and his army? [sidenote: § . gustavus and wallenstein at nüremberg.] that army, however, must be met. wallenstein had , men with him; gustavus but a third of the number. the war had blazed up along the rhine from alsace to coblentz. pappenheim was fighting there, and the spaniards had sent troops of their own, and had summoned the duke of lorraine to their aid. by-and-by it was seen how rightly gustavus had judged that france could not afford to quarrel with him. though he had dashed aside richelieu's favourite scheme of leaving the ecclesiastical territories untouched, and had refused to single out the house of austria as the sole object of the war, richelieu could not fail to support him against spanish troops. in a few weeks the danger in his rear was at an end, and the scattered detachments of the swedish army were hurrying to join their king at nüremberg. [sidenote: § . wallenstein entrenches himself.] gustavus was now ready for a battle. but a battle he could not have. wallenstein fell back upon his old tactics of refusing battle, except when he had a manifest superiority of numbers. he entrenched himself near fürth, to the north of nüremberg, on a commanding eminence overlooking the whole plain around. for twelve miles his works protected his newly-levied army. house, villages, advantages of the ground were everywhere utilized for defence. [sidenote: § . wants of the swedish army.] in the meanwhile, scarcity and pestilence were doing their terrible work at nüremberg. the country people had flocked in for refuge, and the population was too great to be easily supplied with food. even in the army want began to be felt. and with want came the relaxation of that discipline upon which gustavus prided himself. he had large numbers of german troops in his army now, and a long evil experience had taught germans the habits of marauders. [sidenote: § . gustavus remonstrates.] gustavus was deeply irritated. sending for the chief germans in his service, he rated them soundly. "his majesty," says one who described the scene, "was never before seen in such a rage." [sidenote: § . his speech to the officers.] "you princes, counts, lords, and noblemen," he said, "you are showing your disloyalty and wickedness on your own fatherland, which you are ruining. you colonels, and officers from the highest to the lowest, it is you who steal and rob every one, without making any exceptions. you plunder your own brothers in the faith. you make me disgusted with you; and god my creator be my witness that my heart is filled with gall when i see any one of you behaving so villanously. for you cause men to say openly, 'the king, our friend, does us more harm than our enemies.' if you were real christians you would consider what i am doing for you, how i am spending my life in your service. i have given up the treasures of my crown for your sake, and have not had from your german empire enough to buy myself a bad suit of clothes with." [sidenote: § . complains bitterly of them.] after this strain he went on: "enter into your hearts," he said, "and think how sad you are making me, so that the tears stand in my eyes. you treat me ill with your evil discipline; i do not say with your evil fighting, for in that you have behaved like honourable gentlemen, and for that i am much obliged to you. i am so grieved for you that i am vexed that i ever had anything to do with so stiff-necked a nation. well, then, take my warning to heart; we will soon show our enemies that we are honest men and honourable gentlemen." [sidenote: § . punishes plunderers.] one day the king caught a corporal stealing cows. "my son," he said, as he delivered him over to the provost marshal, "it is better that i should punish you, than that god should punish not only you, but me and all of us for your sake." [sidenote: § . fails to storm wallenstein's lines.] such a state of things could not last long. on september gustavus led his army to the shores of wallenstein's entrenchments; but though he made some impression, the lines were too skilfully drawn, and too well defended, to be broken through. on the other hand, gustavus was not a mansfeld, and wallenstein did not venture, as at the bridge of dessau, to follow up his successful defence by an offensive movement. [sidenote: § . is obliged to march away.] want of supplies made it impossible for gustavus to remain longer at nüremberg. for the first time since he landed in germany he had failed in securing a victory. with drums beating and banners flying, he marched away past wallenstein's encampment; but the wary man was not to be enticed to a combat. as soon as he was gone, wallenstein broke up his camp. but he knew too well where his opponent's weakness lay to go in pursuit of gustavus. throwing himself northwards, he established himself firmly in saxony, plundering and burning on every side. if only he could work ruin enough, he might hope to detach the elector from his alliance with the swedes. [sidenote: § . wallenstein and gustavus in saxony.] gustavus could not choose but follow. wallenstein had hoped to establish himself as firmly in saxony as he had established himself at fürth. he would seize torgau and halle, to make himself master of the passages over the elbe and saale, whilst erfurt and naumburg would complete the strength of his position. gustavus might dash his head against it as he pleased. like wellington at torres vedras, or gustavus himself at werben, he would meet the attack of the enemy by establishing himself in a carefully selected position of defence. section vi.--_the battle of lützen._ [sidenote: § . gustavus in saxony.] wallenstein had succeeded at nüremberg, but he was not to succeed in saxony. gustavus was upon him before he had gained the positions he needed. erfurt was saved from the imperialists. gustavus entered naumburg to be adored as a saviour by men flying from wallenstein's barbarities. as he passed through the streets the poor fugitives bent down to kiss the hem of his garments. he would have resisted them if he could. he feared lest god should punish him for receiving honour above that which befitted a mortal man. [sidenote: § . wallenstein believes himself safe.] the saxon army was at torgau, and that important post was still guarded. wallenstein lay at lützen. even there, shorn as he was of his expected strength, he threw up entrenchments, and believed himself safe from attack. it was now november, and he fancied that gustavus, satisfied with his success, would go, after the fashion of the time, into winter quarters. [sidenote: § . pappenheim leaves him.] in wallenstein's army, pappenheim's dashing bravery made him the idol of the soldiers, and gave him an almost independent position. he begged to be allowed to attempt a diversion on the rhenish bishoprics. wallenstein gave the required permission, ordering him to seize halle on the way. [sidenote: § . attack of the swedes. gustavus before the battle.] it was a serious blunder to divide an army under the eyes of gustavus. early on the morning of november the swedish king was in front of wallenstein's position at lützen. he knew well that, if there was to be a battle at all, he must be the assailant. wallenstein would not stir. behind ditches and entrenchments, ready armed, his heavy squares lay immovably, waiting for the enemy, like the russians at the alma or the english at waterloo. a fog lay thick upon the ground. the swedish army gathered early to their morning prayer, summoned by the sounds of luther's hymn tune, "god is a strong tower," floating on the heavy air from the brazen lips of a trumpet. the king himself joined in the morning hymn, "fear not, little flock." then, as if with forebodings of the coming slaughter, others sung of "jesus the saviour, who was the conqueror of death." gustavus thrust aside the armour which was offered him. since he had received a wound, not long before, he felt uncomfortable in it. unprotected, he mounted on his horse, and rode about the ranks encouraging the men. [sidenote: § . attack of the swedes, and death of the king.] at eleven the mist cleared away, and the sun shone out. the king gave his last orders to his generals. then, looking to heaven, "now," he said, "in god's name, jesus, give us to-day to fight for the honour of thy holy name." then, waving his sword over his head, he cried out, "forwards!" the whole line advanced, gustavus riding at the head of the cavalry at the right. after a fierce struggle, the enemy's lines were broken through everywhere. but wallenstein was not yet mastered. bringing up his reserves, he drove back the swedish infantry in the centre. gustavus, when he heard the news, flew to the rescue. in all other affairs of life he knew better than most men how to temper daring with discretion. in the battle-field he flung prudence to the winds. the horsemen, whom he had ordered to follow him, struggled in vain to keep up with the long strides of their master's horse. the fog came down thickly once more, and the king, left almost alone in the darkness, dashed unawares into a regiment of the enemy's cuirassiers. one shot passed through his horse's neck. a second shattered his left arm. turning round to ask one of those who still followed him to help him out of the fight, a third shot struck him in the back, and he fell heavily to the ground. a youth of eighteen, who alone was left by his side, strove to lift him up and to bear him off. but the wounded man was too heavy for him. the cuirassiers rode up and asked who was there. "i was the king of sweden," murmured the king, as the young man returned no answer, and the horseman shot him through the head, and put an end to his pain. [sidenote: § . defeat of wallenstein.] bernard of weimar took up the command. on the other side pappenheim, having received orders to return, hurried back from halle. but he brought only his cavalry with him. it would be many hours before his foot could retrace their weary steps. the swedes, when they heard that their beloved king had fallen, burnt with ardour to revenge him. a terrible struggle ensued. hour after hour the battle swayed backwards and forwards. in one of the swedish regiments only one man out of six left the fight unhurt. pappenheim, the dashing and the brave, whose word was ever for fight, the blücher of the seventeenth century, was struck down. at the battle of the white hill he had lain long upon the field senseless from his wounds, and had told those who were around him when he awakened that he had come back from purgatory. this time there was no awakening for him. the infantry which in his lifetime he had commanded so gallantly, came up as the winter sun was setting. but they came too late to retrieve the fight. wallenstein, defeated at last, gave orders for retreat. [sidenote: § . the loss of gustavus irreparable.] the hand which alone could gather the results of victory was lying powerless. the work of destruction was practically complete. the edict of restitution was dead, and the protestant administrators were again ruling in the northern bishoprics. the empire was practically dead, and the princes and people of germany, if they were looking for order at all, must seek it under other forms than those which had been imposed upon them in consequence of the victories of tilly and wallenstein. it is in vain to speculate whether gustavus could have done anything towards the work of reconstruction. like cromwell, to whom, in many respects, he bore a close resemblance, he had begun to discover that it was harder to build than to destroy, and that it was easier to keep sheep than to govern men. perhaps even to him the difficulties would have been insuperable. the centrifugal force was too strong amongst the german princes to make it easy to bind them together. he had experienced this in saxony. he had experienced it at nüremberg. to build up a _corpus evangelicorum_ was like weaving ropes of sand. [sidenote: § . what were his purposes?] and gustavus was not even more than half a german by birth; politically he was not a german at all. in his own mind he could not help thinking first of sweden. in the minds of others the suspicion that he was so thinking was certain to arise. he clung firmly to his demand for pomerania as a bulwark for sweden's interests in the baltic. next to that came the _corpus evangelicorum_, the league of german protestant cities and princes to stand up against the renewal of the overpowering tyranny of the emperor. if his scheme had been carried out gustavus would have been a nobler napoleon, with a confederation, not of the rhine, but of the baltic, around him. for, stranger as he was, he was bound by his religious sympathies to his protestant brethren in germany. the words which he spoke at nüremberg to the princes, telling them how well off he might be at home, were conceived in the very spirit of the homeric achilles, when the hardness of the work he had undertaken and the ingratitude of men revealed itself to him. like achilles, he dearly loved war, with its excitement and danger, for its own sake. but he desired more than the glory of a conqueror. the establishment of protestantism in europe as a power safe from attack by reason of its own strength was the cause for which he found it worth while to live, and for which, besides and beyond the greatness of his own swedish nation, he was ready to die. it may be that, after all, he was "happy in the opportunity of his death." chapter ix. the death of wallenstein and the treaty of prague. section i.--_french influence in germany._ [sidenote: . § . bernhard of saxe weimar.] in germany, after the death of gustavus at lützen, it was as it was in greece after the death of epaminondas at mantinea. "there was more disturbance and more dispute after the battle than before it." in sweden, christina, the infant daughter of gustavus, succeeded peaceably to her father's throne, and authority was exercised without contradiction by the chancellor oxenstjerna. but, wise and prudent as oxenstjerna was, it was not in the nature of things that he should be listened to as gustavus had been listened to. the chiefs of the army, no longer held in by a soldier's hand, threatened to assume an almost independent position. foremost of these was the young bernhard of weimar, demanding, like wallenstein, a place among the princely houses of germany. in his person he hoped the glories of the elder branch of the saxon house would revive, and the disgrace inflicted upon it by charles v. for its attachment to the protestant cause would be repaired. he claimed the rewards of victory for those whose swords had gained it, and payment for the soldiers, who during the winter months following the victory at lützen had received little or nothing. his own share was to be a new duchy of franconia, formed out of the united bishoprics of würzburg and bamberg. oxenstjerna was compelled to admit his pretensions, and to confirm him in his duchy. [sidenote: § . the league of heilbronn.] the step was thus taken which gustavus had undoubtedly contemplated, but which he had prudently refrained from carrying into action. the seizure of ecclesiastical lands in which the population was catholic was as great a barrier to peace on the one side as the seizure of the protestant bishoprics in the north had been on the other. there was, therefore, all the more necessity to be ready for war. if a complete junction of all the protestant forces was not to be had, something at least was attainable. on april , , the league of heilbronn was signed. the four circles of swabia, franconia, and the upper and lower rhine formed a union with sweden for mutual support. [sidenote: § . defection of saxony.] it is not difficult to explain the defection of the elector of saxony. the seizure of a territory by military violence had always been most obnoxious to him. he had resisted it openly in the case of frederick in bohemia. he had resisted it, as far as he dared, in the case of wallenstein in mecklenburg. he was not inclined to put up with it in the case of bernhard in franconia. nor could he fail to see that with the prolongation of the war, the chances of french intervention were considerably increasing. [sidenote: . § . french politics.] in there had been a great effervescence of the french feudal aristocracy against the royal authority. but richelieu stood firm. in march the king's brother, gaston duke of orleans, fled from the country. in july his mother, mary of medici, followed his example. but they had no intention of abandoning their position. from their exile in the spanish netherlands they formed a close alliance with spain, and carried on a thousand intrigues with the nobility at home. the cardinal smote right and left with a heavy hand. amongst his enemies were the noblest names in france. the duke of guise shrank from the conflict and retired to italy to die far from his native land. the keeper of the seals died in prison. his kinsman, a marshal of france, perished on the scaffold. in the summer of the year , whilst gustavus was conducting his last campaign, there was a great rising in the south of france. gaston himself came to share in the glory or the disgrace of the rebellion. the duke of montmorenci was the real leader of the enterprise. he was a bold and vigorous commander, the rupert of the french cavaliers. but his gay horsemen dashed in vain against the serried ranks of the royal infantry, and he expiated his fault upon the scaffold. gaston, helpless and low-minded as he was, could live on, secure under an ignominious pardon. [sidenote: § . richelieu did for france all that could be done.] it was not the highest form of political life which richelieu was establishing. for the free expression of opinion, as a foundation of government, france, in that day, was not prepared. but within the limits of possibility, richelieu's method of ruling was a magnificent spectacle. he struck down a hundred petty despotisms that he might exalt a single despotism in their place. and if the despotism of the crown was subject to all the dangers and weaknesses by which sooner or later the strength of all despotisms is eaten away, richelieu succeeded for the time in gaining the co-operation of those classes whose good will was worth conciliating. under him commerce and industry lifted up their heads, knowledge and literature smiled at last. whilst corneille was creating the french drama, descartes was seizing the sceptre of the world of science. the first play of the former appeared on the stage in . year by year he rose in excellence, till in he produced the 'cid;' and from that time one masterpiece followed another in rapid succession. descartes published his first work in holland in , in which he laid down those principles of metaphysics which were to make his name famous in europe. [sidenote: § . richelieu and germany.] all this, however welcome to france, boded no good to germany. in the old struggles of the sixteenth century, catholic and protestant each believed himself to be doing the best, not merely for his own country, but for the world in general. alva, with his countless executions in the netherlands, honestly believed that the netherlands as well as spain would be the better for the rude surgery. the english volunteers, who charged home on a hundred battle-fields in europe, believed that they were benefiting europe, not england alone. it was time that all this should cease, and that the long religious strife should have its end. it was well that richelieu should stand forth to teach the world that there were objects for a catholic state to pursue better than slaughtering protestants. but the world was a long way, in the seventeenth century, from the knowledge that the good of one nation is the good of all, and in putting off its religious partisanship france became terribly hard and selfish in its foreign policy. gustavus had been half a german, and had sympathized deeply with protestant germany. richelieu had no sympathy with protestantism, no sympathy with german nationality. he doubtless had a general belief that the predominance of the house of austria was a common evil for all, but he cared chiefly to see germany too weak to support spain. he accepted the alliance of the league of heilbronn, but he would have been equally ready to accept the alliance of the elector of bavaria if it would have served him as well in his purpose of dividing germany. [sidenote: § . his policy french, not european.] the plan of gustavus might seem unsatisfactory to a patriotic german, but it was undoubtedly conceived with the intention of benefiting germany. richelieu had no thought of constituting any new organization in germany. he was already aiming at the left bank of the rhine. the elector of treves, fearing gustavus, and doubtful of the power of spain to protect him, had called in the french, and had established them in his new fortress of ehrenbreitstein, which looked down from its height upon the low-lying buildings of coblentz, and guarded the junction of the rhine and the moselle. the duke of lorraine had joined spain, and had intrigued with gaston. in the summer of he had been compelled by a french army to make his submission. the next year he moved again, and the french again interfered, and wrested from him his capital of nancy. richelieu treated the old german frontier-land as having no rights against the king of france. section ii.--_wallenstein's attempt to dictate peace._ [sidenote: § . saxon negotiations with wallenstein.] already, before the league of heilbronn was signed, the elector of saxony was in negotiation with wallenstein. in june peace was all but concluded between them. the edict of restitution was to be cancelled. a few places on the baltic coast were to be ceded to sweden, and a portion at least of the palatinate was to be restored to the son of the elector frederick, whose death in the preceding winter had removed one of the difficulties in the way of an agreement. the precise form in which the restitution should take place, however, still remained to be settled. such a peace would doubtless have been highly disagreeable to adventurers like bernhard of weimar, but it would have given the protestants of germany all that they could reasonably expect to gain, and would have given the house of austria one last chance of taking up the championship of national interests against foreign aggression. [sidenote: § . opposition to wallenstein.] such last chances, in real life, are seldom taken hold of for any useful purpose. if ferdinand had had it in him to rise up in the position of a national ruler, he would have been in that position long before. his confessor, father lamormain, declared against the concessions which wallenstein advised, and the word of father lamormain had always great weight with ferdinand. [sidenote: § . general disapprobation of his proceedings.] even if wallenstein had been single-minded he would have had difficulty in meeting such opposition. but wallenstein was not single-minded. he proposed to meet the difficulties which were made to the restitution of the palatinate by giving the palatinate, largely increased by neighbouring territories, to himself. he would thus have a fair recompense for the loss of mecklenburg, which he could no longer hope to regain. he fancied that the solution would satisfy everybody. in fact, it displeased everybody. even the spaniards, who had been on his side in were alienated by it. they were especially jealous of the rise of any strong power near the line of march between italy and the spanish netherlands. [sidenote: § . wallenstein and the swedes.] the greater the difficulties in wallenstein's way the more determined he was to overcome them. regarding himself, with some justification, as a power in germany, he fancied himself able to act at the head of his army as if he were himself the ruler of an independent state. if the emperor listened to spain and his confessor in as he had listened to maximilian and his confessor in , wallenstein might step forward and force upon him a wiser policy. before the end of august he had opened a communication with oxenstjerna, asking for his assistance in effecting a reasonable compromise, whether the emperor liked it or not. but he had forgotten that such a proposal as this can only be accepted where there is confidence in him who makes it. in wallenstein--the man of many schemes and many intrigues--no man had any confidence whatever. oxenstjerna cautiously replied that if wallenstein meant to join him against the emperor he had better be the first to begin the attack. [sidenote: § . was he in earnest?] whether wallenstein seriously meant at this time to move against the emperor it is impossible to say. he loved to enter upon plots in every direction without binding himself to any; but he was plainly in a dangerous position. how could he impose peace upon all parties when no single party trusted him? [sidenote: § . he attacks the saxons.] if he was not trusted, however, he might still make himself feared. throwing himself vigorously upon silesia, he forced the swedish garrisons to surrender, and, presenting himself upon the frontiers of saxony, again offered peace to the two northern electors. [sidenote: § . bernhard at ratisbon.] but wallenstein could not be everywhere. whilst the electors were still hesitating, bernhard made a dash at ratisbon, and firmly established himself in the city, within a little distance of the austrian frontier. wallenstein, turning sharply southward, stood in the way of his further advance, but he did nothing to recover the ground which had been lost. he was himself weary of the war. in his first command he had aimed at crushing out all opposition in the name of the imperial authority. his judgment was too clear to allow him to run the old course. he saw plainly that strength was now to be gained only by allowing each of the opposing forces their full weight. 'if the emperor,' he said, 'were to gain ten victories it would do him no good. a single defeat would ruin him.' in december he was back again in bohemia. [sidenote: § . wallenstein's difficulties.] it was a strange, cassandra-like position, to be wiser than all the world, and to be listened to by no one; to suffer the fate of supreme intelligence which touches no moral chord and awakens no human sympathy. for many months the hostile influences had been gaining strength at vienna. there were war-office officials whose wishes wallenstein systematically disregarded; jesuits who objected to peace with heretics at all; friends of the bavarian maximilian who thought that the country round ratisbon should have been better defended against the enemy; and spaniards who were tired of hearing that all matters of importance were to be settled by wallenstein alone. [sidenote: § . opposition of spain.] the spanish opposition was growing daily. spain now looked to the german branch of the house of austria to make a fitting return for the aid which she had rendered in . richelieu, having mastered lorraine, was pushing on towards alsace, and if spain had good reasons for objecting to see wallenstein established in the palatinate, she had far better reasons for objecting to see france established in alsace. yet for all these special spanish interests wallenstein cared nothing. his aim was to place himself at the head of a german national force, and to regard all questions simply from his own point of view. if he wished to see the french out of alsace and lorraine, he wished to see the spaniards out of alsace and lorraine as well. [sidenote: § . the cardinal infant.] and, as was often the case with wallenstein, a personal difference arose by the side of the political difference. the emperor's eldest son, ferdinand, the king of hungary, was married to a spanish infanta, the sister of philip iv., who had once been the promised bride of charles i. of england. her brother, another ferdinand, usually known from his rank in church and state as the cardinal-infant, had recently been appointed governor of the spanish netherlands, and was waiting in italy for assistance to enable him to conduct an army through germany to brussels. that assistance wallenstein refused to give. the military reasons which he alleged for his refusal may have been good enough, but they had a dubious sound in spanish ears. it looked as if he was simply jealous of spanish influence in western germany. [sidenote: § . the emperor's hesitation.] such were the influences which were brought to bear upon the emperor after wallenstein's return from ratisbon in december. ferdinand, as usual, was distracted between the two courses proposed. was he to make the enormous concessions to the protestants involved in the plan of wallenstein; or was he to fight it out with france and the protestants together according to the plan of spain? to wallenstein by this time the emperor's resolutions had become almost a matter of indifference. he had resolved to force a reasonable peace upon germany, with the emperor, if it might be so; without him, if he refused his support. [sidenote: . § . wallenstein and the army.] wallenstein was well aware that his whole plan depended on his hold over the army. in january he received assurances from three of his principal generals, piccolomini, gallas, and aldringer, that they were ready to follow him wheresoever he might lead them, and he was sanguine enough to take these assurances for far more than they were worth. neither they nor he himself were aware to what lengths he would go in the end. for the present it was a mere question of putting pressure upon the emperor to induce him to accept a wise and beneficent peace. section iii.--_resistance to wallenstein's plans._ [sidenote: § . oñate's movements.] the spanish ambassador, oñate, was ill at ease. wallenstein, he was convinced, was planning something desperate. what it was he could hardly guess; but he was sure that it was something most prejudicial to the catholic religion and the united house of austria. the worst was that ferdinand could not be persuaded that there was cause for suspicion. "the sick man," said oñate, speaking of the emperor, "will die in my arms without my being able to help him." [sidenote: § . belief at vienna that wallenstein was a traitor.] such was oñate's feelings toward the end of january. then came information that the case was worse than even he had deemed possible. wallenstein, he learned, had been intriguing with the bohemian exiles, who had offered, with richelieu's consent, to place upon his head the crown of bohemia, which had fourteen years before been snatched from the unhappy frederick. in all this there was much exaggeration. though wallenstein had listened to these overtures, it is almost certain that he had not accepted them. but neither had he revealed them to the government. it was his way to keep in his hands the threads of many intrigues to be used or not to be used as occasion might serve. [sidenote: § . oñate informs ferdinand.] oñate, naturally enough, believed the worst. and for him the worst was the best. he went triumphantly to eggenberg with his news, and then to ferdinand. coming alone, this statement might perhaps have been received with suspicion. coming, as it did, after so many evidences that the general had been acting in complete independence of the government, it carried conviction with it. [sidenote: § . decision of the emperor against wallenstein.] ferdinand had long been tossed backwards and forwards by opposing influences. he had given no answer to wallenstein's communication of the terms of peace arranged with saxony. the necessity of deciding, he said, would not allow him to sleep. it was in his thoughts when he lay down and when he arose. prayers to god to enlighten the mind of the emperor had been offered in the churches of vienna. [sidenote: § . determination to displace wallenstein.] all this hesitation was now at an end. ferdinand resolved to continue the war in alliance with spain, and, as a necessary preliminary, to remove wallenstein from his generalship. but it was more easily said than done. a declaration was drawn up releasing the army from its obedience to wallenstein, and provisionally appointing gallas, who had by this time given assurances of loyalty, to the chief command. it was intended, if circumstances proved favourable, to intrust the command ultimately to the young king of hungary. [sidenote: § . the generals gained over.] the declaration was kept secret for many days. to publish it would only be to provoke the rebellion which was feared. the first thing to be done was to gain over the principal generals. in the beginning of february piccolomini and aldringer expressed their readiness to obey the emperor rather than wallenstein. commanders of a secondary rank would doubtless find their position more independent under an inexperienced young man like the king of hungary than under the first living strategist. these two generals agreed to make themselves masters of wallenstein's person and to bring him to vienna to answer the accusations of treason against him. [sidenote: § . attempt to seize wallenstein.] for oñate this was not enough. it would be easier, he said, to kill the general than to carry him off. the event proved that he was right. on february , aldringer and piccolomini set off for pilsen with the intention of capturing wallenstein. but they found the garrison faithful to its general, and they did not even venture to make the attempt. [sidenote: § . wallenstein at pilsen.] wallenstein's success depended on his chance of carrying with him the lower ranks of the army. on the th he summoned the colonels round him and assured them that he would stand security for money which they had advanced in raising their regiments, the repayment of which had been called in question. having thus won them to a favourable mood, he told them that it had been falsely stated that he wished to change his religion and attack the emperor. on the contrary, he was anxious to conclude a peace which would benefit the emperor and all who were concerned. as, however, certain persons at court had objected to it, he wished to ask the opinion of the army on its terms. but he must first of all know whether they were ready to support him, as he knew that there was an intention to put a disgrace upon him. [sidenote: § . the colonels engage to support him.] it was not the first time that wallenstein had appealed to the colonels. a month before, when the news had come of the alienation of the court, he had induced them to sign an acknowledgment that they would stand by him, from which all reference to the possibility of his dismissal was expressly excluded. they now, on february , signed a fresh agreement, in which they engaged to defend him against the machinations of his enemies, upon his promising to undertake nothing against the emperor or the catholic religion. section iv.--_assassination of wallenstein._ [sidenote: § . the garrison of prague abandons him.] wallenstein thus hoped, with the help of the army, to force the emperor's hand, and to obtain his signature to the peace. of the co-operation of the elector of saxony he was already secure; and since the beginning of february he had been pressing oxenstjerna and bernhard to come to his aid. if all the armies in the field declared for peace, ferdinand would be compelled to abandon the spaniards and to accept the offered terms. without some such hazardous venture, wallenstein would be checkmated by oñate. the spaniard had been unceasingly busy during these weeks of intrigue. spanish gold was provided to content the colonels for their advances, and hopes of promotion were scattered broadcast amongst them. two other of the principal generals had gone over to the court, and on february , the day before the meeting at pilsen, a second declaration had been issued accusing wallenstein of treason, and formally depriving him of the command. wallenstein, before this declaration reached him, had already appointed a meeting of large masses of troops to take place on the white hill before prague on the st, where he hoped to make his intentions more generally known. but he had miscalculated the devotion of the army to his person. the garrison of prague refused to obey his orders. soldiers and citizens alike declared for the emperor. he was obliged to retrace his steps. "i had peace in my hands," he said. then he added, "god is righteous," as if still counting on the aid of heaven in so good a work. [sidenote: § . understanding with the swedes.] he did not yet despair. he ordered the colonels to meet him at eger, assuring them that all that he was doing was for the emperor's good. he had now at last hopes of other assistance. oxenstjerna, indeed, ever cautious, still refused to do anything for him till he had positively declared against the emperor. bernhard, equally prudent for some time, had been carried away by the news, which reached him on the st, of the meeting at pilsen, and the emperor's denouncement of the general. though he was still suspicious, he moved in the direction of eger. [sidenote: § . his arrival at eger.] on the th wallenstein entered eger. in what precise way he meant to escape from the labyrinth in which he was, or whether he had still any clear conception of the course before him, it is impossible to say. but arnim was expected at eger, as well as bernhard, and it may be that wallenstein fancied still that he could gather all the armies of germany into his hands, to defend the peace which he was ready to make. the great scheme, however, whatever it was, was doomed to failure. amongst the officers who accompanied him was a colonel butler, an irish catholic, who had no fancy for such dealings with swedish and saxon heretics. already he had received orders from piccolomini to bring in wallenstein dead or alive. no official instructions had been given to piccolomini. but the thought was certain to arise in the minds of all who retained their loyalty to the emperor. a general who attempts to force his sovereign to a certain political course with the help of the enemy is placed, by that very fact, beyond the pale of law. [sidenote: § . wallenstein's assassination.] the actual decision did not lie with butler. the fortress was in the hands of two scotch officers, leslie and gordon. as protestants, they might have been expected to feel some sympathy with wallenstein. but the sentiment of military honour prevailed. on the morning of the th they were called upon by one of the general's confederates to take orders from wallenstein alone. "i have sworn to obey the emperor," answered gordon, at last, "and who shall release me from my oath?" "you, gentlemen," was the reply, "are strangers in the empire. what have you to do with the empire?" such arguments were addressed to deaf ears. that afternoon butler, leslie, and gordon consulted together. leslie, usually a silent, reserved man, was the first to speak. "let us kill the traitors," he said. that evening wallenstein's chief supporters were butchered at a banquet. then there was a short and sharp discussion whether wallenstein's life should be spared. bernhard's troops were known to be approaching, and the conspirators dared not leave a chance of escape open. an irish captain, devereux by name, was selected to do the deed. followed by a few soldiers, he burst into the room where wallenstein was preparing for rest. "scoundrel and traitor," were the words which he flung at devereux as he entered. then, stretching out his arms, he received the fatal blow in his breast. the busy brain of the great calculator was still forever. [sidenote: § . reason of his failure.] the attempt to snatch at a wise and beneficent peace by mingled force and intrigue had failed. other generals--cæsar, cromwell, napoleon--have succeeded to supreme power with the support of an armed force. but they did so by placing themselves at the head of the civil institutions of their respective countries, and by making themselves the organs of a strong national policy. wallenstein stood alone in attempting to guide the political destinies of a people, while remaining a soldier and nothing more. the plan was doomed to failure, and is only excusable on the ground that there were no national institutions at the head of which wallenstein could place himself; not even a chance of creating such institutions afresh. [sidenote: § . comparison between gustavus and wallenstein.] in spite of all his faults, germany turns ever to wallenstein as she turns to no other amongst the leaders of the thirty years' war. from amidst the divisions and weaknesses of his native country, a great poet enshrined his memory in a succession of noble dramas. such faithfulness is not without a reason. gustavus's was a higher nature than wallenstein's. some of his work, at least the rescue of german protestantism from oppression, remained imperishable, whilst wallenstein's military and political success vanished into nothingness. but gustavus was a hero not of germany as a nation, but of european protestantism. his _corpus evangelicorum_ was at the best a choice of evils to a german. wallenstein's wildest schemes, impossible of execution as they were by military violence, were always built upon the foundation of german unity. in the way in which he walked that unity was doubtless unattainable. to combine devotion to ferdinand with religious liberty was as hopeless a conception as it was to burst all bonds of political authority on the chance that a new and better world would spring into being out of the discipline of the camp. but during the long dreary years of confusion which were to follow, it was something to think of the last supremely able man whose life had been spent in battling against the great evils of the land, against the spirit of religious intolerance, and the spirit of division. section v.--_imperialist victories and the treaty of prague._ [sidenote: § . campaign of .] for the moment, the house of austria seemed to have gained everything by the execution or the murder of wallenstein, whichever we may choose to call it. the army was reorganized and placed under the command of the emperor's son, the king of hungary. the cardinal-infant, now eagerly welcomed, was preparing to join him through tyrol. and while on the one side there was union and resolution, there was division and hesitation on the other. the elector of saxony stood aloof from the league of heilbronn, weakly hoping that the terms of peace which had been offered him by wallenstein would be confirmed by the emperor now that wallenstein was gone. even amongst those who remained under arms there was no unity of purpose. bernhard, the daring and impetuous, was not of one mind with the cautious horn, who commanded the swedish forces, and both agreed in thinking oxenstjerna remiss because he did not supply them with more money than he was able to provide. [sidenote: § . the battle of nördlingen.] as might have been expected under these circumstances, the imperials made rapid progress. ratisbon, the prize of bernhard the year before, surrendered to the king of hungary in july. then donauwörth was stormed, and siege was laid to nördlingen. on september the cardinal-infant came up with , men. the enemy watched the siege with a force far inferior in numbers. bernhard was eager to put all to the test of battle. horn recommended caution in vain. against his better judgment he consented to fight. on september the attack was made. by the end of the day horn was a prisoner, and bernhard was in full retreat, leaving , of his men dead upon the field, and , prisoners in the hands of the enemy, whilst the imperialists lost only , men. [sidenote: § . important results from it.] since the day of breitenfeld, three years before, there had been no such battle fought as this of nördlingen. as breitenfeld had recovered the protestant bishoprics of the north, nördlingen recovered the catholic bishoprics of the south. bernhard's duchy of franconia disappeared in a moment under the blow. before the spring of came, the whole of south germany, with the exception of one or two fortified posts, was in the hands of the imperial commanders. the cardinal-infant was able to pursue his way to brussels, with the assurance that he had done a good stroke of work on the way. [sidenote: § . french intervention.] the victories of mere force are never fruitful of good. as it had been after the successes of tilly in , and the successes of wallenstein in and , so it was now with the successes of the king of hungary in and . the imperialist armies had gained victories, and had taken cities. but the emperor was none the nearer to the confidence of germans. an alienated people, crushed by military force, served merely as a bait to tempt foreign aggression, and to make the way easy before it. after , the king of denmark had been called in. after , an appeal was made to the king of sweden. after , richelieu found his opportunity. the bonds between france and the mutilated league of heilbronn were drawn more closely. german troops were to be taken into french pay, and the empty coffers of the league were filled with french livres. he who holds the purse holds the sceptre, and the princes of southern and western germany, whether they wished it or not, were reduced to the position of satellites revolving round the central orb at paris. [sidenote: § . the peace of prague.] nowhere was the disgrace of submitting to french intervention felt so deeply as at dresden. the battle of nördlingen had cut short any hopes which john george might have entertained of obtaining that which wallenstein would willingly have granted him. but, on the other hand, ferdinand had learned something from experience. he would allow the edict of restitution to fall, though he was resolved not to make the sacrifice in so many words. but he refused to replace the empire in the condition in which it had been before the war. the year was to be chosen as the starting point for the new arrangement. the greater part of the northern bishoprics would thus be saved to protestantism. but halberstadt would remain in the hands of a catholic bishop, and the palatinate would be lost to protestantism for ever. lusatia, which had been held in the hands of the elector of saxony for his expenses in the war of , was to be ceded to him permanently, and protestantism in silesia was to be placed under the guarantee of the emperor. finally, lutheranism alone was still reckoned as the privileged religion, so that hesse cassel and the other calvinist states gained no security at all. on may , , a treaty embodying these arrangements was signed at prague by the representatives of the emperor and the elector of saxony. it was intended not to be a separate treaty, but to be the starting point of a general pacification. most of the princes and towns so accepted it, after more or less delay, and acknowledged the supremacy of the emperor on its conditions. yet it was not in the nature of things that it should put an end to the war. it was not an agreement which any one was likely to be enthusiastic about. the ties which bound ferdinand to his protestant subjects had been rudely broken, and the solemn promise to forget and forgive could not weld the nation into that unity of heart and spirit which was needed to resist the foreigner. a protestant of the north might reasonably come to the conclusion that the price to be paid to the swede and the frenchman for the vindication of the rights of the southern protestants was too high to make it prudent for him to continue the struggle against the emperor. but it was hardly likely that he would be inclined to fight very vigorously for the emperor on such terms. [sidenote: § . it fails in securing general acceptance.] if the treaty gave no great encouragement to anyone who was comprehended by it, it threw still further into the arms of the enemy those who were excepted from its benefits. the leading members of the league of heilbronn were excepted from the general amnesty, though hopes of better treatment were held out to them if they made their submission. the landgrave of hesse cassel was shut out as a calvinist. besides such as nourished legitimate grievances, there were others who, like bernhard, were bent upon carving out a fortune for themselves, or who had so blended in their own minds consideration for the public good as to lose all sense of any distinction between the two. [sidenote: § . degeneration of the war.] there was no lack here of materials for a long and terrible struggle. but there was no longer any noble aim in view on either side. the ideal of ferdinand and maximilian was gone. the church was not to recover its lost property. the empire was not to recover its lost dignity. the ideal of gustavus of a protestant political body was equally gone. even the ideal of wallenstein, that unity might be founded on an army, had vanished. from henceforth french and swedes on the one side, austrians and spaniards on the other, were busily engaged in riving at the corpse of the dead empire. the great quarrel of principle had merged into a mere quarrel between the houses of austria and bourbon, in which the shred of principle which still remained in the question of the rights of the southern protestants was almost entirely disregarded. [sidenote: § . condition of germany.] horrible as the war had been from its commencement, it was every day assuming a more horrible character. on both sides all traces of discipline had vanished in the dealings of the armies with the inhabitants of the countries in which they were quartered. soldiers treated men and women as none but the vilest of mankind would now treat brute beasts. 'he who had money,' says a contemporary, 'was their enemy. he who had none was tortured because he had it not.' outrages of unspeakable atrocity were committed everywhere. human beings were driven naked into the streets, their flesh pierced with needles, or cut to the bone with saws. others were scalded with boiling water, or hunted with fierce dogs. the horrors of a town taken by storm were repeated every day in the open country. even apart from its excesses, the war itself was terrible enough. when augsburg was besieged by the imperialists, after their victory at nördlingen, it contained an industrious population of , souls. after a siege of seven months, , living beings, wan and haggard with famine, remained to open the gates to the conquerors, and the great commercial city of the fuggers dwindled down into a country town. [sidenote: . § . notes of an english traveller.] how is it possible to bring such scenes before our eyes in their ghastly reality? let us turn for the moment to some notes taken by the companion of an english ambassador who passed through the country in . as the party were towed up the rhine from cologne, on the track so well known to the modern tourist, they passed "by many villages pillaged and shot down." further on, a french garrison was in ehrenbreitstein, firing down upon coblentz, which had just been taken by the imperialists. "they in the town, if they do but look out of their windows, have a bullet presently presented at their head." more to the south, things grew worse. at bacharach, "the poor people are found dead with grass in their mouths." at rüdesheim, many persons were "praying where dead bones were in a little old house; and here his excellency gave some relief to the poor, which were almost starved, as it appeared by the violence they used to get it from one another." at mentz, the ambassador was obliged to remain "on shipboard, for there was nothing to relieve us, since it was taken by the king of sweden, and miserably battered.... here, likewise, the poor people were almost starved, and those that could relieve others before now humbly begged to be relieved; and after supper all had relief sent from the ship ashore, at the sight of which they strove so violently that some of them fell into the rhine, and were like to have been drowned." up the main, again, "all the towns, villages, and castles be battered, pillaged, or burnt." after leaving würzburg, the ambassador's train came to plundered villages, and then to neustadt, "which hath been a fair city, though now pillaged and burnt miserably." poor children were "sitting at their doors almost starved to death," his excellency giving them food and leaving money with their parents to help them, if but for a time. in the upper palatinate, they passed "by churches demolished to the ground, and through woods in danger, understanding that croats were lying hereabout." further on they stayed for dinner at a poor little village "which hath been pillaged eight-and-twenty times in two years, and twice in one day." and so on, and so on. the corner of the veil is lifted up in the pages of the old book, and the rest is left to the imagination to picture forth, as best it may, the misery behind. after reading the sober narrative, we shall perhaps not be inclined to be so very hard upon the elector of saxony for making peace at prague. chapter x. the preponderance of france. section i.--_open intervention of france._ [sidenote: § . protestantism not yet out of danger.] the peacemakers of prague hoped to restore the empire to its old form. but this could not be. things done cannot pass away as though they had never been. ferdinand's attempt to gain a partizan's advantage for his religion by availing himself of legal forms had given rise to a general distrust. nations and governments, like individual men, are "tied and bound by the chain of their sins," from which they can be freed only when a new spirit is breathed into them. unsatisfactory as the territorial arrangements of the peace were, the entire absence of any constitutional reform in connexion with the peace was more unsatisfactory still. the majority in the two upper houses of the diet was still catholic; the imperial council was still altogether catholic. it was possible that the diet and council, under the teaching of experience, might refrain from pushing their pretensions as far as they had pushed them before; but a government which refrains from carrying out its principles from motives of prudence cannot inspire confidence. a strong central power would never arise in such a way, and a strong central power to defend germany against foreign invasion was the especial need of the hour. [sidenote: § . the allies of france.] in the failure of the elector of saxony to obtain some of the most reasonable of the protestant demands lay the best excuse of men like bernhard of saxe-weimar and william of hesse cassel for refusing the terms of accommodation offered. largely as personal ambition and greed of territory found a place in the motives of these men, it is not absolutely necessary to assert that their religious enthusiasm was nothing more than mere hypocrisy. they raised the war-cry of "god with us" before rushing to the storm of a city doomed to massacre and pillage; they set apart days for prayer and devotion when battle was at hand--veiling, perhaps, from their own eyes the hideous misery which they were spreading around, in contemplation of the loftiness of their aim: for, in all but the most vile, there is a natural tendency to shrink from contemplating the lower motives of action, and to fix the eyes solely on the higher. but the ardour inspired by a military career, and the mere love of fighting for its own sake, must have counted for much; and the refusal to submit to a domination which had been so harshly used soon grew into a restless disdain of all authority whatever. the nobler motives which had imparted a glow to the work of tilly and gustavus, and which even lit up the profound selfishness of wallenstein, flickered and died away, till the fatal disruption of the empire was accomplished amidst the strivings and passions of heartless and unprincipled men. [sidenote: § . foreign intervention.] the work of riving germany in pieces was not accomplished by germans alone. as in nature a living organism which has become unhealthy and corrupt is seized upon by the lower forms of animal life, a nation divided amongst itself, and devoid of a sense of life within it higher than the aims of parties and individuals, becomes the prey of neighbouring nations, which would not have ventured to meddle with it in the days of its strength. the carcase was there, and the eagles were gathered together. the gathering of wallenstein's army in , the overthrow of wallenstein in , had alike been made possible by the free use of spanish gold. the victory of nördlingen had been owing to the aid of spanish troops; and the aim of spain was not the greatness or peace of germany, but at the best the greatness of the house of austria in germany; at the worst, the maintenance of the old system of intolerance and unthinking obedience, which had been the ruin of germany. with spain for an ally, france was a necessary enemy. the strife for supreme power between the two representative states of the old system and the new could not long be delayed, and the german parties would be dragged, consciously or unconsciously, in their wake. if bernhard became a tool of richelieu, ferdinand became a tool of spain. [sidenote: § . alsace and lorraine.] in this phase of the war protestantism and catholicism, tolerance and intolerance, ceased to be the immediate objects of the strife. the possession of alsace and lorraine rose into primary importance, not because, as in our own days, germany needed a bulwark against france, or france needed a bulwark against germany, but because germany was not strong enough to prevent these territories from becoming the highway of intercourse between spain and the spanish netherlands. the command of the sea was in the hands of the dutch, and the valley of the upper rhine was the artery through which the life blood of the spanish monarchy flowed. if spain or the emperor, the friend of spain, could hold that valley, men and munitions of warfare would flow freely to the netherlands to support the cardinal-infant in his struggle with the dutch. if richelieu could lay his hand heavily upon it, he had seized his enemy by the throat, and could choke him as he lay. [sidenote: § . richelieu asks for fortresses in alsace.] after the battle of nördlingen, richelieu's first demand from oxenstjerna as the price of his assistance had been the strong places held by swedish garrisons in alsace. as soon as he had them safely under his control, he felt himself strong enough to declare war openly against spain. [sidenote: § . war between france and spain.] on may , eleven days before peace was agreed upon at prague, the declaration of war was delivered at brussels by a french herald. to the astonishment of all, france was able to place in the field what was then considered the enormous number of , men. one army was to drive the spaniards out of the milanese, and to set free the italian princes. another was to defend lorraine whilst bernhard crossed the rhine and carried on war in germany. the main force was to be thrown upon the spanish netherlands, and, after effecting a junction with the prince of orange, was to strike directly at brussels. section ii.--_spanish successes._ [sidenote: § . failure of the french attack on the netherlands.] precisely in the most ambitious part of his programme richelieu failed most signally. the junction with the dutch was effected without difficulty; but the hoped-for instrument of success proved the parent of disaster. whatever flemings and brabanters might think of spain, they soon made it plain that they would have nothing to do with the dutch. a national enthusiasm against protestant aggression from the north made defence easy, and the french army had to return completely unsuccessful. failure, too, was reported from other quarters. the french armies had no experience of war on a large scale, and no military leader of eminent ability had yet appeared to command them. the italian campaign came to nothing, and it was only by a supreme effort of military skill that bernhard, driven to retreat, preserved his army from complete destruction. [sidenote: § . spanish invasion of france.] in france was invaded. the cardinal-infant crossed the somme, took corbie, and advanced to the banks of the oise. all paris was in commotion. an immediate siege was expected, and inquiry was anxiously made into the state of the defences. then richelieu, coming out of his seclusion, threw himself upon the nation. he appealed to the great legal, ecclesiastical, and commercial corporations of paris, and he did not appeal in vain. money, voluntarily offered, came pouring into the treasury for the payment of the troops. those who had no money gave themselves eagerly for military service. it was remarked that paris, so fanatically catholic in the days of st. bartholomew and the league, entrusted its defence to the protestant marshal la force, whose reputation for integrity inspired universal confidence. [sidenote: § . the invaders driven back.] the resistance undertaken in such a spirit in paris was imitated by the other towns of the kingdom. even the nobility, jealous as they were of the cardinal, forgot their grievances as an aristocracy in their duties as frenchmen. their devotion was not put to the test of action. the invaders, frightened at the unanimity opposed to them, hesitated and turned back. in september, lewis took the field in person. in november he appeared before corbie; and the last days of the year saw the fortress again in the keeping of a french garrison. the war, which was devastating germany, was averted from france by the union produced by the mild tolerance of richelieu. [sidenote: § . battle of wittstock.] in germany, too, affairs had taken a turn. the elector of saxony had hoped to drive the swedes across the sea; but a victory gained on october , at wittstock, by the swedish general, baner, the ablest of the successors of gustavus, frustrated his intentions. henceforward north germany was delivered over to a desolation with which even the misery inflicted by wallenstein affords no parallel. [sidenote: § . death of ferdinand ii.] amidst these scenes of failure and misfortune the man whose policy had been mainly responsible for the miseries of his country closed his eyes for ever. on february , , ferdinand ii. died at vienna. shortly before his death the king of hungary had been elected king of the romans, and he now, by his father's death, became the emperor ferdinand iii. [sidenote: § . ferdinand iii.] the new emperor had no vices. he did not even care, as his father did, for hunting and music. when the battle of nördlingen was won under his command he was praying in his tent whilst his soldiers were fighting. he sometimes took upon himself to give military orders, but the handwriting in which they were conveyed was such an abominable scrawl that they only served to enable his generals to excuse their defeats by the impossibility of reading their instructions. his great passion was for keeping strict accounts. even the jesuits, it is said, found out that, devoted as he was to his religion, he had a sharp eye for his expenditure. one day they complained that some tolls bequeathed to them by his father had not been made over to them, and represented the value of the legacy as a mere trifle of florins a year. the emperor at once gave them an order upon the treasury for the yearly payment of the sum named, and took possession of the tolls for the maintenance of the fortifications of vienna. the income thus obtained is said to have been no less than , florins a year. [sidenote: § . campaign of .] such a man was not likely to rescue the empire from its miseries. the first year of his reign, however, was marked by a gleam of good fortune. baner lost all that he had gained at wittstock, and was driven back to the shores of the baltic. on the western frontier the imperialists were equally successful. würtemberg accepted the peace of prague, and submitted to the emperor. a more general peace was talked of. but till alsace was secured to one side or the other no peace was possible. section iii.--_the struggle for alsace._ [sidenote: § . the capture of breisach.] the year was to decide the question. bernhard was looking to the austrian lands in alsace and the breisgau as a compensation for his lost duchy of franconia. in february he was besieging rheinfelden. driven off by the imperialists on the th, he re-appeared unexpectedly on march , taking the enemy by surprise. they had not even sufficient powder with them to load their guns, and the victory of rheinfelden was the result. on the th rheinfelden itself surrendered. freiburg followed its example on april , and bernhard proceeded to undertake the siege of breisach, the great fortress which domineered over the whole valley of the upper rhine. small as his force was, he succeeded, by a series of rapid movements, in beating off every attempt to introduce supplies, and on december he entered the place in triumph. [sidenote: § . the capture a turning point in the war.] the campaign of was the turning point in the struggle between france and the united house of austria. a vantage ground was then won which was never lost. [sidenote: § . bernhard wishes to keep breisach.] bernhard himself, however, was loth to realize the world-wide importance of the events in which he had played his part. he fancied that he had been fighting for his own, and he claimed the lands which he had conquered for himself. he received the homage of the citizens of breisach in his own name. he celebrated a lutheran thanksgiving festival in the cathedral. but the french government looked upon the rise of an independent german principality in alsace with as little pleasure as the spanish government had contemplated the prospect of the establishment of wallenstein in the palatinate. they ordered bernhard to place his conquests under the orders of the king of france. [sidenote: § . refuses to dismember the empire.] strange as it may seem, the man who had done so much to tear in pieces the empire believed, in a sort of way, in the empire still. "i will never suffer," he said, in reply to the french demands, "that men can truly reproach me with being the first to dismember the empire." [sidenote: § . death of bernhard.] the next year he crossed the rhine with the most brilliant expectations. baner had recovered strength, and was pushing on through north germany into bohemia. bernhard hoped that he too might strike a blow which would force on a peace on his own conditions. but his greatest achievement, the capture of breisach, was also his last. a fatal disease seized upon him when he had hardly entered upon the campaign. on july , , he died. [sidenote: § . alsace in french possession.] there was no longer any question of the ownership of the fortresses in alsace and the breisgau. french governors entered into possession. a french general took the command of bernhard's army. for the next two or three years bernhard's old troops fought up and down germany in conjunction with baner, not without success, but without any decisive victory. the french soldiers were becoming, like the germans, inured to war. the lands on the rhine were not easily to be wrenched out of the strong hands which had grasped them. section iv.--_french successes._ [sidenote: § . state of italy.] richelieu had other successes to count besides these victories on the rhine. in the spaniards drove out of turin the duchess-regent christina, the mother of the young duke of savoy. she was a sister of the king of france; and, even if that had not been the case, the enemy of spain was, in the nature of the case, the friend of france. in she re-entered her capital with french assistance. [sidenote: § . maritime warfare.] at sea, too, where spain, though unable to hold its own against the dutch, had long continued to be superior to france, the supremacy of spain was coming to an end. during the whole course of his ministry, richelieu had paid special attention to the encouragement of commerce and the formation of a navy. troops could no longer be despatched with safety to italy from the coasts of spain. in a french squadron burnt spanish galleys in the bay of biscay. [sidenote: § . the spanish fleet in the downs.] in a great spanish fleet on its way to the netherlands was strong enough to escape the french, who were watching to intercept it. it sailed up the english channel with the not distant goal of the flemish ports almost in view. but the huge galleons were ill-manned and ill-found. they were still less able to resist the lighter, well-equipped vessels of the dutch fleet, which was waiting to intercept them, than the armada had been able to resist drake and raleigh fifty-one years before. the spanish commander sought refuge in the downs, under the protection of the neutral flag of england. [sidenote: § . destruction of the fleet.] the french ambassador pleaded hard with the king of england to allow the dutch to follow up their success. the spanish ambassador pleaded hard with him for protection to those who had taken refuge on his shores. charles saw in the occurrence an opportunity to make a bargain with one side or the other. he offered to abandon the spaniards if the french would agree to restore his nephew, charles lewis, the son of his sister elizabeth, to his inheritance in the palatinate. he offered to protect the spaniards if spain would pay him the large sum which he would want for the armaments needed to bid defiance to france. richelieu had no intention of completing the bargain offered to him. he deluded charles with negotiations, whilst the dutch admiral treated the english neutrality with scorn. he dashed amongst the tall spanish ships as they lay anchored in the downs: some he sank, some he set on fire. eleven of the galleons were soon destroyed. the remainder took advantage of a thick fog, slipped across the straits, and placed themselves in safety under the guns of dunkirk. never again did such a fleet as this venture to leave the spanish coast for the harbours of flanders. the injury to spain went far beyond the actual loss. coming, as the blow did, within a few months after the surrender of breisach, it all but severed the connexion for military purposes between brussels and madrid. [sidenote: § . france and england.] charles at first took no umbrage at the insult. he still hoped that richelieu would forward his nephew's interests, and he even expected that charles lewis would be placed by the king of france in command of the army which had been under bernhard's orders. but richelieu was in no mood to place a german at the head of these well-trained veterans, and the proposal was definitively rejected. the king of england, dissatisfied at this repulse, inclined once more to the side of spain. but richelieu found a way to prevent spain from securing even what assistance it was in the power of a king so unpopular as charles to render. it was easy to enter into communication with charles's domestic enemies. his troubles, indeed, were mostly of his own making, and he would doubtless have lost his throne whether richelieu had stirred the fire or not. but the french minister contributed all that was in his power to make the confusion greater, and encouraged, as far as possible, the resistance which had already broken out in scotland, and which was threatening to break out in england. [sidenote: § . insurrection in catalonia.] the failure of had been fully redeemed. no longer attacking any one of the masses of which the spanish monarchy was composed, richelieu placed his hands upon the lines of communication between them. he made his presence felt not at madrid, at brussels, at milan, or at naples, but in alsace, in the mediterranean, in the english channel. the effect was as complete as is the effect of snapping the wire of a telegraph. at once the peninsula startled europe by showing signs of dissolution. in the catalonians had manfully defended roussillon against a french invasion. in they were prepared to fight with equal vigour. but the spanish government, in its desperate straits, was not content to leave them to combat in their own way, after the irregular fashion which befitted mountaineers. orders were issued commanding all men capable of fighting to arm themselves for the war, all women to bear food and supplies for the army on their backs. a royal edict followed, threatening those who showed themselves remiss with imprisonment and the confiscation of their goods. [sidenote: § . break-up of the spanish monarchy.] the cord which bound the hearts of spaniards to their king was a strong one; but it snapped at last. it was not by threats that richelieu had defended france in . the old traditions of provincial independence were strong in catalonia, and the catalans were soon in full revolt. who were they, to be driven to the combat by menaces, as the persian slaves had been driven on at thermopylæ by the blows of their masters' officers? [sidenote: § . independence of portugal.] equally alarming was the news which reached madrid from the other side of the peninsula. ever since the days of philip ii. portugal had formed an integral part of the spanish monarchy. in december portugal renounced its allegiance, and reappeared amongst european states under a sovereign of the house of braganza. [sidenote: § . failure of soissons in france.] everything prospered in richelieu's hands. in a fresh attempt was made by the partizans of spain to raise france against him. the count of soissons, a prince of the blood, placed himself at the head of an imperialist army to attack his native country. he succeeded in defeating the french forces sent to oppose him not far from sedan. but a chance shot passing through the brain of soissons made the victory a barren one. his troops, without the support of his name, could not hope to rouse the country against richelieu. they had become mere invaders, and they were far too few to think of conquering france. [sidenote: § . richelieu's last days.] equal success attended the french arms in germany. in guebriant, with his german and swedish army, defeated the imperialists at wolfenbüttel, in the north. in he defeated them again at kempten, in the south. in the same year roussillon submitted to france. nor was richelieu less fortunate at home. the conspiracy of a young courtier, the last of the efforts of the aristocracy to shake off the heavy rule of the cardinal, was detected, and expiated on the scaffold. richelieu did not long survive his latest triumph. he died on december , . section v.--_aims and character of richelieu._ [sidenote: § . richelieu's domestic policy.] unlike lewis xiv. and napoleon, richelieu counts amongst those few french statesmen whose fortune mounted with their lives. it is not difficult to discover the cause. as in gustavus, love of action was tempered by extreme prudence and caution. but in richelieu these ingredients of character were mingled in different proportions. the love of action was far less impetuous. the caution was far stronger. no man had a keener eye to distinguish the conditions of success, or was more ready to throw aside the dearest schemes when he believed them to be accompanied by insuperable difficulties. braver heart never was. there was the highest courage in the constancy with which he, an invalid tottering for years on the brink of the grave, and supported by a king whose health was as feeble as his own, faced the whole might of the aristocracy of france. if he was harsh and unpitying it was to the enemies of the nation, to the nobles who trod under their feet the peasant and the serf, and who counted the possession of power merely as the high-road to the advancement of their private fortunes. the establishment of a strong monarchical power was, as france was then constituted, the only chance for industry and commerce to lift up their heads, for the peaceable arts of life to develop themselves in security, for the intellect of man to have free course, and for the poor to be protected from oppression. [sidenote: § . his designs only partially accomplished.] all this was in richelieu's heart; and some little of this he accomplished. the work of many generations was in this man's brain. yet he never attempted to do more than the work of his own. as bacon sketched out the lines within which science was to move in the days of newton and of faraday, so richelieu sketched out the lines within which french statesmanship was to move in the days of colbert and of turgot, or in those of the great revolution itself. [sidenote: § . the people nothing in france.] "all things for the people, nothing by the people." this maxim attributed to napoleon embodied as well the policy of richelieu. in it are embalmed the strength and weakness of french statesmanship. the late growth of the royal power and the long continuance of aristocratic oppression threw the people helpless and speechless into the arms of the monarchy. they were happy if some one should prove strong enough to take up their cause without putting them to the trouble or the risk of thinking and speaking for themselves. it is no blame to richelieu if, being a frenchman of the seventeenth century, he worked under the only conditions which frenchmen of the seventeenth century would admit. we can well fancy that he would think with scorn and contempt of the english revolution, which was accomplishing itself under his eyes. yet in the england of the civil war, men were learning not merely to be governed well, but to know what good government was. it was a greater thing for a nation to learn to choose good and to refuse evil, even if the progress was slow, than to be led blindfold with far more rapid steps. [sidenote: § . his foreign policy.] richelieu's foreign policy was guided by the same deep calculation as his home policy. if at home he saw that france was greater than any faction, he had not arrived at the far higher notion that europe was greater than france, excepting so far as he saw in the system of intolerance supported by spain an evil to be combated for the sake of others who were not frenchmen. but there is no sign that he really cared for the prosperity of other nations when it was not coincident with the prosperity of france. as it is for the present generation a matter of complete indifference whether breisach was to be garrisoned by frenchmen or imperialists, it would be needless for us, if we regarded richelieu's motives alone, to trouble ourselves much with the later years of the thirty years' war. [sidenote: § . his support of rising causes.] but it is not always by purity of motive only that the world's progress advances. richelieu, in order to make france strong, needed help, and he had to look about for help where the greatest amount of strength was to be found. an ordinary man would have looked to the physical strength of armies, as wallenstein did, or to the ideal strength of established institutions, as ferdinand did. richelieu knew better. he saw that for him who knows how to use it there is no lever in the world like that of a rising cause, for a rising cause embodies the growing dissatisfaction of men with a long-established evil, which they have learned to detest, but which they have not yet learned to overthrow. [sidenote: § . and of those causes which were in themselves good.] in england richelieu was on the side of parliamentary opposition to the crown. in germany he was on the side of the opposition of the princes against the emperor. in italy he was on the side of the independence of the states against spain. in the peninsula he was on the side of the provinces against the monarchy. there is not the slightest reason to suppose that he cared one atom for any of those causes except so far as they might promote his own ends. yet in every case he selected those causes by which the real wants of the several countries were best expressed. [sidenote: § . contrast between richelieu and later french politicians.] it is this which distinguishes richelieu from those who in later times have measured the foreign policy of france by french interests alone. they have taken up any cause which promised to weaken a powerful neighbour, without considering what the cause was worth. they favoured italian division in , and german division in . richelieu had a clearer insight into the nature of things than that. there can be no doubt that he would far rather have attacked spain and austria through the instrumentality of the league than through the instrumentality of gustavus and the protestants; but he saw that the future was with gustavus and not with the league. he sacrificed his wishes to his policy. he coquetted with the league, but he supported gustavus. [sidenote: § . he has no exorbitant aims.] when once richelieu had gained his point, he was contented with his success. he never aspired to more than he could accomplish: never struck, excepting for a purpose: never domineered through the mere insolence of power. he took good care to get alsace into his hands, and to make himself master of the passes of the alps by the possession of pignerol; but he never dreamed of founding, like napoleon, a french confederation of the rhine, or a french kingdom of italy. his interference with his neighbours was as little obtrusive as possible. [sidenote: . § . death of lewis xiii.] richelieu was quickly followed to the grave by the sovereign in whose name he had accomplished so much. lewis xiii. died on the th of may, . section vi.--_more french victories._ [sidenote: . § . rule of mazarin.] his son and successor, lewis xiv., was a mere child. his widow, anne of austria, claimed the regency, and forgot that she was the sister of the king of spain and the sister-in-law of the emperor, in the thought that she was the widow of one king of france and the mother of another. her minister was cardinal mazarin, an italian, who had commended himself to richelieu by his capacity for business and his complete independence of french party feeling. if he was noted rather for cleverness than for strength of character, he was at least anxious to carry out the policy of his predecessor, and to maintain the predominance of the crown over aristocratic factions; and for some time richelieu's policy seemed to carry success with it through the impetus which he had given it. on may a victory came to establish the new authority of the queen-regent, the first of a long series of french victories, which was unbroken till the days of marlborough and blenheim. [sidenote: § . the spaniards attack rocroy.] the spaniards had crossed the frontier of the netherlands, and were besieging rocroy. the command of the french forces was held by the duke of enghien, better known to the world by the title which he afterwards inherited from his father, as the prince of condé. next to gaston, duke of orleans, the late king's brother, he and his father stood first in succession to the throne, and had, for this reason, attached themselves to richelieu when he was opposed by the great bulk of the aristocracy. those who placed him at the head of the army probably expected that a prince so young and so inexperienced would content himself with giving his name to the campaign, and would leave the direction of the troops to older heads. [sidenote: § . gassion and enghien.] the older heads, after reconnoitring the spanish position at rocroy, advised enghien not to fight. but there was a certain gassion among the officers, who had served under gustavus, and who had seen the solid legions of tilly break down before the swift blows of the swedish king at breitenfeld. gassion had learned to look upon that close spanish formation with contempt, and he strove hard to persuade enghien to give orders for the attack, and, truth to say, he had no very hard task. enghien was young and sanguine, and whether he had a genius for war or not, he had at least a genius for battles. already conscious of the skill with which he was to direct the fortunes of many a well-fought field, he heartily adopted the views laid before him by gassion. [sidenote: § . battle of rocroy.] rocroy was, so to speak, a second edition of breitenfeld, a victory gained by vigour and flexibility over solid endurance. unreasoning obedience once more gave way before disciplined intelligence. the spanish masses stood with all the strength of a mediæval fortress. there was no manoeuvering power in them. the french artillery ploughed its way through the ranks, and the dashing charges of the infantry drove the disaster home. the glories of the spanish armies, the glories which dated from the days of the great captain, were clouded for ever. yet if victory was lost to spain, the cherished honour of the spanish arms was safe. man by man the warriors fell in the ranks in which they stood, like the english defenders of the banner of harold at senlac. their leader, the count of fuentes, an old man worn with years and gout, and unable to stand, was seated in an arm-chair to direct the battle within a square composed of his veteran troops. death found him at his post. he had fought in the old wars of philip ii. the last of a long heroic race of statesmen and soldiers had bowed his head before the rising genius of france. [sidenote: § . extension of the french frontier.] thionville was then besieged. it surrendered in august. the cautious richelieu had been contented to announce that he reserved all question of the ownership of his conquests till it should be finally determined by a treaty of peace. after rocroy, mazarin had no such scruples. thionville was formally annexed to france. a medal was struck on which hope was borne in the hand of victory, and on which was inscribed the legend, _prima finium propagatic_. [sidenote: § . enghien and turenne.] in germany the campaign of was less successful. maximilian of bavaria had put forth all his resources, and his generals, the dashing john of werth and the prudent mercy, of whom it was said that he knew the plans of the enemy as well as if he had sat in their councils, were more than a match for the french commanders. [sidenote: .] in they were opposed by a soldier of a quality higher than their own. turenne was sent amongst them, but his forces were too few to enable him to operate with success. freiburg in the breisgau was taken before his eyes. breisach was threatened. then enghien came with , men to assume the command over the head of the modest soldier who had borne the weight of the campaign. proud of his last year's victory he despised the counsel of turenne, that it was better to out-manoeuvre the enemy than to fight him in an almost inaccessible position. [sidenote: § . battle of freiburg.] the battle fought amongst the vineyards of freiburg was the bloodiest battle of a bloody war. for three days enghien led his men to the butchery. at last mercy, unable to provide food any longer for his troops, effected his retreat. the french reaped the prizes of a victory which they had not gained. [sidenote: . § . battle of nördlingen.] on the d of august, , a second battle of nördlingen was fought. it was almost a repetition of the slaughter of freiburg. as in the year before, turenne had been left to do the hard work at the opening of the campaign with inferior forces, and had even suffered a check. once more enghien came up, gay and dashing, at the head of a reinforcement of picked men. once more a fearful butchery ensued. but that mercy was slain early in the fight, the day might have gone hard with the french. as it was, they were able to claim a victory. the old german bands which had served under bernhard held out to the uttermost and compelled the enemy to retreat. but the success was not lasting. the imperialists received reinforcements, and the french were driven back upon the rhine. [sidenote: § . battle of jankow.] the same year had opened with splendid expectations on the other side of the theatre of the war. the gouty swedish general, torstenson, who had taken up baner's work in the north, burst suddenly into bohemia, and on the th of march inflicted a crushing defeat on the imperialists at jankow. he then harried moravia, and pressed on to lay siege to vienna, as if to repair the fault which it was the fashion to ascribe to gustavus. but vienna was unassailable, and torstenson, like turenne, was driven to retreat. he next tried to reduce brünn. failing in this he returned to bohemia, where, worn out with his maladies, he delivered over the command to wrangel, his appointed successor. chapter xi. the end of the war. section i.--_turenne's strategy._ [sidenote: . § . thoughts of peace.] at last the thought entered into men's minds that it was time to put a stop to this purposeless misery and slaughter. it was hopeless to think any longer of shaking the strong grasp of france upon the rhine; and if sweden had been foiled in striking to the heart of the austrian monarchy, she could not be driven from the desolate wilderness which now, by the evil work of men's hands, stretched from the baltic far away into the interior of germany. long ago the disciplined force which gustavus had brought across the sea had melted away, and a swedish army was now like other armies--a mere collection of mercenaries, without religion, without pity, and without remorse. [sidenote: § . meeting of diplomatists.] negotiations for peace were spoken of from time to time, and preparations were at last made for a great meeting of diplomatists. in order to prevent the usual quarrel about precedency it was decided that some of the ambassadors should hold their sittings at osnabrück and others at münster, an arrangement which was not likely to conduce to a speedy settlement. [sidenote: , .] the emperor proved his sincerity by sending his representative early enough to arrive at münster in july, , whilst the swedish and french ambassadors only made their appearance in the march and april of the following year, and it was only in june, , that the first formal proposition was handed in. [sidenote: § . reluctance of the emperor to give up all that is asked.] all who were concerned were in fact ready to make peace, but they all wished it made on their own terms. ferdinand iii. was not bound by his father's antecedents. the edict of restitution had been no work of his. long before this he had been ready to give all reasonable satisfaction to the protestants. he had declared his readiness to include calvinists as well as lutherans in the religious peace. he had offered to restore the lower palatinate to frederick's son, and he actually issued a general amnesty to all who were still in arms; but he shrank from the demand that these arrangements of the empire should be treated of, not in the constitutional assemblies of the empire, but in a congress of european powers. to do so would be to tear the last veil from the sad truth that the empire was a mere shadow, and that the states of which it was composed had become practically independent sovereignties. and behind this degradation lay another degradation, hardly less bitter to ferdinand. the proudest title of the great emperors of old had been that of increaser of the empire. was he to go down to posterity with the title of diminisher of the empire? and yet it was beyond his power to loosen the hold of france upon alsace, or of sweden upon pomerania. [sidenote: § . especially the breisgau.] nor was it only as emperor that ferdinand would feel the loss of alsace deeply. together with the breisgau it formed one of territories of the house of austria, but it was not his own. it was the inheritance of the children of his uncle leopold, and he was loth to purchase peace for himself by agreeing to the spoliation of his orphan nephews. [sidenote: § . aims of the elector of bavaria.] maximilian of bavaria viewed the question of peace from another point of view. to him alsace was nothing, and he warmly recommended ferdinand to surrender it for the sake of peace. if concessions were to be made at all, he preferred making them to catholic france rather than to the protestants in the empire, and he was convinced that if alsace remained under french rule, the motive which had led france to support the protestants would lose its chief weight. but besides these general considerations, maximilian, like ferdinand, had a special interest of his own. he was resolved, come what might, to retain at least the upper palatinate, and he trusted to be seconded in his resolve by the good offices of france. [sidenote: § . the campaign of .] the position of maximilian was thus something like that of john george of saxony in . he and his chief ally were both ready for peace, but his ally stood out for higher terms than he was prepared to demand. and as in wallenstein saw in the comparative moderation of the elector of saxony only a reason for driving him by force to separate his cause from that of gustavus, so in the french government resolved to fall upon bavaria, and to force the elector to separate his cause from that of ferdinand. [sidenote: § . turenne out-manoeuvres the bavarians.] the year before, the elector of saxony, crushed and ruined by the swedes, had consented to a separate truce, and now turenne was commissioned to do the same with bavaria. in august he effected a junction on the lahn with wrangel and the swedes, and if enghien had been there, history would doubtless have had to tell of another butchery as resultless as those of freiburg and nördlingen. but enghien was far away in flanders, laying siege to dunkirk, and turenne, for the first time at the head of a superior force, was about to teach the world a lesson in the art of war. whilst the enemy was preparing for the expected attack by entrenching his position, the united french and swedish armies slipped past them and marched straight for the heart of bavaria, where an enemy had not been seen since bernhard had been chased out in . that one day, as turenne truly said, altered the whole face of affairs. everywhere the roads were open. provisions were plentiful. the population was in the enjoyment of the blessings of peace. turenne and wrangel crossed the danube without difficulty. schorndorf, würzburg, nördlingen, donauwörth made no resistance to them. it was not till they came to augsburg that they met with opposition. the enemy had time to come up. but there was no unanimity in the councils of the enemy. the bavarian generals wanted to defend bavaria. the imperialist generals wanted to defend the still remaining austrian possessions in swabia. the invaders were allowed to accomplish their purpose. they arrived at the gates of munich before the citizens knew what had become of their master's army. with grim purpose turenne and wrangel set themselves to make desolate the bavarian plain, so that it might be rendered incapable of supporting a bavarian army. maximilian was reduced to straits such as he had not known since the time when tilly fell at the passage of the lech. sorely against his will he signed, in may, , a separate truce with the enemy. [sidenote: § . last struggles of the war.] the truce did not last long. in september maximilian was once more on the emperor's side. bavaria paid dearly for the elector's defection. all that had been spared a year before fell a sacrifice to new devastation. the last great battle of the war was fought at zusmarshausen on may , . the bavarians were defeated and the work of the destroyer went on yet for a while unchecked. in bohemia half of prague fell into the hands of the swedes, and the emperor was left unaided to bear up in the unequal fight. section ii.--_the treaty of westphalia._ [sidenote: § . the peace of westphalia.] ferdinand could resist no longer. on the th of october, , a few months before charles i. ascended the scaffold at whitehall, the peace of westphalia was signed. [sidenote: § . religious settlement.] the religious difficulty in germany was settled as it ought to have been settled long before. calvinism was to be placed on the same footing as lutheranism. new-year's day was fixed upon as the date by which all disputes were to be tested. whatever ecclesiastical benefice was in catholic hands at that date was to remain in catholic hands forever. ecclesiastical benefices in protestant hands at that date were to remain in protestant keeping. catholics would never again be able to lay claim to the bishoprics of the north. even halberstadt, which had been retained at the peace of prague, was now lost to them. to make this settlement permanent, the imperial court was reconstituted. protestants and catholics were to be members of the court in equal numbers. and if the judicial body was such as to make it certain that its sanction would never be given to an infringement of the peace, the catholic majority in the diet became powerless for evil. [sidenote: § . political settlement.] in political matters, maximilian permanently united the upper palatinate to his duchy of bavaria, and the electorate was confirmed to him and his descendants. an eighth electorate was created in favour of charles lewis, the worthless son of the elector, frederick, and the lower palatinate was given up to him. sweden established herself firmly on the mouths of the great northern rivers. the eastern part of pomerania she surrendered to brandenburg. but western pomerania, including within its frontier both banks of the lower vistula, was surrendered to her; whilst the possession of the bishoprics of bremen and verdun, on which christian of denmark had set his eyes at the beginning of the war, gave her a commanding position at the mouths of the elbe and the weser. the bishoprics of halberstadt, camin, minden, and the greater part of the diocese of magdeburg, were made over to brandenburg as a compensation for the loss of its claims to the whole of pomerania, whilst a smaller portion of the diocese of magdeburg was assigned to saxony, that power, as a matter of course, retaining lusatia. [sidenote: § . gains of france.] france, as a matter of course, retained its conquests. it kept its hold upon austrian alsace, strasburg, as a free city, and the immediate vassals of the empire being, however, excluded from the cession. the strong fortress of philippsburg, erected by the warlike elector of treves, received a french garrison, and the three bishoprics, metz, toul, and verdun, which had been practically under french rule since the days of henry ii. of france, were now formally separated from the empire. equally formal was the separation of switzerland and the netherlands, both of which countries had long been practically independent. [sidenote: § . the question of toleration left to the german princes.] the importance of the peace of westphalia in european history goes far beyond these territorial changes. that france should have a few miles more and germany a few miles less, or even that france should have acquired military and political strength whilst germany lost it, are facts which in themselves need not have any very great interest for others than frenchmen or germans. that which gives to the peace of westphalia its prominent place amongst treaties is that it drew a final demarcation between the two religions which divided europe. the struggle in england and france for the right of settling their own religious affairs without the interference of foreign nations had been brought to a close in the sixteenth century. in germany it had not been brought to a close for the simple reason that it was not decided how far germany was a nation at all. the government of england or france could tolerate or persecute at home as far as its power or inclination permitted. but the central government of germany was not strong enough to enforce its will upon the territorial governments; nor on the other hand were the territorial governments strong enough to enforce their will without regard for the central government. thirty years of war ended by a compromise under which the religious position of each territory was fixed by the intervention of foreign powers, whilst the rights of the central government were entirely ignored. [sidenote: § . how toleration was the result of this.] such a settlement was by no means necessarily in favour of religious toleration. the right of an elector of bavaria or an elector of saxony to impose his belief by force upon his dissident subjects was even more fully acknowledged than before. he could still give them their choice between conversion or banishment. as late as in an archbishop of salzburg could drive thousands of industrious protestants into exile from his alpine valleys, leaving a void behind them which has not been filled up to this day. but if such cases were rare, their rarity was indirectly owing to the peace of westphalia. in a bishop who had to consider the question of religious persecution, had to consider it with the fear of christian of anhalt before his eyes. every protestant in his dominions was a possible traitor who would favour, if he did not actively support, the revolutionary attacks of the neighbouring protestants. in all such fear was at an end for ever. the bishop was undisputed master of his territory, and he could look on with contemptuous indifference if a few of his subjects had sufficient love of singularity to profess a religion other than his own. [sidenote: § . the peace of westphalia compared with the peace of augsburg.] it may perhaps be said that the assurance given by the peace of westphalia was after all no better than the assurance given by the peace of augsburg, but even so far as the letter of the two documents was concerned, this was very far from being the case. the peace of augsburg was full of uncertainties, because the contracting parties were unable to abandon their respective desires. in the peace of westphalia all was definite. evasion or misinterpretation was no longer possible. [sidenote: § . general desire for the continuance of peace.] if the letter of the two treaties was entirely different, it was because the spirit in which they were conceived was also entirely different. in protestantism was on the rise. the peace of was a vain attempt to shut out the tide by artificial dykes and barriers. in the tide had receded. the line which divided the protestant from the catholic princes formed almost an exact division between the protestant and catholic populations. the desire for making proselytes, once so strong on both sides, had been altogether extinguished by the numbing agony of the war. all germany longed for peace with an inexpressible longing. the mutual distrust of catholic and protestant had grown exceedingly dull. the only feeling yet alive was hatred of the tyranny and exactions of the soldiers. section iii.--_condition of germany._ [sidenote: § . effects of the war.] what a peace it was when it really came at last! whatever life there was under that deadly blast of war had been attracted to the camps. the strong man who had lost his all turned soldier that he might be able to rob others in turn. the young girl, who in better times would have passed on to a life of honourable wedlock with some youth who had been the companion of her childhood in the sports around the village fountain, had turned aside, for very starvation, to a life of shame in the train of one or other of the armies by which her home had been made desolate. in the later years of the war it was known that a body of , fighting men drew along with it a loathsome following of no less than , men, women, and children, contributing nothing to the efficiency of the army, and all of them living at the expense of the miserable peasants who still contrived to hold on to their ruined fields. if these were to live, they must steal what yet remained to be stolen; they must devour, with the insatiable hunger of locusts, what yet remained to be devoured. and then, if sickness came, or wounds--and sickness was no infrequent visitor in those camps--what remained but misery or death? nor was it much better with the soldiers themselves. no careful surgeons passed over the battle-field to save life or limb. no hospitals received the wounded to the tender nursing of loving, gentle hands. recruits were to be bought cheaply, and it cost less to enrol a new soldier than to cure an old one. [sidenote: § . decrease of the population.] the losses of the civil population were almost incredible. in a certain district of thuringia which was probably better off than the greater part of germany, there were, before the war cloud burst, , houses standing in nineteen villages. in , only houses were left. and even of the houses which remained many were untenanted. the , houses had been inhabited by , families. only families could be found to occupy the houses. property fared still worse. in the same district oxen alone remained of , . of , sheep, not one was left. two centuries later the losses thus suffered were scarcely recovered. [sidenote: § . moral decadence.] and, as is always the case, the physical decline of the population was accompanied by moral decadence. men who had been accustomed to live by the strong arm, and men who had been accustomed to suffer all things from those who were strong, met one another, even in the days of peace, without that mutual respect which forms the basis of well-ordered life. courts were crowded with feather-brained soldiers whose highest ambition was to bedeck themselves in a splendid uniform and to copy the latest fashion or folly which was in vogue at paris or versailles. in the country district a narrow-minded gentry, without knowledge or culture, domineered over all around, and strove to exact the uttermost farthing from the peasant in order to keep up the outward appearance of rank. the peasant whose father had been bullied by marauding soldiers dared not lift up his head against the exactions of the squire. the burden of the general impoverishment fell heavily upon his shoulders. the very pattern of the chairs on which he sat, of the vessels out of which he ate and drank, assumed a ruder appearance than they had borne before the war. in all ranks life was meaner, poorer, harder than it had been at the beginning of the century. [sidenote: § . intellectual decline even before the war.] if much of all this was the result of the war, something was owing to causes antecedently at work. the german people in the beginning of the seventeenth century was plainly inferior to the german people in the beginning of the sixteenth century. during the whole course of the war maximilian of bavaria was the only man of german birth who rose to eminence, and even he did not attain the first rank. the destinies of the land of luther and göthe, of frederick ii. and stein were decided by a few men of foreign birth. wallenstein was a slavonian, tilly a walloon, gustavus a swede, richelieu a frenchman. the penalty borne by a race which was unable to control individual vigour within the limits of a large and fruitful national life was that individual vigour itself died out. [sidenote: § . difficulties inherited from early times.] we may well leave to those who like such tasks the work of piling up articles of accusation against this man or that, of discovering that the war was all the fault of ferdinand, or all the fault of frederick, as party feeling may lead them. probably the most lenient judgment is also the truest one. with national and territorial institutions the mere chaos which they were, an amount of political intelligence was needed to set them right which would be rare in any country or in any age. [sidenote: § . total disintegration of germany.] as far as national institutions were concerned the thirty years' war made a clean sweep in germany. nominally, it is true, emperor and empire still remained. ferdinand iii. was still according to his titles head of all christendom, if not of the whole human race. the diet still gathered to discuss the affairs of the empire. the imperial court, re-established on the principle of equality between the two religions, still met to dispense justice between the estates of the empire. but from these high-sounding names all reality had fled. the rule over german men had passed for many a long day into the hands of the princes. it was for the princes to strive with one another in peace or war under the protection of foreign alliances; and by and by, half consciously, half unconsciously, to compete for the leadership of germany by the intelligence and discipline which they were able to foster under their sway. [sidenote: § . protestantism saved.] when the days of this competition arrived it was of inestimable advantage to germany that, whatever else had been lost, protestantism had been saved. wherever protestantism had firmly rooted itself there sprang up in course of time a mighty race of intellectual giants. göthe and schiller, lessing and kant, stein and humboldt, with thousands more of names which have made german intellect a household word in the whole civilized world, sprung from protestant germany. when bavaria, scarcely more than two generations ago, awoke to the consciousness that she had not more than the merest rudiments of education to give to her children, she had to apply to the protestant north for teachers. [sidenote: § . the worst over for germany.] for germany in the worst was over. physically, at least she had no more to suffer. one page of her history was closed and another had not yet been opened. she lay for a time in the insensibility of exhaustion. section iv.--_continuance of the war between france and spain._ [sidenote: § . peace between spain and the dutch.] for france is hardly a date at all. she was rid of the war in germany. but her war with spain was not brought to an end. and if spain would no longer have the support of the imperialists of germany, france was at the same time deprived of the support of a far more vigorous ally. spain at last lowered its haughty neck to accept conditions of peace on terms of equality from the dutch republic. the eighty years' war of the netherlands was brought to a conclusion simultaneously with the thirty years' war of germany. spain could now send reinforcements to flanders by sea without fearing the overwhelming superiority of the dutch marine, and could defend the southern frontier of the obedient provinces without having to provide against an attack in the rear. [sidenote: § . france and spain.] in the long run, a duel between france and spain could be of no doubtful issue. it was a contest between the old system of immobility and intolerance and the new system of intelligence and tolerance; between a government which despised industry and commerce, and a government which fostered them. but however excellent might be the aims which the french government kept in view, it was still in its nature an absolute government. no free discussion enlightened its judgment. no popular intervention kept in check its caprices. it was apt to strike roughly and ignorantly, to wound many feelings and to impose grievous burdens upon the poor and the weak whose lamentations never reached the height of the throne. [sidenote: § . the fronde.] suddenly, when mazarin's government appeared most firmly rooted, there was an explosion which threatened to change the whole face of france. an outcry arose for placing restrictions upon rights of the crown, for establishing constitutional and individual liberties. the fronde, as the party which uttered the cry was called, did its best to imitate the english long parliament whose deeds were then ringing through the world. but there were no elements in france upon which to establish constitutional government. the parliament of paris, which wished itself to be considered the chief organ of that government, was a close corporation of lawyers, who had bought or inherited judicial places; and of all governments, a government in the hands of a close corporation of lawyers is likely, in the long run, to be the most narrow-minded and unprogressive of all possible combinations; for it is the business of a lawyer to administer the law as it exists, not to modify it in accordance with the new facts which rise constantly to the surface of social and political life. nor were the lawyers of the parliament fortunate in their supporters. the paris mob, combined with a knot of intriguing courtiers, could form no firm basis for a healthy revolution. it was still worse when condé, quarrelling on a personal question with mazarin, raised the standard of aristocratic revolt, and threw himself into the arms of the spanish invader. mazarin and the young king represented the nation against aristocratic selfishness and intrigue; and when they obtained the services of turenne, the issue was hardly doubtful. in lewis xiv. entered paris in triumph. in condé, in conjunction with a spanish army, invaded france, and pushed on hopefully for paris. but turenne was there with a handful of troops; and if condé was the successor of gustavus in the art of fighting battles, turenne was wallenstein's successor in the art of strategy. condé could neither fight nor advance with effect. the siege and reduction of rocroy was the only result of a campaign which had been commenced in the expectation of reducing france to submission. [sidenote: § . the war with spain.] in condé and the spaniards laid siege to arras, whilst the french were besieging stenay. stenay was taken; arras was relieved. in further progress was made by the french on the frontier of the netherlands; but in they failed in the siege of valenciennes. [sidenote: § . france, cromwell, and spain.] with the check thus inflicted, a new danger appeared above the horizon. in england there had arisen, under cromwell, a new and powerful military state upon the ruins of the monarchy of the stuarts. to cromwell spain addressed itself with the most tempting offers. the old english jealousy of france, and the political advantage of resisting its growing strength, were urged in favour of a spanish alliance. cromwell might renew the old glories of the plantagenets, and might gather round him the forces of the huguenots of the south. if charles i. had failed at rochelle, cromwell might establish himself firmly at bordeaux. [sidenote: § . spain refuses cromwell's terms.] for a moment cromwell was shaken. then he made two demands of the spanish ambassador. he must have, he said freedom for englishmen to trade in the indies, and permission for englishmen carrying on commercial intercourse with spain to profess their religion openly without interference. "to give you this," was the spaniard's cool reply, "would be to give you my master's two eyes." [sidenote: § . alliance between france and england.] to beat down religious exclusiveness and commercial exclusiveness was the work to which cromwell girded himself. an alliance with france was quickly made. the arrogant intolerance of spain was to perish through its refusal to admit the new principle of toleration. the politic tolerance of france was to rise to still higher fortunes by the admission of the principle on which all its successes had been based since richelieu's accession to power. in , six thousand of cromwell's ironsides landed to take part in continental warfare. the union of turenne's strategy with the valour and discipline which had broken down opposition at naseby and worcester was irresistible. that autumn the small flemish port of mardyke surrendered. in dunkirk was taken, and given over, according to compact, to the english auxiliaries. but france, too, reaped an ample harvest. gravelines, oudenarde, ypres saw the white flag of france flying from their ramparts. [sidenote: § . the treaty of the pyrenees.] spain was reduced to seek for peace. in the treaty of the pyrenees, a supplement as it were to the treaty of westphalia, put an end to the long war. the advantages of the peace were all on the side of france. roussillon and artois, with thionville, landrecies, and avesnes, were incorporated with france. another condition was pregnant with future evil. lewis xiv. gave his hand to the sister of philip iv. of spain, the next heiress to the spanish monarchy after the sickly infant who became afterwards the imbecile and childish charles ii. at her marriage she abandoned all right to the great inheritance; but even at the time there were not wanting frenchmen of authority to point to circumstances which rendered the renunciation null and void. [sidenote: § . the greatness of france based on its tolerance.] richelieu's power had been based upon tolerance at home and moderation abroad. was it likely that his successors would always imitate his example? what guarantee could be given that the french monarchy would not turn its back upon the principles from which its strength had been derived? in a land of free discussion, every gain is a permanent one. when protestantism, or toleration, or freedom of the press, or freedom of trade had been once accepted in england, they were never abandoned; they became articles of popular belief, on which no hesitation, except by scattered individuals, was possible. multitudes who would find it difficult to give a good reason why they thought one thing to be true and another untrue, had yet a hazy confidence in the result of the battle of reason which had taken place, much in the same way as there are millions of people in the world who believe implicitly that the earth goes round the sun, without being able to give a reason for their belief. [sidenote: § . but this depended on the will of the king.] in france it was hard for anything of the kind to take place. tolerance was admitted there by the mere will of the government in the seventeenth century, just as free trade was admitted by the mere will of the government in the nineteenth century. the hand that gave could also take away; and it depended on the young king to decide whether he would walk in the steps of the great minister who had cleared the way before him, or whether he would wander into devious paths of his own seeking. [sidenote: § . intolerance of lewis xiv.] at first everything promised well. a great statesman, colbert, filled the early part of the manhood of lewis xiv. with a series of domestic reforms, the least of which would have gladdened the heart of richelieu. taxation was reduced, the tolls taken upon the passage of goods from one province to another were diminished in number, trade and industry were encouraged, the administration of justice was improved; all, in short, that it was possible to do within the circle of one man's activity was done to make france a prosperous and contented land. but the happy time was not of long duration. the war fever took possession of lewis; the lust of absolute domination entered into his heart. he became the tyrant and bully of europe; and as abroad he preferred to be feared rather than to be loved, at home he would be content with nothing else than the absolute mastery over the consciences as well as over the hearts of his subjects. the edict of nantes, issued by henry iv. and confirmed by the policy of richelieu, was revoked, and intolerance and persecution became the law of the french monarchy, as it had been the law of the spanish monarchy. [sidenote: § . fate of the french monarchy.] it was not for this that henry iv. and richelieu had laboured. the tree that bears no fruit must be cut down to the ground, or it will perish by its own inherent rottenness. as the empire had fallen, as the spanish monarchy had fallen, the french monarchy, shaken by the thunders of la hogue and blenheim, fell at last, when, amidst the corruption of versailles, it ceased to do any useful work for man. index. aachen (_aix-la-chapelle_) place of coronation, . administrators. _see_ bishoprics. aix-la-chapelle. _see_ aachen. aldringer, offers to assist wallenstein, ; declares against him, ; tries to seize him, . alsace, mansfeld in, ; his designs there, ; mansfeld returns to, ; proposed march of mansfeld to, ; its possession of importance to france, ; comes into french possession, . anhalt, prince of. _see_ christian of anhalt. anne of austria, regent of france, . anspach, the margrave of, hopes for a revolution, . anstruther, sir robert, his mission to the king of denmark, . arnim, ordered by wallenstein to besiege stralsund, ; commands the saxons at breitenfeld, ; his conference with wallenstein, ; is expected to meet wallenstein at eger, . arras, besieged by condé, . augsburg, city of, swears obedience to gustavus, ; besieged by the imperialists, ; resists turenne, . augsburg, peace of, ; questions arising out of it, ; evaded by the protestants, . austria, lower, estates of, attempt to wring concessions from ferdinand, . austria, upper, surrenders to maximilian, ; pledged to maximilian, ; restored to ferdinand, . austria, the house of, territories governed by it, ; its branches, . avesnes incorporated with france, . bautzen, besieged by john george, . bergen-op-zoom, siege of, . bernhard of weimar, joins the king of denmark, ; joins gustavus, ; takes the command of the swedes at lützen, ; his expectations after the death of gustavus, ; his duchy of franconia, ; takes ratisbon, ; is invited to assist wallenstein, ; prepares to march to eger, ; is defeated at nördlingen, ; loses his duchy of franconia, ; his alliance with france, ; defeats the imperialists at rheinfelden and takes rheinfelden, freiburg, and breisach, ; his death, . bachararch, misery at, . baden-durlach, margrave of, joins frederick, ; defeated at wimpfen, ; abandons his allies, ; aids the king of denmark, . bamberg and würzburg, bishop of; attacked by mansfeld, . baner, defeats the imperialists at wittstock, ; is driven back to the coast of the baltic, ; fights in different parts of germany, . bärwalde, treaty of, . bethlen gabor, prince of transylvania, attacks austria, ; prepares to aid frederick, ; defeats bucquoi, ; threatens austria, , ; is joined by mansfeld, ; withdraws from the contest, . bishoprics, question connected with them left unsettled at the peace of augsburg, ; in the north they mainly fall under protestant administrators, ; forcible reconversion of the population where this is not the case, ; protestant administrators not acknowledged by the diet, ; attempt to bring over cologne and strasburg to protestantism, ; questions relating to them settled for a time at mühlhausen, ; reopened after the battle of stadtlohn, ; names of those reclaimed in the edict of restitution, ; arrangement for them at the treaty of prague, . boguslav, duke of pomerania, compelled to accept a garrison by wallenstein, ; supports wallenstein in the siege of stralsund, ; complains of wallenstein's soldiers, ; submits to gustavus, . bohemia, the royal charter granted in, ; its infringement, ; acknowledgment of ferdinand as its king, ; revolution in, ; directors appointed, ; war begins in, ; political incapacity of the revolutionary government, ; it makes application to foreign powers, ; election of frederick as king, ; suppression of the revolution, ; occupied by john george, ; the saxons driven out of, ; torstenson's occupation of, . bohemia, king of, his functions as an elector, . _see_ also rudolph ii., matthias, frederick v., and ferdinand ii. bohemian brethren expelled from bohemia, . brandenburg, bishopric of, named in the edict of restitution, . brandenburg, elector of, . _see_ also john sigismund, and george william. braunau, protestant church at, . breda, siege of, . breisach, taken by bernhard, . breisgau, taken possession of by the french, . breitenfeld, battle of, . bremen, archbishopric of, connexion of, with christian iv., ; named in the edict of restitution, ; given up to sweden, . bridge of dessau, battle of, . brünn, besieged by torstenson, . brunswick, peace negotiations at, . brussels, conferences for peace at, , , . bucquoi, commands the army invading bohemia, ; defeats mansfeld, ; joined by maximilian, ; advises to delay a battle, ; is killed, . buckingham, duke of, his expedition to rhé, ; intends to raise the siege of rochelle, ; is murdered, . budweis, attacked by the bohemians, . burgundy, eastern. _see_ franche comté. butler, receives orders to capture wallenstein, ; consults on the murder with leslie and gordon, . calvinism in germany, . camin, bishopric of, named in the edict of restitution, . casale, sieges of, , . catalonia, insurrection of, . charles i., king of england, forms an alliance with christian iv., ; is unable to fulfil his engagement, ; sends sir c. morgan to aid christian iv., ; quarrels with france, ; attempts to succour rochelle, ; his arrangements about the spanish fleet in the downs, . charles v., his strength external to the empire, ; his meeting with luther, ; forced to yield to the protestants, . charles emanuel, duke of savoy, helps the bohemians, ; plans for his advancement in germany, ; attacks genoa, ; reduced to submission by richelieu, . charles lewis, elector palatine, claims his father's dominion, ; receives the lower palatinate, . charles, prince of wales, proposed marriage with an infanta, ; treaty with spain broken off, ; proposed marriage with henrietta maria, . _see_ charles i., king of england. charles the great (_charlemagne_), nature of his authority, . cherasco, treaty of, . chichester, lord, his embassy to the palatinate, . christian iv., king of denmark, his connection with germany, ; his views on the course of the war, ; his offers to england to make war, ; his offer accepted, ; attacked by tilly, ; defeated at lutter, ; refuses wallenstein's terms of peace, ; sends agents to stralsund, ; makes peace at lübeck, . christian of anhalt, leader of the german calvinists, ; his character and policy, ; his part in the foundation of the union, ; his intrigues in austria, ; his plan for supporting the bohemians, ; commands the bohemian army, . christian of brunswick, administrator of halberstadt, his instalment in the cathedral, ; resolves to take part in the war, ; invades the diocese of paderborn, ; defeated at höchst, ; retreats to alsace, ; marches through lorraine, ; loses his arm at fleurus, ; threatens the lower saxon circle, ; negotiates with the emperor, ; is defeated at stadtlohn, and resigns the see of halberstadt, ; joins christian iv., ; dies, . christina, queen of sweden, . christina, regent of savoy, assisted by the french, . church lands secularized, , ; legal decision about them against the protestants, . cities, free imperial, their part in the diet, . cleves, war of succession in, . coblentz, fired at by the french in ehrenbreitstein, . colbert, his reforms, . cologne, elector of, ; failure of an attempt by him to bring over the electorate to protestantism, . condé, prince of, takes part with spain, . convention of passau. _see_ passau. corbie, taken by the spaniards, and retaken by the french, . cordova, gonzales de, commands the spaniards in the lower palatinate, ; takes part in the battle of wimpfen, ; joins in defeating christian of brunswick at höchst, ; commands at fleurus, . corneille, writes "the cid," . cromwell, courted by france and spain, ; decides to help france, . dänholm, seized by wallenstein's soldiers, . darmstadt, entered by mansfeld, . descartes, his first work published, . dessau, the bridge of, battle of, . devereux, murders wallenstein, . diet of the empire, ; its reform in the th century, ; its constitution, ; how far opposed to protestantism, ; its meeting in , . directors of bohemia appointed, . donauwörth, occupation of, ; entered by gustavus, ; surrenders to turenne, . downs, the spanish fleet takes refuge in the, . dunkirk, surrender of, . east friesland, invaded by mansfeld, . ecclesiastical reservation, the, _see_ bishoprics. edict of restitution, issued, . eger, wallenstein summons his colonels to, . eggenberg confers with wallenstein, ; favours wallenstein's restoration, ; joins oñate against wallenstein, . ehrenbreitstein, receives a french garrison, ; fires on coblentz, . elector palatine, . _see_ also frederick iv., and frederick v. electors, functions of, ; their part in the diet, ; their quarrel with wallenstein, , ; demand wallenstein's dismissal, . eliot, sir john, his satisfaction at the victories of gustavus, . elizabeth, electress palatine, encourages her husband to accept the crown of bohemia, . emperor, functions of, ; he is practically scarcely more than a german king, . enghien, duke of (afterwards prince of condé), defeats the spaniards at rocroy, ; commands at the battle of freiburg and nördlingen, . _see_ condé, prince of. england. _see_ james i., charles i., charles, prince of wales. english ambassador (the earl of arundel), notes of his journey through germany, . erfurt, gustavus at, . fabricius, thrown out of window, . felton, murders buckingham, . ferdinand, the archduke, afterwards the emperor ferdinand i., represents charles v., at augsburg, . ferdinand, archduke (afterwards the emperor ferdinand ii.), rules styria, carinthia, and carniola, ; puts down protestantism there, ; acknowledged as king of bohemia, ; his character, ; swears to the royal charter, ; elected king of hungary, ; receives help from spain, ; promises to respect the royal charter, ; besieged by mansfeld, ; elected emperor, ; comes to terms with maximilian, ; puts frederick to the ban, ; refuses to go beyond the agreement of mühlhausen, ; accepts wallenstein's offer to raise an army, ; grants mecklenburg to wallenstein, , ; oppresses the protestants, ; recovers upper austria, ; takes part in the mantuan war, ; carries out the edict of restitution, ; despises gustavus, ; refuses to abandon the edict, ; looks to spain for help, ; hesitates what to do about wallenstein, ; decides against him, ; consents to the peace of prague, ; his death, . ferdinand, king of hungary (afterwards the emperor ferdinand iii.), his marriage, ; commands the army after wallenstein's death, ; becomes emperor, ; reluctance to surrender alsace to the french, . ferdinand, the cardinal-infant, proposed command of, resisted by wallenstein, ; joins the king of hungary before the battle of nördlingen, ; proceeds to brussels, ; invades france, . fleurus, battle of, . france, takes precautions against mansfeld, ; its internal dissensions, , ; at war with england, ; intervenes in italy and makes peace with england, ; supremacy of richelieu in, ; places itself at the head of a german alliance, ; declares war openly against spain, ; continues the war with spain, ; its victories over spain, ; its victories in germany, ; its gains by the peace of westphalia, ; continuance of its war with spain, ; successes of, in flanders, ; its gains by the treaty of the pyrenees, ; its condition under lewis xiv., . franche comté, included in the empire, . franconia, duchy of, assigned to bernhard, ; taken from him, . frankenthal, garrisoned by vere's troops, ; given up to the spaniards, . frankfort-on-the main, place of coronation, . frankfort-on-the-oder, taken by gustavus, . frederick iii., the emperor, words used to him, . frederick iv., elector palatine, nominal leader of the calvinists, ; his death, . frederick v., elector palatine, his marriage, ; encourages the bohemians, ; proposal that he shall mediate in bohemia, ; is elected king of bohemia, ; becomes unpopular at prague, ; his defeat at the white hill, ; takes refuge at the hague, ; put to the ban, ; maintains his claims to bohemia, ; proposal that his eldest son shall be educated at vienna, ; his prospects in , ; joins mansfeld in alsace, ; seizes the landgrave of darmstadt, ; driven back to mannheim, ; returns to the hague, ; enters munich with gustavus, ; his death, . freiburg (in the breisgau), surrenders to bernhard, ; retaken, ; battle of, . friedland, prince and duke of. _see_ wallenstein. friesland. _see_ east friesland. fronde, the, . fuentes, count of, killed at rocroy, . fürth, wallenstein's entrenchments at, . gallas, offers to assist wallenstein, . gassion, advises the french to give battle at rocroy, . gaston, duke of orleans, leaves france, ; takes part in a rebellion, . george of lüneburg, a lutheran in wallenstein's service, ; sent into silesia, . george william, elector of brandenburg, consents to his sister's marriage with gustavus, ; refuses to join gustavus, ; compelled to submit to him, . germany, its political institutions, - ; what it included, ; divided into circles, ; its miserable condition, ; its condition after the peace of westphalia, . glückstadt, fortified by christian iv., ; siege of, . gordon, his part in wallenstein's murder, . gravelines surrenders to the french, . guebriant, defeats the imperialists at wolfenbüttel and kempten, . guise, the duke of, leaves france, . guiton, mayor of rochelle, . gustavus adolphus, king of sweden, his character, ; early struggles, ; visits germany, ; hostile to the growth of the empire, ; views on religion and politics, ; projects a general league against the house of austria, ; refuses to take part in it on the terms offered, and attacks poland, ; sends help to stralsund, ; makes peace with poland, ; negotiates with france, ; lands in pomerania, ; gains possession of the lands on the baltic coast, ; negotiates with france, ; signs the treaty of bärwalde, ; compels the elector of brandenburg to join him, ; fails to relieve magdeburg, ; entrenches himself at werben, ; allies himself with saxony, ; his skill as a commander, ; defeats tilly at breitenfeld, ; receives overtures from wallenstein, ; his political plans, ; determines to march to the rhine, ; keeps christmas at mentz, ; his reception at nüremberg, ; enters donauwörth, and defeats tilly at the lech, ; occupies munich, ; lays down terms of peace, ; proposes a league of the cities, ; rebukes his officers, ; fails in storming wallenstein's entrenchments, ; follows wallenstein into saxony, ; attacks wallenstein at lützen, ; his death, ; his future plans, . hagenau, seized by mansfeld, . hague, the, frederick takes refuge there, ; returns after his campaign in germany, . halberstadt, diocese of, christian of brunswick bishop of it, ; forfeited by his treason, ; occupied by wallenstein, ; named in the edict of restitution, ; execution of the edict at, ; not recovered by the protestants at the treaty of prague, ; restored at the peace of westphalia, . halle, pappenheim's march to, . hamburg, its commerce, ; refuses to submit to wallenstein, . hanse towns, offers made them by the emperor, . havelberg, bishopric of, named in the edict of restitution, . heidelberg, garrisoned by vere, ; taken by tilly, ; treatment of protestants at, . heilbronn, the league of, ; its leading members excepted from the amnesty of the treaty of prague, . heiligenhafen, combat of, . henry iv., king of france, plans intervention in germany, . henry the fowler, not an emperor, . hesse cassel, landgrave of. _see_ maurice, and william. hesse darmstadt. _see_ lewis. höchst, battle of, . horn, commands a swedish force in mecklenburg, ; is defeated at nördlingen, . huguenots, nature of toleration granted to, ; insurrection of, , ; tolerated by richelieu, . hungary, political divisions of, . imperial council (_reichshofrath_) intervenes in the case of donauwörth, . imperial court (_reichskammergericht_), institution, ; out of working order, . ingolstadt, tilly's death at, . italy, kingdom of, , . james i., king of england, offers to mediate in bohemia and germany, , ; proposes to pay mansfeld, ; his negotiations with spain, , ; desires aid from france, ; supports mansfeld, ; orders him not to relieve breda, ; agreement with christian iv., ; death of, . jankow, battle of, . jesuits, the, appear in germany, . john ernest, duke of saxe-weimar, ideas of religious liberty, ; supports mansfeld, ; dies, . john george, elector of saxony, at the head of the lutheran and neutral party, , ; wishes to pacify bohemia, ; his share in ferdinand's election to the empire, ; is gained over by maximilian, ; his vacillations in , ; refuses to join in the danish war, ; his son elected administrator of magdeburg, ; attempts to mediate between gustavus and the emperor, , ; joins gustavus, ; failure of his army at breitenfeld, ; despatched into bohemia, ; enters prague, ; is driven out of bohemia, ; proposes terms of peace to gustavus, ; refuses to join the league of heilbronn, ; negotiates with wallenstein, ; hopes for peace, ; agrees to the peace of prague, ; his troops defeated at wittstock, . john sigismund, elector of brandenburg, his claim to the duchy of cleves, ; turns calvinist, . joseph, father, employed as richelieu's agent, . kempten, battle of, . klostergrab, protestant church at, . köln. _see_ cologne. la force, commands at paris, . lamormain, father, ferdinand's confessor, declares against peace, . landrecies incorporated with france, . league, the catholic, its formation, ; agrees to the treaty of ulm, . _see_ maximilian, duke of bavaria. lebus, bishopric of, . lech, battle at the passage of the, . leipzig, assembly at, . leipzig, battle of. _see_ breitenfeld. leslie, his part in wallenstein's murder, . leuchtenberg, landgrave of, taken prisoner by mansfeld, . lewis xiii., king of france, his character, ; his jealousy of spain, ; summons richelieu to his council, ; takes part against spain, ; his policy towards the huguenots, ; at war with england, ; invades italy, ; dislikes the success of gustavus, ; takes the field against spain, ; dies, . lewis xiv., king of france, accession of, . lewis, landgrave of hesse darmstadt, taken prisoner, . lombardy, the iron crown of, . lorraine (_lothringen_), included in the empire, ; mansfeld and christian of brunswick, in, . lorraine, duke of, joins the spaniards against gustavus, ; is reduced to subjection by france, . lower saxony, circle of, threatened by christian of brunswick and tilly, ; refuses to support christian, ; disunion amongst its members, ; attacked by tilly, . lübeck, bishopric of, named in the edict of restitution, . lübeck, peace of, . lusatia, invaded by the saxons, . luther, his meeting with charles v., . lutherans, ; their estrangements from frederick in bohemia, ; still remain in paderborn, . lutter, battle of, . lützen, battle of, . magdeburg, city of, refuses to admit wallenstein's troops, , ; declares for gustavus, ; stormed and sacked, . magdeburg, diocese of, occupied by wallenstein, ; included in the edict of restitution, ; execution of the edict at, . magdeburg, protestant administrator of, not acknowledged as archbishop by the diet, . maintz. _see_ mentz. _majestätsbrief._ _see_ royal charter. manheim, garrisoned by vere, ; retreat of frederick and mansfeld to, ; taken by tilly, . mansfeld, count ernest of, takes service with the bohemians and besieges pilsen, ; takes the field against bucquoi, ; is defeated by him, ; character of his army, ; occupies the upper palatinate, ; marches into alsace, ; aims at becoming master of part of it, ; invades the lower palatinate, ; seizes the landgrave of darmstadt, ; state of his army, ; retreats to alsace, ; occupies lorraine, ; cuts his way through the spanish netherlands, relieves bergen-op-zoom, and invades east friesland, ; returns to the netherlands, ; assisted by france, ; proposed march into alsace, ; fails to relieve breda, ; sent to help the king of denmark, ; joins christian iv., ; defeated at the bridge of dessau, ; marches through silesia into hungary, ; dies, . mantua and montferrat, war of succession in, . mardyke, surrender of, . martinitz, one of the regents of bohemia, thrown out of window, . mary of medici, opposes richelieu, ; obliged to leave france, . matthias, archduke, rises against rudolph ii., ; succeeds as emperor, . _see_ matthias, emperor. matthias, emperor, his election, ; his attempts to break the royal charter, ; his death, . maurice, landgrave of hesse cassel, submits to spinola, . maximilian, archduke, governs tyrol, . maximilian, duke of bavaria, his character and policy, ; his part in the formation of the league, ; prepares to attack bohemia, ; proposed transference of the palatinate electorate to, ; gains over the north german princes, ; attaches austria and bohemia, ; receives upper austria in pledge, ; receives the electorate, ; his policy after the peace of lübeck, ; makes an effort against the french, ; is ready to surrender alsace to the french, ; but refuses to surrender the upper palatinate, ; makes a truce, which does not last long, . mayence. _see_ mentz. mazarin, cardinal, minister of anne of austria, . mecklenburg, dukes of their land pledged to wallenstein, ; formally given to wallenstein, . meissen. _see_ misnia. melancthon, his protest against theological disputation, . mentz, entered by spinola, ; treaty for the dissolution of the union signed at, . mentz, archbishop of, one of the electors, ; lays claim to lands in north germany, . mentz, city of, gustavus at, ; given over to oxenstjerna, ; misery at, . mercy, prudence of, ; is killed, . merseburg, bishopric of, named in the edict of restitution, . merseburg, city of, taken by pappenheim, . metz, annexed by france, . minden, bishopric of, named in the edict of restitution, . misnia, bishopric of, named in the edict of restitution, . montmorenci, duke of, his rebellion, . morgan, sir charles, commands an english force sent in aid of denmark, . mühlhausen (in thuringia), agreement of, ; meeting of the electors at, . munich, occupied by gustavus, . münster, meeting of diplomatists at, . münster, diocese of, threatened by mansfeld, . nancy, taken possession of by the french, . nantes, edict of, ; its revocation, . naumburg, bishopric of, named in the edict of restitution, . naumburg, city of, entered by gustavus, . netherlands, the, included in the empire, . netherlands, the spanish, defended against a french attack, . netherlands, united states of the, end of their truce with spain, ; acknowledgment of their independence, . neuberg, wolfgang wilhelm, count palatine of, lays claim to the duchy of cleves, ; has his ears boxed, . neustadt, misery at, . nevers, duke of, his claims to the succession in mantua, . new brandenburg, taken by tilly, . nienburg, holds out for christian iv., . nordheim, holds out for christian iv., . nördlingen, treatment of the protestants at, ; battle of, ; second battle of, ; surrenders to turenne, . nüremberg, joins the union, , ; meeting of the union at, ; deserts the union, ; welcomes gustavus, ; despatches gustavus against wallenstein, ; sufferings of, . oñate, opposes wallenstein, ; proposes to kill wallenstein, . oppenheim, stormed by gustavus, . osnabrück, election of a catholic bishop of, ; meeting of diplomatists at, . otto the great, becomes emperor, . oudenarde, surrender to the french, . oxenstjerna, his view of gustavus' march upon the rhine, ; receives the government of mentz, ; his position after the death of gustavus, ; asked to help wallenstein, ; keeps his doubts till the last, ; surrenders fortresses in alsace to richelieu, . paderborn, attack upon by christian of brunswick, . palatinate, the lower, attacked by spinola, ; defended by vere, ; invaded by tilly, ; conquered by tilly, ; the eastern part made over to maximilian, ; the whole restored to charles lewis, . palatinate, the upper, mansfeld's occupation of, ; its conquest by tilly, ; made over to maximilian, ; secured to him by the peace of westphalia, . pappenheim, confidence that gustavus will be beaten, ; storms magdeburg, ; commands on the rhine, ; leaves wallenstein before the battle of lützen, ; is killed at lützen, . passau, convention of, . peace of augsburg. _see_ augsburg. peace of phillipsburg, french garrison of, . piccolomini, offers to join wallenstein, ; declares against him, ; tries to seize him, ; orders butler to capture wallenstein, . pignerol, seized by richelieu, . pilsen refuses to take part with the bohemian directors, ; besieged and taken by mansfeld, ; wallenstein holds a meeting of officers at, . pomerania laid waste by wallenstein's troops, ; gustavus lands in, ; divided between brandenburg and sweden, . pomerania, duke of, _see_ boguslav. portugal, independence of, . prague, revolution at, ; frederick crowned king of bohemia at, ; frederick's growing unpopularity there, ; battle at the white hill near, ; entered by the saxons, ; recovered by wallenstein, ; part of it taken by the swedes, . prague, the treaty of, . princes of the empire, their increasing power, ; compared with the french vassals, ; care little for the diet, ; their part in the diet, ; the majority opposed to protestantism, . protestantism, its rise in germany, ; its position in north germany, ; its division, ; contrast between it in the north and the south, . pyrenees, treaty of the, . ratisbon, diets held at, , ; taken by bernhard, . ratseburg, bishopric of, named in the edict of restitution, . regensburg. _see_ ratisbon. _reichshofrath_. _see_ imperial council. _reichskammergericht._ _see_ imperial court. rhé, isle of, buckingham's expedition to, . rheinfelden, battle of, . richelieu, becomes a minister of lewis xiii., ; recovers the valtelline, ; his plans frustrated by the insurrection of the huguenots, ; wishes to make peace with them, ; causes of his success, ; his policy of toleration, ; takes part in the mantuan war, ; negotiates with sweden, ; is startled by the victories of gustavus, ; defends himself against the french aristocracy, ; nature of the government established by him, ; his aims in europe, ; intervenes more decidedly in germany, , ; aims at the conquest of alsace, ; obtains control over fortresses in alsace, ; failure of his attack upon the spanish netherlands, ; successfully resists a spanish invasion, ; continues the struggle with spain, ; his successes, , ; his death and policy, . rochelle, insurrection of, , ; siege of, ; surrender of, ; subsequent treatment of, . rocroy, attacked by the spaniards, ; battle of, . rohan, duke of, insurrection of, . rostock, its harbour blocked up by wallenstein, . roussillon, conquered by france, , ; annexed to france, . royal charter, the (_majestätsbrief_), granted by rudolph ii., ; its forfeiture declared, . rüdesheim, misery at, . rudolph ii., emperor, his part in the austrian territories, ; grants the royal charter of bohemia, ; tries to withdraw it, ; dies, ; fate of his art-treasures, . rupert, prince, his birth at prague, . saluces, seized by richelieu, . salzburg, persecution of protestants of, . saxony, elector of, . _see_ also john george. savoy, duke of. _see_ charles emanuel. schorndorf, surrenders to turenne, . sigismund, king of poland, a claimant to the crown of sweden, . sigismund, the emperor, anecdote of, . slawata, one of the regents of bohemia, ; thrown out of window, . soissons, count of, rebels in france, . soubise, duke of, rebels, . spain, intervenes in the war, ; anxious for peace, ; military position of in , ; loses the valtelline, ; takes part in the mantua war, ; supports wallenstein, ; takes part in the war on the rhine, ; turns against wallenstein, ; at war with france, ; invades france, ; naval inferiority of, , ; rebellion of the catalans, ; loss of portugal, ; continues the war with france after the peace of westphalia, ; agrees to the peace of the pyrenees, . spens, sir james, his mission to sweden, . spinola, attacks the palatinate, ; returns to brussels, ; besieges bergen-op-zoom, ; besieges breda, ; besieges casale, . spires, bishop of, attacked by vere, . stade, taken by tilly, . stadtlohn, battle of, . stenay, besieged by condé, . stralsund, siege of, . strasburg, bishopric of, failure of an attempt to place it in protestant hands, . strasburg, city of, joins the union, , ; deserts it, . sweden, her gains at the peace of westphalia, . switzerland included in the empire, . tabor, occupied by mansfeld, . thionville, besieged by the french, ; annexed to france, . thirty years' war, the disputes which led to it, ; commencement of, ; end of, . thurn, count henry of, his part in the bohemian revolution, ; his operations against bucquoi, ; besieges vienna, ; aids christian iv., . tilly, commands the army of the league, ; his part in the conquest of bohemia, ; his army, ; conquers the upper palatinate, ; invades the lower palatinate, ; his prospects in , ; defeats the margrave of baden at wimpfen, ; defeats christian of brunswick at höchst, ; conquers the lower palatinate, ; threatens the lower saxon circle, ; defeats christian of brunswick at stadtlohn, ; attacks lower saxony, ; makes head against christian iv., ; defeats him at lutter, ; besieges stade and glückstadt, ; his campaign against gustavus, ; takes magdeburg, ; attacks saxony, ; defeated at breitenfeld, ; his defeat and death at the passage of the lech, . torgau, holds out against wallenstein, . torstenson, his campaign of , . toul, annexed to france, . treves, elector of, ; makes an alliance with france, . trier. _see_ treves. tübingen, university of, . turenne, his part in the campaigns of and , ; his strategy in bavaria in , . turin, changes of government in, . ulm, joins the union, , ; deserts it, . ulm, treaty of, . union, the protestant, formation of, ; enters into an agreement with the duke of savoy, ; its coolness in the cause of the bohemians, ; refuses to support frederick in bohemia, ; agrees to the treaty of ulm, ; its dissolution, . valtelline, the spaniards driven from the, . verden, bishopric of, occupied by a son of christian iv., ; named in the edict of restitution, ; given up to sweden, . verdun, annexed to france, . vere, sir horace, defends the lower palatinate, , . vienna, besieged by thurn, ; attacked by bethlen gabor, ; attacked by torstenson, . wallenstein, his birth and education, ; raises an army for the emperor, and is created prince of friedland, ; his mode of carrying on war, ; enters magdeburg and halberstadt, ; defeats mansfeld at the bridge of dessau, ; his quarrel with the league, ; confers with eggenberg, ; is created duke of friedland, ; subdues silesia, ; conquers schleswig and jutland, ; complaints of the electors against him, ; his fresh levies, ; mecklenburg pledged to him, ; named admiral of the baltic, ; attempts to burn the swedish fleet, ; besieges stralsund, ; assists in the siege of glückstadt, ; his investiture with the duchy of mecklenburg, ; his breach with the electors, ; talks of sacking rome, ; his deprivation demanded, ; his dismissal, ; makes overtures to gustavus, ; breaks off his intercourse with gustavus, ; is reinstated in command by the emperor, ; character of his army, ; drives the saxons out of bohemia, ; entrenches himself near nüremberg, ; repulses gustavus and marches into saxony, ; takes up a position at lützen, is defeated, ; negotiates with the saxons, ; hopes to bring about peace, ; negotiates with the swedes, ; prepares to force the emperor to accept peace from him, ; opposition to him, ; the emperor decides against him, ; throws himself upon his officers, ; is declared a traitor, and abandoned by the garrison of prague, ; his murder, ; causes of his failure, . werben, camp of gustavus at, . werth, john of, general in maximilian's service, . weston, sir richard, represents england at the congress at brussels, . westphalia, the peace of, opening of negotiations for, ; signature of, ; its results, . white hill, battle of the, . wiesloch, combat of, . william, landgrave of hesse cassel, joins gustavus, ; shut out from the benefits of the treaty of prague, ; his alliance with france, . wimpfen, battle of, . winter-king, nickname of frederick, . wismar in wallenstein's hands, . wittingau, occupied by mansfeld, . wittstock, battle of, . wolfenbüttel holds out for christian iv., ; battle at, . wrangel, succeeds torstenson as commander of the swedes, ; joins turenne, . würtemberg, accepts the terms of the treaty of prague, . würzburg taken by gustavus, ; surrenders to turenne, . ypres, surrenders to the french, . znaim, wallenstein confers with eggenberg at, . zusmarshausen, battle of, . _an important historical series._ epochs of history. edited by edward e. morris, m.a., of lincoln college, oxford. head master of the bedfordshire middle-class public school, &c. each vol. mo. with outline maps. price per volume, in cloth, $ . . histories of countries are rapidly becoming so numerous that it is almost impossible for the most industrious student to keep pace with them. such works are, of course, still less likely to be mastered by those of limited leisure. it is to meet the wants of this very numerous class of readers that the _epochs of history_ has been projected. the series will comprise a number of compact, handsomely printed manuals, prepared by thoroughly competent hands, each volume complete in itself, and sketching succinctly the most important epochs in the world's history, always making the history of a nation subordinate to this more general idea. no attempt will be made to recount all the events of any given period. the aim will be to bring out in the clearest light the salient incidents and features of each epoch. special attention will be paid to the literature, manners, state of knowledge, and all those characteristics which exhibit the life of a people as well as the policy of their rulers during any period. to make the text more readily intelligible, outline maps will be given with each volume, and where this arrangement is desirable they will be distributed throughout the text so as to be more easy of reference. a series of works based upon this general plan can not fail to be widely useful in popularizing history as science has lately been popularized. those who have been discouraged from attempting more ambitious works because of their magnitude, will naturally turn to these _epochs of history_ to get a general knowledge of any period; 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[illustration: "_infinite riches in a little room._" the bric·a·brac series edited by r. h. stoddard. _now ready._ the second volume of this series. anecdote biographies of thackeray, dickens, and others. just published. personal reminiscences by chorley, planche and young scribner, armstrong & co. broadway, n. y. ] one vol. mo, beautifully bound in extra cloth, black and gilt, $ . . "no more refreshing volumes could be carried into the country or to the sea-shore, to fill up the niches of time that intervene between the pleasures of the summer holidays."--_boston post._ "mr. stoddard's work appears to be done well nigh perfectly. there is not a dull page in the book."--_n. y. evening post._ .*. sent post-paid, upon receipt of price, by =scribner, armstrong & co. broadway new york.= transcriber's notes: the following is a list of changes made to the original. the first line is the original line, the second the corrected one. creeds. bnt freedom of conscience did not by any creeds. but freedom of conscience did not by any in an instant he was hurled out, crying, "jesus, mary!' in an instant he was hurled out, crying, 'jesus, mary!' mary will help him." a moment later he added: "by mary will help him.' a moment later he added: 'by god, his mary has helped him." slawata followed, god, his mary has helped him.' slawata followed, saxony in mediating an arangement, whilst, on the other saxony in mediating an arrangement, whilst, on the other from the syrian frontier to the borders of silesia, from the styrian frontier to the borders of silesia, will of god. this,' he cried triumphantly, 'is the will of god. 'this,' he cried triumphantly, 'is the the north german protestants, nobody doubted that, the north german protestants. nobody doubted that, hands of the french governmment. in that hands of the french government. in that gospel was not a very real thing. historians cooly gospel was not a very real thing. historians coolly after, all, however, the main point was the success or after all, however, the main point was the success or tilly found occupation for his men in the seige of the tilly found occupation for his men in the siege of the of westerly winds prevented them from leaviug of westerly winds prevented them from leaving stout guardians around him, stout guardians around him. which was nothing to güstavus, but which a german which was nothing to gustavus, but which a german fire. in the exeitement of plunder or of terror no one fire. in the excitement of plunder or of terror no one at all, must be based as far as posssible on institutions at all, must be based as far as possible on institutions a victory, with drums beating and banners a victory. with drums beating and banners advanced, gustavus riding at the head of the calvary at advanced, gustavus riding at the head of the cavalry at of saxony he was was already secure; of saxony he was already secure; who shall release me from my oath?' "you, gentlemen," who shall release me from my oath?" "you, gentlemen," [sidenote: § . the battle of nôrdlingen.] [sidenote: § . the battle of nördlingen.] pacification. most of the princes and towns so accepted, pacification. most of the princes and towns so accepted the storm of a city doomed to massacre and pilllage; the storm of a city doomed to massacre and pillage; swedish general, torstenson. who had taken swedish general, torstenson, who had taken the issue was hardly doubtful. in louis xiv. entered the issue was hardly doubtful. in lewis xiv. entered succeeeds as emperor, . succeeds as emperor, . richelieu, becomes a minister of louis xiii., ; richelieu, becomes a minister of lewis xiii., ; saluces, siezed by richelieu, . saluces, seized by richelieu, . sketching succintly the most important epochs sketching succinctly the most important epochs this ebook was produced by david widger [note: there is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. d.w.] the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume life and death of john of barneveld, v , - chapter xix. rancour between the politico-religious parties--spanish intrigues inconsistency of james--brewster and robinson's congregation at leyden--they decide to leave for america--robinson's farewell sermon and prayer at parting. during this dark and mournful winter the internal dissensions and, as a matter of course, the foreign intrigues had become more dangerous than ever. while the man who for a whole generation had guided the policy of the republic and had been its virtual chief magistrate lay hidden from all men's sight, the troubles which he had sought to avert were not diminished by his removal from the scene. the extreme or gomarist party which had taken a pride in secret conventicles where they were in a minority, determined, as they said, to separate christ from belial and, meditating the triumph which they had at last secured, now drove the arminians from the great churches. very soon it was impossible for these heretics to enjoy the rights of public worship anywhere. but they were not dismayed. the canons of dordtrecht had not yet been fulminated. they avowed themselves ready to sacrifice worldly goods and life itself in defence of the five points. in rotterdam, notwithstanding a garrison of fifteen companies, more than a thousand remonstrants assembled on christmas-day in the exchange for want of a more appropriate place of meeting and sang the th psalm in mighty chorus. a clergyman of their persuasion accidentally passing through the street was forcibly laid hands upon and obliged to preach to them, which he did with great unction. the magistracy, where now the contra-remonstrants had the control, forbade, under severe penalties, a repetition of such scenes. it was impossible not to be reminded of the days half a century before, when the early reformers had met in the open fields or among the dunes, armed to the teeth, and with outlying pickets to warn the congregation of the approach of red rod and the functionaries of the holy inquisition. in schoonhoven the authorities attempted one sunday by main force to induct a contra-remonstrant into the pulpit from which a remonstrant had just been expelled. the women of the place turned out with their distaffs and beat them from the field. the garrison was called out, and there was a pitched battle in the streets between soldiers, police officers, and women, not much to the edification certainly of the sabbath-loving community on either side, the victory remaining with the ladies. in short it would be impossible to exaggerate the rancour felt between the different politico-religious parties. all heed for the great war now raging in the outside world between the hostile elements of catholicism and protestantism, embattled over an enormous space, was lost in the din of conflict among the respective supporters of conditional and unconditional damnation within the pale of the reformed church. the earthquake shaking europe rolled unheeded, as it was of old said to have done at cannae, amid the fierce shock of mortal foes in that narrow field. the respect for authority which had so long been the distinguishing characteristic of the netherlanders seemed to have disappeared. it was difficult--now that the time-honoured laws and privileges in defence of which, and of liberty of worship included in them, the provinces had made war forty years long had been trampled upon by military force--for those not warmed by the fire of gomarus to feel their ancient respect for the magistracy. the magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword. the spanish government was inevitably encouraged by the spectacle thus presented. we have seen the strong hopes entertained by the council at madrid, two years before the crisis now existing had occurred. we have witnessed the eagerness with which the king indulged the dream of recovering the sovereignty which his father had lost, and the vast schemes which he nourished towards that purpose, founded on the internal divisions which were reducing the republic to impotence. subsequent events had naturally made him more sanguine than ever. there was now a web of intrigue stretching through the provinces to bring them all back under the sceptre of spain. the imprisonment of the great stipendiary, the great conspirator, the man who had sold himself and was on the point of selling his country, had not terminated those plots. where was the supposed centre of that intrigue? in the council of state of the netherlands, ever fiercely opposed to barneveld and stuffed full of his mortal enemies. whose name was most familiar on the lips of the spanish partisans engaged in these secret schemes? that of adrian manmaker, president of the council, representative of prince maurice as first noble of zealand in the states-general, chairman of the committee sent by that body to utrecht to frustrate the designs of the advocate, and one of the twenty-four commissioners soon to be appointed to sit in judgment upon him. the tale seems too monstrous for belief, nor is it to be admitted with certainty, that manmaker and the other councillors implicated had actually given their adhesion to the plot, because the spanish emissaries in their correspondence with the king assured him of the fact. but if such a foundation for suspicion could have been found against barneveld and his friends, the world would not have heard the last of it from that hour to this. it is superfluous to say that the prince was entirely foreign to these plans. he had never been mentioned as privy to the little arrangements of councillor du agean and others, although he was to benefit by them. in the spanish schemes he seems to have been considered as an impediment, although indirectly they might tend to advance him. "we have managed now, i hope, that his majesty will be recognized as sovereign of the country," wrote the confidential agent of the king of spain in the netherlands, emmanuel sueyro, to the government of madrid. "the english will oppose it with all their strength. but they can do nothing except by making count maurice sovereign of holland and duke of julich and cleve. maurice will also contrive to make himself master of wesel, so it is necessary for the archduke to be beforehand with him and make sure of the place. it is also needful that his majesty should induce the french government to talk with the netherlanders and convince them that it is time to prolong the truce." this was soon afterwards accomplished. the french minister at brussels informed archduke albert that du maurier had been instructed to propose the prolongation, and that he had been conferring with the prince of orange and the states-general on the subject. at first the prince had expressed disinclination, but at the last interview both he and the states had shown a desire for it, and the french king had requested from the archduke a declaration whether the spanish government would be willing to treat for it. in such case lewis would offer himself as mediator and do his best to bring about a successful result. but it was not the intention of the conspirators in the netherlands that the truce should be prolonged. on the contrary the negotiation for it was merely to furnish the occasion for fully developing their plot. "the states and especially those of zealand will reply that they no longer wish the truce," continued sueyro, "and that they would prefer war to such a truce. they desire to put ships on the coast of flanders, to which the hollanders are opposed because it would be disagreeable to the french. so the zealanders will be the first to say that the netherlanders must come back to his majesty. this their president hanmaker has sworn. the states of overyssel will likewise give their hand to this because they say they will be the first to feel the shock of the war. thus we shall very easily carry out our design, and as we shall concede to the zealanders their demands in regard to the navigation they at least will place themselves under the dominion of his majesty as will be the case with friesland as well as overyssel." it will be observed that in this secret arrangement for selling the republic to its ancient master it was precisely the provinces and the politicians most steadily opposed to barneveld that took the lead. zealand, friesland, overyssel were in the plot, but not a word was said of utrecht. as for holland itself, hopes were founded on the places where hatred to the advocate was fiercest. "between ourselves," continued the agent, "we are ten here in the government of holland to support the plan, but we must not discover ourselves for fear of suffering what has happened to barneveld." he added that the time for action had not yet come, and that if movements were made before the synod had finished its labours, "the gomarists would say that they were all sold." he implored the government at madrid to keep the whole matter for the present profoundly secret because "prince maurice and the gomarists had the forces of the country at their disposition." in case the plot was sprung too suddenly therefore, he feared that with the assistance of england maurice might, at the head of the gomarists and the army, make himself sovereign of holland and duke of cleve, while he and the rest of the spanish partisans might be in prison with barneveld for trying to accomplish what barneveld had been trying to prevent. the opinions and utterances of such a man as james i. would be of little worth to our history had he not happened to occupy the place he did. but he was a leading actor in the mournful drama which filled up the whole period of the twelve years' truce. his words had a direct influence on great events. he was a man of unquestionable erudition, of powers of mind above the average, while the absolute deformity of his moral constitution made him incapable of thinking, feeling, or acting rightly on any vital subject, by any accident or on any occasion. if there were one thing that he thoroughly hated in the world, it was the reformed religion. if in his thought there were one term of reproach more loathsome than another to be applied to a human creature, it was the word puritan. in the word was subversion of all established authority in church and state--revolution, republicanism, anarchy. "there are degrees in heaven," he was wont to say, "there are degrees in hell, there must be degrees on earth." he forbade the calvinist churches of scotland to hold their customary synod in , passionately reviling them and their belief, and declaring "their aim to be nothing else than to deprive kings and princes of their sovereignty, and to reduce the whole world to a popular form of government where everybody would be master." when the prince of neuburg embraced catholicism, thus complicating matters in the duchies and strengthening the hand of spain and the emperor in the debateable land, he seized the occasion to assure the agent of the archduke in london, councillor boissetot, of his warm catholic sympathies. "they say that i am the greatest heretic in the world!" he exclaimed; "but i will never deny that the true religion is that of rome even if corrupted." he expressed his belief in the real presence, and his surprise that the roman catholics did not take the chalice for the blood of christ. the english bishops, he averred, drew their consecration through the bishops in mary tudor's time from the pope. as philip ii., and ferdinand ii. echoing the sentiments of his illustrious uncle, had both sworn they would rather reign in a wilderness than tolerate a single heretic in their dominions, so james had said "he would rather be a hermit in a forest than a king over such people as the pack of puritans were who overruled the lower house." for the netherlanders he had an especial hatred, both as rebels and puritans. soon after coming to the english throne he declared that their revolt, which had been going on all his lifetime and of which he never expected to see the end, had begun by petition for matters of religion. "his mother and he from their cradles," he said, "had been haunted with a puritan devil, which he feared would not leave him to his grave. and he would hazard his crown but he would suppress those malicious spirits." it seemed a strange caprice of destiny that assigned to this hater of netherlanders, of puritans, and of the reformed religion, the decision of disputed points between puritans and anti-puritans in the reformed church of the netherlands. it seemed stranger that his opinions should be hotly on the side of the puritans. barneveld, who often used the expression in later years, as we have seen in his correspondence, was opposed to the dutch puritans because they had more than once attempted subversion of the government on pretext of religion, especially at the memorable epoch of leicester's government. the business of stirring up these religious conspiracies against the magistracy he was apt to call "flanderizing," in allusion to those disastrous days and to the origin of the ringleaders in those tumults. but his main object, as we have seen, was to effect compromises and restore good feeling between members of the one church, reserving the right of disposing over religious matters to the government of the respective provinces. but james had remedied his audacious inconsistency by discovering that puritanism in england and in the netherlands resembled each other no more than certain letters transposed into totally different words meant one and the same thing. the anagrammatic argument had been neatly put by sir dudley carleton, convincing no man. puritanism in england "denied the right of human invention or imposition in religious matters." puritanism in the netherlands denied the right of the legal government to impose its authority in religious matters. this was the great matter of debate in the provinces. in england the argument had been settled very summarily against the puritans by sheriffs' officers, bishops' pursuivants, and county jails. as the political tendencies, so too the religious creed and observances of the english puritans were identical with that of the contra- remonstrants, whom king james had helped to their great triumph. this was not very difficult to prove. it so happened that there were some english puritans living at that moment in leyden. they formed an independent society by themselves, which they called a congregational church, and in which were some three hundred communicants. the length of their residence there was almost exactly coeval with the twelve years' truce. they knew before leaving england that many relics of the roman ceremonial, with which they were dissatisfied, and for the discontinuance of which they had in vain petitioned the crown--the ring, the sign of the cross, white surplices, and the like--besides the whole hierarchical system, had been disused in the reformed churches of france, switzerland, and the united provinces, where the forms of worship in their view had been brought more nearly to the early apostolic model. they admitted for truth the doctrinal articles of the dutch reformed churches. they had not come to the netherlands without cause. at an early period of king james's reign this congregation of seceders from the establishment had been wont to hold meetings at scrooby in nottinghamshire, once a manor of the archbishop of york, but then the residence of one william brewster. this was a gentleman of some fortune, educated at cambridge, a good scholar, who in queen elizabeth's time had been in the service of william davison when secretary of state. he seemed to have been a confidential private secretary of that excellent and unlucky statesman, who found him so discreet and faithful as to deserve employment before all others in matters of trust and secrecy. he was esteemed by davison "rather as a son than a servant," and he repaid his confidence by doing him many faithful offices in the time of his troubles. he had however long since retired from connection with public affairs, living a retired life, devoted to study, meditation, and practical exertion to promote the cause of religion, and in acts of benevolence sometimes beyond his means. the pastor of the scrooby church, one john robinson, a graduate of cambridge, who had been a benefited clergyman in norfolk, was a man of learning, eloquence, and lofty intellect. but what were such good gifts in the possession of rebels, seceders, and puritans? it is needless to say that brewster and robinson were baited, persecuted, watched day and night, some of the congregation often clapped into prison, others into the stocks, deprived of the means of livelihood, outlawed, famished, banned. plainly their country was no place for them. after a few years of such work they resolved to establish themselves in holland, where at least they hoped to find refuge and toleration. but it proved as difficult for them to quit the country as to remain in it. watched and hunted like gangs of coiners, forgers, or other felons attempting to flee from justice, set upon by troopers armed with "bills and guns and other weapons," seized when about to embark, pillaged and stripped by catchpoles, exhibited as a show to grinning country folk, the women and children dealt with like drunken tramps, led before magistrates, committed to jail; mr. brewster and six other of the principal ones being kept in prison and bound over to the assizes; they were only able after attempts lasting through two years' time to effect their escape to amsterdam. after remaining there a year they had removed to leyden, which they thought "a fair and beautiful city, and of a sweet situation." they settled in leyden in the very year in which arminius was buried beneath the pavement of st. peter's church in that town. it was the year too in which the truce was signed. they were a singularly tranquil and brotherly community. their pastor, who was endowed with remarkable gentleness and tact in dealing with his congregation, settled amicably all their occasional disputes. the authorities of the place held them up as a model. to a walloon congregation in which there were many troublesome and litigious members they said: "these english have lived among us ten years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation against any of them, but your quarrels are continual." although many of them were poor, finding it difficult to earn their living in a foreign land among people speaking a strange tongue, and with manners and habits differing from their own, and where they were obliged to learn new trades, having most of them come out of an agricultural population, yet they enjoyed a singular reputation for probity. bakers and butchers and the like willingly gave credit to the poorest of these english, and sought their custom if known to be of the congregation. mr. brewster, who had been reduced almost to poverty by his charities and munificent aid to his struggling brethren, earned his living by giving lessons in english, having first composed a grammar according to the latin model for the use of his pupils. he also set up a printing establishment, publishing many controversial works prohibited in england, a proceeding which roused the wrath of carleton, impelling him to do his best to have him thrown into prison. it was not the first time that this plain, mechanical, devout englishman, now past middle age, had visited the netherlands. more than twenty-five years before he had accompanied william davison on his famous embassy to the states, as private secretary. when the keys of flushing, one of the cautionary towns, were committed to the ambassador, he confided them to the care of brewster, who slept with them under his pillow. the gold chain which davison received as a present from the provincial government on leaving the country was likewise placed in his keeping, with orders to wear it around his neck until they should appear before the queen. to a youth of ease and affluence, familiar with ambassadors and statesmen and not unknown at courts, had succeeded a mature age of obscurity, deep study, and poverty. no human creature would have heard of him had his career ended with his official life. two centuries and a half have passed away and the name of the outlawed puritan of scrooby and leyden is still familiar to millions of the english race. all these englishmen were not poor. many of them occupied houses of fair value, and were admitted to the freedom of the city. the pastor with three of his congregation lived in a comfortable mansion, which they had purchased for the considerable sum of florins, and on the garden of which they subsequently erected twenty-one lesser tenements for the use of the poorer brethren. mr. robinson was himself chosen a member of the famous university and admitted to its privileges. during his long residence in leyden, besides the daily care of his congregation, spiritual and temporal, he wrote many learned works. thus the little community, which grew gradually larger by emigration from england, passed many years of tranquillity. their footsteps were not dogged by constables and pursuivants, they were not dragged daily before the magistrates, they were not thrown into the town jails, they were not hunted from place to place with bows and bills and mounted musketeers. they gave offence to none, and were respected by all. "such was their singleheartedness and sincere affection one towards another," says their historian and magistrate, "that they came as near the primitive pattern of the first churches as any other church of these later times has done, according to their rank and quality." here certainly were english puritans more competent than any men else in the world to judge if it were a slander upon the english government to identify them with dutch puritans. did they sympathize with the party in holland which the king, who had so scourged and trampled upon themselves in england, was so anxious to crush, the hated arminians? did they abhor the contra-remonstrants whom james and his ambassador carleton doted upon and whom barneveld called "double puritans" and "flanderizers?" their pastor may answer for himself and his brethren. "we profess before god and men," said robinson in his apologia, "that we agree so entirely with the reformed dutch churches in the matter of religion as to be ready to subscribe to all and each of their articles exactly as they are set forth in the netherland confession. we acknowledge those reformed churches as true and genuine, we profess and cultivate communion with them as much as in us lies. those of us who understand the dutch language attend public worship under their pastors. we administer the holy supper to such of their members as, known to us, appear at our meetings." this was the position of the puritans. absolute, unqualified accordance with the contra-remonstrants. as the controversy grew hot in the university between the arminians and their adversaries, mr. robinson, in the language of his friend bradford, became "terrible to the arminians . . . . who so greatly molested the whole state and that city in particular." when episcopius, the arminian professor of theology, set forth sundry theses, challenging all the world to the onset, it was thought that "none was fitter to buckle with them" than robinson. the orthodox professor polyander so importuned the english puritan to enter the lists on behalf of the contra-remonstrants that at last he consented and overthrew the challenger, horse and man, in three successive encounters. such at least was the account given by his friend and admirer the historian. "the lord did so help him to defend the truth and foil this adversary as he put him to an apparent nonplus in this great and public audience. and the like he did a second or third time upon such like occasions," said bradford, adding that, if it had not been for fear of offending the english government, the university would have bestowed preferments and honours upon the champion. we are concerned with this ancient and exhausted controversy only for the intense light it threw, when burning, on the history which occupies us. of the extinct volcano itself which once caused such devastation, and in which a great commonwealth was well-nigh swallowed up, little is left but slag and cinders. the past was made black and barren with them. let us disturb them as little as possible. the little english congregation remained at leyden till toward the end of the truce, thriving, orderly, respected, happy. they were witnesses to the tumultuous, disastrous, and tragical events which darkened the republic in those later years, themselves unobserved and unmolested. not a syllable seems to remain on record of the views or emotions which may have been excited by those scenes in their minds, nor is there a trace left on the national records of the netherlands of their protracted residence on the soil. they got their living as best they might by weaving, printing, spinning, and other humble trades; they borrowed money on mortgages, they built houses, they made wills, and such births, deaths, and marriages as occurred among them were registered by the town-clerk. and at last for a variety of reasons they resolved to leave the netherlands. perhaps the solution of the problem between church and state in that country by the temporary subjection of state to church may have encouraged them to realize a more complete theocracy, if a sphere of action could be found where the experiment might be tried without a severe battle against time-hallowed institutions and vested rights. perhaps they were appalled by the excesses into which men of their own religious sentiments had been carried by theological and political passion. at any rate depart they would; the larger half of the congregation remaining behind however till the pioneers should have broken the way, and in their own language "laid the stepping-stones." they had thought of the lands beneath the equator, raleigh having recently excited enthusiasm by his poetical descriptions of guiana. but the tropical scheme was soon abandoned. they had opened negotiations with the stadholder and the states-general through amsterdam merchants in regard to settling in new amsterdam, and offered to colonize that country if assured of the protection of the united provinces. their petition had been rejected. they had then turned their faces to their old master and their own country, applying to the virginia company for a land-patent, which they were only too happy to promise, and to the king for liberty of religion in the wilderness confirmed under his broad seal, which his majesty of course refused. it was hinted however that james would connive at them and not molest them if they carried themselves peaceably. so they resolved to go without the seal, for, said their magistrate very wisely, "if there should be a purpose or desire to wrong them, a seal would not serve their turn though it were as broad as the house-floor." before they left leyden, their pastor preached to them a farewell sermon, which for loftiness of spirit and breadth of vision has hardly a parallel in that age of intolerance. he laid down the principle that criticism of the scriptures had not been exhausted merely because it had been begun; that the human conscience was of too subtle a nature to be imprisoned for ever in formulas however ingeniously devised; that the religious reformation begun a century ago was not completed; and that the creator had not necessarily concluded all his revelations to mankind. the words have long been familiar to students of history, but they can hardly be too often laid to heart. noble words, worthy to have been inscribed over the altar of the first church to be erected by the departing brethren, words to bear fruit after centuries should go by. had not the deeply injured and misunderstood grotius already said, "if the trees we plant do not shade us, they will yet serve for our descendants?" yet it is passing strange that the preacher of that sermon should be the recent champion of the contra-remonstrants in the great controversy; the man who had made himself so terrible to the pupils of the gentle and tolerant arminius. and thus half of that english congregation went down to delftshaven, attended by the other half who were to follow at a later period with their beloved pastor. there was a pathetic leave-taking. even many of the hollanders, mere casual spectators, were in tears. robinson, kneeling on the deck of the little vessel, offered a prayer and a farewell. who could dream that this departure of an almost nameless band of emigrants to the wilderness was an epoch in the world's history? yet these were the pilgrim fathers of new england, the founders of what was to be the mightiest republic of modern history, mighty and stable because it had been founded upon an idea. they were not in search of material comfort and the chances of elevating their condition, by removing from an overpeopled country to an organized commonwealth, offering a wide field for pauper labourers. some of them were of good social rank and highest education, most of them in decent circumstances, none of them in absolute poverty. and a few years later they were to be joined by a far larger company with leaders and many brethren of ancient birth and landed possessions, men of "education, figure; and estate," all ready to convert property into cash and to place it in joint-stock, not as the basis of promising speculation, but as the foundation of a church. it signifies not how much or how little one may sympathize with their dogma or their discipline now. to the fact that the early settlement of that wilderness was by self-sacrificing men of earnestness and faith, who were bent on "advancing the gospel of christ in remote parts of the world," in the midst of savage beasts, more savage men, and unimaginable difficulties and dangers, there can be little doubt that the highest forms of western civilization are due. through their provisional theocracy, the result of the independent church system was to establish the true purport of the reformation, absolute religious equality. civil and political equality followed as a matter of course. two centuries and a half have passed away. there are now some seventy or eighty millions of the english-speaking race on both sides the atlantic, almost equally divided between the united kingdom and the united republic, and the departure of those outcasts of james has interest and significance for them all. most fitly then, as a distinguished american statesman has remarked, does that scene on board the little english vessel, with the english pastor uttering his farewell blessing to a handful of english exiles for conscience sake; depicted on canvas by eminent artists, now adorn the halls of the american congress and of the british parliament. sympathy with one of the many imperishable bonds of union between the two great and scarcely divided peoples. we return to barneveld in his solitary prison. chapter xx. barneveld's imprisonment--ledenberg's examination and death-- remonstrance of de boississe--aerssens admitted to the order of knights--trial of the advocate--barneveld's defence--the states proclaim a public fast--du maurier's speech before the assembly-- barneveld's sentence--barneveld prepares for death--goes to execution. the advocate had been removed within a few days after the arrest from the chamber in maurice's apartments, where he had originally been confined, and was now in another building. it was not a dungeon nor a jail. indeed the commonplace and domestic character of the scenery in which these great events were transacted has in it something pathetic. there was and still remains a two-storied structure, then of modern date, immediately behind the antique hall of the old counts within the binnenhof. on the first floor was a courtroom of considerable extent, the seat of one of the chief tribunals of justice the story above was divided into three chambers with a narrow corridor on each side. the first chamber, on the north-eastern side, was appropriated for the judges when the state prisoners should be tried. in the next hugo grotius was imprisoned. in the third was barneveld. there was a tower at the north-east angle of the building, within which a winding and narrow staircase of stone led up to the corridor and so to the prisoners' apartments. rombout hoogerbeets was confined in another building. as the advocate, bent with age and a life of hard work, and leaning on his staff, entered the room appropriated to him, after toiling up the steep staircase, he observed-- "this is the admiral of arragon's apartment." it was true. eighteen years before, the conqueror of nieuwpoort had assigned this lodging to the chief prisoner of war in that memorable victory over the spaniards, and now maurice's faithful and trusted counsellor at that epoch was placed in durance here, as the result of the less glorious series of victories which had just been achieved. it was a room of moderate dimensions, some twenty-five feet square, with a high vaulted roof and decently furnished. below and around him in the courtyard were the scenes of the advocate's life-long and triumphant public services. there in the opposite building were the windows of the beautiful "hall of truce," with its sumptuous carvings and gildings, its sculptures and portraits, where he had negotiated with the representatives of all the great powers of christendom the famous treaty which had suspended the war of forty years, and where he was wont almost daily to give audience to the envoys of the greatest sovereigns or the least significant states of europe and asia, all of whom had been ever solicitous of his approbation and support. farther along in the same building was the assembly room of the states- general, where some of the most important affairs of the republic and of europe had for years been conducted, and where he had been so indispensable that, in the words of a contemporary who loved him not, "absolutely nothing could be transacted in his absence, all great affairs going through him alone." there were two dull windows, closely barred, looking northward over an irregular assemblage of tile-roofed houses and chimney-stacks, while within a stone's throw to the west, but unseen, was his own elegant mansion on the voorhout, surrounded by flower gardens and shady pleasure grounds, where now sat his aged wife and her children all plunged in deep affliction. he was allowed the attendance of a faithful servant, jan franken by name, and a sentinel stood constantly before his door. his papers had been taken from him, and at first he was deprived of writing materials. he had small connection with the outward world. the news of the municipal revolution which had been effected by the stadholder had not penetrated to his solitude, but his wife was allowed to send him fruit from their garden. one day a basket of fine saffron pears was brought to him. on slicing one with a knife he found a portion of a quill inside it. within the quill was a letter on thinnest paper, in minutest handwriting in latin. it was to this effect. "don't rely upon the states of holland, for the prince of orange has changed the magistracies in many cities. dudley carleton is not your friend." a sergeant of the guard however, before bringing in these pears, had put a couple of them in his pocket to take home to his wife. the letter, copies of which perhaps had been inserted for safety in several of them, was thus discovered and the use of this ingenious device prevented for the future. secretary ledenberg, who had been brought to the hague in the early days of september, was the first of the prisoners subjected to examination. he was much depressed at the beginning of it, and is said to have exclaimed with many sighs, "oh barneveld, barneveld, what have you brought us to!" he confessed that the waartgelders at utrecht had been enlisted on notification by the utrecht deputies in the hague with knowledge of barneveld, and in consequence of a resolution of the states in order to prevent internal tumults. he said that the advocate had advised in the previous month of march a request to the prince not to come to utrecht; that the communication of the message, in regard to disbanding the waartgelders, to his excellency had been postponed after the deputies of the states of holland had proposed a delay in that disbandment; that those deputies had come to utrecht of their own accord; . . . . that they had judged it possible to keep everything in proper order in utrecht if the garrison in the city paid by holland were kept quiet, and if the states of utrecht gave similar orders to the waartgelders; for they did not believe that his excellency would bring in troops from the outside. he said that he knew nothing of a new oath to be demanded of the garrison. he stated that the advocate, when at utrecht, had exhorted the states, according to his wont, to maintain their liberties and privileges, representing to them that the right to decide on the synod and the waartgelders belonged to them. lastly, he denied knowing who was the author of the balance, except by common report. now these statements hardly amounted to a confession of abominable and unpardonable crimes by ledenberg, nor did they establish a charge of high-treason and corrupt correspondence with the enemy against barneveld. it is certain that the extent of the revelations seemed far from satisfactory to the accusers, and that some pressure would be necessary in order to extract anything more conclusive. lieutenant nythof told grotius that ledenberg had accordingly been threatened with torture, and that the executioner had even handled him for that purpose. this was however denied by the judges of instruction who had been charged with the preliminary examination. that examination took place on the th september. after it had been concluded, ledenberg prayed long and earnestly on returning to prison. he then entrusted a paper written in french to his son joost, a boy of eighteen, who did not understand that language. the youth had been allowed to keep his father company in his confinement, and slept in the same room. the next night but one, at two o'clock, joost heard his father utter a deep groan. he was startled, groped in the darkness towards his bed and felt his arm, which was stone cold. he spoke to him and received no answer. he gave the alarm, the watch came in with lights, and it was found that ledenberg had given himself two mortal wounds in the abdomen with a penknife and then cut his throat with a table-knife which he had secreted, some days before, among some papers. the paper in french given to his son was found to be to this effect. "i know that there is an inclination to set an example in my person, to confront me with my best friends, to torture me, afterwards to convict me of contradictions and falsehoods as they say, and then to found an ignominious sentence upon points and trifles, for this it will be necessary to do in order to justify the arrest and imprisonment. to escape all this i am going to god by the shortest road. against a dead man there can be pronounced no sentence of confiscation of property. done th september (o. s.) ." the family of the unhappy gentleman begged his body for decent burial. the request was refused. it was determined to keep the dead secretary above ground and in custody until he could be tried, and, if possible, convicted and punished. it was to be seen whether it were so easy to baffle the power of the states-general, the synod, and the stadholder, and whether "going to god by the shortest road" was to save a culprit's carcass from ignominy, and his property from confiscation. the french ambassadors, who had been unwearied in their endeavour to restore harmony to the distracted commonwealth before the arrest of the prisoners, now exerted themselves to throw the shield of their sovereign's friendship around the illustrious statesman and his fellow- sufferers. "it is with deepest sorrow," said de boississe, "that i have witnessed the late hateful commotions. especially from my heart i grieve for the arrest of the seignior barneveld, who with his discretion and wise administration for the past thirty years has so drawn the hearts of all neighbouring princes to himself, especially that of the king my master, that on taking up my pen to apprize him of these events i am gravely embarrassed, fearing to infringe on the great respect due to your mightinesses or against the honour and merits of the seignior barneveld. . . . my lords, take heed to your situation, for a great discontent is smouldering among your citizens. until now, the union has been the chief source of your strength. and i now fear that the king my master, the adviser of your renowned commonwealth, maybe offended that you have taken this resolution after consulting with others, and without communicating your intention to his ambassador . . . . it is but a few days that an open edict was issued testifying to the fidelity of barneveld, and can it be possible that within so short a time you have discovered that you have been deceived? i summon you once more in the name of the king to lay aside all passion, to judge these affairs without partiality, and to inform me what i am to say to the king. such very conflicting accounts are given of these transactions that i must beg you to confide to me the secret of the affair. the wisest in the land speak so strongly of these proceedings that it will be no wonder if the king my master should give me orders to take the seignior barneveld under his protection. should this prove to be the case, your lordships will excuse my course . . . i beg you earnestly in your wisdom not to give cause of offence to neighbouring princes, especially to my sovereign, who wishes from his heart to maintain your dignity and interests and to assure you of his friendship." the language was vigorous and sincere, but the ambassador forgot that the france of to-day was not the france of yesterday; that louis xiii. was not henry iv.; that it was but a cheerful fiction to call the present king the guide and counsellor of the republic, and that, distraught as she was by the present commotions, her condition was strength and tranquillity compared with the apparently decomposing and helpless state of the once great kingdom of france. de boississe took little by his demonstration. on the th december both de boississe and du maurier came before the states-general once more, and urged a speedy and impartial trial for the illustrious prisoners. if they had committed acts of treason and rebellion, they deserved exemplary punishment, but the ambassadors warned the states-general with great earnestness against the dangerous doctrine of constructive treason, and of confounding acts dictated by violence of party spirit at an excited period with the crime of high-treason against the sovereignty of the state. "barneveld so honourable," they said, "for his immense and long continued services has both this republic and all princes and commonwealths for his witnesses. it is most difficult to believe that he has attempted the destruction of his fatherland, for which you know that he has toiled so faithfully." they admitted that so grave charges ought now to be investigated. "to this end," said the ambassadors, "you ought to give him judges who are neither suspected nor impassioned, and who will decide according to the laws of the land, and on clear and undeniable evidence . . . . so doing you will show to the whole world that you are worthy to possess and to administer this commonwealth to whose government god has called you." should they pursue another and a sterner course, the envoys warned the assembly that the king would be deeply offended, deeming it thus proved how little value they set upon his advice and his friendship. the states-general replied on the th december, assuring the ambassadors that the delay in the trial was in order to make the evidence of the great conspiracy complete, and would not tend to the prejudice of the prisoners "if they had a good consciousness of their innocence." they promised that the sentence upon them when pronounced would give entire satisfaction to all their allies and to the king of france in particular, of whom they spoke throughout the document in terms of profound respect. but they expressed their confidence that "his majesty would not place the importunate and unfounded solicitations of a few particular criminals or their supporters before the general interests of the dignity and security of the republic." on the same day the states-general addressed a letter filled with very elaborate and courteous commonplaces to the king, in which they expressed a certainty that his majesty would be entirely satisfied with their actions. the official answer of the states-general to the ambassadors, just cited, gave but little comfort to the friends of the imprisoned statesman and his companions. such expressions as "ambitious and factious spirits," --"authors and patrons of the faction,"--"attempts at novelty through changes in religion, in justice and in the fundamental laws of all orders of polity," and the frequent mention of the word "conspiracy" boded little good. information of this condition of affairs was conveyed to hoogerbeets and grotius by means of an ingenious device of the distinguished scholar, who was then editing the latin works of the hague poet, janus secundus. while the sheets were going through the press, some of the verses were left out, and their place supplied by others conveying the intelligence which it was desired to send to the prisoners. the pages which contained the secret were stitched together in such wise that in cutting the book open they were not touched but remained closed. the verses were to this effect. "the examination of the advocate proceeds slowly, but there is good hope from the serious indignation of the french king, whose envoys are devoted to the cause of the prisoners, and have been informed that justice will be soon rendered. the states of holland are to assemble on the th january, at which a decision will certainly be taken for appointing judges. the preachers here at leyden are despised, and men are speaking strongly of war. the tumult which lately occurred at rotterdam may bring forth some good." the quick-wited grotius instantly discovered the device, read the intelligence thus communicated in the proofsheets of secundus, and made use of the system to obtain further intelligence. hoogerbeets laid the book aside, not taking much interest at that time in the works of the hague poet. constant efforts made to attract his attention to those poems however excited suspicion among his keepers, and the scheme was discovered before the leyden pensionary had found the means to profit by it.' the allusions to the trial of the advocate referred to the preliminary examination which took place, like the first interrogatories of grotius and hoogerbeets, in the months of november and december. the thorough manner in which maurice had reformed the states of holland has been described. there was one department of that body however which still required attention. the order of knights, small in number but potential in influence, which always voted first on great occasions, was still through a majority of its members inclined to barneveld. both his sons-in-law had seats in that college. the stadholder had long believed in a spirit of hostility on the part of those nobles towards himself. he knew that a short time before this epoch there had been a scheme for introducing his young brother, frederic henry, into the chamber of knights. the count had become proprietor of the barony of naaldwyk, a property which he had purchased of the counts of arenberg, and which carried with it the hereditary dignity of great equerry of the counts of holland. as the counts of holland had ceased to exist, although their sovereignty had nearly been revived and conferred upon william the silent, the office of their chief of the stables might be deemed a sinecure. but the jealousy of maurice was easily awakened, especially by any movement made or favoured by the advocate. he believed that in the election of frederic henry as a member of the college of knights a plan lay concealed to thrust him into power and to push this elder brother from his place. the scheme, if scheme it were, was never accomplished, but the prince's rancour remained. he now informed the nobles that they must receive into their body francis aerssens, who had lately purchased the barony of sommelsdyk, and daniel de hartaing, seignior of marquette. with the presence of this deadly enemy of barneveld and another gentleman equally devoted to the stadholder's interest it seemed probable that the refractory majority of the board of nobles would be overcome. but there were grave objections to the admission of these new candidates. they were not eligible. the constitution of the states and of the college of nobles prescribed that hollanders only of ancient and noble race and possessing estates in the province could sit in that body. neither aerssens nor hartaing was born in holland or possessed of the other needful qualifications. nevertheless, the prince, who had just remodelled all the municipalities throughout the union which offered resistance to his authority, was not to be checked by so trifling an impediment as the statutes of the house of nobles. he employed very much the same arguments which he had used to "good papa" hooft. "this time it must be so." another time it might not be necessary. so after a controversy which ended as controversies are apt to do when one party has a sword in his hand and the other is seated at a green-baize-covered table, sommelsdyk and marquette took their seats among the knights. of course there was a spirited protest. nothing was easier for the stadholder than to concede the principle while trampling it with his boot-heels in practice. "whereas it is not competent for the said two gentlemen to be admitted to our board," said the nobles in brief, "as not being constitutionally eligible, nevertheless, considering the strong desire of his excellency the prince of orange, we, the nobles and knights of holland, admit them with the firm promise to each other by noble and knightly faith ever in future for ourselves and descendants to maintain the privileges of our order now violated and never again to let them be directly or indirectly infringed." and so aerssens, the unscrupulous plotter, and dire foe of the advocate and all his house, burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received from him during many years, and the author of the venomous pamphlets and diatribes which had done so much of late to blacken the character of the great statesman before the public, now associated himself officially with his other enemies, while the preliminary proceedings for the state trials went forward. meantime the synod had met at dordtrecht. the great john bogerman, with fierce, handsome face, beak and eye of a bird of prey, and a deluge of curly brown beard reaching to his waist, took his seat as president. short work was made with the armenians. they and their five points were soon thrust out into outer darkness. it was established beyond all gainsaying that two forms of divine worship in one country were forbidden by god's word, and that thenceforth by netherland law there could be but one religion, namely, the reformed or calvinistic creed. it was settled that one portion of the netherlanders and of the rest of the human race had been expressly created by the deity to be for ever damned, and another portion to be eternally blessed. but this history has little to do with that infallible council save in the political effect of its decrees on the fate of barneveld. it was said that the canons of dordtrecht were likely to shoot off the head of the advocate. their sessions and the trial of the advocate were simultaneous, but not technically related to each other. the conclusions of both courts were preordained, for the issue of the great duel between priesthood and state had been decided when the military chieftain threw his sword into the scale of the church. there had been purposely a delay, before coming to a decision as to the fate of the state prisoners, until the work of the synod should have approached completion. it was thought good that the condemnation of the opinions of the arminians and the chastisement of their leaders should go hand-in-hand. on the rd april , the canons were signed by all the members of the synod. arminians were pronounced heretics, schismatics, teachers of false doctrines. they were declared incapable of filling any clerical or academical post. no man thenceforth was to teach children, lecture to adolescents, or preach to the mature, unless a subscriber to the doctrines of the unchanged, unchangeable, orthodox church. on the th april and st may the netherland confession and the heidelberg catechism were declared to be infallible. no change was to be possible in either formulary. schools and pulpits were inexorably bound to the only true religion. on the th may there was a great festival at dordtrecht in honour of the conclusion of the synod. the canons, the sentence, and long prayers and orations in latin by president bogerman gladdened the souls of an immense multitude, which were further enlivened by the decree that both creed and catechism had stood the test of several criticisms and come out unchanged by a single hair. nor did the orator of the occasion forget to render thanks "to the most magnanimous king james of great britain, through whose godly zeal, fiery sympathy, and truly royal labour god had so often refreshed the weary synod in the midst of their toil." the synod held one hundred and eighty sessions between the th november and th may , all the doings of which have been recorded in chronicles innumerable. there need be no further mention of them here. barneveld and the companions of his fate remained in prison. on the th march the trial of the great advocate began. he had sat in prison since the th of the preceding august. for nearly seven months he had been deprived of all communication with the outward world save such atoms of intelligence as could be secretly conveyed to him in the inside of a quill concealed in a pear and by other devices. the man who had governed one of the most important commonwealths of the world for nearly a generation long--during the same period almost controlling the politics of europe--had now been kept in ignorance of the most insignificant everyday events. during the long summer-heat of the dog- days immediately succeeding his arrest, and the long, foggy, snowy, icy winter of holland which ensued, he had been confined in that dreary garret-room to which he had been brought when he left his temporary imprisonment in the apartments of prince maurice. there was nothing squalid in the chamber, nothing specially cruel or repulsive in the arrangements of his captivity. he was not in fetters, nor fed upon bread and water. he was not put upon the rack, nor even threatened with it as ledenberg had been. he was kept in a mean, commonplace, meagerly furnished, tolerably spacious room, and he was allowed the services of his faithful domestic servant john franken. a sentinel paced day and night up the narrow corridor before his door. as spring advanced, the notes of the nightingale came through the prison- window from the neighbouring thicket. one day john franken, opening the window that his master might the better enjoy its song, exchanged greeting with a fellow-servant in the barneveld mansion who happened to be crossing the courtyard. instantly workmen were sent to close and barricade the windows, and it was only after earnest remonstrances and pledges that this resolve to consign the advocate to darkness was abandoned. he was not permitted the help of lawyer, clerk, or man of business. alone and from his chamber of bondage, suffering from bodily infirmities and from the weakness of advancing age, he was compelled to prepare his defence against a vague, heterogeneous collection of charges, to meet which required constant reference, not only to the statutes, privileges, and customs of the country and to the roman law, but to a thousand minute incidents out of which the history of the provinces during the past dozen years or more had been compounded. it is true that no man could be more familiar with the science and practice of the law than he was, while of contemporary history he was himself the central figure. his biography was the chronicle of his country. nevertheless it was a fearful disadvantage for him day by day to confront two dozen hostile judges comfortably seated at a great table piled with papers, surrounded by clerks with bags full of documents and with a library of authorities and precedents duly marked and dog's-eared and ready to their hands, while his only library and chronicle lay in his brain. from day to day, with frequent intermissions, he was led down through the narrow turret-stairs to a wide chamber on the floor immediately below his prison, where a temporary tribunal had been arranged for the special commission. there had been an inclination at first on the part of his judges to treat him as a criminal, and to require him to answer, standing, to the interrogatories propounded to him. but as the terrible old man advanced into the room, leaning on his staff, and surveying them with the air of haughty command habitual to him, they shrank before his glance; several involuntarily, rising uncovered, to salute him and making way for him to the fireplace about which many were standing that wintry morning. he was thenceforth always accommodated with a seat while he listened to and answered 'ex tempore' the elaborate series of interrogatories which had been prepared to convict him. nearly seven months he had sat with no charges brought against him. this was in itself a gross violation of the laws of the land, for according to all the ancient charters of holland it was provided that accusation should follow within six weeks of arrest, or that the prisoner should go free. but the arrest itself was so gross a violation of law that respect for it was hardly to be expected in the subsequent proceedings. he was a great officer of the states of holland. he had been taken under their especial protection. he was on his way to the high council. he was in no sense a subject of the states-general. he was in the discharge of his official duty. he was doubly and trebly sacred from arrest. the place where he stood was on the territory of holland and in the very sanctuary of her courts and house of assembly. the states-general were only as guests on her soil, and had no domain or jurisdiction there whatever. he was not apprehended by any warrant or form of law. it was in time of peace, and there was no pretence of martial law. the highest civil functionary of holland was invited in the name of its first military officer to a conference, and thus entrapped was forcibly imprisoned. at last a board of twenty-four commissioners was created, twelve from holland and two from each of the other six provinces. this affectation of concession to holland was ridiculous. either the law 'de non evocando'--according to which no citizen of holland could be taken out of the province for trial--was to be respected or it was to be trampled upon. if it was to be trampled upon, it signified little whether more commissioners were to be taken from holland than from each of the other provinces, or fewer, or none at all. moreover it was pretended that a majority of the whole board was to be assigned to that province. but twelve is not a majority of twenty-four. there were three fascals or prosecuting officers, leeuwen of utrecht, sylla of gelderland, and antony duyck of holland. duyck was notoriously the deadly enemy of barneveld, and was destined to succeed to his offices. it would have been as well to select francis aerssens himself. it was necessary to appoint a commission because there was no tribunal appertaining to the states-general. the general government of the confederacy had no power to deal with an individual. it could only negotiate with the sovereign province to which the individual was responsible, and demand his punishment if proved guilty of an offence. there was no supreme court of appeal. machinery was provided for settling or attempting to settle disputes among the members of the confederacy, and if there was a culprit in this great process it was holland itself. neither the advocate nor any one of his associates had done any act except by authority, express or implied, of that sovereign state. supposing them unquestionably guilty of blackest crimes against the generality, the dilemma was there which must always exist by the very nature of things in a confederacy. no sovereign can try a fellow sovereign. the subject can be tried at home by no sovereign but his own. the accused in this case were amenable to the laws of holland only. it was a packed tribunal. several of the commissioners, like pauw and muis for example, were personal enemies of barneveld. many of them were totally ignorant of law. some of them knew not a word of any language but their mother tongue, although much of the law which they were to administer was written in latin. before such a court the foremost citizen of the netherlands, the first living statesman of europe, was brought day by day during a period of nearly three months; coming down stairs from the mean and desolate room where he was confined to the comfortable apartment below, which had been fitted up for the commission. there was no bill of indictment, no arraignment, no counsel. there were no witnesses and no arguments. the court-room contained, as it were, only a prejudiced and partial jury to pronounce both on law and fact without a judge to direct them, or advocates to sift testimony and contend for or against the prisoner's guilt. the process, for it could not be called a trial, consisted of a vast series of rambling and tangled interrogatories reaching over a space of forty years without apparent connection or relevancy, skipping fantastically about from one period to another, back and forthwith apparently no other intent than to puzzle the prisoner, throw him off his balance, and lead him into self- contradiction. the spectacle was not a refreshing one. it was the attempt of a multitude of pigmies to overthrow and bind the giant. barneveld was served with no articles of impeachment. he asked for a list in writing of the charges against him, that he might ponder his answer. the demand was refused. he was forbidden the use of pen and ink or any writing materials. his papers and books were all taken from him. he was allowed to consult neither with an advocate nor even with a single friend. alone in his chamber of bondage he was to meditate on his defence. out of his memory and brain, and from these alone, he was to supply himself with the array of historical facts stretching over a longer period than the lifetime of many of his judges, and with the proper legal and historical arguments upon those facts for the justification of his course. that memory and brain were capacious and powerful enough for the task. it was well for the judges that they had bound themselves, at the outset, by an oath never to make known what passed in the courtroom, but to bury all the proceedings in profound secrecy forever. had it been otherwise, had that been known to the contemporary public which has only been revealed more than two centuries later, had a portion only of the calm and austere eloquence been heard in which the advocate set forth his defence, had the frivolous and ignoble nature of the attack been comprehended, it might have moved the very stones in the streets to mutiny. hateful as the statesman had been made by an organized system of calumny, which was continued with unabated vigour and increased venom sine he had been imprisoned, there was enough of justice and of gratitude left in the hearts of netherlanders to resent the tyranny practised against their greatest man, and the obloquy thus brought against a nation always devoted to their liberties and laws. that the political system of the country was miserably defective was no fault of barneveld. he was bound by oath and duty to administer, not make the laws. a handful of petty feudal sovereignties such as had once covered the soil of europe, a multitude of thriving cities which had wrested or purchased a mass of liberties, customs, and laws from their little tyrants, all subjected afterwards, without being blended together, to a single foreign family, had at last one by one, or two by two, shaken off that supremacy, and, resuming their ancient and as it were decapitated individualities, had bound themselves by treaty in the midst of a war to stand by each other, as if they were but one province, for purposes of common defence against the common foe. there had been no pretence of laying down a constitution, of enacting an organic law. the day had not come for even the conception of a popular constitution. the people had not been invented. it was not provinces only, but cities, that had contracted with each other, according to the very first words of the first article of union. some of these cities, like ghent, bruges, antwerp, were catholic by overwhelming majority, and had subsequently either fallen away from the confederacy or been conquered. and as if to make assurance doubly sure, the articles of union not only reserved to each province all powers not absolutely essential for carrying on the war in common, but by an express article (the th), declared that holland and zealand should regulate the matter of religion according to their own discretion, while the other provinces might conform to the provisions of the "religious peace" which included mutual protection for catholics and protestants--or take such other order as seemed most conducive to the religious and secular rights of the inhabitants. it was stipulated that no province should interfere with another in such matters, and that every individual in them all should remain free in his religion, no man being molested or examined on account of his creed. a farther declaration in regard to this famous article was made to the effect that no provinces or cities which held to the roman catholic religion were to be excluded from the league of union if they were ready to conform to its conditions and comport themselves patriotically. language could not be devised to declare more plainly than was done by this treaty that the central government of the league had neither wish nor right to concern itself with the religious affairs of the separate cities or provinces. if it permitted both papists and protestants to associate themselves against the common foe, it could hardly have been imagined, when the articles were drawn, that it would have claimed the exclusive right to define the minutest points in a single protestant creed. and if the exclusively secular parts of the polity prevailing in the country were clumsy, irregular, and even monstrous, and if its defects had been flagrantly demonstrated by recent events, a more reasonable method of reforming the laws might have been found than the imprisonment of a man who had faithfully administered them forty years long. a great commonwealth had grown out of a petty feudal organism, like an oak from an acorn in a crevice, gnarled and distorted, though wide- spreading and vigorous. it seemed perilous to deal radically with such a polity, and an almost timid conservatism on the part of its guardians in such an age of tempests might be pardonable. moreover, as before remarked, the apparent imbecility resulting from confederacy and municipalism combined was for a season remedied by the actual preponderance of holland. two-thirds of the total wealth and strength of the seven republics being concentrated in one province, the desired union seemed almost gained by the practical solution of all in that single republic. but this was one great cause of the general disaster. it would be a thankless and tedious task to wander through the wilderness of interrogatories and answers extending over three months of time, which stood in the place of a trial. the defence of barneveld was his own history, and that i have attempted to give in the preceding pages. a great part of the accusation was deduced from his private and official correspondence, and it is for this reason that i have laid such copious extracts from it before the reader. no man except the judges and the states-general had access to those letters, and it was easy therefore, if needful, to give them a false colouring. it is only very recently that they have been seen at all, and they have never been published from that day to this. out of the confused mass of documents appertaining to the trial, a few generalizations can be made which show the nature of the attack upon him. he was accused of having permitted arminius to infuse new opinions into the university of leyden, and of having subsequently defended the appointment of vorstius to the same place. he had opposed the national synod. he had made drafts of letters for the king of great britain to sign, recommending mutual toleration on the five disputed points regarding predestination. he was the author of the famous sharp resolution. he had recommended the enlistment by the provinces and towns of waartgelders or mercenaries. he had maintained that those mercenaries as well as the regular troops were bound in time of peace to be obedient and faithful, not only to the generality and the stadholders, but to the magistrates of the cities and provinces where they were employed, and to the states by whom they were paid. he had sent to leyden, warning the authorities of the approach of the prince. he had encouraged all the proceedings at utrecht, writing a letter to the secretary of that province advising a watch to be kept at the city gates as well as in the river, and ordering his letter when read to be burned. he had received presents from foreign potentates. he had attempted to damage the character of his excellency the prince by declaring on various occasions that he aspired to the sovereignty of the country. he had held a ciphered correspondence on the subject with foreign ministers of the republic. he had given great offence to the king of great britain by soliciting from him other letters in the sense of those which his majesty had written in , advising moderation and mutual toleration. he had not brought to condign punishment the author of 'the balance', a pamphlet in which an oration of the english ambassador had been criticised, and aspersions made on the order of the garter. he had opposed the formation of the west india company. he had said many years before to nicolas van berk that the provinces had better return to the dominion of spain. and in general, all his proceedings had tended to put the provinces into a "blood bath." there was however no accusation that he had received bribes from the enemy or held traitorous communication with him, or that he had committed any act of high-treason. his private letters to caron and to the ambassadors in paris, with which the reader has been made familiar, had thus been ransacked to find treasonable matter, but the result was meagre in spite of the minute and microscopic analysis instituted to detect traces of poison in them. but the most subtle and far-reaching research into past transactions was due to the greffier cornelis aerssens, father of the ambassador francis, and to a certain nicolas van berk, burgomaster of utrecht. the process of tale-bearing, hearsay evidence, gossip, and invention went back a dozen years, even to the preliminary and secret conferences in regard to the treaty of truce. readers familiar with the history of those memorable negotiations are aware that cornelis van aerssens had compromised himself by accepting a valuable diamond and a bill of exchange drawn by marquis spinola on a merchant in amsterdam, henry beekman by name, for , ducats. these were handed by father neyen, the secret agent of the spanish government, to the greffier as a prospective reward for his services in furthering the truce. he did not reject them, but he informed prince maurice and the advocate of the transaction. both diamond and bill of exchange were subsequently deposited in the hands of the treasurer of the states- general, joris de bie, the assembly being made officially acquainted with the whole course of the affair. it is passing strange that this somewhat tortuous business, which certainly cast a shade upon the fair fame of the elder aerssens, and required him to publish as good a defence as he could against the consequent scandal, should have furnished a weapon wherewith to strike at the advocate of holland some dozen years later. but so it was. krauwels, a relative of aerssens, through whom father neyen had first obtained access to the greffier, had stated, so it seemed, that the monk had, in addition to the bill, handed to him another draft of spinola's for , ducats, to be given to a person of more consideration than aerssens. krauwels did not know who the person was, nor whether he took the money. he expressed his surprise however that leading persons in the government "even old and authentic beggars"-- should allow themselves to be so seduced as to accept presents from the enemy. he mentioned two such persons, namely, a burgomaster at delft and a burgomaster at haarlem. aerssens now deposed that he had informed the advocate of this story, who had said, "be quiet about it, i will have it investigated," and some days afterwards on being questioned stated that he had made enquiry and found there was something in it. so the fact that cornelis aerssens had taken bribes, and that two burgomasters were strongly suspected by aerssens of having taken bribes, seems to have been considered as evidence that barneveld had taken a bribe. it is true that aerssens by advice of maurice and barneveld had made a clean breast of it to the states-general and had given them over the presents. but the states-general could neither wear the diamond nor cash the bill of exchange, and it would have been better for the greffier not to contaminate his fingers with them, but to leave the gifts in the monk's palm. his revenge against the advocate for helping him out of his dilemma, and for subsequently advancing his son francis in a brilliant diplomatic career, seems to have been--when the clouds were thickening and every man's hand was against the fallen statesman--to insinuate that he was the anonymous personage who had accepted the apocryphal draft for , ducats. the case is a pregnant example of the proceedings employed to destroy the advocate. the testimony of nicolas van berk was at any rate more direct. on the st december the burgomaster testified that the advocate had once declared to him that the differences in regard to divine worship were not so great but that they might be easily composed; asking him at the same time "whether it would not be better that we should submit ourselves again to the king of spain." barneveld had also referred, so said van berk, to the conduct of the spanish king towards those who had helped him to the kingdom of portugal. the burgomaster was unable however to specify the date, year, or month in which the advocate had held this language. he remembered only that the conversation occurred when barneveld was living on the spui at the hague, and that having been let into the house through the hall on the side of the vestibule, he had been conducted by the advocate down a small staircase into the office. the only fact proved by the details seems to be that the story had lodged in the tenacious memory of the burgomaster for eight years, as barneveld had removed from the spui to arenberg house in the voorhout in the year . no other offers from the king of spain or the archdukes had ever been made to him, said van berk, than those indicated in this deposition against the advocate as coming from that statesman. nor had barneveld ever spoken to him upon such subjects except on that one occasion. it is not necessary and would be wearisome to follow the unfortunate statesman through the long line of defence which he was obliged to make, in fragmentary and irregular form, against these discursive and confused assaults upon him. a continuous argument might be built up with the isolated parts which should be altogether impregnable. it is superfluous. always instructive to his judges as he swept at will through the record of nearly half a century of momentous european history, in which he was himself a conspicuous figure, or expounding the ancient laws and customs of the country with a wealth and accuracy of illustration which testified to the strength of his memory, he seemed rather like a sage expounding law and history to a class of pupils than a criminal defending himself before a bench of commissioners. moved occasionally from his austere simplicity, the majestic old man rose to a strain of indignant eloquence which might have shaken the hall of a vast assembly and found echo in the hearts of a thousand hearers as he denounced their petty insults or ignoble insinuations; glaring like a caged lion at his tormentors, who had often shrunk before him when free, and now attempted to drown his voice by contradictions, interruptions, threats, and unmeaning howls. he protested, from the outset and throughout the proceedings, against the jurisdiction of the tribunal. the treaty of union on which the assembly and states-general were founded gave that assembly no power over him. they could take no legal cognizance of his person or his acts. he had been deprived of writing materials, or he would have already drawn up his solemn protest and argument against the existence of the commission. he demanded that they should be provided for him, together with a clerk to engross his defence. it is needless to say that the demand was refused. it was notorious to all men, he said, that on the day when violent hands were laid upon him he was not bound to the states-general by oath, allegiance, or commission. he was a well-known inhabitant of the hague, a householder there, a vassal of the commonwealth of holland, enfeoffed of many notable estates in that country, serving many honourable offices by commission from its government. by birth, promotion, and conferred dignities he was subject to the supreme authority of holland, which for forty years had been a free state possessed of all the attributes of sovereignty, political, religious, judicial, and recognizing no superior save god almighty alone. he was amenable to no tribunal save that of their mightinesses the states of holland and their ordinary judges. not only those states but the prince of orange as their governor and vassal, the nobles of holland, the colleges of justice, the regents of cities, and all other vassals, magistrates, and officers were by their respective oaths bound to maintain and protect him in these his rights. after fortifying this position by legal argument and by an array of historical facts within his own experience, and alluding to the repeated instances in which, sorely against his will, he had been solicited and almost compelled to remain in offices of which he was weary, he referred with dignity to the record of his past life. from the youthful days when he had served as a volunteer at his own expense in the perilous sieges of haarlem and leyden down to the time of his arrest, through an unbroken course of honourable and most arduous political services, embassies, and great negotiations, he had ever maintained the laws and liberties of the fatherland and his own honour unstained. that he should now in his seventy-second year be dragged, in violation of every privilege and statute of the country, by extraordinary means, before unknown judges, was a grave matter not for himself alone but for their mightinesses the states of holland and for the other provinces. the precious right 'de non evocando' had ever been dear to all the provinces, cities, and inhabitants of the netherlands. it was the most vital privilege in their possession as well in civil as criminal, in secular as in ecclesiastical affairs. when the king of spain in , and afterwards, set up an extraordinary tribunal and a course of extraordinary trials, it was an undeniable fact, he said, that on the solemn complaint of the states all princes, nobles, and citizens not only in the netherlands but in foreign countries, and all foreign kings and sovereigns, held those outrages to be the foremost and fundamental reason for taking up arms against that king, and declaring him to have forfeited his right of sovereignty. yet that monarch was unquestionably the born and accepted sovereign of each one of the provinces, while the general assembly was but a gathering of confederates and allies, in no sense sovereign. it was an unimaginable thing, he said, that the states of each province should allow their whole authority and right of sovereignty to be transferred to a board of commissioners like this before which he stood. if, for example, a general union of france, england, and the states of the united netherlands should be formed (and the very words of the act of union contemplated such possibility), what greater absurdity could there be than to suppose that a college of administration created for the specific purposes of such union would be competent to perform acts of sovereignty within each of those countries in matters of justice, polity, and religion? it was known to mankind, he said, that when negotiations were entered into for bestowing the sovereignty of the provinces on france and on england, special and full powers were required from, and furnished by, the states of each individual province. had the sovereignty been in the assembly of the states-general, they might have transferred it of their own motion or kept it for themselves. even in the ordinary course of affairs the commissioners from each province to the general assembly always required a special power from their constituents before deciding any matter of great importance. in regard to the defence of the respective provinces and cities, he had never heard it doubted, he said, that the states or the magistrates of cities had full right to provide for it by arming a portion of their own inhabitants or by enlisting paid troops. the sovereign counts of holland and bishops of utrecht certainly possessed and exercised that right for many hundred years, and by necessary tradition it passed to the states succeeding to their ancient sovereignty. he then gave from the stores of his memory innumerable instances in which soldiers had been enlisted by provinces and cities all over the netherlands from the time of the abjuration of spain down to that moment. through the whole period of independence in the time of anjou, matthias, leicester, as well as under the actual government, it had been the invariable custom thus to provide both by land and sea and on the rivers against robbers, rebels, pirates, mischief-makers, assailing thieves, domestic or foreign. it had been done by the immortal william the silent on many memorable occasions, and in fact the custom was so notorious that soldiers so enlisted were known by different and peculiar nicknames in the different provinces and towns. that the central government had no right to meddle with religious matters was almost too self-evident an axiom to prove. indeed the chief difficulty under which the advocate laboured throughout this whole process was the monstrous assumption by his judges of a political and judicial system which never had any existence even in imagination. the profound secrecy which enwrapped the proceedings from that day almost to our own and an ignorant acquiescence of a considerable portion of the public in accomplished facts offer the only explanation of a mystery which must ever excite our wonder. if there were any impeachment at all, it was an impeachment of the form of government itself. if language could mean anything whatever, a mere perusal of the articles of union proved that the prisoner had never violated that fundamental pact. how could the general government prescribe an especial formulary for the reformed church, and declare opposition to its decrees treasonable, when it did not prohibit, but absolutely admitted and invited, provinces and cities exclusively catholic to enter the union, guaranteeing to them entire liberty of religion? barneveld recalled the fact that when the stadholdership of utrecht thirty years before had been conferred on prince maurice the states of that province had solemnly reserved for themselves the disposition over religious matters in conformity with the union, and that maurice had sworn to support that resolution. five years later the prince had himself assured a deputation from brabant that the states of each province were supreme in religious matters, no interference the one with the other being justifiable or possible. in the states general in letters addressed to the states of the obedient provinces under dominion of the archdukes had invited them to take up arms to help drive the spaniards from the provinces and to join the confederacy, assuring them that they should regulate the matter of religion at their good pleasure, and that no one else should be allowed to interfere therewith. the advocate then went into an historical and critical disquisition, into which we certainly have no need to follow him, rapidly examining the whole subject of predestination and conditional and unconditional damnation from the days of st. augustine downward, showing a thorough familiarity with a subject of theology which then made up so much of the daily business of life, political and private, and lay at the bottom of the terrible convulsion then existing in the netherlands. we turn from it with a shudder, reminding the reader only how persistently the statesman then on his trial had advocated conciliation, moderation, and kindness between brethren of the reformed church who were not able to think alike on one of the subtlest and most mysterious problems that casuistry has ever propounded. for fifty years, he said, he had been an enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience. he had always opposed rigorous ecclesiastical decrees. he had done his best to further, and did not deny having inspired, the advice given in the famous letters from the king of great britain to the states in , that there should be mutual toleration and abstinence from discussion of disputed doctrines, neither of them essential to salvation. he thought that neither calvin nor beza would have opposed freedom of opinion on those points. for himself he believed that the salvation of mankind would be through god's unmerited grace and the redemption of sins though the saviour, and that the man who so held and persevered to the end was predestined to eternal happiness, and that his children dying before the age of reason were destined not to hell but to heaven. he had thought fifty years long that the passion and sacrifice of christ the saviour were more potent to salvation than god's wrath and the sin of adam and eve to damnation. he had done his best practically to avert personal bickerings among the clergy. he had been, so far as lay in his power, as friendly to remonstrants as to contra-remonstrants, to polyander and festus hommius as to uytenbogaert and episcopius. he had almost finished a negotiation with councillor kromhout for the peaceable delivery of the cloister church on the thursday preceding the sunday on which it had been forcibly seized by the contra-remonstrants. when asked by one of his judges how he presumed to hope for toleration between two parties, each of which abhorred the other's opinions, and likened each other to turks and devil-worshippers, he replied that he had always detested and rebuked those mutual revilings by every means in his power, and would have wished to put down such calumniators of either persuasion by the civil authority, but the iniquity of the times and the exasperation of men's humours had prevented him. being perpetually goaded by one judge after another as to his disrespectful conduct towards the king of great britain, and asked why his majesty had not as good right to give the advice of as the recommendation of tolerance in , he scrupulously abstained, as he had done in all his letters, from saying a disrespectful word as to the glaring inconsistency between the two communications, or to the hostility manifested towards himself personally by the british ambassador. he had always expressed the hope, he said, that the king would adhere to his original position, but did not dispute his right to change his mind, nor the good faith which had inspired his later letters. it had been his object, if possible, to reconcile the two different systems recommended by his majesty into one harmonious whole. his whole aim had been to preserve the public peace as it was the duty of every magistrate, especially in times of such excitement, to do. he could never comprehend why the toleration of the five points should be a danger to the reformed religion. rather, he thought, it would strengthen the church and attract many lutherans, baptists, catholics, and other good patriots into its pale. he had always opposed the compulsory acceptance by the people of the special opinions of scribes and doctors. he did not consider, he said, the difference in doctrine on this disputed point between the contra-remonstrants and remonstrants as one-tenth the value of the civil authority and its right to make laws and ordinances regulating ecclesiastical affairs. he believed the great bulwark of the independence of the country to be the reformed church, and his efforts had ever been to strengthen that bulwark by preventing the unnecessary schism which might prove its ruin. many questions of property, too, were involved in the question--the church buildings, lands and pastures belonging to the counts of holland and their successors--the states having always exercised the right of church patronage--'jus patronatus'--a privilege which, as well as inherited or purchased advowsons, had been of late flagrantly interfered with. he was asked if he had not said that it had never been the intention of the states-general to carry on the war for this or that religion. he replied that he had told certain clergymen expressing to him their opinion that the war had been waged solely for the furtherance of their especial shade of belief, that in his view the war had been undertaken for the conservation of the liberties and laws of the land, and of its good people. of that freedom the first and foremost point was the true christian religion and liberty of conscience and opinion. there must be religion in the republic, he had said, but that the war was carried on to sustain the opinion of one doctor of divinity or another on--differential points was something he had never heard of and could never believe. the good citizens of the country had as much right to hold by melancthon as by calvin or beza. he knew that the first proclamations in regard to the war declared it to be undertaken for freedom of conscience, and so to his, own knowledge it had been always carried on. he was asked if he had not promised during the truce negotiations so to direct matters that the catholics with time might obtain public exercise of their religion. he replied that this was a notorious falsehood and calumny, adding that it ill accorded with the proclamation against the jesuits drawn up by himself some years after the truce. he furthermore stated that it was chiefly by his direction that the discourse of president jeannin--urging on part of the french king that liberty of worship might be granted to the papists--was kept secret, copies of it not having been furnished even to the commissioners of the provinces. his indignant denial of this charge, especially taken in connection with his repeated assertions during the trial, that among the most patriotic netherlanders during and since the war were many adherents of the ancient church, seems marvellously in contradiction with his frequent and most earnest pleas for liberty of conscience. but it did not appear contradictory even to his judges nor to any contemporary. his position had always been that the civil authority of each province was supreme in all matters political or ecclesiastical. the states-general, all the provinces uniting in the vote, had invited the catholic provinces on more than one occasion to join the union, promising that there should be no interference on the part of any states or individuals with the internal affairs religious or otherwise of the provinces accepting the invitation. but it would have been a gross contradiction of his own principle if he had promised so to direct matters that the catholics should have public right of worship in holland where he knew that the civil authority was sure to refuse it, or in any of the other six provinces in whose internal affairs he had no voice whatever. he was opposed to all tyranny over conscience, he would have done his utmost to prevent inquisition into opinion, violation of domicile, interference with private worship, compulsory attendance in protestant churches of those professing the roman creed. this was not attempted. no catholic was persecuted on account of his religion. compared with the practice in other countries this was a great step in advance. religious tolerance lay on the road to religious equality, a condition which had hardly been imagined then and scarcely exists in europe even to this day. but among the men in history whose life and death contributed to the advancement of that blessing, it would be vain to deny that barneveld occupies a foremost place. moreover, it should be remembered that religious equality then would have been a most hazardous experiment. so long as church and state were blended, it was absolutely essential at that epoch for the preservation of protestantism to assign the predominance to the state. should the catholics have obtained religious equality, the probable result would before long have been religious inequality, supremacy of the catholics in the church, and supremacy of the church over the state. the fruits of the forty years' war would have become dust and ashes. it would be mere weak sentimentalism to doubt--after the bloody history which had just closed and the awful tragedy, then reopening--that every spark of religious liberty would have soon been trodden out in the netherlands. the general onslaught of the league with ferdinand, maximilian of bavaria, and philip of spain at its head against the distracted, irresolute, and wavering line of protestantism across the whole of europe was just preparing. rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic, was the war-cry of the emperor. the king of spain, as we have just been reading in his most secret, ciphered despatches to the archduke at brussels, was nursing sanguine hopes and weaving elaborate schemes for recovering his dominion over the united netherlands, and proposing to send an army of jesuits thither to break the way to the reconquest. to play into his hands then, by granting public right of worship to the papists, would have been in barneveld's opinion like giving up julich and other citadels in the debatable land to spain just as the great war between catholicism and protestantism was breaking out. there had been enough of burning and burying alive in the netherlands during the century which had closed. it was not desirable to give a chance for their renewal now. in regard to the synod, barneveld justified his course by a simple reference to the th article of the union. words could not more plainly prohibit the interference by the states-general with the religious affairs of any one of the provinces than had been done by that celebrated clause. in there had been an attempt made to amend that article by insertion of a pledge to maintain the evangelical, reformed, religion solely, but it was never carried out. he disdained to argue so self- evident a truth, that a confederacy which had admitted and constantly invited catholic states to membership, under solemn pledge of noninterference with their religious affairs, had no right to lay down formulas for the reformed church throughout all the netherlands. the oath of stadholder and magistrates in holland to maintain the reformed religion was framed before this unhappy controversy on predestination had begun, and it was mere arrogant assumption on the part of the contra- remonstrants to claim a monopoly of that religion, and to exclude the remonstrants from its folds. he had steadily done his utmost to assuage those dissensions while maintaining the laws which he was sworn to support. he had advocated a provincial synod to be amicably assisted by divines from neighbouring countries. he had opposed a national synod unless unanimously voted by the seven provinces, because it would have been an open violation of the fundamental law of the confederacy, of its whole spirit, and of liberty of conscience. he admitted that he had himself drawn up a protest on the part of three provinces (holland, utrecht, and overyssel) against the decree for the national synod as a breach of the union, declaring it to be therefore null and void and binding upon no man. he had dictated the protest as oldest member present, while grotius as the youngest had acted as scribe. he would have supported the synod if legally voted, but would have preferred the convocation, under the authority of all the provinces, of a general, not a national, synod, in which, besides clergy and laymen from the netherlands, deputations from all protestant states and churches should take part; a kind of protestant oecumenical council. as to the enlistment, by the states of a province, of soldiers to keep the peace and suppress tumults in its cities during times of political and religious excitement, it was the most ordinary of occurrences. in his experience of more than forty years he had never heard the right even questioned. it was pure ignorance of law and history to find it a novelty. to hire temporarily a sufficient number of professional soldiers, he considered a more wholesome means of keeping the peace than to enlist one portion of the citizens of a town against another portion, when party and religious spirit was running high. his experience had taught him that the mutual hatred of the inhabitants, thus inflamed, became more lasting and mischievous than the resentment caused through suppression of disorder by an armed and paid police of strangers. it was not only the right but the most solemn duty of the civil authority to preserve the tranquillity, property, and lives of citizens committed to their care. "i have said these fifty years," said barneveld, "that it is better to be governed by magistrates than mobs. i have always maintained and still maintain that the most disastrous, shameful, and ruinous condition into which this land can fall is that in which the magistrates are overcome by the rabble of the towns and receive laws from them. nothing but perdition can follow from that." there had been good reason to believe that the french garrisons as well as some of the train bands could not be thoroughly relied upon in emergencies like those constantly breaking out, and there had been advices of invasion by sympathizers from neighbouring countries. in many great cities the civil authority had been trampled upon and mob rule had prevailed. certainly the recent example in the great commercial capital of the country--where the house of a foremost citizen had been besieged, stormed, and sacked, and a virtuous matron of the higher class hunted like a wild beast through the streets by a rabble grossly ignorant of the very nature of the religious quibble which had driven them mad, pelted with stones, branded with vilest names, and only saved by accident from assassination, while a church-going multitude looked calmly on--with constantly recurring instances in other important cities were sufficient reasons for the authorities to be watchful. he denied that he had initiated the proceedings at utrecht in conversation with ledenberg or any one else, but he had not refused, he said, his approval of the perfectly legal measures adopted for keeping the peace there when submitted to him. he was himself a born citizen of that province, and therefore especially interested in its welfare, and there was an old and intimate friendship between utrecht and holland. it would have been painful to him to see that splendid city in the control of an ignorant mob, making use of religious problems, which they did not comprehend, to plunder the property and take the lives of peaceful citizens more comfortably housed than themselves. he had neither suggested nor controlled the proceedings at utrecht. on the contrary, at an interview with the prince and count william on the th july, and in the presence of nearly thirty members of the general assembly, he had submitted a plan for cashiering the enlisted soldiery and substituting for them other troops, native-born, who should be sworn in the usual form to obey the laws of the union. the deputation from holland to utrecht, according to his personal knowledge, had received no instructions personal or oral to authorize active steps by the troops of the holland quota, but to abstain from them and to request the prince that they should not be used against the will and commands of the states of utrecht, whom they were bound by oath to obey so long as they were in garrison there. no man knew better than he whether the military oath which was called new-fangled were a novelty or not, for he had himself, he said, drawn it up thirty years before at command of the states-general by whom it was then ordained. from that day to this he had never heard a pretence that it justified anything not expressly sanctioned by the articles of union, and neither the states of holland nor those of utrecht had made any change in the oath. the states of utrecht were sovereign within their own territory, and in the time of peace neither the prince of orange without their order nor the states-general had the right to command the troops in their territory. the governor of a province was sworn to obey the laws of the province and conform to the articles of the general union. he was asked why he wrote the warning letter to ledenberg, and why he was so anxious that the letter should be burned; as if that were a deadly offence. he said that he could not comprehend why it should be imputed to him as a crime that he wished in such turbulent times to warn so important a city as utrecht, the capital of his native province, against tumults, disorders, and sudden assaults such as had often happened to her in times past. as for the postscript requesting that the letter might be put in the fire, he said that not being a member of, the government of that province he was simply unwilling to leave a record that "he had been too curious in aliens republics, although that could hardly be considered a grave offence." in regard to the charge that he had accused prince maurice of aspiring to the sovereignty of the country, he had much to say. he had never brought such accusation in public or private. he had reason to believe however-- he had indeed convincing proofs--that many people, especially those belonging to the contra-remonstrant party, cherished such schemes. he had never sought to cast suspicion on the prince himself on account of those schemes. on the contrary, he had not even formally opposed them. what he wished had always been that such projects should be discussed formally, legally, and above board. after the lamentable murder of the late prince he had himself recommended to the authorities of some of the cities that the transaction for bestowing the sovereignty of holland upon william, interrupted by his death, "should be completed in favour of prince maurice in despite of the spaniard." recently he had requested grotius to look up the documents deposited in rotterdam belonging to this affair, in order that they might be consulted. he was asked whether according to buzenval, the former french ambassador, prince maurice had not declared he would rather fling himself from the top of the hague tower than accept the sovereignty. barneveld replied that the prince according to the same authority had added "under the conditions which had been imposed upon his father;" a clause which considerably modified the self-denying statement. it was desirable therefore to search the acts for the limitations annexed to the sovereignty. three years long there had been indications from various sources that a party wished to change the form of government. he had not heard nor ever intimated that the prince suggested such intrigues. in anonymous pamphlets and common street and tavern conversations the contra- remonstrants were described by those of their own persuasion as "prince's beggars" and the like. he had received from foreign countries information worthy of attention, that it was the design of the contra- remonstrants to raise the prince to the sovereignty. he had therefore in brought the matter before the nobles and cities in a communication setting forth to the best of his recollection that under these religious disputes something else was intended. he had desired ripe conclusions on the matter, such as should most conduce to the service of the country. this had been in good faith both to the prince and the provinces, in order that, should a change in the government be thought desirable, proper and peaceful means might be employed to bring it about. he had never had any other intention than to sound the inclinations of those with whom he spoke, and he had many times since that period, by word of mouth and in writing, so lately as the month of april last assured the prince that he had ever been his sincere and faithful servant and meant to remain so to the end of his life, desiring therefore that he would explain to him his wishes and intentions. subsequently he had publicly proposed in full assembly of holland that the states should ripely deliberate and roundly declare if they were discontented with the form of government, and if so, what change they would desire. he had assured their mightinesses that they might rely upon him to assist in carrying out their intentions whatever they might be. he had inferred however from the prince's intimations, when he had broached the subject to him in , that he was not inclined towards these supposed projects, and had heard that opinion distinctly expressed from the mouth of count william. that the contra-remonstrants secretly entertained these schemes, he had been advised from many quarters, at home and abroad. in the year he had received information to that effect from france. certain confidential counsellors of the prince had been with him recently to confer on the subject. he had told them that, if his excellency chose to speak to him in regard to it, would listen to his reasoning about it, both as regarded the interests of the country and the prince himself, and then should desire him to propose and advocate it before the assembly, he would do so with earnestness, zeal, and affection. he had desired however that, in case the attempt failed, the prince would allow him to be relieved from service and to leave the country. what he wished from the bottom of his heart was that his excellency would plainly discover to him the exact nature of his sentiments in regard to the business. he fully admitted receiving a secret letter from ambassador langerac, apprising him that a man of quality in france had information of the intention of the contra-remonstrants throughout the provinces, should they come into power, to raise prince maurice to the sovereignty. he had communicated on the subject with grotius and other deputies in order that, if this should prove to be the general inclination, the affair might be handled according to law, without confusion or disorder. this, he said, would be serving both the country and the prince most judiciously. he was asked why he had not communicated directly with maurice. he replied that he had already seen how unwillingly the prince heard him allude to the subject, and that moreover there was another clause in the letter of different meaning, and in his view worthy of grave consideration by the states. no question was asked him as to this clause, but we have seen that it referred to the communication by du agean to langerac of a scheme for bestowing the sovereignty of the provinces on the king of france. the reader will also recollect that barneveld had advised the ambassador to communicate the whole intelligence to the prince himself. barneveld proceeded to inform the judges that he had never said a word to cast suspicion upon the prince, but had been actuated solely by the desire to find out the inclination of the states. the communications which he had made on the subject were neither for discrediting the prince nor for counteracting the schemes for his advancement. on the contrary, he had conferred with deputies from great cities like dordtrecht, enkhuyzen, and amsterdam, most devoted to the contra-remonstrant party, and had told them that, if they chose to propose the subject themselves, he would conduct himself to the best of his abilities in accordance with the wishes of the prince. it would seem almost impossible for a statesman placed in barneveld's position to bear himself with more perfect loyalty both to the country and to the stadholder. his duty was to maintain the constitution and laws so long as they remained unchanged. should it appear that the states, which legally represented the country, found the constitution defective, he was ready to aid in its amendment by fair public and legal methods. if maurice wished to propose himself openly as a candidate for the sovereignty, which had a generation before been conferred upon his father, barneveld would not only acquiesce in the scheme, but propose it. should it fail, he claimed the light to lay down all his offices and go into exile. he had never said that the prince was intriguing for, or even desired, the sovereignty. that the project existed among the party most opposed to himself, he had sufficient proof. to the leaders of that party therefore he suggested that the subject should be publicly discussed, guaranteeing freedom of debate and his loyal support so far as lay within his power. this was his answer to the accusation that he had meanly, secretly, and falsely circulated statements that the prince was aspiring to the sovereignty. [great pains were taken, in the course of the interrogatories, to elicit proof that the advocate had concealed important diplomatic information from the prince. he was asked why, in his secret instructions to ambassador langerac, he ordered him by an express article to be very cautious about making communications to the prince. searching questions were put in regard to these secret instructions, which i have read in the archives, and a copy of which now lies before me. they are in the form of questions, some of them almost puerile ones, addressed to barneveld by the ambassador then just departing on his mission to france in , with the answers written in the margin by the advocate. the following is all that has reference to the prince: "of what matters may i ordinarily write to his excellency?" answer--"of all great and important matters." it was difficult to find much that was treasonable in that.] among the heterogeneous articles of accusation he was asked why he had given no attention to those who had so, frequently proposed the formation of the west india company. he replied that it had from old time been the opinion of the states of holland, and always his own, that special and private licenses for traffic, navigation, and foreign commerce, were prejudicial to the welfare of the land. he had always been most earnestly opposed to them, detesting monopolies which interfered with that free trade and navigation which should be common to all mankind. he had taken great pains however in the years and to study the nature of the navigation and trade to the east indies in regard to the nations to be dealt with in those regions, the nature of the wares bought and sold there, the opposition to be encountered from the spaniards and portuguese against the commerce of the netherlanders, and the necessity of equipping vessels both for traffic and defence, and had come to the conclusion that these matters could best be directed by a general company. he explained in detail the manner in which he had procured the blending of all the isolated chambers into one great east india corporation, the enormous pains which it had cost him to bring it about, and the great commercial and national success which had been the result. the admiral of aragon, when a prisoner after the battle of nieuwpoort, had told him, he said, that the union of these petty corporations into one great whole had been as disastrous a blow to the kingdoms of spain and portugal as the union of the provinces at utrecht had been. in regard to the west india company, its sole object, so far as he could comprehend it, had been to equip armed vessels, not for trade but to capture and plunder spanish merchantmen and silver fleets in the west indies and south america. this was an advantageous war measure which he had favoured while the war lasted. it was in no sense a commercial scheme however, and when the truce had been made--the company not having come into existence--he failed to comprehend how its formation could be profitable for the netherlanders. on the contrary it would expressly invite or irritate the spaniards into a resumption of the war, an object which in his humble opinion was not at all desirable. certainly these ideas were not especially reprehensible, but had they been as shallow and despicable as they seem to us enlightened, it is passing strange that they should have furnished matter for a criminal prosecution. it was doubtless a disappointment for the promoters of the company, the chief of whom was a bankrupt, to fail in obtaining their charter, but it was scarcely high-treason to oppose it. there is no doubt however that the disapprobation with which barneveld regarded the west india company, the seat of which was at amsterdam, was a leading cause of the deadly hostility entertained for him by the great commercial metropolis. it was bad enough for the advocate to oppose unconditional predestination and the damnation of infants, but to frustrate a magnificent system of privateering on the spaniards in time of truce was an unpardonable crime. the patience with which the venerable statesman submitted to the taunts, ignorant and insolent cross-questionings, and noisy interruptions of his judges, was not less remarkable than the tenacity of memory which enabled him thus day after day, alone, unaided by books, manuscripts, or friendly counsel, to reconstruct the record of forty years, and to expound the laws of the land by an array of authorities, instances, and illustrations in a manner that would be deemed masterly by one who had all the resources of libraries, documents, witnesses, and secretaries at command. only when insidious questions were put tending to impute to him corruption, venality, and treacherous correspondence with the enemy--for they never once dared formally to accuse him of treason--did that almost superhuman patience desert him. he was questioned as to certain payments made by him to a certain van der vecken in spanish coin. he replied briefly at first that his money transactions with that man of business extended over a period of twenty or thirty years, and amounted to many hundred thousands of florins, growing out of purchases and sales of lands, agricultural enterprises on his estates, moneys derived from his professional or official business and the like. it was impossible for him to remember the details of every especial money payment that might have occurred between them. then suddenly breaking forth into a storm of indignation; he could mark from these questions, he said, that his enemies, not satisfied with having wounded his heart with their falsehoods, vile forgeries, and honour-robbing libels, were determined to break it. this he prayed that god almighty might avert and righteously judge between him and them. it was plain that among other things they were alluding to the stale and senseless story of the sledge filled with baskets of coin sent by the spanish envoys on their departure from the hague, on conclusion of the truce, to defray expenses incurred by them for board and lodging of servants, forage of horses, and the like-which had accidentally stopped at barneveld's door and was forthwith sent on to john spronssen, superintendent of such affairs. passing over this wanton bit of calumny with disgust, he solemnly asserted that he had never at any period of his life received one penny nor the value of one penny from the king of spain, the archdukes, spinola, or any other person connected with the enemy, saving only the presents publicly and mutually conferred according to invariable custom by the high contracting parties, upon the respective negotiators at conclusion of the treaty of truce. even these gifts barneveld had moved his colleagues not to accept, but proposed that they should all be paid into the public treasury. he had been overruled, he said, but that any dispassionate man of tolerable intelligence could imagine him, whose whole life had been a perpetual offence to spain, to be in suspicious relations with that power seemed to him impossible. the most intense party spirit, yea, envy itself, must confess that he had been among the foremost to take up arms for his country's liberties, and had through life never faltered in their defence. and once more in that mean chamber, and before a row of personal enemies calling themselves judges, he burst into an eloquent and most justifiable sketch of the career of one whom there was none else to justify and so many to assail. from his youth, he said, he had made himself by his honourable and patriotic deeds hopelessly irreconcilable with the spaniards. he was one of the advocates practising in the supreme court of holland, who in the very teeth of the duke of alva had proclaimed him a tyrant and had sworn obedience to the prince of orange as the lawful governor of the land. he was one of those who in the same year had promoted and attended private gatherings for the advancement of the reformed religion. he had helped to levy, and had contributed to, funds for the national defence in the early days of the revolt. these were things which led directly to the council of blood and the gibbet. he had borne arms himself on various bloody fields and had been perpetually a deputy to the rebel camps. he had been the original mover of the treaty of union which was concluded between the provinces at utrecht. he had been the first to propose and to draw up the declaration of netherland independence and the abjuration of the king of spain. he had been one of those who had drawn and passed the act establishing the late prince of orange as stadholder. of the sixty signers of these memorable declarations none were now living save himself and two others. when the prince had been assassinated, he had done his best to secure for his son maurice the sovereign position of which murder had so suddenly deprived the father. he had been member of the memorable embassies to france and england by which invaluable support for the struggling provinces had been obtained. and thus he rapidly sketched the history of the great war of independence in which he had ever been conspicuously employed on the patriotic side. when the late king of france at the close of the century had made peace with spain, he had been sent as special ambassador to that monarch, and had prevailed on him, notwithstanding his treaty with the enemy, to continue his secret alliance with the states and to promise them a large subsidy, pledges which had been sacredly fulfilled. it was on that occasion that henry, who was his debtor for past services, professional, official, and perfectly legitimate, had agreed, when his finances should be in better condition, to discharge his obligations; over and above the customary diplomatic present which he received publicly in common with his colleague admiral nassau. this promise, fulfilled a dozen years later, had been one of the senseless charges of corruption brought against him. he had been one of the negotiators of the truce in which spain had been compelled to treat with her revolted provinces as with free states and her equals. he had promoted the union of the protestant princes and their alliance with france and the united states in opposition to the designs of spain and the league. he had organized and directed the policy by which the forces of england, france, and protestant germany had possessed themselves of the debateable land. he had resisted every scheme by which it was hoped to force the states from their hold of those important citadels. he had been one of the foremost promoters of the east india company, an organization which the spaniards confessed had been as damaging to them as the union of the provinces itself had been. the idiotic and circumstantial statements, that he had conducted burgomaster van berk through a secret staircase of his house into his private study for the purpose of informing him that the only way for the states to get out of the war was to submit themselves once more to their old masters, so often forced upon him by the judges, he contradicted with disdain and disgust. he had ever abhorred and dreaded, he said, the house of spain, austria, and burgundy. his life had passed in open hostility to that house, as was known to all mankind. his mere personal interests, apart from higher considerations, would make an approach to the former sovereign impossible, for besides the deeds he had already alluded to, he had committed at least twelve distinct and separate acts, each one of which would be held high-treason by the house of austria, and he had learned from childhood that these are things which monarchs never forget. the tales of van berk were those of a personal enemy, falsehoods scarcely worth contradicting. he was grossly and enormously aggrieved by the illegal constitution of the commission. he had protested and continued to protest against it. if that protest were unheeded, he claimed at least that those men should be excluded from the board and the right to sit in judgment upon his person and his deeds who had proved themselves by words and works to be his capital enemies, of which fact he could produce irrefragable evidence. he claimed that the supreme court of holland, or the high council, or both together, should decide upon that point. he held as his personal enemies, he said, all those who had declared that he, before or since the truce down to the day of his arrest, had held correspondence with the spaniards, the archdukes, the marquis spinola, or any one on that side, had received money, money value, or promises of money from them, and in consequence had done or omitted to do anything whatever. he denounced such tales as notorious, shameful, and villainous falsehoods, the utterers and circulators of them as wilful liars, and this he was ready to maintain in every appropriate way for the vindication of the truth and his own honour. he declared solemnly before god almighty to the states-general and to the states of holland that his course in the religious matter had been solely directed to the strengthening of the reformed religion and to the political security of the provinces and cities. he had simply desired that, in the awful and mysterious matter of predestination, the consciences of many preachers and many thousands of good citizens might be placed in tranquillity, with moderate and christian limitations against all excesses. from all these reasons, he said, the commissioners, the states-general, the prince, and every man in the land could clearly see, and were bound to see, that he was the same man now that he was at the beginning of the war, had ever been, and with god's help should ever remain. the proceedings were kept secret from the public and, as a matter of course, there had been conflicting rumours from day to day as to the probable result of these great state trials. in general however it was thought that the prisoner would be acquitted of the graver charges, or that at most he would be permanently displaced from all office and declared incapable thenceforth to serve the state. the triumph of the contra-remonstrants since the stadholder had placed himself at the head of them, and the complete metamorphosis of the city governments even in the strongholds of the arminian party seemed to render the permanent political disgrace of the advocate almost a matter of certainty. the first step that gave rise to a belief that he might be perhaps more severely dealt with than had been anticipated was the proclamation by the states-general of a public fast and humiliation for the th april. in this document it was announced that "church and state--during several years past having been brought into great danger of utter destruction through certain persons in furtherance of their ambitious designs--had been saved by the convocation of a national synod; that a lawful sentence was soon to be expected upon those who had been disturbing the commonwealth; that through this sentence general tranquillity would probably be restored; and that men were now to thank god for this result, and pray to him that he would bring the wicked counsels and stratagems of the enemy against these provinces to naught." all the prisoners were asked if they too would like in their chambers of bondage to participate in the solemnity, although the motive for the fasting and prayer was not mentioned to them. each of them in his separate prison room, of course without communication together, selected the th psalm and sang it with his servant and door-keeper. from the date of this fast-day barneveld looked upon the result of his trial as likely to be serious. many clergymen refused or objected to comply with the terms of this declaration. others conformed with it greedily, and preached lengthy thanksgiving sermons, giving praise to god that, he had confounded the devices of the ambitious and saved the country from the "blood bath" which they had been preparing for it. the friends of barneveld became alarmed at the sinister language of this proclamation, in which for the first time allusions had been made to a forthcoming sentence against the accused. especially the staunch and indefatigable du maurier at once addressed himself again to the states-general. de boississe had returned to france, having found that the government of a country torn, weakened, and rendered almost impotent by its own internecine factions, was not likely to exert any very potent influence on the fate of the illustrious prisoner. the states had given him to understand that they were wearied with his perpetual appeals, intercessions, and sermons in behalf of mercy. they made him feel in short that lewis xiii. and henry iv. were two entirely different personages. du maurier however obtained a hearing before the assembly on the st may, where he made a powerful and manly speech in presence of the prince, urging that the prisoners ought to be discharged unless they could be convicted of treason, and that the states ought to show as much deference to his sovereign as they had always done to elizabeth of england. he made a personal appeal to prince maurice, urging upon him how much it would redound to his glory if he should now in generous and princely fashion step forward in behalf of those by whom he deemed himself to have been personally offended. his speech fell upon ears hardened against such eloquence and produced no effect. meantime the family of barneveld, not yet reduced to despair, chose to take a less gloomy view of the proclamation. relying on the innocence of the great statesman, whose aims, in their firm belief, had ever been for the welfare and glory of his fatherland, and in whose heart there had never been kindled one spark of treason, they bravely expected his triumphant release from his long and, as they deemed it, his iniquitous imprisonment. on this very st of may, in accordance with ancient custom, a may-pole was erected on the voorhout before the mansion of the captive statesman, and wreaths of spring flowers and garlands of evergreen decorated the walls within which were such braised and bleeding hearts. these demonstrations of a noble hypocrisy, if such it were, excited the wrath, not the compassion, of the stadholder, who thought that the aged matron and her sons and daughters, who dwelt in that house of mourning, should rather have sat in sackcloth with ashes on their heads than indulge in these insolent marks of hope and joyful expectation. it is certain however that count william lewis, who, although most staunch on the contra-remonstrant side, had a veneration for the advocate and desired warmly to save him, made a last and strenuous effort for that purpose. it was believed then, and it seems almost certain, that, if the friends of the advocate had been willing to implore pardon for him, the sentence would have been remitted or commuted. their application would have been successful, for through it his guilt would seem to be acknowledged. count william sent for the fiscal duyck. he asked him if there were no means of saving the life of a man who was so old and had done the country so much service. after long deliberation, it was decided that prince maurice should be approached on the subject. duyck wished that the count himself would speak with his cousin, but was convinced by his reasoning that it would be better that the fiscal should do it. duyck had a long interview accordingly with maurice, which was followed by a very secret one between them both and count william. the three were locked up together, three hours long, in the prince's private cabinet. it was then decided that count william should go, as if of his own accord, to the princess-dowager louise, and induce her to send for some one of barneveld's children and urge that the family should ask pardon for him. she asked if this was done with the knowledge of the prince of orange, or whether he would not take it amiss. the count eluded the question, but implored her to follow his advice. the result was an interview between the princess and madame de groeneveld, wife of the eldest son. that lady was besought to apply, with the rest of the advocate's children, for pardon to the lords states, but to act as if it were done of her own impulse, and to keep their interview profoundly secret. madame de groeneveld took time to consult the other members of the family and some friends. soon afterwards she came again to the princess, and informed her that she had spoken with the other children, and that they could not agree to the suggestion. "they would not move one step in it-- no, not if it should cost him his head." the princess reported the result of this interview to count william, at which both were so distressed that they determined to leave the hague. there is something almost superhuman in the sternness of this stoicism. yet it lay in the proud and highly tempered character of the netherlanders. there can be no doubt that the advocate would have expressly dictated this proceeding if he had been consulted. it was precisely the course adopted by himself. death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt and therefore with disgrace. the loss of his honour would have been an infinitely greater triumph to his enemies than the loss of his head. there was no delay in drawing up the sentence. previously to this interview with the widow of william the silent, the family of the advocate had presented to the judges three separate documents, rather in the way of arguments than petitions, undertaking to prove by elaborate reasoning and citations of precedents and texts of the civil law that the proceedings against him were wholly illegal, and that he was innocent of every crime. no notice had been taken of those appeals. upon the questions and answers as already set forth the sentence soon followed, and it may be as well that the reader should be aware, at this point in the narrative, of the substance of that sentence so soon to be pronounced. there had been no indictment, no specification of crime. there had been no testimony or evidence. there had been no argument for the prosecution or the defence. there had been no trial whatever. the prisoner was convicted on a set of questions to which he had put in satisfactory replies. he was sentenced on a preamble. the sentence was a string of vague generalities, intolerably long, and as tangled as the interrogatories. his proceedings during a long career had on the whole tended to something called a "blood bath"--but the blood bath had never occurred. with an effrontery which did not lack ingenuity, barneveld's defence was called by the commissioners his confession, and was formally registered as such in the process and the sentence; while the fact that he had not been stretched upon the rack during his trial, nor kept in chains for the eight months of his imprisonment, were complacently mentioned as proofs of exceptionable indulgence. "whereas the prisoner john of barneveld," said the sentence, "without being put to the torture and without fetters of iron, has confessed . . . . to having perturbed religion, greatly afflicted the church of god, and carried into practice exorbitant and pernicious maxims of state . . . . inculcating by himself and accomplices that each province had the right to regulate religious affairs within its own territory, and that other provinces were not to concern themselves therewith"--therefore and for many other reasons he merited punishment. he had instigated a protest by vote of three provinces against the national synod. he had despised the salutary advice of many princes and notable personages. he had obtained from the king of great britain certain letters furthering his own opinions, the drafts of which he had himself suggested, and corrected and sent over to the states' ambassador in london, and when written out, signed, and addressed by the king to the states-general, had delivered them without stating how they had been procured. afterwards he had attempted to get other letters of a similar nature from the king, and not succeeding had defamed his majesty as being a cause of the troubles in the provinces. he had permitted unsound theologians to be appointed to church offices, and had employed such functionaries in political affairs as were most likely to be the instruments of his own purposes. he had not prevented vigorous decrees from being enforced in several places against those of the true religion. he had made them odious by calling them puritans, foreigners, and "flanderizers," although the united provinces had solemnly pledged to each other their lives, fortunes, and blood by various conventions, to some of which the prisoner was himself a party, to maintain the reformed, evangelical, religion only, and to, suffer no change in it to be made for evermore. in order to carry out his design and perturb the political state of the provinces he had drawn up and caused to be enacted the sharp resolution of th august . he had thus nullified the ordinary course of justice. he had stimulated the magistrates to disobedience, and advised them to strengthen themselves with freshly enlisted military companies. he had suggested new-fangled oaths for the soldiers, authorizing them to refuse obedience to the states-general and his excellency. he had especially stimulated the proceedings at utrecht. when it was understood that the prince was to pass through utrecht, the states of that province not without the prisoner's knowledge had addressed a letter to his excellency, requesting him not to pass through their city. he had written a letter to ledenberg suggesting that good watch should be held at the town gates and up and down the river lek. he had desired that ledenberg having read that letter should burn it. he had interfered with the cashiering of the mercenaries at utrecht. he had said that such cashiering without the consent of the states of that province was an act of force which would justify resistance by force. although those states had sent commissioners to concert measures with the prince for that purpose, he had advised them to conceal their instructions until his own plan for the disbandment could be carried out. at a secret meeting in the house of tresel, clerk of the states-general, between grotius, hoogerbeets, and other accomplices, it was decided that this advice should be taken. report accordingly was made to the prisoner. he had advised them to continue in their opposition to the national synod. he had sought to calumniate and blacken his excellency by saying that he aspired to the sovereignty of the provinces. he had received intelligence on that subject from abroad in ciphered letters. he had of his own accord rejected a certain proposed, notable alliance of the utmost importance to this republic. [this refers, i think without doubt, to the conversation between king james and caron at the end of the year .] he had received from foreign potentates various large sums of money and other presents. all "these proceedings tended to put the city of utrecht into a blood- bath, and likewise to bring the whole country, and the person of his excellency into the uttermost danger." this is the substance of the sentence, amplified by repetitions and exasperating tautology into thirty or forty pages. it will have been perceived by our analysis of barneveld's answers to the commissioners that all the graver charges which he was now said to have confessed had been indignantly denied by him or triumphantly justified. it will also be observed that he was condemned for no categorical crime-- lese-majesty, treason, or rebellion. the commissioners never ventured to assert that the states-general were sovereign, or that the central government had a right to prescribe a religious formulary for all the united provinces. they never dared to say that the prisoner had been in communication with the enemy or had received bribes from him. of insinuation and implication there was much, of assertion very little, of demonstration nothing whatever. but supposing that all the charges had been admitted or proved, what course would naturally be taken in consequence? how was a statesman who adhered to the political, constitutional, and religious opinions on which he had acted, with the general acquiescence, during a career of more than forty years, but which were said to be no longer in accordance with public opinion, to be dealt with? would the commissioners request him to retire honourably from the high functions which he had over and over again offered to resign? would they consider that, having fairly impeached and found him guilty of disturbing the public peace by continuing to act on his well-known legal theories, they might deprive him summarily of power and declare him incapable of holding office again? the conclusion of the commissioners was somewhat more severe than either of these measures. their long rambling preamble ended with these decisive words: "therefore the judges, in name of the lords states-general, condemn the prisoner to be taken to the binnenhof, there to be executed with the sword that death may follow, and they declare all his property confiscated." the execution was to take place so soon as the sentence had been read to the prisoner. after the st of may barneveld had not appeared before his judges. he had been examined in all about sixty times. in the beginning of may his servant became impatient. "you must not be impatient," said his master. "the time seems much longer because we get no news now from the outside. but the end will soon come. this delay cannot last for ever." intimation reached him on saturday the th may that the sentence was ready and would soon be pronounced. "it is a bitter folk," said barneveld as he went to bed. "i have nothing good to expect of them." next day was occupied in sewing up and concealing his papers, including a long account of his examination, with the questions and answers, in his spanish arm-chair. next day van der meulen said to the servant, "i will bet you a hundred florins that you'll not be here next thursday." the faithful john was delighted, not dreaming of the impending result. it was sunday afternoon, th may, and about half past five o'clock. barneveld sat in his prison chamber, occupied as usual in writing, reviewing the history of the past, and doing his best to reduce into something like order the rambling and miscellaneous interrogatories, out of which his trial had been concocted, while the points dwelt in his memory, and to draw up a concluding argument in his own defence. work which according to any equitable, reasonable, or even decent procedure should have been entrusted to the first lawyers of the country--preparing the case upon the law and the facts with the documents before them, with the power of cross-questioning witnesses and sifting evidence, and enlightened by constant conferences with the illustrious prisoner himself--came entirely upon his own shoulders, enfeebled as he was by age, physical illness, and by the exhaustion of along imprisonment. without books, notes of evidence, or even copies of the charges of which he stood accused, he was obliged to draw up his counter-arguments against the impeachment and then by aid of a faithful valet to conceal his manuscript behind the tapestry of the chamber, or cause them to be sewed up in the lining of his easy-chair, lest they should be taken from him by order of the judges who sat in the chamber below. while he was thus occupied in preparations for his next encounter with the tribunal, the door opened, and three gentlemen entered. two were the prosecuting officers of the government, fiscal sylla and fiscal van leeuwen. the other was the provost-marshal, carel de nijs. the servant was directed to leave the room. barneveld had stepped into his dressing-room on hearing footsteps, but came out again with his long furred gown about him as the three entered. he greeted them courteously and remained standing, with his hands placed on the back of his chair and with one knee resting carelessly against the arm of it. van leeuwen asked him if he would not rather be seated, as they brought a communication from the judges. he answered in the negative. von leeuwen then informed him that he was summoned to appear before the judges the next morning to hear his sentence of death. "the sentence of death!" he exclaimed, without in the least changing his position; "the sentence of death! the sentence of death!" saying the words over thrice, with an air of astonishment rather than of horror. "i never expected that! i thought they were going to hear my defence again. i had intended to make some change in my previous statements, having set some things down when beside myself with choler." he then made reference to his long services. van leeuwen expressed himself as well acquainted with them. "he was sorry," he said, "that his lordship took this message ill of him." "i do not take it ill of you," said barneveld, "but let them," meaning the judges, "see how they will answer it before god. are they thus to deal with a true patriot? let me have pen, ink, and paper, that for the last time i may write farewell to my wife." "i will go ask permission of the judges," said van leenwen, "and i cannot think that my lord's request will be refused." while van leeuwen was absent, the advocate exclaimed, looking at the other legal officer: "oh, sylla, sylla, if your father could only have seen to what uses they would put you!" sylla was silent. permission to write the letter was soon received from de voogt, president of the commission. pen, ink, and paper were brought, and the prisoner calmly sat down to write, without the slightest trace of discomposure upon his countenance or in any of his movements. while he was writing, sylla said with some authority, "beware, my lord, what you write, lest you put down something which may furnish cause for not delivering the letter." barneveld paused in his writing, took the glasses from his eyes, and looked sylla in the face. "well, sylla," he said very calmly, "will you in these my last moments lay down the law to me as to what i shall write to my wife?" he then added with a half-smile, "well, what is expected of me?" "we have no commission whatever to lay down the law," said van leeuwen. "your worship will write whatever you like." while he was writing, anthony walaeus came in, a preacher and professor of middelburg, a deputy to the synod of dordtrecht, a learned and amiable man, sent by the states-general to minister to the prisoner on this supreme occasion; and not unworthy to be thus selected. the advocate, not knowing him, asked him why he came. "i am not here without commission," said the clergyman. "i come to console my lord in his tribulation." "i am a man," said barneveld; "have come to my present age, and i know how to console myself. i must write, and have now other things to do." the preacher said that he would withdraw and return when his worship was at leisure. "do as you like," said the advocate, calmly going on with his writing. when the letter was finished, it was sent to the judges for their inspection, by whom it was at once forwarded to the family mansion in the voorhout, hardly a stone's throw from the prison chamber. thus it ran: "very dearly beloved wife, children, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, i greet you altogether most affectionately. i receive at this moment the very heavy and sorrowful tidings that i, an old man, for all my services done well and faithfully to the fatherland for so many years (after having performed all respectful and friendly offices to his excellency the prince with upright affection so far as my official duty and vocation would permit, shown friendship to many people of all sorts, and wittingly injured no man), must prepare myself to die to-morrow. "i console myself in god the lord, who knows all hearts, and who will judge all men. i beg you all together to do the same. i have steadily and faithfully served my lords the states of holland and their nobles and cities. to the states of utrecht as sovereigns of my own fatherland i have imparted at their request upright and faithful counsel, in order to save them from tumults of the populace, and from the bloodshed with which they had so long been threatened. i had the same views for the cities of holland in order that every one might be protected and no one injured. "live together in love and peace. pray for me to almighty god, who will graciously hold us all in his holy keeping. "from my chamber of sorrow, the th may . "your very dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfather, "john of barneveld." it was thought strange that the judges should permit so simple and clear a statement, an argument in itself, to be forwarded. the theory of his condemnation was to rest before the public on his confessions of guilt, and here in the instant of learning the nature of the sentence in a few hours to be pronounced upon him he had in a few telling periods declared his entire innocence. nevertheless the letter had been sent at once to its address. so soon as this sad business had been disposed of, anthony walaeus returned. the advocate apologized to the preacher for his somewhat abrupt greeting on his first appearance. he was much occupied and did not know him, he said, although he had often heard of him. he begged him, as well as the provost-marshal, to join him at supper, which was soon brought. barneveld ate with his usual appetite, conversed cheerfully on various topics, and pledged the health of each of his guests in a glass of beer. contrary to his wont he drank at that repast no wine. after supper he went out into the little ante-chamber and called his servant, asking him how he had been faring. now john franken had just heard with grief unspeakable the melancholy news of his master's condemnation from two soldiers of the guard, who had been sent by the judges to keep additional watch over the prisoner. he was however as great a stoic as his master, and with no outward and superfluous manifestations of woe had simply implored the captain-at-arms, van der meulen, to intercede with the judges that he might be allowed to stay with his lord to the last. meantime he had been expressly informed that he was to say nothing to the advocate in secret, and that his master was not to speak to him in a low tone nor whisper in his ear. when the advocate came out into the ante-chamber and looking over his shoulder saw the two soldiers he at once lowered his voice. "hush-speak low," he whispered; "this is too cruel." john then informed him of van der meulen's orders, and that the soldiers had also been instructed to look to it sharply that no word was exchanged between master and man except in a loud voice. "is it possible," said the advocate, "that so close an inspection is held over me in these last hours? can i not speak a word or two in freedom? this is a needless mark of disrespect." the soldiers begged him not to take their conduct amiss as they were obliged strictly to obey orders. he returned to his chamber, sat down in his chair, and begged walaeus to go on his behalf to prince maurice. "tell his excellency," said he, "that i have always served him with upright affection so far as my office, duties, and principles permitted. if i, in the discharge of my oath and official functions, have ever done anything contrary to his views, i hope that he will forgive it, and that he will hold my children in his gracious favour." it was then ten o'clock. the preacher went downstairs and crossed the courtyard to the stadholder's apartments, where he at once gained admittance. maurice heard the message with tears in his eyes, assuring walaeus that he felt deeply for the advocate's misfortunes. he had always had much affection for him, he said, and had often warned him against his mistaken courses. two things, however, had always excited his indignation. one was that barneveld had accused him of aspiring to sovereignty. the other that he had placed him in such danger at utrecht. yet he forgave him all. as regarded his sons, so long as they behaved themselves well they might rely on his favour. as walaeus was about to leave the apartment, the prince called him back. "did he say anything of a pardon?" he asked, with some eagerness. "my lord," answered the clergyman, "i cannot with truth say that i understood him to make any allusion to it." walaeus returned immediately to the prison chamber and made his report of the interview. he was unwilling however to state the particulars of the offence which maurice declared himself to have taken at the acts of the advocate. but as the prisoner insisted upon knowing, the clergyman repeated the whole conversation. "his excellency has been deceived in regard to the utrecht business," said barneveld, "especially as to one point. but it is true that i had fear and apprehension that he aspired to the sovereignty or to more authority in the country. ever since the year i have felt this fear and have tried that these apprehensions might be rightly understood." while walaeus had been absent, the reverend jean la motte (or lamotius) and another clergyman of the hague had come to the prisoner's apartment. la motte could not look upon the advocate's face without weeping, but the others were more collected. conversation now ensued among the four; the preachers wishing to turn the doomed statesman's thought to the consolations of religion. but it was characteristic of the old lawyer's frame of mind that even now he looked at the tragical position in which he found himself from a constitutional and controversial point of view. he was perfectly calm and undaunted at the awful fate so suddenly and unexpectedly opened before his eyes, but he was indignant at what he esteemed the ignorance, injustice, and stupidity of the sentence to be pronounced against him. "i am ready enough to die," he said to the three clergymen, "but i cannot comprehend why i am to die. i have done nothing except in obedience to the laws and privileges of the land and according to my oath, honour, and conscience." "these judges," he continued, "come in a time when other maxims prevail in the state than those of my day. they have no right therefore to sit in judgment upon me." the clergymen replied that the twenty-four judges who had tried the case were no children and were conscientious men; that it was no small thing to condemn a man, and that they would have to answer it before the supreme judge of all. "i console myself," he answered, "in the lord my god, who knows all hearts and shall judge all men. god is just. "they have not dealt with me," he continued, "as according to law and justice they were bound to deal. they have taken away from me my own sovereign lords and masters and deposed them. to them alone i was responsible. in their place they have put many of my enemies who were never before in the government, and almost all of whom are young men who have not seen much or read much. i have seen and read much, and know that from such examples no good can follow. after my death they will learn for the first time what governing means." "the twenty-four judges are nearly all of them my enemies. what they have reproached me with, i have been obliged to hear. i have appealed against these judges, but it has been of no avail. they have examined me in piecemeal, not in statesmanlike fashion. the proceedings against me have been much too hard. i have frequently requested to see the notes of my examination as it proceeded, and to confer upon it with aid and counsel of friends, as would be the case in all lands governed by law. the request was refused. during this long and wearisome affliction and misery i have not once been allowed to speak to my wife and children. these are indecent proceedings against a man seventy-two years of age, who has served his country faithfully for three-and-forty years. i bore arms with the volunteers at my own charges at the siege of haarlem and barely escaped with life." it was not unnatural that the aged statesman's thoughts should revert in this supreme moment to the heroic scenes in which he had been an actor almost a half-century before. he could not but think with bitterness of those long past but never forgotten days when he, with other patriotic youths, had faced the terrible legions of alva in defence of the fatherland, at a time when the men who were now dooming him to a traitor's death were unborn, and who, but for his labours, courage, wisdom, and sacrifices, might have never had a fatherland to serve, or a judgment-seat on which to pronounce his condemnation. not in a spirit of fretfulness, but with disdainful calm, he criticised and censured the proceedings against himself as a violation of the laws of the land and of the first principles of justice, discussing them as lucidly and steadily as if they had been against a third person. the preachers listened, but had nothing to say. they knew not of such matters, they said, and had no instructions to speak of them. they had been sent to call him to repentance for his open and hidden sins and to offer the consolations of religion. "i know that very well," he said, "but i too have something to say notwithstanding." the conversation then turned upon religious topics, and the preachers spoke of predestination. "i have never been able to believe in the matter of high predestination," said the advocate. "i have left it in the hands of god the lord. i hold that a good christian man must believe that he through god's grace and by the expiation of his sin through our redeemer jesus christ is predestined to be saved, and that this belief in his salvation, founded alone on god's grace and the merits of our redeemer jesus christ, comes to him through the same grace of god. and if he falls into great sins, his firm hope and confidence must be that the lord god will not allow him to continue in them, but that, through prayer for grace and repentance, he will be converted from evil and remain in the faith to the end of his life." these feelings, he said, he had expressed fifty-two years before to three eminent professors of theology in whom he confided, and they had assured him that he might tranquilly continue in such belief without examining further. "and this has always been my creed," he said. the preachers replied that faith is a gift of god and not given to all men, that it must be given out of heaven to a man before he could be saved. hereupon they began to dispute, and the advocate spoke so earnestly and well that the clergymen were astonished and sat for a time listening to him in silence. he asked afterwards about the synod, and was informed that its decrees had not yet been promulgated, but that the remonstrants had been condemned. "it is a pity," said he. "one is trying to act on the old papal system, but it will never do. things have gone too far. as to the synod, if my lords the states of holland had been heeded there would have been first a provincial synod and then a national one."--"but," he added, looking the preachers in the face, "had you been more gentle with each other, matters would not have taken so high a turn. but you have been too fierce one against the other, too full of bitter party spirit." they replied that it was impossible for them to act against their conscience and the supreme authority. and then they asked him if there was nothing that troubled him in, his conscience in the matters for which he must die; nothing for which he repented and sorrowed, and for which he would call upon god for mercy. "this i know well," he said, "that i have never willingly done wrong to any man. people have been ransacking my letters to caron--confidential ones written several years ago to an old friend when i was troubled and seeking for counsel and consolation. it is hard that matter of impeachment against me to-day should be sought for thus." and then he fell into political discourse again on the subject of the waartgelders and the state rights, and the villainous pasquils and libels that had circulated so long through the country. "i have sometimes spoken hastily, i confess," he said; "but that was when i was stung by the daily swarm of infamous and loathsome pamphlets, especially those directed against my sovereign masters the states of holland. that i could not bear. old men cannot well brush such things aside. all that was directly aimed at me in particular i endeavoured to overcome with such patience as i could muster. the disunion and mutual enmity in the country have wounded me to the heart. i have made use of all means in my power to accommodate matters, to effect with all gentleness a mutual reconciliation. i have always felt a fear lest the enemy should make use of our internal dissensions to strike a blow against us. i can say with perfect truth that ever since the year ' i have been as resolutely and unchangeably opposed to the spaniards and their adherents, and their pretensions over these provinces, as any man in the world, no one excepted, and as ready to sacrifice property and shed my blood in defence of the fatherland. i have been so devoted to the service of the country that i have not been able to take the necessary care of my own private affairs." so spoke the great statesman in the seclusion of his prison, in the presence of those clergymen whom he respected, at a supreme moment, when, if ever, a man might be expected to tell the truth. and his whole life which belonged to history, and had been passed on the world's stage before the eyes of two generations of spectators, was a demonstration of the truth of his words. but burgomaster van berk knew better. had he not informed the twenty- four commissioners that, twelve years before, the advocate wished to subject the country to spain, and that spinola had drawn a bill of exchange for , ducats as a compensation for his efforts? it was eleven o'clock. barneveld requested one of the brethren to say an evening prayer. this was done by la motte, and they were then requested to return by three or four o'clock next morning. they had been directed, they said, to remain with him all night. "that is unnecessary," said the advocate, and they retired. his servant then helped his master to undress, and he went to bed as usual. taking off his signet-ring, he gave it to john franken. "for my eldest son," he said. the valet sat down at the head of his bed in order that his master might speak to him before he slept. but the soldiers ordered him away and compelled him to sit in a distant part of the room. an hour after midnight, the advocate having been unable to lose himself, his servant observed that isaac, one of the soldiers, was fast asleep. he begged the other, tilman schenk by name, to permit him some private words with his master. he had probably last messages, he thought, to send to his wife and children, and the eldest son, m. de groeneveld, would no doubt reward him well for it. but the soldier was obstinate in obedience to the orders of the judges. barneveld, finding it impossible to sleep, asked his servant to read to him from the prayer-book. the soldier called in a clergyman however, another one named hugo bayerus, who had been sent to the prison, and who now read to him the consolations of the sick. as he read, he made exhortations and expositions, which led to animated discussion, in which the advocate expressed himself with so much fervour and eloquence that all present were astonished, and the preacher sat mute a half-hour long at the bed-side. "had there been ten clergymen," said the simple-hearted sentry to the valet, "your master would have enough to say to all of them." barneveld asked where the place had been prepared in which he was to die. "in front of the great hall, as i understand," said bayerus, "but i don't know the localities well, having lived here but little." "have you heard whether my grotius is to die, and hoogerbeets also?" he asked? i have heard nothing to that effect," replied the clergyman. "i should most deeply grieve for those two gentlemen," said barneveld, "were that the case. they may yet live to do the land great service. that great rising light, de groot, is still young, but a very wise and learned gentleman, devoted to his fatherland with all zeal, heart, and soul, and ready to stand up for her privileges, laws, and rights. as for me, i am an old and worn-out man. i can do no more. i have already done more than i was really able to do. i have worked so zealously in public matters that i have neglected my private business. i had expressly ordered my house at loosduinen" [a villa by the seaside] "to be got ready, that i might establish myself there and put my affairs in order. i have repeatedly asked the states of holland for my discharge, but could never obtain it. it seems that the almighty had otherwise disposed of me." he then said he would try once more if he could sleep. the clergyman and the servant withdrew for an hour, but his attempt was unsuccessful. after an hour he called for his french psalm book and read in it for some time. sometime after two o'clock the clergymen came in again and conversed with him. they asked him if he had slept, if he hoped to meet christ, and if there was anything that troubled his conscience. "i have not slept, but am perfectly tranquil," he replied. "i am ready to die, but cannot comprehend why i must die. i wish from my heart that, through my death and my blood, all disunion and discord in this land may cease." he bade them carry his last greetings to his fellow prisoners. "say farewell for me to my good grotius," said he, "and tell him that i must die." the clergymen then left him, intending to return between five and six o'clock. he remained quiet for a little while and then ordered his valet to cut open the front of his shirt. when this was done, he said, "john, are you to stay by me to the last?" "yes," he replied, "if the judges permit it." "remind me to send one of the clergymen to the judges with the request," said his master. the faithful john, than whom no servant or friend could be more devoted, seized the occasion, with the thrift and stoicism of a true hollander, to suggest that his lord might at the same time make some testamentary disposition in his favour. "tell my wife and children," said the advocate, "that they must console each other in mutual love and union. say that through god's grace i am perfectly at ease, and hope that they will be equally tranquil. tell my children that i trust they will be loving and friendly to their mother during the short time she has yet to live. say that i wish to recommend you to them that they may help you to a good situation either with themselves or with others. tell them that this was my last request." he bade him further to communicate to the family the messages sent that night through walaeus by the stadholder. the valet begged his master to repeat these instructions in presence of the clergyman, or to request one of them to convey them himself to the family. he promised to do so. "as long as i live," said the grateful servant, "i shall remember your lordship in my prayers." "no, john," said the advocate, "that is popish. when i am dead, it is all over with prayers. pray for me while i still live. now is the time to pray. when one is dead, one should no longer be prayed for." la motte came in. barneveld repeated his last wishes exactly as he desired them to be communicated to his wife and children. the preacher made no response. "will you take the message?" asked the prisoner. la motte nodded, but did not speak, nor did he subsequently fulfil the request. before five o'clock the servant heard the bell ring in the apartment of the judges directly below the prison chamber, and told his master he had understood that they were to assemble at five o'clock. "i may as well get up then," said the advocate; "they mean to begin early, i suppose. give me my doublet and but one pair of stockings." he was accustomed to wear two or three pair at a time. he took off his underwaistcoat, saying that the silver bog which was in one of the pockets was to be taken to his wife, and that the servant should keep the loose money there for himself. then he found an opportunity to whisper to him, "take good care of the papers which are in the apartment." he meant the elaborate writings which he had prepared during his imprisonment and concealed in the tapestry and within the linings of the chair. as his valet handed him the combs and brushes, he said with a smile, "john, this is for the last time." when he was dressed, he tried, in rehearsal of the approaching scene, to pull over his eyes the silk skull-cap which he usually wore under his hat. finding it too tight he told the valet to put the nightcap in his pocket and give it him when he should call for it. he then swallowed a half-glass of wine with a strengthening cordial in it, which he was wont to take. the clergymen then re-entered, and asked if he had been able to sleep. he answered no, but that he had been much consoled by many noble things which he had been reading in the french psalm book. the clergymen said that they had been thinking much of the beautiful confession of faith which he had made to them that evening. they rejoiced at it, they said, on his account, and had never thought it of him. he said that such had always been his creed. at his request walaeus now offered a morning prayer barneveld fell on his knees and prayed inwardly without uttering a sound. la motte asked when he had concluded, "did my lord say amen?"--"yes, lamotius," he replied; "amen."--"has either of the brethren," he added, "prepared a prayer to be offered outside there?" la motte informed him that this duty had been confided to him. some passages from isaiah were now read aloud, and soon afterwards walaeus was sent for to speak with the judges. he came back and said to the prisoner, "has my lord any desire to speak with his wife or children, or any of his friends?" it was then six o'clock, and barneveld replied: "no, the time is drawing near. it would excite a new emotion." walaeus went back to the judges with this answer, who thereupon made this official report: "the husband and father of the petitioners, being asked if he desired that any of the petitioners should come to him, declared that he did not approve of it, saying that it would cause too great an emotion for himself as well as for them. this is to serve as an answer to the petitioners." now the advocate knew nothing of the petition. up to the last moment his family had been sanguine as to his ultimate acquittal and release. they relied on a promise which they had received or imagined that they had received from the stadholder that no harm should come to the prisoner in consequence of the arrest made of his person in the prince's apartments on the th of august. they had opened this tragical month of may with flagstaffs and flower garlands, and were making daily preparations to receive back the revered statesman in triumph. the letter written by him from his "chamber of sorrow," late in the evening of th may, had at last dispelled every illusion. it would be idle to attempt to paint the grief and consternation into which the household in the voorhout was plunged, from the venerable dame at its head, surrounded by her sons and daughters and children's children, down to the humblest servant in their employment. for all revered and loved the austere statesman, but simple and benignant father and master. no heed had been taken of the three elaborate and argumentative petitions which, prepared by learned counsel in name of the relatives, had been addressed to the judges. they had not been answered because they were difficult to answer, and because it was not intended that the accused should have the benefit of counsel. an urgent and last appeal was now written late at night, and signed by each member of the family, to his excellency the prince and the judge commissioners, to this effect: "the afflicted wife and children of m. van barneveld humbly show that having heard the sorrowful tidings of his coming execution, they humbly beg that it may be granted them to see and speak to him for the last time." the two sons delivered this petition at four o'clock in the morning into the hands of de voogd, one of the judges. it was duly laid before the commission, but the prisoner was never informed, when declining a last interview with his family, how urgently they had themselves solicited the boon. louise de coligny, on hearing late at night the awful news, had been struck with grief and horror. she endeavoured, late as it was, to do something to avert the doom of one she so much revered, the man on whom her illustrious husband had leaned his life long as on a staff of iron. she besought an interview of the stadholder, but it was refused. the wife of william the silent had no influence at that dire moment with her stepson. she was informed at first that maurice was asleep, and at four in the morning that all intervention was useless. the faithful and energetic du maurier, who had already exhausted himself in efforts to save the life of the great prisoner, now made a last appeal. he, too, heard at four o'clock in the morning of the th that sentence of death was to be pronounced. before five o'clock he made urgent application to be heard before the assembly of the states-general as ambassador of a friendly sovereign who took the deepest interest in the welfare of the republic and the fate of its illustrious statesman. the appeal was refused. as a last resource he drew up an earnest and eloquent letter to the states-general, urging clemency in the name of his king. it was of no avail. the letter may still be seen in the royal archives at the hague, drawn up entirely in du maurier's clear and beautiful handwriting. although possibly a, first draft, written as it was under such a mortal pressure for time, its pages have not one erasure or correction. it was seven o'clock. barneveld having observed by the preacher (la motte's) manner that he was not likely to convey the last messages which he had mentioned to his wife and children, sent a request to the judges to be allowed to write one more letter. captain van der meulen came back with the permission, saying he would wait and take it to the judges for their revision. the letter has been often published. "must they see this too? why, it is only a line in favour of john," said the prisoner, sitting quietly down to write this letter: "very dear wife and children, it is going to an end with me. i am, through the grace of god, very tranquil. i hope that you are equally so, and that you may by mutual love, union, and peace help each other to overcome all things, which i pray to the omnipotent as my last request. john franken has served me faithfully for many years and throughout all these my afflictions, and is to remain with me to the end. he deserves to be recommended to you and to be furthered to good employments with you or with others. i request you herewith to see to this. "i have requested his princely excellency to hold my sons and children in his favour, to which he has answered that so long as you conduct yourselves well this shall be the case. i recommend this to you in the best form and give you all into god's holy keeping. kiss each other and all my grandchildren, for the last time in my name, and fare you well. out of the chamber of sorrow, th may . your dear husband and father, john of barneveld. "p.s. you will make john franken a present in memory of me." certainly it would be difficult to find a more truly calm, courageous, or religious spirit than that manifested by this aged statesman at an hour when, if ever, a human soul is tried and is apt to reveal its innermost depths or shallows. whatever gomarus or bogerman, or the whole council of dordtrecht, may have thought of his theology, it had at least taught him forgiveness of his enemies, kindness to his friends, and submission to the will of the omnipotent. every moment of his last days on earth had been watched and jealously scrutinized, and his bitterest enemies had failed to discover one trace of frailty, one manifestation of any vacillating, ignoble, or malignant sentiment. the drums had been sounding through the quiet but anxiously expectant town since four o'clock that morning, and the tramp of soldiers marching to the inner court had long been audible in the prison chamber. walaeus now came back with a message from the judges. "the high commissioners," he said, "think it is beginning. will my lord please to prepare himself?" "very well, very well," said the prisoner. "shall we go at once?" but walaeus suggested a prayer. upon its conclusion, barneveld gave his hand to the provost-marshal and to the two soldiers, bidding them adieu, and walked downstairs, attended by them, to the chamber of the judges. as soon as he appeared at the door, he was informed that there had been a misunderstanding, and he was requested to wait a little. he accordingly went upstairs again with perfect calmness, sat down in his chamber again, and read in his french psalm book. half an hour later he was once more summoned, the provost-marshal and captain van der meulen reappearing to escort him. "mr. provost," said the prisoner, as they went down the narrow staircase, "i have always been a good friend to you."--"it is true," replied that officer, "and most deeply do i grieve to see you in this affliction." he was about to enter the judges' chamber as usual, but was informed that the sentence would be read in the great hall of judicature. they descended accordingly to the basement story, and passed down the narrow flight of steps which then as now connected the more modern structure, where the advocate had been imprisoned and tried, with what remained of the ancient palace of the counts of holland. in the centre of the vast hall--once the banqueting chamber of those petty sovereigns; with its high vaulted roof of cedar which had so often in ancient days rung with the sounds of mirth and revelry--was a great table at which the twenty- four judges and the three prosecuting officers were seated, in their black caps and gowns of office. the room was lined with soldiers and crowded with a dark, surging mass of spectators, who had been waiting there all night. a chair was placed for the prisoner. he sat down, and the clerk of the commission, pots by name, proceeded at once to read the sentence. a summary of this long, rambling, and tiresome paper has been already laid before the reader. if ever a man could have found it tedious to listen to his own death sentence, the great statesman might have been in that condition as he listened to secretary pots. during the reading of the sentence the advocate moved uneasily on his seat, and seemed about to interrupt the clerk at several passages which seemed to him especially preposterous. but he controlled himself by a strong effort, and the clerk went steadily on to the conclusion. then barneveld said: "the judges have put down many things which they have no right to draw from my confession. let this protest be added." "i thought too," he continued, "that my lords the states-general would have had enough in my life and blood, and that my wife and children might keep what belongs to them. is this my recompense for forty-three years' service to these provinces?" president de voogd rose: "your sentence has been pronounced," he said. "away! away! "so saying he pointed to the door into which one of the great windows at the south- eastern front of the hall had been converted. without another word the old man rose from his chair and strode, leaning on his staff, across the hall, accompanied by his faithful valet and the provost and escorted by a file of soldiers. the mob of spectators flowed out after him at every door into the inner courtyard in front of the ancient palace. etext editor's bookmarks: better to be governed by magistrates than mobs burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience heidelberg catechism were declared to be infallible i know how to console myself implication there was much, of assertion very little john robinson magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword only true religion rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic william brewster this ebook was produced by david widger [note: there is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. d.w.] the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume life and death of john of barneveld, v , - chapter v. interviews between the dutch commissioners and king james--prince maurice takes command of the troops--surrender of julich--matthias crowned king of bohemia--death of rudolph--james's dream of a spanish marriage--appointment of vorstius in place of arminius at leyden--interview between maurice and winwood--increased bitterness between barneveld and maurice--projects of spanish marriages in france. it is refreshing to escape from the atmosphere of self-seeking faction, feverish intrigue, and murderous stratagem in which unhappy france was stifling into the colder and calmer regions of netherland policy. no sooner had the tidings of henry's murder reached the states than they felt that an immense responsibility had fallen on their shoulders. it is to the eternal honour of the republic, of barneveld, who directed her councils, and of prince maurice, who wielded her sword, that she was equal to the task imposed upon her. there were open bets on the exchange in antwerp, after the death of henry, that maurice would likewise be killed within the month. nothing seemed more probable, and the states implored the stadholder to take special heed to himself. but this was a kind of caution which the prince was not wont to regard. nor was there faltering, distraction, cowardice, or parsimony in republican councils. we have heard the strong words of encouragement and sympathy addressed by the advocate's instructions to the queen-regent and the leading statesmen of france. we have seen their effects in that lingering sentiment of shame which prevented the spanish stipendiaries who governed the kingdom from throwing down the mask as cynically as they were at first inclined to do. not less manful and statesmanlike was the language held to the king of great britain and his ministers by the advocate's directions. the news of the assassination reached the special ambassadors in london at three o'clock of monday, the th may. james returned to whitehall from a hunting expedition on the st, and immediately signified his intention of celebrating the occasion by inviting the high commissioners of the states to a banquet and festival at the palace. meantime they were instructed by barneveld to communicate the results of the special embassy of the states to the late king according to the report just delivered to the assembly. thus james was to be informed of the common resolution and engagement then taken to support the cause of the princes. he was now seriously and explicitly to be summoned to assist the princes not only with the stipulated men, but with a much greater force, proportionate to the demands for the security and welfare of christendom, endangered by this extraordinary event. he was assured that the states would exert themselves to the full measure of their ability to fortify and maintain the high interests of france, of the possessory princes, and of christendom, so that the hopes of the perpetrators of the foul deed would be confounded. "they hold this to be the occasion," said the envoys, "to show to all the world that it is within your power to rescue the affairs of france, germany, and of the united provinces from the claws of those who imagine for themselves universal monarchy." they concluded by requesting the king to come to "a resolution on this affair royally, liberally, and promptly, in order to take advantage of the time, and not to allow the adversary to fortify himself in his position"; and they pledged the states-general to stand by and second him with all their power. the commissioners, having read this letter to lord salisbury before communicating it to the king, did not find the lord treasurer very prompt or sympathetic in his reply. there had evidently been much jealousy at the english court of the confidential and intimate relations recently established with henry, to which allusions were made in the documents read at the present conference. cecil, while expressing satisfaction in formal terms at the friendly language of the states, and confidence in the sincerity of their friendship for his sovereign, intimated very plainly that more had passed between the late king and the authorities of the republic than had been revealed by either party to the king of great britain, or than could be understood from the letters and papers now communicated. he desired further information from the commissioners, especially in regard to those articles of their instructions which referred to a general rupture. they professed inability to give more explanations than were contained in the documents themselves. if suspicion was felt, they said, that the french king had been proposing anything in regard to a general rupture, either on account of the retreat of conde, the affair of savoy, or anything else, they would reply that the ambassadors in france had been instructed to decline committing the states until after full communication and advice and ripe deliberation with his british majesty and council, as well as the assembly of the states-general; and it had been the intention of the late king to have conferred once more and very confidentially with prince maurice and count lewis william before coming to a decisive resolution. it was very obvious however to the commissioners that their statement gave no thorough satisfaction, and that grave suspicions remained of something important kept back by them. cecil's manner was constrained and cold, and certainly there were no evidences of profound sorrow at the english court for the death of henry. "the king of france," said the high treasurer, "meant to make a master- stroke--a coup de maistre--but he who would have all may easily lose all. such projects as these should not have been formed or taken in hand without previous communication with his majesty of great britain." all arguments on the part of the ambassadors to induce the lord treasurer or other members of the government to enlarge the succour intended for the cleve affair were fruitless. the english troops regularly employed in the states' service might be made use of with the forces sent by the republic itself. more assistance than this it was idle to expect, unless after a satisfactory arrangement with the present regency of france. the proposition, too, of the states for a close and general alliance was coldly repulsed. "no resolution can be taken as to that," said cecil; "the death of the french king has very much altered such matters." at a little later hour on the same day the commissioners, according to previous invitation, dined with the king. no one sat at the table but his majesty and themselves, and they all kept their hats on their heads. the king was hospitable, gracious, discursive, loquacious, very theological. he expressed regret for the death of the king of france, and said that the pernicious doctrine out of which such vile crimes grew must be uprooted. he asked many questions in regard to the united netherlands, enquiring especially as to the late commotions at utrecht, and the conduct of prince maurice on that occasion. he praised the resolute conduct of the states-general in suppressing those tumults with force, adding, however, that they should have proceeded with greater rigour against the ringleaders of the riot. he warmly recommended the union of the provinces. he then led the conversation to the religious controversies in the netherlands, and in reply to his enquiries was informed that the points in dispute related to predestination and its consequences. "i have studied that subject," said james, "as well as anybody, and have come to the conclusion that nothing certain can be laid down in regard to it. i have myself not always been of one mind about it, but i will bet that my opinion is the best of any, although i would not hang my salvation upon it. my lords the states would do well to order their doctors and teachers to be silent on this topic. i have hardly ventured, moreover, to touch upon the matter of justification in my own writings, because that also seemed to hang upon predestination." thus having spoken with the air of a man who had left nothing further to be said on predestination or justification, the king rose, took off his hat, and drank a bumper to the health of the states-general and his excellency prince maurice, and success to the affair of cleve. after dinner there was a parting interview in the gallery. the king, attended by many privy councillors and high functionaries of state, bade the commissioners a cordial farewell, and, in order to show his consideration for their government, performed the ceremony of knighthood upon them, as was his custom in regard to the ambassadors of venice. the sword being presented to him by the lord chamberlain, james touched each of the envoys on the shoulder as he dismissed him. "out of respect to my lords the states," said they in their report, "we felt compelled to allow ourselves to be burthened with this honour." thus it became obvious to the states-general that there was but little to hope for from great britain or france. france, governed by concini and by spain, was sure to do her best to traverse the designs of the republic, and, while perfunctorily and grudgingly complying with the letter of the hall treaty, was secretly neutralizing by intrigue the slender military aid which de la chatre was to bring to prince maurice. the close alliance of france and protestantism had melted into air. on the other hand the new catholic league sprang into full luxuriance out of the grave of henry, and both spain and the pope gave their hearty adhesion to the combinations of maximilian of bavaria, now that the mighty designs of the french king were buried with him. the duke of savoy, caught in the trap of his own devising, was fain to send his son to sue to spain for pardon for the family upon his knees, and expiated by draining a deep cup of humiliation his ambitious designs upon the milanese and the matrimonial alliance with france. venice recoiled in horror from the position she found herself in as soon as the glamour of henry's seductive policy was dispelled, while james of great britain, rubbing his hands with great delight at the disappearance from the world of the man he so admired, bewailed, and hated, had no comfort to impart to the states-general thus left in virtual isolation. the barren burthen of knighthood and a sermon on predestination were all he could bestow upon the high commissioners in place of the alliance which he eluded, and the military assistance which he point-blank refused. the possessory princes, in whose cause the sword was drawn, were too quarrelsome and too fainthearted to serve for much else than an incumbrance either in the cabinet or the field. and the states-general were equal to the immense responsibility. steadily, promptly, and sagaciously they confronted the wrath, the policy, and the power of the empire, of spain, and of the pope. had the republic not existed, nothing could have prevented that debateable and most important territory from becoming provinces of spain, whose power thus dilated to gigantic proportions in the very face of england would have been more menacing than in the days of the armada. had the republic faltered, she would have soon ceased to exist. but the republic did not falter. on the th july, prince maurice took command of the states' forces, , foot and horse, with thirty pieces of cannon, assembled at schenkenschans. the july english and french regiments in the regular service of the united provinces were included in these armies, but there were no additions to them: "the states did seven times as much," barneveld justly averred, "as they had stipulated to do." maurice, moving with the precision and promptness which always marked his military operations, marched straight upon julich, and laid siege to that important fortress. the archdukes at brussels, determined to keep out of the fray as long as possible, offered no opposition to the passage of his supplies up the rhine, which might have been seriously impeded by them at rheinberg. the details of the siege, as of all the prince's sieges, possess no more interest to the general reader than the working out of a geometrical problem. he was incapable of a flaw in his calculations, but it was impossible for him quite to complete the demonstration before the arrival of de la chatre. maurice received with courtesy the marshal, who arrived on the th august, at the head of his contingent of foot and a few squadrons of cavalry, and there was great show of harmony between them. for any practical purposes, de la chatre might as well have remained in france. for political ends his absence would have been preferable to his presence. maurice would have rejoiced, had the marshal blundered longer along the road to the debateable land than he had done. he had almost brought julich to reduction. a fortnight later the place surrendered. the terms granted by the conqueror were equitable. no change was to be made in the liberty of roman catholic worship, nor in the city magistracy. the citadel and its contents were to be handed over to the princes of brandenburg and neuburg. archduke leopold and his adherents departed to prague, to carry out as he best could his farther designs upon the crown of bohemia, this first portion of them having so lamentably failed, and sergeant-major frederick pithan, of the regiment of count ernest casimir of nassau, was appointed governor of julich in the interest of the possessory princes. thus without the loss of a single life, the republic, guided by her consummate statesman and unrivalled general, had gained an immense victory, had installed the protestant princes in the full possession of those splendid and important provinces, and had dictated her decrees on german soil to the emperor of germany, and had towed, as it were, great britain and france along in her wake, instead of humbly following those powers, and had accomplished all that she had ever proposed to do, even in alliance with them both. the king of england considered that quite enough had been done, and was in great haste to patch up a reconciliation. he thought his ambassador would soon "have as good occasion to employ his tongue and his pen as general cecil and his soldiers have done their swords and their mattocks." he had no sympathy with the cause of protestantism, and steadily refused to comprehend the meaning of the great movements in the duchies. "i only wish that i may handsomely wind myself out of this quarrel, where the principal parties do so little for themselves," he said. de la chatre returned with his troops to france within a fortnight after his arrival on the scene. a mild proposition made by the french government through the marshal, that the provinces should be held in seguestration by france until a decision as to the true sovereignty could be reached, was promptly declined. maurice of nassau had hardly gained so signal a triumph for the republic and for the protestant cause only to hand it over to concini and villeroy for the benefit of spain. julich was thought safer in the keeping of sergeant pithan. by the end of september the states' troops had returned to their own country. thus the republic, with eminent success, had accomplished a brief and brilliant campaign, but no statesman could suppose that the result was more than a temporary one. these coveted provinces, most valuable in themselves and from their important position, would probably not be suffered peacefully to remain very long under the protection of the heretic states-general and in the 'condominium' of two protestant princes. there was fear among the imperialists, catholics, and spaniards, lest the baleful constellation of the seven provinces might be increased by an eighth star. and this was a project not to be tolerated. it was much already that the upstart confederacy had defied pope, emperor, and king, as it were, on their own domains, had dictated arrangements in germany directly in the teeth of its emperor, using france as her subordinate, and compelling the british king to acquiesce in what he most hated. but it was not merely to surprise julich, and to get a foothold in the duchies, that leopold had gone forth on his adventure. his campaign, as already intimated, was part of a wide scheme in which he had persuaded his emperor-cousin to acquiesce. poor rudolph had been at last goaded into a feeble attempt at revolt against his three brothers and his cousin ferdinand. peace-loving, inert, fond of his dinner, fonder of his magnificent collections of gems and intagli, liking to look out of window at his splendid collection of horses, he was willing to pass a quiet life, afar from the din of battles and the turmoil of affairs. as he happened to be emperor of half europe, these harmless tastes could not well be indulged. moon-faced and fat, silent and slow, he was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin, even when his brows were decorated with the conventional laurel wreath. he had been stripped of his authority and all but discrowned by his more bustling brothers matthias and max, while the sombre figure of styrian ferdinand, pupil of the jesuits, and passionate admirer of philip ii., stood ever in the background, casting a prophetic shadow over the throne and over germany. the brothers were endeavouring to persuade rudolph that he would find more comfort in innsbruck than in prague; that he required repose after the strenuous labours of government. they told him, too, that it would be wise to confer the royal crown of bohemia upon matthias, lest, being elective and also an electorate, the crown and vote of that country might pass out of the family, and so both bohemia and the empire be lost to the habsburgs. the kingdom being thus secured to matthias and his heirs, the next step, of course, was to proclaim him king of the romans. otherwise there would be great danger and detriment to hungary, and other hereditary states of that conglomerate and anonymous monarchy which owned the sway of the great habsburg family. the unhappy emperor was much piqued. he had been deprived by his brother of hungary, moravia, and austria, while matthias was now at prague with an army, ostensibly to obtain ratification of the peace with turkey, but in reality to force the solemn transfer of those realms and extort the promise of bohemia. could there be a better illustration of the absurdities of such a system of imperialism? and now poor rudolph was to be turned out of the hradschin, and sent packing with or without his collections to the tyrol. the bellicose bishop of strassburg and passau, brother of ferdinand, had little difficulty in persuading the downtrodden man to rise to vengeance. it had been secretly agreed between the two that leopold, at the head of a considerable army of mercenaries which he had contrived to levy, should dart into julich as the emperor's representative, seize the debateable duchies, and hold them in sequestration until the emperor should decide to whom they belonged, and, then, rushing back to bohemia, should annihilate matthias, seize prague, and deliver rudolph from bondage. it was further agreed that leopold, in requital of these services, should receive the crown of bohemia, be elected king of the romans, and declared heir to the emperor, so far as rudolph could make him his heir. the first point in the program he had only in part accomplished. he had taken julich, proclaimed the intentions of the emperor, and then been driven out of his strong position by the wise policy of the states under the guidance of barneveld and by the consummate strategy of maurice. it will be seen therefore that the republic was playing a world's game at this moment, and doing it with skill and courage. on the issue of the conflict which had been begun and was to be long protracted in the duchies, and to spread over nearly all christendom besides, would depend the existence of the united netherlands and the fate of protestantism. the discomfited leopold swept back at the head of his mercenaries, foot and horse, through alsace and along the danube to linz and so to prague, marauding, harrying, and black-mailing the country as he went. he entered the city on the th of february , fighting his way through crowds of exasperated burghers. sitting in full harness on horseback in the great square before the cathedral, the warlike bishop compelled the population to make oath to him as the emperor's commissary. the street fighting went on however day by day, poor rudolph meantime cowering in the hradschin. on the third day, leopold, driven out of the town, took up a position on the heights, from which he commanded it with his artillery. then came a feeble voice from the hradschin, telling all men that these passau marauders and their episcopal chief were there by the emperor's orders. the triune city--the old, the new, and the jew-- was bidden to send deputies to the palace and accept the imperial decrees. no deputies came at the bidding. the bohemians, especially the praguers, being in great majority protestants knew very well that leopold was fighting the cause of the papacy and spain in bohemia as well as in the duchies. and now matthias appeared upon the scene. the estates had already been in communication with him, better hopes, for the time at least, being entertained from him than from the flaccid rudolph. moreover a kind of compromise had been made in the autumn between matthias and the emperor after the defeat of leopold in the duchies. the real king had fallen at the feet of the nominal one by proxy of his brother maximilian. seven thousand men of the army of matthias now came before prague under command of colonitz. the passauers, receiving three months pay from the emperor, marched quietly off. leopold disappeared for the time. his chancellor and counsellor in the duchies, francis teynagel, a geldrian noble, taken prisoner and put to the torture, revealed the little plot of the emperor in favour of the bishop, and it was believed that the pope, the king of spain, and maximilian of bavaria were friendly to the scheme. this was probable, for leopold at last made no mystery of his resolve to fight protestantism to the death, and to hold the duchies, if he could, for the cause of rome and austria. both rudolph and matthias had committed themselves to the toleration of the reformed religion. the famous "majesty-letter," freshly granted by the emperor ( ), and the compromise between the catholic and protestant estates had become the law of the land. those of the bohemian confession, a creed commingled of hussism, lutheranism, and calvinism, had obtained toleration. in a country where nine-tenths of the population were protestants it was permitted to protestants to build churches and to worship god in them unmolested. but these privileges had been extorted by force, and there was a sullen, dogged determination which might be easily guessed at to revoke them should it ever become possible. the house of austria, reigning in spain, italy, and germany, was bound by the very law of their being to the roman religion. toleration of other worship signified in their eyes both a defeat and a crime. thus the great conflict, to be afterwards known as the thirty years' war, had in reality begun already, and the netherlands, in spite of the truce, were half unconsciously taking a leading part in it. the odds at that moment in germany seemed desperately against the house of austria, so deep and wide was the abyss between throne and subjects which religious difference had created. but the reserved power in spain, italy, and southern germany was sure enough to make itself felt sooner or later on the catholic side. meantime the estates of bohemia knew well enough that the imperial house was bent on destroying the elective principle of the empire, and on keeping the crown of bohemia in perpetuity. they had also discovered that bishop-archduke leopold had been selected by rudolph as chief of the reactionary movement against protestantism. they could not know at that moment whether his plans were likely to prove fantastic or dangerous. so matthias came to prague at the invitation of the estates, entering the city with all the airs of a conqueror. rudolph received his brother with enforced politeness, and invited him to reside in the hradschin. this proposal was declined by matthias, who sent a colonel however, with six pieces of artillery, to guard and occupy that palace. the passau prisoners were pardoned and released, and there was a general reconciliation. a month later, matthias went in pomp to the chapel of the holy wenceslaus, that beautiful and barbarous piece of mediaeval, sclavonic architecture, with its sombre arches, and its walls encrusted with huge precious stones. the estates of bohemia, arrayed in splendid zchech costume, and kneeling on the pavement, were asked whether they accepted matthias, king of hungary, as their lawful king. thrice they answered aye. cardinal dietrichstein then put the historic crown of st. wenceslaus on the king's head, and matthias swore to maintain the laws and privileges of bohemia, including the recent charters granting liberty of religion to protestants. thus there was temporary, if hollow, truce between the religious parties, and a sham reconciliation between the emperor and his brethren. the forlorn rudolph moped away the few months of life left to him in the hradschin, and died soon after the new year. the house of austria had not been divided, matthias succeeded his brother, leopold's visions melted into air, and it was for the future to reveal whether the majesty-letter and the compromise had been written on very durable material. and while such was the condition of affairs in germany immediately following the cleve and julich campaign, the relations of the republic both to england and france were become rapidly more dangerous than they ever had been. it was a severe task for barneveld, and enough to overtax the energies of any statesman, to maintain his hold on two such slippery governments as both had become since the death of their great monarchs. it had been an easier task for william the silent to steer his course, notwithstanding all the perversities, short-comings, brow-beatings, and inconsistencies that he had been obliged to endure from elizabeth and henry. genius, however capricious and erratic at times, has at least vision, and it needed no elaborate arguments to prove to both those sovereigns that the severance of their policy from that of the netherlands was impossible without ruin to the republic and incalculable danger themselves. but now france and england were both tending towards spain through a stupidity on the part of their rulers such as the gods are said to contend against in vain. barneveld was not a god nor a hero, but a courageous and wide-seeing statesman, and he did his best. obliged by his position to affect admiration, or at least respect, where no emotion but contempt was possible, his daily bread was bitter enough. it was absolutely necessary to humour those whom knew to be traversing his policy and desiring his ruin, for there was no other way to serve his country and save it from impending danger. so long as he was faithfully served by his subordinates, and not betrayed by those to whom he gave his heart, he could confront external enemies and mould the policy of wavering allies. few things in history are more pitiable than the position of james in regard to spain. for seven long years he was as one entranced, the slave to one idea, a spanish marriage for his son. it was in vain that his counsellors argued, parliament protested, allies implored. parliament was told that a royal family matter regarded himself alone, and that interference on their part was an impertinence. parliament's duty was a simple one, to give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required it, without asking for reasons. it was already a great concession that he should ask for it in person. they had nothing to do with his affairs nor with general politics. the mystery of government was a science beyond their reach, and with which they were not to meddle. "ne sutor ultra crepidam," said the pedant. upon that one point his policy was made to turn. spain held him in the hollow of her hand. the infanta, with two million crowns in dowry, was promised, withheld, brought forward again like a puppet to please or irritate a froward child. gondemar, the spanish ambassador, held him spellbound. did he falter in his opposition to the states--did he cease to goad them for their policy in the duchies--did he express sympathy with bohemian protestantism, or, as time went on, did he dare to lift a finger or touch his pocket in behalf of his daughter and the unlucky elector-palatine; did he, in short, move a step in the road which england had ever trod and was bound to tread--the road of determined resistance to spanish ambition--instantaneously the infanta withheld, and james was on his knees again. a few years later, when the great raleigh returned from his trans-alantic expedition, gondemar fiercely denounced him to the king as the worst enemy of spain. the usual threat was made, the wand was waved, and the noblest head in england fell upon the block, in pursuance of an obsolete sentence fourteen years old. it is necessary to hold fast this single clue to the crooked and amazing entanglements of the policy of james. the insolence, the meanness, and the prevarications of this royal toad-eater are only thus explained. yet philip iii. declared on his death-bed that he had never had a serious intention of bestowing his daughter on the prince. the vanity and the hatreds of theology furnished the chief additional material in the policy of james towards the provinces. the diplomacy of his reign so far as the republic was concerned is often a mere mass of controversial divinity, and gloomy enough of its kind. exactly at this moment conrad vorstius had been called by the university of leyden to the professorship vacant by the death of arminius, and the wrath of peter plancius and the whole orthodox party knew no bounds. born in cologne, vorstius had been a lecturer in geneva, and beloved by beza. he had written a book against the jesuit belarmino, which he had dedicated to the states-general. but he was now accused of arminianism, socianism, pelagianism, atheism--one knew not what. he defended himself in writing against these various charges, and declared himself a believer in the trinity, in the divinity of christ, in the atonement. but he had written a book on the nature of god, and the wrath of gomarus and plancius and bogerman was as nothing to the ire of james when that treatise was one day handed to him on returning from hunting. he had scarcely looked into it before he was horror-struck, and instantly wrote to sir ralph winwood, his ambassador at the hague, ordering him to insist that this blasphemous monster should at once be removed from the country. who but james knew anything of the nature of god, for had he not written a work in latin explaining it all, so that humbler beings might read and be instructed. sir ralph accordingly delivered a long sermon to the states on the brief supplied by his majesty, told them that to have vorstius as successor to arminius was to fall out of the frying-pan into the fire, and handed them a "catalogue" prepared by the king of the blasphemies, heresies, and atheisms of the professor. "notwithstanding that the man in full assembly of the states of holland," said the ambassador with headlong and confused rhetoric, "had found the means to palliate and plaster the dung of his heresies, and thus to dazzle the eyes of good people," yet it was necessary to protest most vigorously against such an appointment, and to advise that "his works should be publicly burned in the open places of all the cities." the professor never was admitted to perform his functions of theology, but he remained at leyden, so winwood complained, "honoured, recognized as a singularity and ornament to the academy in place of the late joseph scaliger."--"the friendship of the king and the heresy of vorstius are quite incompatible," said the envoy. meantime the advocate, much distressed at the animosity of england bursting forth so violently on occasion of the appointment of a divinity professor at leyden, and at the very instant too when all the acuteness of his intellect was taxed to keep on good or even safe terms with france, did his best to stem these opposing currents. his private letters to his old and confidential friend, noel de carom, states' ambassador in london, reveal the perplexities of his soul and the upright patriotism by which he was guided in these gathering storms. and this correspondence, as well as that maintained by him at a little later period with the successor of aerssens at paris, will be seen subsequently to have had a direct and most important bearing upon the policy of the republic and upon his own fate. it is necessary therefore that the reader, interested in these complicated affairs which were soon to bring on a sanguinary war on a scale even vaster than the one which had been temporarily suspended, should give close attention to papers never before exhumed from the musty sepulchre of national archives, although constantly alluded to in the records of important state trials. it is strange enough to observe the apparent triviality of the circumstances out of which gravest events seem to follow. but the circumstances were in reality threads of iron which led down to the very foundations of the earth. "i wish to know," wrote the advocate to caron, "from whom the archbishop of canterbury received the advices concerning vorstius in order to find out what is meant by all this." it will be remembered that whitgift was of opinion that james was directly inspired by the holy ghost, and that as he affected to deem him the anointed high-priest of england, it was natural that he should encourage the king in his claims to be 'pontifex maximus' for the netherlands likewise. "we are busy here," continued barneveld, "in examining all things for the best interests of the country and the churches. i find the nobles and cities here well resolved in this regard, although there be some disagreements 'in modo.' vorstius, having been for many years professor and minister of theology at steinfurt, having manifested his learning in many books written against the jesuits, and proved himself pure and moderate in doctrine, has been called to the vacant professorship at leyden. this appointment is now countermined by various means. we are doing our best to arrange everything for the highest good of the provinces and the churches. believe this and believe nothing else. pay heed to no other information. remember what took place in flanders, events so well known to you. it is not for me to pass judgment in these matters. do you, too, suspend your judgment." the advocate's allusion was to the memorable course of affairs in flanders at an epoch when many of the most inflammatory preachers and politicians of the reformed religion, men who refused to employ a footman or a housemaid not certified to be thoroughly orthodox, subsequently after much sedition and disturbance went over to spain and the catholic religion. a few weeks later barneveld sent copies to caron of the latest harangues of winwood in the assembly and the reply of my lords on the vorstian business; that is to say, the freshest dialogue on predestination between the king and the advocate. for as james always dictated word for word the orations of his envoy, so had their mightinesses at this period no head and no mouthpiece save barneveld alone. nothing could be drearier than these controversies, and the reader shall be spared as much, as possible the infliction of reading them. it will be necessary, however, for the proper understanding of subsequent events that he should be familiar with portions of the advocate's confidential letters. "sound well the gentleman you wot of," said barneveld, "and other personages as to the conclusive opinions over there. the course of the propositions does not harmonize with what i have myself heard out of the king's mouth at other times, nor with the reports of former ambassadors. i cannot well understand that the king should, with such preciseness, condemn all other opinions save those of calvin and beza. it is important to the service of this country that one should know the final intention of his majesty." and this was the misery of the position. for it was soon to appear that the king's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day. it was almost humorous to find him at that moment condemning all opinions but those of calvin and beza in holland, while his course to the strictest confessors of that creed in england was so ferocious. but vorstius was a rival author to his majesty on subjects treated of by both, so that literary spite of the most venomous kind, stirred into theological hatred, was making a dangerous mixture. had a man with the soul and sense of the advocate sat on the throne which james was regarding at that moment as a professor's chair, the world's history would have been changed. "i fear," continued barneveld, "that some of our own precisians have been spinning this coil for us over there, and if the civil authority can be thus countermined, things will go as in flanders in your time. pray continue to be observant, discreet, and moderate." the advocate continued to use his best efforts to smooth the rising waves. he humoured and even flattered the king, although perpetually denounced by winwood in his letters to his sovereign as tyrannical, over-bearing, malignant, and treacherous. he did his best to counsel moderation and mutual toleration, for he felt that these needless theological disputes about an abstract and insoluble problem of casuistry were digging an abyss in which the republic might be swallowed up for ever. if ever man worked steadily with the best lights of experience and inborn sagacity for the good of his country and in defence of a constitutional government, horribly defective certainly, but the only legal one, and on the whole a more liberal polity than any then existing, it was barneveld. courageously, steadily, but most patiently, he stood upon that position so vital and daily so madly assailed; the defence of the civil authority against the priesthood. he felt instinctively and keenly that where any portion of the subjects or citizens of a country can escape from the control of government and obey other head than the lawful sovereignty, whether monarchical or republican, social disorder and anarchy must be ever impending. "we are still tortured by ecclesiastical disputes," he wrote a few weeks later to caron. "besides many libels which have appeared in print, the letters of his majesty and the harangues of winwood have been published; to what end you who know these things by experience can judge. the truth of the matter of vorstius is that he was legally called in july , that he was heard last may before my lords the states with six preachers to oppose him, and in the same month duly accepted and placed in office. he has given no public lectures as yet. you will cause this to be known on fitting opportunity. believe and cause to be believed that his majesty's letters and sir r. winwood's propositions have been and shall be well considered, and that i am working with all my strength to that end. you know the constitution of our country, and can explain everything for the best. many pious and intelligent people in this state hold themselves assured that his majesty according to his royal exceeding great wisdom, foresight, and affection for the welfare of this land will not approve that his letters and winwood's propositions should be scattered by the press among the common people. believe and cause to be believed, to your best ability, that my lords the states of holland desire to maintain the true christian, reformed religion as well in the university of leyden as in all their cities and villages. the only dispute is on the high points of predestination and its adjuncts, concerning which moderation and a more temperate teaching is furthered by some amongst us. many think that such is the edifying practice in england. pray have the kindness to send me the english confession of the year , with the corrections and alterations up to this year." but the fires were growing hotter, fanned especially by flemish ministers, a brotherhood of whom barneveld had an especial distrust, and who certainly felt great animosity to him. his moderate counsels were but oil to the flames. he was already depicted by zealots and calumniators as false to the reformed creed. "be assured and assure others," he wrote again to caron, "that in the matter of religion i am, and by god's grace shall remain, what i ever have been. make the same assurances as to my son-in-law and brother. we are not a little amazed that a few extraordinary puritans, mostly flemings and frisians, who but a short time ago had neither property nor kindred in the country, and have now very little of either, and who have given but slender proofs of constancy or service to the fatherland, could through pretended zeal gain credit over there against men well proved in all respects. we wonder the more because they are endeavouring, in ecclesiastical matters at least, to usurp an extraordinary authority, against which his majesty, with very weighty reasons, has so many times declared his opinion founded upon god's word and upon all laws and principles of justice." it was barneveld's practice on this as on subsequent occasions very courteously to confute the king out of his own writings and speeches, and by so doing to be unconsciously accumulating an undying hatred against himself in the royal breast. certainly nothing could be easier than to show that james, while encouraging in so reckless a manner the emancipation of the ministers of an advanced sect in the reformed church from control of government, and their usurpation of supreme authority which had been destroyed in england, was outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency. a king-highpriest, who dictated his supreme will to bishops and ministers as well as to courts and parliaments, was ludicrously employed in a foreign country in enforcing the superiority of the church to the state. "you will give good assurances," said the advocate, "upon my word, that the conservation of the true reformed religion is as warmly cherished here, especially by me, as at any time during the war." he next alluded to the charges then considered very grave against certain writings of vorstius, and with equal fairness to his accusers as he had been to the professor gave a pledge that the subject should be examined. "if the man in question," he said, "be the author, as perhaps falsely imputed, of the work 'de filiatione christi' or things of that sort, you may be sure that he shall have no furtherance here." he complained, however, that before proof the cause was much prejudiced by the circulation through the press of letters on the subject from important personages in england. his own efforts to do justice in the matter were traversed by such machinations. if the professor proved to be guilty of publications fairly to be deemed atheistical and blasphemous, he should be debarred from his functions, but the outcry from england was doing more harm than good. "the published extract from the letter of the archbishop," he wrote, "to the effect that the king will declare my lords the states to be his enemies if they are not willing to send the man away is doing much harm." truly, if it had come to this--that a king of england was to go to war with a neighbouring and friendly republic because an obnoxious professor of theology was not instantly hurled from a university of which his majesty was not one of the overseers--it was time to look a little closely into the functions of governments and the nature of public and international law. not that the sword of james was in reality very likely to be unsheathed, but his shriekings and his scribblings, pacific as he was himself, were likely to arouse passions which torrents of blood alone could satiate. "the publishing and spreading among the community," continued barneveld, "of m. winwood's protestations and of many indecent libels are also doing much mischief, for the nature of this people does not tolerate such things. i hope, however, to obtain the removal according to his majesty's desire. keep me well informed, and send me word what is thought in england by the four divines of the book of vorstius, 'de deo,' and of his declarations on the points sent here by his majesty. let me know, too, if there has been any later confession published in england than that of the year , and whether the nine points pressed in the year were accepted and published in . if so, pray send them, as they maybe made use of in settling our differences here." thus it will be seen that the spirit of conciliation, of a calm but earnest desire to obtain a firm grasp of the most reasonable relations between church and state through patient study of the phenomena exhibited in other countries, were the leading motives of the man. yet he was perpetually denounced in private as an unbeliever, an atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy within the provinces and from kings outside them. "it was always held here to be one of the chief infractions of the laws and privileges of this country," he said, "that former princes had placed themselves in matter of religion in the tutelage of the pope and the spanish inquisition, and that they therefore on complaint of their good subjects could take no orders on that subject. therefore it cannot be considered strange that we are not willing here to fall into the same obloquy. that one should now choose to turn the magistrates, who were once so seriously summoned on their conscience and their office to adopt the reformation and to take the matter of religion to heart, into ignorants, to deprive them of knowledge, and to cause them to see with other eyes than their own, cannot by many be considered right and reasonable. 'intelligenti pauca.'" [the interesting letter from which i have given these copious extracts was ordered by its writer to be burned. "lecta vulcano" was noted at the end of it, as was not unfrequently the case with the advocate. it never was burned; but, innocent and reasonable as it seems, was made use of by barneveld's enemies with deadly effect. j.l.m.] meantime m. de refuge, as before stated, was on his way to the hague, to communicate the news of the double marriage. he had fallen sick at rotterdam, and the nature of his instructions and of the message he brought remained unknown, save from the previous despatches of aerssens. but reports were rife that he was about to propose new terms of alliance to the states, founded on large concessions to the roman catholic religion. of course intense jealousy was excited at the english court, and calumny plumed her wings for a fresh attack upon the advocate. of course he was sold to spain, the reformed religion was to be trampled out in the provinces, and the papacy and holy inquisition established on its ruins. nothing could be more diametrically the reverse of the fact than such hysterical suspicions as to the instructions of the ambassador extraordinary from france, and this has already appeared. the vorstian affair too was still in the same phase, the advocate professing a willingness that justice should be done in the matter, while courteously but firmly resisting the arrogant pretensions of james to take the matter out of the jurisdiction of the states. "i stand amazed," he said, "at the partisanship and the calumnious representations which you tell me of, and cannot imagine what is thought nor what is proposed. should m. de refuge make any such propositions as are feared, believe, and cause his majesty and his counsellors to believe, that they would be of no effect. make assurances upon my word, notwithstanding all advices to the contrary, that such things would be flatly refused. if anything is published or proven to the discredit of vorstius, send it to me. believe that we shall not defend heretics nor schismatics against the pure evangelical doctrine, but one cannot conceive here that the knowledge and judicature of the matter belongs anywhere else than to my lords the states of holland, in whose service he has legally been during four months before his majesty made the least difficulty about it. called hither legally a year before, with the knowledge and by the order of his excellency and the councillors of state of holland, he has been countermined by five or six flemings and frisians, who, without recognizing the lawful authority of the magistrates, have sought assistance in foreign countries--in germany and afterwards in england. yes, they have been so presumptuous as to designate one of their own men for the place. if such a proceeding should be attempted in england, i leave it to those whose business it would be to deal with it to say what would be done. i hope therefore that one will leave the examination and judgment of this matter freely to us, without attempting to make us--against the principles of the reformation and the liberties and laws of the land--executors of the decrees of others, as the man here wishes to obtrude it upon us." he alluded to the difficulty in raising the ways and means; saying that the quota of holland, as usual, which was more than half the whole, was ready, while other provinces were in arrears. yet they were protected, while holland was attacked. "methinks i am living in a strange world," he said, "when those who have received great honour from holland, and who in their conscience know that they alone have conserved the commonwealth, are now traduced with such great calumnies. but god the lord almighty is just, and will in his own time do chastisement." the affair of vorstius dragged its slow length along, and few things are more astounding at this epoch than to see such a matter, interesting enough certainly to theologians, to the university, and to the rising generation of students, made the topic of unceasing and embittered diplomatic controversy between two great nations, who had most pressing and momentous business on their hands. but it was necessary to humour the king, while going to the verge of imprudence in protecting the professor. in march he was heard, three or four hours long, before the assembly of holland, in answer to various charges made against him, being warned that "he stood before the lord god and before the sovereign authority of the states." although thought by many to have made a powerful defence, he was ordered to set it forth in writing, both in latin and in the vernacular. furthermore it was ordained that he should make a complete refutation of all the charges already made or that might be made during the ensuing three months against him in speech, book, or letter in england, germany, the netherlands, or anywhere else. he was allowed one year and a half to accomplish this work, and meantime was to reside not in leyden, nor the hague, but in some other town of holland, not delivering lectures or practising his profession in any way. it might be supposed that sufficient work had been thus laid out for the unfortunate doctor of divinity without lecturing or preaching. the question of jurisdiction was saved. the independence of the civil authority over the extreme pretensions of the clergy had been vindicated by the firmness of the advocate. james had been treated with overflowing demonstrations of respect, but his claim to expel a dutch professor from his chair and country by a royal fiat had been signally rebuked. certainly if the provinces were dependent upon the british king in regard to such a matter, it was the merest imbecility for them to affect independence. barneveld had carried his point and served his country strenuously and well in this apparently small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one. but deep was the wrath treasured against him in consequence in clerical and royal minds. returning from wesel after the negotiations, sir ralph winwood had an important interview at arnheim with prince maurice, in which they confidentially exchanged their opinions in regard to the advocate, and mutually confirmed their suspicions and their jealousies in regard to that statesman. the ambassador earnestly thanked the prince in the king's name for his "careful and industrious endeavours for the maintenance of the truth of religion, lively expressed in prosecuting the cause against vorstius and his adherents." he then said: "i am expressly commanded that his majesty conferring the present condition of affairs of this quarter of the world with those advertisements he daily receives from his ministers abroad, together with the nature and disposition of those men who have in their hands the managing of all business in these foreign parts, can make no other judgment than this. "there is a general ligue and confederation complotted for the subversion and ruin of religion upon the subsistence whereof his majesty doth judge the main welfare of your realms and of these provinces solely to consist. "therefore his majesty has given me charge out of the knowledge he has of your great worth and sufficiency," continued winwood," and the confidence he reposes in your faith and affection, freely to treat with you on these points, and withal to pray you to deliver your opinion what way would be the most compendious and the most assured to contrequarr these complots, and to frustrate the malice of these mischievous designs." the prince replied by acknowledging the honour the king had vouchsafed to do him in holding so gracious an opinion of him, wherein his majesty should never be deceived. "i concur in judgment with his majesty," continued the prince, "that the main scope at which these plots and practices do aim, for instance, the alliance between france and spain, is this, to root out religion, and by consequence to bring under their yoke all those countries in which religion is professed. "the first attempt," continued the prince, "is doubtless intended against these provinces. the means to countermine and defeat these projected designs i take to be these: the continuance of his majesty's constant resolution for the protection of religion, and then that the king would be pleased to procure a general confederation between the kings, princes, and commonwealths professing religion, namely, denmark, sweden, the german princes, the protestant cantons of switzerland, and our united provinces. "of this confederation, his majesty must be not only the director, but the head and protector. "lastly, the protestants of france should be, if not supported, at least relieved from that oppression which the alliance of spain doth threaten upon them. this, i insist," repeated maurice with great fervour, "is the only coupegorge of all plots whatever between france and spain." he enlarged at great length on these points, which he considered so vital. "and what appearance can there be," asked winwood insidiously and maliciously, "of this general confederation now that these provinces, which heretofore have been accounted a principal member of the reformed church, begin to falter in the truth of religion? "he who solely governs the metropolitan province of holland," continued the ambassador, with a direct stab in the back at barneveld, "is reputed generally, as your excellency best knows, to be the only patron of vorstius, and the protector of the schisms of arminius. and likewise, what possibility is there that the protestants of france can expect favour from these provinces when the same man is known to depend at the devotion of france?" the international, theological, and personal jealousy of the king against holland's advocate having been thus plainly developed, the ambassador proceeded to pour into the prince's ear the venom of suspicion, and to inflame his jealousy against his great rival. the secret conversation showed how deeply laid was the foundation of the political hatred, both of james and of maurice, against the advocate, and certainly nothing could be more preposterous than to imagine the king as the director and head of the great protestant league. we have but lately seen him confidentially assuring his minister that his only aim was "to wind himself handsomely out of the whole business." maurice must have found it difficult to preserve his gravity when assigning such a part to "master jacques." "although monsieur barneveld has cast off all care of religion," said maurice, "and although some towns in holland, wherein his power doth reign, are infected with the like neglect, yet so long as so many good towns in holland stand sound, and all the other provinces of this confederacy, the proposition would at the first motion be cheerfully accepted. "i confess i find difficulty in satisfying your second question," continued the prince, "for i acknowledge that barneveld is wholly devoted to the service of france. during the truce negotiations, when some difference arose between him and myself, president jeannin came to me, requiring me in the french king's name to treat monsieur barneveld well, whom the king had received into his protection. the letters which the states' ambassador in france wrote to barneveld (and to him all ambassadors address their despatches of importance), the very autographs themselves, he sent back into the hands of villeroy." here the prince did not scruple to accuse the advocate of doing the base and treacherous trick against aerssens which he had expressly denied doing, and which had been done during his illness, as he solemnly avowed, by a subordinate probably for the sake of making mischief. maurice then discoursed largely and vehemently of the suspicious proceedings of barneveld, and denounced him as dangerous to the state. "when one man who has the conduct of all affairs in his sole power," he said, "shall hold underhand intelligence with the ministers of spain and the archduke, and that without warrant, thereby he may have the means so to carry the course of affairs that, do what they will, these provinces must fall or stand at the mercy and discretion of spain. therefore some good resolutions must be taken in time to hold up this state from a sudden downfall, but in this much moderation and discretion must be used." the prince added that he had invited his cousin lewis william to appear at the hague at may day, in order to consult as to the proper means to preserve the provinces from confusion under his majesty's safeguard, and with the aid of the englishmen in the states' service whom maurice pronounced to be "the strength and flower of his army." thus the prince developed his ideas at great length, and accused the advocate behind his back, and without the faintest shadow of proof, of base treachery to his friends and of high-treason. surely barneveld was in danger, and was walking among pitfalls. most powerful and deadly enemies were silently banding themselves together against him. could he long maintain his hold on the slippery heights of power, where he was so consciously serving his country, but where he became day by day a mere shining mark for calumny and hatred? the ambassador then signified to the prince that he had been instructed to carry to him the king's purpose to confer on him the order of the garter. "if his majesty holds me worthy of so great honour," said the prince, "i and my family shall ever remain bound to his service and that of his royal posterity. "that the states should be offended i see no cause, but holding the charge i do in their service, i could not accept the honour without first acquainting them and receiving their approbation." winwood replied that, as the king knew the terms on which the prince lived with the states, he doubted not his majesty would first notify them and say that he honoured the mutual amity between his realms and these provinces by honouring the virtues of their general, whose services, as they had been most faithful and affectionate, so had they been accompanied with the blessings of happiness and prosperous success. thus said winwood to the king: "your majesty may plaster two walls with one trowel ('una fidelia duos dealbare parietes'), reverse the designs of them who to facilitate their own practices do endeavour to alienate your affections from the good of these provinces, and oblige to your service the well-affected people, who know that there is no surety for themselves, their wives and children, but under the protection of your majesty's favour. perhaps, however, the favourers of vorstius and arminius will buzz into the ears of their associates that your majesty would make a party in these provinces by maintaining the truth of religion and also by gaining unto you the affections of their chief commander. but your majesty will be pleased to pass forth whose worthy ends will take their place, which is to honour virtue where you find it, and the suspicious surmises of malice and envy in one instant will vanish into smoke." winwood made no scruple in directly stating to the english government that barneveld's purpose was to "cause a divorce between the king's realms and the provinces, the more easily to precipitate them into the arms of spain." he added that the negotiation with count maurice then on foot was to be followed, but with much secrecy, on account of the place he held in the state. soon after the ambassador's secret conversation with maurice he had an interview with barneveld. he assured the advocate that no contentment could be given to his majesty but by the banishment of vorstius. "if the town of leyden should understand so much," replied barneveld, "i fear the magistrates would retain him still in their town." "if the town of leyden should retain vorstius," answered winwood, "to brave or despight his majesty, the king has the means, if it pleases him to use them, and that without drawing sword, to range them to reason, and to make the magistrates on their knees demand his pardon, and i say as much of rotterdam." such insolence on the part of an ambassador to the first minister of a great republic was hard to bear. barneveld was not the man to brook it. he replied with great indignation. "i was born in liberty," he said with rising choler, "i cannot digest this kind of language. the king of spain himself never dared to speak in so high a style." "i well understand that logic," returned the ambassador with continued insolence. "you hold your argument to be drawn 'a majori ad minus;' but i pray you to believe that the king of great britain is peer and companion to the king of spain, and that his motto is, 'nemo me impune lacessit.'" and so they parted in a mutual rage; winwood adding on going out of the room, "whatsoever i propose to you in his majesty's name can find with you neither goust nor grace." he then informed lord rochester that "the man was extremely distempered and extremely distasted with his majesty. "some say," he added, "that on being in england when his majesty first came to the throne he conceived some offence, which ever since hath rankled in his heart, and now doth burst forth with more violent malice." nor was the matter so small as it superficially appeared. dependence of one nation upon the dictation of another can never be considered otherwise than grave. the subjection of all citizens, clerical or lay, to the laws of the land, the supremacy of the state over the church, were equally grave subjects. and the question of sovereignty now raised for the first time, not academically merely, but practically, was the gravest one of all. it was soon to be mooted vigorously and passionately whether the united provinces were a confederacy or a union; a league of sovereign and independent states bound together by treaty for certain specified purposes or an incorporated whole. the advocate and all the principal lawyers in the country had scarcely a doubt on the subject. whether it were a reasonable system or an absurd one, a vigorous or an imbecile form of government, they were confident that the union of utrecht, made about a generation of mankind before, and the only tie by which the provinces were bound together at all, was a compact between sovereigns. barneveld styled himself always the servant and officer of the states of holland. to them was his allegiance, for them he spoke, wrought, and thought, by them his meagre salary was paid. at the congress of the states-general, the scene of his most important functions, he was the ambassador of holland, acting nominally according to their instructions, and exercising the powers of minister of foreign affairs and, as it were, prime minister for the other confederates by their common consent. the system would have been intolerable, the great affairs of war and peace could never have been carried on so triumphantly, had not the preponderance of the one province holland, richer, more powerful, more important in every way than the other six provinces combined, given to the confederacy illegally, but virtually, many of the attributes of union. rather by usucaption than usurpation holland had in many regards come to consider herself and be considered as the republic itself. and barneveld, acting always in the name of holland and with the most modest of titles and appointments, was for a long time in all civil matters the chief of the whole country. this had been convenient during the war, still more convenient during negotiations for peace, but it was inevitable that there should be murmurs now that the cessation from military operations on a large scale had given men time to look more deeply into the nature of a constitution partly inherited and partly improvised, and having many of the defects usually incident to both sources of government. the military interest, the ecclesiastical power, and the influence of foreign nations exerted through diplomatic intrigue, were rapidly arraying themselves in determined hostility to barneveld and to what was deemed his tyrannous usurpation. a little later the national spirit, as opposed to provincial and municipal patriotism, was to be aroused against him, and was likely to prove the most formidable of all the elements of antagonism. it is not necessary to anticipate here what must be developed on a subsequent page. this much, however, it is well to indicate for the correct understanding of passing events. barneveld did not consider himself the officer or servant of their high mightinesses the states- general, while in reality often acting as their master, but the vassal and obedient functionary of their great mightinesses the states of holland, whom he almost absolutely controlled. his present most pressing business was to resist the encroachments of the sacerdotal power and to defend the magistracy. the casuistical questions which were fast maddening the public mind seemed of importance to him only as enclosing within them a more vital and practical question of civil government. but the anger of his opponents, secret and open, was rapidly increasing. envy, jealousy, political and clerical hate, above all, that deadliest and basest of malignant spirits which in partisan warfare is bred out of subserviency to rising and rival power, were swarming about him and stinging him at every step. no parasite of maurice could more effectively pay his court and more confidently hope for promotion or reward than by vilipending barneveld. it would be difficult to comprehend the infinite extent and power of slander without a study of the career of the advocate of holland. "i thank you for your advices," he wrote to carom' "and i wish from my heart that his majesty, according to his royal wisdom and clemency towards the condition of this country, would listen only to my lords the states or their ministers, and not to his own or other passionate persons who, through misunderstanding or malice, furnish him with information and so frequently flatter him. i have tried these twenty years to deserve his majesty's confidence, and have many letters from him reaching through twelve or fifteen years, in which he does me honour and promises his royal favour. i am the more chagrined that through false and passionate reports and information--because i am resolved to remain good and true to my lords the states, to the fatherland, and to the true christian religion--i and mine should now be so traduced. i hope that god almighty will second my upright conscience, and cause his majesty soon to see the injustice done to me and mine. to defend the resolutions of my lords the states of holland is my office, duty, and oath, and i assure you that those resolutions are taken with wider vision and scope than his majesty can believe. let this serve for my lords' defence and my own against indecent calumny, for my duty allows me to pursue no other course." he again alluded to the dreary affair of vorstius, and told the envoy that the venation caused by it was incredible. "that men unjustly defame our cities and their regents is nothing new," he said; "but i assure you that it is far more damaging to the common weal than the defamers imagine." some of the private admirers of arminius who were deeply grieved at so often hearing him "publicly decried as the enemy of god" had been defending the great heretic to james, and by so doing had excited the royal wrath not only against the deceased doctor and themselves, but against the states of holland who had given them no commission. on the other hand the advanced orthodox party, most bitter haters of barneveld, and whom in his correspondence with england he uniformly and perhaps designedly called the puritans, knowing that the very word was a scarlet rag to james, were growing louder and louder in their demands. "some thirty of these puritans," said he, "of whom at least twenty are flemings or other foreigners equally violent, proclaim that they and the like of them mean alone to govern the church. let his majesty compare this proposal with his royal present, with his salutary declaration at london in the year to doctor reynolds and his associates, and with his admonition delivered to the emperor, kings, sovereigns, and republics, and he will best understand the mischievous principles of these people, who are now gaining credit with him to the detriment of the freedom and laws of these provinces." a less enlightened statesman than barneveld would have found it easy enough to demonstrate the inconsistency of the king in thus preaching subserviency of government to church and favouring the rule of puritans over both. it needed but slender logic to reduce such a policy on his part to absurdity, but neither kings nor governments are apt to value themselves on their logic. so long as james could play the pedagogue to emperors, kings, and republics, it mattered little to him that the doctrines which he preached in one place he had pronounced flat blasphemy in another. that he would cheerfully hang in england the man whom he would elevate to power in holland might be inconsistency in lesser mortals; but what was the use of his infallibility if he was expected to be consistent? but one thing was certain. the advocate saw through him as if he had been made of glass, and james knew that he did. this fatal fact outweighed all the decorous and respectful phraseology under which barneveld veiled his remorseless refutations. it was a dangerous thing to incur the wrath of this despot-theologian. prince maurice, who had originally joined in the invitation given by the overseers of leyden to vorstius, and had directed one of the deputies and his own "court trumpeter," uytenbogaert, to press him earnestly to grant his services to the university, now finding the coldness of barneveld to the fiery remonstrances of the king, withdrew his protection of the professor. "the count maurice, who is a wise and understanding prince," said winwood, "and withal most affectionate to his majesty's service, doth foresee the miseries into which these countries are likely to fall, and with grief doth pine away." it is probable that the great stadholder had never been more robust, or indeed inclining to obesity, than precisely at this epoch; but sir ralph was of an imaginative turn. he had discovered, too, that the advocate's design was "of no other nature than so to stem the course of the state that insensibly the provinces shall fall by relapse into the hands of spain." a more despicable idea never entered a human brain. every action, word, and thought, of barneveld's life was a refutation of it. but he was unwilling, at the bidding of a king, to treat a professor with contumely who had just been solemnly and unanimously invited by the great university, by the states of holland, and by the stadholder to an important chair; and that was enough for the diplomatist and courtier. "he, and only he," said winwood passionately, "hath opposed his majesty's purposes with might and main." formerly the ambassador had been full of complaints of "the craving humour of count maurice," and had censured him bitterly in his correspondence for having almost by his inordinate pretensions for money and other property brought the treaty of truce to a standstill. and in these charges he was as unjust and as reckless as he was now in regard to barneveld. the course of james and his agents seemed cunningly devised to sow discord in the provinces, to inflame the growing animosity of the stadholder to the advocate, and to paralyse the action of the republic in the duchies. if the king had received direct instructions from the spanish cabinet how to play the spanish game, he could hardly have done it with more docility. but was not gondemar ever at his elbow, and the infanta always in the perspective? and it is strange enough that, at the same moment, spanish marriages were in france as well as england the turning-point of policy. henry had been willing enough that the dauphin should espouse a spanish infanta, and that one of the spanish princes should be affianced to one of his daughters. but the proposition from spain had been coupled with a condition that the friendship between france and the netherlands should be at once broken off, and the rebellious heretics left to their fate. and this condition had been placed before him with such arrogance that he had rejected the whole scheme. henry was not the man to do anything dishonourable at the dictation of another sovereign. he was also not the man to be ignorant that the friendship of the provinces was necessary to him, that cordial friendship between france and spain was impossible, and that to allow spain to reoccupy that splendid possession between his own realms and germany, from which she had been driven by the hollanders in close alliance with himself, would be unworthy of the veriest schoolboy in politics. but henry was dead, and a medici reigned in his place, whose whole thought was to make herself agreeable to spain. aerssens, adroit, prying, experienced, unscrupulous, knew very well that these double spanish marriages were resolved upon, and that the inevitable condition refused by the king would be imposed upon his widow. he so informed the states-general, and it was known to the french government that he had informed them. his position soon became almost untenable, not because he had given this information, but because the information and the inference made from it were correct. it will be observed that the policy of the advocate was to preserve friendly relations between france and england, and between both and the united provinces. it was for this reason that he submitted to the exhortations and denunciations of the english ambassadors. it was for this that he kept steadily in view the necessity of dealing with and supporting corporate france, the french government, when there were many reasons for feeling sympathy with the internal rebellion against that government. maurice felt differently. he was connected by blood or alliance with more than one of the princes now perpetually in revolt. bouillon was his brother-in-law, the sister of conde was his brother's wife. another cousin, the elector-palatine, was already encouraging distant and extravagant hopes of the imperial crown. it was not unnatural that he should feel promptings of ambition and sympathy difficult to avow even to himself, and that he should feel resentment against the man by whom this secret policy was traversed in the well- considered interest of the republican government. aerssens, who, with the keen instinct of self-advancement was already attaching himself to maurice as to the wheels of the chariot going steadily up the hill, was not indisposed to loosen his hold upon the man through whose friendship he had first risen, and whose power was now perhaps on the decline. moreover, events had now caused him to hate the french government with much fervour. with henry iv. he had been all- powerful. his position had been altogether exceptional, and he had wielded an influence at paris more than that exerted by any foreign ambassador. the change naturally did not please him, although he well knew the reasons. it was impossible for the dutch ambassador to be popular at a court where spain ruled supreme. had he been willing to eat humiliation as with a spoon, it would not have sufficed. they knew him, they feared him, and they could not doubt that his sympathies would ever be with the malcontent princes. at the same time he did not like to lose his hold upon the place, nor to have it known, as yet, to the world that his power was diminished. "the queen commands me to tell you," said the french ambassador de russy to the states-general, "that the language of the sieur aerssens has not only astonished her, but scandalized her to that degree that she could not refrain from demanding if it came from my lords the states or from himself. he having, however, affirmed to her majesty that he had express charge to justify it by reasons so remote from the hope and the belief that she had conceived of your gratitude to the most christian king and herself, she is constrained to complain of it, and with great frankness." some months later than this aerssens communicated to the states-general the project of the spanish marriage, "which," said he, "they have declared to me with so many oaths to be false." he informed them that m. de refuge was to go on special mission to the hague, "having been designated to that duty before aerssens' discovery of the marriage project." he was to persuade their mightinesses that the marriages were by no means concluded, and that, even if they were, their mightinesses were not interested therein, their majesties intending to remain by the old maxims and alliances of the late king. marriages, he would be instructed to say, were mere personal conventions, which remained of no consideration when the interests of the crown were touched. "nevertheless, i know very well," said aerssens, "that in england these negotiations are otherwise understood, and that the king has uttered great complaints about them, saying that such a negotiation as this ought not to have been concealed from him. he is pressing more than ever for reimbursement of the debt to him, and especially for the moneys pretended to have been furnished to your mightinesses in his majesty's name." thus it will be seen how closely the spanish marriages were connected with the immediate financial arrangements of france, england, and the states, without reference to the wider political consequences anticipated. "the princes and most gentlemen," here continued the ambassador, "believe that these reciprocal and double marriages will bring about great changes in christendom if they take the course which the authors of them intend, however much they may affect to believe that no novelties are impending. the marriages were proposed to the late king, and approved by him, during the negotiations for the truce, and had don pedro do toledo been able to govern himself, as jeannin has just been telling me, the united provinces would have drawn from it their assured security. what he means by that, i certainly cannot conceive, for don pedro proposed the marriage of the dauphin (now louis xiii.) with the infanta on the condition that henry should renounce all friendship with your mightinesses, and neither openly nor secretly give you any assistance. you were to be entirely abandoned, as an example for all who throw off the authority of their lawful prince. but his majesty answered very generously that he would take no conditions; that he considered your mightinesses as his best friends, whom he could not and would not forsake. upon this don pedro broke off the negotiation. what should now induce the king of spain to resume the marriage negotiations but to give up the conditions, i am sure i don't know, unless, through the truce, his designs and his ambition have grown flaccid. this i don't dare to hope, but fear, on the contrary, that he will so manage the irresolution, weakness, and faintheartedness of this kingdom as through the aid of his pensioned friends here to arrive at all his former aims." certainly the ambassador painted the condition of france in striking and veracious colours, and he was quite right in sending the information which he was first to discover, and which it was so important for the states to know. it was none the less certain in barneveld's mind that the best, not the worst, must be made of the state of affairs, and that france should not be assisted in throwing herself irrecoverably into the arms of spain. "refuge will tell you," said aerssens, a little later, "that these marriages will not interfere with the friendship of france for you nor with her subsidies, and that no advantage will be given to spain in the treaty to your detriment or that of her other allies. but whatever fine declarations they may make, it is sure to be detrimental. and all the princes, gentlemen, and officers here have the same conviction. those of the reformed religion believe that the transaction is directed solely against the religion which your mightinesses profess, and that the next step will be to effect a total separation between the two religions and the two countries." refuge arrived soon afterwards, and made the communication to the states- general of the approaching nuptials between the king of france and the infanta of spain; and of the prince of spain with madame, eldest daughter of france, exactly as aerssens had predicted four months before. there was a great flourish of compliments, much friendly phrase-making, and their mightinesses were informed that the communication of the marriages was made to them before any other power had been notified, in proof of the extraordinary affection entertained for them by france. "you are so much interested in the happiness of france," said refuge, "that this treaty by which it is secured will be for your happiness also. he did not indicate, however, the precise nature of the bliss beyond the indulgence of a sentimental sympathy, not very refreshing in the circumstances, which was to result to the confederacy from this close alliance between their firmest friend and their ancient and deadly enemy. he would have found it difficult to do so. "don rodrigo de calderon, secretary of state, is daily expected from spain," wrote, aerssens once more. "he brings probably the articles of the marriages, which have hitherto been kept secret, so they say. 'tis a shrewd negotiator; and in this alliance the king's chief design is to injure your mightinesses, as m. de villeroy now confesses, although he says that this will not be consented to on this side. it behoves your mightinesses to use all your ears and eyes. it is certain these are much more than private conventions. yes, there is nothing private about them, save the conjunction of the persons whom they concern. in short, all the conditions regard directly the state, and directly likewise, or by necessary consequence, the state of your mightinesses' provinces. i reserve explanations until it shall please your mightinesses to hear me by word of mouth." for it was now taken into consideration by the states' government whether aerssens was to remain at his post or to return. whether it was his wish to be relieved of his embassy or not was a question. but there was no question that the states at this juncture, and in spite of the dangers impending from the spanish marriages, must have an ambassador ready to do his best to keep france from prematurely sliding into positive hostility to them. aerssens was enigmatical in his language, and barneveld was somewhat puzzled. "i have according to your reiterated requests," wrote the advocate to the ambassador, "sounded the assembly of my lords the states as to your recall; but i find among some gentlemen the opinion that if earnestly pressed to continue you would be willing to listen to the proposal. this i cannot make out from your letters. please to advise me frankly as to your wishes, and assure yourself in everything of my friendship." nothing could be more straightforward than this language, but the envoy was less frank than barneveld, as will subsequently appear. the subject was a most important one, not only in its relation to the great affairs of state, but to momentous events touching the fate of illustrious personages. meantime a resolution was passed by the states of holland "in regard to the question whether ambassador aerssens should retain his office, yes or no?" and it was decided by a majority of votes "to leave it to his candid opinion if in his free conscience he thinks he can serve the public cause there any longer. if yes, he may keep his office one year more. if no, he may take leave and come home. in no case is his salary to be increased." surely the states, under the guidance of the advocate, had thus acted with consummate courtesy towards a diplomatist whose position from no apparent fault of his own but by the force of circumstances--and rather to his credit than otherwise--was gravely compromised. etext editor's bookmarks: advanced orthodox party-puritans atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required he was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin he who would have all may easily lose all king's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one the defence of the civil authority against the priesthood this ebook was produced by david widger [note: there is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. d.w.] the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume the life and death of john of barneveld, v , preface: these volumes make a separate work in themselves. they form also the natural sequel to the other histories already published by the author, as well as the necessary introduction to that concluding portion of his labours which he has always desired to lay before the public; a history of the thirty years' war. for the two great wars which successively established the independence of holland and the disintegration of germany are in reality but one; a prolonged tragedy of eighty years. the brief pause, which in the netherlands was known as the twelve years' truce with spain, was precisely the epoch in which the elements were slowly and certainly gathering for the renewal over nearly the whole surface of civilized europe of that immense conflict which for more than forty years had been raging within the narrow precincts of the netherlands. the causes and character of the two wars were essentially the same. there were many changes of persons and of scenery during a struggle which lasted for nearly three generations of mankind; yet a natural succession both of actors, motives, and events will be observed from the beginning to the close. the designs of charles v. to establish universal monarchy, which he had passionately followed for a lifetime through a series of colossal crimes against humanity and of private misdeeds against individuals, such as it has rarely been permitted to a single despot to perpetrate, had been baffled at last. disappointed, broken, but even to our own generation never completely unveiled, the tyrant had withdrawn from the stage of human affairs, leaving his son to carry on the great conspiracy against human right, independence of nations, liberty of thought, and equality of religions, with the additional vigour which sprang from intensity of conviction. for philip possessed at least that superiority over his father that he was a sincere bigot. in the narrow and gloomy depths of his soul he had doubtless persuaded himself that it was necessary for the redemption of the human species that the empire of the world should be vested in his hands, that protestantism in all its forms should be extirpated as a malignant disease, and that to behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics who opposed the decree of himself and the holy church was the highest virtue by which he could merit heaven. the father would have permitted protestantism if protestantism would have submitted to universal monarchy. there would have been small difficulty in the early part of his reign in effecting a compromise between rome and augsburg, had the gigantic secular ambition of charles not preferred to weaken the church and to convert conscientious religious reform into political mutiny; a crime against him who claimed the sovereignty of christendom. the materials for the true history of that reign lie in the archives of spain, austria, rome, venice, and the netherlands, and in many other places. when out of them one day a complete and authentic narrative shall have been constructed, it will be seen how completely the policy of charles foreshadowed and necessitated that of philip, how logically, under the successors of philip, the austrian dream of universal empire ended in the shattering, in the minute subdivision, and the reduction to a long impotence of that germanic empire which had really belonged to charles. unfortunately the great republic which, notwithstanding the aid of england on the one side and of france on the other, had withstood almost single-handed the onslaughts of spain, now allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body at the first epoch of peace, although it had successfully exorcised the evil spirit during the long and terrible war. there can be no doubt whatever that the discords within the interior of the dutch republic during the period of the truce, and their tragic catastrophe, had weakened her purpose and partially paralysed her arm. when the noble commonwealth went forward to the renewed and general conflict which succeeded the concentrated one in which it had been the chief actor, the effect of those misspent twelve years became apparent. indeed the real continuity of the war was scarcely broken by the fitful, armistice. the death of john of cleve, an event almost simultaneous with the conclusion of the truce, seemed to those gifted with political vision the necessary precursor of a new and more general war. the secret correspondence of barneveld shows the almost prophetic accuracy with which he indicated the course of events and the approach of an almost universal conflict, while that tragedy was still in the future, and was to be enacted after he had been laid in his bloody grave. no man then living was so accustomed as he was to sweep the political horizon, and to estimate the signs and portents of the times. no statesman was left in europe during the epoch of the twelve years' truce to compare with him in experience, breadth of vision, political tact, or administrative sagacity. imbued with the grand traditions and familiar with the great personages of a most heroic epoch; the trusted friend or respected counsellor of william the silent, henry iv., elizabeth, and the sages and soldiers on whom they leaned; having been employed during an already long lifetime in the administration of greatest affairs, he stood alone after the deaths of henry of france and the second cecil, and the retirement of sully, among the natural leaders of mankind. to the england of elizabeth, of walsingham, raleigh, and the cecils, had succeeded the great britain of james, with his carrs and carletons, nauntons, lakes, and winwoods. france, widowed of henry and waiting for richelieu, lay in the clutches of concini's, epernons, and bouillons, bound hand and foot to spain. germany, falling from rudolph to matthias, saw styrian ferdinand in the background ready to shatter the fabric of a hundred years of attempted reformation. in the republic of the netherlands were the great soldier and the only remaining statesman of the age. at a moment when the breathing space had been agreed upon before the conflict should be renewed; on a wider field than ever, between spanish-austrian world-empire and independence of the nations; between the ancient and only church and the spirit of religious equality; between popular right and royal and sacerdotal despotism; it would have been desirable that the soldier and the statesman should stand side by side, and that the fortunate confederacy, gifted with two such champions and placed by its own achievements at the very head of the great party of resistance, should be true to herself. these volumes contain a slight and rapid sketch of barneveld's career up to the point at which the twelve years' truce with spain was signed in the year . in previous works the author has attempted to assign the great advocate's place as part and parcel of history during the continuance of the war for independence. during the period of the truce he will be found the central figure. the history of europe, especially of the netherlands, britain, france, and germany, cannot be thoroughly appreciated without a knowledge of the designs, the labours, and the fate of barneveld. the materials for estimating his character and judging his judges lie in the national archives of the land of which he was so long the foremost citizen. but they have not long been accessible. the letters, state papers, and other documents remain unprinted, and have rarely been read. m. van deventer has published three most interesting volumes of the advocate's correspondence, but they reach only to the beginning of . he has suspended his labours exactly at the moment when these volumes begin. i have carefully studied however nearly the whole of that correspondence, besides a mass of other papers. the labour is not light, for the handwriting of the great advocate is perhaps the worst that ever existed, and the papers, although kept in the admirable order which distinguishes the archives of the hague, have passed through many hands at former epochs before reaching their natural destination in the treasure-house of the nation. especially the documents connected with the famous trial were for a long time hidden from mortal view, for barneveld's judges had bound themselves by oath to bury the proceedings out of sight. and the concealment lasted for centuries. very recently a small portion of those papers has been published by the historical society of utrecht. the "verhooren," or interrogatories of the judges, and the replies of barneveld, have thus been laid before the reading public of holland, while within the last two years the distinguished and learned historian, professor fruin, has edited the "verhooren" of hugo grotius. but papers like these, important as they are, make but a slender portion of the material out of which a judgment concerning these grave events can be constructed. i do not therefore offer an apology for the somewhat copious extracts which i have translated and given in these volumes from the correspondence of barneveld and from other manuscripts of great value--most of them in the royal archives of holland and belgium--which are unknown to the public. i have avoided as much as possible any dealings with the theological controversies so closely connected with the events which i have attempted to describe. this work aims at being a political study. the subject is full of lessons, examples, and warnings for the inhabitants of all free states. especially now that the republican system of government is undergoing a series of experiments with more or less success in one hemisphere--while in our own land it is consolidated, powerful, and unchallenged--will the conflicts between the spirits of national centralization and of provincial sovereignty, and the struggle between the church, the sword, and the magistracy for supremacy in a free commonwealth, as revealed in the first considerable republic of modern history, be found suggestive of deep reflection. those who look in this work for a history of the synod of dordtrecht will look in vain. the author has neither wish nor power to grapple with the mysteries and passions which at that epoch possessed so many souls. the assembly marks a political period. its political aspects have been anxiously examined, but beyond the ecclesiastical threshold there has been no attempt to penetrate. it was necessary for my purpose to describe in some detail the relations of henry iv. with the dutch republic during the last and most pregnant year of his life, which makes the first of the present history. these relations are of european importance, and the materials for appreciating them are of unexpected richness, in the dutch and belgian archives. especially the secret correspondence, now at the hague, of that very able diplomatist francis aerssens with barneveld during the years , , and , together with many papers at brussels, are full of vital importance. they throw much light both on the vast designs which filled the brain of henry at this fatal epoch and on his extraordinary infatuation for the young princess of conde by which they were traversed, and which was productive of such widespread political anal tragical results. this episode forms a necessary portion of my theme, and has therefore been set forth from original sources. i am under renewed obligations to my friend m. gachard, the eminent publicist and archivist of belgium, for his constant and friendly offices to me (which i have so often experienced before), while studying the documents under his charge relating to this epoch; especially the secret correspondence of archduke albert with philip iii, and his ministers, and with pecquius, the archduke's agent at paris. it is also a great pleasure to acknowledge the unceasing courtesy and zealous aid rendered me during my renewed studies in the archives at the hague--lasting through nearly two years--by the chief archivist, m. van den berg, and the gentlemen connected with that institution, especially m. de jonghe and m. hingman, without whose aid it would have been difficult for me to decipher and to procure copies of the almost illegible holographs of barneveld. i must also thank m. van deventer for communicating copies of some curious manuscripts relating to my subject, some from private archives in holland, and others from those of simancas. a single word only remains to be said in regard to the name of the statesman whose career i have undertaken to describe. his proper appellation and that by which he has always been known in his own country is oldenbarneveld, but in his lifetime and always in history from that time to this he has been called barneveld in english as well as french, and this transformation, as it were, of the name has become so settled a matter that after some hesitation it has been adopted in the present work. the author would take this opportunity of expressing his gratitude for the indulgence with which his former attempts to illustrate an important period of european history have been received by the public, and his anxious hope that the present volumes may be thought worthy of attention. they are the result at least of severe and conscientious labour at the original sources of history, but the subject is so complicated and difficult that it may well be feared that the ability to depict and unravel is unequal to the earnestness with which the attempt has been made. london, . the life and death of john of barneveld, v , chapter i. john of barneveld the founder of the commonwealth of the united provinces--maurice of orange stadholder, but servant to the states- general--the union of utrecht maintained--barneveld makes a compromise between civil functionaries and church officials-- embassies to france, england, and to venice--the appointment of arminius to be professor of theology at leyden creates dissension-- the catholic league opposed by the great protestant union--death of the duke of cleve and struggle for his succession--the elector of brandenburg and palatine of neuburg hold the duchies at barneveld's advice against the emperor, though having rival claims themselves-- negotiations with the king of france--he becomes the ally of the states-general to protect the possessory princes, and prepares for war. i propose to retrace the history of a great statesman's career. that statesman's name, but for the dark and tragic scenes with which it was ultimately associated, might after the lapse of two centuries and a half have faded into comparative oblivion, so impersonal and shadowy his presence would have seemed upon the great european theatre where he was so long a chief actor, and where his efforts and his achievements were foremost among those productive of long enduring and widespread results. there is no doubt whatever that john of barneveld, advocate and seal keeper of the little province of holland during forty years of as troubled and fertile an epoch as any in human history, was second to none of his contemporary statesmen. yet the singular constitution and historical position of the republic whose destinies he guided and the peculiar and abnormal office which he held combined to cast a veil over his individuality. the ever-teeming brain, the restless almost omnipresent hand, the fertile pen, the eloquent and ready tongue, were seen, heard, and obeyed by the great european public, by the monarchs, statesmen, and warriors of the time, at many critical moments of history, but it was not john of barneveld that spoke to the world. those "high and puissant lords my masters the states-general" personified the young but already majestic republic. dignified, draped, and concealed by that overshadowing title the informing and master spirit performed its never ending task. those who study the enormous masses of original papers in the archives of the country will be amazed to find how the penmanship, most difficult to decipher, of the advocate meets them at every turn. letters to monarchs, generals, ambassadors, resolutions of councils, of sovereign assemblies, of trading corporations, of great indian companies, legal and historical disquisitions of great depth and length on questions agitating europe, constitutional arguments, drafts of treaties among the leading powers of the world, instructions to great commissions, plans for european campaigns, vast combinations covering the world, alliances of empire, scientific expeditions and discoveries--papers such as these covered now with the satirical dust of centuries, written in the small, crabbed, exasperating characters which make barneveld's handwriting almost cryptographic, were once, when fairly engrossed and sealed with the great seal of the haughty burgher-aristocracy, the documents which occupied the close attention of the cabinets of christendom. it is not unfrequent to find four or five important despatches compressed almost in miniature upon one sheet of gigantic foolscap. it is also curious to find each one of these rough drafts conscientiously beginning in the statesman's own hand with the elaborate phrases of compliment belonging to the epoch such as "noble, strenuous, severe, highly honourable, very learned, very discreet, and very wise masters," and ending with "may the lord god almighty eternally preserve you and hold you in his holy keeping in this world and for ever"--decorations which one might have thought it safe to leave to be filled in by the secretary or copying clerk. thus there have been few men at any period whose lives have been more closely identical than his with a national history. there have been few great men in any history whose names have become less familiar to the world, and lived less in the mouths of posterity. yet there can be no doubt that if william the silent was the founder of the independence of the united provinces barneveld was the founder of the commonwealth itself. he had never the opportunity, perhaps he might have never had the capacity, to make such prodigious sacrifices in the cause of country as the great prince had done. but he had served his country strenuously from youth to old age with an abiding sense of duty, a steadiness of purpose, a broad vision, a firm grasp, and an opulence of resource such as not one of his compatriots could even pretend to rival. had that country of which he was so long the first citizen maintained until our own day the same proportionate position among the empires of christendom as it held in the seventeenth century, the name of john of barneveld would have perhaps been as familiar to all men as it is at this moment to nearly every inhabitant of the netherlands. even now political passion is almost as ready to flame forth either in ardent affection or enthusiastic hatred as if two centuries and a half had not elapsed since his death. his name is so typical of a party, a polity, and a faith, so indelibly associated with a great historical cataclysm, as to render it difficult even for the grave, the conscientious, the learned, the patriotic of his own compatriots to speak of him with absolute impartiality. a foreigner who loves and admires all that is great and noble in the history of that famous republic and can have no hereditary bias as to its ecclesiastical or political theories may at least attempt the task with comparative coldness, although conscious of inability to do thorough justice to a most complex subject. in former publications devoted to netherland history i have endeavoured to trace the course of events of which the life and works of the advocate were a vital ingredient down to the period when spain after more than forty years of hard fighting virtually acknowledged the independence of the republic and concluded with her a truce of twelve years. that convention was signed in the spring of . the ten ensuing years in europe were comparatively tranquil, but they were scarcely to be numbered among the full and fruitful sheaves of a pacific epoch. it was a pause, a breathing spell during which the sulphurous clouds which had made the atmosphere of christendom poisonous for nearly half a century had sullenly rolled away, while at every point of the horizon they were seen massing themselves anew in portentous and ever accumulating strength. at any moment the faint and sickly sunshine in which poor exhausted humanity was essaying a feeble twitter of hope as it plumed itself for a peaceful flight might be again obscured. to us of a remote posterity the momentary division of epochs seems hardly discernible. so rapidly did that fight of demons which we call the thirty years' war tread on the heels of the forty years' struggle for dutch independence which had just been suspended that we are accustomed to think and speak of the eighty years' war as one pure, perfect, sanguinary whole. and indeed the tragedy which was soon to sweep solemnly across europe was foreshadowed in the first fitful years of peace. the throb of the elementary forces already shook the soil of christendom. the fantastic but most significant conflict in the territories of the dead duke of clove reflected the distant and gigantic war as in a mirage. it will be necessary to direct the reader's attention at the proper moment to that episode, for it was one in which the beneficent sagacity of barneveld was conspicuously exerted in the cause of peace and conservation. meantime it is not agreeable to reflect that this brief period of nominal and armed peace which the republic had conquered after nearly two generations of warfare was employed by her in tearing her own flesh. the heroic sword which had achieved such triumphs in the cause of freedom could have been bitter employed than in an attempt at political suicide. in a picture of the last decade of barneveld's eventful life his personality may come more distinctly forward perhaps than in previous epochs. it will however be difficult to disentangle a single thread from the great historical tapestry of the republic and of europe in which his life and achievements are interwoven. he was a public man in the fullest sense of the word, and without his presence and influence the record of holland, france, spain, britain, and germany might have been essentially modified. the republic was so integral a part of that system which divided europe into two great hostile camps according to creeds rather than frontiers that the history of its foremost citizen touches at every point the general history of christendom. the great peculiarity of the dutch constitution at this epoch was that no principle was absolutely settled. in throwing off a foreign tyranny and successfully vindicating national independence the burghers and nobles had not had leisure to lay down any organic law. nor had the day for profound investigation of the political or social contract arrived. men dealt almost exclusively with facts, and when the facts arranged themselves illogically and incoherently the mischief was grave and difficult to remedy. it is not a trifling inconvenience for an organized commonwealth to be in doubt as to where, in whom, and of what nature is its sovereignty. yet this was precisely the condition of the united netherlands. to the eternal world so dazzling were the reputation and the achievements of their great captain that he was looked upon by many as the legitimate chief of the state and doubtless friendly monarchs would have cordially welcomed him into their brotherhood. during the war he had been surrounded by almost royal state. two hundred officers lived daily at his table. great nobles and scions of sovereign houses were his pupils or satellites. the splendour of military despotism and the awe inspired by his unquestioned supremacy in what was deemed the greatest of all sciences invested the person of maurice of nassau with a grandeur which many a crowned potentate might envy. his ample appointments united with the spoils of war provided him with almost royal revenues, even before the death of his elder brother philip william had placed in his hands the principality and wealthy possessions of orange. hating contradiction, arbitrary by instinct and by military habit, impatient of criticism, and having long acknowledged no master in the chief business of state, he found himself at the conclusion of the truce with his great occupation gone, and, although generously provided for by the treasury of the republic, yet with an income proportionately limited. politics and theology were fields in which he had hardly served an apprenticeship, and it was possible that when he should step forward as a master in those complicated and difficult pursuits, soon to absorb the attention of the commonwealth and the world, it might appear that war was not the only science that required serious preliminary studies. meantime he found himself not a king, not the master of a nominal republic, but the servant of the states-general, and the limited stadholder of five out of seven separate provinces. and the states-general were virtually john of barneveld. could antagonism be more sharply defined? jealousy, that potent principle which controls the regular movements and accounts for the aberrations of humanity in widest spheres as well as narrowest circles far more generally and conclusively than philosophers or historians have been willing to admit, began forthwith to manifest its subtle and irresistible influence. and there were not to be wanting acute and dangerous schemers who saw their profit in augmenting its intensity. the seven provinces, when the truce of twelve years had been signed, were neither exhausted nor impoverished. yet they had just emerged from a forty years' conflict such as no people in human history had ever waged against a foreign tyranny. they had need to repose and recruit, but they stood among the foremost great powers of the day. it is not easy in imagination to thrust back the present leading empires of the earth into the contracted spheres of their not remote past. but to feel how a little confederacy of seven provinces loosely tied together by an ill- defined treaty could hold so prominent and often so controlling a place in the european system of the seventeenth century, we must remember that there was then no germany, no russia, no italy, no united states of america, scarcely even a great britain in the sense which belongs to that mighty empire now. france, spain, england, the pope, and the emperor were the leading powers with which the netherlands were daily called on to solve great problems and try conclusions; the study of political international equilibrium, now rapidly and perhaps fortunately becoming one of the lost arts, being then the most indispensable duty of kings and statesmen. spain and france, which had long since achieved for themselves the political union of many independent kingdoms and states into which they had been divided were the most considerable powers and of necessity rivals. spain, or rather the house of austria divided into its two great branches, still pursued its persistent and by no means fantastic dream of universal monarchy. both spain and france could dispose of somewhat larger resources absolutely, although not relatively, than the seven provinces, while at least trebling them in population. the yearly revenue of spain after deduction of its pledged resources was perhaps equal to a million sterling, and that of france with the same reservation was about as much. england had hardly been able to levy and make up a yearly income of more than l , or l , at the end of elizabeth's reign or in the first years of james, while the netherlands had often proved themselves capable of furnishing annually ten or twelve millions of florins, which would be the equivalent of nearly a million sterling. the yearly revenues of the whole monarchy of the imperial house of habsburg can scarcely be stated at a higher figure than l , . thus the political game--for it was a game--was by no means a desperate one for the netherlands, nor the resources of the various players so unequally distributed as at first sight it might appear. the emancipation of the provinces from the grasp of spain and the establishment by them of a commonwealth, for that epoch a very free one, and which contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty, religious, political, and commercial, than had yet been known, was already one of the most considerable results of the reformation. the probability of its continued and independent existence was hardly believed in by potentate or statesman outside its own borders, and had not been very long a decided article of faith even within them. the knotty problem of an acknowledgment of that existence, the admission of the new-born state into the family of nations, and a temporary peace guaranteed by two great powers, had at last been solved mainly by the genius of barneveld working amid many disadvantages and against great obstructions. the truce had been made, and it now needed all the skill, coolness, and courage of a practical and original statesman to conduct the affairs of the confederacy. the troubled epoch of peace was even now heaving with warlike emotions, and was hardly less stormy than the war which had just been suspended. the republic was like a raft loosely strung together, floating almost on a level of the ocean, and often half submerged, but freighted with inestimable treasures for itself and the world. it needed an unsleeping eye and a powerful brain to conduct her over the quicksands and through the whirlpools of an unmapped and intricate course. the sovereignty of the country so far as its nature could be satisfactorily analysed seemed to be scattered through, and inherent in each one of, the multitudinous boards of magistracy--close corporations, self-elected--by which every city was governed. nothing could be more preposterous. practically, however, these boards were represented by deputies in each of the seven provincial assemblies, and these again sent councillors from among their number to the general assembly which was that of their high mightinesses the lords states-general. the province of holland, being richer and more powerful than all its six sisters combined, was not unwilling to impose a supremacy which on the whole was practically conceded by the rest. thus the union of utrecht established in was maintained for want of anything better as the foundation of the commonwealth. the advocate and keeper of the great seal of that province was therefore virtually prime minister, president, attorney-general, finance minister, and minister of foreign affairs of the whole republic. this was barneveld's position. he took the lead in the deliberations both of the states of holland and the states-general, moved resolutions, advocated great measures of state, gave heed to their execution, collected the votes, summed up the proceedings, corresponded with and instructed ambassadors, received and negotiated with foreign ministers, besides directing and holding in his hands the various threads of the home policy and the rapidly growing colonial system of the republic. all this work barneveld had been doing for thirty years. the reformation was by no mans assured even in the lands where it had at first made the most essential progress. but the existence of the new commonwealth depended on the success of that great movement which had called it into being. losing ground in france, fluctuating in england, protestantism was apparently more triumphant in vast territories where the ancient church was one day to recover its mastery. of the population of bohemia, there were perhaps ten protestants to one papist, while in the united netherlands at least one-third of the people were still attached to the catholic faith. the great religious struggle in bohemia and other dominions of the habsburg family was fast leading to a war of which no man could even imagine the horrors or foresee the vast extent. the catholic league and the protestant union were slowly arranging europe into two mighty confederacies. they were to give employment year after year to millions of mercenary freebooters who were to practise murder, pillage, and every imaginable and unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry that could occupy mankind. the holy empire which so ingeniously combined the worst characteristics of despotism and republicanism kept all germany and half europe in the turmoil of a perpetual presidential election. a theatre where trivial personages and graceless actors performed a tragi-comedy of mingled folly, intrigue, and crime, and where earnestness and vigour were destined to be constantly baffled, now offered the principal stage for the entertainment and excitement of christendom. there was but one king in europe, henry the bearnese. the men who sat on the thrones in madrid, vienna, london, would have lived and died unknown but for the crowns they wore, and while there were plenty of bustling politicians here and there in christendom, there were not many statesmen. among them there was no stronger man than john of barneveld, and no man had harder or more complicated work to do. born in amersfoort in , of the ancient and knightly house of oldenbarneveldt, of patrician blood through all his ancestors both male and female, he was not the heir to large possessions, and was a diligent student and hardworking man from youth upward. he was not wont to boast of his pedigree until in later life, being assailed by vilest slander, all his kindred nearest or most remote being charged with every possible and unmentionable crime, and himself stigmatized as sprung from the lowest kennels of humanity--as if thereby his private character and public services could be more legitimately blackened--he was stung into exhibiting to the world the purity and antiquity of his escutcheon, and a roll of respectably placed, well estated, and authentically noble, if not at all illustrious, forefathers in his country's records of the previous centuries. without an ancestor at his back he might have valued himself still more highly on the commanding place he held in the world by right divine of intellect, but as the father of lies seemed to have kept his creatures so busy with the barneveld genealogy, it was not amiss for the statesman once for all to make the truth known. his studies in the universities of holland, france, italy, and germany had been profound. at an early age he was one of the first civilians of the time. his manhood being almost contemporary with the great war of freedom, he had served as a volunteer and at his own expense through several campaigns, having nearly lost his life in the disastrous attempt to relieve the siege of haarlem, and having been so disabled by sickness and exposure at the heroic leaguer of leyden as to have been deprived of the joy of witnessing its triumphant conclusion. successfully practising his profession afterwards before the tribunals of holland, he had been called at the comparatively early age of twenty-nine to the important post of chief pensionary of rotterdam. so long as william the silent lived, that great prince was all in all to his country, and barneveld was proud and happy to be among the most trusted and assiduous of his counsellors. when the assassination of william seemed for an instant to strike the republic with paralysis, barneveld was foremost among the statesmen of holland to spring forward and help to inspire it with renewed energy. the almost completed negotiations for conferring the sovereignty, not of the confederacy, but of the province of holland, upon the prince had been abruptly brought to an end by his death. to confer that sovereign countship on his son maurice, then a lad of eighteen and a student at leyden, would have seemed to many at so terrible a crisis an act of madness, although barneveld had been willing to suggest and promote the scheme. the confederates under his guidance soon hastened however to lay the sovereignty, and if not the sovereignty, the protectorship, of all the provinces at the feet first of england and then of france. barneveld was at the head of the embassy, and indeed was the indispensable head of all important, embassies to each of those two countries throughout all this portion of his career. both monarchs refused, almost spurned, the offered crown in which was involved a war with the greatest power in the world, with no compensating dignity or benefit, as it was thought, beside. then elizabeth, although declining the sovereignty, promised assistance and sent the earl of leicester as governor-general at the head of a contingent of english troops. precisely to prevent the consolidation thus threatened of the provinces into one union, a measure which had been attempted more than once in the burgundian epoch, and always successfully resisted by the spirit of provincial separatism, barneveld now proposed and carried the appointment of maurice of nassau to the stadholdership of holland. this was done against great opposition and amid fierce debate. soon afterwards barneveld was vehemently urged by the nobles and regents of the cities of holland to accept the post of advocate of that province. after repeatedly declining the arduous and most responsible office, he was at last induced to accept it. he did it under the remarkable condition that in case any negotiation should be undertaken for the purpose of bringing back the province of holland under the dominion of the king of spain, he should be considered as from that moment relieved from the service. his brother elias barneveld succeeded him as pensionary of rotterdam, and thenceforth the career of the advocate is identical with the history of the netherlands. although a native of utrecht, he was competent to exercise such functions in holland, a special and ancient convention between those two provinces allowing the citizens of either to enjoy legal and civic rights in both. gradually, without intrigue or inordinate ambition, but from force of circumstances and the commanding power of the man, the native authority stamped upon his forehead, he became the political head of the confederacy. he created and maintained a system of public credit absolutely marvellous in the circumstances, by means of which an otherwise impossible struggle was carried to a victorious end. when the stadholderate of the provinces of gelderland, utrecht, and overyssel became vacant, it was again barneveld's potent influence and sincere attachment to the house of nassau that procured the election of maurice to those posts. thus within six years after his father's death the youthful soldier who had already given proof of his surpassing military genius had become governor, commander-in-chief, and high admiral, of five of the seven provinces constituting the confederacy. at about the same period the great question of church and state, which barneveld had always felt to be among the vital problems of the age, and on which his opinions were most decided, came up for partial solution. it would have been too much to expect the opinion of any statesman to be so much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality. toleration of various creeds, including the roman catholic, so far as abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlours could be called toleration, was secured, and that was a considerable step in advance of the practice of the sixteenth century. burning, hanging, and burying alive of culprits guilty of another creed than the dominant one had become obsolete. but there was an established creed--the reformed religion, founded on the netherland confession and the heidelberg catechism. and there was one established principle then considered throughout europe the grand result of the reformation; "cujus regio ejus religio;" which was in reality as impudent an invasion of human right as any heaven-born dogma of infallibility. the sovereign of a country, having appropriated the revenues of the ancient church, prescribed his own creed to his subjects. in the royal conscience were included the million consciences of his subjects. the inevitable result in a country like the netherlands, without a personal sovereign, was a struggle between the new church and the civil government for mastery. and at this period, and always in barneveld's opinion, the question of dogma was subordinate to that of church government. that there should be no authority over the king had been settled in england. henry viii., elizabeth, and afterwards james, having become popes in their own realm, had no great hostility to, but rather an affection for, ancient dogma and splendid ceremonial. but in the seven provinces, even as in france, germany, and switzerland, the reform where it had been effected at all had been more thorough, and there was little left of popish pomp or aristocratic hierarchy. nothing could be severer than the simplicity of the reformed church, nothing more imperious than its dogma, nothing more infallible than its creed. it was the true religion, and there was none other. but to whom belonged the ecclesiastical edifices, the splendid old minsters in the cities--raised by the people's confiding piety and the purchased remission of their sins in a bygone age--and the humbler but beautiful parish churches in every town and village? to the state; said barneveld, speaking for government; to the community represented by the states of the provinces, the magistracies of the cities and municipalities. to the church itself, the one true church represented by its elders, and deacons, and preachers, was the reply. and to whom belonged the right of prescribing laws and ordinances of public worship, of appointing preachers, church servants, schoolmasters, sextons? to the holy ghost inspiring the class and the synod, said the church. to the civil authority, said the magistrates, by which the churches are maintained, and the salaries of the ecclesiastics paid. the states of holland are as sovereign as the kings of england or denmark, the electors of saxony or brandenburg, the magistrates of zurich or basel or other swiss cantons. "cujus regio ejus religio." in there was a compromise under the guidance of barneveld. it was agreed that an appointing board should be established composed of civil functionaries and church officials in equal numbers. thus should the interests of religion and of education be maintained. the compromise was successful enough during the war. external pressure kept down theological passion, and there were as yet few symptoms of schism in the dominant church. but there was to come a time when the struggle between church and government was to break forth with an intensity and to rage to an extent which no man at that moment could imagine. towards the end of the century henry iv. made peace with spain. it was a trying moment for the provinces. barneveld was again sent forth on an embassy to the king. the cardinal point in his policy, as it had ever been in that of william the silent, was to maintain close friendship with france, whoever might be its ruler. an alliance between that kingdom and spain would be instantaneous ruin to the republic. with the french and english sovereigns united with the provinces, the cause of the reformation might triumph, the spanish world-empire be annihilated, national independence secured. henry assured the ambassador that the treaty of vervins was indispensable, but that he would never desert his old allies. in proof of this, although he had just bound himself to spain to give no assistance to the provinces, open or secret, he would furnish them with thirteen hundred thousand crowns, payable at intervals during four years. he was under great obligations to his good friends the states, he said, and nothing in the treaty forbade him to pay his debts. it was at this period too that barneveld was employed by the king to attend to certain legal and other private business for which he professed himself too poor at the moment to compensate him. there seems to have been nothing in the usages of the time or country to make the transaction, innocent in itself, in any degree disreputable. the king promised at some future clay, when he should be more in funds, to pay him a liberal fee. barneveld, who a dozen years afterwards received , florins for his labour, professed that he would much rather have had one thousand at the time. thence the advocate, accompanied by his colleague, justinus de nassau, proceeded to england, where they had many stormy interviews with elizabeth. the queen swore with many an oath that she too would make peace with philip, recommended the provinces to do the same thing with submission to their ancient tyrant, and claimed from the states immediate payment of one million sterling in satisfaction of their old debts to her. it would have been as easy for them at that moment to pay a thousand million. it was at last agreed that the sum of the debt should be fixed at l , , and that the cautionary towns should be held in elizabeth's hands by english troops until all the debt should be discharged. thus england for a long time afterwards continued to regard itself, as in a measure the sovereign and proprietor of the confederacy, and barneveld then and there formed the resolve to relieve the country of the incubus, and to recover those cautionary towns and fortresses at the earliest possible moment. so long as foreign soldiers commanded by military governors existed on the soil of the netherlands, they could hardly account themselves independent. besides, there was the perpetual and horrid nightmare, that by a sudden pacification between spain and england those important cities, keys to the country's defence, might be handed over to their ancient tyrant. elizabeth had been pacified at last, however, by the eloquence of the ambassador. "i will assist you even if you were up to the neck in water," she said. "jusque la," she added, pointing to her chin. five years later barneveld, for the fifth time at the head of a great embassy, was sent to england to congratulate james on his accession. it was then and there that he took measure of the monarch with whom he was destined to have many dealings, and who was to exert so baleful an influence on his career. at last came the time when it was felt that peace between spain and her revolted provinces might be made. the conservation of their ancient laws, privileges, and charters, the independence of the states, and included therein the freedom to establish the reformed religion, had been secured by forty years of fighting. the honour of spain was saved by a conjunction. she agreed to treat with her old dependencies "as" with states over which she had no pretensions. through virtue of an "as," a truce after two years' negotiation, perpetually traversed and secretly countermined by the military party under the influence of maurice, was carried by the determination of barneveld. the great objects of the war had been secured. the country was weary of nearly half a century of bloodshed. it was time to remember that there could be such a condition as peace. the treaty was signed, ratifications exchanged, and the usual presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made. barneveld earnestly protested against carrying out the custom on this occasion, and urged that those presents should be given for the public use. he was overruled by those who were more desirous of receiving their reward than he was, and he accordingly, in common with the other diplomatists, accepted the gifts. the various details of these negotiations have been related by the author in other volumes, to which the present one is intended as a sequel. it has been thought necessary merely to recall very briefly a few salient passages in the career of the advocate up to the period when the present history really opens. their bearing upon subsequent events will easily be observed. the truce was the work of barneveld. it was detested by maurice and by maurice's partisans. "i fear that our enemies and evil reports are the cause of many of our difficulties," said the advocate to the states' envoy in paris, in . "you are to pay no heed to private advices. believe and make others believe that more than one half the inhabitants of the cities and in the open country are inclined to peace. and i believe, in case of continuing adversities, that the other half will not remain constant, principally because the provinces are robbed of all traffic, prosperity, and navigation, through the actions of france and england. i have always thought it for the advantage of his majesty to sustain us in such wise as would make us useful in his service. as to his remaining permanently at peace with spain, that would seem quite out of the question." the king had long kept, according to treaty, a couple of french regiments in the states' service, and furnished, or was bound to furnish, a certain yearly sum for their support. but the expenses of the campaigning had been rapidly increasing and the results as swiftly dwindling. the advocate now explained that, "without loss both of important places and of reputation," the states could not help spending every month that they took the field , florins over and above the regular contributions, and some months a great deal more. this sum, he said, in nine months, would more than eat up the whole subsidy of the king. if they were to be in the field by march or beginning of april, they would require from him an extraordinary sum of , crowns, and as much more in june or july. eighteen months later, when the magnificent naval victory of heemskerk in the bay of gibraltar had just made a startling interlude to the languishing negotiations for peace, the advocate again warned the french king of the difficulty in which the republic still laboured of carrying on the mighty struggle alone. spain was the common enemy of all. no peace or hope was possible for the leading powers as long as spain was perpetually encamped in the very heart of western europe. the netherlands were not fighting their own battle merely, but that of freedom and independence against the all-encroaching world-power. and their means to carry on the conflict were dwindling, while at the same time there was a favourable opportunity for cropping some fruit from their previous labours and sacrifices. "we are led to doubt," he wrote once more to the envoy in france, "whether the king's full powers will come from spain. this defeat is hard for the spaniards to digest. meantime our burdens are quite above our capacity, as you will understand by the enclosed statement, which is made out with much exactness to show what is absolutely necessary for a vigorous defence on land and a respectable position at sea to keep things from entire confusion. the provinces could raise means for the half of this estimate. but, it is a great difference when the means differ one half from the expenses. the sovereignst and most assured remedy would be the one so often demanded, often projected, and sometimes almost prepared for execution, namely that our neighbour kings, princes, and republics should earnestly take the matter in hand and drive the spaniards and their adherents out of the netherlands and over the mountains. their own dignity and security ought not to permit such great bodies of troops of both belligerents permanently massed in the netherlands. still less ought they to allow these provinces to fall into the hands of the spaniards, whence they could with so much more power and convenience make war upon all kings, princes, and republics. this must be prevented by one means or another. it ought to be enough for every one that we have been between thirty and forty years a firm bulwark against spanish ambition. our constancy and patience ought to be strengthened by counsel and by deed in order that we may exist; a christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient. believe and cause to be believed that the present condition of our affairs requires more aid in counsel and money than ever before, and that nothing could be better bestowed than to further this end. "messieurs jeannin, buzenval, and de russy have been all here these twelve days. we have firm hopes that other kings, princes, and republics will not stay upon formalities, but will also visit the patients here in order to administer sovereign remedies. "lend no ear to any flying reports. we say with the wise men over there, 'metuo danaos et dons ferentes.' we know our antagonists well, and trust their hearts no more than before, 'sed ultra posse non est esse.' to accept more burthens than we can pay for will breed military mutiny; to tax the community above its strength will cause popular tumults, especially in 'rebus adversis,' of which the beginnings were seen last year, and without a powerful army the enemy is not to be withstood. i have received your letters to the th may. my advice is to trust to his upright proceedings and with patience to overcome all things. thus shall the detractors and calumniators best be confounded. assure his majesty and his ministers that i will do my utmost to avert our ruin and his majesty's disservice." the treaty was made, and from that time forth the antagonism between the eminent statesman and the great military chieftain became inevitable. the importance of the one seemed likely to increase day by day. the occupation of the other for a time was over. during the war maurice had been, with exception of henry iv., the most considerable personage in europe. he was surrounded with that visible atmosphere of power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist, and through the golden haze of which a mortal seems to dilate for the vulgar eye into the supernatural. the attention of christendom was perpetually fixed upon him. nothing like his sieges, his encampments, his military discipline, his scientific campaigning had been seen before in modern europe. the youthful aristocracy from all countries thronged to his camp to learn the game of war, for he had restored by diligent study of the ancients much that was noble in that pursuit, and had elevated into an art that which had long since degenerated into a system of butchery, marauding, and rapine. and he had fought with signal success and unquestionable heroism the most important and most brilliant pitched battle of the age. he was a central figure of the current history of europe. pagan nations looked up to him as one of the leading sovereigns of christendom. the emperor of japan addressed him as his brother monarch, assured him that his subjects trading to that distant empire should be welcomed and protected, and expressed himself ashamed that so great a prince, whose name and fame had spread through the world, should send his subjects to visit a country so distant and unknown, and offer its emperor a friendship which he was unconscious of deserving. he had been a commander of armies and a chief among men since he came to man's estate, and he was now in the very vigour of life, in his forty- second year. of imperial descent and closely connected by blood or alliance with many of the most illustrious of reigning houses, the acknowledged master of the most royal and noble of all sciences, he was of the stuff of which kings were made, and belonged by what was then accounted right divine to the family of kings. his father's death had alone prevented his elevation to the throne of holland, and such possession of half the sovereignty of the united netherlands would probably have expanded into dominion over all the seven with a not fantastic possibility of uniting the ten still obedient provinces into a single realm. such a kingdom would have been more populous and far wealthier than contemporary great britain and ireland. maurice, then a student at leyden, was too young at that crisis, and his powers too undeveloped to justify any serious attempt to place him in his father's place. the netherlands drifted into a confederacy of aristocratic republics, not because they had planned a republic, but because they could not get a king, foreign or native. the documents regarding the offer of the sovereign countship to william remained in the possession of maurice, and a few years before the peace there had been a private meeting of leading personages, of which barneveld was the promoter and chief spokesman, to take into consideration the propriety and possibility of conferring that sovereignty upon the son which had virtually belonged to the father. the obstacles were deemed so numerous, and especially the scheme seemed so fraught with danger to maurice, that it was reluctantly abandoned by his best friends, among whom unquestionably was the advocate. there was no reason whatever why the now successful and mature soldier, to whom the country was under such vast obligations, should not aspire to the sovereignty. the provinces had not pledged themselves to republicanism, but rather to monarchy, and the crown, although secretly coveted by henry iv., could by no possibility now be conferred on any other man than maurice. it was no impeachment on his character that he should nourish thoughts in which there was nothing criminal. but the peace negotiations had opened a chasm. it was obvious enough that barneveld having now so long exercised great powers, and become as it were the chief magistrate of an important commonwealth, would not be so friendly as formerly to its conversion into a monarchy and to the elevation of the great soldier to its throne. the advocate had even been sounded, cautiously and secretly, so men believed, by the princess- dowager, louise de coligny, widow of william the silent, as to the feasibility of procuring the sovereignty for maurice. she had done this at the instigation of maurice, who had expressed his belief that the favourable influence of the advocate would make success certain and who had represented to her that, as he was himself resolved never to marry, the inheritance after his death would fall to her son frederick henry. the princess, who was of a most amiable disposition, adored her son. devoted to the house of nassau and a great admirer of its chief, she had a long interview with barneveld, in which she urged the scheme upon his attention without in any probability revealing that she had come to him at the solicitation of maurice. the advocate spoke to her with frankness and out of the depths of his heart. he professed an ardent attachment to her family, a profound reverence for the virtues, sacrifices, and achievements of her lamented husband, and a warm desire to do everything to further the interests of the son who had proved himself so worthy of his parentage. but he proved to her that maurice, in seeking the sovereignty, was seeking his ruin. the hollanders, he said, liked to be persuaded and not forced. having triumphantly shaken off the yoke of a powerful king, they would scarcely consent now to accept the rule of any personal sovereign. the desire to save themselves from the claws of spain had led them formerly to offer the dominion over them to various potentates. now that they had achieved peace and independence and were delivered from the fears of spanish ferocity and french intrigue, they shuddered at the dangers from royal hands out of which they had at last escaped. he believed that they would be capable of tearing in pieces any one who might make the desired proposition. after all, he urged, maurice was a hundred times more fortunate as he was than if he should succeed in desires so opposed to his own good. this splendour of sovereignty was a false glare which would lead him to a precipice. he had now the power of a sovereign without the envy which ever followed it. having essentially such power, he ought, like his father, to despise an empty name, which would only make him hated. for it was well known that william the silent had only yielded to much solicitation, agreeing to accept that which then seemed desirable for the country's good but to him was more than indifferent. maurice was captain-general and admiral-general of five provinces. he appointed to governments and to all military office. he had a share of appointment to the magistracies. he had the same advantages and the same authority as had been enjoyed in the netherlands by the ancient sovereign counts, by the dukes of burgundy, by emperor charles v. himself. every one now was in favour of increasing his pensions, his salaries, his material splendour. should he succeed in seizing the sovereignty, men would envy him even to the ribbands of his pages' and his lackeys' shoes. he turned to the annals of holland and showed the princess that there had hardly been a sovereign count against whom his subjects had not revolted, marching generally into the very courtyard of the palace at the hague in order to take his life. convinced by this reasoning, louise de coligny had at once changed her mind, and subsequently besought her stepson to give up a project sure to be fatal to his welfare, his peace of mind, and the good of the country. maurice listened to her coldly, gave little heed to the advocate's logic, and hated him in his heart from that day forth. the princess remained loyal to barneveld to the last. thus the foundation was laid of that terrible enmity which, inflamed by theological passion, was to convert the period of peace into a hell, to rend the provinces asunder when they had most need of repose, and to lead to tragical results for ever to be deplored. already in francis aerssens had said that the two had become so embroiled and things had gone so far that one or the other would have to leave the country. he permitted also the ridiculous statement to be made in his house at paris, that henry iv. believed the advocate to have become spanish, and had declared that prince maurice would do well to have him put into a sack and thrown into the sea. his life had been regularly divided into two halves, the campaigning season and the period of winter quarters. in the one his business, and his talk was of camps, marches, sieges, and battles only. in the other he was devoted to his stud, to tennis, to mathematical and mechanical inventions, and to chess, of which he was passionately fond, and which he did not play at all well. a gascon captain serving in the states' army was his habitual antagonist in that game, and, although the stakes were but a crown a game, derived a steady income out of his gains, which were more than equal to his pay. the prince was sulky when he lost, sitting, when the candles were burned out and bed-time had arrived, with his hat pulled over his brows, without bidding his guest good night, and leaving him to find his way out as he best could; and, on the contrary, radiant with delight when successful, calling for valets to light the departing captain through the corridor, and accompanying him to the door of the apartment himself. that warrior was accordingly too shrewd not to allow his great adversary as fair a share of triumph as was consistent with maintaining the frugal income on which he reckoned. he had small love for the pleasures of the table, but was promiscuous and unlicensed in his amours. he was methodical in his household arrangements, and rather stingy than liberal in money matters. he personally read all his letters, accounts, despatches, and other documents trivial or important, but wrote few letters with his own hand, so that, unlike his illustrious father's correspondence, there is little that is characteristic to be found in his own. he was plain but not shabby in attire, and was always dressed in exactly the same style, wearing doublet and hose of brown woollen, a silk under vest, a short cloak lined with velvet, a little plaited ruff on his neck, and very loose boots. he ridiculed the smart french officers who, to show their fine legs, were wont to wear such tight boots as made them perspire to get into them, and maintained, in precept and practice, that a man should be able to jump into his boots and mount and ride at a moment's notice. the only ornaments he indulged in, except, of course, on state occasions, were a golden hilt to his famous sword, and a rope of diamonds tied around his felt hat. he was now in the full flower of his strength and his fame, in his forty- second year, and of a noble and martial presence. the face, although unquestionably handsome, offered a sharp contrast within itself; the upper half all intellect, the lower quite sensual. fair hair growing thin, but hardly tinged with grey, a bright, cheerful, and thoughtful forehead, large hazel eyes within a singularly large orbit of brow; a straight, thin, slightly aquiline, well-cut nose--such features were at open variance with the broad, thick-lipped, sensual mouth, the heavy pendant jowl, the sparse beard on the glistening cheek, and the moleskin- like moustachio and chin tuft. still, upon the whole, it was a face and figure which gave the world assurance of a man and a commander of men. power and intelligence were stamped upon him from his birth. barneveld was tall and majestic of presence, with large quadrangular face, austere, blue eyes looking authority and command, a vast forehead, and a grizzled beard. of fluent and convincing eloquence with tongue and pen, having the power of saying much in few words, he cared much more for the substance than the graces of speech or composition. this tendency was not ill exemplified in a note of his written on a sheet of questions addressed to him by a states' ambassador about to start on an important mission, but a novice in his business, the answers to which questions were to serve for his diplomatic instructions. "item and principally," wrote the envoy, "to request of m. de barneveld a formulary or copy of the best, soundest, wisest, and best couched despatches done by several preceding ambassadors in order to regulate myself accordingly for the greater service of the province and for my uttermost reputation." the advocate's answer, scrawled in his nearly illegible hand, was-- "unnecessary. the truth in shortest about matters of importance shall be taken for good style." with great love of power, which he was conscious of exerting with ease to himself and for the good of the public, he had little personal vanity, and not the smallest ambition of authorship. many volumes might be collected out of the vast accumulation of his writings now mouldering and forgotten in archives. had the language in which they are written become a world's language, they would be worthy of attentive study, as containing noble illustrations of the history and politics of his age, with theories and sentiments often far in advance of his age. but he cared not for style. "the truth in shortest about matters of importance" was enough for him; but the world in general, and especially the world of posterity, cares much for style. the vehicle is often prized more than the freight. the name of barneveld is fast fading out of men's memory. the fame of his pupil and companion in fortune and misfortune, hugo grotius, is ever green. but grotius was essentially an author rather than a statesman: he wrote for the world and posterity with all the love, pride, and charm of the devotee of literature, and he composed his noblest works in a language which is ever living because it is dead. some of his writings, epochmaking when they first appeared, are text- books still familiar in every cultivated household on earth. yet barneveld was vastly his superior in practical statesmanship, in law, in the science of government, and above all in force of character, while certainly not his equal in theology, nor making any pretensions to poetry. although a ripe scholar, he rarely wrote in latin, and not often in french. his ambition was to do his work thoroughly according to his view of duty, and to ask god's blessing upon it without craving overmuch the applause of men. such were the two men, the soldier and the statesman. would the republic, fortunate enough to possess two such magnificent and widely contrasted capacities, be wise enough to keep them in its service, each supplementing the other, and the two combining in a perfect whole? or was the great law of the discords of the world, as potent as that other principle of universal harmony and planetary motion which an illustrious contemporary--that wurtemberg astronomer, once a soldier of the fierce alva, now the half-starved astrologer of the brain-sick rudolph--was at that moment discovering, after "god had waited six thousand years for him to do it," to prevail for the misery of the republic and shame of europe? time was to show. the new state had forced itself into the family of sovereignties somewhat to the displeasure of most of the lord's anointed. rebellious and republican, it necessarily excited the jealousy of long-established and hereditary governments. the king of spain had not formally acknowledged the independence of the united provinces. he had treated with them as free, and there was supposed to be much virtue in the conjunction. but their sovereign independence was virtually recognized by the world. great nations had entered into public and diplomatic relations and conventions with them, and their agents at foreign courts were now dignified with the rank and title of ambassadors. the spanish king had likewise refused to them the concession of the right of navigation and commerce in the east indies, but it was a matter of notoriety that the absence of the word india, suppressed as it was in the treaty, implied an immense triumph on the part of the states, and that their flourishing and daily increasing commerce in the farthest east and the imperial establishments already rising there were cause of envy and jealousy not to spain alone, but to friendly powers. yet the government of great britain affected to regard them as something less than a sovereign state. although elizabeth had refused the sovereignty once proffered to her, although james had united with henry iv. in guaranteeing the treaty just concluded between the states and spain, that monarch had the wonderful conception that the republic was in some sort a province of his own, because he still held the cautionary towns in pledge for the loans granted by his predecessor. his agents at constantinople were instructed to represent the new state as unworthy to accredit its envoys as those of an independent power. the provinces were represented as a collection of audacious rebels, a piratical scum of the sea. but the sultan knew his interests better than to incur the enmity of this rising maritime power. the dutch envoy declaring that he would sooner throw himself into the bosphorus than remain to be treated with less consideration than that accorded to the ministers of all great powers, the remonstrances of envious colleagues were hushed, and haga was received with all due honours. even at the court of the best friend of the republic, the french king, men looked coldly at the upstart commonwealth. francis aerssens, the keen and accomplished minister of the states, resident in paris for many years, was received as ambassador after the truce with all the ceremonial befitting the highest rank in the diplomatic service; yet henry could not yet persuade himself to look upon the power accrediting him as a thoroughly organized commonwealth. the english ambassador asked the king if he meant to continue his aid and assistance to the states during the truce. "yes," answered henry. "and a few years beyond it?" "no. i do not wish to offend the king of spain from mere gaiety of heart." "but they are free," replied the ambassador; "the king of spain could have no cause for offence." "they are free," said the king, "but not sovereign."--"judge then," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "how we shall be with the king of spain at the end of our term when our best friends make this distinction among themselves to our disadvantage. they insist on making a difference between liberty and sovereignty; considering liberty as a mean term between servitude and sovereignty." "you would do well," continued the dutch ambassador, "to use the word 'sovereignty' on all occasions instead of 'liberty.'" the hint was significant and the advice sound. the haughty republic of venice, too, with its "golden book" and its pedigree of a thousand years, looked askance at the republic of yesterday rising like herself out of lagunes and sand banks, and affecting to place herself side by side with emperors, kings, and the lion of st. mark. but the all-accomplished council of that most serene commonwealth had far too much insight and too wide experience in political combinations to make the blunder of yielding to this aristocratic sentiment. the natural enemy of the pope, of spain, of austria, must of necessity be the friend of venice, and it was soon thought highly desirable to intimate half officially that a legation from the states-general to the queen of the adriatic, announcing the conclusion of the twelve years' truce, would be extremely well received. the hint was given by the venetian ambassador at paris to francis aerssens, who instantly recommended van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld, as a proper personage to be entrusted with this important mission. at this moment an open breach had almost occurred between spain and venice, and the spanish ambassador at paris, don pedro de toledo, naturally very irate with holland, venice, and even with france, was vehement in his demonstrations. the arrogant spaniard had for some time been employed in an attempt to negotiate a double marriage between the dauphin and the eldest daughter of philip iii., and between the eldest son of that king and the princess elizabeth of france. an indispensable but secret condition of this negotiation was the absolute renunciation by france of its alliance and friendly relations with the united provinces. the project was in truth a hostile measure aimed directly at the life of the republic. henry held firm however, and don pedro was about to depart malcontent, his mission having totally failed. he chanced, when going to his audience of leave-taking, after the arrival of his successor, don inigo de cardenas, to meet the venetian ambassador, antonio foscarini. an altercation took place between them, during which the spaniard poured out his wrath so vehemently, calling his colleague with neat alliteration "a poltroon, a pantaloon, and a pig," that henry heard him. what signor antonio replied has not been preserved, but it is stated that he was first to seek a reconciliation, not liking, he said, spanish assassinations. meantime the double marriage project was for a season at least suspended, and the alliance between the two republics went forwards. van der myle, appointed ambassador to venice, soon afterwards arrived in paris, where he made a very favourable impression, and was highly lauded by aerssens in his daily correspondence with barneveld. no portentous shadow of future and fatal discord between those statesmen fell upon the cheerful scene. before the year closed, he arrived at his post, and was received with great distinction, despite the obstacles thrown in his way by spain and other powers; the ambassador of france itself, de champigny, having privately urged that he ought to be placed on the same footing with the envoys of savoy and of florence. van der myle at starting committed the trifling fault of styling the states-general "most illustrious" (illustrissimi) instead of "most serene," the title by which venice designated herself. the fault was at once remedied, however, priuli the doge seating the dutch ambassador on his right hand at his solemn reception, and giving directions that van der myle should be addressed as excellency, his post being assigned him directly after his seniors, the ambassadors of pope, emperor, and kings. the same precedence was settled in paris, while aerssens, who did not consider himself placed in a position of greater usefulness by his formal installation as ambassador, received private intimation from henry, with whom he was on terms of great confidence and intimacy, that he should have private access to the king as frequently and as in formally as before. the theory that the ambassador, representing the personality of his sovereign, may visit the monarch to whom he is accredited, without ceremony and at his own convenience, was as rarely carried into practice in the sixteenth century as in the nineteenth, while on the other hand aerssens, as the private and confidential agent of a friendly but not publicly recognized commonwealth, had been for many years in almost daily personal communication with the king. it is also important to note that the modern fallacy according to which republics being impersonal should not be represented by ambassadors had not appeared in that important epoch in diplomatic history. on the contrary, the two great republics of the age, holland and venice, vindicated for themselves, with as much dignity and reason as success, their right to the highest diplomatic honours. the distinction was substantial not shadowy; those haughty commonwealths not considering it advantageous or decorous that their representatives should for want of proper official designations be ranked on great ceremonial occasions with the ministers of petty italian principalities or of the three hundred infinitesimal sovereignties of germany. it was the advice of the french king especially, who knew politics and the world as well as any man, that the envoys of the republic which he befriended and which stood now on the threshold of its official and national existence, should assert themselves at every court with the self-reliance and courtesy becoming the functionaries of a great power. that those ministers were second to the representatives of no other european state in capacity and accomplishment was a fact well known to all who had dealings with them, for the states required in their diplomatic representatives knowledge of history and international law, modern languages, and the classics, as well as familiarity with political customs and social courtesies; the breeding of gentlemen in short, and the accomplishments of scholars. it is both a literary enjoyment and a means of historical and political instruction to read after the lapse of centuries their reports and despatches. they worthily compare as works of art with those diplomatic masterpieces the letters and 'relazioni' of the venetian ambassadors; and it is well known that the earlier and some of the most important treatises on public and international law ever written are from the pens of hollanders, who indeed may be said to have invented that science.' the republic having thus steadily shouldered its way into the family of nations was soon called upon to perform a prominent part in the world's affairs. more than in our own epoch there was a close political commingling of such independent states as held sympathetic views on the great questions agitating europe. the policy of isolation so wisely and successfully carried out by our own trans-atlantic commonwealth was impossible for the dutch republic, born as it was of a great religious schism, and with its narrow territory wedged between the chief political organizations of christendom. moreover the same jealousy on the part of established powers which threw so many obstacles in its path to recognized sovereignty existed in the highest degree between its two sponsors and allies, france and england, in regard to their respective relations to the new state. "if ever there was an obliged people," said henry's secretary of state, villeroy, to aerssens, "then it is you netherlanders to his majesty. he has converted your war into peace, and has never abandoned you. it is for you now to show your affection and gratitude." in the time of elizabeth, and now in that of her successor, there was scarcely a day in which the envoys of the states were not reminded of the immense load of favour from england under which they tottered, and of the greater sincerity and value of english friendship over that of france. sully often spoke to aerssens on the subject in even stronger language, deeming himself the chief protector and guardian angel of the republic, to whom they were bound by ties of eternal gratitude. "but if the states," he said, "should think of caressing the king of england more than him, or even of treating him on an equality with his majesty, henry would be very much affronted. he did not mean that they should neglect the friendship of the king of britain, but that they should cultivate it after and in subordination to his own, for they might be sure that james held all things indifferent, their ruin or their conservation, while his majesty had always manifested the contrary both by his counsels and by the constant furnishing of supplies." henry of france and navarre--soldier, statesman, wit, above all a man and every inch a king--brimful of human vices, foibles, and humours, and endowed with those high qualities of genius which enabled him to mould events and men by his unscrupulous and audacious determination to conform to the spirit of his times which no man better understood than himself, had ever been in such close relations with the netherlands as to seem in some sort their sovereign. james stuart, emerging from the school of buchanan and the atmosphere of calvinism in which he had been bred, now reigned in those more sunny and liberal regions where elizabeth so long had ruled. finding himself at once, after years of theological study, face to face with a foreign commonwealth and a momentous epoch, in which politics were so commingled with divinity as to offer daily the most puzzling problems, the royal pedant hugged himself at beholding so conspicuous a field for his talents. to turn a throne into a pulpit, and amaze mankind with his learning, was an ambition most sweet to gratify. the calvinist of scotland now proclaimed his deadly hatred of puritans in england and holland, and denounced the netherlanders as a pack of rebels whom it always pleased him to irritate, and over whom he too claimed, through the possession of the cautionary towns, a kind of sovereignty. instinctively feeling that in the rough and unlovely husk of puritanism was enclosed the germ of a wider human liberty than then existed, he was determined to give battle to it with his tongue, his pen, with everything but his sword. doubtless the states had received most invaluable assistance from both france and england, but the sovereigns of those countries were too apt to forget that it was their own battles, as well as those of the hollanders, that had been fought in flanders and brabant. but for the alliance and subsidies of the faithful states, henry would not so soon have ascended the throne of his ancestors, while it was matter of history that the spanish government had for years been steadily endeavouring to subjugate england not so much for the value of the conquest in itself as for a stepping-stone to the recovery of the revolted netherlands. for the dividing line of nations or at least of national alliances was a frontier not of language but of faith. germany was but a geographical expression. the union of protestantism, subscribed by a large proportion of its three hundred and seven sovereigns, ran zigzag through the country, a majority probably of the people at that moment being opposed to the roman church. it has often been considered amazing that protestantism having accomplished so much should have fallen backwards so soon, and yielded almost undisputed sway in vast regions to the long dominant church. but in truth there is nothing surprising about it. catholicism was and remained a unit, while its opponents were eventually broken up into hundreds of warring and politically impotent organizations. religious faith became distorted into a weapon for selfish and greedy territorial aggrandizement in the hands of protestant princes. "cujus regio ejus religio" was the taunt hurled in the face of the imploring calvinists of france and the low countries by the arrogant lutherans of germany. such a sword smote the principle of religious freedom and mutual toleration into the dust, and rendered them comparatively weak in the conflict with the ancient and splendidly organized church. the huguenots of france, notwithstanding the protection grudgingly afforded them by their former chieftain, were dejected and discomfited by his apostasy, and henry, placed in a fearfully false position, was an object of suspicion to both friends and foes. in england it is difficult to say whether a jesuit or a puritan was accounted the more noxious animal by the dominant party. in the united provinces perhaps one half the population was either openly or secretly attached to the ancient church, while among the protestant portion a dire and tragic convulsion was about to break forth, which for a time at least was to render remonstrants and contra-remonstrants more fiercely opposed to each other than to papists. the doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense had long been the prevailing one in the reformed church of the revolted netherlands, as in those of scotland, france, geneva, and the palatinate. no doubt up to the period of the truce a majority had acquiesced in that dogma and its results, although there had always been many preachers to advocate publicly a milder creed. it was not until the appointment of jacob arminius to the professorship of theology at leyden, in the place of francis junius, in the year , that a danger of schism in the church, seemed impending. then rose the great gomarus in his wrath, and with all the powers of splendid eloquence, profound learning, and the intense bigotry of conviction, denounced the horrible heresy. conferences between the two before the court of holland, theological tournaments between six champions on a side, gallantly led by their respective chieftains, followed, with the usual result of confirming both parties in the conviction that to each alone belonged exclusively the truth. the original influence of arminius had however been so great that when the preachers of holland had been severally called on by a synod to sign the heidelberg catechism, many of them refused. here was open heresy and revolt. it was time for the true church to vindicate its authority. the great war with spain had been made, so it was urged and honestly believed, not against the inquisition, not to prevent netherlanders from being burned and buried alive by the old true church, not in defence of ancient charters, constitutions, and privileges--the precious result of centuries of popular resistance to despotic force--not to maintain an amount of civil liberty and local self-government larger in extent than any then existing in the world, not to assert equality of religion for all men, but simply to establish the true religion, the one church, the only possible creed; the creed and church of calvin. it is perfectly certain that the living fire which glowed in the veins of those hot gospellers had added intense enthusiasm to the war spirit throughout that immense struggle. it is quite possible that without that enthusiasm the war might not have been carried on to its successful end. but it is equally certain that catholics, lutherans, baptists, and devotees of many other creeds, had taken part in the conflict in defence both of hearth and altar, and that without that aid the independence of the provinces would never have been secured. yet before the war was ended the arrogance of the reformed priesthood had begun to dig a chasm. men who with william the silent and barneveld had indulged in the vision of religious equality as a possible result of so much fighting against the holy inquisition were perhaps to be disappointed. preachers under the influence of the gentle arminius having dared to refuse signing the creed were to be dealt with. it was time to pass from censure to action. heresy must be trampled down. the churches called for a national synod, and they did this as by divine right. "my lords the states-general must observe," they said, "that this assembly now demanded is not a human institution but an ordinance of the holy ghost in its community, not depending upon any man's authority, but proceeding from god to the community." they complained that the true church was allowed to act only through the civil government, and was thus placed at a disadvantage compared even with catholics and other sects, whose proceedings were winked at. "thus the true church suffered from its apparent and public freedom, and hostile sects gained by secret connivance." a crisis was fast approaching. the one church claimed infallibility and superiority to the civil power. the holy ghost was placed in direct, ostentatious opposition to my lords the states-general. it was for netherlanders to decide whether, after having shaken off the holy inquisition, and subjected the old true church to the public authority, they were now to submit to the imperious claims of the new true church. there were hundreds of links connecting the church with the state. in that day a divorce between the two was hardly possible or conceivable. the system of congregationalism so successfully put into practice soon afterwards in the wilderness of new england, and to which so much of american freedom political as well as religious is due, was not easy to adopt in an old country like the netherlands. splendid churches and cathedrals, the legal possession of which would be contended for by rival sects, could scarcely be replaced by temporary structures of lath and plaster, or by humble back parlours of mechanics' shops. there were questions of property of complicated nature. not only the states and the communities claimed in rivalry the ownership of church property, but many private families could show ancient advowsons and other claims to present or to patronize, derived from imperial or ducal charters. so long as there could be liberty of opinion within the church upon points not necessarily vital, open schism could be avoided, by which the cause of protestantism throughout europe must be weakened, while at the same time subordination of the priesthood to the civil authority would be maintained. but if the holy ghost, through the assembled clergy, were to dictate an iron formulary to which all must conform, to make laws for church government which every citizen must obey, and to appoint preachers and school-masters from whom alone old and young could receive illumination and instruction religious or lay, a theocracy would be established which no enlightened statesman could tolerate. the states-general agreed to the synod, but imposed a condition that there should be a revision of creed and catechism. this was thundered down with one blast. the condition implied a possibility that the vile heresy of arminius might be correct. an unconditional synod was demanded. the heidelberg creed and netherland catechism were sacred, infallible, not to be touched. the answer of the government, through the mouth of barneveld, was that "to my lords the states-general as the foster-fathers and protectors of the churches every right belonged." thus far the states-general under the leadership of the advocate were unanimous. the victory remained with state against church. but very soon after the truce had been established, and men had liberty to devote themselves to peaceful pursuits, the ecclesiastical trumpet again sounded far and wide, and contending priests and laymen rushed madly to the fray. the remonstrance and contra-remonstrance, and the appointment of conrad vorstius, a more abominable heretic than arminius, to the vacant chair of arminius--a step which drove gomarus and the gomarites to frenzy, although gomarus and vorstius remained private and intimate friends to the last--are matters briefly to be mentioned on a later page. thus to the four chief actors in the politico-religious drama, soon to be enacted as an interlude to an eighty years' war, were assigned parts at first sight inconsistent with their private convictions. the king of france, who had often abjured his religion, and was now the best of catholics, was denounced ferociously in every catholic pulpit in christendom as secretly an apostate again, and the open protector of heretics and rebels. but the cheerful henry troubled himself less than he perhaps had cause to do with these thunderblasts. besides, as we shall soon see, he had other objects political and personal to sway his opinions. james the ex-calvinist, crypto-arminian, pseudo-papist, and avowed puritan hater, was girding on his armour to annihilate arminians and to defend and protect puritans in holland, while swearing that in england he would pepper them and harry them and hang them and that he would even like to bury them alive. barneveld, who turned his eyes, as much as in such an inflammatory age it was possible, from subtle points of theology, and relied on his great- grandfather's motto of humility, "nil scire tutissima fides" was perhaps nearer to the dogma of the dominant reformed church than he knew, although always the consistent and strenuous champion of the civil authority over church as well as state. maurice was no theologian. he was a steady churchgoer, and his favorite divine, the preacher at his court chapel, was none other than uytenbogaert. the very man who was instantly to be the champion of the arminians, the author of the remonstrance, the counsellor and comrade of barneveld and grotius, was now sneered at by the gomarites as the "court trumpeter." the preacher was not destined to change his opinions. perhaps the prince might alter. but maurice then paid no heed to the great point at issue, about which all the netherlanders were to take each other by the throat--absolute predestination. he knew that the advocate had refused to listen to his stepmother's suggestion as to his obtaining the sovereignty. "he knew nothing of predestination," he was wont to say, "whether it was green or whether it was blue. he only knew that his pipe and the advocate's were not likely to make music together." this much of predestination he did know, that if the advocate and his friends were to come to open conflict with the prince of orange-nassau, the conqueror of nieuwpoort, it was predestined to go hard with the advocate and his friends. the theological quibble did not interest him much, and he was apt to blunder about it. "well, preacher," said he one day to albert huttenus, who had come to him to intercede for a deserter condemned to be hanged, "are you one of those arminians who believe that one child is born to salvation and another to damnation?" huttenus, amazed to the utmost at the extraordinary question, replied, "your excellency will be graciously pleased to observe that this is not the opinion of those whom one calls by the hateful name of arminians, but the opinion of their adversaries." "well, preacher," rejoined maurice, "don't you think i know better?" and turning to count lewis william, stadholder of friesland, who was present, standing by the hearth with his hand on a copper ring of the chimneypiece, he cried, "which is right, cousin, the preacher or i?" "no, cousin," answered count lewis, "you are in the wrong." thus to the catholic league organized throughout europe in solid and consistent phalanx was opposed the great protestant union, ardent and enthusiastic in detail, but undisciplined, disobedient, and inharmonious as a whole. the great principle, not of religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult, but of religious equality, which is the natural right of mankind, was to be evolved after a lapse of, additional centuries out of the elemental conflict which had already lasted so long. still later was the total divorce of state and church to be achieved as the final consummation of the great revolution. meantime it was almost inevitable that the privileged and richly endowed church, with ecclesiastical armies and arsenals vastly superior to anything which its antagonist could improvise, should more than hold its own. at the outset of the epoch which now occupies our attention, europe was in a state of exhaustion and longing for repose. spain had submitted to the humiliation of a treaty of truce with its rebellious subjects which was substantially a recognition of their independence. nothing could be more deplorable than the internal condition of the country which claimed to be mistress of the world and still aspired to universal monarchy. it had made peace because it could no longer furnish funds for the war. the french ambassador, barante, returning from madrid, informed his sovereign that he had often seen officers in the army prostrating themselves on their knees in the streets before their sovereign as he went to mass, and imploring him for payment of their salaries, or at least an alms to keep them from starving, and always imploring in vain. the king, who was less than a cipher, had neither capacity to feel emotion, nor intelligence to comprehend the most insignificant affair of state. moreover the means were wanting to him even had he been disposed to grant assistance. the terrible duke of lerma was still his inexorably lord and master, and the secretary of that powerful personage, who kept an open shop for the sale of offices of state both high and low, took care that all the proceeds should flow into the coffers of the duke and his own lap instead of the royal exchequer. in france both king and people declared themselves disgusted with war. sully disapproved of the treaty just concluded between spain and the netherlands, feeling sure that the captious and equivocal clauses contained in it would be interpreted to the disadvantage of the republic and of the reformed religion whenever spain felt herself strong enough to make the attempt. he was especially anxious that the states should make no concessions in regard to the exercise of the catholic worship within their territory, believing that by so doing they would compromise their political independence besides endangering the cause of protestantism everywhere. a great pressure was put upon sully that moment by the king to change his religion. "you will all be inevitably ruined if you make concessions in this regard," said he to aerssens. "take example by me. i should be utterly undone if i had listened to any overture on this subject." nevertheless it was the opinion of the astute and caustic envoy that the duke would be forced to yield at last. the pope was making great efforts to gain him, and thus to bring about the extirpation of protestantism in france. and the king, at that time much under the influence of the jesuits, had almost set his heart on the conversion. aerssens insinuated that sully was dreading a minute examination into the affairs of his administration of the finances--a groundless calumny--and would be thus forced to comply. other enemies suggested that nothing would effect this much desired apostasy but the office of constable of france, which it was certain would never be bestowed on him. at any rate it was very certain that henry at this period was bent on peace. "make your account," said aerssens to barneveld, as the time for signing the truce drew nigh, "on this indubitable foundation that the king is determined against war, whatever pretences he may make. his bellicose demeanour has been assumed only to help forward our treaty, which he would never have favoured, and ought never to have favoured, if he had not been too much in love with peace. this is a very important secret if we manage it discreetly, and a very dangerous one if our enemies discover it." sully would have much preferred that the states should stand out for a peace rather than for a truce, and believed it might have been obtained if the king had not begun the matter so feebly, and if he had let it be understood that he would join his arms to those of the provinces in case of rupture. he warned the states very strenuously that the pope, and the king of spain, and a host of enemies open and covert, were doing their host to injure them at the french court. they would find little hindrance in this course if the republic did not show its teeth, and especially if it did not stiffly oppose all encroachments of the roman religion, without even showing any deference to the king in this regard, who was much importuned on the subject. he advised the states to improve the interval of truce by restoring order to their finances and so arranging their affairs that on the resumption of hostilities, if come they must, their friends might be encouraged to help them, by the exhibition of thorough vigour on their part. france then, although utterly indisposed for war at that moment, was thoroughly to be relied on as a friend and in case of need an ally, so long as it was governed by its present policy. there was but one king left in europe since the death of elizabeth of england. but henry was now on the abhorred threshold of old age which he obstinately refused to cross. there is something almost pathetic, in spite of the censure which much of his private life at this period provokes, in the isolation which now seemed his lot. deceived and hated by his wife and his mistresses, who were conspiring with each other and with his ministers, not only against his policy but against his life; with a vile italian adventurer, dishonouring his household, entirely dominating the queen, counteracting the royal measures, secretly corresponding, by assumed authority, with spain, in direct violation of the king's instructions to his ambassadors, and gorging himself with wealth and offices at the expense of everything respectable in france; surrounded by a pack of malignant and greedy nobles, who begrudged him his fame, his authority, his independence; without a home, and almost without a friend, the most christian king in these latter days led hardly as merry a life as when fighting years long for his crown, at the head of his gascon chivalry, the beloved chieftain of huguenots. of the triumvirate then constituting his council, villeroy, sillery, and sully, the two first were ancient leaguers, and more devoted at heart to philip of spain than to henry of france and navarre. both silent, laborious, plodding, plotting functionaries, thriftily gathering riches; skilled in routine and adepts at intrigue; steady self- seekers, and faithful to office in which their lives had passed, they might be relied on at any emergency to take part against their master, if to ruin would prove more profitable than to serve him. there was one man who was truer to henry than henry had been to himself. the haughty, defiant, austere grandee, brave soldier, sagacious statesman, thrifty financier, against whom the poisoned arrows of religious hatred, envious ambition, and petty court intrigue were daily directed, who watched grimly over the exchequer confided to him, which was daily growing fuller in despite of the cormorants who trembled at his frown; hard worker, good hater, conscientious politician, who filled his own coffers without dishonesty, and those of the state without tyranny; unsociable, arrogant; pious, very avaricious, and inordinately vain, maximilian de bethune, duke of sully, loved and respected henry as no man or woman loved and respected him. in truth, there was but one living being for whom the duke had greater reverence and affection than for the king, and that was the duke of sully himself. at this moment he considered himself, as indeed he was, in full possession of his sovereign's confidence. but he was alone in this conviction. those about the court, men like epernon and his creatures, believed the great financier on the brink of perdition. henry, always the loosest of talkers even in regard to his best friends, had declared, on some temporary vexation in regard to the affair between aiguillon and balagny, that he would deal with the duke as with the late marshal de biron, and make him smaller than he had ever made him great: goading him on this occasion with importunities, almost amounting to commands, that both he and his son should forthwith change their religion or expect instant ruin. the blow was so severe that sully shut himself up, refused to see anyone, and talked of retiring for good to his estates. but he knew, and henry knew, how indispensable he was, and the anger of the master was as shortlived as the despair of the minister. there was no living statesman for whom henry had a more sincere respect than for the advocate of holland. "his majesty admires and greatly extols your wisdom, which he judges necessary for the preservation of our state; deeming you one of the rare and sage counsellors of the age." it is true that this admiration was in part attributed to the singular coincidence of barneveld's views of policy with the king's own. sully, on his part, was a severe critic of that policy. he believed that better terms might have been exacted from spain in the late negotiations, and strongly objected to the cavilling and equivocal language of the treaty. rude in pen as in speech, he expressed his mind very freely in his conversation and correspondence with henry in regard to leading personages and great affairs, and made no secret of his opinions to the states' ambassador. he showed his letters in which he had informed the king that he ought never to have sanctioned the truce without better securities than existed, and that the states would never have moved in any matter without him. it would have been better to throw himself into a severe war than to see the republic perish. he further expressed the conviction that henry ought to have such authority over the netherlands that they would embrace blindly whatever counsel he chose to give them, even if they saw in it their inevitable ruin; and this not so much from remembrance of assistance rendered by him, but from the necessity in which they should always feel of depending totally upon him. "you may judge, therefore," concluded aerssens, "as to how much we can build on such foundations as these. i have been amazed at these frank communications, for in those letters he spares neither my lords the states, nor his excellency prince maurice, nor yourself; giving his judgment of each of you with far too much freedom and without sufficient knowledge." thus the alliance between the netherlands and france, notwithstanding occasional traces of caprice and flaws of personal jealousy, was on the whole sincere, for it was founded on the surest foundation of international friendship, the self-interest of each. henry, although boasting of having bought paris with a mass, knew as well as his worst enemy that in that bargain he had never purchased the confidence of the ancient church, on whose bosom he had flung himself with so much dramatic pomp. his noble position, as champion of religious toleration, was not only unappreciated in an age in which each church and every sect arrogated to itself a monopoly of the truth, but it was one in which he did not himself sincerely believe. after all, he was still the chieftain of the protestant union, and, although eldest son of the church, was the bitter antagonist of the league and the sworn foe to the house of austria. he was walking through pitfalls with a crowd of invisible but relentless foes dogging his every footstep. in his household or without were daily visions of dagger and bowl, and he felt himself marching to his doom. how could the man on whom the heretic and rebellious hollanders and the protestant princes of germany relied as on their saviour escape the unutterable wrath and the patient vengeance of a power that never forgave? in england the jealousy of the republic and of france as co-guardian and protector of the republic was even greater than in france. though placed by circumstances in the position of ally to the netherlands and enemy to spain, james hated the netherlands and adored spain. his first thought on escaping the general destruction to which the gunpowder plot was to have involved himself and family and all the principal personages of the realm seems to have been to exculpate spain from participation in the crime. his next was to deliver a sermon to parliament, exonerating the catholics and going out of his way to stigmatize the puritans as entertaining doctrines which should be punished with fire. as the puritans had certainly not been accused of complicity with guy fawkes or garnet, this portion of the discourse was at least superfluous. but james loathed nothing so much as a puritan. a catholic at heart, be would have been the warmest ally of the league had he only been permitted to be pope of great britain. he hated and feared a jesuit, not for his religious doctrines, for with these he sympathized, but for his political creed. he liked not that either roman pontiff or british presbyterian should abridge his heaven-born prerogative. the doctrine of papal superiority to temporal sovereigns was as odious to him as puritan rebellion to the hierarchy of which he was the chief. moreover, in his hostility to both papists and presbyterians, there was much of professional rivalry. having been deprived by the accident of birth of his true position as theological professor, he lost no opportunity of turning his throne into a pulpit and his sceptre into a controversial pen. henry of france, who rarely concealed his contempt for master jacques, as he called him, said to the english ambassador, on receiving from him one of the king's books, and being asked what he thought of it--"it is not the business of us kings to write, but to fight. everybody should mind his own business, but it is the vice of most men to wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant." the flatterers of james found their account in pandering to his sacerdotal and royal vanity. "i have always believed," said the lord chancellor, after hearing the king argue with and browbeat a presbyterian deputation, "that the high-priesthood and royalty ought to be united, but i never witnessed the actual junction till now, after hearing the learned discourse of your majesty." archbishop whitgift, grovelling still lower, declared his conviction that james, in the observations he had deigned to make, had been directly inspired by the holy ghost. nothing could be more illogical and incoherent with each other than his theological and political opinions. he imagined himself a defender of the protestant faith, while hating holland and fawning on the house of austria. in england he favoured arminianism, because the anglican church recognized for its head the temporal chief of the state. in holland he vehemently denounced the arminians, indecently persecuting their preachers and statesmen, who were contending for exactly the same principle--the supremacy of state over church. he sentenced bartholomew legate to be burned alive in smithfield as a blasphemous heretic, and did his best to compel the states of holland to take the life of professor vorstius of leyden. he persecuted the presbyterians in england as furiously as he defended them in holland. he drove bradford and carver into the new england wilderness, and applauded gomarus and walaeus and the other famous leaders of the presbyterian party in the netherlands with all his soul and strength. he united with the french king in negotiations for netherland independence, while denouncing the provinces as guilty of criminal rebellion against their lawful sovereign. "he pretends," said jeannin, "to assist in bringing about the peace, and nevertheless does his best openly to prevent it." richardot declared that the firmness of the king of spain proceeded entirely from reliance on the promise of james that there should be no acknowledgment in the treaty of the liberty of the states. henry wrote to jeannin that he knew very well "what that was capable of, but that he should not be kept awake by anything he could do." as a king he spent his reign--so much of it as could be spared from gourmandizing, drunkenness, dalliance with handsome minions of his own sex, and theological pursuits--in rescuing the crown from dependence on parliament; in straining to the utmost the royal prerogative; in substituting proclamations for statutes; in doing everything in his power, in short, to smooth the path for his successor to the scaffold. as father of a family he consecrated many years of his life to the wondrous delusion of the spanish marriages. the gunpowder plot seemed to have inspired him with an insane desire for that alliance, and few things in history are more amazing than the persistency with which he pursued the scheme, until the pursuit became not only ridiculous, but impossible. with such a man, frivolous, pedantic, conceited, and licentious, the earnest statesmen of holland were forced into close alliance. it is pathetic to see men like barneveld and hugo grotius obliged, on great occasions of state, to use the language of respect and affection to one by whom they were hated, and whom they thoroughly despised. but turning away from france, it was in vain for them to look for kings or men either among friends or foes. in germany religious dissensions were gradually ripening into open war, and it would be difficult to imagine a more hopelessly incompetent ruler than the man who was nominally chief of the holy roman realm. yet the distracted rudolph was quite as much an emperor as the chaos over which he was supposed to preside was an empire. perhaps the very worst polity ever devised by human perverseness was the system under which the great german race was then writhing and groaning. a mad world with a lunatic to govern it; a democracy of many princes, little and big, fighting amongst each other, and falling into daily changing combinations as some masterly or mischievous hand whirled the kaleidoscope; drinking rhenish by hogsheads, and beer by the tun; robbing churches, dictating creeds to their subjects, and breaking all the commandments themselves; a people at the bottom dimly striving towards religious freedom and political life out of abject social, ecclesiastical, and political serfdom, and perhaps even then dumbly feeling within its veins, with that prophetic instinct which never abandons great races, a far distant and magnificent future of national unity and imperial splendour, the very reverse of the confusion which was then the hideous present; an imperial family at top with many heads and slender brains; a band of brothers and cousins wrangling, intriguing, tripping up each others' heels, and unlucky rudolph, in his hradschin, looking out of window over the peerless prague, spread out in its beauteous landscape of hill and dale, darkling forest, dizzy cliffs, and rushing river, at his feet, feebly cursing the unhappy city for its ingratitude to an invisible and impotent sovereign; his excellent brother matthias meanwhile marauding through the realms and taking one crown after another from his poor bald head. it would be difficult to depict anything more precisely what an emperor in those portentous times should not be. he collected works of art of many kinds--pictures, statues, gems. he passed his days in his galleries contemplating in solitary grandeur these treasures, or in his stables, admiring a numerous stud of horses which he never drove or rode. ambassadors and ministers of state disguised themselves as grooms and stable-boys to obtain accidental glimpses of a sovereign who rarely granted audiences. his nights were passed in star-gazing with tycho de brake, or with that illustrious suabian whose name is one of the great lights and treasures of the world. but it was not to study the laws of planetary motion nor to fathom mysteries of divine harmony that the monarch stood with kepler in the observatory. the influence of countless worlds upon the destiny of one who, by capricious accident, if accident ever exists in history, had been entrusted with the destiny of so large a portion of one little world; the horoscope, not of the universe, but of himself; such were the limited purposes with which the kaiser looked upon the constellations. for the catholic rudolph had received the protestant kepler, driven from tubingen because lutheran doctors, knowing from holy writ that the sun had stood still in ajalon, had denounced his theory of planetary motion. his mother had just escaped being burned as a witch, and the world owes a debt of gratitude to the emperor for protecting the astrologer, when enlightened theologians might, perhaps, have hanged the astronomer. a red-faced, heavy fowled, bald-headed, somewhat goggle-eyed old gentleman, rudolph did his best to lead the life of a hermit, and escape the cares of royalty. timid by temperament, yet liable to fits of uncontrollable anger, he broke his furniture to pieces when irritated, and threw dishes that displeased him in his butler's face, but left affairs of state mainly to his valet, who earned many a penny by selling the imperial signature. he had just signed the famous "majestatsbrief," by which he granted vast privileges to the protestants of bohemia, and had bitten the pen to pieces in a paroxysm of anger, after dimly comprehending the extent of the concessions which he had made. there were hundreds of sovereign states over all of which floated the shadowy and impalpable authority of an imperial crown scarcely fixed on the head of any one of the rival brethren and cousins; there was a confederation of protestants, with the keen-sighted and ambitious christian of anhalt acting as its chief, and dreaming of the bohemian crown; there was the just-born catholic league, with the calm, far- seeing, and egotistical rather than self-seeking maximilian at its head; each combination extending over the whole country, stamped with imbecility of action from its birth, and perverted and hampered by inevitable jealousies. in addition to all these furrows ploughed by the very genius of discord throughout the unhappy land was the wild and secret intrigue with which leopold, archduke and bishop, dreaming also of the crown of wenzel, was about to tear its surface as deeply as he dared. thus constituted were the leading powers of europe in the earlier part of --the year in which a peaceful period seemed to have begun. to those who saw the entangled interests of individuals, and the conflict of theological dogmas and religious and political intrigue which furnished so much material out of which wide-reaching schemes of personal ambition could be spun, it must have been obvious that the interval of truce was necessarily but a brief interlude between two tragedies. it seemed the very mockery of fate that, almost at the very instant when after two years' painful negotiation a truce had been made, the signal for universal discord should be sounded. one day in the early summer of , henry iv. came to the royal arsenal, the residence of sully, accompanied by zamet and another of his intimate companions. he asked for the duke and was told that he was busy in his study. "of course," said the king, turning to his followers, "i dare say you expected to be told that he was out shooting, or with the ladies, or at the barber's. but who works like sully? tell him," he said, "to come to the balcony in his garden, where he and i are not accustomed to be silent." as soon as sully appeared, the king observed: "well; here the duke of cleve is dead, and has left everybody his heir." it was true enough, and the inheritance was of vital importance to the world. it was an apple of discord thrown directly between the two rival camps into which christendom was divided. the duchies of cleve, berg, and julich, and the counties and lordships of mark, ravensberg, and ravenstein, formed a triangle, political and geographical, closely wedged between catholicism and protestantism, and between france, the united provinces, belgium, and germany. should it fall into catholic hands, the netherlands were lost, trampled upon in every corner, hedged in on all sides, with the house of austria governing the rhine, the meuse, and the scheldt. it was vital to them to exclude the empire from the great historic river which seemed destined to form the perpetual frontier of jealous powers and rival creeds. should it fall into heretic hands, the states were vastly strengthened, the archduke albert isolated and cut off from the protection of spain and of the empire. france, although catholic, was the ally of holland and the secret but well known enemy of the house of austria. it was inevitable that the king of that country, the only living statesman that wore a crown, should be appealed to by all parties and should find himself in the proud but dangerous position of arbiter of europe. in this emergency he relied upon himself and on two men besides, maximilian de bethune and john of barneveld. the conference between the king and sully and between both and francis aerssens, ambassador of the states, were of almost daily occurrence. the minute details given in the adroit diplomatist's correspondence indicate at every stage the extreme deference paid by henry to the opinion of holland's advocate and the confidence reposed by him in the resources and the courage of the republic. all the world was claiming the heritage of the duchies. it was only strange that an event which could not be long deferred and the consequences of which were soon to be so grave, the death of the duke of cleve, should at last burst like a bomb-shell on the council tables of the sovereigns and statesmen of europe. that mischievous madman john william died childless in the spring of . his sister sibylla, an ancient and malignant spinster, had governed him and his possessions except in his lucid intervals. the mass of the population over which he ruled being protestant, while the reigning family and the chief nobles were of the ancient faith, it was natural that the catholic party under, the lead of maximilian of bavaria should deem it all-important that there should be direct issue to that family. otherwise the inheritance on his death would probably pass to protestant princes. the first wife provided for him was a beautiful princess; jacobea of baden. the pope blessed the nuptials, and sent the bride a golden rose, but the union was sterile and unhappy. the duke, who was in the habit of careering through his palace in full armour, slashing at and wounding anyone that came in his way, was at last locked up. the hapless jacobea, accused by sibylla of witchcraft and other crimes possible and impossible, was thrown into prison. two years long the devilish malignity of the sister-in-law was exercised upon her victim, who, as it is related, was not allowed natural sleep during all that period, being at every hour awakened by command of sibylla. at last the duchess was strangled in prison. a new wife was at once provided for the lunatic, antonia of lorraine. the two remained childless, and sibylla at the age of forty-nine took to herself a husband, the margrave of burgau, of the house of austria, the humble birth of whose mother, however, did not allow him the rank of archduke. her efforts thus to provide catholic heirs to the rich domains of clove proved as fruitless as her previous attempts. and now duke john william had died, and the representatives of his three dead sisters, and the living sibylla were left to fight for the duchies. it would be both cruel and superfluous to inflict on the reader a historical statement of the manner in which these six small provinces were to be united into a single state. it would be an equally sterile task to retrace the legal arguments by which the various parties prepared themselves to vindicate their claims, each pretender more triumphantly than the other. the naked facts alone retain vital interest, and of these facts the prominent one was the assertion of the emperor that the duchies, constituting a fief masculine, could descend to none of the pretenders, but were at his disposal as sovereign of germany. on the other hand nearly all the important princes of that country sent their agents into the duchies to look after the interests real or imaginary which they claimed, there were but four candidates who in reality could be considered serious ones. mary eleanor, eldest sister of the duke, had been married in the lifetime of their father to albert frederic of brandenburg, duke of prussia. to the children of this marriage was reserved the succession of the whole property in case of the masculine line becoming extinct. two years afterwards the second sister, anne, was married to duke philip lewis, count-palatine of neuburg; the children of which marriage stood next in succession to those of the eldest sister, should that become extinguished. four years later the third sister, magdalen, espoused the duke john, count-palatine of deux-ponts; who, like neuburg, made resignation of rights of succession in favour of the descendants of the brandenburg marriage. the marriage of the youngest sister, sibylla, with the margrave of burgau has been already mentioned. it does not appear that her brother, whose lunatic condition hardly permitted him to assure her the dowry which had been the price of renunciation in the case of her three elder sisters, had obtained that renunciation from her. the claims of the childless sibylla as well as those of the deux-ponts branch were not destined to be taken into serious consideration. the real competitors were the emperor on the one side and the elector of brandenburg and the count-palatine of neuburg on the other. it is not necessary to my purpose to say a single word as to the legal and historical rights of the controversy. volumes upon volumes of forgotten lore might be consulted, and they would afford exactly as much refreshing nutriment as would the heaps of erudition hardly ten years old, and yet as antiquated as the title-deeds of the pharaohs, concerning the claims to the duchies of schleswig-holstein. the fortunate house of brandenburg may have been right or wrong in both disputes. it is certain that it did not lack a more potent factor in settling the political problems of the world in the one case any more than in the other. but on the occasion with which we are occupied it was not on the might of his own right hand that the elector of brandenburg relied. moreover, he was dilatory in appealing to the two great powers on whose friendship he must depend for the establishment of his claims: the united republic and the king of france. james of england was on the whole inclined to believe in the rights of brandenburg. his ambassador, however, with more prophetic vision than perhaps the king ever dreamt--of, expressed a fear lest brandenburg should grow too great and one day come to the imperial crown. the states openly favoured the elector. henry as at first disposed towards neuburg, but at his request barneveld furnished a paper on the subject, by which the king seems to have been entirely converted to the pretensions of brandenburg. but the solution of the question had but little to do with the legal claim of any man. it was instinctively felt throughout christendom that the great duel between the ancient church and the spirit of the reformation was now to be renewed upon that narrow, debateable spot. the emperor at once proclaimed his right to arbitrate on the succession and to hold the territory until decision should be made; that is to say, till the greek kalends. his familiar and most tricksy spirit, bishop- archduke leopold, played at once on his fears and his resentments, against the ever encroaching, ever menacing, protestantism of germany, with which he had just sealed a compact so bitterly detested. that bold and bustling prelate, brother of the queen of spain and of ferdinand of styria, took post from prague in the middle of july. accompanied by a certain canon of the church and disguised as his servant, he arrived after a rapid journey before the gates of julich, chief city and fortress of the duchies. the governor of the place, nestelraed, inclined like most of the functionaries throughout the duchies to the catholic cause, was delighted to recognize under the livery of the lackey the cousin and representative of the emperor. leopold, who had brought but five men with him, had conquered his capital at a blow. for while thus comfortably established as temporary governor of the duchies he designed through the fears or folly of rudolph to become their sovereign lord. strengthened by such an acquisition and reckoning on continued assistance in men and money from spain and the catholic league, he meant to sweep back to the rescue of the perishing rudolph, smite the protestants of bohemia, and achieve his appointment to the crown of that kingdom. the spanish ambassador at prague had furnished him with a handsome sum of money for the expenses of his journey and preliminary enterprise. it should go hard but funds should be forthcoming to support him throughout this audacious scheme. the champion of the church, the sovereign prince of important provinces, the possession of which ensured conclusive triumph to the house of austria and to rome--who should oppose him in his path to empire? certainly not the moody rudolph, the slippery and unstable matthias, the fanatic and jesuit-ridden ferdinand. "leopold in julich," said henry's agent in germany, "is a ferret in a rabbit warren." but early in the spring and before the arrival of leopold, the two pretenders, john sigismund, elector of brandenburg, and philip lewis, palatine of neuburg, had made an arrangement. by the earnest advice of barneveld in the name of the states-general and as the result of a general council of many protestant princes of germany, it had been settled that those two should together provisionally hold and administer the duchies until the principal affair could be amicably settled. the possessory princes were accordingly established in dusseldorf with the consent of the provincial estates, in which place those bodies were wont to assemble. here then was spain in the person of leopold quietly perched in the chief citadel of the country, while protestantism in the shape of the possessory princes stood menacingly in the capital. hardly was the ink dry on the treaty which had suspended for twelve years the great religious war of forty years, not yet had the ratifications been exchanged, but the trumpet was again sounding, and the hostile forces were once more face to face. leopold, knowing where his great danger lay, sent a friendly message to the states-general, expressing the hope that they would submit to his arrangements until the imperial decision should be made. the states, through the pen and brain of barneveld, replied that they had already recognized the rights of the possessory princes, and were surprised that the bishop-archduke should oppose them. they expressed the hope that, when better informed, he would see the validity of the treaty of dortmund. "my lords the states-general," said the advocate, "will protect the princes against violence and actual disturbances, and are assured that the neighbouring kings and princes will do the same. they trust that his imperial highness will not allow matters, to proceed to extremities." this was language not to be mistaken. it was plain that the republic did not intend the emperor to decide a question of life and death to herself, nor to permit spain, exhausted by warfare, to achieve this annihilating triumph by a petty intrigue. while in reality the clue to what seemed to the outside world a labyrinthine maze of tangled interests and passions was firmly held in the hand of barneveld, it was not to him nor to my lords the states- general that the various parties to the impending conflict applied in the first resort. mankind were not yet sufficiently used to this young republic, intruding herself among the family of kings, to defer at once to an authority which they could not but feel. moreover, henry of france was universally looked to both by friends and foes as the probable arbiter or chief champion in the great debate. he had originally been inclined to favour neuberg, chiefly, so aerssens thought, on account of his political weakness. the states-general on the other hand were firmly disposed for brandenburg from the first, not only as a strenuous supporter of the reformation and an ancient ally of their own always interested in their safety, but because the establishment of the elector on the rhine would roll back the empire beyond that river. as aerssens expressed it, they would have the empire for a frontier, and have no longer reason to fear the rhine. the king, after the representations of the states, saw good ground to change his opinion and; becoming convinced that the palatine had long been coquetting with the austrian party, soon made no secret of his preference for brandenburg. subsequently neuburg and brandenburg fell into a violent quarrel notwithstanding an arrangement that the palatine should marry the daughter of the elector. in the heat of discussion brandenburg on one occasion is said to have given his intended son-in-law a box on the ear! an argument 'ad hominem' which seems to have had the effect of sending the palatine into the bosom of the ancient church and causing him to rely thenceforth upon the assistance of the league. meantime, however, the condominium settled by the treaty of dortmund continued in force; the third brother of brandenburg and the eldest son of neuburg sharing possession and authority at dusseldorf until a final decision could be made. a flock of diplomatists, professional or volunteers, openly accredited or secret, were now flying busily about through the troubled atmosphere, indicating the coming storm in which they revelled. the keen-sighted, subtle, but dangerously intriguing ambassador of the republic, francis aerssens, had his hundred eyes at all the keyholes in paris, that centre of ceaseless combination and conspiracy, and was besides in almost daily confidential intercourse with the king. most patiently and minutely he kept the advocate informed, almost from hour to hour, of every web that was spun, every conversation public or whispered in which important affairs were treated anywhere and by anybody. he was all-sufficient as a spy and intelligencer, although not entirely trustworthy as a counsellor. still no man on the whole could scan the present or forecast the future more accurately than he was able to do from his advantageous position and his long experience of affairs. there was much general jealousy between the states and the despotic king, who loved to be called the father of the republic and to treat the hollanders as his deeply obliged and very ungrateful and miserly little children. the india trade was a sore subject, henry having throughout the negotiations sought to force or wheedle the states into renouncing that commerce at the command of spain, because he wished to help himself to it afterwards, and being now in the habit of secretly receiving isaac le maire and other dutch leaders in that lucrative monopoly, who lay disguised in paris and in the house of zamet--but not concealed from aerssens, who pledged himself to break, the neck of their enterprise--and were planning with the king a french east india company in opposition to that of the netherlands. on the whole, however, despite these commercial intrigues which barneveld through the aid of aerssens was enabled to baffle, there was much cordiality and honest friendship between the two countries. henry, far from concealing his political affection for the republic, was desirous of receiving a special embassy of congratulation and gratitude from the states on conclusion of the truce; not being satisfied with the warm expressions of respect and attachment conveyed through the ordinary diplomatic channel. "he wishes," wrote aerssens to the advocate, "a public demonstration--in order to show on a theatre to all christendom the regard and deference of my lords the states for his majesty." the ambassador suggested that cornelis van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld, soon to be named first envoy for holland to the venetian republic, might be selected as chief of such special embassy. "without the instructions you gave me," wrote aerssens, "neuburg might have gained his cause in this court. brandenburg is doing himself much injury by not soliciting the king." "much deference will be paid to your judgment," added the envoy, "if you see fit to send it to his majesty." meantime, although the agent of neuburg was busily dinning in henry's ears the claims of the palatine, and even urging old promises which, as he pretended, had been made, thanks to barneveld, he took little by his importunity, notwithstanding that in the opinion both of barneveld and villeroy his claim 'stricti-juris' was the best. but it was policy and religious interests, not the strict letter of the law, that were likely to prevail. henry, while loudly asserting that he would oppose any usurpation on the part of the emperor or any one else against the condominium, privately renewed to the states assurances of his intention to support ultimately the claims of brandenburg, and notified them to hold the two regiments of french infantry, which by convention they still kept at his expense in their service, to be ready at a moment's warning for the great enterprise which he was already planning. "you would do well perhaps," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "to set forth the various interests in regard to this succession, and of the different relations of the claimants towards our commonwealth; but in such sort nevertheless and so dexterously that the king may be able to understand your desires, and on the other hand may see the respect you bear him in appearing to defer to his choice." neuburg, having always neglected the states and made advances to archduke albert, and being openly preferred over brandenburg by the austrians, who had however no intention of eventually tolerating either, could make but small headway at court, notwithstanding henry's indignation that brandenburg had not yet made the slightest demand upon him for assistance. the elector had keenly solicited the aid of the states, who were bound to him by ancient contract on this subject, but had manifested wonderful indifference or suspicion in regard to france. "these nonchalant germans," said henry on more than one occasion, "do nothing but sleep or drink." it was supposed that the memory of metz might haunt the imagination of the elector. that priceless citadel, fraudulently extorted by henry ii. as a forfeit for assistance to the elector of saxony three quarters of a century before, gave solemn warning to brandenburg of what might be exacted by a greater henry, should success be due to his protection. it was also thought that he had too many dangers about him at home, the poles especially, much stirred up by emissaries from rome, making many troublesome demonstrations against the duchy of prussia. it was nearly midsummer before a certain baron donals arrived as emissary of the elector. he brought with him, many documents in support of the brandenburg claims, and was charged with excuses for the dilatoriness of his master. much stress was laid of course on the renunciation made by neuburg at the tithe of his marriage, and henry was urged to grant his protection to the elector in his good rights. but thus far there were few signs of any vigorous resolution for active measures in an affair which could scarcely fail to lead to war. "i believe," said henry to the states ambassador, "that the right of brandenburg is indubitable, and it is better for you and for me that he should be the man rather than neuburg, who has always sought assistance from the house of austria. but he is too lazy in demanding possession. it is the fault of the doctors by whom he is guided. this delay works in favour of the emperor, whose course however is less governed by any determination of his own than by the irresolution of the princes." then changing the conversation, henry asked the ambassador whether the daughter of de maldere, a leading statesman of zealand, was married or of age to be married, and if she was rich; adding that they must make a match between her and barneveld's second son, then a young gentleman in the king's service, and very much liked by him. two months later a regularly accredited envoy, belin by name, arrived from the elector. his instructions were general. he was to thank the king for his declarations in favour of the possessory princes, and against all usurpation on the part of the spanish party. should the religious cord be touched, he was to give assurances that no change would be made in this regard. he was charged with loads of fine presents in yellow amber, such as ewers, basins, tables, cups, chessboards, for the king and queen, the dauphin, the chancellor, villeroy, sully, bouillon, and other eminent personages. beyond the distribution of these works of art and the exchange of a few diplomatic commonplaces, nothing serious in the way of warlike business was transacted, and henry was a few weeks later much amused by receiving a letter from the possessory princes coolly thrown into the post-office, and addressed like an ordinary letter to a private person, in which he was requested to advance them a loan of , crowns. there was a great laugh at court at a demand made like a bill of exchange at sight upon his majesty as if he had been a banker, especially as there happened to be no funds of the drawers in his hands. it was thought that a proper regard for the king's quality and the amount of the sum demanded required that the letter should be brought at least by an express messenger, and henry was both diverted and indignant at these proceedings, at the months long delay before the princes had thought proper to make application for his protection, and then for this cool demand for alms on a large scale as a proper beginning of their enterprise. such was the languid and extremely nonchalant manner in which the early preparations for a conflict which seemed likely to set europe in a blaze, and of which possibly few living men might witness the termination, were set on foot by those most interested in the immediate question. chessboards in yellow amber and a post-office order for , crowns could not go far in settling the question of the duchies in which the great problem dividing christendom as by an abyss was involved. meantime, while such were the diplomatic beginnings of the possessory princes, the league was leaving no stone unturned to awaken henry to a sense of his true duty to the church of which he was eldest son. don pedro de toledo's mission in regard to the spanish marriages had failed because henry had spurned the condition which was unequivocally attached to them on the part of spain, the king's renunciation of his alliance with the dutch republic, which then seemed an equivalent to its ruin. but the treaty of truce and half-independence had been signed at last by the states and their ancient master, and the english and french negotiators had taken their departure, each receiving as a present for concluding the convention , livres from the archdukes, and , from the states-general. henry, returning one summer's morning from the chase and holding the count of soissons by one hand and ambassador aerssens by the other, told them he had just received letters from spain by which he learned that people were marvellously rejoiced at the conclusion of the truce. many had regretted that its conditions were so disadvantageous and so little honourable to the grandeur and dignity of spain, but to these it was replied that there were strong reasons why spain should consent to peace on these terms rather than not have it at all. during the twelve years to come the king could repair his disasters and accumulate mountains of money in order to finish the war by the subjugation of the provinces by force of gold. soissons here interrupted the king by saying that the states on their part would finish it by force of iron. aerssens, like an accomplished courtier, replied they would finish it by means of his majesty's friendship. the king continued by observing that the clear-sighted in spain laughed at these rodomontades, knowing well that it was pure exhaustion that had compelled the king to such extremities. "i leave you to judge," said henry, "whether he is likely to have any courage at forty-five years of age, having none now at thirty-two. princes show what they have in them of generosity and valour at the age of twenty-five or never." he said that orders had been sent from spain to disband all troops in the obedient netherlands except spaniards and italians, telling the archdukes that they must raise the money out of the country to content them. they must pay for a war made for their benefit, said philip. as for him he would not furnish one maravedi. aerssens asked if the archdukes would disband their troops so long as the affair of cleve remained unsettled. "you are very lucky," replied the king, "that europe is governed by such princes as you wot of. the king of spain thinks of nothing but tranquillity. the archdukes will never move except on compulsion. the emperor, whom every one is so much afraid of in this matter, is in such plight that one of these days, and before long, he will be stripped of all his possessions. i have news that the bohemians are ready to expel him." it was true enough that rudolph hardly seemed a formidable personage. the utraquists and bohemian brothers, making up nearly the whole population of the country, were just extorting religious liberty from their unlucky master in his very palace and at the point of the knife. the envoy of matthias was in paris demanding recognition of his master as king of hungary, and henry did not suspect the wonderful schemes of leopold, the ferret in the rabbit warren of the duchies, to come to the succour of his cousin and to get himself appointed his successor and guardian. nevertheless, the emperor's name had been used to protest solemnly against the entrance into dusseldorf of the margrave ernest of brandenburg and palatine wolfgang william of neuburg, representatives respectively of their brother and father. the induction was nevertheless solemnly made by the elector-palatine and the landgrave of hesse, and joint possession solemnly taken by brandenburg and neuburg in the teeth of the protest, and expressly in order to cut short the dilatory schemes and the artifices of the imperial court. henry at once sent a corps of observation consisting of cavalry to the luxemburg frontier by way of toul, mezieres, verdun, and metz, to guard against movements by the disbanded troops of the archdukes, and against any active demonstration against the possessory princes on the part of the emperor. the 'condominium' was formally established, and henry stood before the world as its protector threatening any power that should attempt usurpation. he sent his agent vidomacq to the landgrave of hesse with instructions to do his utmost to confirm the princes of the union in organized resistance to the schemes of spain, and to prevent any interference with the condominium. he wrote letters to the archdukes and to the elector of cologne, sternly notifying them that he would permit no assault upon the princes, and meant to protect them in their rights. he sent one of his most experienced diplomatists, de boississe, formerly ambassador in england, to reside for a year or more in the duchies as special representative of france, and directed him on his way thither to consult especially with barneveld and the states-general as to the proper means of carrying out their joint policy either by diplomacy or, if need should be, by their united arms. troops began at once to move towards the frontier to counteract the plans of the emperor's council and the secret levies made by duchess sibylla's husband, the margrave of burgau. the king himself was perpetually at monceaux watching the movements of his cavalry towards the luxemburg frontier, and determined to protect the princes in their possession until some definite decision as to the sovereignty of the duchies should be made. meantime great pressure was put upon him by the opposite party. the pope did his best through the nuncius at paris directly, and through agents at prague, brussels, and madrid indirectly, to awaken the king to a sense of the enormity of his conduct. being a catholic prince, it was urged, he had no right to assist heretics. it was an action entirely contrary to his duty as a christian and of his reputation as eldest son of the church. even if the right were on the side of the princes, his majesty would do better to strip them of it and to clothe himself with it than to suffer the catholic faith and religion to receive such notable detriment in an affair likely to have such important consequences. such was some of the advice given by the pontiff. the suggestions were subtle, for they were directed to henry's self-interest both as champion of the ancient church and as a possible sovereign of the very territories in dispute. they were also likely, and were artfully so intended, to excite suspicion of henry's designs in the breasts of the protestants generally and of the possessory princes especially. allusions indeed to the rectification of the french border in henry ii.'s time at the expense of lorraine were very frequent. they probably accounted for much of the apparent supineness and want of respect for the king of which he complained every day and with so much bitterness. the pope's insinuations, however, failed to alarm him, for he had made up his mind as to the great business of what might remain to him of life; to humble the house of austria and in doing so to uphold the dutch republic on which he relied for his most efficient support. the situation was a false one viewed from the traditional maxims which governed europe. how could the eldest son of the church and the chief of an unlimited monarchy make common cause with heretics and republicans against spain and rome? that the position was as dangerous as it was illogical, there could be but little doubt. but there was a similarity of opinion between the king and the political chief of the republic on the great principle which was to illume the distant future but which had hardly then dawned upon the present; the principle of religious equality. as he protected protestants in france so he meant to protect catholics in the duchies. apostate as he was from the reformed church as he had already been from the catholic, he had at least risen above the paltry and insolent maxim of the princely protestantism of germany: "cujus regio ejus religio." while refusing to tremble before the wrath of rome or to incline his ear to its honeyed suggestions, he sent cardinal joyeuse with a special mission to explain to the pope that while the interests of france would not permit him to allow the spaniard's obtaining possession of provinces so near to her, he should take care that the church received no detriment and that he should insist as a price of the succour he intended for the possessory princes that they should give ample guarantees for the liberty of catholic worship. there was no doubt in the mind either of henry or of barneveld that the secret blows attempted by spain at the princes were in reality aimed at the republic and at himself as her ally. while the nuncius was making these exhortations in paris, his colleague from spain was authorized to propound a scheme of settlement which did not seem deficient in humour. at any rate henry was much diverted with the suggestion, which was nothing less than that the decision as to the succession to the duchies should be left to a board of arbitration consisting of the king of spain, the emperor, and the king of france. as henry would thus be painfully placed by himself in a hopeless minority, the only result of the scheme would be to compel him to sanction a decision sure to be directly the reverse of his own resolve. he was hardly such a schoolboy in politics as to listen to the proposal except to laugh at it. meantime arrived from julich, without much parade, a quiet but somewhat pompous gentleman named teynagel. he had formerly belonged to the reformed religion, but finding it more to his taste or advantage to become privy councillor of the emperor, he had returned to the ancient church. he was one of the five who had accompanied the archduke leopold to julich. that prompt undertaking having thus far succeeded so well, the warlike bishop had now despatched teynagel on a roving diplomatic mission. ostensibly he came to persuade henry that, by the usages and laws of the empire, fiefs left vacant for want of heirs male were at the disposal of the emperor. he expressed the hope therefore of obtaining the king's approval of leopold's position in julich as temporary vicegerent of his sovereign and cousin. the real motive of his mission, however, was privately to ascertain whether henry was really ready to go to war for the protection of the possessory princes, and then, to proceed to spain. it required an astute politician, however, to sound all the shoals, quicksands, and miseries through which the french government was then steering, and to comprehend with accuracy the somewhat varying humours of the monarch and the secret schemes of the ministers who immediately surrounded him. people at court laughed at teynagel and his mission, and henry treated him as a crackbrained adventurer. he announced himself as envoy of the emperor, although he had instructions from leopold only. he had interviews with the chancellor and with villeroy, and told them that rudolf claimed the right of judge between the various pretenders to the duchies. the king would not be pleased, he observed, if the king of great britain should constitute himself arbiter among claimants that might make their appearance for the crown of france; but henry had set himself up as umpire without being asked by any one to act in that capacity among the princes of germany. the emperor, on the contrary, had been appealed to by the duke of nevers, the elector of saxony, the margrave of burgau, and other liege subjects of the imperial crown as a matter of course and of right. this policy of the king, if persisted in, said teynagel, must lead to war. henry might begin such a war, but he would be obliged to bequeath it to the dauphin. he should remember that france had always been unlucky when waging war with the empire and with the house of austria.' the chancellor and villeroy, although in their hearts not much in love with henry's course, answered the emissary with arrogance equal to his own that their king could finish the war as well as begin it, that he confided in his strength and the justice of his cause, and that he knew very well and esteemed very little the combined forces of spain and the empire. they added that france was bound by the treaty of vervins to protect the princes, but they offered no proof of that rather startling proposition. meantime teynagel was busy in demonstrating that the princes of germany were in reality much more afraid of henry than of the emperor. his military movements and deep designs excited more suspicion throughout that country and all europe than the quiet journey of leopold and five friends by post to julich. he had come provided with copies of the king's private letters to the princes, and seemed fully instructed as to his most secret thoughts. for this convenient information he was supposed to be indebted to the revelations of father cotton, who was then in disgrace; having been detected in transmitting to the general of jesuits henry's most sacred confidences and confessions as to his political designs. fortified with this private intelligence, and having been advised by father cotton to carry matters with a high hand in order to inspire the french court with a wholesome awe, he talked boldly about the legitimate functions of the emperor. to interfere with them, he assured the ministers, would lead to a long and bloody war, as neither the king nor the archduke albert would permit the emperor to be trampled upon. peter pecquius, the crafty and experienced agent of the archduke at paris, gave the bouncing envoy more judicious advice, however, than that of the jesuit, assuring him that he would spoil his whole case should he attempt to hold such language to the king. he was admitted to an audience of henry at monceaux, but found him prepared to show his teeth as aerssens had predicted. he treated teynagel as a mere madcap and, adventurer who had no right to be received as a public minister at all, and cut short his rodomontades by assuring him that his mind was fully made up to protect the possessory princes. jeannin was present at the interview, although, as aerssens well observed, the king required no pedagogue on such an occasion? teynagel soon afterwards departed malcontent to spain, having taken little by his abnormal legation to henry, and being destined to find at the court of philip as urgent demands on that monarch for assistance to the league as he was to make for leopold and the house of austria. for the league, hardly yet thoroughly organized under the leadership of maximilian of bavaria, was rather a catholic corrival than cordial ally of the imperial house. it was universally suspected that henry meant to destroy and discrown the habsburgs, and it lay not in the schemes of maximilian to suffer the whole catholic policy to be bound to the fortunes of that one family. whether or not henry meant to commit the anachronism and blunder of reproducing the part of charlemagne might be doubtful. the supposed design of maximilian to renew the glories of the house of wittelsbach was equally vague. it is certain, however, that a belief in such ambitious schemes on the part of both had been insinuated into the ears of rudolf, and had sunk deeply into his unsettled mind. scarcely had teynagel departed than the ancient president richardot appeared upon the scene. "the mischievous old monkey," as he had irreverently been characterized during the truce negotiations, "who showed his tail the higher he climbed," was now trembling at the thought that all the good work he had been so laboriously accomplishing during the past two years should be annihilated. the archdukes, his masters, being sincerely bent on peace, had deputed him to henry, who, as they believed, was determined to rekindle war. as frequently happens in such cases, they were prepared to smooth over the rough and almost impassable path to a cordial understanding by comfortable and cheap commonplaces concerning the blessings of peace, and to offer friendly compromises by which they might secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers of making it. they had been solemnly notified by henry that he would go to war rather than permit the house of austria to acquire the succession to the duchies. they now sent richardot to say that neither the archdukes nor the king of spain would interfere in the matter, and that they hoped the king of france would not prevent the emperor from exercising his rightful functions of judge. henry, who knew that don baltasar de cuniga, spanish ambassador at the imperial court, had furnished leopold, the emperor's cousin, with , crowns to defray his first expenses in the julich expedition, considered that the veteran politician had come to perform a school boy's task. he was more than ever convinced by this mission of richardot that the spaniards had organized the whole scheme, and he was likely only to smile at any propositions the president might make. at the beginning of his interview, in which the king was quite alone, richardot asked if he would agree to maintain neutrality like the king of spain and the archdukes, and allow the princes to settle their business with the emperor. "no," said the king. he then asked if henry would assist them in their wrong. "no," said the king. he then asked if the king thought that the princes had justice on their side, and whether, if the contrary were shown, he would change his policy? henry replied that the emperor could not be both judge and party in the suit and that the king of spain was plotting to usurp the provinces through the instrumentality of his brother-in-law leopold and under the name of the emperor. he would not suffer it, he said. "then there will be a general war," replied richardot, since you are determined to assist these princes." "be it so," said the king. "you are right," said the president, "for you are a great and puissant monarch, having all the advantages that could be desired, and in case of rupture i fear that all this immense power will be poured out over us who are but little princes." "cause leopold to retire then and leave the princes in their right," was the reply. "you will then have nothing to fear. are you not very unhappy to live under those poor weak archdukes? don't you foresee that as soon as they die you will lose all the little you have acquired in the obedient netherlands during the last fifty years?" the president had nothing to reply to this save that he had never approved of leopold's expedition, and that when spaniards make mistakes they always had recourse to their servants to repair their faults. he had accepted this mission inconsiderately, he said, inspired by a hope to conjure the rising storms mingled with fears as to the result which were now justified. he regretted having come, he said. the king shrugged his shoulders. richardot then suggested that leopold might be recognized in julich, and the princes at dusseldorf, or that all parties might retire until the emperor should give his decision. all these combinations were flatly refused by the king, who swore that no one of the house of austria should ever perch in any part of those provinces. if leopold did not withdraw at once, war was inevitable. he declared that he would break up everything and dare everything, whether the possessory princes formally applied to him or not. he would not see his friends oppressed nor allow the spaniard by this usurpation to put his foot on the throat of the states-general, for it was against them that this whole scheme was directed. to the president's complaints that the states-general had been moving troops in gelderland, henry replied at once that it was done by his command, and that they were his troops. with this answer richardot was fain to retire crestfallen, mortified, and unhappy. he expressed repentance and astonishment at the result, and protested that those peoples were happy whose princes understood affairs. his princes were good, he said, but did not give themselves the trouble to learn their business. richardot then took his departure from paris, and very soon afterwards from the world. he died at arras early in september, as many thought of chagrin at the ill success of his mission, while others ascribed it to a surfeit of melons and peaches. "senectus edam maorbus est," said aerssens with seneca. henry said he could not sufficiently wonder at these last proceedings at his court, of a man he had deemed capable and sagacious, but who had been committing an irreparable blunder. he had never known two such impertinent ambassadors as don pedro de toledo and richardot on this occasion. the one had been entirely ignorant of the object of his mission; the other had shown a vain presumption in thinking he could drive him from his fixed purpose by a flood of words. he had accordingly answered him on the spot without consulting his council, at which poor richardot had been much amazed. and now another envoy appeared upon the scene, an ambassador coming directly from the emperor. count hohenzollern, a young man, wild, fierce, and arrogant, scarcely twenty-three years of age, arrived in paris on the th of september, with a train of forty horsemen. de colly, agent of the elector-palatine, had received an outline of his instructions, which the prince of anhalt had obtained at prague. he informed henry that hohenzollern would address him thus: "you are a king. you would not like that the emperor should aid your subjects in rebellion. he did not do this in the time of the league, although often solicited to do so. you should not now sustain the princes in disobeying the imperial decree. kings should unite in maintaining the authority and majesty of each other." he would then in the emperor's name urge the claims of the house of saxony to the duchies. henry was much pleased with this opportune communication by de colly of the private instructions to the emperor's envoy, by which he was enabled to meet the wild and fierce young man with an arrogance at least equal to his own. the interview was a stormy one. the king was alone in the gallery of the louvre, not choosing that his words and gestures should be observed. the envoy spoke much in the sense which de colly had indicated; making a long argument in favour of the emperor's exclusive right of arbitration, and assuring the king that the emperor was resolved on war if interference between himself and his subjects was persisted in. he loudly pronounced the proceedings of the possessory princes to be utterly illegal, and contrary to all precedent. the emperor would maintain his authority at all hazards, and one spark of war would set everything in a blaze within the empire and without. henry replied sternly but in general terms, and referred him for a final answer to his council. "what will you do," asked the envoy, categorically, at a subsequent interview about a month later, "to protect the princes in case the emperor constrains them to leave the provinces which they have unjustly occupied?" "there is none but god to compel me to say more than i choose to say," replied the king. "it is enough for you to know that i will never abandon my friends in a just cause. the emperor can do much for the general peace. he is not to lend his name to cover this usurpation." and so the concluding interview terminated in an exchange of threats rather than with any hope of accommodation. hohenzollern used as high language to the ministers as to the monarch, and received payment in the same coin. he rebuked their course not very adroitly as being contrary to the interests of catholicism. they were placing the provinces in the hands of protestants, he urged. it required no envoy from prague to communicate this startling fact. friends and foes, villeroy and jeannin, as well as sully and duplessis, knew well enough that henry was not taking up arms for rome. "sir! do you look at the matter in that way?" cried sully, indignantly. "the huguenots are as good as the catholics. they fight like the devil!" "the emperor will never permit the, princes to remain nor leopold to withdraw," said the envoy to jeannin. jeannin replied that the king was always ready to listen to reason, but there was no use in holding language of authority to him. it was money he would not accept. "fiat justitia pereat mundus," said the haggard hohenzollern. "your world may perish," replied jeannin, "but not ours. it is much better put together." a formal letter was then written by the king to the emperor, in which henry expressed his desire to maintain peace and fraternal relations, but notified him that if, under any pretext whatever, he should trouble the princes in their possession, he would sustain them with all his power, being bound thereto by treaties and by reasons of state. this letter was committed to the care of hohenzollern, who forthwith departed, having received a present of crowns. his fierce, haggard face thus vanishes for the present from our history. the king had taken his ground, from which there was no receding. envoys or agents of emperor, pope, king of spain, archduke at brussels, and archduke at julich, had failed to shake his settled purpose. yet the road was far from smooth. he had thus far no ally but the states- general. he could not trust james of great britain. boderie came back late in the summer from his mission to that monarch, reporting him as being favourably inclined to brandenburg, but hoping for an amicable settlement in the duchies. no suggestion being made even by the sagacious james as to the manner in which the ferret and rabbits were to come to a compromise, henry inferred, if it came to fighting, that the english government would refuse assistance. james had asked boderie in fact whether his sovereign and the states, being the parties chiefly interested, would be willing to fight it out without allies. he had also sent sir ralph winwood on a special mission to the hague, to dusseldorf, and with letters to the emperor, in which he expressed confidence that rudolph would approve the proceedings of the possessory princes. as he could scarcely do that while loudly claiming through his official envoy in paris that the princes should instantly withdraw on pain of instant war, the value of the english suggestion of an amicable compromise might easily be deduced. great was the jealousy in france of this mission from england. that the princes should ask the interference of james while neglecting, despising, or fearing henry, excited henry's wrath. he was ready, and avowed his readiness, to put on armour at once in behalf of the princes, and to arbitrate on the destiny of germany, but no one seemed ready to follow his standard. no one asked him to arbitrate. the spanish faction wheedled and threatened by turns, in order to divert him from his purpose, while the protestant party held aloof, and babbled of charlemagne and of henry ii. he said he did not mean to assist the princes by halves, but as became a king of france, and the princes expressed suspicion of him, talked of the example of metz, and called the emperor their very clement lord. it was not strange that henry was indignant and jealous. he was holding the wolf by the ears, as he himself observed more than once. the war could not long be delayed; yet they in whose behalf it was to be waged treated him with a disrespect and flippancy almost amounting to scorn. they tried to borrow money of him through the post, and neglected to send him an ambassador. this was most decidedly putting the cart before the oxen, so henry said, and so thought all his friends. when they had blockaded the road to julich, in order to cut off leopold's supplies, they sent to request that the two french regiments in the states' service might be ordered to their assistance, archduke albert having threatened to open the passage by force of arms. "this is a fine stratagem," said aerssens, "to fling the states-general headlong into the war, and, as it were, without knowing it." but the states-general, under the guidance of barneveld, were not likely to be driven headlong by brandenburg and neuburg. they managed with caution, but with perfect courage, to move side by side with henry, and to leave the initiative to him, while showing an unfaltering front to the enemy. that the princes were lost, spain and the emperor triumphant, unless henry and the states should protect them with all their strength, was as plain as a mathematical demonstration. yet firm as were the attitude and the language of henry, he was thought to be hoping to accomplish much by bluster. it was certain that the bold and unexpected stroke of leopold had produced much effect upon his mind, and for a time those admitted to his intimacy saw, or thought they saw, a decided change in his demeanour. to the world at large his language and his demonstrations were even more vehement than they had been at the outset of the controversy; but it was believed that there was now a disposition to substitute threats for action. the military movements set on foot were thought to be like the ringing of bells and firing of cannon to dissipate a thunderstorm. yet it was treason at court to doubt the certainty of war. the king ordered new suits of armour, bought splendid chargers, and gave himself all the airs of a champion rushing to a tournament as gaily as in the earliest days of his king-errantry. he spoke of his eager desire to break a lance with spinola, and give a lesson to the young volunteer who had sprung into so splendid a military reputation, while he had been rusting, as he thought, in pacific indolence, and envying the laurels of the comparatively youthful maurice. yet those most likely to be well informed believed that nothing would come of all this fire and fury. the critics were wrong. there was really no doubt of henry's sincerity, but his isolation was terrible. there was none true to him at home but sully. abroad, the states-general alone were really friendly, so far as positive agreements existed. above all, the intolerable tergiversations and suspicions of those most interested, the princes in possession, and their bickerings among themselves, hampered his movements. treason and malice in his cabinet and household, jealousy and fear abroad, were working upon and undermining him like a slow fever. his position was most pathetic, but his purpose was fixed. james of england, who admired, envied, and hated henry, was wont to moralize on his character and his general unpopularity, while engaged in negotiations with him. he complained that in the whole affair of the truce he had sought only his particular advantage. "this is not to be wondered at in one of his nature," said the king, "who only careth to provide for the felicities of his present life, without any respect for his life to come. indeed, the consideration of his own age and the youth of his children, the doubt of their legitimation, the strength of competitioners, and the universal hatred borne unto him, makes him seek all means of security for preventing of all dangers." there were changes from day to day; hot and cold fits necessarily resulting from the situation. as a rule, no eminent general who has had much experience wishes to go into a new war inconsiderately and for the mere love of war. the impatience is often on the part of the non- combatants. henry was no exception to the rule. he felt that the complications then existing, the religious, political, and dynastic elements arrayed against each other, were almost certain to be brought to a crisis and explosion by the incident of the duchies. he felt that the impending struggle was probably to be a desperate and a general one, but there was no inconsistency in hoping that the show of a vigorous and menacing attitude might suspend, defer, or entirely dissipate the impending storm. the appearance of vacillation on his part from day to day was hardly deserving of the grave censure which it received, and was certainly in the interests of humanity. his conferences with sully were almost daily and marked by intense anxiety. he longed for barneveld, and repeatedly urged that the advocate, laying aside all other business, would come to paris, that they might advise together thoroughly and face to face. it was most important that the combination of alliances should be correctly arranged before hostilities began, and herein lay the precise difficulty. the princes applied formally and freely to the states-general for assistance. they applied to the king of great britain. the agents of the opposite party besieged henry with entreaties, and, failing in those, with threats; going off afterwards to spain, to the archdukes, and to other catholic powers in search of assistance. the states-general professed their readiness to put an army of , foot and horse in the field for the spring campaign, so soon as they were assured of henry's determination for a rupture. "i am fresh enough still," said he to their ambassador, "to lead an army into cleve. i shall have a cheap bargain enough of the provinces. but these germans do nothing but eat and sleep. they will get the profit and assign to me the trouble. no matter, i will never suffer the aggrandizement of the house of austria. the states-general must disband no troops, but hold themselves in readiness." secretary of state villeroy held the same language, but it was easy to trace beneath his plausible exterior a secret determination to traverse the plans of his sovereign. "the cleve affair must lead to war," he said. "the spaniard, considering how necessary it is for him to have a prince there at his devotion, can never quietly suffer brandenburg and neuburg to establish themselves in those territories. the support thus gained by the states-general would cause the loss of the spanish netherlands." this was the view of henry, too, but the secretary of state, secretly devoted to the cause of spain, looked upon the impending war with much aversion. "all that can come to his majesty from war," he said, "is the glory of having protected the right. counterbalance this with the fatigue, the expense, and the peril of a great conflict, after our long repose, and you will find this to be buying glory too dearly." when a frenchman talked of buying glory too dearly, it seemed probable that the particular kind of glory was not to his taste. henry had already ordered the officers, then in france, of the french infantry kept in the states' service at his expense to depart at once to holland, and he privately announced his intention of moving to the frontier at the head of , men. 'yet not only villeroy, but the chancellor and the constable, while professing opposition to the designs of austria and friendliness to those of brandenburg and neuburg, deprecated this precipitate plunge into war. "those most interested," they said, "refuse to move; fearing austria, distrusting france. they leave us the burden and danger, and hope for the spoils themselves. we cannot play cat to their monkey. the king must hold himself in readiness to join in the game when the real players have shuffled and dealt the cards. it is no matter to us whether the spaniard or brandenburg or anyone else gets the duchies. the states- general require a friendly sovereign there, and ought to say how much they will do for that result." the constable laughed at the whole business. coming straight from the louvre, he said "there would be no serious military movement, and that all those fine freaks would evaporate in air." but sully never laughed. he was quietly preparing the ways and means for the war, and he did not intend, so far as he had influence, that france should content herself with freaks and let spain win the game. alone in the council he maintained that "france had gone too far to recede without sacrifice of reputation."--"the king's word is engaged both within and without," he said. "not to follow it with deeds would be dangerous to the kingdom. the spaniard will think france afraid of war. we must strike a sudden blow, either to drive the enemy away or to crush him at once. there is no time for delay. the netherlands must prevent the aggrandizement of austria or consent to their own ruin." thus stood the game therefore. the brother of brandenburg and son of neuburg had taken possession of dusseldorf. the emperor, informed of this, ordered them forthwith to decamp. he further summoned all pretenders to the duchies to appear before him, in person or by proxy, to make good their claims. they refused and appealed for advice and assistance to the states-general. barneveld, aware of the intrigues of spain, who disguised herself in the drapery of the emperor, recommended that the estates of cleve, julich, berg, mark, ravensberg, and ravenstein, should be summoned in dusseldorf. this was done and a resolution taken to resist any usurpation. the king of france wrote to the elector of cologne, who, by directions of rome and by means of the jesuits, had been active in the intrigue, that he would not permit the princes to be disturbed. the archduke leopold suddenly jumped into the chief citadel of the country and published an edict of the emperor. all the proceedings were thereby nullified as illegal and against the dignity of the realm and the princes proclaimed under ban. a herald brought the edict and ban to the princes in full assembly. the princes tore it to pieces on the spot. nevertheless they were much frightened, and many members of the estates took themselves off; others showing an inclination to follow. the princes sent forth with a deputation to the hague to consult my lords the states-general. the states-general sent an express messenger to paris. their ambassador there sent him back a week later, with notice of the king's determination to risk everything against everything to preserve the rights of the princes. it was added that henry required to be solicited by them, in order not by volunteer succour to give cause for distrust as to his intentions. the states-general were further apprised by the king that his interests and theirs were so considerable in the matter that they would probably be obliged to go into a brisk and open war, in order to prevent the spaniard from establishing himself in the duchies. he advised them to notify the archdukes in brussels that they would regard the truce as broken if, under pretext of maintaining the emperor's rights, they should molest the princes. he desired them further to send their forces at once to the frontier of gelderland under prince maurice, without committing any overt act of hostility, but in order to show that both the king and the states were thoroughly in earnest. the king then sent to archduke albert, as well as to the elector of cologne, and despatched a special envoy to the king of great britain. immediately afterwards came communications from barneveld to henry, with complete adhesion to the king's plans. the states would move in exact harmony with him, neither before him nor after him, which was precisely what he wished. he complained bitterly to aerssens, when he communicated the advocate's despatches, of the slothful and timid course of the princes. he ascribed it to the arts of leopold, who had written and inspired many letters against him insinuating that he was secretly in league and correspondence with the emperor; that he was going to the duchies simply in the interest of the catholics; that he was like henry ii. only seeking to extend the french frontier; and leopold, by these intrigues and falsehoods, had succeeded in filling the princes with distrust, and they had taken umbrage at the advance of his cavalry. henry professed himself incapable of self-seeking or ambition. he meant to prevent the aggrandizement of austria, and was impatient at the dilatoriness and distrust of the princes. "all their enemies are rushing to the king of spain. let them address themselves to the king of france," he said, "for it is we two that must play this game." and when at last they did send an embassy, they prefaced it by a post letter demanding an instant loan, and with an intimation that they would rather have his money than his presence! was it surprising that the king's course should seem occasionally wavering when he found it so difficult to stir up such stagnant waters into honourable action? was it strange that the rude and stern sully should sometimes lose his patience, knowing so much and suspecting more of the foul designs by which his master was encompassed, of the web of conspiracy against his throne, his life, and his honour, which was daily and hourly spinning? "we do nothing and you do nothing," he said one day to aerssens. "you are too soft, and we are too cowardly. i believe that we shall spoil everything, after all. i always suspect these sudden determinations of ours. they are of bad augury. we usually founder at last when we set off so fiercely at first. there are words enough an every side, but there will be few deeds. there is nothing to be got out of the king of great britain, and the king of spain will end by securing these provinces for himself by a treaty." sully knew better than this, but he did not care to let even the dutch envoy know, as yet, the immense preparations he had been making for the coming campaign. the envoys of the possessory princes, the counts solms, colonel pallandt, and dr. steyntgen, took their departure, after it had been arranged that final measures should be concerted at the general congress of the german protestants to be held early in the ensuing year at hall, in suabia. at that convention de boississe would make himself heard on the part of france, and the representatives of the states-general, of venice, and savoy, would also be present. meantime the secret conferences between henry and his superintendent of finances and virtual prime minister were held almost every day. scarcely an afternoon passed that the king did not make his appearance at the arsenal, sully's residence, and walk up and down the garden with him for hours, discussing the great project of which his brain was full. this great project was to crush for ever the power of the austrian house; to drive spain back into her own limits, putting an end to her projects for universal monarchy; and taking the imperial crown from the house of habsburg. by thus breaking up the mighty cousinship which, with the aid of rome, overshadowed germany and the two peninsulas, besides governing the greater part of both the indies, he meant to bring france into the preponderant position over christendom which he believed to be her due. it was necessary, he thought, for the continued existence of the dutch commonwealth that the opportunity should be taken once for all, now that a glorious captain commanded its armies and a statesman unrivalled for experience, insight, and patriotism controlled its politics and its diplomacy, to drive the spaniard out of the netherlands. the cleve question, properly and vigorously handled, presented exactly the long desired opportunity for carrying out these vast designs. the plan of assault upon spanish power was to be threefold. the king himself at the head of , men, supported by prince maurice and the states' forces amounting to at least , , would move to the rhine and seize the duchies. the duke de la force would command the army of the pyrenees and act in concert with the moors of spain, who roused to frenzy by their expulsion from the kingdom could be relied on for a revolt or at least a most vigorous diversion. thirdly, a treaty with the duke of savoy by which henry accorded his daughter to the duke's eldest son, the prince of piedmont, a gift of , crowns, and a monthly pension during the war of , crowns a month, was secretly concluded. early in the spring the duke was to take the field with at least , foot and horse, supported by a french army of , to , men under the experienced marshal de lesdiguieres. these forces were to operate against the duchy of milan with the intention of driving the spaniards out of that rich possession, which the duke of savoy claimed for himself, and of assuring to henry the dictatorship of italy. with the cordial alliance of venice, and by playing off the mutual jealousies of the petty italian princes, like florence, mantua, montserrat, and others, against each other and against the pope, it did not seem doubtful to sully that the result would be easily accomplished. he distinctly urged the wish that the king should content himself with political influence, with the splendid position of holding all italy dependent upon his will and guidance, but without annexing a particle of territory to his own crown. it was henry's intention, however, to help himself to the duchy of savoy, and to the magnificent city and port of genoa as a reward to himself for the assistance, matrimonial alliance, and aggrandizement which he was about to bestow upon charles emmanuel. sully strenuously opposed these self-seeking views on the part of his sovereign, however, constantly placing before him the far nobler aim of controlling the destinies of christendom, of curbing what tended to become omnipotent, of raising up and protecting that which had been abased, of holding the balance of empire with just and steady hand in preference to the more vulgar and commonplace ambition of annexing a province or two to the realms of france. it is true that these virtuous homilies, so often preached by him against territorial aggrandizement in one direction, did not prevent him from indulging in very extensive visions of it in another. but the dreams pointed to the east rather than to the south. it was sully's policy to swallow a portion not of italy but of germany. he persuaded his master that the possessory princes, if placed by the help of france in the heritage which they claimed, would hardly be able to maintain themselves against the dangers which surrounded them except by a direct dependence upon france. in the end the position would become an impossible one, and it would be easy after the war was over to indemnify brandenburg with money and with private property in the heart of france for example, and obtain the cession of those most coveted provinces between the meuse and the weser to the king. "what an advantage for france," whispered sully, "to unite to its power so important a part of germany. for it cannot be denied that by accepting the succour given by the king now those princes oblige themselves to ask for help in the future in order to preserve their new acquisition. thus your majesty will make them pay for it very dearly." thus the very virtuous self-denial in regard to the duke of savoy did not prevent a secret but well developed ambition at the expense of the elector of brandenburg. for after all it was well enough known that the elector was the really important and serious candidate. henry knew full well that neuburg was depending on the austrians and the catholics, and that the claims of saxony were only put forward by the emperor in order to confuse the princes and excite mutual distrust. the king's conferences with the great financier were most confidential, and sully was as secret as the grave. but henry never could keep a secret even when it concerned his most important interests, and nothing would serve him but he must often babble of his great projects even to their minutest details in presence of courtiers and counsellors whom in his heart he knew to be devoted to spain and in receipt of pensions from her king. he would boast to them of the blows by which he meant to demolish spain and the whole house of austria, so that there should be no longer danger to be feared from that source to the tranquillity and happiness of europe, and he would do this so openly and in presence of those who, as he knew, were perpetually setting traps for him and endeavouring to discover his deepest secrets as to make sully's hair stand on end. the faithful minister would pluck his master by the cloak at times, and the king, with the adroitness which never forsook him when he chose to employ it, would contrive to extricate himself from a dilemma and pause at the brink of tremendous disclosures.--[memoires de sully, t. vii. p. .]--but sully could not be always at his side, nor were the nuncius or don inigo de cardenas or their confidential agents and spies always absent. enough was known of the general plan, while as to the probability of its coming into immediate execution, perhaps the enemies of the king were often not more puzzled than his friends. but what the spanish ambassador did not know, nor the nuncius, nor even the friendly aerssens, was the vast amount of supplies which had been prepared for the coming conflict by the finance minister. henry did not know it himself. "the war will turn on france as on a pivot," said sully; "it remains to be seen if we have supplies and money enough. i will engage if the war is not to last more than three years and you require no more than , men at a time that i will show you munitions and ammunition and artillery and the like to such an extent that you will say, 'it is enough.' "as to money--" "how much money have i got?" asked the king; "a dozen millions?" "a little more than that," answered the minister. "fourteen millions?" "more still." "sixteen?" continued the king. "more yet," said sully. and so the king went on adding two millions at each question until thirty millions were reached, and when the question as to this sum was likewise answered in the affirmative, he jumped from his chair, hugged his minister around the neck, and kissed him on both cheeks. "i want no more than that," he cried. sully answered by assuring him that he had prepared a report showing a reserve of forty millions on which he might draw for his war expenses, without in the least degree infringing on the regular budget for ordinary expenses. the king was in a transport of delight, and would have been capable of telling the story on the spot to the nuncius had he met him that afternoon, which fortunately did not occur. but of all men in europe after the faithful sully, henry most desired to see and confer daily and secretly with barneveld. he insisted vehemently that, neglecting all other business, he should come forthwith to paris at the head of the special embassy which it had been agreed that the states should send. no living statesman, he said, could compare to holland's advocate in sagacity, insight, breadth of view, knowledge of mankind and of great affairs, and none he knew was more sincerely attached to his person or felt more keenly the value of the french alliance. with him he indeed communicated almost daily through the medium of aerssens, who was in constant receipt of most elaborate instructions from barneveld, but he wished to confer with him face to face, so that there would be no necessity of delay in sending back for instructions, limitations, and explanation. no man knew better than the king did that so far as foreign affairs were concerned the states-general were simply barneveld. on the nd january the states' ambassador had a long and secret interview with the king.' he informed him that the prince of anhalt had been assured by barneveld that the possessory princes would be fully supported in their position by the states, and that the special deputies of archduke albert, whose presence at the hague made henry uneasy, as he regarded them as perpetual spies, had been dismissed. henry expressed his gratification. they are there, he said, entirely in the interest of leopold, who has just received , crowns from the king of spain, and is to have that sum annually, and they are only sent to watch all your proceedings in regard to cleve. the king then fervently pressed the ambassador to urge barneveld's coming to paris with the least possible delay. he signified his delight with barneveld's answer to anhalt, who thus fortified would be able to do good service at the assembly at hall. he had expected nothing else from barneveld's sagacity, from his appreciation of the needs of christendom, and from his affection for himself. he told the ambassador that he was anxiously waiting for the advocate in order to consult with him as to all the details of the war. the affair of cleve, he said, was too special a cause. a more universal one was wanted. the king preferred to begin with luxemburg, attacking charlemont or namur, while the states ought at the same time to besiege venlo, with the intention afterwards of uniting with the king in laying siege to maestricht. he was strong enough, he said, against all the world, but he still preferred to invite all princes interested to join him in putting down the ambitious and growing power of spain. cleve was a plausible pretext, but the true cause, he said, should be found in the general safety of christendom. boississe had been sent to the german princes to ascertain whether and to what extent they would assist the king. he supposed that once they found him engaged in actual warfare in luxemburg, they would get rid of their jealousy and panic fears of him and his designs. he expected them to furnish at least as large a force as he would supply as a contingent. for it was understood that anhalt as generalissimo of the german forces would command a certain contingent of french troops, while the main army of the king would be led by himself in person. henry expressed the conviction that the king of spain would be taken by surprise finding himself attacked in three places and by three armies at once, he believing that the king of france was entirely devoted to his pleasures and altogether too old for warlike pursuits, while the states, just emerging from the misery of their long and cruel conflict, would be surely unwilling to plunge headlong into a great and bloody war. henry inferred this, he said, from observing the rude and brutal manner in which the soldiers in the spanish netherlands were now treated. it seemed, he said, as if the archdukes thought they had no further need of them, or as if a stamp of the foot could raise new armies out of the earth. "my design," continued the king, "is the more likely to succeed as the king of spain, being a mere gosling and a valet of the duke of lerma, will find himself stripped of all his resources and at his wits' end; unexpectedly embarrassed as he will be on the italian side, where we shall be threatening to cut the jugular vein of his pretended universal monarchy." he intimated that there was no great cause for anxiety in regard to the catholic league just formed at wurzburg. he doubted whether the king of spain would join it, and he had learned that the elector of cologne was making very little progress in obtaining the emperor's adhesion. as to this point the king had probably not yet thoroughly understood that the bavarian league was intended to keep clear of the house of habsburg, maximilian not being willing to identify the success of german catholicism with the fortunes of that family. henry expressed the opinion that the king of spain, that is to say, his counsellors, meant to make use of the emperor's name while securing all the profit, and that rudolph quite understood their game, while matthias was sure to make use of this opportunity, supported by the protestants of bohemia, austria, and moravia, to strip the emperor of the last shred of empire. the king was anxious that the states should send a special embassy at once to the king of great britain. his ambassador, de la boderie, gave little encouragement of assistance from that quarter, but it was at least desirable to secure his neutrality. "'tis a prince too much devoted to repose," said henry, "to be likely to help in this war, but at least he must not be allowed to traverse our great designs. he will probably refuse the league offensive and defensive which i have proposed to him, but he must be got, if possible, to pledge himself to the defensive. i mean to assemble my army on the frontier, as if to move upon julich, and then suddenly sweep down on the meuse, where, sustained by the states' army and that of the princes, i will strike my blows and finish my enterprise before our adversary has got wind of what is coming. we must embark james in the enterprise if we can, but at any rate we must take measures to prevent his spoiling it." henry assured the envoy that no one would know anything of the great undertaking but by its effect; that no one could possibly talk about it with any knowledge except himself, sully, villeroy, barneveld, and aerssens. with them alone he conferred confidentially, and he doubted not that the states would embrace this opportunity to have done for ever with the spaniards. he should take the field in person, he said, and with several powerful armies would sweep the enemy away from the meuse, and after obtaining control of that river would quietly take possession of the sea-coast of flanders, shut up archduke albert between the states and the french, who would thus join hands and unite their frontiers. again the king expressed his anxiety for barneveld's coming, and directed the ambassador to urge it, and to communicate to him the conversation which had just taken place. he much preferred, he said, a general war. he expressed doubts as to the prince of anhalt's capacity as chief in the cleve expedition, and confessed that being jealous of his own reputation he did not like to commit his contingent of troops to the care of a stranger and one so new to his trade. the shame would fall on himself, not on anhalt in case of any disaster. therefore, to avoid all petty jealousies and inconveniences of that nature by which the enterprise might be ruined, it was best to make out of this small affair a great one, and the king signified his hope that the advocate would take this view of the case and give him his support. he had plenty of grounds of war himself, and the states had as good cause of hostilities in the rupture of the truce by the usurpation attempted by leopold with the assistance of spain and in the name of the emperor. he hoped, he said, that the states would receive no more deputations from archduke albert, but decide to settle everything at the point of the sword. the moment was propitious, and, if neglected, might never return. marquis spinola was about to make a journey to spain on various matters of business. on his return, henry said, he meant to make him prisoner as a hostage for the prince of conde, whom the archdukes were harbouring and detaining. this would be the pretext, he said, but the object would be to deprive the archdukes of any military chief, and thus to throw them into utter confusion. count van den berg would never submit to the authority of don luis de velasco, nor velasco to his, and not a man could come from spain or italy, for the passages would all be controlled by france. fortunately for the king's reputation, spinola's journey was deferred, so that this notable plan for disposing of the great captain fell to the ground. henry agreed to leave the two french regiments and the two companies of cavalry in the states' service as usual, but stipulated in certain contingencies for their use. passing to another matter concerning which there had been so much jealousy on the part of the states, the formation of the french east india company--to organize which undertaking le roy and isaac le maire of amsterdam had been living disguised in the house of henry's famous companion, the financier zamet at paris--the king said that barneveld ought not to envy him a participation in the great profits of this business. nothing would be done without consulting him after his arrival in paris. he would discuss the matter privately with him, he said, knowing that barneveld was a great personage, but however obstinate he might be, he felt sure that he would always yield to reason. on the other hand the king expressed his willingness to submit to the advocate's opinions if they should seem the more just. on leaving the king the ambassador had an interview with sully, who again expressed his great anxiety for the arrival of barneveld, and his hopes that he might come with unlimited powers, so that the great secret might not leak out through constant referring of matters back to the provinces. after rendering to the advocate a detailed account of this remarkable conversation, aerssens concluded with an intimation that perhaps his own opinion might be desired as to the meaning of all those movements developing themselves so suddenly and on so many sides. "i will say," he observed, "exactly what the poet sings of the army of ants-- 'hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta pulveris exigui jactu contacts quiescunt.' if the prince of conde comes back, we shall be more plausible than ever. if he does not come back, perhaps the consideration of the future will sweep us onwards. all have their special views, and m. de villeroy more warmly than all the rest." etext editor's bookmarks: abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty could not be both judge and party in the suit covered now with the satirical dust of centuries deadly hatred of puritans in england and holland doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense emperor of japan addressed him as his brother monarch estimating his character and judging his judges everybody should mind his own business he was a sincere bigot impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants intense bigotry of conviction international friendship, the self-interest of each it was the true religion, and there was none other james of england, who admired, envied, and hated henry jealousy, that potent principle language which is ever living because it is dead more fiercely opposed to each other than to papists none but god to compel me to say more than i choose to say power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never putting the cart before the oxen religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers senectus edam maorbus est so much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality the catholic league and the protestant union the truth in shortest about matters of importance the vehicle is often prized more than the freight there was but one king in europe, henry the bearnese there was no use in holding language of authority to him thirty years' war tread on the heels of the forty years unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume the life and death of john of barneveld, - , complete preface: these volumes make a separate work in themselves. they form also the natural sequel to the other histories already published by the author, as well as the necessary introduction to that concluding portion of his labours which he has always desired to lay before the public; a history of the thirty years' war. for the two great wars which successively established the independence of holland and the disintegration of germany are in reality but one; a prolonged tragedy of eighty years. the brief pause, which in the netherlands was known as the twelve years' truce with spain, was precisely the epoch in which the elements were slowly and certainly gathering for the renewal over nearly the whole surface of civilized europe of that immense conflict which for more than forty years had been raging within the narrow precincts of the netherlands. the causes and character of the two wars were essentially the same. there were many changes of persons and of scenery during a struggle which lasted for nearly three generations of mankind; yet a natural succession both of actors, motives, and events will be observed from the beginning to the close. the designs of charles v. to establish universal monarchy, which he had passionately followed for a lifetime through a series of colossal crimes against humanity and of private misdeeds against individuals, such as it has rarely been permitted to a single despot to perpetrate, had been baffled at last. disappointed, broken, but even to our own generation never completely unveiled, the tyrant had withdrawn from the stage of human affairs, leaving his son to carry on the great conspiracy against human right, independence of nations, liberty of thought, and equality of religions, with the additional vigour which sprang from intensity of conviction. for philip possessed at least that superiority over his father that he was a sincere bigot. in the narrow and gloomy depths of his soul he had doubtless persuaded himself that it was necessary for the redemption of the human species that the empire of the world should be vested in his hands, that protestantism in all its forms should be extirpated as a malignant disease, and that to behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics who opposed the decree of himself and the holy church was the highest virtue by which he could merit heaven. the father would have permitted protestantism if protestantism would have submitted to universal monarchy. there would have been small difficulty in the early part of his reign in effecting a compromise between rome and augsburg, had the gigantic secular ambition of charles not preferred to weaken the church and to convert conscientious religious reform into political mutiny; a crime against him who claimed the sovereignty of christendom. the materials for the true history of that reign lie in the archives of spain, austria, rome, venice, and the netherlands, and in many other places. when out of them one day a complete and authentic narrative shall have been constructed, it will be seen how completely the policy of charles foreshadowed and necessitated that of philip, how logically, under the successors of philip, the austrian dream of universal empire ended in the shattering, in the minute subdivision, and the reduction to a long impotence of that germanic empire which had really belonged to charles. unfortunately the great republic which, notwithstanding the aid of england on the one side and of france on the other, had withstood almost single-handed the onslaughts of spain, now allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body at the first epoch of peace, although it had successfully exorcised the evil spirit during the long and terrible war. there can be no doubt whatever that the discords within the interior of the dutch republic during the period of the truce, and their tragic catastrophe, had weakened her purpose and partially paralysed her arm. when the noble commonwealth went forward to the renewed and general conflict which succeeded the concentrated one in which it had been the chief actor, the effect of those misspent twelve years became apparent. indeed the real continuity of the war was scarcely broken by the fitful, armistice. the death of john of cleve, an event almost simultaneous with the conclusion of the truce, seemed to those gifted with political vision the necessary precursor of a new and more general war. the secret correspondence of barneveld shows the almost prophetic accuracy with which he indicated the course of events and the approach of an almost universal conflict, while that tragedy was still in the future, and was to be enacted after he had been laid in his bloody grave. no man then living was so accustomed as he was to sweep the political horizon, and to estimate the signs and portents of the times. no statesman was left in europe during the epoch of the twelve years' truce to compare with him in experience, breadth of vision, political tact, or administrative sagacity. imbued with the grand traditions and familiar with the great personages of a most heroic epoch; the trusted friend or respected counsellor of william the silent, henry iv., elizabeth, and the sages and soldiers on whom they leaned; having been employed during an already long lifetime in the administration of greatest affairs, he stood alone after the deaths of henry of france and the second cecil, and the retirement of sully, among the natural leaders of mankind. to the england of elizabeth, of walsingham, raleigh, and the cecils, had succeeded the great britain of james, with his carrs and carletons, nauntons, lakes, and winwoods. france, widowed of henry and waiting for richelieu, lay in the clutches of concini's, epernons, and bouillons, bound hand and foot to spain. germany, falling from rudolph to matthias, saw styrian ferdinand in the background ready to shatter the fabric of a hundred years of attempted reformation. in the republic of the netherlands were the great soldier and the only remaining statesman of the age. at a moment when the breathing space had been agreed upon before the conflict should be renewed; on a wider field than ever, between spanish-austrian world-empire and independence of the nations; between the ancient and only church and the spirit of religious equality; between popular right and royal and sacerdotal despotism; it would have been desirable that the soldier and the statesman should stand side by side, and that the fortunate confederacy, gifted with two such champions and placed by its own achievements at the very head of the great party of resistance, should be true to herself. these volumes contain a slight and rapid sketch of barneveld's career up to the point at which the twelve years' truce with spain was signed in the year . in previous works the author has attempted to assign the great advocate's place as part and parcel of history during the continuance of the war for independence. during the period of the truce he will be found the central figure. the history of europe, especially of the netherlands, britain, france, and germany, cannot be thoroughly appreciated without a knowledge of the designs, the labours, and the fate of barneveld. the materials for estimating his character and judging his judges lie in the national archives of the land of which he was so long the foremost citizen. but they have not long been accessible. the letters, state papers, and other documents remain unprinted, and have rarely been read. m. van deventer has published three most interesting volumes of the advocate's correspondence, but they reach only to the beginning of . he has suspended his labours exactly at the moment when these volumes begin. i have carefully studied however nearly the whole of that correspondence, besides a mass of other papers. the labour is not light, for the handwriting of the great advocate is perhaps the worst that ever existed, and the papers, although kept in the admirable order which distinguishes the archives of the hague, have passed through many hands at former epochs before reaching their natural destination in the treasure-house of the nation. especially the documents connected with the famous trial were for a long time hidden from mortal view, for barneveld's judges had bound themselves by oath to bury the proceedings out of sight. and the concealment lasted for centuries. very recently a small portion of those papers has been published by the historical society of utrecht. the "verhooren," or interrogatories of the judges, and the replies of barneveld, have thus been laid before the reading public of holland, while within the last two years the distinguished and learned historian, professor fruin, has edited the "verhooren" of hugo grotius. but papers like these, important as they are, make but a slender portion of the material out of which a judgment concerning these grave events can be constructed. i do not therefore offer an apology for the somewhat copious extracts which i have translated and given in these volumes from the correspondence of barneveld and from other manuscripts of great value--most of them in the royal archives of holland and belgium--which are unknown to the public. i have avoided as much as possible any dealings with the theological controversies so closely connected with the events which i have attempted to describe. this work aims at being a political study. the subject is full of lessons, examples, and warnings for the inhabitants of all free states. especially now that the republican system of government is undergoing a series of experiments with more or less success in one hemisphere--while in our own land it is consolidated, powerful, and unchallenged--will the conflicts between the spirits of national centralization and of provincial sovereignty, and the struggle between the church, the sword, and the magistracy for supremacy in a free commonwealth, as revealed in the first considerable republic of modern history, be found suggestive of deep reflection. those who look in this work for a history of the synod of dordtrecht will look in vain. the author has neither wish nor power to grapple with the mysteries and passions which at that epoch possessed so many souls. the assembly marks a political period. its political aspects have been anxiously examined, but beyond the ecclesiastical threshold there has been no attempt to penetrate. it was necessary for my purpose to describe in some detail the relations of henry iv. with the dutch republic during the last and most pregnant year of his life, which makes the first of the present history. these relations are of european importance, and the materials for appreciating them are of unexpected richness, in the dutch and belgian archives. especially the secret correspondence, now at the hague, of that very able diplomatist francis aerssens with barneveld during the years , , and , together with many papers at brussels, are full of vital importance. they throw much light both on the vast designs which filled the brain of henry at this fatal epoch and on his extraordinary infatuation for the young princess of conde by which they were traversed, and which was productive of such widespread political anal tragical results. this episode forms a necessary portion of my theme, and has therefore been set forth from original sources. i am under renewed obligations to my friend m. gachard, the eminent publicist and archivist of belgium, for his constant and friendly offices to me (which i have so often experienced before), while studying the documents under his charge relating to this epoch; especially the secret correspondence of archduke albert with philip iii, and his ministers, and with pecquius, the archduke's agent at paris. it is also a great pleasure to acknowledge the unceasing courtesy and zealous aid rendered me during my renewed studies in the archives at the hague--lasting through nearly two years--by the chief archivist, m. van den berg, and the gentlemen connected with that institution, especially m. de jonghe and m. hingman, without whose aid it would have been difficult for me to decipher and to procure copies of the almost illegible holographs of barneveld. i must also thank m. van deventer for communicating copies of some curious manuscripts relating to my subject, some from private archives in holland, and others from those of simancas. a single word only remains to be said in regard to the name of the statesman whose career i have undertaken to describe. his proper appellation and that by which he has always been known in his own country is oldenbarneveld, but in his lifetime and always in history from that time to this he has been called barneveld in english as well as french, and this transformation, as it were, of the name has become so settled a matter that after some hesitation it has been adopted in the present work. the author would take this opportunity of expressing his gratitude for the indulgence with which his former attempts to illustrate an important period of european history have been received by the public, and his anxious hope that the present volumes may be thought worthy of attention. they are the result at least of severe and conscientious labour at the original sources of history, but the subject is so complicated and difficult that it may well be feared that the ability to depict and unravel is unequal to the earnestness with which the attempt has been made. london, . the life and death of john of barneveld, v , chapter i. john of barneveld the founder of the commonwealth of the united provinces--maurice of orange stadholder, but servant to the states- general--the union of utrecht maintained--barneveld makes a compromise between civil functionaries and church officials-- embassies to france, england, and to venice--the appointment of arminius to be professor of theology at leyden creates dissension-- the catholic league opposed by the great protestant union--death of the duke of cleve and struggle for his succession--the elector of brandenburg and palatine of neuburg hold the duchies at barneveld's advice against the emperor, though having rival claims themselves-- negotiations with the king of france--he becomes the ally of the states-general to protect the possessory princes, and prepares for war. i propose to retrace the history of a great statesman's career. that statesman's name, but for the dark and tragic scenes with which it was ultimately associated, might after the lapse of two centuries and a half have faded into comparative oblivion, so impersonal and shadowy his presence would have seemed upon the great european theatre where he was so long a chief actor, and where his efforts and his achievements were foremost among those productive of long enduring and widespread results. there is no doubt whatever that john of barneveld, advocate and seal keeper of the little province of holland during forty years of as troubled and fertile an epoch as any in human history, was second to none of his contemporary statesmen. yet the singular constitution and historical position of the republic whose destinies he guided and the peculiar and abnormal office which he held combined to cast a veil over his individuality. the ever-teeming brain, the restless almost omnipresent hand, the fertile pen, the eloquent and ready tongue, were seen, heard, and obeyed by the great european public, by the monarchs, statesmen, and warriors of the time, at many critical moments of history, but it was not john of barneveld that spoke to the world. those "high and puissant lords my masters the states-general" personified the young but already majestic republic. dignified, draped, and concealed by that overshadowing title the informing and master spirit performed its never ending task. those who study the enormous masses of original papers in the archives of the country will be amazed to find how the penmanship, most difficult to decipher, of the advocate meets them at every turn. letters to monarchs, generals, ambassadors, resolutions of councils, of sovereign assemblies, of trading corporations, of great indian companies, legal and historical disquisitions of great depth and length on questions agitating europe, constitutional arguments, drafts of treaties among the leading powers of the world, instructions to great commissions, plans for european campaigns, vast combinations covering the world, alliances of empire, scientific expeditions and discoveries--papers such as these covered now with the satirical dust of centuries, written in the small, crabbed, exasperating characters which make barneveld's handwriting almost cryptographic, were once, when fairly engrossed and sealed with the great seal of the haughty burgher-aristocracy, the documents which occupied the close attention of the cabinets of christendom. it is not unfrequent to find four or five important despatches compressed almost in miniature upon one sheet of gigantic foolscap. it is also curious to find each one of these rough drafts conscientiously beginning in the statesman's own hand with the elaborate phrases of compliment belonging to the epoch such as "noble, strenuous, severe, highly honourable, very learned, very discreet, and very wise masters," and ending with "may the lord god almighty eternally preserve you and hold you in his holy keeping in this world and for ever"--decorations which one might have thought it safe to leave to be filled in by the secretary or copying clerk. thus there have been few men at any period whose lives have been more closely identical than his with a national history. there have been few great men in any history whose names have become less familiar to the world, and lived less in the mouths of posterity. yet there can be no doubt that if william the silent was the founder of the independence of the united provinces barneveld was the founder of the commonwealth itself. he had never the opportunity, perhaps he might have never had the capacity, to make such prodigious sacrifices in the cause of country as the great prince had done. but he had served his country strenuously from youth to old age with an abiding sense of duty, a steadiness of purpose, a broad vision, a firm grasp, and an opulence of resource such as not one of his compatriots could even pretend to rival. had that country of which he was so long the first citizen maintained until our own day the same proportionate position among the empires of christendom as it held in the seventeenth century, the name of john of barneveld would have perhaps been as familiar to all men as it is at this moment to nearly every inhabitant of the netherlands. even now political passion is almost as ready to flame forth either in ardent affection or enthusiastic hatred as if two centuries and a half had not elapsed since his death. his name is so typical of a party, a polity, and a faith, so indelibly associated with a great historical cataclysm, as to render it difficult even for the grave, the conscientious, the learned, the patriotic of his own compatriots to speak of him with absolute impartiality. a foreigner who loves and admires all that is great and noble in the history of that famous republic and can have no hereditary bias as to its ecclesiastical or political theories may at least attempt the task with comparative coldness, although conscious of inability to do thorough justice to a most complex subject. in former publications devoted to netherland history i have endeavoured to trace the course of events of which the life and works of the advocate were a vital ingredient down to the period when spain after more than forty years of hard fighting virtually acknowledged the independence of the republic and concluded with her a truce of twelve years. that convention was signed in the spring of . the ten ensuing years in europe were comparatively tranquil, but they were scarcely to be numbered among the full and fruitful sheaves of a pacific epoch. it was a pause, a breathing spell during which the sulphurous clouds which had made the atmosphere of christendom poisonous for nearly half a century had sullenly rolled away, while at every point of the horizon they were seen massing themselves anew in portentous and ever accumulating strength. at any moment the faint and sickly sunshine in which poor exhausted humanity was essaying a feeble twitter of hope as it plumed itself for a peaceful flight might be again obscured. to us of a remote posterity the momentary division of epochs seems hardly discernible. so rapidly did that fight of demons which we call the thirty years' war tread on the heels of the forty years' struggle for dutch independence which had just been suspended that we are accustomed to think and speak of the eighty years' war as one pure, perfect, sanguinary whole. and indeed the tragedy which was soon to sweep solemnly across europe was foreshadowed in the first fitful years of peace. the throb of the elementary forces already shook the soil of christendom. the fantastic but most significant conflict in the territories of the dead duke of clove reflected the distant and gigantic war as in a mirage. it will be necessary to direct the reader's attention at the proper moment to that episode, for it was one in which the beneficent sagacity of barneveld was conspicuously exerted in the cause of peace and conservation. meantime it is not agreeable to reflect that this brief period of nominal and armed peace which the republic had conquered after nearly two generations of warfare was employed by her in tearing her own flesh. the heroic sword which had achieved such triumphs in the cause of freedom could have been bitter employed than in an attempt at political suicide. in a picture of the last decade of barneveld's eventful life his personality may come more distinctly forward perhaps than in previous epochs. it will however be difficult to disentangle a single thread from the great historical tapestry of the republic and of europe in which his life and achievements are interwoven. he was a public man in the fullest sense of the word, and without his presence and influence the record of holland, france, spain, britain, and germany might have been essentially modified. the republic was so integral a part of that system which divided europe into two great hostile camps according to creeds rather than frontiers that the history of its foremost citizen touches at every point the general history of christendom. the great peculiarity of the dutch constitution at this epoch was that no principle was absolutely settled. in throwing off a foreign tyranny and successfully vindicating national independence the burghers and nobles had not had leisure to lay down any organic law. nor had the day for profound investigation of the political or social contract arrived. men dealt almost exclusively with facts, and when the facts arranged themselves illogically and incoherently the mischief was grave and difficult to remedy. it is not a trifling inconvenience for an organized commonwealth to be in doubt as to where, in whom, and of what nature is its sovereignty. yet this was precisely the condition of the united netherlands. to the eternal world so dazzling were the reputation and the achievements of their great captain that he was looked upon by many as the legitimate chief of the state and doubtless friendly monarchs would have cordially welcomed him into their brotherhood. during the war he had been surrounded by almost royal state. two hundred officers lived daily at his table. great nobles and scions of sovereign houses were his pupils or satellites. the splendour of military despotism and the awe inspired by his unquestioned supremacy in what was deemed the greatest of all sciences invested the person of maurice of nassau with a grandeur which many a crowned potentate might envy. his ample appointments united with the spoils of war provided him with almost royal revenues, even before the death of his elder brother philip william had placed in his hands the principality and wealthy possessions of orange. hating contradiction, arbitrary by instinct and by military habit, impatient of criticism, and having long acknowledged no master in the chief business of state, he found himself at the conclusion of the truce with his great occupation gone, and, although generously provided for by the treasury of the republic, yet with an income proportionately limited. politics and theology were fields in which he had hardly served an apprenticeship, and it was possible that when he should step forward as a master in those complicated and difficult pursuits, soon to absorb the attention of the commonwealth and the world, it might appear that war was not the only science that required serious preliminary studies. meantime he found himself not a king, not the master of a nominal republic, but the servant of the states-general, and the limited stadholder of five out of seven separate provinces. and the states-general were virtually john of barneveld. could antagonism be more sharply defined? jealousy, that potent principle which controls the regular movements and accounts for the aberrations of humanity in widest spheres as well as narrowest circles far more generally and conclusively than philosophers or historians have been willing to admit, began forthwith to manifest its subtle and irresistible influence. and there were not to be wanting acute and dangerous schemers who saw their profit in augmenting its intensity. the seven provinces, when the truce of twelve years had been signed, were neither exhausted nor impoverished. yet they had just emerged from a forty years' conflict such as no people in human history had ever waged against a foreign tyranny. they had need to repose and recruit, but they stood among the foremost great powers of the day. it is not easy in imagination to thrust back the present leading empires of the earth into the contracted spheres of their not remote past. but to feel how a little confederacy of seven provinces loosely tied together by an ill-defined treaty could hold so prominent and often so controlling a place in the european system of the seventeenth century, we must remember that there was then no germany, no russia, no italy, no united states of america, scarcely even a great britain in the sense which belongs to that mighty empire now. france, spain, england, the pope, and the emperor were the leading powers with which the netherlands were daily called on to solve great problems and try conclusions; the study of political international equilibrium, now rapidly and perhaps fortunately becoming one of the lost arts, being then the most indispensable duty of kings and statesmen. spain and france, which had long since achieved for themselves the political union of many independent kingdoms and states into which they had been divided were the most considerable powers and of necessity rivals. spain, or rather the house of austria divided into its two great branches, still pursued its persistent and by no means fantastic dream of universal monarchy. both spain and france could dispose of somewhat larger resources absolutely, although not relatively, than the seven provinces, while at least trebling them in population. the yearly revenue of spain after deduction of its pledged resources was perhaps equal to a million sterling, and that of france with the same reservation was about as much. england had hardly been able to levy and make up a yearly income of more than l , or l , at the end of elizabeth's reign or in the first years of james, while the netherlands had often proved themselves capable of furnishing annually ten or twelve millions of florins, which would be the equivalent of nearly a million sterling. the yearly revenues of the whole monarchy of the imperial house of habsburg can scarcely be stated at a higher figure than l , . thus the political game--for it was a game--was by no means a desperate one for the netherlands, nor the resources of the various players so unequally distributed as at first sight it might appear. the emancipation of the provinces from the grasp of spain and the establishment by them of a commonwealth, for that epoch a very free one, and which contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty, religious, political, and commercial, than had yet been known, was already one of the most considerable results of the reformation. the probability of its continued and independent existence was hardly believed in by potentate or statesman outside its own borders, and had not been very long a decided article of faith even within them. the knotty problem of an acknowledgment of that existence, the admission of the new-born state into the family of nations, and a temporary peace guaranteed by two great powers, had at last been solved mainly by the genius of barneveld working amid many disadvantages and against great obstructions. the truce had been made, and it now needed all the skill, coolness, and courage of a practical and original statesman to conduct the affairs of the confederacy. the troubled epoch of peace was even now heaving with warlike emotions, and was hardly less stormy than the war which had just been suspended. the republic was like a raft loosely strung together, floating almost on a level of the ocean, and often half submerged, but freighted with inestimable treasures for itself and the world. it needed an unsleeping eye and a powerful brain to conduct her over the quicksands and through the whirlpools of an unmapped and intricate course. the sovereignty of the country so far as its nature could be satisfactorily analysed seemed to be scattered through, and inherent in each one of, the multitudinous boards of magistracy--close corporations, self-elected--by which every city was governed. nothing could be more preposterous. practically, however, these boards were represented by deputies in each of the seven provincial assemblies, and these again sent councillors from among their number to the general assembly which was that of their high mightinesses the lords states-general. the province of holland, being richer and more powerful than all its six sisters combined, was not unwilling to impose a supremacy which on the whole was practically conceded by the rest. thus the union of utrecht established in was maintained for want of anything better as the foundation of the commonwealth. the advocate and keeper of the great seal of that province was therefore virtually prime minister, president, attorney-general, finance minister, and minister of foreign affairs of the whole republic. this was barneveld's position. he took the lead in the deliberations both of the states of holland and the states-general, moved resolutions, advocated great measures of state, gave heed to their execution, collected the votes, summed up the proceedings, corresponded with and instructed ambassadors, received and negotiated with foreign ministers, besides directing and holding in his hands the various threads of the home policy and the rapidly growing colonial system of the republic. all this work barneveld had been doing for thirty years. the reformation was by no mans assured even in the lands where it had at first made the most essential progress. but the existence of the new commonwealth depended on the success of that great movement which had called it into being. losing ground in france, fluctuating in england, protestantism was apparently more triumphant in vast territories where the ancient church was one day to recover its mastery. of the population of bohemia, there were perhaps ten protestants to one papist, while in the united netherlands at least one-third of the people were still attached to the catholic faith. the great religious struggle in bohemia and other dominions of the habsburg family was fast leading to a war of which no man could even imagine the horrors or foresee the vast extent. the catholic league and the protestant union were slowly arranging europe into two mighty confederacies. they were to give employment year after year to millions of mercenary freebooters who were to practise murder, pillage, and every imaginable and unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry that could occupy mankind. the holy empire which so ingeniously combined the worst characteristics of despotism and republicanism kept all germany and half europe in the turmoil of a perpetual presidential election. a theatre where trivial personages and graceless actors performed a tragi-comedy of mingled folly, intrigue, and crime, and where earnestness and vigour were destined to be constantly baffled, now offered the principal stage for the entertainment and excitement of christendom. there was but one king in europe, henry the bearnese. the men who sat on the thrones in madrid, vienna, london, would have lived and died unknown but for the crowns they wore, and while there were plenty of bustling politicians here and there in christendom, there were not many statesmen. among them there was no stronger man than john of barneveld, and no man had harder or more complicated work to do. born in amersfoort in , of the ancient and knightly house of oldenbarneveldt, of patrician blood through all his ancestors both male and female, he was not the heir to large possessions, and was a diligent student and hardworking man from youth upward. he was not wont to boast of his pedigree until in later life, being assailed by vilest slander, all his kindred nearest or most remote being charged with every possible and unmentionable crime, and himself stigmatized as sprung from the lowest kennels of humanity--as if thereby his private character and public services could be more legitimately blackened--he was stung into exhibiting to the world the purity and antiquity of his escutcheon, and a roll of respectably placed, well estated, and authentically noble, if not at all illustrious, forefathers in his country's records of the previous centuries. without an ancestor at his back he might have valued himself still more highly on the commanding place he held in the world by right divine of intellect, but as the father of lies seemed to have kept his creatures so busy with the barneveld genealogy, it was not amiss for the statesman once for all to make the truth known. his studies in the universities of holland, france, italy, and germany had been profound. at an early age he was one of the first civilians of the time. his manhood being almost contemporary with the great war of freedom, he had served as a volunteer and at his own expense through several campaigns, having nearly lost his life in the disastrous attempt to relieve the siege of haarlem, and having been so disabled by sickness and exposure at the heroic leaguer of leyden as to have been deprived of the joy of witnessing its triumphant conclusion. successfully practising his profession afterwards before the tribunals of holland, he had been called at the comparatively early age of twenty-nine to the important post of chief pensionary of rotterdam. so long as william the silent lived, that great prince was all in all to his country, and barneveld was proud and happy to be among the most trusted and assiduous of his counsellors. when the assassination of william seemed for an instant to strike the republic with paralysis, barneveld was foremost among the statesmen of holland to spring forward and help to inspire it with renewed energy. the almost completed negotiations for conferring the sovereignty, not of the confederacy, but of the province of holland, upon the prince had been abruptly brought to an end by his death. to confer that sovereign countship on his son maurice, then a lad of eighteen and a student at leyden, would have seemed to many at so terrible a crisis an act of madness, although barneveld had been willing to suggest and promote the scheme. the confederates under his guidance soon hastened however to lay the sovereignty, and if not the sovereignty, the protectorship, of all the provinces at the feet first of england and then of france. barneveld was at the head of the embassy, and indeed was the indispensable head of all important, embassies to each of those two countries throughout all this portion of his career. both monarchs refused, almost spurned, the offered crown in which was involved a war with the greatest power in the world, with no compensating dignity or benefit, as it was thought, beside. then elizabeth, although declining the sovereignty, promised assistance and sent the earl of leicester as governor-general at the head of a contingent of english troops. precisely to prevent the consolidation thus threatened of the provinces into one union, a measure which had been attempted more than once in the burgundian epoch, and always successfully resisted by the spirit of provincial separatism, barneveld now proposed and carried the appointment of maurice of nassau to the stadholdership of holland. this was done against great opposition and amid fierce debate. soon afterwards barneveld was vehemently urged by the nobles and regents of the cities of holland to accept the post of advocate of that province. after repeatedly declining the arduous and most responsible office, he was at last induced to accept it. he did it under the remarkable condition that in case any negotiation should be undertaken for the purpose of bringing back the province of holland under the dominion of the king of spain, he should be considered as from that moment relieved from the service. his brother elias barneveld succeeded him as pensionary of rotterdam, and thenceforth the career of the advocate is identical with the history of the netherlands. although a native of utrecht, he was competent to exercise such functions in holland, a special and ancient convention between those two provinces allowing the citizens of either to enjoy legal and civic rights in both. gradually, without intrigue or inordinate ambition, but from force of circumstances and the commanding power of the man, the native authority stamped upon his forehead, he became the political head of the confederacy. he created and maintained a system of public credit absolutely marvellous in the circumstances, by means of which an otherwise impossible struggle was carried to a victorious end. when the stadholderate of the provinces of gelderland, utrecht, and overyssel became vacant, it was again barneveld's potent influence and sincere attachment to the house of nassau that procured the election of maurice to those posts. thus within six years after his father's death the youthful soldier who had already given proof of his surpassing military genius had become governor, commander-in-chief, and high admiral, of five of the seven provinces constituting the confederacy. at about the same period the great question of church and state, which barneveld had always felt to be among the vital problems of the age, and on which his opinions were most decided, came up for partial solution. it would have been too much to expect the opinion of any statesman to be so much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality. toleration of various creeds, including the roman catholic, so far as abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlours could be called toleration, was secured, and that was a considerable step in advance of the practice of the sixteenth century. burning, hanging, and burying alive of culprits guilty of another creed than the dominant one had become obsolete. but there was an established creed--the reformed religion, founded on the netherland confession and the heidelberg catechism. and there was one established principle then considered throughout europe the grand result of the reformation; "cujus regio ejus religio;" which was in reality as impudent an invasion of human right as any heaven-born dogma of infallibility. the sovereign of a country, having appropriated the revenues of the ancient church, prescribed his own creed to his subjects. in the royal conscience were included the million consciences of his subjects. the inevitable result in a country like the netherlands, without a personal sovereign, was a struggle between the new church and the civil government for mastery. and at this period, and always in barneveld's opinion, the question of dogma was subordinate to that of church government. that there should be no authority over the king had been settled in england. henry viii., elizabeth, and afterwards james, having become popes in their own realm, had no great hostility to, but rather an affection for, ancient dogma and splendid ceremonial. but in the seven provinces, even as in france, germany, and switzerland, the reform where it had been effected at all had been more thorough, and there was little left of popish pomp or aristocratic hierarchy. nothing could be severer than the simplicity of the reformed church, nothing more imperious than its dogma, nothing more infallible than its creed. it was the true religion, and there was none other. but to whom belonged the ecclesiastical edifices, the splendid old minsters in the cities--raised by the people's confiding piety and the purchased remission of their sins in a bygone age--and the humbler but beautiful parish churches in every town and village? to the state; said barneveld, speaking for government; to the community represented by the states of the provinces, the magistracies of the cities and municipalities. to the church itself, the one true church represented by its elders, and deacons, and preachers, was the reply. and to whom belonged the right of prescribing laws and ordinances of public worship, of appointing preachers, church servants, schoolmasters, sextons? to the holy ghost inspiring the class and the synod, said the church. to the civil authority, said the magistrates, by which the churches are maintained, and the salaries of the ecclesiastics paid. the states of holland are as sovereign as the kings of england or denmark, the electors of saxony or brandenburg, the magistrates of zurich or basel or other swiss cantons. "cujus regio ejus religio." in there was a compromise under the guidance of barneveld. it was agreed that an appointing board should be established composed of civil functionaries and church officials in equal numbers. thus should the interests of religion and of education be maintained. the compromise was successful enough during the war. external pressure kept down theological passion, and there were as yet few symptoms of schism in the dominant church. but there was to come a time when the struggle between church and government was to break forth with an intensity and to rage to an extent which no man at that moment could imagine. towards the end of the century henry iv. made peace with spain. it was a trying moment for the provinces. barneveld was again sent forth on an embassy to the king. the cardinal point in his policy, as it had ever been in that of william the silent, was to maintain close friendship with france, whoever might be its ruler. an alliance between that kingdom and spain would be instantaneous ruin to the republic. with the french and english sovereigns united with the provinces, the cause of the reformation might triumph, the spanish world-empire be annihilated, national independence secured. henry assured the ambassador that the treaty of vervins was indispensable, but that he would never desert his old allies. in proof of this, although he had just bound himself to spain to give no assistance to the provinces, open or secret, he would furnish them with thirteen hundred thousand crowns, payable at intervals during four years. he was under great obligations to his good friends the states, he said, and nothing in the treaty forbade him to pay his debts. it was at this period too that barneveld was employed by the king to attend to certain legal and other private business for which he professed himself too poor at the moment to compensate him. there seems to have been nothing in the usages of the time or country to make the transaction, innocent in itself, in any degree disreputable. the king promised at some future clay, when he should be more in funds, to pay him a liberal fee. barneveld, who a dozen years afterwards received , florins for his labour, professed that he would much rather have had one thousand at the time. thence the advocate, accompanied by his colleague, justinus de nassau, proceeded to england, where they had many stormy interviews with elizabeth. the queen swore with many an oath that she too would make peace with philip, recommended the provinces to do the same thing with submission to their ancient tyrant, and claimed from the states immediate payment of one million sterling in satisfaction of their old debts to her. it would have been as easy for them at that moment to pay a thousand million. it was at last agreed that the sum of the debt should be fixed at l , , and that the cautionary towns should be held in elizabeth's hands by english troops until all the debt should be discharged. thus england for a long time afterwards continued to regard itself, as in a measure the sovereign and proprietor of the confederacy, and barneveld then and there formed the resolve to relieve the country of the incubus, and to recover those cautionary towns and fortresses at the earliest possible moment. so long as foreign soldiers commanded by military governors existed on the soil of the netherlands, they could hardly account themselves independent. besides, there was the perpetual and horrid nightmare, that by a sudden pacification between spain and england those important cities, keys to the country's defence, might be handed over to their ancient tyrant. elizabeth had been pacified at last, however, by the eloquence of the ambassador. "i will assist you even if you were up to the neck in water," she said. "jusque la," she added, pointing to her chin. five years later barneveld, for the fifth time at the head of a great embassy, was sent to england to congratulate james on his accession. it was then and there that he took measure of the monarch with whom he was destined to have many dealings, and who was to exert so baleful an influence on his career. at last came the time when it was felt that peace between spain and her revolted provinces might be made. the conservation of their ancient laws, privileges, and charters, the independence of the states, and included therein the freedom to establish the reformed religion, had been secured by forty years of fighting. the honour of spain was saved by a conjunction. she agreed to treat with her old dependencies "as" with states over which she had no pretensions. through virtue of an "as," a truce after two years' negotiation, perpetually traversed and secretly countermined by the military party under the influence of maurice, was carried by the determination of barneveld. the great objects of the war had been secured. the country was weary of nearly half a century of bloodshed. it was time to remember that there could be such a condition as peace. the treaty was signed, ratifications exchanged, and the usual presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made. barneveld earnestly protested against carrying out the custom on this occasion, and urged that those presents should be given for the public use. he was overruled by those who were more desirous of receiving their reward than he was, and he accordingly, in common with the other diplomatists, accepted the gifts. the various details of these negotiations have been related by the author in other volumes, to which the present one is intended as a sequel. it has been thought necessary merely to recall very briefly a few salient passages in the career of the advocate up to the period when the present history really opens. their bearing upon subsequent events will easily be observed. the truce was the work of barneveld. it was detested by maurice and by maurice's partisans. "i fear that our enemies and evil reports are the cause of many of our difficulties," said the advocate to the states' envoy in paris, in . "you are to pay no heed to private advices. believe and make others believe that more than one half the inhabitants of the cities and in the open country are inclined to peace. and i believe, in case of continuing adversities, that the other half will not remain constant, principally because the provinces are robbed of all traffic, prosperity, and navigation, through the actions of france and england. i have always thought it for the advantage of his majesty to sustain us in such wise as would make us useful in his service. as to his remaining permanently at peace with spain, that would seem quite out of the question." the king had long kept, according to treaty, a couple of french regiments in the states' service, and furnished, or was bound to furnish, a certain yearly sum for their support. but the expenses of the campaigning had been rapidly increasing and the results as swiftly dwindling. the advocate now explained that, "without loss both of important places and of reputation," the states could not help spending every month that they took the field , florins over and above the regular contributions, and some months a great deal more. this sum, he said, in nine months, would more than eat up the whole subsidy of the king. if they were to be in the field by march or beginning of april, they would require from him an extraordinary sum of , crowns, and as much more in june or july. eighteen months later, when the magnificent naval victory of heemskerk in the bay of gibraltar had just made a startling interlude to the languishing negotiations for peace, the advocate again warned the french king of the difficulty in which the republic still laboured of carrying on the mighty struggle alone. spain was the common enemy of all. no peace or hope was possible for the leading powers as long as spain was perpetually encamped in the very heart of western europe. the netherlands were not fighting their own battle merely, but that of freedom and independence against the all-encroaching world-power. and their means to carry on the conflict were dwindling, while at the same time there was a favourable opportunity for cropping some fruit from their previous labours and sacrifices. "we are led to doubt," he wrote once more to the envoy in france, "whether the king's full powers will come from spain. this defeat is hard for the spaniards to digest. meantime our burdens are quite above our capacity, as you will understand by the enclosed statement, which is made out with much exactness to show what is absolutely necessary for a vigorous defence on land and a respectable position at sea to keep things from entire confusion. the provinces could raise means for the half of this estimate. but, it is a great difference when the means differ one half from the expenses. the sovereignst and most assured remedy would be the one so often demanded, often projected, and sometimes almost prepared for execution, namely that our neighbour kings, princes, and republics should earnestly take the matter in hand and drive the spaniards and their adherents out of the netherlands and over the mountains. their own dignity and security ought not to permit such great bodies of troops of both belligerents permanently massed in the netherlands. still less ought they to allow these provinces to fall into the hands of the spaniards, whence they could with so much more power and convenience make war upon all kings, princes, and republics. this must be prevented by one means or another. it ought to be enough for every one that we have been between thirty and forty years a firm bulwark against spanish ambition. our constancy and patience ought to be strengthened by counsel and by deed in order that we may exist; a christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient. believe and cause to be believed that the present condition of our affairs requires more aid in counsel and money than ever before, and that nothing could be better bestowed than to further this end. "messieurs jeannin, buzenval, and de russy have been all here these twelve days. we have firm hopes that other kings, princes, and republics will not stay upon formalities, but will also visit the patients here in order to administer sovereign remedies. "lend no ear to any flying reports. we say with the wise men over there, 'metuo danaos et dons ferentes.' we know our antagonists well, and trust their hearts no more than before, 'sed ultra posse non est esse.' to accept more burthens than we can pay for will breed military mutiny; to tax the community above its strength will cause popular tumults, especially in 'rebus adversis,' of which the beginnings were seen last year, and without a powerful army the enemy is not to be withstood. i have received your letters to the th may. my advice is to trust to his upright proceedings and with patience to overcome all things. thus shall the detractors and calumniators best be confounded. assure his majesty and his ministers that i will do my utmost to avert our ruin and his majesty's disservice." the treaty was made, and from that time forth the antagonism between the eminent statesman and the great military chieftain became inevitable. the importance of the one seemed likely to increase day by day. the occupation of the other for a time was over. during the war maurice had been, with exception of henry iv., the most considerable personage in europe. he was surrounded with that visible atmosphere of power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist, and through the golden haze of which a mortal seems to dilate for the vulgar eye into the supernatural. the attention of christendom was perpetually fixed upon him. nothing like his sieges, his encampments, his military discipline, his scientific campaigning had been seen before in modern europe. the youthful aristocracy from all countries thronged to his camp to learn the game of war, for he had restored by diligent study of the ancients much that was noble in that pursuit, and had elevated into an art that which had long since degenerated into a system of butchery, marauding, and rapine. and he had fought with signal success and unquestionable heroism the most important and most brilliant pitched battle of the age. he was a central figure of the current history of europe. pagan nations looked up to him as one of the leading sovereigns of christendom. the emperor of japan addressed him as his brother monarch, assured him that his subjects trading to that distant empire should be welcomed and protected, and expressed himself ashamed that so great a prince, whose name and fame had spread through the world, should send his subjects to visit a country so distant and unknown, and offer its emperor a friendship which he was unconscious of deserving. he had been a commander of armies and a chief among men since he came to man's estate, and he was now in the very vigour of life, in his forty-second year. of imperial descent and closely connected by blood or alliance with many of the most illustrious of reigning houses, the acknowledged master of the most royal and noble of all sciences, he was of the stuff of which kings were made, and belonged by what was then accounted right divine to the family of kings. his father's death had alone prevented his elevation to the throne of holland, and such possession of half the sovereignty of the united netherlands would probably have expanded into dominion over all the seven with a not fantastic possibility of uniting the ten still obedient provinces into a single realm. such a kingdom would have been more populous and far wealthier than contemporary great britain and ireland. maurice, then a student at leyden, was too young at that crisis, and his powers too undeveloped to justify any serious attempt to place him in his father's place. the netherlands drifted into a confederacy of aristocratic republics, not because they had planned a republic, but because they could not get a king, foreign or native. the documents regarding the offer of the sovereign countship to william remained in the possession of maurice, and a few years before the peace there had been a private meeting of leading personages, of which barneveld was the promoter and chief spokesman, to take into consideration the propriety and possibility of conferring that sovereignty upon the son which had virtually belonged to the father. the obstacles were deemed so numerous, and especially the scheme seemed so fraught with danger to maurice, that it was reluctantly abandoned by his best friends, among whom unquestionably was the advocate. there was no reason whatever why the now successful and mature soldier, to whom the country was under such vast obligations, should not aspire to the sovereignty. the provinces had not pledged themselves to republicanism, but rather to monarchy, and the crown, although secretly coveted by henry iv., could by no possibility now be conferred on any other man than maurice. it was no impeachment on his character that he should nourish thoughts in which there was nothing criminal. but the peace negotiations had opened a chasm. it was obvious enough that barneveld having now so long exercised great powers, and become as it were the chief magistrate of an important commonwealth, would not be so friendly as formerly to its conversion into a monarchy and to the elevation of the great soldier to its throne. the advocate had even been sounded, cautiously and secretly, so men believed, by the princess-dowager, louise de coligny, widow of william the silent, as to the feasibility of procuring the sovereignty for maurice. she had done this at the instigation of maurice, who had expressed his belief that the favourable influence of the advocate would make success certain and who had represented to her that, as he was himself resolved never to marry, the inheritance after his death would fall to her son frederick henry. the princess, who was of a most amiable disposition, adored her son. devoted to the house of nassau and a great admirer of its chief, she had a long interview with barneveld, in which she urged the scheme upon his attention without in any probability revealing that she had come to him at the solicitation of maurice. the advocate spoke to her with frankness and out of the depths of his heart. he professed an ardent attachment to her family, a profound reverence for the virtues, sacrifices, and achievements of her lamented husband, and a warm desire to do everything to further the interests of the son who had proved himself so worthy of his parentage. but he proved to her that maurice, in seeking the sovereignty, was seeking his ruin. the hollanders, he said, liked to be persuaded and not forced. having triumphantly shaken off the yoke of a powerful king, they would scarcely consent now to accept the rule of any personal sovereign. the desire to save themselves from the claws of spain had led them formerly to offer the dominion over them to various potentates. now that they had achieved peace and independence and were delivered from the fears of spanish ferocity and french intrigue, they shuddered at the dangers from royal hands out of which they had at last escaped. he believed that they would be capable of tearing in pieces any one who might make the desired proposition. after all, he urged, maurice was a hundred times more fortunate as he was than if he should succeed in desires so opposed to his own good. this splendour of sovereignty was a false glare which would lead him to a precipice. he had now the power of a sovereign without the envy which ever followed it. having essentially such power, he ought, like his father, to despise an empty name, which would only make him hated. for it was well known that william the silent had only yielded to much solicitation, agreeing to accept that which then seemed desirable for the country's good but to him was more than indifferent. maurice was captain-general and admiral-general of five provinces. he appointed to governments and to all military office. he had a share of appointment to the magistracies. he had the same advantages and the same authority as had been enjoyed in the netherlands by the ancient sovereign counts, by the dukes of burgundy, by emperor charles v. himself. every one now was in favour of increasing his pensions, his salaries, his material splendour. should he succeed in seizing the sovereignty, men would envy him even to the ribbands of his pages' and his lackeys' shoes. he turned to the annals of holland and showed the princess that there had hardly been a sovereign count against whom his subjects had not revolted, marching generally into the very courtyard of the palace at the hague in order to take his life. convinced by this reasoning, louise de coligny had at once changed her mind, and subsequently besought her stepson to give up a project sure to be fatal to his welfare, his peace of mind, and the good of the country. maurice listened to her coldly, gave little heed to the advocate's logic, and hated him in his heart from that day forth. the princess remained loyal to barneveld to the last. thus the foundation was laid of that terrible enmity which, inflamed by theological passion, was to convert the period of peace into a hell, to rend the provinces asunder when they had most need of repose, and to lead to tragical results for ever to be deplored. already in francis aerssens had said that the two had become so embroiled and things had gone so far that one or the other would have to leave the country. he permitted also the ridiculous statement to be made in his house at paris, that henry iv. believed the advocate to have become spanish, and had declared that prince maurice would do well to have him put into a sack and thrown into the sea. his life had been regularly divided into two halves, the campaigning season and the period of winter quarters. in the one his business, and his talk was of camps, marches, sieges, and battles only. in the other he was devoted to his stud, to tennis, to mathematical and mechanical inventions, and to chess, of which he was passionately fond, and which he did not play at all well. a gascon captain serving in the states' army was his habitual antagonist in that game, and, although the stakes were but a crown a game, derived a steady income out of his gains, which were more than equal to his pay. the prince was sulky when he lost, sitting, when the candles were burned out and bed-time had arrived, with his hat pulled over his brows, without bidding his guest good night, and leaving him to find his way out as he best could; and, on the contrary, radiant with delight when successful, calling for valets to light the departing captain through the corridor, and accompanying him to the door of the apartment himself. that warrior was accordingly too shrewd not to allow his great adversary as fair a share of triumph as was consistent with maintaining the frugal income on which he reckoned. he had small love for the pleasures of the table, but was promiscuous and unlicensed in his amours. he was methodical in his household arrangements, and rather stingy than liberal in money matters. he personally read all his letters, accounts, despatches, and other documents trivial or important, but wrote few letters with his own hand, so that, unlike his illustrious father's correspondence, there is little that is characteristic to be found in his own. he was plain but not shabby in attire, and was always dressed in exactly the same style, wearing doublet and hose of brown woollen, a silk under vest, a short cloak lined with velvet, a little plaited ruff on his neck, and very loose boots. he ridiculed the smart french officers who, to show their fine legs, were wont to wear such tight boots as made them perspire to get into them, and maintained, in precept and practice, that a man should be able to jump into his boots and mount and ride at a moment's notice. the only ornaments he indulged in, except, of course, on state occasions, were a golden hilt to his famous sword, and a rope of diamonds tied around his felt hat. he was now in the full flower of his strength and his fame, in his forty-second year, and of a noble and martial presence. the face, although unquestionably handsome, offered a sharp contrast within itself; the upper half all intellect, the lower quite sensual. fair hair growing thin, but hardly tinged with grey, a bright, cheerful, and thoughtful forehead, large hazel eyes within a singularly large orbit of brow; a straight, thin, slightly aquiline, well-cut nose--such features were at open variance with the broad, thick-lipped, sensual mouth, the heavy pendant jowl, the sparse beard on the glistening cheek, and the moleskin-like moustachio and chin tuft. still, upon the whole, it was a face and figure which gave the world assurance of a man and a commander of men. power and intelligence were stamped upon him from his birth. barneveld was tall and majestic of presence, with large quadrangular face, austere, blue eyes looking authority and command, a vast forehead, and a grizzled beard. of fluent and convincing eloquence with tongue and pen, having the power of saying much in few words, he cared much more for the substance than the graces of speech or composition. this tendency was not ill exemplified in a note of his written on a sheet of questions addressed to him by a states' ambassador about to start on an important mission, but a novice in his business, the answers to which questions were to serve for his diplomatic instructions. "item and principally," wrote the envoy, "to request of m. de barneveld a formulary or copy of the best, soundest, wisest, and best couched despatches done by several preceding ambassadors in order to regulate myself accordingly for the greater service of the province and for my uttermost reputation." the advocate's answer, scrawled in his nearly illegible hand, was-- "unnecessary. the truth in shortest about matters of importance shall be taken for good style." with great love of power, which he was conscious of exerting with ease to himself and for the good of the public, he had little personal vanity, and not the smallest ambition of authorship. many volumes might be collected out of the vast accumulation of his writings now mouldering and forgotten in archives. had the language in which they are written become a world's language, they would be worthy of attentive study, as containing noble illustrations of the history and politics of his age, with theories and sentiments often far in advance of his age. but he cared not for style. "the truth in shortest about matters of importance" was enough for him; but the world in general, and especially the world of posterity, cares much for style. the vehicle is often prized more than the freight. the name of barneveld is fast fading out of men's memory. the fame of his pupil and companion in fortune and misfortune, hugo grotius, is ever green. but grotius was essentially an author rather than a statesman: he wrote for the world and posterity with all the love, pride, and charm of the devotee of literature, and he composed his noblest works in a language which is ever living because it is dead. some of his writings, epochmaking when they first appeared, are text-books still familiar in every cultivated household on earth. yet barneveld was vastly his superior in practical statesmanship, in law, in the science of government, and above all in force of character, while certainly not his equal in theology, nor making any pretensions to poetry. although a ripe scholar, he rarely wrote in latin, and not often in french. his ambition was to do his work thoroughly according to his view of duty, and to ask god's blessing upon it without craving overmuch the applause of men. such were the two men, the soldier and the statesman. would the republic, fortunate enough to possess two such magnificent and widely contrasted capacities, be wise enough to keep them in its service, each supplementing the other, and the two combining in a perfect whole? or was the great law of the discords of the world, as potent as that other principle of universal harmony and planetary motion which an illustrious contemporary--that wurtemberg astronomer, once a soldier of the fierce alva, now the half-starved astrologer of the brain-sick rudolph--was at that moment discovering, after "god had waited six thousand years for him to do it," to prevail for the misery of the republic and shame of europe? time was to show. the new state had forced itself into the family of sovereignties somewhat to the displeasure of most of the lord's anointed. rebellious and republican, it necessarily excited the jealousy of long-established and hereditary governments. the king of spain had not formally acknowledged the independence of the united provinces. he had treated with them as free, and there was supposed to be much virtue in the conjunction. but their sovereign independence was virtually recognized by the world. great nations had entered into public and diplomatic relations and conventions with them, and their agents at foreign courts were now dignified with the rank and title of ambassadors. the spanish king had likewise refused to them the concession of the right of navigation and commerce in the east indies, but it was a matter of notoriety that the absence of the word india, suppressed as it was in the treaty, implied an immense triumph on the part of the states, and that their flourishing and daily increasing commerce in the farthest east and the imperial establishments already rising there were cause of envy and jealousy not to spain alone, but to friendly powers. yet the government of great britain affected to regard them as something less than a sovereign state. although elizabeth had refused the sovereignty once proffered to her, although james had united with henry iv. in guaranteeing the treaty just concluded between the states and spain, that monarch had the wonderful conception that the republic was in some sort a province of his own, because he still held the cautionary towns in pledge for the loans granted by his predecessor. his agents at constantinople were instructed to represent the new state as unworthy to accredit its envoys as those of an independent power. the provinces were represented as a collection of audacious rebels, a piratical scum of the sea. but the sultan knew his interests better than to incur the enmity of this rising maritime power. the dutch envoy declaring that he would sooner throw himself into the bosphorus than remain to be treated with less consideration than that accorded to the ministers of all great powers, the remonstrances of envious colleagues were hushed, and haga was received with all due honours. even at the court of the best friend of the republic, the french king, men looked coldly at the upstart commonwealth. francis aerssens, the keen and accomplished minister of the states, resident in paris for many years, was received as ambassador after the truce with all the ceremonial befitting the highest rank in the diplomatic service; yet henry could not yet persuade himself to look upon the power accrediting him as a thoroughly organized commonwealth. the english ambassador asked the king if he meant to continue his aid and assistance to the states during the truce. "yes," answered henry. "and a few years beyond it?" "no. i do not wish to offend the king of spain from mere gaiety of heart." "but they are free," replied the ambassador; "the king of spain could have no cause for offence." "they are free," said the king, "but not sovereign."--"judge then," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "how we shall be with the king of spain at the end of our term when our best friends make this distinction among themselves to our disadvantage. they insist on making a difference between liberty and sovereignty; considering liberty as a mean term between servitude and sovereignty." "you would do well," continued the dutch ambassador, "to use the word 'sovereignty' on all occasions instead of 'liberty.'" the hint was significant and the advice sound. the haughty republic of venice, too, with its "golden book" and its pedigree of a thousand years, looked askance at the republic of yesterday rising like herself out of lagunes and sand banks, and affecting to place herself side by side with emperors, kings, and the lion of st. mark. but the all-accomplished council of that most serene commonwealth had far too much insight and too wide experience in political combinations to make the blunder of yielding to this aristocratic sentiment. the natural enemy of the pope, of spain, of austria, must of necessity be the friend of venice, and it was soon thought highly desirable to intimate half officially that a legation from the states-general to the queen of the adriatic, announcing the conclusion of the twelve years' truce, would be extremely well received. the hint was given by the venetian ambassador at paris to francis aerssens, who instantly recommended van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld, as a proper personage to be entrusted with this important mission. at this moment an open breach had almost occurred between spain and venice, and the spanish ambassador at paris, don pedro de toledo, naturally very irate with holland, venice, and even with france, was vehement in his demonstrations. the arrogant spaniard had for some time been employed in an attempt to negotiate a double marriage between the dauphin and the eldest daughter of philip iii., and between the eldest son of that king and the princess elizabeth of france. an indispensable but secret condition of this negotiation was the absolute renunciation by france of its alliance and friendly relations with the united provinces. the project was in truth a hostile measure aimed directly at the life of the republic. henry held firm however, and don pedro was about to depart malcontent, his mission having totally failed. he chanced, when going to his audience of leave-taking, after the arrival of his successor, don inigo de cardenas, to meet the venetian ambassador, antonio foscarini. an altercation took place between them, during which the spaniard poured out his wrath so vehemently, calling his colleague with neat alliteration "a poltroon, a pantaloon, and a pig," that henry heard him. what signor antonio replied has not been preserved, but it is stated that he was first to seek a reconciliation, not liking, he said, spanish assassinations. meantime the double marriage project was for a season at least suspended, and the alliance between the two republics went forwards. van der myle, appointed ambassador to venice, soon afterwards arrived in paris, where he made a very favourable impression, and was highly lauded by aerssens in his daily correspondence with barneveld. no portentous shadow of future and fatal discord between those statesmen fell upon the cheerful scene. before the year closed, he arrived at his post, and was received with great distinction, despite the obstacles thrown in his way by spain and other powers; the ambassador of france itself, de champigny, having privately urged that he ought to be placed on the same footing with the envoys of savoy and of florence. van der myle at starting committed the trifling fault of styling the states-general "most illustrious" (illustrissimi) instead of "most serene," the title by which venice designated herself. the fault was at once remedied, however, priuli the doge seating the dutch ambassador on his right hand at his solemn reception, and giving directions that van der myle should be addressed as excellency, his post being assigned him directly after his seniors, the ambassadors of pope, emperor, and kings. the same precedence was settled in paris, while aerssens, who did not consider himself placed in a position of greater usefulness by his formal installation as ambassador, received private intimation from henry, with whom he was on terms of great confidence and intimacy, that he should have private access to the king as frequently and as in formally as before. the theory that the ambassador, representing the personality of his sovereign, may visit the monarch to whom he is accredited, without ceremony and at his own convenience, was as rarely carried into practice in the sixteenth century as in the nineteenth, while on the other hand aerssens, as the private and confidential agent of a friendly but not publicly recognized commonwealth, had been for many years in almost daily personal communication with the king. it is also important to note that the modern fallacy according to which republics being impersonal should not be represented by ambassadors had not appeared in that important epoch in diplomatic history. on the contrary, the two great republics of the age, holland and venice, vindicated for themselves, with as much dignity and reason as success, their right to the highest diplomatic honours. the distinction was substantial not shadowy; those haughty commonwealths not considering it advantageous or decorous that their representatives should for want of proper official designations be ranked on great ceremonial occasions with the ministers of petty italian principalities or of the three hundred infinitesimal sovereignties of germany. it was the advice of the french king especially, who knew politics and the world as well as any man, that the envoys of the republic which he befriended and which stood now on the threshold of its official and national existence, should assert themselves at every court with the self-reliance and courtesy becoming the functionaries of a great power. that those ministers were second to the representatives of no other european state in capacity and accomplishment was a fact well known to all who had dealings with them, for the states required in their diplomatic representatives knowledge of history and international law, modern languages, and the classics, as well as familiarity with political customs and social courtesies; the breeding of gentlemen in short, and the accomplishments of scholars. it is both a literary enjoyment and a means of historical and political instruction to read after the lapse of centuries their reports and despatches. they worthily compare as works of art with those diplomatic masterpieces the letters and 'relazioni' of the venetian ambassadors; and it is well known that the earlier and some of the most important treatises on public and international law ever written are from the pens of hollanders, who indeed may be said to have invented that science.' the republic having thus steadily shouldered its way into the family of nations was soon called upon to perform a prominent part in the world's affairs. more than in our own epoch there was a close political commingling of such independent states as held sympathetic views on the great questions agitating europe. the policy of isolation so wisely and successfully carried out by our own trans-atlantic commonwealth was impossible for the dutch republic, born as it was of a great religious schism, and with its narrow territory wedged between the chief political organizations of christendom. moreover the same jealousy on the part of established powers which threw so many obstacles in its path to recognized sovereignty existed in the highest degree between its two sponsors and allies, france and england, in regard to their respective relations to the new state. "if ever there was an obliged people," said henry's secretary of state, villeroy, to aerssens, "then it is you netherlanders to his majesty. he has converted your war into peace, and has never abandoned you. it is for you now to show your affection and gratitude." in the time of elizabeth, and now in that of her successor, there was scarcely a day in which the envoys of the states were not reminded of the immense load of favour from england under which they tottered, and of the greater sincerity and value of english friendship over that of france. sully often spoke to aerssens on the subject in even stronger language, deeming himself the chief protector and guardian angel of the republic, to whom they were bound by ties of eternal gratitude. "but if the states," he said, "should think of caressing the king of england more than him, or even of treating him on an equality with his majesty, henry would be very much affronted. he did not mean that they should neglect the friendship of the king of britain, but that they should cultivate it after and in subordination to his own, for they might be sure that james held all things indifferent, their ruin or their conservation, while his majesty had always manifested the contrary both by his counsels and by the constant furnishing of supplies." henry of france and navarre--soldier, statesman, wit, above all a man and every inch a king--brimful of human vices, foibles, and humours, and endowed with those high qualities of genius which enabled him to mould events and men by his unscrupulous and audacious determination to conform to the spirit of his times which no man better understood than himself, had ever been in such close relations with the netherlands as to seem in some sort their sovereign. james stuart, emerging from the school of buchanan and the atmosphere of calvinism in which he had been bred, now reigned in those more sunny and liberal regions where elizabeth so long had ruled. finding himself at once, after years of theological study, face to face with a foreign commonwealth and a momentous epoch, in which politics were so commingled with divinity as to offer daily the most puzzling problems, the royal pedant hugged himself at beholding so conspicuous a field for his talents. to turn a throne into a pulpit, and amaze mankind with his learning, was an ambition most sweet to gratify. the calvinist of scotland now proclaimed his deadly hatred of puritans in england and holland, and denounced the netherlanders as a pack of rebels whom it always pleased him to irritate, and over whom he too claimed, through the possession of the cautionary towns, a kind of sovereignty. instinctively feeling that in the rough and unlovely husk of puritanism was enclosed the germ of a wider human liberty than then existed, he was determined to give battle to it with his tongue, his pen, with everything but his sword. doubtless the states had received most invaluable assistance from both france and england, but the sovereigns of those countries were too apt to forget that it was their own battles, as well as those of the hollanders, that had been fought in flanders and brabant. but for the alliance and subsidies of the faithful states, henry would not so soon have ascended the throne of his ancestors, while it was matter of history that the spanish government had for years been steadily endeavouring to subjugate england not so much for the value of the conquest in itself as for a stepping-stone to the recovery of the revolted netherlands. for the dividing line of nations or at least of national alliances was a frontier not of language but of faith. germany was but a geographical expression. the union of protestantism, subscribed by a large proportion of its three hundred and seven sovereigns, ran zigzag through the country, a majority probably of the people at that moment being opposed to the roman church. it has often been considered amazing that protestantism having accomplished so much should have fallen backwards so soon, and yielded almost undisputed sway in vast regions to the long dominant church. but in truth there is nothing surprising about it. catholicism was and remained a unit, while its opponents were eventually broken up into hundreds of warring and politically impotent organizations. religious faith became distorted into a weapon for selfish and greedy territorial aggrandizement in the hands of protestant princes. "cujus regio ejus religio" was the taunt hurled in the face of the imploring calvinists of france and the low countries by the arrogant lutherans of germany. such a sword smote the principle of religious freedom and mutual toleration into the dust, and rendered them comparatively weak in the conflict with the ancient and splendidly organized church. the huguenots of france, notwithstanding the protection grudgingly afforded them by their former chieftain, were dejected and discomfited by his apostasy, and henry, placed in a fearfully false position, was an object of suspicion to both friends and foes. in england it is difficult to say whether a jesuit or a puritan was accounted the more noxious animal by the dominant party. in the united provinces perhaps one half the population was either openly or secretly attached to the ancient church, while among the protestant portion a dire and tragic convulsion was about to break forth, which for a time at least was to render remonstrants and contra-remonstrants more fiercely opposed to each other than to papists. the doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense had long been the prevailing one in the reformed church of the revolted netherlands, as in those of scotland, france, geneva, and the palatinate. no doubt up to the period of the truce a majority had acquiesced in that dogma and its results, although there had always been many preachers to advocate publicly a milder creed. it was not until the appointment of jacob arminius to the professorship of theology at leyden, in the place of francis junius, in the year , that a danger of schism in the church, seemed impending. then rose the great gomarus in his wrath, and with all the powers of splendid eloquence, profound learning, and the intense bigotry of conviction, denounced the horrible heresy. conferences between the two before the court of holland, theological tournaments between six champions on a side, gallantly led by their respective chieftains, followed, with the usual result of confirming both parties in the conviction that to each alone belonged exclusively the truth. the original influence of arminius had however been so great that when the preachers of holland had been severally called on by a synod to sign the heidelberg catechism, many of them refused. here was open heresy and revolt. it was time for the true church to vindicate its authority. the great war with spain had been made, so it was urged and honestly believed, not against the inquisition, not to prevent netherlanders from being burned and buried alive by the old true church, not in defence of ancient charters, constitutions, and privileges--the precious result of centuries of popular resistance to despotic force--not to maintain an amount of civil liberty and local self-government larger in extent than any then existing in the world, not to assert equality of religion for all men, but simply to establish the true religion, the one church, the only possible creed; the creed and church of calvin. it is perfectly certain that the living fire which glowed in the veins of those hot gospellers had added intense enthusiasm to the war spirit throughout that immense struggle. it is quite possible that without that enthusiasm the war might not have been carried on to its successful end. but it is equally certain that catholics, lutherans, baptists, and devotees of many other creeds, had taken part in the conflict in defence both of hearth and altar, and that without that aid the independence of the provinces would never have been secured. yet before the war was ended the arrogance of the reformed priesthood had begun to dig a chasm. men who with william the silent and barneveld had indulged in the vision of religious equality as a possible result of so much fighting against the holy inquisition were perhaps to be disappointed. preachers under the influence of the gentle arminius having dared to refuse signing the creed were to be dealt with. it was time to pass from censure to action. heresy must be trampled down. the churches called for a national synod, and they did this as by divine right. "my lords the states-general must observe," they said, "that this assembly now demanded is not a human institution but an ordinance of the holy ghost in its community, not depending upon any man's authority, but proceeding from god to the community." they complained that the true church was allowed to act only through the civil government, and was thus placed at a disadvantage compared even with catholics and other sects, whose proceedings were winked at. "thus the true church suffered from its apparent and public freedom, and hostile sects gained by secret connivance." a crisis was fast approaching. the one church claimed infallibility and superiority to the civil power. the holy ghost was placed in direct, ostentatious opposition to my lords the states-general. it was for netherlanders to decide whether, after having shaken off the holy inquisition, and subjected the old true church to the public authority, they were now to submit to the imperious claims of the new true church. there were hundreds of links connecting the church with the state. in that day a divorce between the two was hardly possible or conceivable. the system of congregationalism so successfully put into practice soon afterwards in the wilderness of new england, and to which so much of american freedom political as well as religious is due, was not easy to adopt in an old country like the netherlands. splendid churches and cathedrals, the legal possession of which would be contended for by rival sects, could scarcely be replaced by temporary structures of lath and plaster, or by humble back parlours of mechanics' shops. there were questions of property of complicated nature. not only the states and the communities claimed in rivalry the ownership of church property, but many private families could show ancient advowsons and other claims to present or to patronize, derived from imperial or ducal charters. so long as there could be liberty of opinion within the church upon points not necessarily vital, open schism could be avoided, by which the cause of protestantism throughout europe must be weakened, while at the same time subordination of the priesthood to the civil authority would be maintained. but if the holy ghost, through the assembled clergy, were to dictate an iron formulary to which all must conform, to make laws for church government which every citizen must obey, and to appoint preachers and school-masters from whom alone old and young could receive illumination and instruction religious or lay, a theocracy would be established which no enlightened statesman could tolerate. the states-general agreed to the synod, but imposed a condition that there should be a revision of creed and catechism. this was thundered down with one blast. the condition implied a possibility that the vile heresy of arminius might be correct. an unconditional synod was demanded. the heidelberg creed and netherland catechism were sacred, infallible, not to be touched. the answer of the government, through the mouth of barneveld, was that "to my lords the states-general as the foster-fathers and protectors of the churches every right belonged." thus far the states-general under the leadership of the advocate were unanimous. the victory remained with state against church. but very soon after the truce had been established, and men had liberty to devote themselves to peaceful pursuits, the ecclesiastical trumpet again sounded far and wide, and contending priests and laymen rushed madly to the fray. the remonstrance and contra-remonstrance, and the appointment of conrad vorstius, a more abominable heretic than arminius, to the vacant chair of arminius--a step which drove gomarus and the gomarites to frenzy, although gomarus and vorstius remained private and intimate friends to the last--are matters briefly to be mentioned on a later page. thus to the four chief actors in the politico-religious drama, soon to be enacted as an interlude to an eighty years' war, were assigned parts at first sight inconsistent with their private convictions. the king of france, who had often abjured his religion, and was now the best of catholics, was denounced ferociously in every catholic pulpit in christendom as secretly an apostate again, and the open protector of heretics and rebels. but the cheerful henry troubled himself less than he perhaps had cause to do with these thunderblasts. besides, as we shall soon see, he had other objects political and personal to sway his opinions. james the ex-calvinist, crypto-arminian, pseudo-papist, and avowed puritan hater, was girding on his armour to annihilate arminians and to defend and protect puritans in holland, while swearing that in england he would pepper them and harry them and hang them and that he would even like to bury them alive. barneveld, who turned his eyes, as much as in such an inflammatory age it was possible, from subtle points of theology, and relied on his great-grandfather's motto of humility, "nil scire tutissima fides" was perhaps nearer to the dogma of the dominant reformed church than he knew, although always the consistent and strenuous champion of the civil authority over church as well as state. maurice was no theologian. he was a steady churchgoer, and his favorite divine, the preacher at his court chapel, was none other than uytenbogaert. the very man who was instantly to be the champion of the arminians, the author of the remonstrance, the counsellor and comrade of barneveld and grotius, was now sneered at by the gomarites as the "court trumpeter." the preacher was not destined to change his opinions. perhaps the prince might alter. but maurice then paid no heed to the great point at issue, about which all the netherlanders were to take each other by the throat--absolute predestination. he knew that the advocate had refused to listen to his stepmother's suggestion as to his obtaining the sovereignty. "he knew nothing of predestination," he was wont to say, "whether it was green or whether it was blue. he only knew that his pipe and the advocate's were not likely to make music together." this much of predestination he did know, that if the advocate and his friends were to come to open conflict with the prince of orange-nassau, the conqueror of nieuwpoort, it was predestined to go hard with the advocate and his friends. the theological quibble did not interest him much, and he was apt to blunder about it. "well, preacher," said he one day to albert huttenus, who had come to him to intercede for a deserter condemned to be hanged, "are you one of those arminians who believe that one child is born to salvation and another to damnation?" huttenus, amazed to the utmost at the extraordinary question, replied, "your excellency will be graciously pleased to observe that this is not the opinion of those whom one calls by the hateful name of arminians, but the opinion of their adversaries." "well, preacher," rejoined maurice, "don't you think i know better?" and turning to count lewis william, stadholder of friesland, who was present, standing by the hearth with his hand on a copper ring of the chimneypiece, he cried, "which is right, cousin, the preacher or i?" "no, cousin," answered count lewis, "you are in the wrong." thus to the catholic league organized throughout europe in solid and consistent phalanx was opposed the great protestant union, ardent and enthusiastic in detail, but undisciplined, disobedient, and inharmonious as a whole. the great principle, not of religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult, but of religious equality, which is the natural right of mankind, was to be evolved after a lapse of, additional centuries out of the elemental conflict which had already lasted so long. still later was the total divorce of state and church to be achieved as the final consummation of the great revolution. meantime it was almost inevitable that the privileged and richly endowed church, with ecclesiastical armies and arsenals vastly superior to anything which its antagonist could improvise, should more than hold its own. at the outset of the epoch which now occupies our attention, europe was in a state of exhaustion and longing for repose. spain had submitted to the humiliation of a treaty of truce with its rebellious subjects which was substantially a recognition of their independence. nothing could be more deplorable than the internal condition of the country which claimed to be mistress of the world and still aspired to universal monarchy. it had made peace because it could no longer furnish funds for the war. the french ambassador, barante, returning from madrid, informed his sovereign that he had often seen officers in the army prostrating themselves on their knees in the streets before their sovereign as he went to mass, and imploring him for payment of their salaries, or at least an alms to keep them from starving, and always imploring in vain. the king, who was less than a cipher, had neither capacity to feel emotion, nor intelligence to comprehend the most insignificant affair of state. moreover the means were wanting to him even had he been disposed to grant assistance. the terrible duke of lerma was still his inexorably lord and master, and the secretary of that powerful personage, who kept an open shop for the sale of offices of state both high and low, took care that all the proceeds should flow into the coffers of the duke and his own lap instead of the royal exchequer. in france both king and people declared themselves disgusted with war. sully disapproved of the treaty just concluded between spain and the netherlands, feeling sure that the captious and equivocal clauses contained in it would be interpreted to the disadvantage of the republic and of the reformed religion whenever spain felt herself strong enough to make the attempt. he was especially anxious that the states should make no concessions in regard to the exercise of the catholic worship within their territory, believing that by so doing they would compromise their political independence besides endangering the cause of protestantism everywhere. a great pressure was put upon sully that moment by the king to change his religion. "you will all be inevitably ruined if you make concessions in this regard," said he to aerssens. "take example by me. i should be utterly undone if i had listened to any overture on this subject." nevertheless it was the opinion of the astute and caustic envoy that the duke would be forced to yield at last. the pope was making great efforts to gain him, and thus to bring about the extirpation of protestantism in france. and the king, at that time much under the influence of the jesuits, had almost set his heart on the conversion. aerssens insinuated that sully was dreading a minute examination into the affairs of his administration of the finances--a groundless calumny--and would be thus forced to comply. other enemies suggested that nothing would effect this much desired apostasy but the office of constable of france, which it was certain would never be bestowed on him. at any rate it was very certain that henry at this period was bent on peace. "make your account," said aerssens to barneveld, as the time for signing the truce drew nigh, "on this indubitable foundation that the king is determined against war, whatever pretences he may make. his bellicose demeanour has been assumed only to help forward our treaty, which he would never have favoured, and ought never to have favoured, if he had not been too much in love with peace. this is a very important secret if we manage it discreetly, and a very dangerous one if our enemies discover it." sully would have much preferred that the states should stand out for a peace rather than for a truce, and believed it might have been obtained if the king had not begun the matter so feebly, and if he had let it be understood that he would join his arms to those of the provinces in case of rupture. he warned the states very strenuously that the pope, and the king of spain, and a host of enemies open and covert, were doing their host to injure them at the french court. they would find little hindrance in this course if the republic did not show its teeth, and especially if it did not stiffly oppose all encroachments of the roman religion, without even showing any deference to the king in this regard, who was much importuned on the subject. he advised the states to improve the interval of truce by restoring order to their finances and so arranging their affairs that on the resumption of hostilities, if come they must, their friends might be encouraged to help them, by the exhibition of thorough vigour on their part. france then, although utterly indisposed for war at that moment, was thoroughly to be relied on as a friend and in case of need an ally, so long as it was governed by its present policy. there was but one king left in europe since the death of elizabeth of england. but henry was now on the abhorred threshold of old age which he obstinately refused to cross. there is something almost pathetic, in spite of the censure which much of his private life at this period provokes, in the isolation which now seemed his lot. deceived and hated by his wife and his mistresses, who were conspiring with each other and with his ministers, not only against his policy but against his life; with a vile italian adventurer, dishonouring his household, entirely dominating the queen, counteracting the royal measures, secretly corresponding, by assumed authority, with spain, in direct violation of the king's instructions to his ambassadors, and gorging himself with wealth and offices at the expense of everything respectable in france; surrounded by a pack of malignant and greedy nobles, who begrudged him his fame, his authority, his independence; without a home, and almost without a friend, the most christian king in these latter days led hardly as merry a life as when fighting years long for his crown, at the head of his gascon chivalry, the beloved chieftain of huguenots. of the triumvirate then constituting his council, villeroy, sillery, and sully, the two first were ancient leaguers, and more devoted at heart to philip of spain than to henry of france and navarre. both silent, laborious, plodding, plotting functionaries, thriftily gathering riches; skilled in routine and adepts at intrigue; steady self-seekers, and faithful to office in which their lives had passed, they might be relied on at any emergency to take part against their master, if to ruin would prove more profitable than to serve him. there was one man who was truer to henry than henry had been to himself. the haughty, defiant, austere grandee, brave soldier, sagacious statesman, thrifty financier, against whom the poisoned arrows of religious hatred, envious ambition, and petty court intrigue were daily directed, who watched grimly over the exchequer confided to him, which was daily growing fuller in despite of the cormorants who trembled at his frown; hard worker, good hater, conscientious politician, who filled his own coffers without dishonesty, and those of the state without tyranny; unsociable, arrogant; pious, very avaricious, and inordinately vain, maximilian de bethune, duke of sully, loved and respected henry as no man or woman loved and respected him. in truth, there was but one living being for whom the duke had greater reverence and affection than for the king, and that was the duke of sully himself. at this moment he considered himself, as indeed he was, in full possession of his sovereign's confidence. but he was alone in this conviction. those about the court, men like epernon and his creatures, believed the great financier on the brink of perdition. henry, always the loosest of talkers even in regard to his best friends, had declared, on some temporary vexation in regard to the affair between aiguillon and balagny, that he would deal with the duke as with the late marshal de biron, and make him smaller than he had ever made him great: goading him on this occasion with importunities, almost amounting to commands, that both he and his son should forthwith change their religion or expect instant ruin. the blow was so severe that sully shut himself up, refused to see anyone, and talked of retiring for good to his estates. but he knew, and henry knew, how indispensable he was, and the anger of the master was as shortlived as the despair of the minister. there was no living statesman for whom henry had a more sincere respect than for the advocate of holland. "his majesty admires and greatly extols your wisdom, which he judges necessary for the preservation of our state; deeming you one of the rare and sage counsellors of the age." it is true that this admiration was in part attributed to the singular coincidence of barneveld's views of policy with the king's own. sully, on his part, was a severe critic of that policy. he believed that better terms might have been exacted from spain in the late negotiations, and strongly objected to the cavilling and equivocal language of the treaty. rude in pen as in speech, he expressed his mind very freely in his conversation and correspondence with henry in regard to leading personages and great affairs, and made no secret of his opinions to the states' ambassador. he showed his letters in which he had informed the king that he ought never to have sanctioned the truce without better securities than existed, and that the states would never have moved in any matter without him. it would have been better to throw himself into a severe war than to see the republic perish. he further expressed the conviction that henry ought to have such authority over the netherlands that they would embrace blindly whatever counsel he chose to give them, even if they saw in it their inevitable ruin; and this not so much from remembrance of assistance rendered by him, but from the necessity in which they should always feel of depending totally upon him. "you may judge, therefore," concluded aerssens, "as to how much we can build on such foundations as these. i have been amazed at these frank communications, for in those letters he spares neither my lords the states, nor his excellency prince maurice, nor yourself; giving his judgment of each of you with far too much freedom and without sufficient knowledge." thus the alliance between the netherlands and france, notwithstanding occasional traces of caprice and flaws of personal jealousy, was on the whole sincere, for it was founded on the surest foundation of international friendship, the self-interest of each. henry, although boasting of having bought paris with a mass, knew as well as his worst enemy that in that bargain he had never purchased the confidence of the ancient church, on whose bosom he had flung himself with so much dramatic pomp. his noble position, as champion of religious toleration, was not only unappreciated in an age in which each church and every sect arrogated to itself a monopoly of the truth, but it was one in which he did not himself sincerely believe. after all, he was still the chieftain of the protestant union, and, although eldest son of the church, was the bitter antagonist of the league and the sworn foe to the house of austria. he was walking through pitfalls with a crowd of invisible but relentless foes dogging his every footstep. in his household or without were daily visions of dagger and bowl, and he felt himself marching to his doom. how could the man on whom the heretic and rebellious hollanders and the protestant princes of germany relied as on their saviour escape the unutterable wrath and the patient vengeance of a power that never forgave? in england the jealousy of the republic and of france as co-guardian and protector of the republic was even greater than in france. though placed by circumstances in the position of ally to the netherlands and enemy to spain, james hated the netherlands and adored spain. his first thought on escaping the general destruction to which the gunpowder plot was to have involved himself and family and all the principal personages of the realm seems to have been to exculpate spain from participation in the crime. his next was to deliver a sermon to parliament, exonerating the catholics and going out of his way to stigmatize the puritans as entertaining doctrines which should be punished with fire. as the puritans had certainly not been accused of complicity with guy fawkes or garnet, this portion of the discourse was at least superfluous. but james loathed nothing so much as a puritan. a catholic at heart, he would have been the warmest ally of the league had he only been permitted to be pope of great britain. he hated and feared a jesuit, not for his religious doctrines, for with these he sympathized, but for his political creed. he liked not that either roman pontiff or british presbyterian should abridge his heaven-born prerogative. the doctrine of papal superiority to temporal sovereigns was as odious to him as puritan rebellion to the hierarchy of which he was the chief. moreover, in his hostility to both papists and presbyterians, there was much of professional rivalry. having been deprived by the accident of birth of his true position as theological professor, he lost no opportunity of turning his throne into a pulpit and his sceptre into a controversial pen. henry of france, who rarely concealed his contempt for master jacques, as he called him, said to the english ambassador, on receiving from him one of the king's books, and being asked what he thought of it--"it is not the business of us kings to write, but to fight. everybody should mind his own business, but it is the vice of most men to wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant." the flatterers of james found their account in pandering to his sacerdotal and royal vanity. "i have always believed," said the lord chancellor, after hearing the king argue with and browbeat a presbyterian deputation, "that the high-priesthood and royalty ought to be united, but i never witnessed the actual junction till now, after hearing the learned discourse of your majesty." archbishop whitgift, grovelling still lower, declared his conviction that james, in the observations he had deigned to make, had been directly inspired by the holy ghost. nothing could be more illogical and incoherent with each other than his theological and political opinions. he imagined himself a defender of the protestant faith, while hating holland and fawning on the house of austria. in england he favoured arminianism, because the anglican church recognized for its head the temporal chief of the state. in holland he vehemently denounced the arminians, indecently persecuting their preachers and statesmen, who were contending for exactly the same principle--the supremacy of state over church. he sentenced bartholomew legate to be burned alive in smithfield as a blasphemous heretic, and did his best to compel the states of holland to take the life of professor vorstius of leyden. he persecuted the presbyterians in england as furiously as he defended them in holland. he drove bradford and carver into the new england wilderness, and applauded gomarus and walaeus and the other famous leaders of the presbyterian party in the netherlands with all his soul and strength. he united with the french king in negotiations for netherland independence, while denouncing the provinces as guilty of criminal rebellion against their lawful sovereign. "he pretends," said jeannin, "to assist in bringing about the peace, and nevertheless does his best openly to prevent it." richardot declared that the firmness of the king of spain proceeded entirely from reliance on the promise of james that there should be no acknowledgment in the treaty of the liberty of the states. henry wrote to jeannin that he knew very well "what that was capable of, but that he should not be kept awake by anything he could do." as a king he spent his reign--so much of it as could be spared from gourmandizing, drunkenness, dalliance with handsome minions of his own sex, and theological pursuits--in rescuing the crown from dependence on parliament; in straining to the utmost the royal prerogative; in substituting proclamations for statutes; in doing everything in his power, in short, to smooth the path for his successor to the scaffold. as father of a family he consecrated many years of his life to the wondrous delusion of the spanish marriages. the gunpowder plot seemed to have inspired him with an insane desire for that alliance, and few things in history are more amazing than the persistency with which he pursued the scheme, until the pursuit became not only ridiculous, but impossible. with such a man, frivolous, pedantic, conceited, and licentious, the earnest statesmen of holland were forced into close alliance. it is pathetic to see men like barneveld and hugo grotius obliged, on great occasions of state, to use the language of respect and affection to one by whom they were hated, and whom they thoroughly despised. but turning away from france, it was in vain for them to look for kings or men either among friends or foes. in germany religious dissensions were gradually ripening into open war, and it would be difficult to imagine a more hopelessly incompetent ruler than the man who was nominally chief of the holy roman realm. yet the distracted rudolph was quite as much an emperor as the chaos over which he was supposed to preside was an empire. perhaps the very worst polity ever devised by human perverseness was the system under which the great german race was then writhing and groaning. a mad world with a lunatic to govern it; a democracy of many princes, little and big, fighting amongst each other, and falling into daily changing combinations as some masterly or mischievous hand whirled the kaleidoscope; drinking rhenish by hogsheads, and beer by the tun; robbing churches, dictating creeds to their subjects, and breaking all the commandments themselves; a people at the bottom dimly striving towards religious freedom and political life out of abject social, ecclesiastical, and political serfdom, and perhaps even then dumbly feeling within its veins, with that prophetic instinct which never abandons great races, a far distant and magnificent future of national unity and imperial splendour, the very reverse of the confusion which was then the hideous present; an imperial family at top with many heads and slender brains; a band of brothers and cousins wrangling, intriguing, tripping up each others' heels, and unlucky rudolph, in his hradschin, looking out of window over the peerless prague, spread out in its beauteous landscape of hill and dale, darkling forest, dizzy cliffs, and rushing river, at his feet, feebly cursing the unhappy city for its ingratitude to an invisible and impotent sovereign; his excellent brother matthias meanwhile marauding through the realms and taking one crown after another from his poor bald head. it would be difficult to depict anything more precisely what an emperor in those portentous times should not be. he collected works of art of many kinds--pictures, statues, gems. he passed his days in his galleries contemplating in solitary grandeur these treasures, or in his stables, admiring a numerous stud of horses which he never drove or rode. ambassadors and ministers of state disguised themselves as grooms and stable-boys to obtain accidental glimpses of a sovereign who rarely granted audiences. his nights were passed in star-gazing with tycho de brake, or with that illustrious suabian whose name is one of the great lights and treasures of the world. but it was not to study the laws of planetary motion nor to fathom mysteries of divine harmony that the monarch stood with kepler in the observatory. the influence of countless worlds upon the destiny of one who, by capricious accident, if accident ever exists in history, had been entrusted with the destiny of so large a portion of one little world; the horoscope, not of the universe, but of himself; such were the limited purposes with which the kaiser looked upon the constellations. for the catholic rudolph had received the protestant kepler, driven from tubingen because lutheran doctors, knowing from holy writ that the sun had stood still in ajalon, had denounced his theory of planetary motion. his mother had just escaped being burned as a witch, and the world owes a debt of gratitude to the emperor for protecting the astrologer, when enlightened theologians might, perhaps, have hanged the astronomer. a red-faced, heavy fowled, bald-headed, somewhat goggle-eyed old gentleman, rudolph did his best to lead the life of a hermit, and escape the cares of royalty. timid by temperament, yet liable to fits of uncontrollable anger, he broke his furniture to pieces when irritated, and threw dishes that displeased him in his butler's face, but left affairs of state mainly to his valet, who earned many a penny by selling the imperial signature. he had just signed the famous "majestatsbrief," by which he granted vast privileges to the protestants of bohemia, and had bitten the pen to pieces in a paroxysm of anger, after dimly comprehending the extent of the concessions which he had made. there were hundreds of sovereign states over all of which floated the shadowy and impalpable authority of an imperial crown scarcely fixed on the head of any one of the rival brethren and cousins; there was a confederation of protestants, with the keen-sighted and ambitious christian of anhalt acting as its chief, and dreaming of the bohemian crown; there was the just-born catholic league, with the calm, far-seeing, and egotistical rather than self-seeking maximilian at its head; each combination extending over the whole country, stamped with imbecility of action from its birth, and perverted and hampered by inevitable jealousies. in addition to all these furrows ploughed by the very genius of discord throughout the unhappy land was the wild and secret intrigue with which leopold, archduke and bishop, dreaming also of the crown of wenzel, was about to tear its surface as deeply as he dared. thus constituted were the leading powers of europe in the earlier part of --the year in which a peaceful period seemed to have begun. to those who saw the entangled interests of individuals, and the conflict of theological dogmas and religious and political intrigue which furnished so much material out of which wide-reaching schemes of personal ambition could be spun, it must have been obvious that the interval of truce was necessarily but a brief interlude between two tragedies. it seemed the very mockery of fate that, almost at the very instant when after two years' painful negotiation a truce had been made, the signal for universal discord should be sounded. one day in the early summer of , henry iv. came to the royal arsenal, the residence of sully, accompanied by zamet and another of his intimate companions. he asked for the duke and was told that he was busy in his study. "of course," said the king, turning to his followers, "i dare say you expected to be told that he was out shooting, or with the ladies, or at the barber's. but who works like sully? tell him," he said, "to come to the balcony in his garden, where he and i are not accustomed to be silent." as soon as sully appeared, the king observed: "well; here the duke of cleve is dead, and has left everybody his heir." it was true enough, and the inheritance was of vital importance to the world. it was an apple of discord thrown directly between the two rival camps into which christendom was divided. the duchies of cleve, berg, and julich, and the counties and lordships of mark, ravensberg, and ravenstein, formed a triangle, political and geographical, closely wedged between catholicism and protestantism, and between france, the united provinces, belgium, and germany. should it fall into catholic hands, the netherlands were lost, trampled upon in every corner, hedged in on all sides, with the house of austria governing the rhine, the meuse, and the scheldt. it was vital to them to exclude the empire from the great historic river which seemed destined to form the perpetual frontier of jealous powers and rival creeds. should it fall into heretic hands, the states were vastly strengthened, the archduke albert isolated and cut off from the protection of spain and of the empire. france, although catholic, was the ally of holland and the secret but well known enemy of the house of austria. it was inevitable that the king of that country, the only living statesman that wore a crown, should be appealed to by all parties and should find himself in the proud but dangerous position of arbiter of europe. in this emergency he relied upon himself and on two men besides, maximilian de bethune and john of barneveld. the conference between the king and sully and between both and francis aerssens, ambassador of the states, were of almost daily occurrence. the minute details given in the adroit diplomatist's correspondence indicate at every stage the extreme deference paid by henry to the opinion of holland's advocate and the confidence reposed by him in the resources and the courage of the republic. all the world was claiming the heritage of the duchies. it was only strange that an event which could not be long deferred and the consequences of which were soon to be so grave, the death of the duke of cleve, should at last burst like a bomb-shell on the council tables of the sovereigns and statesmen of europe. that mischievous madman john william died childless in the spring of . his sister sibylla, an ancient and malignant spinster, had governed him and his possessions except in his lucid intervals. the mass of the population over which he ruled being protestant, while the reigning family and the chief nobles were of the ancient faith, it was natural that the catholic party under, the lead of maximilian of bavaria should deem it all-important that there should be direct issue to that family. otherwise the inheritance on his death would probably pass to protestant princes. the first wife provided for him was a beautiful princess; jacobea of baden. the pope blessed the nuptials, and sent the bride a golden rose, but the union was sterile and unhappy. the duke, who was in the habit of careering through his palace in full armour, slashing at and wounding anyone that came in his way, was at last locked up. the hapless jacobea, accused by sibylla of witchcraft and other crimes possible and impossible, was thrown into prison. two years long the devilish malignity of the sister-in-law was exercised upon her victim, who, as it is related, was not allowed natural sleep during all that period, being at every hour awakened by command of sibylla. at last the duchess was strangled in prison. a new wife was at once provided for the lunatic, antonia of lorraine. the two remained childless, and sibylla at the age of forty-nine took to herself a husband, the margrave of burgau, of the house of austria, the humble birth of whose mother, however, did not allow him the rank of archduke. her efforts thus to provide catholic heirs to the rich domains of clove proved as fruitless as her previous attempts. and now duke john william had died, and the representatives of his three dead sisters, and the living sibylla were left to fight for the duchies. it would be both cruel and superfluous to inflict on the reader a historical statement of the manner in which these six small provinces were to be united into a single state. it would be an equally sterile task to retrace the legal arguments by which the various parties prepared themselves to vindicate their claims, each pretender more triumphantly than the other. the naked facts alone retain vital interest, and of these facts the prominent one was the assertion of the emperor that the duchies, constituting a fief masculine, could descend to none of the pretenders, but were at his disposal as sovereign of germany. on the other hand nearly all the important princes of that country sent their agents into the duchies to look after the interests real or imaginary which they claimed. there were but four candidates who in reality could be considered serious ones. mary eleanor, eldest sister of the duke, had been married in the lifetime of their father to albert frederic of brandenburg, duke of prussia. to the children of this marriage was reserved the succession of the whole property in case of the masculine line becoming extinct. two years afterwards the second sister, anne, was married to duke philip lewis, count-palatine of neuburg; the children of which marriage stood next in succession to those of the eldest sister, should that become extinguished. four years later the third sister, magdalen, espoused the duke john, count-palatine of deux-ponts; who, like neuburg, made resignation of rights of succession in favour of the descendants of the brandenburg marriage. the marriage of the youngest sister, sibylla, with the margrave of burgau has been already mentioned. it does not appear that her brother, whose lunatic condition hardly permitted him to assure her the dowry which had been the price of renunciation in the case of her three elder sisters, had obtained that renunciation from her. the claims of the childless sibylla as well as those of the deux-ponts branch were not destined to be taken into serious consideration. the real competitors were the emperor on the one side and the elector of brandenburg and the count-palatine of neuburg on the other. it is not necessary to my purpose to say a single word as to the legal and historical rights of the controversy. volumes upon volumes of forgotten lore might be consulted, and they would afford exactly as much refreshing nutriment as would the heaps of erudition hardly ten years old, and yet as antiquated as the title-deeds of the pharaohs, concerning the claims to the duchies of schleswig-holstein. the fortunate house of brandenburg may have been right or wrong in both disputes. it is certain that it did not lack a more potent factor in settling the political problems of the world in the one case any more than in the other. but on the occasion with which we are occupied it was not on the might of his own right hand that the elector of brandenburg relied. moreover, he was dilatory in appealing to the two great powers on whose friendship he must depend for the establishment of his claims: the united republic and the king of france. james of england was on the whole inclined to believe in the rights of brandenburg. his ambassador, however, with more prophetic vision than perhaps the king ever dreamt--of, expressed a fear lest brandenburg should grow too great and one day come to the imperial crown. the states openly favoured the elector. henry as at first disposed towards neuburg, but at his request barneveld furnished a paper on the subject, by which the king seems to have been entirely converted to the pretensions of brandenburg. but the solution of the question had but little to do with the legal claim of any man. it was instinctively felt throughout christendom that the great duel between the ancient church and the spirit of the reformation was now to be renewed upon that narrow, debateable spot. the emperor at once proclaimed his right to arbitrate on the succession and to hold the territory until decision should be made; that is to say, till the greek kalends. his familiar and most tricksy spirit, bishop-archduke leopold, played at once on his fears and his resentments, against the ever encroaching, ever menacing, protestantism of germany, with which he had just sealed a compact so bitterly detested. that bold and bustling prelate, brother of the queen of spain and of ferdinand of styria, took post from prague in the middle of july. accompanied by a certain canon of the church and disguised as his servant, he arrived after a rapid journey before the gates of julich, chief city and fortress of the duchies. the governor of the place, nestelraed, inclined like most of the functionaries throughout the duchies to the catholic cause, was delighted to recognize under the livery of the lackey the cousin and representative of the emperor. leopold, who had brought but five men with him, had conquered his capital at a blow. for while thus comfortably established as temporary governor of the duchies he designed through the fears or folly of rudolph to become their sovereign lord. strengthened by such an acquisition and reckoning on continued assistance in men and money from spain and the catholic league, he meant to sweep back to the rescue of the perishing rudolph, smite the protestants of bohemia, and achieve his appointment to the crown of that kingdom. the spanish ambassador at prague had furnished him with a handsome sum of money for the expenses of his journey and preliminary enterprise. it should go hard but funds should be forthcoming to support him throughout this audacious scheme. the champion of the church, the sovereign prince of important provinces, the possession of which ensured conclusive triumph to the house of austria and to rome--who should oppose him in his path to empire? certainly not the moody rudolph, the slippery and unstable matthias, the fanatic and jesuit-ridden ferdinand. "leopold in julich," said henry's agent in germany, "is a ferret in a rabbit warren." but early in the spring and before the arrival of leopold, the two pretenders, john sigismund, elector of brandenburg, and philip lewis, palatine of neuburg, had made an arrangement. by the earnest advice of barneveld in the name of the states-general and as the result of a general council of many protestant princes of germany, it had been settled that those two should together provisionally hold and administer the duchies until the principal affair could be amicably settled. the possessory princes were accordingly established in dusseldorf with the consent of the provincial estates, in which place those bodies were wont to assemble. here then was spain in the person of leopold quietly perched in the chief citadel of the country, while protestantism in the shape of the possessory princes stood menacingly in the capital. hardly was the ink dry on the treaty which had suspended for twelve years the great religious war of forty years, not yet had the ratifications been exchanged, but the trumpet was again sounding, and the hostile forces were once more face to face. leopold, knowing where his great danger lay, sent a friendly message to the states-general, expressing the hope that they would submit to his arrangements until the imperial decision should be made. the states, through the pen and brain of barneveld, replied that they had already recognized the rights of the possessory princes, and were surprised that the bishop-archduke should oppose them. they expressed the hope that, when better informed, he would see the validity of the treaty of dortmund. "my lords the states-general," said the advocate, "will protect the princes against violence and actual disturbances, and are assured that the neighbouring kings and princes will do the same. they trust that his imperial highness will not allow matters, to proceed to extremities." this was language not to be mistaken. it was plain that the republic did not intend the emperor to decide a question of life and death to herself, nor to permit spain, exhausted by warfare, to achieve this annihilating triumph by a petty intrigue. while in reality the clue to what seemed to the outside world a labyrinthine maze of tangled interests and passions was firmly held in the hand of barneveld, it was not to him nor to my lords the states-general that the various parties to the impending conflict applied in the first resort. mankind were not yet sufficiently used to this young republic, intruding herself among the family of kings, to defer at once to an authority which they could not but feel. moreover, henry of france was universally looked to both by friends and foes as the probable arbiter or chief champion in the great debate. he had originally been inclined to favour neuberg, chiefly, so aerssens thought, on account of his political weakness. the states-general on the other hand were firmly disposed for brandenburg from the first, not only as a strenuous supporter of the reformation and an ancient ally of their own always interested in their safety, but because the establishment of the elector on the rhine would roll back the empire beyond that river. as aerssens expressed it, they would have the empire for a frontier, and have no longer reason to fear the rhine. the king, after the representations of the states, saw good ground to change his opinion and; becoming convinced that the palatine had long been coquetting with the austrian party, soon made no secret of his preference for brandenburg. subsequently neuburg and brandenburg fell into a violent quarrel notwithstanding an arrangement that the palatine should marry the daughter of the elector. in the heat of discussion brandenburg on one occasion is said to have given his intended son-in-law a box on the ear! an argument 'ad hominem' which seems to have had the effect of sending the palatine into the bosom of the ancient church and causing him to rely thenceforth upon the assistance of the league. meantime, however, the condominium settled by the treaty of dortmund continued in force; the third brother of brandenburg and the eldest son of neuburg sharing possession and authority at dusseldorf until a final decision could be made. a flock of diplomatists, professional or volunteers, openly accredited or secret, were now flying busily about through the troubled atmosphere, indicating the coming storm in which they revelled. the keen-sighted, subtle, but dangerously intriguing ambassador of the republic, francis aerssens, had his hundred eyes at all the keyholes in paris, that centre of ceaseless combination and conspiracy, and was besides in almost daily confidential intercourse with the king. most patiently and minutely he kept the advocate informed, almost from hour to hour, of every web that was spun, every conversation public or whispered in which important affairs were treated anywhere and by anybody. he was all-sufficient as a spy and intelligencer, although not entirely trustworthy as a counsellor. still no man on the whole could scan the present or forecast the future more accurately than he was able to do from his advantageous position and his long experience of affairs. there was much general jealousy between the states and the despotic king, who loved to be called the father of the republic and to treat the hollanders as his deeply obliged and very ungrateful and miserly little children. the india trade was a sore subject, henry having throughout the negotiations sought to force or wheedle the states into renouncing that commerce at the command of spain, because he wished to help himself to it afterwards, and being now in the habit of secretly receiving isaac le maire and other dutch leaders in that lucrative monopoly, who lay disguised in paris and in the house of zamet--but not concealed from aerssens, who pledged himself to break, the neck of their enterprise--and were planning with the king a french east india company in opposition to that of the netherlands. on the whole, however, despite these commercial intrigues which barneveld through the aid of aerssens was enabled to baffle, there was much cordiality and honest friendship between the two countries. henry, far from concealing his political affection for the republic, was desirous of receiving a special embassy of congratulation and gratitude from the states on conclusion of the truce; not being satisfied with the warm expressions of respect and attachment conveyed through the ordinary diplomatic channel. "he wishes," wrote aerssens to the advocate, "a public demonstration--in order to show on a theatre to all christendom the regard and deference of my lords the states for his majesty." the ambassador suggested that cornelis van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld, soon to be named first envoy for holland to the venetian republic, might be selected as chief of such special embassy. "without the instructions you gave me," wrote aerssens, "neuburg might have gained his cause in this court. brandenburg is doing himself much injury by not soliciting the king." "much deference will be paid to your judgment," added the envoy, "if you see fit to send it to his majesty." meantime, although the agent of neuburg was busily dinning in henry's ears the claims of the palatine, and even urging old promises which, as he pretended, had been made, thanks to barneveld, he took little by his importunity, notwithstanding that in the opinion both of barneveld and villeroy his claim 'stricti-juris' was the best. but it was policy and religious interests, not the strict letter of the law, that were likely to prevail. henry, while loudly asserting that he would oppose any usurpation on the part of the emperor or any one else against the condominium, privately renewed to the states assurances of his intention to support ultimately the claims of brandenburg, and notified them to hold the two regiments of french infantry, which by convention they still kept at his expense in their service, to be ready at a moment's warning for the great enterprise which he was already planning. "you would do well perhaps," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "to set forth the various interests in regard to this succession, and of the different relations of the claimants towards our commonwealth; but in such sort nevertheless and so dexterously that the king may be able to understand your desires, and on the other hand may see the respect you bear him in appearing to defer to his choice." neuburg, having always neglected the states and made advances to archduke albert, and being openly preferred over brandenburg by the austrians, who had however no intention of eventually tolerating either, could make but small headway at court, notwithstanding henry's indignation that brandenburg had not yet made the slightest demand upon him for assistance. the elector had keenly solicited the aid of the states, who were bound to him by ancient contract on this subject, but had manifested wonderful indifference or suspicion in regard to france. "these nonchalant germans," said henry on more than one occasion, "do nothing but sleep or drink." it was supposed that the memory of metz might haunt the imagination of the elector. that priceless citadel, fraudulently extorted by henry ii. as a forfeit for assistance to the elector of saxony three quarters of a century before, gave solemn warning to brandenburg of what might be exacted by a greater henry, should success be due to his protection. it was also thought that he had too many dangers about him at home, the poles especially, much stirred up by emissaries from rome, making many troublesome demonstrations against the duchy of prussia. it was nearly midsummer before a certain baron donals arrived as emissary of the elector. he brought with him, many documents in support of the brandenburg claims, and was charged with excuses for the dilatoriness of his master. much stress was laid of course on the renunciation made by neuburg at the tithe of his marriage, and henry was urged to grant his protection to the elector in his good rights. but thus far there were few signs of any vigorous resolution for active measures in an affair which could scarcely fail to lead to war. "i believe," said henry to the states ambassador, "that the right of brandenburg is indubitable, and it is better for you and for me that he should be the man rather than neuburg, who has always sought assistance from the house of austria. but he is too lazy in demanding possession. it is the fault of the doctors by whom he is guided. this delay works in favour of the emperor, whose course however is less governed by any determination of his own than by the irresolution of the princes." then changing the conversation, henry asked the ambassador whether the daughter of de maldere, a leading statesman of zealand, was married or of age to be married, and if she was rich; adding that they must make a match between her and barneveld's second son, then a young gentleman in the king's service, and very much liked by him. two months later a regularly accredited envoy, belin by name, arrived from the elector. his instructions were general. he was to thank the king for his declarations in favour of the possessory princes, and against all usurpation on the part of the spanish party. should the religious cord be touched, he was to give assurances that no change would be made in this regard. he was charged with loads of fine presents in yellow amber, such as ewers, basins, tables, cups, chessboards, for the king and queen, the dauphin, the chancellor, villeroy, sully, bouillon, and other eminent personages. beyond the distribution of these works of art and the exchange of a few diplomatic commonplaces, nothing serious in the way of warlike business was transacted, and henry was a few weeks later much amused by receiving a letter from the possessory princes coolly thrown into the post-office, and addressed like an ordinary letter to a private person, in which he was requested to advance them a loan of , crowns. there was a great laugh at court at a demand made like a bill of exchange at sight upon his majesty as if he had been a banker, especially as there happened to be no funds of the drawers in his hands. it was thought that a proper regard for the king's quality and the amount of the sum demanded required that the letter should be brought at least by an express messenger, and henry was both diverted and indignant at these proceedings, at the months long delay before the princes had thought proper to make application for his protection, and then for this cool demand for alms on a large scale as a proper beginning of their enterprise. such was the languid and extremely nonchalant manner in which the early preparations for a conflict which seemed likely to set europe in a blaze, and of which possibly few living men might witness the termination, were set on foot by those most interested in the immediate question. chessboards in yellow amber and a post-office order for , crowns could not go far in settling the question of the duchies in which the great problem dividing christendom as by an abyss was involved. meantime, while such were the diplomatic beginnings of the possessory princes, the league was leaving no stone unturned to awaken henry to a sense of his true duty to the church of which he was eldest son. don pedro de toledo's mission in regard to the spanish marriages had failed because henry had spurned the condition which was unequivocally attached to them on the part of spain, the king's renunciation of his alliance with the dutch republic, which then seemed an equivalent to its ruin. but the treaty of truce and half-independence had been signed at last by the states and their ancient master, and the english and french negotiators had taken their departure, each receiving as a present for concluding the convention , livres from the archdukes, and , from the states-general. henry, returning one summer's morning from the chase and holding the count of soissons by one hand and ambassador aerssens by the other, told them he had just received letters from spain by which he learned that people were marvellously rejoiced at the conclusion of the truce. many had regretted that its conditions were so disadvantageous and so little honourable to the grandeur and dignity of spain, but to these it was replied that there were strong reasons why spain should consent to peace on these terms rather than not have it at all. during the twelve years to come the king could repair his disasters and accumulate mountains of money in order to finish the war by the subjugation of the provinces by force of gold. soissons here interrupted the king by saying that the states on their part would finish it by force of iron. aerssens, like an accomplished courtier, replied they would finish it by means of his majesty's friendship. the king continued by observing that the clear-sighted in spain laughed at these rodomontades, knowing well that it was pure exhaustion that had compelled the king to such extremities. "i leave you to judge," said henry, "whether he is likely to have any courage at forty-five years of age, having none now at thirty-two. princes show what they have in them of generosity and valour at the age of twenty-five or never." he said that orders had been sent from spain to disband all troops in the obedient netherlands except spaniards and italians, telling the archdukes that they must raise the money out of the country to content them. they must pay for a war made for their benefit, said philip. as for him he would not furnish one maravedi. aerssens asked if the archdukes would disband their troops so long as the affair of cleve remained unsettled. "you are very lucky," replied the king, "that europe is governed by such princes as you wot of. the king of spain thinks of nothing but tranquillity. the archdukes will never move except on compulsion. the emperor, whom every one is so much afraid of in this matter, is in such plight that one of these days, and before long, he will be stripped of all his possessions. i have news that the bohemians are ready to expel him." it was true enough that rudolph hardly seemed a formidable personage. the utraquists and bohemian brothers, making up nearly the whole population of the country, were just extorting religious liberty from their unlucky master in his very palace and at the point of the knife. the envoy of matthias was in paris demanding recognition of his master as king of hungary, and henry did not suspect the wonderful schemes of leopold, the ferret in the rabbit warren of the duchies, to come to the succour of his cousin and to get himself appointed his successor and guardian. nevertheless, the emperor's name had been used to protest solemnly against the entrance into dusseldorf of the margrave ernest of brandenburg and palatine wolfgang william of neuburg, representatives respectively of their brother and father. the induction was nevertheless solemnly made by the elector-palatine and the landgrave of hesse, and joint possession solemnly taken by brandenburg and neuburg in the teeth of the protest, and expressly in order to cut short the dilatory schemes and the artifices of the imperial court. henry at once sent a corps of observation consisting of cavalry to the luxemburg frontier by way of toul, mezieres, verdun, and metz, to guard against movements by the disbanded troops of the archdukes, and against any active demonstration against the possessory princes on the part of the emperor. the 'condominium' was formally established, and henry stood before the world as its protector threatening any power that should attempt usurpation. he sent his agent vidomacq to the landgrave of hesse with instructions to do his utmost to confirm the princes of the union in organized resistance to the schemes of spain, and to prevent any interference with the condominium. he wrote letters to the archdukes and to the elector of cologne, sternly notifying them that he would permit no assault upon the princes, and meant to protect them in their rights. he sent one of his most experienced diplomatists, de boississe, formerly ambassador in england, to reside for a year or more in the duchies as special representative of france, and directed him on his way thither to consult especially with barneveld and the states-general as to the proper means of carrying out their joint policy either by diplomacy or, if need should be, by their united arms. troops began at once to move towards the frontier to counteract the plans of the emperor's council and the secret levies made by duchess sibylla's husband, the margrave of burgau. the king himself was perpetually at monceaux watching the movements of his cavalry towards the luxemburg frontier, and determined to protect the princes in their possession until some definite decision as to the sovereignty of the duchies should be made. meantime great pressure was put upon him by the opposite party. the pope did his best through the nuncius at paris directly, and through agents at prague, brussels, and madrid indirectly, to awaken the king to a sense of the enormity of his conduct. being a catholic prince, it was urged, he had no right to assist heretics. it was an action entirely contrary to his duty as a christian and of his reputation as eldest son of the church. even if the right were on the side of the princes, his majesty would do better to strip them of it and to clothe himself with it than to suffer the catholic faith and religion to receive such notable detriment in an affair likely to have such important consequences. such was some of the advice given by the pontiff. the suggestions were subtle, for they were directed to henry's self-interest both as champion of the ancient church and as a possible sovereign of the very territories in dispute. they were also likely, and were artfully so intended, to excite suspicion of henry's designs in the breasts of the protestants generally and of the possessory princes especially. allusions indeed to the rectification of the french border in henry ii.'s time at the expense of lorraine were very frequent. they probably accounted for much of the apparent supineness and want of respect for the king of which he complained every day and with so much bitterness. the pope's insinuations, however, failed to alarm him, for he had made up his mind as to the great business of what might remain to him of life; to humble the house of austria and in doing so to uphold the dutch republic on which he relied for his most efficient support. the situation was a false one viewed from the traditional maxims which governed europe. how could the eldest son of the church and the chief of an unlimited monarchy make common cause with heretics and republicans against spain and rome? that the position was as dangerous as it was illogical, there could be but little doubt. but there was a similarity of opinion between the king and the political chief of the republic on the great principle which was to illume the distant future but which had hardly then dawned upon the present; the principle of religious equality. as he protected protestants in france so he meant to protect catholics in the duchies. apostate as he was from the reformed church as he had already been from the catholic, he had at least risen above the paltry and insolent maxim of the princely protestantism of germany: "cujus regio ejus religio." while refusing to tremble before the wrath of rome or to incline his ear to its honeyed suggestions, he sent cardinal joyeuse with a special mission to explain to the pope that while the interests of france would not permit him to allow the spaniard's obtaining possession of provinces so near to her, he should take care that the church received no detriment and that he should insist as a price of the succour he intended for the possessory princes that they should give ample guarantees for the liberty of catholic worship. there was no doubt in the mind either of henry or of barneveld that the secret blows attempted by spain at the princes were in reality aimed at the republic and at himself as her ally. while the nuncius was making these exhortations in paris, his colleague from spain was authorized to propound a scheme of settlement which did not seem deficient in humour. at any rate henry was much diverted with the suggestion, which was nothing less than that the decision as to the succession to the duchies should be left to a board of arbitration consisting of the king of spain, the emperor, and the king of france. as henry would thus be painfully placed by himself in a hopeless minority, the only result of the scheme would be to compel him to sanction a decision sure to be directly the reverse of his own resolve. he was hardly such a schoolboy in politics as to listen to the proposal except to laugh at it. meantime arrived from julich, without much parade, a quiet but somewhat pompous gentleman named teynagel. he had formerly belonged to the reformed religion, but finding it more to his taste or advantage to become privy councillor of the emperor, he had returned to the ancient church. he was one of the five who had accompanied the archduke leopold to julich. that prompt undertaking having thus far succeeded so well, the warlike bishop had now despatched teynagel on a roving diplomatic mission. ostensibly he came to persuade henry that, by the usages and laws of the empire, fiefs left vacant for want of heirs male were at the disposal of the emperor. he expressed the hope therefore of obtaining the king's approval of leopold's position in julich as temporary vicegerent of his sovereign and cousin. the real motive of his mission, however, was privately to ascertain whether henry was really ready to go to war for the protection of the possessory princes, and then, to proceed to spain. it required an astute politician, however, to sound all the shoals, quicksands, and miseries through which the french government was then steering, and to comprehend with accuracy the somewhat varying humours of the monarch and the secret schemes of the ministers who immediately surrounded him. people at court laughed at teynagel and his mission, and henry treated him as a crackbrained adventurer. he announced himself as envoy of the emperor, although he had instructions from leopold only. he had interviews with the chancellor and with villeroy, and told them that rudolf claimed the right of judge between the various pretenders to the duchies. the king would not be pleased, he observed, if the king of great britain should constitute himself arbiter among claimants that might make their appearance for the crown of france; but henry had set himself up as umpire without being asked by any one to act in that capacity among the princes of germany. the emperor, on the contrary, had been appealed to by the duke of nevers, the elector of saxony, the margrave of burgau, and other liege subjects of the imperial crown as a matter of course and of right. this policy of the king, if persisted in, said teynagel, must lead to war. henry might begin such a war, but he would be obliged to bequeath it to the dauphin. he should remember that france had always been unlucky when waging war with the empire and with the house of austria.' the chancellor and villeroy, although in their hearts not much in love with henry's course, answered the emissary with arrogance equal to his own that their king could finish the war as well as begin it, that he confided in his strength and the justice of his cause, and that he knew very well and esteemed very little the combined forces of spain and the empire. they added that france was bound by the treaty of vervins to protect the princes, but they offered no proof of that rather startling proposition. meantime teynagel was busy in demonstrating that the princes of germany were in reality much more afraid of henry than of the emperor. his military movements and deep designs excited more suspicion throughout that country and all europe than the quiet journey of leopold and five friends by post to julich. he had come provided with copies of the king's private letters to the princes, and seemed fully instructed as to his most secret thoughts. for this convenient information he was supposed to be indebted to the revelations of father cotton, who was then in disgrace; having been detected in transmitting to the general of jesuits henry's most sacred confidences and confessions as to his political designs. fortified with this private intelligence, and having been advised by father cotton to carry matters with a high hand in order to inspire the french court with a wholesome awe, he talked boldly about the legitimate functions of the emperor. to interfere with them, he assured the ministers, would lead to a long and bloody war, as neither the king nor the archduke albert would permit the emperor to be trampled upon. peter pecquius, the crafty and experienced agent of the archduke at paris, gave the bouncing envoy more judicious advice, however, than that of the jesuit, assuring him that he would spoil his whole case should he attempt to hold such language to the king. he was admitted to an audience of henry at monceaux, but found him prepared to show his teeth as aerssens had predicted. he treated teynagel as a mere madcap and, adventurer who had no right to be received as a public minister at all, and cut short his rodomontades by assuring him that his mind was fully made up to protect the possessory princes. jeannin was present at the interview, although, as aerssens well observed, the king required no pedagogue on such an occasion? teynagel soon afterwards departed malcontent to spain, having taken little by his abnormal legation to henry, and being destined to find at the court of philip as urgent demands on that monarch for assistance to the league as he was to make for leopold and the house of austria. for the league, hardly yet thoroughly organized under the leadership of maximilian of bavaria, was rather a catholic corrival than cordial ally of the imperial house. it was universally suspected that henry meant to destroy and discrown the habsburgs, and it lay not in the schemes of maximilian to suffer the whole catholic policy to be bound to the fortunes of that one family. whether or not henry meant to commit the anachronism and blunder of reproducing the part of charlemagne might be doubtful. the supposed design of maximilian to renew the glories of the house of wittelsbach was equally vague. it is certain, however, that a belief in such ambitious schemes on the part of both had been insinuated into the ears of rudolf, and had sunk deeply into his unsettled mind. scarcely had teynagel departed than the ancient president richardot appeared upon the scene. "the mischievous old monkey," as he had irreverently been characterized during the truce negotiations, "who showed his tail the higher he climbed," was now trembling at the thought that all the good work he had been so laboriously accomplishing during the past two years should be annihilated. the archdukes, his masters, being sincerely bent on peace, had deputed him to henry, who, as they believed, was determined to rekindle war. as frequently happens in such cases, they were prepared to smooth over the rough and almost impassable path to a cordial understanding by comfortable and cheap commonplaces concerning the blessings of peace, and to offer friendly compromises by which they might secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers of making it. they had been solemnly notified by henry that he would go to war rather than permit the house of austria to acquire the succession to the duchies. they now sent richardot to say that neither the archdukes nor the king of spain would interfere in the matter, and that they hoped the king of france would not prevent the emperor from exercising his rightful functions of judge. henry, who knew that don baltasar de cuniga, spanish ambassador at the imperial court, had furnished leopold, the emperor's cousin, with , crowns to defray his first expenses in the julich expedition, considered that the veteran politician had come to perform a school boy's task. he was more than ever convinced by this mission of richardot that the spaniards had organized the whole scheme, and he was likely only to smile at any propositions the president might make. at the beginning of his interview, in which the king was quite alone, richardot asked if he would agree to maintain neutrality like the king of spain and the archdukes, and allow the princes to settle their business with the emperor. "no," said the king. he then asked if henry would assist them in their wrong. "no," said the king. he then asked if the king thought that the princes had justice on their side, and whether, if the contrary were shown, he would change his policy? henry replied that the emperor could not be both judge and party in the suit and that the king of spain was plotting to usurp the provinces through the instrumentality of his brother-in-law leopold and under the name of the emperor. he would not suffer it, he said. "then there will be a general war," replied richardot, "since you are determined to assist these princes." "be it so," said the king. "you are right," said the president, "for you are a great and puissant monarch, having all the advantages that could be desired, and in case of rupture i fear that all this immense power will be poured out over us who are but little princes." "cause leopold to retire then and leave the princes in their right," was the reply. "you will then have nothing to fear. are you not very unhappy to live under those poor weak archdukes? don't you foresee that as soon as they die you will lose all the little you have acquired in the obedient netherlands during the last fifty years?" the president had nothing to reply to this save that he had never approved of leopold's expedition, and that when spaniards make mistakes they always had recourse to their servants to repair their faults. he had accepted this mission inconsiderately, he said, inspired by a hope to conjure the rising storms mingled with fears as to the result which were now justified. he regretted having come, he said. the king shrugged his shoulders. richardot then suggested that leopold might be recognized in julich, and the princes at dusseldorf, or that all parties might retire until the emperor should give his decision. all these combinations were flatly refused by the king, who swore that no one of the house of austria should ever perch in any part of those provinces. if leopold did not withdraw at once, war was inevitable. he declared that he would break up everything and dare everything, whether the possessory princes formally applied to him or not. he would not see his friends oppressed nor allow the spaniard by this usurpation to put his foot on the throat of the states-general, for it was against them that this whole scheme was directed. to the president's complaints that the states-general had been moving troops in gelderland, henry replied at once that it was done by his command, and that they were his troops. with this answer richardot was fain to retire crestfallen, mortified, and unhappy. he expressed repentance and astonishment at the result, and protested that those peoples were happy whose princes understood affairs. his princes were good, he said, but did not give themselves the trouble to learn their business. richardot then took his departure from paris, and very soon afterwards from the world. he died at arras early in september, as many thought of chagrin at the ill success of his mission, while others ascribed it to a surfeit of melons and peaches. "senectus edam maorbus est," said aerssens with seneca. henry said he could not sufficiently wonder at these last proceedings at his court, of a man he had deemed capable and sagacious, but who had been committing an irreparable blunder. he had never known two such impertinent ambassadors as don pedro de toledo and richardot on this occasion. the one had been entirely ignorant of the object of his mission; the other had shown a vain presumption in thinking he could drive him from his fixed purpose by a flood of words. he had accordingly answered him on the spot without consulting his council, at which poor richardot had been much amazed. and now another envoy appeared upon the scene, an ambassador coming directly from the emperor. count hohenzollern, a young man, wild, fierce, and arrogant, scarcely twenty-three years of age, arrived in paris on the th of september, with a train of forty horsemen. de colly, agent of the elector-palatine, had received an outline of his instructions, which the prince of anhalt had obtained at prague. he informed henry that hohenzollern would address him thus: "you are a king. you would not like that the emperor should aid your subjects in rebellion. he did not do this in the time of the league, although often solicited to do so. you should not now sustain the princes in disobeying the imperial decree. kings should unite in maintaining the authority and majesty of each other." he would then in the emperor's name urge the claims of the house of saxony to the duchies. henry was much pleased with this opportune communication by de colly of the private instructions to the emperor's envoy, by which he was enabled to meet the wild and fierce young man with an arrogance at least equal to his own. the interview was a stormy one. the king was alone in the gallery of the louvre, not choosing that his words and gestures should be observed. the envoy spoke much in the sense which de colly had indicated; making a long argument in favour of the emperor's exclusive right of arbitration, and assuring the king that the emperor was resolved on war if interference between himself and his subjects was persisted in. he loudly pronounced the proceedings of the possessory princes to be utterly illegal, and contrary to all precedent. the emperor would maintain his authority at all hazards, and one spark of war would set everything in a blaze within the empire and without. henry replied sternly but in general terms, and referred him for a final answer to his council. "what will you do," asked the envoy, categorically, at a subsequent interview about a month later, "to protect the princes in case the emperor constrains them to leave the provinces which they have unjustly occupied?" "there is none but god to compel me to say more than i choose to say," replied the king. "it is enough for you to know that i will never abandon my friends in a just cause. the emperor can do much for the general peace. he is not to lend his name to cover this usurpation." and so the concluding interview terminated in an exchange of threats rather than with any hope of accommodation. hohenzollern used as high language to the ministers as to the monarch, and received payment in the same coin. he rebuked their course not very adroitly as being contrary to the interests of catholicism. they were placing the provinces in the hands of protestants, he urged. it required no envoy from prague to communicate this startling fact. friends and foes, villeroy and jeannin, as well as sully and duplessis, knew well enough that henry was not taking up arms for rome. "sir! do you look at the matter in that way?" cried sully, indignantly. "the huguenots are as good as the catholics. they fight like the devil!" "the emperor will never permit the princes to remain nor leopold to withdraw," said the envoy to jeannin. jeannin replied that the king was always ready to listen to reason, but there was no use in holding language of authority to him. it was money he would not accept. "fiat justitia pereat mundus," said the haggard hohenzollern. "your world may perish," replied jeannin, "but not ours. it is much better put together." a formal letter was then written by the king to the emperor, in which henry expressed his desire to maintain peace and fraternal relations, but notified him that if, under any pretext whatever, he should trouble the princes in their possession, he would sustain them with all his power, being bound thereto by treaties and by reasons of state. this letter was committed to the care of hohenzollern, who forthwith departed, having received a present of crowns. his fierce, haggard face thus vanishes for the present from our history. the king had taken his ground, from which there was no receding. envoys or agents of emperor, pope, king of spain, archduke at brussels, and archduke at julich, had failed to shake his settled purpose. yet the road was far from smooth. he had thus far no ally but the states-general. he could not trust james of great britain. boderie came back late in the summer from his mission to that monarch, reporting him as being favourably inclined to brandenburg, but hoping for an amicable settlement in the duchies. no suggestion being made even by the sagacious james as to the manner in which the ferret and rabbits were to come to a compromise, henry inferred, if it came to fighting, that the english government would refuse assistance. james had asked boderie in fact whether his sovereign and the states, being the parties chiefly interested, would be willing to fight it out without allies. he had also sent sir ralph winwood on a special mission to the hague, to dusseldorf, and with letters to the emperor, in which he expressed confidence that rudolph would approve the proceedings of the possessory princes. as he could scarcely do that while loudly claiming through his official envoy in paris that the princes should instantly withdraw on pain of instant war, the value of the english suggestion of an amicable compromise might easily be deduced. great was the jealousy in france of this mission from england. that the princes should ask the interference of james while neglecting, despising, or fearing henry, excited henry's wrath. he was ready, and avowed his readiness, to put on armour at once in behalf of the princes, and to arbitrate on the destiny of germany, but no one seemed ready to follow his standard. no one asked him to arbitrate. the spanish faction wheedled and threatened by turns, in order to divert him from his purpose, while the protestant party held aloof, and babbled of charlemagne and of henry ii. he said he did not mean to assist the princes by halves, but as became a king of france, and the princes expressed suspicion of him, talked of the example of metz, and called the emperor their very clement lord. it was not strange that henry was indignant and jealous. he was holding the wolf by the ears, as he himself observed more than once. the war could not long be delayed; yet they in whose behalf it was to be waged treated him with a disrespect and flippancy almost amounting to scorn. they tried to borrow money of him through the post, and neglected to send him an ambassador. this was most decidedly putting the cart before the oxen, so henry said, and so thought all his friends. when they had blockaded the road to julich, in order to cut off leopold's supplies, they sent to request that the two french regiments in the states' service might be ordered to their assistance, archduke albert having threatened to open the passage by force of arms. "this is a fine stratagem," said aerssens, "to fling the states-general headlong into the war, and, as it were, without knowing it." but the states-general, under the guidance of barneveld, were not likely to be driven headlong by brandenburg and neuburg. they managed with caution, but with perfect courage, to move side by side with henry, and to leave the initiative to him, while showing an unfaltering front to the enemy. that the princes were lost, spain and the emperor triumphant, unless henry and the states should protect them with all their strength, was as plain as a mathematical demonstration. yet firm as were the attitude and the language of henry, he was thought to be hoping to accomplish much by bluster. it was certain that the bold and unexpected stroke of leopold had produced much effect upon his mind, and for a time those admitted to his intimacy saw, or thought they saw, a decided change in his demeanour. to the world at large his language and his demonstrations were even more vehement than they had been at the outset of the controversy; but it was believed that there was now a disposition to substitute threats for action. the military movements set on foot were thought to be like the ringing of bells and firing of cannon to dissipate a thunderstorm. yet it was treason at court to doubt the certainty of war. the king ordered new suits of armour, bought splendid chargers, and gave himself all the airs of a champion rushing to a tournament as gaily as in the earliest days of his king-errantry. he spoke of his eager desire to break a lance with spinola, and give a lesson to the young volunteer who had sprung into so splendid a military reputation, while he had been rusting, as he thought, in pacific indolence, and envying the laurels of the comparatively youthful maurice. yet those most likely to be well informed believed that nothing would come of all this fire and fury. the critics were wrong. there was really no doubt of henry's sincerity, but his isolation was terrible. there was none true to him at home but sully. abroad, the states-general alone were really friendly, so far as positive agreements existed. above all, the intolerable tergiversations and suspicions of those most interested, the princes in possession, and their bickerings among themselves, hampered his movements. treason and malice in his cabinet and household, jealousy and fear abroad, were working upon and undermining him like a slow fever. his position was most pathetic, but his purpose was fixed. james of england, who admired, envied, and hated henry, was wont to moralize on his character and his general unpopularity, while engaged in negotiations with him. he complained that in the whole affair of the truce he had sought only his particular advantage. "this is not to be wondered at in one of his nature," said the king, "who only careth to provide for the felicities of his present life, without any respect for his life to come. indeed, the consideration of his own age and the youth of his children, the doubt of their legitimation, the strength of competitioners, and the universal hatred borne unto him, makes him seek all means of security for preventing of all dangers." there were changes from day to day; hot and cold fits necessarily resulting from the situation. as a rule, no eminent general who has had much experience wishes to go into a new war inconsiderately and for the mere love of war. the impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants. henry was no exception to the rule. he felt that the complications then existing, the religious, political, and dynastic elements arrayed against each other, were almost certain to be brought to a crisis and explosion by the incident of the duchies. he felt that the impending struggle was probably to be a desperate and a general one, but there was no inconsistency in hoping that the show of a vigorous and menacing attitude might suspend, defer, or entirely dissipate the impending storm. the appearance of vacillation on his part from day to day was hardly deserving of the grave censure which it received, and was certainly in the interests of humanity. his conferences with sully were almost daily and marked by intense anxiety. he longed for barneveld, and repeatedly urged that the advocate, laying aside all other business, would come to paris, that they might advise together thoroughly and face to face. it was most important that the combination of alliances should be correctly arranged before hostilities began, and herein lay the precise difficulty. the princes applied formally and freely to the states-general for assistance. they applied to the king of great britain. the agents of the opposite party besieged henry with entreaties, and, failing in those, with threats; going off afterwards to spain, to the archdukes, and to other catholic powers in search of assistance. the states-general professed their readiness to put an army of , foot and horse in the field for the spring campaign, so soon as they were assured of henry's determination for a rupture. "i am fresh enough still," said he to their ambassador, "to lead an army into cleve. i shall have a cheap bargain enough of the provinces. but these germans do nothing but eat and sleep. they will get the profit and assign to me the trouble. no matter, i will never suffer the aggrandizement of the house of austria. the states-general must disband no troops, but hold themselves in readiness." secretary of state villeroy held the same language, but it was easy to trace beneath his plausible exterior a secret determination to traverse the plans of his sovereign. "the cleve affair must lead to war," he said. "the spaniard, considering how necessary it is for him to have a prince there at his devotion, can never quietly suffer brandenburg and neuburg to establish themselves in those territories. the support thus gained by the states-general would cause the loss of the spanish netherlands." this was the view of henry, too, but the secretary of state, secretly devoted to the cause of spain, looked upon the impending war with much aversion. "all that can come to his majesty from war," he said, "is the glory of having protected the right. counterbalance this with the fatigue, the expense, and the peril of a great conflict, after our long repose, and you will find this to be buying glory too dearly." when a frenchman talked of buying glory too dearly, it seemed probable that the particular kind of glory was not to his taste. henry had already ordered the officers, then in france, of the french infantry kept in the states' service at his expense to depart at once to holland, and he privately announced his intention of moving to the frontier at the head of , men. 'yet not only villeroy, but the chancellor and the constable, while professing opposition to the designs of austria and friendliness to those of brandenburg and neuburg, deprecated this precipitate plunge into war. "those most interested," they said, "refuse to move; fearing austria, distrusting france. they leave us the burden and danger, and hope for the spoils themselves. we cannot play cat to their monkey. the king must hold himself in readiness to join in the game when the real players have shuffled and dealt the cards. it is no matter to us whether the spaniard or brandenburg or anyone else gets the duchies. the states-general require a friendly sovereign there, and ought to say how much they will do for that result." the constable laughed at the whole business. coming straight from the louvre, he said "there would be no serious military movement, and that all those fine freaks would evaporate in air." but sully never laughed. he was quietly preparing the ways and means for the war, and he did not intend, so far as he had influence, that france should content herself with freaks and let spain win the game. alone in the council he maintained that "france had gone too far to recede without sacrifice of reputation."--"the king's word is engaged both within and without," he said. "not to follow it with deeds would be dangerous to the kingdom. the spaniard will think france afraid of war. we must strike a sudden blow, either to drive the enemy away or to crush him at once. there is no time for delay. the netherlands must prevent the aggrandizement of austria or consent to their own ruin." thus stood the game therefore. the brother of brandenburg and son of neuburg had taken possession of dusseldorf. the emperor, informed of this, ordered them forthwith to decamp. he further summoned all pretenders to the duchies to appear before him, in person or by proxy, to make good their claims. they refused and appealed for advice and assistance to the states-general. barneveld, aware of the intrigues of spain, who disguised herself in the drapery of the emperor, recommended that the estates of cleve, julich, berg, mark, ravensberg, and ravenstein, should be summoned in dusseldorf. this was done and a resolution taken to resist any usurpation. the king of france wrote to the elector of cologne, who, by directions of rome and by means of the jesuits, had been active in the intrigue, that he would not permit the princes to be disturbed. the archduke leopold suddenly jumped into the chief citadel of the country and published an edict of the emperor. all the proceedings were thereby nullified as illegal and against the dignity of the realm and the princes proclaimed under ban. a herald brought the edict and ban to the princes in full assembly. the princes tore it to pieces on the spot. nevertheless they were much frightened, and many members of the estates took themselves off; others showing an inclination to follow. the princes sent forth with a deputation to the hague to consult my lords the states-general. the states-general sent an express messenger to paris. their ambassador there sent him back a week later, with notice of the king's determination to risk everything against everything to preserve the rights of the princes. it was added that henry required to be solicited by them, in order not by volunteer succour to give cause for distrust as to his intentions. the states-general were further apprised by the king that his interests and theirs were so considerable in the matter that they would probably be obliged to go into a brisk and open war, in order to prevent the spaniard from establishing himself in the duchies. he advised them to notify the archdukes in brussels that they would regard the truce as broken if, under pretext of maintaining the emperor's rights, they should molest the princes. he desired them further to send their forces at once to the frontier of gelderland under prince maurice, without committing any overt act of hostility, but in order to show that both the king and the states were thoroughly in earnest. the king then sent to archduke albert, as well as to the elector of cologne, and despatched a special envoy to the king of great britain. immediately afterwards came communications from barneveld to henry, with complete adhesion to the king's plans. the states would move in exact harmony with him, neither before him nor after him, which was precisely what he wished. he complained bitterly to aerssens, when he communicated the advocate's despatches, of the slothful and timid course of the princes. he ascribed it to the arts of leopold, who had written and inspired many letters against him insinuating that he was secretly in league and correspondence with the emperor; that he was going to the duchies simply in the interest of the catholics; that he was like henry ii. only seeking to extend the french frontier; and leopold, by these intrigues and falsehoods, had succeeded in filling the princes with distrust, and they had taken umbrage at the advance of his cavalry. henry professed himself incapable of self-seeking or ambition. he meant to prevent the aggrandizement of austria, and was impatient at the dilatoriness and distrust of the princes. "all their enemies are rushing to the king of spain. let them address themselves to the king of france," he said, "for it is we two that must play this game." and when at last they did send an embassy, they prefaced it by a post letter demanding an instant loan, and with an intimation that they would rather have his money than his presence! was it surprising that the king's course should seem occasionally wavering when he found it so difficult to stir up such stagnant waters into honourable action? was it strange that the rude and stern sully should sometimes lose his patience, knowing so much and suspecting more of the foul designs by which his master was encompassed, of the web of conspiracy against his throne, his life, and his honour, which was daily and hourly spinning? "we do nothing and you do nothing," he said one day to aerssens. "you are too soft, and we are too cowardly. i believe that we shall spoil everything, after all. i always suspect these sudden determinations of ours. they are of bad augury. we usually founder at last when we set off so fiercely at first. there are words enough an every side, but there will be few deeds. there is nothing to be got out of the king of great britain, and the king of spain will end by securing these provinces for himself by a treaty." sully knew better than this, but he did not care to let even the dutch envoy know, as yet, the immense preparations he had been making for the coming campaign. the envoys of the possessory princes, the counts solms, colonel pallandt, and dr. steyntgen, took their departure, after it had been arranged that final measures should be concerted at the general congress of the german protestants to be held early in the ensuing year at hall, in suabia. at that convention de boississe would make himself heard on the part of france, and the representatives of the states-general, of venice, and savoy, would also be present. meantime the secret conferences between henry and his superintendent of finances and virtual prime minister were held almost every day. scarcely an afternoon passed that the king did not make his appearance at the arsenal, sully's residence, and walk up and down the garden with him for hours, discussing the great project of which his brain was full. this great project was to crush for ever the power of the austrian house; to drive spain back into her own limits, putting an end to her projects for universal monarchy; and taking the imperial crown from the house of habsburg. by thus breaking up the mighty cousinship which, with the aid of rome, overshadowed germany and the two peninsulas, besides governing the greater part of both the indies, he meant to bring france into the preponderant position over christendom which he believed to be her due. it was necessary, he thought, for the continued existence of the dutch commonwealth that the opportunity should be taken once for all, now that a glorious captain commanded its armies and a statesman unrivalled for experience, insight, and patriotism controlled its politics and its diplomacy, to drive the spaniard out of the netherlands. the cleve question, properly and vigorously handled, presented exactly the long desired opportunity for carrying out these vast designs. the plan of assault upon spanish power was to be threefold. the king himself at the head of , men, supported by prince maurice and the states' forces amounting to at least , , would move to the rhine and seize the duchies. the duke de la force would command the army of the pyrenees and act in concert with the moors of spain, who roused to frenzy by their expulsion from the kingdom could be relied on for a revolt or at least a most vigorous diversion. thirdly, a treaty with the duke of savoy by which henry accorded his daughter to the duke's eldest son, the prince of piedmont, a gift of , crowns, and a monthly pension during the war of , crowns a month, was secretly concluded. early in the spring the duke was to take the field with at least , foot and horse, supported by a french army of , to , men under the experienced marshal de lesdiguieres. these forces were to operate against the duchy of milan with the intention of driving the spaniards out of that rich possession, which the duke of savoy claimed for himself, and of assuring to henry the dictatorship of italy. with the cordial alliance of venice, and by playing off the mutual jealousies of the petty italian princes, like florence, mantua, montserrat, and others, against each other and against the pope, it did not seem doubtful to sully that the result would be easily accomplished. he distinctly urged the wish that the king should content himself with political influence, with the splendid position of holding all italy dependent upon his will and guidance, but without annexing a particle of territory to his own crown. it was henry's intention, however, to help himself to the duchy of savoy, and to the magnificent city and port of genoa as a reward to himself for the assistance, matrimonial alliance, and aggrandizement which he was about to bestow upon charles emmanuel. sully strenuously opposed these self-seeking views on the part of his sovereign, however, constantly placing before him the far nobler aim of controlling the destinies of christendom, of curbing what tended to become omnipotent, of raising up and protecting that which had been abased, of holding the balance of empire with just and steady hand in preference to the more vulgar and commonplace ambition of annexing a province or two to the realms of france. it is true that these virtuous homilies, so often preached by him against territorial aggrandizement in one direction, did not prevent him from indulging in very extensive visions of it in another. but the dreams pointed to the east rather than to the south. it was sully's policy to swallow a portion not of italy but of germany. he persuaded his master that the possessory princes, if placed by the help of france in the heritage which they claimed, would hardly be able to maintain themselves against the dangers which surrounded them except by a direct dependence upon france. in the end the position would become an impossible one, and it would be easy after the war was over to indemnify brandenburg with money and with private property in the heart of france for example, and obtain the cession of those most coveted provinces between the meuse and the weser to the king. "what an advantage for france," whispered sully, "to unite to its power so important a part of germany. for it cannot be denied that by accepting the succour given by the king now those princes oblige themselves to ask for help in the future in order to preserve their new acquisition. thus your majesty will make them pay for it very dearly." thus the very virtuous self-denial in regard to the duke of savoy did not prevent a secret but well developed ambition at the expense of the elector of brandenburg. for after all it was well enough known that the elector was the really important and serious candidate. henry knew full well that neuburg was depending on the austrians and the catholics, and that the claims of saxony were only put forward by the emperor in order to confuse the princes and excite mutual distrust. the king's conferences with the great financier were most confidential, and sully was as secret as the grave. but henry never could keep a secret even when it concerned his most important interests, and nothing would serve him but he must often babble of his great projects even to their minutest details in presence of courtiers and counsellors whom in his heart he knew to be devoted to spain and in receipt of pensions from her king. he would boast to them of the blows by which he meant to demolish spain and the whole house of austria, so that there should be no longer danger to be feared from that source to the tranquillity and happiness of europe, and he would do this so openly and in presence of those who, as he knew, were perpetually setting traps for him and endeavouring to discover his deepest secrets as to make sully's hair stand on end. the faithful minister would pluck his master by the cloak at times, and the king, with the adroitness which never forsook him when he chose to employ it, would contrive to extricate himself from a dilemma and pause at the brink of tremendous disclosures.--[memoires de sully, t. vii. p. .]--but sully could not be always at his side, nor were the nuncius or don inigo de cardenas or their confidential agents and spies always absent. enough was known of the general plan, while as to the probability of its coming into immediate execution, perhaps the enemies of the king were often not more puzzled than his friends. but what the spanish ambassador did not know, nor the nuncius, nor even the friendly aerssens, was the vast amount of supplies which had been prepared for the coming conflict by the finance minister. henry did not know it himself. "the war will turn on france as on a pivot," said sully; "it remains to be seen if we have supplies and money enough. i will engage if the war is not to last more than three years and you require no more than , men at a time that i will show you munitions and ammunition and artillery and the like to such an extent that you will say, 'it is enough.' "as to money--" "how much money have i got?" asked the king; "a dozen millions?" "a little more than that," answered the minister. "fourteen millions?" "more still." "sixteen?" continued the king. "more yet," said sully. and so the king went on adding two millions at each question until thirty millions were reached, and when the question as to this sum was likewise answered in the affirmative, he jumped from his chair, hugged his minister around the neck, and kissed him on both cheeks. "i want no more than that," he cried. sully answered by assuring him that he had prepared a report showing a reserve of forty millions on which he might draw for his war expenses, without in the least degree infringing on the regular budget for ordinary expenses. the king was in a transport of delight, and would have been capable of telling the story on the spot to the nuncius had he met him that afternoon, which fortunately did not occur. but of all men in europe after the faithful sully, henry most desired to see and confer daily and secretly with barneveld. he insisted vehemently that, neglecting all other business, he should come forthwith to paris at the head of the special embassy which it had been agreed that the states should send. no living statesman, he said, could compare to holland's advocate in sagacity, insight, breadth of view, knowledge of mankind and of great affairs, and none he knew was more sincerely attached to his person or felt more keenly the value of the french alliance. with him he indeed communicated almost daily through the medium of aerssens, who was in constant receipt of most elaborate instructions from barneveld, but he wished to confer with him face to face, so that there would be no necessity of delay in sending back for instructions, limitations, and explanation. no man knew better than the king did that so far as foreign affairs were concerned the states-general were simply barneveld. on the nd january the states' ambassador had a long and secret interview with the king.' he informed him that the prince of anhalt had been assured by barneveld that the possessory princes would be fully supported in their position by the states, and that the special deputies of archduke albert, whose presence at the hague made henry uneasy, as he regarded them as perpetual spies, had been dismissed. henry expressed his gratification. they are there, he said, entirely in the interest of leopold, who has just received , crowns from the king of spain, and is to have that sum annually, and they are only sent to watch all your proceedings in regard to cleve. the king then fervently pressed the ambassador to urge barneveld's coming to paris with the least possible delay. he signified his delight with barneveld's answer to anhalt, who thus fortified would be able to do good service at the assembly at hall. he had expected nothing else from barneveld's sagacity, from his appreciation of the needs of christendom, and from his affection for himself. he told the ambassador that he was anxiously waiting for the advocate in order to consult with him as to all the details of the war. the affair of cleve, he said, was too special a cause. a more universal one was wanted. the king preferred to begin with luxemburg, attacking charlemont or namur, while the states ought at the same time to besiege venlo, with the intention afterwards of uniting with the king in laying siege to maestricht. he was strong enough, he said, against all the world, but he still preferred to invite all princes interested to join him in putting down the ambitious and growing power of spain. cleve was a plausible pretext, but the true cause, he said, should be found in the general safety of christendom. boississe had been sent to the german princes to ascertain whether and to what extent they would assist the king. he supposed that once they found him engaged in actual warfare in luxemburg, they would get rid of their jealousy and panic fears of him and his designs. he expected them to furnish at least as large a force as he would supply as a contingent. for it was understood that anhalt as generalissimo of the german forces would command a certain contingent of french troops, while the main army of the king would be led by himself in person. henry expressed the conviction that the king of spain would be taken by surprise finding himself attacked in three places and by three armies at once, he believing that the king of france was entirely devoted to his pleasures and altogether too old for warlike pursuits, while the states, just emerging from the misery of their long and cruel conflict, would be surely unwilling to plunge headlong into a great and bloody war. henry inferred this, he said, from observing the rude and brutal manner in which the soldiers in the spanish netherlands were now treated. it seemed, he said, as if the archdukes thought they had no further need of them, or as if a stamp of the foot could raise new armies out of the earth. "my design," continued the king, "is the more likely to succeed as the king of spain, being a mere gosling and a valet of the duke of lerma, will find himself stripped of all his resources and at his wits' end; unexpectedly embarrassed as he will be on the italian side, where we shall be threatening to cut the jugular vein of his pretended universal monarchy." he intimated that there was no great cause for anxiety in regard to the catholic league just formed at wurzburg. he doubted whether the king of spain would join it, and he had learned that the elector of cologne was making very little progress in obtaining the emperor's adhesion. as to this point the king had probably not yet thoroughly understood that the bavarian league was intended to keep clear of the house of habsburg, maximilian not being willing to identify the success of german catholicism with the fortunes of that family. henry expressed the opinion that the king of spain, that is to say, his counsellors, meant to make use of the emperor's name while securing all the profit, and that rudolph quite understood their game, while matthias was sure to make use of this opportunity, supported by the protestants of bohemia, austria, and moravia, to strip the emperor of the last shred of empire. the king was anxious that the states should send a special embassy at once to the king of great britain. his ambassador, de la boderie, gave little encouragement of assistance from that quarter, but it was at least desirable to secure his neutrality. "'tis a prince too much devoted to repose," said henry, "to be likely to help in this war, but at least he must not be allowed to traverse our great designs. he will probably refuse the league offensive and defensive which i have proposed to him, but he must be got, if possible, to pledge himself to the defensive. i mean to assemble my army on the frontier, as if to move upon julich, and then suddenly sweep down on the meuse, where, sustained by the states' army and that of the princes, i will strike my blows and finish my enterprise before our adversary has got wind of what is coming. we must embark james in the enterprise if we can, but at any rate we must take measures to prevent his spoiling it." henry assured the envoy that no one would know anything of the great undertaking but by its effect; that no one could possibly talk about it with any knowledge except himself, sully, villeroy, barneveld, and aerssens. with them alone he conferred confidentially, and he doubted not that the states would embrace this opportunity to have done for ever with the spaniards. he should take the field in person, he said, and with several powerful armies would sweep the enemy away from the meuse, and after obtaining control of that river would quietly take possession of the sea-coast of flanders, shut up archduke albert between the states and the french, who would thus join hands and unite their frontiers. again the king expressed his anxiety for barneveld's coming, and directed the ambassador to urge it, and to communicate to him the conversation which had just taken place. he much preferred, he said, a general war. he expressed doubts as to the prince of anhalt's capacity as chief in the cleve expedition, and confessed that being jealous of his own reputation he did not like to commit his contingent of troops to the care of a stranger and one so new to his trade. the shame would fall on himself, not on anhalt in case of any disaster. therefore, to avoid all petty jealousies and inconveniences of that nature by which the enterprise might be ruined, it was best to make out of this small affair a great one, and the king signified his hope that the advocate would take this view of the case and give him his support. he had plenty of grounds of war himself, and the states had as good cause of hostilities in the rupture of the truce by the usurpation attempted by leopold with the assistance of spain and in the name of the emperor. he hoped, he said, that the states would receive no more deputations from archduke albert, but decide to settle everything at the point of the sword. the moment was propitious, and, if neglected, might never return. marquis spinola was about to make a journey to spain on various matters of business. on his return, henry said, he meant to make him prisoner as a hostage for the prince of conde, whom the archdukes were harbouring and detaining. this would be the pretext, he said, but the object would be to deprive the archdukes of any military chief, and thus to throw them into utter confusion. count van den berg would never submit to the authority of don luis de velasco, nor velasco to his, and not a man could come from spain or italy, for the passages would all be controlled by france. fortunately for the king's reputation, spinola's journey was deferred, so that this notable plan for disposing of the great captain fell to the ground. henry agreed to leave the two french regiments and the two companies of cavalry in the states' service as usual, but stipulated in certain contingencies for their use. passing to another matter concerning which there had been so much jealousy on the part of the states, the formation of the french east india company--to organize which undertaking le roy and isaac le maire of amsterdam had been living disguised in the house of henry's famous companion, the financier zamet at paris--the king said that barneveld ought not to envy him a participation in the great profits of this business. nothing would be done without consulting him after his arrival in paris. he would discuss the matter privately with him, he said, knowing that barneveld was a great personage, but however obstinate he might be, he felt sure that he would always yield to reason. on the other hand the king expressed his willingness to submit to the advocate's opinions if they should seem the more just. on leaving the king the ambassador had an interview with sully, who again expressed his great anxiety for the arrival of barneveld, and his hopes that he might come with unlimited powers, so that the great secret might not leak out through constant referring of matters back to the provinces. after rendering to the advocate a detailed account of this remarkable conversation, aerssens concluded with an intimation that perhaps his own opinion might be desired as to the meaning of all those movements developing themselves so suddenly and on so many sides. "i will say," he observed, "exactly what the poet sings of the army of ants-- 'hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta pulveris exigui jactu contacts quiescunt.' if the prince of conde comes back, we shall be more plausible than ever. if he does not come back, perhaps the consideration of the future will sweep us onwards. all have their special views, and m. de villeroy more warmly than all the rest." etext editor's bookmarks: abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty could not be both judge and party in the suit covered now with the satirical dust of centuries deadly hatred of puritans in england and holland doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense emperor of japan addressed him as his brother monarch estimating his character and judging his judges everybody should mind his own business he was a sincere bigot impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants intense bigotry of conviction international friendship, the self-interest of each it was the true religion, and there was none other james of england, who admired, envied, and hated henry jealousy, that potent principle language which is ever living because it is dead more fiercely opposed to each other than to papists none but god to compel me to say more than i choose to say power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never putting the cart before the oxen religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers senectus edam maorbus est so much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality the catholic league and the protestant union the truth in shortest about matters of importance the vehicle is often prized more than the freight there was but one king in europe, henry the bearnese there was no use in holding language of authority to him thirty years' war tread on the heels of the forty years unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. the life and death of john of barneveld, v , - chapter ii. passion of henry iv. for margaret de montmorency--her marriage with the prince of conde--their departure for the country-their flight to the netherlands-rage of the king--intrigues of spain--reception of the prince and princess of conde by the archdukes at brussels-- splendid entertainments by spinola--attempts of the king to bring the fugitives back--mission of de coeuvres to brussels--difficult position of the republic--vast but secret preparations for war. "if the prince of conde comes back." what had the prince of conde, his comings and his goings, to do with this vast enterprise? it is time to point to the golden thread of most fantastic passion which runs throughout this dark and eventful history. one evening in the beginning of the year which had just come to its close there was to be a splendid fancy ball at the louvre in the course of which several young ladies of highest rank were to perform a dance in mythological costume. the king, on ill terms with the queen, who harassed him with scenes of affected jealousy, while engaged in permanent plots with her paramour and master, the italian concini, against his policy and his life; on still worse terms with his latest mistress in chief, the marquise de verneuil, who hated him and revenged herself for enduring his caresses by making him the butt of her venomous wit, had taken the festivities of a court in dudgeon where he possessed hosts of enemies and flatterers but scarcely a single friend. he refused to attend any of the rehearsals of the ballet, but one day a group of diana and her nymphs passed him in the great gallery of the palace. one of the nymphs as she went by turned and aimed her gilded javelin at his heart. henry looked and saw the most beautiful young creature, so he thought, that mortal eye had ever gazed upon, and according to his wont fell instantly over head and ears in love. he said afterwards that he felt himself pierced to the heart and was ready to faint away. the lady was just fifteen years of age. the king was turned of fifty-five. the disparity of age seemed to make the royal passion ridiculous. to henry the situation seemed poetical and pathetic. after this first interview he never missed a single rehearsal. in the intervals he called perpetually for the services of the court poet malherbe, who certainly contrived to perpetrate in his behalf some of the most detestable verses that even he had ever composed. the nymph was marguerite de montmorency, daughter of the constable of france, and destined one day to become the mother of the great conde, hero of rocroy. there can be no doubt that she was exquisitely beautiful. fair-haired, with a complexion of dazzling purity, large expressive eyes, delicate but commanding features, she had a singular fascination of look and gesture, and a winning, almost childlike, simplicity of manner. without feminine artifice or commonplace coquetry, she seemed to bewitch and subdue at a glance men of all ranks, ages, and pursuits; kings and cardinals, great generals, ambassadors and statesmen, as well as humbler mortals whether spanish, italian, french, or flemish. the constable, an ignorant man who, as the king averred, could neither write nor read, understood as well as more learned sages the manners and humours of the court. he had destined his daughter for the young and brilliant bassompierre, the most dazzling of all the cavaliers of the day. the two were betrothed. but the love-stricken henry, then confined to his bed with the gout, sent for the chosen husband of the beautiful margaret. "bassompierre, my friend," said the aged king, as the youthful lover knelt before him at the bedside, "i have become not in love, but mad, out of my senses, furious for mademoiselle de montmorency. if she should love you, i should hate you. if she should love me, you would hate me. 'tis better that this should not be the cause of breaking up our good intelligence, for i love you with affection and inclination. i am resolved to marry her to my nephew the prince of conde, and to keep her near my family. she will be the consolation and support of my old age into which i am now about to enter. i shall give my nephew, who loves the chase a thousand times better than he does ladies, , livres a year, and i wish no other favour from her than her affection without making further pretensions." it was eight o'clock of a black winter's morning, and the tears as he spoke ran down the cheeks of the hero of ivry and bedewed the face of the kneeling bassompierre. the courtly lover sighed and--obeyed. he renounced the hand of the beautiful margaret, and came daily to play at dice with the king at his bedside with one or two other companions. and every day the duchess of angouleme, sister of the constable, brought her fair niece to visit and converse with the royal invalid. but for the dark and tragic clouds which were gradually closing around that eventful and heroic existence there would be something almost comic in the spectacle of the sufferer making the palace and all france ring with the howlings of his grotesque passion for a child of fifteen as he lay helpless and crippled with the gout. one day as the duchess of angouleme led her niece away from their morning visit to the king, margaret as she passed by bassompierre shrugged her shoulders with a scornful glance. stung by this expression of contempt, the lover who had renounced her sprang from the dice table, buried his face in his hat, pretending that his nose was bleeding, and rushed frantically from the palace. two days long he spent in solitude, unable to eat, drink, or sleep, abandoned to despair and bewailing his wretched fate, and it was long before he could recover sufficient equanimity to face his lost margaret and resume his place at the king's dicing table. when he made his appearance, he was according to his own account so pale, changed, and emaciated that his friends could not recognise him. the marriage with conde, first prince of the blood, took place early in the spring. the bride received magnificent presents, and the husband a pension of , livres a year. the attentions of the king became soon outrageous and the reigning scandal of the hour. henry, discarding the grey jacket and simple costume on which he was wont to pride himself, paraded himself about in perfumed ruffs and glittering doublet, an ancient fop, very little heroic, and much ridiculed. the princess made merry with the antics of her royal adorer, while her vanity at least, if not her affection, was really touched, and there was one great round of court festivities in her honour, at which the king and herself were ever the central figures. but conde was not at all amused. not liking the part assigned to him in the comedy thus skilfully arranged by his cousin king, never much enamoured of his bride, while highly appreciating the , livres of pension, he remonstrated violently with his wife, bitterly reproached the king, and made himself generally offensive. "the prince is here," wrote henry to sully, "and is playing the very devil. you would be in a rage and be ashamed of the things he says of me. but at last i am losing patience, and am resolved to give him a bit of my mind." he wrote in the same terms to montmorency. the constable, whose conduct throughout the affair was odious and pitiable, promised to do his best to induce the prince, instead of playing the devil, to listen to reason, as he and the duchess of angouleme understood reason. henry had even the ineffable folly to appeal to the queen to use her influence with the refractory conde. mary de' medici replied that there were already thirty go-betweens at work, and she had no idea of being the thirty-first--[henrard, ]. conde, surrounded by a conspiracy against his honour and happiness, suddenly carried off his wife to the country, much to the amazement and rage of henry. in the autumn he entertained a hunting party at a seat of his, the abbey of verneuille, on the borders of picardy. de traigny, governor of amiens, invited the prince, princess, and the dowager-princess to a banquet at his chateau not far from the abbey. on their road thither they passed a group of huntsmen and grooms in the royal livery. among them was an aged lackey with a plaister over one eye, holding a couple of hounds in leash. the princess recognized at a glance under that ridiculous disguise the king. "what a madman!" she murmured as she passed him, "i will never forgive you;" but as she confessed many years afterwards, this act of gallantly did not displease her.' in truth, even in mythological fable, trove has scarcely ever reduced demi-god or hero to more fantastic plight than was this travesty of the great henry. after dinner madame de traigny led her fair guest about the castle to show her the various points of view. at one window she paused, saying that it commanded a particularly fine prospect. the princess looked from it across a courtyard, and saw at an opposite window an old gentleman holding his left hand tightly upon his heart to show that it was wounded, and blowing kisses to her with the other: "my god! it is the king himself," she cried to her hostess. the princess with this exclamation rushed from the window, feeling or affecting much indignation, ordered horses to her carriage instantly, and overwhelmed madame de traigny with reproaches. the king himself, hastening to the scene, was received with passionate invectives, and in vain attempted to assuage the princess's wrath and induce her to remain. they left the chateau at once, both prince and princess. one night, not many weeks afterwards, the due de sully, in the arsenal at paris, had just got into bed at past eleven o'clock when he received a visit from captain de praslin, who walked straight into his bed-chamber, informing him that the king instantly required his presence. sully remonstrated. he was obliged to rise at three the next morning, he said, enumerating pressing and most important work which henry required to be completed with all possible haste. "the king said you would be very angry," replied praslin; "but there is no help for it. come you must, for the man you know of has gone out of the country, as you said he would, and has carried away the lady on the crupper behind him." "ho, ho," said the duke, "i am wanted for that affair, am i?" and the two proceeded straightway to the louvre, and were ushered, of all apartments in the world, into the queen's bedchamber. mary de' medici had given birth only four days before to an infant, henrietta maria, future queen of charles i. of england. the room was crowded with ministers and courtiers; villeroy, the chancellor, bassompierre, and others, being stuck against the wall at small intervals like statues, dumb, motionless, scarcely daring to breathe. the king, with his hands behind him and his grey beard sunk on his breast, was pacing up and down the room in a paroxysm of rage and despair. "well," said he, turning to sully as he entered, "our man has gone off and carried everything with him. what do you say to that?" the duke beyond the boding "i told you so" phrase of consolation which he was entitled to use, having repeatedly warned his sovereign that precisely this catastrophe was impending, declined that night to offer advice. he insisted on sleeping on it. the manner in which the proceedings of the king at this juncture would be regarded by the archdukes albert and isabella--for there could be no doubt that conde had escaped to their territory--and by the king of spain, in complicity with whom the step had unquestionably been taken--was of gravest political importance. henry had heard the intelligence but an hour before. he was at cards in his cabinet with bassompierre and others when d'elbene entered and made a private communication to him. "bassompierre, my friend," whispered the king immediately in that courtier's ear, "i am lost. this man has carried his wife off into a wood. i don't know if it is to kill her or to take her out of france. take care of my money and keep up the game." bassompierre followed the king shortly afterwards and brought him his money. he said that he had never seen a man so desperate, so transported. the matter was indeed one of deepest and universal import. the reader has seen by the preceding narrative how absurd is the legend often believed in even to our own days that war was made by france upon the archdukes and upon spain to recover the princess of conde from captivity in brussels. from contemporary sources both printed and unpublished; from most confidential conversations and revelations, we have seen how broad, deliberate, and deeply considered were the warlike and political combinations in the king's ever restless brain. but although the abduction of the new helen by her own menelaus was not the cause of the impending, iliad, there is no doubt whatever that the incident had much to do with the crisis, was the turning point in a great tragedy, and that but for the vehement passion of the king for this youthful princess events might have developed themselves on a far different scale from that which they were destined to assume. for this reason a court intrigue, which history under other conditions might justly disdain, assumes vast proportions and is taken quite away from the scandalous chronicle which rarely busies itself with grave affairs of state. "the flight of conde," wrote aerssens, "is the catastrophe to the comedy which has been long enacting. 'tis to be hoped that the sequel may not prove tragical." "the prince," for simply by that title he was usually called to distinguish him from all other princes in france, was next of blood. had henry no sons, he would have succeeded him on the throne. it was a favourite scheme of the spanish party to invalidate henry's divorce from margaret of valois, and thus to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the dauphin and the other children of mary de' medici. the prince in the hands of the spanish government might prove a docile and most dangerous instrument to the internal repose of france not only after henry's death but in his life-time. conde's character was frivolous, unstable, excitable, weak, easy to be played upon by designing politicians, and he had now the deepest cause for anger and for indulging in ambitious dreams. he had been wont during this unhappy first year of his marriage to loudly accuse henry of tyranny, and was now likely by public declaration to assign that as the motive of his flight. henry had protested in reply that he had never been guilty of tyranny but once in his life, and that was when he allowed this youth to take the name and title of conde? for the princess-dowager his mother had lain for years in prison, under the terrible accusation of having murdered her husband, in complicity with her paramour, a gascon page, named belcastel. the present prince had been born several months after his reputed father's death. henry, out of good nature, or perhaps for less creditable reasons, had come to the rescue of the accused princess, and had caused the process to be stopped, further enquiry to be quashed, and the son to be recognized as legitimate prince of conde. the dowager had subsequently done her best to further the king's suit to her son's wife, for which the prince bitterly reproached her to her face, heaping on her epithets which she well deserved. henry at once began to threaten a revival of the criminal suit, with a view of bastardizing him again, although the dowager had acted on all occasions with great docility in henry's interests. the flight of the prince and princess was thus not only an incident of great importance to the internal politics of trance, but had a direct and important bearing on the impending hostilities. its intimate connection with the affairs of the netherland commonwealth was obvious. it was probable that the fugitives would make their way towards the archdukes' territory, and that afterwards their first point of destination would be breda, of which philip william of orange, eldest brother of prince maurice, was the titular proprietor. since the truce recently concluded the brothers, divided so entirely by politics and religion, could meet on fraternal and friendly terms, and breda, although a city of the commonwealth, received its feudal lord. the princess of orange was the sister of conde. the morning after the flight the king, before daybreak, sent for the dutch ambassador. he directed him to despatch a courier forthwith to barneveld, notifying him that the prince had left the kingdom without the permission or knowledge of his sovereign, and stating the king's belief that he had fled to the territory of the archdukes. if he should come to breda or to any other place within the jurisdiction of the states, they were requested to make sure of his person at once, and not to permit him to retire until further instructions should be received from the king. de praslin, captain of the body-guards and lieutenant of champagne, it was further mentioned, was to be sent immediately on secret mission concerning this affair to the states and to the archdukes. the king suspected conde of crime, so the advocate was to be informed. he believed him to be implicated in the conspiracy of poitou; the six who had been taken prisoners having confessed that they had thrice conferred with a prince at paris, and that the motive of the plot was to free themselves and france from the tyranny of henry iv. the king insisted peremptorily, despite of any objections from aerssens, that the thing must be done and his instructions carried out to the letter. so much he expected of the states, and they should care no more for ulterior consequences, he said, than he had done for the wrath of spain when he frankly undertook their cause. conde was important only because his relative, and he declared that if the prince should escape, having once entered the territory of the republic, he should lay the blame on its government. "if you proceed languidly in the affair," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "our affairs will suffer for ever." nobody at court believed in the poitou conspiracy, or that conde had any knowledge of it. the reason of his flight was a mystery to none, but as it was immediately followed by an intrigue with spain, it seemed ingenious to henry to make, use of a transparent pretext to conceal the ugliness of the whole affair. he hoped that the prince would be arrested at breda and sent back by the states. villeroy said that if it was not done, they would be guilty of black ingratitude. it would be an awkward undertaking, however, and the states devoutly prayed that they might not be put to the test. the crafty aerssens suggested to barneveld that if conde was not within their territory it would be well to assure the king that, had he been there, he would have been delivered up at once. "by this means," said the ambassador, "you will give no cause of offence to the prince, and will at the same time satisfy the king. it is important that he should think that you depend immediately upon him. if you see that after his arrest they take severe measures against him, you will have a thousand ways of parrying the blame which posterity might throw upon you. history teaches you plenty of them." he added that neither sully nor anyone else thought much of the poitou conspiracy. those implicated asserted that they had intended to raise troops there to assist the king in the cleve expedition. some people said that henry had invented this plot against his throne and life. the ambassador, in a spirit of prophecy, quoted the saying of domitian: "misera conditio imperantium quibus de conspiratione non creditor nisi occisis." meantime the fugitives continued their journey. the prince was accompanied by one of his dependants, a rude officer, de rochefort, who carried the princess on a pillion behind him. she had with her a lady-in-waiting named du certeau and a lady's maid named philippote. she had no clothes but those on her back, not even a change of linen. thus the young and delicate lady made the wintry journey through the forests. they crossed the frontier at landrecies, then in the spanish netherlands, intending to traverse the archduke's territory in order to reach breda, where conde meant to leave his wife in charge of his sister, the princess of orange, and then to proceed to brussels. he wrote from the little inn at landrecies to notify the archduke of his project. he was subsequently informed that albert would not prevent his passing through his territories, but should object to his making a fixed residence within them. the prince also wrote subsequently to the king of spain and to the king of france. to henry he expressed his great regret at being obliged to leave the kingdom in order to save his honour and his life, but that he had no intention of being anything else than his very humble and faithful cousin, subject, and servant. he would do nothing against his service, he said, unless forced thereto, and he begged the king not to take it amiss if he refused to receive letters from any one whomsoever at court, saving only such letters as his majesty himself might honour him by writing. the result of this communication to the king was of course to enrage that monarch to the utmost, and his first impulse on finding that the prince was out of his reach was to march to brussels at once and take possession of him and the princess by main force. more moderate counsels prevailed for the moment however, and negotiations were attempted. praslin did not contrive to intercept the fugitives, but the states-general, under the advice of barneveld, absolutely forbade their coming to breda or entering any part of their jurisdiction. the result of conde's application to the king of spain was an ultimate offer of assistance and asylum, through a special emissary, one anover; for the politicians of madrid were astute enough to see what a card the prince might prove in their hands. henry instructed his ambassador in spain to use strong and threatening language in regard to the harbouring a rebel and a conspirator against the throne of france; while on the other hand he expressed his satisfaction with the states for having prohibited the prince from entering their territory. he would have preferred, he said, if they had allowed him entrance and forbidden his departure, but on the whole he was content. it was thought in paris that the netherland government had acted with much adroitness in thus abstaining both from a violation of the law of nations and from giving offence to the king. a valet of conde was taken with some papers of the prince about him, which proved a determination on his part never to return to france during the lifetime of henry. they made no statement of the cause of his flight, except to intimate that it might be left to the judgment of every one, as it was unfortunately but too well known to all. refused entrance into the dutch territory, the prince was obliged to renounce his project in regard to breda, and brought his wife to brussels. he gave bentivoglio, the papal nuncio, two letters to forward to italy, one to the pope, the other to his nephew, cardinal borghese. encouraged by the advices which he had received from spain, he justified his flight from france both by the danger to his honour and to his life, recommending both to the protection of his holiness and his eminence. bentivoglio sent the letters, but while admitting the invincible reasons for his departure growing out of the king's pursuit of the princess, he refused all credence to the pretended violence against conde himself. conde informed de praslin that he would not consent to return to france. subsequently he imposed as conditions of return that the king should assign to him certain cities and strongholds in guienne, of which province he was governor, far from paris and very near the spanish frontier; a measure dictated by spain and which inflamed henry's wrath almost to madness. the king insisted on his instant return, placing himself and of course the princess entirely in his hands and receiving a full pardon for this effort to save his honour. the prince and princess of orange came from breda to brussels to visit their brother and his wife. here they established them in the palace of nassau, once the residence in his brilliant youth of william the silent; a magnificent mansion, surrounded by park and garden, built on the brow of the almost precipitous hill, beneath which is spread out so picturesquely the antique and beautiful capital of brabant. the archdukes received them with stately courtesy at their own palace. on their first ceremonious visit to the sovereigns of the land, the formal archduke, coldest and chastest of mankind, scarcely lifted his eyes to gaze on the wondrous beauty of the princess, yet assured her after he had led her through a portrait gallery of fair women that formerly these had been accounted beauties, but that henceforth it was impossible to speak of any beauty but her own. the great spinola fell in love with her at once, sent for the illustrious rubens from antwerp to paint her portrait, and offered mademoiselle de chateau vert , crowns in gold if she would do her best to further his suit with her mistress. the genoese banker-soldier made love, war, and finance on a grand scale. he gave a magnificent banquet and ball in her honour on twelfth night, and the festival was the wonder of the town. nothing like it had been seen in brussels for years. at six in the evening spinola in splendid costume, accompanied by don luis velasco, count ottavio visconti, count bucquoy, with other nobles of lesser note, drove to the nassau palace to bring the prince and princess and their suite to the marquis's mansion. here a guard of honour of thirty musketeers was standing before the door, and they were conducted from their coaches by spinola preceded by twenty-four torch-bearers up the grand staircase to a hall, where they were received by the princesses of mansfeld, velasco, and other distinguished dames. thence they were led through several apartments rich with tapestry and blazing with crystal and silver plate to a splendid saloon where was a silken canopy, under which the princess of conde and the princess of orange seated themselves, the nuncius bentivoglio to his delight being placed next the beautiful margaret. after reposing for a little while they were led to the ball-room, brilliantly lighted with innumerable torches of perfumed wax and hung with tapestry of gold and silk, representing in fourteen embroidered designs the chief military exploits of spinola. here the banquet, a cold collation, was already spread on a table decked and lighted with regal splendour. as soon as the guests were seated, an admirable concert of instrumental music began. spinola walked up and down providing for the comforts of his company, the duke of aumale stood behind the two princesses to entertain them with conversation, don luis velasco served the princess of conde with plates, handed her the dishes, the wine, the napkins, while bucquoy and visconti in like manner waited upon the princess of orange; other nobles attending to the other ladies. forty-eight pages in white, yellow, and red scarves brought and removed the dishes. the dinner, of courses innumerable, lasted two hours and a half, and the ladies, being thus fortified for the more serious business of the evening, were led to the tiring-rooms while the hall was made ready for dancing. the ball was opened by the princess of conde and spinola, and lasted until two in the morning. as the apartment grew warm, two of the pages went about with long staves and broke all the windows until not a single pane of glass remained. the festival was estimated by the thrifty chronicler of antwerp to have cost from to crowns. it was, he says, "an earthly paradise of which soon not a vapour remained." he added that he gave a detailed account of it "not because he took pleasure in such voluptuous pomp and extravagance, but that one might thus learn the vanity of the world." these courtesies and assiduities on the part of the great "shopkeeper," as the constable called him, had so much effect, if not on the princess, at least on conde himself, that he threatened to throw his wife out of window if she refused to caress spinola. these and similar accusations were made by the father and aunt when attempting to bring about a divorce of the princess from her husband. the nuncius bentivoglio, too, fell in love with her, devoting himself to her service, and his facile and eloquent pen to chronicling her story. even poor little philip of spain in the depths of the escurial heard of her charms, and tried to imagine himself in love with her by proxy. thenceforth there was a succession of brilliant festivals in honour of the princess. the spanish party was radiant with triumph, the french maddened with rage. henry in paris was chafing like a lion at bay. a petty sovereign whom he could crush at one vigorous bound was protecting the lady for whose love he was dying. he had secured conde's exclusion from holland, but here were the fugitives splendidly established in brussels; the princess surrounded by most formidable suitors, the prince encouraged in his rebellious and dangerous schemes by the power which the king most hated on earth, and whose eternal downfall he had long since sworn to accomplish. for the weak and frivolous conde began to prattle publicly of his deep projects of revenge. aided by spanish money and spanish troops he would show one day who was the real heir to the throne of france--the illegitimately born dauphin or himself. the king sent for the first president of parliament, harlay, and consulted with him as to the proper means of reviving the suppressed process against the dowager and of publicly degrading conde from his position of first prince of the blood which he had been permitted to usurp. he likewise procured a decree accusing him of high-treason and ordering him to be punished at his majesty's pleasure, to be prepared by the parliament of paris; going down to the court himself in his impatience and seating himself in everyday costume on the bench of judges to see that it was immediately proclaimed. instead of at once attacking the archdukes in force as he intended in the first ebullition of his wrath, he resolved to send de boutteville-montmorency, a relative of the constable, on special and urgent mission to brussels. he was to propose that conde and his wife should return with the prince and princess of orange to breda, the king pledging himself that for three or four months nothing should be undertaken against him. here was a sudden change of determination fit to surprise the states-general, but the king's resolution veered and whirled about hourly in the tempests of his wrath and love. that excellent old couple, the constable and the duchess of angouleme, did their best to assist their sovereign in his fierce attempts to get their daughter and niece into his power. the constable procured a piteous letter to be written to archduke albert, signed "montmorency his mark," imploring him not to "suffer that his daughter, since the prince refused to return to france, should leave brussels to be a wanderer about the world following a young prince who had no fixed purpose in his mind." archduke albert, through his ambassador in paris, peter pecquius, suggested the possibility of a reconciliation between henry and his kinsman, and offered himself as intermediary. he enquired whether the king would find it agreeable that he should ask for pardon in name of the prince. henry replied that he was willing that the archduke should accord to conde secure residence for the time within his dominions on three inexorable conditions:--firstly, that the prince should ask for pardon without any stipulations, the king refusing to listen to any treaty or to assign him towns or places of security as had been vaguely suggested, and holding it utterly unreasonable that a man sueing for pardon should, instead of deserved punishment, talk of terms and acquisitions; secondly, that, if conde should reject the proposition, albert should immediately turn him out of his country, showing himself justly irritated at finding his advice disregarded; thirdly, that, sending away the prince, the archduke should forthwith restore the princess to her father the constable and her aunt angouleme, who had already made their petitions to albert and isabella for that end, to which the king now added his own most particular prayers. if the archduke should refuse consent to these three conditions, henry begged that he would abstain from any farther attempt to effect a reconciliation and not suffer conde to remain any longer within his territories. pecquius replied that he thought his master might agree to the two first propositions while demurring to the third, as it would probably not seem honourable to him to separate man and wife, and as it was doubtful whether the princess would return of her own accord. the king, in reporting the substance of this conversation to aerssens, intimated his conviction that they were only wishing in brussels to gain time; that they were waiting for letters from spain, which they were expecting ever since the return of conde's secretary from milan, whither he had been sent to confer with the governor, count fuentes. he said farther that he doubted whether the princess would go to breda, which he should now like, but which conde would not now permit. this he imputed in part to the princess of orange, who had written a letter full of invectives against himself to the dowager--princess of conde which she had at once sent to him. henry expressed at the same time his great satisfaction with the states-general and with barneveld in this affair, repeating his assurances that they were the truest and best friends he had. the news of conde's ceremonious visit to leopold in julich could not fail to exasperate the king almost as much as the pompous manner in which he was subsequently received at brussels; spinola and the spanish ambassador going forth to meet him. at the same moment the secretary of vaucelles, henry's ambassador in madrid, arrived in paris, confirming the king's suspicions that conde's flight had been concerted with don inigo de cardenas, and was part of a general plot of spain against the peace of the kingdom. the duc d'epernon, one of the most dangerous plotters at the court, and deep in the intimacy of the queen and of all the secret adherents of the spanish policy, had been sojourning a long time at metz, under pretence of attending to his health, had sent his children to spain, as hostages according to henry's belief, had made himself master of the citadel, and was turning a deaf ear to all the commands of the king. the supporters of conde in france were openly changing their note and proclaiming by the prince's command that he had left the kingdom in order to preserve his quality of first prince of the blood, and that he meant to make good his right of primogeniture against the dauphin and all competitors. such bold language and such open reliance on the support of spain in disputing the primogeniture of the dauphin were fast driving the most pacifically inclined in france into enthusiasm for the war. the states, too, saw their opportunity more vividly every day. "what could we desire more," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "than open war between france and spain? posterity will for ever blame us if we reject this great occasion." peter pecquius, smoothest and sliest of diplomatists, did his best to make things comfortable, for there could be little doubt that his masters most sincerely deprecated war. on their heads would come the first blows, to their provinces would return the great desolation out of which they had hardly emerged. still the archduke, while racking his brains for the means of accommodation, refused, to his honour, to wink at any violation of the law of nations, gave a secret promise, in which the infanta joined, that the princess should not be allowed to leave brussels without her husband's permission, and resolutely declined separating the pair except with the full consent of both. in order to protect himself from the king's threats, he suggested sending conde to some neutral place for six or eight months, to prague, to breda, or anywhere else; but henry knew that conde would never allow this unless he had the means by spanish gold of bribing the garrison there, and so of holding the place in pretended neutrality, but in reality at the devotion of the king of spain. meantime henry had despatched the marquis de coeuvres, brother of the beautiful gabrielle, duchess de beaufort, and one of the most audacious and unscrupulous of courtiers, on a special mission to brussels. de coeuvres saw conde before presenting his credentials to the archduke, and found him quite impracticable. acting under the advice of the prince of orange, he expressed his willingness to retire to some neutral city of germany or italy, drawing meanwhile from henry a pension of , crowns a year. but de coeuvres firmly replied that the king would make no terms with his vassal nor allow conde to prescribe conditions to him. to leave him in germany or italy, he said, was to leave him in the dependence of spain. the king would not have this constant apprehension of her intrigues while, living, nor leave such matter in dying for turbulence in his kingdom. if it appeared that the spaniards wished to make use of the prince for such purposes, he would be beforehand with them, and show them how much more injury he could inflict on spain than they on france. obviously committed to spain, conde replied to the entreaties of the emissary that if the king would give him half his kingdom he would not accept the offer nor return to france; at least before the th of february, by which date he expected advices from spain. he had given his word, he said, to lend his ear to no overtures before that time. he made use of many threats, and swore that he would throw himself entirely into the arms of the spanish king if henry would not accord him the terms which he had proposed. to do this was an impossibility. to grant him places of security would, as the king said, be to plant a standard for all the malcontents of france to rally around. conde had evidently renounced all hopes of a reconciliation, however painfully his host the archduke might intercede for it. he meant to go to spain. spinola was urging this daily and hourly, said henry, for he had fallen in love with the princess, who complained of all these persecutions in her letters to her father, and said that she would rather die than go to spain. the king's advices from de coeuvres were however to the effect that the step would probably be taken, that the arrangements were making, and that spinola had been shut up with conde six hours long with nobody present but rochefort and a certain counsellor of the prince of orange named keeremans. henry was taking measures to intercept them on their flight by land, but there was some thought of their proceeding to spain by sea. he therefore requested the states to send two ships of war, swift sailors, well equipped, one to watch in the roads of st. jean and the other on the english coast. these ships were to receive their instructions from admiral de vicq, who would be well informed of all the movements of the prince and give warning to the captains of the dutch vessels by a preconcerted signal. the king begged that barneveld would do him this favour, if he loved him, and that none might have knowledge of it but the advocate and prince maurice. the ships would be required for two or three months only, but should be equipped and sent forth as soon as possible. the states had no objection to performing this service, although it subsequently proved to be unnecessary, and they were quite ready at that moment to go openly into the war to settle the affairs of clove, and once for all to drive the spaniards out of the netherlands and beyond seas and mountains. yet strange to say, those most conversant with the state of affairs could not yet quite persuade themselves that matters were serious, and that the king's mind was fixed. should conde return, renounce his spanish stratagems, and bring back the princess to court, it was felt by the king's best and most confidential friends that all might grow languid again, the spanish faction get the upper hand in the king's councils, and the states find themselves in a terrible embarrassment. on the other hand, the most prying and adroit of politicians were puzzled to read the signs of the times. despite henry's garrulity, or perhaps in consequence of it, the envoys of spain, the empire, and of archduke albert were ignorant whether peace were likely to be broken or not, in spite of rumours which filled the air. so well had the secrets been kept which the reader has seen discussed in confidential conversations--the record of which has always remained unpublished--between the king and those admitted to his intimacy that very late in the winter pecquius, while sadly admitting to his masters that the king was likely to take part against the emperor in the affair of the duchies, expressed the decided opinion that it would be limited to the secret sending of succour to brandenburg and neuburg as formerly to the united provinces, but that he would never send troops into cleve, or march thither himself. it is important, therefore, to follow closely the development of these political and amorous intrigues, for they furnish one of the most curious and instructive lessons of history; there being not the slightest doubt that upon their issue chiefly depended the question of a great and general war. pecquius, not yet despairing that his master would effect a reconciliation between the king and conde, proposed again that the prince should be permitted to reside for a time in some place not within the jurisdiction of spain or of the archdukes, being allowed meantime to draw his annual pension of , livres. henry ridiculed the idea of conde's drawing money from him while occupying his time abroad with intrigues against his throne and his children's succession. he scoffed at the envoy's pretences that conde was not in receipt of money from spain, as if a man so needy and in so embarrassing a position could live without money from some source; and as if he were not aware, from his correspondents in spain, that funds were both promised and furnished to the prince. he repeated his determination not to accord him pardon unless he returned to france, which he had no cause to leave, and, turning suddenly on pecquius, demanded why, the subject of reconciliation having failed, the archduke did not immediately fulfil his promise of turning conde out of his dominions. upon this albert's minister drew back with the air of one amazed, asking how and when the archduke had ever made such a promise. "to the marquis de coeuvres," replied henry. pecquius asked if his ears had not deceived him, and if the king had really said that de coeuvres had made such a statement. henry repeated and confirmed the story. upon the minister's reply that he had himself received no such intelligence from the archduke, the king suddenly changed his tone, and said, "no, i was mistaken--i was confused--the marquis never wrote me this; but did you not say yourself that i might be assured that there would be no difficulty about it if the prince remained obstinate." pecquius replied that he had made such a proposition to his masters by his majesty's request; but there had been no answer received, nor time for one, as the hope of reconciliation had not yet been renounced. he begged henry to consider whether, without instructions from his master, he could have thus engaged his word. "well," said the king, "since you disavow it, i see very well that the archduke has no wish to give me pleasure, and that these are nothing but tricks that you have been amusing me with all this time. very good; each of us will know what we have to do." pecquius considered that the king had tried to get him into a net, and to entrap him into the avowal of a promise which he had never made. henry remained obstinate in his assertions, notwithstanding all the envoy's protestations. "a fine trick, indeed, and unworthy of a king, 'si dicere fas est,'" he wrote to secretary of state praets. "but the force of truth is such that he who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself." henry concluded the subject of conde at this interview by saying that he could have his pardon on the conditions already named, and not otherwise. he also made some complaints about archduke leopold, who, he said, notwithstanding his demonstrations of wishing a treaty of compromise, was taking towns by surprise which he could not hold, and was getting his troops massacred on credit. pecquius expressed the opinion that it would be better to leave the germans to make their own arrangements among themselves, adding that neither his masters nor the king of spain meant to mix themselves up in the matter. "let them mix themselves in it or keep out of it, as they like," said henry, "i shall not fail to mix myself up in it." the king was marvellously out of humour. before finishing the interview, he asked pecquius whether marquis spinola was going to spain very soon, as he had permission from his majesty to do so, and as he had information that he would be on the road early in lent. the minister replied that this would depend on the will of the archduke, and upon various circumstances. the answer seemed to displease the king, and pecquius was puzzled to know why. he was not aware, of course, of henry's project to kidnap the marquis on the road, and keep him as a surety for conde. the envoy saw villeroy after the audience, who told him not to mind the king's ill-temper, but to bear it as patiently as he could. his majesty could not digest, he said, his infinite displeasure at the obstinacy of the prince; but they must nevertheless strive for a reconciliation. the king was quick in words, but slow in deeds, as the ambassador might have observed before, and they must all try to maintain peace, to which he would himself lend his best efforts. as the secretary of state was thoroughly aware that the king was making vast preparations for war, and had given in his own adhesion to the project, it is refreshing to observe the candour with which he assured the representative of the adverse party of his determination that friendliest relations should be preserved. it is still more refreshing to find villeroy, the same afternoon, warmly uniting with sully, lesdiguieres, and the chancellor, in the decision that war should begin forthwith. for the king held a council at the arsenal immediately after this interview with pecquius, in which he had become convinced that conde would never return. he took the queen with him, and there was not a dissentient voice as to the necessity of beginning hostilities at once. sully, however, was alone in urging that the main force of the attack should be in the north, upon the rhine and meuse. villeroy and those who were secretly in the spanish interest were for beginning it with the southern combination and against milan. sully believed the duke of savoy to be variable and attached in his heart to spain, and he thought it contrary to the interests of france to permit an italian prince to grow so great on her frontier. he therefore thoroughly disapproved the plan, and explained to the dutch ambassador that all this urgency to carry on the war in the south came from hatred to the united provinces, jealousy of their aggrandizement, detestation of the reformed religion, and hope to engage henry in a campaign which he could not carry on successfully. but he assured aerssens that he had the means of counteracting these designs and of bringing on an invasion for obtaining possession of the meuse. if the possessory princes found henry making war in the milanese only, they would feel themselves ruined, and might throw up the game. he begged that barneveld would come on to paris at once, as now or never was the moment to assure the republic for all time. the king had acted with malicious adroitness in turning the tables upon the prince and treating him as a rebel and a traitor because, to save his own and his wife's honour, he had fled from a kingdom where he had but too good reason to suppose that neither was safe. the prince, with infinite want of tact, had played into the king's hands. he had bragged of his connection with spain and of his deep designs, and had shown to all the world that he was thenceforth but an instrument in the hands of the spanish cabinet, while all the world knew the single reason for which he had fled. the king, hopeless now of compelling the return of conde, had become most anxious to separate him from his wife. already the subject of divorce between the two had been broached, and it being obvious that the prince would immediately betake himself into the spanish dominions, the king was determined that the princess should not follow him thither. he had the incredible effrontery and folly to request the queen to address a letter to her at brussels, urging her to return to france. but mary de' medici assured her husband that she had no intention of becoming his assistant, using, to express her thought, the plainest and most vigorous word that the italian language could supply. henry had then recourse once more to the father and aunt. that venerable couple being about to wait upon the archduke's envoy, in compliance with the royal request, pecquius, out of respect to their advanced age, went to the constable's residence. here both the duchess and constable, with tears in their eyes, besought that diplomatist to do his utmost to prevent the princess from the sad fate of any longer sharing her husband's fortunes. the father protested that he would never have consented to her marriage, preferring infinitely that she should have espoused any honest gentleman with crowns a year than this first prince of the blood, with a character such as it had proved to be; but that he had not dared to disobey the king. he spoke of the indignities and cruelties to which she was subjected, said that rochefort, whom conde had employed to assist him in their flight from france, and on the crupper of whose horse the princess had performed the journey, was constantly guilty of acts of rudeness and incivility towards her; that but a few days past he had fired off pistols in her apartment where she was sitting alone with the princess of orange, exclaiming that this was the way he would treat anyone who interfered with the commands of his master, conde; that the prince was incessantly railing at her for refusing to caress the marquis of spinola; and that, in short, he would rather she were safe in the palace of the archduchess isabella, even in the humblest position among her gentlewomen, than to know her vagabondizing miserably about the world with her husband. this, he said, was the greatest fear he had, and he would rather see her dead than condemned to such a fate. he trusted that the archdukes were incapable of believing the stories that he and the duchess of angouleme were influenced in the appeals they made for the separation of the prince and princess by a desire to serve the purposes of the king. those were fables put about by conde. all that the constable and his sister desired was that the archduchess would receive the princess kindly when she should throw herself at her feet, and not allow her to be torn away against her will. the constable spoke with great gravity and simplicity, and with all the signs of genuine emotion, and peter pecquius was much moved. he assured the aged pair that he would do his best to comply with their wishes, and should immediately apprise the archdukes of the interview which had just taken place. most certainly they were entirely disposed to gratify the constable and the duchess as well as the princess herself, whose virtues, qualities, and graces had inspired them with affection, but it must be remembered that the law both human and divine required wives to submit themselves to the commands of their husbands and to be the companions of their good and evil fortunes. nevertheless, he hoped that the lord would so conduct the affairs of the prince of conde that the most christian king and the archdukes would all be satisfied. these pious and consolatory commonplaces on the part of peter pecquius deeply affected the constable. he fell upon the envoy's neck, embraced him repeatedly, and again wept plentifully. chapter iii. strange scene at the archduke's palace--henry's plot frustrated-- his triumph changed to despair--conversation of the dutch ambassador with the king--the war determined upon. it was in the latter part of the carnival, the saturday night preceding shrove tuesday, . the winter had been a rigorous one in brussels, and the snow lay in drifts three feet deep in the streets. within and about the splendid palace of nassau there was much commotion. lights and flambeaux were glancing, loud voices, martial music, discharge of pistols and even of artillery were heard together with the trampling of many feet, but there was nothing much resembling the wild revelry or cheerful mummery of that holiday season. a throng of the great nobles of belgium with drawn swords and menacing aspect were assembled in the chief apartments, a detachment of the archduke's mounted body-guard was stationed in the courtyard, and five hundred halberdiers of the burgher guilds kept watch and ward about the palace. the prince of conde, a square-built, athletic young man of middle stature, with regular features, but a sulky expression, deepened at this moment into ferocity, was seen chasing the secretary of the french resident minister out of the courtyard, thwacking him lustily about the shoulders with his drawn sword, and threatening to kill him or any other frenchman on the spot, should he show himself in that palace. he was heard shouting rather than speaking, in furious language against the king, against coeuvres, against berny, and bitterly bewailing his misfortunes, as if his wife were already in paris instead of brussels. upstairs in her own apartment which she had kept for some days on pretext of illness sat the princess margaret, in company' of madame de berny, wife of the french minister, and of the marquis de coeuvres, henry's special envoy, and a few other frenchmen. she was passionately fond of dancing. the adoring cardinal described her as marvellously graceful and perfect in that accomplishment. she had begged her other adorer, the marquis spinola, "with sweetest words," that she might remain a few days longer in the nassau palace before removing to the archduke's residence, and that the great general, according to the custom in france and flanders, would be the one to present her with the violins. but spinola, knowing the artifice concealed beneath these "sweetest words," had summoned up valour enough to resist her blandishments, and had refused a second entertainment. it was not, therefore, the disappointment at losing her ball that now made the princess sad. she and her companions saw that there had been a catastrophe; a plot discovered. there was bitter disappointment and deep dismay upon their faces. the plot had been an excellent one. de coeuvres had arranged it all, especially instigated thereto by the father of the princess acting in concurrence with the king. that night when all was expected to be in accustomed quiet, the princess, wrapped in her mantilla, was to have stolen down into the garden, accompanied only by her maid the adventurous and faithful philipotte, to have gone through a breach which led through a garden wall to the city ramparts, thence across the foss to the counterscarp, where a number of horsemen under trustworthy commanders were waiting. mounting on the crupper behind one of the officers of the escort, she was then to fly to the frontier, relays of horses having been provided at every stage until she should reach rocroy, the first pausing place within french territory; a perilous adventure for the young and delicate princess in a winter of almost unexampled severity. on the very morning of the day assigned for the adventure, despatches brought by special couriers from the nuncius and the spanish ambassador at paris gave notice of the plot to the archdukes and to conde, although up to that moment none knew of it in brussels. albert, having been apprised that many frenchmen had been arriving during the past few days, and swarming about the hostelries of the city and suburbs, was at once disposed to believe in the story. when conde came to him, therefore, with confirmation from his own letters, and demanding a detachment of the body-guard in addition to the burgher militiamen already granted by the magistrates, he made no difficulty granting the request. it was as if there had been a threatened assault of the city, rather than the attempted elopement of a young lady escorted by a handful of cavaliers. the courtyard of the nassau palace was filled with cavalry sent by the archduke, while five hundred burgher guards sent by the magistrates were drawn up around the gate. the noise and uproar, gaining at every moment more mysterious meaning by the darkness of night, soon spread through the city. the whole population was awake, and swarming through the streets. such a tumult had not for years been witnessed in brussels, and the rumour flew about and was generally believed that the king of france at the head of an army was at the gates of the city determined to carry off the princess by force. but although the superfluous and very scandalous explosion might have been prevented, there could be no doubt that the stratagem had been defeated. nevertheless, the effrontery and ingenuity of de coeuvres became now sublime. accompanied by his colleague, the resident minister, de berny, who was sure not to betray the secret because he had never known it--his wife alone having been in the confidence of the princess--he proceeded straightway to the archduke's palace, and, late in the night as it was, insisted on an audience. here putting on his boldest face when admitted to the presence, he complained loudly of the plot, of which he had just become aware, contrived by the prince of conde to carry off his wife to spain against her will, by main force, and by assistance of flemish nobles, archiducal body-guard, and burgher militia. it was all a plot of conde, he said, to palliate still more his flight from france. every one knew that the princess could not fly back to paris through the air. to take her out of a house filled with people, to pierce or scale the walls of the city, to arrange her journey by ordinary means, and to protect the whole route by stations of cavalry, reaching from brussels to the frontier, and to do all this in profound secrecy, was equally impossible. such a scheme had never been arranged nor even imagined, he said. the true plotter was conde, aided by ministers in flanders hostile to france, and as the honour of the king and the reputation of the princess had been injured by this scandal, the ambassador loudly demanded a thorough investigation of the affair in order that vengeance might fall where it was due. the prudent albert was equal to the occasion. not wishing to state the full knowledge which he possessed of de coeuvres' agency and the king's complicity in the scheme of abduction to france, he reasoned calmly with the excited marquis, while his colleague looked and listened in dumb amazement, having previously been more vociferous and infinitely more sincere than his colleague in expressions of indignation. the archduke said that he had not thought the plot imputed to the king and his ambassador very probable. nevertheless, the assertions of the prince had been so positive as to make it impossible to refuse the guards requested by him. he trusted, however, that the truth would soon be known, and that it would leave no stain on the princess, nor give any offence to the king. surprised and indignant at the turn given to the adventure by the french envoys, he nevertheless took care to conceal these sentiments, to abstain from accusation, and calmly to inform them that the princess next morning would be established under his own roof; and enjoy the protection of the archduchess. for it had been arranged several days before that margaret should leave the palace of nassau for that of albert and isabella on the th, and the abduction had been fixed for the night of the th precisely because the conspirators wished to profit by the confusion incident on a change of domicile. the irrepressible de coeuvres, even then hardly willing to give up the whole stratagem as lost, was at least determined to discover how and by whom the plot had been revealed. in a cemetery piled three feet deep with snow on the evening following that mid-winter's night which had been fixed for the princess's flight, the unfortunate ambassador waited until a certain vallobre, a gentleman of spinola's, who was the go-between of the enamoured genoese and the princess, but whom de coeuvres had gained over, came at last to meet him by appointment. when he arrived, it was only to inform him of the manner in which he had been baffled, to convince him that the game was up, and that nothing was left him but to retreat utterly foiled in his attempt, and to be stigmatized as a blockhead by his enraged sovereign. next day the princess removed her residence to the palace of the archdukes, where she was treated with distinguished honour by isabella, and installed ceremoniously in the most stately, the most virtuous, and the most dismal of courts. her father and aunt professed themselves as highly pleased with the result, and pecquius wrote that "they were glad to know her safe from the importunities of the old fop who seemed as mad as if he had been stung by a tarantula." and how had the plot been revealed? simply through the incorrigible garrulity of the king himself. apprised of the arrangement in all its details by the constable, who had first received the special couriers of de coeuvres, he could not keep the secret to himself for a moment, and the person of all others in the world to whom he thought good to confide it was the queen herself. she received the information with a smile, but straightway sent for the nuncius ubaldini, who at her desire instantly despatched a special courier to spinola with full particulars of the time and mode of the proposed abduction. nevertheless the ingenuous henry, confiding in the capacity of his deeply offended queen to keep the secret which he had himself divulged, could scarcely contain himself for joy. off he went to saint-germain with a train of coaches, impatient to get the first news from de coeuvres after the scheme should have been carried into effect, and intending to travel post towards flanders to meet and welcome the princess. "pleasant farce for shrove tuesday," wrote the secretary of pecquius, "is that which the frenchmen have been arranging down there! he in whose favour the abduction is to be made was seen going out the same day spangled and smart, contrary to his usual fashion, making a gambado towards saint-germain-en-laye with four carriages and four to meet the nymph." great was the king's wrath and mortification at this ridiculous exposure of his detestable scheme. vociferous were villeroy's expressions of henry's indignation at being supposed to have had any knowledge of or complicity in the affair. "his majesty cannot approve of the means one has taken to guard against a pretended plot for carrying off the princess," said the secretary of state; "a fear which was simulated by the prince in order to defame the king." he added that there was no reason to suspect the king, as he had never attempted anything of the sort in his life, and that the archduke might have removed the princess to his palace without sending an army to the hotel of the prince of orange, and causing such an alarm in the city, firing artillery on the rampart as if the town had been full of frenchmen in arms, whereas one was ashamed next morning to find that there had been but fifteen in all. "but it was all marquis spinola's fault," he said, "who wished to show himself off as a warrior." the king, having thus through the mouth of his secretary of state warmly protested against his supposed implication in the attempted abduction, began as furiously to rail at de coeuvres for its failure; telling the duc de vendome that his uncle was an idiot, and writing that unlucky envoy most abusive letters for blundering in the scheme which had been so well concerted between them. then he sent for malherbe, who straightway perpetrated more poems to express the king's despair, in which henry was made to liken himself to a skeleton with a dried skin, and likewise to a violet turned up by the ploughshare and left to wither. he kept up through madame de berny a correspondence with "his beautiful angel," as he called the princess, whom he chose to consider a prisoner and a victim; while she, wearied to death with the frigid monotony and sepulchral gaieties of the archiducal court, which she openly called her "dungeon" diverted herself with the freaks and fantasies of her royal adorer, called him in very ill-spelled letters "her chevalier, her heart, her all the world," and frequently wrote to beg him, at the suggestion of the intriguing chateau vert, to devise some means of rescuing her from prison. the constable and duchess meanwhile affected to be sufficiently satisfied with the state of things. conde, however, received a letter from the king, formally summoning him to return to france, and, in case of refusal, declaring him guilty of high-treason for leaving the kingdom without the leave and against the express commands of the king. to this letter, brought to him by de coeuvres, the prince replied by a paper, drawn up and served by a notary of brussels, to the effect that he had left france to save his life and honour; that he was ready to return when guarantees were given him for the security of both. he would live and die, he said, faithful to the king. but when the king, departing from the paths of justice, proceeded through those of violence against him, he maintained that every such act against his person was null and invalid. henry had even the incredible meanness and folly to request the queen to write to the archdukes, begging that the princess might be restored to assist at her coronation. mary de' medici vigorously replied once more that, although obliged to wink at the king's amours, she declined to be his procuress. conde then went off to milan very soon after the scene at the nassau palace and the removal of the princess to the care of the archdukes. he was very angry with his wife, from whom he expressed a determination to be divorced, and furious with the king, the validity of whose second marriage and the legitimacy of whose children he proposed with spanish help to dispute. the constable was in favour of the divorce, or pretended to be so, and caused importunate letters to be written, which he signed, to both albert and isabella, begging that his daughter might be restored to him to be the staff of his old age, and likewise to be present at the queen's coronation. the archdukes, however, resolutely refused to permit her to leave their protection without conde's consent, or until after a divorce had been effected, notwithstanding that the father and aunt demanded it. the constable and duchess however, acquiesced in the decision, and expressed immense gratitude to isabella. "the father and aunt have been talking to pecquius," said henry very dismally; "but they give me much pain. they are even colder than the season, but my fire thaws them as soon as i approach." "p. s.--i am so pining away in my anguish that i am nothing but skin and bones. nothing gives me pleasure. i fly from company, and if in order to comply with the law of nations i go into some assembly or other, instead of enlivening, it nearly kills me."--[lettres missives de henri vii. ]. and the king took to his bed. whether from gout, fever, or the pangs of disappointed love, he became seriously ill. furious with every one, with conde, the constable, de coeuvres, the queen, spinola, with the prince of orange, whose councillor keeremans had been encouraging conde in his rebellion and in going to spain with spinola, he was now resolved that the war should go on. aerssens, cautious of saying too much on paper of this very delicate affair, always intimated to barneveld that, if the princess could be restored, peace was still possible, and that by moving an inch ahead of the king in the cleve matter the states at the last moment might be left in the lurch. he distinctly told the advocate, on his expressing a hope that henry might consent to the prince's residence in some neutral place until a reconciliation could be effected, that the pinch of the matter was not there, and that van der myle, who knew all about it, could easily explain it. alluding to the project of reviving the process against the dowager, and of divorcing the prince and princess, he said these steps would do much harm, as they would too much justify the true cause of the retreat of the prince, who was not believed when he merely talked of his right of primogeniture: "the matter weighs upon us very heavily," he said, "but the trouble is that we don't search for the true remedies. the matter is so delicate that i don't dare to discuss it to the very bottom." the ambassador had a long interview with the king as he lay in his bed feverish and excited. he was more impatient than ever for the arrival of the states' special embassy, reluctantly acquiesced in the reasons assigned for the delay, but trusted that it would arrive soon with barneveld at the head, and with count lewis william as a member for "the sword part of it." he railed at the prince of orange, not believing that keeremans would have dared to do what he had done but with the orders of his master. he said that the king of spain would supply conde with money and with everything he wanted, knowing that he could make use of him to trouble his kingdom. it was strange, he thought, that philip should venture to these extremities with his affairs in such condition, and when he had so much need of repose. he recalled all his ancient grievances against spain, his rights to the kingdom of navarre and the county of st. pol violated; the conspiracy of biron, the intrigues of bouillon, the plots of the count of auvergne and the marchioness of verneuil, the treason of meragne, the corruption of l'hoste, and an infinity of other plots of the king and his ministers; of deep injuries to him and to the public repose, not to be tolerated by a mighty king like himself, with a grey beard. he would be revenged, he said, for this last blow, and so for all the rest. he would not leave a troublesome war on the hands of his young son. the occasion was favourable. it was just to defend the oppressed princes with the promptly accorded assistance of the states-general. the king of great britain was favourable. the duke of savoy was pledged. it was better to begin the war in his green old age than to wait the pleasure and opportunity of the king of spain. all this he said while racked with fever, and dismissed the envoy at last, after a long interview, with these words: "mr. ambassador--i have always spoken roundly and frankly to you, and you will one day be my witness that i have done all that i could to draw the prince out of the plight into which he has put himself. but he is struggling for the succession to this crown under instructions from the spaniards, to whom he has entirely pledged himself. he has already received crowns for his equipment. i know that you and my other friends will work for the conservation of this monarchy, and will never abandon me in my designs to weaken the power of spain. pray god for my health." the king kept his bed a few days afterwards, but soon recovered. villeroy sent word to barneveld in answer to his suggestions of reconciliation that it was too late, that conde was entirely desperate and spanish. the crown of france was at stake, he said, and the prince was promising himself miracles and mountains with the aid of spain, loudly declaring the marriage of mary de' medici illegal, and himself heir to the throne. the secretary of state professed himself as impatient as his master for the arrival of the embassy; the states being the best friends france ever had and the only allies to make the war succeed. jeannin, who was now never called to the council, said that the war was not for germany but for conde, and that henry could carry it on for eight years. he too was most anxious for barneveld's arrival, and was of his opinion that it would have been better for conde to be persuaded to remain at breda and be supported by his brother-in-law, the prince of orange. the impetuosity of the king had however swept everything before it, and conde had been driven to declare himself spanish and a pretender to the crown. there was no issue now but war. boderie, the king's envoy in great britain, wrote that james would be willing to make a defensive league for the affairs of cleve and julich only, which was the slenderest amount of assistance; but henry always suspected master jacques of intentions to baulk him if possible and traverse his designs. but the die was cast. spinola had carried off conde in triumph; the princess was pining in her gilt cage in brussels, and demanding a divorce for desertion and cruel treatment; the king considered himself as having done as much as honour allowed him to effect a reconciliation, and it was obvious that, as the states' ambassador said, he could no longer retire from the war without shame, which would be the greatest danger of all. "the tragedy is ready to begin," said aerssens. "they are only waiting now for the arrival of our ambassadors." on the th march the king before going to fontainebleau for a few days summoned that envoy to the louvre. impatient at a slight delay in his arrival, henry came down into the courtyard as he was arriving and asked eagerly if barneveld was coming to paris. aerssens replied, that the advocate had been hastening as much as possible the departure of the special embassy, but that the condition of affairs at home was such as not to permit him to leave the country at that moment. van der myle, who would be one of the ambassadors, would more fully explain this by word of mouth. the king manifested infinite annoyance and disappointment that barneveld was not to make part of the embassy. "he says that he reposes such singular confidence in your authority in the state, experience in affairs, and affection for himself," wrote aerssens, "that he might treat with you in detail and with open heart of all his designs. he fears now that the ambassadors will be limited in their powers and instructions, and unable to reply at once on the articles which at different times have been proposed to me for our enterprise. thus much valuable time will be wasted in sending backwards and forwards." the king also expressed great anxiety to consult with count lewis william in regard to military details, but his chief sorrow was in regard to the advocate. "he acquiesced only with deep displeasure and regret in your reasons," said the ambassador, "and says that he can hope for nothing firm now that you refuse to come." villeroy intimated that barneveld did not come for fear of exciting the jealousy of the english. etext editor's bookmarks: he who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself most detestable verses that even he had ever composed she declined to be his procuress the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. the life and death of john of barneveld, v , chapter iv. difficult position of barneveld--insurrection at utrecht subdued by the states' army--special embassies to england and france--anger of the king with spain and the archdukes--arrangements of henry for the coming war--position of spain--anxiety of the king for the presence of barneveld in paris--arrival of the dutch commissioners in france and their brilliant reception--their interview with the king and his ministers--negotiations--delicate position of the dutch government-- india trade--simon danzer, the corsair--conversations of henry with the dutch commissioners--letter of the king to archduke albert-- preparations for the queen's coronation, and of henry to open the campaign in person--perplexities of henry--forebodings and warnings --the murder accomplished--terrible change in france--triumph of concini and of spain--downfall of sully--disputes of the grandees among themselves--special mission of condelence from the republic-- conference on the great enterprise--departure of van der myle from paris. there were reasons enough why the advocate could not go to paris at this juncture. it was absurd in henry to suppose it possible. everything rested on barneveld's shoulders. during the year which had just passed he had drawn almost every paper, every instruction in regard to the peace negotiations, with his own hand, had assisted at every conference, guided and mastered the whole course of a most difficult and intricate negotiation, in which he had not only been obliged to make allowance for the humbled pride and baffled ambition of the ancient foe of the netherlands, but to steer clear of the innumerable jealousies, susceptibilities, cavillings, and insolences of their patronizing friends. it was his brain that worked, his tongue that spoke, his restless pen that never paused. his was not one of those easy posts, not unknown in the modern administration of great affairs, where the subordinate furnishes the intellect, the industry, the experience, while the bland superior, gratifying the world with his sign-manual, appropriates the applause. so long as he lived and worked, the states-general and the states of holland were like a cunningly contrived machine, which seemed to be alive because one invisible but mighty mind vitalized the whole. and there had been enough to do. it was not until midsummer of that the ratifications of the treaty of truce, one of the great triumphs in the history of diplomacy, had been exchanged, and scarcely had this period been put to the eternal clang of arms when the death of a lunatic threw the world once more into confusion. it was obvious to barneveld that the issue of the cleve-julich affair, and of the tremendous religious fermentation in bohemia, moravia, and austria, must sooner or later lead to an immense war. it was inevitable that it would devolve upon the states to sustain their great though vacillating, their generous though encroaching, their sincere though most irritating, ally. and yet, thoroughly as barneveld had mastered all the complications and perplexities of the religious and political question, carefully as he had calculated the value of the opposing forces which were shaking christendom, deeply as he had studied the characters of matthias and rudolph, of charles of denmark and ferdinand of graz, of anhalt and maximilian, of brandenburg and neuburg, of james and philip, of paul v. and charles emmanuel, of sully and yilleroy, of salisbury and bacon, of lerma and infantado; adroitly as he could measure, weigh, and analyse all these elements in the great problem which was forcing itself on the attention of europe--there was one factor with which it was difficult for this austere republican, this cold, unsusceptible statesman, to deal: the intense and imperious passion of a greybeard for a woman of sixteen. for out of the cauldron where the miscellaneous elements of universal war were bubbling rose perpetually the fantastic image of margaret montmorency: the fatal beauty at whose caprice the heroic sword of ivry and cahors was now uplifted and now sheathed. aerssens was baffled, and reported the humours of the court where he resided as changing from hour to hour. to the last he reported that all the mighty preparations then nearly completed "might evaporate in smoke" if the princess of conde should come back. every ambassador in paris was baffled. peter pecquius was as much in the dark as don inigo de cardenas, as ubaldini or edmonds. no one save sully, aerssens, barneveld, and the king knew the extensive arrangements and profound combinations which had been made for the war. yet not sully, aerssens, barneveld, or the king, knew whether or not the war would really be made. barneveld had to deal with this perplexing question day by day. his correspondence with his ambassador at henry's court was enormous, and we have seen that the ambassador was with the king almost daily; sleeping or waking; at dinner or the chase; in the cabinet or the courtyard. but the advocate was also obliged to carry in his arms, as it were, the brood of snarling, bickering, cross-grained german princes, to supply them with money, with arms, with counsel, with brains; to keep them awake when they went to sleep, to steady them in their track, to teach them to go alone. he had the congress at hall in suabia to supervise and direct; he had to see that the ambassadors of the new republic, upon which they in reality were already half dependent and chafing at their dependence, were treated with the consideration due to the proud position which the commonwealth had gained. questions of etiquette were at that moment questions of vitality. he instructed his ambassadors to leave the congress on the spot if they were ranked after the envoys of princes who were only feudatories of the emperor. the dutch ambassadors, "recognising and relying upon no superiors but god and their sword," placed themselves according to seniority with the representatives of proudest kings. he had to extemporize a system of free international communication with all the powers of the earth--with the turk at constantinople, with the czar of muscovy; with the potentates of the baltic, with both the indies. the routine of a long established and well organized foreign office in a time-honoured state running in grooves; with well-balanced springs and well oiled wheels, may be a luxury of civilization; but it was a more arduous task to transact the greatest affairs of a state springing suddenly into recognized existence and mainly dependent for its primary construction and practical working on the hand of one man. worse than all, he had to deal on the most dangerous and delicate topics of state with a prince who trembled at danger and was incapable of delicacy; to show respect for a character that was despicable, to lean on a royal word falser than water, to inhale almost daily the effluvia from a court compared to which the harem of henry was a temple of vestals. the spectacle of the slobbering james among his kars and hays and villiers's and other minions is one at which history covers her eyes and is dumb; but the republican envoys, with instructions from a barneveld, were obliged to face him daily, concealing their disgust, and bowing reverentially before him as one of the arbiters of their destinies and the solomon of his epoch. a special embassy was sent early in the year to england to convey the solemn thanks of the republic to the king for his assistance in the truce negotiations, and to treat of the important matters then pressing on the attention of both powers. contemporaneously was to be despatched the embassy for which henry was waiting so impatiently at paris. certainly the advocate had enough with this and other, important business already mentioned to detain him at his post. moreover the first year of peace had opened disastrously in the netherlands. tremendous tempests such as had rarely been recorded even in that land of storms had raged all the winter. the waters everywhere had burst their dykes and inundations, which threatened to engulph the whole country, and which had caused enormous loss of property and even of life, were alarming the most courageous. it was difficult in many district to collect the taxes for the every-day expenses of the community, and yet the advocate knew that the republic would soon be forced to renew the war on a prodigious scale. still more to embarrass the action of the government and perplex its statesmen, an alarming and dangerous insurrection broke out in utrecht. in that ancient seat of the hard-fighting, imperious, and opulent sovereign archbishops of the ancient church an important portion of the population had remained catholic. another portion complained of the abolition of various privileges which they had formerly enjoyed; among others that of a monopoly of beer-brewing for the province. all the population, as is the case with all populations in all countries and all epochs, complained of excessive taxation. a clever politician, dirk kanter by name, a gentleman by birth, a scholar and philosopher by pursuit and education, and a demagogue by profession, saw an opportunity of taking an advantage of this state of things. more than twenty years before he had been burgomaster of the city, and had much enjoyed himself in that position. he was tired of the learned leisure to which the ingratitude of his fellow-citizens had condemned him. he seems to have been of easy virtue in the matter of religion, a catholic, an arminian, an ultra orthodox contra-remonstrant by turns. he now persuaded a number of determined partisans that the time had come for securing a church for the public worship of the ancient faith, and at the same time for restoring the beer brewery, reducing the taxes, recovering lost privileges, and many other good things. beneath the whole scheme lay a deep design to effect the secession of the city and with it of the opulent and important province of utrecht from the union. kanter had been heard openly to avow that after all the netherlands had flourished under the benign sway of the house of burgundy, and that the time would soon come for returning to that enviable condition. by a concerted assault the city hall was taken possession of by main force, the magistracy was overpowered, and a new board of senators and common council-men appointed, kanter and a devoted friend of his, heldingen by name, being elected burgomasters. the states-provincial of utrecht, alarmed at these proceedings in the city, appealed for protection against violence to the states-general under the rd article of the union, the fundamental pact which bore the name of utrecht itself. prince maurice proceeded to the city at the head of a detachment of troops to quell the tumults. kanter and his friends were plausible enough to persuade him of the legality and propriety of the revolution which they had effected, and to procure his formal confirmation of the new magistracy. intending to turn his military genius and the splendour of his name to account, they contrived to keep him for a time at least in an amiable enthralment, and induced him to contemplate in their interest the possibility of renouncing the oath which subjected him to the authority of the states of utrecht. but the far-seeing eye of barneveld could not be blind to the danger which at this crisis beset the stadholder and the whole republic. the prince was induced to return to the hague, but the city continued by armed revolt to maintain the new magistracy. they proceeded to reduce the taxes, and in other respects to carry out the measures on the promise of which they had come into power. especially the catholic party sustained kanter and his friends, and promised themselves from him and from his influence over prince maurice to obtain a power of which they had long been deprived. the states-general now held an assembly at woerden, and summoned the malcontents of utrecht to bring before that body a statement of their grievances. this was done, but there was no satisfactory arrangement possible, and the deputation returned to utrecht, the states-general to the hague. the states-provincial of utrecht urged more strongly than ever upon the assembly of the union to save the city from the hands of a reckless and revolutionary government. the states-general resolved accordingly to interfere by force. a considerable body of troops was ordered to march at once upon utrecht and besiege the city. maurice, in his capacity of captain-general and stadholder of the province, was summoned to take charge of the army. he was indisposed to do so, and pleaded sickness. the states, determined that the name of nassau should not be used as an encouragement to disobedience, and rebellion, then directed the brother of maurice, frederic henry, youngest son of william the silent, to assume the command. maurice insisted that his brother was too young, and that it was unjust to allow so grave a responsibility to fall upon his shoulders. the states, not particularly pleased with the prince's attitude at this alarming juncture, and made anxious by the glamour which seemed to possess him since his conferences with the revolutionary party at utrecht, determined not to yield. the army marched forth and laid siege to the city, prince frederic henry at its head. he was sternly instructed by the states-general, under whose orders he acted, to take possession of the city at all hazards. he was to insist on placing there a garrison of foot and horse, and to permit not another armed man within the walls. the members of the council of state and of the states of utrecht accompanied the army. for a moment the party in power was disposed to resist the forces of the union. dick kanter and his friends were resolute enough; the catholic priests turned out among the rest with their spades and worked on the entrenchments. the impossibility of holding the city against the overwhelming power of the states was soon obvious, and the next day the gates were opened, and easy terms were granted. the new magistracy was set aside, the old board that had been deposed by the rebels reinstated. the revolution and the counterrevolution were alike bloodless, and it was determined that the various grievances of which the discontented party had complained should be referred to the states-general, to prince maurice, to the council of state, and to the ambassadors of france and england. amnesty was likewise decreed on submission. the restored government was arminian in its inclinations, the revolutionary one was singularly compounded both of catholic and of ultra-orthodox elements. quiet was on the whole restored, but the resources of the city were crippled. the event occurring exactly at the crisis of the clove and julich expedition angered the king of france. "the trouble of utrecht," wrote aerssens to barneveld, "has been turned to account here marvellously, the archdukes and spaniards boasting that many more revolts like this may be at once expected. i have explained to his majesty, who has been very much alarmed about it, both its source and the hopes that it will be appeased by the prudence of his excellency prince maurice and the deputies of the states. the king desires that everything should be pacified as soon as possible, so that there may be no embarrassment to the course of public affairs. but he fears, he tells me, that this may create some new jealousy between prince maurice and yourself. i don't comprehend what he means, although he held this language to me very expressly and without reserve. i could only answer that you were living on the best of terms together in perfect amity and intelligence. if you know if this talk of his has any other root, please to enlighten me, that i may put a stop to false reports, for i know nothing of affairs except what you tell me." king james, on the other hand, thoroughly approved the promptness of the states-general in suppressing the tumult. nothing very serious of alike nature occurred in utrecht until the end of the year, when a determined and secret conspiracy was discovered, having for its object to overpower the garrison and get bodily possession of colonel john ogle, the military commander of the town. at the bottom of the movement were the indefatigable dirk kanter and his friend heldingen. the attempt was easily suppressed, and the two were banished from the town. kanter died subsequently in north holland, in the odour of ultra-orthodoxy. four of the conspirators--a post-master, two shoemakers, and a sexton, who had bound themselves by oath to take the lives of two eminent arminian preachers, besides other desperate deeds--were condemned to death, but pardoned on the scaffold. thus ended the first revolution at utrecht. its effect did not cease, however, with the tumults which were its original manifestations. this earliest insurrection in organized shape against the central authority of the states-general; this violent though abortive effort to dissolve the union and to nullify its laws; this painful necessity for the first time imposed upon the federal government to take up arms against misguided citizens of the republic, in order to save itself from disintegration and national death, were destined to be followed by far graver convulsions on the self-same spot. religious differences and religious hatreds were to mingle their poison with antagonistic political theories and personal ambitions, and to develop on a wide scale the danger ever lurking in a constitution whose fundamental law was unstable, ill defined, and liable to contradictory interpretations. for the present it need only be noticed that the states-general, guided by barneveld, most vigorously suppressed the local revolt and the incipient secession, while prince maurice, the right arm of the executive, the stadholder of the province, and the representative of the military power of the commonwealth, was languid in the exertion of that power, inclined to listen to the specious arguments of the utrecht rebels, and accused at least of tampering with the fell spirit which the advocate was resolute to destroy. yet there was no suspicion of treason, no taint of rebellion, no accusation of unpatriotic motives uttered against the stadholder. there was a doubt as to the true maxims by which the confederacy was to be governed, and at this moment, certainly, the prince and the advocate represented opposite ideas. there was a possibility, at a future day, when the religious and political parties might develop themselves on a wider scale and the struggles grow fiercer, that the two great champions in the conflict might exchange swords and inflict mutual and poisoned wounds. at present the party of the union had triumphed, with barneveld at its head. at a later but not far distant day, similar scenes might be enacted in the ancient city of utrecht, but with a strange difference and change in the cast of parts and with far more tragical results. for the moment the moderate party in the church, those more inclined to arminianism and the supremacy of the civil authority in religious matters, had asserted their ascendency in the states-general, and had prevented the threatened rupture. meantime it was doubly necessary to hasten the special embassies to france and to england, in both which countries much anxiety as to the political health and strength of the new republic had been excited by these troubles in utrecht. it was important for the states-general to show that they were not crippled, and would not shrink from the coming conflict, but would justify the reliance placed on them by their allies. thus there were reasons enough why barneveld could not himself leave the country in the eventful spring of . it must be admitted, however, that he was not backward in placing his nearest relatives in places of honour, trust, and profit. his eldest son reinier, seignior of groeneveld, had been knighted by henry iv.; his youngest, william, afterwards called seignior of stoutenburg, but at this moment bearing the not very mellifluous title of craimgepolder, was a gentleman-in-waiting at that king's court, with a salary of crowns a year. he was rather a favourite with the easy-going monarch, but he gave infinite trouble to the dutch ambassador aerssens, who, feeling himself under immense obligations to the advocate and professing for him boundless gratitude, did his best to keep the idle, turbulent, extravagant, and pleasure-loving youth up to the strict line of his duties. "your son is in debt again," wrote aerssens, on one occasion, "and troubled for money. he is in danger of going to the usurers. he says he cannot keep himself for less than crowns a month. this is a large allowance, but he has spent much more than that. his life is not irregular nor his dress remarkably extravagant. his difficulty is that he will not dine regularly with me nor at court. he will keep his own table and have company to dinner. that is what is ruining him. he comes sometimes to me, not for the dinner nor the company, but for tennis, which he finds better in my faubourg than in town. his trouble comes from the table, and i tell you frankly that you must regulate his expenses or they will become very onerous to you. i am ashamed of them and have told him so a hundred times, more than if he had been my own brother. it is all for love of you . . . . i have been all to him that could be expected of a man who is under such vast obligations to you; and i so much esteem the honour of your friendship that i should always neglect my private affairs in order to do everything for your service and meet your desires . . . . . if m. de craimgepolder comes back from his visit home, you must restrict him in two things, the table and tennis, and you can do this if you require him to follow the king assiduously as his service requires." something at a future day was to be heard of william of barneveld, as well as of his elder brother reinier, and it is good, therefore, to have these occasional glimpses of him while in the service of the king and under the supervision of one who was then his father's devoted friend, francis aerssens. there were to be extraordinary and tragical changes in the relations of parties and of individuals ere many years should go by. besides the sons of the advocate, his two sons-in-law, brederode, seignior of veenhuizep, and cornelis van der myle, were constantly employed? in important embassies. van der myle had been the first ambassador to the great venetian republic, and was now placed at the head of the embassy to france, an office which it was impossible at that moment for the advocate to discharge. at the same critical moment barneveld's brother elias, pensionary of rotterdam, was appointed one of the special high commissioners to the king of great britain. it is necessary to give an account of this embassy. they were provided with luminous and minute instructions from the hand of the advocate. they were, in the first place, and ostensibly, to thank the king for his services in bringing about the truce, which, truly, had been of the slightest, as was very well known. they were to explain, on the part of the states, their delay in sending this solemn commission, caused by the tardiness of the king of spain in sending his ratification to the treaty, and by the many disputations caused by the irresolutions of the archdukes and the obstinacy of their commissioners in regard to their many contraventions of the treaty. after those commissioners had gone, further hindrances had been found in the "extraordinary tempests, high floods, rising of the waters, both of the ocean and the rivers, and the very disastrous inundations throughout nearly all the united provinces, with the immense and exorbitant damage thus inflicted, both on the public and on many individuals; in addition to all which were to be mentioned the troubles in the city of utrecht." they were, in almost hyperbolical language, directed to express the eternal gratitude of the states for the constant favours received by them from the crown of england, and their readiness to stand forth at any moment with sincere affection and to the utmost of their power, at all times and seasons, in resistance of any attempts against his majesty's person or crown, or against the prince of wales or the royal family. they were to thank him for his "prudent, heroic, and courageous resolve to suffer nothing to be done under colour of justice, authority, or any other pretext, to the hindrance of the elector of brandenburg and palatine of neuburg, in the maintenance of their lawful rights and possession of the principalities of julich, cleve, and berg, and other provinces." by this course his majesty, so the commissioners were to state, would put an end to the imaginations of those who thought they could give the law to everybody according to their pleasure. they were to assure the king that the states-general would exert themselves to the utmost to second his heroic resolution, notwithstanding the enormous burthens of their everlasting war, the very exorbitant damage caused by the inundations, and the sensible diminution in the contributions and other embarrassments then existing in the country. they were to offer foot and horse for the general purpose under prince henry of nassau, besides the succours furnished by the king of france and the electors and princes of germany. further assistance in men, artillery, and supplies were promised under certain contingencies, and the plan of the campaign on the meuse in conjunction with the king of france was duly mapped. they were to request a corresponding promise of men and money from the king of great britain, and they were to propose for his approval a closer convention for mutual assistance between his majesty, the united netherlands, the king of france, the electors and princes and other powers of germany; as such close union would be very beneficial to all christendom. it would put a stop to all unjust occupations, attempts, and intrigues, and if the king was thereto inclined, he was requested to indicate time and place for making such a convention. the commissioners were further to point out the various contraventions on the part of the archdukes of the treaty of truce, and were to give an exposition of the manner in which the states-general had quelled the tumults at utrecht, and reasons why such a course had of necessity been adopted. they were instructed to state that, "over and above the great expenses of the late war and the necessary maintenance of military forces to protect their frontiers against their suspected new friends or old enemies, the provinces were burthened with the cost of the succour to the elector of brandenburg and palatine of neuburg, and would be therefore incapable of furnishing the payments coming due to his majesty. they were accordingly to sound his majesty as to whether a good part of the debt might not be remitted or at least an arrangement made by which the terms should begin to run only after a certain number of years." they were also directed to open the subject of the fisheries on the coasts of great britain, and to remonstrate against the order lately published by the king forbidding all foreigners from fishing on those coasts. this was to be set forth as an infringement both of natural law and of ancient treaties, and as a source of infinite danger to the inhabitants of the united provinces. the seignior of warmond, chief of the commission, died on the th april. his colleagues met at brielle on the th, ready to take passage to england in the ship of war, the hound. they were, however, detained there six days by head winds and great storms, and it was not until the nd that they were able to put to sea. the following evening their ship cast anchor in gravesend. half an hour before, the duke of wurtemberg had arrived from flushing in a ship of war brought from france by the prince of anhalt. sir lewis lewkener, master of ceremonies, had been waiting for the ambassadors at gravesend, and informed them that the royal barges were to come next morning from london to take them to town. they remained that night on board the hound, and next morning, the wind blowing up the river, they proceeded in their ship as far as blackwall, where they were formally received and bade welcome in the name of the king by sir thomas cornwallis and sir george carew, late ambassador in france. escorted by them and sir lewis, they were brought in the court barges to tower wharf. here the royal coaches were waiting, in which they were taken to lodgings provided for them in the city at the house of a dutch merchant. noel de caron, seignior of schonewal, resident ambassador of the states in london, was likewise there to greet them. this was saturday night: on the following tuesday they went by appointment to the palace of whitehall in royal carriages for their first audience. manifestations of as entire respect and courtesy had thus been made to the republican envoys as could be shown to the ambassadors of the greatest sovereigns. they found the king seated on his throne in the audience chamber, accompanied by the prince of wales, the duke of york, the lord high treasurer and lord high admiral, the duke of lenox, the earls of arundel and northampton, and many other great nobles and dignitaries. james rose from his seat, took off his hat, and advanced several paces to meet the ambassadors, and bade them courteously and respectfully welcome. he then expressed his regret at the death of the seignior of warmond, and after the exchange of a few commonplaces listened, still with uncovered head, to the opening address. the spokesman, after thanking the king for his condolences on the death of the chief commissioner, whom, as was stated with whimsical simplicity, "the good god had called to himself after all his luggage had been put on board ship," proceeded in the french language to give a somewhat abbreviated paraphrase of barneveld's instructions. when this was done and intimation made that they would confer more fully with his majesty's council on the subjects committed to their charge, the ambassadors were conducted home with the same ceremonies as had accompanied their arrival. they received the same day the first visit from the ambassadors of france and venice, boderie and carrero, and had a long conference a few days afterwards with the high treasurer, lord salisbury. on the rd may they were invited to attend the pompous celebration of the festival of st. george in the palace at westminster, where they were placed together with the french ambassador in the king's oratorium; the dukes of wurtemberg and brunswick being in that of the queen. these details are especially to be noted, and were at the moment of considerable importance, for this was the first solemn and extraordinary embassy sent by the rebel netherlanders, since their independent national existence had been formally vindicated, to great britain, a power which a quarter of a century before had refused the proffered sovereignty over them. placed now on exactly the same level with the representatives of emperors and kings, the republican envoys found themselves looked upon by the world with different eyes from those which had regarded their predecessors askance, and almost with derision, only seven years before. at that epoch the states' commissioners, barneveld himself at the head of them, had gone solemnly to congratulate king james on his accession, had scarcely been admitted to audience by king or minister, and had found themselves on great festivals unsprinkled with the holy water of the court, and of no more account than the crowd of citizens and spectators who thronged the streets, gazing with awe at the distant radiance of the throne. but although the ambassadors were treated with every external consideration befitting their official rank, they were not likely to find themselves in the most genial atmosphere when they should come to business details. if there was one thing in the world that james did not intend to do, it was to get himself entangled in war with spain, the power of all others which he most revered and loved. his "heroic and courageous resolve" to defend the princes, on which the commissioners by instructions of the advocate had so highly complimented him, was not strong enough to carry him much beyond a vigorous phraseology. he had not awoke from the delusive dream of the spanish marriage which had dexterously been made to flit before him, and he was not inclined, for the sake of the republic which he hated the more because obliged to be one of its sponsors, to risk the animosity of a great power which entertained the most profound contempt for him. he was destined to find himself involved more closely than he liked, and through family ties, with the great protestant movement in germany, and the unfortunate "winter king" might one day find his father-in-law as unstable a reed to lean upon as the states had found their godfather, or the brandenburgs and neuburgs at the present juncture their great ally. meantime, as the bohemian troubles had not yet reached the period of actual explosion, and as henry's wide-reaching plan against the house of austria had been strangely enough kept an inviolable secret by the few statesmen, like sully and barneveld, to whom they had been confided, it was necessary for the king and his ministers to deal cautiously and plausibly with the dutch ambassadors. their conferences were mere dancing among eggs, and if no actual mischief were done, it was the best result that could be expected. on the th of may, the commissioners met in the council chamber at westminster, and discussed all the matters contained in their instructions with the members of the council; the lord treasurer salisbury, earl of northampton, privy seal and warden of the cinque ports, lord nottingham, lord high admiral, the lord chamberlain, earl of suffolk, earls of shrewsbury, worcester, and several others being present. the result was not entirely satisfactory. in regard to the succour demanded for the possessory princes, the commissioners were told that they seemed to come with a long narrative of their great burthens during the war, damage from inundations, and the like, to excuse themselves from doing their share in the succour, and thus the more to overload his majesty, who was not much interested in the matter, and was likewise greatly encumbered by various expenses. the king had already frankly declared his intention to assist the princes with the payment of men, and to send proportionate artillery and powder from england. as the states had supplies in their magazines enough to move , men, he proposed to draw upon those, reimbursing the states for what was thus consumed by his contingent. with regard to the treaty of close alliance between france, great britain, the princes, and the republic, which the ambassadors had proposed, the--lord treasurer and his colleagues gave a reply far from gratifying. his majesty had not yet decided on this point, they said. the king of france had already proposed to treat for such an alliance, but it did not at present seem worth while for all to negotiate together. this was a not over-courteous hint that the republic was after all not expected to place herself at the council-board of kings on even terms of intimacy and fraternal alliance. what followed was even less flattering. if his majesty, it was intimated, should decide to treat with the king of france, he would not shut the door on their high mightinesses; but his majesty was not yet exactly informed whether his majesty had not certain rights over the provinces 'in petitorio.' this was a scarcely veiled insinuation against the sovereignty of the states, a sufficiently broad hint that they were to be considered in a certain degree as british provinces. to a soldier like maurice, to a statesman like barneveld, whose sympathies already were on the side of france, such rebuffs and taunts were likely to prove unpalatable. the restiveness of the states at the continual possession by great britain of those important sea-ports the cautionary towns, a fact which gave colour to these innuendoes, was sure to be increased by arrogant language on the part of the english ministers. the determination to be rid of their debt to so overbearing an ally, and to shake off the shackles imposed by the costly mortgages, grew in strength from that hour. in regard to the fisheries, the lord treasurer and his colleagues expressed amazement that the ambassadors should consider the subjects of their high mightinesses to be so much beloved by his majesty. why should they of all other people be made an exception of, and be exempt from, the action of a general edict? the reasons for these orders in council ought to be closely examined. it would be very difficult to bring the opinions of the english jurists into harmony with those of the states. meantime it would be well to look up such treaties as might be in existence, and have a special joint commission to confer together on the subject. it was very plain, from the course of the conversation, that the netherland fishermen were not to be allowed, without paying roundly for a license, to catch herrings on the british coasts as they had heretofore done. not much more of importance was transacted at this first interview between the ambassadors and the ding's ministers. certainly they had not yet succeeded in attaining their great object, the formation of an alliance offensive and defensive between great britain and the republic in accordance with the plan concerted between henry and barneveld. they could find but slender encouragement for the warlike plans to which france and the states were secretly committed; nor could they obtain satisfactory adjustment of affairs more pacific and commercial in their tendencies. the english ministers rather petulantly remarked that, while last year everybody was talking of a general peace, and in the present conjuncture all seemed to think, or at least to speak, of nothing but a general war, they thought best to defer consideration of the various subjects connected with duties on the manufactures and products of the respective countries, the navigation laws, the "entrecours," and other matters of ancient agreement and controversy, until a more convenient season. after the termination of the verbal conference, the ambassadors delivered to the king's government, in writing, to be pondered by the council and recorded in the archives, a summary of the statements which had been thus orally treated. the document was in french, and in the main a paraphrase of the advocate's instructions, the substance of which has been already indicated. in regard, however, to the far-reaching designs of spain, and the corresponding attitude which it would seem fitting for great britain to assume, and especially the necessity of that alliance the proposal for which had in the conference been received so haughtily, their language was far plainer, bolder, and more vehement than that of the instructions. "considering that the effects show," they said, "that those who claim the monarchy of christendom, and indeed of the whole world, let slip no opportunity which could in any way serve their designs, it is suitable to the grandeur of his majesty the king, and to the station in which by the grace of the good god he is placed, to oppose himself thereto for the sake of the common liberty of christendom, to which end, and in order the better to prevent all unjust usurpations, there could be no better means devised than a closer alliance between his majesty and the most christian king, my lords the states-general, and the electors, princes, and states of germany. their high mightinesses would therefore be most glad to learn that his majesty was inclined to such a course, and would be glad to discuss the subject when and wherever his majesty should appoint, or would readily enter into such an alliance on reasonable conditions." this language and the position taken up by the ambassadors were highly approved by their government, but it was fated that no very great result was to be achieved by this embassy. very elaborate documents, exhaustive in legal lore, on the subject of the herring fisheries, and of the right to fish in the ocean and on foreign coasts, fortified by copious citations from the 'pandects' and 'institutes' of justinian, were presented for the consideration of the british government, and were answered as learnedly, exhaustively, and ponderously. the english ministers were also reminded that the curing of herrings had been invented in the fifteenth century by a citizen of biervliet, the inscription on whose tombstone recording that faces might still be read in the church of that town. all this did not prevent, however, the dutch herring fishermen from being excluded from the british waters unless they chose to pay for licenses. the conferences were however for a season interrupted, and a new aspect was given to affairs by an unforeseen and terrible event. meanwhile it is necessary to glance for a moment at the doings of the special embassy to france, the instructions for which were prepared by barneveld almost at the same moment at which he furnished those for the commission to england. the ambassadors were walraven, seignior of brederode, cornelis van der myle, son-in-law of the advocate, and jacob van maldere. remembering how impatient the king of france had long been for their coming, and that all the preparations and decisions for a great war were kept in suspense until the final secret conferences could be held with the representatives of the states-general, it seems strange enough to us to observe the extreme deliberation with which great affairs of state were then conducted and the vast amount of time consumed in movements and communications which modern science has either annihilated or abridged from days to hours. while henry was chafing with anxiety in paris, the ambassadors, having received barneveld's instructions dated st march, set forth on the th april from the hague, reached rotterdam at noon, and slept at dordrecht. newt day they went to breda, where the prince of orange insisted upon their passing a couple of days with him in his castle, easter-day being th april. he then provided them with a couple of coaches and pair in which they set forth on their journey, going by way of antwerp, ghent, courtray, ryssel, to arras, making easy stages, stopping in the middle of the day to bait, and sleeping at each of the cities thus mentioned, where they duly received the congratulatory visit and hospitalities of their respective magistracies. while all this time had been leisurely employed in the netherlands in preparing, instructing, and despatching the commissioners, affairs were reaching a feverish crisis in france. the states' ambassador resident thought that it would have been better not to take such public offence at the retreat of the prince of conde. the king had enough of life and vigour in him; he could afford to leave the dauphin to grow up, and when he should one day be established on the throne, he would be able to maintain his heritage. "but," said aerssens, "i fear that our trouble is not where we say it is, and we don't dare to say where it is." writing to carew, former english ambassador in paris, whom we have just seen in attendance on the states' commissioners in london, he said: "people think that the princess is wearying herself much under the protection of the infanta, and very impatient at not obtaining the dissolution of her marriage, which the duchess of angouleme is to go to brussels to facilitate. this is not our business, but i mention it only as the continuation of the tragedy which you saw begin. nevertheless i don't know if the greater part of our deliberations is not founded on this matter." it had been decided to cause the queen to be solemnly crowned after easter. she had set her heart with singular persistency upon the ceremony, and it was thought that so public a sacrament would annihilate all the wild projects attributed to spain through the instrumentality of conde to cast doubts on the validity of her marriage and the legitimacy of the dauphin. the king from the first felt and expressed a singular repugnance, a boding apprehension in regard to the coronation, but had almost yielded to the queen's importunity. he told her he would give his consent provided she sent concini to brussels to invite in her own name the princess of conde to be present on the occasion. otherwise he declared that at least the festival should be postponed till september. the marquis de coeuvres remained in disgrace after the failure of his mission, henry believing that like all the world he had fallen in love with the princess, and had only sought to recommend himself, not to further the suit of his sovereign. meanwhile henry had instructed his ambassador in spain, m. de vaucelas, to tell the king that his reception of conde within his dominions would be considered an infraction of the treaty of vervins and a direct act of hostility. the duke of lerma answered with a sneer that the most christian king had too greatly obliged his most catholic majesty by sustaining his subjects in their rebellion and by aiding them to make their truce to hope now that conde would be sent back. france had ever been the receptacle of spanish traitors and rebels from antonio perez down, and the king of spain would always protect wronged and oppressed princes like conde. france had just been breaking up the friendly relations between savoy and spain and goading the duke into hostilities. on the other hand the king had more than one stormy interview with don inigo de cardenas in paris. that ambassador declared that his master would never abandon his only sister the most serene infanta, such was the affection he born her, whose dominions were obviously threatened by these french armies about to move to the frontiers. henry replied that the friends for whom he was arming had great need of his assistance; that his catholic majesty was quite right to love his sister, whom he also loved; but that he did not choose that his own relatives should be so much beloved in spain as they were. "what relatives?" asked don inigo. "the prince of conde," replied the king, in a rage, "who has been debauched by the spaniards just as marshal biron was, and the marchioness verneuil, and so many others. there are none left for them to debauch now but the dauphin and his brothers." the ambassador replied that, if the king had consulted him about the affair of conde, he could have devised a happy issue from it. henry rejoined that he had sent messages on the subject to his catholic majesty, who had not deigned a response, but that the duke of lerma had given a very indiscreet one to his ambassador. don inigo professed ignorance of any such reply. the king said it was a mockery to affect ignorance of such matters. thereupon both grew excited and very violent in their discourses; the more so as henry knowing but little spanish and the envoy less french they could only understand from tone and gesture that each was using exceedingly unpleasant language. at last don inigo asked what he should write to his sovereign. "whatever you like," replied the king, and so the audience terminated, each remaining in a towering passion. subsequently villeroy assured the archduke's ambassador that the king considered the reception given to the prince in the spanish dominions as one of the greatest insults and injuries that could be done to him. nothing could excuse it, said the secretary of state, and for this reason it was very difficult for the two kings to remain at peace with each other, and that it would be wiser to prevent at once the evil designs of his catholic majesty than to leave leisure for the plans to be put into execution, and the claims of the dauphin to his father's crown to be disputed at a convenient season. he added that war would not be made for the princess, but for the prince, and that even the war in germany, although spain took the emperor's side and france that of the possessory princes, would not necessarily produce a rupture between the two kings if it were not for this affair of the prince--true cause of the disaster now hanging over christianity. pecquius replied by smooth commonplaces in favour of peace with which villeroy warmly concurred; both sadly expressing the conviction however that the wrath divine had descended on them all on account of their sins. a few days later, however, the secretary changed his tone. "i will speak to you frankly and clearly," he said to pecquius, "and tell you as from myself that there is passion, and if one is willing to arrange the affair of the princess, everything else can be accommodated and appeased. put if the princess remain where she is, we are on the eve of a rupture which may set fire to the four corners of christendom." pecquius said he liked to talk roundly, and was glad to find that he had not been mistaken in his opinion, that all these commotions were only made for the princess, and if all the world was going to war, she would be the principal subject of it. he could not marvel sufficiently, he said, at this vehement passion which brought in its train so great and horrible a conflagration; adding many arguments to show that it was no fault of the archdukes, but that he who was the cause of all might one day have reason to repent. villeroy replied that "the king believed the princess to be suffering and miserable for love of him, and that therefore he felt obliged to have her sent back to her father." pecquius asked whether in his conscience the secretary of state believed it right or reasonable to make war for such a cause. villeroy replied by asking "whether even admitting the negative, the ambassador thought it were wisely done for such a trifle, for a formality, to plunge into extremities and to turn all christendom upside down." pecquius, not considering honour a trifle or a formality, said that "for nothing in the world would his highness the archduke descend to a cowardly action or to anything that would sully his honour." villeroy said that the prince had compelled his wife, pistol in hand, to follow him to the netherlands, and that she was no longer bound to obey a husband who forsook country and king. her father demanded her, and she said "she would rather be strangled than ever to return to the company of her husband." the archdukes were not justified in keeping her against her will in perpetual banishment. he implored the ambassador in most pathetic terms to devise some means of sending back the princess, saying that he who should find such expedient would do the greatest good that was ever done to christianity, and that otherwise there was no guarantee against a universal war. the first design of the king had been merely to send a moderate succour to the princes of brandenburg and neuburg, which could have given no umbrage to the archdukes, but now the bitterness growing out of the affairs of the prince and princess had caused him to set on foot a powerful army to do worse. he again implored pecquius to invent some means of sending back the princess, and the ambassador besought him ardently to divert the king from his designs. of this the secretary of state left little hope and they parted, both very low and dismal in mind. subsequent conversations with the leading councillors of state convinced pecquius that these violent menaces were only used to shake the constancy of the archduke, but that they almost all highly disapproved the policy of the king. "if this war goes on, we are all ruined," said the duke d'epernon to the nuncius. thus there had almost ceased to be any grimacing between the two kings, although it was still a profound mystery where or when hostilities would begin, and whether they would break out at all. henry frequently remarked that the common opinion all over europe was working in his favour. few people in or out of france believed that he meant a rupture, or that his preparations were serious. thus should he take his enemies unawares and unprepared. even aerssens, who saw him almost daily, was sometimes mystified, in spite of henry's vehement assertions that he was resolved to make war at all hazards and on all sides, provided my lords the states would second him as they ought, their own existence being at stake. "for god's sake," cried the king, "let us take the bit into our mouths. tell your masters that i am quite resolved, and that i am shrieking loudly at their delays." he asked if he could depend on the states, if barneveld especially would consent to a league with him. the ambassador replied that for the affair of cleve and julich he had instructions to promise entire concurrence, that barneveld was most resolute in the matter, and had always urged the enterprise and wished information as to the levies making in france and other military preparations. "tell him," said henry, "that they are going on exactly as often before stated, but that we are holding everything in suspense until i have talked with your ambassadors, from whom i wish counsel, safety, and encouragement for doing much more than the julich business. that alone does not require so great a league and such excessive and unnecessary expense." the king observed however that the question of the duchies would serve as just cause and excellent pretext to remove those troublesome fellows for ever from his borders and those of the states. thus the princes would be established safely in their possession and the republic as well as himself freed from the perpetual suspicions which the spaniards excited by their vile intrigues, and it was on this general subject that he wished to confer with the special commissioners. it would not be possible for him to throw succour into julich without passing through luxemburg in arms. the archdukes would resist this, and thus a cause of war would arise. his campaign on the meuse would help the princes more than if he should only aid them by the contingent he had promised. nor could the jealousy of king james be excited since the war would spring out of the archdukes' opposition to his passage towards the duchies, as he obviously could not cut himself off from his supplies, leaving a hostile province between himself and his kingdom. nevertheless he could not stir, he said, without the consent and active support of the states, on whom he relied as his principal buttress and foundation. the levies for the milanese expedition were waiting until marshal de lesdiguieres could confer personally with the duke of savoy. the reports as to the fidelity of that potentate were not to be believed. he was trifling with the spanish ambassadors, so henry was convinced, who were offering him , crowns a year besides piombino, monaco, and two places in the milanese, if he would break his treaty with france. but he was thought to be only waiting until they should be gone before making his arrangements with lesdiguieres. "he knows that he can put no trust in spain, and that he can confide in me," said the king. "i have made a great stroke by thus entangling the king of spain by the use of a few troops in italy. but i assure you that there is none but me and my lords the states that can do anything solid. whether the duke breaks or holds fast will make no difference in our first and great designs. for the honour of god i beg them to lose no more time, but to trust in me. i will never deceive them, never abandon them." at last , infantry and cavalry were already in marching order, and indeed had begun to move towards the luxemburg frontier, ready to co-operate with the states' army and that of the possessory princes for the campaign of the meuse and rhine. twelve thousand more french troops under lesdiguieres were to act with the duke of savoy, and an army as large was to assemble in the pyrenees and to operate on the spanish frontier, in hope of exciting and fomenting an insurrection caused by the expulsion of the moors. that gigantic act of madness by which spain thought good at this juncture to tear herself to pieces, driving hundreds of thousands of the most industrious, most intelligent, and most opulent of her population into hopeless exile, had now been accomplished, and was to stand prominent for ever on the records of human fatuity. twenty-five thousand moorish families had arrived at bayonne, and the viceroy of canada had been consulted as to the possibility and expediency of establishing them in that province, although emigration thither seemed less tempting to them than to virginia. certainly it was not unreasonable for henry to suppose that a kingdom thus torn by internal convulsions might be more open to a well organized attack, than capable of carrying out at that moment fresh projects of universal dominion. as before observed, sully was by no means in favour of this combined series of movements, although at a later day, when dictating his famous memoirs to his secretaries, he seems to describe himself as enthusiastically applauding and almost originating them. but there is no doubt at all that throughout this eventful spring he did his best to concentrate the whole attack on luxemburg and the meuse districts, and wished that the movements in the milanese and in provence should be considered merely a slight accessory, as not much more than a diversion to the chief design, while villeroy and his friends chose to consider the duke of savoy as the chief element in the war. sully thoroughly distrusted the duke, whom he deemed to be always put up at auction between spain and france and incapable of a sincere or generous policy. he was entirely convinced that villeroy and epernon and jeannin and other earnest papists in france were secretly inclined to the cause of spain, that the whole faction of the queen, in short, were urging this scattering of the very considerable forces now at henry's command in the hope of bringing him into a false position, in which defeat or an ignominious peace would be the alternative. to concentrate an immense attack upon the archdukes in the spanish netherlands and the debateable duchies would have for its immediate effect the expulsion of the spaniards out of all those provinces and the establishment of the dutch commonwealth on an impregnable basis. that this would be to strengthen infinitely the huguenots in france and the cause of protestantism in bohemia, moravia and austria, was unquestionable. it was natural, therefore, that the stern and ardent huguenot should suspect the plans of the catholics with whom he was in daily council. one day he asked the king plumply in the presence of villeroy if his majesty meant anything serious by all these warlike preparations. henry was wroth, and complained bitterly that one who knew him to the bottom of his soul should doubt him. but sully could not persuade himself that a great and serious war would be carried on both in the netherlands and in italy. as much as his sovereign he longed for the personal presence of barneveld, and was constantly urging the states' ambassador to induce his coming to paris. "you know," said aerssens, writing to the french ambassador at the hague, de russy, "that it is the advocate alone that has the universal knowledge of the outside and the inside of our commonwealth." sully knew his master as well as any man knew him, but it was difficult to fix the chameleon hues of henry at this momentous epoch. to the ambassador expressing doubts as to the king's sincerity the duke asserted that henry was now seriously piqued with the spaniard on account of the conde business. otherwise anhalt and the possessory princes and the affair of cleve might have had as little effect in driving him into war as did the interests of the netherlands in times past. but the bold demonstration projected would make the "whole spanish party bleed at the nose; a good result for the public peace." therefore sully sent word to barneveld, although he wished his name concealed, that he ought to come himself, with full powers to do everything, without referring to any superiors or allowing any secrets to be divulged. the king was too far committed to withdraw, unless coldness on part of the states should give him cause. the advocate must come prepared to answer all questions; to say how much in men and money the states would contribute, and whether they would go into the war with the king as their only ally. he must come with the bridle on his neck. all that henry feared was being left in the lurch by the states; otherwise he was not afraid of rome. sully was urgent that the provinces should now go vigorously into the war without stumbling at any consideration. thus they would confirm their national power for all time, but if the opportunity were now lost, it would be their ruin, and posterity would most justly blame them. the king of spain was so stripped of troops and resources, so embarrassed by the moors, that in ten months he would not be able to send one man to the netherlands. meantime the nuncius in paris was moving heaven and earth; storming, intriguing, and denouncing the course of the king in protecting heresy, when it would have been so easy to extirpate it, encouraging rebellion and disorder throughout christendom, and embarking in an action against the church and against his conscience. a new legate was expected daily with the pope's signature to the new league, and a demand upon the king to sign it likewise, and to pause in a career of which something was suspected, but very little accurately known. the preachers in paris and throughout the kingdom delivered most vehement sermons against the king, the government, and the protestants, and seemed to the king to be such "trumpeters of sedition" that he ordered the seneschals and other officers to put a stop to these turbulent discourses, censure their authors, and compel them to stick to their texts. but the preparations were now so far advanced and going on so warmly that nothing more was wanting than, in the words of aerssens, "to uncouple the dogs and let them run." recruits were pouring steadily to their places of rendezvous; their pay having begun to run from the th march at the rate of eight sous a day for the private foot soldier and ten sous for a corporal. they were moved in small parties of ten, lodged in the wayside inns, and ordered, on pain of death, to pay for everything they consumed. it was growing difficult to wait much longer for the arrival of the special ambassadors, when at last they were known to be on their way. aerssens obtained for their use the hotel gondy, formerly the residence of don pedro de toledo, the most splendid private palace in paris, and recently purchased by the queen. it was considered expedient that the embassy should make as stately an appearance as that of royal or imperial envoys. he engaged an upholsterer by the king's command to furnish, at his majesty's expense, the apartments, as the baron de gondy, he said, had long since sold and eaten up all the furniture. he likewise laid in six pieces of wine and as many of beer, "tavern drinks" being in the opinion of the thrifty ambassador "both dear and bad." he bought a carriage lined with velvet for the commissioners, and another lined with broadcloth for the principal persons of their suite, and with his own coach as a third he proposed to go to amiens to meet them. they could not get on with fewer than these, he said, and the new carriages would serve their purpose in paris. he had paid crowns for the two, and they could be sold, when done with, at a slight loss. he bought likewise four dapple-grey horses, which would be enough, as nobody had more than two horses to a carriage in town, and for which he paid crowns--a very low price, he thought, at a season when every one was purchasing. he engaged good and experienced coachmen at two crowns a month, and; in short, made all necessary arrangements for their comfort and the honour of the state. the king had been growing more and more displeased at the tardiness of the commission, petulantly ascribing it to a design on the part of the states to "excuse themselves from sharing in his bold conceptions," but said that "he could resolve on nothing without my lords the states, who were the only power with which he could contract confidently, as mighty enough and experienced enough to execute the designs to be proposed to them; so that his army was lying useless on his hands until the commissioners arrived," and lamented more loudly than ever that barneveld was not coming with them. he was now rejoiced, however, to hear that they would soon arrive, and went in person to the hotel gondy to see that everything was prepared in a manner befitting their dignity and comfort. his anxiety had moreover been increased, as already stated, by the alarming reports from utrecht and by his other private accounts from the netherlands. de russy expressed in his despatches grave doubts whether the states would join the king in a war against the king of spain, because they feared the disapprobation of the king of great britain, "who had already manifested but too much jealousy of the power and grandeur of the republic." pecquius asserted that the archdukes had received assurances from the states that they would do nothing to violate the truce. the prince of anhalt, who, as chief of the army of the confederated princes, was warm in his demonstrations for a general war by taking advantage of the cleve expedition, was entirely at cross purposes with the states' ambassador in paris, aerssens maintaining that the forty-three years' experience in their war justified the states in placing no dependence on german princes except with express conventions. they had no such conventions now, and if they should be attacked by spain in consequence of their assistance in the cleve business, what guarantee of aid had they from those whom anhalt represented? anhalt was loud in expressions of sympathy with henry's designs against spain, but said that he and the states meant a war of thirty or forty years, while the princes would finish what they meant to do in one. a more erroneous expression of opinion, when viewed in the light of subsequent events, could hardly have been hazarded. villeroy made as good use as he could of these conversations to excite jealousy between the princes and the states for the furtherance of his own ends, while affecting warm interest in the success of the king's projects. meantime archduke albert had replied manfully and distinctly to the menaces of the king and to the pathetic suggestions made by villeroy to pecquius as to a device for sending back the princess. her stay at brussels being the chief cause of the impending war, it would be better, he said, to procure a divorce or to induce the constable to obtain the consent of the prince to the return of his wife to her father's house. to further either of these expedients, the archduke would do his best. "but if one expects by bravados and threats," he added, "to force us to do a thing against our promise, and therefore against reason, our reputation, and honour, resolutely we will do nothing of the kind. and if the said lord king decided on account of this misunderstanding for a rupture and to make war upon us, we will do our best to wage war on him. in such case, however, we shall be obliged to keep the princess closer in our own house, and probably to send her to such parts as may be most convenient in order to remove from us an instrument of the infinite evils which this war will produce." meantime the special commissioners whom we left at arras had now entered the french kingdom. on the th april, aerssens with his three coaches met them on their entrance into amiens, having been waiting there for them eight days. as they passed through the gate, they found a guard of soldiers drawn up to receive them with military honours, and an official functionary to apologize for the necessary absence of the governor, who had gone with most of the troops stationed in the town to the rendezvous in champagne. he expressed regret, therefore, that the king's orders for their solemn reception could not be literally carried out. the whole board of magistrates, however, in their costumes of ceremony, with sergeants bearing silver maces marching before them, came forth to bid the ambassadors welcome. an advocate made a speech in the name of the city authorities, saying that they were expressly charged by the king to receive them as coming from his very best friends, and to do them all honour. he extolled the sage government of their high mightinesses and the valour of the republic, which had become known to the whole world by the successful conduct of their long and mighty war. the commissioners replied in words of compliment, and the magistrates then offered them, according to ancient usage, several bottles of hippocras. next day, sending back the carriages of the prince of orange, in which they had thus far performed the journey, they set forth towards paris, reaching saint-denis at noon of the third day. here they were met by de bonoeil, introducer of ambassadors, sent thither by the king to give them welcome, and to say that they would be received on the road by the duke of vendome, eldest of the legitimatized children of the king. accordingly before reaching the saint-denis gate of paris, a splendid cavalcade of nearly five hundred noblemen met them, the duke at their head, accompanied by two marshals of france, de brissac and boisdaulphin. the three instantly dismounted, and the ambassadors alighted from their coach. the duke then gave them solemn and cordial welcome, saying that he had been sent by his father the king to receive them as befitted envoys of the best and most faithful friends he possessed in the world. the ambassadors expressed their thanks for the great and extraordinary honour thus conferred on them, and they were then requested to get into a royal carriage which had been sent out for that purpose. after much ceremonious refusal they at last consented and, together with the duke of vendome, drove through paris in that vehicle into the faubourg saint germain. arriving at the hotel gondy, they were, notwithstanding all their protestations, escorted up the staircase into the apartments by the duke. "this honour is notable," said the commissioners in their report to the states, "and never shown to anyone before, so that our ill-wishers are filled with spite." and peter pecquius was of the same opinion. "everyone is grumbling here," about the reception of the states' ambassadors, "because such honours were never paid to any ambassador whatever, whether from spain, england, or any other country." and there were many men living and employed in great affairs of state, both in france and in the republic--the king and villeroy, barneveld and maurice--who could remember how twenty-six years before a solemn embassy from the states had proceeded from the hague to france to offer the sovereignty of their country to henry's predecessor, had been kept ignominiously and almost like prisoners four weeks long in rouen, and had been thrust back into the netherlands without being admitted even to one audience by the monarch. truly time, in the course of less than one generation of mankind, had worked marvellous changes in the fortunes of the dutch republic. president jeannin came to visit them next day, with friendly proffers of service, and likewise the ambassador of venice and the charge d'affaires of great britain. on the nd the royal carriages came by appointment to the hotel gondy, and took them for their first audience to the louvre. they were received at the gate by a guard of honour, drums beating and arms presented, and conducted with the greatest ceremony to an apartment in the palace. soon afterwards they were ushered into a gallery where the king stood, surrounded by a number of princes and distinguished officers of the crown. these withdrew on the approach of the netherlanders, leaving the king standing alone. they made their reverence, and henry saluted them all with respectful cordiality. begging them to put on their hats again, he listened attentively to their address. the language of the discourse now pronounced was similar in tenour to that almost contemporaneously held by the states' special envoys in london. both documents, when offered afterwards in writing, bore the unmistakable imprint of the one hand that guided the whole political machine. in various passages the phraseology was identical, and, indeed, the advocate had prepared and signed the instructions for both embassies on the same day. the commissioners acknowledged in the strongest possible terms the great and constant affection, quite without example, that henry had manifested to the netherlands during the whole course of their war. they were at a loss to find language adequately to express their gratitude for that friendship, and the assistance subsequently afforded them in the negotiations for truce. they apologized for the tardiness of the states in sending this solemn embassy of thanksgiving, partly on the ground of the delay in receiving the ratifications from spain, partly by the protracted contraventions by the archdukes of certain articles in the treaty, but principally by the terrible disasters occasioned throughout their country by the great inundations, and by the commotions in the city of utrecht, which had now been "so prudently and happily pacified." they stated that the chief cause of their embassy was to express their respectful gratitude, and to say that never had prince or state treasured more deeply in memory benefits received than did their republic the favours of his majesty, or could be more disposed to do their utmost to defend his majesty's person, crown, or royal family against all attack. they expressed their joy that the king had with prudence, and heroic courage undertaken the defence of the just rights of brandenburg and neuburg to the duchies of cleve, julich, and the other dependent provinces. thus had he put an end to the presumption of those who thought they could give the law to all the world. they promised the co-operation of the states in this most important enterprise of their ally, notwithstanding their great losses in the war just concluded, and the diminution of revenue occasioned by the inundations by which they had been afflicted; for they were willing neither to tolerate so unjust an usurpation as that attempted by the emperor nor to fail to second his majesty in his generous designs. they observed also that they had been instructed to enquire whether his majesty would not approve the contracting of a strict league of mutual assistance between france, england, the united provinces, and the princes of germany. the king, having listened with close attention, thanked the envoys in words of earnest and vigorous cordiality for their expressions of affection to himself. he begged them to remember that he had always been their good friend, and that he never would forsake them; that he had always hated the spaniards, and should ever hate them; and that the affairs of julich must be arranged not only for the present but for the future. he requested them to deliver their propositions in writing to him, and to be ready to put themselves into communication with the members of his council, in order that they might treat with each other roundly and without reserve. he should always deal with the netherlanders as with his own people, keeping no back-door open, but pouring out everything as into the lap of his best and most trusty friends. after this interview conferences followed daily between the ambassadors and villeroy, sully, jeannin, the chancellor, and puysieug. the king's counsellors, after having read the written paraphrase of barneveld's instructions, the communication of which followed their oral statements, and which, among other specifications, contained a respectful remonstrance against the projected french east india company, as likely to benefit the spaniards only, while seriously injuring the states, complained that "the representations were too general, and that the paper seemed to contain nothing but compliments." the ambassadors, dilating on the various points and articles, maintained warmly that there was much more than compliments in their instructions. the ministers wished to know what the states practically were prepared to do in the affair of cleve, which they so warmly and encouragingly recommended to the king. they asked whether the states' army would march at once to dusseldorf to protect the princes at the moment when the king moved from mezieres, and they made many enquiries as to what amount of supplies and munitions they could depend upon from the states' magazines. the envoys said that they had no specific instructions on these points, and could give therefore no conclusive replies. more than ever did henry regret the absence of the great advocate at this juncture. if he could have come, with the bridle on his neck, as henry had so repeatedly urged upon the resident ambassador, affairs might have marched more rapidly. the despotic king could never remember that barneveld was not the unlimited sovereign of the united states, but only the seal-keeper of one of the seven provinces and the deputy of holland to the general assembly. his indirect power, however vast, was only great because it was so carefully veiled. it was then proposed by villeroy and sully, and agreed to by the commissioners, that m. de bethune, a relative of the great financier, should be sent forthwith to the hague, to confer privately with prince maurice and barneveld especially, as to military details of the coming campaign. it was also arranged that the envoys should delay their departure until de bethune's return. meantime henry and the nuncius had been exchanging plain and passionate language. ubaldini reproached the king with disregarding all the admonitions of his holiness, and being about to plunge christendom into misery and war for the love of the princess of conde. he held up to him the enormity of thus converting the king of spain and the archdukes into his deadly enemies, and warned him that he would by such desperate measures make even the states-general and the king of britain his foes, who certainly would never favour such schemes. the king replied that "he trusted to his own forces, not to those of his neighbours, and even if the hollanders should not declare for him still he would execute his designs. on the th of may most certainly he would put himself at the head of his army, even if he was obliged to put off the queen's coronation till october, and he could not consider the king of spain nor the archdukes his friends unless they at once made him some demonstration of friendship. being asked by the nuncius what demonstration he wished, he answered flatly that he wished the princess to be sent back to the constable her father, in which case the affair of julich could be arranged amicably, and, at all events, if the war continued there, he need not send more than men." thus, in spite of his mighty preparations, vehement demands for barneveld, and profound combinations revealed to that statesman, to aerssens, and to the duke of sully only, this wonderful monarch was ready to drop his sword on the spot, to leave his friends in the lurch, to embrace his enemies, the archduke first of all, instead of bombarding brussels the very next week, as he had been threatening to do, provided the beautiful margaret could be restored to his arms through those of her venerable father. he suggested to the nuncius his hope that the archduke would yet be willing to wink at her escape, which he was now trying to arrange through de preaux at brussels, while ubaldini, knowing the archduke incapable of anything so dishonourable, felt that the war was inevitable. at the very same time too, father cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets of the confessional when there was an object to gain, had a long conversation with the archduke's ambassador, in which the holy man said that the king had confessed to him that he made the war expressly to cause the princess to be sent back to france, so that as there could be no more doubt on the subject the father-confessor begged pecquius, in order to prevent so great an evil, to devise "some prompt and sudden means to induce his highness the archduke to order the princess to retire secretly to her own country." the jesuit had different notions of honour, reputation, and duty from those which influenced the archduke. he added that "at easter the king had been so well disposed to seek his salvation that he could easily have forgotten his affection for the princess, had she not rekindled the fire by her letters, in which she caressed him with amorous epithets, calling him 'my heart,' 'my chevalier,' and similar terms of endearment." father cotton also drew up a paper, which he secretly conveyed to pecquius, "to prove that the archduke, in terms of conscience and honour, might decide to permit this escape, but he most urgently implored the ambassador that for the love of god and the public good he would influence his serene highness to prevent this from ever coming to the knowledge of the world, but to keep the secret inviolably." thus, while henry was holding high council with his own most trusted advisers, and with the most profound statesmen of europe, as to the opening campaign within a fortnight of a vast and general war, he was secretly plotting with his father-confessor to effect what he avowed to be the only purpose of that war, by jesuitical bird-lime to be applied to the chief of his antagonists. certainly barneveld and his colleagues were justified in their distrust. to move one step in advance of their potent but slippery ally might be a step off a precipice. on the st of may, sully made a long visit to the commissioners. he earnestly urged upon them the necessity of making the most of the present opportunity. there were people in plenty, he said, who would gladly see the king take another course, for many influential persons about him were altogether spanish in their inclinations. the king had been scandalized to hear from the prince of anhalt, without going into details, that on his recent passage through the netherlands he had noticed some change of feeling, some coolness in their high mightinesses. the duke advised that they should be very heedful, that they should remember how much more closely these matters regarded them than anyone else, that they should not deceive themselves, but be firmly convinced that unless they were willing to go head foremost into the business the french would likewise not commit themselves. sully spoke with much earnestness and feeling, for it was obvious that both he and his master had been disappointed at the cautious and limited nature of the instructions given to the ambassadors. an opinion had indeed prevailed, and, as we have seen, was to a certain extent shared in by aerssens, and even by sully himself, that the king's military preparations were after all but a feint, and that if the prince of conde, and with him the princess, could be restored to france, the whole war cloud would evaporate in smoke. it was even asserted that henry had made a secret treaty with the enemy, according to which, while apparently ready to burst upon the house of austria with overwhelming force, he was in reality about to shake hands cordially with that power, on condition of being allowed to incorporate into his own kingdom the very duchies in dispute, and of receiving the prince of conde and his wife from spain. he was thus suspected of being about to betray his friends and allies in the most ignoble manner and for the vilest of motives. the circulation of these infamous reports no doubt paralysed for a time the energy of the enemy who had made no requisite preparations against the threatened invasion, but it sickened his friends with vague apprehensions, while it cut the king himself to the heart and infuriated him to madness. he asked the nuncius one day what people thought in rome and italy of the war about to be undertaken. ubaldini replied that those best informed considered the princess of conde as the principal subject of hostilities; they thought that he meant to have her back. "i do mean to have her back," cried henry, with a mighty oath, and foaming with rage, "and i shall have her back. no one shall prevent it, not even the lieutenant of god on earth." but the imputation of this terrible treason weighed upon his mind and embittered every hour. the commissioners assured sully that they had no knowledge of any coolness or change such as anhalt had reported on the part of their principals, and the duke took his leave. it will be remembered that villeroy had, it was thought, been making mischief between anhalt and the states by reporting and misreporting private conversations between that prince and the dutch ambassador. as soon as sully had gone, van der myle waited upon villeroy to ask, in name of himself and colleagues, for audience of leave-taking, the object of their mission having been accomplished. the secretary of state, too, like sully, urged the importance of making the most of the occasion. the affair of cleve, he said, did not very much concern the king, but his majesty had taken it to heart chiefly on account of the states and for their security. they were bound, therefore, to exert themselves to the utmost, but more would not be required of them than it would be possible to fulfil. van der myle replied that nothing would be left undone by their high mightinesses to support the king faithfully and according to their promise. on the th, villeroy came to the ambassadors, bringing with him a letter from the king for the states-general, and likewise a written reply to the declarations made orally and in writing by the ambassadors to his majesty. the letter of henry to "his very dear and good friends, allies, and confederates," was chiefly a complimentary acknowledgment of the expressions of gratitude made to him on part of the states-general, and warm approbation of their sage resolve to support the cause of brandenburg and neuburg. he referred them for particulars to the confidential conferences held between the commissioners and himself. they would state how important he thought it that this matter should be settled now so thoroughly as to require no second effort at any future time when circumstances might not be so propitious; and that he intended to risk his person, at the head of his army, to accomplish this result. to the ambassadors he expressed his high satisfaction at their assurances of affection, devotion, and gratitude on the part of the states. he approved and commended their resolution to assist the elector and the palatine in the affair of the duchies. he considered this a proof of their prudence and good judgment, as showing their conviction that they were more interested and bound to render this assistance than any other potentates or states, as much from the convenience and security to be derived from the neighbourhood of princes who were their friends as from dangers to be apprehended from other princes who were seeking to appropriate those provinces. the king therefore begged the states to move forward as soon as possible the forces which they offered for this enterprise according to his majesty's suggestion sent through de bethune. the king on his part would do the same with extreme care and diligence, from the anxiety he felt to prevent my lords the states from receiving detriment in places so vital to their preservation. he begged the states likewise to consider that it was meet not only to make a first effort to put the princes into entire possession of the duchies, but to provide also for the durable success of the enterprise; to guard against any invasions that might be made in the future to eject those princes. otherwise all their present efforts would be useless; and his majesty therefore consented on this occasion to enter into the new league proposed by the states with all the princes and states mentioned in the memoir of the ambassadors for mutual assistance against all unjust occupations, attempts, and baneful intrigues. having no special information as to the infractions by the archdukes of the recent treaty of truce, the king declined to discuss that subject for the moment, although holding himself bound to all required of him as one of the guarantees of that treaty. in regard to the remonstrance made by the ambassadors concerning the trade of the east indies, his majesty disclaimed any intention of doing injury to the states in permitting his subjects to establish a company in his kingdom for that commerce. he had deferred hitherto taking action in the matter only out of respect to the states, but he could no longer refuse the just claims of his subjects if they should persist in them as urgently as they had thus far been doing. the right and liberty which they demanded was common to all, said the king, and he was certainly bound to have as great care for the interests of his subjects as for those of his friends and allies. here, certainly, was an immense difference in tone and in terms towards the republic adopted respectively by their great and good friends and allies the kings of france and great britain. it was natural enough that henry, having secretly expressed his most earnest hope that the states would move at his side in his broad and general assault upon the house of austria, should impress upon them his conviction, which was a just one, that no power in the world was more interested in keeping a spanish and catholic prince out of the duchies than they were themselves. but while thus taking a bond of them as it were for the entire fulfilment of the primary enterprise, he accepted with cordiality, and almost with gratitude, their proposition of a close alliance of the republic with himself and with the protestant powers which james had so superciliously rejected. it would have been difficult to inflict a more petty and, more studied insult upon the republic than did the king of great britain at that supreme moment by his preposterous claim of sovereign rights over the netherlands. he would make no treaty with them, he said, but should he find it worth while to treat with his royal brother of france, he should probably not shut the door in their faces. certainly henry's reply to the remonstrances of the ambassadors in regard to the india trade was as moderate as that of james had been haughty and peremptory in regard to the herring fishery. it is however sufficiently amusing to see those excellent hollanders nobly claiming that "the sea was as free as air" when the right to take scotch pilchards was in question, while at the very same moment they were earnest for excluding their best allies and all the world besides from their east india monopoly. but isaac le maire and jacques le roy had not lain so long disguised in zamet's house in paris for nothing, nor had aerssens so completely "broke the neck of the french east india company" as he supposed. a certain dutch freebooter, however, simon danzer by name, a native of dordrecht, who had been alternately in the service of spain, france, and the states, but a general marauder upon all powers, was exercising at that moment perhaps more influence on the east india trade than any potentate or commonwealth. he kept the seas just then with four swift-sailing and well-armed vessels, that potent skimmer of the ocean, and levied tribute upon protestant and catholic, turk or christian, with great impartiality. the king of spain had sent him letters of amnesty and safe-conduct, with large pecuniary offers, if he would enter his service. the king of france had outbid his royal brother and enemy, and implored him to sweep the seas under the white flag. the states' ambassador begged his masters to reflect whether this "puissant and experienced corsair" should be permitted to serve spaniard or frenchman, and whether they could devise no expedient for turning him into another track. "he is now with his fine ships at marseilles," said aerssens. "he is sought for in all quarters by the spaniard and by the directors of the new french east india company, private persons who equip vessels of war. if he is not satisfied with this king's offers, he is likely to close with the king of spain, who offers him crowns a month. avarice tickles him, but he is neither spaniard nor papist, and i fear will be induced to serve with his ships the east india company, and so will return to his piracy, the evil of which will always fall on our heads. if my lords the states will send me letters of abolition for him, in imitation of the french king, on condition of his returning to his home in zealand and quitting the sea altogether, something might be done. otherwise he will be off to marseilles again, and do more harm to us than ever. isaac le maire is doing as much evil as he can, and one holds daily council with him here." thus the slippery simon skimmed the seas from marseilles to the moluccas, from java to mexico, never to be held firmly by philip, or henry, or barneveld. a dissolute but very daring ship's captain, born in zealand, and formerly in the service of the states, out of which he had been expelled for many evil deeds, simon danzer had now become a professional pirate, having his head-quarters chiefly at algiers. his english colleague warde stationed himself mainly at tunis, and both acted together in connivance with the pachas of the turkish government. they with their considerable fleet, one vessel of which mounted sixty guns, were the terror of the mediterranean, extorted tribute from the commerce of all nations indifferently, and sold licenses to the greatest governments of europe. after growing rich with his accumulated booty, simon was inclined to become respectable, a recourse which was always open to him--france, england, spain, the united provinces, vieing with each other to secure him by high rank and pay as an honoured member of their national marine. he appears however to have failed in his plan of retiring upon his laurels, having been stabbed in paris by a man whom he had formerly robbed and ruined. villeroy, having delivered the letters with his own hands to the ambassadors, was asked by them when and where it would be convenient for the king to arrange the convention of close alliance. the secretary of state--in his secret heart anything but kindly disposed for this loving union with a republic he detested and with heretics whom he would have burned--answered briefly that his majesty was ready at any time, and that it might take place then if they were provided with the necessary powers. he said in parting that the states should "have an eye to everything, for occasions like the present were irrecoverable." he then departed, saying that the king would receive them in final audience on the following day. next morning accordingly marshal de boisdaulphin and de bonoeil came with royal coaches to the hotel gondy and escorted the ambassadors to the louvre. on the way they met de bethune, who had returned solo from the hague bringing despatches for the king and for themselves. while in the antechamber, they had opportunity to read their letters from the states-general, his majesty sending word that he was expecting them with impatience, but preferred that they should read the despatches before the audience. they found the king somewhat out of humour. he expressed himself as tolerably well satisfied with the general tenour of the despatches brought by de bethune, but complained loudly of the request now made by the states, that the maintenance and other expenses of french in the states' service should be paid in the coming campaign out of the royal exchequer. he declared that this proposition was "a small manifestation of ingratitude," that my lords the states were "little misers," and that such proceedings were "little avaricious tricks" such as he had not expected of them. so far as england was concerned, he said there was a great difference. the english took away what he was giving. he did cheerfully a great deal for his friends, he said, and was always ready doubly to repay what they did for him. if, however, the states persisted in this course, he should call his troops home again. the king, as he went on, became more and more excited, and showed decided dissatisfaction in his language and manner. it was not to be wondered at, for we have seen how persistently he had been urging that the advocate should come in person with "the bridle on his neck," and now he had sent his son-in-law and two colleagues tightly tied up by stringent instructions. and over an above all this, while he was contemplating a general war with intention to draw upon the states for unlimited supplies, behold, they were haggling for the support of a couple of regiments which were virtually their own troops. there were reasons, however, for this cautiousness besides those unfounded, although not entirely chimerical, suspicions as to the king's good faith, to which we have alluded. it should not be forgotten that, although henry had conversed secretly with the states' ambassador at full length on his far-reaching plans, with instructions that he should confidentially inform the advocate and demand his co-operation, not a word of it had been officially propounded to the states-general, nor to the special embassy with whom he was now negotiating. no treaty of alliance offensive or defensive existed between the kingdom and the republic or between the republic and any power whatever. it would have been culpable carelessness therefore at this moment for the prime minister of the states to have committed his government in writing to a full participation in a general assault upon the house of austria; the first step in which would have been a breach of the treaty just concluded and instant hostilities with the archdukes albert and isabella. that these things were in the immediate future was as plain as that night would follow day, but the hour had not yet struck for the states to throw down the gauntlet. hardly two months before, the king, in his treaty with the princes at hall, had excluded both the king of great britain and the states-general from participation in those arrangements, and it was grave matter for consideration, therefore, for the states whether they should allow such succour as they might choose to grant the princes to be included in the french contingent. the opportunity for treating as a sovereign power with the princes and making friends with them was tempting, but it did not seem reasonable to the states that france should make use of them in this war without a treaty, and should derive great advantage from the alliance, but leave the expense to them. henry, on the other hand, forgetting, when it was convenient to him, all about the princess of conde, his hatred of spain, and his resolution to crush the house of austria, chose to consider the war as made simply for the love of the states-general and to secure them for ever from danger. the ambassadors replied to the king's invectives with great respect, and endeavoured to appease his anger. they had sent a special despatch to their government, they said, in regard to all those matters, setting forth all the difficulties that had been raised, but had not wished to trouble his majesty with premature discussions of them. they did not doubt, however, that their high mightinesses would so conduct this great affair as to leave the king no ground of complaint. henry then began to talk of the intelligence brought by de bethune from the hague, especially in regard to the sending of states' troops to dusseldorf and the supply of food for the french army. he did not believe, he said, that the archdukes would refuse him the passage with his forces through their territory, inasmuch as the states' army would be on the way to meet him. in case of any resistance, however, he declared his resolution to strike his blow and to cause people to talk of him. he had sent his quartermaster-general to examine the passes, who had reported that it would be impossible to prevent his majesty's advance. he was also distinctly informed that marquis spinola, keeping his places garrisoned, could not bring more than men into the field. the duke of bouillon, however, was sending advices that his communications were liable to be cut off, and that for this purpose spinola could set on foot about , infantry and horse. if the passage should be allowed by the archdukes, the king stated his intention of establishing magazines for his troops along the whole line of march through the spanish netherlands and neighbouring districts, and to establish and fortify himself everywhere in order to protect his supplies and cover his possible retreat. he was still in doubt, he said, whether to demand the passage at once or to wait until he had began to move his army. he was rather inclined to make the request instantly in order to gain time, being persuaded that he should receive no answer either of consent or refusal. leaving all these details, the king then frankly observed that the affair of cleve had a much wider outlook than people thought. therefore the states must consider well what was to be done to secure the whole work as soon as the cleve business had been successfully accomplished. upon this subject it was indispensable that he should consult especially with his excellency (prince maurice) and some members of the general assembly, whom he wished that my lords the states-general should depute to the army. "for how much good will it do," said the king, "if we drive off archduke leopold without establishing the princes in security for the future? nothing is easier than to put the princes in possession. every one will yield or run away before our forces, but two months after we have withdrawn the enemy will return and drive the princes out again. i cannot always be ready to spring out of my kingdom, nor to assemble such great armies. i am getting old, and my army moreover costs me , crowns a month, which is enough to exhaust all the treasures of france, spain, venice, and the states-general together." he added that, if the present occasion were neglected, the states would afterwards bitterly lament and never recover it. the pope was very much excited, and was sending out his ambassadors everywhere. only the previous saturday the new nuncius destined for france had left rome. if my lords the states would send deputies to the camp with full powers, he stood there firm and unchangeable, but if they remained cool in the business, he warned them that they would enrage him. the states must seize the occasion, he repeated. it was bald behind, and must be grasped by the forelock. it was not enough to have begun well. one must end well. "finis coronat opus." it was very easy to speak of a league, but a league was not to be made in order to sit with arms tied, but to do good work. the states ought not to suffer that the germans should prove themselves more energetic, more courageous, than themselves. and again the king vehemently urged the necessity of his excellency and some deputies of the states coming to him "with absolute power" to treat. he could not doubt in that event of something solid being accomplished. "there are three things," he continued, "which cause me to speak freely. i am talking with my friends whom i hold dear--yes, dearer, perhaps, than they hold themselves. i am a great king, and say what i choose to say. i am old, and know by experience the ways of this world's affairs. i tell you, then, that it is most important that you should come to me resolved and firm on all points." he then requested the ambassadors to make full report of all that he had said to their masters, to make the journey as rapidly as possible, in order to encourage the states to the great enterprise and to meet his wishes. he required from them, he said, not only activity of the body, but labour of the intellect. he was silent for a few moments, and then spoke again. "i shall not always be here," he said, "nor will you always have prince maurice, and a few others whose knowledge of your commonwealth is perfect. my lords the states must be up and doing while they still possess them. nest tuesday i shall cause the queen to be crowned at saint-denis; the following thursday she will make her entry into paris. next day, friday, i shall take my departure. at the end of this month i shall cross the meuse at mezieres or in that neighbourhood." he added that he should write immediately to holland, to urge upon his excellency and the states to be ready to make the junction of their army with his forces without delay. he charged the ambassadors to assure their high mightinesses that he was and should remain their truest friend, their dearest neighbour. he then said a few gracious and cordial words to each of them, warmly embraced each, and bade them all farewell. the next day was passed by the ambassadors in paying and receiving farewell visits, and on saturday, the th, they departed from paris, being escorted out of the gate by the marshal de boisdaulphin, with a cavalcade of noblemen. they slept that night at saint denis, and then returned to holland by the way of calais and rotterdam, reaching the hague on the th of may. i make no apology for the minute details thus given of the proceedings of this embassy, and especially of the conversations of henry. the very words of those conversations were taken down on the spot by the commissioners who heard them, and were carefully embodied in their report made to the states-general on their return, from which i have transcribed them. it was a memorable occasion. the great king--for great he was, despite his numerous vices and follies--stood there upon the threshold of a vast undertaking, at which the world, still half incredulous, stood gazing, half sick with anxiety. he relied on his own genius and valour chiefly, and after these on the brain of barneveld and the sword of maurice. nor was his confidence misplaced. but let the reader observe the date of the day when those striking utterances were made, and which have never before been made public. it was thursday, the th may. "i shall not always be here," said the king, . . . "i cannot be ready at any moment to spring out of my kingdom." . . . "friday of next week i take my departure." how much of heroic pathos in henry's attitude at this supreme moment! how mournfully ring those closing words of his address to the ambassadors! the die was cast. a letter drawn up by the duc de sully was sent to archduke albert by the king. "my brother," he said; "not being able to refuse my best allies and confederates the help which they have asked of me against those who wish to trouble them in the succession to the duchies and counties of cleve, julich, mark, berg, ravensberg, and ravenstein, i am advancing towards them with my army. as my road leads me through your country, i desire to notify you thereof, and to know whether or not i am to enter as a friend or enemy." such was the draft as delivered to the secretary of state; "and as such it was sent," said sully, "unless villeroy changed it, as he had a great desire to do." henry was mistaken in supposing that the archduke would leave the letter without an answer. a reply was sent in due time, and the permission demanded was not refused. for although france was now full of military movement, and the regiments everywhere were hurrying hourly to the places of rendezvous, though the great storm at last was ready to burst, the archdukes made no preparations for resistance, and lapped themselves in fatal security that nothing was intended but an empty demonstration. six thousand swiss newly levied, with , french infantry and horse, were waiting for henry to place himself at their head at mezieres. twelve thousand foot and cavalry, including the french and english contingents--a splendid army, led by prince maurice--were ready to march from holland to dusseldorf. the army of the princes under prince christian of anhalt numbered , men. the last scruples of the usually unscrupulous charles emmanuel had been overcome, and the duke was quite ready to act, , strong, with marshal de lesdiguieres, in the milanese; while marshal de la force was already at the head of his forces in the pyrenees, amounting to , foot and horse. sully had already despatched his splendid trains of artillery to the frontier. "never was seen in france, and perhaps never will be seen there again, artillery more complete and better furnished," said the duke, thinking probably that artillery had reached the climax of perfect destructiveness in the first decade of the seventeenth century. his son, the marquis de rosny, had received the post of grand master of artillery, and placed himself at its head. his father was to follow as its chief, carrying with him as superintendent of finance a cash-box of eight millions. the king had appointed his wife, mary de' medici, regent, with an eminent council. the new nuncius had been requested to present himself with his letters of credence in the camp. henry was unwilling that he should enter paris, being convinced that he came to do his best, by declamation, persuasion, and intrigue, to paralyse the enterprise. sully's promises to ubaldini, the former nuncius, that his holiness should be made king, however flattering to paul v., had not prevented his representatives from vigorously denouncing henry's monstrous scheme to foment heresy and encourage rebellion. the king's chagrin at the cautious limitations imposed upon the states' special embassy was, so he hoped, to be removed by full conferences in the camp. certainly he had shown in the most striking manner the respect he felt for the states, and the confidence he reposed in them. "in the reception of your embassy," wrote aerssens to the advocate, "certainly the king has so loosened the strap of his affection that he has reserved nothing by which he could put the greatest king in the world above your level." he warned the states, however, that henry had not found as much in their propositions as the common interest had caused him to promise himself. "nevertheless he informs me in confidence," said aerssens, "that he will engage himself in nothing without you; nay, more, he has expressly told me that he could hardly accomplish his task without your assistance, and it was for our sakes alone that he has put himself into this position and incurred this great expense." some days later he informed barneveld that he would leave to van der myle and his colleagues the task of describing the great dissatisfaction of the king at the letters brought by de bethune. he told him in confidence that the states must equip the french regiments and put them in marching order if they wished to preserve henry's friendship. he added that since the departure of the special embassy the king had been vehemently and seriously urging that prince maurice, count lewis william, barneveld, and three or four of the most qualified deputies of the states-general, entirely authorized to treat for the common safety, should meet with him in the territory of julich on a fixed day. the crisis was reached. the king stood fully armed, thoroughly prepared, with trustworthy allies at his side, disposing of overwhelming forces ready to sweep down with irresistible strength upon the house of austria, which, as he said and the states said, aspired to give the law to the whole world. nothing was left to do save, as the ambassador said, to "uncouple the dogs of war and let them run." what preparations had spain and the empire, the pope and the league, set on foot to beat back even for a moment the overwhelming onset? none whatever. spinola in the netherlands, fuentes in milan, bucquoy and lobkowitz and lichtenstein in prague, had hardly the forces of a moderate peace establishment at their disposal, and all the powers save france and the states were on the verge of bankruptcy. even james of great britain--shuddering at the vast thundercloud which had stretched itself over christendom growing blacker and blacker, precisely at this moment, in which he had proved to his own satisfaction that the peace just made would perpetually endure--even james did not dare to traverse the designs of the king whom he feared, and the republic which he hated, in favour of his dearly loved spain. sweden, denmark, the hanse towns, were in harmony with france, holland, savoy, and the whole protestant force of germany--a majority both in population and resources of the whole empire. what army, what combination, what device, what talisman, could save the house of austria, the cause of papacy, from the impending ruin? a sudden, rapid, conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined a result as anything could be in the future of human affairs. on the th or th day of may, as he had just been informing the states' ambassadors, henry meant to place himself at the head of his army. that was the moment fixed by himself for "taking his departure." and now the ides of may had come--but not gone. in the midst of all the military preparations with which paris had been resounding, the arrangements for the queen's coronation had been simultaneously going forward. partly to give check in advance to the intrigues which would probably at a later date be made by conde, supported by the power of spain, to invalidate the legitimacy of the dauphin, but more especially perhaps to further and to conceal what the faithful sully called the "damnable artifices" of the queen's intimate councillors--sinister designs too dark to be even whispered at that epoch, and of which history, during the lapse of more than two centuries and a half, has scarcely dared to speak above its breath--it was deemed all important that the coronation should take place. a certain astrologer, thomassin by name, was said to have bidden the king to beware the middle of the next month of may. henry had tweaked the soothsayer by the beard and made him dance twice or thrice about the room. to the duc de vendome expressing great anxiety in regard to thomassin, henry replied, "the astrologer is an old fool, and you are a young fool." a certain prophetess called pasithea had informed the queen that the king could not survive his fifty-seventh year. she was much in the confidence of mary de' medici, who had insisted this year on her returning to paris. henry, who was ever chafing and struggling to escape the invisible and dangerous net which he felt closing about him, and who connected the sorceress with all whom he most loathed among the intimate associates of the queen, swore a mighty oath that she should not show her face again at court. "my heart presages that some signal disaster will befall me on this coronation. concini and his wife are urging the queen obstinately to send for this fanatic. if she should come, there is no doubt that my wife and i shall squabble well about her. if i discover more about these private plots of hers with spain, i shall be in a mighty passion." and the king then assured the faithful minister of his conviction that all the jealousy affected by the queen in regard to the princess of conde was but a veil to cover dark designs. it was necessary in the opinion of those who governed her, the vile concini and his wife, that there should be some apparent and flagrant cause of quarrel. the public were to receive payment in these pretexts for want of better coin. henry complained that even sully and all the world besides attributed to jealousy that which was really the effect of a most refined malice. and the minister sometimes pauses in the midst of these revelations made in his old age, and with self-imposed and shuddering silence intimates that there are things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful to be breathed. henry had an invincible repugnance to that coronation on which the queen had set her heart. nothing could be more pathetic than the isolated position in which he found himself, standing thus as he did on the threshold of a mighty undertaking in which he was the central figure, an object for the world to gaze upon with palpitating interest. at his hearth in the louvre were no household gods. danger lurked behind every tapestry in that magnificent old palace. a nameless dread dogged his footsteps through those resounding corridors. and by an exquisite refinement in torture the possible father of several of his children not only dictated to the queen perpetual outbreaks of frantic jealousy against her husband, but moved her to refuse with suspicion any food and drink offered her by his hands. the concini's would even with unparalleled and ingenious effrontery induce her to make use of the kitchen arrangements in their apartments for the preparation of her daily meals? driven from house and home, henry almost lived at the arsenal. there he would walk for hours in the long alleys of the garden, discussing with the great financier and soldier his vast, dreamy, impracticable plans. strange combination of the hero, the warrior, the voluptuary, the sage, and the schoolboy--it would be difficult to find in the whole range of history a more human, a more attractive, a more provoking, a less venerable character. haunted by omens, dire presentiments, dark suspicions with and without cause, he was especially averse from the coronation to which in a moment of weakness he had given his consent. sitting in sully's cabinet, in a low chair which the duke had expressly provided for his use, tapping and drumming on his spectacle case, or starting up and smiting himself on the thigh, he would pour out his soul hours long to his one confidential minister. "ah, my friend, how this sacrament displeases me," he said; "i know not why it is, but my heart tells me that some misfortune is to befall me. by god i shall die in this city, i shall never go out of it; i see very well that they are finding their last resource in my death. ah, accursed coronation! thou wilt be the cause of my death." so many times did he give utterance to these sinister forebodings that sully implored him at last for leave to countermand the whole ceremony notwithstanding the great preparations which had been made for the splendid festival. "yes, yes," replied the king, "break up this coronation at once. let me hear no more of it. then i shall have my mind cured of all these impressions. i shall leave the town and fear nothing." he then informed his friend that he had received intimations that he should lose his life at the first magnificent festival he should give, and that he should die in a carriage. sully admitted that he had often, when in a carriage with him, been amazed at his starting and crying out at the slightest shock, having so often seen him intrepid among guns and cannon, pikes and naked swords. the duke went to the queen three days in succession, and with passionate solicitations and arguments and almost upon his knees implored her to yield to the king's earnest desire, and renounce for the time at least the coronation. in vain. mary de' medici was obdurate as marble to his prayers. the coronation was fixed for thursday, the th may, two days later than the time originally appointed when the king conversed with the states' ambassadors. on the following sunday was to be the splendid and solemn entrance of the crowned queen. on the monday, henry, postponing likewise for two days his original plan of departure, would leave for the army. meantime there were petty annoyances connected with the details of the coronation. henry had set his heart on having his legitimatized children, the offspring of the fair gabrielle, take their part in the ceremony on an equal footing with the princes of the blood. they were not entitled to wear the lilies of france upon their garments, and the king was solicitous that "the count"--as soissons, brother of prince conti and uncle of conde, was always called--should dispense with those ensigns for his wife upon this solemn occasion, and that the other princesses of the blood should do the same. thus there would be no appearance of inferiority on the part of the duchess of vendome. the count protested that he would have his eyes torn out of his head rather than submit to an arrangement which would do him so much shame. he went to the queen and urged upon her that to do this would likewise be an injury to her children, the dukes of orleans and of anjou. he refused flatly to appear or allow his wife to appear except in the costume befitting their station. the king on his part was determined not to abandon his purpose. he tried to gain over the count by the most splendid proposals, offering him the command of the advance-guard of the army, or the lieutenancy-general of france in the absence of the king, , crowns for his equipment and an increase of his pension if he would cause his wife to give up the fleurs-de-lys on this occasion. the alternative was to be that, if she insisted upon wearing them, his majesty would never look upon him again with favourable eyes. the count never hesitated, but left paris, refusing to appear at the ceremony. the king was in a towering passion, for to lose the presence of this great prince of the blood at a solemnity expressly intended as a demonstration against the designs hatching by the first of all the princes of the blood under patronage of spain was a severe blow to his pride and a check to his policy.' yet it was inconceivable that he could at such a moment commit so superfluous and unmeaning a blunder. he had forced conde into exile, intrigue with the enemy, and rebellion, by open and audacious efforts to destroy his domestic peace, and now he was willing to alienate one of his most powerful subjects in order to place his bastards on a level with royalty. while it is sufficiently amusing to contemplate this proposed barter of a chief command in a great army or the lieutenancy-general of a mighty kingdom at the outbreak of a general european war against a bit of embroidery on the court dress of a lady, yet it is impossible not to recognize something ideal and chivalrous from his own point of view in the refusal of soissons to renounce those emblems of pure and high descent, those haughty lilies of st. louis, against any bribes of place and pelf however dazzling. the coronation took place on thursday, th may, with the pomp and glitter becoming great court festivals; the more pompous and glittering the more the monarch's heart was wrapped in gloom. the representatives of the great powers were conspicuous in the procession; aerssens, the dutch ambassador, holding a foremost place. the ambassadors of spain and venice as usual squabbled about precedence and many other things, and actually came to fisticuffs, the fight lasting a long time and ending somewhat to the advantage of the venetian. but the sacrament was over, and mary de' medici was crowned queen of france and regent of the kingdom during the absence of the sovereign with his army. meantime there had been mysterious warnings darker and more distinct than the babble of the soothsayer thomassin or the ravings of the lunatic pasithea. count schomberg, dining at the arsenal with sully, had been called out to converse with mademoiselle de gournay, who implored that a certain madame d'escomans might be admitted to audience of the king. that person, once in direct relations with the marchioness of verneuil, the one of henry's mistresses who most hated him, affirmed that a man from the duke of epernon's country was in paris, agent of a conspiracy seeking the king's life. the woman not enjoying a very reputable character found it impossible to obtain a hearing, although almost frantic with her desire to save her sovereign's life. the queen observed that it was a wicked woman, who was accusing all the world, and perhaps would accuse her too. the fatal friday came. henry drove out, in his carriage to see the preparations making for the triumphal entrance of the queen into paris on the following sunday. what need to repeat the tragic, familiar tale? the coach was stopped by apparent accident in the narrow street de la feronniere, and francis ravaillac, standing on the wheel, drove his knife through the monarch's heart. the duke of epernon, sitting at his side, threw his cloak over the body and ordered the carriage back to the louvre. "they have killed him, 'e ammazato,'" cried concini (so says tradition), thrusting his head into the queen's bedchamber. [michelet, . it is not probable that the documents concerning the trial, having been so carefully suppressed from the beginning, especially the confession dictated to voisin--who wrote it kneeling on the ground, and was perhaps so appalled at its purport that he was afraid to write it legibly--will ever see the light. i add in the appendix some contemporary letters of persons, as likely as any one to know what could be known, which show how dreadful were the suspicions which men entertained, and which they hardly ventured to whisper to each other]. that blow had accomplished more than a great army could have done, and spain now reigned in paris. the house of austria, without making any military preparations, had conquered, and the great war of religion and politics was postponed for half a dozen years. this history has no immediate concern with solving the mysteries of that stupendous crime. the woman who had sought to save the king's life now denounced epernon as the chief murderer, and was arrested, examined, accused of lunacy, proved to be perfectly sane, and, persisting in her statements with perfect coherency, was imprisoned for life for her pains; the duke furiously demanding her instant execution. the documents connected with the process were carefully suppressed. the assassin, tortured and torn by four horses, was supposed to have revealed nothing and to have denied the existence of accomplices. the great accused were too omnipotent to be dealt with by humble accusers or by convinced but powerless tribunals. the trial was all mystery, hugger-mugger, horror. yet the murderer is known to have dictated to the greflier voisin, just before expiring on the greve, a declaration which that functionary took down in a handwriting perhaps purposely illegible. two centuries and a half have passed away, yet the illegible original record is said to exist, to have been plainly read, and to contain the names of the queen and the duke of epernon. twenty-six years before, the pistol of balthasar gerard had destroyed the foremost man in europe and the chief of a commonwealth just struggling into existence. yet spain and rome, the instigators and perpetrators of the crime, had not reaped the victory which they had the right to expect. the young republic, guided by barneveld and loyal to the son of the murdered stadholder, was equal to the burthen suddenly descending upon its shoulders. instead of despair there had been constancy. instead of distracted counsels there had been heroic union of heart and hand. rather than bend to rome and grovel to philip, it had taken its sovereignty in its hands, offered it successively, without a thought of self-aggrandizement on the part of its children, to the crowns of france and great britain, and, having been repulsed by both, had learned after fiery trials and incredible exertions to assert its own high and foremost place among the independent powers of the world. and now the knife of another priest-led fanatic, the wretched but unflinching instrument of a great conspiracy, had at a blow decapitated france. no political revolution could be much more thorough than that which had been accomplished in a moment of time by francis ravaillac. on the th of may, france, while in spiritual matters obedient to the pope, stood at the head of the forces of protestantism throughout europe, banded together to effect the downfall of the proud house of austria, whose fortunes and fate were synonymous with catholicism. the baltic powers, the majority of the teutonic races, the kingdom of britain, the great republic of the netherlands, the northernmost and most warlike governments of italy, all stood at the disposition of the warrior-king. venice, who had hitherto, in the words of a veteran diplomatist, "shunned to look a league or a confederation in the face, if there was any protestant element in it, as if it had been the head of medusa," had formally forbidden the passage of troops northwards to the relief of the assailed power. savoy, after direful hesitations, had committed herself body and soul to the great enterprise. even the pope, who feared the overshadowing personality of henry, and was beginning to believe his house's private interests more likely to flourish under the protection of the french than the spanish king, was wavering in his fidelity to spain and tempted by french promises: if he should prove himself incapable of effecting a pause in the great crusade, it was doubtful on which side he would ultimately range himself; for it was at least certain that the new catholic league, under the chieftainship of maximilian of bavaria, was resolved not to entangle its fortunes inextricably with those of the austrian house. the great enterprise, first unfolding itself with the episode of cleve and berg and whimsically surrounding itself with the fantastic idyl of the princess of conde, had attained vast and misty proportions in the brain of its originator. few political visions are better known in history than the "grand design" of henry for rearranging the map of the world at the moment when, in the middle of may, he was about to draw his sword. spain reduced to the mediterranean and the pyrenees, but presented with both the indies, with all america and the whole orient in fee; the empire taken from austria and given to bavaria; a constellation of states in italy, with the pope for president-king; throughout the rest of christendom a certain number of republics, of kingdoms, of religions--a great confederation of the world, in short--with the most christian king for its dictator and protector, and a great amphictyonic council to regulate all disputes by solemn arbitration, and to make war in the future impossible, such in little was his great design. nothing could be more humane, more majestic, more elaborate, more utterly preposterous. and all this gigantic fabric had passed away in an instant--at one stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel. most pitiful was the condition of france on the day after, and for years after, the murder of the king. not only was the kingdom for the time being effaced from the roll of nations, so far as external relations were concerned, but it almost ceased to be a kingdom. the ancient monarchy of hugh capet, of saint-louis, of henry of france and navarre, was transformed into a turbulent, self-seeking, quarrelsome, pillaging, pilfering democracy of grandees. the queen-regent was tossed hither and thither at the sport of the winds and waves which shifted every hour in that tempestuous court. no man pretended to think of the state. every man thought only of himself. the royal exchequer was plundered with a celerity and cynical recklessness such as have been rarely seen in any age or country. the millions so carefully hoarded by sully, and exhibited so dramatically by that great minister to the enraptured eyes of his sovereign; that treasure in the bastille on which henry relied for payment of the armies with which he was to transform the world, all disappeared in a few weeks to feed the voracious maw of courtiers, paramours, and partisans! the queen showered gold like water upon her beloved concini that he might purchase his marquisate of ancre, and the charge of first gentleman of the court from bouillon; that he might fit himself for the government of picardy; that he might elevate his marquisate into a dukedom. conde, having no further reason to remain in exile, received as a gift from the trembling mary de' medici the magnificent hotel gondy, where the dutch ambassadors had so recently been lodged, for which she paid , crowns, together with , crowns to furnish it, , crowns to pay his debts, , more as yearly pension. he claimed double, and was soon at sword's point with the queen in spite of her lavish bounty. epernon, the true murderer of henry, trampled on courts of justice and councils of ministers, frightened the court by threatening to convert his possession of metz into an independent sovereignty, as balagny had formerly seized upon cambray, smothered for ever the process of ravaillac, caused those to be put to death or immured for life in dungeons who dared to testify to his complicity in the great crime, and strode triumphantly over friends and enemies throughout france, although so crippled by the gout that he could scarcely walk up stairs. there was an end to the triumvirate. sully's influence was gone for ever. the other two dropped the mask. the chancellor and villeroy revealed themselves to be what they secretly had always been--humble servants and stipendiaries of spain. the formal meetings of the council were of little importance, and were solemn, tearful, and stately; draped in woe for the great national loss. in the private cabinet meetings in the entresol of the louvre, where the nuncius and the spanish ambassador held counsel with epernon and villeroy and jeannin and sillery, the tone was merry and loud; the double spanish marriage and confusion to the dutch being the chief topics of consultation. but the anarchy grew day by day into almost hopeless chaos. there was no satisfying the princes of the blood nor the other grandees. conde, whose reconciliation with the princess followed not long after the death of henry and his own return to france, was insatiable in his demands for money, power, and citadels of security. soissons, who might formerly have received the lieutenancy-general of the kingdom by sacrificing the lilies on his wife's gown, now disputed for that office with his elder brother conti, the prince claiming it by right of seniority, the count denouncing conti as deaf, dumb, and imbecile, till they drew poniards on each other in the very presence of the queen; while conde on one occasion, having been refused the citadels which he claimed, blaye and chateau trompette, threw his cloak over his nose and put on his hat while the queen was speaking, and left the council in a fury, declaring that villeroy and the chancellor were traitors, and that he would have them both soundly cudgelled. guise, lorraine, epernon, bouillon, and other great lords always appeared in the streets of paris at the head of three, four, or five hundred mounted and armed retainers; while the queen in her distraction gave orders to arm the paris mob to the number of fifty thousand, and to throw chains across the streets to protect herself and her son against the turbulent nobles. sully, hardly knowing to what saint to burn his candle, being forced to resign his great posts, was found for a time in strange political combination with the most ancient foes of his party and himself. the kaleidoscope whirling with exasperating quickness showed ancient leaguers and lorrainers banded with and protecting huguenots against the crown, while princes of the blood, hereditary patrons and chiefs of the huguenots, became partisans and stipendiaries of spain. it is easy to see that circumstances like these rendered the position of the dutch commonwealth delicate and perilous. sully informed aerssens and van der myle, who had been sent back to paris on special mission very soon after the death of the king, that it took a hundred hours now to accomplish a single affair, whereas under henry a hundred affairs were transacted in a single hour. but sully's sun had set, and he had few business conferences now with the ambassadors. villeroy and the chancellor had fed fat their ancient grudge to the once omnipotent minister, and had sworn his political ruin. the old secretary of state had held now complete control of the foreign alliances and combinations of france, and the dutch ambassadors could be under no delusion as to the completeness of the revolution. "you will find a passion among the advisers of the queen," said villeroy to aerssens and van der myle, "to move in diametrical opposition to the plans of the late king." and well might the ancient leaguer and present pensionary of spain reveal this foremost fact in a policy of which he was in secret the soul. he wept profusely when he first received francis aerssens, but after these "useless tears," as the envoy called them, he soon made it manifest that there was no more to be expected of france, in the great project which its government had so elaborately set on foot. villeroy was now sixty-six years of age, and had been secretary of state during forty-two years and under four kings. a man of delicate health, frail body, methodical habits, capacity for routine, experience in political intrigue, he was not personally as greedy of money as many of his contemporaries, and was not without generosity; but he loved power, the pope, and the house of austria. he was singularly reserved in public, practised successfully the talent of silence, and had at last arrived at the position he most coveted, the virtual presidency of the council, and saw the men he most hated beneath his feet. at the first interview of aerssens with the queen-regent she was drowned in tears, and could scarcely articulate an intelligible sentence. so far as could be understood she expressed her intention of carrying out the king's plans, of maintaining the old alliances, of protecting both religions. nothing, however, could be more preposterous than such phrases. villeroy, who now entirely directed the foreign affairs of the kingdom, assured the ambassador that france was much more likely to apply to the states for assistance than render them aid in any enterprise whatever. "there is no doubt," said aerssens, "that the queen is entirely in the hands of spain and the priests." villeroy, whom henry was wont to call the pedagogue of the council, went about sighing dismally, wishing himself dead, and perpetually ejaculating, "ho! poor france, how much hast thou still to suffer!" in public he spoke of nothing but of union, and of the necessity of carrying out the designs of the king, instructing the docile queen to hold the same language. in private he was quite determined to crush those designs for ever, and calmly advised the dutch government to make an amicable agreement with the emperor in regard to the cleve affair as soon as possible; a treaty which would have been shameful for france and the possessory princes, and dangerous, if not disastrous, for the states-general. "nothing but feverish and sick counsels," he said, "could be expected from france, which had now lost its vigour and could do nothing but groan." not only did the french council distinctly repudiate the idea of doing anything more for the princes than had been stipulated by the treaty of hall--that is to say, a contingent of foot and horse--but many of them vehemently maintained that the treaty, being a personal one of the late king, was dead with him? the duty of france was now in their opinion to withdraw from these mad schemes as soon as possible, to make peace with the house of austria without delay, and to cement the friendship by the double marriages. bouillon, who at that moment hated sully as much as the most vehement catholic could do, assured the dutch envoy that the government was, under specious appearances, attempting to deceive the states; a proposition which it needed not the evidence of that most intriguing duke to make manifest to so astute a politician; particularly as there was none more bent on playing the most deceptive game than bouillon. there would be no troops to send, he said, and even if there were, there would be no possibility of agreeing on a chief. the question of religion would at once arise. as for himself, the duke protested that he would not accept the command if offered him. he would not agree to serve under the prince of anhalt, nor would he for any consideration in the world leave the court at that moment. at the same time aerssens was well aware that bouillon, in his quality of first marshal of france, a protestant and a prince having great possessions on the frontier, and the brother-in-law of prince maurice, considered himself entitled to the command of the troops should they really be sent, and was very indignant at the idea of its being offered to any one else. [aerssens worked assiduously, two hours long on one occasion, to effect a reconciliation between the two great protestant chiefs, but found bouillon's demands "so shameful and unreasonable" that he felt obliged to renounce all further attempts. in losing sully from the royal councils, the states' envoy acknowledged that the republic had lost everything that could be depended on at the french court. "all the others are time-serving friends," he said, "or saints without miracles."--aerssens to barneveld, june, . ] he advised earnestly therefore that the states should make a firm demand for money instead of men, specifying the amount that might be considered the equivalent of the number of troops originally stipulated. it is one of the most singular spectacles in history; france sinking into the background of total obscurity in an instant of time, at one blow of a knife, while the republic, which she had been patronizing, protecting, but keeping always in a subordinate position while relying implicitly upon its potent aid, now came to the front, and held up on its strong shoulders an almost desperate cause. henry had been wont to call the states-general "his courage and his right arm," but he had always strictly forbidden them to move an inch in advance of him, but ever to follow his lead, and to take their directions from himself. they were a part, and an essential one, in his vast designs; but france, or he who embodied france, was the great providence, the destiny, the all-directing, all-absorbing spirit, that was to remodel and control the whole world. he was dead, and france and her policy were already in a state of rapid decomposition. barneveld wrote to encourage and sustain the sinking state. "our courage is rising in spite and in consequence of the great misfortune," he said. he exhorted the queen to keep her kingdom united, and assured her that my lords the states would maintain themselves against all who dared to assail them. he offered in their name the whole force of the republic to take vengeance on those who had procured the assassination, and to defend the young king and the queen-mother against all who might make any attempt against their authority. he further declared, in language not to be mistaken, that the states would never abandon the princes and their cause. this was the earliest indication on the part of the advocate of the intention of the republic--so long as it should be directed by his counsels--to support the cause of the young king, helpless and incapable as he was, and directed for the time being by a weak and wicked mother, against the reckless and depraved grandees, who were doing their best to destroy the unity and the independence of france, cornelis van der myle was sent back to paris on special mission of condolence and comfort from the states-general to the sorely afflicted kingdom. on the th of june, accompanied by aerssens, he had a long interview with villeroy. that minister, as usual, wept profusely, and said that in regard to cleve it was impossible for france to carry out the designs of the late king. he then listened to what the ambassadors had to urge, and continued to express his melancholy by weeping. drying his tears for a time, he sought by a long discourse to prove that france during this tender minority of the king would be incapable of pursuing the policy of his father. it would be even too burthensome to fulfil the treaty of hall. the friends of the crown, he said, had no occasion to further it, and it would be much better to listen to propositions for a treaty. archduke albert was content not to interfere in the quarrel if the queen would likewise abstain; leopold's forces were altogether too weak to make head against the army of the princes, backed by the power of my lords the states, and julich was neither strong nor well garrisoned. he concluded by calmly proposing that the states should take the matter in hand by themselves alone, in order to lighten the burthen of france, whose vigour had been cut in two by that accursed knife. a more sneaking and shameful policy was never announced by the minister of a great kingdom. surely it might seem that ravaillac had cut in twain not the vigour only but the honour and the conscience of france. but the envoys, knowing in their hearts that they were talking not with a french but a spanish secretary of state, were not disposed to be the dupes of his tears or his blandishments. they reminded him that the queen-regent and her ministers since the murder of the king had assured the states-general and the princes of their firm intention to carry out the treaty of hall, and they observed that they had no authority to talk of any negotiation. the affair of the duchies was not especially the business of the states, and the secretary was well aware that they had promised their succour on the express condition that his majesty and his army should lead the way, and that they should follow. this was very far from the plan now suggested, that they should do it all, which would be quite out of the question. france had a strong army, they said, and it would be better to use it than to efface herself so pitiably. the proposition of abstention on the part of the archduke was a delusion intended only to keep france out of the field. villeroy replied by referring to english affairs. king james, he said, was treating them perfidiously. his first letters after the murder had been good, but by the following ones england seemed to wish to put her foot on france's throat, in order to compel her to sue for an alliance. the british ministers had declared their resolve not to carry out that convention of alliance, although it had been nearly concluded in the lifetime of the late king, unless the queen would bind herself to make good to the king of great britain that third part of the subsidies advanced by france to the states which had been furnished on english account! this was the first announcement of a grievance devised by the politicians now governing france to make trouble for the states with that kingdom and with great britain likewise. according to a treaty made at hampton court by sully during his mission to england at the accession of james, it had been agreed that one-third of the moneys advanced by france in aid of the united provinces should be credited to the account of great britain, in diminution of the debt for similar assistance rendered by elizabeth to henry. in regard to this treaty the states had not been at all consulted, nor did they acknowledge the slightest obligation in regard to it. the subsidies in men and in money provided for them both by france and by england in their struggle for national existence had always been most gratefully acknowledged by the republic, but it had always been perfectly understood that these expenses had been incurred by each kingdom out of an intelligent and thrifty regard for its own interest. nothing could be more ridiculous than to suppose france and england actuated by disinterested sympathy and benevolence when assisting the netherland people in its life-and-death struggle against the dire and deadly enemy of both crowns. henry protested that, while adhering to rome in spiritual matters, his true alliances and strength had been found in the united provinces, in germany, and in great britain. as for the states, he had spent sixteen millions of livres, he said, in acquiring a perfect benevolence on the part of the states to his person. it was the best bargain he had ever made, and he should take care to preserve it at any cost whatever, for he considered himself able, when closely united with them, to bid defiance to all the kings in europe together. yet it was now the settled policy of the queen-regent's council, so far as the knot of politicians guided by the nuncius and the spanish ambassador in the entresols of the louvre could be called a council, to force the states to refund that third, estimated at something between three and four million livres, which france had advanced them on account of great britain. villeroy told the two ambassadors at this interview that, if great britain continued to treat the queen-regent in such fashion, she would be obliged to look about for other allies. there could hardly be doubt as to the quarter in which mary de' medici was likely to look. meantime, the secretary of state urged the envoys "to intervene at once to-mediate the difference." there could be as little doubt that to mediate the difference was simply to settle an account which they did not owe. the whole object of the minister at this first interview was to induce the states to take the whole cleve enterprise upon their own shoulders, and to let france off altogether. the queen-regent as then advised meant to wash her hands of the possessory princes once and for ever. the envoys cut the matter short by assuring villeroy that they would do nothing of the kind. he begged them piteously not to leave the princes in the lurch, and at the same time not to add to the burthens of france at so disastrous a moment. so they parted. next day, however, they visited the secretary again, and found him more dismal and flaccid than ever. he spoke feebly and drearily about the succour for the great enterprise, recounted all the difficulties in the way, and, having thrown down everything that the day before had been left standing, he tried to excuse an entire change of policy by the one miserable crime. he painted a forlorn picture of the council and of france. "i can myself do nothing as i wish," added the undisputed controller of that government's policy, and then with a few more tears he concluded by requesting the envoys to address their demands to the queen in writing. this was done with the customary formalities and fine speeches on both sides; a dull comedy by which no one was amused. then bouillon came again, and assured them that there had been a chance that the engagements of henry, followed up by the promise of the queen-regent, would be carried out, but now the fact was not to be concealed that the continued battery of the nuncius, of the ambassadors of spain and of the archdukes, had been so effective that nothing sure or solid was thenceforth to be expected; the council being resolved to accept the overtures of the archduke for mutual engagement to abstain from the julich enterprise. nothing in truth could be more pitiable than the helpless drifting of the once mighty kingdom, whenever the men who governed it withdrew their attention for an instant from their private schemes of advancement and plunder to cast a glance at affairs of state. in their secret heart they could not doubt that france was rushing on its ruin, and that in the alliance of the dutch commonwealth, britain, and the german protestants, was its only safety. but they trembled before the pope, grown bold and formidable since the death of the dreaded henry. to offend his holiness, the king of spain, the emperor, and the great catholics of france, was to make a crusade against the church. garnier, the jesuit, preached from his pulpit that "to strike a blow in the cleve enterprise was no less a sin than to inflict a stab in the body of our lord." the parliament of paris having ordered the famous treatise of the jesuit mariana--justifying the killing of excommunicated kings by their subjects--to be publicly burned before notre dame, the bishop opposed the execution of the decree. the parliament of paris, although crushed by epernon in its attempts to fix the murder of the king upon himself as the true culprit, was at least strong enough to carry out this sentence upon a printed, volume recommending the deed, and the queen's council could only do its best to mitigate the awakened wrath of the jesuits at this exercise of legal authority.--at the same time, it found on the whole so many more difficulties in a cynical and shameless withdrawal from the treaty of hall than in a nominal and tardy fulfilment of its conditions that it resolved at last to furnish the foot and horse promised to the possessory princes. the next best thing to abandoning entirely even this little shred, this pitiful remnant, of the splendid designs of henry was to so arrange matters that the contingent should be feebly commanded, and set on foot in so dilatory a manner that the petty enterprise should on the part of france be purely perfunctory. the grandees of the kingdom had something more important to do than to go crusading in germany, with the help of a heretic republic, to set up the possessory princes. they were fighting over the prostrate dying form of their common mother for their share of the spoils, stripping france before she was dead, and casting lots for her vesture. soissons was on the whole in favour of the cleve expedition. epernon was desperately opposed to it, and maltreated villeroy in full council when he affected to say a word, insincere as the duke knew it to be, in favour of executing agreements signed by the monarch, and sealed with the great seal of france. the duke of guise, finding himself abandoned by the queen, and bitterly opposed and hated by soissons, took sides with his deaf and dumb and imbecile brother, and for a brief interval the duke of sully joined this strange combination of the house of lorraine and chiefs of ancient leaguers, who welcomed him with transport, and promised him security. then bouillon, potent by his rank, his possessions, and his authority among the protestants, publicly swore that he would ruin sully and change the whole order of the government. what more lamentable spectacle, what more desolate future for the cause of religious equality, which for a moment had been achieved in france, than this furious alienation of the trusted leaders of the huguenots, while their adversaries were carrying everything before them? at the council board bouillon quarrelled ostentatiously with sully, shook his fist in his face, and but for the queen's presence would have struck him. next day he found that the queen was intriguing against himself as well as against sully, was making a cat's-paw of him, and was holding secret councils daily from which he as well as sully was excluded. at once he made overtures of friendship to sully, and went about proclaiming to the world that all huguenots were to be removed from participation in affairs of state. his vows of vengeance were for a moment hushed by the unanimous resolution of the council that, as first marshal of france, having his principality on the frontier, and being of the reformed religion, he was the fittest of all to command the expedition. surely it might be said that the winds and tides were not more changeful than the politics of the queen's government. the dutch ambassador was secretly requested by villeroy to negotiate with bouillon and offer him the command of the julich expedition. the duke affected to make difficulties, although burning to obtain the post, but at last consented. all was settled. aerssens communicated at once with villeroy, and notice of bouillon's acceptance was given to the queen, when, behold, the very next day marshal de la chatre was appointed to the command expressly because he was a catholic. of course the duke of bouillon, furious with soissons and epernon and the rest of the government, was more enraged than ever against the queen. his only hope was now in conde, but conde at the outset, on arriving at the louvre, offered his heart to the queen as a sheet of white paper. epernon and soissons received him with delight, and exchanged vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration. and thus all the princes of the blood, all the cousins of henry of navarre, except the imbecile conti, were ranged on the side of spain, rome, mary de' medici, and concino concini, while the son of the balafre, the duke of mayenne, and all their adherents were making common cause with the huguenots. what better example had been seen before, even in that country of pantomimic changes, of the effrontery with which religion was made the strumpet of political ambition? all that day and the next paris was rife with rumours that there was to be a general massacre of the huguenots to seal the new-born friendship of a conde with a medici. france was to renounce all her old alliances and publicly to enter into treaties offensive and defensive with spain. a league like that of bayonne made by the former medicean queen-regent of france was now, at villeroy's instigation, to be signed by mary de' medici. meantime, marshal de la chatre, an honest soldier and fervent papist, seventy-three years of age, ignorant of the language, the geography, the politics of the country to which he was sent, and knowing the road thither about as well, according to aerssens, who was requested to give him a little preliminary instruction, as he did the road to india, was to co-operate with barneveld and maurice of nassau in the enterprise against the duchies. these were the cheerful circumstances amid which the first step in the dead henry's grand design against the house of austria and in support of protestantism in half europe and of religious equality throughout christendom, was now to be ventured. cornelis van der myle took leave of the queen on terminating his brief special embassy, and was fain to content himself with languid assurances from that corpulent tuscan dame of her cordial friendship for the united provinces. villeroy repeated that the contingent to be sent was furnished out of pure love to the netherlands, the present government being in no wise bound by the late king's promises. he evaded the proposition of the states for renewing the treaty of close alliance by saying that he was then negotiating with the british government on the subject, who insisted as a preliminary step on the repayment of the third part of the sums advanced to the states by the late king. he exchanged affectionate farewell greetings and good wishes with jeannin and with the dropsical duke of mayenne, who was brought in his chair to his old fellow leaguer's apartments at the moment of the ambassador's parting interview. there was abundant supply of smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial nutriment, from the representatives of each busy faction into which the medicean court was divided. even epernon tried to say a gracious word to the retiring envoy, assuring him that he would do as much for the cause as a good frenchman and lover of his fatherland could do. he added, in rather a surly way, that he knew very well how foully he had been described to the states, but that the devil was not as black as he was painted. it was necessary, he said, to take care of one's own house first of all, and he knew very well that the states and all prudent persons would do the same thing. etext editor's bookmarks: and now the knife of another priest-led fanatic as with his own people, keeping no back-door open at a blow decapitated france conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined epernon, the true murderer of henry father cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets great war of religion and politics was postponed jesuit mariana--justifying the killing of excommunicated kings no man pretended to think of the state practised successfully the talent of silence queen is entirely in the hands of spain and the priests religion was made the strumpet of political ambition smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel the assassin, tortured and torn by four horses they have killed him, 'e ammazato,' cried concini things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful uncouple the dogs and let them run vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration what could save the house of austria, the cause of papacy wrath of the jesuits at this exercise of legal authority the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. life and death of john of barneveld, v , - chapter v. interviews between the dutch commissioners and king james--prince maurice takes command of the troops--surrender of julich--matthias crowned king of bohemia--death of rudolph--james's dream of a spanish marriage--appointment of vorstius in place of arminius at leyden--interview between maurice and winwood--increased bitterness between barneveld and maurice--projects of spanish marriages in france. it is refreshing to escape from the atmosphere of self-seeking faction, feverish intrigue, and murderous stratagem in which unhappy france was stifling into the colder and calmer regions of netherland policy. no sooner had the tidings of henry's murder reached the states than they felt that an immense responsibility had fallen on their shoulders. it is to the eternal honour of the republic, of barneveld, who directed her councils, and of prince maurice, who wielded her sword, that she was equal to the task imposed upon her. there were open bets on the exchange in antwerp, after the death of henry, that maurice would likewise be killed within the month. nothing seemed more probable, and the states implored the stadholder to take special heed to himself. but this was a kind of caution which the prince was not wont to regard. nor was there faltering, distraction, cowardice, or parsimony in republican councils. we have heard the strong words of encouragement and sympathy addressed by the advocate's instructions to the queen-regent and the leading statesmen of france. we have seen their effects in that lingering sentiment of shame which prevented the spanish stipendiaries who governed the kingdom from throwing down the mask as cynically as they were at first inclined to do. not less manful and statesmanlike was the language held to the king of great britain and his ministers by the advocate's directions. the news of the assassination reached the special ambassadors in london at three o'clock of monday, the th may. james returned to whitehall from a hunting expedition on the st, and immediately signified his intention of celebrating the occasion by inviting the high commissioners of the states to a banquet and festival at the palace. meantime they were instructed by barneveld to communicate the results of the special embassy of the states to the late king according to the report just delivered to the assembly. thus james was to be informed of the common resolution and engagement then taken to support the cause of the princes. he was now seriously and explicitly to be summoned to assist the princes not only with the stipulated men, but with a much greater force, proportionate to the demands for the security and welfare of christendom, endangered by this extraordinary event. he was assured that the states would exert themselves to the full measure of their ability to fortify and maintain the high interests of france, of the possessory princes, and of christendom, so that the hopes of the perpetrators of the foul deed would be confounded. "they hold this to be the occasion," said the envoys, "to show to all the world that it is within your power to rescue the affairs of france, germany, and of the united provinces from the claws of those who imagine for themselves universal monarchy." they concluded by requesting the king to come to "a resolution on this affair royally, liberally, and promptly, in order to take advantage of the time, and not to allow the adversary to fortify himself in his position"; and they pledged the states-general to stand by and second him with all their power. the commissioners, having read this letter to lord salisbury before communicating it to the king, did not find the lord treasurer very prompt or sympathetic in his reply. there had evidently been much jealousy at the english court of the confidential and intimate relations recently established with henry, to which allusions were made in the documents read at the present conference. cecil, while expressing satisfaction in formal terms at the friendly language of the states, and confidence in the sincerity of their friendship for his sovereign, intimated very plainly that more had passed between the late king and the authorities of the republic than had been revealed by either party to the king of great britain, or than could be understood from the letters and papers now communicated. he desired further information from the commissioners, especially in regard to those articles of their instructions which referred to a general rupture. they professed inability to give more explanations than were contained in the documents themselves. if suspicion was felt, they said, that the french king had been proposing anything in regard to a general rupture, either on account of the retreat of conde, the affair of savoy, or anything else, they would reply that the ambassadors in france had been instructed to decline committing the states until after full communication and advice and ripe deliberation with his british majesty and council, as well as the assembly of the states-general; and it had been the intention of the late king to have conferred once more and very confidentially with prince maurice and count lewis william before coming to a decisive resolution. it was very obvious however to the commissioners that their statement gave no thorough satisfaction, and that grave suspicions remained of something important kept back by them. cecil's manner was constrained and cold, and certainly there were no evidences of profound sorrow at the english court for the death of henry. "the king of france," said the high treasurer, "meant to make a master-stroke--a coup de maistre--but he who would have all may easily lose all. such projects as these should not have been formed or taken in hand without previous communication with his majesty of great britain." all arguments on the part of the ambassadors to induce the lord treasurer or other members of the government to enlarge the succour intended for the cleve affair were fruitless. the english troops regularly employed in the states' service might be made use of with the forces sent by the republic itself. more assistance than this it was idle to expect, unless after a satisfactory arrangement with the present regency of france. the proposition, too, of the states for a close and general alliance was coldly repulsed. "no resolution can be taken as to that," said cecil; "the death of the french king has very much altered such matters." at a little later hour on the same day the commissioners, according to previous invitation, dined with the king. no one sat at the table but his majesty and themselves, and they all kept their hats on their heads. the king was hospitable, gracious, discursive, loquacious, very theological. he expressed regret for the death of the king of france, and said that the pernicious doctrine out of which such vile crimes grew must be uprooted. he asked many questions in regard to the united netherlands, enquiring especially as to the late commotions at utrecht, and the conduct of prince maurice on that occasion. he praised the resolute conduct of the states-general in suppressing those tumults with force, adding, however, that they should have proceeded with greater rigour against the ringleaders of the riot. he warmly recommended the union of the provinces. he then led the conversation to the religious controversies in the netherlands, and in reply to his enquiries was informed that the points in dispute related to predestination and its consequences. "i have studied that subject," said james, "as well as anybody, and have come to the conclusion that nothing certain can be laid down in regard to it. i have myself not always been of one mind about it, but i will bet that my opinion is the best of any, although i would not hang my salvation upon it. my lords the states would do well to order their doctors and teachers to be silent on this topic. i have hardly ventured, moreover, to touch upon the matter of justification in my own writings, because that also seemed to hang upon predestination." thus having spoken with the air of a man who had left nothing further to be said on predestination or justification, the king rose, took off his hat, and drank a bumper to the health of the states-general and his excellency prince maurice, and success to the affair of cleve. after dinner there was a parting interview in the gallery. the king, attended by many privy councillors and high functionaries of state, bade the commissioners a cordial farewell, and, in order to show his consideration for their government, performed the ceremony of knighthood upon them, as was his custom in regard to the ambassadors of venice. the sword being presented to him by the lord chamberlain, james touched each of the envoys on the shoulder as he dismissed him. "out of respect to my lords the states," said they in their report, "we felt compelled to allow ourselves to be burthened with this honour." thus it became obvious to the states-general that there was but little to hope for from great britain or france. france, governed by concini and by spain, was sure to do her best to traverse the designs of the republic, and, while perfunctorily and grudgingly complying with the letter of the hall treaty, was secretly neutralizing by intrigue the slender military aid which de la chatre was to bring to prince maurice. the close alliance of france and protestantism had melted into air. on the other hand the new catholic league sprang into full luxuriance out of the grave of henry, and both spain and the pope gave their hearty adhesion to the combinations of maximilian of bavaria, now that the mighty designs of the french king were buried with him. the duke of savoy, caught in the trap of his own devising, was fain to send his son to sue to spain for pardon for the family upon his knees, and expiated by draining a deep cup of humiliation his ambitious designs upon the milanese and the matrimonial alliance with france. venice recoiled in horror from the position she found herself in as soon as the glamour of henry's seductive policy was dispelled, while james of great britain, rubbing his hands with great delight at the disappearance from the world of the man he so admired, bewailed, and hated, had no comfort to impart to the states-general thus left in virtual isolation. the barren burthen of knighthood and a sermon on predestination were all he could bestow upon the high commissioners in place of the alliance which he eluded, and the military assistance which he point-blank refused. the possessory princes, in whose cause the sword was drawn, were too quarrelsome and too fainthearted to serve for much else than an incumbrance either in the cabinet or the field. and the states-general were equal to the immense responsibility. steadily, promptly, and sagaciously they confronted the wrath, the policy, and the power of the empire, of spain, and of the pope. had the republic not existed, nothing could have prevented that debateable and most important territory from becoming provinces of spain, whose power thus dilated to gigantic proportions in the very face of england would have been more menacing than in the days of the armada. had the republic faltered, she would have soon ceased to exist. but the republic did not falter. on the th july, prince maurice took command of the states' forces, , foot and horse, with thirty pieces of cannon, assembled at schenkenschans. the july english and french regiments in the regular service of the united provinces were included in these armies, but there were no additions to them: "the states did seven times as much," barneveld justly averred, "as they had stipulated to do." maurice, moving with the precision and promptness which always marked his military operations, marched straight upon julich, and laid siege to that important fortress. the archdukes at brussels, determined to keep out of the fray as long as possible, offered no opposition to the passage of his supplies up the rhine, which might have been seriously impeded by them at rheinberg. the details of the siege, as of all the prince's sieges, possess no more interest to the general reader than the working out of a geometrical problem. he was incapable of a flaw in his calculations, but it was impossible for him quite to complete the demonstration before the arrival of de la chatre. maurice received with courtesy the marshal, who arrived on the th august, at the head of his contingent of foot and a few squadrons of cavalry, and there was great show of harmony between them. for any practical purposes, de la chatre might as well have remained in france. for political ends his absence would have been preferable to his presence. maurice would have rejoiced, had the marshal blundered longer along the road to the debateable land than he had done. he had almost brought julich to reduction. a fortnight later the place surrendered. the terms granted by the conqueror were equitable. no change was to be made in the liberty of roman catholic worship, nor in the city magistracy. the citadel and its contents were to be handed over to the princes of brandenburg and neuburg. archduke leopold and his adherents departed to prague, to carry out as he best could his farther designs upon the crown of bohemia, this first portion of them having so lamentably failed, and sergeant-major frederick pithan, of the regiment of count ernest casimir of nassau, was appointed governor of julich in the interest of the possessory princes. thus without the loss of a single life, the republic, guided by her consummate statesman and unrivalled general, had gained an immense victory, had installed the protestant princes in the full possession of those splendid and important provinces, and had dictated her decrees on german soil to the emperor of germany, and had towed, as it were, great britain and france along in her wake, instead of humbly following those powers, and had accomplished all that she had ever proposed to do, even in alliance with them both. the king of england considered that quite enough had been done, and was in great haste to patch up a reconciliation. he thought his ambassador would soon "have as good occasion to employ his tongue and his pen as general cecil and his soldiers have done their swords and their mattocks." he had no sympathy with the cause of protestantism, and steadily refused to comprehend the meaning of the great movements in the duchies. "i only wish that i may handsomely wind myself out of this quarrel, where the principal parties do so little for themselves," he said. de la chatre returned with his troops to france within a fortnight after his arrival on the scene. a mild proposition made by the french government through the marshal, that the provinces should be held in seguestration by france until a decision as to the true sovereignty could be reached, was promptly declined. maurice of nassau had hardly gained so signal a triumph for the republic and for the protestant cause only to hand it over to concini and villeroy for the benefit of spain. julich was thought safer in the keeping of sergeant pithan. by the end of september the states' troops had returned to their own country. thus the republic, with eminent success, had accomplished a brief and brilliant campaign, but no statesman could suppose that the result was more than a temporary one. these coveted provinces, most valuable in themselves and from their important position, would probably not be suffered peacefully to remain very long under the protection of the heretic states-general and in the 'condominium' of two protestant princes. there was fear among the imperialists, catholics, and spaniards, lest the baleful constellation of the seven provinces might be increased by an eighth star. and this was a project not to be tolerated. it was much already that the upstart confederacy had defied pope, emperor, and king, as it were, on their own domains, had dictated arrangements in germany directly in the teeth of its emperor, using france as her subordinate, and compelling the british king to acquiesce in what he most hated. but it was not merely to surprise julich, and to get a foothold in the duchies, that leopold had gone forth on his adventure. his campaign, as already intimated, was part of a wide scheme in which he had persuaded his emperor-cousin to acquiesce. poor rudolph had been at last goaded into a feeble attempt at revolt against his three brothers and his cousin ferdinand. peace-loving, inert, fond of his dinner, fonder of his magnificent collections of gems and intagli, liking to look out of window at his splendid collection of horses, he was willing to pass a quiet life, afar from the din of battles and the turmoil of affairs. as he happened to be emperor of half europe, these harmless tastes could not well be indulged. moon-faced and fat, silent and slow, he was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin, even when his brows were decorated with the conventional laurel wreath. he had been stripped of his authority and all but discrowned by his more bustling brothers matthias and max, while the sombre figure of styrian ferdinand, pupil of the jesuits, and passionate admirer of philip ii., stood ever in the background, casting a prophetic shadow over the throne and over germany. the brothers were endeavouring to persuade rudolph that he would find more comfort in innsbruck than in prague; that he required repose after the strenuous labours of government. they told him, too, that it would be wise to confer the royal crown of bohemia upon matthias, lest, being elective and also an electorate, the crown and vote of that country might pass out of the family, and so both bohemia and the empire be lost to the habsburgs. the kingdom being thus secured to matthias and his heirs, the next step, of course, was to proclaim him king of the romans. otherwise there would be great danger and detriment to hungary, and other hereditary states of that conglomerate and anonymous monarchy which owned the sway of the great habsburg family. the unhappy emperor was much piqued. he had been deprived by his brother of hungary, moravia, and austria, while matthias was now at prague with an army, ostensibly to obtain ratification of the peace with turkey, but in reality to force the solemn transfer of those realms and extort the promise of bohemia. could there be a better illustration of the absurdities of such a system of imperialism? and now poor rudolph was to be turned out of the hradschin, and sent packing with or without his collections to the tyrol. the bellicose bishop of strassburg and passau, brother of ferdinand, had little difficulty in persuading the downtrodden man to rise to vengeance. it had been secretly agreed between the two that leopold, at the head of a considerable army of mercenaries which he had contrived to levy, should dart into julich as the emperor's representative, seize the debateable duchies, and hold them in sequestration until the emperor should decide to whom they belonged, and, then, rushing back to bohemia, should annihilate matthias, seize prague, and deliver rudolph from bondage. it was further agreed that leopold, in requital of these services, should receive the crown of bohemia, be elected king of the romans, and declared heir to the emperor, so far as rudolph could make him his heir. the first point in the program he had only in part accomplished. he had taken julich, proclaimed the intentions of the emperor, and then been driven out of his strong position by the wise policy of the states under the guidance of barneveld and by the consummate strategy of maurice. it will be seen therefore that the republic was playing a world's game at this moment, and doing it with skill and courage. on the issue of the conflict which had been begun and was to be long protracted in the duchies, and to spread over nearly all christendom besides, would depend the existence of the united netherlands and the fate of protestantism. the discomfited leopold swept back at the head of his mercenaries, foot and horse, through alsace and along the danube to linz and so to prague, marauding, harrying, and black-mailing the country as he went. he entered the city on the th of february , fighting his way through crowds of exasperated burghers. sitting in full harness on horseback in the great square before the cathedral, the warlike bishop compelled the population to make oath to him as the emperor's commissary. the street fighting went on however day by day, poor rudolph meantime cowering in the hradschin. on the third day, leopold, driven out of the town, took up a position on the heights, from which he commanded it with his artillery. then came a feeble voice from the hradschin, telling all men that these passau marauders and their episcopal chief were there by the emperor's orders. the triune city--the old, the new, and the jew--was bidden to send deputies to the palace and accept the imperial decrees. no deputies came at the bidding. the bohemians, especially the praguers, being in great majority protestants knew very well that leopold was fighting the cause of the papacy and spain in bohemia as well as in the duchies. and now matthias appeared upon the scene. the estates had already been in communication with him, better hopes, for the time at least, being entertained from him than from the flaccid rudolph. moreover a kind of compromise had been made in the autumn between matthias and the emperor after the defeat of leopold in the duchies. the real king had fallen at the feet of the nominal one by proxy of his brother maximilian. seven thousand men of the army of matthias now came before prague under command of colonitz. the passauers, receiving three months pay from the emperor, marched quietly off. leopold disappeared for the time. his chancellor and counsellor in the duchies, francis teynagel, a geldrian noble, taken prisoner and put to the torture, revealed the little plot of the emperor in favour of the bishop, and it was believed that the pope, the king of spain, and maximilian of bavaria were friendly to the scheme. this was probable, for leopold at last made no mystery of his resolve to fight protestantism to the death, and to hold the duchies, if he could, for the cause of rome and austria. both rudolph and matthias had committed themselves to the toleration of the reformed religion. the famous "majesty-letter," freshly granted by the emperor ( ), and the compromise between the catholic and protestant estates had become the law of the land. those of the bohemian confession, a creed commingled of hussism, lutheranism, and calvinism, had obtained toleration. in a country where nine-tenths of the population were protestants it was permitted to protestants to build churches and to worship god in them unmolested. but these privileges had been extorted by force, and there was a sullen, dogged determination which might be easily guessed at to revoke them should it ever become possible. the house of austria, reigning in spain, italy, and germany, was bound by the very law of their being to the roman religion. toleration of other worship signified in their eyes both a defeat and a crime. thus the great conflict, to be afterwards known as the thirty years' war, had in reality begun already, and the netherlands, in spite of the truce, were half unconsciously taking a leading part in it. the odds at that moment in germany seemed desperately against the house of austria, so deep and wide was the abyss between throne and subjects which religious difference had created. but the reserved power in spain, italy, and southern germany was sure enough to make itself felt sooner or later on the catholic side. meantime the estates of bohemia knew well enough that the imperial house was bent on destroying the elective principle of the empire, and on keeping the crown of bohemia in perpetuity. they had also discovered that bishop-archduke leopold had been selected by rudolph as chief of the reactionary movement against protestantism. they could not know at that moment whether his plans were likely to prove fantastic or dangerous. so matthias came to prague at the invitation of the estates, entering the city with all the airs of a conqueror. rudolph received his brother with enforced politeness, and invited him to reside in the hradschin. this proposal was declined by matthias, who sent a colonel however, with six pieces of artillery, to guard and occupy that palace. the passau prisoners were pardoned and released, and there was a general reconciliation. a month later, matthias went in pomp to the chapel of the holy wenceslaus, that beautiful and barbarous piece of mediaeval, sclavonic architecture, with its sombre arches, and its walls encrusted with huge precious stones. the estates of bohemia, arrayed in splendid zchech costume, and kneeling on the pavement, were asked whether they accepted matthias, king of hungary, as their lawful king. thrice they answered aye. cardinal dietrichstein then put the historic crown of st. wenceslaus on the king's head, and matthias swore to maintain the laws and privileges of bohemia, including the recent charters granting liberty of religion to protestants. thus there was temporary, if hollow, truce between the religious parties, and a sham reconciliation between the emperor and his brethren. the forlorn rudolph moped away the few months of life left to him in the hradschin, and died soon after the new year. the house of austria had not been divided, matthias succeeded his brother, leopold's visions melted into air, and it was for the future to reveal whether the majesty-letter and the compromise had been written on very durable material. and while such was the condition of affairs in germany immediately following the cleve and julich campaign, the relations of the republic both to england and france were become rapidly more dangerous than they ever had been. it was a severe task for barneveld, and enough to overtax the energies of any statesman, to maintain his hold on two such slippery governments as both had become since the death of their great monarchs. it had been an easier task for william the silent to steer his course, notwithstanding all the perversities, short-comings, brow-beatings, and inconsistencies that he had been obliged to endure from elizabeth and henry. genius, however capricious and erratic at times, has at least vision, and it needed no elaborate arguments to prove to both those sovereigns that the severance of their policy from that of the netherlands was impossible without ruin to the republic and incalculable danger themselves. but now france and england were both tending towards spain through a stupidity on the part of their rulers such as the gods are said to contend against in vain. barneveld was not a god nor a hero, but a courageous and wide-seeing statesman, and he did his best. obliged by his position to affect admiration, or at least respect, where no emotion but contempt was possible, his daily bread was bitter enough. it was absolutely necessary to humour those whom knew to be traversing his policy and desiring his ruin, for there was no other way to serve his country and save it from impending danger. so long as he was faithfully served by his subordinates, and not betrayed by those to whom he gave his heart, he could confront external enemies and mould the policy of wavering allies. few things in history are more pitiable than the position of james in regard to spain. for seven long years he was as one entranced, the slave to one idea, a spanish marriage for his son. it was in vain that his counsellors argued, parliament protested, allies implored. parliament was told that a royal family matter regarded himself alone, and that interference on their part was an impertinence. parliament's duty was a simple one, to give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required it, without asking for reasons. it was already a great concession that he should ask for it in person. they had nothing to do with his affairs nor with general politics. the mystery of government was a science beyond their reach, and with which they were not to meddle. "ne sutor ultra crepidam," said the pedant. upon that one point his policy was made to turn. spain held him in the hollow of her hand. the infanta, with two million crowns in dowry, was promised, withheld, brought forward again like a puppet to please or irritate a froward child. gondemar, the spanish ambassador, held him spellbound. did he falter in his opposition to the states--did he cease to goad them for their policy in the duchies--did he express sympathy with bohemian protestantism, or, as time went on, did he dare to lift a finger or touch his pocket in behalf of his daughter and the unlucky elector-palatine; did he, in short, move a step in the road which england had ever trod and was bound to tread--the road of determined resistance to spanish ambition--instantaneously the infanta withheld, and james was on his knees again. a few years later, when the great raleigh returned from his trans-alantic expedition, gondemar fiercely denounced him to the king as the worst enemy of spain. the usual threat was made, the wand was waved, and the noblest head in england fell upon the block, in pursuance of an obsolete sentence fourteen years old. it is necessary to hold fast this single clue to the crooked and amazing entanglements of the policy of james. the insolence, the meanness, and the prevarications of this royal toad-eater are only thus explained. yet philip iii. declared on his death-bed that he had never had a serious intention of bestowing his daughter on the prince. the vanity and the hatreds of theology furnished the chief additional material in the policy of james towards the provinces. the diplomacy of his reign so far as the republic was concerned is often a mere mass of controversial divinity, and gloomy enough of its kind. exactly at this moment conrad vorstius had been called by the university of leyden to the professorship vacant by the death of arminius, and the wrath of peter plancius and the whole orthodox party knew no bounds. born in cologne, vorstius had been a lecturer in geneva, and beloved by beza. he had written a book against the jesuit belarmino, which he had dedicated to the states-general. but he was now accused of arminianism, socianism, pelagianism, atheism--one knew not what. he defended himself in writing against these various charges, and declared himself a believer in the trinity, in the divinity of christ, in the atonement. but he had written a book on the nature of god, and the wrath of gomarus and plancius and bogerman was as nothing to the ire of james when that treatise was one day handed to him on returning from hunting. he had scarcely looked into it before he was horror-struck, and instantly wrote to sir ralph winwood, his ambassador at the hague, ordering him to insist that this blasphemous monster should at once be removed from the country. who but james knew anything of the nature of god, for had he not written a work in latin explaining it all, so that humbler beings might read and be instructed. sir ralph accordingly delivered a long sermon to the states on the brief supplied by his majesty, told them that to have vorstius as successor to arminius was to fall out of the frying-pan into the fire, and handed them a "catalogue" prepared by the king of the blasphemies, heresies, and atheisms of the professor. "notwithstanding that the man in full assembly of the states of holland," said the ambassador with headlong and confused rhetoric, "had found the means to palliate and plaster the dung of his heresies, and thus to dazzle the eyes of good people," yet it was necessary to protest most vigorously against such an appointment, and to advise that "his works should be publicly burned in the open places of all the cities." the professor never was admitted to perform his functions of theology, but he remained at leyden, so winwood complained, "honoured, recognized as a singularity and ornament to the academy in place of the late joseph scaliger."--"the friendship of the king and the heresy of vorstius are quite incompatible," said the envoy. meantime the advocate, much distressed at the animosity of england bursting forth so violently on occasion of the appointment of a divinity professor at leyden, and at the very instant too when all the acuteness of his intellect was taxed to keep on good or even safe terms with france, did his best to stem these opposing currents. his private letters to his old and confidential friend, noel de carom, states' ambassador in london, reveal the perplexities of his soul and the upright patriotism by which he was guided in these gathering storms. and this correspondence, as well as that maintained by him at a little later period with the successor of aerssens at paris, will be seen subsequently to have had a direct and most important bearing upon the policy of the republic and upon his own fate. it is necessary therefore that the reader, interested in these complicated affairs which were soon to bring on a sanguinary war on a scale even vaster than the one which had been temporarily suspended, should give close attention to papers never before exhumed from the musty sepulchre of national archives, although constantly alluded to in the records of important state trials. it is strange enough to observe the apparent triviality of the circumstances out of which gravest events seem to follow. but the circumstances were in reality threads of iron which led down to the very foundations of the earth. "i wish to know," wrote the advocate to caron, "from whom the archbishop of canterbury received the advices concerning vorstius in order to find out what is meant by all this." it will be remembered that whitgift was of opinion that james was directly inspired by the holy ghost, and that as he affected to deem him the anointed high-priest of england, it was natural that he should encourage the king in his claims to be 'pontifex maximus' for the netherlands likewise. "we are busy here," continued barneveld, "in examining all things for the best interests of the country and the churches. i find the nobles and cities here well resolved in this regard, although there be some disagreements 'in modo.' vorstius, having been for many years professor and minister of theology at steinfurt, having manifested his learning in many books written against the jesuits, and proved himself pure and moderate in doctrine, has been called to the vacant professorship at leyden. this appointment is now countermined by various means. we are doing our best to arrange everything for the highest good of the provinces and the churches. believe this and believe nothing else. pay heed to no other information. remember what took place in flanders, events so well known to you. it is not for me to pass judgment in these matters. do you, too, suspend your judgment." the advocate's allusion was to the memorable course of affairs in flanders at an epoch when many of the most inflammatory preachers and politicians of the reformed religion, men who refused to employ a footman or a housemaid not certified to be thoroughly orthodox, subsequently after much sedition and disturbance went over to spain and the catholic religion. a few weeks later barneveld sent copies to caron of the latest harangues of winwood in the assembly and the reply of my lords on the vorstian business; that is to say, the freshest dialogue on predestination between the king and the advocate. for as james always dictated word for word the orations of his envoy, so had their mightinesses at this period no head and no mouthpiece save barneveld alone. nothing could be drearier than these controversies, and the reader shall be spared as much, as possible the infliction of reading them. it will be necessary, however, for the proper understanding of subsequent events that he should be familiar with portions of the advocate's confidential letters. "sound well the gentleman you wot of," said barneveld, "and other personages as to the conclusive opinions over there. the course of the propositions does not harmonize with what i have myself heard out of the king's mouth at other times, nor with the reports of former ambassadors. i cannot well understand that the king should, with such preciseness, condemn all other opinions save those of calvin and beza. it is important to the service of this country that one should know the final intention of his majesty." and this was the misery of the position. for it was soon to appear that the king's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day. it was almost humorous to find him at that moment condemning all opinions but those of calvin and beza in holland, while his course to the strictest confessors of that creed in england was so ferocious. but vorstius was a rival author to his majesty on subjects treated of by both, so that literary spite of the most venomous kind, stirred into theological hatred, was making a dangerous mixture. had a man with the soul and sense of the advocate sat on the throne which james was regarding at that moment as a professor's chair, the world's history would have been changed. "i fear," continued barneveld, "that some of our own precisians have been spinning this coil for us over there, and if the civil authority can be thus countermined, things will go as in flanders in your time. pray continue to be observant, discreet, and moderate." the advocate continued to use his best efforts to smooth the rising waves. he humoured and even flattered the king, although perpetually denounced by winwood in his letters to his sovereign as tyrannical, over-bearing, malignant, and treacherous. he did his best to counsel moderation and mutual toleration, for he felt that these needless theological disputes about an abstract and insoluble problem of casuistry were digging an abyss in which the republic might be swallowed up for ever. if ever man worked steadily with the best lights of experience and inborn sagacity for the good of his country and in defence of a constitutional government, horribly defective certainly, but the only legal one, and on the whole a more liberal polity than any then existing, it was barneveld. courageously, steadily, but most patiently, he stood upon that position so vital and daily so madly assailed; the defence of the civil authority against the priesthood. he felt instinctively and keenly that where any portion of the subjects or citizens of a country can escape from the control of government and obey other head than the lawful sovereignty, whether monarchical or republican, social disorder and anarchy must be ever impending. "we are still tortured by ecclesiastical disputes," he wrote a few weeks later to caron. "besides many libels which have appeared in print, the letters of his majesty and the harangues of winwood have been published; to what end you who know these things by experience can judge. the truth of the matter of vorstius is that he was legally called in july , that he was heard last may before my lords the states with six preachers to oppose him, and in the same month duly accepted and placed in office. he has given no public lectures as yet. you will cause this to be known on fitting opportunity. believe and cause to be believed that his majesty's letters and sir r. winwood's propositions have been and shall be well considered, and that i am working with all my strength to that end. you know the constitution of our country, and can explain everything for the best. many pious and intelligent people in this state hold themselves assured that his majesty according to his royal exceeding great wisdom, foresight, and affection for the welfare of this land will not approve that his letters and winwood's propositions should be scattered by the press among the common people. believe and cause to be believed, to your best ability, that my lords the states of holland desire to maintain the true christian, reformed religion as well in the university of leyden as in all their cities and villages. the only dispute is on the high points of predestination and its adjuncts, concerning which moderation and a more temperate teaching is furthered by some amongst us. many think that such is the edifying practice in england. pray have the kindness to send me the english confession of the year , with the corrections and alterations up to this year." but the fires were growing hotter, fanned especially by flemish ministers, a brotherhood of whom barneveld had an especial distrust, and who certainly felt great animosity to him. his moderate counsels were but oil to the flames. he was already depicted by zealots and calumniators as false to the reformed creed. "be assured and assure others," he wrote again to caron, "that in the matter of religion i am, and by god's grace shall remain, what i ever have been. make the same assurances as to my son-in-law and brother. we are not a little amazed that a few extraordinary puritans, mostly flemings and frisians, who but a short time ago had neither property nor kindred in the country, and have now very little of either, and who have given but slender proofs of constancy or service to the fatherland, could through pretended zeal gain credit over there against men well proved in all respects. we wonder the more because they are endeavouring, in ecclesiastical matters at least, to usurp an extraordinary authority, against which his majesty, with very weighty reasons, has so many times declared his opinion founded upon god's word and upon all laws and principles of justice." it was barneveld's practice on this as on subsequent occasions very courteously to confute the king out of his own writings and speeches, and by so doing to be unconsciously accumulating an undying hatred against himself in the royal breast. certainly nothing could be easier than to show that james, while encouraging in so reckless a manner the emancipation of the ministers of an advanced sect in the reformed church from control of government, and their usurpation of supreme authority which had been destroyed in england, was outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency. a king-highpriest, who dictated his supreme will to bishops and ministers as well as to courts and parliaments, was ludicrously employed in a foreign country in enforcing the superiority of the church to the state. "you will give good assurances," said the advocate, "upon my word, that the conservation of the true reformed religion is as warmly cherished here, especially by me, as at any time during the war." he next alluded to the charges then considered very grave against certain writings of vorstius, and with equal fairness to his accusers as he had been to the professor gave a pledge that the subject should be examined. "if the man in question," he said, "be the author, as perhaps falsely imputed, of the work 'de filiatione christi' or things of that sort, you may be sure that he shall have no furtherance here." he complained, however, that before proof the cause was much prejudiced by the circulation through the press of letters on the subject from important personages in england. his own efforts to do justice in the matter were traversed by such machinations. if the professor proved to be guilty of publications fairly to be deemed atheistical and blasphemous, he should be debarred from his functions, but the outcry from england was doing more harm than good. "the published extract from the letter of the archbishop," he wrote, "to the effect that the king will declare my lords the states to be his enemies if they are not willing to send the man away is doing much harm." truly, if it had come to this--that a king of england was to go to war with a neighbouring and friendly republic because an obnoxious professor of theology was not instantly hurled from a university of which his majesty was not one of the overseers--it was time to look a little closely into the functions of governments and the nature of public and international law. not that the sword of james was in reality very likely to be unsheathed, but his shriekings and his scribblings, pacific as he was himself, were likely to arouse passions which torrents of blood alone could satiate. "the publishing and spreading among the community," continued barneveld, "of m. winwood's protestations and of many indecent libels are also doing much mischief, for the nature of this people does not tolerate such things. i hope, however, to obtain the removal according to his majesty's desire. keep me well informed, and send me word what is thought in england by the four divines of the book of vorstius, 'de deo,' and of his declarations on the points sent here by his majesty. let me know, too, if there has been any later confession published in england than that of the year , and whether the nine points pressed in the year were accepted and published in . if so, pray send them, as they maybe made use of in settling our differences here." thus it will be seen that the spirit of conciliation, of a calm but earnest desire to obtain a firm grasp of the most reasonable relations between church and state through patient study of the phenomena exhibited in other countries, were the leading motives of the man. yet he was perpetually denounced in private as an unbeliever, an atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy within the provinces and from kings outside them. "it was always held here to be one of the chief infractions of the laws and privileges of this country," he said, "that former princes had placed themselves in matter of religion in the tutelage of the pope and the spanish inquisition, and that they therefore on complaint of their good subjects could take no orders on that subject. therefore it cannot be considered strange that we are not willing here to fall into the same obloquy. that one should now choose to turn the magistrates, who were once so seriously summoned on their conscience and their office to adopt the reformation and to take the matter of religion to heart, into ignorants, to deprive them of knowledge, and to cause them to see with other eyes than their own, cannot by many be considered right and reasonable. 'intelligenti pauca.'" [the interesting letter from which i have given these copious extracts was ordered by its writer to be burned. "lecta vulcano" was noted at the end of it, as was not unfrequently the case with the advocate. it never was burned; but, innocent and reasonable as it seems, was made use of by barneveld's enemies with deadly effect. j.l.m.] meantime m. de refuge, as before stated, was on his way to the hague, to communicate the news of the double marriage. he had fallen sick at rotterdam, and the nature of his instructions and of the message he brought remained unknown, save from the previous despatches of aerssens. but reports were rife that he was about to propose new terms of alliance to the states, founded on large concessions to the roman catholic religion. of course intense jealousy was excited at the english court, and calumny plumed her wings for a fresh attack upon the advocate. of course he was sold to spain, the reformed religion was to be trampled out in the provinces, and the papacy and holy inquisition established on its ruins. nothing could be more diametrically the reverse of the fact than such hysterical suspicions as to the instructions of the ambassador extraordinary from france, and this has already appeared. the vorstian affair too was still in the same phase, the advocate professing a willingness that justice should be done in the matter, while courteously but firmly resisting the arrogant pretensions of james to take the matter out of the jurisdiction of the states. "i stand amazed," he said, "at the partisanship and the calumnious representations which you tell me of, and cannot imagine what is thought nor what is proposed. should m. de refuge make any such propositions as are feared, believe, and cause his majesty and his counsellors to believe, that they would be of no effect. make assurances upon my word, notwithstanding all advices to the contrary, that such things would be flatly refused. if anything is published or proven to the discredit of vorstius, send it to me. believe that we shall not defend heretics nor schismatics against the pure evangelical doctrine, but one cannot conceive here that the knowledge and judicature of the matter belongs anywhere else than to my lords the states of holland, in whose service he has legally been during four months before his majesty made the least difficulty about it. called hither legally a year before, with the knowledge and by the order of his excellency and the councillors of state of holland, he has been countermined by five or six flemings and frisians, who, without recognizing the lawful authority of the magistrates, have sought assistance in foreign countries--in germany and afterwards in england. yes, they have been so presumptuous as to designate one of their own men for the place. if such a proceeding should be attempted in england, i leave it to those whose business it would be to deal with it to say what would be done. i hope therefore that one will leave the examination and judgment of this matter freely to us, without attempting to make us--against the principles of the reformation and the liberties and laws of the land--executors of the decrees of others, as the man here wishes to obtrude it upon us." he alluded to the difficulty in raising the ways and means; saying that the quota of holland, as usual, which was more than half the whole, was ready, while other provinces were in arrears. yet they were protected, while holland was attacked. "methinks i am living in a strange world," he said, "when those who have received great honour from holland, and who in their conscience know that they alone have conserved the commonwealth, are now traduced with such great calumnies. but god the lord almighty is just, and will in his own time do chastisement." the affair of vorstius dragged its slow length along, and few things are more astounding at this epoch than to see such a matter, interesting enough certainly to theologians, to the university, and to the rising generation of students, made the topic of unceasing and embittered diplomatic controversy between two great nations, who had most pressing and momentous business on their hands. but it was necessary to humour the king, while going to the verge of imprudence in protecting the professor. in march he was heard, three or four hours long, before the assembly of holland, in answer to various charges made against him, being warned that "he stood before the lord god and before the sovereign authority of the states." although thought by many to have made a powerful defence, he was ordered to set it forth in writing, both in latin and in the vernacular. furthermore it was ordained that he should make a complete refutation of all the charges already made or that might be made during the ensuing three months against him in speech, book, or letter in england, germany, the netherlands, or anywhere else. he was allowed one year and a half to accomplish this work, and meantime was to reside not in leyden, nor the hague, but in some other town of holland, not delivering lectures or practising his profession in any way. it might be supposed that sufficient work had been thus laid out for the unfortunate doctor of divinity without lecturing or preaching. the question of jurisdiction was saved. the independence of the civil authority over the extreme pretensions of the clergy had been vindicated by the firmness of the advocate. james bad been treated with overflowing demonstrations of respect, but his claim to expel a dutch professor from his chair and country by a royal fiat had been signally rebuked. certainly if the provinces were dependent upon the british king in regard to such a matter, it was the merest imbecility for them to affect independence. barneveld had carried his point and served his country strenuously and well in this apparently small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one. but deep was the wrath treasured against him in consequence in clerical and royal minds. returning from wesel after the negotiations, sir ralph winwood had an important interview at arnheim with prince maurice, in which they confidentially exchanged their opinions in regard to the advocate, and mutually confirmed their suspicions and their jealousies in regard to that statesman. the ambassador earnestly thanked the prince in the king's name for his "careful and industrious endeavours for the maintenance of the truth of religion, lively expressed in prosecuting the cause against vorstius and his adherents." he then said: "i am expressly commanded that his majesty conferring the present condition of affairs of this quarter of the world with those advertisements he daily receives from his ministers abroad, together with the nature and disposition of those men who have in their hands the managing of all business in these foreign parts, can make no other judgment than this. "there is a general ligue and confederation complotted far the subversion and ruin of religion upon the subsistence whereof his majesty doth judge the main welfare of your realms and of these provinces solely to consist. "therefore his majesty has given me charge out of the knowledge he has of your great worth and sufficiency," continued winwood, "and the confidence he reposes in your faith and affection, freely to treat with you on these points, and withal to pray you to deliver your opinion what way would be the most compendious and the most assured to contrequarr these complots, and to frustrate the malice of these mischievous designs." the prince replied by acknowledging the honour the king had vouchsafed to do him in holding so gracious an opinion of him, wherein his majesty should never be deceived. "i concur in judgment with his majesty," continued the prince, "that the main scope at which these plots and practices do aim, for instance, the alliance between france and spain, is this, to root out religion, and by consequence to bring under their yoke all those countries in which religion is professed. "the first attempt," continued the prince, "is doubtless intended against these provinces. the means to countermine and defeat these projected designs i take to be these: the continuance of his majesty's constant resolution for the protection of religion, and then that the king would be pleased to procure a general confederation between the kings, princes, and commonwealths professing religion, namely, denmark, sweden, the german princes, the protestant cantons of switzerland, and our united provinces. "of this confederation, his majesty must be not only the director, but the head and protector. "lastly, the protestants of france should be, if not supported, at least relieved from that oppression which the alliance of spain doth threaten upon them. this, i insist," repeated maurice with great fervour, "is the only coupegorge of all plots whatever between france and spain." he enlarged at great length on these points, which he considered so vital. "and what appearance can there be," asked winwood insidiously and maliciously, "of this general confederation now that these provinces, which heretofore have been accounted a principal member of the reformed church, begin to falter in the truth of religion? "he who solely governs the metropolitan province of holland," continued the ambassador, with a direct stab in the back at barneveld, "is reputed generally, as your excellency best knows, to be the only patron of vorstius, and the protector of the schisms of arminius. and likewise, what possibility is there that the protestants of france can expect favour from these provinces when the same man is known to depend at the devotion of france?" the international, theological, and personal jealousy of the king against holland's advocate having been thus plainly developed, the ambassador proceeded to pour into the prince's ear the venom of suspicion, and to inflame his jealousy against his great rival. the secret conversation showed how deeply laid was the foundation of the political hatred, both of james and of maurice, against the advocate, and certainly nothing could be more preposterous than to imagine the king as the director and head of the great protestant league. we have but lately seen him confidentially assuring his minister that his only aim was "to wind himself handsomely out of the whole business." maurice must have found it difficult to preserve his gravity when assigning such a part to "master jacques." "although monsieur barneveld has cast off all care of religion," said maurice, "and although some towns in holland, wherein his power doth reign, are infected with the like neglect, yet so long as so many good towns in holland stand sound, and all the other provinces of this confederacy, the proposition would at the first motion be cheerfully accepted. "i confess i find difficulty in satisfying your second question," continued the prince, "for i acknowledge that barneveld is wholly devoted to the service of france. during the truce negotiations, when some difference arose between him and myself, president jeannin came to me, requiring me in the french king's name to treat monsieur barneveld well, whom the king had received into his protection. the letters which the states' ambassador in france wrote to barneveld (and to him all ambassadors address their despatches of importance), the very autographs themselves, he sent back into the hands of villeroy." here the prince did not scruple to accuse the advocate of doing the base and treacherous trick against aerssens which he had expressly denied doing, and which had been done during his illness, as he solemnly avowed, by a subordinate probably for the sake of making mischief. maurice then discoursed largely and vehemently of the suspicious proceedings of barneveld, and denounced him as dangerous to the state. "when one man who has the conduct of all affairs in his sole power," he said, "shall hold underhand intelligence with the ministers of spain and the archduke, and that without warrant, thereby he may have the means so to carry the course of affairs that, do what they will, these provinces must fall or stand at the mercy and discretion of spain. therefore some good resolutions must be taken in time to hold up this state from a sudden downfall, but in this much moderation and discretion must be used." the prince added that he had invited his cousin lewis william to appear at the hague at may day, in order to consult as to the proper means to preserve the provinces from confusion under his majesty's safeguard, and with the aid of the englishmen in the states' service whom maurice pronounced to be "the strength and flower of his army." thus the prince developed his ideas at great length, and accused the advocate behind his back, and without the faintest shadow of proof, of base treachery to his friends and of high-treason. surely barneveld was in danger, and was walking among pitfalls. most powerful and deadly enemies were silently banding themselves together against him. could he long maintain his hold on the slippery heights of power, where he was so consciously serving his country, but where he became day by day a mere shining mark for calumny and hatred? the ambassador then signified to the prince that he had been instructed to carry to him the king's purpose to confer on him the order of the garter. "if his majesty holds me worthy of so great honour," said the prince, "i and my family shall ever remain bound to his service and that of his royal posterity. "that the states should be offended i see no cause, but holding the charge i do in their service, i could not accept the honour without first acquainting them and receiving their approbation." winwood replied that, as the king knew the terms on which the prince lived with the states, he doubted not his majesty would first notify them and say that he honoured the mutual amity between his realms and these provinces by honouring the virtues of their general, whose services, as they had been most faithful and affectionate, so had they been accompanied with the blessings of happiness and prosperous success. thus said winwood to the king: "your majesty may plaster two walls with one trowel ('una fidelia duos dealbare parietes'), reverse the designs of them who to facilitate their own practices do endeavour to alienate your affections from the good of these provinces, and oblige to your service the well-affected people, who know that there is no surety for themselves, their wives and children, but under the protection of your majesty's favour. perhaps, however, the favourers of vorstius and arminius will buzz into the ears of their associates that your majesty would make a party in these provinces by maintaining the truth of religion and also by gaining unto you the affections of their chief commander. but your majesty will be pleased to pass forth whose worthy ends will take their place, which is to honour virtue where you find it, and the suspicious surmises of malice and envy in one instant will vanish into smoke." winwood made no scruple in directly stating to the english government that barneveld's purpose was to "cause a divorce between the king's realms and the provinces, the more easily to precipitate them into the arms of spain." he added that the negotiation with count maurice then on foot was to be followed, but with much secrecy, on account of the place he held in the state. soon after the ambassador's secret conversation with maurice he had an interview with barneveld. he assured the advocate that no contentment could be given to his majesty but by the banishment of vorstius. "if the town of leyden should understand so much," replied barneveld, "i fear the magistrates would retain him still in their town." "if the town of leyden should retain vorstius," answered winwood, "to brave or despight his majesty, the king has the means, if it pleases him to use them, and that without drawing sword, to range them to reason, and to make the magistrates on their knees demand his pardon, and i say as much of rotterdam." such insolence on the part of an ambassador to the first minister of a great republic was hard to bear. barneveld was not the man to brook it. he replied with great indignation. "i was born in liberty," he said with rising choler, "i cannot digest this kind of language. the king of spain himself never dared to speak in so high a style." "i well understand that logic," returned the ambassador with continued insolence. "you hold your argument to be drawn 'a majori ad minus;' but i pray you to believe that the king of great britain is peer and companion to the king of spain, and that his motto is, 'nemo me impune lacessit.'" and so they parted in a mutual rage; winwood adding on going out of the room, "whatsoever i propose to you in his majesty's name can find with you neither goust nor grace." he then informed lord rochester that "the man was extremely distempered and extremely distasted with his majesty. "some say," he added, "that on being in england when his majesty first came to the throne he conceived some offence, which ever since hath rankled in his heart, and now doth burst forth with more violent malice." nor was the matter so small as it superficially appeared. dependence of one nation upon the dictation of another can never be considered otherwise than grave. the subjection of all citizens, clerical or lay, to the laws of the land, the supremacy of the state over the church, were equally grave subjects. and the question of sovereignty now raised for the first time, not academically merely, but practically, was the gravest one of all. it was soon to be mooted vigorously and passionately whether the united provinces were a confederacy or a union; a league of sovereign and independent states bound together by treaty for certain specified purposes or an incorporated whole. the advocate and all the principal lawyers in the country had scarcely a doubt on the subject. whether it were a reasonable system or an absurd one, a vigorous or an imbecile form of government, they were confident that the union of utrecht, made about a generation of mankind before, and the only tie by which the provinces were bound together at all, was a compact between sovereigns. barneveld styled himself always the servant and officer of the states of holland. to them was his allegiance, for them he spoke, wrought, and thought, by them his meagre salary was paid. at the congress of the states-general, the scene of his most important functions, he was the ambassador of holland, acting nominally according to their instructions, and exercising the powers of minister of foreign affairs and, as it were, prime minister for the other confederates by their common consent. the system would have been intolerable, the great affairs of war and peace could never have been carried on so triumphantly, had not the preponderance of the one province holland, richer, more powerful, more important in every way than the other six provinces combined, given to the confederacy illegally, but virtually, many of the attributes of union. rather by usucaption than usurpation holland had in many regards come to consider herself and be considered as the republic itself. and barneveld, acting always in the name of holland and with the most modest of titles and appointments, was for a long time in all civil matters the chief of the whole country. this had been convenient during the war, still more convenient during negotiations for peace, but it was inevitable that there should be murmurs now that the cessation from military operations on a large scale had given men time to look more deeply into the nature of a constitution partly inherited and partly improvised, and having many of the defects usually incident to both sources of government. the military interest, the ecclesiastical power, and the influence of foreign nations exerted through diplomatic intrigue, were rapidly arraying themselves in determined hostility to barneveld and to what was deemed his tyrannous usurpation. a little later the national spirit, as opposed to provincial and municipal patriotism, was to be aroused against him, and was likely to prove the most formidable of all the elements of antagonism. it is not necessary to anticipate here what must be developed on a subsequent page. this much, however, it is well to indicate for the correct understanding of passing events. barneveld did not consider himself the officer or servant of their high mightinesses the states-general, while in reality often acting as their master, but the vassal and obedient functionary of their great mightinesses the states of holland, whom he almost absolutely controlled. his present most pressing business was to resist the encroachments of the sacerdotal power and to defend the magistracy. the casuistical questions which were fast maddening the public mind seemed of importance to him only as enclosing within them a more vital and practical question of civil government. but the anger of his opponents, secret and open, was rapidly increasing. envy, jealousy, political and clerical hate, above all, that deadliest and basest of malignant spirits which in partisan warfare is bred out of subserviency to rising and rival power, were swarming about him and stinging him at every step. no parasite of maurice could more effectively pay his court and more confidently hope for promotion or reward than by vilipending barneveld. it would be difficult to comprehend the infinite extent and power of slander without a study of the career of the advocate of holland. "i thank you for your advices," he wrote to carom' "and i wish from my heart that his majesty, according to his royal wisdom and clemency towards the condition of this country, would listen only to my lords the states or their ministers, and not to his own or other passionate persons who, through misunderstanding or malice, furnish him with information and so frequently flatter him. i have tried these twenty years to deserve his majesty's confidence, and have many letters from him reaching through twelve or fifteen years, in which he does me honour and promises his royal favour. i am the more chagrined that through false and passionate reports and information--because i am resolved to remain good and true to my lords the states, to the fatherland, and to the true christian religion--i and mine should now be so traduced. i hope that god almighty will second my upright conscience, and cause his majesty soon to see the injustice done to me and mine. to defend the resolutions of my lords the states of holland is my office, duty, and oath, and i assure you that those resolutions are taken with wider vision and scope than his majesty can believe. let this serve for my lords' defence and my own against indecent calumny, for my duty allows me to pursue no other course." he again alluded to the dreary affair of vorstius, and told the envoy that the venation caused by it was incredible. "that men unjustly defame our cities and their regents is nothing new," he said; "but i assure you that it is far more damaging to the common weal than the defamers imagine." some of the private admirers of arminius who were deeply grieved at so often hearing him "publicly decried as the enemy of god" had been defending the great heretic to james, and by so doing had excited the royal wrath not only against the deceased doctor and themselves, but against the states of holland who had given them no commission. on the other hand the advanced orthodox party, most bitter haters of barneveld, and whom in his correspondence with england he uniformly and perhaps designedly called the puritans, knowing that the very word was a scarlet rag to james, were growing louder and louder in their demands. "some thirty of these puritans," said he, "of whom at least twenty are flemings or other foreigners equally violent, proclaim that they and the like of them mean alone to govern the church. let his majesty compare this proposal with his royal present, with his salutary declaration at london in the year to doctor reynolds and his associates, and with his admonition delivered to the emperor, kings, sovereigns, and republics, and he will best understand the mischievous principles of these people, who are now gaining credit with him to the detriment of the freedom and laws of these provinces." a less enlightened statesman than barneveld would have found it easy enough to demonstrate the inconsistency of the king in thus preaching subserviency of government to church and favouring the rule of puritans over both. it needed but slender logic to reduce such a policy on his part to absurdity, but neither kings nor governments are apt to value themselves on their logic. so long as james could play the pedagogue to emperors, kings, and republics, it mattered little to him that the doctrines which he preached in one place he had pronounced flat blasphemy in another. that he would cheerfully hang in england the man whom he would elevate to power in holland might be inconsistency in lesser mortals; but what was the use of his infallibility if he was expected to be consistent? but one thing was certain. the advocate saw through him as if he had been made of glass, and james knew that he did. this fatal fact outweighed all the decorous and respectful phraseology under which barneveld veiled his remorseless refutations. it was a dangerous thing to incur the wrath of this despot-theologian. prince maurice, who had originally joined in the invitation given by the overseers of leyden to vorstius, and had directed one of the deputies and his own "court trumpeter," uytenbogaert, to press him earnestly to grant his services to the university, now finding the coldness of barneveld to the fiery remonstrances of the king, withdrew his protection of the professor. "the count maurice, who is a wise and understanding prince," said winwood, "and withal most affectionate to his majesty's service, doth foresee the miseries into which these countries are likely to fall, and with grief doth pine away." it is probable that the great stadholder had never been more robust, or indeed inclining to obesity, than precisely at this epoch; but sir ralph was of an imaginative turn. he had discovered, too, that the advocate's design was "of no other nature than so to stem the course of the state that insensibly the provinces shall fall by relapse into the hands of spain." a more despicable idea never entered a human brain. every action, word, and thought, of barneveld's life was a refutation of it. but he was unwilling, at the bidding of a king, to treat a professor with contumely who had just been solemnly and unanimously invited by the great university, by the states of holland, and by the stadholder to an important chair; and that was enough for the diplomatist and courtier. "he, and only he," said winwood passionately, "hath opposed his majesty's purposes with might and main." formerly the ambassador had been full of complaints of "the craving humour of count maurice," and had censured him bitterly in his correspondence for having almost by his inordinate pretensions for money and other property brought the treaty of truce to a standstill. and in these charges he was as unjust and as reckless as he was now in regard to barneveld. the course of james and his agents seemed cunningly devised to sow discord in the provinces, to inflame the growing animosity of the stadholder to the advocate, and to paralyse the action of the republic in the duchies. if the king had received direct instructions from the spanish cabinet how to play the spanish game, he could hardly have done it with more docility. but was not gondemar ever at his elbow, and the infanta always in the perspective? and it is strange enough that, at the same moment, spanish marriages were in france as well as england the turning-point of policy. henry had been willing enough that the dauphin should espouse a spanish infanta, and that one of the spanish princes should be affianced to one of his daughters. but the proposition from spain had been coupled with a condition that the friendship between france and the netherlands should be at once broken off, and the rebellious heretics left to their fate. and this condition had been placed before him with such arrogance that he had rejected the whole scheme. henry was not the man to do anything dishonourable at the dictation of another sovereign. he was also not the man to be ignorant that the friendship of the provinces was necessary to him, that cordial friendship between france and spain was impossible, and that to allow spain to reoccupy that splendid possession between his own realms and germany, from which she had been driven by the hollanders in close alliance with himself, would be unworthy of the veriest schoolboy in politics. but henry was dead, and a medici reigned in his place, whose whole thought was to make herself agreeable to spain. aerssens, adroit, prying, experienced, unscrupulous, knew very well that these double spanish marriages were resolved upon, and that the inevitable condition refused by the king would be imposed upon his widow. he so informed the states-general, and it was known to the french government that he had informed them. his position soon became almost untenable, not because he had given this information, but because the information and the inference made from it were correct. it will be observed that the policy of the advocate was to preserve friendly relations between france and england, and between both and the united provinces. it was for this reason that he submitted to the exhortations and denunciations of the english ambassadors. it was for this that he kept steadily in view the necessity of dealing with and supporting corporate france, the french government, when there were many reasons for feeling sympathy with the internal rebellion against that government. maurice felt differently. he was connected by blood or alliance with more than one of the princes now perpetually in revolt. bouillon was his brother-in-law, the sister of conde was his brother's wife. another cousin, the elector-palatine, was already encouraging distant and extravagant hopes of the imperial crown. it was not unnatural that he should feel promptings of ambition and sympathy difficult to avow even to himself, and that he should feel resentment against the man by whom this secret policy was traversed in the well-considered interest of the republican government. aerssens, who, with the keen instinct of self-advancement was already attaching himself to maurice as to the wheels of the chariot going steadily up the hill, was not indisposed to loosen his hold upon the man through whose friendship he had first risen, and whose power was now perhaps on the decline. moreover, events had now caused him to hate the french government with much fervour. with henry iv. he had been all-powerful. his position had been altogether exceptional, and he had wielded an influence at paris more than that exerted by any foreign ambassador. the change naturally did not please him, although he well knew the reasons. it was impossible for the dutch ambassador to be popular at a court where spain ruled supreme. had he been willing to eat humiliation as with a spoon, it would not have sufficed. they knew him, they feared him, and they could not doubt that his sympathies would ever be with the malcontent princes. at the same time he did not like to lose his hold upon the place, nor to have it known, as yet, to the world that his power was diminished. "the queen commands me to tell you," said the french ambassador de russy to the states-general, "that the language of the sieur aerssens has not only astonished her, but scandalized her to that degree that she could not refrain from demanding if it came from my lords the states or from himself. he having, however, affirmed to her majesty that he had express charge to justify it by reasons so remote from the hope and the belief that she had conceived of your gratitude to the most christian king and herself, she is constrained to complain of it, and with great frankness." some months later than this aerssens communicated to the states-general the project of the spanish marriage, "which," said he, "they have declared to me with so many oaths to be false." he informed them that m. de refuge was to go on special mission to the hague, "having been designated to that duty before aerssens' discovery of the marriage project." he was to persuade their mightinesses that the marriages were by no means concluded, and that, even if they were, their mightinesses were not interested therein, their majesties intending to remain by the old maxims and alliances of the late king. marriages, he would be instructed to say, were mere personal conventions, which remained of no consideration when the interests of the crown were touched. "nevertheless, i know very well," said aerssens, "that in england these negotiations are otherwise understood, and that the king has uttered great complaints about them, saying that such a negotiation as this ought not to have been concealed from him. he is pressing more than ever for reimbursement of the debt to him, and especially for the moneys pretended to have been furnished to your mightinesses in his majesty's name." thus it will be seen how closely the spanish marriages were connected with the immediate financial arrangements of france, england, and the states, without reference to the wider political consequences anticipated. "the princes and most gentlemen," here continued the ambassador, "believe that these reciprocal and double marriages will bring about great changes in christendom if they take the course which the authors of them intend, however much they may affect to believe that no novelties are impending. the marriages were proposed to the late king, and approved by him, during the negotiations for the truce, and had don pedro do toledo been able to govern himself, as jeannin has just been telling me, the united provinces would have drawn from it their assured security. what he means by that, i certainly cannot conceive, for don pedro proposed the marriage of the dauphin (now louis xiii.) with the infanta on the condition that henry should renounce all friendship with your mightinesses, and neither openly nor secretly give you any assistance. you were to be entirely abandoned, as an example for all who throw off the authority of their lawful prince. but his majesty answered very generously that he would take no conditions; that he considered your mightinesses as his best friends, whom he could not and would not forsake. upon this don pedro broke off the negotiation. what should now induce the king of spain to resume the marriage negotiations but to give up the conditions, i am sure i don't know, unless, through the truce, his designs and his ambition have grown flaccid. this i don't dare to hope, but fear, on the contrary, that he will so manage the irresolution, weakness, and faintheartedness of this kingdom as through the aid of his pensioned friends here to arrive at all his former aims." certainly the ambassador painted the condition of france in striking and veracious colours, and he was quite right in sending the information which he was first to discover, and which it was so important for the states to know. it was none the less certain in barneveld's mind that the best, not the worst, must be made of the state of affairs, and that france should not be assisted in throwing herself irrecoverably into the arms of spain. "refuge will tell you," said aerssens, a little later, "that these marriages will not interfere with the friendship of france for you nor with her subsidies, and that no advantage will be given to spain in the treaty to your detriment or that of her other allies. but whatever fine declarations they may make, it is sure to be detrimental. and all the princes, gentlemen, and officers here have the same conviction. those of the reformed religion believe that the transaction is directed solely against the religion which your mightinesses profess, and that the next step will be to effect a total separation between the two religions and the two countries." refuge arrived soon afterwards, and made the communication to the states-general of the approaching nuptials between the king of france and the infanta of spain; and of the prince of spain with madame, eldest daughter of france, exactly as aerssens had predicted four months before. there was a great flourish of compliments, much friendly phrase-making, and their mightinesses were informed that the communication of the marriages was made to them before any other power had been notified, in proof of the extraordinary affection entertained for them by france. "you are so much interested in the happiness of france," said refuge, "that this treaty by which it is secured will be for your happiness also. he did not indicate, however, the precise nature of the bliss beyond the indulgence of a sentimental sympathy, not very refreshing in the circumstances, which was to result to the confederacy from this close alliance between their firmest friend and their ancient and deadly enemy. he would have found it difficult to do so. "don rodrigo de calderon, secretary of state, is daily expected from spain," wrote, aerssens once more. "he brings probably the articles of the marriages, which have hitherto been kept secret, so they say. 'tis a shrewd negotiator; and in this alliance the king's chief design is to injure your mightinesses, as m. de villeroy now confesses, although he says that this will not be consented to on this side. it behoves your mightinesses to use all your ears and eyes. it is certain these are much more than private conventions. yes, there is nothing private about them, save the conjunction of the persons whom they concern. in short, all the conditions regard directly the state, and directly likewise, or by necessary consequence, the state of your mightinesses' provinces. i reserve explanations until it shall please your mightinesses to hear me by word of mouth." for it was now taken into consideration by the states' government whether aerssens was to remain at his post or to return. whether it was his wish to be relieved of his embassy or not was a question. but there was no question that the states at this juncture, and in spite of the dangers impending from the spanish marriages, must have an ambassador ready to do his best to keep france from prematurely sliding into positive hostility to them. aerssens was enigmatical in his language, and barneveld was somewhat puzzled. "i have according to your reiterated requests," wrote the advocate to the ambassador, "sounded the assembly of my lords the states as to your recall; but i find among some gentlemen the opinion that if earnestly pressed to continue you would be willing to listen to the proposal. this i cannot make out from your letters. please to advise me frankly as to your wishes, and assure yourself in everything of my friendship." nothing could be more straightforward than this language, but the envoy was less frank than barneveld, as will subsequently appear. the subject was a most important one, not only in its relation to the great affairs of state, but to momentous events touching the fate of illustrious personages. meantime a resolution was passed by the states of holland "in regard to the question whether ambassador aerssens should retain his office, yes or no?" and it was decided by a majority of votes "to leave it to his candid opinion if in his free conscience he thinks he can serve the public cause there any longer. if yes, he may keep his office one year more. if no, he may take leave and come home. in no case is his salary to be increased." surely the states, under the guidance of the advocate, had thus acted with consummate courtesy towards a diplomatist whose position from no apparent fault of his own but by the force of circumstances--and rather to his credit than otherwise--was gravely compromised. etext editor's bookmarks: advanced orthodox party-puritans atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required he was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin he who would have all may easily lose all king's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one the defence of the civil authority against the priesthood the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. the life of john of barneveld, v , - chapter vi. establishment of the condominium in the duchies--dissensions between the neuburgers and brandenburgers--occupation of julich by the brandenburgers assisted by the states-general--indignation in spain and at the court of the archdukes--subsidy despatched to brussels spinola descends upon aix-la-chapelle and takes possession of orsoy and other places--surrender of wesel--conference at xanten--treaty permanently dividing the territory between brandenburg and neuburg-- prohibition from spain--delays and disagreements. thus the 'condominium' had been peaceably established. three or four years passed away in the course of which the evils of a joint and undivided sovereignty of two rival houses over the same territory could not fail to manifest themselves. brandenburg, calvinist in religion, and for other reasons more intimately connected with and more favoured by the states' government than his rival, gained ground in the duchies. the palatine of neuburg, originally of lutheran faith like his father, soon manifested catholic tendencies, which excited suspicion in the netherlands. these suspicions grew into certainties at the moment when he espoused the sister of maximilian of bavaria and of the elector of cologne. that this close connection with the very heads of the catholic league could bode no good to the cause of which the states-general were the great promoters was self-evident. very soon afterwards the palatine, a man of mature age and of considerable talents, openly announced his conversion to the ancient church. obviously the sympathies of the states could not thenceforth fail to be on the side of brandenburg. the elector's brother died and was succeeded in the governorship of the condeminium by the elector's brother, a youth of eighteen. he took up his abode in cleve, leaving dusseldorf to be the sole residence of his co-stadholder. rivalry growing warmer, on account of this difference of religion, between the respective partisans of neuburg and brandenburg, an attempt was made in dusseldorf by a sudden entirely unsuspected rising of the brandenburgers to drive their antagonist colleagues and their portion of the garrison out of the city. it failed, but excited great anger. a more successful effort was soon afterwards made in julich; the neuburgers were driven out, and the brandenburgers remained in sole possession of the town and citadel, far the most important stronghold in the whole territory. this was partly avenged by the neuburgers, who gained absolute control of dusseldorf. here were however no important fortifications, the place being merely an agreeable palatial residence and a thriving mart. the states-general, not concealing their predilection for brandenburg, but under pretext of guarding the peace which they had done so much to establish, placed a garrison of infantry and a troop or two of horse in the citadel of julich. dire was the anger not unjustly excited in spain when the news of this violation of neutrality reached that government. julich, placed midway between liege and cologne, and commanding those fertile plains which make up the opulent duchy, seemed virtually converted into a province of the detested heretical republic. the german gate of the spanish netherlands was literally in the hands of its most formidable foe. the spaniards about the court of the archduke did not dissemble their rage. the seizure of julich was a stain upon his reputation, they cried. was it not enough, they asked, for the united provinces to have made a truce to the manifest detriment and discredit of spain, and to have treated her during all the negotiation with such insolence? were they now to be permitted to invade neutral territory, to violate public faith, to act under no responsibility save to their own will? what was left for them to do except to set up a tribunal in holland for giving laws to the whole of northern europe? arrogating to themselves absolute power over the controverted states of cleve, julich, and the dependencies, they now pretended to dispose of them at their pleasure in order at the end insolently to take possession of them for themselves. these were the egregious fruits of the truce, they said tauntingly to the discomfited archduke. it had caused a loss of reputation, the very soul of empires, to the crown of spain. and now, to conclude her abasement, the troops in flanders had been shaven down with such parsimony as to make the monarch seem a shopkeeper, not a king. one would suppose the obedient netherlands to be in the heart of spain rather than outlying provinces surrounded by their deadliest enemies. the heretics had gained possession of the government at aix-la-chapelle; they had converted the insignificant town of mulheim into a thriving and fortified town in defiance of cologne and to its manifest detriment, and in various other ways they had insulted the catholics throughout those regions. and who could wonder at such insolence, seeing that the army in flanders, formerly the terror of heretics, had become since the truce so weak as to be the laughing-stock of the united provinces? if it was expensive to maintain these armies in the obedient netherlands, let there be economy elsewhere, they urged. from india came gold and jewels. from other kingdoms came ostentation and a long series of vain titles for the crown of spain. flanders was its place of arms, its nursery of soldiers, its bulwark in europe, and so it should be preserved. there was ground for these complaints. the army at the disposition of the archduke had been reduced to infantry and a handful of cavalry. the peace establishment of the republic amounted to , foot, horse, besides the french and english regiments. so soon as the news of the occupation of julich was officially communicated to the spanish cabinet, a subsidy of , crowns was at once despatched to brussels. levies of walloons and germans were made without delay by order of archduke albert and under guidance of spinola, so that by midsummer the army was swollen to , foot and horse. with these the great genoese captain took the field in the middle of august. on the nd of that month the army was encamped on some plains mid-way between maestricht and aachen. there was profound mystery both at brussels and at the hague as to the objective point of these military movements. anticipating an attack upon julich, the states had meantime strengthened the garrison of that important place with infantry and a regiment of horse. it seemed scarcely probable therefore that spinola would venture a foolhardy blow at a citadel so well fortified and defended. moreover, there was not only no declaration of war, but strict orders had been given by each of the apparent belligerents to their military commanders to abstain from all offensive movements against the adversary. and now began one of the strangest series of warlike evolution's that were ever recorded. maurice at the head of an army of , foot and horse manoeuvred in the neighbourhood of his great antagonist and professional rival without exchanging a blow. it was a phantom campaign, the prophetic rehearsal of dreadful marches and tragic histories yet to be, and which were to be enacted on that very stage and on still wider ones during a whole generation of mankind. that cynical commerce in human lives which was to become one of the chief branches of human industry in the century had already begun. spinola, after hovering for a few days in the neighbourhood, descended upon the imperial city of aachen (aix-la-chapelle). this had been one of the earliest towns in germany to embrace the reformed religion, and up to the close of the sixteenth century the control of the magistracy had been in the hands of the votaries of that creed. subsequently the catholics had contrived to acquire and keep the municipal ascendency, secretly supported by archduke albert, and much oppressing the protestants with imprisonments, fines, and banishment, until a new revolution which had occurred in the year , and which aroused the wrath of spinola. certainly, according to the ideas of that day, it did not seem unnatural in a city where a very large majority of the population were protestants that protestants should have a majority in the town council. it seemed, however, to those who surrounded the archduke an outrage which could no longer be tolerated, especially as a garrison of germans, supposed to have formed part of the states' army, had recently been introduced into the town. aachen, lying mostly on an extended plain, had but very slight fortifications, and it was commanded by a neighbouring range of hills. it had no garrison but the germans. spinola placed a battery or two on the hills, and within three days the town surrendered. the inhabitants expected a scene of carnage and pillage, but not a life was lost. no injury whatever was inflicted on person or property, according to the strict injunctions of the archduke. the germans were driven out, and other germans then serving under catholic banners were put in their places to protect the catholic minority, to whose keeping the municipal government was now confided. spinola, then entering the territory of cleve, took session of orsoy, an important place on the rhine, besides duren, duisburg, kaster, greevenbroek and berchem. leaving garrisons in these places, he razed the fortifications of mulheim, much to the joy of the archbishop and his faithful subjects of cologne, then crossed the rhine at rheinberg, and swooped down upon wesel. this flourishing and prosperous city had formerly belonged to the duchy of cleve. placed at the junction of the rhine and lippe and commanding both rivers, it had become both powerful and protestant, and had set itself up as a free imperial city, recognising its dukes no longer as sovereigns, but only as protectors. so fervent was it in the practice of the reformed religion that it was called the rhenish geneva, the cradle of german calvinism. so important was its preservation considered to the cause of protestantism that the states-general had urged its authorities to accept from them a garrison. they refused. had they complied, the city would have been saved, because it was the rule in this extraordinary campaign that the belligerents made war not upon each other, nor in each others territory, but against neutrals and upon neutral soil. the catholic forces under spinola or his lieutenants, meeting occasionally and accidentally with the protestants under maurice or his generals, exchanged no cannon shots or buffets, but only acts of courtesy; falling away each before the other, and each ceding to the other with extreme politeness the possession of towns which one had preceded the other in besieging. the citizens of wesel were amazed at being attacked, considering themselves as imperial burghers. they regretted too late that they had refused a garrison from maurice, which would have prevented spinola from assailing them. they had now nothing for it but to surrender, which they did within three days. the principal condition of the capitulation was that when julich should be given up by the states wesel should be restored to its former position. spinola then took and garrisoned the city of xanten, but went no further. having weakened his army sufficiently by the garrisons taken from it for the cities captured by him, he declined to make any demonstration upon the neighbouring and important towns of emmerich and rees. the catholic commander falling back, the protestant moved forward. maurice seized both emmerich and rees, and placed garrisons within them, besides occupying goch, kranenburg, gennip, and various places in the county of mark. this closed the amicable campaign. spinola established himself and his forces near wesel. the prince encamped near rees. the two armies were within two hours' march of each other. the duke of neuburg--for the palatine had now succeeded on his father's death to the ancestral dukedom and to his share of the condominium of the debateable provinces--now joined spinola with an army of foot and horse. the young prince of brandenburg came to maurice with cavalry and an infantry regiment of the elector-palatine. negotiations destined to be as spectral and fleeting as the campaign had been illusory now began. the whole protestant world was aflame with indignation at the loss of wesel. the states' government had already proposed to deposit julich in the hands of a neutral power if the archduke would abstain from military movements. but albert, proud of his achievements in aachen, refused to pause in his career. let them make the deposit first, he said. both belligerents, being now satiated with such military glory as could flow from the capture of defenceless cities belonging to neutrals, agreed to hold conferences at xanten. to this town, in the duchy of cleve, and midway between the rival camps, came sir henry wotton and sir dudley carleton, ambassadors of great britain; de refuge and de russy, the special and the resident ambassador of france at the hague; chancellor peter pecquius and counsellor visser, to represent the archdukes; seven deputies from the united provinces, three from the elector of cologne, three from brandenburg, three from neuburg, and two from the elector-palatine, as representative of the protestant league. in the earlier conferences the envoys of the archduke and of the elector of cologne were left out, but they were informed daily of each step in the negotiation. the most important point at starting was thought to be to get rid of the 'condominium.' there could be no harmony nor peace in joint possession. the whole territory should be cut provisionally in halves, and each possessory prince rule exclusively within the portion assigned to him. there might also be an exchange of domain between the two every six months. as for wesel and julich, they could remain respectively in the hands then holding them, or the fortifications of julich might be dismantled and wesel restored to the status quo. the latter alternative would have best suited the states, who were growing daily more irritated at seeing wesel, that protestant stronghold, with an exclusively calvinistic population, in the hands of catholics. the spanish ambassador at brussels remonstrated, however, at the thought of restoring his precious conquest, obtained without loss of time, money, or blood, into the hands of heretics, at least before consultation with the government at madrid and without full consent of the king. "how important to your majesty's affairs in flanders," wrote guadaleste to philip, "is the acquisition of wesel may be seen by the manifest grief of your enemies. they see with immense displeasure your royal ensigns planted on the most important place on the rhine, and one which would become the chief military station for all the armies of flanders to assemble in at any moment. "as no acquisition could therefore be greater, so your majesty should never be deprived of it without thorough consideration of the case. the archduke fears, and so do his ministers, that if we refuse to restore wesel, the united provinces would break the truce. for my part i believe, and there are many who agree with me, that they would on the contrary be more inclined to stand by the truce, hoping to obtain by negotiation that which it must be obvious to them they cannot hope to capture by force. but let wesel be at once restored. let that be done which is so much desired by the united provinces and other great enemies and rivals of your majesty, and what security will there be that the same provinces will not again attempt the same invasion? is not the example of julich fresh? and how much more important is wesel! julich was after all not situate on their frontiers, while wesel lies at their principal gates. your majesty now sees the good and upright intentions of those provinces and their friends. they have made a settlement between brandenburg and neuburg, not in order to breed concord but confusion between those two, not tranquillity for the country, but greater turbulence than ever before. nor have they done this with any other thought than that the united provinces might find new opportunities to derive the same profit from fresh tumults as they have already done so shamelessly from those which are past. after all i don't say that wesel should never be restored, if circumstances require it, and if your majesty, approving the treaty of xanten, should sanction the measure. but such a result should be reached only after full consultation with your majesty, to whose glorious military exploits these splendid results are chiefly owing." the treaty finally decided upon rejected the principle of alternate possession, and established a permanent division of the territory in dispute between brandenburg and neuburg. the two portions were to be made as equal as possible, and lots were to be thrown or drawn by the two princes for the first choice. to the one side were assigned the duchy of cleve, the county of mark, and the seigniories of ravensberg and ravenstein, with some other baronies and feuds in brabant and flanders; to the other the duchies of julich and berg with their dependencies. each prince was to reside exclusively within the territory assigned to him by lot. the troops introduced by either party were to be withdrawn, fortifications made since the preceding month of may to be razed, and all persons who had been expelled, or who had emigrated, to be restored to their offices, property, or benefices. it was also stipulated that no place within the whole debateable territory should be put in the hands of a third power. these articles were signed by the ambassadors of france and england, by the deputies of the elector-palatine and of the united provinces, all binding their superiors to the execution of the treaty. the arrangement was supposed to refer to the previous conventions between those two crowns, with the republic, and the protestant princes and powers. count zollern, whom we have seen bearing himself so arrogantly as envoy from the emperor rudolph to henry iv., was now despatched by matthias on as fruitless a mission to the congress at xanten, and did his best to prevent the signature of the treaty, except with full concurrence of the imperial government. he likewise renewed the frivolous proposition that the emperor should hold all the provinces in sequestration until the question of rightful sovereignty should be decided. the "proud and haggard" ambassador was not more successful in this than in the diplomatic task previously entrusted to him, and he then went to brussels, there to renew his remonstrances, menaces, and intrigues. for the treaty thus elaborately constructed, and in appearance a triumphant settlement of questions so complicated and so burning as to threaten to set christendom at any moment in a blaze, was destined to an impotent and most unsatisfactory conclusion. the signatures were more easily obtained than the ratifications. execution was surrounded with insurmountable difficulties which in negotiation had been lightly skipped over at the stroke of a pen. at the very first step, that of military evacuation, there was a stumble. maurice and spinola were expected to withdraw their forces, and to undertake to bring in no troops in the future, and to make no invasion of the disputed territory. but spinola construed this undertaking as absolute; the prince as only binding in consequence of, with reference to, and for the duration of; the treaty of xanten. the ambassadors and other commissioners, disgusted with the long controversy which ensued, were making up their minds to depart when a courier arrived from spain, bringing not a ratification but strict prohibition of the treaty. the articles were not to be executed, no change whatever was to be made, and, above all, wesel was not to be restored without fresh negotiations with philip, followed by his explicit concurrence. thus the whole great negotiation began to dissolve into a shadowy, unsatisfactory pageant. the solid barriers which were to imprison the vast threatening elements of religious animosity and dynastic hatreds, and to secure a peaceful future for christendom, melted into films of gossamer, and the great war of demons, no longer to be quelled by the commonplaces of diplomatic exorcism, revealed its close approach. the prospects of europe grew blacker than ever. the ambassadors, thoroughly disheartened and disgusted, all took their departure from xanten, and the treaty remained rather a by-word than a solution or even a suggestion. "the accord could not be prevented," wrote archduke albert to philip, "because it depended alone on the will of the signers. nor can the promise to restore wesel be violated, should julich be restored. who can doubt that such contravention would arouse great jealousies in france, england, the united provinces, and all the members of the heretic league of germany? who can dispute that those interested ought to procure the execution of the treaty? suspicions will not remain suspicions, but they light up the flames of public evil and disturbance. either your majesty wishes to maintain the truce, in which case wesel must be restored, or to break the truce, a result which is certain if wesel be retained. but the reasons which induced your majesty to lay down your arms remain the same as ever. our affairs are not looking better, nor is the requisition of wesel of so great importance as to justify our involving flanders in a new and more atrocious war than that which has so lately been suspended. the restitution is due to the tribunal of public faith. it is a great advantage when actions done for the sole end of justice are united to that of utility. consider the great successes we have had. how well the affairs of aachen and mulbeim have been arranged; those of the duke of neuburg how completely re-established. the catholic cause, always identical with that of the house of austria, remains in great superiority to the cause of the heretics. we should use these advantages well, and to do so we should not immaturely pursue greater ones. fortune changes, flies when we most depend on her, and delights in making her chief sport of the highest quality of mortals." thus wrote the archduke sensibly, honourably from his point of view, and with an intelligent regard to the interests of spain and the catholic cause. after months of delay came conditional consent from madrid to the conventions, but with express condition that there should be absolute undertaking on the part of the united provinces never to send or maintain troops in the duchies. tedious and futile correspondence followed between brussels, the hague, london, paris. but the difficulties grew every moment. it was a penelope's web of negotiation, said one of the envoys. amid pertinacious and wire-drawn subtleties, every trace of practical business vanished. neuburg departed to look after his patrimonial estates; leaving his interests in the duchies to be watched over by the archduke. even count zollern, after six months of wrangling in brussels, took his departure. prince maurice distributed his army in various places within the debateable land, and spinola did the same, leaving a garrison of foot and horse in the important city of wesel. the town and citadel of julich were as firmly held by maurice for the protestant cause. thus the duchies were jointly occupied by the forces of catholicism and protestantism, while nominally possessed and administered by the princes of brandenburg and neuburg. and so they were destined to remain until that thirty years' war, now so near its outbreak, should sweep over the earth, and bring its fiery solution at last to all these great debates. chapter vii. proud position of the republic--france obeys her--hatred of carleton --position and character of aerssens--claim for the "third"--recall of aerssens--rivalry between maurice and barneveld, who always sustains the separate sovereignties of the provinces--conflict between church and state added to other elements of discord in the commonwealth--religion a necessary element in the life of all classes. thus the republic had placed itself in as proud a position as it was possible for commonwealth or kingdom to occupy. it had dictated the policy and directed the combined military movements of protestantism. it had gathered into a solid mass the various elements out of which the great germanic mutiny against rome, spain, and austria had been compounded. a breathing space of uncertain duration had come to interrupt and postpone the general and inevitable conflict. meantime the republic was encamped upon the enemy's soil. france, which had hitherto commanded, now obeyed. england, vacillating and discontented, now threatening and now cajoling, saw for the time at least its influence over the councils of the netherlands neutralized by the genius of the great statesman who still governed the provinces, supreme in all but name. the hatred of the british government towards the republic, while in reality more malignant than at any previous period, could now only find vent in tremendous, theological pamphlets, composed by the king in the form of diplomatic instructions, and hurled almost weekly at the heads of the states-general, by his ambassador, dudley carleton. few men hated barneveld more bitterly than did carleton. i wish to describe as rapidly, but as faithfully, as i can the outline at least of the events by which one of the saddest and most superfluous catastrophes in modern history was brought about. the web was a complex one, wrought apparently of many materials; but the more completely it is unravelled the more clearly we shall detect the presence of the few simple but elemental fibres which make up the tissue of most human destinies, whether illustrious or obscure, and out of which the most moving pictures of human history are composed. the religious element, which seems at first view to be the all pervading and controlling one, is in reality rather the atmosphere which surrounds and colours than the essence which constitutes the tragedy to be delineated. personal, sometimes even paltry, jealousy; love of power, of money, of place; rivalry between civil and military ambition for predominance in a free state; struggles between church and state to control and oppress each other; conflict between the cautious and healthy, but provincial and centrifugal, spirit on the one side, and the ardent centralizing, imperial, but dangerous, instinct on the other, for ascendancy in a federation; mortal combat between aristocracy disguised in the plebeian form of trading and political corporations and democracy sheltering itself under a famous sword and an ancient and illustrious name;--all these principles and passions will be found hotly at work in the melancholy five years with which we are now to be occupied, as they have entered, and will always enter, into every political combination in the great tragi-comedy which we call human history. as a study, a lesson, and a warning, perhaps the fate of barneveld is as deserving of serious attention as most political tragedies of the last few centuries. francis aerssens, as we have seen, continued to be the dutch ambassador after the murder of henry iv. many of the preceding pages of this volume have been occupied with his opinions, his pictures, his conversations, and his political intrigues during a memorable epoch in the history of the netherlands and of france. he was beyond all doubt one of the ablest diplomatists in europe. versed in many languages, a classical student, familiar with history and international law, a man of the world and familiar with its usages, accustomed to associate with dignity and tact on friendliest terms with sovereigns, eminent statesmen, and men of letters; endowed with a facile tongue, a fluent pen, and an eye and ear of singular acuteness and delicacy; distinguished for unflagging industry and singular aptitude for secret and intricate affairs;--he had by the exercise of these various qualities during a period of nearly twenty years at the court of henry the great been able to render inestimable services to the republic which he represented. of respectable but not distinguished lineage, not a hollander, but a belgian by birth, son of cornelis aerssens, grefter of the states-general, long employed in that important post, he had been brought forward from a youth by barneveld and early placed by him in the diplomatic career, of which through his favour and his own eminent talents he had now achieved the highest honours. he had enjoyed the intimacy and even the confidence of henry iv., so far as any man could be said to possess that monarch's confidence, and his friendly relations and familiar access to the king gave him political advantages superior to those of any of his colleagues at the same court. acting entirely and faithfully according to the instructions of the advocate of holland, he always gratefully and copiously acknowledged the privilege of being guided and sustained in the difficult paths he had to traverse by so powerful and active an intellect. i have seldom alluded in terms to the instructions and despatches of the chief, but every position, negotiation, and opinion of the envoy--and the reader has seen many of them--is pervaded by their spirit. certainly the correspondence of aerssens is full to overflowing of gratitude, respect, fervent attachment to the person and exalted appreciation of the intellect and high character of the advocate. there can be no question of aerssen's consummate abilities. whether his heart were as sound as his head, whether his protestations of devotion had the ring of true gold or not, time would show. hitherto barneveld had not doubted him, nor had he found cause to murmur at barneveld. but the france of henry iv., where the dutch envoy was so all-powerful, had ceased to exist. a duller eye than that of aerssens could have seen at a glance that the potent kingdom and firm ally of the republic had been converted, for a long time to come at least, into a spanish province. the double spanish marriages (that of the young louis xiii. with the infanta anna, and of his sister with the infante, one day to be philip iv.), were now certain, for it was to make them certain that the knife of ravaillac had been employed. the condition precedent to those marriages had long been known. it was the renunciation of the alliance between france and holland. it was the condemnation to death, so far as france had the power to condemn her to death, of the young republic. had not don pedro de toledo pompously announced this condition a year and a half before? had not henry spurned the bribe with scorn? and now had not francis aerssens been the first to communicate to his masters the fruit which had already ripened upon henry's grave? as we have seen, he had revealed these intrigues long before they were known to the world, and the french court knew that he had revealed them. his position had become untenable. his friendship for henry could not be of use to him with the delicate-featured, double-chinned, smooth and sluggish florentine, who had passively authorized and actively profited by her husband's murder. it was time for the envoy to be gone. the queen-regent and concini thought so. and so did villeroy and sillery and the rest of the old servants of the king, now become pensionaries of spain. but aerssens did not think so. he liked his position, changed as it was. he was deep in the plottings of bouillon and conde and the other malcontents against the queen-regent. these schemes, being entirely personal, the rank growth of the corruption and apparent disintegration of france, were perpetually changing, and could be reduced to no principle. it was a mere struggle of the great lords of france to wrest places, money, governments, military commands from the queen-regent, and frantic attempts on her part to save as much as possible of the general wreck for her lord and master concini. it was ridiculous to ascribe any intense desire on the part of the duc de bouillon to aid the protestant cause against spain at that moment, acting as he was in combination with conde, whom we have just seen employed by spain as the chief instrument to effect the destruction of france and the bastardy of the queen's children. nor did the sincere and devout protestants who had clung to the cause through good and bad report, men like duplessis-mornay, for example, and those who usually acted with him, believe in any of these schemes for partitioning france on pretence of saving protestantism. but bouillon, greatest of all french fishermen in troubled waters, was brother-in-law of prince maurice of nassau, and aerssens instinctively felt that the time had come when he should anchor himself to firm holding ground at home. the ambassador had also a personal grievance. many of his most secret despatches to the states-general in which he expressed himself very freely, forcibly, and accurately on the general situation in france, especially in regard to the spanish marriages and the treaty of hampton court, had been transcribed at the hague and copies of them sent to the french government. no baser act of treachery to an envoy could be imagined. it was not surprising that aerssens complained bitterly of the deed. he secretly suspected barneveld, but with injustice, of having played him this evil turn, and the incident first planted the seeds of the deadly hatred which was to bear such fatal fruit. "a notable treason has been played upon me," he wrote to jacques de maldere, "which has outraged my heart. all the despatches which i have been sending for several months to m. de barneveld have been communicated by copy in whole or in extracts to this court. villeroy quoted from them at our interview to-day, and i was left as it were without power of reply. the despatches were long, solid, omitting no particularity for giving means to form the best judgment of the designs and intrigues of this court. no greater damage could be done to me and my usefulness. all those from whom i have hitherto derived information, princes and great personages, will shut themselves up from me . . . . what can be more ticklish than to pass judgment on the tricks of those who are governing this state? this single blow has knocked me down completely. for i was moving about among all of them, making my profit of all, without any reserve. m. de barneveld knew by this means the condition of this kingdom as well as i do. certainly in a well-ordered republic it would cost the life of a man who had thus trifled with the reputation of an ambassador. i believe m. de barneveld will be sorry, but this will never restore to me the confidence which i have lost. if one was jealous of my position at this court, certainly i deserved rather pity from those who should contemplate it closely. if one wished to procure my downfall in order to raise oneself above me, there was no need of these tricks. i have been offering to resign my embassy this long time, which will now produce nothing but thorns for me. how can i negotiate after my private despatches have been read? l'hoste, the clerk of villeroy, was not so great a criminal as the man who revealed my despatches; and l'hoste was torn by four horses after his death. four months long i have been complaining of this to m. de barneveld. . . . patience! i am groaning without being able to hope for justice. i console myself, for my term of office will soon arrive. would that my embassy could have finished under the agreeable and friendly circumstances with which it began. the man who may succeed me will not find that this vile trick will help him much. . . . pray find out whence and from whom this intrigue has come." certainly an envoy's position could hardly be more utterly compromised. most unquestionably aerssens had reason to be indignant, believing as he did that his conscientious efforts in the service of his government had been made use of by his chief to undermine his credit and blast his character. there was an intrigue between the newly appointed french minister, de russy, at the hague and the enemies of aerssens to represent him to his own government as mischievous, passionate, unreasonably vehement in supporting the claims and dignity of his own country at the court to which he was accredited. not often in diplomatic history has an ambassador of a free state been censured or removed for believing and maintaining in controversy that his own government is in the right. it was natural that the french government should be disturbed by the vivid light which he had flashed upon their pernicious intrigues with spain to the detriment of the republic, and at the pertinacity with which he resisted their preposterous claim to be reimbursed for one-third of the money which the late king had advanced as a free subsidy towards the war of the netherlands for independence. but no injustice could be more outrageous than for the envoy's own government to unite with the foreign state in damaging the character of its own agent for the crime of fidelity to itself. of such cruel perfidy aerssens had been the victim, and he most wrongfully suspected his chief as its real perpetrator. the claim for what was called the "third" had been invented after the death of henry. as already explained, the "third" was not a gift from england to the netherlands. it was a loan from england to france, or more properly a consent to abstain from pressing for payment for this proportion of an old debt. james, who was always needy, had often desired, but never obtained, the payment of this sum from henry. now that the king was dead, he applied to the regent's government, and the regent's government called upon the netherlands, to pay the money. aerssens, as the agent of the republic, protested firmly against such claim. the money had been advanced by the king as a free gift, as his contribution to a war in which he was deeply interested, although he was nominally at peace with spain. as to the private arrangements between france and england, the republic, said the dutch envoy, was in no sense bound by them. he was no party to the treaty of hampton court, and knew nothing of its stipulations. courtiers and politicians in plenty at the french court, now that henry was dead, were quite sure that they had heard him say over and over again that the netherlands had bound themselves to pay the third. they persuaded mary de' medici that she likewise had often heard him say so, and induced her to take high ground on the subject in her interviews with aerssens. the luckless queen, who was always in want of money to satisfy the insatiable greed of her favourites, and to buy off the enmity of the great princes, was very vehement--although she knew as much of those transactions as of the finances of prester john or the lama of thibet--in maintaining this claim of her government upon the states. "after talking with the ministers," said aerssens, "i had an interview with the queen. i knew that she had been taught her lesson, to insist on the payment of the third. so i did not speak at all of the matter, but talked exclusively and at length of the french regiments in the states' service. she was embarrassed, and did not know exactly what to say. at last, without replying a single word to what i had been saying, she became very red in the face, and asked me if i were not instructed to speak of the money due to england. whereupon i spoke in the sense already indicated. she interrupted me by saying she had a perfect recollection that the late king intended and understood that we were to pay the third to england, and had talked with her very seriously on the subject. if he were living, he would think it very strange, she said, that we refused; and so on. "soissons, too, pretends to remember perfectly that such were the king's intentions. 'tis a very strange thing, sir. every one knows now the secrets of the late king, if you are willing to listen. yet he was not in the habit of taking all the world into his confidence. the queen takes her opinions as they give them to her. 'tis a very good princess, but i am sorry she is so ignorant of affairs. as she says she remembers, one is obliged to say one believes her. but i, who knew the king so intimately, and saw him so constantly, know that he could only have said that the third was paid in acquittal of his debts to and for account of the king of england, and not that we were to make restitution thereof. the chancellor tells me my refusal has been taken as an affront by the queen, and puysieux says it is a contempt which she can't swallow." aerssens on his part remained firm; his pertinacity being the greater as he thoroughly understood the subject which he was talking about, an advantage which was rarely shared in by those with whom he conversed. the queen, highly scandalized by his demeanour, became from that time forth his bitter enemy, and, as already stated, was resolved to be rid of him. nor was the envoy at first desirous of remaining. he had felt after henry's death and sully's disgrace, and the complete transformation of the france which he had known, that his power of usefulness was gone. "our enemies," he said, "have got the advantage which i used to have in times past, and i recognize a great coldness towards us, which is increasing every day." nevertheless, he yielded reluctantly to barneveld's request that he should for the time at least remain at his post. later on, as the intrigues against him began to unfold themselves, and his faithful services were made use of at home to blacken his character and procure his removal, he refused to resign, as to do so would be to play into the hands of his enemies, and by inference at least to accuse himself of infidelity to his trust. but his concealed rage and his rancor grew more deadly every day. he was fully aware of the plots against him, although he found it difficult to trace them to their source. "i doubt not," he wrote to jacques de maldere, the distinguished diplomatist and senator, who had recently returned from his embassy to england, "that this beautiful proposition of de russy has been sent to your province of zealand. does it not seem to you a plot well woven as well in holland as at this court to remove me from my post with disreputation? what have i done that should cause the queen to disapprove my proceedings? since the death of the late king i have always opposed the third, which they have been trying to fix upon the treasury, on the ground that henry never spoke to me of restitution, that the receipts given were simple ones, and that the money given was spent for the common benefit of france and the states under direction of the king's government. but i am expected here to obey m. de villeroy, who says that it was the intention of the late king to oblige us to make the payment. i am not accustomed to obey authority if it be not supported by reason. it is for my masters to reply and to defend me. the queen has no reason to complain. i have maintained the interests of my superiors. but this is not the cause of the complaints. my misfortune is that all my despatches have been sent from holland in copy to this court. most of them contained free pictures of the condition and dealings of those who govern here. m. de villeroy has found himself depicted often, and now under pretext of a public negotiation he has found an opportunity of revenging himself. . . . besides this cause which villeroy has found for combing my head, russy has given notice here that i have kept my masters in the hopes of being honourably exempted from the claims of this government. the long letter which i wrote to m. de barneveld justifies my proceedings." it is no wonder that the ambassador was galled to the quick by the outrage which those concerned in the government were seeking to put upon him. how could an honest man fail to be overwhelmed with rage and anguish at being dishonoured before the world by his masters for scrupulously doing his duty, and for maintaining the rights and dignity of his own country? he knew that the charges were but pretexts, that the motives of his enemies were as base as the intrigues themselves, but he also knew that the world usually sides with the government against the individual, and that a man's reputation is rarely strong enough to maintain itself unsullied in a foreign land when his own government stretches forth its hand not to, shield, but to stab him. [see the similarity of aerssens position to that of motley years later, in the biographical sketch of motley by oliver wendell holmes. d.w.] "i know," he said, "that this plot has been woven partly in holland and partly here by good correspondence, in order to drive me from my post with disreputation. to this has tended the communication of my despatches to make me lose my best friends. this too was the object of the particular imparting to de russy of all my propositions, in order to draw a complaint against me from this court. "but as i have discovered this accurately, i have resolved to offer to my masters the continuance of my very humble service for such time and under such conditions as they may think good to prescribe. i prefer forcing my natural and private inclinations to giving an opportunity for the ministers of this kingdom to discredit us, and to my enemies to succeed in injuring me, and by fraud and malice to force me from my post . . . i am truly sorry, being ready to retire, wishing to have an honourable testimony in recompense of my labours, that one is in such hurry to take advantage of my fall. i cannot believe that my masters wish to suffer this. they are too prudent, and cannot be ignorant of the treachery which has been practised on me. i have maintained their cause. if they have chosen to throw down the fruits of my industry, the blame should be imputed to those who consider their own ambition more than the interests of the public . . . . what envoy will ever dare to speak with vigour if he is not sustained by the government at home? . . . . . . my enemies have misrepresented my actions, and my language as passionate, exaggerated, mischievous, but i have no passion except for the service of my superiors. they say that i have a dark and distrustful disposition, but i have been alarmed at the alliance now forming here with the king of spain, through the policy of m. de villeroy. i was the first to discover this intrigue, which they thought buried in the bosom of the triumvirate. i gave notice of it to my lords the states as in duty bound. it all came back to the government in the copies furnished of my secret despatches. this is the real source of the complaints against me. the rest of the charges, relating to the third and other matters, are but pretexts. to parry the blow, they pretend that all that is said and done with the spaniard is but feigning. who is going to believe that? has not the pope intervened in the affair? . . . i tell you they are furious here because i have my eyes open. i see too far into their affairs to suit their purposes. a new man would suit them better." his position was hopelessly compromised. he remained in paris, however, month after month, and even year after year, defying his enemies both at the queen's court and in holland, feeding fat the grudge he bore to barneveld as the supposed author of the intrigue against him, and drawing closer the personal bands which united him to bouillon and through him to prince maurice. the wrath of the ambassador flamed forth without disguise against barneveld and all his adherents when his removal, as will be related on a subsequent page, was at last effected. and his hatred was likely to be deadly. a man with a shrewd, vivid face, cleanly cut features and a restless eye; wearing a close-fitting skull cap, which gave him something the lock of a monk, but with the thoroughbred and facile demeanour of one familiar with the world; stealthy, smooth, and cruel, a man coldly intellectual, who feared no one, loved but few, and never forgot or forgave; francis d'aerssens, devoured by ambition and burning with revenge, was a dangerous enemy. time was soon to show whether it was safe to injure him. barneveld, from well-considered motives of public policy, was favouring his honourable recall. but he allowed a decorous interval of more than three years to elapse in which to terminate his affairs, and to take a deliberate departure from that french embassy to which the advocate had originally promoted him, and in which there had been so many years of mutual benefit and confidence between the two statesmen. he used no underhand means. he did not abuse the power of the states-general which he wielded to cast him suddenly and brutally from the distinguished post which he occupied, and so to attempt to dishonour him before the world. nothing could be more respectful and conciliatory than the attitude of the government from first to last towards this distinguished functionary. the republic respected itself too much to deal with honourable agents whose services it felt obliged to dispense with as with vulgar malefactors who had been detected in crime. but aerssens believed that it was the advocate who had caused copies of his despatches to be sent to the french court, and that he had deliberately and for a fixed purpose been undermining his influence at home and abroad and blackening his character. all his ancient feelings of devotion, if they had ever genuinely existed towards his former friend and patron, turned to gall. he was almost ready to deny that he had ever respected barneveld, appreciated his public services, admired his intellect, or felt gratitude for his guidance. a fierce controversy--to which at a later period it will be necessary to call the reader's attention, because it is intimately connected with dark scenes afterwards to be enacted--took place between the late ambassador and cornelis van der myle. meantime barneveld pursued the policy which he had marked out for the states-general in regard to france. certainly it was a difficult problem. there could be no doubt that metamorphosed france could only be a dangerous ally for the republic. it was in reality impossible that she should be her ally at all. and this barneveld knew. still it was better, so he thought, for the netherlands that france should exist than that it should fall into utter decomposition. france, though under the influence of spain, and doubly allied by marriage contracts to spain, was better than spain itself in the place of france. this seemed to be the only choice between two evils. should the whole weight of the states-general be thrown into the scale of the malcontent and mutinous princes against the established but tottering government of france, it was difficult to say how soon spain might literally, as well as inferentially, reign in paris. between the rebellion and the legitimate government, therefore, barneveld did not hesitate. france, corporate france, with which the republic had bean so long in close and mutually advantageous alliance, and from whose late monarch she had received such constant and valuable benefits, was in the advocate's opinion the only power to be recognised, papal and spanish though it was. the advantage of an alliance with the fickle, self-seeking, and ever changing mutiny, that was seeking to make use of protestantism to effect its own ends, was in his eyes rather specious than real. by this policy, while making the breach irreparable with aerssens and as many leading politicians as aerssens could influence, he first brought on himself the stupid accusation of swerving towards spain. dull murmurs like these, which were now but faintly making themselves heard against the reputation of the advocate, were destined ere long to swell into a mighty roar; but he hardly listened now to insinuations which seemed infinitely below his contempt. he still effectually ruled the nation through his influence in the states of holland, where he reigned supreme. thus far barneveld and my lords the states-general were one personage. but there was another great man in the state who had at last grown impatient of the advocate's power, and was secretly resolved to brook it no longer. maurice of nassau had felt himself too long rebuked by the genius of the advocate. the prince had perhaps never forgiven him for the political guardianship which he had exercised over him ever since the death of william the silent. he resented the leading strings by which his youthful footstep had been sustained, and which he seemed always to feel about his limbs so long as barneveld existed. he had never forgotten the unpalatable advice given to him by the advocate through the princess-dowager. the brief campaign in cleve and julich was the last great political operation in which the two were likely to act in even apparent harmony. but the rivalry between the two had already pronounced itself emphatically during the negotiations for the truce. the advocate had felt it absolutely necessary for the republic to suspend the war at the first moment when she could treat with her ancient sovereign on a footing of equality. spain, exhausted with the conflict, had at last consented to what she considered the humiliation of treating with her rebellious provinces as with free states over which she claimed no authority. the peace party, led by barneveld, had triumphed, notwithstanding the steady opposition of prince maurice and his adherents. why had maurice opposed the treaty? because his vocation was over, because he was the greatest captain of the age, because his emoluments, his consideration, his dignity before the world, his personal power, were all vastly greater in war than in his opinion they could possibly be in peace. it was easy for him to persuade himself that what was manifestly for his individual interest was likewise essential to the prosperity of the country. the diminution in his revenues consequent on the return to peace was made good to him, his brother, and his cousin, by most munificent endowments and pensions. and it was owing to the strenuous exertions of the advocate that these large sums were voted. a hollow friendship was kept up between the two during the first few years of the truce, but resentment and jealousy lay deep in maurice's heart. at about the period of the return of aerssens from his french embassy, the suppressed fire was ready to flame forth at the first fanning by that artful hand. it was impossible, so aerssens thought and whispered, that two heads could remain on one body politic. there was no room in the netherlands for both the advocate and the prince. barneveld was in all civil affairs dictator, chief magistrate, supreme judge; but he occupied this high station by the force of intellect, will, and experience, not through any constitutional provision. in time of war the prince was generalissimo, commander-in-chief of all the armies of the republic. yet constitutionally he was not captain-general at all. he was only stadholder of five out of seven provinces. barneveld suspected him of still wishing to make himself sovereign of the country. perhaps his suspicions were incorrect. yet there was every reason why maurice should be ambitious of that position. it would have been in accordance with the openly expressed desire of henry iv. and other powerful allies of the netherlands. his father's assassination had alone prevented his elevation to the rank of sovereign count of holland. the federal policy of the provinces had drifted into a republican form after their renunciation of their spanish sovereign, not because the people, or the states as representing the people, had deliberately chosen a republican system, but because they could get no powerful monarch to accept the sovereignty. they had offered to become subjects of protestant england and of catholic france. both powers had refused the offer, and refused it with something like contumely. however deep the subsequent regret on the part of both, there was no doubt of the fact. but the internal policy in all the provinces, and in all the towns, was republican. local self-government existed everywhere. each city magistracy was a little republic in itself. the death of william the silent, before he had been invested with the sovereign power of all seven provinces, again left that sovereignty in abeyance. was the supreme power of the union, created at utrecht in , vested in the states-general? they were beginning theoretically to claim it, but barneveld denied the existence of any such power either in law or fact. it was a league of sovereignties, he maintained; a confederacy of seven independent states, united for certain purposes by a treaty made some thirty years before. nothing could be more imbecile, judging by the light of subsequent events and the experience of centuries, than such an organization. the independent and sovereign republic of zealand or of groningen, for example, would have made a poor figure campaigning, or negotiating, or exhibiting itself on its own account before the world. yet it was difficult to show any charter, precedent, or prescription for the sovereignty of the states-general. necessary as such an incorporation was for the very existence of the union, no constitutional union had ever been enacted. practically the province of holland, representing more than half the population, wealth, strength, and intellect of the whole confederation, had achieved an irregular supremacy in the states-general. but its undeniable superiority was now causing a rank growth of envy, hatred, and jealousy throughout the country, and the great advocate of holland, who was identified with the province, and had so long wielded its power, was beginning to reap the full harvest of that malice. thus while there was so much of vagueness in theory and practice as to the sovereignty, there was nothing criminal on the part of maurice if he was ambitious of obtaining the sovereignty himself. he was not seeking to compass it by base artifice or by intrigue of any kind. it was very natural that he should be restive under the dictatorship of the advocate. if a single burgher and lawyer could make himself despot of the netherlands, how much more reasonable that he--with the noblest blood of europe in his veins, whose direct ancestor three centuries before had been emperor not only of those provinces, but of all germany and half christendom besides, whose immortal father had under god been the creator and saviour of the new commonwealth, had made sacrifices such as man never made for a people, and had at last laid down his life in its defence; who had himself fought daily from boyhood upwards in the great cause, who had led national armies from victory to victory till he had placed his country as a military school and a belligerent power foremost among the nations, and had at last so exhausted and humbled the great adversary and former tyrant that he had been glad of a truce while the rebel chief would have preferred to continue the war--should aspire to rule by hereditary right a land with which his name and his race were indelibly associated by countless sacrifices and heroic achievements. it was no crime in maurice to desire the sovereignty. it was still less a crime in barneveld to believe that he desired it. there was no special reason why the prince should love the republican form of government provided that an hereditary one could be legally substituted for it. he had sworn allegiance to the statutes, customs, and privileges of each of the provinces of which he had been elected stadholder, but there would have been no treason on his part if the name and dignity of stadholder should be changed by the states themselves for those of king or sovereign prince. yet it was a chief grievance against the advocate on the part of the prince that barneveld believed him capable of this ambition. the republic existed as a fact, but it had not long existed, nor had it ever received a formal baptism. so undefined was its constitution, and so conflicting were the various opinions in regard to it of eminent men, that it would be difficult to say how high-treason could be committed against it. great lawyers of highest intellect and learning believed the sovereign power to reside in the separate states, others found that sovereignty in the city magistracies, while during a feverish period of war and tumult the supreme function had without any written constitution, any organic law, practically devolved upon the states-general, who had now begun to claim it as a right. the republic was neither venerable by age nor impregnable in law. it was an improvised aristocracy of lawyers, manufacturers, bankers, and corporations which had done immense work and exhibited astonishing sagacity and courage, but which might never have achieved the independence of the provinces unaided by the sword of orange-nassau and the magic spell which belonged to that name. thus a bitter conflict was rapidly developing itself in the heart of the commonwealth. there was the civil element struggling with the military for predominance; sword against gown; states' rights against central authority; peace against war; above all the rivalry of one prominent personage against another, whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans. and now another element of discord had come, more potent than all the rest: the terrible, never ending, struggle of church against state. theological hatred which forty years long had found vent in the exchange of acrimony between the ancient and the reformed churches was now assuming other shapes. religion in that age and country was more than has often been the case in history the atmosphere of men's daily lives. but during the great war for independence, although the hostility between the two religious forces was always intense, it was modified especially towards the close of the struggle by other controlling influences. the love of independence and the passion for nationality, the devotion to ancient political privileges, was often as fervid and genuine in catholic bosoms as in those of protestants, and sincere adherents of the ancient church had fought to the death against spain in defence of chartered rights. at that very moment it is probable that half the population of the united provinces was catholic. yet it would be ridiculous to deny that the aggressive, uncompromising; self-sacrificing, intensely believing, perfectly fearless spirit of calvinism had been the animating soul, the motive power of the great revolt. for the provinces to have encountered spain and rome without calvinism, and relying upon municipal enthusiasm only, would have been to throw away the sword and fight with the scabbard. but it is equally certain that those hot gospellers who had suffered so much martyrdom and achieved so many miracles were fully aware of their power and despotic in its exercise. against the oligarchy of commercial and juridical corporations they stood there the most terrible aristocracy of all: the aristocracy of god's elect, predestined from all time and to all eternity to take precedence of and to look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures. it was inevitable that this aristocracy, which had done so much, which had breathed into a new-born commonwealth the breath of its life, should be intolerant, haughty, dogmatic. the church of rome, which had been dethroned after inflicting such exquisite tortures during its period of power, was not to raise its head. although so large a proportion of the inhabitants of the country were secretly or openly attached to that faith, it was a penal offence to participate openly in its rites and ceremonies. religious equality, except in the minds of a few individuals, was an unimaginable idea. there was still one church which arrogated to itself the sole possession of truth, the church of geneva. those who admitted the possibility of other forms and creeds were either atheists or, what was deemed worse than atheists, papists, because papists were assumed to be traitors also, and desirous of selling the country to spain. an undevout man in that land and at that epoch was an almost unknown phenomenon. religion was as much a recognized necessity of existence as food or drink. it were as easy to find people about without clothes as without religious convictions. the advocate, who had always adhered to the humble spirit of his ancestral device, "nil scire tutissima fedes," and almost alone among his fellow citizens (save those immediate apostles and pupils of his who became involved in his fate) in favour of religious toleration, began to be suspected of treason and papacy because, had he been able to give the law, it was thought he would have permitted such horrors as the public exercise of the roman catholic religion. the hissings and screamings of the vulgar against him as he moved forward on his stedfast course he heeded less than those of geese on a common. but there was coming a time when this proud and scornful statesman, conscious of the superiority conferred by great talents and unparalleled experience, would find it less easy to treat the voice of slanderers, whether idiots or powerful and intellectual enemies, with contempt. chapter viii. schism in the church a public fact--struggle for power between the sacerdotal and political orders--dispute between arminius and gomarus--rage of james i. at the appointment of voratius--arminians called remonstrants--hague conference--contra-remonstrance by gomarites of seven points to the remonstrants' five--fierce theological disputes throughout the country--ryswyk secession-- maurice wishes to remain neutral, but finds himself the chieftain of the contra-remonstrant party--the states of holland remonstrant by a large majority--the states-general contra-remonstrant--sir ralph winwood leaves the hague--three armies to take the field against protestantism. schism in the church had become a public fact, and theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country. the great practical question in the church had been as to the appointment of preachers, wardens, schoolmasters, and other officers. by the ecclesiastical arrangements of great power was conceded to the civil authority in church matters, especially in regard to such appointments, which were made by a commission consisting of four members named by the churches and four by the magistrates in each district. barneveld, who above all things desired peace in the church, had wished to revive this ordinance, and in it had been resolved by the states of holland that each city or village should, if the magistracy approved, provisionally conform to it. the states of utrecht made at the same time a similar arrangement. it was the controversy which has been going on since the beginning of history and is likely to be prolonged to the end of time--the struggle for power between the sacerdotal and political orders; the controversy whether priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests. this was the practical question involved in the fierce dispute as to dogma. the famous duel between arminius and gomarus; the splendid theological tournaments which succeeded; six champions on a side armed in full theological panoply and swinging the sharpest curtal axes which learning, passion, and acute intellect could devise, had as yet produced no beneficent result. nobody had been convinced by the shock of argument, by the exchange of those desperate blows. the high council of the hague had declared that no difference of opinion in the church existed sufficient to prevent fraternal harmony and happiness. but gomarus loudly declared that, if there were no means of putting down the heresy of arminius, there would before long be a struggle such as would set province against province, village against village, family against family, throughout the land. he should be afraid to die in such doctrine. he shuddered that any one should dare to come before god's tribunal with such blasphemies. meantime his great adversary, the learned and eloquent, the musical, frolicsome, hospitable heresiarch was no more. worn out with controversy, but peaceful and happy in the convictions which were so bitterly denounced by gomarus and a large proportion of both preachers and laymen in the netherlands, and convinced that the schism which in his view had been created by those who called themselves the orthodox would weaken the cause of protestantism throughout europe, arminius died at the age of forty-nine. the magistrates throughout holland, with the exception of a few cities, were arminian, the preachers gomarian; for arminius ascribed to the civil authority the right to decide upon church matters, while gomarus maintained that ecclesiastical affairs should be regulated in ecclesiastical assemblies. the overseers of leyden university appointed conrad vorstius to be professor of theology in place of arminius. the selection filled to the brim the cup of bitterness, for no man was more audaciously latitudinarian than he. he was even suspected of socinianism. there came a shriek from king james, fierce and shrill enough to rouse arminius from his grave. james foamed to the mouth at the insolence of the overseers in appointing such a monster of infidelity to the professorship. he ordered his books to be publicly burned in st. paul's churchyard and at both universities, and would have burned the professor himself with as much delight as torquemada or peter titelman ever felt in roasting their victims, had not the day for such festivities gone by. he ordered the states of holland on pain of for ever forfeiting his friendship to exclude vorstius at once from the theological chair and to forbid him from "nestling anywhere in the country." he declared his amazement that they should tolerate such a pest as conrad vorstius. had they not had enough of the seed sown by that foe of god, arminius? he ordered the states-general to chase the blasphemous monster from the land, or else he would cut off all connection with their false and heretic churches and make the other reformed churches of europe do the same, nor should the youth of england ever be allowed to frequent the university of leyden. in point of fact the professor was never allowed to qualify, to preach, or to teach; so tremendous was the outcry of peter plancius and many orthodox preachers, echoing the wrath of the king. he lived at gouda in a private capacity for several years, until the synod of dordrecht at last publicly condemned his opinions and deprived him of his professorship. meantime, the preachers who were disciples of arminius had in a private assembly drawn up what was called a remonstrance, addressed to the states of holland, and defending themselves from the reproach that they were seeking change in the divine service and desirous of creating tumult and schism. this remonstrance, set forth by the pen of the famous uytenbogaert, whom gomarus called the court trumpeter, because for a long time he had been prince maurice's favourite preacher, was placed in the hands of barneveld, for delivery to the states of holland. thenceforth the arminians were called remonstrants. the hague conference followed, six preachers on a side, and the states of holland exhorted to fraternal compromise. until further notice, they decreed that no man should be required to believe more than had been laid down in the five points: i. god has from eternity resolved to choose to eternal life those who through his grace believe in jesus christ, and in faith and obedience so continue to the end, and to condemn the unbelieving and unconverted to eternal damnation. ii. jesus christ died for all; so, nevertheless, that no one actually except believers is redeemed by his death. iii. man has not the saving belief from himself, nor out of his free will, but he needs thereto god's grace in christ. iv. this grace is the beginning, continuation, and completion of man's salvation; all good deeds must be ascribed to it, but it does not work irresistibly. v. god's grace gives sufficient strength to the true believers to overcome evil; but whether they cannot lose grace should be more closely examined before it should be taught in full security. afterwards they expressed themselves more distinctly on this point, and declared that a true believer, through his own fault, can fall away from god and lose faith. before the conference, however, the gomarite preachers had drawn up a contra-remonstrance of seven points in opposition to the remonstrants' five. they demanded the holding of a national synod to settle the difference between these five and seven points, or the sending of them to foreign universities for arbitration, a mutual promise being given by the contending parties to abide by the decision. thus much it has been necessary to state concerning what in the seventeenth century was called the platform of the two great parties: a term which has been perpetuated in our own country, and is familiar to all the world in the nineteenth. these were the seven points: i. god has chosen from eternity certain persons out of the human race, which in and with adam fell into sin and has no more power to believe and convert itself than a dead man to restore himself to life, in order to make them blessed through christ; while he passes by the rest through his righteous judgment, and leaves them lying in their sins. ii. children of believing parents, as well as full-grown believers, are to be considered as elect so long as they with action do not prove the contrary. iii. god in his election has not looked at the belief and the repentance of the elect; but, on the contrary, in his eternal and unchangeable design, has resolved to give to the elect faith and stedfastness, and thus to make them blessed. iv. he, to this end, in the first place, presented to them his only begotten son, whose sufferings, although sufficient for the expiation of all men's sins, nevertheless, according to god's decree, serves alone to the reconciliation of the elect. v. god causest he gospel to be preached to them, making the same through the holy ghost, of strength upon their minds; so that they not merely obtain power to repent and to believe, but also actually and voluntarily do repent and believe. vi. such elect, through the same power of the holy ghost through which they have once become repentant and believing, are kept in such wise that they indeed through weakness fall into heavy sins; but can never wholly and for always lose the true faith. vii. true believers from this, however, draw no reason for fleshly quiet, it being impossible that they who through a true faith were planted in christ should bring forth no fruits of thankfulness; the promises of god's help and the warnings of scripture tending to make their salvation work in them in fear and trembling, and to cause them more earnestly to desire help from that spirit without which they can do nothing. there shall be no more setting forth of these subtle and finely wrought abstractions in our pages. we aspire not to the lofty heights of theological and supernatural contemplation, where the atmosphere becomes too rarefied for ordinary constitutions. rather we attempt an objective and level survey of remarkable phenomena manifesting themselves on the earth; direct or secondary emanations from those distant spheres. for in those days, and in that land especially, theology and politics were one. it may be questioned at least whether this practical fusion of elements, which may with more safety to the commonwealth be kept separate, did not tend quite as much to lower and contaminate the religious sentiments as to elevate the political idea. to mix habitually the solemn phraseology which men love to reserve for their highest and most sacred needs with the familiar slang of politics and trade seems to our generation not a very desirable proceeding. the aroma of doubly distilled and highly sublimated dogma is more difficult to catch than to comprehend the broader and more practical distinctions of every-day party strife. king james was furious at the thought that common men--the vulgar, the people in short--should dare to discuss deep problems of divinity which, as he confessed, had puzzled even his royal mind. barneveld modestly disclaimed the power of seeing with absolute clearness into things beyond the reach of the human intellect. but the honest netherlanders were not abashed by thunder from the royal pulpit, nor perplexed by hesitations which darkened the soul of the great advocate. in burghers' mansions, peasants' cottages, mechanics' back-parlours, on board herring smacks, canal boats, and east indiamen; in shops, counting-rooms, farmyards, guard-rooms, ale-houses; on the exchange, in the tennis-court, on the mall; at banquets, at burials, christenings, or bridals; wherever and whenever human creatures met each other, there was ever to be found the fierce wrangle of remonstrant and contra-remonstrant, the hissing of red-hot theological rhetoric, the pelting of hostile texts. the blacksmith's iron cooled on the anvil, the tinker dropped a kettle half mended, the broker left a bargain unclinched, the scheveningen fisherman in his wooden shoes forgot the cracks in his pinkie, while each paused to hold high converse with friend or foe on fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge; losing himself in wandering mazes whence there was no issue. province against province, city against city, family against family; it was one vast scene of bickering, denunciation, heart-burnings, mutual excommunication and hatred. alas! a generation of mankind before, men had stood banded together to resist, with all the might that comes from union, the fell spirit of the holy inquisition, which was dooming all who had wandered from the ancient fold or resisted foreign tyranny to the axe, the faggot, the living grave. there had been small leisure then for men who fought for fatherland, and for comparative liberty of conscience, to tear each others' characters in pieces, and to indulge in mutual hatreds and loathing on the question of predestination. as a rule the population, especially of the humbler classes, and a great majority of the preachers were contra-remonstrant; the magistrates, the burgher patricians, were remonstrant. in holland the controlling influence was remonstrant; but amsterdam and four or five other cities of that province held to the opposite doctrine. these cities formed therefore a small minority in the states assembly of holland sustained by a large majority in the states-general. the province of utrecht was almost unanimously remonstrant. the five other provinces were decidedly contra-remonstrant. it is obvious therefore that the influence of barneveld, hitherto so all-controlling in the states-general, and which rested on the complete submission of the states of holland to his will, was tottering. the battle-line between church and state was now drawn up; and it was at the same time a battle between the union and the principles of state sovereignty. it had long since been declared through the mouth of the advocate, but in a solemn state manifesto, that my lords the states-general were the foster-fathers and the natural protectors of the church, to whom supreme authority in church matters belonged. the contra-remonstrants, on the other hand, maintained that all the various churches made up one indivisible church, seated above the states, whether provincial or general, and governed by the holy ghost acting directly upon the congregations. as the schism grew deeper and the states-general receded from the position which they had taken up under the lead of the advocate, the scene was changed. a majority of the provinces being contra-remonstrant, and therefore in favour of a national synod, the states-general as a body were of necessity for the synod. it was felt by the clergy that, if many churches existed, they would all remain subject to the civil authority. the power of the priesthood would thus sink before that of the burgher aristocracy. there must be one church--the church of geneva and heidelberg--if that theocracy which the gomarites meant to establish was not to vanish as a dream. it was founded on divine right, and knew no chief magistrate but the holy ghost. a few years before the states-general had agreed to a national synod, but with a condition that there should be revision of the netherland confession and the heidelberg catechism. against this the orthodox infallibilists had protested and thundered, because it was an admission that the vile arminian heresy might perhaps be declared correct. it was now however a matter of certainty that the states-general would cease to oppose the unconditional synod, because the majority sided with the priesthood. the magistrates of leyden had not long before opposed the demand for a synod on the ground that the war against spain was not undertaken to maintain one sect; that men of various sects and creeds had fought with equal valour against the common foe; that religious compulsion was hateful, and that no synod had a right to claim netherlanders as slaves. to thoughtful politicians like barneveld, hugo grotius, and men who acted with them, fraught with danger to the state, that seemed a doctrine by which mankind were not regarded as saved or doomed according to belief or deeds, but as individuals divided from all eternity into two classes which could never be united, but must ever mutually regard each other as enemies. and like enemies netherlanders were indeed beginning to regard each other. the man who, banded like brothers, had so heroically fought for two generations long for liberty against an almost superhuman despotism, now howling and jeering against each other like demons, seemed determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt. where the remonstrants were in the ascendant, they excited the hatred and disgust of the orthodox by their overbearing determination to carry their five points. a broker in rotterdam of the contra-remonstrant persuasion, being about to take a wife, swore he had rather be married by a pig than a parson. for this sparkling epigram he was punished by the remonstrant magistracy with loss of his citizenship for a year and the right to practise his trade for life. a casuistical tinker, expressing himself violently in the same city against the five points, and disrespectfully towards the magistrates for tolerating them, was banished from the town. a printer in the neighbourhood, disgusted with these and similar efforts of tyranny on the part of the dominant party, thrust a couple of lines of doggrel into the lottery: "in name of the prince of orange, i ask once and again, what difference between the inquisition of rotterdam and spain?" for this poetical effort the printer was sentenced to forfeit the prize that he had drawn in the lottery, and to be kept in prison on bread and water for a fortnight. certainly such punishments were hardly as severe as being beheaded or burned or buried alive, as would have been the lot of tinkers and printers and brokers who opposed the established church in the days of alva, but the demon of intolerance, although its fangs were drawn, still survived, and had taken possession of both parties in the reformed church. for it was the remonstrants who had possession of the churches at rotterdam, and the printer's distich is valuable as pointing out that the name of orange was beginning to identify itself with the contra-remonstrant faction. at this time, on the other hand, the gabble that barneveld had been bought by spanish gold, and was about to sell his country to spain, became louder than a whisper. men were not ashamed, from theological hatred, to utter such senseless calumnies against a venerable statesman whose long life had been devoted to the cause of his country's independence and to the death struggle with spain. as if because a man admitted the possibility of all his fellow-creatures being saved from damnation through repentance and the grace of god, he must inevitably be a traitor to his country and a pensionary of her deadliest foe. and where the contra-remonstrants held possession of the churches and the city governments, acts of tyranny which did not then seem ridiculous were of everyday occurrence. clergymen, suspected of the five points, were driven out of the pulpits with bludgeons or assailed with brickbats at the church door. at amsterdam, simon goulart, for preaching the doctrine of universal salvation and for disputing the eternal damnation of young children, was forbidden thenceforth to preach at all. but it was at the hague that the schism in religion and politics first fatally widened itself. henry rosaeus, an eloquent divine, disgusted with his colleague uytenbogaert, refused all communion with him, and was in consequence suspended. excluded from the great church, where he had formerly ministered, he preached every sunday at ryswyk, two or three miles distant. seven hundred contra-remonstrants of the hague followed their beloved pastor, and, as the roads to ryswyk were muddy and sloppy in winter, acquired the unsavoury nickname of the "mud beggars." the vulgarity of heart which suggested the appellation does not inspire to-day great sympathy with the remonstrant party, even if one were inclined to admit, what is not the fact, that they represented the cause of religious equality. for even the illustrious grotius was at that very moment repudiating the notion that there could be two religions in one state. "difference in public worship," he said, "was in kingdoms pernicious, but in free commonwealths in the highest degree destructive." it was the struggle between church and state for supremacy over the whole body politic. "the reformation," said grotius, "was not brought about by synods, but by kings, princes, and magistrates." it was the same eternal story, the same terrible two-edged weapon, "cujus reggio ejus religio," found in the arsenal of the first reformers, and in every politico-religious arsenal of history. "by an eternal decree of god," said gomarus in accordance with calvin, "it has been fixed who are to be saved and who damned. by his decree some are drawn to faith and godliness, and, being drawn, can never fall away. god leaves all the rest in the general corruption of human nature and their own misdeeds." "god has from eternity made this distinction in the fallen human race," said arminius, "that he pardons those who desist from their sins and put their faith in christ, and will give them eternal life, but will punish those who remain impenitent. moreover, it is pleasanter to god that all men should repent, and, coming to knowledge of truth, remain therein, but he compels none." this was the vital difference of dogma. and it was because they could hold no communion with those who believed in the efficacy of repentance that rosaeus and his followers had seceded to ryswyk, and the reformed church had been torn into two very unequal parts. but it is difficult to believe that out of this arid field of controversy so plentiful a harvest of hatred and civil convulsion could have ripened. more practical than the insoluble problems, whether repentance could effect salvation, and whether dead infants were hopelessly damned, was the question who should rule both church and state. there could be but one church. on that remonstrants and contra-remonstrants were agreed. but should the five points or the seven points obtain the mastery? should that framework of hammered iron, the confession and catechism, be maintained in all its rigidity around the sheepfold, or should the disciples of the arch-heretic arminius, the salvation-mongers, be permitted to prowl within it? was barneveld, who hated the reformed religion (so men told each other), and who believed in nothing, to continue dictator of the whole republic through his influence over one province, prescribing its religious dogmas and laying down its laws; or had not the time come for the states-general to vindicate the rights of the church, and to crush for ever the pernicious principle of state sovereignty and burgher oligarchy? the abyss was wide and deep, and the wild waves were raging more madly every hour. the advocate, anxious and troubled, but undismayed, did his best in the terrible emergency. he conferred with prince maurice on the subject of the ryswyk secession, and men said that he sought to impress upon him, as chief of the military forces, the necessity of putting down religious schism with the armed hand. the prince had not yet taken a decided position. he was still under the influence of john uytenbogaert, who with arminius and the advocate made up the fateful three from whom deadly disasters were deemed to have come upon the commonwealth. he wished to remain neutral. but no man can be neutral in civil contentions threatening the life of the body politic any more than the heart can be indifferent if the human frame is sawn in two. "i am a soldier," said maurice, "not a divine. these are matters of theology which i don't understand, and about which i don't trouble myself." on another occasion he is reported to have said, "i know nothing of predestination, whether it is green or whether it is blue; but i do know that the advocate's pipe and mine will never play the same tune." it was not long before he fully comprehended the part which he must necessarily play. to say that he was indifferent to religious matters was as ridiculous as to make a like charge against barneveld. both were religious men. it would have been almost impossible to find an irreligious character in that country, certainly not among its highest-placed and leading minds. maurice had strong intellectual powers. he was a regular attendant on divine worship, and was accustomed to hear daily religious discussions. to avoid them indeed, he would have been obliged not only to fly his country, but to leave europe. he had a profound reverence for the memory of his father, calbo y calbanista, as william the silent had called himself. but the great prince had died before these fierce disputes had torn the bosom of the reformed church, and while reformers still were brethren. but if maurice were a religious man, he was also a keen politician; a less capable politician, however, than a soldier, for he was confessedly the first captain of his age. he was not rapid in his conceptions, but he was sure in the end to comprehend his opportunity. the church, the people, the union--the sacerdotal, the democratic, and the national element--united under a name so potent to conjure with as the name of orange-nassau, was stronger than any other possible combination. instinctively and logically therefore the stadholder found himself the chieftain of the contra-remonstrant party, and without the necessity of an apostasy such as had been required of his great contemporary to make himself master of france. the power of barneveld and his partisans was now put to a severe strain. his efforts to bring back the hague seceders were powerless. the influence of uytenbogaert over the stadholder steadily diminished. he prayed to be relieved from his post in the great church of the hague, especially objecting to serve with a contra-remonstrant preacher whom maurice wished to officiate there in place of the seceding rosaeus. but the stadholder refused to let him go, fearing his influence in other places. "there is stuff in him," said maurice, "to outweigh half a dozen contra-remonstrant preachers." everywhere in holland the opponents of the five points refused to go to the churches, and set up tabernacles for themselves in barns, outhouses, canal-boats. and the authorities in town and village nailed up the barn-doors, and dispersed the canal boat congregations, while the populace pelted them with stones. the seceders appealed to the stadholder, pleading that at least they ought to be allowed to hear the word of god as they understood it without being forced into churches where they were obliged to hear arminian blasphemy. at least their barns might be left them. "barns," said maurice, "barns and outhouses! are we to preach in barns? the churches belong to us, and we mean to have them too." not long afterwards the stadholder, clapping his hand on his sword hilt, observed that these differences could only be settled by force of arms. an ominous remark and a dreary comment on the forty years' war against the inquisition. and the same scenes that were enacting in holland were going on in overyssel and friesland and groningen; but with a difference. here it was the five points men who were driven into secession, whose barns were nailed up, and whose preachers were mobbed. a lugubrious spectacle, but less painful certainly than the hangings and drownings and burnings alive in the previous century to prevent secession from the indivisible church. it is certain that stadholders and all other magistrates ever since the establishment of independence were sworn to maintain the reformed religion and to prevent a public divine worship under any other form. it is equally certain that by the th article of the act of union--the organic law of the confederation made at utrecht in --each province reserved for itself full control of religious questions. it would indeed seem almost unimaginable in a country where not only every province, but every city, every municipal board, was so jealous of its local privileges and traditional rights that the absolute disposition over the highest, gravest, and most difficult questions that can inspire and perplex humanity should be left to a general government, and one moreover which had scarcely come into existence. yet into this entirely illogical position the commonwealth was steadily drifting. the cause was simple enough. the states of holland, as already observed, were remonstrant by a large majority. the states-general were contra-remonstrant by a still greater majority. the church, rigidly attached to the confession and catechism, and refusing all change except through decree of a synod to be called by the general government which it controlled, represented the national idea. it thus identified itself with the republic, and was in sympathy with a large majority of the population. logic, law, historical tradition were on the side of the advocate and the states' right party. the instinct of national self-preservation, repudiating the narrow and destructive doctrine of provincial sovereignty, were on the side of the states-general and the church. meantime james of great britain had written letters both to the states of holland and the states-general expressing his satisfaction with the five points, and deciding that there was nothing objectionable in the doctrine of predestination therein set forth. he had recommended unity and peace in church and assembly, and urged especially that these controverted points should not be discussed in the pulpit to the irritation and perplexity of the common people. the king's letters had produced much satisfaction in the moderate party. barneveld and his followers were then still in the ascendant, and it seemed possible that the commonwealth might enjoy a few moments of tranquillity. that james had given a new exhibition of his astounding inconsistency was a matter very indifferent to all but himself, and he was the last man to trouble himself for that reproach. it might happen, when he should come to realize how absolutely he had obeyed the tuition of the advocate and favoured the party which he had been so vehemently opposing, that he might regret and prove willing to retract. but for the time being the course of politics had seemed running smoother. the acrimony of the relations between the english government and dominant party at the hague was sensibly diminished. the king seemed for an instant to have obtained a true insight into the nature of the struggle in the states. that it was after all less a theological than a political question which divided parties had at last dawned upon him. "if you have occasion to write on the subject," said barneveld, "it is above all necessary to make it clear that ecclesiastical persons and their affairs must stand under the direction of the sovereign authority, for our preachers understand that the disposal of ecclesiastical persons and affairs belongs to them, so that they alone are to appoint preachers, elders, deacons, and other clerical persons, and to regulate the whole ecclesiastical administration according to their pleasure or by a popular government which they call the community." "the counts of holland from all ancient times were never willing under the papacy to surrender their right of presentation to the churches and control of all spiritual and ecclesiastical benefices. the emperor charles and king philip even, as counts of holland, kept these rights to themselves, save that they in enfeoffing more than a hundred gentlemen, of noble and ancient families with seigniorial manors, enfeoffed them also with the right of presentation to churches and benefices on their respective estates. our preachers pretend to have won this right against the countship, the gentlemen, nobles, and others, and that it belongs to them." it is easy to see that this was a grave, constitutional, legal, and historical problem not to be solved offhand by vehement citations from scripture, nor by pragmatical dissertations from the lips of foreign ambassadors. "i believe this point," continued barneveld, "to be the most difficult question of all, importing far more than subtle searchings and conflicting sentiments as to passages of holy writ, or disputations concerning god's eternal predestination and other points thereupon depending. of these doctrines the archbishop of canterbury well observed in the conference of that one ought to teach them ascendendo and not descendendo." the letters of the king had been very favourably received both in the states-general and in the assembly of holland. "you will present the replies," wrote barneveld to the ambassador in london, "at the best opportunity and with becoming compliments. you may be assured and assure his majesty that they have been very agreeable to both assemblies. our commissioners over there on the east indian matter ought to know nothing of these letters." this statement is worthy of notice, as grotius was one of those commissioners, and, as will subsequently appear, was accused of being the author of the letters. "i understand from others," continued the advocate, "that the gentleman well known to you--[obviously francis aerssens]--is not well pleased that through other agency than his these letters have been written and presented. i think too that the other business is much against his grain, but on the whole since your departure he has accommodated himself to the situation." but if aerssens for the moment seemed quiet, the orthodox clergy were restive. "i know," said barneveld, "that some of our ministers are so audacious that of themselves, or through others, they mean to work by direct or indirect means against these letters. they mean to show likewise that there are other and greater differences of doctrine than those already discussed. you will keep a sharp eye on the sails and provide against the effect of counter-currents. to maintain the authority of their great mightinesses over ecclesiastical matters is more than necessary for the conservation of the country's welfare and of the true christian religion. as his majesty would not allow this principle to be controverted in his own realms, as his books clearly prove, so we trust that he will not find it good that it should be controverted in our state as sure to lead to a very disastrous and inequitable sequel." and a few weeks later the advocate and the whole party of toleration found themselves, as is so apt to be the case, between two fires. the catholics became as turbulent as the extreme calvinists, and already hopes were entertained by spanish emissaries and spies that this rapidly growing schism in the reformed church might be dexterously made use of to bring the provinces, when they should become fairly distracted, back to the dominion of spain. "our precise zealots in the reformed religion, on the one side," wrote barneveld, "and the jesuits on the other, are vigorously kindling the fire of discord. keep a good lookout for the countermine which is now working against the good advice of his majesty for mutual toleration. the publication of the letters was done without order, but i believe with good intent, in the hope that the vehemence and exorbitance of some precise puritans in our state should thereby be checked. that which is now doing against us in printed libels is the work of the aforesaid puritans and a few jesuits. the pretence in those libels, that there are other differences in the matter of doctrine, is mere fiction designed to make trouble and confusion." in the course of the autumn, sir ralph winwood departed from the hague, to assume soon afterwards in england the position of secretary of state for foreign affairs. he did not take personal farewell of barneveld, the advocate being absent in north holland at the moment, and detained there by indisposition. the leave-taking was therefore by letter. he had done much to injure the cause which the dutch statesman held vital to the republic, and in so doing he had faithfully carried out the instructions of his master. now that james had written these conciliatory letters to the states, recommending toleration, letters destined to be famous, barneveld was anxious that the retiring ambassador should foster the spirit of moderation, which for a moment prevailed at the british court. but he was not very hopeful in the matter. "mr. winwood is doubtless over there now," he wrote to caron. "he has promised in public and private to do all good offices. the states-general made him a present on his departure of the value of l . i fear nevertheless that he, especially in religious matters, will not do the best offices. for besides that he is himself very hard and precise, those who in this country are hard and precise have made a dead set at him, and tried to make him devoted to their cause, through many fictitious and untruthful means." the advocate, as so often before, sent assurances to the king that "the states-general, and especially the states of holland, were resolved to maintain the genuine reformed religion, and oppose all novelties and impurities conflicting with it," and the ambassador was instructed to see that the countermine, worked so industriously against his majesty's service and the honour and reputation of the provinces, did not prove successful. "to let the good mob play the master," he said, "and to permit hypocrites and traitors in the flemish manner to get possession of the government of the provinces and cities, and to cause upright patriots whose faith and truth has so long been proved, to be abandoned, by the blessing of god, shall never be accomplished. be of good heart, and cause these flemish tricks to be understood on every occasion, and let men know that we mean to maintain, with unchanging constancy, the authority of the government, the privileges and laws of the country, as well as the true reformed religion." the statesman was more than ever anxious for moderate counsels in the religious questions, for it was now more important than ever that there should be concord in the provinces, for the cause of protestantism, and with it the existence of the republic, seemed in greater danger than at any moment since the truce. it appeared certain that the alliance between france and spain had been arranged, and that the pope, spain, the grand-duke of tuscany, and their various adherents had organized a strong combination, and were enrolling large armies to take the field in the spring, against the protestant league of the princes and electors in germany. the great king was dead. the queen-regent was in the hand of spain, or dreamed at least of an impossible neutrality, while the priest who was one day to resume the part of henry, and to hang upon the sword of france the scales in which the opposing weights of protestantism and catholicism in europe were through so many awful years to be balanced, was still an obscure bishop. the premonitory signs of the great religious war in germany were not to be mistaken. in truth, the great conflict had already opened in the duchies, although few men as yet comprehended the full extent of that movement. the superficial imagined that questions of hereditary succession, like those involved in the dispute, were easily to be settled by statutes of descent, expounded by doctors of law, and sustained, if needful, by a couple of comparatively bloodless campaigns. those who looked more deeply into causes felt that the limitations of imperial authority, the ambition of a great republic, suddenly starting into existence out of nothing, and the great issues of the religious reformation, were matters not so easily arranged. when the scene shifted, as it was so soon to do, to the heart of bohemia, when protestantism had taken the holy roman empire by the beard in its ancient palace, and thrown imperial stadholders out of window, it would be evident to the blindest that something serious was taking place. meantime barneveld, ever watchful of passing events, knew that great forces of catholicism were marshalling in the south. three armies were to take the field against protestantism at the orders of spain and the pope. one at the door of the republic, and directed especially against the netherlands, was to resume the campaign in the duchies, and to prevent any aid going to protestant germany from great britain or from holland. another in the upper palatinate was to make the chief movement against the evangelical hosts. a third in austria was to keep down the protestant party in bohemia, hungary, austria, moravia, and silesia. to sustain this movement, it was understood that all the troops then in italy were to be kept all the winter on a war footing.' was this a time for the great protestant party in the netherlands to tear itself in pieces for a theological subtlety, about which good christians might differ without taking each other by the throat? "i do not lightly believe or fear," said the advocate, in communicating a survey of european affairs at that moment to carom "but present advices from abroad make me apprehend dangers." etext editor's bookmarks: aristocracy of god's elect determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt disputing the eternal damnation of young children fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge louis xiii. no man can be neutral in civil contentions no synod had a right to claim netherlanders as slaves philip iv. priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests schism in the church had become a public fact that cynical commerce in human lives the voice of slanderers theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country theology and politics were one to look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures whether dead infants were hopelessly damned whether repentance could effect salvation whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans work of the aforesaid puritans and a few jesuits the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. life of john of barneveld, - chapter ix. aerssens remains two years longer in france--derives many personal advantages from his post--he visits the states-general--aubery du maurier appointed french ambassador--he demands the recall of aerssens--peace of sainte-menehould--asperen de langerac appointed in aerssens' place. francis aerssens had remained longer at his post than had been intended by the resolution of the states of holland, passed in may . it is an exemplification of the very loose constitutional framework of the united provinces that the nomination of the ambassador to france belonged to the states of holland, by whom his salary was paid, although, of course, he was the servant of the states-general, to whom his public and official correspondence was addressed. his most important despatches were however written directly to barneveld so long as he remained in power, who had also the charge of the whole correspondence, public or private, with all the envoys of the states. aerssens had, it will be remembered, been authorized to stay one year longer in france if he thought he could be useful there. he stayed two years, and on the whole was not useful. he had too many eyes and too many ears. he had become mischievous by the very activity of his intelligence. he was too zealous. there were occasions in france at that moment in which it was as well to be blind and deaf. it was impossible for the republic, unless driven to it by dire necessity, to quarrel with its great ally. it had been calculated by duplessis-mornay that france had paid subsidies to the provinces amounting from first to last to millions of livres. this was an enormous exaggeration. it was barneveld's estimate that before the truce the states had received from france eleven millions of florins in cash, and during the truce up to the year , , , in addition, besides a million still due, making a total of about fifteen millions. during the truce france kept two regiments of foot amounting to soldiers and two companies of cavalry in holland at the service of the states, for which she was bound to pay yearly , livres. and the queen-regent had continued all the treaties by which these arrangements were secured, and professed sincere and continuous friendship for the states. while the french-spanish marriages gave cause for suspicion, uneasiness, and constant watchfulness in the states, still the neutrality of france was possible in the coming storm. so long as that existed, particularly when the relations of england with holland through the unfortunate character of king james were perpetually strained to a point of imminent rupture, it was necessary to hold as long as it was possible to the slippery embrace of france. but aerssens was almost aggressive in his attitude. he rebuked the vacillations, the shortcomings, the imbecility, of the queen's government in offensive terms. he consorted openly with the princes who were on the point of making war upon the queen-regent. he made a boast to the secretary of state villeroy that he had unravelled all his secret plots against the netherlands. he declared it to be understood in france, since the king's death, by the dominant and jesuitical party that the crown depended temporally as well as spiritually on the good pleasure of the pope. no doubt he was perfectly right in many of his opinions. no ruler or statesman in france worthy of the name would hesitate, in the impending religious conflict throughout europe and especially in germany, to maintain for the kingdom that all controlling position which was its splendid privilege. but to preach this to mary de' medici was waste of breath. she was governed by the concini's, and the concini's were governed by spain. the woman who was believed to have known beforehand of the plot to murder her great husband, who had driven the one powerful statesman on whom the king relied, maximilian de bethune, into retirement, and whose foreign affairs were now completely in the hands of the ancient leaguer villeroy--who had served every government in the kingdom for forty years--was not likely to be accessible to high views of public policy. two years had now elapsed since the first private complaints against the ambassador, and the french government were becoming impatient at his presence. aerssens had been supported by prince maurice, to whom he had long paid his court. he was likewise loyally protected by barneveld, whom he publicly flattered and secretly maligned. but it was now necessary that he should be gone if peaceful relations with france were to be preserved. after all, the ambassador had not made a bad business of his embassy from his own point of view. a stranger in the republic, for his father the greffier was a refugee from brabant, he had achieved through his own industry and remarkable talents, sustained by the favour of barneveld--to whom he owed all his diplomatic appointments--an eminent position in europe. secretary to the legation to france in , he had been successively advanced to the post of resident agent, and when the republic had been acknowledged by the great powers, to that of ambassador. the highest possible functions that representatives of emperors and kings could enjoy had been formally recognized in the person of the minister of a new-born republic. and this was at a moment when, with exception of the brave but insignificant cantons of switzerland, the republic had long been an obsolete idea. in a pecuniary point of view, too, he had not fared badly during his twenty years of diplomatic office. he had made much money in various ways. the king not long before his death sent him one day , florins as a present, with a promise soon to do much more for him. having been placed in so eminent a post, he considered it as due to himself to derive all possible advantage from it. "those who serve at the altar," he said a little while after his return, "must learn to live by it. i served their high mightinesses at the court of a great king, and his majesty's liberal and gracious favours were showered upon me. my upright conscience and steady obsequiousness greatly aided me. i did not look upon opportunity with folded arms, but seized it and made my profit by it. had i not met with such fortunate accidents, my office would not have given me dry bread." nothing could exceed the frankness and indeed the cynicism with which the ambassador avowed his practice of converting his high and sacred office into merchandise. and these statements of his should be scanned closely, because at this very moment a cry was distantly rising, which at a later day was to swell into a roar, that the great advocate had been bribed and pensioned. nothing had occurred to justify such charges, save that at the period of the truce he had accepted from the king of france a fee of , florins for extra official and legal services rendered him a dozen years before, and had permitted his younger son to hold the office of gentleman-in-waiting at the french court with the usual salary attached to it. the post, certainly not dishonourable in itself, had been intended by the king as a kindly compliment to the leading statesman of his great and good ally the republic. it would be difficult to say why such a favour conferred on the young man should be held more discreditable to the receiver than the order of the garter recently bestowed upon the great soldier of the republic by another friendly sovereign. it is instructive however to note the language in which francis aerssens spoke of favours and money bestowed by a foreign monarch upon himself, for aerssens had come back from his embassy full of gall and bitterness against barneveld. thenceforth he was to be his evil demon. "i didn't inherit property," said this diplomatist. "my father and mother, thank god, are yet living. i have enjoyed the king's liberality. it was from an ally, not an enemy, of our country. were every man obliged to give a reckoning of everything he possesses over and above his hereditary estates, who in the government would pass muster? those who declare that they have served their country in her greatest trouble, and lived in splendid houses and in service of princes and great companies and the like on a yearly salary of florins, may not approve these maxims." it should be remembered that barneveld, if this was a fling at the advocate, had acquired a large fortune by marriage, and, although certainly not averse from gathering gear, had, as will be seen on a subsequent page, easily explained the manner in which his property had increased. no proof was ever offered or attempted of the anonymous calumnies levelled at him in this regard. "i never had the management of finances," continued aerssens. "my profits i have gained in foreign parts. my condition of life is without excess, and in my opinion every means are good so long as they are honourable and legal. they say my post was given me by the advocate. ergo, all my fortune comes from the advocate. strenuously to have striven to make myself agreeable to the king and his counsellors, while fulfilling my office with fidelity and honour, these are the arts by which i have prospered, so that my splendour dazzles the eyes of the envious. the greediness of those who believe that the sun should shine for them alone was excited, and so i was obliged to resign the embassy." so long as henry lived, the dutch ambassador saw him daily, and at all hours, privately, publicly, when he would. rarely has a foreign envoy at any court, at any period of history, enjoyed such privileges of being useful to his government. and there is no doubt that the services of aerssens had been most valuable to his country, notwithstanding his constant care to increase his private fortune through his public opportunities. he was always ready to be useful to henry likewise. when that monarch same time before the truce, and occasionally during the preliminary negotiations for it, had formed a design to make himself sovereign of the provinces, it was aerssens who charged himself with the scheme, and would have furthered it with all his might, had the project not met with opposition both from the advocate and the stadholder. subsequently it appeared probable that maurice would not object to the sovereignty himself, and the ambassador in paris, with the king's consent, was not likely to prove himself hostile to the prince's ambition. "there is but this means alone," wrote jeannini to villeroy, "that can content him, although hitherto he has done like the rowers, who never look toward the place whither they wish to go." the attempt of the prince to sound barneveld on this subject through the princess-dowager has already been mentioned, and has much intrinsic probability. thenceforward, the republican form of government, the municipal oligarchies, began to consolidate their power. yet although the people as such were not sovereigns, but subjects, and rarely spoken of by the aristocratic magistrates save with a gentle and patronizing disdain, they enjoyed a larger liberty than was known anywhere else in the world. buzenval was astonished at the "infinite and almost unbridled freedom" which he witnessed there during his embassy, and which seemed to him however "without peril to the state." the extraordinary means possessed by aerssens to be important and useful vanished with the king's death. his secret despatches, painting in sombre and sarcastic colours the actual condition of affairs at the french court, were sent back in copy to the french court itself. it was not known who had played the ambassador this vilest of tricks, but it was done during an illness of barneveld, and without his knowledge. early in the year aerssens resolved, not to take his final departure, but to go home on leave of absence. his private intention was to look for some substantial office of honour and profit at home. failing of this, he meant to return to paris. but with an eye to the main chance as usual, he ingeniously caused it to be understood at court, without making positive statements to that effect, that his departure was final. on his leavetaking, accordingly, he received larger presents from the crown than had been often given to a retiring ambassador. at least , florins were thus added to the frugal store of profits on which he prided himself. had he merely gone away on leave of absence, he would have received no presents whatever. but he never went back. the queen-regent and her ministers were so glad to get rid of him, and so little disposed, in the straits in which they found themselves, to quarrel with the powerful republic, as to be willing to write very complimentary public letters to the states, concerning the character and conduct of the man whom they so much detested. pluming himself upon these, aerssens made his appearance in the assembly of the states-general, to give account by word of mouth of the condition of affairs, speaking as if he had only come by permission of their mightinesses for temporary purposes. two months later he was summoned before the assembly, and ordered to return to his post. meantime a new french ambassador had arrived at the hague, in the spring of . aubery du maurier, a son of an obscure country squire, a protestant, of moderate opinions, of a sincere but rather obsequious character, painstaking, diligent, and honest, had been at an earlier day in the service of the turbulent and intriguing due de bouillon. he had also been employed by sully as an agent in financial affairs between holland and france, and had long been known to villeroy. he was living on his estate, in great retirement from all public business, when secretary villeroy suddenly proposed him the embassy to the hague. there was no more important diplomatic post at that time in europe. other countries were virtually at peace, but in holland, notwithstanding the truce, there was really not much more than an armistice, and great armies lay in the netherlands, as after a battle, sleeping face to face with arms in their hands. the politics of christendom were at issue in the open, elegant, and picturesque village which was the social capital of the united provinces. the gentry from spain, italy, the south of europe, catholic germany, had clustered about spinola at brussels, to learn the art of war in his constant campaigning against maurice. english and scotch officers, frenchmen, bohemians, austrians, youths from the palatinate and all protestant countries in germany, swarmed to the banners of the prince who had taught the world how alexander farnese could be baffled, and the great spinola outmanoeuvred. especially there was a great number of frenchmen of figure and quality who thronged to the hague, besides the officers of the two french regiments which formed a regular portion of the states' army. that army was the best appointed and most conspicuous standing force in europe. besides the french contingent there were always nearly , infantry and cavalry on a war footing, splendidly disciplined, experienced, and admirably armed. the navy, consisting of thirty war ships, perfectly equipped and manned, was a match for the combined marine forces of all europe, and almost as numerous. when the ambassador went to solemn audience of the states-general, he was attended by a brilliant group of gentlemen and officers, often to the number of three hundred, who volunteered to march after him on foot to honour their sovereign in the person of his ambassador; the envoy's carriage following empty behind. such were the splendid diplomatic processions often received by the stately advocate in his plain civic garb, when grave international questions were to be publicly discussed. there was much murmuring in france when the appointment of a personage comparatively so humble to a position so important was known. it was considered as a blow aimed directly at the malcontent princes of the blood, who were at that moment plotting their first levy of arms against the queen. du maurier had been ill-treated by the due de bouillon, who naturally therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured to the government to which he was accredited. being the agent of mary de' medici, he was, of course, described as a tool of the court and a secret pensioner of spain. he was to plot with the arch traitor barneveld as to the best means for distracting the provinces and bringing them back into spanish subjection. du maurier, being especially but secretly charged to prevent the return of francis aerssens to paris, incurred of course the enmity of that personage and of the french grandees who ostentatiously protected him. it was even pretended by jeannin that the appointment of a man so slightly known to the world, so inexperienced in diplomacy, and of a parentage so little distinguished, would be considered an affront by the states-general. but on the whole, villeroy had made an excellent choice. no safer man could perhaps have been found in france for a post of such eminence, in circumstances so delicate, and at a crisis so grave. the man who had been able to make himself agreeable and useful, while preserving his integrity, to characters so dissimilar as the refining, self-torturing, intellectual duplessis-mornay, the rude, aggressive, and straightforward sully, the deep-revolving, restlessly plotting bouillon, and the smooth, silent, and tortuous villeroy--men between whom there was no friendship, but, on the contrary, constant rancour--had material in him to render valuable services at this particular epoch. everything depended on patience, tact, watchfulness in threading the distracting, almost inextricable, maze which had been created by personal rivalries, ambitions, and jealousies in the state he represented and the one to which he was accredited. "i ascribe it all to god," he said, in his testament to his children, "the impenetrable workman who in his goodness has enabled me to make myself all my life obsequious, respectful, and serviceable to all, avoiding as much as possible, in contenting some, not to discontent others." he recommended his children accordingly to endeavour "to succeed in life by making themselves as humble, intelligent, and capable as possible." this is certainly not a very high type of character, but a safer one for business than that of the arch intriguer francis aerssens. and he had arrived at the hague under trying circumstances. unknown to the foreign world he was now entering, save through the disparaging rumours concerning him, sent thither in advance by the powerful personages arrayed against his government, he might have sunk under such a storm at the outset, but for the incomparable kindness and friendly aid of the princess-dowager, louise de coligny. "i had need of her protection and recommendation as much as of life," said du maurier; "and she gave them in such excess as to annihilate an infinity of calumnies which envy had excited against me on every side." he had also a most difficult and delicate matter to arrange at the very moment of his arrival. for aerssens had done his best not only to produce a dangerous division in the politics of the republic, but to force a rupture between the french government and the states. he had carried matters before the assembly with so high a hand as to make it seem impossible to get rid of him without public scandal. he made a parade of the official letters from the queen-regent and her ministers, in which he was spoken of in terms of conventional compliment. he did not know, and barneveld wished, if possible, to spare him the annoyance of knowing, that both queen and ministers, so soon as informed that there was a chance of coming back to them, had written letters breathing great repugnance to him and intimating that he would not be received. other high personages of state had written to express their resentment at his duplicity, perpetual mischief-making, and machinations against the peace of the kingdom, and stating the impossibility of his resuming the embassy at paris. and at last the queen wrote to the states-general to say that, having heard their intention to send him back to a post "from which he had taken leave formally and officially," she wished to prevent such a step. "we should see m. aerssens less willingly than comports with our friendship for you and good neighbourhood. any other you could send would be most welcome, as m. du maurier will explain to you more amply." and to du maurier himself she wrote distinctly, "rather than suffer the return of the said aerssens, you will declare that for causes which regard the good of our affairs and our particular satisfaction we cannot and will not receive him in the functions which he has exercised here, and we rely too implicitly upon the good friendship of my lords the states to do anything in this that would so much displease us." and on the same day villeroy privately wrote to the ambassador, "if, in spite of all this, aerssens should endeavour to return, he will not be received, after the knowledge we have of his factious spirit, most dangerous in a public personage in a state such as ours and in the minority of the king." meantime aerssens had been going about flaunting letters in everybody's face from the duc de bouillon insisting on the necessity of his return! the fact in itself would have been sufficient to warrant his removal, for the duke was just taking up arms against his sovereign. unless the states meant to interfere officially and directly in the civil war about to break out in france, they could hardly send a minister to the government on recommendation of the leader of the rebellion. it had, however, become impossible to remove him without an explosion. barneveld, who, said du maurier, "knew the man to his finger nails," had been reluctant to "break the ice," and wished for official notice in the matter from the queen. maurice protected the troublesome diplomatist. "'tis incredible," said the french ambassador "how covertly prince maurice is carrying himself, contrary to his wont, in this whole affair. i don't know whether it is from simple jealousy to barneveld, or if there is some mystery concealed below the surface." du maurier had accordingly been obliged to ask his government for distinct and official instructions. "he holds to his place," said he, "by so slight and fragile a root as not to require two hands to pluck him up, the little finger being enough. there is no doubt that he has been in concert with those who are making use of him to re-establish their credit with the states, and to embark prince maurice contrary to his preceding custom in a cabal with them." thus a question of removing an obnoxious diplomatist could hardly be graver, for it was believed that he was doing his best to involve the military chief of his own state in a game of treason and rebellion against the government to which he was accredited. it was not the first nor likely to be the last of bouillon's deadly intrigues. but the man who had been privy to biron's conspiracy against the crown and life of his sovereign was hardly a safe ally for his brother-in-law, the straightforward stadholder. the instructions desired by du maurier and by barneveld had, as we have seen, at last arrived. the french ambassador thus fortified appeared before the assembly of the states-general and officially demanded the recall of aerssens. in a letter addressed privately and confidentially to their mightinesses, he said, "if in spite of us you throw him at our feet, we shall fling him back at your head." at last maurice yielded to, the representations of the french envoy, and aerssens felt obliged to resign his claims to the post. the states-general passed a resolution that it would be proper to employ him in some other capacity in order to show that his services had been agreeable to them, he having now declared that he could no longer be useful in france. maurice, seeing that it was impossible to save him, admitted to du maurier his unsteadiness and duplicity, and said that, if possessed of the confidence of a great king, he would be capable of destroying the state in less than a year. but this had not always been the prince's opinion, nor was it likely to remain unchanged. as for villeroy, he denied flatly that the cause of his displeasure had been that aerssens had penetrated into his most secret affairs. he protested, on the contrary, that his annoyance with him had partly proceeded from the slight acquaintance he had acquired of his policy, and that, while boasting to be better informed than any one, he was in the habit of inventing and imagining things in order to get credit for himself. it was highly essential that the secret of this affair should be made clear; for its influence on subsequent events was to be deep and wide. for the moment aerssens remained without employment, and there was no open rupture with barneveld. the only difference of opinion between the advocate and himself, he said, was whether he had or had not definitely resigned his post on leaving paris. meantime it was necessary to fix upon a successor for this most important post. the war soon after the new year had broken out in france. conde, bouillon, and the other malcontent princes with their followers had taken possession of the fortress of mezieres, and issued a letter in the name of conde to the queen-regent demanding an assembly of the states-general of the kingdom and rupture of the spanish marriages. both parties, that of the government and that of the rebellion, sought the sympathy and active succour of the states. maurice, acting now in perfect accord with the advocate, sustained the queen and execrated the rebellion of his relatives with perfect frankness. conde, he said, had got his head stuffed full of almanacs whose predictions he wished to see realized. he vowed he would have shortened by a head the commander of the garrison who betrayed mezieres, if he had been under his control. he forbade on pain of death the departure of any officer or private of the french regiments from serving the rebels, and placed the whole french force at the disposal of the queen, with as many netherland regiments as could be spared. one soldier was hanged and three others branded with the mark of a gibbet on the face for attempting desertion. the legal government was loyally sustained by the authority of the states, notwithstanding all the intrigues of aerssens with the agents of the princes to procure them assistance. the mutiny for the time was brief, and was settled on the th of may , by the peace of sainte-menehould, as much a caricature of a treaty as the rising had been the parody of a war. van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld, who had been charged with a special and temporary mission to france, brought back the terms, of the convention to the states-general. on the other hand, conde and his confederates sent a special agent to the netherlands to give their account of the war and the negotiation, who refused to confer either with du maurier or barneveld, but who held much conference with aerssens. it was obvious enough that the mutiny of the princes would become chronic. in truth, what other condition was possible with two characters like mary de' medici and the prince of conde respectively at the head of the government and the revolt? what had france to hope for but to remain the bloody playground for mischievous idiots, who threw about the firebrands and arrows of reckless civil war in pursuit of the paltriest of personal aims? van der myle had pretensions to the vacant place of aerssens. he had some experience in diplomacy. he had conducted skilfully enough the first mission of the states to venice, and had subsequently been employed in matters of moment. but he was son-in-law to barneveld, and although the advocate was certainly not free from the charge of nepotism, he shrank from the reproach of having apparently removed aerssens to make a place for one of his own family. van der myle remained to bear the brunt of the late ambassador's malice, and to engage at a little later period in hottest controversy with him, personal and political. "why should van der myle strut about, with his arms akimbo like a peacock?" complained aerssens one day in confused metaphor. a question not easy to answer satisfactorily. the minister selected was a certain baron asperen de langerac, wholly unversed in diplomacy or other public affairs, with abilities not above the average. a series of questions addressed by him to the advocate, the answers to which, scrawled on the margin of the paper, were to serve for his general instructions, showed an ingenuousness as amusing as the replies of barneveld were experienced and substantial. in general he was directed to be friendly and respectful to every one, to the queen-regent and her counsellors especially, and, within the limits of becoming reverence for her, to cultivate the good graces of the prince of conde and the other great nobles still malcontent and rebellious, but whose present movement, as barneveld foresaw, was drawing rapidly to a close. langerac arrived in paris on the th of april . du maurier thought the new ambassador likely to "fall a prey to the specious language and gentle attractions of the due de bouillon." he also described him as very dependent upon prince maurice. on the other hand langerac professed unbounded and almost childlike reverence for barneveld, was devoted to his person, and breathed as it were only through his inspiration. time would show whether those sentiments would outlast every possible storm. chapter x weakness of the rulers of france and england--the wisdom of barneveld inspires jealousy--sir dudley carleton succeeds winwood-- young neuburg under the guidance of maximilian--barneveld strives to have the treaty of xanten enforced--spain and the emperor wish to make the states abandon their position with regard to the duchies-- the french government refuses to aid the states--spain and the emperor resolve to hold wesel--the great religious war begun--the protestant union and catholic league both wish to secure the border provinces--troubles in turkey--spanish fleet seizes la roche--spain places large armies on a war footing. few things are stranger in history than the apathy with which the wide designs of the catholic party were at that moment regarded. the preparations for the immense struggle which posterity learned to call the thirty years' war, and to shudder when speaking of it, were going forward on every side. in truth the war had really begun, yet those most deeply menaced by it at the outset looked on with innocent calmness because their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze. the passage of arms in the duchies, the outlines of which have just been indicated, and which was the natural sequel of the campaign carried out four years earlier on the same territory, had been ended by a mockery. in france, reduced almost to imbecility by the absence of a guiding brain during a long minority, fallen under the distaff of a dowager both weak and wicked, distracted by the intrigues and quarrels of a swarm of self-seeking grandees, and with all its offices, from highest to lowest, of court, state, jurisprudence, and magistracy, sold as openly and as cynically as the commonest wares, there were few to comprehend or to grapple with the danger. it should have seemed obvious to the meanest capacity in the kingdom that the great house of austria, reigning supreme in spain and in germany, could not be allowed to crush the duke of savoy on the one side, and bohemia, moravia, and the netherlands on the other without danger of subjection for france. yet the aim of the queen-regent was to cultivate an impossible alliance with her inevitable foe. and in england, ruled as it then was with no master mind to enforce against its sovereign the great lessons of policy, internal and external, on which its welfare and almost its imperial existence depended, the only ambition of those who could make their opinions felt was to pursue the same impossibility, intimate alliance with the universal foe. any man with slightest pretensions to statesmanship knew that the liberty for protestant worship in imperial germany, extorted by force, had been given reluctantly, and would be valid only as long as that force could still be exerted or should remain obviously in reserve. the "majesty-letter" and the "convention" of the two religions would prove as flimsy as the parchment on which they were engrossed, the protestant churches built under that sanction would be shattered like glass, if once the catholic rulers could feel their hands as clear as their consciences would be for violating their sworn faith to heretics. men knew, even if the easy-going and uxorious emperor, into which character the once busy and turbulent archduke matthias had subsided, might be willing to keep his pledges, that ferdinand of styria, who would soon succeed him, and maximilian of bavaria were men who knew their own minds, and had mentally never resigned one inch of the ground which protestantism imagined itself to have conquered. these things seem plain as daylight to all who look back upon them through the long vista of the past; but the sovereign of england did not see them or did not choose to see them. he saw only the infanta and her two millions of dowry, and he knew that by calling parliament together to ask subsidies for an anti-catholic war he should ruin those golden matrimonial prospects for his son, while encouraging those "shoemakers," his subjects, to go beyond their "last," by consulting the representatives of his people on matters pertaining to the mysteries of government. he was slowly digging the grave of the monarchy and building the scaffold of his son; but he did his work with a laborious and pedantic trifling, when really engaged in state affairs, most amazing to contemplate. he had no penny to give to the cause in which his nearest relatives mere so deeply involved and for which his only possible allies were pledged; but he was ready to give advice to all parties, and with ludicrous gravity imagined himself playing the umpire between great contending hosts, when in reality he was only playing the fool at the beck of masters before whom he quaked. "you are not to vilipend my counsel," said he one day to a foreign envoy. "i am neither a camel nor an ass to take up all this work on my shoulders. where would you find another king as willing to do it as i am?" the king had little time and no money to give to serve his own family and allies and the cause of protestantism, but he could squander vast sums upon worthless favourites, and consume reams of paper on controverted points of divinity. the appointment of vorstius to the chair of theology in leyden aroused more indignation in his bosom, and occupied more of his time, than the conquests of spinola in the duchies, and the menaces of spain against savoy and bohemia. he perpetually preached moderation to the states in the matter of the debateable territory, although moderation at that moment meant submission to the house of austria. he chose to affect confidence in the good faith of those who were playing a comedy by which no statesman could be deceived, but which had secured the approbation of the solomon of the age. but there was one man who was not deceived. the warnings and the lamentations of barneveld sound to us out of that far distant time like the voice of an inspired prophet. it is possible that a portion of the wrath to come might have been averted had there been many men in high places to heed his voice. i do not wish to exaggerate the power and wisdom of the man, nor to set him forth as one of the greatest heroes of history. but posterity has done far less than justice to a statesman and sage who wielded a vast influence at a most critical period in the fate of christendom, and uniformly wielded it to promote the cause of temperate human liberty, both political and religious. viewed by the light of two centuries and a half of additional experience, he may appear to have made mistakes, but none that were necessarily disastrous or even mischievous. compared with the prevailing idea of the age in which he lived, his schemes of polity seem to dilate into large dimensions, his sentiments of religious freedom, however limited to our modern ideas, mark an epoch in human progress, and in regard to the general commonwealth of christendom, of which he was so leading a citizen, the part he played was a lofty one. no man certainly understood the tendency of his age more exactly, took a broader and more comprehensive view than he did of the policy necessary to preserve the largest portion of the results of the past three-quarters of a century, or had pondered the relative value of great conflicting forces more skilfully. had his counsels been always followed, had illustrious birth placed him virtually upon a throne, as was the case with william the silent, and thus allowed him occasionally to carry out the designs of a great mind with almost despotic authority, it might have been better for the world. but in that age it was royal blood alone that could command unflinching obedience without exciting personal rivalry. men quailed before his majestic intellect, but hated him for the power which was its necessary result. they already felt a stupid delight in cavilling at his pedigree. to dispute his claim to a place among the ancient nobility to which he was an honour was to revenge themselves for the rank he unquestionably possessed side by side in all but birth with the kings and rulers of the world. whether envy and jealousy be vices more incident to the republican form of government than to other political systems may be an open question. but it is no question whatever that barneveld's every footstep from this period forward was dogged by envy as patient as it was devouring. jealousy stuck to him like his shadow. we have examined the relations which existed between winwood and himself; we have seen that ambassador, now secretary of state for james, never weary in denouncing the advocate's haughtiness and grim resolution to govern the country according to its laws rather than at the dictate of a foreign sovereign, and in flinging forth malicious insinuations in regard to his relations to spain. the man whose every hour was devoted in spite of a thousand obstacles strewn by stupidity, treachery, and apathy, as well as by envy, hatred, and bigotry--to the organizing of a grand and universal league of protestantism against spain, and to rolling up with strenuous and sometimes despairing arms a dead mountain weight, ever ready to fall back upon and crush him, was accused in dark and mysterious whispers, soon to grow louder and bolder, of a treacherous inclination for spain. there is nothing less surprising nor more sickening for those who observe public life, and wish to retain faith in the human species, than the almost infinite power of the meanest of passions. the advocate was obliged at the very outset of langerac's mission to france to give him a warning on this subject. "should her majesty make kindly mention of me," he said, "you will say nothing of it in your despatches as you did in your last, although i am sure with the best intentions. it profits me not, and many take umbrage at it; wherefore it is wise to forbear." but this was a trifle. by and by there would be many to take umbrage at every whisper in his favour, whether from crowned heads or from the simplest in the social scale. meantime he instructed the ambassador, without paying heed to personal compliments to his chief, to do his best to keep the french government out of the hands of spain, and with that object in view to smooth over the differences between the two great parties in the kingdom, and to gain the confidence, if possible, of conde and nevers and bouillon, while never failing in straightforward respect and loyal friendship to the queen-regent and her ministers, as the legitimate heads of the government. from england a new ambassador was soon to take the place of winwood. sir dudley carleton was a diplomatist of respectable abilities, and well trained to business and routine. perhaps on the whole there was none other, in that epoch of official mediocrity, more competent than he to fill what was then certainly the most important of foreign posts. his course of life had in no wise familiarized him with the intricacies of the dutch constitution, nor could the diplomatic profession, combined with a long residence at venice, be deemed especially favourable for deep studies of the mysteries of predestination. yet he would be found ready at the bidding of his master to grapple with grotius and barneveld on the field of history and law, and thread with uytenbogaert or taurinus all the subtleties of arminianism and gomarism as if he had been half his life both a regular practitioner at the supreme court of the hague and professor of theology at the university of leyden. whether the triumphs achieved in such encounters were substantial and due entirely to his own genius might be doubtful. at all events he had a sovereign behind him who was incapable of making a mistake on any subject. "you shall not forget," said james in his instructions to sir dudley, "that you are the minister of that master whom god hath made the sole protector of his religion . . . . . and you may let fall how hateful the maintaining of erroneous opinions is to the majesty of god and how displeasing to us." the warlike operations of had been ended by the abortive peace of xanten. the two rival pretenders to the duchies were to halve the territory, drawing lots for the first choice, all foreign troops were to be withdrawn, and a pledge was to be given that no fortress should be placed in the hands of any power. but spain at the last moment had refused to sanction the treaty, and everything was remitted to what might be exactly described as a state of sixes and sevens. subsequently it was hoped that the states' troops might be induced to withdraw simultaneously with the catholic forces on an undertaking by spinola that there should be no re-occupation of the disputed territory either by the republic or by spain. but barneveld accurately pointed out that, although the marquis was a splendid commander and, so long as he was at the head of the armies, a most powerful potentate, he might be superseded at any moment. count bucquoy, for example, might suddenly appear in his place and refuse to be bound by any military arrangement of his predecessor. then the archduke proposed to give a guarantee that in case of a mutual withdrawal there should be no return of the troops, no recapture of garrisons. but barneveld, speaking for the states, liked not the security. the archduke was but the puppet of spain, and spain had no part in the guarantee. she held the strings, and might cause him at any moment to play what pranks she chose. it would be the easiest thing in the world for despotic spain, so the advocate thought, to reappear suddenly in force again at a moment's notice after the states' troops had been withdrawn and partially disbanded, and it would be difficult for the many-headed and many-tongued republic to act with similar promptness. to withdraw without a guarantee from spain to the treaty of xanten, which had once been signed, sealed, and all but ratified, would be to give up fifty points in the game. nothing but disaster could ensue. the advocate as leader in all these negotiations and correspondence was ever actuated by the favourite quotation of william the silent from demosthenes, that the safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust. and he always distrusted in these dealings, for he was sure the spanish cabinet was trying to make fools of the states, and there were many ready to assist it in the task. now that one of the pretenders, temporary master of half the duchies, the prince of neuburg, had espoused both catholicism and the sister of the archbishop of cologne and the duke of bavaria, it would be more safe than ever for spain to make a temporary withdrawal. maximilian of bavaria was beyond all question the ablest and most determined leader of the catholic party in germany, and the most straightforward and sincere. no man before or since his epoch had, like him, been destined to refuse, and more than once refuse, the imperial crown. through his apostasy the prince of neuburg was in danger of losing his hereditary estates, his brothers endeavouring to dispossess him on the ground of the late duke's will, disinheriting any one of his heirs who should become a convert to catholicism. he had accordingly implored aid from the king of spain. archduke albert had urged philip to render such assistance as a matter of justice, and the emperor had naturally declared that the whole right as eldest son belonged, notwithstanding the will, to the prince. with the young neuburg accordingly under the able guidance of maximilian, it was not likely that the grasp of the spanish party upon these all-important territories would be really loosened. the emperor still claimed the right to decide among the candidates and to hold the provinces under sequestration till the decision should be made--that was to say, until the greek kalends. the original attempt to do this through archduke leopold had been thwarted, as we have seen, by the prompt movements of maurice sustained by the policy of barneveld. the advocate was resolved that the emperor's name should not be mentioned either in the preamble or body of the treaty. and his course throughout the simulations, which were never negotiations, was perpetually baffled as much by the easiness and languor of his allies as the ingenuity of the enemy. he was reproached with the loss of wesel, that geneva of the rhine, which would never be abandoned by spain if it was not done forthwith. let spain guarantee the treaty of xanten, he said, and then she cannot come back. all else is illusion. moreover, the emperor had given positive orders that wesel should not be given up. he was assured by villeroy that france would never put on her harness for aachen, that cradle of protestantism. that was for the states-general to do, whom it so much more nearly concerned. the whole aim of barneveld was not to destroy the treaty of xanten, but to enforce it in the only way in which it could be enforced, by the guarantee of spain. so secured, it would be a barrier in the universal war of religion which he foresaw was soon to break out. but it was the resolve of spain, instead of pledging herself to the treaty, to establish the legal control of the territory in the hand of the emperor. neuburg complained that philip in writing to him did not give him the title of duke of julich and cleve, although he had been placed in possession of those estates by the arms of spain. philip, referring to archduke albert for his opinion on this subject, was advised that, as the emperor had not given neuburg the investiture of the duchies, the king was quite right in refusing him the title. even should the treaty of xanten be executed, neither he nor the elector of brandenburg would be anything but administrators until the question of right was decided by the emperor. spain had sent neuburg the order of the golden fleece as a reward for his conversion, but did not intend him to be anything but a man of straw in the territories which he claimed by sovereign right. they were to form a permanent bulwark to the empire, to spain, and to catholicism. barneveld of course could never see the secret letters passing between brussels and madrid, but his insight into the purposes of the enemy was almost as acute as if the correspondence of philip and albert had been in the pigeonholes of his writing-desk in the kneuterdyk. the whole object of spain and the emperor, acting through the archduke, was to force the states to abandon their positions in the duchies simultaneously with the withdrawal of the spanish troops, and to be satisfied with a bare convention between themselves and archduke albert that there should be no renewed occupation by either party. barneveld, finding it impossible to get spain upon the treaty, was resolved that at least the two mediating powers, their great allies, the sovereigns of great britain and france, should guarantee the convention, and that the promises of the archduke should be made to them. this was steadily refused by spain; for the archduke never moved an inch in the matter except according to the orders of spain, and besides battling and buffeting with the archduke, barneveld was constantly deafened with the clamour of the english king, who always declared spain to be in the right whatever she did, and forced to endure with what patience he might the goading of that king's envoy. france, on the other hand, supported the states as firmly as could have been reasonably expected. "we proposed," said the archduke, instructing an envoy whom he was sending to madrid with detailed accounts of these negotiations, "that the promise should be made to each other as usual in treaties. but the hollanders said the promise should be made to the kings of france and england, at which the emperor would have been deeply offended, as if in the affair he was of no account at all. at any moment by this arrangement in concert with france and england the hollanders might walk in and do what they liked." certainly there could have been no succincter eulogy of the policy steadily recommended, as we shall have occasion to see, by barneveld. had he on this critical occasion been backed by england and france combined, spain would have been forced to beat a retreat, and protestantism in the great general war just beginning would have had an enormous advantage in position. but the english solomon could not see the wisdom of this policy. "the king of england says we are right," continued the archduke, "and has ordered his ambassador to insist on our view. the french ambassador here says that his colleague at the hague has similar instructions, but admits that he has not acted up to them. there is not much chance of the hollanders changing. it would be well that the king should send a written ultimatum that the hollanders should sign the convention which we propose. if they don't agree, the world at least will see that it is not we who are in fault." the world would see, and would never have forgiven a statesman in the position of barneveld, had he accepted a bald agreement from a subordinate like the archduke, a perfectly insignificant personage in the great drama then enacting, and given up guarantees both from the archduke's master and from the two great allies of the republic. he stood out manfully against spain and england at every hazard, and under a pelting storm of obloquy, and this was the man whose designs the english secretary of state had dared to describe "as of no other nature than to cause the provinces to relapse into the hands of spain." it appeared too a little later that barneveld's influence with the french government, owing to his judicious support of it so long as it was a government, had been decidedly successful. drugged as france was by the spanish marriage treaty, she was yet not so sluggish nor spell-bound as the king of great britain. "france will not urge upon the hollanders to execute the proposal as we made it," wrote the archduke to the king, "so negotiations are at a standstill. the hollanders say it is better that each party should remain with what each possesses. so that if it does not come to blows, and if these insolences go on as they have done, the hollanders will be gaining and occupying more territory every day." thus once more the ancient enemies and masters of the republic were making the eulogy of the dutch statesman. it was impossible at present for the states to regain wesel, nor that other early stronghold of the reformation, the old imperial city of aachen (aix-la-chapelle). the price to be paid was too exorbitant. the french government had persistently refused to assist the states and possessory princes in the recovery of this stronghold. the queen-regent was afraid of offending spain, although her government had induced the citizens of the place to make the treaty now violated by that country. the dutch ambassador had been instructed categorically to enquire whether their majesties meant to assist aachen and the princes if attacked by the archdukes. "no," said villeroy; "we are not interested in aachen, 'tis too far off. let them look for assistance to those who advised their mutiny." to the ambassador's remonstrance that france was both interested in and pledged to them, the secretary of state replied, "we made the treaty through compassion and love, but we shall not put on harness for aachen. don't think it. you, the states and the united provinces, may assist them if you like." the envoy then reminded the minister that the states-general had always agreed to go forward evenly in this business with the kings of great britain and france and the united princes, the matter being of equal importance to all. they had given no further pledge than this to the union. it was plain, however, that france was determined not to lift a finger at that moment. the duke of bouillon and those acting with him had tried hard to induce their majesties "to write seriously to the archduke in order at least to intimidate him by stiff talk," but it was hopeless. they thought it was not a time then to quarrel with their neighbour and give offence to spain. so the stiff talk was omitted, and the archduke was not intimidated. the man who had so often intimidated him was in his grave, and his widow was occupied in marrying her son to the infanta. "these are the first-fruits," said aerssens, "of the new negotiations with spain." both the spanish king and the emperor were resolved to hold wesel to the very last. until the states should retire from all their positions on the bare word of the archduke, that the spanish forces once withdrawn would never return, the protestants of those two cities must suffer. there was no help for it. to save them would be to abandon all. for no true statesman could be so ingenuous as thus to throw all the cards on the table for the spanish and imperial cabinet to shuffle them at pleasure for a new deal. the duke of neuburg, now catholic and especially protected by spain, had become, instead of a pretender with more or less law on his side, a mere standard-bearer and agent of the great catholic league in the debateable land. he was to be supported at all hazard by the spanish forces, according to the express command of philip's government, especially now that his two brothers with the countenance of the states were disputing his right to his hereditary dominions in germany. the archduke was sullen enough at what he called the weak-mindedness of france. notwithstanding that by express orders from spain he had sent troops under command of juan de rivas to the queen's assistance just before the peace of sainte-menehould, he could not induce her government to take the firm part which the english king did in browbeating the hollanders. "'tis certain," he complained, "that if, instead of this sluggishness on the part of france, they had done us there the same good services we have had from england, the hollanders would have accepted the promise just as it was proposed by us." he implored the king, therefore, to use his strongest influence with the french government that it should strenuously intervene with the hollanders, and compel them to sign the proposal which they rejected. "there is no means of composition if france does not oblige them to sign," said albert rather piteously. but it was not without reason that barneveld had in many of his letters instructed the states' ambassador, langerac, "to caress the old gentleman" (meaning and never naming villeroy), for he would prove to be in spite of all obstacles a good friend to the states, as he always had been. and villeroy did hold firm. whether the archduke was right or not in his conviction, that, if france would only unite with england in exerting a strong pressure on the hollanders, they would evacuate the duchies, and so give up the game, the correspondence of barneveld shows very accurately. but the archduke, of course, had not seen that correspondence. the advocate knew what was plotting, what was impending, what was actually accomplished, for he was accustomed to sweep the whole horizon with an anxious and comprehensive glance. he knew without requiring to read the secret letters of the enemy that vast preparations for an extensive war against the reformation were already completed. the movements in the duchies were the first drops of a coming deluge. the great religious war which was to last a generation of mankind had already begun; the immediate and apparent pretext being a little disputed succession to some petty sovereignties, the true cause being the necessity for each great party--the protestant union and the catholic league--to secure these border provinces, the possession of which would be of such inestimable advantage to either. if nothing decisive occurred in the year , the following year would still be more convenient for the league. there had been troubles in turkey. the grand vizier had been murdered. the sultan was engaged in a war with persia. there was no eastern bulwark in europe to the ever menacing power of the turk and of mahometanism in europe save hungary alone. supported and ruled as that kingdom was by the house of austria, the temper of the populations of germany had become such as to make it doubtful in the present conflict of religious opinions between them and their rulers whether the turk or the spaniard would be most odious as an invader. but for the moment, spain and the emperor had their hands free. they were not in danger of an attack from below the danube. moreover, the spanish fleet had been achieving considerable successes on the barbary coast, having seized la roche, and one or two important citadels, useful both against the corsairs and against sudden attacks by sea from the turk. there were at least , men on a war footing ready to take the field at command of the two branches of the house of austria, spanish and german. in the little war about montserrat, savoy was on the point of being crushed, and savoy was by position and policy the only possible ally, in the south, of the netherlands and of protestant germany. while professing the most pacific sentiments towards the states, and a profound anxiety to withdraw his troops from their borders, the king of spain, besides daily increasing those forces, had just raised , , ducats, a large portion of which was lodged with his bankers in brussels. deeds like those were of more significance than sugared words. etext editor's bookmarks: almost infinite power of the meanest of passions ludicrous gravity safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured etext editor's bookmarks, entire john of barneveld - : abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour advanced orthodox party-puritans allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body almost infinite power of the meanest of passions and now the knife of another priest-led fanatic aristocracy of god's elect as with his own people, keeping no back-door open at a blow decapitated france atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty could not be both judge and party in the suit covered now with the satirical dust of centuries deadly hatred of puritans in england and holland determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt disputing the eternal damnation of young children doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense emperor of japan addressed him as his brother monarch epernon, the true murderer of henry estimating his character and judging his judges everybody should mind his own business fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge father cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required great war of religion and politics was postponed he was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin he was a sincere bigot he who would have all may easily lose all he who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants intense bigotry of conviction international friendship, the self-interest of each it was the true religion, and there was none other james of england, who admired, envied, and hated henry jealousy, that potent principle jesuit mariana--justifying the killing of excommunicated kings king's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day language which is ever living because it is dead louis xiii. ludicrous gravity more fiercely opposed to each other than to papists most detestable verses that even he had ever composed neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic no man can be neutral in civil contentions no synod had a right to claim netherlanders as slaves no man pretended to think of the state none but god to compel me to say more than i choose to say outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency philip iv. power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist practised successfully the talent of silence presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never putting the cart before the oxen queen is entirely in the hands of spain and the priests religion was made the strumpet of political ambition religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust schism in the church had become a public fact secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers senectus edam maorbus est she declined to be his procuress small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial so much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel that cynical commerce in human lives the defence of the civil authority against the priesthood the assassin, tortured and torn by four horses the truth in shortest about matters of importance the voice of slanderers the catholic league and the protestant union the vehicle is often prized more than the freight their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country theology and politics were one there was no use in holding language of authority to him there was but one king in europe, henry the bearnese therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured they have killed him, 'e ammazato,' cried concini things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful thirty years' war tread on the heels of the forty years to look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures uncouple the dogs and let them run unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration what could save the house of austria, the cause of papacy whether repentance could effect salvation whether dead infants were hopelessly damned whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant work of the aforesaid puritans and a few jesuits wrath of the jesuits at this exercise of legal authority the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume life and death of john of barneveld, complete, - life and death of john of barneveld, v , - chapter xi. the advocate sounds the alarm in germany--his instructions to langerac and his forethought--the prince--palatine and his forces take aachen, mulheim, and other towns--supineness of the protestants--increased activity of austria and the league--barneveld strives to obtain help from england--neuburg departs for germany-- barneveld the prime minister of protestantism--ernest mansfield takes service under charles emmanuel--count john of nassau goes to savoy--slippery conduct of king james in regard to the new treaty proposed--barneveld's influence greater in france than in england-- sequestration feared--the elector of brandenburg cited to appear before the emperor at prague--murder of john van wely--uytenbogaert incurs maurice's displeasure--marriage of the king of france with anne of austria--conference between king james and caron concerning piracy, cloth trade and treaty of xanten--barneveld's survey of the condition of europe--his efforts to avert the impending general war. i have thus purposely sketched the leading features of a couple of momentous, although not eventful, years--so far as the foreign policy of the republic is concerned--in order that the reader may better understand the bearings and the value of the advocate's actions and writings at that period. this work aims at being a political study. i would attempt to exemplify the influence of individual humours and passions--some of them among the highest and others certainly the basest that agitate humanity-upon the march of great events, upon general historical results at certain epochs, and upon the destiny of eminent personages. it may also be not uninteresting to venture a glance into the internal structure and workings of a republican and federal system of government, then for the first time reproduced almost spontaneously upon an extended scale. perhaps the revelation of some of its defects, in spite of the faculty and vitality struggling against them, may not be without value for our own country and epoch. the system of switzerland was too limited and homely, that of venice too purely oligarchical, to have much moral for us now, or to render a study of their pathological phenomena especially instructive. the lessons taught us by the history of the netherland confederacy may have more permanent meaning. moreover, the character of a very considerable statesman at an all-important epoch, and in a position of vast responsibility, is always an historical possession of value to mankind. that of him who furnishes the chief theme for these pages has been either overlooked and neglected or perhaps misunderstood by posterity. history has not too many really important and emblematic men on its records to dispense with the memory of barneveld, and the writer therefore makes no apology for dilating somewhat fully upon his lifework by means of much of his entirely unpublished and long forgotten utterances. the advocate had ceaselessly been sounding the alarm in germany. for the protestant union, fascinated, as it were, by the threatening look of the catholic league, seemed relapsing into a drowse. "i believe," he said to one of his agents in that country, "that the evangelical electors and princes and the other estates are not alive to the danger. i am sure that it is not apprehended in great britain. france is threatened with troubles. these are the means to subjugate the religion, the laws and liberties of germany. without an army the troops now on foot in italy cannot be kept out of germany. yet we do not hear that the evangelicals are making provision of troops, money, or any other necessaries. in this country we have about one hundred places occupied with our troops, among whom are many who could destroy a whole army. but the maintenance of these places prevents our being very strong in the field, especially outside our frontiers. but if in all germany there be many places held by the evangelicals which would disperse a great army is very doubtful. keep a watchful eye. economy is a good thing, but the protection of a country and its inhabitants must be laid to heart. watch well if against these provinces, and against bohemia, austria, and other as it is pretended rebellious states, these plans are not directed. look out for the movements of the italian and bavarian troops against germany. you see how they are nursing the troubles and misunderstandings in france, and turning them to account." he instructed the new ambassador in paris to urge upon the french government the absolute necessity of punctuality in furnishing the payment of their contingent in the netherlands according to convention. the states of holland themselves had advanced the money during three years' past, but this anticipation was becoming very onerous. it was necessary to pay the troops every month regularly, but the funds from paris were always in arrear. england contributed about one-half as much in subsidy, but these moneys went in paying the garrisons of brielle, flushing, and rammekens, fortresses pledged to that crown. the ambassador was shrewdly told not to enlarge on the special employment of the english funds while holding up to the queen's government that she was not the only potentate who helped bear burthens for the provinces, and insisted on a continuation of this aid. "remember and let them remember," said the advocate, "that the reforms which they are pretending to make there by relieving the subjects of contributions tends to enervate the royal authority and dignity both within and without, to diminish its lustre and reputation, and in sum to make the king unable to gratify and assist his subjects, friends, and allies. make them understand that the taxation in these provinces is ten times higher than there, and that my lords the states hitherto by the grace of god and good administration have contrived to maintain it in order to be useful to themselves and their friends. take great pains to have it well understood that this is even more honourable and more necessary for a king of france, especially in his minority, than for a republic 'hoc turbato seculo.' we all see clearly how some potentates in europe are keeping at all time under one pretext or another strong forces well armed on a war footing. it therefore behoves his majesty to be likewise provided with troops, and at least with a good exchequer and all the requirements of war, as well for the security of his own state as for the maintenance of the grandeur and laudable reputation left to him by the deceased king." truly here was sound and substantial advice, never and nowhere more needed than in france. it was given too with such good effect as to bear fruit even upon stoniest ground, and it is a refreshing spectacle to see this plain advocate of a republic, so lately sprung into existence out of the depths of oppression and rebellion, calmly summoning great kings as it were before him and instructing them in those vital duties of government in discharge of which the country he administered already furnished a model. had england and france each possessed a barneveld at that epoch, they might well have given in exchange for him a wilderness of epernons and sillerys, bouillons and conde's; of winwoods, lakes, carrs, and villierses. but elizabeth with her counsellors was gone, and henry was gone, and richelieu had not come; while in england james and his minions were diligently opening an abyss between government and people which in less than half a lifetime more should engulph the kingdom. two months later he informed the states' ambassador of the communications made by the prince of conde and the dukes of nevers and bouillon to the government at the hague now that they had effected a kind of reconciliation with the queen. langerac was especially instructed to do his best to assist in bringing about cordial relations, if that were possible, between the crown and the rebels, and meantime he was especially directed to defend du maurier against the calumnious accusations brought against him, of which aerssens had been the secret sower. "you will do your best to manage," he said, "that no special ambassador be sent hither, and that m. du maurier may remain with us, he being a very intelligent and moderate person now well instructed as to the state of our affairs, a professor of the reformed religion, and having many other good qualities serviceable to their majesties and to us. "you will visit the prince, and other princes and officers of the crown who are coming to court again, and do all good offices as well for the court as for m. du maurier, in order that through evil plots and slanderous reports no harm may come to him. "take great pains to find out all you can there as to the designs of the king of spain, the archdukes, and the emperor, in the affair of julich. you are also to let it be known that the change of religion on the part of the prince-palatine of neuburg will not change our good will and affection for him, so far as his legal claims are concerned." so long as it was possible for the states to retain their hold on both the claimants, the advocate, pursuant to his uniform policy of moderation, was not disposed to help throw the palatine into the hands of the spanish party. he was well aware, however, that neuburg by his marriage and his conversion was inevitably to become the instrument of the league and to be made use of in the duchies at its pleasure, and that he especially would be the first to submit with docility to the decree of the emperor. the right to issue such decree the states under guidance of barneveld were resolved to resist at all hazards. "work diligently, nevertheless," said he, "that they permit nothing there directly or indirectly that may tend to the furtherance of the league, as too prejudicial to us and to all our fellow religionists. tell them too that the late king, the king of great britain, the united electors and princes of germany, and ourselves, have always been resolutely opposed to making the dispute about the succession in the duchies depend on the will of the emperor and his court. all our movements in the year against the attempted sequestration under leopold were to carry out that purpose. hold it for certain that our present proceedings for strengthening and maintaining the city and fortress of julich are considered serviceable and indispensable by the british king and the german electors and princes. use your best efforts to induce the french government to pursue the same policy--if it be not possible openly, then at least secretly. my conviction is that, unless the prince-palatine is supported by, and his whole designs founded upon, the general league against all our brethren of the religion, affairs may be appeased." the envoy was likewise instructed to do his best to further the matrimonial alliance which had begun to be discussed between the prince of wales and the second daughter of france. had it been possible at that moment to bring the insane dream of james for a spanish alliance to naught, the states would have breathed more freely. he was also to urge payment of the money for the french regiments, always in arrears since henry's death and sully's dismissal, and always supplied by the exchequer of holland. he was informed that the republic had been sending some war ships to the levant, to watch the armada recently sent thither by spain, and other armed vessels into the baltic, to pursue the corsairs with whom every sea was infested. in one year alone he estimated the loss to dutch merchants by these pirates at , florins. "we have just captured two of the rovers, but the rascally scum is increasing," he said. again alluding to the resistance to be made by the states to the imperial pretensions, he observed, "the emperor is about sending us a herald in the julich matter, but we know how to stand up to him." and notwithstanding the bare possibility which he had admitted, that the prince of neuburg might not yet have wholly sold himself, body and soul, to the papists, he gave warning a day or two afterwards in france that all should be prepared for the worst. "the archdukes and the prince of neuburg appear to be taking the war earnestly in hand," he said. "we believe that the papistical league is about to make a great effort against all the co-religionists. we are watching closely their movements. aachen is first threatened, and the elector-palatine likewise. france surely, for reasons of state, cannot permit that they should be attacked. she did, and helped us to do, too much in the julich campaign to suffer the spaniards to make themselves masters there now." it has been seen that the part played by france in the memorable campaign of was that of admiring auxiliary to the states' forces; marshal de la chatre having in all things admitted the superiority of their army and the magnificent generalship of prince maurice. but the government of the dowager had been committed by that enterprise to carry out the life-long policy of henry, and to maintain his firm alliance with the republic. whether any of the great king's acuteness and vigour in countermining and shattering the plans of the house of austria was left in the french court, time was to show. meantime barneveld was crying himself hoarse with warnings into the dull ears of england and france. a few weeks later the prince of neuburg had thrown off the mask. twelve thousand foot and horse had been raised in great haste, so the advocate informed the french court, by spain and the archdukes, for the use of that pretender. five or six thousand spaniards were coming by sea to flanders, and as many italians were crossing the mountains, besides a great number mustering for the same purpose in germany and lorraine. barneveld was constantly receiving most important intelligence of military plans and movements from prague, which he placed daily before the eyes of governments wilfully blind. "i ponder well at this crisis," he said to his friend caron, "the intelligence i received some months back from ratisbon, out of the cabinet of the jesuits, that the design of the catholic or roman league is to bring this year a great army into the field, in order to make neuburg, who was even then said to be of the roman profession and league, master of julich and the duchies; to execute the imperial decree against aachen and mulheim, preventing any aid from being sent into germany by these provinces, or by great britain, and placing the archduke and marquis spinola in command of the forces; to put another army on the frontiers of austria, in order to prevent any succour coming from hungary, bohemia, austria, moravia, and silesia into germany; to keep all these disputed territories in subjection and devotion to the emperor, and to place the general conduct of all these affairs in the hands of archduke leopold and other princes of the house of austria. a third army is to be brought into the upper palatinate, under command of the duke of bavaria and others of the league, destined to thoroughly carry out its designs against the elector-palatine, and the other electors, princes, and estates belonging to the religion." this intelligence, plucked by barneveld out of the cabinet of the jesuits, had been duly communicated by him months before to those whom it most concerned, and as usual it seemed to deepen the lethargy of the destined victims and their friends. not only the whole spanish campaign of the present year had thus been duly mapped out by the advocate, long before it occurred, but this long buried and forgotten correspondence of the statesman seems rather like a chronicle of transactions already past, so closely did the actual record, which posterity came to know too well, resemble that which he saw, and was destined only to see, in prophetic vision. could this political seer have cast his horoscope of the thirty years' war at this hour of its nativity for the instruction of such men as walsingham or burleigh, henry of navarre or sully, richelieu or gustavus adolphus, would the course of events have been modified? these very idlest of questions are precisely those which inevitably occur as one ponders the seeming barrenness of an epoch in reality so pregnant. "one would think," said barneveld, comparing what was then the future with the real past, "that these plans in prague against the elector-palatine are too gross for belief; but when i reflect on the intense bitterness of these people, when i remember what was done within living men's memory to the good elector hans frederic of saxony for exactly the same reasons, to wit, hatred of our religion, and determination to establish imperial authority, i have great apprehension. i believe that the roman league will use the present occasion to carry out her great design; holding france incapable of opposition to her, germany in too great division, and imagining to themselves that neither the king of great britain nor these states are willing or able to offer effectual and forcible resistance. yet his majesty of great britain ought to be able to imagine how greatly the religious matter in general concerns himself and the electoral house of the palatine, as principal heads of the religion, and that these vast designs should be resisted betimes, and with all possible means and might. my lords the states have good will, but not sufficient strength, to oppose these great forces single-handed. one must not believe that without great and prompt assistance in force from his majesty and other fellow religionists my lords the states can undertake so vast an affair. do your uttermost duty there, in order that, ere it be too late, this matter be taken to heart by his majesty, and that his authority and credit be earnestly used with other kings, electors, princes, and republics, that they do likewise. the promptest energy, good will, and affection may be reckoned on from us." alas! it was easy for his majesty to take to heart the matter of conrad vorstius, to spend reams of diplomatic correspondence, to dictate whole volumes for orations brimming over with theological wrath, for the edification of the states-general, against that doctor of divinity. but what were the special interests of his son-in-law, what the danger to all the other protestant electors and kings, princes and republics, what the imperilled condition of the united provinces, and, by necessary consequence, the storm gathering over his own throne, what the whole fate of protestantism, from friesland to hungary, threatened by the insatiable, all-devouring might of the double house of austria, the ancient church, and the papistical league, what were hundred thousands of men marching towards bohemia, the netherlands, and the duchies, with the drum beating for mercenary recruits in half the villages of spain, italy, and catholic germany, compared with the danger to christendom from an arminian clergyman being appointed to the theological professorship at leyden? the world was in a blaze, kings and princes were arming, and all the time that the monarch of the powerful, adventurous, and heroic people of great britain could spare from slobbering over his minions, and wasting the treasures of the realm to supply their insatiate greed, was devoted to polemical divinity, in which he displayed his learning, indeed, but changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day. the magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination. moreover, should he listen to the adjurations of the states and his fellow religionists, should he allow himself to be impressed by the eloquence of barneveld and take a manly and royal decision in the great emergency, it would be indispensable for him to come before that odious body, the parliament of great britain, and ask for money. it would be perhaps necessary for him to take them into his confidence, to degrade himself by speaking to them of the national affairs. they might not be satisfied with the honour of voting the supplies at his demand, but were capable of asking questions as to their appropriation. on the whole it was more king-like and statesman-like to remain quiet, and give advice. of that, although always a spendthrift, he had an inexhaustible supply. barneveld had just hopes from the commons of great britain, if the king could be brought to appeal to parliament. once more he sounded the bugle of alarm. "day by day the archdukes are making greater and greater enrolments of riders and infantry in ever increasing mass," he cried, "and therewith vast provision of artillery and all munitions of war. within ten or twelve days they will be before julich in force. we are sending great convoys to reinforce our army there. the prince of neuburg is enrolling more and more troops every day. he will soon be master of mulheim. if the king of great britain will lay this matter earnestly to heart for the preservation of the princes, electors, and estates of the religion, i cannot doubt that parliament would cooperate well with his majesty, and this occasion should be made use of to redress the whole state of affairs." it was not the parliament nor the people of great britain that would be in fault when the question arose of paying in money and in blood for the defence of civil and religious liberty. but if james should venture openly to oppose spain, what would the count of gondemar say, and what would become of the infanta and the two millions of dowry? it was not for want of some glimmering consciousness in the mind of james of the impending dangers to northern europe and to protestantism from the insatiable ambition of spain, and the unrelenting grasp of the papacy upon those portions of christendom which were slipping from its control, that his apathy to those perils was so marked. we have seen his leading motives for inaction, and the world was long to feel its effects. "his majesty firmly believes," wrote secretary winwood, "that the papistical league is brewing great and dangerous plots. to obviate them in everything that may depend upon him, my lords the states will find him prompt. the source of all these entanglements comes from spain. we do not think that the archduke will attack julich this year, but rather fear for mulheim and aix-la-chapelle." but the secretary of state, thus acknowledging the peril, chose to be blind to its extent, while at the same time undervaluing the powers by which it might be resisted. "to oppose the violence of the enemy," he said, "if he does resort to violence, is entirely impossible. it would be furious madness on our part to induce him to fall upon the elector-palatine, for this would be attacking great britain and all her friends and allies. germany is a delicate morsel, but too much for the throat of spain to swallow all at once. behold the evil which troubles the conscience of the papistical league. the emperor and his brothers are all on the brink of their sepulchre, and the infants of spain are too young to succeed to the empire. the pope would more willingly permit its dissolution than its falling into the hands of a prince not of his profession. all that we have to do in this conjuncture is to attend the best we can to our own affairs, and afterwards to strengthen the good alliance existing among us, and not to let ourselves be separated by the tricks and sleights of hand of our adversaries. the common cause can reckon firmly upon the king of great britain, and will not find itself deceived." excellent commonplaces, but not very safe ones. unluckily for the allies, to attend each to his own affairs when the enemy was upon them, and to reckon firmly upon a king who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy, was hardly the way to avert the danger. a fortnight later, the man who thought it possible to resist, and time to resist, before the net was over every head, replied to the secretary by a picture of the spaniards' progress. "since your letter," he said, "you have seen the course of spinola with the army of the king and the archdukes. you have seen the prince-palatine of neuburg with his forces maintained by the pope and other members of the papistical league. on the th of august they forced aachen, where the magistrates and those of the reformed religion have been extremely maltreated. twelve hundred soldiers are lodged in the houses there of those who profess our religion. mulheim is taken and dismantled, and the very houses about to be torn down. duren, castre, grevenborg, orsoy, duisburg, ruhrort, and many other towns, obliged to receive spanish garrisons. on the th of september they invested wesel. on the th it was held certain that the cities of cleve, emmerich, rees, and others in that quarter, had consented to be occupied. the states have put one hundred and thirty-five companies of foot (about , men) and horse and a good train of artillery in the field, and sent out some ships of war. prince maurice left the hague on the th of september to assist wesel, succour the prince of brandenburg, and oppose the hostile proceedings of spinola and the palatine of neuburg . . . . consider, i pray you, this state of things, and think how much heed they have paid to the demands of the kings of great britain and france to abstain from hostilities. be sure that without our strong garrison in julich they would have snapped up every city in julich, cleve, and berg. but they will now try to make use of their slippery tricks, their progress having been arrested by our army. the prince of neuburg is sending his chancellor here 'cum mediis componendae pacis,' in appearance good and reasonable, in reality deceptive . . . . if their majesties, my lords the states, and the princes of the union, do not take an energetic resolution for making head against their designs, behold their league in full vigour and ours without soul. neither the strength nor the wealth of the states are sufficient of themselves to withstand their ambitious and dangerous designs. we see the possessory princes treated as enemies upon their own estates, and many thousand souls of the reformed religion cruelly oppressed by the papistical league. for myself i am confirmed in my apprehensions and believe that neither our religion nor our union can endure such indignities. the enemy is making use of the minority in france and the divisions among the princes of germany to their great advantage . . . . i believe that the singular wisdom of his majesty will enable him to apply promptly the suitable remedies, and that your parliament will make no difficulty in acquitting itself well in repairing those disorders." the year dragged on to its close. the supineness of the protestants deepened in direct proportion to the feverish increase of activity on the part of austria and the league. the mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated, the parade of conciliation when war of extermination was intended, continued on the part of spain and austria. barneveld was doing his best to settle all minor differences between the states and great britain, that these two bulwarks of protestantism might stand firmly together against the rising tide. he instructed the ambassador to exhaust every pacific means of arrangement in regard to the greenland fishery disputes, the dyed cloth question, and like causes of ill feeling. he held it more than necessary, he said, that the inhabitants of the two countries should now be on the very best terms with each other. above all, he implored the king through the ambassador to summon parliament in order that the kingdom might be placed in position to face the gathering danger. "i am amazed and distressed," he said, "that the statesmen of england do not comprehend the perils with which their fellow religionists are everywhere threatened, especially in germany and in these states. to assist us with bare advice and sometimes with traducing our actions, while leaving us to bear alone the burthens, costs, and dangers, is not serviceable to us." referring to the information and advice which he had sent to england and to france fifteen months before, he now gave assurance that the prince of neuburg and spinola were now in such force, both foot and cavalry, with all necessary munitions, as to hold these most important territories as a perpetual "sedem bedli," out of which to attack germany at their pleasure and to cut off all possibility of aid from england and the states. he informed the court of st. james that besides the forces of the emperor and the house of austria, the duke of bavaria and spanish italy, there were now several thousand horse and foot under the bishop of wurzburg, or under the bishop-elector of mayence, and strong bodies of cavalry under count vaudemont in lorraine, all mustering for the war. the pretext seems merely to reduce frankfurt to obedience, even as donauworth had previously been used as a colour for vast designs. the real purpose was to bring the elector-palatine and the whole protestant party in germany to submission. "his majesty," said the advocate, "has now a very great and good subject upon which to convoke parliament and ask for a large grant. this would be doubtless consented to if parliament receives the assurance that the money thus accorded shall be applied to so wholesome a purpose. you will do your best to further this great end. we are waiting daily to hear if the xanten negotiation is broken off or not. i hope and i fear. meantime we bear as heavy burthens as if we were actually at war." he added once more the warning, which it would seem superfluous to repeat even to schoolboys in diplomacy, that this xanten treaty, as proposed by the enemy, was a mere trap. spinola and neuburg, in case of the mutual disbanding, stood ready at an instant's warning to re-enlist for the league not only all the troops that the catholic army should nominally discharge, but those which would be let loose from the states' army and that of brandenburg as well. they would hold rheinberg, groll, lingen, oldenzaal, wachtendonk, maestricht, aachen, and mulheim with a permanent force of more than , men. and they could do all this in four days' time. a week or two later all his prophesies had been fulfilled. "the prince of neuburg," he said, "and marquis spinola have made game of us most impudently in the matter of the treaty. this is an indignity for us, their majesties, and the electors and princes. we regard it as intolerable. a despatch came from spain forbidding a further step in the negotiation without express order from the king. the prince and spinola are gone to brussels, the ambassadors have returned to the hague, the armies are established in winter-quarters. the cavalry are ravaging the debateable land and living upon the inhabitants at their discretion. m. de refuge is gone to complain to the archdukes of the insult thus put upon his sovereign. sir henry wotton is still here. we have been plunged into an immensity of extraordinary expense, and are amazed that at this very moment england should demand money from us when we ought to be assisted by a large subsidy by her. we hope that now at least his majesty will take a vigorous resolution and not suffer his grandeur and dignity to be vilipended longer. if the spaniard is successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones, and will believe that mankind is ready to bear and submit to everything. his majesty is the first king of the religion. he bears the title of defender of the faith. his religion, his only daughter, his son-in-law, his grandson are all especially interested besides his own dignity, besides the common weal." he then adverted to the large subsidies from queen elizabeth many years before, guaranteed, it was true, by the cautionary towns, and to the gallant english regiments, sent by that great sovereign, which had been fighting so long and so splendidly in the netherlands for the common cause of protestantism and liberty. yet england was far weaker then, for she had always her northern frontier to defend against scotland, ever ready to strike her in the back. "but now his majesty," said barneveld, "is king of england and scotland both. his frontier is free. ireland is at peace. he possesses quietly twice as much as the queen ever did. he is a king. her majesty was a woman. the king has children and heirs. his nearest blood is engaged in this issue. his grandeur and dignity have been wronged. each one of these considerations demands of itself a manly resolution. you will do your best to further it." the almost ubiquitous power of spain, gaining after its exhaustion new life through the strongly developed organization of the league, and the energy breathed into that mighty conspiracy against human liberty by the infinite genius of the "cabinet of jesuits," was not content with overshadowing germany, the netherlands, and england, but was threatening savoy with , men, determined to bring charles emmanuel either to perdition or submission. like england, france was spell-bound by the prospect of spanish marriages, which for her at least were not a chimera, and looked on composedly while savoy was on point of being sacrificed by the common invader of independent nationality whether protestant or catholic. nothing ever showed more strikingly the force residing in singleness of purpose with breadth and unity of design than all these primary movements of the great war now beginning. the chances superficially considered were vastly in favour of the protestant cause. in the chief lands, under the sceptre of the younger branch of austria, the protestants outnumbered the catholics by nearly ten to one. bohemia, the austrias, moravia, silesia, hungary were filled full of the spirit of huss, of luther, and even of calvin. if spain was a unit, now that the moors and jews had been expelled, and the heretics of castille and aragon burnt into submission, she had a most lukewarm ally in venice, whose policy was never controlled by the church, and a dangerous neighbour in the warlike, restless, and adventurous house of savoy, to whom geographical considerations were ever more vital than religious scruples. a sincere alliance of france, the very flower of whose nobility and people inclined to the reformed religion, was impossible, even if there had been fifty infantes to espouse fifty daughters of france. great britain, the netherlands, and the united princes of germany seemed a solid and serried phalanx of protestantism, to break through which should be hopeless. yet at that moment, so pregnant with a monstrous future, there was hardly a sound protestant policy anywhere but in holland. how long would that policy remain sound and united? how long would the republic speak through the imperial voice of barneveld? time was to show and to teach many lessons. the united princes of germany were walking, talking, quarrelling in their sleep; england and france distracted and bedrugged, while maximilian of bavaria and ferdinand of gratz, the cabinets of madrid and the vatican, were moving forward to their aims slowly, steadily, relentlessly as fate. and spain was more powerful than she had been since the truce began. in five years she had become much more capable of aggression. she had strengthened her positions in the mediterranean by the acquisition and enlargement of considerable fortresses in barbary and along a large sweep of the african coast, so as to be almost supreme in africa. it was necessary for the states, the only power save turkey that could face her in those waters, to maintain a perpetual squadron of war ships there to defend their commerce against attack from the spaniard and from the corsairs, both mahometan and christian, who infested every sea. spain was redoubtable everywhere, and the turk, engaged in persian campaigns, was offering no diversion against hungary and vienna. "reasons of state worthy of his majesty's consideration and wisdom," said barneveld, "forbid the king of great britain from permitting the spaniard to give the law in italy. he is about to extort obedience and humiliation from the duke of savoy, or else with , men to mortify and ruin him, while entirely assuring himself of france by the double marriages. then comes the attack on these provinces, on protestant germany, and all other states and realms of the religion." with the turn of the year, affairs were growing darker and darker. the league was rolling up its forces in all directions; its chiefs proposed absurd conditions of pacification, while war was already raging, and yet scarcely any government but that of the netherlands paid heed to the rising storm. james, fatuous as ever, listened to gondemar, and wrote admonitory letters to the archduke. it was still gravely proposed by the catholic party that there should be mutual disbanding in the duchies, with a guarantee from marquis spinola that there should be no more invasion of those territories. but powers and pledges from the king of spain were what he needed. to suppose that the republic and her allies would wait quietly, and not lift a finger until blows were actually struck against the protestant electors or cities of germany, was expecting too much ingenuousness on the part of statesmen who had the interests of protestantism at heart. what they wanted was the signed, sealed, ratified treaty faithfully carried out. then if the king of spain and the archdukes were willing to contract with the states never to make an attempt against the holy german empire, but to leave everything to take its course according to the constitutions, liberties, and traditions and laws of that empire, under guidance of its electors, princes, estates, and cities, the united provinces were ready, under mediation of the two kings, their allies and friends, to join in such an arrangement. thus there might still be peace in germany, and religious equality as guaranteed by the "majesty-letter," and the "compromise" between the two great churches, roman and reformed, be maintained. to bring about this result was the sincere endeavour of barneveld, hoping against hope. for he knew that all was hollowness and sham on the part of the great enemy. even as walsingham almost alone had suspected and denounced the delusive negotiations by which spain continued to deceive elizabeth and her diplomatists until the armada was upon her coasts, and denounced them to ears that were deafened and souls that were stupified by the frauds practised upon them, so did barneveld, who had witnessed all that stupendous trickery of a generation before, now utter his cries of warning that germany might escape in time from her impending doom. "nothing but deceit is lurking in the spanish proposals," he said. "every man here wonders that the english government does not comprehend these malversations. truly the affair is not to be made straight by new propositions, but by a vigorous resolution of his majesty. it is in the highest degree necessary to the salvation of christendom, to the conservation of his majesty's dignity and greatness, to the service of the princes and provinces, and of all germany, nor can this vigorous resolution be longer delayed without enormous disaster to the common weal . . . . . i have the deepest affection for the cause of the duke of savoy, but i cannot further it so long as i cannot tell what his majesty specifically is resolved to do, and what hope is held out from venice, germany, and other quarters. our taxes are prodigious, the ordinary and extraordinary, and we have a spanish army at our front door." the armaments, already so great, had been enlarged during the last month of the year. vaudemont was at the head of a further force of cavalry and foot, paid for by spain and the pope; , additional soldiers, riders and infantry together, had been gathered by maximilian of bavaria at the expense of the league. even if the reports were exaggerated, the advocate thought it better to be too credulous than as apathetic as the rest of the protestants. "we receive advices every day," he wrote to caron, "that the spaniards and the roman league are going forward with their design. they are trying to amuse the british king and to gain time, in order to be able to deal the heavier blows. do all possible duty to procure a timely and vigorous resolution there. to wait again until we are anticipated will be fatal to the cause of the evangelical electors and princes of germany and especially of his electoral highness of brandenburg. we likewise should almost certainly suffer irreparable damage, and should again bear our cross, as men said last year in regard to aachen, wesel, and so many other places. the spaniard is sly, and has had a long time to contrive how he can throw the net over the heads of all our religious allies. remember all the warnings sent from here last year, and how they were all tossed to the winds, to the ruin of so many of our co-religionists. if it is now intended over there to keep the spaniards in check merely by speeches or letters, it would be better to say so clearly to our friends. so long as parliament is not convoked in order to obtain consents and subsidies for this most necessary purpose, so long i fail to believe that this great common cause of christendom, and especially of germany, is taken to heart by england." he adverted with respectfully subdued scorn to king james's proposition that spinola should give a guarantee. "i doubt if he accepts the suggestion," said barneveld, "unless as a notorious trick, and if he did, what good would the promise of spinola do us? we consider spinola a great commander having the purses and forces of the spaniards and the leaguers in his control; but should they come into other hands, he would not be a very considerable personage for us. and that may happen any day. they don't seem in england to understand the difference between prince maurice in his relations to our state and that of marquis spinola to his superiors. try to make them comprehend it. a promise from the emperor, king of spain, and the princes of the league, such as his majesty in his wisdom has proposed to spinola, would be most tranquillizing for all the protestant princes and estates of the empire, especially for the elector and electress palatine, and for ourselves. in such a case no difficulty would be made on our side." after expressing his mind thus freely in regard to james and his policy, he then gave the ambassador a word of caution in characteristic fashion. "cogita," he said, "but beware of censuring his majesty's projects. i do not myself mean to censure them, nor are they publicly laughed at here, but look closely at everything that comes from brussels, and let me know with diligence." and even as the advocate was endeavouring with every effort of his skill and reason to stir the sluggish james into vigorous resolution in behalf of his own children, as well as of the great cause of protestantism and national liberty, so was he striving to bear up on his strenuous shoulders the youthful king of france, and save him from the swollen tides of court intrigue and jesuitical influence fast sweeping him to destruction. he had denounced the recent and paltry proposition made on the part of the league, and originally suggested by james, as a most open and transparent trap, into which none but the blind would thrust themselves. the treaty of xanten, carried out as it had been signed and guaranteed by the great catholic powers, would have brought peace to christendom. to accept in place of such guarantee the pledge of a simple soldier, who to-morrow might be nothing, was almost too ridiculous a proposal to be answered gravely. yet barneveld through the machinations of the catholic party was denounced both at the english and french courts as an obstacle to peace, when in reality his powerful mind and his immense industry were steadily directed to the noblest possible end--to bring about a solemn engagement on the part of spain, the emperor, and the princes of the league, to attack none of the protestant powers of germany, especially the elector-palatine, but to leave the laws, liberties, and privileges of the states within the empire in their original condition. and among those laws were the great statutes of and , the "majesty-letter" and the "compromise," granting full right of religious worship to the protestants of the kingdom of bohemia. if ever a policy deserved to be called truly liberal and truly conservative, it was the policy thus steadily maintained by barneveld. adverting to the subterfuge by which the catholic party had sought to set aside the treaty of xanten, he instructed langerac, the states' ambassador in paris, and his own pupils to make it clear to the french government that it was impossible that in such arrangements the spanish armies would not be back again in the duchies at a moment's notice. it could not be imagined even that they were acting sincerely. "if their upright intention," he said, "is that no actual, hostile, violent attack shall be made upon the duchies, or upon any of the princes, estates, or cities of the holy empire, as is required for the peace and tranquillity of christendom, and if all the powers interested therein will come into a good and solid convention to that effect. my lords the states will gladly join in such undertaking and bind themselves as firmly as the other powers. if no infraction of the laws and liberties of the holy empire be attempted, there will be peace for germany and its neighbours. but the present extravagant proposition can only lead to chicane and quarrels. to press such a measure is merely to inflict a disgrace upon us. it is an attempt to prevent us from helping the elector-palatine and the other protestant princes of germany and coreligionists everywhere against hostile violence. for the elector-palatine can receive aid from us and from great britain through the duchies only. it is plainly the object of the enemy to seclude us from the palatine and the rest of protestant germany. it is very suspicious that the proposition of prince maurice, supported by the two kings and the united princes of germany, has been rejected." the advocate knew well enough that the religious franchises granted by the house of habsburg at the very moment in which spain signed her peace with the netherlands, and exactly as the mad duke of cleve was expiring--with a dozen princes, catholic and protestant, to dispute his inheritance--would be valuable just so long as they could be maintained by the united forces of protestantism and of national independence and no longer. what had been extorted from the catholic powers by force would be retracted by force whenever that force could be concentrated. it had been necessary for the republic to accept a twelve years' truce with spain in default of a peace, while the death of john of cleve, and subsequently of henry iv., had made the acquisition of a permanent pacification between catholicism and protestantism, between the league and the union, more difficult than ever. the so-called thirty years' war--rather to be called the concluding portion of the eighty years' war--had opened in the debateable duchies exactly at the moment when its forerunner, the forty years' war of the netherlands, had been temporarily and nominally suspended. barneveld was perpetually baffled in his efforts to obtain a favourable peace for protestant europe, less by the open diplomacy and military force of the avowed enemies of protestantism than by the secret intrigues and faintheartedness of its nominal friends. he was unwearied in his efforts simultaneously to arouse the courts of england and france to the danger to europe from the overshadowing power of the house of austria and the league, and he had less difficulty in dealing with the catholic lewis and his mother than with protestant james. at the present moment his great designs were not yet openly traversed by a strong protestant party within the very republic which he administered. "look to it with earnestness and grave deliberation," he said to langerac, "that they do not pursue us there with vain importunity to accept something so notoriously inadmissible and detrimental to the common weal. we know that from the enemy's side every kind of unseemly trick is employed, with the single object of bringing about misunderstanding between us and the king of france. a prompt and vigorous resolution on the part of his majesty, to see the treaty which we made duly executed, would be to help the cause. otherwise, not. we cannot here believe that his majesty, in this first year of his majority, will submit to such a notorious and flagrant affront, or that he will tolerate the oppression of the duke of savoy. such an affair in the beginning of his majesty's reign cannot but have very great and prejudicial consequences, nor can it be left to linger on in uncertainty and delay. let him be prompt in this. let him also take a most christian--kingly, vigorous resolution against the great affront put upon him in the failure to carry out the treaty. such a resolve on the part of the two kings would restore all things to tranquillity and bring the spaniard and his adherents 'in terminos modestiae. but so long as france is keeping a suspicious eye upon england, and england upon france, everything will run to combustion, detrimental to their majesties and to us, and ruinous to all the good inhabitants." to the treaty of xanten faithfully executed he held as to an anchor in the tempest until it was torn away, not by violence from without, but by insidious mutiny within. at last the government of james proposed that the pledges on leaving the territory should be made to the two allied kings as mediators and umpires. this was better than the naked promises originally suggested, but even in this there was neither heartiness nor sincerity. meantime the prince of neuburg, negotiations being broken off, departed for germany, a step which the advocate considered ominous. soon afterwards that prince received a yearly pension of , crowns from spain, and for this stipend his claims on the sovereignty of the duchies were supposed to be surrendered. "if this be true," said barneveld, "we have been served with covered dishes." the king of england wrote spirited and learned letters to the elector-palatine, assuring him of his father-in-law's assistance in case he should be attacked by the league. sir henry wotton, then on special mission at the hague, showed these epistles to barneveld. "when i hear that parliament has been assembled and has granted great subsidies," was the advocate's comment, "i shall believe that effects may possibly follow from all these assurances." it was wearisome for the advocate thus ever to be foiled; by the pettinesses and jealousies of those occupying the highest earthly places, in his efforts to stem the rising tide of spanish and catholic aggression, and to avert the outbreak of a devastating war to which he saw europe doomed. it may be wearisome to read the record. yet it is the chronicle of christendom during one of the most important and fateful epochs of modern history. no man can thoroughly understand the complication and precession of phenomena attending the disastrous dawn of the renewed war, on an even more awful scale than the original conflict in the netherlands, without studying the correspondence of barneveld. the history of europe is there. the fate of christendom is there. the conflict of elements, the crash of contending forms of religion and of nationalities, is pictured there in vivid if homely colours. the advocate, while acting only in the name of a slender confederacy, was in truth, so long as he held his place, the prime minister of european protestantism. there was none other to rival him, few to comprehend him, fewer still to sustain him. as prince maurice was at that moment the great soldier of protestantism without clearly scanning the grandeur of the field in which he was a chief actor, or foreseeing the vastness of its future, so the advocate was its statesman and its prophet. could the two have worked together as harmoniously as they had done at an earlier day, it would have been a blessing for the common weal of europe. but, alas! the evil genius of jealousy, which so often forbids cordial relations between soldier and statesman, already stood shrouded in the distance, darkly menacing the strenuous patriot, who was wearing his life out in exertions for what he deemed the true cause of progress and humanity. nor can the fate of the man himself, his genuine character, and the extraordinary personal events towards which he was slowly advancing, be accurately unfolded without an attempt by means of his letters to lay bare his inmost thoughts. especially it will be seen at a later moment how much value was attached to this secret correspondence with the ambassadors in london and paris. the advocate trusted to the support of france, papal and medicean as the court of the young king was, because the protestant party throughout the kingdom was too powerful, warlike, and numerous to be trifled with, and because geographical considerations alone rendered a cordial alliance between spain and france very difficult. notwithstanding the spanish marriages, which he opposed so long as opposition was possible, he knew that so long as a statesman remained in the kingdom, or a bone for one existed, the international policy of henry, of sully, and of jeannin could not be wholly abandoned. he relied much on villeroy, a political hack certainly, an ancient leaguer, and a papist, but a man too cool, experienced, and wily to be ignorant of the very hornbook of diplomacy, or open to the shallow stratagems by which spain found it so easy to purchase or to deceive. so long as he had a voice in the council, it was certain that the netherland alliance would not be abandoned, nor the duke of savoy crushed. the old secretary of state was not especially in favour at that moment, but barneveld could not doubt his permanent place in french affairs until some man of real power should arise there. it was a dreary period of barrenness and disintegration in that kingdom while france was mourning henry and waiting for richelieu. the dutch ambassador at paris was instructed accordingly to maintain. good relations with villeroy, who in barneveld's opinion had been a constant and sincere friend to the netherlands. "don't forget to caress the old gentleman you wot of," said the advocate frequently, but suppressing his name, "without troubling yourself with the reasons mentioned in your letter. i am firmly convinced that he will overcome all difficulties. don't believe either that france will let the duke of savoy be ruined. it is against every reason of state." yet there were few to help charles emmanuel in this montferrat war, which was destined to drag feebly on, with certain interludes of negotiations, for two years longer. the already notorious condottiere ernest mansfeld, natural son of old prince peter ernest, who played so long and so high a part in command of the spanish armies in the netherlands, had, to be sure, taken service under the duke. thenceforth he was to be a leader and a master in that wild business of plunder, burning, blackmailing, and murder, which was opening upon europe, and was to afford occupation for many thousands of adventurers of high and low degree. mansfeld, reckless and profligate, had already changed his banner more than once. commanding a company under leopold in the duchies, he had been captured by the forces of the union, and, after waiting in vain to be ransomed by the archduke, had gone secretly over to the enemy. thus recovering his liberty, he had enlisted a regiment under leopold's name to fight the union, and had then, according to contract, transferred himself and most of his adventurers to the flag of the union. the military operations fading away in the duchies without being succeeded by permanent peace, the count, as he was called, with no particular claim to such title, had accepted a thousand florins a year as retainer from the union and had found occupation under charles emmanuel. here the spanish soldier of a year or two before found much satisfaction and some profit in fighting spanish soldiers. he was destined to reappear in the netherlands, in france, in bohemia, in many places where there were villages to be burned, churches to be plundered, cities to be sacked, nuns and other women to be outraged, dangerous political intrigues to be managed. a man in the prime of his age, fair-haired, prematurely wrinkled, battered, and hideous of visage, with a hare-lip and a humpback; slovenly of dress, and always wearing an old grey hat without a band to it; audacious, cruel, crafty, and licentious--such was ernest mansfeld, whom some of his contemporaries spoke of as ulysses germanicus, others as the new attila, all as a scourge to the human race. the cockneys of paris called him "machefer," and nurses long kept children quiet by threatening them with that word. he was now enrolled on the protestant side, although at the moment serving savoy against spain in a question purely personal. his armies, whether in italy or in germany, were a miscellaneous collection of adventurers of high and low degree, of all religions, of all countries, unfrocked priests and students, ruined nobles, bankrupt citizens, street vagabonds--earliest type perhaps of the horrible military vermin which were destined to feed so many years long on the unfortunate dismembered carcass of germany. many demands had been made upon the states for assistance to savoy,--as if they and they alone were to bear the brunt and pay the expense of all the initiatory campaigns against spain. "we are much importuned," said the advocate, "to do something for the help of savoy . . . . we wish and we implore that france, great britain, the german princes, the venetians, and the swiss would join us in some scheme of effective assistance. but we have enough on our shoulders at this moment." they had hardly money enough in their exchequer, admirably ordered as it was, for enterprises so far from home when great spanish armies were permanently encamped on their border. partly to humour king james and partly from love of adventure, count john of nassau had gone to savoy at the head of a small well disciplined body of troops furnished by the states. "make use of this piece of news," said barneveld, communicating the fact to langerac, "opportunely and with discretion. besides the wish to give some contentment to the king of great britain, we consider it inconsistent with good conscience and reasons of state to refuse help to a great prince against oppression by those who mean to give the law to everybody; especially as we have been so earnestly and frequently importuned to do so." and still the spaniards and the league kept their hold on the duchies, while their forces, their munitions, their accumulation of funds waged hourly. the war of chicane was even more deadly than an actual campaign, for when there was no positive fighting the whole world seemed against the republic. and the chicane was colossal. "we cannot understand," said barneveld, "why m. de prevaulx is coming here on special mission. when a treaty is signed and sealed, it only remains to execute it. the archduke says he is himself not known in the treaty, and that nothing can be demanded of him in relation to it. this he says in his letters to the king of great britain. m. de refuge knows best whether or not marquis spinola, ottavio visconti, chancellor pecquius, and others, were employed in the negotiation by the archduke. we know very well here that the whole business was conducted by them. the archduke is willing to give a clean and sincere promise not to re-occupy, and asks the same from the states. if he were empowered by the emperor, the king of spain, and the league, and acted in such quality, something might be done for the tranquillity of germany. but he promises for himself only, and emperor, king, or league, may send any general to do what they like to-morrow. what is to prevent it? "and so my lords the states, the elector of brandenburg, and others interested are cheated and made fools of. and we are as much troubled by these tricks as by armed force. yes, more; for we know that great enterprises are preparing this year against germany and ourselves, that all neuburg's troops have been disbanded and re-enlisted under the spanish commanders, and that forces are levying not only in italy and spain, but in germany, lorraine, luxemburg, and upper burgundy, and that wesel has been stuffed full of gunpowder and other munitions, and very strongly fortified." for the states to agree to a treaty by which the disputed duchies should be held jointly by the princes of neuburg and of brandenburg, and the territory be evacuated by all foreign troops; to look quietly on while neuburg converted himself to catholicism, espoused the sister of maximilian of bavaria, took a pension from spain, resigned his claims in favour of spain, and transferred his army to spain; and to expect that brandenburg and all interested in brandenburg, that is to say, every protestant in europe, should feel perfectly easy under such arrangement and perfectly protected by the simple promise of a soldier of fortune against catholic aggression, was a fantastic folly hardly worthy of a child. yet the states were asked to accept this position, brandenburg and all protestant germany were asked to accept it, and barneveld was howled at by his allies as a marplot and mischief-maker, and denounced and insulted by diplomatists daily, because he mercilessly tore away the sophistries of the league and of the league's secret friend, james stuart. the king of spain had more than , men under arms, and was enlisting more soldiers everywhere and every day, had just deposited , , crowns with his antwerp bankers for a secret purpose, and all the time was exuberant in his assurances of peace. one would have thought that there had never been negotiations in bourbourg, that the spanish armada had never sailed from coruna. "you are wise and prudent in france," said the advocate, "but we are used to spanish proceedings, and from much disaster sustained are filled with distrust. the king of england seems now to wish that the archduke should draw up a document according to his good pleasure, and that the states should make an explanatory deed, which the king should sign also and ask the king of france to do the same. but this is very hazardous. "we do not mean to receive laws from the king of spain, nor the archduke . . . . the spanish proceedings do not indicate peace but war. one must not take it ill of us that we think these matters of grave importance to our friends and ourselves. affairs have changed very much in the last four months. the murder of the first vizier of the turkish emperor and his designs against persia leave the spanish king and the emperor free from attack in that quarter, and their armaments are far greater than last year . . . . i cannot understand why the treaty of xanten, formerly so highly applauded, should now be so much disapproved. . . . the king of spain and the emperor with their party have a vast design to give the law to all christendom, to choose a roman king according to their will, to reduce the evangelical electors, princes, and estates of germany to obedience, to subject all italy, and, having accomplished this, to proceed to triumph over us and our allies, and by necessary consequence over france and england. they say they have established the emperor's authority by means of aachen and mulheim, will soon have driven us out of julich, and have thus arranged matters entirely to their heart's content. they can then, in name of the emperor, the league, the prince of neuburg, or any one else, make themselves in eight days masters of the places which they are now imaginarily to leave as well as of those which we are actually to surrender, and by possession of which we could hold out a long time against all their power." those very places held by the states--julich, emmerich, and others--had recently been fortified at much expense, under the superintendence of prince maurice, and by advice of the advocate. it would certainly be an act of madness to surrender them on the terms proposed. these warnings and forebodings of barneveld sound in our ears like recorded history, yet they were far earlier than the actual facts. and now to please the english king, the states had listened to his suggestion that his name and that of the king of france should be signed as mediators to a new arrangement proposed in lieu of the xanten treaty. james had suggested this, lewis had agreed to it. yet before the ink had dried in james's pen, he was proposing that the names of the mediating sovereigns should be omitted from the document? and why? because gondemar was again whispering in his ear. "they are renewing the negotiations in england," said the advocate, "about the alliance between the prince of wales and the second daughter of spain; and the king of great britain is seriously importuning us that the archdukes and my lords the states should make their pledges 'impersonaliter' and not to the kings." james was also willing that the name of the emperor should appear upon it. to prevent this, barneveld would have had himself burned at the stake. it would be an ignominious and unconditional surrender of the whole cause. "the archduke will never be contented," said the advocate, "unless his majesty of great britain takes a royal resolution to bring him to reason. that he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice. we have been ready and are still ready to execute the treaty of xanten. the archduke is the cause of the dispute concerning the act. we approved the formularies of their majesties, and have changed them three times to suit the king of great britain. our provincial states have been notified in the matter, so that we can no longer digest the spanish impudence, and are amazed that his majesty can listen any more to the spanish ministers. we fear that those ministers are working through many hands, in order by one means or another to excite quarrels between his majesty, us, and the respective inhabitants of the two countries . . . . . take every precaution that no attempt be made there to bring the name of the emperor into the act. this would be contrary to their majesties' first resolution, very prejudicial to the elector of brandenburg, to the duchies, and to ourselves. and it is indispensable that the promise be made to the two kings as mediators, as much for their reputation and dignity as for the interests of the elector, the territories, and ourselves. otherwise too the spaniards will triumph over us as if they had driven us by force of arms into this promise." the seat of war, at the opening of the apparently inevitable conflict between the catholic league and the protestant union, would be those debateable duchies, those border provinces, the possession of which was of such vital importance to each of the great contending parties, and the populations of which, although much divided, were on the whole more inclined to the league than to the union. it was natural enough that the dutch statesman should chafe at the possibility of their being lost to the union through the adroitness of the catholic managers and the supineness of the great allies of the republic. three weeks later than these last utterances of the advocate, he was given to understand that king james was preparing to slide away from the position which had been three times changed to make it suitable for him. his indignation was hot. "sir henry wotton," he said, "has communicated to me his last despatches from newmarket. i am in the highest degree amazed that after all our efforts at accommodation, with so much sacrifice to the electors, the provinces, and ourselves, they are trying to urge us there to consent that the promise be not made to the kings of france and great britain as mediators, although the proposition came from the spanish side. after we had renounced, by desire of his majesty, the right to refer the promise to the treaty of xanten, it was judged by both kings to be needful and substantial that the promise be made to their majesties. to change this now would be prejudicial to the kings, to the electors, the duchies, and to our commonwealth; to do us a wrong and to leave us naked. france maintains her position as becoming and necessary. that great britain should swerve from it is not to be digested here. you will do your utmost according to my previous instructions to prevent any pressure to this end. you will also see that the name of the emperor is mentioned neither in the preamble nor the articles of the treaty. it would be contrary to all our policy since . you may be firmly convinced that malice is lurking under the emperor's name, and that he and the king of spain and their adherents, now as before, are attempting a sequestration. this is simply a pretext to bring those principalities and provinces into the hands of the spaniards, for which they have been labouring these thirty years. we are constantly cheated by these spanish tricks. their intention is to hold wesel and all the other places until the conclusion of the italian affair, and then to strike a great blow." certainly were never words more full of sound statesmanship, and of prophecy too soon to be fulfilled, than these simple but pregnant warnings. they awakened but little response from the english government save cavils and teasing reminders that wesel had been the cradle of german calvinism, the rhenish geneva, and that it was sinful to leave it longer in the hands of spain. as if the advocate had not proved to demonstration that to stock hands for a new deal at that moment was to give up the game altogether. his influence in france was always greater than in england, and this had likewise been the case with william the silent. and even now that the spanish matrimonial alliance was almost a settled matter at the french court, while with the english king it was but a perpetual will-o'the-wisp conducting to quagmires ineffable, the government at paris sustained the policy of the advocate with tolerable fidelity, while it was constantly and most capriciously traversed by james. barneveld sighed over these approaching nuptials, but did not yet despair. "we hope that the spanish-french marriages," he said, "may be broken up of themselves; but we fear that if we should attempt to delay or prevent them authoritatively, or in conjunction with others, the effort would have the contrary effect." in this certainly he was doomed to disappointment. he had already notified the french court of the absolute necessity of the great points to be insisted upon in the treaty, and there he found more docility than in london or newmarket. all summer he was occupied with this most important matter, uttering cassandra-like warnings into ears wilfully deaf. the states had gone as far as possible in concession. to go farther would be to wreck the great cause upon the very quicksands which he had so ceaselessly pointed out. "we hope that nothing further will be asked of us, no scruples be felt as to our good intentions," he said, "and that if spain and the archdukes are not ready now to fulfil the treaty, their majesties will know how to resent this trifling with their authority and dignity, and how to set matters to rights with their own hands in the duchies. a new treaty, still less a sequestration, is not to be thought of for a moment." yet the month of august came and still the names of the mediating kings were not on the treaty, and still the spectre of sequestration had not been laid. on the contrary, the peace of asti, huddled up between spain and savoy, to be soon broken again, had caused new and painful apprehensions of an attempt at sequestration, for it was established by several articles in that treaty that all questions between savoy and mantua should be referred to the emperor's decision. this precedent was sure to be followed in the duchies if not resisted by force, as it had been so successfully resisted five years before by the armies of the states associated with those of france. moreover the first step at sequestration had been actually taken. the emperor had peremptorily summoned the elector of brandenburg and all other parties interested to appear before him on the st of august in prague. there could be but one object in this citation, to drive brandenburg and the states out of the duchies until the imperial decision as to the legitimate sovereignty should be given. neuburg being already disposed of and his claims ceded to the emperor, what possibility was there in such circumstances of saving one scrap of the territory from the clutch of the league? none certainly if the republic faltered in its determination, and yielded to the cowardly advice of james. "to comply with the summons," said barneveld, "and submit to its consequences will be an irreparable injury to the electoral house of brandenburg, to the duchies, and to our co-religionists everywhere, and a very great disgrace to both their majesties and to us." he continued, through the ambassador in london, to hold up to the king, in respectful but plain language, the shamelessness of his conduct in dispensing the enemy from his pledge to the mediators, when the republic expressly, in deference to james, had given up the ampler guarantees of the treaty. the arrangement had been solemnly made, and consented to by all the provinces, acting in their separate and sovereign capacity. such a radical change, even if it were otherwise permissible, could not be made without long debates, consultations, and votes by the several states. what could be more fatal at such a crisis than this childish and causeless delay. there could be no doubt in any statesman's eyes that the spanish party meant war and a preparatory hoodwinking. and it was even worse for the government of the republic to be outwitted in diplomacy than beaten in the field. "every man here," said the advocate, "has more apprehension of fraud than of force. according to the constitution of our state, to be overcome by superior power must be endured, but to be overreached by trickery is a reproach to the government." the summer passed away. the states maintained their positions in the duchies, notwithstanding the objurgations of james, and barneveld remained on his watch-tower observing every movement of the fast-approaching war, and refusing at the price of the whole territory in dispute to rescue wesel and aix-la-chapelle from the grasp of the league. caron came to the hague to have personal consultations with the states-general, the advocate, and prince maurice, and returned before the close of the year. he had an audience of the king at the palace of whitehall early in november, and found him as immovable as ever in his apathetic attitude in regard to the affairs of germany. the murder of sir thomas overbury and the obscene scandals concerning the king's beloved carr and his notorious bride were then occupying the whole attention of the monarch, so that he had not even time for theological lucubrations, still less for affairs of state on which the peace of christendom and the fate of his own children were hanging. the ambassador found him sulky and dictatorial, but insisted on expressing once more to him the apprehensions felt by the states-general in regard to the trickery of the spanish party in the matter of cleve and julich. he assured his majesty that they had no intention of maintaining the treaty of xanten, and respectfully requested that the king would no longer urge the states to surrender the places held by them. it was a matter of vital importance to retain them, he said. "sir henry wotton told me," replied james, "that the states at his arrival were assembled to deliberate on this matter, and he had no doubt that they would take a resolution in conformity with my intention. now i see very well that you don't mean to give up the places. if i had known that before, i should not have warned the archduke so many times, which i did at the desire of the states themselves. and now that the archdukes are ready to restore their cities, you insist on holding yours. that is the dish you set before me." and upon this james swore a mighty oath, and beat himself upon the breast. "now and nevermore will i trouble myself about the states' affairs, come what come will," he continued. "i have always been upright in my words and my deeds, and i am not going to embark myself in a wicked war because the states have plunged themselves into one so entirely unjust. next summer the spaniard means to divide himself into two or three armies in order to begin his enterprises in germany." caron respectfully intimated that these enterprises would be most conveniently carried on from the very advantageous positions which he occupied in the duchies. "no," said the king, "he must restore them on the same day on which you make your surrender, and he will hardly come back in a hurry." "quite the contrary," said the ambassador, "they will be back again in a twinkling, and before we have the slightest warning of their intention." but it signified not the least what caron said. the king continued to vociferate that the states had never had any intention of restoring the cities. "you mean to keep them for yourselves," he cried, "which is the greatest injustice that could be perpetrated. you have no right to them, and they belong to other people." the ambassador reminded him that the elector of brandenburg was well satisfied that they should be occupied by the states for his greater security and until the dispute should be concluded. "and that will never be," said james; "never, never. the states are powerful enough to carry on the war all alone and against all the world." and so he went on, furiously reiterating the words with which he had begun the conversation, "without accepting any reasons whatever in payment," as poor caron observed. "it makes me very sad," said the ambassador, "to find your majesty so impatient and so resolved. if the names of the kings are to be omitted from the document, the treaty of xanten should at least be modified accordingly." "nothing of the kind," said james; "i don't understand it so at all. i speak plainly and without equivocation. it must be enough for the states that i promise them, in case the enemy is cheating or is trying to play any trick whatever, or is seeking to break the treaty of xanten in a single point, to come to their assistance in person." and again the warlike james swore a big oath and smote his breast, affirming that he meant everything sincerely; that he cheated no one, but always spoke his thoughts right on, clearly and uprightly. it was certainly not a cheerful prospect for the states. their chief ally was determined that they should disarm, should strip themselves naked, when the mightiest conspiracy against the religious freedom and international independence of europe ever imagined was perfecting itself before their eyes, and when hostile armies, more numerous than ever before known, were at their very door. to wait until the enemy was at their throat, and then to rely upon a king who trembled at the sight of a drawn sword, was hardly the highest statesmanship. even if it had been the chivalrous henry instead of the pacific james that had held out the promise of help, they would have been mad to follow such counsel. the conversation lasted more than an hour. it was in vain that caron painted in dark colours the cruel deeds done by the spaniards in mulheim and aachen, and the proceedings of the archbishop of cologne in rees. the king was besotted, and no impression could be made upon him. "at any rate," said the envoy, "the arrangement cannot be concluded without the king of france." "what excuse is that?" said james. "now that the king is entirely spanish, you are trying to excuse your delays by referring to him. you have deferred rescuing the poor city of wesel from the hands of the spaniard long enough. i am amazed to have heard never a word from you on that subject since your departure. i had expressed my wish to you clearly enough that you should inform the states of my intention to give them any assurance they chose to demand." caron was much disappointed at the humour of his majesty. coming freshly as he did from the council of the states, and almost from the seat of war, he had hoped to convince and content him. but the king was very angry with the states for putting him so completely in the wrong. he had also been much annoyed at their having failed to notify him of their military demonstration in the electorate of cologne to avenge the cruelties practised upon the protestants there. he asked caron if he was instructed to give him information regarding it. being answered in the negative, he said he had thought himself of sufficient importance to the states and enough in their confidence to be apprised of their military movements. it was for this, he said, that his ambassador sat in their council. caron expressed the opinion that warlike enterprises of the kind should be kept as secret as possible in order to be successful. this the king disputed, and loudly declared his vexation at being left in ignorance of the matter. the ambassador excused himself as well as he could, on the ground that he had been in zealand when the troops were marching, but told the king his impression that they had been sent to chastise the people of cologne for their cruelty in burning and utterly destroying the city of mulheim. "that is none of your affair," said the king. "pardon me, your majesty," replied caron, "they are our fellow religionists, and some one at least ought to resent the cruelty practised upon them." the king admitted that the destruction of the city had been an unheard--of cruelty, and then passed on to speak of the quarrel between the duke and city of brunswick, and other matters. the interview ended, and the ambassador, very downhearted, went to confer with the secretary of state sir ralph winwood, and sir henry wotton. he assured these gentlemen that without fully consulting the french government these radical changes in the negotiations would never be consented to by the states. winwood promised to confer at once with the french ambassador, admitting it to be impossible for the king to take up this matter alone. he would also talk with the archduke's ambassador next day noon at dinner, who was about leaving for brussels, and "he would put something into his hand that he might take home with him." "when he is fairly gone," said caron, "it is to be hoped that the king's head will no longer be so muddled about these things. i wish it with all my heart." it was a dismal prospect for the states. the one ally on whom they had a right to depend, the ex-calvinist and royal defender of the faith, in this mortal combat of protestantism with the league, was slipping out of their grasp with distracting lubricity. on the other hand, the most christian king, a boy of fourteen years, was still in the control of a mother heart and soul with the league--so far as she had heart or soul--was betrothed to the daughter of spain, and saw his kingdom torn to pieces and almost literally divided among themselves by rebellious princes, who made use of the spanish marriages as a pretext for unceasing civil war. the queen-mother was at that moment at bordeaux, and an emissary from the princes was in london. james had sent to offer his mediation between them and the queen. he was fond of mediation. he considered it his special mission in the world to mediate. he imagined himself as looked up to by the nations as the great arbitrator of christendom, and was wont to issue his decrees as if binding in force and infallible by nature. he had protested vigorously against the spanish-french marriages, and declared that the princes were justified in formalizing an opposition to them, at least until affairs in france were restored to something like order. he warned the queen against throwing the kingdom "into the combustion of war without necessity," and declared that, if she would trust to his guidance, she might make use of him as if her affairs were his own. an indispensable condition for much assistance, however, would be that the marriages should be put off. as james was himself pursuing a spanish marriage for his son as the chief end and aim of his existence, there was something almost humorous in this protest to the queen-dowager and in his encouragement of mutiny in france in order to prevent a catastrophe there which he desired at home. the same agent of the princes, de monbaran by name, was also privately accredited by them to the states with instructions to borrow , crowns of them if he could. but so long as the policy of the republic was directed by barneveld, it was not very probable that, while maintaining friendly and even intimate relations with the legitimate government, she would enter into negotiations with rebels against it, whether princes or plebeians, and oblige them with loans. "he will call on me soon, no doubt," said caron, "but being so well instructed as to your mightinesses intentions in this matter, i hope i shall keep him away from you." monbaran was accordingly kept away, but a few weeks later another emissary of conde and bouillon made his appearance at the hague, de valigny by name. he asked for money and for soldiers to reinforce bouillon's city of sedan, but he was refused an audience of the states-general. even the martial ardour of maurice and his sympathy for his relatives were cooled by this direct assault on his pocket. "the prince," wrote the french ambassador, du maurier, "will not furnish him or his adherents a thousand crowns, not if they had death between their teeth. those who think it do not know how he loves his money." in the very last days of the year ( ) caron had another interview with the king in which james was very benignant. he told the ambassador that he should wish the states to send him some special commissioners to make a new treaty with him, and to treat of all unsettled affairs which were daily arising between the inhabitants of the respective countries. he wished to make a firmer union and accord between great britain and the netherlands. he was very desirous of this, "because," said he, "if we can unite with and understand each other, we have under god no one what ever to fear, however mighty they may be." caron duly notified barneveld of these enthusiastic expressions of his majesty. the advocate too was most desirous of settling the troublesome questions about the cloth trade, the piracies, and other matters, and was in favour of the special commission. in regard to a new treaty of alliance thus loosely and vaguely suggested, he was not so sanguine however. he had too much difficulty in enforcing the interests of protestantism in the duchies against the infatuation of james in regard to spain, and he was too well aware of the spanish marriage delusion, which was the key to the king's whole policy, to put much faith in these casual outbursts of eternal friendship with the states. he contented himself therefore with cautioning caron to pause before committing himself to any such projects. he had frequently instructed him, however, to bring the disputed questions to his majesty's notice as often as possible with a view to amicable arrangement. this preventive policy in regard to france was highly approved by barneveld, who was willing to share in the blame profusely heaped upon such sincere patriots and devoted protestants as duplessis-mornay and others, who saw small advantage to the great cause from a mutiny against established government, bad as it was, led by such intriguers as conde and bouillon. men who had recently been in the pay of spain, and one of whom had been cognizant of biron's plot against the throne and life of henry iv., to whom sedition was native atmosphere and daily bread, were not likely to establish a much more wholesome administration than that of mary de' medici. prince maurice sympathized with his relatives by marriage, who were leading the civil commotions in france and endeavouring to obtain funds in the netherlands. it is needless to say that francis aerssens was deep in their intrigues, and feeding full the grudge which the stadholder already bore the advocate for his policy on this occasion. the advocate thought it best to wait until the young king should himself rise in mutiny against his mother and her minions. perhaps the downfall of the concini's and their dowager and the escape of lewis from thraldom might not be so distant as it seemed. meantime this was the legal government, bound to the states by treaties of friendship and alliance, and it would be a poor return for the many favours and the constant aid bestowed by henry iv. on the republic, and an imbecile mode of avenging his murder to help throw his kingdom into bloodshed and confusion before his son was able to act for himself. at the same time he did his best to cultivate amicable relations with the princes, while scrupulously abstaining from any sympathy with their movements. "if the prince and the other gentlemen come to court," he wrote to langerac, "you will treat them with all possible caresses so far as can be done without disrespect to the government." while the british court was occupied with the foul details of the overbury murder and its consequences, a crime of a more commonplace nature, but perhaps not entirely without influence on great political events, had startled the citizens of the hague. it was committed in the apartments of the stadholder and almost under his very eyes. a jeweller of amsterdam, one john van wely, had come to the court of maurice to lay before him a choice collection of rare jewellery. in his caskets were rubies and diamonds to the value of more than , florins, which would be the equivalent of perhaps ten times as much to-day. in the prince's absence the merchant was received by a confidential groom of the chambers, john of paris by name, and by him, with the aid of a third john, a soldier of his excellency's guard, called jean de la vigne, murdered on the spot. the deed was done in the prince's private study. the unfortunate jeweller was shot, and to make sure was strangled with the blue riband of the order of the garter recently conferred upon maurice, and which happened to be lying conspicuously in the room. the ruffians had barely time to take possession of the booty, to thrust the body behind the tapestry of the chamber, and to remove the more startling evidences of the crime, when the prince arrived. he supped soon afterwards in the same room, the murdered jeweller still lying behind the arras. in the night the valet and soldier carried the corpse away from the room, down the stairs, and through the great courtyard, where, strange to say, no sentinels were on duty, and threw it into an ashpit. a deed so bloody, audacious, and stupid was of course soon discovered and the murderers arrested and executed. nothing would remove the incident from the catalogue of vulgar crimes, or even entitle it to a place in history save a single circumstance. the celebrated divine john uytenbogaert, leader among the arminians, devoted friend of barneveld, and up to that moment the favorite preacher of maurice, stigmatized indeed, as we have seen, by the orthodox as "court trumpeter," was requested by the prince to prepare the chief criminal for death. he did so, and from that day forth the stadholder ceased to be his friend, although regularly listening to his preaching in the french chapel of the court for more than a year longer. some time afterwards the advocate informed uytenbogaert that the prince was very much embittered against him. "i knew it well," says the clergyman in his memoirs, "but not the reasons for it, nor do i exactly comprehend them to this day. truly i have some ideas relating to certain things which i was obliged to do in discharge of my official duty, but i will not insist upon them, nor will i reveal them to any man." these were mysterious words, and the mystery is said to have been explained; for it would seem that the eminent preacher was not so entirely reticent among his confidential friends as before the public. uytenbogaert--so ran the tale--in the course of his conversation with the condemned murderer, john of paris, expressed a natural surprise that there should have been no soldiers on guard in the court on the evening when the crime was committed and the body subsequently removed. the valet informed him that he had for a long time been empowered by the prince to withdraw the sentinels from that station, and that they had been instructed to obey his orders--maurice not caring that they should be witnesses to the equivocal kind of female society that john of paris was in the habit of introducing of an evening to his master's apartments. the valet had made use of this privilege on the night in question to rid himself of the soldiers who would have been otherwise on guard. the preacher felt it his duty to communicate these statements to the prince, and to make perhaps a somewhat severe comment upon them. maurice received the information sullenly, and, as soon as uytenbogaert was gone, fell into a violent passion, throwing his hat upon the floor, stamping upon it, refusing to eat his supper, and allowing no one to speak to him. next day some courtiers asked the clergyman what in the world he had been saying to the stadholder. from that time forth his former partiality for the divine, on whose preaching he had been a regular attendant, was changed to hatred; a sentiment which lent a lurid colour to subsequent events. the attempts of the spanish party by chicane or by force to get possession of the coveted territories continued year after year, and were steadily thwarted by the watchfulness of the states under guidance of barneveld. the martial stadholder was more than ever for open war, in which he was opposed by the advocate, whose object was to postpone and, if possible, to avert altogether the dread catastrophe which he foresaw impending over europe. the xanten arrangement seemed hopelessly thrown to the winds, nor was it destined to be carried out; the whole question of sovereignty and of mastership in those territories being swept subsequently into the general whirlpool of the thirty years' war. so long as there was a possibility of settlement upon that basis, the advocate was in favour of settlement, but to give up the guarantees and play into the hands of the catholic league was in his mind to make the republic one of the conspirators against the liberties of christendom. "spain, the emperor and the rest of them," said he, "make all three modes of pacification--the treaty, the guarantee by the mediating kings, the administration divided between the possessory princes--alike impossible. they mean, under pretext of sequestration, to make themselves absolute masters there. i have no doubt that villeroy means sincerely, and understands the matter, but meantime we sit by the fire and burn. if the conflagration is neglected, all the world will throw the blame on us." thus the spaniards continued to amuse the british king with assurances of their frank desire to leave those fortresses and territories which they really meant to hold till the crack of doom. and while gondemar was making these ingenuous assertions in london, his colleagues at paris and at brussels distinctly and openly declared that there was no authority whatever for them, that the ambassador had received no such instructions, and that there was no thought of giving up wesel or any other of the protestant strongholds captured, whether in the duchies or out of them. and gondemar, still more to keep that monarch in subjection, had been unusually flattering in regard to the spanish marriage. "we are in great alarm here," said the advocate, "at the tidings that the projected alliance of the prince of wales with the daughter of spain is to be renewed; from which nothing good for his majesty's person, his kingdom, nor for our state can be presaged. we live in hope that it will never be." but the other marriage was made. despite the protest of james, the forebodings of barneveld, and the mutiny of the princes, the youthful king of france had espoused anne of austria early in the year . the british king did his best to keep on terms with france and spain, and by no means renounced his own hopes. at the same time, while fixed as ever in his approbation of the policy pursued by the emperor and the league, and as deeply convinced of their artlessness in regard to the duchies, the protestant princes of germany, and the republic, he manifested more cordiality than usual in his relations with the states. minor questions between the countries he was desirous of arranging--so far as matters of state could be arranged by orations--and among the most pressing of these affairs were the systematic piracy existing and encouraged in english ports, to the great damage of all seafaring nations and to the hollanders most of all, and the quarrel about the exportation of undyed cloths, which had almost caused a total cessation of the woollen trade between the two countries. the english, to encourage their own artisans, had forbidden the export of undyed cloths, and the dutch had retorted by prohibiting the import of dyed ones. the king had good sense enough to see the absurdity of this condition of things, and it will be remembered that barneveld had frequently urged upon the dutch ambassador to bring his majesty's attention to these dangerous disputes. now that the recovery of the cautionary towns had been so dexterously and amicably accomplished, and at so cheap a rate, it seemed a propitious moment to proceed to a general extinction of what would now be called "burning questions." james was desirous that new high commissioners might be sent from the states to confer with himself and his ministers upon the subjects just indicated, as well as upon the fishery questions as regarded both greenland and scotland, and upon the general affairs of india. he was convinced, he said to caron, that the sea had become more and more unsafe and so full of freebooters that the like was never seen or heard of before. it will be remembered that the advocate had recently called his attention to the fact that the dutch merchants had lost in two months , florins' worth of goods by english pirates. the king now assured the ambassador of his intention of equipping a fleet out of hand and to send it forth as speedily as possible under command of a distinguished nobleman, who would put his honour and credit in a successful expedition, without any connivance or dissimulation whatever. in order thoroughly to scour these pirates from the seas, he expressed the hope that their mightinesses the states would do the same either jointly or separately as they thought most advisable. caron bluntly replied that the states had already ten or twelve war-ships at sea for this purpose, but that unfortunately, instead of finding any help from the english in this regard, they had always found the pirates favoured in his majesty's ports, especially in ireland and wales. "thus they have so increased in numbers," continued the ambassador, "that i quite believe what your majesty says, that not a ship can pass with safety over the seas. more over, your majesty has been graciously pleased to pardon several of these corsairs, in consequence of which they have become so impudent as to swarm everywhere, even in the river thames, where they are perpetually pillaging honest merchantmen." "i confess," said the king, "to having pardoned a certain manning, but this was for the sake of his old father, and i never did anything so unwillingly in my life. but i swear that if it were the best nobleman in england, i would never grant one of them a pardon again." caron expressed his joy at hearing such good intentions on the part of his majesty, and assured him that the states-general would be equally delighted. in the course of the summer the dutch ambassador had many opportunities of seeing the king very confidentially, james having given him the use of the royal park at bayscot, so that during the royal visits to that place caron was lodged under his roof. on the whole, james had much regard and respect for noel de caron. he knew him to be able, although he thought him tiresome. it is amusing to observe the king and ambassador in their utterances to confidential friends each frequently making the charge of tediousness against the other. "caron's general education," said james on one occasion to cecil, "cannot amend his native german prolixity, for had i not interrupted him, it had been tomorrow morning before i had begun to speak. god preserve me from hearing a cause debated between don diego and him! . . . but in truth it is good dealing with so wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome." subsequently james came to whitehall for a time, and then stopped at theobalds for a few days on his way to newmarket, where he stayed until christmas. at theobalds he sent again for the ambassador, saying that at whitehall he was so broken down with affairs that it would be impossible to live if he stayed there. he asked if the states were soon to send the commissioners, according to his request, to confer in regard to the cloth-trade. without interference of the two governments, he said, the matter would never be settled. the merchants of the two countries would never agree except under higher authority. "i have heard both parties," he said, "the new and the old companies, two or three times in full council, and tried to bring them to an agreement, but it won't do. i have heard that my lords the states have been hearing both sides, english and the hollanders, over and over again, and that the states have passed a provisional resolution, which however does not suit us. now it is not reasonable, as we are allies, that our merchants should be obliged to send their cloths roundabout, not being allowed either to sell them in the united provinces or to pass them through your territories. i wish i could talk with them myself, for i am certain, if they would send some one here, we could make an agreement. it is not necessary that one should take everything from them, or that one should refuse everything to us. i am sure there are people of sense in your assembly who will justify me in favouring my own people so far as i reasonably can, and i know very well that my lords the states must stand up for their own citizens. if we have been driving this matter to an extreme and see that we are ruining each other, we must take it up again in other fashion, for yesterday is the preceptor of to-morrow. let the commissioners come as soon as possible. i know they have complaints to make, and i have my complaints also. therefore we must listen to each other, for i protest before god that i consider the community of your state with mine to be so entire that, if one goes to perdition, the other must quickly follow it." thus spoke james, like a wise and thoughtful sovereign interested in the welfare of his subjects and allies, with enlightened ideas for the time upon public economy. it is difficult, in the man conversing thus amicably and sensibly with the dutch ambassador, to realise the shrill pedant shrieking against vorstius, the crapulous comrade of carrs and steenies, the fawning solicitor of spanish marriages, the "pepperer" and hangman of puritans, the butt and dupe of gondemar and spinola. "i protest," he said further, "that i seek nothing in your state but all possible friendship and good fellowship. my own subjects complain sometimes that your people follow too closely on their heels, and confess that your industry goes far above their own. if this be so, it is a lean kind of reproach; for the english should rather study to follow you. nevertheless, when industry is directed by malice, each may easily be attempting to snap an advantage from the other. i have sometimes complained of many other things in which my subjects suffered great injustice from you, but all that is excusable. i will willingly listen to your people and grant them to be in the right when they are so. but i will never allow them to be in the right when they mistrust me. if i had been like many other princes, i should never have let the advantage of the cautionary towns slip out of my fingers, but rather by means of them attempted to get even a stronger hold on your country. i have had plenty of warnings from great statesmen in france, germany, and other nations that i ought to give them up nevermore. yet you know how frankly and sincerely i acquitted myself in that matter without ever making pretensions upon your state than the pretensions i still make to your friendship and co-operation." james, after this allusion to an important transaction to be explained in the next chapter, then made an observation or two on a subject which was rapidly overtopping all others in importance to the states, and his expressions were singularly at variance with his last utterances in that regard. "i tell you," he said, "that you have no right to mistrust me in anything, not even in the matter of religion. i grieve indeed to hear that your religious troubles continue. you know that in the beginning i occupied myself with this affair, but fearing that my course might be misunderstood, and that it might be supposed that i was seeking to exercise authority in your republic, i gave it up, and i will never interfere with the matter again, but will ever pray god that he may give you a happy issue out of these troubles." alas! if the king had always kept himself on that height of amiable neutrality, if he had been able to govern himself in the future by these simplest principles of reason and justice, there might have been perhaps a happier issue from the troubles than time was like to reveal. once more james referred to the crisis pending in german affairs, and as usual spoke of the clove and julich question as if it were a simple matter to be settled by a few strokes of the pen and a pennyworth of sealing-wax, instead of being the opening act in a vast tragedy, of which neither he, nor carom nor barneveld, nor prince maurice, nor the youthful king of france, nor philip, nor matthias, nor any of the men now foremost in the conduct of affairs, was destined to see the end. the king informed caron that he had just received most satisfactory assurances from the spanish ambassador in his last audience at whitehall. "he has announced to me on the part of the king his master with great compliments that his majesty seeks to please me and satisfy me in everything that i could possibly desire of him," said james, rolling over with satisfaction these unctuous phrases as if they really had any meaning whatever. "his majesty says further," added the king, "that as he has been at various times admonished by me, and is daily admonished by other princes, that he ought to execute the treaty of xanten by surrendering the city of wesel and all other places occupied by spinola, he now declares himself ready to carry out that treaty in every point. he will accordingly instruct the archduke to do this, provided the margrave of brandenburg and the states will do the same in regard to their captured places. as he understands however that the states have been fortifying julich even as he might fortify wesel, he would be glad that no innovation be made before the end of the coming month of march. when this term shall have expired, he will no longer be bound by these offers, but will proceed to fortify wesel and the other places, and to hold them as he best may for himself. respect for me has alone induced his majesty to make this resolution." we have already seen that the spanish ambassador in paris was at this very time loudly declaring that his colleague in london had no commission whatever to make these propositions. nor when they were in the slightest degree analysed, did they appear after all to be much better than threats. not a word was said of guarantees. the names of the two kings were not mentioned. it was nothing but albert and spinola then as always, and a recommendation that brandenburg and the states and all the protestant princes of germany should trust to the candour of the catholic league. caron pointed out to the king that in these proposals there were no guarantees nor even promises that the fortresses would not be reoccupied at convenience of the spaniards. he engaged however to report the whole statement to his masters. a few weeks afterwards the advocate replied in his usual vein, reminding the king through the ambassador that the republic feared fraud on the part of the league much more than force. he also laid stress on the affairs of italy, considering the fate of savoy and the conflicts in which venice was engaged as components of a general scheme. the states had been much solicited, as we have seen, to render assistance to the duke of savoy, the temporary peace of asti being already broken, and barneveld had been unceasing in his efforts to arouse france as well as england to the danger to themselves and to all christendom should savoy be crushed. we shall have occasion to see the prominent part reserved to savoy in the fast opening debate in germany. meantime the states had sent one count of nassau with a couple of companies to charles emmanuel, while another (ernest) had just gone to venice at the head of more than three thousand adventurers. with so many powerful armies at their throats, as barneveld had more than once observed, it was not easy for them to despatch large forces to the other end of europe, but he justly reminded his allies that the states were now rendering more effective help to the common cause by holding great spanish armies in check on their own frontier than if they assumed a more aggressive line in the south. the advocate, like every statesman worthy of the name, was accustomed to sweep the whole horizon in his consideration of public policy, and it will be observed that he always regarded various and apparently distinct and isolated movements in different parts of europe as parts of one great whole. it is easy enough for us, centuries after the record has been made up, to observe the gradual and, as it were, harmonious manner in which the great catholic conspiracy against the liberties of europe was unfolded in an ever widening sphere. but to the eyes of contemporaries all was then misty and chaotic, and it required the keen vision of a sage and a prophet to discern the awful shape which the future might assume. absorbed in the contemplation of these portentous phenomena, it was not unnatural that the advocate should attach less significance to perturbations nearer home. devoted as was his life to save the great european cause of protestantism, in which he considered political and religious liberty bound up, from the absolute extinction with which it was menaced, he neglected too much the furious hatreds growing up among protestants within the narrow limits of his own province. he was destined one day to be rudely awakened. meantime he was occupied with organizing a general defence of italy, germany, france, and england, as well as the netherlands, against the designs of spain and the league. "we wish to know," he said in answer to the affectionate messages and fine promises of the king of spain to james as reported by caron, "what his majesty of great britain has done, is doing, and is resolved to do for the duke of savoy and the republic of venice. if they ask you what we are doing, answer that we with our forces and vigour are keeping off from the throats of savoy and venice riders and , infantry, with which forces, let alone their experience, more would be accomplished than with four times the number of new troops brought to the field in italy. this is our succour, a great one and a very costly one, for the expense of maintaining our armies to hold the enemy in check here is very great." he alluded with his usual respectful and quiet scorn to the arrangements by which james so wilfully allowed himself to be deceived. "if the spaniard really leaves the duchies," he said, "it is a grave matter to decide whether on the one side he is not resolved by that means to win more over us and the elector of brandenburg in the debateable land in a few days than he could gain by force in many years, or on the other whether by it he does not intend despatching or cavalry and or foot, all his most experienced soldiers, from the netherlands to italy, in order to give the law at his pleasure to the duke of savoy and the republic of venice, reserving his attack upon germany and ourselves to the last. the spaniards, standing under a monarchical government, can in one hour resolve to seize to-morrow all that they and we may abandon to-day. and they can carry such a resolution into effect at once. our form of government does not permit this, so that our republic must be conserved by distrust and good garrisons." thus during this long period of half hostilities barneveld, while sincerely seeking to preserve the peace in europe, was determined, if possible, that the republic should maintain the strongest defensive position when the war which he foreboded should actually begin. maurice and the war party had blamed him for the obstacles which he interposed to the outbreak of hostilities, while the british court, as we have seen, was perpetually urging him to abate from his demands and abandon both the well strengthened fortresses in the duchies and that strong citadel of distrust which in his often repeated language he was determined never to surrender. spinola and the military party of spain, while preaching peace, had been in truth most anxious for fighting. "the only honour i desire henceforth," said that great commander, "is to give battle to prince maurice." the generals were more anxious than the governments to make use of the splendid armies arrayed against each other in such proximity that, the signal for conflict not having been given, it was not uncommon for the soldiers of the respective camps to aid each other in unloading munition waggons, exchanging provisions and other articles of necessity, and performing other small acts of mutual service. but heavy thunder clouds hanging over the earth so long and so closely might burst into explosion at any moment. had it not been for the distracted condition of france, the infatuation of the english king, and the astounding inertness of the princes of the german union, great advantages might have been gained by the protestant party before the storm should break. but, as the french ambassador at the hague well observed, "the great protestant union of germany sat with folded arms while hannibal was at their gate, the princes of which it was composed amusing themselves with staring at each other. it was verifying," he continued, bitterly, "the saying of the duke of alva, 'germany is an old dog which still can bark, but has lost its teeth to bite with.'" to such imbecility had that noble and gifted people--which had never been organized into a nation since it crushed the roman empire and established a new civilization on its ruins, and was to wait centuries longer until it should reconstruct itself into a whole--been reduced by subdivision, disintegration, the perpetual dissolvent of religious dispute, and the selfish policy of infinitesimal dynasties. chapter xii. james still presses for the payment of the dutch republic's debt to him--a compromise effected, with restitution of the cautionary towns--treaty of loudun--james's dream of a spanish marriage revives--james visits scotland--the states-general agree to furnish money and troops in fulfilment of the treaty of --death of concini--villeroy returns to power. besides matters of predestination there were other subjects political and personal which increased the king's jealousy and hatred. the debt of the republic to the british crown, secured by mortgage of the important sea-ports and fortified towns of flushing, brielle, rammekens, and other strong places, still existed. the possession of those places by england was a constant danger and irritation to the states. it was an axe perpetually held over their heads. it threatened their sovereignty, their very existence. on more than one occasion, in foreign courts, the representatives of the netherlands had been exposed to the taunt that the republic was after all not an independent power, but a british province. the gibe had always been repelled in a manner becoming the envoys of a proud commonwealth; yet it was sufficiently galling that english garrisons should continue to hold dutch towns; one of them among the most valuable seaports of the republic,--the other the very cradle of its independence, the seizure of which in alva's days had always been reckoned a splendid achievement. moreover, by the fifth article of the treaty of peace between james and philip iii., although the king had declared himself bound by the treaties made by elizabeth to deliver up the cautionary towns to no one but the united states, he promised spain to allow those states a reasonable time to make peace with the archdukes on satisfactory conditions. should they refuse to do so, he held himself bound by no obligations to them, and would deal with the cities as he thought proper, and as the archdukes themselves might deem just. the king had always been furious at "the huge sum of money to be advanced, nay, given, to the states," as he phrased it. "it is so far out of all square," he had said, "as on my conscience i cannot think that ever they craved it 'animo obtinendi,' but only by that objection to discourage me from any thought of getting any repayment of my debts from them when they shall be in peace. . . . should i ruin myself for maintaining them? should i bestow as much on them as cometh to the value of my whole yearly rent?" he had proceeded to say very plainly that, if the states did not make great speed to pay him all his debt so soon as peace was established, he should treat their pretence at independence with contempt, and propose dividing their territory between himself and the king of france. "if they be so weak as they cannot subsist either in peace or war," he said, "without i ruin myself for upholding them, in that case surely 'minus malunv est eligendum,' the nearest harm is first to be eschewed, a man will leap out of a burning ship and drown himself in the sea; and it is doubtless a farther off harm for me to suffer them to fall again in the hands of spain, and let god provide for the danger that may with time fall upon me or my posterity than presently to starve myself and mine with putting the meat in their mouth. nay, rather if they be so weak as they can neither sustain themselves in peace nor war, let them leave this vainglorious thirsting for the title of a free state (which no people are worthy or able to enjoy that cannot stand by themselves like substantives), and 'dividantur inter nos;' i mean, let their countries be divided between france and me, otherwise the king of spain shall be sure to consume us." such were the eyes with which james had always regarded the great commonwealth of which he affected to be the ally, while secretly aspiring to be its sovereign, and such was his capacity to calculate political forces and comprehend coming events. certainly the sword was hanging by a thread. the states had made no peace either with the archdukes or with spain. they had made a truce, half the term of which had already run by. at any moment the keys of their very house-door might be placed in the hands of their arch enemy. treacherous and base as the deed would be, it might be defended by the letter of a treaty in which the republic had no part; and was there anything too treacherous or too base to be dreaded from james stuart? but the states owed the crown of england eight millions of florins, equivalent to about l , . where was this vast sum to be found? it was clearly impossible for the states to beg or to borrow it, although they were nearly as rich as any of the leading powers at that day. it was the merit of barneveld, not only that he saw the chance for a good bargain, but that he fully comprehended a great danger. years long james had pursued the phantom of a spanish marriage for his son. to achieve this mighty object, he had perverted the whole policy of the realm; he had grovelled to those who despised him, had repaid attempts at wholesale assassination with boundless sycophancy. it is difficult to imagine anything more abject than the attitude of james towards philip. prince henry was dead, but charles had now become prince of wales in his turn, and there was a younger infanta whose hand was not yet disposed of. so long as the possible prize of a most catholic princess was dangling before the eyes of the royal champion of protestantism, so long there was danger that the netherlanders might wake up some fine morning and see the flag of spain waving over the walls of flushing, brielle, and rammekens. it was in the interest of spain too that the envoys of james at the hague were perpetually goading barneveld to cause the states' troops to be withdrawn from the duchies and the illusory treaty of xanten to be executed. instead of an eighth province added to the free netherlands, the result of such a procedure would have been to place that territory enveloping them in the hands of the enemy; to strengthen and sharpen the claws, as the advocate had called them, by which spain was seeking to clutch and to destroy the republic. the advocate steadily refused to countenance such policy in the duchies, and he resolved on a sudden stroke to relieve the commonwealth from the incubus of the english mortgage. james was desperately pushed for money. his minions, as insatiable in their demands on english wealth as the parasites who fed on the queen-regent were exhaustive of the french exchequer, were greedier than ever now that james, who feared to face a parliament disgusted with the meanness of his policy and depravity of his life, could not be relied upon to minister to their wants. the advocate judiciously contrived that the proposal of a compromise should come from the english government. noel de caron, the veteran ambassador of the states in london, after receiving certain proposals, offered, under instructions' from barneveld, to pay l , in full of all demands. it was made to appear that the additional l , was in reality in advance of his instructions. the mouths of the minions watered at the mention of so magnificent a sum of money in one lump. the bargain was struck. on the th june , sir robert sidney, who had become lord lisle, gave over the city of flushing to the states, represented by the seignior van maldere, while sir horace vere placed the important town of brielle in the hands of the seignior van mathenesse. according to the terms of the bargain, the english garrisons were converted into two regiments, respectively to be commanded by lord lisle's son, now sir robert sidney, and by sir horace vere, and were to serve the states. lisle, who had been in the netherlands since the days of his uncle leicester and his brother sir philip sidney, now took his final departure for england. thus this ancient burthen had been taken off the republic by the masterly policy of the advocate. a great source of dread for foreign complication was closed for ever. the french-spanish marriages had been made. henry iv. had not been murdered in vain. conde and his confederates had issued their manifesto. a crisis came to the states, for maurice, always inclined to take part for the princes, and urged on by aerssens, who was inspired by a deadly hatred for the french government ever since they had insisted on his dismissal from his post, and who fed the stadholder's growing jealousy of the advocate to the full, was at times almost ready for joining in the conflict. it was most difficult for the states-general, led by barneveld, to maintain relations of amity with a government controlled by spain, governed by the concini's, and wafted to and fro by every wind that blew. still it was the government, and the states might soon be called upon, in virtue of their treaties with henry, confirmed by mary de' medici, not only to prevent the daily desertion of officers and soldiers of the french regiments to the rebellious party, but to send the regiments themselves to the assistance of the king and queen. there could be no doubt that the alliance of the french huguenots at grenoble with the princes made the position of the states very critical. bouillon was loud in his demands upon maurice and the states for money and reinforcements, but the prince fortunately understood the character of the duke and of conde, and comprehended the nature of french politics too clearly to be led into extremities by passion or by pique. he said loudly to any one that chose to listen: "it is not necessary to ruin the son in order to avenge the death of the father. that should be left to the son, who alone has legitimate authority to do it." nothing could be more sensible, and the remark almost indicated a belief on the prince's part in mary's complicity in the murder of her husband. duplessis-mornay was in despair, and, like all true patriots and men of earnest character, felt it almost an impossibility to choose between the two ignoble parties contending for the possession of france, and both secretly encouraged by france's deadly enemy. the treaty of loudun followed, a treaty which, said du maurier, had about as many negotiators as there were individuals interested in the arrangements. the rebels were forgiven, conde sold himself out for a million and a half livres and the presidency of the council, came to court, and paraded himself in greater pomp and appearance of power than ever. four months afterwards he was arrested and imprisoned. he submitted like a lamb, and offered to betray his confederates. king james, faithful to his self-imposed part of mediator-general, which he thought so well became him, had been busy in bringing about this pacification, and had considered it eminently successful. he was now angry at this unexpected result. he admitted that conde had indulged in certain follies and extravagancies, but these in his opinion all came out of the quiver of the spaniard, "who was the head of the whole intrigue." he determined to recall lord hayes from madrid and even sir thomas edmonds from paris, so great was his indignation. but his wrath was likely to cool under the soothing communications of gondemar, and the rumour of the marriage of the second infanta with the prince of wales soon afterwards started into new life. "we hope," wrote barneveld, "that the alliance of his highness the prince of wales with the daughter of the spanish king will make no further progress, as it will place us in the deepest embarrassment and pain." for the reports had been so rife at the english court in regard to this dangerous scheme that caron had stoutly gone to the king and asked him what he was to think about it. "the king told me," said the ambassador, "that there was nothing at all in it, nor any appearance that anything ever would come of it. it was true, he said, that on the overtures made to him by the spanish ambassador he had ordered his minister in spain to listen to what they had to say, and not to bear himself as if the overtures would be rejected." the coyness thus affected by james could hardly impose on so astute a diplomatist as noel de caron, and the effect produced upon the policy of one of the republic's chief allies by the spanish marriages naturally made her statesmen shudder at the prospect of their other powerful friend coming thus under the malign influence of spain. "he assured me, however," said the envoy, "that the spaniard is not sincere in the matter, and that he has himself become so far alienated from the scheme that we may sleep quietly upon it." and james appeared at that moment so vexed at the turn affairs were taking in france, so wounded in his self-love, and so bewildered by the ubiquitous nature of nets and pitfalls spreading over europe by spain, that he really seemed waking from his delusion. even caron was staggered? "in all his talk he appears so far estranged from the spaniard," said he, "that it would seem impossible that he should consider this marriage as good for his state. i have also had other advices on the subject which in the highest degree comfort me. now your mightinesses may think whatever you like about it." the mood of the king was not likely to last long in so comfortable a state. meantime he took the part of conde and the other princes, justified their proceedings to the special envoy sent over by mary de' medici, and wished the states to join with him in appealing to that queen to let the affair, for his sake, pass over once more. "and now i will tell your mightinesses," said caron, reverting once more to the dreaded marriage which occupies so conspicuous a place in the strangely mingled and party-coloured tissue of the history of those days, "what the king has again been telling me about the alliance between his son and the infanta. he hears from carleton that you are in very great alarm lest this event may take place. he understands that the special french envoy at the hague, m. de la none, has been representing to you that the king of great britain is following after and begging for the daughter of spain for his son. he says it is untrue. but it is true that he has been sought and solicited thereto, and that in consequence there have been talks and propositions and rejoinders, but nothing of any moment. as he had already told me not to be alarmed until he should himself give me cause for it, he expressed his amazement that i had not informed your mightinesses accordingly. he assured me again that he should not proceed further in the business without communicating it to his good friends and neighbours, that he considered my lords the states as his best friends and allies, who ought therefore to conceive no jealousy in the matter." this certainly was cold comfort. caron knew well enough, not a clerk in his office but knew well enough, that james had been pursuing this prize for years. for the king to represent himself as persecuted by spain to give his son to the infanta was about as ridiculous as it would have been to pretend that emperor matthias was persuading him to let his son-in-law accept the crown of bohemia. it was admitted that negotiations for the marriage were going on, and the assertion that the spanish court was more eager for it than the english government was not especially calculated to allay the necessary alarm of the states at such a disaster. nor was it much more tranquillizing for them to be assured, not that the marriage was off, but that, when it was settled, they, as the king's good friends and neighbours, should have early information of it. "i told him," said the ambassador, "that undoubtedly this matter was of the highest 'importance to your mightinesses, for it was not good for us to sit between two kingdoms both so nearly allied with the spanish monarch, considering the pretensions he still maintained to sovereignty over us. although his majesty might not now be willing to treat to our prejudice, yet the affair itself in the sequence of time must of necessity injure our commonwealth. we hoped therefore that it would never come to pass." caron added that ambassador digby was just going to spain on extraordinary mission in regard to this affair, and that eight or ten gentlemen of the council had been deputed to confer with his majesty about it. he was still inclined to believe that the whole negotiation would blow over, the king continuing to exhort him not to be alarmed, and assuring him that there were many occasions moving princes to treat of great affairs although often without any effective issue. at that moment too the king was in a state of vehement wrath with the spanish netherlands on account of a stinging libel against himself, "an infamous and wonderfully scandalous pamphlet," as he termed it, called 'corona regis', recently published at louvain. he had sent sir john bennet as special ambassador to the archdukes to demand from them justice and condign and public chastisement on the author of the work--a rector putianus as he believed, successor of justus lipsius in his professorship at louvain--and upon the printer, one flaminius. delays and excuses having followed instead of the punishment originally demanded, james had now instructed his special envoy in case of further delay or evasion to repudiate all further friendship or intercourse with the archduke, to ratify the recall of his minister-resident trumbull, and in effect to announce formal hostilities. "the king takes the thing wonderfully to heart," said caron. james in effect hated to be made ridiculous, and we shall have occasion to see how important a part other publications which he deemed detrimental to the divinity of his person were to play in these affairs. meantime it was characteristic of this sovereign that--while ready to talk of war with philip's brother-in-law for a pamphlet, while seeking the hand of philip's daughter for his son--he was determined at the very moment when the world was on fire to take himself, the heaven-born extinguisher of all political conflagrations, away from affairs and to seek the solace of along holiday in scotland. his counsellors persistently and vehemently implored him to defer that journey until the following year at least, all the neighbouring nations being now in a state of war and civil commotion. but it was in vain. he refused to listen to them for a moment, and started for scotland before the middle of march. conde, who had kept france in a turmoil, had sought aid alternately from the calvinists at grenoble and the jesuits in rome, from spain and from the netherlands, from the pope and from maurice of nassau, had thus been caged at last. but there was little gained. there was one troublesome but incompetent rebel the less, but there was no king in the land. he who doubts the influence of the individual upon the fate of a country and upon his times through long passages of history may explain the difference between france of , with a martial king aided by great statesmen at its head, with an exchequer overflowing with revenue hoarded for a great cause--and that cause an attempt at least to pacificate christendom and avert a universal and almost infinite conflict now already opening--and the france of , with its treasures already squandered among ignoble and ruffianly favourites, with every office in state, church, court, and magistracy sold to the highest bidder, with a queen governed by an italian adventurer who was governed by spain, and with a little king who had but lately expressed triumph at his confirmation because now he should no longer be whipped, and who was just married to a daughter of the hereditary and inevitable foe of france. to contemplate this dreary interlude in the history of a powerful state is to shiver at the depths of inanity and crime to which mankind can at once descend. what need to pursue the barren, vulgar, and often repeated chronicle? france pulled at by scarcely concealed strings and made to perform fantastic tricks according as its various puppets were swerved this way or that by supple bands at madrid and rome is not a refreshing spectacle. the states-general at last, after an agitated discussion, agreed in fulfilment of the treaty of to send men, being french, to help the king against the princes still in rebellion. but the contest was a most bitter one, and the advocate had a difficult part to play between a government and a rebellion, each more despicable than the other. still louis xiii. and his mother were the legitimate government even if ruled by concini. the words of the treaty made with henry iv. were plain, and the ambassadors of his son had summoned the states to fulfil it. but many impediments were placed in the path of obvious duty by the party led by francis aerssens. "i know very well," said the advocate to ex-burgomaster hooft of amsterdam, father of the great historian, sending him confidentially a copy of the proposals made by the french ambassadors, "that many in this country are striving hard to make us refuse to the king the aid demanded, notwithstanding that we are bound to do it by the pledges given not only by the states-general but by each province in particular. by this no one will profit but the spaniard, who unquestionably will offer much, aye, very much, to bring about dissensions between france and us, from which i foresee great damage, inconvenience, and difficulties for the whole commonwealth and for holland especially. this province has already advanced , , florins to the general government on the money still due from france, which will all be lost in case the subsidy should be withheld, besides other evils which cannot be trusted to the pen." on the same day on which it had been decided at the hague to send the troops, a captain of guards came to the aid of the poor little king and shot concini dead one fine spring morning on the bridge of the louvre. "by order of the king," said vitry. his body was burned before the statue of henry iv. by the people delirious with joy. "l'hanno ammazzato" was shouted to his wife, eleanora galigai, the supposed sorceress. they were the words in which concini had communicated to the queen the murder of her husband seven years before. eleanora, too, was burned after having been beheaded. thus the marshal d'ancre and wife ceased to reign in france. the officers of the french regiments at the hague danced for joy on the vyverberg when the news arrived there. the states were relieved from an immense embarrassment, and the advocate was rewarded for having pursued what was after all the only practicable policy. "do your best," said he to langerac, "to accommodate differences so far as consistent with the conservation of the king's authority. we hope the princes will submit themselves now that the 'lapis offensionis,' according to their pretence, is got rid of. we received a letter from them to-day sealed with the king's arms, with the circumscription 'periclitante regno, regis vita et regia familia." the shooting of concini seemed almost to convert the little king into a hero. everyone in the netherlands, without distinction of party, was delighted with the achievement. "i cannot represent to the king," wrote du maurier to villeroy, "one thousandth part of the joy of all these people who are exalting him to heaven for having delivered the earth from this miserable burthen. i can't tell you in what execration this public pest was held. his majesty has not less won the hearts of this state than if he had gained a great victory over the spaniards. you would not believe it, and yet it is true, that never were the name and reputation of the late king in greater reverence than those of our reigning king at this moment." truly here was glory cheaply earned. the fame of henry the great, after a long career of brilliant deeds of arms, high statesmanship, and twenty years of bountiful friendship for the states, was already equalled by that of louis xiii., who had tremblingly acquiesced in the summary execution of an odious adventurer--his own possible father--and who never had done anything else but feed his canary birds. as for villeroy himself, the ambassador wrote that he could not find portraits enough of him to furnish those who were asking for them since his return to power. barneveld had been right in so often instructing langerac to "caress the old gentleman." etext editor's bookmarks: and give advice. of that, although always a spendthrift casual outbursts of eternal friendship changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day conciliation when war of extermination was intended considered it his special mission in the world to mediate denoungced as an obstacle to peace france was mourning henry and waiting for richelieu hardly a sound protestant policy anywhere but in holland history has not too many really important and emblematic men i hope and i fear king who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated more apprehension of fraud than of force opening an abyss between government and people successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones that he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice the magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome yesterday is the preceptor of to-morrow the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. life and death of john of barneveld, v , chapter xiii. ferdinand of gratz crowned king of bohemia--his enmity to protestants--slawata and martinitz thrown from the windows of the hradschin--real beginning of the thirty years' war--the elector- palatine's intrigues in opposition to the house of austria--he supports the duke of savoy--the emperor matthias visits dresden-- jubilee for the hundredth anniversary of the reformation. when the forlorn emperor rudolph had signed the permission for his brother matthias to take the last crown but one from his head, he bit the pen in a paroxysm of helpless rage. then rushing to the window of his apartment, he looked down on one of the most stately prospects that the palaces of the earth can offer. from the long monotonous architectural lines of the hradschin, imposing from its massiveness and its imperial situation, and with the dome and minarets of the cathedral clustering behind them, the eye swept across the fertile valley, through which the rapid, yellow moldau courses, to the opposite line of cliffs crested with the half imaginary fortress-palaces of the wyscherad. there, in the mythical legendary past of bohemia had dwelt the shadowy libuscha, daughter of krok, wife of king premysl, foundress of prague, who, when wearied of her lovers, was accustomed to toss them from those heights into the river. between these picturesque precipices lay the two pragues, twin-born and quarrelsome, fighting each other for centuries, and growing up side by side into a double, bellicose, stormy, and most splendid city, bristling with steeples and spires, and united by the ancient many-statued bridge with its blackened mediaeval entrance towers. but it was not to enjoy the prospect that the aged, discrowned, solitary emperor, almost as dim a figure among sovereigns as the mystic libuscha herself, was gazing from the window upon the imperial city. "ungrateful prague," he cried, "through me thou hast become thus magnificent, and now thou hast turned upon and driven away thy benefactor. may the vengeance of god descend upon thee; may my curse come upon thee and upon all bohemia." history has failed to record the special benefits of the emperor through which the city had derived its magnificence and deserved this malediction. but surely if ever an old man's curse was destined to be literally fulfilled, it seemed to be this solemn imprecation of rudolph. meantime the coronation of matthias had gone on with pomp and popular gratulations, while rudolph had withdrawn into his apartments to pass the little that was left to him of life in solitude and in a state of hopeless pique with matthias, with the rest of his brethren, with all the world. and now that five years had passed since his death, matthias, who had usurped so much power prematurely, found himself almost in the same condition as that to which he had reduced rudolph. ferdinand of styria, his cousin, trod closely upon his heels. he was the presumptive successor to all his crowns, had not approved of the movements of matthias in the lifetime of his brother, and hated the vienna protestant baker's son, cardinal clesel, by whom all those movements had been directed. professor taubmann, of wittenberg, ponderously quibbling on the name of that prelate, had said that he was of "one hundred and fifty ass power." whether that was a fair measure of his capacity may be doubted, but it certainly was not destined to be sufficient to elude the vengeance of ferdinand, and ferdinand would soon have him in his power. matthias, weary of ambitious intrigue, infirm of purpose, and shattered in health, had withdrawn from affairs to devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife, archduchess anna of tyrol, whom at the age of fifty-four he had espoused. on the th june , ferdinand of gratz was crowned king of bohemia. the event was a shock and a menace to the protestant cause all over the world. the sombre figure of the archduke had for years appeared in the background, foreshadowing as it were the wrath to come, while throughout bohemia and the neighbouring countries of moravia, silesia, and the austrias, the cause of protestantism had been making such rapid progress. the emperor maximilian ii. had left five stalwart sons, so that there had seemed little probability that the younger line, the sons of his brother, would succeed. but all the five were childless, and now the son of archduke charles, who had died in , had become the natural heir after the death of matthias to the immense family honours--his cousins maximilian and albert having resigned their claims in his favour. ferdinand, twelve years old at his father's death, had been placed under the care of his maternal uncle, duke william of bavaria. by him the boy was placed at the high school of ingolstadt, to be brought up by the jesuits, in company with duke william's own son maximilian, five years his senior. between these youths, besides the tie of cousinship, there grew up the most intimate union founded on perfect sympathy in religion and politics. when ferdinand entered upon the government of his paternal estates of styria, carinthia, and carniola, he found that the new religion, at which the jesuits had taught him to shudder as at a curse and a crime, had been widely spreading. his father had fought against heresy with all his might, and had died disappointed and broken-hearted at its progress. his uncle of bavaria, in letters to his son and nephew, had stamped into their minds with the enthusiasm of perfect conviction that all happiness and blessing for governments depended on the restoration and maintenance of the unity of the catholic faith. all the evils in times past and present resulting from religious differences had been held up to the two youths by the jesuits in the most glaring colours. the first duty of a prince, they had inculcated, was to extirpate all false religions, to give the opponents of the true church no quarter, and to think no sacrifice too great by which the salvation of human society, brought almost to perdition by the new doctrines, could be effected. never had jesuits an apter scholar than ferdinand. after leaving school, he made a pilgrimage to loretto to make his vows to the virgin mary of extirpation of heresy, and went to rome to obtain the blessing of pope clement viii. then, returning to the government of his inheritance, he seized that terrible two-edged weapon of which the protestants of germany had taught him the use. "cujus regio ejus religio;" to the prince the choice of religion, to the subject conformity with the prince, as if that formula of shallow and selfish princelings, that insult to the dignity of mankind, were the grand result of a movement which was to go on centuries after they had all been forgotten in their tombs. for the time however it was a valid and mischievous maxim. in saxony catholics and calvinists were proscribed; in heidelberg catholics and lutherans. why should either calvinists or lutherans be tolerated in styria? why, indeed? no logic could be more inexorable, and the pupil of the ingolstadt jesuits hesitated not an instant to carry out their teaching with the very instrument forged for him by the reformation. gallows were erected in the streets of all his cities, but there was no hanging. the sight of them proved enough to extort obedience to his edict, that every man, woman, and child not belonging to the ancient church should leave his dominions. they were driven out in hordes in broad daylight from gratz and other cities. rather reign over a wilderness than over heretics was the device of the archduke, in imitation of his great relative, philip ii. of spain. in short space of time his duchies were as empty of protestants as the palatinate of lutherans, or saxony of calvinists, or both of papists. even the churchyards were rifled of dead lutherans and utraquists, their carcasses thrown where they could no longer pollute the true believers mouldering by their side. it was not strange that the coronation as king of bohemia of a man of such decided purposes--a country numbering ten protestants to one catholic--should cause a thrill and a flutter. could it be doubted that the great elemental conflict so steadily prophesied by barneveld and instinctively dreaded by all capable of feeling the signs of the time would now begin? it had begun. of what avail would be majesty-letters and compromises extorted by force from trembling or indolent emperors, now that a man who knew his own mind, and felt it to be a crime not to extirpate all religions but the one orthodox religion, had mounted the throne? it is true that he had sworn at his coronation to maintain the laws of bohemia, and that the majesty-letter and the compromise were part of the laws. but when were doctors ever wanting to prove the unlawfulness of law which interferes with the purposes of a despot and the convictions of the bigot? "novus rex, nova lex," muttered the catholics, lifting up their heads and hearts once more out of the oppression and insults which they had unquestionably suffered at the hands of the triumphant reformers. "there are many empty poppy-heads now flaunting high that shall be snipped off," said others. "that accursed german count thurn and his fellows, whom the devil has sent from hell to bohemia for his own purposes, shall be disposed of now," was the general cry. it was plain that heresy could no longer be maintained except by the sword. that which had been extorted by force would be plucked back by force. the succession of ferdinand was in brief a warshout to be echoed by all the catholics of europe. before the end of the year the protestant churches of brunnau were sealed up. those at klostergrab were demolished in three days by command of the archbishop of prague. these dumb walls preached in their destruction more stirring sermons than perhaps would ever have been heard within them had they stood. this tearing in pieces of the imperial patent granting liberty of protestant worship, this summary execution done upon senseless bricks and mortar, was an act of defiance to the reformed religion everywhere. protestantism was struck in the face, spat upon, defied. the effect was instantaneous. thurn and the other defenders of the protestant faith were as prompt in action as the catholics had been in words. a few months passed away. the emperor was in vienna, but his ten stadholders were in prague. the fateful rd of may arrived. slawata, a bohemian protestant, who had converted himself to the roman church in order to marry a rich widow, and who converted his peasants by hunting them to mass with his hounds, and martinitz, the two stadholders who at ferdinand's coronation had endeavoured to prevent him from including the majesty-letter among the privileges he was swearing to support, and who were considered the real authors of the royal letters revoking all religious rights of protestants, were the most obnoxious of all. they were hurled from the council-chamber window of the hradschin. the unfortunate secretary fabricius was tossed out after them. twenty-eight ells deep they fell, and all escaped unhurt by the fall; fabricius being subsequently ennobled by a grateful emperor with the well-won title of baron summerset. the thirty years' war, which in reality had been going on for several years already, is dated from that day. a provisional government was established in prague by the estates under protestant guidance, a college of thirty directors managing affairs. the window-tumble, as the event has always been called in history, excited a sensation in europe. especially the young king of france, whose political position should bring him rather into alliance with the rebels than the emperor, was disgusted and appalled. he was used to rebellion. since he was ten years old there had been a rebellion against himself every year. there was rebellion now. but his ministers had never been thrown out of window. perhaps one might take some day to tossing out kings as well. he disapproved the process entirely. thus the great conflict of christendom, so long impending, seemed at last to have broken forth in full fury on a comparatively insignificant incident. thus reasoned the superficial public, as if the throwing out of window of twenty stadholders could have created a general war in europe had not the causes of war lain deep and deadly in the whole framework of society. the succession of ferdinand to the throne of the holy wenzel, in which his election to the german imperial crown was meant to be involved, was a matter which concerned almost every household in christendom. liberty of religion, civil franchise, political charters, contract between government and subject, right to think, speak, or act, these were the human rights everywhere in peril. a compromise between the two religious parties had existed for half a dozen years in germany, a feeble compromise by which men had hardly been kept from each others' throats. that compromise had now been thrown to the winds. the vast conspiracy of spain, rome, the house of austria, against human liberty had found a chief in the docile, gloomy pupil of the jesuits now enthroned in bohemia, and soon perhaps to wield the sceptre of the holy roman empire. there was no state in europe that had not cause to put hand on sword-hilt. "distrust and good garrisons," in the prophetic words of barneveld, would now be the necessary resource for all intending to hold what had been gained through long years of toil, martyrdom, and hard fighting. the succession of ferdinand excited especial dismay and indignation in the palatinate. the young elector had looked upon the prize as his own. the marked advance of protestant sentiment throughout the kingdom and its neighbour provinces had seemed to render the succession of an extreme papist impossible. when frederic had sued for and won the hand of the fair elizabeth, daughter of the king of great britain, it was understood that the alliance would be more brilliant for her than it seemed. james with his usual vanity spoke of his son-in-law as a future king. it was a golden dream for the elector and for the general cause of the reformed religion. heidelberg enthroned in the ancient capital of the wenzels, maximilians, and rudolphs, the catechism and confession enrolled among the great statutes of the land, this was progress far beyond flimsy majesty-letters and compromises, made only to be torn to pieces. through the dim vista of futurity and in ecstatic vision no doubt even the imperial crown might seem suspended over the palatine's head. but this would be merely a midsummer's dream. events did not whirl so rapidly as they might learn to do centuries later, and--the time for a protestant to grasp at the crown of germany could then hardly be imagined as ripening. but what the calvinist branch of the house of wittelsbach had indeed long been pursuing was to interrupt the succession of the house of austria to the german throne. that a catholic prince must for the immediate future continue to occupy it was conceded even by frederic, but the electoral votes might surely be now so manipulated as to prevent a slave of spain and a tool of the jesuits from wielding any longer the sceptre of charlemagne. on the other hand the purpose of the house of austria was to do away with the elective principle and the prescriptive rights of the estates in bohemia first, and afterwards perhaps to send the golden bull itself to the limbo of wornout constitutional devices. at present however their object was to secure their hereditary sovereignty in prague first, and then to make sure of the next imperial election at frankfurt. time afterwards might fight still more in their favour, and fix them in hereditary possession of the german throne. the elector-palatine had lost no time. his counsellors even before the coronation of ferdinand at prague had done their best to excite alarm throughout germany at the document by which archdukes maximilian and albert had resigned all their hereditary claims in favour of ferdinand and his male children. should there be no such issue, the king of spain claimed the succession for his own sons as great-grandchildren of emperor maximilian, considering himself nearer in the line than the styrian branch, but being willing to waive his own rights in favour of so ardent a catholic as ferdinand. there was even a secret negotiation going on a long time between the new king of bohemia and philip to arrange for the precedence of the spanish males over the styrian females to the hereditary austrian states, and to cede the province of alsace to spain. it was not wonderful that protestant germany should be alarmed. after a century of protestantism, that spain should by any possibility come to be enthroned again over germany was enough to raise both luther and calvin from their graves. it was certainly enough to set the lively young palatine in motion. so soon as the election of frederic was proclaimed, he had taken up the business in person. fond of amusement, young, married to a beautiful bride of the royal house of england, he had hitherto left politics to his counsellors. finding himself frustrated in his ambition by the election of another to the seat he had fondly deemed his own, he resolved to unseat him if he could, and, at any rate, to prevent the ulterior consequences of his elevation. he made a pilgrimage to sedan, to confer with that irrepressible intriguer and huguenot chieftain, the duc de bouillon. he felt sure of the countenance of the states-general, and, of course, of his near relative the great stadholder. he was resolved to invite the duke of lorraine to head the anti-austrian party, and to stand for the kingship of the romans and the empire in opposition to ferdinand. an emissary sent to nancy came back with a discouraging reply. the duke not only flatly refused the candidacy, but warned the palatine that if it really came to a struggle he could reckon on small support anywhere, not even from those who now seemed warmest for the scheme. then frederic resolved to try his cousin, the great maximilian of bavaria, to whom all catholics looked with veneration and whom all german protestants respected. had the two branches of the illustrious house of wittelsbach been combined in one purpose, the opposition to the house of austria might indeed have been formidable. but what were ties of blood compared to the iron bands of religious love and hatred? how could maximilian, sternest of papists, and frederick v., flightiest of calvinists, act harmoniously in an imperial election? moreover, maximilian was united by ties of youthful and tender friendship as well as by kindred and perfect religious sympathy to his other cousin, king ferdinand himself. the case seemed hopeless, but the elector went to munich, and held conferences with his cousin. not willing to take no for an answer so long as it was veiled under evasive or ornamental phraseology, he continued to negotiate with maximilian through his envoys camerarius and secretary neu, who held long debates with the duke's chief councillor, doctor jocher. camerarius assured jocher that his master was the hercules to untie the gordian knot, and the lion of the tribe of judah. how either the lion of judah or hercules were to untie the knot which was popularly supposed to have been cut by the sword of alexander did not appear, but maximilian at any rate was moved neither by entreaties nor tropes. being entirely averse from entering himself for the german crown, he grew weary at last of the importunity with which the scheme was urged. so he wrote a short billet to his councillor, to be shown to secretary neu. "dear jocher," he said, "i am convinced one must let these people understand the matter in a little plainer german. i am once for all determined not to let myself into any misunderstanding or even amplifications with the house of austria in regard to the succession. i think also that it would rather be harmful than useful to my house to take upon myself so heavy a burthen as the german crown." this time the german was plain enough and produced its effect. maximilian was too able a statesman and too conscientious a friend to wish to exchange his own proud position as chief of the league, acknowledged head of the great catholic party, for the slippery, comfortless, and unmeaning throne of the holy empire, which he considered ferdinand's right. the chiefs of the anti-austrian party, especially the prince of anhalt and the margrave of anspach, in unison with the heidelberg cabinet, were forced to look for another candidate. accordingly the margrave and the elector-palatine solemnly agreed that it was indispensable to choose an emperor who should not be of the house of austria nor a slave of spain. it was, to be sure, not possible to think of a protestant prince. bavaria would not oppose austria, would also allow too much influence to the jesuits. so there remained no one but the duke of savoy. he was a prince of the empire. he was of german descent, of saxon race, a great general, father of his soldiers, who would protect europe against a turkish invasion better than the bastions of vienna could do. he would be agreeable to the catholics, while the protestants could live under him without anxiety because the jesuits would be powerless with him. it would be a master-stroke if the princes would unite upon him. the king of france would necessarily be pleased with it, the king of great britain delighted. at last the model candidate had been found. the duke of savoy having just finished for a second time his chronic war with spain, in which the united provinces, notwithstanding the heavy drain on their resources, had allowed him , florins a month besides the soldiers under count ernest of nassau, had sent mansfeld with men to aid the revolted estates in bohemia. geographically, hereditarily, necessarily the deadly enemy of the house of austria, he listened favourably to the overtures made to him by the princes of the union, expressed undying hatred for the imperial race, and thought the bohemian revolt a priceless occasion for expelling them from power. he was informed by the first envoy sent to him, christopher van dohna, that the object of the great movement now contemplated was to raise him to the imperial throne at the next election, to assist the bohemian estates, to secure the crown of bohemia for the elector-palatine, to protect the protestants of germany, and to break down the overweening power of the austrian house. the duke displayed no eagerness for the crown of germany, while approving the election of frederic, but expressed entire sympathy with the enterprise. it was indispensable however to form a general federation in europe of england, the netherlands, venice, together with protestant germany and himself, before undertaking so mighty a task. while the negotiations were going on, both anspach and anhalt were in great spirits. the margrave cried out exultingly, "in a short time the means will be in our hands for turning the world upside down." he urged the prince of anhalt to be expeditious in his decisions and actions. "he who wishes to trade," he said, "must come to market early." there was some disappointment at heidelberg when the first news from turin arrived, the materials for this vast scheme for an overwhelming and universal european war not seeming to be at their disposition. by and by the duke's plans seem to deepen and broaden. he told mansfeld, who, accompanied by secretary neu, was glad at a pause in his fighting and brandschatzing in bohemia to be employed on diplomatic business, that on the whole he should require the crown of bohemia for himself. he also proposed to accept the imperial crown, and as for frederic, he would leave him the crown of hungary, and would recommend him to round himself out by adding to his hereditary dominions the province of alsace, besides upper austria and other territories in convenient proximity to the palatinate. venice, it had been hoped, would aid in the great scheme and might in her turn round herself out with friuli and istria and other tempting possessions of ferdinand, in reward for the men and money she was expected to furnish. that republic had however just concluded a war with ferdinand, caused mainly by the depredations of the piratical uscoques, in which, as we have seen, she had received the assistance of hollanders under command of count john of nassau. the venetians had achieved many successes, had taken the city of gortz, and almost reduced the city of gradiska. a certain colonel albert waldstein however, of whom more might one day be heard in the history of the war now begun, had beaten the venetians and opened a pathway through their ranks for succour to the beleaguered city. soon afterwards peace was made on an undertaking that the uscoques should be driven from their haunts, their castles dismantled, and their ships destroyed. venice declined an engagement to begin a fresh war. she hated ferdinand and matthias and the whole imperial brood, but, as old barbarigo declared in the senate, the republic could not afford to set her house on fire in order to give austria the inconvenience of the smoke. meantime, although the elector-palatine had magnanimously agreed to use his influence in bohemia in favour of charles emmanuel, the duke seems at last to have declined proposing himself for that throne. he knew, he said, that king james wished that station for his son-in-law. the imperial crown belonged to no one as yet after the death of matthias, and was open therefore to his competition. anhalt demanded of savoy , men for the maintenance of the good cause, asserting that "it would be better to have the turk or the devil himself on the german throne than leave it to ferdinand." the triumvirate ruling at prague-thurn, ruppa, and hohenlohe--were anxious for a decision from frederic. that simple-hearted and ingenuous young elector had long been troubled both with fears lest after all he might lose the crown of bohemia and with qualms of conscience as to the propriety of taking it even if he could get it. he wrestled much in prayer and devout meditation whether as anointed prince himself he were justified in meddling with the anointment of other princes. ferdinand had been accepted, proclaimed, crowned. he artlessly sent to prague to consult the estates whether they possessed the right to rebel, to set aside the reigning dynasty, and to choose a new king. at the same time, with an eye to business, he stipulated that on account of the great expense and trouble devolving upon him the crown must be made hereditary in his family. the impression made upon the grim thurn and his colleagues by the simplicity of these questions may be imagined. the splendour and width of the savoyard's conceptions fascinated the leaders of the union. it seemed to anspach and anhalt that it was as well that frederic should reign in hungary as in bohemia, and the elector was docile. all had relied however on the powerful assistance of the great defender of the protestant faith, the father-in-law of the elector, the king of great britain. but james had nothing but cold water and virgilian quotations for his son's ardour. he was more under the influence of gondemar than ever before, more eagerly hankering for the infanta, more completely the slave of spain. he pledged himself to that government that if the protestants in bohemia continued rebellious, he would do his best to frustrate their designs, and would induce his son-in-law to have no further connection with them. and spain delighted his heart not by immediately sending over the infanta, but by proposing that he should mediate between the contending parties. it would be difficult to imagine a greater farce. all central europe was now in arms. the deepest and gravest questions about which men can fight: the right to worship god according to their conscience and to maintain civil franchises which have been earned by the people with the blood and treasure of centuries, were now to be solved by the sword, and the pupil of buchanan and the friend of buckingham was to step between hundreds of thousands of men in arms with a classical oration. but james was very proud of the proposal and accepted it with alacrity. "you know, my dear son," he wrote to frederic, "that we are the only king in europe that is sought for by friend and foe for his mediation. it would be for this our lofty part very unbecoming if we were capable of favouring one of the parties. your suggestion that we might secretly support the bohemians we must totally reject, as it is not our way to do anything that we would not willingly confess to the whole world." and to do james justice, he had never fed frederic with false hopes, never given a penny for his great enterprise, nor promised him a penny. he had contented himself with suggesting from time to time that he might borrow money of the states-general. his daughter elizabeth must take care of herself, else what would become of her brother's marriage to the daughter of spain. and now it was war to the knife, in which it was impossible that holland, as well as all the other great powers should not soon be involved. it was disheartening to the cause of freedom and progress, not only that the great kingdom on which the world, had learned to rely in all movements upward and onward should be neutralized by the sycophancy of its monarch to the general oppressor, but that the great republic which so long had taken the lead in maintaining the liberties of europe should now be torn by religious discord within itself, and be turning against the great statesman who had so wisely guided her councils and so accurately foretold the catastrophe which was now upon the world. meantime the emperor matthias, not less forlorn than through his intrigues and rebellions his brother rudolph had been made, passed his days in almost as utter retirement as if he had formally abdicated. ferdinand treated him as if in his dotage. his fair young wife too had died of hard eating in the beginning of the winter to his inexpressible grief, so that there was nothing left to solace him now but the rudolphian museum. he had made but one public appearance since the coronation of ferdinand in prague. attended by his brother maximilian, by king ferdinand, and by cardinal khlesl, he had towards the end of the year paid a visit to the elector john george at dresden. the imperial party had been received with much enthusiasm by the great leader of lutheranism. the cardinal had seriously objected to accompanying the emperor on this occasion. since the reformation no cardinal had been seen at the court of saxony. he cared not personally for the pomps and glories of his rank, but still as prince of the church he had settled right of precedence over electors. to waive it would be disrespectful to the pope, to claim it would lead to squabbles. but ferdinand had need of his skill to secure the vote of saxony at the next imperial election. the cardinal was afraid of ferdinand with good reason, and complied. by an agreeable fiction he was received at court not as cardinal but as minister, and accommodated with an humble place at table. many looking on with astonishment thought he would have preferred to dine by himself in retirement. but this was not the bitterest of the mortifications that the pastor and guide of matthias was to suffer at the hands of ferdinand before his career should be closed. the visit at dresden was successful, however. john george, being a claimant, as we have seen, for the duchies of cleve and julich, had need of the emperor. the king had need of john george's vote. there was a series of splendid balls, hunting parties, carousings. the emperor was an invalid, the king was abstemious, but the elector was a mighty drinker. it was not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed. they were usually carried there. but it was the wish of ferdinand to be conciliatory, and he bore himself as well as he could at the banquet. the elector was also a mighty hunter. neither of his imperial guests cared for field sports, but they looked out contentedly from the window of a hunting-lodge, before which for their entertainment the elector and his courtiers slaughtered eight bears, ten stags, ten pigs, and eleven badgers, besides a goodly number of other game; john george shooting also three martens from a pole erected for that purpose in the courtyard. it seemed proper for him thus to exhibit a specimen of the skill for which he was justly famed. the elector before his life closed, so says the chronicle, had killed , wild boars, bears, wolves, badgers, , foxes, besides stags and roedeer in still greater number, making a grand total of , beasts. the leader of the lutheran party of germany had not lived in vain. thus the great chiefs of catholicism and of protestantism amicably disported themselves in the last days of the year, while their respective forces were marshalling for mortal combat all over christendom. the elector certainly loved neither matthias nor ferdinand, but he hated the palatine. the chief of the german calvinists disputed that protestant hegemony which john george claimed by right. indeed the immense advantage enjoyed by the catholics at the outbreak of the religious war from the mutual animosities between the two great divisions of the reformed church was already terribly manifest. what an additional power would it derive from the increased weakness of the foe, should there be still other and deeper and more deadly schisms within one great division itself! "the calvinists and lutherans," cried the jesuit scioppius, "are so furiously attacking each other with calumnies and cursings and are persecuting each other to such extent as to give good hope that the devilish weight and burthen of them will go to perdition and shame of itself, and the heretics all do bloody execution upon each other. certainly if ever a golden time existed for exterminating the heretics, it is the present time." the imperial party took their leave of dresden, believing themselves to have secured the electoral vote of saxony; the elector hoping for protection to his interests in the duchies through that sequestration to which barneveld had opposed such vigorous resistance. there had been much slavish cringing before these catholic potentates by the courtiers of dresden, somewhat amazing to the ruder churls of saxony, the common people, who really believed in the religion which their prince had selected for them and himself. and to complete the glaring contrast, ferdinand and matthias had scarcely turned their backs before tremendous fulminations upon the ancient church came from the elector and from all the doctors of theology in saxony. for the jubilee of the hundredth anniversary of the reformation was celebrated all over germany in the autumn of this very year, and nearly at the exact moment of all this dancing, and fuddling, and pig shooting at dresden in honour of emperors and cardinals. and pope paul v. had likewise ordained a jubilee for true believers at almost the same time. the elector did not mince matters in his proclamation from any regard to the feelings of his late guests. he called on all protestants to rejoice, "because the light of the holy gospel had now shone brightly in the electoral dominions for a hundred years, the omnipotent keeping it burning notwithstanding the raging and roaring of the hellish enemy and all his scaly servants." the doctors of divinity were still more emphatic in their phraseology. they called on all professors and teachers of the true evangelical churches, not only in germany but throughout christendom, to keep the great jubilee. they did this in terms not calculated certainly to smother the flames of religious and party hatred, even if it had been possible at that moment to suppress the fire. "the great god of heaven," they said, "had caused the undertaking of his holy instrument mr. doctor martin luther to prosper. through his unspeakable mercy he has driven away the papal darkness and caused the sun of righteousness once more to beam upon the world. the old idolatries, blasphemies, errors, and horrors of the benighted popedom have been exterminated in many kingdoms and countries. innumerable sheep of the lord christ have been fed on the wholesome pasture of the divine word in spite of those monstrous, tearing, ravenous wolves, the pope and his followers. the enemy of god and man, the ancient serpent, may hiss and rage. yes, the roman antichrist in his frantic blusterings may bite off his own tongue, may fulminate all kinds of evils, bans, excommunications, wars, desolations, and burnings, as long and as much as he likes. but if we take refuge with the lord god, what can this inane, worn-out man and water-bubble do to us?" with more in the same taste. the pope's bull for the catholic jubilee was far more decorous and lofty in tone, for it bewailed the general sin in christendom, and called on all believers to flee from the wrath about to descend upon the earth, in terms that were almost prophetic. he ordered all to pray that the lord might lift up his church, protect it from the wiles of the enemy, extirpate heresies, grant peace and true unity among christian princes, and mercifully avert disasters already coming near. but if the language of paul v. was measured and decent, the swarm of jesuit pamphleteers that forthwith began to buzz and to sting all over christendom were sufficiently venomous. scioppius, in his alarm trumpet to the holy war, and a hundred others declared that all heresies and heretics were now to be extirpated, the one true church to be united and re-established, and that the only road to such a consummation was a path of blood. the lutheran preachers, on the other hand, obedient to the summons from dresden, vied with each other in every town and village in heaping denunciations, foul names, and odious imputations on the catholics; while the calvinists, not to be behindhand with their fellow reformers, celebrated the jubilee, especially at heidelberg, by excluding papists from hope of salvation, and bewailing the fate of all churches sighing under the yoke of rome. and not only were the papists and the reformers exchanging these blasts and counterblasts of hatred, not less deadly in their effects than the artillery of many armies, but as if to make a thorough exhibition of human fatuity when drunk with religious passion, the lutherans were making fierce paper and pulpit war upon the calvinists. especially hoe, court preacher of john george, ceaselessly hurled savage libels against them. in the name of the theological faculty of wittenberg, he addressed a "truehearted warning to all lutheran christians in bohemia, moravia, silesia, and other provinces, to beware of the erroneous calvinistic religion." he wrote a letter to count schlick, foremost leader in the bohemian movement, asking whether "the unquiet calvinist spirit, should it gain ascendency, would be any more endurable than the papists. oh what woe, what infinite woe," he cried, "for those noble countries if they should all be thrust into the jaws of calvinism!" did not preacher hoe's master aspire to the crown of bohemia himself? was he not furious at the start which heidelberg had got of him in the race for that golden prize? was he not mad with jealousy of the palatine, of the palatine's religion, and of the palatine's claim to "hegemony" in germany? thus embittered and bloodthirsty towards each other were the two great sections of the reformed religion on the first centennial jubilee of the reformation. such was the divided front which the anti-catholic party presented at the outbreak of the war with catholicism. ferdinand, on the other hand, was at the head of a comparatively united party. he could hardly hope for more than benevolent neutrality from the french government, which, in spite of the spanish marriages, dared not wholly desert the netherlands and throw itself into the hands of spain; but spanish diplomacy had enslaved the british king, and converted what should have been an active and most powerful enemy into an efficient if concealed ally. the spanish and archiducal armies were enveloping the dutch republic, from whence the most powerful support could be expected for the protestant cause. had it not been for the steadiness of barneveld, spain would have been at that moment established in full panoply over the whole surface of those inestimable positions, the disputed duchies. venice was lukewarm, if not frigid; and savoy, although deeply pledged by passion and interest to the downfall of the house of austria, was too dangerously situated herself, too distant, too poor, and too catholic to be very formidable. ferdinand was safe from the turkish side. a twenty years' peace, renewable by agreement, between the holy empire and the sultan had been negotiated by those two sons of bakers, cardinal khlesl and the vizier etmekdschifade. it was destined to endure through all the horrors of the great war, a stronger protection to vienna than all the fortifications which the engineering art could invent. he was safe too from poland, king sigmund being not only a devoted catholic but doubly his brother-in-law. spain, therefore, the spanish netherlands, the pope, and the german league headed by maximilian of bavaria, the ablest prince on the continent of europe, presented a square, magnificent phalanx on which ferdinand might rely. the states-general, on the other hand, were a most dangerous foe. with a centennial hatred of spain, splendidly disciplined armies and foremost navy of the world, with an admirable financial system and vast commercial resources, with a great stadholder, first captain of the age, thirsting for war, and allied in blood as well as religion to the standard-bearer of the bohemian revolt; with councils directed by the wisest and most experienced of living statesman, and with the very life blood of her being derived from the fountain of civil and religious liberty, the great republic of the united netherlands--her truce with the hereditary foe just expiring was, if indeed united, strong enough at the head of the protestant forces of europe to dictate to a world in arms. alas! was it united? as regarded internal affairs of most pressing interest, the electoral vote at the next election at frankfurt had been calculated as being likely to yield a majority of one for the opposition candidate, should the savoyard or any other opposition candidate be found. but the calculation was a close one and might easily be fallacious. supposing the palatine elected king of bohemia by the rebellious estates, as was probable, he could of course give the vote of that electorate and his own against ferdinand, and the vote of brandenburg at that time seemed safe. but ferdinand by his visit to dresden had secured the vote of saxony, while of the three ecclesiastical electors, cologne and mayence were sure for him. thus it would be three and three, and the seventh and decisive vote would be that of the elector-bishop of treves. the sanguine frederic thought that with french influence and a round sum of money this ecclesiastic might be got to vote for the opposition candidate. the ingenious combination was not destined to be successful, and as there has been no intention in the present volume to do more than slightly indicate the most prominent movements and mainsprings of the great struggle so far as germany is concerned, without entering into detail, it may be as well to remind the reader that it proved wonderfully wrong. matthias died on the th march, , the election of a new emperor took place at frankfurt on the th of the following august, and not only did saxony and all three ecclesiastical electors vote for ferdinand, but brandenburg likewise, as well as the elector-palatine himself, while ferdinand, personally present in the assembly as elector of bohemia, might according to the golden bull have given the seventh vote for himself had he chosen to do so. thus the election was unanimous. strange to say, as the electors proceeded through the crowd from the hall of election to accompany the new emperor to the church where he was to receive the popular acclaim, the news reached them from prague that the elector-palatine had been elected king of bohemia. thus frederic, by voting for ferdinand, had made himself voluntarily a rebel should he accept the crown now offered him. had the news arrived sooner, a different result and even a different history might have been possible. chapter xiv. barneveld connected with the east india company, but opposed to the west india company--carleton comes from venice inimical to barneveld--maurice openly the chieftain of the contra-remonstrants--tumults about the churches--"orange or spain" the cry of prince maurice and his party--they take possession of the cloister church--"the sharp resolve"--carleton's orations before the states-general. king james never forgave barneveld for drawing from him those famous letters to the states in which he was made to approve the five points and to admit the possibility of salvation under them. these epistles had brought much ridicule upon james, who was not amused by finding his theological discussions a laughing-stock. he was still more incensed by the biting criticisms made upon the cheap surrender of the cautionary towns, and he hated more than ever the statesman who, as he believed, had twice outwitted him. on the other hand, maurice, inspired by his brother-in-law the duke of bouillon and by the infuriated francis aerssens, abhorred barneveld's french policy, which was freely denounced by the french calvinists and by the whole orthodox church. in holland he was still warmly sustained except in the contra-remonstrant amsterdam and a few other cities of less importance. but there were perhaps deeper reasons for the advocate's unpopularity in the great commercial metropolis than theological pretexts. barneveld's name and interests were identified with the great east india company, which was now powerful and prosperous beyond anything ever dreamt of before in the annals of commerce. that trading company had already founded an empire in the east. fifty ships of war, fortresses guarded by pieces of artillery and , soldiers and sailors, obeyed the orders of a dozen private gentlemen at home seated in a back parlour around a green table. the profits of each trading voyage were enormous, and the shareholders were growing rich beyond their wildest imaginings. to no individual so much as to holland's advocate was this unexampled success to be ascribed. the vast prosperity of the east india company had inspired others with the ambition to found a similar enterprise in the west. but to the west india company then projected and especially favoured in amsterdam, barneveld was firmly opposed. he considered it as bound up with the spirit of military adventure and conquest, and as likely to bring on prematurely and unwisely a renewed conflict with spain. the same reasons which had caused him to urge the truce now influenced his position in regard to the west india company. thus the clouds were gathering every day more darkly over the head of the advocate. the powerful mercantile interest in the great seat of traffic in the republic, the personal animosity of the stadholder, the execrations of the orthodox party in france, england, and all the netherlands, the anger of the french princes and all those of the old huguenot party who had been foolish enough to act with the princes in their purely selfish schemes against the government, and the overflowing hatred of king james, whose darling schemes of spanish marriages and a spanish alliance had been foiled by the advocate's masterly policy in france and in the duchies, and whose resentment at having been so completely worsted and disarmed in the predestination matter and in the redemption of the great mortgage had deepened into as terrible wrath as outraged bigotry and vanity could engender; all these elements made up a stormy atmosphere in which the strongest heart might have quailed. but barneveld did not quail. doubtless he loved power, and the more danger he found on every side the less inclined he was to succumb. but he honestly believed that the safety and prosperity of the country he had so long and faithfully served were identified with the policy which he was pursuing. arrogant, overbearing, self-concentrated, accustomed to lead senates and to guide the councils and share the secrets of kings, familiar with and almost an actor in every event in the political history not only of his own country but of every important state in christendom during nearly two generations of mankind, of unmatched industry, full of years and experience, yet feeling within him the youthful strength of a thousand intellects compared to most of those by which he was calumniated, confronted, and harassed; he accepted the great fight which was forced upon him. irascible, courageous, austere, contemptuous, he looked around and saw the republic whose cradle he had rocked grown to be one of the most powerful and prosperous among the states of the world, and could with difficulty imagine that in this supreme hour of her strength and her felicity she was ready to turn and rend the man whom she was bound by every tie of duty to cherish and to revere. sir dudley carleton, the new english ambassador to the states, had arrived during the past year red-hot from venice. there he had perhaps not learned especially to love the new republic which had arisen among the northern lagunes, and whose admission among the nations had been at last accorded by the proud queen of the adriatic, notwithstanding the objections and the intrigues both of french and english representatives. he had come charged to the brim with the political spite of james against the advocate, and provided too with more than seven vials of theological wrath. such was the king's revenge for barneveld's recent successes. the supporters in the netherlands of the civil authority over the church were moreover to be instructed by the political head of the english church that such supremacy, although highly proper for a king, was "thoroughly unsuitable for a many-headed republic." so much for church government. as for doctrine, arminianism and vorstianism were to be blasted with one thunderstroke from the british throne. "in holland," said james to his envoy, "there have been violent and sharp contestations amongst the towns in the cause of religion . . . . . if they shall be unhappily revived during your time, you shall not forget that you are the minister of that master whom god hath made the sole protector of his religion." there was to be no misunderstanding in future as to the dogmas which the royal pope of great britain meant to prescribe to his netherland subjects. three years before, at the dictation of the advocate, he had informed the states that he was convinced of their ability to settle the deplorable dissensions as to religion according to their wisdom and the power which belonged to them over churches and church servants. he had informed them of his having learned by experience that such questions could hardly be decided by the wranglings of theological professors, and that it was better to settle them by public authority and to forbid their being brought into the pulpit or among common people. he had recommended mutual toleration of religious difference until otherwise ordained by the public civil authority, and had declared that neither of the two opinions in regard to predestination was in his opinion far from the truth or inconsistent with christian faith or the salvation of souls. it was no wonder that these utterances were quite after the advocate's heart, as james had faithfully copied them from the advocate's draft. but now in the exercise of his infallibility the king issued other decrees. his minister was instructed to support the extreme views of the orthodox both as to government and dogma, and to urge the national synod, as it were, at push of pike. "besides the assistance," said he to carleton, "which we would have you give to the true professors of the gospel in your discourse and conferences, you may let fall how hateful the maintenance of these erroneous opinions is to the majesty of god, how displeasing unto us their dearest friends, and how disgraceful to the honour and government of that state." and faithfully did the ambassador act up to his instructions. most sympathetically did he embody the hatred of the king. an able, experienced, highly accomplished diplomatist and scholar, ready with tongue and pen, caustic, censorious, prejudiced, and partial, he was soon foremost among the foes of the advocate in the little court of the hague, and prepared at any moment to flourish the political and theological goad when his master gave the word. nothing in diplomatic history is more eccentric than the long sermons upon abstruse points of divinity and ecclesiastical history which the english ambassador delivered from time to time before the states-general in accordance with elaborate instructions drawn up by his sovereign with his own hand. rarely has a king been more tedious, and he bestowed all his tediousness upon my lords the states-general. nothing could be more dismal than these discourses, except perhaps the contemporaneous and interminable orations of grotius to the states of holland, to the magistrates of amsterdam, to the states of utrecht; yet carleton was a man of the world, a good debater, a ready writer, while hugo grotius was one of the great lights of that age and which shone for all time. among the diplomatic controversies of history, rarely refreshing at best, few have been more drouthy than those once famous disquisitions, and they shall be left to shrivel into the nothingness of the past, so far as is consistent with the absolute necessities of this narrative. the contest to which the advocate was called had become mainly a personal and a political one, although the weapons with which it was fought were taken from ecclesiastical arsenals. it was now an unequal contest. for the great captain of the country and of his time, the son of william the silent, the martial stadholder, in the fulness of his fame and vigour of his years, had now openly taken his place as the chieftain of the contra-remonstrants. the conflict between the civil and the military element for supremacy in a free commonwealth has never been more vividly typified than in this death-grapple between maurice and barneveld. the aged but still vigorous statesman, ripe with half a century of political lore, and the high-born, brilliant, and scientific soldier, with the laurels of turnhout and nieuwpoort and of a hundred famous sieges upon his helmet, reformer of military science, and no mean proficient in the art of politics and government, were the representatives and leaders of the two great parties into which the commonwealth had now unhappily divided itself. but all history shows that the brilliant soldier of a republic is apt to have the advantage, in a struggle for popular affection and popular applause, over the statesman, however consummate. the general imagination is more excited by the triumphs of the field than by those of the tribune, and the man who has passed many years of life in commanding multitudes with necessarily despotic sway is often supposed to have gained in the process the attributes likely to render him most valuable as chief citizen of a flee commonwealth. yet national enthusiasm is so universally excited by splendid military service as to forbid a doubt that the sentiment is rooted deeply in our nature, while both in antiquity and in modern times there are noble although rare examples of the successful soldier converting himself into a valuable and exemplary magistrate. in the rivalry of maurice and barneveld however for the national affection the chances were singularly against the advocate. the great battles and sieges of the prince had been on a world's theatre, had enchained the attention of christendom, and on their issue had frequently depended, or seemed to depend, the very existence of the nation. the labours of the statesman, on the contrary, had been comparatively secret. his noble orations and arguments had been spoken with closed doors to assemblies of colleagues--rather envoys than senators--were never printed or even reported, and could be judged of only by their effects; while his vast labours in directing both the internal administration and especially the foreign affairs of the commonwealth had been by their very nature as secret as they were perpetual and enormous. moreover, there was little of what we now understand as the democratic sentiment in the netherlands. there was deep and sturdy attachment to ancient traditions, privileges, special constitutions extorted from a power acknowledged to be superior to the people. when partly to save those chartered rights, and partly to overthrow the horrible ecclesiastical tyranny of the sixteenth century, the people had accomplished a successful revolt, they never dreamt of popular sovereignty, but allowed the municipal corporations, by which their local affairs had been for centuries transacted, to unite in offering to foreign princes, one after another, the crown which they had torn from the head of the spanish king. when none was found to accept the dangerous honour, they had acquiesced in the practical sovereignty of the states; but whether the states-general or the states-provincial were the supreme authority had certainly not been definitely and categorically settled. so long as the states of holland, led by the advocate, had controlled in great matters the political action of the states-general, while the stadholder stood without a rival at the head of their military affairs, and so long as there were no fierce disputes as to government and dogma within the bosom of the reformed church, the questions which were now inflaming the whole population had been allowed to slumber. the termination of the war and the rise of arminianism were almost contemporaneous. the stadholder, who so unwillingly had seen the occupation in which he had won so much glory taken from him by the truce, might perhaps find less congenial but sufficiently engrossing business as champion of the church and of the union. the new church--not freedom of worship for different denominations of christians, but supremacy of the church of heidelberg and geneva--seemed likely to be the result of the overthrow of the ancient church. it is the essence of the catholic church to claim supremacy over and immunity from the civil authority, and to this claim for the reformed church, by which that of rome had been supplanted, barneveld was strenuously opposed. the stadholder was backed, therefore, by the church in its purity, by the majority of the humbler classes--who found in membership of the oligarchy of heaven a substitute for those democratic aspirations on earth which were effectually suppressed between the two millstones of burgher aristocracy and military discipline--and by the states-general, a majority of which were contra-remonstrant in their faith. if the sword is usually an overmatch for the long robe in political struggles, the cassock has often proved superior to both combined. but in the case now occupying our attention the cassock was in alliance with the sword. clearly the contest was becoming a desperate one for the statesman. and while the controversy between the chiefs waged hotter and hotter, the tumults around the churches on sundays in every town and village grew more and more furious, ending generally in open fights with knives, bludgeons, and brickbats; preachers and magistrates being often too glad to escape with a whole skin. one can hardly be ingenuous enough to consider all this dirking, battering, and fisticuffing as the legitimate and healthy outcome of a difference as to the knotty point whether all men might or might not be saved by repentance and faith in christ. the greens and blues of the byzantine circus had not been more typical of fierce party warfare in the lower empire than the greens and blues of predestination in the rising commonwealth, according to the real or imagined epigram of prince maurice. "your divisions in religion," wrote secretary lake to carleton, "have, i doubt not, a deeper root than is discerned by every one, and i doubt not that the prince maurice's carriage doth make a jealousy of affecting a party under the pretence of supporting one side, and that the states fear his ends and aims, knowing his power with the men of war; and that howsoever all be shadowed under the name of religion there is on either part a civil end, of the one seeking a step of higher authority, of the other a preservation of liberty." and in addition to other advantages the contra-remonstrants had now got a good cry--an inestimable privilege in party contests. "there are two factions in the land," said maurice, "that of orange and that of spain, and the two chiefs of the spanish faction are those political and priestly arminians, uytenbogaert and oldenbarneveld." orange and spain! the one name associated with all that was most venerated and beloved throughout the country, for william the silent since his death was almost a god; the other ineradicably entwined at that moment with, everything execrated throughout the land. the prince of orange's claim to be head of the orange faction could hardly be disputed, but it was a master stroke of political malice to fix the stigma of spanish partisanship on the advocate. if the venerable patriot who had been fighting spain, sometimes on the battle-field and always in the council, ever since he came to man's estate, could be imagined even in a dream capable of being bought with spanish gold to betray his country, who in the ranks of the remonstrant party could be safe from such accusations? each party accused the other of designs for altering or subverting the government. maurice was suspected of what were called leicestrian projects, "leycestrana consilia"--for the earl's plots to gain possession of leyden and utrecht had never been forgotten--while the prince and those who acted with him asserted distinctly that it was the purpose of barneveld to pave the way for restoring the spanish sovereignty and the popish religion so soon as the truce had reached its end? spain and orange. nothing for a faction fight could be neater. moreover the two words rhyme in netherlandish, which is the case in no other language, "spanje-oranje." the sword was drawn and the banner unfurled. the "mud beggars" of the hague, tired of tramping to ryswyk of a sunday to listen to henry rosaeus, determined on a private conventicle in the capital. the first barn selected was sealed up by the authorities, but epoch much, book-keeper of prince maurice, then lent them his house. the prince declared that sooner than they should want a place of assembling he would give them his own. but he meant that they should have a public church to themselves, and that very soon. king james thoroughly approved of all these proceedings. at that very instant such of his own subjects as had seceded from the established church to hold conventicles in barns and breweries and backshops in london were hunted by him with bishops' pursuivants and other beagles like vilest criminals, thrown into prison to rot, or suffered to escape from their fatherland into the trans-atlantic wilderness, there to battle with wild beasts and savages, and to die without knowing themselves the fathers of a more powerful united states than the dutch republic, where they were fain to seek in passing a temporary shelter. he none the less instructed his envoy at the hague to preach the selfsame doctrines for which the new england puritans were persecuted, and importunately and dictatorially to plead the cause of those hollanders who, like bradford and robinson, winthrop and cotton, maintained the independence of the church over the state. logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves, and puritanism in the netherlands, although under temporary disadvantage at the hague, was evidently the party destined to triumph throughout the country. james could safely sympathize therefore in holland with what he most loathed in england, and could at the same time feed fat the grudge he owed the advocate. the calculations of barneveld as to the respective political forces of the commonwealth seem to have been to a certain extent defective. he allowed probably too much weight to the catholic party as a motive power at that moment, and he was anxious both from that consideration and from his honest natural instinct for general toleration; his own broad and unbigoted views in religious matters, not to force that party into a rebellious attitude dangerous to the state. we have seen how nearly a mutiny in the important city of utrecht, set on foot by certain romanist conspirators in the years immediately succeeding the truce, had subverted the government, had excited much anxiety amongst the firmest allies of the republic, and had been suppressed only by the decision of the advocate and a show of military force. he had informed carleton not long after his arrival that in the united provinces, and in holland in particular, were many sects and religions of which, according to his expression, "the healthiest and the richest part were the papists, while the protestants did not make up one-third part of the inhabitants." certainly, if these statistics were correct or nearly correct, there could be nothing more stupid from a purely political point of view than to exasperate so influential a portion of the community to madness and rebellion by refusing them all rights of public worship. yet because the advocate had uniformly recommended indulgence, he had incurred more odium at home than from any other cause. of course he was a papist in disguise, ready to sell his country to spain, because he was willing that more than half the population of the country should be allowed to worship god according to their conscience. surely it would be wrong to judge the condition of things at that epoch by the lights of to-day, and perhaps in the netherlands there had before been no conspicuous personage, save william the silent alone, who had risen to the height of toleration on which the advocate essayed to stand. other leading politicians considered that the national liberties could be preserved only by retaining the catholics in complete subjection. at any rate the advocate was profoundly convinced of the necessity of maintaining harmony and mutual toleration among the protestants themselves, who, as he said, made up but one-third of the whole people. in conversing with the english ambassador he divided them into "puritans and double puritans," as they would be called, he said, in england. if these should be at variance with each other, he argued, the papists would be the strongest of all. "to prevent this inconvenience," he said, "the states were endeavouring to settle some certain form of government in the church; which being composed of divers persecuted churches such as in the beginning of the wars had their refuge here, that which during the wars could not be so well done they now thought seasonable for a time of truce; and therefore would show their authority in preventing the schism of the church which would follow the separation of those they call remonstrants and contra-remonstrants." there being no word so offensive to carleton's sovereign as the word puritan, the ambassador did his best to persuade the advocate that a puritan in holland was a very different thing from a puritan in england. in england he was a noxious vermin, to be hunted with dogs. in the netherlands he was the governing power. but his arguments were vapourous enough and made little impression on barneveld. "he would no ways yield," said sir dudley. meantime the contra-remonstrants of the hague, not finding sufficient accommodation in enoch much's house, clamoured loudly for the use of a church. it was answered by the city magistrates that two of their persuasion, la motte and la faille, preached regularly in the great church, and that rosaeus had been silenced only because he refused to hold communion with uytenbogaert. maurice insisted that a separate church should be assigned them. "but this is open schism," said uytenbogaert. early in the year there was a meeting of the holland delegation to the states-general, of the state council, and of the magistracy of the hague, of deputies from the tribunals, and of all the nobles resident in the capital. they sent for maurice and asked his opinion as to the alarming situation of affairs. he called for the register-books of the states of holland, and turning back to the pages on which was recorded his accession to the stadholderate soon after his father's murder, ordered the oath then exchanged between himself and the states to be read aloud. that oath bound them mutually to support the reformed religion till the last drop of blood in their veins. "that oath i mean to keep," said the stadholder, "so long as i live." no one disputed the obligation of all parties to maintain the reformed religion. but the question was whether the five points were inconsistent with the reformed religion. the contrary was clamorously maintained by most of those present: in the year this difference in dogma had not arisen, and as the large majority of the people at the hague, including nearly all those of rank and substance, were of the remonstrant persuasion, they naturally found it not agreeable to be sent out of the church by a small minority. but maurice chose to settle the question very summarily. his father had been raised to power by the strict calvinists, and he meant to stand by those who had always sustained william the silent. "for this religion my father lost his life, and this religion will i defend," said he. "you hold then," said barneveld, "that the almighty has created one child for damnation and another for salvation, and you wish this doctrine to be publicly preached." "did you ever hear any one preach that?" replied the prince. "if they don't preach it, it is their inmost conviction," said the other. and he proceeded to prove his position by copious citations. "and suppose our ministers do preach this doctrine, is there anything strange in it, any reason why they should not do so?" the advocate expressed his amazement and horror at the idea. "but does not god know from all eternity who is to be saved and who to be damned; and does he create men for any other end than that to which he from eternity knows they will come?" and so they enclosed themselves in the eternal circle out of which it was not probable that either the soldier or the statesman would soon find an issue. "i am no theologian," said barneveld at last, breaking off the discussion. "neither am i," said the stadholder. "so let the parsons come together. let the synod assemble and decide the question. thus we shall get out of all this." next day a deputation of the secessionists waited by appointment on prince maurice. they found him in the ancient mediaeval hall of the sovereign counts of holland, and seated on their old chair of state. he recommended them to use caution and moderation for the present, and to go next sunday once more to ryswyk. afterwards he pledged himself that they should have a church at the hague, and, if necessary, the great church itself. but the great church, although a very considerable catholic cathedral before the reformation, was not big enough now to hold both henry rosaeus and john uytenbogaert. those two eloquent, learned, and most pugnacious divines were the respective champions in the pulpit of the opposing parties, as were the advocate and the stadholder in the council. and there was as bitter personal rivalry between the two as between the soldier and statesman. "the factions begin to divide themselves," said carleton, "betwixt his excellency and monsieur barneveld as heads who join to this present difference their ancient quarrels. and the schism rests actually between uytenbogaert and rosaeus, whose private emulation and envy (both being much applauded and followed) doth no good towards the public pacification." uytenbogaert repeatedly offered, however, to resign his functions and to leave the hague. "he was always ready to play the jonah," he said. a temporary arrangement was made soon afterwards by which rosaeus and his congregation should have the use of what was called the gasthuis kerk, then appropriated to the english embassy. carleton of course gave his consent most willingly. the prince declared that the states of holland and the city magistracy had personally affronted him by the obstacles they had interposed to the public worship of the contra-remonstrants. with their cause he had now thoroughly identified himself. the hostility between the representatives of the civil and military authority waxed fiercer every hour. the tumults were more terrible than ever. plainly there was no room in the commonwealth for the advocate and the stadholder. some impartial persons believed that there would be no peace until both were got rid of. "there are many words among this free-spoken people," said carleton, "that to end these differences they must follow the example of france in marshal d'ancre's case, and take off the heads of both chiefs." but these decided persons were in a small minority. meantime the states of holland met in full assembly; sixty delegates being present. it was proposed to invite his excellency to take part in the deliberations. a committee which had waited upon him the day before had reported him as in favour of moderate rather than harsh measures in the church affair, while maintaining his plighted word to the seceders. barneveld stoutly opposed the motion. "what need had the sovereign states of holland of advice from a stadholder, from their servant, their functionary?" he cried. but the majority for once thought otherwise. the prince was invited to come. the deliberations were moderate but inconclusive. he appeared again at an adjourned meeting when the councils were not so harmonious. barneveld, grotius, and other eloquent speakers endeavoured to point out that the refusal of the seceders to hold communion with the remonstrant preachers and to insist on a separation was fast driving the state to perdition. they warmly recommended mutual toleration and harmony. grotius exhausted learning and rhetoric to prove that the five points were not inconsistent with salvation nor with the constitution of the united provinces. the stadholder grew impatient at last and clapped his hand on his rapier. "no need here," he said, "of flowery orations and learned arguments. with this good sword i will defend the religion which my father planted in these provinces, and i should like to see the man who is going to prevent me!" the words had an heroic ring in the ears of such as are ever ready to applaud brute force, especially when wielded by a prince. the argumentum ad ensem, however, was the last plea that william the silent would have been likely to employ on such an occasion, nor would it have been easy to prove that the reformed religion had been "planted" by one who had drawn the sword against the foreign tyrant, and had made vast sacrifices for his country's independence years before abjuring communion with the roman catholic church. when swords are handled by the executive in presence of civil assemblies there is usually but one issue to be expected. moreover, three whales had recently been stranded at scheveningen, one of them more than sixty feet long, and men wagged their beards gravely as they spoke of the event, deeming it a certain presage of civil commotions. it was remembered that at the outbreak of the great war two whales had been washed ashore in the scheldt. although some free-thinking people were inclined to ascribe the phenomenon to a prevalence of strong westerly gales, while others found proof in it of a superabundance of those creatures in the polar seas, which should rather give encouragement to the dutch and zealand fisheries, it is probable that quite as dark forebodings of coming disaster were caused by this accident as by the trumpet-like defiance which the stadholder had just delivered to the states of holland. meantime the seceding congregation of the hague had become wearied of the english or gasthuis church, and another and larger one had been promised them. this was an ancient convent on one of the principal streets of the town, now used as a cannon-foundry. the prince personally superintended the preparations for getting ready this place of worship, which was thenceforth called the cloister church. but delays were, as the contra-remonstrants believed, purposely interposed, so that it was nearly midsummer before there were any signs of the church being fit for use. they hastened accordingly to carry it, as it were, by assault. not wishing peaceably to accept as a boon from the civil authority what they claimed as an indefeasible right, they suddenly took possession one sunday night of the cloister church. it was in a state of utter confusion--part monastery, part foundry, part conventicle. there were few seats, no altar, no communion-table, hardly any sacramental furniture, but a pulpit was extemporized. rosaeus preached in triumph to an enthusiastic congregation, and three children were baptized with the significant names of william, maurice, and henry. on the following monday there was a striking scene on the voorhout. this most beautiful street of a beautiful city was a broad avenue, shaded by a quadruple row of limetrees, reaching out into the thick forest of secular oaks and beeches--swarming with fallow-deer and alive with the notes of singing birds--by which the hague, almost from time immemorial, has been embowered. the ancient cloisterhouse and church now reconverted to religious uses--was a plain, rather insipid structure of red brick picked out with white stone, presenting three symmetrical gables to the street, with a slender belfry and spire rising in the rear. nearly adjoining it on the north-western side was the elegant and commodious mansion of barneveld, purchased by him from the representatives of the arenberg family, surrounded by shrubberies and flower-gardens; not a palace, but a dignified and becoming abode for the first citizen of a powerful republic. on that midsummer's morning it might well seem that, in rescuing the old cloister from the military purposes to which it had for years been devoted, men had given an even more belligerent aspect to the scene than if it had been left as a foundry. the miscellaneous pieces of artillery and other fire-arms lying about, with piles of cannon-ball which there had not been time to remove, were hardly less belligerent and threatening of aspect than the stern faces of the crowd occupied in thoroughly preparing the house for its solemn destination. it was determined that there should be accommodation on the next sunday for all who came to the service. an army of carpenters, joiners, glaziers, and other workmen-assisted by a mob of citizens of all ranks and ages, men and women, gentle and simple were busily engaged in bringing planks and benches; working with plane, adze, hammer and saw, trowel and shovel, to complete the work. on the next sunday the prince attended public worship for the last time at the great church under the ministration of uytenbogaert. he was infuriated with the sermon, in which the bold remonstrant bitterly inveighed against the proposition for a national synod. to oppose that measure publicly in the very face of the stadholder, who now considered himself as the synod personified, seemed to him flat blasphemy. coming out of the church with his step-mother, the widowed louise de coligny, princess of orange, he denounced the man in unmeasured terms. "he is the enemy of god," said maurice. at least from that time forth, and indeed for a year before, maurice was the enemy of the preacher. on the following sunday, july , maurice went in solemn state to the divine service at the cloister church now thoroughly organized. he was accompanied by his cousin, the famous count william lewis of nassau, stadholder of friesland, who had never concealed his warm sympathy with the contra-remonstrants, and by all the chief officers of his household and members of his staff. it was an imposing demonstration and meant for one. as the martial stadholder at the head of his brilliant cavalcade rode forth across the drawbridge from the inner court of the old moated palace--where the ancient sovereign dirks and florences of holland had so long ruled their stout little principality--along the shady and stately kneuterdyk and so through the voorhout, an immense crowd thronged around his path and accompanied him to the church. it was as if the great soldier were marching to siege or battle-field where fresher glories than those of sluys or geertruidenberg were awaiting him. the train passed by barneveld's house and entered the cloister. more than four thousand persons were present at the service or crowded around the doors vainly attempting to gain admission into the overflowing aisles; while the great church was left comparatively empty, a few hundred only worshipping there. the cloister church was thenceforth called the prince's church, and a great revolution was beginning even in the hague. the advocate was wroth as he saw the procession graced by the two stadholders and their military attendants. he knew that he was now to bow his head to the church thus championed by the chief personage and captain-general of the state, to renounce his dreams of religious toleration, to sink from his post of supreme civic ruler, or to accept an unequal struggle in which he might utterly succumb. but his iron nature would break sooner than bend. in the first transports of his indignation he is said to have vowed vengeance against the immediate instruments by which the cloister church had, as he conceived, been surreptitiously and feloniously seized. he meant to strike a blow which should startle the whole population of the hague, send a thrill of horror through the country, and teach men to beware how they trifled with the sovereign states of holland, whose authority had so long been undisputed, and with him their chief functionary. he resolved--so ran the tale of the preacher trigland, who told it to prince maurice, and has preserved it in his chronicle--to cause to be seized at midnight from their beds four men whom he considered the ringleaders in this mutiny, to have them taken to the place of execution on the square in the midst of the city, to have their heads cut off at once by warrant from the chief tribunal without any previous warning, and then to summon all the citizens at dawn of day, by ringing of bells and firing of cannon, to gaze on the ghastly spectacle, and teach them to what fate this pestilential schism and revolt against authority had brought its humble tools. the victims were to be enoch much, the prince's book-keeper, and three others, an attorney, an engraver, and an apothecary, all of course of the contra-remonstrant persuasion. it was necessary, said the advocate, to make once for all an example, and show that there was a government in the land. he had reckoned on a ready adhesion to this measure and a sentence from the tribunal through the influence of his son-in-law, the seignior van veenhuyzen, who was president of the chief court. his attempt was foiled however by the stern opposition of two zealand members of the court, who managed to bring up from a bed of sickness, where he had long been lying, a holland councillor whom they knew to be likewise opposed to the fierce measure, and thus defeated it by a majority of one. such is the story as told by contemporaries and repeated from that day to this. it is hardly necessary to say that barneveld calmly denied having conceived or even heard of the scheme. that men could go about looking each other in the face and rehearsing such gibberish would seem sufficiently dispiriting did we not know to what depths of credulity men in all ages can sink when possessed by the demon of party malice. if it had been narrated on the exchange at amsterdam or flushing during that portentous midsummer that barneveld had not only beheaded but roasted alive, and fed the dogs and cats upon the attorney, the apothecary, and the engraver, there would have been citizens in plenty to devour the news with avidity. but although the advocate had never imagined such extravagances as these, it is certain that he had now resolved upon very bold measures, and that too without an instant's delay. he suspected the prince of aiming at sovereignty not only over holland but over all the provinces and to be using the synod as a principal part of his machinery. the gauntlet was thrown down by the stadholder, and the advocate lifted it at once. the issue of the struggle would depend upon the political colour of the town magistracies. barneveld instinctively felt that maurice, being now resolved that the synod should be held, would lose no time in making a revolution in all the towns through the power he held or could plausibly usurp. such a course would, in his opinion, lead directly to an unconstitutional and violent subversion of the sovereign rights of each province, to the advantage of the central government. a religious creed would be forced upon holland and perhaps upon two other provinces which was repugnant to a considerable majority of the people. and this would be done by a majority vote of the states-general, on a matter over which, by the th article of the fundamental compact--the union of utrecht--the states-general had no control, each province having reserved the disposition of religious affairs to itself. for let it never be forgotten that the union of the netherlands was a compact, a treaty, an agreement between sovereign states. there was no pretence that it was an incorporation, that the people had laid down a constitution, an organic law. the people were never consulted, did not exist, had not for political purposes been invented. it was the great primal defect of their institutions, but the netherlanders would have been centuries before their age had they been able to remedy that defect. yet the netherlanders would have been much behind even that age of bigotry had they admitted the possibility in a free commonwealth, of that most sacred and important of all subjects that concern humanity, religious creed--the relation of man to his maker--to be regulated by the party vote of a political board. it was with no thought of treason in his heart or his head therefore that the advocate now resolved that the states of holland and the cities of which that college was composed should protect their liberties and privileges, the sum of which in his opinion made up the sovereignty of the province he served, and that they should protect them, if necessary, by force. force was apprehended. it should be met by force. to be forewarned was to be forearmed. barneveld forewarned the states of holland. on the th august , he proposed to that assembly a resolution which was destined to become famous. a majority accepted it after brief debate. it was to this effect. the states having seen what had befallen in many cities, and especially in the hague, against the order, liberties, and laws of the land, and having in vain attempted to bring into harmony with the states certain cities which refused to co-operate with the majority, had at last resolved to refuse the national synod, as conflicting with the sovereignty and laws of holland. they had thought good to set forth in public print their views as to religious worship, and to take measures to prevent all deeds of violence against persons and property. to this end the regents of cities were authorized in case of need, until otherwise ordained, to enrol men-at-arms for their security and prevention of violence. furthermore, every one that might complain of what the regents of cities by strength of this resolution might do was ordered to have recourse to no one else than the states of holland, as no account would be made of anything that might be done or undertaken by the tribunals. finally, it was resolved to send a deputation to prince maurice, the princess-widow, and prince henry, requesting them to aid in carrying out this resolution. thus the deed was done. the sword was drawn. it was drawn in self-defence and in deliberate answer to the stadholder's defiance when he rapped his sword hilt in face of the assembly, but still it was drawn. the states of holland were declared sovereign and supreme. the national synod was peremptorily rejected. any decision of the supreme courts of the union in regard to the subject of this resolution was nullified in advance. thenceforth this measure of the th august was called the "sharp resolve." it might prove perhaps to be double-edged. it was a stroke of grim sarcasm on the part of the advocate thus solemnly to invite the stadholder's aid in carrying out a law which was aimed directly at his head; to request his help for those who meant to defeat with the armed hand that national synod which he had pledged himself to bring about. the question now arose what sort of men-at-arms it would be well for the city governments to enlist. the officers of the regular garrisons had received distinct orders from prince maurice as their military superior to refuse any summons to act in matters proceeding from the religious question. the prince, who had chief authority over all the regular troops, had given notice that he would permit nothing to be done against "those of the reformed religion," by which he meant the contra-remonstrants and them only. in some cities there were no garrisons, but only train-bands. but the train bands (schutters) could not be relied on to carry out the sharp resolve, for they were almost to a man contra-remonstrants. it was therefore determined to enlist what were called "waartgelders;" soldiers, inhabitants of the place, who held themselves ready to serve in time of need in consideration of a certain wage; mercenaries in short. this resolution was followed as a matter of course by a solemn protest from amsterdam and the five cities who acted with her. on the same day maurice was duly notified of the passage of the law. his wrath was great. high words passed between him and the deputies. it could hardly have been otherwise expected. next-day he came before the assembly to express his sentiments, to complain of the rudeness with which the resolution of th august had been communicated to him, and to demand further explanations. forthwith the advocate proceeded to set forth the intentions of the states, and demanded that the prince should assist the magistrates in carrying out the policy decided upon. reinier pauw, burgomaster of amsterdam, fiercely interrupted the oration of barneveld, saying that although these might be his views, they were not to be held by his excellency as the opinions of all. the advocate, angry at the interruption, answered him sternly, and a violent altercation, not unmixed with personalities, arose. maurice, who kept his temper admirably on this occasion, interfered between the two and had much difficulty in quieting the dispute. he then observed that when he took the oath as stadholder these unfortunate differences had not arisen, but all had been good friends together. this was perfectly true, but he could have added that they might all continue good friends unless the plan of imposing a religious creed upon the minority by a clerical decision were persisted in. he concluded that for love of one of the two great parties he would not violate the oath he had taken to maintain the reformed religion to the last drop of his blood. still, with the same 'petitio principii' that the reformed religion and the dogmas of the contra-remonstrants were one and the same thing, he assured the assembly that the authority of the magistrates would be sustained by him so long as it did not lead to the subversion of religion. clearly the time for argument had passed. as dudley carleton observed, men had been disputing 'pro aris' long enough. they would soon be fighting 'pro focis.' in pursuance of the policy laid down by the sharp resolution, the states proceeded to assure themselves of the various cities of the province by means of waartgelders. they sent to the important seaport of brielle and demanded a new oath from the garrison. it was intimated that the prince would be soon coming there in person to make himself master of the place, and advice was given to the magistrates to be beforehand with him. these statements angered maurice, and angered him the more because they happened to be true. it was also charged that he was pursuing his leicestrian designs and meant to make himself, by such steps, sovereign of the country. the name of leicester being a byword of reproach ever since that baffled noble had a generation before left the provinces in disgrace, it was a matter of course that such comparisons were excessively exasperating. it was fresh enough too in men's memory that the earl in his netherland career had affected sympathy with the strictest denomination of religious reformers, and that the profligate worldling and arrogant self-seeker had used the mask of religion to cover flagitious ends. as it had indeed been the object of the party at the head of which the advocate had all his life acted to raise the youthful maurice to the stadholderate expressly to foil the plots of leicester, it could hardly fail to be unpalatable to maurice to be now accused of acting the part of leicester. he inveighed bitterly on the subject before the state council: the state council, in a body, followed him to a meeting of the states-general. here the stadholder made a vehement speech and demanded that the states of holland should rescind the "sharp resolution," and should desist from the new oaths required from the soldiery. barneveld, firm as a rock, met these bitter denunciations. speaking in the name of holland, he repelled the idea that the sovereign states of that province were responsible to the state council or to the states-general either. he regretted, as all regretted, the calumnies uttered against the prince, but in times of such intense excitement every conspicuous man was the mark of calumny. the stadholder warmly repudiated leicestrian designs, and declared that he had been always influenced by a desire to serve his country and maintain the reformed religion. if he had made mistakes, he desired to be permitted to improve in the future. thus having spoken, the soldier retired from the assembly with the state council at his heels. the advocate lost no time in directing the military occupation of the principal towns of holland, such as leyden, gouda, rotterdam, schoonhoven, hoorn, and other cities. at leyden especially, where a strong orange party was with difficulty kept in obedience by the remonstrant magistracy, it was found necessary to erect a stockade about the town-hall and to plant caltrops and other obstructions in the squares and streets. the broad space in front; of the beautiful medieval seat of the municipal government, once so sacred for the sublime and pathetic scenes enacted there during the famous siege and in the magistracy of peter van der werff, was accordingly enclosed by a solid palisade of oaken planks, strengthened by rows of iron bars with barbed prongs: the entrenchment was called by the populace the arminian fort, and the iron spear heads were baptized barneveld's teeth. cannon were planted at intervals along the works, and a company or two of the waartgelders, armed from head to foot, with snaphances on their shoulders, stood ever ready to issue forth to quell any disturbances. occasionally a life or two was lost of citizen or soldier, and many doughty blows were interchanged. it was a melancholy spectacle. no commonwealth could be more fortunate than this republic in possessing two such great leading minds. no two men could be more patriotic than both stadholder and advocate. no two men could be prouder, more overbearing, less conciliatory. "i know mons. barneveld well," said sir ralph winwood, "and know that he hath great powers and abilities, and malice itself must confess that man never hath done more faithful and powerful service to his country than he. but 'finis coronat opus' and 'il di lodi lacera; oportet imperatorem stantem mori.'" the cities of holland were now thoroughly "waartgeldered," and barneveld having sufficiently shown his "teeth" in that province departed for change of air to utrecht. his failing health was assigned as the pretext for the visit, although the atmosphere of that city has never been considered especially salubrious in the dog-days. meantime the stadholder remained quiet, but biding his time. he did not choose to provoke a premature conflict in the strongholds of the arminians as he called them, but with a true military instinct preferred making sure of the ports. amsterdam, enkhuyzen, flushing, being without any effort of his own within his control, he quietly slipped down the river meuse on the night of the th september, accompanied by his brother frederic henrys and before six o'clock next morning had introduced a couple of companies of trustworthy troops into brielle, had summoned the magistrates before him, and compelled them to desist from all further intention of levying mercenaries. thus all the fortresses which barneveld had so recently and in such masterly fashion rescued from the grasp of england were now quietly reposing in the hands of the stadholder. maurice thought it not worth his while for the present to quell the mutiny--as he considered it the legal and constitutional defence of vested right--as great jurists like barneveld and hugo grotius accounted the movement--at its "fountain head leyden or its chief stream utrecht;" to use the expression of carleton. there had already been bloodshed in leyden, a burgher or two having been shot and a soldier stoned to death in the streets, but the stadholder deemed it unwise to precipitate matters. feeling himself, with his surpassing military knowledge and with a large majority of the nation at his back, so completely master of the situation, he preferred waiting on events. and there is no doubt that he was proving himself a consummate politician and a perfect master of fence. "he is much beloved and followed both of soldiers and people," said the english ambassador, "he is a man 'innoxiae popularitatis' so as this jealousy cannot well be fastened upon him; and in this cause of religion he stirred not until within these few months he saw he must declare himself or suffer the better party to be overborne." the chief tribunal-high council so called-of the country soon gave evidence that the "sharp resolution" had judged rightly in reckoning on its hostility and in nullifying its decisions in advance. they decided by a majority vote that the resolution ought not to be obeyed, but set aside. amsterdam, and the three or four cities usually acting with her, refused to enlist troops. rombout hoogerbeets, a member of the tribunal, informed prince maurice that he "would no longer be present on a bench where men disputed the authority of the states of holland, which he held to be the supreme sovereignty over him." this was plain speaking; a distinct enunciation of what the states' right party deemed to be constitutional law. and what said maurice in reply? "i, too, recognize the states of holland as sovereign; but we might at least listen to each other occasionally." hoogerbeets, however, deeming that listening had been carried far enough, decided to leave the tribunal altogether, and to resume the post which he had formerly occupied as pensionary or chief magistrate of leyden. here he was soon to find himself in the thick of the conflict. meantime the states-general, in full assembly, on th november , voted that the national synod should be held in the course of the following year. the measure was carried by a strict party vote and by a majority of one. the representatives of each province voting as one, there were four in favour of to three against the synod. the minority, consisting of holland, utrecht, and overyssel, protested against the vote as an outrageous invasion of the rights of each province, as an act of flagrant tyranny and usurpation. the minority in the states of holland, the five cities often named, protested against the protest. the defective part of the netherland constitutions could not be better illustrated. the minority of the states of holland refused to be bound by a majority of the provincial assembly. the minority of the states-general refused to be bound by the majority of the united assembly. this was reducing politics to an absurdity and making all government impossible. it is however quite certain that in the municipal governments a majority had always governed, and that a majority vote in the provincial assemblies had always prevailed. the present innovation was to govern the states-general by a majority. yet viewed by the light of experience and of common sense, it would be difficult to conceive of a more preposterous proceeding than thus to cram a religious creed down the throats of half the population of a country by the vote of a political assembly. but it was the seventeenth and not the nineteenth century. moreover, if there were any meaning in words, the th article of union, reserving especially the disposition over religious matters to each province, had been wisely intended to prevent the possibility of such tyranny. when the letters of invitation to the separate states and to others were drawing up in the general assembly, the representatives of the three states left the chamber. a solitary individual from holland remained however, a burgomaster of amsterdam. uytenbogaert, conversing with barneveld directly afterwards, advised him to accept the vote. yielding to the decision of the majority, it would be possible, so thought the clergyman, for the great statesman so to handle matters as to mould the synod to his will, even as he had so long controlled the states-provincial and the states-general. "if you are willing to give away the rights of the land," said the advocate very sharply, "i am not." probably the priest's tactics might have proved more adroit than the stony opposition on which barneveld was resolved. but it was with the aged statesman a matter of principle, not of policy. his character and his personal pride, the dignity of opinion and office, his respect for constitutional law, were all at stake. shallow observers considered the struggle now taking place as a personal one. lovers of personal government chose to look upon the advocate's party as a faction inspired with an envious resolve to clip the wings of the stadholder, who was at last flying above their heads. there could be no doubt of the bitter animosity between the two men. there could be no doubt that jealousy was playing the part which that master passion will ever play in all the affairs of life. but there could be no doubt either that a difference of principle as wide as the world separated the two antagonists. even so keen an observer as dudley carleton, while admitting the man's intellectual power and unequalled services, could see nothing in the advocate's present course but prejudice, obstinacy, and the insanity of pride. "he doth no whit spare himself in pains nor faint in his resolution," said the envoy, "wherein notwithstanding he will in all appearance succumb ere afore long, having the disadvantages of a weak body, a weak party, and a weak cause." but carleton hated barneveld, and considered it the chief object of his mission to destroy him, if he could. in so doing he would best carry out the wishes of his sovereign. the king of britain had addressed a somewhat equivocal letter to the states-general on the subject of religion in the spring of . it certainly was far from being as satisfactory as, the epistles of prepared under the advocate's instructions, had been, while the exuberant commentary upon the royal text, delivered in full assembly by his ambassador soon after the reception of the letter, was more than usually didactic, offensive, and ignorant. sir dudley never omitted an opportunity of imparting instruction to the states-general as to the nature of their constitution and the essential dogmas on which their church was founded. it is true that the great lawyers and the great theologians of the country were apt to hold very different opinions from his upon those important subjects, but this was so much the worse for the lawyers and theologians, as time perhaps might prove. the king in this last missive had proceeded to unsay the advice which he had formerly bestowed upon the states, by complaining that his earlier letters had been misinterpreted. they had been made use of, he said, to authorize the very error against which they had been directed. they had been held to intend the very contrary of what they did mean. he felt himself bound in conscience therefore, finding these differences ready to be "hatched into schisms," to warn the states once more against pests so pernicious. although the royal language was somewhat vague so far as enunciation of doctrine, a point on which he had once confessed himself fallible, was concerned, there was nothing vague in his recommendation of a national synod. to this the opposition of barneveld was determined not upon religious but upon constitutional grounds. the confederacy did not constitute a nation, and therefore there could not be a national synod nor a national religion. carleton came before the states-general soon afterwards with a prepared oration, wearisome as a fast-day sermon after the third turn of the hour-glass, pragmatical as a schoolmaster's harangue to fractious little boys. he divided his lecture into two heads--the peace of the church, and the peace of the provinces--starting with the first. "a jove principium," he said, "i will begin with that which is both beginning and end. it is the truth of god's word and its maintenance that is the bond of our common cause. reasons of state invite us as friends and neighbours by the preservation of our lives and property, but the interest of religion binds us as christians and brethren to the mutual defence of the liberty of our consciences." he then proceeded to point out the only means by which liberty of conscience could be preserved. it was by suppressing all forms of religion but one, and by silencing all religious discussion. peter titelman and philip ii. could not have devised a more pithy formula. all that was wanting was the axe and faggot to reduce uniformity to practice. then liberty of conscience would be complete. "one must distinguish," said the ambassador, "between just liberty and unbridled license, and conclude that there is but one truth single and unique. those who go about turning their brains into limbecks for distilling new notions in religious matters only distract the union of the church which makes profession of this unique truth. if it be permitted to one man to publish the writings and fantasies of a sick spirit and for another moved by christian zeal to reduce this wanderer 'ad sanam mentem;' why then 'patet locus adversus utrumque,' and the common enemy (the devil) slips into the fortress." he then proceeded to illustrate this theory on liberty of conscience by allusions to conrad vorstius. this infamous sectary had in fact reached such a pitch of audacity, said the ambassador, as not only to inveigh against the eternal power of god but to indulge in irony against the honour of his majesty king james. and in what way had he scandalized the government of the republic? he had dared to say that within its borders there was religious toleration. he had distinctly averred that in the united provinces heretics were not punished with death or with corporal chastisement. "he declares openly," said carleton, "that contra haereticos etiam vere dictos (ne dum falso et calumniose sic traductos) there is neither sentence of death nor other corporal punishment, so that in order to attract to himself a great following of birds of the name feather he publishes to all the world that here in this country one can live and die a heretic, unpunished, without being arrested and without danger." in order to suppress this reproach upon the republic at which the ambassador stood aghast, and to prevent the vorstian doctrines of religious toleration and impunity of heresy from spreading among "the common people, so subject by their natures to embrace new opinions," he advised of course that "the serpent be sent back to the nest where he was born before the venom had spread through the whole body of the republic." a week afterwards a long reply was delivered on part of the states-general to the ambassador's oration. it is needless to say that it was the work of the advocate, and that it was in conformity with the opinions so often exhibited in the letters to caron and others of which the reader has seen many samples. that religious matters were under the control of the civil government, and that supreme civil authority belonged to each one of the seven sovereign provinces, each recognizing no superior within its own sphere, were maxims of state always enforced in the netherlands and on which the whole religious controversy turned. "the states-general have always cherished the true christian apostolic religion," they said, "and wished it to be taught under the authority and protection of the legal government of these provinces in all purity, and in conformity with the holy scriptures, to the good people of these provinces. and my lords the states and magistrates of the respective provinces, each within their own limits, desire the same." they had therefore given express orders to the preachers "to keep the peace by mutual and benign toleration of the different opinions on the one side and the other at least until with full knowledge of the subject the states might otherwise ordain. they had been the more moved to this because his majesty having carefully examined the opinions of the learned hereon each side had found both consistent with christian belief and the salvation of souls." it was certainly not the highest expression of religious toleration for the civil authority to forbid the clergymen of the country from discussing in their pulpits the knottiest and most mysterious points of the schoolmen lest the "common people" should be puzzled. nevertheless, where the close union of church and state and the necessity of one church were deemed matters of course, it was much to secure subordination of the priesthood to the magistracy, while to enjoin on preachers abstention from a single exciting cause of quarrel, on the ground that there was more than one path to salvation, and that mutual toleration was better than mutual persecution, was; in that age, a stride towards religious equality. it was at least an advance on carleton's dogma, that there was but one unique and solitary truth, and that to declare heretics not punishable with death was an insult to the government of the republic. the states-general answered the ambassador's plea, made in the name of his master, for immediate and unguaranteed evacuation of the debatable land by the arguments already so often stated in the advocate's instructions to caron. they had been put to great trouble and expense already in their campaigning and subsequent fortification of important places in the duchies. they had seen the bitter spirit manifested by the spaniards in the demolition of the churches and houses of mulheim and other places. "while the affair remained in its present terms of utter uncertainty their mightinesses," said the states-general, "find it most objectionable to forsake the places which they have been fortifying and to leave the duchies and all their fellow-religionists, besides the rights of the possessory princes a prey to those who have been hankering for the territories for long years, and who would unquestionably be able to make themselves absolute masters of all within a very few days." a few months later carleton came before the states-general again and delivered another elaborate oration, duly furnished to him by the king, upon the necessity of the national synod, the comparative merits of arminianism and contra-remonstrantism, together with a full exposition of the constitutions of the netherlands. it might be supposed that barneveld and grotius and hoogerbeets knew something of the law and history of their country. but james knew much better, and so his envoy endeavoured to convince his audience. he received on the spot a temperate but conclusive reply from the delegates of holland. they informed him that the war with spain--the cause of the utrecht union--was not begun about religion but on account of the violation of liberties, chartered rights and privileges, not the least of which rights was that of each province to regulate religious matters within its borders. a little later a more vehement reply was published anonymously in the shape of a pamphlet called 'the balance,' which much angered the ambassador and goaded his master almost to frenzy. it was deemed so blasphemous, so insulting to the majesty of england, so entirely seditious, that james, not satisfied with inditing a rejoinder, insisted through carleton that a reward should be offered by the states for the detection of the author, in order that he might be condignly punished. this was done by a majority vote, florins being offered for the discovery of the author and for that of the printer. naturally the step was opposed in the states-general; two deputies in particular making themselves conspicuous. one of them was an audacious old gentleman named brinius of gelderland, "much corrupted with arminianism," so carleton informed his sovereign. he appears to have inherited his audacity through his pedigree, descending, as it was ludicrously enough asserted he did, from a chief of the caninefates, the ancient inhabitants of gelderland, called brinio. and brinio the caninefat had been as famous for his stolid audacity as for his illustrious birth; "erat in caninefatibus stolidae audaciae brinio claritate natalium insigni." the patronizing manner in which the ambassador alluded to the other member of the states-general who opposed the decree was still more diverting. it was "grotius, the pensioner of rotterdam, a young petulant brain, not unknown to your majesty," said carleton. two centuries and a half have rolled away, and there are few majesties, few nations, and few individuals to whom the name of that petulant youth is unknown; but how many are familiar with the achievements of the able representative of king james? nothing came of the measure, however, and the offer of course helped the circulation of the pamphlet. it is amusing to see the ferocity thus exhibited by the royal pamphleteer against a rival; especially when one can find no crime in 'the balance' save a stinging and well-merited criticism of a very stupid oration. gillis van ledenberg was generally supposed to be the author of it. carleton inclined, however, to suspect grotius, "because," said he, "having always before been a stranger to my house, he has made me the day before the publication thereof a complimentary visit, although it was sunday and church time; whereby the italian proverb, 'chi ti caresse piu che suole,' &c.,' is added to other likelihoods." it was subsequently understood however that the pamphlet was written by a remonstrant preacher of utrecht, named jacobus taurinus; one of those who had been doomed to death by the mutinous government in that city seven years before. it was now sufficiently obvious that either the governments in the three opposition provinces must be changed or that the national synod must be imposed by a strict majority vote in the teeth of the constitution and of vigorous and eloquent protests drawn up by the best lawyers in the country. the advocate and grotius recommended a provincial synod first and, should that not succeed in adjusting the differences of church government, then the convocation of a general or oecumenical synod. they resisted the national synod because, in their view, the provinces were not a nation. a league of seven sovereign and independent mates was all that legally existed in the netherlands. it was accordingly determined that the governments should be changed, and the stadholder set himself to prepare the way for a thorough and, if possible, a bloodless revolution. he departed on the th november for a tour through the chief cities, and before leaving the hague addressed an earnest circular letter to the various municipalities of holland. a more truly dignified, reasonable, right royal letter, from the stadholder's point of view, could not have been indited. the imperial "we" breathing like a morning breeze through the whole of it blew away all legal and historical mistiness. but the clouds returned again nevertheless. unfortunately for maurice it could not be argued by the pen, however it might be proved by the sword, that the netherlands constituted a nation, and that a convocation of doctors of divinity summoned by a body of envoys had the right to dictate a creed to seven republics. all parties were agreed on one point. there must be unity of divine worship. the territory of the netherlands was not big enough to hold two systems of religion, two forms of christianity, two sects of protestantism. it was big enough to hold seven independent and sovereign states, but would be split into fragments--resolved into chaos--should there be more than one church or if once a schism were permitted in that church. grotius was as much convinced of this as gomarus. and yet the th article of the union stared them all in the face, forbidding the hideous assumptions now made by the general government. perhaps no man living fully felt its import save barneveld alone. for groping however dimly and hesitatingly towards the idea of religious liberty, of general toleration, he was denounced as a papist, an atheist, a traitor, a miscreant, by the fanatics for the sacerdotal and personal power. yet it was a pity that he could never contemplate the possibility of his country's throwing off the swaddling clothes of provincialism which had wrapped its infancy. doubtless history, law, tradition, and usage pointed to the independent sovereignty of each province. yet the period of the truce was precisely the time when a more generous constitution, a national incorporation might have been constructed to take the place of the loose confederacy by which the gigantic war had been fought out. after all, foreign powers had no connection with the states, and knew only the union with which and with which alone they made treaties, and the reality of sovereignty in each province was as ridiculous as in theory it was impregnable. but barneveld, under the modest title of advocate of one province, had been in reality president and prime minister of the whole commonwealth. he had himself been the union and the sovereignty. it was not wonderful that so imperious a nature objected to transfer its powers to the church, to the states-general, or to maurice. moreover, when nationality assumed the unlovely form of rigid religious uniformity; when union meant an exclusive self-governed church enthroned above the state, responsible to no civic authority and no human law, the boldest patriot might shiver at emerging from provincialism. chapter xv. the commonwealth bent on self-destruction--evils of a confederate system of government--rem bischop's house sacked--aerssens' unceasing efforts against barneveld--the advocate's interview with maurice--the states of utrecht raise the troops--the advocate at utrecht--barneveld urges mutual toleration--barneveld accused of being partisan of spain--carleton takes his departure. it is not cheerful after widely contemplating the aspect of christendom in the year of supreme preparation to examine with the minuteness absolutely necessary the narrow theatre to which the political affairs of the great republic had been reduced. that powerful commonwealth, to which the great party of the reformation naturally looked for guidance in the coming conflict, seemed bent on self-destruction. the microcosm of the netherlands now represented, alas! the war of elements going on without on a world-wide scale. as the calvinists and lutherans of germany were hotly attacking each other even in sight of the embattled front of spain and the league, so the gomarites and the arminians by their mutual rancour were tearing the political power of the dutch republic to shreds and preventing her from assuming a great part in the crisis. the consummate soldier, the unrivalled statesman, each superior in his sphere to any contemporary rival, each supplementing the other, and making up together, could they have been harmonized, a double head such as no political organism then existing could boast, were now in hopeless antagonism to each other. a mass of hatred had been accumulated against the advocate with which he found it daily more and more difficult to struggle. the imperious, rugged, and suspicious nature of the stadholder had been steadily wrought upon by the almost devilish acts of francis aerssens until he had come to look upon his father's most faithful adherent, his own early preceptor in statesmanship and political supporter, as an antagonist, a conspirator, and a tyrant. the soldier whose unrivalled ability, experience, and courage in the field should have placed him at the very head of the great european army of defence against the general crusade upon protestantism, so constantly foretold by barneveld, was now to be engaged in making bloodless but mischievous warfare against an imaginary conspiracy and a patriot foe. the advocate, keeping steadily in view the great principles by which his political life had been guided, the supremacy of the civil authority in any properly organized commonwealth over the sacerdotal and military, found himself gradually forced into mortal combat with both. to the individual sovereignty of each province he held with the tenacity of a lawyer and historian. in that he found the only clue through the labyrinth which ecclesiastical and political affairs presented. so close was the tangle, so confused the medley, that without this slender guide all hope of legal issue seemed lost. no doubt the difficulty of the doctrine of individual sovereignty was great, some of the provinces being such slender morsels of territory, with resources so trivial, as to make the name of sovereignty ludicrous. yet there could be as little doubt that no other theory was tenable. if so powerful a mind as that of the advocate was inclined to strain the theory to its extreme limits, it was because in the overshadowing superiority of the one province holland had been found the practical remedy for the imbecility otherwise sure to result from such provincial and meagre federalism. moreover, to obtain union by stretching all the ancient historical privileges and liberties of the separate provinces upon the procrustean bed of a single dogma, to look for nationality only in common subjection to an infallible priesthood, to accept a catechism as the palladium upon which the safety of the state was to depend for all time, and beyond which there was to be no further message from heaven--such was not healthy constitutionalism in the eyes of a great statesman. no doubt that without the fervent spirit of calvinism it would have been difficult to wage war with such immortal hate as the netherlands had waged it, no doubt the spirit of republican and even democratic liberty lay hidden within that rigid husk, but it was dishonour to the martyrs who had died by thousands at the stake and on the battle field for the rights of conscience if the only result of their mighty warfare against wrong had been to substitute a new dogma for an old one, to stifle for ever the right of free enquiry, theological criticism, and the hope of further light from on high, and to proclaim it a libel on the republic that within its borders all heretics, whether arminian or papist, were safe from the death penalty or even from bodily punishment. a theological union instead of a national one and obtained too at the sacrifice of written law and immemorial tradition, a congress in which clerical deputations from all the provinces and from foreign nations should prescribe to all netherlanders an immutable creed and a shadowy constitution, were not the true remedies for the evils of confederacy, nor, if they had been, was the time an appropriate one for their application. it was far too early in the world's history to hope for such redistribution of powers and such a modification of the social compact as would place in separate spheres the church and the state, double the sanctions and the consolations of religion by removing it from the pollutions of political warfare, and give freedom to individual conscience by securing it from the interference of government. it is melancholy to see the republic thus perversely occupying its energies. it is melancholy to see the great soldier becoming gradually more ardent for battle with barneveld and uytenbogaert than with spinola and bucquoy, against whom he had won so many imperishable laurels. it is still sadder to see the man who had been selected by henry iv. as the one statesman of europe to whom he could confide his great projects for the pacification of christendom, and on whom he could depend for counsel and support in schemes which, however fantastic in some of their details, had for their object to prevent the very european war of religion against which barneveld had been struggling, now reduced to defend himself against suspicion hourly darkening and hatred growing daily more insane. the eagle glance and restless wing, which had swept the whole political atmosphere, now caged within the stifling limits of theological casuistry and personal rivalry were afflicting to contemplate. the evils resulting from a confederate system of government, from a league of petty sovereignties which dared not become a nation, were as woefully exemplified in the united provinces as they were destined to be more than a century and a half later, and in another hemisphere, before that most fortunate and sagacious of written political instruments, the american constitution of , came to remedy the weakness of the old articles of union. meantime the netherlands were a confederacy, not a nation. their general government was but a committee. it could ask of, but not command, the separate provinces. it had no dealings with nor power over the inhabitants of the country; it could say "thou shalt" neither to state nor citizen; it could consult only with corporations--fictitious and many-headed personages--itself incorporate. there was no first magistrate, no supreme court, no commander-in-chief, no exclusive mint nor power of credit, no national taxation, no central house of representation and legislation, no senate. unfortunately it had one church, and out of this single matrix of centralism was born more discord than had been produced by all the centrifugal forces of provincialism combined. there had been working substitutes found, as we well know, for the deficiencies of this constitution, but the advocate felt himself bound to obey and enforce obedience to the laws and privileges of his country so long as they remained without authorized change. his country was the province of holland, to which his allegiance was due and whose servant he was. that there was but one church paid and sanctioned by law, he admitted, but his efforts were directed to prevent discord within that church, by counselling moderation, conciliation, mutual forbearance, and abstention from irritating discussion of dogmas deemed by many thinkers and better theologians than himself not essential to salvation. in this he was much behind his age or before it. he certainly was not with the majority. and thus, while the election of ferdinand had given the signal of war all over christendom, while from the demolished churches in bohemia the tocsin was still sounding, whose vibrations were destined to be heard a generation long through the world, there was less sympathy felt with the call within the territory of the great republic of protestantism than would have seemed imaginable a few short years before. the capture of the cloister church at the hague in the summer of seemed to minds excited by personal rivalries and minute theological controversy a more momentous event than the destruction of the churches in the klostergrab in the following december. the triumph of gomarism in a single dutch city inspired more enthusiasm for the moment than the deadly buffet to european protestantism could inspire dismay. the church had been carried and occupied, as it were, by force, as if an enemy's citadel. it seemed necessary to associate the idea of practical warfare with a movement which might have been a pacific clerical success. barneveld and those who acted with him, while deploring the intolerance out of which the schism had now grown to maturity, had still hoped for possible accommodation of the quarrel. they dreaded popular tumults leading to oppression of the magistracy by the mob or the soldiery and ending in civil war. but what was wanted by the extreme partisans on either side was not accommodation but victory. "religious differences are causing much trouble and discontents in many cities," he said. "at amsterdam there were in the past week two assemblages of boys and rabble which did not disperse without violence, crime, and robbery. the brother of professor episcopius (rem bischop) was damaged to the amount of several thousands. we are still hoping that some better means of accommodation may be found." the calmness with which the advocate spoke of these exciting and painful events is remarkable. it was exactly a week before the date of his letter that this riot had taken place at amsterdam; very significant in its nature and nearly tragical in its results. there were no remonstrant preachers left in the city, and the people of that persuasion were excluded from the communion service. on sunday morning, th february ( ), a furious mob set upon the house of rem bischop, a highly respectable and wealthy citizen, brother of the remonstrant professor episcopius, of leyden. the house, an elegant mansion in one of the principal streets, was besieged and after an hour's resistance carried by storm. the pretext of the assault was that arminian preaching was going on within its walls, which was not the fact. the mistress of the house, half clad, attempted to make her escape by the rear of the building, was pursued by the rabble with sticks and stones, and shrieks of "kill the arminian harlot, strike her dead," until she fortunately found refuge in the house of a neighbouring carpenter. there the hunted creature fell insensible on the ground, the master of the house refusing to give her up, though the maddened mob surged around it, swearing that if the "arminian harlot"--as respectable a matron as lived in the city--were not delivered over to them, they would tear the house to pieces. the hope of plunder and of killing rem bischop himself drew them at last back to his mansion. it was thoroughly sacked; every portable article of value, linen, plate, money, furniture, was carried off, the pictures and objects of art destroyed, the house gutted from top to bottom. a thousand spectators were looking on placidly at the work of destruction as they returned from church, many of them with bible and psalm-book in their hands. the master effected his escape over the roof into an adjoining building. one of the ringleaders, a carpenter by trade, was arrested carrying an armful of valuable plunder. he was asked by the magistrate why he had entered the house. "out of good zeal," he replied; "to help beat and kill the arminians who were holding conventicle there." he was further asked why he hated the arminians so much. "are we to suffer such folk here," he replied, "who preach the vile doctrine that god has created one man for damnation and another for salvation?"--thus ascribing the doctrine of the church of which he supposed himself a member to the arminians whom he had been plundering and wished to kill. rem bischop received no compensation for the damage and danger; the general cry in the town being that the money he was receiving from barneveld and the king of spain would make him good even if not a stone of the house had been left standing. on the following thursday two elders of the church council waited upon and informed him that he must in future abstain from the communion service. it may well be supposed that the virtual head of the government liked not the triumph of mob law, in the name of religion, over the civil authority. the advocate was neither democrat nor demagogue. a lawyer, a magistrate, and a noble, he had but little sympathy with the humbler classes, which he was far too much in the habit of designating as rabble and populace. yet his anger was less against them than against the priests, the foreigners, the military and diplomatic mischief-makers, by whom they were set upon to dangerous demonstrations. the old patrician scorned the arts by which highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation for inferiors whom they despise. it was his instinct to protect, and guide the people, in whom he recognized no chartered nor inherent right to govern. it was his resolve, so long as breath was in him, to prevent them from destroying life and property and subverting the government under the leadership of an inflamed priesthood. it was with this intention, as we have just seen, and in order to avoid bloodshed, anarchy, and civil war in the streets of every town and village, that a decisive but in the advocate's opinion a perfectly legal step had been taken by the states of holland. it had become necessary to empower the magistracies of towns to defend themselves by enrolled troops against mob violence and against an enforced synod considered by great lawyers as unconstitutional. aerssens resided in zealand, and the efforts of that ex-ambassador were unceasing to excite popular animosity against the man he hated and to trouble the political waters in which no man knew better than he how to cast the net. "the states of zealand," said the advocate to the ambassador in london, "have a deputation here about the religious differences, urging the holding of a national synod according to the king's letters, to which some other provinces and some of the cities of holland incline. the questions have not yet been defined by a common synod, so that a national one could make no definition, while the particular synods and clerical personages are so filled with prejudices and so bound by mutual engagements of long date as to make one fear an unfruitful issue. we are occupied upon this point in our assembly of holland to devise some compromise and to discover by what means these difficulties may be brought into a state of tranquillity." it will be observed that in all these most private and confidential utterances of the advocate a tone of extreme moderation, an anxious wish to save the provinces from dissensions, dangers, and bloodshed, is distinctly visible. never is he betrayed into vindictive, ambitious, or self-seeking expressions, while sometimes, although rarely, despondent in mind. nor was his opposition to a general synod absolute. he was probably persuaded however, as we have just seen, that it should of necessity be preceded by provincial ones, both in due regard to the laws of the land and to the true definition of the points to be submitted to its decision. he had small hope of a successful result from it. the british king gave him infinite distress. as towards france so towards england the advocate kept steadily before him the necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns whose friendship was necessary to the republic he served, however misguided, perverse, or incompetent those monarchs might be. "i had always hoped," he said, "that his majesty would have adhered to his original written advice, that such questions as these ought to be quietly settled by authority of law and not by ecclesiastical persons, and i still hope that his majesty's intention is really to that effect, although he speaks of synods." a month later he felt even more encouraged. "the last letter of his majesty concerning our religious questions," he said, "has given rise to various constructions, but the best advised, who have peace and unity at heart, understand the king's intention to be to conserve the state of these provinces and the religion in its purity. my hope is that his majesty's good opinion will be followed and adopted according to the most appropriate methods." can it be believed that the statesman whose upright patriotism, moderation, and nobleness of purpose thus breathed through every word spoken by him in public or whispered to friends was already held up by a herd of ravening slanderers to obloquy as a traitor and a tyrant? he was growing old and had suffered much from illness during this eventful summer, but his anxiety for the commonwealth, caused by these distressing and superfluous squabbles, were wearing into him more deeply than years or disease could do. "owing to my weakness and old age i can't go up-stairs as well as i used," he said,--[barneveld to caron july and aug. . (h. arch. ms.)]--"and these religious dissensions cause me sometimes such disturbance of mind as will ere long become intolerable, because of my indisposition and because of the cry of my heart at the course people are pursuing here. i reflect that at the time of duke casimir and the prince of chimay exactly such a course was held in flanders and in lord leicester's time in the city of utrecht, as is best known to yourself. my hope is fixed on the lord god almighty, and that he will make those well ashamed who are laying anything to heart save his honour and glory and the welfare of our country with maintenance of its freedom and laws. i mean unchangeably to live and die for them . . . . believe firmly that all representations to the contrary are vile calumnies." before leaving for vianen in the middle of august of this year ( ) the advocate had an interview with the prince. there had been no open rupture between them, and barneveld was most anxious to avoid a quarrel with one to whose interests and honour he had always been devoted. he did not cling to power nor office. on the contrary, he had repeatedly importuned the states to accept his resignation, hoping that perhaps these unhappy dissensions might be quieted by his removal from the scene. he now told the prince that the misunderstanding between them arising from these religious disputes was so painful to his heart that he would make and had made every possible effort towards conciliation and amicable settlement of the controversy. he saw no means now, he said, of bringing about unity, unless his excellency were willing to make some proposition for arrangement. this he earnestly implored the prince to do, assuring him of his sincere and upright affection for him and his wish to support such measures to the best of his ability and to do everything for the furtherance of his reputation and necessary authority. he was so desirous of this result, he said, that he would propose now as he did at the time of the truce negotiations to lay down all his offices, leaving his excellency to guide the whole course of affairs according to his best judgment. he had already taken a resolution, if no means of accommodation were possible, to retire to his gunterstein estate and there remain till the next meeting of the assembly; when he would ask leave to retire for at least a year; in order to occupy himself with a revision and collation of the charters, laws, and other state papers of the country which were in his keeping, and which it was needful to bring into an orderly condition. meantime some scheme might be found for arranging the religious differences, more effective than any he had been able to devise. his appeal seems to have glanced powerlessly upon the iron reticence of maurice, and the advocate took his departure disheartened. later in the autumn, so warm a remonstrance was made to him by the leading nobles and deputies of holland against his contemplated withdrawal from his post that it seemed a dereliction of duty on his part to retire. he remained to battle with the storm and to see "with anguish of heart," as he expressed it, the course religious affairs were taking. the states of utrecht on the th august resolved that on account of the gathering of large masses of troops in the countries immediately adjoining their borders, especially in the episcopate of cologne, by aid of spanish money, it was expedient for them to enlist a protective force of six companies of regular soldiers in order to save the city from sudden and overwhelming attack by foreign troops. even if the danger from without were magnified in this preamble, which is by no means certain, there seemed to be no doubt on the subject in the minds of the magistrates. they believed that they had the right to protect and that they were bound to protect their ancient city from sudden assault, whether by spanish soldiers or by organized mobs attempting, as had been done in rotterdam, oudewater, and other towns, to overawe the civil authority in the interest of the contra-remonstrants. six nobles of utrecht were accordingly commissioned to raise the troops. a week later they had been enlisted, sworn to obey in all things the states of utrecht, and to take orders from no one else. three days later the states of utrecht addressed a letter to their mightinesses the states-general and to his excellency the prince, notifying them that for the reasons stated in the resolution cited the six companies had been levied. there seemed in these proceedings to be no thought of mutiny or rebellion, the province considering itself as acting within its unquestionable rights as a sovereign state and without any exaggeration of the imperious circumstances of the case. nor did the states-general and the stadholder at that moment affect to dispute the rights of utrecht, nor raise a doubt as to the legality of the proceedings. the committee sent thither by the states-general, the prince, and the council of state in their written answer to the letter of the utrecht government declared the reasons given for the enrolment of the six companies to be insufficient and the measure itself highly dangerous. they complained, but in very courteous language, that the soldiers had been levied without giving the least notice thereof to the general government, without asking its advice, or waiting for any communication from it, and they reminded the states of utrecht that they might always rely upon the states-general and his excellency, who were still ready, as they had been seven years before ( ), to protect them against every enemy and any danger. the conflict between a single province of the confederacy and the authority of the general government had thus been brought to a direct issue; to the test of arms. for, notwithstanding the preamble to the resolution of the utrecht assembly just cited, there could be little question that the resolve itself was a natural corollary of the famous "sharp resolution," passed by the states of holland three weeks before. utrecht was in arms to prevent, among other things at least, the forcing upon them by a majority of the states-general of the national synod to which they were opposed, the seizure of churches by the contra-remonstrants, and the destruction of life and property by inflamed mobs. there is no doubt that barneveld deeply deplored the issue, but that he felt himself bound to accept it. the innate absurdity of a constitutional system under which each of the seven members was sovereign and independent and the head was at the mercy of the members could not be more flagrantly illustrated. in the bloody battles which seemed impending in the streets of utrecht and in all the principal cities of the netherlands between the soldiers of sovereign states and soldiers of a general government which was not sovereign, the letter of the law and the records of history were unquestionably on the aide of the provincial and against the general authority. yet to nullify the authority of the states-general by force of arms at this supreme moment was to stultify all government whatever. it was an awful dilemma, and it is difficult here fully to sympathize with the advocate, for he it was who inspired, without dictating, the course of the utrecht proceedings. with him patriotism seemed at this moment to dwindle into provincialism, the statesman to shrink into the lawyer. certainly there was no guilt in the proceedings. there was no crime in the heart of the advocate. he had exhausted himself with appeals in favour of moderation, conciliation, compromise. he had worked night and day with all the energy of a pure soul and a great mind to assuage religious hatreds and avert civil dissensions. he was overpowered. he had frequently desired to be released from all his functions, but as dangers thickened over the provinces, he felt it his duty so long as he remained at his post to abide by the law as the only anchor in the storm. not rising in his mind to the height of a national idea, and especially averse from it when embodied in the repulsive form of religious uniformity, he did not shrink from a contest which he had not provoked, but had done his utmost to avert. but even then he did not anticipate civil war. the enrolling of the waartgelders was an armed protest, a symbol of legal conviction rather than a serious effort to resist the general government. and this is the chief justification of his course from a political point of view. it was ridiculous to suppose that with a few hundred soldiers hastily enlisted--and there were less than waartgelders levied throughout the provinces and under the orders of civil magistrates--a serious contest was intended against a splendidly disciplined army of veteran troops, commanded by the first general of the age. from a legal point of view barneveld considered his position impregnable. the controversy is curious, especially for americans, and for all who are interested in the analysis of federal institutions and of republican principles, whether aristocratic or democratic. the states of utrecht replied in decorous but firm language to the committee of the states-general that they had raised the six companies in accordance with their sovereign right so to do, and that they were resolved to maintain them. they could not wait as they had been obliged to do in the time of the earl of leicester and more recently in until they had been surprised and overwhelmed by the enemy before the states-general and his excellency the prince could come to their rescue. they could not suffer all the evils of tumults, conspiracies, and foreign invasion, without defending themselves. making use, they said, of the right of sovereignty which in their province belonged to them alone, they thought it better to prevent in time and by convenient means such fire and mischief than to look on while it kindled and spread into a conflagration, and to go about imploring aid from their fellow confederates who, god better it, had enough in these times to do at home. this would only be to bring them as well as this province into trouble, disquiet, and expense. "my lords the states of utrecht have conserved and continually exercised this right of sovereignty in its entireness ever since renouncing the king of spain. every contract, ordinance, and instruction of the states-general has been in conformity with it, and the states of utrecht are convinced that the states of not one of their confederate provinces would yield an atom of its sovereignty." they reminded the general government that by the st article of the "closer union" of utrecht, on which that assembly was founded, it was bound to support the states of the respective provinces and strengthen them with counsel, treasure, and blood if their respective rights, more especially their individual sovereignty, the most precious of all, should be assailed. to refrain from so doing would be to violate a solemn contract. they further reminded the council of state that by its institution the states-provincial had not abdicated their respective sovereignties, but had reserved it in all matters not specifically mentioned in the original instruction by which it was created. two days afterwards arnold van randwyck and three other commissioners were instructed by the general government to confer with the states of utrecht, to tell them that their reply was deemed unsatisfactory, that their reasons for levying soldiers in times when all good people should be seeking to restore harmony and mitigate dissension were insufficient, and to request them to disband those levies without prejudice in so doing to the laws and liberties of the province and city of utrecht. here was perhaps an opening for a compromise, the instruction being not without ingenuity, and the word sovereignty in regard either to the general government or the separate provinces being carefully omitted. soon afterwards, too, the states-general went many steps farther in the path of concession, for they made another appeal to the government of utrecht to disband the waartgelders on the ground of expediency, and in so doing almost expressly admitted the doctrine of provincial sovereignty. it is important in regard to subsequent events to observe this virtual admission. "your honours lay especial stress upon the right of sovereignty as belonging to you alone in your province," they said, "and dispute therefore at great length upon the power and authority of the generality, of his excellency, and of the state council. but you will please to consider that there is here no question of this, as our commissioners had no instructions to bring this into dispute in the least, and most certainly have not done so. we have only in effect questioned whether that which one has an undoubted right to do can at all times be appropriately and becomingly done, whether it was fitting that your honours, contrary to custom, should undertake these new levies upon a special oath and commission, and effectively complete the measure without giving the slightest notice thereof to the generality." it may fairly be said that the question in debate was entirely conceded in this remarkable paper, which was addressed by the states-general, the prince-stadholder, and the council of state to the government of utrecht. it should be observed, too, that while distinctly repudiating the intention of disputing the sovereignty of that province, they carefully abstain from using the word in relation to themselves, speaking only of the might and authority of the generality, the prince, and the council. there was now a pause in the public discussion. the soldiers were not disbanded, as the states of utrecht were less occupied with establishing the soundness of their theory than with securing its practical results. they knew very well, and the advocate knew very well, that the intention to force a national synod by a majority vote of the assembly of the states-general existed more strongly than ever, and they meant to resist it to the last. the attempt was in their opinion an audacious violation of the fundamental pact on which the confederacy was founded. its success would be to establish the sacerdotal power in triumph over the civil authority. during this period the advocate was resident in utrecht. for change of air, ostensibly at least, he had absented himself from the seat of government, and was during several weeks under the hands of his old friend and physician dr. saul. he was strictly advised to abstain altogether from political business, but he might as well have attempted to abstain from food and drink. gillis van ledenberg, secretary of the states of utrecht, visited him frequently. the proposition to enlist the waartgelders had been originally made in the assembly by its president, and warmly seconded by van ledenberg, who doubtless conferred afterwards with barneveld in person, but informally and at his lodgings. it was almost inevitable that this should be the case, nor did the advocate make much mystery as to the course of action which he deemed indispensable at this period. believing it possible that some sudden and desperate attempt might be made by evil disposed people, he agreed with the states of utrecht in the propriety of taking measures of precaution. they were resolved not to look quietly on while soldiers and rabble under guidance perhaps of violent contra-remonstrant preachers took possession of the churches and even of the city itself, as had already been done in several towns. the chief practical object of enlisting the six companies was that the city might be armed against popular tumults, and they feared that the ordinary military force might be withdrawn. when captain hartvelt, in his own name and that of the other officers of those companies, said that they were all resolved never to use their weapons against the stadholder or the states-general, he was answered that they would never be required to do so. they, however, made oath to serve against those who should seek to trouble the peace of the province of utrecht in ecclesiastical or political matters, and further against all enemies of the common country. at the same time it was deemed expedient to guard against a surprise of any kind and to keep watch and ward. "i cannot quite believe in the french companies," said the advocate in a private billet to ledenberg. "it would be extremely well that not only good watch should be kept at the city gates, but also that one might from above and below the river lek be assuredly advised from the nearest cities if any soldiers are coming up or down, and that the same might be done in regard to amersfoort." at the bottom of this letter, which was destined to become historical and will be afterwards referred to, the advocate wrote, as he not unfrequently did, upon his private notes, "when read, burn, and send me back the two enclosed letters." the letter lies in the archives unburned to this day, but, harmless as it looked, it was to serve as a nail in more than one coffin. in his confidential letters to trusted friends he complained of "great physical debility growing out of heavy sorrow," and described himself as entering upon his seventy-first year and no longer fit for hard political labour. the sincere grief, profound love of country, and desire that some remedy might be found for impending disaster, is stamped upon all his utterances whether official or secret. "the troubles growing out of the religious differences," he said, "are running into all sorts of extremities. it is feared that an attempt will be made against the laws of the land through extraordinary ways, and by popular tumults to take from the supreme authority of the respective provinces the right to govern clerical persons and regulate clerical disputes, and to place it at the disposition of ecclesiastics and of a national synod. "it is thought too that the soldiers will be forbidden to assist the civil supreme power and the government of cities in defending themselves from acts of violence which under pretext of religion will be attempted against the law and the commands of the magistrates. "this seems to conflict with the common law of the respective provinces, each of which from all times had right of sovereignty and supreme authority within its territory and specifically reserved it in all treaties and especially in that of the nearer union . . . . the provinces have always regulated clerical matters each for itself. the province of utrecht, which under the pretext of religion is now most troubled, made stipulations to this effect, when it took his excellency for governor, even more stringent than any others. as for holland, she never imagined that one could ever raise a question on the subject . . . . all good men ought to do their best to prevent the enemies to the welfare of these provinces from making profit out of our troubles." the whole matter he regarded as a struggle between the clergy and the civil power for mastery over the state, as an attempt to subject provincial autonomy to the central government purely in the interest of the priesthood of a particular sect. the remedy he fondly hoped for was moderation and union within the church itself. he could never imagine the necessity for this ferocious animosity not only between christians but between two branches of the reformed church. he could never be made to believe that the five points of the remonstrance had dug an abyss too deep and wide ever to be bridged between brethren lately of one faith as of one fatherland. he was unceasing in his prayers and appeals for "mutual toleration on the subject of predestination." perhaps the bitterness, almost amounting to frenzy, with which abstruse points of casuistry were then debated, and which converted differences of opinion upon metaphysical divinity into deadly hatred and thirst for blood, is already obsolete or on the road to become so. if so, then was barneveld in advance of his age, and it would have been better for the peace of the world and the progress of christianity if more of his contemporaries had placed themselves on his level. he was no theologian, but he believed himself to be a christian, and he certainly was a thoughtful and a humble one. he had not the arrogance to pierce behind the veil and assume to read the inscrutable thoughts of the omnipotent. it was a cruel fate that his humility upon subjects which he believed to be beyond the scope of human reason should have been tortured by his enemies into a crime, and that because he hoped for religious toleration he should be accused of treason to the commonwealth. "believe and cause others to believe," he said, "that i am and with the grace of god hope to continue an upright patriot as i have proved myself to be in these last forty-two years spent in the public service. in the matter of differential religious points i remain of the opinions which i have held for more than fifty years, and in which i hope to live and die, to wit, that a good christian man ought to believe that he is predestined to eternal salvation through god's grace, giving for reasons that he through god's grace has a firm belief that his salvation is founded purely on god's grace and the expiation of our sins through our saviour jesus christ, and that if he should fall into any sins his firm trust is that god will not let him perish in them, but mercifully turn him to repentance, so that he may continue in the same belief to the last." these expressions were contained in a letter to caron with the intention doubtless that they should be communicated to the king of great britain, and it is a curious illustration of the spirit of the age, this picture of the leading statesman of a great republic unfolding his religious convictions for private inspection by the monarch of an allied nation. more than anything else it exemplifies the close commixture of theology, politics, and diplomacy in that age, and especially in those two countries. formerly, as we have seen, the king considered a too curious fathoming of divine mysteries as highly reprehensible, particularly for the common people. although he knew more about them than any one else, he avowed that even his knowledge in this respect was not perfect. it was matter of deep regret with the advocate that his majesty had not held to his former positions, and that he had disowned his original letters. "i believe my sentiments thus expressed," he said, "to be in accordance with scripture, and i have always held to them without teasing my brains with the precise decrees of reprobation, foreknowledge, or the like, as matters above my comprehension. i have always counselled christian moderation. the states of holland have followed the spirit of his majesty's letters, but our antagonists have rejected them and with seditious talk, sermons, and the spreading of infamous libels have brought matters to their present condition. there have been excesses on the other side as well." he then made a slight, somewhat shadowy allusion to schemes known to be afloat for conferring the sovereignty upon maurice. we have seen that at former periods he had entertained this subject and discussed it privately with those who were not only friendly but devoted to the stadholder, and that he had arrived at the conclusion that it would not be for the interest of the prince to encourage the project. above all he was sternly opposed to the idea of attempting to compass it by secret intrigue. should such an arrangement be publicly discussed and legally completed, it would not meet with his unconditional opposition. "the lord god knows," he said, "whether underneath all these movements does not lie the design of the year , well known to you. as for me, believe that i am and by god's grace hope to remain, what i always was, an upright patriot, a defender of the true christian religion, of the public authority, and of all the power that has been and in future may be legally conferred upon his excellency. believe that all things said, written, or spread to the contrary are falsehoods and calumnies." he was still in utrecht, but about to leave for the hague, with health somewhat improved and in better spirits in regard to public matters. "although i have entered my seventy-first year," he said, "i trust still to be of some service to the commonwealth and to my friends . . . . don't consider an arrangement of our affairs desperate. i hope for better things." soon after his return he was waited upon one sunday evening, late in october--being obliged to keep his house on account of continued indisposition--by a certain solicitor named nordlingen and informed that the prince was about to make a sudden visit to leyden at four o'clock next morning. barneveld knew that the burgomasters and regents were holding a great banquet that night, and that many of them would probably have been indulging in potations too deep to leave them fit for serious business. the agitation of people's minds at that moment made the visit seem rather a critical one, as there would probably be a mob collected to see the stadholder, and he was anxious both in the interest of the prince and the regents and of both religious denominations that no painful incidents should occur if it was in his power to prevent them. he was aware that his son-in-law, cornelis van der myle, had been invited to the banquet, and that he was wont to carry his wine discreetly. he therefore requested nordlingen to proceed to leyden that night and seek an interview with van der myle without delay. by thus communicating the intelligence of the expected visit to one who, he felt sure, would do his best to provide for a respectful and suitable reception of the prince, notwithstanding the exhilarated condition in which the magistrates would probably find themselves, the advocate hoped to prevent any riot or tumultuous demonstration of any kind. at least he would act conformably to his duty and keep his conscience clear should disasters ensue. later in the night he learned that maurice was going not to leyden but to delft, and he accordingly despatched a special messenger to arrive before dawn at leyden in order to inform van der myle of this change in the prince's movements. nothing seemed simpler or more judicious than these precautions on the part of barneveld. they could not fail, however, to be tortured into sedition, conspiracy, and treason. towards the end of the year a meeting of the nobles and knights of holland under the leadership of barneveld was held to discuss the famous sharp resolution of th august and the letters and arguments advanced against it by the stadholder and the council of state. it was unanimously resolved by this body, in which they were subsequently followed by a large majority of the states of holland, to maintain that resolution and its consequences and to oppose the national synod. they further resolved that a legal provincial synod should be convoked by the states of holland and under their authority and supervision. the object of such synod should be to devise "some means of accommodation, mutual toleration, and christian settlement of differences in regard to the five points in question." in case such compromise should unfortunately not be arranged, then it was resolved to invite to the assembly two or three persons from france, as many from england, from germany, and from switzerland, to aid in the consultations. should a method of reconciliation and mutual toleration still remain undiscovered, then, in consideration that the whole christian world was interested in composing these dissensions, it was proposed that a "synodal assembly of all christendom," a protestant oecumenical council, should in some solemn manner be convoked. these resolutions and propositions were all brought forward by the advocate, and the draughts of them in his handwriting remain. they are the unimpeachable evidences of his earnest desire to put an end to these unhappy disputes and disorders in the only way which he considered constitutional. before the close of the year the states of holland, in accordance with the foregoing advice of the nobles, passed a resolution, the minutes of which were drawn up by the hand of the advocate, and in which they persisted in their opposition to the national synod. they declared by a large majority of votes that the assembly of the states-general without the unanimous consent of the provincial states were not competent according to the union of utrecht--the fundamental law of the general assembly--to regulate religious affairs, but that this right belonged to the separate provinces, each within its own domain. they further resolved that as they were bound by solemn oath to maintain the laws and liberties of holland, they could not surrender this right to the generality, nor allow it to be usurped by any one, but in order to settle the question of the five points, the only cause known to them of the present disturbances, they were content under: their own authority to convoke a provincial synod within three months, at their own cost, and to invite the respective provinces, as many of them as thought good, to send to this meeting a certain number of pious and learned theologians. it is difficult to see why the course thus unanimously proposed by the nobles of holland, under guidance of barneveld, and subsequently by a majority of the states of that province, would not have been as expedient as it was legal. but we are less concerned with that point now than with the illustrations afforded by these long buried documents of the patriotism and sagacity of a man than whom no human creature was ever more foully slandered. it will be constantly borne in mind that he regarded this religious controversy purely from a political, legal, and constitutional--and not from a theological-point of view. he believed that grave danger to the fatherland was lurking under this attempt, by the general government, to usurp the power of dictating the religious creed of all the provinces. especially he deplored the evil influence exerted by the king of england since his abandonment of the principles announced in his famous letter to the states in the year . all that the advocate struggled for was moderation and mutual toleration within the reformed church. he felt that a wider scheme of forbearance was impracticable. if a dream of general religious equality had ever floated before him or before any one in that age, he would have felt it to be a dream which would be a reality nowhere until centuries should have passed away. yet that moderation, patience, tolerance, and respect for written law paved the road to that wider and loftier region can scarcely be doubted. carleton, subservient to every changing theological whim of his master, was as vehement and as insolent now in enforcing the intolerant views of james as he had previously been in supporting the counsels to tolerance contained in the original letters of that monarch. the ambassador was often at the advocate's bed-side during his illness that summer, enforcing, instructing, denouncing, contradicting. he was never weary of fulfilling his duties of tuition, but the patient barneveld; haughty and overbearing as he was often described to be, rarely used a harsh or vindictive word regarding him in his letters. "the ambassador of france," he said, "has been heard before the assembly of the states-general, and has made warm appeals in favour of union and mutual toleration as his majesty of great britain so wisely did in his letters of . . . . if his majesty could only be induced to write fresh letters in similar tone, i should venture to hope better fruits from them than from this attempt to thrust a national synod upon our necks, which many of us hold to be contrary to law, reason, and the act of union." so long as it was possible to hope that the action of the states of holland would prevent such a catastrophe, he worked hard to direct them in what he deemed the right course. "our political and religious differences," he said, "stand between hope and fear." the hope was in the acceptance of the provincial synod--the fear lest the national synod should be carried by a minority of the cities of holland combining with a majority of the other provincial states. "this would be in violation," he said, "of the so-called religious peace, the act of union, the treaty with the duke of anjou, the negotiations of the states of utrecht, and with prince maurice in with cognizance of the states-general and those of holland for, the governorship of that province, the custom of the generality for the last thirty years according to which religious matters have always been left to the disposition of the states of each province . . . . carleton is strenuously urging this course in his majesty's name, and i fear that in the present state of our humours great troubles will be the result." the expulsion by an armed mob, in the past year, of a remonstrant preacher at oudewater, the overpowering of the magistracy and the forcing on of illegal elections in that and other cities, had given him and all earnest patriots grave cause for apprehension. they were dreading, said barneveld, a course of crimes similar to those which under the earl of leicester's government had afflicted leyden and utrecht. "efforts are incessant to make the remonstrants hateful," he said to caron, "but go forward resolutely and firmly in the conviction that our friends here are as animated in their opposition to the spanish dominion now and by god's grace will so remain as they have ever proved themselves to be, not only by words, but works. i fear that mr. carleton gives too much belief to the enviers of our peace and tranquillity under pretext of religion, but it is more from ignorance than malice." those who have followed the course of the advocate's correspondence, conversation, and actions, as thus far detailed, can judge of the gigantic nature of the calumny by which he was now assailed. that this man, into every fibre of whose nature was woven undying hostility to spain, as the great foe to national independence and religious liberty throughout the continent of europe, whose every effort, as we have seen, during all these years of nominal peace had been to organize a system of general european defence against the war now actually begun upon protestantism, should be accused of being a partisan of spain, a creature of spain, a pensioner of spain, was enough to make honest men pray that the earth might be swallowed up. if such idiotic calumnies could be believed, what patriot in the world could not be doubted? yet they were believed. barneveld was bought by spanish gold. he had received whole boxes full of spanish pistoles, straight from brussels! for his part in the truce negotiations he had received , ducats in one lump. "it was plain," said the greatest man in the country to another great man, "that barneveld and his party are on the road to spain." "then it were well to have proof of it," said the great man. "not yet time," was the reply. "we must flatten out a few of them first." prince maurice had told the princess-dowager the winter before ( th december ) that those dissensions would never be decided except by use of weapons; and he now mentioned to her that he had received information from brussels, which he in part believed, that the advocate was a stipendiary of spain. yet he had once said, to the same princess louise, of this stipendiary that "the services which the advocate had rendered to the house of nassau were so great that all the members of that house might well look upon him not as their friend but their father." councillor van maldere, president of the states of zealand, and a confidential friend of maurice, was going about the hague saying that "one must string up seven or eight remonstrants on the gallows; then there might be some improvement." as for arminius and uytenbogaert, people had long told each other and firmly believed it, and were amazed when any incredulity was expressed in regard to it, that they were in regular and intimate correspondence with the jesuits, that they had received large sums from rome, and that both had been promised cardinals' hats. that barneveld and his friend uytenbogaert were regular pensioners of spain admitted of no dispute whatever. "it was as true as the holy evangel." the ludicrous chatter had been passed over with absolute disdain by the persons attacked, but calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain. it proved to be in these cases. "you have the plague mark on your flesh, oh pope, oh pensioner," said one libeller. "there are letters safely preserved to make your process for you. look out for your head. many have sworn your death, for it is more than time that you were out of the world. we shall prove, oh great bribed one, that you had the , little ducats." the preacher uytenbogaert was also said to have had , ducats for his share. "go to brussels," said the pamphleteer; "it all stands clearly written out on the register with the names and surnames of all you great bribe-takers." these were choice morsels from the lampoon of the notary danckaerts. "we are tortured more and more with religious differences," wrote barneveld; "with acts of popular violence growing out of them the more continuously as they remain unpunished, and with ever increasing jealousies and suspicions. the factious libels become daily more numerous and more impudent, and no man comes undamaged from the field. i, as a reward for all my troubles, labours, and sorrows, have three double portions of them. i hope however to overcome all by god's grace and to defend my actions with all honourable men so long as right and reason have place in the world, as to which many begin to doubt. if his majesty had been pleased to stick to the letters of , we should never have got into these difficulties . . . . it were better in my opinion that carleton should be instructed to negotiate in the spirit of those epistles rather than to torment us with the national synod, which will do more harm than good." it is impossible not to notice the simplicity and patience with which the advocate, in the discharge of his duty as minister of foreign affairs, kept the leading envoys of the republic privately informed of events which were becoming day by day more dangerous to the public interests and his own safety. if ever a perfectly quiet conscience was revealed in the correspondence of a statesman, it was to be found in these letters. calmly writing to thank caron for some very satisfactory english beer which the ambassador had been sending him from london, he proceeded to speak again of the religious dissensions and their consequences. he sent him the letter and remonstrance which he had felt himself obliged to make, and which he had been urged by his ever warm and constant friend the widow of william the silent to make on the subject of "the seditious libels, full of lies and calumnies got up by conspiracy against him." these letters were never published, however, until years after he had been in his grave. "i know that you are displeased with the injustice done me," he said, "but i see no improvement. people are determined to force through the national synod. the two last ones did much harm. this will do ten times more, so intensely embittered are men's tempers against each other." again he deplored the king's departure from his letters of , by adherence to which almost all the troubles would have been spared. it is curious too to observe the contrast between public opinion in great britain, including its government, in regard to the constitution of the united provinces at that period of domestic dissensions and incipient civil war and the general impressions manifested in the same nation two centuries and a half later, on the outbreak of the slavery rebellion, as to the constitution of the united states. the states in arms against the general government on the other side of the atlantic were strangely but not disingenuously assumed to be sovereign and independent, and many statesmen and a leading portion of the public justified them in their attempt to shake off the central government as if it were but a board of agency established by treaty and terminable at pleasure of any one of among sovereigns and terminable at pleasure of any one of them. yet even a superficial glance at the written constitution of the republic showed that its main object was to convert what had been a confederacy into an incorporation; and that the very essence of its renewed political existence was an organic law laid down by a whole people in their primitive capacity in place of a league banding together a group of independent little corporations. the chief attributes of sovereignty--the rights of war and peace, of coinage, of holding armies and navies, of issuing bills of credit, of foreign relations, of regulating and taxing foreign commerce--having been taken from the separate states by the united people thereof and bestowed upon a government provided with a single executive head, with a supreme tribunal, with a popular house of representatives and a senate, and with power to deal directly with the life and property of every individual in the land, it was strange indeed that the feudal, and in america utterly unmeaning, word sovereign should have been thought an appropriate term for the different states which had fused themselves three-quarters of a century before into a union. when it is remembered too that the only dissolvent of this union was the intention to perpetuate human slavery, the logic seemed somewhat perverse by which the separate sovereignty of the states was deduced from the constitution of . on the other hand, the union of utrecht of was a league of petty sovereignties; a compact less binding and more fragile than the articles of union made almost exactly two hundred years later in america, and the worthlessness of which, after the strain of war was over, had been demonstrated in the dreary years immediately following the peace of . one after another certain netherland provinces had abjured their allegiance to spain, some of them afterwards relapsing under it, some having been conquered by the others, while one of them, holland, had for a long time borne the greater part of the expense and burthen of the war. "holland," said the advocate, "has brought almost all the provinces to their liberty. to receive laws from them or from their clerical people now is what our state cannot endure. it is against her laws and customs, in the enjoyment of which the other provinces and his excellency as governor of holland are bound to protect us." and as the preservation of chattel slavery in the one case seemed a legitimate ground for destroying a government which had as definite an existence as any government known to mankind, so the resolve to impose a single religious creed upon many millions of individuals was held by the king and government of great britain to be a substantial reason for imagining a central sovereignty which had never existed at all. this was still more surprising as the right to dispose of ecclesiastical affairs and persons had been expressly reserved by the separate provinces in perfectly plain language in the treaty of union. "if the king were better informed," said barneveld, "of our system and laws, we should have better hope than now. but one supposes through notorious error in foreign countries that the sovereignty stands with the states-general which is not the case, except in things which by the articles of closer union have been made common to all the provinces, while in other matters, as religion, justice, and polity, the sovereignty remains with each province, which foreigners seem unable to comprehend." early in june, carleton took his departure for england on leave of absence. he received a present from the states of florins, and went over in very ill-humour with barneveld. "mr. ambassador is much offended and prejudiced," said the advocate, "but i know that he will religiously carry out the orders of his majesty. i trust that his majesty can admit different sentiments on predestination and its consequences, and that in a kingdom where the supreme civil authority defends religion the system of the puritans will have no foothold." certainly james could not be accused of allowing the system of the puritans much foothold in england, but he had made the ingenious discovery that puritanism in holland was a very different thing from puritanism in the netherlands. etext editor's bookmarks: acts of violence which under pretext of religion adulation for inferiors whom they despise calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain created one child for damnation and another for salvation depths of credulity men in all ages can sink devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife furious mob set upon the house of rem bischop highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation in this he was much behind his age or before it logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed partisans wanted not accommodation but victory puritanism in holland was a very different thing from england seemed bent on self-destruction stand between hope and fear the evils resulting from a confederate system of government to stifle for ever the right of free enquiry the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. life and death of john of barneveld, v , chapter xvi. maurice revolutionizes the provinces--danckaert's libellous pamphlet --barneveld's appeal to the prince--barneveld'a remonstrance to the states--the stadholder at amsterdam--the treaty of truce nearly expired--king of spain and archduke albert--scheme for recovering the provinces--secret plot to make maurice sovereign. early in the year ( ) maurice set himself about revolutionizing the provinces on which he could not yet thoroughly rely. the town of nymegen since its recovery from the spaniards near the close of the preceding century had held its municipal government, as it were, at the option of the prince. during the war he had been, by the terms of surrender, empowered to appoint and to change its magistracy at will. no change had occurred for many years, but as the government had of late fallen into the hands of the barneveldians, and as maurice considered the truce to be a continuance of the war, he appeared suddenly, in the city at the head of a body of troops and surrounded by his lifeguard. summoning the whole board of magistrates into the townhouse, he gave them all notice to quit, disbanding them like a company of mutinous soldiery, and immediately afterwards appointed a fresh list of functionaries in their stead. this done, he proceeded to arnhem, where the states of gelderland were in session, appeared before that body, and made a brief announcement of the revolution which he had so succinctly effected in the most considerable town of their province. the assembly, which seems, like many other assemblies at precisely this epoch, to have had an extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence, made but little resistance to the extreme measures now undertaken by the stadholder, and not only highly applauded the subjugation of nymegen, but listened with sympathy to his arguments against the waartgelders and in favour of the synod. having accomplished so much by a very brief visit to gelderland, the prince proceeded, to overyssel, and had as little difficulty in bringing over the wavering minds of that province into orthodoxy and obedience. thus there remained but two provinces out of seven that were still "waartgeldered" and refused to be "synodized." it was rebellion against rebellion. maurice and his adherents accused the states' right party of mutiny against himself and the states-general. the states' right party accused the contra-remonstrants in the cities of mutiny against the lawful sovereignty of each province. the oath of the soldiery, since the foundation of the republic, had been to maintain obedience and fidelity to the states-general, the stadholder, and the province in which they were garrisoned, and at whose expense they were paid. it was impossible to harmonize such conflicting duties and doctrines. theory had done its best and its worst. the time was fast approaching, as it always must approach, when fact with its violent besom would brush away the fine-spun cobwebs which had been so long undisturbed. "i will grind the advocate and all his party into fine meal," said the prince on one occasion. a clever caricature of the time represented a pair of scales hung up in a great hall. in the one was a heap of parchments, gold chains, and magisterial robes; the whole bundle being marked the "holy right of each city." in the other lay a big square, solid, ironclasped volume, marked "institutes of calvin." each scale was respectively watched by gomarus and by arminius. the judges, gowned, furred, and ruffed, were looking decorously on, when suddenly the stadholder, in full military attire, was seen rushing into the apartment and flinging his sword into the scale with the institutes. the civic and legal trumpery was of course made to kick the beam. maurice had organized his campaign this year against the advocate and his party as deliberately as he had ever arranged the details of a series of battles and sieges against the spaniard. and he was proving himself as consummate master in political strife as in the great science of war. he no longer made any secret of his conviction that barneveld was a traitor to his country, bought with spanish gold. there was not the slightest proof for these suspicions, but he asserted them roundly. "the advocate is travelling straight to spain," he said to count cuylenborg. "but we will see who has got the longest purse." and as if it had been a part of the campaign, a prearranged diversion to the more direct and general assault on the entrenchments of the states' right party, a horrible personal onslaught was now made from many quarters upon the advocate. it was an age of pamphleteering, of venomous, virulent, unscrupulous libels. and never even in that age had there been anything to equal the savage attacks upon this great statesman. it moves the gall of an honest man, even after the lapse of two centuries and a half, to turn over those long forgotten pages and mark the depths to which political and theological party spirit could descend. that human creatures can assimilate themselves so closely to the reptile, and to the subtle devil within the reptile, when a party end is to be gained is enough to make the very name of man a term of reproach. day by day appeared pamphlets, each one more poisonous than its predecessor. there was hardly a crime that was not laid at the door of barneveld and all his kindred. the man who had borne a matchlock in early youth against the foreign tyrant in days when unsuccessful rebellion meant martyrdom and torture; who had successfully guided the councils of the infant commonwealth at a period when most of his accusers were in their cradles, and when mistake was ruin to the republic; he on whose strong arm the father of his country had leaned for support; the man who had organized a political system out of chaos; who had laid down the internal laws, negotiated the great indispensable alliances, directed the complicated foreign policy, established the system of national defence, presided over the successful financial administration of a state struggling out of mutiny into national existence; who had rocked the republic in its cradle and ever borne her in his heart; who had made her name beloved at home and honoured and dreaded abroad; who had been the first, when the great taciturn had at last fallen a victim to the murderous tyrant of spain, to place the youthful maurice in his father's place, and to inspire the whole country with sublime courage to persist rather than falter in purpose after so deadly a blow; who was as truly the founder of the republic as william had been the author of its independence,--was now denounced as a traitor, a pope, a tyrant, a venal hucksterer of his country's liberties. his family name, which had long been an ancient and knightly one, was defiled and its nobility disputed; his father and mother, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, accused of every imaginable and unimaginable crime, of murder, incest, robbery, bastardy, fraud, forgery, blasphemy. he had received waggon-loads of spanish pistoles; he had been paid , ducats by spain for negotiating the truce; he was in secret treaty with archduke albert to bring , spanish mercenaries across the border to defeat the machinations of prince maurice, destroy his life, or drive him from the country; all these foul and bitter charges and a thousand similar ones were rained almost daily upon that grey head. one day the loose sheets of a more than commonly libellous pamphlet were picked up in the streets of the hague and placed in the advocate's hands. it was the work of the drunken notary danckaerts already mentioned, then resident in amsterdam, and among the papers thus found was a list of wealthy merchants of that city who had contributed to the expense of its publication. the opposition of barneveld to the west india corporation could never be forgiven. the advocate was notified in this production that he was soon to be summoned to answer for his crimes. the country was weary of him, he was told, and his life was forfeited. stung at last beyond endurance by the persistent malice of his enemies, he came before the states of holland for redress. upon his remonstrance the author of this vile libel was summoned to answer before the upper tribunal at the hague for his crime. the city of amsterdam covered him with the shield 'de non evocando,' which had so often in cases of less consequence proved of no protective value, and the notary was never punished, but on the contrary after a brief lapse of time rewarded as for a meritorious action. meantime, the states of holland, by formal act, took the name and honour of barneveld under their immediate protection as a treasure belonging specially to themselves. heavy penalties were denounced upon the authors and printers of these libellous attacks, and large rewards offered for their detection. nothing came, however, of such measures. on the th april the advocate addressed a frank, dignified, and conciliatory letter to the prince. the rapid progress of calumny against him had at last alarmed even his steadfast soul, and he thought it best to make a last appeal to the justice and to the clear intellect of william the silent's son. "gracious prince," he said, "i observe to my greatest sorrow an entire estrangement of your excellency from me, and i fear lest what was said six months since by certain clerical persons and afterwards by some politicians concerning your dissatisfaction with me, which until now i have not been able to believe, must be true. i declare nevertheless with a sincere heart to have never willingly given cause for any such feeling; having always been your very faithful servant and with god's help hoping as such to die. ten years ago during the negotiations for the truce i clearly observed the beginning of this estrangement, but your excellency will be graciously pleased to remember that i declared to you at that time my upright and sincere intention in these negotiations to promote the service of the country and the interests of your excellency, and that i nevertheless offered at the time not only to resign all my functions but to leave the country rather than remain in office and in the country to the dissatisfaction of your excellency." he then rapidly reviewed the causes which had produced the alienation of which he complained and the melancholy divisions caused by the want of mutual religious toleration in the provinces; spoke of his efforts to foster a spirit of conciliation on the dread subject of predestination, and referred to the letter of the king of great britain deprecating discussion and schism on this subject, and urging that those favourable to the views of the remonstrants ought not to be persecuted. referring to the intimate relations which uytenbogaert had so long enjoyed with the prince, the advocate alluded to the difficulty he had in believing that his excellency intended to act in opposition to the efforts of the states of holland in the cause of mutual toleration, to the manifest detriment of the country and of many of its best and truest patriots and the greater number of the magistrates in all the cities. he reminded the prince that all attempts to accommodate these fearful quarrels had been frustrated, and that on his departure the previous year to utrecht on account of his health he had again offered to resign all his offices and to leave holland altogether rather than find himself in perpetual opposition to his excellency. "i begged you in such case," he said, "to lend your hand to the procuring for me an honourable discharge from my lords the states, but your excellency declared that you could in no wise approve such a step and gave me hope that some means of accommodating the dissensions would yet be proposed." "i went then to vianen, being much indisposed; thence i repaired to utrecht to consult my old friend doctor saulo saul, in whose hands i remained six weeks, not being able, as i hoped, to pass my seventieth birthday on the th september last in my birthplace, the city of amersfoort. all this time i heard not one single word or proposal of accommodation. on the contrary it was determined that by a majority vote, a thing never heard of before, it was intended against the solemn resolves of the states of holland, of utrecht, and of overyssel to bring these religious differences before the assembly of my lords the states-general, a proceeding directly in the teeth of the act of union and other treaties, and before a synod which people called national, and that meantime every effort was making to discredit all those who stood up for the laws of these provinces and to make them odious and despicable in the eyes of the common people. "especially it was i that was thus made the object of hatred and contempt in their eyes. hundreds of lies and calumnies, circulated in the form of libels, seditious pamphlets, and lampoons, compelled me to return from utrecht to the hague. since that time i have repeatedly offered my services to your excellency for the promotion of mutual accommodation and reconciliation of differences, but without success." he then alluded to the publication with which the country was ringing, 'the necessary and living discourse of a spanish counsellor', and which was attributed to his former confidential friend, now become his deadliest foe, ex-ambassador francis aerssens, and warned the prince that if he chose, which god forbid, to follow the advice of that seditious libel, nothing but ruin to the beloved fatherland and its lovers, to the princely house of orange-nassau and to the christian religion could be the issue. "the spanish government could desire no better counsel," he said, "than this which these fellows give you; to encourage distrust and estrangement between your excellency and the nobles, the cities, and the magistrates of the land and to propose high and haughty imaginings which are easy enough to write, but most difficult to practise, and which can only enure to the advantage of spain. therefore most respectfully i beg your excellency not to believe these fellows, but to reject their counsels . . . . among them are many malignant hypocrites and ambitious men who are seeking their own profit in these changes of government--many utterly ragged and beggarly fellows and many infamous traitors coming from the provinces which have remained under the dominion of the spaniard, and who are filled with revenge, envy, and jealousy at the greater prosperity and bloom of these independent states than they find at home. "i fear," he said in conclusion, "that i have troubled your excellency too long, but to the fulfilment of my duty and discharge of my conscience i could not be more brief. it saddens me deeply that in recompense for my long and manifold services i am attacked by so many calumnious, lying, seditious, and fraudulent libels, and that these indecencies find their pretext and their food in the evil disposition of your excellency towards me. and although for one-and-thirty years long i have been able to live down such things with silence, well-doing, and truth, still do i now find myself compelled in this my advanced old age and infirmity to make some utterances in defence of myself and those belonging to me, however much against my heart and inclinations." he ended by enclosing a copy of the solemn state paper which he was about to lay before the states of holland in defence of his honour, and subscribed himself the lifelong and faithful servant of the prince. the remonstrance to the states contained a summary review of the political events of his life, which was indeed nothing more nor less than the history of his country and almost of europe itself during that period, broadly and vividly sketched with the hand of a master. it was published at once and strengthened the affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies. it is not necessary to our purpose to reproduce or even analyse the document, the main facts and opinions contained in it being already familiar to the reader. the frankness however with which, in reply to the charges so profusely brought against him of having grown rich by extortion, treason, and corruption, of having gorged himself with plunder at home and bribery from the enemy, of being the great pensioner of europe and the marshal d'ancre of the netherlands--he alluded to the exact condition of his private affairs and the growth and sources of his revenue, giving, as it were, a kind of schedule of his property, has in it something half humorous, half touching in its simplicity. he set forth the very slender salaries attached to his high offices of advocate of holland, keeper of the seals, and other functions. he answered the charge that he always had at his disposition , florins to bribe foreign agents withal by saying that his whole allowance for extraordinary expenses and trouble in maintaining his diplomatic and internal correspondence was exactly florins yearly. he alluded to the slanders circulated as to his wealth and its sources by those who envied him for his position and hated him for his services. "but i beg you to believe, my lords," he continued, "that my property is neither so great nor so small as some people represent it to be. "in the year ' i married my wife," he said. "i was pleased with her person. i was likewise pleased with the dowry which was promptly paid over to me, with firm expectation of increase and betterment . . . . i ac knowledge that forty-three years ago my wife and myself had got together so much of real and personal property that we could live honourably upon it. i had at that time as good pay and practice as any advocate in the courts which brought me in a good florins a year; there being but eight advocates practising at the time, of whom i was certainly not the one least employed. in the beginning of the year ' i came into the service of the city of rotterdam as 'pensionary. upon my salary from that town i was enabled to support my family, having then but two children. now i can clearly prove that between the years and inclusive i have inherited in my own right or that of my wife, from our relatives, for ourselves and our children by lawful succession, more than holland morgens of land (about acres), more than florins yearly of redeemable rents, a good house in the city of delft, some houses in the open country, and several thousand florins in ready money. i have likewise reclaimed in the course of the past forty years out of the water and swamps by dyking more than an equal number of acres to those inherited, and have bought and sold property during the same period to the value of , florins; having sometimes bought , florins' worth and sold , of it for , , and so on." it was evident that the thrifty advocate during his long life had understood how to turn over his money, and it was not necessary to imagine "waggon-loads of spanish pistoles" and bribes on a gigantic scale from the hereditary enemy in order to account for a reasonable opulence on his part. "i have had nothing to do with trade," he continued, "it having been the custom of my ancestors to risk no money except where the plough goes. in the great east india company however, which with four years of hard work, public and private, i have helped establish, in order to inflict damage on the spaniards and portuguese, i have adventured somewhat more than florins . . . . now even if my condition be reasonably good, i think no one has reason to envy me. nevertheless i have said it in your lordships' assembly, and i repeat it solemnly on this occasion, that i have pondered the state of my affairs during my recent illness and found that in order to leave my children unencumbered estates i must sell property to the value of , or , florins. this i would rather do than leave the charge to my children. that i should have got thus behindhand through bad management, i beg your highnesses not to believe. but i have inherited, with the succession of four persons whose only heir i was and with that of others to whom i was co-heir, many burthens as well. i have bought property with encumbrances, and i have dyked and bettered several estates with borrowed money. now should it please your lordships to institute a census and valuation of the property of your subjects, i for one should be very well pleased. for i know full well that those who in the estimates of capital in the year rated themselves at , or , florins now may boast of having twice as much property as i have. yet in that year out of patriotism i placed myself on the list of those liable for the very highest contributions, being assessed on a property of , florins." the advocate alluded with haughty contempt to the notorious lies circulated by his libellers in regard to his lineage, as if the vast services and unquestioned abilities of such a statesman would not have illustrated the obscurest origin. but as he happened to be of ancient and honourable descent, he chose to vindicate his position in that regard. "i was born in the city of amersfoort," he said, "by the father's side an oldenbarneveld; an old and noble race, from generation to generation steadfast and true; who have been duly summoned for many hundred years to the assembly of the nobles of their province as they are to this day. by my mother's side i am sprung from the ancient and knightly family of amersfoort, which for three or four hundred years has been known as foremost among the nobles of utrecht in all state affairs and as landed proprietors." it is only for the sake of opening these domestic and private lights upon an historical character whose life was so pre-eminently and almost exclusively a public one that we have drawn some attention to this stately defence made by the advocate of his birth, life, and services to the state. the public portions of the state paper belong exclusively to history, and have already been sufficiently detailed. the letter to prince maurice was delivered into his hands by cornelis van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld. no reply to it was ever sent, but several days afterwards the stadholder called from his open window to van der myle, who happened to be passing by. he then informed him that he neither admitted the premises nor the conclusion of the advocate's letter, saying that many things set down in it were false. he furthermore told him a story of a certain old man who, having in his youth invented many things and told them often for truth, believed them when he came to old age to be actually true and was ever ready to stake his salvation upon them. whereupon he shut the window and left van der myle to make such application of the parable as he thought proper, vouchsafing no further answer to barneveld's communication. dudley carleton related the anecdote to his government with much glee, but it may be doubted whether this bold way of giving the lie to a venerable statesman through his son-in-law would have been accounted as triumphant argumentation anywhere out of a barrack. as for the remonstrance to the states of holland, although most respectfully received in that assembly except by the five opposition cities, its immediate effect on the public was to bring down a fresh "snow storm"--to use the expression of a contemporary--of pamphlets, libels, caricatures, and broadsheets upon the head of the advocate. in every bookseller's and print shop window in all the cities of the country, the fallen statesman was represented in all possible ludicrous, contemptible, and hateful shapes, while hags and blind beggars about the streets screeched filthy and cursing ballads against him, even at his very doors. the effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny has rarely been more strikingly illustrated than in the case of this statesman. blackened daily all over by a thousand trowels, the purest and noblest character must have been defiled, and it is no wonder that the incrustation upon the advocate's fame should have lasted for two centuries and a half. it may perhaps endure for as many more: not even the vile marshal d'ancre, who had so recently perished, was more the mark of obloquy in a country which he had dishonoured, flouted, and picked to the bone than was barneveld in a commonwealth which he had almost created and had served faithfully from youth to old age. it was even the fashion to compare him with concini in order to heighten the wrath of the public, as if any parallel between the ignoble, foreign paramour of a stupid and sensual queen, and the great statesman, patriot, and jurist of whom civilization will be always proud, could ever enter any but an idiot's brain. meantime the stadholder, who had so successfully handled the assembly of gelderland and overyssel, now sailed across the zuiderzee from kampen to amsterdam. on his approach to the stately northern venice, standing full of life and commercial bustle upon its vast submerged forest of norwegian pines, he was met by a fleet of yachts and escorted through the water gates of the into the city. here an immense assemblage of vessels of every class, from the humble gondola to the bulky east indianian and the first-rate ship of war, gaily bannered with the orange colours and thronged from deck to topmast by enthusiastic multitudes, was waiting to receive their beloved stadholder. a deafening cannonade saluted him on his approach. the prince was escorted to the square or dam, where on a high scaffolding covered with blue velvet in front of the stately mediaeval town-hall the burgomasters and board of magistrates in their robes of office were waiting to receive him. the strains of that most inspiriting and suggestive of national melodies, the 'wilhelmus van nassouwen,' rang through the air, and when they were silent, the chief magistrate poured forth a very eloquent and tedious oration, and concluded by presenting him with a large orange in solid gold; maurice having succeeded to the principality a few months before on the death of his half-brother philip william. the "blooming in love," as one of the chambers of "rhetoric" in which the hard-handed but half-artistic mechanics and shopkeepers of the netherlands loved to disport themselves was called, then exhibited upon an opposite scaffold a magnificent representation of jupiter astride upon an eagle and banding down to the stadholder as if from the clouds that same principality. nothing could be neater or more mythological. the prince and his escort, sitting in the windows of the town-hall, the square beneath being covered with or burgher militia in full uniform, with orange plumes in their hats and orange scarves on their breasts, saw still other sights. a gorgeous procession set forth by the "netherlandish academy," another chamber of rhetoric, and filled with those emblematic impersonations so dear to the hearts of netherlanders, had been sweeping through all the canals and along the splendid quays of the city. the maid of holland, twenty feet high, led the van, followed by the counterfeit presentment of each of her six sisters. an orange tree full of flowers and fruit was conspicuous in one barge, while in another, strangely and lugubriously enough, lay the murdered william the silent in the arms of his wife and surrounded by his weeping sons and daughters all attired in white satin. in the evening the netherland academy, to improve the general hilarity, and as if believing exhibitions of murder the most appropriate means of welcoming the prince, invited him to a scenic representation of the assassination of count florence v. of holland by gerrit van velsen and other nobles. there seemed no especial reason for the selection, unless perhaps the local one; one of the perpetrators of this crime against an ancient predecessor of william the silent in the sovereignty of holland having been a former lord proprietor of amsterdam and the adjacent territories, gysbrecht van amatel. maurice returned to the hague. five of the seven provinces were entirely his own. utrecht too was already wavering, while there could be no doubt of the warm allegiance to himself of the important commercial metropolis of holland, the only province in which barneveld's influence was still paramount. owing to the watchfulness and distrust of barneveld, which had never faltered, spain had not secured the entire control of the disputed duchies, but she had at least secured the head of a venerated saint. "the bargain is completed for the head of the glorious saint lawrence, which you know i so much desire," wrote philip triumphantly to the archduke albert. he had, however, not got it for nothing. the abbot of glamart in julich, then in possession of that treasure, had stipulated before delivering it that if at any time the heretics or other enemies should destroy the monastery his majesty would establish them in spanish flanders and give them the same revenues as they now enjoyed in julich. count herman van den berg was to give a guarantee to that effect. meantime the long controversy in the duchies having tacitly come to a standstill upon the basis of 'uti possidetis,' the spanish government had leisure in the midst of their preparation for the general crusade upon european heresy to observe and enjoy the internal religious dissensions in their revolted provinces. although they had concluded the convention with them as with countries over which they had no pretensions, they had never at heart allowed more virtue to the conjunction "as," which really contained the essence of the treaty, than grammatically belonged to it. spain still chose to regard the independence of the seven provinces as a pleasant fiction to be dispelled when, the truce having expired by its own limitation, she should resume, as she fully meant to do, her sovereignty over all the seventeen netherlands, the united as well as the obedient. thus at any rate the question of state rights or central sovereignty would be settled by a very summary process. the spanish ambassador was wroth, as may well be supposed, when the agent of the rebel provinces received in london the rank, title, and recognition of ambassador. gondemar at least refused to acknowledge noel de caron as his diplomatic equal or even as his colleague, and was vehement in his protestations on the subject. but james, much as he dreaded the spanish envoy and fawned upon his master, was not besotted enough to comply with these demands at the expense of his most powerful ally, the republic of the netherlands. the spanish king however declared his ambassador's proceedings to be in exact accordance with his instructions. he was sorry, he said, if the affair had caused discontent to the king of great britain; he intended in all respects to maintain the treaty of truce of which his majesty had been one of the guarantors, but as that treaty had but a few more years to run, after which he should be reinstated in his former right of sovereignty over all the netherlands, he entirely justified the conduct of count gondemar. it may well be conceived that, as the years passed by, as the period of the truce grew nearer and the religious disputes became every day more envenomed, the government at madrid should look on the tumultuous scene with saturnine satisfaction. there was little doubt now, they thought, that the provinces, sick of their rebellion and that fancied independence which had led them into a whirlpool of political and religious misery, and convinced of their incompetence to govern themselves, would be only too happy to seek the forgiving arms of their lawful sovereign. above all they must have learned that their great heresy had carried its chastisement with it, that within something they called a reformed church other heresies had been developed which demanded condign punishment at the hands of that new church, and that there could be neither rest for them in this world nor salvation in the next except by returning to the bosom of their ancient mother. now was the time, so it was thought, to throw forward a strong force of jesuits as skirmishers into the provinces by whom the way would be opened for the reconquest of the whole territory. "by the advices coming to us continually from thence," wrote the king of spain to archduke albert, "we understand that the disquiets and differences continue in holland on matters relating to their sects, and that from this has resulted the conversion of many to the catholic religion. so it has been taken into consideration whether it would not be expedient that some fathers of the company of jesuits be sent secretly from rome to holland, who should negotiate concerning the conversion of that people. before taking a resolution, i have thought best to give an account of this matter to your highness. i should be glad if you would inform me what priests are going to holland, what fruits they yield, and what can be done for the continuance of their labours. please to advise me very particularly together with any suggestions that may occur to you in this matter." the archduke, who was nearer the scene, was not so sure that the old religion was making such progress as his royal nephew or those who spoke in his name believed. at any rate, if it were not rapidly gaining ground, it would be neither for want of discord among the protestants nor for lack of jesuits to profit by it. "i do not understand," said he in reply, "nor is it generally considered certain that from the differences and disturbances that the hollanders are having among themselves there has resulted the conversion of any of them to our blessed catholic faith, because their disputes are of certain points concerning which there are different opinions within their sect. there has always been a goodly number of priests here, the greater part of whom belong to the company. they are very diligent and fervent, and the catholics derive much comfort from them. to send more of them would do more harm than good. it might be found out, and then they would perhaps be driven out of holland or even chastised. so it seems better to leave things as they are for the present." the spanish government was not discouraged however, but was pricking up its ears anew at strange communications it was receiving from the very bosom of the council of state in the netherlands. this body, as will be remembered, had been much opposed to barneveld and to the policy pursued under his leadership by the states of holland. some of its members were secretly catholic and still more secretly disposed to effect a revolution in the government, the object of which should be to fuse the united provinces with the obedient netherlands in a single independent monarchy to be placed under the sceptre of the son of philip iii. a paper containing the outlines of this scheme had been sent to spain, and the king at once forwarded it in cipher to the archduke at brussels for his opinion and co-operation. "you will see," he said, "the plan which a certain person zealous for the public good has proposed for reducing the netherlanders to my obedience. . . . . you will please advise with count frederic van den berg and let me know with much particularity and profound secrecy what is thought, what is occurring, and the form in which this matter ought to be negotiated, and the proper way to make it march." unquestionably the paper was of grave importance. it informed the king of spain that some principal personages in the united netherlands, members of the council of state, were of opinion that if his majesty or archduke albert should propose peace, it could be accomplished at that moment more easily than ever before. they had arrived at the conviction that no assistance was to be obtained from the king of france, who was too much weakened by tumults and sedition at home, while nothing good could be expected from the king of england. the greater part of the province of gelderland, they said, with all friesland, utrecht, groningen, and overyssel were inclined to a permanent peace. being all of them frontier provinces, they were constantly exposed to the brunt of hostilities. besides this, the war expenses alone would now be more than , , florins a year. thus the people were kept perpetually harassed, and although evil-intentioned persons approved these burthens under the pretence that such heavy taxation served to free them from the tyranny of spain, those of sense and quality reproved them and knew the contrary to be true. "many here know," continued these traitors in the heart of the state council, "how good it would be for the people of the netherlands to have a prince, and those having this desire being on the frontier are determined to accept the son of your majesty for their ruler." the conditions of the proposed arrangement were to be that the prince with his successors who were thus to possess all the netherlands were to be independent sovereigns not subject in any way to the crown of spain, and that the great governments and dignities of the country were to remain in the hands then holding them. this last condition was obviously inserted in the plan for the special benefit of prince maurice and count lewis, although there is not an atom of evidence that they had ever heard of the intrigue or doubt that, if they had, they would have signally chastised its guilty authors. it was further stated that the catholics having in each town a church and free exercise of their religion would soon be in a great majority. thus the political and religious counter-revolution would be triumphantly accomplished. it was proposed that the management of the business should be entrusted to some gentleman of the country possessing property there who "under pretext of the public good should make people comprehend what a great thing it would be if they could obtain this favour from the spanish king, thus extricating themselves from so many calamities and miseries, and obtaining free traffic and a prince of their own." it would be necessary for the king and archduke to write many letters and promise great rewards to persons who might otherwise embarrass the good work. the plot was an ingenious one. there seemed in the opinion of these conspirators in the state council but one great obstacle to its success. it should be kept absolutely concealed from the states of holland. the great stipendiary of spain, john of barneveld, whose coffers were filled with spanish pistoles, whose name and surname might be read by all men in the account-books at brussels heading the register of mighty bribe-takers, the man who was howled at in a thousand lampoons as a traitor ever ready to sell his country, whom even prince maurice "partly believed" to be the pensionary of philip, must not hear a whisper of this scheme to restore the republic to spanish control and place it under the sceptre of a spanish prince. the states of holland at that moment and so long as he was a member of the body were barneveld and barneveld only; thinking his thoughts, speaking with his tongue, writing with his pen. of this neither friend nor foe ever expressed a doubt. indeed it was one of the staple accusations against him. yet this paper in which the spanish king in confidential cipher and profound secrecy communicated to archduke albert his hopes and his schemes for recovering the revolted provinces as a kingdom for his son contained these words of caution. "the states of holland and zealand will be opposed to the plan," it said. "if the treaty come to the knowledge of the states and council of holland before it has been acted upon by the five frontier provinces the whole plan will be demolished." such was the opinion entertained by philip himself of the man who was supposed to be his stipendiary. i am not aware that this paper has ever been alluded to in any document or treatise private or public from the day of its date to this hour. it certainly has never been published, but it lies deciphered in the archives of the kingdom at brussels, and is alone sufficient to put to shame the slanderers of the advocate's loyalty. yet let it be remembered that in this very summer exactly at the moment when these intrigues were going on between the king of spain and the class of men most opposed to barneveld, the accusations against his fidelity were loudest and rifest. before the stadholder had so suddenly slipped down to brielle in order to secure that important stronghold for the contra-remonstrant party, reports had been carefully strewn among the people that the advocate was about to deliver that place and other fortresses to spain. brielle, flushing, rammekens, the very cautionary towns and keys to the country which he had so recently and in such masterly manner delivered from the grasp of the hereditary ally he was now about to surrender to the ancient enemy. the spaniards were already on the sea, it was said. had it not been for his excellency's watchfulness and promptitude, they would already under guidance of barneveld and his crew have mastered the city of brielle. flushing too through barneveld's advice and connivance was open at a particular point, in order that the spaniards, who had their eye upon it, might conveniently enter and take possession of the place. the air was full of wild rumours to this effect, and already the humbler classes who sided with the stadholder saw in him the saviour of the country from the treason of the advocate and the renewed tyranny of spain. the prince made no such pretence, but simply took possession of the fortress in order to be beforehand with the waartgelders. the contra-remonstrants in brielle had desired that "men should see who had the hardest fists," and it would certainly have been difficult to find harder ones than those of the hero of nieuwpoort. besides the jesuits coming in so skilfully to triumph over the warring sects of calvinists, there were other engineers on whom the spanish government relied to effect the reconquest of the netherlands. especially it was an object to wreak vengeance on holland, that head and front of the revolt, both for its persistence in rebellion and for the immense prosperity and progress by which that rebellion had been rewarded. holland had grown fat and strong, while the obedient netherlands were withered to the marrow of their bones. but there was a practical person then resident in spain to whom the netherlands were well known, to whom indeed everything was well known, who had laid before the king a magnificent scheme for destroying the commerce and with it the very existence of holland to the great advantage of the spanish finances and of the spanish netherlands. philip of course laid it before the archduke as usual, that he might ponder it well and afterwards, if approved, direct its execution. the practical person set forth in an elaborate memoir that the hollanders were making rapid progress in commerce, arts, and manufactures, while the obedient provinces were sinking as swiftly into decay. the spanish netherlands were almost entirely shut off from the sea, the rivers scheldt and meuse being hardly navigable for them on account of the control of those waters by holland. the dutch were attracting to their dominions all artisans, navigators, and traders. despising all other nations and giving them the law, they had ruined the obedient provinces. ostend, nieuwpoort, dunkerk were wasting away, and ought to be restored. "i have profoundly studied forty years long the subjects of commerce and navigation," said the practical person, "and i have succeeded in penetrating the secrets and acquiring, as it were, universal knowledge--let me not be suspected of boasting--of the whole discovered world and of the ocean. i have been assisted by study of the best works of geography and history, by my own labours, and by those of my late father, a man of illustrious genius and heroical conceptions and very zealous in the catholic faith." the modest and practical son of an illustrious but anonymous father, then coming to the point, said it would be the easiest thing in the world to direct the course of the scheldt into an entirely new channel through spanish flanders to the sea. thus the dutch ports and forts which had been constructed with such magnificence and at such vast expense would be left high and dry; the spaniards would build new ones in flanders, and thus control the whole navigation and deprive the hollanders of that empire of the sea which they now so proudly arrogated. this scheme was much simpler to carry out than the vulgar might suppose, and, when accomplished, it would destroy the commerce, navigation, and fisheries of the hollanders, throwing it all into the hands of the archdukes. this would cause such ruin, poverty, and tumults everywhere that all would be changed. the republic of the united states would annihilate itself and fall to pieces; the religious dissensions, the war of one sect with another, and the jealousy of the house of nassau, suspected of plans hostile to popular liberties, finishing the work of destruction. "then the republic," said the man of universal science, warming at sight of the picture he was painting, "laden with debt and steeped in poverty, will fall to the ground of its own weight, and thus debilitated will crawl humbly to place itself in the paternal hands of the illustrious house of austria." it would be better, he thought, to set about the work, before the expiration of the truce. at any rate, the preparation for it, or the mere threat of it, would ensure a renewal of that treaty on juster terms. it was most important too to begin at once the construction of a port on the coast of flanders, looking to the north. there was a position, he said, without naming it, in which whole navies could ride in safety, secure from all tempests, beyond the reach of the hollanders, open at all times to traffic to and from england, france, spain, norway, sweden, russia--a perfectly free commerce, beyond the reach of any rights or duties claimed or levied by the insolent republic. in this port would assemble all the navigators of the country, and it would become in time of war a terror to the hollanders, english, and all northern peoples. in order to attract, protect, and preserve these navigators and this commerce, many great public edifices must be built, together with splendid streets of houses and impregnable fortifications. it should be a walled and stately city, and its name should be philipopolis. if these simple projects, so easy of execution, pleased his majesty, the practical person was ready to explain them in all their details. his majesty was enchanted with the glowing picture, but before quite deciding on carrying the scheme into execution thought it best to consult the archduke. the reply of albert has not been preserved. it was probably not enthusiastic, and the man who without boasting had declared himself to know everything was never commissioned to convert his schemes into realities. that magnificent walled city, philipopolis, with its gorgeous streets and bristling fortresses, remained unbuilt, the scheldt has placidly flowed through its old channel to the sea from that day to this, and the republic remained in possession of the unexampled foreign trade with which rebellion had enriched it. these various intrigues and projects show plainly enough however the encouragement given to the enemies of the united provinces and of protestantism everywhere by these disastrous internal dissensions. but yesterday and the republic led by barneveld in council and maurice of nassau in the field stood at the head of the great army of resistance to the general crusade organized by spain and rome against all unbelievers. and now that the war was absolutely beginning in bohemia, the republic was falling upon its own sword instead of smiting with it the universal foe. it was not the king of spain alone that cast longing eyes on the fair territory of that commonwealth which the unparalleled tyranny of his father had driven to renounce his sceptre. both in the netherlands and france, among the extreme orthodox party, there were secret schemes, to which maurice was not privy, to raise maurice to the sovereignty of the provinces. other conspirators with a wider scope and more treasonable design were disposed to surrender their country to the dominion of france, stipulating of course large rewards and offices for themselves and the vice-royalty of what should then be the french netherlands to maurice. the schemes were wild enough perhaps, but their very existence, which is undoubted, is another proof, if more proof were wanted, of the lamentable tendency, in times of civil and religious dissension, of political passion to burn out the very first principles of patriotism. it is also important, on account of the direct influence exerted by these intrigues upon subsequent events of the gravest character, to throw a beam of light on matters which were thought to have been shrouded for ever in impenetrable darkness. langerac, the states' ambassador in paris, was the very reverse of his predecessor, the wily, unscrupulous, and accomplished francis aerssens. the envoys of the republic were rarely dull, but langerac was a simpleton. they were renowned for political experience, skill, familiarity with foreign languages, knowledge of literature, history, and public law; but he was ignorant, spoke french very imperfectly, at a court where not a human being could address him in his own tongue, had never been employed in diplomacy or in high office of any kind, and could carry but small personal weight at a post where of all others the representative of the great republic should have commanded deference both for his own qualities and for the majesty of his government. at a period when france was left without a master or a guide the dutch ambassador, under a becoming show of profound respect, might really have governed the country so far as regarded at least the all important relations which bound the two nations together. but langerac was a mere picker-up of trifles, a newsmonger who wrote a despatch to-day with information which a despatch was written on the morrow to contradict, while in itself conveying additional intelligence absolutely certain to be falsified soon afterwards. the emperor of germany had gone mad; prince maurice had been assassinated in the hague, a fact which his correspondents, the states-general, might be supposed already to know, if it were one; there had been a revolution in the royal bed-chamber; the spanish cook of the young queen had arrived from madrid; the duke of nevers was behaving very oddly at vienna; such communications, and others equally startling, were the staple of his correspondence. still he was honest enough, very mild, perfectly docile to barneveld, dependent upon his guidance, and fervently attached to that statesman so long as his wheel was going up the hill. moreover, his industry in obtaining information and his passion for imparting it made it probable that nothing very momentous would be neglected should it be laid before him, but that his masters, and especially the advocate, would be enabled to judge for themselves as to the attention due to it. "with this you will be apprised of some very high and weighty matters," he wrote privately and in cipher to barneveld, "which you will make use of according to your great wisdom and forethought for the country's service." he requested that the matter might also be confided to m. van der myle, that he might assist his father-in-law, so overburdened with business, in the task of deciphering the communication. he then stated that he had been "very earnestly informed three days before by m. du agean"--member of the privy council of france--"that it had recently come to the king's ears, and his majesty knew it to be authentic, that there was a secret and very dangerous conspiracy in holland of persons belonging to the reformed religion in which others were also mixed. this party held very earnest and very secret correspondence with the factious portion of the contra-remonstrants both in the netherlands and france, seeking under pretext of the religious dissensions or by means of them to confer the sovereignty upon prince maurice by general consent of the contra-remonstrants. their object was also to strengthen and augment the force of the same religious party in france, to which end the duc de bouillon and m. de chatillon were very earnestly co-operating. langerac had already been informed by chatillon that the contra-remonstrants had determined to make a public declaration against the remonstrants, and come to an open separation from them. "others propose however," said the ambassador, "that the king himself should use the occasion to seize the sovereignty of the united provinces for himself and to appoint prince maurice viceroy, giving him in marriage madame henriette of france." the object of this movement would be to frustrate the plots of the contra-remonstrants, who were known to be passionately hostile to the king and to france, and who had been constantly traversing the negotiations of m. du maurier. there was a disposition to send a special and solemn embassy to the states, but it was feared that the british king would at once do the same, to the immense disadvantage of the remonstrants. "m. de barneveld," said the envoy, "is deeply sympathized with here and commiserated. the chancellor has repeatedly requested me to present to you his very sincere and very hearty respects, exhorting you to continue in your manly steadfastness and courage." he also assured the advocate that the french ambassador, m. du maurier, enjoyed the entire confidence of his government, and of the principal members of the council, and that the king, although contemplating, as we have seen, the seizure of the sovereignty of the country, was most amicably disposed towards it, and so soon as the peace of savoy was settled "had something very good for it in his mind." whether the something very good was this very design to deprive it of independence, the ambassador did not state. he however recommended the use of sundry small presents at the french court--especially to madame de luynes, wife of the new favourite of lewis since the death of concini, in which he had aided, now rising rapidly to consideration, and to madame du agean--and asked to be supplied with funds accordingly. by these means he thought it probable that at least the payment to the states of the long arrears of the french subsidy might be secured. three weeks later, returning to the subject, the ambassador reported another conversation with m. du agean. that politician assured him, "with high protestations," as a perfectly certain fact that a frenchman duly qualified had arrived in paris from holland who had been in communication not only with him but with several of the most confidential members of the privy council of france. this duly qualified gentleman had been secretly commissioned to say that in opinion of the conspirators already indicated the occasion was exactly offered by these religious dissensions in the netherlands for bringing the whole country under the obedience of the king. this would be done with perfect ease if he would only be willing to favour a little the one party, that of the contra-remonstrants, and promise his excellency "perfect and perpetual authority in the government with other compensations." the proposition, said du agean, had been rejected by the privy councillors with a declaration that they would not mix themselves up with any factions, nor assist any party, but that they would gladly work with the government for the accommodation of these difficulties and differences in the provinces. "i send you all this nakedly," concluded langerac, "exactly as it has been communicated to me, having always answered according to my duty and with a view by negotiating with these persons to discover the intentions as well of one side as the other." the advocate was not profoundly impressed by these revelations. he was too experienced a statesman to doubt that in times when civil and religious passion was running high there was never lack of fishers in troubled waters, and that if a body of conspirators could secure a handsome compensation by selling their country to a foreign prince, they would always be ready to do it. but although believed by maurice to be himself a stipendiary of spain, he was above suspecting the prince of any share in the low and stupid intrigue which du agean had imagined or disclosed. that the stadholder was ambitious of greater power, he hardly doubted, but that he was seeking to acquire it by such corrupt and circuitous means, he did not dream. he confidentially communicated the plot as in duty bound to some members of the states, and had the prince been accused in any conversation or statement of being privy to the scheme, he would have thought himself bound to mention it to him. the story came to the ears of maurice however, and helped to feed his wrath against the advocate, as if he were responsible for a plot, if plot it were, which had been concocted by his own deadliest enemies. the prince wrote a letter alluding to this communication of langerac and giving much alarm to that functionary. he thought his despatches must have been intercepted and proposed in future to write always by special courier. barneveld thought that unnecessary except when there were more important matters than those appeared to him to be and requiring more haste. "the letter of his excellency," said he to the ambassador, "is caused in my opinion by the fact that some of the deputies to this assembly to whom i secretly imparted your letter or its substance did not rightly comprehend or report it. you did not say that his excellency had any such design or project, but that it had been said that the contra-remonstrants were entertaining such a scheme. i would have shown the letter to him myself, but i thought it not fair, for good reasons, to make m. du agean known as the informant. i do not think it amiss for you to write yourself to his excellency and tell him what is said, but whether it would be proper to give up the name of your author, i think doubtful. at all events one must consult about it. we live in a strange world, and one knows not whom to trust." he instructed the ambassador to enquire into the foundation of these statements of du agean and send advices by every occasion of this affair and others of equal interest. he was however much more occupied with securing the goodwill of the french government, which he no more suspected of tampering in these schemes against the independence of the republic than he did maurice himself. he relied and he had reason to rely on their steady good offices in the cause of moderation and reconciliation. "we are not yet brought to the necessary and much desired unity," he said, "but we do not despair, hoping that his majesty's efforts through m. du maurier, both privately and publicly, will do much good. be assured that they are very agreeable to all rightly disposed people . . . . my trust is that god the lord will give us a happy issue and save this country from perdition." he approved of the presents to the two ladies as suggested by langerac if by so doing the payment of the arrearages could be furthered. he was still hopeful and confident in the justice of his cause and the purity of his conscience. "aerssens is crowing like a cock," he said, "but the truth will surely prevail." chapter xvii. a deputation from utrecht to maurice--the fair at utrecht--maurice and the states' deputies at utrecht--ogle refuses to act in opposition to the states--the stadholder disbands the waartgelders-- the prince appoints forty magistrates--the states formally disband the waartgelders. the eventful midsummer had arrived. the lime-tree blossoms were fragrant in the leafy bowers overshadowing the beautiful little rural capital of the commonwealth. the anniversary of the nieuwpoort victory, july , had come and gone, and the stadholder was known to be resolved that his political campaign this year should be as victorious as that memorable military one of eighteen years before. before the dog-days should begin to rage, the fierce heats of theological and political passion were to wax daily more and more intense. the party at utrecht in favour of a compromise and in awe of the stadholder sent a deputation to the hague with the express but secret purpose of conferring with maurice. they were eight in number, three of whom, including gillis van ledenberg, lodged at the house of daniel tressel, first clerk of the states-general. the leaders of the barneveld party, aware of the purport of this mission and determined to frustrate it, contrived a meeting between the utrecht commissioners and grotius, hoogerbeets, de haan, and de lange at tressel's house. grotius was spokesman. maurice had accused the states of holland of mutiny and rebellion, and the distinguished pensionary of rotterdam now retorted the charges of mutiny, disobedience, and mischief-making upon those who, under the mask of religion, were attempting to violate the sovereignty of the states, the privileges and laws of the province, the authority of the magistrates, and to subject them to the power of others. to prevent such a catastrophe many cities had enlisted waartgelders. by this means they had held such mutineers to their duty, as had been seen at leyden, haarlem, and other places. the states of utrecht had secured themselves in the same way. but the mischiefmakers and the ill-disposed had been seeking everywhere to counteract these wholesome measures and to bring about a general disbanding of these troops. this it was necessary to resist with spirit. it was the very foundation of the provinces' sovereignty, to maintain which the public means must be employed. it was in vain to drive the foe out of the country if one could not remain in safety within one's own doors. they had heard with sorrow that utrecht was thinking of cashiering its troops, and the speaker proceeded therefore to urge with all the eloquence he was master of the necessity of pausing before taking so fatal a step. the deputies of utrecht answered by pleading the great pecuniary burthen which the maintenance of the mercenaries imposed upon that province, and complained that there was no one to come to their assistance, exposed as they were to a sudden and overwhelming attack from many quarters. the states-general had not only written but sent commissioners to utrecht insisting on the disbandment. they could plainly see the displeasure of the prince. it was a very different affair in holland, but the states of utrecht found it necessary of two evils to choose the least. they had therefore instructed their commissioners to request the prince to remove the foreign garrison from their capital and to send the old companies of native militia in their place, to be in the pay of the episcopate. in this case the states would agree to disband the new levies. grotius in reply again warned the commissioners against communicating with maurice according to their instructions, intimated that the native militia on which they were proposing to rely might have been debauched, and he held out hopes that perhaps the states of utrecht might derive some relief from certain financial measures now contemplated in holland. the utrechters resolved to wait at least several days before opening the subject of their mission to the prince. meantime ledenberg made a rough draft of a report of what had occurred between them and grotius and his colleagues which it was resolved to lay secretly before the states of utrecht. the hollanders hoped that they had at last persuaded the commissioners to maintain the waartgelders. the states of holland now passed a solemn resolution to the effect that these new levies had been made to secure municipal order and maintain the laws from subversion by civil tumults. if this object could be obtained by other means, if the stadholder were willing to remove garrisons of foreign mercenaries on whom there could be no reliance, and supply their place with native troops both in holland and utrecht, an arrangement could be made for disbanding the waartgelders. barneveld, at the head of thirty deputies from the nobles and cities, waited upon maurice and verbally communicated to him this resolution. he made a cold and unsatisfactory reply, although it seems to have been understood that by according twenty companies of native troops he might have contented both holland and utrecht. ledenberg and his colleagues took their departure from the hague without communicating their message to maurice. soon afterwards the states-general appointed a commission to utrecht with the stadholder at the head of it. the states of holland appointed another with grotius as its chairman. on the th july grotius and pensionary hoogerbeets with two colleagues arrived in utrecht. gillis van ledenberg was there to receive them. a tall, handsome, bald-headed, well-featured, mild, gentlemanlike man was this secretary of the utrecht assembly, and certainly not aware, while passing to and fro on such half diplomatic missions between two sovereign assemblies, that he was committing high-treason. he might well imagine however, should maurice discover that it was he who had prevented the commissioners from conferring with him as instructed, that it would go hard with him. ledenberg forthwith introduced grotius and his committee to the assembly at utrecht. while these great personages were thus holding solemn and secret council, another and still greater personage came upon the scene. the stadholder with the deputation from the states-general arrived at utrecht. evidently the threads of this political drama were converging to a catastrophe, and it might prove a tragical one. meantime all looked merry enough in the old episcopal city. there were few towns in lower or in upper germany more elegant and imposing than utrecht. situate on the slender and feeble channel of the ancient rhine as it falters languidly to the sea, surrounded by trim gardens and orchards, and embowered in groves of beeches and limetrees, with busy canals fringed with poplars, lined with solid quays, and crossed by innumerable bridges; with the stately brick tower of st. martin's rising to a daring height above one of the most magnificent gothic cathedrals in the netherlands; this seat of the anglo-saxon willebrord, who eight hundred years before had preached christianity to the frisians, and had founded that long line of hard-fighting, indomitable bishops, obstinately contesting for centuries the possession of the swamps and pastures about them with counts, kings, and emperors, was still worthy of its history and its position. it was here too that sixty-one years before the famous articles of union were signed. by that fundamental treaty of the confederacy, the provinces agreed to remain eternally united as if they were but one province, to make no war nor peace save by unanimous consent, while on lesser matters a majority should rule; to admit both catholics and protestants to the union provided they obeyed its articles and conducted themselves as good patriots, and expressly declared that no province or city should interfere with another in the matter of divine worship. from this memorable compact, so enduring a landmark in the history of human freedom, and distinguished by such breadth of view for the times both in religion and politics, the city had gained the title of cradle of liberty: 'cunabula libertatis'. was it still to deserve the name? at that particular moment the mass of the population was comparatively indifferent to the terrible questions pending. it was the kermis or annual fair, and all the world was keeping holiday in utrecht. the pedlars and itinerant merchants from all the cities and provinces had brought their wares jewellery and crockery, ribbons and laces, ploughs and harrows, carriages and horses, cows and sheep, cheeses and butter firkins, doublets and petticoats, guns and pistols, everything that could serve the city and country-side for months to come--and displayed them in temporary booths or on the ground, in every street and along every canal. the town was one vast bazaar. the peasant-women from the country, with their gold and silver tiaras and the year's rent of a comfortable farm in their earrings and necklaces, and the sturdy frisian peasants, many of whom had borne their matchlocks in the great wars which had lasted through their own and their fathers' lifetime, trudged through the city, enjoying the blessings of peace. bands of music and merry-go-rounds in all the open places and squares; open-air bakeries of pancakes and waffles; theatrical exhibitions, raree-shows, jugglers, and mountebanks at every corner--all these phenomena which had been at every kermis for centuries, and were to repeat themselves for centuries afterwards, now enlivened the atmosphere of the grey, episcopal city. pasted against the walls of public edifices were the most recent placards and counter-placards of the states-general and the states of utrecht on the great subject of religious schisms and popular tumults. in the shop-windows and on the bookstalls of contra-remonstrant tradesmen, now becoming more and more defiant as the last allies of holland, the states of utrecht, were gradually losing courage, were seen the freshest ballads and caricatures against the advocate. here an engraving represented him seated at table with grotius, hoogerbeets, and others, discussing the national synod, while a flap of the picture being lifted put the head of the duke of alva on the legs of barneveld, his companions being transformed in similar manner into spanish priests and cardinals assembled at the terrible council of blood-with rows of protestant martyrs burning and hanging in the distance. another print showed prince maurice and the states-general shaking the leading statesmen of the commonwealth in a mighty sieve through which came tumbling head foremost to perdition the hated advocate and his abettors. another showed the arminians as a row of crest-fallen cocks rained upon by the wrath of the stadholder--arminians by a detestable pun being converted into "arme haenen" or "poor cocks." one represented the pope and king of spain blowing thousands of ducats out of a golden bellows into the lap of the advocate, who was holding up his official robes to receive them, or whole carriage-loads of arminians starting off bag and baggage on the road to rome, with lucifer in the perspective waiting to give them a warm welcome in his own dominions; and so on, and so on. moving through the throng, with iron calque on their heads and halberd in hand, were groups of waartgelders scowling fiercely at many popular demonstrations such as they had been enlisted to suppress, but while off duty concealing outward symptoms of wrath which in many instances perhaps would have been far from genuine. for although these mercenaries knew that the states of holland, who were responsible for the pay of the regular troops then in utrecht, authorized them to obey no orders save from the local authorities, yet it was becoming a grave question for the waartgelders whether their own wages were perfectly safe, a circumstance which made them susceptible to the atmosphere of contra-remonstrantism which was steadily enwrapping the whole country. a still graver question was whether such resistance as they could offer to the renowned stadholder, whose name was magic to every soldier's heart not only in his own land but throughout christendom, would not be like parrying a lance's thrust with a bulrush. in truth the senior captain of the waartgelders, harteveld by name, had privately informed the leaders of the barneveld party in utrecht that he would not draw his sword against prince maurice and the states-general. "who asks you to do so?" said some of the deputies, while ledenberg on the other hand flatly accused him of cowardice. for this affront the captain had vowed revenge. and in the midst of this scene of jollity and confusion, that midsummer night, entered the stern stadholder with his fellow commissioners; the feeble plans for shutting the gates upon him not having been carried into effect. "you hardly expected such a guest at your fair," said he to the magistrates, with a grim smile on his face as who should say, "and what do you think of me now i have came?" meantime the secret conference of grotius and colleagues with the states of utrecht proceeded. as a provisional measure, sir john ogle, commander of the forces paid by holland, had been warned as to where his obedience was due. it had likewise been intimated that the guard should be doubled at the amersfoort gate, and a watch set on the river lek above and below the city in order to prevent fresh troops of the states-general from being introduced by surprise. these precautions had been suggested a year before, as we have seen, in a private autograph letter from barneveld to secretary ledenberg. sir john ogle had flatly refused to act in opposition to the stadholder and the states-general, whom he recognized as his lawful superiors and masters, and he warned ledenberg and his companions as to the perilous nature of the course which they were pursuing. great was the indignation of the utrechters and the holland commissioners in consequence. grotius in his speech enlarged on the possibility of violence being used by the stadholder, while some of the members of the assembly likewise thought it likely that he would smite the gates open by force. grotius, when reproved afterwards for such strong language towards prince maurice, said that true hollanders were no courtiers, but were wont to call everything by its right name. he stated in strong language the regret felt by holland that a majority of the states of utrecht had determined to disband the waartgelders which had been constitutionally enlisted according to the right of each province under the st article of the union of utrecht to protect itself and its laws. next day there were conferences between maurice and the states of utrecht and between him and the holland deputies. the stadholder calmly demanded the disbandment and the synod. the hollanders spoke of securing first the persons and rights of the magistracy. "the magistrates are to be protected," said maurice, "but we must first know how they are going to govern. people have tried to introduce five false points into the divine worship. people have tried to turn me out of the stadholdership and to drive me from the country. but i have taken my measures. i know well what i am about. i have got five provinces on my side, and six cities of holland will send deputies to utrecht to sustain me here." the hollanders protested that there was no design whatever, so far as they knew, against his princely dignity or person. all were ready to recognize his rank and services by every means in their power. but it was desirable by conciliation and compromise, not by stern decree, to arrange these religious and political differences. the stadholder replied by again insisting on the synod. "as for the waartgelders," he continued, "they are worse than spanish fortresses. they must away." after a little further conversation in this vein the prince grew more excited. "everything is the fault of the advocate," he cried. "if barneveld were dead," replied grotius, "all the rest of us would still deem ourselves bound to maintain the laws. people seem to despise holland and to wish to subject it to the other provinces." "on the contrary," cried the prince, "it is the advocate who wishes to make holland the states-general." maurice was tired of argument. there had been much ale-house talk some three months before by a certain blusterous gentleman called van ostrum about the necessity of keeping the stadholder in check. "if the prince should undertake," said this pot-valiant hero, "to attack any of the cities of utrecht or holland with the hard hand, it is settled to station or , soldiers in convenient places. then we shall say to the prince, if you don't leave us alone, we shall make an arrangement with the archduke of austria and resume obedience to him. we can make such a treaty with him as will give us religious freedom and save us from tyranny of any kind. i don't say this for myself, but have heard it on good authority from very eminent persons." this talk had floated through the air to the stadholder. what evidence could be more conclusive of a deep design on the part of barneveld to sell the republic to the archduke and drive maurice into exile? had not esquire van ostrum solemnly declared it at a tavern table? and although he had mentioned no names, could the "eminent personages" thus cited at second hand be anybody but the advocate? three nights after his last conference with the hollanders, maurice quietly ordered a force of regular troops in utrecht to be under arms at half past three o'clock next morning. about infantry, including companies of ernest of nassau's command at arnhem and of brederode's from vianen, besides a portion of the regular garrison of the place, had accordingly been assembled without beat of drum, before half past three in the morning, and were now drawn up on the market-place or neu. at break of day the prince himself appeared on horseback surrounded by his staff on the neu or neude, a large, long, irregular square into which the seven or eight principal streets and thoroughfares of the town emptied themselves. it was adorned by public buildings and other handsome edifices, and the tall steeple of st. martin's with its beautiful open-work spire, lighted with the first rays of the midsummer sun, looked tranquilly down upon the scene. each of the entrances to the square had been securely guarded by maurice's orders, and cannon planted to command all the streets. a single company of the famous waartgelders was stationed in the neu or near it. the prince rode calmly towards them and ordered them to lay down their arms. they obeyed without a murmur. he then sent through the city to summon all the other companies of waartgelders to the neu. this was done with perfect promptness, and in a short space of time the whole body of mercenaries, nearly in number, had laid down their arms at the feet of the prince. the snaphances and halberds being then neatly stacked in the square, the stadholder went home to his early breakfast. there was an end to those mercenaries thenceforth and for ever. the faint and sickly resistance to the authority of maurice offered at utrecht was attempted nowhere else. for days there had been vague but fearful expectations of a "blood bath," of street battles, rioting, and plunder. yet the stadholder with the consummate art which characterized all his military manoeuvres had so admirably carried out his measure that not a shot was fired, not a blow given, not a single burgher disturbed in his peaceful slumbers. when the population had taken off their nightcaps, they woke to find the awful bugbear removed which had so long been appalling them. the waartgelders were numbered with the terrors of the past, and not a cat had mewed at their disappearance. charter-books, parchments, th articles, barneveld's teeth, arminian forts, flowery orations of grotius, tavern talk of van ostrum, city immunities, states' rights, provincial laws, waartgelders and all--the martial stadholder, with the orange plume in his hat and the sword of nieuwpoort on his thigh, strode through them as easily as through the whirligigs and mountebanks, the wades and fritters, encumbering the streets of utrecht on the night of his arrival. secretary ledenberg and other leading members of the states had escaped the night before. grotius and his colleagues also took a precipitate departure. as they drove out of town in the twilight, they met the deputies of the six opposition cities of holland just arriving in their coach from the hague. had they tarried an hour longer, they would have found themselves safely in prison. four days afterwards the stadholder at the head of his body-guard appeared at the town-house. his halberdmen tramped up the broad staircase, heralding his arrival to the assembled magistracy. he announced his intention of changing the whole board then and there. the process was summary. the forty members were required to supply forty other names, and the prince added twenty more. from the hundred candidates thus furnished the prince appointed forty magistrates such as suited himself. it is needless to say that but few of the old bench remained, and that those few were devoted to the synod, the states-general, and the stadholder. he furthermore announced that these new magistrates were to hold office for life, whereas the board had previously been changed every year. the cathedral church was at once assigned for the use of the contra-remonstrants. this process was soon to be repeated throughout the two insubordinate provinces utrecht and holland. the prince was accused of aiming at the sovereignty of the whole country, and one of his grief's against the advocate was that he had begged the princess-widow, louise de coligny, to warn her son-in-law of the dangers of such ambition. but so long as an individual, sword in hand, could exercise such unlimited sway over the whole municipal, and provincial organization of the commonwealth, it mattered but little whether he was called king or kaiser, doge or stadholder. sovereign he was for the time being at least, while courteously acknowledging the states-general as his sovereign. less than three weeks afterwards the states-general issued a decree formally disbanding the waartgelders; an almost superfluous edict, as they had almost ceased to exist, and there were none to resist the measure. grotius recommended complete acquiescence. barneveld's soul could no longer animate with courage a whole people. the invitations which had already in the month of june been prepared for the synod to meet in the city of dortor dordtrecht-were now issued. the states of holland sent back the notification unopened, deeming it an unwarrantable invasion of their rights that an assembly resisted by a large majority of their body should be convoked in a city on their own territory. but this was before the disbandment of the waartgelders and the general change of magistracies had been effected. earnest consultations were now held as to the possibility of devising some means of compromise; of providing that the decisions of the synod should not be considered binding until after having been ratified by the separate states. in the opinion of barneveld they were within a few hours' work of a favourable result when their deliberations were interrupted by a startling event. chapter xviii. fruitless interview between barneveld and maurice--the advocate, warned of his danger, resolves to remain at the hague--arrest of barneveld, of qrotius, and of hoogerbeets--the states-general assume the responsibility in a "billet"--the states of holland protest-- the advocate's letter to his family--audience of boississe-- mischief-making of aerssens--the french ambassadors intercede for barneveld--the king of england opposes their efforts--langerac's treachery to the advocate--maurice continues his changes in the magistracy throughout the country--vote of thanks by the states of holland. the advocate, having done what he believed to be his duty, and exhausted himself in efforts to defend ancient law and to procure moderation and mutual toleration in religion, was disposed to acquiesce in the inevitable. his letters giving official and private information of those grave events were neither vindictive nor vehement. "i send you the last declaration of my lords of holland," he said to caron, "in regard to the national synod, with the counter-declaration of dordtrecht and the other five cities. yesterday was begun the debate about cashiering the enrolled soldiers called waartgelders. to-day the late m. van kereburg was buried." nothing could be calmer than his tone. after the waartgelders had been disbanded, utrecht revolutionized by main force, the national synod decided upon, and the process of changing the municipal magistracies everywhere in the interest of contra-remonstrants begun, he continued to urge moderation and respect for law. even now, although discouraged, he was not despondent, and was disposed to make the best even of the synod. he wished at this supreme moment to have a personal interview with the prince in order to devise some means for calming the universal agitation and effecting, if possible, a reconciliation among conflicting passions and warring sects. he had stood at the side of maurice and of maurice's great father in darker hours even than these. they had turned to him on all trying and tragical occasions and had never found his courage wavering or his judgment at fault. "not a friend to the house of nassau, but a father," thus had maurice with his own lips described the advocate to the widow of william the silent. incapable of an unpatriotic thought, animated by sincere desire to avert evil and procure moderate action, barneveld saw no reason whatever why, despite all that had been said and done, he should not once more hold council with the prince. he had a conversation accordingly with count lewis, who had always honoured the advocate while differing with him on the religious question. the stadholder of friesland, one of the foremost men of his day in military and scientific affairs, in administrative ability and philanthropic instincts, and, in a family perhaps the most renowned in europe for heroic qualities and achievements, hardly second to any who had borne the name, was in favour of the proposed interview, spoke immediately to prince maurice about it, but was not hopeful as to its results. he knew his cousin well and felt that he was at that moment resentful, perhaps implacably so, against the whole remonstrant party and especially against their great leader. count lewis was small of stature, but dignified, not to say pompous, in demeanour. his style of writing to one of lower social rank than himself was lofty, almost regal, and full of old world formality. "noble, severe, right worshipful, highly learned and discreet, special good friend," he wrote to barneveld; "we have spoken to his excellency concerning the expediency of what you requested of us this forenoon. we find however that his excellency is not to be moved to entertain any other measure than the national synod which he has himself proposed in person to all the provinces, to the furtherance of which he has made so many exertions, and which has already been announced by the states-general. "we will see by what opportunity his excellency will appoint the interview, and so far as lies in us you may rely on our good offices. we could not answer sooner as the french ambassadors had audience of us this forenoon and we were visiting his excellency in the afternoon. wishing your worship good evening, we are your very good friend." next day count william wrote again. "we have taken occasion," he said, "to inform his excellency that you were inclined to enter into communication with him in regard to an accommodation of the religious difficulties and to the cashiering of the waartgelders. he answered that he could accept no change in the matter of the national synod, but nevertheless would be at your disposal whenever your worship should be pleased to come to him." two days afterwards barneveld made his appearance at the apartments of the stadholder. the two great men on whom the fabric of the republic had so long rested stood face to face once more. the advocate, with long grey beard and stern blue eye, haggard with illness and anxiety, tall but bent with age, leaning on his staff and wrapped in black velvet cloak--an imposing magisterial figure; the florid, plethoric prince in brown doublet, big russet boots, narrow ruff, and shabby felt hat with its string of diamonds, with hand clutched on swordhilt, and eyes full of angry menace, the very type of the high-born, imperious soldier--thus they surveyed each other as men, once friends, between whom a gulf had opened. barneveld sought to convince the prince that in the proceedings at utrecht, founded as they were on strict adherence to the laws and traditions of the provinces, no disrespect had been intended to him, no invasion of his constitutional rights, and that on his part his lifelong devotion to the house of nassau had suffered no change. he repeated his usual incontrovertible arguments against the synod, as illegal and directly tending to subject the magistracy to the priesthood, a course of things which eight-and-twenty years before had nearly brought destruction on the country and led both the prince and himself to captivity in a foreign land. the prince sternly replied in very few words that the national synod was a settled matter, that he would never draw back from his position, and could not do so without singular disservice to the country and to his own disreputation. he expressed his displeasure at the particular oath exacted from the waartgelders. it diminished his lawful authority and the respect due to him, and might be used per indirectum to the oppression of those of the religion which he had sworn to maintain. his brow grew black when he spoke of the proceedings at utrecht, which he denounced as a conspiracy against his own person and the constitution of the country. barneveld used in vain the powers of argument by which he had guided kings and republics, cabinets and assemblies, during so many years. his eloquence fell powerless upon the iron taciturnity of the stadholder. maurice had expressed his determination and had no other argument to sustain it but his usual exasperating silence. the interview ended as hopelessly as count lewis william had anticipated, and the prince and the advocate separated to meet no more on earth. "you have doubtless heard already," wrote barneveld to the ambassador in london, "of all that has been passing here and in utrecht. one must pray to god that everything may prosper to his honour and the welfare of the country. they are resolved to go through with the national synod, the government of utrecht after the change made in it having consented with the rest. i hope that his majesty, according to your statement, will send some good, learned, and peace-loving personages here, giving them wholesome instructions to help bring our affairs into christian unity, accommodation, and love, by which his majesty and these provinces would be best served." were these the words of a baffled conspirator and traitor? were they uttered to produce an effect upon public opinion and avert a merited condemnation by all good men? there is not in them a syllable of reproach, of anger, of despair. and let it be remembered that they were not written for the public at all. they were never known to the public, hardly heard of either by the advocate's enemies or friends, save the one to whom they were addressed and the monarch to whom that friend was accredited. they were not contained in official despatches, but in private, confidential outpourings to a trusted political and personal associate of many years. from the day they were written until this hour they have never been printed, and for centuries perhaps not read. he proceeded to explain what he considered to be the law in the netherlands with regard to military allegiance. it is not probable that there was in the country a more competent expounder of it; and defective and even absurd as such a system was, it had carried the provinces successfully through a great war, and a better method for changing it might have been found among so law-loving and conservative a people as the netherlanders than brute force. "information has apparently been sent to england," he said, "that my lords of holland through their commissioners in utrecht dictated to the soldiery standing at their charges something that was unreasonable. the truth is that the states of holland, as many of them as were assembled, understanding that great haste was made to send his excellency and some deputies from the other provinces to utrecht, while the members of the utrecht assembly were gone to report these difficulties to their constituents and get fresh instructions from them, wishing that the return of those members should be waited for and that the assembly of holland might also be complete--a request which was refused--sent a committee to utrecht, as the matter brooked no delay, to give information to the states of that province of what was passing here and to offer their good offices. "they sent letters also to his excellency to move him to reasonable accommodation without taking extreme measures in opposition to those resolutions of the states of utrecht which his excellency had promised to conform with and to cause to be maintained by all officers and soldiers. should his excellency make difficulty in this, the commissioners were instructed to declare to him that they were ordered to warn the colonels and captains standing in the payment of holland, by letter and word of mouth, that they were bound by oath to obey the states of holland as their paymasters and likewise to carry out the orders of the provincial and municipal magistrates in the places where they were employed. the soldiery was not to act or permit anything to be done against those resolutions, but help to carry them out, his excellency himself and the troops paid by the states of holland being indisputably bound by oath and duty so to do." doubtless a more convenient arrangement from a military point of view might be imagined than a system of quotas by which each province in a confederacy claimed allegiance and exacted obedience from the troops paid by itself in what was after all a general army. still this was the logical and inevitable result of state rights pushed to the extreme and indeed had been the indisputable theory and practice in the netherlands ever since their revolt from spain. to pretend that the proceedings and the oath were new because they were embarrassing was absurd. it was only because the dominant party saw the extreme inconvenience of the system, now that it was turned against itself, that individuals contemptuous of law and ignorant of history denounced it as a novelty. but the strong and beneficent principle that lay at the bottom of the advocate's conduct was his unflagging resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military in time of peace. what liberal or healthy government would be possible otherwise? exactly as he opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood or the mob, so he now defended it against the power of the sword. there was no justification whatever for a claim on the part of maurice to exact obedience from all the armies of the republic, especially in time of peace. he was himself by oath sworn to obey the states of holland, of utrecht, and of the three other provinces of which he was governor. he was not commander-in-chief. in two of the seven provinces he had no functions whatever, military or civil. they had another governor. yet the exposition of the law, as it stood, by the advocate and his claim that both troops and stadholder should be held to their oaths was accounted a crime. he had invented a new oath--it was said--and sought to diminish the power of the prince. these were charges, unjust as they were, which might one day be used with deadly effect. "we live in a world where everything is interpreted to the worst," he said. "my physical weakness continues and is increased by this affliction. i place my trust in god the lord and in my upright and conscientious determination to serve the country, his excellency, and the religion in which through god's grace i hope to continue to the end." on the th august of a warm afternoon, barneveld was seated on a porcelain seat in an arbor in his garden. councillor berkhout, accompanied by a friend, called to see him, and after a brief conversation gave him solemn warning that danger was impending, that there was even a rumour of an intention to arrest him. the advocate answered gravely, "yes, there are wicked men about." presently he lifted his hat courteously and said, "i thank you, gentlemen, for the warning." it seems scarcely to have occurred to him that he had been engaged in anything beyond a constitutional party struggle in which he had defended what in his view was the side of law and order. he never dreamt of seeking safety in flight. some weeks before, he had been warmly advised to do as both he and maurice had done in former times in order to escape the stratagems of leicester, to take refuge in some strong city devoted to his interests rather than remain at the hague. but he had declined the counsel. "i will await the issue of this business," he said, "in the hague, where my home is, and where i have faithfully served my masters. i had rather for the sake of the fatherland suffer what god chooses to send me for having served well than that through me and on my account any city should fall into trouble and difficulties." next morning, wednesday, at seven o'clock, uytenbogaert paid him a visit. he wished to consult him concerning a certain statement in regard to the synod which he desired him to lay before the states of holland. the preacher did not find his friend busily occupied at his desk, as usual, with writing and other work. the advocate had pushed his chair away from the table encumbered with books and papers, and sat with his back leaning against it, lost in thought. his stern, stoical face was like that of a lion at bay. uytenbogaert tried to arouse him from his gloom, consoling him by reflections on the innumerable instances, in all countries and ages, of patriotic statesmen who for faithful service had reaped nothing but ingratitude. soon afterwards he took his leave, feeling a presentiment of evil within him which it was impossible for him to shake off as he pressed barneveld's hand at parting. two hours later, the advocate went in his coach to the session of the states of holland. the place of the assembly as well as that of the states-general was within what was called the binnenhof or inner court; the large quadrangle enclosing the ancient hall once the residence of the sovereign counts of holland. the apartments of the stadholder composed the south-western portion of the large series of buildings surrounding this court. passing by these lodgings on his way to the assembly, he was accosted by a chamberlain of the prince and informed that his highness desired to speak with him. he followed him towards the room where such interviews were usually held, but in the antechamber was met by lieutenant nythof, of the prince's bodyguard. this officer told him that he had been ordered to arrest him in the name of the states-general. the advocate demanded an interview with the prince. it was absolutely refused. physical resistance on the part of a man of seventy-two, stooping with age and leaning on a staff, to military force, of which nythof was the representative, was impossible. barneveld put a cheerful face on the matter, and was even inclined to converse. he was at once carried off a prisoner and locked up in a room belonging to maurice's apartments. soon afterwards, grotius on his way to the states-general was invited in precisely the same manner to go to the prince, with whom, as he was informed, the advocate was at that moment conferring. as soon as he had ascended the stairs however, he was arrested by captain van der meulen in the name of the states-general, and taken to a chamber in the same apartments, where he was guarded by two halberdmen. in the evening he was removed to another chamber where the window shutters were barred, and where he remained three days and nights. he was much cast down and silent. pensionary hoogerbeets was made prisoner in precisely the same manner. thus the three statesmen--culprits as they were considered by their enemies--were secured without noise or disturbance, each without knowing the fate that had befallen the other. nothing could have been more neatly done. in the same quiet way orders were sent to secure secretary ledenberg, who had returned to utrecht, and who now after a short confinement in that city was brought to the hague and imprisoned in the hof. at the very moment of the advocate's arrest his son-in-law van der myle happened to be paying a visit to sir dudley carleton, who had arrived very late the night before from england. it was some hours before he or any other member of the family learned what had befallen. the ambassador reported to his sovereign that the deed was highly applauded by the well disposed as the only means left for the security of the state. "the arminians," he said, "condemn it as violent and insufferable in a free republic." impartial persons, he thought, considered it a superfluous proceeding now that the synod had been voted and the waartgelders disbanded. while he was writing his despatch, the stadholder came to call upon him, attended by his cousin count lewis william. the crowd of citizens following at a little distance, excited by the news with which the city was now ringing, mingled with maurice's gentlemen and bodyguards and surged up almost into the ambassador's doors. carleton informed his guests, in the course of conversation, as to the general opinion of indifferent judges of these events. maurice replied that he had disbanded the waartgelders, but it had now become necessary to deal with their colonel and the chief captains, meaning thereby barneveld and the two other prisoners. the news of this arrest was soon carried to the house of barneveld, and filled his aged wife, his son, and sons-in-law with grief and indignation. his eldest son william, commonly called the seignior van groeneveld, accompanied by his two brothers-in-law, veenhuyzen, president of the upper council, and van der myle, obtained an interview with the stadholder that same afternoon. they earnestly requested that the advocate, in consideration of his advanced age, might on giving proper bail be kept prisoner in his own house. the prince received them at first with courtesy. "it is the work of the states-general," he said, "no harm shall come to your father any more than to myself." veenhuyzen sought to excuse the opposition which the advocate had made to the cloister church. the word was scarcely out of his mouth when the prince fiercely interrupted him--"any man who says a word against the cloister church," he cried in a rage, "his feet shall not carry him from this place." the interview gave them on the whole but little satisfaction. very soon afterwards two gentlemen, asperen and schagen, belonging to the chamber of nobles, and great adherents of barneveld, who had procured their enrolment in that branch, forced their way into the stadholder's apartments and penetrated to the door of the room where the advocate was imprisoned. according to carleton they were filled with wine as well as rage, and made a great disturbance, loudly demanding their patron's liberation. maurice came out of his own cabinet on hearing the noise in the corridor, and ordered them to be disarmed and placed under arrest. in the evening however they were released. soon afterwards van der myle fled to paris, where he endeavoured to make influence with the government in favour of the advocate. his departure without leave, being, as he was, a member of the chamber of nobles and of the council of state, was accounted a great offence. uytenbogaert also made his escape, as did taurinus, author of the balance, van moersbergen of utrecht, and many others more or less implicated in these commotions. there was profound silence in the states of holland when the arrest of barneveld was announced. the majority sat like men distraught. at last matenesse said, "you have taken from us our head, our tongue, and our hand, henceforth we can only sit still and look on." the states-general now took the responsibility of the arrest, which eight individuals calling themselves the states-general had authorized by secret resolution the day before ( th august). on the th accordingly, the following "billet," as it was entitled, was read to the assembly and ordered to be printed and circulated among the community. it was without date or signature. "whereas in the course of the changes within the city of utrecht and in other places brought about by the high and mighty lords the states-general of the united netherlands, through his excellency and their lordships' committee to him adjoined, sundry things have been discovered of which previously there had been great suspicion, tending to the great prejudice of the provinces in general and of each province in particular, not without apparent danger to the state of the country, and that thereby not only the city of utrecht, but various other cities of the united provinces would have fallen into a blood bath; and whereas the chief ringleaders in these things are considered to be john van barneveld, advocate of holland, rombout hoogerbeets, and hugo grotius, whereof hereafter shall declaration and announcement be made, therefore their high mightinesses, in order to prevent these and similar inconveniences, to place the country in security, and to bring the good burghers of all the cities into friendly unity again, have resolved to arrest those three persons, in order that out of their imprisonment they may be held to answer duly for their actions and offences." the deputies of holland in the states-general protested on the same day against the arrest, declaring themselves extraordinarily amazed at such proceedings, without their knowledge, with usurpation of their jurisdiction, and that they should refer to their principals for instructions in the matter. they reported accordingly at once to the states of holland in session in the same building. soon afterwards however a committee of five from the states-general appeared before the assembly to justify the proceeding. on their departure there arose a great debate, the six cities of course taking part with maurice and the general government. it was finally resolved by the majority to send a committee to the stadholder to remonstrate with, and by the six opposition cities another committee to congratulate him, on his recent performances. his answer was to this effect: "what had happened was not by his order, but had been done by the states-general, who must be supposed not to have acted without good cause. touching the laws and jurisdiction of holland he would not himself dispute, but the states of holland would know how to settle that matter with the states-general." next day it was resolved in the holland assembly to let the affair remain as it was for the time being. rapid changes were soon to be expected in that body, hitherto so staunch for the cause of municipal laws and state rights. meantime barneveld sat closely guarded in the apartments of the stadholder, while the country and very soon all europe were ringing with the news of his downfall, imprisonment, and disgrace. the news was a thunder-bolt to the lovers of religious liberty, a ray of dazzling sunlight after a storm to the orthodox. the showers of pamphlets, villanous lampoons, and libels began afresh. the relatives of the fallen statesman could not appear in the streets without being exposed to insult, and without hearing scurrilous and obscene verses against their father and themselves, in which neither sex nor age was spared, howled in their ears by all the ballad-mongers and broadsheet vendors of the town. the unsigned publication of the states-general, with its dark allusions to horrible discoveries and promised revelations which were never made, but which reduced themselves at last to the gibberish of a pot-house bully, the ingenious libels, the powerfully concocted and poisonous calumnies, caricatures, and lampoons, had done their work. people stared at each other in the streets with open mouths as they heard how the advocate had for years and years been the hireling of spain, whose government had bribed him largely to bring about the truce and kill the west india company; how his pockets and his coffers were running over with spanish ducats; how his plot to sell the whole country to the ancient tyrant, drive the prince of orange into exile, and bring every city of the netherlands into a "blood-bath," had, just in time, been discovered. and the people believed it and hated the man they had so lately honoured, and were ready to tear him to pieces in the streets. men feared to defend him lest they too should be accused of being stipendiaries of spain. it was a piteous spectacle; not for the venerable statesman sitting alone there in his prison, but for the republic in its lunacy, for human nature in its meanness and shame. he whom count lewis, although opposed to his politics, had so lately called one of the two columns on which the whole fabric of the states reposed, prince maurice being the other, now lay prostrate in the dust and reviled of all men. "many who had been promoted by him to high places," said a contemporary, "and were wont to worship him as a god, in hope that he would lift them up still higher, now deserted him, and ridiculed him, and joined the rest of the world in heaping dirt upon him." on the third day of his imprisonment the advocate wrote this letter to his family:-- "my very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren,--i know that you are sorrowful for the troubles which have come upon me, but i beg you to seek consolation from god the almighty and to comfort each other. i know before the lord god of having given no single lawful reason for the misfortunes which have come upon me, and i will with patience await from his divine hand and from my lawful superiors a happy issue, knowing well that you and my other well-wishers will with your prayers and good offices do all that you can to that end. "and so, very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren, i commend you to god's holy keeping. "i have been thus far well and honourably treated and accommodated, for which i thank his princely excellency. "from my chamber of arrest, last of august, anno . "your dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grand father, "john of barneveld." on the margin was written: "from the first i have requested and have at last obtained materials for writing." a fortnight before the arrest, but while great troubles were known to be impending, the french ambassador extraordinary, de boississe, had audience before the assembly of the states-general. he entreated them to maintain the cause of unity and peace as the foundation of their state; "that state," he said, "which lifts its head so high that it equals or surpasses the mightiest republics that ever existed, and which could not have risen to such a height of honour and grandeur in so short a time, but through harmony and union of all the provinces, through the valour of his excellency, and through your own wise counsels, both sustained by our great king, whose aid is continued by his son."--"the king my master," he continued, "knows not the cause of your disturbances. you have not communicated them to him, but their most apparent cause is a difference of opinion, born in the schools, thence brought before the public, upon a point of theology. that point has long been deemed by many to be so hard and so high that the best advice to give about it is to follow what god's word teaches touching god's secrets; to wit, that one should use moderation and modesty therein and should not rashly press too far into that which he wishes to be covered with the veil of reverence and wonder. that is a wise ignorance to keep one's eyes from that which god chooses to conceal. he calls us not to eternal life through subtle and perplexing questions." and further exhorting them to conciliation and compromise, he enlarged on the effect of their internal dissensions on their exterior relations. "what joy, what rapture you are preparing for your neighbours by your quarrels! how they will scorn you! how they will laugh! what a hope do you give them of revenging themselves upon you without danger to themselves! let me implore you to baffle their malice, to turn their joy into mourning, to unite yourselves to confound them." he spoke much more in the same vein, expressing wise and moderate sentiments. he might as well have gone down to the neighbouring beach when a south-west gale was blowing and talked of moderation to the waves of the german ocean. the tempest of passion and prejudice had risen in its might and was sweeping all before it. yet the speech, like other speeches and intercessions made at this epoch by de boississe and by the regular french ambassador, du maurier, was statesmanlike and reasonable. it is superfluous to say that it was in unison with the opinions of barneveld, for barneveld had probably furnished the text of the oration. even as he had a few years before supplied the letters which king james had signed and subsequently had struggled so desperately to disavow, so now the advocate's imperious intellect had swayed the docile and amiable minds of the royal envoys into complete sympathy with his policy. he usually dictated their general instructions. but an end had come to such triumphs. dudley carleton had returned from his leave of absence in england, where he had found his sovereign hating the advocate as doctors hate who have been worsted in theological arguments and despots who have been baffled in their imperious designs. who shall measure the influence on the destiny of this statesman caused by the french-spanish marriages, the sermons of james through the mouth of carleton, and the mutual jealousy of france and england? but the advocate was in prison, and the earth seemed to have closed over him. hardly a ripple of indignation was perceptible on the calm surface of affairs, although in the states-general as in the states of holland his absence seemed to have reduced both bodies to paralysis. they were the more easily handled by the prudent, skilful, and determined maurice. the arrest of the four gentlemen had been communicated to the kings of france and great britain and the elector-palatine in an identical letter from the states-general. it is noticeable that on this occasion the central government spoke of giving orders to the prince of orange, over whom they would seem to have had no legitimate authority, while on the other hand he had expressed indignation on more than one occasion that the respective states of the five provinces where he was governor and to whom he had sworn obedience should presume to issue commands to him. in france, where the advocate was honoured and beloved, the intelligence excited profound sorrow. a few weeks previously the government of that country had, as we have seen, sent a special ambassador to the states, m. de boississe, to aid the resident envoy, du maurier, in his efforts to bring about a reconciliation of parties and a termination of the religious feud. their exertions were sincere and unceasing. they were as steadily countermined by francis aerssens, for the aim of that diplomatist was to bring about a state of bad feeling, even at cost of rupture, between the republic and france, because france was friendly to the man he most hated and whose ruin he had sworn. during the summer a bitter personal controversy had been going on, sufficiently vulgar in tone, between aerssens and another diplomatist, barneveld's son-in-law, cornelis van der myle. it related to the recall of aerssens from the french embassy of which enough has already been laid before the reader. van der myle by the production of the secret letters of the queen-dowager and her counsellors had proved beyond dispute that it was at the express wish of the french government that the ambassador had retired, and that indeed they had distinctly refused to receive him, should he return. foul words resulting in propositions for a hostile meeting on the frontier, which however came to nothing, were interchanged and aerssens in the course of his altercation with the son-inlaw had found ample opportunity for venting his spleen upon his former patron the now fallen statesman. four days after the arrest of barneveld he brought the whole matter before the states-general, and the intention with which he thus raked up the old quarrel with france after the death of henry, and his charges in regard to the spanish marriages, was as obvious as it was deliberate. the french ambassadors were furious. boississe had arrived not simply as friend of the advocate, but to assure the states of the strong desire entertained by the french government to cultivate warmest relations with them. it had been desired by the contra-remonstrant party that deputies from the protestant churches of france should participate in the synod, and the french king had been much assailed by the catholic powers for listening to those suggestions. the papal nuncius, the spanish ambassador, the envoy of the archduke, had made a great disturbance at court concerning the mission of boississe. they urged with earnestness that his majesty was acting against the sentiments of spain, rome, and the whole catholic church, and that he ought not to assist with his counsel those heretics who were quarrelling among themselves over points in their heretical religion and wishing to destroy each other. notwithstanding this outcry the weather was smooth enough until the proceedings of aerssens came to stir up a tempest at the french court. a special courier came from boississe, a meeting of the whole council, although it was sunday, was instantly called, and the reply of the states-general to the remonstrance of the ambassador in the aerssens affair was pronounced to be so great an affront to the king that, but for overpowering reasons, diplomatic intercourse would have at once been suspended. "now instead of friendship there is great anger here," said langerac. the king forbade under vigorous penalties the departure of any french theologians to take part in the synod, although the royal consent had nearly been given. the government complained that no justice was done in the netherlands to the french nation, that leading personages there openly expressed contempt for the french alliance, denouncing the country as "hispaniolized," and declaring that all the council were regularly pensioned by spain for the express purpose of keeping up the civil dissensions in the united provinces. aerssens had publicly and officially declared that a majority of the french council since the death of henry had declared the crown in its temporal as well as spiritual essence to be dependent on the pope, and that the spanish marriages had been made under express condition of the renunciation of the friendship and alliance of the states. such were among the first-fruits of the fall of barneveld and the triumph of aerssens, for it was he in reality who had won the victory, and he had gained it over both stadholder and advocate. who was to profit by the estrangement between the republic and its powerful ally at a moment too when that great kingdom was at last beginning to emerge from the darkness and nothingness of many years, with the faint glimmering dawn of a new great policy? barneveld, whose masterful statesmanship, following out the traditions of william the silent, had ever maintained through good and ill report cordial and beneficent relations between the two countries, had always comprehended, even as a great cardinal-minister was ere long to teach the world, that the permanent identification of france with spain and the roman league was unnatural and impossible. meantime barneveld sat in his solitary prison, knowing not what was passing on that great stage where he had so long been the chief actor, while small intriguers now attempted to control events. it was the intention of aerssens to return to the embassy in paris whence he had been driven, in his own opinion, so unjustly. to render himself indispensable, he had begun by making himself provisionally formidable to the king's government. later, there would be other deeds to do before the prize was within his grasp. thus the very moment when france was disposed to cultivate the most earnest friendship with the republic had been seized for fastening an insult upon her. the twelve years' truce with spain was running to its close, the relations between france and spain were unusually cold, and her friendship therefore more valuable than ever. on the other hand the british king was drawing closer his relations with spain, and his alliance was demonstrably of small account. the phantom of the spanish bride had become more real to his excited vision than ever, so that early in the year, in order to please gondemar, he had been willing to offer an affront to the french ambassador. the prince of wales had given a splendid masquerade at court, to which the envoy of his most catholic majesty was bidden. much to his amazement the representative of the most christian king received no invitation, notwithstanding that he had taken great pains to procure one. m. de la boderie was very angry, and went about complaining to the states' ambassador and his other colleagues of the slight, and darkened the lives of the court functionaries having charge of such matters with his vengeance and despair. it was represented to him that he had himself been asked to a festival the year before when count gondemar was left out. it was hinted to him that the king had good reasons for what he did, as the marriage with the daughter of spain was now in train, and it was desirable that the spanish ambassador should be able to observe the prince's disposition and make a more correct report of it to his government. it was in vain. m. de la boderie refused to be comforted, and asserted that one had no right to leave the french ambassador uninvited to any "festival or triumph" at court. there was an endless disturbance. de la boderie sent his secretary off to paris to complain to the king that his ambassador was of no account in london, while much favour was heaped upon the spaniard. the secretary returned with instructions from lewis that the ambassador was to come home immediately, and he went off accordingly in dudgeon. "i could see that he was in the highest degree indignant," said caron, who saw him before he left, "and i doubt not that his departure will increase and keep up the former jealousy between the governments." the ill-humor created by this event lasted a long time, serving to neutralize or at least perceptibly diminish the spanish influence produced in france by the spanish marriages. in the autumn, secretary de puysieux by command of the king ordered every spaniard to leave the french court. all the "spanish ladies and gentlemen, great and small," who had accompanied the queen from madrid were included in this expulsion with the exception of four individuals, her majesty's father confessor, physician, apothecary, and cook. the fair young queen was much vexed and shed bitter tears at this calamity, which, as she spoke nothing but spanish, left her isolated at the court, but she was a little consoled by the promise that thenceforth the king would share her couch. it had not yet occurred to him that he was married. the french envoys at the hague exhausted themselves in efforts, both private and public, in favour of the prisoners, but it was a thankless task. now that the great man and his chief pupils and adherents were out of sight, a war of shameless calumny was began upon him, such as has scarcely a parallel in political history. it was as if a whole tribe of noxious and obscene reptiles were swarming out of the earth which had suddenly swallowed him. but it was not alone the obscure or the anonymous who now triumphantly vilified him. men in high places who had partaken of his patronage, who had caressed him and grovelled before him, who had grown great through his tuition and rich through his bounty, now rejoiced in his ruin or hastened at least to save themselves from being involved in it. not a man of them all but fell away from him like water. even the great soldier forgot whose respectful but powerful hand it was which, at the most tragical moment, had lifted him from the high school at leyden into the post of greatest power and responsibility, and had guided his first faltering footsteps by the light of his genius and experience. francis aerssens, master of the field, had now become the political tutor of the mature stadholder. step by step we have been studying the inmost thoughts of the advocate as revealed in his secret and confidential correspondence, and the reader has been enabled to judge of the wantonness of the calumny which converted the determined antagonist into the secret friend of spain. yet it had produced its effect upon maurice. he told the french ambassadors a month after the arrest that barneveld had been endeavouring, during and since the truce negotiations, to bring back the provinces, especially holland, if not under the dominion of, at least under some kind of vassalage to spain. persons had been feeling the public pulse as to the possibility of securing permanent peace by paying tribute to spain, and this secret plan of barneveld had so alienated him from the prince as to cause him to attempt every possible means of diminishing or destroying altogether his authority. he had spread through many cities that maurice wished to make himself master of the state by using the religious dissensions to keep the people weakened and divided. there is not a particle of evidence, and no attempt was ever made to produce any, that the advocate had such plan, but certainly, if ever, man had made himself master of a state, that man was maurice. he continued however to place himself before the world as the servant of the states-general, which he never was, either theoretically or in fact. the french ambassadors became every day more indignant and more discouraged. it was obvious that aerssens, their avowed enemy, was controlling the public policy of the government. not only was there no satisfaction to be had for the offensive manner in which he had filled the country with his ancient grievances and his nearly forgotten charges against the queen-dowager and those who had assisted her in the regency, but they were repulsed at every turn when by order of their sovereign they attempted to use his good offices in favour of the man who had ever been the steady friend of france. the stadholder also professed friendship for that country, and referred to colonel-general chatillon, who had for a long time commanded the french regiments in the netherlands, for confirmation of his uniform affection for those troops and attachment to their sovereign. he would do wonders, he said, if lewis would declare war upon spain by land and sea. "such fruits are not ripe," said boississe, "nor has your love for france been very manifest in recent events." "barneveld," replied the prince, "has personally offended me, and has boasted that he would drive me out of the country like leicester. he is accused of having wished to trouble the country in order to bring it back under the yoke of spain. justice will decide. the states only are sovereign to judge this question. you must address yourself to them." "the states," replied the ambassadors, "will require to be aided by your counsels." the prince made no reply and remained chill and "impregnable." the ambassadors continued their intercessions in behalf of the prisoners both by public address to the assembly and by private appeals to the stadholder and his influential friends. in virtue of the intimate alliance and mutual guarantees existing between their government and the republic they claimed the acceptance of their good offices. they insisted upon a regular trial of the prisoners according to the laws of the land, that is to say, by the high court of holland, which alone had jurisdiction in the premises. if they had been guilty of high-treason, they should be duly arraigned. in the name of the signal services of barneveld and of the constant friendship of that great magistrate for france, the king demanded clemency or proof of his crimes. his majesty complained through his ambassadors of the little respect shown for his counsels and for his friendship. "in times past you found ever prompt and favourable action in your time of need." "this discourse," said maurice to chatillon, "proceeds from evil intention." thus the prisoners had disappeared from human sight, and their enemies ran riot in slandering them. yet thus far no public charges had been made. "nothing appears against them," said du maurier, "and people are beginning to open their mouths with incredible freedom. while waiting for the condemnation of the prisoners, one is determined to dishonour them." the french ambassadors were instructed to intercede to the last, but they were steadily repulsed--while the king of great britain, anxious to gain favour with spain by aiding in the ruin of one whom he knew and spain knew to be her determined foe, did all he could through his ambassador to frustrate their efforts and bring on a catastrophe. the states-general and maurice were now on as confidential terms with carleton as they were cold and repellent to boississe and du maurier. "to recall to them the benefits of the king," said du maurier, "is to beat the air. and then aerssens bewitches them, and they imagine that after having played runaway horses his majesty will be only too happy to receive them back, caress them, and, in order to have their friendship, approve everything they have been doing right or wrong." aerssens had it all his own way, and the states-general had just paid him , francs in cash on the ground that langerac's salary was larger than his had been when at the head of the same embassy many years before. his elevation into the body of nobles, which maurice had just stocked with five other of his partisans, was accounted an additional affront to france, while on the other hand the queen-mother, having through epernon's assistance made her escape from blois, where she had been kept in durance since the death of concini, now enumerated among other grievances for which she was willing to take up arms against her son that the king's government had favoured barneveld. it was strange that all the devotees of spain--mary de' medici, and epernon, as well as james i. and his courtiers--should be thus embittered against the man who had sold the netherlands to spain. at last the prince told the french ambassadors that the "people of the provinces considered their persistent intercessions an invasion of their sovereignty." few would have anything to say to them. "no one listens to us, no one replies to us," said du maurier, "everyone visiting us is observed, and it is conceived a reproach here to speak to the ambassadors of france." certainly the days were changed since henry iv. leaned on the arm of barneveld, and consulted with him, and with him only, among all the statesmen of europe on his great schemes for regenerating christendom and averting that general war which, now that the great king had been murdered and the advocate imprisoned, had already begun to ravage europe. van der myle had gone to paris to make such exertions as he could among the leading members of the council in favour of his father-in-law. langerac, the states' ambassador there, who but yesterday had been turning at every moment to the advocate for light and warmth as to the sun, now hastened to disavow all respect or regard for him. he scoffed at the slender sympathy van der myle was finding in the bleak political atmosphere. he had done his best to find out what he had been negotiating with the members of the council and was glad to say that it was so inconsiderable as to be not worth reporting. he had not spoken with or seen the king. jeannin, his own and his father-in-law's principal and most confidential friend, had only spoken with him half an hour and then departed for burgundy, although promising to confer with him sympathetically on his return. "i am very displeased at his coming here," said langerac, ". . . . but he has found little friendship or confidence, and is full of woe and apprehension." the ambassador's labours were now confined to personally soliciting the king's permission for deputations from the reformed churches of france to go to the synod, now opened ( th november) at dordtrecht, and to clearing his own skirts with the prince and states-general of any suspicion of sympathy with barneveld. in the first object he was unsuccessful, the king telling him at last "with clear and significant words that this was impossible, on account of his conscience, his respect for the catholic religion, and many other reasons." in regard to the second point he acted with great promptness. he received a summons in january from the states-general and the prince to send them all letters that he had ever received from barneveld. he crawled at once to maurice on his knees, with the letters in his hand. "most illustrious, high-born prince, most gracious lord," he said; "obeying the commands which it has pleased the states and your princely grace to give me, i send back the letters of advocate barneveld. if your princely grace should find anything in them showing that the said advocate had any confidence in me, i most humbly beg your princely grace to believe that i never entertained any affection for, him, except only in respect to and so far as he was in credit and good authority with the government, and according to the upright zeal which i thought i could see in him for the service of my high and puissant lords the states-general and of your princely grace." greater humbleness could be expected of no ambassador. most nobly did the devoted friend and pupil of the great statesman remember his duty to the illustrious prince and their high mightinesses. most promptly did he abjure his patron now that he had fallen into the abyss. "nor will it be found," he continued, "that i have had any sympathy or communication with the said advocate except alone in things concerning my service. the great trust i had in him as the foremost and oldest counsellor of the state, as the one who so confidentially instructed me on my departure for france, and who had obtained for himself so great authority that all the most important affairs of the country were entrusted to him, was the cause that i simply and sincerely wrote to him all that people were in the habit of saying at this court. "if i had known in the least or suspected that he was not what he ought to be in the service of my lords the states and of your princely grace and for the welfare and tranquillity of the land, i should have been well on my guard against letting myself in the least into any kind of communication with him whatever." the reader has seen how steadily and frankly the advocate had kept langerac as well as caron informed of passing events, and how little concealment he made of his views in regard to the synod, the waartgelders, and the respective authority of the states-general and states-provincial. not only had langerac no reason to suspect that barneveld was not what he ought to be, but he absolutely knew the contrary from that most confidential correspondence with him which he was now so abjectly repudiating. the advocate, in a protracted constitutional controversy, had made no secret of his views either officially or privately. whether his positions were tenable or flimsy, they had been openly taken. "what is more," proceeded the ambassador, "had i thought that any account ought to be made of what i wrote to him concerning the sovereignty of the provinces, i should for a certainty not have failed to advise your grace of it above all." he then, after profuse and maudlin protestations of his most dutiful zeal all the days of his life for "the service, honour, reputation, and contentment of your princely grace," observed that he had not thought it necessary to give him notice of such idle and unfounded matters, as being likely to give the prince annoyance and displeasure. he had however always kept within himself the resolution duly to notify him in case he found that any belief was attached to the reports in paris. "but the reports," he said, "were popular and calumnious inventions of which no man had ever been willing or able to name to him the authors." the ambassador's memory was treacherous, and he had doubtless neglected to read over the minutes, if he had kept them, of his wonderful disclosures on the subject of the sovereignty before thus exculpating himself. it will be remembered that he had narrated the story of the plot for conferring sovereignty upon maurice not as a popular calumny flying about paris with no man to father it, but he had given it to barneveld on the authority of a privy councillor of france and of the king himself. "his majesty knows it to be authentic," he had said in his letter. that letter was a pompous one, full of mystery and so secretly ciphered that he had desired that his friend van der myle, whom he was now deriding for his efforts in paris to save his father-inlaw from his fate, might assist the advocate in unravelling its contents. he had now discovered that it had been idle gossip not worthy of a moment's attention. the reader will remember too that barneveld, without attaching much importance to the tale, had distinctly pointed out to langerac that the prince himself was not implicated in the plot and had instructed the ambassador to communicate the story to maurice. this advice had not been taken, but he had kept the perilous stuff upon his breast. he now sought to lay the blame, if it were possible to do so, upon the man to whom he had communicated it and who had not believed it. the business of the states-general, led by the advocate's enemies this winter, was to accumulate all kind of tales, reports, and accusations to his discredit on which to form something like a bill of indictment. they had demanded all his private and confidential correspondence with caron and langerae. the ambassador in paris had been served, moreover, with a string of nine interrogatories which he was ordered to answer on oath and honour. this he did and appended the reply to his letter. the nine questions had simply for their object to discover what barneveld had been secretly writing to the ambassador concerning the synod, the enlisted troops, and the supposed projects of maurice concerning the sovereignty. langerac was obliged to admit in his replies that nothing had been written except the regular correspondence which he endorsed, and of which the reader has been able to see the sum and substance in the copious extracts which have been given. he stated also that he had never received any secret instructions save the marginal notes to the list of questions addressed by him, when about leaving for paris in , to barneveld. most of these were of a trivial and commonplace nature. they had however a direct bearing on the process to be instituted against the advocate, and the letter too which we have been examining will prove to be of much importance. certainly pains enough were taken to detect the least trace of treason in a very loyal correspondence. langerac concluded by enclosing the barneveld correspondence since the beginning of the year , protesting that not a single letter had been kept back or destroyed. "once more i recommend myself to mercy, if not to favour," he added, "as the most faithful, most obedient, most zealous servant of their high mightinesses and your princely grace, to whom i have devoted and sacrificed my honour and life in most humble service; and am now and forever the most humble, most obedient, most faithful servant of my most serene, most illustrious, most highly born prince, most gracious lord and princeliest grace." the former adherent of plain advocate barneveld could hardly find superlatives enough to bestow upon the man whose displeasure that prisoner had incurred. directly after the arrest the stadholder had resumed his tour through the provinces in order to change the governments. sliding over any opposition which recent events had rendered idle, his course in every city was nearly the same. a regiment or two and a train of eighty or a hundred waggons coming through the city-gate preceded by the prince and his body-guard of , a tramp of halberdmen up the great staircase of the town-hall, a jingle of spurs in the assembly-room, and the whole board of magistrates were summoned into the presence of the stadholder. they were then informed that the world had no further need of their services, and were allowed to bow themselves out of the presence. a new list was then announced, prepared beforehand by maurice on the suggestion of those on whom he could rely. a faint resistance was here and there attempted by magistrates and burghers who could not forget in a moment the rights of self-government and the code of laws which had been enjoyed for centuries. at hoorn, for instance, there was deep indignation among the citizens. an imprudent word or two from the authorities might have brought about a "blood-bath." the burgomaster ventured indeed to expostulate. they requested the prince not to change the magistracy. "this is against our privileges," they said, "which it is our duty to uphold. you will see what deep displeasure will seize the burghers, and how much disturbance and tumult will follow. if any faults have been committed by any member of the government, let him be accused and let him answer for them. let your excellency not only dismiss but punish such as cannot properly justify themselves." but his excellency summoned them all to the town-house and as usual deposed them all. a regiment was drawn up in half-moon on the square beneath the windows. to the magistrates asking why they were deposed, he briefly replied, "the quiet of the land requires it. it is necessary to have unanimous resolutions in the states-general at the hague. this cannot be accomplished without these preliminary changes. i believe that you had good intentions and have been faithful servants of the fatherland. but this time it must be so." and so the faithful servants of the fatherland were dismissed into space. otherwise how could there be unanimous voting in parliament? it must be regarded perhaps as fortunate that the force of character, undaunted courage, and quiet decision of maurice enabled him to effect this violent series of revolutions with such masterly simplicity. it is questionable whether the stadholder's commission technically empowered him thus to trample on municipal law; it is certain that, if it did, the boasted liberties of the netherlands were a dream; but it is equally true that, in the circumstances then existing, a vulgar, cowardly, or incompetent personage might have marked his pathway with massacres without restoring tranquillity. sometimes there was even a comic aspect to these strokes of state. the lists of new magistrates being hurriedly furnished by the prince's adherents to supply the place of those evicted, it often happened that men not quahified by property, residence, or other attributes were appointed to the government, so that many became magistrates before they were citizens. on being respectfully asked sometimes who such a magistrate might be whose face and name were equally unknown to his colleagues and to the townsmen in general; "do i know the fellows?" he would say with a cheerful laugh. and indeed they might have all been dead men, those new functionaries, for aught he did know. and so on through medemblik and alkmaar, brielle, delft, monnikendam, and many other cities progressed the prince, sowing new municipalities broadcast as he passed along. at the hague on his return a vote of thanks to the prince was passed by the nobles and most of the cities for the trouble he had taken in this reforming process. but the unanimous vote had not yet been secured, the strongholds of arminianism, as it was the fashion to call them, not being yet reduced. the prince, in reply to the vote of thanks, said that "in what he had done and was going to do his intention sincerely and uprightly had been no other than to promote the interests and tranquillity of the country, without admixture of anything personal and without prejudice to the general commonwealth or the laws and privileges of the cities." he desired further that "note might be taken of this declaration as record of his good and upright intentions." but the sincerest and most upright intentions may be refracted by party atmosphere from their aim, and the purest gold from the mint elude the direct grasp through the clearest fluid in existence. at any rate it would have been difficult to convince the host of deposed magistrates hurled from office, although recognized as faithful servants of the fatherland, that such violent removal had taken place without detriment to the laws and privileges. and the stadholder went to the few cities where some of the leaven still lingered. he arrived at leyden on the nd october, "accompanied by a great suite of colonels, ritmeesters, and captains," having sent on his body-guard to the town strengthened by other troops. he was received by the magistrates at the "prince's court" with great reverence and entertained by them in the evening at a magnificent banquet. next morning he summoned the whole forty of them to the town-house, disbanded them all, and appointed new ones in their stead; some of the old members however who could be relied upon being admitted to the revolutionized board. the populace, mainly of the stadholder's party, made themselves merry over the discomfited "arminians". they hung wisps of straw as derisive wreaths of triumph over the dismantled palisade lately encircling the town-hall, disposed of the famous "oldenbarneveld's teeth" at auction in the public square, and chased many a poor cock and hen, with their feathers completely plucked from their bodies, about the street, crying "arme haenen, arme haenen"--arminians or poor fowls--according to the practical witticism much esteemed at that period. certainly the unfortunate barneveldians or arminians, or however the remonstrants might be designated, had been sufficiently stripped of their plumes. the prince, after having made proclamation from the town-house enjoining "modesty upon the mob" and a general abstention from "perverseness and petulance," went his way to haarlem, where he dismissed the magistrates and appointed new ones, and then proceeded to rotterdam, to gouda, and to amsterdam. it seemed scarcely necessary to carry, out the process in the commercial capital, the abode of peter plancius, the seat of the west india company, the head-quarters of all most opposed to the advocate, most devoted to the stadholder. but although the majority of the city government was an overwhelming one, there was still a respectable minority who, it was thought possible, might under a change of circumstances effect much mischief and even grow into a majority. the prince therefore summoned the board before him according to his usual style of proceeding and dismissed them all. they submitted without a word of remonstrance. ex-burgomaster hooft, a man of seventy-two-father of the illustrious pieter corneliszoon hooft, one of the greatest historians of the netherlands or of any country, then a man of thirty-seven-shocked at the humiliating silence, asked his colleagues if they had none of them a word to say in defence of their laws and privileges. they answered with one accord "no." the old man, a personal friend of barneveld and born the same year, then got on his feet and addressed the stadholder. he spoke manfully and well, characterizing the summary deposition of the magistracy as illegal and unnecessary, recalling to the memory of those who heard him that he had been thirty-six years long a member of the government and always a warm friend of the house of nassau, and respectfully submitting that the small minority in the municipal government, while differing from their colleagues and from the greater number of the states-general, had limited their opposition to strictly constitutional means, never resorting to acts of violence or to secret conspiracy. nothing could be more truly respectable than the appearance of this ancient magistrate, in long black robe with fur edgings, high ruff around his thin, pointed face, and decent skull-cap covering his bald old head, quavering forth to unsympathetic ears a temperate and unanswerable defence of things which in all ages the noblest minds have deemed most valuable. his harangue was not very long. maurice's reply was very short. "grandpapa," he said, "it must be so this time. necessity and the service of the country require it." with that he dismissed the thirty-six magistrates and next day appointed a new board, who were duly sworn to fidelity to the states-general. of course a large proportion of the old members were renominated. scarcely had the echo of the prince's footsteps ceased to resound through the country as he tramped from one city to another, moulding each to his will, when the states of holland, now thoroughly reorganized, passed a solemn vote of thanks to him for all that he had done. the six cities of the minority had now become the majority, and there was unanimity at the hague. the seven provinces, states-general and states-provincial, were as one, and the synod was secured. whether the prize was worth the sacrifices which it had cost and was still to cost might at least be considered doubtful. etext editor's bookmarks: affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies depths theological party spirit could descend extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence human nature in its meanness and shame it had not yet occurred to him that he was married make the very name of man a term of reproach never lack of fishers in troubled waters opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood pot-valiant hero resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military tempest of passion and prejudice the effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny yes, there are wicked men about the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. life and death of john of barneveld, v , - chapter xix. rancour between the politico-religious parties--spanish intrigues inconsistency of james--brewster and robinson's congregation at leyden--they decide to leave for america--robinson's farewell sermon and prayer at parting. during this dark and mournful winter the internal dissensions and, as a matter of course, the foreign intrigues had become more dangerous than ever. while the man who for a whole generation had guided the policy of the republic and had been its virtual chief magistrate lay hidden from all men's sight, the troubles which he had sought to avert were not diminished by his removal from the scene. the extreme or gomarist party which had taken a pride in secret conventicles where they were in a minority, determined, as they said, to separate christ from belial and, meditating the triumph which they had at last secured, now drove the arminians from the great churches. very soon it was impossible for these heretics to enjoy the rights of public worship anywhere. but they were not dismayed. the canons of dordtrecht had not yet been fulminated. they avowed themselves ready to sacrifice worldly goods and life itself in defence of the five points. in rotterdam, notwithstanding a garrison of fifteen companies, more than a thousand remonstrants assembled on christmas-day in the exchange for want of a more appropriate place of meeting and sang the th psalm in mighty chorus. a clergyman of their persuasion accidentally passing through the street was forcibly laid hands upon and obliged to preach to them, which he did with great unction. the magistracy, where now the contra-remonstrants had the control, forbade, under severe penalties, a repetition of such scenes. it was impossible not to be reminded of the days half a century before, when the early reformers had met in the open fields or among the dunes, armed to the teeth, and with outlying pickets to warn the congregation of the approach of red rod and the functionaries of the holy inquisition. in schoonhoven the authorities attempted one sunday by main force to induct a contra-remonstrant into the pulpit from which a remonstrant had just been expelled. the women of the place turned out with their distaffs and beat them from the field. the garrison was called out, and there was a pitched battle in the streets between soldiers, police officers, and women, not much to the edification certainly of the sabbath-loving community on either side, the victory remaining with the ladies. in short it would be impossible to exaggerate the rancour felt between the different politico-religious parties. all heed for the great war now raging in the outside world between the hostile elements of catholicism and protestantism, embattled over an enormous space, was lost in the din of conflict among the respective supporters of conditional and unconditional damnation within the pale of the reformed church. the earthquake shaking europe rolled unheeded, as it was of old said to have done at cannae, amid the fierce shock of mortal foes in that narrow field. the respect for authority which had so long been the distinguishing characteristic of the netherlanders seemed to have disappeared. it was difficult--now that the time-honoured laws and privileges in defence of which, and of liberty of worship included in them, the provinces had made war forty years long had been trampled upon by military force--for those not warmed by the fire of gomarus to feel their ancient respect for the magistracy. the magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword. the spanish government was inevitably encouraged by the spectacle thus presented. we have seen the strong hopes entertained by the council at madrid, two years before the crisis now existing had occurred. we have witnessed the eagerness with which the king indulged the dream of recovering the sovereignty which his father had lost, and the vast schemes which he nourished towards that purpose, founded on the internal divisions which were reducing the republic to impotence. subsequent events had naturally made him more sanguine than ever. there was now a web of intrigue stretching through the provinces to bring them all back under the sceptre of spain. the imprisonment of the great stipendiary, the great conspirator, the man who had sold himself and was on the point of selling his country, had not terminated those plots. where was the supposed centre of that intrigue? in the council of state of the netherlands, ever fiercely opposed to barneveld and stuffed full of his mortal enemies. whose name was most familiar on the lips of the spanish partisans engaged in these secret schemes? that of adrian manmaker, president of the council, representative of prince maurice as first noble of zealand in the states-general, chairman of the committee sent by that body to utrecht to frustrate the designs of the advocate, and one of the twenty-four commissioners soon to be appointed to sit in judgment upon him. the tale seems too monstrous for belief, nor is it to be admitted with certainty, that manmaker and the other councillors implicated had actually given their adhesion to the plot, because the spanish emissaries in their correspondence with the king assured him of the fact. but if such a foundation for suspicion could have been found against barneveld and his friends, the world would not have heard the last of it from that hour to this. it is superfluous to say that the prince was entirely foreign to these plans. he had never been mentioned as privy to the little arrangements of councillor du agean and others, although he was to benefit by them. in the spanish schemes he seems to have been considered as an impediment, although indirectly they might tend to advance him. "we have managed now, i hope, that his majesty will be recognized as sovereign of the country," wrote the confidential agent of the king of spain in the netherlands, emmanuel sueyro, to the government of madrid. "the english will oppose it with all their strength. but they can do nothing except by making count maurice sovereign of holland and duke of julich and cleve. maurice will also contrive to make himself master of wesel, so it is necessary for the archduke to be beforehand with him and make sure of the place. it is also needful that his majesty should induce the french government to talk with the netherlanders and convince them that it is time to prolong the truce." this was soon afterwards accomplished. the french minister at brussels informed archduke albert that du maurier had been instructed to propose the prolongation, and that he had been conferring with the prince of orange and the states-general on the subject. at first the prince had expressed disinclination, but at the last interview both he and the states had shown a desire for it, and the french king had requested from the archduke a declaration whether the spanish government would be willing to treat for it. in such case lewis would offer himself as mediator and do his best to bring about a successful result. but it was not the intention of the conspirators in the netherlands that the truce should be prolonged. on the contrary the negotiation for it was merely to furnish the occasion for fully developing their plot. "the states and especially those of zealand will reply that they no longer wish the truce," continued sueyro, "and that they would prefer war to such a truce. they desire to put ships on the coast of flanders, to which the hollanders are opposed because it would be disagreeable to the french. so the zealanders will be the first to say that the netherlanders must come back to his majesty. this their president hanmaker has sworn. the states of overyssel will likewise give their hand to this because they say they will be the first to feel the shock of the war. thus we shall very easily carry out our design, and as we shall concede to the zealanders their demands in regard to the navigation they at least will place themselves under the dominion of his majesty as will be the case with friesland as well as overyssel." it will be observed that in this secret arrangement for selling the republic to its ancient master it was precisely the provinces and the politicians most steadily opposed to barneveld that took the lead. zealand, friesland, overyssel were in the plot, but not a word was said of utrecht. as for holland itself, hopes were founded on the places where hatred to the advocate was fiercest. "between ourselves," continued the agent, "we are ten here in the government of holland to support the plan, but we must not discover ourselves for fear of suffering what has happened to barneveld." he added that the time for action had not yet come, and that if movements were made before the synod had finished its labours, "the gomarists would say that they were all sold." he implored the government at madrid to keep the whole matter for the present profoundly secret because "prince maurice and the gomarists had the forces of the country at their disposition." in case the plot was sprung too suddenly therefore, he feared that with the assistance of england maurice might, at the head of the gomarists and the army, make himself sovereign of holland and duke of cleve, while he and the rest of the spanish partisans might be in prison with barneveld for trying to accomplish what barneveld had been trying to prevent. the opinions and utterances of such a man as james i. would be of little worth to our history had he not happened to occupy the place he did. but he was a leading actor in the mournful drama which filled up the whole period of the twelve years' truce. his words had a direct influence on great events. he was a man of unquestionable erudition, of powers of mind above the average, while the absolute deformity of his moral constitution made him incapable of thinking, feeling, or acting rightly on any vital subject, by any accident or on any occasion. if there were one thing that he thoroughly hated in the world, it was the reformed religion. if in his thought there were one term of reproach more loathsome than another to be applied to a human creature, it was the word puritan. in the word was subversion of all established authority in church and state--revolution, republicanism, anarchy. "there are degrees in heaven," he was wont to say, "there are degrees in hell, there must be degrees on earth." he forbade the calvinist churches of scotland to hold their customary synod in , passionately reviling them and their belief, and declaring "their aim to be nothing else than to deprive kings and princes of their sovereignty, and to reduce the whole world to a popular form of government where everybody would be master." when the prince of neuburg embraced catholicism, thus complicating matters in the duchies and strengthening the hand of spain and the emperor in the debateable land, he seized the occasion to assure the agent of the archduke in london, councillor boissetot, of his warm catholic sympathies. "they say that i am the greatest heretic in the world!" he exclaimed; "but i will never deny that the true religion is that of rome even if corrupted." he expressed his belief in the real presence, and his surprise that the roman catholics did not take the chalice for the blood of christ. the english bishops, he averred, drew their consecration through the bishops in mary tudor's time from the pope. as philip ii., and ferdinand ii. echoing the sentiments of his illustrious uncle, had both sworn they would rather reign in a wilderness than tolerate a single heretic in their dominions, so james had said "he would rather be a hermit in a forest than a king over such people as the pack of puritans were who overruled the lower house." for the netherlanders he had an especial hatred, both as rebels and puritans. soon after coming to the english throne he declared that their revolt, which had been going on all his lifetime and of which he never expected to see the end, had begun by petition for matters of religion. "his mother and he from their cradles," he said, "had been haunted with a puritan devil, which he feared would not leave him to his grave. and he would hazard his crown but he would suppress those malicious spirits." it seemed a strange caprice of destiny that assigned to this hater of netherlanders, of puritans, and of the reformed religion, the decision of disputed points between puritans and anti-puritans in the reformed church of the netherlands. it seemed stranger that his opinions should be hotly on the side of the puritans. barneveld, who often used the expression in later years, as we have seen in his correspondence, was opposed to the dutch puritans because they had more than once attempted subversion of the government on pretext of religion, especially at the memorable epoch of leicester's government. the business of stirring up these religious conspiracies against the magistracy he was apt to call "flanderizing," in allusion to those disastrous days and to the origin of the ringleaders in those tumults. but his main object, as we have seen, was to effect compromises and restore good feeling between members of the one church, reserving the right of disposing over religious matters to the government of the respective provinces. but james had remedied his audacious inconsistency by discovering that puritanism in england and in the netherlands resembled each other no more than certain letters transposed into totally different words meant one and the same thing. the anagrammatic argument had been neatly put by sir dudley carleton, convincing no man. puritanism in england "denied the right of human invention or imposition in religious matters." puritanism in the netherlands denied the right of the legal government to impose its authority in religious matters. this was the great matter of debate in the provinces. in england the argument had been settled very summarily against the puritans by sheriffs' officers, bishops' pursuivants, and county jails. as the political tendencies, so too the religious creed and observances of the english puritans were identical with that of the contra-remonstrants, whom king james had helped to their great triumph. this was not very difficult to prove. it so happened that there were some english puritans living at that moment in leyden. they formed an independent society by themselves, which they called a congregational church, and in which were some three hundred communicants. the length of their residence there was almost exactly coeval with the twelve years' truce. they knew before leaving england that many relics of the roman ceremonial, with which they were dissatisfied, and for the discontinuance of which they had in vain petitioned the crown--the ring, the sign of the cross, white surplices, and the like--besides the whole hierarchical system, had been disused in the reformed churches of france, switzerland, and the united provinces, where the forms of worship in their view had been brought more nearly to the early apostolic model. they admitted for truth the doctrinal articles of the dutch reformed churches. they had not come to the netherlands without cause. at an early period of king james's reign this congregation of seceders from the establishment had been wont to hold meetings at scrooby in nottinghamshire, once a manor of the archbishop of york, but then the residence of one william brewster. this was a gentleman of some fortune, educated at cambridge, a good scholar, who in queen elizabeth's time had been in the service of william davison when secretary of state. he seemed to have been a confidential private secretary of that excellent and unlucky statesman, who found him so discreet and faithful as to deserve employment before all others in matters of trust and secrecy. he was esteemed by davison "rather as a son than a servant," and he repaid his confidence by doing him many faithful offices in the time of his troubles. he had however long since retired from connection with public affairs, living a retired life, devoted to study, meditation, and practical exertion to promote the cause of religion, and in acts of benevolence sometimes beyond his means. the pastor of the scrooby church, one john robinson, a graduate of cambridge, who had been a benefited clergyman in norfolk, was a man of learning, eloquence, and lofty intellect. but what were such good gifts in the possession of rebels, seceders, and puritans? it is needless to say that brewster and robinson were baited, persecuted, watched day and night, some of the congregation often clapped into prison, others into the stocks, deprived of the means of livelihood, outlawed, famished, banned. plainly their country was no place for them. after a few years of such work they resolved to establish themselves in holland, where at least they hoped to find refuge and toleration. but it proved as difficult for them to quit the country as to remain in it. watched and hunted like gangs of coiners, forgers, or other felons attempting to flee from justice, set upon by troopers armed with "bills and guns and other weapons," seized when about to embark, pillaged and stripped by catchpoles, exhibited as a show to grinning country folk, the women and children dealt with like drunken tramps, led before magistrates, committed to jail; mr. brewster and six other of the principal ones being kept in prison and bound over to the assizes; they were only able after attempts lasting through two years' time to effect their escape to amsterdam. after remaining there a year they had removed to leyden, which they thought "a fair and beautiful city, and of a sweet situation." they settled in leyden in the very year in which arminius was buried beneath the pavement of st. peter's church in that town. it was the year too in which the truce was signed. they were a singularly tranquil and brotherly community. their pastor, who was endowed with remarkable gentleness and tact in dealing with his congregation, settled amicably all their occasional disputes. the authorities of the place held them up as a model. to a walloon congregation in which there were many troublesome and litigious members they said: "these english have lived among us ten years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation against any of them, but your quarrels are continual." although many of them were poor, finding it difficult to earn their living in a foreign land among people speaking a strange tongue, and with manners and habits differing from their own, and where they were obliged to learn new trades, having most of them come out of an agricultural population, yet they enjoyed a singular reputation for probity. bakers and butchers and the like willingly gave credit to the poorest of these english, and sought their custom if known to be of the congregation. mr. brewster, who had been reduced almost to poverty by his charities and munificent aid to his struggling brethren, earned his living by giving lessons in english, having first composed a grammar according to the latin model for the use of his pupils. he also set up a printing establishment, publishing many controversial works prohibited in england, a proceeding which roused the wrath of carleton, impelling him to do his best to have him thrown into prison. it was not the first time that this plain, mechanical, devout englishman, now past middle age, had visited the netherlands. more than twenty-five years before he had accompanied william davison on his famous embassy to the states, as private secretary. when the keys of flushing, one of the cautionary towns, were committed to the ambassador, he confided them to the care of brewster, who slept with them under his pillow. the gold chain which davison received as a present from the provincial government on leaving the country was likewise placed in his keeping, with orders to wear it around his neck until they should appear before the queen. to a youth of ease and affluence, familiar with ambassadors and statesmen and not unknown at courts, had succeeded a mature age of obscurity, deep study, and poverty. no human creature would have heard of him had his career ended with his official life. two centuries and a half have passed away and the name of the outlawed puritan of scrooby and leyden is still familiar to millions of the english race. all these englishmen were not poor. many of them occupied houses of fair value, and were admitted to the freedom of the city. the pastor with three of his congregation lived in a comfortable mansion, which they had purchased for the considerable sum of florins, and on the garden of which they subsequently erected twenty-one lesser tenements for the use of the poorer brethren. mr. robinson was himself chosen a member of the famous university and admitted to its privileges. during his long residence in leyden, besides the daily care of his congregation, spiritual and temporal, he wrote many learned works. thus the little community, which grew gradually larger by emigration from england, passed many years of tranquillity. their footsteps were not dogged by constables and pursuivants, they were not dragged daily before the magistrates, they were not thrown into the town jails, they were not hunted from place to place with bows and bills and mounted musketeers. they gave offence to none, and were respected by all. "such was their singleheartedness and sincere affection one towards another," says their historian and magistrate, "that they came as near the primitive pattern of the first churches as any other church of these later times has done, according to their rank and quality." here certainly were english puritans more competent than any men else in the world to judge if it were a slander upon the english government to identify them with dutch puritans. did they sympathize with the party in holland which the king, who had so scourged and trampled upon themselves in england, was so anxious to crush, the hated arminians? did they abhor the contra-remonstrants whom james and his ambassador carleton doted upon and whom barneveld called "double puritans" and "flanderizers?" their pastor may answer for himself and his brethren. "we profess before god and men," said robinson in his apologia, "that we agree so entirely with the reformed dutch churches in the matter of religion as to be ready to subscribe to all and each of their articles exactly as they are set forth in the netherland confession. we acknowledge those reformed churches as true and genuine, we profess and cultivate communion with them as much as in us lies. those of us who understand the dutch language attend public worship under their pastors. we administer the holy supper to such of their members as, known to us, appear at our meetings." this was the position of the puritans. absolute, unqualified accordance with the contra-remonstrants. as the controversy grew hot in the university between the arminians and their adversaries, mr. robinson, in the language of his friend bradford, became "terrible to the arminians . . . . who so greatly molested the whole state and that city in particular." when episcopius, the arminian professor of theology, set forth sundry theses, challenging all the world to the onset, it was thought that "none was fitter to buckle with them" than robinson. the orthodox professor polyander so importuned the english puritan to enter the lists on behalf of the contra-remonstrants that at last he consented and overthrew the challenger, horse and man, in three successive encounters. such at least was the account given by his friend and admirer the historian. "the lord did so help him to defend the truth and foil this adversary as he put him to an apparent nonplus in this great and public audience. and the like he did a second or third time upon such like occasions," said bradford, adding that, if it had not been for fear of offending the english government, the university would have bestowed preferments and honours upon the champion. we are concerned with this ancient and exhausted controversy only for the intense light it threw, when burning, on the history which occupies us. of the extinct volcano itself which once caused such devastation, and in which a great commonwealth was well-nigh swallowed up, little is left but slag and cinders. the past was made black and barren with them. let us disturb them as little as possible. the little english congregation remained at leyden till toward the end of the truce, thriving, orderly, respected, happy. they were witnesses to the tumultuous, disastrous, and tragical events which darkened the republic in those later years, themselves unobserved and unmolested. not a syllable seems to remain on record of the views or emotions which may have been excited by those scenes in their minds, nor is there a trace left on the national records of the netherlands of their protracted residence on the soil. they got their living as best they might by weaving, printing, spinning, and other humble trades; they borrowed money on mortgages, they built houses, they made wills, and such births, deaths, and marriages as occurred among them were registered by the town-clerk. and at last for a variety of reasons they resolved to leave the netherlands. perhaps the solution of the problem between church and state in that country by the temporary subjection of state to church may have encouraged them to realize a more complete theocracy, if a sphere of action could be found where the experiment might be tried without a severe battle against time-hallowed institutions and vested rights. perhaps they were appalled by the excesses into which men of their own religious sentiments had been carried by theological and political passion. at any rate depart they would; the larger half of the congregation remaining behind however till the pioneers should have broken the way, and in their own language "laid the stepping-stones." they had thought of the lands beneath the equator, raleigh having recently excited enthusiasm by his poetical descriptions of guiana. but the tropical scheme was soon abandoned. they had opened negotiations with the stadholder and the states-general through amsterdam merchants in regard to settling in new amsterdam, and offered to colonize that country if assured of the protection of the united provinces. their petition had been rejected. they had then turned their faces to their old master and their own country, applying to the virginia company for a land-patent, which they were only too happy to promise, and to the king for liberty of religion in the wilderness confirmed under his broad seal, which his majesty of course refused. it was hinted however that james would connive at them and not molest them if they carried themselves peaceably. so they resolved to go without the seal, for, said their magistrate very wisely, "if there should be a purpose or desire to wrong them, a seal would not serve their turn though it were as broad as the house-floor." before they left leyden, their pastor preached to them a farewell sermon, which for loftiness of spirit and breadth of vision has hardly a parallel in that age of intolerance. he laid down the principle that criticism of the scriptures had not been exhausted merely because it had been begun; that the human conscience was of too subtle a nature to be imprisoned for ever in formulas however ingeniously devised; that the religious reformation begun a century ago was not completed; and that the creator had not necessarily concluded all his revelations to mankind. the words have long been familiar to students of history, but they can hardly be too often laid to heart. noble words, worthy to have been inscribed over the altar of the first church to be erected by the departing brethren, words to bear fruit after centuries should go by. had not the deeply injured and misunderstood grotius already said, "if the trees we plant do not shade us, they will yet serve for our descendants?" yet it is passing strange that the preacher of that sermon should be the recent champion of the contra-remonstrants in the great controversy; the man who had made himself so terrible to the pupils of the gentle and tolerant arminius. and thus half of that english congregation went down to delftshaven, attended by the other half who were to follow at a later period with their beloved pastor. there was a pathetic leave-taking. even many of the hollanders, mere casual spectators, were in tears. robinson, kneeling on the deck of the little vessel, offered a prayer and a farewell. who could dream that this departure of an almost nameless band of emigrants to the wilderness was an epoch in the world's history? yet these were the pilgrim fathers of new england, the founders of what was to be the mightiest republic of modern history, mighty and stable because it had been founded upon an idea. they were not in search of material comfort and the chances of elevating their condition, by removing from an overpeopled country to an organized commonwealth, offering a wide field for pauper labourers. some of them were of good social rank and highest education, most of them in decent circumstances, none of them in absolute poverty. and a few years later they were to be joined by a far larger company with leaders and many brethren of ancient birth and landed possessions, men of "education, figure; and estate," all ready to convert property into cash and to place it in joint-stock, not as the basis of promising speculation, but as the foundation of a church. it signifies not how much or how little one may sympathize with their dogma or their discipline now. to the fact that the early settlement of that wilderness was by self-sacrificing men of earnestness and faith, who were bent on "advancing the gospel of christ in remote parts of the world," in the midst of savage beasts, more savage men, and unimaginable difficulties and dangers, there can be little doubt that the highest forms of western civilization are due. through their provisional theocracy, the result of the independent church system was to establish the true purport of the reformation, absolute religious equality. civil and political equality followed as a matter of course. two centuries and a half have passed away. there are now some seventy or eighty millions of the english-speaking race on both sides the atlantic, almost equally divided between the united kingdom and the united republic, and the departure of those outcasts of james has interest and significance for them all. most fitly then, as a distinguished american statesman has remarked, does that scene on board the little english vessel, with the english pastor uttering his farewell blessing to a handful of english exiles for conscience sake; depicted on canvas by eminent artists, now adorn the halls of the american congress and of the british parliament. sympathy with one of the many imperishable bonds of union between the two great and scarcely divided peoples. we return to barneveld in his solitary prison. chapter xx. barneveld's imprisonment--ledenberg's examination and death-- remonstrance of de boississe--aerssens admitted to the order of knights--trial of the advocate--barneveld's defence--the states proclaim a public fast--du maurier's speech before the assembly-- barneveld's sentence--barneveld prepares for death--goes to execution. the advocate had been removed within a few days after the arrest from the chamber in maurice's apartments, where he had originally been confined, and was now in another building. it was not a dungeon nor a jail. indeed the commonplace and domestic character of the scenery in which these great events were transacted has in it something pathetic. there was and still remains a two-storied structure, then of modern date, immediately behind the antique hall of the old counts within the binnenhof. on the first floor was a courtroom of considerable extent, the seat of one of the chief tribunals of justice the story above was divided into three chambers with a narrow corridor on each side. the first chamber, on the north-eastern side, was appropriated for the judges when the state prisoners should be tried. in the next hugo grotius was imprisoned. in the third was barneveld. there was a tower at the north-east angle of the building, within which a winding and narrow staircase of stone led up to the corridor and so to the prisoners' apartments. rombout hoogerbeets was confined in another building. as the advocate, bent with age and a life of hard work, and leaning on his staff, entered the room appropriated to him, after toiling up the steep staircase, he observed-- "this is the admiral of arragon's apartment." it was true. eighteen years before, the conqueror of nieuwpoort had assigned this lodging to the chief prisoner of war in that memorable victory over the spaniards, and now maurice's faithful and trusted counsellor at that epoch was placed in durance here, as the result of the less glorious series of victories which had just been achieved. it was a room of moderate dimensions, some twenty-five feet square, with a high vaulted roof and decently furnished. below and around him in the courtyard were the scenes of the advocate's life-long and triumphant public services. there in the opposite building were the windows of the beautiful "hall of truce," with its sumptuous carvings and gildings, its sculptures and portraits, where he had negotiated with the representatives of all the great powers of christendom the famous treaty which had suspended the war of forty years, and where he was wont almost daily to give audience to the envoys of the greatest sovereigns or the least significant states of europe and asia, all of whom had been ever solicitous of his approbation and support. farther along in the same building was the assembly room of the states-general, where some of the most important affairs of the republic and of europe had for years been conducted, and where he had been so indispensable that, in the words of a contemporary who loved him not, "absolutely nothing could be transacted in his absence, all great affairs going through him alone." there were two dull windows, closely barred, looking northward over an irregular assemblage of tile-roofed houses and chimney-stacks, while within a stone's throw to the west, but unseen, was his own elegant mansion on the voorhout, surrounded by flower gardens and shady pleasure grounds, where now sat his aged wife and her children all plunged in deep affliction. he was allowed the attendance of a faithful servant, jan franken by name, and a sentinel stood constantly before his door. his papers had been taken from him, and at first he was deprived of writing materials. he had small connection with the outward world. the news of the municipal revolution which had been effected by the stadholder had not penetrated to his solitude, but his wife was allowed to send him fruit from their garden. one day a basket of fine saffron pears was brought to him. on slicing one with a knife he found a portion of a quill inside it. within the quill was a letter on thinnest paper, in minutest handwriting in latin. it was to this effect. "don't rely upon the states of holland, for the prince of orange has changed the magistracies in many cities. dudley carleton is not your friend." a sergeant of the guard however, before bringing in these pears, had put a couple of them in his pocket to take home to his wife. the letter, copies of which perhaps had been inserted for safety in several of them, was thus discovered and the use of this ingenious device prevented for the future. secretary ledenberg, who had been brought to the hague in the early days of september, was the first of the prisoners subjected to examination. he was much depressed at the beginning of it, and is said to have exclaimed with many sighs, "oh barneveld, barneveld, what have you brought us to!" he confessed that the waartgelders at utrecht had been enlisted on notification by the utrecht deputies in the hague with knowledge of barneveld, and in consequence of a resolution of the states in order to prevent internal tumults. he said that the advocate had advised in the previous month of march a request to the prince not to come to utrecht; that the communication of the message, in regard to disbanding the waartgelders, to his excellency had been postponed after the deputies of the states of holland had proposed a delay in that disbandment; that those deputies had come to utrecht of their own accord; . . . . that they had judged it possible to keep everything in proper order in utrecht if the garrison in the city paid by holland were kept quiet, and if the states of utrecht gave similar orders to the waartgelders; for they did not believe that his excellency would bring in troops from the outside. he said that he knew nothing of a new oath to be demanded of the garrison. he stated that the advocate, when at utrecht, had exhorted the states, according to his wont, to maintain their liberties and privileges, representing to them that the right to decide on the synod and the waartgelders belonged to them. lastly, he denied knowing who was the author of the balance, except by common report. now these statements hardly amounted to a confession of abominable and unpardonable crimes by ledenberg, nor did they establish a charge of high-treason and corrupt correspondence with the enemy against barneveld. it is certain that the extent of the revelations seemed far from satisfactory to the accusers, and that some pressure would be necessary in order to extract anything more conclusive. lieutenant nythof told grotius that ledenberg had accordingly been threatened with torture, and that the executioner had even handled him for that purpose. this was however denied by the judges of instruction who had been charged with the preliminary examination. that examination took place on the th september. after it had been concluded, ledenberg prayed long and earnestly on returning to prison. he then entrusted a paper written in french to his son joost, a boy of eighteen, who did not understand that language. the youth had been allowed to keep his father company in his confinement, and slept in the same room. the next night but one, at two o'clock, joost heard his father utter a deep groan. he was startled, groped in the darkness towards his bed and felt his arm, which was stone cold. he spoke to him and received no answer. he gave the alarm, the watch came in with lights, and it was found that ledenberg had given himself two mortal wounds in the abdomen with a penknife and then cut his throat with a table-knife which he had secreted, some days before, among some papers. the paper in french given to his son was found to be to this effect. "i know that there is an inclination to set an example in my person, to confront me with my best friends, to torture me, afterwards to convict me of contradictions and falsehoods as they say, and then to found an ignominious sentence upon points and trifles, for this it will be necessary to do in order to justify the arrest and imprisonment. to escape all this i am going to god by the shortest road. against a dead man there can be pronounced no sentence of confiscation of property. done th september (o. s.) ." the family of the unhappy gentleman begged his body for decent burial. the request was refused. it was determined to keep the dead secretary above ground and in custody until he could be tried, and, if possible, convicted and punished. it was to be seen whether it were so easy to baffle the power of the states-general, the synod, and the stadholder, and whether "going to god by the shortest road" was to save a culprit's carcass from ignominy, and his property from confiscation. the french ambassadors, who had been unwearied in their endeavour to restore harmony to the distracted commonwealth before the arrest of the prisoners, now exerted themselves to throw the shield of their sovereign's friendship around the illustrious statesman and his fellow-sufferers. "it is with deepest sorrow," said de boississe, "that i have witnessed the late hateful commotions. especially from my heart i grieve for the arrest of the seignior barneveld, who with his discretion and wise administration for the past thirty years has so drawn the hearts of all neighbouring princes to himself, especially that of the king my master, that on taking up my pen to apprize him of these events i am gravely embarrassed, fearing to infringe on the great respect due to your mightinesses or against the honour and merits of the seignior barneveld. . . . my lords, take heed to your situation, for a great discontent is smouldering among your citizens. until now, the union has been the chief source of your strength. and i now fear that the king my master, the adviser of your renowned commonwealth, maybe offended that you have taken this resolution after consulting with others, and without communicating your intention to his ambassador . . . . it is but a few days that an open edict was issued testifying to the fidelity of barneveld, and can it be possible that within so short a time you have discovered that you have been deceived? i summon you once more in the name of the king to lay aside all passion, to judge these affairs without partiality, and to inform me what i am to say to the king. such very conflicting accounts are given of these transactions that i must beg you to confide to me the secret of the affair. the wisest in the land speak so strongly of these proceedings that it will be no wonder if the king my master should give me orders to take the seignior barneveld under his protection. should this prove to be the case, your lordships will excuse my course . . . i beg you earnestly in your wisdom not to give cause of offence to neighbouring princes, especially to my sovereign, who wishes from his heart to maintain your dignity and interests and to assure you of his friendship." the language was vigorous and sincere, but the ambassador forgot that the france of to-day was not the france of yesterday; that louis xiii. was not henry iv.; that it was but a cheerful fiction to call the present king the guide and counsellor of the republic, and that, distraught as she was by the present commotions, her condition was strength and tranquillity compared with the apparently decomposing and helpless state of the once great kingdom of france. de boississe took little by his demonstration. on the th december both de boississe and du maurier came before the states-general once more, and urged a speedy and impartial trial for the illustrious prisoners. if they had committed acts of treason and rebellion, they deserved exemplary punishment, but the ambassadors warned the states-general with great earnestness against the dangerous doctrine of constructive treason, and of confounding acts dictated by violence of party spirit at an excited period with the crime of high-treason against the sovereignty of the state. "barneveld so honourable," they said, "for his immense and long continued services has both this republic and all princes and commonwealths for his witnesses. it is most difficult to believe that he has attempted the destruction of his fatherland, for which you know that he has toiled so faithfully." they admitted that so grave charges ought now to be investigated. "to this end," said the ambassadors, "you ought to give him judges who are neither suspected nor impassioned, and who will decide according to the laws of the land, and on clear and undeniable evidence . . . . so doing you will show to the whole world that you are worthy to possess and to administer this commonwealth to whose government god has called you." should they pursue another and a sterner course, the envoys warned the assembly that the king would be deeply offended, deeming it thus proved how little value they set upon his advice and his friendship. the states-general replied on the th december, assuring the ambassadors that the delay in the trial was in order to make the evidence of the great conspiracy complete, and would not tend to the prejudice of the prisoners "if they had a good consciousness of their innocence." they promised that the sentence upon them when pronounced would give entire satisfaction to all their allies and to the king of france in particular, of whom they spoke throughout the document in terms of profound respect. but they expressed their confidence that "his majesty would not place the importunate and unfounded solicitations of a few particular criminals or their supporters before the general interests of the dignity and security of the republic." on the same day the states-general addressed a letter filled with very elaborate and courteous commonplaces to the king, in which they expressed a certainty that his majesty would be entirely satisfied with their actions. the official answer of the states-general to the ambassadors, just cited, gave but little comfort to the friends of the imprisoned statesman and his companions. such expressions as "ambitious and factious spirits,"--"authors and patrons of the faction,"--"attempts at novelty through changes in religion, in justice and in the fundamental laws of all orders of polity," and the frequent mention of the word "conspiracy" boded little good. information of this condition of affairs was conveyed to hoogerbeets and grotius by means of an ingenious device of the distinguished scholar, who was then editing the latin works of the hague poet, janus secundus. while the sheets were going through the press, some of the verses were left out, and their place supplied by others conveying the intelligence which it was desired to send to the prisoners. the pages which contained the secret were stitched together in such wise that in cutting the book open they were not touched but remained closed. the verses were to this effect. "the examination of the advocate proceeds slowly, but there is good hope from the serious indignation of the french king, whose envoys are devoted to the cause of the prisoners, and have been informed that justice will be soon rendered. the states of holland are to assemble on the th january, at which a decision will certainly be taken for appointing judges. the preachers here at leyden are despised, and men are speaking strongly of war. the tumult which lately occurred at rotterdam may bring forth some good." the quick-wited grotius instantly discovered the device, read the intelligence thus communicated in the proofsheets of secundus, and made use of the system to obtain further intelligence. hoogerbeets laid the book aside, not taking much interest at that time in the works of the hague poet. constant efforts made to attract his attention to those poems however excited suspicion among his keepers, and the scheme was discovered before the leyden pensionary had found the means to profit by it.' the allusions to the trial of the advocate referred to the preliminary examination which took place, like the first interrogatories of grotius and hoogerbeets, in the months of november and december. the thorough manner in which maurice had reformed the states of holland has been described. there was one department of that body however which still required attention. the order of knights, small in number but potential in influence, which always voted first on great occasions, was still through a majority of its members inclined to barneveld. both his sons-in-law had seats in that college. the stadholder had long believed in a spirit of hostility on the part of those nobles towards himself. he knew that a short time before this epoch there had been a scheme for introducing his young brother, frederic henry, into the chamber of knights. the count had become proprietor of the barony of naaldwyk, a property which he had purchased of the counts of arenberg, and which carried with it the hereditary dignity of great equerry of the counts of holland. as the counts of holland had ceased to exist, although their sovereignty had nearly been revived and conferred upon william the silent, the office of their chief of the stables might be deemed a sinecure. but the jealousy of maurice was easily awakened, especially by any movement made or favoured by the advocate. he believed that in the election of frederic henry as a member of the college of knights a plan lay concealed to thrust him into power and to push this elder brother from his place. the scheme, if scheme it were, was never accomplished, but the prince's rancour remained. he now informed the nobles that they must receive into their body francis aerssens, who had lately purchased the barony of sommelsdyk, and daniel de hartaing, seignior of marquette. with the presence of this deadly enemy of barneveld and another gentleman equally devoted to the stadholder's interest it seemed probable that the refractory majority of the board of nobles would be overcome. but there were grave objections to the admission of these new candidates. they were not eligible. the constitution of the states and of the college of nobles prescribed that hollanders only of ancient and noble race and possessing estates in the province could sit in that body. neither aerssens nor hartaing was born in holland or possessed of the other needful qualifications. nevertheless, the prince, who had just remodelled all the municipalities throughout the union which offered resistance to his authority, was not to be checked by so trifling an impediment as the statutes of the house of nobles. he employed very much the same arguments which he had used to "good papa" hooft. "this time it must be so." another time it might not be necessary. so after a controversy which ended as controversies are apt to do when one party has a sword in his hand and the other is seated at a green-baize-covered table, sommelsdyk and marquette took their seats among the knights. of course there was a spirited protest. nothing was easier for the stadholder than to concede the principle while trampling it with his boot-heels in practice. "whereas it is not competent for the said two gentlemen to be admitted to our board," said the nobles in brief, "as not being constitutionally eligible, nevertheless, considering the strong desire of his excellency the prince of orange, we, the nobles and knights of holland, admit them with the firm promise to each other by noble and knightly faith ever in future for ourselves and descendants to maintain the privileges of our order now violated and never again to let them be directly or indirectly infringed." and so aerssens, the unscrupulous plotter, and dire foe of the advocate and all his house, burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received from him during many years, and the author of the venomous pamphlets and diatribes which had done so much of late to blacken the character of the great statesman before the public, now associated himself officially with his other enemies, while the preliminary proceedings for the state trials went forward. meantime the synod had met at dordtrecht. the great john bogerman, with fierce, handsome face, beak and eye of a bird of prey, and a deluge of curly brown beard reaching to his waist, took his seat as president. short work was made with the armenians. they and their five points were soon thrust out into outer darkness. it was established beyond all gainsaying that two forms of divine worship in one country were forbidden by god's word, and that thenceforth by netherland law there could be but one religion, namely, the reformed or calvinistic creed. it was settled that one portion of the netherlanders and of the rest of the human race had been expressly created by the deity to be for ever damned, and another portion to be eternally blessed. but this history has little to do with that infallible council save in the political effect of its decrees on the fate of barneveld. it was said that the canons of dordtrecht were likely to shoot off the head of the advocate. their sessions and the trial of the advocate were simultaneous, but not technically related to each other. the conclusions of both courts were preordained, for the issue of the great duel between priesthood and state had been decided when the military chieftain threw his sword into the scale of the church. there had been purposely a delay, before coming to a decision as to the fate of the state prisoners, until the work of the synod should have approached completion. it was thought good that the condemnation of the opinions of the arminians and the chastisement of their leaders should go hand-in-hand. on the rd april , the canons were signed by all the members of the synod. arminians were pronounced heretics, schismatics, teachers of false doctrines. they were declared incapable of filling any clerical or academical post. no man thenceforth was to teach children, lecture to adolescents, or preach to the mature, unless a subscriber to the doctrines of the unchanged, unchangeable, orthodox church. on the th april and st may the netherland confession and the heidelberg catechism were declared to be infallible. no change was to be possible in either formulary. schools and pulpits were inexorably bound to the only true religion. on the th may there was a great festival at dordtrecht in honour of the conclusion of the synod. the canons, the sentence, and long prayers and orations in latin by president bogerman gladdened the souls of an immense multitude, which were further enlivened by the decree that both creed and catechism had stood the test of several criticisms and come out unchanged by a single hair. nor did the orator of the occasion forget to render thanks "to the most magnanimous king james of great britain, through whose godly zeal, fiery sympathy, and truly royal labour god had so often refreshed the weary synod in the midst of their toil." the synod held one hundred and eighty sessions between the th november and th may , all the doings of which have been recorded in chronicles innumerable. there need be no further mention of them here. barneveld and the companions of his fate remained in prison. on the th march the trial of the great advocate began. he had sat in prison since the th of the preceding august. for nearly seven months he had been deprived of all communication with the outward world save such atoms of intelligence as could be secretly conveyed to him in the inside of a quill concealed in a pear and by other devices. the man who had governed one of the most important commonwealths of the world for nearly a generation long--during the same period almost controlling the politics of europe--had now been kept in ignorance of the most insignificant everyday events. during the long summer-heat of the dog-days immediately succeeding his arrest, and the long, foggy, snowy, icy winter of holland which ensued, he had been confined in that dreary garret-room to which he had been brought when he left his temporary imprisonment in the apartments of prince maurice. there was nothing squalid in the chamber, nothing specially cruel or repulsive in the arrangements of his captivity. he was not in fetters, nor fed upon bread and water. he was not put upon the rack, nor even threatened with it as ledenberg had been. he was kept in a mean, commonplace, meagerly furnished, tolerably spacious room, and he was allowed the services of his faithful domestic servant john franken. a sentinel paced day and night up the narrow corridor before his door. as spring advanced, the notes of the nightingale came through the prison-window from the neighbouring thicket. one day john franken, opening the window that his master might the better enjoy its song, exchanged greeting with a fellow-servant in the barneveld mansion who happened to be crossing the courtyard. instantly workmen were sent to close and barricade the windows, and it was only after earnest remonstrances and pledges that this resolve to consign the advocate to darkness was abandoned. he was not permitted the help of lawyer, clerk, or man of business. alone and from his chamber of bondage, suffering from bodily infirmities and from the weakness of advancing age, he was compelled to prepare his defence against a vague, heterogeneous collection of charges, to meet which required constant reference, not only to the statutes, privileges, and customs of the country and to the roman law, but to a thousand minute incidents out of which the history of the provinces during the past dozen years or more had been compounded. it is true that no man could be more familiar with the science and practice of the law than he was, while of contemporary history he was himself the central figure. his biography was the chronicle of his country. nevertheless it was a fearful disadvantage for him day by day to confront two dozen hostile judges comfortably seated at a great table piled with papers, surrounded by clerks with bags full of documents and with a library of authorities and precedents duly marked and dog's-eared and ready to their hands, while his only library and chronicle lay in his brain. from day to day, with frequent intermissions, he was led down through the narrow turret-stairs to a wide chamber on the floor immediately below his prison, where a temporary tribunal had been arranged for the special commission. there had been an inclination at first on the part of his judges to treat him as a criminal, and to require him to answer, standing, to the interrogatories propounded to him. but as the terrible old man advanced into the room, leaning on his staff, and surveying them with the air of haughty command habitual to him, they shrank before his glance; several involuntarily, rising uncovered, to salute him and making way for him to the fireplace about which many were standing that wintry morning. he was thenceforth always accommodated with a seat while he listened to and answered 'ex tempore' the elaborate series of interrogatories which had been prepared to convict him. nearly seven months he had sat with no charges brought against him. this was in itself a gross violation of the laws of the land, for according to all the ancient charters of holland it was provided that accusation should follow within six weeks of arrest, or that the prisoner should go free. but the arrest itself was so gross a violation of law that respect for it was hardly to be expected in the subsequent proceedings. he was a great officer of the states of holland. he had been taken under their especial protection. he was on his way to the high council. he was in no sense a subject of the states-general. he was in the discharge of his official duty. he was doubly and trebly sacred from arrest. the place where he stood was on the territory of holland and in the very sanctuary of her courts and house of assembly. the states-general were only as guests on her soil, and had no domain or jurisdiction there whatever. he was not apprehended by any warrant or form of law. it was in time of peace, and there was no pretence of martial law. the highest civil functionary of holland was invited in the name of its first military officer to a conference, and thus entrapped was forcibly imprisoned. at last a board of twenty-four commissioners was created, twelve from holland and two from each of the other six provinces. this affectation of concession to holland was ridiculous. either the law 'de non evocando'--according to which no citizen of holland could be taken out of the province for trial--was to be respected or it was to be trampled upon. if it was to be trampled upon, it signified little whether more commissioners were to be taken from holland than from each of the other provinces, or fewer, or none at all. moreover it was pretended that a majority of the whole board was to be assigned to that province. but twelve is not a majority of twenty-four. there were three fascals or prosecuting officers, leeuwen of utrecht, sylla of gelderland, and antony duyck of holland. duyck was notoriously the deadly enemy of barneveld, and was destined to succeed to his offices. it would have been as well to select francis aerssens himself. it was necessary to appoint a commission because there was no tribunal appertaining to the states-general. the general government of the confederacy had no power to deal with an individual. it could only negotiate with the sovereign province to which the individual was responsible, and demand his punishment if proved guilty of an offence. there was no supreme court of appeal. machinery was provided for settling or attempting to settle disputes among the members of the confederacy, and if there was a culprit in this great process it was holland itself. neither the advocate nor any one of his associates had done any act except by authority, express or implied, of that sovereign state. supposing them unquestionably guilty of blackest crimes against the generality, the dilemma was there which must always exist by the very nature of things in a confederacy. no sovereign can try a fellow sovereign. the subject can be tried at home by no sovereign but his own. the accused in this case were amenable to the laws of holland only. it was a packed tribunal. several of the commissioners, like pauw and muis for example, were personal enemies of barneveld. many of them were totally ignorant of law. some of them knew not a word of any language but their mother tongue, although much of the law which they were to administer was written in latin. before such a court the foremost citizen of the netherlands, the first living statesman of europe, was brought day by day during a period of nearly three months; coming down stairs from the mean and desolate room where he was confined to the comfortable apartment below, which had been fitted up for the commission. there was no bill of indictment, no arraignment, no counsel. there were no witnesses and no arguments. the court-room contained, as it were, only a prejudiced and partial jury to pronounce both on law and fact without a judge to direct them, or advocates to sift testimony and contend for or against the prisoner's guilt. the process, for it could not be called a trial, consisted of a vast series of rambling and tangled interrogatories reaching over a space of forty years without apparent connection or relevancy, skipping fantastically about from one period to another, back and forthwith apparently no other intent than to puzzle the prisoner, throw him off his balance, and lead him into self-contradiction. the spectacle was not a refreshing one. it was the attempt of a multitude of pigmies to overthrow and bind the giant. barneveld was served with no articles of impeachment. he asked for a list in writing of the charges against him, that he might ponder his answer. the demand was refused. he was forbidden the use of pen and ink or any writing materials. his papers and books were all taken from him. he was allowed to consult neither with an advocate nor even with a single friend. alone in his chamber of bondage he was to meditate on his defence. out of his memory and brain, and from these alone, he was to supply himself with the array of historical facts stretching over a longer period than the lifetime of many of his judges, and with the proper legal and historical arguments upon those facts for the justification of his course. that memory and brain were capacious and powerful enough for the task. it was well for the judges that they had bound themselves, at the outset, by an oath never to make known what passed in the courtroom, but to bury all the proceedings in profound secrecy forever. had it been otherwise, had that been known to the contemporary public which has only been revealed more than two centuries later, had a portion only of the calm and austere eloquence been heard in which the advocate set forth his defence, had the frivolous and ignoble nature of the attack been comprehended, it might have moved the very stones in the streets to mutiny. hateful as the statesman had been made by an organized system of calumny, which was continued with unabated vigour and increased venom sine he had been imprisoned, there was enough of justice and of gratitude left in the hearts of netherlanders to resent the tyranny practised against their greatest man, and the obloquy thus brought against a nation always devoted to their liberties and laws. that the political system of the country was miserably defective was no fault of barneveld. he was bound by oath and duty to administer, not make the laws. a handful of petty feudal sovereignties such as had once covered the soil of europe, a multitude of thriving cities which had wrested or purchased a mass of liberties, customs, and laws from their little tyrants, all subjected afterwards, without being blended together, to a single foreign family, had at last one by one, or two by two, shaken off that supremacy, and, resuming their ancient and as it were decapitated individualities, had bound themselves by treaty in the midst of a war to stand by each other, as if they were but one province, for purposes of common defence against the common foe. there had been no pretence of laying down a constitution, of enacting an organic law. the day had not come for even the conception of a popular constitution. the people had not been invented. it was not provinces only, but cities, that had contracted with each other, according to the very first words of the first article of union. some of these cities, like ghent, bruges, antwerp, were catholic by overwhelming majority, and had subsequently either fallen away from the confederacy or been conquered. and as if to make assurance doubly sure, the articles of union not only reserved to each province all powers not absolutely essential for carrying on the war in common, but by an express article (the th), declared that holland and zealand should regulate the matter of religion according to their own discretion, while the other provinces might conform to the provisions of the "religious peace" which included mutual protection for catholics and protestants--or take such other order as seemed most conducive to the religious and secular rights of the inhabitants. it was stipulated that no province should interfere with another in such matters, and that every individual in them all should remain free in his religion, no man being molested or examined on account of his creed. a farther declaration in regard to this famous article was made to the effect that no provinces or cities which held to the roman catholic religion were to be excluded from the league of union if they were ready to conform to its conditions and comport themselves patriotically. language could not be devised to declare more plainly than was done by this treaty that the central government of the league had neither wish nor right to concern itself with the religious affairs of the separate cities or provinces. if it permitted both papists and protestants to associate themselves against the common foe, it could hardly have been imagined, when the articles were drawn, that it would have claimed the exclusive right to define the minutest points in a single protestant creed. and if the exclusively secular parts of the polity prevailing in the country were clumsy, irregular, and even monstrous, and if its defects had been flagrantly demonstrated by recent events, a more reasonable method of reforming the laws might have been found than the imprisonment of a man who had faithfully administered them forty years long. a great commonwealth had grown out of a petty feudal organism, like an oak from an acorn in a crevice, gnarled and distorted, though wide-spreading and vigorous. it seemed perilous to deal radically with such a polity, and an almost timid conservatism on the part of its guardians in such an age of tempests might be pardonable. moreover, as before remarked, the apparent imbecility resulting from confederacy and municipalism combined was for a season remedied by the actual preponderance of holland. two-thirds of the total wealth and strength of the seven republics being concentrated in one province, the desired union seemed almost gained by the practical solution of all in that single republic. but this was one great cause of the general disaster. it would be a thankless and tedious task to wander through the wilderness of interrogatories and answers extending over three months of time, which stood in the place of a trial. the defence of barneveld was his own history, and that i have attempted to give in the preceding pages. a great part of the accusation was deduced from his private and official correspondence, and it is for this reason that i have laid such copious extracts from it before the reader. no man except the judges and the states-general had access to those letters, and it was easy therefore, if needful, to give them a false colouring. it is only very recently that they have been seen at all, and they have never been published from that day to this. out of the confused mass of documents appertaining to the trial, a few generalizations can be made which show the nature of the attack upon him. he was accused of having permitted arminius to infuse new opinions into the university of leyden, and of having subsequently defended the appointment of vorstius to the same place. he had opposed the national synod. he had made drafts of letters for the king of great britain to sign, recommending mutual toleration on the five disputed points regarding predestination. he was the author of the famous sharp resolution. he had recommended the enlistment by the provinces and towns of waartgelders or mercenaries. he had maintained that those mercenaries as well as the regular troops were bound in time of peace to be obedient and faithful, not only to the generality and the stadholders, but to the magistrates of the cities and provinces where they were employed, and to the states by whom they were paid. he had sent to leyden, warning the authorities of the approach of the prince. he had encouraged all the proceedings at utrecht, writing a letter to the secretary of that province advising a watch to be kept at the city gates as well as in the river, and ordering his letter when read to be burned. he had received presents from foreign potentates. he had attempted to damage the character of his excellency the prince by declaring on various occasions that he aspired to the sovereignty of the country. he had held a ciphered correspondence on the subject with foreign ministers of the republic. he had given great offence to the king of great britain by soliciting from him other letters in the sense of those which his majesty had written in , advising moderation and mutual toleration. he had not brought to condign punishment the author of 'the balance', a pamphlet in which an oration of the english ambassador had been criticised, and aspersions made on the order of the garter. he had opposed the formation of the west india company. he had said many years before to nicolas van berk that the provinces had better return to the dominion of spain. and in general, all his proceedings had tended to put the provinces into a "blood bath." there was however no accusation that he had received bribes from the enemy or held traitorous communication with him, or that he had committed any act of high-treason. his private letters to caron and to the ambassadors in paris, with which the reader has been made familiar, had thus been ransacked to find treasonable matter, but the result was meagre in spite of the minute and microscopic analysis instituted to detect traces of poison in them. but the most subtle and far-reaching research into past transactions was due to the greffier cornelis aerssens, father of the ambassador francis, and to a certain nicolas van berk, burgomaster of utrecht. the process of tale-bearing, hearsay evidence, gossip, and invention went back a dozen years, even to the preliminary and secret conferences in regard to the treaty of truce. readers familiar with the history of those memorable negotiations are aware that cornelis van aerssens had compromised himself by accepting a valuable diamond and a bill of exchange drawn by marquis spinola on a merchant in amsterdam, henry beekman by name, for , ducats. these were handed by father neyen, the secret agent of the spanish government, to the greffier as a prospective reward for his services in furthering the truce. he did not reject them, but he informed prince maurice and the advocate of the transaction. both diamond and bill of exchange were subsequently deposited in the hands of the treasurer of the states-general, joris de bie, the assembly being made officially acquainted with the whole course of the affair. it is passing strange that this somewhat tortuous business, which certainly cast a shade upon the fair fame of the elder aerssens, and required him to publish as good a defence as he could against the consequent scandal, should have furnished a weapon wherewith to strike at the advocate of holland some dozen years later. but so it was. krauwels, a relative of aerssens, through whom father neyen had first obtained access to the greffier, had stated, so it seemed, that the monk had, in addition to the bill, handed to him another draft of spinola's for , ducats, to be given to a person of more consideration than aerssens. krauwels did not know who the person was, nor whether he took the money. he expressed his surprise however that leading persons in the government "even old and authentic beggars"--should allow themselves to be so seduced as to accept presents from the enemy. he mentioned two such persons, namely, a burgomaster at delft and a burgomaster at haarlem. aerssens now deposed that he had informed the advocate of this story, who had said, "be quiet about it, i will have it investigated," and some days afterwards on being questioned stated that he had made enquiry and found there was something in it. so the fact that cornelis aerssens had taken bribes, and that two burgomasters were strongly suspected by aerssens of having taken bribes, seems to have been considered as evidence that barneveld had taken a bribe. it is true that aerssens by advice of maurice and barneveld had made a clean breast of it to the states-general and had given them over the presents. but the states-general could neither wear the diamond nor cash the bill of exchange, and it would have been better for the greffier not to contaminate his fingers with them, but to leave the gifts in the monk's palm. his revenge against the advocate for helping him out of his dilemma, and for subsequently advancing his son francis in a brilliant diplomatic career, seems to have been--when the clouds were thickening and every man's hand was against the fallen statesman--to insinuate that he was the anonymous personage who had accepted the apocryphal draft for , ducats. the case is a pregnant example of the proceedings employed to destroy the advocate. the testimony of nicolas van berk was at any rate more direct. on the st december the burgomaster testified that the advocate had once declared to him that the differences in regard to divine worship were not so great but that they might be easily composed; asking him at the same time "whether it would not be better that we should submit ourselves again to the king of spain." barneveld had also referred, so said van berk, to the conduct of the spanish king towards those who had helped him to the kingdom of portugal. the burgomaster was unable however to specify the date, year, or month in which the advocate had held this language. he remembered only that the conversation occurred when barneveld was living on the spui at the hague, and that having been let into the house through the hall on the side of the vestibule, he had been conducted by the advocate down a small staircase into the office. the only fact proved by the details seems to be that the story had lodged in the tenacious memory of the burgomaster for eight years, as barneveld had removed from the spui to arenberg house in the voorhout in the year . no other offers from the king of spain or the archdukes had ever been made to him, said van berk, than those indicated in this deposition against the advocate as coming from that statesman. nor had barneveld ever spoken to him upon such subjects except on that one occasion. it is not necessary and would be wearisome to follow the unfortunate statesman through the long line of defence which he was obliged to make, in fragmentary and irregular form, against these discursive and confused assaults upon him. a continuous argument might be built up with the isolated parts which should be altogether impregnable. it is superfluous. always instructive to his judges as he swept at will through the record of nearly half a century of momentous european history, in which he was himself a conspicuous figure, or expounding the ancient laws and customs of the country with a wealth and accuracy of illustration which testified to the strength of his memory, he seemed rather like a sage expounding law and history to a class of pupils than a criminal defending himself before a bench of commissioners. moved occasionally from his austere simplicity, the majestic old man rose to a strain of indignant eloquence which might have shaken the hall of a vast assembly and found echo in the hearts of a thousand hearers as he denounced their petty insults or ignoble insinuations; glaring like a caged lion at his tormentors, who had often shrunk before him when free, and now attempted to drown his voice by contradictions, interruptions, threats, and unmeaning howls. he protested, from the outset and throughout the proceedings, against the jurisdiction of the tribunal. the treaty of union on which the assembly and states-general were founded gave that assembly no power over him. they could take no legal cognizance of his person or his acts. he had been deprived of writing materials, or he would have already drawn up his solemn protest and argument against the existence of the commission. he demanded that they should be provided for him, together with a clerk to engross his defence. it is needless to say that the demand was refused. it was notorious to all men, he said, that on the day when violent hands were laid upon him he was not bound to the states-general by oath, allegiance, or commission. he was a well-known inhabitant of the hague, a householder there, a vassal of the commonwealth of holland, enfeoffed of many notable estates in that country, serving many honourable offices by commission from its government. by birth, promotion, and conferred dignities he was subject to the supreme authority of holland, which for forty years had been a free state possessed of all the attributes of sovereignty, political, religious, judicial, and recognizing no superior save god almighty alone. he was amenable to no tribunal save that of their mightinesses the states of holland and their ordinary judges. not only those states but the prince of orange as their governor and vassal, the nobles of holland, the colleges of justice, the regents of cities, and all other vassals, magistrates, and officers were by their respective oaths bound to maintain and protect him in these his rights. after fortifying this position by legal argument and by an array of historical facts within his own experience, and alluding to the repeated instances in which, sorely against his will, he had been solicited and almost compelled to remain in offices of which he was weary, he referred with dignity to the record of his past life. from the youthful days when he had served as a volunteer at his own expense in the perilous sieges of haarlem and leyden down to the time of his arrest, through an unbroken course of honourable and most arduous political services, embassies, and great negotiations, he had ever maintained the laws and liberties of the fatherland and his own honour unstained. that he should now in his seventy-second year be dragged, in violation of every privilege and statute of the country, by extraordinary means, before unknown judges, was a grave matter not for himself alone but for their mightinesses the states of holland and for the other provinces. the precious right 'de non evocando' had ever been dear to all the provinces, cities, and inhabitants of the netherlands. it was the most vital privilege in their possession as well in civil as criminal, in secular as in ecclesiastical affairs. when the king of spain in , and afterwards, set up an extraordinary tribunal and a course of extraordinary trials, it was an undeniable fact, he said, that on the solemn complaint of the states all princes, nobles, and citizens not only in the netherlands but in foreign countries, and all foreign kings and sovereigns, held those outrages to be the foremost and fundamental reason for taking up arms against that king, and declaring him to have forfeited his right of sovereignty. yet that monarch was unquestionably the born and accepted sovereign of each one of the provinces, while the general assembly was but a gathering of confederates and allies, in no sense sovereign. it was an unimaginable thing, he said, that the states of each province should allow their whole authority and right of sovereignty to be transferred to a board of commissioners like this before which he stood. if, for example, a general union of france, england, and the states of the united netherlands should be formed (and the very words of the act of union contemplated such possibility), what greater absurdity could there be than to suppose that a college of administration created for the specific purposes of such union would be competent to perform acts of sovereignty within each of those countries in matters of justice, polity, and religion? it was known to mankind, he said, that when negotiations were entered into for bestowing the sovereignty of the provinces on france and on england, special and full powers were required from, and furnished by, the states of each individual province. had the sovereignty been in the assembly of the states-general, they might have transferred it of their own motion or kept it for themselves. even in the ordinary course of affairs the commissioners from each province to the general assembly always required a special power from their constituents before deciding any matter of great importance. in regard to the defence of the respective provinces and cities, he had never heard it doubted, he said, that the states or the magistrates of cities had full right to provide for it by arming a portion of their own inhabitants or by enlisting paid troops. the sovereign counts of holland and bishops of utrecht certainly possessed and exercised that right for many hundred years, and by necessary tradition it passed to the states succeeding to their ancient sovereignty. he then gave from the stores of his memory innumerable instances in which soldiers had been enlisted by provinces and cities all over the netherlands from the time of the abjuration of spain down to that moment. through the whole period of independence in the time of anjou, matthias, leicester, as well as under the actual government, it had been the invariable custom thus to provide both by land and sea and on the rivers against robbers, rebels, pirates, mischief-makers, assailing thieves, domestic or foreign. it had been done by the immortal william the silent on many memorable occasions, and in fact the custom was so notorious that soldiers so enlisted were known by different and peculiar nicknames in the different provinces and towns. that the central government had no right to meddle with religious matters was almost too self-evident an axiom to prove. indeed the chief difficulty under which the advocate laboured throughout this whole process was the monstrous assumption by his judges of a political and judicial system which never had any existence even in imagination. the profound secrecy which enwrapped the proceedings from that day almost to our own and an ignorant acquiescence of a considerable portion of the public in accomplished facts offer the only explanation of a mystery which must ever excite our wonder. if there were any impeachment at all, it was an impeachment of the form of government itself. if language could mean anything whatever, a mere perusal of the articles of union proved that the prisoner had never violated that fundamental pact. how could the general government prescribe an especial formulary for the reformed church, and declare opposition to its decrees treasonable, when it did not prohibit, but absolutely admitted and invited, provinces and cities exclusively catholic to enter the union, guaranteeing to them entire liberty of religion? barneveld recalled the fact that when the stadholdership of utrecht thirty years before had been conferred on prince maurice the states of that province had solemnly reserved for themselves the disposition over religious matters in conformity with the union, and that maurice had sworn to support that resolution. five years later the prince had himself assured a deputation from brabant that the states of each province were supreme in religious matters, no interference the one with the other being justifiable or possible. in the states general in letters addressed to the states of the obedient provinces under dominion of the archdukes had invited them to take up arms to help drive the spaniards from the provinces and to join the confederacy, assuring them that they should regulate the matter of religion at their good pleasure, and that no one else should be allowed to interfere therewith. the advocate then went into an historical and critical disquisition, into which we certainly have no need to follow him, rapidly examining the whole subject of predestination and conditional and unconditional damnation from the days of st. augustine downward, showing a thorough familiarity with a subject of theology which then made up so much of the daily business of life, political and private, and lay at the bottom of the terrible convulsion then existing in the netherlands. we turn from it with a shudder, reminding the reader only how persistently the statesman then on his trial had advocated conciliation, moderation, and kindness between brethren of the reformed church who were not able to think alike on one of the subtlest and most mysterious problems that casuistry has ever propounded. for fifty years, he said, he had been an enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience. he had always opposed rigorous ecclesiastical decrees. he had done his best to further, and did not deny having inspired, the advice given in the famous letters from the king of great britain to the states in , that there should be mutual toleration and abstinence from discussion of disputed doctrines, neither of them essential to salvation. he thought that neither calvin nor beza would have opposed freedom of opinion on those points. for himself he believed that the salvation of mankind would be through god's unmerited grace and the redemption of sins though the saviour, and that the man who so held and persevered to the end was predestined to eternal happiness, and that his children dying before the age of reason were destined not to hell but to heaven. he had thought fifty years long that the passion and sacrifice of christ the saviour were more potent to salvation than god's wrath and the sin of adam and eve to damnation. he had done his best practically to avert personal bickerings among the clergy. he had been, so far as lay in his power, as friendly to remonstrants as to contra-remonstrants, to polyander and festus hommius as to uytenbogaert and episcopius. he had almost finished a negotiation with councillor kromhout for the peaceable delivery of the cloister church on the thursday preceding the sunday on which it had been forcibly seized by the contra-remonstrants. when asked by one of his judges how he presumed to hope for toleration between two parties, each of which abhorred the other's opinions, and likened each other to turks and devil-worshippers, he replied that he had always detested and rebuked those mutual revilings by every means in his power, and would have wished to put down such calumniators of either persuasion by the civil authority, but the iniquity of the times and the exasperation of men's humours had prevented him. being perpetually goaded by one judge after another as to his disrespectful conduct towards the king of great britain, and asked why his majesty had not as good right to give the advice of as the recommendation of tolerance in , he scrupulously abstained, as he had done in all his letters, from saying a disrespectful word as to the glaring inconsistency between the two communications, or to the hostility manifested towards himself personally by the british ambassador. he had always expressed the hope, he said, that the king would adhere to his original position, but did not dispute his right to change his mind, nor the good faith which had inspired his later letters. it had been his object, if possible, to reconcile the two different systems recommended by his majesty into one harmonious whole. his whole aim had been to preserve the public peace as it was the duty of every magistrate, especially in times of such excitement, to do. he could never comprehend why the toleration of the five points should be a danger to the reformed religion. rather, he thought, it would strengthen the church and attract many lutherans, baptists, catholics, and other good patriots into its pale. he had always opposed the compulsory acceptance by the people of the special opinions of scribes and doctors. he did not consider, he said, the difference in doctrine on this disputed point between the contra-remonstrants and remonstrants as one-tenth the value of the civil authority and its right to make laws and ordinances regulating ecclesiastical affairs. he believed the great bulwark of the independence of the country to be the reformed church, and his efforts had ever been to strengthen that bulwark by preventing the unnecessary schism which might prove its ruin. many questions of property, too, were involved in the question--the church buildings, lands and pastures belonging to the counts of holland and their successors--the states having always exercised the right of church patronage--'jus patronatus'--a privilege which, as well as inherited or purchased advowsons, had been of late flagrantly interfered with. he was asked if he had not said that it had never been the intention of the states-general to carry on the war for this or that religion. he replied that he had told certain clergymen expressing to him their opinion that the war had been waged solely for the furtherance of their especial shade of belief, that in his view the war had been undertaken for the conservation of the liberties and laws of the land, and of its good people. of that freedom the first and foremost point was the true christian religion and liberty of conscience and opinion. there must be religion in the republic, he had said, but that the war was carried on to sustain the opinion of one doctor of divinity or another on--differential points was something he had never heard of and could never believe. the good citizens of the country had as much right to hold by melancthon as by calvin or beza. he knew that the first proclamations in regard to the war declared it to be undertaken for freedom of conscience, and so to his, own knowledge it had been always carried on. he was asked if he had not promised during the truce negotiations so to direct matters that the catholics with time might obtain public exercise of their religion. he replied that this was a notorious falsehood and calumny, adding that it ill accorded with the proclamation against the jesuits drawn up by himself some years after the truce. he furthermore stated that it was chiefly by his direction that the discourse of president jeannin--urging on part of the french king that liberty of worship might be granted to the papists--was kept secret, copies of it not having been furnished even to the commissioners of the provinces. his indignant denial of this charge, especially taken in connection with his repeated assertions during the trial, that among the most patriotic netherlanders during and since the war were many adherents of the ancient church, seems marvellously in contradiction with his frequent and most earnest pleas for liberty of conscience. but it did not appear contradictory even to his judges nor to any contemporary. his position had always been that the civil authority of each province was supreme in all matters political or ecclesiastical. the states-general, all the provinces uniting in the vote, had invited the catholic provinces on more than one occasion to join the union, promising that there should be no interference on the part of any states or individuals with the internal affairs religious or otherwise of the provinces accepting the invitation. but it would have been a gross contradiction of his own principle if he had promised so to direct matters that the catholics should have public right of worship in holland where he knew that the civil authority was sure to refuse it, or in any of the other six provinces in whose internal affairs he had no voice whatever. he was opposed to all tyranny over conscience, he would have done his utmost to prevent inquisition into opinion, violation of domicile, interference with private worship, compulsory attendance in protestant churches of those professing the roman creed. this was not attempted. no catholic was persecuted on account of his religion. compared with the practice in other countries this was a great step in advance. religious tolerance lay on the road to religious equality, a condition which had hardly been imagined then and scarcely exists in europe even to this day. but among the men in history whose life and death contributed to the advancement of that blessing, it would be vain to deny that barneveld occupies a foremost place. moreover, it should be remembered that religious equality then would have been a most hazardous experiment. so long as church and state were blended, it was absolutely essential at that epoch for the preservation of protestantism to assign the predominance to the state. should the catholics have obtained religious equality, the probable result would before long have been religious inequality, supremacy of the catholics in the church, and supremacy of the church over the state. the fruits of the forty years' war would have become dust and ashes. it would be mere weak sentimentalism to doubt--after the bloody history which had just closed and the awful tragedy, then reopening--that every spark of religious liberty would have soon been trodden out in the netherlands. the general onslaught of the league with ferdinand, maximilian of bavaria, and philip of spain at its head against the distracted, irresolute, and wavering line of protestantism across the whole of europe was just preparing. rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic, was the war-cry of the emperor. the king of spain, as we have just been reading in his most secret, ciphered despatches to the archduke at brussels, was nursing sanguine hopes and weaving elaborate schemes for recovering his dominion over the united netherlands, and proposing to send an army of jesuits thither to break the way to the reconquest. to play into his hands then, by granting public right of worship to the papists, would have been in barneveld's opinion like giving up julich and other citadels in the debatable land to spain just as the great war between catholicism and protestantism was breaking out. there had been enough of burning and burying alive in the netherlands during the century which had closed. it was not desirable to give a chance for their renewal now. in regard to the synod, barneveld justified his course by a simple reference to the th article of the union. words could not more plainly prohibit the interference by the states-general with the religious affairs of any one of the provinces than had been done by that celebrated clause. in there had been an attempt made to amend that article by insertion of a pledge to maintain the evangelical, reformed, religion solely, but it was never carried out. he disdained to argue so self-evident a truth, that a confederacy which had admitted and constantly invited catholic states to membership, under solemn pledge of noninterference with their religious affairs, had no right to lay down formulas for the reformed church throughout all the netherlands. the oath of stadholder and magistrates in holland to maintain the reformed religion was framed before this unhappy controversy on predestination had begun, and it was mere arrogant assumption on the part of the contra-remonstrants to claim a monopoly of that religion, and to exclude the remonstrants from its folds. he had steadily done his utmost to assuage those dissensions while maintaining the laws which he was sworn to support. he had advocated a provincial synod to be amicably assisted by divines from neighbouring countries. he had opposed a national synod unless unanimously voted by the seven provinces, because it would have been an open violation of the fundamental law of the confederacy, of its whole spirit, and of liberty of conscience. he admitted that he had himself drawn up a protest on the part of three provinces (holland, utrecht, and overyssel) against the decree for the national synod as a breach of the union, declaring it to be therefore null and void and binding upon no man. he had dictated the protest as oldest member present, while grotius as the youngest had acted as scribe. he would have supported the synod if legally voted, but would have preferred the convocation, under the authority of all the provinces, of a general, not a national, synod, in which, besides clergy and laymen from the netherlands, deputations from all protestant states and churches should take part; a kind of protestant oecumenical council. as to the enlistment, by the states of a province, of soldiers to keep the peace and suppress tumults in its cities during times of political and religious excitement, it was the most ordinary of occurrences. in his experience of more than forty years he had never heard the right even questioned. it was pure ignorance of law and history to find it a novelty. to hire temporarily a sufficient number of professional soldiers, he considered a more wholesome means of keeping the peace than to enlist one portion of the citizens of a town against another portion, when party and religious spirit was running high. his experience had taught him that the mutual hatred of the inhabitants, thus inflamed, became more lasting and mischievous than the resentment caused through suppression of disorder by an armed and paid police of strangers. it was not only the right but the most solemn duty of the civil authority to preserve the tranquillity, property, and lives of citizens committed to their care. "i have said these fifty years," said barneveld, "that it is better to be governed by magistrates than mobs. i have always maintained and still maintain that the most disastrous, shameful, and ruinous condition into which this land can fall is that in which the magistrates are overcome by the rabble of the towns and receive laws from them. nothing but perdition can follow from that." there had been good reason to believe that the french garrisons as well as some of the train bands could not be thoroughly relied upon in emergencies like those constantly breaking out, and there had been advices of invasion by sympathizers from neighbouring countries. in many great cities the civil authority had been trampled upon and mob rule had prevailed. certainly the recent example in the great commercial capital of the country--where the house of a foremost citizen had been besieged, stormed, and sacked, and a virtuous matron of the higher class hunted like a wild beast through the streets by a rabble grossly ignorant of the very nature of the religious quibble which had driven them mad, pelted with stones, branded with vilest names, and only saved by accident from assassination, while a church-going multitude looked calmly on--with constantly recurring instances in other important cities were sufficient reasons for the authorities to be watchful. he denied that he had initiated the proceedings at utrecht in conversation with ledenberg or any one else, but he had not refused, he said, his approval of the perfectly legal measures adopted for keeping the peace there when submitted to him. he was himself a born citizen of that province, and therefore especially interested in its welfare, and there was an old and intimate friendship between utrecht and holland. it would have been painful to him to see that splendid city in the control of an ignorant mob, making use of religious problems, which they did not comprehend, to plunder the property and take the lives of peaceful citizens more comfortably housed than themselves. he had neither suggested nor controlled the proceedings at utrecht. on the contrary, at an interview with the prince and count william on the th july, and in the presence of nearly thirty members of the general assembly, he had submitted a plan for cashiering the enlisted soldiery and substituting for them other troops, native-born, who should be sworn in the usual form to obey the laws of the union. the deputation from holland to utrecht, according to his personal knowledge, had received no instructions personal or oral to authorize active steps by the troops of the holland quota, but to abstain from them and to request the prince that they should not be used against the will and commands of the states of utrecht, whom they were bound by oath to obey so long as they were in garrison there. no man knew better than he whether the military oath which was called new-fangled were a novelty or not, for he had himself, he said, drawn it up thirty years before at command of the states-general by whom it was then ordained. from that day to this he had never heard a pretence that it justified anything not expressly sanctioned by the articles of union, and neither the states of holland nor those of utrecht had made any change in the oath. the states of utrecht were sovereign within their own territory, and in the time of peace neither the prince of orange without their order nor the states-general had the right to command the troops in their territory. the governor of a province was sworn to obey the laws of the province and conform to the articles of the general union. he was asked why he wrote the warning letter to ledenberg, and why he was so anxious that the letter should be burned; as if that were a deadly offence. he said that he could not comprehend why it should be imputed to him as a crime that he wished in such turbulent times to warn so important a city as utrecht, the capital of his native province, against tumults, disorders, and sudden assaults such as had often happened to her in times past. as for the postscript requesting that the letter might be put in the fire, he said that not being a member of, the government of that province he was simply unwilling to leave a record that "he had been too curious in aliens republics, although that could hardly be considered a grave offence." in regard to the charge that he had accused prince maurice of aspiring to the sovereignty of the country, he had much to say. he had never brought such accusation in public or private. he had reason to believe however--he had indeed convincing proofs--that many people, especially those belonging to the contra-remonstrant party, cherished such schemes. he had never sought to cast suspicion on the prince himself on account of those schemes. on the contrary, he had not even formally opposed them. what he wished had always been that such projects should be discussed formally, legally, and above board. after the lamentable murder of the late prince he had himself recommended to the authorities of some of the cities that the transaction for bestowing the sovereignty of holland upon william, interrupted by his death, "should be completed in favour of prince maurice in despite of the spaniard." recently he had requested grotius to look up the documents deposited in rotterdam belonging to this affair, in order that they might be consulted. he was asked whether according to buzenval, the former french ambassador, prince maurice had not declared he would rather fling himself from the top of the hague tower than accept the sovereignty. barneveld replied that the prince according to the same authority had added "under the conditions which had been imposed upon his father;" a clause which considerably modified the self-denying statement. it was desirable therefore to search the acts for the limitations annexed to the sovereignty. three years long there had been indications from various sources that a party wished to change the form of government. he had not heard nor ever intimated that the prince suggested such intrigues. in anonymous pamphlets and common street and tavern conversations the contra-remonstrants were described by those of their own persuasion as "prince's beggars" and the like. he had received from foreign countries information worthy of attention, that it was the design of the contra-remonstrants to raise the prince to the sovereignty. he had therefore in brought the matter before the nobles and cities in a communication setting forth to the best of his recollection that under these religious disputes something else was intended. he had desired ripe conclusions on the matter, such as should most conduce to the service of the country. this had been in good faith both to the prince and the provinces, in order that, should a change in the government be thought desirable, proper and peaceful means might be employed to bring it about. he had never had any other intention than to sound the inclinations of those with whom he spoke, and he had many times since that period, by word of mouth and in writing, so lately as the month of april last assured the prince that he had ever been his sincere and faithful servant and meant to remain so to the end of his life, desiring therefore that he would explain to him his wishes and intentions. subsequently he had publicly proposed in full assembly of holland that the states should ripely deliberate and roundly declare if they were discontented with the form of government, and if so, what change they would desire. he had assured their mightinesses that they might rely upon him to assist in carrying out their intentions whatever they might be. he had inferred however from the prince's intimations, when he had broached the subject to him in , that he was not inclined towards these supposed projects, and had heard that opinion distinctly expressed from the mouth of count william. that the contra-remonstrants secretly entertained these schemes, he had been advised from many quarters, at home and abroad. in the year he had received information to that effect from france. certain confidential counsellors of the prince had been with him recently to confer on the subject. he had told them that, if his excellency chose to speak to him in regard to it, would listen to his reasoning about it, both as regarded the interests of the country and the prince himself, and then should desire him to propose and advocate it before the assembly, he would do so with earnestness, zeal, and affection. he had desired however that, in case the attempt failed, the prince would allow him to be relieved from service and to leave the country. what he wished from the bottom of his heart was that his excellency would plainly discover to him the exact nature of his sentiments in regard to the business. he fully admitted receiving a secret letter from ambassador langerac, apprising him that a man of quality in france had information of the intention of the contra-remonstrants throughout the provinces, should they come into power, to raise prince maurice to the sovereignty. he had communicated on the subject with grotius and other deputies in order that, if this should prove to be the general inclination, the affair might be handled according to law, without confusion or disorder. this, he said, would be serving both the country and the prince most judiciously. he was asked why he had not communicated directly with maurice. he replied that he had already seen how unwillingly the prince heard him allude to the subject, and that moreover there was another clause in the letter of different meaning, and in his view worthy of grave consideration by the states. no question was asked him as to this clause, but we have seen that it referred to the communication by du agean to langerac of a scheme for bestowing the sovereignty of the provinces on the king of france. the reader will also recollect that barneveld had advised the ambassador to communicate the whole intelligence to the prince himself. barneveld proceeded to inform the judges that he had never said a word to cast suspicion upon the prince, but had been actuated solely by the desire to find out the inclination of the states. the communications which he had made on the subject were neither for discrediting the prince nor for counteracting the schemes for his advancement. on the contrary, he had conferred with deputies from great cities like dordtrecht, enkhuyzen, and amsterdam, most devoted to the contra-remonstrant party, and had told them that, if they chose to propose the subject themselves, he would conduct himself to the best of his abilities in accordance with the wishes of the prince. it would seem almost impossible for a statesman placed in barneveld's position to bear himself with more perfect loyalty both to the country and to the stadholder. his duty was to maintain the constitution and laws so long as they remained unchanged. should it appear that the states, which legally represented the country, found the constitution defective, he was ready to aid in its amendment by fair public and legal methods. if maurice wished to propose himself openly as a candidate for the sovereignty, which had a generation before been conferred upon his father, barneveld would not only acquiesce in the scheme, but propose it. should it fail, he claimed the light to lay down all his offices and go into exile. he had never said that the prince was intriguing for, or even desired, the sovereignty. that the project existed among the party most opposed to himself, he had sufficient proof. to the leaders of that party therefore he suggested that the subject should be publicly discussed, guaranteeing freedom of debate and his loyal support so far as lay within his power. this was his answer to the accusation that he had meanly, secretly, and falsely circulated statements that the prince was aspiring to the sovereignty. [great pains were taken, in the course of the interrogatories, to elicit proof that the advocate had concealed important diplomatic information from the prince. he was asked why, in his secret instructions to ambassador langerac, he ordered him by an express article to be very cautious about making communications to the prince. searching questions were put in regard to these secret instructions, which i have read in the archives, and a copy of which now lies before me. they are in the form of questions, some of them almost puerile ones, addressed to barneveld by the ambassador then just departing on his mission to france in , with the answers written in the margin by the advocate. the following is all that has reference to the prince: "of what matters may i ordinarily write to his excellency?" answer--"of all great and important matters." it was difficult to find much that was treasonable in that.] among the heterogeneous articles of accusation he was asked why he had given no attention to those who had so, frequently proposed the formation of the west india company. he replied that it had from old time been the opinion of the states of holland, and always his own, that special and private licenses for traffic, navigation, and foreign commerce, were prejudicial to the welfare of the land. he had always been most earnestly opposed to them, detesting monopolies which interfered with that free trade and navigation which should be common to all mankind. he had taken great pains however in the years and to study the nature of the navigation and trade to the east indies in regard to the nations to be dealt with in those regions, the nature of the wares bought and sold there, the opposition to be encountered from the spaniards and portuguese against the commerce of the netherlanders, and the necessity of equipping vessels both for traffic and defence, and had come to the conclusion that these matters could best be directed by a general company. he explained in detail the manner in which he had procured the blending of all the isolated chambers into one great east india corporation, the enormous pains which it had cost him to bring it about, and the great commercial and national success which had been the result. the admiral of aragon, when a prisoner after the battle of nieuwpoort, had told him, he said, that the union of these petty corporations into one great whole had been as disastrous a blow to the kingdoms of spain and portugal as the union of the provinces at utrecht had been. in regard to the west india company, its sole object, so far as he could comprehend it, had been to equip armed vessels, not for trade but to capture and plunder spanish merchantmen and silver fleets in the west indies and south america. this was an advantageous war measure which he had favoured while the war lasted. it was in no sense a commercial scheme however, and when the truce had been made--the company not having come into existence--he failed to comprehend how its formation could be profitable for the netherlanders. on the contrary it would expressly invite or irritate the spaniards into a resumption of the war, an object which in his humble opinion was not at all desirable. certainly these ideas were not especially reprehensible, but had they been as shallow and despicable as they seem to us enlightened, it is passing strange that they should have furnished matter for a criminal prosecution. it was doubtless a disappointment for the promoters of the company, the chief of whom was a bankrupt, to fail in obtaining their charter, but it was scarcely high-treason to oppose it. there is no doubt however that the disapprobation with which barneveld regarded the west india company, the seat of which was at amsterdam, was a leading cause of the deadly hostility entertained for him by the great commercial metropolis. it was bad enough for the advocate to oppose unconditional predestination and the damnation of infants, but to frustrate a magnificent system of privateering on the spaniards in time of truce was an unpardonable crime. the patience with which the venerable statesman submitted to the taunts, ignorant and insolent cross-questionings, and noisy interruptions of his judges, was not less remarkable than the tenacity of memory which enabled him thus day after day, alone, unaided by books, manuscripts, or friendly counsel, to reconstruct the record of forty years, and to expound the laws of the land by an array of authorities, instances, and illustrations in a manner that would be deemed masterly by one who had all the resources of libraries, documents, witnesses, and secretaries at command. only when insidious questions were put tending to impute to him corruption, venality, and treacherous correspondence with the enemy--for they never once dared formally to accuse him of treason--did that almost superhuman patience desert him. he was questioned as to certain payments made by him to a certain van der vecken in spanish coin. he replied briefly at first that his money transactions with that man of business extended over a period of twenty or thirty years, and amounted to many hundred thousands of florins, growing out of purchases and sales of lands, agricultural enterprises on his estates, moneys derived from his professional or official business and the like. it was impossible for him to remember the details of every especial money payment that might have occurred between them. then suddenly breaking forth into a storm of indignation; he could mark from these questions, he said, that his enemies, not satisfied with having wounded his heart with their falsehoods, vile forgeries, and honour-robbing libels, were determined to break it. this he prayed that god almighty might avert and righteously judge between him and them. it was plain that among other things they were alluding to the stale and senseless story of the sledge filled with baskets of coin sent by the spanish envoys on their departure from the hague, on conclusion of the truce, to defray expenses incurred by them for board and lodging of servants, forage of horses, and the like-which had accidentally stopped at barneveld's door and was forthwith sent on to john spronssen, superintendent of such affairs. passing over this wanton bit of calumny with disgust, he solemnly asserted that he had never at any period of his life received one penny nor the value of one penny from the king of spain, the archdukes, spinola, or any other person connected with the enemy, saving only the presents publicly and mutually conferred according to invariable custom by the high contracting parties, upon the respective negotiators at conclusion of the treaty of truce. even these gifts barneveld had moved his colleagues not to accept, but proposed that they should all be paid into the public treasury. he had been overruled, he said, but that any dispassionate man of tolerable intelligence could imagine him, whose whole life had been a perpetual offence to spain, to be in suspicious relations with that power seemed to him impossible. the most intense party spirit, yea, envy itself, must confess that he had been among the foremost to take up arms for his country's liberties, and had through life never faltered in their defence. and once more in that mean chamber, and before a row of personal enemies calling themselves judges, he burst into an eloquent and most justifiable sketch of the career of one whom there was none else to justify and so many to assail. from his youth, he said, he had made himself by his honourable and patriotic deeds hopelessly irreconcilable with the spaniards. he was one of the advocates practising in the supreme court of holland, who in the very teeth of the duke of alva had proclaimed him a tyrant and had sworn obedience to the prince of orange as the lawful governor of the land. he was one of those who in the same year had promoted and attended private gatherings for the advancement of the reformed religion. he had helped to levy, and had contributed to, funds for the national defence in the early days of the revolt. these were things which led directly to the council of blood and the gibbet. he had borne arms himself on various bloody fields and had been perpetually a deputy to the rebel camps. he had been the original mover of the treaty of union which was concluded between the provinces at utrecht. he had been the first to propose and to draw up the declaration of netherland independence and the abjuration of the king of spain. he had been one of those who had drawn and passed the act establishing the late prince of orange as stadholder. of the sixty signers of these memorable declarations none were now living save himself and two others. when the prince had been assassinated, he had done his best to secure for his son maurice the sovereign position of which murder had so suddenly deprived the father. he had been member of the memorable embassies to france and england by which invaluable support for the struggling provinces had been obtained. and thus he rapidly sketched the history of the great war of independence in which he had ever been conspicuously employed on the patriotic side. when the late king of france at the close of the century had made peace with spain, he had been sent as special ambassador to that monarch, and had prevailed on him, notwithstanding his treaty with the enemy, to continue his secret alliance with the states and to promise them a large subsidy, pledges which had been sacredly fulfilled. it was on that occasion that henry, who was his debtor for past services, professional, official, and perfectly legitimate, had agreed, when his finances should be in better condition, to discharge his obligations; over and above the customary diplomatic present which he received publicly in common with his colleague admiral nassau. this promise, fulfilled a dozen years later, had been one of the senseless charges of corruption brought against him. he had been one of the negotiators of the truce in which spain had been compelled to treat with her revolted provinces as with free states and her equals. he had promoted the union of the protestant princes and their alliance with france and the united states in opposition to the designs of spain and the league. he had organized and directed the policy by which the forces of england, france, and protestant germany had possessed themselves of the debateable land. he had resisted every scheme by which it was hoped to force the states from their hold of those important citadels. he had been one of the foremost promoters of the east india company, an organization which the spaniards confessed had been as damaging to them as the union of the provinces itself had been. the idiotic and circumstantial statements, that he had conducted burgomaster van berk through a secret staircase of his house into his private study for the purpose of informing him that the only way for the states to get out of the war was to submit themselves once more to their old masters, so often forced upon him by the judges, he contradicted with disdain and disgust. he had ever abhorred and dreaded, he said, the house of spain, austria, and burgundy. his life had passed in open hostility to that house, as was known to all mankind. his mere personal interests, apart from higher considerations, would make an approach to the former sovereign impossible, for besides the deeds he had already alluded to, he had committed at least twelve distinct and separate acts, each one of which would be held high-treason by the house of austria, and he had learned from childhood that these are things which monarchs never forget. the tales of van berk were those of a personal enemy, falsehoods scarcely worth contradicting. he was grossly and enormously aggrieved by the illegal constitution of the commission. he had protested and continued to protest against it. if that protest were unheeded, he claimed at least that those men should be excluded from the board and the right to sit in judgment upon his person and his deeds who had proved themselves by words and works to be his capital enemies, of which fact he could produce irrefragable evidence. he claimed that the supreme court of holland, or the high council, or both together, should decide upon that point. he held as his personal enemies, he said, all those who had declared that he, before or since the truce down to the day of his arrest, had held correspondence with the spaniards, the archdukes, the marquis spinola, or any one on that side, had received money, money value, or promises of money from them, and in consequence had done or omitted to do anything whatever. he denounced such tales as notorious, shameful, and villainous falsehoods, the utterers and circulators of them as wilful liars, and this he was ready to maintain in every appropriate way for the vindication of the truth and his own honour. he declared solemnly before god almighty to the states-general and to the states of holland that his course in the religious matter had been solely directed to the strengthening of the reformed religion and to the political security of the provinces and cities. he had simply desired that, in the awful and mysterious matter of predestination, the consciences of many preachers and many thousands of good citizens might be placed in tranquillity, with moderate and christian limitations against all excesses. from all these reasons, he said, the commissioners, the states-general, the prince, and every man in the land could clearly see, and were bound to see, that he was the same man now that he was at the beginning of the war, had ever been, and with god's help should ever remain. the proceedings were kept secret from the public and, as a matter of course, there had been conflicting rumours from day to day as to the probable result of these great state trials. in general however it was thought that the prisoner would be acquitted of the graver charges, or that at most he would be permanently displaced from all office and declared incapable thenceforth to serve the state. the triumph of the contra-remonstrants since the stadholder had placed himself at the head of them, and the complete metamorphosis of the city governments even in the strongholds of the arminian party seemed to render the permanent political disgrace of the advocate almost a matter of certainty. the first step that gave rise to a belief that he might be perhaps more severely dealt with than had been anticipated was the proclamation by the states-general of a public fast and humiliation for the th april. in this document it was announced that "church and state--during several years past having been brought into great danger of utter destruction through certain persons in furtherance of their ambitious designs--had been saved by the convocation of a national synod; that a lawful sentence was soon to be expected upon those who had been disturbing the commonwealth; that through this sentence general tranquillity would probably be restored; and that men were now to thank god for this result, and pray to him that he would bring the wicked counsels and stratagems of the enemy against these provinces to naught." all the prisoners were asked if they too would like in their chambers of bondage to participate in the solemnity, although the motive for the fasting and prayer was not mentioned to them. each of them in his separate prison room, of course without communication together, selected the th psalm and sang it with his servant and door-keeper. from the date of this fast-day barneveld looked upon the result of his trial as likely to be serious. many clergymen refused or objected to comply with the terms of this declaration. others conformed with it greedily, and preached lengthy thanksgiving sermons, giving praise to god that, he had confounded the devices of the ambitious and saved the country from the "blood bath" which they had been preparing for it. the friends of barneveld became alarmed at the sinister language of this proclamation, in which for the first time allusions had been made to a forthcoming sentence against the accused. especially the staunch and indefatigable du maurier at once addressed himself again to the states-general. de boississe had returned to france, having found that the government of a country torn, weakened, and rendered almost impotent by its own internecine factions, was not likely to exert any very potent influence on the fate of the illustrious prisoner. the states had given him to understand that they were wearied with his perpetual appeals, intercessions, and sermons in behalf of mercy. they made him feel in short that lewis xiii. and henry iv. were two entirely different personages. du maurier however obtained a hearing before the assembly on the st may, where he made a powerful and manly speech in presence of the prince, urging that the prisoners ought to be discharged unless they could be convicted of treason, and that the states ought to show as much deference to his sovereign as they had always done to elizabeth of england. he made a personal appeal to prince maurice, urging upon him how much it would redound to his glory if he should now in generous and princely fashion step forward in behalf of those by whom he deemed himself to have been personally offended. his speech fell upon ears hardened against such eloquence and produced no effect. meantime the family of barneveld, not yet reduced to despair, chose to take a less gloomy view of the proclamation. relying on the innocence of the great statesman, whose aims, in their firm belief, had ever been for the welfare and glory of his fatherland, and in whose heart there had never been kindled one spark of treason, they bravely expected his triumphant release from his long and, as they deemed it, his iniquitous imprisonment. on this very st of may, in accordance with ancient custom, a may-pole was erected on the voorhout before the mansion of the captive statesman, and wreaths of spring flowers and garlands of evergreen decorated the walls within which were such braised and bleeding hearts. these demonstrations of a noble hypocrisy, if such it were, excited the wrath, not the compassion, of the stadholder, who thought that the aged matron and her sons and daughters, who dwelt in that house of mourning, should rather have sat in sackcloth with ashes on their heads than indulge in these insolent marks of hope and joyful expectation. it is certain however that count william lewis, who, although most staunch on the contra-remonstrant side, had a veneration for the advocate and desired warmly to save him, made a last and strenuous effort for that purpose. it was believed then, and it seems almost certain, that, if the friends of the advocate had been willing to implore pardon for him, the sentence would have been remitted or commuted. their application would have been successful, for through it his guilt would seem to be acknowledged. count william sent for the fiscal duyck. he asked him if there were no means of saving the life of a man who was so old and had done the country so much service. after long deliberation, it was decided that prince maurice should be approached on the subject. duyck wished that the count himself would speak with his cousin, but was convinced by his reasoning that it would be better that the fiscal should do it. duyck had a long interview accordingly with maurice, which was followed by a very secret one between them both and count william. the three were locked up together, three hours long, in the prince's private cabinet. it was then decided that count william should go, as if of his own accord, to the princess-dowager louise, and induce her to send for some one of barneveld's children and urge that the family should ask pardon for him. she asked if this was done with the knowledge of the prince of orange, or whether he would not take it amiss. the count eluded the question, but implored her to follow his advice. the result was an interview between the princess and madame de groeneveld, wife of the eldest son. that lady was besought to apply, with the rest of the advocate's children, for pardon to the lords states, but to act as if it were done of her own impulse, and to keep their interview profoundly secret. madame de groeneveld took time to consult the other members of the family and some friends. soon afterwards she came again to the princess, and informed her that she had spoken with the other children, and that they could not agree to the suggestion. "they would not move one step in it--no, not if it should cost him his head." the princess reported the result of this interview to count william, at which both were so distressed that they determined to leave the hague. there is something almost superhuman in the sternness of this stoicism. yet it lay in the proud and highly tempered character of the netherlanders. there can be no doubt that the advocate would have expressly dictated this proceeding if he had been consulted. it was precisely the course adopted by himself. death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt and therefore with disgrace. the loss of his honour would have been an infinitely greater triumph to his enemies than the loss of his head. there was no delay in drawing up the sentence. previously to this interview with the widow of william the silent, the family of the advocate had presented to the judges three separate documents, rather in the way of arguments than petitions, undertaking to prove by elaborate reasoning and citations of precedents and texts of the civil law that the proceedings against him were wholly illegal, and that he was innocent of every crime. no notice had been taken of those appeals. upon the questions and answers as already set forth the sentence soon followed, and it may be as well that the reader should be aware, at this point in the narrative, of the substance of that sentence so soon to be pronounced. there had been no indictment, no specification of crime. there had been no testimony or evidence. there had been no argument for the prosecution or the defence. there had been no trial whatever. the prisoner was convicted on a set of questions to which he had put in satisfactory replies. he was sentenced on a preamble. the sentence was a string of vague generalities, intolerably long, and as tangled as the interrogatories. his proceedings during a long career had on the whole tended to something called a "blood bath"--but the blood bath had never occurred. with an effrontery which did not lack ingenuity, barneveld's defence was called by the commissioners his confession, and was formally registered as such in the process and the sentence; while the fact that he had not been stretched upon the rack during his trial, nor kept in chains for the eight months of his imprisonment, were complacently mentioned as proofs of exceptionable indulgence. "whereas the prisoner john of barneveld," said the sentence, "without being put to the torture and without fetters of iron, has confessed . . . to having perturbed religion, greatly afflicted the church of god, and carried into practice exorbitant and pernicious maxims of state . . . inculcating by himself and accomplices that each province had the right to regulate religious affairs within its own territory, and that other provinces were not to concern themselves therewith"--therefore and for many other reasons he merited punishment. he had instigated a protest by vote of three provinces against the national synod. he had despised the salutary advice of many princes and notable personages. he had obtained from the king of great britain certain letters furthering his own opinions, the drafts of which he had himself suggested, and corrected and sent over to the states' ambassador in london, and when written out, signed, and addressed by the king to the states-general, had delivered them without stating how they had been procured. afterwards he had attempted to get other letters of a similar nature from the king, and not succeeding had defamed his majesty as being a cause of the troubles in the provinces. he had permitted unsound theologians to be appointed to church offices, and had employed such functionaries in political affairs as were most likely to be the instruments of his own purposes. he had not prevented vigorous decrees from being enforced in several places against those of the true religion. he had made them odious by calling them puritans, foreigners, and "flanderizers," although the united provinces had solemnly pledged to each other their lives, fortunes, and blood by various conventions, to some of which the prisoner was himself a party, to maintain the reformed, evangelical, religion only, and to, suffer no change in it to be made for evermore. in order to carry out his design and perturb the political state of the provinces he had drawn up and caused to be enacted the sharp resolution of th august . he had thus nullified the ordinary course of justice. he had stimulated the magistrates to disobedience, and advised them to strengthen themselves with freshly enlisted military companies. he had suggested new-fangled oaths for the soldiers, authorizing them to refuse obedience to the states-general and his excellency. he had especially stimulated the proceedings at utrecht. when it was understood that the prince was to pass through utrecht, the states of that province not without the prisoner's knowledge had addressed a letter to his excellency, requesting him not to pass through their city. he had written a letter to ledenberg suggesting that good watch should be held at the town gates and up and down the river lek. he had desired that ledenberg having read that letter should burn it. he had interfered with the cashiering of the mercenaries at utrecht. he had said that such cashiering without the consent of the states of that province was an act of force which would justify resistance by force. although those states had sent commissioners to concert measures with the prince for that purpose, he had advised them to conceal their instructions until his own plan for the disbandment could be carried out. at a secret meeting in the house of tresel, clerk of the states-general, between grotius, hoogerbeets, and other accomplices, it was decided that this advice should be taken. report accordingly was made to the prisoner. he had advised them to continue in their opposition to the national synod. he had sought to calumniate and blacken his excellency by saying that he aspired to the sovereignty of the provinces. he had received intelligence on that subject from abroad in ciphered letters. he had of his own accord rejected a certain proposed, notable alliance of the utmost importance to this republic. [this refers, i think without doubt, to the conversation between king james and caron at the end of the year .] he had received from foreign potentates various large sums of money and other presents. all "these proceedings tended to put the city of utrecht into a blood-bath, and likewise to bring the whole country, and the person of his excellency into the uttermost danger." this is the substance of the sentence, amplified by repetitions and exasperating tautology into thirty or forty pages. it will have been perceived by our analysis of barneveld's answers to the commissioners that all the graver charges which he was now said to have confessed had been indignantly denied by him or triumphantly justified. it will also be observed that he was condemned for no categorical crime--lese-majesty, treason, or rebellion. the commissioners never ventured to assert that the states-general were sovereign, or that the central government had a right to prescribe a religious formulary for all the united provinces. they never dared to say that the prisoner had been in communication with the enemy or had received bribes from him. of insinuation and implication there was much, of assertion very little, of demonstration nothing whatever. but supposing that all the charges had been admitted or proved, what course would naturally be taken in consequence? how was a statesman who adhered to the political, constitutional, and religious opinions on which he had acted, with the general acquiescence, during a career of more than forty years, but which were said to be no longer in accordance with public opinion, to be dealt with? would the commissioners request him to retire honourably from the high functions which he had over and over again offered to resign? would they consider that, having fairly impeached and found him guilty of disturbing the public peace by continuing to act on his well-known legal theories, they might deprive him summarily of power and declare him incapable of holding office again? the conclusion of the commissioners was somewhat more severe than either of these measures. their long rambling preamble ended with these decisive words: "therefore the judges, in name of the lords states-general, condemn the prisoner to be taken to the binnenhof, there to be executed with the sword that death may follow, and they declare all his property confiscated." the execution was to take place so soon as the sentence had been read to the prisoner. after the st of may barneveld had not appeared before his judges. he had been examined in all about sixty times. in the beginning of may his servant became impatient. "you must not be impatient," said his master. "the time seems much longer because we get no news now from the outside. but the end will soon come. this delay cannot last for ever." intimation reached him on saturday the th may that the sentence was ready and would soon be pronounced. "it is a bitter folk," said barneveld as he went to bed. "i have nothing good to expect of them." next day was occupied in sewing up and concealing his papers, including a long account of his examination, with the questions and answers, in his spanish arm-chair. next day van der meulen said to the servant, "i will bet you a hundred florins that you'll not be here next thursday." the faithful john was delighted, not dreaming of the impending result. it was sunday afternoon, th may, and about half past five o'clock. barneveld sat in his prison chamber, occupied as usual in writing, reviewing the history of the past, and doing his best to reduce into something like order the rambling and miscellaneous interrogatories, out of which his trial had been concocted, while the points dwelt in his memory, and to draw up a concluding argument in his own defence. work which according to any equitable, reasonable, or even decent procedure should have been entrusted to the first lawyers of the country--preparing the case upon the law and the facts with the documents before them, with the power of cross-questioning witnesses and sifting evidence, and enlightened by constant conferences with the illustrious prisoner himself--came entirely upon his own shoulders, enfeebled as he was by age, physical illness, and by the exhaustion of along imprisonment. without books, notes of evidence, or even copies of the charges of which he stood accused, he was obliged to draw up his counter-arguments against the impeachment and then by aid of a faithful valet to conceal his manuscript behind the tapestry of the chamber, or cause them to be sewed up in the lining of his easy-chair, lest they should be taken from him by order of the judges who sat in the chamber below. while he was thus occupied in preparations for his next encounter with the tribunal, the door opened, and three gentlemen entered. two were the prosecuting officers of the government, fiscal sylla and fiscal van leeuwen. the other was the provost-marshal, carel de nijs. the servant was directed to leave the room. barneveld had stepped into his dressing-room on hearing footsteps, but came out again with his long furred gown about him as the three entered. he greeted them courteously and remained standing, with his hands placed on the back of his chair and with one knee resting carelessly against the arm of it. van leeuwen asked him if he would not rather be seated, as they brought a communication from the judges. he answered in the negative. von leeuwen then informed him that he was summoned to appear before the judges the next morning to hear his sentence of death. "the sentence of death!" he exclaimed, without in the least changing his position; "the sentence of death! the sentence of death!" saying the words over thrice, with an air of astonishment rather than of horror. "i never expected that! i thought they were going to hear my defence again. i had intended to make some change in my previous statements, having set some things down when beside myself with choler." he then made reference to his long services. van leeuwen expressed himself as well acquainted with them. "he was sorry," he said, "that his lordship took this message ill of him." "i do not take it ill of you," said barneveld, "but let them," meaning the judges, "see how they will answer it before god. are they thus to deal with a true patriot? let me have pen, ink, and paper, that for the last time i may write farewell to my wife." "i will go ask permission of the judges," said van leenwen, "and i cannot think that my lord's request will be refused." while van leeuwen was absent, the advocate exclaimed, looking at the other legal officer: "oh, sylla, sylla, if your father could only have seen to what uses they would put you!" sylla was silent. permission to write the letter was soon received from de voogt, president of the commission. pen, ink, and paper were brought, and the prisoner calmly sat down to write, without the slightest trace of discomposure upon his countenance or in any of his movements. while he was writing, sylla said with some authority, "beware, my lord, what you write, lest you put down something which may furnish cause for not delivering the letter." barneveld paused in his writing, took the glasses from his eyes, and looked sylla in the face. "well, sylla," he said very calmly, "will you in these my last moments lay down the law to me as to what i shall write to my wife?" he then added with a half-smile, "well, what is expected of me?" "we have no commission whatever to lay down the law," said van leeuwen. "your worship will write whatever you like." while he was writing, anthony walaeus came in, a preacher and professor of middelburg, a deputy to the synod of dordtrecht, a learned and amiable man, sent by the states-general to minister to the prisoner on this supreme occasion; and not unworthy to be thus selected. the advocate, not knowing him, asked him why he came. "i am not here without commission," said the clergyman. "i come to console my lord in his tribulation." "i am a man," said barneveld; "have come to my present age, and i know how to console myself. i must write, and have now other things to do." the preacher said that he would withdraw and return when his worship was at leisure. "do as you like," said the advocate, calmly going on with his writing. when the letter was finished, it was sent to the judges for their inspection, by whom it was at once forwarded to the family mansion in the voorhout, hardly a stone's throw from the prison chamber. thus it ran: "very dearly beloved wife, children, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, i greet you altogether most affectionately. i receive at this moment the very heavy and sorrowful tidings that i, an old man, for all my services done well and faithfully to the fatherland for so many years (after having performed all respectful and friendly offices to his excellency the prince with upright affection so far as my official duty and vocation would permit, shown friendship to many people of all sorts, and wittingly injured no man), must prepare myself to die to-morrow. "i console myself in god the lord, who knows all hearts, and who will judge all men. i beg you all together to do the same. i have steadily and faithfully served my lords the states of holland and their nobles and cities. to the states of utrecht as sovereigns of my own fatherland i have imparted at their request upright and faithful counsel, in order to save them from tumults of the populace, and from the bloodshed with which they had so long been threatened. i had the same views for the cities of holland in order that every one might be protected and no one injured. "live together in love and peace. pray for me to almighty god, who will graciously hold us all in his holy keeping. "from my chamber of sorrow, the th may . "your very dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfather, "john of barneveld." it was thought strange that the judges should permit so simple and clear a statement, an argument in itself, to be forwarded. the theory of his condemnation was to rest before the public on his confessions of guilt, and here in the instant of learning the nature of the sentence in a few hours to be pronounced upon him he had in a few telling periods declared his entire innocence. nevertheless the letter had been sent at once to its address. so soon as this sad business had been disposed of, anthony walaeus returned. the advocate apologized to the preacher for his somewhat abrupt greeting on his first appearance. he was much occupied and did not know him, he said, although he had often heard of him. he begged him, as well as the provost-marshal, to join him at supper, which was soon brought. barneveld ate with his usual appetite, conversed cheerfully on various topics, and pledged the health of each of his guests in a glass of beer. contrary to his wont he drank at that repast no wine. after supper he went out into the little ante-chamber and called his servant, asking him how he had been faring. now john franken had just heard with grief unspeakable the melancholy news of his master's condemnation from two soldiers of the guard, who had been sent by the judges to keep additional watch over the prisoner. he was however as great a stoic as his master, and with no outward and superfluous manifestations of woe had simply implored the captain-at-arms, van der meulen, to intercede with the judges that he might be allowed to stay with his lord to the last. meantime he had been expressly informed that he was to say nothing to the advocate in secret, and that his master was not to speak to him in a low tone nor whisper in his ear. when the advocate came out into the ante-chamber and looking over his shoulder saw the two soldiers he at once lowered his voice. "hush-speak low," he whispered; "this is too cruel." john then informed him of van der meulen's orders, and that the soldiers had also been instructed to look to it sharply that no word was exchanged between master and man except in a loud voice. "is it possible," said the advocate, "that so close an inspection is held over me in these last hours? can i not speak a word or two in freedom? this is a needless mark of disrespect." the soldiers begged him not to take their conduct amiss as they were obliged strictly to obey orders. he returned to his chamber, sat down in his chair, and begged walaeus to go on his behalf to prince maurice. "tell his excellency," said he, "that i have always served him with upright affection so far as my office, duties, and principles permitted. if i, in the discharge of my oath and official functions, have ever done anything contrary to his views, i hope that he will forgive it, and that he will hold my children in his gracious favour." it was then ten o'clock. the preacher went downstairs and crossed the courtyard to the stadholder's apartments, where he at once gained admittance. maurice heard the message with tears in his eyes, assuring walaeus that he felt deeply for the advocate's misfortunes. he had always had much affection for him, he said, and had often warned him against his mistaken courses. two things, however, had always excited his indignation. one was that barneveld had accused him of aspiring to sovereignty. the other that he had placed him in such danger at utrecht. yet he forgave him all. as regarded his sons, so long as they behaved themselves well they might rely on his favour. as walaeus was about to leave the apartment, the prince called him back. "did he say anything of a pardon?" he asked, with some eagerness. "my lord," answered the clergyman, "i cannot with truth say that i understood him to make any allusion to it." walaeus returned immediately to the prison chamber and made his report of the interview. he was unwilling however to state the particulars of the offence which maurice declared himself to have taken at the acts of the advocate. but as the prisoner insisted upon knowing, the clergyman repeated the whole conversation. "his excellency has been deceived in regard to the utrecht business," said barneveld, "especially as to one point. but it is true that i had fear and apprehension that he aspired to the sovereignty or to more authority in the country. ever since the year i have felt this fear and have tried that these apprehensions might be rightly understood." while walaeus had been absent, the reverend jean la motte (or lamotius) and another clergyman of the hague had come to the prisoner's apartment. la motte could not look upon the advocate's face without weeping, but the others were more collected. conversation now ensued among the four; the preachers wishing to turn the doomed statesman's thought to the consolations of religion. but it was characteristic of the old lawyer's frame of mind that even now he looked at the tragical position in which he found himself from a constitutional and controversial point of view. he was perfectly calm and undaunted at the awful fate so suddenly and unexpectedly opened before his eyes, but he was indignant at what he esteemed the ignorance, injustice, and stupidity of the sentence to be pronounced against him. "i am ready enough to die," he said to the three clergymen, "but i cannot comprehend why i am to die. i have done nothing except in obedience to the laws and privileges of the land and according to my oath, honour, and conscience." "these judges," he continued, "come in a time when other maxims prevail in the state than those of my day. they have no right therefore to sit in judgment upon me." the clergymen replied that the twenty-four judges who had tried the case were no children and were conscientious men; that it was no small thing to condemn a man, and that they would have to answer it before the supreme judge of all. "i console myself," he answered, "in the lord my god, who knows all hearts and shall judge all men. god is just. "they have not dealt with me," he continued, "as according to law and justice they were bound to deal. they have taken away from me my own sovereign lords and masters and deposed them. to them alone i was responsible. in their place they have put many of my enemies who were never before in the government, and almost all of whom are young men who have not seen much or read much. i have seen and read much, and know that from such examples no good can follow. after my death they will learn for the first time what governing means." "the twenty-four judges are nearly all of them my enemies. what they have reproached me with, i have been obliged to hear. i have appealed against these judges, but it has been of no avail. they have examined me in piecemeal, not in statesmanlike fashion. the proceedings against me have been much too hard. i have frequently requested to see the notes of my examination as it proceeded, and to confer upon it with aid and counsel of friends, as would be the case in all lands governed by law. the request was refused. during this long and wearisome affliction and misery i have not once been allowed to speak to my wife and children. these are indecent proceedings against a man seventy-two years of age, who has served his country faithfully for three-and-forty years. i bore arms with the volunteers at my own charges at the siege of haarlem and barely escaped with life." it was not unnatural that the aged statesman's thoughts should revert in this supreme moment to the heroic scenes in which he had been an actor almost a half-century before. he could not but think with bitterness of those long past but never forgotten days when he, with other patriotic youths, had faced the terrible legions of alva in defence of the fatherland, at a time when the men who were now dooming him to a traitor's death were unborn, and who, but for his labours, courage, wisdom, and sacrifices, might have never had a fatherland to serve, or a judgment-seat on which to pronounce his condemnation. not in a spirit of fretfulness, but with disdainful calm, he criticised and censured the proceedings against himself as a violation of the laws of the land and of the first principles of justice, discussing them as lucidly and steadily as if they had been against a third person. the preachers listened, but had nothing to say. they knew not of such matters, they said, and had no instructions to speak of them. they had been sent to call him to repentance for his open and hidden sins and to offer the consolations of religion. "i know that very well," he said, "but i too have something to say notwithstanding." the conversation then turned upon religious topics, and the preachers spoke of predestination. "i have never been able to believe in the matter of high predestination," said the advocate. "i have left it in the hands of god the lord. i hold that a good christian man must believe that he through god's grace and by the expiation of his sin through our redeemer jesus christ is predestined to be saved, and that this belief in his salvation, founded alone on god's grace and the merits of our redeemer jesus christ, comes to him through the same grace of god. and if he falls into great sins, his firm hope and confidence must be that the lord god will not allow him to continue in them, but that, through prayer for grace and repentance, he will be converted from evil and remain in the faith to the end of his life." these feelings, he said, he had expressed fifty-two years before to three eminent professors of theology in whom he confided, and they had assured him that he might tranquilly continue in such belief without examining further. "and this has always been my creed," he said. the preachers replied that faith is a gift of god and not given to all men, that it must be given out of heaven to a man before he could be saved. hereupon they began to dispute, and the advocate spoke so earnestly and well that the clergymen were astonished and sat for a time listening to him in silence. he asked afterwards about the synod, and was informed that its decrees had not yet been promulgated, but that the remonstrants had been condemned. "it is a pity," said he. "one is trying to act on the old papal system, but it will never do. things have gone too far. as to the synod, if my lords the states of holland had been heeded there would have been first a provincial synod and then a national one."--"but," he added, looking the preachers in the face, "had you been more gentle with each other, matters would not have taken so high a turn. but you have been too fierce one against the other, too full of bitter party spirit." they replied that it was impossible for them to act against their conscience and the supreme authority. and then they asked him if there was nothing that troubled him in, his conscience in the matters for which he must die; nothing for which he repented and sorrowed, and for which he would call upon god for mercy. "this i know well," he said, "that i have never willingly done wrong to any man. people have been ransacking my letters to caron--confidential ones written several years ago to an old friend when i was troubled and seeking for counsel and consolation. it is hard that matter of impeachment against me to-day should be sought for thus." and then he fell into political discourse again on the subject of the waartgelders and the state rights, and the villainous pasquils and libels that had circulated so long through the country. "i have sometimes spoken hastily, i confess," he said; "but that was when i was stung by the daily swarm of infamous and loathsome pamphlets, especially those directed against my sovereign masters the states of holland. that i could not bear. old men cannot well brush such things aside. all that was directly aimed at me in particular i endeavoured to overcome with such patience as i could muster. the disunion and mutual enmity in the country have wounded me to the heart. i have made use of all means in my power to accommodate matters, to effect with all gentleness a mutual reconciliation. i have always felt a fear lest the enemy should make use of our internal dissensions to strike a blow against us. i can say with perfect truth that ever since the year ' i have been as resolutely and unchangeably opposed to the spaniards and their adherents, and their pretensions over these provinces, as any man in the world, no one excepted, and as ready to sacrifice property and shed my blood in defence of the fatherland. i have been so devoted to the service of the country that i have not been able to take the necessary care of my own private affairs." so spoke the great statesman in the seclusion of his prison, in the presence of those clergymen whom he respected, at a supreme moment, when, if ever, a man might be expected to tell the truth. and his whole life which belonged to history, and had been passed on the world's stage before the eyes of two generations of spectators, was a demonstration of the truth of his words. but burgomaster van berk knew better. had he not informed the twenty-four commissioners that, twelve years before, the advocate wished to subject the country to spain, and that spinola had drawn a bill of exchange for , ducats as a compensation for his efforts? it was eleven o'clock. barneveld requested one of the brethren to say an evening prayer. this was done by la motte, and they were then requested to return by three or four o'clock next morning. they had been directed, they said, to remain with him all night. "that is unnecessary," said the advocate, and they retired. his servant then helped his master to undress, and he went to bed as usual. taking off his signet-ring, he gave it to john franken. "for my eldest son," he said. the valet sat down at the head of his bed in order that his master might speak to him before he slept. but the soldiers ordered him away and compelled him to sit in a distant part of the room. an hour after midnight, the advocate having been unable to lose himself, his servant observed that isaac, one of the soldiers, was fast asleep. he begged the other, tilman schenk by name, to permit him some private words with his master. he had probably last messages, he thought, to send to his wife and children, and the eldest son, m. de groeneveld, would no doubt reward him well for it. but the soldier was obstinate in obedience to the orders of the judges. barneveld, finding it impossible to sleep, asked his servant to read to him from the prayer-book. the soldier called in a clergyman however, another one named hugo bayerus, who had been sent to the prison, and who now read to him the consolations of the sick. as he read, he made exhortations and expositions, which led to animated discussion, in which the advocate expressed himself with so much fervour and eloquence that all present were astonished, and the preacher sat mute a half-hour long at the bed-side. "had there been ten clergymen," said the simple-hearted sentry to the valet, "your master would have enough to say to all of them." barneveld asked where the place had been prepared in which he was to die. "in front of the great hall, as i understand," said bayerus, "but i don't know the localities well, having lived here but little." "have you heard whether my grotius is to die, and hoogerbeets also?" he asked? "i have heard nothing to that effect," replied the clergyman. "i should most deeply grieve for those two gentlemen," said barneveld, "were that the case. they may yet live to do the land great service. that great rising light, de groot, is still young, but a very wise and learned gentleman, devoted to his fatherland with all zeal, heart, and soul, and ready to stand up for her privileges, laws, and rights. as for me, i am an old and worn-out man. i can do no more. i have already done more than i was really able to do. i have worked so zealously in public matters that i have neglected my private business. i had expressly ordered my house at loosduinen" [a villa by the seaside] "to be got ready, that i might establish myself there and put my affairs in order. i have repeatedly asked the states of holland for my discharge, but could never obtain it. it seems that the almighty had otherwise disposed of me." he then said he would try once more if he could sleep. the clergyman and the servant withdrew for an hour, but his attempt was unsuccessful. after an hour he called for his french psalm book and read in it for some time. sometime after two o'clock the clergymen came in again and conversed with him. they asked him if he had slept, if he hoped to meet christ, and if there was anything that troubled his conscience. "i have not slept, but am perfectly tranquil," he replied. "i am ready to die, but cannot comprehend why i must die. i wish from my heart that, through my death and my blood, all disunion and discord in this land may cease." he bade them carry his last greetings to his fellow prisoners. "say farewell for me to my good grotius," said he, "and tell him that i must die." the clergymen then left him, intending to return between five and six o'clock. he remained quiet for a little while and then ordered his valet to cut open the front of his shirt. when this was done, he said, "john, are you to stay by me to the last?" "yes," he replied, "if the judges permit it." "remind me to send one of the clergymen to the judges with the request," said his master. the faithful john, than whom no servant or friend could be more devoted, seized the occasion, with the thrift and stoicism of a true hollander, to suggest that his lord might at the same time make some testamentary disposition in his favour. "tell my wife and children," said the advocate, "that they must console each other in mutual love and union. say that through god's grace i am perfectly at ease, and hope that they will be equally tranquil. tell my children that i trust they will be loving and friendly to their mother during the short time she has yet to live. say that i wish to recommend you to them that they may help you to a good situation either with themselves or with others. tell them that this was my last request." he bade him further to communicate to the family the messages sent that night through walaeus by the stadholder. the valet begged his master to repeat these instructions in presence of the clergyman, or to request one of them to convey them himself to the family. he promised to do so. "as long as i live," said the grateful servant, "i shall remember your lordship in my prayers." "no, john," said the advocate, "that is popish. when i am dead, it is all over with prayers. pray for me while i still live. now is the time to pray. when one is dead, one should no longer be prayed for." la motte came in. barneveld repeated his last wishes exactly as he desired them to be communicated to his wife and children. the preacher made no response. "will you take the message?" asked the prisoner. la motte nodded, but did not speak, nor did he subsequently fulfil the request. before five o'clock the servant heard the bell ring in the apartment of the judges directly below the prison chamber, and told his master he had understood that they were to assemble at five o'clock. "i may as well get up then," said the advocate; "they mean to begin early, i suppose. give me my doublet and but one pair of stockings." he was accustomed to wear two or three pair at a time. he took off his underwaistcoat, saying that the silver bog which was in one of the pockets was to be taken to his wife, and that the servant should keep the loose money there for himself. then he found an opportunity to whisper to him, "take good care of the papers which are in the apartment." he meant the elaborate writings which he had prepared during his imprisonment and concealed in the tapestry and within the linings of the chair. as his valet handed him the combs and brushes, he said with a smile, "john, this is for the last time." when he was dressed, he tried, in rehearsal of the approaching scene, to pull over his eyes the silk skull-cap which he usually wore under his hat. finding it too tight he told the valet to put the nightcap in his pocket and give it him when he should call for it. he then swallowed a half-glass of wine with a strengthening cordial in it, which he was wont to take. the clergymen then re-entered, and asked if he had been able to sleep. he answered no, but that he had been much consoled by many noble things which he had been reading in the french psalm book. the clergymen said that they had been thinking much of the beautiful confession of faith which he had made to them that evening. they rejoiced at it, they said, on his account, and had never thought it of him. he said that such had always been his creed. at his request walaeus now offered a morning prayer barneveld fell on his knees and prayed inwardly without uttering a sound. la motte asked when he had concluded, "did my lord say amen?"--"yes, lamotius," he replied; "amen."--"has either of the brethren," he added, "prepared a prayer to be offered outside there?" la motte informed him that this duty had been confided to him. some passages from isaiah were now read aloud, and soon afterwards walaeus was sent for to speak with the judges. he came back and said to the prisoner, "has my lord any desire to speak with his wife or children, or any of his friends?" it was then six o'clock, and barneveld replied: "no, the time is drawing near. it would excite a new emotion." walaeus went back to the judges with this answer, who thereupon made this official report: "the husband and father of the petitioners, being asked if he desired that any of the petitioners should come to him, declared that he did not approve of it, saying that it would cause too great an emotion for himself as well as for them. this is to serve as an answer to the petitioners." now the advocate knew nothing of the petition. up to the last moment his family had been sanguine as to his ultimate acquittal and release. they relied on a promise which they had received or imagined that they had received from the stadholder that no harm should come to the prisoner in consequence of the arrest made of his person in the prince's apartments on the th of august. they had opened this tragical month of may with flagstaffs and flower garlands, and were making daily preparations to receive back the revered statesman in triumph. the letter written by him from his "chamber of sorrow," late in the evening of th may, had at last dispelled every illusion. it would be idle to attempt to paint the grief and consternation into which the household in the voorhout was plunged, from the venerable dame at its head, surrounded by her sons and daughters and children's children, down to the humblest servant in their employment. for all revered and loved the austere statesman, but simple and benignant father and master. no heed had been taken of the three elaborate and argumentative petitions which, prepared by learned counsel in name of the relatives, had been addressed to the judges. they had not been answered because they were difficult to answer, and because it was not intended that the accused should have the benefit of counsel. an urgent and last appeal was now written late at night, and signed by each member of the family, to his excellency the prince and the judge commissioners, to this effect: "the afflicted wife and children of m. van barneveld humbly show that having heard the sorrowful tidings of his coming execution, they humbly beg that it may be granted them to see and speak to him for the last time." the two sons delivered this petition at four o'clock in the morning into the hands of de voogd, one of the judges. it was duly laid before the commission, but the prisoner was never informed, when declining a last interview with his family, how urgently they had themselves solicited the boon. louise de coligny, on hearing late at night the awful news, had been struck with grief and horror. she endeavoured, late as it was, to do something to avert the doom of one she so much revered, the man on whom her illustrious husband had leaned his life long as on a staff of iron. she besought an interview of the stadholder, but it was refused. the wife of william the silent had no influence at that dire moment with her stepson. she was informed at first that maurice was asleep, and at four in the morning that all intervention was useless. the faithful and energetic du maurier, who had already exhausted himself in efforts to save the life of the great prisoner, now made a last appeal. he, too, heard at four o'clock in the morning of the th that sentence of death was to be pronounced. before five o'clock he made urgent application to be heard before the assembly of the states-general as ambassador of a friendly sovereign who took the deepest interest in the welfare of the republic and the fate of its illustrious statesman. the appeal was refused. as a last resource he drew up an earnest and eloquent letter to the states-general, urging clemency in the name of his king. it was of no avail. the letter may still be seen in the royal archives at the hague, drawn up entirely in du maurier's clear and beautiful handwriting. although possibly a first draft, written as it was under such a mortal pressure for time, its pages have not one erasure or correction. it was seven o'clock. barneveld having observed by the preacher (la motte's) manner that he was not likely to convey the last messages which he had mentioned to his wife and children, sent a request to the judges to be allowed to write one more letter. captain van der meulen came back with the permission, saying he would wait and take it to the judges for their revision. the letter has been often published. "must they see this too? why, it is only a line in favour of john," said the prisoner, sitting quietly down to write this letter: "very dear wife and children, it is going to an end with me. i am, through the grace of god, very tranquil. i hope that you are equally so, and that you may by mutual love, union, and peace help each other to overcome all things, which i pray to the omnipotent as my last request. john franken has served me faithfully for many years and throughout all these my afflictions, and is to remain with me to the end. he deserves to be recommended to you and to be furthered to good employments with you or with others. i request you herewith to see to this. "i have requested his princely excellency to hold my sons and children in his favour, to which he has answered that so long as you conduct yourselves well this shall be the case. i recommend this to you in the best form and give you all into god's holy keeping. kiss each other and all my grandchildren, for the last time in my name, and fare you well. out of the chamber of sorrow, th may . your dear husband and father, john of barneveld. "p.s. you will make john franken a present in memory of me." certainly it would be difficult to find a more truly calm, courageous, or religious spirit than that manifested by this aged statesman at an hour when, if ever, a human soul is tried and is apt to reveal its innermost depths or shallows. whatever gomarus or bogerman, or the whole council of dordtrecht, may have thought of his theology, it had at least taught him forgiveness of his enemies, kindness to his friends, and submission to the will of the omnipotent. every moment of his last days on earth had been watched and jealously scrutinized, and his bitterest enemies had failed to discover one trace of frailty, one manifestation of any vacillating, ignoble, or malignant sentiment. the drums had been sounding through the quiet but anxiously expectant town since four o'clock that morning, and the tramp of soldiers marching to the inner court had long been audible in the prison chamber. walaeus now came back with a message from the judges. "the high commissioners," he said, "think it is beginning. will my lord please to prepare himself?" "very well, very well," said the prisoner. "shall we go at once?" but walaeus suggested a prayer. upon its conclusion, barneveld gave his hand to the provost-marshal and to the two soldiers, bidding them adieu, and walked downstairs, attended by them, to the chamber of the judges. as soon as he appeared at the door, he was informed that there had been a misunderstanding, and he was requested to wait a little. he accordingly went upstairs again with perfect calmness, sat down in his chamber again, and read in his french psalm book. half an hour later he was once more summoned, the provost-marshal and captain van der meulen reappearing to escort him. "mr. provost," said the prisoner, as they went down the narrow staircase, "i have always been a good friend to you."--"it is true," replied that officer, "and most deeply do i grieve to see you in this affliction." he was about to enter the judges' chamber as usual, but was informed that the sentence would be read in the great hall of judicature. they descended accordingly to the basement story, and passed down the narrow flight of steps which then as now connected the more modern structure, where the advocate had been imprisoned and tried, with what remained of the ancient palace of the counts of holland. in the centre of the vast hall--once the banqueting chamber of those petty sovereigns; with its high vaulted roof of cedar which had so often in ancient days rung with the sounds of mirth and revelry--was a great table at which the twenty-four judges and the three prosecuting officers were seated, in their black caps and gowns of office. the room was lined with soldiers and crowded with a dark, surging mass of spectators, who had been waiting there all night. a chair was placed for the prisoner. he sat down, and the clerk of the commission, pots by name, proceeded at once to read the sentence. a summary of this long, rambling, and tiresome paper has been already laid before the reader. if ever a man could have found it tedious to listen to his own death sentence, the great statesman might have been in that condition as he listened to secretary pots. during the reading of the sentence the advocate moved uneasily on his seat, and seemed about to interrupt the clerk at several passages which seemed to him especially preposterous. but he controlled himself by a strong effort, and the clerk went steadily on to the conclusion. then barneveld said: "the judges have put down many things which they have no right to draw from my confession. let this protest be added." "i thought too," he continued, "that my lords the states-general would have had enough in my life and blood, and that my wife and children might keep what belongs to them. is this my recompense for forty-three years' service to these provinces?" president de voogd rose: "your sentence has been pronounced," he said. "away! away!" so saying he pointed to the door into which one of the great windows at the south-eastern front of the hall had been converted. without another word the old man rose from his chair and strode, leaning on his staff, across the hall, accompanied by his faithful valet and the provost and escorted by a file of soldiers. the mob of spectators flowed out after him at every door into the inner courtyard in front of the ancient palace. etext editor's bookmarks: better to be governed by magistrates than mobs burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience heidelberg catechism were declared to be infallible i know how to console myself implication there was much, of assertion very little john robinson magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword only true religion rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic william brewster the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. life and death of john of barneveld, v , - chapter xxi. barneveld's execution--the advocate's conduct on the scaffold--the sentence printed and sent to the provinces--the proceedings irregular and inequitable. in the beautiful village capital of the "count's park," commonly called the hague, the most striking and picturesque spot then as now was that where the transformed remains of the old moated castle of those feudal sovereigns were still to be seen. a three-storied range of simple, substantial buildings in brown brickwork, picked out with white stone in a style since made familiar both in england and america, and associated with a somewhat later epoch in the history of the house of orange, surrounded three sides of a spacious inner paved quadrangle called the inner court, the fourth or eastern side being overshadowed by a beechen grove. a square tower flanked each angle, and on both sides of the south-western turret extended the commodious apartments of the stadholder. the great gateway on the south-west opened into a wide open space called the outer courtyard. along the north-west side a broad and beautiful sheet of water, in which the walls, turrets, and chapel-spires of the enclosed castle mirrored themselves, was spread between the mass of buildings and an umbrageous promenade called the vyverberg, consisting of a sextuple alley of lime-trees and embowering here and there a stately villa. a small island, fringed with weeping willows and tufted all over with lilacs, laburnums, and other shrubs then in full flower, lay in the centre of the miniature lake, and the tall solid tower of the great church, surmounted by a light openwork spire, looked down from a little distance over the scene. it was a bright morning in may. the white swans were sailing tranquilly to and fro over the silver basin, and the mavis, blackbird, and nightingale, which haunted the groves surrounding the castle and the town, were singing as if the daybreak were ushering in a summer festival. but it was not to a merry-making that the soldiers were marching and the citizens thronging so eagerly from every street and alley towards the castle. by four o'clock the outer and inner courts had been lined with detachments of the prince's guard and companies of other regiments to the number of men. occupying the north-eastern side of the court rose the grim, time-worn front of the ancient hall, consisting of one tall pyramidal gable of ancient grey brickwork flanked with two tall slender towers, the whole with the lancet-shaped windows and severe style of the twelfth century, excepting a rose-window in the centre with the decorated mullions of a somewhat later period. in front of the lower window, with its gothic archway hastily converted into a door, a shapeless platform of rough, unhewn planks had that night been rudely patched together. this was the scaffold. a slight railing around it served to protect it from the crowd, and a heap of coarse sand had been thrown upon it. a squalid, unclean box of unplaned boards, originally prepared as a coffin for a frenchman who some time before had been condemned to death for murdering the son of goswyn meurskens, a hague tavern-keeper, but pardoned by the stadholder--lay on the scaffold. it was recognized from having been left for a long time, half forgotten, at the public execution-place of the hague. upon this coffin now sat two common soldiers of ruffianly aspect playing at dice, betting whether the lord or the devil would get the soul of barneveld. many a foul and ribald jest at the expense of the prisoner was exchanged between these gamblers, some of their comrades, and a few townsmen, who were grouped about at that early hour. the horrible libels, caricatures, and calumnies which had been circulated, exhibited, and sung in all the streets for so many months had at last thoroughly poisoned the minds of the vulgar against the fallen statesman. the great mass of the spectators had forced their way by daybreak into the hall itself to hear the sentence, so that the inner courtyard had remained comparatively empty. at last, at half past nine o'clock, a shout arose, "there he comes! there he comes!" and the populace flowed out from the hall of judgment into the courtyard like a tidal wave. in an instant the binnenhof was filled with more than three thousand spectators. the old statesman, leaning on his staff, walked out upon the scaffold and calmly surveyed the scene. lifting his eyes to heaven, he was heard to murmur, "o god! what does man come to!" then he said bitterly once more: "this, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the state!" la motte, who attended him, said fervently: "it is no longer time to think of this. let us prepare your coming before god." "is there no cushion or stool to kneel upon?" said barneveld, looking around him. the provost said he would send for one, but the old man knelt at once on the bare planks. his servant, who waited upon him as calmly and composedly as if he had been serving him at dinner, held him by the arm. it was remarked that neither master nor man, true stoics and hollanders both, shed a single tear upon the scaffold. la motte prayed for a quarter of an hour, the advocate remaining on his knees. he then rose and said to john franken, "see that he does not come near me," pointing to the executioner who stood in the background grasping his long double-handed sword. barneveld then rapidly unbuttoned his doublet with his own hands and the valet helped him off with it. "make haste! make haste!" said his master. the statesman then came forward and said in a loud, firm voice to the people: "men, do not believe that i am a traitor to the country. i have ever acted uprightly and loyally as a good patriot, and as such i shall die." the crowd was perfectly silent. he then took his cap from john franken, drew it over his eyes, and went forward towards the sand, saying: "christ shall be my guide. o lord, my heavenly father, receive my spirit." as he was about to kneel with his face to the south, the provost said: "my lord will be pleased to move to the other side, not where the sun is in his face." he knelt accordingly with his face towards his own house. the servant took farewell of him, and barneveld said to the executioner: "be quick about it. be quick." the executioner then struck his head off at a single blow. many persons from the crowd now sprang, in spite of all opposition, upon the scaffold and dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, cut wet splinters from the boards, or grubbed up the sand that was steeped in it; driving many bargains afterwards for these relics to be treasured, with various feelings of sorrow, joy, glutted or expiated vengeance. it has been recorded, and has been constantly repeated to this day, that the stadholder, whose windows exactly faced the scaffold, looked out upon the execution with a spy-glass; saying as he did so: "see the old scoundrel, how he trembles! he is afraid of the stroke." but this is calumny. colonel hauterive declared that he was with maurice in his cabinet during the whole period of the execution, that by order of the prince all the windows and shutters were kept closed, that no person wearing his livery was allowed to be abroad, that he anxiously received messages as to the proceedings, and heard of the final catastrophe with sorrowful emotion. it must be admitted, however, that the letter which maurice wrote on the same morning to his cousin william lewis does not show much pathos. "after the judges," he said, "have been busy here with the sentence against the advocate barneveld for several days, at last it has been pronounced, and this morning, between nine o'clock and half past, carried into execution with the sword, in the binnenhof before the great hall. "the reasons they had for this you will see from the sentence, which will doubtless be printed, and which i will send you. "the wife of the aforesaid barneveld and also some of his sons and sons-in-law or other friends have never presented any supplication for his pardon, but till now have vehemently demanded that law and justice should be done to him, and have daily let the report run through the people that he would soon come out. they also planted a may-pole before their house adorned with garlands and ribbands, and practised other jollities and impertinences, while they ought to have conducted themselves in a humble and lowly fashion. this is no proper manner of behaving, and moreover not a practical one to move the judges to any favour even if they had been thereto inclined." the sentence was printed and sent to the separate provinces. it was accompanied by a declaration of the states-general that they had received information from the judges of various points, not mentioned in the sentence, which had been laid to the charge of the late advocate, and which gave much reason to doubt whether he had not perhaps turned his eyes toward the enemy. they could not however legally give judgment to that effect without a sharper investigation, which on account of his great age and for other reasons it was thought best to spare him. a meaner or more malignant postscript to a state paper recounting the issue of a great trial it would be difficult to imagine. the first statesman of the country had just been condemned and executed on a narrative, without indictment of any specified crime. and now, by a kind of apologetic after-thought, six or eight individuals calling themselves the states-general insinuated that he had been looking towards the enemy, and that, had they not mercifully spared him the rack, which is all that could be meant by their sharper investigation, he would probably have confessed the charge. and thus the dead man's fame was blackened by those who had not hesitated to kill him, but had shrunk from enquiring into his alleged crime. not entirely without semblance of truth did grotius subsequently say that the men who had taken his life would hardly have abstained from torturing him if they had really hoped by so doing to extract from him a confession of treason. the sentence was sent likewise to france, accompanied with a statement that barneveld had been guilty of unpardonable crimes which had not been set down in the act of condemnation. complaints were also made of the conduct of du maurier in thrusting himself into the internal affairs of the states and taking sides so ostentatiously against the government. the king and his ministers were indignant with these rebukes, and sustained the ambassador. jeannin and de boississe expressed the opinion that he had died innocent of any crime, and only by reason of his strong political opposition to the prince. the judges had been unanimous in finding him guilty of the acts recorded in their narrative, but three of them had held out for some time in favour of a sentence of perpetual imprisonment rather than decapitation. they withdrew at last their opposition to the death penalty for the wonderful reason that reports had been circulated of attempts likely to be made to assassinate prince maurice. the stadholder himself treated these rumours and the consequent admonition of the states-general that he would take more than usual precautions for his safety with perfect indifference, but they were conclusive with the judges of barneveld. "republica poscit exemplum," said commissioner junius, one of the three, as he sided with the death-warrant party. the same doctor junius a year afterwards happened to dine, in company of one of his fellow-commissioners, with attorney-general sylla at utrecht, and took occasion to ask them why it was supposed that barneveld had been hanging his head towards spain, as not one word of that stood in the sentence. the question was ingenuous on the part of one learned judge to his colleagues in one of the most famous state trials of history, propounded as a bit of after-dinner casuistry, when the victim had been more than a year in his grave. but perhaps the answer was still more artless. his brother lawyers replied that the charge was easily to be deduced from the sentence, because a man who breaks up the foundation of the state makes the country indefensible, and therefore invites the enemy to invade it. and this barneveld had done, who had turned the union, religion, alliances, and finances upside down by his proceedings. certainly if every constitutional minister, accused by the opposition party of turning things upside down by his proceedings, were assumed to be guilty of deliberately inviting a hostile invasion of his country, there would have been few from that day to this to escape hanging. constructive treason could scarcely go farther than it was made to do in these attempts to prove, after his death, that the advocate had, as it was euphuistically expressed, been looking towards the enemy. and no better demonstrations than these have ever been discovered. he died at the age of seventy-one years seven months and eighteen days. his body and head were huddled into the box upon which the soldiers had been shaking the dice, and was placed that night in the vault of the chapel in the inner court. it was subsequently granted as a boon to the widow and children that it might be taken thence and decently buried in the family vault at amersfoort. on the day of the execution a formal entry was made in the register of the states of holland. "monday, th may . to-day was executed with the sword here in the hague, on a scaffold thereto erected in the binnenhof before the steps of the great hall, mr. john of barneveld, in his life knight, lord of berkel, rodenrys, &c., advocate of holland and west friesland, for reasons expressed in the sentence and otherwise, with confiscation of his property, after he had served the state thirty-three years two months and five days since th march .; a man of great activity, business, memory, and wisdom--yes, extraordinary in every respect. he that stands let him see that he does not fall, and may god be merciful to his soul. amen?" a year later-on application made by the widow and children of the deceased to compound for the confiscation of his property by payment of a certain sum, eighty florins or a similar trifle, according to an ancient privilege of the order of nobility--the question was raised whether he had been guilty of high-treason, as he had not been sentenced for such a crime, and as it was only in case of sentence for lese-majesty that this composition was disallowed. it was deemed proper therefore to ask the court for what crime the prisoner had been condemned. certainly a more sarcastic question could not have been asked. but the court had ceased to exist. the commission had done its work and was dissolved. some of its members were dead. letters however were addressed by the states-general to the individual commissioners requesting them to assemble at the hague for the purpose of stating whether it was because the prisoners had committed lese-majesty that their property had been confiscated. they never assembled. some of them were perhaps ignorant of the exact nature of that crime. several of them did not understand the words. twelve of them, among whom were a few jurists, sent written answers to the questions proposed. the question was, "did you confiscate the property because the crime was lese-majesty?" the reply was, "the crime was lese-majesty, although not so stated in the sentence, because we confiscated the property." in one of these remarkable documents this was stated to be "the unanimous opinion of almost all the judges." the point was referred to the commissioners, some of whom attended the court of the hague in person, while others sent written opinions. all agreed that the criminal had committed high-treason because otherwise his property would not have been confiscated. a more wonderful example of the argument in a circle was never heard of. moreover it is difficult to understand by what right the high commission, which had been dissolved a year before, after having completed its work, could be deemed competent to emit afterwards a judicial decision. but the fact is curious as giving one more proof of the irregular, unphilosophical, and inequitable nature of these famous proceedings. chapter xxii. grotius urged to ask forgiveness--grotius shows great weakness-- hoogerbeets and grotius imprisoned for life--grotius confined at loevestein--grotius' early attainments--grotius' deportment in prison--escape of grotius--deventer's rage at grotius' escape. two days after the execution of the advocate, judgment was pronounced upon gillis van ledenberg. it would have been difficult to try him, or to extort a confession of high-treason from him by the rack or otherwise, as the unfortunate gentleman had been dead for more than seven months. not often has a court of justice pronounced a man, without trial, to be guilty of a capital offence. not often has a dead man been condemned and executed. but this was the lot of secretary ledenberg. he was sentenced to be hanged, his property declared confiscated. his unburied corpse, reduced to the condition of a mummy, was brought out of its lurking-place, thrust into a coffin, dragged on a hurdle to the golgotha outside the hague, on the road to ryswyk, and there hung on a gibbet in company of the bodies of other malefactors swinging there in chains. his prudent scheme to save his property for his children by committing suicide in prison was thus thwarted. the reading of the sentence of ledenberg, as had been previously the case with that of barneveld, had been heard by grotius through the open window of his prison, as he lay on his bed. the scaffold on which the advocate had suffered was left standing, three executioners were still in the town, and there was every reason for both grotius and hoogerbeets to expect a similar doom. great efforts were made to induce the friends of the distinguished prisoners to sue for their pardon. but even as in the case of the barneveld family these attempts were fruitless. the austere stoicism both on the part of the sufferers and their relatives excites something like wonder. three of the judges went in person to the prison chamber of hoogerbeets, urging him to ask forgiveness himself or to allow his friends to demand it for him. "if my wife and children do ask," he said, "i will protest against it. i need no pardon. let justice take its course. think not, gentlemen, that i mean by asking for pardon to justify your proceedings." he stoutly refused to do either. the judges, astonished, took their departure, saying: "then you will fare as barneveld. the scaffold is still standing." he expected consequently nothing but death, and said many years afterwards that he knew from personal experience how a man feels who goes out of prison to be beheaded. the wife of grotius sternly replied to urgent intimations from a high source that she should ask pardon for her husband, "i shall not do it. if he has deserved it, let them strike off his head." yet no woman could be more devoted to her husband than was maria van reigersbergen to hugo de groot, as time was to prove. the prince subsequently told her at a personal interview that "one of two roads must be taken, that of the law or that of pardon." soon after the arrest it was rumoured that grotius was ready to make important revelations if he could first be assured of the prince's protection. his friends were indignant at the statement. his wife stoutly denied its truth, but, to make sure, wrote to her husband on the subject. "one thing amazes me," she said; "some people here pretend to say that you have stated to one gentleman in private that you have something to disclose greatly important to the country, but that you desired beforehand to be taken under the protection of his excellency. i have not chosen to believe this, nor do i, for i hold that to be certain which you have already told me--that you know no secrets. i see no reason therefore why you should require the protection of any man. and there is no one to believe this, but i thought best to write to you of it. let me, in order that i may contradict the story with more authority, have by the bearer of this a simple yes or no. study quietly, take care of your health, have some days' patience, for the advocate has not yet been heard." the answer has not been preserved, but there is an allusion to the subject in an unpublished memorandum of grotius written while he was in prison. it must be confessed that the heart of the great theologian and jurist seems to have somewhat failed him after his arrest, and although he was incapable of treachery--even if he had been possessed of any secrets, which certainly was not the case--he did not show the same spartan firmness as his wife, and was very far from possessing the heroic calm of barneveld. he was much disposed to extricate himself from his unhappy plight by making humble, if not abject, submission to maurice. he differed from his wife in thinking that he had no need of the prince's protection. "i begged the chamberlain, matthew de cors," he said, a few days after his arrest, "that i might be allowed to speak with his excellency of certain things which i would not willingly trust to the pen. my meaning was to leave all public employment and to offer my service to his excellency in his domestic affairs. thus i hoped that the motives for my imprisonment would cease. this was afterwards misinterpreted as if i had had wonderful things to reveal." but grotius towards the end of his trial showed still greater weakness. after repeated refusals, he had at last obtained permission of the judges to draw up in writing the heads of his defence. to do this he was allowed a single sheet of paper, and four hours of time, the trial having lasted several months. and in the document thus prepared he showed faltering in his faith as to his great friend's innocence, and admitted, without any reason whatever, the possibility of there being truth in some of the vile and anonymous calumnies against him. "the friendship of the advocate of holland i had always highly prized," he said, "hoping from the conversation of so wise and experienced a person to learn much that was good . . . . i firmly believed that his excellency, notwithstanding occasional differences as to the conduct of public affairs, considered him a true and upright servant of the land . . . . i have been therefore surprised to understand, during my imprisonment, that the gentlemen had proofs in hand not alone of his correspondence with the enemy, but also of his having received money from them. "he being thus accused, i have indicated by word of mouth and afterwards resumed in writing all matters which i thought--the above-mentioned proofs being made good--might be thereto indirectly referred, in order to show that for me no friendships were so dear as the preservation of the freedom of the land. i wish that he may give explanation of all to the contentment of the judges, and that therefore his actions--which, supposing the said correspondence to be true, are subject to a bad interpretation--may be taken in another sense." alas! could the advocate--among whose first words after hearing of his own condemnation to death were, "and must my grotius die too?" adding, with a sigh of relief when assured of the contrary, "i should deeply grieve for that; he is so young and may live to do the state much service." could he have read those faltering and ungenerous words from one he so held in his heart, he would have felt them like the stab of brutus. grotius lived to know that there were no such proofs, that the judges did not dare even allude to the charge in their sentence, and long years afterwards he drew a picture of the martyred patriot such as one might have expected from his pen. but these written words of doubt must have haunted him to his grave. on the th may --on the fifty-first anniversary, as grotius remarked, of the condemnation of egmont and hoorn by the blood tribunal of alva--the two remaining victims were summoned to receive their doom. the fiscal sylla, entering de groot's chamber early in the morning to conduct him before the judges, informed him that he was not instructed to communicate the nature of the sentence. "but," he said, maliciously, "you are aware of what has befallen the advocate." "i have heard with my own ears," answered grotius, "the judgment pronounced upon barneveld and upon ledenberg. whatever may be my fate, i have patience to bear it." the sentence, read in the same place and in the same manner as had been that upon the advocate, condemned both hoogerbeets and grotius to perpetual imprisonment. the course of the trial and the enumeration of the offences were nearly identical with the leading process which has been elaborately described. grotius made no remark whatever in the court-room. on returning to his chamber he observed that his admissions of facts had been tortured into confessions of guilt, that he had been tried and sentenced against all principles and forms of law, and that he had been deprived of what the humblest criminal could claim, the right of defence and the examination of testimony. in regard to the penalty against him, he said, there was no such thing as perpetual imprisonment except in hell. alluding to the leading cause of all these troubles, he observed that it was with the stadholder and the advocate as cato had said of caesar and pompey. the great misery had come not from their being enemies, but from their having once been friends. on the night of th june the prisoners were taken from their prison in the hague and conveyed to the castle of loevestein. this fortress, destined thenceforth to be famous in history and--from its frequent use in after-times as a state-prison for men of similar constitutional views to those of grotius and the advocate--to give its name to a political party, was a place of extraordinary strength. nature and art had made it, according to military ideas of that age, almost impregnable. as a prison it seemed the very castle of despair. "abandon all hope ye who enter" seemed engraven over its portal. situate in the very narrow, acute angle where the broad, deep, and turbid waal--the chief of the three branches into which the rhine divides itself on entering the netherlands--mingles its current with the silver meuse whose name it adopts as the united rivers roll to the sea, it was guarded on many sides by these deep and dangerous streams. on the land-side it was surrounded by high walls and a double foss, which protected it against any hostile invasion from brabant. as the twelve years' truce was running to its close, it was certain that pains would be taken to strengthen the walls and deepen the ditches, that the place might be proof against all marauders and land-robbers likely to swarm over from the territory of the archdukes. the town of gorcum was exactly opposite on the northern side of the waal, while worcum was about a league's distance from the castle on the southern side, but separated from it by the meuse. the prisoners, after crossing the drawbridge, were led through thirteen separate doors, each one secured by iron bolts and heavy locks, until they reached their separate apartments. they were never to see or have any communication with each other. it had been accorded by the states-general however that the wives of the two gentlemen were to have access to their prison, were to cook for them in the castle kitchen, and, if they chose to inhabit the fortress, might cross to the neighbouring town of gorcum from time to time to make purchases, and even make visits to the hague. twenty-four stuivers, or two shillings, a day were allowed by the states-general for the support of each prisoner and his family. as the family property of grotius was at once sequestered, with a view to its ultimate confiscation, it was clear that abject indigence as well as imprisonment was to be the lifelong lot of this illustrious person, who had hitherto lived in modest affluence, occupying the most considerable of social positions. the commandant of the fortress was inspired from the outset with a desire to render the prisoner's situation as hateful as it was in his power to make it. and much was in his power. he resolved that the family should really live upon their daily pittance. yet madame de groot, before the final confiscation of her own and her husband's estates, had been able to effect considerable loans, both to carry on process against government for what the prisoners contended was an unjust confiscation, and for providing for the household on a decent scale and somewhat in accordance with the requirements of the prisoner's health. thus there was a wearisome and ignoble altercation, revived from day to day, between the commandant and madame de groot. it might have been thought enough of torture for this virtuous and accomplished lady, but twenty-nine years of age and belonging to one of the eminent families of the country, to see her husband, for his genius and accomplishments the wonder of europe, thus cut off in the flower of his age and doomed to a living grave. she was nevertheless to be subjected to the perpetual inquisition of the market-basket, which she was not ashamed with her maid to take to and from gorcum, and to petty wrangles about the kitchen fire where she was proud to superintend the cooking of the scanty fare for her husband and her five children. there was a reason for the spite of the military jailer. lieutenant prouninx, called deventer, commandant of loevestein, was son of the notorious gerard prouninx, formerly burgomaster of utrecht, one of the ringleaders of the leicester faction in the days when the earl made his famous attempts upon the four cities. he had sworn revenge upon all those concerned in his father's downfall, and it was a delight therefore to wreak a personal vengeance on one who had since become so illustrious a member of that party by which the former burgomaster had been deposed, although grotius at the time of leicester's government had scarcely left his cradle. thus these ladies were to work in the kitchen and go to market from time to time, performing this menial drudgery under the personal inspection of the warrior who governed the garrison and fortress, but who in vain attempted to make maria van reigersbergen tremble at his frown. hugo de groot, when thus for life immured, after having already undergone a preliminary imprisonment of nine months, was just thirty-six years of age. although comparatively so young, he had been long regarded as one of the great luminaries of europe for learning and genius. of an ancient and knightly race, his immediate ancestors had been as famous for literature, science, and municipal abilities as their more distant progenitors for deeds of arms in the feudal struggles of holland in the middle ages. his father and grandfather had alike been eminent for hebrew, greek, and latin scholarship, and both had occupied high positions in the university of leyden from its beginning. hugo, born and nurtured under such quickening influences, had been a scholar and poet almost from his cradle. he wrote respectable latin verses at the age of seven, he was matriculated at leyden at the age of eleven. that school, founded amid the storms and darkness of terrible war, was not lightly to be entered. it was already illustrated by a galaxy of shining lights in science and letters, which radiated over christendom. his professors were joseph scaliger, francis junius, paulus merula, and a host of others. his fellow-students were men like scriverius, vossius, baudius, daniel heinsius. the famous soldier and poet douza, who had commanded the forces of leyden during the immortal siege, addressed him on his admission to the university as "magne peer magni dignissime cura parentis," in a copy of eloquent verses. when fourteen years old, he took his bachelor's degree, after a rigorous examination not only in the classics but astronomy, mathematics, jurisprudence, and theology, at an age when most youths would have been accounted brilliant if able to enter that high school with credit. on leaving the university he was attached to the embassy of barneveld and justinus van nassau to the court of henry iv. here he attracted the attention of that monarch, who pointed him out to his courtiers as the "miracle of holland," presented him with a gold chain with his miniature attached to it, and proposed to confer on him the dignity of knighthood, which the boy from motives of family pride appears to have refused. while in france he received from the university of orleans, before the age of fifteen, the honorary degree of doctor of laws in a very eulogistic diploma. on his return to holland he published an edition of the poet johannes capella with valuable annotations, besides giving to the public other learned and classical works and several tragedies of more or less merit. at the age of seventeen he was already an advocate in full practice before the supreme tribunals of the hague, and when twenty-three years old he was selected by prince maurice from a list of three candidates for the important post of fiscal or attorney-general of holland. other civic dignities, embassies, and offices of various kinds, had been thrust upon him one after another, in all of which he had acquitted himself with dignity and brilliancy. he was but twenty-six when he published his argument for the liberty of the sea, the famous mare liberum, and a little later appeared his work on the antiquity of the batavian republic, which procured for him in spain the title of "hugo grotius, auctor damnatus." at the age of twenty-nine he had completed his latin history of the netherlands from the period immediately preceding the war of independence down to the conclusion of the truce, - --a work which has been a classic ever since its appearance, although not published until after his death. a chief magistrate of rotterdam, member of the states of holland and the states-general, jurist, advocate, attorney-general, poet, scholar, historian, editor of the greek and latin classics, writer of tragedies, of law treatises, of theological disquisitions, he stood foremost among a crowd of famous contemporaries. his genius, eloquence, and learning were esteemed among the treasures not only of his own country but of europe. he had been part and parcel of his country's history from his earliest manhood, and although a child in years compared to barneveld, it was upon him that the great statesman had mainly relied ever since the youth's first appearance in public affairs. impressible, emotional, and susceptive, he had been accused from time to time, perhaps not entirely without reason, of infirmity of purpose, or at least of vacillation in opinion; but his worst enemies had never assailed the purity of his heart or integrity of his character. he had not yet written the great work on the 'rights of war and peace', which was to make an epoch in the history of civilization and to be the foundation of a new science, but the materials lay already in the ample storehouse of his memory and his brain. possessed of singular personal beauty--which the masterly portraits of miereveld attest to the present day--tall, brown-haired; straight-featured, with a delicate aquiline nose and piercing dark blue eyes, he was also athletic of frame and a proficient in manly exercises. this was the statesman and the scholar, of whom it is difficult to speak but in terms of affectionate but not exaggerated eulogy, and for whom the republic of the netherlands could now find no better use than to shut him up in the grim fortress of loevestein for the remainder of his days. a commonwealth must have deemed itself rich in men which, after cutting off the head of barneveld, could afford to bury alive hugo grotius. his deportment in prison was a magnificent moral lesson. shut up in a kind of cage consisting of a bedroom and a study, he was debarred from physical exercise, so necessary for his mental and bodily health. not choosing for the gratification of lieutenant deventer to indulge in weak complaints, he procured a huge top, which he employed himself in whipping several hours a day; while for intellectual employment he plunged once more into those classical, juridical, and theological studies which had always employed his leisure hours from childhood upwards. it had been forbidden by the states-general to sell his likeness in the shops. the copper plates on which they had been engraved had as far as possible been destroyed. the wish of the government, especially of his judges, was that his name and memory should die at once and for ever. they were not destined to be successful, for it would be equally difficult to-day to find an educated man in christendom ignorant of the name of hugo grotius, or acquainted with that of a single one of his judges. and his friends had not forgotten him as he lay there living in his tomb. especially the learned scriverius, vossius, and other professors, were permitted to correspond with him at intervals on literary subjects, the letters being subjected to preliminary inspection. scriverius sent him many books from his well-stocked library, de groot's own books and papers having been confiscated by the government. at a somewhat later period the celebrated orientalist erpenius sent him from time to time a large chest of books, the precious freight being occasionally renewed and the chest passing to and from loevestein by way of gorcum. at this town lived a sister of erpenius, married to one daatselaer, a considerable dealer in thread and ribbons, which he exported to england. the house of daatselaer became a place of constant resort for madame de groot as well as the wife of hoogerbeets, both dames going every few days from the castle across the waal to gorcum, to make their various purchases for the use of their forlorn little households in the prison. madame daatselaer therefore received and forwarded into loevestein or into holland many parcels and boxes, besides attending to the periodical transmission of the mighty chest of books. professor vossius was then publishing a new edition of the tragedies of seneca, and at his request grotius enriched that work, from his prison, with valuable notes. he employed himself also in translating the moral sentences extracted by stobaeus from the greek tragedies; drawing consolation from the ethics and philosophy of the ancient dramatists, whom he had always admired, especially the tragedies of euripides; he formed a complete moral anthology from that poet and from the works of sophocles, menander, and others, which he translated into fluent dutch verse. becoming more and more interested in the subject, he executed a masterly rhymed translation of the 'theban brothers' of euripides, thus seeking distraction from his own tragic doom in the portraiture of antique, distant, and heroic sorrow. turning again to legal science, he completed an introduction to the jurisprudence of holland, a work which as soon as published became thenceforward a text-book and an oracle in the law courts and the high schools of the country. not forgetting theology, he composed for the use of the humbler classes, especially for sailors, in whose lot, so exposed to danger and temptation, he ever took deep interest, a work on the proofs of christianity in easy and familiar rhyme--a book of gold, as it was called at once, which became rapidly popular with those for whom it was designed. at a somewhat later period professor erpenius, publishing a new edition of the new testament in greek, with translations in arabic, syriac, and ethiopian, solicited his friend's help both in translations and in the latin commentaries and expositions with which he proposed to accompany the work. the prisoner began with a modest disclaimer, saying that after the labours of erasmus and beza, maldonatus and jasenius, there was little for him to glean. becoming more enthusiastic as he went on, he completed a masterly commentary on the four evangelists, a work for which the learned and religious world has ever recognized a kind of debt of gratitude to the castle of loevestein, and hailed in him the founder of a school of manly biblical criticism. and thus nearly two years wore away. spinning his great top for exercise; soothing his active and prolific brain with greek tragedy, with flemish verse, with jurisprudence, history, theology; creating, expounding, adorning, by the warmth of his vivid intellect; moving the world, and doing good to his race from the depths of his stony sepulchre; hugo grotius rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive. the man is not to be envied who is not moved by so noble an example of great calamity manfully endured. the wife of hoogerbeets, already advanced in years, sickened during the imprisonment and died at loevestein after a lingering illness, leaving six children to the care of her unfortunate husband. madame de groot had not been permitted by the prison authorities to minister to her in sickness, nor to her children after her death. early in the year francis aerssens, lord of sommelsdyk, the arch enemy of barneveld and of grotius, was appointed special ambassador to paris. the intelligence--although hardly unexpected, for the stratagems of aerssens had been completely successful--moved the prisoner deeply. he felt that this mortal enemy, not glutted with vengeance by the beheading of the advocate and the perpetual imprisonment of his friend, would do his best at the french court to defame and to blacken him. he did what he could to obviate this danger by urgent letters to friends on whom he could rely. at about the same time muis van holy, one of the twenty-four commissioners, not yet satisfied with the misery he had helped to inflict, informed the states-general that madame de groot had been buying ropes at gorcum. on his motion a committee was sent to investigate the matter at castle loevestein, where it was believed that the ropes had been concealed for the purpose of enabling grotius to make his escape from prison. lieutenant deventer had heard nothing of the story. he was in high spirits at the rumour however, and conducted the committee very eagerly over the castle, causing minute search to be made in the apartment of grotius for the ropes which, as they were assured by him and his wife, had never existed save in the imagination of judge muis. they succeeded at least in inflicting much superfluous annoyance on their victims, and in satisfying themselves that it would be as easy for the prisoner to fly out of the fortress on wings as to make his escape with ropes, even if he had them. grotius soon afterwards addressed a letter to the states-general denouncing the statement of muis as a fable, and these persistent attempts to injure him as cowardly and wicked. a few months later madame de groot happened to be in the house of daatselaer on one of her periodical visits to gorcum. conversation turning on these rumours march of attempts at escape, she asked madame daatselaer if she would not be much embarrassed, should grotius suddenly make his appearance there. "oh no," said the good woman with a laugh; "only let him come. we will take excellent care of him." at another visit one saturday, th march, ( ) madame de groot asked her friend why all the bells of gorcum march were ringing. "because to-morrow begins our yearly fair," replied dame daatselaer. "well, i suppose that all exiles and outlaws may come to gorcum on this occasion," said madame de groot. "such is the law, they say," answered her friend. "and my husband might come too?" "no doubt," said madame daatselaer with a merry laugh, rejoiced at finding the wife of grotius able to speak so cheerfully of her husband in his perpetual and hopeless captivity. "send him hither. he shall have, a warm welcome." "what a good woman you are!" said madame de groot with a sigh as she rose to take leave. "but you know very well that if he were a bird he could never get out of the castle, so closely, he is caged there." next morning a wild equinoctial storm was howling around the battlements of the castle. of a sudden cornelia, daughter of the de groots, nine years of age, said to her mother without any reason whatever, "to-morrow papa must be off to gorcum, whatever the weather may be." de groot, as well as his wife, was aghast at the child's remark, and took it as a direct indication from heaven. for while madame daatselaer had considered the recent observations of her visitor from loevestein as idle jests, and perhaps wondered that madame de groot could be frivolous and apparently lighthearted on so dismal a topic, there had been really a hidden meaning in her words. for several weeks past the prisoner had been brooding over a means of escape. his wife, whose every thought was devoted to him, had often cast her eyes on the great chest or trunk in which the books of erpenius had been conveyed between loevestein and gorcum for the use of the prisoner. at first the trunk had been carefully opened and its contents examined every time it entered or left the castle. as nothing had ever been found in it save hebrew, greek, and latin folios, uninviting enough to the commandant, that warrior had gradually ceased to inspect the chest very closely, and had at last discontinued the practice altogether. it had been kept for some weeks past in the prisoner's study. his wife thought--although it was two finger breadths less than four feet in length, and not very broad or deep in proportion--that it might be possible for him to get into it. he was considerably above middle height, but found that by curling himself up very closely he could just manage to lie in it with the cover closed. very secretly they had many times rehearsed the scheme which had now taken possession of their minds, but had not breathed a word of it to any one. he had lain in the chest with the lid fastened, and with his wife sitting upon the top of it, two hours at a time by the hour-glass. they had decided at last that the plan, though fraught with danger, was not absolutely impossible, and they were only waiting now for a favourable opportunity. the chance remark of the child cornelia settled the time for hazarding the adventure. by a strange coincidence, too, the commandant of the fortress, lieutenant deventer, had just been promoted to a captaincy, and was to go to heusden to receive his company. he left the castle for a brief absence that very sunday evening. as a precautionary measure, the trunk filled with books had been sent to gorcum and returned after the usual interval only a few days before. the maid-servant of the de groots, a young girl of twenty, elsje van houwening by name, quick, intelligent, devoted, and courageous, was now taken into their confidence. the scheme was explained to her, and she was asked if she were willing to take the chest under her charge with her master in it, instead of the usual freight of books, and accompany it to gorcum. she naturally asked what punishment could be inflicted upon her in case the plot were discovered. "none legally," answered her master; "but i too am innocent of any crime, and you see to what sufferings i have been condemned." "whatever come of it," said elsje stoutly; "i will take the risk and accompany my master." every detail was then secretly arranged, and it was provided beforehand, as well as possible, what should be said or done in the many contingencies that might arise. on sunday evening madame de groot then went to the wife of the commandant, with whom she had always been on more friendly terms than with her malicious husband. she had also recently propitiated her affections by means of venison and other dainties brought from gorcum. she expressed the hope that, notwithstanding the absence of captain deventer, she might be permitted to send the trunk full of books next day from the castle. "my husband is wearing himself out," she said, "with his perpetual studies. i shall be glad for a little time to be rid of some of these folios." the commandant's wife made no objection to this slight request. on monday morning the gale continued to beat with unabated violence on the turrets. the turbid waal, swollen by the tempest, rolled darkly and dangerously along the castle walls. but the die was cast. grotius rose betimes, fell on his knees, and prayed fervently an hour long. dressed only in linen underclothes with a pair of silk stockings, he got into the chest with the help of his wife. the big testament of erpenius, with some bunches of thread placed upon it, served him as a pillow. a few books and papers were placed in the interstices left by the curves of his body, and as much pains as possible taken to prevent his being seriously injured or incommoded during the hazardous journey he was contemplating. his wife then took solemn farewell of him, fastened the lock, which she kissed, and gave the key to elsje. the usual garments worn by the prisoner were thrown on a chair by the bedside and his slippers placed before it. madame de groot then returned to her bed, drew the curtains close, and rang the bell. it was answered by the servant who usually waited on the prisoner, and who was now informed by the lady that it had been her intention to go herself to gorcum, taking charge of the books which were valuable. as the weather was so tempestuous however, and as she was somewhat indisposed, it had been decided that elsje should accompany the trunk. she requested that some soldiers might be sent as usual to take it down to the vessel. two or three of the garrison came accordingly, and seeing the clothes and slippers of grotius lying about, and the bed-curtains closed, felt no suspicion. on lifting the chest, however, one of them said, half in jest: "the arminian must be in it himself, it seems so heavy!" "not the arminian," replied madame de groot, in a careless voice, from the bed; "only heavy arminian books." partly lifting, partly dragging the ponderous box, the soldiers managed to get it down the stairs and through the thirteen barred and bolted doors. four several times one or other of the soldiers expressed the opinion that grotius himself must be locked within it, but they never spoke quite seriously, and elsje was ever ready to turn aside the remark with a jest. a soldier's wife, just as the box was approaching the wharf, told a story of a malefactor who had once been carried out of the castle in a chest. "and if a malefactor, why not a lawyer?" she added. a soldier said he would get a gimlet and bore a hole into the arminian. "then you must get a gimlet that will reach to the top of the castle, where the arminian lies abed and asleep," said elsje. not much heed was given to this careless talk, the soldiers, before leaving the chamber of grotius, having satisfied themselves that there were no apertures in the chest save the keyhole, and that it would be impossible by that means alone for sufficient air to penetrate to keep a man enclosed in it from smothering. madame deventer was asked if she chose to inspect the contents of the trunk, and she enquired whether the commandant had been wont so to do. when told that such search had been for a long time discontinued, as nothing had ever been found there but books, she observed that there was no reason why she should be more strict than her husband, and ordered the soldiers to take their heavy load to the vessel. elsje insisted that the boatmen should place a doubly thick plank for sliding the box on board, as it seemed probable, she said, that the usual one would break in two, and then the valuable books borrowed of professor erpenius would be damaged or destroyed. the request caused much further grumbling, but was complied with at last and the chest deposited on the deck. the wind still continued to blow with great fury, and as soon as the sails were set the vessel heeled over so much, that elsje implored the skipper to cause the box to be securely lashed, as it seemed in imminent danger, at the first lurch of the vessel, of sliding into the sea. this done, elsje sat herself down and threw her white handkerchief over her head, letting it flutter in the wind. one of the crew asked her why she did so, and she replied that the servant in the castle had been tormenting her, saying that she would never dare to sail to gorcum in such tempestuous weather, and she was now signalling him that she had been as good as her word. whereupon she continued to wave the handkerchief. in reality the signal was for her mistress, who was now straining her eyes from the barred window which looked out upon the waal, and with whom the maid had agreed that if all went prosperously she would give this token of success. otherwise she would sit with her head in her hands. during the voyage an officer of the garrison, who happened to be on board, threw himself upon the chest as a convenient seat, and began drumming and pounding with his heels upon it. the ever watchful elsje, feeling the dreadful inconvenience to the prisoner of these proceedings, who perhaps was already smothering and would struggle for air if not relieved, politely addressed the gentleman and induced him to remove to another seat by telling him that, besides the books, there was some valuable porcelain in the chest which might easily be broken. no further incident occurred. the wind, although violent, was favourable, and gorcum in due time was reached. elsje insisted upon having her own precious freight carried first into the town, although the skipper for some time was obstinately bent on leaving it to the very last, while all the other merchandise in the vessel should be previously unshipped. at last on promise of payment of ten stuivers, which was considered an exorbitant sum, the skipper and son agreed to transport the chest between them on a hand-barrow. while they were trudging with it to the town, the son remarked to his father that there was some living thing in the box. for the prisoner in the anguish of his confinement had not been able to restrain a slight movement. "do you hear what my son says?" cried the skipper to elsje. "he says you have got something alive in your trunk." "yes, yes," replied the cheerful maid-servant; "arminian books are always alive, always full of motion and spirit." they arrived at daatselaer's house, moving with difficulty through the crowd which, notwithstanding the boisterous weather, had been collected by the annual fair. many people were assembled in front of the building, which was a warehouse of great resort, while next door was a book-seller's shop thronged with professors, clergymen, and other literary persons. the carriers accordingly entered by the backway, and elsje, deliberately paying them their ten stuivers, and seeing them depart, left the box lying in a room at the rear and hastened to the shop in front. here she found the thread and ribbon dealer and his wife, busy with their customers, unpacking and exhibiting their wares. she instantly whispered in madame daatselaer's ear, "i have got my master here in your back parlour." the dame turned white as a sheet, and was near fainting on the spot. it was the first imprudence elsje had committed. the good woman recovered somewhat of her composure by a strong effort however, and instantly went with elsje to the rear of the house. "master! master!" cried elsje, rapping on the chest. there was no answer. "my god! my god!" shrieked the poor maid-servant. "my poor master is dead." "ah!" said madame daatselaer, "your mistress has made a bad business of it. yesterday she had a living husband. now she has a dead one." but soon there was a vigorous rap on the inside of the lid, and a cry from the prisoner: "open the chest! i am not dead, but did not at first recognize your voice." the lock was instantly unfastened, the lid thrown open, and grotius arose in his linen clothing, like a dead man from his coffin. the dame instantly accompanied the two through a trapdoor into an upper room. grotius asked her if she was always so deadly pale. "no," she replied, "but i am frightened to see you here. my lord is no common person. the whole world is talking of you. i fear this will cause the loss of all my property and perhaps bring my husband into prison in your place." grotius rejoined: "i made my prayers to god before as much as this had been gained, and i have just been uttering fervent thanks to him for my deliverance so far as it has been effected. but if the consequences are to be as you fear, i am ready at once to get into the chest again and be carried back to prison." but she answered, "no; whatever comes of it, we have you here and will do all that we can to help you on." grotius being faint from his sufferings, the lady brought him a glass of spanish wine, but was too much flustered to find even a cloak or shawl to throw over him. leaving him sitting there in his very thin attire, just as he had got out of the chest, she went to the front warehouse to call her husband. but he prudently declined to go to his unexpected guest. it would be better in the examination sure to follow, he said, for him to say with truth that he had not seen him and knew nothing of the escape, from first to last. grotius entirely approved of the answer when told to him. meantime madame daatselaer had gone to her brother-in-law van der veen, a clothier by trade, whom she found in his shop talking with an officer of the loevestein garrison. she whispered in the clothier's ear, and he, making an excuse to the officer, followed her home at once. they found grotius sitting where he had been left. van der veen gave him his hand, saying: "sir, you are the man of whom the whole country is talking?" "yes, here i am," was the reply, "and i put myself in your hands--" "there isn't a moment to lose," replied the clothier. "we must help you away at once." he went immediately in search of one john lambertsen, a man in whom he knew he could confide, a lutheran in religion, a master-mason by occupation. he found him on a scaffold against the gable-end of a house, working at his trade. he told him that there was a good deed to be done which he could do better than any man, that his conscience would never reproach him for it, and that he would at the same time earn no trifling reward. he begged the mason to procure a complete dress as for a journeyman, and to follow him to the house of his brother-in-law daatselaer. lambertsen soon made his appearance with the doublet, trunk-hose, and shoes of a bricklayer, together with trowel and measuring-rod. he was informed who his new journeyman was to be, and grotius at once put on the disguise. the doublet did not reach to the waistband of the trunkhose, while those nether garments stopped short of his knees; the whole attire belonging to a smaller man than the unfortunate statesman. his delicate white hands, much exposed by the shortness of the sleeves, looked very unlike those of a day-labourer, and altogether the new mason presented a somewhat incongruous and wobegone aspect. grotius was fearful too lest some of the preachers and professors frequenting the book-shop next door would recognize him through his disguise. madame daatselaer smeared his face and hands with chalk and plaster however and whispered encouragement, and so with a felt hat slouched over his forehead and a yardstick in his hand, he walked calmly forth into the thronged marketplace and through the town to the ferry, accompanied by the friendly lambertsen. it had been agreed that van der veen should leave the house in another direction and meet them at the landing-place. when they got to the ferry, they found the weather as boisterous as ever. the boatmen absolutely refused to make the dangerous crossing of the merwede over which their course lay to the land of altona, and so into the spanish netherlands, for two such insignificant personages as this mason and his scarecrow journeyman. lambertsen assured them that it was of the utmost importance that he should cross the water at once. he had a large contract for purchasing stone at altona for a public building on which he was engaged. van der veen coming up added his entreaties, protesting that he too was interested in this great stone purchase, and so by means of offering a larger price than they at first dared to propose, they were able to effect their passage. after landing, lambertsen and grotius walked to waalwyk, van der veen returning the same evening to gorcum. it was four o'clock in the afternoon when they reached waalwyk, where a carriage was hired to convey the fugitive to antwerp. the friendly mason here took leave of his illustrious journeyman, having first told the driver that his companion was a disguised bankrupt fleeing from holland into foreign territory to avoid pursuit by his creditors. this would explain his slightly concealing his face in passing through a crowd in any village. grotius proved so ignorant of the value of different coins in making small payments on the road, that the honest waggoner, on being occasionally asked who the odd-looking stranger was, answered that he was a bankrupt, and no wonder, for he did not know one piece of money from another. for, his part he thought him little better than a fool. such was the depreciatory opinion formed by the waalwyk coachman as to the "rising light of the world" and the "miracle of holland." they travelled all night and, arriving on the morning of the st within a few leagues of antwerp, met a patrol of soldiers, who asked grotius for his passport. he enquired in whose service they were, and was told in that of "red rod," as the chief bailiff of antwerp was called. that functionary happened to be near, and the traveller approaching him said that his passport was on his feet, and forthwith told him his name and story. red rod treated him at once with perfect courtesy, offered him a horse for himself with a mounted escort, and so furthered his immediate entrance to antwerp. grotius rode straight to the house of a banished friend of his, the preacher grevinkhoven. he was told by the daughter of that clergyman that her father was upstairs ministering at the bedside of his sick wife. but so soon as the traveller had sent up his name, both the preacher and the invalid came rushing downstairs to fall upon the neck of one who seemed as if risen from the dead. the news spread, and episcopius and other exiled friends soon thronged to the house of grevinkhoven, where they all dined together in great glee, grotius, still in his journeyman's clothes, narrating the particulars of his wonderful escape. he had no intention of tarrying in his resting-place at antwerp longer than was absolutely necessary. intimations were covertly made to him that a brilliant destiny might be in store for him should he consent to enter the service of the archdukes, nor were there waning rumours, circulated as a matter of course by his host of enemies, that he was about to become a renegade to country and religion. there was as much truth in the slanders as in the rest of the calumnies of which he had been the victim during his career. he placed on record a proof of his loyal devotion to his country in the letters which he wrote from antwerp within a week of his arrival there. with his subsequent history, his appearance and long residence at the french court as ambassador of sweden, his memorable labours in history, diplomacy, poetry, theology, the present narrative is not concerned. driven from the service of his fatherland, of which his name to all time is one of the proudest garlands, he continued to be a benefactor not only to her but to all mankind. if refutation is sought of the charge that republics are ungrateful, it will certainly not be found in the history of hugo grotius or john of barneveld. nor is there need to portray the wrath of captain deventer when he returned to castle loevestein. "here is the cage, but your bird is flown," said corpulent maria grotius with a placid smile. the commandant solaced himself by uttering imprecations on her, on her husband, and on elsje van houwening. but these curses could not bring back the fugitive. he flew to gorcum to browbeat the daatselaers and to search the famous trunk. he found in it the big new testament and some skeins of thread, together with an octavo or two of theology and of greek tragedies; but the arminian was not in it, and was gone from the custody of the valiant deventer for ever. after a brief period madame de groot was released and rejoined her husband. elsje van houwening, true heroine of the adventure, was subsequently married to the faithful servant of grotius, who during the two years' imprisonment had been taught latin and the rudiments of law by his master, so that he subsequently rose to be a thriving and respectable advocate at the tribunals of holland. the stadholder, when informed of the escape of the prisoner, observed, "i always thought the black pig was deceiving me," making not very complimentary allusion to the complexion and size of the lady who had thus aided the escape of her husband. he is also reported as saying that it "is no wonder they could not keep grotius in prison, as he has more wit than all his judges put together." chapter xxiii. barneveld's sons plot against maurice--the conspiracy betrayed to maurice--escape of stoutenburg--groeneveld is arrested--mary of barneveld appeals to the stadholder--groeneveld condemned to death-- execution of groeneveld. the widow of barneveld had remained, since the last scene of the fatal tragedy on the binnenhof, in hopeless desolation. the wife of the man who during a whole generation of mankind had stood foremost among the foremost of the world, and had been one of those chief actors and directors in human affairs to whom men's eyes turned instinctively from near and from afar, had led a life of unbroken prosperity. an heiress in her own right, maria van utrecht had laid the foundation of her husband's wealth by her union with the rising young lawyer and statesman. her two sons and two daughters had grown up around her, all four being married into the leading families of the land, and with apparently long lives of prosperity and usefulness before them. and now the headsman's sword had shivered all this grandeur and happiness at a blow. the name of the dead statesman had become a word of scoffing and reproach; vagabond mountebanks enacted ribald scenes to his dishonour in the public squares and streets; ballad-mongers yelled blasphemous libels upon him in the very ears of his widow and children. for party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk. it would be idle to paint the misery of this brokenhearted woman. the great painters of the epoch have preserved her face to posterity; the grief-stricken face of a hard-featured but commanding and not uncomely woman, the fountains of whose tears seem exhausted; a face of austere and noble despair. a decorous veil should be thrown over the form of that aged matron, for whose long life and prosperity fate took such merciless vengeance at last. for the woes of maria of barneveld had scarcely begun. desolation had become her portion, but dishonour had not yet crossed her threshold. there were sterner strokes in store for her than that which smote her husband on the scaffold. she had two sons, both in the prime of life. the eldest, reinier, lord of groeneveld, who had married a widow of rank and wealth, madame de brandwyk, was living since the death of his father in comparative ease, but entire obscurity. an easy-tempered, genial, kindly gentleman, he had been always much beloved by his friends and, until the great family catastrophe, was popular with the public, but of an infirm and vacillating character, easily impressed by others, and apt to be led by stronger natures than his own. he had held the lucrative office of head forester of delfland of which he had now been deprived. the younger son william, called, from an estate conferred on him by his father, lord of stoutenburg, was of a far different mould. we have seen him at an earlier period of this narrative attached to the embassy of francis aerssens in paris, bearing then from another estate the unmusical title of craimgepolder, and giving his subtle and dangerous chief great cause of complaint by his irregular, expensive habits. he had been however rather a favourite with henry iv., who had so profound a respect for the father as to consult him, and him only of all foreign statesmen, in the gravest affairs of his reign, and he had even held an office of honour and emolument at his court. subsequently he had embraced the military career, and was esteemed a soldier of courage and promise. as captain of cavalry and governor of the fortress of bergen op zoom, he occupied a distinguished and lucrative position, and was likely, so soon as the truce ran to its close, to make a name for himself in that gigantic political and religious war which had already opened in bohemia, and in which it was evident the republic would soon be desperately involved. his wife, walburg de marnix, was daughter to one of the noblest characters in the history of the netherlands, or of any history, the illustrious sainte-aldegonde. two thousand florins a year from his father's estate had been settled on him at his marriage, which, in addition to his official and military income, placed him in a position of affluence. after the death of his father the family estates were confiscated, and he was likewise deprived of his captaincy and his governorship. he was reduced at a blow from luxury and high station to beggary and obscurity. at the renewal of the war he found himself, for no fault of his own, excluded from the service of his country. yet the advocate almost in his last breath had recommended his sons to the stadholder, and maurice had sent a message in response that so long as the sons conducted themselves well they might rely upon his support. hitherto they had not conducted themselves otherwise than well. stoutenburg, who now dwelt in his house with his mother, was of a dark, revengeful, turbulent disposition. in the career of arms he had a right to look forward to success, but thus condemned to brood in idleness on the cruel wrongs to himself and his house it was not improbable that he might become dangerous. years long he fed on projects of vengeance as his daily bread. he was convinced that his personal grievances were closely entwined with the welfare of the commonwealth, and he had sworn to avenge the death of his father, the misery of his mother, and the wrongs which he was himself suffering, upon the stadholder, whom he considered the author of all their woe. to effect a revolution in the government, and to bring back to power all the municipal regents whom maurice had displaced so summarily, in order, as the son believed, to effect the downfall of the hated advocate, this was the determination of stoutenburg. he did not pause to reflect whether the arm which had been strong enough to smite to nothingness the venerable statesman in the plenitude of his power would be too weak to repel the attack of an obscure and disarmed partisan. he saw only a hated tyrant, murderer, and oppressor, as he considered him, and he meant to have his life. he had around him a set of daring and desperate men to whom he had from time to time half confided his designs. a certain unfrocked preacher of the remonstrant persuasion, who, according to the fashion of the learned of that day, had translated his name out of hendrik sleet into henricus slatius, was one of his most unscrupulous instruments. slatius, a big, swarthy, shag-eared, beetle-browed hollander, possessed learning of no ordinary degree, a tempestuous kind of eloquence, and a habit of dealing with men; especially those of the humbler classes. he was passionate, greedy, overbearing, violent, and loose of life. he had sworn vengeance upon the remonstrants in consequence of a private quarrel, but this did not prevent him from breathing fire and fury against the contra-remonstrants also, and especially against the stadholder, whom he affected to consider the arch-enemy of the whole commonwealth. another twelvemonth went by. the advocate had been nearly four years in his grave. the terrible german war was in full blaze. the twelve years' truce had expired, the republic was once more at war, and stoutenburg, forbidden at the head of his troop to campaign with the stadholder against the archdukes, nourished more fiercely than ever his plan against the stadholder's life. besides the ferocious slatius he had other associates. there was his cousin by marriage, van der dussen, a catholic gentleman, who had married a daughter of elias barneveld, and who shared all stoutenburg's feelings of resentment towards maurice. there was korenwinder, another catholic, formerly occupying an official position of responsibility as secretary of the town of berkel, a man of immense corpulence, but none the less an active and dangerous conspirator. there was van dyk, a secretary of bleiswyk, equally active and dangerous, and as lean and hungry as korenwinder was fat. stoutenburg, besides other rewards, had promised him a cornetcy of cavalry, should their plans be successful. and there was the brother-in-law of slatius, one cornelis gerritaen, a joiner by trade, living at rotterdam, who made himself very useful in all the details of the conspiracy. for the plot was now arranged, the men just mentioned being its active agents and in constant communication with stoutenburg. korenwinder and van dyk in the last days of december drew up a scheme on paper, which was submitted to their chief and met with his approval. the document began with a violent invective against the crimes and tyranny of the stadholder, demonstrated the necessity of a general change in the government, and of getting rid of maurice as an indispensable preliminary, and laid down the means and method of doing this deed. the prince was in the daily habit of driving, unattended by his body-guard, to ryswyk, about two miles from the hague. it would not be difficult for a determined band of men divided into two parties to set upon him between the stables and his coach, either when alighting from or about to enter it--the one party to kill him while the other protected the retreat of the assassins, and beat down such defence as the few lackeys of the stadholder could offer. the scheme, thus mapped out, was submitted to stoutenburg, who gave it his approval after suggesting a few amendments. the document was then burnt. it was estimated that twenty men would be needed for the job, and that to pay them handsomely would require about guilders. the expenses and other details of the infamous plot were discussed as calmly as if it had been an industrial or commercial speculation. but guilders was an immense sum to raise, and the seigneur de stoutenburg was a beggar. his associates were as forlorn as himself, but his brother-in-law, the ex-ambassador van der myle, was living at beverwyk under the supervision of the police, his property not having been confiscated. stoutenburg paid him a visit, accompanied by the reverend slatius, in hopes of getting funds from him, but at the first obscure hint of the infamous design van der myle faced them with such looks, gestures, and words of disgust and indignation that the murderous couple recoiled, the son of barneveld saying to the expreacher: "let us be off, slaet,'tis a mere cur. nothing is to be made of him." the other son of barneveld, the seigneur de groeneveld, had means and credit. his brother had darkly hinted to him the necessity of getting rid of maurice, and tried to draw him into the plot. groeneveld, more unstable than water, neither repelled nor encouraged these advances. he joined in many conversations with stoutenburg, van dyk, and korenwinder, but always weakly affected not to know what they were driving at. "when we talk of business," said van dyk to him one day, "you are always turning off from us and from the subject. you had better remain." many anonymous letters were sent to him, calling on him to strike for vengeance on the murderer of his father, and for the redemption of his native land and the remonstrant religion from foul oppression. at last yielding to the persuasions and threats of his fierce younger brother, who assured him that the plot would succeed, the government be revolutionized, and that then all property would be at the mercy of the victors, he agreed to endorse certain bills which korenwinder undertook to negotiate. nothing could be meaner, more cowardly, and more murderous than the proceedings of the seigneur de groeneveld. he seems to have felt no intense desire of vengeance upon maurice, which certainly would not have been unnatural, but he was willing to supply money for his assassination. at the same time he was careful to insist that this pecuniary advance was by no means a free gift, but only a loan to be repaid by his more bloodthirsty brother upon demand with interest. with a businesslike caution, in ghastly contrast with the foulness of the contract, he exacted a note of hand from stoutenburg covering the whole amount of his disbursements. there might come a time, he thought, when his brother's paper would be more negotiable than it was at that moment. korenwinder found no difficulty in discounting groeneveld's bills, and the necessary capital was thus raised for the vile enterprise. van dyk, the lean and hungry conspirator, now occupied himself vigorously in engaging the assassins, while his corpulent colleague remained as treasurer of the company. two brothers blansaerts, woollen manufacturers at leyden--one of whom had been a student of theology in the remonstrant church and had occasionally preached--and a certain william party, a walloon by birth, but likewise a woollen worker at leyden, agreed to the secretary's propositions. he had at first told, them that their services would be merely required for the forcible liberation of two remonstrant clergymen, niellius and poppius, from the prison at haarlem. entertaining his new companions at dinner, however, towards the end of january, van dyk, getting very drunk, informed them that the object of the enterprise was to kill the stadholder; that arrangements had been made for effecting an immediate change in the magistracies in all the chief cities of holland so soon as the deed was done; that all the recently deposed regents would enter the hague at once, supported by a train of armed peasants from the country; and that better times for the oppressed religion, for the fatherland, and especially for everyone engaged in the great undertaking, would begin with the death of the tyrant. each man taking direct part in the assassination would receive at least guilders, besides being advanced to offices of honour and profit according to his capacity. the blansaerts assured their superior that entire reliance might be placed on their fidelity, and that they knew of three or four other men in leyden "as firm as trees and fierce as lions," whom they would engage--a fustian worker, a tailor, a chimney-sweeper, and one or two other mechanics. the looseness and utter recklessness with which this hideous conspiracy was arranged excites amazement. van dyk gave the two brothers pistoles in gold--a coin about equal to a guinea--for their immediate reward as well as for that of the comrades to be engaged. yet it seems almost certain from subsequent revelations that they were intending all the time to deceive him, to take as much money as they could get from him, "to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk," as william party expressed it, and then to turn round upon and betray him. it was a dangerous game however, which might not prove entirely successful. van dyk duly communicated with stoutenburg, who grew more and more feverish with hatred and impatience as the time for gratifying those passions drew nigh, and frequently said that he would like to tear the stadholder to pieces with his own hands. he preferred however to act as controlling director over the band of murderers now enrolled. for in addition to the leyden party, the reverend slatius, supplied with funds by van dyk, had engaged at rotterdam his brother-in-law gerritsen, a joiner, living in that city, together with three sailors named respectively dirk, john, and herman. the ex-clergyman's house was also the arsenal of the conspiracy, and here were stored away a stock of pistols, snaphances, and sledge-hammers--together with that other death-dealing machinery, the whole edition of the 'clearshining torch', an inflammatory, pamphlet by slatius--all to be used on the fatal day fast approaching. on the st february van dyk visited slatius at rotterdam. he found gerritsen hard at work. there in a dark back kitchen, by the lurid light of the fire in a dim wintry afternoon, stood the burly slatius, with his swarthy face and heavy eyebrows, accompanied by his brother-in-law the joiner, both in workman's dress, melting lead, running bullets, drying powder, and burnishing and arranging the fire-arms and other tools to be used in the great crime now so rapidly maturing. the lean, busy, restless van dyk, with his adust and sinister visage, came peering in upon the couple thus engaged, and observed their preparations with warm approval. he recommended that in addition to dirk, john, and herman, a few more hardy seafaring men should be engaged, and slatius accordingly secured next day the services of one jerome ewouts and three other sailors. they were not informed of the exact nature of the enterprise, but were told that it was a dangerous although not a desperate one, and sure to be of great service to the fatherland. they received, as all the rest had done, between and guilders in gold, that they would all be promoted to be captains and first mates. it was agreed that all the conspirators should assemble four days later at the hague on sunday, the th february, at the inn of the "golden helmet." the next day, monday the th, had been fixed by stoutenburg for doing the deed. van dyk, who had great confidence in the eloquence of william party, the walloon wool manufacturer, had arranged that he should make a discourse to them all in a solitary place in the downs between that city and the sea-shore, taking for his theme or brief the clearshining torch of slatius. on saturday that eminent divine entertained his sister and her husband gerritsen, jerome ewouts, who was at dinner but half informed as to the scope of the great enterprise, and several other friends who were entirely ignorant of it. slatius was in high spirits, although his sister, who had at last become acquainted with the vile plot, had done nothing but weep all day long. they had better be worms, with a promise of further reward and an intimation she said, and eat dirt for their food, than crawl in so base a business. her brother comforted her with assurances that the project was sure to result in a triumph for religion and fatherland, and drank many healths at his table to the success of all engaged in it. that evening he sent off a great chest filled with arms and ammunition to the "golden helmet" at the hague under the charge of jerome ewouts and his three mates. van dyk had already written a letter to the landlord of that hostelry engaging a room there, and saying that the chest contained valuable books and documents to be used in a lawsuit, in which he was soon to be engaged, before the supreme tribunal. on the sunday this bustling conspirator had john blansaert and william party to dine with him at the "golden helmet" in the hague, and produced seven packages neatly folded, each containing gold pieces to the amount of twenty pounds sterling. these were for themselves and the others whom they had reported as engaged by them in leyden. getting drunk as usual, he began to bluster of the great political revolution impending, and after dinner examined the carbines of his guests. he asked if those weapons were to be relied upon. "we can blow a hair to pieces with them at twenty paces," they replied. "ah! would that i too could be of the party," said van dyk, seizing one of the carbines. "no, no," said john blansaert, "we can do the deed better without you than with you. you must look out for the defence." van dyk then informed them that they, with one of the rotterdam sailors, were to attack maurice as he got out of his coach at ryswyk, pin him between the stables and the coach, and then and there do him to death. "you are not to leave him," he cried, "till his soul has left his body." the two expressed their hearty concurrence with this arrangement, and took leave of their host for the night, going, they said, to distribute the seven packages of blood-money. they found adam blansaert waiting for them in the downs, and immediately divided the whole amount between themselves and him--the chimney-sweeper, tailor, and fustian worker, "firm as trees and fierce as lions," having never had any existence save in their fertile imaginations. on monday, th february, van dyk had a closing interview with stoutenburg and his brother at the house of groeneveld, and informed them that the execution of the plot had been deferred to the following day. stoutenburg expressed disgust and impatience at the delay. "i should like to tear the stadholder to pieces with my own hands!" he cried. he was pacified on hearing that the arrangements had been securely made for the morrow, and turning to his brother observed, "remember that you can never retract. you are in our power and all your estates at our mercy." he then explained the manner in which the magistracies of leyden, gouda, rotterdam, and other cities were to be instantly remodelled after the death of maurice, the ex-regents of the hague at the head of a band of armed peasants being ready at a moment's warning to take possession of the political capital. prince frederic henry moreover, he hinted darkly and falsely, but in a manner not to be mistaken, was favourable to the movement, and would after the murder of maurice take the government into his hands. stoutenburg then went quietly home to pass the day and sleep at his mother's house awaiting the eventful morning of tuesday. van dyk went back to his room at the "golden helmet" and began inspecting the contents of the arms and ammunition chest which jerome ewouts and his three mates had brought the night before from rotterdam. he had been somewhat unquiet at having seen nothing of those mariners during the day; when looking out of window, he saw one of them in conference with some soldiers. a minute afterwards he heard a bustle in the rooms below, and found that the house was occupied by a guard, and that gerritsen, with the three first engaged sailors dirk, peter, and herman, had been arrested at the zotje. he tried in vain to throw the arms back into the chest and conceal it under the bed, but it was too late. seizing his hat and wrapping himself in his cloak, with his sword by his side, he walked calmly down the stairs looking carelessly at the group of soldiers and prisoners who filled the passages. a waiter informed the provost-marshal in command that the gentleman was a respectable boarder at the tavern, well known to him for many years. the conspirator passed unchallenged and went straight to inform stoutenburg. the four mariners, last engaged by slatius at rotterdam, had signally exemplified the danger of half confidences. surprised that they should have been so mysteriously entrusted with the execution of an enterprise the particulars of which were concealed from them, and suspecting that crime alone could command such very high prices as had been paid and promised by the ex-clergyman, they had gone straight to the residence of the stadholder, after depositing the chest at the "golden helmet." finding that he had driven as usual to ryswyk, they followed him thither, and by dint of much importunity obtained an audience. if the enterprise was a patriotic one, they reasoned, he would probably know of it and approve it. if it were criminal, it would be useful for them to reveal and dangerous to conceal it. they told the story so far as they knew it to the prince and showed him the money, florins apiece, which they had already received from slatius. maurice hesitated not an instant. it was evident that a dark conspiracy was afoot. he ordered the sailors to return to the hague by another and circuitous road through voorburg, while he lost not a moment himself in hurrying back as fast as his horses would carry him. summoning the president and several councillors of the chief tribunal, he took instant measures to take possession of the two taverns, and arrest all the strangers found in them. meantime van dyk came into the house of the widow barneveld and found stoutenburg in the stable-yard. he told him the plot was discovered, the chest of arms at the "golden helmet" found. "are there any private letters or papers in the bog?" asked stoutenburg. "none relating to the affair," was the answer. "take yourself off as fast as possible," said stoutenburg. van dyk needed no urging. he escaped through the stables and across the fields in the direction of leyden. after skulking about for a week however and making very little progress, he was arrested at hazerswoude, having broken through the ice while attempting to skate across the inundated and frozen pastures in that region. proclamations were at once made, denouncing the foul conspiracy in which the sons of the late advocate barneveld, the remonstrant clergyman slatius, and others, were the ringleaders, and offering florins each for their apprehension. a public thanksgiving for the deliverance was made in all the churches on the th february. on the th february the states-general sent letters to all their ambassadors and foreign agents, informing them of this execrable plot to overthrow the commonwealth and take the life of the stadholder, set on foot by certain arminian preachers and others of that faction, and this too in winter, when the ice and snow made hostile invasion practicable, and when the enemy was encamped in so many places in the neighbourhood. "the arminians," said the despatch, "are so filled with bitterness that they would rather the republic should be lost than that their pretended grievances should go unredressed." almost every pulpit shook with contra-remonstrant thunder against the whole society of remonstrants, who were held up to the world as rebels and prince-murderers; the criminal conspiracy being charged upon them as a body. hardly a man of that persuasion dared venture into the streets and public places, for fear of being put to death by the rabble. the chevalier william of nassau, natural son of the stadholder, was very loud and violent in all the taverns and tap-rooms, drinking mighty draughts to the damnation of the arminians. many of the timid in consequence shrank away from the society and joined the contra-remonstrant church, while the more courageous members, together with the leaders of that now abhorred communion, published long and stirring appeals to the universal sense of justice, which was outraged by the spectacle of a whole sect being punished for a crime committed by a few individuals, who had once been unworthy members of it. meantime hue and cry was made after the fugitive conspirators. the blansaerts and william party having set off from leyden towards the hague on monday night, in order, as they said, to betray their employers, whose money they had taken, and whose criminal orders they had agreed to execute, attempted to escape, but were arrested within ten days. they were exhibited at their prison at amsterdam to an immense concourse at a shilling a peep, the sums thus collected being distributed to the poor. slatius made his way disguised as a boor into friesland, and after various adventures attempted to cross the bourtange moors to lingen. stopping to refresh himself at a tavern near koevorden, he found himself in the tap-room in presence of quartermaster blau and a company of soldiers from the garrison. the dark scowling boor, travel-stained and weary, with felt hat slouched over his forbidding visage, fierce and timorous at once like a hunted wild beast, excited their suspicion. seeing himself watched, he got up, paid his scot, and departed, leaving his can of beer untasted. this decided the quartermaster, who accordingly followed the peasant out of the house, and arrested him as a spanish spy on the watch for the train of specie which the soldiers were then conveying into koevorden castle. slatius protested his innocence of any such design, and vehemently besought the officer to release him, telling him as a reason for his urgency and an explanation of his unprepossessing aspect--that he was an oculist from amsterdam, john hermansen by name, that he had just committed a homicide in that place, and was fleeing from justice. the honest quartermaster saw no reason why a suspected spy should go free because he proclaimed himself a murderer, nor why an oculist should escape the penalties of homicide. "the more reason," he said, "why thou shouldst be my prisoner." the ex-preacher was arrested and shut up in the state prison at the hague. the famous engraver visser executed a likeness on copper-plate of the grim malefactor as he appeared in his boor's disguise. the portrait, accompanied by a fiercely written broadsheet attacking the remonstrant church, had a great circulation, and deepened the animosity against the sect upon which the unfrocked preacher had sworn vengeance. his evil face and fame thus became familiar to the public, while the term hendrik slaet became a proverb at pot-houses, being held equivalent among tipplers to shirking the bottle. korenwinder, the treasurer of the association, coming to visit stoutenburg soon after van dyk had left him, was informed of the discovery of the plot and did his best to escape, but was arrested within a fortnight's time. stoutenburg himself acted with his usual promptness and coolness. having gone straightway to his brother to notify him of the discovery and to urge him to instant flight, he contrived to disappear. a few days later a chest of merchandise was brought to the house of a certain citizen of rotterdam, who had once been a fiddler, but was now a man of considerable property. the chest, when opened, was found to contain the seigneur de stoutenburg, who in past times had laid the fiddler under obligations, and in whose house he now lay concealed for many days, and until the strictness with which all roads and ferries in the neighbourhood were watched at first had somewhat given way. meantime his cousin van der dussen had also effected his escape, and had joined him in rotterdam. the faithful fiddler then, for a thousand florins, chartered a trading vessel commanded by one jacob beltje to take a cargo of dutch cheese to wesel on the rhine. by this means, after a few adventures, they effected their escape, and, arriving not long afterwards at brussels, were formally taken under the protection of the archduchess isabella. stoutenburg afterwards travelled in france and italy, and returned to brussels. his wife, loathing his crime and spurning all further communication with him, abandoned him to his fate. the daughter of marnix of sainte-aldegonde had endured poverty, obscurity, and unmerited obloquy, which had become the lot of the great statesman's family after his tragic end, but she came of a race that would not brook dishonour. the conspirator and suborner of murder and treason, the hirer and companion of assassins, was no mate for her. stoutenburg hesitated for years as to his future career, strangely enough keeping up a hope of being allowed to return to his country. subsequently he embraced the cause of his country's enemies, converted himself to the roman church, and obtained a captaincy of horse in the spanish service. he was seen one day, to the disgust of many spectators, to enter antwerp in black foreign uniform, at the head of his troopers, waving a standard with a death's-head embroidered upon it, and wearing, like his soldiers, a sable scarf and plume. history disdains to follow further the career of the renegade, traitor, end assassin. when the seigneur de groeneveld learned from his younger brother, on the eventful th of february, that the plot had been discovered, he gave himself up for lost. remorse and despair, fastening upon his naturally feeble character, seemed to render him powerless. his wife, of more hopeful disposition than himself and of less heroic mould than walburg de marnix, encouraged him to fly. he fled accordingly, through the desolate sandy downs which roll between the hague and the sea, to scheveningen, then an obscure fishing village on the coast, at a league's distance from the capital. here a fisherman, devoted to him and his family, received him in his hut, disguised him in boatman's attire, and went with him to the strand, proposing to launch his pinkie, put out at once to sea, and to land him on the english coast, the french coast, in hamburg--where he would. the sight of that long, sandy beach stretching for more than seventy miles in an unbroken, melancholy line, without cove, curve, or indentation to break its cruel monotony, and with the wild waves of the german ocean, lashed by a wintry storm, breaking into white foam as far as the eye could reach, appalled the fugitive criminal. with the certainty of an ignominious death behind him, he shrank abjectly from the terrors of the sea, and, despite the honest fisherman's entreaties, refused to enter the boat and face the storm. he wandered feebly along the coast, still accompanied by his humble friend, to another little village, where the fisherman procured a waggon, which took them as far as sandvoort. thence he made his way through egmond and petten and across the marsdiep to tegel, where not deeming himself safe he had himself ferried over to the neighbouring island of vlieland. here amongst the quicksands, whirlpools, and shallows which mark the last verge of habitable holland, the unhappy fugitive stood at bay. meantime information had come to the authorities that a suspicious stranger had been seen at scheveningen. the fisherman's wife was arrested. threatened with torture she at last confessed with whom her husband had fled and whither. information was sent to the bailiff of vlieland, who with a party of followers made a strict search through his narrow precincts. a group of seamen seated on the sands was soon discovered, among whom, dressed in shaggy pea jacket with long fisherman's boots, was the seigneur de groeneveld, who, easily recognized through his disguise, submitted to his captors without a struggle. the scheveningen fisherman, who had been so faithful to him, making a sudden spring, eluded his pursuers and disappeared; thus escaping the gibbet which would probably have been his doom instead of the reward of golden guilders which he might have had for betraying him. thus a sum more than double the amount originally furnished by groeneveld, as the capital of the assassination company, had been rejected by the rotterdam boatman who saved stoutenburg, and by the scheveningen fisherman who was ready to save groeneveld. on the th february, within less than a fortnight from the explosion of the conspiracy, the eldest son of barneveld was lodged in the gevangen poort or state prison of the hague. the awful news of the th february had struck the widow of barneveld as with a thunderbolt. both her sons were proclaimed as murderers and suborners of assassins, and a price put upon their heads. she remained for days neither speaking nor weeping; scarcely eating, drinking, or sleeping. she seemed frozen to stone. her daughters and friends could not tell whether she were dying or had lost her reason. at length the escape of stoutenburg and the capture of groeneveld seemed to rouse her from her trance. she then stooped to do what she had sternly refused to do when her husband was in the hands of the authorities. accompanied by the wife and infant son of groeneveld she obtained an audience of the stern stadholder, fell on her knees before him, and implored mercy and pardon for her son. maurice received her calmly and not discourteously, but held out no hopes of pardon. the criminal was in the hands of justice, he said, and he had no power to interfere. but there can scarcely be a doubt that he had power after the sentence to forgive or to commute, and it will be remembered that when barneveld himself was about to suffer, the prince had asked the clergyman walaeus with much anxiety whether the prisoner in his message had said nothing of pardon. referring to the bitter past, maurice asked madame de barneveld why she not asked mercy for her son, having refused to do so for her husband. her answer was simple and noble: "my husband was innocent of crime," she said; "my son is guilty." the idea of pardon in this case was of course preposterous. certainly if groeneveld had been forgiven, it would have been impossible to punish the thirteen less guilty conspirators, already in the hands of justice, whom he had hired to commit the assassination. the spectacle of the two cowardly ringleaders going free while the meaner criminals were gibbeted would have been a shock to the most rudimentary ideas of justice. it would have been an equal outrage to pardon the younger barnevelds for intended murder, in which they had almost succeeded, when their great father had already suffered for a constructive lese-majesty, the guilt of which had been stoutly denied. yet such is the dreary chain of cause and effect that it is certain, had pardon been nobly offered to the statesman, whose views of constitutional law varied from those of the dominant party, the later crime would never have been committed. but francis aerssens--considering his own and other partisans lives at stake if the states' right party did not fall--had been able to bear down all thoughts of mercy. he was successful, was called to the house of nobles, and regained the embassy of paris, while the house of barneveld was trodden into the dust of dishonour and ruin. rarely has an offended politician's revenge been more thorough than his. never did the mocking fiend betray his victims into the hands of the avenger more sardonically than was done in this sombre tragedy. the trials of the prisoners were rapidly conducted. van dyk, cruelly tortured, confessed on the rack all the details of the conspiracy as they were afterwards embodied in the sentences and have been stated in the preceding narrative. groeneveld was not tortured. his answers to the interrogatories were so vague as to excite amazement at his general ignorance of the foul transaction or at the feebleness of his memory, while there was no attempt on his part to exculpate himself from the damning charge. that it was he who had furnished funds for the proposed murder and mutiny, knowing the purpose to which they were to be applied, was proved beyond all cavil and fully avowed by him. on the th may, he, korenwinder, and van dyk were notified that they were to appear next day in the courthouse to hear their sentence, which would immediately afterwards be executed. that night his mother, wife, and son paid him a long visit of farewell in his prison. the gevangen poort of the hague, an antique but mean building of brown brick and commonplace aspect, still stands in one of the most public parts of the city. a gloomy archway, surmounted by windows grimly guarded by iron lattice-work, forms the general thoroughfare from the aristocratic plaats and kneuterdyk and vyverberg to the inner court of the ancient palace. the cells within are dark, noisome, and dimly lighted, and even to this day the very instruments of torture, used in the trials of these and other prisoners, may be seen by the curious. half a century later the brothers de witt were dragged from this prison to be literally torn to pieces by an infuriated mob. the misery of that midnight interview between the widow of barneveld, her daughter-in-law, and the condemned son and husband need not be described. as the morning approached, the gaoler warned the matrons to take their departure that the prisoner might sleep. "what a woful widow you will be," said groeneveld to his wife, as she sank choking with tears upon the ground. the words suddenly aroused in her the sense of respect for their name. "at least for all this misery endured," she said firmly, "do me enough honour to die like a gentleman." he promised it. the mother then took leave of the son, and history drops a decorous veil henceforth over the grief-stricken form of mary of barneveld. next morning the life-guards of the stadholder and other troops were drawn up in battle-array in the outer and inner courtyard of the supreme tribunal and palace. at ten o'clock groeneveld came forth from the prison. the stadholder had granted as a boon to the family that he might be neither fettered nor guarded as he walked to the tribunal. the prisoner did not forget his parting promise to his wife. he appeared full-dressed in velvet cloak and plumed hat, with rapier by his side, walking calmly through the inner courtyard to the great hall. observing the windows of the stadholder's apartments crowded with spectators, among whom he seemed to recognize the prince's face, he took off his hat and made a graceful and dignified salute. he greeted with courtesy many acquaintances among the crowd through which he passed. he entered the hall and listened in silence to the sentence condemning him to be immediately executed with the sword. van dyk and korenwinder shared the same doom, but were provisionally taken back to prison. groeneveld then walked calmly and gracefully as before from the hall to the scaffold, attended by his own valet, and preceded by the provost-marshal and assistants. he was to suffer, not where his father had been beheaded, but on the "green sod." this public place of execution for ordinary criminals was singularly enough in the most elegant and frequented quarter of the hague. a few rods from the gevangen poort, at the western end of the vyverberg, on the edge of the cheerful triangle called the plaats, and looking directly down the broad and stately kneuterdyk, at the end of which stood aremberg house, lately the residence of the great advocate, was the mean and sordid scaffold. groeneveld ascended it with perfect composure. the man who had been browbeaten into crime by an overbearing and ferocious brother, who had quailed before the angry waves of the north sea, which would have borne him to a place of entire security, now faced his fate with a smile upon his lips. he took off his hat, cloak, and sword, and handed them to his valet. he calmly undid his ruff and wristbands of pointlace, and tossed them on the ground. with his own hands and the assistance of his servant he unbuttoned his doublet, laying breast and neck open without suffering the headsman's hands to approach him. he then walked to the heap of sand and spoke a very few words to the vast throng of spectators. "desire of vengeance and evil counsel," he said, "have brought me here. if i have wronged any man among you, i beg him for christ's sake to forgive me." kneeling on the sand with his face turned towards his father's house at the end of the kneuterdyk, he said his prayers. then putting a red velvet cap over his eyes, he was heard to mutter: "o god! what a man i was once, and what am i now?" calmly folding his hands, he said, "patience." the executioner then struck off his head at a blow. his body, wrapped in a black cloak, was sent to his house and buried in his father's tomb. van dyk and korenwinder were executed immediately afterwards. they were quartered and their heads exposed on stakes. the joiner gerritsen and the three sailors had already been beheaded. the blansaerts and william party, together with the grim slatius, who was savage and turbulent to the last, had suffered on the th of may. fourteen in all were executed for this crime, including an unfortunate tailor and two other mechanics of leyden, who had heard something whispered about the conspiracy, had nothing whatever to do with it, but from ignorance, apathy, or timidity did not denounce it. the ringleader and the equally guilty van der dussen had, as has been seen, effected their escape. thus ended the long tragedy of the barnevelds. the result of this foul conspiracy and its failure to effect the crime proposed strengthened immensely the power, popularity, and influence of the stadholder, made the orthodox church triumphant, and nearly ruined the sect of the remonstrants, the arminians--most unjustly in reality, although with a pitiful show of reason--being held guilty of the crime of stoutenburg and slatius. the republic--that magnificent commonwealth which in its infancy had confronted, single-handed, the greatest empire of the earth, and had wrested its independence from the ancient despot after a forty years' struggle--had now been rent in twain, although in very unequal portions, by the fiend of political and religious hatred. thus crippled, she was to go forth and take her share in that awful conflict now in full blaze, and of which after-ages were to speak with a shudder as the thirty years' war. etext editor's bookmarks: argument in a circle he that stands let him see that he does not fall if he has deserved it, let them strike off his head misery had come not from their being enemies o god! what does man come to! party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive this, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the state to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk etext editor's bookmarks, entire john of barneveld, - : acts of violence which under pretext of religion adulation for inferiors whom they despise affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies and give advice. of that, although always a spendthrift argument in a circle better to be governed by magistrates than mobs burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain casual outbursts of eternal friendship changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day conciliation when war of extermination was intended considered it his special mission in the world to mediate created one child for damnation and another for salvation death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt denoungced as an obstacle to peace depths theological party spirit could descend depths of credulity men in all ages can sink devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence france was mourning henry and waiting for richelieu furious mob set upon the house of rem bischop hardly a sound protestant policy anywhere but in holland he that stands let him see that he does not fall heidelberg catechism were declared to be infallible highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation history has not too many really important and emblematic men human nature in its meanness and shame i hope and i fear i know how to console myself if he has deserved it, let them strike off his head implication there was much, of assertion very little in this he was much behind his age or before it it had not yet occurred to him that he was married john robinson king who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword make the very name of man a term of reproach misery had come not from their being enemies mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated more apprehension of fraud than of force necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns never lack of fishers in troubled waters not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed o god! what does man come to! only true religion opening an abyss between government and people opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood partisans wanted not accommodation but victory party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk pot-valiant hero puritanism in holland was a very different thing from england rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive seemed bent on self-destruction stand between hope and fear successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones tempest of passion and prejudice that he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice the magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness the effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny the evils resulting from a confederate system of government this, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the state this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk to stifle for ever the right of free enquiry william brewster wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome yes, there are wicked men about yesterday is the preceptor of to-morrow etext editor's bookmarks, entire john of barneveld - : abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour acts of violence which under pretext of religion adulation for inferiors whom they despise advanced orthodox party-puritans affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body almost infinite power of the meanest of passions and give advice. of that, although always a spendthrift and now the knife of another priest-led fanatic argument in a circle aristocracy of god's elect as with his own people, keeping no back-door open at a blow decapitated france atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics better to be governed by magistrates than mobs burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain casual outbursts of eternal friendship changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient conciliation when war of extermination was intended conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined considered it his special mission in the world to mediate contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty could not be both judge and party in the suit covered now with the satirical dust of centuries created one child for damnation and another for salvation deadly hatred of puritans in england and holland death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt denoungced as an obstacle to peace depths of credulity men in all ages can sink depths theological party spirit could descend determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife disputing the eternal damnation of young children doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense emperor of japan addressed him as his brother monarch enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience epernon, the true murderer of henry estimating his character and judging his judges everybody should mind his own business extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge father cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets france was mourning henry and waiting for richelieu furious mob set upon the house of rem bischop give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required great war of religion and politics was postponed hardly a sound protestant policy anywhere but in holland he was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin he who would have all may easily lose all he who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself he was a sincere bigot he that stands let him see that he does not fall heidelberg catechism were declared to be infallible highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation history has not too many really important and emblematic men human nature in its meanness and shame i know how to console myself i hope and i fear if he has deserved it, let them strike off his head impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants implication there was much, of assertion very little in this he was much behind his age or before it intense bigotry of conviction international friendship, the self-interest of each it had not yet occurred to him that he was married it was the true religion, and there was none other james of england, who admired, envied, and hated henry jealousy, that potent principle jesuit mariana--justifying the killing of excommunicated kings john robinson king who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy king's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day language which is ever living because it is dead logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves louis xiii. ludicrous gravity magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword make the very name of man a term of reproach misery had come not from their being enemies mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated more apprehension of fraud than of force more fiercely opposed to each other than to papists most detestable verses that even he had ever composed necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic never lack of fishers in troubled waters no man pretended to think of the state no man can be neutral in civil contentions no synod had a right to claim netherlanders as slaves none but god to compel me to say more than i choose to say not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed o god! what does man come to! only true religion opening an abyss between government and people opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency partisans wanted not accommodation but victory party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk philip iv. pot-valiant hero power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist practised successfully the talent of silence presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never puritanism in holland was a very different thing from england putting the cart before the oxen queen is entirely in the hands of spain and the priests rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic religion was made the strumpet of political ambition religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust schism in the church had become a public fact secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers seemed bent on self-destruction senectus edam maorbus est she declined to be his procuress small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial so much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality stand between hope and fear stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones tempest of passion and prejudice that he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice that cynical commerce in human lives the effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny the evils resulting from a confederate system of government the vehicle is often prized more than the freight the voice of slanderers the truth in shortest about matters of importance the assassin, tortured and torn by four horses the defence of the civil authority against the priesthood the magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness the catholic league and the protestant union their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country theology and politics were one there was no use in holding language of authority to him there was but one king in europe, henry the bearnese therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured they have killed him, 'e ammazato,' cried concini things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful thirty years' war tread on the heels of the forty years this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination this, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the state to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk to stifle for ever the right of free enquiry to look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures uncouple the dogs and let them run unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration what could save the house of austria, the cause of papacy whether repentance could effect salvation whether dead infants were hopelessly damned whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans william brewster wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant work of the aforesaid puritans and a few jesuits wrath of the jesuits at this exercise of legal authority yes, there are wicked men about yesterday is the preceptor of to-morrow the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war volume ii. - by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. chapter xi. - the advocate sounds the alarm in germany--his instructions to langerac and his forethought--the prince--palatine and his forces take aachen, mulheim, and other towns--supineness of the protestants--increased activity of austria and the league--barneveld strives to obtain help from england--neuburg departs for germany-- barneveld the prime minister of protestantism--ernest mansfield takes service under charles emmanuel--count john of nassau goes to savoy--slippery conduct of king james in regard to the new treaty proposed--barneveld's influence greater in france than in england-- sequestration feared--the elector of brandenburg cited to appear before the emperor at prague--murder of john van wely--uytenbogaert incurs maurice's displeasure--marriage of the king of france with anne of austria--conference between king james and caron concerning piracy, cloth trade and treaty of xanten--barneveld's survey of the condition of europe--his efforts to avert the impending general war. i have thus purposely sketched the leading features of a couple of momentous, although not eventful, years--so far as the foreign policy of the republic is concerned--in order that the reader may better understand the bearings and the value of the advocate's actions and writings at that period. this work aims at being a political study. i would attempt to exemplify the influence of individual humours and passions--some of them among the highest and others certainly the basest that agitate humanity-upon the march of great events, upon general historical results at certain epochs, and upon the destiny of eminent personages. it may also be not uninteresting to venture a glance into the internal structure and workings of a republican and federal system of government, then for the first time reproduced almost spontaneously upon an extended scale. perhaps the revelation of some of its defects, in spite of the faculty and vitality struggling against them, may not be without value for our own country and epoch. the system of switzerland was too limited and homely, that of venice too purely oligarchical, to have much moral for us now, or to render a study of their pathological phenomena especially instructive. the lessons taught us by the history of the netherland confederacy may have more permanent meaning. moreover, the character of a very considerable statesman at an all-important epoch, and in a position of vast responsibility, is always an historical possession of value to mankind. that of him who furnishes the chief theme for these pages has been either overlooked and neglected or perhaps misunderstood by posterity. history has not too many really important and emblematic men on its records to dispense with the memory of barneveld, and the writer therefore makes no apology for dilating somewhat fully upon his lifework by means of much of his entirely unpublished and long forgotten utterances. the advocate had ceaselessly been sounding the alarm in germany. for the protestant union, fascinated, as it were, by the threatening look of the catholic league, seemed relapsing into a drowse. "i believe," he said to one of his agents in that country, "that the evangelical electors and princes and the other estates are not alive to the danger. i am sure that it is not apprehended in great britain. france is threatened with troubles. these are the means to subjugate the religion, the laws and liberties of germany. without an army the troops now on foot in italy cannot be kept out of germany. yet we do not hear that the evangelicals are making provision of troops, money, or any other necessaries. in this country we have about one hundred places occupied with our troops, among whom are many who could destroy a whole army. but the maintenance of these places prevents our being very strong in the field, especially outside our frontiers. but if in all germany there be many places held by the evangelicals which would disperse a great army is very doubtful. keep a watchful eye. economy is a good thing, but the protection of a country and its inhabitants must be laid to heart. watch well if against these provinces, and against bohemia, austria, and other as it is pretended rebellious states, these plans are not directed. look out for the movements of the italian and bavarian troops against germany. you see how they are nursing the troubles and misunderstandings in france, and turning them to account." he instructed the new ambassador in paris to urge upon the french government the absolute necessity of punctuality in furnishing the payment of their contingent in the netherlands according to convention. the states of holland themselves had advanced the money during three years' past, but this anticipation was becoming very onerous. it was necessary to pay the troops every month regularly, but the funds from paris were always in arrear. england contributed about one-half as much in subsidy, but these moneys went in paying the garrisons of brielle, flushing, and rammekens, fortresses pledged to that crown. the ambassador was shrewdly told not to enlarge on the special employment of the english funds while holding up to the queen's government that she was not the only potentate who helped bear burthens for the provinces, and insisted on a continuation of this aid. "remember and let them remember," said the advocate, "that the reforms which they are pretending to make there by relieving the subjects of contributions tends to enervate the royal authority and dignity both within and without, to diminish its lustre and reputation, and in sum to make the king unable to gratify and assist his subjects, friends, and allies. make them understand that the taxation in these provinces is ten times higher than there, and that my lords the states hitherto by the grace of god and good administration have contrived to maintain it in order to be useful to themselves and their friends. take great pains to have it well understood that this is even more honourable and more necessary for a king of france, especially in his minority, than for a republic 'hoc turbato seculo.' we all see clearly how some potentates in europe are keeping at all time under one pretext or another strong forces well armed on a war footing. it therefore behoves his majesty to be likewise provided with troops, and at least with a good exchequer and all the requirements of war, as well for the security of his own state as for the maintenance of the grandeur and laudable reputation left to him by the deceased king." truly here was sound and substantial advice, never and nowhere more needed than in france. it was given too with such good effect as to bear fruit even upon stoniest ground, and it is a refreshing spectacle to see this plain advocate of a republic, so lately sprung into existence out of the depths of oppression and rebellion, calmly summoning great kings as it were before him and instructing them in those vital duties of government in discharge of which the country he administered already furnished a model. had england and france each possessed a barneveld at that epoch, they might well have given in exchange for him a wilderness of epernons and sillerys, bouillons and conde's; of winwoods, lakes, carrs, and villierses. but elizabeth with her counsellors was gone, and henry was gone, and richelieu had not come; while in england james and his minions were diligently opening an abyss between government and people which in less than half a lifetime more should engulph the kingdom. two months later he informed the states' ambassador of the communications made by the prince of conde and the dukes of nevers and bouillon to the government at the hague now that they had effected a kind of reconciliation with the queen. langerac was especially instructed to do his best to assist in bringing about cordial relations, if that were possible, between the crown and the rebels, and meantime he was especially directed to defend du maurier against the calumnious accusations brought against him, of which aerssens had been the secret sower. "you will do your best to manage," he said, "that no special ambassador be sent hither, and that m. du maurier may remain with us, he being a very intelligent and moderate person now well instructed as to the state of our affairs, a professor of the reformed religion, and having many other good qualities serviceable to their majesties and to us. "you will visit the prince, and other princes and officers of the crown who are coming to court again, and do all good offices as well for the court as for m. du maurier, in order that through evil plots and slanderous reports no harm may come to him. "take great pains to find out all you can there as to the designs of the king of spain, the archdukes, and the emperor, in the affair of julich. you are also to let it be known that the change of religion on the part of the prince-palatine of neuburg will not change our good will and affection for him, so far as his legal claims are concerned." so long as it was possible for the states to retain their hold on both the claimants, the advocate, pursuant to his uniform policy of moderation, was not disposed to help throw the palatine into the hands of the spanish party. he was well aware, however, that neuburg by his marriage and his conversion was inevitably to become the instrument of the league and to be made use of in the duchies at its pleasure, and that he especially would be the first to submit with docility to the decree of the emperor. the right to issue such decree the states under guidance of barneveld were resolved to resist at all hazards. "work diligently, nevertheless," said he, "that they permit nothing there directly or indirectly that may tend to the furtherance of the league, as too prejudicial to us and to all our fellow religionists. tell them too that the late king, the king of great britain, the united electors and princes of germany, and ourselves, have always been resolutely opposed to making the dispute about the succession in the duchies depend on the will of the emperor and his court. all our movements in the year against the attempted sequestration under leopold were to carry out that purpose. hold it for certain that our present proceedings for strengthening and maintaining the city and fortress of julich are considered serviceable and indispensable by the british king and the german electors and princes. use your best efforts to induce the french government to pursue the same policy--if it be not possible openly, then at least secretly. my conviction is that, unless the prince-palatine is supported by, and his whole designs founded upon, the general league against all our brethren of the religion, affairs may be appeased." the envoy was likewise instructed to do his best to further the matrimonial alliance which had begun to be discussed between the prince of wales and the second daughter of france. had it been possible at that moment to bring the insane dream of james for a spanish alliance to naught, the states would have breathed more freely. he was also to urge payment of the money for the french regiments, always in arrears since henry's death and sully's dismissal, and always supplied by the exchequer of holland. he was informed that the republic had been sending some war ships to the levant, to watch the armada recently sent thither by spain, and other armed vessels into the baltic, to pursue the corsairs with whom every sea was infested. in one year alone he estimated the loss to dutch merchants by these pirates at , florins. "we have just captured two of the rovers, but the rascally scum is increasing," he said. again alluding to the resistance to be made by the states to the imperial pretensions, he observed, "the emperor is about sending us a herald in the julich matter, but we know how to stand up to him." and notwithstanding the bare possibility which he had admitted, that the prince of neuburg might not yet have wholly sold himself, body and soul, to the papists, he gave warning a day or two afterwards in france that all should be prepared for the worst. "the archdukes and the prince of neuburg appear to be taking the war earnestly in hand," he said. "we believe that the papistical league is about to make a great effort against all the co-religionists. we are watching closely their movements. aachen is first threatened, and the elector-palatine likewise. france surely, for reasons of state, cannot permit that they should be attacked. she did, and helped us to do, too much in the julich campaign to suffer the spaniards to make themselves masters there now." it has been seen that the part played by france in the memorable campaign of was that of admiring auxiliary to the states' forces; marshal de la chatre having in all things admitted the superiority of their army and the magnificent generalship of prince maurice. but the government of the dowager had been committed by that enterprise to carry out the life-long policy of henry, and to maintain his firm alliance with the republic. whether any of the great king's acuteness and vigour in countermining and shattering the plans of the house of austria was left in the french court, time was to show. meantime barneveld was crying himself hoarse with warnings into the dull ears of england and france. a few weeks later the prince of neuburg had thrown off the mask. twelve thousand foot and horse had been raised in great haste, so the advocate informed the french court, by spain and the archdukes, for the use of that pretender. five or six thousand spaniards were coming by sea to flanders, and as many italians were crossing the mountains, besides a great number mustering for the same purpose in germany and lorraine. barneveld was constantly receiving most important intelligence of military plans and movements from prague, which he placed daily before the eyes of governments wilfully blind. "i ponder well at this crisis," he said to his friend caron, "the intelligence i received some months back from ratisbon, out of the cabinet of the jesuits, that the design of the catholic or roman league is to bring this year a great army into the field, in order to make neuburg, who was even then said to be of the roman profession and league, master of julich and the duchies; to execute the imperial decree against aachen and mulheim, preventing any aid from being sent into germany by these provinces, or by great britain, and placing the archduke and marquis spinola in command of the forces; to put another army on the frontiers of austria, in order to prevent any succour coming from hungary, bohemia, austria, moravia, and silesia into germany; to keep all these disputed territories in subjection and devotion to the emperor, and to place the general conduct of all these affairs in the hands of archduke leopold and other princes of the house of austria. a third army is to be brought into the upper palatinate, under command of the duke of bavaria and others of the league, destined to thoroughly carry out its designs against the elector-palatine, and the other electors, princes, and estates belonging to the religion." this intelligence, plucked by barneveld out of the cabinet of the jesuits, had been duly communicated by him months before to those whom it most concerned, and as usual it seemed to deepen the lethargy of the destined victims and their friends. not only the whole spanish campaign of the present year had thus been duly mapped out by the advocate, long before it occurred, but this long buried and forgotten correspondence of the statesman seems rather like a chronicle of transactions already past, so closely did the actual record, which posterity came to know too well, resemble that which he saw, and was destined only to see, in prophetic vision. could this political seer have cast his horoscope of the thirty years' war at this hour of its nativity for the instruction of such men as walsingham or burleigh, henry of navarre or sully, richelieu or gustavus adolphus, would the course of events have been modified? these very idlest of questions are precisely those which inevitably occur as one ponders the seeming barrenness of an epoch in reality so pregnant. "one would think," said barneveld, comparing what was then the future with the real past, "that these plans in prague against the elector-palatine are too gross for belief; but when i reflect on the intense bitterness of these people, when i remember what was done within living men's memory to the good elector hans frederic of saxony for exactly the same reasons, to wit, hatred of our religion, and determination to establish imperial authority, i have great apprehension. i believe that the roman league will use the present occasion to carry out her great design; holding france incapable of opposition to her, germany in too great division, and imagining to themselves that neither the king of great britain nor these states are willing or able to offer effectual and forcible resistance. yet his majesty of great britain ought to be able to imagine how greatly the religious matter in general concerns himself and the electoral house of the palatine, as principal heads of the religion, and that these vast designs should be resisted betimes, and with all possible means and might. my lords the states have good will, but not sufficient strength, to oppose these great forces single-handed. one must not believe that without great and prompt assistance in force from his majesty and other fellow religionists my lords the states can undertake so vast an affair. do your uttermost duty there, in order that, ere it be too late, this matter be taken to heart by his majesty, and that his authority and credit be earnestly used with other kings, electors, princes, and republics, that they do likewise. the promptest energy, good will, and affection may be reckoned on from us." alas! it was easy for his majesty to take to heart the matter of conrad vorstius, to spend reams of diplomatic correspondence, to dictate whole volumes for orations brimming over with theological wrath, for the edification of the states-general, against that doctor of divinity. but what were the special interests of his son-in-law, what the danger to all the other protestant electors and kings, princes and republics, what the imperilled condition of the united provinces, and, by necessary consequence, the storm gathering over his own throne, what the whole fate of protestantism, from friesland to hungary, threatened by the insatiable, all-devouring might of the double house of austria, the ancient church, and the papistical league, what were hundred thousands of men marching towards bohemia, the netherlands, and the duchies, with the drum beating for mercenary recruits in half the villages of spain, italy, and catholic germany, compared with the danger to christendom from an arminian clergyman being appointed to the theological professorship at leyden? the world was in a blaze, kings and princes were arming, and all the time that the monarch of the powerful, adventurous, and heroic people of great britain could spare from slobbering over his minions, and wasting the treasures of the realm to supply their insatiate greed, was devoted to polemical divinity, in which he displayed his learning, indeed, but changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day. the magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination. moreover, should he listen to the adjurations of the states and his fellow religionists, should he allow himself to be impressed by the eloquence of barneveld and take a manly and royal decision in the great emergency, it would be indispensable for him to come before that odious body, the parliament of great britain, and ask for money. it would be perhaps necessary for him to take them into his confidence, to degrade himself by speaking to them of the national affairs. they might not be satisfied with the honour of voting the supplies at his demand, but were capable of asking questions as to their appropriation. on the whole it was more king-like and statesman-like to remain quiet, and give advice. of that, although always a spendthrift, he had an inexhaustible supply. barneveld had just hopes from the commons of great britain, if the king could be brought to appeal to parliament. once more he sounded the bugle of alarm. "day by day the archdukes are making greater and greater enrolments of riders and infantry in ever increasing mass," he cried, "and therewith vast provision of artillery and all munitions of war. within ten or twelve days they will be before julich in force. we are sending great convoys to reinforce our army there. the prince of neuburg is enrolling more and more troops every day. he will soon be master of mulheim. if the king of great britain will lay this matter earnestly to heart for the preservation of the princes, electors, and estates of the religion, i cannot doubt that parliament would cooperate well with his majesty, and this occasion should be made use of to redress the whole state of affairs." it was not the parliament nor the people of great britain that would be in fault when the question arose of paying in money and in blood for the defence of civil and religious liberty. but if james should venture openly to oppose spain, what would the count of gondemar say, and what would become of the infanta and the two millions of dowry? it was not for want of some glimmering consciousness in the mind of james of the impending dangers to northern europe and to protestantism from the insatiable ambition of spain, and the unrelenting grasp of the papacy upon those portions of christendom which were slipping from its control, that his apathy to those perils was so marked. we have seen his leading motives for inaction, and the world was long to feel its effects. "his majesty firmly believes," wrote secretary winwood, "that the papistical league is brewing great and dangerous plots. to obviate them in everything that may depend upon him, my lords the states will find him prompt. the source of all these entanglements comes from spain. we do not think that the archduke will attack julich this year, but rather fear for mulheim and aix-la-chapelle." but the secretary of state, thus acknowledging the peril, chose to be blind to its extent, while at the same time undervaluing the powers by which it might be resisted. "to oppose the violence of the enemy," he said, "if he does resort to violence, is entirely impossible. it would be furious madness on our part to induce him to fall upon the elector-palatine, for this would be attacking great britain and all her friends and allies. germany is a delicate morsel, but too much for the throat of spain to swallow all at once. behold the evil which troubles the conscience of the papistical league. the emperor and his brothers are all on the brink of their sepulchre, and the infants of spain are too young to succeed to the empire. the pope would more willingly permit its dissolution than its falling into the hands of a prince not of his profession. all that we have to do in this conjuncture is to attend the best we can to our own affairs, and afterwards to strengthen the good alliance existing among us, and not to let ourselves be separated by the tricks and sleights of hand of our adversaries. the common cause can reckon firmly upon the king of great britain, and will not find itself deceived." excellent commonplaces, but not very safe ones. unluckily for the allies, to attend each to his own affairs when the enemy was upon them, and to reckon firmly upon a king who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy, was hardly the way to avert the danger. a fortnight later, the man who thought it possible to resist, and time to resist, before the net was over every head, replied to the secretary by a picture of the spaniards' progress. "since your letter," he said, "you have seen the course of spinola with the army of the king and the archdukes. you have seen the prince-palatine of neuburg with his forces maintained by the pope and other members of the papistical league. on the th of august they forced aachen, where the magistrates and those of the reformed religion have been extremely maltreated. twelve hundred soldiers are lodged in the houses there of those who profess our religion. mulheim is taken and dismantled, and the very houses about to be torn down. duren, castre, grevenborg, orsoy, duisburg, ruhrort, and many other towns, obliged to receive spanish garrisons. on the th of september they invested wesel. on the th it was held certain that the cities of cleve, emmerich, rees, and others in that quarter, had consented to be occupied. the states have put one hundred and thirty-five companies of foot (about , men) and horse and a good train of artillery in the field, and sent out some ships of war. prince maurice left the hague on the th of september to assist wesel, succour the prince of brandenburg, and oppose the hostile proceedings of spinola and the palatine of neuburg . . . . consider, i pray you, this state of things, and think how much heed they have paid to the demands of the kings of great britain and france to abstain from hostilities. be sure that without our strong garrison in julich they would have snapped up every city in julich, cleve, and berg. but they will now try to make use of their slippery tricks, their progress having been arrested by our army. the prince of neuburg is sending his chancellor here 'cum mediis componendae pacis,' in appearance good and reasonable, in reality deceptive . . . . if their majesties, my lords the states, and the princes of the union, do not take an energetic resolution for making head against their designs, behold their league in full vigour and ours without soul. neither the strength nor the wealth of the states are sufficient of themselves to withstand their ambitious and dangerous designs. we see the possessory princes treated as enemies upon their own estates, and many thousand souls of the reformed religion cruelly oppressed by the papistical league. for myself i am confirmed in my apprehensions and believe that neither our religion nor our union can endure such indignities. the enemy is making use of the minority in france and the divisions among the princes of germany to their great advantage . . . . i believe that the singular wisdom of his majesty will enable him to apply promptly the suitable remedies, and that your parliament will make no difficulty in acquitting itself well in repairing those disorders." the year dragged on to its close. the supineness of the protestants deepened in direct proportion to the feverish increase of activity on the part of austria and the league. the mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated, the parade of conciliation when war of extermination was intended, continued on the part of spain and austria. barneveld was doing his best to settle all minor differences between the states and great britain, that these two bulwarks of protestantism might stand firmly together against the rising tide. he instructed the ambassador to exhaust every pacific means of arrangement in regard to the greenland fishery disputes, the dyed cloth question, and like causes of ill feeling. he held it more than necessary, he said, that the inhabitants of the two countries should now be on the very best terms with each other. above all, he implored the king through the ambassador to summon parliament in order that the kingdom might be placed in position to face the gathering danger. "i am amazed and distressed," he said, "that the statesmen of england do not comprehend the perils with which their fellow religionists are everywhere threatened, especially in germany and in these states. to assist us with bare advice and sometimes with traducing our actions, while leaving us to bear alone the burthens, costs, and dangers, is not serviceable to us." referring to the information and advice which he had sent to england and to france fifteen months before, he now gave assurance that the prince of neuburg and spinola were now in such force, both foot and cavalry, with all necessary munitions, as to hold these most important territories as a perpetual "sedem bedli," out of which to attack germany at their pleasure and to cut off all possibility of aid from england and the states. he informed the court of st. james that besides the forces of the emperor and the house of austria, the duke of bavaria and spanish italy, there were now several thousand horse and foot under the bishop of wurzburg, or under the bishop-elector of mayence, and strong bodies of cavalry under count vaudemont in lorraine, all mustering for the war. the pretext seems merely to reduce frankfurt to obedience, even as donauworth had previously been used as a colour for vast designs. the real purpose was to bring the elector-palatine and the whole protestant party in germany to submission. "his majesty," said the advocate, "has now a very great and good subject upon which to convoke parliament and ask for a large grant. this would be doubtless consented to if parliament receives the assurance that the money thus accorded shall be applied to so wholesome a purpose. you will do your best to further this great end. we are waiting daily to hear if the xanten negotiation is broken off or not. i hope and i fear. meantime we bear as heavy burthens as if we were actually at war." he added once more the warning, which it would seem superfluous to repeat even to schoolboys in diplomacy, that this xanten treaty, as proposed by the enemy, was a mere trap. spinola and neuburg, in case of the mutual disbanding, stood ready at an instant's warning to re-enlist for the league not only all the troops that the catholic army should nominally discharge, but those which would be let loose from the states' army and that of brandenburg as well. they would hold rheinberg, groll, lingen, oldenzaal, wachtendonk, maestricht, aachen, and mulheim with a permanent force of more than , men. and they could do all this in four days' time. a week or two later all his prophesies had been fulfilled. "the prince of neuburg," he said, "and marquis spinola have made game of us most impudently in the matter of the treaty. this is an indignity for us, their majesties, and the electors and princes. we regard it as intolerable. a despatch came from spain forbidding a further step in the negotiation without express order from the king. the prince and spinola are gone to brussels, the ambassadors have returned to the hague, the armies are established in winter-quarters. the cavalry are ravaging the debateable land and living upon the inhabitants at their discretion. m. de refuge is gone to complain to the archdukes of the insult thus put upon his sovereign. sir henry wotton is still here. we have been plunged into an immensity of extraordinary expense, and are amazed that at this very moment england should demand money from us when we ought to be assisted by a large subsidy by her. we hope that now at least his majesty will take a vigorous resolution and not suffer his grandeur and dignity to be vilipended longer. if the spaniard is successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones, and will believe that mankind is ready to bear and submit to everything. his majesty is the first king of the religion. he bears the title of defender of the faith. his religion, his only daughter, his son-in-law, his grandson are all especially interested besides his own dignity, besides the common weal." he then adverted to the large subsidies from queen elizabeth many years before, guaranteed, it was true, by the cautionary towns, and to the gallant english regiments, sent by that great sovereign, which had been fighting so long and so splendidly in the netherlands for the common cause of protestantism and liberty. yet england was far weaker then, for she had always her northern frontier to defend against scotland, ever ready to strike her in the back. "but now his majesty," said barneveld, "is king of england and scotland both. his frontier is free. ireland is at peace. he possesses quietly twice as much as the queen ever did. he is a king. her majesty was a woman. the king has children and heirs. his nearest blood is engaged in this issue. his grandeur and dignity have been wronged. each one of these considerations demands of itself a manly resolution. you will do your best to further it." the almost ubiquitous power of spain, gaining after its exhaustion new life through the strongly developed organization of the league, and the energy breathed into that mighty conspiracy against human liberty by the infinite genius of the "cabinet of jesuits," was not content with overshadowing germany, the netherlands, and england, but was threatening savoy with , men, determined to bring charles emmanuel either to perdition or submission. like england, france was spell-bound by the prospect of spanish marriages, which for her at least were not a chimera, and looked on composedly while savoy was on point of being sacrificed by the common invader of independent nationality whether protestant or catholic. nothing ever showed more strikingly the force residing in singleness of purpose with breadth and unity of design than all these primary movements of the great war now beginning. the chances superficially considered were vastly in favour of the protestant cause. in the chief lands, under the sceptre of the younger branch of austria, the protestants outnumbered the catholics by nearly ten to one. bohemia, the austrias, moravia, silesia, hungary were filled full of the spirit of huss, of luther, and even of calvin. if spain was a unit, now that the moors and jews had been expelled, and the heretics of castille and aragon burnt into submission, she had a most lukewarm ally in venice, whose policy was never controlled by the church, and a dangerous neighbour in the warlike, restless, and adventurous house of savoy, to whom geographical considerations were ever more vital than religious scruples. a sincere alliance of france, the very flower of whose nobility and people inclined to the reformed religion, was impossible, even if there had been fifty infantes to espouse fifty daughters of france. great britain, the netherlands, and the united princes of germany seemed a solid and serried phalanx of protestantism, to break through which should be hopeless. yet at that moment, so pregnant with a monstrous future, there was hardly a sound protestant policy anywhere but in holland. how long would that policy remain sound and united? how long would the republic speak through the imperial voice of barneveld? time was to show and to teach many lessons. the united princes of germany were walking, talking, quarrelling in their sleep; england and france distracted and bedrugged, while maximilian of bavaria and ferdinand of gratz, the cabinets of madrid and the vatican, were moving forward to their aims slowly, steadily, relentlessly as fate. and spain was more powerful than she had been since the truce began. in five years she had become much more capable of aggression. she had strengthened her positions in the mediterranean by the acquisition and enlargement of considerable fortresses in barbary and along a large sweep of the african coast, so as to be almost supreme in africa. it was necessary for the states, the only power save turkey that could face her in those waters, to maintain a perpetual squadron of war ships there to defend their commerce against attack from the spaniard and from the corsairs, both mahometan and christian, who infested every sea. spain was redoubtable everywhere, and the turk, engaged in persian campaigns, was offering no diversion against hungary and vienna. "reasons of state worthy of his majesty's consideration and wisdom," said barneveld, "forbid the king of great britain from permitting the spaniard to give the law in italy. he is about to extort obedience and humiliation from the duke of savoy, or else with , men to mortify and ruin him, while entirely assuring himself of france by the double marriages. then comes the attack on these provinces, on protestant germany, and all other states and realms of the religion." with the turn of the year, affairs were growing darker and darker. the league was rolling up its forces in all directions; its chiefs proposed absurd conditions of pacification, while war was already raging, and yet scarcely any government but that of the netherlands paid heed to the rising storm. james, fatuous as ever, listened to gondemar, and wrote admonitory letters to the archduke. it was still gravely proposed by the catholic party that there should be mutual disbanding in the duchies, with a guarantee from marquis spinola that there should be no more invasion of those territories. but powers and pledges from the king of spain were what he needed. to suppose that the republic and her allies would wait quietly, and not lift a finger until blows were actually struck against the protestant electors or cities of germany, was expecting too much ingenuousness on the part of statesmen who had the interests of protestantism at heart. what they wanted was the signed, sealed, ratified treaty faithfully carried out. then if the king of spain and the archdukes were willing to contract with the states never to make an attempt against the holy german empire, but to leave everything to take its course according to the constitutions, liberties, and traditions and laws of that empire, under guidance of its electors, princes, estates, and cities, the united provinces were ready, under mediation of the two kings, their allies and friends, to join in such an arrangement. thus there might still be peace in germany, and religious equality as guaranteed by the "majesty-letter," and the "compromise" between the two great churches, roman and reformed, be maintained. to bring about this result was the sincere endeavour of barneveld, hoping against hope. for he knew that all was hollowness and sham on the part of the great enemy. even as walsingham almost alone had suspected and denounced the delusive negotiations by which spain continued to deceive elizabeth and her diplomatists until the armada was upon her coasts, and denounced them to ears that were deafened and souls that were stupified by the frauds practised upon them, so did barneveld, who had witnessed all that stupendous trickery of a generation before, now utter his cries of warning that germany might escape in time from her impending doom. "nothing but deceit is lurking in the spanish proposals," he said. "every man here wonders that the english government does not comprehend these malversations. truly the affair is not to be made straight by new propositions, but by a vigorous resolution of his majesty. it is in the highest degree necessary to the salvation of christendom, to the conservation of his majesty's dignity and greatness, to the service of the princes and provinces, and of all germany, nor can this vigorous resolution be longer delayed without enormous disaster to the common weal . . . . . i have the deepest affection for the cause of the duke of savoy, but i cannot further it so long as i cannot tell what his majesty specifically is resolved to do, and what hope is held out from venice, germany, and other quarters. our taxes are prodigious, the ordinary and extraordinary, and we have a spanish army at our front door." the armaments, already so great, had been enlarged during the last month of the year. vaudemont was at the head of a further force of cavalry and foot, paid for by spain and the pope; , additional soldiers, riders and infantry together, had been gathered by maximilian of bavaria at the expense of the league. even if the reports were exaggerated, the advocate thought it better to be too credulous than as apathetic as the rest of the protestants. "we receive advices every day," he wrote to caron, "that the spaniards and the roman league are going forward with their design. they are trying to amuse the british king and to gain time, in order to be able to deal the heavier blows. do all possible duty to procure a timely and vigorous resolution there. to wait again until we are anticipated will be fatal to the cause of the evangelical electors and princes of germany and especially of his electoral highness of brandenburg. we likewise should almost certainly suffer irreparable damage, and should again bear our cross, as men said last year in regard to aachen, wesel, and so many other places. the spaniard is sly, and has had a long time to contrive how he can throw the net over the heads of all our religious allies. remember all the warnings sent from here last year, and how they were all tossed to the winds, to the ruin of so many of our co-religionists. if it is now intended over there to keep the spaniards in check merely by speeches or letters, it would be better to say so clearly to our friends. so long as parliament is not convoked in order to obtain consents and subsidies for this most necessary purpose, so long i fail to believe that this great common cause of christendom, and especially of germany, is taken to heart by england." he adverted with respectfully subdued scorn to king james's proposition that spinola should give a guarantee. "i doubt if he accepts the suggestion," said barneveld, "unless as a notorious trick, and if he did, what good would the promise of spinola do us? we consider spinola a great commander having the purses and forces of the spaniards and the leaguers in his control; but should they come into other hands, he would not be a very considerable personage for us. and that may happen any day. they don't seem in england to understand the difference between prince maurice in his relations to our state and that of marquis spinola to his superiors. try to make them comprehend it. a promise from the emperor, king of spain, and the princes of the league, such as his majesty in his wisdom has proposed to spinola, would be most tranquillizing for all the protestant princes and estates of the empire, especially for the elector and electress palatine, and for ourselves. in such a case no difficulty would be made on our side." after expressing his mind thus freely in regard to james and his policy, he then gave the ambassador a word of caution in characteristic fashion. "cogita," he said, "but beware of censuring his majesty's projects. i do not myself mean to censure them, nor are they publicly laughed at here, but look closely at everything that comes from brussels, and let me know with diligence." and even as the advocate was endeavouring with every effort of his skill and reason to stir the sluggish james into vigorous resolution in behalf of his own children, as well as of the great cause of protestantism and national liberty, so was he striving to bear up on his strenuous shoulders the youthful king of france, and save him from the swollen tides of court intrigue and jesuitical influence fast sweeping him to destruction. he had denounced the recent and paltry proposition made on the part of the league, and originally suggested by james, as a most open and transparent trap, into which none but the blind would thrust themselves. the treaty of xanten, carried out as it had been signed and guaranteed by the great catholic powers, would have brought peace to christendom. to accept in place of such guarantee the pledge of a simple soldier, who to-morrow might be nothing, was almost too ridiculous a proposal to be answered gravely. yet barneveld through the machinations of the catholic party was denounced both at the english and french courts as an obstacle to peace, when in reality his powerful mind and his immense industry were steadily directed to the noblest possible end--to bring about a solemn engagement on the part of spain, the emperor, and the princes of the league, to attack none of the protestant powers of germany, especially the elector-palatine, but to leave the laws, liberties, and privileges of the states within the empire in their original condition. and among those laws were the great statutes of and , the "majesty-letter" and the "compromise," granting full right of religious worship to the protestants of the kingdom of bohemia. if ever a policy deserved to be called truly liberal and truly conservative, it was the policy thus steadily maintained by barneveld. adverting to the subterfuge by which the catholic party had sought to set aside the treaty of xanten, he instructed langerac, the states' ambassador in paris, and his own pupils to make it clear to the french government that it was impossible that in such arrangements the spanish armies would not be back again in the duchies at a moment's notice. it could not be imagined even that they were acting sincerely. "if their upright intention," he said, "is that no actual, hostile, violent attack shall be made upon the duchies, or upon any of the princes, estates, or cities of the holy empire, as is required for the peace and tranquillity of christendom, and if all the powers interested therein will come into a good and solid convention to that effect. my lords the states will gladly join in such undertaking and bind themselves as firmly as the other powers. if no infraction of the laws and liberties of the holy empire be attempted, there will be peace for germany and its neighbours. but the present extravagant proposition can only lead to chicane and quarrels. to press such a measure is merely to inflict a disgrace upon us. it is an attempt to prevent us from helping the elector-palatine and the other protestant princes of germany and coreligionists everywhere against hostile violence. for the elector-palatine can receive aid from us and from great britain through the duchies only. it is plainly the object of the enemy to seclude us from the palatine and the rest of protestant germany. it is very suspicious that the proposition of prince maurice, supported by the two kings and the united princes of germany, has been rejected." the advocate knew well enough that the religious franchises granted by the house of habsburg at the very moment in which spain signed her peace with the netherlands, and exactly as the mad duke of cleve was expiring--with a dozen princes, catholic and protestant, to dispute his inheritance--would be valuable just so long as they could be maintained by the united forces of protestantism and of national independence and no longer. what had been extorted from the catholic powers by force would be retracted by force whenever that force could be concentrated. it had been necessary for the republic to accept a twelve years' truce with spain in default of a peace, while the death of john of cleve, and subsequently of henry iv., had made the acquisition of a permanent pacification between catholicism and protestantism, between the league and the union, more difficult than ever. the so-called thirty years' war--rather to be called the concluding portion of the eighty years' war--had opened in the debateable duchies exactly at the moment when its forerunner, the forty years' war of the netherlands, had been temporarily and nominally suspended. barneveld was perpetually baffled in his efforts to obtain a favourable peace for protestant europe, less by the open diplomacy and military force of the avowed enemies of protestantism than by the secret intrigues and faintheartedness of its nominal friends. he was unwearied in his efforts simultaneously to arouse the courts of england and france to the danger to europe from the overshadowing power of the house of austria and the league, and he had less difficulty in dealing with the catholic lewis and his mother than with protestant james. at the present moment his great designs were not yet openly traversed by a strong protestant party within the very republic which he administered. "look to it with earnestness and grave deliberation," he said to langerac, "that they do not pursue us there with vain importunity to accept something so notoriously inadmissible and detrimental to the common weal. we know that from the enemy's side every kind of unseemly trick is employed, with the single object of bringing about misunderstanding between us and the king of france. a prompt and vigorous resolution on the part of his majesty, to see the treaty which we made duly executed, would be to help the cause. otherwise, not. we cannot here believe that his majesty, in this first year of his majority, will submit to such a notorious and flagrant affront, or that he will tolerate the oppression of the duke of savoy. such an affair in the beginning of his majesty's reign cannot but have very great and prejudicial consequences, nor can it be left to linger on in uncertainty and delay. let him be prompt in this. let him also take a most christian--kingly, vigorous resolution against the great affront put upon him in the failure to carry out the treaty. such a resolve on the part of the two kings would restore all things to tranquillity and bring the spaniard and his adherents 'in terminos modestiae. but so long as france is keeping a suspicious eye upon england, and england upon france, everything will run to combustion, detrimental to their majesties and to us, and ruinous to all the good inhabitants." to the treaty of xanten faithfully executed he held as to an anchor in the tempest until it was torn away, not by violence from without, but by insidious mutiny within. at last the government of james proposed that the pledges on leaving the territory should be made to the two allied kings as mediators and umpires. this was better than the naked promises originally suggested, but even in this there was neither heartiness nor sincerity. meantime the prince of neuburg, negotiations being broken off, departed for germany, a step which the advocate considered ominous. soon afterwards that prince received a yearly pension of , crowns from spain, and for this stipend his claims on the sovereignty of the duchies were supposed to be surrendered. "if this be true," said barneveld, "we have been served with covered dishes." the king of england wrote spirited and learned letters to the elector-palatine, assuring him of his father-in-law's assistance in case he should be attacked by the league. sir henry wotton, then on special mission at the hague, showed these epistles to barneveld. "when i hear that parliament has been assembled and has granted great subsidies," was the advocate's comment, "i shall believe that effects may possibly follow from all these assurances." it was wearisome for the advocate thus ever to be foiled; by the pettinesses and jealousies of those occupying the highest earthly places, in his efforts to stem the rising tide of spanish and catholic aggression, and to avert the outbreak of a devastating war to which he saw europe doomed. it may be wearisome to read the record. yet it is the chronicle of christendom during one of the most important and fateful epochs of modern history. no man can thoroughly understand the complication and precession of phenomena attending the disastrous dawn of the renewed war, on an even more awful scale than the original conflict in the netherlands, without studying the correspondence of barneveld. the history of europe is there. the fate of christendom is there. the conflict of elements, the crash of contending forms of religion and of nationalities, is pictured there in vivid if homely colours. the advocate, while acting only in the name of a slender confederacy, was in truth, so long as he held his place, the prime minister of european protestantism. there was none other to rival him, few to comprehend him, fewer still to sustain him. as prince maurice was at that moment the great soldier of protestantism without clearly scanning the grandeur of the field in which he was a chief actor, or foreseeing the vastness of its future, so the advocate was its statesman and its prophet. could the two have worked together as harmoniously as they had done at an earlier day, it would have been a blessing for the common weal of europe. but, alas! the evil genius of jealousy, which so often forbids cordial relations between soldier and statesman, already stood shrouded in the distance, darkly menacing the strenuous patriot, who was wearing his life out in exertions for what he deemed the true cause of progress and humanity. nor can the fate of the man himself, his genuine character, and the extraordinary personal events towards which he was slowly advancing, be accurately unfolded without an attempt by means of his letters to lay bare his inmost thoughts. especially it will be seen at a later moment how much value was attached to this secret correspondence with the ambassadors in london and paris. the advocate trusted to the support of france, papal and medicean as the court of the young king was, because the protestant party throughout the kingdom was too powerful, warlike, and numerous to be trifled with, and because geographical considerations alone rendered a cordial alliance between spain and france very difficult. notwithstanding the spanish marriages, which he opposed so long as opposition was possible, he knew that so long as a statesman remained in the kingdom, or a bone for one existed, the international policy of henry, of sully, and of jeannin could not be wholly abandoned. he relied much on villeroy, a political hack certainly, an ancient leaguer, and a papist, but a man too cool, experienced, and wily to be ignorant of the very hornbook of diplomacy, or open to the shallow stratagems by which spain found it so easy to purchase or to deceive. so long as he had a voice in the council, it was certain that the netherland alliance would not be abandoned, nor the duke of savoy crushed. the old secretary of state was not especially in favour at that moment, but barneveld could not doubt his permanent place in french affairs until some man of real power should arise there. it was a dreary period of barrenness and disintegration in that kingdom while france was mourning henry and waiting for richelieu. the dutch ambassador at paris was instructed accordingly to maintain. good relations with villeroy, who in barneveld's opinion had been a constant and sincere friend to the netherlands. "don't forget to caress the old gentleman you wot of," said the advocate frequently, but suppressing his name, "without troubling yourself with the reasons mentioned in your letter. i am firmly convinced that he will overcome all difficulties. don't believe either that france will let the duke of savoy be ruined. it is against every reason of state." yet there were few to help charles emmanuel in this montferrat war, which was destined to drag feebly on, with certain interludes of negotiations, for two years longer. the already notorious condottiere ernest mansfeld, natural son of old prince peter ernest, who played so long and so high a part in command of the spanish armies in the netherlands, had, to be sure, taken service under the duke. thenceforth he was to be a leader and a master in that wild business of plunder, burning, blackmailing, and murder, which was opening upon europe, and was to afford occupation for many thousands of adventurers of high and low degree. mansfeld, reckless and profligate, had already changed his banner more than once. commanding a company under leopold in the duchies, he had been captured by the forces of the union, and, after waiting in vain to be ransomed by the archduke, had gone secretly over to the enemy. thus recovering his liberty, he had enlisted a regiment under leopold's name to fight the union, and had then, according to contract, transferred himself and most of his adventurers to the flag of the union. the military operations fading away in the duchies without being succeeded by permanent peace, the count, as he was called, with no particular claim to such title, had accepted a thousand florins a year as retainer from the union and had found occupation under charles emmanuel. here the spanish soldier of a year or two before found much satisfaction and some profit in fighting spanish soldiers. he was destined to reappear in the netherlands, in france, in bohemia, in many places where there were villages to be burned, churches to be plundered, cities to be sacked, nuns and other women to be outraged, dangerous political intrigues to be managed. a man in the prime of his age, fair-haired, prematurely wrinkled, battered, and hideous of visage, with a hare-lip and a humpback; slovenly of dress, and always wearing an old grey hat without a band to it; audacious, cruel, crafty, and licentious--such was ernest mansfeld, whom some of his contemporaries spoke of as ulysses germanicus, others as the new attila, all as a scourge to the human race. the cockneys of paris called him "machefer," and nurses long kept children quiet by threatening them with that word. he was now enrolled on the protestant side, although at the moment serving savoy against spain in a question purely personal. his armies, whether in italy or in germany, were a miscellaneous collection of adventurers of high and low degree, of all religions, of all countries, unfrocked priests and students, ruined nobles, bankrupt citizens, street vagabonds--earliest type perhaps of the horrible military vermin which were destined to feed so many years long on the unfortunate dismembered carcass of germany. many demands had been made upon the states for assistance to savoy,--as if they and they alone were to bear the brunt and pay the expense of all the initiatory campaigns against spain. "we are much importuned," said the advocate, "to do something for the help of savoy . . . . we wish and we implore that france, great britain, the german princes, the venetians, and the swiss would join us in some scheme of effective assistance. but we have enough on our shoulders at this moment." they had hardly money enough in their exchequer, admirably ordered as it was, for enterprises so far from home when great spanish armies were permanently encamped on their border. partly to humour king james and partly from love of adventure, count john of nassau had gone to savoy at the head of a small well disciplined body of troops furnished by the states. "make use of this piece of news," said barneveld, communicating the fact to langerac, "opportunely and with discretion. besides the wish to give some contentment to the king of great britain, we consider it inconsistent with good conscience and reasons of state to refuse help to a great prince against oppression by those who mean to give the law to everybody; especially as we have been so earnestly and frequently importuned to do so." and still the spaniards and the league kept their hold on the duchies, while their forces, their munitions, their accumulation of funds waged hourly. the war of chicane was even more deadly than an actual campaign, for when there was no positive fighting the whole world seemed against the republic. and the chicane was colossal. "we cannot understand," said barneveld, "why m. de prevaulx is coming here on special mission. when a treaty is signed and sealed, it only remains to execute it. the archduke says he is himself not known in the treaty, and that nothing can be demanded of him in relation to it. this he says in his letters to the king of great britain. m. de refuge knows best whether or not marquis spinola, ottavio visconti, chancellor pecquius, and others, were employed in the negotiation by the archduke. we know very well here that the whole business was conducted by them. the archduke is willing to give a clean and sincere promise not to re-occupy, and asks the same from the states. if he were empowered by the emperor, the king of spain, and the league, and acted in such quality, something might be done for the tranquillity of germany. but he promises for himself only, and emperor, king, or league, may send any general to do what they like to-morrow. what is to prevent it? "and so my lords the states, the elector of brandenburg, and others interested are cheated and made fools of. and we are as much troubled by these tricks as by armed force. yes, more; for we know that great enterprises are preparing this year against germany and ourselves, that all neuburg's troops have been disbanded and re-enlisted under the spanish commanders, and that forces are levying not only in italy and spain, but in germany, lorraine, luxemburg, and upper burgundy, and that wesel has been stuffed full of gunpowder and other munitions, and very strongly fortified." for the states to agree to a treaty by which the disputed duchies should be held jointly by the princes of neuburg and of brandenburg, and the territory be evacuated by all foreign troops; to look quietly on while neuburg converted himself to catholicism, espoused the sister of maximilian of bavaria, took a pension from spain, resigned his claims in favour of spain, and transferred his army to spain; and to expect that brandenburg and all interested in brandenburg, that is to say, every protestant in europe, should feel perfectly easy under such arrangement and perfectly protected by the simple promise of a soldier of fortune against catholic aggression, was a fantastic folly hardly worthy of a child. yet the states were asked to accept this position, brandenburg and all protestant germany were asked to accept it, and barneveld was howled at by his allies as a marplot and mischief-maker, and denounced and insulted by diplomatists daily, because he mercilessly tore away the sophistries of the league and of the league's secret friend, james stuart. the king of spain had more than , men under arms, and was enlisting more soldiers everywhere and every day, had just deposited , , crowns with his antwerp bankers for a secret purpose, and all the time was exuberant in his assurances of peace. one would have thought that there had never been negotiations in bourbourg, that the spanish armada had never sailed from coruna. "you are wise and prudent in france," said the advocate, "but we are used to spanish proceedings, and from much disaster sustained are filled with distrust. the king of england seems now to wish that the archduke should draw up a document according to his good pleasure, and that the states should make an explanatory deed, which the king should sign also and ask the king of france to do the same. but this is very hazardous. "we do not mean to receive laws from the king of spain, nor the archduke . . . . the spanish proceedings do not indicate peace but war. one must not take it ill of us that we think these matters of grave importance to our friends and ourselves. affairs have changed very much in the last four months. the murder of the first vizier of the turkish emperor and his designs against persia leave the spanish king and the emperor free from attack in that quarter, and their armaments are far greater than last year . . . . i cannot understand why the treaty of xanten, formerly so highly applauded, should now be so much disapproved. . . . the king of spain and the emperor with their party have a vast design to give the law to all christendom, to choose a roman king according to their will, to reduce the evangelical electors, princes, and estates of germany to obedience, to subject all italy, and, having accomplished this, to proceed to triumph over us and our allies, and by necessary consequence over france and england. they say they have established the emperor's authority by means of aachen and mulheim, will soon have driven us out of julich, and have thus arranged matters entirely to their heart's content. they can then, in name of the emperor, the league, the prince of neuburg, or any one else, make themselves in eight days masters of the places which they are now imaginarily to leave as well as of those which we are actually to surrender, and by possession of which we could hold out a long time against all their power." those very places held by the states--julich, emmerich, and others--had recently been fortified at much expense, under the superintendence of prince maurice, and by advice of the advocate. it would certainly be an act of madness to surrender them on the terms proposed. these warnings and forebodings of barneveld sound in our ears like recorded history, yet they were far earlier than the actual facts. and now to please the english king, the states had listened to his suggestion that his name and that of the king of france should be signed as mediators to a new arrangement proposed in lieu of the xanten treaty. james had suggested this, lewis had agreed to it. yet before the ink had dried in james's pen, he was proposing that the names of the mediating sovereigns should be omitted from the document? and why? because gondemar was again whispering in his ear. "they are renewing the negotiations in england," said the advocate, "about the alliance between the prince of wales and the second daughter of spain; and the king of great britain is seriously importuning us that the archdukes and my lords the states should make their pledges 'impersonaliter' and not to the kings." james was also willing that the name of the emperor should appear upon it. to prevent this, barneveld would have had himself burned at the stake. it would be an ignominious and unconditional surrender of the whole cause. "the archduke will never be contented," said the advocate, "unless his majesty of great britain takes a royal resolution to bring him to reason. that he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice. we have been ready and are still ready to execute the treaty of xanten. the archduke is the cause of the dispute concerning the act. we approved the formularies of their majesties, and have changed them three times to suit the king of great britain. our provincial states have been notified in the matter, so that we can no longer digest the spanish impudence, and are amazed that his majesty can listen any more to the spanish ministers. we fear that those ministers are working through many hands, in order by one means or another to excite quarrels between his majesty, us, and the respective inhabitants of the two countries . . . . . take every precaution that no attempt be made there to bring the name of the emperor into the act. this would be contrary to their majesties' first resolution, very prejudicial to the elector of brandenburg, to the duchies, and to ourselves. and it is indispensable that the promise be made to the two kings as mediators, as much for their reputation and dignity as for the interests of the elector, the territories, and ourselves. otherwise too the spaniards will triumph over us as if they had driven us by force of arms into this promise." the seat of war, at the opening of the apparently inevitable conflict between the catholic league and the protestant union, would be those debateable duchies, those border provinces, the possession of which was of such vital importance to each of the great contending parties, and the populations of which, although much divided, were on the whole more inclined to the league than to the union. it was natural enough that the dutch statesman should chafe at the possibility of their being lost to the union through the adroitness of the catholic managers and the supineness of the great allies of the republic. three weeks later than these last utterances of the advocate, he was given to understand that king james was preparing to slide away from the position which had been three times changed to make it suitable for him. his indignation was hot. "sir henry wotton," he said, "has communicated to me his last despatches from newmarket. i am in the highest degree amazed that after all our efforts at accommodation, with so much sacrifice to the electors, the provinces, and ourselves, they are trying to urge us there to consent that the promise be not made to the kings of france and great britain as mediators, although the proposition came from the spanish side. after we had renounced, by desire of his majesty, the right to refer the promise to the treaty of xanten, it was judged by both kings to be needful and substantial that the promise be made to their majesties. to change this now would be prejudicial to the kings, to the electors, the duchies, and to our commonwealth; to do us a wrong and to leave us naked. france maintains her position as becoming and necessary. that great britain should swerve from it is not to be digested here. you will do your utmost according to my previous instructions to prevent any pressure to this end. you will also see that the name of the emperor is mentioned neither in the preamble nor the articles of the treaty. it would be contrary to all our policy since . you may be firmly convinced that malice is lurking under the emperor's name, and that he and the king of spain and their adherents, now as before, are attempting a sequestration. this is simply a pretext to bring those principalities and provinces into the hands of the spaniards, for which they have been labouring these thirty years. we are constantly cheated by these spanish tricks. their intention is to hold wesel and all the other places until the conclusion of the italian affair, and then to strike a great blow." certainly were never words more full of sound statesmanship, and of prophecy too soon to be fulfilled, than these simple but pregnant warnings. they awakened but little response from the english government save cavils and teasing reminders that wesel had been the cradle of german calvinism, the rhenish geneva, and that it was sinful to leave it longer in the hands of spain. as if the advocate had not proved to demonstration that to stock hands for a new deal at that moment was to give up the game altogether. his influence in france was always greater than in england, and this had likewise been the case with william the silent. and even now that the spanish matrimonial alliance was almost a settled matter at the french court, while with the english king it was but a perpetual will-o'the-wisp conducting to quagmires ineffable, the government at paris sustained the policy of the advocate with tolerable fidelity, while it was constantly and most capriciously traversed by james. barneveld sighed over these approaching nuptials, but did not yet despair. "we hope that the spanish-french marriages," he said, "may be broken up of themselves; but we fear that if we should attempt to delay or prevent them authoritatively, or in conjunction with others, the effort would have the contrary effect." in this certainly he was doomed to disappointment. he had already notified the french court of the absolute necessity of the great points to be insisted upon in the treaty, and there he found more docility than in london or newmarket. all summer he was occupied with this most important matter, uttering cassandra-like warnings into ears wilfully deaf. the states had gone as far as possible in concession. to go farther would be to wreck the great cause upon the very quicksands which he had so ceaselessly pointed out. "we hope that nothing further will be asked of us, no scruples be felt as to our good intentions," he said, "and that if spain and the archdukes are not ready now to fulfil the treaty, their majesties will know how to resent this trifling with their authority and dignity, and how to set matters to rights with their own hands in the duchies. a new treaty, still less a sequestration, is not to be thought of for a moment." yet the month of august came and still the names of the mediating kings were not on the treaty, and still the spectre of sequestration had not been laid. on the contrary, the peace of asti, huddled up between spain and savoy, to be soon broken again, had caused new and painful apprehensions of an attempt at sequestration, for it was established by several articles in that treaty that all questions between savoy and mantua should be referred to the emperor's decision. this precedent was sure to be followed in the duchies if not resisted by force, as it had been so successfully resisted five years before by the armies of the states associated with those of france. moreover the first step at sequestration had been actually taken. the emperor had peremptorily summoned the elector of brandenburg and all other parties interested to appear before him on the st of august in prague. there could be but one object in this citation, to drive brandenburg and the states out of the duchies until the imperial decision as to the legitimate sovereignty should be given. neuburg being already disposed of and his claims ceded to the emperor, what possibility was there in such circumstances of saving one scrap of the territory from the clutch of the league? none certainly if the republic faltered in its determination, and yielded to the cowardly advice of james. "to comply with the summons," said barneveld, "and submit to its consequences will be an irreparable injury to the electoral house of brandenburg, to the duchies, and to our co-religionists everywhere, and a very great disgrace to both their majesties and to us." he continued, through the ambassador in london, to hold up to the king, in respectful but plain language, the shamelessness of his conduct in dispensing the enemy from his pledge to the mediators, when the republic expressly, in deference to james, had given up the ampler guarantees of the treaty. the arrangement had been solemnly made, and consented to by all the provinces, acting in their separate and sovereign capacity. such a radical change, even if it were otherwise permissible, could not be made without long debates, consultations, and votes by the several states. what could be more fatal at such a crisis than this childish and causeless delay. there could be no doubt in any statesman's eyes that the spanish party meant war and a preparatory hoodwinking. and it was even worse for the government of the republic to be outwitted in diplomacy than beaten in the field. "every man here," said the advocate, "has more apprehension of fraud than of force. according to the constitution of our state, to be overcome by superior power must be endured, but to be overreached by trickery is a reproach to the government." the summer passed away. the states maintained their positions in the duchies, notwithstanding the objurgations of james, and barneveld remained on his watch-tower observing every movement of the fast-approaching war, and refusing at the price of the whole territory in dispute to rescue wesel and aix-la-chapelle from the grasp of the league. caron came to the hague to have personal consultations with the states-general, the advocate, and prince maurice, and returned before the close of the year. he had an audience of the king at the palace of whitehall early in november, and found him as immovable as ever in his apathetic attitude in regard to the affairs of germany. the murder of sir thomas overbury and the obscene scandals concerning the king's beloved carr and his notorious bride were then occupying the whole attention of the monarch, so that he had not even time for theological lucubrations, still less for affairs of state on which the peace of christendom and the fate of his own children were hanging. the ambassador found him sulky and dictatorial, but insisted on expressing once more to him the apprehensions felt by the states-general in regard to the trickery of the spanish party in the matter of cleve and julich. he assured his majesty that they had no intention of maintaining the treaty of xanten, and respectfully requested that the king would no longer urge the states to surrender the places held by them. it was a matter of vital importance to retain them, he said. "sir henry wotton told me," replied james, "that the states at his arrival were assembled to deliberate on this matter, and he had no doubt that they would take a resolution in conformity with my intention. now i see very well that you don't mean to give up the places. if i had known that before, i should not have warned the archduke so many times, which i did at the desire of the states themselves. and now that the archdukes are ready to restore their cities, you insist on holding yours. that is the dish you set before me." and upon this james swore a mighty oath, and beat himself upon the breast. "now and nevermore will i trouble myself about the states' affairs, come what come will," he continued. "i have always been upright in my words and my deeds, and i am not going to embark myself in a wicked war because the states have plunged themselves into one so entirely unjust. next summer the spaniard means to divide himself into two or three armies in order to begin his enterprises in germany." caron respectfully intimated that these enterprises would be most conveniently carried on from the very advantageous positions which he occupied in the duchies. "no," said the king, "he must restore them on the same day on which you make your surrender, and he will hardly come back in a hurry." "quite the contrary," said the ambassador, "they will be back again in a twinkling, and before we have the slightest warning of their intention." but it signified not the least what caron said. the king continued to vociferate that the states had never had any intention of restoring the cities. "you mean to keep them for yourselves," he cried, "which is the greatest injustice that could be perpetrated. you have no right to them, and they belong to other people." the ambassador reminded him that the elector of brandenburg was well satisfied that they should be occupied by the states for his greater security and until the dispute should be concluded. "and that will never be," said james; "never, never. the states are powerful enough to carry on the war all alone and against all the world." and so he went on, furiously reiterating the words with which he had begun the conversation, "without accepting any reasons whatever in payment," as poor caron observed. "it makes me very sad," said the ambassador, "to find your majesty so impatient and so resolved. if the names of the kings are to be omitted from the document, the treaty of xanten should at least be modified accordingly." "nothing of the kind," said james; "i don't understand it so at all. i speak plainly and without equivocation. it must be enough for the states that i promise them, in case the enemy is cheating or is trying to play any trick whatever, or is seeking to break the treaty of xanten in a single point, to come to their assistance in person." and again the warlike james swore a big oath and smote his breast, affirming that he meant everything sincerely; that he cheated no one, but always spoke his thoughts right on, clearly and uprightly. it was certainly not a cheerful prospect for the states. their chief ally was determined that they should disarm, should strip themselves naked, when the mightiest conspiracy against the religious freedom and international independence of europe ever imagined was perfecting itself before their eyes, and when hostile armies, more numerous than ever before known, were at their very door. to wait until the enemy was at their throat, and then to rely upon a king who trembled at the sight of a drawn sword, was hardly the highest statesmanship. even if it had been the chivalrous henry instead of the pacific james that had held out the promise of help, they would have been mad to follow such counsel. the conversation lasted more than an hour. it was in vain that caron painted in dark colours the cruel deeds done by the spaniards in mulheim and aachen, and the proceedings of the archbishop of cologne in rees. the king was besotted, and no impression could be made upon him. "at any rate," said the envoy, "the arrangement cannot be concluded without the king of france." "what excuse is that?" said james. "now that the king is entirely spanish, you are trying to excuse your delays by referring to him. you have deferred rescuing the poor city of wesel from the hands of the spaniard long enough. i am amazed to have heard never a word from you on that subject since your departure. i had expressed my wish to you clearly enough that you should inform the states of my intention to give them any assurance they chose to demand." caron was much disappointed at the humour of his majesty. coming freshly as he did from the council of the states, and almost from the seat of war, he had hoped to convince and content him. but the king was very angry with the states for putting him so completely in the wrong. he had also been much annoyed at their having failed to notify him of their military demonstration in the electorate of cologne to avenge the cruelties practised upon the protestants there. he asked caron if he was instructed to give him information regarding it. being answered in the negative, he said he had thought himself of sufficient importance to the states and enough in their confidence to be apprised of their military movements. it was for this, he said, that his ambassador sat in their council. caron expressed the opinion that warlike enterprises of the kind should be kept as secret as possible in order to be successful. this the king disputed, and loudly declared his vexation at being left in ignorance of the matter. the ambassador excused himself as well as he could, on the ground that he had been in zealand when the troops were marching, but told the king his impression that they had been sent to chastise the people of cologne for their cruelty in burning and utterly destroying the city of mulheim. "that is none of your affair," said the king. "pardon me, your majesty," replied caron, "they are our fellow religionists, and some one at least ought to resent the cruelty practised upon them." the king admitted that the destruction of the city had been an unheard--of cruelty, and then passed on to speak of the quarrel between the duke and city of brunswick, and other matters. the interview ended, and the ambassador, very downhearted, went to confer with the secretary of state sir ralph winwood, and sir henry wotton. he assured these gentlemen that without fully consulting the french government these radical changes in the negotiations would never be consented to by the states. winwood promised to confer at once with the french ambassador, admitting it to be impossible for the king to take up this matter alone. he would also talk with the archduke's ambassador next day noon at dinner, who was about leaving for brussels, and "he would put something into his hand that he might take home with him." "when he is fairly gone," said caron, "it is to be hoped that the king's head will no longer be so muddled about these things. i wish it with all my heart." it was a dismal prospect for the states. the one ally on whom they had a right to depend, the ex-calvinist and royal defender of the faith, in this mortal combat of protestantism with the league, was slipping out of their grasp with distracting lubricity. on the other hand, the most christian king, a boy of fourteen years, was still in the control of a mother heart and soul with the league--so far as she had heart or soul--was betrothed to the daughter of spain, and saw his kingdom torn to pieces and almost literally divided among themselves by rebellious princes, who made use of the spanish marriages as a pretext for unceasing civil war. the queen-mother was at that moment at bordeaux, and an emissary from the princes was in london. james had sent to offer his mediation between them and the queen. he was fond of mediation. he considered it his special mission in the world to mediate. he imagined himself as looked up to by the nations as the great arbitrator of christendom, and was wont to issue his decrees as if binding in force and infallible by nature. he had protested vigorously against the spanish-french marriages, and declared that the princes were justified in formalizing an opposition to them, at least until affairs in france were restored to something like order. he warned the queen against throwing the kingdom "into the combustion of war without necessity," and declared that, if she would trust to his guidance, she might make use of him as if her affairs were his own. an indispensable condition for much assistance, however, would be that the marriages should be put off. as james was himself pursuing a spanish marriage for his son as the chief end and aim of his existence, there was something almost humorous in this protest to the queen-dowager and in his encouragement of mutiny in france in order to prevent a catastrophe there which he desired at home. the same agent of the princes, de monbaran by name, was also privately accredited by them to the states with instructions to borrow , crowns of them if he could. but so long as the policy of the republic was directed by barneveld, it was not very probable that, while maintaining friendly and even intimate relations with the legitimate government, she would enter into negotiations with rebels against it, whether princes or plebeians, and oblige them with loans. "he will call on me soon, no doubt," said caron, "but being so well instructed as to your mightinesses intentions in this matter, i hope i shall keep him away from you." monbaran was accordingly kept away, but a few weeks later another emissary of conde and bouillon made his appearance at the hague, de valigny by name. he asked for money and for soldiers to reinforce bouillon's city of sedan, but he was refused an audience of the states-general. even the martial ardour of maurice and his sympathy for his relatives were cooled by this direct assault on his pocket. "the prince," wrote the french ambassador, du maurier, "will not furnish him or his adherents a thousand crowns, not if they had death between their teeth. those who think it do not know how he loves his money." in the very last days of the year ( ) caron had another interview with the king in which james was very benignant. he told the ambassador that he should wish the states to send him some special commissioners to make a new treaty with him, and to treat of all unsettled affairs which were daily arising between the inhabitants of the respective countries. he wished to make a firmer union and accord between great britain and the netherlands. he was very desirous of this, "because," said he, "if we can unite with and understand each other, we have under god no one what ever to fear, however mighty they may be." caron duly notified barneveld of these enthusiastic expressions of his majesty. the advocate too was most desirous of settling the troublesome questions about the cloth trade, the piracies, and other matters, and was in favour of the special commission. in regard to a new treaty of alliance thus loosely and vaguely suggested, he was not so sanguine however. he had too much difficulty in enforcing the interests of protestantism in the duchies against the infatuation of james in regard to spain, and he was too well aware of the spanish marriage delusion, which was the key to the king's whole policy, to put much faith in these casual outbursts of eternal friendship with the states. he contented himself therefore with cautioning caron to pause before committing himself to any such projects. he had frequently instructed him, however, to bring the disputed questions to his majesty's notice as often as possible with a view to amicable arrangement. this preventive policy in regard to france was highly approved by barneveld, who was willing to share in the blame profusely heaped upon such sincere patriots and devoted protestants as duplessis-mornay and others, who saw small advantage to the great cause from a mutiny against established government, bad as it was, led by such intriguers as conde and bouillon. men who had recently been in the pay of spain, and one of whom had been cognizant of biron's plot against the throne and life of henry iv., to whom sedition was native atmosphere and daily bread, were not likely to establish a much more wholesome administration than that of mary de' medici. prince maurice sympathized with his relatives by marriage, who were leading the civil commotions in france and endeavouring to obtain funds in the netherlands. it is needless to say that francis aerssens was deep in their intrigues, and feeding full the grudge which the stadholder already bore the advocate for his policy on this occasion. the advocate thought it best to wait until the young king should himself rise in mutiny against his mother and her minions. perhaps the downfall of the concini's and their dowager and the escape of lewis from thraldom might not be so distant as it seemed. meantime this was the legal government, bound to the states by treaties of friendship and alliance, and it would be a poor return for the many favours and the constant aid bestowed by henry iv. on the republic, and an imbecile mode of avenging his murder to help throw his kingdom into bloodshed and confusion before his son was able to act for himself. at the same time he did his best to cultivate amicable relations with the princes, while scrupulously abstaining from any sympathy with their movements. "if the prince and the other gentlemen come to court," he wrote to langerac, "you will treat them with all possible caresses so far as can be done without disrespect to the government." while the british court was occupied with the foul details of the overbury murder and its consequences, a crime of a more commonplace nature, but perhaps not entirely without influence on great political events, had startled the citizens of the hague. it was committed in the apartments of the stadholder and almost under his very eyes. a jeweller of amsterdam, one john van wely, had come to the court of maurice to lay before him a choice collection of rare jewellery. in his caskets were rubies and diamonds to the value of more than , florins, which would be the equivalent of perhaps ten times as much to-day. in the prince's absence the merchant was received by a confidential groom of the chambers, john of paris by name, and by him, with the aid of a third john, a soldier of his excellency's guard, called jean de la vigne, murdered on the spot. the deed was done in the prince's private study. the unfortunate jeweller was shot, and to make sure was strangled with the blue riband of the order of the garter recently conferred upon maurice, and which happened to be lying conspicuously in the room. the ruffians had barely time to take possession of the booty, to thrust the body behind the tapestry of the chamber, and to remove the more startling evidences of the crime, when the prince arrived. he supped soon afterwards in the same room, the murdered jeweller still lying behind the arras. in the night the valet and soldier carried the corpse away from the room, down the stairs, and through the great courtyard, where, strange to say, no sentinels were on duty, and threw it into an ashpit. a deed so bloody, audacious, and stupid was of course soon discovered and the murderers arrested and executed. nothing would remove the incident from the catalogue of vulgar crimes, or even entitle it to a place in history save a single circumstance. the celebrated divine john uytenbogaert, leader among the arminians, devoted friend of barneveld, and up to that moment the favorite preacher of maurice, stigmatized indeed, as we have seen, by the orthodox as "court trumpeter," was requested by the prince to prepare the chief criminal for death. he did so, and from that day forth the stadholder ceased to be his friend, although regularly listening to his preaching in the french chapel of the court for more than a year longer. some time afterwards the advocate informed uytenbogaert that the prince was very much embittered against him. "i knew it well," says the clergyman in his memoirs, "but not the reasons for it, nor do i exactly comprehend them to this day. truly i have some ideas relating to certain things which i was obliged to do in discharge of my official duty, but i will not insist upon them, nor will i reveal them to any man." these were mysterious words, and the mystery is said to have been explained; for it would seem that the eminent preacher was not so entirely reticent among his confidential friends as before the public. uytenbogaert--so ran the tale--in the course of his conversation with the condemned murderer, john of paris, expressed a natural surprise that there should have been no soldiers on guard in the court on the evening when the crime was committed and the body subsequently removed. the valet informed him that he had for a long time been empowered by the prince to withdraw the sentinels from that station, and that they had been instructed to obey his orders--maurice not caring that they should be witnesses to the equivocal kind of female society that john of paris was in the habit of introducing of an evening to his master's apartments. the valet had made use of this privilege on the night in question to rid himself of the soldiers who would have been otherwise on guard. the preacher felt it his duty to communicate these statements to the prince, and to make perhaps a somewhat severe comment upon them. maurice received the information sullenly, and, as soon as uytenbogaert was gone, fell into a violent passion, throwing his hat upon the floor, stamping upon it, refusing to eat his supper, and allowing no one to speak to him. next day some courtiers asked the clergyman what in the world he had been saying to the stadholder. from that time forth his former partiality for the divine, on whose preaching he had been a regular attendant, was changed to hatred; a sentiment which lent a lurid colour to subsequent events. the attempts of the spanish party by chicane or by force to get possession of the coveted territories continued year after year, and were steadily thwarted by the watchfulness of the states under guidance of barneveld. the martial stadholder was more than ever for open war, in which he was opposed by the advocate, whose object was to postpone and, if possible, to avert altogether the dread catastrophe which he foresaw impending over europe. the xanten arrangement seemed hopelessly thrown to the winds, nor was it destined to be carried out; the whole question of sovereignty and of mastership in those territories being swept subsequently into the general whirlpool of the thirty years' war. so long as there was a possibility of settlement upon that basis, the advocate was in favour of settlement, but to give up the guarantees and play into the hands of the catholic league was in his mind to make the republic one of the conspirators against the liberties of christendom. "spain, the emperor and the rest of them," said he, "make all three modes of pacification--the treaty, the guarantee by the mediating kings, the administration divided between the possessory princes--alike impossible. they mean, under pretext of sequestration, to make themselves absolute masters there. i have no doubt that villeroy means sincerely, and understands the matter, but meantime we sit by the fire and burn. if the conflagration is neglected, all the world will throw the blame on us." thus the spaniards continued to amuse the british king with assurances of their frank desire to leave those fortresses and territories which they really meant to hold till the crack of doom. and while gondemar was making these ingenuous assertions in london, his colleagues at paris and at brussels distinctly and openly declared that there was no authority whatever for them, that the ambassador had received no such instructions, and that there was no thought of giving up wesel or any other of the protestant strongholds captured, whether in the duchies or out of them. and gondemar, still more to keep that monarch in subjection, had been unusually flattering in regard to the spanish marriage. "we are in great alarm here," said the advocate, "at the tidings that the projected alliance of the prince of wales with the daughter of spain is to be renewed; from which nothing good for his majesty's person, his kingdom, nor for our state can be presaged. we live in hope that it will never be." but the other marriage was made. despite the protest of james, the forebodings of barneveld, and the mutiny of the princes, the youthful king of france had espoused anne of austria early in the year . the british king did his best to keep on terms with france and spain, and by no means renounced his own hopes. at the same time, while fixed as ever in his approbation of the policy pursued by the emperor and the league, and as deeply convinced of their artlessness in regard to the duchies, the protestant princes of germany, and the republic, he manifested more cordiality than usual in his relations with the states. minor questions between the countries he was desirous of arranging--so far as matters of state could be arranged by orations--and among the most pressing of these affairs were the systematic piracy existing and encouraged in english ports, to the great damage of all seafaring nations and to the hollanders most of all, and the quarrel about the exportation of undyed cloths, which had almost caused a total cessation of the woollen trade between the two countries. the english, to encourage their own artisans, had forbidden the export of undyed cloths, and the dutch had retorted by prohibiting the import of dyed ones. the king had good sense enough to see the absurdity of this condition of things, and it will be remembered that barneveld had frequently urged upon the dutch ambassador to bring his majesty's attention to these dangerous disputes. now that the recovery of the cautionary towns had been so dexterously and amicably accomplished, and at so cheap a rate, it seemed a propitious moment to proceed to a general extinction of what would now be called "burning questions." james was desirous that new high commissioners might be sent from the states to confer with himself and his ministers upon the subjects just indicated, as well as upon the fishery questions as regarded both greenland and scotland, and upon the general affairs of india. he was convinced, he said to caron, that the sea had become more and more unsafe and so full of freebooters that the like was never seen or heard of before. it will be remembered that the advocate had recently called his attention to the fact that the dutch merchants had lost in two months , florins' worth of goods by english pirates. the king now assured the ambassador of his intention of equipping a fleet out of hand and to send it forth as speedily as possible under command of a distinguished nobleman, who would put his honour and credit in a successful expedition, without any connivance or dissimulation whatever. in order thoroughly to scour these pirates from the seas, he expressed the hope that their mightinesses the states would do the same either jointly or separately as they thought most advisable. caron bluntly replied that the states had already ten or twelve war-ships at sea for this purpose, but that unfortunately, instead of finding any help from the english in this regard, they had always found the pirates favoured in his majesty's ports, especially in ireland and wales. "thus they have so increased in numbers," continued the ambassador, "that i quite believe what your majesty says, that not a ship can pass with safety over the seas. more over, your majesty has been graciously pleased to pardon several of these corsairs, in consequence of which they have become so impudent as to swarm everywhere, even in the river thames, where they are perpetually pillaging honest merchantmen." "i confess," said the king, "to having pardoned a certain manning, but this was for the sake of his old father, and i never did anything so unwillingly in my life. but i swear that if it were the best nobleman in england, i would never grant one of them a pardon again." caron expressed his joy at hearing such good intentions on the part of his majesty, and assured him that the states-general would be equally delighted. in the course of the summer the dutch ambassador had many opportunities of seeing the king very confidentially, james having given him the use of the royal park at bayscot, so that during the royal visits to that place caron was lodged under his roof. on the whole, james had much regard and respect for noel de caron. he knew him to be able, although he thought him tiresome. it is amusing to observe the king and ambassador in their utterances to confidential friends each frequently making the charge of tediousness against the other. "caron's general education," said james on one occasion to cecil, "cannot amend his native german prolixity, for had i not interrupted him, it had been tomorrow morning before i had begun to speak. god preserve me from hearing a cause debated between don diego and him! . . . but in truth it is good dealing with so wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome." subsequently james came to whitehall for a time, and then stopped at theobalds for a few days on his way to newmarket, where he stayed until christmas. at theobalds he sent again for the ambassador, saying that at whitehall he was so broken down with affairs that it would be impossible to live if he stayed there. he asked if the states were soon to send the commissioners, according to his request, to confer in regard to the cloth-trade. without interference of the two governments, he said, the matter would never be settled. the merchants of the two countries would never agree except under higher authority. "i have heard both parties," he said, "the new and the old companies, two or three times in full council, and tried to bring them to an agreement, but it won't do. i have heard that my lords the states have been hearing both sides, english and the hollanders, over and over again, and that the states have passed a provisional resolution, which however does not suit us. now it is not reasonable, as we are allies, that our merchants should be obliged to send their cloths roundabout, not being allowed either to sell them in the united provinces or to pass them through your territories. i wish i could talk with them myself, for i am certain, if they would send some one here, we could make an agreement. it is not necessary that one should take everything from them, or that one should refuse everything to us. i am sure there are people of sense in your assembly who will justify me in favouring my own people so far as i reasonably can, and i know very well that my lords the states must stand up for their own citizens. if we have been driving this matter to an extreme and see that we are ruining each other, we must take it up again in other fashion, for yesterday is the preceptor of to-morrow. let the commissioners come as soon as possible. i know they have complaints to make, and i have my complaints also. therefore we must listen to each other, for i protest before god that i consider the community of your state with mine to be so entire that, if one goes to perdition, the other must quickly follow it." thus spoke james, like a wise and thoughtful sovereign interested in the welfare of his subjects and allies, with enlightened ideas for the time upon public economy. it is difficult, in the man conversing thus amicably and sensibly with the dutch ambassador, to realise the shrill pedant shrieking against vorstius, the crapulous comrade of carrs and steenies, the fawning solicitor of spanish marriages, the "pepperer" and hangman of puritans, the butt and dupe of gondemar and spinola. "i protest," he said further, "that i seek nothing in your state but all possible friendship and good fellowship. my own subjects complain sometimes that your people follow too closely on their heels, and confess that your industry goes far above their own. if this be so, it is a lean kind of reproach; for the english should rather study to follow you. nevertheless, when industry is directed by malice, each may easily be attempting to snap an advantage from the other. i have sometimes complained of many other things in which my subjects suffered great injustice from you, but all that is excusable. i will willingly listen to your people and grant them to be in the right when they are so. but i will never allow them to be in the right when they mistrust me. if i had been like many other princes, i should never have let the advantage of the cautionary towns slip out of my fingers, but rather by means of them attempted to get even a stronger hold on your country. i have had plenty of warnings from great statesmen in france, germany, and other nations that i ought to give them up nevermore. yet you know how frankly and sincerely i acquitted myself in that matter without ever making pretensions upon your state than the pretensions i still make to your friendship and co-operation." james, after this allusion to an important transaction to be explained in the next chapter, then made an observation or two on a subject which was rapidly overtopping all others in importance to the states, and his expressions were singularly at variance with his last utterances in that regard. "i tell you," he said, "that you have no right to mistrust me in anything, not even in the matter of religion. i grieve indeed to hear that your religious troubles continue. you know that in the beginning i occupied myself with this affair, but fearing that my course might be misunderstood, and that it might be supposed that i was seeking to exercise authority in your republic, i gave it up, and i will never interfere with the matter again, but will ever pray god that he may give you a happy issue out of these troubles." alas! if the king had always kept himself on that height of amiable neutrality, if he had been able to govern himself in the future by these simplest principles of reason and justice, there might have been perhaps a happier issue from the troubles than time was like to reveal. once more james referred to the crisis pending in german affairs, and as usual spoke of the clove and julich question as if it were a simple matter to be settled by a few strokes of the pen and a pennyworth of sealing-wax, instead of being the opening act in a vast tragedy, of which neither he, nor carom nor barneveld, nor prince maurice, nor the youthful king of france, nor philip, nor matthias, nor any of the men now foremost in the conduct of affairs, was destined to see the end. the king informed caron that he had just received most satisfactory assurances from the spanish ambassador in his last audience at whitehall. "he has announced to me on the part of the king his master with great compliments that his majesty seeks to please me and satisfy me in everything that i could possibly desire of him," said james, rolling over with satisfaction these unctuous phrases as if they really had any meaning whatever. "his majesty says further," added the king, "that as he has been at various times admonished by me, and is daily admonished by other princes, that he ought to execute the treaty of xanten by surrendering the city of wesel and all other places occupied by spinola, he now declares himself ready to carry out that treaty in every point. he will accordingly instruct the archduke to do this, provided the margrave of brandenburg and the states will do the same in regard to their captured places. as he understands however that the states have been fortifying julich even as he might fortify wesel, he would be glad that no innovation be made before the end of the coming month of march. when this term shall have expired, he will no longer be bound by these offers, but will proceed to fortify wesel and the other places, and to hold them as he best may for himself. respect for me has alone induced his majesty to make this resolution." we have already seen that the spanish ambassador in paris was at this very time loudly declaring that his colleague in london had no commission whatever to make these propositions. nor when they were in the slightest degree analysed, did they appear after all to be much better than threats. not a word was said of guarantees. the names of the two kings were not mentioned. it was nothing but albert and spinola then as always, and a recommendation that brandenburg and the states and all the protestant princes of germany should trust to the candour of the catholic league. caron pointed out to the king that in these proposals there were no guarantees nor even promises that the fortresses would not be reoccupied at convenience of the spaniards. he engaged however to report the whole statement to his masters. a few weeks afterwards the advocate replied in his usual vein, reminding the king through the ambassador that the republic feared fraud on the part of the league much more than force. he also laid stress on the affairs of italy, considering the fate of savoy and the conflicts in which venice was engaged as components of a general scheme. the states had been much solicited, as we have seen, to render assistance to the duke of savoy, the temporary peace of asti being already broken, and barneveld had been unceasing in his efforts to arouse france as well as england to the danger to themselves and to all christendom should savoy be crushed. we shall have occasion to see the prominent part reserved to savoy in the fast opening debate in germany. meantime the states had sent one count of nassau with a couple of companies to charles emmanuel, while another (ernest) had just gone to venice at the head of more than three thousand adventurers. with so many powerful armies at their throats, as barneveld had more than once observed, it was not easy for them to despatch large forces to the other end of europe, but he justly reminded his allies that the states were now rendering more effective help to the common cause by holding great spanish armies in check on their own frontier than if they assumed a more aggressive line in the south. the advocate, like every statesman worthy of the name, was accustomed to sweep the whole horizon in his consideration of public policy, and it will be observed that he always regarded various and apparently distinct and isolated movements in different parts of europe as parts of one great whole. it is easy enough for us, centuries after the record has been made up, to observe the gradual and, as it were, harmonious manner in which the great catholic conspiracy against the liberties of europe was unfolded in an ever widening sphere. but to the eyes of contemporaries all was then misty and chaotic, and it required the keen vision of a sage and a prophet to discern the awful shape which the future might assume. absorbed in the contemplation of these portentous phenomena, it was not unnatural that the advocate should attach less significance to perturbations nearer home. devoted as was his life to save the great european cause of protestantism, in which he considered political and religious liberty bound up, from the absolute extinction with which it was menaced, he neglected too much the furious hatreds growing up among protestants within the narrow limits of his own province. he was destined one day to be rudely awakened. meantime he was occupied with organizing a general defence of italy, germany, france, and england, as well as the netherlands, against the designs of spain and the league. "we wish to know," he said in answer to the affectionate messages and fine promises of the king of spain to james as reported by caron, "what his majesty of great britain has done, is doing, and is resolved to do for the duke of savoy and the republic of venice. if they ask you what we are doing, answer that we with our forces and vigour are keeping off from the throats of savoy and venice riders and , infantry, with which forces, let alone their experience, more would be accomplished than with four times the number of new troops brought to the field in italy. this is our succour, a great one and a very costly one, for the expense of maintaining our armies to hold the enemy in check here is very great." he alluded with his usual respectful and quiet scorn to the arrangements by which james so wilfully allowed himself to be deceived. "if the spaniard really leaves the duchies," he said, "it is a grave matter to decide whether on the one side he is not resolved by that means to win more over us and the elector of brandenburg in the debateable land in a few days than he could gain by force in many years, or on the other whether by it he does not intend despatching or cavalry and or foot, all his most experienced soldiers, from the netherlands to italy, in order to give the law at his pleasure to the duke of savoy and the republic of venice, reserving his attack upon germany and ourselves to the last. the spaniards, standing under a monarchical government, can in one hour resolve to seize to-morrow all that they and we may abandon to-day. and they can carry such a resolution into effect at once. our form of government does not permit this, so that our republic must be conserved by distrust and good garrisons." thus during this long period of half hostilities barneveld, while sincerely seeking to preserve the peace in europe, was determined, if possible, that the republic should maintain the strongest defensive position when the war which he foreboded should actually begin. maurice and the war party had blamed him for the obstacles which he interposed to the outbreak of hostilities, while the british court, as we have seen, was perpetually urging him to abate from his demands and abandon both the well strengthened fortresses in the duchies and that strong citadel of distrust which in his often repeated language he was determined never to surrender. spinola and the military party of spain, while preaching peace, had been in truth most anxious for fighting. "the only honour i desire henceforth," said that great commander, "is to give battle to prince maurice." the generals were more anxious than the governments to make use of the splendid armies arrayed against each other in such proximity that, the signal for conflict not having been given, it was not uncommon for the soldiers of the respective camps to aid each other in unloading munition waggons, exchanging provisions and other articles of necessity, and performing other small acts of mutual service. but heavy thunder clouds hanging over the earth so long and so closely might burst into explosion at any moment. had it not been for the distracted condition of france, the infatuation of the english king, and the astounding inertness of the princes of the german union, great advantages might have been gained by the protestant party before the storm should break. but, as the french ambassador at the hague well observed, "the great protestant union of germany sat with folded arms while hannibal was at their gate, the princes of which it was composed amusing themselves with staring at each other. it was verifying," he continued, bitterly, "the saying of the duke of alva, 'germany is an old dog which still can bark, but has lost its teeth to bite with.'" to such imbecility had that noble and gifted people--which had never been organized into a nation since it crushed the roman empire and established a new civilization on its ruins, and was to wait centuries longer until it should reconstruct itself into a whole--been reduced by subdivision, disintegration, the perpetual dissolvent of religious dispute, and the selfish policy of infinitesimal dynasties. chapter xii. james still presses for the payment of the dutch republic's debt to him--a compromise effected, with restitution of the cautionary towns--treaty of loudun--james's dream of a spanish marriage revives--james visits scotland--the states-general agree to furnish money and troops in fulfilment of the treaty of --death of concini--villeroy returns to power. besides matters of predestination there were other subjects political and personal which increased the king's jealousy and hatred. the debt of the republic to the british crown, secured by mortgage of the important sea-ports and fortified towns of flushing, brielle, rammekens, and other strong places, still existed. the possession of those places by england was a constant danger and irritation to the states. it was an axe perpetually held over their heads. it threatened their sovereignty, their very existence. on more than one occasion, in foreign courts, the representatives of the netherlands had been exposed to the taunt that the republic was after all not an independent power, but a british province. the gibe had always been repelled in a manner becoming the envoys of a proud commonwealth; yet it was sufficiently galling that english garrisons should continue to hold dutch towns; one of them among the most valuable seaports of the republic,--the other the very cradle of its independence, the seizure of which in alva's days had always been reckoned a splendid achievement. moreover, by the fifth article of the treaty of peace between james and philip iii., although the king had declared himself bound by the treaties made by elizabeth to deliver up the cautionary towns to no one but the united states, he promised spain to allow those states a reasonable time to make peace with the archdukes on satisfactory conditions. should they refuse to do so, he held himself bound by no obligations to them, and would deal with the cities as he thought proper, and as the archdukes themselves might deem just. the king had always been furious at "the huge sum of money to be advanced, nay, given, to the states," as he phrased it. "it is so far out of all square," he had said, "as on my conscience i cannot think that ever they craved it 'animo obtinendi,' but only by that objection to discourage me from any thought of getting any repayment of my debts from them when they shall be in peace. . . . should i ruin myself for maintaining them? should i bestow as much on them as cometh to the value of my whole yearly rent?" he had proceeded to say very plainly that, if the states did not make great speed to pay him all his debt so soon as peace was established, he should treat their pretence at independence with contempt, and propose dividing their territory between himself and the king of france. "if they be so weak as they cannot subsist either in peace or war," he said, "without i ruin myself for upholding them, in that case surely 'minus malunv est eligendum,' the nearest harm is first to be eschewed, a man will leap out of a burning ship and drown himself in the sea; and it is doubtless a farther off harm for me to suffer them to fall again in the hands of spain, and let god provide for the danger that may with time fall upon me or my posterity than presently to starve myself and mine with putting the meat in their mouth. nay, rather if they be so weak as they can neither sustain themselves in peace nor war, let them leave this vainglorious thirsting for the title of a free state (which no people are worthy or able to enjoy that cannot stand by themselves like substantives), and 'dividantur inter nos;' i mean, let their countries be divided between france and me, otherwise the king of spain shall be sure to consume us." such were the eyes with which james had always regarded the great commonwealth of which he affected to be the ally, while secretly aspiring to be its sovereign, and such was his capacity to calculate political forces and comprehend coming events. certainly the sword was hanging by a thread. the states had made no peace either with the archdukes or with spain. they had made a truce, half the term of which had already run by. at any moment the keys of their very house-door might be placed in the hands of their arch enemy. treacherous and base as the deed would be, it might be defended by the letter of a treaty in which the republic had no part; and was there anything too treacherous or too base to be dreaded from james stuart? but the states owed the crown of england eight millions of florins, equivalent to about l , . where was this vast sum to be found? it was clearly impossible for the states to beg or to borrow it, although they were nearly as rich as any of the leading powers at that day. it was the merit of barneveld, not only that he saw the chance for a good bargain, but that he fully comprehended a great danger. years long james had pursued the phantom of a spanish marriage for his son. to achieve this mighty object, he had perverted the whole policy of the realm; he had grovelled to those who despised him, had repaid attempts at wholesale assassination with boundless sycophancy. it is difficult to imagine anything more abject than the attitude of james towards philip. prince henry was dead, but charles had now become prince of wales in his turn, and there was a younger infanta whose hand was not yet disposed of. so long as the possible prize of a most catholic princess was dangling before the eyes of the royal champion of protestantism, so long there was danger that the netherlanders might wake up some fine morning and see the flag of spain waving over the walls of flushing, brielle, and rammekens. it was in the interest of spain too that the envoys of james at the hague were perpetually goading barneveld to cause the states' troops to be withdrawn from the duchies and the illusory treaty of xanten to be executed. instead of an eighth province added to the free netherlands, the result of such a procedure would have been to place that territory enveloping them in the hands of the enemy; to strengthen and sharpen the claws, as the advocate had called them, by which spain was seeking to clutch and to destroy the republic. the advocate steadily refused to countenance such policy in the duchies, and he resolved on a sudden stroke to relieve the commonwealth from the incubus of the english mortgage. james was desperately pushed for money. his minions, as insatiable in their demands on english wealth as the parasites who fed on the queen-regent were exhaustive of the french exchequer, were greedier than ever now that james, who feared to face a parliament disgusted with the meanness of his policy and depravity of his life, could not be relied upon to minister to their wants. the advocate judiciously contrived that the proposal of a compromise should come from the english government. noel de caron, the veteran ambassador of the states in london, after receiving certain proposals, offered, under instructions' from barneveld, to pay l , in full of all demands. it was made to appear that the additional l , was in reality in advance of his instructions. the mouths of the minions watered at the mention of so magnificent a sum of money in one lump. the bargain was struck. on the th june , sir robert sidney, who had become lord lisle, gave over the city of flushing to the states, represented by the seignior van maldere, while sir horace vere placed the important town of brielle in the hands of the seignior van mathenesse. according to the terms of the bargain, the english garrisons were converted into two regiments, respectively to be commanded by lord lisle's son, now sir robert sidney, and by sir horace vere, and were to serve the states. lisle, who had been in the netherlands since the days of his uncle leicester and his brother sir philip sidney, now took his final departure for england. thus this ancient burthen had been taken off the republic by the masterly policy of the advocate. a great source of dread for foreign complication was closed for ever. the french-spanish marriages had been made. henry iv. had not been murdered in vain. conde and his confederates had issued their manifesto. a crisis came to the states, for maurice, always inclined to take part for the princes, and urged on by aerssens, who was inspired by a deadly hatred for the french government ever since they had insisted on his dismissal from his post, and who fed the stadholder's growing jealousy of the advocate to the full, was at times almost ready for joining in the conflict. it was most difficult for the states-general, led by barneveld, to maintain relations of amity with a government controlled by spain, governed by the concini's, and wafted to and fro by every wind that blew. still it was the government, and the states might soon be called upon, in virtue of their treaties with henry, confirmed by mary de' medici, not only to prevent the daily desertion of officers and soldiers of the french regiments to the rebellious party, but to send the regiments themselves to the assistance of the king and queen. there could be no doubt that the alliance of the french huguenots at grenoble with the princes made the position of the states very critical. bouillon was loud in his demands upon maurice and the states for money and reinforcements, but the prince fortunately understood the character of the duke and of conde, and comprehended the nature of french politics too clearly to be led into extremities by passion or by pique. he said loudly to any one that chose to listen: "it is not necessary to ruin the son in order to avenge the death of the father. that should be left to the son, who alone has legitimate authority to do it." nothing could be more sensible, and the remark almost indicated a belief on the prince's part in mary's complicity in the murder of her husband. duplessis-mornay was in despair, and, like all true patriots and men of earnest character, felt it almost an impossibility to choose between the two ignoble parties contending for the possession of france, and both secretly encouraged by france's deadly enemy. the treaty of loudun followed, a treaty which, said du maurier, had about as many negotiators as there were individuals interested in the arrangements. the rebels were forgiven, conde sold himself out for a million and a half livres and the presidency of the council, came to court, and paraded himself in greater pomp and appearance of power than ever. four months afterwards he was arrested and imprisoned. he submitted like a lamb, and offered to betray his confederates. king james, faithful to his self-imposed part of mediator-general, which he thought so well became him, had been busy in bringing about this pacification, and had considered it eminently successful. he was now angry at this unexpected result. he admitted that conde had indulged in certain follies and extravagancies, but these in his opinion all came out of the quiver of the spaniard, "who was the head of the whole intrigue." he determined to recall lord hayes from madrid and even sir thomas edmonds from paris, so great was his indignation. but his wrath was likely to cool under the soothing communications of gondemar, and the rumour of the marriage of the second infanta with the prince of wales soon afterwards started into new life. "we hope," wrote barneveld, "that the alliance of his highness the prince of wales with the daughter of the spanish king will make no further progress, as it will place us in the deepest embarrassment and pain." for the reports had been so rife at the english court in regard to this dangerous scheme that caron had stoutly gone to the king and asked him what he was to think about it. "the king told me," said the ambassador, "that there was nothing at all in it, nor any appearance that anything ever would come of it. it was true, he said, that on the overtures made to him by the spanish ambassador he had ordered his minister in spain to listen to what they had to say, and not to bear himself as if the overtures would be rejected." the coyness thus affected by james could hardly impose on so astute a diplomatist as noel de caron, and the effect produced upon the policy of one of the republic's chief allies by the spanish marriages naturally made her statesmen shudder at the prospect of their other powerful friend coming thus under the malign influence of spain. "he assured me, however," said the envoy, "that the spaniard is not sincere in the matter, and that he has himself become so far alienated from the scheme that we may sleep quietly upon it." and james appeared at that moment so vexed at the turn affairs were taking in france, so wounded in his self-love, and so bewildered by the ubiquitous nature of nets and pitfalls spreading over europe by spain, that he really seemed waking from his delusion. even caron was staggered? "in all his talk he appears so far estranged from the spaniard," said he, "that it would seem impossible that he should consider this marriage as good for his state. i have also had other advices on the subject which in the highest degree comfort me. now your mightinesses may think whatever you like about it." the mood of the king was not likely to last long in so comfortable a state. meantime he took the part of conde and the other princes, justified their proceedings to the special envoy sent over by mary de' medici, and wished the states to join with him in appealing to that queen to let the affair, for his sake, pass over once more. "and now i will tell your mightinesses," said caron, reverting once more to the dreaded marriage which occupies so conspicuous a place in the strangely mingled and party-coloured tissue of the history of those days, "what the king has again been telling me about the alliance between his son and the infanta. he hears from carleton that you are in very great alarm lest this event may take place. he understands that the special french envoy at the hague, m. de la none, has been representing to you that the king of great britain is following after and begging for the daughter of spain for his son. he says it is untrue. but it is true that he has been sought and solicited thereto, and that in consequence there have been talks and propositions and rejoinders, but nothing of any moment. as he had already told me not to be alarmed until he should himself give me cause for it, he expressed his amazement that i had not informed your mightinesses accordingly. he assured me again that he should not proceed further in the business without communicating it to his good friends and neighbours, that he considered my lords the states as his best friends and allies, who ought therefore to conceive no jealousy in the matter." this certainly was cold comfort. caron knew well enough, not a clerk in his office but knew well enough, that james had been pursuing this prize for years. for the king to represent himself as persecuted by spain to give his son to the infanta was about as ridiculous as it would have been to pretend that emperor matthias was persuading him to let his son-in-law accept the crown of bohemia. it was admitted that negotiations for the marriage were going on, and the assertion that the spanish court was more eager for it than the english government was not especially calculated to allay the necessary alarm of the states at such a disaster. nor was it much more tranquillizing for them to be assured, not that the marriage was off, but that, when it was settled, they, as the king's good friends and neighbours, should have early information of it. "i told him," said the ambassador, "that undoubtedly this matter was of the highest 'importance to your mightinesses, for it was not good for us to sit between two kingdoms both so nearly allied with the spanish monarch, considering the pretensions he still maintained to sovereignty over us. although his majesty might not now be willing to treat to our prejudice, yet the affair itself in the sequence of time must of necessity injure our commonwealth. we hoped therefore that it would never come to pass." caron added that ambassador digby was just going to spain on extraordinary mission in regard to this affair, and that eight or ten gentlemen of the council had been deputed to confer with his majesty about it. he was still inclined to believe that the whole negotiation would blow over, the king continuing to exhort him not to be alarmed, and assuring him that there were many occasions moving princes to treat of great affairs although often without any effective issue. at that moment too the king was in a state of vehement wrath with the spanish netherlands on account of a stinging libel against himself, "an infamous and wonderfully scandalous pamphlet," as he termed it, called 'corona regis', recently published at louvain. he had sent sir john bennet as special ambassador to the archdukes to demand from them justice and condign and public chastisement on the author of the work--a rector putianus as he believed, successor of justus lipsius in his professorship at louvain--and upon the printer, one flaminius. delays and excuses having followed instead of the punishment originally demanded, james had now instructed his special envoy in case of further delay or evasion to repudiate all further friendship or intercourse with the archduke, to ratify the recall of his minister-resident trumbull, and in effect to announce formal hostilities. "the king takes the thing wonderfully to heart," said caron. james in effect hated to be made ridiculous, and we shall have occasion to see how important a part other publications which he deemed detrimental to the divinity of his person were to play in these affairs. meantime it was characteristic of this sovereign that--while ready to talk of war with philip's brother-in-law for a pamphlet, while seeking the hand of philip's daughter for his son--he was determined at the very moment when the world was on fire to take himself, the heaven-born extinguisher of all political conflagrations, away from affairs and to seek the solace of along holiday in scotland. his counsellors persistently and vehemently implored him to defer that journey until the following year at least, all the neighbouring nations being now in a state of war and civil commotion. but it was in vain. he refused to listen to them for a moment, and started for scotland before the middle of march. conde, who had kept france in a turmoil, had sought aid alternately from the calvinists at grenoble and the jesuits in rome, from spain and from the netherlands, from the pope and from maurice of nassau, had thus been caged at last. but there was little gained. there was one troublesome but incompetent rebel the less, but there was no king in the land. he who doubts the influence of the individual upon the fate of a country and upon his times through long passages of history may explain the difference between france of , with a martial king aided by great statesmen at its head, with an exchequer overflowing with revenue hoarded for a great cause--and that cause an attempt at least to pacificate christendom and avert a universal and almost infinite conflict now already opening--and the france of , with its treasures already squandered among ignoble and ruffianly favourites, with every office in state, church, court, and magistracy sold to the highest bidder, with a queen governed by an italian adventurer who was governed by spain, and with a little king who had but lately expressed triumph at his confirmation because now he should no longer be whipped, and who was just married to a daughter of the hereditary and inevitable foe of france. to contemplate this dreary interlude in the history of a powerful state is to shiver at the depths of inanity and crime to which mankind can at once descend. what need to pursue the barren, vulgar, and often repeated chronicle? france pulled at by scarcely concealed strings and made to perform fantastic tricks according as its various puppets were swerved this way or that by supple bands at madrid and rome is not a refreshing spectacle. the states-general at last, after an agitated discussion, agreed in fulfilment of the treaty of to send men, being french, to help the king against the princes still in rebellion. but the contest was a most bitter one, and the advocate had a difficult part to play between a government and a rebellion, each more despicable than the other. still louis xiii. and his mother were the legitimate government even if ruled by concini. the words of the treaty made with henry iv. were plain, and the ambassadors of his son had summoned the states to fulfil it. but many impediments were placed in the path of obvious duty by the party led by francis aerssens. "i know very well," said the advocate to ex-burgomaster hooft of amsterdam, father of the great historian, sending him confidentially a copy of the proposals made by the french ambassadors, "that many in this country are striving hard to make us refuse to the king the aid demanded, notwithstanding that we are bound to do it by the pledges given not only by the states-general but by each province in particular. by this no one will profit but the spaniard, who unquestionably will offer much, aye, very much, to bring about dissensions between france and us, from which i foresee great damage, inconvenience, and difficulties for the whole commonwealth and for holland especially. this province has already advanced , , florins to the general government on the money still due from france, which will all be lost in case the subsidy should be withheld, besides other evils which cannot be trusted to the pen." on the same day on which it had been decided at the hague to send the troops, a captain of guards came to the aid of the poor little king and shot concini dead one fine spring morning on the bridge of the louvre. "by order of the king," said vitry. his body was burned before the statue of henry iv. by the people delirious with joy. "l'hanno ammazzato" was shouted to his wife, eleanora galigai, the supposed sorceress. they were the words in which concini had communicated to the queen the murder of her husband seven years before. eleanora, too, was burned after having been beheaded. thus the marshal d'ancre and wife ceased to reign in france. the officers of the french regiments at the hague danced for joy on the vyverberg when the news arrived there. the states were relieved from an immense embarrassment, and the advocate was rewarded for having pursued what was after all the only practicable policy. "do your best," said he to langerac, "to accommodate differences so far as consistent with the conservation of the king's authority. we hope the princes will submit themselves now that the 'lapis offensionis,' according to their pretence, is got rid of. we received a letter from them to-day sealed with the king's arms, with the circumscription 'periclitante regno, regis vita et regia familia." the shooting of concini seemed almost to convert the little king into a hero. everyone in the netherlands, without distinction of party, was delighted with the achievement. "i cannot represent to the king," wrote du maurier to villeroy, "one thousandth part of the joy of all these people who are exalting him to heaven for having delivered the earth from this miserable burthen. i can't tell you in what execration this public pest was held. his majesty has not less won the hearts of this state than if he had gained a great victory over the spaniards. you would not believe it, and yet it is true, that never were the name and reputation of the late king in greater reverence than those of our reigning king at this moment." truly here was glory cheaply earned. the fame of henry the great, after a long career of brilliant deeds of arms, high statesmanship, and twenty years of bountiful friendship for the states, was already equalled by that of louis xiii., who had tremblingly acquiesced in the summary execution of an odious adventurer--his own possible father--and who never had done anything else but feed his canary birds. as for villeroy himself, the ambassador wrote that he could not find portraits enough of him to furnish those who were asking for them since his return to power. barneveld had been right in so often instructing langerac to "caress the old gentleman." etext editor's bookmarks: and give advice. of that, although always a spendthrift casual outbursts of eternal friendship changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day conciliation when war of extermination was intended considered it his special mission in the world to mediate denoungced as an obstacle to peace france was mourning henry and waiting for richelieu hardly a sound protestant policy anywhere but in holland history has not too many really important and emblematic men i hope and i fear king who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated more apprehension of fraud than of force opening an abyss between government and people successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones that he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice the magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome yesterday is the preceptor of to-morrow chapter xiii. ferdinand of gratz crowned king of bohemia--his enmity to protestants--slawata and martinitz thrown from the windows of the hradschin--real beginning of the thirty years' war--the elector- palatine's intrigues in opposition to the house of austria--he supports the duke of savoy--the emperor matthias visits dresden-- jubilee for the hundredth anniversary of the reformation. when the forlorn emperor rudolph had signed the permission for his brother matthias to take the last crown but one from his head, he bit the pen in a paroxysm of helpless rage. then rushing to the window of his apartment, he looked down on one of the most stately prospects that the palaces of the earth can offer. from the long monotonous architectural lines of the hradschin, imposing from its massiveness and its imperial situation, and with the dome and minarets of the cathedral clustering behind them, the eye swept across the fertile valley, through which the rapid, yellow moldau courses, to the opposite line of cliffs crested with the half imaginary fortress-palaces of the wyscherad. there, in the mythical legendary past of bohemia had dwelt the shadowy libuscha, daughter of krok, wife of king premysl, foundress of prague, who, when wearied of her lovers, was accustomed to toss them from those heights into the river. between these picturesque precipices lay the two pragues, twin-born and quarrelsome, fighting each other for centuries, and growing up side by side into a double, bellicose, stormy, and most splendid city, bristling with steeples and spires, and united by the ancient many-statued bridge with its blackened mediaeval entrance towers. but it was not to enjoy the prospect that the aged, discrowned, solitary emperor, almost as dim a figure among sovereigns as the mystic libuscha herself, was gazing from the window upon the imperial city. "ungrateful prague," he cried, "through me thou hast become thus magnificent, and now thou hast turned upon and driven away thy benefactor. may the vengeance of god descend upon thee; may my curse come upon thee and upon all bohemia." history has failed to record the special benefits of the emperor through which the city had derived its magnificence and deserved this malediction. but surely if ever an old man's curse was destined to be literally fulfilled, it seemed to be this solemn imprecation of rudolph. meantime the coronation of matthias had gone on with pomp and popular gratulations, while rudolph had withdrawn into his apartments to pass the little that was left to him of life in solitude and in a state of hopeless pique with matthias, with the rest of his brethren, with all the world. and now that five years had passed since his death, matthias, who had usurped so much power prematurely, found himself almost in the same condition as that to which he had reduced rudolph. ferdinand of styria, his cousin, trod closely upon his heels. he was the presumptive successor to all his crowns, had not approved of the movements of matthias in the lifetime of his brother, and hated the vienna protestant baker's son, cardinal clesel, by whom all those movements had been directed. professor taubmann, of wittenberg, ponderously quibbling on the name of that prelate, had said that he was of "one hundred and fifty ass power." whether that was a fair measure of his capacity may be doubted, but it certainly was not destined to be sufficient to elude the vengeance of ferdinand, and ferdinand would soon have him in his power. matthias, weary of ambitious intrigue, infirm of purpose, and shattered in health, had withdrawn from affairs to devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife, archduchess anna of tyrol, whom at the age of fifty-four he had espoused. on the th june , ferdinand of gratz was crowned king of bohemia. the event was a shock and a menace to the protestant cause all over the world. the sombre figure of the archduke had for years appeared in the background, foreshadowing as it were the wrath to come, while throughout bohemia and the neighbouring countries of moravia, silesia, and the austrias, the cause of protestantism had been making such rapid progress. the emperor maximilian ii. had left five stalwart sons, so that there had seemed little probability that the younger line, the sons of his brother, would succeed. but all the five were childless, and now the son of archduke charles, who had died in , had become the natural heir after the death of matthias to the immense family honours--his cousins maximilian and albert having resigned their claims in his favour. ferdinand, twelve years old at his father's death, had been placed under the care of his maternal uncle, duke william of bavaria. by him the boy was placed at the high school of ingolstadt, to be brought up by the jesuits, in company with duke william's own son maximilian, five years his senior. between these youths, besides the tie of cousinship, there grew up the most intimate union founded on perfect sympathy in religion and politics. when ferdinand entered upon the government of his paternal estates of styria, carinthia, and carniola, he found that the new religion, at which the jesuits had taught him to shudder as at a curse and a crime, had been widely spreading. his father had fought against heresy with all his might, and had died disappointed and broken-hearted at its progress. his uncle of bavaria, in letters to his son and nephew, had stamped into their minds with the enthusiasm of perfect conviction that all happiness and blessing for governments depended on the restoration and maintenance of the unity of the catholic faith. all the evils in times past and present resulting from religious differences had been held up to the two youths by the jesuits in the most glaring colours. the first duty of a prince, they had inculcated, was to extirpate all false religions, to give the opponents of the true church no quarter, and to think no sacrifice too great by which the salvation of human society, brought almost to perdition by the new doctrines, could be effected. never had jesuits an apter scholar than ferdinand. after leaving school, he made a pilgrimage to loretto to make his vows to the virgin mary of extirpation of heresy, and went to rome to obtain the blessing of pope clement viii. then, returning to the government of his inheritance, he seized that terrible two-edged weapon of which the protestants of germany had taught him the use. "cujus regio ejus religio;" to the prince the choice of religion, to the subject conformity with the prince, as if that formula of shallow and selfish princelings, that insult to the dignity of mankind, were the grand result of a movement which was to go on centuries after they had all been forgotten in their tombs. for the time however it was a valid and mischievous maxim. in saxony catholics and calvinists were proscribed; in heidelberg catholics and lutherans. why should either calvinists or lutherans be tolerated in styria? why, indeed? no logic could be more inexorable, and the pupil of the ingolstadt jesuits hesitated not an instant to carry out their teaching with the very instrument forged for him by the reformation. gallows were erected in the streets of all his cities, but there was no hanging. the sight of them proved enough to extort obedience to his edict, that every man, woman, and child not belonging to the ancient church should leave his dominions. they were driven out in hordes in broad daylight from gratz and other cities. rather reign over a wilderness than over heretics was the device of the archduke, in imitation of his great relative, philip ii. of spain. in short space of time his duchies were as empty of protestants as the palatinate of lutherans, or saxony of calvinists, or both of papists. even the churchyards were rifled of dead lutherans and utraquists, their carcasses thrown where they could no longer pollute the true believers mouldering by their side. it was not strange that the coronation as king of bohemia of a man of such decided purposes--a country numbering ten protestants to one catholic--should cause a thrill and a flutter. could it be doubted that the great elemental conflict so steadily prophesied by barneveld and instinctively dreaded by all capable of feeling the signs of the time would now begin? it had begun. of what avail would be majesty-letters and compromises extorted by force from trembling or indolent emperors, now that a man who knew his own mind, and felt it to be a crime not to extirpate all religions but the one orthodox religion, had mounted the throne? it is true that he had sworn at his coronation to maintain the laws of bohemia, and that the majesty-letter and the compromise were part of the laws. but when were doctors ever wanting to prove the unlawfulness of law which interferes with the purposes of a despot and the convictions of the bigot? "novus rex, nova lex," muttered the catholics, lifting up their heads and hearts once more out of the oppression and insults which they had unquestionably suffered at the hands of the triumphant reformers. "there are many empty poppy-heads now flaunting high that shall be snipped off," said others. "that accursed german count thurn and his fellows, whom the devil has sent from hell to bohemia for his own purposes, shall be disposed of now," was the general cry. it was plain that heresy could no longer be maintained except by the sword. that which had been extorted by force would be plucked back by force. the succession of ferdinand was in brief a warshout to be echoed by all the catholics of europe. before the end of the year the protestant churches of brunnau were sealed up. those at klostergrab were demolished in three days by command of the archbishop of prague. these dumb walls preached in their destruction more stirring sermons than perhaps would ever have been heard within them had they stood. this tearing in pieces of the imperial patent granting liberty of protestant worship, this summary execution done upon senseless bricks and mortar, was an act of defiance to the reformed religion everywhere. protestantism was struck in the face, spat upon, defied. the effect was instantaneous. thurn and the other defenders of the protestant faith were as prompt in action as the catholics had been in words. a few months passed away. the emperor was in vienna, but his ten stadholders were in prague. the fateful rd of may arrived. slawata, a bohemian protestant, who had converted himself to the roman church in order to marry a rich widow, and who converted his peasants by hunting them to mass with his hounds, and martinitz, the two stadholders who at ferdinand's coronation had endeavoured to prevent him from including the majesty-letter among the privileges he was swearing to support, and who were considered the real authors of the royal letters revoking all religious rights of protestants, were the most obnoxious of all. they were hurled from the council-chamber window of the hradschin. the unfortunate secretary fabricius was tossed out after them. twenty-eight ells deep they fell, and all escaped unhurt by the fall; fabricius being subsequently ennobled by a grateful emperor with the well-won title of baron summerset. the thirty years' war, which in reality had been going on for several years already, is dated from that day. a provisional government was established in prague by the estates under protestant guidance, a college of thirty directors managing affairs. the window-tumble, as the event has always been called in history, excited a sensation in europe. especially the young king of france, whose political position should bring him rather into alliance with the rebels than the emperor, was disgusted and appalled. he was used to rebellion. since he was ten years old there had been a rebellion against himself every year. there was rebellion now. but his ministers had never been thrown out of window. perhaps one might take some day to tossing out kings as well. he disapproved the process entirely. thus the great conflict of christendom, so long impending, seemed at last to have broken forth in full fury on a comparatively insignificant incident. thus reasoned the superficial public, as if the throwing out of window of twenty stadholders could have created a general war in europe had not the causes of war lain deep and deadly in the whole framework of society. the succession of ferdinand to the throne of the holy wenzel, in which his election to the german imperial crown was meant to be involved, was a matter which concerned almost every household in christendom. liberty of religion, civil franchise, political charters, contract between government and subject, right to think, speak, or act, these were the human rights everywhere in peril. a compromise between the two religious parties had existed for half a dozen years in germany, a feeble compromise by which men had hardly been kept from each others' throats. that compromise had now been thrown to the winds. the vast conspiracy of spain, rome, the house of austria, against human liberty had found a chief in the docile, gloomy pupil of the jesuits now enthroned in bohemia, and soon perhaps to wield the sceptre of the holy roman empire. there was no state in europe that had not cause to put hand on sword-hilt. "distrust and good garrisons," in the prophetic words of barneveld, would now be the necessary resource for all intending to hold what had been gained through long years of toil, martyrdom, and hard fighting. the succession of ferdinand excited especial dismay and indignation in the palatinate. the young elector had looked upon the prize as his own. the marked advance of protestant sentiment throughout the kingdom and its neighbour provinces had seemed to render the succession of an extreme papist impossible. when frederic had sued for and won the hand of the fair elizabeth, daughter of the king of great britain, it was understood that the alliance would be more brilliant for her than it seemed. james with his usual vanity spoke of his son-in-law as a future king. it was a golden dream for the elector and for the general cause of the reformed religion. heidelberg enthroned in the ancient capital of the wenzels, maximilians, and rudolphs, the catechism and confession enrolled among the great statutes of the land, this was progress far beyond flimsy majesty-letters and compromises, made only to be torn to pieces. through the dim vista of futurity and in ecstatic vision no doubt even the imperial crown might seem suspended over the palatine's head. but this would be merely a midsummer's dream. events did not whirl so rapidly as they might learn to do centuries later, and--the time for a protestant to grasp at the crown of germany could then hardly be imagined as ripening. but what the calvinist branch of the house of wittelsbach had indeed long been pursuing was to interrupt the succession of the house of austria to the german throne. that a catholic prince must for the immediate future continue to occupy it was conceded even by frederic, but the electoral votes might surely be now so manipulated as to prevent a slave of spain and a tool of the jesuits from wielding any longer the sceptre of charlemagne. on the other hand the purpose of the house of austria was to do away with the elective principle and the prescriptive rights of the estates in bohemia first, and afterwards perhaps to send the golden bull itself to the limbo of wornout constitutional devices. at present however their object was to secure their hereditary sovereignty in prague first, and then to make sure of the next imperial election at frankfurt. time afterwards might fight still more in their favour, and fix them in hereditary possession of the german throne. the elector-palatine had lost no time. his counsellors even before the coronation of ferdinand at prague had done their best to excite alarm throughout germany at the document by which archdukes maximilian and albert had resigned all their hereditary claims in favour of ferdinand and his male children. should there be no such issue, the king of spain claimed the succession for his own sons as great-grandchildren of emperor maximilian, considering himself nearer in the line than the styrian branch, but being willing to waive his own rights in favour of so ardent a catholic as ferdinand. there was even a secret negotiation going on a long time between the new king of bohemia and philip to arrange for the precedence of the spanish males over the styrian females to the hereditary austrian states, and to cede the province of alsace to spain. it was not wonderful that protestant germany should be alarmed. after a century of protestantism, that spain should by any possibility come to be enthroned again over germany was enough to raise both luther and calvin from their graves. it was certainly enough to set the lively young palatine in motion. so soon as the election of frederic was proclaimed, he had taken up the business in person. fond of amusement, young, married to a beautiful bride of the royal house of england, he had hitherto left politics to his counsellors. finding himself frustrated in his ambition by the election of another to the seat he had fondly deemed his own, he resolved to unseat him if he could, and, at any rate, to prevent the ulterior consequences of his elevation. he made a pilgrimage to sedan, to confer with that irrepressible intriguer and huguenot chieftain, the duc de bouillon. he felt sure of the countenance of the states-general, and, of course, of his near relative the great stadholder. he was resolved to invite the duke of lorraine to head the anti-austrian party, and to stand for the kingship of the romans and the empire in opposition to ferdinand. an emissary sent to nancy came back with a discouraging reply. the duke not only flatly refused the candidacy, but warned the palatine that if it really came to a struggle he could reckon on small support anywhere, not even from those who now seemed warmest for the scheme. then frederic resolved to try his cousin, the great maximilian of bavaria, to whom all catholics looked with veneration and whom all german protestants respected. had the two branches of the illustrious house of wittelsbach been combined in one purpose, the opposition to the house of austria might indeed have been formidable. but what were ties of blood compared to the iron bands of religious love and hatred? how could maximilian, sternest of papists, and frederick v., flightiest of calvinists, act harmoniously in an imperial election? moreover, maximilian was united by ties of youthful and tender friendship as well as by kindred and perfect religious sympathy to his other cousin, king ferdinand himself. the case seemed hopeless, but the elector went to munich, and held conferences with his cousin. not willing to take no for an answer so long as it was veiled under evasive or ornamental phraseology, he continued to negotiate with maximilian through his envoys camerarius and secretary neu, who held long debates with the duke's chief councillor, doctor jocher. camerarius assured jocher that his master was the hercules to untie the gordian knot, and the lion of the tribe of judah. how either the lion of judah or hercules were to untie the knot which was popularly supposed to have been cut by the sword of alexander did not appear, but maximilian at any rate was moved neither by entreaties nor tropes. being entirely averse from entering himself for the german crown, he grew weary at last of the importunity with which the scheme was urged. so he wrote a short billet to his councillor, to be shown to secretary neu. "dear jocher," he said, "i am convinced one must let these people understand the matter in a little plainer german. i am once for all determined not to let myself into any misunderstanding or even amplifications with the house of austria in regard to the succession. i think also that it would rather be harmful than useful to my house to take upon myself so heavy a burthen as the german crown." this time the german was plain enough and produced its effect. maximilian was too able a statesman and too conscientious a friend to wish to exchange his own proud position as chief of the league, acknowledged head of the great catholic party, for the slippery, comfortless, and unmeaning throne of the holy empire, which he considered ferdinand's right. the chiefs of the anti-austrian party, especially the prince of anhalt and the margrave of anspach, in unison with the heidelberg cabinet, were forced to look for another candidate. accordingly the margrave and the elector-palatine solemnly agreed that it was indispensable to choose an emperor who should not be of the house of austria nor a slave of spain. it was, to be sure, not possible to think of a protestant prince. bavaria would not oppose austria, would also allow too much influence to the jesuits. so there remained no one but the duke of savoy. he was a prince of the empire. he was of german descent, of saxon race, a great general, father of his soldiers, who would protect europe against a turkish invasion better than the bastions of vienna could do. he would be agreeable to the catholics, while the protestants could live under him without anxiety because the jesuits would be powerless with him. it would be a master-stroke if the princes would unite upon him. the king of france would necessarily be pleased with it, the king of great britain delighted. at last the model candidate had been found. the duke of savoy having just finished for a second time his chronic war with spain, in which the united provinces, notwithstanding the heavy drain on their resources, had allowed him , florins a month besides the soldiers under count ernest of nassau, had sent mansfeld with men to aid the revolted estates in bohemia. geographically, hereditarily, necessarily the deadly enemy of the house of austria, he listened favourably to the overtures made to him by the princes of the union, expressed undying hatred for the imperial race, and thought the bohemian revolt a priceless occasion for expelling them from power. he was informed by the first envoy sent to him, christopher van dohna, that the object of the great movement now contemplated was to raise him to the imperial throne at the next election, to assist the bohemian estates, to secure the crown of bohemia for the elector-palatine, to protect the protestants of germany, and to break down the overweening power of the austrian house. the duke displayed no eagerness for the crown of germany, while approving the election of frederic, but expressed entire sympathy with the enterprise. it was indispensable however to form a general federation in europe of england, the netherlands, venice, together with protestant germany and himself, before undertaking so mighty a task. while the negotiations were going on, both anspach and anhalt were in great spirits. the margrave cried out exultingly, "in a short time the means will be in our hands for turning the world upside down." he urged the prince of anhalt to be expeditious in his decisions and actions. "he who wishes to trade," he said, "must come to market early." there was some disappointment at heidelberg when the first news from turin arrived, the materials for this vast scheme for an overwhelming and universal european war not seeming to be at their disposition. by and by the duke's plans seem to deepen and broaden. he told mansfeld, who, accompanied by secretary neu, was glad at a pause in his fighting and brandschatzing in bohemia to be employed on diplomatic business, that on the whole he should require the crown of bohemia for himself. he also proposed to accept the imperial crown, and as for frederic, he would leave him the crown of hungary, and would recommend him to round himself out by adding to his hereditary dominions the province of alsace, besides upper austria and other territories in convenient proximity to the palatinate. venice, it had been hoped, would aid in the great scheme and might in her turn round herself out with friuli and istria and other tempting possessions of ferdinand, in reward for the men and money she was expected to furnish. that republic had however just concluded a war with ferdinand, caused mainly by the depredations of the piratical uscoques, in which, as we have seen, she had received the assistance of hollanders under command of count john of nassau. the venetians had achieved many successes, had taken the city of gortz, and almost reduced the city of gradiska. a certain colonel albert waldstein however, of whom more might one day be heard in the history of the war now begun, had beaten the venetians and opened a pathway through their ranks for succour to the beleaguered city. soon afterwards peace was made on an undertaking that the uscoques should be driven from their haunts, their castles dismantled, and their ships destroyed. venice declined an engagement to begin a fresh war. she hated ferdinand and matthias and the whole imperial brood, but, as old barbarigo declared in the senate, the republic could not afford to set her house on fire in order to give austria the inconvenience of the smoke. meantime, although the elector-palatine had magnanimously agreed to use his influence in bohemia in favour of charles emmanuel, the duke seems at last to have declined proposing himself for that throne. he knew, he said, that king james wished that station for his son-in-law. the imperial crown belonged to no one as yet after the death of matthias, and was open therefore to his competition. anhalt demanded of savoy , men for the maintenance of the good cause, asserting that "it would be better to have the turk or the devil himself on the german throne than leave it to ferdinand." the triumvirate ruling at prague-thurn, ruppa, and hohenlohe--were anxious for a decision from frederic. that simple-hearted and ingenuous young elector had long been troubled both with fears lest after all he might lose the crown of bohemia and with qualms of conscience as to the propriety of taking it even if he could get it. he wrestled much in prayer and devout meditation whether as anointed prince himself he were justified in meddling with the anointment of other princes. ferdinand had been accepted, proclaimed, crowned. he artlessly sent to prague to consult the estates whether they possessed the right to rebel, to set aside the reigning dynasty, and to choose a new king. at the same time, with an eye to business, he stipulated that on account of the great expense and trouble devolving upon him the crown must be made hereditary in his family. the impression made upon the grim thurn and his colleagues by the simplicity of these questions may be imagined. the splendour and width of the savoyard's conceptions fascinated the leaders of the union. it seemed to anspach and anhalt that it was as well that frederic should reign in hungary as in bohemia, and the elector was docile. all had relied however on the powerful assistance of the great defender of the protestant faith, the father-in-law of the elector, the king of great britain. but james had nothing but cold water and virgilian quotations for his son's ardour. he was more under the influence of gondemar than ever before, more eagerly hankering for the infanta, more completely the slave of spain. he pledged himself to that government that if the protestants in bohemia continued rebellious, he would do his best to frustrate their designs, and would induce his son-in-law to have no further connection with them. and spain delighted his heart not by immediately sending over the infanta, but by proposing that he should mediate between the contending parties. it would be difficult to imagine a greater farce. all central europe was now in arms. the deepest and gravest questions about which men can fight: the right to worship god according to their conscience and to maintain civil franchises which have been earned by the people with the blood and treasure of centuries, were now to be solved by the sword, and the pupil of buchanan and the friend of buckingham was to step between hundreds of thousands of men in arms with a classical oration. but james was very proud of the proposal and accepted it with alacrity. "you know, my dear son," he wrote to frederic, "that we are the only king in europe that is sought for by friend and foe for his mediation. it would be for this our lofty part very unbecoming if we were capable of favouring one of the parties. your suggestion that we might secretly support the bohemians we must totally reject, as it is not our way to do anything that we would not willingly confess to the whole world." and to do james justice, he had never fed frederic with false hopes, never given a penny for his great enterprise, nor promised him a penny. he had contented himself with suggesting from time to time that he might borrow money of the states-general. his daughter elizabeth must take care of herself, else what would become of her brother's marriage to the daughter of spain. and now it was war to the knife, in which it was impossible that holland, as well as all the other great powers should not soon be involved. it was disheartening to the cause of freedom and progress, not only that the great kingdom on which the world, had learned to rely in all movements upward and onward should be neutralized by the sycophancy of its monarch to the general oppressor, but that the great republic which so long had taken the lead in maintaining the liberties of europe should now be torn by religious discord within itself, and be turning against the great statesman who had so wisely guided her councils and so accurately foretold the catastrophe which was now upon the world. meantime the emperor matthias, not less forlorn than through his intrigues and rebellions his brother rudolph had been made, passed his days in almost as utter retirement as if he had formally abdicated. ferdinand treated him as if in his dotage. his fair young wife too had died of hard eating in the beginning of the winter to his inexpressible grief, so that there was nothing left to solace him now but the rudolphian museum. he had made but one public appearance since the coronation of ferdinand in prague. attended by his brother maximilian, by king ferdinand, and by cardinal khlesl, he had towards the end of the year paid a visit to the elector john george at dresden. the imperial party had been received with much enthusiasm by the great leader of lutheranism. the cardinal had seriously objected to accompanying the emperor on this occasion. since the reformation no cardinal had been seen at the court of saxony. he cared not personally for the pomps and glories of his rank, but still as prince of the church he had settled right of precedence over electors. to waive it would be disrespectful to the pope, to claim it would lead to squabbles. but ferdinand had need of his skill to secure the vote of saxony at the next imperial election. the cardinal was afraid of ferdinand with good reason, and complied. by an agreeable fiction he was received at court not as cardinal but as minister, and accommodated with an humble place at table. many looking on with astonishment thought he would have preferred to dine by himself in retirement. but this was not the bitterest of the mortifications that the pastor and guide of matthias was to suffer at the hands of ferdinand before his career should be closed. the visit at dresden was successful, however. john george, being a claimant, as we have seen, for the duchies of cleve and julich, had need of the emperor. the king had need of john george's vote. there was a series of splendid balls, hunting parties, carousings. the emperor was an invalid, the king was abstemious, but the elector was a mighty drinker. it was not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed. they were usually carried there. but it was the wish of ferdinand to be conciliatory, and he bore himself as well as he could at the banquet. the elector was also a mighty hunter. neither of his imperial guests cared for field sports, but they looked out contentedly from the window of a hunting-lodge, before which for their entertainment the elector and his courtiers slaughtered eight bears, ten stags, ten pigs, and eleven badgers, besides a goodly number of other game; john george shooting also three martens from a pole erected for that purpose in the courtyard. it seemed proper for him thus to exhibit a specimen of the skill for which he was justly famed. the elector before his life closed, so says the chronicle, had killed , wild boars, bears, wolves, badgers, , foxes, besides stags and roedeer in still greater number, making a grand total of , beasts. the leader of the lutheran party of germany had not lived in vain. thus the great chiefs of catholicism and of protestantism amicably disported themselves in the last days of the year, while their respective forces were marshalling for mortal combat all over christendom. the elector certainly loved neither matthias nor ferdinand, but he hated the palatine. the chief of the german calvinists disputed that protestant hegemony which john george claimed by right. indeed the immense advantage enjoyed by the catholics at the outbreak of the religious war from the mutual animosities between the two great divisions of the reformed church was already terribly manifest. what an additional power would it derive from the increased weakness of the foe, should there be still other and deeper and more deadly schisms within one great division itself! "the calvinists and lutherans," cried the jesuit scioppius, "are so furiously attacking each other with calumnies and cursings and are persecuting each other to such extent as to give good hope that the devilish weight and burthen of them will go to perdition and shame of itself, and the heretics all do bloody execution upon each other. certainly if ever a golden time existed for exterminating the heretics, it is the present time." the imperial party took their leave of dresden, believing themselves to have secured the electoral vote of saxony; the elector hoping for protection to his interests in the duchies through that sequestration to which barneveld had opposed such vigorous resistance. there had been much slavish cringing before these catholic potentates by the courtiers of dresden, somewhat amazing to the ruder churls of saxony, the common people, who really believed in the religion which their prince had selected for them and himself. and to complete the glaring contrast, ferdinand and matthias had scarcely turned their backs before tremendous fulminations upon the ancient church came from the elector and from all the doctors of theology in saxony. for the jubilee of the hundredth anniversary of the reformation was celebrated all over germany in the autumn of this very year, and nearly at the exact moment of all this dancing, and fuddling, and pig shooting at dresden in honour of emperors and cardinals. and pope paul v. had likewise ordained a jubilee for true believers at almost the same time. the elector did not mince matters in his proclamation from any regard to the feelings of his late guests. he called on all protestants to rejoice, "because the light of the holy gospel had now shone brightly in the electoral dominions for a hundred years, the omnipotent keeping it burning notwithstanding the raging and roaring of the hellish enemy and all his scaly servants." the doctors of divinity were still more emphatic in their phraseology. they called on all professors and teachers of the true evangelical churches, not only in germany but throughout christendom, to keep the great jubilee. they did this in terms not calculated certainly to smother the flames of religious and party hatred, even if it had been possible at that moment to suppress the fire. "the great god of heaven," they said, "had caused the undertaking of his holy instrument mr. doctor martin luther to prosper. through his unspeakable mercy he has driven away the papal darkness and caused the sun of righteousness once more to beam upon the world. the old idolatries, blasphemies, errors, and horrors of the benighted popedom have been exterminated in many kingdoms and countries. innumerable sheep of the lord christ have been fed on the wholesome pasture of the divine word in spite of those monstrous, tearing, ravenous wolves, the pope and his followers. the enemy of god and man, the ancient serpent, may hiss and rage. yes, the roman antichrist in his frantic blusterings may bite off his own tongue, may fulminate all kinds of evils, bans, excommunications, wars, desolations, and burnings, as long and as much as he likes. but if we take refuge with the lord god, what can this inane, worn-out man and water-bubble do to us?" with more in the same taste. the pope's bull for the catholic jubilee was far more decorous and lofty in tone, for it bewailed the general sin in christendom, and called on all believers to flee from the wrath about to descend upon the earth, in terms that were almost prophetic. he ordered all to pray that the lord might lift up his church, protect it from the wiles of the enemy, extirpate heresies, grant peace and true unity among christian princes, and mercifully avert disasters already coming near. but if the language of paul v. was measured and decent, the swarm of jesuit pamphleteers that forthwith began to buzz and to sting all over christendom were sufficiently venomous. scioppius, in his alarm trumpet to the holy war, and a hundred others declared that all heresies and heretics were now to be extirpated, the one true church to be united and re-established, and that the only road to such a consummation was a path of blood. the lutheran preachers, on the other hand, obedient to the summons from dresden, vied with each other in every town and village in heaping denunciations, foul names, and odious imputations on the catholics; while the calvinists, not to be behindhand with their fellow reformers, celebrated the jubilee, especially at heidelberg, by excluding papists from hope of salvation, and bewailing the fate of all churches sighing under the yoke of rome. and not only were the papists and the reformers exchanging these blasts and counterblasts of hatred, not less deadly in their effects than the artillery of many armies, but as if to make a thorough exhibition of human fatuity when drunk with religious passion, the lutherans were making fierce paper and pulpit war upon the calvinists. especially hoe, court preacher of john george, ceaselessly hurled savage libels against them. in the name of the theological faculty of wittenberg, he addressed a "truehearted warning to all lutheran christians in bohemia, moravia, silesia, and other provinces, to beware of the erroneous calvinistic religion." he wrote a letter to count schlick, foremost leader in the bohemian movement, asking whether "the unquiet calvinist spirit, should it gain ascendency, would be any more endurable than the papists. oh what woe, what infinite woe," he cried, "for those noble countries if they should all be thrust into the jaws of calvinism!" did not preacher hoe's master aspire to the crown of bohemia himself? was he not furious at the start which heidelberg had got of him in the race for that golden prize? was he not mad with jealousy of the palatine, of the palatine's religion, and of the palatine's claim to "hegemony" in germany? thus embittered and bloodthirsty towards each other were the two great sections of the reformed religion on the first centennial jubilee of the reformation. such was the divided front which the anti-catholic party presented at the outbreak of the war with catholicism. ferdinand, on the other hand, was at the head of a comparatively united party. he could hardly hope for more than benevolent neutrality from the french government, which, in spite of the spanish marriages, dared not wholly desert the netherlands and throw itself into the hands of spain; but spanish diplomacy had enslaved the british king, and converted what should have been an active and most powerful enemy into an efficient if concealed ally. the spanish and archiducal armies were enveloping the dutch republic, from whence the most powerful support could be expected for the protestant cause. had it not been for the steadiness of barneveld, spain would have been at that moment established in full panoply over the whole surface of those inestimable positions, the disputed duchies. venice was lukewarm, if not frigid; and savoy, although deeply pledged by passion and interest to the downfall of the house of austria, was too dangerously situated herself, too distant, too poor, and too catholic to be very formidable. ferdinand was safe from the turkish side. a twenty years' peace, renewable by agreement, between the holy empire and the sultan had been negotiated by those two sons of bakers, cardinal khlesl and the vizier etmekdschifade. it was destined to endure through all the horrors of the great war, a stronger protection to vienna than all the fortifications which the engineering art could invent. he was safe too from poland, king sigmund being not only a devoted catholic but doubly his brother-in-law. spain, therefore, the spanish netherlands, the pope, and the german league headed by maximilian of bavaria, the ablest prince on the continent of europe, presented a square, magnificent phalanx on which ferdinand might rely. the states-general, on the other hand, were a most dangerous foe. with a centennial hatred of spain, splendidly disciplined armies and foremost navy of the world, with an admirable financial system and vast commercial resources, with a great stadholder, first captain of the age, thirsting for war, and allied in blood as well as religion to the standard-bearer of the bohemian revolt; with councils directed by the wisest and most experienced of living statesman, and with the very life blood of her being derived from the fountain of civil and religious liberty, the great republic of the united netherlands--her truce with the hereditary foe just expiring was, if indeed united, strong enough at the head of the protestant forces of europe to dictate to a world in arms. alas! was it united? as regarded internal affairs of most pressing interest, the electoral vote at the next election at frankfurt had been calculated as being likely to yield a majority of one for the opposition candidate, should the savoyard or any other opposition candidate be found. but the calculation was a close one and might easily be fallacious. supposing the palatine elected king of bohemia by the rebellious estates, as was probable, he could of course give the vote of that electorate and his own against ferdinand, and the vote of brandenburg at that time seemed safe. but ferdinand by his visit to dresden had secured the vote of saxony, while of the three ecclesiastical electors, cologne and mayence were sure for him. thus it would be three and three, and the seventh and decisive vote would be that of the elector-bishop of treves. the sanguine frederic thought that with french influence and a round sum of money this ecclesiastic might be got to vote for the opposition candidate. the ingenious combination was not destined to be successful, and as there has been no intention in the present volume to do more than slightly indicate the most prominent movements and mainsprings of the great struggle so far as germany is concerned, without entering into detail, it may be as well to remind the reader that it proved wonderfully wrong. matthias died on the th march, , the election of a new emperor took place at frankfurt on the th of the following august, and not only did saxony and all three ecclesiastical electors vote for ferdinand, but brandenburg likewise, as well as the elector-palatine himself, while ferdinand, personally present in the assembly as elector of bohemia, might according to the golden bull have given the seventh vote for himself had he chosen to do so. thus the election was unanimous. strange to say, as the electors proceeded through the crowd from the hall of election to accompany the new emperor to the church where he was to receive the popular acclaim, the news reached them from prague that the elector-palatine had been elected king of bohemia. thus frederic, by voting for ferdinand, had made himself voluntarily a rebel should he accept the crown now offered him. had the news arrived sooner, a different result and even a different history might have been possible. chapter xiv. barneveld connected with the east india company, but opposed to the west india company--carleton comes from venice inimical to barneveld--maurice openly the chieftain of the contra-remonstrants--tumults about the churches--"orange or spain" the cry of prince maurice and his party--they take possession of the cloister church--"the sharp resolve"--carleton's orations before the states-general. king james never forgave barneveld for drawing from him those famous letters to the states in which he was made to approve the five points and to admit the possibility of salvation under them. these epistles had brought much ridicule upon james, who was not amused by finding his theological discussions a laughing-stock. he was still more incensed by the biting criticisms made upon the cheap surrender of the cautionary towns, and he hated more than ever the statesman who, as he believed, had twice outwitted him. on the other hand, maurice, inspired by his brother-in-law the duke of bouillon and by the infuriated francis aerssens, abhorred barneveld's french policy, which was freely denounced by the french calvinists and by the whole orthodox church. in holland he was still warmly sustained except in the contra-remonstrant amsterdam and a few other cities of less importance. but there were perhaps deeper reasons for the advocate's unpopularity in the great commercial metropolis than theological pretexts. barneveld's name and interests were identified with the great east india company, which was now powerful and prosperous beyond anything ever dreamt of before in the annals of commerce. that trading company had already founded an empire in the east. fifty ships of war, fortresses guarded by pieces of artillery and , soldiers and sailors, obeyed the orders of a dozen private gentlemen at home seated in a back parlour around a green table. the profits of each trading voyage were enormous, and the shareholders were growing rich beyond their wildest imaginings. to no individual so much as to holland's advocate was this unexampled success to be ascribed. the vast prosperity of the east india company had inspired others with the ambition to found a similar enterprise in the west. but to the west india company then projected and especially favoured in amsterdam, barneveld was firmly opposed. he considered it as bound up with the spirit of military adventure and conquest, and as likely to bring on prematurely and unwisely a renewed conflict with spain. the same reasons which had caused him to urge the truce now influenced his position in regard to the west india company. thus the clouds were gathering every day more darkly over the head of the advocate. the powerful mercantile interest in the great seat of traffic in the republic, the personal animosity of the stadholder, the execrations of the orthodox party in france, england, and all the netherlands, the anger of the french princes and all those of the old huguenot party who had been foolish enough to act with the princes in their purely selfish schemes against the government, and the overflowing hatred of king james, whose darling schemes of spanish marriages and a spanish alliance had been foiled by the advocate's masterly policy in france and in the duchies, and whose resentment at having been so completely worsted and disarmed in the predestination matter and in the redemption of the great mortgage had deepened into as terrible wrath as outraged bigotry and vanity could engender; all these elements made up a stormy atmosphere in which the strongest heart might have quailed. but barneveld did not quail. doubtless he loved power, and the more danger he found on every side the less inclined he was to succumb. but he honestly believed that the safety and prosperity of the country he had so long and faithfully served were identified with the policy which he was pursuing. arrogant, overbearing, self-concentrated, accustomed to lead senates and to guide the councils and share the secrets of kings, familiar with and almost an actor in every event in the political history not only of his own country but of every important state in christendom during nearly two generations of mankind, of unmatched industry, full of years and experience, yet feeling within him the youthful strength of a thousand intellects compared to most of those by which he was calumniated, confronted, and harassed; he accepted the great fight which was forced upon him. irascible, courageous, austere, contemptuous, he looked around and saw the republic whose cradle he had rocked grown to be one of the most powerful and prosperous among the states of the world, and could with difficulty imagine that in this supreme hour of her strength and her felicity she was ready to turn and rend the man whom she was bound by every tie of duty to cherish and to revere. sir dudley carleton, the new english ambassador to the states, had arrived during the past year red-hot from venice. there he had perhaps not learned especially to love the new republic which had arisen among the northern lagunes, and whose admission among the nations had been at last accorded by the proud queen of the adriatic, notwithstanding the objections and the intrigues both of french and english representatives. he had come charged to the brim with the political spite of james against the advocate, and provided too with more than seven vials of theological wrath. such was the king's revenge for barneveld's recent successes. the supporters in the netherlands of the civil authority over the church were moreover to be instructed by the political head of the english church that such supremacy, although highly proper for a king, was "thoroughly unsuitable for a many-headed republic." so much for church government. as for doctrine, arminianism and vorstianism were to be blasted with one thunderstroke from the british throne. "in holland," said james to his envoy, "there have been violent and sharp contestations amongst the towns in the cause of religion . . . . . if they shall be unhappily revived during your time, you shall not forget that you are the minister of that master whom god hath made the sole protector of his religion." there was to be no misunderstanding in future as to the dogmas which the royal pope of great britain meant to prescribe to his netherland subjects. three years before, at the dictation of the advocate, he had informed the states that he was convinced of their ability to settle the deplorable dissensions as to religion according to their wisdom and the power which belonged to them over churches and church servants. he had informed them of his having learned by experience that such questions could hardly be decided by the wranglings of theological professors, and that it was better to settle them by public authority and to forbid their being brought into the pulpit or among common people. he had recommended mutual toleration of religious difference until otherwise ordained by the public civil authority, and had declared that neither of the two opinions in regard to predestination was in his opinion far from the truth or inconsistent with christian faith or the salvation of souls. it was no wonder that these utterances were quite after the advocate's heart, as james had faithfully copied them from the advocate's draft. but now in the exercise of his infallibility the king issued other decrees. his minister was instructed to support the extreme views of the orthodox both as to government and dogma, and to urge the national synod, as it were, at push of pike. "besides the assistance," said he to carleton, "which we would have you give to the true professors of the gospel in your discourse and conferences, you may let fall how hateful the maintenance of these erroneous opinions is to the majesty of god, how displeasing unto us their dearest friends, and how disgraceful to the honour and government of that state." and faithfully did the ambassador act up to his instructions. most sympathetically did he embody the hatred of the king. an able, experienced, highly accomplished diplomatist and scholar, ready with tongue and pen, caustic, censorious, prejudiced, and partial, he was soon foremost among the foes of the advocate in the little court of the hague, and prepared at any moment to flourish the political and theological goad when his master gave the word. nothing in diplomatic history is more eccentric than the long sermons upon abstruse points of divinity and ecclesiastical history which the english ambassador delivered from time to time before the states-general in accordance with elaborate instructions drawn up by his sovereign with his own hand. rarely has a king been more tedious, and he bestowed all his tediousness upon my lords the states-general. nothing could be more dismal than these discourses, except perhaps the contemporaneous and interminable orations of grotius to the states of holland, to the magistrates of amsterdam, to the states of utrecht; yet carleton was a man of the world, a good debater, a ready writer, while hugo grotius was one of the great lights of that age and which shone for all time. among the diplomatic controversies of history, rarely refreshing at best, few have been more drouthy than those once famous disquisitions, and they shall be left to shrivel into the nothingness of the past, so far as is consistent with the absolute necessities of this narrative. the contest to which the advocate was called had become mainly a personal and a political one, although the weapons with which it was fought were taken from ecclesiastical arsenals. it was now an unequal contest. for the great captain of the country and of his time, the son of william the silent, the martial stadholder, in the fulness of his fame and vigour of his years, had now openly taken his place as the chieftain of the contra-remonstrants. the conflict between the civil and the military element for supremacy in a free commonwealth has never been more vividly typified than in this death-grapple between maurice and barneveld. the aged but still vigorous statesman, ripe with half a century of political lore, and the high-born, brilliant, and scientific soldier, with the laurels of turnhout and nieuwpoort and of a hundred famous sieges upon his helmet, reformer of military science, and no mean proficient in the art of politics and government, were the representatives and leaders of the two great parties into which the commonwealth had now unhappily divided itself. but all history shows that the brilliant soldier of a republic is apt to have the advantage, in a struggle for popular affection and popular applause, over the statesman, however consummate. the general imagination is more excited by the triumphs of the field than by those of the tribune, and the man who has passed many years of life in commanding multitudes with necessarily despotic sway is often supposed to have gained in the process the attributes likely to render him most valuable as chief citizen of a flee commonwealth. yet national enthusiasm is so universally excited by splendid military service as to forbid a doubt that the sentiment is rooted deeply in our nature, while both in antiquity and in modern times there are noble although rare examples of the successful soldier converting himself into a valuable and exemplary magistrate. in the rivalry of maurice and barneveld however for the national affection the chances were singularly against the advocate. the great battles and sieges of the prince had been on a world's theatre, had enchained the attention of christendom, and on their issue had frequently depended, or seemed to depend, the very existence of the nation. the labours of the statesman, on the contrary, had been comparatively secret. his noble orations and arguments had been spoken with closed doors to assemblies of colleagues--rather envoys than senators--were never printed or even reported, and could be judged of only by their effects; while his vast labours in directing both the internal administration and especially the foreign affairs of the commonwealth had been by their very nature as secret as they were perpetual and enormous. moreover, there was little of what we now understand as the democratic sentiment in the netherlands. there was deep and sturdy attachment to ancient traditions, privileges, special constitutions extorted from a power acknowledged to be superior to the people. when partly to save those chartered rights, and partly to overthrow the horrible ecclesiastical tyranny of the sixteenth century, the people had accomplished a successful revolt, they never dreamt of popular sovereignty, but allowed the municipal corporations, by which their local affairs had been for centuries transacted, to unite in offering to foreign princes, one after another, the crown which they had torn from the head of the spanish king. when none was found to accept the dangerous honour, they had acquiesced in the practical sovereignty of the states; but whether the states-general or the states-provincial were the supreme authority had certainly not been definitely and categorically settled. so long as the states of holland, led by the advocate, had controlled in great matters the political action of the states-general, while the stadholder stood without a rival at the head of their military affairs, and so long as there were no fierce disputes as to government and dogma within the bosom of the reformed church, the questions which were now inflaming the whole population had been allowed to slumber. the termination of the war and the rise of arminianism were almost contemporaneous. the stadholder, who so unwillingly had seen the occupation in which he had won so much glory taken from him by the truce, might perhaps find less congenial but sufficiently engrossing business as champion of the church and of the union. the new church--not freedom of worship for different denominations of christians, but supremacy of the church of heidelberg and geneva--seemed likely to be the result of the overthrow of the ancient church. it is the essence of the catholic church to claim supremacy over and immunity from the civil authority, and to this claim for the reformed church, by which that of rome had been supplanted, barneveld was strenuously opposed. the stadholder was backed, therefore, by the church in its purity, by the majority of the humbler classes--who found in membership of the oligarchy of heaven a substitute for those democratic aspirations on earth which were effectually suppressed between the two millstones of burgher aristocracy and military discipline--and by the states-general, a majority of which were contra-remonstrant in their faith. if the sword is usually an overmatch for the long robe in political struggles, the cassock has often proved superior to both combined. but in the case now occupying our attention the cassock was in alliance with the sword. clearly the contest was becoming a desperate one for the statesman. and while the controversy between the chiefs waged hotter and hotter, the tumults around the churches on sundays in every town and village grew more and more furious, ending generally in open fights with knives, bludgeons, and brickbats; preachers and magistrates being often too glad to escape with a whole skin. one can hardly be ingenuous enough to consider all this dirking, battering, and fisticuffing as the legitimate and healthy outcome of a difference as to the knotty point whether all men might or might not be saved by repentance and faith in christ. the greens and blues of the byzantine circus had not been more typical of fierce party warfare in the lower empire than the greens and blues of predestination in the rising commonwealth, according to the real or imagined epigram of prince maurice. "your divisions in religion," wrote secretary lake to carleton, "have, i doubt not, a deeper root than is discerned by every one, and i doubt not that the prince maurice's carriage doth make a jealousy of affecting a party under the pretence of supporting one side, and that the states fear his ends and aims, knowing his power with the men of war; and that howsoever all be shadowed under the name of religion there is on either part a civil end, of the one seeking a step of higher authority, of the other a preservation of liberty." and in addition to other advantages the contra-remonstrants had now got a good cry--an inestimable privilege in party contests. "there are two factions in the land," said maurice, "that of orange and that of spain, and the two chiefs of the spanish faction are those political and priestly arminians, uytenbogaert and oldenbarneveld." orange and spain! the one name associated with all that was most venerated and beloved throughout the country, for william the silent since his death was almost a god; the other ineradicably entwined at that moment with, everything execrated throughout the land. the prince of orange's claim to be head of the orange faction could hardly be disputed, but it was a master stroke of political malice to fix the stigma of spanish partisanship on the advocate. if the venerable patriot who had been fighting spain, sometimes on the battle-field and always in the council, ever since he came to man's estate, could be imagined even in a dream capable of being bought with spanish gold to betray his country, who in the ranks of the remonstrant party could be safe from such accusations? each party accused the other of designs for altering or subverting the government. maurice was suspected of what were called leicestrian projects, "leycestrana consilia"--for the earl's plots to gain possession of leyden and utrecht had never been forgotten--while the prince and those who acted with him asserted distinctly that it was the purpose of barneveld to pave the way for restoring the spanish sovereignty and the popish religion so soon as the truce had reached its end? spain and orange. nothing for a faction fight could be neater. moreover the two words rhyme in netherlandish, which is the case in no other language, "spanje-oranje." the sword was drawn and the banner unfurled. the "mud beggars" of the hague, tired of tramping to ryswyk of a sunday to listen to henry rosaeus, determined on a private conventicle in the capital. the first barn selected was sealed up by the authorities, but epoch much, book-keeper of prince maurice, then lent them his house. the prince declared that sooner than they should want a place of assembling he would give them his own. but he meant that they should have a public church to themselves, and that very soon. king james thoroughly approved of all these proceedings. at that very instant such of his own subjects as had seceded from the established church to hold conventicles in barns and breweries and backshops in london were hunted by him with bishops' pursuivants and other beagles like vilest criminals, thrown into prison to rot, or suffered to escape from their fatherland into the trans-atlantic wilderness, there to battle with wild beasts and savages, and to die without knowing themselves the fathers of a more powerful united states than the dutch republic, where they were fain to seek in passing a temporary shelter. he none the less instructed his envoy at the hague to preach the selfsame doctrines for which the new england puritans were persecuted, and importunately and dictatorially to plead the cause of those hollanders who, like bradford and robinson, winthrop and cotton, maintained the independence of the church over the state. logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves, and puritanism in the netherlands, although under temporary disadvantage at the hague, was evidently the party destined to triumph throughout the country. james could safely sympathize therefore in holland with what he most loathed in england, and could at the same time feed fat the grudge he owed the advocate. the calculations of barneveld as to the respective political forces of the commonwealth seem to have been to a certain extent defective. he allowed probably too much weight to the catholic party as a motive power at that moment, and he was anxious both from that consideration and from his honest natural instinct for general toleration; his own broad and unbigoted views in religious matters, not to force that party into a rebellious attitude dangerous to the state. we have seen how nearly a mutiny in the important city of utrecht, set on foot by certain romanist conspirators in the years immediately succeeding the truce, had subverted the government, had excited much anxiety amongst the firmest allies of the republic, and had been suppressed only by the decision of the advocate and a show of military force. he had informed carleton not long after his arrival that in the united provinces, and in holland in particular, were many sects and religions of which, according to his expression, "the healthiest and the richest part were the papists, while the protestants did not make up one-third part of the inhabitants." certainly, if these statistics were correct or nearly correct, there could be nothing more stupid from a purely political point of view than to exasperate so influential a portion of the community to madness and rebellion by refusing them all rights of public worship. yet because the advocate had uniformly recommended indulgence, he had incurred more odium at home than from any other cause. of course he was a papist in disguise, ready to sell his country to spain, because he was willing that more than half the population of the country should be allowed to worship god according to their conscience. surely it would be wrong to judge the condition of things at that epoch by the lights of to-day, and perhaps in the netherlands there had before been no conspicuous personage, save william the silent alone, who had risen to the height of toleration on which the advocate essayed to stand. other leading politicians considered that the national liberties could be preserved only by retaining the catholics in complete subjection. at any rate the advocate was profoundly convinced of the necessity of maintaining harmony and mutual toleration among the protestants themselves, who, as he said, made up but one-third of the whole people. in conversing with the english ambassador he divided them into "puritans and double puritans," as they would be called, he said, in england. if these should be at variance with each other, he argued, the papists would be the strongest of all. "to prevent this inconvenience," he said, "the states were endeavouring to settle some certain form of government in the church; which being composed of divers persecuted churches such as in the beginning of the wars had their refuge here, that which during the wars could not be so well done they now thought seasonable for a time of truce; and therefore would show their authority in preventing the schism of the church which would follow the separation of those they call remonstrants and contra-remonstrants." there being no word so offensive to carleton's sovereign as the word puritan, the ambassador did his best to persuade the advocate that a puritan in holland was a very different thing from a puritan in england. in england he was a noxious vermin, to be hunted with dogs. in the netherlands he was the governing power. but his arguments were vapourous enough and made little impression on barneveld. "he would no ways yield," said sir dudley. meantime the contra-remonstrants of the hague, not finding sufficient accommodation in enoch much's house, clamoured loudly for the use of a church. it was answered by the city magistrates that two of their persuasion, la motte and la faille, preached regularly in the great church, and that rosaeus had been silenced only because he refused to hold communion with uytenbogaert. maurice insisted that a separate church should be assigned them. "but this is open schism," said uytenbogaert. early in the year there was a meeting of the holland delegation to the states-general, of the state council, and of the magistracy of the hague, of deputies from the tribunals, and of all the nobles resident in the capital. they sent for maurice and asked his opinion as to the alarming situation of affairs. he called for the register-books of the states of holland, and turning back to the pages on which was recorded his accession to the stadholderate soon after his father's murder, ordered the oath then exchanged between himself and the states to be read aloud. that oath bound them mutually to support the reformed religion till the last drop of blood in their veins. "that oath i mean to keep," said the stadholder, "so long as i live." no one disputed the obligation of all parties to maintain the reformed religion. but the question was whether the five points were inconsistent with the reformed religion. the contrary was clamorously maintained by most of those present: in the year this difference in dogma had not arisen, and as the large majority of the people at the hague, including nearly all those of rank and substance, were of the remonstrant persuasion, they naturally found it not agreeable to be sent out of the church by a small minority. but maurice chose to settle the question very summarily. his father had been raised to power by the strict calvinists, and he meant to stand by those who had always sustained william the silent. "for this religion my father lost his life, and this religion will i defend," said he. "you hold then," said barneveld, "that the almighty has created one child for damnation and another for salvation, and you wish this doctrine to be publicly preached." "did you ever hear any one preach that?" replied the prince. "if they don't preach it, it is their inmost conviction," said the other. and he proceeded to prove his position by copious citations. "and suppose our ministers do preach this doctrine, is there anything strange in it, any reason why they should not do so?" the advocate expressed his amazement and horror at the idea. "but does not god know from all eternity who is to be saved and who to be damned; and does he create men for any other end than that to which he from eternity knows they will come?" and so they enclosed themselves in the eternal circle out of which it was not probable that either the soldier or the statesman would soon find an issue. "i am no theologian," said barneveld at last, breaking off the discussion. "neither am i," said the stadholder. "so let the parsons come together. let the synod assemble and decide the question. thus we shall get out of all this." next day a deputation of the secessionists waited by appointment on prince maurice. they found him in the ancient mediaeval hall of the sovereign counts of holland, and seated on their old chair of state. he recommended them to use caution and moderation for the present, and to go next sunday once more to ryswyk. afterwards he pledged himself that they should have a church at the hague, and, if necessary, the great church itself. but the great church, although a very considerable catholic cathedral before the reformation, was not big enough now to hold both henry rosaeus and john uytenbogaert. those two eloquent, learned, and most pugnacious divines were the respective champions in the pulpit of the opposing parties, as were the advocate and the stadholder in the council. and there was as bitter personal rivalry between the two as between the soldier and statesman. "the factions begin to divide themselves," said carleton, "betwixt his excellency and monsieur barneveld as heads who join to this present difference their ancient quarrels. and the schism rests actually between uytenbogaert and rosaeus, whose private emulation and envy (both being much applauded and followed) doth no good towards the public pacification." uytenbogaert repeatedly offered, however, to resign his functions and to leave the hague. "he was always ready to play the jonah," he said. a temporary arrangement was made soon afterwards by which rosaeus and his congregation should have the use of what was called the gasthuis kerk, then appropriated to the english embassy. carleton of course gave his consent most willingly. the prince declared that the states of holland and the city magistracy had personally affronted him by the obstacles they had interposed to the public worship of the contra-remonstrants. with their cause he had now thoroughly identified himself. the hostility between the representatives of the civil and military authority waxed fiercer every hour. the tumults were more terrible than ever. plainly there was no room in the commonwealth for the advocate and the stadholder. some impartial persons believed that there would be no peace until both were got rid of. "there are many words among this free-spoken people," said carleton, "that to end these differences they must follow the example of france in marshal d'ancre's case, and take off the heads of both chiefs." but these decided persons were in a small minority. meantime the states of holland met in full assembly; sixty delegates being present. it was proposed to invite his excellency to take part in the deliberations. a committee which had waited upon him the day before had reported him as in favour of moderate rather than harsh measures in the church affair, while maintaining his plighted word to the seceders. barneveld stoutly opposed the motion. "what need had the sovereign states of holland of advice from a stadholder, from their servant, their functionary?" he cried. but the majority for once thought otherwise. the prince was invited to come. the deliberations were moderate but inconclusive. he appeared again at an adjourned meeting when the councils were not so harmonious. barneveld, grotius, and other eloquent speakers endeavoured to point out that the refusal of the seceders to hold communion with the remonstrant preachers and to insist on a separation was fast driving the state to perdition. they warmly recommended mutual toleration and harmony. grotius exhausted learning and rhetoric to prove that the five points were not inconsistent with salvation nor with the constitution of the united provinces. the stadholder grew impatient at last and clapped his hand on his rapier. "no need here," he said, "of flowery orations and learned arguments. with this good sword i will defend the religion which my father planted in these provinces, and i should like to see the man who is going to prevent me!" the words had an heroic ring in the ears of such as are ever ready to applaud brute force, especially when wielded by a prince. the argumentum ad ensem, however, was the last plea that william the silent would have been likely to employ on such an occasion, nor would it have been easy to prove that the reformed religion had been "planted" by one who had drawn the sword against the foreign tyrant, and had made vast sacrifices for his country's independence years before abjuring communion with the roman catholic church. when swords are handled by the executive in presence of civil assemblies there is usually but one issue to be expected. moreover, three whales had recently been stranded at scheveningen, one of them more than sixty feet long, and men wagged their beards gravely as they spoke of the event, deeming it a certain presage of civil commotions. it was remembered that at the outbreak of the great war two whales had been washed ashore in the scheldt. although some free-thinking people were inclined to ascribe the phenomenon to a prevalence of strong westerly gales, while others found proof in it of a superabundance of those creatures in the polar seas, which should rather give encouragement to the dutch and zealand fisheries, it is probable that quite as dark forebodings of coming disaster were caused by this accident as by the trumpet-like defiance which the stadholder had just delivered to the states of holland. meantime the seceding congregation of the hague had become wearied of the english or gasthuis church, and another and larger one had been promised them. this was an ancient convent on one of the principal streets of the town, now used as a cannon-foundry. the prince personally superintended the preparations for getting ready this place of worship, which was thenceforth called the cloister church. but delays were, as the contra-remonstrants believed, purposely interposed, so that it was nearly midsummer before there were any signs of the church being fit for use. they hastened accordingly to carry it, as it were, by assault. not wishing peaceably to accept as a boon from the civil authority what they claimed as an indefeasible right, they suddenly took possession one sunday night of the cloister church. it was in a state of utter confusion--part monastery, part foundry, part conventicle. there were few seats, no altar, no communion-table, hardly any sacramental furniture, but a pulpit was extemporized. rosaeus preached in triumph to an enthusiastic congregation, and three children were baptized with the significant names of william, maurice, and henry. on the following monday there was a striking scene on the voorhout. this most beautiful street of a beautiful city was a broad avenue, shaded by a quadruple row of limetrees, reaching out into the thick forest of secular oaks and beeches--swarming with fallow-deer and alive with the notes of singing birds--by which the hague, almost from time immemorial, has been embowered. the ancient cloisterhouse and church now reconverted to religious uses--was a plain, rather insipid structure of red brick picked out with white stone, presenting three symmetrical gables to the street, with a slender belfry and spire rising in the rear. nearly adjoining it on the north-western side was the elegant and commodious mansion of barneveld, purchased by him from the representatives of the arenberg family, surrounded by shrubberies and flower-gardens; not a palace, but a dignified and becoming abode for the first citizen of a powerful republic. on that midsummer's morning it might well seem that, in rescuing the old cloister from the military purposes to which it had for years been devoted, men had given an even more belligerent aspect to the scene than if it had been left as a foundry. the miscellaneous pieces of artillery and other fire-arms lying about, with piles of cannon-ball which there had not been time to remove, were hardly less belligerent and threatening of aspect than the stern faces of the crowd occupied in thoroughly preparing the house for its solemn destination. it was determined that there should be accommodation on the next sunday for all who came to the service. an army of carpenters, joiners, glaziers, and other workmen-assisted by a mob of citizens of all ranks and ages, men and women, gentle and simple were busily engaged in bringing planks and benches; working with plane, adze, hammer and saw, trowel and shovel, to complete the work. on the next sunday the prince attended public worship for the last time at the great church under the ministration of uytenbogaert. he was infuriated with the sermon, in which the bold remonstrant bitterly inveighed against the proposition for a national synod. to oppose that measure publicly in the very face of the stadholder, who now considered himself as the synod personified, seemed to him flat blasphemy. coming out of the church with his step-mother, the widowed louise de coligny, princess of orange, he denounced the man in unmeasured terms. "he is the enemy of god," said maurice. at least from that time forth, and indeed for a year before, maurice was the enemy of the preacher. on the following sunday, july , maurice went in solemn state to the divine service at the cloister church now thoroughly organized. he was accompanied by his cousin, the famous count william lewis of nassau, stadholder of friesland, who had never concealed his warm sympathy with the contra-remonstrants, and by all the chief officers of his household and members of his staff. it was an imposing demonstration and meant for one. as the martial stadholder at the head of his brilliant cavalcade rode forth across the drawbridge from the inner court of the old moated palace--where the ancient sovereign dirks and florences of holland had so long ruled their stout little principality--along the shady and stately kneuterdyk and so through the voorhout, an immense crowd thronged around his path and accompanied him to the church. it was as if the great soldier were marching to siege or battle-field where fresher glories than those of sluys or geertruidenberg were awaiting him. the train passed by barneveld's house and entered the cloister. more than four thousand persons were present at the service or crowded around the doors vainly attempting to gain admission into the overflowing aisles; while the great church was left comparatively empty, a few hundred only worshipping there. the cloister church was thenceforth called the prince's church, and a great revolution was beginning even in the hague. the advocate was wroth as he saw the procession graced by the two stadholders and their military attendants. he knew that he was now to bow his head to the church thus championed by the chief personage and captain-general of the state, to renounce his dreams of religious toleration, to sink from his post of supreme civic ruler, or to accept an unequal struggle in which he might utterly succumb. but his iron nature would break sooner than bend. in the first transports of his indignation he is said to have vowed vengeance against the immediate instruments by which the cloister church had, as he conceived, been surreptitiously and feloniously seized. he meant to strike a blow which should startle the whole population of the hague, send a thrill of horror through the country, and teach men to beware how they trifled with the sovereign states of holland, whose authority had so long been undisputed, and with him their chief functionary. he resolved--so ran the tale of the preacher trigland, who told it to prince maurice, and has preserved it in his chronicle--to cause to be seized at midnight from their beds four men whom he considered the ringleaders in this mutiny, to have them taken to the place of execution on the square in the midst of the city, to have their heads cut off at once by warrant from the chief tribunal without any previous warning, and then to summon all the citizens at dawn of day, by ringing of bells and firing of cannon, to gaze on the ghastly spectacle, and teach them to what fate this pestilential schism and revolt against authority had brought its humble tools. the victims were to be enoch much, the prince's book-keeper, and three others, an attorney, an engraver, and an apothecary, all of course of the contra-remonstrant persuasion. it was necessary, said the advocate, to make once for all an example, and show that there was a government in the land. he had reckoned on a ready adhesion to this measure and a sentence from the tribunal through the influence of his son-in-law, the seignior van veenhuyzen, who was president of the chief court. his attempt was foiled however by the stern opposition of two zealand members of the court, who managed to bring up from a bed of sickness, where he had long been lying, a holland councillor whom they knew to be likewise opposed to the fierce measure, and thus defeated it by a majority of one. such is the story as told by contemporaries and repeated from that day to this. it is hardly necessary to say that barneveld calmly denied having conceived or even heard of the scheme. that men could go about looking each other in the face and rehearsing such gibberish would seem sufficiently dispiriting did we not know to what depths of credulity men in all ages can sink when possessed by the demon of party malice. if it had been narrated on the exchange at amsterdam or flushing during that portentous midsummer that barneveld had not only beheaded but roasted alive, and fed the dogs and cats upon the attorney, the apothecary, and the engraver, there would have been citizens in plenty to devour the news with avidity. but although the advocate had never imagined such extravagances as these, it is certain that he had now resolved upon very bold measures, and that too without an instant's delay. he suspected the prince of aiming at sovereignty not only over holland but over all the provinces and to be using the synod as a principal part of his machinery. the gauntlet was thrown down by the stadholder, and the advocate lifted it at once. the issue of the struggle would depend upon the political colour of the town magistracies. barneveld instinctively felt that maurice, being now resolved that the synod should be held, would lose no time in making a revolution in all the towns through the power he held or could plausibly usurp. such a course would, in his opinion, lead directly to an unconstitutional and violent subversion of the sovereign rights of each province, to the advantage of the central government. a religious creed would be forced upon holland and perhaps upon two other provinces which was repugnant to a considerable majority of the people. and this would be done by a majority vote of the states-general, on a matter over which, by the th article of the fundamental compact--the union of utrecht--the states-general had no control, each province having reserved the disposition of religious affairs to itself. for let it never be forgotten that the union of the netherlands was a compact, a treaty, an agreement between sovereign states. there was no pretence that it was an incorporation, that the people had laid down a constitution, an organic law. the people were never consulted, did not exist, had not for political purposes been invented. it was the great primal defect of their institutions, but the netherlanders would have been centuries before their age had they been able to remedy that defect. yet the netherlanders would have been much behind even that age of bigotry had they admitted the possibility in a free commonwealth, of that most sacred and important of all subjects that concern humanity, religious creed--the relation of man to his maker--to be regulated by the party vote of a political board. it was with no thought of treason in his heart or his head therefore that the advocate now resolved that the states of holland and the cities of which that college was composed should protect their liberties and privileges, the sum of which in his opinion made up the sovereignty of the province he served, and that they should protect them, if necessary, by force. force was apprehended. it should be met by force. to be forewarned was to be forearmed. barneveld forewarned the states of holland. on the th august , he proposed to that assembly a resolution which was destined to become famous. a majority accepted it after brief debate. it was to this effect. the states having seen what had befallen in many cities, and especially in the hague, against the order, liberties, and laws of the land, and having in vain attempted to bring into harmony with the states certain cities which refused to co-operate with the majority, had at last resolved to refuse the national synod, as conflicting with the sovereignty and laws of holland. they had thought good to set forth in public print their views as to religious worship, and to take measures to prevent all deeds of violence against persons and property. to this end the regents of cities were authorized in case of need, until otherwise ordained, to enrol men-at-arms for their security and prevention of violence. furthermore, every one that might complain of what the regents of cities by strength of this resolution might do was ordered to have recourse to no one else than the states of holland, as no account would be made of anything that might be done or undertaken by the tribunals. finally, it was resolved to send a deputation to prince maurice, the princess-widow, and prince henry, requesting them to aid in carrying out this resolution. thus the deed was done. the sword was drawn. it was drawn in self-defence and in deliberate answer to the stadholder's defiance when he rapped his sword hilt in face of the assembly, but still it was drawn. the states of holland were declared sovereign and supreme. the national synod was peremptorily rejected. any decision of the supreme courts of the union in regard to the subject of this resolution was nullified in advance. thenceforth this measure of the th august was called the "sharp resolve." it might prove perhaps to be double-edged. it was a stroke of grim sarcasm on the part of the advocate thus solemnly to invite the stadholder's aid in carrying out a law which was aimed directly at his head; to request his help for those who meant to defeat with the armed hand that national synod which he had pledged himself to bring about. the question now arose what sort of men-at-arms it would be well for the city governments to enlist. the officers of the regular garrisons had received distinct orders from prince maurice as their military superior to refuse any summons to act in matters proceeding from the religious question. the prince, who had chief authority over all the regular troops, had given notice that he would permit nothing to be done against "those of the reformed religion," by which he meant the contra-remonstrants and them only. in some cities there were no garrisons, but only train-bands. but the train bands (schutters) could not be relied on to carry out the sharp resolve, for they were almost to a man contra-remonstrants. it was therefore determined to enlist what were called "waartgelders;" soldiers, inhabitants of the place, who held themselves ready to serve in time of need in consideration of a certain wage; mercenaries in short. this resolution was followed as a matter of course by a solemn protest from amsterdam and the five cities who acted with her. on the same day maurice was duly notified of the passage of the law. his wrath was great. high words passed between him and the deputies. it could hardly have been otherwise expected. next-day he came before the assembly to express his sentiments, to complain of the rudeness with which the resolution of th august had been communicated to him, and to demand further explanations. forthwith the advocate proceeded to set forth the intentions of the states, and demanded that the prince should assist the magistrates in carrying out the policy decided upon. reinier pauw, burgomaster of amsterdam, fiercely interrupted the oration of barneveld, saying that although these might be his views, they were not to be held by his excellency as the opinions of all. the advocate, angry at the interruption, answered him sternly, and a violent altercation, not unmixed with personalities, arose. maurice, who kept his temper admirably on this occasion, interfered between the two and had much difficulty in quieting the dispute. he then observed that when he took the oath as stadholder these unfortunate differences had not arisen, but all had been good friends together. this was perfectly true, but he could have added that they might all continue good friends unless the plan of imposing a religious creed upon the minority by a clerical decision were persisted in. he concluded that for love of one of the two great parties he would not violate the oath he had taken to maintain the reformed religion to the last drop of his blood. still, with the same 'petitio principii' that the reformed religion and the dogmas of the contra-remonstrants were one and the same thing, he assured the assembly that the authority of the magistrates would be sustained by him so long as it did not lead to the subversion of religion. clearly the time for argument had passed. as dudley carleton observed, men had been disputing 'pro aris' long enough. they would soon be fighting 'pro focis.' in pursuance of the policy laid down by the sharp resolution, the states proceeded to assure themselves of the various cities of the province by means of waartgelders. they sent to the important seaport of brielle and demanded a new oath from the garrison. it was intimated that the prince would be soon coming there in person to make himself master of the place, and advice was given to the magistrates to be beforehand with him. these statements angered maurice, and angered him the more because they happened to be true. it was also charged that he was pursuing his leicestrian designs and meant to make himself, by such steps, sovereign of the country. the name of leicester being a byword of reproach ever since that baffled noble had a generation before left the provinces in disgrace, it was a matter of course that such comparisons were excessively exasperating. it was fresh enough too in men's memory that the earl in his netherland career had affected sympathy with the strictest denomination of religious reformers, and that the profligate worldling and arrogant self-seeker had used the mask of religion to cover flagitious ends. as it had indeed been the object of the party at the head of which the advocate had all his life acted to raise the youthful maurice to the stadholderate expressly to foil the plots of leicester, it could hardly fail to be unpalatable to maurice to be now accused of acting the part of leicester. he inveighed bitterly on the subject before the state council: the state council, in a body, followed him to a meeting of the states-general. here the stadholder made a vehement speech and demanded that the states of holland should rescind the "sharp resolution," and should desist from the new oaths required from the soldiery. barneveld, firm as a rock, met these bitter denunciations. speaking in the name of holland, he repelled the idea that the sovereign states of that province were responsible to the state council or to the states-general either. he regretted, as all regretted, the calumnies uttered against the prince, but in times of such intense excitement every conspicuous man was the mark of calumny. the stadholder warmly repudiated leicestrian designs, and declared that he had been always influenced by a desire to serve his country and maintain the reformed religion. if he had made mistakes, he desired to be permitted to improve in the future. thus having spoken, the soldier retired from the assembly with the state council at his heels. the advocate lost no time in directing the military occupation of the principal towns of holland, such as leyden, gouda, rotterdam, schoonhoven, hoorn, and other cities. at leyden especially, where a strong orange party was with difficulty kept in obedience by the remonstrant magistracy, it was found necessary to erect a stockade about the town-hall and to plant caltrops and other obstructions in the squares and streets. the broad space in front; of the beautiful medieval seat of the municipal government, once so sacred for the sublime and pathetic scenes enacted there during the famous siege and in the magistracy of peter van der werff, was accordingly enclosed by a solid palisade of oaken planks, strengthened by rows of iron bars with barbed prongs: the entrenchment was called by the populace the arminian fort, and the iron spear heads were baptized barneveld's teeth. cannon were planted at intervals along the works, and a company or two of the waartgelders, armed from head to foot, with snaphances on their shoulders, stood ever ready to issue forth to quell any disturbances. occasionally a life or two was lost of citizen or soldier, and many doughty blows were interchanged. it was a melancholy spectacle. no commonwealth could be more fortunate than this republic in possessing two such great leading minds. no two men could be more patriotic than both stadholder and advocate. no two men could be prouder, more overbearing, less conciliatory. "i know mons. barneveld well," said sir ralph winwood, "and know that he hath great powers and abilities, and malice itself must confess that man never hath done more faithful and powerful service to his country than he. but 'finis coronat opus' and 'il di lodi lacera; oportet imperatorem stantem mori.'" the cities of holland were now thoroughly "waartgeldered," and barneveld having sufficiently shown his "teeth" in that province departed for change of air to utrecht. his failing health was assigned as the pretext for the visit, although the atmosphere of that city has never been considered especially salubrious in the dog-days. meantime the stadholder remained quiet, but biding his time. he did not choose to provoke a premature conflict in the strongholds of the arminians as he called them, but with a true military instinct preferred making sure of the ports. amsterdam, enkhuyzen, flushing, being without any effort of his own within his control, he quietly slipped down the river meuse on the night of the th september, accompanied by his brother frederic henrys and before six o'clock next morning had introduced a couple of companies of trustworthy troops into brielle, had summoned the magistrates before him, and compelled them to desist from all further intention of levying mercenaries. thus all the fortresses which barneveld had so recently and in such masterly fashion rescued from the grasp of england were now quietly reposing in the hands of the stadholder. maurice thought it not worth his while for the present to quell the mutiny--as he considered it the legal and constitutional defence of vested right--as great jurists like barneveld and hugo grotius accounted the movement--at its "fountain head leyden or its chief stream utrecht;" to use the expression of carleton. there had already been bloodshed in leyden, a burgher or two having been shot and a soldier stoned to death in the streets, but the stadholder deemed it unwise to precipitate matters. feeling himself, with his surpassing military knowledge and with a large majority of the nation at his back, so completely master of the situation, he preferred waiting on events. and there is no doubt that he was proving himself a consummate politician and a perfect master of fence. "he is much beloved and followed both of soldiers and people," said the english ambassador, "he is a man 'innoxiae popularitatis' so as this jealousy cannot well be fastened upon him; and in this cause of religion he stirred not until within these few months he saw he must declare himself or suffer the better party to be overborne." the chief tribunal-high council so called-of the country soon gave evidence that the "sharp resolution" had judged rightly in reckoning on its hostility and in nullifying its decisions in advance. they decided by a majority vote that the resolution ought not to be obeyed, but set aside. amsterdam, and the three or four cities usually acting with her, refused to enlist troops. rombout hoogerbeets, a member of the tribunal, informed prince maurice that he "would no longer be present on a bench where men disputed the authority of the states of holland, which he held to be the supreme sovereignty over him." this was plain speaking; a distinct enunciation of what the states' right party deemed to be constitutional law. and what said maurice in reply? "i, too, recognize the states of holland as sovereign; but we might at least listen to each other occasionally." hoogerbeets, however, deeming that listening had been carried far enough, decided to leave the tribunal altogether, and to resume the post which he had formerly occupied as pensionary or chief magistrate of leyden. here he was soon to find himself in the thick of the conflict. meantime the states-general, in full assembly, on th november , voted that the national synod should be held in the course of the following year. the measure was carried by a strict party vote and by a majority of one. the representatives of each province voting as one, there were four in favour of to three against the synod. the minority, consisting of holland, utrecht, and overyssel, protested against the vote as an outrageous invasion of the rights of each province, as an act of flagrant tyranny and usurpation. the minority in the states of holland, the five cities often named, protested against the protest. the defective part of the netherland constitutions could not be better illustrated. the minority of the states of holland refused to be bound by a majority of the provincial assembly. the minority of the states-general refused to be bound by the majority of the united assembly. this was reducing politics to an absurdity and making all government impossible. it is however quite certain that in the municipal governments a majority had always governed, and that a majority vote in the provincial assemblies had always prevailed. the present innovation was to govern the states-general by a majority. yet viewed by the light of experience and of common sense, it would be difficult to conceive of a more preposterous proceeding than thus to cram a religious creed down the throats of half the population of a country by the vote of a political assembly. but it was the seventeenth and not the nineteenth century. moreover, if there were any meaning in words, the th article of union, reserving especially the disposition over religious matters to each province, had been wisely intended to prevent the possibility of such tyranny. when the letters of invitation to the separate states and to others were drawing up in the general assembly, the representatives of the three states left the chamber. a solitary individual from holland remained however, a burgomaster of amsterdam. uytenbogaert, conversing with barneveld directly afterwards, advised him to accept the vote. yielding to the decision of the majority, it would be possible, so thought the clergyman, for the great statesman so to handle matters as to mould the synod to his will, even as he had so long controlled the states-provincial and the states-general. "if you are willing to give away the rights of the land," said the advocate very sharply, "i am not." probably the priest's tactics might have proved more adroit than the stony opposition on which barneveld was resolved. but it was with the aged statesman a matter of principle, not of policy. his character and his personal pride, the dignity of opinion and office, his respect for constitutional law, were all at stake. shallow observers considered the struggle now taking place as a personal one. lovers of personal government chose to look upon the advocate's party as a faction inspired with an envious resolve to clip the wings of the stadholder, who was at last flying above their heads. there could be no doubt of the bitter animosity between the two men. there could be no doubt that jealousy was playing the part which that master passion will ever play in all the affairs of life. but there could be no doubt either that a difference of principle as wide as the world separated the two antagonists. even so keen an observer as dudley carleton, while admitting the man's intellectual power and unequalled services, could see nothing in the advocate's present course but prejudice, obstinacy, and the insanity of pride. "he doth no whit spare himself in pains nor faint in his resolution," said the envoy, "wherein notwithstanding he will in all appearance succumb ere afore long, having the disadvantages of a weak body, a weak party, and a weak cause." but carleton hated barneveld, and considered it the chief object of his mission to destroy him, if he could. in so doing he would best carry out the wishes of his sovereign. the king of britain had addressed a somewhat equivocal letter to the states-general on the subject of religion in the spring of . it certainly was far from being as satisfactory as, the epistles of prepared under the advocate's instructions, had been, while the exuberant commentary upon the royal text, delivered in full assembly by his ambassador soon after the reception of the letter, was more than usually didactic, offensive, and ignorant. sir dudley never omitted an opportunity of imparting instruction to the states-general as to the nature of their constitution and the essential dogmas on which their church was founded. it is true that the great lawyers and the great theologians of the country were apt to hold very different opinions from his upon those important subjects, but this was so much the worse for the lawyers and theologians, as time perhaps might prove. the king in this last missive had proceeded to unsay the advice which he had formerly bestowed upon the states, by complaining that his earlier letters had been misinterpreted. they had been made use of, he said, to authorize the very error against which they had been directed. they had been held to intend the very contrary of what they did mean. he felt himself bound in conscience therefore, finding these differences ready to be "hatched into schisms," to warn the states once more against pests so pernicious. although the royal language was somewhat vague so far as enunciation of doctrine, a point on which he had once confessed himself fallible, was concerned, there was nothing vague in his recommendation of a national synod. to this the opposition of barneveld was determined not upon religious but upon constitutional grounds. the confederacy did not constitute a nation, and therefore there could not be a national synod nor a national religion. carleton came before the states-general soon afterwards with a prepared oration, wearisome as a fast-day sermon after the third turn of the hour-glass, pragmatical as a schoolmaster's harangue to fractious little boys. he divided his lecture into two heads--the peace of the church, and the peace of the provinces--starting with the first. "a jove principium," he said, "i will begin with that which is both beginning and end. it is the truth of god's word and its maintenance that is the bond of our common cause. reasons of state invite us as friends and neighbours by the preservation of our lives and property, but the interest of religion binds us as christians and brethren to the mutual defence of the liberty of our consciences." he then proceeded to point out the only means by which liberty of conscience could be preserved. it was by suppressing all forms of religion but one, and by silencing all religious discussion. peter titelman and philip ii. could not have devised a more pithy formula. all that was wanting was the axe and faggot to reduce uniformity to practice. then liberty of conscience would be complete. "one must distinguish," said the ambassador, "between just liberty and unbridled license, and conclude that there is but one truth single and unique. those who go about turning their brains into limbecks for distilling new notions in religious matters only distract the union of the church which makes profession of this unique truth. if it be permitted to one man to publish the writings and fantasies of a sick spirit and for another moved by christian zeal to reduce this wanderer 'ad sanam mentem;' why then 'patet locus adversus utrumque,' and the common enemy (the devil) slips into the fortress." he then proceeded to illustrate this theory on liberty of conscience by allusions to conrad vorstius. this infamous sectary had in fact reached such a pitch of audacity, said the ambassador, as not only to inveigh against the eternal power of god but to indulge in irony against the honour of his majesty king james. and in what way had he scandalized the government of the republic? he had dared to say that within its borders there was religious toleration. he had distinctly averred that in the united provinces heretics were not punished with death or with corporal chastisement. "he declares openly," said carleton, "that contra haereticos etiam vere dictos (ne dum falso et calumniose sic traductos) there is neither sentence of death nor other corporal punishment, so that in order to attract to himself a great following of birds of the name feather he publishes to all the world that here in this country one can live and die a heretic, unpunished, without being arrested and without danger." in order to suppress this reproach upon the republic at which the ambassador stood aghast, and to prevent the vorstian doctrines of religious toleration and impunity of heresy from spreading among "the common people, so subject by their natures to embrace new opinions," he advised of course that "the serpent be sent back to the nest where he was born before the venom had spread through the whole body of the republic." a week afterwards a long reply was delivered on part of the states-general to the ambassador's oration. it is needless to say that it was the work of the advocate, and that it was in conformity with the opinions so often exhibited in the letters to caron and others of which the reader has seen many samples. that religious matters were under the control of the civil government, and that supreme civil authority belonged to each one of the seven sovereign provinces, each recognizing no superior within its own sphere, were maxims of state always enforced in the netherlands and on which the whole religious controversy turned. "the states-general have always cherished the true christian apostolic religion," they said, "and wished it to be taught under the authority and protection of the legal government of these provinces in all purity, and in conformity with the holy scriptures, to the good people of these provinces. and my lords the states and magistrates of the respective provinces, each within their own limits, desire the same." they had therefore given express orders to the preachers "to keep the peace by mutual and benign toleration of the different opinions on the one side and the other at least until with full knowledge of the subject the states might otherwise ordain. they had been the more moved to this because his majesty having carefully examined the opinions of the learned hereon each side had found both consistent with christian belief and the salvation of souls." it was certainly not the highest expression of religious toleration for the civil authority to forbid the clergymen of the country from discussing in their pulpits the knottiest and most mysterious points of the schoolmen lest the "common people" should be puzzled. nevertheless, where the close union of church and state and the necessity of one church were deemed matters of course, it was much to secure subordination of the priesthood to the magistracy, while to enjoin on preachers abstention from a single exciting cause of quarrel, on the ground that there was more than one path to salvation, and that mutual toleration was better than mutual persecution, was; in that age, a stride towards religious equality. it was at least an advance on carleton's dogma, that there was but one unique and solitary truth, and that to declare heretics not punishable with death was an insult to the government of the republic. the states-general answered the ambassador's plea, made in the name of his master, for immediate and unguaranteed evacuation of the debatable land by the arguments already so often stated in the advocate's instructions to caron. they had been put to great trouble and expense already in their campaigning and subsequent fortification of important places in the duchies. they had seen the bitter spirit manifested by the spaniards in the demolition of the churches and houses of mulheim and other places. "while the affair remained in its present terms of utter uncertainty their mightinesses," said the states-general, "find it most objectionable to forsake the places which they have been fortifying and to leave the duchies and all their fellow-religionists, besides the rights of the possessory princes a prey to those who have been hankering for the territories for long years, and who would unquestionably be able to make themselves absolute masters of all within a very few days." a few months later carleton came before the states-general again and delivered another elaborate oration, duly furnished to him by the king, upon the necessity of the national synod, the comparative merits of arminianism and contra-remonstrantism, together with a full exposition of the constitutions of the netherlands. it might be supposed that barneveld and grotius and hoogerbeets knew something of the law and history of their country. but james knew much better, and so his envoy endeavoured to convince his audience. he received on the spot a temperate but conclusive reply from the delegates of holland. they informed him that the war with spain--the cause of the utrecht union--was not begun about religion but on account of the violation of liberties, chartered rights and privileges, not the least of which rights was that of each province to regulate religious matters within its borders. a little later a more vehement reply was published anonymously in the shape of a pamphlet called 'the balance,' which much angered the ambassador and goaded his master almost to frenzy. it was deemed so blasphemous, so insulting to the majesty of england, so entirely seditious, that james, not satisfied with inditing a rejoinder, insisted through carleton that a reward should be offered by the states for the detection of the author, in order that he might be condignly punished. this was done by a majority vote, florins being offered for the discovery of the author and for that of the printer. naturally the step was opposed in the states-general; two deputies in particular making themselves conspicuous. one of them was an audacious old gentleman named brinius of gelderland, "much corrupted with arminianism," so carleton informed his sovereign. he appears to have inherited his audacity through his pedigree, descending, as it was ludicrously enough asserted he did, from a chief of the caninefates, the ancient inhabitants of gelderland, called brinio. and brinio the caninefat had been as famous for his stolid audacity as for his illustrious birth; "erat in caninefatibus stolidae audaciae brinio claritate natalium insigni." the patronizing manner in which the ambassador alluded to the other member of the states-general who opposed the decree was still more diverting. it was "grotius, the pensioner of rotterdam, a young petulant brain, not unknown to your majesty," said carleton. two centuries and a half have rolled away, and there are few majesties, few nations, and few individuals to whom the name of that petulant youth is unknown; but how many are familiar with the achievements of the able representative of king james? nothing came of the measure, however, and the offer of course helped the circulation of the pamphlet. it is amusing to see the ferocity thus exhibited by the royal pamphleteer against a rival; especially when one can find no crime in 'the balance' save a stinging and well-merited criticism of a very stupid oration. gillis van ledenberg was generally supposed to be the author of it. carleton inclined, however, to suspect grotius, "because," said he, "having always before been a stranger to my house, he has made me the day before the publication thereof a complimentary visit, although it was sunday and church time; whereby the italian proverb, 'chi ti caresse piu che suole,' &c.,' is added to other likelihoods." it was subsequently understood however that the pamphlet was written by a remonstrant preacher of utrecht, named jacobus taurinus; one of those who had been doomed to death by the mutinous government in that city seven years before. it was now sufficiently obvious that either the governments in the three opposition provinces must be changed or that the national synod must be imposed by a strict majority vote in the teeth of the constitution and of vigorous and eloquent protests drawn up by the best lawyers in the country. the advocate and grotius recommended a provincial synod first and, should that not succeed in adjusting the differences of church government, then the convocation of a general or oecumenical synod. they resisted the national synod because, in their view, the provinces were not a nation. a league of seven sovereign and independent mates was all that legally existed in the netherlands. it was accordingly determined that the governments should be changed, and the stadholder set himself to prepare the way for a thorough and, if possible, a bloodless revolution. he departed on the th november for a tour through the chief cities, and before leaving the hague addressed an earnest circular letter to the various municipalities of holland. a more truly dignified, reasonable, right royal letter, from the stadholder's point of view, could not have been indited. the imperial "we" breathing like a morning breeze through the whole of it blew away all legal and historical mistiness. but the clouds returned again nevertheless. unfortunately for maurice it could not be argued by the pen, however it might be proved by the sword, that the netherlands constituted a nation, and that a convocation of doctors of divinity summoned by a body of envoys had the right to dictate a creed to seven republics. all parties were agreed on one point. there must be unity of divine worship. the territory of the netherlands was not big enough to hold two systems of religion, two forms of christianity, two sects of protestantism. it was big enough to hold seven independent and sovereign states, but would be split into fragments--resolved into chaos--should there be more than one church or if once a schism were permitted in that church. grotius was as much convinced of this as gomarus. and yet the th article of the union stared them all in the face, forbidding the hideous assumptions now made by the general government. perhaps no man living fully felt its import save barneveld alone. for groping however dimly and hesitatingly towards the idea of religious liberty, of general toleration, he was denounced as a papist, an atheist, a traitor, a miscreant, by the fanatics for the sacerdotal and personal power. yet it was a pity that he could never contemplate the possibility of his country's throwing off the swaddling clothes of provincialism which had wrapped its infancy. doubtless history, law, tradition, and usage pointed to the independent sovereignty of each province. yet the period of the truce was precisely the time when a more generous constitution, a national incorporation might have been constructed to take the place of the loose confederacy by which the gigantic war had been fought out. after all, foreign powers had no connection with the states, and knew only the union with which and with which alone they made treaties, and the reality of sovereignty in each province was as ridiculous as in theory it was impregnable. but barneveld, under the modest title of advocate of one province, had been in reality president and prime minister of the whole commonwealth. he had himself been the union and the sovereignty. it was not wonderful that so imperious a nature objected to transfer its powers to the church, to the states-general, or to maurice. moreover, when nationality assumed the unlovely form of rigid religious uniformity; when union meant an exclusive self-governed church enthroned above the state, responsible to no civic authority and no human law, the boldest patriot might shiver at emerging from provincialism. chapter xv. the commonwealth bent on self-destruction--evils of a confederate system of government--rem bischop's house sacked--aerssens' unceasing efforts against barneveld--the advocate's interview with maurice--the states of utrecht raise the troops--the advocate at utrecht--barneveld urges mutual toleration--barneveld accused of being partisan of spain--carleton takes his departure. it is not cheerful after widely contemplating the aspect of christendom in the year of supreme preparation to examine with the minuteness absolutely necessary the narrow theatre to which the political affairs of the great republic had been reduced. that powerful commonwealth, to which the great party of the reformation naturally looked for guidance in the coming conflict, seemed bent on self-destruction. the microcosm of the netherlands now represented, alas! the war of elements going on without on a world-wide scale. as the calvinists and lutherans of germany were hotly attacking each other even in sight of the embattled front of spain and the league, so the gomarites and the arminians by their mutual rancour were tearing the political power of the dutch republic to shreds and preventing her from assuming a great part in the crisis. the consummate soldier, the unrivalled statesman, each superior in his sphere to any contemporary rival, each supplementing the other, and making up together, could they have been harmonized, a double head such as no political organism then existing could boast, were now in hopeless antagonism to each other. a mass of hatred had been accumulated against the advocate with which he found it daily more and more difficult to struggle. the imperious, rugged, and suspicious nature of the stadholder had been steadily wrought upon by the almost devilish acts of francis aerssens until he had come to look upon his father's most faithful adherent, his own early preceptor in statesmanship and political supporter, as an antagonist, a conspirator, and a tyrant. the soldier whose unrivalled ability, experience, and courage in the field should have placed him at the very head of the great european army of defence against the general crusade upon protestantism, so constantly foretold by barneveld, was now to be engaged in making bloodless but mischievous warfare against an imaginary conspiracy and a patriot foe. the advocate, keeping steadily in view the great principles by which his political life had been guided, the supremacy of the civil authority in any properly organized commonwealth over the sacerdotal and military, found himself gradually forced into mortal combat with both. to the individual sovereignty of each province he held with the tenacity of a lawyer and historian. in that he found the only clue through the labyrinth which ecclesiastical and political affairs presented. so close was the tangle, so confused the medley, that without this slender guide all hope of legal issue seemed lost. no doubt the difficulty of the doctrine of individual sovereignty was great, some of the provinces being such slender morsels of territory, with resources so trivial, as to make the name of sovereignty ludicrous. yet there could be as little doubt that no other theory was tenable. if so powerful a mind as that of the advocate was inclined to strain the theory to its extreme limits, it was because in the overshadowing superiority of the one province holland had been found the practical remedy for the imbecility otherwise sure to result from such provincial and meagre federalism. moreover, to obtain union by stretching all the ancient historical privileges and liberties of the separate provinces upon the procrustean bed of a single dogma, to look for nationality only in common subjection to an infallible priesthood, to accept a catechism as the palladium upon which the safety of the state was to depend for all time, and beyond which there was to be no further message from heaven--such was not healthy constitutionalism in the eyes of a great statesman. no doubt that without the fervent spirit of calvinism it would have been difficult to wage war with such immortal hate as the netherlands had waged it, no doubt the spirit of republican and even democratic liberty lay hidden within that rigid husk, but it was dishonour to the martyrs who had died by thousands at the stake and on the battle field for the rights of conscience if the only result of their mighty warfare against wrong had been to substitute a new dogma for an old one, to stifle for ever the right of free enquiry, theological criticism, and the hope of further light from on high, and to proclaim it a libel on the republic that within its borders all heretics, whether arminian or papist, were safe from the death penalty or even from bodily punishment. a theological union instead of a national one and obtained too at the sacrifice of written law and immemorial tradition, a congress in which clerical deputations from all the provinces and from foreign nations should prescribe to all netherlanders an immutable creed and a shadowy constitution, were not the true remedies for the evils of confederacy, nor, if they had been, was the time an appropriate one for their application. it was far too early in the world's history to hope for such redistribution of powers and such a modification of the social compact as would place in separate spheres the church and the state, double the sanctions and the consolations of religion by removing it from the pollutions of political warfare, and give freedom to individual conscience by securing it from the interference of government. it is melancholy to see the republic thus perversely occupying its energies. it is melancholy to see the great soldier becoming gradually more ardent for battle with barneveld and uytenbogaert than with spinola and bucquoy, against whom he had won so many imperishable laurels. it is still sadder to see the man who had been selected by henry iv. as the one statesman of europe to whom he could confide his great projects for the pacification of christendom, and on whom he could depend for counsel and support in schemes which, however fantastic in some of their details, had for their object to prevent the very european war of religion against which barneveld had been struggling, now reduced to defend himself against suspicion hourly darkening and hatred growing daily more insane. the eagle glance and restless wing, which had swept the whole political atmosphere, now caged within the stifling limits of theological casuistry and personal rivalry were afflicting to contemplate. the evils resulting from a confederate system of government, from a league of petty sovereignties which dared not become a nation, were as woefully exemplified in the united provinces as they were destined to be more than a century and a half later, and in another hemisphere, before that most fortunate and sagacious of written political instruments, the american constitution of , came to remedy the weakness of the old articles of union. meantime the netherlands were a confederacy, not a nation. their general government was but a committee. it could ask of, but not command, the separate provinces. it had no dealings with nor power over the inhabitants of the country; it could say "thou shalt" neither to state nor citizen; it could consult only with corporations--fictitious and many-headed personages--itself incorporate. there was no first magistrate, no supreme court, no commander-in-chief, no exclusive mint nor power of credit, no national taxation, no central house of representation and legislation, no senate. unfortunately it had one church, and out of this single matrix of centralism was born more discord than had been produced by all the centrifugal forces of provincialism combined. there had been working substitutes found, as we well know, for the deficiencies of this constitution, but the advocate felt himself bound to obey and enforce obedience to the laws and privileges of his country so long as they remained without authorized change. his country was the province of holland, to which his allegiance was due and whose servant he was. that there was but one church paid and sanctioned by law, he admitted, but his efforts were directed to prevent discord within that church, by counselling moderation, conciliation, mutual forbearance, and abstention from irritating discussion of dogmas deemed by many thinkers and better theologians than himself not essential to salvation. in this he was much behind his age or before it. he certainly was not with the majority. and thus, while the election of ferdinand had given the signal of war all over christendom, while from the demolished churches in bohemia the tocsin was still sounding, whose vibrations were destined to be heard a generation long through the world, there was less sympathy felt with the call within the territory of the great republic of protestantism than would have seemed imaginable a few short years before. the capture of the cloister church at the hague in the summer of seemed to minds excited by personal rivalries and minute theological controversy a more momentous event than the destruction of the churches in the klostergrab in the following december. the triumph of gomarism in a single dutch city inspired more enthusiasm for the moment than the deadly buffet to european protestantism could inspire dismay. the church had been carried and occupied, as it were, by force, as if an enemy's citadel. it seemed necessary to associate the idea of practical warfare with a movement which might have been a pacific clerical success. barneveld and those who acted with him, while deploring the intolerance out of which the schism had now grown to maturity, had still hoped for possible accommodation of the quarrel. they dreaded popular tumults leading to oppression of the magistracy by the mob or the soldiery and ending in civil war. but what was wanted by the extreme partisans on either side was not accommodation but victory. "religious differences are causing much trouble and discontents in many cities," he said. "at amsterdam there were in the past week two assemblages of boys and rabble which did not disperse without violence, crime, and robbery. the brother of professor episcopius (rem bischop) was damaged to the amount of several thousands. we are still hoping that some better means of accommodation may be found." the calmness with which the advocate spoke of these exciting and painful events is remarkable. it was exactly a week before the date of his letter that this riot had taken place at amsterdam; very significant in its nature and nearly tragical in its results. there were no remonstrant preachers left in the city, and the people of that persuasion were excluded from the communion service. on sunday morning, th february ( ), a furious mob set upon the house of rem bischop, a highly respectable and wealthy citizen, brother of the remonstrant professor episcopius, of leyden. the house, an elegant mansion in one of the principal streets, was besieged and after an hour's resistance carried by storm. the pretext of the assault was that arminian preaching was going on within its walls, which was not the fact. the mistress of the house, half clad, attempted to make her escape by the rear of the building, was pursued by the rabble with sticks and stones, and shrieks of "kill the arminian harlot, strike her dead," until she fortunately found refuge in the house of a neighbouring carpenter. there the hunted creature fell insensible on the ground, the master of the house refusing to give her up, though the maddened mob surged around it, swearing that if the "arminian harlot"--as respectable a matron as lived in the city--were not delivered over to them, they would tear the house to pieces. the hope of plunder and of killing rem bischop himself drew them at last back to his mansion. it was thoroughly sacked; every portable article of value, linen, plate, money, furniture, was carried off, the pictures and objects of art destroyed, the house gutted from top to bottom. a thousand spectators were looking on placidly at the work of destruction as they returned from church, many of them with bible and psalm-book in their hands. the master effected his escape over the roof into an adjoining building. one of the ringleaders, a carpenter by trade, was arrested carrying an armful of valuable plunder. he was asked by the magistrate why he had entered the house. "out of good zeal," he replied; "to help beat and kill the arminians who were holding conventicle there." he was further asked why he hated the arminians so much. "are we to suffer such folk here," he replied, "who preach the vile doctrine that god has created one man for damnation and another for salvation?"--thus ascribing the doctrine of the church of which he supposed himself a member to the arminians whom he had been plundering and wished to kill. rem bischop received no compensation for the damage and danger; the general cry in the town being that the money he was receiving from barneveld and the king of spain would make him good even if not a stone of the house had been left standing. on the following thursday two elders of the church council waited upon and informed him that he must in future abstain from the communion service. it may well be supposed that the virtual head of the government liked not the triumph of mob law, in the name of religion, over the civil authority. the advocate was neither democrat nor demagogue. a lawyer, a magistrate, and a noble, he had but little sympathy with the humbler classes, which he was far too much in the habit of designating as rabble and populace. yet his anger was less against them than against the priests, the foreigners, the military and diplomatic mischief-makers, by whom they were set upon to dangerous demonstrations. the old patrician scorned the arts by which highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation for inferiors whom they despise. it was his instinct to protect, and guide the people, in whom he recognized no chartered nor inherent right to govern. it was his resolve, so long as breath was in him, to prevent them from destroying life and property and subverting the government under the leadership of an inflamed priesthood. it was with this intention, as we have just seen, and in order to avoid bloodshed, anarchy, and civil war in the streets of every town and village, that a decisive but in the advocate's opinion a perfectly legal step had been taken by the states of holland. it had become necessary to empower the magistracies of towns to defend themselves by enrolled troops against mob violence and against an enforced synod considered by great lawyers as unconstitutional. aerssens resided in zealand, and the efforts of that ex-ambassador were unceasing to excite popular animosity against the man he hated and to trouble the political waters in which no man knew better than he how to cast the net. "the states of zealand," said the advocate to the ambassador in london, "have a deputation here about the religious differences, urging the holding of a national synod according to the king's letters, to which some other provinces and some of the cities of holland incline. the questions have not yet been defined by a common synod, so that a national one could make no definition, while the particular synods and clerical personages are so filled with prejudices and so bound by mutual engagements of long date as to make one fear an unfruitful issue. we are occupied upon this point in our assembly of holland to devise some compromise and to discover by what means these difficulties may be brought into a state of tranquillity." it will be observed that in all these most private and confidential utterances of the advocate a tone of extreme moderation, an anxious wish to save the provinces from dissensions, dangers, and bloodshed, is distinctly visible. never is he betrayed into vindictive, ambitious, or self-seeking expressions, while sometimes, although rarely, despondent in mind. nor was his opposition to a general synod absolute. he was probably persuaded however, as we have just seen, that it should of necessity be preceded by provincial ones, both in due regard to the laws of the land and to the true definition of the points to be submitted to its decision. he had small hope of a successful result from it. the british king gave him infinite distress. as towards france so towards england the advocate kept steadily before him the necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns whose friendship was necessary to the republic he served, however misguided, perverse, or incompetent those monarchs might be. "i had always hoped," he said, "that his majesty would have adhered to his original written advice, that such questions as these ought to be quietly settled by authority of law and not by ecclesiastical persons, and i still hope that his majesty's intention is really to that effect, although he speaks of synods." a month later he felt even more encouraged. "the last letter of his majesty concerning our religious questions," he said, "has given rise to various constructions, but the best advised, who have peace and unity at heart, understand the king's intention to be to conserve the state of these provinces and the religion in its purity. my hope is that his majesty's good opinion will be followed and adopted according to the most appropriate methods." can it be believed that the statesman whose upright patriotism, moderation, and nobleness of purpose thus breathed through every word spoken by him in public or whispered to friends was already held up by a herd of ravening slanderers to obloquy as a traitor and a tyrant? he was growing old and had suffered much from illness during this eventful summer, but his anxiety for the commonwealth, caused by these distressing and superfluous squabbles, were wearing into him more deeply than years or disease could do. "owing to my weakness and old age i can't go up-stairs as well as i used," he said,--[barneveld to caron july and aug. . (h. arch. ms.)]--"and these religious dissensions cause me sometimes such disturbance of mind as will ere long become intolerable, because of my indisposition and because of the cry of my heart at the course people are pursuing here. i reflect that at the time of duke casimir and the prince of chimay exactly such a course was held in flanders and in lord leicester's time in the city of utrecht, as is best known to yourself. my hope is fixed on the lord god almighty, and that he will make those well ashamed who are laying anything to heart save his honour and glory and the welfare of our country with maintenance of its freedom and laws. i mean unchangeably to live and die for them . . . . believe firmly that all representations to the contrary are vile calumnies." before leaving for vianen in the middle of august of this year ( ) the advocate had an interview with the prince. there had been no open rupture between them, and barneveld was most anxious to avoid a quarrel with one to whose interests and honour he had always been devoted. he did not cling to power nor office. on the contrary, he had repeatedly importuned the states to accept his resignation, hoping that perhaps these unhappy dissensions might be quieted by his removal from the scene. he now told the prince that the misunderstanding between them arising from these religious disputes was so painful to his heart that he would make and had made every possible effort towards conciliation and amicable settlement of the controversy. he saw no means now, he said, of bringing about unity, unless his excellency were willing to make some proposition for arrangement. this he earnestly implored the prince to do, assuring him of his sincere and upright affection for him and his wish to support such measures to the best of his ability and to do everything for the furtherance of his reputation and necessary authority. he was so desirous of this result, he said, that he would propose now as he did at the time of the truce negotiations to lay down all his offices, leaving his excellency to guide the whole course of affairs according to his best judgment. he had already taken a resolution, if no means of accommodation were possible, to retire to his gunterstein estate and there remain till the next meeting of the assembly; when he would ask leave to retire for at least a year; in order to occupy himself with a revision and collation of the charters, laws, and other state papers of the country which were in his keeping, and which it was needful to bring into an orderly condition. meantime some scheme might be found for arranging the religious differences, more effective than any he had been able to devise. his appeal seems to have glanced powerlessly upon the iron reticence of maurice, and the advocate took his departure disheartened. later in the autumn, so warm a remonstrance was made to him by the leading nobles and deputies of holland against his contemplated withdrawal from his post that it seemed a dereliction of duty on his part to retire. he remained to battle with the storm and to see "with anguish of heart," as he expressed it, the course religious affairs were taking. the states of utrecht on the th august resolved that on account of the gathering of large masses of troops in the countries immediately adjoining their borders, especially in the episcopate of cologne, by aid of spanish money, it was expedient for them to enlist a protective force of six companies of regular soldiers in order to save the city from sudden and overwhelming attack by foreign troops. even if the danger from without were magnified in this preamble, which is by no means certain, there seemed to be no doubt on the subject in the minds of the magistrates. they believed that they had the right to protect and that they were bound to protect their ancient city from sudden assault, whether by spanish soldiers or by organized mobs attempting, as had been done in rotterdam, oudewater, and other towns, to overawe the civil authority in the interest of the contra-remonstrants. six nobles of utrecht were accordingly commissioned to raise the troops. a week later they had been enlisted, sworn to obey in all things the states of utrecht, and to take orders from no one else. three days later the states of utrecht addressed a letter to their mightinesses the states-general and to his excellency the prince, notifying them that for the reasons stated in the resolution cited the six companies had been levied. there seemed in these proceedings to be no thought of mutiny or rebellion, the province considering itself as acting within its unquestionable rights as a sovereign state and without any exaggeration of the imperious circumstances of the case. nor did the states-general and the stadholder at that moment affect to dispute the rights of utrecht, nor raise a doubt as to the legality of the proceedings. the committee sent thither by the states-general, the prince, and the council of state in their written answer to the letter of the utrecht government declared the reasons given for the enrolment of the six companies to be insufficient and the measure itself highly dangerous. they complained, but in very courteous language, that the soldiers had been levied without giving the least notice thereof to the general government, without asking its advice, or waiting for any communication from it, and they reminded the states of utrecht that they might always rely upon the states-general and his excellency, who were still ready, as they had been seven years before ( ), to protect them against every enemy and any danger. the conflict between a single province of the confederacy and the authority of the general government had thus been brought to a direct issue; to the test of arms. for, notwithstanding the preamble to the resolution of the utrecht assembly just cited, there could be little question that the resolve itself was a natural corollary of the famous "sharp resolution," passed by the states of holland three weeks before. utrecht was in arms to prevent, among other things at least, the forcing upon them by a majority of the states-general of the national synod to which they were opposed, the seizure of churches by the contra-remonstrants, and the destruction of life and property by inflamed mobs. there is no doubt that barneveld deeply deplored the issue, but that he felt himself bound to accept it. the innate absurdity of a constitutional system under which each of the seven members was sovereign and independent and the head was at the mercy of the members could not be more flagrantly illustrated. in the bloody battles which seemed impending in the streets of utrecht and in all the principal cities of the netherlands between the soldiers of sovereign states and soldiers of a general government which was not sovereign, the letter of the law and the records of history were unquestionably on the aide of the provincial and against the general authority. yet to nullify the authority of the states-general by force of arms at this supreme moment was to stultify all government whatever. it was an awful dilemma, and it is difficult here fully to sympathize with the advocate, for he it was who inspired, without dictating, the course of the utrecht proceedings. with him patriotism seemed at this moment to dwindle into provincialism, the statesman to shrink into the lawyer. certainly there was no guilt in the proceedings. there was no crime in the heart of the advocate. he had exhausted himself with appeals in favour of moderation, conciliation, compromise. he had worked night and day with all the energy of a pure soul and a great mind to assuage religious hatreds and avert civil dissensions. he was overpowered. he had frequently desired to be released from all his functions, but as dangers thickened over the provinces, he felt it his duty so long as he remained at his post to abide by the law as the only anchor in the storm. not rising in his mind to the height of a national idea, and especially averse from it when embodied in the repulsive form of religious uniformity, he did not shrink from a contest which he had not provoked, but had done his utmost to avert. but even then he did not anticipate civil war. the enrolling of the waartgelders was an armed protest, a symbol of legal conviction rather than a serious effort to resist the general government. and this is the chief justification of his course from a political point of view. it was ridiculous to suppose that with a few hundred soldiers hastily enlisted--and there were less than waartgelders levied throughout the provinces and under the orders of civil magistrates--a serious contest was intended against a splendidly disciplined army of veteran troops, commanded by the first general of the age. from a legal point of view barneveld considered his position impregnable. the controversy is curious, especially for americans, and for all who are interested in the analysis of federal institutions and of republican principles, whether aristocratic or democratic. the states of utrecht replied in decorous but firm language to the committee of the states-general that they had raised the six companies in accordance with their sovereign right so to do, and that they were resolved to maintain them. they could not wait as they had been obliged to do in the time of the earl of leicester and more recently in until they had been surprised and overwhelmed by the enemy before the states-general and his excellency the prince could come to their rescue. they could not suffer all the evils of tumults, conspiracies, and foreign invasion, without defending themselves. making use, they said, of the right of sovereignty which in their province belonged to them alone, they thought it better to prevent in time and by convenient means such fire and mischief than to look on while it kindled and spread into a conflagration, and to go about imploring aid from their fellow confederates who, god better it, had enough in these times to do at home. this would only be to bring them as well as this province into trouble, disquiet, and expense. "my lords the states of utrecht have conserved and continually exercised this right of sovereignty in its entireness ever since renouncing the king of spain. every contract, ordinance, and instruction of the states-general has been in conformity with it, and the states of utrecht are convinced that the states of not one of their confederate provinces would yield an atom of its sovereignty." they reminded the general government that by the st article of the "closer union" of utrecht, on which that assembly was founded, it was bound to support the states of the respective provinces and strengthen them with counsel, treasure, and blood if their respective rights, more especially their individual sovereignty, the most precious of all, should be assailed. to refrain from so doing would be to violate a solemn contract. they further reminded the council of state that by its institution the states-provincial had not abdicated their respective sovereignties, but had reserved it in all matters not specifically mentioned in the original instruction by which it was created. two days afterwards arnold van randwyck and three other commissioners were instructed by the general government to confer with the states of utrecht, to tell them that their reply was deemed unsatisfactory, that their reasons for levying soldiers in times when all good people should be seeking to restore harmony and mitigate dissension were insufficient, and to request them to disband those levies without prejudice in so doing to the laws and liberties of the province and city of utrecht. here was perhaps an opening for a compromise, the instruction being not without ingenuity, and the word sovereignty in regard either to the general government or the separate provinces being carefully omitted. soon afterwards, too, the states-general went many steps farther in the path of concession, for they made another appeal to the government of utrecht to disband the waartgelders on the ground of expediency, and in so doing almost expressly admitted the doctrine of provincial sovereignty. it is important in regard to subsequent events to observe this virtual admission. "your honours lay especial stress upon the right of sovereignty as belonging to you alone in your province," they said, "and dispute therefore at great length upon the power and authority of the generality, of his excellency, and of the state council. but you will please to consider that there is here no question of this, as our commissioners had no instructions to bring this into dispute in the least, and most certainly have not done so. we have only in effect questioned whether that which one has an undoubted right to do can at all times be appropriately and becomingly done, whether it was fitting that your honours, contrary to custom, should undertake these new levies upon a special oath and commission, and effectively complete the measure without giving the slightest notice thereof to the generality." it may fairly be said that the question in debate was entirely conceded in this remarkable paper, which was addressed by the states-general, the prince-stadholder, and the council of state to the government of utrecht. it should be observed, too, that while distinctly repudiating the intention of disputing the sovereignty of that province, they carefully abstain from using the word in relation to themselves, speaking only of the might and authority of the generality, the prince, and the council. there was now a pause in the public discussion. the soldiers were not disbanded, as the states of utrecht were less occupied with establishing the soundness of their theory than with securing its practical results. they knew very well, and the advocate knew very well, that the intention to force a national synod by a majority vote of the assembly of the states-general existed more strongly than ever, and they meant to resist it to the last. the attempt was in their opinion an audacious violation of the fundamental pact on which the confederacy was founded. its success would be to establish the sacerdotal power in triumph over the civil authority. during this period the advocate was resident in utrecht. for change of air, ostensibly at least, he had absented himself from the seat of government, and was during several weeks under the hands of his old friend and physician dr. saul. he was strictly advised to abstain altogether from political business, but he might as well have attempted to abstain from food and drink. gillis van ledenberg, secretary of the states of utrecht, visited him frequently. the proposition to enlist the waartgelders had been originally made in the assembly by its president, and warmly seconded by van ledenberg, who doubtless conferred afterwards with barneveld in person, but informally and at his lodgings. it was almost inevitable that this should be the case, nor did the advocate make much mystery as to the course of action which he deemed indispensable at this period. believing it possible that some sudden and desperate attempt might be made by evil disposed people, he agreed with the states of utrecht in the propriety of taking measures of precaution. they were resolved not to look quietly on while soldiers and rabble under guidance perhaps of violent contra-remonstrant preachers took possession of the churches and even of the city itself, as had already been done in several towns. the chief practical object of enlisting the six companies was that the city might be armed against popular tumults, and they feared that the ordinary military force might be withdrawn. when captain hartvelt, in his own name and that of the other officers of those companies, said that they were all resolved never to use their weapons against the stadholder or the states-general, he was answered that they would never be required to do so. they, however, made oath to serve against those who should seek to trouble the peace of the province of utrecht in ecclesiastical or political matters, and further against all enemies of the common country. at the same time it was deemed expedient to guard against a surprise of any kind and to keep watch and ward. "i cannot quite believe in the french companies," said the advocate in a private billet to ledenberg. "it would be extremely well that not only good watch should be kept at the city gates, but also that one might from above and below the river lek be assuredly advised from the nearest cities if any soldiers are coming up or down, and that the same might be done in regard to amersfoort." at the bottom of this letter, which was destined to become historical and will be afterwards referred to, the advocate wrote, as he not unfrequently did, upon his private notes, "when read, burn, and send me back the two enclosed letters." the letter lies in the archives unburned to this day, but, harmless as it looked, it was to serve as a nail in more than one coffin. in his confidential letters to trusted friends he complained of "great physical debility growing out of heavy sorrow," and described himself as entering upon his seventy-first year and no longer fit for hard political labour. the sincere grief, profound love of country, and desire that some remedy might be found for impending disaster, is stamped upon all his utterances whether official or secret. "the troubles growing out of the religious differences," he said, "are running into all sorts of extremities. it is feared that an attempt will be made against the laws of the land through extraordinary ways, and by popular tumults to take from the supreme authority of the respective provinces the right to govern clerical persons and regulate clerical disputes, and to place it at the disposition of ecclesiastics and of a national synod. "it is thought too that the soldiers will be forbidden to assist the civil supreme power and the government of cities in defending themselves from acts of violence which under pretext of religion will be attempted against the law and the commands of the magistrates. "this seems to conflict with the common law of the respective provinces, each of which from all times had right of sovereignty and supreme authority within its territory and specifically reserved it in all treaties and especially in that of the nearer union . . . . the provinces have always regulated clerical matters each for itself. the province of utrecht, which under the pretext of religion is now most troubled, made stipulations to this effect, when it took his excellency for governor, even more stringent than any others. as for holland, she never imagined that one could ever raise a question on the subject . . . . all good men ought to do their best to prevent the enemies to the welfare of these provinces from making profit out of our troubles." the whole matter he regarded as a struggle between the clergy and the civil power for mastery over the state, as an attempt to subject provincial autonomy to the central government purely in the interest of the priesthood of a particular sect. the remedy he fondly hoped for was moderation and union within the church itself. he could never imagine the necessity for this ferocious animosity not only between christians but between two branches of the reformed church. he could never be made to believe that the five points of the remonstrance had dug an abyss too deep and wide ever to be bridged between brethren lately of one faith as of one fatherland. he was unceasing in his prayers and appeals for "mutual toleration on the subject of predestination." perhaps the bitterness, almost amounting to frenzy, with which abstruse points of casuistry were then debated, and which converted differences of opinion upon metaphysical divinity into deadly hatred and thirst for blood, is already obsolete or on the road to become so. if so, then was barneveld in advance of his age, and it would have been better for the peace of the world and the progress of christianity if more of his contemporaries had placed themselves on his level. he was no theologian, but he believed himself to be a christian, and he certainly was a thoughtful and a humble one. he had not the arrogance to pierce behind the veil and assume to read the inscrutable thoughts of the omnipotent. it was a cruel fate that his humility upon subjects which he believed to be beyond the scope of human reason should have been tortured by his enemies into a crime, and that because he hoped for religious toleration he should be accused of treason to the commonwealth. "believe and cause others to believe," he said, "that i am and with the grace of god hope to continue an upright patriot as i have proved myself to be in these last forty-two years spent in the public service. in the matter of differential religious points i remain of the opinions which i have held for more than fifty years, and in which i hope to live and die, to wit, that a good christian man ought to believe that he is predestined to eternal salvation through god's grace, giving for reasons that he through god's grace has a firm belief that his salvation is founded purely on god's grace and the expiation of our sins through our saviour jesus christ, and that if he should fall into any sins his firm trust is that god will not let him perish in them, but mercifully turn him to repentance, so that he may continue in the same belief to the last." these expressions were contained in a letter to caron with the intention doubtless that they should be communicated to the king of great britain, and it is a curious illustration of the spirit of the age, this picture of the leading statesman of a great republic unfolding his religious convictions for private inspection by the monarch of an allied nation. more than anything else it exemplifies the close commixture of theology, politics, and diplomacy in that age, and especially in those two countries. formerly, as we have seen, the king considered a too curious fathoming of divine mysteries as highly reprehensible, particularly for the common people. although he knew more about them than any one else, he avowed that even his knowledge in this respect was not perfect. it was matter of deep regret with the advocate that his majesty had not held to his former positions, and that he had disowned his original letters. "i believe my sentiments thus expressed," he said, "to be in accordance with scripture, and i have always held to them without teasing my brains with the precise decrees of reprobation, foreknowledge, or the like, as matters above my comprehension. i have always counselled christian moderation. the states of holland have followed the spirit of his majesty's letters, but our antagonists have rejected them and with seditious talk, sermons, and the spreading of infamous libels have brought matters to their present condition. there have been excesses on the other side as well." he then made a slight, somewhat shadowy allusion to schemes known to be afloat for conferring the sovereignty upon maurice. we have seen that at former periods he had entertained this subject and discussed it privately with those who were not only friendly but devoted to the stadholder, and that he had arrived at the conclusion that it would not be for the interest of the prince to encourage the project. above all he was sternly opposed to the idea of attempting to compass it by secret intrigue. should such an arrangement be publicly discussed and legally completed, it would not meet with his unconditional opposition. "the lord god knows," he said, "whether underneath all these movements does not lie the design of the year , well known to you. as for me, believe that i am and by god's grace hope to remain, what i always was, an upright patriot, a defender of the true christian religion, of the public authority, and of all the power that has been and in future may be legally conferred upon his excellency. believe that all things said, written, or spread to the contrary are falsehoods and calumnies." he was still in utrecht, but about to leave for the hague, with health somewhat improved and in better spirits in regard to public matters. "although i have entered my seventy-first year," he said, "i trust still to be of some service to the commonwealth and to my friends . . . . don't consider an arrangement of our affairs desperate. i hope for better things." soon after his return he was waited upon one sunday evening, late in october--being obliged to keep his house on account of continued indisposition--by a certain solicitor named nordlingen and informed that the prince was about to make a sudden visit to leyden at four o'clock next morning. barneveld knew that the burgomasters and regents were holding a great banquet that night, and that many of them would probably have been indulging in potations too deep to leave them fit for serious business. the agitation of people's minds at that moment made the visit seem rather a critical one, as there would probably be a mob collected to see the stadholder, and he was anxious both in the interest of the prince and the regents and of both religious denominations that no painful incidents should occur if it was in his power to prevent them. he was aware that his son-in-law, cornelis van der myle, had been invited to the banquet, and that he was wont to carry his wine discreetly. he therefore requested nordlingen to proceed to leyden that night and seek an interview with van der myle without delay. by thus communicating the intelligence of the expected visit to one who, he felt sure, would do his best to provide for a respectful and suitable reception of the prince, notwithstanding the exhilarated condition in which the magistrates would probably find themselves, the advocate hoped to prevent any riot or tumultuous demonstration of any kind. at least he would act conformably to his duty and keep his conscience clear should disasters ensue. later in the night he learned that maurice was going not to leyden but to delft, and he accordingly despatched a special messenger to arrive before dawn at leyden in order to inform van der myle of this change in the prince's movements. nothing seemed simpler or more judicious than these precautions on the part of barneveld. they could not fail, however, to be tortured into sedition, conspiracy, and treason. towards the end of the year a meeting of the nobles and knights of holland under the leadership of barneveld was held to discuss the famous sharp resolution of th august and the letters and arguments advanced against it by the stadholder and the council of state. it was unanimously resolved by this body, in which they were subsequently followed by a large majority of the states of holland, to maintain that resolution and its consequences and to oppose the national synod. they further resolved that a legal provincial synod should be convoked by the states of holland and under their authority and supervision. the object of such synod should be to devise "some means of accommodation, mutual toleration, and christian settlement of differences in regard to the five points in question." in case such compromise should unfortunately not be arranged, then it was resolved to invite to the assembly two or three persons from france, as many from england, from germany, and from switzerland, to aid in the consultations. should a method of reconciliation and mutual toleration still remain undiscovered, then, in consideration that the whole christian world was interested in composing these dissensions, it was proposed that a "synodal assembly of all christendom," a protestant oecumenical council, should in some solemn manner be convoked. these resolutions and propositions were all brought forward by the advocate, and the draughts of them in his handwriting remain. they are the unimpeachable evidences of his earnest desire to put an end to these unhappy disputes and disorders in the only way which he considered constitutional. before the close of the year the states of holland, in accordance with the foregoing advice of the nobles, passed a resolution, the minutes of which were drawn up by the hand of the advocate, and in which they persisted in their opposition to the national synod. they declared by a large majority of votes that the assembly of the states-general without the unanimous consent of the provincial states were not competent according to the union of utrecht--the fundamental law of the general assembly--to regulate religious affairs, but that this right belonged to the separate provinces, each within its own domain. they further resolved that as they were bound by solemn oath to maintain the laws and liberties of holland, they could not surrender this right to the generality, nor allow it to be usurped by any one, but in order to settle the question of the five points, the only cause known to them of the present disturbances, they were content under: their own authority to convoke a provincial synod within three months, at their own cost, and to invite the respective provinces, as many of them as thought good, to send to this meeting a certain number of pious and learned theologians. it is difficult to see why the course thus unanimously proposed by the nobles of holland, under guidance of barneveld, and subsequently by a majority of the states of that province, would not have been as expedient as it was legal. but we are less concerned with that point now than with the illustrations afforded by these long buried documents of the patriotism and sagacity of a man than whom no human creature was ever more foully slandered. it will be constantly borne in mind that he regarded this religious controversy purely from a political, legal, and constitutional--and not from a theological-point of view. he believed that grave danger to the fatherland was lurking under this attempt, by the general government, to usurp the power of dictating the religious creed of all the provinces. especially he deplored the evil influence exerted by the king of england since his abandonment of the principles announced in his famous letter to the states in the year . all that the advocate struggled for was moderation and mutual toleration within the reformed church. he felt that a wider scheme of forbearance was impracticable. if a dream of general religious equality had ever floated before him or before any one in that age, he would have felt it to be a dream which would be a reality nowhere until centuries should have passed away. yet that moderation, patience, tolerance, and respect for written law paved the road to that wider and loftier region can scarcely be doubted. carleton, subservient to every changing theological whim of his master, was as vehement and as insolent now in enforcing the intolerant views of james as he had previously been in supporting the counsels to tolerance contained in the original letters of that monarch. the ambassador was often at the advocate's bed-side during his illness that summer, enforcing, instructing, denouncing, contradicting. he was never weary of fulfilling his duties of tuition, but the patient barneveld; haughty and overbearing as he was often described to be, rarely used a harsh or vindictive word regarding him in his letters. "the ambassador of france," he said, "has been heard before the assembly of the states-general, and has made warm appeals in favour of union and mutual toleration as his majesty of great britain so wisely did in his letters of . . . . if his majesty could only be induced to write fresh letters in similar tone, i should venture to hope better fruits from them than from this attempt to thrust a national synod upon our necks, which many of us hold to be contrary to law, reason, and the act of union." so long as it was possible to hope that the action of the states of holland would prevent such a catastrophe, he worked hard to direct them in what he deemed the right course. "our political and religious differences," he said, "stand between hope and fear." the hope was in the acceptance of the provincial synod--the fear lest the national synod should be carried by a minority of the cities of holland combining with a majority of the other provincial states. "this would be in violation," he said, "of the so-called religious peace, the act of union, the treaty with the duke of anjou, the negotiations of the states of utrecht, and with prince maurice in with cognizance of the states-general and those of holland for, the governorship of that province, the custom of the generality for the last thirty years according to which religious matters have always been left to the disposition of the states of each province . . . . carleton is strenuously urging this course in his majesty's name, and i fear that in the present state of our humours great troubles will be the result." the expulsion by an armed mob, in the past year, of a remonstrant preacher at oudewater, the overpowering of the magistracy and the forcing on of illegal elections in that and other cities, had given him and all earnest patriots grave cause for apprehension. they were dreading, said barneveld, a course of crimes similar to those which under the earl of leicester's government had afflicted leyden and utrecht. "efforts are incessant to make the remonstrants hateful," he said to caron, "but go forward resolutely and firmly in the conviction that our friends here are as animated in their opposition to the spanish dominion now and by god's grace will so remain as they have ever proved themselves to be, not only by words, but works. i fear that mr. carleton gives too much belief to the enviers of our peace and tranquillity under pretext of religion, but it is more from ignorance than malice." those who have followed the course of the advocate's correspondence, conversation, and actions, as thus far detailed, can judge of the gigantic nature of the calumny by which he was now assailed. that this man, into every fibre of whose nature was woven undying hostility to spain, as the great foe to national independence and religious liberty throughout the continent of europe, whose every effort, as we have seen, during all these years of nominal peace had been to organize a system of general european defence against the war now actually begun upon protestantism, should be accused of being a partisan of spain, a creature of spain, a pensioner of spain, was enough to make honest men pray that the earth might be swallowed up. if such idiotic calumnies could be believed, what patriot in the world could not be doubted? yet they were believed. barneveld was bought by spanish gold. he had received whole boxes full of spanish pistoles, straight from brussels! for his part in the truce negotiations he had received , ducats in one lump. "it was plain," said the greatest man in the country to another great man, "that barneveld and his party are on the road to spain." "then it were well to have proof of it," said the great man. "not yet time," was the reply. "we must flatten out a few of them first." prince maurice had told the princess-dowager the winter before ( th december ) that those dissensions would never be decided except by use of weapons; and he now mentioned to her that he had received information from brussels, which he in part believed, that the advocate was a stipendiary of spain. yet he had once said, to the same princess louise, of this stipendiary that "the services which the advocate had rendered to the house of nassau were so great that all the members of that house might well look upon him not as their friend but their father." councillor van maldere, president of the states of zealand, and a confidential friend of maurice, was going about the hague saying that "one must string up seven or eight remonstrants on the gallows; then there might be some improvement." as for arminius and uytenbogaert, people had long told each other and firmly believed it, and were amazed when any incredulity was expressed in regard to it, that they were in regular and intimate correspondence with the jesuits, that they had received large sums from rome, and that both had been promised cardinals' hats. that barneveld and his friend uytenbogaert were regular pensioners of spain admitted of no dispute whatever. "it was as true as the holy evangel." the ludicrous chatter had been passed over with absolute disdain by the persons attacked, but calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain. it proved to be in these cases. "you have the plague mark on your flesh, oh pope, oh pensioner," said one libeller. "there are letters safely preserved to make your process for you. look out for your head. many have sworn your death, for it is more than time that you were out of the world. we shall prove, oh great bribed one, that you had the , little ducats." the preacher uytenbogaert was also said to have had , ducats for his share. "go to brussels," said the pamphleteer; "it all stands clearly written out on the register with the names and surnames of all you great bribe-takers." these were choice morsels from the lampoon of the notary danckaerts. "we are tortured more and more with religious differences," wrote barneveld; "with acts of popular violence growing out of them the more continuously as they remain unpunished, and with ever increasing jealousies and suspicions. the factious libels become daily more numerous and more impudent, and no man comes undamaged from the field. i, as a reward for all my troubles, labours, and sorrows, have three double portions of them. i hope however to overcome all by god's grace and to defend my actions with all honourable men so long as right and reason have place in the world, as to which many begin to doubt. if his majesty had been pleased to stick to the letters of , we should never have got into these difficulties . . . . it were better in my opinion that carleton should be instructed to negotiate in the spirit of those epistles rather than to torment us with the national synod, which will do more harm than good." it is impossible not to notice the simplicity and patience with which the advocate, in the discharge of his duty as minister of foreign affairs, kept the leading envoys of the republic privately informed of events which were becoming day by day more dangerous to the public interests and his own safety. if ever a perfectly quiet conscience was revealed in the correspondence of a statesman, it was to be found in these letters. calmly writing to thank caron for some very satisfactory english beer which the ambassador had been sending him from london, he proceeded to speak again of the religious dissensions and their consequences. he sent him the letter and remonstrance which he had felt himself obliged to make, and which he had been urged by his ever warm and constant friend the widow of william the silent to make on the subject of "the seditious libels, full of lies and calumnies got up by conspiracy against him." these letters were never published, however, until years after he had been in his grave. "i know that you are displeased with the injustice done me," he said, "but i see no improvement. people are determined to force through the national synod. the two last ones did much harm. this will do ten times more, so intensely embittered are men's tempers against each other." again he deplored the king's departure from his letters of , by adherence to which almost all the troubles would have been spared. it is curious too to observe the contrast between public opinion in great britain, including its government, in regard to the constitution of the united provinces at that period of domestic dissensions and incipient civil war and the general impressions manifested in the same nation two centuries and a half later, on the outbreak of the slavery rebellion, as to the constitution of the united states. the states in arms against the general government on the other side of the atlantic were strangely but not disingenuously assumed to be sovereign and independent, and many statesmen and a leading portion of the public justified them in their attempt to shake off the central government as if it were but a board of agency established by treaty and terminable at pleasure of any one of among sovereigns and terminable at pleasure of any one of them. yet even a superficial glance at the written constitution of the republic showed that its main object was to convert what had been a confederacy into an incorporation; and that the very essence of its renewed political existence was an organic law laid down by a whole people in their primitive capacity in place of a league banding together a group of independent little corporations. the chief attributes of sovereignty--the rights of war and peace, of coinage, of holding armies and navies, of issuing bills of credit, of foreign relations, of regulating and taxing foreign commerce--having been taken from the separate states by the united people thereof and bestowed upon a government provided with a single executive head, with a supreme tribunal, with a popular house of representatives and a senate, and with power to deal directly with the life and property of every individual in the land, it was strange indeed that the feudal, and in america utterly unmeaning, word sovereign should have been thought an appropriate term for the different states which had fused themselves three-quarters of a century before into a union. when it is remembered too that the only dissolvent of this union was the intention to perpetuate human slavery, the logic seemed somewhat perverse by which the separate sovereignty of the states was deduced from the constitution of . on the other hand, the union of utrecht of was a league of petty sovereignties; a compact less binding and more fragile than the articles of union made almost exactly two hundred years later in america, and the worthlessness of which, after the strain of war was over, had been demonstrated in the dreary years immediately following the peace of . one after another certain netherland provinces had abjured their allegiance to spain, some of them afterwards relapsing under it, some having been conquered by the others, while one of them, holland, had for a long time borne the greater part of the expense and burthen of the war. "holland," said the advocate, "has brought almost all the provinces to their liberty. to receive laws from them or from their clerical people now is what our state cannot endure. it is against her laws and customs, in the enjoyment of which the other provinces and his excellency as governor of holland are bound to protect us." and as the preservation of chattel slavery in the one case seemed a legitimate ground for destroying a government which had as definite an existence as any government known to mankind, so the resolve to impose a single religious creed upon many millions of individuals was held by the king and government of great britain to be a substantial reason for imagining a central sovereignty which had never existed at all. this was still more surprising as the right to dispose of ecclesiastical affairs and persons had been expressly reserved by the separate provinces in perfectly plain language in the treaty of union. "if the king were better informed," said barneveld, "of our system and laws, we should have better hope than now. but one supposes through notorious error in foreign countries that the sovereignty stands with the states-general which is not the case, except in things which by the articles of closer union have been made common to all the provinces, while in other matters, as religion, justice, and polity, the sovereignty remains with each province, which foreigners seem unable to comprehend." early in june, carleton took his departure for england on leave of absence. he received a present from the states of florins, and went over in very ill-humour with barneveld. "mr. ambassador is much offended and prejudiced," said the advocate, "but i know that he will religiously carry out the orders of his majesty. i trust that his majesty can admit different sentiments on predestination and its consequences, and that in a kingdom where the supreme civil authority defends religion the system of the puritans will have no foothold." certainly james could not be accused of allowing the system of the puritans much foothold in england, but he had made the ingenious discovery that puritanism in holland was a very different thing from puritanism in the netherlands. etext editor's bookmarks: acts of violence which under pretext of religion adulation for inferiors whom they despise calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain created one child for damnation and another for salvation depths of credulity men in all ages can sink devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife furious mob set upon the house of rem bischop highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation in this he was much behind his age or before it logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed partisans wanted not accommodation but victory puritanism in holland was a very different thing from england seemed bent on self-destruction stand between hope and fear the evils resulting from a confederate system of government to stifle for ever the right of free enquiry chapter xvi. maurice revolutionizes the provinces--danckaert's libellous pamphlet --barneveld's appeal to the prince--barneveld's remonstrance to the states--the stadholder at amsterdam--the treaty of truce nearly expired--king of spain and archduke albert--scheme for recovering the provinces--secret plot to make maurice sovereign. early in the year ( ) maurice set himself about revolutionizing the provinces on which he could not yet thoroughly rely. the town of nymegen since its recovery from the spaniards near the close of the preceding century had held its municipal government, as it were, at the option of the prince. during the war he had been, by the terms of surrender, empowered to appoint and to change its magistracy at will. no change had occurred for many years, but as the government had of late fallen into the hands of the barneveldians, and as maurice considered the truce to be a continuance of the war, he appeared suddenly, in the city at the head of a body of troops and surrounded by his lifeguard. summoning the whole board of magistrates into the townhouse, he gave them all notice to quit, disbanding them like a company of mutinous soldiery, and immediately afterwards appointed a fresh list of functionaries in their stead. this done, he proceeded to arnhem, where the states of gelderland were in session, appeared before that body, and made a brief announcement of the revolution which he had so succinctly effected in the most considerable town of their province. the assembly, which seems, like many other assemblies at precisely this epoch, to have had an extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence, made but little resistance to the extreme measures now undertaken by the stadholder, and not only highly applauded the subjugation of nymegen, but listened with sympathy to his arguments against the waartgelders and in favour of the synod. having accomplished so much by a very brief visit to gelderland, the prince proceeded, to overyssel, and had as little difficulty in bringing over the wavering minds of that province into orthodoxy and obedience. thus there remained but two provinces out of seven that were still "waartgeldered" and refused to be "synodized." it was rebellion against rebellion. maurice and his adherents accused the states' right party of mutiny against himself and the states-general. the states' right party accused the contra-remonstrants in the cities of mutiny against the lawful sovereignty of each province. the oath of the soldiery, since the foundation of the republic, had been to maintain obedience and fidelity to the states-general, the stadholder, and the province in which they were garrisoned, and at whose expense they were paid. it was impossible to harmonize such conflicting duties and doctrines. theory had done its best and its worst. the time was fast approaching, as it always must approach, when fact with its violent besom would brush away the fine-spun cobwebs which had been so long undisturbed. "i will grind the advocate and all his party into fine meal," said the prince on one occasion. a clever caricature of the time represented a pair of scales hung up in a great hall. in the one was a heap of parchments, gold chains, and magisterial robes; the whole bundle being marked the "holy right of each city." in the other lay a big square, solid, ironclasped volume, marked "institutes of calvin." each scale was respectively watched by gomarus and by arminius. the judges, gowned, furred, and ruffed, were looking decorously on, when suddenly the stadholder, in full military attire, was seen rushing into the apartment and flinging his sword into the scale with the institutes. the civic and legal trumpery was of course made to kick the beam. maurice had organized his campaign this year against the advocate and his party as deliberately as he had ever arranged the details of a series of battles and sieges against the spaniard. and he was proving himself as consummate master in political strife as in the great science of war. he no longer made any secret of his conviction that barneveld was a traitor to his country, bought with spanish gold. there was not the slightest proof for these suspicions, but he asserted them roundly. "the advocate is travelling straight to spain," he said to count cuylenborg. "but we will see who has got the longest purse." and as if it had been a part of the campaign, a prearranged diversion to the more direct and general assault on the entrenchments of the states' right party, a horrible personal onslaught was now made from many quarters upon the advocate. it was an age of pamphleteering, of venomous, virulent, unscrupulous libels. and never even in that age had there been anything to equal the savage attacks upon this great statesman. it moves the gall of an honest man, even after the lapse of two centuries and a half, to turn over those long forgotten pages and mark the depths to which political and theological party spirit could descend. that human creatures can assimilate themselves so closely to the reptile, and to the subtle devil within the reptile, when a party end is to be gained is enough to make the very name of man a term of reproach. day by day appeared pamphlets, each one more poisonous than its predecessor. there was hardly a crime that was not laid at the door of barneveld and all his kindred. the man who had borne a matchlock in early youth against the foreign tyrant in days when unsuccessful rebellion meant martyrdom and torture; who had successfully guided the councils of the infant commonwealth at a period when most of his accusers were in their cradles, and when mistake was ruin to the republic; he on whose strong arm the father of his country had leaned for support; the man who had organized a political system out of chaos; who had laid down the internal laws, negotiated the great indispensable alliances, directed the complicated foreign policy, established the system of national defence, presided over the successful financial administration of a state struggling out of mutiny into national existence; who had rocked the republic in its cradle and ever borne her in his heart; who had made her name beloved at home and honoured and dreaded abroad; who had been the first, when the great taciturn had at last fallen a victim to the murderous tyrant of spain, to place the youthful maurice in his father's place, and to inspire the whole country with sublime courage to persist rather than falter in purpose after so deadly a blow; who was as truly the founder of the republic as william had been the author of its independence,--was now denounced as a traitor, a pope, a tyrant, a venal hucksterer of his country's liberties. his family name, which had long been an ancient and knightly one, was defiled and its nobility disputed; his father and mother, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, accused of every imaginable and unimaginable crime, of murder, incest, robbery, bastardy, fraud, forgery, blasphemy. he had received waggon-loads of spanish pistoles; he had been paid , ducats by spain for negotiating the truce; he was in secret treaty with archduke albert to bring , spanish mercenaries across the border to defeat the machinations of prince maurice, destroy his life, or drive him from the country; all these foul and bitter charges and a thousand similar ones were rained almost daily upon that grey head. one day the loose sheets of a more than commonly libellous pamphlet were picked up in the streets of the hague and placed in the advocate's hands. it was the work of the drunken notary danckaerts already mentioned, then resident in amsterdam, and among the papers thus found was a list of wealthy merchants of that city who had contributed to the expense of its publication. the opposition of barneveld to the west india corporation could never be forgiven. the advocate was notified in this production that he was soon to be summoned to answer for his crimes. the country was weary of him, he was told, and his life was forfeited. stung at last beyond endurance by the persistent malice of his enemies, he came before the states of holland for redress. upon his remonstrance the author of this vile libel was summoned to answer before the upper tribunal at the hague for his crime. the city of amsterdam covered him with the shield 'de non evocando,' which had so often in cases of less consequence proved of no protective value, and the notary was never punished, but on the contrary after a brief lapse of time rewarded as for a meritorious action. meantime, the states of holland, by formal act, took the name and honour of barneveld under their immediate protection as a treasure belonging specially to themselves. heavy penalties were denounced upon the authors and printers of these libellous attacks, and large rewards offered for their detection. nothing came, however, of such measures. on the th april the advocate addressed a frank, dignified, and conciliatory letter to the prince. the rapid progress of calumny against him had at last alarmed even his steadfast soul, and he thought it best to make a last appeal to the justice and to the clear intellect of william the silent's son. "gracious prince," he said, "i observe to my greatest sorrow an entire estrangement of your excellency from me, and i fear lest what was said six months since by certain clerical persons and afterwards by some politicians concerning your dissatisfaction with me, which until now i have not been able to believe, must be true. i declare nevertheless with a sincere heart to have never willingly given cause for any such feeling; having always been your very faithful servant and with god's help hoping as such to die. ten years ago during the negotiations for the truce i clearly observed the beginning of this estrangement, but your excellency will be graciously pleased to remember that i declared to you at that time my upright and sincere intention in these negotiations to promote the service of the country and the interests of your excellency, and that i nevertheless offered at the time not only to resign all my functions but to leave the country rather than remain in office and in the country to the dissatisfaction of your excellency." he then rapidly reviewed the causes which had produced the alienation of which he complained and the melancholy divisions caused by the want of mutual religious toleration in the provinces; spoke of his efforts to foster a spirit of conciliation on the dread subject of predestination, and referred to the letter of the king of great britain deprecating discussion and schism on this subject, and urging that those favourable to the views of the remonstrants ought not to be persecuted. referring to the intimate relations which uytenbogaert had so long enjoyed with the prince, the advocate alluded to the difficulty he had in believing that his excellency intended to act in opposition to the efforts of the states of holland in the cause of mutual toleration, to the manifest detriment of the country and of many of its best and truest patriots and the greater number of the magistrates in all the cities. he reminded the prince that all attempts to accommodate these fearful quarrels had been frustrated, and that on his departure the previous year to utrecht on account of his health he had again offered to resign all his offices and to leave holland altogether rather than find himself in perpetual opposition to his excellency. "i begged you in such case," he said, "to lend your hand to the procuring for me an honourable discharge from my lords the states, but your excellency declared that you could in no wise approve such a step and gave me hope that some means of accommodating the dissensions would yet be proposed." "i went then to vianen, being much indisposed; thence i repaired to utrecht to consult my old friend doctor saulo saul, in whose hands i remained six weeks, not being able, as i hoped, to pass my seventieth birthday on the th september last in my birthplace, the city of amersfoort. all this time i heard not one single word or proposal of accommodation. on the contrary it was determined that by a majority vote, a thing never heard of before, it was intended against the solemn resolves of the states of holland, of utrecht, and of overyssel to bring these religious differences before the assembly of my lords the states-general, a proceeding directly in the teeth of the act of union and other treaties, and before a synod which people called national, and that meantime every effort was making to discredit all those who stood up for the laws of these provinces and to make them odious and despicable in the eyes of the common people. "especially it was i that was thus made the object of hatred and contempt in their eyes. hundreds of lies and calumnies, circulated in the form of libels, seditious pamphlets, and lampoons, compelled me to return from utrecht to the hague. since that time i have repeatedly offered my services to your excellency for the promotion of mutual accommodation and reconciliation of differences, but without success." he then alluded to the publication with which the country was ringing, 'the necessary and living discourse of a spanish counsellor', and which was attributed to his former confidential friend, now become his deadliest foe, ex-ambassador francis aerssens, and warned the prince that if he chose, which god forbid, to follow the advice of that seditious libel, nothing but ruin to the beloved fatherland and its lovers, to the princely house of orange-nassau and to the christian religion could be the issue. "the spanish government could desire no better counsel," he said, "than this which these fellows give you; to encourage distrust and estrangement between your excellency and the nobles, the cities, and the magistrates of the land and to propose high and haughty imaginings which are easy enough to write, but most difficult to practise, and which can only enure to the advantage of spain. therefore most respectfully i beg your excellency not to believe these fellows, but to reject their counsels . . . . among them are many malignant hypocrites and ambitious men who are seeking their own profit in these changes of government--many utterly ragged and beggarly fellows and many infamous traitors coming from the provinces which have remained under the dominion of the spaniard, and who are filled with revenge, envy, and jealousy at the greater prosperity and bloom of these independent states than they find at home. "i fear," he said in conclusion, "that i have troubled your excellency too long, but to the fulfilment of my duty and discharge of my conscience i could not be more brief. it saddens me deeply that in recompense for my long and manifold services i am attacked by so many calumnious, lying, seditious, and fraudulent libels, and that these indecencies find their pretext and their food in the evil disposition of your excellency towards me. and although for one-and-thirty years long i have been able to live down such things with silence, well-doing, and truth, still do i now find myself compelled in this my advanced old age and infirmity to make some utterances in defence of myself and those belonging to me, however much against my heart and inclinations." he ended by enclosing a copy of the solemn state paper which he was about to lay before the states of holland in defence of his honour, and subscribed himself the lifelong and faithful servant of the prince. the remonstrance to the states contained a summary review of the political events of his life, which was indeed nothing more nor less than the history of his country and almost of europe itself during that period, broadly and vividly sketched with the hand of a master. it was published at once and strengthened the affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies. it is not necessary to our purpose to reproduce or even analyse the document, the main facts and opinions contained in it being already familiar to the reader. the frankness however with which, in reply to the charges so profusely brought against him of having grown rich by extortion, treason, and corruption, of having gorged himself with plunder at home and bribery from the enemy, of being the great pensioner of europe and the marshal d'ancre of the netherlands--he alluded to the exact condition of his private affairs and the growth and sources of his revenue, giving, as it were, a kind of schedule of his property, has in it something half humorous, half touching in its simplicity. he set forth the very slender salaries attached to his high offices of advocate of holland, keeper of the seals, and other functions. he answered the charge that he always had at his disposition , florins to bribe foreign agents withal by saying that his whole allowance for extraordinary expenses and trouble in maintaining his diplomatic and internal correspondence was exactly florins yearly. he alluded to the slanders circulated as to his wealth and its sources by those who envied him for his position and hated him for his services. "but i beg you to believe, my lords," he continued, "that my property is neither so great nor so small as some people represent it to be. "in the year ' i married my wife," he said. "i was pleased with her person. i was likewise pleased with the dowry which was promptly paid over to me, with firm expectation of increase and betterment . . . . i ac knowledge that forty-three years ago my wife and myself had got together so much of real and personal property that we could live honourably upon it. i had at that time as good pay and practice as any advocate in the courts which brought me in a good florins a year; there being but eight advocates practising at the time, of whom i was certainly not the one least employed. in the beginning of the year ' i came into the service of the city of rotterdam as 'pensionary. upon my salary from that town i was enabled to support my family, having then but two children. now i can clearly prove that between the years and inclusive i have inherited in my own right or that of my wife, from our relatives, for ourselves and our children by lawful succession, more than holland morgens of land (about acres), more than florins yearly of redeemable rents, a good house in the city of delft, some houses in the open country, and several thousand florins in ready money. i have likewise reclaimed in the course of the past forty years out of the water and swamps by dyking more than an equal number of acres to those inherited, and have bought and sold property during the same period to the value of , florins; having sometimes bought , florins' worth and sold , of it for , , and so on." it was evident that the thrifty advocate during his long life had understood how to turn over his money, and it was not necessary to imagine "waggon-loads of spanish pistoles" and bribes on a gigantic scale from the hereditary enemy in order to account for a reasonable opulence on his part. "i have had nothing to do with trade," he continued, "it having been the custom of my ancestors to risk no money except where the plough goes. in the great east india company however, which with four years of hard work, public and private, i have helped establish, in order to inflict damage on the spaniards and portuguese, i have adventured somewhat more than florins . . . . now even if my condition be reasonably good, i think no one has reason to envy me. nevertheless i have said it in your lordships' assembly, and i repeat it solemnly on this occasion, that i have pondered the state of my affairs during my recent illness and found that in order to leave my children unencumbered estates i must sell property to the value of , or , florins. this i would rather do than leave the charge to my children. that i should have got thus behindhand through bad management, i beg your highnesses not to believe. but i have inherited, with the succession of four persons whose only heir i was and with that of others to whom i was co-heir, many burthens as well. i have bought property with encumbrances, and i have dyked and bettered several estates with borrowed money. now should it please your lordships to institute a census and valuation of the property of your subjects, i for one should be very well pleased. for i know full well that those who in the estimates of capital in the year rated themselves at , or , florins now may boast of having twice as much property as i have. yet in that year out of patriotism i placed myself on the list of those liable for the very highest contributions, being assessed on a property of , florins." the advocate alluded with haughty contempt to the notorious lies circulated by his libellers in regard to his lineage, as if the vast services and unquestioned abilities of such a statesman would not have illustrated the obscurest origin. but as he happened to be of ancient and honourable descent, he chose to vindicate his position in that regard. "i was born in the city of amersfoort," he said, "by the father's side an oldenbarneveld; an old and noble race, from generation to generation steadfast and true; who have been duly summoned for many hundred years to the assembly of the nobles of their province as they are to this day. by my mother's side i am sprung from the ancient and knightly family of amersfoort, which for three or four hundred years has been known as foremost among the nobles of utrecht in all state affairs and as landed proprietors." it is only for the sake of opening these domestic and private lights upon an historical character whose life was so pre-eminently and almost exclusively a public one that we have drawn some attention to this stately defence made by the advocate of his birth, life, and services to the state. the public portions of the state paper belong exclusively to history, and have already been sufficiently detailed. the letter to prince maurice was delivered into his hands by cornelis van der myle, son-in-law of barneveld. no reply to it was ever sent, but several days afterwards the stadholder called from his open window to van der myle, who happened to be passing by. he then informed him that he neither admitted the premises nor the conclusion of the advocate's letter, saying that many things set down in it were false. he furthermore told him a story of a certain old man who, having in his youth invented many things and told them often for truth, believed them when he came to old age to be actually true and was ever ready to stake his salvation upon them. whereupon he shut the window and left van der myle to make such application of the parable as he thought proper, vouchsafing no further answer to barneveld's communication. dudley carleton related the anecdote to his government with much glee, but it may be doubted whether this bold way of giving the lie to a venerable statesman through his son-in-law would have been accounted as triumphant argumentation anywhere out of a barrack. as for the remonstrance to the states of holland, although most respectfully received in that assembly except by the five opposition cities, its immediate effect on the public was to bring down a fresh "snow storm"--to use the expression of a contemporary--of pamphlets, libels, caricatures, and broadsheets upon the head of the advocate. in every bookseller's and print shop window in all the cities of the country, the fallen statesman was represented in all possible ludicrous, contemptible, and hateful shapes, while hags and blind beggars about the streets screeched filthy and cursing ballads against him, even at his very doors. the effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny has rarely been more strikingly illustrated than in the case of this statesman. blackened daily all over by a thousand trowels, the purest and noblest character must have been defiled, and it is no wonder that the incrustation upon the advocate's fame should have lasted for two centuries and a half. it may perhaps endure for as many more: not even the vile marshal d'ancre, who had so recently perished, was more the mark of obloquy in a country which he had dishonoured, flouted, and picked to the bone than was barneveld in a commonwealth which he had almost created and had served faithfully from youth to old age. it was even the fashion to compare him with concini in order to heighten the wrath of the public, as if any parallel between the ignoble, foreign paramour of a stupid and sensual queen, and the great statesman, patriot, and jurist of whom civilization will be always proud, could ever enter any but an idiot's brain. meantime the stadholder, who had so successfully handled the assembly of gelderland and overyssel, now sailed across the zuiderzee from kampen to amsterdam. on his approach to the stately northern venice, standing full of life and commercial bustle upon its vast submerged forest of norwegian pines, he was met by a fleet of yachts and escorted through the water gates of the into the city. here an immense assemblage of vessels of every class, from the humble gondola to the bulky east indianian and the first-rate ship of war, gaily bannered with the orange colours and thronged from deck to topmast by enthusiastic multitudes, was waiting to receive their beloved stadholder. a deafening cannonade saluted him on his approach. the prince was escorted to the square or dam, where on a high scaffolding covered with blue velvet in front of the stately mediaeval town-hall the burgomasters and board of magistrates in their robes of office were waiting to receive him. the strains of that most inspiriting and suggestive of national melodies, the 'wilhelmus van nassouwen,' rang through the air, and when they were silent, the chief magistrate poured forth a very eloquent and tedious oration, and concluded by presenting him with a large orange in solid gold; maurice having succeeded to the principality a few months before on the death of his half-brother philip william. the "blooming in love," as one of the chambers of "rhetoric" in which the hard-handed but half-artistic mechanics and shopkeepers of the netherlands loved to disport themselves was called, then exhibited upon an opposite scaffold a magnificent representation of jupiter astride upon an eagle and banding down to the stadholder as if from the clouds that same principality. nothing could be neater or more mythological. the prince and his escort, sitting in the windows of the town-hall, the square beneath being covered with or burgher militia in full uniform, with orange plumes in their hats and orange scarves on their breasts, saw still other sights. a gorgeous procession set forth by the "netherlandish academy," another chamber of rhetoric, and filled with those emblematic impersonations so dear to the hearts of netherlanders, had been sweeping through all the canals and along the splendid quays of the city. the maid of holland, twenty feet high, led the van, followed by the counterfeit presentment of each of her six sisters. an orange tree full of flowers and fruit was conspicuous in one barge, while in another, strangely and lugubriously enough, lay the murdered william the silent in the arms of his wife and surrounded by his weeping sons and daughters all attired in white satin. in the evening the netherland academy, to improve the general hilarity, and as if believing exhibitions of murder the most appropriate means of welcoming the prince, invited him to a scenic representation of the assassination of count florence v. of holland by gerrit van velsen and other nobles. there seemed no especial reason for the selection, unless perhaps the local one; one of the perpetrators of this crime against an ancient predecessor of william the silent in the sovereignty of holland having been a former lord proprietor of amsterdam and the adjacent territories, gysbrecht van amatel. maurice returned to the hague. five of the seven provinces were entirely his own. utrecht too was already wavering, while there could be no doubt of the warm allegiance to himself of the important commercial metropolis of holland, the only province in which barneveld's influence was still paramount. owing to the watchfulness and distrust of barneveld, which had never faltered, spain had not secured the entire control of the disputed duchies, but she had at least secured the head of a venerated saint. "the bargain is completed for the head of the glorious saint lawrence, which you know i so much desire," wrote philip triumphantly to the archduke albert. he had, however, not got it for nothing. the abbot of glamart in julich, then in possession of that treasure, had stipulated before delivering it that if at any time the heretics or other enemies should destroy the monastery his majesty would establish them in spanish flanders and give them the same revenues as they now enjoyed in julich. count herman van den berg was to give a guarantee to that effect. meantime the long controversy in the duchies having tacitly come to a standstill upon the basis of 'uti possidetis,' the spanish government had leisure in the midst of their preparation for the general crusade upon european heresy to observe and enjoy the internal religious dissensions in their revolted provinces. although they had concluded the convention with them as with countries over which they had no pretensions, they had never at heart allowed more virtue to the conjunction "as," which really contained the essence of the treaty, than grammatically belonged to it. spain still chose to regard the independence of the seven provinces as a pleasant fiction to be dispelled when, the truce having expired by its own limitation, she should resume, as she fully meant to do, her sovereignty over all the seventeen netherlands, the united as well as the obedient. thus at any rate the question of state rights or central sovereignty would be settled by a very summary process. the spanish ambassador was wroth, as may well be supposed, when the agent of the rebel provinces received in london the rank, title, and recognition of ambassador. gondemar at least refused to acknowledge noel de caron as his diplomatic equal or even as his colleague, and was vehement in his protestations on the subject. but james, much as he dreaded the spanish envoy and fawned upon his master, was not besotted enough to comply with these demands at the expense of his most powerful ally, the republic of the netherlands. the spanish king however declared his ambassador's proceedings to be in exact accordance with his instructions. he was sorry, he said, if the affair had caused discontent to the king of great britain; he intended in all respects to maintain the treaty of truce of which his majesty had been one of the guarantors, but as that treaty had but a few more years to run, after which he should be reinstated in his former right of sovereignty over all the netherlands, he entirely justified the conduct of count gondemar. it may well be conceived that, as the years passed by, as the period of the truce grew nearer and the religious disputes became every day more envenomed, the government at madrid should look on the tumultuous scene with saturnine satisfaction. there was little doubt now, they thought, that the provinces, sick of their rebellion and that fancied independence which had led them into a whirlpool of political and religious misery, and convinced of their incompetence to govern themselves, would be only too happy to seek the forgiving arms of their lawful sovereign. above all they must have learned that their great heresy had carried its chastisement with it, that within something they called a reformed church other heresies had been developed which demanded condign punishment at the hands of that new church, and that there could be neither rest for them in this world nor salvation in the next except by returning to the bosom of their ancient mother. now was the time, so it was thought, to throw forward a strong force of jesuits as skirmishers into the provinces by whom the way would be opened for the reconquest of the whole territory. "by the advices coming to us continually from thence," wrote the king of spain to archduke albert, "we understand that the disquiets and differences continue in holland on matters relating to their sects, and that from this has resulted the conversion of many to the catholic religion. so it has been taken into consideration whether it would not be expedient that some fathers of the company of jesuits be sent secretly from rome to holland, who should negotiate concerning the conversion of that people. before taking a resolution, i have thought best to give an account of this matter to your highness. i should be glad if you would inform me what priests are going to holland, what fruits they yield, and what can be done for the continuance of their labours. please to advise me very particularly together with any suggestions that may occur to you in this matter." the archduke, who was nearer the scene, was not so sure that the old religion was making such progress as his royal nephew or those who spoke in his name believed. at any rate, if it were not rapidly gaining ground, it would be neither for want of discord among the protestants nor for lack of jesuits to profit by it. "i do not understand," said he in reply, "nor is it generally considered certain that from the differences and disturbances that the hollanders are having among themselves there has resulted the conversion of any of them to our blessed catholic faith, because their disputes are of certain points concerning which there are different opinions within their sect. there has always been a goodly number of priests here, the greater part of whom belong to the company. they are very diligent and fervent, and the catholics derive much comfort from them. to send more of them would do more harm than good. it might be found out, and then they would perhaps be driven out of holland or even chastised. so it seems better to leave things as they are for the present." the spanish government was not discouraged however, but was pricking up its ears anew at strange communications it was receiving from the very bosom of the council of state in the netherlands. this body, as will be remembered, had been much opposed to barneveld and to the policy pursued under his leadership by the states of holland. some of its members were secretly catholic and still more secretly disposed to effect a revolution in the government, the object of which should be to fuse the united provinces with the obedient netherlands in a single independent monarchy to be placed under the sceptre of the son of philip iii. a paper containing the outlines of this scheme had been sent to spain, and the king at once forwarded it in cipher to the archduke at brussels for his opinion and co-operation. "you will see," he said, "the plan which a certain person zealous for the public good has proposed for reducing the netherlanders to my obedience. . . . . you will please advise with count frederic van den berg and let me know with much particularity and profound secrecy what is thought, what is occurring, and the form in which this matter ought to be negotiated, and the proper way to make it march." unquestionably the paper was of grave importance. it informed the king of spain that some principal personages in the united netherlands, members of the council of state, were of opinion that if his majesty or archduke albert should propose peace, it could be accomplished at that moment more easily than ever before. they had arrived at the conviction that no assistance was to be obtained from the king of france, who was too much weakened by tumults and sedition at home, while nothing good could be expected from the king of england. the greater part of the province of gelderland, they said, with all friesland, utrecht, groningen, and overyssel were inclined to a permanent peace. being all of them frontier provinces, they were constantly exposed to the brunt of hostilities. besides this, the war expenses alone would now be more than , , florins a year. thus the people were kept perpetually harassed, and although evil-intentioned persons approved these burthens under the pretence that such heavy taxation served to free them from the tyranny of spain, those of sense and quality reproved them and knew the contrary to be true. "many here know," continued these traitors in the heart of the state council, "how good it would be for the people of the netherlands to have a prince, and those having this desire being on the frontier are determined to accept the son of your majesty for their ruler." the conditions of the proposed arrangement were to be that the prince with his successors who were thus to possess all the netherlands were to be independent sovereigns not subject in any way to the crown of spain, and that the great governments and dignities of the country were to remain in the hands then holding them. this last condition was obviously inserted in the plan for the special benefit of prince maurice and count lewis, although there is not an atom of evidence that they had ever heard of the intrigue or doubt that, if they had, they would have signally chastised its guilty authors. it was further stated that the catholics having in each town a church and free exercise of their religion would soon be in a great majority. thus the political and religious counter-revolution would be triumphantly accomplished. it was proposed that the management of the business should be entrusted to some gentleman of the country possessing property there who "under pretext of the public good should make people comprehend what a great thing it would be if they could obtain this favour from the spanish king, thus extricating themselves from so many calamities and miseries, and obtaining free traffic and a prince of their own." it would be necessary for the king and archduke to write many letters and promise great rewards to persons who might otherwise embarrass the good work. the plot was an ingenious one. there seemed in the opinion of these conspirators in the state council but one great obstacle to its success. it should be kept absolutely concealed from the states of holland. the great stipendiary of spain, john of barneveld, whose coffers were filled with spanish pistoles, whose name and surname might be read by all men in the account-books at brussels heading the register of mighty bribe-takers, the man who was howled at in a thousand lampoons as a traitor ever ready to sell his country, whom even prince maurice "partly believed" to be the pensionary of philip, must not hear a whisper of this scheme to restore the republic to spanish control and place it under the sceptre of a spanish prince. the states of holland at that moment and so long as he was a member of the body were barneveld and barneveld only; thinking his thoughts, speaking with his tongue, writing with his pen. of this neither friend nor foe ever expressed a doubt. indeed it was one of the staple accusations against him. yet this paper in which the spanish king in confidential cipher and profound secrecy communicated to archduke albert his hopes and his schemes for recovering the revolted provinces as a kingdom for his son contained these words of caution. "the states of holland and zealand will be opposed to the plan," it said. "if the treaty come to the knowledge of the states and council of holland before it has been acted upon by the five frontier provinces the whole plan will be demolished." such was the opinion entertained by philip himself of the man who was supposed to be his stipendiary. i am not aware that this paper has ever been alluded to in any document or treatise private or public from the day of its date to this hour. it certainly has never been published, but it lies deciphered in the archives of the kingdom at brussels, and is alone sufficient to put to shame the slanderers of the advocate's loyalty. yet let it be remembered that in this very summer exactly at the moment when these intrigues were going on between the king of spain and the class of men most opposed to barneveld, the accusations against his fidelity were loudest and rifest. before the stadholder had so suddenly slipped down to brielle in order to secure that important stronghold for the contra-remonstrant party, reports had been carefully strewn among the people that the advocate was about to deliver that place and other fortresses to spain. brielle, flushing, rammekens, the very cautionary towns and keys to the country which he had so recently and in such masterly manner delivered from the grasp of the hereditary ally he was now about to surrender to the ancient enemy. the spaniards were already on the sea, it was said. had it not been for his excellency's watchfulness and promptitude, they would already under guidance of barneveld and his crew have mastered the city of brielle. flushing too through barneveld's advice and connivance was open at a particular point, in order that the spaniards, who had their eye upon it, might conveniently enter and take possession of the place. the air was full of wild rumours to this effect, and already the humbler classes who sided with the stadholder saw in him the saviour of the country from the treason of the advocate and the renewed tyranny of spain. the prince made no such pretence, but simply took possession of the fortress in order to be beforehand with the waartgelders. the contra-remonstrants in brielle had desired that "men should see who had the hardest fists," and it would certainly have been difficult to find harder ones than those of the hero of nieuwpoort. besides the jesuits coming in so skilfully to triumph over the warring sects of calvinists, there were other engineers on whom the spanish government relied to effect the reconquest of the netherlands. especially it was an object to wreak vengeance on holland, that head and front of the revolt, both for its persistence in rebellion and for the immense prosperity and progress by which that rebellion had been rewarded. holland had grown fat and strong, while the obedient netherlands were withered to the marrow of their bones. but there was a practical person then resident in spain to whom the netherlands were well known, to whom indeed everything was well known, who had laid before the king a magnificent scheme for destroying the commerce and with it the very existence of holland to the great advantage of the spanish finances and of the spanish netherlands. philip of course laid it before the archduke as usual, that he might ponder it well and afterwards, if approved, direct its execution. the practical person set forth in an elaborate memoir that the hollanders were making rapid progress in commerce, arts, and manufactures, while the obedient provinces were sinking as swiftly into decay. the spanish netherlands were almost entirely shut off from the sea, the rivers scheldt and meuse being hardly navigable for them on account of the control of those waters by holland. the dutch were attracting to their dominions all artisans, navigators, and traders. despising all other nations and giving them the law, they had ruined the obedient provinces. ostend, nieuwpoort, dunkerk were wasting away, and ought to be restored. "i have profoundly studied forty years long the subjects of commerce and navigation," said the practical person, "and i have succeeded in penetrating the secrets and acquiring, as it were, universal knowledge--let me not be suspected of boasting--of the whole discovered world and of the ocean. i have been assisted by study of the best works of geography and history, by my own labours, and by those of my late father, a man of illustrious genius and heroical conceptions and very zealous in the catholic faith." the modest and practical son of an illustrious but anonymous father, then coming to the point, said it would be the easiest thing in the world to direct the course of the scheldt into an entirely new channel through spanish flanders to the sea. thus the dutch ports and forts which had been constructed with such magnificence and at such vast expense would be left high and dry; the spaniards would build new ones in flanders, and thus control the whole navigation and deprive the hollanders of that empire of the sea which they now so proudly arrogated. this scheme was much simpler to carry out than the vulgar might suppose, and, when accomplished, it would destroy the commerce, navigation, and fisheries of the hollanders, throwing it all into the hands of the archdukes. this would cause such ruin, poverty, and tumults everywhere that all would be changed. the republic of the united states would annihilate itself and fall to pieces; the religious dissensions, the war of one sect with another, and the jealousy of the house of nassau, suspected of plans hostile to popular liberties, finishing the work of destruction. "then the republic," said the man of universal science, warming at sight of the picture he was painting, "laden with debt and steeped in poverty, will fall to the ground of its own weight, and thus debilitated will crawl humbly to place itself in the paternal hands of the illustrious house of austria." it would be better, he thought, to set about the work, before the expiration of the truce. at any rate, the preparation for it, or the mere threat of it, would ensure a renewal of that treaty on juster terms. it was most important too to begin at once the construction of a port on the coast of flanders, looking to the north. there was a position, he said, without naming it, in which whole navies could ride in safety, secure from all tempests, beyond the reach of the hollanders, open at all times to traffic to and from england, france, spain, norway, sweden, russia--a perfectly free commerce, beyond the reach of any rights or duties claimed or levied by the insolent republic. in this port would assemble all the navigators of the country, and it would become in time of war a terror to the hollanders, english, and all northern peoples. in order to attract, protect, and preserve these navigators and this commerce, many great public edifices must be built, together with splendid streets of houses and impregnable fortifications. it should be a walled and stately city, and its name should be philipopolis. if these simple projects, so easy of execution, pleased his majesty, the practical person was ready to explain them in all their details. his majesty was enchanted with the glowing picture, but before quite deciding on carrying the scheme into execution thought it best to consult the archduke. the reply of albert has not been preserved. it was probably not enthusiastic, and the man who without boasting had declared himself to know everything was never commissioned to convert his schemes into realities. that magnificent walled city, philipopolis, with its gorgeous streets and bristling fortresses, remained unbuilt, the scheldt has placidly flowed through its old channel to the sea from that day to this, and the republic remained in possession of the unexampled foreign trade with which rebellion had enriched it. these various intrigues and projects show plainly enough however the encouragement given to the enemies of the united provinces and of protestantism everywhere by these disastrous internal dissensions. but yesterday and the republic led by barneveld in council and maurice of nassau in the field stood at the head of the great army of resistance to the general crusade organized by spain and rome against all unbelievers. and now that the war was absolutely beginning in bohemia, the republic was falling upon its own sword instead of smiting with it the universal foe. it was not the king of spain alone that cast longing eyes on the fair territory of that commonwealth which the unparalleled tyranny of his father had driven to renounce his sceptre. both in the netherlands and france, among the extreme orthodox party, there were secret schemes, to which maurice was not privy, to raise maurice to the sovereignty of the provinces. other conspirators with a wider scope and more treasonable design were disposed to surrender their country to the dominion of france, stipulating of course large rewards and offices for themselves and the vice-royalty of what should then be the french netherlands to maurice. the schemes were wild enough perhaps, but their very existence, which is undoubted, is another proof, if more proof were wanted, of the lamentable tendency, in times of civil and religious dissension, of political passion to burn out the very first principles of patriotism. it is also important, on account of the direct influence exerted by these intrigues upon subsequent events of the gravest character, to throw a beam of light on matters which were thought to have been shrouded for ever in impenetrable darkness. langerac, the states' ambassador in paris, was the very reverse of his predecessor, the wily, unscrupulous, and accomplished francis aerssens. the envoys of the republic were rarely dull, but langerac was a simpleton. they were renowned for political experience, skill, familiarity with foreign languages, knowledge of literature, history, and public law; but he was ignorant, spoke french very imperfectly, at a court where not a human being could address him in his own tongue, had never been employed in diplomacy or in high office of any kind, and could carry but small personal weight at a post where of all others the representative of the great republic should have commanded deference both for his own qualities and for the majesty of his government. at a period when france was left without a master or a guide the dutch ambassador, under a becoming show of profound respect, might really have governed the country so far as regarded at least the all important relations which bound the two nations together. but langerac was a mere picker-up of trifles, a newsmonger who wrote a despatch to-day with information which a despatch was written on the morrow to contradict, while in itself conveying additional intelligence absolutely certain to be falsified soon afterwards. the emperor of germany had gone mad; prince maurice had been assassinated in the hague, a fact which his correspondents, the states-general, might be supposed already to know, if it were one; there had been a revolution in the royal bed-chamber; the spanish cook of the young queen had arrived from madrid; the duke of nevers was behaving very oddly at vienna; such communications, and others equally startling, were the staple of his correspondence. still he was honest enough, very mild, perfectly docile to barneveld, dependent upon his guidance, and fervently attached to that statesman so long as his wheel was going up the hill. moreover, his industry in obtaining information and his passion for imparting it made it probable that nothing very momentous would be neglected should it be laid before him, but that his masters, and especially the advocate, would be enabled to judge for themselves as to the attention due to it. "with this you will be apprised of some very high and weighty matters," he wrote privately and in cipher to barneveld, "which you will make use of according to your great wisdom and forethought for the country's service." he requested that the matter might also be confided to m. van der myle, that he might assist his father-in-law, so overburdened with business, in the task of deciphering the communication. he then stated that he had been "very earnestly informed three days before by m. du agean"--member of the privy council of france--"that it had recently come to the king's ears, and his majesty knew it to be authentic, that there was a secret and very dangerous conspiracy in holland of persons belonging to the reformed religion in which others were also mixed. this party held very earnest and very secret correspondence with the factious portion of the contra-remonstrants both in the netherlands and france, seeking under pretext of the religious dissensions or by means of them to confer the sovereignty upon prince maurice by general consent of the contra-remonstrants. their object was also to strengthen and augment the force of the same religious party in france, to which end the duc de bouillon and m. de chatillon were very earnestly co-operating. langerac had already been informed by chatillon that the contra-remonstrants had determined to make a public declaration against the remonstrants, and come to an open separation from them. "others propose however," said the ambassador, "that the king himself should use the occasion to seize the sovereignty of the united provinces for himself and to appoint prince maurice viceroy, giving him in marriage madame henriette of france." the object of this movement would be to frustrate the plots of the contra-remonstrants, who were known to be passionately hostile to the king and to france, and who had been constantly traversing the negotiations of m. du maurier. there was a disposition to send a special and solemn embassy to the states, but it was feared that the british king would at once do the same, to the immense disadvantage of the remonstrants. "m. de barneveld," said the envoy, "is deeply sympathized with here and commiserated. the chancellor has repeatedly requested me to present to you his very sincere and very hearty respects, exhorting you to continue in your manly steadfastness and courage." he also assured the advocate that the french ambassador, m. du maurier, enjoyed the entire confidence of his government, and of the principal members of the council, and that the king, although contemplating, as we have seen, the seizure of the sovereignty of the country, was most amicably disposed towards it, and so soon as the peace of savoy was settled "had something very good for it in his mind." whether the something very good was this very design to deprive it of independence, the ambassador did not state. he however recommended the use of sundry small presents at the french court--especially to madame de luynes, wife of the new favourite of lewis since the death of concini, in which he had aided, now rising rapidly to consideration, and to madame du agean--and asked to be supplied with funds accordingly. by these means he thought it probable that at least the payment to the states of the long arrears of the french subsidy might be secured. three weeks later, returning to the subject, the ambassador reported another conversation with m. du agean. that politician assured him, "with high protestations," as a perfectly certain fact that a frenchman duly qualified had arrived in paris from holland who had been in communication not only with him but with several of the most confidential members of the privy council of france. this duly qualified gentleman had been secretly commissioned to say that in opinion of the conspirators already indicated the occasion was exactly offered by these religious dissensions in the netherlands for bringing the whole country under the obedience of the king. this would be done with perfect ease if he would only be willing to favour a little the one party, that of the contra-remonstrants, and promise his excellency "perfect and perpetual authority in the government with other compensations." the proposition, said du agean, had been rejected by the privy councillors with a declaration that they would not mix themselves up with any factions, nor assist any party, but that they would gladly work with the government for the accommodation of these difficulties and differences in the provinces. "i send you all this nakedly," concluded langerac, "exactly as it has been communicated to me, having always answered according to my duty and with a view by negotiating with these persons to discover the intentions as well of one side as the other." the advocate was not profoundly impressed by these revelations. he was too experienced a statesman to doubt that in times when civil and religious passion was running high there was never lack of fishers in troubled waters, and that if a body of conspirators could secure a handsome compensation by selling their country to a foreign prince, they would always be ready to do it. but although believed by maurice to be himself a stipendiary of spain, he was above suspecting the prince of any share in the low and stupid intrigue which du agean had imagined or disclosed. that the stadholder was ambitious of greater power, he hardly doubted, but that he was seeking to acquire it by such corrupt and circuitous means, he did not dream. he confidentially communicated the plot as in duty bound to some members of the states, and had the prince been accused in any conversation or statement of being privy to the scheme, he would have thought himself bound to mention it to him. the story came to the ears of maurice however, and helped to feed his wrath against the advocate, as if he were responsible for a plot, if plot it were, which had been concocted by his own deadliest enemies. the prince wrote a letter alluding to this communication of langerac and giving much alarm to that functionary. he thought his despatches must have been intercepted and proposed in future to write always by special courier. barneveld thought that unnecessary except when there were more important matters than those appeared to him to be and requiring more haste. "the letter of his excellency," said he to the ambassador, "is caused in my opinion by the fact that some of the deputies to this assembly to whom i secretly imparted your letter or its substance did not rightly comprehend or report it. you did not say that his excellency had any such design or project, but that it had been said that the contra-remonstrants were entertaining such a scheme. i would have shown the letter to him myself, but i thought it not fair, for good reasons, to make m. du agean known as the informant. i do not think it amiss for you to write yourself to his excellency and tell him what is said, but whether it would be proper to give up the name of your author, i think doubtful. at all events one must consult about it. we live in a strange world, and one knows not whom to trust." he instructed the ambassador to enquire into the foundation of these statements of du agean and send advices by every occasion of this affair and others of equal interest. he was however much more occupied with securing the goodwill of the french government, which he no more suspected of tampering in these schemes against the independence of the republic than he did maurice himself. he relied and he had reason to rely on their steady good offices in the cause of moderation and reconciliation. "we are not yet brought to the necessary and much desired unity," he said, "but we do not despair, hoping that his majesty's efforts through m. du maurier, both privately and publicly, will do much good. be assured that they are very agreeable to all rightly disposed people . . . . my trust is that god the lord will give us a happy issue and save this country from perdition." he approved of the presents to the two ladies as suggested by langerac if by so doing the payment of the arrearages could be furthered. he was still hopeful and confident in the justice of his cause and the purity of his conscience. "aerssens is crowing like a cock," he said, "but the truth will surely prevail." chapter xvii. a deputation from utrecht to maurice--the fair at utrecht--maurice and the states' deputies at utrecht--ogle refuses to act in opposition to the states--the stadholder disbands the waartgelders-- the prince appoints forty magistrates--the states formally disband the waartgelders. the eventful midsummer had arrived. the lime-tree blossoms were fragrant in the leafy bowers overshadowing the beautiful little rural capital of the commonwealth. the anniversary of the nieuwpoort victory, july , had come and gone, and the stadholder was known to be resolved that his political campaign this year should be as victorious as that memorable military one of eighteen years before. before the dog-days should begin to rage, the fierce heats of theological and political passion were to wax daily more and more intense. the party at utrecht in favour of a compromise and in awe of the stadholder sent a deputation to the hague with the express but secret purpose of conferring with maurice. they were eight in number, three of whom, including gillis van ledenberg, lodged at the house of daniel tressel, first clerk of the states-general. the leaders of the barneveld party, aware of the purport of this mission and determined to frustrate it, contrived a meeting between the utrecht commissioners and grotius, hoogerbeets, de haan, and de lange at tressel's house. grotius was spokesman. maurice had accused the states of holland of mutiny and rebellion, and the distinguished pensionary of rotterdam now retorted the charges of mutiny, disobedience, and mischief-making upon those who, under the mask of religion, were attempting to violate the sovereignty of the states, the privileges and laws of the province, the authority of the magistrates, and to subject them to the power of others. to prevent such a catastrophe many cities had enlisted waartgelders. by this means they had held such mutineers to their duty, as had been seen at leyden, haarlem, and other places. the states of utrecht had secured themselves in the same way. but the mischiefmakers and the ill-disposed had been seeking everywhere to counteract these wholesome measures and to bring about a general disbanding of these troops. this it was necessary to resist with spirit. it was the very foundation of the provinces' sovereignty, to maintain which the public means must be employed. it was in vain to drive the foe out of the country if one could not remain in safety within one's own doors. they had heard with sorrow that utrecht was thinking of cashiering its troops, and the speaker proceeded therefore to urge with all the eloquence he was master of the necessity of pausing before taking so fatal a step. the deputies of utrecht answered by pleading the great pecuniary burthen which the maintenance of the mercenaries imposed upon that province, and complained that there was no one to come to their assistance, exposed as they were to a sudden and overwhelming attack from many quarters. the states-general had not only written but sent commissioners to utrecht insisting on the disbandment. they could plainly see the displeasure of the prince. it was a very different affair in holland, but the states of utrecht found it necessary of two evils to choose the least. they had therefore instructed their commissioners to request the prince to remove the foreign garrison from their capital and to send the old companies of native militia in their place, to be in the pay of the episcopate. in this case the states would agree to disband the new levies. grotius in reply again warned the commissioners against communicating with maurice according to their instructions, intimated that the native militia on which they were proposing to rely might have been debauched, and he held out hopes that perhaps the states of utrecht might derive some relief from certain financial measures now contemplated in holland. the utrechters resolved to wait at least several days before opening the subject of their mission to the prince. meantime ledenberg made a rough draft of a report of what had occurred between them and grotius and his colleagues which it was resolved to lay secretly before the states of utrecht. the hollanders hoped that they had at last persuaded the commissioners to maintain the waartgelders. the states of holland now passed a solemn resolution to the effect that these new levies had been made to secure municipal order and maintain the laws from subversion by civil tumults. if this object could be obtained by other means, if the stadholder were willing to remove garrisons of foreign mercenaries on whom there could be no reliance, and supply their place with native troops both in holland and utrecht, an arrangement could be made for disbanding the waartgelders. barneveld, at the head of thirty deputies from the nobles and cities, waited upon maurice and verbally communicated to him this resolution. he made a cold and unsatisfactory reply, although it seems to have been understood that by according twenty companies of native troops he might have contented both holland and utrecht. ledenberg and his colleagues took their departure from the hague without communicating their message to maurice. soon afterwards the states-general appointed a commission to utrecht with the stadholder at the head of it. the states of holland appointed another with grotius as its chairman. on the th july grotius and pensionary hoogerbeets with two colleagues arrived in utrecht. gillis van ledenberg was there to receive them. a tall, handsome, bald-headed, well-featured, mild, gentlemanlike man was this secretary of the utrecht assembly, and certainly not aware, while passing to and fro on such half diplomatic missions between two sovereign assemblies, that he was committing high-treason. he might well imagine however, should maurice discover that it was he who had prevented the commissioners from conferring with him as instructed, that it would go hard with him. ledenberg forthwith introduced grotius and his committee to the assembly at utrecht. while these great personages were thus holding solemn and secret council, another and still greater personage came upon the scene. the stadholder with the deputation from the states-general arrived at utrecht. evidently the threads of this political drama were converging to a catastrophe, and it might prove a tragical one. meantime all looked merry enough in the old episcopal city. there were few towns in lower or in upper germany more elegant and imposing than utrecht. situate on the slender and feeble channel of the ancient rhine as it falters languidly to the sea, surrounded by trim gardens and orchards, and embowered in groves of beeches and limetrees, with busy canals fringed with poplars, lined with solid quays, and crossed by innumerable bridges; with the stately brick tower of st. martin's rising to a daring height above one of the most magnificent gothic cathedrals in the netherlands; this seat of the anglo-saxon willebrord, who eight hundred years before had preached christianity to the frisians, and had founded that long line of hard-fighting, indomitable bishops, obstinately contesting for centuries the possession of the swamps and pastures about them with counts, kings, and emperors, was still worthy of its history and its position. it was here too that sixty-one years before the famous articles of union were signed. by that fundamental treaty of the confederacy, the provinces agreed to remain eternally united as if they were but one province, to make no war nor peace save by unanimous consent, while on lesser matters a majority should rule; to admit both catholics and protestants to the union provided they obeyed its articles and conducted themselves as good patriots, and expressly declared that no province or city should interfere with another in the matter of divine worship. from this memorable compact, so enduring a landmark in the history of human freedom, and distinguished by such breadth of view for the times both in religion and politics, the city had gained the title of cradle of liberty: 'cunabula libertatis'. was it still to deserve the name? at that particular moment the mass of the population was comparatively indifferent to the terrible questions pending. it was the kermis or annual fair, and all the world was keeping holiday in utrecht. the pedlars and itinerant merchants from all the cities and provinces had brought their wares jewellery and crockery, ribbons and laces, ploughs and harrows, carriages and horses, cows and sheep, cheeses and butter firkins, doublets and petticoats, guns and pistols, everything that could serve the city and country-side for months to come--and displayed them in temporary booths or on the ground, in every street and along every canal. the town was one vast bazaar. the peasant-women from the country, with their gold and silver tiaras and the year's rent of a comfortable farm in their earrings and necklaces, and the sturdy frisian peasants, many of whom had borne their matchlocks in the great wars which had lasted through their own and their fathers' lifetime, trudged through the city, enjoying the blessings of peace. bands of music and merry-go-rounds in all the open places and squares; open-air bakeries of pancakes and waffles; theatrical exhibitions, raree-shows, jugglers, and mountebanks at every corner--all these phenomena which had been at every kermis for centuries, and were to repeat themselves for centuries afterwards, now enlivened the atmosphere of the grey, episcopal city. pasted against the walls of public edifices were the most recent placards and counter-placards of the states-general and the states of utrecht on the great subject of religious schisms and popular tumults. in the shop-windows and on the bookstalls of contra-remonstrant tradesmen, now becoming more and more defiant as the last allies of holland, the states of utrecht, were gradually losing courage, were seen the freshest ballads and caricatures against the advocate. here an engraving represented him seated at table with grotius, hoogerbeets, and others, discussing the national synod, while a flap of the picture being lifted put the head of the duke of alva on the legs of barneveld, his companions being transformed in similar manner into spanish priests and cardinals assembled at the terrible council of blood-with rows of protestant martyrs burning and hanging in the distance. another print showed prince maurice and the states-general shaking the leading statesmen of the commonwealth in a mighty sieve through which came tumbling head foremost to perdition the hated advocate and his abettors. another showed the arminians as a row of crest-fallen cocks rained upon by the wrath of the stadholder--arminians by a detestable pun being converted into "arme haenen" or "poor cocks." one represented the pope and king of spain blowing thousands of ducats out of a golden bellows into the lap of the advocate, who was holding up his official robes to receive them, or whole carriage-loads of arminians starting off bag and baggage on the road to rome, with lucifer in the perspective waiting to give them a warm welcome in his own dominions; and so on, and so on. moving through the throng, with iron calque on their heads and halberd in hand, were groups of waartgelders scowling fiercely at many popular demonstrations such as they had been enlisted to suppress, but while off duty concealing outward symptoms of wrath which in many instances perhaps would have been far from genuine. for although these mercenaries knew that the states of holland, who were responsible for the pay of the regular troops then in utrecht, authorized them to obey no orders save from the local authorities, yet it was becoming a grave question for the waartgelders whether their own wages were perfectly safe, a circumstance which made them susceptible to the atmosphere of contra-remonstrantism which was steadily enwrapping the whole country. a still graver question was whether such resistance as they could offer to the renowned stadholder, whose name was magic to every soldier's heart not only in his own land but throughout christendom, would not be like parrying a lance's thrust with a bulrush. in truth the senior captain of the waartgelders, harteveld by name, had privately informed the leaders of the barneveld party in utrecht that he would not draw his sword against prince maurice and the states-general. "who asks you to do so?" said some of the deputies, while ledenberg on the other hand flatly accused him of cowardice. for this affront the captain had vowed revenge. and in the midst of this scene of jollity and confusion, that midsummer night, entered the stern stadholder with his fellow commissioners; the feeble plans for shutting the gates upon him not having been carried into effect. "you hardly expected such a guest at your fair," said he to the magistrates, with a grim smile on his face as who should say, "and what do you think of me now i have came?" meantime the secret conference of grotius and colleagues with the states of utrecht proceeded. as a provisional measure, sir john ogle, commander of the forces paid by holland, had been warned as to where his obedience was due. it had likewise been intimated that the guard should be doubled at the amersfoort gate, and a watch set on the river lek above and below the city in order to prevent fresh troops of the states-general from being introduced by surprise. these precautions had been suggested a year before, as we have seen, in a private autograph letter from barneveld to secretary ledenberg. sir john ogle had flatly refused to act in opposition to the stadholder and the states-general, whom he recognized as his lawful superiors and masters, and he warned ledenberg and his companions as to the perilous nature of the course which they were pursuing. great was the indignation of the utrechters and the holland commissioners in consequence. grotius in his speech enlarged on the possibility of violence being used by the stadholder, while some of the members of the assembly likewise thought it likely that he would smite the gates open by force. grotius, when reproved afterwards for such strong language towards prince maurice, said that true hollanders were no courtiers, but were wont to call everything by its right name. he stated in strong language the regret felt by holland that a majority of the states of utrecht had determined to disband the waartgelders which had been constitutionally enlisted according to the right of each province under the st article of the union of utrecht to protect itself and its laws. next day there were conferences between maurice and the states of utrecht and between him and the holland deputies. the stadholder calmly demanded the disbandment and the synod. the hollanders spoke of securing first the persons and rights of the magistracy. "the magistrates are to be protected," said maurice, "but we must first know how they are going to govern. people have tried to introduce five false points into the divine worship. people have tried to turn me out of the stadholdership and to drive me from the country. but i have taken my measures. i know well what i am about. i have got five provinces on my side, and six cities of holland will send deputies to utrecht to sustain me here." the hollanders protested that there was no design whatever, so far as they knew, against his princely dignity or person. all were ready to recognize his rank and services by every means in their power. but it was desirable by conciliation and compromise, not by stern decree, to arrange these religious and political differences. the stadholder replied by again insisting on the synod. "as for the waartgelders," he continued, "they are worse than spanish fortresses. they must away." after a little further conversation in this vein the prince grew more excited. "everything is the fault of the advocate," he cried. "if barneveld were dead," replied grotius, "all the rest of us would still deem ourselves bound to maintain the laws. people seem to despise holland and to wish to subject it to the other provinces." "on the contrary," cried the prince, "it is the advocate who wishes to make holland the states-general." maurice was tired of argument. there had been much ale-house talk some three months before by a certain blusterous gentleman called van ostrum about the necessity of keeping the stadholder in check. "if the prince should undertake," said this pot-valiant hero, "to attack any of the cities of utrecht or holland with the hard hand, it is settled to station or , soldiers in convenient places. then we shall say to the prince, if you don't leave us alone, we shall make an arrangement with the archduke of austria and resume obedience to him. we can make such a treaty with him as will give us religious freedom and save us from tyranny of any kind. i don't say this for myself, but have heard it on good authority from very eminent persons." this talk had floated through the air to the stadholder. what evidence could be more conclusive of a deep design on the part of barneveld to sell the republic to the archduke and drive maurice into exile? had not esquire van ostrum solemnly declared it at a tavern table? and although he had mentioned no names, could the "eminent personages" thus cited at second hand be anybody but the advocate? three nights after his last conference with the hollanders, maurice quietly ordered a force of regular troops in utrecht to be under arms at half past three o'clock next morning. about infantry, including companies of ernest of nassau's command at arnhem and of brederode's from vianen, besides a portion of the regular garrison of the place, had accordingly been assembled without beat of drum, before half past three in the morning, and were now drawn up on the market-place or neu. at break of day the prince himself appeared on horseback surrounded by his staff on the neu or neude, a large, long, irregular square into which the seven or eight principal streets and thoroughfares of the town emptied themselves. it was adorned by public buildings and other handsome edifices, and the tall steeple of st. martin's with its beautiful open-work spire, lighted with the first rays of the midsummer sun, looked tranquilly down upon the scene. each of the entrances to the square had been securely guarded by maurice's orders, and cannon planted to command all the streets. a single company of the famous waartgelders was stationed in the neu or near it. the prince rode calmly towards them and ordered them to lay down their arms. they obeyed without a murmur. he then sent through the city to summon all the other companies of waartgelders to the neu. this was done with perfect promptness, and in a short space of time the whole body of mercenaries, nearly in number, had laid down their arms at the feet of the prince. the snaphances and halberds being then neatly stacked in the square, the stadholder went home to his early breakfast. there was an end to those mercenaries thenceforth and for ever. the faint and sickly resistance to the authority of maurice offered at utrecht was attempted nowhere else. for days there had been vague but fearful expectations of a "blood bath," of street battles, rioting, and plunder. yet the stadholder with the consummate art which characterized all his military manoeuvres had so admirably carried out his measure that not a shot was fired, not a blow given, not a single burgher disturbed in his peaceful slumbers. when the population had taken off their nightcaps, they woke to find the awful bugbear removed which had so long been appalling them. the waartgelders were numbered with the terrors of the past, and not a cat had mewed at their disappearance. charter-books, parchments, th articles, barneveld's teeth, arminian forts, flowery orations of grotius, tavern talk of van ostrum, city immunities, states' rights, provincial laws, waartgelders and all--the martial stadholder, with the orange plume in his hat and the sword of nieuwpoort on his thigh, strode through them as easily as through the whirligigs and mountebanks, the wades and fritters, encumbering the streets of utrecht on the night of his arrival. secretary ledenberg and other leading members of the states had escaped the night before. grotius and his colleagues also took a precipitate departure. as they drove out of town in the twilight, they met the deputies of the six opposition cities of holland just arriving in their coach from the hague. had they tarried an hour longer, they would have found themselves safely in prison. four days afterwards the stadholder at the head of his body-guard appeared at the town-house. his halberdmen tramped up the broad staircase, heralding his arrival to the assembled magistracy. he announced his intention of changing the whole board then and there. the process was summary. the forty members were required to supply forty other names, and the prince added twenty more. from the hundred candidates thus furnished the prince appointed forty magistrates such as suited himself. it is needless to say that but few of the old bench remained, and that those few were devoted to the synod, the states-general, and the stadholder. he furthermore announced that these new magistrates were to hold office for life, whereas the board had previously been changed every year. the cathedral church was at once assigned for the use of the contra-remonstrants. this process was soon to be repeated throughout the two insubordinate provinces utrecht and holland. the prince was accused of aiming at the sovereignty of the whole country, and one of his grief's against the advocate was that he had begged the princess-widow, louise de coligny, to warn her son-in-law of the dangers of such ambition. but so long as an individual, sword in hand, could exercise such unlimited sway over the whole municipal, and provincial organization of the commonwealth, it mattered but little whether he was called king or kaiser, doge or stadholder. sovereign he was for the time being at least, while courteously acknowledging the states-general as his sovereign. less than three weeks afterwards the states-general issued a decree formally disbanding the waartgelders; an almost superfluous edict, as they had almost ceased to exist, and there were none to resist the measure. grotius recommended complete acquiescence. barneveld's soul could no longer animate with courage a whole people. the invitations which had already in the month of june been prepared for the synod to meet in the city of dortor dordtrecht-were now issued. the states of holland sent back the notification unopened, deeming it an unwarrantable invasion of their rights that an assembly resisted by a large majority of their body should be convoked in a city on their own territory. but this was before the disbandment of the waartgelders and the general change of magistracies had been effected. earnest consultations were now held as to the possibility of devising some means of compromise; of providing that the decisions of the synod should not be considered binding until after having been ratified by the separate states. in the opinion of barneveld they were within a few hours' work of a favourable result when their deliberations were interrupted by a startling event. chapter xviii. fruitless interview between barneveld and maurice--the advocate, warned of his danger, resolves to remain at the hague--arrest of barneveld, of qrotius, and of hoogerbeets--the states-general assume the responsibility in a "billet"--the states of holland protest-- the advocate's letter to his family--audience of boississe-- mischief-making of aerssens--the french ambassadors intercede for barneveld--the king of england opposes their efforts--langerac's treachery to the advocate--maurice continues his changes in the magistracy throughout the country--vote of thanks by the states of holland. the advocate, having done what he believed to be his duty, and exhausted himself in efforts to defend ancient law and to procure moderation and mutual toleration in religion, was disposed to acquiesce in the inevitable. his letters giving official and private information of those grave events were neither vindictive nor vehement. "i send you the last declaration of my lords of holland," he said to caron, "in regard to the national synod, with the counter-declaration of dordtrecht and the other five cities. yesterday was begun the debate about cashiering the enrolled soldiers called waartgelders. to-day the late m. van kereburg was buried." nothing could be calmer than his tone. after the waartgelders had been disbanded, utrecht revolutionized by main force, the national synod decided upon, and the process of changing the municipal magistracies everywhere in the interest of contra-remonstrants begun, he continued to urge moderation and respect for law. even now, although discouraged, he was not despondent, and was disposed to make the best even of the synod. he wished at this supreme moment to have a personal interview with the prince in order to devise some means for calming the universal agitation and effecting, if possible, a reconciliation among conflicting passions and warring sects. he had stood at the side of maurice and of maurice's great father in darker hours even than these. they had turned to him on all trying and tragical occasions and had never found his courage wavering or his judgment at fault. "not a friend to the house of nassau, but a father," thus had maurice with his own lips described the advocate to the widow of william the silent. incapable of an unpatriotic thought, animated by sincere desire to avert evil and procure moderate action, barneveld saw no reason whatever why, despite all that had been said and done, he should not once more hold council with the prince. he had a conversation accordingly with count lewis, who had always honoured the advocate while differing with him on the religious question. the stadholder of friesland, one of the foremost men of his day in military and scientific affairs, in administrative ability and philanthropic instincts, and, in a family perhaps the most renowned in europe for heroic qualities and achievements, hardly second to any who had borne the name, was in favour of the proposed interview, spoke immediately to prince maurice about it, but was not hopeful as to its results. he knew his cousin well and felt that he was at that moment resentful, perhaps implacably so, against the whole remonstrant party and especially against their great leader. count lewis was small of stature, but dignified, not to say pompous, in demeanour. his style of writing to one of lower social rank than himself was lofty, almost regal, and full of old world formality. "noble, severe, right worshipful, highly learned and discreet, special good friend," he wrote to barneveld; "we have spoken to his excellency concerning the expediency of what you requested of us this forenoon. we find however that his excellency is not to be moved to entertain any other measure than the national synod which he has himself proposed in person to all the provinces, to the furtherance of which he has made so many exertions, and which has already been announced by the states-general. "we will see by what opportunity his excellency will appoint the interview, and so far as lies in us you may rely on our good offices. we could not answer sooner as the french ambassadors had audience of us this forenoon and we were visiting his excellency in the afternoon. wishing your worship good evening, we are your very good friend." next day count william wrote again. "we have taken occasion," he said, "to inform his excellency that you were inclined to enter into communication with him in regard to an accommodation of the religious difficulties and to the cashiering of the waartgelders. he answered that he could accept no change in the matter of the national synod, but nevertheless would be at your disposal whenever your worship should be pleased to come to him." two days afterwards barneveld made his appearance at the apartments of the stadholder. the two great men on whom the fabric of the republic had so long rested stood face to face once more. the advocate, with long grey beard and stern blue eye, haggard with illness and anxiety, tall but bent with age, leaning on his staff and wrapped in black velvet cloak--an imposing magisterial figure; the florid, plethoric prince in brown doublet, big russet boots, narrow ruff, and shabby felt hat with its string of diamonds, with hand clutched on swordhilt, and eyes full of angry menace, the very type of the high-born, imperious soldier--thus they surveyed each other as men, once friends, between whom a gulf had opened. barneveld sought to convince the prince that in the proceedings at utrecht, founded as they were on strict adherence to the laws and traditions of the provinces, no disrespect had been intended to him, no invasion of his constitutional rights, and that on his part his lifelong devotion to the house of nassau had suffered no change. he repeated his usual incontrovertible arguments against the synod, as illegal and directly tending to subject the magistracy to the priesthood, a course of things which eight-and-twenty years before had nearly brought destruction on the country and led both the prince and himself to captivity in a foreign land. the prince sternly replied in very few words that the national synod was a settled matter, that he would never draw back from his position, and could not do so without singular disservice to the country and to his own disreputation. he expressed his displeasure at the particular oath exacted from the waartgelders. it diminished his lawful authority and the respect due to him, and might be used per indirectum to the oppression of those of the religion which he had sworn to maintain. his brow grew black when he spoke of the proceedings at utrecht, which he denounced as a conspiracy against his own person and the constitution of the country. barneveld used in vain the powers of argument by which he had guided kings and republics, cabinets and assemblies, during so many years. his eloquence fell powerless upon the iron taciturnity of the stadholder. maurice had expressed his determination and had no other argument to sustain it but his usual exasperating silence. the interview ended as hopelessly as count lewis william had anticipated, and the prince and the advocate separated to meet no more on earth. "you have doubtless heard already," wrote barneveld to the ambassador in london, "of all that has been passing here and in utrecht. one must pray to god that everything may prosper to his honour and the welfare of the country. they are resolved to go through with the national synod, the government of utrecht after the change made in it having consented with the rest. i hope that his majesty, according to your statement, will send some good, learned, and peace-loving personages here, giving them wholesome instructions to help bring our affairs into christian unity, accommodation, and love, by which his majesty and these provinces would be best served." were these the words of a baffled conspirator and traitor? were they uttered to produce an effect upon public opinion and avert a merited condemnation by all good men? there is not in them a syllable of reproach, of anger, of despair. and let it be remembered that they were not written for the public at all. they were never known to the public, hardly heard of either by the advocate's enemies or friends, save the one to whom they were addressed and the monarch to whom that friend was accredited. they were not contained in official despatches, but in private, confidential outpourings to a trusted political and personal associate of many years. from the day they were written until this hour they have never been printed, and for centuries perhaps not read. he proceeded to explain what he considered to be the law in the netherlands with regard to military allegiance. it is not probable that there was in the country a more competent expounder of it; and defective and even absurd as such a system was, it had carried the provinces successfully through a great war, and a better method for changing it might have been found among so law-loving and conservative a people as the netherlanders than brute force. "information has apparently been sent to england," he said, "that my lords of holland through their commissioners in utrecht dictated to the soldiery standing at their charges something that was unreasonable. the truth is that the states of holland, as many of them as were assembled, understanding that great haste was made to send his excellency and some deputies from the other provinces to utrecht, while the members of the utrecht assembly were gone to report these difficulties to their constituents and get fresh instructions from them, wishing that the return of those members should be waited for and that the assembly of holland might also be complete--a request which was refused--sent a committee to utrecht, as the matter brooked no delay, to give information to the states of that province of what was passing here and to offer their good offices. "they sent letters also to his excellency to move him to reasonable accommodation without taking extreme measures in opposition to those resolutions of the states of utrecht which his excellency had promised to conform with and to cause to be maintained by all officers and soldiers. should his excellency make difficulty in this, the commissioners were instructed to declare to him that they were ordered to warn the colonels and captains standing in the payment of holland, by letter and word of mouth, that they were bound by oath to obey the states of holland as their paymasters and likewise to carry out the orders of the provincial and municipal magistrates in the places where they were employed. the soldiery was not to act or permit anything to be done against those resolutions, but help to carry them out, his excellency himself and the troops paid by the states of holland being indisputably bound by oath and duty so to do." doubtless a more convenient arrangement from a military point of view might be imagined than a system of quotas by which each province in a confederacy claimed allegiance and exacted obedience from the troops paid by itself in what was after all a general army. still this was the logical and inevitable result of state rights pushed to the extreme and indeed had been the indisputable theory and practice in the netherlands ever since their revolt from spain. to pretend that the proceedings and the oath were new because they were embarrassing was absurd. it was only because the dominant party saw the extreme inconvenience of the system, now that it was turned against itself, that individuals contemptuous of law and ignorant of history denounced it as a novelty. but the strong and beneficent principle that lay at the bottom of the advocate's conduct was his unflagging resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military in time of peace. what liberal or healthy government would be possible otherwise? exactly as he opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood or the mob, so he now defended it against the power of the sword. there was no justification whatever for a claim on the part of maurice to exact obedience from all the armies of the republic, especially in time of peace. he was himself by oath sworn to obey the states of holland, of utrecht, and of the three other provinces of which he was governor. he was not commander-in-chief. in two of the seven provinces he had no functions whatever, military or civil. they had another governor. yet the exposition of the law, as it stood, by the advocate and his claim that both troops and stadholder should be held to their oaths was accounted a crime. he had invented a new oath--it was said--and sought to diminish the power of the prince. these were charges, unjust as they were, which might one day be used with deadly effect. "we live in a world where everything is interpreted to the worst," he said. "my physical weakness continues and is increased by this affliction. i place my trust in god the lord and in my upright and conscientious determination to serve the country, his excellency, and the religion in which through god's grace i hope to continue to the end." on the th august of a warm afternoon, barneveld was seated on a porcelain seat in an arbor in his garden. councillor berkhout, accompanied by a friend, called to see him, and after a brief conversation gave him solemn warning that danger was impending, that there was even a rumour of an intention to arrest him. the advocate answered gravely, "yes, there are wicked men about." presently he lifted his hat courteously and said, "i thank you, gentlemen, for the warning." it seems scarcely to have occurred to him that he had been engaged in anything beyond a constitutional party struggle in which he had defended what in his view was the side of law and order. he never dreamt of seeking safety in flight. some weeks before, he had been warmly advised to do as both he and maurice had done in former times in order to escape the stratagems of leicester, to take refuge in some strong city devoted to his interests rather than remain at the hague. but he had declined the counsel. "i will await the issue of this business," he said, "in the hague, where my home is, and where i have faithfully served my masters. i had rather for the sake of the fatherland suffer what god chooses to send me for having served well than that through me and on my account any city should fall into trouble and difficulties." next morning, wednesday, at seven o'clock, uytenbogaert paid him a visit. he wished to consult him concerning a certain statement in regard to the synod which he desired him to lay before the states of holland. the preacher did not find his friend busily occupied at his desk, as usual, with writing and other work. the advocate had pushed his chair away from the table encumbered with books and papers, and sat with his back leaning against it, lost in thought. his stern, stoical face was like that of a lion at bay. uytenbogaert tried to arouse him from his gloom, consoling him by reflections on the innumerable instances, in all countries and ages, of patriotic statesmen who for faithful service had reaped nothing but ingratitude. soon afterwards he took his leave, feeling a presentiment of evil within him which it was impossible for him to shake off as he pressed barneveld's hand at parting. two hours later, the advocate went in his coach to the session of the states of holland. the place of the assembly as well as that of the states-general was within what was called the binnenhof or inner court; the large quadrangle enclosing the ancient hall once the residence of the sovereign counts of holland. the apartments of the stadholder composed the south-western portion of the large series of buildings surrounding this court. passing by these lodgings on his way to the assembly, he was accosted by a chamberlain of the prince and informed that his highness desired to speak with him. he followed him towards the room where such interviews were usually held, but in the antechamber was met by lieutenant nythof, of the prince's bodyguard. this officer told him that he had been ordered to arrest him in the name of the states-general. the advocate demanded an interview with the prince. it was absolutely refused. physical resistance on the part of a man of seventy-two, stooping with age and leaning on a staff, to military force, of which nythof was the representative, was impossible. barneveld put a cheerful face on the matter, and was even inclined to converse. he was at once carried off a prisoner and locked up in a room belonging to maurice's apartments. soon afterwards, grotius on his way to the states-general was invited in precisely the same manner to go to the prince, with whom, as he was informed, the advocate was at that moment conferring. as soon as he had ascended the stairs however, he was arrested by captain van der meulen in the name of the states-general, and taken to a chamber in the same apartments, where he was guarded by two halberdmen. in the evening he was removed to another chamber where the window shutters were barred, and where he remained three days and nights. he was much cast down and silent. pensionary hoogerbeets was made prisoner in precisely the same manner. thus the three statesmen--culprits as they were considered by their enemies--were secured without noise or disturbance, each without knowing the fate that had befallen the other. nothing could have been more neatly done. in the same quiet way orders were sent to secure secretary ledenberg, who had returned to utrecht, and who now after a short confinement in that city was brought to the hague and imprisoned in the hof. at the very moment of the advocate's arrest his son-in-law van der myle happened to be paying a visit to sir dudley carleton, who had arrived very late the night before from england. it was some hours before he or any other member of the family learned what had befallen. the ambassador reported to his sovereign that the deed was highly applauded by the well disposed as the only means left for the security of the state. "the arminians," he said, "condemn it as violent and insufferable in a free republic." impartial persons, he thought, considered it a superfluous proceeding now that the synod had been voted and the waartgelders disbanded. while he was writing his despatch, the stadholder came to call upon him, attended by his cousin count lewis william. the crowd of citizens following at a little distance, excited by the news with which the city was now ringing, mingled with maurice's gentlemen and bodyguards and surged up almost into the ambassador's doors. carleton informed his guests, in the course of conversation, as to the general opinion of indifferent judges of these events. maurice replied that he had disbanded the waartgelders, but it had now become necessary to deal with their colonel and the chief captains, meaning thereby barneveld and the two other prisoners. the news of this arrest was soon carried to the house of barneveld, and filled his aged wife, his son, and sons-in-law with grief and indignation. his eldest son william, commonly called the seignior van groeneveld, accompanied by his two brothers-in-law, veenhuyzen, president of the upper council, and van der myle, obtained an interview with the stadholder that same afternoon. they earnestly requested that the advocate, in consideration of his advanced age, might on giving proper bail be kept prisoner in his own house. the prince received them at first with courtesy. "it is the work of the states-general," he said, "no harm shall come to your father any more than to myself." veenhuyzen sought to excuse the opposition which the advocate had made to the cloister church. the word was scarcely out of his mouth when the prince fiercely interrupted him--"any man who says a word against the cloister church," he cried in a rage, "his feet shall not carry him from this place." the interview gave them on the whole but little satisfaction. very soon afterwards two gentlemen, asperen and schagen, belonging to the chamber of nobles, and great adherents of barneveld, who had procured their enrolment in that branch, forced their way into the stadholder's apartments and penetrated to the door of the room where the advocate was imprisoned. according to carleton they were filled with wine as well as rage, and made a great disturbance, loudly demanding their patron's liberation. maurice came out of his own cabinet on hearing the noise in the corridor, and ordered them to be disarmed and placed under arrest. in the evening however they were released. soon afterwards van der myle fled to paris, where he endeavoured to make influence with the government in favour of the advocate. his departure without leave, being, as he was, a member of the chamber of nobles and of the council of state, was accounted a great offence. uytenbogaert also made his escape, as did taurinus, author of the balance, van moersbergen of utrecht, and many others more or less implicated in these commotions. there was profound silence in the states of holland when the arrest of barneveld was announced. the majority sat like men distraught. at last matenesse said, "you have taken from us our head, our tongue, and our hand, henceforth we can only sit still and look on." the states-general now took the responsibility of the arrest, which eight individuals calling themselves the states-general had authorized by secret resolution the day before ( th august). on the th accordingly, the following "billet," as it was entitled, was read to the assembly and ordered to be printed and circulated among the community. it was without date or signature. "whereas in the course of the changes within the city of utrecht and in other places brought about by the high and mighty lords the states-general of the united netherlands, through his excellency and their lordships' committee to him adjoined, sundry things have been discovered of which previously there had been great suspicion, tending to the great prejudice of the provinces in general and of each province in particular, not without apparent danger to the state of the country, and that thereby not only the city of utrecht, but various other cities of the united provinces would have fallen into a blood bath; and whereas the chief ringleaders in these things are considered to be john van barneveld, advocate of holland, rombout hoogerbeets, and hugo grotius, whereof hereafter shall declaration and announcement be made, therefore their high mightinesses, in order to prevent these and similar inconveniences, to place the country in security, and to bring the good burghers of all the cities into friendly unity again, have resolved to arrest those three persons, in order that out of their imprisonment they may be held to answer duly for their actions and offences." the deputies of holland in the states-general protested on the same day against the arrest, declaring themselves extraordinarily amazed at such proceedings, without their knowledge, with usurpation of their jurisdiction, and that they should refer to their principals for instructions in the matter. they reported accordingly at once to the states of holland in session in the same building. soon afterwards however a committee of five from the states-general appeared before the assembly to justify the proceeding. on their departure there arose a great debate, the six cities of course taking part with maurice and the general government. it was finally resolved by the majority to send a committee to the stadholder to remonstrate with, and by the six opposition cities another committee to congratulate him, on his recent performances. his answer was to this effect: "what had happened was not by his order, but had been done by the states-general, who must be supposed not to have acted without good cause. touching the laws and jurisdiction of holland he would not himself dispute, but the states of holland would know how to settle that matter with the states-general." next day it was resolved in the holland assembly to let the affair remain as it was for the time being. rapid changes were soon to be expected in that body, hitherto so staunch for the cause of municipal laws and state rights. meantime barneveld sat closely guarded in the apartments of the stadholder, while the country and very soon all europe were ringing with the news of his downfall, imprisonment, and disgrace. the news was a thunder-bolt to the lovers of religious liberty, a ray of dazzling sunlight after a storm to the orthodox. the showers of pamphlets, villanous lampoons, and libels began afresh. the relatives of the fallen statesman could not appear in the streets without being exposed to insult, and without hearing scurrilous and obscene verses against their father and themselves, in which neither sex nor age was spared, howled in their ears by all the ballad-mongers and broadsheet vendors of the town. the unsigned publication of the states-general, with its dark allusions to horrible discoveries and promised revelations which were never made, but which reduced themselves at last to the gibberish of a pot-house bully, the ingenious libels, the powerfully concocted and poisonous calumnies, caricatures, and lampoons, had done their work. people stared at each other in the streets with open mouths as they heard how the advocate had for years and years been the hireling of spain, whose government had bribed him largely to bring about the truce and kill the west india company; how his pockets and his coffers were running over with spanish ducats; how his plot to sell the whole country to the ancient tyrant, drive the prince of orange into exile, and bring every city of the netherlands into a "blood-bath," had, just in time, been discovered. and the people believed it and hated the man they had so lately honoured, and were ready to tear him to pieces in the streets. men feared to defend him lest they too should be accused of being stipendiaries of spain. it was a piteous spectacle; not for the venerable statesman sitting alone there in his prison, but for the republic in its lunacy, for human nature in its meanness and shame. he whom count lewis, although opposed to his politics, had so lately called one of the two columns on which the whole fabric of the states reposed, prince maurice being the other, now lay prostrate in the dust and reviled of all men. "many who had been promoted by him to high places," said a contemporary, "and were wont to worship him as a god, in hope that he would lift them up still higher, now deserted him, and ridiculed him, and joined the rest of the world in heaping dirt upon him." on the third day of his imprisonment the advocate wrote this letter to his family:-- "my very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren,--i know that you are sorrowful for the troubles which have come upon me, but i beg you to seek consolation from god the almighty and to comfort each other. i know before the lord god of having given no single lawful reason for the misfortunes which have come upon me, and i will with patience await from his divine hand and from my lawful superiors a happy issue, knowing well that you and my other well-wishers will with your prayers and good offices do all that you can to that end. "and so, very dear wife, children, children-in-law, and grandchildren, i commend you to god's holy keeping. "i have been thus far well and honourably treated and accommodated, for which i thank his princely excellency. "from my chamber of arrest, last of august, anno . "your dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grand father, "john of barneveld." on the margin was written: "from the first i have requested and have at last obtained materials for writing." a fortnight before the arrest, but while great troubles were known to be impending, the french ambassador extraordinary, de boississe, had audience before the assembly of the states-general. he entreated them to maintain the cause of unity and peace as the foundation of their state; "that state," he said, "which lifts its head so high that it equals or surpasses the mightiest republics that ever existed, and which could not have risen to such a height of honour and grandeur in so short a time, but through harmony and union of all the provinces, through the valour of his excellency, and through your own wise counsels, both sustained by our great king, whose aid is continued by his son."--"the king my master," he continued, "knows not the cause of your disturbances. you have not communicated them to him, but their most apparent cause is a difference of opinion, born in the schools, thence brought before the public, upon a point of theology. that point has long been deemed by many to be so hard and so high that the best advice to give about it is to follow what god's word teaches touching god's secrets; to wit, that one should use moderation and modesty therein and should not rashly press too far into that which he wishes to be covered with the veil of reverence and wonder. that is a wise ignorance to keep one's eyes from that which god chooses to conceal. he calls us not to eternal life through subtle and perplexing questions." and further exhorting them to conciliation and compromise, he enlarged on the effect of their internal dissensions on their exterior relations. "what joy, what rapture you are preparing for your neighbours by your quarrels! how they will scorn you! how they will laugh! what a hope do you give them of revenging themselves upon you without danger to themselves! let me implore you to baffle their malice, to turn their joy into mourning, to unite yourselves to confound them." he spoke much more in the same vein, expressing wise and moderate sentiments. he might as well have gone down to the neighbouring beach when a south-west gale was blowing and talked of moderation to the waves of the german ocean. the tempest of passion and prejudice had risen in its might and was sweeping all before it. yet the speech, like other speeches and intercessions made at this epoch by de boississe and by the regular french ambassador, du maurier, was statesmanlike and reasonable. it is superfluous to say that it was in unison with the opinions of barneveld, for barneveld had probably furnished the text of the oration. even as he had a few years before supplied the letters which king james had signed and subsequently had struggled so desperately to disavow, so now the advocate's imperious intellect had swayed the docile and amiable minds of the royal envoys into complete sympathy with his policy. he usually dictated their general instructions. but an end had come to such triumphs. dudley carleton had returned from his leave of absence in england, where he had found his sovereign hating the advocate as doctors hate who have been worsted in theological arguments and despots who have been baffled in their imperious designs. who shall measure the influence on the destiny of this statesman caused by the french-spanish marriages, the sermons of james through the mouth of carleton, and the mutual jealousy of france and england? but the advocate was in prison, and the earth seemed to have closed over him. hardly a ripple of indignation was perceptible on the calm surface of affairs, although in the states-general as in the states of holland his absence seemed to have reduced both bodies to paralysis. they were the more easily handled by the prudent, skilful, and determined maurice. the arrest of the four gentlemen had been communicated to the kings of france and great britain and the elector-palatine in an identical letter from the states-general. it is noticeable that on this occasion the central government spoke of giving orders to the prince of orange, over whom they would seem to have had no legitimate authority, while on the other hand he had expressed indignation on more than one occasion that the respective states of the five provinces where he was governor and to whom he had sworn obedience should presume to issue commands to him. in france, where the advocate was honoured and beloved, the intelligence excited profound sorrow. a few weeks previously the government of that country had, as we have seen, sent a special ambassador to the states, m. de boississe, to aid the resident envoy, du maurier, in his efforts to bring about a reconciliation of parties and a termination of the religious feud. their exertions were sincere and unceasing. they were as steadily countermined by francis aerssens, for the aim of that diplomatist was to bring about a state of bad feeling, even at cost of rupture, between the republic and france, because france was friendly to the man he most hated and whose ruin he had sworn. during the summer a bitter personal controversy had been going on, sufficiently vulgar in tone, between aerssens and another diplomatist, barneveld's son-in-law, cornelis van der myle. it related to the recall of aerssens from the french embassy of which enough has already been laid before the reader. van der myle by the production of the secret letters of the queen-dowager and her counsellors had proved beyond dispute that it was at the express wish of the french government that the ambassador had retired, and that indeed they had distinctly refused to receive him, should he return. foul words resulting in propositions for a hostile meeting on the frontier, which however came to nothing, were interchanged and aerssens in the course of his altercation with the son-inlaw had found ample opportunity for venting his spleen upon his former patron the now fallen statesman. four days after the arrest of barneveld he brought the whole matter before the states-general, and the intention with which he thus raked up the old quarrel with france after the death of henry, and his charges in regard to the spanish marriages, was as obvious as it was deliberate. the french ambassadors were furious. boississe had arrived not simply as friend of the advocate, but to assure the states of the strong desire entertained by the french government to cultivate warmest relations with them. it had been desired by the contra-remonstrant party that deputies from the protestant churches of france should participate in the synod, and the french king had been much assailed by the catholic powers for listening to those suggestions. the papal nuncius, the spanish ambassador, the envoy of the archduke, had made a great disturbance at court concerning the mission of boississe. they urged with earnestness that his majesty was acting against the sentiments of spain, rome, and the whole catholic church, and that he ought not to assist with his counsel those heretics who were quarrelling among themselves over points in their heretical religion and wishing to destroy each other. notwithstanding this outcry the weather was smooth enough until the proceedings of aerssens came to stir up a tempest at the french court. a special courier came from boississe, a meeting of the whole council, although it was sunday, was instantly called, and the reply of the states-general to the remonstrance of the ambassador in the aerssens affair was pronounced to be so great an affront to the king that, but for overpowering reasons, diplomatic intercourse would have at once been suspended. "now instead of friendship there is great anger here," said langerac. the king forbade under vigorous penalties the departure of any french theologians to take part in the synod, although the royal consent had nearly been given. the government complained that no justice was done in the netherlands to the french nation, that leading personages there openly expressed contempt for the french alliance, denouncing the country as "hispaniolized," and declaring that all the council were regularly pensioned by spain for the express purpose of keeping up the civil dissensions in the united provinces. aerssens had publicly and officially declared that a majority of the french council since the death of henry had declared the crown in its temporal as well as spiritual essence to be dependent on the pope, and that the spanish marriages had been made under express condition of the renunciation of the friendship and alliance of the states. such were among the first-fruits of the fall of barneveld and the triumph of aerssens, for it was he in reality who had won the victory, and he had gained it over both stadholder and advocate. who was to profit by the estrangement between the republic and its powerful ally at a moment too when that great kingdom was at last beginning to emerge from the darkness and nothingness of many years, with the faint glimmering dawn of a new great policy? barneveld, whose masterful statesmanship, following out the traditions of william the silent, had ever maintained through good and ill report cordial and beneficent relations between the two countries, had always comprehended, even as a great cardinal-minister was ere long to teach the world, that the permanent identification of france with spain and the roman league was unnatural and impossible. meantime barneveld sat in his solitary prison, knowing not what was passing on that great stage where he had so long been the chief actor, while small intriguers now attempted to control events. it was the intention of aerssens to return to the embassy in paris whence he had been driven, in his own opinion, so unjustly. to render himself indispensable, he had begun by making himself provisionally formidable to the king's government. later, there would be other deeds to do before the prize was within his grasp. thus the very moment when france was disposed to cultivate the most earnest friendship with the republic had been seized for fastening an insult upon her. the twelve years' truce with spain was running to its close, the relations between france and spain were unusually cold, and her friendship therefore more valuable than ever. on the other hand the british king was drawing closer his relations with spain, and his alliance was demonstrably of small account. the phantom of the spanish bride had become more real to his excited vision than ever, so that early in the year, in order to please gondemar, he had been willing to offer an affront to the french ambassador. the prince of wales had given a splendid masquerade at court, to which the envoy of his most catholic majesty was bidden. much to his amazement the representative of the most christian king received no invitation, notwithstanding that he had taken great pains to procure one. m. de la boderie was very angry, and went about complaining to the states' ambassador and his other colleagues of the slight, and darkened the lives of the court functionaries having charge of such matters with his vengeance and despair. it was represented to him that he had himself been asked to a festival the year before when count gondemar was left out. it was hinted to him that the king had good reasons for what he did, as the marriage with the daughter of spain was now in train, and it was desirable that the spanish ambassador should be able to observe the prince's disposition and make a more correct report of it to his government. it was in vain. m. de la boderie refused to be comforted, and asserted that one had no right to leave the french ambassador uninvited to any "festival or triumph" at court. there was an endless disturbance. de la boderie sent his secretary off to paris to complain to the king that his ambassador was of no account in london, while much favour was heaped upon the spaniard. the secretary returned with instructions from lewis that the ambassador was to come home immediately, and he went off accordingly in dudgeon. "i could see that he was in the highest degree indignant," said caron, who saw him before he left, "and i doubt not that his departure will increase and keep up the former jealousy between the governments." the ill-humor created by this event lasted a long time, serving to neutralize or at least perceptibly diminish the spanish influence produced in france by the spanish marriages. in the autumn, secretary de puysieux by command of the king ordered every spaniard to leave the french court. all the "spanish ladies and gentlemen, great and small," who had accompanied the queen from madrid were included in this expulsion with the exception of four individuals, her majesty's father confessor, physician, apothecary, and cook. the fair young queen was much vexed and shed bitter tears at this calamity, which, as she spoke nothing but spanish, left her isolated at the court, but she was a little consoled by the promise that thenceforth the king would share her couch. it had not yet occurred to him that he was married. the french envoys at the hague exhausted themselves in efforts, both private and public, in favour of the prisoners, but it was a thankless task. now that the great man and his chief pupils and adherents were out of sight, a war of shameless calumny was began upon him, such as has scarcely a parallel in political history. it was as if a whole tribe of noxious and obscene reptiles were swarming out of the earth which had suddenly swallowed him. but it was not alone the obscure or the anonymous who now triumphantly vilified him. men in high places who had partaken of his patronage, who had caressed him and grovelled before him, who had grown great through his tuition and rich through his bounty, now rejoiced in his ruin or hastened at least to save themselves from being involved in it. not a man of them all but fell away from him like water. even the great soldier forgot whose respectful but powerful hand it was which, at the most tragical moment, had lifted him from the high school at leyden into the post of greatest power and responsibility, and had guided his first faltering footsteps by the light of his genius and experience. francis aerssens, master of the field, had now become the political tutor of the mature stadholder. step by step we have been studying the inmost thoughts of the advocate as revealed in his secret and confidential correspondence, and the reader has been enabled to judge of the wantonness of the calumny which converted the determined antagonist into the secret friend of spain. yet it had produced its effect upon maurice. he told the french ambassadors a month after the arrest that barneveld had been endeavouring, during and since the truce negotiations, to bring back the provinces, especially holland, if not under the dominion of, at least under some kind of vassalage to spain. persons had been feeling the public pulse as to the possibility of securing permanent peace by paying tribute to spain, and this secret plan of barneveld had so alienated him from the prince as to cause him to attempt every possible means of diminishing or destroying altogether his authority. he had spread through many cities that maurice wished to make himself master of the state by using the religious dissensions to keep the people weakened and divided. there is not a particle of evidence, and no attempt was ever made to produce any, that the advocate had such plan, but certainly, if ever, man had made himself master of a state, that man was maurice. he continued however to place himself before the world as the servant of the states-general, which he never was, either theoretically or in fact. the french ambassadors became every day more indignant and more discouraged. it was obvious that aerssens, their avowed enemy, was controlling the public policy of the government. not only was there no satisfaction to be had for the offensive manner in which he had filled the country with his ancient grievances and his nearly forgotten charges against the queen-dowager and those who had assisted her in the regency, but they were repulsed at every turn when by order of their sovereign they attempted to use his good offices in favour of the man who had ever been the steady friend of france. the stadholder also professed friendship for that country, and referred to colonel-general chatillon, who had for a long time commanded the french regiments in the netherlands, for confirmation of his uniform affection for those troops and attachment to their sovereign. he would do wonders, he said, if lewis would declare war upon spain by land and sea. "such fruits are not ripe," said boississe, "nor has your love for france been very manifest in recent events." "barneveld," replied the prince, "has personally offended me, and has boasted that he would drive me out of the country like leicester. he is accused of having wished to trouble the country in order to bring it back under the yoke of spain. justice will decide. the states only are sovereign to judge this question. you must address yourself to them." "the states," replied the ambassadors, "will require to be aided by your counsels." the prince made no reply and remained chill and "impregnable." the ambassadors continued their intercessions in behalf of the prisoners both by public address to the assembly and by private appeals to the stadholder and his influential friends. in virtue of the intimate alliance and mutual guarantees existing between their government and the republic they claimed the acceptance of their good offices. they insisted upon a regular trial of the prisoners according to the laws of the land, that is to say, by the high court of holland, which alone had jurisdiction in the premises. if they had been guilty of high-treason, they should be duly arraigned. in the name of the signal services of barneveld and of the constant friendship of that great magistrate for france, the king demanded clemency or proof of his crimes. his majesty complained through his ambassadors of the little respect shown for his counsels and for his friendship. "in times past you found ever prompt and favourable action in your time of need." "this discourse," said maurice to chatillon, "proceeds from evil intention." thus the prisoners had disappeared from human sight, and their enemies ran riot in slandering them. yet thus far no public charges had been made. "nothing appears against them," said du maurier, "and people are beginning to open their mouths with incredible freedom. while waiting for the condemnation of the prisoners, one is determined to dishonour them." the french ambassadors were instructed to intercede to the last, but they were steadily repulsed--while the king of great britain, anxious to gain favour with spain by aiding in the ruin of one whom he knew and spain knew to be her determined foe, did all he could through his ambassador to frustrate their efforts and bring on a catastrophe. the states-general and maurice were now on as confidential terms with carleton as they were cold and repellent to boississe and du maurier. "to recall to them the benefits of the king," said du maurier, "is to beat the air. and then aerssens bewitches them, and they imagine that after having played runaway horses his majesty will be only too happy to receive them back, caress them, and, in order to have their friendship, approve everything they have been doing right or wrong." aerssens had it all his own way, and the states-general had just paid him , francs in cash on the ground that langerac's salary was larger than his had been when at the head of the same embassy many years before. his elevation into the body of nobles, which maurice had just stocked with five other of his partisans, was accounted an additional affront to france, while on the other hand the queen-mother, having through epernon's assistance made her escape from blois, where she had been kept in durance since the death of concini, now enumerated among other grievances for which she was willing to take up arms against her son that the king's government had favoured barneveld. it was strange that all the devotees of spain--mary de' medici, and epernon, as well as james i. and his courtiers--should be thus embittered against the man who had sold the netherlands to spain. at last the prince told the french ambassadors that the "people of the provinces considered their persistent intercessions an invasion of their sovereignty." few would have anything to say to them. "no one listens to us, no one replies to us," said du maurier, "everyone visiting us is observed, and it is conceived a reproach here to speak to the ambassadors of france." certainly the days were changed since henry iv. leaned on the arm of barneveld, and consulted with him, and with him only, among all the statesmen of europe on his great schemes for regenerating christendom and averting that general war which, now that the great king had been murdered and the advocate imprisoned, had already begun to ravage europe. van der myle had gone to paris to make such exertions as he could among the leading members of the council in favour of his father-in-law. langerac, the states' ambassador there, who but yesterday had been turning at every moment to the advocate for light and warmth as to the sun, now hastened to disavow all respect or regard for him. he scoffed at the slender sympathy van der myle was finding in the bleak political atmosphere. he had done his best to find out what he had been negotiating with the members of the council and was glad to say that it was so inconsiderable as to be not worth reporting. he had not spoken with or seen the king. jeannin, his own and his father-in-law's principal and most confidential friend, had only spoken with him half an hour and then departed for burgundy, although promising to confer with him sympathetically on his return. "i am very displeased at his coming here," said langerac, ". . . . but he has found little friendship or confidence, and is full of woe and apprehension." the ambassador's labours were now confined to personally soliciting the king's permission for deputations from the reformed churches of france to go to the synod, now opened ( th november) at dordtrecht, and to clearing his own skirts with the prince and states-general of any suspicion of sympathy with barneveld. in the first object he was unsuccessful, the king telling him at last "with clear and significant words that this was impossible, on account of his conscience, his respect for the catholic religion, and many other reasons." in regard to the second point he acted with great promptness. he received a summons in january from the states-general and the prince to send them all letters that he had ever received from barneveld. he crawled at once to maurice on his knees, with the letters in his hand. "most illustrious, high-born prince, most gracious lord," he said; "obeying the commands which it has pleased the states and your princely grace to give me, i send back the letters of advocate barneveld. if your princely grace should find anything in them showing that the said advocate had any confidence in me, i most humbly beg your princely grace to believe that i never entertained any affection for, him, except only in respect to and so far as he was in credit and good authority with the government, and according to the upright zeal which i thought i could see in him for the service of my high and puissant lords the states-general and of your princely grace." greater humbleness could be expected of no ambassador. most nobly did the devoted friend and pupil of the great statesman remember his duty to the illustrious prince and their high mightinesses. most promptly did he abjure his patron now that he had fallen into the abyss. "nor will it be found," he continued, "that i have had any sympathy or communication with the said advocate except alone in things concerning my service. the great trust i had in him as the foremost and oldest counsellor of the state, as the one who so confidentially instructed me on my departure for france, and who had obtained for himself so great authority that all the most important affairs of the country were entrusted to him, was the cause that i simply and sincerely wrote to him all that people were in the habit of saying at this court. "if i had known in the least or suspected that he was not what he ought to be in the service of my lords the states and of your princely grace and for the welfare and tranquillity of the land, i should have been well on my guard against letting myself in the least into any kind of communication with him whatever." the reader has seen how steadily and frankly the advocate had kept langerac as well as caron informed of passing events, and how little concealment he made of his views in regard to the synod, the waartgelders, and the respective authority of the states-general and states-provincial. not only had langerac no reason to suspect that barneveld was not what he ought to be, but he absolutely knew the contrary from that most confidential correspondence with him which he was now so abjectly repudiating. the advocate, in a protracted constitutional controversy, had made no secret of his views either officially or privately. whether his positions were tenable or flimsy, they had been openly taken. "what is more," proceeded the ambassador, "had i thought that any account ought to be made of what i wrote to him concerning the sovereignty of the provinces, i should for a certainty not have failed to advise your grace of it above all." he then, after profuse and maudlin protestations of his most dutiful zeal all the days of his life for "the service, honour, reputation, and contentment of your princely grace," observed that he had not thought it necessary to give him notice of such idle and unfounded matters, as being likely to give the prince annoyance and displeasure. he had however always kept within himself the resolution duly to notify him in case he found that any belief was attached to the reports in paris. "but the reports," he said, "were popular and calumnious inventions of which no man had ever been willing or able to name to him the authors." the ambassador's memory was treacherous, and he had doubtless neglected to read over the minutes, if he had kept them, of his wonderful disclosures on the subject of the sovereignty before thus exculpating himself. it will be remembered that he had narrated the story of the plot for conferring sovereignty upon maurice not as a popular calumny flying about paris with no man to father it, but he had given it to barneveld on the authority of a privy councillor of france and of the king himself. "his majesty knows it to be authentic," he had said in his letter. that letter was a pompous one, full of mystery and so secretly ciphered that he had desired that his friend van der myle, whom he was now deriding for his efforts in paris to save his father-inlaw from his fate, might assist the advocate in unravelling its contents. he had now discovered that it had been idle gossip not worthy of a moment's attention. the reader will remember too that barneveld, without attaching much importance to the tale, had distinctly pointed out to langerac that the prince himself was not implicated in the plot and had instructed the ambassador to communicate the story to maurice. this advice had not been taken, but he had kept the perilous stuff upon his breast. he now sought to lay the blame, if it were possible to do so, upon the man to whom he had communicated it and who had not believed it. the business of the states-general, led by the advocate's enemies this winter, was to accumulate all kind of tales, reports, and accusations to his discredit on which to form something like a bill of indictment. they had demanded all his private and confidential correspondence with caron and langerae. the ambassador in paris had been served, moreover, with a string of nine interrogatories which he was ordered to answer on oath and honour. this he did and appended the reply to his letter. the nine questions had simply for their object to discover what barneveld had been secretly writing to the ambassador concerning the synod, the enlisted troops, and the supposed projects of maurice concerning the sovereignty. langerac was obliged to admit in his replies that nothing had been written except the regular correspondence which he endorsed, and of which the reader has been able to see the sum and substance in the copious extracts which have been given. he stated also that he had never received any secret instructions save the marginal notes to the list of questions addressed by him, when about leaving for paris in , to barneveld. most of these were of a trivial and commonplace nature. they had however a direct bearing on the process to be instituted against the advocate, and the letter too which we have been examining will prove to be of much importance. certainly pains enough were taken to detect the least trace of treason in a very loyal correspondence. langerac concluded by enclosing the barneveld correspondence since the beginning of the year , protesting that not a single letter had been kept back or destroyed. "once more i recommend myself to mercy, if not to favour," he added, "as the most faithful, most obedient, most zealous servant of their high mightinesses and your princely grace, to whom i have devoted and sacrificed my honour and life in most humble service; and am now and forever the most humble, most obedient, most faithful servant of my most serene, most illustrious, most highly born prince, most gracious lord and princeliest grace." the former adherent of plain advocate barneveld could hardly find superlatives enough to bestow upon the man whose displeasure that prisoner had incurred. directly after the arrest the stadholder had resumed his tour through the provinces in order to change the governments. sliding over any opposition which recent events had rendered idle, his course in every city was nearly the same. a regiment or two and a train of eighty or a hundred waggons coming through the city-gate preceded by the prince and his body-guard of , a tramp of halberdmen up the great staircase of the town-hall, a jingle of spurs in the assembly-room, and the whole board of magistrates were summoned into the presence of the stadholder. they were then informed that the world had no further need of their services, and were allowed to bow themselves out of the presence. a new list was then announced, prepared beforehand by maurice on the suggestion of those on whom he could rely. a faint resistance was here and there attempted by magistrates and burghers who could not forget in a moment the rights of self-government and the code of laws which had been enjoyed for centuries. at hoorn, for instance, there was deep indignation among the citizens. an imprudent word or two from the authorities might have brought about a "blood-bath." the burgomaster ventured indeed to expostulate. they requested the prince not to change the magistracy. "this is against our privileges," they said, "which it is our duty to uphold. you will see what deep displeasure will seize the burghers, and how much disturbance and tumult will follow. if any faults have been committed by any member of the government, let him be accused and let him answer for them. let your excellency not only dismiss but punish such as cannot properly justify themselves." but his excellency summoned them all to the town-house and as usual deposed them all. a regiment was drawn up in half-moon on the square beneath the windows. to the magistrates asking why they were deposed, he briefly replied, "the quiet of the land requires it. it is necessary to have unanimous resolutions in the states-general at the hague. this cannot be accomplished without these preliminary changes. i believe that you had good intentions and have been faithful servants of the fatherland. but this time it must be so." and so the faithful servants of the fatherland were dismissed into space. otherwise how could there be unanimous voting in parliament? it must be regarded perhaps as fortunate that the force of character, undaunted courage, and quiet decision of maurice enabled him to effect this violent series of revolutions with such masterly simplicity. it is questionable whether the stadholder's commission technically empowered him thus to trample on municipal law; it is certain that, if it did, the boasted liberties of the netherlands were a dream; but it is equally true that, in the circumstances then existing, a vulgar, cowardly, or incompetent personage might have marked his pathway with massacres without restoring tranquillity. sometimes there was even a comic aspect to these strokes of state. the lists of new magistrates being hurriedly furnished by the prince's adherents to supply the place of those evicted, it often happened that men not quahified by property, residence, or other attributes were appointed to the government, so that many became magistrates before they were citizens. on being respectfully asked sometimes who such a magistrate might be whose face and name were equally unknown to his colleagues and to the townsmen in general; "do i know the fellows?" he would say with a cheerful laugh. and indeed they might have all been dead men, those new functionaries, for aught he did know. and so on through medemblik and alkmaar, brielle, delft, monnikendam, and many other cities progressed the prince, sowing new municipalities broadcast as he passed along. at the hague on his return a vote of thanks to the prince was passed by the nobles and most of the cities for the trouble he had taken in this reforming process. but the unanimous vote had not yet been secured, the strongholds of arminianism, as it was the fashion to call them, not being yet reduced. the prince, in reply to the vote of thanks, said that "in what he had done and was going to do his intention sincerely and uprightly had been no other than to promote the interests and tranquillity of the country, without admixture of anything personal and without prejudice to the general commonwealth or the laws and privileges of the cities." he desired further that "note might be taken of this declaration as record of his good and upright intentions." but the sincerest and most upright intentions may be refracted by party atmosphere from their aim, and the purest gold from the mint elude the direct grasp through the clearest fluid in existence. at any rate it would have been difficult to convince the host of deposed magistrates hurled from office, although recognized as faithful servants of the fatherland, that such violent removal had taken place without detriment to the laws and privileges. and the stadholder went to the few cities where some of the leaven still lingered. he arrived at leyden on the nd october, "accompanied by a great suite of colonels, ritmeesters, and captains," having sent on his body-guard to the town strengthened by other troops. he was received by the magistrates at the "prince's court" with great reverence and entertained by them in the evening at a magnificent banquet. next morning he summoned the whole forty of them to the town-house, disbanded them all, and appointed new ones in their stead; some of the old members however who could be relied upon being admitted to the revolutionized board. the populace, mainly of the stadholder's party, made themselves merry over the discomfited "arminians". they hung wisps of straw as derisive wreaths of triumph over the dismantled palisade lately encircling the town-hall, disposed of the famous "oldenbarneveld's teeth" at auction in the public square, and chased many a poor cock and hen, with their feathers completely plucked from their bodies, about the street, crying "arme haenen, arme haenen"--arminians or poor fowls--according to the practical witticism much esteemed at that period. certainly the unfortunate barneveldians or arminians, or however the remonstrants might be designated, had been sufficiently stripped of their plumes. the prince, after having made proclamation from the town-house enjoining "modesty upon the mob" and a general abstention from "perverseness and petulance," went his way to haarlem, where he dismissed the magistrates and appointed new ones, and then proceeded to rotterdam, to gouda, and to amsterdam. it seemed scarcely necessary to carry, out the process in the commercial capital, the abode of peter plancius, the seat of the west india company, the head-quarters of all most opposed to the advocate, most devoted to the stadholder. but although the majority of the city government was an overwhelming one, there was still a respectable minority who, it was thought possible, might under a change of circumstances effect much mischief and even grow into a majority. the prince therefore summoned the board before him according to his usual style of proceeding and dismissed them all. they submitted without a word of remonstrance. ex-burgomaster hooft, a man of seventy-two-father of the illustrious pieter corneliszoon hooft, one of the greatest historians of the netherlands or of any country, then a man of thirty-seven-shocked at the humiliating silence, asked his colleagues if they had none of them a word to say in defence of their laws and privileges. they answered with one accord "no." the old man, a personal friend of barneveld and born the same year, then got on his feet and addressed the stadholder. he spoke manfully and well, characterizing the summary deposition of the magistracy as illegal and unnecessary, recalling to the memory of those who heard him that he had been thirty-six years long a member of the government and always a warm friend of the house of nassau, and respectfully submitting that the small minority in the municipal government, while differing from their colleagues and from the greater number of the states-general, had limited their opposition to strictly constitutional means, never resorting to acts of violence or to secret conspiracy. nothing could be more truly respectable than the appearance of this ancient magistrate, in long black robe with fur edgings, high ruff around his thin, pointed face, and decent skull-cap covering his bald old head, quavering forth to unsympathetic ears a temperate and unanswerable defence of things which in all ages the noblest minds have deemed most valuable. his harangue was not very long. maurice's reply was very short. "grandpapa," he said, "it must be so this time. necessity and the service of the country require it." with that he dismissed the thirty-six magistrates and next day appointed a new board, who were duly sworn to fidelity to the states-general. of course a large proportion of the old members were renominated. scarcely had the echo of the prince's footsteps ceased to resound through the country as he tramped from one city to another, moulding each to his will, when the states of holland, now thoroughly reorganized, passed a solemn vote of thanks to him for all that he had done. the six cities of the minority had now become the majority, and there was unanimity at the hague. the seven provinces, states-general and states-provincial, were as one, and the synod was secured. whether the prize was worth the sacrifices which it had cost and was still to cost might at least be considered doubtful. etext editor's bookmarks: affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies depths theological party spirit could descend extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence human nature in its meanness and shame it had not yet occurred to him that he was married make the very name of man a term of reproach never lack of fishers in troubled waters opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood pot-valiant hero resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military tempest of passion and prejudice the effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny yes, there are wicked men about chapter xix. - rancour between the politico-religious parties--spanish intrigues inconsistency of james--brewster and robinson's congregation at leyden--they decide to leave for america--robinson's farewell sermon and prayer at parting. during this dark and mournful winter the internal dissensions and, as a matter of course, the foreign intrigues had become more dangerous than ever. while the man who for a whole generation had guided the policy of the republic and had been its virtual chief magistrate lay hidden from all men's sight, the troubles which he had sought to avert were not diminished by his removal from the scene. the extreme or gomarist party which had taken a pride in secret conventicles where they were in a minority, determined, as they said, to separate christ from belial and, meditating the triumph which they had at last secured, now drove the arminians from the great churches. very soon it was impossible for these heretics to enjoy the rights of public worship anywhere. but they were not dismayed. the canons of dordtrecht had not yet been fulminated. they avowed themselves ready to sacrifice worldly goods and life itself in defence of the five points. in rotterdam, notwithstanding a garrison of fifteen companies, more than a thousand remonstrants assembled on christmas-day in the exchange for want of a more appropriate place of meeting and sang the th psalm in mighty chorus. a clergyman of their persuasion accidentally passing through the street was forcibly laid hands upon and obliged to preach to them, which he did with great unction. the magistracy, where now the contra-remonstrants had the control, forbade, under severe penalties, a repetition of such scenes. it was impossible not to be reminded of the days half a century before, when the early reformers had met in the open fields or among the dunes, armed to the teeth, and with outlying pickets to warn the congregation of the approach of red rod and the functionaries of the holy inquisition. in schoonhoven the authorities attempted one sunday by main force to induct a contra-remonstrant into the pulpit from which a remonstrant had just been expelled. the women of the place turned out with their distaffs and beat them from the field. the garrison was called out, and there was a pitched battle in the streets between soldiers, police officers, and women, not much to the edification certainly of the sabbath-loving community on either side, the victory remaining with the ladies. in short it would be impossible to exaggerate the rancour felt between the different politico-religious parties. all heed for the great war now raging in the outside world between the hostile elements of catholicism and protestantism, embattled over an enormous space, was lost in the din of conflict among the respective supporters of conditional and unconditional damnation within the pale of the reformed church. the earthquake shaking europe rolled unheeded, as it was of old said to have done at cannae, amid the fierce shock of mortal foes in that narrow field. the respect for authority which had so long been the distinguishing characteristic of the netherlanders seemed to have disappeared. it was difficult--now that the time-honoured laws and privileges in defence of which, and of liberty of worship included in them, the provinces had made war forty years long had been trampled upon by military force--for those not warmed by the fire of gomarus to feel their ancient respect for the magistracy. the magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword. the spanish government was inevitably encouraged by the spectacle thus presented. we have seen the strong hopes entertained by the council at madrid, two years before the crisis now existing had occurred. we have witnessed the eagerness with which the king indulged the dream of recovering the sovereignty which his father had lost, and the vast schemes which he nourished towards that purpose, founded on the internal divisions which were reducing the republic to impotence. subsequent events had naturally made him more sanguine than ever. there was now a web of intrigue stretching through the provinces to bring them all back under the sceptre of spain. the imprisonment of the great stipendiary, the great conspirator, the man who had sold himself and was on the point of selling his country, had not terminated those plots. where was the supposed centre of that intrigue? in the council of state of the netherlands, ever fiercely opposed to barneveld and stuffed full of his mortal enemies. whose name was most familiar on the lips of the spanish partisans engaged in these secret schemes? that of adrian manmaker, president of the council, representative of prince maurice as first noble of zealand in the states-general, chairman of the committee sent by that body to utrecht to frustrate the designs of the advocate, and one of the twenty-four commissioners soon to be appointed to sit in judgment upon him. the tale seems too monstrous for belief, nor is it to be admitted with certainty, that manmaker and the other councillors implicated had actually given their adhesion to the plot, because the spanish emissaries in their correspondence with the king assured him of the fact. but if such a foundation for suspicion could have been found against barneveld and his friends, the world would not have heard the last of it from that hour to this. it is superfluous to say that the prince was entirely foreign to these plans. he had never been mentioned as privy to the little arrangements of councillor du agean and others, although he was to benefit by them. in the spanish schemes he seems to have been considered as an impediment, although indirectly they might tend to advance him. "we have managed now, i hope, that his majesty will be recognized as sovereign of the country," wrote the confidential agent of the king of spain in the netherlands, emmanuel sueyro, to the government of madrid. "the english will oppose it with all their strength. but they can do nothing except by making count maurice sovereign of holland and duke of julich and cleve. maurice will also contrive to make himself master of wesel, so it is necessary for the archduke to be beforehand with him and make sure of the place. it is also needful that his majesty should induce the french government to talk with the netherlanders and convince them that it is time to prolong the truce." this was soon afterwards accomplished. the french minister at brussels informed archduke albert that du maurier had been instructed to propose the prolongation, and that he had been conferring with the prince of orange and the states-general on the subject. at first the prince had expressed disinclination, but at the last interview both he and the states had shown a desire for it, and the french king had requested from the archduke a declaration whether the spanish government would be willing to treat for it. in such case lewis would offer himself as mediator and do his best to bring about a successful result. but it was not the intention of the conspirators in the netherlands that the truce should be prolonged. on the contrary the negotiation for it was merely to furnish the occasion for fully developing their plot. "the states and especially those of zealand will reply that they no longer wish the truce," continued sueyro, "and that they would prefer war to such a truce. they desire to put ships on the coast of flanders, to which the hollanders are opposed because it would be disagreeable to the french. so the zealanders will be the first to say that the netherlanders must come back to his majesty. this their president hanmaker has sworn. the states of overyssel will likewise give their hand to this because they say they will be the first to feel the shock of the war. thus we shall very easily carry out our design, and as we shall concede to the zealanders their demands in regard to the navigation they at least will place themselves under the dominion of his majesty as will be the case with friesland as well as overyssel." it will be observed that in this secret arrangement for selling the republic to its ancient master it was precisely the provinces and the politicians most steadily opposed to barneveld that took the lead. zealand, friesland, overyssel were in the plot, but not a word was said of utrecht. as for holland itself, hopes were founded on the places where hatred to the advocate was fiercest. "between ourselves," continued the agent, "we are ten here in the government of holland to support the plan, but we must not discover ourselves for fear of suffering what has happened to barneveld." he added that the time for action had not yet come, and that if movements were made before the synod had finished its labours, "the gomarists would say that they were all sold." he implored the government at madrid to keep the whole matter for the present profoundly secret because "prince maurice and the gomarists had the forces of the country at their disposition." in case the plot was sprung too suddenly therefore, he feared that with the assistance of england maurice might, at the head of the gomarists and the army, make himself sovereign of holland and duke of cleve, while he and the rest of the spanish partisans might be in prison with barneveld for trying to accomplish what barneveld had been trying to prevent. the opinions and utterances of such a man as james i. would be of little worth to our history had he not happened to occupy the place he did. but he was a leading actor in the mournful drama which filled up the whole period of the twelve years' truce. his words had a direct influence on great events. he was a man of unquestionable erudition, of powers of mind above the average, while the absolute deformity of his moral constitution made him incapable of thinking, feeling, or acting rightly on any vital subject, by any accident or on any occasion. if there were one thing that he thoroughly hated in the world, it was the reformed religion. if in his thought there were one term of reproach more loathsome than another to be applied to a human creature, it was the word puritan. in the word was subversion of all established authority in church and state--revolution, republicanism, anarchy. "there are degrees in heaven," he was wont to say, "there are degrees in hell, there must be degrees on earth." he forbade the calvinist churches of scotland to hold their customary synod in , passionately reviling them and their belief, and declaring "their aim to be nothing else than to deprive kings and princes of their sovereignty, and to reduce the whole world to a popular form of government where everybody would be master." when the prince of neuburg embraced catholicism, thus complicating matters in the duchies and strengthening the hand of spain and the emperor in the debateable land, he seized the occasion to assure the agent of the archduke in london, councillor boissetot, of his warm catholic sympathies. "they say that i am the greatest heretic in the world!" he exclaimed; "but i will never deny that the true religion is that of rome even if corrupted." he expressed his belief in the real presence, and his surprise that the roman catholics did not take the chalice for the blood of christ. the english bishops, he averred, drew their consecration through the bishops in mary tudor's time from the pope. as philip ii., and ferdinand ii. echoing the sentiments of his illustrious uncle, had both sworn they would rather reign in a wilderness than tolerate a single heretic in their dominions, so james had said "he would rather be a hermit in a forest than a king over such people as the pack of puritans were who overruled the lower house." for the netherlanders he had an especial hatred, both as rebels and puritans. soon after coming to the english throne he declared that their revolt, which had been going on all his lifetime and of which he never expected to see the end, had begun by petition for matters of religion. "his mother and he from their cradles," he said, "had been haunted with a puritan devil, which he feared would not leave him to his grave. and he would hazard his crown but he would suppress those malicious spirits." it seemed a strange caprice of destiny that assigned to this hater of netherlanders, of puritans, and of the reformed religion, the decision of disputed points between puritans and anti-puritans in the reformed church of the netherlands. it seemed stranger that his opinions should be hotly on the side of the puritans. barneveld, who often used the expression in later years, as we have seen in his correspondence, was opposed to the dutch puritans because they had more than once attempted subversion of the government on pretext of religion, especially at the memorable epoch of leicester's government. the business of stirring up these religious conspiracies against the magistracy he was apt to call "flanderizing," in allusion to those disastrous days and to the origin of the ringleaders in those tumults. but his main object, as we have seen, was to effect compromises and restore good feeling between members of the one church, reserving the right of disposing over religious matters to the government of the respective provinces. but james had remedied his audacious inconsistency by discovering that puritanism in england and in the netherlands resembled each other no more than certain letters transposed into totally different words meant one and the same thing. the anagrammatic argument had been neatly put by sir dudley carleton, convincing no man. puritanism in england "denied the right of human invention or imposition in religious matters." puritanism in the netherlands denied the right of the legal government to impose its authority in religious matters. this was the great matter of debate in the provinces. in england the argument had been settled very summarily against the puritans by sheriffs' officers, bishops' pursuivants, and county jails. as the political tendencies, so too the religious creed and observances of the english puritans were identical with that of the contra-remonstrants, whom king james had helped to their great triumph. this was not very difficult to prove. it so happened that there were some english puritans living at that moment in leyden. they formed an independent society by themselves, which they called a congregational church, and in which were some three hundred communicants. the length of their residence there was almost exactly coeval with the twelve years' truce. they knew before leaving england that many relics of the roman ceremonial, with which they were dissatisfied, and for the discontinuance of which they had in vain petitioned the crown--the ring, the sign of the cross, white surplices, and the like--besides the whole hierarchical system, had been disused in the reformed churches of france, switzerland, and the united provinces, where the forms of worship in their view had been brought more nearly to the early apostolic model. they admitted for truth the doctrinal articles of the dutch reformed churches. they had not come to the netherlands without cause. at an early period of king james's reign this congregation of seceders from the establishment had been wont to hold meetings at scrooby in nottinghamshire, once a manor of the archbishop of york, but then the residence of one william brewster. this was a gentleman of some fortune, educated at cambridge, a good scholar, who in queen elizabeth's time had been in the service of william davison when secretary of state. he seemed to have been a confidential private secretary of that excellent and unlucky statesman, who found him so discreet and faithful as to deserve employment before all others in matters of trust and secrecy. he was esteemed by davison "rather as a son than a servant," and he repaid his confidence by doing him many faithful offices in the time of his troubles. he had however long since retired from connection with public affairs, living a retired life, devoted to study, meditation, and practical exertion to promote the cause of religion, and in acts of benevolence sometimes beyond his means. the pastor of the scrooby church, one john robinson, a graduate of cambridge, who had been a benefited clergyman in norfolk, was a man of learning, eloquence, and lofty intellect. but what were such good gifts in the possession of rebels, seceders, and puritans? it is needless to say that brewster and robinson were baited, persecuted, watched day and night, some of the congregation often clapped into prison, others into the stocks, deprived of the means of livelihood, outlawed, famished, banned. plainly their country was no place for them. after a few years of such work they resolved to establish themselves in holland, where at least they hoped to find refuge and toleration. but it proved as difficult for them to quit the country as to remain in it. watched and hunted like gangs of coiners, forgers, or other felons attempting to flee from justice, set upon by troopers armed with "bills and guns and other weapons," seized when about to embark, pillaged and stripped by catchpoles, exhibited as a show to grinning country folk, the women and children dealt with like drunken tramps, led before magistrates, committed to jail; mr. brewster and six other of the principal ones being kept in prison and bound over to the assizes; they were only able after attempts lasting through two years' time to effect their escape to amsterdam. after remaining there a year they had removed to leyden, which they thought "a fair and beautiful city, and of a sweet situation." they settled in leyden in the very year in which arminius was buried beneath the pavement of st. peter's church in that town. it was the year too in which the truce was signed. they were a singularly tranquil and brotherly community. their pastor, who was endowed with remarkable gentleness and tact in dealing with his congregation, settled amicably all their occasional disputes. the authorities of the place held them up as a model. to a walloon congregation in which there were many troublesome and litigious members they said: "these english have lived among us ten years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation against any of them, but your quarrels are continual." although many of them were poor, finding it difficult to earn their living in a foreign land among people speaking a strange tongue, and with manners and habits differing from their own, and where they were obliged to learn new trades, having most of them come out of an agricultural population, yet they enjoyed a singular reputation for probity. bakers and butchers and the like willingly gave credit to the poorest of these english, and sought their custom if known to be of the congregation. mr. brewster, who had been reduced almost to poverty by his charities and munificent aid to his struggling brethren, earned his living by giving lessons in english, having first composed a grammar according to the latin model for the use of his pupils. he also set up a printing establishment, publishing many controversial works prohibited in england, a proceeding which roused the wrath of carleton, impelling him to do his best to have him thrown into prison. it was not the first time that this plain, mechanical, devout englishman, now past middle age, had visited the netherlands. more than twenty-five years before he had accompanied william davison on his famous embassy to the states, as private secretary. when the keys of flushing, one of the cautionary towns, were committed to the ambassador, he confided them to the care of brewster, who slept with them under his pillow. the gold chain which davison received as a present from the provincial government on leaving the country was likewise placed in his keeping, with orders to wear it around his neck until they should appear before the queen. to a youth of ease and affluence, familiar with ambassadors and statesmen and not unknown at courts, had succeeded a mature age of obscurity, deep study, and poverty. no human creature would have heard of him had his career ended with his official life. two centuries and a half have passed away and the name of the outlawed puritan of scrooby and leyden is still familiar to millions of the english race. all these englishmen were not poor. many of them occupied houses of fair value, and were admitted to the freedom of the city. the pastor with three of his congregation lived in a comfortable mansion, which they had purchased for the considerable sum of florins, and on the garden of which they subsequently erected twenty-one lesser tenements for the use of the poorer brethren. mr. robinson was himself chosen a member of the famous university and admitted to its privileges. during his long residence in leyden, besides the daily care of his congregation, spiritual and temporal, he wrote many learned works. thus the little community, which grew gradually larger by emigration from england, passed many years of tranquillity. their footsteps were not dogged by constables and pursuivants, they were not dragged daily before the magistrates, they were not thrown into the town jails, they were not hunted from place to place with bows and bills and mounted musketeers. they gave offence to none, and were respected by all. "such was their singleheartedness and sincere affection one towards another," says their historian and magistrate, "that they came as near the primitive pattern of the first churches as any other church of these later times has done, according to their rank and quality." here certainly were english puritans more competent than any men else in the world to judge if it were a slander upon the english government to identify them with dutch puritans. did they sympathize with the party in holland which the king, who had so scourged and trampled upon themselves in england, was so anxious to crush, the hated arminians? did they abhor the contra-remonstrants whom james and his ambassador carleton doted upon and whom barneveld called "double puritans" and "flanderizers?" their pastor may answer for himself and his brethren. "we profess before god and men," said robinson in his apologia, "that we agree so entirely with the reformed dutch churches in the matter of religion as to be ready to subscribe to all and each of their articles exactly as they are set forth in the netherland confession. we acknowledge those reformed churches as true and genuine, we profess and cultivate communion with them as much as in us lies. those of us who understand the dutch language attend public worship under their pastors. we administer the holy supper to such of their members as, known to us, appear at our meetings." this was the position of the puritans. absolute, unqualified accordance with the contra-remonstrants. as the controversy grew hot in the university between the arminians and their adversaries, mr. robinson, in the language of his friend bradford, became "terrible to the arminians . . . . who so greatly molested the whole state and that city in particular." when episcopius, the arminian professor of theology, set forth sundry theses, challenging all the world to the onset, it was thought that "none was fitter to buckle with them" than robinson. the orthodox professor polyander so importuned the english puritan to enter the lists on behalf of the contra-remonstrants that at last he consented and overthrew the challenger, horse and man, in three successive encounters. such at least was the account given by his friend and admirer the historian. "the lord did so help him to defend the truth and foil this adversary as he put him to an apparent nonplus in this great and public audience. and the like he did a second or third time upon such like occasions," said bradford, adding that, if it had not been for fear of offending the english government, the university would have bestowed preferments and honours upon the champion. we are concerned with this ancient and exhausted controversy only for the intense light it threw, when burning, on the history which occupies us. of the extinct volcano itself which once caused such devastation, and in which a great commonwealth was well-nigh swallowed up, little is left but slag and cinders. the past was made black and barren with them. let us disturb them as little as possible. the little english congregation remained at leyden till toward the end of the truce, thriving, orderly, respected, happy. they were witnesses to the tumultuous, disastrous, and tragical events which darkened the republic in those later years, themselves unobserved and unmolested. not a syllable seems to remain on record of the views or emotions which may have been excited by those scenes in their minds, nor is there a trace left on the national records of the netherlands of their protracted residence on the soil. they got their living as best they might by weaving, printing, spinning, and other humble trades; they borrowed money on mortgages, they built houses, they made wills, and such births, deaths, and marriages as occurred among them were registered by the town-clerk. and at last for a variety of reasons they resolved to leave the netherlands. perhaps the solution of the problem between church and state in that country by the temporary subjection of state to church may have encouraged them to realize a more complete theocracy, if a sphere of action could be found where the experiment might be tried without a severe battle against time-hallowed institutions and vested rights. perhaps they were appalled by the excesses into which men of their own religious sentiments had been carried by theological and political passion. at any rate depart they would; the larger half of the congregation remaining behind however till the pioneers should have broken the way, and in their own language "laid the stepping-stones." they had thought of the lands beneath the equator, raleigh having recently excited enthusiasm by his poetical descriptions of guiana. but the tropical scheme was soon abandoned. they had opened negotiations with the stadholder and the states-general through amsterdam merchants in regard to settling in new amsterdam, and offered to colonize that country if assured of the protection of the united provinces. their petition had been rejected. they had then turned their faces to their old master and their own country, applying to the virginia company for a land-patent, which they were only too happy to promise, and to the king for liberty of religion in the wilderness confirmed under his broad seal, which his majesty of course refused. it was hinted however that james would connive at them and not molest them if they carried themselves peaceably. so they resolved to go without the seal, for, said their magistrate very wisely, "if there should be a purpose or desire to wrong them, a seal would not serve their turn though it were as broad as the house-floor." before they left leyden, their pastor preached to them a farewell sermon, which for loftiness of spirit and breadth of vision has hardly a parallel in that age of intolerance. he laid down the principle that criticism of the scriptures had not been exhausted merely because it had been begun; that the human conscience was of too subtle a nature to be imprisoned for ever in formulas however ingeniously devised; that the religious reformation begun a century ago was not completed; and that the creator had not necessarily concluded all his revelations to mankind. the words have long been familiar to students of history, but they can hardly be too often laid to heart. noble words, worthy to have been inscribed over the altar of the first church to be erected by the departing brethren, words to bear fruit after centuries should go by. had not the deeply injured and misunderstood grotius already said, "if the trees we plant do not shade us, they will yet serve for our descendants?" yet it is passing strange that the preacher of that sermon should be the recent champion of the contra-remonstrants in the great controversy; the man who had made himself so terrible to the pupils of the gentle and tolerant arminius. and thus half of that english congregation went down to delftshaven, attended by the other half who were to follow at a later period with their beloved pastor. there was a pathetic leave-taking. even many of the hollanders, mere casual spectators, were in tears. robinson, kneeling on the deck of the little vessel, offered a prayer and a farewell. who could dream that this departure of an almost nameless band of emigrants to the wilderness was an epoch in the world's history? yet these were the pilgrim fathers of new england, the founders of what was to be the mightiest republic of modern history, mighty and stable because it had been founded upon an idea. they were not in search of material comfort and the chances of elevating their condition, by removing from an overpeopled country to an organized commonwealth, offering a wide field for pauper labourers. some of them were of good social rank and highest education, most of them in decent circumstances, none of them in absolute poverty. and a few years later they were to be joined by a far larger company with leaders and many brethren of ancient birth and landed possessions, men of "education, figure; and estate," all ready to convert property into cash and to place it in joint-stock, not as the basis of promising speculation, but as the foundation of a church. it signifies not how much or how little one may sympathize with their dogma or their discipline now. to the fact that the early settlement of that wilderness was by self-sacrificing men of earnestness and faith, who were bent on "advancing the gospel of christ in remote parts of the world," in the midst of savage beasts, more savage men, and unimaginable difficulties and dangers, there can be little doubt that the highest forms of western civilization are due. through their provisional theocracy, the result of the independent church system was to establish the true purport of the reformation, absolute religious equality. civil and political equality followed as a matter of course. two centuries and a half have passed away. there are now some seventy or eighty millions of the english-speaking race on both sides the atlantic, almost equally divided between the united kingdom and the united republic, and the departure of those outcasts of james has interest and significance for them all. most fitly then, as a distinguished american statesman has remarked, does that scene on board the little english vessel, with the english pastor uttering his farewell blessing to a handful of english exiles for conscience sake; depicted on canvas by eminent artists, now adorn the halls of the american congress and of the british parliament. sympathy with one of the many imperishable bonds of union between the two great and scarcely divided peoples. we return to barneveld in his solitary prison. chapter xx. barneveld's imprisonment--ledenberg's examination and death-- remonstrance of de boississe--aerssens admitted to the order of knights--trial of the advocate--barneveld's defence--the states proclaim a public fast--du maurier's speech before the assembly-- barneveld's sentence--barneveld prepares for death--goes to execution. the advocate had been removed within a few days after the arrest from the chamber in maurice's apartments, where he had originally been confined, and was now in another building. it was not a dungeon nor a jail. indeed the commonplace and domestic character of the scenery in which these great events were transacted has in it something pathetic. there was and still remains a two-storied structure, then of modern date, immediately behind the antique hall of the old counts within the binnenhof. on the first floor was a courtroom of considerable extent, the seat of one of the chief tribunals of justice the story above was divided into three chambers with a narrow corridor on each side. the first chamber, on the north-eastern side, was appropriated for the judges when the state prisoners should be tried. in the next hugo grotius was imprisoned. in the third was barneveld. there was a tower at the north-east angle of the building, within which a winding and narrow staircase of stone led up to the corridor and so to the prisoners' apartments. rombout hoogerbeets was confined in another building. as the advocate, bent with age and a life of hard work, and leaning on his staff, entered the room appropriated to him, after toiling up the steep staircase, he observed-- "this is the admiral of arragon's apartment." it was true. eighteen years before, the conqueror of nieuwpoort had assigned this lodging to the chief prisoner of war in that memorable victory over the spaniards, and now maurice's faithful and trusted counsellor at that epoch was placed in durance here, as the result of the less glorious series of victories which had just been achieved. it was a room of moderate dimensions, some twenty-five feet square, with a high vaulted roof and decently furnished. below and around him in the courtyard were the scenes of the advocate's life-long and triumphant public services. there in the opposite building were the windows of the beautiful "hall of truce," with its sumptuous carvings and gildings, its sculptures and portraits, where he had negotiated with the representatives of all the great powers of christendom the famous treaty which had suspended the war of forty years, and where he was wont almost daily to give audience to the envoys of the greatest sovereigns or the least significant states of europe and asia, all of whom had been ever solicitous of his approbation and support. farther along in the same building was the assembly room of the states-general, where some of the most important affairs of the republic and of europe had for years been conducted, and where he had been so indispensable that, in the words of a contemporary who loved him not, "absolutely nothing could be transacted in his absence, all great affairs going through him alone." there were two dull windows, closely barred, looking northward over an irregular assemblage of tile-roofed houses and chimney-stacks, while within a stone's throw to the west, but unseen, was his own elegant mansion on the voorhout, surrounded by flower gardens and shady pleasure grounds, where now sat his aged wife and her children all plunged in deep affliction. he was allowed the attendance of a faithful servant, jan franken by name, and a sentinel stood constantly before his door. his papers had been taken from him, and at first he was deprived of writing materials. he had small connection with the outward world. the news of the municipal revolution which had been effected by the stadholder had not penetrated to his solitude, but his wife was allowed to send him fruit from their garden. one day a basket of fine saffron pears was brought to him. on slicing one with a knife he found a portion of a quill inside it. within the quill was a letter on thinnest paper, in minutest handwriting in latin. it was to this effect. "don't rely upon the states of holland, for the prince of orange has changed the magistracies in many cities. dudley carleton is not your friend." a sergeant of the guard however, before bringing in these pears, had put a couple of them in his pocket to take home to his wife. the letter, copies of which perhaps had been inserted for safety in several of them, was thus discovered and the use of this ingenious device prevented for the future. secretary ledenberg, who had been brought to the hague in the early days of september, was the first of the prisoners subjected to examination. he was much depressed at the beginning of it, and is said to have exclaimed with many sighs, "oh barneveld, barneveld, what have you brought us to!" he confessed that the waartgelders at utrecht had been enlisted on notification by the utrecht deputies in the hague with knowledge of barneveld, and in consequence of a resolution of the states in order to prevent internal tumults. he said that the advocate had advised in the previous month of march a request to the prince not to come to utrecht; that the communication of the message, in regard to disbanding the waartgelders, to his excellency had been postponed after the deputies of the states of holland had proposed a delay in that disbandment; that those deputies had come to utrecht of their own accord; . . . . that they had judged it possible to keep everything in proper order in utrecht if the garrison in the city paid by holland were kept quiet, and if the states of utrecht gave similar orders to the waartgelders; for they did not believe that his excellency would bring in troops from the outside. he said that he knew nothing of a new oath to be demanded of the garrison. he stated that the advocate, when at utrecht, had exhorted the states, according to his wont, to maintain their liberties and privileges, representing to them that the right to decide on the synod and the waartgelders belonged to them. lastly, he denied knowing who was the author of the balance, except by common report. now these statements hardly amounted to a confession of abominable and unpardonable crimes by ledenberg, nor did they establish a charge of high-treason and corrupt correspondence with the enemy against barneveld. it is certain that the extent of the revelations seemed far from satisfactory to the accusers, and that some pressure would be necessary in order to extract anything more conclusive. lieutenant nythof told grotius that ledenberg had accordingly been threatened with torture, and that the executioner had even handled him for that purpose. this was however denied by the judges of instruction who had been charged with the preliminary examination. that examination took place on the th september. after it had been concluded, ledenberg prayed long and earnestly on returning to prison. he then entrusted a paper written in french to his son joost, a boy of eighteen, who did not understand that language. the youth had been allowed to keep his father company in his confinement, and slept in the same room. the next night but one, at two o'clock, joost heard his father utter a deep groan. he was startled, groped in the darkness towards his bed and felt his arm, which was stone cold. he spoke to him and received no answer. he gave the alarm, the watch came in with lights, and it was found that ledenberg had given himself two mortal wounds in the abdomen with a penknife and then cut his throat with a table-knife which he had secreted, some days before, among some papers. the paper in french given to his son was found to be to this effect. "i know that there is an inclination to set an example in my person, to confront me with my best friends, to torture me, afterwards to convict me of contradictions and falsehoods as they say, and then to found an ignominious sentence upon points and trifles, for this it will be necessary to do in order to justify the arrest and imprisonment. to escape all this i am going to god by the shortest road. against a dead man there can be pronounced no sentence of confiscation of property. done th september (o. s.) ." the family of the unhappy gentleman begged his body for decent burial. the request was refused. it was determined to keep the dead secretary above ground and in custody until he could be tried, and, if possible, convicted and punished. it was to be seen whether it were so easy to baffle the power of the states-general, the synod, and the stadholder, and whether "going to god by the shortest road" was to save a culprit's carcass from ignominy, and his property from confiscation. the french ambassadors, who had been unwearied in their endeavour to restore harmony to the distracted commonwealth before the arrest of the prisoners, now exerted themselves to throw the shield of their sovereign's friendship around the illustrious statesman and his fellow-sufferers. "it is with deepest sorrow," said de boississe, "that i have witnessed the late hateful commotions. especially from my heart i grieve for the arrest of the seignior barneveld, who with his discretion and wise administration for the past thirty years has so drawn the hearts of all neighbouring princes to himself, especially that of the king my master, that on taking up my pen to apprize him of these events i am gravely embarrassed, fearing to infringe on the great respect due to your mightinesses or against the honour and merits of the seignior barneveld. . . . my lords, take heed to your situation, for a great discontent is smouldering among your citizens. until now, the union has been the chief source of your strength. and i now fear that the king my master, the adviser of your renowned commonwealth, maybe offended that you have taken this resolution after consulting with others, and without communicating your intention to his ambassador . . . . it is but a few days that an open edict was issued testifying to the fidelity of barneveld, and can it be possible that within so short a time you have discovered that you have been deceived? i summon you once more in the name of the king to lay aside all passion, to judge these affairs without partiality, and to inform me what i am to say to the king. such very conflicting accounts are given of these transactions that i must beg you to confide to me the secret of the affair. the wisest in the land speak so strongly of these proceedings that it will be no wonder if the king my master should give me orders to take the seignior barneveld under his protection. should this prove to be the case, your lordships will excuse my course . . . i beg you earnestly in your wisdom not to give cause of offence to neighbouring princes, especially to my sovereign, who wishes from his heart to maintain your dignity and interests and to assure you of his friendship." the language was vigorous and sincere, but the ambassador forgot that the france of to-day was not the france of yesterday; that louis xiii. was not henry iv.; that it was but a cheerful fiction to call the present king the guide and counsellor of the republic, and that, distraught as she was by the present commotions, her condition was strength and tranquillity compared with the apparently decomposing and helpless state of the once great kingdom of france. de boississe took little by his demonstration. on the th december both de boississe and du maurier came before the states-general once more, and urged a speedy and impartial trial for the illustrious prisoners. if they had committed acts of treason and rebellion, they deserved exemplary punishment, but the ambassadors warned the states-general with great earnestness against the dangerous doctrine of constructive treason, and of confounding acts dictated by violence of party spirit at an excited period with the crime of high-treason against the sovereignty of the state. "barneveld so honourable," they said, "for his immense and long continued services has both this republic and all princes and commonwealths for his witnesses. it is most difficult to believe that he has attempted the destruction of his fatherland, for which you know that he has toiled so faithfully." they admitted that so grave charges ought now to be investigated. "to this end," said the ambassadors, "you ought to give him judges who are neither suspected nor impassioned, and who will decide according to the laws of the land, and on clear and undeniable evidence . . . . so doing you will show to the whole world that you are worthy to possess and to administer this commonwealth to whose government god has called you." should they pursue another and a sterner course, the envoys warned the assembly that the king would be deeply offended, deeming it thus proved how little value they set upon his advice and his friendship. the states-general replied on the th december, assuring the ambassadors that the delay in the trial was in order to make the evidence of the great conspiracy complete, and would not tend to the prejudice of the prisoners "if they had a good consciousness of their innocence." they promised that the sentence upon them when pronounced would give entire satisfaction to all their allies and to the king of france in particular, of whom they spoke throughout the document in terms of profound respect. but they expressed their confidence that "his majesty would not place the importunate and unfounded solicitations of a few particular criminals or their supporters before the general interests of the dignity and security of the republic." on the same day the states-general addressed a letter filled with very elaborate and courteous commonplaces to the king, in which they expressed a certainty that his majesty would be entirely satisfied with their actions. the official answer of the states-general to the ambassadors, just cited, gave but little comfort to the friends of the imprisoned statesman and his companions. such expressions as "ambitious and factious spirits,"--"authors and patrons of the faction,"--"attempts at novelty through changes in religion, in justice and in the fundamental laws of all orders of polity," and the frequent mention of the word "conspiracy" boded little good. information of this condition of affairs was conveyed to hoogerbeets and grotius by means of an ingenious device of the distinguished scholar, who was then editing the latin works of the hague poet, janus secundus. while the sheets were going through the press, some of the verses were left out, and their place supplied by others conveying the intelligence which it was desired to send to the prisoners. the pages which contained the secret were stitched together in such wise that in cutting the book open they were not touched but remained closed. the verses were to this effect. "the examination of the advocate proceeds slowly, but there is good hope from the serious indignation of the french king, whose envoys are devoted to the cause of the prisoners, and have been informed that justice will be soon rendered. the states of holland are to assemble on the th january, at which a decision will certainly be taken for appointing judges. the preachers here at leyden are despised, and men are speaking strongly of war. the tumult which lately occurred at rotterdam may bring forth some good." the quick-wited grotius instantly discovered the device, read the intelligence thus communicated in the proofsheets of secundus, and made use of the system to obtain further intelligence. hoogerbeets laid the book aside, not taking much interest at that time in the works of the hague poet. constant efforts made to attract his attention to those poems however excited suspicion among his keepers, and the scheme was discovered before the leyden pensionary had found the means to profit by it.' the allusions to the trial of the advocate referred to the preliminary examination which took place, like the first interrogatories of grotius and hoogerbeets, in the months of november and december. the thorough manner in which maurice had reformed the states of holland has been described. there was one department of that body however which still required attention. the order of knights, small in number but potential in influence, which always voted first on great occasions, was still through a majority of its members inclined to barneveld. both his sons-in-law had seats in that college. the stadholder had long believed in a spirit of hostility on the part of those nobles towards himself. he knew that a short time before this epoch there had been a scheme for introducing his young brother, frederic henry, into the chamber of knights. the count had become proprietor of the barony of naaldwyk, a property which he had purchased of the counts of arenberg, and which carried with it the hereditary dignity of great equerry of the counts of holland. as the counts of holland had ceased to exist, although their sovereignty had nearly been revived and conferred upon william the silent, the office of their chief of the stables might be deemed a sinecure. but the jealousy of maurice was easily awakened, especially by any movement made or favoured by the advocate. he believed that in the election of frederic henry as a member of the college of knights a plan lay concealed to thrust him into power and to push this elder brother from his place. the scheme, if scheme it were, was never accomplished, but the prince's rancour remained. he now informed the nobles that they must receive into their body francis aerssens, who had lately purchased the barony of sommelsdyk, and daniel de hartaing, seignior of marquette. with the presence of this deadly enemy of barneveld and another gentleman equally devoted to the stadholder's interest it seemed probable that the refractory majority of the board of nobles would be overcome. but there were grave objections to the admission of these new candidates. they were not eligible. the constitution of the states and of the college of nobles prescribed that hollanders only of ancient and noble race and possessing estates in the province could sit in that body. neither aerssens nor hartaing was born in holland or possessed of the other needful qualifications. nevertheless, the prince, who had just remodelled all the municipalities throughout the union which offered resistance to his authority, was not to be checked by so trifling an impediment as the statutes of the house of nobles. he employed very much the same arguments which he had used to "good papa" hooft. "this time it must be so." another time it might not be necessary. so after a controversy which ended as controversies are apt to do when one party has a sword in his hand and the other is seated at a green-baize-covered table, sommelsdyk and marquette took their seats among the knights. of course there was a spirited protest. nothing was easier for the stadholder than to concede the principle while trampling it with his boot-heels in practice. "whereas it is not competent for the said two gentlemen to be admitted to our board," said the nobles in brief, "as not being constitutionally eligible, nevertheless, considering the strong desire of his excellency the prince of orange, we, the nobles and knights of holland, admit them with the firm promise to each other by noble and knightly faith ever in future for ourselves and descendants to maintain the privileges of our order now violated and never again to let them be directly or indirectly infringed." and so aerssens, the unscrupulous plotter, and dire foe of the advocate and all his house, burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received from him during many years, and the author of the venomous pamphlets and diatribes which had done so much of late to blacken the character of the great statesman before the public, now associated himself officially with his other enemies, while the preliminary proceedings for the state trials went forward. meantime the synod had met at dordtrecht. the great john bogerman, with fierce, handsome face, beak and eye of a bird of prey, and a deluge of curly brown beard reaching to his waist, took his seat as president. short work was made with the armenians. they and their five points were soon thrust out into outer darkness. it was established beyond all gainsaying that two forms of divine worship in one country were forbidden by god's word, and that thenceforth by netherland law there could be but one religion, namely, the reformed or calvinistic creed. it was settled that one portion of the netherlanders and of the rest of the human race had been expressly created by the deity to be for ever damned, and another portion to be eternally blessed. but this history has little to do with that infallible council save in the political effect of its decrees on the fate of barneveld. it was said that the canons of dordtrecht were likely to shoot off the head of the advocate. their sessions and the trial of the advocate were simultaneous, but not technically related to each other. the conclusions of both courts were preordained, for the issue of the great duel between priesthood and state had been decided when the military chieftain threw his sword into the scale of the church. there had been purposely a delay, before coming to a decision as to the fate of the state prisoners, until the work of the synod should have approached completion. it was thought good that the condemnation of the opinions of the arminians and the chastisement of their leaders should go hand-in-hand. on the rd april , the canons were signed by all the members of the synod. arminians were pronounced heretics, schismatics, teachers of false doctrines. they were declared incapable of filling any clerical or academical post. no man thenceforth was to teach children, lecture to adolescents, or preach to the mature, unless a subscriber to the doctrines of the unchanged, unchangeable, orthodox church. on the th april and st may the netherland confession and the heidelberg catechism were declared to be infallible. no change was to be possible in either formulary. schools and pulpits were inexorably bound to the only true religion. on the th may there was a great festival at dordtrecht in honour of the conclusion of the synod. the canons, the sentence, and long prayers and orations in latin by president bogerman gladdened the souls of an immense multitude, which were further enlivened by the decree that both creed and catechism had stood the test of several criticisms and come out unchanged by a single hair. nor did the orator of the occasion forget to render thanks "to the most magnanimous king james of great britain, through whose godly zeal, fiery sympathy, and truly royal labour god had so often refreshed the weary synod in the midst of their toil." the synod held one hundred and eighty sessions between the th november and th may , all the doings of which have been recorded in chronicles innumerable. there need be no further mention of them here. barneveld and the companions of his fate remained in prison. on the th march the trial of the great advocate began. he had sat in prison since the th of the preceding august. for nearly seven months he had been deprived of all communication with the outward world save such atoms of intelligence as could be secretly conveyed to him in the inside of a quill concealed in a pear and by other devices. the man who had governed one of the most important commonwealths of the world for nearly a generation long--during the same period almost controlling the politics of europe--had now been kept in ignorance of the most insignificant everyday events. during the long summer-heat of the dog-days immediately succeeding his arrest, and the long, foggy, snowy, icy winter of holland which ensued, he had been confined in that dreary garret-room to which he had been brought when he left his temporary imprisonment in the apartments of prince maurice. there was nothing squalid in the chamber, nothing specially cruel or repulsive in the arrangements of his captivity. he was not in fetters, nor fed upon bread and water. he was not put upon the rack, nor even threatened with it as ledenberg had been. he was kept in a mean, commonplace, meagerly furnished, tolerably spacious room, and he was allowed the services of his faithful domestic servant john franken. a sentinel paced day and night up the narrow corridor before his door. as spring advanced, the notes of the nightingale came through the prison-window from the neighbouring thicket. one day john franken, opening the window that his master might the better enjoy its song, exchanged greeting with a fellow-servant in the barneveld mansion who happened to be crossing the courtyard. instantly workmen were sent to close and barricade the windows, and it was only after earnest remonstrances and pledges that this resolve to consign the advocate to darkness was abandoned. he was not permitted the help of lawyer, clerk, or man of business. alone and from his chamber of bondage, suffering from bodily infirmities and from the weakness of advancing age, he was compelled to prepare his defence against a vague, heterogeneous collection of charges, to meet which required constant reference, not only to the statutes, privileges, and customs of the country and to the roman law, but to a thousand minute incidents out of which the history of the provinces during the past dozen years or more had been compounded. it is true that no man could be more familiar with the science and practice of the law than he was, while of contemporary history he was himself the central figure. his biography was the chronicle of his country. nevertheless it was a fearful disadvantage for him day by day to confront two dozen hostile judges comfortably seated at a great table piled with papers, surrounded by clerks with bags full of documents and with a library of authorities and precedents duly marked and dog's-eared and ready to their hands, while his only library and chronicle lay in his brain. from day to day, with frequent intermissions, he was led down through the narrow turret-stairs to a wide chamber on the floor immediately below his prison, where a temporary tribunal had been arranged for the special commission. there had been an inclination at first on the part of his judges to treat him as a criminal, and to require him to answer, standing, to the interrogatories propounded to him. but as the terrible old man advanced into the room, leaning on his staff, and surveying them with the air of haughty command habitual to him, they shrank before his glance; several involuntarily, rising uncovered, to salute him and making way for him to the fireplace about which many were standing that wintry morning. he was thenceforth always accommodated with a seat while he listened to and answered 'ex tempore' the elaborate series of interrogatories which had been prepared to convict him. nearly seven months he had sat with no charges brought against him. this was in itself a gross violation of the laws of the land, for according to all the ancient charters of holland it was provided that accusation should follow within six weeks of arrest, or that the prisoner should go free. but the arrest itself was so gross a violation of law that respect for it was hardly to be expected in the subsequent proceedings. he was a great officer of the states of holland. he had been taken under their especial protection. he was on his way to the high council. he was in no sense a subject of the states-general. he was in the discharge of his official duty. he was doubly and trebly sacred from arrest. the place where he stood was on the territory of holland and in the very sanctuary of her courts and house of assembly. the states-general were only as guests on her soil, and had no domain or jurisdiction there whatever. he was not apprehended by any warrant or form of law. it was in time of peace, and there was no pretence of martial law. the highest civil functionary of holland was invited in the name of its first military officer to a conference, and thus entrapped was forcibly imprisoned. at last a board of twenty-four commissioners was created, twelve from holland and two from each of the other six provinces. this affectation of concession to holland was ridiculous. either the law 'de non evocando'--according to which no citizen of holland could be taken out of the province for trial--was to be respected or it was to be trampled upon. if it was to be trampled upon, it signified little whether more commissioners were to be taken from holland than from each of the other provinces, or fewer, or none at all. moreover it was pretended that a majority of the whole board was to be assigned to that province. but twelve is not a majority of twenty-four. there were three fascals or prosecuting officers, leeuwen of utrecht, sylla of gelderland, and antony duyck of holland. duyck was notoriously the deadly enemy of barneveld, and was destined to succeed to his offices. it would have been as well to select francis aerssens himself. it was necessary to appoint a commission because there was no tribunal appertaining to the states-general. the general government of the confederacy had no power to deal with an individual. it could only negotiate with the sovereign province to which the individual was responsible, and demand his punishment if proved guilty of an offence. there was no supreme court of appeal. machinery was provided for settling or attempting to settle disputes among the members of the confederacy, and if there was a culprit in this great process it was holland itself. neither the advocate nor any one of his associates had done any act except by authority, express or implied, of that sovereign state. supposing them unquestionably guilty of blackest crimes against the generality, the dilemma was there which must always exist by the very nature of things in a confederacy. no sovereign can try a fellow sovereign. the subject can be tried at home by no sovereign but his own. the accused in this case were amenable to the laws of holland only. it was a packed tribunal. several of the commissioners, like pauw and muis for example, were personal enemies of barneveld. many of them were totally ignorant of law. some of them knew not a word of any language but their mother tongue, although much of the law which they were to administer was written in latin. before such a court the foremost citizen of the netherlands, the first living statesman of europe, was brought day by day during a period of nearly three months; coming down stairs from the mean and desolate room where he was confined to the comfortable apartment below, which had been fitted up for the commission. there was no bill of indictment, no arraignment, no counsel. there were no witnesses and no arguments. the court-room contained, as it were, only a prejudiced and partial jury to pronounce both on law and fact without a judge to direct them, or advocates to sift testimony and contend for or against the prisoner's guilt. the process, for it could not be called a trial, consisted of a vast series of rambling and tangled interrogatories reaching over a space of forty years without apparent connection or relevancy, skipping fantastically about from one period to another, back and forthwith apparently no other intent than to puzzle the prisoner, throw him off his balance, and lead him into self-contradiction. the spectacle was not a refreshing one. it was the attempt of a multitude of pigmies to overthrow and bind the giant. barneveld was served with no articles of impeachment. he asked for a list in writing of the charges against him, that he might ponder his answer. the demand was refused. he was forbidden the use of pen and ink or any writing materials. his papers and books were all taken from him. he was allowed to consult neither with an advocate nor even with a single friend. alone in his chamber of bondage he was to meditate on his defence. out of his memory and brain, and from these alone, he was to supply himself with the array of historical facts stretching over a longer period than the lifetime of many of his judges, and with the proper legal and historical arguments upon those facts for the justification of his course. that memory and brain were capacious and powerful enough for the task. it was well for the judges that they had bound themselves, at the outset, by an oath never to make known what passed in the courtroom, but to bury all the proceedings in profound secrecy forever. had it been otherwise, had that been known to the contemporary public which has only been revealed more than two centuries later, had a portion only of the calm and austere eloquence been heard in which the advocate set forth his defence, had the frivolous and ignoble nature of the attack been comprehended, it might have moved the very stones in the streets to mutiny. hateful as the statesman had been made by an organized system of calumny, which was continued with unabated vigour and increased venom sine he had been imprisoned, there was enough of justice and of gratitude left in the hearts of netherlanders to resent the tyranny practised against their greatest man, and the obloquy thus brought against a nation always devoted to their liberties and laws. that the political system of the country was miserably defective was no fault of barneveld. he was bound by oath and duty to administer, not make the laws. a handful of petty feudal sovereignties such as had once covered the soil of europe, a multitude of thriving cities which had wrested or purchased a mass of liberties, customs, and laws from their little tyrants, all subjected afterwards, without being blended together, to a single foreign family, had at last one by one, or two by two, shaken off that supremacy, and, resuming their ancient and as it were decapitated individualities, had bound themselves by treaty in the midst of a war to stand by each other, as if they were but one province, for purposes of common defence against the common foe. there had been no pretence of laying down a constitution, of enacting an organic law. the day had not come for even the conception of a popular constitution. the people had not been invented. it was not provinces only, but cities, that had contracted with each other, according to the very first words of the first article of union. some of these cities, like ghent, bruges, antwerp, were catholic by overwhelming majority, and had subsequently either fallen away from the confederacy or been conquered. and as if to make assurance doubly sure, the articles of union not only reserved to each province all powers not absolutely essential for carrying on the war in common, but by an express article (the th), declared that holland and zealand should regulate the matter of religion according to their own discretion, while the other provinces might conform to the provisions of the "religious peace" which included mutual protection for catholics and protestants--or take such other order as seemed most conducive to the religious and secular rights of the inhabitants. it was stipulated that no province should interfere with another in such matters, and that every individual in them all should remain free in his religion, no man being molested or examined on account of his creed. a farther declaration in regard to this famous article was made to the effect that no provinces or cities which held to the roman catholic religion were to be excluded from the league of union if they were ready to conform to its conditions and comport themselves patriotically. language could not be devised to declare more plainly than was done by this treaty that the central government of the league had neither wish nor right to concern itself with the religious affairs of the separate cities or provinces. if it permitted both papists and protestants to associate themselves against the common foe, it could hardly have been imagined, when the articles were drawn, that it would have claimed the exclusive right to define the minutest points in a single protestant creed. and if the exclusively secular parts of the polity prevailing in the country were clumsy, irregular, and even monstrous, and if its defects had been flagrantly demonstrated by recent events, a more reasonable method of reforming the laws might have been found than the imprisonment of a man who had faithfully administered them forty years long. a great commonwealth had grown out of a petty feudal organism, like an oak from an acorn in a crevice, gnarled and distorted, though wide-spreading and vigorous. it seemed perilous to deal radically with such a polity, and an almost timid conservatism on the part of its guardians in such an age of tempests might be pardonable. moreover, as before remarked, the apparent imbecility resulting from confederacy and municipalism combined was for a season remedied by the actual preponderance of holland. two-thirds of the total wealth and strength of the seven republics being concentrated in one province, the desired union seemed almost gained by the practical solution of all in that single republic. but this was one great cause of the general disaster. it would be a thankless and tedious task to wander through the wilderness of interrogatories and answers extending over three months of time, which stood in the place of a trial. the defence of barneveld was his own history, and that i have attempted to give in the preceding pages. a great part of the accusation was deduced from his private and official correspondence, and it is for this reason that i have laid such copious extracts from it before the reader. no man except the judges and the states-general had access to those letters, and it was easy therefore, if needful, to give them a false colouring. it is only very recently that they have been seen at all, and they have never been published from that day to this. out of the confused mass of documents appertaining to the trial, a few generalizations can be made which show the nature of the attack upon him. he was accused of having permitted arminius to infuse new opinions into the university of leyden, and of having subsequently defended the appointment of vorstius to the same place. he had opposed the national synod. he had made drafts of letters for the king of great britain to sign, recommending mutual toleration on the five disputed points regarding predestination. he was the author of the famous sharp resolution. he had recommended the enlistment by the provinces and towns of waartgelders or mercenaries. he had maintained that those mercenaries as well as the regular troops were bound in time of peace to be obedient and faithful, not only to the generality and the stadholders, but to the magistrates of the cities and provinces where they were employed, and to the states by whom they were paid. he had sent to leyden, warning the authorities of the approach of the prince. he had encouraged all the proceedings at utrecht, writing a letter to the secretary of that province advising a watch to be kept at the city gates as well as in the river, and ordering his letter when read to be burned. he had received presents from foreign potentates. he had attempted to damage the character of his excellency the prince by declaring on various occasions that he aspired to the sovereignty of the country. he had held a ciphered correspondence on the subject with foreign ministers of the republic. he had given great offence to the king of great britain by soliciting from him other letters in the sense of those which his majesty had written in , advising moderation and mutual toleration. he had not brought to condign punishment the author of 'the balance', a pamphlet in which an oration of the english ambassador had been criticised, and aspersions made on the order of the garter. he had opposed the formation of the west india company. he had said many years before to nicolas van berk that the provinces had better return to the dominion of spain. and in general, all his proceedings had tended to put the provinces into a "blood bath." there was however no accusation that he had received bribes from the enemy or held traitorous communication with him, or that he had committed any act of high-treason. his private letters to caron and to the ambassadors in paris, with which the reader has been made familiar, had thus been ransacked to find treasonable matter, but the result was meagre in spite of the minute and microscopic analysis instituted to detect traces of poison in them. but the most subtle and far-reaching research into past transactions was due to the greffier cornelis aerssens, father of the ambassador francis, and to a certain nicolas van berk, burgomaster of utrecht. the process of tale-bearing, hearsay evidence, gossip, and invention went back a dozen years, even to the preliminary and secret conferences in regard to the treaty of truce. readers familiar with the history of those memorable negotiations are aware that cornelis van aerssens had compromised himself by accepting a valuable diamond and a bill of exchange drawn by marquis spinola on a merchant in amsterdam, henry beekman by name, for , ducats. these were handed by father neyen, the secret agent of the spanish government, to the greffier as a prospective reward for his services in furthering the truce. he did not reject them, but he informed prince maurice and the advocate of the transaction. both diamond and bill of exchange were subsequently deposited in the hands of the treasurer of the states-general, joris de bie, the assembly being made officially acquainted with the whole course of the affair. it is passing strange that this somewhat tortuous business, which certainly cast a shade upon the fair fame of the elder aerssens, and required him to publish as good a defence as he could against the consequent scandal, should have furnished a weapon wherewith to strike at the advocate of holland some dozen years later. but so it was. krauwels, a relative of aerssens, through whom father neyen had first obtained access to the greffier, had stated, so it seemed, that the monk had, in addition to the bill, handed to him another draft of spinola's for , ducats, to be given to a person of more consideration than aerssens. krauwels did not know who the person was, nor whether he took the money. he expressed his surprise however that leading persons in the government "even old and authentic beggars"--should allow themselves to be so seduced as to accept presents from the enemy. he mentioned two such persons, namely, a burgomaster at delft and a burgomaster at haarlem. aerssens now deposed that he had informed the advocate of this story, who had said, "be quiet about it, i will have it investigated," and some days afterwards on being questioned stated that he had made enquiry and found there was something in it. so the fact that cornelis aerssens had taken bribes, and that two burgomasters were strongly suspected by aerssens of having taken bribes, seems to have been considered as evidence that barneveld had taken a bribe. it is true that aerssens by advice of maurice and barneveld had made a clean breast of it to the states-general and had given them over the presents. but the states-general could neither wear the diamond nor cash the bill of exchange, and it would have been better for the greffier not to contaminate his fingers with them, but to leave the gifts in the monk's palm. his revenge against the advocate for helping him out of his dilemma, and for subsequently advancing his son francis in a brilliant diplomatic career, seems to have been--when the clouds were thickening and every man's hand was against the fallen statesman--to insinuate that he was the anonymous personage who had accepted the apocryphal draft for , ducats. the case is a pregnant example of the proceedings employed to destroy the advocate. the testimony of nicolas van berk was at any rate more direct. on the st december the burgomaster testified that the advocate had once declared to him that the differences in regard to divine worship were not so great but that they might be easily composed; asking him at the same time "whether it would not be better that we should submit ourselves again to the king of spain." barneveld had also referred, so said van berk, to the conduct of the spanish king towards those who had helped him to the kingdom of portugal. the burgomaster was unable however to specify the date, year, or month in which the advocate had held this language. he remembered only that the conversation occurred when barneveld was living on the spui at the hague, and that having been let into the house through the hall on the side of the vestibule, he had been conducted by the advocate down a small staircase into the office. the only fact proved by the details seems to be that the story had lodged in the tenacious memory of the burgomaster for eight years, as barneveld had removed from the spui to arenberg house in the voorhout in the year . no other offers from the king of spain or the archdukes had ever been made to him, said van berk, than those indicated in this deposition against the advocate as coming from that statesman. nor had barneveld ever spoken to him upon such subjects except on that one occasion. it is not necessary and would be wearisome to follow the unfortunate statesman through the long line of defence which he was obliged to make, in fragmentary and irregular form, against these discursive and confused assaults upon him. a continuous argument might be built up with the isolated parts which should be altogether impregnable. it is superfluous. always instructive to his judges as he swept at will through the record of nearly half a century of momentous european history, in which he was himself a conspicuous figure, or expounding the ancient laws and customs of the country with a wealth and accuracy of illustration which testified to the strength of his memory, he seemed rather like a sage expounding law and history to a class of pupils than a criminal defending himself before a bench of commissioners. moved occasionally from his austere simplicity, the majestic old man rose to a strain of indignant eloquence which might have shaken the hall of a vast assembly and found echo in the hearts of a thousand hearers as he denounced their petty insults or ignoble insinuations; glaring like a caged lion at his tormentors, who had often shrunk before him when free, and now attempted to drown his voice by contradictions, interruptions, threats, and unmeaning howls. he protested, from the outset and throughout the proceedings, against the jurisdiction of the tribunal. the treaty of union on which the assembly and states-general were founded gave that assembly no power over him. they could take no legal cognizance of his person or his acts. he had been deprived of writing materials, or he would have already drawn up his solemn protest and argument against the existence of the commission. he demanded that they should be provided for him, together with a clerk to engross his defence. it is needless to say that the demand was refused. it was notorious to all men, he said, that on the day when violent hands were laid upon him he was not bound to the states-general by oath, allegiance, or commission. he was a well-known inhabitant of the hague, a householder there, a vassal of the commonwealth of holland, enfeoffed of many notable estates in that country, serving many honourable offices by commission from its government. by birth, promotion, and conferred dignities he was subject to the supreme authority of holland, which for forty years had been a free state possessed of all the attributes of sovereignty, political, religious, judicial, and recognizing no superior save god almighty alone. he was amenable to no tribunal save that of their mightinesses the states of holland and their ordinary judges. not only those states but the prince of orange as their governor and vassal, the nobles of holland, the colleges of justice, the regents of cities, and all other vassals, magistrates, and officers were by their respective oaths bound to maintain and protect him in these his rights. after fortifying this position by legal argument and by an array of historical facts within his own experience, and alluding to the repeated instances in which, sorely against his will, he had been solicited and almost compelled to remain in offices of which he was weary, he referred with dignity to the record of his past life. from the youthful days when he had served as a volunteer at his own expense in the perilous sieges of haarlem and leyden down to the time of his arrest, through an unbroken course of honourable and most arduous political services, embassies, and great negotiations, he had ever maintained the laws and liberties of the fatherland and his own honour unstained. that he should now in his seventy-second year be dragged, in violation of every privilege and statute of the country, by extraordinary means, before unknown judges, was a grave matter not for himself alone but for their mightinesses the states of holland and for the other provinces. the precious right 'de non evocando' had ever been dear to all the provinces, cities, and inhabitants of the netherlands. it was the most vital privilege in their possession as well in civil as criminal, in secular as in ecclesiastical affairs. when the king of spain in , and afterwards, set up an extraordinary tribunal and a course of extraordinary trials, it was an undeniable fact, he said, that on the solemn complaint of the states all princes, nobles, and citizens not only in the netherlands but in foreign countries, and all foreign kings and sovereigns, held those outrages to be the foremost and fundamental reason for taking up arms against that king, and declaring him to have forfeited his right of sovereignty. yet that monarch was unquestionably the born and accepted sovereign of each one of the provinces, while the general assembly was but a gathering of confederates and allies, in no sense sovereign. it was an unimaginable thing, he said, that the states of each province should allow their whole authority and right of sovereignty to be transferred to a board of commissioners like this before which he stood. if, for example, a general union of france, england, and the states of the united netherlands should be formed (and the very words of the act of union contemplated such possibility), what greater absurdity could there be than to suppose that a college of administration created for the specific purposes of such union would be competent to perform acts of sovereignty within each of those countries in matters of justice, polity, and religion? it was known to mankind, he said, that when negotiations were entered into for bestowing the sovereignty of the provinces on france and on england, special and full powers were required from, and furnished by, the states of each individual province. had the sovereignty been in the assembly of the states-general, they might have transferred it of their own motion or kept it for themselves. even in the ordinary course of affairs the commissioners from each province to the general assembly always required a special power from their constituents before deciding any matter of great importance. in regard to the defence of the respective provinces and cities, he had never heard it doubted, he said, that the states or the magistrates of cities had full right to provide for it by arming a portion of their own inhabitants or by enlisting paid troops. the sovereign counts of holland and bishops of utrecht certainly possessed and exercised that right for many hundred years, and by necessary tradition it passed to the states succeeding to their ancient sovereignty. he then gave from the stores of his memory innumerable instances in which soldiers had been enlisted by provinces and cities all over the netherlands from the time of the abjuration of spain down to that moment. through the whole period of independence in the time of anjou, matthias, leicester, as well as under the actual government, it had been the invariable custom thus to provide both by land and sea and on the rivers against robbers, rebels, pirates, mischief-makers, assailing thieves, domestic or foreign. it had been done by the immortal william the silent on many memorable occasions, and in fact the custom was so notorious that soldiers so enlisted were known by different and peculiar nicknames in the different provinces and towns. that the central government had no right to meddle with religious matters was almost too self-evident an axiom to prove. indeed the chief difficulty under which the advocate laboured throughout this whole process was the monstrous assumption by his judges of a political and judicial system which never had any existence even in imagination. the profound secrecy which enwrapped the proceedings from that day almost to our own and an ignorant acquiescence of a considerable portion of the public in accomplished facts offer the only explanation of a mystery which must ever excite our wonder. if there were any impeachment at all, it was an impeachment of the form of government itself. if language could mean anything whatever, a mere perusal of the articles of union proved that the prisoner had never violated that fundamental pact. how could the general government prescribe an especial formulary for the reformed church, and declare opposition to its decrees treasonable, when it did not prohibit, but absolutely admitted and invited, provinces and cities exclusively catholic to enter the union, guaranteeing to them entire liberty of religion? barneveld recalled the fact that when the stadholdership of utrecht thirty years before had been conferred on prince maurice the states of that province had solemnly reserved for themselves the disposition over religious matters in conformity with the union, and that maurice had sworn to support that resolution. five years later the prince had himself assured a deputation from brabant that the states of each province were supreme in religious matters, no interference the one with the other being justifiable or possible. in the states general in letters addressed to the states of the obedient provinces under dominion of the archdukes had invited them to take up arms to help drive the spaniards from the provinces and to join the confederacy, assuring them that they should regulate the matter of religion at their good pleasure, and that no one else should be allowed to interfere therewith. the advocate then went into an historical and critical disquisition, into which we certainly have no need to follow him, rapidly examining the whole subject of predestination and conditional and unconditional damnation from the days of st. augustine downward, showing a thorough familiarity with a subject of theology which then made up so much of the daily business of life, political and private, and lay at the bottom of the terrible convulsion then existing in the netherlands. we turn from it with a shudder, reminding the reader only how persistently the statesman then on his trial had advocated conciliation, moderation, and kindness between brethren of the reformed church who were not able to think alike on one of the subtlest and most mysterious problems that casuistry has ever propounded. for fifty years, he said, he had been an enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience. he had always opposed rigorous ecclesiastical decrees. he had done his best to further, and did not deny having inspired, the advice given in the famous letters from the king of great britain to the states in , that there should be mutual toleration and abstinence from discussion of disputed doctrines, neither of them essential to salvation. he thought that neither calvin nor beza would have opposed freedom of opinion on those points. for himself he believed that the salvation of mankind would be through god's unmerited grace and the redemption of sins though the saviour, and that the man who so held and persevered to the end was predestined to eternal happiness, and that his children dying before the age of reason were destined not to hell but to heaven. he had thought fifty years long that the passion and sacrifice of christ the saviour were more potent to salvation than god's wrath and the sin of adam and eve to damnation. he had done his best practically to avert personal bickerings among the clergy. he had been, so far as lay in his power, as friendly to remonstrants as to contra-remonstrants, to polyander and festus hommius as to uytenbogaert and episcopius. he had almost finished a negotiation with councillor kromhout for the peaceable delivery of the cloister church on the thursday preceding the sunday on which it had been forcibly seized by the contra-remonstrants. when asked by one of his judges how he presumed to hope for toleration between two parties, each of which abhorred the other's opinions, and likened each other to turks and devil-worshippers, he replied that he had always detested and rebuked those mutual revilings by every means in his power, and would have wished to put down such calumniators of either persuasion by the civil authority, but the iniquity of the times and the exasperation of men's humours had prevented him. being perpetually goaded by one judge after another as to his disrespectful conduct towards the king of great britain, and asked why his majesty had not as good right to give the advice of as the recommendation of tolerance in , he scrupulously abstained, as he had done in all his letters, from saying a disrespectful word as to the glaring inconsistency between the two communications, or to the hostility manifested towards himself personally by the british ambassador. he had always expressed the hope, he said, that the king would adhere to his original position, but did not dispute his right to change his mind, nor the good faith which had inspired his later letters. it had been his object, if possible, to reconcile the two different systems recommended by his majesty into one harmonious whole. his whole aim had been to preserve the public peace as it was the duty of every magistrate, especially in times of such excitement, to do. he could never comprehend why the toleration of the five points should be a danger to the reformed religion. rather, he thought, it would strengthen the church and attract many lutherans, baptists, catholics, and other good patriots into its pale. he had always opposed the compulsory acceptance by the people of the special opinions of scribes and doctors. he did not consider, he said, the difference in doctrine on this disputed point between the contra-remonstrants and remonstrants as one-tenth the value of the civil authority and its right to make laws and ordinances regulating ecclesiastical affairs. he believed the great bulwark of the independence of the country to be the reformed church, and his efforts had ever been to strengthen that bulwark by preventing the unnecessary schism which might prove its ruin. many questions of property, too, were involved in the question--the church buildings, lands and pastures belonging to the counts of holland and their successors--the states having always exercised the right of church patronage--'jus patronatus'--a privilege which, as well as inherited or purchased advowsons, had been of late flagrantly interfered with. he was asked if he had not said that it had never been the intention of the states-general to carry on the war for this or that religion. he replied that he had told certain clergymen expressing to him their opinion that the war had been waged solely for the furtherance of their especial shade of belief, that in his view the war had been undertaken for the conservation of the liberties and laws of the land, and of its good people. of that freedom the first and foremost point was the true christian religion and liberty of conscience and opinion. there must be religion in the republic, he had said, but that the war was carried on to sustain the opinion of one doctor of divinity or another on--differential points was something he had never heard of and could never believe. the good citizens of the country had as much right to hold by melancthon as by calvin or beza. he knew that the first proclamations in regard to the war declared it to be undertaken for freedom of conscience, and so to his, own knowledge it had been always carried on. he was asked if he had not promised during the truce negotiations so to direct matters that the catholics with time might obtain public exercise of their religion. he replied that this was a notorious falsehood and calumny, adding that it ill accorded with the proclamation against the jesuits drawn up by himself some years after the truce. he furthermore stated that it was chiefly by his direction that the discourse of president jeannin--urging on part of the french king that liberty of worship might be granted to the papists--was kept secret, copies of it not having been furnished even to the commissioners of the provinces. his indignant denial of this charge, especially taken in connection with his repeated assertions during the trial, that among the most patriotic netherlanders during and since the war were many adherents of the ancient church, seems marvellously in contradiction with his frequent and most earnest pleas for liberty of conscience. but it did not appear contradictory even to his judges nor to any contemporary. his position had always been that the civil authority of each province was supreme in all matters political or ecclesiastical. the states-general, all the provinces uniting in the vote, had invited the catholic provinces on more than one occasion to join the union, promising that there should be no interference on the part of any states or individuals with the internal affairs religious or otherwise of the provinces accepting the invitation. but it would have been a gross contradiction of his own principle if he had promised so to direct matters that the catholics should have public right of worship in holland where he knew that the civil authority was sure to refuse it, or in any of the other six provinces in whose internal affairs he had no voice whatever. he was opposed to all tyranny over conscience, he would have done his utmost to prevent inquisition into opinion, violation of domicile, interference with private worship, compulsory attendance in protestant churches of those professing the roman creed. this was not attempted. no catholic was persecuted on account of his religion. compared with the practice in other countries this was a great step in advance. religious tolerance lay on the road to religious equality, a condition which had hardly been imagined then and scarcely exists in europe even to this day. but among the men in history whose life and death contributed to the advancement of that blessing, it would be vain to deny that barneveld occupies a foremost place. moreover, it should be remembered that religious equality then would have been a most hazardous experiment. so long as church and state were blended, it was absolutely essential at that epoch for the preservation of protestantism to assign the predominance to the state. should the catholics have obtained religious equality, the probable result would before long have been religious inequality, supremacy of the catholics in the church, and supremacy of the church over the state. the fruits of the forty years' war would have become dust and ashes. it would be mere weak sentimentalism to doubt--after the bloody history which had just closed and the awful tragedy, then reopening--that every spark of religious liberty would have soon been trodden out in the netherlands. the general onslaught of the league with ferdinand, maximilian of bavaria, and philip of spain at its head against the distracted, irresolute, and wavering line of protestantism across the whole of europe was just preparing. rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic, was the war-cry of the emperor. the king of spain, as we have just been reading in his most secret, ciphered despatches to the archduke at brussels, was nursing sanguine hopes and weaving elaborate schemes for recovering his dominion over the united netherlands, and proposing to send an army of jesuits thither to break the way to the reconquest. to play into his hands then, by granting public right of worship to the papists, would have been in barneveld's opinion like giving up julich and other citadels in the debatable land to spain just as the great war between catholicism and protestantism was breaking out. there had been enough of burning and burying alive in the netherlands during the century which had closed. it was not desirable to give a chance for their renewal now. in regard to the synod, barneveld justified his course by a simple reference to the th article of the union. words could not more plainly prohibit the interference by the states-general with the religious affairs of any one of the provinces than had been done by that celebrated clause. in there had been an attempt made to amend that article by insertion of a pledge to maintain the evangelical, reformed, religion solely, but it was never carried out. he disdained to argue so self-evident a truth, that a confederacy which had admitted and constantly invited catholic states to membership, under solemn pledge of noninterference with their religious affairs, had no right to lay down formulas for the reformed church throughout all the netherlands. the oath of stadholder and magistrates in holland to maintain the reformed religion was framed before this unhappy controversy on predestination had begun, and it was mere arrogant assumption on the part of the contra-remonstrants to claim a monopoly of that religion, and to exclude the remonstrants from its folds. he had steadily done his utmost to assuage those dissensions while maintaining the laws which he was sworn to support. he had advocated a provincial synod to be amicably assisted by divines from neighbouring countries. he had opposed a national synod unless unanimously voted by the seven provinces, because it would have been an open violation of the fundamental law of the confederacy, of its whole spirit, and of liberty of conscience. he admitted that he had himself drawn up a protest on the part of three provinces (holland, utrecht, and overyssel) against the decree for the national synod as a breach of the union, declaring it to be therefore null and void and binding upon no man. he had dictated the protest as oldest member present, while grotius as the youngest had acted as scribe. he would have supported the synod if legally voted, but would have preferred the convocation, under the authority of all the provinces, of a general, not a national, synod, in which, besides clergy and laymen from the netherlands, deputations from all protestant states and churches should take part; a kind of protestant oecumenical council. as to the enlistment, by the states of a province, of soldiers to keep the peace and suppress tumults in its cities during times of political and religious excitement, it was the most ordinary of occurrences. in his experience of more than forty years he had never heard the right even questioned. it was pure ignorance of law and history to find it a novelty. to hire temporarily a sufficient number of professional soldiers, he considered a more wholesome means of keeping the peace than to enlist one portion of the citizens of a town against another portion, when party and religious spirit was running high. his experience had taught him that the mutual hatred of the inhabitants, thus inflamed, became more lasting and mischievous than the resentment caused through suppression of disorder by an armed and paid police of strangers. it was not only the right but the most solemn duty of the civil authority to preserve the tranquillity, property, and lives of citizens committed to their care. "i have said these fifty years," said barneveld, "that it is better to be governed by magistrates than mobs. i have always maintained and still maintain that the most disastrous, shameful, and ruinous condition into which this land can fall is that in which the magistrates are overcome by the rabble of the towns and receive laws from them. nothing but perdition can follow from that." there had been good reason to believe that the french garrisons as well as some of the train bands could not be thoroughly relied upon in emergencies like those constantly breaking out, and there had been advices of invasion by sympathizers from neighbouring countries. in many great cities the civil authority had been trampled upon and mob rule had prevailed. certainly the recent example in the great commercial capital of the country--where the house of a foremost citizen had been besieged, stormed, and sacked, and a virtuous matron of the higher class hunted like a wild beast through the streets by a rabble grossly ignorant of the very nature of the religious quibble which had driven them mad, pelted with stones, branded with vilest names, and only saved by accident from assassination, while a church-going multitude looked calmly on--with constantly recurring instances in other important cities were sufficient reasons for the authorities to be watchful. he denied that he had initiated the proceedings at utrecht in conversation with ledenberg or any one else, but he had not refused, he said, his approval of the perfectly legal measures adopted for keeping the peace there when submitted to him. he was himself a born citizen of that province, and therefore especially interested in its welfare, and there was an old and intimate friendship between utrecht and holland. it would have been painful to him to see that splendid city in the control of an ignorant mob, making use of religious problems, which they did not comprehend, to plunder the property and take the lives of peaceful citizens more comfortably housed than themselves. he had neither suggested nor controlled the proceedings at utrecht. on the contrary, at an interview with the prince and count william on the th july, and in the presence of nearly thirty members of the general assembly, he had submitted a plan for cashiering the enlisted soldiery and substituting for them other troops, native-born, who should be sworn in the usual form to obey the laws of the union. the deputation from holland to utrecht, according to his personal knowledge, had received no instructions personal or oral to authorize active steps by the troops of the holland quota, but to abstain from them and to request the prince that they should not be used against the will and commands of the states of utrecht, whom they were bound by oath to obey so long as they were in garrison there. no man knew better than he whether the military oath which was called new-fangled were a novelty or not, for he had himself, he said, drawn it up thirty years before at command of the states-general by whom it was then ordained. from that day to this he had never heard a pretence that it justified anything not expressly sanctioned by the articles of union, and neither the states of holland nor those of utrecht had made any change in the oath. the states of utrecht were sovereign within their own territory, and in the time of peace neither the prince of orange without their order nor the states-general had the right to command the troops in their territory. the governor of a province was sworn to obey the laws of the province and conform to the articles of the general union. he was asked why he wrote the warning letter to ledenberg, and why he was so anxious that the letter should be burned; as if that were a deadly offence. he said that he could not comprehend why it should be imputed to him as a crime that he wished in such turbulent times to warn so important a city as utrecht, the capital of his native province, against tumults, disorders, and sudden assaults such as had often happened to her in times past. as for the postscript requesting that the letter might be put in the fire, he said that not being a member of, the government of that province he was simply unwilling to leave a record that "he had been too curious in aliens republics, although that could hardly be considered a grave offence." in regard to the charge that he had accused prince maurice of aspiring to the sovereignty of the country, he had much to say. he had never brought such accusation in public or private. he had reason to believe however--he had indeed convincing proofs--that many people, especially those belonging to the contra-remonstrant party, cherished such schemes. he had never sought to cast suspicion on the prince himself on account of those schemes. on the contrary, he had not even formally opposed them. what he wished had always been that such projects should be discussed formally, legally, and above board. after the lamentable murder of the late prince he had himself recommended to the authorities of some of the cities that the transaction for bestowing the sovereignty of holland upon william, interrupted by his death, "should be completed in favour of prince maurice in despite of the spaniard." recently he had requested grotius to look up the documents deposited in rotterdam belonging to this affair, in order that they might be consulted. he was asked whether according to buzenval, the former french ambassador, prince maurice had not declared he would rather fling himself from the top of the hague tower than accept the sovereignty. barneveld replied that the prince according to the same authority had added "under the conditions which had been imposed upon his father;" a clause which considerably modified the self-denying statement. it was desirable therefore to search the acts for the limitations annexed to the sovereignty. three years long there had been indications from various sources that a party wished to change the form of government. he had not heard nor ever intimated that the prince suggested such intrigues. in anonymous pamphlets and common street and tavern conversations the contra-remonstrants were described by those of their own persuasion as "prince's beggars" and the like. he had received from foreign countries information worthy of attention, that it was the design of the contra-remonstrants to raise the prince to the sovereignty. he had therefore in brought the matter before the nobles and cities in a communication setting forth to the best of his recollection that under these religious disputes something else was intended. he had desired ripe conclusions on the matter, such as should most conduce to the service of the country. this had been in good faith both to the prince and the provinces, in order that, should a change in the government be thought desirable, proper and peaceful means might be employed to bring it about. he had never had any other intention than to sound the inclinations of those with whom he spoke, and he had many times since that period, by word of mouth and in writing, so lately as the month of april last assured the prince that he had ever been his sincere and faithful servant and meant to remain so to the end of his life, desiring therefore that he would explain to him his wishes and intentions. subsequently he had publicly proposed in full assembly of holland that the states should ripely deliberate and roundly declare if they were discontented with the form of government, and if so, what change they would desire. he had assured their mightinesses that they might rely upon him to assist in carrying out their intentions whatever they might be. he had inferred however from the prince's intimations, when he had broached the subject to him in , that he was not inclined towards these supposed projects, and had heard that opinion distinctly expressed from the mouth of count william. that the contra-remonstrants secretly entertained these schemes, he had been advised from many quarters, at home and abroad. in the year he had received information to that effect from france. certain confidential counsellors of the prince had been with him recently to confer on the subject. he had told them that, if his excellency chose to speak to him in regard to it, would listen to his reasoning about it, both as regarded the interests of the country and the prince himself, and then should desire him to propose and advocate it before the assembly, he would do so with earnestness, zeal, and affection. he had desired however that, in case the attempt failed, the prince would allow him to be relieved from service and to leave the country. what he wished from the bottom of his heart was that his excellency would plainly discover to him the exact nature of his sentiments in regard to the business. he fully admitted receiving a secret letter from ambassador langerac, apprising him that a man of quality in france had information of the intention of the contra-remonstrants throughout the provinces, should they come into power, to raise prince maurice to the sovereignty. he had communicated on the subject with grotius and other deputies in order that, if this should prove to be the general inclination, the affair might be handled according to law, without confusion or disorder. this, he said, would be serving both the country and the prince most judiciously. he was asked why he had not communicated directly with maurice. he replied that he had already seen how unwillingly the prince heard him allude to the subject, and that moreover there was another clause in the letter of different meaning, and in his view worthy of grave consideration by the states. no question was asked him as to this clause, but we have seen that it referred to the communication by du agean to langerac of a scheme for bestowing the sovereignty of the provinces on the king of france. the reader will also recollect that barneveld had advised the ambassador to communicate the whole intelligence to the prince himself. barneveld proceeded to inform the judges that he had never said a word to cast suspicion upon the prince, but had been actuated solely by the desire to find out the inclination of the states. the communications which he had made on the subject were neither for discrediting the prince nor for counteracting the schemes for his advancement. on the contrary, he had conferred with deputies from great cities like dordtrecht, enkhuyzen, and amsterdam, most devoted to the contra-remonstrant party, and had told them that, if they chose to propose the subject themselves, he would conduct himself to the best of his abilities in accordance with the wishes of the prince. it would seem almost impossible for a statesman placed in barneveld's position to bear himself with more perfect loyalty both to the country and to the stadholder. his duty was to maintain the constitution and laws so long as they remained unchanged. should it appear that the states, which legally represented the country, found the constitution defective, he was ready to aid in its amendment by fair public and legal methods. if maurice wished to propose himself openly as a candidate for the sovereignty, which had a generation before been conferred upon his father, barneveld would not only acquiesce in the scheme, but propose it. should it fail, he claimed the light to lay down all his offices and go into exile. he had never said that the prince was intriguing for, or even desired, the sovereignty. that the project existed among the party most opposed to himself, he had sufficient proof. to the leaders of that party therefore he suggested that the subject should be publicly discussed, guaranteeing freedom of debate and his loyal support so far as lay within his power. this was his answer to the accusation that he had meanly, secretly, and falsely circulated statements that the prince was aspiring to the sovereignty. [great pains were taken, in the course of the interrogatories, to elicit proof that the advocate had concealed important diplomatic information from the prince. he was asked why, in his secret instructions to ambassador langerac, he ordered him by an express article to be very cautious about making communications to the prince. searching questions were put in regard to these secret instructions, which i have read in the archives, and a copy of which now lies before me. they are in the form of questions, some of them almost puerile ones, addressed to barneveld by the ambassador then just departing on his mission to france in , with the answers written in the margin by the advocate. the following is all that has reference to the prince: "of what matters may i ordinarily write to his excellency?" answer--"of all great and important matters." it was difficult to find much that was treasonable in that.] among the heterogeneous articles of accusation he was asked why he had given no attention to those who had so, frequently proposed the formation of the west india company. he replied that it had from old time been the opinion of the states of holland, and always his own, that special and private licenses for traffic, navigation, and foreign commerce, were prejudicial to the welfare of the land. he had always been most earnestly opposed to them, detesting monopolies which interfered with that free trade and navigation which should be common to all mankind. he had taken great pains however in the years and to study the nature of the navigation and trade to the east indies in regard to the nations to be dealt with in those regions, the nature of the wares bought and sold there, the opposition to be encountered from the spaniards and portuguese against the commerce of the netherlanders, and the necessity of equipping vessels both for traffic and defence, and had come to the conclusion that these matters could best be directed by a general company. he explained in detail the manner in which he had procured the blending of all the isolated chambers into one great east india corporation, the enormous pains which it had cost him to bring it about, and the great commercial and national success which had been the result. the admiral of aragon, when a prisoner after the battle of nieuwpoort, had told him, he said, that the union of these petty corporations into one great whole had been as disastrous a blow to the kingdoms of spain and portugal as the union of the provinces at utrecht had been. in regard to the west india company, its sole object, so far as he could comprehend it, had been to equip armed vessels, not for trade but to capture and plunder spanish merchantmen and silver fleets in the west indies and south america. this was an advantageous war measure which he had favoured while the war lasted. it was in no sense a commercial scheme however, and when the truce had been made--the company not having come into existence--he failed to comprehend how its formation could be profitable for the netherlanders. on the contrary it would expressly invite or irritate the spaniards into a resumption of the war, an object which in his humble opinion was not at all desirable. certainly these ideas were not especially reprehensible, but had they been as shallow and despicable as they seem to us enlightened, it is passing strange that they should have furnished matter for a criminal prosecution. it was doubtless a disappointment for the promoters of the company, the chief of whom was a bankrupt, to fail in obtaining their charter, but it was scarcely high-treason to oppose it. there is no doubt however that the disapprobation with which barneveld regarded the west india company, the seat of which was at amsterdam, was a leading cause of the deadly hostility entertained for him by the great commercial metropolis. it was bad enough for the advocate to oppose unconditional predestination and the damnation of infants, but to frustrate a magnificent system of privateering on the spaniards in time of truce was an unpardonable crime. the patience with which the venerable statesman submitted to the taunts, ignorant and insolent cross-questionings, and noisy interruptions of his judges, was not less remarkable than the tenacity of memory which enabled him thus day after day, alone, unaided by books, manuscripts, or friendly counsel, to reconstruct the record of forty years, and to expound the laws of the land by an array of authorities, instances, and illustrations in a manner that would be deemed masterly by one who had all the resources of libraries, documents, witnesses, and secretaries at command. only when insidious questions were put tending to impute to him corruption, venality, and treacherous correspondence with the enemy--for they never once dared formally to accuse him of treason--did that almost superhuman patience desert him. he was questioned as to certain payments made by him to a certain van der vecken in spanish coin. he replied briefly at first that his money transactions with that man of business extended over a period of twenty or thirty years, and amounted to many hundred thousands of florins, growing out of purchases and sales of lands, agricultural enterprises on his estates, moneys derived from his professional or official business and the like. it was impossible for him to remember the details of every especial money payment that might have occurred between them. then suddenly breaking forth into a storm of indignation; he could mark from these questions, he said, that his enemies, not satisfied with having wounded his heart with their falsehoods, vile forgeries, and honour-robbing libels, were determined to break it. this he prayed that god almighty might avert and righteously judge between him and them. it was plain that among other things they were alluding to the stale and senseless story of the sledge filled with baskets of coin sent by the spanish envoys on their departure from the hague, on conclusion of the truce, to defray expenses incurred by them for board and lodging of servants, forage of horses, and the like-which had accidentally stopped at barneveld's door and was forthwith sent on to john spronssen, superintendent of such affairs. passing over this wanton bit of calumny with disgust, he solemnly asserted that he had never at any period of his life received one penny nor the value of one penny from the king of spain, the archdukes, spinola, or any other person connected with the enemy, saving only the presents publicly and mutually conferred according to invariable custom by the high contracting parties, upon the respective negotiators at conclusion of the treaty of truce. even these gifts barneveld had moved his colleagues not to accept, but proposed that they should all be paid into the public treasury. he had been overruled, he said, but that any dispassionate man of tolerable intelligence could imagine him, whose whole life had been a perpetual offence to spain, to be in suspicious relations with that power seemed to him impossible. the most intense party spirit, yea, envy itself, must confess that he had been among the foremost to take up arms for his country's liberties, and had through life never faltered in their defence. and once more in that mean chamber, and before a row of personal enemies calling themselves judges, he burst into an eloquent and most justifiable sketch of the career of one whom there was none else to justify and so many to assail. from his youth, he said, he had made himself by his honourable and patriotic deeds hopelessly irreconcilable with the spaniards. he was one of the advocates practising in the supreme court of holland, who in the very teeth of the duke of alva had proclaimed him a tyrant and had sworn obedience to the prince of orange as the lawful governor of the land. he was one of those who in the same year had promoted and attended private gatherings for the advancement of the reformed religion. he had helped to levy, and had contributed to, funds for the national defence in the early days of the revolt. these were things which led directly to the council of blood and the gibbet. he had borne arms himself on various bloody fields and had been perpetually a deputy to the rebel camps. he had been the original mover of the treaty of union which was concluded between the provinces at utrecht. he had been the first to propose and to draw up the declaration of netherland independence and the abjuration of the king of spain. he had been one of those who had drawn and passed the act establishing the late prince of orange as stadholder. of the sixty signers of these memorable declarations none were now living save himself and two others. when the prince had been assassinated, he had done his best to secure for his son maurice the sovereign position of which murder had so suddenly deprived the father. he had been member of the memorable embassies to france and england by which invaluable support for the struggling provinces had been obtained. and thus he rapidly sketched the history of the great war of independence in which he had ever been conspicuously employed on the patriotic side. when the late king of france at the close of the century had made peace with spain, he had been sent as special ambassador to that monarch, and had prevailed on him, notwithstanding his treaty with the enemy, to continue his secret alliance with the states and to promise them a large subsidy, pledges which had been sacredly fulfilled. it was on that occasion that henry, who was his debtor for past services, professional, official, and perfectly legitimate, had agreed, when his finances should be in better condition, to discharge his obligations; over and above the customary diplomatic present which he received publicly in common with his colleague admiral nassau. this promise, fulfilled a dozen years later, had been one of the senseless charges of corruption brought against him. he had been one of the negotiators of the truce in which spain had been compelled to treat with her revolted provinces as with free states and her equals. he had promoted the union of the protestant princes and their alliance with france and the united states in opposition to the designs of spain and the league. he had organized and directed the policy by which the forces of england, france, and protestant germany had possessed themselves of the debateable land. he had resisted every scheme by which it was hoped to force the states from their hold of those important citadels. he had been one of the foremost promoters of the east india company, an organization which the spaniards confessed had been as damaging to them as the union of the provinces itself had been. the idiotic and circumstantial statements, that he had conducted burgomaster van berk through a secret staircase of his house into his private study for the purpose of informing him that the only way for the states to get out of the war was to submit themselves once more to their old masters, so often forced upon him by the judges, he contradicted with disdain and disgust. he had ever abhorred and dreaded, he said, the house of spain, austria, and burgundy. his life had passed in open hostility to that house, as was known to all mankind. his mere personal interests, apart from higher considerations, would make an approach to the former sovereign impossible, for besides the deeds he had already alluded to, he had committed at least twelve distinct and separate acts, each one of which would be held high-treason by the house of austria, and he had learned from childhood that these are things which monarchs never forget. the tales of van berk were those of a personal enemy, falsehoods scarcely worth contradicting. he was grossly and enormously aggrieved by the illegal constitution of the commission. he had protested and continued to protest against it. if that protest were unheeded, he claimed at least that those men should be excluded from the board and the right to sit in judgment upon his person and his deeds who had proved themselves by words and works to be his capital enemies, of which fact he could produce irrefragable evidence. he claimed that the supreme court of holland, or the high council, or both together, should decide upon that point. he held as his personal enemies, he said, all those who had declared that he, before or since the truce down to the day of his arrest, had held correspondence with the spaniards, the archdukes, the marquis spinola, or any one on that side, had received money, money value, or promises of money from them, and in consequence had done or omitted to do anything whatever. he denounced such tales as notorious, shameful, and villainous falsehoods, the utterers and circulators of them as wilful liars, and this he was ready to maintain in every appropriate way for the vindication of the truth and his own honour. he declared solemnly before god almighty to the states-general and to the states of holland that his course in the religious matter had been solely directed to the strengthening of the reformed religion and to the political security of the provinces and cities. he had simply desired that, in the awful and mysterious matter of predestination, the consciences of many preachers and many thousands of good citizens might be placed in tranquillity, with moderate and christian limitations against all excesses. from all these reasons, he said, the commissioners, the states-general, the prince, and every man in the land could clearly see, and were bound to see, that he was the same man now that he was at the beginning of the war, had ever been, and with god's help should ever remain. the proceedings were kept secret from the public and, as a matter of course, there had been conflicting rumours from day to day as to the probable result of these great state trials. in general however it was thought that the prisoner would be acquitted of the graver charges, or that at most he would be permanently displaced from all office and declared incapable thenceforth to serve the state. the triumph of the contra-remonstrants since the stadholder had placed himself at the head of them, and the complete metamorphosis of the city governments even in the strongholds of the arminian party seemed to render the permanent political disgrace of the advocate almost a matter of certainty. the first step that gave rise to a belief that he might be perhaps more severely dealt with than had been anticipated was the proclamation by the states-general of a public fast and humiliation for the th april. in this document it was announced that "church and state--during several years past having been brought into great danger of utter destruction through certain persons in furtherance of their ambitious designs--had been saved by the convocation of a national synod; that a lawful sentence was soon to be expected upon those who had been disturbing the commonwealth; that through this sentence general tranquillity would probably be restored; and that men were now to thank god for this result, and pray to him that he would bring the wicked counsels and stratagems of the enemy against these provinces to naught." all the prisoners were asked if they too would like in their chambers of bondage to participate in the solemnity, although the motive for the fasting and prayer was not mentioned to them. each of them in his separate prison room, of course without communication together, selected the th psalm and sang it with his servant and door-keeper. from the date of this fast-day barneveld looked upon the result of his trial as likely to be serious. many clergymen refused or objected to comply with the terms of this declaration. others conformed with it greedily, and preached lengthy thanksgiving sermons, giving praise to god that, he had confounded the devices of the ambitious and saved the country from the "blood bath" which they had been preparing for it. the friends of barneveld became alarmed at the sinister language of this proclamation, in which for the first time allusions had been made to a forthcoming sentence against the accused. especially the staunch and indefatigable du maurier at once addressed himself again to the states-general. de boississe had returned to france, having found that the government of a country torn, weakened, and rendered almost impotent by its own internecine factions, was not likely to exert any very potent influence on the fate of the illustrious prisoner. the states had given him to understand that they were wearied with his perpetual appeals, intercessions, and sermons in behalf of mercy. they made him feel in short that lewis xiii. and henry iv. were two entirely different personages. du maurier however obtained a hearing before the assembly on the st may, where he made a powerful and manly speech in presence of the prince, urging that the prisoners ought to be discharged unless they could be convicted of treason, and that the states ought to show as much deference to his sovereign as they had always done to elizabeth of england. he made a personal appeal to prince maurice, urging upon him how much it would redound to his glory if he should now in generous and princely fashion step forward in behalf of those by whom he deemed himself to have been personally offended. his speech fell upon ears hardened against such eloquence and produced no effect. meantime the family of barneveld, not yet reduced to despair, chose to take a less gloomy view of the proclamation. relying on the innocence of the great statesman, whose aims, in their firm belief, had ever been for the welfare and glory of his fatherland, and in whose heart there had never been kindled one spark of treason, they bravely expected his triumphant release from his long and, as they deemed it, his iniquitous imprisonment. on this very st of may, in accordance with ancient custom, a may-pole was erected on the voorhout before the mansion of the captive statesman, and wreaths of spring flowers and garlands of evergreen decorated the walls within which were such braised and bleeding hearts. these demonstrations of a noble hypocrisy, if such it were, excited the wrath, not the compassion, of the stadholder, who thought that the aged matron and her sons and daughters, who dwelt in that house of mourning, should rather have sat in sackcloth with ashes on their heads than indulge in these insolent marks of hope and joyful expectation. it is certain however that count william lewis, who, although most staunch on the contra-remonstrant side, had a veneration for the advocate and desired warmly to save him, made a last and strenuous effort for that purpose. it was believed then, and it seems almost certain, that, if the friends of the advocate had been willing to implore pardon for him, the sentence would have been remitted or commuted. their application would have been successful, for through it his guilt would seem to be acknowledged. count william sent for the fiscal duyck. he asked him if there were no means of saving the life of a man who was so old and had done the country so much service. after long deliberation, it was decided that prince maurice should be approached on the subject. duyck wished that the count himself would speak with his cousin, but was convinced by his reasoning that it would be better that the fiscal should do it. duyck had a long interview accordingly with maurice, which was followed by a very secret one between them both and count william. the three were locked up together, three hours long, in the prince's private cabinet. it was then decided that count william should go, as if of his own accord, to the princess-dowager louise, and induce her to send for some one of barneveld's children and urge that the family should ask pardon for him. she asked if this was done with the knowledge of the prince of orange, or whether he would not take it amiss. the count eluded the question, but implored her to follow his advice. the result was an interview between the princess and madame de groeneveld, wife of the eldest son. that lady was besought to apply, with the rest of the advocate's children, for pardon to the lords states, but to act as if it were done of her own impulse, and to keep their interview profoundly secret. madame de groeneveld took time to consult the other members of the family and some friends. soon afterwards she came again to the princess, and informed her that she had spoken with the other children, and that they could not agree to the suggestion. "they would not move one step in it--no, not if it should cost him his head." the princess reported the result of this interview to count william, at which both were so distressed that they determined to leave the hague. there is something almost superhuman in the sternness of this stoicism. yet it lay in the proud and highly tempered character of the netherlanders. there can be no doubt that the advocate would have expressly dictated this proceeding if he had been consulted. it was precisely the course adopted by himself. death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt and therefore with disgrace. the loss of his honour would have been an infinitely greater triumph to his enemies than the loss of his head. there was no delay in drawing up the sentence. previously to this interview with the widow of william the silent, the family of the advocate had presented to the judges three separate documents, rather in the way of arguments than petitions, undertaking to prove by elaborate reasoning and citations of precedents and texts of the civil law that the proceedings against him were wholly illegal, and that he was innocent of every crime. no notice had been taken of those appeals. upon the questions and answers as already set forth the sentence soon followed, and it may be as well that the reader should be aware, at this point in the narrative, of the substance of that sentence so soon to be pronounced. there had been no indictment, no specification of crime. there had been no testimony or evidence. there had been no argument for the prosecution or the defence. there had been no trial whatever. the prisoner was convicted on a set of questions to which he had put in satisfactory replies. he was sentenced on a preamble. the sentence was a string of vague generalities, intolerably long, and as tangled as the interrogatories. his proceedings during a long career had on the whole tended to something called a "blood bath"--but the blood bath had never occurred. with an effrontery which did not lack ingenuity, barneveld's defence was called by the commissioners his confession, and was formally registered as such in the process and the sentence; while the fact that he had not been stretched upon the rack during his trial, nor kept in chains for the eight months of his imprisonment, were complacently mentioned as proofs of exceptionable indulgence. "whereas the prisoner john of barneveld," said the sentence, "without being put to the torture and without fetters of iron, has confessed . . . to having perturbed religion, greatly afflicted the church of god, and carried into practice exorbitant and pernicious maxims of state . . . inculcating by himself and accomplices that each province had the right to regulate religious affairs within its own territory, and that other provinces were not to concern themselves therewith"--therefore and for many other reasons he merited punishment. he had instigated a protest by vote of three provinces against the national synod. he had despised the salutary advice of many princes and notable personages. he had obtained from the king of great britain certain letters furthering his own opinions, the drafts of which he had himself suggested, and corrected and sent over to the states' ambassador in london, and when written out, signed, and addressed by the king to the states-general, had delivered them without stating how they had been procured. afterwards he had attempted to get other letters of a similar nature from the king, and not succeeding had defamed his majesty as being a cause of the troubles in the provinces. he had permitted unsound theologians to be appointed to church offices, and had employed such functionaries in political affairs as were most likely to be the instruments of his own purposes. he had not prevented vigorous decrees from being enforced in several places against those of the true religion. he had made them odious by calling them puritans, foreigners, and "flanderizers," although the united provinces had solemnly pledged to each other their lives, fortunes, and blood by various conventions, to some of which the prisoner was himself a party, to maintain the reformed, evangelical, religion only, and to, suffer no change in it to be made for evermore. in order to carry out his design and perturb the political state of the provinces he had drawn up and caused to be enacted the sharp resolution of th august . he had thus nullified the ordinary course of justice. he had stimulated the magistrates to disobedience, and advised them to strengthen themselves with freshly enlisted military companies. he had suggested new-fangled oaths for the soldiers, authorizing them to refuse obedience to the states-general and his excellency. he had especially stimulated the proceedings at utrecht. when it was understood that the prince was to pass through utrecht, the states of that province not without the prisoner's knowledge had addressed a letter to his excellency, requesting him not to pass through their city. he had written a letter to ledenberg suggesting that good watch should be held at the town gates and up and down the river lek. he had desired that ledenberg having read that letter should burn it. he had interfered with the cashiering of the mercenaries at utrecht. he had said that such cashiering without the consent of the states of that province was an act of force which would justify resistance by force. although those states had sent commissioners to concert measures with the prince for that purpose, he had advised them to conceal their instructions until his own plan for the disbandment could be carried out. at a secret meeting in the house of tresel, clerk of the states-general, between grotius, hoogerbeets, and other accomplices, it was decided that this advice should be taken. report accordingly was made to the prisoner. he had advised them to continue in their opposition to the national synod. he had sought to calumniate and blacken his excellency by saying that he aspired to the sovereignty of the provinces. he had received intelligence on that subject from abroad in ciphered letters. he had of his own accord rejected a certain proposed, notable alliance of the utmost importance to this republic. [this refers, i think without doubt, to the conversation between king james and caron at the end of the year .] he had received from foreign potentates various large sums of money and other presents. all "these proceedings tended to put the city of utrecht into a blood-bath, and likewise to bring the whole country, and the person of his excellency into the uttermost danger." this is the substance of the sentence, amplified by repetitions and exasperating tautology into thirty or forty pages. it will have been perceived by our analysis of barneveld's answers to the commissioners that all the graver charges which he was now said to have confessed had been indignantly denied by him or triumphantly justified. it will also be observed that he was condemned for no categorical crime--lese-majesty, treason, or rebellion. the commissioners never ventured to assert that the states-general were sovereign, or that the central government had a right to prescribe a religious formulary for all the united provinces. they never dared to say that the prisoner had been in communication with the enemy or had received bribes from him. of insinuation and implication there was much, of assertion very little, of demonstration nothing whatever. but supposing that all the charges had been admitted or proved, what course would naturally be taken in consequence? how was a statesman who adhered to the political, constitutional, and religious opinions on which he had acted, with the general acquiescence, during a career of more than forty years, but which were said to be no longer in accordance with public opinion, to be dealt with? would the commissioners request him to retire honourably from the high functions which he had over and over again offered to resign? would they consider that, having fairly impeached and found him guilty of disturbing the public peace by continuing to act on his well-known legal theories, they might deprive him summarily of power and declare him incapable of holding office again? the conclusion of the commissioners was somewhat more severe than either of these measures. their long rambling preamble ended with these decisive words: "therefore the judges, in name of the lords states-general, condemn the prisoner to be taken to the binnenhof, there to be executed with the sword that death may follow, and they declare all his property confiscated." the execution was to take place so soon as the sentence had been read to the prisoner. after the st of may barneveld had not appeared before his judges. he had been examined in all about sixty times. in the beginning of may his servant became impatient. "you must not be impatient," said his master. "the time seems much longer because we get no news now from the outside. but the end will soon come. this delay cannot last for ever." intimation reached him on saturday the th may that the sentence was ready and would soon be pronounced. "it is a bitter folk," said barneveld as he went to bed. "i have nothing good to expect of them." next day was occupied in sewing up and concealing his papers, including a long account of his examination, with the questions and answers, in his spanish arm-chair. next day van der meulen said to the servant, "i will bet you a hundred florins that you'll not be here next thursday." the faithful john was delighted, not dreaming of the impending result. it was sunday afternoon, th may, and about half past five o'clock. barneveld sat in his prison chamber, occupied as usual in writing, reviewing the history of the past, and doing his best to reduce into something like order the rambling and miscellaneous interrogatories, out of which his trial had been concocted, while the points dwelt in his memory, and to draw up a concluding argument in his own defence. work which according to any equitable, reasonable, or even decent procedure should have been entrusted to the first lawyers of the country--preparing the case upon the law and the facts with the documents before them, with the power of cross-questioning witnesses and sifting evidence, and enlightened by constant conferences with the illustrious prisoner himself--came entirely upon his own shoulders, enfeebled as he was by age, physical illness, and by the exhaustion of along imprisonment. without books, notes of evidence, or even copies of the charges of which he stood accused, he was obliged to draw up his counter-arguments against the impeachment and then by aid of a faithful valet to conceal his manuscript behind the tapestry of the chamber, or cause them to be sewed up in the lining of his easy-chair, lest they should be taken from him by order of the judges who sat in the chamber below. while he was thus occupied in preparations for his next encounter with the tribunal, the door opened, and three gentlemen entered. two were the prosecuting officers of the government, fiscal sylla and fiscal van leeuwen. the other was the provost-marshal, carel de nijs. the servant was directed to leave the room. barneveld had stepped into his dressing-room on hearing footsteps, but came out again with his long furred gown about him as the three entered. he greeted them courteously and remained standing, with his hands placed on the back of his chair and with one knee resting carelessly against the arm of it. van leeuwen asked him if he would not rather be seated, as they brought a communication from the judges. he answered in the negative. von leeuwen then informed him that he was summoned to appear before the judges the next morning to hear his sentence of death. "the sentence of death!" he exclaimed, without in the least changing his position; "the sentence of death! the sentence of death!" saying the words over thrice, with an air of astonishment rather than of horror. "i never expected that! i thought they were going to hear my defence again. i had intended to make some change in my previous statements, having set some things down when beside myself with choler." he then made reference to his long services. van leeuwen expressed himself as well acquainted with them. "he was sorry," he said, "that his lordship took this message ill of him." "i do not take it ill of you," said barneveld, "but let them," meaning the judges, "see how they will answer it before god. are they thus to deal with a true patriot? let me have pen, ink, and paper, that for the last time i may write farewell to my wife." "i will go ask permission of the judges," said van leenwen, "and i cannot think that my lord's request will be refused." while van leeuwen was absent, the advocate exclaimed, looking at the other legal officer: "oh, sylla, sylla, if your father could only have seen to what uses they would put you!" sylla was silent. permission to write the letter was soon received from de voogt, president of the commission. pen, ink, and paper were brought, and the prisoner calmly sat down to write, without the slightest trace of discomposure upon his countenance or in any of his movements. while he was writing, sylla said with some authority, "beware, my lord, what you write, lest you put down something which may furnish cause for not delivering the letter." barneveld paused in his writing, took the glasses from his eyes, and looked sylla in the face. "well, sylla," he said very calmly, "will you in these my last moments lay down the law to me as to what i shall write to my wife?" he then added with a half-smile, "well, what is expected of me?" "we have no commission whatever to lay down the law," said van leeuwen. "your worship will write whatever you like." while he was writing, anthony walaeus came in, a preacher and professor of middelburg, a deputy to the synod of dordtrecht, a learned and amiable man, sent by the states-general to minister to the prisoner on this supreme occasion; and not unworthy to be thus selected. the advocate, not knowing him, asked him why he came. "i am not here without commission," said the clergyman. "i come to console my lord in his tribulation." "i am a man," said barneveld; "have come to my present age, and i know how to console myself. i must write, and have now other things to do." the preacher said that he would withdraw and return when his worship was at leisure. "do as you like," said the advocate, calmly going on with his writing. when the letter was finished, it was sent to the judges for their inspection, by whom it was at once forwarded to the family mansion in the voorhout, hardly a stone's throw from the prison chamber. thus it ran: "very dearly beloved wife, children, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, i greet you altogether most affectionately. i receive at this moment the very heavy and sorrowful tidings that i, an old man, for all my services done well and faithfully to the fatherland for so many years (after having performed all respectful and friendly offices to his excellency the prince with upright affection so far as my official duty and vocation would permit, shown friendship to many people of all sorts, and wittingly injured no man), must prepare myself to die to-morrow. "i console myself in god the lord, who knows all hearts, and who will judge all men. i beg you all together to do the same. i have steadily and faithfully served my lords the states of holland and their nobles and cities. to the states of utrecht as sovereigns of my own fatherland i have imparted at their request upright and faithful counsel, in order to save them from tumults of the populace, and from the bloodshed with which they had so long been threatened. i had the same views for the cities of holland in order that every one might be protected and no one injured. "live together in love and peace. pray for me to almighty god, who will graciously hold us all in his holy keeping. "from my chamber of sorrow, the th may . "your very dear husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfather, "john of barneveld." it was thought strange that the judges should permit so simple and clear a statement, an argument in itself, to be forwarded. the theory of his condemnation was to rest before the public on his confessions of guilt, and here in the instant of learning the nature of the sentence in a few hours to be pronounced upon him he had in a few telling periods declared his entire innocence. nevertheless the letter had been sent at once to its address. so soon as this sad business had been disposed of, anthony walaeus returned. the advocate apologized to the preacher for his somewhat abrupt greeting on his first appearance. he was much occupied and did not know him, he said, although he had often heard of him. he begged him, as well as the provost-marshal, to join him at supper, which was soon brought. barneveld ate with his usual appetite, conversed cheerfully on various topics, and pledged the health of each of his guests in a glass of beer. contrary to his wont he drank at that repast no wine. after supper he went out into the little ante-chamber and called his servant, asking him how he had been faring. now john franken had just heard with grief unspeakable the melancholy news of his master's condemnation from two soldiers of the guard, who had been sent by the judges to keep additional watch over the prisoner. he was however as great a stoic as his master, and with no outward and superfluous manifestations of woe had simply implored the captain-at-arms, van der meulen, to intercede with the judges that he might be allowed to stay with his lord to the last. meantime he had been expressly informed that he was to say nothing to the advocate in secret, and that his master was not to speak to him in a low tone nor whisper in his ear. when the advocate came out into the ante-chamber and looking over his shoulder saw the two soldiers he at once lowered his voice. "hush-speak low," he whispered; "this is too cruel." john then informed him of van der meulen's orders, and that the soldiers had also been instructed to look to it sharply that no word was exchanged between master and man except in a loud voice. "is it possible," said the advocate, "that so close an inspection is held over me in these last hours? can i not speak a word or two in freedom? this is a needless mark of disrespect." the soldiers begged him not to take their conduct amiss as they were obliged strictly to obey orders. he returned to his chamber, sat down in his chair, and begged walaeus to go on his behalf to prince maurice. "tell his excellency," said he, "that i have always served him with upright affection so far as my office, duties, and principles permitted. if i, in the discharge of my oath and official functions, have ever done anything contrary to his views, i hope that he will forgive it, and that he will hold my children in his gracious favour." it was then ten o'clock. the preacher went downstairs and crossed the courtyard to the stadholder's apartments, where he at once gained admittance. maurice heard the message with tears in his eyes, assuring walaeus that he felt deeply for the advocate's misfortunes. he had always had much affection for him, he said, and had often warned him against his mistaken courses. two things, however, had always excited his indignation. one was that barneveld had accused him of aspiring to sovereignty. the other that he had placed him in such danger at utrecht. yet he forgave him all. as regarded his sons, so long as they behaved themselves well they might rely on his favour. as walaeus was about to leave the apartment, the prince called him back. "did he say anything of a pardon?" he asked, with some eagerness. "my lord," answered the clergyman, "i cannot with truth say that i understood him to make any allusion to it." walaeus returned immediately to the prison chamber and made his report of the interview. he was unwilling however to state the particulars of the offence which maurice declared himself to have taken at the acts of the advocate. but as the prisoner insisted upon knowing, the clergyman repeated the whole conversation. "his excellency has been deceived in regard to the utrecht business," said barneveld, "especially as to one point. but it is true that i had fear and apprehension that he aspired to the sovereignty or to more authority in the country. ever since the year i have felt this fear and have tried that these apprehensions might be rightly understood." while walaeus had been absent, the reverend jean la motte (or lamotius) and another clergyman of the hague had come to the prisoner's apartment. la motte could not look upon the advocate's face without weeping, but the others were more collected. conversation now ensued among the four; the preachers wishing to turn the doomed statesman's thought to the consolations of religion. but it was characteristic of the old lawyer's frame of mind that even now he looked at the tragical position in which he found himself from a constitutional and controversial point of view. he was perfectly calm and undaunted at the awful fate so suddenly and unexpectedly opened before his eyes, but he was indignant at what he esteemed the ignorance, injustice, and stupidity of the sentence to be pronounced against him. "i am ready enough to die," he said to the three clergymen, "but i cannot comprehend why i am to die. i have done nothing except in obedience to the laws and privileges of the land and according to my oath, honour, and conscience." "these judges," he continued, "come in a time when other maxims prevail in the state than those of my day. they have no right therefore to sit in judgment upon me." the clergymen replied that the twenty-four judges who had tried the case were no children and were conscientious men; that it was no small thing to condemn a man, and that they would have to answer it before the supreme judge of all. "i console myself," he answered, "in the lord my god, who knows all hearts and shall judge all men. god is just. "they have not dealt with me," he continued, "as according to law and justice they were bound to deal. they have taken away from me my own sovereign lords and masters and deposed them. to them alone i was responsible. in their place they have put many of my enemies who were never before in the government, and almost all of whom are young men who have not seen much or read much. i have seen and read much, and know that from such examples no good can follow. after my death they will learn for the first time what governing means." "the twenty-four judges are nearly all of them my enemies. what they have reproached me with, i have been obliged to hear. i have appealed against these judges, but it has been of no avail. they have examined me in piecemeal, not in statesmanlike fashion. the proceedings against me have been much too hard. i have frequently requested to see the notes of my examination as it proceeded, and to confer upon it with aid and counsel of friends, as would be the case in all lands governed by law. the request was refused. during this long and wearisome affliction and misery i have not once been allowed to speak to my wife and children. these are indecent proceedings against a man seventy-two years of age, who has served his country faithfully for three-and-forty years. i bore arms with the volunteers at my own charges at the siege of haarlem and barely escaped with life." it was not unnatural that the aged statesman's thoughts should revert in this supreme moment to the heroic scenes in which he had been an actor almost a half-century before. he could not but think with bitterness of those long past but never forgotten days when he, with other patriotic youths, had faced the terrible legions of alva in defence of the fatherland, at a time when the men who were now dooming him to a traitor's death were unborn, and who, but for his labours, courage, wisdom, and sacrifices, might have never had a fatherland to serve, or a judgment-seat on which to pronounce his condemnation. not in a spirit of fretfulness, but with disdainful calm, he criticised and censured the proceedings against himself as a violation of the laws of the land and of the first principles of justice, discussing them as lucidly and steadily as if they had been against a third person. the preachers listened, but had nothing to say. they knew not of such matters, they said, and had no instructions to speak of them. they had been sent to call him to repentance for his open and hidden sins and to offer the consolations of religion. "i know that very well," he said, "but i too have something to say notwithstanding." the conversation then turned upon religious topics, and the preachers spoke of predestination. "i have never been able to believe in the matter of high predestination," said the advocate. "i have left it in the hands of god the lord. i hold that a good christian man must believe that he through god's grace and by the expiation of his sin through our redeemer jesus christ is predestined to be saved, and that this belief in his salvation, founded alone on god's grace and the merits of our redeemer jesus christ, comes to him through the same grace of god. and if he falls into great sins, his firm hope and confidence must be that the lord god will not allow him to continue in them, but that, through prayer for grace and repentance, he will be converted from evil and remain in the faith to the end of his life." these feelings, he said, he had expressed fifty-two years before to three eminent professors of theology in whom he confided, and they had assured him that he might tranquilly continue in such belief without examining further. "and this has always been my creed," he said. the preachers replied that faith is a gift of god and not given to all men, that it must be given out of heaven to a man before he could be saved. hereupon they began to dispute, and the advocate spoke so earnestly and well that the clergymen were astonished and sat for a time listening to him in silence. he asked afterwards about the synod, and was informed that its decrees had not yet been promulgated, but that the remonstrants had been condemned. "it is a pity," said he. "one is trying to act on the old papal system, but it will never do. things have gone too far. as to the synod, if my lords the states of holland had been heeded there would have been first a provincial synod and then a national one."--"but," he added, looking the preachers in the face, "had you been more gentle with each other, matters would not have taken so high a turn. but you have been too fierce one against the other, too full of bitter party spirit." they replied that it was impossible for them to act against their conscience and the supreme authority. and then they asked him if there was nothing that troubled him in, his conscience in the matters for which he must die; nothing for which he repented and sorrowed, and for which he would call upon god for mercy. "this i know well," he said, "that i have never willingly done wrong to any man. people have been ransacking my letters to caron--confidential ones written several years ago to an old friend when i was troubled and seeking for counsel and consolation. it is hard that matter of impeachment against me to-day should be sought for thus." and then he fell into political discourse again on the subject of the waartgelders and the state rights, and the villainous pasquils and libels that had circulated so long through the country. "i have sometimes spoken hastily, i confess," he said; "but that was when i was stung by the daily swarm of infamous and loathsome pamphlets, especially those directed against my sovereign masters the states of holland. that i could not bear. old men cannot well brush such things aside. all that was directly aimed at me in particular i endeavoured to overcome with such patience as i could muster. the disunion and mutual enmity in the country have wounded me to the heart. i have made use of all means in my power to accommodate matters, to effect with all gentleness a mutual reconciliation. i have always felt a fear lest the enemy should make use of our internal dissensions to strike a blow against us. i can say with perfect truth that ever since the year ' i have been as resolutely and unchangeably opposed to the spaniards and their adherents, and their pretensions over these provinces, as any man in the world, no one excepted, and as ready to sacrifice property and shed my blood in defence of the fatherland. i have been so devoted to the service of the country that i have not been able to take the necessary care of my own private affairs." so spoke the great statesman in the seclusion of his prison, in the presence of those clergymen whom he respected, at a supreme moment, when, if ever, a man might be expected to tell the truth. and his whole life which belonged to history, and had been passed on the world's stage before the eyes of two generations of spectators, was a demonstration of the truth of his words. but burgomaster van berk knew better. had he not informed the twenty-four commissioners that, twelve years before, the advocate wished to subject the country to spain, and that spinola had drawn a bill of exchange for , ducats as a compensation for his efforts? it was eleven o'clock. barneveld requested one of the brethren to say an evening prayer. this was done by la motte, and they were then requested to return by three or four o'clock next morning. they had been directed, they said, to remain with him all night. "that is unnecessary," said the advocate, and they retired. his servant then helped his master to undress, and he went to bed as usual. taking off his signet-ring, he gave it to john franken. "for my eldest son," he said. the valet sat down at the head of his bed in order that his master might speak to him before he slept. but the soldiers ordered him away and compelled him to sit in a distant part of the room. an hour after midnight, the advocate having been unable to lose himself, his servant observed that isaac, one of the soldiers, was fast asleep. he begged the other, tilman schenk by name, to permit him some private words with his master. he had probably last messages, he thought, to send to his wife and children, and the eldest son, m. de groeneveld, would no doubt reward him well for it. but the soldier was obstinate in obedience to the orders of the judges. barneveld, finding it impossible to sleep, asked his servant to read to him from the prayer-book. the soldier called in a clergyman however, another one named hugo bayerus, who had been sent to the prison, and who now read to him the consolations of the sick. as he read, he made exhortations and expositions, which led to animated discussion, in which the advocate expressed himself with so much fervour and eloquence that all present were astonished, and the preacher sat mute a half-hour long at the bed-side. "had there been ten clergymen," said the simple-hearted sentry to the valet, "your master would have enough to say to all of them." barneveld asked where the place had been prepared in which he was to die. "in front of the great hall, as i understand," said bayerus, "but i don't know the localities well, having lived here but little." "have you heard whether my grotius is to die, and hoogerbeets also?" he asked? "i have heard nothing to that effect," replied the clergyman. "i should most deeply grieve for those two gentlemen," said barneveld, "were that the case. they may yet live to do the land great service. that great rising light, de groot, is still young, but a very wise and learned gentleman, devoted to his fatherland with all zeal, heart, and soul, and ready to stand up for her privileges, laws, and rights. as for me, i am an old and worn-out man. i can do no more. i have already done more than i was really able to do. i have worked so zealously in public matters that i have neglected my private business. i had expressly ordered my house at loosduinen" [a villa by the seaside] "to be got ready, that i might establish myself there and put my affairs in order. i have repeatedly asked the states of holland for my discharge, but could never obtain it. it seems that the almighty had otherwise disposed of me." he then said he would try once more if he could sleep. the clergyman and the servant withdrew for an hour, but his attempt was unsuccessful. after an hour he called for his french psalm book and read in it for some time. sometime after two o'clock the clergymen came in again and conversed with him. they asked him if he had slept, if he hoped to meet christ, and if there was anything that troubled his conscience. "i have not slept, but am perfectly tranquil," he replied. "i am ready to die, but cannot comprehend why i must die. i wish from my heart that, through my death and my blood, all disunion and discord in this land may cease." he bade them carry his last greetings to his fellow prisoners. "say farewell for me to my good grotius," said he, "and tell him that i must die." the clergymen then left him, intending to return between five and six o'clock. he remained quiet for a little while and then ordered his valet to cut open the front of his shirt. when this was done, he said, "john, are you to stay by me to the last?" "yes," he replied, "if the judges permit it." "remind me to send one of the clergymen to the judges with the request," said his master. the faithful john, than whom no servant or friend could be more devoted, seized the occasion, with the thrift and stoicism of a true hollander, to suggest that his lord might at the same time make some testamentary disposition in his favour. "tell my wife and children," said the advocate, "that they must console each other in mutual love and union. say that through god's grace i am perfectly at ease, and hope that they will be equally tranquil. tell my children that i trust they will be loving and friendly to their mother during the short time she has yet to live. say that i wish to recommend you to them that they may help you to a good situation either with themselves or with others. tell them that this was my last request." he bade him further to communicate to the family the messages sent that night through walaeus by the stadholder. the valet begged his master to repeat these instructions in presence of the clergyman, or to request one of them to convey them himself to the family. he promised to do so. "as long as i live," said the grateful servant, "i shall remember your lordship in my prayers." "no, john," said the advocate, "that is popish. when i am dead, it is all over with prayers. pray for me while i still live. now is the time to pray. when one is dead, one should no longer be prayed for." la motte came in. barneveld repeated his last wishes exactly as he desired them to be communicated to his wife and children. the preacher made no response. "will you take the message?" asked the prisoner. la motte nodded, but did not speak, nor did he subsequently fulfil the request. before five o'clock the servant heard the bell ring in the apartment of the judges directly below the prison chamber, and told his master he had understood that they were to assemble at five o'clock. "i may as well get up then," said the advocate; "they mean to begin early, i suppose. give me my doublet and but one pair of stockings." he was accustomed to wear two or three pair at a time. he took off his underwaistcoat, saying that the silver bog which was in one of the pockets was to be taken to his wife, and that the servant should keep the loose money there for himself. then he found an opportunity to whisper to him, "take good care of the papers which are in the apartment." he meant the elaborate writings which he had prepared during his imprisonment and concealed in the tapestry and within the linings of the chair. as his valet handed him the combs and brushes, he said with a smile, "john, this is for the last time." when he was dressed, he tried, in rehearsal of the approaching scene, to pull over his eyes the silk skull-cap which he usually wore under his hat. finding it too tight he told the valet to put the nightcap in his pocket and give it him when he should call for it. he then swallowed a half-glass of wine with a strengthening cordial in it, which he was wont to take. the clergymen then re-entered, and asked if he had been able to sleep. he answered no, but that he had been much consoled by many noble things which he had been reading in the french psalm book. the clergymen said that they had been thinking much of the beautiful confession of faith which he had made to them that evening. they rejoiced at it, they said, on his account, and had never thought it of him. he said that such had always been his creed. at his request walaeus now offered a morning prayer barneveld fell on his knees and prayed inwardly without uttering a sound. la motte asked when he had concluded, "did my lord say amen?"--"yes, lamotius," he replied; "amen."--"has either of the brethren," he added, "prepared a prayer to be offered outside there?" la motte informed him that this duty had been confided to him. some passages from isaiah were now read aloud, and soon afterwards walaeus was sent for to speak with the judges. he came back and said to the prisoner, "has my lord any desire to speak with his wife or children, or any of his friends?" it was then six o'clock, and barneveld replied: "no, the time is drawing near. it would excite a new emotion." walaeus went back to the judges with this answer, who thereupon made this official report: "the husband and father of the petitioners, being asked if he desired that any of the petitioners should come to him, declared that he did not approve of it, saying that it would cause too great an emotion for himself as well as for them. this is to serve as an answer to the petitioners." now the advocate knew nothing of the petition. up to the last moment his family had been sanguine as to his ultimate acquittal and release. they relied on a promise which they had received or imagined that they had received from the stadholder that no harm should come to the prisoner in consequence of the arrest made of his person in the prince's apartments on the th of august. they had opened this tragical month of may with flagstaffs and flower garlands, and were making daily preparations to receive back the revered statesman in triumph. the letter written by him from his "chamber of sorrow," late in the evening of th may, had at last dispelled every illusion. it would be idle to attempt to paint the grief and consternation into which the household in the voorhout was plunged, from the venerable dame at its head, surrounded by her sons and daughters and children's children, down to the humblest servant in their employment. for all revered and loved the austere statesman, but simple and benignant father and master. no heed had been taken of the three elaborate and argumentative petitions which, prepared by learned counsel in name of the relatives, had been addressed to the judges. they had not been answered because they were difficult to answer, and because it was not intended that the accused should have the benefit of counsel. an urgent and last appeal was now written late at night, and signed by each member of the family, to his excellency the prince and the judge commissioners, to this effect: "the afflicted wife and children of m. van barneveld humbly show that having heard the sorrowful tidings of his coming execution, they humbly beg that it may be granted them to see and speak to him for the last time." the two sons delivered this petition at four o'clock in the morning into the hands of de voogd, one of the judges. it was duly laid before the commission, but the prisoner was never informed, when declining a last interview with his family, how urgently they had themselves solicited the boon. louise de coligny, on hearing late at night the awful news, had been struck with grief and horror. she endeavoured, late as it was, to do something to avert the doom of one she so much revered, the man on whom her illustrious husband had leaned his life long as on a staff of iron. she besought an interview of the stadholder, but it was refused. the wife of william the silent had no influence at that dire moment with her stepson. she was informed at first that maurice was asleep, and at four in the morning that all intervention was useless. the faithful and energetic du maurier, who had already exhausted himself in efforts to save the life of the great prisoner, now made a last appeal. he, too, heard at four o'clock in the morning of the th that sentence of death was to be pronounced. before five o'clock he made urgent application to be heard before the assembly of the states-general as ambassador of a friendly sovereign who took the deepest interest in the welfare of the republic and the fate of its illustrious statesman. the appeal was refused. as a last resource he drew up an earnest and eloquent letter to the states-general, urging clemency in the name of his king. it was of no avail. the letter may still be seen in the royal archives at the hague, drawn up entirely in du maurier's clear and beautiful handwriting. although possibly a first draft, written as it was under such a mortal pressure for time, its pages have not one erasure or correction. it was seven o'clock. barneveld having observed by the preacher (la motte's) manner that he was not likely to convey the last messages which he had mentioned to his wife and children, sent a request to the judges to be allowed to write one more letter. captain van der meulen came back with the permission, saying he would wait and take it to the judges for their revision. the letter has been often published. "must they see this too? why, it is only a line in favour of john," said the prisoner, sitting quietly down to write this letter: "very dear wife and children, it is going to an end with me. i am, through the grace of god, very tranquil. i hope that you are equally so, and that you may by mutual love, union, and peace help each other to overcome all things, which i pray to the omnipotent as my last request. john franken has served me faithfully for many years and throughout all these my afflictions, and is to remain with me to the end. he deserves to be recommended to you and to be furthered to good employments with you or with others. i request you herewith to see to this. "i have requested his princely excellency to hold my sons and children in his favour, to which he has answered that so long as you conduct yourselves well this shall be the case. i recommend this to you in the best form and give you all into god's holy keeping. kiss each other and all my grandchildren, for the last time in my name, and fare you well. out of the chamber of sorrow, th may . your dear husband and father, john of barneveld. "p.s. you will make john franken a present in memory of me." certainly it would be difficult to find a more truly calm, courageous, or religious spirit than that manifested by this aged statesman at an hour when, if ever, a human soul is tried and is apt to reveal its innermost depths or shallows. whatever gomarus or bogerman, or the whole council of dordtrecht, may have thought of his theology, it had at least taught him forgiveness of his enemies, kindness to his friends, and submission to the will of the omnipotent. every moment of his last days on earth had been watched and jealously scrutinized, and his bitterest enemies had failed to discover one trace of frailty, one manifestation of any vacillating, ignoble, or malignant sentiment. the drums had been sounding through the quiet but anxiously expectant town since four o'clock that morning, and the tramp of soldiers marching to the inner court had long been audible in the prison chamber. walaeus now came back with a message from the judges. "the high commissioners," he said, "think it is beginning. will my lord please to prepare himself?" "very well, very well," said the prisoner. "shall we go at once?" but walaeus suggested a prayer. upon its conclusion, barneveld gave his hand to the provost-marshal and to the two soldiers, bidding them adieu, and walked downstairs, attended by them, to the chamber of the judges. as soon as he appeared at the door, he was informed that there had been a misunderstanding, and he was requested to wait a little. he accordingly went upstairs again with perfect calmness, sat down in his chamber again, and read in his french psalm book. half an hour later he was once more summoned, the provost-marshal and captain van der meulen reappearing to escort him. "mr. provost," said the prisoner, as they went down the narrow staircase, "i have always been a good friend to you."--"it is true," replied that officer, "and most deeply do i grieve to see you in this affliction." he was about to enter the judges' chamber as usual, but was informed that the sentence would be read in the great hall of judicature. they descended accordingly to the basement story, and passed down the narrow flight of steps which then as now connected the more modern structure, where the advocate had been imprisoned and tried, with what remained of the ancient palace of the counts of holland. in the centre of the vast hall--once the banqueting chamber of those petty sovereigns; with its high vaulted roof of cedar which had so often in ancient days rung with the sounds of mirth and revelry--was a great table at which the twenty-four judges and the three prosecuting officers were seated, in their black caps and gowns of office. the room was lined with soldiers and crowded with a dark, surging mass of spectators, who had been waiting there all night. a chair was placed for the prisoner. he sat down, and the clerk of the commission, pots by name, proceeded at once to read the sentence. a summary of this long, rambling, and tiresome paper has been already laid before the reader. if ever a man could have found it tedious to listen to his own death sentence, the great statesman might have been in that condition as he listened to secretary pots. during the reading of the sentence the advocate moved uneasily on his seat, and seemed about to interrupt the clerk at several passages which seemed to him especially preposterous. but he controlled himself by a strong effort, and the clerk went steadily on to the conclusion. then barneveld said: "the judges have put down many things which they have no right to draw from my confession. let this protest be added." "i thought too," he continued, "that my lords the states-general would have had enough in my life and blood, and that my wife and children might keep what belongs to them. is this my recompense for forty-three years' service to these provinces?" president de voogd rose: "your sentence has been pronounced," he said. "away! away!" so saying he pointed to the door into which one of the great windows at the south-eastern front of the hall had been converted. without another word the old man rose from his chair and strode, leaning on his staff, across the hall, accompanied by his faithful valet and the provost and escorted by a file of soldiers. the mob of spectators flowed out after him at every door into the inner courtyard in front of the ancient palace. etext editor's bookmarks: better to be governed by magistrates than mobs burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience heidelberg catechism were declared to be infallible i know how to console myself implication there was much, of assertion very little john robinson magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword only true religion rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic william brewster chapter xxi. - barneveld's execution--the advocate's conduct on the scaffold--the sentence printed and sent to the provinces--the proceedings irregular and inequitable. in the beautiful village capital of the "count's park," commonly called the hague, the most striking and picturesque spot then as now was that where the transformed remains of the old moated castle of those feudal sovereigns were still to be seen. a three-storied range of simple, substantial buildings in brown brickwork, picked out with white stone in a style since made familiar both in england and america, and associated with a somewhat later epoch in the history of the house of orange, surrounded three sides of a spacious inner paved quadrangle called the inner court, the fourth or eastern side being overshadowed by a beechen grove. a square tower flanked each angle, and on both sides of the south-western turret extended the commodious apartments of the stadholder. the great gateway on the south-west opened into a wide open space called the outer courtyard. along the north-west side a broad and beautiful sheet of water, in which the walls, turrets, and chapel-spires of the enclosed castle mirrored themselves, was spread between the mass of buildings and an umbrageous promenade called the vyverberg, consisting of a sextuple alley of lime-trees and embowering here and there a stately villa. a small island, fringed with weeping willows and tufted all over with lilacs, laburnums, and other shrubs then in full flower, lay in the centre of the miniature lake, and the tall solid tower of the great church, surmounted by a light openwork spire, looked down from a little distance over the scene. it was a bright morning in may. the white swans were sailing tranquilly to and fro over the silver basin, and the mavis, blackbird, and nightingale, which haunted the groves surrounding the castle and the town, were singing as if the daybreak were ushering in a summer festival. but it was not to a merry-making that the soldiers were marching and the citizens thronging so eagerly from every street and alley towards the castle. by four o'clock the outer and inner courts had been lined with detachments of the prince's guard and companies of other regiments to the number of men. occupying the north-eastern side of the court rose the grim, time-worn front of the ancient hall, consisting of one tall pyramidal gable of ancient grey brickwork flanked with two tall slender towers, the whole with the lancet-shaped windows and severe style of the twelfth century, excepting a rose-window in the centre with the decorated mullions of a somewhat later period. in front of the lower window, with its gothic archway hastily converted into a door, a shapeless platform of rough, unhewn planks had that night been rudely patched together. this was the scaffold. a slight railing around it served to protect it from the crowd, and a heap of coarse sand had been thrown upon it. a squalid, unclean box of unplaned boards, originally prepared as a coffin for a frenchman who some time before had been condemned to death for murdering the son of goswyn meurskens, a hague tavern-keeper, but pardoned by the stadholder--lay on the scaffold. it was recognized from having been left for a long time, half forgotten, at the public execution-place of the hague. upon this coffin now sat two common soldiers of ruffianly aspect playing at dice, betting whether the lord or the devil would get the soul of barneveld. many a foul and ribald jest at the expense of the prisoner was exchanged between these gamblers, some of their comrades, and a few townsmen, who were grouped about at that early hour. the horrible libels, caricatures, and calumnies which had been circulated, exhibited, and sung in all the streets for so many months had at last thoroughly poisoned the minds of the vulgar against the fallen statesman. the great mass of the spectators had forced their way by daybreak into the hall itself to hear the sentence, so that the inner courtyard had remained comparatively empty. at last, at half past nine o'clock, a shout arose, "there he comes! there he comes!" and the populace flowed out from the hall of judgment into the courtyard like a tidal wave. in an instant the binnenhof was filled with more than three thousand spectators. the old statesman, leaning on his staff, walked out upon the scaffold and calmly surveyed the scene. lifting his eyes to heaven, he was heard to murmur, "o god! what does man come to!" then he said bitterly once more: "this, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the state!" la motte, who attended him, said fervently: "it is no longer time to think of this. let us prepare your coming before god." "is there no cushion or stool to kneel upon?" said barneveld, looking around him. the provost said he would send for one, but the old man knelt at once on the bare planks. his servant, who waited upon him as calmly and composedly as if he had been serving him at dinner, held him by the arm. it was remarked that neither master nor man, true stoics and hollanders both, shed a single tear upon the scaffold. la motte prayed for a quarter of an hour, the advocate remaining on his knees. he then rose and said to john franken, "see that he does not come near me," pointing to the executioner who stood in the background grasping his long double-handed sword. barneveld then rapidly unbuttoned his doublet with his own hands and the valet helped him off with it. "make haste! make haste!" said his master. the statesman then came forward and said in a loud, firm voice to the people: "men, do not believe that i am a traitor to the country. i have ever acted uprightly and loyally as a good patriot, and as such i shall die." the crowd was perfectly silent. he then took his cap from john franken, drew it over his eyes, and went forward towards the sand, saying: "christ shall be my guide. o lord, my heavenly father, receive my spirit." as he was about to kneel with his face to the south, the provost said: "my lord will be pleased to move to the other side, not where the sun is in his face." he knelt accordingly with his face towards his own house. the servant took farewell of him, and barneveld said to the executioner: "be quick about it. be quick." the executioner then struck his head off at a single blow. many persons from the crowd now sprang, in spite of all opposition, upon the scaffold and dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, cut wet splinters from the boards, or grubbed up the sand that was steeped in it; driving many bargains afterwards for these relics to be treasured, with various feelings of sorrow, joy, glutted or expiated vengeance. it has been recorded, and has been constantly repeated to this day, that the stadholder, whose windows exactly faced the scaffold, looked out upon the execution with a spy-glass; saying as he did so: "see the old scoundrel, how he trembles! he is afraid of the stroke." but this is calumny. colonel hauterive declared that he was with maurice in his cabinet during the whole period of the execution, that by order of the prince all the windows and shutters were kept closed, that no person wearing his livery was allowed to be abroad, that he anxiously received messages as to the proceedings, and heard of the final catastrophe with sorrowful emotion. it must be admitted, however, that the letter which maurice wrote on the same morning to his cousin william lewis does not show much pathos. "after the judges," he said, "have been busy here with the sentence against the advocate barneveld for several days, at last it has been pronounced, and this morning, between nine o'clock and half past, carried into execution with the sword, in the binnenhof before the great hall. "the reasons they had for this you will see from the sentence, which will doubtless be printed, and which i will send you. "the wife of the aforesaid barneveld and also some of his sons and sons-in-law or other friends have never presented any supplication for his pardon, but till now have vehemently demanded that law and justice should be done to him, and have daily let the report run through the people that he would soon come out. they also planted a may-pole before their house adorned with garlands and ribbands, and practised other jollities and impertinences, while they ought to have conducted themselves in a humble and lowly fashion. this is no proper manner of behaving, and moreover not a practical one to move the judges to any favour even if they had been thereto inclined." the sentence was printed and sent to the separate provinces. it was accompanied by a declaration of the states-general that they had received information from the judges of various points, not mentioned in the sentence, which had been laid to the charge of the late advocate, and which gave much reason to doubt whether he had not perhaps turned his eyes toward the enemy. they could not however legally give judgment to that effect without a sharper investigation, which on account of his great age and for other reasons it was thought best to spare him. a meaner or more malignant postscript to a state paper recounting the issue of a great trial it would be difficult to imagine. the first statesman of the country had just been condemned and executed on a narrative, without indictment of any specified crime. and now, by a kind of apologetic after-thought, six or eight individuals calling themselves the states-general insinuated that he had been looking towards the enemy, and that, had they not mercifully spared him the rack, which is all that could be meant by their sharper investigation, he would probably have confessed the charge. and thus the dead man's fame was blackened by those who had not hesitated to kill him, but had shrunk from enquiring into his alleged crime. not entirely without semblance of truth did grotius subsequently say that the men who had taken his life would hardly have abstained from torturing him if they had really hoped by so doing to extract from him a confession of treason. the sentence was sent likewise to france, accompanied with a statement that barneveld had been guilty of unpardonable crimes which had not been set down in the act of condemnation. complaints were also made of the conduct of du maurier in thrusting himself into the internal affairs of the states and taking sides so ostentatiously against the government. the king and his ministers were indignant with these rebukes, and sustained the ambassador. jeannin and de boississe expressed the opinion that he had died innocent of any crime, and only by reason of his strong political opposition to the prince. the judges had been unanimous in finding him guilty of the acts recorded in their narrative, but three of them had held out for some time in favour of a sentence of perpetual imprisonment rather than decapitation. they withdrew at last their opposition to the death penalty for the wonderful reason that reports had been circulated of attempts likely to be made to assassinate prince maurice. the stadholder himself treated these rumours and the consequent admonition of the states-general that he would take more than usual precautions for his safety with perfect indifference, but they were conclusive with the judges of barneveld. "republica poscit exemplum," said commissioner junius, one of the three, as he sided with the death-warrant party. the same doctor junius a year afterwards happened to dine, in company of one of his fellow-commissioners, with attorney-general sylla at utrecht, and took occasion to ask them why it was supposed that barneveld had been hanging his head towards spain, as not one word of that stood in the sentence. the question was ingenuous on the part of one learned judge to his colleagues in one of the most famous state trials of history, propounded as a bit of after-dinner casuistry, when the victim had been more than a year in his grave. but perhaps the answer was still more artless. his brother lawyers replied that the charge was easily to be deduced from the sentence, because a man who breaks up the foundation of the state makes the country indefensible, and therefore invites the enemy to invade it. and this barneveld had done, who had turned the union, religion, alliances, and finances upside down by his proceedings. certainly if every constitutional minister, accused by the opposition party of turning things upside down by his proceedings, were assumed to be guilty of deliberately inviting a hostile invasion of his country, there would have been few from that day to this to escape hanging. constructive treason could scarcely go farther than it was made to do in these attempts to prove, after his death, that the advocate had, as it was euphuistically expressed, been looking towards the enemy. and no better demonstrations than these have ever been discovered. he died at the age of seventy-one years seven months and eighteen days. his body and head were huddled into the box upon which the soldiers had been shaking the dice, and was placed that night in the vault of the chapel in the inner court. it was subsequently granted as a boon to the widow and children that it might be taken thence and decently buried in the family vault at amersfoort. on the day of the execution a formal entry was made in the register of the states of holland. "monday, th may . to-day was executed with the sword here in the hague, on a scaffold thereto erected in the binnenhof before the steps of the great hall, mr. john of barneveld, in his life knight, lord of berkel, rodenrys, &c., advocate of holland and west friesland, for reasons expressed in the sentence and otherwise, with confiscation of his property, after he had served the state thirty-three years two months and five days since th march .; a man of great activity, business, memory, and wisdom--yes, extraordinary in every respect. he that stands let him see that he does not fall, and may god be merciful to his soul. amen?" a year later-on application made by the widow and children of the deceased to compound for the confiscation of his property by payment of a certain sum, eighty florins or a similar trifle, according to an ancient privilege of the order of nobility--the question was raised whether he had been guilty of high-treason, as he had not been sentenced for such a crime, and as it was only in case of sentence for lese-majesty that this composition was disallowed. it was deemed proper therefore to ask the court for what crime the prisoner had been condemned. certainly a more sarcastic question could not have been asked. but the court had ceased to exist. the commission had done its work and was dissolved. some of its members were dead. letters however were addressed by the states-general to the individual commissioners requesting them to assemble at the hague for the purpose of stating whether it was because the prisoners had committed lese-majesty that their property had been confiscated. they never assembled. some of them were perhaps ignorant of the exact nature of that crime. several of them did not understand the words. twelve of them, among whom were a few jurists, sent written answers to the questions proposed. the question was, "did you confiscate the property because the crime was lese-majesty?" the reply was, "the crime was lese-majesty, although not so stated in the sentence, because we confiscated the property." in one of these remarkable documents this was stated to be "the unanimous opinion of almost all the judges." the point was referred to the commissioners, some of whom attended the court of the hague in person, while others sent written opinions. all agreed that the criminal had committed high-treason because otherwise his property would not have been confiscated. a more wonderful example of the argument in a circle was never heard of. moreover it is difficult to understand by what right the high commission, which had been dissolved a year before, after having completed its work, could be deemed competent to emit afterwards a judicial decision. but the fact is curious as giving one more proof of the irregular, unphilosophical, and inequitable nature of these famous proceedings. chapter xxii. grotius urged to ask forgiveness--grotius shows great weakness-- hoogerbeets and grotius imprisoned for life--grotius confined at loevestein--grotius' early attainments--grotius' deportment in prison--escape of grotius--deventer's rage at grotius' escape. two days after the execution of the advocate, judgment was pronounced upon gillis van ledenberg. it would have been difficult to try him, or to extort a confession of high-treason from him by the rack or otherwise, as the unfortunate gentleman had been dead for more than seven months. not often has a court of justice pronounced a man, without trial, to be guilty of a capital offence. not often has a dead man been condemned and executed. but this was the lot of secretary ledenberg. he was sentenced to be hanged, his property declared confiscated. his unburied corpse, reduced to the condition of a mummy, was brought out of its lurking-place, thrust into a coffin, dragged on a hurdle to the golgotha outside the hague, on the road to ryswyk, and there hung on a gibbet in company of the bodies of other malefactors swinging there in chains. his prudent scheme to save his property for his children by committing suicide in prison was thus thwarted. the reading of the sentence of ledenberg, as had been previously the case with that of barneveld, had been heard by grotius through the open window of his prison, as he lay on his bed. the scaffold on which the advocate had suffered was left standing, three executioners were still in the town, and there was every reason for both grotius and hoogerbeets to expect a similar doom. great efforts were made to induce the friends of the distinguished prisoners to sue for their pardon. but even as in the case of the barneveld family these attempts were fruitless. the austere stoicism both on the part of the sufferers and their relatives excites something like wonder. three of the judges went in person to the prison chamber of hoogerbeets, urging him to ask forgiveness himself or to allow his friends to demand it for him. "if my wife and children do ask," he said, "i will protest against it. i need no pardon. let justice take its course. think not, gentlemen, that i mean by asking for pardon to justify your proceedings." he stoutly refused to do either. the judges, astonished, took their departure, saying: "then you will fare as barneveld. the scaffold is still standing." he expected consequently nothing but death, and said many years afterwards that he knew from personal experience how a man feels who goes out of prison to be beheaded. the wife of grotius sternly replied to urgent intimations from a high source that she should ask pardon for her husband, "i shall not do it. if he has deserved it, let them strike off his head." yet no woman could be more devoted to her husband than was maria van reigersbergen to hugo de groot, as time was to prove. the prince subsequently told her at a personal interview that "one of two roads must be taken, that of the law or that of pardon." soon after the arrest it was rumoured that grotius was ready to make important revelations if he could first be assured of the prince's protection. his friends were indignant at the statement. his wife stoutly denied its truth, but, to make sure, wrote to her husband on the subject. "one thing amazes me," she said; "some people here pretend to say that you have stated to one gentleman in private that you have something to disclose greatly important to the country, but that you desired beforehand to be taken under the protection of his excellency. i have not chosen to believe this, nor do i, for i hold that to be certain which you have already told me--that you know no secrets. i see no reason therefore why you should require the protection of any man. and there is no one to believe this, but i thought best to write to you of it. let me, in order that i may contradict the story with more authority, have by the bearer of this a simple yes or no. study quietly, take care of your health, have some days' patience, for the advocate has not yet been heard." the answer has not been preserved, but there is an allusion to the subject in an unpublished memorandum of grotius written while he was in prison. it must be confessed that the heart of the great theologian and jurist seems to have somewhat failed him after his arrest, and although he was incapable of treachery--even if he had been possessed of any secrets, which certainly was not the case--he did not show the same spartan firmness as his wife, and was very far from possessing the heroic calm of barneveld. he was much disposed to extricate himself from his unhappy plight by making humble, if not abject, submission to maurice. he differed from his wife in thinking that he had no need of the prince's protection. "i begged the chamberlain, matthew de cors," he said, a few days after his arrest, "that i might be allowed to speak with his excellency of certain things which i would not willingly trust to the pen. my meaning was to leave all public employment and to offer my service to his excellency in his domestic affairs. thus i hoped that the motives for my imprisonment would cease. this was afterwards misinterpreted as if i had had wonderful things to reveal." but grotius towards the end of his trial showed still greater weakness. after repeated refusals, he had at last obtained permission of the judges to draw up in writing the heads of his defence. to do this he was allowed a single sheet of paper, and four hours of time, the trial having lasted several months. and in the document thus prepared he showed faltering in his faith as to his great friend's innocence, and admitted, without any reason whatever, the possibility of there being truth in some of the vile and anonymous calumnies against him. "the friendship of the advocate of holland i had always highly prized," he said, "hoping from the conversation of so wise and experienced a person to learn much that was good . . . . i firmly believed that his excellency, notwithstanding occasional differences as to the conduct of public affairs, considered him a true and upright servant of the land . . . . i have been therefore surprised to understand, during my imprisonment, that the gentlemen had proofs in hand not alone of his correspondence with the enemy, but also of his having received money from them. "he being thus accused, i have indicated by word of mouth and afterwards resumed in writing all matters which i thought--the above-mentioned proofs being made good--might be thereto indirectly referred, in order to show that for me no friendships were so dear as the preservation of the freedom of the land. i wish that he may give explanation of all to the contentment of the judges, and that therefore his actions--which, supposing the said correspondence to be true, are subject to a bad interpretation--may be taken in another sense." alas! could the advocate--among whose first words after hearing of his own condemnation to death were, "and must my grotius die too?" adding, with a sigh of relief when assured of the contrary, "i should deeply grieve for that; he is so young and may live to do the state much service." could he have read those faltering and ungenerous words from one he so held in his heart, he would have felt them like the stab of brutus. grotius lived to know that there were no such proofs, that the judges did not dare even allude to the charge in their sentence, and long years afterwards he drew a picture of the martyred patriot such as one might have expected from his pen. but these written words of doubt must have haunted him to his grave. on the th may --on the fifty-first anniversary, as grotius remarked, of the condemnation of egmont and hoorn by the blood tribunal of alva--the two remaining victims were summoned to receive their doom. the fiscal sylla, entering de groot's chamber early in the morning to conduct him before the judges, informed him that he was not instructed to communicate the nature of the sentence. "but," he said, maliciously, "you are aware of what has befallen the advocate." "i have heard with my own ears," answered grotius, "the judgment pronounced upon barneveld and upon ledenberg. whatever may be my fate, i have patience to bear it." the sentence, read in the same place and in the same manner as had been that upon the advocate, condemned both hoogerbeets and grotius to perpetual imprisonment. the course of the trial and the enumeration of the offences were nearly identical with the leading process which has been elaborately described. grotius made no remark whatever in the court-room. on returning to his chamber he observed that his admissions of facts had been tortured into confessions of guilt, that he had been tried and sentenced against all principles and forms of law, and that he had been deprived of what the humblest criminal could claim, the right of defence and the examination of testimony. in regard to the penalty against him, he said, there was no such thing as perpetual imprisonment except in hell. alluding to the leading cause of all these troubles, he observed that it was with the stadholder and the advocate as cato had said of caesar and pompey. the great misery had come not from their being enemies, but from their having once been friends. on the night of th june the prisoners were taken from their prison in the hague and conveyed to the castle of loevestein. this fortress, destined thenceforth to be famous in history and--from its frequent use in after-times as a state-prison for men of similar constitutional views to those of grotius and the advocate--to give its name to a political party, was a place of extraordinary strength. nature and art had made it, according to military ideas of that age, almost impregnable. as a prison it seemed the very castle of despair. "abandon all hope ye who enter" seemed engraven over its portal. situate in the very narrow, acute angle where the broad, deep, and turbid waal--the chief of the three branches into which the rhine divides itself on entering the netherlands--mingles its current with the silver meuse whose name it adopts as the united rivers roll to the sea, it was guarded on many sides by these deep and dangerous streams. on the land-side it was surrounded by high walls and a double foss, which protected it against any hostile invasion from brabant. as the twelve years' truce was running to its close, it was certain that pains would be taken to strengthen the walls and deepen the ditches, that the place might be proof against all marauders and land-robbers likely to swarm over from the territory of the archdukes. the town of gorcum was exactly opposite on the northern side of the waal, while worcum was about a league's distance from the castle on the southern side, but separated from it by the meuse. the prisoners, after crossing the drawbridge, were led through thirteen separate doors, each one secured by iron bolts and heavy locks, until they reached their separate apartments. they were never to see or have any communication with each other. it had been accorded by the states-general however that the wives of the two gentlemen were to have access to their prison, were to cook for them in the castle kitchen, and, if they chose to inhabit the fortress, might cross to the neighbouring town of gorcum from time to time to make purchases, and even make visits to the hague. twenty-four stuivers, or two shillings, a day were allowed by the states-general for the support of each prisoner and his family. as the family property of grotius was at once sequestered, with a view to its ultimate confiscation, it was clear that abject indigence as well as imprisonment was to be the lifelong lot of this illustrious person, who had hitherto lived in modest affluence, occupying the most considerable of social positions. the commandant of the fortress was inspired from the outset with a desire to render the prisoner's situation as hateful as it was in his power to make it. and much was in his power. he resolved that the family should really live upon their daily pittance. yet madame de groot, before the final confiscation of her own and her husband's estates, had been able to effect considerable loans, both to carry on process against government for what the prisoners contended was an unjust confiscation, and for providing for the household on a decent scale and somewhat in accordance with the requirements of the prisoner's health. thus there was a wearisome and ignoble altercation, revived from day to day, between the commandant and madame de groot. it might have been thought enough of torture for this virtuous and accomplished lady, but twenty-nine years of age and belonging to one of the eminent families of the country, to see her husband, for his genius and accomplishments the wonder of europe, thus cut off in the flower of his age and doomed to a living grave. she was nevertheless to be subjected to the perpetual inquisition of the market-basket, which she was not ashamed with her maid to take to and from gorcum, and to petty wrangles about the kitchen fire where she was proud to superintend the cooking of the scanty fare for her husband and her five children. there was a reason for the spite of the military jailer. lieutenant prouninx, called deventer, commandant of loevestein, was son of the notorious gerard prouninx, formerly burgomaster of utrecht, one of the ringleaders of the leicester faction in the days when the earl made his famous attempts upon the four cities. he had sworn revenge upon all those concerned in his father's downfall, and it was a delight therefore to wreak a personal vengeance on one who had since become so illustrious a member of that party by which the former burgomaster had been deposed, although grotius at the time of leicester's government had scarcely left his cradle. thus these ladies were to work in the kitchen and go to market from time to time, performing this menial drudgery under the personal inspection of the warrior who governed the garrison and fortress, but who in vain attempted to make maria van reigersbergen tremble at his frown. hugo de groot, when thus for life immured, after having already undergone a preliminary imprisonment of nine months, was just thirty-six years of age. although comparatively so young, he had been long regarded as one of the great luminaries of europe for learning and genius. of an ancient and knightly race, his immediate ancestors had been as famous for literature, science, and municipal abilities as their more distant progenitors for deeds of arms in the feudal struggles of holland in the middle ages. his father and grandfather had alike been eminent for hebrew, greek, and latin scholarship, and both had occupied high positions in the university of leyden from its beginning. hugo, born and nurtured under such quickening influences, had been a scholar and poet almost from his cradle. he wrote respectable latin verses at the age of seven, he was matriculated at leyden at the age of eleven. that school, founded amid the storms and darkness of terrible war, was not lightly to be entered. it was already illustrated by a galaxy of shining lights in science and letters, which radiated over christendom. his professors were joseph scaliger, francis junius, paulus merula, and a host of others. his fellow-students were men like scriverius, vossius, baudius, daniel heinsius. the famous soldier and poet douza, who had commanded the forces of leyden during the immortal siege, addressed him on his admission to the university as "magne peer magni dignissime cura parentis," in a copy of eloquent verses. when fourteen years old, he took his bachelor's degree, after a rigorous examination not only in the classics but astronomy, mathematics, jurisprudence, and theology, at an age when most youths would have been accounted brilliant if able to enter that high school with credit. on leaving the university he was attached to the embassy of barneveld and justinus van nassau to the court of henry iv. here he attracted the attention of that monarch, who pointed him out to his courtiers as the "miracle of holland," presented him with a gold chain with his miniature attached to it, and proposed to confer on him the dignity of knighthood, which the boy from motives of family pride appears to have refused. while in france he received from the university of orleans, before the age of fifteen, the honorary degree of doctor of laws in a very eulogistic diploma. on his return to holland he published an edition of the poet johannes capella with valuable annotations, besides giving to the public other learned and classical works and several tragedies of more or less merit. at the age of seventeen he was already an advocate in full practice before the supreme tribunals of the hague, and when twenty-three years old he was selected by prince maurice from a list of three candidates for the important post of fiscal or attorney-general of holland. other civic dignities, embassies, and offices of various kinds, had been thrust upon him one after another, in all of which he had acquitted himself with dignity and brilliancy. he was but twenty-six when he published his argument for the liberty of the sea, the famous mare liberum, and a little later appeared his work on the antiquity of the batavian republic, which procured for him in spain the title of "hugo grotius, auctor damnatus." at the age of twenty-nine he had completed his latin history of the netherlands from the period immediately preceding the war of independence down to the conclusion of the truce, - --a work which has been a classic ever since its appearance, although not published until after his death. a chief magistrate of rotterdam, member of the states of holland and the states-general, jurist, advocate, attorney-general, poet, scholar, historian, editor of the greek and latin classics, writer of tragedies, of law treatises, of theological disquisitions, he stood foremost among a crowd of famous contemporaries. his genius, eloquence, and learning were esteemed among the treasures not only of his own country but of europe. he had been part and parcel of his country's history from his earliest manhood, and although a child in years compared to barneveld, it was upon him that the great statesman had mainly relied ever since the youth's first appearance in public affairs. impressible, emotional, and susceptive, he had been accused from time to time, perhaps not entirely without reason, of infirmity of purpose, or at least of vacillation in opinion; but his worst enemies had never assailed the purity of his heart or integrity of his character. he had not yet written the great work on the 'rights of war and peace', which was to make an epoch in the history of civilization and to be the foundation of a new science, but the materials lay already in the ample storehouse of his memory and his brain. possessed of singular personal beauty--which the masterly portraits of miereveld attest to the present day--tall, brown-haired; straight-featured, with a delicate aquiline nose and piercing dark blue eyes, he was also athletic of frame and a proficient in manly exercises. this was the statesman and the scholar, of whom it is difficult to speak but in terms of affectionate but not exaggerated eulogy, and for whom the republic of the netherlands could now find no better use than to shut him up in the grim fortress of loevestein for the remainder of his days. a commonwealth must have deemed itself rich in men which, after cutting off the head of barneveld, could afford to bury alive hugo grotius. his deportment in prison was a magnificent moral lesson. shut up in a kind of cage consisting of a bedroom and a study, he was debarred from physical exercise, so necessary for his mental and bodily health. not choosing for the gratification of lieutenant deventer to indulge in weak complaints, he procured a huge top, which he employed himself in whipping several hours a day; while for intellectual employment he plunged once more into those classical, juridical, and theological studies which had always employed his leisure hours from childhood upwards. it had been forbidden by the states-general to sell his likeness in the shops. the copper plates on which they had been engraved had as far as possible been destroyed. the wish of the government, especially of his judges, was that his name and memory should die at once and for ever. they were not destined to be successful, for it would be equally difficult to-day to find an educated man in christendom ignorant of the name of hugo grotius, or acquainted with that of a single one of his judges. and his friends had not forgotten him as he lay there living in his tomb. especially the learned scriverius, vossius, and other professors, were permitted to correspond with him at intervals on literary subjects, the letters being subjected to preliminary inspection. scriverius sent him many books from his well-stocked library, de groot's own books and papers having been confiscated by the government. at a somewhat later period the celebrated orientalist erpenius sent him from time to time a large chest of books, the precious freight being occasionally renewed and the chest passing to and from loevestein by way of gorcum. at this town lived a sister of erpenius, married to one daatselaer, a considerable dealer in thread and ribbons, which he exported to england. the house of daatselaer became a place of constant resort for madame de groot as well as the wife of hoogerbeets, both dames going every few days from the castle across the waal to gorcum, to make their various purchases for the use of their forlorn little households in the prison. madame daatselaer therefore received and forwarded into loevestein or into holland many parcels and boxes, besides attending to the periodical transmission of the mighty chest of books. professor vossius was then publishing a new edition of the tragedies of seneca, and at his request grotius enriched that work, from his prison, with valuable notes. he employed himself also in translating the moral sentences extracted by stobaeus from the greek tragedies; drawing consolation from the ethics and philosophy of the ancient dramatists, whom he had always admired, especially the tragedies of euripides; he formed a complete moral anthology from that poet and from the works of sophocles, menander, and others, which he translated into fluent dutch verse. becoming more and more interested in the subject, he executed a masterly rhymed translation of the 'theban brothers' of euripides, thus seeking distraction from his own tragic doom in the portraiture of antique, distant, and heroic sorrow. turning again to legal science, he completed an introduction to the jurisprudence of holland, a work which as soon as published became thenceforward a text-book and an oracle in the law courts and the high schools of the country. not forgetting theology, he composed for the use of the humbler classes, especially for sailors, in whose lot, so exposed to danger and temptation, he ever took deep interest, a work on the proofs of christianity in easy and familiar rhyme--a book of gold, as it was called at once, which became rapidly popular with those for whom it was designed. at a somewhat later period professor erpenius, publishing a new edition of the new testament in greek, with translations in arabic, syriac, and ethiopian, solicited his friend's help both in translations and in the latin commentaries and expositions with which he proposed to accompany the work. the prisoner began with a modest disclaimer, saying that after the labours of erasmus and beza, maldonatus and jasenius, there was little for him to glean. becoming more enthusiastic as he went on, he completed a masterly commentary on the four evangelists, a work for which the learned and religious world has ever recognized a kind of debt of gratitude to the castle of loevestein, and hailed in him the founder of a school of manly biblical criticism. and thus nearly two years wore away. spinning his great top for exercise; soothing his active and prolific brain with greek tragedy, with flemish verse, with jurisprudence, history, theology; creating, expounding, adorning, by the warmth of his vivid intellect; moving the world, and doing good to his race from the depths of his stony sepulchre; hugo grotius rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive. the man is not to be envied who is not moved by so noble an example of great calamity manfully endured. the wife of hoogerbeets, already advanced in years, sickened during the imprisonment and died at loevestein after a lingering illness, leaving six children to the care of her unfortunate husband. madame de groot had not been permitted by the prison authorities to minister to her in sickness, nor to her children after her death. early in the year francis aerssens, lord of sommelsdyk, the arch enemy of barneveld and of grotius, was appointed special ambassador to paris. the intelligence--although hardly unexpected, for the stratagems of aerssens had been completely successful--moved the prisoner deeply. he felt that this mortal enemy, not glutted with vengeance by the beheading of the advocate and the perpetual imprisonment of his friend, would do his best at the french court to defame and to blacken him. he did what he could to obviate this danger by urgent letters to friends on whom he could rely. at about the same time muis van holy, one of the twenty-four commissioners, not yet satisfied with the misery he had helped to inflict, informed the states-general that madame de groot had been buying ropes at gorcum. on his motion a committee was sent to investigate the matter at castle loevestein, where it was believed that the ropes had been concealed for the purpose of enabling grotius to make his escape from prison. lieutenant deventer had heard nothing of the story. he was in high spirits at the rumour however, and conducted the committee very eagerly over the castle, causing minute search to be made in the apartment of grotius for the ropes which, as they were assured by him and his wife, had never existed save in the imagination of judge muis. they succeeded at least in inflicting much superfluous annoyance on their victims, and in satisfying themselves that it would be as easy for the prisoner to fly out of the fortress on wings as to make his escape with ropes, even if he had them. grotius soon afterwards addressed a letter to the states-general denouncing the statement of muis as a fable, and these persistent attempts to injure him as cowardly and wicked. a few months later madame de groot happened to be in the house of daatselaer on one of her periodical visits to gorcum. conversation turning on these rumours march of attempts at escape, she asked madame daatselaer if she would not be much embarrassed, should grotius suddenly make his appearance there. "oh no," said the good woman with a laugh; "only let him come. we will take excellent care of him." at another visit one saturday, th march, ( ) madame de groot asked her friend why all the bells of gorcum march were ringing. "because to-morrow begins our yearly fair," replied dame daatselaer. "well, i suppose that all exiles and outlaws may come to gorcum on this occasion," said madame de groot. "such is the law, they say," answered her friend. "and my husband might come too?" "no doubt," said madame daatselaer with a merry laugh, rejoiced at finding the wife of grotius able to speak so cheerfully of her husband in his perpetual and hopeless captivity. "send him hither. he shall have, a warm welcome." "what a good woman you are!" said madame de groot with a sigh as she rose to take leave. "but you know very well that if he were a bird he could never get out of the castle, so closely, he is caged there." next morning a wild equinoctial storm was howling around the battlements of the castle. of a sudden cornelia, daughter of the de groots, nine years of age, said to her mother without any reason whatever, "to-morrow papa must be off to gorcum, whatever the weather may be." de groot, as well as his wife, was aghast at the child's remark, and took it as a direct indication from heaven. for while madame daatselaer had considered the recent observations of her visitor from loevestein as idle jests, and perhaps wondered that madame de groot could be frivolous and apparently lighthearted on so dismal a topic, there had been really a hidden meaning in her words. for several weeks past the prisoner had been brooding over a means of escape. his wife, whose every thought was devoted to him, had often cast her eyes on the great chest or trunk in which the books of erpenius had been conveyed between loevestein and gorcum for the use of the prisoner. at first the trunk had been carefully opened and its contents examined every time it entered or left the castle. as nothing had ever been found in it save hebrew, greek, and latin folios, uninviting enough to the commandant, that warrior had gradually ceased to inspect the chest very closely, and had at last discontinued the practice altogether. it had been kept for some weeks past in the prisoner's study. his wife thought--although it was two finger breadths less than four feet in length, and not very broad or deep in proportion--that it might be possible for him to get into it. he was considerably above middle height, but found that by curling himself up very closely he could just manage to lie in it with the cover closed. very secretly they had many times rehearsed the scheme which had now taken possession of their minds, but had not breathed a word of it to any one. he had lain in the chest with the lid fastened, and with his wife sitting upon the top of it, two hours at a time by the hour-glass. they had decided at last that the plan, though fraught with danger, was not absolutely impossible, and they were only waiting now for a favourable opportunity. the chance remark of the child cornelia settled the time for hazarding the adventure. by a strange coincidence, too, the commandant of the fortress, lieutenant deventer, had just been promoted to a captaincy, and was to go to heusden to receive his company. he left the castle for a brief absence that very sunday evening. as a precautionary measure, the trunk filled with books had been sent to gorcum and returned after the usual interval only a few days before. the maid-servant of the de groots, a young girl of twenty, elsje van houwening by name, quick, intelligent, devoted, and courageous, was now taken into their confidence. the scheme was explained to her, and she was asked if she were willing to take the chest under her charge with her master in it, instead of the usual freight of books, and accompany it to gorcum. she naturally asked what punishment could be inflicted upon her in case the plot were discovered. "none legally," answered her master; "but i too am innocent of any crime, and you see to what sufferings i have been condemned." "whatever come of it," said elsje stoutly; "i will take the risk and accompany my master." every detail was then secretly arranged, and it was provided beforehand, as well as possible, what should be said or done in the many contingencies that might arise. on sunday evening madame de groot then went to the wife of the commandant, with whom she had always been on more friendly terms than with her malicious husband. she had also recently propitiated her affections by means of venison and other dainties brought from gorcum. she expressed the hope that, notwithstanding the absence of captain deventer, she might be permitted to send the trunk full of books next day from the castle. "my husband is wearing himself out," she said, "with his perpetual studies. i shall be glad for a little time to be rid of some of these folios." the commandant's wife made no objection to this slight request. on monday morning the gale continued to beat with unabated violence on the turrets. the turbid waal, swollen by the tempest, rolled darkly and dangerously along the castle walls. but the die was cast. grotius rose betimes, fell on his knees, and prayed fervently an hour long. dressed only in linen underclothes with a pair of silk stockings, he got into the chest with the help of his wife. the big testament of erpenius, with some bunches of thread placed upon it, served him as a pillow. a few books and papers were placed in the interstices left by the curves of his body, and as much pains as possible taken to prevent his being seriously injured or incommoded during the hazardous journey he was contemplating. his wife then took solemn farewell of him, fastened the lock, which she kissed, and gave the key to elsje. the usual garments worn by the prisoner were thrown on a chair by the bedside and his slippers placed before it. madame de groot then returned to her bed, drew the curtains close, and rang the bell. it was answered by the servant who usually waited on the prisoner, and who was now informed by the lady that it had been her intention to go herself to gorcum, taking charge of the books which were valuable. as the weather was so tempestuous however, and as she was somewhat indisposed, it had been decided that elsje should accompany the trunk. she requested that some soldiers might be sent as usual to take it down to the vessel. two or three of the garrison came accordingly, and seeing the clothes and slippers of grotius lying about, and the bed-curtains closed, felt no suspicion. on lifting the chest, however, one of them said, half in jest: "the arminian must be in it himself, it seems so heavy!" "not the arminian," replied madame de groot, in a careless voice, from the bed; "only heavy arminian books." partly lifting, partly dragging the ponderous box, the soldiers managed to get it down the stairs and through the thirteen barred and bolted doors. four several times one or other of the soldiers expressed the opinion that grotius himself must be locked within it, but they never spoke quite seriously, and elsje was ever ready to turn aside the remark with a jest. a soldier's wife, just as the box was approaching the wharf, told a story of a malefactor who had once been carried out of the castle in a chest. "and if a malefactor, why not a lawyer?" she added. a soldier said he would get a gimlet and bore a hole into the arminian. "then you must get a gimlet that will reach to the top of the castle, where the arminian lies abed and asleep," said elsje. not much heed was given to this careless talk, the soldiers, before leaving the chamber of grotius, having satisfied themselves that there were no apertures in the chest save the keyhole, and that it would be impossible by that means alone for sufficient air to penetrate to keep a man enclosed in it from smothering. madame deventer was asked if she chose to inspect the contents of the trunk, and she enquired whether the commandant had been wont so to do. when told that such search had been for a long time discontinued, as nothing had ever been found there but books, she observed that there was no reason why she should be more strict than her husband, and ordered the soldiers to take their heavy load to the vessel. elsje insisted that the boatmen should place a doubly thick plank for sliding the box on board, as it seemed probable, she said, that the usual one would break in two, and then the valuable books borrowed of professor erpenius would be damaged or destroyed. the request caused much further grumbling, but was complied with at last and the chest deposited on the deck. the wind still continued to blow with great fury, and as soon as the sails were set the vessel heeled over so much, that elsje implored the skipper to cause the box to be securely lashed, as it seemed in imminent danger, at the first lurch of the vessel, of sliding into the sea. this done, elsje sat herself down and threw her white handkerchief over her head, letting it flutter in the wind. one of the crew asked her why she did so, and she replied that the servant in the castle had been tormenting her, saying that she would never dare to sail to gorcum in such tempestuous weather, and she was now signalling him that she had been as good as her word. whereupon she continued to wave the handkerchief. in reality the signal was for her mistress, who was now straining her eyes from the barred window which looked out upon the waal, and with whom the maid had agreed that if all went prosperously she would give this token of success. otherwise she would sit with her head in her hands. during the voyage an officer of the garrison, who happened to be on board, threw himself upon the chest as a convenient seat, and began drumming and pounding with his heels upon it. the ever watchful elsje, feeling the dreadful inconvenience to the prisoner of these proceedings, who perhaps was already smothering and would struggle for air if not relieved, politely addressed the gentleman and induced him to remove to another seat by telling him that, besides the books, there was some valuable porcelain in the chest which might easily be broken. no further incident occurred. the wind, although violent, was favourable, and gorcum in due time was reached. elsje insisted upon having her own precious freight carried first into the town, although the skipper for some time was obstinately bent on leaving it to the very last, while all the other merchandise in the vessel should be previously unshipped. at last on promise of payment of ten stuivers, which was considered an exorbitant sum, the skipper and son agreed to transport the chest between them on a hand-barrow. while they were trudging with it to the town, the son remarked to his father that there was some living thing in the box. for the prisoner in the anguish of his confinement had not been able to restrain a slight movement. "do you hear what my son says?" cried the skipper to elsje. "he says you have got something alive in your trunk." "yes, yes," replied the cheerful maid-servant; "arminian books are always alive, always full of motion and spirit." they arrived at daatselaer's house, moving with difficulty through the crowd which, notwithstanding the boisterous weather, had been collected by the annual fair. many people were assembled in front of the building, which was a warehouse of great resort, while next door was a book-seller's shop thronged with professors, clergymen, and other literary persons. the carriers accordingly entered by the backway, and elsje, deliberately paying them their ten stuivers, and seeing them depart, left the box lying in a room at the rear and hastened to the shop in front. here she found the thread and ribbon dealer and his wife, busy with their customers, unpacking and exhibiting their wares. she instantly whispered in madame daatselaer's ear, "i have got my master here in your back parlour." the dame turned white as a sheet, and was near fainting on the spot. it was the first imprudence elsje had committed. the good woman recovered somewhat of her composure by a strong effort however, and instantly went with elsje to the rear of the house. "master! master!" cried elsje, rapping on the chest. there was no answer. "my god! my god!" shrieked the poor maid-servant. "my poor master is dead." "ah!" said madame daatselaer, "your mistress has made a bad business of it. yesterday she had a living husband. now she has a dead one." but soon there was a vigorous rap on the inside of the lid, and a cry from the prisoner: "open the chest! i am not dead, but did not at first recognize your voice." the lock was instantly unfastened, the lid thrown open, and grotius arose in his linen clothing, like a dead man from his coffin. the dame instantly accompanied the two through a trapdoor into an upper room. grotius asked her if she was always so deadly pale. "no," she replied, "but i am frightened to see you here. my lord is no common person. the whole world is talking of you. i fear this will cause the loss of all my property and perhaps bring my husband into prison in your place." grotius rejoined: "i made my prayers to god before as much as this had been gained, and i have just been uttering fervent thanks to him for my deliverance so far as it has been effected. but if the consequences are to be as you fear, i am ready at once to get into the chest again and be carried back to prison." but she answered, "no; whatever comes of it, we have you here and will do all that we can to help you on." grotius being faint from his sufferings, the lady brought him a glass of spanish wine, but was too much flustered to find even a cloak or shawl to throw over him. leaving him sitting there in his very thin attire, just as he had got out of the chest, she went to the front warehouse to call her husband. but he prudently declined to go to his unexpected guest. it would be better in the examination sure to follow, he said, for him to say with truth that he had not seen him and knew nothing of the escape, from first to last. grotius entirely approved of the answer when told to him. meantime madame daatselaer had gone to her brother-in-law van der veen, a clothier by trade, whom she found in his shop talking with an officer of the loevestein garrison. she whispered in the clothier's ear, and he, making an excuse to the officer, followed her home at once. they found grotius sitting where he had been left. van der veen gave him his hand, saying: "sir, you are the man of whom the whole country is talking?" "yes, here i am," was the reply, "and i put myself in your hands--" "there isn't a moment to lose," replied the clothier. "we must help you away at once." he went immediately in search of one john lambertsen, a man in whom he knew he could confide, a lutheran in religion, a master-mason by occupation. he found him on a scaffold against the gable-end of a house, working at his trade. he told him that there was a good deed to be done which he could do better than any man, that his conscience would never reproach him for it, and that he would at the same time earn no trifling reward. he begged the mason to procure a complete dress as for a journeyman, and to follow him to the house of his brother-in-law daatselaer. lambertsen soon made his appearance with the doublet, trunk-hose, and shoes of a bricklayer, together with trowel and measuring-rod. he was informed who his new journeyman was to be, and grotius at once put on the disguise. the doublet did not reach to the waistband of the trunkhose, while those nether garments stopped short of his knees; the whole attire belonging to a smaller man than the unfortunate statesman. his delicate white hands, much exposed by the shortness of the sleeves, looked very unlike those of a day-labourer, and altogether the new mason presented a somewhat incongruous and wobegone aspect. grotius was fearful too lest some of the preachers and professors frequenting the book-shop next door would recognize him through his disguise. madame daatselaer smeared his face and hands with chalk and plaster however and whispered encouragement, and so with a felt hat slouched over his forehead and a yardstick in his hand, he walked calmly forth into the thronged marketplace and through the town to the ferry, accompanied by the friendly lambertsen. it had been agreed that van der veen should leave the house in another direction and meet them at the landing-place. when they got to the ferry, they found the weather as boisterous as ever. the boatmen absolutely refused to make the dangerous crossing of the merwede over which their course lay to the land of altona, and so into the spanish netherlands, for two such insignificant personages as this mason and his scarecrow journeyman. lambertsen assured them that it was of the utmost importance that he should cross the water at once. he had a large contract for purchasing stone at altona for a public building on which he was engaged. van der veen coming up added his entreaties, protesting that he too was interested in this great stone purchase, and so by means of offering a larger price than they at first dared to propose, they were able to effect their passage. after landing, lambertsen and grotius walked to waalwyk, van der veen returning the same evening to gorcum. it was four o'clock in the afternoon when they reached waalwyk, where a carriage was hired to convey the fugitive to antwerp. the friendly mason here took leave of his illustrious journeyman, having first told the driver that his companion was a disguised bankrupt fleeing from holland into foreign territory to avoid pursuit by his creditors. this would explain his slightly concealing his face in passing through a crowd in any village. grotius proved so ignorant of the value of different coins in making small payments on the road, that the honest waggoner, on being occasionally asked who the odd-looking stranger was, answered that he was a bankrupt, and no wonder, for he did not know one piece of money from another. for, his part he thought him little better than a fool. such was the depreciatory opinion formed by the waalwyk coachman as to the "rising light of the world" and the "miracle of holland." they travelled all night and, arriving on the morning of the st within a few leagues of antwerp, met a patrol of soldiers, who asked grotius for his passport. he enquired in whose service they were, and was told in that of "red rod," as the chief bailiff of antwerp was called. that functionary happened to be near, and the traveller approaching him said that his passport was on his feet, and forthwith told him his name and story. red rod treated him at once with perfect courtesy, offered him a horse for himself with a mounted escort, and so furthered his immediate entrance to antwerp. grotius rode straight to the house of a banished friend of his, the preacher grevinkhoven. he was told by the daughter of that clergyman that her father was upstairs ministering at the bedside of his sick wife. but so soon as the traveller had sent up his name, both the preacher and the invalid came rushing downstairs to fall upon the neck of one who seemed as if risen from the dead. the news spread, and episcopius and other exiled friends soon thronged to the house of grevinkhoven, where they all dined together in great glee, grotius, still in his journeyman's clothes, narrating the particulars of his wonderful escape. he had no intention of tarrying in his resting-place at antwerp longer than was absolutely necessary. intimations were covertly made to him that a brilliant destiny might be in store for him should he consent to enter the service of the archdukes, nor were there waning rumours, circulated as a matter of course by his host of enemies, that he was about to become a renegade to country and religion. there was as much truth in the slanders as in the rest of the calumnies of which he had been the victim during his career. he placed on record a proof of his loyal devotion to his country in the letters which he wrote from antwerp within a week of his arrival there. with his subsequent history, his appearance and long residence at the french court as ambassador of sweden, his memorable labours in history, diplomacy, poetry, theology, the present narrative is not concerned. driven from the service of his fatherland, of which his name to all time is one of the proudest garlands, he continued to be a benefactor not only to her but to all mankind. if refutation is sought of the charge that republics are ungrateful, it will certainly not be found in the history of hugo grotius or john of barneveld. nor is there need to portray the wrath of captain deventer when he returned to castle loevestein. "here is the cage, but your bird is flown," said corpulent maria grotius with a placid smile. the commandant solaced himself by uttering imprecations on her, on her husband, and on elsje van houwening. but these curses could not bring back the fugitive. he flew to gorcum to browbeat the daatselaers and to search the famous trunk. he found in it the big new testament and some skeins of thread, together with an octavo or two of theology and of greek tragedies; but the arminian was not in it, and was gone from the custody of the valiant deventer for ever. after a brief period madame de groot was released and rejoined her husband. elsje van houwening, true heroine of the adventure, was subsequently married to the faithful servant of grotius, who during the two years' imprisonment had been taught latin and the rudiments of law by his master, so that he subsequently rose to be a thriving and respectable advocate at the tribunals of holland. the stadholder, when informed of the escape of the prisoner, observed, "i always thought the black pig was deceiving me," making not very complimentary allusion to the complexion and size of the lady who had thus aided the escape of her husband. he is also reported as saying that it "is no wonder they could not keep grotius in prison, as he has more wit than all his judges put together." chapter xxiii. barneveld's sons plot against maurice--the conspiracy betrayed to maurice--escape of stoutenburg--groeneveld is arrested--mary of barneveld appeals to the stadholder--groeneveld condemned to death-- execution of groeneveld. the widow of barneveld had remained, since the last scene of the fatal tragedy on the binnenhof, in hopeless desolation. the wife of the man who during a whole generation of mankind had stood foremost among the foremost of the world, and had been one of those chief actors and directors in human affairs to whom men's eyes turned instinctively from near and from afar, had led a life of unbroken prosperity. an heiress in her own right, maria van utrecht had laid the foundation of her husband's wealth by her union with the rising young lawyer and statesman. her two sons and two daughters had grown up around her, all four being married into the leading families of the land, and with apparently long lives of prosperity and usefulness before them. and now the headsman's sword had shivered all this grandeur and happiness at a blow. the name of the dead statesman had become a word of scoffing and reproach; vagabond mountebanks enacted ribald scenes to his dishonour in the public squares and streets; ballad-mongers yelled blasphemous libels upon him in the very ears of his widow and children. for party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk. it would be idle to paint the misery of this brokenhearted woman. the great painters of the epoch have preserved her face to posterity; the grief-stricken face of a hard-featured but commanding and not uncomely woman, the fountains of whose tears seem exhausted; a face of austere and noble despair. a decorous veil should be thrown over the form of that aged matron, for whose long life and prosperity fate took such merciless vengeance at last. for the woes of maria of barneveld had scarcely begun. desolation had become her portion, but dishonour had not yet crossed her threshold. there were sterner strokes in store for her than that which smote her husband on the scaffold. she had two sons, both in the prime of life. the eldest, reinier, lord of groeneveld, who had married a widow of rank and wealth, madame de brandwyk, was living since the death of his father in comparative ease, but entire obscurity. an easy-tempered, genial, kindly gentleman, he had been always much beloved by his friends and, until the great family catastrophe, was popular with the public, but of an infirm and vacillating character, easily impressed by others, and apt to be led by stronger natures than his own. he had held the lucrative office of head forester of delfland of which he had now been deprived. the younger son william, called, from an estate conferred on him by his father, lord of stoutenburg, was of a far different mould. we have seen him at an earlier period of this narrative attached to the embassy of francis aerssens in paris, bearing then from another estate the unmusical title of craimgepolder, and giving his subtle and dangerous chief great cause of complaint by his irregular, expensive habits. he had been however rather a favourite with henry iv., who had so profound a respect for the father as to consult him, and him only of all foreign statesmen, in the gravest affairs of his reign, and he had even held an office of honour and emolument at his court. subsequently he had embraced the military career, and was esteemed a soldier of courage and promise. as captain of cavalry and governor of the fortress of bergen op zoom, he occupied a distinguished and lucrative position, and was likely, so soon as the truce ran to its close, to make a name for himself in that gigantic political and religious war which had already opened in bohemia, and in which it was evident the republic would soon be desperately involved. his wife, walburg de marnix, was daughter to one of the noblest characters in the history of the netherlands, or of any history, the illustrious sainte-aldegonde. two thousand florins a year from his father's estate had been settled on him at his marriage, which, in addition to his official and military income, placed him in a position of affluence. after the death of his father the family estates were confiscated, and he was likewise deprived of his captaincy and his governorship. he was reduced at a blow from luxury and high station to beggary and obscurity. at the renewal of the war he found himself, for no fault of his own, excluded from the service of his country. yet the advocate almost in his last breath had recommended his sons to the stadholder, and maurice had sent a message in response that so long as the sons conducted themselves well they might rely upon his support. hitherto they had not conducted themselves otherwise than well. stoutenburg, who now dwelt in his house with his mother, was of a dark, revengeful, turbulent disposition. in the career of arms he had a right to look forward to success, but thus condemned to brood in idleness on the cruel wrongs to himself and his house it was not improbable that he might become dangerous. years long he fed on projects of vengeance as his daily bread. he was convinced that his personal grievances were closely entwined with the welfare of the commonwealth, and he had sworn to avenge the death of his father, the misery of his mother, and the wrongs which he was himself suffering, upon the stadholder, whom he considered the author of all their woe. to effect a revolution in the government, and to bring back to power all the municipal regents whom maurice had displaced so summarily, in order, as the son believed, to effect the downfall of the hated advocate, this was the determination of stoutenburg. he did not pause to reflect whether the arm which had been strong enough to smite to nothingness the venerable statesman in the plenitude of his power would be too weak to repel the attack of an obscure and disarmed partisan. he saw only a hated tyrant, murderer, and oppressor, as he considered him, and he meant to have his life. he had around him a set of daring and desperate men to whom he had from time to time half confided his designs. a certain unfrocked preacher of the remonstrant persuasion, who, according to the fashion of the learned of that day, had translated his name out of hendrik sleet into henricus slatius, was one of his most unscrupulous instruments. slatius, a big, swarthy, shag-eared, beetle-browed hollander, possessed learning of no ordinary degree, a tempestuous kind of eloquence, and a habit of dealing with men; especially those of the humbler classes. he was passionate, greedy, overbearing, violent, and loose of life. he had sworn vengeance upon the remonstrants in consequence of a private quarrel, but this did not prevent him from breathing fire and fury against the contra-remonstrants also, and especially against the stadholder, whom he affected to consider the arch-enemy of the whole commonwealth. another twelvemonth went by. the advocate had been nearly four years in his grave. the terrible german war was in full blaze. the twelve years' truce had expired, the republic was once more at war, and stoutenburg, forbidden at the head of his troop to campaign with the stadholder against the archdukes, nourished more fiercely than ever his plan against the stadholder's life. besides the ferocious slatius he had other associates. there was his cousin by marriage, van der dussen, a catholic gentleman, who had married a daughter of elias barneveld, and who shared all stoutenburg's feelings of resentment towards maurice. there was korenwinder, another catholic, formerly occupying an official position of responsibility as secretary of the town of berkel, a man of immense corpulence, but none the less an active and dangerous conspirator. there was van dyk, a secretary of bleiswyk, equally active and dangerous, and as lean and hungry as korenwinder was fat. stoutenburg, besides other rewards, had promised him a cornetcy of cavalry, should their plans be successful. and there was the brother-in-law of slatius, one cornelis gerritaen, a joiner by trade, living at rotterdam, who made himself very useful in all the details of the conspiracy. for the plot was now arranged, the men just mentioned being its active agents and in constant communication with stoutenburg. korenwinder and van dyk in the last days of december drew up a scheme on paper, which was submitted to their chief and met with his approval. the document began with a violent invective against the crimes and tyranny of the stadholder, demonstrated the necessity of a general change in the government, and of getting rid of maurice as an indispensable preliminary, and laid down the means and method of doing this deed. the prince was in the daily habit of driving, unattended by his body-guard, to ryswyk, about two miles from the hague. it would not be difficult for a determined band of men divided into two parties to set upon him between the stables and his coach, either when alighting from or about to enter it--the one party to kill him while the other protected the retreat of the assassins, and beat down such defence as the few lackeys of the stadholder could offer. the scheme, thus mapped out, was submitted to stoutenburg, who gave it his approval after suggesting a few amendments. the document was then burnt. it was estimated that twenty men would be needed for the job, and that to pay them handsomely would require about guilders. the expenses and other details of the infamous plot were discussed as calmly as if it had been an industrial or commercial speculation. but guilders was an immense sum to raise, and the seigneur de stoutenburg was a beggar. his associates were as forlorn as himself, but his brother-in-law, the ex-ambassador van der myle, was living at beverwyk under the supervision of the police, his property not having been confiscated. stoutenburg paid him a visit, accompanied by the reverend slatius, in hopes of getting funds from him, but at the first obscure hint of the infamous design van der myle faced them with such looks, gestures, and words of disgust and indignation that the murderous couple recoiled, the son of barneveld saying to the expreacher: "let us be off, slaet,'tis a mere cur. nothing is to be made of him." the other son of barneveld, the seigneur de groeneveld, had means and credit. his brother had darkly hinted to him the necessity of getting rid of maurice, and tried to draw him into the plot. groeneveld, more unstable than water, neither repelled nor encouraged these advances. he joined in many conversations with stoutenburg, van dyk, and korenwinder, but always weakly affected not to know what they were driving at. "when we talk of business," said van dyk to him one day, "you are always turning off from us and from the subject. you had better remain." many anonymous letters were sent to him, calling on him to strike for vengeance on the murderer of his father, and for the redemption of his native land and the remonstrant religion from foul oppression. at last yielding to the persuasions and threats of his fierce younger brother, who assured him that the plot would succeed, the government be revolutionized, and that then all property would be at the mercy of the victors, he agreed to endorse certain bills which korenwinder undertook to negotiate. nothing could be meaner, more cowardly, and more murderous than the proceedings of the seigneur de groeneveld. he seems to have felt no intense desire of vengeance upon maurice, which certainly would not have been unnatural, but he was willing to supply money for his assassination. at the same time he was careful to insist that this pecuniary advance was by no means a free gift, but only a loan to be repaid by his more bloodthirsty brother upon demand with interest. with a businesslike caution, in ghastly contrast with the foulness of the contract, he exacted a note of hand from stoutenburg covering the whole amount of his disbursements. there might come a time, he thought, when his brother's paper would be more negotiable than it was at that moment. korenwinder found no difficulty in discounting groeneveld's bills, and the necessary capital was thus raised for the vile enterprise. van dyk, the lean and hungry conspirator, now occupied himself vigorously in engaging the assassins, while his corpulent colleague remained as treasurer of the company. two brothers blansaerts, woollen manufacturers at leyden--one of whom had been a student of theology in the remonstrant church and had occasionally preached--and a certain william party, a walloon by birth, but likewise a woollen worker at leyden, agreed to the secretary's propositions. he had at first told, them that their services would be merely required for the forcible liberation of two remonstrant clergymen, niellius and poppius, from the prison at haarlem. entertaining his new companions at dinner, however, towards the end of january, van dyk, getting very drunk, informed them that the object of the enterprise was to kill the stadholder; that arrangements had been made for effecting an immediate change in the magistracies in all the chief cities of holland so soon as the deed was done; that all the recently deposed regents would enter the hague at once, supported by a train of armed peasants from the country; and that better times for the oppressed religion, for the fatherland, and especially for everyone engaged in the great undertaking, would begin with the death of the tyrant. each man taking direct part in the assassination would receive at least guilders, besides being advanced to offices of honour and profit according to his capacity. the blansaerts assured their superior that entire reliance might be placed on their fidelity, and that they knew of three or four other men in leyden "as firm as trees and fierce as lions," whom they would engage--a fustian worker, a tailor, a chimney-sweeper, and one or two other mechanics. the looseness and utter recklessness with which this hideous conspiracy was arranged excites amazement. van dyk gave the two brothers pistoles in gold--a coin about equal to a guinea--for their immediate reward as well as for that of the comrades to be engaged. yet it seems almost certain from subsequent revelations that they were intending all the time to deceive him, to take as much money as they could get from him, "to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk," as william party expressed it, and then to turn round upon and betray him. it was a dangerous game however, which might not prove entirely successful. van dyk duly communicated with stoutenburg, who grew more and more feverish with hatred and impatience as the time for gratifying those passions drew nigh, and frequently said that he would like to tear the stadholder to pieces with his own hands. he preferred however to act as controlling director over the band of murderers now enrolled. for in addition to the leyden party, the reverend slatius, supplied with funds by van dyk, had engaged at rotterdam his brother-in-law gerritsen, a joiner, living in that city, together with three sailors named respectively dirk, john, and herman. the ex-clergyman's house was also the arsenal of the conspiracy, and here were stored away a stock of pistols, snaphances, and sledge-hammers--together with that other death-dealing machinery, the whole edition of the 'clearshining torch', an inflammatory, pamphlet by slatius--all to be used on the fatal day fast approaching. on the st february van dyk visited slatius at rotterdam. he found gerritsen hard at work. there in a dark back kitchen, by the lurid light of the fire in a dim wintry afternoon, stood the burly slatius, with his swarthy face and heavy eyebrows, accompanied by his brother-in-law the joiner, both in workman's dress, melting lead, running bullets, drying powder, and burnishing and arranging the fire-arms and other tools to be used in the great crime now so rapidly maturing. the lean, busy, restless van dyk, with his adust and sinister visage, came peering in upon the couple thus engaged, and observed their preparations with warm approval. he recommended that in addition to dirk, john, and herman, a few more hardy seafaring men should be engaged, and slatius accordingly secured next day the services of one jerome ewouts and three other sailors. they were not informed of the exact nature of the enterprise, but were told that it was a dangerous although not a desperate one, and sure to be of great service to the fatherland. they received, as all the rest had done, between and guilders in gold, that they would all be promoted to be captains and first mates. it was agreed that all the conspirators should assemble four days later at the hague on sunday, the th february, at the inn of the "golden helmet." the next day, monday the th, had been fixed by stoutenburg for doing the deed. van dyk, who had great confidence in the eloquence of william party, the walloon wool manufacturer, had arranged that he should make a discourse to them all in a solitary place in the downs between that city and the sea-shore, taking for his theme or brief the clearshining torch of slatius. on saturday that eminent divine entertained his sister and her husband gerritsen, jerome ewouts, who was at dinner but half informed as to the scope of the great enterprise, and several other friends who were entirely ignorant of it. slatius was in high spirits, although his sister, who had at last become acquainted with the vile plot, had done nothing but weep all day long. they had better be worms, with a promise of further reward and an intimation she said, and eat dirt for their food, than crawl in so base a business. her brother comforted her with assurances that the project was sure to result in a triumph for religion and fatherland, and drank many healths at his table to the success of all engaged in it. that evening he sent off a great chest filled with arms and ammunition to the "golden helmet" at the hague under the charge of jerome ewouts and his three mates. van dyk had already written a letter to the landlord of that hostelry engaging a room there, and saying that the chest contained valuable books and documents to be used in a lawsuit, in which he was soon to be engaged, before the supreme tribunal. on the sunday this bustling conspirator had john blansaert and william party to dine with him at the "golden helmet" in the hague, and produced seven packages neatly folded, each containing gold pieces to the amount of twenty pounds sterling. these were for themselves and the others whom they had reported as engaged by them in leyden. getting drunk as usual, he began to bluster of the great political revolution impending, and after dinner examined the carbines of his guests. he asked if those weapons were to be relied upon. "we can blow a hair to pieces with them at twenty paces," they replied. "ah! would that i too could be of the party," said van dyk, seizing one of the carbines. "no, no," said john blansaert, "we can do the deed better without you than with you. you must look out for the defence." van dyk then informed them that they, with one of the rotterdam sailors, were to attack maurice as he got out of his coach at ryswyk, pin him between the stables and the coach, and then and there do him to death. "you are not to leave him," he cried, "till his soul has left his body." the two expressed their hearty concurrence with this arrangement, and took leave of their host for the night, going, they said, to distribute the seven packages of blood-money. they found adam blansaert waiting for them in the downs, and immediately divided the whole amount between themselves and him--the chimney-sweeper, tailor, and fustian worker, "firm as trees and fierce as lions," having never had any existence save in their fertile imaginations. on monday, th february, van dyk had a closing interview with stoutenburg and his brother at the house of groeneveld, and informed them that the execution of the plot had been deferred to the following day. stoutenburg expressed disgust and impatience at the delay. "i should like to tear the stadholder to pieces with my own hands!" he cried. he was pacified on hearing that the arrangements had been securely made for the morrow, and turning to his brother observed, "remember that you can never retract. you are in our power and all your estates at our mercy." he then explained the manner in which the magistracies of leyden, gouda, rotterdam, and other cities were to be instantly remodelled after the death of maurice, the ex-regents of the hague at the head of a band of armed peasants being ready at a moment's warning to take possession of the political capital. prince frederic henry moreover, he hinted darkly and falsely, but in a manner not to be mistaken, was favourable to the movement, and would after the murder of maurice take the government into his hands. stoutenburg then went quietly home to pass the day and sleep at his mother's house awaiting the eventful morning of tuesday. van dyk went back to his room at the "golden helmet" and began inspecting the contents of the arms and ammunition chest which jerome ewouts and his three mates had brought the night before from rotterdam. he had been somewhat unquiet at having seen nothing of those mariners during the day; when looking out of window, he saw one of them in conference with some soldiers. a minute afterwards he heard a bustle in the rooms below, and found that the house was occupied by a guard, and that gerritsen, with the three first engaged sailors dirk, peter, and herman, had been arrested at the zotje. he tried in vain to throw the arms back into the chest and conceal it under the bed, but it was too late. seizing his hat and wrapping himself in his cloak, with his sword by his side, he walked calmly down the stairs looking carelessly at the group of soldiers and prisoners who filled the passages. a waiter informed the provost-marshal in command that the gentleman was a respectable boarder at the tavern, well known to him for many years. the conspirator passed unchallenged and went straight to inform stoutenburg. the four mariners, last engaged by slatius at rotterdam, had signally exemplified the danger of half confidences. surprised that they should have been so mysteriously entrusted with the execution of an enterprise the particulars of which were concealed from them, and suspecting that crime alone could command such very high prices as had been paid and promised by the ex-clergyman, they had gone straight to the residence of the stadholder, after depositing the chest at the "golden helmet." finding that he had driven as usual to ryswyk, they followed him thither, and by dint of much importunity obtained an audience. if the enterprise was a patriotic one, they reasoned, he would probably know of it and approve it. if it were criminal, it would be useful for them to reveal and dangerous to conceal it. they told the story so far as they knew it to the prince and showed him the money, florins apiece, which they had already received from slatius. maurice hesitated not an instant. it was evident that a dark conspiracy was afoot. he ordered the sailors to return to the hague by another and circuitous road through voorburg, while he lost not a moment himself in hurrying back as fast as his horses would carry him. summoning the president and several councillors of the chief tribunal, he took instant measures to take possession of the two taverns, and arrest all the strangers found in them. meantime van dyk came into the house of the widow barneveld and found stoutenburg in the stable-yard. he told him the plot was discovered, the chest of arms at the "golden helmet" found. "are there any private letters or papers in the bog?" asked stoutenburg. "none relating to the affair," was the answer. "take yourself off as fast as possible," said stoutenburg. van dyk needed no urging. he escaped through the stables and across the fields in the direction of leyden. after skulking about for a week however and making very little progress, he was arrested at hazerswoude, having broken through the ice while attempting to skate across the inundated and frozen pastures in that region. proclamations were at once made, denouncing the foul conspiracy in which the sons of the late advocate barneveld, the remonstrant clergyman slatius, and others, were the ringleaders, and offering florins each for their apprehension. a public thanksgiving for the deliverance was made in all the churches on the th february. on the th february the states-general sent letters to all their ambassadors and foreign agents, informing them of this execrable plot to overthrow the commonwealth and take the life of the stadholder, set on foot by certain arminian preachers and others of that faction, and this too in winter, when the ice and snow made hostile invasion practicable, and when the enemy was encamped in so many places in the neighbourhood. "the arminians," said the despatch, "are so filled with bitterness that they would rather the republic should be lost than that their pretended grievances should go unredressed." almost every pulpit shook with contra-remonstrant thunder against the whole society of remonstrants, who were held up to the world as rebels and prince-murderers; the criminal conspiracy being charged upon them as a body. hardly a man of that persuasion dared venture into the streets and public places, for fear of being put to death by the rabble. the chevalier william of nassau, natural son of the stadholder, was very loud and violent in all the taverns and tap-rooms, drinking mighty draughts to the damnation of the arminians. many of the timid in consequence shrank away from the society and joined the contra-remonstrant church, while the more courageous members, together with the leaders of that now abhorred communion, published long and stirring appeals to the universal sense of justice, which was outraged by the spectacle of a whole sect being punished for a crime committed by a few individuals, who had once been unworthy members of it. meantime hue and cry was made after the fugitive conspirators. the blansaerts and william party having set off from leyden towards the hague on monday night, in order, as they said, to betray their employers, whose money they had taken, and whose criminal orders they had agreed to execute, attempted to escape, but were arrested within ten days. they were exhibited at their prison at amsterdam to an immense concourse at a shilling a peep, the sums thus collected being distributed to the poor. slatius made his way disguised as a boor into friesland, and after various adventures attempted to cross the bourtange moors to lingen. stopping to refresh himself at a tavern near koevorden, he found himself in the tap-room in presence of quartermaster blau and a company of soldiers from the garrison. the dark scowling boor, travel-stained and weary, with felt hat slouched over his forbidding visage, fierce and timorous at once like a hunted wild beast, excited their suspicion. seeing himself watched, he got up, paid his scot, and departed, leaving his can of beer untasted. this decided the quartermaster, who accordingly followed the peasant out of the house, and arrested him as a spanish spy on the watch for the train of specie which the soldiers were then conveying into koevorden castle. slatius protested his innocence of any such design, and vehemently besought the officer to release him, telling him as a reason for his urgency and an explanation of his unprepossessing aspect--that he was an oculist from amsterdam, john hermansen by name, that he had just committed a homicide in that place, and was fleeing from justice. the honest quartermaster saw no reason why a suspected spy should go free because he proclaimed himself a murderer, nor why an oculist should escape the penalties of homicide. "the more reason," he said, "why thou shouldst be my prisoner." the ex-preacher was arrested and shut up in the state prison at the hague. the famous engraver visser executed a likeness on copper-plate of the grim malefactor as he appeared in his boor's disguise. the portrait, accompanied by a fiercely written broadsheet attacking the remonstrant church, had a great circulation, and deepened the animosity against the sect upon which the unfrocked preacher had sworn vengeance. his evil face and fame thus became familiar to the public, while the term hendrik slaet became a proverb at pot-houses, being held equivalent among tipplers to shirking the bottle. korenwinder, the treasurer of the association, coming to visit stoutenburg soon after van dyk had left him, was informed of the discovery of the plot and did his best to escape, but was arrested within a fortnight's time. stoutenburg himself acted with his usual promptness and coolness. having gone straightway to his brother to notify him of the discovery and to urge him to instant flight, he contrived to disappear. a few days later a chest of merchandise was brought to the house of a certain citizen of rotterdam, who had once been a fiddler, but was now a man of considerable property. the chest, when opened, was found to contain the seigneur de stoutenburg, who in past times had laid the fiddler under obligations, and in whose house he now lay concealed for many days, and until the strictness with which all roads and ferries in the neighbourhood were watched at first had somewhat given way. meantime his cousin van der dussen had also effected his escape, and had joined him in rotterdam. the faithful fiddler then, for a thousand florins, chartered a trading vessel commanded by one jacob beltje to take a cargo of dutch cheese to wesel on the rhine. by this means, after a few adventures, they effected their escape, and, arriving not long afterwards at brussels, were formally taken under the protection of the archduchess isabella. stoutenburg afterwards travelled in france and italy, and returned to brussels. his wife, loathing his crime and spurning all further communication with him, abandoned him to his fate. the daughter of marnix of sainte-aldegonde had endured poverty, obscurity, and unmerited obloquy, which had become the lot of the great statesman's family after his tragic end, but she came of a race that would not brook dishonour. the conspirator and suborner of murder and treason, the hirer and companion of assassins, was no mate for her. stoutenburg hesitated for years as to his future career, strangely enough keeping up a hope of being allowed to return to his country. subsequently he embraced the cause of his country's enemies, converted himself to the roman church, and obtained a captaincy of horse in the spanish service. he was seen one day, to the disgust of many spectators, to enter antwerp in black foreign uniform, at the head of his troopers, waving a standard with a death's-head embroidered upon it, and wearing, like his soldiers, a sable scarf and plume. history disdains to follow further the career of the renegade, traitor, end assassin. when the seigneur de groeneveld learned from his younger brother, on the eventful th of february, that the plot had been discovered, he gave himself up for lost. remorse and despair, fastening upon his naturally feeble character, seemed to render him powerless. his wife, of more hopeful disposition than himself and of less heroic mould than walburg de marnix, encouraged him to fly. he fled accordingly, through the desolate sandy downs which roll between the hague and the sea, to scheveningen, then an obscure fishing village on the coast, at a league's distance from the capital. here a fisherman, devoted to him and his family, received him in his hut, disguised him in boatman's attire, and went with him to the strand, proposing to launch his pinkie, put out at once to sea, and to land him on the english coast, the french coast, in hamburg--where he would. the sight of that long, sandy beach stretching for more than seventy miles in an unbroken, melancholy line, without cove, curve, or indentation to break its cruel monotony, and with the wild waves of the german ocean, lashed by a wintry storm, breaking into white foam as far as the eye could reach, appalled the fugitive criminal. with the certainty of an ignominious death behind him, he shrank abjectly from the terrors of the sea, and, despite the honest fisherman's entreaties, refused to enter the boat and face the storm. he wandered feebly along the coast, still accompanied by his humble friend, to another little village, where the fisherman procured a waggon, which took them as far as sandvoort. thence he made his way through egmond and petten and across the marsdiep to tegel, where not deeming himself safe he had himself ferried over to the neighbouring island of vlieland. here amongst the quicksands, whirlpools, and shallows which mark the last verge of habitable holland, the unhappy fugitive stood at bay. meantime information had come to the authorities that a suspicious stranger had been seen at scheveningen. the fisherman's wife was arrested. threatened with torture she at last confessed with whom her husband had fled and whither. information was sent to the bailiff of vlieland, who with a party of followers made a strict search through his narrow precincts. a group of seamen seated on the sands was soon discovered, among whom, dressed in shaggy pea jacket with long fisherman's boots, was the seigneur de groeneveld, who, easily recognized through his disguise, submitted to his captors without a struggle. the scheveningen fisherman, who had been so faithful to him, making a sudden spring, eluded his pursuers and disappeared; thus escaping the gibbet which would probably have been his doom instead of the reward of golden guilders which he might have had for betraying him. thus a sum more than double the amount originally furnished by groeneveld, as the capital of the assassination company, had been rejected by the rotterdam boatman who saved stoutenburg, and by the scheveningen fisherman who was ready to save groeneveld. on the th february, within less than a fortnight from the explosion of the conspiracy, the eldest son of barneveld was lodged in the gevangen poort or state prison of the hague. the awful news of the th february had struck the widow of barneveld as with a thunderbolt. both her sons were proclaimed as murderers and suborners of assassins, and a price put upon their heads. she remained for days neither speaking nor weeping; scarcely eating, drinking, or sleeping. she seemed frozen to stone. her daughters and friends could not tell whether she were dying or had lost her reason. at length the escape of stoutenburg and the capture of groeneveld seemed to rouse her from her trance. she then stooped to do what she had sternly refused to do when her husband was in the hands of the authorities. accompanied by the wife and infant son of groeneveld she obtained an audience of the stern stadholder, fell on her knees before him, and implored mercy and pardon for her son. maurice received her calmly and not discourteously, but held out no hopes of pardon. the criminal was in the hands of justice, he said, and he had no power to interfere. but there can scarcely be a doubt that he had power after the sentence to forgive or to commute, and it will be remembered that when barneveld himself was about to suffer, the prince had asked the clergyman walaeus with much anxiety whether the prisoner in his message had said nothing of pardon. referring to the bitter past, maurice asked madame de barneveld why she not asked mercy for her son, having refused to do so for her husband. her answer was simple and noble: "my husband was innocent of crime," she said; "my son is guilty." the idea of pardon in this case was of course preposterous. certainly if groeneveld had been forgiven, it would have been impossible to punish the thirteen less guilty conspirators, already in the hands of justice, whom he had hired to commit the assassination. the spectacle of the two cowardly ringleaders going free while the meaner criminals were gibbeted would have been a shock to the most rudimentary ideas of justice. it would have been an equal outrage to pardon the younger barnevelds for intended murder, in which they had almost succeeded, when their great father had already suffered for a constructive lese-majesty, the guilt of which had been stoutly denied. yet such is the dreary chain of cause and effect that it is certain, had pardon been nobly offered to the statesman, whose views of constitutional law varied from those of the dominant party, the later crime would never have been committed. but francis aerssens--considering his own and other partisans lives at stake if the states' right party did not fall--had been able to bear down all thoughts of mercy. he was successful, was called to the house of nobles, and regained the embassy of paris, while the house of barneveld was trodden into the dust of dishonour and ruin. rarely has an offended politician's revenge been more thorough than his. never did the mocking fiend betray his victims into the hands of the avenger more sardonically than was done in this sombre tragedy. the trials of the prisoners were rapidly conducted. van dyk, cruelly tortured, confessed on the rack all the details of the conspiracy as they were afterwards embodied in the sentences and have been stated in the preceding narrative. groeneveld was not tortured. his answers to the interrogatories were so vague as to excite amazement at his general ignorance of the foul transaction or at the feebleness of his memory, while there was no attempt on his part to exculpate himself from the damning charge. that it was he who had furnished funds for the proposed murder and mutiny, knowing the purpose to which they were to be applied, was proved beyond all cavil and fully avowed by him. on the th may, he, korenwinder, and van dyk were notified that they were to appear next day in the courthouse to hear their sentence, which would immediately afterwards be executed. that night his mother, wife, and son paid him a long visit of farewell in his prison. the gevangen poort of the hague, an antique but mean building of brown brick and commonplace aspect, still stands in one of the most public parts of the city. a gloomy archway, surmounted by windows grimly guarded by iron lattice-work, forms the general thoroughfare from the aristocratic plaats and kneuterdyk and vyverberg to the inner court of the ancient palace. the cells within are dark, noisome, and dimly lighted, and even to this day the very instruments of torture, used in the trials of these and other prisoners, may be seen by the curious. half a century later the brothers de witt were dragged from this prison to be literally torn to pieces by an infuriated mob. the misery of that midnight interview between the widow of barneveld, her daughter-in-law, and the condemned son and husband need not be described. as the morning approached, the gaoler warned the matrons to take their departure that the prisoner might sleep. "what a woful widow you will be," said groeneveld to his wife, as she sank choking with tears upon the ground. the words suddenly aroused in her the sense of respect for their name. "at least for all this misery endured," she said firmly, "do me enough honour to die like a gentleman." he promised it. the mother then took leave of the son, and history drops a decorous veil henceforth over the grief-stricken form of mary of barneveld. next morning the life-guards of the stadholder and other troops were drawn up in battle-array in the outer and inner courtyard of the supreme tribunal and palace. at ten o'clock groeneveld came forth from the prison. the stadholder had granted as a boon to the family that he might be neither fettered nor guarded as he walked to the tribunal. the prisoner did not forget his parting promise to his wife. he appeared full-dressed in velvet cloak and plumed hat, with rapier by his side, walking calmly through the inner courtyard to the great hall. observing the windows of the stadholder's apartments crowded with spectators, among whom he seemed to recognize the prince's face, he took off his hat and made a graceful and dignified salute. he greeted with courtesy many acquaintances among the crowd through which he passed. he entered the hall and listened in silence to the sentence condemning him to be immediately executed with the sword. van dyk and korenwinder shared the same doom, but were provisionally taken back to prison. groeneveld then walked calmly and gracefully as before from the hall to the scaffold, attended by his own valet, and preceded by the provost-marshal and assistants. he was to suffer, not where his father had been beheaded, but on the "green sod." this public place of execution for ordinary criminals was singularly enough in the most elegant and frequented quarter of the hague. a few rods from the gevangen poort, at the western end of the vyverberg, on the edge of the cheerful triangle called the plaats, and looking directly down the broad and stately kneuterdyk, at the end of which stood aremberg house, lately the residence of the great advocate, was the mean and sordid scaffold. groeneveld ascended it with perfect composure. the man who had been browbeaten into crime by an overbearing and ferocious brother, who had quailed before the angry waves of the north sea, which would have borne him to a place of entire security, now faced his fate with a smile upon his lips. he took off his hat, cloak, and sword, and handed them to his valet. he calmly undid his ruff and wristbands of pointlace, and tossed them on the ground. with his own hands and the assistance of his servant he unbuttoned his doublet, laying breast and neck open without suffering the headsman's hands to approach him. he then walked to the heap of sand and spoke a very few words to the vast throng of spectators. "desire of vengeance and evil counsel," he said, "have brought me here. if i have wronged any man among you, i beg him for christ's sake to forgive me." kneeling on the sand with his face turned towards his father's house at the end of the kneuterdyk, he said his prayers. then putting a red velvet cap over his eyes, he was heard to mutter: "o god! what a man i was once, and what am i now?" calmly folding his hands, he said, "patience." the executioner then struck off his head at a blow. his body, wrapped in a black cloak, was sent to his house and buried in his father's tomb. van dyk and korenwinder were executed immediately afterwards. they were quartered and their heads exposed on stakes. the joiner gerritsen and the three sailors had already been beheaded. the blansaerts and william party, together with the grim slatius, who was savage and turbulent to the last, had suffered on the th of may. fourteen in all were executed for this crime, including an unfortunate tailor and two other mechanics of leyden, who had heard something whispered about the conspiracy, had nothing whatever to do with it, but from ignorance, apathy, or timidity did not denounce it. the ringleader and the equally guilty van der dussen had, as has been seen, effected their escape. thus ended the long tragedy of the barnevelds. the result of this foul conspiracy and its failure to effect the crime proposed strengthened immensely the power, popularity, and influence of the stadholder, made the orthodox church triumphant, and nearly ruined the sect of the remonstrants, the arminians--most unjustly in reality, although with a pitiful show of reason--being held guilty of the crime of stoutenburg and slatius. the republic--that magnificent commonwealth which in its infancy had confronted, single-handed, the greatest empire of the earth, and had wrested its independence from the ancient despot after a forty years' struggle--had now been rent in twain, although in very unequal portions, by the fiend of political and religious hatred. thus crippled, she was to go forth and take her share in that awful conflict now in full blaze, and of which after-ages were to speak with a shudder as the thirty years' war. etext editor's bookmarks: argument in a circle he that stands let him see that he does not fall if he has deserved it, let them strike off his head misery had come not from their being enemies o god! what does man come to! party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive this, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the state to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk etext editor's bookmarks, entire john of barneveld, - : acts of violence which under pretext of religion adulation for inferiors whom they despise affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies and give advice. of that, although always a spendthrift argument in a circle better to be governed by magistrates than mobs burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain casual outbursts of eternal friendship changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day conciliation when war of extermination was intended considered it his special mission in the world to mediate created one child for damnation and another for salvation death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt denoungced as an obstacle to peace depths theological party spirit could descend depths of credulity men in all ages can sink devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence france was mourning henry and waiting for richelieu furious mob set upon the house of rem bischop hardly a sound protestant policy anywhere but in holland he that stands let him see that he does not fall heidelberg catechism were declared to be infallible highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation history has not too many really important and emblematic men human nature in its meanness and shame i hope and i fear i know how to console myself if he has deserved it, let them strike off his head implication there was much, of assertion very little in this he was much behind his age or before it it had not yet occurred to him that he was married john robinson king who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword make the very name of man a term of reproach misery had come not from their being enemies mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated more apprehension of fraud than of force necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns never lack of fishers in troubled waters not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed o god! what does man come to! only true religion opening an abyss between government and people opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood partisans wanted not accommodation but victory party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk pot-valiant hero puritanism in holland was a very different thing from england rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive seemed bent on self-destruction stand between hope and fear successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones tempest of passion and prejudice that he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice the magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness the effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny the evils resulting from a confederate system of government this, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the state this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk to stifle for ever the right of free enquiry william brewster wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome yes, there are wicked men about yesterday is the preceptor of to-morrow etext editor's bookmarks, entire john of barneveld - : abstinence from inquisition into consciences and private parlour acts of violence which under pretext of religion adulation for inferiors whom they despise advanced orthodox party-puritans affection of his friends and the wrath of his enemies allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body almost infinite power of the meanest of passions and give advice. of that, although always a spendthrift and now the knife of another priest-led fanatic argument in a circle aristocracy of god's elect as with his own people, keeping no back-door open at a blow decapitated france atheist, a tyrant, because he resisted dictation from the clergy behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics better to be governed by magistrates than mobs burning with bitter revenge for all the favours he had received calumny is often a stronger and more lasting power than disdain casual outbursts of eternal friendship changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient conciliation when war of extermination was intended conclusive victory for the allies seemed as predestined considered it his special mission in the world to mediate contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty could not be both judge and party in the suit covered now with the satirical dust of centuries created one child for damnation and another for salvation deadly hatred of puritans in england and holland death rather than life with a false acknowledgment of guilt denoungced as an obstacle to peace depths of credulity men in all ages can sink depths theological party spirit could descend determined to bring the very name of liberty into contempt devote himself to his gout and to his fair young wife disputing the eternal damnation of young children doctrine of predestination in its sternest and strictest sense emperor of japan addressed him as his brother monarch enemy of all compulsion of the human conscience epernon, the true murderer of henry estimating his character and judging his judges everybody should mind his own business extraordinary capacity for yielding to gentle violence fate, free will, or absolute foreknowledge father cotton, who was only too ready to betray the secrets france was mourning henry and waiting for richelieu furious mob set upon the house of rem bischop give him advice if he asked it, and money when he required great war of religion and politics was postponed hardly a sound protestant policy anywhere but in holland he was not imperial of aspect on canvas or coin he who would have all may easily lose all he who spreads the snare always tumbles into the ditch himself he was a sincere bigot he that stands let him see that he does not fall heidelberg catechism were declared to be infallible highborn demagogues in that as in every age affect adulation history has not too many really important and emblematic men human nature in its meanness and shame i know how to console myself i hope and i fear if he has deserved it, let them strike off his head impatience is often on the part of the non-combatants implication there was much, of assertion very little in this he was much behind his age or before it intense bigotry of conviction international friendship, the self-interest of each it had not yet occurred to him that he was married it was the true religion, and there was none other james of england, who admired, envied, and hated henry jealousy, that potent principle jesuit mariana--justifying the killing of excommunicated kings john robinson king who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy king's definite and final intentions, varied from day to day language which is ever living because it is dead logic is rarely the quality on which kings pride themselves louis xiii. ludicrous gravity magistracy at that moment seemed to mean the sword make the very name of man a term of reproach misery had come not from their being enemies mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated more apprehension of fraud than of force more fiercely opposed to each other than to papists most detestable verses that even he had ever composed necessity of deferring to powerful sovereigns neither kings nor governments are apt to value logic never lack of fishers in troubled waters no man pretended to think of the state no man can be neutral in civil contentions no synod had a right to claim netherlanders as slaves none but god to compel me to say more than i choose to say not his custom nor that of his councillors to go to bed o god! what does man come to! only true religion opening an abyss between government and people opposed the subjection of the magistracy by the priesthood outdoing himself in dogmatism and inconsistency partisans wanted not accommodation but victory party hatred was not yet glutted with the blood it had drunk philip iv. pot-valiant hero power the poison of which it is so difficult to resist practised successfully the talent of silence presents of considerable sums of money to the negotiators made priests shall control the state or the state govern the priests princes show what they have in them at twenty-five or never puritanism in holland was a very different thing from england putting the cart before the oxen queen is entirely in the hands of spain and the priests rather a wilderness to reign over than a single heretic religion was made the strumpet of political ambition religious toleration, which is a phrase of insult resolve to maintain the civil authority over the military rose superior to his doom and took captivity captive safest citadel against an invader and a tyrant is distrust schism in the church had become a public fact secure the prizes of war without the troubles and dangers seemed bent on self-destruction senectus edam maorbus est she declined to be his procuress small matter which human folly had dilated into a great one smooth words, in the plentiful lack of any substantial so much in advance of his time as to favor religious equality stand between hope and fear stroke of a broken table knife sharpened on a carriage wheel successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones tempest of passion and prejudice that he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice that cynical commerce in human lives the effect of energetic, uncompromising calumny the evils resulting from a confederate system of government the vehicle is often prized more than the freight the voice of slanderers the truth in shortest about matters of importance the assassin, tortured and torn by four horses the defence of the civil authority against the priesthood the magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness the catholic league and the protestant union their own roofs were not quite yet in a blaze theological hatred was in full blaze throughout the country theology and politics were one there was no use in holding language of authority to him there was but one king in europe, henry the bearnese therefore now denounced the man whom he had injured they have killed him, 'e ammazato,' cried concini things he could tell which are too odious and dreadful thirty years' war tread on the heels of the forty years this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination this, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the state to milk, the cow as long as she would give milk to stifle for ever the right of free enquiry to look down upon their inferior and lost fellow creatures uncouple the dogs and let them run unimaginable outrage as the most legitimate industry vows of an eternal friendship of several weeks' duration what could save the house of austria, the cause of papacy whether repentance could effect salvation whether dead infants were hopelessly damned whose mutual hatred was now artfully inflamed by partisans william brewster wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome wish to appear learned in matters of which they are ignorant work of the aforesaid puritans and a few jesuits wrath of the jesuits at this exercise of legal authority yes, there are wicked men about yesterday is the preceptor of to-morrow this ebook was produced by david widger [note: there is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. d.w.] the life and death of john of barneveld, advocate of holland with a view of the primary causes and movements of the thirty years' war by john lothrop motley, d.c.l., ll.d. motley's history of the netherlands, project gutenberg edition, volume life and death of john of barneveld, v , - chapter xi. the advocate sounds the alarm in germany--his instructions to langerac and his forethought--the prince--palatine and his forces take aachen, mulheim, and other towns--supineness of the protestants--increased activity of austria and the league--barneveld strives to obtain help from england--neuburg departs for germany-- barneveld the prime minister of protestantism--ernest mansfield takes service under charles emmanuel--count john of nassau goes to savoy--slippery conduct of king james in regard to the new treaty proposed--barneveld's influence greater in france than in england-- sequestration feared--the elector of brandenburg cited to appear before the emperor at prague--murder of john van wely--uytenbogaert incurs maurice's displeasure--marriage of the king of france with anne of austria--conference between king james and caron concerning piracy, cloth trade and treaty of xanten--barneveld's survey of the condition of europe--his efforts to avert the impending general war. i have thus purposely sketched the leading features of a couple of momentous, although not eventful, years--so far as the foreign policy of the republic is concerned--in order that the reader may better understand the bearings and the value of the advocate's actions and writings at that period. this work aims at being a political study. i would attempt to exemplify the influence of individual humours and passions--some of them among the highest and others certainly the basest that agitate humanity- upon the march of great events, upon general historical results at certain epochs, and upon the destiny of eminent personages. it may also be not uninteresting to venture a glance into the internal structure and workings of a republican and federal system of government, then for the first time reproduced almost spontaneously upon an extended scale. perhaps the revelation of some of its defects, in spite of the faculty and vitality struggling against them, may not be without value for our own country and epoch. the system of switzerland was too limited and homely, that of venice too purely oligarchical, to have much moral for us now, or to render a study of their pathological phenomena especially instructive. the lessons taught us by the history of the netherland confederacy may have more permanent meaning. moreover, the character of a very considerable statesman at an all- important epoch, and in a position of vast responsibility, is always an historical possession of value to mankind. that of him who furnishes the chief theme for these pages has been either overlooked and neglected or perhaps misunderstood by posterity. history has not too many really important and emblematic men on its records to dispense with the memory of barneveld, and the writer therefore makes no apology for dilating somewhat fully upon his lifework by means of much of his entirely unpublished and long forgotten utterances. the advocate had ceaselessly been sounding the alarm in germany. for the protestant union, fascinated, as it were, by the threatening look of the catholic league, seemed relapsing into a drowse. "i believe," he said to one of his agents in that country, "that the evangelical electors and princes and the other estates are not alive to the danger. i am sure that it is not apprehended in great britain. france is threatened with troubles. these are the means to subjugate the religion, the laws and liberties of germany. without an army the troops now on foot in italy cannot be kept out of germany. yet we do not hear that the evangelicals are making provision of troops, money, or any other necessaries. in this country we have about one hundred places occupied with our troops, among whom are many who could destroy a whole army. but the maintenance of these places prevents our being very strong in the field, especially outside our frontiers. but if in all germany there be many places held by the evangelicals which would disperse a great army is very doubtful. keep a watchful eye. economy is a good thing, but the protection of a country and its inhabitants must be laid to heart. watch well if against these provinces, and against bohemia, austria, and other as it is pretended rebellious states, these plans are not directed. look out for the movements of the italian and bavarian troops against germany. you see how they are nursing the troubles and misunderstandings in france, and turning them to account." he instructed the new ambassador in paris to urge upon the french government the absolute necessity of punctuality in furnishing the payment of their contingent in the netherlands according to convention. the states of holland themselves had advanced the money during three years' past, but this anticipation was becoming very onerous. it was necessary to pay the troops every month regularly, but the funds from paris were always in arrear. england contributed about one-half as much in subsidy, but these moneys went in paying the garrisons of brielle, flushing, and rammekens, fortresses pledged to that crown. the ambassador was shrewdly told not to enlarge on the special employment of the english funds while holding up to the queen's government that she was not the only potentate who helped bear burthens for the provinces, and insisted on a continuation of this aid. "remember and let them remember," said the advocate, "that the reforms which they are pretending to make there by relieving the subjects of contributions tends to enervate the royal authority and dignity both within and without, to diminish its lustre and reputation, and in sum to make the king unable to gratify and assist his subjects, friends, and allies. make them understand that the taxation in these provinces is ten times higher than there, and that my lords the states hitherto by the grace of god and good administration have contrived to maintain it in order to be useful to themselves and their friends. take great pains to have it well understood that this is even more honourable and more necessary for a king of france, especially in his minority, than for a republic 'hoc turbato seculo.' we all see clearly how some potentates in europe are keeping at all time under one pretext or another strong forces well armed on a war footing. it therefore behoves his majesty to be likewise provided with troops, and at least with a good exchequer and all the requirements of war, as well for the security of his own state as for the maintenance of the grandeur and laudable reputation left to him by the deceased king." truly here was sound and substantial advice, never and nowhere more needed than in france. it was given too with such good effect as to bear fruit even upon stoniest ground, and it is a refreshing spectacle to see this plain advocate of a republic, so lately sprung into existence out of the depths of oppression and rebellion, calmly summoning great kings as it were before him and instructing them in those vital duties of government in discharge of which the country he administered already furnished a model. had england and france each possessed a barneveld at that epoch, they might well have given in exchange for him a wilderness of epernons and sillerys, bouillons and conde's; of winwoods, lakes, carrs, and villierses. but elizabeth with her counsellors was gone, and henry was gone, and richelieu had not come; while in england james and his minions were diligently opening an abyss between government and people which in less than half a lifetime more should engulph the kingdom. two months later he informed the states' ambassador of the communications made by the prince of conde and the dukes of nevers and bouillon to the government at the hague now that they had effected a kind of reconciliation with the queen. langerac was especially instructed to do his best to assist in bringing about cordial relations, if that were possible, between the crown and the rebels, and meantime he was especially directed to defend du maurier against the calumnious accusations brought against him, of which aerssens had been the secret sower. "you will do your best to manage," he said, "that no special ambassador be sent hither, and that m. du maurier may remain with us, he being a very intelligent and moderate person now well instructed as to the state of our affairs, a professor of the reformed religion, and having many other good qualities serviceable to their majesties and to us. "you will visit the prince, and other princes and officers of the crown who are coming to court again, and do all good offices as well for the court as for m. du maurier, in order that through evil plots and slanderous reports no harm may come to him. "take great pains to find out all you can there as to the designs of the king of spain, the archdukes, and the emperor, in the affair of julich. you are also to let it be known that the change of religion on the part of the prince-palatine of neuburg will not change our good will and affection for him, so far as his legal claims are concerned." so long as it was possible for the states to retain their hold on both the claimants, the advocate, pursuant to his uniform policy of moderation, was not disposed to help throw the palatine into the hands of the spanish party. he was well aware, however, that neuburg by his marriage and his conversion was inevitably to become the instrument of the league and to be made use of in the duchies at its pleasure, and that he especially would be the first to submit with docility to the decree of the emperor. the right to issue such decree the states under guidance of barneveld were resolved to resist at all hazards. "work diligently, nevertheless," said he, "that they permit nothing there directly or indirectly that may tend to the furtherance of the league, as too prejudicial to us and to all our fellow religionists. tell them too that the late king, the king of great britain, the united electors and princes of germany, and ourselves, have always been resolutely opposed to making the dispute about the succession in the duchies depend on the will of the emperor and his court. all our movements in the year against the attempted sequestration under leopold were to carry out that purpose. hold it for certain that our present proceedings for strengthening and maintaining the city and fortress of julich are considered serviceable and indispensable by the british king and the german electors and princes. use your best efforts to induce the french government to pursue the same policy--if it be not possible openly, then at least secretly. my conviction is that, unless the prince-palatine is supported by, and his whole designs founded upon, the general league against all our brethren of the religion, affairs may be appeased." the envoy was likewise instructed to do his best to further the matrimonial alliance which had begun to be discussed between the prince of wales and the second daughter of france. had it been possible at that moment to bring the insane dream of james for a spanish alliance to naught, the states would have breathed more freely. he was also to urge payment of the money for the french regiments, always in arrears since henry's death and sully's dismissal, and always supplied by the exchequer of holland. he was informed that the republic had been sending some war ships to the levant, to watch the armada recently sent thither by spain, and other armed vessels into the baltic, to pursue the corsairs with whom every sea was infested. in one year alone he estimated the loss to dutch merchants by these pirates at , florins. "we have just captured two of the rovers, but the rascally scum is increasing," he said. again alluding to the resistance to be made by the states to the imperial pretensions, he observed, "the emperor is about sending us a herald in the julich matter, but we know how to stand up to him." and notwithstanding the bare possibility which he had admitted, that the prince of neuburg might not yet have wholly sold himself, body and soul, to the papists, he gave warning a day or two afterwards in france that all should be prepared for the worst. "the archdukes and the prince of neuburg appear to be taking the war earnestly in hand," he said. "we believe that the papistical league is about to make a great effort against all the co-religionists. we are watching closely their movements. aachen is first threatened, and the elector-palatine likewise. france surely, for reasons of state, cannot permit that they should be attacked. she did, and helped us to do, too much in the julich campaign to suffer the spaniards to make themselves masters there now." it has been seen that the part played by france in the memorable campaign of was that of admiring auxiliary to the states' forces; marshal de la chatre having in all things admitted the superiority of their army and the magnificent generalship of prince maurice. but the government of the dowager had been committed by that enterprise to carry out the life-long policy of henry, and to maintain his firm alliance with the republic. whether any of the great king's acuteness and vigour in countermining and shattering the plans of the house of austria was left in the french court, time was to show. meantime barneveld was crying himself hoarse with warnings into the dull ears of england and france. a few weeks later the prince of neuburg had thrown off the mask. twelve thousand foot and horse had been raised in great haste, so the advocate informed the french court, by spain and the archdukes, for the use of that pretender. five or six thousand spaniards were coming by sea to flanders, and as many italians were crossing the mountains, besides a great number mustering for the same purpose in germany and lorraine. barneveld was constantly receiving most important intelligence of military plans and movements from prague, which he placed daily before the eyes of governments wilfully blind. "i ponder well at this crisis," he said to his friend caron, "the intelligence i received some months back from ratisbon, out of the cabinet of the jesuits, that the design of the catholic or roman league is to bring this year a great army into the field, in order to make neuburg, who was even then said to be of the roman profession and league, master of julich and the duchies; to execute the imperial decree against aachen and mulheim, preventing any aid from being sent into germany by these provinces, or by great britain, and placing the archduke and marquis spinola in command of the forces; to put another army on the frontiers of austria, in order to prevent any succour coming from hungary, bohemia, austria, moravia, and silesia into germany; to keep all these disputed territories in subjection and devotion to the emperor, and to place the general conduct of all these affairs in the hands of archduke leopold and other princes of the house of austria. a third army is to be brought into the upper palatinate, under command of the duke of bavaria and others of the league, destined to thoroughly carry out its designs against the elector-palatine, and the other electors, princes, and estates belonging to the religion." this intelligence, plucked by barneveld out of the cabinet of the jesuits, had been duly communicated by him months before to those whom it most concerned, and as usual it seemed to deepen the lethargy of the destined victims and their friends. not only the whole spanish campaign of the present year had thus been duly mapped out by the advocate, long before it occurred, but this long buried and forgotten correspondence of the statesman seems rather like a chronicle of transactions already past, so closely did the actual record, which posterity came to know too well, resemble that which he saw, and was destined only to see, in prophetic vision. could this political seer have cast his horoscope of the thirty years' war at this hour of its nativity for the instruction of such men as walsingham or burleigh, henry of navarre or sully, richelieu or gustavus adolphus, would the course of events have been modified? these very idlest of questions are precisely those which inevitably occur as one ponders the seeming barrenness of an epoch in reality so pregnant. "one would think," said barneveld, comparing what was then the future with the real past, "that these plans in prague against the elector- palatine are too gross for belief; but when i reflect on the intense bitterness of these people, when i remember what was done within living men's memory to the good elector hans frederic of saxony for exactly the same reasons, to wit, hatred of our religion, and determination to establish imperial authority, i have great apprehension. i believe that the roman league will use the present occasion to carry out her great design; holding france incapable of opposition to her, germany in too great division, and imagining to themselves that neither the king of great britain nor these states are willing or able to offer effectual and forcible resistance. yet his majesty of great britain ought to be able to imagine how greatly the religious matter in general concerns himself and the electoral house of the palatine, as principal heads of the religion, and that these vast designs should be resisted betimes, and with all possible means and might. my lords the states have good will, but not sufficient strength, to oppose these great forces single-handed. one must not believe that without great and prompt assistance in force from his majesty and other fellow religionists my lords the states can undertake so vast an affair. do your uttermost duty there, in order that, ere it be too late, this matter be taken to heart by his majesty, and that his authority and credit be earnestly used with other kings, electors, princes, and republics, that they do likewise. the promptest energy, good will, and affection may be reckoned on from us." alas! it was easy for his majesty to take to heart the matter of conrad vorstius, to spend reams of diplomatic correspondence, to dictate whole volumes for orations brimming over with theological wrath, for the edification of the states-general, against that doctor of divinity. but what were the special interests of his son-in-law, what the danger to all the other protestant electors and kings, princes and republics, what the imperilled condition of the united provinces, and, by necessary consequence, the storm gathering over his own throne, what the whole fate of protestantism, from friesland to hungary, threatened by the insatiable, all-devouring might of the double house of austria, the ancient church, and the papistical league, what were hundred thousands of men marching towards bohemia, the netherlands, and the duchies, with the drum beating for mercenary recruits in half the villages of spain, italy, and catholic germany, compared with the danger to christendom from an arminian clergyman being appointed to the theological professorship at leyden? the world was in a blaze, kings and princes were arming, and all the time that the monarch of the powerful, adventurous, and heroic people of great britain could spare from slobbering over his minions, and wasting the treasures of the realm to supply their insatiate greed, was devoted to polemical divinity, in which he displayed his learning, indeed, but changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day. the magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination. moreover, should he listen to the adjurations of the states and his fellow religionists, should he allow himself to be impressed by the eloquence of barneveld and take a manly and royal decision in the great emergency, it would be indispensable for him to come before that odious body, the parliament of great britain, and ask for money. it would be perhaps necessary for him to take them into his confidence, to degrade himself by speaking to them of the national affairs. they might not be satisfied with the honour of voting the supplies at his demand, but were capable of asking questions as to their appropriation. on the whole it was more king-like and statesman-like to remain quiet, and give advice. of that, although always a spendthrift, he had an inexhaustible supply. barneveld had just hopes from the commons of great britain, if the king could be brought to appeal to parliament. once more he sounded the bugle of alarm. "day by day the archdukes are making greater and greater enrolments of riders and infantry in ever increasing mass," he cried, "and therewith vast provision of artillery and all munitions of war. within ten or twelve days they will be before julich in force. we are sending great convoys to reinforce our army there. the prince of neuburg is enrolling more and more troops every day. he will soon be master of mulheim. if the king of great britain will lay this matter earnestly to heart for the preservation of the princes, electors, and estates of the religion, i cannot doubt that parliament would cooperate well with his majesty, and this occasion should be made use of to redress the whole state of affairs." it was not the parliament nor the people of great britain that would be in fault when the question arose of paying in money and in blood for the defence of civil and religious liberty. but if james should venture openly to oppose spain, what would the count of gondemar say, and what would become of the infanta and the two millions of dowry? it was not for want of some glimmering consciousness in the mind of james of the impending dangers to northern europe and to protestantism from the insatiable ambition of spain, and the unrelenting grasp of the papacy upon those portions of christendom which were slipping from its control, that his apathy to those perils was so marked. we have seen his leading motives for inaction, and the world was long to feel its effects. "his majesty firmly believes," wrote secretary winwood, "that the papistical league is brewing great and dangerous plots. to obviate them in everything that may depend upon him, my lords the states will find him prompt. the source of all these entanglements comes from spain. we do not think that the archduke will attack julich this year, but rather fear for mulheim and aix-la-chapelle." but the secretary of state, thus acknowledging the peril, chose to be blind to its extent, while at the same time undervaluing the powers by which it might be resisted. "to oppose the violence of the enemy," he said, "if he does resort to violence, is entirely impossible. it would be furious madness on our part to induce him to fall upon the elector- palatine, for this would be attacking great britain and all her friends and allies. germany is a delicate morsel, but too much for the throat of spain to swallow all at once. behold the evil which troubles the conscience of the papistical league. the emperor and his brothers are all on the brink of their sepulchre, and the infants of spain are too young to succeed to the empire. the pope would more willingly permit its dissolution than its falling into the hands of a prince not of his profession. all that we have to do in this conjuncture is to attend the best we can to our own affairs, and afterwards to strengthen the good alliance existing among us, and not to let ourselves be separated by the tricks and sleights of hand of our adversaries. the common cause can reckon firmly upon the king of great britain, and will not find itself deceived." excellent commonplaces, but not very safe ones. unluckily for the allies, to attend each to his own affairs when the enemy was upon them, and to reckon firmly upon a king who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy, was hardly the way to avert the danger. a fortnight later, the man who thought it possible to resist, and time to resist, before the net was over every head, replied to the secretary by a picture of the spaniards' progress. "since your letter," he said, "you have seen the course of spinola with the army of the king and the archdukes. you have seen the prince- palatine of neuburg with his forces maintained by the pope and other members of the papistical league. on the th of august they forced aachen, where the magistrates and those of the reformed religion have been extremely maltreated. twelve hundred soldiers are lodged in the houses there of those who profess our religion. mulheim is taken and dismantled, and the very houses about to be torn down. duren, castre, grevenborg, orsoy, duisburg, ruhrort, and many other towns, obliged to receive spanish garrisons. on the th of september they invested wesel. on the th it was held certain that the cities of cleve, emmerich, rees, and others in that quarter, had consented to be occupied. the states have put one hundred and thirty-five companies of foot (about , men) and horse and a good train of artillery in the field, and sent out some ships of war. prince maurice left the hague on the th of september to assist wesel, succour the prince of brandenburg, and oppose the hostile proceedings of spinola and the palatine of neuburg . . . . consider, i pray you, this state of things, and think how much heed they have paid to the demands of the kings of great britain and france to abstain from hostilities. be sure that without our strong garrison in julich they would have snapped up every city in julich, cleve, and berg. but they will now try to make use of their slippery tricks, their progress having been arrested by our army. the prince of neuburg is sending his chancellor here 'cum mediis componendae pacis,' in appearance good and reasonable, in reality deceptive . . . . if their majesties, my lords the states, and the princes of the union, do not take an energetic resolution for making head against their designs, behold their league in full vigour and ours without soul. neither the strength nor the wealth of the states are sufficient of themselves to withstand their ambitious and dangerous designs. we see the possessory princes treated as enemies upon their own estates, and many thousand souls of the reformed religion cruelly oppressed by the papistical league. for myself i am confirmed in my apprehensions and believe that neither our religion nor our union can endure such indignities. the enemy is making use of the minority in france and the divisions among the princes of germany to their great advantage . . . . i believe that the singular wisdom of his majesty will enable him to apply promptly the suitable remedies, and that your parliament will make no difficulty in acquitting itself well in repairing those disorders." the year dragged on to its close. the supineness of the protestants deepened in direct proportion to the feverish increase of activity on the part of austria and the league. the mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated, the parade of conciliation when war of extermination was intended, continued on the part of spain and austria. barneveld was doing his best to settle all minor differences between the states and great britain, that these two bulwarks of protestantism might stand firmly together against the rising tide. he instructed the ambassador to exhaust every pacific means of arrangement in regard to the greenland fishery disputes, the dyed cloth question, and like causes of ill feeling. he held it more than necessary, he said, that the inhabitants of the two countries should now be on the very best terms with each other. above all, he implored the king through the ambassador to summon parliament in order that the kingdom might be placed in position to face the gathering danger. "i am amazed and distressed," he said, "that the statesmen of england do not comprehend the perils with which their fellow religionists are everywhere threatened, especially in germany and in these states. to assist us with bare advice and sometimes with traducing our actions, while leaving us to bear alone the burthens, costs, and dangers, is not serviceable to us." referring to the information and advice which he had sent to england and to france fifteen months before, he now gave assurance that the prince of neuburg and spinola were now in such force, both foot and cavalry, with all necessary munitions, as to hold these most important territories as a perpetual "sedem bedli," out of which to attack germany at their pleasure and to cut off all possibility of aid from england and the states. he informed the court of st. james that besides the forces of the emperor and the house of austria, the duke of bavaria and spanish italy, there were now several thousand horse and foot under the bishop of wurzburg, or under the bishop-elector of mayence, and strong bodies of cavalry under count vaudemont in lorraine, all mustering for the war. the pretext seems merely to reduce frankfurt to obedience, even as donauworth had previously been used as a colour for vast designs. the real purpose was to bring the elector-palatine and the whole protestant party in germany to submission. "his majesty," said the advocate, "has now a very great and good subject upon which to convoke parliament and ask for a large grant. this would be doubtless consented to if parliament receives the assurance that the money thus accorded shall be applied to so wholesome a purpose. you will do your best to further this great end. we are waiting daily to hear if the xanten negotiation is broken off or not. i hope and i fear. meantime we bear as heavy burthens as if we were actually at war." he added once more the warning, which it would seem superfluous to repeat even to schoolboys in diplomacy, that this xanten treaty, as proposed by the enemy, was a mere trap. spinola and neuburg, in case of the mutual disbanding, stood ready at an instant's warning to re-enlist for the league not only all the troops that the catholic army should nominally discharge, but those which would be let loose from the states' army and that of brandenburg as well. they would hold rheinberg, groll, lingen, oldenzaal, wachtendonk, maestricht, aachen, and mulheim with a permanent force of more than , men. and they could do all this in four days' time. a week or two later all his prophesies had been fulfilled. "the prince of neuburg," he said, "and marquis spinola have made game of us most impudently in the matter of the treaty. this is an indignity for us, their majesties, and the electors and princes. we regard it as intolerable. a despatch came from spain forbidding a further step in the negotiation without express order from the king. the prince and spinola are gone to brussels, the ambassadors have returned to the hague, the armies are established in winter-quarters. the cavalry are ravaging the debateable land and living upon the inhabitants at their discretion. m. de refuge is gone to complain to the archdukes of the insult thus put upon his sovereign. sir henry wotton is still here. we have been plunged into an immensity of extraordinary expense, and are amazed that at this very moment england should demand money from us when we ought to be assisted by a large subsidy by her. we hope that now at least his majesty will take a vigorous resolution and not suffer his grandeur and dignity to be vilipended longer. if the spaniard is successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones, and will believe that mankind is ready to bear and submit to everything. his majesty is the first king of the religion. he bears the title of defender of the faith. his religion, his only daughter, his son-in-law, his grandson are all especially interested besides his own dignity, besides the common weal." he then adverted to the large subsidies from queen elizabeth many years before, guaranteed, it was true, by the cautionary towns, and to the gallant english regiments, sent by that great sovereign, which had been fighting so long and so splendidly in the netherlands for the common cause of protestantism and liberty. yet england was far weaker then, for she had always her northern frontier to defend against scotland, ever ready to strike her in the back. "but now his majesty," said barneveld, "is king of england and scotland both. his frontier is free. ireland is at peace. he possesses quietly twice as much as the queen ever did. he is a king. her majesty was a woman. the king has children and heirs. his nearest blood is engaged in this issue. his grandeur and dignity have been wronged. each one of these considerations demands of itself a manly resolution. you will do your best to further it." the almost ubiquitous power of spain, gaining after its exhaustion new life through the strongly developed organization of the league, and the energy breathed into that mighty conspiracy against human liberty by the infinite genius of the "cabinet of jesuits," was not content with overshadowing germany, the netherlands, and england, but was threatening savoy with , men, determined to bring charles emmanuel either to perdition or submission. like england, france was spell-bound by the prospect of spanish marriages, which for her at least were not a chimera, and looked on composedly while savoy was on point of being sacrificed by the common invader of independent nationality whether protestant or catholic. nothing ever showed more strikingly the force residing in singleness of purpose with breadth and unity of design than all these primary movements of the great war now beginning. the chances superficially considered were vastly in favour of the protestant cause. in the chief lands, under the sceptre of the younger branch of austria, the protestants outnumbered the catholics by nearly ten to one. bohemia, the austrias, moravia, silesia, hungary were filled full of the spirit of huss, of luther, and even of calvin. if spain was a unit, now that the moors and jews had been expelled, and the heretics of castille and aragon burnt into submission, she had a most lukewarm ally in venice, whose policy was never controlled by the church, and a dangerous neighbour in the warlike, restless, and adventurous house of savoy, to whom geographical considerations were ever more vital than religious scruples. a sincere alliance of france, the very flower of whose nobility and people inclined to the reformed religion, was impossible, even if there had been fifty infantes to espouse fifty daughters of france. great britain, the netherlands, and the united princes of germany seemed a solid and serried phalanx of protestantism, to break through which should be hopeless. yet at that moment, so pregnant with a monstrous future, there was hardly a sound protestant policy anywhere but in holland. how long would that policy remain sound and united? how long would the republic speak through the imperial voice of barneveld? time was to show and to teach many lessons. the united princes of germany were walking, talking, quarrelling in their sleep; england and france distracted and bedrugged, while maximilian of bavaria and ferdinand of gratz, the cabinets of madrid and the vatican, were moving forward to their aims slowly, steadily, relentlessly as fate. and spain was more powerful than she had been since the truce began. in five years she had become much more capable of aggression. she had strengthened her positions in the mediterranean by the acquisition and enlargement of considerable fortresses in barbary and along a large sweep of the african coast, so as to be almost supreme in africa. it was necessary for the states, the only power save turkey that could face her in those waters, to maintain a perpetual squadron of war ships there to defend their commerce against attack from the spaniard and from the corsairs, both mahometan and christian, who infested every sea. spain was redoubtable everywhere, and the turk, engaged in persian campaigns, was offering no diversion against hungary and vienna. "reasons of state worthy of his majesty's consideration and wisdom," said barneveld, "forbid the king of great britain from permitting the spaniard to give the law in italy. he is about to extort obedience and humiliation from the duke of savoy, or else with , men to mortify and ruin him, while entirely assuring himself of france by the double marriages. then comes the attack on these provinces, on protestant germany, and all other states and realms of the religion." with the turn of the year, affairs were growing darker and darker. the league was rolling up its forces in all directions; its chiefs proposed absurd conditions of pacification, while war was already raging, and yet scarcely any government but that of the netherlands paid heed to the rising storm. james, fatuous as ever, listened to gondemar, and wrote admonitory letters to the archduke. it was still gravely proposed by the catholic party that there should be mutual disbanding in the duchies, with a guarantee from marquis spinola that there should be no more invasion of those territories. but powers and pledges from the king of spain were what he needed. to suppose that the republic and her allies would wait quietly, and not lift a finger until blows were actually struck against the protestant electors or cities of germany, was expecting too much ingenuousness on the part of statesmen who had the interests of protestantism at heart. what they wanted was the signed, sealed, ratified treaty faithfully carried out. then if the king of spain and the archdukes were willing to contract with the states never to make an attempt against the holy german empire, but to leave everything to take its course according to the constitutions, liberties, and traditions and laws of that empire, under guidance of its electors, princes, estates, and cities, the united provinces were ready, under mediation of the two kings, their allies and friends, to join in such an arrangement. thus there might still be peace in germany, and religious equality as guaranteed by the "majesty-letter," and the "compromise" between the two great churches, roman and reformed, be maintained. to bring about this result was the sincere endeavour of barneveld, hoping against hope. for he knew that all was hollowness and sham on the part of the great enemy. even as walsingham almost alone had suspected and denounced the delusive negotiations by which spain continued to deceive elizabeth and her diplomatists until the armada was upon her coasts, and denounced them to ears that were deafened and souls that were stupified by the frauds practised upon them, so did barneveld, who had witnessed all that stupendous trickery of a generation before, now utter his cries of warning that germany might escape in time from her impending doom. "nothing but deceit is lurking in the spanish proposals," he said. "every man here wonders that the english government does not comprehend these malversations. truly the affair is not to be made straight by new propositions, but by a vigorous resolution of his majesty. it is in the highest degree necessary to the salvation of christendom, to the conservation of his majesty's dignity and greatness, to the service of the princes and provinces, and of all germany, nor can this vigorous resolution be longer delayed without enormous disaster to the common weal . . . . . i have the deepest affection for the cause of the duke of savoy, but i cannot further it so long as i cannot tell what his majesty specifically is resolved to do, and what hope is held out from venice, germany, and other quarters. our taxes are prodigious, the ordinary and extraordinary, and we have a spanish army at our front door." the armaments, already so great, had been enlarged during the last month of the year. vaudemont was at the head of a further force of cavalry and foot, paid for by spain and the pope; , additional soldiers, riders and infantry together, had been gathered by maximilian of bavaria at the expense of the league. even if the reports were exaggerated, the advocate thought it better to be too credulous than as apathetic as the rest of the protestants. "we receive advices every day," he wrote to caron, "that the spaniards and the roman league are going forward with their design. they are trying to amuse the british king and to gain time, in order to be able to deal the heavier blows. do all possible duty to procure a timely and vigorous resolution there. to wait again until we are anticipated will be fatal to the cause of the evangelical electors and princes of germany and especially of his electoral highness of brandenburg. we likewise should almost certainly suffer irreparable damage, and should again bear our cross, as men said last year in regard to aachen, wesel, and so many other places. the spaniard is sly, and has had a long time to contrive how he can throw the net over the heads of all our religious allies. remember all the warnings sent from here last year, and how they were all tossed to the winds, to the ruin of so many of our co-religionists. if it is now intended over there to keep the spaniards in check merely by speeches or letters, it would be better to say so clearly to our friends. so long as parliament is not convoked in order to obtain consents and subsidies for this most necessary purpose, so long i fail to believe that this great common cause of christendom, and especially of germany, is taken to heart by england." he adverted with respectfully subdued scorn to king james's proposition that spinola should give a guarantee. "i doubt if he accepts the suggestion," said barneveld, "unless as a notorious trick, and if he did, what good would the promise of spinola do us? we consider spinola a great commander having the purses and forces of the spaniards and the leaguers in his control; but should they come into other hands, he would not be a very considerable personage for us. and that may happen any day. they don't seem in england to understand the difference between prince maurice in his relations to our state and that of marquis spinola to his superiors. try to make them comprehend it. a promise from the emperor, king of spain, and the princes of the league, such as his majesty in his wisdom has proposed to spinola, would be most tranquillizing for all the protestant princes and estates of the empire, especially for the elector and electress palatine, and for ourselves. in such a case no difficulty would be made on our side." after expressing his mind thus freely in regard to james and his policy, he then gave the ambassador a word of caution in characteristic fashion. "cogita," he said, "but beware of censuring his majesty's projects. i do not myself mean to censure them, nor are they publicly laughed at here, but look closely at everything that comes from brussels, and let me know with diligence." and even as the advocate was endeavouring with every effort of his skill and reason to stir the sluggish james into vigorous resolution in behalf of his own children, as well as of the great cause of protestantism and national liberty, so was he striving to bear up on his strenuous shoulders the youthful king of france, and save him from the swollen tides of court intrigue and jesuitical influence fast sweeping him to destruction. he had denounced the recent and paltry proposition made on the part of the league, and originally suggested by james, as a most open and transparent trap, into which none but the blind would thrust themselves. the treaty of xanten, carried out as it had been signed and guaranteed by the great catholic powers, would have brought peace to christendom. to accept in place of such guarantee the pledge of a simple soldier, who to-morrow might be nothing, was almost too ridiculous a proposal to be answered gravely. yet barneveld through the machinations of the catholic party was denounced both at the english and french courts as an obstacle to peace, when in reality his powerful mind and his immense industry were steadily directed to the noblest possible end--to bring about a solemn engagement on the part of spain, the emperor, and the princes of the league, to attack none of the protestant powers of germany, especially the elector-palatine, but to leave the laws, liberties, and privileges of the states within the empire in their original condition. and among those laws were the great statutes of and , the "majesty-letter" and the "compromise," granting full right of religious worship to the protestants of the kingdom of bohemia. if ever a policy deserved to be called truly liberal and truly conservative, it was the policy thus steadily maintained by barneveld. adverting to the subterfuge by which the catholic party had sought to set aside the treaty of xanten, he instructed langerac, the states' ambassador in paris, and his own pupils to make it clear to the french government that it was impossible that in such arrangements the spanish armies would not be back again in the duchies at a moment's notice. it could not be imagined even that they were acting sincerely. "if their upright intention," he said, "is that no actual, hostile, violent attack shall be made upon the duchies, or upon any of the princes, estates, or cities of the holy empire, as is required for the peace and tranquillity of christendom, and if all the powers interested therein will come into a good and solid convention to that effect. my lords the states will gladly join in such undertaking and bind themselves as firmly as the other powers. if no infraction of the laws and liberties of the holy empire be attempted, there will be peace for germany and its neighbours. but the present extravagant proposition can only lead to chicane and quarrels. to press such a measure is merely to inflict a disgrace upon us. it is an attempt to prevent us from helping the elector-palatine and the other protestant princes of germany and coreligionists everywhere against hostile violence. for the elector- palatine can receive aid from us and from great britain through the duchies only. it is plainly the object of the enemy to seclude us from the palatine and the rest of protestant germany. it is very suspicious that the proposition of prince maurice, supported by the two kings and the united princes of germany, has been rejected." the advocate knew well enough that the religious franchises granted by the house of habsburg at the very moment in which spain signed her peace with the netherlands, and exactly as the mad duke of cleve was expiring --with a dozen princes, catholic and protestant, to dispute his inheritance--would be valuable just so long as they could be maintained by the united forces of protestantism and of national independence and no longer. what had been extorted from the catholic powers by force would be retracted by force whenever that force could be concentrated. it had been necessary for the republic to accept a twelve years' truce with spain in default of a peace, while the death of john of cleve, and subsequently of henry iv., had made the acquisition of a permanent pacification between catholicism and protestantism, between the league and the union, more difficult than ever. the so-called thirty years' war--rather to be called the concluding portion of the eighty years' war --had opened in the debateable duchies exactly at the moment when its forerunner, the forty years' war of the netherlands, had been temporarily and nominally suspended. barneveld was perpetually baffled in his efforts to obtain a favourable peace for protestant europe, less by the open diplomacy and military force of the avowed enemies of protestantism than by the secret intrigues and faintheartedness of its nominal friends. he was unwearied in his efforts simultaneously to arouse the courts of england and france to the danger to europe from the overshadowing power of the house of austria and the league, and he had less difficulty in dealing with the catholic lewis and his mother than with protestant james. at the present moment his great designs were not yet openly traversed by a strong protestant party within the very republic which he administered. "look to it with earnestness and grave deliberation," he said to langerac, "that they do not pursue us there with vain importunity to accept something so notoriously inadmissible and detrimental to the common weal. we know that from the enemy's side every kind of unseemly trick is employed, with the single object of bringing about misunderstanding between us and the king of france. a prompt and vigorous resolution on the part of his majesty, to see the treaty which we made duly executed, would be to help the cause. otherwise, not. we cannot here believe that his majesty, in this first year of his majority, will submit to such a notorious and flagrant affront, or that he will tolerate the oppression of the duke of savoy. such an affair in the beginning of his majesty's reign cannot but have very great and prejudicial consequences, nor can it be left to linger on in uncertainty and delay. let him be prompt in this. let him also take a most christian--kingly, vigorous resolution against the great affront put upon him in the failure to carry out the treaty. such a resolve on the part of the two kings would restore all things to tranquillity and bring the spaniard and his adherents 'in terminos modestiae. but so long as france is keeping a suspicious eye upon england, and england upon france, everything will run to combustion, detrimental to their majesties and to us, and ruinous to all the good inhabitants." to the treaty of xanten faithfully executed he held as to an anchor in the tempest until it was torn away, not by violence from without, but by insidious mutiny within. at last the government of james proposed that the pledges on leaving the territory should be made to the two allied kings as mediators and umpires. this was better than the naked promises originally suggested, but even in this there was neither heartiness nor sincerity. meantime the prince of neuburg, negotiations being broken off, departed for germany, a step which the advocate considered ominous. soon afterwards that prince received a yearly pension of , crowns from spain, and for this stipend his claims on the sovereignty of the duchies were supposed to be surrendered. "if this be true," said barneveld, "we have been served with covered dishes." the king of england wrote spirited and learned letters to the elector- palatine, assuring him of his father-in-law's assistance in case he should be attacked by the league. sir henry wotton, then on special mission at the hague, showed these epistles to barneveld. "when i hear that parliament has been assembled and has granted great subsidies," was the advocate's comment, "i shall believe that effects may possibly follow from all these assurances." it was wearisome for the advocate thus ever to be foiled; by the pettinesses and jealousies of those occupying the highest earthly places, in his efforts to stem the rising tide of spanish and catholic aggression, and to avert the outbreak of a devastating war to which he saw europe doomed. it may be wearisome to read the record. yet it is the chronicle of christendom during one of the most important and fateful epochs of modern history. no man can thoroughly understand the complication and precession of phenomena attending the disastrous dawn of the renewed war, on an even more awful scale than the original conflict in the netherlands, without studying the correspondence of barneveld. the history of europe is there. the fate of christendom is there. the conflict of elements, the crash of contending forms of religion and of nationalities, is pictured there in vivid if homely colours. the advocate, while acting only in the name of a slender confederacy, was in truth, so long as he held his place, the prime minister of european protestantism. there was none other to rival him, few to comprehend him, fewer still to sustain him. as prince maurice was at that moment the great soldier of protestantism without clearly scanning the grandeur of the field in which he was a chief actor, or foreseeing the vastness of its future, so the advocate was its statesman and its prophet. could the two have worked together as harmoniously as they had done at an earlier day, it would have been a blessing for the common weal of europe. but, alas! the evil genius of jealousy, which so often forbids cordial relations between soldier and statesman, already stood shrouded in the distance, darkly menacing the strenuous patriot, who was wearing his life out in exertions for what he deemed the true cause of progress and humanity. nor can the fate of the man himself, his genuine character, and the extraordinary personal events towards which he was slowly advancing, be accurately unfolded without an attempt by means of his letters to lay bare his inmost thoughts. especially it will be seen at a later moment how much value was attached to this secret correspondence with the ambassadors in london and paris. the advocate trusted to the support of france, papal and medicean as the court of the young king was, because the protestant party throughout the kingdom was too powerful, warlike, and numerous to be trifled with, and because geographical considerations alone rendered a cordial alliance between spain and france very difficult. notwithstanding the spanish marriages, which he opposed so long as opposition was possible, he knew that so long as a statesman remained in the kingdom, or a bone for one existed, the international policy of henry, of sully, and of jeannin could not be wholly abandoned. he relied much on villeroy, a political hack certainly, an ancient leaguer, and a papist, but a man too cool, experienced, and wily to be ignorant of the very hornbook of diplomacy, or open to the shallow stratagems by which spain found it so easy to purchase or to deceive. so long as he had a voice in the council, it was certain that the netherland alliance would not be abandoned, nor the duke of savoy crushed. the old secretary of state was not especially in favour at that moment, but barneveld could not doubt his permanent place in french affairs until some man of real power should arise there. it was a dreary period of barrenness and disintegration in that kingdom while france was mourning henry and waiting for richelieu. the dutch ambassador at paris was instructed accordingly to maintain. good relations with villeroy, who in barneveld's opinion had been a constant and sincere friend to the netherlands. "don't forget to caress the old gentleman you wot of," said the advocate frequently, but suppressing his name, "without troubling yourself with the reasons mentioned in your letter. i am firmly convinced that he will overcome all difficulties. don't believe either that france will let the duke of savoy be ruined. it is against every reason of state." yet there were few to help charles emmanuel in this montferrat war, which was destined to drag feebly on, with certain interludes of negotiations, for two years longer. the already notorious condottiere ernest mansfeld, natural son of old prince peter ernest, who played so long and so high a part in command of the spanish armies in the netherlands, had, to be sure, taken service under the duke. thenceforth he was to be a leader and a master in that wild business of plunder, burning, blackmailing, and murder, which was opening upon europe, and was to afford occupation for many thousands of adventurers of high and low degree. mansfeld, reckless and profligate, had already changed his banner more than once. commanding a company under leopold in the duchies, he had been captured by the forces of the union, and, after waiting in vain to be ransomed by the archduke, had gone secretly over to the enemy. thus recovering his liberty, he had enlisted a regiment under leopold's name to fight the union, and had then, according to contract, transferred himself and most of his adventurers to the flag of the union. the military operations fading away in the duchies without being succeeded by permanent peace, the count, as he was called, with no particular claim to such title, had accepted a thousand florins a year as retainer from the union and had found occupation under charles emmanuel. here the spanish soldier of a year or two before found much satisfaction and some profit in fighting spanish soldiers. he was destined to reappear in the netherlands, in france, in bohemia, in many places where there were villages to be burned, churches to be plundered, cities to be sacked, nuns and other women to be outraged, dangerous political intrigues to be managed. a man in the prime of his age, fair-haired, prematurely wrinkled, battered, and hideous of visage, with a hare-lip and a humpback; slovenly of dress, and always wearing an old grey hat without a band to it; audacious, cruel, crafty, and licentious--such was ernest mansfeld, whom some of his contemporaries spoke of as ulysses germanicus, others as the new attila, all as a scourge to the human race. the cockneys of paris called him "machefer," and nurses long kept children quiet by threatening them with that word. he was now enrolled on the protestant side, although at the moment serving savoy against spain in a question purely personal. his armies, whether in italy or in germany, were a miscellaneous collection of adventurers of high and low degree, of all religions, of all countries, unfrocked priests and students, ruined nobles, bankrupt citizens, street vagabonds--earliest type perhaps of the horrible military vermin which were destined to feed so many years long on the unfortunate dismembered carcass of germany. many demands had been made upon the states for assistance to savoy,--as if they and they alone were to bear the brunt and pay the expense of all the initiatory campaigns against spain. "we are much importuned," said the advocate, "to do something for the help of savoy . . . . we wish and we implore that france, great britain, the german princes, the venetians, and the swiss would join us in some scheme of effective assistance. but we have enough on our shoulders at this moment." they had hardly money enough in their exchequer, admirably ordered as it was, for enterprises so far from home when great spanish armies were permanently encamped on their border. partly to humour king james and partly from love of adventure, count john of nassau had gone to savoy at the head of a small well disciplined body of troops furnished by the states. "make use of this piece of news," said barneveld, communicating the fact to langerac, "opportunely and with discretion. besides the wish to give some contentment to the king of great britain, we consider it inconsistent with good conscience and reasons of state to refuse help to a great prince against oppression by those who mean to give the law to everybody; especially as we have been so earnestly and frequently importuned to do so." and still the spaniards and the league kept their hold on the duchies, while their forces, their munitions, their accumulation of funds waged hourly. the war of chicane was even more deadly than an actual campaign, for when there was no positive fighting the whole world seemed against the republic. and the chicane was colossal. "we cannot understand," said barneveld, "why m. de prevaulx is coming here on special mission. when a treaty is signed and sealed, it only remains to execute it. the archduke says he is himself not known in the treaty, and that nothing can be demanded of him in relation to it. this he says in his letters to the king of great britain. m. de refuge knows best whether or not marquis spinola, ottavio visconti, chancellor pecquius, and others, were employed in the negotiation by the archduke. we know very well here that the whole business was conducted by them. the archduke is willing to give a clean and sincere promise not to re- occupy, and asks the same from the states. if he were empowered by the emperor, the king of spain, and the league, and acted in such quality, something might be done for the tranquillity of germany. but he promises for himself only, and emperor, king, or league, may send any general to do what they like to-morrow. what is to prevent it? "and so my lords the states, the elector of brandenburg, and others interested are cheated and made fools of. and we are as much troubled by these tricks as by armed force. yes, more; for we know that great enterprises are preparing this year against germany and ourselves, that all neuburg's troops have been disbanded and re-enlisted under the spanish commanders, and that forces are levying not only in italy and spain, but in germany, lorraine, luxemburg, and upper burgundy, and that wesel has been stuffed full of gunpowder and other munitions, and very strongly fortified." for the states to agree to a treaty by which the disputed duchies should be held jointly by the princes of neuburg and of brandenburg, and the territory be evacuated by all foreign troops; to look quietly on while neuburg converted himself to catholicism, espoused the sister of maximilian of bavaria, took a pension from spain, resigned his claims in favour of spain, and transferred his army to spain; and to expect that brandenburg and all interested in brandenburg, that is to say, every protestant in europe, should feel perfectly easy under such arrangement and perfectly protected by the simple promise of a soldier of fortune against catholic aggression, was a fantastic folly hardly worthy of a child. yet the states were asked to accept this position, brandenburg and all protestant germany were asked to accept it, and barneveld was howled at by his allies as a marplot and mischief-maker, and denounced and insulted by diplomatists daily, because he mercilessly tore away the sophistries of the league and of the league's secret friend, james stuart. the king of spain had more than , men under arms, and was enlisting more soldiers everywhere and every day, had just deposited , , crowns with his antwerp bankers for a secret purpose, and all the time was exuberant in his assurances of peace. one would have thought that there had never been negotiations in bourbourg, that the spanish armada had never sailed from coruna. "you are wise and prudent in france," said the advocate, "but we are used to spanish proceedings, and from much disaster sustained are filled with distrust. the king of england seems now to wish that the archduke should draw up a document according to his good pleasure, and that the states should make an explanatory deed, which the king should sign also and ask the king of france to do the same. but this is very hazardous. "we do not mean to receive laws from the king of spain, nor the archduke . . . . the spanish proceedings do not indicate peace but war. one must not take it ill of us that we think these matters of grave importance to our friends and ourselves. affairs have changed very much in the last four months. the murder of the first vizier of the turkish emperor and his designs against persia leave the spanish king and the emperor free from attack in that quarter, and their armaments are far greater than last year . . . . i cannot understand why the treaty of xanten, formerly so highly applauded, should now be so much disapproved. . . . the king of spain and the emperor with their party have a vast design to give the law to all christendom, to choose a roman king according to their will, to reduce the evangelical electors, princes, and estates of germany to obedience, to subject all italy, and, having accomplished this, to proceed to triumph over us and our allies, and by necessary consequence over france and england. they say they have established the emperor's authority by means of aachen and mulheim, will soon have driven us out of julich, and have thus arranged matters entirely to their heart's content. they can then, in name of the emperor, the league, the prince of neuburg, or any one else, make themselves in eight days masters of the places which they are now imaginarily to leave as well as of those which we are actually to surrender, and by possession of which we could hold out a long time against all their power." those very places held by the states--julich, emmerich, and others--had recently been fortified at much expense, under the superintendence of prince maurice, and by advice of the advocate. it would certainly be an act of madness to surrender them on the terms proposed. these warnings and forebodings of barneveld sound in our ears like recorded history, yet they were far earlier than the actual facts. and now to please the english king, the states had listened to his suggestion that his name and that of the king of france should be signed as mediators to a new arrangement proposed in lieu of the xanten treaty. james had suggested this, lewis had agreed to it. yet before the ink had dried in james's pen, he was proposing that the names of the mediating sovereigns should be omitted from the document? and why? because gondemar was again whispering in his ear. "they are renewing the negotiations in england," said the advocate, "about the alliance between the prince of wales and the second daughter of spain; and the king of great britain is seriously importuning us that the archdukes and my lords the states should make their pledges 'impersonaliter' and not to the kings." james was also willing that the name of the emperor should appear upon it. to prevent this, barneveld would have had himself burned at the stake. it would be an ignominious and unconditional surrender of the whole cause. "the archduke will never be contented," said the advocate, "unless his majesty of great britain takes a royal resolution to bring him to reason. that he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice. we have been ready and are still ready to execute the treaty of xanten. the archduke is the cause of the dispute concerning the act. we approved the formularies of their majesties, and have changed them three times to suit the king of great britain. our provincial states have been notified in the matter, so that we can no longer digest the spanish impudence, and are amazed that his majesty can listen any more to the spanish ministers. we fear that those ministers are working through many hands, in order by one means or another to excite quarrels between his majesty, us, and the respective inhabitants of the two countries . . . . . take every precaution that no attempt be made there to bring the name of the emperor into the act. this would be contrary to their majesties' first resolution, very prejudicial to the elector of brandenburg, to the duchies, and to ourselves. and it is indispensable that the promise be made to the two kings as mediators, as much for their reputation and dignity as for the interests of the elector, the territories, and ourselves. otherwise too the spaniards will triumph over us as if they had driven us by force of arms into this promise." the seat of war, at the opening of the apparently inevitable conflict between the catholic league and the protestant union, would be those debateable duchies, those border provinces, the possession of which was of such vital importance to each of the great contending parties, and the populations of which, although much divided, were on the whole more inclined to the league than to the union. it was natural enough that the dutch statesman should chafe at the possibility of their being lost to the union through the adroitness of the catholic managers and the supineness of the great allies of the republic. three weeks later than these last utterances of the advocate, he was given to understand that king james was preparing to slide away from the position which had been three times changed to make it suitable for him. his indignation was hot. "sir henry wotton," he said, "has communicated to me his last despatches from newmarket. i am in the highest degree amazed that after all our efforts at accommodation, with so much sacrifice to the electors, the provinces, and ourselves, they are trying to urge us there to consent that the promise be not made to the kings of france and great britain as mediators, although the proposition came from the spanish side. after we had renounced, by desire of his majesty, the right to refer the promise to the treaty of xanten, it was judged by both kings to be needful and substantial that the promise be made to their majesties. to change this now would be prejudicial to the kings, to the electors, the duchies, and to our commonwealth; to do us a wrong and to leave us naked. france maintains her position as becoming and necessary. that great britain should swerve from it is not to be digested here. you will do your utmost according to my previous instructions to prevent any pressure to this end. you will also see that the name of the emperor is mentioned neither in the preamble nor the articles of the treaty. it would be contrary to all our policy since . you may be firmly convinced that malice is lurking under the emperor's name, and that he and the king of spain and their adherents, now as before, are attempting a sequestration. this is simply a pretext to bring those principalities and provinces into the hands of the spaniards, for which they have been labouring these thirty years. we are constantly cheated by these spanish tricks. their intention is to hold wesel and all the other places until the conclusion of the italian affair, and then to strike a great blow." certainly were never words more full of sound statesmanship, and of prophecy too soon to be fulfilled, than these simple but pregnant warnings. they awakened but little response from the english government save cavils and teasing reminders that wesel had been the cradle of german calvinism, the rhenish geneva, and that it was sinful to leave it longer in the hands of spain. as if the advocate had not proved to demonstration that to stock hands for a new deal at that moment was to give up the game altogether. his influence in france was always greater than in england, and this had likewise been the case with william the silent. and even now that the spanish matrimonial alliance was almost a settled matter at the french court, while with the english king it was but a perpetual will-o'the-wisp conducting to quagmires ineffable, the government at paris sustained the policy of the advocate with tolerable fidelity, while it was constantly and most capriciously traversed by james. barneveld sighed over these approaching nuptials, but did not yet despair. "we hope that the spanish-french marriages," he said, "may be broken up of themselves; but we fear that if we should attempt to delay or prevent them authoritatively, or in conjunction with others, the effort would have the contrary effect." in this certainly he was doomed to disappointment. he had already notified the french court of the absolute necessity of the great points to be insisted upon in the treaty, and there he found more docility than in london or newmarket. all summer he was occupied with this most important matter, uttering cassandra-like warnings into ears wilfully deaf. the states had gone as far as possible in concession. to go farther would be to wreck the great cause upon the very quicksands which he had so ceaselessly pointed out. "we hope that nothing further will be asked of us, no scruples be felt as to our good intentions," he said, "and that if spain and the archdukes are not ready now to fulfil the treaty, their majesties will know how to resent this trifling with their authority and dignity, and how to set matters to rights with their own hands in the duchies. a new treaty, still less a sequestration, is not to be thought of for a moment." yet the month of august came and still the names of the mediating kings were not on the treaty, and still the spectre of sequestration had not been laid. on the contrary, the peace of asti, huddled up between spain and savoy, to be soon broken again, had caused new and painful apprehensions of an attempt at sequestration, for it was established by several articles in that treaty that all questions between savoy and mantua should be referred to the emperor's decision. this precedent was sure to be followed in the duchies if not resisted by force, as it had been so successfully resisted five years before by the armies of the states associated with those of france. moreover the first step at sequestration had been actually taken. the emperor had peremptorily summoned the elector of brandenburg and all other parties interested to appear before him on the st of august in prague. there could be but one object in this citation, to drive brandenburg and the states out of the duchies until the imperial decision as to the legitimate sovereignty should be given. neuburg being already disposed of and his claims ceded to the emperor, what possibility was there in such circumstances of saving one scrap of the territory from the clutch of the league? none certainly if the republic faltered in its determination, and yielded to the cowardly advice of james. "to comply with the summons," said barneveld, "and submit to its consequences will be an irreparable injury to the electoral house of brandenburg, to the duchies, and to our co- religionists everywhere, and a very great disgrace to both their majesties and to us." he continued, through the ambassador in london, to hold up to the king, in respectful but plain language, the shamelessness of his conduct in dispensing the enemy from his pledge to the mediators, when the republic expressly, in deference to james, had given up the ampler guarantees of the treaty. the arrangement had been solemnly made, and consented to by all the provinces, acting in their separate and sovereign capacity. such a radical change, even if it were otherwise permissible, could not be made without long debates, consultations, and votes by the several states. what could be more fatal at such a crisis than this childish and causeless delay. there could be no doubt in any statesman's eyes that the spanish party meant war and a preparatory hoodwinking. and it was even worse for the government of the republic to be outwitted in diplomacy than beaten in the field. "every man here," said the advocate, "has more apprehension of fraud than of force. according to the constitution of our state, to be overcome by superior power must be endured, but to be overreached by trickery is a reproach to the government." the summer passed away. the states maintained their positions in the duchies, notwithstanding the objurgations of james, and barneveld remained on his watch-tower observing every movement of the fast- approaching war, and refusing at the price of the whole territory in dispute to rescue wesel and aix-la-chapelle from the grasp of the league. caron came to the hague to have personal consultations with the states- general, the advocate, and prince maurice, and returned before the close of the year. he had an audience of the king at the palace of whitehall early in november, and found him as immovable as ever in his apathetic attitude in regard to the affairs of germany. the murder of sir thomas overbury and the obscene scandals concerning the king's beloved carr and his notorious bride were then occupying the whole attention of the monarch, so that he had not even time for theological lucubrations, still less for affairs of state on which the peace of christendom and the fate of his own children were hanging. the ambassador found him sulky and dictatorial, but insisted on expressing once more to him the apprehensions felt by the states-general in regard to the trickery of the spanish party in the matter of cleve and julich. he assured his majesty that they had no intention of maintaining the treaty of xanten, and respectfully requested that the king would no longer urge the states to surrender the places held by them. it was a matter of vital importance to retain them, he said. "sir henry wotton told me," replied james, "that the states at his arrival were assembled to deliberate on this matter, and he had no doubt that they would take a resolution in conformity with my intention. now i see very well that you don't mean to give up the places. if i had known that before, i should not have warned the archduke so many times, which i did at the desire of the states themselves. and now that the archdukes are ready to restore their cities, you insist on holding yours. that is the dish you set before me." and upon this james swore a mighty oath, and beat himself upon the breast. "now and nevermore will i trouble myself about the states' affairs, come what come will," he continued. "i have always been upright in my words and my deeds, and i am not going to embark myself in a wicked war because the states have plunged themselves into one so entirely unjust. next summer the spaniard means to divide himself into two or three armies in order to begin his enterprises in germany." caron respectfully intimated that these enterprises would be most conveniently carried on from the very advantageous positions which be occupied in the duchies. "no," said the king, "he must restore them on the same day on which you make your surrender, and he will hardly come back in a hurry." "quite the contrary," said the ambassador, "they will be back again in a twinkling, and before we have the slightest warning of their intention." but it signified not the least what caron said. the king continued to vociferate that the states had never had any intention of restoring the cities. "you mean to keep them for yourselves," he cried, "which is the greatest injustice that could be perpetrated. you have no right to them, and they belong to other people." the ambassador reminded him that the elector of brandenburg was well satisfied that they should be occupied by the states for his greater security and until the dispute should be concluded. "and that will never be," said james; "never, never. the states are powerful enough to carry on the war all alone and against all the world." and so he went on, furiously reiterating the words with which he had begun the conversation, "without accepting any reasons whatever in payment," as poor caron observed. "it makes me very sad," said the ambassador, "to find your majesty so impatient and so resolved. if the names of the kings are to be omitted from the document, the treaty of xanten should at least be modified accordingly." "nothing of the kind," said james; "i don't understand it so at all. i speak plainly and without equivocation. it must be enough for the states that i promise them, in case the enemy is cheating or is trying to play any trick whatever, or is seeking to break the treaty of xanten in a single point, to come to their assistance in person." and again the warlike james swore a big oath and smote his breast, affirming that he meant everything sincerely; that he cheated no one, but always spoke his thoughts right on, clearly and uprightly. it was certainly not a cheerful prospect for the states. their chief ally was determined that they should disarm, should strip themselves naked, when the mightiest conspiracy against the religious freedom and international independence of europe ever imagined was perfecting itself before their eyes, and when hostile armies, more numerous than ever before known, were at their very door. to wait until the enemy was at their throat, and then to rely upon a king who trembled at the sight of a drawn sword, was hardly the highest statesmanship. even if it had been the chivalrous henry instead of the pacific james that had held out the promise of help, they would have been mad to follow such counsel. the conversation lasted more than an hour. it was in vain that caron painted in dark colours the cruel deeds done by the spaniards in mulheim and aachen, and the proceedings of the archbishop of cologne in rees. the king was besotted, and no impression could be made upon him. "at any rate," said the envoy, "the arrangement cannot be concluded without the king of france." "what excuse is that?" said james. "now that the king is entirely spanish, you are trying to excuse your delays by referring to him. you have deferred rescuing the poor city of wesel from the hands of the spaniard long enough. i am amazed to have heard never a word from you on that subject since your departure. i had expressed my wish to you clearly enough that you should inform the states of my intention to give them any assurance they chose to demand." caron was much disappointed at the humour of his majesty. coming freshly as he did from the council of the states, and almost from the seat of war, he had hoped to convince and content him. but the king was very angry with the states for putting him so completely in the wrong. he had also been much annoyed at their having failed to notify him of their military demonstration in the electorate of cologne to avenge the cruelties practised upon the protestants there. he asked caron if he was instructed to give him information regarding it. being answered in the negative, he said he had thought himself of sufficient importance to the states and enough in their confidence to be apprised of their military movements. it was for this, he said, that his ambassador sat in their council. caron expressed the opinion that warlike enterprises of the kind should be kept as secret as possible in order to be successful. this the king disputed, and loudly declared his vexation at being left in ignorance of the matter. the ambassador excused himself as well as he could, on the ground that he had been in zealand when the troops were marching, but told the king his impression that they had been sent to chastise the people of cologne for their cruelty in burning and utterly destroying the city of mulheim. "that is none of your affair," said the king. "pardon me, your majesty," replied caron, "they are our fellow religionists, and some one at least ought to resent the cruelty practised upon them." the king admitted that the destruction of the city had been an unheard-- of cruelty, and then passed on to speak of the quarrel between the duke and city of brunswick, and other matters. the interview ended, and the ambassador, very downhearted, went to confer with the secretary of state sir ralph winwood, and sir henry wotton. he assured these gentlemen that without fully consulting the french government these radical changes in the negotiations would never be consented to by the states. winwood promised to confer at once with the french ambassador, admitting it to be impossible for the king to take up this matter alone. he would also talk with the archduke's ambassador next day noon at dinner, who was about leaving for brussels, and "he would put something into his hand that he might take home with him." "when he is fairly gone," said caron, "it is to be hoped that the king's head will no longer be so muddled about these things. i wish it with all my heart." it was a dismal prospect for the states. the one ally on whom they had a right to depend, the ex-calvinist and royal defender of the faith, in this mortal combat of protestantism with the league, was slipping out of their grasp with distracting lubricity. on the other hand, the most christian king, a boy of fourteen years, was still in the control of a mother heart and soul with the league--so far as she had heart or soul-- was betrothed to the daughter of spain, and saw his kingdom torn to pieces and almost literally divided among themselves by rebellious princes, who made use of the spanish marriages as a pretext for unceasing civil war. the queen-mother was at that moment at bordeaux, and an emissary from the princes was in london. james had sent to offer his mediation between them and the queen. he was fond of mediation. he considered it his special mission in the world to mediate. he imagined himself as looked up to by the nations as the great arbitrator of christendom, and was wont to issue his decrees as if binding in force and infallible by nature. he had protested vigorously against the spanish-french marriages, and declared that the princes were justified in formalizing an opposition to them, at least until affairs in france were restored to something like order. he warned the queen against throwing the kingdom "into the combustion of war without necessity," and declared that, if she would trust to his guidance, she might make use of him as if her affairs were his own. an indispensable condition for much assistance, however, would be that the marriages should be put off. as james was himself pursuing a spanish marriage for his son as the chief end and aim of his existence, there was something almost humorous in this protest to the queen-dowager and in his encouragement of mutiny in france in order to prevent a catastrophe there which he desired at home. the same agent of the princes, de monbaran by name, was also privately accredited by them to the states with instructions to borrow , crowns of them if he could. but so long as the policy of the republic was directed by barneveld, it was not very probable that, while maintaining friendly and even intimate relations with the legitimate government, she would enter into negotiations with rebels against it, whether princes or plebeians, and oblige them with loans. "he will call on me soon, no doubt," said caron, "but being so well instructed as to your mightinesses intentions in this matter, i hope i shall keep him away from you." monbaran was accordingly kept away, but a few weeks later another emissary of conde and bouillon made his appearance at the hague, de valigny by name. he asked for money and for soldiers to reinforce bouillon's city of sedan, but he was refused an audience of the states- general. even the martial ardour of maurice and his sympathy for his relatives were cooled by this direct assault on his pocket. "the prince," wrote the french ambassador, du maurier, "will not furnish him or his adherents a thousand crowns, not if they had death between their teeth. those who think it do not know how he loves his money." in the very last days of the year ( ) caron had another interview with the king in which james was very benignant. he told the ambassador that he should wish the states to send him some special commissioners to make a new treaty with him, and to treat of all unsettled affairs which were daily arising between the inhabitants of the respective countries. he wished to make a firmer union and accord between great britain and the netherlands. he was very desirous of this, "because," said he, "if we can unite with and understand each other, we have under god no one what ever to fear, however mighty they may be." caron duly notified barneveld of these enthusiastic expressions of his majesty. the advocate too was most desirous of settling the troublesome questions about the cloth trade, the piracies, and other matters, and was in favour of the special commission. in regard to a new treaty of alliance thus loosely and vaguely suggested, he was not so sanguine however. he had too much difficulty in enforcing the interests of protestantism in the duchies against the infatuation of james in regard to spain, and he was too well aware of the spanish marriage delusion, which was the key to the king's whole policy, to put much faith in these casual outbursts of eternal friendship with the states. he contented himself therefore with cautioning caron to pause before committing himself to any such projects. he had frequently instructed him, however, to bring the disputed questions to his majesty's notice as often as possible with a view to amicable arrangement. this preventive policy in regard to france was highly approved by barneveld, who was willing to share in the blame profusely heaped upon such sincere patriots and devoted protestants as duplessis-mornay and others, who saw small advantage to the great cause from a mutiny against established government, bad as it was, led by such intriguers as conde and bouillon. men who had recently been in the pay of spain, and one of whom had been cognizant of biron's plot against the throne and life of henry iv., to whom sedition was native atmosphere and daily bread, were not likely to establish a much more wholesome administration than that of mary de' medici. prince maurice sympathized with his relatives by marriage, who were leading the civil commotions in france and endeavouring to obtain funds in the netherlands. it is needless to say that francis aerssens was deep in their intrigues, and feeding full the grudge which the stadholder already bore the advocate for his policy on this occasion. the advocate thought it best to wait until the young king should himself rise in mutiny against his mother and her minions. perhaps the downfall of the concini's and their dowager and the escape of lewis from thraldom might not be so distant as it seemed. meantime this was the legal government, bound to the states by treaties of friendship and alliance, and it would be a poor return for the many favours and the constant aid bestowed by henry iv. on the republic, and an imbecile mode of avenging his murder to help throw his kingdom into bloodshed and confusion before his son was able to act for himself. at the same time he did his best to cultivate amicable relations with the princes, while scrupulously abstaining from any sympathy with their movements. "if the prince and the other gentlemen come to court," he wrote to langerac, "you will treat them with all possible caresses so far as can be done without disrespect to the government." while the british court was occupied with the foul details of the overbury murder and its consequences, a crime of a more commonplace nature, but perhaps not entirely without influence on great political events, had startled the citizens of the hague. it was committed in the apartments of the stadholder and almost under his very eyes. a jeweller of amsterdam, one john van wely, had come to the court of maurice to lay before him a choice collection of rare jewellery. in his caskets were rubies and diamonds to the value of more than , florins, which would be the equivalent of perhaps ten times as much to-day. in the prince's absence the merchant was received by a confidential groom of the chambers, john of paris by name, and by him, with the aid of a third john, a soldier of his excellency's guard, called jean de la vigne, murdered on the spot. the deed was done in the prince's private study. the unfortunate jeweller was shot, and to make sure was strangled with the blue riband of the order of the garter recently conferred upon maurice, and which happened to be lying conspicuously in the room. the ruffians had barely time to take possession of the booty, to thrust the body behind the tapestry of the chamber, and to remove the more startling evidences of the crime, when the prince arrived. he supped soon afterwards in the same room, the murdered jeweller still lying behind the arras. in the night the valet and soldier carried the corpse away from the room, down the stairs, and through the great courtyard, where, strange to say, no sentinels were on duty, and threw it into an ashpit. a deed so bloody, audacious, and stupid was of course soon discovered and the murderers arrested and executed. nothing would remove the incident from the catalogue of vulgar crimes, or even entitle it to a place in history save a single circumstance. the celebrated divine john uytenbogaert, leader among the arminians, devoted friend of barneveld, and up to that moment the favorite preacher of maurice, stigmatized indeed, as we have seen, by the orthodox as "court trumpeter," was requested by the prince to prepare the chief criminal for death. he did so, and from that day forth the stadholder ceased to be his friend, although regularly listening to his preaching in the french chapel of the court for more than a year longer. some time afterwards the advocate informed uytenbogaert that the prince was very much embittered against him. "i knew it well," says the clergyman in his memoirs, "but not the reasons for it, nor do i exactly comprehend them to this day. truly i have some ideas relating to certain things which i was obliged to do in discharge of my official duty, but i will not insist upon them, nor will i reveal them to any man." these were mysterious words, and the mystery is said to have been explained; for it would seem that the eminent preacher was not so entirely reticent among his confidential friends as before the public. uytenbogaert--so ran the tale--in the course of his conversation with the condemned murderer, john of paris, expressed a natural surprise that there should have been no soldiers on guard in the court on the evening when the crime was committed and the body subsequently removed. the valet informed him that he had for a long time been empowered by the prince to withdraw the sentinels from that station, and that they had been instructed to obey his orders--maurice not caring that they should be witnesses to the equivocal kind of female society that john of paris was in the habit of introducing of an evening to his master's apartments. the valet had made use of this privilege on the night in question to rid himself of the soldiers who would have been otherwise on guard. the preacher felt it his duty to communicate these statements to the prince, and to make perhaps a somewhat severe comment upon them. maurice received the information sullenly, and, as soon as uytenbogaert was gone, fell into a violent passion, throwing his hat upon the floor, stamping upon it, refusing to eat his supper, and allowing no one to speak to him. next day some courtiers asked the clergyman what in the world he had been saying to the stadholder. from that time forth his former partiality for the divine, on whose preaching he had been a regular attendant, was changed to hatred; a sentiment which lent a lurid colour to subsequent events. the attempts of the spanish party by chicane or by force to get possession of the coveted territories continued year after year, and were steadily thwarted by the watchfulness of the states under guidance of barneveld. the martial stadholder was more than ever for open war, in which he was opposed by the advocate, whose object was to postpone and, if possible, to avert altogether the dread catastrophe which he foresaw impending over europe. the xanten arrangement seemed hopelessly thrown to the winds, nor was it destined to be carried out; the whole question of sovereignty and of mastership in those territories being swept subsequently into the general whirlpool of the thirty years' war. so long as there was a possibility of settlement upon that basis, the advocate was in favour of settlement, but to give up the guarantees and play into the hands of the catholic league was in his mind to make the republic one of the conspirators against the liberties of christendom. "spain, the emperor and the rest of them," said he, "make all three modes of pacification--the treaty, the guarantee by the mediating kings, the administration divided between the possessory princes--alike impossible. they mean, under pretext of sequestration, to make themselves absolute masters there. i have no doubt that villeroy means sincerely, and understands the matter, but meantime we sit by the fire and burn. if the conflagration is neglected, all the world will throw the blame on us." thus the spaniards continued to amuse the british king with assurances of their frank desire to leave those fortresses and territories which they really meant to hold till the crack of doom. and while gondemar was making these ingenuous assertions in london, his colleagues at paris and at brussels distinctly and openly declared that there was no authority whatever for them, that the ambassador had received no such instructions, and that there was no thought of giving up wesel or any other of the protestant strongholds captured, whether in the duchies or out of them. and gondemar, still more to keep that monarch in subjection, had been unusually flattering in regard to the spanish marriage. "we are in great alarm here," said the advocate, "at the tidings that the projected alliance of the prince of wales with the daughter of spain is to be renewed; from which nothing good for his majesty's person, his kingdom, nor for our state can be presaged. we live in hope that it will never be." but the other marriage was made. despite the protest of james, the forebodings of barneveld, and the mutiny of the princes, the youthful king of france had espoused anne of austria early in the year . the british king did his best to keep on terms with france and spain, and by no means renounced his own hopes. at the same time, while fixed as ever in his approbation of the policy pursued by the emperor and the league, and as deeply convinced of their artlessness in regard to the duchies, the protestant princes of germany, and the republic, he manifested more cordiality than usual in his relations with the states. minor questions between the countries he was desirous of arranging--so far as matters of state could be arranged by orations--and among the most pressing of these affairs were the systematic piracy existing and encouraged in english ports, to the great damage of all seafaring nations and to the hollanders most of all, and the quarrel about the exportation of undyed cloths, which had almost caused a total cessation of the woollen trade between the two countries. the english, to encourage their own artisans, had forbidden the export of undyed cloths, and the dutch had retorted by prohibiting the import of dyed ones. the king had good sense enough to see the absurdity of this condition of things, and it will be remembered that barneveld had frequently urged upon the dutch ambassador to bring his majesty's attention to these dangerous disputes. now that the recovery of the cautionary towns had been so dexterously and amicably accomplished, and at so cheap a rate, it seemed a propitious moment to proceed to a general extinction of what would now be called "burning questions." james was desirous that new high commissioners might be sent from the states to confer with himself and his ministers upon the subjects just indicated, as well as upon the fishery questions as regarded both greenland and scotland, and upon the general affairs of india. he was convinced, he said to caron, that the sea had become more and more unsafe and so full of freebooters that the like was never seen or heard of before. it will be remembered that the advocate had recently called his attention to the fact that the dutch merchants had lost in two months , florins' worth of goods by english pirates. the king now assured the ambassador of his intention of equipping a fleet out of hand and to send it forth as speedily as possible under command of a distinguished nobleman, who would put his honour and credit in a successful expedition, without any connivance or dissimulation whatever. in order thoroughly to scour these pirates from the seas, he expressed the hope that their mightinesses the states would do the same either jointly or separately as they thought most advisable. caron bluntly replied that the states had already ten or twelve war-ships at sea for this purpose, but that unfortunately, instead of finding any help from the english in this regard, they had always found the pirates favoured in his majesty's ports, especially in ireland and wales. "thus they have so increased in numbers," continued the ambassador, "that i quite believe what your majesty says, that not a ship can pass with safety over the seas. more over, your majesty has been graciously pleased to pardon several of these corsairs, in consequence of which they have become so impudent as to swarm everywhere, even in the river thames, where they are perpetually pillaging honest merchantmen." "i confess," said the king, "to having pardoned a certain manning, but this was for the sake of his old father, and i never did anything so unwillingly in my life. but i swear that if it were the best nobleman in england, i would never grant one of them a pardon again." caron expressed his joy at hearing such good intentions on the part of his majesty, and assured him that the states-general would be equally delighted. in the course of the summer the dutch ambassador had many opportunities of seeing the king very confidentially, james having given him the use of the royal park at bayscot, so that during the royal visits to that place caron was lodged under his roof. on the whole, james had much regard and respect for noel de caron. he knew him to be able, although he thought him tiresome. it is amusing to observe the king and ambassador in their utterances to confidential friends each frequently making the charge of tediousness against the other. "caron's general education," said james on one occasion to cecil, "cannot amend his native german prolixity, for had i not interrupted him, it had been tomorrow morning before i had begun to speak. god preserve me from hearing a cause debated between don diego and him! . . . but in truth it is good dealing with so wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome." subsequently james came to whitehall for a time, and then stopped at theobalds for a few days on his way to newmarket, where he stayed until christmas. at theobalds he sent again for the ambassador, saying that at whitehall he was so broken down with affairs that it would be impossible to live if he stayed there. he asked if the states were soon to send the commissioners, according to his request, to confer in regard to the cloth-trade. without interference of the two governments, he said, the matter would never be settled. the merchants of the two countries would never agree except under higher authority. "i have heard both parties," he said, "the new and the old companies, two or three times in full council, and tried to bring them to an agreement, but it won't do. i have heard that my lords the states have been hearing both sides, english and the hollanders, over and over again, and that the states have passed a provisional resolution, which however does not suit us. now it is not reasonable, as we are allies, that our merchants should be obliged to send their cloths roundabout, not being allowed either to sell them in the united provinces or to pass them through your territories. i wish i could talk with them myself, for i am certain, if they would send some one here, we could make an agreement. it is not necessary that one should take everything from them, or that one should refuse everything to us. i am sure there are people of sense in your assembly who will justify me in favouring my own people so far as i reasonably can, and i know very well that my lords the states must stand up for their own citizens. if we have been driving this matter to an extreme and see that we are ruining each other, we must take it up again in other fashion, for yesterday is the preceptor of to-morrow. let the commissioners come as soon as possible. i know they have complaints to make, and i have my complaints also. therefore we must listen to each other, for i protest before god that i consider the community of your state with mine to be so entire that, if one goes to perdition, the other must quickly follow it." thus spoke james, like a wise and thoughtful sovereign interested in the welfare of his subjects and allies, with enlightened ideas for the time upon public economy. it is difficult, in the man conversing thus amicably and sensibly with the dutch ambassador, to realise the shrill pedant shrieking against vorstius, the crapulous comrade of carrs and steenies, the fawning solicitor of spanish marriages, the "pepperer" and hangman of puritans, the butt and dupe of gondemar and spinola. "i protest," he said further, "that i seek nothing in your state but all possible friendship and good fellowship. my own subjects complain sometimes that your people follow too closely on their heels, and confess that your industry goes far above their own. if this be so, it is a lean kind of reproach; for the english should rather study to follow you. nevertheless, when industry is directed by malice, each may easily be attempting to snap an advantage from the other. i have sometimes complained of many other things in which my subjects suffered great injustice from you, but all that is excusable. i will willingly listen to your people and grant them to be in the right when they are so. but i will never allow them to be in the right when they mistrust me. if i had been like many other princes, i should never have let the advantage of the cautionary towns slip out of my fingers, but rather by means of them attempted to get even a stronger hold on your country. i have had plenty of warnings from great statesmen in france, germany, and other nations that i ought to give them up nevermore. yet you know how frankly and sincerely i acquitted myself in that matter without ever making pretensions upon your state than the pretensions i still make to your friendship and co-operation." james, after this allusion to an important transaction to be explained in the next chapter, then made an observation or two on a subject which was rapidly overtopping all others in importance to the states, and his expressions were singularly at variance with his last utterances in that regard. "i tell you," he said, "that you have no right to mistrust me in anything, not even in the matter of religion. i grieve indeed to hear that your religious troubles continue. you know that in the beginning i occupied myself with this affair, but fearing that my course might be misunderstood, and that it might be supposed that i was seeking to exercise authority in your republic, i gave it up, and i will never interfere with the matter again, but will ever pray god that he may give you a happy issue out of these troubles." alas! if the king had always kept himself on that height of amiable neutrality, if he had been able to govern himself in the future by these simplest principles of reason and justice, there might have been perhaps a happier issue from the troubles than time was like to reveal. once more james referred to the crisis pending in german affairs, and as usual spoke of the clove and julich question as if it were a simple matter to be settled by a few strokes of the pen and a pennyworth of sealing-wax, instead of being the opening act in a vast tragedy, of which neither he, nor carom nor barneveld, nor prince maurice, nor the youthful king of france, nor philip, nor matthias, nor any of the men now foremost in the conduct of affairs, was destined to see the end. the king informed caron that he had just received most satisfactory assurances from the spanish ambassador in his last audience at whitehall. "he has announced to me on the part of the king his master with great compliments that his majesty seeks to please me and satisfy me in everything that i could possibly desire of him," said james, rolling over with satisfaction these unctuous phrases as if they really had any meaning whatever. "his majesty says further," added the king, "that as he has been at various times admonished by me, and is daily admonished by other princes, that he ought to execute the treaty of xanten by surrendering the city of wesel and all other places occupied by spinola, he now declares himself ready to carry out that treaty in every point. he will accordingly instruct the archduke to do this, provided the margrave of brandenburg and the states will do the same in regard to their captured places. as he understands however that the states have been fortifying julich even as he might fortify wesel, he would be glad that no innovation be made before the end of the coming month of march. when this term shall have expired, he will no longer be bound by these offers, but will proceed to fortify wesel and the other places, and to hold them as he best may for himself. respect for me has alone induced his majesty to make this resolution." we have already seen that the spanish ambassador in paris was at this very time loudly declaring that his colleague in london had no commission whatever to make these propositions. nor when they were in the slightest degree analysed, did they appear after all to be much better than threats. not a word was said of guarantees. the names of the two kings were not mentioned. it was nothing but albert and spinola then as always, and a recommendation that brandenburg and the states and all the protestant princes of germany should trust to the candour of the catholic league. caron pointed out to the king that in these proposals there were no guarantees nor even promises that the fortresses would not be reoccupied at convenience of the spaniards. he engaged however to report the whole statement to his masters. a few weeks afterwards the advocate replied in his usual vein, reminding the king through the ambassador that the republic feared fraud on the part of the league much more than force. he also laid stress on the affairs of italy, considering the fate of savoy and the conflicts in which venice was engaged as components of a general scheme. the states had been much solicited, as we have seen, to render assistance to the duke of savoy, the temporary peace of asti being already broken, and barneveld had been unceasing in his efforts to arouse france as well as england to the danger to themselves and to all christendom should savoy be crushed. we shall have occasion to see the prominent part reserved to savoy in the fast opening debate in germany. meantime the states had sent one count of nassau with a couple of companies to charles emmanuel, while another (ernest) had just gone to venice at the head of more than three thousand adventurers. with so many powerful armies at their throats, as barneveld had more than once observed, it was not easy for them to despatch large forces to the other end of europe, but he justly reminded his allies that the states were now rendering more effective help to the common cause by holding great spanish armies in check on their own frontier than if they assumed a more aggressive line in the south. the advocate, like every statesman worthy of the name, was accustomed to sweep the whole horizon in his consideration of public policy, and it will be observed that he always regarded various and apparently distinct and isolated movements in different parts of europe as parts of one great whole. it is easy enough for us, centuries after the record has been made up, to observe the gradual and, as it were, harmonious manner in which the great catholic conspiracy against the liberties of europe was unfolded in an ever widening sphere. but to the eyes of contemporaries all was then misty and chaotic, and it required the keen vision of a sage and a prophet to discern the awful shape which the future might assume. absorbed in the contemplation of these portentous phenomena, it was not unnatural that the advocate should attach less significance to perturbations nearer home. devoted as was his life to save the great european cause of protestantism, in which he considered political and religious liberty bound up, from the absolute extinction with which it was menaced, he neglected too much the furious hatreds growing up among protestants within the narrow limits of his own province. he was destined one day to be rudely awakened. meantime he was occupied with organizing a general defence of italy, germany, france, and england, as well as the netherlands, against the designs of spain and the league. "we wish to know," he said in answer to the affectionate messages and fine promises of the king of spain to james as reported by caron, "what his majesty of great britain has done, is doing, and is resolved to do for the duke of savoy and the republic of venice. if they ask you what we are doing, answer that we with our forces and vigour are keeping off from the throats of savoy and venice riders and , infantry, with which forces, let alone their experience, more would be accomplished than with four times the number of new troops brought to the field in italy. this is our succour, a great one and a very costly one, for the expense of maintaining our armies to hold the enemy in check here is very great." he alluded with his usual respectful and quiet scorn to the arrangements by which james so wilfully allowed himself to be deceived. "if the spaniard really leaves the duchies," he said, "it is a grave matter to decide whether on the one side he is not resolved by that means to win more over us and the elector of brandenburg in the debateable land in a few days than he could gain by force in many years, or on the other whether by it he does not intend despatching or cavalry and or foot, all his most experienced soldiers, from the netherlands to italy, in order to give the law at his pleasure to the duke of savoy and the republic of venice, reserving his attack upon germany and ourselves to the last. the spaniards, standing under a monarchical government, can in one hour resolve to seize to-morrow all that they and we may abandon to-day. and they can carry such a resolution into effect at once. our form of government does not permit this, so that our republic must be conserved by distrust and good garrisons." thus during this long period of half hostilities barneveld, while sincerely seeking to preserve the peace in europe, was determined, if possible, that the republic should maintain the strongest defensive position when the war which he foreboded should actually begin. maurice and the war party had blamed him for the obstacles which he interposed to the outbreak of hostilities, while the british court, as we have seen, was perpetually urging him to abate from his demands and abandon both the well strengthened fortresses in the duchies and that strong citadel of distrust which in his often repeated language he was determined never to surrender. spinola and the military party of spain, while preaching peace, had been in truth most anxious for fighting. "the only honour i desire henceforth," said that great commander, "is to give battle to prince maurice." the generals were more anxious than the governments to make use of the splendid armies arrayed against each other in such proximity that, the signal for conflict not having been given, it was not uncommon for the soldiers of the respective camps to aid each other in unloading munition waggons, exchanging provisions and other articles of necessity, and performing other small acts of mutual service. but heavy thunder clouds hanging over the earth so long and so closely might burst into explosion at any moment. had it not been for the distracted condition of france, the infatuation of the english king, and the astounding inertness of the princes of the german union, great advantages might have been gained by the protestant party before the storm should break. but, as the french ambassador at the hague well observed, "the great protestant union of germany sat with folded arms while hannibal was at their gate, the princes of which it was composed amusing themselves with staring at each other. it was verifying," he continued, bitterly, "the saying of the duke of alva, 'germany is an old dog which still can bark, but has lost its teeth to bite with.'" to such imbecility had that noble and gifted people--which had never been organized into a nation since it crushed the roman empire and established a new civilization on its ruins, and was to wait centuries longer until it should reconstruct itself into a whole--been reduced by subdivision, disintegration, the perpetual dissolvent of religious dispute, and the selfish policy of infinitesimal dynasties. chapter xii. james still presses for the payment of the dutch republic's debt to him--a compromise effected, with restitution of the cautionary towns--treaty of loudun--james's dream of a spanish marriage revives--james visits scotland--the states-general agree to furnish money and troops in fulfilment of the treaty of --death of concini--villeroy returns to power. besides matters of predestination there were other subjects political and personal which increased the king's jealousy and hatred. the debt of the republic to the british crown, secured by mortgage of the important sea- ports and fortified towns of flushing, brielle, rammekens, and other strong places, still existed. the possession of those places by england was a constant danger and irritation to the states. it was an axe perpetually held over their heads. it threatened their sovereignty, their very existence. on more than one occasion, in foreign courts, the representatives of the netherlands had been exposed to the taunt that the republic was after all not an independent power, but a british province. the gibe had always been repelled in a manner becoming the envoys of a proud commonwealth; yet it was sufficiently galling that english garrisons should continue to hold dutch towns; one of them among the most valuable seaports of the republic,--the other the very cradle of its independence, the seizure of which in alva's days had always been reckoned a splendid achievement. moreover, by the fifth article of the treaty of peace between james and philip iii., although the king had declared himself bound by the treaties made by elizabeth to deliver up the cautionary towns to no one but the united states, he promised spain to allow those states a reasonable time to make peace with the archdukes on satisfactory conditions. should they refuse to do so, he held himself bound by no obligations to them, and would deal with the cities as he thought proper, and as the archdukes themselves might deem just. the king had always been furious at "the huge sum of money to be advanced, nay, given, to the states," as he phrased it. "it is so far out of all square," he had said, "as on my conscience i cannot think that ever they craved it 'animo obtinendi,' but only by that objection to discourage me from any thought of getting any repayment of my debts from them when they shall be in peace . . .. . . . should i ruin myself for maintaining them? should i bestow as much on them as cometh to the value of my whole yearly rent? "he had proceeded to say very plainly that, if the states did not make great speed to pay him all his debt so soon as peace was established, he should treat their pretence at independence with contempt, and propose dividing their territory between himself and the king of france. "if they be so weak as they cannot subsist either in peace or war," he said, "without i ruin myself for upholding them, in that case surely 'minus malunv est eligendum,' the nearest harm is first to be eschewed, a man will leap out of a burning ship and drown himself in the sea; and it is doubtless a farther off harm for me to suffer them to fall again in the hands of spain, and let god provide for the danger that may with time fall upon me or my posterity than presently to starve myself and mine with putting the meat in their mouth. nay, rather if they be so weak as they can neither sustain themselves in peace nor war, let them leave this vainglorious thirsting for the title of a free state (which no people are worthy or able to enjoy that cannot stand by themselves like substantives), and 'dividantur inter nos;' i mean, let their countries be divided between france and me, otherwise the king of spain shall be sure to consume us." such were the eyes with which james had always regarded the great commonwealth of which he affected to be the ally, while secretly aspiring to be its sovereign, and such was his capacity to calculate political forces and comprehend coming events. certainly the sword was hanging by a thread. the states had made no peace either with the archdukes or with spain. they had made a truce, half the term of which had already run by. at any moment the keys of their very house-door might be placed in the hands of their arch enemy. treacherous and base as the deed would be, it might be defended by the letter of a treaty in which the republic had no part; and was there anything too treacherous or too base to be dreaded from james stuart? but the states owed the crown of england eight millions of florins, equivalent to about l , . where was this vast sum to be found? it was clearly impossible for the states to beg or to borrow it, although they were nearly as rich as any of the leading powers at that day. it was the merit of barneveld, not only that he saw the chance for a good bargain, but that he fully comprehended a great danger. years long james had pursued the phantom of a spanish marriage for his son. to achieve this mighty object, he had perverted the whole policy of the realm; he had grovelled to those who despised him, had repaid attempts at wholesale assassination with boundless sycophancy. it is difficult to imagine anything more abject than the attitude of james towards philip. prince henry was dead, but charles had now become prince of wales in his turn, and there was a younger infanta whose hand was not yet disposed of. so long as the possible prize of a most catholic princess was dangling before the eyes of the royal champion of protestantism, so long there was danger that the netherlanders might wake up some fine morning and see the flag of spain waving over the walls of flushing, brielle, and rammekens. it was in the interest of spain too that the envoys of james at the hague were perpetually goading barneveld to cause the states' troops to be withdrawn from the duchies and the illusory treaty of xanten to be executed. instead of an eighth province added to the free netherlands, the result of such a procedure would have been to place that territory enveloping them in the hands of the enemy; to strengthen and sharpen the claws, as the advocate had called them, by which spain was seeking to clutch and to destroy the republic. the advocate steadily refused to countenance such policy in the duchies, and he resolved on a sudden stroke to relieve the commonwealth from the incubus of the english mortgage. james was desperately pushed for money. his minions, as insatiable in their demands on english wealth as the parasites who fed on the queen- regent were exhaustive of the french exchequer, were greedier than ever now that james, who feared to face a parliament disgusted with the meanness of his policy and depravity of his life, could not be relied upon to minister to their wants. the advocate judiciously contrived that the proposal of a compromise should come from the english government. noel de caron, the veteran ambassador of the states in london, after receiving certain proposals, offered, under instructions' from barneveld, to pay l , in full of all demands. it was made to appear that the additional l , was in reality in advance of his instructions. the mouths of the minions watered at the mention of so magnificent a sum of money in one lump. the bargain was struck. on the th june , sir robert sidney, who had become lord lisle, gave over the city of flushing to the states, represented by the seignior van maldere, while sir horace vere placed the important town of brielle in the hands of the seignior van mathenesse. according to the terms of the bargain, the english garrisons were converted into two regiments, respectively to be commanded by lord lisle's son, now sir robert sidney, and by sir horace vere, and were to serve the states. lisle, who had been in the netherlands since the days of his uncle leicester and his brother sir philip sidney, now took his final departure for england. thus this ancient burthen had been taken off the republic by the masterly policy of the advocate. a great source of dread for foreign complication was closed for ever. the french-spanish marriages had been made. henry iv. had not been murdered in vain. conde and his confederates had issued their manifesto. a crisis came to the states, for maurice, always inclined to take part for the princes, and urged on by aerssens, who was inspired by a deadly hatred for the french government ever since they had insisted on his dismissal from his post, and who fed the stadholder's growing jealousy of the advocate to the full, was at times almost ready for joining in the conflict. it was most difficult for the states-general, led by barneveld, to maintain relations of amity with a government controlled by spain, governed by the concini's, and wafted to and fro by every wind that blew. still it was the government, and the states might soon be called upon, in virtue of their treaties with henry, confirmed by mary de' medici, not only to prevent the daily desertion of officers and soldiers of the french regiments to the rebellious party, but to send the regiments themselves to the assistance of the king and queen. there could be no doubt that the alliance of the french huguenots at grenoble with the princes made the position of the states very critical. bouillon was loud in his demands upon maurice and the states for money and reinforcements, but the prince fortunately understood the character of the duke and of conde, and comprehended the nature of french politics too clearly to be led into extremities by passion or by pique. he said loudly to any one that chose to listen: "it is not necessary to ruin the son in order to avenge the death of the father. that should be left to the son, who alone has legitimate authority to do it." nothing could be more sensible, and the remark almost indicated a belief on the prince's part in mary's complicity in the murder of her husband. duplessis-mornay was in despair, and, like all true patriots and men of earnest character, felt it almost an impossibility to choose between the two ignoble parties contending for the possession of france, and both secretly encouraged by france's deadly enemy. the treaty of loudun followed, a treaty which, said du maurier, had about as many negotiators as there were individuals interested in the arrangements. the rebels were forgiven, conde sold himself out for a million and a half livres and the presidency of the council, came to court, and paraded himself in greater pomp and appearance of power than ever. four months afterwards he was arrested and imprisoned. he submitted like a lamb, and offered to betray his confederates. king james, faithful to his self-imposed part of mediator-general, which he thought so well became him, had been busy in bringing about this pacification, and had considered it eminently successful. he was now angry at this unexpected result. he admitted that conde had indulged in certain follies and extravagancies, but these in his opinion all came out of the quiver of the spaniard, "who was the head of the whole intrigue." he determined to recall lord hayes from madrid and even sir thomas edmonds from paris, so great was his indignation. but his wrath was likely to cool under the soothing communications of gondemar, and the rumour of the marriage of the second infanta with the prince of wales soon afterwards started into new life. "we hope," wrote barneveld, "that the alliance of his highness the prince of wales with the daughter of the spanish king will make no further progress, as it will place us in the deepest embarrassment and pain." for the reports had been so rife at the english court in regard to this dangerous scheme that caron had stoutly gone to the king and asked him what he was to think about it. "the king told me," said the ambassador, "that there was nothing at all in it, nor any appearance that anything ever would come of it. it was true, he said, that on the overtures made to him by the spanish ambassador he had ordered his minister in spain to listen to what they had to say, and not to bear himself as if the overtures would be rejected." the coyness thus affected by james could hardly impose on so astute a diplomatist as noel de caron, and the effect produced upon the policy of one of the republic's chief allies by the spanish marriages naturally made her statesmen shudder at the prospect of their other powerful friend coming thus under the malign influence of spain. "he assured me, however," said the envoy, "that the spaniard is not sincere in the matter, and that he has himself become so far alienated from the scheme that we may sleep quietly upon it." and james appeared at that moment so vexed at the turn affairs were taking in france, so wounded in his self-love, and so bewildered by the ubiquitous nature of nets and pitfalls spreading over europe by spain, that he really seemed waking from his delusion. even caron was staggered? "in all his talk he appears so far estranged from the spaniard," said he, "that it would seem impossible that he should consider this marriage as good for his state. i have also had other advices on the subject which in the highest degree comfort me. now your mightinesses may think whatever you like about it." the mood of the king was not likely to last long in so comfortable a state. meantime he took the part of conde and the other princes, justified their proceedings to the special envoy sent over by mary de' medici, and wished the states to join with him in appealing to that queen to let the affair, for his sake, pass over once more. "and now i will tell your mightinesses," said caron, reverting once more to the dreaded marriage which occupies so conspicuous a place in the strangely mingled and party-coloured tissue of the history of those days, "what the king has again been telling me about the alliance between his son and the infanta. he hears from carleton that you are in very great alarm lest this event may take place. he understands that the special french envoy at the hague, m. de la none, has been representing to you that the king of great britain is following after and begging for the daughter of spain for his son. he says it is untrue. but it is true that he has been sought and solicited thereto, and that in consequence there have been talks and propositions and rejoinders, but nothing of any moment. as he had already told me not to be alarmed until he should himself give me cause for it, he expressed his amazement that i had not informed your mightinesses accordingly. he assured me again that he should not proceed further in the business without communicating it to his good friends and neighbours, that he considered my lords the states as his best friends and allies, who ought therefore to conceive no jealousy in the matter." this certainly was cold comfort. caron knew well enough, not a clerk in his office but knew well enough, that james had been pursuing this prize for years. for the king to represent himself as persecuted by spain to give his son to the infanta was about as ridiculous as it would have been to pretend that emperor matthias was persuading him to let his son-in-law accept the crown of bohemia. it was admitted that negotiations for the marriage were going on, and the assertion that the spanish court was more eager for it than the english government was not especially calculated to allay the necessary alarm of the states at such a disaster. nor was it much more tranquillizing for them to be assured, not that the marriage was off, but that, when it was settled, they, as the king's good friends and neighbours, should have early information of it. "i told him," said the ambassador, "that undoubtedly this matter was of the highest 'importance to your mightinesses, for it was not good for us to sit between two kingdoms both so nearly allied with the spanish monarch, considering the pretensions he still maintained to sovereignty over us. although his majesty might not now be willing to treat to our prejudice, yet the affair itself in the sequence of time must of necessity injure our commonwealth. we hoped therefore that it would never come to pass." caron added that ambassador digby was just going to spain on extraordinary mission in regard to this affair, and that eight or ten gentlemen of the council had been deputed to confer with his majesty about it. he was still inclined to believe that the whole negotiation would blow over, the king continuing to exhort him not to be alarmed, and assuring him that there were many occasions moving princes to treat of great affairs although often without any effective issue. at that moment too the king was in a state of vehement wrath with the spanish netherlands on account of a stinging libel against himself, "an infamous and wonderfully scandalous pamphlet," as he termed it, called 'corona regis', recently published at louvain. he had sent sir john bennet as special ambassador to the archdukes to demand from them justice and condign and public chastisement on the author of the work--a rector putianus as he believed, successor of justus lipsius in his professorship at louvain--and upon the printer, one flaminius. delays and excuses having followed instead of the punishment originally demanded, james had now instructed his special envoy in case of further delay or evasion to repudiate all further friendship or intercourse with the archduke, to ratify the recall of his minister-resident trumbull, and in effect to announce formal hostilities. "the king takes the thing wonderfully to heart," said caron. james in effect hated to be made ridiculous, and we shall have occasion to see how important a part other publications which he deemed detrimental to the divinity of his person were to play in these affairs. meantime it was characteristic of this sovereign that--while ready to talk of war with philip's brother-in-law for a pamphlet, while seeking the hand of philip's daughter for his son--he was determined at the very moment when the world was on fire to take himself, the heaven-born extinguisher of all political conflagrations, away from affairs and to seek the solace of along holiday in scotland. his counsellors persistently and vehemently implored him to defer that journey until the following year at least, all the neighbouring nations being now in a state of war and civil commotion. but it was in vain. he refused to listen to them for a moment, and started for scotland before the middle of march. conde, who had kept france in a turmoil, had sought aid alternately from the calvinists at grenoble and the jesuits in rome, from spain and from the netherlands, from the pope and from maurice of nassau, had thus been caged at last. but there was little gained. there was one troublesome but incompetent rebel the less, but there was no king in the land. he who doubts the influence of the individual upon the fate of a country and upon his times through long passages of history may explain the difference between france of , with a martial king aided by great statesmen at its head, with an exchequer overflowing with revenue hoarded for a great cause--and that cause an attempt at least to pacificate christendom and avert a universal and almost infinite conflict now already opening--and the france of , with its treasures already squandered among ignoble and ruffianly favourites, with every office in state, church, court, and magistracy sold to the highest bidder, with a queen governed by an italian adventurer who was governed by spain, and with a little king who had but lately expressed triumph at his confirmation because now he should no longer be whipped, and who was just married to a daughter of the hereditary and inevitable foe of france. to contemplate this dreary interlude in the history of a powerful state is to shiver at the depths of inanity and crime to which mankind can at once descend. what need to pursue the barren, vulgar, and often repeated chronicle? france pulled at by scarcely concealed strings and made to perform fantastic tricks according as its various puppets were swerved this way or that by supple bands at madrid and rome is not a refreshing spectacle. the states-general at last, after an agitated discussion, agreed in fulfilment of the treaty of to send men, being french, to help the king against the princes still in rebellion. but the contest was a most bitter one, and the advocate had a difficult part to play between a government and a rebellion, each more despicable than the other. still louis xiii. and his mother were the legitimate government even if ruled by concini. the words of the treaty made with henry iv. were plain, and the ambassadors of his son had summoned the states to fulfil it. but many impediments were placed in the path of obvious duty by the party led by francis aerssens. "i know very well," said the advocate to ex-burgomaster hooft of amsterdam, father of the great historian, sending him confidentially a copy of the proposals made by the french ambassadors, "that many in this country are striving hard to make us refuse to the king the aid demanded, notwithstanding that we are bound to do it by the pledges given not only by the states-general but by each province in particular. by this no one will profit but the spaniard, who unquestionably will offer much, aye, very much, to bring about dissensions between france and us, from which i foresee great damage, inconvenience, and difficulties for the whole commonwealth and for holland especially. this province has already advanced , , florins to the general government on the money still due from france, which will all be lost in case the subsidy should be withheld, besides other evils which cannot be trusted to the pen." on the same day on which it had been decided at the hague to send the troops, a captain of guards came to the aid of the poor little king and shot concini dead one fine spring morning on the bridge of the louvre. "by order of the king," said vitry. his body was burned before the statue of henry iv. by the people delirious with joy. "l'hanno ammazzato" was shouted to his wife, eleanora galigai, the supposed sorceress. they were the words in which concini had communicated to the queen the murder of her husband seven years before. eleanora, too, was burned after having been beheaded. thus the marshal d'ancre and wife ceased to reign in france. the officers of the french regiments at the hague danced for joy on the vyverberg when the news arrived there. the states were relieved from an immense embarrassment, and the advocate was rewarded for having pursued what was after all the only practicable policy. "do your best," said he to langerac, "to accommodate differences so far as consistent with the conservation of the king's authority. we hope the princes will submit themselves now that the 'lapis offensionis,' according to their pretence, is got rid of. we received a letter from them to-day sealed with the king's arms, with the circumscription 'periclitante regno, regis vita et regia familia." the shooting of concini seemed almost to convert the little king into a hero. everyone in the netherlands, without distinction of party, was delighted with the achievement. "i cannot represent to the king," wrote du maurier to villeroy, "one thousandth part of the joy of all these people who are exalting him to heaven for having delivered the earth from this miserable burthen. i can't tell you in what execration this public pest was held. his majesty has not less won the hearts of this state than if he had gained a great victory over the spaniards. you would not believe it, and yet it is true, that never were the name and reputation of the late king in greater reverence than those of our reigning king at this moment." truly here was glory cheaply earned. the fame of henry the great, after a long career of brilliant deeds of arms, high statesmanship, and twenty years of bountiful friendship for the states, was already equalled by that of louis xiii., who had tremblingly acquiesced in the summary execution of an odious adventurer--his own possible father--and who never had done anything else but feed his canary birds. as for villeroy himself, the ambassador wrote that he could not find portraits enough of him to furnish those who were asking for them since his return to power. barneveld had been right in so often instructing langerac to "caress the old gentleman." etext editor's bookmarks: and give advice. of that, although always a spendthrift casual outbursts of eternal friendship changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day conciliation when war of extermination was intended considered it his special mission in the world to mediate denoungced as an obstacle to peace france was mourning henry and waiting for richelieu hardly a sound protestant policy anywhere but in holland history has not too many really important and emblematic men i hope and i fear king who thought it furious madness to resist the enemy mockery of negotiation in which nothing could be negotiated more apprehension of fraud than of force opening an abyss between government and people successful in this step, he is ready for greater ones that he tries to lay the fault on us is pure malice the magnitude of this wonderful sovereign's littleness this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination wise and honest a man, although he be somewhat longsome yesterday is the preceptor of to-morrow this ebook was produced by david widger, widger@cecomet.net the works of frederick schiller translated from the german illustrated history of the thirty years' war in germany. book ii. the resolution which ferdinand now adopted, gave to the war a new direction, a new scene, and new actors. from a rebellion in bohemia, and the chastisement of rebels, a war extended first to germany, and afterwards to europe. it is, therefore, necessary to take a general survey of the state of affairs both in germany and the rest of europe. unequally as the territory of germany and the privileges of its members were divided among the roman catholics and the protestants, neither party could hope to maintain itself against the encroachments of its adversary otherwise than by a prudent use of its peculiar advantages, and by a politic union among themselves. if the roman catholics were the more numerous party, and more favoured by the constitution of the empire, the protestants, on the other hand, had the advantage of possessing a more compact and populous line of territories, valiant princes, a warlike nobility, numerous armies, flourishing free towns, the command of the sea, and even at the worst, certainty of support from roman catholic states. if the catholics could arm spain and italy in their favour, the republics of venice, holland, and england, opened their treasures to the protestants, while the states of the north and the formidable power of turkey, stood ready to afford them prompt assistance. brandenburg, saxony, and the palatinate, opposed three protestant to three ecclesiastical votes in the electoral college; while to the elector of bohemia, as to the archduke of austria, the possession of the imperial dignity was an important check, if the protestants properly availed themselves of it. the sword of the union might keep within its sheath the sword of the league; or if matters actually came to a war, might make the issue of it doubtful. but, unfortunately, private interests dissolved the band of union which should have held together the protestant members of the empire. this critical conjuncture found none but second-rate actors on the political stage, and the decisive moment was neglected because the courageous were deficient in power, and the powerful in sagacity, courage, and resolution. the elector of saxony was placed at the head of the german protestants, by the services of his ancestor maurice, by the extent of his territories, and by the influence of his electoral vote. upon the resolution he might adopt, the fate of the contending parties seemed to depend; and john george was not insensible to the advantages which this important situation procured him. equally valuable as an ally, both to the emperor and to the protestant union, he cautiously avoided committing himself to either party; neither trusting himself by any irrevocable declaration entirely to the gratitude of the emperor, nor renouncing the advantages which were to be gained from his fears. uninfected by the contagion of religious and romantic enthusiasm which hurried sovereign after sovereign to risk both crown and life on the hazard of war, john george aspired to the more solid renown of improving and advancing the interests of his territories. his cotemporaries accused him of forsaking the protestant cause in the very midst of the storm; of preferring the aggrandizement of his house to the emancipation of his country; of exposing the whole evangelical or lutheran church of germany to ruin, rather than raise an arm in defence of the reformed or calvinists; of injuring the common cause by his suspicious friendship more seriously than the open enmity of its avowed opponents. but it would have been well if his accusers had imitated the wise policy of the elector. if, despite of the prudent policy, the saxons, like all others, groaned at the cruelties which marked the emperor's progress; if all germany was a witness how ferdinand deceived his confederates and trifled with his engagements; if even the elector himself at last perceived this--the more shame to the emperor who could so basely betray such implicit confidence. if an excessive reliance on the emperor, and the hope of enlarging his territories, tied the hands of the elector of saxony, the weak george william, elector of brandenburg, was still more shamefully fettered by fear of austria, and of the loss of his dominions. what was made a reproach against these princes would have preserved to the elector palatine his fame and his kingdom. a rash confidence in his untried strength, the influence of french counsels, and the temptation of a crown, had seduced that unfortunate prince into an enterprise for which he had neither adequate genius nor political capacity. the partition of his territories among discordant princes, enfeebled the palatinate, which, united, might have made a longer resistance. this partition of territory was equally injurious to the house of hesse, in which, between darmstadt and cassel, religious dissensions had occasioned a fatal division. the line of darmstadt, adhering to the confession of augsburg, had placed itself under the emperor's protection, who favoured it at the expense of the calvinists of cassel. while his religious confederates were shedding their blood for their faith and their liberties, the landgrave of darmstadt was won over by the emperor's gold. but william of cassel, every way worthy of his ancestor who, a century before, had defended the freedom of germany against the formidable charles v., espoused the cause of danger and of honour. superior to that pusillanimity which made far more powerful princes bow before ferdinand's might, the landgrave william was the first to join the hero of sweden, and to set an example to the princes of germany which all had hesitated to begin. the boldness of his resolve was equalled by the steadfastness of his perseverance and the valour of his exploits. he placed himself with unshrinking resolution before his bleeding country, and boldly confronted the fearful enemy, whose hands were still reeking from the carnage of magdeburg. the landgrave william deserves to descend to immortality with the heroic race of ernest. thy day of vengeance was long delayed, unfortunate john frederick! noble! never-to-be-forgotten prince! slowly but brightly it broke. thy times returned, and thy heroic spirit descended on thy grandson. an intrepid race of princes issues from the thuringian forests, to shame, by immortal deeds, the unjust sentence which robbed thee of the electoral crown--to avenge thy offended shade by heaps of bloody sacrifice. the sentence of the conqueror could deprive thee of thy territories, but not that spirit of patriotism which staked them, nor that chivalrous courage which, a century afterwards, was destined to shake the throne of his descendant. thy vengeance and that of germany whetted the sacred sword, and one heroic hand after the other wielded the irresistible steel. as men, they achieved what as sovereigns they dared not undertake; they met in a glorious cause as the valiant soldiers of liberty. too weak in territory to attack the enemy with their own forces, they directed foreign artillery against them, and led foreign banners to victory. the liberties of germany, abandoned by the more powerful states, who, however, enjoyed most of the prosperity accruing from them, were defended by a few princes for whom they were almost without value. the possession of territories and dignities deadened courage; the want of both made heroes. while saxony, brandenburg, and the rest drew back in terror, anhalt, mansfeld, the prince of weimar and others were shedding their blood in the field. the dukes of pomerania, mecklenburg, luneburg, and wirtemberg, and the free cities of upper germany, to whom the name of emperor was of course a formidable one, anxiously avoided a contest with such an opponent, and crouched murmuring beneath his mighty arm. austria and roman catholic germany possessed in maximilian of bavaria a champion as prudent as he was powerful. adhering throughout the war to one fixed plan, never divided between his religion and his political interests; not the slavish dependent of austria, who was labouring for his advancement, and trembled before her powerful protector, maximilian earned the territories and dignities that rewarded his exertions. the other roman catholic states, which were chiefly ecclesiastical, too unwarlike to resist the multitudes whom the prosperity of their territories allured, became the victims of the war one after another, and were contented to persecute in the cabinet and in the pulpit, the enemy whom they could not openly oppose in the field. all of them, slaves either to austria or bavaria, sunk into insignificance by the side of maximilian; in his hand alone their united power could be rendered available. the formidable monarchy which charles v. and his son had unnaturally constructed of the netherlands, milan, and the two sicilies, and their distant possessions in the east and west indies, was under philip iii. and philip iv. fast verging to decay. swollen to a sudden greatness by unfruitful gold, this power was now sinking under a visible decline, neglecting, as it did, agriculture, the natural support of states. the conquests in the west indies had reduced spain itself to poverty, while they enriched the markets of europe; the bankers of antwerp, venice, and genoa, were making profit on the gold which was still buried in the mines of peru. for the sake of india, spain had been depopulated, while the treasures drawn from thence were wasted in the re-conquest of holland, in the chimerical project of changing the succession to the crown of france, and in an unfortunate attack upon england. but the pride of this court had survived its greatness, as the hate of its enemies had outlived its power. distrust of the protestants suggested to the ministry of philip iii. the dangerous policy of his father; and the reliance of the roman catholics in germany on spanish assistance, was as firm as their belief in the wonder-working bones of the martyrs. external splendour concealed the inward wounds at which the life-blood of this monarchy was oozing; and the belief of its strength survived, because it still maintained the lofty tone of its golden days. slaves in their palaces, and strangers even upon their own thrones, the spanish nominal kings still gave laws to their german relations; though it is very doubtful if the support they afforded was worth the dependence by which the emperors purchased it. the fate of europe was decided behind the pyrenees by ignorant monks or vindictive favourites. yet, even in its debasement, a power must always be formidable, which yields to none in extent; which, from custom, if not from the steadfastness of its views, adhered faithfully to one system of policy; which possessed well-disciplined armies and consummate generals; which, where the sword failed, did not scruple to employ the dagger; and converted even its ambassadors into incendiaries and assassins. what it had lost in three quarters of the globe, it now sought to regain to the eastward, and all europe was at its mercy, if it could succeed in its long cherished design of uniting with the hereditary dominions of austria all that lay between the alps and the adriatic. to the great alarm of the native states, this formidable power had gained a footing in italy, where its continual encroachments made the neighbouring sovereigns to tremble for their own possessions. the pope himself was in the most dangerous situation; hemmed in on both sides by the spanish viceroys of naples on the one side, and that of milan upon the other. venice was confined between the austrian tyrol and the spanish territories in milan. savoy was surrounded by the latter and france. hence the wavering and equivocal policy, which from the time of charles v. had been pursued by the italian states. the double character which pertained to the popes made them perpetually vacillate between two contradictory systems of policy. if the successors of st. peter found in the spanish princes their most obedient disciples, and the most steadfast supporters of the papal see, yet the princes of the states of the church had in these monarchs their most dangerous neighbours, and most formidable opponents. if, in the one capacity, their dearest wish was the destruction of the protestants, and the triumph of austria, in the other, they had reason to bless the arms of the protestants, which disabled a dangerous enemy. the one or the other sentiment prevailed, according as the love of temporal dominion, or zeal for spiritual supremacy, predominated in the mind of the pope. but the policy of rome was, on the whole, directed to immediate dangers; and it is well known how far more powerful is the apprehension of losing a present good, than anxiety to recover a long lost possession. and thus it becomes intelligible how the pope should first combine with austria for the destruction of heresy, and then conspire with these very heretics for the destruction of austria. strangely blended are the threads of human affairs! what would have become of the reformation, and of the liberties of germany, if the bishop of rome and the prince of rome had had but one interest? france had lost with its great henry all its importance and all its weight in the political balance of europe. a turbulent minority had destroyed all the benefits of the able administration of henry. incapable ministers, the creatures of court intrigue, squandered in a few years the treasures which sully's economy and henry's frugality had amassed. scarce able to maintain their ground against internal factions, they were compelled to resign to other hands the helm of european affairs. the same civil war which armed germany against itself, excited a similar commotion in france; and louis xiii. attained majority only to wage a war with his own mother and his protestant subjects. this party, which had been kept quiet by henry's enlightened policy, now seized the opportunity to take up arms, and, under the command of some adventurous leaders, began to form themselves into a party within the state, and to fix on the strong and powerful town of rochelle as the capital of their intended kingdom. too little of a statesman to suppress, by a prudent toleration, this civil commotion in its birth, and too little master of the resources of his kingdom to direct them with energy, louis xiii. was reduced to the degradation of purchasing the submission of the rebels by large sums of money. though policy might incline him, in one point of view, to assist the bohemian insurgents against austria, the son of henry the fourth was now compelled to be an inactive spectator of their destruction, happy enough if the calvinists in his own dominions did not unseasonably bethink them of their confederates beyond the rhine. a great mind at the helm of state would have reduced the protestants in france to obedience, while it employed them to fight for the independence of their german brethren. but henry iv. was no more, and richelieu had not yet revived his system of policy. while the glory of france was thus upon the wane, the emancipated republic of holland was completing the fabric of its greatness. the enthusiastic courage had not yet died away which, enkindled by the house of orange, had converted this mercantile people into a nation of heroes, and had enabled them to maintain their independence in a bloody war against the spanish monarchy. aware how much they owed their own liberty to foreign support, these republicans were ready to assist their german brethren in a similar cause, and the more so, as both were opposed to the same enemy, and the liberty of germany was the best warrant for that of holland. but a republic which had still to battle for its very existence, which, with all its wonderful exertions, was scarce a match for the formidable enemy within its own territories, could not be expected to withdraw its troops from the necessary work of self-defence to employ them with a magnanimous policy in protecting foreign states. england too, though now united with scotland, no longer possessed, under the weak james, that influence in the affairs of europe which the governing mind of elizabeth had procured for it. convinced that the welfare of her dominions depended on the security of the protestants, this politic princess had never swerved from the principle of promoting every enterprise which had for its object the diminution of the austrian power. her successor was no less devoid of capacity to comprehend, than of vigour to execute, her views. while the economical elizabeth spared not her treasures to support the flemings against spain, and henry iv. against the league, james abandoned his daughter, his son-in-law, and his grandchild, to the fury of their enemies. while he exhausted his learning to establish the divine right of kings, he allowed his own dignity to sink into the dust; while he exerted his rhetoric to prove the absolute authority of kings, he reminded the people of theirs; and by a useless profusion, sacrificed the chief of his sovereign rights-- that of dispensing with his parliament, and thus depriving liberty of its organ. an innate horror at the sight of a naked sword averted him from the most just of wars; while his favourite buckingham practised on his weakness, and his own complacent vanity rendered him an easy dupe of spanish artifice. while his son-in-law was ruined, and the inheritance of his grandson given to others, this weak prince was imbibing, with satisfaction, the incense which was offered to him by austria and spain. to divert his attention from the german war, he was amused with the proposal of a spanish marriage for his son, and the ridiculous parent encouraged the romantic youth in the foolish project of paying his addresses in person to the spanish princess. but his son lost his bride, as his son-in-law lost the crown of bohemia and the palatine electorate; and death alone saved him from the danger of closing his pacific reign by a war at home, which he never had courage to maintain, even at a distance. the domestic disturbances which his misgovernment had gradually excited burst forth under his unfortunate son, and forced him, after some unimportant attempts, to renounce all further participation in the german war, in order to stem within his own kingdom the rage of faction. two illustrious monarchs, far unequal in personal reputation, but equal in power and desire of fame, made the north at this time to be respected. under the long and active reign of christian iv., denmark had risen into importance. the personal qualifications of this prince, an excellent navy, a formidable army, well-ordered finances, and prudent alliances, had combined to give her prosperity at home and influence abroad. gustavus vasa had rescued sweden from vassalage, reformed it by wise laws, and had introduced, for the first time, this newly-organized state into the field of european politics. what this great prince had merely sketched in rude outline, was filled up by gustavus adolphus, his still greater grandson. these two kingdoms, once unnaturally united and enfeebled by their union, had been violently separated at the time of the reformation, and this separation was the epoch of their prosperity. injurious as this compulsory union had proved to both kingdoms, equally necessary to each apart were neighbourly friendship and harmony. on both the evangelical church leaned; both had the same seas to protect; a common interest ought to unite them against the same enemy. but the hatred which had dissolved the union of these monarchies continued long after their separation to divide the two nations. the danish kings could not abandon their pretensions to the swedish crown, nor the swedes banish the remembrance of danish oppression. the contiguous boundaries of the two kingdoms constantly furnished materials for international quarrels, while the watchful jealousy of both kings, and the unavoidable collision of their commercial interests in the north seas, were inexhaustible sources of dispute. among the means of which gustavus vasa, the founder of the swedish monarchy, availed himself to strengthen his new edifice, the reformation had been one of the principal. a fundamental law of the kingdom excluded the adherents of popery from all offices of the state, and prohibited every future sovereign of sweden from altering the religious constitution of the kingdom. but the second son and second successor of gustavus had relapsed into popery, and his son sigismund, also king of poland, had been guilty of measures which menaced both the constitution and the established church. headed by charles, duke of sudermania, the third son of gustavus, the estates made a courageous resistance, which terminated, at last, in an open civil war between the uncle and nephew, and between the king and the people. duke charles, administrator of the kingdom during the absence of the king, had availed himself of sigismund's long residence in poland, and the just displeasure of the states, to ingratiate himself with the nation, and gradually to prepare his way to the throne. his views were not a little forwarded by sigismund's imprudence. a general diet ventured to abolish, in favour of the protector, the rule of primogeniture which gustavus had established in the succession, and placed the duke of sudermania on the throne, from which sigismund, with his whole posterity, were solemnly excluded. the son of the new king (who reigned under the name of charles ix.) was gustavus adolphus, whom, as the son of a usurper, the adherents of sigismund refused to recognize. but if the obligations between monarchy and subjects are reciprocal, and states are not to be transmitted, like a lifeless heirloom, from hand to hand, a nation acting with unanimity must have the power of renouncing their allegiance to a sovereign who has violated his obligations to them, and of filling his place by a worthier object. gustavus adolphus had not completed his seventeenth year, when the swedish throne became vacant by the death of his father. but the early maturity of his genius enabled the estates to abridge in his favour the legal period of minority. with a glorious conquest over himself he commenced a reign which was to have victory for its constant attendant, a career which was to begin and end in success. the young countess of brahe, the daughter of a subject, had gained his early affections, and he had resolved to share with her the swedish throne. but, constrained by time and circumstances, he made his attachment yield to the higher duties of a king, and heroism again took exclusive possession of a heart which was not destined by nature to confine itself within the limits of quiet domestic happiness. christian iv. of denmark, who had ascended the throne before the birth of gustavus, in an inroad upon sweden, had gained some considerable advantages over the father of that hero. gustavus adolphus hastened to put an end to this destructive war, and by prudent sacrifices obtained a peace, in order to turn his arms against the czar of muscovy. the questionable fame of a conqueror never tempted him to spend the blood of his subjects in unjust wars; but he never shrunk from a just one. his arms were successful against russia, and sweden was augmented by several important provinces on the east. in the meantime, sigismund of poland retained against the son the same sentiments of hostility which the father had provoked, and left no artifice untried to shake the allegiance of his subjects, to cool the ardour of his friends, and to embitter his enemies. neither the great qualities of his rival, nor the repeated proofs of devotion which sweden gave to her loved monarch, could extinguish in this infatuated prince the foolish hope of regaining his lost throne. all gustavus's overtures were haughtily rejected. unwillingly was this really peaceful king involved in a tedious war with poland, in which the whole of livonia and polish prussia were successively conquered. though constantly victorious, gustavus adolphus was always the first to hold out the hand of peace. this contest between sweden and poland falls somewhere about the beginning of the thirty years' war in germany, with which it is in some measure connected. it was enough that sigismund, himself a roman catholic, was disputing the swedish crown with a protestant prince, to assure him the active support of spain and austria; while a double relationship to the emperor gave him a still stronger claim to his protection. it was his reliance on this powerful assistance that chiefly encouraged the king of poland to continue the war, which had hitherto turned out so unfavourably for him, and the courts of madrid and vienna failed not to encourage him by high-sounding promises. while sigismund lost one place after another in livonia, courland, and prussia, he saw his ally in germany advancing from conquest after conquest to unlimited power. no wonder then if his aversion to peace kept pace with his losses. the vehemence with which he nourished his chimerical hopes blinded him to the artful policy of his confederates, who at his expense were keeping the swedish hero employed, in order to overturn, without opposition, the liberties of germany, and then to seize on the exhausted north as an easy conquest. one circumstance which had not been calculated on--the magnanimity of gustavus-- overthrew this deceitful policy. an eight years' war in poland, so far from exhausting the power of sweden, had only served to mature the military genius of gustavus, to inure the swedish army to warfare, and insensibly to perfect that system of tactics by which they were afterwards to perform such wonders in germany. after this necessary digression on the existing circumstances of europe, i now resume the thread of my history. ferdinand had regained his dominions, but had not indemnified himself for the expenses of recovering them. a sum of forty millions of florins, which the confiscations in bohemia and moravia had produced, would have sufficed to reimburse both himself and his allies; but the jesuits and his favourites soon squandered this sum, large as it was. maximilian, duke of bavaria, to whose victorious arm, principally, the emperor owed the recovery of his dominions; who, in the service of religion and the emperor, had sacrificed his near relation, had the strongest claims on his gratitude; and moreover, in a treaty which, before the war, the duke had concluded with the emperor, he had expressly stipulated for the reimbursement of all expenses. ferdinand felt the full weight of the obligation imposed upon him by this treaty and by these services, but he was not disposed to discharge it at his own cost. his purpose was to bestow a brilliant reward upon the duke, but without detriment to himself. how could this be done better than at the expense of the unfortunate prince who, by his revolt, had given the emperor a right to punish him, and whose offences might be painted in colours strong enough to justify the most violent measures under the appearance of law. that, then, maximilian may be rewarded, frederick must be further persecuted and totally ruined; and to defray the expenses of the old war, a new one must be commenced. but a still stronger motive combined to enforce the first. hitherto ferdinand had been contending for existence alone; he had been fulfilling no other duty than that of self-defence. but now, when victory gave him freedom to act, a higher duty occurred to him, and he remembered the vow which he had made at loretto and at rome, to his generalissima, the holy virgin, to extend her worship even at the risk of his crown and life. with this object, the oppression of the protestants was inseparably connected. more favourable circumstances for its accomplishment could not offer than those which presented themselves at the close of the bohemian war. neither the power, nor a pretext of right, were now wanting to enable him to place the palatinate in the hands of the catholics, and the importance of this change to the catholic interests in germany would be incalculable. thus, in rewarding the duke of bavaria with the spoils of his relation, he at once gratified his meanest passions and fulfilled his most exalted duties; he crushed an enemy whom he hated, and spared his avarice a painful sacrifice, while he believed he was winning a heavenly crown. in the emperor's cabinet, the ruin of frederick had been resolved upon long before fortune had decided against him; but it was only after this event that they ventured to direct against him the thunders of arbitrary power. a decree of the emperor, destitute of all the formalities required on such occasions by the laws of the empire, pronounced the elector, and three other princes who had borne arms for him at silesia and bohemia, as offenders against the imperial majesty, and disturbers of the public peace, under the ban of the empire, and deprived them of their titles and territories. the execution of this sentence against frederick, namely the seizure of his lands, was, in further contempt of law, committed to spain as sovereign of the circle of burgundy, to the duke of bavaria, and the league. had the evangelic union been worthy of the name it bore, and of the cause which it pretended to defend, insuperable obstacles might have prevented the execution of the sentence; but it was hopeless for a power which was far from a match even for the spanish troops in the lower palatinate, to contend against the united strength of the emperor, bavaria, and the league. the sentence of proscription pronounced upon the elector soon detached the free cities from the union; and the princes quickly followed their example. fortunate in preserving their own dominions, they abandoned the elector, their former chief, to the emperor's mercy, renounced the union, and vowed never to revive it again. but while thus ingloriously the german princes deserted the unfortunate frederick, and while bohemia, silesia, and moravia submitted to the emperor, a single man, a soldier of fortune, whose only treasure was his sword, ernest count mansfeld, dared, in the bohemian town of pilsen, to defy the whole power of austria. left without assistance after the battle of prague by the elector, to whose service he had devoted himself, and even uncertain whether frederick would thank him for his perseverance, he alone for some time held out against the imperialists, till the garrison, mutinying for want of pay, sold the town to the emperor. undismayed by this reverse, he immediately commenced new levies in the upper palatinate, and enlisted the disbanded troops of the union. a new army of , men was soon assembled under his banners, the more formidable to the provinces which might be the object of its attack, because it must subsist by plunder. uncertain where this swarm might light, the neighbouring bishops trembled for their rich possessions, which offered a tempting prey to its ravages. but, pressed by the duke of bavaria, who now entered the upper palatinate, mansfeld was compelled to retire. eluding, by a successful stratagem, the bavarian general, tilly, who was in pursuit of him, he suddenly appeared in the lower palatinate, and there wreaked upon the bishoprics of the rhine the severities he had designed for those of franconia. while the imperial and bavarian allies thus overran bohemia, the spanish general, spinola, had penetrated with a numerous army from the netherlands into the lower palatinate, which, however, the pacification of ulm permitted the union to defend. but their measures were so badly concerted, that one place after another fell into the hands of the spaniards; and at last, when the union broke up, the greater part of the country was in the possession of spain. the spanish general, corduba, who commanded these troops after the recall of spinola, hastily raised the siege of frankenthal, when mansfeld entered the lower palatinate. but instead of driving the spaniards out of this province, he hastened across the rhine to secure for his needy troops shelter and subsistence in alsace. the open countries on which this swarm of maurauders threw themselves were converted into frightful deserts, and only by enormous contributions could the cities purchase an exemption from plunder. reinforced by this expedition, mansfeld again appeared on the rhine to cover the lower palatinate. so long as such an arm fought for him, the cause of the elector frederick was not irretrievably lost. new prospects began to open, and misfortune raised up friends who had been silent during his prosperity. king james of england, who had looked on with indifference while his son-in-law lost the bohemian crown, was aroused from his insensibility when the very existence of his daughter and grandson was at stake, and the victorious enemy ventured an attack upon the electorate. late enough, he at last opened his treasures, and hastened to afford supplies of money and troops, first to the union, which at that time was defending the lower palatinate, and afterwards, when they retired, to count mansfeld. by his means his near relation, christian, king of denmark, was induced to afford his active support. at the same time, the approaching expiration of the truce between spain and holland deprived the emperor of all the supplies which otherwise he might expect from the side of the netherlands. more important still was the assistance which the palatinate received from transylvania and hungary. the cessation of hostilities between gabor and the emperor was scarcely at an end, when this old and formidable enemy of austria overran hungary anew, and caused himself to be crowned king in presburg. so rapid was his progress that, to protect austria and hungary, boucquoi was obliged to evacuate bohemia. this brave general met his death at the siege of neuhausel, as, shortly before, the no less valiant dampierre had fallen before presburg. gabor's march into the austrian territory was irresistible; the old count thurn, and several other distinguished bohemians, had united their hatred and their strength with this irreconcileable enemy of austria. a vigorous attack on the side of germany, while gabor pressed the emperor on that of hungary, might have retrieved the fortunes of frederick; but, unfortunately, the bohemians and germans had always laid down their arms when gabor took the field; and the latter was always exhausted at the very moment that the former began to recover their vigour. meanwhile frederick had not delayed to join his protector mansfeld. in disguise he entered the lower palatinate, of which the possession was at that time disputed between mansfeld and the bavarian general, tilly, the upper palatinate having been long conquered. a ray of hope shone upon him as, from the wreck of the union, new friends came forward. a former member of the union, george frederick, margrave of baden, had for some time been engaged in assembling a military force, which soon amounted to a considerable army. its destination was kept a secret till he suddenly took the field and joined mansfeld. before commencing the war, he resigned his margraviate to his son, in the hope of eluding, by this precaution, the emperor's revenge, if his enterprize should be unsuccessful. his neighbour, the duke of wirtemberg, likewise began to augment his military force. the courage of the palatine revived, and he laboured assiduously to renew the protestant union. it was now time for tilly to consult for his own safety, and he hastily summoned the spanish troops, under corduba, to his assistance. but while the enemy was uniting his strength, mansfeld and the margrave separated, and the latter was defeated by the bavarian general near wimpfen ( ). to defend a king whom his nearest relation persecuted, and who was deserted even by his own father-in-law, there had come forward an adventurer without money, and whose very legitimacy was questioned. a sovereign had resigned possessions over which he reigned in peace, to hazard the uncertain fortune of war in behalf of a stranger. and now another soldier of fortune, poor in territorial possessions, but rich in illustrious ancestry, undertook the defence of a cause which the former despaired of. christian, duke of brunswick, administrator of halberstadt, seemed to have learnt from count mansfeld the secret of keeping in the field an army of , men without money. impelled by youthful presumption, and influenced partly by the wish of establishing his reputation at the expense of the roman catholic priesthood, whom he cordially detested, and partly by a thirst for plunder, he assembled a considerable army in lower saxony, under the pretext of espousing the defence of frederick, and of the liberties of germany. "god's friend, priest's foe", was the motto he chose for his coinage, which was struck out of church plate; and his conduct belied one half at least of the device. the progress of these banditti was, as usual, marked by the most frightful devastation. enriched by the spoils of the chapters of lower saxony and westphalia, they gathered strength to plunder the bishoprics upon the upper rhine. driven from thence, both by friends and foes, the administrator approached the town of hoechst on the maine, which he crossed after a murderous action with tilly, who disputed with him the passage of the river. with the loss of half his army he reached the opposite bank, where he quickly collected his shattered troops, and formed a junction with mansfeld. pursued by tilly, this united host threw itself again into alsace, to repeat their former ravages. while the elector frederick followed, almost like a fugitive mendicant, this swarm of plunderers which acknowledged him as its lord, and dignified itself with his name, his friends were busily endeavouring to effect a reconciliation between him and the emperor. ferdinand took care not to deprive them of all hope of seeing the palatine restored to his dominion. full of artifice and dissimulation, he pretended to be willing to enter into a negotiation, hoping thereby to cool their ardour in the field, and to prevent them from driving matters to extremity. james i., ever the dupe of spanish cunning, contributed not a little, by his foolish intermeddling, to promote the emperor's schemes. ferdinand insisted that frederick, if he would appeal to his clemency, should, first of all, lay down his arms, and james considered this demand extremely reasonable. at his instigation, the elector dismissed his only real defenders, count mansfeld and the administrator, and in holland awaited his own fate from the mercy of the emperor. mansfeld and duke christian were now at a loss for some new name; the cause of the elector had not set them in motion, so his dismissal could not disarm them. war was their object; it was all the same to them in whose cause or name it was waged. after some vain attempts on the part of mansfeld to be received into the emperor's service, both marched into lorraine, where the excesses of their troops spread terror even to the heart of france. here they long waited in vain for a master willing to purchase their services; till the dutch, pressed by the spanish general spinola, offered to take them into pay. after a bloody fight at fleurus with the spaniards, who attempted to intercept them, they reached holland, where their appearance compelled the spanish general forthwith to raise the siege of bergen-op-zoom. but even holland was soon weary of these dangerous guests, and availed herself of the first moment to get rid of their unwelcome assistance. mansfeld allowed his troops to recruit themselves for new enterprises in the fertile province of east friezeland. duke christian, passionately enamoured of the electress palatine, with whom he had become acquainted in holland, and more disposed for war than ever, led back his army into lower saxony, bearing that princess's glove in his hat, and on his standards the motto "all for god and her". neither of these adventurers had as yet run their career in this war. all the imperial territories were now free from the enemy; the union was dissolved; the margrave of baden, duke christian, and mansfeld, driven from the field, and the palatinate overrun by the executive troops of the empire. manheim and heidelberg were in possession of bavaria, and frankenthal was shortly afterwards ceded to the spaniards. the palatine, in a distant corner of holland, awaited the disgraceful permission to appease, by abject submission, the vengeance of the emperor; and an electoral diet was at last summoned to decide his fate. that fate, however, had been long before decided at the court of the emperor; though now, for the first time, were circumstances favourable for giving publicity to the decision. after his past measures towards the elector, ferdinand believed that a sincere reconciliation was not to be hoped for. the violent course he had once begun, must be completed successfully, or recoil upon himself. what was already lost was irrecoverable; frederick could never hope to regain his dominions; and a prince without territory and without subjects had little chance of retaining the electoral crown. deeply as the palatine had offended against the house of austria, the services of the duke of bavaria were no less meritorious. if the house of austria and the roman catholic church had much to dread from the resentment and religious rancour of the palatine family, they had as much to hope from the gratitude and religious zeal of the bavarian. lastly, by the cession of the palatine electorate to bavaria, the roman catholic religion would obtain a decisive preponderance in the electoral college, and secure a permanent triumph in germany. the last circumstance was sufficient to win the support of the three ecclesiastical electors to this innovation; and among the protestants the vote of saxony was alone of any importance. but could john george be expected to dispute with the emperor a right, without which he would expose to question his own title to the electoral dignity? to a prince whom descent, dignity, and political power placed at the head of the protestant church in germany, nothing, it is true, ought to be more sacred than the defence of the rights of that church against all the encroachments of the roman catholics. but the question here was not whether the interests of the protestants were to be supported against the roman catholics, but which of two religions equally detested, the calvinistic and the popish, was to triumph over the other; to which of the two enemies, equally dangerous, the palatinate was to be assigned; and in this clashing of opposite duties, it was natural that private hate and private gain should determine the event. the born protector of the liberties of germany, and of the protestant religion, encouraged the emperor to dispose of the palatinate by his imperial prerogative; and to apprehend no resistance on the part of saxony to his measures on the mere ground of form. if the elector was afterwards disposed to retract this consent, ferdinand himself, by driving the evangelical preachers from bohemia, was the cause of this change of opinion; and, in the eyes of the elector, the transference of the palatine electorate to bavaria ceased to be illegal, as soon as ferdinand was prevailed upon to cede lusatia to saxony, in consideration of six millions of dollars, as the expenses of the war. thus, in defiance of all protestant germany, and in mockery of the fundamental laws of the empire, which, as his election, he had sworn to maintain, ferdinand at ratisbon solemnly invested the duke of bavaria with the palatinate, without prejudice, as the form ran, to the rights which the relations or descendants of frederick might afterwards establish. that unfortunate prince thus saw himself irrevocably driven from his possessions, without having been even heard before the tribunal which condemned him--a privilege which the law allows to the meanest subject, and even to the most atrocious criminal. this violent step at last opened the eyes of the king of england; and as the negociations for the marriage of his son with the infanta of spain were now broken off, james began seriously to espouse the cause of his son-in-law. a change in the french ministry had placed cardinal richelieu at the head of affairs, and this fallen kingdom soon began to feel that a great mind was at the helm of state. the attempts of the spanish viceroy in milan to gain possession of the valtelline, and thus to form a junction with the austrian hereditary dominions, revived the olden dread of this power, and with it the policy of henry the great. the marriage of the prince of wales with henrietta of france, established a close union between the two crowns; and to this alliance, holland, denmark, and some of the italian states presently acceded. its object was to expel, by force of arms, spain from the valtelline, and to compel austria to reinstate frederick; but only the first of these designs was prosecuted with vigour. james i. died, and charles i., involved in disputes with his parliament, could not bestow attention on the affairs of germany. savoy and venice withheld their assistance; and the french minister thought it necessary to subdue the huguenots at home, before he supported the german protestants against the emperor. great as were the hopes which had been formed from this alliance, they were yet equalled by the disappointment of the event. mansfeld, deprived of all support, remained inactive on the lower rhine; and duke christian of brunswick, after an unsuccessful campaign, was a second time driven out of germany. a fresh irruption of bethlen gabor into moravia, frustrated by the want of support from the germans, terminated, like all the rest, in a formal peace with the emperor. the union was no more; no protestant prince was in arms; and on the frontiers of lower germany, the bavarian general tilly, at the head of a victorious army, encamped in the protestant territory. the movements of the duke of brunswick had drawn him into this quarter, and even into the circle of lower saxony, when he made himself master of the administrator's magazines at lippstadt. the necessity of observing this enemy, and preventing him from new inroads, was the pretext assigned for continuing tilly's stay in the country. but, in truth, both mansfeld and duke christian had, from want of money, disbanded their armies, and count tilly had no enemy to dread. why, then, still burden the country with his presence? it is difficult, amidst the uproar of contending parties, to distinguish the voice of truth; but certainly it was matter for alarm that the league did not lay down its arms. the premature rejoicings of the roman catholics, too, were calculated to increase apprehension. the emperor and the league stood armed and victorious in germany without a power to oppose them, should they venture to attack the protestant states and to annul the religious treaty. had ferdinand been in reality far from disposed to abuse his conquests, still the defenceless position of the protestants was most likely to suggest the temptation. obsolete conventions could not bind a prince who thought that he owed all to religion, and believed that a religious creed would sanctify any deed, however violent. upper germany was already overpowered. lower germany alone could check his despotic authority. here the protestants still predominated; the church had been forcibly deprived of most of its endowments; and the present appeared a favourable moment for recovering these lost possessions. a great part of the strength of the lower german princes consisted in these chapters, and the plea of restoring its own to the church, afforded an excellent pretext for weakening these princes. unpardonable would have been their negligence, had they remained inactive in this danger. the remembrance of the ravages which tilly's army had committed in lower saxony was too recent not to arouse the estates to measures of defence. with all haste, the circle of lower saxony began to arm itself. extraordinary contributions were levied, troops collected, and magazines filled. negociations for subsidies were set on foot with venice, holland, and england. they deliberated, too, what power should be placed at the head of the confederacy. the kings of the sound and the baltic, the natural allies of this circle, would not see with indifference the emperor treating it as a conqueror, and establishing himself as their neighbour on the shores of the north sea. the twofold interests of religion and policy urged them to put a stop to his progress in lower germany. christian iv. of denmark, as duke of holstein, was himself a prince of this circle, and by considerations equally powerful, gustavus adolphus of sweden was induced to join the confederacy. these two kings vied with each other for the honour of defending lower saxony, and of opposing the formidable power of austria. each offered to raise a well-disciplined army, and to lead it in person. his victorious campaigns against moscow and poland gave weight to the promises of the king of sweden. the shores of the baltic were full of the name of gustavus. but the fame of his rival excited the envy of the danish monarch; and the more success he promised himself in this campaign, the less disposed was he to show any favour to his envied neighbour. both laid their conditions and plans before the english ministry, and christian iv. finally succeeded in outbidding his rival. gustavus adolphus, for his own security, had demanded the cession of some places of strength in germany, where he himself had no territories, to afford, in case of need, a place of refuge for his troops. christian iv. possessed holstein and jutland, through which, in the event of a defeat, he could always secure a retreat. eager to get the start of his competitor, the king of denmark hastened to take the field. appointed generalissimo of the circle of lower saxony, he soon had an army of , men in motion; the administrator of magdeburg, and the dukes of brunswick and mecklenburgh, entered into an alliance with him. encouraged by the hope of assistance from england, and the possession of so large a force, he flattered himself he should be able to terminate the war in a single campaign. at vienna, it was officially notified that the only object of these preparations was the protection of the circle, and the maintenance of peace. but the negociations with holland, england, and even france, the extraordinary exertions of the circle, and the raising of so formidable an army, seemed to have something more in view than defensive operations, and to contemplate nothing less than the complete restoration of the elector palatine, and the humiliation of the dreaded power of austria. after negociations, exhortations, commands, and threats had in vain been employed by the emperor in order to induce the king of denmark and the circle of lower saxony to lay down their arms, hostilities commenced, and lower germany became the theatre of war. count tilly, marching along the left bank of the weser, made himself master of all the passes as far as minden. after an unsuccessful attack on nieuburg, he crossed the river and overran the principality of calemberg, in which he quartered his troops. the king conducted his operations on the right bank of the river, and spread his forces over the territories of brunswick, but having weakened his main body by too powerful detachments, he could not engage in any enterprise of importance. aware of his opponent's superiority, he avoided a decisive action as anxiously as the general of the league sought it. with the exception of the troops from the spanish netherlands, which had poured into the lower palatinate, the emperor had hitherto made use only of the arms of bavaria and the league in germany. maximilian conducted the war as executor of the ban of the empire, and tilly, who commanded the army of execution, was in the bavarian service. the emperor owed superiority in the field to bavaria and the league, and his fortunes were in their hands. this dependence on their goodwill, but ill accorded with the grand schemes, which the brilliant commencement of the war had led the imperial cabinet to form. however active the league had shown itself in the emperor's defence, while thereby it secured its own welfare, it could not be expected that it would enter as readily into his views of conquest. or, if they still continued to lend their armies for that purpose, it was too much to be feared that they would share with the emperor nothing but general odium, while they appropriated to themselves all advantages. a strong army under his own orders could alone free him from this debasing dependence upon bavaria, and restore to him his former pre-eminence in germany. but the war had already exhausted the imperial dominions, and they were unequal to the expense of such an armament. in these circumstances, nothing could be more welcome to the emperor than the proposal with which one of his officers surprised him. this was count wallenstein, an experienced officer, and the richest nobleman in bohemia. from his earliest youth he had been in the service of the house of austria, and several campaigns against the turks, venetians, bohemians, hungarians, and transylvanians had established his reputation. he was present as colonel at the battle of prague, and afterwards, as major-general, had defeated a hungarian force in moravia. the emperor's gratitude was equal to his services, and a large share of the confiscated estates of the bohemian insurgents was their reward. possessed of immense property, excited by ambitious views, confident in his own good fortune, and still more encouraged by the existing state of circumstances, he offered, at his own expense and that of his friends, to raise and clothe an army for the emperor, and even undertook the cost of maintaining it, if he were allowed to augment it to , men. the project was universally ridiculed as the chimerical offspring of a visionary brain; but the offer was highly valuable, if its promises should be but partially fulfilled. certain circles in bohemia were assigned to him as depots, with authority to appoint his own officers. in a few months he had , men under arms, with which, quitting the austrian territories, he soon afterwards appeared on the frontiers of lower saxony with , . the emperor had lent this armament nothing but his name. the reputation of the general, the prospect of rapid promotion, and the hope of plunder, attracted to his standard adventurers from all quarters of germany; and even sovereign princes, stimulated by the desire of glory or of gain, offered to raise regiments for the service of austria. now, therefore, for the first time in this war, an imperial army appeared in germany;--an event which if it was menacing to the protestants, was scarcely more acceptable to the catholics. wallenstein had orders to unite his army with the troops of the league, and in conjunction with the bavarian general to attack the king of denmark. but long jealous of tilly's fame, he showed no disposition to share with him the laurels of the campaign, or in the splendour of his rival's achievements to dim the lustre of his own. his plan of operations was to support the latter, but to act entirely independent of him. as he had not resources, like tilly, for supplying the wants of his army, he was obliged to march his troops into fertile countries which had not as yet suffered from war. disobeying, therefore, the order to form a junction with the general of the league, he marched into the territories of halberstadt and magdeburg, and at dessau made himself master of the elbe. all the lands on either bank of this river were at his command, and from them he could either attack the king of denmark in the rear, or, if prudent, enter the territories of that prince. christian iv. was fully aware of the danger of his situation between two such powerful armies. he had already been joined by the administrator of halberstadt, who had lately returned from holland; he now also acknowledged mansfeld, whom previously he had refused to recognise, and supported him to the best of his ability. mansfeld amply requited this service. he alone kept at bay the army of wallenstein upon the elbe, and prevented its junction with that of tilly, and a combined attack on the king of denmark. notwithstanding the enemy's superiority, this intrepid general even approached the bridge of dessau, and ventured to entrench himself in presence of the imperial lines. but attacked in the rear by the whole force of the imperialists, he was obliged to yield to superior numbers, and to abandon his post with the loss of , killed. after this defeat, mansfeld withdrew into brandenburg, where he soon recruited and reinforced his army; and suddenly turned into silesia, with the view of marching from thence into hungary; and, in conjunction with bethlen gabor, carrying the war into the heart of austria. as the austrian dominions in that quarter were entirely defenceless, wallenstein received immediate orders to leave the king of denmark, and if possible to intercept mansfeld's progress through silesia. the diversion which this movement of mansfeld had made in the plans of wallenstein, enabled the king to detach a part of his force into westphalia, to seize the bishoprics of munster and osnaburg. to check this movement, tilly suddenly moved from the weser; but the operations of duke christian, who threatened the territories of the league with an inroad in the direction of hesse, and to remove thither the seat of war, recalled him as rapidly from westphalia. in order to keep open his communication with these provinces, and to prevent the junction of the enemy with the landgrave of hesse, tilly hastily seized all the tenable posts on the werha and fulda, and took up a strong position in minden, at the foot of the hessian mountains, and at the confluence of these rivers with the weser. he soon made himself master of goettingen, the key of brunswick and hesse, and was meditating a similar attack upon nordheim, when the king advanced upon him with his whole army. after throwing into this place the necessary supplies for a long siege, the latter attempted to open a new passage through eichsfeld and thuringia, into the territories of the league. he had already reached duderstadt, when tilly, by forced marches, came up with him. as the army of tilly, which had been reinforced by some of wallenstein's regiments, was superior in numbers to his own, the king, to avoid a battle, retreated towards brunswick. but tilly incessantly harassed his retreat, and after three days' skirmishing, he was at length obliged to await the enemy near the village of lutter in barenberg. the danes began the attack with great bravery, and thrice did their intrepid monarch lead them in person against the enemy; but at length the superior numbers and discipline of the imperialists prevailed, and the general of the league obtained a complete victory. the danes lost sixty standards, and their whole artillery, baggage, and ammunition. several officers of distinction and about , men were killed in the field of battle; and several companies of foot, in the flight, who had thrown themselves into the town-house of lutter, laid down their arms and surrendered to the conqueror. the king fled with his cavalry, and soon collected the wreck of his army which had survived this serious defeat. tilly pursued his victory, made himself master of the weser and brunswick, and forced the king to retire into bremen. rendered more cautious by defeat, the latter now stood upon the defensive; and determined at all events to prevent the enemy from crossing the elbe. but while he threw garrisons into every tenable place, he reduced his own diminished army to inactivity; and one after another his scattered troops were either defeated or dispersed. the forces of the league, in command of the weser, spread themselves along the elbe and havel, and everywhere drove the danes before them. tilly himself crossing the elbe penetrated with his victorious army into brandenburg, while wallenstein entered holstein to remove the seat of war to the king's own dominions. this general had just returned from hungary whither he had pursued mansfeld, without being able to obstruct his march, or prevent his junction with bethlen gabor. constantly persecuted by fortune, but always superior to his fate, mansfeld had made his way against countless difficulties, through silesia and hungary to transylvania, where, after all, he was not very welcome. relying upon the assistance of england, and a powerful diversion in lower saxony, gabor had again broken the truce with the emperor. but in place of the expected diversion in his favour, mansfeld had drawn upon himself the whole strength of wallenstein, and instead of bringing, required, pecuniary assistance. the want of concert in the protestant counsels cooled gabor's ardour; and he hastened, as usual, to avert the coming storm by a speedy peace. firmly determined, however, to break it, with the first ray of hope, he directed mansfeld in the mean time to apply for assistance to venice. cut off from germany, and unable to support the weak remnant of his troops in hungary, mansfeld sold his artillery and baggage train, and disbanded his soldiers. with a few followers, he proceeded through bosnia and dalmatia, towards venice. new schemes swelled his bosom; but his career was ended. fate, which had so restlessly sported with him throughout, now prepared for him a peaceful grave in dalmatia. death overtook him in the vicinity of zara in , and a short time before him died the faithful companion of his fortunes, christian, duke of brunswick--two men worthy of immortality, had they but been as superior to their times as they were to their adversities. the king of denmark, with his whole army, was unable to cope with tilly alone; much less, therefore, with a shattered force could he hold his ground against the two imperial generals. the danes retired from all their posts on the weser, the elbe, and the havel, and the army of wallenstein poured like a torrent into brandenburg, mecklenburg, holstein and sleswick. that general, too proud to act in conjunction with another, had dispatched tilly across the elbe, to watch, as he gave out, the motions of the dutch in that quarter; but in reality that he might terminate the war against the king, and reap for himself the fruits of tilly's conquests. christian had now lost all his fortresses in the german states, with the exception of gluckstadt; his armies were defeated or dispersed; no assistance came from germany; from england, little consolation; while his confederates in lower saxony were at the mercy of the conqueror. the landgrave of hesse cassel had been forced by tilly, soon after the battle of lutter, to renounce the danish alliance. wallenstein's formidable appearance before berlin reduced the elector of brandenburgh to submission, and compelled him to recognise, as legitimate, maximilian's title to the palatine electorate. the greater part of mecklenburgh was now overrun by imperial troops; and both dukes, as adherents of the king of denmark, placed under the ban of the empire, and driven from their dominions. the defence of the german liberties against illegal encroachments, was punished as a crime deserving the loss of all dignities and territories; and yet this was but the prelude to the still more crying enormities which shortly followed. the secret how wallenstein had purposed to fulfil his extravagant designs was now manifest. he had learned the lesson from count mansfeld; but the scholar surpassed his master. on the principle that war must support war, mansfeld and the duke of brunswick had subsisted their troops by contributions levied indiscriminately on friend and enemy; but this predatory life was attended with all the inconvenience and insecurity which accompany robbery. like a fugitive banditti, they were obliged to steal through exasperated and vigilant enemies; to roam from one end of germany to another; to watch their opportunity with anxiety; and to abandon the most fertile territories whenever they were defended by a superior army. if mansfeld and duke christian had done such great things in the face of these difficulties, what might not be expected if the obstacles were removed; when the army raised was numerous enough to overawe in itself the most powerful states of the empire; when the name of the emperor insured impunity to every outrage; and when, under the highest authority, and at the head of an overwhelming force, the same system of warfare was pursued, which these two adventurers had hitherto adopted at their own risk, and with only an untrained multitude? wallenstein had all this in view when he made his bold offer to the emperor, which now seemed extravagant to no one. the more his army was augmented, the less cause was there to fear for its subsistence, because it could irresistibly bear down upon the refractory states; the more violent its outrages, the more probable was impunity. towards hostile states it had the plea of right; towards the favourably disposed it could allege necessity. the inequality, too, with which it dealt out its oppressions, prevented any dangerous union among the states; while the exhaustion of their territories deprived them of the power of vengeance. thus the whole of germany became a kind of magazine for the imperial army, and the emperor was enabled to deal with the other states as absolutely as with his own hereditary dominions. universal was the clamour for redress before the imperial throne; but there was nothing to fear from the revenge of the injured princes, so long as they appealed for justice. the general discontent was directed equally against the emperor, who had lent his name to these barbarities, and the general who exceeded his power, and openly abused the authority of his master. they applied to the emperor for protection against the outrages of his general; but wallenstein had no sooner felt himself absolute in the army, than he threw off his obedience to his sovereign. the exhaustion of the enemy made a speedy peace probable; yet wallenstein continued to augment the imperial armies until they were at least , men strong. numberless commissions to colonelcies and inferior commands, the regal pomp of the commander-in-chief, immoderate largesses to his favourites, (for he never gave less than a thousand florins,) enormous sums lavished in corrupting the court at vienna--all this had been effected without burdening the emperor. these immense sums were raised by the contributions levied from the lower german provinces, where no distinction was made between friend and foe; and the territories of all princes were subjected to the same system of marching and quartering, of extortion and outrage. if credit is to be given to an extravagant contemporary statement, wallenstein, during his seven years command, had exacted not less than sixty thousand millions of dollars from one half of germany. the greater his extortions, the greater the rewards of his soldiers, and the greater the concourse to his standard, for the world always follows fortune. his armies flourished while all the states through which they passed withered. what cared he for the detestation of the people, and the complaints of princes? his army adored him, and the very enormity of his guilt enabled him to bid defiance to its consequences. it would be unjust to ferdinand, were we to lay all these irregularities to his charge. had he foreseen that he was abandoning the german states to the mercy of his officer, he would have been sensible how dangerous to himself so absolute a general would prove. the closer the connexion became between the army, and the leader from whom flowed favour and fortune, the more the ties which united both to the emperor were relaxed. every thing, it is true, was done in the name of the latter; but wallenstein only availed himself of the supreme majesty of the emperor to crush the authority of other states. his object was to depress the princes of the empire, to destroy all gradation of rank between them and the emperor, and to elevate the power of the latter above all competition. if the emperor were absolute in germany, who then would be equal to the man intrusted with the execution of his will? the height to which wallenstein had raised the imperial authority astonished even the emperor himself; but as the greatness of the master was entirely the work of the servant, the creation of wallenstein would necessarily sink again into nothing upon the withdrawal of its creative hand. not without an object, therefore, did wallenstein labour to poison the minds of the german princes against the emperor. the more violent their hatred of ferdinand, the more indispensable to the emperor would become the man who alone could render their ill-will powerless. his design unquestionably was, that his sovereign should stand in fear of no one in all germany--besides himself, the source and engine of this despotic power. as a step towards this end, wallenstein now demanded the cession of mecklenburg, to be held in pledge till the repayment of his advances for the war. ferdinand had already created him duke of friedland, apparently with the view of exalting his own general over bavaria; but an ordinary recompense would not satisfy wallenstein's ambition. in vain was this new demand, which could be granted only at the expense of two princes of the empire, actively resisted in the imperial council; in vain did the spaniards, who had long been offended by his pride, oppose his elevation. the powerful support which wallenstein had purchased from the imperial councillors prevailed, and ferdinand was determined, at whatever cost, to secure the devotion of so indispensable a minister. for a slight offence, one of the oldest german houses was expelled from their hereditary dominions, that a creature of the emperor might be enriched by their spoils ( ). wallenstein now began to assume the title of generalissimo of the emperor by sea and land. wismar was taken, and a firm footing gained on the baltic. ships were required from poland and the hanse towns to carry the war to the other side of the baltic; to pursue the danes into the heart of their own country, and to compel them to a peace which might prepare the way to more important conquests. the communication between the lower german states and the northern powers would be broken, could the emperor place himself between them, and encompass germany, from the adriatic to the sound, (the intervening kingdom of poland being already dependent on him,) with an unbroken line of territory. if such was the emperor's plan, wallenstein had a peculiar interest in its execution. these possessions on the baltic should, he intended, form the first foundation of a power, which had long been the object of his ambition, and which should enable him to throw off his dependence on the emperor. to effect this object, it was of extreme importance to gain possession of stralsund, a town on the baltic. its excellent harbour, and the short passage from it to the swedish and danish coasts, peculiarly fitted it for a naval station in a war with these powers. this town, the sixth of the hanseatic league, enjoyed great privileges under the duke of pomerania, and totally independent of denmark, had taken no share in the war. but neither its neutrality, nor its privileges, could protect it against the encroachments of wallenstein, when he had once cast a longing look upon it. the request he made, that stralsund should receive an imperial garrison, had been firmly and honourably rejected by the magistracy, who also refused his cunningly demanded permission to march his troops through the town, wallenstein, therefore, now proposed to besiege it. the independence of stralsund, as securing the free navigation of the baltic, was equally important to the two northern kings. a common danger overcame at last the private jealousies which had long divided these princes. in a treaty concluded at copenhagen in , they bound themselves to assist stralsund with their combined force, and to oppose in common every foreign power which should appear in the baltic with hostile views. christian iv. also threw a sufficient garrison into stralsund, and by his personal presence animated the courage of the citizens. some ships of war which sigismund, king of poland, had sent to the assistance of the imperial general, were sunk by the danish fleet; and as lubeck refused him the use of its shipping, this imperial generalissimo of the sea had not even ships enough to blockade this single harbour. nothing could appear more adventurous than to attempt the conquest of a strongly fortified seaport without first blockading its harbour. wallenstein, however, who as yet had never experienced a check, wished to conquer nature itself, and to perform impossibilities. stralsund, open to the sea, continued to be supplied with provisions and reinforcements; yet wallenstein maintained his blockade on the land side, and endeavoured, by boasting menaces, to supply his want of real strength. "i will take this town," said he, "though it were fastened by a chain to the heavens." the emperor himself, who might have cause to regret an enterprise which promised no very glorious result, joyfully availed himself of the apparent submission and acceptable propositions of the inhabitants, to order the general to retire from the town. wallenstein despised the command, and continued to harass the besieged by incessant assaults. as the danish garrison, already much reduced, was unequal to the fatigues of this prolonged defence, and the king was unable to detach any further troops to their support, stralsund, with christian's consent, threw itself under the protection of the king of sweden. the danish commander left the town to make way for a swedish governor, who gloriously defended it. here wallenstein's good fortune forsook him; and, for the first time, his pride experienced the humiliation of relinquishing his prey, after the loss of many months and of , men. the necessity to which he reduced the town of applying for protection to sweden, laid the foundation of a close alliance between gustavus adolphus and stralsund, which greatly facilitated the entrance of the swedes into germany. hitherto invariable success had attended the arms of the emperor and the league, and christian iv., defeated in germany, had sought refuge in his own islands; but the baltic checked the further progress of the conquerors. the want of ships not only stopped the pursuit of the king, but endangered their previous acquisitions. the union of the two northern monarchs was most to be dreaded, because, so long as it lasted, it effectually prevented the emperor and his general from acquiring a footing on the baltic, or effecting a landing in sweden. but if they could succeed in dissolving this union, and especially securing the friendship of the danish king, they might hope to overpower the insulated force of sweden. the dread of the interference of foreign powers, the insubordination of the protestants in his own states, and still more the storm which was gradually darkening along the whole of protestant germany, inclined the emperor to peace, which his general, from opposite motives, was equally desirous to effect. far from wishing for a state of things which would reduce him from the meridian of greatness and glory to the obscurity of private life, he only wished to change the theatre of war, and by a partial peace to prolong the general confusion. the friendship of denmark, whose neighbour he had become as duke of mecklenburgh, was most important for the success of his ambitious views; and he resolved, even at the sacrifice of his sovereign's interests, to secure its alliance. by the treaty of copenhagen, christian iv. had expressly engaged not to conclude a separate peace with the emperor, without the consent of sweden. notwithstanding, wallenstein's proposition was readily received by him. in a conference at lubeck in , from which wallenstein, with studied contempt, excluded the swedish ambassadors who came to intercede for mecklenburgh, all the conquests taken by the imperialists were restored to the danes. the conditions imposed upon the king were, that he should interfere no farther with the affairs of germany than was called for by his character of duke of holstein; that he should on no pretext harass the chapters of lower germany, and should leave the dukes of mecklenburgh to their fate. by christian himself had these princes been involved in the war with the emperor; he now sacrificed them, to gain the favour of the usurper of their territories. among the motives which had engaged him in a war with the emperor, not the least was the restoration of his relation, the elector palatine--yet the name of that unfortunate prince was not even mentioned in the treaty; while in one of its articles the legitimacy of the bavarian election was expressly recognised. thus meanly and ingloriously did christian iv. retire from the field. ferdinand had it now in his power, for the second time, to secure the tranquillity of germany; and it depended solely on his will whether the treaty with denmark should or should not be the basis of a general peace. from every quarter arose the cry of the unfortunate, petitioning for an end of their sufferings; the cruelties of his soldiers, and the rapacity of his generals, had exceeded all bounds. germany, laid waste by the desolating bands of mansfeld and the duke of brunswick, and by the still more terrible hordes of tilly and wallenstein, lay exhausted, bleeding, wasted, and sighing for repose. an anxious desire for peace was felt by all conditions, and by the emperor himself; involved as he was in a war with france in upper italy, exhausted by his past warfare in germany, and apprehensive of the day of reckoning which was approaching. but, unfortunately, the conditions on which alone the two religious parties were willing respectively to sheath the sword, were irreconcileable. the roman catholics wished to terminate the war to their own advantage; the protestants advanced equal pretensions. the emperor, instead of uniting both parties by a prudent moderation, sided with one; and thus germany was again plunged in the horrors of a bloody war. from the very close of the bohemian troubles, ferdinand had carried on a counter reformation in his hereditary dominions, in which, however, from regard to some of the protestant estates, he proceeded, at first, with moderation. but the victories of his generals in lower germany encouraged him to throw off all reserve. accordingly he had it intimated to all the protestants in these dominions, that they must either abandon their religion, or their native country,--a bitter and dreadful alternative, which excited the most violent commotions among his austrian subjects. in the palatinate, immediately after the expulsion of frederick, the protestant religion had been suppressed, and its professors expelled from the university of heidelberg. all this was but the prelude to greater changes. in the electoral congress held at muehlhausen, the roman catholics had demanded of the emperor that all the archbishoprics, bishoprics, mediate and immediate, abbacies and monasteries, which, since the diet of augsburg, had been secularized by the protestants, should be restored to the church, in order to indemnify them for the losses and sufferings in the war. to a roman catholic prince so zealous as ferdinand was, such a hint was not likely to be neglected; but he still thought it would be premature to arouse the whole protestants of germany by so decisive a step. not a single protestant prince but would be deprived, by this revocation of the religious foundations, of a part of his lands; for where these revenues had not actually been diverted to secular purposes they had been made over to the protestant church. to this source, many princes owed the chief part of their revenues and importance. all, without exception, would be irritated by this demand for restoration. the religious treaty did not expressly deny their right to these chapters, although it did not allow it. but a possession which had now been held for nearly a century, the silence of four preceding emperors, and the law of equity, which gave them an equal right with the roman catholics to the foundations of their common ancestors, might be strongly pleaded by them as a valid title. besides the actual loss of power and authority, which the surrender of these foundations would occasion, besides the inevitable confusion which would necessarily attend it, one important disadvantage to which it would lead, was, that the restoration of the roman catholic bishops would increase the strength of that party in the diet by so many additional votes. such grievous sacrifices likely to fall on the protestants, made the emperor apprehensive of a formidable opposition; and until the military ardour should have cooled in germany, he had no wish to provoke a party formidable by its union, and which in the elector of saxony had a powerful leader. he resolved, therefore, to try the experiment at first on a small scale, in order to ascertain how it was likely to succeed on a larger one. accordingly, some of the free cities in upper germany, and the duke of wirtemberg, received orders to surrender to the roman catholics several of the confiscated chapters. the state of affairs in saxony enabled the emperor to make some bolder experiments in that quarter. in the bishoprics of magdeburg and halberstadt, the protestant canons had not hesitated to elect bishops of their own religion. both bishoprics, with the exception of the town of magdeburg itself, were overrun by the troops of wallenstein. it happened, moreover, that by the death of the administrator duke christian of brunswick, halberstadt was vacant, as was also the archbishopric of magdeburg by the deposition of christian william, a prince of the house of brandenburgh. ferdinand took advantage of the circumstance to restore the see of halberstadt to a roman catholic bishop, and a prince of his own house. to avoid a similar coercion, the chapter of magdeburg hastened to elect a son of the elector of saxony as archbishop. but the pope, who with his arrogated authority interfered in this matter, conferred the archbishopric of magdeburg also on the austrian prince. thus, with all his pious zeal for religion, ferdinand never lost sight of the interests of his family. at length, when the peace of lubeck had delivered the emperor from all apprehensions on the side of denmark, and the german protestants seemed entirely powerless, the league becoming louder and more urgent in its demands, ferdinand, in , signed the edict of restitution, (so famous by its disastrous consequences,) which he had previously laid before the four roman catholic electors for their approbation. in the preamble, he claimed the prerogative, in right of his imperial authority, to interpret the meaning of the religious treaty, the ambiguities of which had already caused so many disputes, and to decide as supreme arbiter and judge between the contending parties. this prerogative he founded upon the practice of his ancestors, and its previous recognition even by protestant states. saxony had actually acknowledged this right of the emperor; and it now became evident how deeply this court had injured the protestant cause by its dependence on the house of austria. but though the meaning of the religious treaty was really ambiguous, as a century of religious disputes sufficiently proved, yet for the emperor, who must be either a protestant or a roman catholic, and therefore an interested party, to assume the right of deciding between the disputants, was clearly a violation of an essential article of the pacification. he could not be judge in his own cause, without reducing the liberties of the empire to an empty sound. and now, in virtue of this usurpation, ferdinand decided, "that every secularization of a religious foundation, mediate or immediate, by the protestants, subsequent to the date of the treaty, was contrary to its spirit, and must be revoked as a breach of it." he further decided, "that, by the religious peace, catholic proprietors of estates were no further bound to their protestant subjects than to allow them full liberty to quit their territories." in obedience to this decision, all unlawful possessors of benefices--the protestant states in short without exception--were ordered, under pain of the ban of the empire, immediately to surrender their usurped possessions to the imperial commissioners. this sentence applied to no less than two archbishoprics and twelve bishoprics, besides innumerable abbacies. the edict came like a thunderbolt on the whole of protestant germany; dreadful even in its immediate consequences; but yet more so from the further calamities it seemed to threaten. the protestants were now convinced that the suppression of their religion had been resolved on by the emperor and the league, and that the overthrow of german liberty would soon follow. their remonstrances were unheeded; the commissioners were named, and an army assembled to enforce obedience. the edict was first put in force in augsburg, where the treaty was concluded; the city was again placed under the government of its bishop, and six protestant churches in the town were closed. the duke of wirtemberg was, in like manner, compelled to surrender his abbacies. these severe measures, though they alarmed the protestant states, were yet insufficient to rouse them to an active resistance. their fear of the emperor was too strong, and many were disposed to quiet submission. the hope of attaining their end by gentle measures, induced the roman catholics likewise to delay for a year the execution of the edict, and this saved the protestants; before the end of that period, the success of the swedish arms had totally changed the state of affairs. in a diet held at ratisbon, at which ferdinand was present in person (in ), the necessity of taking some measures for the immediate restoration of a general peace to germany, and for the removal of all grievances, was debated. the complaints of the roman catholics were scarcely less numerous than those of the protestants, although ferdinand had flattered himself that by the edict of restitution he had secured the members of the league, and its leader by the gift of the electoral dignity, and the cession of great part of the palatinate. but the good understanding between the emperor and the princes of the league had rapidly declined since the employment of wallenstein. accustomed to give law to germany, and even to sway the emperor's own destiny, the haughty elector of bavaria now at once saw himself supplanted by the imperial general, and with that of the league, his own importance completely undermined. another had now stepped in to reap the fruits of his victories, and to bury his past services in oblivion. wallenstein's imperious character, whose dearest triumph was in degrading the authority of the princes, and giving an odious latitude to that of the emperor, tended not a little to augment the irritation of the elector. discontented with the emperor, and distrustful of his intentions, he had entered into an alliance with france, which the other members of the league were suspected of favouring. a fear of the emperor's plans of aggrandizement, and discontent with existing evils, had extinguished among them all feelings of gratitude. wallenstein's exactions had become altogether intolerable. brandenburg estimated its losses at twenty, pomerania at ten, hesse cassel at seven millions of dollars, and the rest in proportion. the cry for redress was loud, urgent, and universal; all prejudices were hushed; roman catholics and protestants were united on this point. the terrified emperor was assailed on all sides by petitions against wallenstein, and his ear filled with the most fearful descriptions of his outrages. ferdinand was not naturally cruel. if not totally innocent of the atrocities which were practised in germany under the shelter of his name, he was ignorant of their extent; and he was not long in yielding to the representation of the princes, and reduced his standing army by eighteen thousand cavalry. while this reduction took place, the swedes were actively preparing an expedition into germany, and the greater part of the disbanded imperialists enlisted under their banners. the emperor's concessions only encouraged the elector of bavaria to bolder demands. so long as the duke of friedland retained the supreme command, his triumph over the emperor was incomplete. the princes of the league were meditating a severe revenge on wallenstein for that haughtiness with which he had treated them all alike. his dismissal was demanded by the whole college of electors, and even by spain, with a degree of unanimity and urgency which astonished the emperor. the anxiety with which wallenstein's enemies pressed for his dismissal, ought to have convinced the emperor of the importance of his services. wallenstein, informed of the cabals which were forming against him in ratisbon, lost no time in opening the eyes of the emperor to the real views of the elector of bavaria. he himself appeared in ratisbon, with a pomp which threw his master into the shade, and increased the hatred of his opponents. long was the emperor undecided. the sacrifice demanded was a painful one. to the duke of friedland alone he owed his preponderance; he felt how much he would lose in yielding him to the indignation of the princes. but at this moment, unfortunately, he was under the necessity of conciliating the electors. his son ferdinand had already been chosen king of hungary, and he was endeavouring to procure his election as his successor in the empire. for this purpose, the support of maximilian was indispensable. this consideration was the weightiest, and to oblige the elector of bavaria he scrupled not to sacrifice his most valuable servant. at the diet at ratisbon, there were present ambassadors from france, empowered to adjust the differences which seemed to menace a war in italy between the emperor and their sovereign. vincent, duke of mantua and montferrat, dying without issue, his next relation, charles, duke of nevers, had taken possession of this inheritance, without doing homage to the emperor as liege lord of the principality. encouraged by the support of france and venice, he refused to surrender these territories into the hands of the imperial commissioners, until his title to them should be decided. on the other hand, ferdinand had taken up arms at the instigation of the spaniards, to whom, as possessors of milan, the near neighbourhood of a vassal of france was peculiarly alarming, and who welcomed this prospect of making, with the assistance of the emperor, additional conquests in italy. in spite of all the exertions of pope urban viii. to avert a war in that country, ferdinand marched a german army across the alps, and threw the italian states into a general consternation. his arms had been successful throughout germany, and exaggerated fears revived the olden apprehension of austria's projects of universal monarchy. all the horrors of the german war now spread like a deluge over those favoured countries which the po waters; mantua was taken by storm, and the surrounding districts given up to the ravages of a lawless soldiery. the curse of italy was thus added to the maledictions upon the emperor which resounded through germany; and even in the roman conclave, silent prayers were offered for the success of the protestant arms. alarmed by the universal hatred which this italian campaign had drawn upon him, and wearied out by the urgent remonstrances of the electors, who zealously supported the application of the french ambassador, the emperor promised the investiture to the new duke of mantua. this important service on the part of bavaria, of course, required an equivalent from france. the adjustment of the treaty gave the envoys of richelieu, during their residence in ratisbon, the desired opportunity of entangling the emperor in dangerous intrigues, of inflaming the discontented princes of the league still more strongly against him, and of turning to his disadvantage all the transactions of the diet. for this purpose richelieu had chosen an admirable instrument in father joseph, a capuchin friar, who accompanied the ambassadors without exciting the least suspicion. one of his principal instructions was assiduously to bring about the dismissal of wallenstein. with the general who had led it to victory, the army of austria would lose its principal strength; many armies could not compensate for the loss of this individual. it would therefore be a masterstroke of policy, at the very moment when a victorious monarch, the absolute master of his operations, was arming against the emperor, to remove from the head of the imperial armies the only general who, by ability and military experience, was able to cope with the french king. father joseph, in the interests of bavaria, undertook to overcome the irresolution of the emperor, who was now in a manner besieged by the spaniards and the electoral council. "it would be expedient," he thought, "to gratify the electors on this occasion, and thereby facilitate his son's election to the roman crown. this object once gained, wallenstein could at any time resume his former station." the artful capuchin was too sure of his man to touch upon this ground of consolation. the voice of a monk was to ferdinand ii. the voice of god. "nothing on earth," writes his own confessor, "was more sacred in his eyes than a priest. if it could happen, he used to say, that an angel and a regular were to meet him at the same time and place, the regular should receive his first, and the angel his second obeisance." wallenstein's dismissal was determined upon. in return for this pious concession, the capuchin dexterously counteracted the emperor's scheme to procure for the king of hungary the further dignity of king of the romans. in an express clause of the treaty just concluded, the french ministers engaged in the name of their sovereign to observe a complete neutrality between the emperor and his enemies; while, at the same time, richelieu was actually negociating with the king of sweden to declare war, and pressing upon him the alliance of his master. the latter, indeed, disavowed the lie as soon as it had served its purpose, and father joseph, confined to a convent, must atone for the alleged offence of exceeding his instructions. ferdinand perceived, when too late, that he had been imposed upon. "a wicked capuchin," he was heard to say, "has disarmed me with his rosary, and thrust nothing less than six electoral crowns into his cowl." artifice and trickery thus triumphed over the emperor, at the moment when he was believed to be omnipotent in germany, and actually was so in the field. with the loss of , men, and of a general who alone was worth whole armies, he left ratisbon without gaining the end for which he had made such sacrifices. before the swedes had vanquished him in the field, maximilian of bavaria and father joseph had given him a mortal blow. at this memorable diet at ratisbon the war with sweden was resolved upon, and that of mantua terminated. vainly had the princes present at it interceded for the dukes of mecklenburgh; and equally fruitless had been an application by the english ambassadors for a pension to the palatine frederick. wallenstein was at the head of an army of nearly a hundred thousand men who adored him, when the sentence of his dismissal arrived. most of the officers were his creatures:--with the common soldiers his hint was law. his ambition was boundless, his pride indomitable, his imperious spirit could not brook an injury unavenged. one moment would now precipitate him from the height of grandeur into the obscurity of a private station. to execute such a sentence upon such a delinquent seemed to require more address than it cost to obtain it from the judge. accordingly, two of wallenstein's most intimate friends were selected as heralds of these evil tidings, and instructed to soften them as much as possible, by flattering assurances of the continuance of the emperor's favour. wallenstein had ascertained the purport of their message before the imperial ambassadors arrived. he had time to collect himself, and his countenance exhibited an external calmness, while grief and rage were storming in his bosom. he had made up his mind to obey. the emperor's decision had taken him by surprise before circumstances were ripe, or his preparations complete, for the bold measures he had contemplated. his extensive estates were scattered over bohemia and moravia; and by their confiscation, the emperor might at once destroy the sinews of his power. he looked, therefore, to the future for revenge; and in this hope he was encouraged by the predictions of an italian astrologer, who led his imperious spirit like a child in leading strings. seni had read in the stars, that his master's brilliant career was not yet ended; and that bright and glorious prospects still awaited him. it was, indeed, unnecessary to consult the stars to foretell that an enemy, gustavus adolphus, would ere long render indispensable the services of such a general as wallenstein. "the emperor is betrayed," said wallenstein to the messengers; "i pity but forgive him. it is plain that the grasping spirit of the bavarian dictates to him. i grieve that, with so much weakness, he has sacrificed me, but i will obey." he dismissed the emissaries with princely presents; and in a humble letter besought the continuance of the emperor's favour, and of the dignities he had bestowed upon him. the murmurs of the army were universal, on hearing of the dismissal of their general; and the greater part of his officers immediately quitted the imperial service. many followed him to his estates in bohemia and moravia; others he attached to his interests by pensions, in order to command their services when the opportunity should offer. but repose was the last thing that wallenstein contemplated when he returned to private life. in his retreat, he surrounded himself with a regal pomp, which seemed to mock the sentence of degradation. six gates led to the palace he inhabited in prague, and a hundred houses were pulled down to make way for his courtyard. similar palaces were built on his other numerous estates. gentlemen of the noblest houses contended for the honour of serving him, and even imperial chamberlains resigned the golden key to the emperor, to fill a similar office under wallenstein. he maintained sixty pages, who were instructed by the ablest masters. his antichamber was protected by fifty life guards. his table never consisted of less than covers, and his seneschal was a person of distinction. when he travelled, his baggage and suite accompanied him in a hundred wagons, drawn by six or four horses; his court followed in sixty carriages, attended by fifty led horses. the pomp of his liveries, the splendour of his equipages, and the decorations of his apartments, were in keeping with all the rest. six barons and as many knights, were in constant attendance about his person, and ready to execute his slightest order. twelve patrols went their rounds about his palace, to prevent any disturbance. his busy genius required silence. the noise of coaches was to be kept away from his residence, and the streets leading to it were frequently blocked up with chains. his own circle was as silent as the approaches to his palace; dark, reserved, and impenetrable, he was more sparing of his words than of his gifts; while the little that he spoke was harsh and imperious. he never smiled, and the coldness of his temperament was proof against sensual seductions. ever occupied with grand schemes, he despised all those idle amusements in which so many waste their lives. the correspondence he kept up with the whole of europe was chiefly managed by himself, and, that as little as possible might be trusted to the silence of others, most of the letters were written by his own hand. he was a man of large stature, thin, of a sallow complexion, with short red hair, and small sparkling eyes. a gloomy and forbidding seriousness sat upon his brow; and his magnificent presents alone retained the trembling crowd of his dependents. in this stately obscurity did wallenstein silently, but not inactively, await the hour of revenge. the victorious career of gustavus adolphus soon gave him a presentiment of its approach. not one of his lofty schemes had been abandoned; and the emperor's ingratitude had loosened the curb of his ambition. the dazzling splendour of his private life bespoke high soaring projects; and, lavish as a king, he seemed already to reckon among his certain possessions those which he contemplated with hope. after wallenstein's dismissal, and the invasion of gustavus adolphus, a new generalissimo was to be appointed; and it now appeared advisable to unite both the imperial army and that of the league under one general. maximilian of bavaria sought this appointment, which would have enabled him to dictate to the emperor, who, from a conviction of this, wished to procure the command for his eldest son, the king of hungary. at last, in order to avoid offence to either of the competitors, the appointment was given to tilly, who now exchanged the bavarian for the austrian service. the imperial army in germany, after the retirement of wallenstein, amounted to about , men; that of the league to nearly the same number, both commanded by excellent officers, trained by the experience of several campaigns, and proud of a long series of victories. with such a force, little apprehension was felt at the invasion of the king of sweden, and the less so as it commanded both pomerania and mecklenburg, the only countries through which he could enter germany. after the unsuccessful attempt of the king of denmark to check the emperor's progress, gustavus adolphus was the only prince in europe from whom oppressed liberty could look for protection--the only one who, while he was personally qualified to conduct such an enterprise, had both political motives to recommend and wrongs to justify it. before the commencement of the war in lower saxony, important political interests induced him, as well as the king of denmark, to offer his services and his army for the defence of germany; but the offer of the latter had, to his own misfortune, been preferred. since that time, wallenstein and the emperor had adopted measures which must have been equally offensive to him as a man and as a king. imperial troops had been despatched to the aid of the polish king, sigismund, to defend prussia against the swedes. when the king complained to wallenstein of this act of hostility, he received for answer, "the emperor has more soldiers than he wants for himself, he must help his friends." the swedish ambassadors had been insolently ordered by wallenstein to withdraw from the conference at lubeck; and when, unawed by this command, they were courageous enough to remain, contrary to the law of nations, he had threatened them with violence. ferdinand had also insulted the swedish flag, and intercepted the king's despatches to transylvania. he also threw every obstacle in the way of a peace betwixt poland and sweden, supported the pretensions of sigismund to the swedish throne, and denied the right of gustavus to the title of king. deigning no regard to the repeated remonstrances of gustavus, he rather aggravated the offence by new grievances, than acceded the required satisfaction. so many personal motives, supported by important considerations, both of policy and religion, and seconded by pressing invitations from germany, had their full weight with a prince, who was naturally the more jealous of his royal prerogative the more it was questioned, who was flattered by the glory he hoped to gain as protector of the oppressed, and passionately loved war as the element of his genius. but, until a truce or peace with poland should set his hands free, a new and dangerous war was not to be thought of. cardinal richelieu had the merit of effecting this truce with poland. this great statesman, who guided the helm of europe, while in france he repressed the rage of faction and the insolence of the nobles, pursued steadily, amidst the cares of a stormy administration, his plan of lowering the ascendancy of the house of austria. but circumstances opposed considerable obstacles to the execution of his designs; and even the greatest minds cannot, with impunity, defy the prejudices of the age. the minister of a roman catholic king, and a cardinal, he was prevented by the purple he bore from joining the enemies of that church in an open attack on a power which had the address to sanctify its ambitious encroachments under the name of religion. the external deference which richelieu was obliged to pay to the narrow views of his contemporaries limited his exertions to secret negociations, by which he endeavoured to gain the hand of others to accomplish the enlightened projects of his own mind. after a fruitless attempt to prevent the peace between denmark and the emperor, he had recourse to gustavus adolphus, the hero of his age. no exertion was spared to bring this monarch to a favourable decision, and at the same time to facilitate the execution of it. charnasse, an unsuspected agent of the cardinal, proceeded to polish prussia, where gustavus adolphus was conducting the war against sigismund, and alternately visited these princes, in order to persuade them to a truce or peace. gustavus had been long inclined to it, and the french minister succeeded at last in opening the eyes of sigismund to his true interests, and to the deceitful policy of the emperor. a truce for six years was agreed on, gustavus being allowed to retain all his conquests. this treaty gave him also what he had so long desired, the liberty of directing his arms against the emperor. for this the french ambassador offered him the alliance of his sovereign and considerable subsidies. but gustavus adolphus was justly apprehensive lest the acceptance of the assistance should make him dependent upon france, and fetter him in his career of conquest, while an alliance with a roman catholic power might excite distrust among the protestants. if the war was just and necessary, the circumstances under which it was undertaken were not less promising. the name of the emperor, it is true, was formidable, his resources inexhaustible, his power hitherto invincible. so dangerous a contest would have dismayed any other than gustavus. he saw all the obstacles and dangers which opposed his undertaking, but he knew also the means by which, as he hoped, they might be conquered. his army, though not numerous, was well disciplined, inured to hardship by a severe climate and campaigns, and trained to victory in the war with poland. sweden, though poor in men and money, and overtaxed by an eight years' war, was devoted to its monarch with an enthusiasm which assured him of the ready support of his subjects. in germany, the name of the emperor was at least as much hated as feared. the protestant princes only awaited the arrival of a deliverer to throw off his intolerable yoke, and openly declare for the swedes. even the roman catholic states would welcome an antagonist to the emperor, whose opposition might control his overwhelming influence. the first victory gained on german ground would be decisive. it would encourage those princes who still hesitated to declare themselves, strengthen the cause of his adherents, augment his troops, and open resources for the maintenance of the campaign. if the greater part of the german states were impoverished by oppression, the flourishing hanse towns had escaped, and they could not hesitate, by a small voluntary sacrifice, to avert the general ruin. as the imperialists should be driven from the different provinces, their armies would diminish, since they were subsisting on the countries in which they were encamped. the strength, too, of the emperor had been lessened by ill-timed detachments to italy and the netherlands; while spain, weakened by the loss of the manilla galleons, and engaged in a serious war in the netherlands, could afford him little support. great britain, on the other hand, gave the king of sweden hope of considerable subsidies; and france, now at peace with itself, came forward with the most favourable offers. but the strongest pledge for the success of his undertaking gustavus found--in himself. prudence demanded that he should embrace all the foreign assistance he could, in order to guard his enterprise from the imputation of rashness; but all his confidence and courage were entirely derived from himself. he was indisputably the greatest general of his age, and the bravest soldier in the army which he had formed. familiar with the tactics of greece and rome, he had discovered a more effective system of warfare, which was adopted as a model by the most eminent commanders of subsequent times. he reduced the unwieldy squadrons of cavalry, and rendered their movements more light and rapid; and, with the same view, he widened the intervals between his battalions. instead of the usual array in a single line, he disposed his forces in two lines, that the second might advance in the event of the first giving way. he made up for his want of cavalry, by placing infantry among the horse; a practice which frequently decided the victory. europe first learned from him the importance of infantry. all germany was astonished at the strict discipline which, at the first, so creditably distinguished the swedish army within their territories; all disorders were punished with the utmost severity, particularly impiety, theft, gambling, and duelling. the swedish articles of war enforced frugality. in the camp, the king's tent not excepted, neither silver nor gold was to be seen. the general's eye looked as vigilantly to the morals as to the martial bravery of his soldiers; every regiment was ordered to form round its chaplain for morning and evening prayers. in all these points the lawgiver was also an example. a sincere and ardent piety exalted his courage. equally free from the coarse infidelity which leaves the passions of the barbarian without a control,--and from the grovelling superstition of ferdinand, who humbled himself to the dust before the supreme being, while he haughtily trampled on his fellow-creature--in the height of his success he was ever a man and a christian--in the height of his devotion, a king and a hero. the hardships of war he shared with the meanest soldier in his army; maintained a calm serenity amidst the hottest fury of battle; his glance was omnipresent, and he intrepidly forgot the danger while he exposed himself to the greatest peril. his natural courage, indeed, too often made him forget the duty of a general; and the life of a king ended in the death of a common soldier. but such a leader was followed to victory alike by the coward and the brave, and his eagle glance marked every heroic deed which his example had inspired. the fame of their sovereign excited in the nation an enthusiastic sense of their own importance; proud of their king, the peasant in finland and gothland joyfully contributed his pittance; the soldier willingly shed his blood; and the lofty energy which his single mind had imparted to the nation long survived its creator. the necessity of the war was acknowledged, but the best plan of conducting it was a matter of much question. even to the bold chancellor oxenstiern, an offensive war appeared too daring a measure; the resources of his poor and conscientious master, appeared to him too slender to compete with those of a despotic sovereign, who held all germany at his command. but the minister's timid scruples were overruled by the hero's penetrating prudence. "if we await the enemy in sweden," said gustavus, "in the event of a defeat every thing would be lost, by a fortunate commencement in germany everything would be gained. the sea is wide, and we have a long line of coast in sweden to defend. if the enemy's fleet should escape us, or our own be defeated, it would, in either case, be impossible to prevent the enemy's landing. every thing depends on the retention of stralsund. so long as this harbour is open to us, we shall both command the baltic, and secure a retreat from germany. but to protect this port, we must not remain in sweden, but advance at once into pomerania. let us talk no more, then, of a defensive war, by which we should sacrifice our greatest advantages. sweden must not be doomed to behold a hostile banner; if we are vanquished in germany, it will be time enough to follow your plan." gustavus resolved to cross the baltic and attack the emperor. his preparations were made with the utmost expedition, and his precautionary measures were not less prudent than the resolution itself was bold and magnanimous. before engaging in so distant a war, it was necessary to secure sweden against its neighbours. at a personal interview with the king of denmark at markaroed, gustavus assured himself of the friendship of that monarch; his frontier on the side of moscow was well guarded; poland might be held in check from germany, if it betrayed any design of infringing the truce. falkenberg, a swedish ambassador, who visited the courts of holland and germany, obtained the most flattering promises from several protestant princes, though none of them yet possessed courage or self-devotion enough to enter into a formal alliance with him. lubeck and hamburg engaged to advance him money, and to accept swedish copper in return. emissaries were also despatched to the prince of transylvania, to excite that implacable enemy of austria to arms. in the mean time, swedish levies were made in germany and the netherlands, the regiments increased to their full complement, new ones raised, transports provided, a fleet fitted out, provisions, military stores, and money collected. thirty ships of war were in a short time prepared, , men equipped, and transports were ready to convey them across the baltic. a greater force gustavus adolphus was unwilling to carry into germany, and even the maintenance of this exceeded the revenues of his kingdom. but however small his army, it was admirable in all points of discipline, courage, and experience, and might serve as the nucleus of a more powerful armament, if it once gained the german frontier, and its first attempts were attended with success. oxenstiern, at once general and chancellor, was posted with , men in prussia, to protect that province against poland. some regular troops, and a considerable body of militia, which served as a nursery for the main body, remained in sweden, as a defence against a sudden invasion by any treacherous neighbour. these were the measures taken for the external defence of the kingdom. its internal administration was provided for with equal care. the government was intrusted to the council of state, and the finances to the palatine john casimir, the brother-in-law of the king, while his wife, tenderly as he was attached to her, was excluded from all share in the government, for which her limited talents incapacitated her. he set his house in order like a dying man. on the th may, , when all his measures were arranged, and all was ready for his departure, the king appeared in the diet at stockholm, to bid the states a solemn farewell. taking in his arms his daughter christina, then only four years old, who, in the cradle, had been acknowledged as his successor, he presented her to the states as the future sovereign, exacted from them a renewal of the oath of allegiance to her, in case he should never more return; and then read the ordinances for the government of the kingdom during his absence, or the minority of his daughter. the whole assembly was dissolved in tears, and the king himself was some time before he could attain sufficient composure to deliver his farewell address to the states. "not lightly or wantonly," said he, "am i about to involve myself and you in this new and dangerous war; god is my witness that _i_ do not fight to gratify my own ambition. but the emperor has wronged me most shamefully in the person of my ambassadors. he has supported my enemies, persecuted my friends and brethren, trampled my religion in the dust, and even stretched his revengeful arm against my crown. the oppressed states of germany call loudly for aid, which, by god's help, we will give them. "i am fully sensible of the dangers to which my life will be exposed. i have never yet shrunk from them, nor is it likely that i shall escape them all. hitherto, providence has wonderfully protected me, but i shall at last fall in defence of my country. i commend you to the protection of heaven. be just, be conscientious, act uprightly, and we shall meet again in eternity. "to you, my counsellors of state, i address myself first. may god enlighten you, and fill you with wisdom, to promote the welfare of my people. you, too, my brave nobles, i commend to the divine protection. continue to prove yourselves the worthy successors of those gothic heroes, whose bravery humbled to the dust the pride of ancient rome. to you, ministers of religion, i recommend moderation and unity; be yourselves examples of the virtues which you preach, and abuse not your influence over the minds of my people. on you, deputies of the burgesses, and the peasantry, i entreat the blessing of heaven; may your industry be rewarded by a prosperous harvest; your stores plenteously filled, and may you be crowned abundantly with all the blessings of this life. for the prosperity of all my subjects, absent and present, i offer my warmest prayers to heaven. i bid you all a sincere--it may be --an eternal farewell." the embarkation of the troops took place at elfsknaben, where the fleet lay at anchor. an immense concourse flocked thither to witness this magnificent spectacle. the hearts of the spectators were agitated by varied emotions, as they alternately considered the vastness of the enterprise, and the greatness of the leader. among the superior officers who commanded in this army were gustavus horn, the rhinegrave otto lewis, henry matthias, count thurn, ottenberg, baudissen, banner, teufel, tott, mutsenfahl, falkenberg, kniphausen, and other distinguished names. detained by contrary winds, the fleet did not sail till june, and on the th of that month reached the island of rugen in pomerania. gustavus adolphus was the first who landed. in the presence of his suite, he knelt on the shore of germany to return thanks to the almighty for the safe arrival of his fleet and his army. he landed his troops on the islands of wollin and usedom; upon his approach, the imperial garrisons abandoned their entrenchments and fled. he advanced rapidly on stettin, to secure this important place before the appearance of the imperialists. bogislaus xiv., duke of pomerania, a feeble and superannuated prince, had been long tired out by the outrages committed by the latter within his territories; but too weak to resist, he had contented himself with murmurs. the appearance of his deliverer, instead of animating his courage, increased his fear and anxiety. severely as his country had suffered from the imperialists, the risk of incurring the emperor's vengeance prevented him from declaring openly for the swedes. gustavus adolphus, who was encamped under the walls of the town, summoned the city to receive a swedish garrison. bogislaus appeared in person in the camp of gustavus, to deprecate this condition. "i come to you," said gustavus, "not as an enemy but a friend. i wage no war against pomerania, nor against the german empire, but against the enemies of both. in my hands this duchy shall be sacred; and it shall be restored to you at the conclusion of the campaign, by me, with more certainty, than by any other. look to the traces of the imperial force within your territories, and to mine in usedom; and decide whether you will have the emperor or me as your friend. what have you to expect, if the emperor should make himself master of your capital? will he deal with you more leniently than i? or is it your intention to stop my progress? the case is pressing: decide at once, and do not compel me to have recourse to more violent measures." the alternative was a painful one. on the one side, the king of sweden was before his gates with a formidable army; on the other, he saw the inevitable vengeance of the emperor, and the fearful example of so many german princes, who were now wandering in misery, the victims of that revenge. the more immediate danger decided his resolution. the gates of stettin were opened to the king; the swedish troops entered; and the austrians, who were advancing by rapid marches, anticipated. the capture of this place procured for the king a firm footing in pomerania, the command of the oder, and a magazine for his troops. to prevent a charge of treachery, bogislaus was careful to excuse this step to the emperor on the plea of necessity; but aware of ferdinand's implacable disposition, he entered into a close alliance with his new protector. by this league with pomerania, gustavus secured a powerful friend in germany, who covered his rear, and maintained his communication with sweden. as ferdinand was already the aggressor in prussia, gustavus adolphus thought himself absolved from the usual formalities, and commenced hostilities without any declaration of war. to the other european powers, he justified his conduct in a manifesto, in which he detailed the grounds which had led him to take up arms. meanwhile he continued his progress in pomerania, while he saw his army daily increasing. the troops which had fought under mansfeld, duke christian of brunswick, the king of denmark, and wallenstein, came in crowds, both officers and soldiers, to join his victorious standard. at the imperial court, the invasion of the king of sweden at first excited far less attention than it merited. the pride of austria, extravagantly elated by its unheard-of successes, looked down with contempt upon a prince, who, with a handful of men, came from an obscure corner of europe, and who owed his past successes, as they imagined, entirely to the incapacity of a weak opponent. the depreciatory representation which wallenstein had artfully given of the swedish power, increased the emperor's security; for what had he to fear from an enemy, whom his general undertook to drive with such ease from germany? even the rapid progress of gustavus adolphus in pomerania, could not entirely dispel this prejudice, which the mockeries of the courtiers continued to feed. he was called in vienna the snow king, whom the cold of the north kept together, but who would infallibly melt as he advanced southward. even the electors, assembled in ratisbon, disregarded his representations; and, influenced by an abject complaisance to ferdinand, refused him even the title of king. but while they mocked him in ratisbon and vienna, in mecklenburg and pomerania, one strong town after another fell into his hands. notwithstanding this contempt, the emperor thought it proper to offer to adjust his differences with sweden by negociation, and for that purpose sent plenipotentiaries to denmark. but their instructions showed how little he was in earnest in these proposals, for he still continued to refuse to gustavus the title of king. he hoped by this means to throw on the king of sweden the odium of being the aggressor, and thereby to ensure the support of the states of the empire. the conference at dantzic proved, as might be expected, fruitless, and the animosity of both parties was increased to its utmost by an intemperate correspondence. an imperial general, torquato conti, who commanded in pomerania, had, in the mean time, made a vain attempt to wrest stettin from the swedes. the imperialists were driven out from one place after another; damm, stargard, camin, and wolgast, soon fell into the hands of gustavus. to revenge himself upon the duke of pomerania, the imperial general permitted his troops, upon his retreat, to exercise every barbarity on the unfortunate inhabitants of pomerania, who had already suffered but too severely from his avarice. on pretence of cutting off the resources of the swedes, the whole country was laid waste and plundered; and often when the imperialists were unable any longer to maintain a place, it was laid in ashes, in order to leave the enemy nothing but ruins. but these barbarities only served to place in a more favourable light the opposite conduct of the swedes, and to win all hearts to their humane monarch. the swedish soldier paid for all he required; no private property was injured on his march. the swedes consequently were received with open arms both in town and country, whilst every imperialist that fell into the hands of the pomeranian peasantry was ruthlessly murdered. many pomeranians entered into the service of sweden, and the estates of this exhausted country willingly voted the king a contribution of , florins. torquato conti, who, with all his severity of character, was a consummate general, endeavoured to render stettin useless to the king of sweden, as he could not deprive him of it. he entrenched himself upon the oder, at gartz, above stettin, in order, by commanding that river, to cut off the water communication of the town with the rest of germany. nothing could induce him to attack the king of sweden, who was his superior in numbers, while the latter was equally cautious not to storm the strong entrenchments of the imperialists. torquato, too deficient in troops and money to act upon the offensive against the king, hoped by this plan of operations to give time for tilly to hasten to the defence of pomerania, and then, in conjunction with that general, to attack the swedes. seizing the opportunity of the temporary absence of gustavus, he made a sudden attempt upon stettin, but the swedes were not unprepared for him. a vigorous attack of the imperialists was firmly repulsed, and torquato was forced to retire with great loss. for this auspicious commencement of the war, however, gustavus was, it must be owned, as much indebted to his good fortune as to his military talents. the imperial troops in pomerania had been greatly reduced since wallenstein's dismissal; moreover, the outrages they had committed were now severely revenged upon them; wasted and exhausted, the country no longer afforded them a subsistence. all discipline was at an end; the orders of the officers were disregarded, while their numbers daily decreased by desertion, and by a general mortality, which the piercing cold of a strange climate had produced among them. under these circumstances, the imperial general was anxious to allow his troops the repose of winter quarters, but he had to do with an enemy to whom the climate of germany had no winter. gustavus had taken the precaution of providing his soldiers with dresses of sheep-skin, to enable them to keep the field even in the most inclement season. the imperial plenipotentiaries, who came to treat with him for a cessation of hostilities, received this discouraging answer: "the swedes are soldiers in winter as well as in summer, and not disposed to oppress the unfortunate peasantry. the imperialists may act as they think proper, but they need not expect to remain undisturbed." torquato conti soon after resigned a command, in which neither riches nor reputation were to be gained. in this inequality of the two armies, the advantage was necessarily on the side of the swedes. the imperialists were incessantly harassed in their winter quarters; greifenhagan, an important place upon the oder, taken by storm, and the towns of gartz and piritz were at last abandoned by the enemy. in the whole of pomerania, greifswald, demmin, and colberg alone remained in their hands, and these the king made great preparations to besiege. the enemy directed their retreat towards brandenburg, in which much of their artillery and baggage, and many prisoners fell into the hands of the pursuers. by seizing the passes of riebnitz and damgarden, gustavus had opened a passage into mecklenburg, whose inhabitants were invited to return to their allegiance under their legitimate sovereigns, and to expel the adherents of wallenstein. the imperialists, however, gained the important town of rostock by stratagem, and thus prevented the farther advance of the king, who was unwilling to divide his forces. the exiled dukes of mecklenburg had ineffectually employed the princes assembled at ratisbon to intercede with the emperor: in vain they had endeavoured to soften ferdinand, by renouncing the alliance of the king, and every idea of resistance. but, driven to despair by the emperor's inflexibility, they openly espoused the side of sweden, and raising troops, gave the command of them to francis charles duke of saxe-lauenburg. that general made himself master of several strong places on the elbe, but lost them afterwards to the imperial general pappenheim, who was despatched to oppose him. soon afterwards, besieged by the latter in the town of ratzeburg, he was compelled to surrender with all his troops. thus ended the attempt which these unfortunate princes made to recover their territories; and it was reserved for the victorious arm of gustavus adolphus to render them that brilliant service. the imperialists had thrown themselves into brandenburg, which now became the theatre of the most barbarous atrocities. these outrages were inflicted upon the subjects of a prince who had never injured the emperor, and whom, moreover, he was at the very time inciting to take up arms against the king of sweden. the sight of the disorders of their soldiers, which want of money compelled them to wink at, and of authority over their troops, excited the disgust even of the imperial generals; and, from very shame, their commander-in-chief, count schaumburg, wished to resign. without a sufficient force to protect his territories, and left by the emperor, in spite of the most pressing remonstrances, without assistance, the elector of brandenburg at last issued an edict, ordering his subjects to repel force by force, and to put to death without mercy every imperial soldier who should henceforth be detected in plundering. to such a height had the violence of outrage and the misery of the government risen, that nothing was left to the sovereign, but the desperate extremity of sanctioning private vengeance by a formal law. the swedes had pursued the imperialists into brandenburg; and only the elector's refusal to open to him the fortress of custrin for his march, obliged the king to lay aside his design of besieging frankfort on the oder. he therefore returned to complete the conquest of pomerania, by the capture of demmin and colberg. in the mean time, field-marshal tilly was advancing to the defence of brandenburg. this general, who could boast as yet of never having suffered a defeat, the conqueror of mansfeld, of duke christian of brunswick, of the margrave of baden, and the king of denmark, was now in the swedish monarch to meet an opponent worthy of his fame. descended of a noble family in liege, tilly had formed his military talents in the wars of the netherlands, which was then the great school for generals. he soon found an opportunity of distinguishing himself under rodolph ii. in hungary, where he rapidly rose from one step to another. after the peace, he entered into the service of maximilian of bavaria, who made him commander-in-chief with absolute powers. here, by his excellent regulations, he was the founder of the bavarian army; and to him, chiefly, maximilian was indebted for his superiority in the field. upon the termination of the bohemian war, he was appointed commander of the troops of the league; and, after wallenstein's dismissal, generalissimo of the imperial armies. equally stern towards his soldiers and implacable towards his enemies, and as gloomy and impenetrable as wallenstein, he was greatly his superior in probity and disinterestedness. a bigoted zeal for religion, and a bloody spirit of persecution, co-operated, with the natural ferocity of his character, to make him the terror of the protestants. a strange and terrific aspect bespoke his character: of low stature, thin, with hollow cheeks, a long nose, a broad and wrinkled forehead, large whiskers, and a pointed chin; he was generally attired in a spanish doublet of green satin, with slashed sleeves, with a small high peaked hat upon his head, surmounted by a red feather which hung down to his back. his whole aspect recalled to recollection the duke of alva, the scourge of the flemings, and his actions were far from effacing the impression. such was the general who was now to be opposed to the hero of the north. tilly was far from undervaluing his antagonist, "the king of sweden," said he in the diet at ratisbon, "is an enemy both prudent and brave, inured to war, and in the flower of his age. his plans are excellent, his resources considerable; his subjects enthusiastically attached to him. his army, composed of swedes, germans, livonians, finlanders, scots and english, by its devoted obedience to their leader, is blended into one nation: he is a gamester in playing with whom not to have lost is to have won a great deal." the progress of the king of sweden in brandenburg and pomerania, left the new generalissimo no time to lose; and his presence was now urgently called for by those who commanded in that quarter. with all expedition, he collected the imperial troops which were dispersed over the empire; but it required time to obtain from the exhausted and impoverished provinces the necessary supplies. at last, about the middle of winter, he appeared at the head of , men, before frankfort on the oder, where he was joined by schaumburg. leaving to this general the defence of frankfort, with a sufficient garrison, he hastened to pomerania, with a view of saving demmin, and relieving colberg, which was already hard pressed by the swedes. but even before he had left brandenburg, demmin, which was but poorly defended by the duke of savelli, had surrendered to the king, and colberg, after a five months' siege, was starved into a capitulation. as the passes in upper pomerania were well guarded, and the king's camp near schwedt defied attack, tilly abandoned his offensive plan of operations, and retreated towards the elbe to besiege magdeburg. the capture of demmin opened to the king a free passage into mecklenburg; but a more important enterprise drew his arms into another quarter. scarcely had tilly commenced his retrograde movement, when suddenly breaking up his camp at schwedt, the king marched his whole force against frankfort on the oder. this town, badly fortified, was defended by a garrison of , men, mostly composed of those ferocious bands who had so cruelly ravaged pomerania and brandenburg. it was now attacked with such impetuosity, that on the third day it was taken by storm. the swedes, assured of victory, rejected every offer of capitulation, as they were resolved to exercise the dreadful right of retaliation. for tilly, soon after his arrival, had surrounded a swedish detachment, and, irritated by their obstinate resistance, had cut them in pieces to a man. this cruelty was not forgotten by the swedes. "new brandenburg quarter", they replied to the imperialists who begged their lives, and slaughtered them without mercy. several thousands were either killed or taken, and many were drowned in the oder, the rest fled to silesia. all their artillery fell into the hands of the swedes. to satisfy the rage of his troops, gustavus adolphus was under the necessity of giving up the town for three hours to plunder. while the king was thus advancing from one conquest to another, and, by his success, encouraging the protestants to active resistance, the emperor proceeded to enforce the edict of restitution, and, by his exorbitant pretensions, to exhaust the patience of the states. compelled by necessity, he continued the violent course which he had begun with such arrogant confidence; the difficulties into which his arbitrary conduct had plunged him, he could only extricate himself from by measures still more arbitrary. but in so complicated a body as the german empire, despotism must always create the most dangerous convulsions. with astonishment, the princes beheld the constitution of the empire overthrown, and the state of nature to which matters were again verging, suggested to them the idea of self-defence, the only means of protection in such a state of things. the steps openly taken by the emperor against the lutheran church, had at last removed the veil from the eyes of john george, who had been so long the dupe of his artful policy. ferdinand, too, had personally offended him by the exclusion of his son from the archbishopric of magdeburg; and field-marshal arnheim, his new favourite and minister, spared no pains to increase the resentment of his master. arnheim had formerly been an imperial general under wallenstein, and being still zealously attached to him, he was eager to avenge his old benefactor and himself on the emperor, by detaching saxony from the austrian interests. gustavus adolphus, supported by the protestant states, would be invincible; a consideration which already filled the emperor with alarm. the example of saxony would probably influence others, and the emperor's fate seemed now in a manner to depend upon the elector's decision. the artful favourite impressed upon his master this idea of his own importance, and advised him to terrify the emperor, by threatening an alliance with sweden, and thus to extort from his fears, what he had sought in vain from his gratitude. the favourite, however, was far from wishing him actually to enter into the swedish alliance, but, by holding aloof from both parties, to maintain his own importance and independence. accordingly, he laid before him a plan, which only wanted a more able hand to carry it into execution, and recommended him, by heading the protestant party, to erect a third power in germany, and thereby maintain the balance between sweden and austria. this project was peculiarly flattering to the saxon elector, to whom the idea of being dependent upon sweden, or of longer submitting to the tyranny of the emperor, was equally hateful. he could not, with indifference, see the control of german affairs wrested from him by a foreign prince; and incapable as he was of taking a principal part, his vanity would not condescend to act a subordinate one. he resolved, therefore, to draw every possible advantage from the progress of gustavus, but to pursue, independently, his own separate plans. with this view, he consulted with the elector of brandenburg, who, from similar causes, was ready to act against the emperor, but, at the same time, was jealous of sweden. in a diet at torgau, having assured himself of the support of his estates, he invited the protestant states of the empire to a general convention, which took place at leipzig, on the th february . brandenburg, hesse cassel, with several princes, counts, estates of the empire, and protestant bishops were present, either personally or by deputy, at this assembly, which the chaplain to the saxon court, dr. hoe von hohenegg, opened with a vehement discourse from the pulpit. the emperor had, in vain, endeavoured to prevent this self-appointed convention, whose object was evidently to provide for its own defence, and which the presence of the swedes in the empire, rendered more than usually alarming. emboldened by the progress of gustavus adolphus, the assembled princes asserted their rights, and after a session of two months broke up, with adopting a resolution which placed the emperor in no slight embarrassment. its import was to demand of the emperor, in a general address, the revocation of the edict of restitution, the withdrawal of his troops from their capitals and fortresses, the suspension of all existing proceedings, and the abolition of abuses; and, in the mean time, to raise an army of , men, to enable them to redress their own grievances, if the emperor should still refuse satisfaction. a further incident contributed not a little to increase the firmness of the protestant princes. the king of sweden had, at last, overcome the scruples which had deterred him from a closer alliance with france, and, on the th january , concluded a formal treaty with this crown. after a serious dispute respecting the treatment of the roman catholic princes of the empire, whom france took under her protection, and against whom gustavus claimed the right of retaliation, and after some less important differences with regard to the title of majesty, which the pride of france was loth to concede to the king of sweden, richelieu yielded the second, and gustavus adolphus the first point, and the treaty was signed at beerwald in neumark. the contracting parties mutually covenanted to defend each other with a military force, to protect their common friends, to restore to their dominions the deposed princes of the empire, and to replace every thing, both on the frontier and in the interior of germany, on the same footing on which it stood before the commencement of the war. for this end, sweden engaged to maintain an army of , men in germany, and france agreed to furnish the swedes with an annual subsidy of , dollars. if the arms of gustavus were successful, he was to respect the roman catholic religion and the constitution of the empire in all the conquered places, and to make no attempt against either. all estates and princes whether protestant or roman catholic, either in germany or in other countries, were to be invited to become parties to the treaty; neither france nor sweden was to conclude a separate peace without the knowledge and consent of the other; and the treaty itself was to continue in force for five years. great as was the struggle to the king of sweden to receive subsidies from france, and sacrifice his independence in the conduct of the war, this alliance with france decided his cause in germany. protected, as he now was, by the greatest power in europe, the german states began to feel confidence in his undertaking, for the issue of which they had hitherto good reason to tremble. he became truly formidable to the emperor. the roman catholic princes too, who, though they were anxious to humble austria, had witnessed his progress with distrust, were less alarmed now that an alliance with a roman catholic power ensured his respect for their religion. and thus, while gustavus adolphus protected the protestant religion and the liberties of germany against the aggression of ferdinand, france secured those liberties, and the roman catholic religion, against gustavus himself, if the intoxication of success should hurry him beyond the bounds of moderation. the king of sweden lost no time in apprizing the members of the confederacy of leipzig of the treaty concluded with france, and inviting them to a closer union with himself. the application was seconded by france, who spared no pains to win over the elector of saxony. gustavus was willing to be content with secret support, if the princes should deem it too bold a step as yet to declare openly in his favour. several princes gave him hopes of his proposals being accepted on the first favourable opportunity; but the saxon elector, full of jealousy and distrust towards the king of sweden, and true to the selfish policy he had pursued, could not be prevailed upon to give a decisive answer. the resolution of the confederacy of leipzig, and the alliance betwixt france and sweden, were news equally disagreeable to the emperor. against them he employed the thunder of imperial ordinances, and the want of an army saved france from the full weight of his displeasure. remonstrances were addressed to all the members of the confederacy, strongly prohibiting them from enlisting troops. they retorted with explanations equally vehement, justified their conduct upon the principles of natural right, and continued their preparations. meantime, the imperial generals, deficient both in troops and money, found themselves reduced to the disagreeable alternative of losing sight either of the king of sweden, or of the estates of the empire, since with a divided force they were not a match for either. the movements of the protestants called their attention to the interior of the empire, while the progress of the king in brandenburg, by threatening the hereditary possessions of austria, required them to turn their arms to that quarter. after the conquest of frankfort, the king had advanced upon landsberg on the warta, and tilly, after a fruitless attempt to relieve it, had again returned to magdeburg, to prosecute with vigour the siege of that town. the rich archbishopric, of which magdeburg was the capital, had long been in the possession of princes of the house of brandenburg, who introduced the protestant religion into the province. christian william, the last administrator, had, by his alliance with denmark, incurred the ban of the empire, on which account the chapter, to avoid the emperor's displeasure, had formally deposed him. in his place they had elected prince john augustus, the second son of the elector of saxony, whom the emperor rejected, in order to confer the archbishopric on his son leopold. the elector of saxony complained ineffectually to the imperial court; but christian william of brandenburg took more active measures. relying on the attachment of the magistracy and inhabitants of brandenburg, and excited by chimerical hopes, he thought himself able to surmount all the obstacles which the vote of the chapter, the competition of two powerful rivals, and the edict of restitution opposed to his restoration. he went to sweden, and, by the promise of a diversion in germany, sought to obtain assistance from gustavus. he was dismissed by that monarch not without hopes of effectual protection, but with the advice to act with caution. scarcely had christian william been informed of the landing of his protector in pomerania, than he entered magdeburg in disguise. appearing suddenly in the town council, he reminded the magistrates of the ravages which both town and country had suffered from the imperial troops, of the pernicious designs of ferdinand, and the danger of the protestant church. he then informed them that the moment of deliverance was at hand, and that gustavus adolphus offered them his alliance and assistance. magdeburg, one of the most flourishing towns in germany, enjoyed under the government of its magistrates a republican freedom, which inspired its citizens with a brave heroism. of this they had already given proofs, in the bold defence of their rights against wallenstein, who, tempted by their wealth, made on them the most extravagant demands. their territory had been given up to the fury of his troops, though magdeburg itself had escaped his vengeance. it was not difficult, therefore, for the administrator to gain the concurrence of men in whose minds the rememberance of these outrages was still recent. an alliance was formed between the city and the swedish king, by which magdeburg granted to the king a free passage through its gates and territories, with liberty of enlisting soldiers within its boundaries, and on the other hand, obtained promises of effectual protection for its religion and its privileges. the administrator immediately collected troops and commenced hostilities, before gustavus adolphus was near enough to co-operate with him. he defeated some imperial detachments in the neighbourhood, made a few conquests, and even surprised halle. but the approach of an imperial army obliged him to retreat hastily, and not without loss, to magdeburg. gustavus adolphus, though displeased with his premature measures, sent dietrich falkenberg, an experienced officer, to direct the administrator's military operations, and to assist him with his counsel. falkenberg was named by the magistrates governor of the town during the war. the prince's army was daily augmented by recruits from the neighbouring towns; and he was able for some months to maintain a petty warfare with success. at length count pappenheim, having brought his expedition against the duke of saxe-lauenburg to a close, approached the town. driving the troops of the administrator from their entrenchments, he cut off his communication with saxony, and closely invested the place. he was soon followed by tilly, who haughtily summoned the elector forthwith to comply with the edict of restitution, to submit to the emperor's orders, and surrender magdeburg. the prince's answer was spirited and resolute, and obliged tilly at once to have recourse to arms. in the meanwhile, the siege was prolonged, by the progress of the king of sweden, which called the austrian general from before the place; and the jealousy of the officers, who conducted the operations in his absence, delayed, for some months, the fall of magdeburg. on the th march , tilly returned, to push the siege with vigour. the outworks were soon carried, and falkenberg, after withdrawing the garrisons from the points which he could no longer hold, destroyed the bridge over the elbe. as his troops were barely sufficient to defend the extensive fortifications, the suburbs of sudenburg and neustadt were abandoned to the enemy, who immediately laid them in ashes. pappenheim, now separated from tilly, crossed the elbe at schonenbeck, and attacked the town from the opposite side. the garrison, reduced by the defence of the outworks, scarcely exceeded infantry and a few hundred horse; a small number for so extensive and irregular a fortress. to supply this deficiency, the citizens were armed--a desperate expedient, which produced more evils than those it prevented. the citizens, at best but indifferent soldiers, by their disunion threw the town into confusion. the poor complained that they were exposed to every hardship and danger, while the rich, by hiring substitutes, remained at home in safety. these rumours broke out at last in an open mutiny; indifference succeeded to zeal; weariness and negligence took the place of vigilance and foresight. dissension, combined with growing scarcity, gradually produced a feeling of despondence, many began to tremble at the desperate nature of their undertaking, and the magnitude of the power to which they were opposed. but religious zeal, an ardent love of liberty, an invincible hatred to the austrian yoke, and the expectation of speedy relief, banished as yet the idea of a surrender; and divided as they were in every thing else, they were united in the resolve to defend themselves to the last extremity. their hopes of succour were apparently well founded. they knew that the confederacy of leipzig was arming; they were aware of the near approach of gustavus adolphus. both were alike interested in the preservation of magdeburg; and a few days might bring the king of sweden before its walls. all this was also known to tilly, who, therefore, was anxious to make himself speedily master of the place. with this view, he had despatched a trumpeter with letters to the administrator, the commandant, and the magistrates, offering terms of capitulation; but he received for answer, that they would rather die than surrender. a spirited sally of the citizens, also convinced him that their courage was as earnest as their words, while the king's arrival at potsdam, with the incursions of the swedes as far as zerbst, filled him with uneasiness, but raised the hopes of the garrison. a second trumpeter was now despatched; but the more moderate tone of his demands increased the confidence of the besieged, and unfortunately their negligence also. the besiegers had now pushed their approaches as far as the ditch, and vigorously cannonaded the fortifications from the abandoned batteries. one tower was entirely overthrown, but this did not facilitate an assault, as it fell sidewise upon the wall, and not into the ditch. notwithstanding the continual bombardment, the walls had not suffered much; and the fire balls, which were intended to set the town in flames, were deprived of their effect by the excellent precautions adopted against them. but the ammunition of the besieged was nearly expended, and the cannon of the town gradually ceased to answer the fire of the imperialists. before a new supply could be obtained, magdeburg would be either relieved, or taken. the hopes of the besieged were on the stretch, and all eyes anxiously directed towards the quarter in which the swedish banners were expected to appear. gustavus adolphus was near enough to reach magdeburg within three days; security grew with hope, which all things contributed to augment. on the th of may, the fire of the imperialists was suddenly stopped, and the cannon withdrawn from several of the batteries. a deathlike stillness reigned in the imperial camp. the besieged were convinced that deliverance was at hand. both citizens and soldiers left their posts upon the ramparts early in the morning, to indulge themselves, after their long toils, with the refreshment of sleep, but it was indeed a dear sleep, and a frightful awakening. tilly had abandoned the hope of taking the town, before the arrival of the swedes, by the means which he had hitherto adopted; he therefore determined to raise the siege, but first to hazard a general assault. this plan, however, was attended with great difficulties, as no breach had been effected, and the works were scarcely injured. but the council of war assembled on this occasion, declared for an assault, citing the example of maestricht, which had been taken early in the morning, while the citizens and soldiers were reposing themselves. the attack was to be made simultaneously on four points; the night betwixt the th and th of may, was employed in the necessary preparations. every thing was ready and awaiting the signal, which was to be given by cannon at five o'clock in the morning. the signal, however, was not given for two hours later, during which tilly, who was still doubtful of success, again consulted the council of war. pappenheim was ordered to attack the works of the new town, where the attempt was favoured by a sloping rampart, and a dry ditch of moderate depth. the citizens and soldiers had mostly left the walls, and the few who remained were overcome with sleep. this general, therefore, found little difficulty in mounting the wall at the head of his troops. falkenberg, roused by the report of musketry, hastened from the town-house, where he was employed in despatching tilly's second trumpeter, and hurried with all the force he could hastily assemble towards the gate of the new town, which was already in the possession of the enemy. beaten back, this intrepid general flew to another quarter, where a second party of the enemy were preparing to scale the walls. after an ineffectual resistance he fell in the commencement of the action. the roaring of musketry, the pealing of the alarm-bells, and the growing tumult apprised the awakening citizens of their danger. hastily arming themselves, they rushed in blind confusion against the enemy. still some hope of repulsing the besiegers remained; but the governor being killed, their efforts were without plan and co-operation, and at last their ammunition began to fail them. in the meanwhile, two other gates, hitherto unattacked, were stripped of their defenders, to meet the urgent danger within the town. the enemy quickly availed themselves of this confusion to attack these posts. the resistance was nevertheless spirited and obstinate, until four imperial regiments, at length, masters of the ramparts, fell upon the garrison in the rear, and completed their rout. amidst the general tumult, a brave captain, named schmidt, who still headed a few of the more resolute against the enemy, succeeded in driving them to the gates; here he fell mortally wounded, and with him expired the hopes of magdeburg. before noon, all the works were carried, and the town was in the enemy's hands. two gates were now opened by the storming party for the main body, and tilly marched in with part of his infantry. immediately occupying the principal streets, he drove the citizens with pointed cannon into their dwellings, there to await their destiny. they were not long held in suspense; a word from tilly decided the fate of magdeburg. even a more humane general would in vain have recommended mercy to such soldiers; but tilly never made the attempt. left by their general's silence masters of the lives of all the citizens, the soldiery broke into the houses to satiate their most brutal appetites. the prayers of innocence excited some compassion in the hearts of the germans, but none in the rude breasts of pappenheim's walloons. scarcely had the savage cruelty commenced, when the other gates were thrown open, and the cavalry, with the fearful hordes of the croats, poured in upon the devoted inhabitants. here commenced a scene of horrors for which history has no language-- poetry no pencil. neither innocent childhood, nor helpless old age; neither youth, sex, rank, nor beauty, could disarm the fury of the conquerors. wives were abused in the arms of their husbands, daughters at the feet of their parents; and the defenceless sex exposed to the double sacrifice of virtue and life. no situation, however obscure, or however sacred, escaped the rapacity of the enemy. in a single church fifty-three women were found beheaded. the croats amused themselves with throwing children into the flames; pappenheim's walloons with stabbing infants at the mother's breast. some officers of the league, horror-struck at this dreadful scene, ventured to remind tilly that he had it in his power to stop the carnage. "return in an hour," was his answer; "i will see what i can do; the soldier must have some reward for his danger and toils." these horrors lasted with unabated fury, till at last the smoke and flames proved a check to the plunderers. to augment the confusion and to divert the resistance of the inhabitants, the imperialists had, in the commencement of the assault, fired the town in several places. the wind rising rapidly, spread the flames, till the blaze became universal. fearful, indeed, was the tumult amid clouds of smoke, heaps of dead bodies, the clash of swords, the crash of falling ruins, and streams of blood. the atmosphere glowed; and the intolerable heat forced at last even the murderers to take refuge in their camp. in less than twelve hours, this strong, populous, and flourishing city, one of the finest in germany, was reduced to ashes, with the exception of two churches and a few houses. the administrator, christian william, after receiving several wounds, was taken prisoner, with three of the burgomasters; most of the officers and magistrates had already met an enviable death. the avarice of the officers had saved of the richest citizens, in the hope of extorting from them an exorbitant ransom. but this humanity was confined to the officers of the league, whom the ruthless barbarity of the imperialists caused to be regarded as guardian angels. scarcely had the fury of the flames abated, when the imperialists returned to renew the pillage amid the ruins and ashes of the town. many were suffocated by the smoke; many found rich booty in the cellars, where the citizens had concealed their more valuable effects. on the th of may, tilly himself appeared in the town, after the streets had been cleared of ashes and dead bodies. horrible and revolting to humanity was the scene that presented itself. the living crawling from under the dead, children wandering about with heart-rending cries, calling for their parents; and infants still sucking the breasts of their lifeless mothers. more than , bodies were thrown into the elbe to clear the streets; a much greater number had been consumed by the flames. the whole number of the slain was reckoned at not less than , . the entrance of the general, which took place on the th, put a stop to the plunder, and saved the few who had hitherto contrived to escape. about a thousand people were taken out of the cathedral, where they had remained three days and two nights, without food, and in momentary fear of death. tilly promised them quarter, and commanded bread to be distributed among them. the next day, a solemn mass was performed in the cathedral, and 'te deum' sung amidst the discharge of artillery. the imperial general rode through the streets, that he might be able, as an eyewitness, to inform his master that no such conquest had been made since the destruction of troy and jerusalem. nor was this an exaggeration, whether we consider the greatness, importance, and prosperity of the city razed, or the fury of its ravagers. in germany, the tidings of the dreadful fate of magdeburg caused triumphant joy to the roman catholics, while it spread terror and consternation among the protestants. loudly and generally they complained against the king of sweden, who, with so strong a force, and in the very neighbourhood, had left an allied city to its fate. even the most reasonable deemed his inaction inexplicable; and lest he should lose irretrievably the good will of the people, for whose deliverance he had engaged in this war, gustavus was under the necessity of publishing to the world a justification of his own conduct. he had attacked, and on the th april, carried landsberg, when he was apprised of the danger of magdeburg. he resolved immediately to march to the relief of that town; and he moved with all his cavalry, and ten regiments of infantry towards the spree. but the position which he held in germany, made it necessary that he should not move forward without securing his rear. in traversing a country where he was surrounded by suspicious friends and dangerous enemies, and where a single premature movement might cut off his communication with his own kingdom, the utmost vigilance and caution were necessary. the elector of brandenburg had already opened the fortress of custrin to the flying imperialists, and closed the gates against their pursuers. if now gustavus should fail in his attack upon tilly, the elector might again open his fortresses to the imperialists, and the king, with an enemy both in front and rear, would be irrecoverably lost. in order to prevent this contingency, he demanded that the elector should allow him to hold the fortresses of custrin and spandau, till the siege of magdeburg should be raised. nothing could be more reasonable than this demand. the services which gustavus had lately rendered the elector, by expelling the imperialists from brandenburg, claimed his gratitude, while the past conduct of the swedes in germany entitled them to confidence. but by the surrender of his fortresses, the elector would in some measure make the king of sweden master of his country; besides that, by such a step, he must at once break with the emperor, and expose his states to his future vengeance. the elector's struggle with himself was long and violent, but pusillanimity and self-interest for awhile prevailed. unmoved by the fate of magdeburg, cold in the cause of religion and the liberties of germany, he saw nothing but his own danger; and this anxiety was greatly stimulated by his minister von schwartzenburgh, who was secretly in the pay of austria. in the mean time, the swedish troops approached berlin, and the king took up his residence with the elector. when he witnessed the timorous hesitation of that prince, he could not restrain his indignation: "my road is to magdeburg," said he; "not for my own advantage, but for that of the protestant religion. if no one will stand by me, i shall immediately retreat, conclude a peace with the emperor, and return to stockholm. i am convinced that ferdinand will readily grant me whatever conditions i may require. but if magdeburg is once lost, and the emperor relieved from all fear of me, then it is for you to look to yourselves and the consequences." this timely threat, and perhaps, too, the aspect of the swedish army, which was strong enough to obtain by force what was refused to entreaty, brought at last the elector to his senses, and spandau was delivered into the hands of the swedes. the king had now two routes to magdeburg; one westward led through an exhausted country, and filled with the enemy's troops, who might dispute with him the passage of the elbe; the other more to the southward, by dessau and wittenberg, where bridges were to be found for crossing the elbe, and where supplies could easily be drawn from saxony. but he could not avail himself of the latter without the consent of the elector, whom gustavus had good reason to distrust. before setting out on his march, therefore, he demanded from that prince a free passage and liberty for purchasing provisions for his troops. his application was refused, and no remonstrances could prevail on the elector to abandon his system of neutrality. while the point was still in dispute, the news of the dreadful fate of magdeburg arrived. tilly announced its fall to the protestant princes in the tone of a conqueror, and lost no time in making the most of the general consternation. the influence of the emperor, which had sensibly declined during the rapid progress of gustavus, after this decisive blow rose higher than ever; and the change was speedily visible in the imperious tone he adopted towards the protestant states. the decrees of the confederation of leipzig were annulled by a proclamation, the convention itself suppressed by an imperial decree, and all the refractory states threatened with the fate of magdeburg. as the executor of this imperial mandate, tilly immediately ordered troops to march against the bishop of bremen, who was a member of the confederacy, and had himself enlisted soldiers. the terrified bishop immediately gave up his forces to tilly, and signed the revocation of the acts of the confederation. an imperial army, which had lately returned from italy, under the command of count furstenberg, acted in the same manner towards the administrator of wirtemberg. the duke was compelled to submit to the edict of restitution, and all the decrees of the emperor, and even to pay a monthly subsidy of , dollars, for the maintenance of the imperial troops. similar burdens were inflicted upon ulm and nuremberg, and the entire circles of franconia and swabia. the hand of the emperor was stretched in terror over all germany. the sudden preponderance, more in appearance, perhaps, than in reality, which he had obtained by this blow, carried him beyond the bounds even of the moderation which he had hitherto observed, and misled him into hasty and violent measures, which at last turned the wavering resolution of the german princes in favour of gustavus adolphus. injurious as the immediate consequences of the fall of magdeburg were to the protestant cause, its remoter effects were most advantageous. the past surprise made way for active resentment, despair inspired courage, and the german freedom rose, like a phoenix, from the ashes of magdeburg. among the princes of the leipzig confederation, the elector of saxony and the landgrave of hesse were the most powerful; and, until they were disarmed, the universal authority of the emperor was unconfirmed. against the landgrave, therefore, tilly first directed his attack, and marched straight from magdeburg into thuringia. during this march, the territories of saxe ernest and schwartzburg were laid waste, and frankenhausen plundered before the very eyes of tilly, and laid in ashes with impunity. the unfortunate peasant paid dear for his master's attachment to the interests of sweden. erfurt, the key of saxony and franconia, was threatened with a siege, but redeemed itself by a voluntary contribution of money and provisions. from thence, tilly despatched his emissaries to the landgrave, demanding of him the immediate disbanding of his army, a renunciation of the league of leipzig, the reception of imperial garrisons into his territories and fortresses, with the necessary contributions, and the declaration of friendship or hostility. such was the treatment which a prince of the empire was compelled to submit to from a servant of the emperor. but these extravagant demands acquired a formidable weight from the power which supported them; and the dreadful fate of magdeburg, still fresh in the memory of the landgrave, tended still farther to enforce them. admirable, therefore, was the intrepidity of the landgrave's answer: "to admit foreign troops into his capital and fortresses, the landgrave is not disposed; his troops he requires for his own purposes; as for an attack, he can defend himself. if general tilly wants money or provisions, let him go to munich, where there is plenty of both." the irruption of two bodies of imperial troops into hesse cassel was the immediate result of this spirited reply, but the landgrave gave them so warm a reception that they could effect nothing; and just as tilly was preparing to follow with his whole army, to punish the unfortunate country for the firmness of its sovereign, the movements of the king of sweden recalled him to another quarter. gustavus adolphus had learned the fall of magdeburg with deep regret; and the demand now made by the elector, george william, in terms of their agreement, for the restoration of spandau, greatly increased this feeling. the loss of magdeburg had rather augmented than lessened the reasons which made the possession of this fortress so desirable; and the nearer became the necessity of a decisive battle between himself and tilly, the more unwilling he felt to abandon the only place which, in the event of a defeat, could ensure him a refuge. after a vain endeavour, by entreaties and representations, to bring over the elector to his views, whose coldness and lukewarmness daily increased, he gave orders to his general to evacuate spandau, but at the same time declared to the elector that he would henceforth regard him as an enemy. to give weight to this declaration, he appeared with his whole force before berlin. "i will not be worse treated than the imperial generals," was his reply to the ambassadors whom the bewildered elector despatched to his camp. "your master has received them into his territories, furnished them with all necessary supplies, ceded to them every place which they required, and yet, by all these concessions, he could not prevail upon them to treat his subjects with common humanity. all that i require of him is security, a moderate sum of money, and provisions for my troops; in return, i promise to protect his country, and to keep the war at a distance from him. on these points, however, i must insist; and my brother, the elector, must instantly determine to have me as a friend, or to see his capital plundered." this decisive tone produced a due impression; and the cannon pointed against the town put an end to the doubts of george william. in a few days, a treaty was signed, by which the elector engaged to furnish a monthly subsidy of , dollars, to leave spandau in the king's hands, and to open custrin at all times to the swedish troops. this now open alliance of the elector of brandenburg with the swedes, excited no less displeasure at vienna, than did formerly the similar procedure of the duke of pomerania; but the changed fortune which now attended his arms, obliged the emperor to confine his resentment to words. the king's satisfaction, on this favourable event, was increased by the agreeable intelligence that griefswald, the only fortress which the imperialists still held in pomerania, had surrendered, and that the whole country was now free of the enemy. he appeared once more in this duchy, and was gratified at the sight of the general joy which he had caused to the people. a year had elapsed since gustavus first entered germany, and this event was now celebrated by all pomerania as a national festival. shortly before, the czar of moscow had sent ambassadors to congratulate him, to renew his alliance, and even to offer him troops. he had great reason to rejoice at the friendly disposition of russia, as it was indispensable to his interests that sweden itself should remain undisturbed by any dangerous neighbour during the war in which he himself was engaged. soon after, his queen, maria eleonora, landed in pomerania, with a reinforcement of swedes; and the arrival of english, under the marquis of hamilton, requires more particular notice because this is all that history mentions of the english during the thirty years' war. during tilly's expedition into thuringia, pappenheim commanded in magdeburg; but was unable to prevent the swedes from crossing the elbe at various points, routing some imperial detachments, and seizing several posts. he himself, alarmed at the approach of the king of sweden, anxiously recalled tilly, and prevailed upon him to return by rapid marches to magdeburg. tilly encamped on this side of the river at wolmerstadt; gustavus on the same side, near werben, not far from the confluence of the havel and the elbe. his very arrival portended no good to tilly. the swedes routed three of his regiments, which were posted in villages at some distance from the main body, carried off half their baggage, and burned the remainder. tilly in vain advanced within cannon shot of the king's camp, and offered him battle. gustavus, weaker by one-half than his adversary, prudently declined it; and his position was too strong for an attack. nothing more ensued but a distant cannonade, and a few skirmishes, in which the swedes had invariably the advantage. in his retreat to wolmerstadt, tilly's army was weakened by numerous desertions. fortune seemed to have forsaken him since the carnage of magdeburg. the king of sweden, on the contrary, was followed by uninterrupted success. while he himself was encamped in werben, the whole of mecklenburg, with the exception of a few towns, was conquered by his general tott and the duke adolphus frederick; and he enjoyed the satisfaction of reinstating both dukes in their dominions. he proceeded in person to gustrow, where the reinstatement was solemnly to take place, to give additional dignity to the ceremony by his presence. the two dukes, with their deliverer between them, and attended by a splendid train of princes, made a public entry into the city, which the joy of their subjects converted into an affecting solemnity. soon after his return to werben, the landgrave of hesse cassel appeared in his camp, to conclude an offensive and defensive alliance; the first sovereign prince in germany, who voluntarily and openly declared against the emperor, though not wholly uninfluenced by strong motives. the landgrave bound himself to act against the king's enemies as his own, to open to him his towns and territory, and to furnish his army with provisions and necessaries. the king, on the other hand, declared himself his ally and protector; and engaged to conclude no peace with the emperor without first obtaining for the landgrave a full redress of grievances. both parties honourably performed their agreement. hesse cassel adhered to the swedish alliance during the whole of this tedious war; and at the peace of westphalia had no reason to regret the friendship of sweden. tilly, from whom this bold step on the part of the landgrave was not long concealed, despatched count fugger with several regiments against him; and at the same time endeavoured to excite his subjects to rebellion by inflammatory letters. but these made as little impression as his troops, which subsequently failed him so decidedly at the battle of breitenfield. the estates of hesse could not for a moment hesitate between their oppressor and their protector. but the imperial general was far more disturbed by the equivocal conduct of the elector of saxony, who, in defiance of the imperial prohibition, continued his preparations, and adhered to the confederation of leipzig. at this conjuncture, when the proximity of the king of sweden made a decisive battle ere long inevitable, it appeared extremely dangerous to leave saxony in arms, and ready in a moment to declare for the enemy. tilly had just received a reinforcement of , veteran troops under furstenberg, and, confident in his strength, he hoped either to disarm the elector by the mere terror of his arrival, or at least to conquer him with little difficulty. before quitting his camp at wolmerstadt, he commanded the elector, by a special messenger, to open his territories to the imperial troops; either to disband his own, or to join them to the imperial army; and to assist, in conjunction with himself, in driving the king of sweden out of germany. while he reminded him that, of all the german states, saxony had hitherto been most respected, he threatened it, in case of refusal, with the most destructive ravages. but tilly had chosen an unfavourable moment for so imperious a requisition. the ill-treatment of his religious and political confederates, the destruction of magdeburg, the excesses of the imperialists in lusatia, all combined to incense the elector against the emperor. the approach, too, of gustavus adolphus, (however slender his claims were to the protection of that prince,) tended to fortify his resolution. he accordingly forbade the quartering of the imperial soldiers in his territories, and announced his firm determination to persist in his warlike preparations. however surprised he should be, he added, "to see an imperial army on its march against his territories, when that army had enough to do in watching the operations of the king of sweden, nevertheless he did not expect, instead of the promised and well merited rewards, to be repaid with ingratitude and the ruin of his country." to tilly's deputies, who were entertained in a princely style, he gave a still plainer answer on the occasion. "gentlemen," said he, "i perceive that the saxon confectionery, which has been so long kept back, is at length to be set upon the table. but as it is usual to mix with it nuts and garnish of all kinds, take care of your teeth." tilly instantly broke up his camp, and, with the most frightful devastation, advanced upon halle; from this place he renewed his demands on the elector, in a tone still more urgent and threatening. the previous policy of this prince, both from his own inclination, and the persuasions of his corrupt ministers had been to promote the interests of the emperor, even at the expense of his own sacred obligations, and but very little tact had hitherto kept him inactive. all this but renders more astonishing the infatuation of the emperor or his ministers in abandoning, at so critical a moment, the policy they had hitherto adopted, and by extreme measures, incensing a prince so easily led. was this the very object which tilly had in view? was it his purpose to convert an equivocal friend into an open enemy, and thus to relieve himself from the necessity of that indulgence in the treatment of this prince, which the secret instructions of the emperor had hitherto imposed upon him? or was it the emperor's wish, by driving the elector to open hostilities, to get quit of his obligations to him, and so cleverly to break off at once the difficulty of a reckoning? in either case, we must be equally surprised at the daring presumption of tilly, who hesitated not, in presence of one formidable enemy, to provoke another; and at his negligence in permitting, without opposition, the union of the two. the saxon elector, rendered desperate by the entrance of tilly into his territories, threw himself, though not without a violent struggle, under the protection of sweden. immediately after dismissing tilly's first embassy, he had despatched his field-marshal arnheim in all haste to the camp of gustavus, to solicit the prompt assistance of that monarch whom he had so long neglected. the king concealed the inward satisfaction he felt at this long wished for result. "i am sorry for the elector," said he, with dissembled coldness, to the ambassador; "had he heeded my repeated remonstrances, his country would never have seen the face of an enemy, and magdeburg would not have fallen. now, when necessity leaves him no alternative, he has recourse to my assistance. but tell him, that i cannot, for the sake of the elector of saxony, ruin my own cause, and that of my confederates. what pledge have i for the sincerity of a prince whose minister is in the pay of austria, and who will abandon me as soon as the emperor flatters him, and withdraws his troops from his frontiers? tilly, it is true, has received a strong reinforcement; but this shall not prevent me from meeting him with confidence, as soon as i have covered my rear." the saxon minister could make no other reply to these reproaches, than that it was best to bury the past in oblivion. he pressed the king to name the conditions, on which he would afford assistance to saxony, and offered to guarantee their acceptance. "i require," said gustavus, "that the elector shall cede to me the fortress of wittenberg, deliver to me his eldest sons as hostages, furnish my troops with three months' pay, and deliver up to me the traitors among his ministry." "not wittenberg alone," said the elector, when he received this answer, and hurried back his minister to the swedish camp, "not wittenberg alone, but torgau, and all saxony, shall be open to him; my whole family shall be his hostages, and if that is insufficient, i will place myself in his hands. return and inform him i am ready to deliver to him any traitors he shall name, to furnish his army with the money he requires, and to venture my life and fortune in the good cause." the king had only desired to test the sincerity of the elector's new sentiments. convinced of it, he now retracted these harsh demands. "the distrust," said he, "which was shown to myself when advancing to the relief of magdeburg, had naturally excited mine; the elector's present confidence demands a return. i am satisfied, provided he grants my army one month's pay, and even for this advance i hope to indemnify him." immediately upon the conclusion of the treaty, the king crossed the elbe, and next day joined the saxons. instead of preventing this junction, tilly had advanced against leipzig, which he summoned to receive an imperial garrison. in hopes of speedy relief, hans von der pforta, the commandant, made preparations for his defence, and laid the suburb towards halle in ashes. but the ill condition of the fortifications made resistance vain, and on the second day the gates were opened. tilly had fixed his head quarters in the house of a grave-digger, the only one still standing in the suburb of halle: here he signed the capitulation, and here, too, he arranged his attack on the king of sweden. tilly grew pale at the representation of the death's head and cross bones, with which the proprietor had decorated his house; and, contrary to all expectation, leipzig experienced moderate treatment. meanwhile, a council of war was held at torgau, between the king of sweden and the elector of saxony, at which the elector of brandenburg was also present. the resolution which should now be adopted, was to decide irrevocably the fate of germany and the protestant religion, the happiness of nations and the destiny of their princes. the anxiety of suspense which, before every decisive resolve, oppresses even the hearts of heroes, appeared now for a moment to overshadow the great mind of gustavus adolphus. "if we decide upon battle," said he, "the stake will be nothing less than a crown and two electorates. fortune is changeable, and the inscrutable decrees of heaven may, for our sins, give the victory to our enemies. my kingdom, it is true, even after the loss of my life and my army, would still have a hope left. far removed from the scene of action, defended by a powerful fleet, a well-guarded frontier, and a warlike population, it would at least be safe from the worst consequences of a defeat. but what chances of escape are there for you, with an enemy so close at hand?" gustavus adolphus displayed the modest diffidence of a hero, whom an overweening belief of his own strength did not blind to the greatness of his danger; john george, the confidence of a weak man, who knows that he has a hero by his side. impatient to rid his territories as soon as possible of the oppressive presence of two armies, he burned for a battle, in which he had no former laurels to lose. he was ready to march with his saxons alone against leipzig, and attack tilly. at last gustavus acceded to his opinion; and it was resolved that the attack should be made without delay, before the arrival of the reinforcements, which were on their way, under altringer and tiefenbach. the united swedish and saxon armies now crossed the mulda, while the elector returned homeward. early on the morning of the th september, , the hostile armies came in sight of each other. tilly, who, since he had neglected the opportunity of overpowering the saxons before their union with the swedes, was disposed to await the arrival of the reinforcements, had taken up a strong and advantageous position not far from leipzig, where he expected he should be able to avoid the battle. but the impetuosity of pappenheim obliged him, as soon as the enemy were in motion, to alter his plans, and to move to the left, in the direction of the hills which run from the village of wahren towards lindenthal. at the foot of these heights, his army was drawn up in a single line, and his artillery placed upon the heights behind, from which it could sweep the whole extensive plain of breitenfeld. the swedish and saxon army advanced in two columns, having to pass the lober near podelwitz, in tilly's front. to defend the passage of this rivulet, pappenheim advanced at the head of cuirassiers, though after great reluctance on the part of tilly, and with express orders not to commence a battle. but, in disobedience to this command, pappenheim attacked the vanguard of the swedes, and after a brief struggle was driven to retreat. to check the progress of the enemy, he set fire to podelwitz, which, however, did not prevent the two columns from advancing and forming in order of battle. on the right, the swedes drew up in a double line, the infantry in the centre, divided into such small battalions as could be easily and rapidly manoeuvred without breaking their order; the cavalry upon their wings, divided in the same manner into small squadrons, interspersed with bodies of musqueteers, so as both to give an appearance of greater numerical force, and to annoy the enemy's horse. colonel teufel commanded the centre, gustavus horn the left, while the right was led by the king in person, opposed to count pappenheim. on the left, the saxons formed at a considerable distance from the swedes,--by the advice of gustavus, which was justified by the event. the order of battle had been arranged between the elector and his field-marshal, and the king was content with merely signifying his approval. he was anxious apparently to separate the swedish prowess from that of the saxons, and fortune did not confound them. the enemy was drawn up under the heights towards the west, in one immense line, long enough to outflank the swedish army,--the infantry being divided in large battalions, the cavalry in equally unwieldy squadrons. the artillery being on the heights behind, the range of its fire was over the heads of his men. from this position of his artillery, it was evident that tilly's purpose was to await rather than to attack the enemy; since this arrangement rendered it impossible for him to do so without exposing his men to the fire of his own cannons. tilly himself commanded the centre, count furstenberg the right wing, and pappenheim the left. the united troops of the emperor and the league on this day did not amount to , or , men; the swedes and saxons were about the same number. but had a million been confronted with a million it could only have rendered the action more bloody, certainly not more important and decisive. for this day gustavus had crossed the baltic, to court danger in a distant country, and expose his crown and life to the caprice of fortune. the two greatest generals of the time, both hitherto invincible, were now to be matched against each other in a contest which both had long avoided; and on this field of battle the hitherto untarnished laurels of one leader must droop for ever. the two parties in germany had beheld the approach of this day with fear and trembling; and the whole age awaited with deep anxiety its issue, and posterity was either to bless or deplore it for ever. tilly's usual intrepidity and resolution seemed to forsake him on this eventful day. he had formed no regular plan for giving battle to the king, and he displayed as little firmness in avoiding it. contrary to his own judgment, pappenheim had forced him to action. doubts which he had never before felt, struggled in his bosom; gloomy forebodings clouded his ever-open brow; the shade of magdeburg seemed to hover over him. a cannonade of two hours commenced the battle; the wind, which was from the west, blew thick clouds of smoke and dust from the newly-ploughed and parched fields into the faces of the swedes. this compelled the king insensibly to wheel northwards, and the rapidity with which this movement was executed left no time to the enemy to prevent it. tilly at last left his heights, and began the first attack upon the swedes; but to avoid their hot fire, he filed off towards the right, and fell upon the saxons with such impetuosity that their line was broken, and the whole army thrown into confusion. the elector himself retired to eilenburg, though a few regiments still maintained their ground upon the field, and by a bold stand saved the honour of saxony. scarcely had the confusion began ere the croats commenced plundering, and messengers were despatched to munich and vienna with the news of the victory. pappenheim had thrown himself with the whole force of his cavalry upon the right wing of the swedes, but without being able to make it waver. the king commanded here in person, and under him general banner. seven times did pappenheim renew the attack, and seven times was he repulsed. he fled at last with great loss, and abandoned the field to his conqueror. in the mean time, tilly, having routed the remainder of the saxons, attacked with his victorious troops the left wing of the swedes. to this wing the king, as soon as he perceived that the saxons were thrown into disorder, had, with a ready foresight, detached a reinforcement of three regiments to cover its flank, which the flight of the saxons had left exposed. gustavus horn, who commanded here, showed the enemy's cuirassiers a spirited resistance, which the infantry, interspersed among the squadrons of horse, materially assisted. the enemy were already beginning to relax the vigour of their attack, when gustavus adolphus appeared to terminate the contest. the left wing of the imperialists had been routed; and the king's division, having no longer any enemy to oppose, could now turn their arms wherever it would be to the most advantage. wheeling, therefore, with his right wing and main body to the left, he attacked the heights on which the enemy's artillery was planted. gaining possession of them in a short time, he turned upon the enemy the full fire of their own cannon. the play of artillery upon their flank, and the terrible onslaught of the swedes in front, threw this hitherto invincible army into confusion. a sudden retreat was the only course left to tilly, but even this was to be made through the midst of the enemy. the whole army was in disorder, with the exception of four regiments of veteran soldiers, who never as yet had fled from the field, and were resolved not to do so now. closing their ranks, they broke through the thickest of the victorious army, and gained a small thicket, where they opposed a new front to the swedes, and maintained their resistance till night, when their number was reduced to six hundred men. with them fled the wreck of tilly's army, and the battle was decided. amid the dead and the wounded, gustavus adolphus threw himself on his knees; and the first joy of his victory gushed forth in fervent prayer. he ordered his cavalry to pursue the enemy as long as the darkness of the night would permit. the pealing of the alarm-bells set the inhabitants of all the neighbouring villages in motion, and utterly lost was the unhappy fugitive who fell into their hands. the king encamped with the rest of his army between the field of battle and leipzig, as it was impossible to attack the town the same night. seven thousand of the enemy were killed in the field, and more than , either wounded or taken prisoners. their whole artillery and camp fell into the hands of the swedes, and more than a hundred standards and colours were taken. of the saxons about , had fallen, while the loss of the swedes did not exceed . the rout of the imperialists was so complete, that tilly, on his retreat to halle and halberstadt, could not rally above men, or pappenheim more than , --so rapidly was this formidable army dispersed, which so lately was the terror of italy and germany. tilly himself owed his escape merely to chance. exhausted by his wounds, he still refused to surrender to a swedish captain of horse, who summoned him to yield; but who, when he was on the point of putting him to death, was himself stretched on the ground by a timely pistol-shot. but more grievous than danger or wounds was the pain of surviving his reputation, and of losing in a single day the fruits of a long life. all former victories were as nothing, since he had failed in gaining the one that should have crowned them all. nothing remained of all his past exploits, but the general execration which had followed them. from this period, he never recovered his cheerfulness or his good fortune. even his last consolation, the hope of revenge, was denied to him, by the express command of the emperor not to risk a decisive battle. the disgrace of this day is to be ascribed principally to three mistakes; his planting the cannon on the hills behind him, his afterwards abandoning these heights, and his allowing the enemy, without opposition, to form in order of battle. but how easily might those mistakes have been rectified, had it not been for the cool presence of mind and superior genius of his adversary! tilly fled from halle to halberstadt, where he scarcely allowed time for the cure of his wounds, before he hurried towards the weser to recruit his force by the imperial garrisons in lower saxony. the elector of saxony had not failed, after the danger was over, to appear in gustavus's camp. the king thanked him for having advised a battle; and the elector, charmed at his friendly reception, promised him, in the first transports of joy, the roman crown. gustavus set out next day for merseburg, leaving the elector to recover leipzig. five thousand imperialists, who had collected together after the defeat, and whom he met on his march, were either cut in pieces or taken prisoners, of whom again the greater part entered into his service. merseburg quickly surrendered; halle was soon after taken, whither the elector of saxony, after making himself master of leipzig, repaired to meet the king, and to concert their future plan of operations. the victory was gained, but only a prudent use of it could render it decisive. the imperial armies were totally routed, saxony free from the enemy, and tilly had retired into brunswick. to have followed him thither would have been to renew the war in lower saxony, which had scarcely recovered from the ravages of the last. it was therefore determined to carry the war into the enemy's country, which, open and defenceless as far as vienna, invited attack. on their right, they might fall upon the territories of the roman catholic princes, or penetrate, on the left, into the hereditary dominions of austria, and make the emperor tremble in his palace. both plans were resolved on; and the question that now remained was to assign its respective parts. gustavus adolphus, at the head of a victorious army, had little resistance to apprehend in his progress from leipzig to prague, vienna, and presburg. as to bohemia, moravia, austria, and hungary, they had been stripped of their defenders, while the oppressed protestants in these countries were ripe for a revolt. ferdinand was no longer secure in his capital: vienna, on the first terror of surprise, would at once open its gates. the loss of his territories would deprive the enemy of the resources by which alone the war could be maintained; and ferdinand would, in all probability, gladly accede, on the hardest conditions, to a peace which would remove a formidable enemy from the heart of his dominions. this bold plan of operations was flattering to a conqueror, and success perhaps might have justified it. but gustavus adolphus, as prudent as he was brave, and more a statesman than a conqueror, rejected it, because he had a higher end in view, and would not trust the issue either to bravery or good fortune alone. by marching towards bohemia, franconia and the upper rhine would be left to the elector of saxony. but tilly had already begun to recruit his shattered army from the garrisons in lower saxony, and was likely to be at the head of a formidable force upon the weser, and to lose no time in marching against the enemy. to so experienced a general, it would not do to oppose an arnheim, of whose military skill the battle of leipzig had afforded but equivocal proof; and of what avail would be the rapid and brilliant career of the king in bohemia and austria, if tilly should recover his superiority in the empire, animating the courage of the roman catholics, and disarming, by a new series of victories, the allies and confederates of the king? what would he gain by expelling the emperor from his hereditary dominions, if tilly succeeded in conquering for that emperor the rest of germany? could he hope to reduce the emperor more than had been done, twelve years before, by the insurrection of bohemia, which had failed to shake the firmness or exhaust the resources of that prince, and from which he had risen more formidable than ever? less brilliant, but more solid, were the advantages which he had to expect from an incursion into the territories of the league. in this quarter, his appearance in arms would be decisive. at this very conjuncture, the princes were assembled in a diet at frankfort, to deliberate upon the edict of restitution, where ferdinand employed all his artful policy to persuade the intimidated protestants to accede to a speedy and disadvantageous arrangement. the advance of their protector could alone encourage them to a bold resistance, and disappoint the emperor's designs. gustavus adolphus hoped, by his presence, to unite the discontented princes, or by the terror of his arms to detach them from the emperor's party. here, in the centre of germany, he could paralyse the nerves of the imperial power, which, without the aid of the league, must soon fall--here, in the neighbourhood of france, he could watch the movements of a suspicious ally; and however important to his secret views it was to cultivate the friendship of the roman catholic electors, he saw the necessity of making himself first of all master of their fate, in order to establish, by his magnanimous forbearance, a claim to their gratitude. he accordingly chose the route to franconia and the rhine; and left the conquest of bohemia to the elector of saxony. the king's ring being a romance of the days of gustavus adolphus and the thirty years' war translated from the swedish of zacharias topelius by sophie Öhrwall and herbert arnold _with a photogravure portrait of topelius_ (missing from source book) london jarrold & sons, & , warwick lane, e.c. [_all rights reserved_] _copyright london: jarrold & sons boston: l. c. page & company_ contents. introduction--which treats of the surgeon's person and life i.--the king's ring. chapter i. the battle of breitenfeld ii. the nobleman without a name iii. lady regina iv. lady regina's oath v. judith and holofernes vi. the finns at lech vii. new adventures viii. nÜrnberg and lÜtzen ii.--the sword and the plough. i. a man from the peasants' war ii. ashamed of a peasant's name iii. the southern flower comes to the north iv. the peasant--the burghers--and the soldier v. lady regina arrives at korsholm vi. the love of the north and the south vii. the siege of korsholm iii.--fire and water. i. the treasure from the battlefield ii. two old acquaintances iii. the treasury iv. duke bernhard and bertel v. love and hate agree vi. the battle of nÖrdlingen vii. the lost son viii. the fugitive lady ix. don quixote de la mancha x. kajaneborg xi. the prisoner of state xii. the tempter xiii. avaunt, evil spirit xiv. the judgment of the saints xv. bertel and regina xvi. the king's ring--the sword and the plough--fire and water introduction. which treats of the surgeon's person and life. the surgeon was born in a small town of east bothnia, the same day as napoleon i., august th, . i well remember the day, as he always used to celebrate it with a little party of relatives and a dozen children; and as he was very fond of the latter, we were allowed to make as much noise as we pleased, and throw everything into absolute confusion on this anniversary. it was the pride of the surgeon's life that he was born on the same day as the great conqueror, and this coincidence was also the cause of several of his important experiences. but his pride and ambition were of a mild and good-tempered kind, and quite different from the powerful desires which can force their way through a thousand obstacles to attain an exalted position. how often does the famous one count all the victims who have bled for his glory on the battlefield, all the tears, all the human misery through which his way leads to an illusionary greatness, perhaps, doomed to last a few centuries at most? the surgeon used to say that he was a great rogue in his childhood; but exhibiting good intelligence, he was sent by a wealthy uncle to a school in vasa. at eighteen, with a firkin of butter in a wagon, and seventeen thalers in his purse, he went to abo to pass his examination. this well accomplished, he was at liberty to strive for the gown and surplice of an ecclesiastic. but his thoughts wandered far too often from his hebrew codex to the square where the troops frequently assembled. "oh!" thought he, "if i were only a soldier, standing there in the ranks, and ready to fight like my father, for king and country." but his mother had placed an emphatic veto on the matter, and exacted a solemn promise from him that he would never become a warrior. before, however, he was through genesis, an incident suddenly occurred which completely altered his good intentions. this was an announcement in the daily paper from the medical faculty, which stated that students who wished to take service as surgeons during the war could present themselves for private medical instruction, after which they could reckon upon being ordered out with five or six thalers per month to begin with, as the war was at its height. now, young bäck would no longer be denied; he wrote home that as a surgeon's duty is to take off the limbs of others, without losing his own, he wished to volunteer. after some trouble he received the desired permission. in a moment the codex was thrown away. he did not learn, he devoured surgery, and in a few months was as capable a chirurgeon as most others; for in those times they were not very particular. our youthful surgeon was in the land campaigns of and ; but in at sea; was in many a hard battle, drank prodigiously (according to his own account), and cut off legs and arms wholesale in a most skilful way. he then knew nothing about the coincidence of his birth with napoleon's, and therefore did not yet consider himself as under a lucky star. he often told the story of the eventful rd of july in wiborg bay, when on board the "styrbjörn" with stedingk, at the head of the fleet, they passed the enemy's battery at krosserort's point, and he was struck by a splinter on the right cheek, and carried the mark to his grave. the same shot which caused this wound wrought great havoc in the ship, and whizzing by the admiral's ear, made him stone-deaf for a time; bäck with his lancet and palsy drops restored stedingk's hearing in three minutes. just then the danger was greatest and the balls flew thick as hail. the vessel ran aground. "boys, we are lost," cried a voice. "not so!" answered henrik fagel, from ahlais village, in ulfsby, "send all the men to the bow; it is the stern that has stuck." "all men to the prow," shouted the commander. then the "styrbjörn" was again afloat, and all the swedish fleet followed in her wake. bäck used to say: "what the deuce would have become of the fleet if stedingk had remained deaf?" everyone understood the old man; he had saved the entire squadron. then he used to laugh and add, "yes, yes! you see, brother, i was born on the th of august; that is the whole secret; i am not to be blamed for it." after the war was over, bäck went to stockholm, and became devoted to the king. he was young, and needed no reason for his attachment. "such a stately monarch," was his only idea. one day, in the beginning of march, , the surgeon, a handsome youth--to use his own expression--had through a chamber-maid at countess lantingshausen's, who in her turn stood on a confidential footing with count horn's favourite lackey, obtained a vague inkling of a conspiracy against the king's life. the surgeon resolved to act providence in sweden's destiny, and reveal to the monarch all that he knew, and perhaps a little more. he tried to obtain an audience of the king, but was denied by the chamberlain, de besche. a second attempt had the same result. the third time, he stood in the road before the royal carriage, waving his written statement in the air. "what does this man want?" asked gustave iii. of the chamberlain. "he is an unemployed surgeon," replied de besche, "and begs your majesty to begin another war, that he may go on lopping off legs and arms." the king laughed, and the forlorn surgeon was left behind. a few days afterwards the king was shot. "i was blameless," the surgeon used to say when speaking of this matter. "had not that damned de besche been there--yes, i won't say anything more." everyone understood what he meant. the "if" in the way was also due to his birthday on the th of august. shortly afterwards bäck represented his profession at a state execution. here his free tongue got him into trouble, and he fled on board a pomeranian yacht. next we find him tramping like a wandering quack to paris. he arrived at an opportune moment, and received a humble appointment in the army of italy. one night, under the influence of his birthday, he left his hospital at nissa, and hurried to mantua to see bonaparte; he wished to make of the th of august a ladder to eminence. he managed to see the general, and presented a petition for an appointment as army physician. "but," sighed the surgeon, every time he spoke of this remarkable incident, "the general was very busy, and asked one of his staff what i wanted." "citizen general," answered the adjutant, "it is a surgeon, who requests the honour of sawing off your leg at the first opportunity." "just then," added the surgeon, "the austrian cannon began to thunder, and general bonaparte told me to go to the devil." thus the surgeon, who had preserved so many eminent personages, was deprived of the honour of saving napoleon. he got camp fever instead, and lay sick for some time at brescia. when well he travelled to zurich, and here fell in love with a rosy-cheeked swiss girl; but before he could marry her, the city was overrun, first by the russians, then french, and finally by suvaroff. the surgeon's betrothed ran away, and never returned. one day he sat sorrowfully at his window, when two cossacks came up, dismounted, seized him, and hurried him off at full speed. the surgeon thought his last hour had arrived. but the cossacks brought him safely to a hut. there sat some officers round a punch bowl, and among them a stern man in large boots. "surgeon," said the latter, short and sharp, "out with your forceps; i have toothache." bäck ventured to ask which tooth it was that ached. "you argue," said the man impatiently. "no, i don't," replied the surgeon, and pulled out the first tooth he got hold of. "good, my boy! march," said the other, and the surgeon was dismissed with ten ducats. he had acquired another important merit by pulling out the tooth of the hero suvaroff. the surgeon's next considerable journey was to st. petersburg, where he obtained an appointment in a hospital, and made a little fortune. thus passed four or five years. the surgeon was now thirty-five. he said to himself, "it is not sufficient to have preserved the swedish fleet, gustave iii., and armfelt; to have had an interview with napoleon, and pulled out a tooth for suvaroff. one must also have an aim in life." and he began to realise that he had a fatherland. when the war of broke out, the surgeon became an assistant physician in one of the finnish regiments; he no longer fought for glory and the th of august. he took part in the campaigns of and . then he fought manfully with misery, disease, and death; cut off arms and legs, dressed wounds, applied plasters, solaced the wounded, with whom he shared his flask, bread, purse, and what was much more, his unalterable good humour, and told a thousand funny stories gathered in his travels. he was called the "tobacco doctor," because he was always ready to share his pipe and quid. one can be a christian even with tobacco. the surgeon was not so stuck up that he, like konow's corporal, went about "with two quids from sheer pride." on the contrary, he went without himself when the need was great, and a wounded comrade had got the last bit of the roll in the pocket of his yellow nankeen vest. hence the soldiers loved the tobacco doctor. when peace was concluded between russia and sweden in , the latter having lost finland through a foreign traitor, who gave up sveaborg to the enemy, and so many finns went over to sweden, the surgeon thought it more honourable to remain and share the fortunes of his native land. he travelled round the country and practised amongst the peasantry. but the medical faculty of abo finally forbade him to continue, and he therefore settled down at jacobstad, his native place, and took to fishing. in the days of his prosperity the surgeon had been too liberal; he now only owned his old brown cloak, yellow nankeen vest, a hundred fish hooks, and his cheerful disposition. but he now obtained the appointment of public vaccinator, which allowed him to roam about the country twice a year, like old times. no one knew better than he how to lull the little children to rest, whilst he pricked the fine soft flesh of their arms; almost before they knew it the pain was over. this gained for him the goodwill of all the mothers; they even forgave him the ugly habit of chewing tobacco--it was too late to cure it now. then the snow of old age stole gently o'er the surgeon's head. he had gone through the storms of life without losing faith in humanity; never hardening under adversity, nor unduly puffed up when fortune smiled. he was throughout a good soul. often in our childhood and first youth we sat up there in the old garret chamber around his leather-covered arm-chair, by the light of the crackling fire, listening to his tales from the world of fiction and from life. his memory was inexhaustible, and as the old _runa_ says, that even the wild stream does not let its waves flow by all at once, so had the surgeon continually new stories of his own time, and still more from periods which had long passed away. it sometimes happened after we had been listening to the old man, that he took out an electric battery, and drew from it a succession of sparks. "in that way the world sparkled when i was young," he said smiling; "one had only to apply a finger, and click it flashed in all directions. but then it was our lord who turned the machine." but rarely had he a story written like that of the duchess of finland. most of them were given orally. many years have since passed; part i have forgotten, and some i have compared with traditions and books. if the reader finds a pleasure in them, then the surgeon will not have told his tales in vain during the long winter evenings. i.--the king's ring. reader, as you sit in your peaceful home, surrounded by the calm of civilisation, can you recall the grand heroic memories of the past, which after centuries remain illuminated with a bright glow, and are also often darkened with blood and tragedy? can you transport yourself back to the joys and terrors of the past, and take a vital interest in those struggles and battles long since fought out, and become full of hopes or fears as fortune smiled or betrayed? stand with me on the heights of history, and looking far around on the wild arena of human destiny, can you transfer yourself to the vale of the past, the physically dead and buried, but spiritually immortal life, which forms the being and substance of all history? reader, have you ever seen history depicted as an aged man with a frozen heart and wise brow, trying all things in the balance of reason? but is not the genius of history like an ever youthful virgin, full of fire, with a living heart and a flaming soul--human, warm, and beautiful? if then you have the capacity to suffer or rejoice with the generations that have passed away, to love, and hate with them, to admire, despise, and curse as they have done; in a word, to live amongst them with your whole heart, and not merely with your cold reflecting mentality, then follow me. i will lead down the valley; but your heart will guide you better that i; upon that i rely--and begin. the king's ring. chapter i. the battle of breitenfeld. through the histories of germany and sweden the fame of mighty names has resounded for centuries; at their mention the swede raises his head aloft, and the free german uncovers his with admiration. these are leipzig, breitenfeld, and the th of september, . king gustaf adolf, with his army of swedes and finns, stood on german soil to protect the holiest and highest things in life--liberty and faith. tilly, the terrible old corporal, had invaded saxony, and the king pursued him. twice had they met; the tiger had challenged the lion to the combat, but the latter would not move. now for the third time they faced each other; the crushing blow must fall, and the fate of germany trembled in the balance. at dawn the swedes and saxons crossed the loder, and placed themselves in battle array at the village of breitenfeld. the king rode along the lines, and inspected everything. his eye beamed with delight on these brave men; the left wing was composed of gustave horn's cavalry, teuffel was in the centre, and torstensson with his leathern cannon in front. the livonians and hepburn's scots were both in the second line. the king commanded the right wing, composed of several regiments of cavalry and the finns. "stälhandske," said he, checking his large steed at the last finnish division, "i suppose you understand why you are here. pappenheim is opposite, and longs to make your acquaintance," he added smiling, "and i expect a vigorous attack from that quarter. i rely upon you finns to receive him right royally." the king then raised his voice and said, "boys, do not blunt your swords upon those iron-clad fellows, but first tackle the horses, and then you will have light work with the riders." the finns were proud of their danger and the honour of their position. the king inspired all with courage and self-reliance. but these short, sturdy fellows on their small horses seemed unequal to the onset of the big wallachians upon their strong and heavy chargers. tilly held the same opinion. "ride them down," he said, "and horse and man will fall powerless under the heels of your steeds." but tilly did not know his foes. the outer bearing of the finns was deceptive. their iron muscles and calm courage, with the hardihood of their horses, gave them a decided advantage over their enemies. "well, bertila," said stälhandske, turning to a young man who in the first rank rode a handsome black horse, and was noticeable from his height and bearing, "do you feel inclined to win the knight's spur to-day?" the one addressed seemed astonished, and coloured up to the brim of his helmet. "i have never dared to aspire so high," he answered. "i--a peasant's son!" he added with hesitation. "thunder and lightning, the boy blushes like a bride at the altar! a peasant's son? what the devil, then, have we all come from in the beginning? did you not provide four fully equipped horsemen? has not our lord placed a heart in your breast, and the king a weapon in your hand? that is in itself a coat of arms; you must attend to the rest." a multitude of thoughts passed quickly through the young man's mind. he thought of the days of his childhood in far-off finland. he remembered his old father, whose name was also bertila, and who during the peasant war was one of duke carl's best men. when the latter became king carl the ninth, he gave his follower four large farms; each of these had to provide a man and horse for military service. owing to this, old bertila became one of the richest peasants in the country. he thought of the time when his father first sent him to stockholm, in the hope that he would some day attain honour and distinction by the king's side; then of his own ambition which had induced him to neglect study and take private lessons in riding and fencing. at last his father gave him permission to join the king's finnish cavalry. now he, a peasant's son, was about to strive to raise himself to the level of the haughty nobility. it was this thought that made him blush, and under its influence he felt he could face any danger. moreover, he was about to fight under the king's eye, for his faith and the honour of his country. the whole army was animated by the same high principles, which rendered them invincible, and made them realise the victory before the battle had begun. before the young horseman had time to reply to his generous leader, the king's high voice was heard in the distance calling to prayer. the hero took off his helmet and lowered the point of his sword, and all the troops did the same. the king prayed: "thou all-merciful god, who bearest victory and defeat in thy hand, turn thy beneficent countenance to us, thy servants. from distant lands and peaceful homes have we come, to fight for freedom, and thy gospel. give us victory for thy holy name's sake. amen." a deep trust at these words filled every heart. at noon the attacking swedish army came within range of the imperial cannon. the swedish artillery answered, and the conflict began. as the sun shone right in the assailants' eyes, the king made his army wheel to the right, so as to get the wind and sun on the side. pappenheim tried to prevent this. he rushed forward with the speed of lightning, and took the swedish right in flank. at once the king threw the rhine count's regiment and baner's cavalry upon him. the shock was terrific; horses and riders fell over each other in utter confusion. pappenheim drew back, but only to throw himself the next instant on the finns. but the furious charge of the wallachians was in vain; they met a wall of steel; their front rank was crushed, and the next turned back. the second attack was no better, and pappenheim raged; for the third time he rushed to the assault; the livonians and courlanders now assisted the finns. the latter received the enemy with calm courage; nothing could break through that living wall. the heat of the conflict had gradually excited the finns, and it was now scarcely possible to hold them in. stälhandske's mighty voice sounded high above the roar and din of the conflict; and once more the foe was thrown back. now the finnish lines broke, but only to enclose the enemy. then it became a hand-to-hand struggle. twice more the wallachians charged and were repulsed. the seventh time pappenheim was followed only by a few of the most determined of his followers, and when this last desperate effort failed all was over. the remaining wallachians scattered themselves in the wildest flight toward breitenfeld. covered with blood and dust the finns took breath. but as soon as the smoke cleared off, they saw other foes in front. these were the holsteiners, who had supported pappenheim. the finns could not be checked. with the east goths they surrounded the holsteiners and annihilated them; these brave fellows died in their ranks to a man. whilst this happened on the right, the left was in great danger. furstenberg's croats had made the saxons give ground, and tilly then advanced his powerful centre. torstensson's cannon played havoc in the ranks; tilly moved aside and charged the saxons. the ranks of the latter were immediately broken, and they fled in the greatest disorder. tilly now turned his victorious troops against the swedish left wing. the latter were slowly pressed back. the king then hastened up and ordered callenbach's reserve to the rescue. almost immediately both callenbach and teuffel fell. then hepburn's scots and the smälanders came up; the croats fell upon them, but the scots opened their ranks, and several masked batteries played with terrible effect on the former. under the fire of the scots whole ranks were shattered, and amidst the dense smoke and dust the combatants were mingled together in utter confusion. victory still hung in the balance. but now a diversion occurred which decided the battle. the king with his cavalry and the finns had captured the imperial artillery on the heights, and now turned it against the latter. in vain pappenheim tried to recapture the guns; he was repulsed in disorder. then the king, with his invincible right wing, charged the enemy in flank; the imperialists were lost. tilly wept with rage: pappenheim, who had hewed down fourteen men with his own hand, was mad with fury. no one, however, could rally the imperial troops, and tilly, whose horse was shot under him, barely escaped being taken prisoner. the king's victory was decisive. but a terrible sequel remained. four regiments of tilly's veteran infantry had reformed, and now sought to check the pursuit. the king charged them with tott's cavalry, the smälanders, and finns. it was a terrific combat; the wallachians fought with the fury of despair; no quarter was asked or given. at last darkness saved the remnant of these brave men, who retreated on leipzig. the battle was over. great results followed this victory; and in the evening the king rode from rank to rank, to thank his brave troops. "stälhandske," said he, when he came to the finns, "you and your men have fought like heroes, as i expected. i thank you, my children! i am proud of you." the troops responded with a joyous cheer. "but," continued the king, "there was one among you who sprang from his horse, and first of all scaled the heights to seize the imperial guns. where is he?" a young horseman rode from the ranks. "pardon, your majesty!" he stammered. "i did it without orders, and therefore merit death." the king smiled. "your name?" "bertila." "from east bothnia?" "yes, your majesty." "good. to-morrow morning, at seven o'clock, you may present yourself, to hear your doom." the king rode on, and the horseman returned to the ranks. night broke over the awful field, covered with , dead. the finnish cavalry encamped on the heights, where tilly's guns were captured. the dead were taken away, and fires of broken gun-carriages and musket-stocks spread their light in the september night; through a clear sky the eternal stars looked down upon the battlefield. the cavalry gave their horses fodder, and watered them at the muddy loder. then they bivouacked, each in his division, around the fires, armed and ready to jump at the first call the ground was damp with dew, and slippery with blood, but many were so fatigued that they fell asleep as they sat around the fires. others kept themselves in good spirits by passing round cups of ale, of which they had a good stock. they drank in jesting fashion to the health of the imperialists. "and that they to-night may die of thirst or drink to their own funeral eläköön kuningas!" at this moment a woeful voice was heard quite near, earnestly calling for help. the soldiers, accustomed to such things, knew by the accent that the man was a foreigner, and did not trouble. but the cries continued without ceasing. "pekka, go and give the austrian dog a final thrust," cried some of the men, who were irritated by these wailing sounds. pekka, one of bertila's four dragoons, short, but strong as a lion, went unwillingly to silence the offender's voice. superstitious, like all these soldiers, he was not at home amidst the dead on a dark night. bertila, absorbed in thinking of the next morning, did not hear it. in a few minutes pekka returned, dragging after him a dark body, which, to everyone's surprise, was found to be a monk, easily recognised by his tonsure. around his common gown he wore a hempen rope, and to this hung the scabbard of a sword. "a monk! a jesuit!" exclaimed the soldiers. "yes, but what could i do," said pekka, "he parried my thrust with a crucifix." "kill him! it is one of the devil's allies who prowl around to murder kings and burn faithful christians at the stake. "away with him! when we carried the heights, this same man stood with his crucifix among the imperialists and fired off a cannon." "let's find out if the precious object is of silver," said one of the men, and pulling aside the monk's gown he drew forth, in spite of his struggles, a crucifix of silver, richly gilded. "just as i thought, the devil has plenty of gold." "let me see it," said an old veteran. "i know something about monks' tricks." as he pressed a little spring in the image's breast, a keen dagger sprang from it. as if bitten by an adder, he threw the crucifix from him. rage and horror seized the bystanders. "hang the serpent by his own rope," shouted the men. "there is no tree," said one, "and no one is allowed to leave the lines." "drown him!" "there is no water." "stab him!" no one was willing, from aversion, to touch the monk. "what shall we do with him?" "misericordia! gnade!" said the prisoner, who now began to recover his speech and strength. "give him a kick and let him go," said one. "we are christians, and fear no devilry." "at least i will mark you first, so that we may know you if we meet again," cried one of the soldiers named vitikka, renowned for his strength and brutality. he flourished his sword several times round the monk's head, and then with two dexterous strokes cut off both the prisoner's ears, before he could be prevented by his comrades. it was most skilfully accomplished. "st. peter could not have done it better," said vitikka laughing. those who were standing around turned away. although they were accustomed to the cruelties of war, this was too savage even for them. bleeding, the jesuit crawled away on his hands and feet. but long afterwards his voice was heard from the darkness: "accursed finns! may the eternal fires consume you!" "our father, which art in heaven," a voice exclaimed from the group of soldiers. and all uttered the prayer with devotion. chapter ii. the nobleman without a name. at dawn on the th of september, the swedish army was exercised. they felt sure of complete victory. from all parts news arrived that the enemy's army was almost destroyed. the king left one division of his troops to follow the imperialists; whilst the rest received the agreeable order to loot tilly's camp: the spoil was divided into lots. the treasures were enormous, and many a man was enriched for life. the whole army wore a joyous look; the dead were quickly buried, and the wounded forgot their pains. in the bright september morning, the battlefield was covered with groups of delighted soldiers, and here, if ever, beskow's words could be used, "the air was cooled with the waving of the flags gained in the victory." the king had passed the night in a carriage. after he had read the army prayers, and given orders for the first part of the day, he called for those who had most distinguished themselves in the battle. and now many a brave deed was recognised with honours and promotion. but higher than any other reward, was the inner satisfaction, and the praise they received from this hero, whom the whole of europe had now learnt to admire. amongst those who were specially called was a young man, who plays a great part in this history. gustaf bertila was only twenty years old, and his heart was beating at this time more rapidly than it had ever done in the most terrible moments of the conflict. he knew well that the noble king would not take any account of his crime, which was that he had disobeyed orders in battle; he blushed and grew pale by turns, as he thought of what the king might mean by this special summons, which was in itself a great honour. the king had erected his tent under one of the great elms, at gross wetteritz, because all the buildings in the neighbourhood were burnt or destroyed by friends or enemies. after waiting for half an hour, bertila was introduced into the royal presence. gustaf adolf was sitting on a low chair, and his arm was resting on a table, covered with maps and papers. the king was tall and portly, and his tight-fitting buff coat made him look still more corpulent. when bertila entered, the king lifted up his mild and beautiful blue eyes; he had just signed an order, and looked sharply at the young man. gustaf adolf was short sighted, and therefore had a difficulty in recognising persons, and when he met individuals only slightly known to him, it gave his look a peculiar sharpness, which, however, disappeared immediately. "your name is bertila," said the king, as if he wished to assure himself that he had heard it correctly the day before. "yes, your majesty." "aged twenty years," said the king, watching him closely with a strange look. "yes, your majesty." "his son did you say?" the young man bowed his head and blushed. "how strange!" the king muttered this to himself, and seemed for a moment to be in deep thought. he then said, "why have you not announced yourself to me before? your father has done my father and the country great service. he is then still alive." "he is alive, and thankful for your majesty's goodness." "really so." the king said this more as if a secret thought had escaped him, than as a remark to the listener. the young man felt the colour mount to his cheeks, and the king noticed it. "your father and i once had a quarrel," continued the king, and he smiled, but a cloud was seen on his brow. "but this was all forgotten long ago, and i am glad that such a good man has such a brave son. you were amongst the seventy finns at demmin." "yes, your majesty." "and no one has mentioned you for promotion?" "my colonel has promised to remember me." "your king never forgets a real service. gustaf bertila, i have just signed your commission as sub-lieutenant. take it, and continue to serve with honour." "your majesty," said the young man. "i have something more to say to you. your action yesterday was against orders." "yes, your majesty." "i want my soldiers to obey implicitly. i have been told that you dismounted at the foot of the steepest hill, so that you could get up quicker." "it is true your majesty." "and that you reached the top of the hill first, whilst the others had to ride round; and that you killed two of the enemy, and took the first cannon." "yes, your majesty." "it is good, sub-lieutenant bertila; i forgive you, and promote you to the rank of lieutenant in my finnish cavalry." the young man could not speak. the king himself laboured under considerable emotion. "come nearer, young man," said the king. "you ought to know that once, in my youth, i did your father a considerable injury. heaven knows that i repent, and has at last given me an opportunity to repair to the son the injustice done to the father. "lieutenant bertila, you are brave and noble, and you have received a military education. you have also brought into my service four soldiers. in your position as officer in my army you are already considered a nobleman. that none of my officers shall look down upon you as a peasant's son, i will give you a name, and the knight's spur." "go, young man. go, my son," repeated the king with great emotion, "and show that you are worth the king's favour." "until death." and the young man bent his knee to the king. the latter stood up. the emotion which had for a moment passed over his fine face now disappeared, and he was again the royal leader. the young bertila understood that the time had come to retire. but he still remained in his kneeling position, and gave the king a letter, which he, until this day, had carried sewed in his coat. "may i ask your majesty to read this letter. when i said farewell to my old father he gave me this letter, and said, 'my son, go and try to win your king's favour, through your faithfulness and valour. and if some day you can obtain it for your own sake, and not only for the sake of your father's name, then give him this letter, and tell him that it is my last will. his great heart will understand what i mean.'" the king opened the letter and read it, and on his face was seen that deep flush, which in his later years was the only sign of the struggles of a soul, able to control itself. it came as a light cloud on the king's forehead, deepened for a moment, and then passed away without leaving any trace. when he had finished reading, his eyes rested for a moment on the handsome youth who was still kneeling at his feet. "stand up," said the king at last. bertila obeyed. "do you know what this letter contains?" "no, your majesty." the king watched him closely, but was satisfied with the honest and truthful expression of his face. "your father is a strange man. he hates all noblemen since the days of the peasants' war. he fought many tough battles as their leader; and fleming's troops took possession of his farm. he forbids you ever to bear a noble name, if you wish to avoid his curse." bertila did not reply. a thunder-bolt from a clear sky had come down upon his happiness, and all his dreams of a noble and knightly name had been destroyed at one blow. "a father's will must be obeyed," continued the king with great seriousness. "the noble name which i had intended for you, you cannot accept. do not feel sad, my young friend, you shall keep your sword and your lieutenant's commission; with them, and your brave arm, the path to honour will always be open to you." the king now dismissed him, and the young man left the tent with mixed feelings. chapter iii. lady regina. in the beginning of october, , it was a dull autumn day, about three or four weeks after the battle of breitenfeld, and in one of the rooms of the tower of the castle of würzburg the beautiful regina von emmeritz was sitting with several of her attendants; they were all working on a banner of white silk with the image of the holy virgin on it. it was intended for a standard of victory to stimulate the troops defending the castle. the young maidens indulged in an animated conversation, for the terror of the castle, the old, selfish bishop, had just started off, as he alleged, on a journey through the diocese, but in reality to escape gustaf adolf's approaching warriors. trembling for his treasures, he had previously entrusted the defence of the town and castle to the valiant and trustworthy captain of horse, keller, with fifteen hundred men; and this commander, relying upon the impregnable position of the fortress on the banks of the main, had assured his reverence that the heretic king should crush his head against the walls, before any of his godless host obtained an entrance. the lovely regina was scarcely sixteen, and her curls were dark as the night, cheeks rosy as the dawn, and black eyes shining like two stars which at midnight mirror themselves in a mountain lake. she was the pet and idol of the aged bishop; he had therefore unwillingly left her with his other treasures in the castle, depending, however, upon keller's assurance that the thick walls well mounted with heavy guns, were, in such uncertain times, the best harbour for beauty and gold; and keller was a commander of fidelity and honour; with such a precious trust he would sooner bury himself underneath the ruins of the fortress than surrender. lady regina raised her brilliant eyes from the embroidery and glanced through the little turret window over the river, where at that moment a carriage, escorted by some troopers, was crossing the bridge from the town to the castle. "who is this traveller?" she said, with the concentrated gaze which rarely fixed itself upon any object except the large and beautiful marble image of the madonna in her sanctuary. "ah!" exclaimed ketchen, the youngest and most talkative of the maidens, "ah, holy virgin, how charming it is to live in such times as these! every day, new faces, stately cavaliers, brave young knights, and now and then a little feast in town. it is quite a different thing from sitting shut up in a cloister, and hearing the monks chant de profundis from morn till eve. yes," continued she saucily, "may his grace, the bishop, only stay away a good long time!" "ketchen," admonished regina, "take care not to speak ill of the services and masses of the monks! remember that our confessor, father hieronymus, is a member of the holy inquisition, and that the castle dungeons are deep and dark." ketchen remained silent for a moment. but directly afterwards she boldly said, "if i were in your place, lady, i would rather think of the handsome count of lichtenstein, than of that terrible father hieronymus. he is a valiant knight; god grant that he may return victorious from the war against the heretics!" "may they all be exterminated by fire and sword!" interjected one of the girls in a devout manner. "poor heretics!" said ketchen smiling. "beware!" repeated lady regina, with naïve earnestness. "a heretic deserves no mercy. anyone who kills a heretic has pardon for seven sins; father hieronymus has often thus instructed me. to hate the heretics is the eighth sacrament, and to love a single one of them is to consign your soul to eternal torment." regina's black eyes emitted fire with these words. one could easily see that the worthy father's teachings had taken deep root in her soul. still ketchen did not refrain. "it is said that their king is good and noble, and that he shelters all the weak, and does not allow his soldiers to plunder and outrage their enemies." "satan often assumes the disguise of an angel." "they also say that his men are brave and humane. i myself heard an old italian soldier tell the knights in the armoury how seventy men belonging to a heretic people called finns, defended their king for more than an hour against fifteen hundred neapolitans. and when most of these finns had fallen, the rest were succoured and finally triumphed; afterwards they bound up the wounds of their enemies as well as their own." lady regina rose, and was about to return a quick answer to this unpalatable speech, but at that moment a servant appeared at the door, and announced that the count of lichtenstein, sick and wounded, had arrived at the castle, and craved shelter. the young lady, who, as the niece of the old bishop, took the part of hostess of the castle in his absence, immediately hastened down to welcome the new arrival, who was a distant relative of the family. the maidens now exchanged significant glances, as if they considered this event especially opportune. it had long been gossiped amongst them that the old bishop had chosen the count as the future husband of the young lady. but in vain had they endeavoured to discover any signs of emotion on the part of their young mistress at the intelligence of his arrival. if lady regina entertained any tender passion, she well knew how to conceal it. "is it true," asked one of the girls, "that the king of the heretics has won a great victory over the soldiers of the true faith, and is now approaching this castle with his godless army?" "so it is said," answered another. "but he is unable to come here. our people have erected the image of the swedish saint, brigitta, in his path, in thüringer forest, and she will stop his progress." in the meanwhile, lady regina had ordered one of the bishop's own apartments to be put in order for the guest, and provided in every way for his comfort. the young count of lichtenstein was a proud and stately youth, dark as a spaniard, and with eyes almost as bright as regina's. he approached the beautiful hostess with faltering steps, and with an ardent glance, before which regina cast down her eyes. "how grateful i should be to heaven," he said, "for these wounds, which have procured me the happiness of having such a beautiful hostess!" the count's wounds were numerous, but not dangerous. taken captive at breitenfeld, he had shortly afterwards, still weak from his wounds, been exchanged, and immediately hastened here, to regain health and strength in the neighbourhood of his heart's mistress. "but," he added, "i heard with great alarm that the enemy, seeking whom they may devour, were on their march hither to the rich vales of franconia. then i hurried, quickly as i could, to share with you, beautiful regina, all these dangers and terrors. be calm! königshofen will make a stand against them, and father hieronymus, who, also wounded, escaped from the disastrous field of breitenfeld, is busy inciting the country people to resistance all along the enemy's advance. "and so you think," anxiously asked regina, "that these terrible heretics will venture as far as this place?" "the protection of the saints will be with beauty and faith," answered the count evasively. "besides, we shall soon receive more reliable news." as he spoke, regina looked out of the window, and perceived a troop of horsemen, who were hurrying at full speed towards the fortress. "i cannot be mistaken," she exclaimed; "it is father hieronymus himself who returns here." "a bad omen," muttered the count between his teeth. lady regina was right; it was father hieronymus who at that moment rode over the drawbridge. in appearance, the father was a little insignificant man, thin and pallid, with sharp features, and deeply sunk, hollow eyes, whose quick glance fled inquiringly from one object to another. he still wore the long sword suspended from the rope round his waist. but the bald spot no longer shone on the crown of his head; wounded at that place, he wore over it a sort of skull-cap or calotte of leather, the black colour of which made a ghastly contrast with his cadaverous-looking face. never had the dreaded jesuit showed himself in so forbidding a form. the men-at-arms stood at attention, and all the servants in the castle hastened to receive his commands. a secret anxiety took possession of all the bystanders. it looked as if terror and death had ridden in his train through the gates of würzburg castle. the monk hastily surveyed the garrison drawn up in the courtyard, and then greeted lady regina with a smile, which was probably intended to make him look more agreeable, but which had exactly the opposite effect. "st. petrus and all the saints protect you, gracious lady! the times are very awful, very bad. the holy virgin has allowed the vile heretics to penetrate to our very gates--on account of our sins!" he added, crossing himself devoutly. "and königshofen?" inquired count fritz, who anticipated the answer. "the treacherous commander has capitulated." "but did not the peasants oppose the enemy's march through the forest?" "all scattered like chaff--on account of our sins." "and the holy brigitta's image?" "the vile heretics have placed it as a scarecrow in a wheat-field. but," continued the jesuit, his voice acquiring suddenly a commanding tone, "what is this i see, my daughter? why are you still here, and the castle filled with women and children, while the enemy may arrive at any moment at your gates?" "lady regina shall never need a protector as long as i am alive," exclaimed count fritz. "the castle is provisioned for a whole year," said regina timidly. "but, worthy father, you are fatigued, you are wounded, and need rest. allow me to dress your wounds; you are hurt in the head." "it is nothing, my daughter. do not think of me. you must fly instantly to the impregnable fortress of aschaffenburg." "ha! i fear it is too late," exclaimed count fritz, who was looking out upon the river and town. "holy virgin, are they already here?" the jesuit and lady regina rushed to the window. the afternoon sun was shedding its rays over würzburg and the surrounding country. horsemen could be seen riding at full gallop through the streets, and a whole host of panic-stricken people were rapidly moving towards the castle--monks and nuns, women and children, dragging after them a number of hand-carts containing the best of their household effects. beyond the town, in the direction of schweinfurter, on the east bank of the river, appeared a troop of cavalry, from whose threatening but cautious advance one could easily recognise the vanguard of the swedish army. "accursed devils!" burst out the jesuit, with an indescribable expression of hatred on his pallid face. "these heretics can fly. may the earth open and devour them!" and he ran out with frantic zeal to place himself at the head of the garrison. the bishop's castle, also called marienburg, raises its old walls high above the right bank of the main. on the river side of the town the rock is high and precipitous, but on the other side sloping and easily ascended. a rampart in the shape of a half moon formed a formidable outwork before the gates; and if the enemy surmounted this obstacle, a deep moat, cut in the solid rock, awaited him on the other side; and even if he crossed this successfully, the inner and higher castle wall blocked his way, lined with steel-clad defenders, prepared to receive him with a devastating fire, and crush him with the large stones collected on the walls. the only passage over the river was a narrow bridge, and the forty-eight guns of the fortress commanded and swept the whole town and neighbourhood. from this it will be seen that keller at the head of , valiant troops, and well provided with all necessaries, had good reason in bidding the departing bishop to be of good heart. but gustaf adolf had an overwhelming reason for becoming master of this castle, cost what it would. tilly had now drawn to himself large reinforcements, and stood, a few weeks after the battle of breitenfeld, fully equipped and eager for revenge, with , men on the march from hessen, to assist würzburg. the king summoned the town, and forced his way into the suburbs, but it was already late in the day, and the attack had to be postponed. the next morning the town surrendered. but keller had profited by the darkness of the night to transfer his whole force, a large number of fugitives, and the portable property of the town, to the castle, after which he blew up two arches of the bridge, and thus blockaded the enemy's way. but to return to the fortress. that night none but the little children could sleep in the bishop's castle. crowds of soldiers, monks, and women, were constantly arriving; one baggage-wagon after the other rattled in through the castle gates; the vaults echoed with the cries of the watch, the orders of the officers, and the children's crying, and above all this noise and confusion one could plainly hear the masses of the monks, who were invoking in the chapel the protection of the holy virgin and all the saints, on behalf of the threatened fortress, the strongest castle of the catholics in all franconia. in order to provide for this human host, lady regina had not only opened the bishop's private rooms, but also the two spacious drawing-rooms set aside for her own use in the interior of the castle, and with her maids moved up to the small chambers in the east turret. in vain it was represented to her that this point was exposed to the fire of the enemy. she here had the best and most extensive prospect in the whole fortress, and was not willing to forego it. "do not interfere with me," she said to the cautious jesuit; "i wish to see the heretics mown down by our guns. it will be a fine spectacle." "amen," answered father hieronymus. "you remember, my daughter, that this castle is protected by two miraculous images of the virgin, one of pure gold, the other of gilded wood. i will hang up the latter in your apartment; it will avert the enemy's shot like so many puff-balls from your turret." at daybreak, lady regina was on the look-out at her little turret window. it was a glorious sight, when the sun rose over the autumn hills with their still verdant vineyards, through which the river main wound like a glittering serpent of gold and silver in the morning light. in the town all was activity; four swedish regiments marched in with flags flying and drums beating, their armour shining in the bright sunlight, and the plumes of their officers waving in the wind. at this sight, fear and curiosity came into conflict in the minds of the maidens. "do you see," said lady regina to ketchen, "the two cavaliers in their yellow waistcoats, who ride at the head of the heretics?" "how handsome they are! now they turn round the street corner--there they are again. just see how everyone makes way for them!" "send for count fritz. he was in the swedish camp for more than a fortnight, and knows their leaders." the count, who was prevented by his wounds from taking part in the defence of the castle, immediately obeyed the lady regina's summons. in the meantime the swedes had taken full possession of the town, and began to show themselves in scattered groups on the river banks. at that moment the castle guns opened fire, and here and there a ball fell among the swedes, who immediately sought shelter behind the houses by the river. "holy mary, a man was struck over there and does not move again!" cried ketchen, who could not conceal her sympathy. "st. francis be praised, there is one heretic less in the world!" rejoined old dorthe, lady regina's duenna, who had been appointed by father hieronymus to guard all her steps. "but it is terrible to shoot a man." count fritz smiled. "fräulein ketchen, you should have been on the field of breitenfeld. nine thousand corpses!" "it is horrible!" "count, can you inform me who those horsemen are, who, in spite of the storm of cannon-shot, keep on the river bank and seem to be closely examining the defences of our castle?" "pardon me, charming cousin, the smoke blocks my sight. those cavaliers--upon my honour, it is the king himself, and count pehr brahe. i would not be in their shoes if father hieronymus sees them. he would undoubtedly bring all the guns of the fortress to bear upon them." at these words old dorthe crept silently from the room. "my cousin, why do you thus regard the heretic leader?" "beautiful regina, why do your eyes flash fire at the thought. you are, yourself, so generous and noble, can you not understand my sympathy for a brave and chivalrous foe? the king of sweden is a hero, well worthy of our supreme admiration, as well as of our great enmity." "i fail to comprehend you. a heretic!" "god preserve you from some day seeing him within these walls; you will then understand me much better. ha! they are now preparing to assault the bridge; they are throwing planks over the destroyed arches. by heaven, that is courageous!" "now, four fell at once!" exclaimed the excited ketchen. "i know them well," said count fritz, growing more and more agitated by the sounds of the battle and the loud thunder of the cannonade, which made the fortress walls shake. "they are the scots. there are no finer soldiers in the whole swedish army; the scots and finns are always in the front of the battle." "ah! see there, my cousin, the scots recoil; they dare not try to leap the abyss. that truly requires superhuman courage. twenty-four feet underneath the planks rushes the flood." "two young officers dash out on the planks." "they are the youthful brothers ramsay. i recognise them by their blue scarves. they love the same lady, and both sport her colours, without loving each other any the less." "oh god, guard them! ah, holy virgin, this is fearful!" and ketchen hid her face in her apron. before the brave and intrepid scots could reach the centre of the planks, they lost their balance, reeled, and then fell headlong into the river. for a short time they struggled with the flood, but wounded by bullets from the castle, their strength soon failed them, and their heavy armour made them sink in the waters; another moment, and these gallant youths sank to rise no more. "you rejoiced at war not long ago," said lady regina to ketchen, assuming a calmness which she did not feel in her agitated heart. "oh, yes, at the handsome young knights; the feasts and music, but not at this!" exclaimed the crying ketchen. "the scots retreat!" exclaimed another of the girls. "yes," replied the reflecting count, "but the swedes have begun to cross the river in boats." "the scots are returning to the attack." "just as i imagined," said the count calmly. "god preserve us! they have succeeded; they are now on this side. our troops attack them." "lady regina, do not expose yourself so much at the window. the swedes may aim their cannon at the turret." "count, do you fear?" regina smiled as she said this. lichtenstein coloured up. "i have satisfied myself that i have courage enough," he answered. "hearken, and you will every now and then distinguish a peculiar whizzing, and a rattling like the fall of stones; you do not know what this is. i will tell you. these are cannon-shot, lady regina; you would know this better if the noise outside was not so deafening. for some time the balls have been shattering the walls of the turret, and almost always at the same place. fair cousin, these are no sugar-plums. the swedes must have been taught to shoot by the wild huntsman." "do you really think----" "that the enemy intend to destroy this turret, and will fill the castle moat with the debris? yes, cousin, and i believe they will do it very soon. you are in danger here, every moment, and must go somewhere else." "immediately, good count, at once! come, lady!" cried ketchen, trying with friendly violence to take her young mistress away with her. but regina was in an exalted mood. in the habit of ruling, and perhaps from the defiant nature of her character, full of strange contrasts, joined to the burning fanaticism which the jesuit had implanted in her mind from childhood ... she stepped backwards, grasped the gilded image of the virgin, which father hieronymus had sent to guard her, and placed it in front of herself on the window-sill. "go," she exclaimed; "you are weak in the faith; you doubt the protection of the holy saints. i shall remain, and the efforts of the heretics will avail nothing against----" lady regina's speech was not finished, when a ball struck the turret at an oblique angle, knocking away a piece of the facing. a shower of stone fragments hurtled through the window, demolishing the image of the holy virgin, and enveloping lady regina in dust and dirt. "you must away! now you see for yourself!" cried the count. "let us go!" exclaimed all the girls nearly paralyzed with fear. but regina, nearly overwhelmed for a moment, recovered her self-confidence, and stooped down to pick up the image, saying with faith, "they cannot triumph over the holy mother." she was deceived. the wooden virgin had broken into several fragments. a sceptical smile played around the count's lips, and he now led without any opposition his terror-stricken relative from the turret. while this was happening, keller, with the quickness and perception of a thorough soldier, had made every arrangement for a vigorous defence. he was unable to stop the swedes from crossing the river, but the nearer they came, the more destructive was the fire of his artillery. the enemy's ranks were decimated by his shot; and the whole day they could do nothing. father hieronymus and his monks ran around the walls, deluging the guns with holy water, and making the sign of the cross over every touch-hole. old dorthe had whispered in his ear, and the jesuit's gaze was directed towards the place where someone had just seen the swedish king and his companion. the worthy priest now wished to aim, himself, one of the heavy guns towards the spot; but before firing he fell on his knees and repeated four _pater nosters_ and _ave marias_. then followed the shot; but in vain did the anxious jesuit look for the effect. unhurt, as before, the forms of the two horsemen were seen through the vanishing smoke. the monk now thought that four _paters_ and four _aves_ were too little, and accordingly repeated eight of each sort, and then fired again. disgusting! the balls would not touch the selected objects. providence had not yet rung the death-knell of gustaf adolf, and pehr brahe it wished to spare for the sake of finland. who can estimate what would have succeeded sweden's victories, and finland's learning, if the jesuit's shots had reached their mark? father hieronymus fumed. once more he resolved to try with twelve _paters_ and twelve _aves_, when someone touched him on the back; he turned round and saw an old soldier, who had been exchanged with count lichtenstein. "cease your efforts," said the veteran in a firm tone, "it is a needless waste of powder; you are trying to kill a man with a charmed life; he is invulnerable." the superstitious jesuit muttered something with a low breath. "i should have divined as much. but how do you know this, my son?" he added. "i was told of it in the swedish camp. on the forefinger of his right hand the king wears a little copper ring, inscribed all over with magical signs. this was given to him in his youth by a finnish witch, and as long as he wears this ring, neither fire, water, iron, or lead can injure him." "nothing affects him, you believe? oh, _maledicti fennones_, why do you follow me everywhere?" "no iron or lead," whispered the veteran, "but i can tell you of something else." "say on, my son; you are absolved beforehand." "but, good father, it is a sinful method." "all means are justified for the benefit of our holy faith. speak, my son." "gold from a holy image." "never, my son, no; we dare not do that. had it been a dagger of glass, or an occult poison, it would do; but gold from a saint's image, no, my son, let us forget the unholy idea." meanwhile the cloak of night had descended, and death's work for the time was finished. the worn-out soldiers refreshed themselves with food and drink, and keller passed around some fine liquors to sustain their courage. lady regina had moved down to one of the inner apartments; count fritz had gone to bed. soon all was silent, except the call of the sentinels, the songs of drunken soldiers, and the murmur of the feast which keller gave to his officers in the armoury. but in the fine chapel, where stood the pure golden statues of christ and the virgin mary, the midnight mass was over, and all the monks except one had gone to rest, or--the wine-cup. this lonely figure was still kneeling before the altar, and the perpetually burning lamp shed its dim rays over the praying pallid jesuit. "holy virgin," prayed he, "forgive thy humble servant for daring to take from thee a small piece of thy golden robe. thou knowest, oh sanctissima, that it is for a holy and sacred end, in order to kill the sworn enemy of the holy church, the heretic king, whom the heathen finns with their devilish arts have rendered invulnerable to the steel and lead of the true believers. grant that the gold, which i, in thy honour, take from thy glorious mantle, may pierce the wicked heart of the godless king, and i promise thee, holy mother, to replace what thou hast lost by a costly robe of velvet and pearls. three gilded candles will i cause to burn also, night and day, before thy image. amen." when father hieronymus had finished his devotions, he looked up, and it appeared to him as if the image in the light of the eternal lamp smiled its approval to the fanatical petition. chapter iv. lady regina's oath. the next day was one of hot and furious battle. the swedes bombarded the castle with a heavy fire, and drew near to the walls under the cover of earthworks. the imperial troops fought well. time was precious for both sides; in a few days tilly would be in the rear of gustaf adolf; a possible thunder-bolt to the swedes; a certain relief for the garrison. lady regina and her attendants were now shut up in the inner rooms, and could no longer view the extraordinary spectacle of the siege. but there was much to do within. large numbers of wounded had to be nursed; the young lady moved like a spirit of light from couch to couch in the armoury, where the wounded had been placed; her healing hands poured balm on their wounds; her compassionate voice poured consolation into their hearts. she spoke of the holy faith for which they suffered; promised honours and rewards to those who recovered, and eternal salvation to the dying. the heavy artillery thunder made the walls tremble. lady regina suddenly remembered that she had left her rosary up in the little turret, and it was now needed for the prayers of the dying. she had already reached the threshold of the armoury, when a terrific crash shook the castle to its very base. pale with fear, she hesitated, and at the same moment the count of lichtenstein rushed in. "what has happened?" exclaimed the young lady. "thank the saints, my fair cousin, that you took my advice yesterday. the turret has fallen." "then we are lost." "not yet. the swedes thought it would fall into the moat, but it has fallen inside. the enemy will soon try an assault. come to this window which overlooks the walls. can you see? father hieronymus is on his knees by the large gun. i will wager that he sees the swedish king." the count was right. the jesuit's keen glance was fixed on one spot, and his lips hastily muttered prayer after prayer. he had discovered gustaf adolf on horseback with pehr brahe. the two kept near the outworks, sheltered somewhat by a heap of debris. father hieronymus relied upon the heavy shot, into which, with prayers and fasting, he had run the gold from the holy mother's mantle. he stooped to direct the cannon, and the pupils of his eyes contracted, his nostrils expanded, while latin prayers continued to flow from his lips. then he rose quickly, and after swinging the lighted match in the form of a cross, fired. the gun belched forth flame and smoke. oh, hate and fury! when the smoke cleared off, the two horsemen still rode unharmed side by side. but this time gustaf adolf had a narrow escape, for the ball had struck the debris, and covered both with dust. tired, weary, and quite exasperated, the jesuit left the ramparts. "wait, ruler of belial, until i succeed in taking your ring from you, and then you shalt be destroyed!" the king now commanded an assault on the outworks. axel lilje, jacob ramsay, and hamilton, pressed on with their men. frightful difficulties were here encountered. they were obliged to climb up the steep rocks under a heavy fire, and then cross the moat and scale the walls. the irresistible scots and finns led the way. those who fell were immediately replaced by others, with their swords between their teeth. the king himself rode as near as possible in order to encourage his troops. a bullet tore away a piece of his glove, without wounding him. it was now a common belief that gustaf adolf was invulnerable. at last, after two hours desperate conflict, the scots and the finns triumphed. the outworks were captured, and the defenders driven back into the castle. it was then four in the afternoon. a few hours rest ensued. at a council of war it was resolved to storm the castle at daybreak, and the finns were to lead the forlorn hope. the position of the garrison was far from hopeless. they could still concentrate , men at any threatened point. but they had lost their moral courage. in vain did keller try to restore their spirits; in vain did the monks carry the golden image of the virgin around the ramparts. at nightfall disorder reigned; the troops refused to obey orders, and some wished to escape in the darkness. at midnight, lady regina was praying before the altar in the chapel to the mother of god. "holy mary," she whispered, "guard this castle against the heretics. but if it be thy will that the fortress shall fall, then also bury in its ruins all thy enemies: the godless king, and his heathen finns who have fought the most to-day against thy holy cause." "amen!" said the voice of father hieronymus behind her. a dark smile played over his pale countenance. "do you realise what you are asking for, my daughter?" "victory for the catholic faith. death to the heretics." "the youthful mind is subject to change. have you sufficient devotion to hate the enemies of the faith, even if ever, as a woman, you felt tempted to love one of them?" "i have, my father; yes, i declare it!" "you are my penitent, and i would save your soul from eternal damnation. have you courage to sacrifice yourself for the holy faith, and thereby secure the eternal crown of a martyr?" "yes, my father!" "very well; then know that the fortress will be taken in a short time. you will be a prisoner; you are young and beautiful, and may easily win the king's favour. when you can approach his person, and the holy virgin grants an opportunity, you must----" the jesuit now took out a crucifix of silver, and when he pressed a spring in the breast of the image, a keen dagger flew out. "grace, my father; this task is terrible. "no respite. the holy church demands a blind obedience. _perinde ac cadaver_. as a corpse which has no will of its own. do you love the holy virgin?" "you know that i do." "look at her golden robe. she has lost a part of it during the night. it is a bad omen, and indicates her anger. do you love me also, my daughter?" "i revere you more than anyone else, my father." "then look at this mutilated head." the jesuit removed his black leather cap, and exposed the horrible stumps of two severed ears. "thus have the blasphemous king's finns treated your confessor and friend. do you still hesitate to avenge the mother of god and myself?" "what must i do, my father?" "listen! the heretic king wears on his right forefinger a ring of copper; this is a talisman against death and injury. you must gain possession of this ring by some artifice, and then if your arm is too weak to deal the blow, call upon me. we will reach his heart, even if it was guarded by a dragon's scales." "if it is the will of the saints ... so be it." "place two fingers on this crucifix, and repeat this oath. i swear by this cross, and by all the saints, to accomplish what i now vow before the image of the holy virgin. if i ever break this oath, may a curse rest upon me and my posterity to the seventh generation. "thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven. amen!" lady regina faithfully repeated these words after the monk. the night's silence sealed this terrible oath, which, with iron fetters, chained the coming generations to the hesitating decision of a girl of sixteen. while this passed, the troops of stormers assembled in the outworks. a number of volunteers had obtained permission to join them. all relied upon victory. among the volunteers appeared lieutenant bertel. "thunder and lightning! is that you, bertel?" exclaimed lieutenant larsson. "as you see," said the youth, shaking his hand cordially. "well, i declare, the good boy wishes to sport his new commission. there's not a single drop left in my flask. but say, why have you changed your name, bertel? what sort of a mixture is it? neither swedish or finnish." "it was done at breitenfeld," said bertel, slightly blushing. "the comrades have long called me so, and--it is shorter." "well, i hope you are not too proud to bear a peasant's name, now you are an officer?" "have the lots already been drawn?" said bertel. "no. you are just in time to try your luck." as all the younger officers desired the honour of leading the forlorn hope, the difficulty was settled by drawing lots. after these were shaken up in a helmet, bertel was the successful competitor. "look out for yourself, my boy!" cried little larsson. "thunder and lightning, remember that the castle is full of jesuits. trap-doors everywhere, a dagger in every crucifix, and at the moment of victory the castle will be blown up." it was half an hour to the dawn. bertel with seven men was ordered to closely reconnoitre the fortress. the rest of the troops were held in readiness. the night was pitch dark. bertel's men approached the drawbridge without being challenged: to their complete astonishment they found it down.* * some authors say that the drawbridge could not be drawn up on account of the weight of the many dead who were left there after the strife. bertel stopped for an instant, remembering larsson's warnings. was this a trap? all was silent. then bertel and his men stepped softly over the bridge. "who goes there?" thundered a german sentinel through the darkness. "swede!" cried bertel, cleaving his head. "comrades, the castle is ours!" and the seven pushed on resolutely after him. inside the drawbridge stood two hundred imperialists on guard. these became panic-stricken and thought the whole swedish army was upon them. they tried to regain the sally-port, but the bold lieutenant and his seven men opposed them. the darkness in the arched gateway was impenetrable; friend could not be distinguished from foe. the press soon became so great that no sword could be used, and the rash assailants were in danger of being crushed to death by the rushing host of mailed warriors. but those in the outworks had heard bertel's cry, and the whole swedish force now rushed against the castle; the rest of the garrison seized their weapons and hastened to defend the entrance. but the finns had obtained a footing, and in a short time stood inside the castle yard. keller and his men fought desperately, and many swedes and finns fell here, at the very moment of victory. their fall excited their countrymen to revenge. they began to cry, "magdeburger pardon," and this shout meant death without quarter to all the imperialists. the carnage became awful. many monks threw themselves into the mêlée, some with torches, some sword in hand. most were cut down, others cast themselves on the ground feigning death. day had broken over the sanguinary scene. then lennart torstensson started forward, seized the madly struggling keller round the waist, and took him prisoner. the remainder of the imperialists laid down their arms, and all was over. chapter v. judith and holofernes. when the first rays of the sun glittered in the waves of the river main, the castle of marienburg was in the hands of the swedes. the king rode up to the courtyard, which was covered with killed and wounded enemies, and amongst these were more than a score of monks. some of these appeared to the king to be shamming death. "stand up," he said to them, "and no evil shall befall you." immediately many of those who were pretending to be dead stood on their feet sound and well, and bowed low, full of joy and gratitude to the king. the castle had been taken by storm, and the soldiers were allowed to plunder. the quantity of silver, and gold, and weapons, and other valuable things was enormous. the king reserved the armoury, with its complete equipments for , infantry and , cavalry, guns and mortars, the stables with fine and valuable horses, and the wine cellar filled with the very best wines. the library was sent to upsala, and donated to the university. the sacred statues of gold and silver found their way to the treasury. although many of the inhabitants of the town were allowed to take away their property, the booty was so great that when the soldiers divided it, the money was measured in helmets. at last keller had to lead the way to the concealed treasure vault. this was deep down in the rock underneath the cellar of the castle; here the bishop kept his treasures. fryxell relates, that when the soldiers carried up the heavy chests, the bottom fell out of one of them, and the gold rolled over the courtyard. the soldiers hurried to pick it up. some they gave to the king, but most of it went into their own pockets. gustaf adolf saw this, and said, laughing, "never mind, boys; now that it has once come into your hands, you may as well keep it." the spoil was so great that after that day there was scarcely a soldier in the whole army who did not have a new suit of clothes. in the camp a cow was sold for a riks thaler, a sheep for a few stivers, and the learned salvius writes, "our finnish boys, who are now accustomed to the winelands down here, are not likely to wish to return to savolax. in the livonian war they often had to put up with water and mouldy bread, now the finns can concoct a beverage in their helmets with wine and spices." amongst the prisoners was the count of lichtenstein and lady regina. the king ordered that they should both be treated with the greatest respect. he offered the young lady a safe conduct to go to the bishop, her uncle. lady regina rejected this on account of the insecurity of the times, and asked as a favour to be allowed to remain under the king's protection for the present. gustaf adolf agreed to this. "i do this unwillingly," said the king, smiling, to the margrave of baden durlach, who was riding by his side. "young ladies are a luxury in the camp, and they turn the heads of my attendants; but she may come with me to frankfurt, as a hostage; it will bind the hands of the bishop." "your majesty knows how to attract everybody through your generosity," replied the margrave with the politeness of a courtier. "lieutenant bertel," said the king, turning to the officer close to him, who had the command of a troop of finnish cavalry, "i give lady regina von emmeritz into your charge. she has my permission to bring with her an elderly lady, a young girl, and her father confessor. see to it, that you are not smitten, lieutenant, and above all give close heed to the monk; that set is not to be relied upon." bertel saluted with his sword, and remained silent. "one thing more," continued the king. "i have not forgotten that you were the first one who entered the sally-port. when you have brought the young lady to safety, you must appear on duty in my life-guards. have you understood me?" "yes, your majesty." "good." and the king then said to the margrave with a smile, "believe me, it would have been serious to leave this beautiful dark-eyed girl in the charge of one of my susceptible swedes. this boy is a finn; they are the most phlegmatic people i know of. they are poor gallants; they need a year to catch fire. a girl can drive twenty of them out of a ball-room; but if it comes to a battle with pappenheim, then your grace knows what they can do." gustaf adolf gained victory after victory in the late autumn. tilly, who had come too late to save würzburg, did not dare to attack him, and irritated by his bad luck and constant defeats, drew back to the bavarian frontier. gustaf adolf marched down the main, entered aschaffenburg, and compelled the cautious frankfurters to open their gates. on december the th the king forced a march over the rhine near oppenheim, and entered mainz on the th, which the spaniard de sylva had so proudly thought that he could defend against three swedish kings. the victorious swedish army was now spread over the north and west part of germany, and the conqueror had chosen his winter quarters in frankfurt-on-the-main. a splendid court here assembled around the hero; it was here that flattery had previously adorned his head with the crown of the german empire. it was here that maria elenora came flying on longing wings to embrace her husband; in henau, where he had come to meet her, she clasped him in her arms and said, "at last the great gustaf adolf is captured." one day at the end of december, , the king gave a splendid banquet in frankfurt on account of the queen's arrival. great crowds of people filled the place outside the castle, the high gothic windows at night shone bright as day. ale and wines flowed constantly from big casks for the people's entertainment; around the tap-holes workmen and soldiers jostled each other, holding out tankards and goblets, which were quickly filled and as suddenly empty again. the good citizens of frankfurt were beside themselves with admiration for the great king. from man to man, the famous tales of his justice and mildness circulated: now he had ordered a soldier to be hanged because he had taken with force a burgher's hen; now he had stopped in the streets and spoken familiarly with those whom he met. they imagined that they saw his shadow reflected by the small window-panes and wondered whether the german crown would not be placed upon that mighty head that very evening. in the saloon of the castle a royal magnificence prevailed. gustaf adolf knew his consort's weakness for display, and probably wished to produce an effect on the assembled german nobility. the floor was covered with rich flemish carpets, and over the windows were draperies of crimson velvet with tassels of gold; costly chandeliers, heavy with a thousand wax-lights, hung from the ceiling, which was adorned with arabesques. they had just finished one of those measured and stately spanish dances, which were at that time in vogue, and the heavy-footed northmen had tried in vain to compete with the german and french aristocracy. the king had offered his arm to the queen, and they made a promenade through the magnificent saloons. his tall and corpulent figure, and simple dignity of manner, which at once inspired reverence and love, seemed still more majestic by the side of the slender and delicate queen, who with sincere devotion leaned on his arm. maria elenora was then thirty-two years of age, and had retained a great portion of her beauty, which had gained her so many admirers in her youth. on her black hair, which was arranged in small curls about her snow-white temples, flashed a diadem of fabulous value, which was a recent gift from the king; her expressive blue eyes rested with indescribable affection upon her royal spouse; she seemed to forget herself, absorbed in the admiration which the king excited. in the wake of the royal couple followed a crowd of all the illustrious personages of whom protestant germany could boast at that time. one saw here the deposed king frederick of bohemia, the duke of weimar and würtemberg, the landgrave of hesse, the margrave of baden durlach, the count of wetterau, as well as other distinguished chevaliers; not less than twelve ambassadors from foreign courts had assembled here round the hero feared by all europe. of the king's own, tott, baner, and gustaf horn were occupied in other directions with affairs of war; but here at gustaf adolf's side, great as himself, even in outer form, was the gifted oxenstjerna, and behind him the man with the pale, unpretending aspect, the calm, penetrating, and commanding look, lennart torstensson, as well as the proud finn, wittenberg, then colonel. many of the swedish generals, and almost all the finns, stälhandske, ruuth, forbus, and others, did not thrive well amidst the ceremonial of the royal saloon and amongst this haughty nobility whose court etiquette appeared to the stern warriors unbearably tedious, and had therefore withdrawn in good time to one of the smaller saloons, where pages in gold-embroidered velvet suits profusely poured the choicest rhine wines into silver goblets. among this brilliant assemblage ought to be included the members of the common council of the city of frankfurt, and many of its most prominent citizens, with their wives and daughters, as well as a large number of ladies, from the high-born duchess down to the scarcely less proud councillor's wife. yes, and one saw here even a small number of catholic prelates, easily recognisable by their bald heads; for the king wished to proclaim religious freedom by word and deed; the prelates, although in their hearts cursing the paltry _rôle_ they played here, once invited, did not dare to stay away. this scene was doubly gorgeous from the splendour of the attire. the king, however, wore a tight-fitting suit of black velvet stitched with silver, a spanish cape of white satin, embroidered by the queen's hands, short yellow leather top-boots, and the broad lace collar which one sees in all his portraits, with the short hair and long goatee. the luxury-loving queen wore a richly jewelled dress of silver brocade with a short waist and half-bare arms; even the little white satin slippers glittered with brilliants. the ladies of the aristocracy and the rich burghers' wives vied with each other in display; silver and gold fabrics, velvet, satin, and costly brabant laces; also ribbons of all sorts of colours, buckles, rosettes, and long sashes, which, fluttering in the air, gave a picturesque effect. princes and knights, some in wide german, others in close-fitting spanish costumes, with their plumed hats under their arms, and attendant pages in silver and velvet, completed this bright scene in a time when uniforms were unknown. flattery and admiration followed the king. "sire," said the artful king of bohemia to him, "your majesty can only be compared to alexander of macedon." "my cousin," answered gustaf adolf, smiling, "you do not mean to liken the good city of frankfurt to babylon?" "no, sire," joined in the french ambassador, breze, who walked by their side; "his bohemian majesty only wishes to liken the rhine to granicus, and hopes that the new alexander's hyphasis may lie beyond the frontiers of bohemia." "you must confess, count breze," said the king, changing the conversation, "that our northern beauties and your french beauties have been conquered to-day by a german." "sire, i am of your opinion, that her majesty the queen does not need the enviable position by your side to be truly victorious," replied the courteous frenchman. "my consort will be grateful for your politeness, minister, but she resigns to lady von emmentz the preference that belongs to youth." "your majesty flatters to a great extent our national german pride," said the duke of würtemberg bowing. "beauty is cosmopolitan, your grace. it was truly a great booty my soldiers took at würzburg." the king then approached lady regina. her radiant beauty was still more charming through the tight-fitting black velvet dress strewed with silver stars in which she was robed. "my lady," he said courteously. "i should be happy if the mourning you wear covered a heart that could forget all sad memories and only live in the hope of a brighter future, when war and battles no longer frighten the colour away from your beautiful cheeks. believe me, lady, the time will come, and i am wishing for it with all my heart as much as you are, and let this hope bring joy to these lips where it always ought to remain." "by your majesty's side one forgets everything," replied lady regina, and rose respectfully from her high crimson-covered chair. but her cheeks grew still paler while she spoke, which showed that she could not forget the past and her present captivity. "are you not well, lady?" "very well, your majesty." "perhaps you have something to complain of? have confidence in me--as a friend!" "your majesty is very kind----" regina struggled with herself. at last she said, with her eyes on the floor, "your majesty's goodness leaves nothing to wish for." "we shall meet again." the king continued his walk through the saloon. lady regina withdrew to a deep window recess in one of the other rooms and wept. "holy virgin," she prayed, "forgive me, that my heart does not belong to you alone. you who can see into my inmost being, you know that i have not enough strength to hate this heretic king as you demand of me. he is so great, so noble. woe unto me, i shudder to think of the holy charge you have given me!" "courage, my daughter," whispered a voice close by, and lady regina's evil spirit, the pale jesuit, stood behind her. "the hour is approaching," he said in a low tone. "the godless king has been taken by your beauty; rejoice, my child. the holy virgin has decided his destruction. this night he shall die." "oh, my father, my father, what do you demand of me?" "listen to me, my daughter. when holofernes, the king of assyria, besieged bethulia, there was a widow, judith, the daughter of merari, beautiful as you, my child, devoted as you. she fasted three times, and then she walked out and gained the favour of the enemy of her faith and people. the saints gave his life into her hands, she drew his sword and cut off his head, and delivered her people." "mercy, my father!" "it was counted unto her great honour and ever-lasting salvation, and her name was mentioned among the greatest in israel. you will some day be mentioned like that, my daughter, amongst the saints of the holy catholic church. last night the holy franciscus was visible by my bedside. he said, the time has come, go to judith, tell her that i will give holofernes' head into her hands." "what shall i do, my father?" "mark closely how you ought to deport yourself. this very evening you must request a private audience of the king." "impossible!" "you shall reveal to him a fictitious plot against his life. he will listen to you. you shall entice the ring from him. once in possession of it, i will be ready to assist you. but if he refuses you the ring, then take this paper, it contains a deadly poison; st. franciscus has given it himself to me. you shall mix it in the beverage which the king drinks at night." lady regina took the paper, and leaned her curly head against the window-frame, and she hardly seemed to have taken any notice of the jesuits terrible injunction. an entirely new thought had seized this ardent soul, and was working itself to clearness. the jesuit misunderstood her; he supposed that her silence proceeded from submission to his despotism, from fanatic ecstasy over the martyr-crown he had held up to her. "have you understood me, my daughter?" asked he. "yes, my father." "you will, then, this evening, ask the king for a private audience? you will..." "yes, my father." "benedicta, ten benedicta, thou thrice-blessed instrument, go to thy heavenly glory!" and the jesuit disappeared in the throng. the large clock in the coronation chamber pointed to midnight. through an ingenious mechanism, invented by a nuremberger, two immense tables, set with elegant silver service, rolled out from an adjoining room at the twelfth stroke, and stood at once, as if risen from the floor, in the centre of the saloon. upon a given sign from the master of the ceremonies, the king and queen placed themselves before two crimson chairs at the middle of the upper table, and all the guests in rows, according to rank and dignity, around the festive boards. one of the prelates present said grace in a loud voice, after which the king himself recited a short psalm, and the rest with practised voices joined in. they now seated themselves with considerable bustle, and once arrived so far, they did not allow themselves to be too much incommoded by ceremony. the courses were both many and savoury. richelieu had sent gustaf adolf a french cook; but the king, far from spoiled by good living, only employed the fine frenchman for ornamental dishes on occasions like this; perhaps he did not rely fully upon the cardinal's gift, for it was said that richelieu's dinners were scarcely less dangerous than those of the former borgias. and besides, the netherland and german cooking was at that time more praised than the french. the tables' greatest ornaments at this banquet were a wild boar roasted whole, decorated with flowers and laurel leaves, and a piece of pastry, presented by a baker of frankfurt, and representing the triumphant march of a roman emperor. everyone believed that they recognised in this small hero, gustaf adolf's features, and many jesting words were exchanged, when each found a resemblance between the attending romans and his neighbour. the queen, whose delicate hand was destined to break this masterpiece of culinary art, with a smile put one of the last slaves in the triumphal march on her silver plate; but gustaf adolf, generally endowed with a good appetite, seized the great pastry hero rather ungently with his warrior hand, and placed a considerable portion of his person upon his plate. in the meantime the goblets were filled with the best rhenish and spanish wines, and the king drank the queen's health in a plain simple manner, and all the other guests followed his example. at the top of the table stood the royal pages in glittering uniforms, one behind each chair, and at the lower end one stood behind every other chair. they refilled the goblets, and the king then drank to frankfurt's welfare; immediately afterwards he rose from the table and left the room with the queen on his arm, and they retired to their own apartments. gustaf adolf always lived as a plain soldier ought to do, and was generally quick at his meals, but under favourable circumstances would stay an hour at the table. the king, however, did not ask the others to follow his example, and left in his place as host a high officer of the court. this time it was the old scotchman, patrick ruthwen, who was a good boon companion, and he filled his post with great credit. oxenstjerna left the room with the king. the ladies also left the hall, but the gentlemen remained behind enjoying themselves over their wine and the nuts which had been handed round on silver dishes; amongst the latter were artificial ones made of stone, which looked so natural that they were constantly mistaken for real from this joke came the saying, "it is a hard nut to crack." the heroes of the thirty years' war were nearly all great topers; to empty at a draught one of the large beakers of rhenish wine was a small matter to them. but on this occasion they had to restrain themselves, because they all knew the high moral principles of the king, and hence did not dare to turn their goblets upside down too often. they did not break up until a late hour, and some of the commanders treated each other to a rare product just imported from the low countries, and it was passed from hand to hand in small boxes; each man bit off a piece, and some with frightful grimaces spat it out again, whilst others kept it in their mouths with evident enjoyment. doubtless, the reader has already guessed, this was tobacco. while this feasting was going on in the hall, the queen had gone to rest with her ladies in waiting, but the king was still talking to axel oxenstjerna. what these two great men were conversing about is easier to guess than to tell. perhaps it was about sweden's poverty, or the emperor's power, or the power of god, which is still greater, or the victory of the light, or the crown of the roman kingdom, or a german protestant empire in the future. no one knows this for certain; for after the king's death all his secrets followed oxenstjerna to the grave. it was very late, and oxenstjerna was about to leave, when bertel, the officer on duty, announced that a closely veiled lady requested an audience of the king. it was a strange favour to ask at this time of the night, and both gustaf adolf and his minister were greatly surprised; but that there must be an important reason for such a secret visit was obvious to them both, and the king ordered bertel to bring the lady in, and told oxenstjerna to remain. bertel left the room, and returned in a few moments with a tall lady thickly veiled, and dressed in black. she seemed greatly agitated and surprised not to find the king alone; she was unable to utter a word. "madam," said the king in a somewhat irritable tone--he did not like such a visit at this late hour; for if it was known it would tend to excite gossip amongst the courtiers, and perhaps awaken the jealousy of his sensitive wife--"a visit at this hour of the night must have some important object in order to justify it. i should first of all like to know who you are." the lady was still silent. the king thought he could guess the cause of her silence, and continued, pointing to his companion: "this is minister oxenstjerna, my friend, and i have no secrets from him." the lady dressed in black then threw herself at the king's feet and drew back her veil. the king retreated several paces when he recognised lady regina von emmeritz; her dark eyes flashed with an enthusiastic fire, but her face was as pale as that of a marble statue. "stand up, lady," said gustaf adolf in a kind tone, and stretched out his hand to lift her up. "what now leads you to seek an audience with me? speak, i beg of you; tell me without fear what troubles you have in your heart; will you not comply with my wish?" lady regina sighed deeply, and began to speak in a low voice almost impossible to hear, but she gradually assumed a louder tone, supported by her enthusiasm. "your majesty, i have come to you because you asked me to come. i come to you because i have hated you, sire; for a long time i have prayed daily to the holy virgin, that she would destroy you, and your whole army. your majesty, i am only a weak girl, but an honest catholic; you have pursued our church with war, and plundered our convents; driven away our holy fathers, and melted down our holy golden images; you have slain our soldiers, and dealt our cause deadly blows that can never be repaired. therefore i have taken a holy oath to bring about your destruction, and relying upon the holy virgin's help i have followed your steps from würzburg in order to kill you." the king and oxenstjerna looked at each other as if they doubted the young girl's sanity. lady regina saw this, and continued to speak with more vehemence than before. "sire, you think me mad, because i speak thus to the conqueror of germany. but listen to me further. when i saw you for the first time in the castle of würzburg, and how kindly and generously you sheltered the weak, and spared those who had been captured, i then said to myself, 'this conduct seems to be inspired from heaven, but nevertheless it must come from hell.' but when i followed you here, and saw your greatness as a man combined with your heroic qualities, sire, i hesitated to carry out my vow, and my hatred became a burden to me. i struggled with myself, and your kindness to-night has conquered my resolve. sire, now i love you as much as i have hated you before. i admire you, and am devoted to you----" the beautiful girl let her eyes sink to the floor. "well," said the king, hesitating with great emotion. "your majesty, i have made this confession because you are great and noble enough not to misunderstand me. but i have not come to you at this late hour only to confess an unhappy girl's feelings. i have come here to save you, sire." "explain yourself." "hear me, your majesty. i am disarmed, but others much more dangerous remain. some of our body, men without mercy, have sworn to kill you. oh! you do not know what these men are capable of doing. they have drawn lots in order to decide who shall kill you, and the most dangerous of them is near you in disguise daily. your majesty cannot escape from them. to-day or to-morrow, perhaps, you may be assassinated or poisoned. your death is sure." "my life is in the hand of god, and not at the mercy of a murderous fanatic," said gustaf adolf in a very calm voice. "the evil have not as much power as will. be assured, lady von emmeritz, i do not fear them." "no, sire, the saints have decided your death. i know that you rely upon this ring"--and regina grasped the king's hand--"but it will not help you. sire, i say to you that your death is certain, and i have not come here to save your life and thus betray the cause of our holy church." "then why, lady, did you come here now?" lady regina again threw herself at the king's feet with almost adoration. "sire, i have come to save your soul. i cannot bear to think that a hero like yourself, so noble, so great, should be lost for ever. hear me, i beg, i implore you by your eternal salvation, with certain death staring you in the face, do not continue in your heretical faith, whose fruit is eternal damnation. i pray you, abjure these evil doctrines while there is still time, and come back to the only way of redemption, the holy catholic church; give up your faith and go to the holy father in rome; confess your sins to him, and use your victorious sword in the service of the true church, instead of using it for her destruction. she will receive you with open arms, and whether your majesty lives or dies, your majesty can always depend upon being placed among the chosen saints in heaven." the king for the second time raised the young girl from the ground, and looked straight into her burning eyes, and said in an impressive voice: "when i was as young as you are, lady von emmeritz, my teacher, old skytte, brought me up with the same enthusiastic devotion to the protestant faith that you have for the catholic. at that time i hated the pope with all my soul, as you now hate luther, and i prayed to god that the time might come when i could destroy antichrist and convert all those that believed in him to the true light. since then i have not altered my principles, but i have learned through experience that the paths are many, although the goal is one. i stand steadily by my faith, and am prepared to die for it, if god so decides. but i respect the faith of a christian, even if it is quite different from my own, and i know that god's mercy can bring a soul to salvation, even if its way is obscured by dark mists and illusions. go, lady von emmeritz, i forgive you; although deluded by the fanatical teachings of the monks, you have tried to draw me from the battle for the light. go, poor child, and let the word of god, and the lessons of life, teach you not to rely upon saints, who are no better than we are, or images, or rings, as they cannot alter the highest law. i thank you because your intentions are good, although you are inexperienced. be without fear for my life, which is in the hand of him who knows how to use it." king gustaf adolf was truly great when he spoke these words. lady regina stood there, at the same time crushed and uplifted by the king's magnanimous spirit. perhaps she remembered his answer to the burghers of frankfurt, when they asked him to be allowed to remain neutral; "neutrality is a word which i cannot bear to hear, least of all amidst the battle between light and darkness, betwixt liberty and slavery." brought up to hate the protestant faith, she could not understand how it was possible for the sword which had destroyed the worldly power of the church to be laid aside in the presence of its spiritual power over the hearts and minds of men. the fanatical young girl raised her tear-stained eyes towards the king. her cheeks turned pale, on which had before burned the fire of enthusiasm, and her eyes were fixed with terror on the scarlet-coloured hangings which surrounded the king's bed. oxenstjerna, who was more suspicious than gustaf adolf, had closely watched the young lady the whole time, and at once noticed her agitation. "your majesty," said he in swedish to the king, "be on your guard, there are owls in the marshes." then without waiting for an answer he drew his sword and walked steadily towards the magnificent bed, which was a gift from the burghers of frankfurt; the royal hero had exchanged the eider-down pillows for a simple mattress, and a coarse blanket of saxon wool, the same as his soldiers used in their winter camps. "stop!" cried regina with evident reluctance. but it was too late. oxenstjerna had with a sudden movement pulled back the hangings, and revealed a pale face with dark burning eyes, surmounted by a black leather skull-cap. the hangings were still further drawn back, and the whole features of the monk became visible; his hands were clasped round a crucifix of silver. "step forward, devoted father," said oxenstjerna in a satirical tone. "a man of your merits should not remain in concealment. your reverence has chosen a peculiar place for your evening devotions. with his majesty's permission i will furnish you with a larger audience." at the sound of the bell, lieutenant bertel with two men from the life-guards entered, and placed themselves on both sides of the exit with their long halberts. the king looked at lady regina, but more sadness than anger was to be seen in his eyes. it pained him that so young and beautiful a girl could take part in such a detestable plot. "mercy, your majesty! mercy for my father confessor! he is innocent!" cried the unhappy girl. "will your majesty allow me to ask a few questions in your place?" said oxenstjerna. "do as you think best, minister," said the king. "very well. what did your reverence come here for?" "to bring back a great sinner to the true fold," said the monk hypocritically, with his eyes turned upwards. "really, one must say that you are very zealous. and for such a holy purpose you carry with you the image of the crucified saviour?" the monk bowed whilst devoutly making the sign of the cross. "your reverence is very humble. give me the crucifix, that i may admire this work of art." the monk unwillingly handed it to him. "a beautiful object. it required a clever artist to design this holy image." the minister passed his hands over all parts of the crucifix. at last, when he touched the breast of the image, a sharp dagger sprang forth. "see, your reverence carries a very innocent-looking toy. a keen dagger, just suitable to thrust through a noble king's heart! miserable monk," said oxenstjerna in a terrible voice, "do you know that your horrible crime becomes a hundred times more detestable through the blasphemous method you wish to employ?" like all the kings of the vasa line, gustaf adolf had a hasty temper in his youth, which more than once brought him into trouble. but the experience of manhood had cooled his blood; still one could sometimes see the quick vasa disposition get beyond control. this now happened. he was quite great enough, however, to look calmly upon this treacherous attempt against his life, although the preservation of germany depended upon it, and he looked down with great disgust upon the discovered traitor, who now stood trembling before his indignant judge. but the horrible misuse of the saviour's holy image as a weapon against his life--he who was prepared to sacrifice himself for the pure teachings of jesus christ--appeared to him to be such a terrible blasphemy against all in life that he considered holy and right, that his calmness was instantly changed to the most terrible anger. noble and great as a lion in his wrath, he stood in front of the cringing jesuit, who was unable to bear the glance of his eyes. "on your knees," said the king in a thunderous voice, stamping violently with his foot on the floor. the jesuit fell down as if struck by lightning, and crawled in mortal terror to the king's feet, like a poisonous reptile, spell-bound by the king's look: powerless at the conqueror's feet. "ye serpent's brood," continued the king beside himself with anger, "how long do ye think that the almighty will endure your iniquities? by god! i have seen much; i have seen your antichrist and romish rule cover the world with all the deeds of darkness; i have seen ye, monks and jesuits, poison frightened consciences with your devil's teachings about murder and crimes committed for the glory of heaven; but a deed so black as this, a blasphemy against everything that is holy in heaven and upon earth, i have never before dreamed of. i have forgiven ye all; ye have plotted against my life at demmin and other places; i have not taken revenge; ye have acted worse than turks and barbarians towards the innocent lutherans; wherever ye have had the power ye have destroyed their churches, and burned them at the stake, driven them away from house and home; and what is worse, ye have tried to draw them from their faith with arguments and force to your idolatrous religion, which worships deeds and miserable images instead of the living god and his only son. for all this, i have not retaliated upon your cloisters and churches and consciences; ye have gone free in your faith, and no one has touched a hair of your heads. but now i know you, servants of the devil; the almighty god has delivered ye into my hand; i shall scatter ye like chaff; i shall punish you, ye desecrators of the temple; i shall follow you to the end of the world, as long as this arm is able to wield the lord's sword. ye have hitherto seen me mild and merciful, ye will now see me hard and terrible; i will destroy you and your accursed faith on earth; it will be such a judgment as the world has not seen since the destruction of rome." the king walked up and down the room with hasty steps, without deigning to bestow a glance on the prostrate jesuit or the trembling regina, who was standing by the window covering her face with her hands. oxenstjerna, always calm and collected, was alarmed at the king's anger, and feared that he would go too far, and now tried to modify it. "will your majesty deign to order lieutenant bertel to take the monk into safe custody, and let a court-martial make a terrible example of him?" "mercy, your majesty!" cried regina, who was blindly devoted to her father confessor. "mercy! i am the guilty one. i have advised him to take this terrible step. i alone deserve to be punished for it." at this noble self-sacrifice a faint ray of hope illumined the jesuit's pale features, but he did not dare to rise up. the king took no notice of this appeal. instead, he turned all his wrath upon the guard. "lieutenant bertel," he said sharply, "you have commanded my life-guard to-night; through your neglect this wretch has slipped into the room. take him at once to prison, and you shall answer for his safety with your head. then you can go and take your place in the ranks. from this moment you are degraded to the position of a private soldier." bertel saluted, but did not speak. what pained him more than the loss of his commission was the sacrifice of the king's favour, especially as he knew that he had kept a ceaseless watch. it was a complete mystery to him how the jesuit had got in. the latter had now grasped the king's knees and prayed for mercy. but in vain. the king pushed him backwards, and he was taken away gnashing his teeth and his heart full of revenge. gustaf adolf then turned to the trembling girl at the window, took her hand and looked straight into her eyes. "lady," he said with asperity, "it is said that when the king of the darkness wishes to do a terrible evil deed on earth, he sends his instruments dressed as angels of light. what do you wish me to think of you?" lady regina had courage enough to lift up her eyes once more to the great king. "i have nothing more to say. kill me, sire, but save my father confessor!" she said with fanatical resolution. the king, still looking angrily into her eyes, could not yet control himself. "if your father, lady, had been an honest man, he would have taught his daughter to fear god, honour the king, and speak the truth to every man. you wished to convert me; i will instead educate you, you seem to be in great want of it. go, you remain my prisoner until you have learned to speak the truth. oxenstjerna, is the severe old lady marta at korsholm still alive?" "yes, your majesty." "she will have a pupil to educate. at the first opportunity this girl is to be sent to finland." lady regina, proud and silent, left the room. "your majesty!" said oxenstjerna reproachfully. chapter vi. the finns at lech. before our story proceeds further, it is necessary to bestow one more look on frankfurt. lady regina was closely guarded after her midnight visit to the king; and later in the spring, when the waters were released from their icy fetters, she was sent to finland, where we may find her again. no religious hatred, still less revenge, prompted the anger of the usually generous gustaf adolf towards the young girl; abused confidence deeply stabs a noble heart, and regina said nothing to remove the idea of her guilt from the king's mind; in fact, she strengthened it more and more by her fanaticism, and hatred still possessed her young heart, which ought to have been given to love alone. an extraordinary incident increased the king's resentment. on the night that the jesuit was taken to prison, to be executed next day, the terrible monk escaped; no one knew how. these fearful men had allies and secret emissaries and passages everywhere; that very night a hitherto concealed door was discovered in the king's bed-chamber. bertel's innocence came to light through this, but the mysterious escape of the monk again excited the king's wrath, and the late lieutenant had still to remain a private soldier. by the middle of february, , the king was ready for departure; he then took the stronghold at kreutznach in march, after a short siege, and left the queen, as well as axel oxenstjerna, in mayence. but tilly had in the meantime surprised gustaf horn at bamberg, and done great mischief. the king pursued him down the danube, and wished to invade bavaria by crossing the lech. in vain did his generals object that the river was too deep and rapid, and that the elector, with tilly, altringer, and , men, stood on the opposite side. the king spoke like alexander at the passage of the granicus. "shall we, who have crossed the elbe, oder, and rhine, nay, even the baltic, stop alarmed at the river lech?" the passage was decided upon. the king tried for some time to find a suitable crossing. at last he discovered it near a bend in the stream; a dragoon disguised as a peasant heard that the lech was twenty-two feet deep. trestles were made of timber torn from cabins; four batteries of seventy cannon in all, were erected on the bank, and breastworks thrown up for the skirmishers, while fires of damp straw and green wood enveloped the neighbourhood in thick smoke. still, tilly was old and experienced; he soon occupied the wood on the other side with his force; dug trenches and made fortifications, from which he directed a heavy fire. on the rd of april the swedish cannon replied with terrific effect. on april th the trestles for a bridge were laid in spite of the fire of the enemy; planks were then thrown across, and, as usual, the finns led the attack. three hundred infantry, headed by little larsson, and the brave savolaxen paavo lyydikain, were ordered to cross the planks, and defend the bridge on the opposite shore; each was promised a reward of ten riks thalers. in a few moments the fate of bavaria would be decided. the finns carried spades and trenching tools, and cheering as they advanced, rushed at the double over the bridge. immediately a tremendous cross-fire from all tilly's batteries was directed upon them; every moment balls dropped splashing into the foaming waters, or flew over the charging finns, and now and then fell amongst them, scattering death on every side. those who got over worked vigorously at throwing up earthworks, which soon protected their front, although their flanks were still exposed to the enemy's fire. tilly realised the importance of this position, and his fire redoubled. the swedes riddled the opposite wood with a storm of shot, which struck the stones and tree-tops, scattering fragments and branches far and wide upon the bavarians, who stood underneath awaiting the order to charge. the king, in order to encourage his men, hastened to the front, and himself fired sixty shots. the cannon thunder was heard for miles. more than half of the finns had now been killed, wounded, or drowned, but the entrenchments were completed. and at that instant the king ordered the afterwards celebrated count carl gustaf wrangel to go to their assistance. the finns, exalted with pride by their countrymen's success, and also anxious for the safety of their comrades, begged eagerly to be led into the midst of the fight, and in a moment wrangel was surrounded by finnish volunteers, with whom he heroically charged across the shaking planks. the gallant duke bernhard, who, like the king, had a certain partiality for the finns, received permission to make a diversion in their favour. followed by a troop of finnish cavalry, he found and passed over a ford, and fell upon the enemy's right flank. the surprised bavarians fell into disorder, and in spite of their numerical superiority, gave ground before the attack. duke bernhard's troop played havoc with the enemy, and soon cut their way through to their comrades at the end of the bridge. through this daring exploit the finns obtained the dreaded name, "hackapeliter," from the words "hakkaa päälle!" go ahead! which they shouted as they charged. stimulated by the finns' success, the swedish and german infantry now began to cross the bridge. tilly, avoiding exposing his troops to the murderous swedish fire till the last moment, now sent altringer's infantry to take the fortifications, and drive the enemy into the river. the bavarians advanced at the double, and although decimated by the hail of bullets, threw themselves furiously on the earthworks. wrangel's men stood firm. almost enveloped by the enemy's massive column, the finns gave them a hot reception. pouring in a deadly volley at fifty yards, every bullet told. the bavarians wavered for a moment; most of them were new recruits; they faltered. the finns got time to reload; another volley; and the assailants fled in disorder along the bank. altringer rallied them with great difficulty, and again led them to the onset; at that moment a cannon-shot whizzed so close to his head that he fell senseless to the ground. again the bavarians gave way. tilly saw this, and sent his favourite wallachians to their assistance. but even these veterans had to retreat, so terrific was the fire. then tilly seized a banner, and led the attack in person. before, however, he had taken many steps, he fell, struck down by a falconet ball, which had smashed one leg. the old general was carried from the field, and died a fortnight afterwards at ingolstadt. the bavarian army now became utterly demoralised. the elector retreated under cover of the darkness, leaving , dead on the field, and the way open to the heart of bavaria. next day the entire swedish army crossed the lech. the king with a liberal hand distributed rewards to his brave troops. amongst these was a horseman who had accompanied duke bernhard, who praised him in the highest terms. this was bertel; three slight wounds attested the duke's account. bertel regained his rank, but not the king's confidence, which he valued above everything. but he resolved to win this back at all costs. gustaf adolf then marched to augsburg, which took the oath of allegiance, and gave brilliant festivals in his honour. here report, which joined the names gustafva augusta, whispered that the king had abandoned himself, like another hannibal in capua, to effeminacy and pleasure. rumour was wrong. gustaf adolf was merely resting, and revolving still more daring enterprises in his mind. but from this time the king's pathway began to darken. the death angel went before him with drawn sword, and aimed now here, now there, a blow at his life, as if to cry constantly in his ear, "mortal, thou art not a god." one could almost think that the powers of darkness had obtained more power over him; now ambition began to gain ground in his mind, and he was no longer solely animated by the sacred cause of liberty and faith. a secret and terrible enemy seemed everywhere in his path, dealing deadly blows which could not as yet reach their mark. at the bold but unsuccessful attack on ingolstadt there was, relates fryxell, a cannon on the ramparts called a "fikonet," and celebrated for shooting both far and true. the gunner on the ramparts saw out on the field a man with a waving plume riding a fine charger, and surrounded by attentive followers. "there," he said, "rides a great lord, but this will stop his career;" then he aimed and fired the "fikonet." the ball brought down horse and rider, and the others hastened to the place in great dread; but the king, for it was he, raised himself up, covered with blood and dust, but unharmed, from underneath the dead horse, exclaiming, "the apple is not yet ripe." the citizens of ingolstadt buried the horse, and stuffed his skin as a remembrance. shortly afterwards the king was riding at the side of the young margrave of baden durlach, who had just before been one of the most brilliant figures at the augsburg balls. a cannon-shot passed very near the king, and as he looked round, a headless horseman rode by his side and then sank to the ground. chapter vii. new adventures. from ingolstadt the king turned to landshut, in the centre of bavaria. the farther he advanced into this country, where they had never seen an army of heretics before, the people became more fanatical, wild, and bloodthirsty. large bands of peasants assembled, commanded by the monks, lying in ambush everywhere for the swedes, and cutting off every straggler; they also tortured their prisoners in the most horrible manner. the king's army on their side, inebriated by their successes, were infuriated by this cruel guerilla warfare, and began to burn and destroy all the places they passed through. hitherto the swedish army had been remarkable for its good conduct in the field, but now they left in their rear a broad track of murder and crime; and woe to those troops who in insufficient numbers wandered far from the main body. the king had now marched far into the country, and wished to send some new important orders to baner, who followed slowly in his steps from ingolstadt. on account of the lawless state of the country this was attended with great risk, and the king would not order a large body to go. a young officer, a finn, volunteered to try, accompanied by two horsemen. the king agreed to this, and the three horsemen set out one evening in may on this dangerous journey. the young officer was no other than our friend bertel, and his companions were pekka from east bothnia, and vitikka from tavastland. the night was dark and gloomy, and the three horsemen rode carefully in the middle of the road, much afraid of missing their way in this strange country, and dreading an ambush from their enemies. it began to rain, which made the roads still worse; these had already been much damaged by the passage of the heavy baggage-wagons, and at every step they risked an accident. "here," said vitikka ironically to his companion, "you are a northern finn, and ought to be able to practise witchcraft." "i should not be worth much if i could not do it," responded pekka in the same bantering tone. "try, then, and take us in a minute to hattelmala mountain and let us see the light shining from hämeenlinna's castle. there is a little gipsy girl whom i once loved, and i would rather be by her side to-night, than here in the ruts of this damned forest." "that will be easy for me to do," said pekka; "see, you can already see the lights shining from hämeenlinna." his comrade looked sharply around, uncertain if pekka was joking or in earnest; he thought the latter quite as likely as the former. and truly, in the brushwood underneath, a light appeared, but he soon understood that he was still hundreds of miles away from his home. suddenly their horses stopped, and would not move. a barrier of tree trunks was stretched across the road. "hush!" whispered bertel, "i hear a noise in the wood." the horsemen leaned forward and listened attentively. on the opposite side of the wood they heard footsteps and the breaking of branches. "they must be here in a quarter of an hour," said a voice in the well-known bavarian dialect. "how many of them are there?" "thirty horsemen, and ten or twelve baggage animals. they left geisenfeld at dusk, and they have a young girl with them as a prisoner." "how many are we?" "about fifty musketeers, and seventy or eighty armed with pitchforks and axes." "good. no firing is allowed until they are within three paces." at this moment bertel's horse neighed, whose name was lapp; he was small but strong and active. "who is there?" sounded from the road. "swedes!" cried bertel boldly, just as he did at the würzburg sally-port, and fired off a pistol in the direction of the voice, and saw by the flash a large band of peasants, who had encamped by the barricade. he then turned his horse, and, calling upon his companions to follow him, rode at full gallop on the road back to landshut. but the peasants had by the flash also seen the three horsemen, and now hurried to cut off their retreat. bertel's horse easily distanced the pursuers, but vitikka's fell over the stump of a tree, and pekka's clumsy animal was hurt by the thrust of a pitchfork in his neck as he tried to get out of the marsh. bertel saw his followers' danger, and would not leave them; he turned back and killed the nearest peasants, and caught pekka's horse by the bridle and tried to pull him up, calling also to vitikka to leave his horse and jump on the back of lapp. this brave effort was successful, and the three were on their way to safety, when suddenly a whizzing noise was heard, and a lasso settled upon bertel's shoulders, tightened, and jerked him from his saddle. vitikka fell at the same moment, and lapp, thus delivered from his heavy burden, galloped off, and pekka followed with or without his will. bertel and vitikka were taken prisoners and bound with their hands behind their backs. "hang the dogs before the others arrive!" cried one. "hang them by the heels!" suggested another. "with a little fire underneath!" said a third. "no fire! no noise!" ordered a fourth, who appeared to be in command. "listen, comrades," whispered he ito the prisoners lying on the ground, "was it finnish you spoke?" "go to the devil!" said vitikka in a rage. "_maledicti, maledicti fennones!_" said the former speaker in the darkness. "you are mine!" "now they are coming!" cried one of the band, and the trampling of horses was heard on the road to ingolstadt. the peasants remained still, and for greater safety gagged the prisoners. the approaching troop were provided with torches, and seemed to be germans, who were returning from a marauding expedition. they were riding so quickly that they did not notice the barricade until they were close upon it; at the same moment a murderous fire opened upon them from behind this obstruction. ten or twelve of the foremost fell to the ground, and their riderless horses reared and dragged them along by the stirrups; the greatest confusion prevailed amongst them, some turned back, riding over their comrades and the pack-horses; others fired off their pistols towards the enemy behind the barricade. the peasants rushed from their ambush and furiously attacked those that remained, and pulled them off their horses with lassos. in vain the horsemen endeavoured to defend themselves; in less than ten minutes the whole troop was scattered; eight or ten had escaped, fifteen were lying wounded on the road, and six or seven were made prisoners. only four of the peasants had fallen. the revenge of the bavarians was inhuman. they fired blank charges in the prisoners' faces, which burnt them black, and partially buried some of them in the ground and stoned them slowly to death. when this terrible work was finished, they carried away the booty to a place of safety. bertel and his companion were thrown across one of the horses, and they marched deep into the forest. after some time they stopped at a lonely farm, and the prisoners were dragged in and thrown on the floor in a separate room, while the peasants in the next room rejoiced over their victory, and drank captured wine. a deathly pale monk now entered the room, carrying a sword by his side with a rope. he held up a torch to the prisoners' faces, took away their gags, and looked at them in silence. "am i right," said he at last, sarcastically; "this is lieutenant bertel, of the king's life-guards." bertel looked up and recognised the jesuit hieronymus. "you are welcome to me, lieutenant, and thank you for our last meeting. such an important guest must be well entertained. i fancy i have seen this comrade before, also," he said, pointing to vitikka. the wild finn looked him straight in the eyes and opened his mouth with an obstinate grin. "what have you done with your ears, monk?" he said tauntingly. "take away your skull-cap, foul thief, and let us see if you have grown any ass's ears in their place." at this daring remark about the incident at breitenfeld a dark frown contracted the jesuit's eyebrows, and a blush arose on his pale features; he bit his lips with rage. "think of your own ears, comrade," said he. "_anathema maranatha_! they will soon have heard enough in this world." with these words the jesuit clapped his hands twice, and a blacksmith with his leather apron entered, carrying a pair of red-hot pincers. "well, comrade, do your ears begin to burn?" said the monk cruelly. vitikka replied stubbornly, "now you think you are clever, but you are only a fumbler in comparison with the devil. your lord and master does not need any pincers, he uses his claws." "the right ear," said the jesuit. the smith approached the finn and put the pincers to his head. vitikka smiled disdainfully. a sudden blush coloured his brown cheeks, but only for a moment. he had now only one ear. "will you now abjure your faith, and believe in the holy father and damn luther, and you shall keep your other ear?" "niggard!" cried the finn. "your lord and master generally offers countries and kingdoms, and you only offer me a wretched ear!" "the left ear," continued the jesuit coldly. the smith carried out the order. the mutilated soldier smiled. "monk, it is shameful!" said bertel, who was lying close by. "kill us, if you like, but do it quickly!" "who has said that i intend to kill you?" replied the jesuit, smirking. "never; it entirely depends upon yourself whether you regain your freedom this very night." "what do you ask of me?" "you are a brave young man, lieutenant bertel! i am sorry that the king so shamefully and unjustly deprived you of your rank, which you had gained with your blood." "are you really sorry? and what then?" "if i was in your place i should take revenge." "take revenge? oh yes, i have thought of it." "you belong to gustaf adolf's life-guards. do you know, young friend, what the catholic princes would give to anyone who brought the king, dead or alive, into their power?" "how could i know that, holy father?" "a kingdom if he was a nobleman; , ducats if he was a man of the people." "holy father, it is a small reward for such a great service." "you have your choice between death and a royal reward!" "this is the point you were trying to reach, holy father?" "do as you please; think it over, and we will talk about it again. this time you can buy your life and freedom for a less price; yes, a very small service." "what would that be, holy father?" "listen to me. i wish you to swear that you will do me a very small favour. king gustaf adolf wears on the forefinger of his right hand a small copper ring. it is of no value to him, but it is of great importance to me, young friend; as i am an antiquary, i should like to have a remembrance of a king, whom i must hate as an enemy, but admire as a man." "and the ring?" "the ring; you must swear to deliver it into my hands before the next new moon. do this, and you are free!" "oh, only a small sin against the seventh commandment? and you have the absolution ready before-hand; is it not so? go, miserable thief, and thank your stars that my arm is bound; or by heaven, it would teach you to have respect for a christian's honour!" "be still, young man, remember that your life is in my hands. when i have finished with your comrade i shall begin with you." bertel looked at him with contempt. "smith, go on with your work!" said the jesuit. and the smith again took the pincers from the fire. at the same instant a great confusion and noise arose in the next room. they shouted: "to arms! the swedes are upon us!" the door flew open. some of the peasants seized their guns, others were lying in a drunken sleep on the floor. outside one could plainly hear the swedish officer's commands. "set the house on fire, boys, we have them all in a trap!" at these words the jesuit jumped out of the window. a hot but short skirmish began by the door. the peasants were overpowered in a few moments and begged for mercy. in reply to this appeal, the foremost were killed, and the rest taken prisoners and bound; the house and booty were taken, and bertel and his mutilated comrade were released. "is it you, larsson?" cried bertel. "thunder and lightning, is it you, bertel? is it here you intend to leave the king's orders?" "and yourself?" "yes, damn it, you know that i am always a lucky child! i was sent to guard a convoy, and met on the road some rascally marauders, who told me that there was an ambush in the forest. i hurried after them, and delivered a brave boy and a beautiful girl. look at her: cheeks like a poppy, and eyes to buy fish with!" bertel turned round, and by his side stood a trembling girl, paralyzed with fear. "this is ketchen, lady regina's maid!" cried bertel, who had often seen the bright girl in the company of her dull mistress. "save me, lieutenant, save me!" cried the girl, and caught hold of his arm. "they have taken me by force from my aunt's house." "larsson, i beg you to give me the girl!" "what the devil are you thinking of? do you want to take the girl from me?" "let her go free, i beg of you!" "later on, perhaps, yes. let her go, i say, or..." the hot-tempered finn drew his sword again, with which he had just before killed a peasant. "the cottage is on fire!" was heard from all directions, and a thick smoke proved that it was true. bertel rushed out with the girl, and larsson followed, and the heat of his temper gave way before the heat of the fire. when bertel got outside and saw the flames, he remembered that the cottage was filled with people; about thirty peasants were bound inside. "come, hurry, let us save the unfortunate prisoners!" he cried. "are you mad?" said larsson, laughing; "it is only a few of the rascals who have killed so many of our brave comrades. let it burn, boys!" it was now too late to help. the unfortunate bavarians were sacrificed to the barbarities with which wars were then carried on; too often one terrible deed was followed by another. we turn with disgust from these wild scenes, which essentially belong to the times in which they occurred, and hasten to the grand picture of the swedish lion's last struggle. chapter viii. nÜrnberg and lÜtzen. the incidents of the campaign followed each other quickly, like wave after wave on a stormy sea, and history compressed into a narrow frame is obliged to pursue the same course. hence we must hurry over these marvellous occurrences and into a still more extraordinary period, to find the thread of our story, "the king's ring," which passes through ages and the destinies of great characters. the terrible wallenstein had become reconciled to the emperor, and gathering a formidable army, turned like a dark cloud upon the rich city of nürnberg. gustaf adolf cut short his victorious career in bavaria, and hurried to meet him; and here the two armies remained in entrenched camps facing each other for eleven weeks--the panther and the lion, ready to spring, sharply watched each other's movements. the surrounding country was stripped bare to provide for the wants of the two hosts, and foraging parties were constantly dispatched to more remote places to get supplies. among the imperialists those mostly employed in this task were isolani's croats; the swedes generally sent taupadel's dragoons and stälhandske's finnish cavalry. famine, heat, and plague, and the plundering german soldiers, spread want and misery everywhere. gustaf adolf, having united himself with oxenstjerna's and baner's forces, could now muster , men. on the th of august, , he marched against wallenstein, who stood behind impregnable entrenchments. long before daylight the thunder of torstensson's guns was heard against alte veste. in the darkness of the night musketeers of the white brigade were climbing up the steep redoubts, and reached the tops under a terrible fire. for a moment victory seemed to reward their strenuous efforts; confusion reigned amongst the half-awakened enemy; the cries of the women, and the fire from the swedes, added to the disorder, and made the attack easy. but wallenstein, calm and unmoved, sent away the women, and directed a murderous fire on the assailants. the brave brigade was driven back with heavy losses. the king, however, would not give way; once more the white brigade renewed the attack; but in vain. gustaf adolf then called his finns, for, as schiller relates, "the courage of the northmen puts the germans to shame." it was the east bothnians in the ranks of the swedish brigade. death stared them in the face in the form of hundreds of guns; with unsurpassed courage and determination they climbed up the entrenchments, slippery with rain and blood. but against these strong works and the deadly fire, nothing could prevail; in the midst of death and destruction they tried again to reach the top of the redoubts, but in vain; those who escaped the shot and pikes were hurled back; for the first time one saw gustaf adolf's finns retreat; and the attempts made by the other troops were also in vain. the imperialists hastened out in pursuit, but were driven back; again they sallied forth with the same result. with heavy losses on both sides the battle continued all day, and many of the bravest commanders were killed. the angel of death again sent a bullet towards the king, but it only touched the sole of his boot. the imperial cavalry fought with the swedish on the left flank. cronenberg, with his cuirassiers, clad in iron mail from head to feet, who were called "the invincibles," overthrew the hessians. the landgrave of hessen remarked with anger that the king by the sacrifice of the german troops tried to save his own. "very well," said gustaf adolf, "i will send my finns, and hope that the change of troops will bring a change of fortune." stälhandske, with the finns, was now sent against cronenberg and his invincibles. a grand contest, which will never be forgotten, then started between these two powerful forces; on the shore of the river regnitz, which was covered with bushes, these troops met in conflict, man to man, horse to horse; swords were blunted on helmets, long pistols flashed, and many a brave horseman was driven into the river. the finns' horses were hardier than the beautiful hungarian chargers, and thus they shared in the victory. the brave cronenberg fell, and his invincibles then fled from the finns. in his place, fugger appeared with a great force, and drew the finns in continuous battle slowly towards the enemy in the forest. but here the imperialists were met with the fire from the swedish infantry. fugger fell, and his horsemen were again routed by the exhausted finns. at the close of the day more than three thousand killed covered the hills and the fields. "in the battle at alte veste, gustaf adolf was considered worsted, because the attack failed," says schiller. the following day he altered his position, and on the th of september he marched away to bavaria. forty-four thousand men, both friends and foes, had been destroyed by plague and war during these terrible weeks in and around nürnberg. * * * * * the darkness of the autumn increased, and its fogs covered the blood-stained fields of germany, and still the battles did not cease. here it was ordained that only one great spirit should find everlasting rest, after many storms, and pass from life's dark night to eternal light. the angel of death came closer over gustaf adolf's noble head, and threw over him a gleam of light from a higher world, which is sometimes seen shining around the great souls of the earth in their last moments. the bystanders do not understand it, but the departing ones know what it means. two days before his death, gustaf adolf received the homage of a god from the people of naumburg, but through his soul fled the shadow of the coming change, and he said to the royal chaplain, fabricius: "perhaps god will soon punish them for their foolishness, and myself also, the object of it; and show that i am only a weak mortal." the king had marched into saxony to follow the traces of the destructive wallenstein. at arnstadt he bade farewell to axel oxenstjerna; in erfurt he said good-bye to the queen. there, and in naumburg, one could see by his arrangements that he was prepared for what would come. wallenstein, who thought he had gone into winter quarters, sent pappenheim away to halle with , men; he himself stood at lützen with , , and the king was in naumburg with , men. but on the th of november, when gustaf adolf heard of pappenheim's departure, he broke up his camp and hurried to surprise his weakened enemy, in which he would have succeeded if he had made his attack on the th. but providence had thrown in the way of his victorious career a small obstacle, the brook rippach, which with many newly ploughed fields delayed his march. it was late in the evening on the th of november when the king approached lützen; thus wallenstein had time, and he knew how to make use of it. along the broad road to leipzig he deepened the ditches, and made redoubts on both sides, which he filled with his best sharpshooters, and it was decided that with their cross-fire they could destroy the attacking swedes. the king's war council advised him not to make the attack; duke bernhard was the only one who advised him to the contrary, and the king shared his opinion, "because," he said, "it is necessary to wash one's self perfectly clean once you are in the bath." the night was dull and dark. the king spent it in an old carriage with kniephausen and duke bernhard. his restless soul had time to think of everything, and then history says, he drew from the forefinger of his right hand a small copper ring, and gave it to duke bernhard, and asked him to give it to a young officer in his finnish cavalry, in case anything should happen to himself. early in the morning gustaf adolf rode out to inspect the positions of his troops. he was dressed in a buff waistcoat made of elk's skin, and wore a grey great coat over it; when he was told to wear harness on a day like this, he replied: "god is my armour." a heavy mist delayed the attack. at dawn the whole army sang a hymn. the fog continued, and the king began another hymn, which he had written himself just before. he then rode along the lines, calling out: "to-day, boys, we shall put an end to all our trouble;" and his horse stumbled twice as he said this. the fog did not clear off till eleven o'clock through a strong breeze. the swedish army at once advanced to the attack; under the king in the right wing was stälhandske and the finns, next came the swedish troops; in the centre were the swedish yellow and green brigades, commanded by nils brahe; on the left wing the german cavalry, under duke bernhard. against the duke was colloredo, with his strong cavalry, while in the centre was wallenstein, with four heavy columns of infantry and seven cannon in front; against stälhandske stood isolani, with his wild but brave croats. the war-cries on both sides were the same as at breitenfeld. when the king ordered the attack he clasped his hands, and cried out: "jesus, help me to-day to fight for the glory of thy holy name!" the imperialists started firing, and the swedish army advanced and suffered heavy losses from the beginning. at last the swedish centre passed the redoubts, took the seven guns, and routed the two first brigades of the enemy. the third was preparing for flight when wallenstein rallied them. the swedish left wing was attacked by the cavalry, and the finns, who had sent the croats and the polacks flying, had not yet reached the redoubts. the king then rushed to the front with the troops from smaländ; but only a few were well-mounted enough to follow him. it is said that an imperial musketeer fired at him with a silver bullet; it is true that the king's left arm was smashed, and that he tried to conceal his wound; but soon he became so weak from loss of blood, that he asked the duke of lauenburg, who was riding by his side, to bring him unseen out of the battle. in the midst of the conflict gotz's cuirassiers rushed forward, and at the head of them was moritz von falkenberg, who recognised the king and fired point-blank at him, crying out: "i have long sought for you!" soon afterwards falkenberg himself fell from a bullet. the king was shot underneath the heart, and reeled in his saddle; he told the duke to save his own life; the latter had placed his arm around the king's waist to support him, but the next moment the rush of the enemy had separated them. the duke's hair was singed by the close discharge of a pistol, and the king's horse was wounded in the throat and staggered. the king sunk from the saddle, and was dragged a short distance along the ground; his foot caught in the stirrup. the young page, leubelfingen, from nürnberg, offered him his horse, but could not raise him up. some of the imperialists now came to the spot, and inquired who the wounded man was, and when leubelfingen would not reply, one of them ran him through with a sword-thrust, while another shot the king through the head; others then shot at them, and both remained on the field. but leubelfingen lived for a few days afterwards, to relate for the benefit of future generations the never-to-be-forgotten sad death of the great hero, gustaf adolf. in the meantime the swedish centre was driven back, the battlefield was covered with thousands of mutilated corpses, and they had not yet gained a foot of ground. both the armies occupied nearly the same positions as before the battle. the king's wounded horse was then seen galloping between the lines, with an empty saddle, covered with blood. "the king has fallen!" as schiller has so beautifully put it, "life was not worth anything, when the most holy of all lives had ceased to exist; death no longer had any terror for the lowliest, since it had not spared this royal head." duke bernhard flew from line to line, saying, "swedes, finns, and germans, yours, ours, and freedom's protector has fallen. well then, those who love the king will rush forward to avenge his death." the first to obey this order was stälhandske, with the finns; with great difficulty they crossed the ditches and drove the enemy in front of them; before their terrific onslaught all fell or fled. isolani turned back and attacked the baggage train, but was again routed. the centre of the swedish army advanced under brahe, and duke bernhard, disregarding his wounded arm, took one of the enemy's batteries. the whole of the imperial army was broken by this terrible attack; its ammunition wagons exploded; wallenstein's orders, and brave piccolomini's efforts, could not stay the rout. just then a joyful cry arose from the battlefield: "pappenheim is here!" and this leader, the bravest of the brave, appeared with his horsemen; his first question was, "where is the king of sweden?" someone pointed to the finns, and pappenheim rushed to the spot. here began a terrible battle. the imperialists, filled with new courage, turned back and attacked on three sides at once. not a man of the swedes gave ground. brahe died with the yellow brigade, who fell nearly to the last man; winckel with the blue, died in the same order, man for man, as they stood in the ranks. the rest of the swedish infantry slowly retreated, and victory seemed to smile on the destructive pappenheim. but he, the ajax of his time, the man of a hundred scars, did not live to see success. in the first attack on the finns, a falconet bullet smashed his hip; and two musket balls pierced his chest; it was also said that stälhandske wounded him with his own hand. he fell, but still in death rejoiced over gustaf adolf's fall, and the news of his loss spread consternation amongst the imperialists. "pappenheim is dead; everything is lost!" once more the swedes advanced; duke bernhard, kniephausen, and stälhandske, performed prodigies of valour. but piccolomini, with six wounds, mounted his seventh horse, and fought with more than mortal valour; the imperialist centre held its ground, and only the darkness stopped the battle. wallenstein retired, and the exhausted swedish army encamped on the battlefield. nine thousand slain covered the field of lützen. the result of this battle was disastrous to the imperialists. they had lost all their artillery; pappenheim and wallenstein had lost their invincible names. the latter raged with anger; he executed the cowards with the same facility as he bestowed gold on the brave. ill and disheartened he retired with the rest of his army to bohemia, where the stars were his nightly companions, and treacherous plans his only solace; and his death from buttler's hand was the end of his glorious life. a thrill of joy passed over the whole catholic world, because the faith of luther and the swedes had lost a great deal more than their enemies. the arm was paralyzed which had so powerfully wielded the victorious sword of light and freedom; the grief of the protestants was deep and universal, mixed with fear for the future. it was not for nothing that the te deum was sung in the churches of vienna, brussels, and madrid; twelve days' bull-fighting gratified madrid on account of the dreaded hero's fall. but it is said that the emperor ferdinand, who was greater than the men of his time, shed bitter tears at the sight of his slain enemy's bloody buff waistcoat. many stories circulated about the great gustaf adolf's death. duke franz albert of lauenburg, richelieu, and duke bernhard, were all said to have had a share in his fall; but none of these surmises have been verified by history. a later german author tells the following popular story: "gustaf adolf, king of sweden, received in his youth, from a young woman whom he loved, a ring of iron, which he ever afterwards wore. the ring was composed of seven circles, which formed the letters gustaf adolf. seven days before his death he missed the ring." the reader knows that the threads of this story are tied to the same ring, but we have several reasons for saying that this ring was made of copper. on the evening after the battle, duke bernhard sent his soldiers with torches to find the king's body; and they found it plundered and hardly recognisable under heaps of slain. it was taken to the village of meuchen, and there embalmed. the soldiers were all allowed to see the dead body of their king and leader. bitter tears were here shed, but tears full of pride, for even the lowest considered it an honour to have fought by the side of such a hero. "see," said one of stälhandske's old finns, loudly sniffing, "they have stolen his golden chain and his copper ring; i still see the white mark on his forefinger." "why should they care about a copper ring?" asked a scotchman, who had lately joined the army, and had not heard the stories which passed from man to man. "his ring!" said a pomeranian. "be sure that the jesuits knew what is was good for. the ring was charmed by a finnish witch, and as long as the king wore it, he could not be hurt by steel or lead." "but see to-day he has lost it, and therefore--you understand." "what is that fruit-eating pomeranian saying?" said the finn angrily. "the power of the almighty, and nothing else, has protected our great king, but the ring was given to him long ago by a young finnish girl, whom he loved in his youth; i know more about this than you do." duke bernhard, who, sad and sorrowful, was watching the king's pale features, turned round at these words; he put his sound hand underneath his open buff waistcoat, and said to the finn: "comrade, do you know one of stälhandske's officers named bertel?" "yes, your grace." "is he alive?" "no, your grace." the duke turned to another and gave several orders abstractedly. a few moments later, when he again looked at the king, he seemed to remember something. "was he a brave man?" he asked. "he was one of stälhandske's horsemen!" said the finn with great pride. "when did he fall, and where?" "in the last struggle with the pappenheimers." "go and search for him." the duke's order was promptly obeyed by these exhausted soldiers, who had reason to wonder why one of the youngest officers should be searched for this night, when nils brahe, winckel, and many other old leaders were lying uncared for in their blood on the battlefield. it was nearly morning when the searchers returned and reported that bertel's dead body could not be found anywhere. "hum!" said the duke discontentedly; "great men have sometimes funny ideas. what shall i now do with the king's ring?" the november sun rose blood-red over the field of lützen. a new time had come; the master had left, and the disciples had now to carry out his work alone. ii.--the sword and the plough. silence reigned after the conclusion of the narrative; everyone was thinking of the great hero's fall, and not realising that the tale was ended. the old grandmother sat on the stuffed sofa in her brown woollen shawl, and near her the schoolmaster, svenonius, with his blue handkerchief and brass spectacles. captain svanholm, the postmaster, who had lost a finger in the last war, was on the right; on the left pretty anne sophie, eighteen years old, with a high tortoise-shell comb in her long brown hair; and around them, on the floor or on stools, sat six or seven playful children, with mouths now wide open, as if they had heard a ghost story. the first to disturb the silence was anne sophie, who sprang with a cry from her chair, stumbled, and fell into the schoolmaster's arms. the entranced company, who were still at lützen, were as much disturbed by this interruption as if isolani's croats had suddenly broken into the room. the postmaster, still in the midst of the battle, sprang up and trod heavily upon old grandma's sore foot with his iron heel. the schoolmaster was quite upset, not at all realising the value of the burden in his arms--perhaps the first and also the prettiest in his whole life; the children fled in all directions, and some crept behind the surgeon's high chair. but andreas, who had just followed the finnish cavalry in their charge over the trenches, seized the surgeon's silver-headed spanish cane, and prepared to receive the croats at the point of the bayonet. old bäck was undisturbed; he produced his tobacco box, bit off a piece, and mildly said, "what is the matter with you, anne sophie?" the latter freed herself, blushing and embarrassed, from the schoolmaster's arms, and declaring that someone had pricked her with a pin, looked around for the culprit. old grandma, always quick to scent out mischief, immediately practised a method, and discovered that jonathan had inserted a pin at the top of his rattan, and therewith upset his eldest sister, with the results just indicated. the punishment, like that under martial law, was quick and short, and jonathan had then to retire to the nursery, and learn an extra lesson for the next day. when the principal power had thus restored order without bloodshed, the company began to talk of the surgeon's story. "it is too violent a tale, my dear cousin," said the old grandmother, whilst looking at the teller with one of those mild and speaking glances, which captured all hearts with their expression of intelligence and sympathy; "altogether too turbulent. it seems to me that i still hear the noise of the cannon. war is frightful and detestable, when we consider all the blood shed on the battlefield, and all the tears at home. when will the day arrive when men, instead of destroying each other, will share the earth and our lord's good gifts together in harmony and universal brotherhood?" now the postmaster's martial spirit rose in arms. "peace? share? no war? pshaw! cousin, pshaw! would you make an ant's nest of the world? what a state of things! scribblers would smother everything with ink; cowards and petty tyrants would sit on honest men; and when one nation domineered over another, people would lowly bow, thank them, and act like sheep. no; the devil take me! men like gustaf adolf and napoleon move nations and things; they tap a little blood which has been spoilt by gross living, and then the world improves. i still remember the st of august, at karstula; fieandt stood on the left, and i at the right----" "if i may interrupt the speech of my honoured brother," said the schoolmaster, who had heard this story one hundred and seventy times before, "i would prove that the world would progress much better through spilling ink than blood. _inter arma silent leges_. in war times we could not sit here by the fire, and drink our toddy in bäck's room; we should be serving a cannon on the ramparts; linstock in hand, instead of a glass; powder in our pouches, and not even a pinch of snuff. ink has made you, brother, a postmaster; in ink you live and have your being; ink brings your daily bread, and what would you be with blood alone, and no ink, may i ask? "what should i be? devils and heretics ... i?" "cousin svanholm!" said the old grandmother, with a warning glance at the children. the postmaster stopped at once. the surgeon saw the necessity of re-establishing peace and concord. "i think," he said, "that nations go through the world like the individuals of which they are composed. in youth they are wild and passionate, fight, rage, and tear each other to pieces. when older and wiser, they invent gunpowder, place host against host, and let them destroy each other in cold blood at long distances. finally the world comes to reason, and seizes the pen which is very sharp when necessary. and then begins the reign of universal knowledge, which is certainly the best, according to my mind." "it would be ... seven devils ... all right, cousin, i will be as quiet as a wall," said the postmaster. "i only ask what kind of a man was gustaf adolf? what kind of a man was napoleon? were they only birthday eaters of sweetmeats? what do you think? were they fools or savages? i pray you. do you hear, cousin? i do not swear, cousin; you should have heard fieandt, how devilishly he swore at karstula." the surgeon continued, without paying any attention to the postmaster. "therefore, the youthful history of all nations begins with war, and the first soldier in the world's company was called cain. but as war is as old as the world, it is likely to exist as long as it lasts. i do not believe in the new ideas about a perpetual peace. i believe that as long as human hearts retain selfish desires, the curse of war will prevail. eternal peace consists in no longer fighting blindly, slavishly, as before, but with glad courage comprehending the reason why, and for a righteous cause; then one can hack away with right goodwill." "then we should always fight for an idea," said the schoolmaster thoughtfully. "that's it, for an idea. it is to the honour of the finnish soldier that with one exception he has always fought for the defence of his fatherland. then he has gone out to fight on foreign soil; and our lord has mercifully chosen that this should be for the greatest and most righteous cause of all, namely, to defend the pure protestant faith and freedom of conscience for the whole world. the finn was proud to know this in the thirty years' war. he felt within himself that his heart was the same as gustaf adolf's, who, i think, was the greatest general who ever lived, whilst he fought and won victories for one of the few causes that are worth bleeding for." "tell us more about gustaf adolf!" exclaimed andreas, who could think only of that one name. "dear uncle, a little more about gustaf adolf," chimed in the rest of the children, who, with the greatest trouble, had been held in check by grandma's admonitions and sister anne sophie. "thank you. no. the great king is dead, and we will allow him to peacefully slumber in the royal vault of the church at riddarholm, stockholm. and if the story in future loses something from this, it will also gain something, namely, that the other characters will become more prominent. hitherto, we have been compelled to almost exclusively fix our eyes on the heroic king, and grandmother was right in saying that we have been deafened by the thunder of the cannon. thus, lady regina, and the jesuit, and especially bertel, who is the real hero, have all been kept in the background." "and ketchen," said the grandmother; "for my part, i would like much to know more of the good, charming child. i will leave regina alone, but this i will maintain that such a black-eyed wild cat, who would tear one's eyes out at any moment, cannot come to any good." "and the lordly count of lichtenstein, whom we have not heard of lately," added sophie. "i am certain he will become regina's betrothed." "aha! little cousin listens with delight to that part of it," said the postmaster with a sly smile. "but say, brother bäck, do not busy yourself with sentimentalities; let us hear more about stälhandske, the stout little larsson, and the tavastlander vitikka. how the d----l did the man get along without ears? i remember to this day, that on the st of august, there was a corporal at karstula----" "brother bäck," interrupted the schoolmaster, "who has _justitia mundi_, the sword of justice in his hand, will not fail to hoist the jesuit hieronymus up to the top of the highest pine on the hartz mountains." "take care, brother svenonius," retorted the post-master maliciously, "the jesuit was very learned, and knew a heap of latin." "i will tell you what i know about the finns," said the surgeon; "but i assure you beforehand that it is altogether too little. wait ten or twenty years longer, when some industrious man will take the trouble to glean from the old chronicles our brave countrymen's exploits." "and what became of the king's ring?" "why, that we shall hear to-morrow evening." chapter i. a man from the peasants' war. beyond the fertile plains of germany a wild sea extends itself towards the north, whose shores are annually covered with the ice of winter, and whose straits have sometimes borne entire armies on their ice-bridges. for ages the surrounding nations have fought for the possession of this sea; but at the time of our story the greatest power in the north triumphed over nine-tenths of its wide shores, the baltic had almost become a swedish lake; stretching its mighty blue arms north and east, it folded in its embrace a daughter of the sea, a land which had arisen from its bosom, and elevated its granite rocks high above its mother's heart. _finland_ is the most favoured child of the baltic; she empties her treasures into the lap of her mother, and the great sea does not disdain the offering, but withdraws lovingly and tenderly like an indulgent mother, that her daughter may develop, and every season clothes the shores with grass and flowers. fortunate the land which lulls to sleep in its bosom the waters of a thousand lakes, and stretches one hundred and forty swedish miles along the shore. the sea bears power, freedom, and enlightenment; the ocean is an active civilising element in the world; and a sea communicating nation can never stagnate in need and under oppression except by its own fault. far away in the north of finland a region exists which more than any other is the fostered child of the sea, for from time unknown it has risen with a gentle slope from the waters. numerous green isles rise along this coast. "in my youth," says the grey-haired old salt, "fine ships floated where now the water is quite shallow, and in a few years the cattle will graze on the former sea-bottom. the playing child launches its little boat from the beach; look around you, little one, and see well the point where the waters trace their edges; when you become a man, you will look in vain for your present strand--beyond the green fields you will hear their distant murmur; and when you are an old man, a village may appear on the spot once occupied by the waves." a strange region, where the towns built hard by deep sounds and tributaries, are twelve miles from the waters in two hundred years, while the keels and anchors of vessels are drawn up from the bogs fifty miles inland. this region is east bothnia; greater than many kingdoms, and extending to the verge of lapland in the north, where the sun never sets at midsummer, and never rises during the christmas darkness. nature is awake for three months of the year in an unbroken day, and then at midnight you can read the finest print; three months of night, but a night of moonlight and glittering snow--clear, cold, and solemn. the flower's beauty perishes sooner there than human joy; for seven months the plains are covered with snow and the lakes with solid ice; but never is spring more delightful than such a winter; still a melancholy mingles with this joy, which the heart well understands. two races live on the coasts of this land, unmixed and unlike; a variegated picture of national and local peculiarities of language and habits; one parish sharply contrasting with another. certain common traits exist, however, which all present. it is not a historical accident that the greatest and bloodiest battles of finland have been fought on the soil of east bothnia. twenty-five miles east of vasa, on the banks of kyro river, is the rich storkyro parish--the granary of east bothnia. here grows the well-known rye-seed, which is exported in large quantities to sweden. the parish presents a plain of waving grain-fields, from which arose the saying, "that storkyro fields and limingo meadows have no equals in length and breadth." the people are finns, of tavastlandish origin in remote times. their old church, built in , is one of the oldest in the country. we now ask our reader to follow us there. at the time of our story this region was badly cultivated, compared with later times. the ravages of the peasants' war had retarded its growth, so that for a generation traces of this disastrous struggle were visible, whilst other wars, with heavy conscriptions, prevented time from healing these wounds. hence, in the summer of , many farmhouses still stood empty; the grain-fields did not spread far from the river banks, and unhealthy fogs covered the country when the nights were cool. the forests, then already thinned, still yielded fuel for the tar pits; part of the peasantry fished among the michel islands, and the worthy pastor, herr georgius thomoe patur, had not then, like his present successor, a yearly income of , silver roubles. therefore the eye lingered with delight on bertila's farmhouse close to the church, finer and better built than any of the others, and surrounded by the most fertile fields. the summer had advanced to the middle of august, and the harvesting had just begun. more than sixty persons, men, women, and children--for the east bothnian peasant women work the whole summer out of doors--were busily cutting the golden rye, which they gathered into sheaves and placed with skilful hands in high, handsome ricks. the day was hot, and the stooping posture of the work wearisome; so it often happened that the petted boys amongst the reapers threw longing glances at the soft grass round the edge of the field, which evidently seemed intended for a resting-place. at the same time they did not forget to look for the overseer, an old man in a loose, grey homespun jacket. whenever anyone stopped, he heard his neighbour whisper, "larsson is coming!" which had an instantaneous effect, like the stroke of a whip. but larsson, a small man, between whose bushy head and eyebrows a good-hearted look glanced forth, was now concerned with one of the women, who, on account of the heat and work, had sunk to the ground. judging from her features this woman was no longer young; perhaps about thirty-six; but to look at her slender figure, and the mild sympathetic expression of her blue eyes, she seemed no more than twenty. she exhibited a rare but prematurely faded beauty, with much suffering and resignation. she wore a fine white flannel jacket, which being thrown aside on account of the sun, showed sleeves of the finest linen, a red bodice, like the peasantry wore, with a short striped woollen skirt, and a little plaid handkerchief tied around her head, to support her long flaxen hair. she had worked hard, but her strength was insufficient; she had fallen with her scythe in her hand, and those nearest to her, with respect and love, had carried her to the soft turf, and tried with fresh water from the spring to bring her back to life. "there now, meri!" said old larsson with fatherly sympathy, as he held the fainting woman's head on his knees and bathed her forehead with cold water; "there, my child, don't be foolish enough to die and leave your old friend; what joy would he then have on earth? ... she cannot hear me, poor child! who ever had such a father as hers? to compel this delicate thing to work in such heat! ... drink a little--that's right ... it is very good of you; now open your lovely eyes once more. do not trouble, meri; we will go to the house, and you shall not work any more to-day." the pale and delicate creature endeavoured to rise and seize her sickle. "thank you, larsson," she said in a low but melodious voice, "i am better now. i will work; father washes it." "father wishes it!" exclaimed the old man testily. "you see, i do not; i forbid you to work. even if your father turned me out of doors, and i had to beg my bread, you should not work any more to-day. well, well, my child, don't take it so hard; your father is not so foolish. he knows that you are not strong; you are like your dead mother, who was a lady by birth, and from your education in stockholm ... there, there; let us go home; don't be obstinate now, meri!" "let me go, larsson; see, he comes himself!" cried meri, tearing herself free and grasping the scythe, with which she again tried to mow the golden rye. but as she stooped down, it grew dark before her eyes, and for the second time she sank fainting between the waving stalks. at that instant the efforts of all the workers redoubled; he approached in person, the severe and dreaded owner of bertila farm. like a gloomy shadow he came slowly along the path--a tall old man of seventy, but little bent by age. his costume was the same as that of the peasants in summer: wide shirt-sleeves, a long red-striped vest, short linen pantaloons, blue stockings, and bark-shoes. he wore a high pointed cap of red yarn on his white head, which made his tall figure still more imposing. in spite of his simple costume, his whole bearing was commanding. the decided carriage, sharp penetrating look, resolute expression, love of authority around the tightly drawn upper lip, indicated the former political leader and the rich and powerful land-owner, accustomed to rule over many hundreds of subordinates. seeing this old man, one understood why he was known in many neighbouring parishes as the _peasant king_. cold and calm, old aron bertila approached the spot where his only daughter lay in a dead faint. "put her in the hay-wagon and take her up to the house," he said. "in two hours she will be back to her work." "but, bertila!" exclaimed larsson excitedly. bertila looked round with a glance before which the other quailed; then he stalked on through the field as if nothing had occurred, observing with a keen eye the labours of the reapers; here and there breaking off an ear and closely examining the number and weight of the seeds. from the barn the whole harvest-field was visible; it was new, and more than a hundred acres in extent. the old man looked with great pride on the waving sea of golden ears; his carriage became more erect, his breast expanded, as he beckoned larsson to him. "do you remember this tract thirty-four years ago, when fleming's cavalry scoured the country like savages, the village lay in ruins, and the fields were trampled down by the horses' hoofs. here, close to the village, was the desert; naked, charred stumps stood between mud puddles and quagmires; no road or path led here, and even the forest wolves avoided the desolate spot." "i remember it well," said larsson in a monotonous tone. "look now around, old friend, and say. who rebuilt this village, more lovely than ever before? who tilled this wilderness, made roads and paths, measured the land, drained the morass, ploughed this fertile soil, and sowed this great field which now waves in the breeze, and will soon supply hundreds of human beings with its harvest? say, larsson, who is the man who did this mighty work?" and the old man's eyes flamed with enthusiasm. but the little, plump person at his side seemed to be possessed with quite another feeling. he humbly took off his old hat, clasped his hands, and earnestly said, "nothing is he who sows; nothing is he who waters; god alone gives the growth!" bertila, absorbed in thought, heeded him not, and continued, "yes, by god! i have seen evil times, days of want, misery, and despair, which the sword brought upon earth, and i have myself drawn the weapon to destroy my enemies. i have had victory and defeat, both to my injury. hence i can rejoice in the work of peace. i know the fruit of the sword, and what the plough produces. in the sword lurks a spirit of evil, which revels in blood and tears; the sword kills and destroys, but the plough gives life and happiness. you see, larsson, the plough has made this field. over at korsholm is the finnish coat of arms, a lion with a naked sword. were i king, i would say, away with the sword and take the plough. the latter is the true weapon of finland; if we possess bread we have plenty of arms; with arms we can drive our enemies from our homes. but without bread, larsson, what use is steel and powder to us?" "bertila," said larsson, "you are a singular man. you hate war, but that i understand; in war they burnt your farm, and drove your first wife and her little children into the woods to perish. you yourself have fought at the head of the peasantry, and barely escaped _the blood bath on ilmola's ice_. such things are not easily forgotten; but what i cannot comprehend is, that you, a friend of the peasants, a soldier hater, first took me, an old starving soldier, as overseer on your farm, then equipped my lasse--god bless the boy--for the war, and finally sent your own grandson, meri's child, little gösta,* yet beardless, to the field among the king's cavalry." * from gustaf. old bertila's look darkened. some sensitive chord had been touched, and he glanced around as if he feared a listener behind the barn walls. "who dares to speak to me of meri's child?" he said in a low tone. "i know none other than my son gösta, born of my second wife during the journey to stockholm; and god be merciful unto you if ever ... let us forget that matter. why i took you? why i sent your boy into the field? h'm! it does not concern anyone." "well, keep it to yourself; i know too much already." "tell me, if you can, larsson, what constituents are required for an honest christian government?" larsson looked at him with surprise. "i will tell you. the sword has two parts, the blade and the handle. two forces are likewise necessary for the plough: one that draws and one that drives. and two forces united form a christian government, namely, the people and the king. but that which comes between brings discord and ruin; it arrogates to itself the king's power and the people's property. it is a monster." "i know you hate the nobles." "and therefore," bertila laid an emphasis on his words, and uttered them with an almost ironical smile, which seemed to turn his meaning into a jest, "you see, _my_ son must either be _peasant or king_; nothing more or less!" larsson looked at him with dismay. he had not imagined the depth of ambition which had hitherto glowed concealed in the old peasant's heart. he thought it the extreme of crazy presumption. "you can certainly never hope," he timidly said, "that meri's son, with his birth----" the old man's eyes flashed, but the words were inaudible that came from his lips, as if he tried to struggle against an inner impulse, to express for the first and perhaps for the last time, the bold idea which had already for many years grown in his tempestuous soul. "king gustaf adolf has only a daughter," he said finally, with a peculiar look. "princess christina ... yes." "but the kingdom at war with half the world, after his death, needs a man upon the throne." "bertila, what do you mean?" "i mean that in my childhood i heard king erik's son, in spite of his peasant wife, karin, declared the successor to the crown." "are you in your senses?" again an ironical smile played around the old man's lips. "do you not understand," he coldly said, "how it is possible to hate soldiers and aristocrats, and yet send one's son to war as the nearest road to distinction, under a king's eyes?" "i beg of you, bertila, put aside such wild fancies; you are a reasonable man when the demon of pride does not get possession of your restless mind. your plan will fail; it must fail." "it cannot fail." "what! not fail!" "no! have i not told you that gösta must be either king or peasant? either. i do not care. if he wishes to remain a peasant, so be it." "but if he will not remain a peasant? supposing he wishes to fight for a coat of arms, and becomes a nobleman? remember, you have started him on the right road for that end; as an officer he is already an equal of the nobility." bertila seemed to be cogitating. "no!" he cried, "it is impossible. his blood ... his education ... my will." "his blood! then you no longer remember that nobility is in it from both sides? his education! and you sent him to stockholm at twelve, and allowed him to grow up amongst young aristocrats, whom he has constantly heard express themselves with contempt about the peasantry. your will! foolish father to think that you can bend a youth's desires from the direction given to them by such powerful influences." the old man remained silent for a time, then he said, coldly, "larsson, you are a credulous fool; i joke, and you take it seriously. i will answer for the youth. let us say no more about it; but take care, not a word of what has passed! do you understand?" "i am your old friend, bertila. since the time when i, a horseman with svidje klas, helped you to escape from ilmola, you have repaid me the service many times over; i shall never betray you. but, you see, i love your children as my own, and cannot bear to see you make the boy unhappy; and meri ... are you a father, bertila? how do you treat your child, your only daughter, who attends to your lightest wish, and does everything to atone for the fault of her youth? you treat her worse than any of your servants; you allow her frail and weak body to perform the hardest work; she sinks to the ground, and you do not raise her. you are cruel, bertila; you are an inhuman father." "you do not understand the matter," answered the morose old man. "you are too tender-hearted to comprehend what it means to go straight ahead without compunction. meri, like her mother, has the fine lady in her, and that must be uprooted. she cannot become a queen; well, then, she shall be a thorough peasant. i have said what i think about the intermediate class, and now you know the reason for my actions. come, let us return to the labourers." "and meri ... spare her to-day, at least." "she shall work with the rest this afternoon." chapter ii. ashamed of a peasant's name. the log-house of the east bothnian peasant is now always more roomy, lighter, and more pretentious in its whole appearance than in any other part of finland. it sometimes consists of two storeys, or has at least a garret; the windows are of good size; it it almost always painted red or yellow, with white corners, and occasionally possesses window shutters. the whole bears evidence of mechanical skill and comfort. the east bothnian never builds such large and fine villages as the tavastlander and the abo peasants do, but in cases of necessity constructs good solitary farmhouses. at the time of our story the smoke-huts were in use by nearly the whole finnish population; only peasants of swedish origin used fire-places and regular chimneys. but even then one could see in east bothnia, close to the coast, some buildings constructed in a more modern style, copied from their swedish neighbours. the newly settled towns had attracted the country people to the coast, and they had already begun to be accustomed to greater comfort; and the wealthier the peasant, the quicker his house and person assumed a more civilised aspect. it is true that the luxury, against which the laws of the sixteenth century so severely protested, was found only on the estates of the nobility and among the wealthy abo burghers--but the home-brewed ale foamed over in the tankards of the peasants, and the holland spices were produced from his cupboards for festive occasions. since the fires of the peasants' war had destroyed the huts of storkyro village, one could often see the swedish and finnish styles of building side by side. bertila's farm was the largest and the richest in the village, and was built in the new style, with steps and a small verandah, and two small chambers beside the large room; one for the master of the family and one for his daughter. the rest of the people on the farm lived together in the large room, but in summertime the younger ones slept out of doors in the sheds and some in the lofts. at this time one would not see the large clock, with its red and blue painted cover, which to-day is the chief ornament in every peasant's cottage. the long plain table with its high seat for the master, stood surrounded by benches on the sides towards the door. it was close to dinner-time, and in the big fire-place the porridge-kettle was boiling. the room was nearly empty, only a large cat purred on a bench, and a girl of fourteen stirred the porridge; and meri was sitting by the fire with her work. poor meri had just recovered from her fainting attack, but she was still very pale. her long golden hair fell down over her almost bare shoulders; her eyes were often shyly turned towards the door, as if she feared the sudden entrance of her father. she was knitting a girdle of the most beautiful colours, and sang at the same time an old swedish song. "this girdle with roses fair shall only my loved one wear, when he from the perils of war returns to us from afar." it has been said that meri was no longer young. the traces which suffering had left on her finely formed features told of many a year of sorrow and pain; but at this moment as she watched the girdle, her face assumed an almost childish expression of delight. one could see that her work was a joy to her, and that she sang of someone much beloved and far away. her life with her severe father was full of hardship, and when she looked at the girdle she semed to read in its bright-coloured loops of a future full of joy and peace. in this girdle she lived, it was the same to her as the thought of her only joy--her idolized son. again she sang: "i weave in beads so fine for this dear beloved of mine, and no king upon his throne shall the like of this girdle own." just then bertila, her father, entered, followed by larsson and all the rest of the working people. old bertila's looks were dark; he could not deny to himself that larsson's predictions were only too likely to be true. his son a nobleman. this possibility was in his eyes a disgrace, and up to this time had not troubled his mind. the last words of meri's song had just died away. at her father's entrance she quickly concealed the girdle under her apron; but the suspicious eyes of the old man fathomed her secret. "you are again sitting with your dreams, lazy thing, instead of serving out the porridge," he said in a sharp tone. "what have you underneath your apron? out with it." and meri was obliged in the presence of them all to reveal the unfinished girdle--her dearest secret. her father snatched it from her, looked at it for a moment with contempt, then tore it in two, and threw the pieces behind the oven. "i have told you many a time," he said severely, "that an honest peasant woman has nothing to do with fancy work. let us say grace." the old man then clasped his hands in the usual way, and the rest followed suit. but before the prayer could be uttered, larsson stepped to the middle of the floor, his naturally good-humoured face purple with rage. "you ought to be ashamed of yourself, bertila," he said, "to insult your own daughter in front of all the people! she works like a slave night and day, more than anyone of us, yet you call her a lazy thing! i tell you this straight in the face, that although you are my master, and i eat your bread, and without you i have nothing but the beggar's staff, that such an unrighteous father does not deserve to have such a good daughter; and rather than see this misery day after day, i will beg my bread. but you will have to answer before the almighty for your children. and may you now say your grace, and let the food taste well to you if you can. farewell, bertila, i cannot stand this life any longer." "cast out the rascal who dares to speak against the master of the house," said bertila with more than usual violence. no one moved. for the first time the peasant king saw his orders disobeyed. "dear master," began the oldest of the labourers, "we all think the same----" a terrible blow from the master struck the speaker to the ground before he finished his remarks. in vain larsson offered to go of his own accord; in vain meri tried to mediate between the disputants. so strong were the principles of right in these people, that without consulting anything but their own convictions, they arrayed themselves as one man against the master's tyranny. fourteen muscular men stood erect and resolute before the enraged bertila, whose tall figure stood threateningly in the midst of the throng. one more blow, and they would all have left his service, and perhaps shut him up in his own little chamber until his anger had subsided; for the farther towards the north one goes, the more sensitive is the finnish peasant to blows. bertila, however, knew his people, and saw as a wise man that his anger had led him too far. he sought a means of getting out of the dilemma without too great a humiliation. "what is it you want?" he asked with regained self-possession. the workers looked at each other in silence for a moment. "you are wrong, master," said one of the boldest at last. "you have insulted meri for nothing. you wished to turn larsson out of the house, and struck simeon; you have done wrong." "meri, come here." she did so. "you are no longer a child, meri. if you cannot endure to live with your aged father, then you are at liberty to stay on my farm at ilmola. you are free--go, my child." bertila knew his daughter. these few words, "go, my child," pronounced in a milder tone than she was accustomed to hear, were sufficient to melt his daughter's heart. "do not reject me, father," she said, "i will never desert you." these words made her defenders waver, and the old man saw his opportunity. "bring hither the catechism," he said in a commanding voice. the fourteen-year-old greta stepped forward as was the custom on sacred days, and read aloud: "ye servants obey your temporal masters with fear and trembling, in the simplicity of your hearts! ye servants be submissive to your masters in all fear, not only the mild and good, but also the unworthy!" these words, thus uttered at the right time, did not fail in their effect. in these times the power and authority of father and master were at their zenith, and were not only by word, but in deed, a power by "god's mercy." the words of obedience heard from childhood, the old man's commanding tone, and meri's example of ready submission to her father's authority, all combined to tone down the hot tempers of the rebels. they took their places at the table without another word. only old larsson stood sad and hesitating with his hand on the door-latch. suddenly the door was opened, and a stranger entered. the new-comer was a soldier, in a broad-brimmed hat, decorated with a gracefully fastened eagle's plume. he wore a waistcoat of yellow wool, short top-boots, bore a cudgel in his hand, and a long sword hung at his side. "by st. lucifer," he said joyfully, "i have come at the right time. god's peace, peasants, make room at the table; i am as hungry as a monk during mass, and i am not able to go to the vicarage on this damned heath. have you any ale?" the old man in the high seat, who had not yet quite overcome his temper, although he appeared to be calm, rose from his chair, but at once sat down again. "sit down, countryman," said the old man softly; "aron bertila has room at his table for self-invited guests also." "very well," continued the new-comer, helping himself freely to the food, which seemed to be a familiar habit with him. "you are bertila, then. i am glad to hear it, comrade. confidence for confidence, i will now tell you that i am bengt kristerson, from limingo, sergeant in his majesty's brave east bothnians. i am sent here to look after the conscripts. some more ale in the tankard, peasants ... well, do not be afraid, girls, i will not bite you. bertila," added the soldier with his mouth full, "what the deuce is this? are you lieutenant bertel's father, peasant?" "i do not know that name," replied the old man, who was nettled by the soldier's impudent remarks. "are you mad, old man? you do not know gustaf bertel, who six months ago called himself bertila?" "my son! my son!" cried the old man in a voice of anguish. "i am an unfortunate father! he is ashamed of a peasant's name!" "peasant's name," said the soldier laughing, and striking the table violently, so that the tankards and dishes jumped. "do ye peasants also have names? i think i will go without mine. you are a fine fellow, old man; tell me what the d----l you want with a name?" he then looked at his host with such an air of naïve impudence, that the insulting words were somewhat modified in effect. old bertila, however, scarcely honoured him with a glance. "fool that i was! i sent out a beardless boy and thought that i sent a man," he gloomily said to himself. but the sergeant, who had indulged in many drinks before, and had now seen the bottom of the jug, did not seem inclined to drop the subject. "do not look so fierce, old boy," he said in the same aggravating tone. "you peasants associate so much with oxen and sheep, that you become just like them yourselves. if you were a bit civil you would send a pretty girl to fill my jug. it is now empty, you see; as empty as your cranium. but you turnip-peelers do not appreciate the honour which is conferred upon you, of having a royal sergeant for guest. you see, old fellow, a soldier in these times is everything; he has a name that rings because he has a sword that rings. but you, old ploughshare, have nothing but porridge in your head and a turnip in your breast; fill your mug, old fellow; here's to lieutenant bertel's success! so you refuse to drink the health of an honest cavalier? out upon you, peasant." and the sergeant, in the consciousness of his dignity, struck the table with his fist, so that the wooden bowls jumped and seemed disposed to make for the floor with all their contents. the first effect of this martial joke was to induce six or seven of the men to rise from their benches, with the object of giving the uninvited guest a salutary lesson in politeness. but old bertila stopped them. he rose composedly from his seat, approached the rowdy sergeant with a firm step, and without saying a word, grasped him by the neck with his left hand, and with his right on his back, he lifted the soldier from the bench, carried him to the door and threw him out on a heap of chips outside the steps. the funny sergeant was so surprised at this unexpected attack, that he did not move a muscle to defend himself. if he had, it was not likely that the seventy-year-old man would have gained the victory in the struggle. "go," cried bertila after him, "and keep your treatment as a remembrance of the peasants in storkyro." nothing impresses the multitude so much as resolute courage combined with a strong arm. when the old man entered the room again he was surrounded by his people, who now greatly admired him; and this feat destroyed the difference which had existed a few moments before between them. the conflict between the sword and the plough is as old as the world. the peasants' war was based on this rivalry, and served to keep it fresh and alive in the minds of all. these independent peasants had not been subjected to the tyranny of the landed proprietors. they witnessed with delight their honour defended against the soldier's outrageous insults; they forgot at the moment that they might shortly be compelled themselves to don the soldier's jacket, and fight for their country. even the old peasant chief, elated at his exploit, had surmounted his bad temper. for the first time in a long while they saw a smile on his lips; and when the meal was over, he began to relate to them some of his former adventures. "never shall i forget how we cudgelled the rascal abraham melchiorson, the man who, here in kyro, seized our best peasants, and had them broken on the wheel like malefactors. with fifty men he had gone up north. it was winter time. he was a fine gentleman, muffled up from the cold, and rode so grandly in a splendid wolf-skin cloak. but when he approached karleby church we placed ourselves in ambush, and rushing upon him like jehu, beat twenty-two of his men to death, and pommelled him black and blue; but every time he expected a rap he drew the wolf-skin cloak over his ears, so that no club could disable the traitor. 'wait,' said hans krank, from limingo, who led us on that wolf hunt, 'we will whip him out of his skin yet'; with this he drubbed abraham so soundly that he was obliged to let go of his fine fur. krank had nothing on but a jacket, and it was cold enough, god knows; he thought the fur cloak a good thing, and drew it unobserved over his own shoulders. but, as all this occurred in the twilight, we others did not notice who was now in the wolf-skin, and we kept on belabouring the cloak; it is very certain that krank had a very warm time of it that evening. but abraham melchiorson became so light and nimble after getting rid of his cloak, that he ran off to huso farm; but there he was taken by saka jacob from karleby, and the rascal was taken to stockholm; but he did not get much time to mourn over the loss of his cloak, for the duke soon made him a head shorter." "yes," said larsson, who always tried to defend fleming and his people, "that time you had the best of it. eleven soldiers remained alive, but seeming to be dead, you took all their clothes. and at midnight they crept half dead with cold to the vicarage, and were there taken in; but in the morning you wanted to put them in the water underneath the ice, alive, as you had done in lappfjard's river. you were wolves and not human beings. the water was so low in the river that you had to push the men down with poles to keep them there; and when they tried to get up, the women knocked them on their heads with buckets." "keep quiet, larsson, you do not know all that svidje klas did," said bertila angrily; "i say nothing about all the men that he and his people have killed and broken on the wheel. do you remember severin sigfridson at sorsankoski? he surrounded the peasants, and ordered his subaltern to behead them one by one; but he was not able to kill more than twenty-four, and asked the nobleman to finish the rest himself. the gentleman got angry, and ordered the peasants to cut the subaltern into five parts, and then do the same to each other as long as one remained alive." "but what did you do, you mad brutes, on peter gumse's farm? your men destroyed the place, broke the windows, slaughtered all the cattle, and set their severed heads with wide open mouths in the windows as a scare. then the beams of the house were cut three parts through, so that when the folk came home it would fall upon their heads; and when you caught a horseman you used him as a target for your arrows." "it is not worth while, larsson, to try to take svidje klas' part. do you remember when axel kurk's men came and killed a woman's children before her eyes? the poor mother could not stand this, she and her half-grown daughter seized the brute by the waist, hit him on the head with a pole, and pushed him fainting in the water. svidje klas then came and had that same woman cut in two." "loose talk, which has never been proven," replied larsson gruffly. "the dead keep silent like good children. the , killed at ilmola do not speak." "instead of molesting the sergeant, you should have asked him for news about your son and mine," said larsson, to get away from their usual contentious subject--the fatal peasant war. "yes, you are right. i must hear more about the boys and the war. i am going to vasa to-morrow." "will he soon return?" asked meri in a shy voice. "gösta. he will take his own time," said the father angrily. "he has now became a nobleman; he is ashamed of his old father .... he blushes for a peasant's name." chapter iii. the southern flower comes to the north. some miles south of vasa, on the sixty-third degree of latitude, the bay of finland, which has hitherto gone straight north and south, makes a perceptible bend towards the north-east. the great blue baltic following the same direction, narrows for a moment in the "qvark," widens again, and leans its bright brow against finland's breast. freer there than anywhere else, the winds from the arctic ocean sweep over these coasts and drive the waves with terrible violence against the rocks. in the midst of this stormy sea, lie gadden's bare flat ledges, with their warning lighthouse and far projecting reefs. when the mountain winds shake their wings over these breakers, then woe unto the vessel which, without a sure rudder and lightly furled sails, ventures through the narrow passage at "understen"--its destruction is certain. but in the middle of summer it often happens that a slightly northern wind is the most welcome, and promises clear skies and fine weather. then fly many hundreds of sails from the coast out towards "qvark's" islands and reefs, to cast their nets for shoals of herrings; and the restless, murmuring sea dances like a loving mother, with her daughters, the green islands, resting upon her bosom. with the exception of aland and ekenäs there is no part of finland's coast so rich with luxuriant vegetation as "qvark" and its neighbouring east shore. these innumerable islets, of which the largest are wallgrund and björkö, are here sprinkled about like drops of green in the blue expanse, and formed a parish by themselves called "replotchapel," inhabited only by fishermen. so numerous are these groups, so infinitely varied the sounds, so intricate the channels, that a strange vessel could not find its way out without a native pilot at the helm. thirty cruisers here would be insufficient to prevent smuggling; there is only one means of putting a stop to this inherited sin of the coast, and this method is a light tariff with but few prohibitions; finland during later years has tried it with success and to her own advantage. at the same period as described in the preceding chapter, therefore in the middle of august, , the waters of the baltic were divided by the royal man-of-war "maria eleonora," bound from stockholm to vasa to transport the recruits for the german war. it was a bright fine summer morning. over the wide sea played an indescribable glitter, which was at the same time grand and enchantingry beautiful. a boundless field of snow, illumined by the spring sun, can rival it in splendour, but the snow is stillness and death, the shimmering waves are motion and life. a slumbering sea in its resplendency, is grandeur clothed in the smile of delight; he is a sleeping giant, who dreams of sunbeams and flowers. gently heaves his breast; then the plank rocks underneath thy feet, and thou tremblest not; he could swallow thee up in his abyss, but he mildly spreads his golden carpet under the keel, and he, the strong, bears the frail bark like a child in his arms. it was immediately after sunrise. the monotonous silence of sea-life prevailed on board the vessel during the morning watch, as when no danger is feared. part of the crew were still asleep below the deck, only the mate, wrapped in a jacket of frieze, walked to and fro on the aft deck. the helmsman stood motionless at the rudder, the man in the round top peered ahead, and here and there on the fore deck stood a sailor, fastening a loose rope end, carrying wood to the caboose, or polishing the guns which were to salute korsholm when they entered that port. the stern discipline of a modern man-of-war was at that time almost unknown. there were no uniforms or steam whistles, nor any of the complex signals and commands which are now carried to such perfection. then a man-of-war scarcely differed from a merchant vessel, excepting in size, armament, and the number of officers and men she carried. when one remembers that at that time there was neither whisky or coffee on board to protect against the chill morning air--they had, however, already learned from the dutch to use an occasional quid of tobacco for this purpose--then it is readily perceived that life on the "maria eleonora" bore very little resemblance to that on board one of our modern men-of-war. by the green gunwale of the deck stood two female figures, with wide travelling hoods of black wool on their heads. one of these passengers was small in atature, and showed under her hood an old wrinkled face, with a pair of peering grey eyes; she had wrapped herself up in a thick wadded cloak of nurberg cloth. the other figure was tall and slender, and wore a tight-fitting capote of black velvet lined with ermine. leaning against the gunwale, she regarded with a gloomy air the fast receding waves left in the vessel's wake. her features could not be seen from the deck; but if one could have caught her countenance from the mirroring waves, it would have exhibited a classically beautiful pale face, illuminated by two black eyes, which surpassed in lustre the shining wave-mirrors themselves. "holy mary!" cried the old woman in strongly pronounced low german, "when will this misery come to an end, that the saints have imposed upon us on account of our sins? tell me, my little lady, in what part of the world we are now? it appears to me as if a whole year had passed since we sailed from stralsund; for since we left the heretic's stockholm i have not kept account of the days. every morning when i rise, i say seven _aves_ and seven _pater nosters_, as the revered father hieronymus taught us, as a protection against witchcraft and evil. one can never know; the world might end here, and we have now come far away from the rule of the true believing church and christian people. this sea has no end. oh, this horrible sea! i now praise the river main, which flows so peacefully underneath our turret windows in würzburg. say, lady, what if over there, on the horizon, the earth ends, and that we are sailing straight into purgatory?" the tall slender girl did not seem to listen to her loquacious duenna. her dark brilliant eyes under the black eyelashes were resting pensively on the water, as if in the waves she could read an interpretation of the dream of her heart. and when at times a long swell from former storms rolled forth under the smaller waves, and the ship gently careened, so that the gunwale dipped close to the water, and the image in the sea approached the girl on board, then a smile could be seen on her beautiful features, at once proud and melancholy, and her lips moved inaudibly, as if to confide her inmost thoughts to the waves. "it is only the great and majestic in life that deserve to be loved." then she added, transported by this thought: "why should i not love a great man?" and she whispered these words with unbounded enthusiasm. but instantly a shiver ran through her delicate frame, a bright flash shot from her dark eyes, and she said, almost trembling at the thought: "it is only the great and majestic in life that deserve to be hated! why should i not hate----?" she did not finish the sentence. she bent her head towards the ground, the fire in her eyes disappeared, and in its place a tear was seen. two mighty opposing spirits fought with each other in this passionate soul. one said to her "love!" the other said to her "hate!" and her heart bled under this terrible struggle between the angel and the demon. it is unnecessary to mention what the reader has already divined, that the slender girl on board the "maria eleonora" was no other than lady regina von emmeritz, the beautiful fanatical girl who tried to convert king gustaf adolf to the catholic faith at frankfurt-on-the-main. the king who knew the human heart, considered with reason, that this religious enthusiast was capable of anything if left a prey to the jesuit's influence. it was, therefore, not from revenge, which was unknown to this great heart, but, on the contrary, from noble compassion for a young and richly endowed nature, that he had sent her away for a time to a far-off country, where the black monk's influence could not reach her. the reader will remember that the king, on the night of the feast at frankfurt, ordered the lady regina to be sent by stralsund and stockholm to the strict old lady marta at korsholm. the noble king did not know that the dark power, from whom he was trying to save his beautiful prisoner, followed her even to the far-off coast of finland. lady regina had permission to choose one of her maids to accompany her; accordingly she selected the one in whom she had the greatest confidence; unfortunately this was not the bright and fair ketchen--she had been sent back to her relations in bavaria--but old dorthe, who had been her nurse, and who was controlled by the jesuit; for a long time this old woman had nourished the fanatical fire in the young girl's soul. so the poor unprotected maiden was still given up to the dark powers that had warped her mind since childhood, and perverted her rich, sensitive heart with their terrible teachings. and against this influence she could only place a single but mighty feeling: her admiration, her enthusiastic attachment to gustaf adolf, whom she loved and hated at the same time--whom she would have been able to kill, yet for whom she would herself have suffered death. the shrewd dorthe seemed to guess her mistress' thoughts; she leaned forward, and peering with her small eyes, said in the familiar tone which a subordinate in her position so easily assumes: "aye, aye.... is that the way it stands; do they come up again, the sinful thoughts about the heretic king and all his followers? yes, yes, the devil is cunning; he knows what he is about. when he wishes to catch a little frivolous girl of the usual kind, he puts before her eyes a young handsome cavalier, with long silken curls. but when he wishes to entangle a poor forsaken girl, with great proud thoughts and noble aspirations, he brings forward a great king, who gains castles and battles; and little does the poor child care that the stately conqueror is a sworn enemy to her church and faith, and is working for the ruin of both." regina turned her tearful and glistening eyes away from the sea, and looked for a moment with indescribable doubt at her old counsellor. "say," said she, almost vehemently, "is it possible to be at once the greatest and the most hateful of human beings?" regina looked again towards the sea. the peaceful tranquility of the mornine lay over the glittering waters, and stilled the tempest within. the young girl remained silent. dorthe continued: "by their fruits ye shall know them. just think, what evil has not the godless king done to our church and us? he has slain many thousands of our warriors; he has plundered our cloisters and castles; he has driven out our nuns and holy fathers from their godly habitations, and the devout pater, hieronymus, has been frightfully abused by his people, the heretic finns; ourselves he has sent away to the ends of the earth..." again regina looked over at the islands and the inlets bathed in the mild morning effulgence. while the dark demon whispered hatred in her ears, beaming nature seemed to preach only love. on her lips hovered already the ravishing thought: "what matters it if he has slain thousands; if he has driven away monks and nuns; if he has forced us into exile! what matters all this, if he is great as an individual, and acts according to the dictates of his faith!" but she kept silent from fear; she dared not break from all her preceding life. she caught up, instead, one of dorthe's words, as if to dispel the thunder-cloud of hatred and malice, which enveloped her heart in its dark mist, in the midst of this calm and lovely scene. "do you know, dorthe," she said, "that the finns whom you hate live on the coast of this sea? do you see that strip of land over there in the east? it is finland. i have not yet seen its shores, and yet i cannot detest a country which is bathed by so glorious a sea. i cannot think that evil people can grow up in the heart of such a land." "all saints protect us!" exclaimed the old woman, and her lenn hand hastily made the sign of the cross. "is that finland? st. patrick preserve us from ever setting foot upon its cursed soil; my dear lady, you have then never heard what is said of this land and its heathen people? there prevails an eternal night; there the snow never melts; there the wild beasts and the still wilder men lie together in dens and caves. the woods are so thick with hobgoblins and imps, that when one of them is called by name, a hundred monsters immediately come forth from the leaves and branches. and among themselves, these people bewitch each other with all kinds of evils, so that when anyone carries food to another person, he changes his enemy into a wolf; and every word they speak takes life, so that when they wish to make a boat or an axe, they say it, and directly they have what they wish." "you are drawing a fine picture," said regina, smiling for the first time in a long period, for the freshness of the sea had a good influence on her dreamy soul. "happy is the land where the people can create all they wish for with a word. if i am hungry, and desire a beautiful fruit, i have but to say, _peach_, and right away i have it. if i feel thirsty, i say, _spring_, and instantly a spring gurgles at my feet. if i have sorrow in my heart, i say, _hope_, and hope returns. and if i long for a beloved friend, i mention his name, and he stands by my side. a glorious land is finland, were it such as you represent it to me. even if we lived with wild beasts in a cave under the eternal snows, we would look at each other and say, fatherland, and at the same moment we would sit hand in hand on the banks of the main, beneath the shadows of the lindens, where we often sat when i was a child, and the nightingales of our native land would sing to us as before." dorthe turned angrily away. the vessel steered between the rocks and islands, and moved with gentle speed past the outermost cliffs, many of which now stand high above the surface of the water, but at that time these were washed by the briny waves. "what is the name of the long, richly wooded stretch of land to the left?" asked regina of the helmsman standing near. "wolf's island," answered the man. "there you have it yourself, dear lady ... wolf's island! that is the first name we hear on finland's coast, and shows us what we have to expect." the vessel now turned to the north, and sailed between langskär and sundomland, again veered towards the east, passed brändö, went safely over the shoals, which now exclude large vessels from its waters, into vasa's at that time superb harbour, and then saluted with sixteen cannon the castle of korsholm. chapter iv. the peasant--the burghers--and the soldier. when the rich aron bertila seated himself in his nice chaise to take a short journey to vasa, it was decided, as a pledge of the restored good feeling between father and daughter, that meri should take the seat by his side, and purchase in town some salt fish, hops, and certain spices, ginger and cinnamon, which already began to be seen in the houses of the wealthiest peasants. both father and daughter had their private interests in the journey; but neither would confess that it was news from germany which each sought. larsson had charge in the meantime of the home work. it was just when gustaf adolf and wallenstein stood opposed at nürnberg. soldiers were badly wanted, and oxenstjerna wrote constantly from saxony to hasten the arrival of additional reinforcements. the harvesting at its height, clashed with the harvesting of war, also at its greatest altitude. a large number of conscripts were compelled to go down to vasa from the neighbouring villages, then they were taken to stockholm, and thence to the scene of war in germany. at that epoch military drill was not nearly so complicated as it is now; to stand fairly in the ranks, rush straight at the enemy on command, to aim well--as the east bothnians had learned beforehand in the seal-hunts--and to hew away manfully, these were the chief things. thus one can understand why many of these peasant boys, just taken from the plough, were able to fall with honour by the side of their king at lützen. the town of vasa was then only twenty years old, and much smaller than now, not merely on account of its youth, but because all expansion was stopped on the south side by the crown fields of korsholm. around the old mustasaari church, on the northern side of "kopmans" and "stora" streets, were a few rows of newly built one-storey houses, with six or eight small shops. near the harbour stood storehouses, and that neighbourhood was also filled with fishermen's and sailors' huts in groups, for regular streets were considered superfluous by the architects of that time, and the closer the houses stood together, the greater the mutual protection in stormy periods. a borough, like vasa, held one common family, and the inhabitants looked with pride on the high green battlements of korsholm. the long-credited story, confirmed by messenius, that korsholm was built by birger jarl, and received its name from a large wooden cross raised as a symbol, refuge, and sign of victory, was founded on the old tradition that the great "jarl," on his expedition to finland, landed on this very coast. later researches have thrown some doubt on this story of korsholm's origin; but it is certain that the fortress is very old, so old that it is beyond calculation. it has never been besieged; its situation renders it of no importance to finland; and after uleä and kajana castles were built, shortly before the time of our story, it had ceased to be considered a military position. it now served as the residence of the governor of the northern districts, to lodge other crown officials, and serve as a prison; and its so-called "dairy" yielded a nice income to the governor. the stadtholder of northern finland, johan mansson ulfsparre of tusenhult, lived only at intervals at korsholm, and it is said that his seventy-year-old mother, mistress marta, ruled with a stern hand over both castle and dairy in his absence. between the peasants and burghers an unnatural and injurious rivalry prevailed at that time, owing to the efforts of the government to suppress the country trade for the benefit of the towns, and in a very ignorant way to regulate the exchange of commodities. therefore, when the rich old peasant with his daughter drove in through the country toll-gate on the lillkyro side, a few of the citizens, it is true, nodded a greeting to the well-known old man for the sake of his wealth; but the proudest amongst the merchants, who feared his influence with the king, gazed on him with hostile eyes, and gave vent to their ill-feelings in sarcastic words, uttered loud enough to reach the old man's ears. "here comes the peasant king of storkyro!" they said, "and vasa has no triumphal arch! he considers himself too good to thrash in the barn; he means to enter the army and become commander at once. take care! do you not see how angry he looks, the log-house king? if he had his way, he would plough up the whole town and make it into a rye-field!" the hot-tempered bertila concealed his resentment, and hurried up the horse, so as to arrive quickly at the widow's house, where he generally resided when in town. he had not gone far, however, up kopman street, which was not one of the widest, before it was blocked by a crowd of drunken recruits, who, in an ale-house near by, had inaugurated their new comradeship and strengthened themselves for the long journey ahead. two sub-officers had joined the crowd as its self-appointed leaders, and rushed with a bold "out of the way, peasant!" towards the new-comer. bertila, already irritated and unable to control himself, answered the summons with a cut of the whip, which knocked off the foremost sub-officer's broad-brimmed hat with an eagle's feather. at once the affray began. the man struck rushed upon the chaise, and the whole crowd followed him. "aha, old fellow!" exclaimed the jovial serjeant, bengt kristerson, whom bertila had so ignominiously expelled from his house, "now we have got you, and i will recompense you for your gracious treatment yesterday. make way, boys; the old fellow is mine; this fish i will scale myself." bertila was too old to rely upon the power of his fists, and he looked around for a place of refuge. whip in hand, he leaped from the chaise, which had stopped close to the entrance of a shop, and gave the horse a lash, so that the latter, chaise and daughter, rushed through the yielding crowd and galloped up the street. but before bertila could find a refuge in the shop, the door was slammed in his face by the timorous owner. the old champion, seeing escape cut off, placed his back to the door, and menaced the assailants with his long whip. "let us thrash the proud storkyro peasant," cried a young laihela boy, who, by carrying a musket for a week, had forgotten his peasant origin, but not his rustic language. "your father was a better man, matts hindrickson," said bertila contemptuously, "instead of assailing his own people, he helped us, like an honest peasant, to pommel peder gumse's cavalry in former days." "do you hear that, boys?" cried one of the subalterns; "the dog boasts of thrashing brave soldiers." "we will not allow anyone to lord it over us!" "the peasant shall dance to our tune!" "and not we to his." and five or six of the most excited, who had lately worn the jacket of the peasants themselves, rushed to drag bertila down the steps. the old man would have got the worst of it, had not the aforesaid jolly sergeant thrown himself between him and the assailants. "hold on, boys!" cried bengt kristerson in a stentorian voice. "what the devil are you about? are you honest soldiers? do you not see that the old man is seventy years old, and yet you go six to one at him! blitz-donner-kreutz-pappenheim (the sergeant had learned this potent oath in the proper school, and it never failed in its effect), is that warlike? what would the king say about it? out of the way, boys; the old man is mine; i alone have the right to wash him clean. you should have seen how he threw me down the steps yesterday like an old glove. it was a fine stroke, and now it has to be repaid." courage and magnanimity seldom fail. the nearest willingly gave way. the sergeant advanced to the steps. bertila could reach him with his whip, but he did not strike. he knew his people. "do you know what it means, peasant," cried the sergeant with an authoritative air, which would have become general stälhandske himself, "to throw a soldier of the great king down the steps? do you know what it means to knock off the hat of a defender of the evangelical faith, and a conqueror who has gained fourteen battles and run his sword through sixteen or seventeen living generals? do you know, peasant, if i were in your place----?" "if i stood in the place of a soldier of his majesty," coolly answered bertila, "i would respect an honest man in his own house, and a grandsire's old age. and if i stood in the shoes of bengt kristerson, and had conquered the roman emperor, and run my sword through seventeen living commanders, still i would not forget that bengt kristerson's father, krister nilsson, was a limingo peasant, and fell on ilmola's ice like an honest fighter against fleming's tyranny." the sergeant was abashed for a moment. then he stepped close up to his opponent, and said in a bragging manner: "do you know, peasant, that i could impale you on this?" and so saying, he drew his long sword half-way from its sheath. bertila looked calmly at him with folded arms. "are you not afraid, old man?" resumed the hero of fourteen battles, evidently taken aback by the peasant's firm attitude. "did you ever see an honest finn afraid?" said the old man, almost smiling. the sergeant was not malicious. he suddenly felt much inclined to be generous; his fierce mien changed into the blustering, jovial air which became him so well. "do you know, boys," he said, with a look at his companions, "that the old ox has got both horns and hoofs? he might have become something in the world if he had been in good society. yesterday, when they were fourteen to one--for you should know, boys, that all fourteen of the hands helped to lift me on the clodhopper's back, and then i gave everyone of them a remembrance of it--yes, as i say, yesterday i would have beaten the old fellow black and blue, had it not been for the presence of ladies at the table. but to-day we are fifteen against one, and so i propose that we let the old fellow go." "he is as rich as beelzebub," shouted some of the conscripts; "he shall treat us to a cask of ale." bertila produced a little purse, and threw some carl ix. silver coins contemptuously among the crowd. this irritated the soldiers afresh; and again the storm threatened to burst forth, when suddenly cannon-shots were heard, and the whole crowd rushed down to the harbour. it was the swedish man-of-war, "maria eleonora," saluting korsholm. chapter v. lady regina arrives at korsholm. all who had life and sound limbs in vasa had gone down to the shore, to see the uncommon sight of a man-of-war. five or six hundred people lined the shore--rowed out in boats, climbed the masts of the vessels, or got on the roofs of the warehouses to get a better view. two hundred recruits regarded with mixed feelings the vessel which was perhaps destined to take them from their fatherland for ever. behind them stood a large crowd of mothers, sisters, and sweethearts, crying bitterly at the thought of the approaching separation. the commissary-general, ulfsparre, was away in sweden. the next authority, steward peder thun, as well as the military commander, received the new-comers; the recruits formed in ranks, and the captain of the "maria eleonora" offered his arm courteously to lady regina, to escort her to korsholm. but at this moment the proud young girl felt that she was a prisoner; she declined the officer's arm, and walked alone with a royal bearing between the ranks of the recruits and the gaping crowd. such a strange sight put the whole town in a great commotion. in a moment the strangest rumours about her arose and spread. "she is an austrian princess," said some; "the emperor's daughter, taken prisoner during the war, and sent here for safety." others pretended she was the queen maria eleonora; but why did she come to korsholm? "i will tell you," said one, whispering with an important air to another. "she is in league with her german countrymen against the king, and therefore she is to be confined in remote korsholm." "that is not true," rejoined another, who had heard some vague stories of the conspiracies against the king's life. "it is," added he in a low voice, as if fearing to be heard by the object of his remarks, "a nun from walskland, hired by the jesuits to make away with the king. six times she has given him deadly poison, and six times he has been warned in dreams not to drink. when she offered him the draught for the seventh time, the king drew his sword and forced her to swallow her own poison." "then how can she be here alive?" said an old lady very innocently. "alive!" repeated the story-teller, without being put out in any degree; "oh, that is another matter. these creatures can dissemble to such an extent... yes, indeed; do you remember the hollanders last year, how they bolted molten lead? i do not wish to say anything, but just look--the black-haired nun is as pale as death!" "has she given the king poison?" cried a trembling female voice close behind. it was meri, who with bated breath had listened to every word. "what rubbish!" said a sea-captain with a mysterious knowing air. "when i was at stralsund, last spring, i saw those eyes, which one cannot easily forget. the girl was then taken to stockholm, and one of the guards told me the entire story. she is a spanish witch, who has sold herself to the evil one, in order to be the most beautiful woman on earth for seven years. look at her: do you not see that the devil has kept his word? take care; in those eyes there is something that charms and bewitches. when she became as beautiful as she is now, she entered the swedish camp, and gave the king a love-potion, so that he could neither see or hear anyone else but herself for seven whole weeks. his generals thought this a sin and shame, and the enemy pressed them sorely; so one night they took her secretly and sent her to spend the seven enchanted years at korsholm." "did the king love her?" asked meri with emotion. "of course he did," answered the blunt sea-captain. "did she also love the king?" "what is there more curious than a woman? how the deuce do you expect me to know all about it? the foul-fiend is wiser than other folks, that is certain. she gave the king a copper ring..." "with seven circles inside each other, and three letters engraved on the plate..." "what the devil do you know about that? i have heard of the seven circles, but not of the plate." meri took a deep breath. "he wears it still!" she said to herself with a great joy. meri was superstitious, like all the people of that period. she never doubted the existence of witches, enchantments, and love potions; but this strange dark girl, who loved the king and was beloved by him in return ... was she really guilty of the horrible things they said about her? the poor forgotten one was seized with the most violent wish to approach this extraordinary being, who had been so near the great monarch. each moment was precious. in a few hours she must return to storkyro. she took heart and followed the stranger to korsholm. the old residence inside the ramparts, in spite of its fine outlook, was more sombre than magnificent. frequent changes of stadtholders, who only lived there a little while at a time, had given to the double-storied granite building, with its side wings for prisoners, a terribly deserted appearance. it certainly more resembled a jail than a great governor's residence. the dreariness was increased by its present inhabitants, stern fru marta, with her aged maid-servants, some invalid soldiers, and gruff jailors. had gustaf adolf recollected the condition of the place, he would probably not have sent his young prisoner to such a depressing abode. fru marta expected her guest, who had been described to her as a dangerous and depraved young person, of superhuman cunning. she had, therefore, prepared a little dark chamber within her own for lady regina and her attendant, and made up her mind to keep the closest watch on the wild young lady. fru marta was a good, honest soul, but sharp and severe like a lady of the old school, who had brought up all her children with the rod. it never entered her mind that a lonely, defenceless, and forsaken young girl, isolated in a strange land, needed a comforting, sympathetic hand and motherly kindness; fru marta felt that discipline ought to tame a spoilt child, and then milder treatment could be introduced. when lady regina, accustomed to the freedom of the sea, entered this gloomy dwelling, an involuntary shudder passed through her slight frame. this feeling remained when she was received on the threshold by the old lady, in a close linen cap and a long dark woollen cloak. no doubt lady regina's inclination of the head was somewhat stiff, and her whole bearing somewhat reserved, when she greeted fru marta on the castle steps. but fru marta was not intimidated by it. she took the young girl by both hands, shook them vigorously, and nodded a greeting, about half-way between a welcome and a menace. then she surveyed her guest from head to foot, and the result of the examination was muttered aloud: "figure like a princess ... no harm; eyes black as a gipsy's ... no evil; skin as white as milk ... no mischief; proud ... ah, ah, that is bad; we shall be two about that, my young friend." regina impatiently made a motion to proceed, but fru marta did not let go her hold. "wait a bit, my dear," said the stern dame, as she endeavoured to recollect her ancient stock of german words; "it takes time to go a long way. one who crosses my threshold must not be taller than the door-post. better to bend in youth than creep in old age. there ... that's the way for a young girl to greet one who is older and wiser..." and before lady regina knew it, the strong old lady had put her right hand on her neck, her left against her waist, and with a sudden pressure, forced her proud guest to bow as deeply as one could desire. lady regina's pale cheeks were covered with a flush as red as the sunset sky before a storm. more erect and prouder than before rose the girl's slender figure, and her dark eyes flashed fire. she said nothing, but old dorthe was determined to give fru marta a lesson in politeness on her mistress' behalf. she advanced with lively southern gesticulations, and screamed, beside herself with anger: "miserable finnish witch, how dare you treat a high-born lady in such a manner? do you know, vile jailor, whom you have the honour of receiving in your house? you do not! then i will tell you. this is the exalted lady regina von emmeritz, _née_ princess of emmeritz, hohenloe, and saalfield, countess of wertheim and bischoffshöhe, heiress of dettelsbach and kissingen, &c. her father was the prince of emmeritz, who owned more castles than you, miserable wretch, have huts in your town. her mother was princess würtemberg, related to the electoral house of bavaria, and her still living uncle, the right reverend bishop of würzburg, is lord of marienburg, and the town of würzburg, with all the lands belonging to it. you take advantage of us because your heretic king has taken our land and town, and made us prisoners; but the day will come when st. george and the holy virgin will descend and destroy you, you heathen; and if you harm a hair of our heads, this castle shall be levelled to the ground, and you, miserable witch, and your whole town, annihilated ..." it is probable that old dorthe's outpourings would not have come to an end for some time, had not fru marta made a sign to her servants, at which they carried off the old woman without any ceremony, and in spite of her strenuous resistance, to one of the small rooms on the lower floor, where she was left to herself to further reflect upon the high lineage of her young lady. but fru marta took the astonished regina, half by force, half voluntarily, by the arm, and led her to the allotted room near her own, with a view over the town. here the stern old lady left her for the present, yet not without adding the following admonitions at the door: "i can tell you, my young friend, to obey is better than to weep; the bird that sings too early in the morning is in the claws of the hawk before evening. follow the laws of the country you are in. it is now seven o'clock. at eight supper is served, at nine you go to bed, and at four in the morning you get up, and if you don't know how to card and spin, i will give you some sewing, so that time shall not hang heavy on your hands. then we will talk together, and when your waiting woman learns to hold her tongue you may have her back again. good night; don't forget to say your prayers; a psalm prayer book lies on the dressing-table." with these words fru marta shut the door, and lady regina was alone. solitary, imprisoned, in a foreign land, left to the mercy of a hard keeper ... her thoughts were of the most depressing kind. lady regina fell on her knees, and prayed to the saints, not from the heretic prayer book, but with the rosary of rubies which her uncle, the bishop, had formerly given her as sponsor. what did she pray for? only heaven and the black walls of korsholm know that; but a sympathetic heart can imagine her petitions. she prayed for the saints' assistance; for the victory of her faith and the downfall of the heretics; she prayed also that the saints might convert king gustaf adolf to the only saving church; that he, another saul, might become another paul. finally she prayed for freedom and protection ... the hours fled; her supper was brought in, and still she continued her supplications. at last lady regina arose and looked out of the little window. there lay a landscape in the sunset glow; it was not franconia, with its luxuriant vineyards; it was not the rushing main; the town yonder was not rich würzburg, with its rows of cloisters and high turret spires. it was poor, pale finland, with an arm of its sea; it was young little vasa, with its church, mustasaari, the oldest in east bothnia; one could plainly see the reflection of the sun on the small gothic windows, of stained glass belonging to catholic times, and it seemed to regina as if she saw the transfigured saints looking out from their former temple. and at this moment, had not the eye of the setting sun itself such a beatific look, as it serenely gazed down upon the world's strife! all was silent and still--the evening glow, the landscape's pretty verdure, the newly mown fields with their rows of sheaves, the small red houses with their shining windows--all conduced to devotion and peace. suddenly, lady regina heard in the distance a mild, plaintive song, simple and unaffected, as if proceeding from nature's own heart, on a lonely evening, with a setting sun on the shore of a silent sea, when all sweet memories awaken in a longing breast. at first she did not listen, but it came nearer ... now it was obstructed by a cottage wall, now by a group of hanging birches; now it was heard again, high, clear, and free; and finally one could distinguish the words. chapter vi. the love of the north and the south. when the lonely singer approached one could gradually understand the import of the song. it was a gentle heart, which sang in uneven but impressive numbers, its longings and its sorrows on the shore in the glow of a beautiful august evening far off in the north country. "the sun shines bright and clear o'er the waters far and near, and the moon wanders in the night above in the heavenly sphere. but never again will the sun supreme shine down on the forgotten troth, and never again shall the gentle moon's beam illumine the brave knight's holy oath. "the only one i loved so dear lives far away in a palace fine, surrounded by splendour he leaves me here alone with grief and sorrow mine. he is served by many, i have but one knight, he has castles, towns, and land. i spread my pearls in the evening light and sing to the waves on the strand. "the bird flies to the south so fair, far away to the castle grand, and sings on the tree a sorrowful air, as i in my lonely land. the brave knight listens to the song, how strangely his heart doth beat, and before one knows the evening long hath gone like the joys that never repeat." the more lady regina listened to the simple strains, which to her were foreign and strange, and yet appealing through their deep melancholy, the more she was affected by this sorrow so like her own. she wished to breathe the fresh evening air; the little window, however, long resisted her attempts to open it, but all lady marta's prudence could not prevent the hinges from being old and rusty, and at last they yielded to the young girl's persistent efforts. she had only been a guest in this castle for a few hours, and yet she inhaled the evening fragrance as a prisoner for long years finally breathes the air of his freedom. her heart expanded and her eyes regained their fire; her mind became filled with a dreamy ecstasy, and she sang softly, so as not to be heard by her custodian, but clearly and melodiously. regina's song. "great as my sufferings are still to thee i will repair. holy virgin, wilt thou bless what to thee i now confess, my soul's desire sincere to die without fear. "amongst the kings of the earth my loved one hath his birth, far flash his dread strokes as the almighty's lightnings rend the oaks. but victor and conqueror tho' he be yet mild and merciful is he. "i'll all forget, and firmly stand, if you give me the dread command to stop the hero's great career. o holy virgin, bright and dear, god's mother, thou me hear, spare the noble heart that knows no fear. "make the heretic king his faults forswear, and that he will our glorious faith declare. then my weary heart will gain its rest. o mary, grant me this request, spare his life, his throne, let me with my death for his crime atone." the solitary figure which had sung the first song now slowly approached the castle walls; it was a woman of the people, with once beautiful features, now pale and expressing a winning and sympathetic heart. she tried to listen to the strange girl's song, but could not succeed on account of the foreign language and suppressed tones. she then seated herself on a stone a short distance from the castle, and fixed her mild gaze on the prisoner at the window. in her turn, regina also fastened her dark penetrating eyes on the visitor. one would think that they perfectly understood each other, for the language of songs needs no other lexicon than the heart. or did a presentiment tell them, the girl of seventeen and the woman of thirty-six, that their loves were concentrated on the same object, and that both sang their shipwrecked hopes on the lonely shore, but in an infinitely differing way? up in the north the summer nights are clear until the beginning of august, then a light veil spreads itself over land and sea as soon as the sun goes down. by the middle of august this veil has already become thicker, and casts a mild soft shade over the summer leaves and grass. when the moon rises upon this world of vanishing green, then there is nothing more sadly beautiful to be found in all nature than one of these lovely evenings in august. then the eye accustomed to three months unbroken day, shrinks from the darkness and yet sees this darkness in its loveliest aspect, like a mild sorrow softened by a ray of heavenly glory. this impression would return every year even if one lived for centuries; it is light and darkness which at the same moment are struggling in the world and in the human heart. the two lonely singers felt the power of this impression; they both sat fixed and mute, quietly regarding each other in the twilight; neither of them spoke, and yet they understood each other's inmost thoughts. then the pale woman suddenly rose and turned her face towards the town. she seemed to be listening to a noise which disturbed the holy peace of the evening. lady regina followed every movement of the stranger, and leaned out of the window so as to be able to see better. all nature was calm and silent, only the strokes of oars were heard from the sea, or the melancholy prolonged note from some shepherd's horn. this stillness increased by the first darkness of the autumn, had something solemn and inviting to worship about it, and made the noise which now came from the distant town still more singular. it was not the surges of the sea, or the roar of the fors,* or the crackling of a fire in the wood. although it resembled all these. it was more like the murmur of an enraged populace, at once actuated by rage and want. directly afterwards the reflection of a fire was seen afar off in the northern portion of the town. * fors, a stream peculiar to the north, like rapids. with the speed of the wind the lonely woman outside the wall hurried away in the direction of the sounds and light .... we will now precede her for a moment. the arrival of the man-of-war, which was destined to transport the conscripts, had placed the latter in a state of excitement much augmented by sorrow, pride, and ale. with their under officers at their head, they had thronged around the ale-shops, and at this time, when the soldier was all important, one was often obliged to overlook his irregularities and keep him in a good humour. the superior officers consequently pretended not to notice that young men, with the combative temperament of east bothnia, were in a state of intoxication more or less; and it is possible that this policy might have been the right one at the time, had not a special circumstance detrimental to peace brought their unrestrained passions into full play. the brave sergeant, bengt kristerson, did not neglect this opportunity to do himself every possible justice. filled with a sense of his own great importance, he had jumped on a table and easily demonstrated to the crowd of conscripts: first, that he especially had conquered germany; secondly, that long before this he would have driven the emperor ferdinand into the river danube, had not the latter been in league with satan and bewitched the whole swedish army, and the king himself first of all; thirdly, that bengt, on the night of the frankfurt ball, was on guard outside the king's bed-chamber, and there he had plainly seen beelzebub in the form of a young girl, who then made a terrible commotion; fourthly--this thought naturally struck him during his inspired address--that the weal or woe of the country, yes, of the whole world, depended upon the witch, who was a prisoner at korsholm... "you will see that the black-haired witch will bring the plague to the town," observed thoughtfully a malax peasant, with very fair hair and shabby appearance. "the wolf-cub!" "the king's murderess!" "shall we allow her to sit in peace and destroy both king and country with her witch-shots?" cried a drunken clerk of assizes, who had just joined the company. "let us duck her in the sea!" shrieked a nerpes peasant. "let us club her on the spot!" yelled a lappo cottager, with an eagle nose and dark bushy eyebrows. "and if they do not give her into our hands, we will set fire to korsholm and burn the owl and the nest at the same time," said a ferocious laihela peasant. "better that, than to have the kingdom ruined," remarked a grave-looking seal-hunter from replot. "here, take brands!" shouted a worä peasant. "to korsholm!" cried the whole crowd. and stimulated as usual by their own clamour, they rushed to the big open fire-place in the large room, and pulled out all the brands from it. but, unfortunately, there was a lot of hemp hanging in bundles on the wall in the room. one of the conscripts in the scramble swung his brand too high, and the hemp caught fire; the strong draught from the open door fanned the flame, and in a few minutes the ale-house was in full blaze. all inside rushed out, and no one had time to realise how it happened. "it is a witch-shot!" cried some of them. "the witch at korsholm will have to pay for all this!" shouted the others. and the whole raging mass rushed off at full speed towards the old castle. chapter vii. the siege of korsholm. as soon as meri--for she was the lonely singer--understood the wild crowd's intention, she flew back to korsholm. by the silver rays of the moonlight, which shone over the landscape, she plainly distinguished regina's dark locks, which, blacker than the night, stood in relief from the room in the background, like a shadow in the midst of the shade. under these locks shone two eyes, dreamy, deep, like the glimmer of the stars in the dusky mirror of a lake. the words died on meri's lips; all the strange rumours rose like spectres in her mind. she who sat up there alone at the window, was she not, after all, a southern witch, weeping over her fate in being compelled to spend the seven years of her wondrous beauty within these walls, and then reassume her normal shape; a terrible monster, half-woman and half-serpent? meri stood as if petrified at the foot of the wall. but nearer and nearer was heard the murmur of the wild crowd, and the light of the torches began to be reflected on the castle. then the superstitious countrywoman gathered courage, and raised her voice to the window. "fly, your grace," she said rapidly in swedish; "fly, a great danger threatens you; the soldiers are intoxicated and frantic; they say that you have tried to kill the king, and they demand your life." regina saw the pale form in the moonlight, and before her imagination rose all the stories she had heard about this land of witchcraft. during her ten months' stay in sweden she had in some degree learned to understand the language; she did not immediately comprehend the other's meaning, but a single word sufficed to attract all her attention. "the king?" she repeated in broken swedish. "who are you, and what can you tell me about the great gustaf adolf?" "lose not a moment, your grace," continued meri, ignoring regina's question. "they are already at the gates, and fru marta, with six soldiers, will not be able to protect you against two hundred. quick! don't come out by the door, but tie together sheets and shawls, and let yourself down through the window; i will receive you." regina saw that a danger threatened, but far from being terrified by it, she heard it with a secret joy. was she not a martyr to her faith, transported to this wild land for her zeal in trying to convert the mightiest enemy of her church? perhaps the moment was at hand when the saints would grant her a martyr's-crown, richly earned by her devotion. was it not the tempter himself, who in this pale woman's form, tried to lure her from an imperishable glory? and regina answered: "and satan saith unto him: 'cast thyself down: for it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, that they may preserve thee, so that no harm may befall thee...'"* * compare matthew iv. , where the lutheran text differs from the catholic. at these words the moon appeared round a corner of the wall and threw its pale beams on the beautiful girl's face. her cheeks glowed, and her eyes burned with an ecstatic fire. meri looked at her with wonder and dread ... and again it seemed to her that it was not well with a being, who possessed such a singular appearance, and uttered such strange sounds from her lips. an overwhelming fear seized her, and she fled, without knowing why, back to the town. in the meantime regina heard the murmur from the castle yard up in her chamber. the drunken horde had been checked by a stout gate, and stood clamouring outside, threatening to burn down the fortress, unless the witch was immediately given up to them. but fru marta, just awakened from a sound sleep, was not one easily scared. she had been in more than one siege in her younger days, and understood like a wise commander, that a fortress does not fall at big words. "one who gains time, gains all," she thought, and therefore began to negotiate about the capitulation, wishing to know what the besiegers especially wanted, and why they wanted it. in the meantime six old muskets were hunted up, with which the defenders were armed; the soldiers were also provided with clubs and pikes; the servant girls themselves received orders to take the poles, with which more than one of fleming's horsemen received their doom during the club or peasants' war. thus prepared, fru marta thought that she could safely break off all negotiations; she therefore advanced to the inside of the gate, and began a tirade which meant action and no play. "ye crazy boors!" shrieked the brave dame with more energy than courtesy, "may the devil take you all, drunken ale-bibbers! be off this instant, or, as sure as my name is marta ulfsparre, you shall have a taste of 'master hans' on the back, you villains, sots, shameless knaves, and night loafers!" "master hans" was a good-sized braided rattan, which seldom left fru marta's hand, and for which all the inmates of the castle entertained a profound respect. but whether the noisy crowd did not know of "master hans'" fine qualities, or whether fru marta's words were only imperfectly heard in the uproar, the mob continued to press on with loud cries, and the strong gate shook on its hinges. "out with the witch!" shouted the most excited, and some threw lighted brands against the gate, hoping to set it on fire. fru marta had on the ramparts two old cannon from gustaf i.'s time, called "the hawk" and "the dove." their functions were to respond to the salutes of vessels arriving in the harbour, and to roar forth the delight of the people on royal christening days and nuptials. it is true that the ramparts lay outside the high fence with its iron spikes, which constituted the only fortification of the castle, and were thus easily accessible to the besiegers. but fru marta thought correctly, that a cannonade from the ramparts would frighten the enemy, and serve as a signal of distress, to summon assistance from the man-of-war and the town. she therefore ordered two of her soldiers to steal out under cover of the night, load "the hawk" and "the dove," and directly after the blank charges were fired, to return quickly to the castle. the effect was instantaneous. the uproar ceased at once, and fru marta did not let the opportunity slip from her grasp. "do you hear, you pack of thieves?" she screamed, mounted on a ladder, so that her white night-cap was seen in the moonlight just above the gate, "if you don't take yourselves off this minute from his majesty's castle, i will make my cannon shatter you into fragments, like cabbage stalks, you noisy, drunken swine! angry dogs get torn skins; and the chicken who sticks his neck in the jaws of the fox will have to look around to see where his head is. i will cut you to pieces, you rowdy set," continued fru marta, getting more and more excited. "i will let them make mince-meat of you, and throw you to the----" unhappily the brave commander was not allowed to finish her heroic speech. one of the crowd had found a rotten turnip on the ground, and hurled it with such good aim at the white night-cap, which shone in the moonlight, that fru marta, struck right on the brow, was obliged to retreat, and for the first time in her life had her tongue silenced. a huge laugh now spread through the crowd, and with it fru marta's supremacy was at an end. the enemy battered still more arrogantly against the gate, the hinges bent, the boards gave way, and finally half of the gate fell in with a great crash, and the whole crowd rushed into the courtyard. now one would say that fru marta would have to surrender. but no, she quickly withdrew with all her force to the interior of the castle, barred the entrance, and placed her musketeers at the windows, threatening to shoot down the first comers. such determined courage ought to have succeeded, but the infuriated mob neither heard or saw. one of the front men, who had found a crowbar, began to batter the door... then confusion and outcries arose in the rear of the crowd ... those in the middle turned round and saw through the broken gate, as far as one could discern in the moonlight, the whole way filled with heads and muskets. it was as if an army had sprung from the earth in order to annihilate the besiegers. could it be the shades of all the dead champions of korsholm, who had risen from their graves to avenge the violence offered against their old fortress? in order to explain the unexpected sight which now alarmed the crowd, one must remember that a large portion of the country people from the adjacent hamlets had flocked to the town to witness the departure of the recruits. it should also be mentioned that the peasant king had remained all night in vasa, probably in the secret expectation of hearing some news about bertel from the crew of the "maria eleonora." the burning of the ale-house and the march of the intoxicated crowd towards korsholm had set all vasa in commotion, and when meri arrived in breathless haste, imploring her father to rescue the imprisoned lady, she found everywhere willing ears. the east bothnian is soon ready for battle, and when the peasants learned the insults put upon old bertila, their best man, the ancient animosity arose within them against the soldiers. they forgot that many of their own sons and brothers were conscripts; they could not neglect such a fine chance to give the soldiers a thrashing, both in the name of humanity and loyalty to the crown. they marched therefore, with bertila at their head, about a hundred strong, to the rescue of the castle, and what in the moonlight appeared to be pikes and muskets, were mostly poles and rails, which had been hastily snatched up, the usual weapons employed in the battles of that region. as soon as the soldiers saw that they were attacked in the rear, they tried to conceal their alarm with loud shouts and cries. uncertain of the enemy's strength, some of them already wished to beat a dangerous retreat over the spiked fence; others imagined that they had to deal with an army of goblins, called up by the incantations of the foreign witch. they were soon aroused from this delusion, however, by hearing the sounds of malax swedish, and lillkyro finnish, which could reasonably be thought to come from human and not spectral lips. at the moment the outer enemy blocked the gate with his forces, a silence arose on both sides, during which one could hear two voices speaking, together: one from the castle window, and the other from the ramparts. "what did i tell you?" shrieked fru marta from the window; "didn't i tell you, drunkards and vagabonds, that you ought to think seven times before putting your noses between the wedges of the tree, and if the tail has once got into the fox-trap, there is nothing left but to bite it off. a large mouth needs a broad back, and now hold yourself in readiness to pay the fiddler." with this outburst fru marta drew back; possibly from fear of another rotten turnip. the other voice was that of an old man, who, in powerful tones, cried to the soldiers: "lay down your arms, and give up your leaders, then the rest may go in peace. if not, there will be a dance, the like of which korsholm has never seen, and we will see to it that the bows are well rosined." "may all the demons seize you, rascal peasant!" answered a voice from the courtyard, which clearly belonged to the jovial sergeant, bengt kristerson. "if i had you down here i would, blitz-donner-kreutz-pappenheim, teach you to insult brave soldiers with offers of surrender. go ahead, boys; clear the gateway, and drive the crew back to their porridge kettles!" fortunately none of the conscripts had muskets, which had not yet been distributed, and very few possessed swords. most of them had only extinguished brands, fragments of broken carriages, and faggots snatched from a wood-pile in the yard. thus armed, the warriors bore down upon the entrance. at the first onset the recruits were received with such vigorous blows, that numbers had broken heads. soon the press at the gate became so dense that no arm could be raised or blow dealt; those in front struggled furiously to extricate themselves, whilst the rest closed upon them and rendered all movement impossible. strong arms and broad shoulders exerted themselves fruitlessly to make a way through the crowd. at last the pressure from within became so great, that the first ranks of the peasants were broken, and about half of the soldiers cleared a way towards the open plain outside the ramparts, whilst the remainder were again penned up in the courtyard. a regular battle began. poles, sticks, whips, and fists were used. many a vigorous blow was delivered, which would have been much better bestowed on isolani's croats; many a fine exploit was performed, more in place on the german battlefields. the soldiers were split in two parties by the gate, and although the most numerous, soon had the worst of it. the youngest recruits took to flight, and ran towards the town; some were overpowered and badly beaten; others, including the old veterans, retired to the ramparts, and with backs to the wall defended themselves valiantly. victory now seemed on the side of the peasants, when their opponents received new assistance. the peasants at the gate, who on account of the struggle outside, forgot the enemy within, were surprised by the penned-up soldiers, who now rushed out to help their comrades. the latter thus relieved, fell upon the peasants with redoubled ardour; the affray became more and more involved, and victory more and more uncertain; both parties had defeats to avenge, and the rage on both sides increased as their strength became equal. over this scene of tumult, confusion, and wild conflict, the silvery august moon beamed like a heavenly eye. all the inlets shone in the moonlight; and in the tree-tops and the moist grass glittered millions of dewdrops, like pearls on summer's green robe. all nature seemed at peace; a gentle breeze from the west rippled the surface of the sea, and passed softly over the land; the monotonous roll of the surf upon the beach was heard in the distance, and the twinkling, silent stars looked down into the dark waters. when the yard was empty, fru marta and her men ventured out again to behold the strife from the ramparts. the courageous old lady undoubtedly wished to join in some way in the contest, for she cried to the peasants in a loud voice: "that's right, boys, go ahead; let the sticks fly; many have danced to worse tunes!" and to the soldiers she screamed: "good luck to you, my children; help yourselves to a little supper; korsholm offers what it can give. be at ease; your witch is in good keeping; korsholm has bolts and bars for you too, miscreants!" but as if a capricious destiny wished to convict the old lady of error and put her to the blush, a tall, dark female figure now appeared on the top of the ramparts, and was outlined against the clear night sky. fru marta's words froze on her lips from dismay, when she recognised the figure of her well-guarded prisoner. how lady regina had got through locked doors and closed windows was an inexplicable problem, and for a moment she was infected by the common belief in the strange girl's alliance with the powers of darkness. she renounced all idea of arresting the fugitive, and expected each moment to see large black wings grow out of her shoulders, that she might take flight like a monstrous raven, and soar aloft to the starry heavens. the reader, however, can easily discover a natural solution of the difficulty. the din of the conflict and the cannon-shots had reached regina's isolated chamber. every moment she expected her room to be invaded, and herself seized by executioners and dragged to a certain death; and so glorious did this martyrdom seem to her, that her impatience increased to the highest point. then an hour passed, and whilst the noise below continued, no footsteps approached her door. at last the thought took possession of her fanatical soul that the prince of darkness envied her so grand a fate, and that the strife was fomented by him to ensure her a languishing life in captivity, without profit to herself or the holy faith. then she remembered the advice of the singing woman, to let herself down through the open window by means of sheets and shawls; she took a sudden resolve, and in a few minutes stood on the ramparts in full view of all the combatants. as soon as the latter saw the tall form in the moonlight, they were seized with the same superstitious dread which had just paralyzed fru marta's nimble tongue. the conflict gradually subsided in the vicinity, and continued only at the most remote points; friend and foe were affected by a common horror, and near the ramparts rose a silence so profound, that one could hear in the distance the sea's low murmur on the pebbly beach. lady regina then spoke with a voice so strong and clear, that if her terribly imperfect swedish had not stood in the way, she would have been understood by all those within hearing. "ye children of belial," she said in tones, trembling at first, but soon calm and composed, "ye people of the heretic faith, why do ye delay to take my life? i am defenceless, without human protection, with the high heavens above me, and the earth and sea at my feet, and say to you: your luther was a false prophet; there is no salvation except in the orthodox catholic church. be converted, therefore, to the holy virgin and all the saints, acknowledge the pope to be christ's vicegerent, as he truly is, that you may avert st. george's sword from your heads, which is already raised to destroy you. but you can kill me in order to seal the veracity of my faith; here i stand; why do you hesitate? i am ready to die for my faith." it was lady regina's good fortune that her speech was not understood by the crowd, for so strong was the power of lutheranism at this fanatical time, when nations and individuals sacrificed life and welfare for their creed, that all were filled with flaming zeal, and a blind hatred for the pope and his followers--of which our crabbed but pithy old psalm-books bear witness to-day. had this crowd, whether peasants or soldiers, heard regina extol the pope, and declare luther a false prophet, they would have certainly torn her to pieces in their rage. as it was, the young girl's meaning escaped them; they saw her bold bearing, and the respect which courage and misfortune together always inspire, did not fail to have its effect upon them; they now stood wavering, and at a loss what to think or do. lady regina again expected, in vain, to be dragged to death. she descended from the rampart, and mingled with the irresolute crowd; they all saw that she was quite unprotected, and yet not a hand was put forth to seize her. "she is not honest flesh and blood; she is a shadow," said an old worä peasant doubtingly. "it seems to me that i see the moon shine right through her." "we will soon prove that," exclaimed a rough fellow from ilmola, laying his coarse hand rather heavily on regina's shoulder. it was a critical moment; the young girl turned round and looked her molester right in the face with such deep, shining eyes, that the latter seized with a strange feeling, immediately drew back, and stole away abashed. some of the nearest bystanders followed him. none could understand the power of these dark eyes in the moonlight, but all felt their wondrous influence. in a few moments the space near regina was empty, and the strife had ceased. a patrol, who now arrived, arrested the ringleaders. not long, however, did the rivalry engendered by the club war continue between the peasants and the soldiers; between the peaceful _plough_, finland's pride, and the conquering sword, which at this time was drawn to subdue the roman emperor himself. of regina we need only say that she willingly allowed herself, yet with a sigh over the martyr's-crown she had missed, to be taken back to the dark, solitary prison-chamber. but bertila returned with his daughter to storkyro; the old man with thoughts of coming greatness, the young woman with the memory of a past joy. all this occurred during two days in the summer of , thus, before king gustaf adolf's death. days and months elapsed, and human destinies changed their forms, so that the swift word is obliged to check its flight, and remain silent awhile in expectation of the evenings which are to come. for the surgeon's stories, like a child's joy or sorrow, lasted but a brief time--long enough for those who with friendship listened to them, and perhaps sufficiently long for the others. but never was the thread of the story clipped in the middle of its course without both young and old anticipating more. and the surgeon had to promise this. he had so much still left to relate about the half-spun skein of two family histories, that next time it will probably be spun; longer--if not to the end, at least to the knot, which says that the skein has reached its right length. iii.--fire and water. six weeks passed before the surgeon and his circle of listeners gathered again. during that time an accident had happened to old bäck. most of us in this world possess hobbies, and old bachelors in particular. bäck had got it into his mind that he ought to have a certain comfort in his old age; he had in his garret a good-sized sack of feathers, which he increased in spring and autumn by bird-shooting. to what use these feathers were to be put no one knew; when he was asked about it, he said: "i will do like possen at the 'wiborg explosion'; if finland is in need, i will go up some tower and shake my feathers into the air, then there will be as many soldiers as the sack has feathers." "you talk like a goose, my brother," replied captain svanholm, the postmaster. "in our days one must have different stuff to make soldiers of. by my soul, i think you consider us warriors like chickens!" "yes," added the surgeon, when the captain was about to continue, "i know what you wish to say: exactly like fieandt at karstula." however, the fact was, that the surgeon had one fine april day gone to the sea-shore on a shooting expedition, with artificial decoy ducks. he was accompanied by an old one-eyed corporal called ritsi (finnish for fritz), who had been a pedlar in his youth, and wandered over germany with a pack on his back; but he brought home nothing except a change in his name. the ice still remained in patches, with gaps between; both the old men strolled along the edge, and discharged a shot every now and then; but it amounted to very little, as both of them had rather poor eyesight. it happened early one morning that bäck thought he saw a pair of fine ducks at the further end of the ice, which could only be reached by making a long circuit. he set off, and sure enough the ducks were there. he crept as near as he dared, aimed, and fired ... the ducks' feathers were slightly agitated, but they did not stir from the spot. "those creatures are pretty tough," thought bäck; he reloaded, and fired again at thirty paces. the same result followed. much astonished, bäck went nearer, and discovered for the first time that he had been shooting at his own decoy ducks, which the wind had imperceptibly driven from the inner to the outer edge of the ice. the old gentleman now thought about returning; but this was easier said than done. the wind had separated the ice on which _he_ stood, from the ice which held ritsi, and the loose block was drifting out to sea. the two old friends looked sadly at each other; scarcely a dozen yards separated them, and yet the corporal could not assist his companion, for there was no boat. bäck was drifting slowly and steadily out to sea. "good-bye, now, comrade," cried the surgeon, whilst still within hearing. "tell svenonius and svanholm that my will is locked up in the bureau-drawer to the right. tell them to have the bells rung for me next sunday. as for the funeral, you need not give yourself any trouble; i will attend to that myself." "god have mercy!" yelled the corporal, putting the wrong side of his jacket to his eyes, and returning to the shore slowly and tranquilly, as if nothing had happened. for the honour of the good town, it must be said, that the rest of the surgeon's friends were far from taking the matter like the corporal. the postmaster cursed and swore; the schoolmaster marched out at the head of his boys; and the old grandmother quietly sent off a couple of able-bodied pilots in their boats to cruise between the blocks of ice. the greatest excitement prevailed; confusion and running about everywhere; and those who made the most fuss accomplished the least. two days passed without any trace of the surgeon; on the third the pilots came back from a fruitless search. all gave the surgeon up for lost. there was sincere mourning in the town for such an old institution as bäck--everyone's friend, and everybody's confidant--he was one of the little town's house-spirits, without whom the community could not get on. but what could be done? when the third sunday arrived, without any news of the unfortunate bird-hunter, the bells were rung for his soul, according to custom, and a fine eulogy composed by svenonius, was read in the church, and the city magistrate appointed a day in the ensuing week for taking an inventory of his effects. i hope, however, that the reader, who has noticed the title of this veracious story, will not be alarmed. in reality it would be very hard if the surgeon should be called away just now, when regina sits imprisoned at korsholm, under fru marta's stern control, and bertel lies bleeding on the battlefield of lützen. and what would become of the gentle meri, of the peasant king of storkyro, and of so many other important personages in this narrative? patience! the surgeon had certainly gone through worse experiences in his day ... he had not been born for nothing on the same day as napoleon! everything was arranged to take the inventory. astonishing order prevailed in bäck's garret; something unusual had happened there; the place was swept and cleaned. all his things were set out: medicine chest dusted, stuffed birds placed in a row, the collection of eggs exposed to view. the silver-headed spanish cane stood in a corner; the old peruke hung with a melancholy look on its hook; the innermost mysteries of bäck's bureau, the pale locks of hair from former days, were drawn forth to be valued in roubles and kopeks; probably not at high amounts. an alderman, with an official air, had taken his place at the old oak table, where a large sheet of official paper now occupied the space usually reserved for the surgeon's carpenter's tools; a clerk was sharpening his pencil opposite the alderman, and the old grandmother as hostess, had presented herself with moist eyes to deliver up bäck's property, as the old man had no relations. one thing, however, was still unopened: it was the old seal-skin trunk under the surgeon's bed. the official's eyes occasionally wandered there with a pious thought of the profit to be derived from the inheritance; but no one knew what the trunk contained, and who was the rightful and legal heir. it was time to begin. svanholm and svenonius were called as appraisers. the alderman coughed once or twice, assumed a judicial air, and then said: "whereas it has come to the knowledge of the worthy magistrate that the deceased surgeon of the high crown, andreas bäck, met his death on the ice whilst engaged in bird-shooting; and although not found in body, is in soul, rightfully and lawfully killed..." "i would most humbly beg to contradict that!" suddenly interrupted a voice from the door. the effect was truly marvellous. the magistrate lost both his wits and official bearing; he turned his eyes upwards, and his eloquent tongue for the first time refused its office. the secretary sprang up like a rocket, and knocked over the learned svenonius, who, being somewhat deaf, had not heard the cause of the sudden commotion. the brave svanholm was in a terrible plight; one could have sworn that not even at karstula had he gone through such an ordeal. he looked as white as a ghost, and tried in vain to compel his left foot to advance. the old grandmother was the only one who showed self-possession; she put on her spectacles, went straight to the new-comer, and shook her ancient head dubiously, as if to say that it was very wrong of corpses to come to life again. but old bäck--for who else could it be?--was not at all daunted. his feelings had quite a different character. when he beheld his dear old garret so altered, his precious effects on show, and the magistrate in full activity with what bäck thought none of his business, he was seized, excusably enough, with righteous anger, and took the myrmidons of the law by the neck, one after the other, and threw them without ceremony from the room. then came the turn of brother svenonius, who was not spared, and finally svanholm, before he could utter a word, found himself rolling headlong down the stairs. all this happened in the twinkling of an eye. only the grandmother remained. when bäck met her mild, reproachful glance, he was ashamed, and came to his senses. "well, well," said he, "you must not take it ill, cousin; i shall teach brooms and dusters to disorder my room ... be so kind as to take a seat. it would provoke a stone to see such actions. see how these wretches have scrubbed my room and dusted my birds. it is a positive crime!" "dear cousin," said the grandmother, at once vexed and delighted, "i am the one to be blamed; we thought you must be drowned." "drowned, indeed!" muttered the surgeon. "i tell you, cousin, that poor powder isn't so easily got rid of. it is true that i floated around on that miserable ice-floe for three whole days and nights. it wasn't exactly a warm bed and spread table, but it served. i shot a venturesome seal. it was pretty oily, i assure you, but 'better that than nothing.' i had a tinder-box and salt, too; so i made a fire of my game bag, and fried a steak. on the fourth day i drifted to firm ice at west bothnia, and marched ashore. 'now it's time to go home,' i thought. said and done; i sold my gun and hired a team. and i tell you what, cousin, they would have been spared from upsetting my room, and sticking their noses into my affairs, had not the swedes quadrupled the rate, compared with old times. my purse was empty before i came to haparanda. then i thought, 'let the medical college go to the dogs!' and began my old practice with the lancet and 'essentia dulcis,' as i went along; and all the old women--god bless you, i thought you were going to sneeze--and all the old women were amazed to see former times revived. in this manner i was able to reach home--a little too late, but still in time to throw out my uninvited guests." the surgeon had great difficulty in pardoning his friends for their invasion of his peaceful kingdom. had they taken his treasures, or slandered his good name, he could have forgiven them, but to put his room in order was more than he could stand! little by little, however, the storm was allayed through the old grandmother's wise diplomacy; and so the day came when the reconciliation was celebrated with a third tale. it is true that some plain people still looked upon the surgeon as a ghost; the magistrate doubted his right to live when he had been legally declared dead; the postmaster swore over his sore back, which still bore the marks of the meeting with brother bäck; svenonius sighed over a hole in his twenty-year-old black coat, which he had worn in honour of the solemn occasion. but the old grandmother smiled as usual; anne sophie was friendly as ever; the little folks were as noisy; and--thus it happened that the sunshine scattered the morning mists, and the horizon was cleared for the captive regina. * * * * * "my dear friends," began the surgeon, "it may puzzle you why i call this story 'fire and water.' you understand _the king's ring_, and how _the sword and the plough_ came into conflict. perhaps you think that i shall now treat you to natural history. that would be well and good. but i entertain the opinion that in a story, humanity is the great thing. if we look at pictures, we heartily admire a fruit or a game painting, but i believe figure-painting, with fine human forms, is nevertheless superior. therefore i do not intend to describe conflagrations and deluges, but have chosen my title from the fact that human temperaments correspond to the elements--some to fire, some to air, others to water and earth. i intend to tell you about four persons: two of whom possessed a fiery nature, and two a watery. all is not said that could be said, for most titles have the fault of only giving one aspect of many. i thought of calling this part 'the coat of arms,' when i realised that it might also be called 'the axe.' i might have alarmed you with the terrible title of 'the curse'; but when i came to think it over, i found that it could just as well be styled 'the blessing.' therefore you will have to be contented with the elements; i have now said all i wished, and i will leave you to guess the rest." chapter i. the treasure from the battlefield. the first thing to be borne in mind is, that the story of the sword and the plough happened before the battle of lützen. on now going back to that combat, on the th of november, , we may forget for a time that the "sword and the plough" ever existed, and imagine that we still stand by the great hero's dead body, as it lay embalmed in the village of meuchen. it was a fine but terrible spectacle when the pappenheimers charged the finns on the east of the river rippach. these splendid cuirassiers rushed upon stälhandske; the tired finns and their horses reeled and gave way before this terrific onslaught. but stälhandske rallied them again, man to man, horse to horse; they fought to the death; and friends and foes were mixed together in one bleeding, confused mass. here fell pappenheim and his bravest men; half of the finnish cavalry were trampled under the horses' hoofs, and yet the battle raged till nightfall. bertel rode at stalhandske's side, and here he encountered pappenheim. the youth of twenty could not cope with this arm of steel; the brave general struck bertel on the helmet with such tremendous force, that he reeled and became unconscious. but in falling he mechanically grasped his horse by the mane, and the faithful lapp galloped away, dragging his master with one foot in the stirrup. when bertel opened his eyes he was in utter darkness. he vaguely remembered the last incident of the combat, and pappenheim's uplifted sword. he thought he was now dead, and lay in his grave. he then put his hand to his heart; it was beating: he bit his finger; it hurt him. he realised that he was still in existence, but how and where it was impossible to guess. he reached out his hand and picked up some straw. he felt the damp ground under him, and the empty space above. he tried to raise himself up, but his head was too heavy. it still suffered from the blow of pappenheim's sword. then he heard a voice not far from him, half-complaining, half-mocking, saying in swedish: "saints and fiends! not a drop of wine! those rascally wallachians have grabbed my flask; the miserable hen-thieves! hollo, turk, or jew--it is all one--here with a drop of wine!" "is it you, larsson?" said bertel in a faint voice, for his tongue was also parched with a burning thirst. "what sort of a marmot is it whispering my name?" replied the voice in the darkness. "hurrah, boys, loose reins and a smart gallop! fire your pistols, fling them to the devil, and slash away with swords! cleave their skulls; peel them like turnips! grind them to powder! the king has fallen ... devils and heroism, what a king! ... to-day we bleed. to-day we shall die, but first revenge. that's the way, boys, hurrah ... pitch in, east bothnians!" "larsson," repeated bertel; but his comrade did not heed him. he continued in his delirium to lead his finns to the combat. after a time a ray of the late autumn morning shone through the window of the miserable hut upon bertel. he could now distinguish the straw upon the bare ground, and two men asleep. then the door opened, and a couple of uncouth, bearded men entered, and thrust roughly at the sleepers with the butts of their muskets. "_raus!_" they cried in low german; "it is the signal to start!" and outside the hut was heard the well-known trumpet-blast, which at that time was the usual signal for breaking up the camp. "may they spear me like a frog," said one of the men in a bad humour, "if i can guess what the reverend father wishes to do with these heretic dogs. he should have given them a passport to the arch-fiend, their lord and master." "fool!" replied the other; "do you not know that the heretic king's death is going to be celebrated with a great festival at ingolstadt? the reverend father intends to hold a grand _auto-de-fé_ in honour of the happy event." the two sleepers now stood up half-awake, and bertel could recognise by the faint morning light the little, thick-set larsson and his own faithful pekka. but there was no opportunity for explanations. all three were brought out, bound, and put into a cart, and then the long caravan, composed of wagons for the wounded and baggage, under the charge of the croats, began slowly to move. bertel knew that he and his companions were now prisoners of the imperialists. he soon recovered his memory, and learned from his countrymen in captivity how it all happened. when the faithful lapp felt the reins loose, he galloped with his unconscious master back to camp. but this was being plundered by the wild croats, and when they saw a swedish officer dragged along half dead by his horse, they took him prisoner, in the hope of a good ransom. pekka, who would not forsake his master, was also taken prisoner. larsson, on the other hand, had, at the pappenheimers' attack, charged too far amongst the enemy, and having received a sabre thrust in the shoulder, and a wound in the arm, was unable to extricate himself. who had triumphed larsson did not know with certainty. it was now the third day after the battle; they had marched for a day and night in a southerly direction, and then stopped for a few hours in a deserted village. "accursed crew!" exclaimed the little captain, whose jovial disposition did not abandon him under any circumstances; "if they had not stolen my flask, we might now drink finland's health together. but these croats are thieves of the first water, compared with whom our gipsies at home are innocent angels. i should like to hang a couple of hundred of them from the ramparts of korsholm, as they hang petticoats on the walls of a finnish garret." the march continued with brief halts for several days, not without great suffering and discomfort to the wounded, who, improperly bandaged, were prevented by their fetters from helping each other. at the outset they travelled through a desolated country, where provisions were obtained with great difficulty, and whose population took to flight at the sight of the dreaded croats. but they soon arrived in richer parts, where the catholic inhabitants assembled to curse the heretics, and exult over their king's fall. the whole catholic world shared this rejoicing. it is stated that in madrid brilliant performances took place, in which gustave adolf, another dragon, was conquered by wallenstein as st. george. after seven days' wearisome journeying, the cart with the captive finns drove late one evening over a clattering drawbridge, and stopped in a small courtyard. the wounded prisoners were led out, and conducted up two crumbling flights of stairs into a turret room in the form of a semi-circle. it seemed to bertel as if he had seen this place before, but darkness and fatigue prevented him from making sure. the stars shone through the grated windows, and the prisoners were revived with a cup of wine. larsson said with satisfaction: "i will bet anything that the thieves have stolen their wine from our cellars, while we lay in würzburg, for better stuff i have never tasted!" "würzburg!" said bertel thoughtfully. "regina!" added he, almost unconsciously. "and the wine-cellar!" sighed larsson, mocking him. "i will tell you something. 'the greatest fool upon the earth is he that believes in a girl's worth. when love comes, the little dear, marry instead the cup of good cheer.' "the black-eyed young regina now sits and knits stockings at korsholm. yes, yes, fru marta is not one of the folks who sit and weep in the moonlight. since we last met i have had news from vasa through the jolly sergeant, bengt kristerson. he said he had fought with your father. you had better believe that the old man is a trump; he carried bengt out at arm's-length and threw him down the steps there at your home in storkyro. bengt cursed and swore, declaring that he would put the old man and twelve of his hands into the windmill at once, and grind them to groats; but meri begged for them. smart fellow, bengt kristerson! fights like a dragon, and lies like a skipper. your health!" "what else did you hear from east bothnia?" inquired bertel, who with the bashfulness of youth, blushed at the thought of revealing to his prosaic friend the secret of his heart--his love for the dark-eyed and unhappy lady regina von emmeritz. "not much, except the bad harvests, immense drain caused by the war, and heavy conscriptions. the old men on the farm, your father and mine, quarrel as usual, and make it up again. meri pines for you and sings doleful songs. do you remember that splendid girl, katri? round as a turnip, red as mountain-ash berries, and soft about the chin as a lump of butter. she has run away with a soldier. your health, my boy!" "nothing more?" said bertel abstractedly. "nothing more! what the devil do you want to know, when you don't care for the prettiest girl in the whole of storkyro. 'yes, _noch etivas_,' says the german. there has been a great affray at korsholm. the conscripts got it into their heads that lady regina had tried to kill the king with 'witch-shots,' and then they stormed korsholm, and burned the girl alive. cursedly jolly! here's to the heretics! we also know the art of holding _autos-da-fé_." bertel started up, forgetting his wounds; but pain mastered him. without a cry he sank fainting into larsson's arms. the honest captain was both troubled and angry. while he bathed bertel's temples with the remainder of the noble fluid in the tankard, and presently brought him to life once more, he gave vent to his feelings in the following manner, crescendo from piano to forte. "there, there, bertel ... what next? what the deuce, boy? are you in love with the girl? faint like a lady's maid! courage! did i say that they had burned her? no, my lad, she was only a little scorched, according to what bengt kristerson says, and afterwards she tore fru marta's eyes out, and climbed like a squirrel to the top of the castle. such things happen every day in war ... well, i declare, you have got both your eyes open at last. you are still alive, you milk-baked wheat loaf ... are you not ashamed to behave like a poltroon? you are a pretty soldier! blitz-donnerwetter-kreutz-pappenheim, you are a pomade pot! d--n it, now the tankard is empty also!" the stout little warrior would perhaps have continued to vent his bad humour for some time longer, especially as there was no consolation now left in the cup, had not the door opened, and a female figure then stepped over the threshold. at this sight the captain's pale and fluffy face brightened up. bertel was laid aside, and larsson leaned eagerly forward, in order to see better, for the light of the single lamp was very faint. but the result of his observation did not seem very satisfactory. "a nun! ah, by heaven ... to convert us!" "peace be with you," said a youthful voice from underneath the veil. "i am sent here by the worthy prioress of the cloister of 'our lady' to bind your wounds, and heal them, if it is the will of the saints." "upon my honour, charming friend, i am much obliged; let us become better acquainted," said the captain, as he stretched out his hand to lift the nun's veil. in a flash the latter retreated, and two soldiers appeared at the door. "the devil!" exclaimed larsson, startled, "what proud nuns they have here! when i was at würzburg, i used to get a dozen kisses a day from the young sisters at the convent; such sins always obtain absolution. well," he continued, seeing the nun still hesitating at the door, "your venerableness must not take offence at a soldier's freedom of speech; an honest soldier is a born gallant. although an unbelieving heretic, i can talk latin like a monk. when we stayed at munich i was very intimate with a plump bavarian nun, twenty-seven years old, with brown eyes and a roman nose." "hold your tongue!" impatiently whispered bertel, "you will drive the nun away." "i haven't said a word. walk in; don't be frightened. i will bet it is a long time since you saw twenty-seven. _posito_, says the frenchman, that your venerableness is an old woman." the nun returned in silence, with two others, and examined bertel's wounded head. a delicate white hand drew out some scissors and cut his hair off on each side of the wound. in a short time bertel's wound was dressed by an experienced hand. bertel, touched by this compassion, kissed the nun's hand. "upon my honour, charming matron," cried the voluble captain, "i am jealous of my friend, who is fifteen years younger than i. deign to stretch out your gentle hand and plaster this brave arm, which has conquered so many pious sisters' pity..." the silent nun began to undo the bandages which covered larsson's wounds. her hand touched his. "_potz donnerwetter!_" burst out the captain in surprise. "what a fine and soft little hand! i beg your pardon, amiable fru doctoress; _ex ungua leonem_, says one of the fathers of the church ... that is to say in good swedish: by the paw one knows the lion. i will wager ten bottles of old rhine against a cast-off stirrup, that this little white hand would much rather caress a knight's cheek than finger rosaries night and day." the nun drew her hand away. the gallant captain feared the consequences of his gallantry. "i will say no more; i am silent as a _karthäuser_ monk. but i will say that this hand is not an old woman's ... well, well, your lovely venerableness hears that i keep silent." "_tempus est consummatum, itur in missam_," said a solemn voice at the door, and the nun hastened her task. in a few moments the prisoners were again alone. "i have heard that voice before," said bertel thoughtfully. "we are surrounded by mysteries." "bah!" replied the captain, "it was a mangy and jealous monk. bless me, what a dear little hand!" chapter ii. two old acquaintances. when the autumn sun on the following morning spread its first rays into the turret room, bertel arose and looked out of the iron-barred window. it was a beautiful view that here met his eye. underneath the turret wound a lovely river, and on the other side of it lay a town with thirty spires, and beyond were seen a number of still verdant vineyards. bertel at once recognised würzburg. the castle of marienburg, where the prisoners were confined, had at the retreat of the swedes fallen back into the bishop's hands; but his grace, on account of the insecurity of the times, did not return there himself, but remained in vienna. the castle had suffered much, from the last conquest, and the consequent plundering; one tower had been destroyed, and the moat was filled up in several places. at present there were only fifty men in the garrison, guarding the sisters of charity from the cloisters in the town, and many sick and wounded. when bertel had carefully examined his prison, he thought he recognised regina's room, the same in which that beautiful young lady with her maids in waiting had watched the battle, and where the image of the holy virgin had been broken into fragments by the splinters from the cannon-shot.* * the surgeon forgets that this room was totally destroyed.--author. "here," thought the dreaming young man, "she slept the last night before the storm." for bertel this room was sacred; when he pressed his lips against the cold walls, he thought he kissed the marks of regina's tears. a wonderful thought struck him like lightning. if the nun that visited them yesterday was a princess ... if the white hand belonged to regina! it would be a miracle, but ... love believes in miracles. bertel's heart beat fast. his neglected wounds had greatly improved under the gentle hands of his nurse. he now felt much stronger. his unfortunate comrades were still asleep after their terrible journey. then the door was quietly opened, and the nun softly entered with a drink for the wounded prisoners. bertel felt his head swim. overcome by his violent emotions, he fell on his knees before her. "your name, you kind angel, who remembers the prisoners!" he cried. "tell me your name, let me see your face ... ah! i should have known you amongst thousands ... you are regina, yourself!" "you make a mistake," said the same kind voice that bertel had heard the day before. it was not regina's voice, and still he knew the tones. to whom then did it belong? bertel rushed forward and pulled the veil from the nun's head. in front of him stood the beautiful mild ketchen with a smiling face. the surprised bertel drew back. "imprudent one," she said, covering her face with her hands. "i wished to have you in my care, but now you make me leave the place to another." ketchen disappeared. on the evening of the same day another nun entered the room. larsson addressed a long speech to her, and put her hand to his lips, and impressed on it a loud kiss. he then swore fearfully. "millions of devils!" he said, "that i should kiss an old shrivelled hand like that. the skin was like a century-old parchment." "verily, my dear bertel," continued the chagrined captain with philosophical resignation, "there are secrets in nature which will for ever remain concealed from human sagacity. this hand, for example--_manus mana, manum_--hand, as the old roman used to say: this hand, my friend, would undoubtedly occupy a shining place in the greek poet ovid's 'metamorphoses,' which we formerly studied in the cathedral school at abo, the time my father wanted to make me a priest. yesterday i could have sworn that it was the beautiful white hand of a young girl, and to-day i will be shaved as bare as a monk it it was not a hand that belongs to a seventy-year-old washerwoman. _sic unde ubi apud unquam post_, as the ancients used to say. that is, so can a pretty girl be changed into a witch before anyone knows it." the prisoners' wounds healed rapidly under the care of the nuns. the fierce autumn storms whistled around the castle turrets, and the heavy rain beat against the small panes. the verdure of the vineyards faded, and a thick, heavy mist rose from the main, and obscured the view of the town. "i cannot stand it any longer," growled larsson. "the wretches! they do not give us either wine or dice. and forgive me, saint, the devil may kiss their hands or lips, not i. no. i have a great respect for old women. i cannot stand this. i will jump out of the window." "do it," said bertel, provoked. "no, i will not jump out of the window," said the captain. "no, my dear friend--_micus ameus_, as we learned people used to express ourselves--i will instead honour our companion with a game." and the inventive captain for the thirtieth time summoned pekka to a game of pitch and toss. this uninteresting game, which was his only diversion, was played with a carl ix. six-öre piece. "tell me what they are building over there on the square of würzburg, just opposite the bank of the main?" said bertel. "an ale-house," said larsson. "crown!" "it looks to me like a pyre." "tail!" repeated larsson monotonously. "dash it, what ill luck i have; this damned limingo peasant will win my horse, my saddle, and my stirrups." "the first morning after we were taken prisoners, i heard something about an _auto-de-fé_, to celebrate the battle of lützen. what do you think of it?" "i? what should i care; they might burn a dozen witches for our amusement." "but if we are concerned in it? if they are waiting for the bishop's arrival?" larsson dilated his small grey eyes, and took hold of his goatee. "blitz-donner-kreutz ... the wretched jesuits! they would cook us like turnips ... we ... the conquerors of the holy roman empire ... i mean, my friend bertel, that in such desperate straits, an honest soldier would not be to blame if he tried to escape in silence--for example, through the window..." "there is a fall of seventy feet to the main underneath." "the door," said the thoughtful captain. "is guarded night and day by two armed men." the captain fell into some melancholy reflections. time passed on; it was evening; it became night. the nun with their suppers did not appear. "the festival begins with a fast," muttered the captain in a gloomy tone. "i am shaped like a fish, if i do not wring the head off our neglectful nun as soon as she appears." at this moment the door opened, and the nun entered alone. larsson exchanged a glance with his companions, suddenly approached the nun, caught her round the neck, and held her against the wall. "be still, like a good child, highly honoured abbess," mockingly said the captain; "if you make a sound you are lost. by right i ought to throw you out of the window and let you have a swim in the main, to teach you _punctum preciosum_, that is, a precise punctuality in your attendance. but i will give you grace for this night. tell me, you most miserable of meal bringers, what is the meaning of that fire which they are preparing on the square; who is going to be roasted there?" "for the sake of all the saints, speak low," whispered the nun. "i am ketchen, and have come to save you. a great danger threatens you. to-morrow the bishop is expected, and father hieronymus, the implacable enemy of all the finns, has sworn to burn you alive for the glory of the saints." "my fine little soft hand!" cried larsson delighted. "upon my honour, i am a fool not to recognise it at once. well, my beautiful friend, for the glory or st. brita i will take a kiss on the spot..." the captain kept his word. but ketchen freed herself, and said quickly: "if you do not behave yourself, young man, you will afford fuel for the flames. hurry! bind me to the bedpost, and tie a handkerchief over my mouth. "bind you..." replied the captain; "explain yourself." "make haste! the guard are drunk and asleep, but in twenty minutes they will be inspected by the pater himself. seize their cloaks and hurry to get out. the passwords are petrus and paulus." "and yourself?" said the captain. "they will find me bound. i have been overpowered, and my mouth stopped." "noble girl! the crown of all franconia's sisters of charity; had i not sworn never to marry.... very well, hasten, bertel! hurry, pekka, you lazy dog! farewell, little rogue! another kiss ... good-bye!" the three prisoners hastened out. but scarcely were they outside the door when they were seized by iron fists, thrown down, and bound. "take the dogs down into the treasury," said a well-known voice. it was father hieronymus. chapter iii. the treasury. bound hand and foot, the prisoners soon found themselves in the deep, dark, damp vault, blasted out of the rock, where the bishop of würzburg had kept his treasures before the swedes delivered him from the trouble. no ray of light penetrated the gloom, and the moisture from the rocks trickled through the crevices and dropped steadily on the ground. "lightning and croats! may all the devils take you, cursed earless monk!" bawled the captain, as soon as he felt firm ground beneath him. "to shut up officers of his royal highness and the crown in this rat-trap. _diabolus infernalis multum plus plurimum!_ ... are you alive, bertel?" "yes. in order to be burned living to-morrow." "do you believe that, bertel?" asked the captain in a lugubrious tone. "i know this treasury. on three sides is the solid rock, on the other a door of iron, and the man who guards us here is harder than either rock or metal. we shall never see finland again! never shall i see _her_ more..." "listen to me, bertel; you are a smart chap, but that does not prevent you from talking like a milksop occasionally. you are in love with the black-eyed lady; well, well, i will say nothing about that; love is a bandit, as ovidius so truly says. but i cannot stand whimpering. if we live, there are other girls to kiss; if we die, then good-bye to them all. so you really fancy that they intend to roast us like picked woodcocks?" "that entirely depends upon you yourselves," answered a voice in the darkness. all three prisoners started from fright. "the evil one is here in the midst of us!" exclaimed larsson. pekka began to say his prayers. then a clear ray from a dark lantern shot through the darkness, and they all saw the jesuit hieronymus standing alone near them. "it depends upon you," he repeated. "to escape is impossible. your king is dead; your army defeated; the whole world acknowledges the power of the church and the emperor. the pile is ready, and your bodies shall burn in honour of the saints. but the holy church in its clemency wishes to save you, and has sent me here to offer you mercy." "indeed!" exclaimed larsson mockingly. "come, worthy father, loosen my bonds and let me embrace you. i offer you my friendship, and of course you believe me. how, says seneca, _homo homini lupus_, we wolves are all brothers." "i offer you mercy," continued the jesuit coldly, "on _three_ conditions, which you will certainly accept. the first is, that you abjure your heretic faith and publicly join the only saving church." "never!" exclaimed bertel hastily. "be quiet!" said the captain. "well, _posito_ that we abjure the lutheran faith?" "then," continued the jesuit, "as prisoners of war you shall be exchanged for the high-born lady and princess regina von emmeritz, whom your king tyrannically sent a prisoner to the north." "it shall be done!" answered bertel eagerly. "be still!" cried larsson. "well, go on; _posito_ that we accomplish the lady's deliverance?" "only a trifle remains. i demand of lieutenant bertel king gustaf adolf's ring." "your money or your life, like a highwayman!" said larsson derisively. "you ask for that which i do not possess," answered bertel. the jesuit gave him a suspicious glance. "the king ordered duke bernhard to give you the ring, and you must have received it." "all this is quite unknown to me," said bertel with truth, but surprised and delighted at this unexpected news. the jesuit resumed his smiling composure. "if that is how it stands, my dear sons," said he, "let us talk no more about the ring. as far as your conversion to the true believing church is concerned..." bertel was just about to answer, but was interrupted by the captain, who, a moment before, had made a movement with the upper part of his body, which the light did not reach. "yes, as far as that matter is concerned," larsson hastened to add; "you know, reverend father, that there are two sides to it: _questio an_ and _questio quomodo_. now to speak of _questio an_ first, my sainted rector, vincentius flachsenius, used to say, always place _negare_ as _prima regula juris_. your reverence undoubtedly finds it unexpected and agreeable to hear a royal captain talk latin like a cardinal. your reverence should know that we, in abo cathedral school, studied ciceronem, senecam, and ovidium, also called naso; for my part i have always considered cicero a great talker, and seneca a blockhead; but as for ovid ..." the jesuit moved towards the door, and said dryly, "then you choose the stake?" "rather than the disgrace of an apostasy!" exclaimed bertel, who had not noticed larsson's hints and motions. "my friend," the captain hastily added, "thinks very sensibly and naturally that the worst part of the matter is the public scandal. thus, worthy father, let us confer about _questio quomodo_. _posito_ that we become good catholics, and enter the emperor's service ... but deign to come a little closer; my friend bertel is rather hard of hearing ever since he had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the mighty pappenheim." the jesuit cautiously advanced a little nearer, after convincing himself with a glance that retreat stood open. "it is i who decide the conditions," said he haughtily. "yes or no?" "yes, yes, of course," replied larsson quickly, as he continued to rub himself. "consequently we are on sound grounds both with _questio an_ and _questio quomodo_. your reverence possesses a persuasive tongue. we will now come to _questio ubi_ and _questio quando_, for according to _logicam_ and _meta-physicam_ ... pardon me, worthy father, i don't say a word, i consent to it all. but," continued the captain, as he lowered his voice, "deign to cast a glance at my friend bertel's right forefinger. i can tell your reverence my friend is a great rogue; i am very much mistaken if he has not got the king's ring on at this moment." the jesuit, carried away by his curiosity, came a few steps nearer. swift as an eel larsson rolled himself to the door, for he was unable to rise on account of his bonds; and when the monk wished to retreat, the captain, who had cut through the ligatures which held his right arm, against a sharp stone, suddenly seized the jesuit's legs and threw him down. father hieronymus made desperate efforts to free himself from the captain's grasp; the lantern was broken into fragments, the light extinguished, and a thick darkness enveloped the wrestlers. bertel and pekka, both unable to get up and assist, rolled themselves at random towards the spot, but without reaching it. then the brave captain felt a sharp sensation in his shoulder, and directly afterwards a warm stream of blood. with a mighty oath he wrenched the dagger from his enemy's hand, and returned the stab. the jesuit now begged for mercy. "with the greatest pleasure, my son," answered the sarcastic captain. "but only on three conditions: the first, that you renounce loyola, your lord and master, and declare him to be an emissary of the devil. do you agree to it?" "i agree to everything," murmured the pater. "the second: that you start off and hang yourself to the first hook you find in the ceiling." "yes, yes, only let me go." "the third: that you travel to beelzebub, your patron," ... and with these words larsson flung his enemy violently against the rocky wall, after which there was a dead silence. the dagger was now used to quickly sever the prisoners' bonds, and then it only remained to find the door. when the three fugitives, after having secured the treasury door from the outside, reached the dark and narrow stairway, which led to the upper portion of the castle, they stayed a moment to consult together. their situation even now was not enviable, for they knew of old that the stairs led to the bishop's former bed-chamber, from whence two or three rooms had to be crossed before they came to the large armoury, and through that to the courtyard, after which they still had to pass the closed drawbridge and the guard. all the rooms, except the bed-chamber, which the jesuit himself had taken possession of, had, two hours before, when the prisoners were carried down, been filled partly with soldiers, and partly with the sick and their nurses. "one thing grieves me," whispered larsson, "and that is, that i did not draw the fur off the fox when i held him by the ears. in the garments of piety i could have gone scot-free through purgatory like another _saulus inter prophetas_. but as it is, my friend bertel, i ask, in my simplicity, how shall we get away from here?" "we will cut our way out. the garrison are asleep; the darkness of the night favours us." "i confess, my friend, that if anybody, even i, larsson himself, should call you a poltroon, i would call that fellow a liar. it is true that you once as good as _solo_, alone, _alienus_, all by yourself, took this fortress; but you had then at least a sword in your hand, and a few thousands of brave boys in the rear. hush! i heard a step on the stairs ... no, it was nothing. let us push on cautiously. here it will serve us to tread gingerly, like maidens; the heavy peasant's boots sound as if we were a squadron of cavalry." the fugitives had ascended about thirty or forty steps, and yet there seemed more, until a faint ray of light glimmered at the top in the passage. they then came to a door; it stood ajar. they stopped, and held their breath; not a sound could be heard. the brave captain now ventured to put in his head, then his foot, and finally his whole stout person. "we are on the right track," he whispered; "boots off, the whole company must march in their stockinged feet--_posito_ that the company has stockings. march!" the bishop's bed-chamber, into which the three now entered on tip-toe, was a large and magnificent room. a flickering lamp faintly illumined the precious gobelin tapestry, the gilded images of the saints, and the ebony bedstead, inlaid with pearls, where the wealthy prelate used to fall asleep, with his goblet of rhenish wine beside him. no living creature was visible, but from one of the windows which overlooked the courtyard they could see the castle chapel opposite, brilliantly lighted and filled with people. even the courtyard was occupied by a crowd, visible owing to the reflection from the windows, and many of whom carried lighted candles. "i will let them salt and pickle me like a cucumber if i understand what all these people are doing here in the dead of night," muttered the enraged captain. "you will find that they have assembled here to see three honest finnish soldiers roasted by a slow fire like aland herrings." "we must look for weapons, and die like men," said bertel, as he glanced through the room. "hurrah!" he exclaimed, "here are three swords, just what we require." "and three daggers," added larsson, who, in a large niche behind the image of a saint, found a little arsenal of all kinds of weapons. "the worthy fathers have a certain weakness for daggers, as the east bothnians for 'punkkons,' or peasants' knives." "i think," joined in the taciturn pekka, as he caught sight of a good-sized flask in a corner, "that to-night being xmas eve..." "brave boy!" interrupted the captain, inspired also by this sight, "you have a wonderfully keen scent where good liquor is concerned. pious jesuit, you have, anyhow, accomplished some good in the world! xmas eve, did you say? stupid, why didn't you tell us at once? it is clear as the day, that half of würzburg is streaming to the chapel to hear father hieronymus say mass. 'pon my honour, i fear that he will keep them waiting for some time, the good pater. here goes, my friend, i will drink to you; an officer ought to always set his troops a good example. your health, my boys ... damnation ... the miserable monk has basely cheated us. i have swallowed poison. i am a dead man!" and the honest captain turned pale as a corpse. both bertel and pekka had hard work to restrain their laughter, notwithstanding their critical position, when they saw larsson at once white from fright and black from the fluid he had drank and spat out again. "be more careful another time," said bertel, "and you will avoid drinking ink." "ink! i might have known that the earless scrawler would be up to some devilry. two things trouble me to-night more than all the _autos-da-fé_: that the sweet ketchen, with the soft hands, deceived us, and that i have swallowed the most useless stuff in the world--ink, bah!"* * here captain svanholm trod on cousin svenonius' toes, and the latter thoughtfully took a pinch of snuff. "if we had nothing else to do i could show you something that ink has done," rejoined bertel, as he hastily turned over a pile of papers on the writing-table. "here is a letter from the archbishop ... he is coming to-morrow ... we are to be solemnly burned ... they will tempt us to abjure our faith, and promise us grace ... but burn us, nevertheless! infamous!" "roman!" observed the captain phlegmatically. in the meantime larsson had drawn out three monks' cloaks and hoods; they put them on, and now ventured to proceed farther on their dangerous enterprise. the next two rooms were empty. two common beds indicated that some menial monks had here their abode, and were now gone to mass. "bravo," whispered larsson, "they will take us for sheep in wolves' clothing, and believe that we are also going to attend mass. hist! didn't you hear something? a woman's voice. be still!" they stopped, and heard in the darkness a young female's voice, praying: "holy virgin, forgive me this time, and save me from death; i will to-morrow take the veil, and serve you for ever." "it is ketchen's voice," said the captain. "she may be innocent, poor child! upon my honour, it would be base of a cavalier not to deliver a sweet girl with such a soft hand." "let us be off!" whispered bertel in vexation. but the captain had already discovered a little door, bolted on the outside; inside was a cell, and in the cell a trembling girl. her eyes, used to the darkness, saw the monk's garb, and she threw herself at the captain's feet, exclaiming, "grace, my father, grace! i will confess all; i have favoured the prisoners' flight; i have given wine to the guard. but spare my life, have mercy upon me, i am so young. i do not wish to die." "who the devil has said that you are to die, my brave girl?" interrupted the captain's voice. "no, you shall live, with your soft hand, and your warm lips, as true as i'm not a jesuit, but lars larsson, captain in his royal majesty's and the crown's service, and herewith take you ... as my wedded wife, for better or for worse," continued the captain, no doubt because he thought that the well-known formula ought to be said to an end when he had once begun it. "away, away, with or without the girl, but away; they are coming, and we still have to pass the large armoury!" "allow me to tell you, my friend bertel, that you are the greatest fidget i know, _maximus fiescus_, as the ancients so truly expressed themselves. how is it, my girl, you are not a nun ... only a novice? well, it makes no difference to me. you shall be my wedded wife ... in case i ever marry. here is a cloak; there now, straighten yourself up and look bold." "it is no cloak, it is a mass-robe," whispered ketchen, who had scarcely time to recover from her amazement. "the deuce, a mass-robe! wait, you take my cloak, and i will take the robe. i shall chant in their ears _dies irae_, so that all will be astonished." the sound of several voices in the armoury outside interrupted the captain in his priestly speculations. "they have missed the jesuit, they are looking for him, and we are lost through your silly jabbering," whispered the exasperated bertel. "we must be careful now not to betray ourselves. come along, all of you." "and latin first!" exclaimed the captain. all four went out. in the armoury there were about thirty sick beds, but only two sisters in attendance. this sight was reassuring, but much more dangerous was the meeting with two monks, who were in violent altercation in the doorway. when they saw larsson in the mass-robe, and three figures behind him in hooded cloaks, the pious fathers were evidently startled. the captain raised his arm to bless them, uttered a solemn _pax vobiscum_, and was then going to steal by with a grave step, when he was checked by the foremost monk. "worthy father," said the latter, as he surveyed the unknown prelate from head to foot, "what procures our castle the honour at so unusual a time...?" "_pax vobiscum!_" repeated the captain devoutly. "the pious father hieronymus orders you to say mass with all your might ... his reverence is sick ... he has toothache." "let us go and wait upon him," said one of the monks, entering the smaller room. but the other seized larsson by the robe, and regarded him in a way which much alarmed the brave captain. "_quis vus et quid eltis!_" said the captain in a regular dilemma. "_qui quoe quod, meus tuus suus_ ... go to the devil, you bald-headed baboons!" roared larsson, unable to restrain himself any longer, and pushing the obstinate monk into the chamber he bolted the door. then all four hastened at full speed down to the courtyard. the alarm was immediately given behind them; the monks shouting at the top of their voices, and the nuns joining in, until the crowd of people who thronged the courtyard began to listen. "we are lost!" whispered ketchen, "if we do not reach the drawbridge by the back way." they hurried there ... the tumult increased ... they passed the guard at the large sally-port. "halt! who's there?" "petrus and paulus," promptly answered bertel. they were allowed to pass. fortunately the drawbridge was down. but the whole castle was now alarmed. "we will jump into the river, the night is dark, they will not see us!" cried bertel. "no," said larsson, "i will not leave my girl, even if it should cost me my head." "here stand three saddled horses, be quick and mount." "up, you sweetest of all the nuns in franconia, up in the saddle!" and the captain hastily swung the trembling ketchen before him on the horse's back. they all galloped away into the darkness. but behind them raged tumult and uproar, the alarm bells sounding in all the turrets, and the whole of würzburg wondering greatly what could have happened on xmas eve itself. chapter iv. duke bernhard and bertel. three months after the events related in the preceding chapter we find lieutenant bertel one day in one of the rooms at the martial court, which duke bernhard of weimar kept sometimes at kassel and sometimes at nassau, or wherever the duties of the war compelled him to go. it was a spring day in march, . officers came and departed, orderlies hastened in all directions; duke bernhard had the greatest share of the south and west of germany to look after, and the times were most anxious. after having waited a good while, the young officer was conducted to the duke. the latter looked up irritably from his maps and papers, and seemed to wait to be spoken to; but bertel remained silent. "who are you?" asked the duke in sharp, harsh tones. "gustaf bertel, lieutenant in his royal majesty's finnish cavalry." "what do you want?" the young man coloured up and remained silent. the duke noticed this and looked at him with a discontented air. "i understand," the latter said at last, "you have as usual been fighting with the german officers about the girls. i will not allow this sort of thing. a soldier's sword should be reserved for his country's enemies." "i have not been fighting, your highness." "all the worse. you came to ask for a furlough to go to finland. i refuse it to you. i want all my men here. you will stay, lieutenant. good-bye!" "i do not come to ask for a furlough." "well, what the devil do you want? can you not speak out? be short and quick! leave the clergy to say prayers, and the girls to blush." "your highness has received from his majesty, the late king, a ring..." "i cannot remember it." "... which his majesty asked your highness to give to an officer in his life-guards." the duke passed his hand over his high forehead. "that officer is dead," he said. "i am that officer, your highness. i was wounded at lützen, and shortly after taken prisoner by the imperialists." duke bernhard beckoned bertel to come nearer, and gave him a searching look; he seemed satisfied with his examination. "close the door," he said, "and sit down by my side." bertel obeyed. his cheeks were burning with anxiety. "young man," said the duke, "you carry on your forehead the marks of your origin, and i ask for no further evidence. your mother is a peasant's daughter of storkyro, in finland, and her name is emerentia aronsdotter bertila." "no, your highness, the person you speak of is my elder sister, born of my father's first marriage. i have never seen my mother." the duke looked at him with surprise. "very well," said he doubtfully, as he looked among some papers in his portfolio, "we will now speak of this sister of yours, emerentia aronsdotter. her father had performed great services for carl ix., and he was urged to ask a favour. he asked to be allowed to send his only daughter, then his only child, to stockholm, to be educated with the young ladies of rank at the court." "i know very little about this." "at thirteen years of age the peasant girl was sent to stockholm, where her father's vanity and wealth procured her an abode, appearance, and education, far above her station. he was consumed with ambition, and as he himself could not gain a noble crest, he relied upon his daughter's high birth on her mother's side. bertila's first wife was an orphan of the noble family stjernkors, deprived of her inheritance by the war, and then rejected by her proud family on account of her marriage with the rich peasant bertila." "this is all unknown to me." "the young emerentia suffered a great deal in stockholm from the envy and contempt of her aristocratic companions; for many of them were poorer than herself, and could not endure a plebeian at their side as an equal. "but her beauty was as extraordinary as her wisdom and goodness. within two years she had acquired the habits of the upper classes, whilst preserving the rustic simplicity of her heart. this wonderful combination of mental and physical graces reminded old persons of a lovely picture of their youthful days--karin mansdotter." as he said these words, the duke closely watched the young officer; but bertel did not betray any agitation, and remained silent. all this was something new and incomprehensible to him. "very well," continued the duke after a pause. "this beauty did not long remain unnoticed. a very young man of high birth soon fell in love with the beautiful maiden, then only fifteen years old, and she returned his affection with the whole devotion of a first love. this attachment soon became known to those who surrounded the noble youth; state policy was endangered, and the nobility were offended by the distinction thus conferred on a girl of low birth. they resolved to marry the maiden to an officer of the same origin as herself, who had distinguished himself in the danish war. this intention came to the ears of the young people. poor children! they were so young; he seventeen, she fifteen, both inexperienced and in love. shortly after, the youth was sent to the war in poland. the young girl's marriage came to nothing, and she was sent back by the offended nobility in disgrace to her cabin in finland. do you wish to hear any more, lieutenant bertel?" "i do not understand, your highness, what this account of my sister's life has to do with..." "... the ring you ask for. patience. when the young man had a secret meeting with his beloved for the last time, just before his departure, she gave him a ring, whose earlier history i do not know, but which was probably made by a finnish sorcerer, and had all the qualities of a talisman. she conjured her lover to always wear this ring on his finger, in war and danger, as he would thus become invulnerable. twice this warning was forgotten, once at dirschau..." "great god!" "... the second time at lützen." bertel's emotions were of such a violent nature that all the blood left his cheeks, and he sat pale as a marble statue. "young man, you now know part of what you ought to know, but you do not know all. we have spoken of your sister. we will now speak of yourself. it was his majesty's intention to offer you a nobleman's coat of arms, and which you with your good sword have so well deserved. but old aron bertila, actuated by his hatred for the nobility had asked as a favour that the king would give you an opportunity to gain any other distinction than that one. the king could not refuse this request from a father, and therefore you are still a commoner by name. but i, who am not bound by any promise to your father, will offer you, young man, that which has hitherto been denied you: a knight's spur and coat of arms." "your highness ... this favour makes me wonder and mute; how have i deserved it?" duke bernhard smiled with a strange expression. "how, my friend? you have only half understood me." bertel remained silent. "well, with or without your knowledge and will, my friend, i already regard you as a nobleman. we will speak more about it another time. your ring ... ah! i have forgotten it. do you remember what it was like?" the duke now searched zealously in his portfolio. "they say that the king wore a copper ring, and on the inside of it magic signs were engraved, and the letters r.r.r." "it is possible that i have mislaid it, for i cannot find it. and who the devil has time to think of such childish things? the ring must have been stolen from my private casket. if i find it again i will give it to you, and if not, you know that which is worth more. go, young man, and be worthy of my confidence and the great king's memory. no one is to know what i have told you. farewell; we will see each other again." chapter v. love and hate agree. again we fly from germany's spring back to the north's winter. before we go further on the bloody path of the thirty years' war, we will pay a visit to two of the chief personages of this narrative high up in east bothnia. it was about advent time, . a violent storm with heavy snow beat against the old ramparts of korsholm, and drove the waves of the baltic against the ice-covered shores. all navigation for the year had ceased. the newly conscripted soldiers had gone to stralsund by way of stockholm, at the end of july, and were impatiently waiting for news from the war. then it happened in the middle of november that a rumour was spread about the country of the king's death. such reports fly through the air, one does not know how or where they come from. great misfortunes are known at a distance as presentiments, just as an earthquake far beyond its own circle causes a qualm in the mind. but this report had more than once been spread and refuted. the people relied upon king gustaf adolf's good fortune, and when corroboration did not arrive, the whole matter was forgotten, all thinking it was a false story. it is an ordinary fact in life that, as we hate those to whom we have occasioned a wrong, so we feel well disposed towards persons whom we have had the opportunity of serving. lady marta of korsholm was not a little proud of her brave defence against the drunken soldiers, and did not hesitate to attribute the preservation of the castle to the heroism she had then displayed. that she had saved regina's life gave the latter great importance in her eyes; and neither could she refuse her admiration for the courage and self-sacrifice which the young girl had shown on the same occasion. the high-born prisoner was her pride; and she did not omit to watch her steps like an argus; but she gave regina a larger room, let her have old dorthe again as a waiting woman, and provided her with an abundance of good food. regina also was less proud and cold, she would sometimes answer lady marta with a word or a nod; but of all the nice things that were offered her, the choice meats, the strong beer, etc., she took little or nothing; she had sunk apparently into a state of indifference, told her beads devoutly, but in other respects let one day pass as another. lady marta held the deep conviction that her prisoner, if not precisely the roman emperor's own daughter, was, nevertheless, a princess of the highest birth. she therefore hit upon the unlucky idea of trying to convert so distinguished a person from her papistical heresy, on the supposition that she would thereby accomplish something very remarkable when the war was ended and regina was exchanged. regina thus became exposed to the same proselytizing attempts which she herself had undertaken with the great gustaf adolf; but lady marta's were not so delicate or refined in their application as her own. she overwhelmed the poor girl with lutheran sermons, psalm-books, and tracts, also often made long speeches interspersed with proverbs, and when this was without avail, she sent the castle chaplain to preach to the prisoner. of course all this occurred to deaf ears. regina was sufficiently firm in her faith to listen with patience, but she suffered from it; her stay at korsholm became more unbearable every day, and who can blame her, if with secret longings she sighed for the day when she could regain her freedom. dorthe, on the contrary, flamed up every time the heretic preacher or the plucky old lady began their sermons, and rattled through a whole string of prayers and maledictions both in latin and low german, the result generally being that she was shut up for two or three days in the dungeon of the castle, until her longing for her lady's company once more made her tractable. and so passed a half-year of lady regina's captivity. a better product of lady marta's goodwill was, that regina was allowed to embroider, and fine materials were ordered for her in the autumn from stockholm. thus it became possible for her to work a large piece of silk with the virgin mary and the infant christ in silver and gold. lady marta in her innocence considered the work a sacrament cloth, which regina might present to vasa church, as a proof of her change of sentiments. a warrior's eyes, on the other hand, would have discerned in it an intended flag, a catholic banner, which the imprisoned girl was quietly preparing in expectation of the day when her work would wave at the head of the catholic hosts. still lady marta was not quite satisfied with the holy virgin's image, which seemed to her surrounded by too large a halo to be truly lutheran. she therefore considered how she could procure her prisoner a more suitable occupation. it happened now and then that the daughter of the storkyro peasant king, meri, when she was in town, made an errand to korsholm, and in order to gain the favour of the lady of the castle, presented her with several skeins of the finest and silkiest linen floss, which no one in the whole vicinity could spin as well as meri. lady marta consequently got the idea one fine day to teach her prisoner to spin, and to give her meri as a teacher in this art. meri on her part desired nothing better. the near connection in which the imprisoned lady had stood to the king, gave her an irresistible interest in meri's eyes. she wished to hear something about him--the hero, the king, the great, never-to-be-forgotten man, who stood before her mind's eye with more than earthly lustre. she wished to know what he had said, what he had done, what he had loved and hated on earth; she wished for once to feel herself transported by his glory, and then to die herself--forgotten. poor meri! so meri made her second acquaintance with lady regina in the castle. she was received at first with coldness and indifference, and her spinning scarcely pleased the proud young lady. but gradually her submissive mild demeanour won regina's goodwill, and a captive's natural desire to communicate with beings outside the prison walls finally made regina more open. they spun very little, it is true, but they talked together like mistress and maid, especially during the days when dorthe was shut up on account of her wicked tongue, and it was quite opportune that meri recollected some german from more brilliant days. meri knew how to constantly lead the conversation on to the subject of the king, and she soon divined regina's enthusiastic love. but regina was very far from having any idea of meri's earlier experiences; she ascribed her questions to the natural curiosity which such high personages always excite in the minds of the common people. sometimes she seemed astonished at the delicacy and nobleness of the simple peasant woman's expressions and views. there were moments when meri's personality appeared to her as an enigma full of contradictions, and then she asked herself whether she ought not to consider this woman as a spy. but the next instant she repented this thought; and when the spinner looked at her with her clear, mild, penetrating gaze, then there was something which said to regina's heart, this woman does not dissemble. they were sitting one day in the beginning of december, and dorthe was again shut up for her unseasonable remarks to the chaplain. there was a striking contrast between these two beings whom fate had brought together from such opposite directions, but who on one point shared the same interest. the first, young, proud, dark, flashing, and beautiful, a princess, even in captivity; the other of middle age, blonde, pale, mild, humble, and free, and yet very submissive. regina now seventeen, could be considered twenty; meri now thirty-six, had something so childish and innocent in her whole appearance, that at certain moments she might be taken for seventeen. she could have been regina's mother, and yet she who had suffered so much, seemed almost like a child in comparison with the early matured southerner at her side. lady regina had been spinning a little, and during the operation broken many threads. provoked and impatient, she pushed the distaff away and resumed her embroidery. this happened very often, and her instructress was accustomed to it. "that is a pretty image," said meri, after a look at the piece of silk. "what does it represent?" "god's holy mother, sancta maria," answered regina, as she made the sign of the cross, which she was always in the habit of doing when mentioning the name of the holy virgin. "and what is it for?" asked meri with a naïve familiarity. regina looked at her. again a suspicion came into her mind, but it immediately passed away. "i am embroidering the banner of the holy faith for germany," replied regina proudly. "when it one day waves, the heretics will flee before the wrath of the mother of god." "when i think of the mother of god," said meri, "i imagine her mild, good, and peaceful; i imagine her as a mother alone with her love." meri said these words with a peculiar tremor in her voice. "the mother of god is heaven's queen; she will fight against the godless and destroy them." "but when the mother of god takes to strife, king gustaf adolf will meet her with uncovered head and lowered sword, bend his knee to her, and say: 'holy virgin, i am not fighting for thy glory, but for that of thy son, our saviour.' 'he that fights for my son also fights for me,' she will reply, 'because i am a mother.'" "your king is a heretic," excitedly answered regina. nothing irritated her more than opposition to the catholic faith, of which the doctrine of the holy virgin as heaven's ruler is a constituent. "your king is a tyrant and unbeliever who deserves all the anger of the saints on his head. do you know, meri, that i hate your king?" "and i love him," said meri in a scarcely audible voice. "yes," continued regina, "i hate him like sin, death, and perdition. if i were a man and had an arm and sword, it would be the aim of my life to destroy his hosts and his work. you are happy, meri, you know nothing about the war, you do not know what gustaf adolf has done to the poor catholics. but i have seen it, and my faith and my country cry out for revenge. there are moments when i could kill him." "and when lady regina lifts her white hand with the gleaming dagger over the king's head, then the king will expose his breast where the great heart beats; look at her little white hand with a glance of sublime calmness and say, 'thou delicate white hand, which worketh the image of the mother of god, strike, if thou canst, my heart is here, and it beats for the freedom and enlightenment of the world;' then the white hand will sink slowly down, and the dagger will drop from it, unnoticed, and god's mother on the cloth will smile again. she knew well that it would be so. it would have been just the same with herself. for king gustaf adolf none can kill, and none hate, because god's angel walks by his side and turns human beings' hate to love." regina forgot her work, and regarded meri with her large, dark, moist eyes. there was so much that surprised and astonished her in these words, but she kept silent. finally she said: "the king wears an amulet." "yes," said meri, "he wears a talisman, but it is not the copper ring that the people speak of--it is his exalted human heart which gives up everything for what is good and noble on earth. when he was still very young, and had not yet acquired fame or renown, he only possessed his blonde hair, his high brow, and his mild blue eyes. then he wore no amulet, and yet blessing and love and happiness walked by his side. all the angels in heaven and all human beings on earth loved him." regina's eyes glistened with tears. "did you see him when he was young?" she asked. "did i see him! yes." "and you have loved him like all the others?" "more than all the others, lady." "and you love him still?" "yes, i love him much. like you; but you would kill him and i would die for him." regina sprang up, burst out weeping, clasped meri in her arms and kissed her. "do not think that i would kill him. oh, holy virgin, i would a thousand times give my life to save his! but you do not know, meri. it is an anguish that you cannot understand, it is a fearful conflict when one loves a man, a hero, the personification of the highest and grandest in life, and yet is commanded by a holy faith to hate this man, to kill him, to persecute him to the grave. you do not know, happy one, who only needs to love and bless, what it means to be tossed between love and hate, like a ship on the mighty waves; to be obliged to curse one whom you bless in your heart, to sit within the walls of a prison a prey to the battling emotions which incessantly struggle for mastery in your innermost soul. ah! that was the night, when i tried to reconcile my love with my faith, and bring him, the mighty one, to the way of salvation. if the saints had then allowed my weak voice to convince him of his error ... then poor regina would have followed him with joy as his humblest servant through all his life, and received in her own breast all the lances and balls that sought his heart. but the saints did not grant me--unworthy being--so great an honour, and therefore i now sit here a prisoner on account of my faith and my love; and if an angel broke down the walls of my prison and said to me, 'fly, your country again awaits you,' i would answer: 'it is his will, the beloved; for his sake i suffer, for his sake i remain,' and yet you believe that i wish to kill him." regina wept much and bitterly, with all the violence of an intense passion which had been pent up for a long time. meri with gentle hands removed the dark locks from her brow, and looking mildly and kindly into her tearful eyes, said with prophetic inspiration: "do not weep so, the day will arrive when you will be able to love without being obliged to curse him at the same time!" "that day will never come, meri." "yes, that day will come, when gustaf adolf is dead." "oh, may it never come, then! rather would i suffer all my life ... it is still for his sake." "yes, lady, that day will come, not because you are younger and he is older. but have you never heard anyone say of a child which is brighter, kinder, and better than others, 'that child will not live long; it is too good for this world?' so does it seem to me about king gustaf adolf. he is too great, too noble, too good, to live long. god's angels wish to have him before his body withers and his soul grows weary. believe me, they will take him from us." regina looked at her with an alarmed air. "who are you that speaks such words? how your eyes shine! you are not what you seem! who are you then? oh, holy virgin, protect me!" and regina started up with all the superstitious terror that belonged to her time. probably she could not account for her fear, but meri's conversation had all along seemed strange and unaccountable, coming from the mouth of an uncultivated peasant woman in this barbarous land. "who am i?" repeated meri, with the same mild look. "i am a woman who loves. that is all." "and you say that the king will die?" "god alone presides over human destinies, and the greatest among mortals is still but a mortal." at that moment someone opened the door, and lady marta entered more solemnly than usual, and also somewhat paler. she now wore, instead of her bright striped woollen jacket, a deep mourning attire, and her whole appearance indicated something unusual. regina and meri both started at the sight. meri became pale as death, went straight to lady marta, looked her fixedly in the face, and said mechanically with a great effort, "the king is dead." "do you know it already?" answered lady marta, surprised. "god preserve us, the bad news came an hour ago, with a courier from tornea." lady regina sank down in a swoon. meri, with a broken heart, retained her self-possession, and tried to recall regina to life. "the king has then fallen on the battlefield in the midst of victory?" she asked. "on the battlefield of lützen, the th of november, and in the midst of a glorious victory," replied lady marta, more and more surprised at meri's knowledge. "awake, gracious lady, he has lived and died like a hero, worthy of the admiration of the whole world. he has fallen in the hour of triumph, in the highest lustre of his glory; his name will live in all times, and his name we will both bless." regina opened her dreamy eyes and clasped her hands in prayer. "oh, holy virgin," she said, "i thank thee that thou hast let him go in his greatness from the world, and thus taken away the curse which rested upon my love!" and meri dropped down at her side in prayer. but below in the castle yard stood a tall, white-haired old man, with his stiff features distorted by grief and despair. "a curse upon my work!" he cried; "my plan is frustrated beforehand, and the object for which i have lived slips from my grasp. oh, fool that i was, to count upon a human being's life, and trying to hope that the king would acknowledge his son, and live until the son of aron bertila's daughter had time to win a brilliant fame in war, and walk abreast with the heiress to the swedish throne! the king is dead, and my descendant is only a boy in his minority, who will soon be mixed with the multitude. now it is only wanting for him to gain a nobleman's coat of arms, and place himself amongst the vampires between the only true powers of the state, the king and the people. fool, fool that i was! the king is dead! go, old bertila, into the grave to fraternize with king john and the destroyer of aristocracy, king carl, and bury thy proud plans among the same worms that have already consumed prince gustaf and karin mansdotter!" and the old man seized meri, who just then came out, violently by the hand, and said: "come, we have neither of us anything more to do in the world!" "yes," said meri with suppressed grief, "we both still have a son!" chapter vi. the battle of nÖrdlingen. until now the swedish lion, through the wisdom and valour of gustaf adolf, and of the leaders and men trained under him, had hastened from victory to victory, and overthrown all his opponents. at last a day of misfortune dawned; in a great battle the swedish arms suffered a terrible defeat. the brilliant wallenstein had died the death of a traitor at eger; now gallas, the destroyer, overran central germany, captured regensburg, and advanced against the free city of nördlingen, in schwaben; duke bernhard and gustaf horn hurried with the swedish army to its rescue. they had, however, but , men, whilst gallas had , . "we will attack," said the duke. "let us wait," said horn. they expected , men as a reinforcement, and fourteen days passed. then nördlingen came to sore straits, and began to light beacon fires on the walls at night. again the duke wished to attack; again horn preferred to entrench and assist the city without battle. then they called this brave soul a cowardly man; and, indignant, but with dark presentiments, he resolved to fight. repeated victories had made the swedes over-confident, and they entered the conflict assured of success beforehand. the battle took place on the th of august, . outside nördlingen is a height called arensberg, and between it and the town a smaller one. upon the last the imperialists had raised three redoubts. the swedish army stood on arensberg, horn on the right and the duke on the left wing. the battle-cry was the same as at breitenfeld and lützen: god with us! early in the morning a heavy rain fell. once more the wise horn wished to wait, but the duke, who held the supreme command, ordered an advance. horn obeyed, and the right wing marched down the valley between the two heights. the impatience of the cavalry hastened the conflict, which resulted unfavourably even in the very beginning. the cannon of the imperialists in the redoubts made great gaps in the lines of the cavalry, and the enemy's superiority made them hesitate. horn sent two brigades to storm the middle redoubt. they captured it and pursued the enemy. piccolomini checked their course and drove them back to the redoubt. there the powder happened to take fire. with a terrific explosion the earthwork flew into the air, and several hundreds of swedes and finns with it. this was the first calamity. upon this position, however, depended the victory. for a few moments the spot stood empty; piccolomini's soldiers, alarmed by the report and destruction, could not be induced to advance and occupy it. at last they did so. horn asked for help in order to expel them. the duke sent the young bohemian, thurn, with the yellow regiment. he made a mistake, attacked the wrong redoubt, and engaged with a greatly superior force. seventeen times he charged the enemy, and as often was he repulsed. in vain did horn try to storm the height. thurn's error was the second calamity. on the left wing the duke had begun the conflict against the artillery and cavalry. at the first encounter the imperialists were hurled back, and the duke's german cavalry broke their ranks and pursued the enemy. but tilly's spirit seemed to-day to give the imperialists courage. they advanced their ordered and superior troops against the assailants, checked them, and drove them back with loss. the duke tried to get reinforcements into nördlingen, but failed. in vain did he drive gallas before him. new masses of the enemy constantly opposed him, and in his rear the croats plundered his baggage-wagons. it was about noon. horn's troops had been under fire for eight consecutive hours, and were worn out with fatigue. with every hour their hopes of victory grew less and less, but their unflinching, indomitable courage remained the same. they had observed the disorder in the left wing. they themselves were in a desperate plight down in the valley, where piccolomini's bullets fell every moment into the underbush, and sprinkled the fallen branches with blood. then horn proposed to withdraw to arensberg, and the duke at last consented. he considered the matter, however, for nearly two hours; but these two hours he would afterwards have been glad to purchase with half a lifetime. it was three o'clock in the afternoon. horn made the finnish cavalry make a feigned attack, so as to cover the retreat, and began like a prudent general to withdraw in good order. the imperialists perceiving his intention, pressed on with double force. they began to hope, what they had not dared to entertain before, that even the swedes might be conquered, and piccolomini's stumpy figure flew through the ranks, urging his men to bear down with their collected forces upon the swedes' exposed flanks, and totally crush them. in the valley behind the swedes and between the two heights flowed a stream with high banks, and swollen by the abundant rains. at the little village of hirnheim, the stream was spanned by a single bridge, and this point horn had carefully guarded in order to secure the retreat. the artillery passed first over the bridge, and were safe on arensberg. the first lines of horn's wing had also reached the village, and the rest were only a short distance from it, when a new calamity occurred, the third and the worst on this most disastrous day. duke bernhard had undertaken to detain the enemy with his left wing until horn and his men had crossed the stream. but he soon discovered that he had consulted valour rather than prudence. the enemy concentrated their forces, and increased their terrible attacks. three times de werth charged the duke's cavalry; three times was he repulsed. the fourth time, however, he broke through the duke's lines. in vain the latter sent a squadron to take him in flank. mad with rage, the duke snatched his gold-embroidered banner from an ensign's hand, and followed by his bravest men, rushed into the midst of the enemy. it was all useless. his best men were slain, his horse shot under him, and the banner wrenched from his hand; wounded and overpowered he was nearly taken prisoner, when a young officer at his side lent him his horse, and he escaped with great difficulty. his infantry had already been routed, being unable to support the attacks of the cavalry on the open plain; and when the wounded leader galloped away, his whole wing followed in the utmost disorder, convinced that all was lost. at that moment, horn's infantry crossed the narrow bridge. then confused and loud cries arose, that the battle was lost, and the enemy close upon them. first single horsemen, then whole troops of the duke's cavalry rushed along the road to the bridge, and rode amongst the infantry, trampling some under their horses' hoofs, and throwing the rest into fearful confusion. the efforts of horn and his nearest officers to stay the frantic rout were fruitless. on the narrow bridge everything was mixed pell-mell--men, horses, wagons, dead, and wounded; and finally the duke's whole wing rushed to this fatal spot. like a storm piccolomini pressed upon the rear of the fugitives; he sent some light guns up on the heights, where they played with terrible effect on the retreating mass; every ball cut long lanes through it. then the croats fell upon the rout, and as friend and foe became mixed together, the artillery fire had to cease. the long lances and swords of the imperial cavalry made great slaughter. all the swedes and finns seemed doomed to destruction. gustaf horn, the wise and courageous finnish general, whom gustaf adolf called "his right hand," was now the last to retain self-possession and courage at this terrible crisis. with the remains of three regiments he had taken up a position by the bridge, and the fugitives fled past him without drawing his force into the current. they implored him to save himself; but his stubborn, finnish will refused to listen to these appeals, and he stayed where he was. for a time the pursuit was checked, the only thing that horn hoped to gain by his intrepid resistance. gallas sent one of his best spanish brigades to oust him. horn drove them back with loss. the victorious de werth fell upon him with his dragoons. the result was the same. the enemy now concentrated their forces, and horn was attacked on three sides at once. they offered him his life if he would surrender. he replied with a sword-thrust, and his men gave the same response. not one would ask for quarter. at last, when nearly all those near him had fallen, he was overwhelmed by numbers and taken prisoner. then the few surviving heroes surrendered. when the swedish army in full flight rushed over arensberg, duke bernhard of saxe-weimar tore his hair, and exclaimed that he was a fool, and horn a wise man. later on the duke consoled himself with elsas, but that day he had reason to repent of his rashness. six thousand swedes, finns, and germans covered the blood-stained heights of nordlingen; , were taken prisoners, and amongst them the two finns, horn and wittenberg, who were well treated by the enemy. of the other , , half were wounded, and most of the remaining mercenaries deserted. the army had lost , baggage-wagons, banners, and all their artillery. a miserable remnant made its way to mentz, plundering and pillaging as it fled, and suffering from extreme want. more disastrous to sweden than the loss of these , men was the damage to its prestige, and the enemy's regained belief in victory. the battle of nordlingen became the turning point in the thirty years' war, and excited both joy and consternation. throughout europe, until baner's genius and victories restored their lost lustre to the swedish arms once more. amongst those who fought at horn's side to the last, was our old friend, captain larsson. the sturdy little captain had on this occasion no time to open his talkative mouth; he perspired profusely from the heat, and had fought since dawn; yet he had not received the least scratch upon his fleshy person. let it be said in his praise, that at nordlingen he thought of neither rhine wine or bavarian nuns, but honestly plied his weapons as well as possible. nevertheless, we will not assert that he then cut down thirty imperialists with his trusty sword, as he afterwards declared in good faith. he was taken prisoner with horn; but it was not his capture that most provoked the captain, but the terrible vexation he experienced on seeing the croats afterwards empty at their leisure the swedish stock of wine which they had captured with the baggage-wagons. another of our friends, lieutenant bertel, fought at the duke's side all day, and was the one who offered him his horse. we shall see, by-and-by, that the duke did not forget this service. bertel, like larsson, was hotly engaged in the battle, but, less fortunate than the latter, received several wounds, and was finally borne along in the stream of fugitives to arensberg. almost without knowing how, he found himself the next day far from the battlefield, and proceeded with the remnant of the duke's army to mentz. chapter vii. the lost son. it is epiphany, in , thus in mid-winter. in aron bertila's "stuga,"* at storkyro, a large fire of pine logs crackled on the spacious hearth, for at that time heavy forests still grew around the fertile fields. outside rages a snow-storm, with a heavy blast; the wolves howl on the ice of the stream; the famished lynx prowls around to find shelter. it is twelfth-day evening, an hour or two after twilight. the storkyro peasant king sits in his high-backed chair, at a short distance from the hearth, listening with scattered thoughts to his daughter meri, who by the firelight reads aloud a chapter of agricola's finnish new testament, for at that period the whole bible had not been translated into the finnish tongue. bertila has grown very old since we last met him, then still vigorous in his old age. the great ideas that constantly revolve in his bald head give him no peace, and yet these plans are now completely shattered by the king's death, like fragments from a shipwreck floating around on the stormy billows of a dark sea. strong souls like his generally succumb only by destroying themselves. all the changes and misfortunes of his turbulent life had not been able to break his iron will; but grief over a ruined hope, the vain attempt to reconstruct the vanished castles in the air, and the sorrow of seeing his own children themselves tear down his work, all this gnawed like a vulture upon his inner life. a single thought had made him twenty years older in two years, and this idea was presumptuous even to madness. * a large room, filling the entire house space with the exception of one or two small chambers. sleeping bunks are arranged round the walls. the later peasants' houses have more rooms. "why is not one of my own family at this moment king of sweden?" thus it ran. at times meri raises her mild blue eyes from the holy book and regards her old father with anxious looks. she, too, looks older; the quiet sorrow lies like the autumn over green groves; it neither breaks or kills, but makes the fresh leaves wither on the tree of life. meri's glance is full of peace and submission. the thought that shines forth from her soul like a sun at its setting, is none other than this: "beyond the grave i shall again meet the joy of my heart, and then he will no longer wear an earthly crown." near her, to the left, sits old larsson, short and stout like his jovial son. his good-natured, hearty face has for a time assumed a more solemn expression, as he listens to the reading of the sacred book. his hands are folded as in prayer, and now and then he stirs the fire a little, with friendly attention, so that meri can see better. behind him in a devotional attitude sit some of the field hands; and this group, illuminated by the reflection of the fire, is completed by a purring grey cat, and a large shaggy watch-dog, curled up under meri's feet, to which he seems proud to serve as a footstool. when meri in her reading came to the place in luke, where it speaks of the prodigal son, old bertila's eyes began to glitter with a sinister light. "the reprobate!" he muttered to himself. "to waste one's inheritance, that is nothing! but to forget one's old father ... by god, that is shameful!" meri read until she came to the prodigal son's repentance: "and he arose and came to his father. but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." "what a fool of a father!" again muttered aron bertila to himself. "he ought to have bound him with cords, beaten him with rods, and then driven him away from his house back to the riotous living and the empty wine-cups!" "father!" whispered meri reproachfully. "be merciful, as our heavenly father is merciful, and takes the lost children to his arms." "and if your son ever returns..." began larsson in the same tone. but bertila stopped him. "hold your tongues, and don't trouble yourselves about me. i have no longer any son ... who falls repentant at my feet," he added directly, when he saw two large, clear pearls glistening in meri's eyelashes. she continued: "and the son said unto him, father, i have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." "stop reading that!" burst out the old man, in a bad temper. "see that my bed is in order, and let the folks go to sleep; it is now late." at this moment horses' hoofs were heard outside on the creaking snow. this unusual occurrence on the evening of a sacred day made larsson go to the low window, and breathe on the frost-covered pane, so as to look out into the storm. a sleigh, drawn by two horses, worked its way through the snow-drifts and drove into the yard. two men in sheep-skin cloaks jumped out. seized with a sudden intuition, larsson hurried out to meet the travellers, and quick as lightning meri followed him. the door swung to behind them, and there was a moment's delay before it opened again. but now a young man in a soldier's garb entered with bowed head, threw aside his plumed hat, white with snow, and going straight to old bertila, knelt down, and bent his beautiful curly head still lower, as he said: "father, i am here, and ask your blessing!" and behind him stood meri and old larsson, both with clasped hands, and raising their pleading eyes to the stern old man, with the same words: "father, here is thy son, give him thy blessing!" for a brief moment bertila struggled with himself, his lips slightly trembled, and his hand was unconsciously stretched out, as if to lift up the young man at his feet. but soon his bald head rose higher, his hand drew back, his keen eyes flashed darker than ever, and his lips trembled no more. "go!" said he, short and sharp; "go, you reprobate boy, back to your brother noblemen, and your sisters, the fine ladies. what seek you in the plain peasant's 'stuga,' which you despise? go! i have no longer a son!" but the youth went not. "do not be angry, my father," he said, "if in my youthful ambition i have at any time violated your commands. who sent me out amongst the great and illustrious ones of the earth, to win fame and honour? who bade me go to the war to ennoble my peasant name with great deeds? who exposed me to the temptation of all the brilliant examples which surrounded the king? you, and only you, my father; and now you thrust away your son, who for your sake twice refused a patent of nobility." "you!" exclaimed the old man with foaming rage. "you renounce a patent of nobility, you, who have blushed for your peasant name and taken another which would look more imposing? no, on your knees have you begged for a coat of arms. what do i know about its being offered you; what do i care. i only know that since your earliest childhood i have tried to implant in your soul, recreant, that there are no other rightful powers than the king and people, that all who place themselves between, whether they bear the name of aristocrats, ecclesiastics, or what not, are monstrosities, a ruin, a curse to state and country ... all this have i tried to teach you, and the fruit of my teachings has been that you have smuggled yourself among this nobility, which i hate and despise, that you have coveted its empty titles, paraded with its extravagant display, imbibed its prejudices, and now you stand here, in your father's house, with a lie on your lips, and aristocratic vanity in your heart. go, degenerate son! aron bertila is what he has always been--a peasant! he curses and rejects you, apostate!" with these words the old man turned away, rose and went with a firm step and a high head into the little bed-chamber, leaving bertel still on his knees in the same place. "hear me, father, father!" cried bertel after him, as he quickly unbuttoned his coat and took out a folded paper; "this paper i have intended to tear to pieces at your feet!" but the old father did not hear him; the paper fell to the ground, and when larsson, a moment later, unfolded and read it, he saw it contained a diploma from the regency in stockholm, conferring upon gustaf bertel, captain of horse in the "life-guards," a patent of nobility, and a coat of arms with the name of _bertelsköld_* at duke bernhard of weimar's solicitation. * bertila is a finnish peasant name. bertel is a burgher name. bertelsköld is a noble name, indicated by the termination sköld, always a sign of nobility in sweden and finland. while all in the "stuga" were still perfectly stupefied by old bertila's conduct, three of fru marta's soldiers from korsholm entered in great haste. "hullo, boys!" they exclaimed to the hands, "have you seen her? here is something that will pay. two hundred silver thalers reward to him who seizes and brings back, alive or dead, lady regina von emmeritz, state prisoner at korsholm." at the sound of this name bertel was aroused from his stupefying grief, sprang up, and seized the speaker by the collar. "wretch, what did you say?" he exclaimed. "ho, ho, if you please! be a little more careful when you speak to the people of the royal majesty and the crown. i tell you that the german traitress, the papistical sorceress, lady von emmeritz, succeeded in escaping last night from korsholm castle, and that he who does not help to catch her is a traitor and a..." the man had no time to finish his speech, before a blow from bertel's strong arm stretched him at full-length on the floor. "ha, my father, you have wished it!" cried the young man, and in a flash was outside the door and in his sleigh, which at the next moment was heard driving off through the raging tempest. chapter viii. the fugitive lady. we will now see what has become of lady regina, and what has induced her to exchange fru marta's tender care for the desperate adventure of fleeing in the middle of winter, through a strange country filled with desolate tracts, where she was profoundly ignorant of the roads and paths, and did not even know how to make herself understood in the language of the people. we must not overlook the fact that our story is laid in a period when catholicism and lutheranism were in the sharpest conflict; when lutheranism, heated by the violent opposition, was as little inclined to religious tolerance as catholicism itself. fru marta had once for all been possessed by the idea that she was in duty bound to convert lady regina to the lutheran faith, and from this well-meant but futile enterprise, no one could dissuade her. she therefore persisted, in and out of season, to torment the poor girl with her views; sometimes with books, sometimes with exhortations, and at others with persuasions and threats, or promises of freedom; and when regina refused to read the books, or listen to the preaching, the zealous old lady had prayers read in her prisoner's room every morning and evening, as well as services on sundays. all these means were thrown away on what fru marta considered regina's stubbornness. the more the former exerted herself, the calmer, colder, and more unyielding became her captive. regina naturally looked upon herself as a martyr for her faith, and suffered every humiliation with apparent fortitude for the sake of the holy cause. but within the young girl's veins fermented the hot southern blood, and it was with great difficulty that she could always appear calm on the surface. there were times when regina would have blown up the whole of korsholm, if it had been in her power. but the old granite walls defied her silent rage, and flight finally became her only method of escape from the persecution. night and day she pondered over it; and at last she discovered a means of eluding fru marta's vigilance. in kajaneborg castle was then confined the celebrated and unfortunate johannes messenius, who in his youth had been educated by the jesuits in braunsberg, and chosen by them to become the apostle of catholicism in sweden. imprisoned for his lampoons and conspiracies in the interest of sigismund's party, he had now for nineteen years, under hard treatment, sat there like a mole in his hole, when the report of his learning, his misfortunes, and his popish sentiments reached lady regina in her prison. from this moment some bold plans began to ferment in the young girl's mind. one day, about new year's time, a wandering german quack came to korsholm with his medicine-chest on his back, just like peddling jews at a later date.* such doctors and apothecaries combined in one individual did a lucrative business at the expense of the common people, and were frequently consulted even by the upper classes, for in the whole country there was not a single regular physician, and only one apothecary in abo; and even this one was not well stocked. no wonder, then, that our man found enough to do, even at korsholm, what with pains, stomach-aches, and gout; nay, fru marta, who, every time she had thrashed her male servants, complained of colic and shortness of breath, received the foreign doctor with very good will. in a few days the latter was quite at home, and thus it fell out that he was called in to prescribe for lady regina, who was suffering from a severe headache. * it was peculiar that the surgeon always spoke of quacks with great contempt, although he had himself travelled about with a medicine chest on his back. this time, fru marta's usual perspicacity deserted her. two days afterwards the young lady, old dorthe, and the quack doctor were all missing. a grating which had been broken off from the outside, and a rope ladder, made it certain that the quack had been instrumental in procuring for the prisoner a free passage over wall and ramparts. fru marta forgot both her colic and shortness of breath, from sheer amazement and anger, stirred up the castle and the town, and immediately dispatched her soldiers in all directions to capture the fugitives. it will soon be seen how far she succeeded. let us now return for a moment to bertel, whom we find driving ahead in the stormy night, attended by the faithful pekka, and with a heart full of the most conflicting feelings. the faithful attendant could not understand the enormous folly of leaving a cheerful fireside and good wholesome porridge, for snow-drifts and wolves in the wild woods, as soon as they had arrived. neither did bertel comprehend it himself. on returning to the north, by way of tornel, on a furlough from germany, while the army lay in winter quarters, he had hurried through storkyro to vasa, which was his secret destination. and now he had met in one place a father's anger, and in the other the empty walls, where she had been, but was no longer. regina had disappeared without leaving a trace. "where shall i drive?" asked pekka monotonously and gruffly, when they entered the broad highway. "wherever you like," answered his master just as testily. pekka turned his horses towards vasa, about twenty miles away. bertel noticed this. "ass!" he cried, "have i not ordered you to drive north?" "north!" repeated pekka mechanically, and with a heavy sigh turned his horses towards ny-karleby, to which town it was quite forty miles. at that time they had no regular stations, with horses provided for the accommodation of travellers. but there were farms at intervals, where all who travelled on government business could reckon on finding horses, while other travellers were obliged to bargain as best they could. the parsonages were the usual stopping-places for the night, and always had a room in order in an out-building, where beds of straw and a table with cold food stood hospitably prepared for travellers. it was, therefore, quite natural that pekka, with his mind still full of the porridge-kettle, ventured to ask as a further question whether they would spend the night at wort parsonage. "drive to ylihärmä," answered the captain of horse, provoked, and wrapping himself up in his long sheepskin cloak, for the night wind was icy cold. "the devil take me if i understand the pranks of these noblemen!" murmured pekka to himself, as he turned off into the narrow village road, which from storkyro leads northward towards lappo parish. here the snow had drifted several feet high between the fences, and the travellers could only advance step by step. after an hour's efforts the horses were completely worn out, and stopped every few paces. bertel, absorbed in his thoughts, was scarcely conscious of it. they had left kyro's wide plains behind them, and were now in the midst of lappo's thick woods. the silence of the wilderness, interrupted by the wailing of the storm, surrounded the travellers on all sides, and as far as the eye could reach there were no traces of human habitations. pekka had for a time walked by the side of the sleigh, and with his broad shoulders lifted it up again, when it sank so deep in the snow that the horses' strength was insufficient to move it from the spot. finally his sinewy arms also refused their services, and the sleigh stopped right in the midst of a mountain of snow. "well!" exclaimed bertel impatiently, "what is the matter?" "nothing," replied pekka stolidly, "except that we need neither priest nor undertaker to find us a grave." "how far is it from here to the nearest farm?" "between six and seven miles, i think." "do you not see something resembling a light, far away there in the woods?" "yes, yes, it looks like it..." "unharness the horses and let us ride there." "no, dear master, it is of no use; these woods have been fearfully haunted, that i know of old, ever since the peasants beat the bailiff to death during the club war, and burned his house and his innocent children." "nonsense! i tell you that we will ride there." "it is all the same to me." in a few moments the horses were taken out of the traces, and the two travellers pushed on in the direction of the light, which sometimes disappeared and then again shone between the snow-covered pines. "but tell me, pekka," resumed bertel, "what is the story about this wilderness? i remember that i often heard them speak of it in my childhood." "yes, yes, your mother was born here." "there used to be quite a little colony in this wood." "yes, indeed, it was many hundreds of acres in extent. the bailiffs had laid it all out for miles, as far back as gustaf vasa's time; and here many hundreds of tons of grain have been grown, so father has told me; and the noble bailiff had built a fine house here, and lived like a prince in the wilderness; and then, as i told you, the peasants came and set fire to the place in the night-time, destroying both people and cattle, with the exception of the young 'lady,' whom your father saved and afterwards took for his wife. it is very certain that he had a finger in that pie." "and so the farm was never built up again." "you may depend upon it that the fields were a fat slice, and so there were plenty of people ready to move here and bid defiance to the devil. but the old evil one was too artful for them; he began to make such a rumpus here with supernatural performances day and night, so that no one was sure of his life, much less of his sinful soul. if they sat in their homes, the chairs were pulled from under them, and the porridge-bowl rolled of its own accord down on the floor; the stones were torn from the walls and were showered around people's ears. if they went out in the woods they were no better off; they had to keep a sharp look-out that the trees did not come crashing down upon their heads, although the weather might be perfectly quiet, and that the ground did not open under their feet, and draw them down into a bottomless pit. and when i think that we are now travelling through the same woods ... oh, oh, i am sinking..." "you fool, it is only the pure snow!--and then you say people could not stand it any longer?" "they all moved away, so that there was not even a cat left, except an old cottager, but i suppose he died long ago. the whole settlement was again deserted, the ditches filled up, the fields became covered with moss, and the pine-woods spread over the former grain lands. it is now forty years since that time..." and pekka, who was not in the habit of making long speeches, seemed astonished at his own loquacity, and came to a sudden stop as he reigned in his horse. "what is it now?" asked bertel impatiently. "i don't see a glimpse of the light." "neither do i. it is hidden by the trees." "no, dear master, it is not concealed by the trees; it has sunk into the earth after decoying us here into the depths of the forest. did not i tell you that it would be so? we shall never get out of this alive." "for the devil's sake ride on and do not stop, else both man and beast will stiffen with the cold. it seems to me i see something like a hut over there." "fine hut; it is nothing but a granite rock with grey sides, from which the wind has blown away the snow. it is all over with us." "hold your tongue, and ride on! here we have an open space with young woods; i caught a glimpse of something there between the snow-drifts." "all the saints be with us! we are now on the very spot where the house stood. do you not see the old fire-place sticking out through the snow? not a step farther, master!" "i am not mistaken ... it is the hut." bertel and his companion found themselves on very rough ground, where the horses stumbled at every step over large stones, or sank into great hollows covered with snow. deep snow-drifts and fallen trees made it worse still, as if to obstruct the passage to a dilapidated peasant's hut, which by design or chance was hidden behind two spreading firs, with branches hanging to the ground. the only window of the hut had a shutter, which was at one moment blown open by the wind and then slammed to again, thus causing the light within to show itself and disappear by turns. bertel dismounted from his horse, tied it to a branch of the fir, and approached the window to throw a glance inside. a secret hope gave wings to his feet. he took it for granted that unless the fugitives had gone in a northerly direction, they could not have followed the main highway, but had sought to escape their pursuers on the side roads. but in this part of the plain of east bothnia hundreds of small roads crossed each other at that time, all leading to the new settlements in the east. who told him that the fugitives would select just this road? still his heart beat faster when he approached the window. of the four small panes two were of horn, which was formerly used in default of glass; one of them was broken and stopped up with moss; only the fourth was of glass, but so covered with ice and snow that at first nothing could be seen. bertel breathed on the glass, but found to his vexation that the frost on the inside defied his curiosity. just then his horse neighed. it seemed ridiculous to bertel to stand spying into a poor peasant's hut. he was already on the point of knocking at the door, when at that instant a shadow obscured the light, and the frost on the inside of the glass was quickly melted by the breath of a human being, as eager to look out as he was to look in. bertel was soon able to discern a face with burning eyes, which stared out close to the window, to discover the cause of a horse's neighing so late at night in the wilderness. the sight of this face had the effect of an electric shock upon the inquisitive captain. with his thoughts on the beautiful regina, bertel had expected a sight not involving so great a contrast. but instead he beheld a corpse-like face surrounded by a black tight-fitting, leather hood, and this dark frame made the pale face seem still paler. bertel had seen these features before, and when he searched his memory, the picture of a terrible night in the bavarian woods rose before his mental vision. involuntarily he drew back, and hesitated for a moment. this motion was observed by pekka, who had remained on his horse so as to be ready to fly. "quick, away from here!" he cried. "i have told you that nobody but the devil himself lives in these woods." "yes, you are right," said bertel, now smiling at his own fears, and what he considered to be the offspring of his heated fancy. "if ever the prince of darkness has assumed a human form, then he resides in this hut. but that is just the reason why we will look the worthy gentleman in the face, and force him to give us lodgings for the night. hullo, there! open the door to some travellers." these words were accompanied by some heavy blows on the door. chapter ix. don quixote de la mancha. after some time the door was opened, and an old man, bent with age, and with snow-white hair, disclosed himself. accustomed by the right of war to take whatever was necessary, when it was not given voluntarily, bertel pushed the old man aside and entered the miserable hut without ceremony. to his great astonishment he found it empty. a half burnt "perta,"* stuck in between the bricks of the fire-place, threw a flickering light around this abode of poverty. there was no door except the entrance; no living being besides the old man and a large woolly dog, which lay outstretched on the hearth, and showed his teeth to the uninvited guest. * a thin stick of pine-wood, a yard long and an inch thick, which the peasants sometimes use instead of candles. "where is the man in the black leather hood, who was here a moment ago?" asked bertel sharply. "god bless your grace," answered the old man humbly and evasively, "who could be here but your grace?" "out with the truth! somebody must be hidden here. under the bed ... no. behind the oven ... no. and yet you have just had a large fire kindled in the fire-place. what? i believe it is put out with water? answer." "it is so cold, your grace, and the hut is full of cracks..." bertel's aroused suspicions were not so easily dispelled. his eyes searched every part of the room, and soon discovered a little object which had fallen under a bench. it was a fine and soft lady's glove, lined with flannel. "will you now confess, old wretch?" burst out the excited young man. the old man seemed dismayed, but only for a moment. he suddenly changed his manner, nodded slyly, and pointed to the corner nearest the oven. bertel followed the hint ... took a few steps ... and suddenly felt himself precipitated downwards. he had fallen into the open hole of a cellar, whose entrance had been hidden by the heavy shadow of the fire-place. instantly a trap-door was closed over the opening, and he heard the rattling of an iron hook, which secured the trap and deprived him of all chance of opening the door from below. bertel had fallen into one of those places under the floor in which poor people keep roots and home-brewed beer. the cellar was not deep, nor his fall dangerous, but, nevertheless, bertel's anger was quite natural. the little glove had betrayed the whole story. she must be here; she, the beautiful, proud, unfortunate princess, whom he had so long adored in secret. perhaps she had fallen into the hands of cruel robbers. and just now, when he was near to her after years of longing, and when, perhaps, she most needed his help and protection, he had been caught in a miserable trap; imprisoned in a rat-hole, more miserable than the hut itself, of which the floor this moment served him for a ceiling. in vain did he try to lift up the planks of the floor by the strength of his shoulders; they were as inexorable as the fate which had so long mocked his dearest hopes. then he heard the footsteps of several persons passing over the floor overhead. then all was silent. pekka was now bertel's only hope, but the former had not dared to enter the hut. nothing was heard of him, however, and three or four hours passed in torturing suspense, increased by the prospect of perishing from hunger and cold. then steps again sounded overhead; the iron hook was unfastened, and the trap-door raised. half-frozen, bertel crawled up from the damp hole, in the firm belief that pekka had at last spied out his prison. he was met instead by the old man with the snow-white hair, who, humble and submissive as before, offered his hand to help him up. the enraged young warrior seized him by his bony shoulders, and proceeded to catechise him in a thorough manner. "wretch," he exclaimed, "are you tired of life, or do you not know what you are doing, dotard? what hinders me from crushing your miserable carcase against the walls of your own hut?" the old man looked at him with an unchanging countenance. "do so, bertila's son," he replied; "kill your mother's old faithful servant if you wish; why should he live any longer?" "my mother's old servant, do you say?" "i am the last survivor of all those who formerly inhabited this fertile region, which is now a wilderness. it was i who said to aron bertila, when my master's house was destroyed in blood and ashes: 'save my young mistress.' and bertila did it; cursed is he and blessed at the same time! he carried my lovely young mistress out of the flames, and she, a noble maiden, became the haughty peasant's humble wife." "but are you mad, old man? if you are, as you say, my mother's old servant, why did you shut me up in that damned hole? you must admit that your friendship is of a strange kind." "kill me, sir. i am ninety years of age. kill me, i am a catholic!" "you! well, by my sword now i begin to understand you." "i am the last catholic in this country. i belong to king john's and king sigismund's time. i am one of the four who buried the last nun in nadendal's cloister. for twenty years i have not heard mass, or been sprinkled with holy water. but all the saints be praised, an hour before your arrival, i had eaten of the holy wafer." "a monk has been in your hut?" "yes, sir, one of ours." "and with him a young girl and her old waiting-maid? answer." "yes, sir, they were in his company." "and on my arrival you concealed them..." "in the garret. yes, your grace." "then you decoyed me into that miserable rat-hole, while you allowed the women and the monk to escape." "i do not deny that it is so." "and what do you think that your reward will be?" "anything--death, perhaps." "i will spare your life on one condition: you shall show me the way the fugitives have taken." "my life; i told you that i was ninety years old." "and you do not fear the torture?" "the saints be praised, if i was worthy of so great an honour." "but if i burn you alive in your own hut?" "the holy martyrs have been burnt at the stake." "no, old man, i am not an executioner. i have learnt in the service of my king to revere faithfulness." and bertel pressed the old man's hand with emotion. "but i will tell you one thing," he continued, "you think that i have come to take the fugitives back to their prison. it is not so. i give you my word of honour, that i will defend lady regina's freedom with my life's blood, and do all in my power to favour her flight. will you now tell me which way she has gone?" "no, your grace," said the calm old man; "the young lady is under the protection of the saints, and a wise man's guidance. you are hot-blooded and young, and would bring them all to ruin. turn back, you will not find any trace of the fugitives." "bull-head," muttered bertel indignantly. "farewell, i shall get along without your help." "remain here quietly until to-morrow, your grace. to-night you are at liberty to walk, if you choose, six miles through the high snow-drifts, to the nearest farm. to-morrow you can ride comfortably." "wretch! you have sent my horses away?" "yes, your grace ... you must be hungry. here is a kettle with boiled turnips; may they be to your taste." "ah!" thought bertel to himself, as he impatiently paced the floor, "i would not let larsson see me at this moment for ten bottles of rhine wine. he would certainly compare me to the wandering knight of la mancha, who, on the way to his dulcinea, fell into the most peculiar adventures. how shall i get away from here through these terrible snow-drifts?" "but," he added aloud, "i have an idea; i will try if one of the greatest amusements of my youth cannot serve me a good turn now. old man, where do you keep your snow-shoes?" "my snow-shoes?" replied the old man, confused. "i have none." "you have, i see it in your face. no finn in the wilderness is without snow-shoes. out with them, quick!" and without heeding the old man, bertel pushed open the door which led to the garret, and drew out a fine pair of snow-shoes. "well, old friend," exclaimed the young cavalier, "what do you think of my horses? ... i call them mine, for i will bet anything that you will sell them to me for three hard silver thalers: swifter steeds have seldom hurried over high snow-drifts. if you have any greeting for the monk or lady regina, i will take it with pleasure." "do not go alone into the wilderness," said the old man. "there is neither track or path; the woods extend for miles, and are filled with wolves. it will be certain death to you." "you are wrong, my friend," replied bertel. "if i am not mistaken, there are traces in two directions: one from my horses, the other from the fugitives. tell me, did they go in a sleigh, or on horseback?" "i think they went on horseback." "then i am certain they drove. you are a finished rogue. but i forgive you for the sake of your excellent snow-shoes. farewell, in a couple of hours i will find those whom i seek." with these words bertel hurried out. it was yet early in the morning, a short time before sunrise. but fortunately the storm had ceased, the sky was clear, and the winter stars twinkled brightly in the blue firmament. the cold had increased, and a sharp frost had covered all the branches and snowdrifts with those ice diamonds, which at once dazzle and charm the wanderer's eye. the sight of woods and snow on a starry winter morning gives the northerner a peculiar exhilarating feeling. there is in this scene a grandeur, a splendour, a purity, a freshness, which carries him back to the impressions of his childhood and the brilliant illusions of youth. there is nothing to cramp the heart, or paralyze the soaring imagination; all is there so vast, so solemn, so free. one might say that nature in this deep silence of winter and night is dead, and yet she lives, warm and rich, in the wanderer's heart. it is as if she had in this little spot, this solitary place in the wilderness, compressed all her throbbing life, only to let it exist all the more beautifully in the midst of silence, stillness, and the radiance of the stars. bertel also experienced this feeling of freshness and life. he was still young and open to every impression. as he hastened along, light as the wind, between the trees and snow-drifts, he felt like a child. it seemed to him that he was again the boy who flew over the snow on storkyro plains to spread his snares for the black-cock in the woods. it was true that he was a little unsteady in the beginning for lack of practice, and the snow-shoes slid merrily down the icy slopes; occasionally he made false pushes, and sometimes stumbled, but he soon regained his former skill, and stood firm on the uneven ground. now it was necessary to find the traces of the fugitives, and this was not easy. bertel had wandered about for more than an hour in the direction of ylihärmä, but had not discovered the slightest sign. the last outbreak of the storm had destroyed all indications; one could only see the fresh track of the wolf, where he had just trotted along, and now and then a frightened bird flew between the branches which were heavy with snow. want of sleep, hunger, and fatigue, exhausted the young man's strength. the cold increased as sunrise approached, and covered his moustache and plumed hat with frost. at last he saw on a wood-path, which the broad pines had shielded from the blast, fresh traces of runners and horses' feet. bertel followed these with renewed energy; at times the tracks were lost in the snow, and then reappeared where the road was sheltered. the sun rose deep red in the south-east over the tops of the trees. the day was cold and clear. in every direction nothing was to be seen but trees and snow-drifts, but far away in the north a little column of smoke rose towards the morning sky. bertel aimed at this point. the snow-shoes regained their speed, the road seemed smoother, and at last the weary adventurer reached a solitary farmhouse by the side of the high road. the first person he encountered was pekka, who was going to feed his horses. "scoundrel!" cried bertel, with glad surprise, "who sent you here?" "who?" repeated pekka, equally delighted and astonished. "well, i shall tell you that the devil did it. i waited and waited outside that accursed old shanty in the woods until my eyes and feet became heavy together, where i sat in the snow-drift. after a little while i was aroused by the neighing of horses. and then i saw a sleigh just like ours harnessed to two horses, dashing away along the road. it is either my master or the devil. it is all the same to me. i will follow him, i said. then i climbed up again on the horse's back. i was so hungry that it is a shame to speak of it; but i went after him. finally the horse became tired and i lost sight of the sleigh; and thanked are both lutheran and catholic saints that i came here to the farm and got a good bowl of porridge. for was it not at lützen and nördlingen ... it is damned cold at ylihärmä, that is sure." "good," said bertel, "they shall not escape us. but do you know one thing, pekka: there are moments when hunger and want of sleep are even stronger than love itself. come, let us go in." bertel entered, and drank a bowl of boiled milk, and threw himself, overcome by fatigue, on a straw bed in the "stuga." here we will leave our wandering knight for a couple of hours in peace. chapter x. kajaneborg. far away in the north roar the mighty waters of the sea under vaults of ice; the _fors_ never freezes, the green of the pine never withers, and the grey rocks, which confine the foaming floods in narrow ravines, never shake. here the powers of nature have pursued their incessant warfare for centuries without rest, without reconciliation; the flood never tires of battling with the rocks, and these persist in resisting the stream; the hills never seem to grow old, and the immense morasses defy cultivation; the frosty transparent atmosphere quivers as of old in the northern light, and the winter sky looks down with its imperturbable, majestic calm upon the scattered huts on the banks of the streams. this is the home of night and terror; this is the shadow of finnish poetry's golden pictures. here the light-shunning black art spins its webs around human beliefs; here are the graves of heroes; here the last giants spent their rude strength in the mountain wilderness; here stood hüsis ancient fortress, of which the steps were each six feet in height; here the spirit of the middle ages brooded over its darkest thoughts; here it receded, step by step, before the light of a newer time, and here it has bled in its impotent rage; heathenism, fallen from its greatness, steals outlawed from place to place, in the sheep's clothing of christendom, going restlessly around the country, and performing its miserable mummeries in churchyards at night. before the great northern waters, irritated by their battles in hundreds of _forssar_* go to seek a brief repose in uleä sea, they once more pour out their anger into the two mighty waterfalls of koivukoski and Ämmä, near the little kajana. like two immense surfs the torrents throw themselves headlong down the narrow pass, and so violent is their fall that human daring, accustomed to struggle with nature and conquer in the end, has here stopped with dismay and acknowledged its powerlessness. up to the latest times the boats which have steered down the _forssar_ in their course towards uleäborg, have always been obliged to land here and be drawn by horses through the streets of kajana.** * plural of fors. ** after the surgeon's time, a lock was completed here at each fall, and the boats now continue on their way without much delay. in the stream, right between the two falls, koivukoski and Ämmä, lies a flat rock, to which bridges are attached from both sides. here stand the grey walls of an ancient fortress, now in ruins, and constantly bathed by the waves of the flood. this fortress of kajaneborg was founded in , during carl ix.'s time, as a protection against russian invasion. perhaps the time may come in our stories when we shall speak more of it. it is now , and the castle stands in its original strength. its form resembles an arrow with the point turned towards the stream. unless famine occurs, or the enemy can bring heavy artillery to the heights, it is considered impregnable. but how can a hostile army find any road to kajaneborg? in the immense wilderness all around there is not a single road where a wheel can run. in summer the traveller follows the narrow paths, and in winter the laplander, with his reindeer and sleigh, drives over the frozen lakes. it is winter; a thick crust of ice on the shores and over the walls of the castle shows that the cold has been severe, though it has not been able to bind the _fors_ in its rapid course. some soldiers, clad in sheep-skin jackets, with the fur side turned inwards, are busy drawing home wood from the adjacent forest. there is peace in the land, the drawbridge is down, and horses' feet thunder over the bridge. then a violent squabble arises in the castle yard. an old woman, tall in stature, with rather disagreeable features, has taken possession of one of the loads of wood, and pushed away the soldiers, while she picks up as many pieces as she is able to carry, and commands another younger woman to do likewise. the soldiers utter coarse oaths, but the woman with the keen eyes does not deign to reply. a sub-officer, drawn there by the noise, informs himself of the cause, then addresses the woman with hard words, and orders her to return the wood she has taken. the woman refuses to obey; the sub-officer endeavours to use force; the woman plants herself back to the wall, raises a small log of wood in the air, and threatens to break the head of the first man who approaches her. the soldiers swear and laugh; the sub-officer hesitates; the old woman's courage holds them all in check. then an elderly man appears on the steps, to whom all give way with reverence. it is governor wernstedt. as soon as the old woman sees him, she leaves her hostile attitude, and relates with a torrent of words all the injustice she has suffered. "yes, gracious excellency," she said, "that is the way they dare to treat a man who is the pride and ornament of sweden. it is not sufficient to shut him up in this miserable out-of-the-way hole, but they let him freeze to death in the bargain. what wood have they given us? great god! nothing but green and rotten chunks, which fill the room with smoke, and do not give out heat enough to thaw the ink on his table. but i tell you, excellency, that i, lucia grothusen, do not intend to be imposed upon any longer. this wood is good, and i take it, as you see, excellency, right before the face of these vagabonds, who deserve to all hang upon the highest pine in the paldamo forest. pack yourselves off, you lazy, good-for-nothing rascals, and look out how you act before me and the governor. the wood is mine, and that is all to be said about it." the governor smiled. "let her keep the wood," he said to the soldiers, "or else there will be no peace in the castle. and you, lucia, i warn you to hold your wicked tongue, which has already done so much mischief; otherwise it may happen that i shall again put you and your husband in that basement you know of, where erik hare kept you, and where the stream rolls right under the floor. is this the thanks i get for the mild treatment i have bestowed upon you, that you are eternally exciting quarrels in the castle? the day before yesterday you gave rein to your tongue, because you did not receive enough soap for your washing; yesterday you took a leg of mutton by force from my kitchen, and to-day you make a noise about the wood. take care, lucia; my patience may be exhausted." the woman looked the governor right in the face. "your patience!" she repeated. "how long do you think that mine will last. i have stayed now nearly nineteen years in this owl's nest. for nineteen long years has it cast a stain upon sweden that its greatest man is confined here like a criminal! ... mark what i say: sweden's greatest man; for the day will arrive when you, and i, and all these souls of lard, all these wandering ale-jugs, will be food for worms, and no more thought of than the hogs you killed to-day; but the glorious name of johannes messenius will shine for all time. your patience! have i, then, had none--i who in these long weary years have been fighting with you for a bit of bread, for firewood, for a pillow for this great man, whom you abuse? i, the only one who has kept his frail body alive, and strengthened his soul for the great work which he has now accomplished? do you realise what it means to suffer as i have; to be snatched away from one's children, to go about with despair in the heart, and a smile on the lips, so as to seem to have a hope when none remains? ... do you know, your excellency, what all this means? and you stand there and talk about your patience!" the soldiers' loud laughter all at once interrupted the voluble old woman. she now perceived for the first time that the governor had chosen the wisest course, and gone his way. it was not the first time that lucia grothusen had put the commander of a fortress to flight. she felt able to drive a whole garrison to the woods. but it vexed her that she could not fully relieve her heart. she threw a stick of wood at the nearest and worst of her mockers, and then hurried with the wood in her arms, to reach a low back door. the soldier, struck in the leg, seized the stick with an oath, and flung it in his turn after the old woman. lucia, hit in the heel, uttered a cry of pain and anger ... and then she disappeared through the door, followed by the soldiers' loud laughter. during this scene of self-sacrifice on one side, and rudeness on the other, a group of strangers had arrived over the left castle bridge, and asked to be conducted to the governor. the soldiers regarded them with curiosity. they wore the common garb of peasants, but their whole appearance betrayed their foreign origin. an old man, with dark squinting eyes and sallow complexion, came first; his face partly hidden under a woolly cap of dog-skin, which with its ear-flaps covered the greater portion of the head. after him followed a young woman in a striped home-spun skirt, and a tight-fitting jacket of new and fine white sheep-skin. her face, also, is almost entirely concealed under a hood of coarse felt, bordered with squirrel-skin, the fine fur of which is covered with frost. one only saw a pair of beautiful dark eyes of unusual brilliancy, which peeped forth from the hood. the third of the company was a little old woman, so wrapped up in furs that her short figure had widened out into the shape of a well-stuffed cushion. all these persons were conducted to the governor. the man in the dog-skin cap showed a passport, according to which, albertus simonis, in his royal majesty's service, was appointed army physician to the troops which were to go to germany the following spring, and was now, with his wife and daughter, on a journey from dantzig to stockholm, by way of the north road through wiborg and kajana. the governor closely examined both the document and the man, and seemed to find a satisfactory conclusion to his survey. then he sent the travellers to a room in the east wing of the castle, and gave orders for them to be provided with the necessary refreshments after such a long journey in the severe cold. chapter xi. the prisoner of state. the room which we now enter is situated in the south tower of the castle, and is not very inviting. it is large and dark. although with a sunny aspect, the narrow window, with its thick iron gratings, only admits a few of the winter's day sunbeams. a large open fire-place, with a granite hearth, occupies one corner of the room; a rough unpainted bed, a couple of benches, two chairs, a clothes-chest, a large table under the window, and a high cupboard next to it, make up the furniture of the room. all these things have a new appearance, which to some degree reconciles the eye to their coarseness. but the room is a curious combination of kitchen and study. learning has established its abode at the upper end nearest the window. the table is adorned with ink spots, and covered with old yellow manuscripts and large folios of parchments. the door of the cupboard is open, and shows its use as a library. the lower part of the room, near the fire-place, has a different appearance. here stands a wash-tub by a sack of flour; a kettle is waiting to receive some dried pike and bits of salt pork, and leaves room for a bucket of water, and a shelf filled with coarse stone dishes. such was the habitation which governor wernstedt had assigned to the state prisoner, johannes messenius, his wife, and servant, instead of the horrible place where messenius' tormentor, old erik hare, for so many years confined these unfortunate beings. the room was at least high and dry above the ground, and its furniture was likewise a friendly gift from the governor. messenius occupied the upper part, and the women of his household the lower. by the large ink-spotted table sat a grey-haired man, with his body wrapped in furs, his feet clad with reindeer boots, and his head covered with a thick woollen cap. one who had seen this man in the days of his prosperity, when he occupied the rostrum in upsala "consistorium," or proud as a king on his throne, exercising sole control over all the historical treasures of the swedish state archives, would scarcely now recognise in this withered form, bent by age and misfortune, the man with the arrogant mind, the opponent of rudbeck and tegel, the learned, gifted, haughty, jesuit conspirator, johannes messenius. but if one looked deep into those keen, restless eyes, which seemed constantly trying to penetrate the future as they had done the past, and read the words which his shaking hand had just penned--words full of egotism even to presumption--then one could divine that within this decayed tenement toiled a soul unbroken by time and events, proud as it had always been, ambitious as it could never cease to be. the old man's gaze was fixed upon the paper long after he had laid down his pen. "yes," he said thoughtfully and reflectively, "so shall it be. during my lifetime they have trampled me like a worm in the dust; once i am dead they will know upon whom they have trodden. _gloria, gloria in excelsis!_ the day will arrive, even if it be a century hence, when the miserable prisoner who, now forgotten by the whole world, pines away in the wilderness, shall with admiration and respect be called the father of swedish history.... "then," he continued with a bitter smile, "they can do nothing more for me. then i shall be dead ... ah, it is strange! the dead man, whose bones have long mouldered in the grave, lives in his works; his spirit goes quickening and ennobling through the ages. all that he has endured while he lived, all the ignominy, all the persecutions, all the prison gratings are forgotten; they exist no longer, provided his name still shines like a star through the night of time, and posterity, with its short memory and its ingratitude, says, with thoughtless admiration, he was a great man!" during this soliloquy the old woman, whose acquaintance we made in the castle yard, entered the room. she carefully opened the door, and walked on tip-toe, as if afraid of waking a sleeping babe. then she carefully put down the wood she carried in her arms. a little noise, however, was unavoidable; the old man at the table, startled from his thoughts, began to upbraid the intruder: "woman!" he said, "how dare you disturb me! have i not told you _iterum iterumque_, that you shall take away your _penates procul a parnasso_? do you understand it ... _lupa_?" "dear messenius, i am only bringing you a little wood. you have been so cold all these days. do not be angry now. i shall make the room nice and warm for you; it is excellent wood..." "_quid miki tecum_. go to the dogs. you vex me, woman. you are, as the late king gustaf always said, _messenü mala herba_; my wormwood, my nettle." lucia grothusen was an extremely quick-tempered woman, angry and quarrelsome with the whole world; but this time she kept quite still. how strangely her domestic position had altered! she had always idolized her husband, but as long as he was in the full strength of his manhood and prosperity, she had bent his unquiet, vacillating spirit like a reed under her will. all that time the feared and learned messenius was held in complete subjection. now the _rôles_ were changed. as his physical strength declined, indicating more and more that he approached the end of his life, his wife's idolatrous love came into conflict with her masterful disposition, and finally produced the extraordinary result of reducing this character to humble submission. she nursed him as a mother nurses her sick child, for fear of losing him. she bore everything patiently, and never had an angry word in reply to his querulous remarks. even on this occasion, only a slight trembling of the lips gave evidence of the effort it cost her to check her anger. "never mind," she said kindly, as she went a few steps nearer, "do not feel angry about it, my dear, because it injures your health. i will not do it again; next time i will lay a mat under the wood, so that it will not disturb you. now i will cook you a splendid leg of mutton for supper ... believe me, i had trouble enough to get it. i almost had to take it by force from the governor's kitchen." "what, woman! have you dared to beg _beneficia_ from tyrants? by jupiter, do you think me a dog, that i should eat the crumbs from their tables? and then you limp. why do you do that? answer me; why do you limp? i suppose you have been running around like a gossiping old woman, and tripped on the stairs." "do i limp?" repeated lucia, with a forced smile. "i really believe i have hurt my foot ... ungrateful!" added she silently to herself; "it is for your sake that i suffer." "go your way, and let me finish my epitaph." but lucia did not go; she came closer to him. her eyes filled with tears, and she folded both her arms around the old man's neck. "your epitaph!" she repeated in a voice so mild that one would never have expected it from those withered lips, used so very often for hard words and invective only. "oh, my god!" she continued in a low tone, "shall, then, all that is great and glorious on earth finally become dust? but that day is still far distant, my friend; yes, it must be so. let me see the epitaph of the great johannes messenius!" "certainly," said the old man, consoled by her sincere flattery, "you are decidedly the true _persona executrix_ who ought to read my _epitaphium_, as you are also the one who will have to engrave it on my tombstone. look, my dear; what do you think of this? "here lie the bones of doctoris johannes messenii. his soul is in god's kingdom, but his fame is all over the world!" "never," said lucia, weeping, "have truer words been placed over a great man's grave. but let us say no more about it. let us speak of your great work, your _scondia_. do you know i have a feeling that its glory will in a short time prepare freedom for you..." "freedom!" repeated messenius, in a melancholy tone. "yes, you are right; the freedom of the grave to decay wherever one chooses." "no," replied lucia with eagerness and enthusiasm, "you shall yet receive the honour that is due to you. they will read your great _scondia illustrata_, they will have it printed ... with your name in gilded letters on the title-page ... the whole world will say, full of admiration: 'never has his equal existed in the north'!" "and never will exist again!" added messenius, with confidence. "oh! who will restore me my freedom--freedom that i may behold my work and triumph over my enemies. hear me, lord, i stretch out my hands before thy face. save me from misery, for thou hast said: 'i will prostrate thine enemies, to be trampled under thy feet.' who will give me freedom--freedom and ten years of life to witness the fruits of my labour?" "i," answered a muffled voice at the lower end of the room. at the sound of this voice both messenius and his wife looked around with superstitious terror. the loneliness of the prison, and the associations of this wild country, which in all ages has been the fruitful soil of superstition, had in both increased the belief in superhuman things to a perfect conviction. more than once had messenius' brooding spirit been on the point of plunging into the enticing labyrinth of the kabala and practical magic; but his zealous labours and his wife's religious exhortations had held him back. now came an unexpected answer to his question ... from heaven or the abyss, no matter which, but an answer, nevertheless--a straw for his drowning hopes. the short winter day had drawn to a close, and twilight already spread its shadows over that part of the room which lay nearest the door. from this obscurity advanced a man, in whose sallow features one recognised the same person who two hours before had gained an entrance to the castle, under the name of albertus simonis. he had probably, in his capacity of physician, obtained permission to see the prisoner, for the whole medical faculty of the castle consisted of a barber, who practised chirurgery, and an old soldier's widow, whose skill in curing internal diseases was highly commended, especially when it was assisted by _luvut_, or incantations, which, although forbidden by the church, were still used in the vapour-baths as powerful magical aids. "_pax vobiscum!_" said the stranger with a certain solemnity, and coming nearer the window. "may the lord be with you also!" answered messenius, in the same tone, and with curiosity mingled with inquietude. "may the woman's tongue be far from the consultation!" continued the stranger also in latin. lucia, in whose youth the daughters of learned men knew latin better than those of the nineteenth century read french, did not wait for a further reminder, and left the room with an inquisitive glance at the mysterious stranger. messenius made a sign to his visitor to take a seat near him. the whole conversation was conducted in latin. "receive my greeting, great man, whom misfortune has only been able to elevate!" began the stranger, with artful discrimination attacking messenius' weakest point. "be welcome, you who do not disdain to visit the forsaken!" replied messenius with unusual courtesy. "do you recognise me, johannes messenius?" said the stranger, as he let the light fall on his pale face. "it seems to me that i have seen your face before," replied the prisoner hesitatingly; "but it must have been a long time ago." "do you remember a boy in braunsberg, some years younger than yourself, who was educated with you in the school of the holy fathers, and afterwards in your company visited rome and ingolstadt?" "yes, i remember ... a boy who gave great promise of one day becoming a pillar of the church ... hieronymus mathiæ." "i am hieronymus mathiæ." messenius felt a shudder run through his frame. time, the experiences of life, and the soul destroying doctrines of the jesuits, had completely changed the features of the once blooming boy. pater hieronymus observed this impression, and hastened to add: "yes, my revered friend, thirty-five years' struggle for the welfare of the only saving church has caused the roses in these cheeks to fade for ever. i have laboured and suffered in these evil times. like you, great man, but with much lesser genius, i have dug in the vineyard, without any reward for my toil but the prospect of the holy martyr's crown in paradise. you were very kind to me in my youth; now i will repay it so far as it lies in my power. i will restore you to freedom and life." "ah, reverend father," replied the old man, with a deep sigh, "i am not worthy of this; you, the son of the holy church, extending your hand to me, a poor apostate? you do not know, then, that i have renounced our faith; that i, with my own hand and mouth, have embraced the accursed lutheran religion, which i abhor in my heart; nay, even in my time persecuted your holy order with several godless libels." "why should i not know all this, my honoured friend; have not the great messenius' work and deeds flown on the wings of fame throughout germany? but what you have done, has been done as a blind, so as to work in secret for the highest good of our holy roman church. do not the scriptures teach us to meet craft with craft in these godless times? 'ye shall be as wily as serpents.' the holy virgin will give you her absolution as soon as you have worked for her sake. yes, esteemed man, even had you seven times abjured your faith, and seven times seventy sinned against all the saints and the dogmas of the church, it shall all be accounted to you for reward, and not for condemnation, provided you have done it with a mental reservation, and with the design of thereby serving the good cause. even if your tongue has lied, and your hand killed, it shall be deemed a pious and holy work, when it was for the purpose of bringing back the stray sheep. courage, great man, i absolve you in the name of the church." "yes, good father, these teachings which the worthy jesuit fathers, in braunsberg so eloquently instilled into my young mind, i have faithfully followed in my life. but now, in my old age, it sometimes seems to me as if my conscience raised some opposition in the matter..." "temptations of the devil! nothing else. drive them away!" "that may well be, pious father! yes, to calm my conscience, i have written a formal confession, in which i openly declare my profession of the lutheran faith a hypocritical act, and as openly proclaim my adherence to the catholic church." "hide this confession, show it not to any mortal eye!" interrupted the jesuit quickly. "its time will yet come." "i do not understand your reasons, pious father." "listen attentively to what i have to say! do you think, old man, that i, without important reasons, have ventured up here in the wilderness, daily exposed to hunger, cold, wild beasts, and the still wilder people in this country, who would burn me alive if they knew who i was, and what i was about? do you think i would have left the wide field in my native land, had i not hoped to accomplish more here? well, then, i will briefly explain to you my point ... can anyone hear us? perhaps there are private passages in these walls." "be sure no mortal can hear us." "know, then," continued the jesuit in a low voice, "that we have again before us the never-abandoned plan of bringing heretic sweden back to the bosom of the roman church. there are only two powers which can any longer resist us, and the saints be praised, these powers are becoming day by day more harmless. the house of stuart, in england, is surrounded by our nets, and in secret does everything for our cause. sweden still lies stunned by the terrible blow at nördlingen, and cannot, without fresh miracles, retain its dominant position in germany. the time has come when our plans are fully matured; we must avail ourselves of our enemies' powerlessness. in a few years england will fall into our hands like a ripe fruit. sweden, still proud of former victories, shall be forced to do the same. the means to this end will be a change of dynasty." "christina, king gustaf's daughter..." "is a nine-year-old child, and besides a girl! we are not without allies in sweden, who still remember the expelled royal family. the weak sigismund is dead; uladislaus, his son, stretches out his hands, with all the impatience of youth, for the crown of his forefathers. it shall be his." chapter xii. the tempter. "uladislaus on the swedish throne? i doubt whether we shall ever live to see that day," said messenius incredulously. "hear me to the end," continued the jesuit, engrossed by the stupendous plan his scheming head had concocted. "you, messenius, are the only one who can perform this miracle." "i ... a miserable prisoner! impossible." "to the saints and genius nothing is impossible. the swede is now well disposed towards royalty. the example of his kings leads him to good or evil. he has especially a great reverence for old king gustaf vasa. if it could now be proved that the said king on his death-bed, with repentance, declared the lutheran doctrine to be heterodox, that he had abjured and cursed the reformation, and that he had charged his youngest son, the papistical johan, to atone for his great errors..." "what do you dare to say?" burst out messenius, with undisguised surprise. "such an obvious lie is in direct opposition to gustaf vasa's last words at death, all of whose utterances have been so faithfully recorded..." "calm yourself, revered friend," interrupted the jesuit coldly. "supposing it could be further demonstrated that the second founder of lutheranism, carolus ix., likewise on his death-bed declared the reformation to be a blasphemy and a misfortune...?" messenius regarded the jesuit with dismay. "and if it can finally be proven that even gustaf adolf, before giving up the ghost at lützen, was struck by a sudden inspiration, and died a heretic's death, under the greatest torment and anguish of soul...?" messenius' pale cheeks were covered with a flush. "then," continued the jesuit, with the same composed daring, "there remains of the vasa dynasty only the demented erik xiv., the admitted papist, johan iii., and the professed catholic, sigismund, with all of whom we need not trouble ourselves in the least. once convinced that all of their greatest kings either have been papistical, or have become so in their last moments, the scales will fall from the eyes of the swedish people; they will penitently confess their guilt, and at last fall back into the bosom of the only saving roman catholic church. "but how will you, revered father, in the face of all the facts, convince the swedes of the apostasy of their kings?" "i have already told you," replied the jesuit flatteringly, "that such a great and meritorious mission can only be accomplished by the gifted johannes messenius. all know that you are sweden's most learned man and greatest historian. they know that you possess and hold in your care more historical documents and secrets than anyone else in the whole kingdom. use these advantages skilfully and judiciously; compile documents that never existed; describe events that never happened..." "what do you dare to say?" exclaimed messenius with burning cheeks. the jesuit misunderstood his excitement. "yes," continued the jesuit, "the undertaking is a bold one, but far from impossible. a hasty flight to poland will secure your safety." "and it is to me ... to me that you make this proposal?" "yes," added the monk, in the same tone. "i realise that gustaf adolf will cause you the most trouble, and therefore i will be responsible for him. you will have therefore gustaf i. and carl ix. as your share, to present in such a light as will best serve the cause of the holy church." "_abi a me, male spiritus!_" burst out messenius in a fit of rage, which the jesuit with all his sagacity was far from expecting. "you arch-villain! you liar! you infamous traitor, to lay your hand on the holiest; do you think that i, johannes messenius, have worked for long years to become sweden's greatest historian, to all of a sudden, in such an infamous way, violate the historical truth which i have re-established with such long and continuous efforts? be off this moment, quick ... away, to _gehenna_!" ... and with these words the old scholar, wild with rage, flung everything that he could get hold of at the jesuit's head--books, papers, inkstand, sand-box--with such violence that the monk started. the latter's face became still paler ... then he took a few steps backwards, rose to his full height, and opened the plaited spanish doublet which covered his breast. a crucifix of flashing diamonds, surmounted by a crown of thorns set with rubies, glittered suddenly in the gathering twilight. this sight seemed to have a magical effect upon messenius. his excited voice was suddenly hushed ... his rage changed immediately to fear ... his knees trembled; he staggered, and was on the point of falling, but supported himself with difficulty against the chair at the table. the jesuit again advanced slowly, and looked steadily at the prisoner with his piercing eyes, which were like those of the rattlesnake. "have you forgotten, old man," he said, in a measured and commanding tone, whilst every word was followed by a pause to increase its effect, "the penalty which the church and the laws of our holy order inflict for sins like yours? for apostasy: death ... and you have seven times apostatized! ... for blasphemy: death ... and you have seven times blasphemed! ... for disobedience: death ... and you have seven times disobeyed! ... for sin against the holy ghost: damnation ... and who has sinned like you? ... for heresy: the stake ... and who has merited it like you? ... for offence and disrespect against the holy ones of the lord: the eternal fire ... and who has given offence like you?" "grace, holy father, grace!" exclaimed messenius, while he writhed like a worm under the jesuit's terrible threats. but father hieronymus continued: "the celebrated nicolaus pragensis went over to calvin's false doctrines, and dared to defy the head of our order. he fled to the farthest corner of bohemia, but our revenge found him. the dogs tore his body to pieces, and the spirits of hell obtained his soul..." "grace! mercy!" sighed the prisoner, completely crushed. "well, then," added the jesuit in a haughty tone or superiority, "i have given you the choice between glory and perdition; i will once more place it before you, although you are undeserving. do you imagine, miserable apostate, that i, the head of the german and northern jesuits, who do not acknowledge any superior except the holy father at rome--do you believe that i, who have braved myriads of dangers to seek you here in your miserable corner, will allow you to stop me, the invisible ruler of the whole north, with your disobedience and irresolution? i ask you once more, in the name of our holy order, if you, johannes messenius, will be faithful to the oath you swore in your youth, and implicitly obey the behests and commands which i, your superior and judge, enjoin upon you?" "yes, holy father," answered the trembling captive; "yes, i will." "hear, then, the penalty i impose. you say that for your whole life you have striven for a single aim; that of gaining the name of the greatest historian in the north, and you think that you have at last attained your desire?" "yes, holy father, that has been my object, and i have obtained it." "your aim is evil!" exclaimed the jesuit in stern tones, "and it is that of the devil, for you have worked for your own glory, and not for that of the holy church, as you have sworn. therefore, i command you to destroy, with your own hands, the idol of your life--your great fame with posterity--by perverting history and writing it, not as it is, but as it ought to be. i order you to cast away fame, to serve the cause of the roman church in the north. you shall write the history of gustaf i. and carl ix. in such a manner that all they have done for the reformation may redound as a ruin and curse both to them and their kingdom. and i will that you base this new history on such reliable documents, that in the eyes of the people they will be above suspicion ... documents which do not exist, but which you shall manufacture ... documents of which the falsity may possibly be discovered in a future generation, but which will at present produce the desired effect." "and thus," said messenius, in a voice trembling with the most varied emotions--fear, anger, and humiliation--"i shall stand before posterity as a base falsifier, an infamous perverter of historical truth." "yes, and what then?" continued the jesuit with a sardonic smile; "what matters it, if you, miserable tool, sacrifice your name, provided the church gains its great victory? of what advantage is the praise of men, if your soul burns in the eternal fires of hell; and what matters humanity's contempt, if you, through this sacrifice, gain the martyr's crown in heaven?" "but the cause of truth ... the inflexible judgment of posterity." "bah! what is historical truth? well, is it the obedient slave who follows at the heels of human errors ... the parrot which thoughtlessly repeats all their folly? or is it not rather truth, such as it _ought to be_, purified from error, freed from crime and folly ... god's kingdom on earth, as wise as it is almighty, as good as it is holy and wise?" "but is it then we who dictate to god what is good and right? has he not himself told us that truth, _such as it is_?" "ha! vacillating apostate, you still dare to argue with your superior about right and wrong. choose, obey or disobey! choose on one side temporal and eternal death, and on the other the joys of paradise and the glory of the saints. yet a word, and upon this depends your weal or woe. will you obey my commands?" "yes, i will obey," answered the crushed and terrified prisoner. and the jesuit went away silent and cold, with a ruler's nod that the slave had his good grace. chapter xiii. avaunt, evil spirit. about a week had passed since the private conversation to which we last listened. the jesuit during this time had not left the prisoner to himself. he was seen to enter messenius' room every day, under the pretext of medical attendance, and spent some hours with him. he was too acute to rely upon the prisoner's promise. no one in the castle knew what they did together, and the governor was unsuspicious. the remote situation of kajajneborg, far from the rest of the world, had lulled wernstedt into security; he rather found pleasure in the society of the learned and experienced foreign doctor. there was one, however, who with a constant and vigilant eye followed every motion of the stranger, and this was lucia grothusen, messenius' wife. a catholic by education and conviction, she had always strengthened her husband in his faith; the jesuit well knew this, and therefore felt sure of her co-operation, although he carefully avoided confiding his plans to the mercy of female gossip. but the most artful plans are often frustrated by those hidden springs and motives in the human heart, especially in a woman's heart, which work in quite a different direction from that of cold reason. the jesuit, in spite of his astuteness, was mistaken in our lucia. he did not know that when the fanaticism in her mind shouted, push on! love cried still louder in her heart, hold back! and love in women always gets the upper hand. lucia was a very penetrating person; she had looked through the jesuit before he knew it. she saw the ruinous inward strife which raged in messenius; a struggle for life and death between fanaticism on the one hand, which bade him sacrifice fame and posterity for the victory of the church, and ambition on the other, which continually pleaded to him not to sacrifice with his own hand his whole life's work? "will you," it said, "blindly desecrate the sanctuary of history? will you expose to contempt the brilliant name, which in the night of captivity still constitutes your wealth and pride?" lucia saw all this with the discernment of love; she saw that the man for whom she lived an entire life of self-denial and restraint, would sink under this terrible internal battle, and she resolved to save him with a bold and decisive stroke. late one evening the lamp still burned on messenius' writing-table, where he and the jesuit had been working together ever since the morning. lucia had received permission to retire to her bed, which stood at the other end of the room near the door, and pretended to be asleep. the two men had finished their work, and were conversing together with low voices, in latin, which lucia well understood. "i am satisfied with you, my friend," said the jesuit approvingly. "these documents, which bear the stamp of truth, will be sufficient to prove the conversion of king gustaf vasa and king carl, and this preface, signed by you, will further confirm their veracity. i will now return to germany through sweden, and have these prayers printed, through our adherents in stockholm, or if that is impossible, in lübeck or leyden." messenius involuntarily stretched out his hand, as if to snatch back a precious treasure from a robber's hands. "holy father," he exclaimed with visible consternation, "is there no reprieve? my name ... my reputation ... have mercy upon me, holy father, and give me back my name!" the jesuit smiled. "do i not give you a name," he said, "far greater and more abiding than the one you lose--a name in the chronicles of our holy order; a name among the martyrs and benefactors of the church; a name which may one day be counted amongst the saints?" "but, in spite of all this, a name without honour, a liar's, a forger's name!" burst out messenius, with the despair of a condemned man, who is shown the glory of heaven obscured by the scaffold. "weak, vain man, you do not know that great aims are never won by the fear or praise of humanity!" said the jesuit in a contemptuous tone. "you might have taken back your word and forfeited your claims to the gratitude of all christendom. but happily it is now impossible. these documents"--and he extended his hand triumphantly with the papers--"are now in a hand which will know how to keep them, and, against your will, use them for the glory of the church, the victory of the faith, and your soul's eternal welfare." father hieronymus had hardly uttered these words when a hand behind him swiftly and suddenly seized the papers, which he had so elatedly waved, crumpled them together, tore them in a hundred pieces, and strewed the bits over the floor. this move was so unlooked for, and the jesuit was so far from divining anything of the kind, that he lost his usual presence of mind for a moment, and thus gave the daring hand time to complete its work of destruction. when the fragments lying around convinced him of the reality of his loss, he bit his lips with rage, raised his arms aloft, and with the ferocity of a wild beast, fell upon the presumptuous being who had dared to extinguish his plans at the very moment of consummation. lucia--for she owned the intruding hand--met the monk's outbreak of fury with the great courage which distinguishes a woman when she struggles for the holiest she possesses. in her youth she had been one of those who could take a man by the collar; and this more than womanly strength of arm had gained practice during her constant squabbles with the rude soldiers of the castle. she hastily clasped her sinewy fingers around the monk's outstretched arms, and held them fast as in a vice. "well," she said in a mocking tone, "three paces from death, sir; what do you wish?" "mad woman!" screamed the jesuit, foaming with rage, "you do not know what you have done! miserable thief, you have stolen a kingdom from your church, and paradise from your husband." "and from you i have stolen your booty; his secure prey from the wolf; is it not so?" replied lucia, whose voice began to glow with the fire of her hasty temper. "monk," she added, violently shaking the eminent jesuit, who in vain tried to escape, "i know a vile thief, who, in the sheep's clothing of the church, comes to steal the fame of a great man; also the history of a nation; and from a poor, forsaken woman, her sole pride; her husband's peace, honour, and life. tell me, holy and pious monk, what punishment such a thief deserves? would not Ämmä fall be shallow enough for his body, and the eternal fires cool enough for his soul?" the jesuit looked out of the window with a hasty movement towards the mighty torrent which descended with a terrible roar in the winter's night. "ha!" exclaimed lucia with a bitter smile, "you fear me, you, the powerful one, who rules kingdoms and consciences. you fear lest i conceal a man's arm under my grey frock, which could hurl you into the cataract's abyss. be reassured. i am only a woman, and fight with a woman's arms. you see ... i do not throw you out of the window ... i will be content with chaining up the wild beast. tremble, monk, i know you! lucia grothusen has followed your steps; you are betrayed, and she has done this." "betrayed!" echoed the jesuit; he well realised what this statement meant. at a time so full of hate, when two great religions fought for worldly and spiritual supremacy, when the plots of the jesuits irritated the swedes to the highest extent, a member of this order, discovered in disguise, in the kingdom, was lost beyond redemption. but the dire peril restored the equilibrium of this powerful character. "my daughter, betrayed by you," he said once more, as his arms relaxed, and his features assumed an expression of doubt and mild grief. "that is impossible." lucia regarded him with hate and suspicion. "i your daughter!" she exclaimed, as she pushed the monk from her with repulsion. "falsehood is your daughter, and deceit your mother. these are thy relatives." "lucia grothusen," said the jesuit with much suavity, "when you were a child, and followed your father, arnold grothusen, who was expelled with king sigismund, you came one day as an exile in need, and surrounded by enemies, to a peasant's hut. they refused you a refuge, and threatened to deliver you up. then your youthful eyes discovered an image of the virgin in a corner of the hut, a relic from former times, and now profaned as a plaything for children. you took the image and kissed it; you held it up before the harsh inmates of the hut, and said to them, 'see, the virgin mary is here, she will succour us!'" "well, what then?" said lucia reluctantly in a softer voice. "your childish trust ... no, what do i say? the holy virgin moved the stern peasants, they gave you shelter, and placed you all in security. still more, they gave you the image, which you have carefully preserved as your guardian angel, and there it hangs on your wall. what you formerly said, you still say: 'the virgin mary is here, she will protect me!'" lucia tried in vain to struggle against her emotions. she bit her lip and made no reply. "you are right," continued the astute monk. "i am a catholic like you; persecuted like you; if they penetrated my disguise they would kill me. my life is in your hands; denounce me; i flee not; i die for my faith, and i forgive you my death." "fly from here," said lucia, half vanquished; "i give you till to-morrow, but only on condition that you do not see my husband again." "well, then," said the jesuit sadly, "i fly and leave behind my beautiful dream of a glorious future. ah, i had imagined that the great messenius and his noble wife would reinstate the catholic church in the north; i saw the time when millions of people would say: we were in darkness and blindness, until the historical light of the great messenius revealed to us the falseness of the reformation." "if it could be done without injury to the truth," exclaimed lucia, whose ardent spirit was more and more elevated by the future, which the jesuit so skilfully placed before her in perspective. "the truth!" repeated the jesuit persuasively. "oh, my friend, truth is our faith, falseness is the heretic's faith. if you are convinced that i ask only the truth itself from your husband, will you assist instead of trying to destroy your church?" "yes, i will!" answered lucia warmly and earnestly. "then listen..." added the jesuit, but was just then interrupted by messenius, who, hitherto stunned and crestfallen, now seemed to awaken from a horrible dream. "_abi, male spiritus!_" he frantically exclaimed, as if he feared that the jesuit's serpent tongue would once more triumph. "_abi, abi!_ you are not a human being, you are the prince of lies himself, you are the tempter in paradise! get ye gone, ye foul spirit, to the eternal fire, your abiding place, to the kingdom of lies, your realm!" he said in latin. and with this he pushed the jesuit towards the door, without lucia's making the least attempt to prevent it. "_insanit miser!_" ("the miserable raver") muttered the jesuit as he disappeared. "thanks, my dear!" said lucia, with a lightened heart, as if freed from a dangerous spell. "thanks, lucia!" replied messenius, with a milder manner than he had for a long time assumed towards his wife. chapter xiv. the judgment of the saints. early the next morning father hieronymus entered the room that was occupied by lady regina von emmeritz and old dorthe. pale from watching and suffering, the beautiful young girl sat by the bedside of her faithful servant. when the jesuit entered, regina rose quickly. "save dorthe, my father!" she impetuously exclaimed ... "i have looked for you everywhere, and you have abandoned me!" "hush!" said the jesuit whispering. "speak low, the walls have ears. so ... actually? ... dorthe is sick? poor old woman, it is too bad, but i cannot help her. they have penetrated our disguise. they suspect us. we must fly this day--this moment." "not before you have made dorthe well again. i beseech you, my father; you are wise, you know all the remedies; give her an immediate restorative, and we will follow you wherever you choose. "impossible, we have not a moment to lose. come!" "not without dorthe, my father! holy virgin, how could i abandon her, my nurse, my motherly friend?" the jesuit went to the bed, took the old woman's hand, touched her forehead, and pointed to it in silence, with an air which regina understood but too well. "she is dead!" cried the young girl with dismay. "yes, what then?" replied the jesuit, a marked sinister smile on his lips fighting with the air of regret he tried to assume. "you see, my child," he added, "that the saints have wished to spare our faithful old friend a toilsome journey, and have taken her instead to heavenly glory. there is nothing more to be done here. come!" but regina had perceived the malignant smile through her tears, and it struck her with an indescribable horror. she seemed to detect a dark secret. "come!" he repeated hastily. "i will give messenius' wife, who is a catholic, the charge of burying our friend." regina's dark eyes looked on the monk with fear and aversion. "at seven o'clock yesterday evening," she said, "dorthe was in good health. then she drank the beverage of strengthening herbs which you have prepared for her every evening. at eight o'clock she was taken ill ... ten hours afterwards she has ceased to live." "the fatigue of the long journey ... a cold, an _inflammation_ ... nothing more is wanted. come!" said the monk uneasily. but regina did not move. "monk," she said in a voice trembling with disgust and horror, "you have poisoned her." "my child, my daughter, what are you saying? grief has clouded your reason; come, i forgive you." "she was a burden to you ... i saw your impatience on our journey here. and now you wish me to place myself in your power without protection. holy virgin, save me! i will not go with you!" the jesuit's mobile features instantly changed their expression, and assumed that commanding air which had made messenius yield. "child," he said, "do not draw upon yourself the anger of the saints by listening to the voice of the tempter. remember _where_ you are, unfortunate, and _who_ you are. a moment's delay, and i leave you here a prey to want, captivity, and death; a target for the heretic's scorn, a lost sheep abandoned by the holy virgin. here perdition and misery ... there in your fatherland the favour of the saints. choose quickly, for the sleigh stands waiting; the morning dawns, and day must not find us in this nest of heretics." regina hesitated. "swear," she said, "that you are innocent of dorthe's death!" "i swear it!" exclaimed the jesuit, "by the cross and by the holy loyola's bones. may the firm ground open under my feet, and the abyss swallow me alive, if i have ever given this woman any drink but what was healthful and medicinal." "well, then," said regina, "the saints have heard your oath, and written it down in the book of judgment. farewell, my mother, my friend! come, let us go!" both hurried out. it was still dark. a pale ray of light appeared over the dark firs on the edge of koivukoski fall. the horses stood harnessed. the sleepy guard at the castle gate gave a free passage to the physician, who was well known to all. the jesuit already thought himself in safety, when a sleigh from the mainland met the fugitives on the narrow bridge, and drove close up to them in the darkness. the monk's sleigh turned on the edge, and was only hindered by the half-rotten railing from upsetting into the depths. regina gave a cry of terror. at the sound of this cry a man sprang from the other sleigh and approached the fugitives. "regina!" cried a well-known voice, which trembled from surprise. "you are mistaken, my friend," the jesuit hastened to say in a disguised voice. "give way to doctor albertus simonis, army physician in the service of his royal majesty." "ha! it is you, accursed jesuit!" cried the stranger. "guard, to arms! to arms! and seize the greatest villain on earth." and so saying, he grasped the monk by his fur cloak. for an instant hieronymus tried to disengage the sleigh and escape through the speed of the horses. but when he found that this was impossible, he left his fur cloak behind him, wriggled from his enemy's grasp, and, throwing himself quickly over the railing of the bridge, jumped down on the ice, which, in the terrible cold, had formed between the castle island and the mainland. he soon vanished in the dim morning light. alarmed by the cry, the castle gate guard discharged his musket after the fugitive, but without effect. some of the soldiers seemed inclined to pursue him on the ice. "do not do that, boys!" cried a bearded sergeant, "it has thawed during the night, and the stream has cut the ice underneath; i think it will break up to-day." "but the fellow jumped down there!" cried some. "the devil will get him," replied the sergeant, calmly lighting his morning pipe. "i guess by this time he is not far from Ämmä." "what did you say?" cried the driver of the sleigh in alarm. "i say that the old woman* has got her breakfast to-day," answered the sergeant with perfect composure. "just listen, she barks like a chained dog; now she is satisfied." * the finnish word ämmä means old woman. all listened, appalled, to the din of the waters. it seemed to them as if the mighty fall roared more wildly, more terribly than before, in the dreary winter dawn. the sergeant was right, it was like the howl of an angry dog, when they have thrown him his prey. chapter xv. bertel and regina. we left our wandering knight of la mancha asleep in a peasant's house at ylihärmä. we found him again just now at kajaneborg castle, vainly trying to secure the feared and hated jesuit, whom he had seen through the window-pane of the wretched hut. bertel's circuitous course during the days between can be perhaps imagined. led on a false scent in his chase after the fugitives, he had scoured all the roads in east bothnia, and even went as far up as uleiborg, and only when he had lost every sign of them did he resolve as a last resource to seek the runaways in the far-off kajana desert. why the young cavalier pursued them with such unconquerable perseverance will soon be manifest. some hours after the scene on the bridge we find bertel in the apartment which the governor had assigned to lady regina, under the protection of one of his female relatives. more than three years have passed since they last met in frankfurt-on-the-main, in the presence of the great king. bertel was then an inexperienced youth of twenty, and regina an equally untrained girl of sixteen. both had gone through many trials since then; in each case the burning enthusiasm of youth had been cooled by struggles and sufferings. the distance between the prince's daughter and the lieutenant had been lessened by bertel's military fame and lately acquired coat of arms; nay, at this moment, she, the abandoned prisoner, might consider herself honoured by a knight's attentions. but the distance between their convictions, their sympathies, their hearts--had it been diminished by these trials, which generally steel a conviction instead of destroying it? bertel approached the young girl with all the perfect courtesy which the etiquette of his time had retained as an inheritance from the chivalry of past centuries. "my lady," he said in a slightly tremulous voice, "since my hope of finding you at korsholm failed, i have pursued you through forest and wilderness, as one pursues a criminal. perhaps you divine the cause that prompted me to do so." regina's long black eyelashes were slowly lifted, and she looked inquiringly at bertel. "chevalier," she replied, "whatever has animated you, i am convinced that your reasons were noble and chivalrous. you cannot have meant to take an unhappy young maiden back to prison; you have only wished to snatch her from a man whom the poor deceived one has ever since childhood regarded as a holy and pious person, and whose deeply concealed wickedness she has now, for the first time, learned to know and abhor." "you are mistaken," said bertel warmly. "it is true i shuddered when i found that you were under the escort of this villain, whose real character i knew before you, and i then redoubled my efforts to deliver you from his hands. but before i imagined any danger from that quarter, i flew to find you with the glad tidings of a justice ... late, but i hope not too late." "a justice, you say?" repeated regina, with an emotion which sent the blood to her cheeks. "yes, my lady," continued bertel, as he regarded her dazzling beauty with delight; "at last, after several years of fruitless efforts, i have succeeded in undoing this undeserved penalty. you are free! you can now return to your fatherland under the protection of the swedish arms, and here"--with these words bertel bent one knee and handed regina a paper with the regency's seal attached--"is the document which ensures your freedom." regina had controlled her first emotion, and received the precious paper with almost haughty dignity. "herr chevalier," she said in short measured tones, "i know that you do not desire my thanks for having acted like a man of honour before any of your compatriots." bertel arose, confused by this pride, which he, however, ought to have expected. "what i have done," he said, with a touch of coldness, "i have done to efface a wrong which might have thrown a shadow upon the memory of a great king. each and all of my countrymen would have done the same as i, had not the exigencies of war made them forget the reparation you had a right to demand. first of all would the noble king gustaf adolf himself have hastened to repair a moment's indiscretion, had not providence so suddenly cut short his career. but," said bertel, breaking off, "i forget that the king i love and admire, you, my lady, hate!" at these words the bright and beautiful colour again rose to regina's cheeks. bertel had unknowingly touched one of the most sensitive chords in this ardent heart. a new discovery, a wonderful resemblance in figure, voice, gesture, nay, in thought--a likeness which she had never before observed, and which these three years had developed in bertel's whole personality, made an indescribable impression upon the young southerner's soul. it seemed to her as if she saw him himself, the greatest among mortals, the pride of her dreams, her life's delight and misery; he, the beloved and feared, her country's, her faith's, and her heart's conqueror ... and as if he himself had said to her in the well-remembered tones: "regina, you hate me!" this impression came so swiftly, so strongly, and with such a surprising power, that regina suddenly grew pale, staggered, and was compelled to lean on bertel's outstretched arm. "holy virgin!" she whispered, bewildered, and not knowing what she uttered, "should i hate you ... you, whom i lo ...?" bertel caught this half incomprehensible word, so full of meaning, with a surprise as sudden and unexpected as regina's. beside himself with amazement, fear, and hope, he was still too chivalrous to avail himself of an involuntary confession. mute and respectful, he led the young girl to her protectress, in whose care she soon recovered from her sudden prostration, an effect of long-suppressed emotions, which sought vent. bertel had obtained permission to escort lady regina to stockholm, from whence she could return to her fatherland, at the first open waters. he was, therefore, at liberty to remain at kajaneborg until she was ready for the journey, and this was again delayed through lack of a fitting female companion for the high-born prisoner. weeks passed in waiting, and during this time entirely new relations were formed, which one could hardly have predicted after regina's proud coldness towards her deliverer. ah! this coldness was the ice over a glowing volcano; every day it grew thinner and melted away; every day the foundations of regina's pride gradually became weaker, and finally only one barrier remained, the strongest one of all, it is true, namely, that of religious convictions. vain wall! it, too, finally crumbled before the fire of a southern passion, and before these weeks were ended, the girl of nineteen, and the young man of twenty-three, had forgotten the great differences of faith and rank, and sworn each other fidelity for life. did bertel know that he had to thank the memory of gustaf adolf for his beautiful, proud, black-eyed bride? a singular destiny wished to seal this union in an unexpected and wonderful manner. with a secret apprehension for his future happiness, bertel had tried in vain to discover the jesuit's fate. since the morning when he leaped over the railing of the bridge, no one had heard or seen anything of him, until, three weeks afterwards, a peasant reported that on opening a hole in the ice, a little below Ämmä fall, they had discovered the body of a man without ears, clothed in a foreign garb, which the peasant brought with him, and which were recognised as those of father hieronymus. in addition, the honest paldamo peasant produced a small copper ring, which had been found hanging by a cord on the dead man's neck. bertel looked at this ring with astonishment and delight. "at last i have you!" he exclaimed, "the ring i have so long sought ... and with you the certainty of this terrible man's death." "the judgment of the saints on the perjurer!" exclaimed regina, awe-struck. "the judgment of the saints, which confirms our happiness!" rejoined bertel, and he placed on regina's finger the _king's ring_. chapter xvi. the king's ring--the sword and the plough--fire and water. again we return to storkyro, to bertila's farm, and the old peasant king. it is a march day, in the year . the spring sun is already melting the snow, and the roofs drip on the sunny side; the icy crust bears one's weight on the north side of the hill, but breaks on the south. aron bertila has just come home from church with all his folks, his grey head is bent, and he leans on meri's arm. at his side walk two sturdy, thick-set figures--old larsson, and his newly arrived son, the brave and learned captain, the faithful image of his father, except in age. on the captain's arm is his young, light-hearted, and pretty little wife, whose features we recognise. it is no other than ketchen, the courageous and merry girl, whose soft hand once made the gallant captain lose his wits. since that day he has sworn by all the greek and roman authors, whom he formerly read in abo cathedral school, that the soft-handed novice among the würzburg sisters of charity should some day become his. and when the vicissitudes of war again brought them together, when ketchen was without protection, and besides, had nothing against an honest, jovial soldier, this cheerful pair were formally wedded in the autumn at stralsund, and then went to visit their kind-hearted father in storkyro, where they were warmly welcomed, and received like children in the house. it must be added that larsson had obtained his discharge from the service after much trouble, and without having a rise in rank. it is to be regretted that he had not gathered a farthing from the booty in germany, like many of his comrades. all that he had earned--and if we can believe him, it must have amounted to millions--had taken wings; but where? at nördlingen, he says. by no means. but in revels and sprees with jolly fellows like himself. now he meant to be as regular and steady as a gate-post; to succeed his father as inspector of bertila's large farms; to plough, sow, harvest, and _pro modulo virium prolen copiosam in lucem proferre_, as those in olden times so truly said. old bertila treats him with apparent favour. significant words have escaped the old man, and he has just given his will into the hands of the judge. as for meri, she has withered like a flower without roots, and clings to life only by one heart-thread: the banished, rejected gustaf bertel, now ennobled to bertelskold. this domestic circle, composed of such differing elements, both light and shadows, are now gathered in the large "stuga," surrounded by the numerous field hands, and old larsson now tries, in secret alliance with meri, to bring the stern peasant king to a better state of mind towards bertel. but all their prayers and reasons break against the old man's unyielding firmness ... larsson turns angrily away, and meri conceals her tears in the darkest corner of the room. then sleigh-bells are again heard outside, as on twelfth-day evening; a large sleigh stops in the yard, and two persons alight from it, an officer in his ample cloak, and a young and classically beautiful woman in a magnificent mantle of black velvet, lined with precious fur. meri and old larsson turn pale at this sight; larsson tries to hasten out, but it is too late. bertel and regina enter the "stuga." both the larssons and meri surround bertel with warm and apparently embarrassed greetings. ketchen flies and throws herself, without thinking of the difference between her burgher dress and the costly velvet cloak, into regina's arms, who, with emotion, clasps her faithful friend to her heart. bertel gently frees himself from meri's embrace, and goes straight up to old bertila with a firm step, who, cold and silent in his high chair at the end of the table, does not honour him with a word or glance. all present await with dismayed looks the result of this decisive meeting. the young officer has taken off his cloak and hat, his long fair hair falls in beautiful waves around his open brow, his cheeks are very pale, but the expressive blue eyes regard the grey-haired man's iron face with a firm and steadfast look. bertel now, as before, bends a knee, and says in a voice at once humble and confident: "my father!" "who are you? i know you not; i have no son!" said the old man in chilling tones. "my father!" continued bertel, without allowing himself to be checked, "i come here once more, and for the last time, to ask your forgiveness and blessing. thrust me not from you! i am going to leave my fatherland, to fight and perhaps die on german soil. it depends upon you whether i ever return. remember, my father, that your blessing gives you back a son; that your curse drives him into exile for ever." the features of the old man did not change their expression, but the tones of his voice indicated an internal struggle. "my answer is short," he said. "i had a son; he became unworthy of me and all the principles which have governed my life. he abandoned the cause of the people to pay homage to the pernicious power which i hate and detest. i have no longer a son. i have to-day disinherited him." the faces of all the hearers turn pale at these words. but bertel colours slightly, and says: "my father, i do not ask for your property. give it to the one you consider more worthy than i. i only ask your forgiveness ... your blessing, my father." all around the old man, except regina, fell on their knees and exclaimed: "grace for bertel! grace for your son!" "and if i had a son, do you believe he would for my sake give up his desire for the false distinctions of nobility? do you think he would become a peasant like me, a man of the people, ready to live and die for their cause? do you fancy that he would plough the earth with his fine-gloved hands and choose a wife from my station, a simple plain woman, befitting the spouse of a husbandman?" "my father," replied bertel, in a voice more tremulous than before, "what you ask is impossible on account of the education you have yourself bestowed on me. i honour and respect your station, but i have grown accustomed to the career of a soldier, which i neither can nor will abandon. to choose a wife to your mind is equally impossible. here is my wife; she is a prince's daughter, but she has chosen a peasant's son for her husband; this is a proof that she will not blush to call you father." at these words regina humbly approached the old man as if to kiss his hand, and all rose except bertel and his father. but the peasant king's former fiery temper now burst forth. "did i not say so!" he shouted. "there stands the renegade who was born a peasant, and became the servant of lords. ha! by god! i have in my day seen much strife and defiance between the sword and the plough, but a scene like this i have never beheld. the boy who calls himself my son dares to bring before my eyes his high-born harlot and call her his wife." bertel sprang up and supported regina, who nearly sank to the floor at these words. "old man," he said in a voice full of anger, "thank your name of father and your grey head that you have been allowed to utter what no one else should have uttered and live an hour afterwards. here is the ring i placed on the hand of my lawfully wedded wife"--with this he took the king's ring from regina's finger--"and i swear that her hand is as pure and worthy as that of any other mortal to wear this ring, which has for so many years been worn by the greatest of kings." meri's eyes stared at the ring, her pale cheeks coloured with a deep flush, and she had a violent internal struggle. finally she stepped nearer, took and pressed the ring with ecstasy to her lips, and said in a broken voice and with an emotion so strong that it dried her tears: "my ring which _he_ has worn ... my ring which has protected _him_ ... you are innocent of his death; he gave you away, and then came the bullets and death. do you know, gustaf bertel, and you, his wife, the power of this ring? in my youth i one day went into the wilderness, and there found a dying man, who was languishing from thirst. i gave him a drink from the spring, and cooled his tongue with the juice of berries. he thanked me and said: 'my friend, i die, and have no other recompense to give you than this ring. i found it in former days on an image of the holy virgin, which alone lay uninjured in the midst of the broken fragments of popery in storkyro church; and when i took the ring from its finger the image fell to dust. the ring has both the power of the saints and that of magic, for with me the greatness of the ancient occult knowledge goes into the silence. he who wears this ring is secure against fire, water, steel, and all kinds of dangers, on the sole condition that he never swears a false oath, for that destroys the power of the ring; with this ring goes happiness in peace, and victory in war; love, honour, and wealth; and when it is worn by three successive generations, from father to son, then from that family shall come brilliant statesmen and generals...'" here meri paused; all listened with intense expectation. "but," she added, "if the ring is worn by six generations one after the other, then a mighty royal house will spring from that family. 'but,' said the old man to me, 'you ought to know that great dangers accompany great gifts. false oaths and family enmity will constantly tempt the owner of the ring, and thus endeavour to neutralise its power; pride and inordinate ambition will constantly work within him to prepare his fall, and a great steadfastness in the right path will be necessary, joined with a meek and humble heart, to vanquish these temptations. he who wears this ring will enjoy all the prosperity of the world, and only have to conquer himself; but he will also be the most formidable enemy of his own happiness. all this is signified: by the letters, r.r.r., which are engraved on the inside of the ring, and interpreted thus: _rex regi rebellis_--the king rebellious against the king; the happiest, the mightiest among men, has to fear the greatest danger within himself.'" "and this ring, o regina, is ours!" exclaimed bertel, with both fear and joy. "what a wealth and what a responsibility goes with this ring." "power! honour! immortality!" caed regina with transport. "beware, my daughter!" said meri sadly. "behind these words lie the greatest dangers." old bertila looked at the ring and the young people with a contemptuous smile. "false gold!" he said. "vanity! useless ornament! false ambition! this is a worthy gift to go in inheritance from generation to generation among the nobility. come, larsson the younger, you, who are also of peasant origin, and who wish to return to your station, although you too have been a soldier. i will give you something which is neither gold or a useless ornament, but which will bring you more blessings than all the kings' rings in the world. take my old axe with the oak handle from the wall there; yes, fear not, there is no magic in that; my father forged it with his own hand, in gustaf vasa's time. with it father and i have felled many a heavy tree in the forests, and cleared many a field. may it pass in inheritance within your family, and i promise you that he who possesses my axe shall be blessed with happiness and contentment of mind in his honest labour." "thanks, thanks, father bertila," answered the captain joyfully, and, with an air of importance, tried the edge of the old man's axe. "if we took a fancy to engrave any inscription on it, i should propose r.r.r., _ruris rusticus robustus_, which is to say briefly: 'the deuce, what a big, bulky chopper! a very beautiful and intellectual saying among those in olden times." larsson the elder now considered the opportunity at hand to give the bitter contest a more amicable turn. he stepped up to old bertila, leading by the hands the two newly married pairs, and said: "dear old friend, let us not meddle in the lord's business. your boy and mine are a couple of great rascals, that is granted; but are they to blame that our lord created one of them of fire and the other of water? bertel is like a flame--burning hot, ambitious, high-reaching, brilliant, ephemeral, and i will bet anything that his little wife is of the same sort. my boy, here, is of the purest water." "stop!" cried the captain. "water has never been my weak side!" "hold your tongue! my boy is the clear water ... flowing and unstable, contentedly keeping itself to the ground, and created especially to put out the other youngster's poetical blaze with its prosaic philosophy. as for his wife, she is of the same stuff. do you not see, bertila, that our lord has intended the boys for friends? ... the fire to warm the water, and the water to quench the fire ... and you would make them enemies by taking from one and giving to the other. no, bertila, do not do it, this is my advice; give your son what belongs to him; my son will not starve for want of it." bertila remained silent for a moment. then he said vehemently: "do not teach me the meaning of the lord. can you believe that he, the fresh-baked nobleman, whom you compare with the fire, could be induced to give away the ring and take the axe in its place?" "never!" excitedly exclaimed bertel. meri seized his hand, and looked beseechingly at him. "give away the ring," she said. "you know some of its dangers, but there is still one which i, from anguish, have not mentioned. all who wear this ring will die a violent death." "what then!" exclaimed bertel. "the death of the soldier on the battlefield is grand, and full of honour. i do not ask a better one." "just listen to him," said bertila bitterly. "i knew it; he runs after fame even to the grave. a peaceful death or a peaceful life is an abomination to him; but you, larsson, tell me: have you a desire to give away the axe and take the ring?" "h'm!" thoughtfully replied the captain; "if the ring were of gold, i might sell it in town and get a good cask of ale for the money. but as it is only of copper ... pshaw! i send it to the deuce, and keep the axe, which is at least useful for cutting wood." "well done!" said bertila; "you are sprinkling water on fire, as your father said. it is not i who have made fire and water eternally hostile to each other. come, larsson, you, the sound, common-sense, practical man, be my son, and one day take my farms when i am no longer here. my blessing on you and your descendants. may they multiply, and work like ants on the land, and may there be eternal hostility between them and the nobility, the people with the fiery temperament. may there be war and not peace between them and you until the useless glitter disappears from humanity. may the axe and the ring live in open feud until both are melted in the same heat. when this happens after a century or more, then it will be time to say, class distinctions have seen their last days, and a man's merit is his only coat of arms." "but, my father," exclaimed bertel in an entreating voice, "have you then no blessing to give me, and my posterity, at the moment when we separate for ever?" "you!" repeated the old man, in still angry tones. "go, you lost, vain, worm-eaten branch of the people's great trunk; go in your pitiful parade to certain ruin. until the day when, as i said, the axe and the ring, the false gold and the true steel melt together ... until then i give you my curse as an inheritance, even unto the tenth generation, and with it shall follow dissension, hatred, war, and finally a despicable fall." "hold there, father bertila," cried larsson the younger. "grace for bertel!" "no grace for nobility," replied the peasant king. "beware, unnatural father!" cried larsson the elder. "the doom may fall on your own head." "i no longer ask any grace," said bertel, pale, but apparently calm. "farewell, my former father! farewell, my fatherland! i go never to see you again!" "one moment," interrupted meri, who with a violent effort placed herself in his way. "you go! yes, go ... my heart's darling, my hope, my life, my all ... go, i shall no longer stand in your way. but before you leave me, you shall take with you the secret which has been both my life's highest joy and its greatest agony..." "hear her not!" cried old bertila in a changed and alarmed tone. "listen not to what she says; madness speaks through her! ... think of your honour and mine," he sternly whispered in his pale daughter's ear. "what do i care for your or my honour!" burst out meri with an impetuosity never before witnessed. "do you not see that he goes ... my life's joy leaves me, to return no more? he goes, and you, hard, in-human parent, wish me to let him depart with a curse to foreign lands. but it shall not be. for every curse you throw upon his head, i will give him a hundred blessings, and we shall see which will avail the most before the throne of the supreme being--your hatred or my love--the grandfather's curse or the mother's blessing..." "my mother!" exclaimed bertel beside himself with astonishment. duke bernhard's obscure hints now suddenly became clear. "believe her not; she knows not--she knows not what she says!" cried bertila, with a vain attempt to appear calm. meri had sunk into bertel's arms. "it is now said," she whispered in a weak voice. "gustaf ... my son. ah! it is so new and so sweet to call you so. now you know my life's secret ... and i have not long to blush over it. do you love me? ... yes, yes! now i go from life rejoicing ... the veil is lifted ... light comes ... my father, ... i forgive you ... that you have hated and cursed your daughter's son ... forgive me ... that i ... love ... bless ... my son!..." "my mother!" exclaimed bertel, "hear me, my mother! i thank you ... i love you! ... you shall go with me, and i will never desert you. but you do not hear me. you are so pale ... great god ... she is dead!" "my daughter! my only child!" exclaimed the old hard-hearted peasant king, completely crushed. "judge not, lest ye be judged!" said old larsson with clasped hands. "and you, our children, go put into life with reconciled hearts. curse and blessing struggle for your future, and not only for yours, but for that of your posterity, unto the tenth generation. pray to heaven that blessing may conquer." "amen!" said larsson the younger and ketchen. "so be it!" said bertel and regina. end of the first cycle. jarrold and sons, the empire press, norwich and london. selections from jarrold & sons' list of fiction maurus jókai's famous novels. black diamonds. by maurus jÓkai, author of "the green book," "poor plutocrats," etc. translated by frances gerard. with special preface by the author. the green book. (freedom under the snow.) by maurus jÓkai. translated by mrs. waugh. with a finely engraved portrait of dr. jókai. pretty michal. by maurus jÖkai. translated by r. nisbet bain. with a specially engraved photogravure portrait of dr. jókai. a hungarian nabob. by maurus jÖkai. translated by r. nisbet bain. with a fine photogravure portrait of dr. jókai. the poor plutocrats. (as we grow old.) by maurus jÖkai. translated by r. nisbet bain. with a fine photogravure portrait of dr. jókai. the day of wrath. by maurus jÖkai. translated from the hungarian by r. nisbet bain. with a photogravure portrait of dr. jókai. dr. dumany's wife. by maurus jÖkai. translated by f. steinitz (under the author's personal supervision). with specially engraved photogravure portrait of dr. jókai. the nameless castle. by maurus jÖkai. translated by s. e. boggs (under the author's personal supervision). with a photogravure portrait of dr. jókai. debts of honor. by maurus jÖkai. translated by a. b. yolland. with a charming photogravure portrait of dr. and madame jókai. 'midst the wild carpathians. by maurus jÖkai. translated by r. nisbet bain. with a specially engraved portrait of dr. jokai. the lion of janina. by maurus jÓkai. translated by r. nisbet bain. with a special photogravure portrait of dr. jókai. eyes like the sea. by maurus jÓkai. translated by r. nisbet bain. with a fine photogravure portrait of dr. jókai. halil the pedlar; the white rose. by maurus jÓkai. translated by r. nisbet bain. with a photogravure portrait of dr. jókai. carpathia knox. by curtis yorke, author of "hush," "that little girl," "a romance of modern london," etc. with a charming photogravure portrait of the author. jocelyn erroll. by curtis yorke, author of "once," "dudley," "the wild ruthvens," etc. with a fine photogravure portrait of the author. valentine: a story of ideals. by curtis yorke, author of "the medlicotts," "his heart to win," "because of the child," etc. in tight places. by major arthur griffiths, author of "forbidden by law," etc. st. peter's umbrella. by kÁlmÁn mikszÁth, author of "the good people of palvez." translated from the original hungarian by w. b. worswick. with introduction by r. nisbet bain. a charming photogravure portrait of the author and three illustrations. the adventures of cyrano de bergerac. captain satan. from the french of louis gallet. with specially engraved portrait of cyrano de bergerac. a woman's burden, by fergus hume, author of "the mystery of a hansom cab," "the lone inn," etc. vivian of virginia. being the memoirs of our first rebellion, by john vivian, of middle plantation, virginia. by hulbert fuller, author of "god's rebel." with ten charming illustrations by frank t. merrill. anima vilis. a tale of the great siberian steppe. by marya rodziewicz. translated from the polish by count s. c. de soissons. with a fine photogravure portrait of the author. the tone king. a romance of the life of mozart. by heribert rau. translated by j. e. s. rae. with specially engraved portrait of mozart. the golden dog (le chien d'or). a romance of the days of louis quinze in quebec. by william kirby, f.r.s.c. memory street. by martha baker dunn, author of "sleeping beauty," "lias' wife," etc. god's rebel. by hulbert fuller, author of "vivian of virginia." the rejuvenation of miss semaphore. a farcical novel. by hal godfrey (miss c. o'conor eccles). the man who forgot. by john mackie, author of the "prodigal's brother," "sinners twain," etc. with a special photogravure portrait of the author. jarrold & sons' new six-shilling fiction by maurus jokai. haiti the pedlar. (the white rose). by count leo tolstoi. tales prom tolstoi. translated from the russian by r. nisbet-bain, and with biography of the author. by the author of "anima vilis." distaff. by marya rodziewicz. translated from the polish by count stanislaus c. de soissons. by renÉ bazim. autumn glory. translated by mrs. ellen waugh. by the author of "duke rodney's secret." ivy cardew. by perrington primm. by hulbert fuller. god's rebel. by martha baker dunn. memory street. london: jarrold & sons, publishers, & , warwick lane, e.c.